| 1. |
- Agndal, Henrik
(författare)
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Internationalisation as a process of strategy and change : A study of 16 Swedish industrial SMEs
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis reports a study of the internationalisation processes of 16 industrial SMEs located in the county of Jönköping (Sweden). More specifically, it identifies changes in international strategies, identifies reasons why changes are undertaken and discusses how these changes can be understood when placed in the context of the internationalisation process.The findings show that industrial SME managers tend to stress the importance of foreign sales but are often much more reluctant to buy products abroad. This means that while changes in foreign sales market strategy occur frequently in many firms, the process of foreign sourcing market expansion unfolds more slowly, involving fewer markets. The findings also indicate preferences for a low degree of complexity in foreign sales and purchasing. Therefore, industrial SMEs typically become involved in more complex ventures like foreign subsidiaries only when this is perceived as necessary, for example when there is risk of losing a foreign market.Mostly, changes in industrial SMEs’ international strategies are undertaken as responses to external opportunities, such as unsolicited orders. Changes much less frequently find their origin in internal initiatives. This pattern appears to pervade throughout the internationalisation process, even if a more critical attitude towards potential changes arises with increasing experience.
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| 2. |
- Ahl, Helene J.
(författare)
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The Making of the Female Entrepreneur : A Discourse Analysis of Research Texts on Women’s Entrepreneurship
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Departing from a social constructionist understanding of gender, this thesis examines how the female entrepreneur is constructed in research articles about women’s entrepreneurship. It finds that even if the texts celebrate women’s entrepreneurship, they do it in such a way as to recreate women’s secondary position in society.Building on Foucault’s theory of discourse, the thesis analyzes the discursive practices by which this result was achieved. These practices include certain assumptions that are taken for granted about women, men, business, work, and family. One of these assumptions is that men and women must be different. Despite research results to the contrary, many texts insist that the genders are different and construct three kinds of arguments in support of this. One is making a mountain out of a molehill, i.e. stressing small differences while ignoring similarities. Another is the self-selected woman, which proclaims women entrepreneurs as unusual women. The third is called the good mother and consists of molding an alternative, feminine model of entrepreneurship while leaving the dominant model intact. These arguments reproduce the idea of essential gender differences and the idea of the woman as the weaker sex.The discursive practices also include certain ontological and epistemological assumptions, which are questioned in the thesis. In addition, they contain disciplinary regulations as well as writing and publishing practices that reinforce the discourse. The practices and the ensuing research results are moreover dependent on the particular context in which the articles are produced. This means that their results and conclusions cannot be transferred to other contexts uncritically.By discussing these practices, the thesis opens the way for alternative ways of theorizing and researching women’s entrepreneurship. Suggestions for alternative research practices include the addition of institutional aspects to the research agenda, such as labor market structure, family policy, and legislation. The thesis also suggests a shift in epistemological position – from gender as something that is given, to gender as something that is produced.
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| 3. |
- Akhter, Naveed
(författare)
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Family business portfolios : Enduring entrepreneurship and exit strategies
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation examines how family business portfolios endure across time and investigates the entrepreneurial strategies that they engage in. The goal of this dissertation is addressed through five appended papers in which I have argued for the importance of business families owning multiple firms, that is, portfolio entrepreneurship. Portfolio entrepreneurship plays a central role in economic development as it is a prevalent phenomenon in developed and emerging economies. However, despite its importance, there is currently very little research on portfolio entrepreneurship, especially in the context of family firms.In so doing, I study nine business families owning multiple businesses in Pakistan. I conducted in-depth interviews with family owners and employees; the interviews were supplemented with other sources of data such as observations and archival material. When studying questions such as how a portfolio is built-up across generations, how and why business families exit and, when they exit, which businesses they choose to exit from, I draw on insights from the literature on portfolio entrepreneurship, business exit, family firms, socioemotional wealth, sensemaking, compassion and social identity theory in the five papers.The dissertation addresses the calls for studies on portfolio entrepreneurship in the context of family firms by examining the process through which a portfolio is constructed by studying performance and exit related issues. In other words, it examines both the growth and the contraction of portfolios. The study offers several contributions. First, it