Sovereign wealth and the crisis: some consequences for Western international businesses

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess the wide-ranging implications of the global economic crisis and provide a comprehensive assessment of the how the structure of the market and competition within it is changing as a result.

Design/methodology/approach

The research methodology draws on a “financialization” market construct and adapts it to include the public-private interfaces (PPIs) that have appeared since the global economic crisis.

Findings

The crisis has turned the global system on a dime. The decades-long surge of globalization, as characterized by market liberalization and ever more fast-paced investment flows, has abated and, in some cases, been dramatically reversed. It has altered the international investment paradigm. Firms have revised their risk functions and are re-arranging their stakeholder relationships.

Research limitations/implications

Much needs to be done to assess the wide-ranging implications of the most recent crisis. This is just one set of “snapshots”, if you will, of the way in which market structure and competition are being altered.

Originality/value

The re-arrangement of stakeholder relationships of both privately owned firms and sovereign enterprises will have far-reaching effects on market structure in such areas as market access and competition, as well as on civil society, writ large.

Citation

Weiss, B. and van Wyk, J. (2013), "Sovereign wealth and the crisis: some consequences for Western international businesses", Critical Perspectives on International Business, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 444-466. https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-06-2013-0023