Strategy financialization: an effort to map its development by means of bibliometric research

Abstract

With the development of a financial theory of the firm, the concept of Shareholder Value Generation has developed and consolidated. This concept advocates that the main purpose of the firm is to maximize shareholder´s wealth, and its consequences lead to a process of strategy financialization in which business strategies are impacted by such financial rationality. The goal of this paper is to carry out bibliometric research to explore the field of Strategy Financialization, producing an initial overview of the scientific production in the area, to support future research in the field. The results indicate that (1) there is a significant amount of scientific literature on the subject that has not been published under the label of financialization ; (2) although the financialization process has its roots in previous economic theory , the study of Strategy Financialization is relatively recent ; (3) the issue of Shareholder Value Creation seems to be the central theme in research related to Strategy Financialization; (4) research in the area seems to be quite scattered, once that it has not identified an author or group of authors, that are extremely significant in the area and (5) the main publication vehicles are also dispersed, including not only typical finance and strategy journal, but also marketing journals.