Publications
This article analyses an overlooked financial instrument in political economy, despite its institutionalisation having immense ramifications for European financial markets: the covered bond. Following decades of cross-continental bank lobbying led by German mortgage banks, covered bonds transformed from a ‘little-understood corner of the German bond market’ in the mid-1990s into a global multi-trillion dollar market in the years prior to the Global Financial Crisis. This article highlights that covered bonds, on the one hand, stabilise and de-risk financialised capitalism by providing credit institutions with a stable means of bank financing and collateral while providing investors with safe investment opportunities, including during periods of crisis. In addition, the expansion of covered bond markets has marginalised mortgage securitisation in much of Europe. On the other hand, covered bonds fuel household indebtedness by increasing the credit supply available for mortgage lending, which is the primary activity of contemporary banking in general and covered bond issuers in particular. The instrument can therefore be perceived as a more simple, stable and efficient instrument for household financialisation compared to the more crisis-prone residential mortgage-backed derivative.
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Departing from the Regulation Approach and the concept of spatio-temporal fixes, this article analyses how different mechanisms of financialization have ameliorated and accelerated crisis-tendencies in the North European forest industry and its implications for labour, suppliers and corporate R&D. Although wood products can potentially ameliorate the climate crisis by substituting plastics, petrochemicals, polyester and various other applications from fossils, firms have been slow to advance into these higher value-added segments. Instead, under an increasingly financialized accumulation regime, innovation has been undermined through R&D downsizing while dividends have been increased to shareholders at labour’s expense. Meanwhile, amid ultra-low
interest rates, the industry’s profitability has been supported by appreciating forest assets that are increasingly treated as a new financial asset class by the financial sector. Evidently, while some mechanisms of financialization are detrimental to firms, the financialization of forests has constituted a profitability-enhancing socioecological fix (McCarthy, 2015; Ekers & Prudham, 2017) not only for financial capital (Ekers, 2019) but also for non-financial firms themselves. In the long run, however, it is highly uncertain if forest asset prices can be kept from depreciating amid the problems of profitability, weakened ecological carrying capacity, rising interest rates and strained supplier relations.
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Drawing on a Gramscian Regulation Approach and Harvey’s accumulation
by dispossession thesis, this article discusses the structural and hegemonic
mechanisms of the neoliberal transformation of Sweden’s welfare sectors.
Providing new longitudinal data on welfare retrenchment, corporate governance, wealth shares, and private economic power, the article further analyzes how the transformation of the Swedish post-war universal welfare model is related to class struggle and accumulation regime change in the Swedish economy. Following a decade-long countermobilization of Swedish capital and a severe economic crisis in the early 1990s, neoliberal economic common sense was cemented among social democratic policy elites that manifested itself in an institutionalized austerity polity, leading to a slow but steady dismantling of the Swedish welfare project. Roughly a fifth of employees in the three largest welfare sectors work in private welfare companies that generate tax-financed profits on politically created welfare markets. Welfare profits are in turn defended by a welfare–industrial complex and undergirded by a hegemonic bloc consisting of capital elites and sympathetic policymakers. In the virtual absence of vocal antihegemonic forces, many social democratic leaders have limited criticism against welfare profits throughout the last decades. On the contrary, austerity measures practiced by Swedish social democrats have thereto led to deteriorating social cohesion and spawned distrust among core social democratic voters.
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Om kapitlet:
”Från 1980-talet fram till idag har den svenska välfärdsmodellen genomgått omfattande förändringar. Stora nedskärningar ar präglat den offentliga sektorn, välfärdstjänster har privatiserats och det privata näringslivets omfattning har ökat i förhållande till den offentliga sektorn. Välfärdssektorns omvandling är exempel på och resultat av de övergripande förändringar som skett i styrkeförhållandet mellan privat och offentlig sektor, där den privata kapitalmakten ökat sitt inflytande i samhället i stort.”
