| 1. |
- Almlöf, Hanna
(författare)
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Bolagsorganens reglering och dess ändamålsenlighet : En aktiebolagsrättslig studie om ägarledda bolag
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation discusses the regulation of organisation in limited companies from a closely held company perspective. The overall aim of the study is to evaluate whether the goals of the Swedish Companies Act are fulfilled by the current regulation on company organisation and decision taking organs when applied to closely held owner managed companies. The study is carried out in the field of Company Law, but the analysis also includes contributions from Regulation Theory and Law and Economics.To fulfil the overall aim, the study sets up two main research tasks. The first research task is to identify the goals of the Swedish Companies Act and what regulative tools that are available to achieve these goals. The second research task is to investigate the current regulation of organization and decision taking organs of a company. Focus is placed on how owner managed companies can be flexible in their decision taking activity, both within the company organs and in other arenas outside the firm such an owners meeting or family council. When these two main research tasks have been performed, the overall aim of this study can be fulfilled. The evaluation of the Companies Act reveals that the legislator’s prioritisation of legislative goal can be challenged. It may be argued that the goal to lower the transaction costs of the parties can be enhanced without diminishing any other goals. In accordance with this conclusion, the final research task of this study is to give recommendations de lege ferenda on how the regulation can be developed in order to achieve a higher degree of reaching the goals of the Companies Act.The conclusions argued for in this study are related to future regulation of the organisation of companies limited by shares. Therefore, the conclusions are aimed towards policy makers. However, the analysis within the second research task is of relevance for owner managers and their advisors on the subject of how they can be flexible in their decision taking activity, both within the company organs and in other arenas such as an owner’s meeting or a family council.
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| 2. |
- Backman, Mikaela
(författare)
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Regions, Human Capital and New Firm Formation
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis shows the importance of human capital at the individual, firm, and regional level through its effects on returns to education, firm productivity and new firm formation. The thesis further shows the importance of banks as a determinant for new firm formation at the local level. The thesis comprises of five chapters, one introductory chapter followed by four independent chapters, empirical in their nature.The second chapter in the thesis, Regional Variations of Returns to Education, analyses individuals’ return to education in different regional contexts. The results show that returns to education differ according to type of location. Conclusively, the often-assumed hypothesis of equal returns to education for all regions in a country can be rejected. The second chapter, Human Capital and Firm Performance, uses a firm perspective and tests how human capital, within and outside the firm, influences firm productivity. Results show that both types of human capital are positively associated with firm productivity. Overall, it is firm attributes that explain most of the productivity variance. The third chapter, Accessibility to Human Capital and New Firm Formation, compares how human capital influences new firm formation in different regional categories. Overall, it is the access to human capital at the local and intra-regional level that increases the new firm formation rate. However, the influence from human capital differs across the regional categories and their position in the hierarchical system. The last chapter, Banks and New Firm Formation, analyses how different characteristics of the local bank sector influence new firm formation. The average size of bank branches per capita, independent banks, bank branches per capita and the competitive level are positively associated with local startups.
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| 3. |
- Balkow, Jenny
(författare)
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In the middle : on sourcing from China and the role of the intermediary
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the past three decades China’s rapid transition from a closed economy to become the factory of the world has astonished economists all over the world. Surveys among sourcing practitioners show that China is the most interesting market for sourcing and research points to lower costs as the main reason. This dissertation is an exploratory study of the role of the intermediary for Swedish small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that source from China. Three questions are discussed. The first question concerns why Swedish SMEs choose to source from China. Although costs are a major factor for the companies, it is usually other triggers that cause the change in strategy, such as management interest or pressure from a large customer. The second research question concerns how Swedish SMEs choose to source from China and how the role of the intermediary is related to this process. The study shows that finding a good supplier is not difficult. The companies use informal channels, references and sometimes unorthodox methods such as following the supplier of the raw material to find suppliers that deliver high quality goods. The problem is however to maintain a steady quality and on time delivery which is why intermediaries are introduced late in the relationship. The cases in this study show example of five different intermediated strategies; Direct, Service,Traditional, RepO and FICE/WFOE. The traditional intermediated strategy is the only strategy where there is little or no relation between buyer and supplier, whereas the other four strategies involve different degrees of interaction between all three actors in the dyad; the buyer, the supplier and the intermediary. The third research question concerned the role of the intermediary. The study shows that the respondents are influenced by their structural view on what role the different forms of intermediaries may take. Although the respondents discuss the importance of having a long-term view on the relationship with the supplier they continuously allow intermediaries to enter the relationship on a short-term basis for quality control. These quality control centers (QC) commonly work on a fixed commission based on services that has to be specified. When the buyers are trying to change their strategy to look for an intermediary with higher involvement they usually turn to internal intermediaries (i.e. subsidiaries). When deciding on a long term intermediary the buyer usually looks for competences that supplement their own knowledge – that is Chinese language, good knowledge of the Chinese market but also technological competence. What the western owned intermediaries in China stresses however is the need to find intermediaries to supplement the suppliers’ competences, so that they are able to translate the needs of the buyer’s customer and becomes a physical reminder that they are sent from the buyer. The case of QC, shows that if a company let the relationship with the intermediary develop through interaction they can become just as involved. The study is based on interviews with key informants at Swedish SMEs andat different types of intermediaries in China. The empirical data are presented infive themes developed through an iterative process of theoretical studies anddata collection. The first two themes are directly related to the first tworesearch questions. The third theme focuses on the sourcing process andactivities of four small Swedish design companies. The fourth theme displayshow the intermediaries in China discuss their role. Finally, the fifth theme pictures the supply chain of one focal company at five points in time when they are in the process of changing their supply chain to increase transparency.
