This study explored the feasibility of developing community-based homestay tourism in Nigeria. Stakeholder theory was used to develop a strategy to ideally develop homestay tourism in the local communities, using Old Oyo National Park in Oyo State as a case study context. The approach entails assessing practicability and acceptability, the operational feasibility, and the potential outcome of developing community-based homestay tourism. A qualitative research design was deployed to capture credible results for this study, which entailed engaging tourism stakeholders through a focus group discussion data collection method conducted via Zoom. The participants were purposefully selected based on their experience in the tourism industry and their willingness to participate in the study. The various groups of stakeholders who provided data during the focus group discussion were academia, tour operators, NGOs, and local community stakeholder groups, respectively. The results showed that Nigeria's tourism state is at its lowest level due to a lack of funding, government attention, and insecurity. It was confirmed that the development of community-based homestay tourism would be practicable in Nigeria provided all stakeholders collaborated to formulate enabling tourism policies, agreed to co-manage, put into consideration the plight of the locals, and ensured the locals held a relevant position within the homestay management committee, were funded, and created effective strategies to market and promote the destination. For homestay tourism to be accepted in the local communities, the benefits must be communicated to the potential operators, the local culture must be respected, and economic benefits must be shared with equity.

The concept, sustainability, has developed throughout the years and has become an important part for different actors around the world. Due to many organizations like the United Nations acknowledging this aspect together with governments, initiatives and laws have been implemented for businesses to follow. This forms the basis of what is now called ESG which includes three individual aspects: environment, social responsibility and governance. One of the actors includes investors who have now started to shift their focus onto sustainable investments. In order for them to make decisions about the company's way of working towards a sustainable business, analytics began to measure both each individual aspect of ESG and as a whole. Therefore, ESG rating has become a well-known way of measuring how companies perform when it comes to environment, social responsibility and governance. The pharmaceutical industry in Europe is the second largest in the world and has become acknowledged due to the covid-19 pandemic. It has not only faced criticism and uncertainties both during and after the pandemic, but also faces problems in each individual aspect of ESG. When it comes to environmental issues, the pharmaceutical industry stands for 55% more of carbon emissions than the automotive sector due to non-sustainable supply chains. For the aspect, social responsibility, their main problems include addiction, antibiotic resistance and accessibility of pharmaceuticals. Further, governance issues include illegal marketing and fraud. Due to this, governments and organizations have put pressure on businesses to work towards a sustainable industry. Therefore, ESG ratings have become an important measurement for investors. The aim of the study is to analyze the relationship between ESG and financial performance in the pharmaceutical industry in Europe with a time period of 2018-2022. The results will indicate if the Shareholder’s theory or the Stakeholder’s theory is more applicable for this industry. The result shows a negative significant relationship between the overall rating of ESG and Tobin’s. When it comes to the individual aspect, governance is statically proved to have a negative significant relationship with Tobin’s Q. This concludes that the Shareholder’s theory is more aligned with the results meaning that the pharmaceutical industry may focus on profit maximization for shareholders. Since there was a non-statically proven relationship between ESG and ROA, the study suggests further research within this topic.

