Financialization of NFCs: Case study of Infosys Limited
2024. Co-authored with Sofiya Makohin.
TThe hypothesis of the financial turn of accumulation, which claims that firms are moving investment away from productive capital to financial assets since the 1970s, is central in corporate financialization studies. In this context, the ‘financialization’ of a non-financial firm (NFC) is typically defined through four major theoretical lenses—NFCs as financial profiteers, substituting productive activities for financial activities; NFCs as financial providers, maximizing return on equity for shareholders by reducing labour and capital expenditures; NFCs as financial innovators, moving away from equity to debt financing; and NFCs as financial portals, increasingly relying on intangible assets for rent capture. Using quantitative data analyses of financial statements and qualitative analyses of board and ownership structure, corporate strategy, and documents such as Annual Reports and secondary sources, the present study analyzed the degree of financialization of the Indian multinational NFC, Infosys Limited.