The Financialization of the Firm

The term 'financialization' denotes the general tendency in the advanced Western economies to allow a substantial proportion of taxable profits to accumulate in the finance industry. Alexander Styhre discusses the financialization of the firm in the period after 1980 and stresses how key managerial activities have been redefined on the basis of finance theory and free-market ideologies. This book critically examines the literature and the implications of financialization for organizations and the economy as a whole.

In seven chapters, Styhre covers topics such as the causes and consequences of financialization, corporate governance and financialization, managerial control, auditing, and accountability. He aims to broaden our concept of financialization to encapsulate socio economic and cultural changes since the early 1980s and, in doing so, expand its meaning to encompass more than a technical shift in policy.

Academic researchers, graduate students in management programs and organization theory courses, practicing managers and management consultants will find this to be an engaging read.