This study investigates the effect of monetary policy, focusing on repo rate and the expansion of QE programs, on Mergers and Acquisitions activity in publicly listed companies on the Swedish Stock Exchange. The study also investigates whether there are significant relationships between companies’ acquisition activity, their solvency or liquidity ratios. Additionally, the observed firms are categorized into industries to enable examination of differences between industries. The thesis aims at expanding the knowledge of determinant factors in explaining M&A activity on the Swedish market. To adequately determine the influencing factors on activity, 27 years of data was collected on acquiring Swedish firms from the Eikon database. In addition, data for the calculations of solvency and liquidity ratios were gathered from the same database. Data for the monetary policy variables were gathered from the Swedish Central Bank. A deductive quantitative method was used to analyze the various relationships between the studied variables. The study concluded significant correlation between monetary policy and M&A activity, company solvency and M&A activity as well as corporate liquidity and M&A activity. The correlation was negative in all cases except for quantitative easing which opens up for an interesting discussion. Observed industries gave a mixed result in terms of significant relationships but the result also indicate that pro-cyclical industries tend to be more affected by monetary policy than non-cyclicals. All of the above-mentioned relationships are further discussed from the perspective of various theories that both agree and disagree with the findings of this study. The authors believe that these results will give stakeholders a more in-depth knowledge and understanding of M&A activity and M&As in general. This study contributes knowledge to enable more sustainable business administration and management of companies.

With accumulation of sovereign debt in many large OECD countries it seems that attention is heightened on how to manage public resources more effectively. High levels of sovereign debt are partly related to the aftermath of the latest financial crisis, where resolution for many big economies was to intervene and use public resources to put an end to the expansion of the crisis. Public real estate is one of those resources, which’s efficient management has high importance on general public sector efficacy. It seems that governments around the world have a way to go toward efficiency in public real estate management. There seem to be rather wide differences in management practices and quality. This thesis is an attempt to quantify some choices Estonian government could take in terms of its public real estate management. Four different scenarios are compared and Monte Carlo Simulation tool is used for that purpose. Two of the scenarios are related to private sector involvement and two are not. Privatization of public assets does not only mean cashing out for the government. It has wider consequences by introducing market forces where they weren’t before. One of the most important points of interest in this thesis is what effect can market forces and change in incentives have on public real estate management. There can be both, positive and negative effects, but which ones would prevail? The model built during the process of the thesis tries to measure those effects with aggregate net present value and its volatility by looking at 30 years ahead. Simulation analyses is used to vary input variables in the range that seems to be supported by the observations made in the literature and in some cases, where data is not available, also according to more subjective view that of the author’s. As input and their characteristics are different for scenarios, it is of interest to document how do the main outputs, mean NPV and its volatility, vary along with inputs.

Payout policies is one of the most discussed topics in corporate finance. Since Miller & Modigliani (1961) dividend irrelevance theory, which was based on perfect markets, many theories have been developed in order to incorporate market imperfections to payout decisions. Numerous scholars have been trying to explain why companies pay dividends, whether they should compensate investors with alternative methods such as share repurchases or not distribute cash at all. The theme has gained lots of attention during the 21-st century driven by the subprime financial crisis in 2008 and mostly recently, in 2020, due to economic impacts brought by the Covid 19 pandemic. Another important aspect that makes the study of payout policy relevant in the 21-st century is the unique impacts of unveiled trends such as globalization and volatile markets, increased importance of ecology and sustainability, emergency of fast growth firms (mainly in the Tech industry) and change characteristics of listed firms. Globally there is a tendency of reduction in the number of listed firms and also deterioration in the quality of earnings. Additionally, there is no consensus about which factors influence a firm propensity of distributing cash to shareholders, which makes the topic very intriguing. Previous research has been conducted mainly within US firms. Few studies have been conducted regarding payout policies in the Nordic countries and most of them give little attention to share repurchases and payout policy determinants. Therefore, we decided to conduct a study regarding the patterns and determinants of payout policy in the 21-st century with focus on the Nordic countries. The purposes of the study are: first, to understand the pattern of payout policies in the Nordic countries during the 21-st century and second determine if there is a relationship between a number of firm’s selected factors and firm’s payout policy. As a sub purpose we intend to examine whether the Covid 19 pandemic had any effect on Nordic firm’s payout policies. The factors investigated, namely: debt, profit, retained earnings, growth opportunities, cash holdings, size and age were identified through a detailed literature review. We collected data from Thomson Reuters DataStream Eikon covering the period between 2000 and 2020 for 1,153 firms from all Nordic countries: Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The study follows a quantitative research method with a deductive approach, and we have based the theoretical framework on the following theories: Miller-Modigliani dividend irrelevance theory, Signaling theory, Agency theory, Life-cycle theory and Substitution and Flexibility hypotheses. In order to determine whether there is a relationship between the companies selected factors and the payout ratios we conducted ordinary least square (OLS) correlation analysis. Additional regression analysis was conducted to verify possible impacts of Covid 19 on Nordic payout policies. Results indicate that some firms’ selected characteristics such as debt, size and age have an impact on Nordic firms’ payout policy during the 21-st century. Larger firms with lower debt are more willing to pay cash dividends, while older firms tend to present higher levels of share repurchase. Firms’ characteristics showed no impact on changes in payout ratios during the initial period of Covid 19.

