Datum: 2022–06–02Nivå: Kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomi, 15 HP Institution: Akademin för Ekonomi, Samhälle och Teknik, Mälardalens universitet Författare: Amanda Larsson (871205) Nicole Lindberg Gafvelin (950102) Joar Lundberg (960722) Titel: Från boken till molnet- En kvalitativ studie om hur medarbetare i ledandepositioner på små och medelstora företag ser på digitalisering ochautomatisering av redovisningsarbetet samt hur det påverkar deras verksamhet. Handledare: Leanne Johnstone Nyckelord: Digitalisering, SME, redovisning, digital transformation, isomorfism & neo-institutionell teori Forskningsfråga: Hur ser medarbetare i ledande positioner på små och medelstora företag på digitalisering, och automatisering av redovisningsarbetet samt hur påverkar detderas verksamhet? Syfte: Att ur ett institutionellt perspektiv bidra till kunskap om hur digitaliseringenhar påverkat redovisningsarbetet i små och medelstora företag samt hur dessmedarbetare i ledande positioner uppfattar fenomenets utveckling under detsenaste årtiondet. Metod: Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ forskningsmetodik i form avsemistrukturerade intervjuer med personer i redovisningsyrket.Slutsats: Studien kommer fram till slutsatsen att respondenterna upplever attdigitalisering och automatisering påverkar redovisningsarbetet i små ochmedelstora företag samt dess verksamheter positivt. Respondenterna anserdock att det finns en del utmaningar men att de positiva överväger de negativa. / Date: 2022-06-02 Level: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 CR Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Amanda Larsson (871205) Nicole Lindberg Gafvelin (950102) Joar Lundberg (960722) Title: From the book to the cloud- A qualitative study of how employees inleading positions at small and medium-sized companies view digitizationand automation of accounting work and how it affects their operations. Tutor: Leanne Johnstone Keywords: Digitalization, SME, digital, accounting, SME, digital transformation, isomorphism & neo-institutional theory Research question: How do employees in leading positions at SME view digitization andautomation of accounting work, and how does this affect their operations?Purpose: To contribute from an institutional perspective to knowledge about howdigitalization has affected accounting work in SME and how its employeesin leading positions perceive the development of the phenomenon over thepast decade. Method: The study was conducted with a qualitative research methodology in theform of semi-structured interviews with people in the accounting profession.Conclusion: The study concludes that the respondents feel that digitization andautomation have a positive effect on the accounting work in small andmedium-sized companies and their operations. However, the respondentsbelieve that there are some challenges but that the positive effects outweighthe negative ones.

The growing commercialism within Division I big-time athletics has raised the financial stakes for universities, as successful athletic programs benefit from increased opportunities for financial gain. This has contributed to a pervasive "win culture" that drives institutions to seek competitive advantages, and as a side effect, NCAA rule violations have become incentivized. Programs whose infractions go unnoticed may benefit from the competitive advantage gained, but for programs investigated by the NCAA, the financial penalties incurred may far outweigh the potential revenues from undetected violations. The purpose of this study was to address institutional self-sanctions as an organizational behavior in response to NCAA major infractions and the impact of self-sanctioning on alumni charitable giving. Through the use of neo-institutional and resource dependence theories, this study aimed to further examine the role of institutional self-sanctions as a crisis management strategy in containing financial fallout of athletic scandal. While researchers have addressed scandal and alumni charitable giving in relation to athletics and institutional self-sanctions, respectively, no research exists linking the two bodies of literature. This study employed a two-way fixed effects analysis of 10 years of panel data to address the effect of key variables on alumni charitable giving. Analysis results indicated no significant relationship between institutional self-sanctions and alumni charitable giving. However, alumni charitable giving was mitigated by institutional endowment per FTE, suggesting that larger scale financial structures of an institution serve as the best predictor for alumni charitable giving during athletic scandal.

