<p>In the ever so increasingly competitive business climate of the 21^st century, human resources are vital for corporate success. Employees need proper incentives to perform in goal-oriented manners. Incentive systems, especially Chief Executive Officer [CEO] remunerations, have been a popular topic since the 1990s, and this tendency has increased both during the 2002-2003 corporate scandal era, as well as the financial crisis which sparked in 2007. The recent tendency appears to lean towards companies cutting their executive bonuses as well as criticism and suspiciousness towards large bonus payments. While remuneration policies within the banking industry have been thoroughly debated and researched, another financial industry that is left largely untouched are the insurance companies. The focus of this research is therefore CEO remuneration in European insurance companies.</p><p>This descriptive study, of annual reports of stock-listed insurance companies, uses a purposive cluster sample to explore quantitative trends in CEO remunerations. In addition, a content analysis of five randomly selected companies out of the sample provides a deeper, complementary understanding of the justifications of the trends. The research questions are: <em>What trends on CEO remuneration can be found over the years 2005-2009 in annual reports of European insurance companies, concerning total remuneration, fixed salary and short-term bonus? What justifications do companies make for the remunerations</em><em> over the years 2005-2009</em><em>? </em></p><p>The quantitative part of the research inductively tests the assumption that CEO remuneration has decreased during the past few years 2008 and/ or 2009 due to the impact of the financial crisis. The content analysis part of the research deductively tests if agency theory concerns and issues concerning attraction and retention play a role in determining remuneration policies.<em></em></p><p>From this research, it is concluded that short-term variable pay is largely performance-based. Still, many other aspects serve as input factors when determining compensation levels. Based on the content analysis, it is revealed that interest alignment and attraction- and retention-issues are important determinants of remunerations. Subjective factors such as discretionary judgements also play a crucial role. The quantitative trends found in this study show that total remunerations have decreased markedly in 2008, and more vaguely in 2009. The financial crisis has had an impact on especially the short-term variable part of salaries, but also on base salary levels. Although not all companies that were investigated in the content analysis explicitly mention it in their annual reports, over the years 2005-2009, all of them become more concerned about remuneration policies and business risk factors. Over the investigated years, these companies also become more attentive to creating proactive and sophisticated value creating remuneration policies that are in line with international standards, in order to act legitimate towards stakeholders.</p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>Purpose: A part of this research is to explore if there are partnership firms that voluntarily get an audit of their business. The purpose is to understand and explain why these partnership firms have chosen to get an audit of their business voluntarily. Additionally, the authors research how external stakeholders, such as creditors, view and assess partnership firms that do not execute an audit of their accounts and reports.</p><p>Method: To initiate this research, the authors conducted a telephone survey as a pre-study, to assure the viability of this research. As a major part of this research study, qualitative interviews with partnership firms, banks and the Swedish Tax Agency have been conducted to obtain professional opinion in the subject of interest. Previous researches are presented to provide a broader perspective of the debate.</p><p>Frame of</p><p>Reference: The authors present an extensive background to auditing and accounting. Stakeholder model and agency theory have been applied to facilitate in understanding the relationship between a partnership firm and its stakeholders. Advantages and disadvantages of auditing, as well as the concept of voluntary auditing are presented to facilitate a discussion of the motives of voluntarily executing an audit firms.</p><p>Conclusion: After extensive research the authors have identified and determined the most probable motives of voluntary audits as well as understood how these external stakeholders view and assess these partnership firms that do not execute an audit of their accounts and reports. The authors can after a broad research conclude that partners’ central motives to voluntary auditing is to seek the value that is added through it, as the firm obtains professional assistance to raise the credibility of the firm’s financial reports. Auditing frees them from additional burden and time to manage the work related to accounting records and enables them to devote more time to the core business.</p><p>Through an audit, partners’ quest for orderliness is fulfilled. Moreover, indications have been seen that partners are open to voluntarily execute an audit to achieve a sense of security in relation to the other partners. Another essential motive to why partners voluntarily execute audits is to be assured that there are no significant inaccuracies or errors in their book-keeping. Overall, partners’ intentions of getting an audit of their accounts and reports are to gain an overview of the business as well to obtain enhanced business image externally.</p><p>Creditors are concerned about a firm’s ability to reimburse the obligation. In a newly started firm, banks require annual reports, forecasts and budgets ensure the firm’s solvency. The Swedish Tax Agency receives audit reports from auditors that guide them with hints and directions on what to assess further. Moreover, the Swedish Tax Agency performs tax audits on firms, whereby they conduct an assessment to ensure that the accounts and other documents are in accordance with what is declared to them.