This master thesis studied key determinants in service innovation that contribute to user adoption. The study applies design method to understand Visa applicant experiences and tendency to adopt a new service design, which the standard is set up by production workers at Thai embassy in Stockholm Sweden. The methodology for the design research includes participant observation, staff interview and user survey, which provided insights on users and determinants reflecting on the relevance of co-designing solution by media consultant and production staffs. The results show that service design that is pioneered by production workers shows a positive result. Most participants did not find the current process difficult, however, more than 70% are willing to use the new service and willing to pay an extra fee. Non-first-time users and participants who live out of Stockholm show the highest willingness to adopt and willingness to purchase the new service even though their rating to the convenience of the current service is the highest among other groups of participants. The study also shows that the participants in all age group are adoptive and shows high willingness-to-pay towards add-on services. / Denna masteruppsats studerade viktiga determinanter inom service innovation som bidrar till användarupptagning. Studien tillämpar designmetod för att förstå visumansökares erfarenheter och tendens att anta en ny servicedesign, vilket upprättades av arbetare inom produktion på Thailändsk ambassad i Stockholm, Sverige. Metodiken för designforskningen innefattar deltagare observation, personlig intervju och användare undersökning, vilket gav insikter om användare och determinanter som speglar relevansen av medarbetarlösningen av mediekonsult och produktions personal. Resultaten visar att servicedesign som är av produktions arbetare visar ett positivt resultat. De flesta deltagarna känner inte att den nuvarande processen är svår, men mer än 70% är villiga att använda den nya tjänsten och villiga att betala en extra avgift. Icke-första gången användare och deltagare som bor utanför Stockholm visar den högsta villigheten att anta och vilja att köpa den nya tjänsten, trots att deras betyg till den aktuella tjänstens bekvämlighet är den högsta bland andra än grupper av deltagare. Studien visar också att deltagarna i alla åldersgrupper är adoptiv och visar stor vilja att betala tilläggstjänster.

This dissertation consists of three studies related to corporate governance of equity mutual funds in a framework of relations between the three closely interrelated actors of mutual fund industry. The mutual fund advisers, the shareholders and the mutual fund board being the advocate of shareholders rights. The first study analyzes the advisory fee, using a survivorship bias free data set of 176 equity funds managed by 125 different advisers. The price of professional portfolio management provided by the mutual fund adviser depends not only on the fund characteristics but also on the fund objective, the adviser's portfolio related and management based decisions, and the portfolio performance. I find that the advisers may reduce their own costs through the use of derivatives or manipulate the actual fee contract by engaging in soft dollar agreements. Advisers actively manage the advisory fee contracts responding to the outcome of their management decisions. The advisory fee increases after voluntary fee reimbursement or if the adviser is not fully reimbursed for certain services. Risk taking behavior is the main motivation behind the structure of advisory contracts. Also, I show that non-surviving funds have higher advisory fees, suggesting competitive fee pricing may be necessary for survival. The second study focuses on the relation between general board characteristics, independent director characteristics and the advisory fee which is solely an outcome of the negotiations between the fund board and the adviser, thus a good proxy for the governance skills of the board. I also examine the impact of SEC's regulation change of 2000. Mutual fund scandals that took place after the regulation change of 2000 suggested that besides the fraction of independent seats, the individual characteristics of the members that occupy board seats are crucial for mutual fund board governance. I find that boards benchmark objective average fee but not necessarily for the best interest of shareholders. Shareholders are likely to benefit from the expertise of members with higher tenure and finance backgrounds. Although increase in board independence is likely to contribute to board governance, the effect of 2000 regulation change of board independence on its arguably target group is limited. Nominating committee improves the board governance. Although the results do not suggest that an independent chairman directly improves board governance, I find modest evidence that the impact of an independent chairman is likely to depend on the expertise of the member that would occupy the chairman seat. Third study analyzes a specific tool, soft dollar arrangements using a survivorship bias free data set of 432 equity funds managed by 129 different advisers. Soft dollar arrangements affect all three actors of mutual fund industry. They are widely used by the advisers, have to be monitored closely by the fund board and eventually affect the overall wealth of shareholders. Fund advisers determine the broker base, scope of brokerage services and whether to self produce or outsource brokerage services through soft dollar arrangements. In return, shareholders expect to benefit from better fund performance and reduction in advisory fee. I find that transaction execution not necessarily motivated by additional brokerage services is likely to be responsible for high turnover. Construction of brokerage base by the adviser is not arbitrary. Advisers ex ante construct the broker base in order to minimize the brokerage commissions and considering ex post soft dollar arrangements. Transaction execution related services lead to less brokerage commissions and soft dollar use while both increase if research is a consideration for broker participation. More concentrated broker base leads to lower brokerage fee and higher soft dollar use. Results indicate that advisers enforce competition within brokerage industry for lower cost of transaction execution. Shareholders benefit from increasing soft dollar use through performance improvement and reduction in advisory fee. Yet, the cost of soft dollar arrangements seems to exceed their benefit to shareholders. If the results indicate competition within brokerage industry for lower cost of transaction execution, the undisclosed premium paid for the additional services are likely to be responsible for this adverse effect.

