This thesis investigates the relationship between sustainability performance and ownership structure, measured using the ESG (environmental, social and governance) rating and ownership structure divided into four different ownerships (family/founder, institutional, corporate and governmental). In the pursuit of analysing the relationship between the ESG rating and the ownership structure, this study investigates publicly listed companies within the Nordic countries.This thesis has the aim of examining if a publicly listed company can use sustainability ratings and ownership structure, to understand broader market dynamics and help the manager thru this maximise firm value. Results from this could help them and the public in decision making processes around sustainability initiatives and how these characteristics influence the Nordic market dynamics, by having a better understanding of how the ESG ratings are prioritised among different ownership structures. This knowledge would allow management and the public to better understand how the ESG rating affects firm’s sustainability value as well as how market dynamics of this information is related to the market as a whole and direct competition.Using secondary data collected from Refinitiv database and Nasdaq, this thesis is a deductive and quantitative research that analyses companies for the target year 2020. In addition, this research can be considered to be a historic study.The findings of this research indicate a causal relation between sustainability performance and ownership structure, leading to the conclusion that a different ownership structure might influence and lead to a different score on the scale of sustainability performance. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the governmental ownership structure has the highest positive effect on sustainability performance.Concluding with discussing how this research contributes to the current field of knowledge on the topic through analysing the results using the legitimacy, shareholder, stakeholder and agency theory. The results are aligned with the legitimacy theory on ownership structure and the stakeholder theory. Additionally, the shareholder and the agency theory help with explaining why some structures put less value on sustainability performance than others.From the results one can conclude that sustainability performance is of importance to a varying degree among the different ownership structures. This tells us that there is still a gap in understanding why different ownership structures engage in different sustainability initiatives and future research is needed to examine why different structures engage in it over others.

The esport industry is growing, and it is growing fast. Research suggests that the phenomenon of esport poses a great opportunity to research the development and assessment of human expertise in our modern digitized society. Consequently, the research in this thesis is that of a case study of an esport organization through which we have sought to answer the research question: "How do stakeholders within an esport organization view human capital, that is the investment in, and the development, assessment, and treatment of players?" We answered this research question by gathering relevant empirical material through five semi-structured interviews, which we analyzed to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying reasons and different justifications as to how human capital in the organization is viewed by different stakeholders within the organization. We present four general conclusions. Firstly, there were similar views among the different stakeholders regarding investments in and development of players. Secondly, it was apparent that the stakeholders viewed the players as the core of the business. Thirdly, upper management seemed to carry more of a goal-oriented perspective on the players development as opposed to stakeholders more ‘hierarchically’ adjacent to the players. And lastly, the investments in the players' development were justified through various aspects. Through these conclusions, we i) contribute to managerial/organizational knowledge on how or how not to invest in, develop, assess, and treat human capital in an esport organization, ii) contribute theoretically by applying various different theories and concepts in an esport context; thus expanding the theoretical knowledge of the capabilities and usage of said theories and concepts, and iii) contribute to the empirical body of literature regarding the esport phenomenon by portraying different stakeholder views of human capital within an esport context.

