Contextual experience with the practical application of accounting standards is important for independent audit committee members to effectively monitor managers’ financial reporting estimates and the audits of those estimates. Basic knowledge of accounting standards can be acquired by reading public documents and some degree of information regarding firm-specific application of standards can be obtained from public disclosures. However, real-world, contextual experience may best be obtained through performing or monitoring the reporting tasks themselves. This dissertation investigates how a firm’s (focal firm) financial reporting monitoring activities are affected by its audit committee members’ contextual experiences gained through connections, either as managers or audit committee members, with other firms (links or interlocks). I specifically estimate whether contextual experience with significant judgments and estimates, measured as interlocks with firms that likely performed extensive impairment analyses in the prior year (distressed firms), affects the likelihood of focal firm decisions to write off goodwill after controlling for economic indicators of impairment, managerial incentives to misreport, and ability of managers to exercise discretion. I find that the likelihood of write-off is significantly greater for firms with links to distressed firms than firms without links, consistent with audit committee contextual experience influencing financial reporting outcomes. The distressed firm interlock effect is significantly greater when the contextual experience at the linked firm is in the performance of estimates as a manager in contrast to the monitoring of estimates as an audit committee member. However, in a subset of large firms with ExecuComp data, I find that the overall probability of write-off is decreasing across quartiles of managerial incentives to misreport and received interlocks are only marginally significant in the second quartile, indicating that contextual experience may not be an effective monitoring mechanism when managerial incentives to misreport are high. Combined results suggest that contextual experiences obtained through audit committee network associations do affect focal firm financial reporting outcomes and are most influential when the contextual experience is as a manager, rather than a monitor. However, such monitoring mechanisms appear to be primarily imitative and may not be effective deterrents against managerial misreporting at large firms when managerial equity-based incentives are strong. / text

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) evolved as alternative governance structures for firms seeking to combine resources with other firms, access larger markets, or acquire strategic assets. In spite of managers’ enthusiasm about the practice, studies show mixed results regarding post-acquisition performance of acquiring firms. The impact of acquisitions on the performance of acquiring firms has therefore remained inconclusive. A few reasons for this have been suggested and recent meta-analytic research efforts indicate that studies in M&A may have ignored variables that have significant effects on post-acquisition performance. In a bid to extend the literature on M&A and identify cogent variables that impact on acquisition performance, this dissertation draws on social network theory to advance a proposition for the value-of-ties. This was done by examining the impact of directorate interlocks on acquisitions specifically and organizational strategy in general. A non-experimental cross-sectional study of 98 interlocked directorate companies simultaneously involved in acquisitions was conducted. Several multiple regression analyses were conducted and the results obtained suggest that there is a positive linear relationship between director interlocks and post-acquisition performance and that to some extent this relationship is moderated by acquisition experience. The study also showed that director interlocks have a negative linear relationship with acquisition premium. This study complements the body of knowledge on acquisitions and network theory. It also successfully combined a multi-level approach to research on organizations and strategic management.

This thesis is based on three empirical studies of the director interlock network among Swedish firms listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, focusing on its consequences for firm behavior and its association with ownership structures. Director interlocks are created when directors serve on, and hence interlock, several boards. Director interlocks aggregate to a social network that not only connects most firms into a single component, but are, more essentially, also shown to affect firm behavior. The introductory chapter contains a review of the director interlock research as well as some suggestions for future research directions. Study I is an examination of the importance of director interlock relations for stock repurchases. Using parametric survival analysis, it is demonstrated that the decision to repurchase stocks is dependent on both the firms’ economic settings and their director interlocks. Study II examines the network impact on recruitment of new board members in the network of firms, directors, and owners. Using simulations, it is shown that directors with personal contact with a director and/or owner of the recruiting firm have a substantially increased probability of being recruited to the focal board. Study III examines the association between ownership and director interlocks. Re-analyses of the same network examined in Study II show that multiple director assignments are highly dependent on ownership interlocks. The three studies exemplify the real-world consequences of board interlocks and field a new understanding of the mechanisms behind their formation. Furthermore, the association between the director and ownership interlocks suggests that the ownership network (co-)produces some of the phenomena that have been attributed to the director network. These results underscore the need for further examination of director interlocks to bring the owners back into the analysis. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>

