Giorgos Gouzoulis, G. Galanis, Panagiotis (Takis) Iliopoulos
{"title":"Financialisation, shareholder value orientation, and the decline of trade union membership in the EU","authors":"Giorgos Gouzoulis, G. Galanis, Panagiotis (Takis) Iliopoulos","doi":"10.1177/10242589241245063","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This article shows that an orientation towards shareholder value and corporate indebtedness at non-financial firms have been negatively associated with union density in the EU over the past 21 years. We argue that the financialisation of non-financial firms makes them prioritise their ‘external (economic) balance’ at the expense of a cooperative ‘internal equilibrium’ model. In other words, corporate financialisation pushes non-financial firms to shift to non-participatory, market-based HR systems that directly undermine the role of trade unions. This study examines this corporate financialisation-induced shift within the EU in the wake of deeper economic integration since 1999 and provides panel data econometric evidence that it has significantly undermined union membership.","PeriodicalId":23253,"journal":{"name":"Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10242589241245063","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS & LABOR","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article shows that an orientation towards shareholder value and corporate indebtedness at non-financial firms have been negatively associated with union density in the EU over the past 21 years. We argue that the financialisation of non-financial firms makes them prioritise their ‘external (economic) balance’ at the expense of a cooperative ‘internal equilibrium’ model. In other words, corporate financialisation pushes non-financial firms to shift to non-participatory, market-based HR systems that directly undermine the role of trade unions. This study examines this corporate financialisation-induced shift within the EU in the wake of deeper economic integration since 1999 and provides panel data econometric evidence that it has significantly undermined union membership.