Om volymen:
”Hur ser det svenska samhället ut på tröskeln till 2020-talet? Den frågan ställdes till ett 40-tal forskare och utredare och svaret är ett allt hårdare klassamhälle. Sverige är idag det europeiska land med de snabbast växande klyftorna, den svårast privatiserade välfärdsstaten och där klass allt tydligare dömer människor till olika levnadsstandard, livslängd och liv. I denna bok ges statistiska bevis för klassamhällets existens i råa data från Statistiska centralbyrån. Här skildras klassamhällets förändring, med kön och etnicitet som en given dimension för förståelsen. Här visas de skilda världar i ägande, makt och inflytande över så olika delar av samhället som brottslighet, folkhälsa, mediemakt, företagsägande och anställningsskydd.”
Allelin, Majsa, Markus Kallifatides, Stefan Sjöberg, & Viktor Skyrman (2021). Välfärdsmodellens omvandling – Det privata kapitalets utvidgning i den offentliga sektorn, i Daniel Suhonen, Göran Therborn & Jesper Weithz (red.), Klass i Sverige. Ojämlikheten, makten och politiken i det 21:a århundradet, Arkiv, ss. 147-179.
Boken kan beställas här:
Om kapitlet:
”När frågan om ekonomisk demokrati under 1980-talet avfördes från samhällsagendan avstannade även den samhällsvetenskapliga forsningen på området. Under den tid från 1980-talet fram till idag har en omfattande omfördelning av makt och resurser från offentlig till privat sektor genomförts, och ägande-, förmögenhets- och maktkoncentrationen har både förstärkts och ändrat karaktär.”
Om volymen:
”Hur ser det svenska samhället ut på tröskeln till 2020-talet? Den frågan ställdes till ett 40-tal forskare och utredare och svaret är ett allt hårdare klassamhälle. Sverige är idag det
europeiska land med de snabbast växande klyftorna, den svårast privatiserade välfärdsstaten och där klass allt tydligare dömer människor till olika levnadsstandard, livslängd och liv. I denna bok ges statistiska bevis för klassamhällets existens i råa data från Statistiska centralbyrån. Här skildras klassamhällets förändring, med kön och etnicitet som en given dimension för förståelsen. Här visas de skilda världar i ägande, makt och inflytande över så olika delar av samhället som brottslighet, folkhälsa, mediemakt, företagsägande och anställningsskydd.”
Allelin, Majsa, Markus Kallifatides, Stefan Sjöberg & Viktor Skyrman (2021). Ägande- och förmögenhetsstrukturen och dess förändring sedan 1980, i Daniel Suhonen, Göran Therborn & Jesper Weithz (red.), Klass i Sverige. Ojämlikheten, makten och politiken i det 21:a århundradet, Arkiv, ss. 615-640.
Boken kan beställas här:
Abstract
This sensemaking reading of research literature identifies and seeks insight from five concepts through which the role of non-profit boards in innovation may be theorised and enacted: efficiency, external context, internal context, board structure and board processes. These concepts emanate from making sense of fifty-one publications on non-profit organisations, boards, and innovation. The concepts are subsequently translated into reflexive questions, which may guide both practitioners and future participatory action research efforts, thus, adding to a field that appears to be dominated by nonaction-based research and underdeveloped notions of innovation itself. In doing so, we move toward adopting a behavioural approach to board practices and we highlight the need for sharpened conceptualization of the very notion of innovation.
Keywords: board behaviour, innovation, non-profit organizations, sensemaking,
reading
Download: Boards and Innovation in non-profit organizations_A Sense-Making Reading.pdf (pdf)
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to explore roles and behaviour of boards governing innovation in civil society organizations. Within a qualitative and interactive action research project we worked together with two boards in Swedish civil society organizations by observing board meetings over two years. In order to gain new insights, theoretically grounded observations were continuously reflected upon together with the boards. From the observed cases, we found that boards enact controlling, service and strategizing roles out of individual experiences and unstated norms. The lack of conscious deliberation about what needs to be done and how to do it, restrains the board from functioning as a team for innovation. In conclusion, board behaviour appears shaped by institutional logics of both member movements and a marketized civil society and the way in which the boards handle this tension shape how they work for innovation. The study provides empirical observations of the understudied actual board work in civil society organizations and its prospects and problems with regards to innovation.
