Human capital assessment is an integral part of the in-depth evaluation conducted by Venture Capitalists (VCs) before an investment decision. Furthermore, an effective collaboration between external investors and the founding team can be vital for the success of a startup venture. This thesis aims to improve this assessment and collaboration by providing an empirical account of historically successful Swedish tech startups and their founding teams (FT). We employ semi-structured interviews with 13 entrepreneurs who in total have founded over 50 ventures in order to deduce patterns to the characteristics, compositions and views of successful founding management teams. We compile and discuss their views concerning aspects such as organizational culture, team performance and their relationships with external financiers. The focus of this thesis was in part guided by our commissioner, Almi Invest. Based on our interviews and literature review, we present several findings which may be of interest to both investors and entrepreneurs. Some of our key findings are that successful Swedish tech startups are generally composed of diverse teams where the founders share some previous association and complement each other with regards to both competencies and personalities. They view culture and vision as important aspects, with values acting as the uniting factor that drives cohesion and performance. We also find that their views are largely influenced by previous experiences. Finally, we highlight some perceived inefficiencies in the collaboration between investors and entrepreneurs, mainly with regards to post-investment activities and the process of raising capital. Our findings suggest a lack of transparency between entrepreneurs and financiers regarding the investor activity levels, where entrepreneurs generally feel that VCs fall short on their promises. We suggest some areas of improvement where VCs might tune their practices to better suit the needs of their portfolio companies and improve overall performance.

No description available.

Bakgrund och problem: Bakgrunden till denna studie ligger i bristen av mångfald i svenska företagsledningar. För att skapa en större förståelse för rekryteringen av individer till företagsledningen, kan det således vara av betydelse att studera de individer som tillsätter ledningen, det vill säga vd, styrelseordförande och styrelsen. Dessa ledande positioner förväntas påverkas av betydande händelser och erfarenheter i deras formativa år, och således bilda unika värderingar vilket kan påverka deras val av individer till företagsledningen. Det är därmed intressant att förstå om och i så fall hur ledande positioners generationstillhörighet kan förklara mångfalden i företagsledningen. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att förklara om och hur ledande positioner såsom vd:s, styrelseordförandens samt styrelseledamöters generationstillhörighet kan förklara mångfalden i företagsledningen.    Metod: Undersökningen utgår från befintlig teori och har en deduktiv ansats, med en teoretisk grund utifrån gruppkonfliktsteorin, sociala identitetsteorin, homosocial reproduktion, legitimitetsteorin och institutionella teorin. Hypoteser formuleras utifrån vd:s, styrelseordförandens och styrelsens generationstillhörighet för att studera om olika generationer har skilda värderingar som i sin tur kan förklara mångfalden i företagsledningen. Uppsatsen är kvantitativ och studerar samtliga svenska börsnoterade företag på large-, mid- och small cap för åren 2007 respektive 2017.    Resultat och slutsats: Det kan konstateras att ledande positioners generationstillhörighet inte kan förklara mångfalden i företagsledningen. Denna studie ser istället tendenser av homosocial reproduktion vid rekrytering av individer till företagsledningen. / Background and problem: The background to this study lies in the lack of diversity in Swedish top management teams. In order to create a greater understanding of the recruitment of individuals to the top management team, it can thus be of importance to study the individuals who appoint the management, that is, the CEO, the chairman of the board and the board. These leading positions are expected to be influenced by significant events and experiences in their formative years, thus forming unique values which can affect their choice of individuals to the top management team. It is therefore interesting to understand whether and, if so, how leading positions' generation affiliation can explain the diversity in top management teams.  Purpose: Our purpose is to explain whether and how leading positions such as the CEO's, the Chairman’s of the Board and the Board of Directors generation affiliation can explain the diversity in top management teams.   Method: The study is based on existing theory and has a deductive approach, with a theoretical basis based on group conflict theory, social identity theory, homosocial reproduction, legitimacy theory and institutional theory. Hypotheses are formulated on the basis of the CEO's, the Chairman's and the Board's generation affiliation in order to study whether different generations have different values which in turn can explain the diversity of the top management team. The thesis is quantitative and studies all Swedish listed companies on large, mid and small cap for the years 2007 and 2017.    Results and conclusion: It can be concluded that the leading positions generation affiliation can not explain the diversity in top management teams. Instead, this study sees tendencies of homosocial reproduction when recruiting individuals to top management teams.

