Aandeelhouders eerst!: De opkomst en verspreiding van 'aandeelhouderswaarde' in de Verenigde Staten. (Dutch/Flemish)

Although much has been written about the conception of 'shareholder value', its rise and spread have not been properly researched. In this article we use public sources such as the Wall Street Journal and the journal Institutional Investor to examine when and how the concept of shareholder value arose and spread in the United States. From an economic sociological perspective both the rise and spread of 'shareholder value' can be understood as a function of the changing power and dependency relations in which firms are embedded. The deep economic recession around 1980 led to a crisis in the prevailing management beliefs, offering newcomers the opportunity to promote alternative business models in which the shareholder value conception became dominant. The spokesmen of the new business model were originally wealthy outsiders, corporate raiders, who used the economic crisis to acquire shares in undervalued firms under the threat of restructuring and selling them, either in parts or as a whole. These controversial 'hostile' takeovers were accompanied by a sharp critique of established management, which would compromise shareholders' interests, whereas maximizing shareholder value should be the only objective of managing firms. Under the Reagan administration, the lucrative operations of corporate raiders gradually became a more legitimate type of investor behaviour for public pension funds. These funds had few ties to the established management and they considered themselves disadvantaged because often only corporate raiders profited from the advertised takeovers, while other shareholders did not. The tensions between raiders and public pension funds led to the organization of public pension funds and the newly founded Council of Institutional Investors (1985) immediately became a leading player. Because managers found profitable ways to adapt to the new balance of power, the shareholder value ideology rapidly spread through the economic field with the result that from the mid-nineteen eighties onwards, the alliance between top managers and large shareholders around the creation of shareholder value became the dominant business strategy of North American firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hoewel over het streven naar bet creëren van 'aandeelhouderswaarde' veel is geschreven, is weinig onderzoek gedaan naar de opkomst en eerste verspreiding van deze bedrijfsstrategie. In dit artikel onderzoeken we aan de band van open-bare bronnen als de Wall Street Journal en de Institutional Investor wanneer en op welke wijze bet concept van `aandeelhouderswaarde' opkwam en hoe bet zich in eerste instantie in de VS heeft verspreid. Zowel de opkomst als de verspreiding van `aandeelhouderswaarde' zijn vanuit economisch sociologisch perspectief te begrijpen vanuit de veranderende machtsen afhankelijkheidsverhoudingen waarin ondernemingen zijn ingebed. De diepe economische recessie rond 1980 leidde tot een crisis van de heersende managementopvattingen, hood nieuwkomers de kans om alternatieve bedrijfsstrategieen te propageren, en daarvan werd het model waarin `aandeelhouderswaarde' centraal stond dominant. De pleitbezorgers van bet aandeelhoudersbelang waren aanvankelijk vermogende buitenstaanders, zogenoemde 'raiders'. De lucratieve operaties van deze opkopers werden later een voorbeeld voor publieke pensioenfondsen. De spanningen tussen 'raiders' en pensioenfondsen leidden tot organisatievorming onder publieke pensioenfondsen, en de door hen opgerichte Council of Institutional Investors (1985) werd snel een toonaangevende partij, onder meer doordat bet bedrijfsmanagement een profijtelijke manier vond om zich aan de nieuwe machtsverhoudingen aan te passen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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