</p> / <p>Sammanfattning</p><p>Syfte: Avsikten med denna uppsats är att utforska om det finns handelsbolag som frivilligt upprättar revision i sin affärsverksamhet. Syftet är att få förståelse för samt förklara de bakomliggande motiven till handelsbolags val av frivillig revision. Författarna utforskar ytterligare hur externa parter, såsom kreditgivare samt skatteverket, granskar och ser på handelsbolag som inte upprättar revision på sin verksamhet.</p><p>Metod: Författarna genomförde en förstudie i form av en telefonenkät, för att försäkra sig om att denna studie är genomförbar. För att erhålla en professionell åsikt kring ämnet i fråga, har denna studie till största del bestått av kvalitativa intervjuer med respondenter från delägare av handelsbolag, banker och skatteverket. Tidigare studier är även presenterade för att tillföra debatten ett bredare perspektiv.</p><p>Referensram: Författarna ger en omfattande beskrivning av redovisning och revision. Intressentmodellen och agentteorin har tillämpats i syfte att underlätta förståelsen av relationen mellan företag och dess intressenter. Dessutom beskrivs för- och nackdelar av revision för att underlätta diskussionen kring motiven till frivillig revision i handelsbolag.</p><p>Slutsats: Författarna har efter omfattande forskning fastställt de troligaste motiven till frivillig revision samt fått en djupare förståelse för bankernas och skatteverkets ståndpunkt och granskning av handelsbolag som inte är revisionspliktiga. Sammanfattningsvis kan författarna hävda att grundmotiven till frivillig revision är värdet som den tillför, då bolagen erhåller professionell samråd som höjer redovisningens trovärdighet i bolaget. Revision underlättar för delägarna då de inte behöver ta på sig bördan av att tillägna tid och kraft på att själva utföra bokföringen. Detta tillåter delägarna i sin tur att ägna mer tid till själva kärnverksamheten. Genom revision, fullgörs delägarnas strävan efter ordning och reda i bolaget. För övrigt har man sett indikationer på att delägarna är positivt inställda på att frivilligt upprätta revision i handelsbolagen, då revisionen bidrar till att de erhåller en känsla av trygghet. Ett annat motiv, är att revisionen försäkrar dem om det inte förekommer väsentliga felaktigheter eller misstag i boksluten. Delägarnas främsta avsikt till användandet av revision kan i det stora hela summeras till att de får en översiktsbild av sina bolag, såväl som att de erhåller en kvalitetsstämpel och därmed en förhöjd bild av bolaget utåt sett. Kreditgivare är angelägna över bolagens återbetalningsförmåga. Därför kräver banken att nystartade bolag ska framföra sin årsredovisning, budget och framtida prognoser, för att försäkra sig om och fastställa deras återbetalningsförmåga. Skatteverket mottar årsredovisningar från revisorer, som med fördel förser skatteverket med råd och vägledning kring eventuell vidare granskning i bolagen. Skatteverket utför därtill skatterevision, genom att de granskar bolagen i syfte att intyga att de presenterade räkenskaperna och rapporterna överensstämmer med det som har deklarerats och kommit till skatteverkets förfogande.</p>

, Diss--Münster

This dissertation employs both design science and behavioral science research paradigms to investigate an emerging form of technology-enabled human collective intelligence known as information markets. This work establishes a conceptual foundation for the study of organizational information markets and the design and use processes of information markets inside organizations. This research conceptualizes markets from an information systems perspective and presents an information systems research framework for organizational information markets. This work develops a systems theory of information markets to facilitate investigation of the relationships and interactions between markets as systems and their context of use. It proposes a structuration model for design and use of IT artifacts in organizations and applies it to the study of information markets. A framework of market users is developed to guide market design to satisfy the different motivational and informational needs of market users. A design based solution is proposed to an important open question in the information markets literature; how to generate sufficient uninformed trades. This research extends structuration theory by developing the structuration model of technology-induced organization development. A well-designed information market can generate several benefits to organizations that contribute to their growth and development. Due to the importance of software in everyday life, and the high costs and percentages of failure in software projects, this dissertation proposes an information market solution to help organizations better manage the risks facing software projects. It also develops a theoretical framework for the determinants of software project risk assessment accuracy and evaluates the market‘s efficacy in improving assessment accuracy via the use of controlled laboratory experiments. The results of the experiments demonstrate the market‘s efficacy in improving assessment accuracy by increasing the currency, accuracy and completeness of reported status information about project main objectives such as cost, schedule, performance and functionality. The results also demonstrate the market‘s efficacy in increasing individual willingness to report negative status information by decreasing their perception of information asymmetry between them and management/clients, and by increasing their perception of both the anonymity of the reporting mechanism and their perceived self-interest in reporting negative status information.