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| 4. |
- Bjerke, Lina
(författare)
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Knowledge flows across space and firms
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation consists of four separate papers and an introductory chapter. The four papers can be read independently of each other but are held together by concepts around embodied knowledge: knowledge embodied in products and embodied knowledge flows. Thus the papers mainly contribute to the empirical literature on firm and regional knowledge. The rapid growth of knowledge-based industries is one of the prominent features of post-industrialism and economic growth in the industrialised part of the world. The first paper investigates the residential choice of Swedish university graduates after graduation. It also analyses what factors make them move away from their graduation region. In addition to individual characters such as age and gender, there are also regional characteristics that can either retain graduates or make them choose another residence region. The results of this paper show that large and growing regions are good at keeping their graduates but are also good at attracting graduates from other regions. The second paper examines what regional characteristics are preferable attributes in order to renew regional exports in the manufacturing sector with export products from other regions. The results indicate that to do so, regions need a specialised export support system and a large amount of sector-related knowledge. The third paper deals with the issue of how industries and regions absorb new knowledge. Focusing on the role of regional high-quality import flows, the results of this paper show that imports play an important role in regional high-quality export renewal. The fourth paper investigates how creative labour inflow affect the productivity in firms in knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). Labour inflow bring new knowledge and increase firm productivity but only if the incoming knowledge is firm-related, which means that the firm can absorb this new knowledge and incorporate and add it into the existing knowledge stock.
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| 5. |
- Boers, Börje
(författare)
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Organizational identity construction in family businesses a dualities perspective
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation is about organizational identity construction with a dualities perspective. By taking a dualities perspective the focus shifts from assuming that organizational identity actually is in place towards organizational identity construction where identities are socially constructed. A dualities perspective is very suitable for studying family business where family and business are seen as interdependent and interconnected forming a duality. Family business is an identity statement. Family business identities are constructed by stakeholders by managing a set of dualities. Dualities cause tensions because of the dual poles. These tensions need to be balanced in order to draw on both poles and maintain the family business identities.In an empirical study of two media organizations dualities of informality/formality, independence-dependence, historic paths-new paths, and commercial-journalistic are used to understand how stakeholders balance the tensions in these dualities and thereby construct organizational identities. The study reveals the central role of owning family members in organizational identity construction. It is important to balance interests between owning family members and generations. Otherwise it is possible that tensions develop between owners which can endanger the organization.The dualities perspective broadens studies on organizational identity construction as it accounts for the peculiarities of family businesses. I argue that these dualities are basis for constructing organizational identities that require stakeholders to work with managing the inherent tensions in the dualities. This means that owning family members and organizational members are continuously involved in constructing organizational identities when managing the dualities.For the organizational identity literature, the study offers a focus on the processes of organizational identity construction in the most common business organization, i.e. family businesses. Owning families play an eminent role in processes of organizational identity construction which future research should consider. Owning family members can initiate or trigger organizational identity construction processes because they are considered as role models by other stakeholders.Based on my findings I recommend owning families to consider that being a family business is an identity statement implying that other stakeholders will consider them as role model whether they like it or not. Therefore owning family members should devote attention to manage dualities and balance inherent tensions. Then being a family business can be advantageous because they can draw on both family and business dimensions.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Casanovas, Inés
(författare)
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Online Education in Universities : Moving from Individual Adoption to Institutionalisation of an Information Technology Innovation
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis describes and analyses the move from individual adoption to institutionalisation of an information technology innovation: online education in universities. The study focuses on the processes that took place within two universities, one in Sweden and the other in Argentina, regarding online education adoption and the organisational changes developed.The aim is to contribute to the understanding of individual and organisational strategies for the institutionalisation of the innovation. To achieve this aim, three research questions were posed. The first focused on the way in which teachers influence the adoption processes. The next addressed the changes and interactions at the individual and institutional levels resulting from these processes. The third question deepened into the methodological practices that can harmonise stakeholders‟ objectives and the conflicting interests regarding online education initiatives. Innovation theory, complemented with organisational theories provided the foundation for the description and analysis of the information technology innovation and the adoption processes.The results of analysing and interpreting the collected data from the two universities in two different countries (Sweden and Argentina) showed that the adoption processes appeared to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The iterative nature of the appropriation and the constant “newness” of