Denna studie syftar till att undersöka huruvida det finns ett samband mellan andelen kvinnor i bankstyrelser i Europa och bankens kreditbetyg. Studien har ett positivistiskt synsätt och präglas av en kvantitativ metod. Studien har vidare använt sig av en tvärsnittsdesign och därmed observerat flera fall vid en given tidpunkt. Den empiriska sekundärdatan är dels insamlad via databasen Thomson Reuters Eikon som erhåller finansiell data från noterade bolag över hela världen. Studien har även hämtat information om kreditbetyg för bankerna via Standard & Poor’s databas. Vidare har en multivariat analys genomförts för att kunna upptäcka ett eventuellt samband mellan den beroende variabeln, kreditbetyg, och den oberoende variabeln, andel kvinnor i styrelsen. Studien presenterar även deskriptiv statistik samt en korrelationsanalys över den insamlade datan. Studiens resultat visar på att det finns ett positivt samband mellan andelens kvinnliga styrelseledamöter i europeiska bankstyrelser och bankens kreditbetyg. Detta betyder således att om andelen kvinnliga styrelseledamöter ökar, så gör även kreditbetyget detsamma vilket indikerar att kreditrisken för banken sjunker. Detta resultat stödjer tidigare studier som menar att kvinnor i styrelser är mer riskaversiva än män (Arayssi et al., 2016; Huang och Kisgen, 2013). Studiens förslag till vidare forskning är att studera flera olika fall över tid, istället för att utgå från en given tidpunkt, vilket skulle möjliggöra undersökning av kausalitet mellan variablerna. Vidare ter det sig intressant att ta hänsyn till styrelseledamöternas ålder i vidare forskning då forskning indikerar att riskprofilen kan förändras beroende på ålder. Ett annat förslag är att inhämta kreditbetyg från fler kreditinstitut än endast S&P för att undersöka om resultatet skulle te sig annorlunda då. Slutligen kan det vara av intresse att ta hänsyn till om banken har spritt eller kontrollerat ägande då dessa faktorer kan tänkas påverka kreditbetyget och således kreditrisken i banken. / The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the proportion of women in bank boards in Europe and the banks credit rating. The study has a positivistic approach and is characterized by a quantitative method to respond to the purpose of the study. Furthermore, the study has used a cross sectional design which means that it has observed several cases at a given time. The empirical data has been collected partly via the database Thomson Reuters Eikon which present financial data from listed companies worldwide. The study has also collected information about the banks credit rating from the database of Standard & Poor. Furthermore, a multivariate analysis has been completed in order to discover any connections between the dependent variable, credit rating and the independent variable, the proportion of women in the board. The study also presents descriptive statistics together with a correlation analysis over the collected data. The result from the study shows a positive correlation between the proportion of female board members in european bank boards and the banks credit rating. This means that if the proportion of women in bank boards increases, the banks credit rating also increases which indicates that the banks credit risk decreases. This result supports previous studies that say that women in boards are more risk averse than men (Arayssi et al., 2016; Huang och Kisgen, 2013). Suggestions for further studies within the field is to do a similar study but to study several cases over time which would allow investigation of causality between the variables. Furthermore, it would be interesting to take the board members age into account as previous studies indicates that the risk profile changes depending on age. Another suggestion for further studies is to collect credit ratings from more than S&P in order to investigate if the result may differ from this study. Finally, it could be of interest to consider if the bank has scattered or controlled ownership as these factors can affect the credit rating and thus the credit risk.

