| 1. |
- Kurvinen, Jaana, 1963-
(författare)
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Imitation och omtolkning : Entreprenörers identifieringsprocesser ur ett genusperspektiv
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study deals with the issue of entrepreneurship and gender. A central part is to understand how entrepreneurial opportunities and identities are constructed and linked to each other. The aim is to increase our understanding about entrepreneurial processes, identification and role creation. A gender structure is a premise and it is ar-gued that norms, values and meanings in society affect women that are entrepreneurs in the sense that they are seen as “the other” and are compared to a male norm. Entre-preneurship is described as opportunity construction rather than opportunity recogni-tion or opportunity finding. The empirical context is drawn from interviews with 15 en-trepreneurs, all women from the county of Gävleborg in Sweden, who have left a job in the public sector in order to start new private ventures. The main contribution of this study is an increased understanding of entrepreneu-rial identification processes, from a gender perspective. One part of these processes is resistance that the entrepreneurs meet and practice. This study identifies the strong presence of a male discourse and describes how women, who are entrepreneurs deals with that. It is argued that there is a need to open up the concept entrepreneurship, to a more gender neutral one, in order to make it easier for women who are entrepreneurs to identify themselves as entrepreneurs and not just ‘female entrepreneurs’. An empiri-cal contribution is a description of how different and contradictory identification proc-esses are going on at the same time. Marginalization and identification processes illus-trates that if entrepreneurs feel that they are not taken seriously in their attempt to cre-ate business practices that fit with their preferences, a struggle for recognition emerges. This study shows that processes of marginalization and role creation are intertwined in different ways that affect women who are entrepreneurs. A methodological contribu-tion is the deconstruction of interviews in order to understand how processes of imita-tion and reinterpretation exists as simultaneous and parallel events. The findings are presented in five recurrent themes: break away, identification, po-larization, marginalization and resistance. The themes are used in order to increase the understanding about how the entrepreneurs create contexts for their ventures and how this context can be understood as an arena where entrepreneurial opportunities are constructed. Three aspects, all related to gender, of resistance are described; resistance that the entrepreneurs have met during the time as employees in the public sector, re-sistance that the entrepreneurs have met during the process of starting their ventures and finally, resistance that the entrepreneurs practice in meetings with male norms.
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| 2. |
- Abrahamsson, Jan, 1981-
(författare)
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Beyond Going Global : Essays on business development of International New Ventures past early internationalization
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The notion of International New Ventures, or INVs, emerged in academia in the early-to-mid 1990s and generally refers to entrepreneurial firms that tend to internationalize very early in their life-cycle, and whose expansion into foreign markets occurs much more quickly than predicted by earlier theories of the incremental internationalization process. Previous literature proposes effective networking with market partners and, more recently, internationally viable business model among key distinguishing features of INVs that allow for such early and rapid entry into international markets. Nevertheless, little is yet known regarding how these younger firms develop over time and how they could sustain international growth. With the purpose of filling this gap, this doctoral dissertation scrutinizes business models and business model innovation of INVs beyond their early internationalization, with a particular emphasis on INVs’ external relationships configurations. The dissertation consists of four self-contained essays that represent a methodological mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches and incorporate longitudinal case studies, surveys and register-based data encompassing nine years of Swedish INVs’ development. The findings highlight the importance of the business model as an initial market entry tool, and of business model innovation as a potential growth vehicle over time. Findings also display that INVs work with a broader range of external partners compared to other firms for innovative purposes, and that INVs have different business model innovation patterns compared to other types of internationalized firms. Moreover, INVs focus more heavily on value capture innovations in their business models as they mature and seek to obtain a more centralized position in their industry ecosystem by re-configuring the parameters of existing external relationships or developing new ones. Overall, this dissertation contributes to the international entrepreneurship and business model literature by explicating how maturing INVs need to operate under different business model configurations as compared to emerging INVs, as the original business model might lack scalability after a certain point in time. Furthermore, the dissertation suggests how INVs can pursue a dynamic business model approach and utilize dynamic capabilities to design business models that put the focal firm more in control of the surrounding ecosystem, and reduce constraints that can limit the value capturing potential and thus the growth and development of INVs.