In 2017, the City of Gothenburg implemented its first more-open unstaffed self-service library station. The following year, the first more-open library was implemented. The purpose of this thesis has been to increase the understanding of more-open library services and to investigate how they are presented in public documents and by representatives of the City of Gothenburg's cultural administration and culture committee. The theoretical framework consists of elements from neo-institutional organisational theory. The starting point is the view of organisations as part of an institutional context where the understanding of organisational development and change is analysed by looking at factors surrounding the organisation. Concepts such as legitimacy, organisational isomorphism and organisational fields are central to the work. The study has been conducted through a mixed-method approach and consists of a document study of public documents and a semi-structured interview study with three library managers, the chairperson for the culture committee and an official from the culture administration. The material has then been analysed through a qualitative content analysis where themes have been identified in the data collection. The study concludes that more-open library services are considered a complement to regular library activities. Above all, more-open library services are justified by increased accessibility to libraries and culture for members of the public. Even though not everyone can use more-open libraries, the more-open services are considered to increase the total accessibility in the city. The study has found some perceived prerequisites for more-open libraries, which can be summarized as follows: a suitable library facility, a quiet local environment with the library placed within a certain context, time for planning activities, technical resources, a pedagogical approach, and independent users who can handle self-service technique. More-open library services can both gain legitimacy and be legitimized with reference to increased availability and efficient use of tax funds. This is a two-year master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka den låga graden av misstanke-rapporteringar vad gäller penningtvätt bland revisorer och identifiera de bakomliggande faktorerna till detta, samt undersöka vilka åtgärder som kan vidtas för att öka revisorns medvetenhet. Studien har utgått från en kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerade intervjuer. I studiens slutsats presenteras olika faktorer som bidrar till den låga graden av misstanke-rapportering av penningtvätt bland revisorer och vilka åtgärder som bör vidtas i framtiden för att förebygga denna problematik. Studiens slutsats framhäver flertalet faktorer som bland annat omfattas av den starka lojaliteten gentemot kunder och riskerna, samt svårigheterna i att anmäla och upptäcka penningtvätt. Åtgärder som diskuterats är bland annat att erbjuda fler utbildningsmöjligheter som omfattar penningtvätt och att öka kommunikationen med olika myndigheter. Studiens slutsats betonar dessutom att åtgärder kan erbjudas i olika utsträckningar och beror bland annat på revisionsbyråns storlek och omfattning. / The purpose of this study is to investigate the low degree of suspicion reporting regarding money laundering among auditors and identify the underlying factors for this, as well as investigate what measures can be taken to increase the auditor's awareness. The study has been based on a qualitative method with semi-structured Interviews. In the studies conclusion, various factors are presented that contribute to the low degree of suspicion-reporting of money laundering among accountants and what measures should be taken in the future to prevent this problem. The studies conclusion highlights a number of factors that include, among other things, the strong loyalty towards customers and the risks, as well as the difficulties in reporting and detecting money laundering. Measures discussed include offering more educational opportunities covering money laundering and increasing communication with various authorities. The study's conclusion also emphasizes that measures can be offered to different extents and depends, among other things, on the audit firm's size and scope.

The last couple of years the trend within the software industry has been to releasesmaller software updates more frequent, to overcome challenges and increase flexibility, to alignwith the swiftly changing industry environment. As an effect, we now see companies moving over tocapitalizing on subscriptions and incremental releases instead of charging for upgrades. By utilizingneo-institutional theory and Oliver’s (1991) strategic response theory, an enterprise systemsvendor’s response to the emerging DevOps trend can be determined.

Le financement basé sur la performance est une approche gestionnaire promue par la Banque Mondiale (BM) et United States Agency for International Development (USAID), qui connaît une rapide diffusion dans les programmes d’aide au développement. Dans un contexte où de nombreux travaux ont démontré la subjectivité du lien entre la lutte contre la pauvreté et les « bonnes politiques » recommandées par la BM dans le cadre de l’allocation basée sur la performance (ou sélectivité), il apparaît pertinent de s’interroger sur la performativité de ce nouvel instrument. En mobilisant conjointement la théorie de l’acteur-réseau et les théories néo-institutionnelles,cette thèse analyse, au niveau global puis dans un cadre national, le processus de conception, d’expérimentation, de diffusion et de mise en œuvre de l’instrument dans le domaine de la réforme des systèmes de santé. Au niveau global, nous étudions la conceptualisation de l’instrument, que nous replaçons dans une généalogie de la performation, par le réseau néolibéral, des politiques d’aide au développement et de santé globale. Nous analysons ensuite son expérimentation au Rwanda,dans le cadre d’un dispositif de régulation par le marché des systèmes de santé mis en œuvre à travers : (I) la mise en place d’une tarification à l’activité visant à transformer les structures de santé en acteurs économiques autonomes (volet offre), et (II) la création de mutuelles privées communautaires à même de développer des stratégies d’achats (volet demande). Nous étudions enfin sa diffusion institutionnelle sous l’effet (i) d’une valorisation de l’expérimentation rwandaise sans prise en compte de son contexte spécifique, et (II) d’un dispositif incitatif permettant l’enrôlement des responsables de la BM et des ministères bénéficiaires. Au niveau national, nous étudions la stratégie d’influence de la BM et de l’USAID en faveur de la diffusion de ces réformes au Sénégal. Nous présentons le processus d’adoption de ces réformes par le Ministère de la santé, la mise en échec d’un modèle de régulation concurrent en voie d’expérimentation par la coopération technique belge, puis les pressions exercées parla BM pour contraindre le gouvernement à internaliser le modèle promu. Nous mettons ensuite en perspective l’abandon du modèle de régulation par le marché qui était initialement affiché,au profit d’une nouvelle régulation transnationale, matérialisée par un contrat de financement basé sur l’activité directement contrôlé par la BM. / Performance-based financing is a management approach promoted by the World Bank (WB) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) that is rapidly being mainstreamed in development assistance programs. In a context where many studies have demonstrated the subjectivity of the link between the fight against poverty and the "good policies" recommended by the WB in the context of performance-based allocation (or selectivity), it seems relevant to question the performativity of this new instrument. Drawing jointly on actor-network theory and neo-institutional theories, we analyze the process of designing, experimenting, disseminating and implementing the instrument in the field of health policy reforms at the global level and then at the national level.At the global level, we study the conceptualization of the instrument, which we place in agenealogy of the neoliberal network's performance of development aid and global healthcarepolicies. We then analyze its experimentation in Rwanda, as part of a market-based regulationfor healthcare systems implemented through: (I) the deployment of activity-based payments to transform healthcare structures into autonomous economic actors (on the supply side), and (II) the creation of private community-based insurance structures designed to develop purchasing strategies (on the demand side). Finally, we study the instrument’s institutional diffusion under the effects of (I) a promotion of the Rwandan experiment decontextualized from the country’sspecific political situation, and (II) an incentive mechanism allowing the enrolment of both WB’sofficials and the ministries that are benefitting from the WB’s aid. At the national level, we have studied the influence strategy of a coalition of actors composedof the WB and USAID to promote the dissemination of these reforms in Senegal. We present the process of adoption of the reforms by the Ministry of Health, the failure of a competing regulatory model that was being tested by Belgian technical cooperation, and then the pressure exerted by the WB to coerce the government into internalizing the promoted model.We then put into perspective the abandonment of the market-based regulatory model that was initially announced, in favor of a new transnational regulation, materialized by activity-basedfinancing contracts that are directly controlled by the WB.

