Magister Legum - LLM / Timely, adequate and affordable access to finance is pivotal to bolstering the participation of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in both domestic and international trade. Regrettably, despite their immense contributions to the economy, most SMEs in Nigeria and across Africa find it extremely challenging to access finance from banks and the stock market. As a result, they cannot fund their working capital and trade financing needs conveniently, and this undermines their growth and capacity to contribute even more to the economy. This situation has made it imperative to continue exploring alternative sources of finance that may be more accessible and align better with the peculiarities of SMEs.

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Studiens syfte: Denna studie har som syfte att undersöka hur svenska venture capital aktörer minimerar asymmetrisk information i samarbetsprocessen med entreprenören. Metod: Studien är av fallstudiedesign med kvalitativ ansats där semistrukturerade intervjuer samt enkät med slutna frågor har använts för att samla in data. Empiri: Det empiriska materialet visar hur tre svenska venture capital aktörer noggrant och effektivt väljer investeringsobjekt och sedan arbetar aktivt för att dessa bolag ska bli så bra som möjligt. Slutsats: Studien visar att svenska venture capital aktörer använder sig av en kombination av olika verktyg och att bygga förtroende mellan de olika parterna för att minimera risken med asymmetrisk information. / Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine how the Swedish venture capital operators minimize the asymmetric information that may occur during an investment process. Method: This study has a case study design using a qualitative approach in which semi- structured interviews and a questionnaire with closed-end questions were used to collect data. Research: The empirical data shows how Swedish Venture Capital operators accurately and efficiently selects investment targets and then actively work for the companies they invest in. Conclusion: The main result of this investigation is that Swedish venture capital operators use a combination of different tools and trust to minimize the risk of asymmetric information.

Bakgrund: Flera organisationer runt om i Sverige använder sig idag av en prestationsbaserad lön för att motivera sina anställda att prestera bättre. I dagens samhälle har en rättvis lön blivit ett allt mer relevant område då priserna på livsmedel, drivmedel, el samt räntor har stigit markant. Inom Human Resources är det viktigt att veta hur de anställda motiveras för att de ska prestera i arbetet. Tidigare forskare har konstaterat att det finns en påverkan på individers motivation samt prestation när det kommer till prestationsbaserad lön. Det finns däremot en avsaknad av forskning som belyser hur motivationen och prestationen påverkas hos individer i en organisation som använder sig av ett löneupplägg med dels fast lön samt dels prestationsbaserad lön. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att förklara hur prestationsbaserad lön samt fast lön kan påverka motivationen hos individer i en organisation som använder sig av båda löneuppläggen samt huruvida detta kan bidra till klyftor inom en organisation i Sverige. Metod: Studien har ett konstruktionistiskt och objektivt förhållningssätt samt en deduktiv forskningsansats. Forskningen har sin grund i två centrala teorier som är SDT samt Agency theory. Studien har vidare en kvantitativ forskningsdesign som baseras på en fallstudie. Insamlingen av empirin har samlats in med hjälp av en kvantitativ enkät, där vi har samlat svar från 72 respondenter. Svaren från enkäten analyseras sedan med tre olika analysmetoder i statistikverktyget SPSS. Slutsats: Studiens resultat förklarar att i en organisation som använder sig av dels en prestationsbaserad lön och dels en fast lön kan detta bidra till att de anställda med fast lön upplever en orättvisa kring lön samt bonusar inom organisationen. Detta i sin tur leder till minskad inre motivation hos dessa anställda. Resultatet förklarar även att den yttre motivationen hos dem med prestationsbaserad lön är högre. Det finns dock ingen tydlig indikation på att detta bidrar till klyftor inom organisationen. / Background: Several organizations around Sweden today use a performance-based salary to motivate their employees to perform better. In today's society, a fair wage has become an increasingly relevant area as the prices of food, fuel, electricity and interest rates have risen significantly. Within Human Resources, it is important to know how employees are motivated to perform at work. Previous researchers have established that there is an impact on individuals' motivation and performance when it comes to performance-based pay. There is, on the other hand, a lack of research that sheds light on how motivation and performance are affected in individuals in an organization that uses a pay structure with part fixed pay and part performance-based pay. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to explain how performance-based salary and fixed salary can affect the motivation of individuals in an organization that uses both salary arrangements and whether this can contribute to gaps within an organization in Sweden. Method: The study has a constructionist and objective approach and a deductive research approach. The research has its basis in two central theories which are SDT and Agency theory. The study also has a quantitative research design based on a case study. The collection of empirical evidence has been collected using a quantitative survey, where we have collected answers from 72 respondents. The answers from the survey are then analyzed with three different analysis methods in the statistical tool SPSS. Results: The results of the study explain that in an organization that uses partly a performance-based salary and partly a fixed salary, this can contribute to the employees with a fixed salary experiencing an injustice regarding salary and bonuses within the organization. This in turn leads to reduced internal motivation among these employees. The result also explains that the extrinsic motivation of those with performance-based pay is higher. However, there is no clear indication that this contributes to divisions within the organization.

