Thomas Wainwright

Financializing space, spacing financialization:

The paper develops a sympathetic geographical critique of the concept of financialization which seeks to account for the growing influence of financial markets over the unfolding of economy, polity and society. Processes of financialization are claimed to be manifest at a number of scales, from higher levels of instability within the economy as a whole, through pressure exerted on corporations by capital markets, to the equity effects of the financial system on individuals and households. In seeking to explain change within contemporary society, financialization has circulated less widely than similar and related concepts such as neoliberalization. While financialization has the potential to unite researchers across cognate social science fields, thereby building critical mass and recognition within social studies of money and finance, we argue that research has been insufficiently attentive to space and place, both in terms of processes and effects. Financialization is a profoundly spatial phenomenon, representing as it does the search for a spatial-temporal fix, or quasi-resolution of the crisis tendencies of contemporary capitalism. The paper explores a number of possibly fruitful directions for work on financialization, focusing in particular on the idea of financial ecologies.

Small business performance: business, strategy and owner-manager characteristics

Purpose: This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the factors that influence small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) performance and particularly, growth. Design/methodology/approach: This paper utilises an original data set of 360 SMEs employing 5-249 people to run logit regression models of employment growth, turnover growth and profitability. The models include characteristics of the businesses, the owner-managers and their strategies. Findings: The results suggest that size and age of enterprise dominate performance and are more important than strategy and the entrepreneurial characteristics of the owner. Having a business plan was also found to be important. Research limitations/implications: The results contribute to the development of theoretical and knowledge bases, as well as offering results that will be of interest to research and policy communities. The results are limited to a single survey, using cross-sectional data. Practical implications: The findings have a bearing on business growth strategy for policy makers. The results suggest that policy measures that promote the take-up of business plans and are targeted at younger, larger-sized businesses may have the greatest impact in terms of helping to facilitate business growth. Originality/value: A novel feature of the models is the incorporation of entrepreneurial traits and whether there were any collaborative joint venture arrangements.

Tax Doesn't Have to Be Taxing: London's ‘Onshore’ Finance Industry and the Fiscal Spaces of a Global Crisis

In this paper I will explore Londons onshore finance industry and how it facilitates corporate tax avoidance programmes. In doing so, I will discuss how financial elites design transactions and corporate activities so as to minimise their exposure to taxation, and how these structures are shaped by the international geographies of taxation. I will investigate an area of Londons financial sector that has previously been neglected by geographers and social scientists. Finally, I turn to illustrate how tax minimisation strategies are implemented, through the example of residential mortgage-backed securitisation, and how tax-minimisation strategies made securitisation a practical tool for financiers. This provides new insights into how taxation elites facilitated the increased financialisation of Britains economy and the severity of its exposure to the credit crunch.

Can social exclusion against 'older entrepreneurs' be managed?

This paper investigates how sources of social exclusion and support emerge within an “older” entrepreneurs immediate environment, and how this affects the development of their small business. Based on 22 in‐depth interviews in ondon, nited ingdom, we suggest how older entrepreneurs with different backgrounds are able to manage social exclusion, and identify four coping strategies—passive negotiation, active negotiation, modification, and avoidance. We argue that, if “older entrepreneurship” (people starting a business aged 50 or older) is to flourish, both entrepreneurs and support initiatives need to become sensitive to the diversity of sources of discrimination and strategies to manage them.

Circulating financial innovation: new knowledge and securitization in Europe

Research in economic geography has provided a critical examination of securitizations role in the recent global financial crisis. Building on earlier studies which interrogated the development of US securitization, contemporary research has explored how securitization has been adopted in different political economies. Although these novel studies have begun to highlight the geographies of securitization, our knowledge of the historical spread of securitization remains underdeveloped. This paper seeks to address this issue by exploring how securitization emerged within different European financial spaces. In doing so, the paper examines the cases of France, Spain and Italy to identify how securitization circulated through space and across communities of practice, facilitating the co-creation of new knowledge. The paper provides deeper insight into how securitization became established within European financial centres throughout the 1990s, shaping contemporary financial networks and the spread of the credit crunch.

Elite knowledges: framing risk and the geographies of credit

This paper examines the history of credit scoring in Britain, and how this technology was imported from the US and adapted by the British retail banking sector. It seeks to highlight the elites who develop the social codes embedded within credit scoring software, to offer insight into the complex techno-economic networks that produce the geographies of financial inclusion, exclusion, and differential risk pricing. It is argued that the scientific status of these systems is questionable, due to the social interactions involved within the statistical modelling. Finally, the paper suggests that the spaces of credit are fluid, based upon the frequent social recalibrations of these models.

One Size Does Not Fit All: Uncovering Older Entrepreneur Diversity through Motivations, Emotions and Mentoring Needs

Policymakers and scholars have increasingly drawn attention to the growing challenges emerging from the ageing of populations, particularly in advanced economies (OECD 2006; Finlayson 2009; Platman 2003; Weber and Shaper 2004; Wainwright and Kibler 2014). In the British context, one of the more visible policy interventions has been to increase the state pensionable age (SPA), in addition to promoting the extension of people’s working lives through the removal of ageist legislation and the implementation of the 2010 Equality Act (BIS 2011). Scholars have also observed how governments, particularly in Anglo-American economies, have started to transfer retirement planning from the state, placing more responsibility upon individuals to plan their financial activities and secure a comfortable retirement (Langley 2006; Finlayson 2009). While these interventions can be viewed as a reaction to manage the increased costs associated with ageing populations (Morris and Mallier 2003), working in retirement age beyond the SPA often brings difficulties to older employees who can face age-related discrimination in organisations (Porcellato et al. 2010), in addition to health problems (Black 2008) and the need to meet caring responsibilities (Walker et al. 2007).