The private equity industry has experienced a decade marked by substantial growth. However, as the investment landscape for capital providers has become more complex, the leadership team of private equity firms plays a more crucial role in navigating significant challenges. Focused on two themes, this dissertation explores the background of top management teams (TMTs) in private equity firms, its correlation with fund performance, and the backgrounds of deal lead partners and their risk assessment of leveraged buyout (LBO) investments. The first essay investigates TMT diversity, emphasizing its multi-dimensional connection with fund performance. The study differentiates between socio-demographic and occupational diversity, uncovering various effects on fund outcomes. The second essay constructs a diversity index based on a comprehensive methodology to maximize the correlation between TMT diversity and private equity fund performance. The third essay explores the risk profiles of private equity partners in LBO investment decisions, establishing a link between socio-demographic backgrounds and distinct risk assessment archetypes. This dissertation contributes to the literature in the intersection of private equity and TMT, providing insights for scholars and practitioners alike.

Background: The "introduction of new public management" in institutions of higher education has brought a measurement-minded form of governance based on "doing more with less". At the same time, universities have increasingly become institutions where documentation proving the conformation to norms of society is more important than the actual outcomes of the organization. A more viable strategic mind set based on the core goals of higher education is therefore required in order to increase the congruence between stated goals and outcomes. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore how the demographics in boards and top management teams in higher education affect performance through the mediating role of cluster development. Method: This thesis has an abductive research approach as we emanate not only from previous theoretical discussions on public governance, upper echelon and cluster development, but also from a qualitative pilot study where we explore the cluster development concept in the university context. Our quantitative study is a cross-sectional study based on partly a survey sent to most directors and managers in higher education in Sweden, and partly independent data collection from financial reports and other sources. Results and conclusion: The results are based on a small sample with few observations which imply that we cannot draw strong conclusions based on our statistical findings. We can however discern different indications of relationships between certain demographic diversity factors in boards and top management teams and certain aspects of cluster development. There are however mixed indications regarding the relationship between cluster development and university performance. / Bakgrund: Införandet av new public management i universitet och högskolor har fört med sig ett mätningsfokuserat styre som bygger på "att göra mer med mindre". Samtidigt har lärosätena allt mer blivit institutioner där dokumentation som styrker samhällets krav är viktigare än det faktiska utfallet i organisationen. En mer livskraftig strategisk utveckling som baseras på de verkliga målen för högre utbildning krävs därför för att öka kongruensen mellan uppsatta mål och utfall. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur demografiska egenskaper i styrelser och ledningsgrupper inom universitet och högskolor påverkar prestation genom klusterutveckling. Metod: Denna uppsats har en abduktiv forskningsansats eftersom vi inte endast utgår ifrån tidigare teoretiska diskussioner om offentlig styrning, upper echelon och klusterutveckling, men också från en kvalitativ förstudie där vi utforskar klusterutveckling i universitetssammanhang. Vår kvantitativa studie är en tvärsnittsstudie baserad på dels en enkät som skickats till de flesta styrelseledamöter och medlemmar i ledningsgrupper i alla svenska universitet och högskolor i Sverige. Den är även dels baserad på självständig datainsamling från årsredovisningar och andra källor. Resultat och slutsats: Resultaten baserar sig på ett litet urval med få iakttagelser vilket innebär att vi inte kan dra säkra slutsatser utifrån våra statistiska analyser. Vi kan dock urskilja olika indikationer på samband mellan vissa demografiska mångfaldsfaktorer i styrelser och ledningsgrupper och vissa aspekter av klusterutveckling. Det finns dock blandade resultat om förhållandet mellan klusterutveckling och universitetens och högskolornas prestation.

過往工作生活平衡措施皆著重在對於員工態度、行為或組織績效的影響，甚少從女性的管理階層層面探討，故本研究從董事長性別、工作生活平衡措施、工作生活平衡措施自由使用度三個面向予以探究對於女性高階經理人比例之影響，並以產業別、本國商/外商與公司成立時間作為控制變項，以組織為分析單位進行研究。 本研究針對不限產業的國內企業為抽樣對象，一家公司包含年資至少兩年的1位人資部門人員與3位不限部門的主管或員工協助填答問卷，共收集55家企業，有效問卷252份，並利用階層迴歸分析檢驗研究假說。研究結果歸納如下： 1.董事長性別與女性高階經理人比例呈正向關係。 2.工作生活平衡措施中，受撫養者的照顧服務措施與女性高階經理人比例呈正向關係。 3.工作生活平衡措施自由使用度中，受撫養者的照顧服務自由使用度與女性高階經理人比例呈正向關係。 / In the past, the study about work-life balance practices was focused on the influence on the employee attitudes, behavior or organizational performance, and it was rare to investigate from the perspective of the female management level. So this study is to investigate the effects of the gender of the chairman, work-life balance practices, and the freedom to use of work-life balance practices on the proportion of female senior mangers. The samples of this study are domestic companies from any industry, and each company included a two years of experience expert in human resource and three executives or employees from any department to answer the questionnaires.There are totally 55 companies with 252 valid questionnaires. And this study use hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses. Following are the results of this study: 1. The gender of chairman has a positive correlation with the proportion of female senior managers. 2. In the work-life balance practices, dependent care service has a positive correlation with the proportion of female senior managers. 3. In the freedom to use of work-life balance practices, dependent care service has a positive correlation with the proportion of female senior managers.