the information technology innovation may be plausible explanations for the phenomenon. Though the change has not yet become an integral part of the formal core of the institutions, it has been a great achievement considering the universities‟ structure, culture and resources.The contributions provide complementary and pluralistic insights into the research field of Information Systems, for both theory and practice, as well as into higher education managers‟ decision-making. Furthermore, the knowledge contribution of the thesis could be applied to implementation of information technology innovations in other organisations with similar characteristics as the studied higher education institutions. Such characteristics are, for example, to be complex and knowledge intensive.Interactions at macro and micro organisational levels could be modelled as the cyclic linkage between sensemaking outcomes and institutionalized structures. A higher level of theorization resulted in a meta-theory model to describe and explain the linkage itself within the perspective of adaptive structuration theory.Regarding practice, scholar-engaged research allowed conflicting interests to be reconciled by changing the existing practices through sensemaking and negotiation among stakeholders in an ongoing implementation. As an overall conclusion, online education is still far from being fully institutionalised. After four years of technological and contextual changes during the research development, a positive shift can be seen in teachers‟ attitude towards online education. They show more confidence in working with constantly improved virtual environments. Nevertheless, there are still key factors that need to be faced regarding online education adoption and institutionalisation. These factors are of a strategic nature and the way to handle them seems to be more political than technological or pedagogical.
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| 8. |
- Cui, Lianguang
(författare)
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Innovation and network development of logistics firms
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This compilation thesis consists of a cover and five appended articles. The research purpose of this thesis is to investigate the third party logistics phenomena from the logistics firm’s perspective with a focus on logistics innovation and network development. The thesis applies a qualitative research method and employs multiple case studies. Resource-based view, industrial network approach and strategy-as-practice perspective have been applied and combined to analyze the empirical findings.It is found that logistics firms focus on customers’ requirements and they provide differentiated services accordingly. Based on the type of customers and the region served, each logistics firm innovates in a different way. The logistics innovation process is complicated and it includes both top-down and bottom-up process. Both intra-organizational interactions and inter-organizational interactions are critical for logistics firms to generate logistics innovation. Besides, the interaction capabilities are crucial for logistics firms to innovate. The development of interaction capabilities enables logistics firms to proactively identify customer needs and to translate customer requirements into new service offerings. The development of interaction capabilities also guides logistics firms to innovate in the right direction and helps them to overcome barriers. Further, a theoretical model is developed to illustrate that logistics firms have clear differences in capabilities and network focus. These firms follow different dominating logics of value creation, developing their service networks in various ways.The thesis addresses two critical issues, logistics innovation and network development. Theoretically, it contributes to the third party logistics literature in general and to the logistics innovation research in particular as well as the network development of logistics firms. Adopting several theoretical frameworks, the thesis takes a closer look at the logistics innovation process in logistics firms. Empirically, the thesis covers logistics firms both in Sweden and China, turning it into an international investigation of the how and why of logistics innovation.
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| 9. |
- Dzansi, James
(författare)
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Essays on Financing and Returns on Investment
- 2011
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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.
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| 10. |
- Ghazawneh, Ahmad
(författare)
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Towards a Boundary Resources Theory of Software Platforms
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The last few years have witnessed a significant increase in the frequency and magnitude of involving third-party application developers in software platforms. While this involvement offers great opportunities in building and sustaining platform innovation, it also exposes platform owners to significant challenges. Typically, platform owners facilitate the involvement of third-party developers by providing resources, referred to in this thesis as boundary resources, that give access to the platform, shift design capability, and facilitate the use of the platform’s core technologies. At the same time, these resources have the potential to be used to maintain platform control. This involves seemingly conflicting goals that creates a challenge for platform owners in finding the right balance.The main objective of this thesis is to investigate and understand the role of boundary resources in platform owners’ efforts to stimulate third-party development. To this end, this thesis proposes a theoretical model of boundary resources. This model centres on various drivers behind boundary resources design and use, and how these drivers interact in third-party development. The thesis also presents a comprehensive view of governance and strategizing practices used by platform owners through boundary resources. This thesis comprises a cover and a collection of five published research papers. The thesis applies a qualitative research method and employs multiple case studies. Boundary resources, innovation networks and platform governance perspectives have been synthesized to build a theoretical basis to analyze the empirical findings.This thesis complements and extends the literature on software platforms, and the insights derived from the thesis enhance previous research on third-party development. In addition, it provides a focused theoretical account of the interfaces between platform owners and third-party developers that contributes to the body of knowledge developed around using tools for innovation.