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| 3. |
- Alexeyeva, Irina, 1973-
(författare)
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Essays on Audit Fees and the Joint Provision of Audit and Non-Audit Services
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis examines the factors affecting audit and non-audit fees and the effects of the joint provision of audit and non-audit services on auditing.The first essay focuses on environmental factors. Using data for Swedish listed companies over a six year span, including pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis periods, the essay investigates whether changing economic conditions affect the level of fees paid for audit and non-audit services. The finding suggests that auditors increase their risk premium for auditing during a financial crisis andtend to charge higher audit fees as a response to lower risk levels in the post-crisis period. On the other hand, a significant reduction in non-audit fees suggests that companies are less willing to invest in consulting services during thecrisis and post-crisis periods.The second essay also studies the effects of environmental factors on audit pricing. Using data for financial institutions in 24 European countries, the study examines whether the level of effort spent on the evaluation of fair values is higher for more uncertain fair values.The result suggests that an increasing level of complexity and risk requires greater audit effort. Furthermore, the results showthat the strength of a country’s institutional setting is positively associated with the effort spent on the evaluation of high uncertainty fair value estimates. The finding implies that auditors spend more effort in stronger regulated countries, possibly due to higher potential litigation costs.The third essay focuses on the factors related to an individual audit partner. Based on the data of publicly listed Swedish companies, it investigates whether partner special competencies are reflected in the prices charged for auditing. The findings show that partner industry expertise and client-specific expertise are associated with higher audit fees. A further finding isthat female partners are considerably under-represented among specialists. However,the under-representation of females among higher qualified partners does not seem to negatively affect their possibilities to earn higher fees.The fourth essay investigates how the joint provision of audit and non-audit services affects perceived knowledge spillover and audit efficiency. The essay makesuse of survey data from a large sample of Swedish auditors and finds that the levels of communication and trust are positively associated with knowledge spillover. The result further suggests that the information gained from the provision of non-audit services can reduce auditors’ effort (time) spent on different audit procedures, thereby increasing audit efficiency.
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| 4. |
- Anchev, Stefan, 1986-
(författare)
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Information and financial markets
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The results in this thesis are consistent with the hypotheses that: 1) the incomplete dissemination of information across investors helps in explaining the occurrence and the persistence of cross-sectional stock return anomalies, 2) the properties of the investor base of a stock have implications for the informativeness of the stock's price and 3) a greater quantity of firm disclosure places less sophisticated investors at an information disadvantage. Overall, the thesis provides new empirical evidence about the role of information in financial markets.Investor Base and Stock Return AnomaliesAfter controlling for market capitalization, the predictability of future stock returns associated with each of the earnings-to-price ratio, the book-to-market ratio, the past return, the total volatility of returns and the return on assets is more pronounced among stocks with smaller total and/or institutional investor bases. These results appear even after controlling for several other stock characteristics and potential risk factors and they are both statistically and economically meaningful. Thus, they are consistent with the hypothesis that the incomplete dissemination of information across investors helps in explaining the occurrence and the persistence of cross-sectional stock return anomalies.Investor Base and Stock Price InformativenessThe relative idiosyncratic volatility of future stock returns is: 1) negatively associated with the absolute size of the total and the institutional investor base, 2) positively associated with the institutional ownership, 3) negatively (positively) associated with the average stock portfolio size (Herfindahl index) of the investor base and 4) positively associated with the indirect (i.e., through nominees) ownership. These results appear after controlling for several other stock characteristics and they are both statistically and economically meaningful. Thus, they are consistent with the hypothesis that the properties of the investor base of a stock have implications for the informativeness of the stock's price.Individual Investors and Quantity of Firm DisclosureWhen the amount of information disclosed by a firm is greater (or increases), the stock portfolio weights that individual investors allocate (through trading) to that firm's stock are lower (or decrease) and suboptimal. The former result is less pronounced or nonexistent for more financially competent individuals and for positions in firms with a poorer information environment. When they do allocate greater portfolio weights to the stock of a firm that discloses more, individuals, regardless of their financial competence, earn lower returns. Overall, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that a greater quantity of firm disclosure places less sophisticated investors at an information disadvantage.
