| 1. |
- Arvidsson, Susanne, et al.
(författare)
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Sustainability Governance
- 2023
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Ingår i: Corporate Governance in a Nordic Setting : The Case of Sweden - The Case of Sweden. - 9783110725346 - 9783110725315 ; 6
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This chapter focuses on a specific kind of governance namely sustainability governance. Combatting climate change and social inequalities calls for governance systems specifically directed to corporate sustainability. Today our companies are fiercely working on setting up efficient systems for sustainability governance. In this chapter, the reader will learn what a sustainability governance system is and what different parts it entails.By building on Swedish longitudinal data, we identify how large-listed companies work with sustainability governance. Drawing on this data, the chapter highlights some of the challenges, opportunities and lessons learned for the future development of sustain-ability governance practices.
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| 2. |
- Beusch, Peter, 1967
(författare)
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A Nordic approach to corporate governance
- 2023
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Ingår i: Corporate Governance in a Nordic Setting. edited by Beusch, P., Jonäll, K. & Sabelfeld, S.. - Berlin, Boston : DeGruyter. - 9783110725346 ; , s. 7-23
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this chapter, we discuss corporate governance from a Nordic perspective, then including the countries Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway. These Nordic countries often constitute a base that is seen as quite homogeneous dependent on several parametersand characteristics. This in turn has influenced the design and even more the use of corporate governance in the various Nordic countries. An important role in all this has been played by the Nordic welfare model, which is described throughout this chapter. Thus, Section 2.1 describes the historical emergence of the link between the Nordic corporate governance model and the Nordic welfare model. Section 2.2 continues with an illustration of the Nordic middle way before section 2.3 talks about the ‘golden era’ of the Nordics that later turned into a ‘lean-welfare-state model’. Section 2.4 focuses on the Nordic countries ’taxes' and the development thereof. How wages are distributed in the Nordics is the core of Section 2.5 before Section 2.6 illustrates the development of net replacement rates for standard workers. Section 2.7 displays income-inequality (Gini-coefficient), where all Nordic countries have low inequality compared to most other OECD countries. What this has to do with the quality of institutions, with corruption, citizen participation and trust (Section 2.8), and how much of this can be attributed to, or is the basis for, a Nordic corporate culture, will be discussed in Section 2.9, which ends this chapter.
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| 3. |
- Beusch, Peter, 1967
(författare)
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Nordic stock markets and ownership structures
- 2023
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Ingår i: Corporate Governance in a Nordic Setting. edited by Beusch, P., Jonäll, K. & Sabelfeld, S.. - Berlin, Boston : DeGruyter. - 9783110725346 ; , s. 25-40
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The focus of this chapter is Nordic stock markets and corporate ownership structures, highlighting similarities and differences between the four Nordic countries and also comparing them with significant non-Nordic countries. The chapter begins with a short overview of Nordic countries ’economic' strength, in comparison with Europe and the European Union (section 3.1). This follows, in section 3.2, an illustration of the size and total market capitalization of the Nordic economies, which will be described in more detail in the subsequent sections. Section 3.3 therefore provides a closer look at Nordic ownership structures, section 3.4 focuses specifically on institutional investor ownership, and section 3.5 deals with public sector investors’ ownership in relation to total market capitalization. A short summary is provided in section 3.6.
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| 4. |
- Beusch, Peter, 1967
(författare)
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The Nordic countries’ corporate governance model
- 2023
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Ingår i: Corporate Governance in a Nordic Setting: The Case of Sweden. - Berlin, Boston : De Gruyter. - 9783110725346 ; , s. 41-52
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this chapter, we are going to look more closely at the Nordic Corporate Governance (CG) Model and similarities but also differences between the different countries’ approaches. Section 4.1 starts with an overall description of the three-part institutional framework (statutory regulation, self-regulation, and rules, norms, and practices) that largely forms the basis for the model. Section 4.2 presents the Nordic CG-model as a ‘middle way’ between the ‘two-tier ’and ‘one-tier’ model, outlining some of its pros and cons as well. Section 4.3 elaborates more in detail on similarities and differences regarding the specific issues with a half-independent 'Board of Directors’ (BoD) before section 4.4 provides concluding comments and a summary of the chapter.