The fashion industry is the third largest manufacturing industry in the world. Companies’ sustainability reports contain the organization's social, economic and environmental work. Comparability is a necessary principle for stakeholders to make investment decisions between companies based on their sustainability reports. Voluntary sustainability reporting has recently become more common. Furthermore, states årsredovisningslagen (ÅRL) in Sweden that certain companies are obliged to prepare sustainability reports. In the US, on the other hand, there are no requirements for companies to report about sustainability. The comparability between companies' sustainability reports is improved by following Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. The purpose of the study is to make a comparison between Swedish and American companies' sustainability reports and within each country in the fashion industry. The aim is to see how well companies’ sustainability reports in the US and Sweden follow the principle of comparability in terms of indicators in GRI's standards. To investigate this, a quantitative and qualitative method have been used. Theories used in the investigation to study comparability in American and Swedish clothing companies are the institutional theory and the legitimacy theory. The study shows that comparability is generally deficient between the US and Sweden and within each country. Worst comparability was found between Sweden and the US but within each country, Sweden had the best comparability

rågorna kring företagens påverkan på klimatet, samhället och ekonomin blir allt viktigare. Även frågan gällande vad det leder till för konsekvenser när företag använder sig av okontroversiella metoder för att hänga med i utvecklingen och för att möta intressenternas intresse. Företag använder sig av greenwashing vilket innebär att de vilseleder intressenterna genom att påstå sig göra en sak men agerar på ett annat sätt. Detta för att upprätthålla intressenternas tillfredsställelse för stunden, vilket dock kan komma att skada företaget vid ett avslöjande. Denna studie syftar till att analysera hållbarhetsredovisningar och hur de påverkas när ett företag varit inblandat i en greenwashingskandal. Studien är en kvalitativ innehållsanalys där vi har undersökt och utgått ifrån företagens hållbarhetsredovisningar från året innan skandalen, året under, samt året efter som underlag. Studien fokuserar på totalt tre bolag, Telia, Volkswagen och Stora Enso. Vidare presenteras djupgående analyser som utförs med hjälp av en kodningsmanual som tar stöd i bland annat intressent- och legitimitetsteorin för vardera bolag, för att sedan mynna ut i en jämförande analys där paralleller dras mellan företagen. Studien mynnar ut i slutsatser kopplade till frågeställningarna om hur rapporterna förändras efter en greenwashingskandal. Delvis gällande vilken del intressenterna har i återuppbyggnaden av legitimiteten efter en skandal, samt hur ett företag arbetar för att återställa sin legitimitet efter en skandal. Resultatets innehåll består av information från totalt nio hållbarhetsrapporter som sedan ska besvara frågeställningarna. Analysen konstaterar att företagen anstränger sig för att bibehålla sin legitimitet, vidare framkommer det även att de vill nå ut till sina intressenter och poängterar att de är viktiga för företagen. Flera förändringar presenteras till följd av skandalen, och företagen försöker vara transparenta för att skapa legitimitet. Det framkommer även att greenwashing förekommit i alla berörda skandaler. I slutsatsen fastställs att en viss grupp av intressenter har en speciell roll i uppbyggandet av legitimiteten efter en skandal, vilket är de anställda. Vidare menar studien att antagandet om att hållbarhetsrapporterna genomgår stora förändringar efter en uppmärksammad greenwashingskandal stämmer. / Corporations' impact on the climate, the society and the economy are issues growing bigger day by day. When the corporations use unconventional methods that might not always be according to the books to keep up with the development but also with their stakeholders, what happens then? The corporations use greenwashing to keep their stakeholders satisfied but later get hurt by it. This article aims to analyze sustainability reports and how they are impacted by a scandal that are caused by it using greenwashing. It is a qualitative study focusing on Telia, Volkswagen and Stora Enso's sustainability reports the year prior to, the year during and the year after the scandal was discovered. In depth analyzes are presented comparing the different years but also the companies to one another. The analyzes were made with a perspective out of the stakeholder theory and the legitimacy theory ans a coding manual. There is also a focus on the scandals and how the corporations represent them in their reports. This study finds the answer to the questions how reports change after a scandal, how stakeholders are a part of the reconstruction of the legitimacy after a scandal and also what corporations does to gain back their legitimacy. The result contains paraphrases on the nine reports where Telia's reports focuses on the economic part of sustainability, Volkswagen’s focus on the environmental part and Stora Enso's focuses on the social part. In the analyzes it is stated that the corporations do a lot to keep their legitimacy, the corporations also want to point out to the stakeholders that they are very important to them. There is a lot of changes presented as a result of the scandal, the corporations want to be transparent to gain legitimacy. It appears that greenwashing plays a part in all the companies' reports. Exampels on all of this is included in the article. The study concludes stakeholders are part of the reconstruction after a scandal, especially the employees. The assumption that sustainability reports go through big changes is also shown to be correct.