Syftet med vår studie är att kartlägga och förklara hur transparenta svenska börsbolag är vid redovisningen av utfallet samt bakgrunden till kortsiktig rörlig ersättning för den verkställande direktören, samt att identifiera potentiella förklaringar och bakomliggande orsaker till transparensen. Vi har valt att studera de 29 bolag som representerar de 30 mest omsatta aktierna på Stockholmsbörsens Large Cap lista (OMXS30). Metodmässigt kan studien delas in i två huvudsakliga delar. I den ena delen av studien använder vi en kvantitativ ansats och tillämpar ett positivistiskt synsätt. I den andra delen av studien använder vi en kvalitativ ansats och tillämpar ett hermeneutiskt synsätt. Vid insamlingen av datamaterialet har vi inspirerats av en tvärsnittsdesign där huvudsakliga syftet har varit att samla in relevant information för att kunna bedöma transparensen utifrån en egen framtagen modell. Modellen utgörs av fem kriterier inspirerade av Ersättningsakademiens riktlinjer för rapportering av ersättning och syftar till att ge en samlad bedömning av de studerade bolagens transparens. Vi har även identifierat ett antal potentiella förklarande variabler utifrån vilka vi har studerat orsakssamband till transparensen. Vi har dessutom analyserat kommunikationen utifrån ett legitimitetsperspektiv med avsikt att få en förståelse för bolagens val av rapportering. Utifrån resultatet av vår studie kan vi finna stöd till den kritik som riktats mot en bristande transparens vid rapportering av rörlig ersättning till verkställande direktören. Vi kan även se tendenser till att det orsakssamband som tidigare studier belyst mellan transparens och styrelsens oberoende, kan gälla även för svenska börsnoterade bolag. / The purpose of this study is to describe and explain the transparency of Swedish public companies when it comes to the reporting of short term bonus payment to the chief executive officer. Furthermore we intend to identify possible explanations and underlying causes regarding the transparency. We have selected the 29 companies that represent the 30 most traded stocks on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (OMXS30). Methodology, the study can be divided into two primary parts. In the first part of the study we use a quantitative approach and apply a positivistic view. In the second part of the study we use a qualitative approach and apply a hermeneutic view. When it comes to collecting data we have been inspired by a cross section design and the primary focus has been to collect relevant information to allow an assessment of the transparency with a model we have developed. This model consists of five criteria inspired by the Ersättningsakademiens (Compensation Academy) guidelines regarding the reporting of compensation and is designed to provide an overall assessment of the studied company’s transparency. We have also identified a number of possible explanatory variables from which we have studied underlying causes to the transparency. Furthermore we have analyzed the communication from a perspective of legitimacy with the intent to obtain an understanding regarding the company’s choice of reporting. From the result of the study we find support to previous criticism regarding lacking transparency on the matter of the reporting of short term bonus payments to the CEO. We can also see tendencies to the fact that the causation that previous studies pointed out between transparency and the independence of the board, may exist in Swedish publicly traded companies as well.

