Financial Market’s Role in Determining the Value of International Business Intangible Assets

As humanity moves into the era of digital technologies and the knowledge economy, the importance of intangible assets in the global economy and international business has been increasingly recognised. Amid the forced virtual communication resulting from the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the social conflicts and cyber-attacks associated with Russia's hybrid war in Ukraine, the value of intangible assets such as reputation, investor and customer loyalty, consumer data, branding, intellectual expertise and copyrights has taken on new importance and relevance. The purpose of the research is to improve the conceptual and methodological foundations for determining the nature and value of intangible assets of leading international companies, in particular, their undisclosed components, based on the use of financial market data. Research methodology. The study is based on systems analysis, analysis and synthesis, statistical and graphical methods. These methods were used primarily to identify the structure of the intangible assets of leading international companies, highlighting the interrelationships between the formation of the gap between the external (financial market) and internal (balance sheet) value of companies' shares and the value of their intangible assets. The publication supports the assumption that the identified gap between the market capitalisation and shareholder's equity of an individual company represents the undisclosed part of intangible assets that is not available in the company's official statements. This gap includes such components as reputation, trust and loyalty of customers and investors, brand strength, etc. Given the dynamic development of the international business sphere, the critical importance of flexibility, speed of decision-making, and the need for investors to obtain the most up-to-date information about the company's potential, including the value of its intangible assets, the proposed approach can serve as an effective decision-making tool and an alternative means of determining the real value of a company's intangible assets.