Sociala och miljömässiga frågor är ämnen som spelar en central roll för hur synen på en hållbar och rättvis värld ska fungera i framtiden. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur branschtillhörighet och företagsstorlek i form av antalet anställda påverkar mängden hållbarhetsinformation företag rapporterar i sina hållbarhetsrapporter. Uppsatsen undersökte femton företag som är listade på Stockholmsbörsens Large Cap, där finans-, industri- och telekombranschen studerades. Studiens syfte och hypoteser undersöktes utifrån en kvantitativ forskningsansats i form av en multipel fallstudie, där en innehållsanalys genomfördes av respektive företags hållbarhetsrapporter för året 2019. Innehållsanalysen utgick ifrån en checklista som skapades utifrån GRIs uppställda riktlinjer för hållbarhetsrapportering. Insamlad data flyttades sedan över från checklistan till en kodningsmall. Detta gjordes i syfte att visa en tydligare bild över antal rapporterade parametrar och att kvantifiera studiens frågeställning till siffror. Den insamlade empirin analyserades sedan utifrån den givna teoretiska referensramen, där studiens syfte och material kopplades till legitimitet- och intressentteorin. Studiens slutsats visar på att både branschtillhörighet och företagsstorlek i form av antalet anställda är en avgörande faktorer på mängden information en hållbarhetsrapport innehåller. / Social and environmental issues are topics that play an important role in envisioning a sustainable and fair future. The purpose of this study was to investigate how industry affiliation and company size, measured by the number of employees, affect the amount of information a company reports in its sustainability report. The thesis examined fifteen companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange's Large Cap, which included companies in the finance, industrial and telecom sectors. The purpose and hypotheses of the study were examined by using a multiple case study through a quantitative research approach, where a content analysis was conducted on each of the respective companies' sustainability reports for the year of 2019. The content analysis was built upon a checklist based on GRI's established guidelines for sustainability reports. The collected data was then transferred from the checklist to a coding template. This was done in order to show and to quantify the study's research topic in to numbers. The collected empirical data was thereafter analyzed based on the given theoretical frame of reference, where the purpose and materials of the study were linked to the legitimacy and stakeholder theories. The study's conclusion indicates that both industry affiliation and company size in terms of the number of employees are a crucial factors in the amount of information a company puts in its sustainability report.

Sammanfattning Titel: Lagstadgad hållbarhetsrapportering: Vilken förändring har skett i företagens redovisning efterinförandet av lagstadgad hållbarhetsrapportering?  Nivå: Kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomi Författare: Alinde Johansson och Gabriel Dunberg Handledare: Annika Lake Datum: 2022 - Januari Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att analysera förändringarna i företags hållbarhetsrapporter föreoch efter införande av lagstadgad hållbarhetsrapportering (lag SFS 2016:947). Metod: Studien använder sig av en kvantitativ forskningsmetod där datainsamling har skettgenom en innehållsanalys av företags hållbarhetsrapporter. Med utgångspunkt i 6 kap. 12 §ÅRL har en kodningsmanual med indikatorer för tolkning av data tagits fram. Resultat och slutsats: Undersökningen visar att före införandet av lag på hållbarhetsrapportredovisades hållbarhet av samtliga företag som ingår i studien i någon form. Studienobserverade en ökning i antalet uppnådda indikatorer i en majoritet av företagen. Examensarbetets bidrag: Denna studie bidrar till att visa i vilken utsträckning lagstadgadhållbarhetsredovisning har påverkat hållbarhetsrapporteringen i Svenska noterade företaginom large cap. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Då vår undersökning begränsats till ett mindre urval är vårtförslag på fortsatt forskning att genomföra en studie på ett större urval för att kunna se hurhållbarhetsrapporteringen förändrats i olika branscher, i jämförelse med small cap och largecap och/eller mellan olika länder. Eftersom flera företag i studien uppfyllt samtligaindikatorer men antalet producerade sidor skiljer sig åt hade även en kvalitativ studie påskillnaderna varit intressant. Nyckelord: Hållbarhetsredovisning, Signaleringsteorin, Legitimitetsteorin, Frivilligredovisning, Årsredovisningslagen / Abstract Title: Statutory sustainability reporting: What change has taken place in the companies' accounts afterthe introduction of statutory sustainability reporting? Level: Bachelor's thesis in Business Administration Authors: Alinde Johansson and Gabriel Dunberg Supervisor: Annika Lake Date: 2022-january Aim: The purpose of this study is to analyze the changes in companies' sustainability