Background: Women’s football is in an intense growth phase both internationally and nationally. More and more men’s clubs are establishing themselves in the market while many women’s clubs struggle financially. Previous research shows that football clubs have a combination of sporting, financial, and social demands, which makes it difficult to achieve balance in their operations. Swedish women’s football has unique conditions, which, together with the fact that it is a fragmented research area, shows the need to study the subject more closely. Purpose: Our study aims to identify and analyze how organizations with elite activities in women's football navigate the complex landscape of stakeholder requirements in their long-term business governance. By shedding light on these trade-offs, we aim to contribute to the understanding and improvement of women's football governance. Method: The study is a qualitative multiple-case study with an interpretive perspective. The study has been based on an inductive research approach with purposive sampling. The empirical material has mainly been collected from eleven semi-structured interviews with representatives from clubs in OBOS Damallsvenskan and Elitettan. Conclusion: The study shows that the associations studied find it challenging to balance finances, organization, and sporting objectives. They are dependent on external funding, which is difficult to forecast, making long-term planning difficult. Many stakeholders have similar demands and expectations of the organization. As a result, fewer trade-offs between stakeholders are necessary, increasing the potential for synergies in value-creating activities. Thus, organizations should focus on creating value for as many stakeholders as possible by following these steps: classification, internal & external needs, shared values, implementation and follow-up, and collaboration. / Bakgrund: Damfotboll befinner sig i en stark tillväxtfas både på ett internationellt och nationellt plan. Fler och fler herrklubbar etablerar sig på marknaden, samtidigt som många damklubbar har det svårt ekonomiskt. Tidigare forskning visar att fotbollsklubbar har en kombination av sportsliga, ekonomiska och sociala krav, vilket gör det svårt att uppnå balans i verksamheten. Svensk damfotboll har unika förutsättningar, vilket tillsammans med att det är ett fragmenterat forskningsområde visar på behovet av att studera ämnet närmare. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att identifiera och analysera hur organisationer med elitverksamhet inom damfotboll gör avväganden mellan intressenters krav i sin långsiktiga styrning av verksamheten. Metod: Studien är en kvalitativ multipel fallstudie med ett tolkande perspektiv. Studien har utgått i från en induktiv forskningsansats med ett målstyrt urval. Det empiriska materialet har huvudsakligen inhämtats från elva semi-strukturerade intervjuer med representanter från klubbar i OBOS Damallsvenskan och Elitettan. Slutsats: Studien visar att de undersökta föreningarna har svårt att skapa balans mellan ekonomi, organisation och sportsliga målsättningar. Föreningarna är beroende av svårprognosticerad extern finansiering, vilket försvårar möjligheten till en långsiktig planering och styrning. Många intressenter har liknande krav och förväntningar på verksamheten. Detta leder till att färre avvägningar mellan intressenter är nödvändiga och ökar möjligheten för synergier i värdeskapande aktiviteter. Därmed bör verksamheterna fokusera på att skapa värde för så många intressenter som möjligt genom att utgå från följande steg: klassificering, interna & externa behov, gemensamma värden, genomförande och uppföljning samt samverkan.

Master of Science / Department of Communications and Agricultural Education / Jason D. Ellis / Agricultural sustainability is a growing concern for the general public because of agriculture’s considerable use of land, water, and other natural resources. In response to this growing concern, companies have started to publish sustainability reports to highlight sustainable practices. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of sustainability reporting from companies in the agri-food supply chain. The research objectives of this study were (1) determine the prevalence of sustainability reporting among food system companies, (2) identify, to what extent, the three components of the triple bottom line model are represented in sustainability reports, (3) determine if/how sustainability reporting differs among sectors of the agriculture supply chain, (4) assess how companies describe stakeholder engagement in sustainability reports, and (5) explore which aspects of reputation are included in sustainability reports. In total, 66 agribusinesses were included in this study of which 16 had published sustainability reports. Data for the quantitative content analysis were collected using a scorecard based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. Results indicated that sustainability reporting is limited among companies involved in the agriculture and food supply chain. Though better than sectors studied in previous research, agribusinesses also struggle to explain stakeholder engagement and need to focus sustainability report content to align more closely with the three components of the triple bottom line model – environment, economic, and social.

This study focused on Corporate Community Involvement Disclosures (CCID), a theme usually disclosed under Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures (CSRD) in annual reports. The primary aim of the research is to investigate the genuineness and raison d'être of CCID in annual reports. To do this the researcher adopted a holistic approach employing an extensive theoretical framework, which integrates Legitimacy, Stakeholder, Agency, Signalling and Semiotics theories and asking three main research questions. Firstly, what are the motivations for CCID in annual reports? Secondly, what is the information content of CCID in annual reports? And lastly, how real is CCID in annual reports? That is can CCID be read and construed as a real measure of corporate community development (CCD)? Using content analysis and a quality score index the study examined a panel dataset covering the period from 1999 to 2009. The data was collected from a sample of 803 annual reports of 73 UK companies taken from the FTSE 350 companies and cutting across all ten industries of the Industrial Classification Benchmark (ICB) Index. Generally the study is more of a quantitative study with hypotheses developed and tested with panel data regression models in order to provide answers to the three research questions. However, due to the sensitivity of the third research question, in addition to panel regression, the researcher performed a qualitative analysis of question three using semiotics. The study provided evidence to show that CCID as disclosed in annual reports have an undertone of reputation/impression management like other CSR disclosures (CSRD). The community activities reported do not seem to address the expectations of the local communities per se; rather the disclosures seemed to be targeted at a wider stakeholder group that is likely to offer immediate reward for such disclosures. Similarly result from semiotic analysis revealed that signification of reality is either doubtful or unreal for most companies sampled. The study is unique as it is the first to explore the reality of CCID as it appears in annual reports using a combination of a panel study approach and semiotics. In addition a major contribution of the study is that it explored the ways in which multiple theoretical underpinnings can inform research by developing a CCID Meta-theory model and thus provided a robust and enriched analysis and unique insights into the CCID phenomenon.

