Risk kan beskrivas som ”sannolikheten att drabbas av skada eller förlust” eller som ”sannolikheten att en händelse ska inträffa”. Begreppet risk saknar emellertid en allmänt accepterad definition. Företagen nämner vilka risker de har i sina årsredovisningar och halvårsrapporter. Problemet är att det finns stora skillnader mellan vilken inställning företagen har till hur utförligt de ska rapportera om sina risker. Det kan finnas både fördelar och nackdelar med att informera om risker. Den finansiella rapporten är ett sätt för intressenterna att få tillgång till värdefull information om företaget för att de sedan ska kunna fatta välgrundade beslut. Genom ett globalt intresse för de finansiella rapporterna har behovet av ett gemensamt regelverk ökat. Från och med 2005 ska alla börsnoterade företag i EU tillämpa IFRS i sin koncernredovisning för att det ska bli lättare för intressenterna att kunna jämföra olika alternativ. Det här innebär bland annat att företagen måste tillämpa de regler som finns i IAS 34 och IFRS 7 om risker och riskhantering.Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur företag som är börsnoterade på NASDAQ OMX Stockholm informerar om risker och riskhantering i årsredovisningar i jämförelse med halvårsrapporter. Dessutom syftar studien till att ta reda på om det finns något samband mellan hur företagen lämnar riskupplysningar och företagens storlek, branschtillhörighet och skuldsättningsgrad. Studien baseras på 90 årsredovisningar och 90 halvårsrapporter från 2012. Urvalet bestod från början av 203 företag listade på NASDAQ OMX Stockholm. Studien omfattar inte finansiella företag samt företag med brutet räkenskapsår.Studien visar att företagen informerar om betydligt fler strategiska, operativa och finansiella risker i årsredovisningarna än i halvårsrapporterna. Det kan bero på att IAS 34 ställer låga krav på hur mycket risker företagen måste upplysa om i halvårsrapporterna. Även riskhanteringen är lägre i halvårsrapporter än i årsredovisningar. Skillnaderna kan förklaras genom att företagen prioriterar relevans framför tillförlitlighet i halvårsrapporterna. Dessutom kan det grunda sig i att företagen anser att nyttan inte överstiger kostnaden att ge ut informationen till intressenterna. För övrigt kan det bero på att riskupplysningarna i halvårsrapporterna helt enkelt speglar intressenternas efterfrågan av information. Det skulle kunna betyda att intressenterna enbart använder halvårsrapporter för att få aktuell information och därmed nöjer sig med att gå tillbaka till årsredovisningarna för att få mer informationen om företagets risker.Studien visar att det finns ett positivt samband mellan företagets storlek och antalet riskupplysningar för 17 av 31 risker i årsredovisningarna och för 14 av 31 risker i halvårsrapporterna. När företagens branschtillhörighet utreddes som förklaring till varför företag informerar olika mycket om risker kunde undersökningen visa att det finns skillnader mellan företagens riskrapportering i olika branscher. Det varierade hur stora dessa skillnader var. Studien kunde inte visa att företagens skuldsättningsgrad skulle ha någon betydelse för hur företag informerar om risker i årsredovisningar och halvårsrapporter. / Program: Civilekonomprogrammet

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:25:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Bruno Esteter.pdf: 401071 bytes, checksum: db303ce103d1d54e442f3d7053e8d614 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-09 / The twenty-first century should be recognized as the age of corporate governance (CARLSSON, 2001). In order to develop the Brazilian capital market, the discussion around the issue remains relevant and current. This research aimed to investigate the influence on investors perception of corporate governance practices in abnormal returns when firms issue publicly traded strategic investment announcements based on Signaling Theory (SPENCE, 1973), considering the listing in different segments of BOVESPA (Nível 2 and Novo Mercado) and the issuance of ADR s level 2 and 3 as a proxy for it. Strategic investment is any use of the resources employed which results in growth opportunity for the company (KESTER, 1984). In this research, announcements of mergers and acquisitions (FA), joint venture (JV), investments in expanding or building new manufacturing plants, R & D investments were considered as announcements of strategic