In the ever so increasingly competitive business climate of the 21st century, human resources are vital for corporate success. Employees need proper incentives to perform in goal-oriented manners. Incentive systems, especially Chief Executive Officer [CEO] remunerations, have been a popular topic since the 1990s, and this tendency has increased both during the 2002-2003 corporate scandal era, as well as the financial crisis which sparked in 2007. The recent tendency appears to lean towards companies cutting their executive bonuses as well as criticism and suspiciousness towards large bonus payments. While remuneration policies within the banking industry have been thoroughly debated and researched, another financial industry that is left largely untouched are the insurance companies. The focus of this research is therefore CEO remuneration in European insurance companies. This descriptive study, of annual reports of stock-listed insurance companies, uses a purposive cluster sample to explore quantitative trends in CEO remunerations. In addition, a content analysis of five randomly selected companies out of the sample provides a deeper, complementary understanding of the justifications of the trends. The research questions are: What trends on CEO remuneration can be found over the years 2005-2009 in annual reports of European insurance companies, concerning total remuneration, fixed salary and short-term bonus? What justifications do companies make for the remunerations over the years 2005-2009? The quantitative part of the research inductively tests the assumption that CEO remuneration has decreased during the past few years 2008 and/ or 2009 due to the impact of the financial crisis. The content analysis part of the research deductively tests if agency theory concerns and issues concerning attraction and retention play a role in determining remuneration policies. From this research, it is concluded that short-term variable pay is largely performance-based. Still, many other aspects serve as input factors when determining compensation levels. Based on the content analysis, it is revealed that interest alignment and attraction- and retention-issues are important determinants of remunerations. Subjective factors such as discretionary judgements also play a crucial role. The quantitative trends found in this study show that total remunerations have decreased markedly in 2008, and more vaguely in 2009. The financial crisis has had an impact on especially the short-term variable part of salaries, but also on base salary levels. Although not all companies that were investigated in the content analysis explicitly mention it in their annual reports, over the years 2005-2009, all of them become more concerned about remuneration policies and business risk factors. Over the investigated years, these companies also become more attentive to creating proactive and sophisticated value creating remuneration policies that are in line with international standards, in order to act legitimate towards stakeholders.

Sammanfattning Bakgrund: I och med Gro Harlem Bruntlands rapport "Our common future", som skrevs i mitten av åttiotalet, fick hållbarhetsfrågan ett uppsving och trots att det nu har gått mer än 25 år är ämnet fortfarande högaktuellt. Det finns ett stort behov av att göra samhället hållbart och det är av allmänt intresse att vi åstadkommer förändringar. Här har företagen och den offentliga sektorn en viktig roll och hållbarhetsredovisningen är ett verktyg att nå detta mål. Problem: I Sveriges kommuner är det idag väldigt stor variation på hur och om man hållbarhetsredovisar. Enligt FAR, branschorganisationen för revisorer och rådgivare, är kvaliteten på rapporterna dessutom långt ifrån tillfredsställande. Att upprätta hållbarhetsredovisning är inte lätt eftersom rapporten ska sammanställa ett flertal olika dimensioner. Idag är hållbarhetsredovisning frivillig för den offentliga sektorn och det finns ännu inga riktlinjer som är anpassade just för denna sektor, vilket gör det svårt för de organisationer som vill börja med denna form av redovisning. Jämförelse och kontroll av information blir ett problem eftersom redovisningarna inte är enhetliga. Det är av intresse att förstå de drivkrafter som får kommuner att hållbarhetsredovisa i syfte att kunna gynna målet- ett hållbart samhälle. Syfte: Vi har några förklaringsvariabler som vi tror kan utgöra tänkbara drivkrafter till att organisationer hållbarhetsredovisar. Dessa är sökande efter godkännande, institutionellt tryck/anpassning och informationsspridning. Vi ska i denna uppsats pröva dessa variablers giltighet i några av Dalarnas kommuner. Metod: Undersökningen bygger på sexton kvalitativa telefonintervjuer med anställda inom nio av Dalarnas kommuner som alla har någon form av ansvar för redovisning inom kommunen. Slutsats: Den viktigaste drivkraften bakom hållbarhetsredovisning inom Dalarnas kommuner är enligt vår undersökning att sprida information och att söka legitimitet. / Abstract Background: When Gro Harlem Brundtland wrote her report "Our common future" in the mid eighties sustainability really got a boost and although it has now been more than 25 years, the subject is still highly topical. There is a great need to make society sustainable and it is the public interest that we bring about change. Here, companies and the public sector play an important role and sustainability reporting is a tool to achieve this goal. Problem: There are very big differences in if and how the municipalities of Sweden make sustainability accounting reports. Accourding to FAR, the trade association of accountants and advisors, the quality of the reports is far from satisfactory. To set up sustainability accounting reports isn´t easy because of the complexity of the task since it spans over three very different dimensions. Sustainability accounting is voluntary in the public sector today and there are yet no guidelines to follow, which makes it hard for the organisation that wants to begin making these kind of reports. Comparision and verification of the information in the reports also become a problem because of the lack of homogenity of the reports. It´s important to understand the driving forces that make municipalities create sustainability accounting reports in order to serve the purpose - to create a sustainable society. Purpose: We have a few explanatory variables which we think are possible driving forces why organisations create sustainbility accounting reports. These are search för approval, institutional pressure/ adaptation and to spread information. We are going to try the validity of these variables among some of the municipalities of Dalarna. Method: The study is based on sixteen qualitative telephone interviews with staff in nine of the municipalities of Dalarna who are all involved in the process of making accounting reports. Conclusion: The most important driving forces behind sustainability accounting in the municipalities of Dalarna, according to our survey, are to spread information and to seek legitimacy.