contributes to studies on enduring entrepreneurship by investigating how business families last across time despite encountering difficult situations and declining business. Second, the study contributes to the portfolio entrepreneurship literature by elucidating how portfolios are built across generations and the roles of both growth and contractions while addressing processual and contextual issues.Third, the study contributes to the business exit literature by looking at the exit process in a family business context and exploring multiple exits. This isunique, as it is, to the best of my knowledge, the first study on business exits looking at multiple exit in the context of family firms. Fourth, the study also contributes to the literature on family firms by exploring how and why business families refrain from exiting from their core legacy business and how their emotions influence the exit process.Finally, the study contributes to context-related issues. The study adds to the literature on contextualization and addresses the call for more context-specific studies in entrepreneurship scholarship. This dissertation is focused on context-based factors considering the spatial and social context, where the former has been undertaken by taking an emerging economy and country context as the setting, while the latter refers to the relational and emotional ties within family firms. In addition to its theoretical contributions, this dissertation has important implications for practice. The dissertation brings to the fore some promising and unique ways in which entrepreneurship endures across time and context through the transgenerational transmission of entrepreneurship and insights into how business families behave in a declining business situation. Additionally, this study offers insights for family owners and managers on how to address the dilemma of continued entrepreneurship, that is, how to encourage and foster enduring entrepreneurship in organizations, in particular in the context of family firms.
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| 4. |
- 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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| 5. |
- Arshad, Nadia
(författare)
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Backers’ crowdfunding journey – An engagement perspective
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Crowdfunding refers to accumulating small sums of money from the general public through the Internet for a collective larger amount to fund small or medium-sized ventures in exchange for some benefit. The contribution can be as a donation (for no material reward), a purchase (for getting a reward in return), debt (to get money returned), or equity (for sharing future profit). The three main actors in crowdfunding are the initiators (the venturers), the backers (the crowd members who fund), and the crowdfunding platforms (the intermediaries). The crowdfunding campaign’s survival and success depends on engagement from the crowd. Using a qualitative research method, this dissertation aimed to understand the backers’ engagement with four crowdfunding campaigns selected from the leading crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter, through processual analysis. Buildingon the integrative framework of service-dominant logic, engagement, and customer journey, the underlying mechanism of the backers’ engagement at the personal (micro) and interpersonal (meso) levels were explored. Based on the motivation and contribution pattern, the backers were segmented into four engagement roles: benefactors, patrons, shoppers, and utilisers. A deeper analysis showed how the engagement intensity, duration, valence, and engagement properties shaped over time across these roles. The insights from the findings in the dissertation carry managerial and policy implications.
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| 6. |
- Askenmalm, Fredrika
(författare)
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Hur mjölk i tanken blir kronor på banken : Bondförnuftets rationalitet
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Lantbrukare har under senare år ofta hörts framföra klagomål om att den administrativa bördan blivit allt tyngre vad gäller rapportering och ansökningar som ska göras till olika myndigheter. Tidigare forskning framställer det som att den administrativa bördan skulle kunna utsträckas till att också gälla redovisning, så som bokföring, kalkylering och budgetering. Detta då det beskrivs som att lantbrukare varken förstår eller använder redovisning för att sköta sitt lantbruk. Tidigare forskning tycks dock bortse från att lantbrukare ofta tillämpar en annan form av logik än den som förutsätts gälla inom redovisningsforskning. Det verkar också förutsättas att lantbrukarna ska kunna förstå och använda den redovisningsterminologi som finns inom forskningsvärlden trots att lantbrukarna ofta saknar utbildning inom redovisning. Mot denna bakgrund undersöker denna avhandling hur lantbrukare förstår och använder redovisning.Avhandlingen bygger på det grundläggande teoretiska perspektivet att se redovisning som ett språk för att på detta sätt förklara lantbrukarnas förståelse av redovisning. Avhandlingen bygger vidare på familjeföretagsforskning, speciellt socioemotional wealth (SEW), och beslutsteori för att förklara lantbrukarnas användning av redovisningsinformation.Den empiriska studien är inspirerad av grundad teori. Det empiriska materialet utgörs främst av intervjuer med mjölkbönder i Jönköpings län. Även intervjuer med rådgivare och bankmän och vissa sekundärdata har utgjort underlag för avhandlingen.Resultatet av undersökningen visar att lantbrukare har större kunskaper vad gäller redovisning än vad tidigare forskning indikerat. Delvis kan detta förklaras av att lantbrukare använder en annan terminologi än vad som vanligtvis används inom redovisningsforskning när de beskriver