The world has moved on in the advanced economies where credit based financial systems coupled with malleable accounting systems disconnect capitalization and wealth accumulation from GDP trajectories and financial surplus. This, the book argues, is the product of economic, financial and cultural imperatives that privilege and encourage financial leverage for wealth accumulation. This text re-works business models for a financialized world and presents a distinctive insight into the way in which national, corporate and focal firm business models have adapted and evolved.

This book takes Italy as a case study, focusing on the financial performance of retail energy firms between 2008 and 2017, to provide an up-to-date and critical analysis of this sizeable shift that has taken place within the European energy sector.