investments. Through the methodology of event study, were investigated 569 investment announcements of 127 different companies during the period january 2005 through december 2010. The period of the event concerned includes the range of -5 to 10 days after the announcement of the event to the market. To identify the market's behavior during various times, several windows were used event: -5 to 10 days after the event, from -5 to date of the event, the event date to +5 and +10, of -1 to +1 and only to the event date. Tests were carried out disregarding the advertisements issued by PETROBRAS and VALE, excluding announcement issued by financial firms, with control variables, by type of announcement and companies with more than one announcement in the period investigated. The results suggest no influence by joining different levels of corporate governance or the issuance of ADR s in the returns obtained by companies during the various windows investigated, suggesting little influence these governance practices in view of the market when these companies issue announcements of investments market strategy. / O século XXI deverá ser reconhecido como sendo a era da governança corporativa (CARLSSON, 2001). Com o intuito de desenvolver o mercado de capitais brasileiro, a discussão em torno do assunto se mantém relevante e atual. Este trabalho teve como objetivo investigar a influência, na percepção dos investidores, de práticas diferenciadas de governança corporativa nos retornos anormais quando as empresas com capital aberto emitem anúncios de investimentos estratégicos à luz da Teoria da Sinalização (SPENCE, 1973), considerando a listagem nos segmentos diferenciados da BM&FBOVESPA (Nível 2 e Novo Mercado) e a emissão de ADR s nível 2 e 3 como proxy para tal. Investimento estratégico é toda e qualquer utilização de recursos empregados que resulta em oportunidade de crescimento para a empresa (KESTER, 1984). Neste trabalho, anúncios de fusões e aquisições (FA), joint venture (JV), investimentos em expansão ou construção de novas plantas fabris, investimentos em P&D foram considerados como anúncios de investimentos estratégicos. Por meio da metodologia de estudo de evento, foram investigados 569 anúncios de investimentos de 127 empresas de capital aberto distintas, durante o período de janeiro de 2005 até dezembro de 2010. O período do evento considerado compreende o intervalo de -5 até 10 dias após a divulgação do evento ao mercado. Visando identificar o comportamento do mercado durante diversos momentos, foram utilizadas diversas janelas de evento: de -5 até 10 dias após o evento, de -5 até a data do evento, da data do evento até +5 e +10, de -1 até +1 e apenas para a data do evento. Foram realizados testes desconsiderando os anúncios emitidos pela PETROBRAS e VALE, excluindo os anúncios emitidos por empresas do setor financeiro, com variáveis de controle, por tipo de anúncio e empresas com mais de 1 anúncio no período investigado. Os resultados obtidos sugerem não haver influência da listagem em níveis diferenciados de governança corporativa ou da emissão de ADR s nos retornos obtidos pelas empresas durante as diversas janelas investigadas, sugerindo pouca influência destas práticas diferenciadas de governança na percepção do mercado quando estas empresas emitem anúncios de investimentos estratégicos para o mercado.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:25:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jose Roberto Neves.pdf: 1692057 bytes, checksum: 1c05273fdce25b1f9e76a01c967c3542 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-16 / The dividend policy is essential for companies as it is related to investing and financing decisions. In addition, companies pay significant amounts as dividends. Moreover, despite the development of various theories and the accomplishment of numerous empirical results, there is no consensus on what is achieved. Stimulated by these factors, this paper seeks to study the relationship between dividend policy of firms and information asymmetries in the Brazilian capital market, or in other words, empirically verify the adherence of signaling theory in the Brazilian market. Furthermore, it sought to validate the classical determinants of dividend policy (size, growth potential, profitability and risk). To conduct this study, it was used four different measures to evaluate the dividend policy of