Titel: Motivet bakom frivillig redovisning: En kvantitativ studie om samvariationen mellanägarkoncentration och hållbarhetsredovisning.Författare: Maria Hellsten och Lina StrandBakgrund: Under de två senaste decennierna har stort fokus och ansvar riktats mot företagavseende deras agerande för att främja en hållbar utveckling. Vissa bolag är förpliktigade attrapportera om dess miljömässiga, sociala och ekonomiska påverkan på samhället i en årligenutgiven hållbarhetsredovisning. Till viss del innehåller regleringen avseendehållbarhetsredovisning stort utrymme för fria redovisningsval. Bland annat saknas regleringavseende hur mycket information som skall kommuniceras till bolagets intressenter, ochdärmed varierar innehållet i bolagens hållbarhetsredovisningar. Frågan blir då, vilka är bolagensmotiv till att rapportera mer information i en hållbarhetsredovisning än vad som är lagstadgat?Syfte: Denna studie ägnas åt att studera möjliga förklarande faktorer som bidrar till rapporteringav hållbarhetsredovisning. Vidare är syftet med denna studie att undersöka om det föreliggeren samvariation mellan svenska bolags rapporterade hållbarhetsredovisning och dessägarkoncentration.Metod: För att besvara studiens syfte har kvantitativ innehållsanalys tillämpats för att analyseraoch kvantifiera den rapporterade informationen i bolagens hållbarhetsredovisningar. Enupprättad kodmall, som baserats på Global Reporting Initiatives standarder förhållbarhetsredovisning, samt ett binärt poängsättningssystem har använts för att ta framstudiens empiriska data. För att analysera den empiriska datan har tre olika statistiskaanalysmetoder använts; Pearsons korrelationskoefficient, oberoende t-test samt upprättandet avett spridningsdiagram.Slutsats: Baserat på studiens resultat, som påvisat en samvariation mellanhållbarhetsredovisning och ägarkoncentration, har vi funnit att frivillig redovisning kanförklaras och förstås utifrån behovet av att hantera informationsasymmetri mellan bolagetsledning och dess aktieägare. / Title: The incentive behind voluntary reporting: A quantitative study of the covariance betweenownership concentration and sustainability reporting.Authors: Maria Hellsten and Lina StrandBackground: During the last two decades a major focus and responsibility has been directedtowards companies regarding their measures to support sustainable development. Somecompanies are required to report about their environment, social and economic impacts in anannual sustainability report. Partially, the regulation regarding sustainability accountingcontains a lot of voluntary accounting choices. For instance, there is no regulation regardinghow much information that should be communicated to the companies’ stakeholders, thus thecontent of the companies’ sustainability reports varies. Therefore we ask, what are thecompanies’ motives for reporting voluntary disclosures in a sustainability report in addition towhat is required by law?Purpose: This study is dedicated to study possible explanatory factors that contributes to thereporting of sustainability disclosures. Furthermore, the aim of this study is to examine if thereexist a covariance between the ownership concentration of Swedish enterprises and theirsustainability reports.Method: In order to answer the purpose of this study we have applied a quantitative contentanalysis. A coding template, based on the Global Reporting Initiatives standards, wasestablished and used along a binary scoring system to produce the empirical data of the study.Three different statistical analysis methods have been used (Pearson’s correlation coefficient,independent t-test and a scatterplot diagram) in order to analyze the empirical data.Conclusion: Based on the results of the survey, which showed a covariance betweensustainability reporting and ownership concentration, we have found that voluntary reportingcan be explained and understood based on the need to manage information asymmetry betweenthe company’s management and it’s shareholders.

