Swedish executives are in the pursuit of self-improvement. During the last two decades, extreme athleticism, practices like meditation and visiting retreats have been an increasingly common context within this pursuit, despite being costly in terms of time or simply being perceived as extreme. In an attempt to further understand these pursuits, the study seeks to answer the research question: How are the leader’s pursuit of self-improvement influencing leadership and what does it signal? The theoretical point of departure is previous research on athleticism and mindfulness amongst executives, through the perspective of signaling theory and charismatic leadership theory. The study is qualitative in nature with an abductive approach and consists of interviews with ten executives as well as a discourse of Swedish printed press. The data have been coded using the Gioia-methodology. The empirical findings consist of nine aggregated dimensions explaining executive behavior. How they began with their practice, what health benefits they achieved, what attributes were strengthened, the positive effect on leadership, the costs of their practice, how identity is involved, their own awareness of their practice, how they believed it influenced leadership, and what their leadership aspirations were. After analysis of the pursuits, it is concluded that the pursuits signal certain underlying qualities and attributes, an identity, and competence to lead oneself and others. Through actions inspired by their pursuits, signaling is reinforced and become signals of the organization as well as the individual leader and his or her leadership.

Sustainability reporting is something that has gained much ground lately, and there is no sign of it decreasing. The purpose of a sustainability report is to disclose the non-financial information between a company and its stakeholders. To present a sustainability report is mandatory for larger companies, many smaller companies do also provide its stakeholder with one voluntarily. In the last decade there has been a steadily increasing trend when it comes to being environmentally friendly. More companies need to take responsibility for their actions in the world, in order for it to sustain and last longer. There have been some scandals throughout the years when it comes to sustainability reporting which has made a negative impact on the reliability of the reports. Previous research and literature have shown that there are a lot of uncertainties when it comes to what exactly transparency means and how it can be interpreted from different perspectives and situations. The purpose with this study is to collect information and analyze the interpret transparency of a sustainability report from an investors perspective. The information collected can then be addressed to answer the research question “How is the transparency in a sustainability report perceived by an investor?.” The thesis is using a qualitative methodology consisting of semi-structured interviews and has an inductive research approach. The theories connected to the conceptual framework in this thesis is signaling theory and legitimacy theory. The semi-structured interview was made with people who own stocks in a company that presents a sustainability report, also called investors. Twelve investors were interviewed and provided good information to create a comprehensive answer for the research question. The result of this study shows that the investors do not think a sustainability report is transparent enough. They believe that companies do not show the whole truth in a sustainability report. The information is not fully complete, one hundred percent truthful, as objective as it can be/not angled, and the information is used in other purposes rather than just disclose non-financial information. These answers do not match up with a general definition of transparency which then means that a sustainability report is not interpreted as transparent by the investors participating in this particular study. The investors do also believe that one general definition of transparency or area specific definition would be better. They do also advocate for more external interference of the reports.

Problem The exact definition of an entry-level job is being blurred out. Due to rapid technological advancements, clerical occupations that heavily rely on repetitive tasks are being automated at a rapid pace. Meanwhile, multiple entry-level job listings are paradoxically requiring years of entry-level experience from the applicants.  Purpose The purpose is to first validate the phenomena of entry-level jobs requiring entry-level experience through a content analysis of job listings. In addition to this, a survey has been sent out to map out the reactions of students at Jönköping International Business regarding this paradoxical phenomenon. Method The methodology is mainly in an experimental setting to assess a novel phenomenon. The occupation we have chosen is “economy assistant” where 50 listings were inspected in the Stockholm region. Vignette scenarios have also been supplied to the students in the survey, to ascertain how they respond with regards to motivation, stress, and sense of qualification.  Results The results showed that most economy assistant listings required prior qualified experience in addition to an academic degree. The survey found statistically significant effects of job requirements reducing motivation to apply, applicants' sense of qualification, and increasing applicants' stress.

Drawing from signaling theory, this study investigates the processes through which corporate image (CI) for quality affects attitudinal loyalty. The research hypotheses are examined using data from a cross-sectional survey and two scenario-based experiments. Overall, findings across these three studies suggest that the effects of CI upon loyalty are channeled through customer satisfaction and perceived value. The effects of CI on perceived value and loyalty are stronger relative to the effects of employee interaction quality (IQ) when IQ is measured as an overall evaluation. However, when employee IQ is measured in reference to a specific service encounter, it becomes a stronger driver of perceived value and loyalty relative to CI. Regardless of the context of measurement (i.e., overall evaluation vs. a specific service encounter), employee IQ exerts a stronger influence on customer satisfaction than CI. CI negatively moderates the effect of employee IQ on customer satisfaction and loyalty, rendering the effect of employee IQ upon customer evaluations less critical for service providers with stronger CIs. The findings highlight the relevance and importance of CI as a signal of unobservable quality, which should be measured and closely monitored by management. Managers should also recognize the central role of customer satisfaction, especially in channeling the effects of IQ upon loyalty, and therefore, design policies that enhance frontline employee ability and motivation to deliver satisfying customer experiences.