As a tool for rapid communication, social media (SM) have the potential to revolutionize the way in which nonprofit organizations and stakeholders communicate. Most nonprofit organizations in the United States use some form of SM to engage with stakeholders, however, there is an underutilization of SM used for board decision-making purposes. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine SM and its potential use for board decision-making in nonprofit organizations. The conceptual framework incorporated stakeholder theory, organizational ambidexterity, and an organizational media-user typology. The research question related to the experience of nonprofit board member use of SM for organizational decision-making and stakeholder engagement. Vagle's postintentional phenomenological research approach guided the study. Data collection involved interviewing a purposeful sample of 25 board members and leaders from 501(c)(3) nonpro�t organizations in Texas. Data analysis included combining coded data into categories and themes to determine underlying commonalities related to SM use and organizational decision-making. The primary finding was that nonprofit boards rarely use data generated from SM for decision-making purposes. Other findings from the study may improve board decision-making theory and practice and reveal how nonprofit organizations may leverage unfiltered, real-time SM feedback to benefit strategic organizational decision-making. The potential contribution to social change is to deepen the understanding of the effects of SM on nonprofit board decision-making so that boards may be more responsive to a broader range of stakeholder social interests.

Consumer Operated Service Providers (COSPs) are programs that are directed and administratively controlled by mental health consumers for their peers. As such, many mental health consumers have been placed in the position of serving on a COSP and often with unclear descriptions and no training. As a result, there is often a disconnect between the will of the board and the vision of the executive director, leading to tension and the possibility of failed mission. Using servant leadership as the guide, the goal of this case study was to explore the experiences of executive directors who operate Consumer Operated Service Providers (COSPs) in Texas that specialize in mental health recovery support services to better understand how they work with mental health consumers serving as their governing board members. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 7 executive directors of COSPs in Texas. Interview data were inductively coded, then subjected to a thematic analysis procedure. Findings revealed that the concept of servant leadership is commonly used to empower board members and create healthy working relationships between boards and executive directors, particularly around the area of motivating board members to engage with the organization. It was also revealed that the existence of COSPs, in conjunction with traditional governing boards, provides a good balance and perspective relative to strategic planning activities and fundraising. Positive social change implications include recommendations to executives of COSPs to more adequately mobilize and train consumer board members in order to achieve organizational goals that often include consumer focused care and treatment for a wide range of mental health issues.

This dissertation includes two related chapters that investigate the value of multiple directorships. In the first chapter, I focus on potential tradeoffs between the costs and benefits of multiple directorships held by outside directors and attempt to determine how firm characteristics affect such tradeoffs. It is widely believed that outside directors of a firm play important functions of monitoring and advising. As a result, the basic hypothesis of the first essay is that multiple directorships by outside directors can have different implications for firms that have different levels of monitoring and advising needs. Consistent with this hypothesis, the evidence suggests that firm performance is positively associated with multiple directorships for firms with high growth opportunities and low agency conflicts. Such firms would benefit more from better advising while not suffering much from less monitoring. Likewise, firm performance is negatively associated with multiple directorships for firms with low growth opportunities and high agency conflicts. In the second essay, I examine how multiple directorships held by outside directors affect shareholder wealth during acquisitions. The evidence indicates that not all busy outside directors have the same effect and some types of busy outside directors may benefit the firms.

This study investigates whether a relationship exists between fraudulent financial reporting and a variety of corporate governance attributes. Numerous high profile accounting scandals perpetuated over recent years have brought prominence to the corporate governance structure employed by US public companies. Many of these scandals involved manipulation of the financial reporting process by high level managers. It is therefore thought that a lack of effective oversight provided by the governing bodies engaged to monitor the actions of management may be at the heart of the problem. A review of prior research is used to identify the attributes of corporate governance relevant for inclusion in this study and to provide support for the posing of twenty directional hypotheses. The selected corporate governance attributes are classified into four broad categories depicting Audit Committee Functionality, Board of Director Composition, Ownership Structure, and External Auditor Factors. A matched pair research design is utilised to determine whether significant differences exist between the corporate governance attributes employed by fraud and non-fraud companies. A sample of 76 fraud companies, identified through an examination of Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases issued by the Securities Exchange Commission and drawn from a total of 223 companies examined, are tested along with an industry-size matched sample of non-fraud companies. The results of univariate paired t-tests and a conditional logistic regression equation find that statistically significant relationships do exist between a number of corporate governance attributes and fraudulent financial reporting. Specifically, the study finds that the percentage of independent directors on a company's board, the existence of a nominating committee, and the engaging of a Big6 auditor are negatively related to the incidence of fraud. Whereas, the average number of directorships held by audit committee members, the duality of the CEO and Chairman of the Board positions, and the percentage of company ownership held by outside blockholders are positively related to the incidence of fraudulent financial reporting.