The main purpose of this thesis is to examine the simultaneous determination of debt, dividend, and inside ownership policies in Sweden. We apply a simultaneous equation model estimated with 3SLS. The results reveal a positive two-way causal relationship between debt and dividend polices. We also find a two-way causal relationship between inside ownership and dividend policies, but dividends affect inside ownership in a positive way while inside ownership affects dividends in a negative way. Further, we find a relationship between inside ownership and debt policies, but any causality appears to run from inside ownership to debt in a negative way. This study supports the notion that the convergence of interest and the entrenchment theory are not mutually exclusive. We also show that a SEM estimated with 3SLS is justified empirically over the OLS and that the difference between using 3SLS compared to 2SLS is negligible in our model.

No description available.

Introduktion Revisionskostnaden styrs till stor del av förhållandet mellan utbud och efterfrågan. Tidigare studier har funnit ett flertal bakomliggande faktorer som påverkar revisionskostnadens storlek i publika bolag och kommuner. Behovet av en jämförande studie har tidigare påpekats för att kartlägga revisionskostnadernas skillnader över tid. Syfte Syftet med studien är att jämföra och förklara utvecklingen av revisionskostnadernas storlek i publika bolag och i den kommunala sektorn över tid. Metod Studiens deduktiva ansats innebär att tidigare forskning och befintliga teorier har legat till grund för att härleda uppställda hypoteser. En longitudinell studie har genomförts för att mäta förändringar och utveckling över tid. Kvantitativ data har samlats in i form av sekundärdata. Slutsats Studiens resultat visar att ett flertal bakomliggande faktorer förklarar revisionskostnadens storlek över tid. Bolagsstorlek, risk och andra uppdrag har i studien ett signifikant samband med revisionskostnaden. I kommuner kan revisionskostnaden förklaras av storlek, skattekraft, resultat och antal mandat. Under perioden 2005-2011 har revisionskostnaden för publika bolag minskat med 0,5 %, medan revisionskostnaderna i kommuner har ökat med 12,8 %. Skillnaden kan till stor del förklaras av revisionens olika ändamål och påverkan av omvärldsfaktorer. / Introduction The audit fee depends mainly on the relationship between demand and supply. Former studies have found multiple underlying independent variables that affect the audit fee in listed companies and municipalities. The need of a comparative study to analyze the differences in audit fees over time between the two has previously been pointed out. Purpose The purpose of the study is to compare and explain the development of audit fees in listed companies and municipalities over time. Method The study’s deductive method means that previous research and existing theories have been the foundation from which hypothesis have been derived. A longitudinal study has been performed to measure changes and development over time. Quantitative data has been collected as secondary data. Conclusion This study indicates that multiple underlying independent variables explains the audit fees over time. The size of the company, risk and non-audit fees have a significant positive relation with the audit fee. In municipalities the audit fee relates to size, tax base, results and number of mandates.  During the period between 2005 and 2011 the audit fees for listed companies decreased with 0.5 %, whereas the audit fees for municipalities increased with 12.8 %. The difference can largely be explained by differing purposes of the audit and effect of global factors.