Concern remains regarding the efficacy of drink driving countermeasures to produce lasting change for repeat offenders, as a wide array of countermeasures have been developed that demonstrate varying levels of success in reducing re-offence rates. This thesis proposes that the collection and examination of repeat offenders' self-reported perceptions, experiences and behavioural changes that result from completing court-ordered interventions can provide valuable contributions to the development of effective sentencing strategies. As a result, the program of research implemented a mixed-method design to investigate the self-reported impact of legal sanctions, a drink driving rehabilitation program, and alcohol ignition interlocks on key outcome measures for a group of recidivist drink drivers.----- Study One incorporated a cross-sectional design to examine the deterrent effect of traditional legal sanctions (e.g., fines and licence disqualification periods), non-legal sanctions, alcohol consumption, recent offending behaviour(s), and the actual severity of sanctions on perceptual deterrence and intentions to re-offend. The study involved face-to-face and telephone interviews with 166 repeat offenders. The analysis indicated that participants perceived legal sanctions to be severe, but not entirely certain nor swift.----- In Study One, self-reported recent drink driving behaviours and alcohol consumption levels were identified as predictors of future intentions to drink and drive. The results suggest that habitual behaviours are difficult to change, and heavy alcohol consumption levels increase the probability of re-offending. At a bivariate level, three non-legal sanctions were negatively associated with intentions to re-offend but were not predictors of future intentions to drink and drive in the model. In addition, a relationship was not evident between: (a) the size of the penalties and perceptions of sanction severity or future intentions to drink and drive, and (b) the number of previous convictions and self-reported deterrence. The findings of the study confirm the popular assumption that some repeat offenders are impervious to the threat and application of legal sanctions.----- Study Two examined the stages of change and self-efficacy levels of 132 repeat offenders - who were all involved in Study One - while they completed an 11 week drink driving rehabilitation program. A repeated measures design was implemented to focus on the impact of the intervention on a number of salient program outcomes such as participants' motivations and self-efficacy levels to control and change their drinking and drink driving behaviour(s). Prior to program commencement, the majority of participants were motivated to change their drinking driving, but not their drinking. The sample also reported high self-efficacy levels to control the two behaviours, but did not have high expectations of the effectiveness of the program.----- Upon completion of the program, significant increases were evident in motivations to change drinking and drink driving behaviours, and a large percentage of participants reported a positive appraisal of the effectiveness of the intervention. Program completion also resulted in a reduction in self-reported alcohol consumption levels, yet the majority of the sample continued to consume harmful levels of alcohol. Self-efficacy levels remained high, although a notable finding was that participants reported higher levels of control over their drinking rather than drink driving behaviours. In general, Study Two provided a positive perspective of the capacity of a drink driving rehabilitation program to produce change for a group of repeat offenders.----- Study Two extended a small body of research and examined the effects that mandated program enrolment has on motivations to change, as well as expectations and appraisals of program effectiveness. Contrary to predictions, mandated participants did not report lower levels of motivation to change drinking and drink driving compared to voluntary attendees, but did indicate lower expectations of the effectiveness of the program, as well as being willing to engage in the program. Furthermore upon program completion, mandated participants also reported lower appraisals of the effectiveness of the program, but this factor was not associated with intentions to re-offend or non-program completion. Rather, not successfully completing the program appeared linked with being unwilling to change drinking behaviours.----- Study Three involved a longitudinal case-study design that utilised both quantitative and qualitative data to conduct one of the first examinations of the impact of alcohol ignition interlocks on a group of recidivist drink drivers from a users' perspective. The study investigated 12 participants' self-reported perceptions and experiences of using an interlock and the effect that the device had on key program outcomes such as drinking levels, operational performance, circumvention attempts and general beliefs regarding the effectiveness of the device in comparison to traditional legal sanctions.----- Participants reported positive appraisals regarding the effectiveness of the device as qualitative themes emerged concerning the educational and practical benefits of interlocks. However, closer examination of individual interlock performances revealed each participant had attempted to start their vehicle after consuming alcohol, and a smaller sample of three drivers were regularly attempting to start their vehicle after drinking. The combination and analysis of self-reported and downloaded interlock data revealed four main themes: (a) initial operational difficulties, (b) a general unwillingness to reduce alcohol consumption levels, (c) an unwillingness to acknowledge/recognise that interlock breath violations resulted from drinking, and (d) an overall decline in the frequency of interlock breath violations over the interlock installation period. Similar to Study Two, a notable finding was that half the sample was still consuming harmful levels of alcohol upon program completion.----- Taken together, the results of the program of research highlight that repeat offenders' entrenched behaviours, such as drinking and drink driving, are resistant to change and that multi-modal interventions are required if the drinking and driving sequence is to be broken for this population. The findings have direct implications for the sentencing and management of repeat offenders and the development of countermeasures that attempt to produce long-term behavioural change.

<p><strong>Bakgrund:                   </strong>Under senare år har de börsnoterade bolagens styrning kommit att intressera samhället. Ett viktigt fenomen i bolagens styrning är styrelserna. Under de senaste 15 åren har omfattande regleringar införts för att klargöra och definiera hur styrelserna i de börsnoterade bolagen skall sättas samman och arbeta.</p><p><strong>Syfte:                            </strong>Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om, och i så fall hur, det svenska styrelsenätverket förändras efter utvecklandet och implementeringen av en reglering. Vår ambition är att ge förklaringar till varför eventuella förändringar sker.</p><p><strong>Avgränsning:</strong>               Studien har utgått från Svensk kod för bolagsstyrning som ett fall av reglering för att se hur denna har påverkat styrelsenätverket.</p><p><strong>Metod:                          </strong>En social nätverksanalys av styrelseledamöternas nätverk har genomförts. Studien omfattar bolag noterade på en svensk reglerad marknad med säte i Sverige.</p><p><strong>Slutsats:                        </strong>Studien påvisar att införandet av en styrelsereglering inte behöver leda till förändringar i styrelsenätverket. Däremot kan hotet om att en reglering skall införas utgöra ett starkt instrument, för att åstadkomma förändringar i styrelsenätverket.</p>