firms, related to the decisions on to pay dividends or not, how much to pay, to initiate the payment and to increase the amount paid. We used two statistical methods: panel data with fixed effect and regression with LOGIT model for binary variable. The sample of companies has involved those which are listed on the BOVESPA and the data used encompassed the period from 2000 to 2009. The results show that profitability is the most important dividend determinant, indicating that more profitable firms pay more dividends. The "market-to-book" ratio proved to be a significant factor in determining the amount of dividend paid and is related more to profitability than the company's growth potential, since this indicator can take on the dual meanings. The risk is significant and negatively related to companies' decision to pay dividends or not. On the other hand, the results do not support the signaling theory of dividends. / A política de dividendos é fundamental para as empresas, pois ela relaciona-se com as suas decisões de investimento e de financiamento. Além disso, as empresas pagam valores expressivos a título de dividendos. No entanto, apesar da elaboração de diversas teorias e da realização de inúmeros resultados empíricos, ainda não há consenso nos resultados alcançados. Estimulada por estes fatores, esta dissertação buscou estudar a relação entre a política de dividendos das empresas e a assimetria de informação no mercado de capitais brasileiro, ou, em outras palavras, verificar empiricamente a aderência da teoria de sinalização no mercado brasileiro. Adicionalmente, buscou-se validar os determinantes clássicos da política de dividendos (tamanho, potencial de crescimento, rentabilidade e risco). Para a realização desse estudo, foram utilizadas quatro diferentes medidas para avaliar a política de dividendos das empresas, relacionadas com as decisões de pagar ou não dividendos, de quanto pagar, de iniciar ou não o pagamento e de aumentar o valor pago. Foram utilizados dois métodos estatísticos: painel de dados com efeito fixo e regressão com o modelo LOGIT para variável binária. A amostra de empresas envolveu as listadas na BOVESPA e os dados considerados englobaram o período de 2000 a 2009. Os resultados mostram que a rentabilidade das empresas é o determinante mais relevante, apontando que empresas mais rentáveis pagam mais dividendos. A relação market-to-book mostrou-se um determinante significativo na determinação do montante de dividentos pagos, estando relacionado mais à rentabilidade da empresa do que ao potencial de crescimento, uma vez que esta relação pode assumir este duplo significado. O risco é relevante, e negativamente relacionado, para a decisão das empresas de pagar ou não dividendos. Por outro lado, não foi encontrado suporte para a teoria de sinalização de dividendos.

Background/Discussion: Among investors, annual reports are used as a decision-making document to value a company. Many companies therefore use voluntary disclosure as a complement to statutory information in annual reports. Previous studies have examined what the underlying factors for voluntary disclosure are. These have among other things, resulted in factors such as size, country of origin and owner concentration, which has a significant impact on the amount of voluntary disclosure. Therefore, it is interesting to examine if there is a significant difference between the amount of voluntary disclosure in companies with controlled ownership versus management ownership. The selection is based on companies listed on the Swedish stock market Nasdaq Strockholm, Large Cap and Small Cap. Purpose: This comparative study is aiming to investigate differences in the amount of voluntary disclosure between companies with controlled ownership and management ownership. The purpose is to create a deeper understanding and increase awareness of the ownership structure's impact on voluntary information. Method: A quantitative method has been used for the study and empirical data has been collected through observations of annual reports. The collected data has then been assessed according to a valuation index designed for the study. The index has been adapted to both swedish and international regulations. The study has then used scatterplots and a t-test to measure whether or not there is a significant difference in the amount of voluntary disclosure between the two owner concentrations. Result: Based on the study's sample, there is no significant difference in the amount of voluntary disclosure between control-owned and management-controlled companies. Control-owned companies tend to report more information about accidents than managementcontrolled companies. The management-controlled companies in the study tend to report more information on marketing than control-owned companies

