[pt] A responsabilidade social corporativa é um tema de bastante destaque atualmente. Para as empresas, investir em ações socialmente responsáveis tem se tornado essencial visto que o investimento pode resultar em melhoria da imagem corporativa, vantagem competitiva e retornos financeiros, além de conferir legitimidade à organização. O conceito de responsabilidade social corporativa abrange as relações da organização com seus stakeholders e as ações ocorrem em diversas áreas, sendo a área social a que mais se destaca no Brasil. O objetivo desta dissertação é compreender, como tem ocorrido a institucionalização da responsabilidade social corporativa em empresas farmacêuticas e os impactos e as consequências deste processo nas comunidades alcançadas pelos projetos sociais realizados por essas empresas. Para isto foi feita uma revisão da literatura sobre responsabilidade social corporativa, teoria dos stakeholders e teoria institucional e uma pesquisa qualitativa e descritiva. Foi realizada pesquisa documental, entrevistas, aplicação de questionários e elaborados estudos de caso de quatro empresas farmacêuticas. Os dados coletados foram submetidos à análise de conteúdo e posterior triangulação. Os resultados desta análise sugerem que a responsabilidade social corporativa nas empresas farmacêuticas estudadas está caminhando para um estágio de total institucionalização com algumas características ainda do estágio institucional. Além disso, a evolução da responsabilidade social corporativa e sua institucionalização nestas empresas têm tido impactos positivos nas comunidades no entorno, pois são realizados trabalhos sociais bem estruturados e cujos resultados são satisfatórios e distanciam-se do simples assistencialismo. / [en] Corporate social responsibility is a very prominent subject nowadays. For companies, investing in socially responsible actions has become essential since this kind of investment can result in a better corporate image, competitive advantage and financial returns. Moreover it legitimates the organization. The concept of corporate social responsibility includes the organization s relationship with its stakeholders and the action occurs in several areas, being the social area the one that stands out in Brazil. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand how has been occurring the corporate social responsibility institutionalization in the pharmaceutical companies and the impacts and consequences of this process to the communities reached by the social projects undertaken by those companies. A literature review about corporate social responsibility, stakeholder theory and institutional theory was conducted along with a qualitative and exploratory research. Documentary research was conducted and interviews, questionnaires and case studies were prepared about four pharmaceutical companies. The collected data were submitted to content analysis and subsequent triangulation. The results suggest that corporate social responsibility in considered pharmaceutical companies is moving to a stage of full institutionalization with some features of the institutional stage. Besides, the evolution of corporate social responsibility and its institutionalization in these companies have shown positive impacts on communities due to well-structured social actions performed. The results are satisfactory and different from simple philanthropy.

Cloud computing provides an answer to the increasing costs of managing information technology (IT), and has become a model that aligns IT services with an organization's business strategies. However, concerns and uncertainties associated with cloud computing are deterring IT decision makers from making sound decisions regarding the adoption of the technology. The purpose of this online survey study was to examine the relationship between relative advantage, compatibility, organizational size, top management support, organizational readiness, mimetic pressure, normative pressures, coercive pressure, and the IT decision makers' intent to adopt cloud computing. The theoretical framework incorporated the diffusion of innovations theory, a technology-organization-environment framework, and institutional theory. The survey participants were 136 IT decision makers from different U.S. industries. The Pearson's coefficient analysis indicated a significant correlation between the dependent variable (intent to adopt) and all independent variables except organizational size. The regression model was a statistically significant predictor of the dependent variable and accounted for approximately 74% of the variance in the dependent variable, primarily predicted by top management support, normative pressure, relative advantage, and organization readiness. The implications for positive social change include the potential of implementing innovations that would augment technology efficiency, decrease workplace personnel issues, and create a more desirable and flexible workplace. Flexibility at work enables employees to be able to participate in other nonwork roles such as family, child, and elder care, or education.

The primary question at issue in this paper is the following: given the similarities between the two countries with regard to welfare state institutions, why have the United States and the United Kingdom diverged on the issue of health care? Drawing on sociological institutionalism, a branch of the new institutionalist paradigm, this paper provides an answer to this question: during the formative years of the health care stories in the two countries, variations in institutional and cultural conditions produced contrasting policy outcomes. More specifically, this paper discusses how the combination of institutions (political, labor, and medical) and culture led to private insurance in the United States and public insurance in the United Kingdom. Of course, this paper has implications for several areas of scholarship, as well as for current policy debates on a wide range of issues.