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| 11. |
- Haag, Kajsa
(författare)
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Rethinking family business succession : from a problem to solve to an ongoing practice
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- As the title denotes, I suggest we think differently about family business succession. I propose to rethink succession from a problem to a practice. This means that succession is not a problem to solve but something people do in family business; it is ongoing, it is integrated and it is ordinary. It poses an alternative to the common view of succession as something problematic, separate and extraordinary to handle in order to carry on with the business. To view succession as a practice opens up new understanding of succession as a continuing flow of activities embedded in the everyday life of business families instead of a problem to overcome through succession planning. This notion is philosophically inspired by sociology of practice, theoretically based in a practice perspective of strategy, and empirically explored in a case of succession at Karl Andersson & Söner. Three conceptions are developed that aid the analysis of succession, framing it as originating from socialization, included in everyday routines and progressing without design. The study shows how succession evolves as family members are socialized, engaged and trained through the durée of daily life. Beyond that, it shows how succession is not just about handing the business over from one generation to the next. It is also about working together in the moment, developing the business while preserving its essence. Engaging in the family business to be part of developing it is fundamentally different from joining because transfer of leadership and/or ownership is needed. It questions the idea of succession as a purpose in itself and suggests a shift from “taking over” to “being part”.
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| 12. |
- Hartmann, Berit
(författare)
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Bridging the GAAP? : IFRS in accounting practice
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates how International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) come to act within an organizational context. In particular, the thesis explores how the requirements for goodwill accounting and leasing influence organizational calculative practices, transforming and shaping operations management. Drawing on actor-network theory, this study moves away from a priori distinctions, following the construction and mobilization of accounting numbers across institutionalized boundaries within and around the organization.The empirical investigation took place in a large, worldwide active media group that is listed on a European stock exchange. The group is a particular interesting setting because of its diverse business structure and its German code-law accounting roots. Business combinations are a major growth factor within the industry and a high degree of decentralization in the organization placed responsibility for investment decisions at low hierarchical levels. Goodwill accounting and impairment testing were therefore highly significant calculative practices in the group.The study finds that the constitutive role of the financial reporting standards in the organization both solves tensions and dilemmas around the number and creates new ones when crucial interests are lost in translation. These tensions and dilemmas arise between the aim of standardization and closure for the construction of a legitimate value of the future, and the aim to mobilize numbers in order to motivate and create value for a future.Originally intended for the financial representation of organizational substance and performance, the standards become associated with operations management activities, helping to create the faithful records that sum up the organization. This interrelation helps to close concern around the representation of the future in a ‘fair’ value by distributing the calculative practices over a wide network of actors spanning inside and outside the organization. However, the relationship also forces a connection between calculations and ambitions that otherwise would have preferred to stay separate.This thesis offers a new perspective on IFRS implementation by emphasizing organizational activities. Through a focus on integration and the link between financial and management accounting, the ‘implementation problems’ highlighted in previous literature gain a refined theorization. When taking organizational practice seriously, integration becomes a process that may find temporal stability but will never be final. In the process, conflicts might be solved but new dilemmas will arise. In turn, concepts like decision usefulness, comparability and earnings management cannot exist in a stable form but are rather constructed in networks that disregard commonly assumed boundaries inside and around the organization.
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| 13. |
- Hartmann, Benjamin
(författare)
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Consumption and Practice : Unfolding Consumptive Moments and the Entanglement with Productive Aspects
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis investigates consumption through a practice-theoretical perspective. Practices are routinized sets of human activity involving doings, meanings, and objects. Previous work has suggested conceiving of consumption as moments in practices. Yet, empirical and conceptual blind spots exist when it comes to understanding how consumption operates as practice moments. This thesis sets out to develop this conception of consumption by examining how consumption unfolds as practice moments.The study of consumption in relation to practices, however, is complicated by long-standing debates in marketing and business literature that impart the notion of consumption being entangled with production in various ways. These debates infuse the idea that in order to understand consumption one must also pay attention to its links with productive aspects.By treating practices as the empirical and theoretical sites for consumption and its entanglement with productive aspects, this thesis offers an alternative way of researching and theorizing consumption in relation to practice, and in relation to productive aspects. It presents four papers that draw on qualitative and quantitative empirical data collected in the contexts of online community practices, discursive re-enchantment practices, electric guitar playing, and gardening.The collective findings and analysis of the four papers reveal how consumption unfolds as practice moments in terms of ingredient, momentum, transformation, and consequence. Unfolding consumption in this way offers conceptual specification of its operation in relation to practices. Moreover, it allows theorization of how consumptive moments are linked to productive aspects in two ways: first, by specifying how consumptive moments are inherently productive; and second, by giving insight into the dyadic relation between consumptive and productive practice moments.Rather than collapsing consumption and production into one and the same or treating them as inherent in roles of consumers, producers, and prosumers, as advocated by previous works, this thesis suggests that consumption and production are useful analytical categories if framed as moments inherent in the practices that comprise our marketplaces and cultures. Several relevant implications emerge from this understanding regarding the concept of prosumption, the development of practice theory, understanding the operation of consumption in consumer culture, theorizing value creation, and the shaping of a practice-oriented marketing approach.