Many municipalities have established stormwater user fees (SUFs), commonly known as stormwater utilities, to raise revenue for stormwater management programs, however little is known about the trends among the fees currently in existence. This research observes trends in the establishment, type and magnitude of user fees by analyzing location, population density, home value, and establishment for a comprehensive national stormwater user fee database with data for 1,490 user fees. The Equivalent Residential Unit (ERU), a SUF that charges based on impervious area, was the most prevalent fee type in all NOAA Climate regions of the U.S. except the West and West North Central. The Tier system, a SUF that charges differently for properties by defined categories, was the second most prevalent in all regions except the East North Central and West North Central. The ERU was found in larger cities with high population densities whereas flat fees, SUFs that charge a single rate for all properties, were found in smaller towns. Higher home values led to higher monthly fees for 28% of the municipalities analyzed. The Residential Equivalence Factor (REF), a SUF that charges based on runoff produced, was popular in municipalities with higher home values and the flat fee was popular in those with lower home values. The number of SUFs established increased near Phase I MS4 permit and Phase II small MS4 permit deadlines. / Master of Science

Hedge funds feature special compensation structure compared to traditional investments. Previous studies mainly focus on the provisions and incentive structure of hedge fund contract, such as 2/20, hurdle rates, and high-water mark. The first essay develops an algorithm to empirically estimate the monthly fees, fund flows and gross asset values of individual hedge funds. We find that management fee is a major component in the dollar amount of hedge fund total fees, and fund flow is more important in determining the change in fund size compared to net returns, especially when fund is shrinking in size. We also find that best paid hedge funds concentrate in the largest hedge fund quintile. Large funds tend to perform better, earn more, and rely less on management fee for their managers' compensation. Further, we find that fund flow is an important determinant of hedge fund managerial incentives. Together with the "visible" hands of hedge fund management, i.e. the provisions of hedge fund incentive contracts, the "invisible" hands -- fund flows enable investors to effectively impact hedge fund managerial compensation and incentives. The second essay studies the relation between return smoothing and managerial incentives of hedge funds. We use gross returns to estimate both unconditional and conditional return smoothing models. While unconditional return smoothing is a proxy of illiquidity, conditional return smoothing is related to intentional return smoothing and may be used as a first screen for hedge fund fraud. We find that return smoothing is significantly underestimated using net returns, especially for the graveyard funds. We also find that managerial incentives are positively associated with both types of return smoothing. While managers of more illiquid funds tend to earn more incentive fees, funds featuring conditional return smoothing under-perform other funds and do not earn more incentive fees on average. Finally, we find that failed hedge funds feature more illiquidity and conditional return smoothing. The third essay explores the difference between the gross-of-fee and net-of-fee hedge fund performance, by investigating the difference in distribution, factor exposures and alphas between gross returns and net returns. We find that gross returns are distributed significantly differently from net returns. The gross-of-fee alphas are higher than the net-of-fee alphas by about 4% per year on average. We also find positive relation between hedge fund performance and fund size, fund flows, and managerial incentives, which holds for both gross-of-fee performance and net-of-fee performance. Our findings suggest that it is necessary to examine the gross-of-fee performance of hedge funds separately from the net-of-fee performance, which may give us a clearer picture of the risk structure and performance of hedge fund portfolios.

