Tord Andersson

Financialization directing strategy

Abstract This paper constructs an account of how financialization is directing strategy in the S&P 500 now that senior managers are required to both deliver value creation and respond to value absorption in an era of shareholder value. Value absorption arises out of the need to account for the market value of capital market transactions and this modifies reported corporate financials. Value creation and value absorption are directing strategy and financial arbitrage across product, factor and capital markets and between stakeholder groups as managers struggle to hold cash extraction out of sales revenue and maintain an increased share of cash distribution to shareholders.

When it comes to the crunch: What are the drivers of the US banking crisis?

Abstract This article considers how permissive regulatory conditions helped change the size and scope of the US mortgage market. Asset backed securitization facilitated an expansion of the US mortgage market and modified the structure of the value chain within which financial assets, risk and liquidity were managed. New sophisticated mortgage products, indulgent lending practices, loose credit assessment and flimsy documentation increased the probability of mortgage default in an economic downturn. US banks were not in a position to absorb mark-to-market losses on mortgage assets and goodwill impairment resulting from a credit crunch because they operate with narrow profit margins and a limited equity cushion in the balance sheet. This article questions the viability and sustainability of this banking business model.

Apple’s financial success. The precariousness of power exercised in global value chains

Abstract The topic of this paper is the Apple Inc business model and how, in a financialized world, the success of this business model is represented by what we term financial ‘point values’. Our argument is that there is a tendency to promote specific point valuation multiples as measures of success, but these values, by their nature, do not reveal the contingent and variable nature of the power relations exercised in and along global supply chains. Firms such as Apple exploit their resources and capabilities to ‘create value’ but also exercise power to recalibrate relationships with suppliers in the value chain to secure ‘value capture’ for financial transformation. Value capture is an active ingredient that can help inform our understanding of the fragility of the Apple business model value proposition and frame a critical argument regarding the precarious nature and sustainability of Apples substantial profit margins.

Financialized accounts : A stakeholder account of cash distribution in the S&P 500 1990-2005

Abstract In this paper, we construct a financialized account of corporate restructuring in S&P 500 survivor firms where corporate transactions are accounted for at fair value or are marked to market. Accounting practitioners are preoccupied with the technical aspects of fair value reporting, but the outcome of absorbing wealth accumulation into corporate sector balance sheets is not simply a neutral technical issue. In financialized accounts blending current income and expenditure with capital market value amplifies the need to distribute cash to equity holders. In financialized accounts realignments generated by a product market downturn are magnified because value at risk and corrective restructuring will be wired into balance sheet fair value not historic cost.

Financialized accounts: Restructuring and return on capital employed in the S&P 500

Abstract A central feature of financialization is the argument that the relative autonomy of management has been realigned with the interests of shareholders and their demand for higher returns on capital employed (ROCE). This paper reveals that average ROCE in the S&P 500 has not been transformed in the 1990s, relative to an earlier period, even after extensive corporate restructuring. Deconstructing S&P 500 ROCE reveals how additional cash and profit generated out of income are offset by inflated balance sheet capitalization putting a brake on the ROCE. In the US business combinations are now accounted for at their market value and this, we argue, is forcing a financialized ratchet because management will need to step-up cost reduction to finance balance sheet restructuring. Corporate cash is being used to finance share buy-backs which: facilitate balance sheet restructuring, improve reported ROCE and provide a pool of treasury stock that can be used to reward managers who deliver shareholder value. This paper concludes that the nature and relative scale of these financial transactions can be employed to construct financialized accounts.

Accounting for carbon and reframing disclosure : A business model approach

Abstract This paper contributes to the research in accounting and the debate about the nature of carbon footprint reporting for society. This paper utilises numbers and narratives to explore changes in carbon footprint using UK national carbon emissions data for the period 1990–2009 and six years (2006–2011) of carbon emissions data for the FTSE 100 group of companies and a case study that focuses on the UK mixed grocery sector. Our argument is that existing approaches to framing carbon disclosure generate malleable, inconsistent and irreconcilable numbers and narratives. In this paper we argue for an alternative framing of carbon disclosure informed by a reporting entities business model. Specifically, we suggest, that a reporting entity disclose its carbon–material stakeholder relations. This alternative, we argue, would increase the visibility of carbon generating stakeholder relations and avoid some of the difficulties and arbitrariness associated with framing carbon disclosure around a reporting entity boundary where judgements have to be made about responsibility and operational control.

Financialized accounts: Share buy-backs, mark to market and holding the financial line in the S&P 500

Abstract In recent years the US corporate sector has deployed more cash from operations to finance the repurchase of outstanding share capital for treasury stock. Shares repurchased for treasury stock can help flatter earnings per share, fund senior management share option compensation schemes and finance corporate acquisitions. In financialized accounts these are now significant transactions which, it is argued, serve the financial interests of managers and investors.

Corporate strategy financialized: Conjuncture, arbitrage and earnings capacity in the S&P500

Abstract The conjuncture that ushered in the era of shareholder value served to embed capital market expectations into corporate governance aligning management and shareholder interests. Market arbitrage focussed on modifying contractual relations with stakeholders to extract a (higher) return on invested capital. In this article we focus on cash earnings on capital employed generated by the S&P 500 survivor group of firms covering the period 1990–2008. We use this financial data to construct three complementary perspectives on corporate financial performance: firm, firm-relative and macro. Within this framework the financial numbers and perspectives are analogous to a ‘hall of mirrors’ where ambiguity and contradiction are in play frustrating straightforward performative narratives that connect purpose with financial transformation an era of shareholder value.

The private equity business model: On terra firma or shifting sands?

Abstract This paper reveals how the financial crisis undermined the performance of Private Equity Partnerships (PEPs). The private equity business model depends upon leveraged finance coupled with corporate transformation from market arbitrage that, in turn, delivers inflated market valuations and exit multiples. Private equity partnerships conjoin corporate productive and financial activity with speculative capital market demands where liquidity, risk appetite and market value appreciation matter. It is a business model where productive transformation of acquired firms is often disappointing because leverage inflates balance sheet capitalization ahead of cash earnings capacity. It is also a volatile business model because capital market valuations and fair value reporting amplify holding gains and losses for limited equity partners. It is a business model constructed on shifting sands not terra firma.

A Financialized Account of Corporate Governance

The literature on governance is generally organized within an international, national or industry framework of analysis, taking either a political economy or economic perspective. There is a need for governance because of a general reorientation of international, national and local economies away from political blocks to a neo-liberal paradigm of global free product, labour and capital markets. At a national level, withdrawal of the state further strengthens the demand for local governance which, in turn, requires new forms of regulatory institutions and policy frameworks around, for example ‘participative governance’. The political economy debates on governance stress the importance of institutions and how changed relations between society and markets can, possibly, be controlled and regulated. On the other hand, an economic perspective would place more weight and emphasis on the role of markets and particularly ‘non-market’controls which are employed to correct market imperfection(s).