Keywords: boards, board work, innovation, civil society, interactive
research
About the book:
鈥淐rumbling social institutions, disintegrating structures, and a profound sense of uncertainty are the signs of our time. In this book, this contemporary crisis is explored and illuminated, providing narratives that suggest how the notion of hope can be leveraged to create powerful methods of organizing for the future. Chapters first consider theoretical and philosophical perspectives on hopeful organizing, followed by both empirical discussions about achieving change and more imaginative narratives of alternative and utopian futures, including an exploration of the differing roles of work, creativity, idealism, inclusivity and activism.鈥
About the chapter:
鈥淚n the transformation to post-capitalism, money must be invested in something other than commodities, and the 鈥渞eturn on investment鈥 must be something other than more money. And weapons must be used to create something other than more power. Both would have to be an expression of self-limitation on the part of the strong. In this chapter, I propose that one seed for this (r)evolution is in decent supply in many high-income nations鈥 middle classes; with substantial collective holdings of financial capital (money), democratic states and NGOs already in place to manage it, and better-than-ever knowledge of conditions of the social and natural world, as well as a prolonged experience of meaninglessness and its corollary cynicism, the urban middle classes may well, once again, come to serve as the avant-garde of the global proletariat and the global peasantry.鈥
Most studies of Swedish political economy are too optimistic about the condition and prospects of the reformed Swedish model (e.g. Bergh, 2014; Steinmo, 2010). Indeed, the Swedish economy has responded to the global financial crisis (GFC) in what appears to be a successful manner.
This comparativist literature nevertheless omits in-depth analysis of the impact of financialisation, partly due to its neglect of long-term, dialectical processes of change (cf. Ogden et al., 2014). There is a small literature on financialisation in Sweden (e.g. Belfrage, 2008; Forslund, 2008; Kallifatides et al., 2010; Ryner, 2013; Belfrage, 2015; Andersson and Jonung, 2015; Kallifatides, 2016). However, it has not clarified what the dynamics, contradictions and crisis-tendencies of the resulting finance-dominated accumulation regime in Sweden are. Drawing on document analysis and statistics, and based on Regulation Theory (e.g. Aglietta, 1979), this paper does just that. It thus corrects an overly idealised picture of Swedish economy and society, as well as, more broadly, holding the Swedish case up as a critical case study for the sustainability of the finance-dominated growth regime in Europe.
We argue that there is a looming crisis in the Swedish economy today, as the acceleration of financialisation following the GFC is shifting the economy away from being export-led to becoming debt-led and asset-based, and thus moving the economy closer to the UK and US economies. As such, the Swedish case suggests that the finance-dominated growth regime may be unsustainable in Europe more generally.
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This article explores the prospects of stabilising financialisation in Europe as a spatial-temporal fix for Anglo-American capitalism鈥檚 crisis-tendencies. We analyse the politics of (countercyclical) macroprudential regulation in the critical case study of Sweden. Here, macroprudential regulation is introduced, in contrast with much of the rest of the EU economies, in a credit boom.
We find evidence of an administrative crisis, as technocrats face the political constraints on re-regulating financialised accumulation. This suggests that the conditions are ripe for a deepened administrative crisis in Europe once countercyclical macroprudential regulation is implemented.
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About the book:
The main contribution of this book is empirical. The three studies included all contribute to the relatively limited extant evidence on the governance role played by different classes of institutional investors in a market characterized by shareholder-oriented governance, such as the Swedish one, in particular by considering the role of the shareholder-constituted nomination committee. The first study shows how the domestic traditional institutional investors active on the Swedish market have had an impact on the governance of listed firms by demonstrating that their involvement in the nomination committees are related to subsequent increases in the proportion of women directors. The second study shows how activist hedge funds also engage, but that the end result of their involvement in investee firms tend to be a takeover. The third study, meanwhile, suggests that foreign traditional institutional investors appear more disinclined to engage in governance matters, as evidenced e.g. by their reluctance to participate in the nomination committees of listed firms. As such, there appear to be clear differences in the level of governance engagement between classes of institutional investors as well as the firm-level effects of this engagement.