The growth of the mutual fund industry and the accompanying competition among intermediaries should lead to progressively lower costs to shareholders, based on economic theory. This dissertation is comprised of three studies which examine shareholder costs among mutual funds to test this theory. In each study the expense ratios of mutual funds are examined, while one study also includes an examination of commission structures. In Essay 1, the effect of participation in a supermarket No Transaction Fee program on a fund’s expense ratio is examined. In addition, the change in characteristics of these participants during a difficult market period is studied. Essay 1 finds that NTF participation leads to higher initial expense ratios but that continued participation depends on the program’s ability to pay for itself. In Essay 2, market segmentation within the fund industry is examined for this same time period. Essay 2 finds increased market segmentation over a five year period and finds evidence of competitive pricing only among certain segments. Retail investors who invest in no-load funds appear to benefit from competitive pricing more than those who pay commissions. There is evidence of cost shifting during this time period, as funds lower expense ratios but increase commissions. In Essay 3, expense ratios of common funds within state-sponsored defined contribution plans are examined. Essay 3 finds evidence of market segmentation among the various states. Plan size may have some effect on the setting of expense ratios, but the effect does not appear to be economically significant. Number of participants has no significant effect on the expense ratio. State population displays some significance, such that funds actually charge more for larger states. Wealth of the state, on the other hand, may result in lower expense ratios. Overall, competitive pricing within the mutual fund industry is limited to certain market segments and may be dependent on the channel of distribution.

Fastighetsmäklare målas ofta upp som ett yrke där man med lite ansträngning kan tjäna miljonbelopp. För att ha möjlighet att bli registrerad mäklare måste man dels ha läst 120 högskolepoäng gjort 10 veckors handledd praktik, dels möta krav som Fastighetsmäklarinspektionen (FMI) ställer och kontrollerar. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur stor fastighetsmäklares inkomst är samt vad det ärsom påverkar lönen. Vidare görs även en undersökning kring hur mäklarna själva ser på sinlön och hur den står sig i relation till andra yrken. Studien består av en kvalitativ undersökning där sex fastighetsmäklare ingående har redovisat sin lön och arbetade timmar under det första kvartalet år 2022. Vidare har fyra av dessa mäklare intervjuats för att få en mer djupgående förståelse kring hur inkomsten är utformad samt mäklarnas individuella tankar om deras enskilda lön. Studien visar på att skickliga mäklare kan tjäna väldigt mycket pengar, men för att lyckas med detta är etablering och kompetens i branschen ett måste. Ständig uppkoppling samt arbete på obekväma arbetstider visade sig också vara faktorer som påverkade inkomsten positivt.  De mäklare som ställt upp i studien är alla etablerade mäklare som arbetat sig in i branschen vilket resulterat i relativt höga löner för samtliga. Slutligen visade studiens resultat att inkomsten hos de intervjuade fastighetsmäklarna anses normal i relation till de arbete som läggs ner. Ställs inkomsten i relation till utbildningslängden på 3 år samt i jämförelse mot andra välavlönade yrke har de däremot en hög inkomst. / Real estate agent is often portrayed as a profession where you can earn millions with little effort.In order to have the opportunity to become a registered broker, you must have read 120 education credits, done 10 weeks of supervised practice and meet the requirements set and controlled by the Real Estate Agency Inspection (FMI). The purpose of this study is to investigate how big real estate agents income is and what affects the salary. Furthermore, a survey is also carried out about how the brokers themselves view theirsalary and how it compares to other professions. The study consists of a qualitative survey in which six real estate agents have reported in detail their salary and hours worked during the first quarter of 2022. Furthermore, four of these agents have been interviewed to gain a more in-depth understanding of how the income is structured as well as the agent's individual thoughts about their individual salary. The study shows that skilled brokers can earn a lot of money, but to succeed in this, establishment and competence in the industry is a must. Constant availability and working inconvenient hours also proved to be factors that positively affected the income.  The brokers who participated in the study are all established brokers who worked their way into the industry, which resulted in relatively high salaries for all of them. Finally, the results of the study showed that the income of the interviewed real estate agents is considered normal in relation to the work they put in. If the income is put in relation to the length of education of 3 years and in comparison to other well-paid professions, they do have a high income.