Titel: Finansiella målsättningar inom årsredovisningar – En kvantitativ studie av svenska börsbolag Nivå: C-uppsats i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Andreas Hamrén och Nils Ryngmark Handledare: Arne Fagerström Datum: 2016 – januari Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva och jämföra skillnader angående finansiella målsättningar i årsredovisningar samt hur förutbestämda faktorer påverkar dessa skillnader.   Metod: Studien har en kvantitativ metod som utgår från en deduktiv ansats. Insamlingen av data har skett från årsredovisningar, som sedan ställts mot tidigare forskning och teorier. Dokumenten har granskats med en innehållsanalys för att sedan undersökas genom korrelationsanalyser som presenteras tillsammans med resultatet. De oberoende variablerna som studien utgått ifrån är bransch, storlek, antal styrelseledamöter, lönsamhet och skuldsättningsgrad. Resultat och slutsats: Studiens resultat tydliggör flertalet skillnader och likheter gällande finansiella målsättningar. De slutsatser som dras utifrån de statistiska testerna är att storlek och skuldsättningsgrad hade signifikanta samband med antalet finansiella målsättningar. Styrelseledamöter visade ett svagare samband, medan lönsamhet inte hade någon korrelation. Den deskriptiva variabeln bransch åskådliggjorde stora skillnader mellan segmenten och gav en bild av tillhörighetens betydelse för differensen. Uppsatsen bidrag: Det praktiska bidraget ger en bild över förekomsten av finansiella målsättningar på Stockholmsbörsen samt vilka typer av mål som är vanligast förekommande. Bidraget kan ge ett förslag till nynoterade bolag i uppbyggnadsfasen angående i vilken utsträckning marknaden presenterar målsättningar. Det teoretiska bidraget kan stärka intressent- och signaleringsteorins betydelse gällande frekvensen av målsättningar. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Förslag till vidare forskning är att komplimentera studien med intervjuer, detta för att få en uppfattning av de bakomliggande faktorerna till utformandet av målsättningarna. Ett ytterligare förslag är att inkludera exempelvis den danska börsen som är liknande den svenska för att finna avvikelser mellan företagskulturerna. Nyckelord: Finansiella målsättningar, frivillig information, framåtblickande information, årsredovisningar, asymmetrisk information, intressentteorin, signaleringsteorin / Title: Financial targets in annual reports – a quantitative study of swedish listed companies Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Author: Andreas Hamrén and Nils Ryngmark Supervisor: Arne Fagerström Date: 2016 - January Aim: The purpose of this study is to describe and compare differences regarding the financial objectives in the annual reports and how predetermined factors influence the differences. Method: This study has a quantitative method based on a deductive approach. Data have been collected from annual reports, which are then set against previous research and theories. The documents were reviewed by a content analysis then examined by correlation analysis and presented along with the results. The independent variables of the study were industry, company size, number of board members, profitability and debt ratio. Result and conclusion: The result of the study make clear majority of the differences and similarities regarding financial objectives. The conclusions drawn on the basis of the statistical tests are that the size and debt ratio have a significant correlation with the number of financial objectives. Board members showed a weaker correlation, while profitability had no correlation at all. The descriptive variable industry illustrated the large differences between the segments and gave a picture of the importance of industry affiliation. Contribution of the thesis: The practical contribution illustrates the occurrence of financial targets on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and the types of goals that are most common. The contribution may give proposals to new listed companies in the construction phase regarding the extent to which the market presents the objectives. The theoretical contribution can give strength to the importance of stakeholder and signaling theory regarding the frequency of objectives. Suggestions for future research: Suggestions for further research is to implement studies with interviews, in order to gain an understanding of the underlying incentives of the financial objectives. A further proposal is to include, for example, the Danish stock exchange that is similar to the Swedish in order to find similarities and differences between corporate cultures. Key words: Financial objectives, goals, voluntary information, forward-looking information, annual reports, asymmetric information, stakeholder theory, signaling theory