I Sveriges val 2018 fick åtta partier mandaten i Riksdagen: M, C, S, V, L, KD, SD och MP. Partiernas organisation finns på tre nivåer. Partiföreningen finns på lokal nivå och omfattar vanligtvis en kommun. Partidistriktet kallas den länsvisa organisationsnivån. Distriktsorganisationer är sammanknutna i en riksorganisation. Lokala partiföreningar är registrerade som ideella föreningar.  På årsmöte väljer medlemmar styrelsen, kassör, revisorer och revisorssuppleanter. Revisorer valda på årsmötet kan vara en yrkesverksam revisor eller en lekmannarevisor det vill säga någon som ställer upp ideellt och som inte yrkesmässigt arbetar med revision. Revisorn skall ha en kontrollerande funktion i föreningen därför kommer det bli lärorikt att studera hur revisorerna lever upp till sin roll i svenska lokala partiföreningar.  Revisorn roll i partiföreningar handlar om vilka möjligheter som finns för att kunna utföra det uppdrag som revisorn har i dessa föreningar. Det finns både interna och externa faktorer som påverkar revisorns handlingsutrymme. Dessa faktorer studerades för att skapa en tydligare bild av revisorns roll i lokala partiföreningar.  Frågeställning: Vilka faktorer påverkar revisorernas handlingsutrymme i lokala partiföreningar?  Syftet med denna studie är utforska faktorerna som påverkar revisorernas handlingsutrymme i dessa föreningar.  Slutsats: samtliga intervjuade revisorer i de lokala partiföreningarna upplever att deras handlingsutrymme räcker gott och väl. Revisorerna är medvetna om sin kontrollerande roll. Deras granskningsarbete utgör också ett stöd och trygghet för medlemmar och för styrelsen.  Resultatet kan användas för att öka kunskap om revisorns roll i lokala partiföreningar och göra partiföreningar medvetna om vilka faktorer som påverkar revisorernas handlingsutrymme samt klargöra vikten av dessa när partiföreningen utser revisorer i framtiden. / In Sweden's 2018 elections, eight parties were given the mandate in Parliament: M, C, S, V, L, KD, SD, MP. The parties' organization exists on three levels: party associations at the municipal level and district organizations linked together in a national organization. Party associations at the municipal level are registered as non-profit associations.  During annual meetings, members elect the board, treasurer, auditors, and deputy auditors. Auditors elected at the annual meeting may be a professional accountant or a lay auditor, i.e. someone who does not professionally work with auditing but who is volunteering. The auditor has a controlling function in the association, so it will be instructive to study the role of the auditors in Swedish party associations at the municipal level.  The role of the auditor in party associations is about what possibilities exist to be able to do their job, which the auditor has in these associations. There are several internal and external factors that affect the auditor's discretion. These factors were explored to create a clear picture of the auditor's role in party associations at the municipal level.  There is no previous research on which factors affect the auditor's discretions in party associations. The result can be used to increase knowledge of the auditor's role the municipal level as well as to make party associations aware of the factors that affect the auditors' scope and clarify the importance of these when the party association appoints auditors in the future.  Question: What factors affect the auditors' discretions for party associations at municipal level?  The conclusion of the study is that all auditor in party associations feel that their discretion is more than enough. The auditors are aware of their controlling role. Their audit work it is support and security to the members as well as the board.  The purpose of this study is to probe the factors that affect the auditor's discretion within these associations.

