1. |
- Malmström Rognes, Åsa
(författare)
-
Family Matters : Essays on Families, Firms and Funding in the Philippines 1850–2014
- 2016
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Family Matters – Essays of Families, Firms and Funding in the Philippines 1850–2014 is a study of family business groups in the Philippines. It consists of an introductory essay and four separate papers. The introductory essay frames the thesis in the vast literature on family firms and family business groups in emerging economies, discusses sources and methodology, and provides an overview of Philippine economic history to give the overarching economic context to the separate papers. The first paper deals with the role of institutions in understanding the dominance and prevalence of family business groups in the Philippines. The literature posits that weak institutions can help explain the predominance of family business groups in emerging economies. This paper takes a historical perspective to examine whether that explanation holds over time, examining the development of core property rights and core economic institutions over time and how family firms have responded. The second paper studies funding options in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and whether the rapidly growing financial system was driven from above or below. The paper examines the impact it had on the explicit goal of stimulating investment and growth in the early twentieth century and what that meant for family firms. The third paper studies capital market developments since the Asian crisis and in particular the growth of the corporate bond market in the Philippines; how this development and how it affected family business groups. The fourth paper deals with governance and management capabilities and examines professionalization of family firms over time to seek to answer the question of longevity. Management literature provides studies and models for family firms but these are fairly recent whereas the family firms that have been in business for several generations have found ways to manage for the long term. The paper analyses what three select groups have done in terms of professionalization and management.
|
|
2. |
- Bergström, Göran, 1977-
(författare)
-
Från svensk malmexport till utländsk etablering : Grängesbergsbolagets internationalisering 1953-1980
- 2009
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze the internationalisation of the Grängesberg Company from 1953 to 1980. The strategies that the company used and the knowledge it gained by participating in international mining projects are studied. The first and largest mining activity abroad was the Lamco project in Liberia. By transferring the company’s competence and knowledge of mining activities to Liberia, the Grängesberg Company used an international strategy of horizontal integration. The company’s contacts were of importance to start the production in 1963. The main ambition was thereafter to negotiate new long-term contracts in order to create stability for the project in the 1960s and the 1970s. Through its involvement in the Lamco project, the Grängesberg Company also acquired shares in a Belgian steel company and became half-owner with the Liberian state in a foreign shipping company. The experience and knowledge that the company gained in the Lamco project was used to increase its internationalisation in the 1970s. Appointing a Mineral Project Group, it investigated existing mineral projects abroad and formulated new internationalisation strategies such as vertical integration and diversification. The main motive for the further expansion abroad in the mining area was a need for resources for its domestic production. The most important outcome was the acquisition of a Canadian copper company, and the company integrated backwards to gain access to copper. The Grängesberg Company also used its competence by doing prospecting work in New Caledonia, Peru and Canada and consultant work in mining projects in Iran and Saudi Arabia in the 1970s. The study has shown that further international expansion became limited because of the downturn of the international economy in the 1970s, but also because of the company’s cautious attitude towards the political risks that were associated with international mining projects.
|
|
3. |
- Sabo, Josefin, 1983-
(författare)
-
Reglerad sprängkraft : dynamiten, staten och den svenska civila sprängmedelsindustrin 1858-1950
- 2017
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The development of new innovations in explosives was an important part of the industrialization process from the mid-nineteenth century. The establishment of the world´s first nitroglycerin factory – Nitroglycerin Aktiebolaget (NA) in Stockholm in 1864 started a process replacing gunpowder with nitroglycerin and from 1868 by the safer invention dynamite. This affected both the long-term relationships between the mining industry and the powder mills and the demand from new industries for efficient and safe explosives. Even though the explosives industry was a small industry, it was of great importance for many other industries and for economic transformation. With dynamite and its successors, society also faced new risks. As a result, an extensive legislation was developed at an early stage which was supplemented with further supervision from a government authority in various organizations from 1895.The aim of the thesis is to investigate and analyze the major decision-making processes of the Swedish civilian explosives industry during the period 1858-1950. The purpose of the work is to contribute to gaining knowledge about how the society´s regulation of different industries has evolved and how state and private actors have acted in the development of new regulations. The work is structured around three main questions. The first question is about how the Swedish explosives industry developed during the period. How did the technological development of the industry and the explosives look like and had this any impact on the questions the actors within the industry drove? The second question is about how the dynamite industry was regulated. What did the regulations contain and how was the control organized? How did rights and obligations look like and how was the industry affected by this? The third question concerns the regulatory process itself. How and why did the regulations change and which actors were involved in the various changes? How did the Government and the actors act and can we see shifts over time between their different roles and interests?The study concludes that NA was the actor that, by using different methods, managed to gain the greatest influence over the regulatory process. Although the traditional established powder mill industry competed with NA at an early stage, it was nevertheless the initial, high-tech company that was involved in creating new national regulations in negotiation with the regulating authorities. This was a process of regulatory capture where NA, by combining both direct and indirect capture methods, managed to gain influence over regulations in the long run. A parallel but slightly different characteristic of this regulatory capture process is risk minimization for the public. Despite the occurrence of regulatory capture the regulations developed in a kind of a co-regulation system where the regulators became dependent on NA to provide the technical and practical expertise needed to build the necessary regulatory framework.
|
|
4. |
- Ericsson, Johan, 1988-
(författare)
-
Mål och medel : Uppsala kommun som byggupphandlare 1870–1975
- 2019
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation is about municipal procurement of construction projects. Public procurement is often portrayed as inefficient since public organizations can have several, potentially conflicting, objectives. In this dissertation, I use Uppsala municipality as a case to study how procurement worked during a time when municipal procurement was not regulated by law. The main interest is how the administration balanced procedural and outcome-related objectives and how its choices can be explained.Earlier research has suggested that public organizations use discretionary decision-making and so-called low-powered incentives (negotiations and cost-plus contracts) to a lesser extent than private clients do, making procurement less efficient. Rigid rules and fear of corruption are usually mentioned as explanations. The results of this dissertation show that low-powered incentives and discretionary decision-making became more common when there were more rules and a more bureaucratized administration. It is suggested that the structure and institutions of the construction sector, in combination with government financing policies and the municipality’s organizational capability, can explain the pattern. The results have implications for the literature on public procurement as well as on the development of the public administration in Sweden. First, they indicate that the relationship between formal rules and procurement practices is more complicated than previously suggested. Second, they highlight how discussions about the public administrative system can benefit from incorporating the local level as well as informal institutions and practices.
|
|
5. |
- Matti, Tomas, 1967-
(författare)
-
Professionella patriarker : Svenska storföretagsledares ideal, praktik och professionaliseringsprocess 1910-1945
- 2006
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Much is assumed about the professionalisation of managers, but the subject has been little studied within the social sciences. Did it take place and if so, how did it happen? Previous studies suggest that the managers in Swedish industries were professionalised after the Second World War, without, however, thoroughly investigating this claim. To be able to study the professionalisation process of managers, this thesis argues that it is necessary to look at both the ideals and the practice of management. This thesis constructs two different management ideals: the patriarchal ideal and the professional ideal, which are then joined together in a model. The model is then used to interpret the management behaviour of Swedish managers in 1910-1945.The results of this thesis show that the professionalisation process of managers was not a strict process forward. The ideals were relatively easy to change from a patriarchal ideal to a professional ideal. But the practice of management could be patriarchal as well as professional, depending on the situation and the context. One explanation for this is that the managers could not always live up to the professional ideal. Instead they reverted to the system of personal trust and its loyalties in line with the patriarchal ideal. Therefore the professionalisation process of managers was not as successful as it might have been.
|
|