Bakgrund: Underprissättning vid börsintroduktioner är ett väldokumenterat fenomen med flera teoretiska infallsvinklar, men kvarstår fortfarande som ett utav pusslen inom finansiell ekonomi. Underprissättningen, som avser en positiv avkastning efter första handelsdagens slut, skiljer sig i nivå mellan länder och över olika tidsperioder. Formella och informella institutioner är viktiga dimensioner för att förstå företagens och investerarnas strategier, vilket gör att den institutionella miljön även kan förväntas förklara skillnader i underprissättningsnivån. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka om och hur formella och informella institutioner kan förklara variationen i underprissättningsnivån mellan länder. Metod: Studien följer ett kvantitativt förhållningssätt där 16 hypoteser deduceras. Dessa hypoteser består av olika formella och informella institutionella faktorer som förväntas påverka underprissättningsnivån. Det empiriska materialet består av 6993 börsintroduktioner för perioden mellan 2006 och 2014 och utgör data från 25 länder med olika institutionella karaktärsdrag. Korrelationer undersöks genom en korrelationsmatris medan sambanden analyseras med hjälp av multipla regressioner. Resultat: Resultaten visar att den institutionella miljön har en signifikant påverkan på underprissättningsnivån. En högre kvalité på de formella institutionerna minskar underprissättningsgraden, främst som en följd av att problemen med informationsasymmetrier reduceras. Graden av underprissättning påverkas också av skillnader i informella institutioner där olika kulturella miljöer och normer framhäver skilda beteenden hos börsintroduktionens inblandade parter. / Background: IPO underpricing is a well-documented phenomenon with several theoretical approaches, but it is still one of the puzzles within financial economics. Underpricing, which refers to a positive return after the first day of trade, differ in level between countries and over time. Formal and informal institutions are important dimensions to understand the strategies used within businesses and by investors, which allows the institutional environment to also explain the variations in the level of underpricing. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine if and how formal and informal institutions can explain the variation in level of underpricing between countries. Method: The study follows a quantitative research approach where 16 hypotheses are derived. These hypotheses consist of different formal and informal institutional factors which are expected to explain the differences in the level of underpricing. The empirical data consists of 6993 IPOs between the period of 2006 and 2014 and represents 25 countries with different institutional characteristics. The correlations between the variables are examined in a correlation matrix while the relationships are analyzed by the use of multiple regressions. Conclusions: The results show that the institutional environment has a significant impact on the level of underpricing. A higher quality in the formal institutions reduces the level of underpricing, mainly because of reduced problems with information asymmetry. The level of underpricing is also affected by differences in informal institutions, where different cultural environments and values emphasize different behaviors of the IPO involved parties.

Following the necessity for spatial planning to focus on ‘what works’ in terms of implementation and policy delivery, during the last decade, the notion ‘soft’ spaces of cooperation have been in the spotlight of many academics working on territorial cooperation units. ‘Soft’ spaces of cooperation have been introduced mainly to explain what was happening for real through the continuous attempts to promote new policy scales, initially through the device of fuzzy boundaries. However, despite the necessity to address interests beyond existing rigid administrative boundaries, still issues related to financial power, infrastructure coordination and investment, ecological and environmental concerns, etc., all are situated within hierarchical structures of government and governance. Challenges arise and affect the interaction of actors in these areas, given the different institutional and cultural settings. This research investigates ways in which governmental institutions influence the coordination between non-governmental actors, points of interests that can foster the cooperation between governmental institutions and, more specifically the main challenges that non-governmental actors face while trying to cooperate due to cultural differences and institutional set-up in a ‘soft’ territorial cooperation. The research has been carried out in the Dutch-German border area, focusing on a common natural linkage and asset such as the Rhine river. While coordination between different sectoral policies exists in both sides of the border, different social context, planning mode and different legal and political conditions make the implementation of common projects a challenge.

Companies are expected to be good corporate citizens and fulfil expectations of both shareholders and stakeholders. Depending on their corporate objectives, companies undertake different CSR activities using their preferred financial resources. The relationship between these two notions is interesting to investigate in the Nordic context since companies in this geographical area are the global leaders in sustainability. We formulate the following research question as: What is the relationship between financial slack and the CSR performance in Nordic countries? As such, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate the underpinnings of whether companies choose to allocate their financial slack resources towards improving performance of CSR, or so called value creation. Doing so, we investigate the relationship between financial slack resources and CSR score. In adopting a regulatory position on the development of society, we conduct our research in accordance with the functionalist research paradigm, namely through commitment to the objectivist ontic and positivist epistemic research philosophies. We answer the research question using the deductive approach. Our research design is framed with an explanatory purpose relying on archival strategy to perform a quantitative study. The theoretical underpinnings for analysis comes in the form of legitimacy theory, the institutional differences hypothesis, Resource-based theory, slack resources theory, stakeholder and shareholder theory. We use multiple linear regressions to analyse cross-sectional data for the period between 2005 and 2015 collected from Thomson Reuters DataStream. Our result indicates that the relationship between financial slack and CSR performance in the following year is mixed with both positive and negative relationships being present. Our most important finding is a pattern indicating that during the year 2008 the relationship changed from being positive to negative. This implies that the more funds a company has at its discretion, the less likely it is for them to invest it in developing their CSR performance the following year. This could have severe negative implications on shareholders, stakeholders and society.