Small business owners and small business managers tend to favor different information technology (IT) governance structures. Such differences can lead to ineffective management and control of IT in small businesses. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the extent and nature of the association between owner-manager separation in small businesses and the structure of IT governance in the businesses. Agency theory formed the theoretical framework of this study. Data were collected using a web-based survey and randomly sampled 3,697 small business owners and managers located in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Chi-square statistics indicated no significant association between owner-manager separation and the IT governance structure used in small businesses. A centralized form of IT governance was most prevalent in small businesses. Small business owners maintained influence over IT governance decisions despite ceding responsibility to managers for operational components of their business, a condition that appears to conflict with pure agency theory. The research findings may contribute to a better understanding of technology governance in small businesses, which in turn could lead to more effective and efficient operation of those businesses. Increases in small business effectiveness and efficiency can result in positive social change from greater employment opportunities as small businesses prosper and grow.

The growing lack of confidence in public companies arises from the recent accounting scandals and corporate collapses, which have been attributed to the consequences of separation of ownership and control in modern firms. Agency theory predicts a conflict of interest between managers and shareholders that leads to agency costs and weak performance. This study used agency, stakeholders', and stewardship theories as the theoretical framework and multiple regression analysis to examine the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and organizational performance in nonfinancial firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The results of the study could help clarify understanding of corporate governance to managers, investors, and regulators who seek to understand how corporate governance impact firms' performance. In this study, corporate governance mechanisms included board independence, audit committee independence, board size, number of board meetings, and executive compensation. The data were collected from the firms' published accounts on their websites and on the archives of the Nigerian Stock Exchange for a period starting from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2015. The measures of financial performance in the study were return on assets, return on capital employed, and Tobin's Q. The study found a positive but not statistically significant relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and financial performance. This study has implications for positive social change by showing managers and other stakeholders of firms how a good corporate governance system assures investor confidence, employee loyalty and commitment, the reduction in conflict of interest and agency costs, and a strong financial performance.

More companies have responded to the call for action, increasing their attention to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Corporate governance structures have proven to have an effect on how well companies are able to facilitate a sustainable trajectory, all influenced by values and norms. Sweden is part of what many views as the ‘next supermodel’ regarding social welfare and sustainability awareness based on a collectivist mindset. In contrast, the US fundamentally believes in the American dream of free enterprise, which has resulted in a more shareholder oriented view.   This study aims to research whether board composition mechanisms such as board gender diversity, board independence, inclusion and CEO duality impact the CSR initiatives, measured through ESG score, of Swedish and US Large Cap companies listed on OMXS and S&P 100. Moreover, it strives to investigate plausible reasons for differences between Sweden with the Nordic corporate governance model and the tier-1 model corporate governance model the US have. Even if ESG is a well-studied area, previous research does not find any consensus since earlier studies find negative, positive and non-significant results. Furthermore, many studies tend not to go beyond firm-level factors and overlook country-level factors such as national culture.   The study consists of 165 Large Cap companies, where 83 are Swedish and 82 are from the US. The chosen research method is quantitative, based on unbalanced panel data from 2020-2022. ESG score is used as the dependent variable, and the independent variables are the proportion of women board of directors, the critical mass of women directors, the proportion of independent directors, inclusion and CEO duality. The control variables consist of board size, asset size, return on assets, leverage, board-specific skills, and the number of employees. To control for country-level factors, GDP is applied. The regression also applies fixed effects for year and sector.   The data analyses are done with two robust and one standard GLS model with random effects, where the regression analyses are divided into two parts. Part I combines Swedish and US Large Cap companies, and Part II separates the two countries. The results for Part I show no significant relationship between ESG score and either board gender diversity, the critical mass, inclusion or CEO duality. The degree of board independence shows a significant positive effect on ESG scores. Part II conveys that there are fundamental differences between Sweden and the US. For example, while board independence shows a significant positive relationship in Sweden, it presents a non-significant negative relationship in the US. In addition, GDP shows significance in both models indicating that country-level factors matter, and it is evident that the explanatory power of the regressions differ. Thus, it is evermore likely that other factors, such as national culture, potentially impact companies’ corporate social responsibility.

