Journal of Human Resource Costing & Accounting

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to increase the transparency of the value-creation chain in the stock market. It aims to: conceptualize the value-added through the relational capital, inductively develop models on how values are created, and discuss the values created for the analyst firm, the clients and investors in the stock market in general.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a case study of sell-side analysts at a big Swedish investment bank and their work with real life situations of changes in recommendations.

Findings – The findings of the case study indicate that analysts, through their relational capital, access competitive advantages needed for remaining on a highly competitive market. They get access to value-added information and knowledge and also business for the firm. This helps them to fulfill the three roles played, i.e. as information intermediaries, knowledge builders and businessmen. However, the analysts' dependencies, due to their relational capital and the analysts' conflicting roles, result in ambiguous or even biased information. The values added to clients differ between prioritized clients who receive value-added information through the relational capital with the analysts and non-prioritized clients with limited, or no access, to the analysts' services.

Originality/value – Value created through relational capital within organizations has been intensively studied within the area of intellectual capital. However, the sell-side analysts' value-creation chain linked to their relational capital with company representatives and clients, considered in the present study, has been neglected.