Mikael Ehne pursued doctoral studies at the 91原创 from the end of 2013 until April 2018 when he passed away. Mikael鈥檚 conscientious work on the importance and role of institutional investors in Swedish corporate governance had come a long way and was the object of final revisions with the supervisory committee. In line with the express will of his immediate family, his manuscript for a dissertation is now published posthumously.
Sustainable development has a long history with many different roots. The most widely agreed upon definition, 鈥榙evelopment that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs鈥, includes the three main pillars of economic growth, environmental protection and social equality. Recognizing the tradeoffs and the difficulties in operationalizing the definition, the different chapters in this volume reflect different aspects of the pillars. The twelve chapters, illustrating different roots in research on sustainable development and business, can all be connected to an interpretation of the seminal modern definition.
What if economic growth is inherently unsustainable? What if economic growth, as hitherto defined, is not possible while respecting planetary boundaries and the social capacity of human beings? And what if further economic growth is not achievable under any circumstances, at least in the affluent parts of the world? Moreover, as many sustainability researchers have posited, there may be inherent conflict between development in the socioeconomic and natural worlds.
We do not claim to know exactly how to answer these observations from the outset. However, we do claim that in our times it would seem wise to maintain an open mind about most things, including how the production of goods and services for human consumption may be organized while leaving the planet in (at least) habitable condition for future generations. 鈥楤usiness as usual鈥 in the legacy of Adam Smith鈥檚 benefits of the 鈥榠nvisible hand鈥 may not be a wise choice in a world of refugee crises, climate change, biodiversity loss and persistent poverty among a growing world population. We suggest that ultimately neither 鈥榗itizenship as usual鈥 nor 鈥榬esearch as usual鈥 are viable options.
Boken 盲r del av ett 枚vergripande f枚rs枚k att med en kollaborativ forskningsansats skapa f枚rdjupad insikt och breddad kunskap kring vitala delar i det som 枚ver tid skapats inom ramen f枚r vad vi kan kalla 鈥滵en svenska modellen鈥, n盲mligen de partsgemensamma pensions- och f枚rs盲kringsr枚relserna i AFA F枚rs盲kring, AMF och Alecta.
鈥漃arternas bolag 鈥揺tt diskussionsunderlag鈥 盲r t盲nkt att utg枚ra grund f枚r vidare diskussioner/offentlig debatt under en l盲ngre tid fram氓t. H盲r redovisas 27 l盲ngre djupintervjuer som genomf枚rts med ledande bolagstj盲nstem盲n, styrelseledam枚ter och erfarna huvudmannaf枚retr盲dare. EU-direktiv, statliga utredningar, 氓rsredovisningar, remissvar i stor m盲ngd har ocks氓 studerats. En genomg氓ng av statsvetenskaplig, nationalekonomisk och organisationsteoretisk litteratur av omedelbar relevans f枚r fenomenet presenteras ocks氓.
I boken diskuteras den kanske allra mest grundl盲ggande fr氓gan om varf枚r arbetsmarknadens parter skall bedriva gemensam bolagsstyrning i pensions- och f枚rs盲kringsr枚relser. D盲rut枚ver fokuseras p氓 ett antal centrala sp盲nningar eller utmaningar inom ramen f枚r dessa komplexa samverkansrelationer: m枚ten mellan 氓tskilda institutionella logiker, sp盲nning mellan expertis och representation, och avv盲gningar mellan att kontrollera och att st枚dja exekutiv ledning f枚r operativa verksamheter i bolagsform.
Rethinking Corporate Governance鈥檚 extensive and insightful empirical investigation offers a radically new approach to corporate governance. This ground-breaking volume describes and analyses the key nature-based and actor-based forces that ultimately determine corporate governance processes and long-term corporate paths. Generally, such forces work in complex and intricate interplays that to a large extent vary among corporations.
