The Accounting Dimension to the Explanation of Financialisation: A Literature Survey in the Case of Merchant Shipping

Abstract

This article aims to conduct a historic and scientific research concerning the manifestation and development of the financialisation phenomenon and its socio-economic impacts through a survey on prestigious international relevant publications. The research pioneers the literature in terms of the analysis, interpretation and depiction of the phenomenon function mechanism, based on the logic and philosophy of the financial/capital flows (influxes-outflows) of enterprises’ accounting statements. The researched relevant literature was organized into seven distinct levels of approaching gnostic sectors on the basis of the material of the research topics and its characteristics. In the field of global merchant shipping the research conducted led to the identification of a research gap. A comprehensive overview on the relevant articles concerning the evolutionary route of various worldviews involving class systems, social organisations and schools of economic thought dealing with the conceptual formation of the term, the substance of the phenomenon and its evolution is provided in this study. The scientific contribution of this study lies in the fact that: a) the survey covers the whole period (1980-2023) during which the phenomenon was manifested, with various frequencies of rise and fall of its intensity, b) a coherent classification of the relevant articles material, in relation to this concept, the function of financialisation and the sectors it affects is suggested, c) the direct and indirect tracing of the phenomenon manifestation, based on the capital flows of enterprises’ accounting statements is defined methodologically and depicted and d) enriches international literature with a pioneering work, providing an additional academic research-oriented tool for the solution of theoretical and empirical issues but also with outlining or correcting policy issues.