Bakgrund:                   Under senare år har de börsnoterade bolagens styrning kommit att intressera samhället. Ett viktigt fenomen i bolagens styrning är styrelserna. Under de senaste 15 åren har omfattande regleringar införts för att klargöra och definiera hur styrelserna i de börsnoterade bolagen skall sättas samman och arbeta. Syfte:                            Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om, och i så fall hur, det svenska styrelsenätverket förändras efter utvecklandet och implementeringen av en reglering. Vår ambition är att ge förklaringar till varför eventuella förändringar sker. Avgränsning:               Studien har utgått från Svensk kod för bolagsstyrning som ett fall av reglering för att se hur denna har påverkat styrelsenätverket. Metod:                          En social nätverksanalys av styrelseledamöternas nätverk har genomförts. Studien omfattar bolag noterade på en svensk reglerad marknad med säte i Sverige. Slutsats:                        Studien påvisar att införandet av en styrelsereglering inte behöver leda till förändringar i styrelsenätverket. Däremot kan hotet om att en reglering skall införas utgöra ett starkt instrument, för att åstadkomma förändringar i styrelsenätverket.

This thesis presents an evaluation of various graphical user interface (GUI) technologies for use in the supervision software of CERN’s Beam Interlock System (BIS). The evaluation is necessary because the current GUItechnology used by the supervision software, JavaFX, is no longer supported by Oracle. It also relies on aninternal library that is no longer maintained. Furthermore, a second version of the BIS is being developed, anda GUI is needed that works with BIS and BIS2 in parallel.Which technology is most suitable for the next version of the BIS supervision GUI?This question was answered by gathering user stories from users and experts. Simple proof of concepts weredeveloped for each technology, in order to identify technical limitations and register the development time. Theuser stories relevant to the choice of technology were listed, and each technology received points depending onwhether they were able to fulfill the requirement or not.Furthermore, in order to evaluate the ease of use, wireframes were created based on some of the user stories.These were qualitatively evaluated with stakeholders, which produced feedback that may be used for furtherdevelopment.Out of the four technologies evaluated, PyQt scored 6, ACW scored 4, WRAP scored 6 and Grafana scored3. WRAP and Grafana were discarded as viable options, since they were not able to fulfill hard requirements.ACW scored lower because it is web based and comes with a bigger maintenance overhead. / <p>This thesis was done as a part of a technical studentship at CERN.</p>

This thesis is an attempt to constructively interpret and critically evaluate the liberal doctrine that we may not limit a person’s liberty for her own good, and to discuss its implications and alternatives in some concrete areas of public health policy. The thesis starts theoretical and goes ever more practical. The first paper is devoted to positive interpretation of anti-paternalism with special focus on the reason component – personal good. A novel generic definition of paternalism is proposed, intended to capture, in a generous fashion, the object of traditional liberal resistance to paternalism – the invocation of personal good reasons for limiting of or interfering with a person’s liberty. In the second paper, the normative aspect of this resistance is given a somewhat technical interpretation in terms of invalidation of reasons – the blocking of reasons from influencing the moral status of actions according to their strength. It is then argued that normative anti-paternalism so understood is unreasonable, on three grounds: 1) Since the doctrine only applies to sufficiently voluntary action, voluntariness determines validity of reasons, which is unwarranted and leads to wrong answers to moral questions. 2) Since voluntariness comes in degrees, a threshold must be set where personal good reasons are invalidated, leading to peculiar jumps in the justifiability of actions. 3) Anti-paternalism imposes an untenable and unhelpful distinction between the value of respecting choices that are sufficiently voluntary and choices that are not. The third paper adds to this critique the fourth argument that none of the action types typically proposed to specify the action component of paternalism is such that performing an action of that type out of benevolence is essentially morally problematic. The fourth paper ignores the critique in the second and third papers and proposes, in an anti-paternalistic spirit, a series of rules for the justification of option-restricting policies aimed at groups where some members consent to the policy and some do not. Such policies present the liberal with a dilemma where the value of not restricting people’s options without their consent conflicts with the value of allowing people to shape their lives according to their own wishes. The fifth paper applies the understanding of anti-paternalism developed in the earlier papers to product safety regulation, as an example of a public health policy area. The sixth paper explores in more detail a specific public health policy, namely that of mandatory alcohol interlocks in all cars, proposed by the former Swedish government and supported by the Swedish National Road Administration. The policy is evaluated for cost-effectiveness, for possible diffusion of individual responsibility, and for paternalistic treatment of drivers. The seventh paper argues for a liberal policy in the area of dissemination of information about uncertain threats to public health. The argument against paternalism is based on common sense consequentialist considerations, avoiding any appeal to the normative anti-paternalism rejected earlier in the thesis. / QC 20100714