Our planet suffers from severe climate change and environmental issues has never been as important as it is now. Countries and communities come together to get involved in environmental questions and to work against a sustainable future. Companies are also expected to take act on this concern and incorporate sustainability into their business practices. To account for this, company’s disclosure a sustainability report and the numbers of companies that do so has increased rapidly the last years. From 2011 to 2013 there was almost a 50% increase of submitted sustainability reports. Since then, sustainability reporting has gone from optional to mandatory as a new law came into place in 2016. However, as companies start to disclosure sustainability reports more than ever before, new issues have arisen. The lack of regulation means that there is no guarantee for quality in the report and studies has shown that the stakeholders demand higher quality and more transparency of the sustainability report. Thus, it could be of importance for companies to produce reports of better quality in order to meet the demands of their stakeholders. Retaining a good relationship is crucial and it affects the growth of the company as it affects competitive advantage and the possibility to manage risks. Previous literature has found evidence that stakeholder pressure has influence on the transparency, which has similarities to quality, of the sustainability reports globally. With this thesis we aim to contribute with additional information to existing literature with a new geographical area, Sweden. We also aim to contribute to understanding of how quality of the sustainability reports can be determined. The critical assessment of the sustainability reports from each stakeholder becomes more important and previous literature has shown that different stakeholders have different effect on transparency in the sustainability reports. First and foremost, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate if the pressure from different stakeholder groups has an effect on the quality of the sustainability report. We intend to do so with the following research question: Does stakeholder pressure have an effect on the quality of sustainability reports? The companies will be split into four different groups based on the industry the company operates within and the sub-purpose is to see if there is any difference in the impact on the quality of the sustainability reports between the different groups. The quality will be determined by adherence level to the GRI G4 framework, how many other standards and guidelines the report is in compliance with and the existence of external assurance. The population is the 127 companies who has their reports available in the GRI database. We have conducted a quantitative study using a linear regression analysis on those 127 companies. The results led us to the conclusion that the relationship between stakeholder pressure and the quality of the sustainability reports cannot be explained by the model used in this thesis. A two-sample t test was conducted for each group of industry to see if there was any difference of the mean of quality if the companies was represented in the industry or not. The results showed us that the mean of the quality was higher for the companies operating in an environmentally sensitive industry.

Background: CEO duality has been a highly discussed topic for the last 20 years. The trend shows that more and more companies and countries move towards a separation of the roles of CEO and chairman of the board, but the empirical results show little evidence that this is beneficial for firm performance. The two main accepted theories explaining if CEO duality has a positive or negative effect on firm performance has been the agency theory and the stewardship theory Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explain CEO duality´s effect on firm performance based on the agency and stewardship theory by analyzing and comparing the U.S. as an agency country versus Sweden & Japan as a stewardship country. The study also aims to contribute with evidence if a stewardship country as Sweden instead would benefit from a CEO duality board structure.   Method: To be able to fulfill our purpose was a deductive approach used for this study. A quantitative empirical method is used and data for the various dependent, independent and control variables were collected in order to get the results needed to be able to give answers to the stated hypotheses. The data collection consists of data from a total of 200 firms. 100 firms were collected from the U.S. market in order to represent the agency theory where 50 had a CEO duality board structure and 50 without. Furthermore, data from 50 Swedish non-CEO duality companies and 50 Japanese firms with CEO duality were collected as the stewardship country. The data was obtained between the years 2016-2020. Conclusion: The result indicates that CEO duality on some performance variables have a negative impact on firm performance. Contrary to our first hypothesis, our results suggested evidence that CEO duality had a negative effect on firm performance in the stewardship country (Sweden & Japan). In line with our second hypothesis, our results also suggested that CEO duality also had a negative impact on firm performance in the agency country, USA. Although not all performance variables were significant, the thesis could not provide any support for the stewardship theory explaining CEO duality relationship on firm performance.

The 2008-2009 global financial crisis resulting in some banks collapsing has raised questions about the corporate governance of financial institutions. Some bank managers lack an understanding of the role of corporate governance in preventing bank failures. In this multiple case study, data were collected through interviews and triangulated with annual reports to explore the strategies some bank managers need to improve their understanding of the role of corporate governance in preventing bank failures in Zimbabwe. The 7 study participants were purposefully recruited from a larger population of 19 bank managers responsible for corporate governance and compliance operating in Zimbabwe between 2009 and 2015. This study was grounded in the concept of corporate governance using the agency theory. The central research question explored strategies bank managers can employ to improve their understanding of the role of corporate governance in preventing bank failures in Zimbabwe. The transcribed interviews were coded to generate themes and validated through member checking. Four themes emerged from the research: the need for improvement on compliance to corporate governance policies and regulations, recruitment of qualified and competent directors who should be independent non executive in majority, risk management and internal control, and training, education, and awareness of best practices. This study may have a positive social impact in that a stable and profitable banking environment creates and sustains employment and results in an improvement in the individuals' standard of living.