reports before and after the introduction of statutory sustainability reporting (Act SFS 2016: 947). Method: The study uses a quantitative research method where data collection has takenplace through a content analysis of companies' sustainability reports. Based on Chapter6 Section 12 of the Annual Accounts Act a coding manual with indicators forinterpreting data has been produced. Results and conclusion: The study shows that before the introduction of legislation onsustainability reports, sustainability was reported by all companies included in the studyin some form. The study observed an increase in the number of indicators achieved in amajority of companies. Contribution of the thesis: This study contributes to showing the extent to whichstatutory sustainability reporting has affected sustainability reporting in Swedish listedcompanies within large cap. Recommendations to future research: As our study is limited to a smaller sample, ourproposal for further research is to conduct a study on a larger sample to be able to seehow sustainability reporting has changed in different industries, in comparison withsmall cap and large cap and / or between different countries. Since several companies inthe study met all the indicators but the number of pages produced differed, a qualitativestudy of the differences would also have been interesting. Keywords: Sustainability Report, Signaling Theory, Legitimacy Theory, Voluntaryaccounting, Annual Accounts Act

Titel: Finns det något samband mellan ESG-score och finansiell prestation för företag  inom finansmarknaden i Europa? En kvantitativ studie på 52 banker i Europa. Nivå: Examensarbete på grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Hakki Arhan Altunsayar och Ensar BujupiHandledare: Jan Svanberg  Datum: 2023 – majSyftet: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur ESG-score påverkar den finansiella  prestationen för företag inom finansmarknaden i Europa.  Metod: Denna studie har en positivistiskt forskningsfilosofi med en hypotetiskt- deduktiv ansats. Studien innefattar en kvantitativ strategi som har genomförts med data från 52 banker inom finansmarknaden i Europa för året 2021. Studiens data är hämtad från databasen Refinitiv Eikon. Datan har sedan analyserats i statistikprogrammen SPSS och Minitab.  Resultat och slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att det förekommer ett svagt icke signifikant negativt samband mellan ESG-betyg och finansiell prestation i banker som är lokaliserade och verksamma inom Europa.  Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien bidrar till att fylla ett forskningsgap där vi tar reda på om det råder ett samband mellan ESG-betyg och finansiell prestation inom finansmarknaden i Europa, då tar vi specifikt hänsyn till bankerna inom marknaden, studien bidrar till forskningsområdet företagsekonomi med inriktning redovisning.  Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Det krävs ytterligare forskning med andra typer av analyser och fler variabler. Detta för att kunna dra en mer omfattande slutsats om det förekommer samband mellan ESG-score och finansiella prestationer på finansmarknaden i Europa.  Nyckelord: CSR, Legitimitetsteorin, ESG, Intressentteorin, finansiella prestationer. / Title: Is there a relationship between ESG scores and financial performance of financial  market companies in Europe? A quantitative study of 52 banks in Europe Level: Final assignment for Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration  Author: Ensar Bujupi & Hakki Arhan Altunsayar  Supervisor: Jan Svanberg  Date: 2023 - May  Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate how the ESG-score affects the financial performance of companies within the financial market in Europe.  Method: This study has a positivistic research philosophy with a hypothetical- deductive approach. The study includes quantitative strategy that has been carried out with data from 52 banks in the financial market for the year 2021. The data for the study has been taken from Refinitiv Eikon database. The data has then been analyzed in statistical programs such as SPSS and Minitab.  Results and conclusions: The results of the study show that there is a weak non- significant negative relationship between ESG ratings and financial performance in banks located and operating within Europe.  Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes to filling a research gap where we find out if there is a relationship between ESG ratings and financial performance within the financial market in Europe, then we specifically take into account the banks within the market, the study contributes to the research area of business finance with a focus on accounting.  Suggestions for future research: Further research is required with other types of analyzes and more variables. This is to be able to draw a more comprehensive conclusion if there is a connection between the ESG score and financial performance on the financial market in Europe.  Key words: CSR, Legitimacy theory, ESG, Stakeholder theory, financial performance.