Sammanfattning Bakgrund: I och med Gro Harlem Bruntlands rapport "Our common future", som skrevs i mitten av åttiotalet, fick hållbarhetsfrågan ett uppsving och trots att det nu har gått mer än 25 år är ämnet fortfarande högaktuellt. Det finns ett stort behov av att göra samhället hållbart och det är av allmänt intresse att vi åstadkommer förändringar. Här har företagen och den offentliga sektorn en viktig roll och hållbarhetsredovisningen är ett verktyg att nå detta mål. Problem: I Sveriges kommuner är det idag väldigt stor variation på hur och om man hållbarhetsredovisar. Enligt FAR, branschorganisationen för revisorer och rådgivare, är kvaliteten på rapporterna dessutom långt ifrån tillfredsställande. Att upprätta hållbarhetsredovisning är inte lätt eftersom rapporten ska sammanställa ett flertal olika dimensioner. Idag är hållbarhetsredovisning frivillig för den offentliga sektorn och det finns ännu inga riktlinjer som är anpassade just för denna sektor, vilket gör det svårt för de organisationer som vill börja med denna form av redovisning. Jämförelse och kontroll av information blir ett problem eftersom redovisningarna inte är enhetliga. Det är av intresse att förstå de drivkrafter som får kommuner att hållbarhetsredovisa i syfte att kunna gynna målet- ett hållbart samhälle. Syfte: Vi har några förklaringsvariabler som vi tror kan utgöra tänkbara drivkrafter till att organisationer hållbarhetsredovisar. Dessa är sökande efter godkännande, institutionellt tryck/anpassning och informationsspridning. Vi ska i denna uppsats pröva dessa variablers giltighet i några av Dalarnas kommuner. Metod: Undersökningen bygger på sexton kvalitativa telefonintervjuer med anställda inom nio av Dalarnas kommuner som alla har någon form av ansvar för redovisning inom kommunen. Slutsats: Den viktigaste drivkraften bakom hållbarhetsredovisning inom Dalarnas kommuner är enligt vår undersökning att sprida information och att söka legitimitet. / Abstract Background: When Gro Harlem Brundtland wrote her report "Our common future" in the mid eighties sustainability really got a boost and although it has now been more than 25 years, the subject is still highly topical. There is a great need to make society sustainable and it is the public interest that we bring about change. Here, companies and the public sector play an important role and sustainability reporting is a tool to achieve this goal. Problem: There are very big differences in if and how the municipalities of Sweden make sustainability accounting reports. Accourding to FAR, the trade association of accountants and advisors, the quality of the reports is far from satisfactory. To set up sustainability accounting reports isn´t easy because of the complexity of the task since it spans over three very different dimensions. Sustainability accounting is voluntary in the public sector today and there are yet no guidelines to follow, which makes it hard for the organisation that wants to begin making these kind of reports. Comparision and verification of the information in the reports also become a problem because of the lack of homogenity of the reports. It´s important to understand the driving forces that make municipalities create sustainability accounting reports in order to serve the purpose - to create a sustainable society. Purpose: We have a few explanatory variables which we think are possible driving forces why organisations create sustainbility accounting reports. These are search för approval, institutional pressure/ adaptation and to spread information. We are going to try the validity of these variables among some of the municipalities of Dalarna. Method: The study is based on sixteen qualitative telephone interviews with staff in nine of the municipalities of Dalarna who are all involved in the process of making accounting reports. Conclusion: The most important driving forces behind sustainability accounting in the municipalities of Dalarna, according to our survey, are to spread information and to seek legitimacy.