I affärsprocesser flödar information i olika format. Verbal, skriven, dokumenterad, eller i form av databaser. Oavsett format måste informationen lagras men den måste dessutom vara tillgänglig för alla som kan ha nytta av den. När det gäller information i en processorienterad organisation måste den plats där informationen lagras också möjliggöra för flödet av den. Detta examensarbete är baserat på öppna intervjuer genomförda på Tekniska verken i Linköping (hädanefter kallat TvAB) och på Alstom Power i Växjö (hädanefter kallat Alstom). Intervjuerna syftar till att ge oss empiri för undersökningen, och även till att ge en inblick i den vardag som finns på företagen vilket förankrar studien i praktik och teori. Studien syftar till att undersöka hur processägarnas kunskap påverkar informationsflödet och spridningen av masterdata i organisationen. Vår studie visar att beroende på vem som tillfrågas skiljer sig synen på informationsflödet från processägarna. Förklaringen till denna skillnad är att processägarnas förståelse om masterdata skiljer sig från varandra. Somliga hade en grundlig förståelse för masterdata, medan andra aldrig hört ordet. Detta leder till att informationsasymmetri uppstår, ett övertag för den personen med större eller bättre förståelse för begreppet masterdata. / Information in different formats flow within business processes. It can be verbal, written or previously documented information. It can also take the shape of databases. Regardless of the format the information has to be stored but at the same time readily available for those who must use it. When it comes to information in a process oriented organization the storage facility for the information must also allow for the usage and the flow of the information itself. This paper which is based on a study conducted at Tekniska verken in Linköping and at Alstom Power in Växjö, Sweden aims to investigate how a process owner’s view on the information flow can affect the sharing of master data in an organization. Open interviews were conducted both at Tekniska verken and Alstom since no research had previously been done on the specific view of the process owner. The interviews were not solely aimed at gathering empirical data but also to give an insight into the everyday routine of the companies. This principle forms the theoretical and practical base for this study. The study shows the way a process owner views the internal flow of information is completely dependent on how well the process owner understands the term “master data”. This study also shows proof of asymmetrical information in the sense of one person having a greater understanding of master data than another. Thus, the person with the greater understanding can use this to his or her advantage.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the comply-or-explain principle in Sweden to determine if the flexible approach is functioning as in-tended. Research design: This paper scrutinizes the quality of the explanations with respect to the Swedish Corporate Governance Code. A quantitative research with a cross-sectional design has been performed and the data collection covers 241 companies listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm for the fiscal year of 2014. The secondary data has been gathered from corporate governance reports of the researched companies and analysed by using a tax-onomy of explanations. Findings: The report demonstrates that the comply-or-explain principle in Sweden is effective. A clear majority of the explanations, 71,8%, were deemed as informative, mean-ing that a large proportion of the Swedish firms are utilizing the flexible approach in an effective manner. However, one out of four explanations were classified as insufficient and we have thus provided recommendations in order for the code to become even more effective. Contribution: Our findings provide insights on how the comply-or-explain principle works in a country that is supposed to be a leading example of how the comply-or-explain approach should be implemented. This study should be of significance for policy makers considering that we have outlined how the principle works and provided recommenda-tions on how the Swedish Corporate Governance Code can be improved. Value: Our findings demonstrate that companies listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm pro-vide high quality explanations that can serve as an inspiration for companies listed in other countries. Furthermore, the results indicate that managers are likely to act within ethically desired norm. Considering the social implications, as Swedish firms are informative in terms of explanations, it minimizes the risk of firms acting dishonestly.