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| 5. |
- Andersson, Annika, 1961-
(författare)
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Affärssystemsprojekt : konsekvenser av att vara sluten eller öppen för förändringar
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Affärssystemsprojekt är en väsentlig företeelse i organisationer. Allt ifrån små till större nationella och internationella företag har ett affärssystem som stöd för sina affärsprocesser. Införande och byte av affärssystem betraktas inom affärsvärlden som en av de mest krävande och riskfyllda förändringarna ett företag kan genomföra. Att studera affärssystemsprojekt är av intresse ur ett organisationsperspektiv eftersom resultatet får långvariga konsekvenser för organisationen. Interorganisatoriska affärssystemsprojekt består dessutom av parter från två organisationer, vilka har skilda typer av kompetenser och roller. I ett affärssystemsprojekt är begrepp som projektmål, tidsdimension, och interorganisatoriska team av vikt att diskutera. Kommunikation, funktionen som översättare mellan parterna och ledarnas delaktighet för att integrera informationsstrategier och affärsstrategier är, enligt tidigare forskning inom både informationssystems och projektforskning, av vikt att diskutera.Det finns olika synsätt på förändring och sambanden som råder vid genomförandet av affärssystemprojekt. Det ena är att projektdeltagarna bör vara slutna för förändring och det andra är att de bör vara öppna för förändring av projektmål, tid och team beroende på den kunskap som utvecklas. Studier som fokuserar på konsekvenser för organisationer av det ena eller andra synsättet är däremot begränsade. Studiens övergripande problem är att studera vilka konsekvenser det kan få för leverantörs respektive beställarorganisationerna om parterna är slutna respektive öppna för förändring.Avhandlingen avser att bidra till både näringsliv och affärssystemsforskningen genom att beskriva konsekvenser för leverantörs och beställarorganisationer av om parterna är slutna eller öppna för förändringar inom affärssystemsprojekt.Multipla och longitudinella fallstudier har genomförts för att uppmärksamma organisatoriska konsekvenser över tid. Studien har genomförts indelad i tre faser (1) en retrospektiv fas, (2) en observationsfas och (3) en longitudinell fas. Datainsamlingsmetoder som använts är intervjuer, observationer och dokumentgranskning för att beskriva konsekvenser för både leverantörs och beställarorganisationer som genomför affärssystemsprojekt.Resultaten visar att en öppenhet och en slutenhet för förändringar av projektmål, tid och team fick konsekvenser för de båda organisationerna. När båda parter var slutna för förändring blev det svårt att använda kunskap inom projekten. Leverantören identifierade strategiska lärandeprojekt innan de beslutade sig för att vara öppna för förändring. När beställarna var öppna för förändring och leverantören sluten för förändring genomförde beställarna lärande och förändringsprojekt utanför projekten och de gemensamma projekten sekventiellt. När båda parter var öppna för förändringar blev konsekvenserna varken system eller organisationsutveckling, vilket hade kunnat förväntas. Istället ledde det till kommunikationsbarriärer.I denna sammanläggningsavhandling sammanställs och beskrivs resultaten från studien av affärsystemsprojekt via fyra publicerade artiklar.
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| 6. |
- Andersson, Håkan A., 1948-
(författare)
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Svenska småföretags användning av reserveringar för resultatutjämning och intern finansiering
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Small firms often have inadequate access to the capital necessary for sucessful management. The Swedish Government introduced in the mid-1990s allowance rules that facilitate retention of profit for sole proprietorships and partnership firms. The tax credits arising from the allowances give certain benefits as a source of financing compared to traditional forms of credits. Among the more essential benefits are that the payment for some parts of the tax credit can be put on hold almost indefinitely, or alternatively never be paid. The firms are free to use these means, and the responsibility of future payment of the postponed tax debt stays with the individual firms. The comprehensive purpose of the dissertation may be stated as to increase the understanding of small Swedish firms, especially sole proprietorships, utilizing possibilities for allowances for income smoothing and internal financing. At the beginning the dissertation describes case studies, comprising a smaller selection of microfirms. With a starting-point from the accounted and reported income-tax returns, alternative calculations are made where additional positive tax and finance effects appear possible to obtain. One purpose of these studies is to increase the insight regarding the possibilities of income smoothing and internal financing that arise from utilizing these allowances. These studies also illuminate, to what extent and in what way they are being used in reality. Another objective of these studies is to give a more substantive insight into the technics behind the different allowances, appropriation to positive or negative interest rate allocation appropriation or dissolving of tax allocation reserve appropriation or dissolving of “expansion fund” Theories regarding the creation of resources, through building of capital, and theories on financial planning and strategy are studied. The purpose is to find support for the choice of theoretical grounded underlying independent variables that can be used in cross-sectional studies to explain the use of the possibilities of appropriations. Theories of finance that are of greatest interest, in the operationalisation of these variables, are theories that discuss the choices of different financing alternatives for small firms. The “pecking order theory”, describes the firm’s order of priority when choices of finance alternatives are made. The concept of “financial bootstrapping” expands the frame for different forms of financing choices that especially very small firms have at their disposal.The last part of the theoretical frame deals with the phenomenon of “income smoothing,” which can be translated as leveling out profits/losses. A number of financial and non-financial variables are supported by and operationalised from these financial theories e.g., return on sales, capital turnover, quick ratio and debt-to-equity ratio, respectively age, gender and line of business. Cross-sectional