Oron över de miljömässiga effekterna av företags handlingar har ökat, och således även miljö­arbetet för en hållbar framtid. Företag kan arbeta med miljöfrågor på flera olika sätt och miljö­arbete blir vanligare inom små och medelstora företag. Fastighetsbranschen har stor energiförbrukning, många farliga kemiska produkter och hög generering av fast avfall, vilket resulterar i miljöpåverkningar. Fastighetsbranschens miljöpåverkan resulterar i att miljöfrågor borde vara viktiga för företag i branschen.   Syftet med studien är att identifiera och beskriva vilka av de proaktiva motivationskällorna: personliga värderingar, intressenternas påtryckningar, legitimitetsskapande och konkurrensfördelar, som är anledningen till att miljöarbete initierades, pågår och redovisas i fyra kommunala små och medelstora fastighetsföretag i Skaraborg. För att uppfylla studiens syfte samlades empiriskt material in från fyra kommunala fastighetsföretag: Tidaholms Bostads AB, AB Karlsborgsbostäder, AB Bostäder Lidköping och AB Skövdebostäder. Det empiriska materialet samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med informanter med olika befattningar, samt granskning av årsredovisningar från 2014. Studiens resultat och slutsats är att motivationen till varför miljöarbete initierades och pågår till viss del har förändrats. Motivationskällan till att det initierades hos alla företagen är personliga värderingar hos personal. Motivationskällorna till det pågående miljöarbetet är hos alla företag personliga värderingar hos personal och intressenternas påtryckningar från personal. I ett av företagen är dessutom motivationskällan konkurrensfördelar motivation till det pågående arbetet. Motivationskällan intressenternas påtryckningar från ägare är också till grund för det pågående miljöarbetet i ett av företagen. Vår slutsats är också att motivationskällan till att kommunala fastighetsföretag redovisar miljöarbete är legitimitetsskapande, vilket innebär att motivationskällan till redovisning och miljöarbete är olika. / The concerns over how activities of enterprises have affected the environment have increased, and therefore enterprises environmental activities have increased to reach a sustainable future. Enterprises can work with environmental issues in several ways, and environmental work is becoming more common in SMEs. The business of real estate has large energy consumption, several hazardous chemicals and a high generation of solid waste, resulting in affecting the environment. Environmental issues should be important for enterprises in the business of real estate, because of the environmental impact the business have.  The purpose of this study is to identify and describe which of the proactive motivations: personal values, stakeholder pressure, legitimation and competitive advantages, that is the reason to why environmental activities were initiated, occurs and reports in four municipal   real estate SMEs in Skaraborg. Empirical material was collected from four municipal real estate companies: Tidaholms Bostads AB, AB Karlsborgsbostäder, AB Bostäder Lidköping and AB Skövdebostäder to fulfil the purpose. The empirical material was collected through semi-structured interviews with informants with different positions, and examination of annual reports from 2014. The result and conclusion of the study is that the motivations of why environmental activities were initiated and occurs have, to some extent, changed. The proactive motivation for the initiation of the activities in all companies is staffs’ personal values. The motivations of why environmental activities occur in all companies is staffs’ personal values and stakeholder pressure from the staff. The motivation, competitive advantages, is in one of the companies a motivation to the occurring environmental activities. Stakeholder pressure from owners is in one of the companies a motivation to the occurring environmental activities. Our conclusion is also that the motivation to the reporting of environmental activities in municipal real estate businesses is legitimation, resulting in the motivations to report and environmental activities differ.

The Swedish Initiative on Sustainable Palm Oil in food and cosmetic and detergent industries hasemerged in 2014 following other EU national initiatives. This thesis project aims to explore thecondition of the initiative by examining who the key important stakeholders are and how these palmoil key stakeholders in Swedish market develop and implement their Sustainable Palm OilInitiatives. A qualitative approach using case study technique is used to guide the study andsupported by a combination of several theoretical frameworks, such as stakeholders’ theory and thevalue chain concept to address the research questions. Rooted from six organizations as study cases,the study found that the key important stakeholders for these organizations in developing andimplementing the initiatives are retailers, suppliers, consumers, trade associations, and Non-Governmental Organizations. Furthermore, the study also found that these six organizations useethical sourcing tool based on Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certification scheme toimplement the Initiative in their respective member companies. As authorisers, the Swedish FoodFederation and the Swedish Cosmetics, Detergents and Toiletries Association developed Palm OilWorking Group and a simple platform for their member companies both in Swedish food andcosmetic and detergent industries in order to spread and manage the initiative. Världsnaturfonden,on the other hand serves as an external influencer that conducts lobbying and facilitations to supportSwedish companies to use certified segregated palm oil products to drive responsible palm oilproduction. The results show that Kicks, Croda, and Fazer facilitate the operationalization of ethicalsourcing initiative throughout their primary and supporting value chain activities. In addition,intertwined relationship between upstream and downstream parts of palm oil supply chain networksinfluences the outcome of the Swedish Initiative on Sustainable Palm Oil in spreading the initiativetoward market transformation in Sweden.

