Accounting standards prioritize investor needs over other users, spreading financialized valuation broadly.

Evidence

The conceptual frameworks of both the American and international accounting standard-setters consider that accounting must primarily satisfy investors (Zhang and Andrew 2013; Young 2006); the needs of other users of accounting information are considered to be met if investors’ needs are met. … The impact of these standards on corporate accounting image and calculation of profits is clearly enormous for firms with large financial portfolios, i.e., banks and insurance companies. Other provisions also based on a financialised approach to financialised valuation have affected non-financial firms through other channels, but there is not enough space here to discuss this further. — Ève Chiapello, Financialisation of Valuation, 57

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The investor-primary axiom of accounting standards is a foundational mechanism by which financialized valuation becomes universal — a subtle, structural colonization worth sitting with.
• ADDENDUM: Directly supports the financialization-vs-worldbuilding theme: accounting’s investor-primary logic is exactly how valuation logic migrates from markets into ordinary corporate activity.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s work on how financialized valuation colonizes non-financial activity — this is the standards-level transmission mechanism. — connects to: Financialised valuations override prior forms of valuation and reshape how people act and identify — Ève Chiapello, Financialisation of Valuation, 16; Financial valuation theory legitimizes financiers’ power by claiming they optimize resource allocation. — Ève Chiapello, Financialisation of Valuation, 36; Finance theory’s investor-centric view shaped American corporate governance toward value maximization — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 1173

Related

• Investor-style valuation techniques now shape public policy with coercive force (similarity 0.82)
• Financial valuation theory legitimizes financiers’ power by claiming they optimize resource allocation. (similarity 0.82)
• Finance theory’s investor-centric view shaped American corporate governance toward value maximization (similarity 0.81)
• Financialised valuation draws on financial economics and mathematical finance. (similarity 0.80)
• Financialisation also colonizes non-economic spheres via valuation techniques. (similarity 0.79)
• Financial language now reshapes public policy domains historically governed by other values. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Finance theory’s investor-centric view shaped American corporate governance toward value maximization #expands (0.85) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 1173
• Financialised valuations override prior forms of valuation and reshape how people act and identify #expands (0.82) — Ève Chiapello, Financialisation of Valuation, 16
• Financial valuation theory legitimizes financiers’ power by claiming they optimize resource allocation. #corroborates (0.75) — Ève Chiapello, Financialisation of Valuation, 36