In addition, most of the existing studies focus much more on technological process innovations and product innovations than on non-technological and intangible ones, i.e. marketing and organizational innovations.
There is no single authentic source, no ultimate authority, but rather a set of signposts -- the physical ones of scores and sketches, the intangible ones of performing styles and traditions -- that mark out a field on which any musician must operate.
What statistics can't do is separate the physical-material tangible qualities, like speed, strength and skill, from the intangible ones.
Vicky Nash, a fellow at the thinktank, says: "The most important social benefits of mixed tenure could be the most intangible ones, relating to the role model or socialisation effects that come from living among different types of people".
So the news that the world's biggest economies have agreed on a plan to limit "base erosion and profit shifting" in corporate tax is something of a watershed.It has become the norm for multinationals to park themselves or large chunks of their assets—especially intangible ones, such as rights to royalties in low- or no-tax places such as Bermuda, Luxembourg and Ireland.
The reason: Each business is complex, consisting not only of tangible assets like buildings, bank accounts, inventory, tools, fixtures, furniture and machinery; but also, intangible ones such as mortgages, leases, patents, trademarks, unlisted stock, skilled labor, accounts receivable and most notably, goodwill..
"It's not just a tangible return, but an intangible one," said Craig Settles, a consultant who advises municipalities on how to build wireless networks.
Perhaps the most important is an intangible one: that of reputation.
All this carries both a dollar cost and an intangible one, says Mr Simpson.
And having grown up in a dictatorship myself, in Dubai, I knew all too well what signs she was referring to; it was sometimes intangible; one felt it, but it caused a kind of terror; one felt weak.
But there is the intangible one, still unresolved, of whether Trump and Bannon uncovered something new and lasting in American politics, or whether politicians in both parties have been spooked by a ghost.
