The Emotional Contribution to the Valuation of companies: – is it all nonsense or a serious consideration?

Enterprise valuation is one of the major items in M&A business (trade sales, successor planning). Numerous valuation principles are available to determine the financial value of an enterprise. The emotional part of the enterprise’s value, however, is permanently neglected. This paper examines how financial and emotional value fit together to provide the total value of an enterprise. Perception processes are reconsidered to understand how emotional appreciation is created. Its impact on the decision making process is outlined subsequently. Finally the challenge of fair compensation of emotional values is discussed.