Sverige framställs ofta som ett av världens mest jämställda länder där män och kvinnor har samma möjlighet till inflytande och makt. Kvinnor på ledande positioner i Sverige har ökat de senast årtionden men när det kommer till högre positioner brister kvinnor i representationen, framförallt inom det privata näringslivet. Lönsamhetsargumentet har ofta används som ett skäl för att öka andelen kvinnor i börsnoterade styrelser och företagsledning, medan studier om diversifierade styrelser visar på ett blandat resultat både vad gäller lönsamhet och effektivitet. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka representationen av kvinnor i företagens ledning på Large cap, Stockholmsbörsen men också se på hur denna representation kan förklaras samt hur mångfalden i styrelserna eventuellt kan utvecklas. Ett ytterligare syfte är att undersöka om det finns ett finansiellt argument om lönsamhet som kan motivera en ökning av andelen kvinnor i bolagsstyrelserna och om andelen kvinnor i nomineringskommittéerna leder till fler kvinnliga ledamöter i bolagsstyrelserna. Detta studeras genom en statistisk korrelationsanalys. Analysen förs på en teoretisk nivå utifrån ett genusperspektiv och ett ramverk om diversity management och mångfald. Totalt undersöktes 56 bolag under perioden 2006 till 2010, vilket innebär totalt 280 årsredovisningar. Resultatet visar att representationen av kvinnor i bolagsstyrelserna och ledningsgrupperna på Large cap är låga. Den kvinnliga styrelserepresentationen låg i genomsnitt mellan 2006 och 2010 på ca 21,5 procent och det var endast upp till fem företag som hade jämställd könsblandning bland styrelseledamöterna. Ledningsgrupperna visar på ännu lägre nivåer, med representation av ca 12,5 procent kvinnor och endast ett företag uppnådde jämställd könsblandning i ledningsgruppen år 2010. Studiens korrelationsanalyser visar på ett svagt linjärt samband mellan både andelen kvinnor i bolagsstyrelserna och lönsamhet i form av räntabilitet på sysselsatt kapital och mellan andel kvinnor i nomineringskommittéerna och andelen kvinnor i styrelserna. Slutsatser att dra av denna studie är att den kvinnliga representationen i bolagsstyrelser förändras successivt men förefaller att gå åt rätt håll med en ökning av kvinnor. Det största problemet är möjligen inte den kvinnliga representationen i bolagsstyrelserna utan män och kvinnors olika erfarenheter av organisationer vilket kan härledas till organisationernas könsstrukturer. Diversity management och mångfald kan utgöra argument för att öka representationen av kvinnor, detta genom att då ta tillvara på all kompetens i företagen och på så vis skapa konkurrensfördelar. Dock innebär detta ett arbete i organisationernas alla nivåer och kräver också aktieägarnas engagemang. / This study examines female representation in the board of directors and corporate management in companies listed at the OMX Stockholm Stock Exchange’s Large cap. The purpose of this thesis is to study female appearance in these companies and how it could be explained, as well as how diversity in the board of directors could develop. Another purpose is to explore if more women generate profitability and if more women in the committee of nomination in the companies leads to more women in the companies’ boards of directors. The approach of this thesis is quantitative, using a statistical data correlation analysis, but also applies a gender perspective of the organisation. The empirical results show a low presentation of women both in the board of directors and corporate management and the correlation in both analyses isn’t that strong. The conclusions are that the female appearance changes gradually but appears to have a positive development. The largest problem seems not to be the female appearance in the board of directors rather than the gender structures in the organisations. Diversity management could make an argument to take care of the competence in the organisations and get competitive advantages but that it’s demand collaboration in each level of the companies and the shareholders commitment.

