| 1. |
- Box, Marcus
(författare)
-
New Venture, Survival, Growth : Continuance, Termination and Growth of Business Firms and Business Populations in Sweden During the 20th Century
- 2005
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation focuses on the formation, growth and discontinuance of business populations and firms in Sweden during the 20th century. It addresses some key issues in the domain of economic and social sciences, and in particular entrepreneurship and small business research: if and when firms grow, stagnate and decline, as well as how long firms survive and when they are likely to disband. Previous research has primarily analyzed these questions from a short time frame. Further, an individual or firm-oriented focus is commonly assumed. In that, alternative or complementary explanations to the growth and survival of firms may be disregarded. In contrast to much previous research, this dissertation assumes a micro-to-macro, longitudinal and demographic population approach. The period of investigation is over one hundred years. In addressing the growth and survival of firms, it takes into account the impact of firm-specific structural factors (such as firm age and size), generation (cohort) effects, as well as the influence of macroeconomic, exogenous factors. Further, the relationship between managerial/ownership succession and firm performance is also addressed. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal databases are employed in the dissertation. Its main empirical material consists of unique longitudinal data on new business firms, traced at the firm level from their birth to their termination. More specifically, seven birth cohorts – generations – of approximately 2,200 firms founded in 1899, 1909, 1912, 1921, 1930, 1942 and 1950 are included. The main findings show that ownership/management succession in firms had a quite weak correlation with firm performance and survival. At least at an aggregate level, and with some exceptions, it is debatable if the loss and replacement of owner-managers in small and in larger firms have any observable effects on firm performance. Furthermore, macroeconomic phenomena influence the conditions of individual firms as well as populations/aggregates of businesses. Both the growth and termination of firms and firm populations are found to be related to real economic (environmental) conditions; e.g. favorable macroeconomic conditions implied that firms grew in size. At the same time, under certain circumstances, the influence of structural variables (firm age and size) – as suggested in much previous research – is found to be of importance. As concerns firm growth, as well as firm termination, the economic environment and structural factors interact. These findings challenges individual or firm-level research that mainly focus on personal traits and behaviors in explaining firm success and failure. Other previous assumptions are also challenged when taking a longer time perspective into consideration. For decades, organization and business research have acknowledged a liability of newness and of size for business firms. While this might be true under some conditions, this liability of newness is falsified in the study: the termination behavior of some firm generations did not correspond with these assumptions. Thus, the perspectives and methodology applied in the dissertation complement earlier approaches in entrepreneurship and small business research.
|
|
| 2. |
- Edvinsson, Rodney, 1971-
(författare)
-
Growth, Accumulation, Crisis : With New Macroeconomic Data for Sweden 1800-2000
- 2005
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation has two main objectives. The first one is to construct historical macroeconomic series for Sweden using a consistent method throughout the relevant periods, and which rely on modern methods of national accounting. The second objective is to investigate patterns of economic growth, accumulation and crisis in Sweden 1800-2000, based on the constructed data series. New annual data series of Gross Domestic Product and its division into activities (type of production) and expenditures (consumption, investment and foreign trade), Net Domestic Product, stocks of produced assets and consumption of fixed assets are constructed for the period 1800-2000; series of employment, wages, imputed labour income of self employed and surplus for the period 1850-2000; and series of worked hours for the period 1950-2000. Summary tables of the main aggregate variables are presented at the end of the dissertation. The intent is to make the data material available online (also at a more disaggregated level) at: http://www.historia.se. Although the present study criticises the somewhat deterministic vision of many long cycle theories, it also demonstrates that the concept of long cycle can be applied when studying long-term fluctuations in GDP per capita, provided that the notion of a fixed periodicity of long cycles is abandoned. Long-term economic fluctuations are irregular, but so is also the short-term business cycle. Different historical tendencies and trends are investigated. The decline of the relative size of industrial activities in the last half of 20th century was not as dramatic, if unpaid household labour is considered and that many services are industry-related. The Marxist theory of a Tendency for the Rate of Profit to Fall is partly confirmed as a secular process up to the 1970s, but profitability has rebounded in the last two decades of the 20th century. During the 1990s, the investment ratio declined to historically low levels and the volume value of the net stock of buildings and structures fell for the first time since the 1830s. A comparison is also made of depressions in Sweden since 1850. During the 19th century, depressions were largely induced by the agricultural sector, and during the 20th century by industrial activities. However, the transition to the modern business cycle was not sudden but rather protracted. Another finding is that the 1990s depression was somewhat deeper than the 1930s depression in terms of GDP contraction.