2016年全球半導體產值約 3,270 億美元，台灣半導體產值佔全球的23%，繼續蟬聯全球第二大半導體產業大國，排行僅次於美國。此外，台灣以出口為導向，根據我國財政部統計，2017上半年積體電路出口金額占整體出口總值的27.6%，是我國最主要的出口產品，可見半導體產業對台灣的影響力不言而喻。 近年來半導體併購浪潮興起，台灣廠商也無法置身事外，最受矚目非日月光與矽品的非合意併購案莫屬。一般學術論文對於非合意併購案的探討，著重於併購前的動機與併購後的綜效，鮮少討論雙方在併購過程中的攻防。故本研究欲以動態競爭觀點，並考量政府對併購成敗的影響，來找出矽品最後同意日月光共組控股公司之提案的原因，並分析此合併案對全球封測產業所造成的影響。 本研究發現雙方在合併前，應用產品及地區的市場共同性，分別呈現上升及下降趨勢，透過收購矽品，日月光不僅能追趕其主要競爭對手在車用電子的領先地位，更可以降低營收過度集中於北美的風險。另外，雙方在台灣及中國的專利申請數量有下降趨勢，但在美國專利的申請數有明顯增加且資源相似性也呈上升趨勢，故推論日月光收購矽品可鞏固其在北美市場的領導地位。總而言之，雖然日矽合併案被外界視為雙贏結果，但客戶轉單、中國商務部的限制條件及收購溢價偏高可能使得此合併綜效有限。在面對中國封測產商崛起、封測產業的市場集中度上升及半導體產業中下游界限越來越不明確的情況下，雙方合併為必然之勢。 / The worldwide semiconductor market grew 1.1% in 2016 to $338.9 billion USD, in which Taiwan accounts for 23% of the total output. Taiwan continues to rank as the world's second largest semiconductor industry, with the first being America. Taiwan is export oriented, and from the statistical data provided by the Ministry of Finance, the shipment of integrated circuit exports accounted for 27.6% of gross export value in the first two quarters of 2017. This indicates that integrated circuit is an important export product and that the semiconductor industry is of great importance to Taiwan. The recent and unprecedented M&A waves in the semiconductor industry caused major changes and created impact on Taiwanese semiconductor firm. The recent case that drew most attention is the M&A between ASE (Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc.) and SPIL (Siliconware Precision Industries Co., Ltd). While most academic theses focus on the acquiring firm’s motive and post-M&A synergy, the offense and defense strategies during the M&A process are rarely explored. This research aims to focus on reasons why SPIL agreed on ASE’s proposal to form a joint venture holding company and the impact on the global OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test) industry after this M&A. This thesis utilized the dynamic competitive perspective and identifies government’s impact on M&A. The study finds that before the merger, the commonality of product shows an upward trend while the commonality of region market presents a downward direction. This merger not only assists ASE to catch up with its leading competitors in the automotive electronics sectors, but also reduce the revenue concentration risk, given that its major sales is in North America. In addition, the number of patents filed by both companies in Taiwan and China has declined, but the number in the United States has increased significantly along with an escalating resource similarity. Therefore, the research concludes that the acquisition of SPIL can consolidate ASE’s leading position in the North American market. To sum up, the merger of ASE and SPIL is regarded as win-win outcome. However, the M&A has risks, such as customer attrition, restriction from The Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China (MOFCOM) and merger overpayment. Such uncertainties may reduce synergy. Nevertheless, in the face of the rise of China's OSAT business, the market concentration of OSAT industry, and the increasingly unclear boundary between the middle and downstream firms, the merger of the two firms is inevitable.