This study is motivated by the numerous reforms to strengthen the efficacy of corporate boards and their oversight committees, in the wake of high profile corporate failures. The empirical question, however, is whether recent proposals would enhance board and their committee effectiveness and in this way, reduce the likelihood of firm`s failure. This study examines whether the composition, structure and functions of corporate boards and their interactions are related to the probability of corporate failure. Prior studies employ agency and resource dependency theories in isolation as theoretical lenses. This study, however, employs these aforementioned theories as theoretical lenses and argues that the board control and resource function affects the relationship between corporate board attributes and corporate failure. This study examines a sample of 358 UK listed firms, consisting of 95 failed firms and 263 non-failed firms during the period 1999-2011. This study also uses a unique hand-collected data set that measures the corporate governance attributes and functions of these 358 firms over a period of five years preceding failure or otherwise, resulting in 1748 firm-years observations. This study reveals that the probability of failure is lower in firms with large board size, former government officials, independent remuneration committee chairman and greater proportion of outside directors as well as effective audit and remuneration committees. This study also finds that the prospect of corporate failure is higher in firms with less than three independent NEDs on both the audit and nomination committees, without audit committee and where audit committee has no one with financial expertise. The results, however, suggest that the possibility of corporate failure is higher in firms whose boards have a female director and where the nomination committee meets often or where its membership is exclusively preserved for independent NEDs. On the interaction effects, the results show that frequency of board meetings as well as its interactions with presence of female directors, audit and remuneration committees effectiveness are positively related to the probability of corporate failure. The results also indicate that a number of interactions between corporate board attributes and functions are unrelated to the likelihood of corporate failure. These include the interactions between board composition measures (i.e. proportion of outside directors, presence of female directors and board size) and the board resource proxy (i.e. former government official). These associations, especially remuneration committee effectiveness, remuneration committee chairman independence, firm size and profitability, are not only statistically and economically significant but also robust to different specifications. Further, the Receiver Operating Curves indicate that the impact of corporate governance measures after controlling for firm size, liquidity, profitability, age, industry effects, and leverage is more profound in two years preceding failure. The implication of this is that corporate governance mechanisms alone are insufficient to rescue the firm on the verge of collapse. The findings are consistent with the idea that failing firms decline in size, managerial performance, corporate board attributes as well as their board`s ability to discharge it`s monitoring and resource roles. This study adds to the debate on the impact of corporate governance on corporate failure by developing, analysing and testing a robust UK corporate failure prediction model which is underpinned by a multi-theoretical framework: agency and resource dependency theories. This study also offers several recommendations for policy makers and firm-level corporate governance strategies in the mix of the numerous corporate governance reforms worldwide, this in particular makes this study unique.

Financial markets have many different key actors, but one of the most important ones are the financial analysts. They are considered as experts in gathering and disseminating the information that firms produce, to those that seek it, such as stock recommendations and reports on firms. Related to this is a growing interest in society toward disclosures in regards of CSR as well as ESG. There has been considerable discussion in academia of whether or not CSR can be considered to be value relevant. This is a question which relate to both institutional and legitimacy perspectives in terms of theory, but also discussions in regards to agency and stakeholder theory as well:   Has value relevance of CSR disclosures increased in stock recommendations for the Nordic markets?   Thereby, the main purpose of this thesis is to find out whether or not there has been a shifting view of CSR over time, which would be evidenced in an increasing legitimization of CSR in terms of an increasing value-relevance to financial analysts. This would also be related to a shifting institutional logic, whereby it would be possible to relate to a shift in the view of the firm and its role in society. This is both looked at purely from the starting point of the dataset to the end point, but also for two different periods of time, so as to test if there is a different view of the issue after the financial crisis. In addition to this main purpose, this thesis furthermore sets out to answer whether CSR is value-relevant or not in different subsegments, such as nations, industries and the different types of recommendations that exist.   To answer the research question, an objectivist and positivist stance is taken, which subsequently leads the authors to utilize quantitative methods and statistical analysis to the data. Here, different panel models are fitted to the data to account effects that exist within it. To explain the findings, a theoretical framework is built upon three different levels: societal, firm and individual level. Here, on the societal level theories such as institutional theory as well as legitimacy theory are dealt with. On the firm level, agency theory and stakeholder theory as well as theoretical views of CSR forms the basis, and the individual level deals with theory related to the financial analyst.   In looking at the results and the analysis, one cannot draw the conclusion that there has been a shifting view of the value-relevance of CSR. Financial analysts appear to not find it value-relevant in issuing their stock recommendations, except for two cases: namely in terms of the industrial sector Basic Materials and the Buy recommendations. In terms of Basic Materials, it appears to be value-relevant in a positive manner. In regards to the Buy recommendation, it appears to have a negative effect on the value-relevance. All in all, this thesis cannot find evidence for a value-relevance of CSR to financial analysts in the Nordic markets. Essentially, the view of it appears to be pessimistic.

Disclosure of accounting information is crucial in facilitating efficient contracts in the publicly listed firm and in reducing information asymmetries in capital markets. A well-known perception in disclosure literature is that, as the separation between managers and owners increases, so does the demand for publicly available disclosure. Many publicly listed firms around the world are controlled by a few large owners that obtain information through their insider positions in the firm. Thus, variations in ownership structures have a considerable effect on how firms’ disclosure practices are resolved. Despite the increased attention paid to the identity of controlling owners and their influence on financial reporting practices, little is known about how owner types and governance mechanisms influence corporate disclosures and capital-market effects. This thesis contributes to the disclosure literature by studying a context in which controlling owners have a large influence on the governance and disclosure practices of firms. This contrasts with the much-studied setting in which management influences the governance and reporting decisions of firms. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to examine the determinants and capital-market effects of Swedish listed firms’ annual report disclosure. This thesis uses a self-constructed disclosure index from manually gathered data from the annual reports of Swedish publicly listed firms during the years 2001 to 2013. This includes information on the notes to the financial statements, corporate governance and strategy. The findings of the four empirical studies show that the ownership structure of firms and the various contractual relationships that firms are engaged in, drive the disclosure practices. Additionally, the results indicate that higher levels of disclosure decrease information asymmetries between capital-market participants and increase trading activity. However, the findings also show that firms with controlling owners are less forthcoming with disclosure, even after a new disclosure reform. Considering the large influence of controlling owners in the studied context, these are important findings in the research field and in regulators’ processes of deriving disclosure regulation. The thesis concludes that the variety in firms’ disclosure incentives and local governance structures are important disclosure determinants to understand in framing international accounting standards.