redovisning. Mjölkföretag drivs vanligen som familjeföretag och denna avhandling visar på en mycket stark familjeförankring i dessa företag. Det innebär att mjölkföretag ibland (speciellt vad gäller fastigheten) prioriterar annat än finansiella mål, vilket ofta kopplas samman med en intuitiv beslutsstil. Inom redovisning förutsätts generellt att finansiella mål är eftersträvansvärda. Lantbrukarnas sätt att se på redovisning påverkar också hur den används. Även om de förstår och använder redovisning är det inte säkert att den används på det mest vinstmaximerande sättet. I stället kan SEW vara det som prioriteras. Användning av redovisning anpassas efter den situation lantbrukaren befinner sig i. Vissa delar av redovisningen ses och förstås som speglingar av verkligheten eller som framåtriktade ledtrådar. När lantbrukare förstår redovisningen på så vis, uppfattas den som användbar för beslutsfattande. Andra delar av redovisningen ses som regelföljande, eller ibland till och med som helt frikopplad från själva verksamheten. Detta gäller framför allt redovisning till Skatteverket och Jordbruksverket. Dessa redovisningar används inte för beslut, men de är ändå rationellt utformade för att uppnå bästa möjliga utfall (skatteutjämning eller jordbruksstöd).
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| 7. |
- Aygören, Huriye
(författare)
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Entrepreneurial identity formation-in-practice : Immigrant women entrepreneurs' lived practices and experiences within gender, ethnicity and class relations
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation, comprising four appended papers, examines what entrepreneurs actually do in order to manage the intrinsic social complexity pertaining to relations of power and culture involved in entrepreneurial undertakings. The studies share the common interest in probing into the ways inwhich fundamental social divisions and conflicts, namely gender, ethnicity and class are inscribed into the entrepreneurs through the organization of difference (Ashcraft, 2012) and how these shape and are shaped by the identity construction processes of individual entrepreneurs. The thesis provides an empirical account of entrepreneurial identity formation and its implications on shaping differential degree and the forms of entrepreneurial agency exerted by entrepreneurs by drawing on two sets of empirical materials generated through life story narratives of seventeen immigrant women entrepreneurs and some particular family business members with Turkish origin, in their involvement with entrepreneurial practices in Sweden. In overall, the thesis approximates to the notion of the individual entrepreneur in identity terms. Three major theoretical approaches, including practice theory, identity work and the feminist intersectionality framework, lay the groundwork for thinking about the relational and contextual foundation of the individual and associated identity construction processes intraversing the contexts at different temporal and spatial scales, namely individual, organizational, familial and societal.The thesis responds to the call for relational analysis examining the entanglement of material and symbolic resources and practices to draw a more rounded picture of entrepreneurship (Tatli, Vassilopoulou, Özbilgin, Forson, & Slutskaya, 2014). It adds to this debate by highlighting the identification processes of entrepreneurs, especially of those who have been historically and relatively marginalized in their societies. This thesis connects with studies emphasizing the socio-culturally constructed, relational and contextual nature of entrepreneurship and contributes to bridging the gap between two bifurcated streams of research in entrepreneurship-constructionist approaches, e.g., discursive/ narrative accounts with practice based perspectives. I emphasize the importance of considering both complex identification processes for the benefit of practice-based analysis and material practices and resources to the greater advantage of constructionist accounts. Throughout my thesis, I suggest that the discursive and material aspects of agency and structures are inseparable. In entrepreneurship, it is imperative to transcend symbolic and material boundaries. This way, the thesis provides complementary insights to cultural studies of entrepreneurship which emphasize access either to material or cultural representations.My first contribution concerns the generation of rich empirical accounts ofimmigrant women entrepreneurs in the particular context of migration encompassing the two cultural scenes of Turkey, where the immigrants came from, and Sweden, where they live and enterprise. The studies in the thesis demonstrate that immigrant women entrepreneurs and immigrant family members have used creative agency to sustain their struggles of entrepreneurial identity formation and capital accumulation and have effected social change indifferent terms. By combining two streams of inquiries, which have usually been undertaken separately, studying cultural representations and what an entrepreneur would do with these representations with a focus on identity formations, the thesis contributes to the reflexive entrepreneurship scholarship by examining the entrepreneurs’ own responses to hegemonic discourses where a complex set of negotiations and diverse forms of entrepreneurship could be drawn. This forms my second contribution. Finally, the analysis also leads to a discussion of processual issues, which amount to the relative advantage (privilege) and disadvantage (marginalization) in the field of entrepreneurship. My studies suggest that inequalities do not have a static and spatial position but are a dynamic and accumulated process that defines access, mobility and investment across different fields of activities made possible by the diverse histories and practices of entrepreneurs and relevant constituents.
