The accounting literature considers that goodwill represents the difference between the market value of an entity and the fair value of its identifiable net assets. The use of a divergent concep, in theoretical or empirical researches can result in distorted results, wrong conclusions, incorrect financial statements, among other theoretical and empirical problems. Thus, the objective of this study is to verify if the concept of goodwill used in researches published in the main international and Brazilian journals, as well as in the elaboration of dissertations and theses in the accounting area in Brazil, is that referred by the accounting literature as the correct. Using contents analysis, 138 national and international works containing one of the following terms in the title, abstract or keywords were analysed: goodwill, intangible, intangibles, fundo de comércio, intangível and intangíveis. The total of works analysed are divided in 60 empirical works and 78 theoretical. From the general total of works, only 47 explicitly present the goodwill´s concept, being 24 empirical and 23 theoretical. Most of the works which presents the goodwill concept did it to discuss the accounting treatment and companies´ valuation. From the total of works with the goodwill concept explicitly presented, 18 present a divergent concept from that one defined by the accounting literature. The mistakes are divided in 6 categories, being that 61% of the mistakes founded referes to the calculation of goodwill as the difference between the market value (only calculated or paid) and the book value of the net assets.
Goodwill; Intangible Assets; Intangibles
