Stakeholder’s Perception of Subsequent Goodwill Measurement: An Analysis of IASB Comment Letters Mónica D’Orey¹ and Carla Carvalho² ¹Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Porto, GOVCOPP, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal ²Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração, GOVCOPP, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal orey@iscap.ipp.pt carla.carvalho@ua.pt Abstract: Goodwill is the most intangible of intangibles and continues to generate great debate in academic, business, and regulatory circles, with no consensus on its subsequent measurement. In early 2020, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) published a discussion paper entitled DP/2020/1 Business Combinations – Disclosures, Goodwill and Impairment, to gather input on more useful disclosures on business combinations, bringing back to the discussion the subject of the subsequent measurement of goodwill. The IASB received comments on its proposed disclosures, as well as new evidence and arguments on how to account for goodwill, having received 193 comment letters from a wide range of stakeholders. This study aims to analyse the perception of those interested parties about the subsequent measurement of goodwill proposed by the IASB, as well as the arguments used for its reasoning. For this purpose, the content of stakeholder’s comment letters was analysed and classified as academics, auditors, investors, standard setters, preparers, regulators/securities, and others, and by region. In addition, the preparers’ comment letters were subclassified by sectors of activity to identify differences in the perception of preparers by industry. These differences point to the need to reflect on the existence of more than one goodwill measurement model, which best fits the sector of activity, a pioneering aspect in research on goodwill. The results reveal a preference trend for the systematic amortisation of goodwill. In all categories of stakeholders, apart from the "Others", the preference is for the reintroduction of goodwill amortisation. Similarly, most stakeholders in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania are in favour of reintroducing the systematic amortisation of goodwill. In some industries (Automotive, Banking, Luxury Goods, Electrical Appliances, Energy and Technology) no preparer prefers the impairment-only model, which suggests that perhaps in those sectors of activity, this model is not suitable. This study contributes to the literature on the subsequent measurement of goodwill, as well as to the different stakeholders, by presenting, under different perspectives of analysis, the respondents' preferences on the subsequent measurement of goodwill, as well as the arguments in favour of each model. Keywords: Goodwill, Intangibles, Impairment, Amortisation, IASB, Subsequent measurement 1. Introduction In March 2020, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) published the Discussion Paper (DP) Business combination: disclosures, goodwill and impairment (IASB, 2020a), to receive input on the most useful disclosures on business combinations, bringing the subsequent measurement of goodwill back into public discussion. The IASB (2020a) highlights the relevance of goodwill in corporate accounts, with the value of that asset reaching around $8 trillion in 2019 in listed companies worldwide, representing approximately 18% of their equity and 3% of their assets. In that DP, the IASB (2020a) preliminary view is to keep the impairment-only model and not to reintroduce goodwill amortisation. However, this position was not consensual among IASB members (8 of 14 Board members voted in favour). Therefore, the IASB solicited input from various stakeholders on this topic. The IASB received new evidence and arguments on how to account for goodwill, having received 193 comment letters from a wide range of stakeholders. This study aims to analyse the perception of those interested parties about the subsequent measurement of goodwill proposed by the IASB, as well as the arguments used for its reasoning. In this context, this study aims to answer the following three research questions: • What is the preference in the subsequent measurement of goodwill by stakeholder category? • What is the preference in the subsequent measurement of goodwill by region? • What is the preference in the subsequent measurement of goodwill by sector of activity of the preparers? 266 Proceedings of the 24th European Conference on Knowledge Management, ECKM 2023