Environmental management accounting (EMA) is attracting increased recognition as a management tool that assists in improving financial and environmental performance through enhanced environmental accountability. Various industries have been included in EMA-related research and study, but universities have typically failed to be the focus of the attention. This research studied the experiences of key managers from five universities to explore potential factors influencing the decision to adopt, or not to adopt, EMA within the higher education sector. For the purpose of this study, EMA is defined as the generation, analysis, and use of monetary (or financial) and physical (or non-financial) environment-related information in order to improve organisational financial and environmental performance. The two objectives of this study were to understand current accounting practices for managing major environmental costs, and to identify factors influencing EMA adoption within universities. For the purpose of this study, the major environmental costs referred to are limited to the costs pertaining to the consumption of electricity, water and paper, and the generation of wastes. A case study methodology was followed using semi-structured interviews of key personnel with four different management functions (i.e. environmental management, management accounting, senior management, and heads of academic schools) within each university, and performing content analysis on the transcribed interview data. Specifically for achieving the second research objective, a theoretical framework that considers four theories was embraced to guide the data collection and focus the study. The four theories are contingency theory, institutional theory, legitimacy theory, and stakeholder theory. The findings of the first research objective revealed that there was a general lack of EMA utilisation within the case universities. This was in part due to a perceived lack of appreciation by key personnel of the extent of environmental costs being incurred, but arguably mainly because of the absence of relevant environmental cost information being brought to the attention of senior management. Although environmental sustainability was promoted as important from an environmental management perspective, efforts to improve internal environmental accountability, in particular from an accounting perspective, were still absent. In relation to the second research objective, it was found that five key barriers contributed to this lack of EMA utilisation within the five case universities, and they were attitudinal, financial, informational, institutional, and management barriers. Among the factors that provide further explanations about how each barrier influences EMA adoption, resistance to change, resource constraints, (a lack of) legitimacy considerations, and a lack of environmental responsibility & accountability were found to be strong factors, as they were supported in all of the five cases. Apart from the theoretical extension to this area of research, the results and findings of this study supported the uses and applications of EMA by the higher education sector. Much more can, and should, be done by universities in relation to how they account for the environment. This can provide benefits not only for the sector itself, but also for the environment in which we live.

<p>This study investigates forces and organizational structures that facilitate or hinder sustainabledevelopment to be introduced and integrated in the core activities of public institutions.Specifically, the way global national sustainable development goals find their way into thelocal curriculum and overall-encompassing strategy of a few Swedish high-schools isidentified.To facilitate the search, the study is assisted by actor-network theory to find human and nonhuman―power-brokers‖ that can ensure the adoption and continuous application of newconcepts in a school. A pre-study of several schools, consisting of explorative interviews,located and classified factors and processes of potential importance for the implementation ofactivities related to sustainable development. At the same time, the large variety ofdefinitions of sustainable development encountered was recorded.The main study expanded on the findings from the pre-study and provided a more detailedanalysis of one senior high-school (upper secondary school). Several examples oforganizational structures and other factors– macro-actors in the theoretical model - werelocated with the potential to influence the furthering of the cause of sustainable developmentin that particular school. The possibility is discussed that the school would profit fromdeveloping a common mode of communication based on exploring experiences from applyingthe many issues that can be related to sustainable development. Such an endeavor could resultin organizational change typical of a learning organization. In that case, the resilience andcapacity of the organization to handle abrupt changes in national policy would be increased aswell as the preparedness of its students – our future – to handle rapidly changing situations intomorrow‗s society.The study further suggest that a similar ―tool-box‖ of theoretical models could be applied tothe local implementation of other national issues in an institutional setting.</p>

<p>Private organizations are facing organizational field pressures which need to be addressed from an economic and ethical point of view in order to be sustainable in the long term. The present research study analyzes the role of the Pharmaceutical Industry as a provider of a social good and its responsibility towards its organizational field and stakeholder network. On the one hand it is argued that the mentioned industry should be profitable in order to make investments in research and development; while on the other hand, the industry must demonstrate engagement in the social sphere because of the good it commercializes, human health care. The Role of Organizational Policies, Codes and Structure will also be studied in order to deepen the understanding of the organization strategy towards Corporate Responsibility Practices.</p><p>This research project presents a case study of AstraZeneca Sweden Corporate Responsibility practices. In this study an Analytical Framework is developed based on institutional theory, the stakeholders' model, deliberative democracy model and business ethics. The mentioned framework will contribute to the understanding of AstraZeneca's Corporate Responsibility practices. The role of the company towards the demands from the outside world that causes the organization to respond and act will be addressed as well as the role of Policies, Codes and Organizational Structure in the Corporate Responsibility practice of the organization. We argue that the managerial response should be based upon a deliberative engagement method, in which all the interest parties are included in the decision making process.</p><p>The study is supported by two interviews which were conducted with key actors and extensive secondary data.</p>