To redirect capital flows towards sustainable investments, the European Union (EU) has implemented the EU Taxonomy, a classification system with definitions for sustainable economic activities. The Taxonomy constitutes a part of the European Green Deal, which is an initiative to transition the EU towards sustainability and competitiveness. The EU Taxonomy is intended to be used by investors when assessing companies to identify sustainable investment opportunities. Investors have great significance in what impacts the EU Taxonomy will have since the regulation relies on investors using it as a tool when assessing whether to invest in a company or not. Additionally, many companies rely on investors for financial support, and it is therefore essential for companies to have information about to what degree investors will integrate the EU Taxonomy in their investment decisions. There is an information gap between companies and investors where companies lack knowledge about how investors will use the Taxonomy to select which companies to invest in.   The aim of the study is to investigate how the EU Taxonomy is affecting investment decisions of Nordic investment firms and institutional investors. Furthermore, the aim is to examine in what ways the EU Taxonomy will shape the future of sustainable investments and how companies utilize the EU Taxonomy to enhance their attractiveness to investors. A qualitative approach has been used in the thesis, and data constituting the results was collected through 12 semi-structured interviews with investors. In conclusion, all interviewed investors have an interest in promoting sustainable investments. The EU Taxonomy has, moreover, been positively received by investors since many of them have been requesting a tool to define sustainable economic activities. 11 of 12 investors in the study, use the EU Taxonomy when evaluating companies to make investment decisions. However, investors are currently evaluating a variety of factors when assessing companies, such as additional ESG performance indicators. Further, investors consider that the Taxonomy cannot exclusively be used when analyzing companies since it is a narrow tool, excluding multiple economic activities and sectors. A high Taxonomy alignment will be a considerable factor for some investors as they believe that companies with high alignment will be more successful. Other investors will continue to invest in companies with low alignment because these companies have potential to become more sustainable over time. All investors are, however, united in that the most important thing is that companies have an ambition to reach a higher alignment. Further, investors have varying approaches when it comes to prioritizing the environmental objectives when assessing companies' sustainability performance. Some investors value how many and which environmental objectives a company contributes to depending on the company´s operations, while others have not yet considered it. The EU Taxonomy´s significance in the future for sustainable investments will depend on different factors, for example the reporting of alignment. Provided that investors integrate the Taxonomy in their decision making, the framework will likely increase the share of investments which take sustainability aspects into account. However, since the EU Taxonomy only covers companies in the EU and exclude sectors, it is questionable how great significance the regulation will have for sustainable investments on a global scale. Lastly, there are several opportunities for companies to become more attractive to investors by working strategically with the EU Taxonomy and communicate ambitions to reach a higher alignment. The results highlight the importance of companies adapting their business model to the Taxonomy and establishing long-term plans for how to reach a higher share of alignment. Companies can, moreover, improve their attractiveness to investors by improving their Taxonomy data collection and presenting the data in an easily accessible way.