A theory of shareholder governance is developed and integrated into the established 鈥 and more comprehensive 鈥 theory of corporate governance to create a revised theory of the corporation (firm). The new possibilities that this creates for explaining how processes develop and ultimately influence corporate paths are presented in depth. Featuring conclusions based on an empirical material that is both rich and exclusive, the book also contains extensive non- anonymized materials from authentic corporate governance processes. A general conclusion is that actions taken by individuals have a special status among those forces, as they not only generate impact in themselves, but also involve interpretations of the possible effects of all the other forces. Among those actions, the ones taken by the shareholders stand out as particularly decisive both for the governance processes as such and for how corporations develop over time.
Offering a degree of openness, detail and realism that is hard to find in any other case-based study, this innovative and enlightening volume is essential for both academics and practitioners involved in corporate governance, corporate strategy and the theory of the firm.
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In this volume the authors describe how corporate governance takes place in practice in large Nordic companies. The empirical results and conclusions are based on an extensive in-depth study of 36 mid- and large cap corporations involving some 250 owners, board members (including Chairs), and CEOs. Three major conclusions can be drawn from the rich material.
Firstly, the authors show that a company鈥檚 total ownership situation to a large extent determines how the governance process is organized and executed. The ownership dimension that matters most is its structure (concentrated or fragmented shareholding). However, whether a corporation is owned privately or by the state also matters, as does the personality of the controlling/main owner (e.g., risk seeker or risk averse) and the owner鈥檚 personal involvement in the operational and financial flows (i.e., contribution to the different corporate bodies). All those governance qualities are crucial in the Nordic environment, where most corporations tend to have controlling/main shareholders.
Secondly, it is obvious that each corporation has the opportunity to 鈥榯ailor鈥 its own governance process and that the owners actually also use that possibility. Such an option exists because the Nordic Company Laws allow considerable degrees of freedom in terms of interpretation, and the complementary soft regulations are not binding.
Thirdly, the empirical material in this extensive study lends support to the notion that what is really decisive for how the different corporations develop over time is how ownership control is captured, organized and executed. Thus, of particular importance is which owners control a company and how they act, that is, what ideas, competences, time horizons and ways of thinking dominate the governance process.
Abstract
This paper focuses on the domestic institutional investors鈥 ability to refocus their investments strategy in the direction of more of long-term committed capital. Suggesting a reconceptualization of domestic institutions in the sense that they can leverage on information asymmetries connected to home bias, we take an institutional approach to domestic investor rationale. We conduct qualitative and descriptive research to illuminate how Swedish institutions relate to expectations to engage in investee companies. The detected more focused investment strategies can primarily be explained through a (i) refocusing of risk-allocation mandates related to longer investments horizons, (ii) leveraging on home bias, and (iii) an owner-friendly governance model. By highlighting the embedded character of domestic institutions鈥 engagement, our research complements conventional ideas on institutional investors鈥 rational disinterest in engagement. With new norms, behavior changes.
Keywords: Corporate Governance, Institutional Investors, Long-Termism, Portfolio Allocation Models, Home Bias, Nomination Committee
JEL Classification: G, M
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Abstract
This article presents the main ideas in the 2017 revised Ownership Policy of the Swedish Shareholders鈥 Association, Sveriges Aktiesparares Riksf枚rbund (SARF). With a membership of 70,000 individual shareholders, SARF is the largest non-profit private investor organisation in Europe, and an active member of organisations such as Better Finance and the World Federation of Investors (WFI). SARF wrote the first Swedish ownership policy addressing listed companies in 1993. This is the organizations fifth ownership policy.
The text focuses in particular on six issues where change is desired:
(i) The need to make Swedish self-regulation more accessible to smaller individual shareholders.
(ii) A clear stand against general mandates for the board to decide on rights issues of cash without first offering all shareholders a right to participate;
(iii) Amendments to the Swedish companies act, AKTIEBOLAGSLAGEN to clarify that the board鈥檚 primary mission is to create sustainable profits.
(iv) That the members of the Swedish version of the external and shareholder led nomination committee to suggest independent directors to the board, is elected at the AGM.
(v) Enhanced status of independent non-executive directors that are independent of both the company and larger shareholders.
(vi) Clearer alignment of the Swedish takeover rules with both domestic regulations and regulations applicable in other European countries.