<p>This thesis presents an implementation study on the handling of electronic identification in three public authorities in Sweden. Electronic identification is a complex but very topical policy domain, largely tied to the general policy aspirations of e-government development. Theories on policy action, logic of appropriateness, garbage cans, and the dialectics of institutions and technology are used. The result highlights that the policy process of electronic identification in the three studied authorities could not be adequately explained from a traditional policy-implementation dichotomy. The action imperative to develop e-services is very strong and explains why and how electronic identification has been developed within the three authorities. The three authorities have very different institutional capacity to implement e-services with electronic identification. The available technology on electronic identification is inscribed with certain logics of appropriateness, that doesn’t sit equally easy with the administrative logics of appropriateness in all three authorities.</p>

Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2010. Sammanfattning jämte 4 uppsatser.

Private equity investing (PE) has experienced rapid growth on a global scale over the last few decades to become a significant industry. While scholars have devoted considerable effort to studying the area of risk capital investing into businesses, research about private equity as an asset class is surprisingly scarce. This dissertation addresses this gap by enhancing understanding of PE fund investing in general, and specifically about how heterogeneity in investor-specific characteristics and entry order strategies may impact performance. Based on a comprehensive set of interviews with PE fund investors, in-dept insights about variances in motives for investing in the asset class, ways of working, and investment strategies across investors were acquired; findings that are elaborated upon in the dissertation. In addition, to facilitate a thorough investigation of the links between organizational characteristics, entry order and performance, hypotheses were tested through the statistical analysis of unique data covering PE funds raised in Sweden over a twenty-year period. Among several novel results, this study indicates that the level of environmental uncertainty has a clear impact on which organization-specific factors explain entry order, as well as which factors impact the ability of an organization to take advantage of a chosen entry order. Furthermore, the study points at organizational reputation as an especially valuable asset in situations of uncertainty. While a good reputation does not directly lead to superior performance, it may be used in exchange for favorable entry order positions. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan i Stockholm, 2011</p>

In society today large corporations are striving to regain the trust, which has been lost dur-ing the many accounting scandals that occurred lately. As a response to minimize the con-flicts countries have introduced codes of corporate governance. It is common knowledge that a company’s stakeholders and shareholders have different knowledge and interest in the company and the annual report is the agent’s main communication channel towards the principals. The Swedish code of corporate governance was implemented in July 2005 in an attempt to reduce the information gap between the managers of the company and the own-ers. The purpose of this thesis is to examine if and how the Swedish code of corporate govern-ance has affected the content in annual reports in Sweden. We will evaluate and explain why listed companies have changed the information provided in their annual reports from the year 2001 prior to the codes existence, during the code’s implementation in year 2005, and after the implementation in 2006. A deductive method created our research model, which was used as a tool to gather the empirical findings. Agency Theory, Institutional Theory and the Swedish code constitute the foundation for our evaluation of 65 companies’ annual reports from three individual years. Once our research model was created, an explorative and inductive method was used analyse and interpret the empirical findings. Our conclusion is that corporate governance information in annual reports has increased, and the implementation of the Swedish code of corporate governance has affected the in-formation provided to the shareholders. Between 2001 and 2005 a rapid growth in infor-mation can be view, while only minor improvement can be found between 2005 and 2006. The Swedish code has been successful in its implementation as stakeholders and share-holders have received more information from the annual reports. However, we are ques-tioning the Swedish code for its extensive dimensions. Some areas of the Swedish code are provided with sufficient guidelines, while others would bring with it improved information to the shareholders by more detailed instructions. Many of the investigated companies have had their corporate governance information reviewed by an external auditor in 2005 and it is unexpected to see that this has been excluded in 2006. The examined companies provide information regarding many of the Swedish code’s rules, but we found the information re-lated to internal control, managing director and attendance at the general meeting insuffi-cient.