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| 14. |
- Helin, Jenny, 1972-
(författare)
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Living moments in family meetings : A process study in the family business context
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation studies meetings from a process perspective. Such an approach, which can be labelled ‘process organisation studies’ is promising in that it directs attention to social processes continuously in the making. The thesis builds on the current development in process organisation studies in two ways. The first centres on an elaboration on key assumptions of approaching organisational life from a process perspective. I here bridge process organisation studies with Bakhtin’s work on dialogue into a dialogical becoming perspective. This perspective calls for a distinct way of understanding processes of becoming which makes it possible to explore meeting practices as situated, emerging and relational world-making activities. The second is a comprehensive processual account based on a collaborative field study with two owner families. Organised meetings held in a family that owns a business (or several) has proved to be of importance for family business longevity in that the family members can help to develop strong family relations and a healthy business. In this setting, where people are dealing with that which is often most important to them in life, such as their identity, work, family relationships and future wealth, a process approach is useful since it helps to understand the emotionally loaded, complex and intertwined issues at stake.What emerges as central in understanding movement and flow is the need to understand the here and now moments in meetings. I refer to these moments as ‘living moments’ as a reminder of the once-occurring, unique and momentary transformation that can take place between people in such encounters. Thus, the living moment is the moment of movement.
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| 15. |
- Högberg, Andreas, 1980-
(författare)
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Corporate governance, legal origin and firm performance : an Asian perspective
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation deals with corporate governance, legal origin and firm performance with a focus mainly on Asia. The dissertation consists of four individual papers and an introductory chapter. All papers can be read individually but share a common theme in corporate governance and investments. The main region of interest is Asia due to its special characteristics of ownership structures and governance. However, comparative studies of Asia and Europe as well as global outlooks are included in the dissertation too. The papers contribute to research by studying effects on investment performance, firm performance, capital allocation and capital structure from legal traditions, institutional indicators and ownership type. The first paper focuses on family ownership which is found to affect firm performance negatively when using measures of firm valuation and returns, but investment performance positively when measured by marginal q. This suggest that family owned firms may be better at avoiding bad investments but at the same time have lower market valuation and returns to capital compared to firms with other owners. The second paper investigates investment performance and firm size in terms of number of employees in 58 countries around the world. It is found that initial increase of staff size tend to positively affect investment performance overall, but excessive employment has a negative impact on investment performance. The third paper studies the capital allocation in India after their economic reforms in the 1990s. It is found that allocation of capital has been slow to respond to reforms and firms face significant costs in adjusting their capital stock, leading to inefficient capital allocation. The fourth paper deals with firm capital structure in 24 Asian and European countries. Both financial market indicators of maturity and firm specific characteristics influence the leverage of firms. Financial market maturity measures have a negative effect on debt levels as do family ownership of firms.
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| 16. |
- Jenkins, Anna
(författare)
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After Firm Failure : Emotions, learning and re-entry
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Uncertainty is inherent to the entrepreneurship process. As such, the outcomes of entrepreneurial endeavors are unknown and unknowable a priori– some will be successful and others will fail. Entrepreneurship research, however, often focuses on new ventures and the entrepreneurs who own and run them in the start-up and growth phases. As a consequence, little is known about the failure experiences of entrepreneurs.In this dissertation I investigate how entrepreneurs interpret and respond to the failure of their firms. I focus on learning, re-entry into self-employment, and emotional recovery as important adaptive outcomes. To do this, I draw on cognitive-emotional theories of adaptation and motivation to capture the interplay between the interpretations of the failure, emotions, financial loss, coping behaviors, and adaptive outcomes. I employ a longitudinal quantitative design and survey owner-managers of firms that had recently gone bankrupt.The results are presented in four empirical papers that each focus on a specific aspect of the failure experience. The findings highlight that there is substantial variance in how entrepreneurs interpret firm failure and this has important implications for how they respond. Specifically, I show that loss of self-esteem is one mechanism which transfers failure of the firm to a personal failure for the entrepreneur and this help can explain why firm failure is emotionally devastating from some entrepreneurs and not others. I also found that coping can play a mediating role between the emotional and financial costs of failure and adaptive outcomes, providing empirical support for studying firm failure as part of an on-going entrepreneurial process rather than a single isolated event.Focusing on learning as an outcome from failure, I found that attributions for the failure influence what an entrepreneur learns from failure and through their influence on learning, motivation to re-enter self-employment. Hence, I tease out the relationship between learning from firm failure and motivation to apply what has been learned. Lastly, I consider how failure provides feedback information to entrepreneurs regarding their return to human capital in self-employment and that entrepreneurs factor this information into their decision making when deciding whether or not they re-enter self-employment.Taken together the dissertation provides a comprehensive picture of the implications of firm failure for entrepreneurs. The dissertation contributes to understanding why failure can be devastating for some entrepreneurs and not others and why some entrepreneurs learn from failure experiences and apply their new knowledge while others do not.