Résumé : Au Québec, la crise de l’industrie porcine a particulièrement affecté la coopérative La Coop fédérée. En réponse à cette crise, la marque de certification Porc certifié La Coop a été développée afin de personnaliser le produit et se différencier sur les marchés. Considérant le succès du Porc certifié La Coop sur les marchés d’exportation et les préoccupations grandissantes de consommateurs pour la qualité des aliments, La Coop fédérée envisage maintenant de mettre en valeur la marque de certification Porc certifié La Coop auprès de consommateurs québécois. Une résidence au sein de La Coop fédérée nous a permis d’identifier trois principaux enjeux liés à cette mise en valeur : la stratégie de communication, la stratégie de marque et la stratégie de certification. La stratégie de communication correspond au nombre et à la nature des signaux à mettre en valeur sur l’emballage (ex. : respect du bien-être animal, porc nourri à 100 % de grains végétaux et porc élevé sans antibiotiques), la stratégie de marque a trait à la présence ou non d’une marque sur l’emballage (ex. : Lafleur) et la stratégie de certification concerne la présence ou non d’une marque de certification (ex. : Porc certifié La Coop). La principale hypothèse de l’étude précise deux éléments. D’abord, la propension à payer pour la stratégie de communication comportant trois signaux est plus élevée que la propension à payer pour la stratégie de communication comportant un seul signal. La nature additive du modèle multiattributs permet de comprendre ce phénomène. Ensuite, la propension à payer est plus élevée lorsque la stratégie de marque utilise une marque réputée et une marque de certification réputée. Selon la théorie des signaux, il y a alors un lien de vulnérabilité à la marque réputée et un lien de vulnérabilité à la marque de certification réputée, ce qui renforce la crédibilité des signaux. Une expérimentation a été réalisée au moyen d’un panel Internet. L’échantillon final de l’étude est de 1 060 consommateurs québécois. Deux principaux résultats ressortent de l’étude. Premièrement, la propension à payer pour la stratégie de communication comportant trois signaux n’est pas toujours plus élevée que la propension à payer pour la stratégie de communication comportant un signal. Ce résultat s’explique par la dominance du signal bien-être animal au Québec. Deuxièmement, les résultats montrent l’absence d’effet modérateur des stratégies de marque et de certification. Il semble donc que le lien de vulnérabilité ne permet pas toujours de renforcer la crédibilité des signaux. Une autre variable est à considérer pour renforcer la crédibilité des signaux, soit la responsabilité sociale perçue. // Abstract : In Quebec, the crisis in the pork industry particularly affected La Coop fédérée cooperative. In response to this crisis, the certification mark “Porc certifié La Coop” was developed to customize the product and differentiate it in the marketplace. Given the success of the certification mark on the export market and the growing concerns of consumers about food quality, La Coop fédérée is now planning to promote the certification mark Porc certifié La Coop to Quebec consumers. A residency within La Coop fédérée has helped identify three main issues related to this campaign: the communication strategy, the branding strategy and the certification strategy. The communication strategy is the number and nature of the signals presented on the packaging (e.g., animal welfare, 100% grain-fed pork, pork raised without antibiotics), the branding strategy is the presence or absence of a brand on the packaging (e.g., Lafleur) and the certification strategy is the presence or absence of a certification mark on the packaging (e.g., “Porc certifié La Coop”). The main hypothesis of this study specifies two elements. First, the willingness to pay for the communication strategy with three signals will be higher than the willingness to pay for the communication strategy with only one signal. The additive nature of the multi-attribute model explains this phenomenon. Second, the willingness to pay will be higher when the branding strategy uses a reputed brand and the certification strategy uses a reputed certification mark. According to the signaling theory, there is then a vulnerable bond to the reputed brand and a vulnerable bond to the reputed certification mark, which strengthens the credibility of the signals. An experiment was conducted using an Internet panel. The final study sample totaled 1060 Québec consumers. Two main results emerged from the study. First, the willingness to pay for the communication strategy with three signals is not always higher than the willingness to pay for the communication strategy with one signal. This result is explained by the dominance of the animal welfare signal in Québec. Second, results show that the branding and the certification strategies have no moderating effect. This result seems to indicate that the vulnerable bond does not always strengthen the credibility of the signals. Another variable strengthens the credibility of the signals – that of perceived social responsibility.