脛garboken (the Ownership Book) (2017) covers in all more than 200 ideas and recommendations that can be summarized into 37 clear suggestions. SARF鈥檚 opinions should be of interest to a broader European shareholding public. Across Europe there is an on-going discussion among policy-setters and academics related to different ways to enhance shareholder engagement, especially of institutional investors, manifested by i.e. the Kay Review (2012). On the Stockholm Stock Exchange (91原创), also known as Nasdaq Stockholm, domestic institutional investors are in general more engaged in corporate governance than elsewhere in Europe. However, as shown in this article, the role of the individual small investor community receives less attention.
The article includes comments related to the Swedish institutional framework from both a historical and theoretical perspective. This highlights the importance of including particular features of a national governance framework when developing protective measures for individual European shareholders, that frequently act as small investors in domestic markets.
Keywords: minority shareholders, corporate governance, shareholder rights
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Best盲ll boken h盲r/Order the book here
I den h盲r skriften redovisar f枚rfattarna hur bolagsstyrningen faktiskt g氓r till i Sverige och de 枚vriga nordiska l盲nderna. Av materialet framg氓r s盲rskilt tv氓 saker tydligt.
F枚rst och fr盲mst visar f枚rfattarna att 盲驳补谤蝉颈迟耻补迟颈辞苍别谤苍补&苍产蝉辫;i h枚g grad avg枚r hur bolagsstyrningen utformas och genomf枚rs i de enskilda f枚retagen. Det som d氓 fr盲mst f氓r genomslag 盲r 盲驳补谤蝉迟谤耻办迟耻谤别苍 (koncentrerad eller spridd), 盲驳补谤办补迟别驳辞谤颈苍 (privat eller statligt), 盲驳补谤辫别谤蝉辞苍濒颈驳丑别迟别苍 (risks枚kande/riskundvikande) och 盲驳补谤别苍驳补驳别尘补苍驳别迟 (insatserna i bolagsorganen).
Av studien framg氓r ocks氓 att f枚retagen har mycket stora m枚jligheter att 鈥漵kr盲ddarsy鈥 egna l枚sningar p氓 omr氓det bolagsstyrning, dels eftersom aktiebolagslagarna i Norden fr盲mst 盲r inriktade p氓 att kodifiera 盲garnas starka position, dels eftersom m氓nga av de 枚vriga regler och normer som existerar p氓 omr氓det och som f枚rv盲ntas p氓verka hur 盲garmakten ut枚vas saknar kraftfulla sanktioner.
I denna studie blir det tydligt att n氓got som ocks氓 盲r verkligt avg枚rande f枚r hur de olika bolagen utvecklas 枚ver tiden 盲r hur 盲garmakten er枚vras, organiseras och praktiseras. Det 盲r s氓ledes s盲rskilt viktigt vilka slags 盲gare som 盲r aktiva i bolagen, dvs vilka id茅er, kompetenser, tidshorisonter och t盲nkes盲tt som dominerar i styrprocesserna.
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This article offers a political perspective on modifications in corporate governance regulation. In the wake of the financial crisis, the investment rationale of institutional investors is being pushed away from a focus on financial market liquidity and short-term trading. From a political perspective, this modification entails consideration both of investment horizon and of the definition of corporate value.
The article narrates the historical policy debate on institutional investors as corporate governors. Building on this point, we develop a conceptual framework to further our understanding of the current shifts in policy debate of institutional investors as governors. We find a strong policy impetus to move away from certain liberal market assumptions of efficient financial markets and the positive effects of privatization, toward viewing markets as institutionally embedded.
Based on our knowledge of corporate governance regimes鈥 political economy, we argue that this shift brings intensified engagement of institutional investors in corporate affairs. We specify the reasons for why and how this might be politically contested. In conclusion, we offer propositions regarding the outcome of such contestation in different national corporate governance regimes.
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I denna skrift diskuteras fr氓gan om (svenska) staten skall 盲ga f枚retag och i s氓 fall varf枚r och i vilka former. Inledningsvis behandlas utf枚rligt vad som utm盲rker staten som f枚retags盲gare och vilka f枚r- respektive nackdelar som den 盲garformen genererar. Avsnittet avslutas med en listning av ett antal f枚rh氓llanden som p氓tagligt p氓verkar en stats utrymme att verka som f枚retags盲gare.
