The Reality of Accounting Measurement of Intangible Assets in Startups under the Algerian Financial Accounting System (SCF)

Abstract

This study examines the accounting measurement of intangible assets in Algerian startups within the framework of the Financial Accounting System (SCF), against the backdrop of a global transition toward a knowledge-based economy. International reporting standards — notably IAS 38 and US GAAP_impose stringent recognition criteria that systematically exclude most internally generated intangible assets from firms' balance sheets, thereby eroding the value relevance of financial statements and intensifying information asymmetry, with particularly acute consequences for startups whose principal sources of value are innovation, intellectual capital, and human knowledge. Employing a descriptive-analytical design supplemented by a structured field survey, data were collected through a questionnaire administered to 50 valid respondents_ comprising startup founders, practicing accountants, and academic specialists _within the Algerian startup ecosystem and analyzed using the R programming language. The findings demonstrate that the SCF lacks the flexibility necessary to accommodate the innovative character of startups, yielding materially incomplete financial reporting. Although professional and academic awareness of the strategic importance of intangible assets is evident, accounting practice remains predominantly oriented toward tax compliance rather than decision-relevant information production, thereby generating information asymmetry and constraining access to external financing. Critically, one-way ANOVA (F = 0.188; Sig. = 0.904) and the Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric test (H = 0.679; p = 0.878), employed as a robustness check, both confirm the absence of statistically significant differences in the severity of the accounting measurement problem across startup age categories. This finding is interpreted as evidence of a deep-seated structural constraint that affects all startups with equal intensity, irrespective of their stage of development _constituting what this study terms an 'accounting glass ceiling.