Sammanfattning Titel: Har ett företags utdelningspolicy någon betydelse?   Nivå: Examensarbete på Grundnivå (kandidatexamen) i ämnet företagsekonomi.   Författare: Pontus Kindlund och Andreas Wallgren   Handledare: Catherine Lions   Datum: 2018–01   Syfte: Tidigare forskning undersöker oftast utdelningspolicyns betydelse för investerarna. Därför har vi valt att se det från företagens perspektiv genom att undersöka hur ett företags utdelningspolicy påverkar företagets genomsnittliga kapitalkostnad.   Metod: Studien har en kvantitativ metod med hypotesprövningar och en deduktiv ansats där datan är inhämtad från Thompson Reuters Datastream. Regressionsanalyser har sedan utförts för att studera sambandet mellan företagens utdelningspolicy och företagens genomsnittliga kapitalkostnader.   Resultat och slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att det inte finns några omfattande samband mellan företagens utdelningspolicy och företagens genomsnittliga kapitalkostnader. Vår studie är därför i linje med studien från Modigliani och Miller (1961) angående utdelningspolicyns irrelevans.   Examensarbetets bidrag: Studiens resultat bidrar med kunskap som kan vara till nytta för företagsledningar som utarbetar företagens utdelningspolicy, eftersom oavsett val av utdelningspolicy kan det inte förväntas ha en signifikant påverkan på företagens genomsnittliga kapitalkostnad.   Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Då vår studie inte har tagit hänsyn till företagens investeringsmöjligheter så kvarstår det att även ta hänsyn till detta för att undersöka utdelningspolicyns påverkan på den genomsnittliga kapitalkostnaden.   Nyckelord: Utdelningspolicy, Genomsnittlig kapitalkostnad, Signalteori, Utdelningspolicyns irrelevans, Trade-off-teori / Abstract Title: Does a company’s dividend policy matter?   Level: Student thesis, final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration.   Author: Pontus Kindlund and Andreas Wallgren   Supervisor: Catherine Lions   Date: 2018–01   Aim: Previous research usually explores the importance of the dividend policy for investors. Therefore, we have chosen to see it from the corporate perspective by investigating how a company's dividend policy affects the company's weighted average cost of capital.   Method: The study has a deductive approach and a quantitative method of hypothesis testing and where the data is obtained from Thompson Reuters Datastream. Regression analysis has then been conducted to study the relationship between the dividend policy and the companies’ weighted average cost of capital.   Result & Conclusions: The study's results show that there is no general correlation between the company's dividend policy and the company's weighted average cost of capital. Our study is in line with the study by Modigliani and Miller (1961) regarding the irrelevance of the dividend policy.   Contribution of the thesis: The results of the study contribute to creating knowledge that may be useful to business executives who prepare the company's dividend policy, since any choice of dividend policy should not be expected to have a significant impact on the weighted average cost of capital.   Suggestions for future research: As our study has not taken into account the companies' investment opportunities, it remains to take this into consideration to investigate the impact of the dividend policy on the weighted average cost of capital.   Key words: Dividend policy, Weighted average cost of capital, Signaling theory, The irrelevance of a dividend policy, Trade-off theory

Many firms from emerging markets flocked to developed countries at high cost with hopes of acquiring strategic assets that are difficult to obtain in home countries. Adequate research has focused on the motivations and strategies of emerging country firms' (ECFs') internationalization, while limited studies have explored their survival in advanced economies years after their venturing abroad. Due to the imprinting effect of home country institutions that inhibit their development outside their home market, ECFs are inclined to hire executives with international background and affiliate to world-wide organizations for the purpose of linking up with the global market, embracing multiple perspectives for strategic decisions, and absorbing the knowledge of foreign markets. However, the effects of such orientation on survival are under limited exploration. Motivated by the discussion above, I explore ECFs’ survival and stock performance in a developed country (U.S.). Applying population ecology, signaling theory and institutional theory, the dissertation investigates the characteristics of ECFs that survived in the developed country (U.S.), tests the impacts of global orientation on their survival, and examines how global-oriented activities (i.e. joining United Nations Global Compact) affect their stock performance. The dissertation is structured in the form of three empirical essays. The first essay explores and compares different characteristics of ECFs and developed country firms (DCFs) that managed to survive in the U.S. The second essay proposes the concept of global orientation, and tests its influences on ECFs’ survival. Employing signaling theory and institutional theory, the third essay investigates stock market reactions to announcements of United Nation Global Compact (UNGC) participation. The dissertation serves to explore the survival of ECFs in the developed country (U.S.) by comparison with DCFs, enriching traditional theories by testing non-traditional arguments in the context of ECFs’ foreign operation, and better informing practitioners operating ECFs about ways of surviving in developed countries and improving stockholders’ confidence in their future growth.

