Sammansättningen i svenska börsnoterade bolags ledningsgrupper består till stor del av medelålders män med svensk härkomst. Mångfalden i dagens Sverige återspeglas därmed inte i näringslivets topp, vilket kan leda till negativa konsekvenser för både företag och samhället i stort. Med hjälp av en välkänd teori inom den strategiska forskningen, the upper echelon theory, och tidigare forskning inom området ämnar vi förklara samband mellan risknivån i företag och ledningsgruppens sammansättning i form av ålder och kön. Vi har genomfört en kvantitativ studie där vi samlat in data om 1991 ledningsgrupper, vilka tillsammans omfattar nästan 14 000 observerade ledande befattningshavare. Den statistiska undersökningen har resulterat i att samband har anträffats mellan risken i företaget och ledningsgruppens sammansättning avseende både kön och ålder. Vi har dessutom funnit att branschen har en viss påverkan på vilka personer som ingår i ledningsgruppen.

Introduktion Den 1 december 2016 trädde en ändring av årsredovisningslagen (ÅRL, SFS 1995:1554) i kraft vilken innebär att stora företag ska upprätta en hållbarhetsredovisning från och med räkenskapsår efter den 31 december 2016. Påtagliga brister har uppmärksammats i hållbarhetsrapporternas innehåll efter utredningar av det första rapporteringsåret 2017, trots försöket att öka öppenheten. Flera studier har undersökt hållbarhetschefens effekt på hållbarhetsarbetet, däremot har få studier fokuserat på huruvida hållbarhetschefers egenskaper och roller påverkar innehållet och mängden redovisning i hållbarhetsrapporterna. Syfte Syftet är att förklara hur hållbarhetschefers olika egenskaper och roller påverkar innehåll och mängd i svenska noterade företags hållbarhetsrapporter. Metod En kvantitativ tvärsnittsstudie har genomförts på svenska noterade bolag med en anställd hållbarhetschef. Studien utgår från en deduktiv ansats där hypoteser formulerades med hjälp av Upper Echelon Theory, legitimitetsteori, institutionell teori samt tidigare studier. Datainsamlingen har samlats in genom en dokumentsstudie. Mängden operationaliserades till antal sidor och hållbarhetsrapporternas innehåll med hjälp av en checklista, där elva indikatorer från Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) användes för att bedöma innehållet. Slutsats Studien hittade ett signifikant samband att företag med hållbarhetschefer som suttit en längre tid på posten påverkar innehållet positivt i hållbarhetsrapporterna. Ett signifikant negativt samband hittades även mellan hållbarhetschefer med annat ansvar och innehållet i hållbarhetsrapporterna, det vill säga att innehållet påverkas negativt av att hållbarhetschefen har ett annat ansvar (HR, kommunikation eller marknad) utöver hållbarhet. Om hållbarhetschefen sitter i ledningen finner denna studie inget samband med att innehållet blir bättre i hållbarhetsrapporterna. Resultatet visade att hållbarhetschefers egenskaper och roller inte påverkar mängden redovisning i hållbarhetsrapporterna. / Introduction On December 1st 2016, the Swedish regulation regarding mandatory sustainability reporting was legislated for large companies, starting with financial years after December 31st 2016. The legislation is the first step for companies to be more transparent towards the society. Despite the initiatives, investigations have shown deficiencies in the content of the sustainability reports in the first reporting period. Earlier studies have focused on how sustainability managers affect the sustainability activities. However, only a few studies have focused on how the sustainability managers characteristics and roles affect the number of pages and the content of the sustainability reports.      Aim The aim is to explain how sustainability managers’ characteristics and roles affect the content and number of pages ofSwedish listed companies’ sustainability reports.   Method This study has a quantitative approach with a cross-cultural design and focused on Swedish listed companies with an employed sustainability manager. A deductive approach was used to formulate hypothesis from Upper Echelon Theory, legitimacy theory, institutional theory and earlier studies. This study used archival data in order to collect information about the variables. The variable content was operationalized through a checklist method where eleven GRI-indicators was used to determine the content of the sustainability report.  Conclusion If a sustainability manager has held the position for a longer time, it positively influences the content of the sustainability reports. Furthermore, if the sustainability manager has another responsibility than sustainability issues (HR, communication or marketing) it negatively influences the content of the sustainability reports. If the sustainability manager is a part of the management team, this study finds that it has no effect on the content in the sustainability reports. Sustainability managers’ characteristics and roles does not affect the number of pages in the sustainability report.

Det finns mycket forskning kring entreprenörskap samt rekrytering, dock är soloföretagarens upplevelse av sin första rekrytering ett outforskat område. Genom en kvalitativ forskningsmetod vill vi få en ökad förståelse för hur en soloföretagare upplever hinder och möjligheter när de tar sitt beslut om att bli arbetsgivare. Vi har fått en ökad förståelse genom att vi har genomfört en fokusgrupp samt fyra semistrukturerade intervjuer. De fick själva lyfta fram sina egna erfarenheter samt perspektiv på hur anställningen upplevdes. Vi har i denna studie valt att utgå från två dimensioner kön och ålder då vi har generella uppfattningar om att det kan skilja sig åt mellan dem. Studiens entreprenörer har yttrat sig om att de upplevt både hinder och möjligheter i samband med sin första rekrytering. Ytterligare har vi även en generell uppfattning om att anställa är ett mer riskfyllt beslut i jämförelse med att hyra in sina medarbetare. Studien visade dock att vår generella uppfattning endast stämde överens med två av våra entreprenörer.

