Goodwill and value creation: insights from Italian pioneers

This paper aims to determine the contribution of Italian pioneers of 'Economia Aziendale' to the debate on goodwill. The relations between Italian pioneers' thoughts and modern concepts and practices in goodwill valuation, are analysed by an in-depth literature review of studies published between 1840 and 1940. We develop a comparative analysis of past theoretical approaches in order to, on one hand, investigate the relations with the current studies and practices and, on the other hand, build new insights for future studies. Our findings show that the studies of the Italian pioneers intertwine with international research. Italian pioneers contributed to the development of the knowledge on goodwill with farsighted thoughts about the relations among accounting, value creation and strategic valuations. Moreover, we found additional hidden suggestions on goodwill 'duration' and accounting, which should have relevant implications for future developments in studies, accounting standards and the professional valuations of acquisition value of this asset.