Drawing from signaling theory, this study investigates the processes through which corporate image (CI) for quality affects attitudinal loyalty. The research hypotheses are examined using data from a cross-sectional survey and two scenario-based experiments. Overall, findings across these three studies suggest that the effects of CI upon loyalty are channeled through customer satisfaction and perceived value. The effects of CI on perceived value and loyalty are stronger relative to the effects of employee interaction quality (IQ) when IQ is measured as an overall evaluation. However, when employee IQ is measured in reference to a specific service encounter, it becomes a stronger driver of perceived value and loyalty relative to CI. Regardless of the context of measurement (i.e., overall evaluation vs. a specific service encounter), employee IQ exerts a stronger influence on customer satisfaction than CI. CI negatively moderates the effect of employee IQ on customer satisfaction and loyalty, rendering the effect of employee IQ upon customer evaluations less critical for service providers with stronger CIs. The findings highlight the relevance and importance of CI as a signal of unobservable quality, which should be measured and closely monitored by management. Managers should also recognize the central role of customer satisfaction, especially in channeling the effects of IQ upon loyalty, and therefore, design policies that enhance frontline employee ability and motivation to deliver satisfying customer experiences.

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The study is based on a hypothetical deductive approach. The study applies a quantitative method. The material covers 3926 firm years between 2007–2019. The data studied is obtained from the ASSET4 database. Analysis of data has taken place in the statistics program IBM SPSS. The study is based in corporate governance where the balance between shareholders and stakeholders forms the basis together with the countries' legal origins, i.e. how the legal traditions of different countries affect firms' reporting. To analyze this, two parts are used, a period of voluntary reporting of ESG(2007-2016) and a period covering the regulatory framework implemented in the European Union where mandatory reporting (2017-2019) of non-financial information such as environment and social aspects were introduced for larger firms in 2017. Based on this, a comparison is made whether higher ESG reporting is achieved in the voluntary or mandatory environment.  The study finds evidence that higher ESG reporting is achieved in the mandatory reporting and that the countries' legal differences decrease during the mandatory reporting period. The results show that firms of Scandinavian legal origin have lower ESG reporting and that a concentrated ownership structure leads to a lower ESG reporting.

No description available.

The implication that first day returns of initial public offerings are a consequence of the imbalance of power between issuer and underwriter has been suggested more than it has been tested. An important tool in such an analysis has been missing. Using a resource contribution approach to bargaining power, measures of underwriter and issuer power are created. Significant results with both measures show that consistent with theory, underwriter power is positively associated with underpricing, while issuer power's association is negative. The underwriter power measure compares favorably in this study to Carter-Manaster's prestige measure. The theory presented also suggests that issuers and underwriters engage in a short-term cooperative agreement to bring critical resources to issuers to enhance their initial public offering. Contributed resources form the basis for each firms bargaining power which is strongest when setting the initial file price. Results show the importance of resource power on the distribution of proceeds and how power changes during the registration process. Finally this theory expands signaling theory and suggests that issuers under the influence and direction of their underwriter make pre-IPO organizational changes to send signals of quality to preemptively address investor's concerns. These pre-IPO gambits are intended to increase IPO proceeds, but come at a price. Theories of power are used to create a measure of the relative strength of these actors and find that making TMT changes significantly decreases underpricing. Although underwriter power is significantly associated with change, relative power does not reduce the amount of change signaled. / Business Administration

Yes / Grounded in signaling theory, this paper investigates the signals reflecting product quality, innovativeness, reputation and cultural background which influence film performance, i.e. film survival (duration on cinema screen) and box office success, in China’s changing institutional context. This market has grown substantially and still possesses potential for further development. However, China’s unique institutional context presents challenges. By examining an expanded range of potential signals, two of which have not previously been examined in the literature, namely imported films and enhanced format film formats such as 3D and IMAX, we develop a conceptual framework and argue that signaling theory needs to be combined with institutional context. Similar to findings for film industries in other countries, we find quality and reputational signals including budget, star power, sequels, and online consumer reviews to be important in China. However, unique results are also revealed. Chinese consumers react to an innovativeness signal in that they are specifically attracted to enhanced format films. Film award nominations and prizes are insignificant reputational signals. Once other signals are taken into account, imported films on average do not perform as well as domestic films. We link these findings to China’s unique institutional setting and offer important implications for management, recognizing the challenges to film companies of competing in an increasingly globalized market. The paper is also of relevance to policymakers given their continued efforts in shaping the development of China’s film industry.