Apples financial success

The academic paper ”Apple’s financial success: The precariousness of power exercised in global value chains” review the business model of Apple Inc and how, in a financialized world, the success of this business model is represented by financial ‘point values’.

The paper argue that there is a tendency to promote specific point valuation multiples as measures of success, but these values, by their nature, do not reveal the contingent and variable nature of the power relations exercised in and along global supply chains. Firms such as Apple exploit their resources and capabilities to ‘create value’ but also exercise power to recalibrate relationships with suppliers in the value chain to secure ‘value capture’ for financial transformation. Value capture is an active ingredient that can help inform our understanding of the fragility of the Apple business model value proposition and frame a critical argument regarding the precarious nature and sustainability of Apple’s substantial profit margins.

The paper published in Accounting Forum 2013 was written together with Professor Colin Haslam, Dr Ya Ping Yin and Dr Nick Tsitsianis. Read more about the paper at Accounting Forum – Apples financial success. tepic