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| 17. |
- Johansson, Anette
(författare)
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Ways forward : Effectual and causal approaches to innovation in the Swedish magazine industry
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation builds on a study of key decision makers in the Swedish magazine publishing industry with a particular focus on how they think and act in their work to innovate their industry. This industry, much like the rest of the media industry, is facing increased unpredictability regarding for example the impact of new technology on the business and future demand. Traditional planning (causal) approaches can be greatly questioned in times of uncertainty, when the task at hand include creating products and services that do not yet exist.In this study I examine an alternative logic forward which takes its starting point in the interests, experiences, knowledge and networks of decision makers – instead of given goals. This logic is known as an effectual logic, and offers an alternative approach to move forward with innovation work. I argue, that the effectual logic can enable organizations to capitalize better from people’s experiences, networks and “gut-feeling” and create the innovations we now know nothing about. The effectual process involves developing ideas that coevolve together with others who want to commit, in a spirit that welcomes surprise, flexibility and experimentation. In this process products and services are created which could not have been predicted and planned – innovations. This logic of entrepreneurial action stems from research on expert entrepreneurs, however limited research has been done on its use and relevance in an established firm context. In this dissertation I examine this in the setting of magazine publishing firms to better understand the underlying mechanisms of effectuation in the firm setting, and its consequences for learning, innovation and performance. Alongside the effectual logic, I examine the traditional, causal logic dominating management education and practice.Effectuation is generally used among the decision makers in the study, inparticular among the most senior managers. Effectuation is positively linked to innovation, in particular radical innovation, and a combination of both logics is positively linked to innovation in general. Combining causal and effectual logics also gives rise to more knowledge useful for future innovation projects. One challenge for organizations is how to transfer this logic from the most senior managers to the whole organization, and thus make the most of the experiences and networks of their members.
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| 18. |
- Johansson, Sara, 1975-
(författare)
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Knowledge, Product Differentiation and Trade
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the influence of knowledge on the export performance of firms in different regions. More specifically, this study focuses on the impact of knowledge on the structure of regional export flows, in terms of horizontal and vertical product differentiation, as well as the geographical distribution of export flows. The thesis consists of four separate papers, which contribute to the overall analysis of knowledge, product differentiation and international trade in different ways. The second chapter presents a study of the effects of regional accessibility to R&D on the diversity of export flows with regard to goods, firms and destination markets. Chapter 3 provides an empirical analysis of vertical product differentiation, i.e. differentiation in terms of product quality, and examines the impact of educated labor and R&D on regional comparative advantages in goods of relatively high product quality. Chapter 4 contains a study of how the regional endowment of highly educated workers affects the structure of export flows, i.e. how the endowment of educated workers impacts on the number of product varieties exported, the average price per variety and the average quantity shipped out. The final chapter presents a micro-level analysis of firms’ propensity to participate in international markets and their propensity to expand export activities by introducing new export products or establishing export links with new destination countries. In summary, the empirical results of this thesis convey the message that regional accessibility to knowledge, embodied in highly educated labor and/or developed through R&D activities, plays a fundamental role in shaping the content and structure of regional export flows. More specifically, the present empirical observations suggest that the regional endowment of knowledge stimulates the size of the export base in terms of exporting firms and number of product varieties. The recurring significance of the accessibility variables in explaining spatial export patterns show that the knowledge endowment of a region must be defined in such ways that it captures sources of potential knowledge spillovers from inside as well as outside its own regional boundaries. This outcome shows that regional variations in knowledge endowments originate both in the actual spatial distribution of a nation’s knowledge labor across regions, and in regional differences in the geographical accessibility to internal and external knowledge labor.