摘要 司馬庫斯村，一個位於新竹縣山區的偏僻村莊，在過去幾年來為自己建立了一 個口盃，不僅成為著名的觀光景點，也是台灣在地生態旅遊的榜樣。而在漫長 的觀光發展過程中，仍然能夠保有其主體性則是其獨有的特色。本研究旨在論 證司馬庫斯族人，如何在眾多利害關係方的糾葛下，依舊能維持其對生態旅遊 的堅持。本文將針對三個不同的，分別由總體層面(非政府組織 (NGOs)、政府 機關、觀光客、私人投資者，以及學者）與個體層面 (村落長老、家庭以及教 會)，闡述司馬庫斯與各個外部利害關係人間的互動及其影響。本文主要立基於 二手文獻，但也包含了部份原始資料，例如訪談記錄及報章文獻。本文透過個 體及總體層面闡明各個利害關係方間的衝擊、變化及發展。在研究過程中有數 個重大的發現，首先，社群的凝聚–包括在地教會的支持，以及一位深具個人魅 力的村落長老–對文化及傳統的關注、對自決的重視、許多不同面向上的賦權 (empowerment)及對觀光發展過程的掌控，是司馬庫斯村民們能夠維持其對生態 旅遊的堅持的主要原因。其次，本案體現了透過對挑戰的克服，及對信仰與傳 統的信心，成功實現了替代發展。 / Abstract Smangus Village, a remote community in the mountains of Hsinchu County, has made a name for itself in the last few years. It has become a famous tourist destination and role model for successful indigenous ecotourism business in Taiwan. The power to maintain subjectivity during a long process of tourism development is its trademark. This study will demonstrate how the people of Smangus could maintain their way of tourism business even though they had to tangle with various stakeholders. To illustrate the influence and interaction of various external stakeholders with the village, this thesis will investigate from the macro level (Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), government agencies, private investors, tourists, and scholars) and the micro level (the village leader, families and the church) across three different time periods. The research is mainly based on secondary literature however it also includes primary sources such as interviews and articles from Taiwanese newspapers. The thesis illuminates impact, change, and development in terms of each stakeholder at both micro and macro levels. This examination made important discoveries about the successful implementation of indigenous ecotourism. The research concludes, firstly, that (a.) coherence in the community which includes a supportive church and a charismatic village chief, (b.) the focus on culture and traditions, (c.) emphasis on self-determination, (d.) the empowerment in various dimensions, and (e.) the ability to exercise power over the tourism development process are the main reasons why the people of Smangus can maintain their way of tourism business. Secondly, it exemplifies a case which was able to achieve alternative development through overcoming challenges and faith in their beliefs and traditions.

本研究主要探討公司投入企業社會責任(Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR)，以及發生相關負面事件(Corporate Social Irresponsibility, CSIR)時，對於企業營收的影響，亦即消費者是否會因為企業對社會所產生的正、負面影響，來改變其商品購買意願。 最終，研究結果顯示，整體而言，企業投入CSR能影響銷貨的效果有限。然而，當企業的社會表現有所提升時，可以刺激未來銷貨成長，顯示兩者間存在比率以及因果上的正向關係，與「權益相關人理論」（Stakeholder Theory）的說法相符。另外研究結果也發現，相較於生產成本面，CSR主要可以藉由提升銷貨收入來影響財務績效，值得注意的是，此效果會隨著時間經過而產生遞減。 / This study examines whether the sales revenue of firms engaging in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or related adverse events (Corporate Social Irresponsibility, CSIR) occurs. That is, whether consumers will base on the CSR record of business to make them change their purchase intention. Finally, we find that the effect of Corporate Social Responsibility to corporate sales revenue is generally limited. However, when corporate social performance has been improved, it can stimulate future sales growth rate, and it also shows that the positive cause and effect relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and sales revenue, and the result is consistent with the "Stakeholder Theory ". Furthermore, we also find that CSR can enhance financial performance by sales increased rather than reducing cost of production, and it is worth noting that this effect will bring about ‘diminishing marginal return’ as time pass through.