engleski

Risk factors in Google's SEC 10-K filings: financialization, markets, and public interest

Financialisation is key to the development of new business models on the internet (Lazonick, 2009). Risky businesses promise high returns for capital investors, yet actual risk bearing is not proportional to financial awards and profits distributed to capital investors (Lazonick & Mazzucato, 2013). In this presentation, we provide a diachronic analysis of risk assessments reported by Google in its SEC 10-K filings between 2005 and 2017. Formally standardized risk assessments include information about significant risks that apply to companies and their securities. We used a simple “in vivo” document coding procedure to minimize our interpretative interventions and to code risks recorded under section headings (N=58). Based on the diachronic analysis we can discern three periods of Google’s development: (1) post IPO growth and expansion (2005-2008) ; (2) further growth, strengthening of the market position, and investment diversification (2009-2013) ; (3) increasing legal struggles and international regulatory scrutiny (2014-2017). Our historical reading shows that while public strategic orientation and investments are a necessary driving force, socializing risks to develop new advanced technologies, the presence of the discourse of public interest in financial regulations and the distribution of financial rewards do not reflect this. Financial capital creates inequalities in risk and reward distribution between actors interested in the economic performance of the company, neglecting actors affected by the business model of the company, ignoring the historical and contemporary aspects of public interest in risks and rewards associated with the development of new technologies.

financialization, markets, public interest

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