Problemformulering: Hur arbetar bankerna med interna processer för attförhålla sig till Finansinspektionens krav kring penningtvätt och samtidigtupprätthålla en god kundrelation? Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att förklara hur bankerna arbetar medinterna processer för att följa Finansinspektionens krav gällande penningtvättoch samtidigt upprätthålla en god kundrelation, att kunderna kännerförtroende och lojalitet till banken. Detta för att skapa en bredare och djupareförståelse för hur bankerna arbetar med interna processer för att behållarelationen till både Finansinspektionen och till bankens kunder. Trotts dethuvudsakliga motsatsförhållandet mellan Finansinspektionens krav ochbankens affärer med kunderna. Metod: Studien har genomförts via en kvalitativ studie på tre olika bankervarav tre respondenter på varje bank. Studien har totalt genomfört niointervjuer. Uppsatsen har genomförts med en abduktiv forskningsansats föratt klargöra resultatet. Slutsats: Författarna till studien har funnit att bankernas interna processerutifrån Finansinspektionens krav och samtidigt upprätthålla en godkundrelation arbetas fram genom att ha en kommunikation mellanavdelningarna och ut mot kund. Studien har även funnit en ny empiriskobservation utifrån agentteorin, att avdelningarna på banken både kan varaprincipal och agent samt att dem ska kommunicera med varandra för attminska det huvudsakliga motsatsförhållandet. Detta bidrar till att bankernaföljer Finansinspektionens krav och samtidigt upprätthåller en godkundrelation. Banken har vissa interna processer som kan påverkas och vissainterna processer som inte kan påverkas. Det orsakar att det är svårt förbanken att sätta exakta interna processer då penningtvättsregelverket ärföränderligt och banken arbetar med människor / Problem formulation: How do banks work with internal processes to complywith the requirements of the Financial Supervisory Authority regardingmoney laundering and at the same time maintain a good customerrelationship? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explain how banks create internalprocesses to comply with Finansinspektionen's requirements regardingmoney laundering and at the same time maintain a good customerrelationship, so that customers feel trust and loyalty to the bank. This is tocreate a broader and deeper understanding of how banks work with internalprocesses to maintain the relationship with both Finansinspektionen and thebank's customers. Despite the main contradiction between the requirementsof the Finansinspektionen's requirement and the bank's business with theircustomers. Method: The study was conducted via a qualitative study at three differentbanks with three respondents at each bank. The study has conducted a totalof nine interviews. The paper has been conducted using an abductive researchapproach to clarify the findings. Conclusion: The authors of the study have found that banks' internalprocesses based on the requirements of the Financial Supervisory Authorityand at the same time maintaining a good customer relationship are workedout by having a communication between the departments and out towards the customer. The study has also found a new empirical observation based on theagent theory, that the departments of the bank can be both principal and agentand they should communicate with each other to reduce the principal-agentrelationship. This helps banks to comply with the requirements of theFinancial Supervisory Authority while maintaining a good customerrelationship. The bank has some internal processes that can be influenced andsome internal processes that cannot be influenced. This causes it to bedifficult for the bank to set precise internal processes as the anti-moneylaundering regulatory framework is changing and the bank works withpeople.

This thesis examines whether mergers and acquisitions (M&A), ranging from 2009 to 2020, are value-generating for acquiring shareholders in the short-term and long-term of companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. A cohesive and integrated theoretical framework is formed in which six firm-specific and deal-specific variables are hypothesized to have varying impacts on both short- and long-term stock performance for acquiring shareholders. An event study was conducted to measure the short-term stock performance, i.e. cumulative abnormal returns (CAR), and long-term stock performance, i.e. buy-and-hold abnormal returns (BHAR). We find that M&A transactions are, on average, value-generating for acquiring shareholders in both the short term and the long term. Among the significant findings of the variables examined, firm size was negatively related to short-term stock performance but positively related to BHAR. The relative size of the transaction was found to be positively related to CAR. Furthermore, transactions mediated with cash were found to be positively related to BHAR. Lastly, related transactions were found to be positively related to CAR, although not when accounting for robust standard errors.