Background Strategy forms an inevitable part of a company’s existence, whether explicitly formulated or implicitly acted on. Today, there are many ways to find information about companies and their strategic directions, for example in the non-financial sections of annual reports. However, the future actions and strategic choices tend not to be spoken of explicitly or in terms of strategy concepts or typologies. Thus, the presentation of strategies in annual reports may differ in terminology from the conceptions and notions as presented in strategy concepts. This implies a challenging base for analysis and will inevitably create an interesting situation if one wants to map out a company’s strategic direction with these reports as basis. Annual reports could also possibly constitute a cross-over between the theoretical realm and the business world, which might allow the drawing of parallels between theoretical concepts and espoused strategic actions. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to provide an overall image of strategy in the heavy electrical engineering industry in the time period of 1987 to 2002, using the non-financial information in annual reports as the single source for identifying and classifying companies in terms of strategy. Mode of procedure Annual reports from four large companies in the heavy electrical engineering industry have been studied with a grounded approach of textual analysis. The case study was conducted with an inductive starting point, and covered a vast amount of empirical material. Key features of strategic directions, on the corporate and business level, were derived from the empirical material as well as from strategy literature, and these features then served as base for further analysis and conclusions. Results All four studied companies displayed different strategic phases on the two levels. However, inconsistency and a multitude of comments sometimes obstructed the identification of distinct phases. On an inter-company level, the European companies tended to have more features in common than the American ones. Furthermore, specific characteristics have been identified for each company. Finally, each of the four case companies was classified in terms of generic strategies. The classification of the companies showed that a multitude of strategic typologies was applicable during the studied time period, some recurrently and others in unique periods.

Background: Sweden and the rest of the world went through the biggest financial crisis at the end of 2008 since the 1930s. The major Swedish banks have goodwill related to their acquisitions inside and outside Scandinavia. Swedbank, SEB and Nordea has acquired in the Baltic countries and Russia, however Handelsbanken has established itself in Great Britain. The crisis in the Baltic countries led that real wages fell, unemployment rose, real estate prices collapsed and the number of borrowers who had trouble repaying their loans increased rapidly. All this led to the problem of impairment of goodwill in the Swedish banks that had expanded rapidly in the Baltic countries. Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the application of IFRS 3 in Swedish banks before, during and after the financial crisis, and to investigate the low-downs in the four majorSwedish banks in 2006-2010. Completion: The study is primarily based on the case studies by the examination of the annual reports from all banks as well as evaluation of the interviews.The authors have chosen to makea strategic choice of a small number of cases through the concentration on the impairment of goodwill in the bank sector of Sweden. Results: The result of this study is that there are problems for banks in implementation of IFRS 3 in practice because of insufficient information in the banks' financial statements.Generous estimates used in the calculation of impairment testing. All these led the banks tothe situation that they did not obtain the requirement of the new framework. The authors determine that the banks would have done more substantial work in calculating of the goodwill value than before. The authors also noted that the Swedish banks did not affected as hard by the financial crisis as the banks in the U.S., which led to the low impairment charges in Sweden.

This dissertation examines the relationship between three sets of variables: corporate governance and monitoring, the quality of disclosure in annual reports and securities class action litigation. In the first section, I present a game-theoretic model in which shareholders select from ex ante monitoring or ex post litigation mechanisms available to them in order to mitigate the agency problem. Firm characteristics determine the choice of which of these two mechanisms is appropriate for a particular company. I then test predictions from this model and find that firms with poor monitoring are much more likely than those with good monitoring to be sued even after controlling for the common determinants of a lawsuit. The second section of the dissertation relates the quality of disclosure in annual reports to litigation. I use a dataset containing annual reports filed electronically with the SEC in the period 1996-2005. Using two content analysis software programs that analyze the categories of words used in these annual reports, I find that firms that use more numbers, past and future words, and other informative words are much less likely to be sued, even after controlling for the common determinants of lawsuits. In order to avoid subjectively choosing categories, I use principal components analysis to identify the major components of annual report disclosure. When these components are used as regressors to identify causative factors of lawsuits, one component named 'informativeness' has significant power to explain subsequent lawsuits. In head-to-head comparisons of the 'informativeness' principal component with Standard & Poor's Transparency and Disclosure score, my informativeness measure is more effective than the S&P score in predicting the likelihood of a lawsuit. Finally, in cross-sectional tests, I find support for the theory that firms with good boards and managers who are not entrenched have better disclosure practices. Further, monitoring by institutional investors, independent boards and analysts appears to induce better corporate disclosure. / text