No / The degree of insecurity occasioned by fraudulent practices in Nigeria has been of great concern economically, especially as it relates to overseas transactions. This paper was designed to mitigate this problem for Nigeria and countries with similar dispositions. Based on a survey involving field trip to Nigeria, the paper examines the general security situation in Nigeria and its mutual impacts with computerisation, miniaturisation and Location-Based Authentication (LBA). It was discovered that both computerisation and miniaturisation had some negative effects on cybersecurity, as these were being exploited by fraudsters, especially using ‘advance fee fraud;’ popularly called 419. As a countermeasure, the research examined the possibility of using LBA and further digitisation of the GSM Mobile country codes down to City/Area codes along with GSM Mobile/Global Positioning System (GPS) authentications. Where necessary, these could be combined with the use of a web-based Secret Sharing Scheme for services with very high security demands. The anticipated challenges were also examined and considered to be of negligible impacts; especially roaming. / Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF)

Yes / The state of insecurity occasioned by fraudulent practices in Africa has been of concern economically, both at home and abroad. In this paper, we propose ways to mitigate this problem, using Nigeria as a case study. Based on surveys in West Africa, the paper examines the security situation in the continent and its mutual impacts with computerisation, miniaturisation and Location-Based Authentication (LBA). It was discovered that computerisation and miniaturisation had negative effects on cyber-security, as these were being exploited by fraudsters, using advance fee fraud; called 419. As a countermeasure, the paper examines the possibility of using LBA and digitisation of the GSM Mobile country codes down to city/area codes along with GSM/GPS authentications. These could also be combined with the use of a web-based Secret Sharing Scheme for services with very high security demands. The challenges of roaming were also examined and considered to be of negligible impact. / Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF)

為降低資訊不對稱下企業管理階層與資金提供者間之代理問題，公司須設計有效之治理機制以降低代理成本，如聘任外部董監、設置審計委員會及聘任會計師查核等。而當董監事所具備的獨立性及專業性越高，基於維護專家信譽及降低訴訟成本的考量下，將需要會計師投入較多的查核人力及時間，以降低資訊不對稱現象，並減少會計師與公司管理階層間經濟依存度，以獲得較高品質的審計服務。然目前公司治理議題多著重於公司內部監理機制與公司經營績效間的關係，較少觸及內部董監事會監督功能對外部會計師監督功能的影響，是以本研究嘗試以公司治理的角度出發，探討台灣上市、上櫃及興櫃公司董監事獨立性與專業性對於審計公費以及非審計公費之影響。 本研究實證結果發現，目前我國上市櫃及興櫃公司董監事獨立性對於審計公費及非審計公費尚未有統計上顯著之影響，唯董監事兼任其他公司董監事職位數與非審計公費間存有負向關係。不同於 Carcello et al. (2000)的結論，本研究發現台灣公司董監事會之專業性對審計公費及非審計公費之影響較董監事獨立性大，其原因可能是公司治理在台灣始見萌芽，社會大眾對公司治理及董監事功能之概念不深，一方面股東會欠缺聘任獨立董監之誘因，一般公司設置獨立董監多半僅為符合表面規定，所選出之獨立董監亦未必與管理階層維持實質獨立，而無法收實質監督之效；一方面董監事對其職權之行使並未擴及會計師聘任之實質決策，而多僅接受管理當局推薦，獨立董監亦無法對審計及非審計公費進行審議。反是董監事平均兼任其他公司董監職位數越多，代表其所享之專家信譽越高，會為維護自身信譽且降低訴訟風險，藉由限制管理階層向會計師所購買的非審計服務種類及金額，以降低會計師與管理階層間的經濟依存度。 / To reduce the agency problem between management and capital suppliers, the business should design an effective corporate structure to reduce agency cost, including hiring outside board members and/or the establishment of an audit committee. The board members with higher independence and expertise will ask the auditors to put in more audit time to reduce information asymmetry. And they will expect to lessen the auditor’s economic dependency on the management by restricting non-audit services the company will purchase from the independent auditor firm. Most researches recently focus on the relation between characteristic of the board and business operation results. This research attempted to examine the relation between board characteristics and audit/non-audit fees paid to the independent auditors. This study found there’s no significant relation between board independence and audit fees or non-audit fees, but a negative relation existed between the board expertise and non-audit fees. Opposite to the conclusion of Carcello et al. (2000), this result indicated that the effect of board expertise on fees is greater than that of board independence. It could be due to the initial development of corporate governance in Taiwan. Most companies hire outside board members and set up an audit committee just to meet the regulation stipulated by law. On the other hand, the greater expertise a board processes, the less non-audit fee it will pay to the auditor in order to reduce the economic dependency of the auditor on the management.