During the last few years, companies have had an increasing interest on playing a more significant role in society, besides their merely economic function. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a relevant concept leading them to do so. However, after the recent economic decline, the business model of most corporations had to be reviewed, including the CSR policy. This dissertation work discusses the impact of recession on CSR. The topic is highly relevant, since the consequences of the economic crisis have still a strong influence on business environment, in the form of a degrading level of trust and a decline of moral commitment to society. In order to evaluate this phenomenon, a research was conducted in three companies that are engaged in long-term CSR. With case study as research method, the impact of recession on CSR has been identified and a trend for future development has been outlined. As one of the main conclusions of this research it was proved, that after the economic decline, rather than dismissed, CSR was re-aimed in a more efficient way. CSR has helped companies to survive better the economic crisis and has taught them, how it can be beneficial not only for business but also for the society.

This study investigates whether family ownership influences firms’ accounting and market-based performance as measured by ROA respectively Tobin’s Q. The Swedish market is especially interesting due to its unique corporate governance system, and because previous studies based on a Swedish sample present contradictory findings on the family-performance relationship. Furthermore, we explore whether the stake, the active involvement of family members, and the presence of other blockholders, can be connected to firm performance. The results suggest that family firms are related to superior accounting performance as compared to non-family firms, and that actively involved family members are related to the positive relation. The evidence on market performance shows that families are awarded lower valuations as compared to non-family firms. The market results seem to be driven by extensive control in terms of voting rights or the combined monitoring powers of multiple blockholders, as family firms with a moderate stake of 20-50%, and firms without other blockholders, are not related to market discounts. Connecting to agency theory, the findings suggest that family ownership is related to reduced agency costs type I, thus increasing the profitability, but may be associated with higher type II costs if their control is too extensive.

Bakgrund: I Sverige finns det många företag både stora och små som använder sig utav den kooperativa organisationsmodellen. Trots att kooperativa företag är en stor del av näringslivet är kunskapen om dem begränsad. Kooperativa företag ägs av sina medlemmar bygger på principen demokratisk medlemskontroll, vilket innebär en medlem en röst. Eftersom kooperationer bygger påmedlemskontroll påverkar detta hur beslutsfattande ser ut i organisationen, vilket gör beslutsfattandeett intressant ämne att studera djupare i kooperationer. Det finns mycket tidigare forskning om beslut däremot finns det inte det när det kommer till kooperationer. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att öka kunskapen inom beslutsfattande i kooperativ genom att ur styrelsens och ledningens perspektiv undersöka hur de resonerar sig fram till beslut, vad deras roll ibeslutsfattande får för konsekvenser och hur de arbetar med att representera sina medlemmar i besluten. Metod: Studien har genomförts som en kvalitativ flerfallstudie. Studien följer en abduktiv ansats och har ett fenomenologiskt perspektiv. Det empiriska materialet från fyra olika kooperativ har samlats in med hjälp av semi-strukturerade intervjuer med subjekten. Slutsats: Beslutsfattare inom ett kooperativ använder sig huvudsakligen av ett konsekvenslogiskt resonemang för att komma fram till beslut och beslutsfattarna eftersträvar rationalitet i sina beslut genom att välgrundade beslutsunderlag ses som viktigt. När besluts resoneras fram är det viktigt att desom är involverade i beslutsfattandet måste få möjlighet att förstå sig på beslutsunderlaget och det bör det förankras bland involverade parter. Studien påvisar vikten av kommunikation och motivation bakom de beslut som har tagits av organisationen för att hantera motstånd, ge beslutet legitimitet samt underlätta implementering. Genom studien kan vi dra slutsatsen att medlemsdeltagandet är inte lika stort som det kunde ha varit och de kooperationer i vår studie som upplevde skilda åsikter bland medlemmarna, som var av majoritet, såg inte det som något negativt utan att det var bra med många åsikter. Styrelsen och ledningen arbetar med att representera medlemmarna genom att ta beslut som är i organisationens bästa intresse däremot orsakar informationsasymmetrin mellan medlem och styrelsen/ledningen att medlemmens styrsignaler inte alltid får gehör. / Background: In Sweden there are many companies both large and small that use the cooperativeorganization model. Although co-operative enterprises are a large part of the business community, the knowledge of them is limited. Co-operative enterprises are owned by their members based on the principle of democratic member control, which means one member one vote. Since cooperatives are based on member control, it affects how decision-making is constructed in the organization, which makes decision-making an interesting topic to study in depth in cooperatives. There is a lot of previous research on decision-making, but not when it comes to co-operatives.  Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to increase knowledge of decision-making in co-operatives by examining, from the perspective of the board and management, how they reason their way to decisions, the consequences of their role in the decision-making and how they work to represent their members in the decisions.  Method: The study has been conducted as a qualitative multi-case study. The study follows an abductive approach and has a phenomenological perspective. The empirical material has been collected from four different co-operatives through semi-structured interviews with subjects. Conclusion: Decision-makers in a co-operative mainly use consequentialist reasoning to reason their way to decisions, and the decision-makers strive for rationality in their decisions which is shown through the emphasis of having well-informed decision-making materials. When decisions are reasonedout, it is important that those involved in the decision-making process must be given the opportunity to understand the basis of the decision and it should be anchored among the parties involved. The study demonstrates the importance of communication and motivation behind the decisions taken by the organization in order to manage resistance, give the decision legitimacy and facilitate implementation. We can also conclude that member participation is low, and the subjects that experienced differingopinions among members, did not see this as something negative, rather useful. The board and management work to represent the members by making decisions that are in the best interest of the organization, but the information asymmetry between the member and the board/management means that the member´s control signals are not always heard.

