Abstract
This thesis explores the influence of intangible assets and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors on the financial performance of companies and the effectiveness of investment strategies through three distinct studies examining different dimensions of these interactions. The first study examines how the integration of intangible assets influences risk-adjusted investment performance within the framework of value investing. The second study investigates the impact of flexible work arrangements (FWAs) on risk-adjusted investment performance in the United States and Europe. Finally, in the third study, we explore the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into the traditional Fama-French five-factor model (FF5) to create an improved model (FFESG). This new model aims to evaluate the risk-adjusted performance of sectoral portfolios and then use the alpha from the FFESG model for sector rotation in the US.