Problem:      Companies need to maintain a competitive position in the market to financially perform, and in order to do so, the companies need to have a good corporate governance structure. In the latter years, the ethical discussion about gender diversity has gained a lot of attention in society, which influence norms, standards and legislations, and also the business. Today, Swedish and Danish firms are obligated to strive for gender diversity in their corporate boards according to the corporate governance codes in the respective countries. However, the financial aspects should be taken into concern, since a company needs to financially perform to keep its operations. It is not established whether an increased gender diversity is related to financial performance, since studies on the field are contradictive. Due to the different results, it is interesting to see what the relationship looks like in the Nordic countries, especially in Sweden and Denmark where quota-based legislation has not yet been established. This thesis investigates the issue to provide evidence for the companies in similar countries if an increased gender diversity is financially supportable.   Purpose:      The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the gender diversity in the board of directors and its relationship with the financial performance of a corporation. Further, the study will investigate the financial performance dependency on the gender diversity in the board of directors.   Method:       A sample of 104 Swedish and Danish companies was chosen as observation objects. To investigate the relationship between the gender diversity and the financial performance, a Pearson correlation analysis was made. To identify the financial performance dependency on the gender diversity regression analyses were performed. Hypotheses that were built on agency theory, resource dependency theory, upper echelons theory and previous research were tested in the statistical analyses.   Results:        The statistical analyses show that there is no statistically significant relationship between gender diversity and financial performance, neither that the financial performance is dependent on the gender diversity. This evidence implies that increased gender diversity in board rooms should be motivated for other reasons than strictly financial success. Companies should consider these findings in the attaining process of directors and focus on other factors than financial progress in the proceeding involvement of women in the board. Thus, a company cannot increase its financial performance only by attaining more women to the board room. / Problem:      För att prestera finansiellt behöver företag bibehålla konkurrenskraft, och för att göra det är företagsledningen viktig. På senare tid, har den etiska diskussionen kring könsdiversitet fått stor uppmärksamhet i samhället, vilket påverkar normer, standarder och lagstiftning. Svenska och danska företag är förpliktigade att sträva efter könsdiversitet enligt den svenska och danska koden för bolagsstyrning, men även de finansiella aspekterna av könsmångfald bör tas i beaktning eftersom ett företag behöver prestera finansiellt för att kunna fortsätta sin verksamhet. Ännu är det inte fastslaget att en ökad könsdiversitet är relaterat till finansiella framsteg, då studier på området säger emot varandra. Därför är det intressant att se hur denna relation ser ut i de nordiska länderna, speciellt i Sverige och Danmark där kvoteringslagar ännu inte har införts. Denna uppsats undersöker frågan för att skapa bevis för företagen i länderna om en ökad könsdiversitet är finansiellt försvarbar.   Syfte:            Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka könsdiversitet i bolagsstyrelser och relationen till finansiella prestationer av företaget i fråga. Dessutom ämnar studien undersöka de finansiella prestationernas beroendeförhållande till könsdiversiteten i bolagsstyrelserna.     Metod:         Ett urval av 104 svenska och danska företag valdes som observationsobjekt. För att undersöka relationen mellan könsdiversitet och finansiella prestationer görs en Pearson korrelationsanalys. För att upptäcka om finansiella prestationer är har ett beroendeförhållande till könsdiversiteten i bolagsstyrelserna gjordes regressionsanalyser. Hypoteserna som testades baserades på agentteori, resursberoendeteori, och övernivåteori och tidigare empirisk forskning.   Resultat:      De statistiska analyserna visar att det inte finns något signifikant samband mellan könsdiversitet och finansiella prestationer, och inte heller att finansiell prestation har ett beroendeförhållande till könsdiversitet i bolagsstyrelsen. Dessa resultat indikerar att en ökad könsdiversitet i styrelserummen bör motiveras av andra faktorer än strikt finansiell framgång. Företag bör ta ställning till resultaten från denna forskning i tillsättandet av styrelseledamöter och inte förvänta sig en förbättrad finansiell ställning enbart genom att tillsätta fler kvinnor till styrelsen.