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| 8. |
- Baboukardos, Diogenis, 1981-
(författare)
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Essays on the market valuation implications of mandatory corporate reporting
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this dissertation is to enrich understanding on the market valuation implications of mandatory financial and non-financial reporting beyond and in relation to traditional accounting information. It is comprised of four individual essays each of which examines a different, and to some extent internationally unique, jurisdiction that can best serve the particular purpose of the essay as well as the overarching purpose of the dissertation.The starting point of this empirical inquiry is the value relevance of purchased goodwill under IFRS and the moderating role that different levels of compliance with IFRS mandatory disclosures play on its market valuation. Similar to the first essay, the second essay focuses on traditional accounting information (specifically book value of equity and earnings) and examines potential differences on its market valuation before and after the mandatory introduction of an integrated reporting approach. The third essay focuses on mandatory carbon emissions reporting and compares its valuation relevance when such reporting is mandated by regulation vis-à-vis when it is voluntary. Finally, the fourth essay examines the market valuation interplay between mandatory financial and non-financial disclosures.This dissertation intends to be of particular relevance first; to the accounting academic community which acknowledges that mandatory disclosures are not well understood and it calls for further research on how users of annual reports view mandatory disclosures and second; to accounting regulators. Empirical research on the value relevance of corporate reporting can provide useful insights into questions of interest to regulators because its research questions are often motivated by broader questions raised by these non-academic constituents. The dissertation in hand has similar motivations.
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| 9. |
- 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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| 10. |
- Bagley, Mark
(författare)
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The birth, life and death of firms in industrial clusters : The role of knowledge networks
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Three single-authored papers in this thesis will explore the role of knowledge and information in industrial clusters; and specifically, how knowledge plays a role inthe emergence and persistence of clusters. This thesis places a major emphasis on spinoff firms.The first paper uses a computational model to describe how patterns of industrial clustering arise with respect to the size of an initial firm when measured in terms of innovation. Technology is qualitatively described using a code set mapped on a cognitive space. Assuming inheritability of networking skills, I seek to model how the size of an initial firm influences future patterns of cluster formation through a model of technical cognition and a mimicking of creativity. Replicating the stylized facts of entrepreneurial cluster formation, we find initial firm size has a lasting impact on clustering patterns through its influence on the level of cognitive distance of the underlying agents.The second paper turns to networks as a tool of analysis to explore the relationship between a spinoff’s network and its geographical location within an industrial cluster. Although recent literature infers that the transmission of organizational attributes in industrial clusters is accomplished via passive network ties, this has not been directly measured. After controlling for firm size, parent size and age, we find that there a statistically significant and negative relationship between network efficiency and geographic distance to a cluster’s core.The third and final paper extends the use of networks to examine how knowledge flows, as conduits for routines and skills, affect the survival prospects for firms in industrial clusters. We consider knowledge transmission via two channels: those from inherited linkages and those from geographic proximity. It is found that a firm’s historical links formed through parent-spinoff networks have a significant impact on survival, which differ depending on the motivations of the entrepreneur. Moreover, the gains with respect to location are found to be nonlinear.
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