|
|
| 3. |
- Franzén, Bo, 1954-
(författare)
-
Folkungatidens monetära system : Penningen mellan pest och patriarkat 1254-1370
- 2006
-
Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Monetary System of the Folkunga Era / The Swedish Pence between Pestilence and Patriarchate 1254–1370 This is an economic study of the Swedish monetary system in the transition from the High Middle to the Late Middle Age, i.e. as far back as written sources from market transitions are available. Archaic compulsory institutions – such as slavery and serfdom – were still in use in Sweden in the first half of the fourteenth century; and certainly this obstructed market development in many respects. The coins minted by the regents (1291–1370) appear to have often been valued at even less than the intrinsic value of the silver from which they were minted. In other words the seignorage for the minting regent was negative, a phenomenon that is almost impossible to explain in economic terms. That paradox is even more difficult to comprehend in light of the fact that the production of Swedish pences was considerable during the fourteenth century, and had been ongoing since the 1150s. Sweden is no exception in the European story of the Late Middle demographic and agricultural crises after a surge that had been going on at least since the year 1000. The devastation of farms in Sweden was extensive between 1350 and 1450. The source material prior to 1370 consist of roughly 10,000 charters, on the basis of which some 2,500 market transactions have been found and recorded in a relational database. In addition, approximately 39,000 individuals were mentioned by name in the Swedish charters from the eleventh century to 1375 and 1401–1420, and these names have also been downloaded into the database. Of those personal rows a great majority are from the upper strata; 9 % are women. However, after the outbreak of the Black Death in 1350 the percentage of women went below 10 % and stabilized around 8 %. I hypothesize that the downward trend was a sign that women were hit harder than men by the frequent outbreaks of the plague. There are clear signs of more market relations and fewer compulsory institutions between 1290 and 1370. Most of the market transactions were of two kinds: purchases of real property and loans in which the creditor’s claim was guaranteed in real property. Pawned property, as expected, had a lower value than property on the buying and selling market. Only half of those transactions are described in monetary units of value, with weighted silver being the second most frequent price tag. We find women active in those transactions from the thirteenth century, but the trend has a downward slope, especially in the role as buyer of landed property. This is in accordance with the view that the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation in the sixteenth century were preceded by a protracted period of increasing patriarchal trends. The many and severe outbreaks of the plagues in Sweden might have aggravated those tendencies. So while there was greater freedom thanks to bigger and new kinds of markets, there were also opposing forces of misogyny creating obstacles for women’s taking advantage of that freedom. The Swedish coins had very divergent contents of silver, and new coins generally had less intrinsic silver value than the older ones. Those factors make it more difficult to carry out price history on the period between 1290 and 1370 than on the fifteenth century, when Swedish pences were more stable. Southern Sweden was quicker to develop towards a more commercial society than the northern part of the country. Land prices in southeastern Sweden (Östergötland) seem to have fallen between 1300 and 1370. The deflation in this respect is even greater when monetary prices are converted into silver prices. In the same period, prices in the provinces around Lake Mälaren seem to have soared. In the north in the fourteenth century there was still a lot of land for reclamation and these opportunities might have attracted aristocratic investors with expectations of major profits in the future. The inflation of the land “bubble” in the north continued for two decades, even after the arrival of the Black Death. In spite of the clerical ban on usury at the time, I have been able to reconstruct a dozen rates of interests from the period 1322–1370. The average interest rate during these years was 5 %. Data from this study has been put into an international perspective about human wealth. Swedish Medieval grain prices in silver from 1291 to 1530 were distinctly lower and more volatile than the prices in the more advanced European economies such as England. Low grain prices are a sign of an underdeveloped and not very diversified economy, and the general volatility made any craft outside the agrarian sector a lot more risky an activity in Sweden than in most other countries. In the late Medieval Age there was a clear development in trade and mining, but the economic gap relative to the outside world around did not decrease. This underlines the impression of a primitive society on the periphery of Europe and lagging behind the economic times. One can hardly underestimate the positive role of money as a source of information and means of payment in the markets. From a classic point of view (Eli F. Heckscher), it is presumed that markets came first, money second. From an institutional point of view (C. A. E. Goodhart) money and markets are parallel. The Swedish empirical example gives us a third scenario, i.e. the existence of coins for many generations before markets of any magnitude were created. Key words: Microeconomics, Monetary Theory, Intrinsic Silver Value, Seignorage, Unit of Account, Means of Transactions, Compulsory Institutions, Commercialization, Market Institutions, Prosopography, Women Participation in Markets, Patriarchate, Inflation and Deflation.