University, Diss.--St. Gallen, 2006.

One of the most debated issues is that of corporate governance. The topic has been investigated by scholars from several scientific fields including the legal. Indeed, corporate governance has been examined by a great number of law scholars, with particular regards to the improvement of various aspects. For example, effective corporate governance focuses on protecting and advancing aspects related to shareholders’ rights, the board of directors and corporations’ internal and external audit systems. The main objective of this research is to suggest reformation to the Saudi corporate governance framework in order to achieve satisfactory corporate governance practices. The second purpose of the research is to investigate the current practices involved in Saudi corporate governance arrangements. The final aim is to determine how a Saudi corporate governance framework would most benefit corporate governance from the Islamic perspective. This study intends to provide a regulatory analysis to influence those regulations that should be implemented to adjust corporate governance practices as they affect the Saudi capital market. The researcher found that Saudi corporate governance has been promulgated in accordance with principles of on-going international corporate governance. Alternatively, the Islamic perspective on corporate governance has been debated more recently, as an idea that needs to be progressed in order to provide associated benefits to the corporate governance framework in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, Saudi corporate governance provisions can be seen as based largely on positive man-made laws. The researcher further discovered that Saudi corporate governance as an institutional framework is divided between several institutions, whether internal or external, which might result in some ambiguity when it comes to implementing good corporate governance practices. However, the research results revealed that Saudi corporate governance provisions have to be reformed in accordance with popular worldwide corporate governance principles, namely the UK Corporate Governance Code, the UK Companies Act and the OECD principles of corporate governance produced.

I organisationers begynnelse fanns en annan typ av verklighet mot den vi idag kan se. Dagens organisationssamhälle är starkt förändrat med en större globalisering och ett fragmenterat samhällsliv. Tillsammans med organisationers jakt på effektivisering och vinstmaximering skapas nya strukturer och former av organisering. Med dessa förändringar i organiseringen och organisationssamhället skapas även en ny verklighet för individer i VD-roller att verka i. Mer aktuellt än någonsin verkar också de många avhoppen och avskedanden av individer i denna roll vara. I min studie undersökte jag därför huruvida ansvar och krav på en VD är anpassade till dagens organisationssamhälle för att möjliggöra uppfyllandet av rollen. Denna frågeställning besvarar jag genom att studera vilka krav som ställs av omgivningen på individen i en VD-roll, hur individen i VD-rollen ser på sin roll och vad VD-rollen innebär i praktiken. Vad jag såg var att man i dagens organisering kan se en anpassning till den komplexitet som dagens organisationssamhälle innebär. Den ökade kunskaps-nivån i samhället och organisationerna som man kan se idag skapar en möjlighet till en ökad decentralisering som också medger en anpassning av ledarrollen. Jag såg dock en diskrepans i de krav som ställs av företagsstyrelsen på individerna i rollen mot hur de själva upplever innehållet i sin roll och där-igenom även sin person eftersom deras självidentitet påverkas till stor del av deras egenupplevelse av sin ledarroll. En diskrepans såg jag även mellan rollens praktik relaterat till både hur individen ser på sin roll samt hur omgivningen ställer krav på individen. Dessa delar anser jag bör ligga på företagsstyrelserna att arbeta med för att utforma sina krav anpassat till rollens praktik och individens egenupplevelse av rollen. Detta skulle kunna underlätta individernas möjlighet att uppfylla kraven på VD-rollen och lyckas i sitt arbete eftersom de idag har en mycket krävande arbetssituation med långa arbetsdagar och stora ansvar. / In the beginning of organisations there was a different kind of reality to what we see today. Today´s organisational society is profoundly altered with a greater globalisation and a more fragmented society. Together with the strive for increased efficiency and profit maximisation by the organisations, this leads to new structures and organisational models. These changes in the organising and organisational society also create a new reality for the individuals in a CEO´s role to operate in.  More topical than ever seem also the many defections and dismissals of individuals in this role to be. In my research I therefore studied whether responsibilities and requirements for a CEO are adapted to today´s organizational society to enable the fulfilment of the role. I reach the conclusion for this question by studying the requirements for the CEO role, the individual’s self-experience of the role and the practice of the CEO role. What I found was that an adaption to the complexity of today´s organizational society can be seen in today´s organisational models. The increased level of knowledge in society and organisations create an opportunity for greater decentralisation which also allows for an adjustment of the leadership role. I did, however, find a discrepancy in the demands made by the board of directors for the individuals in the role relative to their own self-experience of the role, and thereby also their persona as their self-identity is largely influenced by their self-experience of their leadership role. I also found a discrepancy between the practice of the role and the individuals self-experience of the role as well as the requirements made on the individual in the role. I consider these discrepancies to be the responsibility of the board of directors to ensure they are taken into account for when the requirements for the individuals in the role are defined. This could facilitate better possibilities for the individuals in the role to succeed as today´s reality includes a demanding working environment with long hours and great responsibility.

