German firms deployed shareholder-value rhetoric symbolically without full implementation

Evidence

Fiss and Zajac (2004), for instance, have argued that a significant number of the largest 100 corporations in Germany have engaged in the ‘symbolic management’ of shareholder value. German managers usedthelanguageofshareholdervaluetoplacateforeigninvestors,butavoidedfullscale implementation of its associated policies. The authors explain these findings by pointing at thecriticalroleof German banks in disseminating shareholder value, thus hinting at the importance of national context for the adoption of valuecreating policies. — Natascha van der Zwan, Making Sense of Financialization, 49

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the logic of performative/ceremonial decoupling in institutional theory (Meyer & Rowan), and anticipates the reading-purpose frame of financialization as debate. — connects to: Firms adopted shareholder-value rhetoric selectively to protect executive discretion. — Gerald F. Davis & Suntae Kim, Financialization of the Economy, 57; Finance theory often shapes managers’ vocabulary without changing their actual practice — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 1136; Shareholder value operates as discourse disconnected from actual firm performance — Natascha van der Zwan, Making Sense of Financialization, 49 (+2 more)
• SEED: Angle: national context determines whether financialization rhetoric converts into actual policy — a comparative institutionalist story.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Natascha van der Zwan, Making Sense of Financialization, 49

Related

• Firms adopted shareholder-value rhetoric selectively to protect executive discretion. (similarity 0.82)
• Shareholder value operates as discourse disconnected from actual firm performance (similarity 0.81)
• Shareholder value policies spread unevenly, aided by institutional preconditions and safety-in-numbers timing (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Shareholder value operates as discourse disconnected from actual firm performance #expands (0.85) — Natascha van der Zwan, Making Sense of Financialization, 49
• Shareholder value policies spread unevenly, aided by institutional preconditions and safety-in-numbers timing #corroborates (0.80) — Natascha van der Zwan, Making Sense of Financialization, 60