Familjeföretag är en av de vanligaste företagskonstellationerna i Sverige och kan ställas inför unika utmaningar. Att vara ett familjeföretag innebär att det i många fall finns komplexa familjerelationer i företaget och att det kan vara svårt att skilja på privat- och arbetsliv. På grund av detta löper familjeföretag ofta större risk för att konflikter uppstår. Tidigare studier menar att revisorn kan vara den första att upptäcka problem i ett familjeföretag och därmed fylla en viktig funktion genom att anta fler roller än som enbart granskare. Det finns dock de som menar att revision bör separeras från andra tjänster för att inte riskera att skada revisorns oberoende. Vilken roll som revisorn har, eller bör ha, är således omdiskuterat vilket ligger till grund för denna studies syfte som är att bidra med förståelse för hur familjeföretag uppfattar revisorns roll. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer med respondenter från sju olika familjeföretag. Vidare har agentteorin och stewardshipteorin använts för att analysera empirin och därmed förstå relationerna, familjeföretagens unika karaktärsdrag samt revisorns roll. Studien visar att familjeföretagen uppfattar revisorns roll som granskare och rådgivare. Rådgivare är den roll de främst efterfrågar och är i behov av medan granskare snarare är något de behöver på grund av att de, enligt lag, är revisionspliktiga. Revisorn som granskare är dock inte enbart ett nödvändigt ont utan även något familjeföretagen värdesätter då revisionen utgör en kvalitetsstämpel. Tidigare studier, där revisorer tillfrågats, visar istället att revisorns dominerande roll är som granskare. Detta tyder på skillnader mellan familjeföretagens och revisorernas uppfattningar om revisorns roll. Studien kan därför bidra till att revisorer kan förstå familjeföretagens uppfattning om revisorns roll, och vad de efterfrågar, och därmed uppnå ett bättre samarbete. / Family businesses are one of the most common business constellations in Sweden and can be faced with unique challenges. Being a family business means that in many cases there are complex family relationships in the company and that it can be difficult to distinguish between private and work life. Therefore, family businesses often run a greater risk of conflicts arising. Previous studies suggest that the auditor can be the first to discover problems in a family business and thus fulfill an important function by taking on more roles than as solely an auditor. However, there are those who believe that auditing should be separated from other services in order not to risk damaging the auditor's independence. What role the auditor has, or should have, is thus debated. This is the foundation for the purpose of this study which is to contribute with an understanding of how family businesses perceive the auditor's role. The study has been accomplished by using semi-structured interviews with respondents from seven different family businesses. Furthermore, the agency theory and the stewardship theory have been used to analyze the empirical evidence and thereby understand the relationships, the unique characteristics of family businesses and the role of the auditor. The study shows that family businesses perceive the auditor's role as auditor and advisor. Advisor is the role they mainly request and need, while auditor is rather something they need because they are required to audit by law. However, the auditor as an auditor is not only a must, but also something that family businesses value, as the audit is a sign of quality. Previous studies, where auditors were asked, show that the auditor’s dominant role is as an auditor. This indicates differences between the family businesses' and the auditors' perceptions of the auditor's role. This study can therefore contribute to auditors being able to understand the family businesses' perception of the auditor's role, and what they demand, and thereby achieve better cooperation.

