Mobile Marketplaces--Consequences of the Changing Governance of European Stock Exchanges

摘要

Deregulation and increasing cross-border competition in the financial industry areaffecting not only firms but also those organisations that provide markets, i.e., stock exchanges.The process of changing governance structures is exemplified in this paper by the case of DeutscheBorse AG, the Frankfurt-based main German stock exchange. The paper focuses on the reasons forrelocations of national stock exchanges, and possible consequences for local firms. Secondarytrading is based mainly on the exchange of (price) information, so traders were able to move awayfrom the Frankfurt floor quite easily. However, many of them gathered together in London becauseof the knowledge-intensive communications between them, e.g., interpretations of rumours,market mood, etc. On the other hand, the primary markets--firms issuing new shares--are alsobased on the exchange of tacit knowledge. With two spatially separated groups of users, traders inLondon in the secondary markets and firms in Germany in the primary market, Deutsche Borsefaces a "user-producer interface dilemma." Thus, a possible relocation of executive functions toLondon combined with the complex interplay between information and knowledge exchange infinancial markets could have negative consequences for the financing conditions of local firms.