studies are implemented for the taxation years of 1996 and 1999, on databases that have been extracted from Statistics Sweden. The group of 87,276 sole proprietorships included in the study were required to complete tax returns and pay taxes for the business activity according to the supporting schedule, N2, information from the sole proprietorships’ income statement and balance sheet in an accounting statement that comes with the income tax return form. The possibilities of allowances are considered as dependent variables. The intention of the cross-sectional studies is to survey and describe the utilization of possible allowances, with the support of the financial and non-financial independent variables. The connection of these variables to the decision of sole proprietorships to appropriate to the tax allocation reserve is also summarized in a logistic regression model. A number of theoretically based propositions are made for the purpose of observing how the variables are connected to the chances that sole proprietorships actually appropriate to this form of allowance. Appropriation to the tax allocation reserve stands out as the most practiced form of allowance. The studies also clarify that utilization varies among different forms of allowances, but that not all firms that have the prerequisites to utilize the possibilities really do so to the full. A further utilization of the different possibilities of allowances is often conceivable. For the sole proprietorships that are not utilizing these possibilities, the allowances should be considered eligible as a contribution to internal financing and to increase access to capital.
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| 7. |
- Annelin, Alice, 1980-
(författare)
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Audit teams and audit quality : a sustainable development goal perspective
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation investigates the influence of audit teams on audit quality and produces a conceptual analysis through the perspective of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) framework (United Nations, 2017). Four articles study four different audit team factors, namely audit team hierarchical structures, team stress, team psychological distances and team equality. The conceptual analysis approach has been chosen to address the increasing demand for a better understanding of the accounting research role in sustainable development (Bebbington & Unerman, 2018), which drove the research problem focus in each article. This dissertation summarises the work that has been conducted in the four studies and also makes propositions for an SDG perspective on the work and for future research based on their findings.A unique set of data has been collected that contains information about auditors who have worked on the same engagements in the same team. The data has been collected by interviews and questionnaire surveys conducted in a field study, which have provided information that can be analysed using a qualitative and quantitative approach. The data has also included proprietary information about audit team client characteristics from a Big 4 audit firm. More specifically, this research has contributed to audit team, audit quality and the role of accounting in the achievement of the UN’s SDGs by answering several research questions. Results find that hierarchical power and status as well as trust play a role in audit team structure; audit team stress triggers and consequences include 1) team planning, competence, autonomy, 2) team changes, coordination and leadership, communication and cooperation and team support, and 3) team stress cognition, physical and affective forms; and, audit team psychological distances and equality has a relation to team behaviour. Findings can contribute to an understanding of equality and well-being in audit teams and therefore to the audit team’s achievement of the UN’s SDGs.
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| 8. |
- Babri, Maira, 1986-
(författare)
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The Corporate Code of Ethics at Home, Far Away and in Between : Sociomaterial Translations of a Traveling Code
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Corporate codes of ethics (CCEs) have become increasingly prevalent as overarching ethical guidelines for multinational corporations doing business around the globe. As formal documents, governing corporations’ work, policies, and ways of doing business, CCEs are meant to guide all business activities and apply to all of the corporation’s employees, suppliers, and business partners. In multinational corporations, this means that diverse countries, cultures, and a myriad of heterogeneous actors are expected to abide by the same standards and guidelines, as stipulated in the CCE. Despite this empirical reality, CCEs have previously been approached by academics mainly as passive company documents or as marketing or management tools, in the contexts of their country of origin. Building on Actor-Network Theory this thesis applies an interactionist ontology, and relational epistemology, seeing the code as a sociomaterial object with both material and immaterial characteristics, and moving in a global arena. Furthermore, the CCEs are assumed to be susceptible to change, i.e. translations. With these assumptions, the CCE of a multinational corporation is followed as it travels between its country of origin (Sweden) and another country (China) and goes to work in different contexts. Heterogeneous empirical materials such as interviews, company documents, observations, shadowing, and emails are used to present stories from different contexts where the CCE is at work. The overall purpose of the thesis is to contribute to the theorizing of CCEs, thereby providing further understanding of the possible consequences of CCEs in contextually diverse settings. By following traces of a CCE, this study posits the need for a simultaneous understanding of three dimensions of CCEs for CCEs to be understood in contextually dispersed settings. The three dimensions are a) material translations of the code, b) enactments of these translations, and c) ideas associated with the material and enacted code. The study contributes to the understanding of CCEs by highlighting a specific country-context (China), by putting together knowledge from codes in various contexts, and the overarching contribution lies in highlighting codes as different kinds of objects and adding to the existing literature – specifically, contextualizing the CCE as a vaporous object.
