Market Valuation of Aerospace Firms Developing Frontier Technologies: The Role of Venture Capital and Intangible Assets

This thesis examines the relationship between innovation, intangible assets, and the market valuation of aerospace firms developing frontier technologies. In industries such as pharmaceuticals or ICT, conventional indicators like patents and citations are widely used to assess innovation, but the aerospace sector is shaped by secrecy, dual-use technologies, classified government programs, and long development cycles that reduce their visibility. The research investigates whether investments in knowledge-based capital, captured through R&D expenditures, patenting activity, and citation metrics, are reflected in market valuation as measured by Tobin’s Q. The study employs econometric models on a panel of publicly listed aerospace and defense firms, complemented by descriptive statistics and normalized indicators, in order to analyze the dynamics of innovation and intangible assets in this strategic sector.