Internet usage has become a norm in most organizations where organizations have started monitoring employee, Internet usage, e-mail communications, social network usage and etc. With the increased Internet usage, Internet misuse by employees has increased the potential for security vulnerabilities for these organizations. Organizations have established various security countermeasures such as sanctions, incentives, and Internet usage policies in order to prevent Internet misuse and protect the organizational information assets. However, it is important for organizations to understand whether these Internet usage polices are effective in mitigating the threats towards Internet misuse. Therefore, this dissertation investigates the impact of different countermeasures such as sanctions, incentives and awareness of being monitored on Internet usage policy compliance. Furthermore, it investigates the impact of organizational stewardship culture consisting of collectivism and low power distance, on Internet usage policy compliance behavior. A research model was developed to test the influence of penalties (sanction severity, sanction certainty, sanction celerity), incentives, collectivism and power distance on Internet usage policy compliance intention. Furthermore, it investigates the impact of awareness of being monitored which has not received much attention from information security researchers. In order to test the hypothesized relationships in the research model, data was collected utilizing an online survey through an online survey panel provider, Amazon Mechanical Turk. The findings indicate that, sanction certainty, awareness of being monitored, collectivism and power distance have a significant influence on Internet usage policy compliance intention of the sample population. Additionally, when employees are aware that they are being monitored, it increases the effectiveness of sanction severity and celerity. This dissertation makes several contributions to research and practitioners. It contributes to research by investigating the impact of two contrasting theories where agency theory assumes that employees are motivated through extrinsic factors whereas stewardship theory assumes that they are motivated through intrinsic means (organizational stewardship culture). It contributes to practitioners as well by highlighting the importance of controls such as computer monitoring, swift punishments in protecting organizational assets. As the results suggest, apart from the controls, organizational stewardship culture can play an important role in mitigating some of these threats as well.

Purpose: The study aims to show if there is a significant relationship between the CEOs recompense and the size of the company between the industries. The goal is to compare the size of a company with the variable that shows performance and which of them who has the strongest connection to the recompense. Method: The essay stands on a quantitative approach where secondary data has been gathered from the year of 2015 annual reports. The population includes all the Swedish companies in the real estate-, finance- and pharmaceutical industry that are listed on the stock exchange. Selection has been made on 30 of these companies, 10 in each industry. With the statistical analyses the methods that have been used are multiple regression model and correlation analysis. Results: The results show that the company that paid the highest recompense in the real estate industry was Kungsleden. The company in the finance industry was Kinnevik and in the pharmaceutical industry it was Pfizer. Conclusion: After analyzing the result the conclusion can be made that there is a significant relationship between the CEOs recompense and the size of the company only in the real estate industry. When comparing the variable that dictates the size of the company (net sales)  and the performance variable (MVA), the conclusion that can be made is that MVA has a stronger connection to the CEOs total recompense in the pharmaceutical industry in relation to the other industries. Within the finance industry there was no significant relationship with the CEOs recompense and the selected variables.

In Sweden all limited liability companies are required to have a board of directors. The board of directors’ task is to manage the business of the firm, but in recent years boards have been subjected to critical review in the media, questioning the tasks and structure of the board. Further, there are differences in the regulations regarding limited liability companies, depending on whether they are private or public companies. Moreover, a majority of the research within the area of corporate governance has been conducted on public companies. However, corporate governance in small and medium sized enterprises (SME) has in the last 30 years become a field of interest. Several scholars and doctorates have used different board roles to explain e.g. the tasks, demographics, and financial performance. The board roles are mainly derived from the agency-, resource dependence-, and stewardship theory. Many papers have come to the conclusion that a board of directors who performs their task, and/or have a certain board demography is beneficial to the firm. Hence, the board and its activity is of importance, however, a general image is conveyed that boards in SMEs rarely are active, but rather are seen as a necessary mean in order to have a firm. Due to this, the research question in this thesis is: What motivates small and medium sized firms to have an active board and are boards in Norr- and Västerbotten active? The criteria for having an active board has been derived from antecedent research and are further recommendations from StyrelseAkademien. Three different board roles have been used with the purpose of explaining the motivation behind having an active board. Further, this thesis has had a quantitative method, and in order to gather data a survey was sent out to board members in Norr- and Västerbotten. The results show that the motivation behind having an active board cannot be explained through the roles network and service of the board. The control role could partly explain the motivation behind having an active board of directors in SMEs in Norr- and Västerbotten, having a negative relationship to board activity. Moreover, due to the opposing results in terms of whether or not boards are active, an unambiguous answer could not be found. However, 49.1 percent of the sample is considered to be active. Lastly, the finding support that in order to have an active board, the firm must recognize a need to include outside directors.