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| 9. |
- Bergh, Pontus, 1976-
(författare)
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Learning among entrepreneurs in formal networks : Outcomes, processes and beyond
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation focuses on how entrepreneurs learn to acquire entrepreneurial knowledge and competence, which ultimately can open doors to business success. Contemporary critics suggest that programs designed to develop general competence are not sufficiently relevant to these entrepreneurs. On the other hand, scholars and practitioners have recently noticed that external relations in formal learning networks can be a notable opportunity for learning in entrepreneurs. The aim of this dissertation is to elaborate on the processes and outcomes of government supported learning networks among entrepreneurs who work in small and medium sized enterprises. It draws on reports of four separate but interrelated research studies that author conducted. The research described in the dissertation is based on multiple theoretical perspectives, methodologies, and data sources. To gain a full understanding of the experiences of the different network participants, as well as the interactive processes within the learning network, data were collected from multiple sources: interviews, participant observation, and videotaping. The conclusions stated in appended paper 1 and 2 are primarily based on the interviews, but they are also supported by the observations and written material. Paper three focuses on the videos in combination with the interviews. Finally, to complement the qualitative research with insights regarding the relationships among trust, learning, and self-efficacy, the last paper reports the results of a quantitative survey study. The dissertation makes several major contributions to knowledge. First and foremost, by combining entrepreneurship theory and learning theory, it describes the outcomes that can emerge from formal learning networks and shows how these outcomes can have entrepreneurial consequences. Second, it suggests how the learning situation can be characterized and describes an appropriate learning environment for entrepreneurs from small and medium sized enterprises. The research also contributes to theory on how trust in formal learning networks is built and how this trust contributes to entrepreneurial learning. At the same time, it shows that the potential benefits derived from trust cannot be realized without incorporating the entrepreneur’s level of self-efficacy in the analysis. The dissertation concludes by offering suggestions for exploiting learning and business opportunities through the construction and utilization of learning networks.
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| 10. |
- Biedenbach, Galina, 1978-
(författare)
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Brand building in the business-to-business context : The brand equity perspective
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The main purpose of this doctoral dissertation is to investigate factors affecting B2B brand building by applying the brand equity perspective in the professional services context. Three peer-reviewed and published articles and one book chapter examine different aspects related to the enhancement of brand equity and brand building in the B2B context.The first paper entitled “Brand equity in the business-to-business context: Examining the structural composition” (Biedenbach 2012) investigates the structural composition of brand equity and the interrelationships between the dimensions of brand equity in the B2B context. By specifying the multidimensional model, which can be utilized for measuring and managing B2B brand equity, the paper provides initial knowledge on how the companies can build a strong B2B brand across four dimensions of brand equity. The second paper entitled “B2B brand equity: Investigating the impact of contextual factors” (Biedenbach 2010) examines the impact of contextual factors in the organizational decision making process on the formation of B2B brand equity. The book chapter expands knowledge on B2B brand building by portraying how such characteristics of customers as relative size of their company and its industry sector can affect B2B brand building. The third paper entitled “The impact of customer experience on brand equity in a business-to-business services setting” (Biedenbach and Marell 2010) investigates the impact of customer experience on brand equity in the professional services setting. The study clarifies how customer experience can be utilized for building a strong B2B brand. The fourth paper entitled “Brand equity in the professional service context: Analyzing the impact of employee role behavior and customer-employee rapport” (Biedenbach, Bengtsson, and Wincent 2011) examines whether factors related to customers’ perception of employees’ role behavior in terms of customer perceived role ambiguity, role overload, and customer-employee rapport influence the development of brand equity in the professional service context. The paper advances knowledge on B2B brand building by considering the potential role of the company employees and consequences that their behavior can lead to in this process.To conclude, the doctoral dissertation demonstrates that the brand equity perspective can serve as a valuable foundation for theoretically understanding and practically managing B2B brand building.
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