This thesis analyzes and evaluates the relationship between insider trading and the long-term stock performance of Initial Public Offerings (IPO) in Sweden. The study looks at firms that recently conducted an IPO and how the stock performance of the firm is impacted by insiders making transactions in their own stock. An IPO is known to generate high returns on its first day on the public stock market, but to underperform the market in the long term. The characteristics of an IPO are deviant from the rest of the stock market, and with less information available to the public compared to other firms, the IPO market is hard to navigate for investors. Transactions made by insiders in the share of their own company is usually seen as guidance in public companies. An insider purchase is usually followed by a positive stock return, and insiders selling shares have the opposite impact. The aim of this thesis is to investigate if the information provided by insider transactions can be used to create a potential trading strategy for IPOs. Through statistical analysis, a negative relationship is found between the insider trading and IPO long-term stock performance, indicating that insider buying shares are connected to lesser stock performance. This contradicts previous research regarding insider trading in seasoned firms and opens up for discussion. By implementing a theoretical framework, a deeper analysis of the proposed relationship is be made. This study concludes that the negative relationship between insider trading and long-term IPO stock performance is not directly caused by insider trading itself. Instead, it is a result of insiders making poor investment decisions due to outside pressure and behavioral factors.

Payout policies is one of the most discussed topics in corporate finance. Since Miller & Modigliani (1961) dividend irrelevance theory, which was based on perfect markets, many theories have been developed in order to incorporate market imperfections to payout decisions. Numerous scholars have been trying to explain why companies pay dividends, whether they should compensate investors with alternative methods such as share repurchases or not distribute cash at all. The theme has gained lots of attention during the 21-st century driven by the subprime financial crisis in 2008 and mostly recently, in 2020, due to economic impacts brought by the Covid 19 pandemic. Another important aspect that makes the study of payout policy relevant in the 21-st century is the unique impacts of unveiled trends such as globalization and volatile markets, increased importance of ecology and sustainability, emergency of fast growth firms (mainly in the Tech industry) and change characteristics of listed firms. Globally there is a tendency of reduction in the number of listed firms and also deterioration in the quality of earnings. Additionally, there is no consensus about which factors influence a firm propensity of distributing cash to shareholders, which makes the topic very intriguing. Previous research has been conducted mainly within US firms. Few studies have been conducted regarding payout policies in the Nordic countries and most of them give little attention to share repurchases and payout policy determinants. Therefore, we decided to conduct a study regarding the patterns and determinants of payout policy in the 21-st century with focus on the Nordic countries. The purposes of the study are: first, to understand the pattern of payout policies in the Nordic countries during the 21-st century and second determine if there is a relationship between a number of firm’s selected factors and firm’s payout policy. As a sub purpose we intend to examine whether the Covid 19 pandemic had any effect on Nordic firm’s payout policies. The factors investigated, namely: debt, profit, retained earnings, growth opportunities, cash holdings, size and age were identified through a detailed literature review. We collected data from Thomson Reuters DataStream Eikon covering the period between 2000 and 2020 for 1,153 firms from all Nordic countries: Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The study follows a quantitative research method with a deductive approach, and we have based the theoretical framework on the following theories: Miller-Modigliani dividend irrelevance theory, Signaling theory, Agency theory, Life-cycle theory and Substitution and Flexibility hypotheses. In order to determine whether there is a relationship between the companies selected factors and the payout ratios we conducted ordinary least square (OLS) correlation analysis. Additional regression analysis was conducted to verify possible impacts of Covid 19 on Nordic payout policies. Results indicate that some firms’ selected characteristics such as debt, size and age have an impact on Nordic firms’ payout policy during the 21-st century. Larger firms with lower debt are more willing to pay cash dividends, while older firms tend to present higher levels of share repurchase. Firms’ characteristics showed no impact on changes in payout ratios during the initial period of Covid 19.