| 1. |
- Dzansi, James
(författare)
-
Essays on Financing and Returns on Investment
- 2011
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation consists of an introductory chapter and three independent essays on financing investment and their returns. The first essay studies the impact of remittances on domestic investment. The analysis is carried out with a focus on the moderating roles of domestic financial development and institutional quality. The empirical results suggest that remittance inflows are associated with increased domestic investment spending, particularly under conditions of inadequate financial intermediation and poor institutional quality. The second essay evaluates whether remittance inflows into the developing world impedes or spurs manufacturing growth. This study uses manufacturing data on a sample of 40 remittance dependent economies over the period from 1991 to 2004. The results suggest that remittance inflows accelerate manufacturing growth. This evidence is robust to industry- and year-specific effects, a range of country level control variables, and a number of estimators. The final essay examines the monitoring role of large shareholders and returns on investment. Specifically, the paper investigates the relevance of intrinsic motives of the large shareholder to monitor management in order to induce optimal return on investment. The findings suggest that large shareholders are actuated by both intrinsic and extrinsic motives to minimize managerial opportunism and inefficiency.
|
|
| 2. |
- Johansson, Annie-Maj, 1960-
(författare)
-
Undersökande arbetssätt i NO-undervisningen i grundskolans tidigare årskurser
- 2012
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis deals with the use of inquiry-based approaches in primary school science. The aim is to investigate the goals and purposes that are constituted by the curriculum and by the teachers in interviews and through their teaching in the classroom. The results are used to develop conceptual tools that can be used by teachers’ in their work to support students’ learning of science when using an inquiry-based approach. The thesis is comprised of four papers. In paper one a comparative analysis is made of five Swedish national curricula for compulsory school regarding what students should learn about scientific inquiry. In paper two 20 teachers were interviewed about their own teaching using inquiry. Classroom interactions were filmed and analyzed in papers three and four, which examine how primary teachers use the various activities and purposes of the inquiry classroom to support learning progressions in science. The results of paper one show how the emphasis within and between the two goals of learning to carry out investigations and learning about the nature of science shifted and changed over time in the different curricula. Paper two describes the selective traditions and qualities that were emphasized in the teachers’ accounts of their own teaching. The results of papers three and four show how students need to be involved in the proximate and ultimate purposes of the teaching activities for progression to happen. The ultimate purposes are the scientific purposes for the lesson (as given by the teacher or by the curriculum), whereas the proximate purposes are the more student-centered purposes that through different activities should allow the students to relate their own experiences and language to the ultimate purpose. The results show the importance of proximate purposes working as ends-in-view in the sense of John Dewey, meaning that the students see the goal of the activity and that they are able to relate to their experiences and familiar language.
|
|
| 3. |
- Palmberg, Johanna, 1978-
(författare)
-
Family Ownership and Investment Performance
- 2010
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation provides an economic analysis of families as owners of large listed firms. The essential research question is whether family ownership provides an efficient form of governance. Family ownership and control is evaluated from different angles; how ownership, control, management, and board structure affects firm performance, and executive compensation.Chapter two “A Contractual Perspective of the Firm with an Application to the Maritime Industry” is a conceptual paper analyzing the contractual structure of a firm. The chapter conceptualizes the relations between firms, and markets, and gives a transaction cost perspective of why firms are organized the way they are.The third chapter “The Impact of Vote Differentiation on Investment Performance in Listed Family Firms” investigates ownership and control in Swedish family controlled firms. The analysis shows that family control is beneficial, but only if voting rights and cash-flow rights are aligned.The fourth chapter “Family Control and Executive Compensation” analyses whether families use remuneration as a way to expropriate minority shareholders. The study shows that managers in family-controlled firms have alower share of variable compensation than managers in non-family controlled firms. The analysis shows further that family control has a reducing effect on the total level of CEO-compensation.The last chapter “Board of Directors, Dependency, and Returns on Investment” investigates if there is a relationship between ownership structure, board of directors, and firm performance. The marginal q analysis indicate that firm dependent directors have a negative impact on firms’ investment performance. Owner-dependent and employee elected directors do not affect firm investment performance.To sum up, the empirical results show that family ownership and control affects remuneration in listed firms, and the firm investment performance. The analysis further shows that there are clear differences in the ownership and governance structure between family and non-family controlled firms.
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
- Svensson, Anna Maria
(författare)
-
Rektors ledarskap : styrningssammanhang och stil
- 2010
-
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The role of the principal in Sweden has undergone significant changes over the past two decades. Task and responsibility has been decentralized from the national level to o the local school board affecting principals´ everyday life. At the same time a new inspection system for all schools has been introduced. These changes puts focus on how principals implement and report political decisions within established guidelines. For many principals it is a balancing act to achieve the national goals within a local context. All the above include for the principal important work with evaluations of quality in different processes in the school, especially those related to teacher performance and children’s grades and results. In the mid 1990’s a debate about the lack of evaluations and school improvement in Swedish schools started, and as a result the Government decided in 1997 that every school should write a quality assessments and that the school board should write a summery for the whole school district. Many schools had problems in the beginning with the working processes around quality assessments, and many schools view this national law only as a top-down control decision from the Government and were not able to see the school improvement part of the law. The aim of this study is to describe how principals take responsibility for the quality assessment regulation and to analyze how they act and lead their schools in relation to quality assessments. In this study, results are presented from survey data, done with 131 principals who attended the National Principal Training Program at Umeå University. A theoretical model which discusses four leadership styles is used as a theoretical background. This model has an organizational frame. After making an argument for the importance of each of these styles for understanding principals work with quality assessments, two strands are examined. First, leadership styles are described from a principal perspective and factor analysis is used to investigate if these styles can illustrate principals´ work with quality assessments. Second, important factors explaining different ways in which principals tackle the work with quality assessments is highlighted. These factors are affected by different laws and regulations and even some time local political decisions and policies which here is understood as structure and culture, and personal background, for example the principals´ age, sex, education and experience. Based on the empirical results, my theoretical conclusion is that the four leadership styles used are relevant for understanding how principals work with quality assessments. The study also shows that structure and culture are important factors when it comes to explaining how principals´ work with quality assessments. Personal background, however, are not shown as important in this study.
|
|