Företagande har nästan alltid cirkulerat kring att vara så kostnadseffektivt som möjligt såvälsom att vinstmaximera. Men under senare år har intresset för företags ansvarstagandegällande miljö, sociala faktorer och bolagsstyrning ökat från både intressenter och aktieägare.Även fast insatserna rörande dessa frågor medför ökade kostnader för företagen, kan det ivissa fall vara lönsamt, eftersom bland annat kostnaden av eget kapital tenderar att minska. Vivar således intresserade att undersöka huruvida företags årsredovisningar och denmedföljande hållbarhetsrapporten har något informationsinnehåll för investerare, samt omdetta innehåll skiljer sig åt beroende på om företagen påvisar höga eller låga ESG-poäng. Föratt fastställa uppsatsens frågeställning undersöker vi handelsvolymen för företag listade påOMX Nasdaq Stockholm mellan åren 2017-2021. Vidare applicerar vi eventstudiemetodensom vårt val av metod för att upptäcka en eventuell förekomst av avvikelsevolym.Eventperioden sträcker sig mellan 1 dag före till 1 dag efter eventet, emedanestimeringsperioden tar plats 10 till 60 dagar före och efter eventet. Resultatet indikerar attföretags ESG-poäng inte verkar ha någon inverkan på avvikelsvolymen vid annonsering avårsredovisningen. / The fundamentals of business have almost always focused on the priority to be as costefficient as possible and to maximize profits. But during recent years there's been anincreasing interest from both stakeholders and shareholders, regarding companies’ actions onenvironmental, social and governance responsibility. Although it inflicts extra expenses forbusiness to address these issues, it can sometimes be beneficial, since for instance it canlower the cost of equity capital. Therefore we were interested in researching whether therelease of companies' full-year reports and the accompanying mandatory CSR-report, had anyinformation content for investors, and also whether the content differs between companieswith high and low ESG scores. To determine the issue of the thesis we decided to investigatethe trading volume of companies listed on OMX Nasdaq Stockholm between years2017-2021, and performed an event study as our choice of method to detect any abnormaltrading volume. The event period was set to 1 day before and after the event, whereas theestimation period took place 10 to 60 days before and after the event. The result indicates thatcompanies’ ESG score does not seem to have any effect on abnormal trading volume on dayof release.

Bakgrund: Under de senaste decennierna har frivillig informationsgivning blivit vanligare. Den växande digitaliseringen, högre krav på mer informationsgivning från intressenter, ökade krav på hållbarhet samt ökade nivåer av granskning från omvärlden är några förklaringar till den ökade efterfrågan på frivillig informationsgivning. På grund av den växande efterfrågan har ämnet blivit intressant att studera. Syfte: Den här studien undersöker vilken kategori inom frivillig informationsgivning som är dominerande samt vilka likheter och skillnader det finns mellan börsnoterade och icke-börsnoterade företag när det gäller mängden av frivillig informationsgivning. Metod: Studien innefattar en kvantitativ metod där studien baseras på årsredovisningar från 2021 och urvalet består av 30 stora svenska börsnoterade och 30 stora svenska icke-börsnoterade aktiebolags årsredovisningar. Metoden som används för att analysera informationen är ett kodningsschema och chi-2-test. Resultat: Resultatet visar att den dominerande kategorin av frivilliga informationsgivning är “analys av föregående år” samt att det finns en skillnad mellan börsnoterade och icke-börsnoterade aktiebolag angående mängden frivillig informationsgivning. / Background: In recent decades, voluntary disclosure has become more common. The growing digitization, higher demands for more information from stakeholders, increased demands for sustainability and increased levels of audit from the outside world are some explanations for the increased demand of voluntary information provision. Due to the growing demand, the subject has become interesting to study. Purpose: This study investigates which category of voluntary disclosure is dominant and what similarities and differences exist between listed and non-listed companies in terms of the amount of voluntary disclosure. Method: The study includes a quantitative method where the study is based on annual reports from 2021 and the sample consists of 30 large Swedish listed and 30 large Swedish non-listed joint stock companies' annual reports. The method used to analyze the information is a coding scheme and Chi-square tests. Results: The results show that the dominant category of voluntary disclosure is "analysis of the previous year" and that there is a difference between listed and non-listed companies regarding the amount.