Exploring technological instantiation of regulatory practices in entangled financial markets

Abstract

The literature on the sociology of financial markets and institutional theory promotes concepts of field, networks, performativity, agencement and financial entropy. This study builds a conceptual model of technological instantiation of regulatory practices in financial markets. We observe how asset management firms instantiate technology as a material and social artefact to regulate the actions and behaviour of human agents. The structural-agency divide reveals the coercive role of regulators who impose stringent compliance practices on financial organizations by embedding formal rules and regulations in the software. Socio-technical conditions show how human agents interpret and apply these rules to circumvent formal regulatory policies and practices. Context-specific analysis shows technological performativity and agencement co-exist in financial fields that are becoming more entangled and fragmented. Regulators respond with more complex mandates to reduce entropy in financial markets characterized by extreme volatility and instability.