Redefining Business Models: Strategies for a Financialized World

The world has moved on in the advanced economies where credit based financial systems coupled with malleable accounting systems disconnect capitalization and wealth accumulation from GDP trajectories and financial surplus. This, the book argues, is the product of economic, financial and cultural imperatives that privilege and encourage financial leverage for wealth accumulation. This text re-works business models for a financialized world and presents a distinctive insight into the way in which national, corporate and focal firm business models have adapted and evolved. It also shows how, in the current financial crisis, financial disturbances can be amplified, transmitted and made porous, by accounting systems, threatening economic stability. By making visible the tensions and contradictions embedded in this process of economic development, the authors have constructed a loose business model conceptual framework that is also grounded in accounting. This is a valuable resource for practitioners, academics and policy makers with an interest in management, accounting and economic policy.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction 2. Accounting for the Firm as a Business Model 3. Strategy: Arbitrage for Financial Leverage 4. Business Models: Reworked for a Financialized World 5. Business Models: Global Context 6. Accounting for National Business Models 7. Business Models: Adaptation and Restructuring 8. US Banking: A Viable Business Model? 9. The Private Equity Business Model: Leveraged and Fragile 10. Bio-Pharma: A Maturing Business Model? 11. Business Models for a Digital Lifestyle 12. Accounting for the UK Hospice Business Model

About the Author :
Colin Haslam is Director of the Finance Accounting Research Unit (FARU) at the University of Hertfordshire, UK Tord Andersson is a business broker and financial analyst with Swedbank and is also a visiting research fellow at the University of Hertfordshire, UK Nick Tsitsianis is a Principal Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire, UK and an active researcher in the FARU Ya Ping Yin is aSenior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Hertfordshire Business School, UK

Review :
'This path-breaking book offers the first systematic presentation of the critical relevance of accounting for interrogating and contesting the contemporary (re)design of business. It demonstrates how the making of business is changing and how this shift invites a change in analysis. Using detailed company cases, light is shone on the rise of financial leverage in business (re)construction. Accounting, rather than economics, is shown to offer the more insightful and challenging resources in elucidating as well as developing contemporary business models.' Hugh Willmott, Cardiff University, UK 'This book constructs a new innovative business models framework of analysis. It reveals how, in a financialized world, strategy is concerned with leveraging income and collateral to generate ongoing recapitalizations. Using this business model framework of analysis, the authors generate critical insights into the process of capital and wealth accumulation and reveal why this is both increasingly fragile and volatile. It should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in understanding trajectories of the business world in a complex global environment.' Prem Sikka, University of Essex, UK 'Redefining Business Models is a ground breaking study of corporate change in a financialised world. It's approach, rooted in a sophisticated accounting framework, emphasises the growing importance, and essential vulnerability, of leverage based strategies for wealth accumulation. This central observation is supported by detailed case studies on US banking, private equity, bio-pharma and others. This book is a timely intervention and an essential read for postgraduates, practitioners, academics and policy makers with an interest in management, accounting and economic policy.' Adam Leaver, University of Manchester, UK