The temporalities of financialized accounting

Scholarly work on the financialization of the firm generally argues that shareholder value pressures have increased returns to shareholders by reducing the revenue share of the workforce and investment. This is often represented as a zero-sum allocative contest that takes place in linear time. This chapter draws on the research on accounting and time, and reflects on the more open and fluid temporalities of a fair value reporting regime. It argues that, after the financialization of accounting, a range of financial reporting techniques are available to senior management to bring forward income and push costs back to assemble a benign accounting present from which larger shareholder distributions can be made. Whilst this may moderate some immediate zero-sum pressures, it can introduce new inter-temporal tensions through the accounting mechanism which undermines corporate resilience in the future.