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| 19. |
- Karlsson, Hyunjoo Kim
(författare)
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Dynamics of macroeconomic and financial variables in different time horizons
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation consists of an introductory chapter and four papers dealing with financial issues of open economies, which can be in two broad categorizations: 1) exchange rate movements and 2) stock market interdependence. The first paper covers how the exchange rate changes affect the prices of internationally traded goods. With the variables (the price of exports in exporters’ currency and the exchange rate, both of which are in logarithmic form) being cointegrated, a model with both long- and short-run characteristics (the Error Correction Model, ECM) is formulated.The second paper relates to the standard macroeconomic models of exchange rate determination. This paper investigates the relationship between the exchange rate and the domestic-foreign interest rate differential.A relevant issue associated with the relationship between export prices and exchange rates for different industries is found in the third paper. The responsiveness of firms’ profitability to changes in exchange rates (i.e. exchange rate exposure) is tested using a factor model.After the three papers noted above, the dissertation moves on to the final paper which explores the relationship between national stock markets (i.e. interdependence). The causal linkages of the U.S. stock market to each of six eastern Asian national stock markets (China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) as well as the causal linkages among those Asian equity markets are tested in a vector autoregression (VAR) model using wavelet-decomposed data.
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| 20. |
- Karlsson, Peter S.
(författare)
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Issues of incompleteness, outliers and asymptotics in high dimensional data
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis consists of four individual essays and an introduction chapter. The essays are in the field of multivariate statistical analysis of High dimensional data. The first essay presents the issue of estimating the inverse covariance matrix alone and when it is used within the Mahalanobis distance in High-dimensional data. Three types of ridge-shrinkage estimators of the inverse covariance matrix are suggested and evaluated through Monte Carlo simulations. The second essay deals with incomplete observations in empirical applications of the Arbitrage Pricing Theory model and the interest is to model the underlying covariance structure among the variables by a few common factors. Two possible solutions to the problem are considered and acase study using the Swedish OMX data is conducted for demonstration. In the third essay the issue of outlier detection in High-dimensional data is treated. A number of point estimators of the Mahalanobis distance are suggested and their properties are evaluated. In the fourth and last essay the relation between the second central moment of a distribution to its first raw moment is considered in an financial context. Three possible estimators are considered and it is shown that they are consistent even when the dimension increases proportionally to the number of observations.
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| 21. |
- Larsson, Johan P.
(författare)
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Nonmarket Interactions and Density Externalities
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The four individual papers in this thesis all explore some aspect of the relationship between productivity and the density of economic activity.The first paper (co-authored with Martin Andersson, and Johan Klaesson) establishes the general relationship between regional density and average labor productivity; a relationship that is particularly strong for workers in interactive professions. In the paper, we also caution that much of the observed differences are not causal effects of density, but driven by sorting of actors todense environments.Paper number two (co-authored with Martin Andersson, and Johan Klaesson) addresses the attenuation of density externalities with space. Using data on the neighborhood-level, and information on first- and second-order neighboring areas, we conclude that the neighborhood effects are stronger for highly educated workers, and that the attenuation of the effect is sharp.In the third paper, I estimate an individual-level wage equation to assess appropriate levels of aggregation when analyzing density externalities. I conclude that failure to use data on the neighborhood level will severely understate the benefits of working in the central parts of modern cities.The fourth paper departs from the conclusions of the previous chapters, and asks whether firms position themselves to benefit from density externalities. Judging by job switching patterns, the attenuation of density externalities are a real issue for the metropolitan workforce. Employees, especially those in interactive professions, tend to move short distances between employers, consistent with clustering to take advantage of significant but sharply attenuating human capital externalities.
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| 22. |
- Mansoor, Rashid
(författare)
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Assessing Distributional Properties of High-Dimensional Data
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This doctoral thesis consists of five papers in the field of multivariate statistical analysis of high-dimensional data. Because of the wide application and methodological scope, the individual papers in the thesis necessarily target a number of different statistical issues. In the first paper, Monte Carlo simulations are used to investigate a number of tests of multivariate non-normality with respect to their increasing dimension asymptotic (IDA) properties as the dimension p grows proportionally with the number of observations n such that p/n → c where is a constant. In the second paper a new test for non-normality that utilizes principal components is proposed for cases when p/n → c. The power and size of the test are examined through Monte Carlo simulations where different combinations of p and n are used.The third paper treats the problem of the relation between the second central moment of a distribution to its first raw moment. In order to make inference of the systematic relationship between mean and standard deviation, a model that captures this relationship by a slope parameter (β) is proposed and three different estimators of this parameter are developed and their consistency proven in the context where the number of variables increases proportionally to the number of observations. In the fourth paper, a Bayesian regression approach has been taken to model the relationship between the mean and standard deviation of the excess return and to test hypotheses regarding the β parameter. An empirical example involving Stockholm exchange market data is included. Then finally in the fifth paper three new methods to test for panel cointegration
