Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explain how the share of independent boardmembers, controlling for different forms of independence, and agency costs correlate within Swedish firms listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm list for large firms. The goal is to extend the understanding of board independence in relation to agency costs while adding empirical insight into the Swedish Code requirements on the board of directors. Theoretical Perspective: With a theoretical anchor in agent theory, this study presents the two conflicts assumed to exist between the agent and the principals within the firms. The first conflict is between agent and principal, and the second is between principal and principal. The agency perspective is used to explain how agency costs arise, within which conflict they arise, and how board members' independence should mitigate these. Method: This study applied a positivistic, deductive research approach using a quantitative strategy. Data was collected from annual reports and the databases Orbis, Holdings, and Retriever Business. Proxies were used for measuring agency costs. The statistical analysis ofthe data consisted of Pearson correlation, linear regressions, and binary logistic regressions. Conclusion: No unambiguous negative correlation could be confirmed between independent board members and agency costs when examined separately. A tradeoff in board members'independence and total agency costs can be confirmed. This implies that when coexisting board members’ different independence works in opposing directions for reducing the residual loss tied both to the agent-principal conflict and the principal-principal conflict

Submitted by paulo roberto gozzi (paulo.gozzi@gmail.com) on 2014-01-20T14:43:17Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Finanças-Governança Dissertação Final - Participação do Conselheiro Independente.pdf: 3210786 bytes, checksum: ce3979d3f01f43f2efa2a33c6fb9edb1 (MD5) / Rejected by Vera Lúcia Mourão (vera.mourao@fgv.br), reason: Prezado Paulo, o título digitado na BD e no PDF está diferente do que consta em sua Ata e não existe nenhuma informação que deveria ser alterado, portanto estou rejeitando o seu trabalho para que corrija. Caso a banca tenha sugerido ou o seu orientador necessitamos dessa informação com o novo título, o prof. Arthur poderá encaminhar por e-mail para o mestradoprofissional@fgv.br. reforço que se o título for mantido deverá providenciar outra ficha catolografica antes de postar novamente. atenciosamente. Vera tel. 3799 3445 on 2014-01-20T15:12:19Z (GMT) / Submitted by paulo roberto gozzi (paulo.gozzi@gmail.com) on 2014-01-20T16:14:43Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Finanças-Governança Dissertação Final - Participação do Conselheiro Independente.pdf: 3210786 bytes, checksum: ce3979d3f01f43f2efa2a33c6fb9edb1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vera Lúcia Mourão (vera.mourao@fgv.br) on 2014-01-20T16:28:03Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Finanças-Governança Dissertação Final - Participação do Conselheiro Independente.pdf: 3210786 bytes, checksum: ce3979d3f01f43f2efa2a33c6fb9edb1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-01-20T20:31:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Finanças-Governança Dissertação Final - Participação do Conselheiro Independente.pdf: 3210786 bytes, checksum: ce3979d3f01f43f2efa2a33c6fb9edb1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-19 / The object of this paper is the corporate governance, specifically in relation to the role of the independent board members elected by the companies of Novo Mercado from BMF&Bovespa, by means of a qualitative study in order to verify the participation of the independent board members and the dynamics of decision process within such companies. The purpose of this work is to contribute to the corporate finance and corporate governance areas, specifically to explain several results of quantitative studies that deny a positive correlation between the proportion of independent board members and the financial performance of the companies. The survey was distributed by e-mail which was answered by 30 out of the total 361 independent board members and enabled the identification that the performance tasks of such members are directed by consulting activities and not by controlling activities, demonstrating that the dynamics within the boardroom in the decision process is in the direction of an alignment of interests and not of conflict. Furthermore, the study identified that reduced hours are dedicated in the actual performance of the functions of board members and, therefore, indicate that this may be one of the reasons to justify the lack of positive correlation between the proportion of board members and the financial performance of the companies. Therefore, the study suggests that, in the Brazilian environmental of high concentration of shares within reduced number of shareholders, the regulation authorities should be more active in their supervision functions, as the independent board member does not assume such role. / O tema do presente trabalho é a governança corporativa, especificamente sobre a atuação dos conselheiros independentes das companhias do Novo Mercado da BM&FBovespa por meio de um estudo qualitativo para verificar a forma e a dinâmica da participação dos membros independentes no processo de tomada de decisão das companhias onde atuam. O objetivo é contribuir para o campo de finanças e governança corporativa de modo a explicar resultados de diversos estudos quantitativos que apontam não haver uma correlação significativa entre a proporção de conselheiros independentes e o desempenho financeiro das companhias. O questionário distribuído por e-mail foi respondido por 30 dos 361 conselheiros independentes e possibilitou a constatação de que a atuação dos conselheiros independentes avaliados está atualmente mais voltada para o papel consultivo do que propriamente de fiscalização, demonstrando uma dinâmica de alinhamento e não de conflito no processo decisório do conselho de administração. Além disso, o estudo constatou que os conselheiros independentes disponibilizam pouco tempo no exercício das suas funções, situação que pode constituir fator indicativo para a falta de correlação entre proporção de conselheiros independentes e o desempenho financeiro das companhias, conforme apontada por diversos estudos quantitativos. Dessa forma, o estudo sugere que, no ambiente brasileiro de elevada concentração de ações nas mãos de poucos acionistas, os órgãos reguladores estejam mais atentos à sua função fiscalizadora uma vez que os conselheiros independentes não assumem esse papel.

Bakgrund: Privata företag förväntas ha färre finansieringsmöjligheter än publika börsnoterade företag, vilket gör privata företag mer begränsade till extern skuldfinansiering från kreditinstitut. Kostnaden för den externa skuldfinansieringen påverkas av kreditgivarens riskbedömning och det kontrollbehov som bland annat uppstår på grund av agentkonflikten mellan långivare och låntagare. Vi ämnar därför undersöka hur ägaren och ägarens val av styrelse och extern revisor kan reducera agentkonflikten och därmed reducera företagens räntekostnader vid extern skuldfinansiering. Syfte: Syftet med vår uppsats är att undersöka huruvida ägarkoncentrationen samt ägarens val av styrelse och extern revisor påverkar företagens externa räntekostnader i privata svenska aktiebolag. Metod: Studiens ansats är av deduktiv art utifrån en tvärsnittsdesign. Studien utgår från en kvantitativ metod för att testa studiens hypoteser utifrån ett urval av medelstora privata svenska aktiebolag. Resultat: Ägarkoncentrationen, styrelsens storlek samt styrelsens oberoende har ingen signifikant påverkan på räntekostnaden. Däremot visar resultaten i studien att det finns ett signifikant negativt samband mellan räntekostnaden och valet att utse en extern revisor från Big4. / Background: Private companies are expected to have fewer funding opportunities than public listed companies, which makes private companies more dependent on external debt financing from credit institutions. The cost of the external debt financing is affected by the lenders risk assessment and the need for control that naturally appears because of the agency conflict between lenders and borrowers. We aim to examine how the owner and the owner’s choice of board of directors and external auditor can reduce the agency conflict and thus reduce the companies interest costs in external debt financing. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate if the owner concentration as well as the owner’s choice of board composition and external auditor, affects the external interest costs of private Swedish limited companies. Method: The study’s approach is deductive in nature and based on a cross sectional design. The study is based on a quantitative method for testing the hypotheses, based on selection of medium-sized private Swedish limited companies. Conclusions: The ownership concentration, the board size and the board independence have no significant influence on the interest rate. The study does however show a significant negative correlation between the interest rate and the choice to appoint an external auditor from one of the Big4.