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The purpose of this paper is to examine in which ways hedge funds contribute to financialization.

Two already identified conduits through which financialization operates are applied to hedge funds.

The paper finds that hedge funds drive the phenomenon of financialization in two major ways, i.e. the financialization of corporations, and the financialization of markets. Hence, hedge funds can be conceived as agents of change for financialization.

There are indications that hedge funds possess disciplinary power. Future research should address this pivotal point, even though such power will be difficult to prove empirically.

Hedge funds have been found to potentially increase market volatility. In times of crisis, stricter regulation of these investors that take excessive risks seems prudent.

Through linking “hedge funds” with “financialization” this paper closes a research gap. In addition, the so far rather structural debate about financialization benefits from the actor-centered approach of this paper.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This paper aims to explore the culture of working life in British financial services multinationals in the period leading up to the financial crisis of 2007-2008.

Informed by labour process theory, the paper is based on a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews with technicians and junior managers in British insurance and banking MNCs.

The data demonstrate widespread employee disaffection with a new culture of corporate life that has emerged in the last two decades. Employees faced work intensification and were highly critical of what they saw as detached, ruthless, and often incompetent top leadership. Senior management is described as operating in an “echo chamber”, insulated from the “realities” of the workplace.

The paper argues that the unpleasant work culture experienced by employees at middle and lower levels closely mirrors the broader excesses and failings of banks and insurance firms during the recent financial crisis. Excessive risk-taking, short-termism, and inattention to detail are widely given as causes of the crisis. This paper argues that senior leadership failings are also manifest in short-sighted, undignified, and ethically unsound treatment of staff, leading to severe problems with staff morale.

The paper provides detailed qualitative data on the realities of working life in financial services before the recent financial crisis, and suggests ways for labour process theory to consider how restructuring is not only challenging for employees but can also be debilitating for the organisation itself.

The special issue aims to look into what it means to be critical in relation to international business.

Gives an overview of articles submitted by experts in the field.

Finds that old practices of international trade are out of touch in the modern world and that new practices need to be agreed in order to make international trade work for all.

Collectively, these papers provide a response to what it means to be “critical” in relation to international business and in doing so will provide a useful touchstone to those who wish to make contributions to this new journal.