Sammanfattning Titel: Budgetlös styrning – en studie om en styrelses arbete och ansvar i en organisation medbudgetlös styrning. Författare: Katarina Permgård och Åsa Nordquist Handledare: Britt Aronsson Institution: Institutionen för industriell ekonomi Blekinge Tekniska Högskola Kurs: Kandidatarbete i företagsekonomi Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur bolagsstyrningens struktur och den budgetlösa styrningen är utformad på ett SME för att öka förståelsen för vilka faktorer som har inflytande på styrelsens roll och funktion för att skapa värde för företaget. Metod: Uppsatsen metod är fallstudie. Fallstudien har genomförts på ett ägarlett SME som arbetar med budgetlös styrning. Insamling av primärdata har genomförts med kvalitativa intervjuer. Uppsatsen respondenter är fallföretagets styrelse, VD, revisor och bankrådgivare. Med hjälp av litteratur har vi skapat en referensram med tidigare samlande erfarenheter och forskning inom området. Slutsatser: Uppsatsens fallföretag arbetar med en budgetlös styrning. De slutsaster vi drar i vår studie är att det inte är ekonomistyrningens utformning som påverkar styrelsens roll och funktion på ett företag. Istället kan vi, baserat på vårt fallföretag, se att bolagsstyrningens struktur avgör vilka roller och vilken funktion styrelsen har på ett företag. Vi konstaterar att både ekonomi- och bolagsstyrning bör vara flexibla och dynamiska för att reagera på händelser som påverkar företaget, både på gott och ont. / Abstract Title: Beyond budgeting – a study of a board of director’s work and responsibility in an organization with beyond budgeting management control. Authors: Katarina Permgård and Åsa Nordquist Supervisor: Britt Aronsson Institution: Department of Industrial Economics Blekinge Institute of Technology Course: Bachelor’s thesis in business administration Purpose: The aim of the thesis was to examine how the corporate governance and beyond budgeting management control is designed in a SME to increase understanding of the factors which have influence on the board´s role and function to create value for the company. Method: The essay method is a case study. The case study has been conducted on an owner-managed SME that is working with beyond budgeting. Collection of primary data has been completed with qualitative interviews. The essay respondents in this case are the board of directors, the company CEO, accountant and their banker. By using literature, we have created a framework with previously collected data and research in the area. Conclusions: This essays case company is working with beyond budgeting management control. The final aster we draw in our study is that it is not the management control design that affects the board of director’s role and function in a company. Instead, based on our case company, we see the corporate governance structure will determine what roles and what functions the board has on a company. We note that both the financial and corporate governance should be flexible and dynamic to respond to events affecting the company, both good and bad.