|
|
| 4. |
- Malaki, Akhil, 1961-
(författare)
-
Informal Finance and Microfinance in Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago : An Institutional Study
- 2005
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study is about informal institutions in informal finance and microfinance in Jamaica and Trinidad-Tobago. Informal institutions as understood in this study are unwritten social norms that cater to specific needs in the society, and can be indirectly captured and measured in their outcome. Informal institutions are deeply embedded in the socio-cultural matrix of a society. In the context of informal finance and microfinance, the outcome of the existence of informal institutions are the indigenous financial intermediaries like Roscas, community based lending, and individual financial brokers.The institutional theoretical framework of this study helps capture the institutional dynamics and the processes in informal finance and microfinance. The theoretical framework demonstrates the following: (1) Informal institutions exist in both informal finance and formal microfinance. (2) It exposes the interface between the financial intermediaries and the informal institutions that govern informal finance and microfinance through certain mechanisms like ‘joint liability’ and ‘social collateral’, which reduce information asymmetries and transactions costs. An implication is that informal institutions address the crucial issue of ‘moral hazards’. (3) The same informal institutions governing informal finance are being adapted and innovated by microfinance. Lending methodologies of informal finance are becoming embedded in microfinance. (4) Microfinance organizations are being transformed into formal financial intermediaries, thereby exposing the process by which informal institutions are also being formalized. (5) An empirical investigation of peoples’ needs, preference and benefits provides the evidence as to why they subscribe to informal institutions via the various financial intermediaries.The findings of this study provide some interesting insights: Firstly, models of financial services based on indigenous institutions have better chances of surviving than imported models. Secondly, informal institutions compete, coexist and even complement formal institutions in providing financial services to the economically active poor. Thirdly, microfinance has not just bridged the gap between formal and the informal finance; it is also becoming a catalyst through which informal institutions are slowly being formalized. Lastly, the client base’s needs, preferences and benefits account for the pervasiveness of informal institutions in informal finance and in microfinance.
|
|
| 5. |
- Metzger, Jonathan, 1978-
(författare)
-
I köttbullslandet : Konstruktionen av svenskt och utländskt på det kulinariska fältet
- 2005
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this doctorate thesis is to investigate the historical discursive construction of swedishness and foreignness in the Swedish culinary field, primarily during the period of 1900-1970, and to relate the changes in the articulation of these concepts to the overarching ideological shifts during this time-period. To achieve this objective a conceptual apparatus inspired by cultural studies, discourse analysis and rhetorical analysis is employed upon the primary material, which consists of Swedish- and foreign-signified cookbooks published in Sweden during the period of 1600-1970. It is further argued that communities of consumption, such as nationalized culinary cultures, are discursive constructions and that actors attempt to write individuals into these communities through the articulation of nationalized subject positions. In the thesis it is thus investigated how, when and perhaps why certain actors on a field attempt to discursively construct such communities of consumption during a certain era. The chapters 2-5 of the thesis contain analyses of the historical construction of foreignness on the Swedish cultural field. Here various trends are traced in the construction of individual foreign cuisines, both in relation to each other and to the concept of culinary swedishness. An analysis is also made of the varied rhetoric that is used to promote foreign-signified cooking to the Swedish public during the examined time-period. It is concluded that the variations in rhetoric seem to covariate with larger ideological shifts in Swedish society. Chapters 6 and 7 specifically examine the construction of swedishness in the culinary field by focusing on the construction of national culinary icons such as the Smörgåsbord and Husmanskost and also on the evolution of the ideas of a distinct Swedish palate and a Swedish national cuisine. As a result of this investigation the perhaps surprisingly late codification of a Swedish national cuisine during the 1960’s is noted. It is further argued that this development coincides with a shift in the popular mood, where “the Swedish way of life” increasingly comes to be seen as threatened by external forces such as foreign influences and modernity, why certain actors on the culinary field express a necessity for the codification of what is perceived of as the “true Swedish cuisine”. A paradoxical result of this urge for preservation is the construction of new cultural phenomena dressed in a traditionalist and nationalist rhetoric that anchors them in a distant past.