Auditing has an important role in the corporate governance process and is essential in ensuring confidence in the reliability of financial information. It is important to understand the reasons why, given the costs involved, companies change their auditor and choose a particular level of audit assurance. To date, however, only a limited number of studies on auditor choice issues are available, especially in the UK setting. Further, since the downfall of Andersen, the audit market environment has changed significantly, creating a new audit environment to be researched. In light of these recent developments, the objectives of this thesis are to address both concentration and auditor choice issues. It is divided into two separate but interrelated parts. The first part of this thesis provides evidence on audit market concentration in the UK domestic listed company market from 1998 to 2003. The effect of Andersen’s demise on both audit market concentration and audit fees is examined. Using four different size measures (number of audits, audit fees, clients’ total assets and sales), three measures of concentration are calculated. Results show that the UK audit market has now clearly surpassed the tight oligopoly threshold and, despite auditing significantly fewer clients in 2003 than in 1998, the B5/4 managed to increase their fee dominance. In particular, the decline in B5/4 ‘number of clients’ market share was mainly due to their lower share of the newly-listed companies audit market. On the other hand, the slight increase in B5/4 audit fee market share was due to the net impact of leavers concentrating the B5/4 share and joiners diluting it. Voluntary switches to/from the B5/4 had a relatively small impact on B5/4 market share for both measures. Following Andersen’s acquisition by Deloitte & Touche, market levels of audit fee and audit fee rate (audit fee scaled by total assets) have increased markedly, suggesting that more audit effort is being expended as a way to restore confidence about audit quality after the damage caused by Andersen’s alleged misconduct. The acquisition has also contributed to a further increase in ‘audit fee’ market concentration for the 4-firm concentration ratio (CR4) and in the overall Hirschman-Herfindahl Index measure. Although, Deloitte & Touche gained significant market share in terms of both audit fees and number of audits through its acquisition of Andersen, it is PricewaterhouseCoopers that continues to hold the largest market share. Deloitte & Touche retained 93 former Andersen clients (74%), 21 (17%) moved to another B5/4 auditor and 11 (9%) chose a non-B5/4 firm. While former Andersen clients paid higher audit fees, in aggregate, the increase was, perhaps surprisingly, less than for the market as a whole. At the industry level, the B4 firms dominated all sectors, the highest non-B5/4 market share in any industry being just 8%. In 2003, PricewaterhouseCoopers was the leader in 18 out of 34 sectors. The second part of the thesis is divided into two separate studies – auditor change determinants and new auditor selection determinants. These studies use a sample of non financial auditor change companies to test logistic regression models of the determinants of auditor change and new auditor selection. The determinant variables include auditee, auditor and audit characteristics. This part also examines the sensitivity of results to alternative functional forms of the basic model specification. Two definitions of auditor quality – brand name auditor and specialism, are employed. Internal governance issues such as audit committee independence, the duality of chairman/CEO as well as the size/quality of the incumbent auditor were found to be significant determinants of auditor change. Expected future growth in the company, rather than past growth, and audit fee reduction were positively related to audit change probability. Result also suggests that companies changed auditor to improve the perception of auditor independence. By contrast, in the new auditor selection models, corporate governance variables did not appear to be important in determining a different quality (brand-name) auditor. Only the chairman/CEO duality variable was weakly and negatively significant, suggesting that duality is associated with a change to a lower quality auditor. Growing companies are more likely to change to a brand name auditor, consistent with the inability of smaller firms to provide services across an international market. Contrary to agency theory predictions, the results show that a company experiencing increased leverage is less likely to choose a B5/4 auditor, suggesting that B5/4 auditors are being selective in avoiding risky clients. Higher audit fees are paid to new auditors by companies that changed from non-B5/4 to B5/4, reflecting a B5/4 fee premium. However, the higher NAS fee result is contrary to initial expectations. Typically, far fewer variables were significant in the models with audit quality proxied by industry specialism. For the specialism models based on audit fee market share, there is counter-intuitive evidence that a company with a large number of subsidiaries is less likely to move to a specialist auditor from a non-specialist. New specialist auditors were more likely to be preferred when a company experienced an increase in current accruals or a reduction in leverage. In general, the results for these models were less strong and were dependent upon the specialist definition adopted. Finally, the thesis provides evidence that the choice of time variant model (ex-ante, contemporaneous or ex-post) made no significant difference to the overall results. The one exception concerns the ‘growth’ variable, where companies are found to change auditor in anticipation of future growth, rather than as a response to past growth. Further, the use of alternative proxy variables does not greatly influence the regression results. One important exception to this general observation concerns the brand name proxy. When brand name was defined as tier12 (to include Grant Thornton and BDO) the significance level was improved in all models. This suggests that, to some degree, Grant Thornton and BDO are viewed as quality service providers closer in quality to B5/4 than to other smaller audit firms.