L’objectif de ce travail de recherche a été de contribuer à répondre à la question suivante : dans quelle mesure les médias constituent-ils un mécanisme de gouvernance d’entreprise ? Après avoir réalisé une revue de littérature, trois questions de recherche ont été formulées. Tout d’abord, la question du rôle de la presse en tant que mécanisme de gouvernance d’entreprise disciplinaire a été posée, puis, plus précisément, celle de son rôle en tant que mécanisme de gouvernance disciplinaire partenariale, et enfin celle de mécanisme de gouvernance normative au sens néo-institutionnel. Chaque question a fait l’objet d’un essai. Tout d’abord, l’efficacité de la presse dans la révélation des fraudes commises par les entreprises, avant qu’une autorité officielle ne la sanctionne, a été examinée au moyen de régressions logistiques et d’analyse d’articles de presse. Ensuite, l’influence de la presse sur les dirigeants du groupe Danone a été analysée, par une étude de cas, de 1996 à 2008. Enfin, une étude de cas portant sur les liens entre divers types de presse a permis d’étudier leur rôle et leur influence dans la normalisation et la diffusion d’idées et de pratiques en matière de gouvernance d’entreprise. Premièrement, l’efficacité de la presse en tant que mécanisme de gouvernance disciplinaire doit être relativisée. Sous l’hypothèse de maximisation de ses profits, la presse française choisit les entreprises qu’elle couvre et les fraudes qu’elle révèle. Elle est plutôt une presse informative qu’une presse investigatrice. La complémentarité des mécanismes de gouvernance est confortée comme facteur d’efficacité du système de gouvernance. Deuxièmement, la presse est un mécanisme efficient de gouvernance partenariale : elle parvient à inciter les dirigeants d’entreprise à chercher à créer de la valeur partenariale plutôt qu’actionnariale. Troisièmement, l’homogénéisation actuelle de formes organisationnelles concernant la gouvernance d’entreprise semble s’expliquer par le rôle de la presse en tant que mécanisme de gouvernance d’entreprise normative au sens néo-institutionnel. / The objective of this research had to contribute to the question: are media a corporate governance mechanism ? After doing a literature review, three research questions were asked. First, the question about the role of press as a corporate governance disciplinary mechanism was asked, then as a corporate governance mechanism with a view to creating stakeholder value, lastly, as a corporate normative governance mechanism in a neo-institutional view. Each question was the subject of one essay. First, the efficiency of press to reveal frauds of firms before an official authority was analyzed. In this purpose, logistic regression and an examination of articles of press was done. Second, the influence of press on the Danone Group’s direction was studied with a case study between 1996 and 2008. Third, to understand the influence between several kinds of press and their role in the normalization and the circulation of ideas and practical experiences about corporate governance, a case study was done also. First, the efficiency of press as a corporate disciplinary mechanism is not always perfect. By assuming that press maximizes its profits, the French press chooses the firms to cover and the frauds to disclose. It’s more a press which informs as a press which investigates. The complementarity of corporate governance mechanisms is confirmed in the efficiency of the governance system. Second, press is an efficient mechanism in a stakeholder value creation perspective. It manages to influence CEOs to search to create stakeholder value rather than shareholder value. Third, currently we notice an homogenization of organizational forms about corporate governance. It could be explained by the role of press as a corporate governance normative mechanism in a neo-institutional perspective.