|
|
| 6. |
- Molin, Lena, 1957-
(författare)
-
Nyttiga bakterier och sjuka djur : En technoscience-resa från nätverksbildning till riskkonstruktion
- 2005
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the dissertation is to examine the mechanisms at work when networks are formed and risk constructions made as bodies encounter frontline technology within the food sector. The concept of technoscience TS, is the link uniting the escalating technology of risk society, rebellious nature and the insidious threats of substances absorbed straight into the metabolism of our bodies through the food that we eat. The TS viewpoint is complemented by a short overview of Beck’s theory about the risk society, in order to explain how research creates risks rather than removing them. The four case studies are all concrete manifestations of technoscience. They are: 1) a study of the alliance between a research company and a bacteria culture, 2) the section about the Gaio controversy and the creation of scientific facts, 3) the case of the scientist and high-ranking official who was sued for defamation of the Danish pig, 4) and finally the scandal of the meat-eating cows. We can observe, aided by Bruno Latour, how particularly in the first two stories, the importance of networks becomes apparent. How network analysis can be a tool for understanding the high-tech development of the food industry in the late 20th century as stories of how scientific claims – or “truths” – are reconstituted and transformed. We are also able to observe how truth is dependent on our own viewpoint, in Donna Haraway’s word it is “situated” or context dependent. The case studies are also examples of the links between body, technology and risk. Because they deal with the food product trade, the link to the body becomes obvious as dangerous food products are absorbed into the body through the food and is spread through the metabolism. The thing that sets risk construction in the use of high-tech production methods in the food trade apart from other areas is the meeting or confrontation between the man-made advanced technology and the limits determined by “nature” through the body. The linking of technology and the human body becomes particularly exciting as we notice that no matter how advanced the technology that has been used to produce a food product, it is still there to be eaten and absorbed by the metabolism of our bodies. In this area of uncertainty the dividing line between the possible and the impossible is fuzzy and changing.
|
|
| 7. |
- Nordlund, Therese, 1976-
(författare)
-
Att leda storföretag : En studie av social kompetens och entreprenörskap i näringslivet med fokus på Axel Ax:son Johnson och J. Sigfrid Edström, 1900-1950
- 2005
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates leadership in Swedish business during the period of 1900-1950. The main aim is to explore the relationship between entrepreneurship and leadership and how the leader uses his social competence, both inside and outside the company, to enhance economic and organisational change. The study focuses on two main characters: Axel Ax:son Johnson (1876-1958), manager and owner of Johnsonkoncernen (The Johnson group), and J. Sigfrid Edström (1870-1964), professional manager of ASEA (today ABB). They represented Swedish capitalism in its golden years. The study uses archives previously never opened to researchers. To understand how and why leadership have changed during the 20th century, the theoretical framework is based on the concepts of entrepreneurship, paternalism, network and charisma. Leadership involves communication. The corporate leader in the early 20th century had to build networks both of stronger and looser types, each of these two types with a different aim, but with the ambition to care for the company’s best interest. Johnson and Edström used their personality to attain more power inside the company as well as to attract attention from the outside. This thesis shows that if the leaders took advantage of their social communication skills they could create new combinations, which could benefit their companies. Therefore, the leader had to bring out the best in his co-workers, in order to attract new ideas, competence and entrepreneurial skills around him. The leader did not only involve himself in networks with fellow industrialists, but also with Social Democrats and journalists. Johnson and Edström had to be leaders not only within the company but also in the surrounding society. They involved themselves in many other areas; in the local community and as opinion builders. The patriarchal strategies still proved fruitful during the period. Yet, modern strategies connected to large organizations and bureaucratic methods were also introduced. It was hard for the employees to accept these changes. If the companies would expand, the leader could attract admirers and followers who fully accepted the leadership and strategies. The leader had to become an entrepreneur with a will to encourage others.
|
|
| 8. |
- Retsö, Dag, 1961-
(författare)
-
Länsförvaltningen i Sverige 1434-1520
- 2009
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- For long there has been lacking a systematic survey of local fiscal administration in Sweden for the period between the Engelbrekt uprising 1434 and the Stockholm blood-bath 1520. At the same time, scholarly research has paid much attention to issues of fiefs and vassalage during the period. In particular, there has been a tendency to highlight the period as one during which direct crown administration slowly replaced fiefs in return for service to the realm as the main form of local fiscal administration. Thus, the late medieval period has been regarded as one of increased centralization, pointing towards the centralized bureaucratic state of the 16th and 17th centuries. Implicitly, such a development away from a weak feudal state form has been seen as a sign of incipient modern state-building.The purpose of this dissertation is to chart local fiscal administration in Sweden between 1434 and 1520. The emerging picture is not in accordance with earlier research. Instead, fiefs are found to be the overall dominating form of local fiscal administration during the whole period and no unambiguous tendencies towards centralization can be observed. Furthermore, the result is interpreted within the framework of modern research on the medieval state, in which the general concept of feudalism has been questioned. Fiefs are here seen as an integral part of the state apparatus rather than an infringement upon it, and a fully rational device for reducing administrative transaction costs. Ultimately, it means that the decentralized local fiscal administration of late medieval Sweden is not a manifestation of a weak state but of a full-fledged medieval state structure and an administrative apparatus which adequately fulfilled its required functions.
|
|
| 9. |
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