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| 5. |
- Overland, Conny, 1975, et al.
(författare)
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Board-level employee representation in Sweden
- 2023
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Ingår i: Corporate Governance in a Nordic Setting: The Case of Sweden. - 9783110725346 ; , s. 113-124
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A special feature of the Swedish corporate governance system is that employees are allowed to appoint two to three representatives to the board of directors of the company they work for. As other aspects of board structure (e.g., size, independence, gender) are found to be related to how firms decide and perform, allowing employees to enter the boardroom could have implications for corporate outcomes as well. In this chapter we first provide with a description of how the Swedish system for board-level employee representation (BLER) is designed, and how this compares to other countries with some form of BLER. We then account for some empirical findings related to employee representation in Sweden. First, not all firms have employee representatives as it is voluntary to appoint representatives to the board. We therefore account for the existing evidence on when employees chose to appoint representatives to the board of directors. Second, we turn to the literature on how employee representatives are regarded by managers and chairpersons as shown by survey data. Third, we account for the empirical evidence there is on how BLER in Sweden is related to firm performance and reporting outcomes. Lastly, we summarize and conclude.
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| 6. |
- Overland, Conny, 1975, et al.
(författare)
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Diversity on the board
- 2023
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Ingår i: Corporate Governance in a Nordic Setting: The Case of Sweden. - 9783110725346 ; , s. 97-111
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Boardroom diversity has been subject to significant changes thanks to new legislation in Europe and in other parts of the world. There is a greater focus on gender diversity in the board which is in line with active policy debates for promoting gender equality in reforming organizational structures. Given these changes it is not surprising to see a great interest in studying the impact of gender diversity in recent corporate governance research. Although current research places greater emphasis on studying gender diversity, research on board diversity can be categorized in two groups: "taskrelated and non-task-related" diversity (Adams et al., 2015). Task-related diversity is mainly related to the functional background, education, experience, and knowledge of directors, while non-task-related diversity refers mostly to the personal characteristics such as gender, age, race, or nationality. In this chapter, we begin with a brief theoretical overview on the topic of diversity on the board and proceed with a discussion of diversity in Swedish corporate boards. While we seek to present research on diversity in various dimensions, we give a bigger room to gender diversity in Sweden in line with the current debate in policy making and research. Sweden offers an interesting setting to study gender diversity because despite the lack of legislations for having female directors on the board, there have been various pressures on corporations for improving gender diversity in management and corporate boards. The institutional setting of Sweden and the Swedish law plays an important role in promoting women in the labor market and not least in reaching top level management positions. Specifically, the law on gender balance (jämn könfördelning) since 1994 promotes equal gender distribution and requires that the proportion of men and women in workforce range between 40 to 60 percent. Having such support for bringing women to work in place has made Sweden to be one of the top countries (out of 146 surveyed countries) in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) in their study of national gender gaps on economic, political, education and health related criteria.32 Diversity is also promoted in the Swedish Corporate Governance Code, considering different aspects of diversity in terms of competence and experience, but also explicitly to strive for gender balance: The board is to have a composition appropriate to the company's operations, phase of development and other relevant circumstances. The board members elected by the shareholders' meeting are collectively to exhibit diversity and breadth of qualifications, experience and background. The company is to strive for gender balance on the board. (Corporate Governance Code, 2020; rule 4.1)
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| 7. |
- Vural, Derya, Universitetslektor
(författare)
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7 Ownership and usage of control-enhancing mechanisms
- 2023
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Ingår i: Corporate Governance in a Nordic Setting. - Berlin : De Gruyter. - 9783110725315 - 9783110725346 ; , s. 79-96
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this chapter, one of the unique features with the Swedish governance system is dis-cussed, namely the large presence of controlling owners and the frequent usage of so-called control-enhancing mechanisms (CEMs), i.e., control devices that allows separation of ownership and control. The chapter is divided into four sections, where Section 1presents a theoretical background to agency conflicts in firms with concentrated ownership. Section 2 continues with defining commonly applied CEMs and provides data on the usage of CEMs in Sweden and other European countries. Section 3 reviews accounting-and finance-oriented research studies with evidence on the effects of CEMs in Sweden. Last, Section 4 discusses the challenges with an EU-level corporate governance system.
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