During the last decade, the Swedish Armed Forces have been struggling to achieve recruitment goals and to retain military personnel. To attract more people to join the agency, and to increase the knowledge about the agency’s role and function in society, the Swedish Armed Forces continuously run campaigns. Furthermore, the Swedish Armed Forces is a government agency with a mission that is determined by the Swedish government through government decisions. It can therefore be argued that it is important that the campaigns portray the agency’s mission in a correct and truthful way. The purpose of this study has been to investigate how the Swedish Armed Forces portray their mission in their campaign films, and to what extent it corresponds with the agency’s official mission. The research questions are thereby: (1) How is the mission of the Swedish Armed Forces portrayed in two campaign films from 2018 and 2020? (2) To what extent does the Swedish Armed Forces' communication about the agency's mission correspond with their official mission presented in the government decision? (3) Based on identified semiotic resources, and with a neo-institutional perspective on strategic communication, what type of communication has been allowed to take place in the Swedish Armed Forces' campaign films? To answer the research questions, a qualitative data analysis was conducted on a government decision constituting the overall direction of the Swedish Armed Forces, and a multimodal critical discourse analysis was conducted on two campaign films produced by the agency The results were compared, and analyzed through the lens of a neo-institutional perspective on strategic communication. In summary, it can be stated that the study finds that the Swedish Armed Forces, in the two campaign films, portray their mission in a way that greatly corresponds with their official mission as presented in the government decision.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate how professionals working within the Swedish Church and the City Mission in a municipality in southern Sweden describe their work with individuals in financial crisis, as well as whether and, if so, how they perceive themselves as complementing or replacing the responsibilities of the municipal welfare agency. During the ongoing inflation, prices for essentials such as food, rent, and electricity have increased, placing additional strain on the welfare state and the efforts of social workers to meet the needs of individuals in economic hardship. There is a lack of consensus in the research regarding the role that the Swedish Church and the City Mission should play in social work and the extent to which they provide aid. In times of inflation, the question becomes particularly relevant as civil society actors become more relevant when societal resources are insufficient. To address our research questions, we conducted a qualitative interview study involving eight participants from the Swedish Church and the City Mission. We employed neo-institutional theory to interpret our empirical data. Our study revealed that the Swedish Church and the City Mission in a municipality in southern Sweden emphasize their multifaceted function and flexible approach, enabling them to address various forms of needs among individuals experiencing financial crisis. They described themselves as being able to complement certain aspects of the municipal welfare agency's responsibilities, but their resources were too limited to fully replace these functions. Our study demonstrated that they could provide limited amounts of food, financial resources, and create a sense of community and belonging inside their organization.

This dissertation describes the manner by which a multinational corporation (MNC) enacts a market-based logic with a locally embedded partner in a complex and unfamiliar operating setting to fulfil both business and social objectives. It examines a hybrid partnership between BP, an MNC, and SSP, a rural Indian non-governmental organisation (NGO). Together, the organisations trained rural women, who were affiliated with SSP, as agents to distribute and sell BP’s ‘smokeless’ cookstoves and fuel pellets to households who cook on smoky firewood stoves. The research draws on two theories—neo-institutional organizational theory and real markets theory—to examine the process by which logics are aligned across partners and projected and translated into the rural Indian exchange setting. It constructs a four-actor model (MNC, NGO, agent, customer) to explore the exchange relationships between the actors at the meso- and micro-levels. At the meso-level, it explains how the MNC and NGO’s non-aligned logics, asymmetric power dynamics, and lack of mutual trust contribute to the venture’s failure. In addition, the NGO was so determined to succeed as a professional, market-driven, channel partner that it shed part of its identity as a civil advocacy organisation and adopted mainstream commercial practices that were not sensitive to the needs of its local stakeholders. At the micro-level, the partners did not come to a common understanding with the agents regarding the cultural challenges they faced marketing the stove. Moreover, the marketing strategy glossed over the multi-layered social relationships and culinary, behavioural, and religious practices that needed to be translated for the technology to meet the needs of consumers. Using gritty ethnographic data, the dissertation highlights a challenge that large, foreign companies face when entering ‘Base of the Pyramid’ markets, namely the inconsistency between the MNC’s market logic and the wider associational logics that motivate village agents and customers.