Applying the Options Framework to a Value-based Model of the Firm

Volume: 2/2018
Issue: 2
Author: Jan Vlachý
Keywords: business valuation, human capital, strategy, options theory

This paper develops the value-based model of a firm from a conventional accounting-based approach to one that acknowledges individuals' human capital and firms' competences as fundamental creators of value. Both have distinctive characteristics, but may be integrated from the perspective of their holders through various contracts, which then constitute contractual assets enhancing a firm´s capital. Product ownership constitutes another vital component of value determination and is one of the reasons firms enhance its value, either by taking protective action, or by designing hard-to-replicate strategies. This paper addresses a current issue and presents potential means by which to determine firms' strategies in highly competitive business environments driven primarily by innovations, as well as for the design of appropriate types and terms of contracts. In its reasoning, the paper is exceptional by aggregating the findings of firm theory with those of modern financial theory, proposing real and embedded options within an appropriate quantitative framework.

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