This paper examines the association between individual managers and corporate reporting and operating decisions. To examine this question, I develop a dataset of 241 individual CEOs and CFOs, as well as audit committee chairs, covering the period of 1988 to 2009. Although audit committee chairs are tasked with monitoring insiders and not actually preparing the financial results, research suggests that each of these management groups could exert their individual "styles" on the reporting and operating decisions. Using this dataset, I find that each of these groups significantly influence accounting- and non-accounting-based corporate decisions. Also, I examine whether the influence of these individuals is impacted by characteristics of the corporation's operating environment. Using individual proxies for managerial discretion and job demands, as well as developing index measures for each of these constructs, I find that the influence of these particular managers is not impacted by the amount of discretion they have or their perceived job demands. Last, I find evidence that observable demographic measures explain some of the managers' decisions. These results add to the literature concerning the importance of individual managers to corporate decisions because they suggest that managers besides the CFO can significantly influence reporting and operating decisions, and the influence of these managers extends beyond accrual-based techniques to include real activities management decisions.

With the ongoing globalization and changes in the economic environment, organizations need to be flexible and adaptable towards new situations and opportunities. In a context where firms strategically reach across national borders, firms are encountering differing cultural backgrounds. Multinational corporations (MNCs) are confronted with the question of how to fill executive positions. The need for employees with international expertise arises to reap the advantage of nationality diversity by matching the complexity of the global environment with the right level of board capital. Such firm managers must work in increasingly international contexts and cross-cultural environments. Scholars have regarded diversity as an essential element that helps organizations and their executives to deal with uncertainties arising from globalization. (Koles 2014). The top executives of an organization are regarded as an essential criterion for firm´s success. Top managers have considerable influence over the fate of the organizations they lead. These trends have led to increasing instability in classic employment relationships and show greater diversity and mobility within organizational and occupational boundaries (Dokko/Wilk/Rothbard 2009; Greenhaus/Callanan 2012; Biemann/Zacher/Feldman 2012; Koch et al. 2017). This dissertation further aims at advancing our empirical understanding of top managers diversity, internationalisation and their careers. The three research manuscripts that form the core of this thesis advance research on top managers in several ways and extend knowledge in the area of executive characteristics. All three manuscripts are anchored in the European context and address topics that are relevant yet underexplored in extant, mostly centred in the US and Western economies top management literature (Tosi/Greckhamer 2004; Carter et al. 2009; Boyd et al. 2012; Dauth 2012).

Managerial characteristics have an important influence on strategy implementation. Previous studies have looked at the alignment of managerial characteristics with strategic type and aspects of performance. In all cases, the focus has been on corporate strategy and, predominantly, in private sector organisations. This study combines these objectives and investigates alignment between managerial characteristics, strategy and perceived performance. It focuses on management at the functional level in a public sector setting and demonstrates that classical upper-echelon theory is also relevant when applied at the functional level of management. The Miles and Snow (1978) typology is applied to the functional strategy for Dubai government organisations, to investigate whether functional units pursuing strategies are led by functional managers with dissimilar attributes, and whether the alignment between managerial characteristics and strategy is related to performance of the functional unit. Based on the extant literature, a research model has been developed, which yields two types of hypothesis. Data was collected by means of interviews and surveys to obtain knowledge of strategy types, and demographic and psychological characteristics for the functional managers. Regression techniques have been used for data analysis rendering support for two types of hypothesis. Consequently, this study supports the view that Upper Echelon theory can also apply at the functional level, emphasising the role of the functional managers, at the lower management levels of the organisations, in strategy implementation.

This paper examines the effect of executive board-level national culture and board nationality diversity on corporate social performance (CSP). The sample constitutes of 130 executive boards of non-financial firms from Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK over the time period 2010-2014. Based on the upper echelon theory and the notion of national culture, board-level national culture is determined across Hofstede’s dimensions of power distance, individualism, masculinity and power distance. In this paper, no evidence is provided of a significant relationship between board-level national culture and the corporate social performance of the firm. In addition, nationality diversity as a double-edged sword could both enhance and hamper CSP. In this research, no significant relationship between board nationality diversity and CSP is found. In conclusion, alterations of the board composition in terms of nationality in order to foster CSP seem unjustified based on the results of this paper.