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| 23. |
- Markowska, Magdalena
(författare)
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Entrepreneurial competence development : triggers, processes & consequences
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation, comprised of the cover story and the four separate but interrelated articles, focuses on exploring the development of entrepreneurial competence. Building on the assumption that purposeful engagement in entrepreneurial action potentially leads to the acquisition of specific entrepreneurial competencies, this thesis investigates the mechanisms facilitating and enabling entrepreneurs’ acquisition of entrepreneurial expertise, and the consequences of this process. As such, it unpacks the entrepreneurial learning process. In particular, building on Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory (SCT), this study explores the role of deeply held beliefs, goal orientation and social networks (role models) in shaping entrepreneurs’ behavior, specifically their ability to create new means-ends frameworks (cf. Sarasvathy, 2001).The research included in this dissertation provides insight into the complexity of entrepreneurial competence development by connecting multiple theoretical perspectives, utilizing two different qualitative datasets situated in the context of gourmet restaurateurs and abductively building theory by developing explanations of the phenomenon of interest.This is one of the first attempts to open the ‘black box’ of entrepreneurial learning by simultaneously incorporating the contextual variables and the cognitive properties and practices of entrepreneurs in exploring their learning process. By combining SCT with entrepreneurship theory, the thesis develops an integrating model of entrepreneurial competence development that explains the relation between the preferred learning mode, action-control beliefs, the perceived role identity and role models. The findings suggest that attainment of entrepreneurial competence, and ultimately expertise, is facilitated by changes in action-control beliefs; and by the development of entrepreneurial identity. The findings also suggest that the role model’s perceived function changes depending on the entrepreneur’s goal orientation. Thus, one of the most important implications of the study is the idea that entrepreneurs need to become agents of their own development.Overall, this dissertation provides an explanation of the mechanisms of entrepreneurial competence development by suggesting that changing action-control beliefs and the formation of entrepreneurial identity are crucial in the development of entrepreneurial competence. In addition, access to role models and learning goal orientation facilitate this process.
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| 24. |
- Månsson, Kristofer
(författare)
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Essays on Nonlinearities and Time Scales in Macroeconomics and Finance
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis consists of four chapters concerning the topics of nonlinearities and time scales in economics. The focus is on market frictions and price rigidities that may cause nonlinearities and different relationships between economic variables over time. It also focuses on applying robust econometrical methods. Chapter two evaluates the size and power of some nonlinear tests for panel unit roots in the presence of cross-sectional dependency and spatial dependency. Based on the simulated results some robust tests for nonlinear panel unit roots have been found.Chapter three applies robust linear and nonlinear tests for panel unit roots in order to investigate the purchasing power parity theory in developing regions. The main finding is that nonlinearities is an important phenomenon in the real effective exchange rates in developing regions and that support for several regions may be found by applying the nonlinear panel unit root test. Chapter four investigates if positive asymmetric price transmission (APT) exists in the Swedish mortgage loan market. Here robust quantile regression is used on data for the Swedish SEB bank. The main contribution is that positive APT effects are found, which implies that there is a higher propensity for the bank to rapidly increase its mortgage interest rates for customers following an increase in its borrowing costs, compared with the propensity for the bank to decrease its customers’ mortgage rates subsequent to a corresponding borrowing cost decrease.Chapter five investigates the causal relations between exchange rates and interest rate differentials using wavelets. Also the sign of the relationship between the two variables is studied using impulse response functions. The data used is for seven country pairs in which Sweden is included in all of the different combinations. In this chapter one key empirical finding is that the causal relationship between the two variables becomes stronger as the time scale increases. The other key empirical finding is that more evidence of negative relationships is found at the shorter time scales and more positive relationships at the longer time scales.
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| 25. |
- Månsson, Kristofer
(författare)
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Issues of multicollinearity and conditional heteroscedasticy in time series econometrics
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This doctoral thesis consists of four chapters all related to the field of time series econometrics. The main contribution is firstly the development of robust methods when testing for Granger causality in the presence of generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) and causality-in-variance (i.e. spillover) effects. The second contribution is the development of different shrinkage estimators for count data models which may be used when the explanatory variables are highly inter-correlated.The first essay investigated the effect of spillover on some tests for causality in a Granger sense. As a remedy to the problem of over-rejection caused by the spillover effects White’s heteroscedasticity consistent covariance matrix is proposed. In the second essay the effect of GARCH errors on the statistical tests for Granger causality is investigated. Here some wavelet denoising methods are proposed and by means of Monte Carlo simulations it is shown that the size properties of the tests based on wavelet filtered data is better than the ones based on raw data.In the third and fourth essays ridge regression estimators for the Poisson and negative binomial (NB) regression models are investigated respectively. Then finally in the fifth essaya Liu type of estimator is proposed for the NB regression model. By using Monte Carlo simulations it is shown that the estimated MSE is lower for the ridge and Liu type of estimators than maximum likelihood (ML).
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