Syfte: Studien har två syften: Att beskriva förekomsten av kategorier och omfattningen av frivillig redovisning om anställda som är relaterad till bolagens sociala ansvar (CSR). Att förklara vilka faktorer som påverkar omfattningen av frivillig redovisning relaterat till anställda.  Metod: Då studien har ett förklarande syfte som berör omfattningen av frivillig redovisning om anställda, så har kvantitativa metoder använts och data till studien har samlats in via en kvantitativ innehållsanalys. Studien utfördes på 56 av de 58 bolag som befann sig på Large Cap, Stockholmsbörsen 2012, varav två bolag fick räknas som bortfall på grund av andra redovisningssätt än de övriga. Datat analyserades sedan genom deskriptiv statistik och multipla regressionsanalyser.  Resultat & slutsats: Stora bolag på Stockholmsbörsen redovisar frivilligt multipla kategorier information om anställda, men den kategori som generellt används mest är profilinformation om anställda. Den faktor som främst förklarar den frivilliga informationen om anställda är bolagets skuldkvot, men också vilken industrisektor ett bolag tillhör har betydelse. Den teori som främst förklarar frivillig redovisning om anställda är agentteorin.  Förslag till fortsatt forskning: I denna studie upptäckte vi att bolag redovisar fler kategorier om anställda än vad vi i vår studie deducerat fram från tidigare forskning. En kvalitativ kartläggning av kategorierna kan därför vara ett förslag till fortsatt forskning.  Uppsatsens bidrag: Mycket av tidigare forskning när det gäller frivillig redovisning har haft ett generellt fokus, där flera olika kategorier information som berör socialt ansvar (CSR) har använts och mycket av den har berört miljö eller finansiell information. Denna studie däremot har fokus på vad bolag specifikt frivilligt redovisar om anställda och detta specifika fokus har inte tidigare utförts på stora bolag på Stockholmsbörsen.

Our research contributes to knowledge on strategic organizational responses by addressing a specific type of institutional complexity that has, to date, been rather neglected in scholarly inquiry: conflicting institutional demands that arise within the same institutional order. We suggest referring to such type of complexity as "intra-institutional" - as opposed to "inter-institutional." Empirically, we examine the consecutive spread of two management concepts - shareholder value and corporate social responsibility - among Austrian listed corporations around the turn of the millennium. Our work presents evidence that in institutionally complex situations, the concepts used by organizations to respond to competing demands and belief systems are interlinked and coupled through multiwave diffusion. We point to the open, chameleon-like character of some concepts that makes them particularly attractive for discursive adoption in such situations and conclude that organizations regularly respond to institutional complexity by resorting to discursive neutralization techniques and strategically producing ambiguity. (authors' abstract)

During the last years “Accounting for Diversity” has become a trendy concept, around which the research interest of scholars and the reports published by of the top rated accounting firms have been increasingly evolving. In this paper, the term “Accounting for Diversity” has been addressed within the societal context of the stakeholder concept, in attempt to explore how the Swedish listed companies account for and communicate the demographic diversity of their society constituents in their disclosure means. In order to achieve this purpose, a quantitative approach has been conducted using a content analysis of the disclosed pictures, drawings and symbols in the annual reports and websites of the companies listed on the Swedish Stock Exchange (Nasdaq Stockholm). The data collected was then statistically analysed through a two-step cluster analysis. The empirical results show a preference for companies to use pictures in disclosing demographic attributes and diversity rather than symbols and drawings. Moreover, companies were found to prefer using their annual reports in disclosing the demographic diversity than their websites. Furthermore and regarding the companies’ behaviour in disclosing demographic diversity; large companies, belonging to high sensitive industries, were found to disclose higher levels of demographic diversity in their disclosure means, than the other small ones belonging to less sensitive industries. The results also show that companies belonging to different industries tend to mostly follow a convergent behaviour in accounting for diversity. Thus, it has been concluded that; the companies’ size seems to play a significant role in diverging and converging the companies’ behaviour in accounting for the demographic diversity in their disclosure means, while industry was not found to play a significantly salient role in that.

Bakground: Performance management has, for a long time, been a part of the public administration in Sweden. Arguments such as more transparency and efficiency has guided the implementation of this model, particularly at the beginning of the 21st century. One particular part of the performance management-model is the production of annual performance reports from government agencies. The framework stipulating the rules for producing such reports is broadly defined and vague with the purpose to promote local adaption for each agency. The theory of organizational translation stipulates that no idea can move from one context to another without adapting in some way to the new context.  Aim: With guidance from translation theory this master thesis aims to explore why government agencies’ annual reports differ from one another and why performance is disclosed in different ways. Both translation theory and boundary objects-theory where used to explore the difference in producing annual reports.  Method: This thesis uses semi-structured interviews with public officials in four different agencies and annual reports for 2019 from the same agencies to gather empirical material for the study. The empirical material where analyzed by using a narrative analysis to break down the annual reports as stories told by the government agencies.  Conclusion: This study shows how result as a concept has been institutionalized in the writing of annual reports but been given different meaning in comparison between the selected agencies. Further, the study identified two examples of how result as a concept can be re-contextualized to a local context of particular agencies. This study also found that key actors in the production of annual reports, the process managers, act as institutional translators for the organizations, as in translating the institutional requirements and expectations. Finally, the concept of results also can be given different meanings between public organization as well as within such organizations.

The main purpose of this study is to examine the need to modify the theory of accounting to ensure a standardised and comparable approach when accounting and reporting on intellectual capital. A literature review is used to describe intellectual capital categories and how to measure, recognise and report these assets in the financial statements on an entity. Financial reporting operates around strict requirements that are statement of financial position biased posing significant challenges in recognising and disclosing intellectual capital. The study also uses content analysis of corporate annual reports of the top 40 companies listed on the JSE Ltd in 2009 to determine the extent of intellectual capital reporting by these companies. Measuring and recognising intellectual capital in financial reporting is not limited by the requirements in respect of statutory disclosures, discretionary and contextual disclosures are recommended. Results of the content analysis show that companies use these discretionary and contextual disclosures to communicate information on intellectual capital. / Financial Accounting / M. Com. (Accounting)

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