As new information technology (NIT) has become a critical instrument for an organization to gain its competitive edge, the issue of how best to exploit and adopt NIT is now a pressing challenge for organizations and researchers alike. Based on upper echelon theory and individual differences literatures, this research paper endeavors to address the issue concerning the knowledge gap present in previous literature: the correlation between a top manager¡¦s personal traits and his NIT championing behavior. To bridge this gap, this paper attempts to explore to what extent a top manager¡¦s personality, ability, and belief characteristics can affect NIT championing behavior. We venture to propose in this paper a comprehensive model in which top managers¡¦ individual characteristics are integrated to facilitate the analysis of NIT adoption in organization. To test research model, Partial Least Squares (PLS) is used to verify the feasibility of the model proposed. Survey results from 130 top managers in Taiwan strongly support our proposition that a top manager¡¦s personality, ability, and belief have significant influence on NIT championing behavior. At the conclusion section of this paper academic and practical implication is discussed.

Styrelsen är ett bolags främsta styrorgan med ansvar för flera strategiska funktioner, såsom övervakning, disciplinering och finansiering, med målet att säkerställa att företagsledningen agerar i enlighet med bolagets vision och aktieägarnas avkastningskrav. Omfattande kapitalstrukturbeslut kan kräva styrelsens godkännande innan de förverkligas. Detta kan innefatta valet om bolaget ska använda sig av interna eller externa finansieringskällor, vilket påverkar kapitalstrukturen/skuldsättningsgraden.   Tidigare studier har bl.a. undersökt hur styrelsesammansättning påverkat bolagets kapitalstruktur. Studier har påvisat att styrelsestorlek, styrelsens oberoende, medelålder och kön påverkar kapitalstrukturen, där studierna har utgått från pecking-order och trade-off teorierna Traditionellt har bolagsstyrelser återspeglat sig av en homogen sammansättning, avseende variabler som ålder, kön, etnicitet, vilket bidragit till eniga affärsbeslut. Studier som undersökt utbildning, erfarenheter och expertis (humankapital) bland styrelsemedlemmar har fokuserat på bolagets finansiella prestation och innovationsförmåga. Dock finns det ingen studie tagit hänsyn till humankapitalets påverkan på kapitalstrukturen.   Syftet med studien är att analysera styrelsemedlemmars humankapital och deras påverkan på bolagets kapitalstruktur för bolag listade på svenska börsen. Genom att använda en deduktiv ansats och kvantitativa data är målet att få svar på syftet. Teorier om kapitalstruktur, såsom pecking-order och trade-off, samt teorier om styrelsens egenskaper, upper echelon och resursberoendeteorin har använts. Därtill har hypoteser formulerats, där kvantitativa data inhämtats från årsredovisningar och empiriskt operationaliserats.   Resultatet och slutsatsen av studien är att humankapital hos styrelsen har en påverkan på hur kapitalstrukturen ser ut bland bolagen. Studiens resultat påvisade att humankapitalet bland börsbolagen kan påverka kapitalstruktur både positivt och negativt. Slutsatsen är att humankapitalet i bolagsstyrelser följer trade-off teorin gällande finansieringsvalen, d.v.s. styrelsemedlemmar balanserar för - och nackdelar för att nå en optimal kapitalstruktur.

Risk is something intrinsic to business, and something firms are exposed to on a daily basis. This means that there exists a great deal of pressure on the Top Management of a firm to successfully navigate the different risks to which they are exposed. The CEO holds a unique position in the firm, as she is ultimately responsible for deciding which strategies to employ in order to properly respond to these risks. But what influenced the CEO when making such decisions? The Upper Echelon Theory suggests that decisions made by the Top Management Team of a firm are influenced by their values and their cognitive base, which is formed throughout their upbringing. Researchers on Upper Echelon Theory suggest that these two abstract constructs can be difficult to measure and analyse, and should therefore be approximated using specific and observable characteristics of the Top Management Team. In our study, this theory has applied to Swedish CEOs as they are the ultimate decision-maker in a firm. The specific characteristics observed and analysed in our investigation into the relationship between the CEO and risk are; gender, age, nationality, and tenure. Thus, the purpose of this study is formulated as follows: “The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between CEO characteristics, specifically age, gender, tenure, and nationality, and firm risk-taking, as measured by the leverage ratio, stock return volatility, cash holdings, and R&D expenditure, on the Swedish market. As a sub-purpose, we intend to investigate whether there is a nonlinear relationship between CEO tenure and risk-taking.” By collecting data from the databases, Thomson Reuters Eikon and Amadeus, a dataset of 284 firms and their CEOs was collected and used in the cross-sectional analysis. Multiple linear regression analysis was employed to determine the relationships between the previously mentioned CEO characteristics and the proxies for firm risk-taking. The majority of the relationships found were of a non-significant nature, indicating that the relationship between Swedish CEO characteristics and the strategies they employ when running their firms is weak and differs from relationships found in earlier studies, using data from different markets. The significant relationships found were between cash holdings and age, long tenures and leverage ratio, and short tenures and stock return volatility. This indicates that older CEOs are more risk-averse, while longer seated CEOs maintain less debt, and shorter seated CEOs are perceived as more risky by the market. However, as these results only entail 15% of our observed results, none of the hypotheses constructed for this study were verified. Therefore, our conclusion is that the previously observed relationships between the characteristics of CEOs and their risk-taking is not present within our sample of firms listed on the Swedish market. Some tendencies that align with previous results have been found but are not generalisable and as a result, we cannot recommend that private actors act on these results.