I ett l盲ngre avsnitt beskrivs och analyseras orsakerna och motiven till det (svenska) statliga f枚retags盲gandet. D盲r visas att den betydande variation som f枚religger n盲r det g盲ller de statliga f枚retagens uppdrag har konsekvenser f枚r hur den statliga f枚retagspopulationen kan organiseras och det visas att dessa stora olikheter f枚retagen emellan ocks氓 kr盲ver differentierad styrning.
I ett d盲rp氓 f枚ljande avsnitt redog枚r f枚rfattarna f枚r ett antal av de vetenskapliga studier som fr盲mst fokuserar staten som f枚retags盲gare. De 盲r i grunden av tv氓 typer: j盲mf枚rande och processuella. I det f枚rsta fallet handlar det om empiriska studier d盲r forskarna f枚rs枚kt utreda det statliga f枚retags盲gandets (relativa) effektivitet genom att j盲mf枚ra det med liknande privatdrivna verksamheter. I det andra fallet ligger fokus p氓 de privatiseringsprocesser som upptr盲dde under det sena 1900-talet i fr盲mst Central- och 脰steuropa.
Avslutningsvis illustrerar f枚rfattarna hur en s氓 omfattande (58 f枚retag) och starkt diversifierad f枚retagspopulation (alltifr氓n Operan/Dramaten till LKAB/Vattenfall) som den statliga skulle kunnna organiseras. Ambitionen med denna genomg氓ng 盲r d氓 prim盲rt att skapa respekt f枚r fr氓gans komplexitet men ocks氓 att tillhandah氓lla n氓gra teorier och modeller som kan anv盲ndas som analyshj盲lpmedel n盲r omfattningen av den svenska statliga f枚retagssektorn skall fastl盲ggas och dess styrformer sj枚s盲ttas.
Aga, Astra, Esab, Gant, Scania, Skandia, Stora, Volvo PV 鈥 listan p氓 svenska b枚rsbolag som k枚pts upp av utl盲ndska 盲gare eller riskkapitalister under de senaste tjugo 氓ren kan g枚ras l氓ng. I en popul盲rvetenskaplig bok som bygger p氓 Nachemson-Ekwalls avhandling fr氓n 2012 utvecklas teorierna och mekanismerna bakom denna utveckling. Vilken roll spelar det svenska systemet f枚r bolagsstyrning och de svenska uppk枚psreglerna f枚r m枚jligheterna att f枚rv盲rva svenska bolag? Och vilka skillnader finns mellan Sverige och andra l盲nder?
Boken tar sin utg氓ngspunkt i situationer med fientliga bud, det vill s盲ga d盲r k枚paren f枚rv盲rvar ett bolag i strid mot f枚retagsledningens vilja. I tv氓 initierade fallstudier beskrivs budstriderna i livf枚rs盲kringsbolaget Skandia, som togs 枚ver av det sydafrikanskt-brittiska f枚rs盲kringsbolaget Old Mutual 2005, och lastbilstillverkaren Scania, som 氓ren kring 2006-2012, drogs in i en infekterad budstrid med de tyska fordonstillverkarna MAN och VW.
F枚rfattaren pekar p氓 att dagens 枚ppna kapitalmarknader, stora inslag av institutionellt 盲gande, den svenska aktie盲garorienteringen och Sveriges anpassning till olika EU-regler inte bara gjort det l盲ttare att k枚pa just svenska b枚rsbolag, utan ocks氓 fr盲mjat kortsiktigt t盲nkande i ledning och styrning av svenska b枚rsbolag. Aktie盲garnas intresse har prioriterats framf枚r anst盲llda, kunder och samh盲lle.
Avslutningsvis ges f枚rslag p氓 hur bolagsstyrning och uppk枚psregler i Sverige b枚r f枚r盲ndras f枚r att 氓terskapa b枚rsbolagens och det svenska n盲ringslivets f枚rm氓ga till l氓ngsiktigt och h氓llbart v盲rdeskapande.
What do companies do when they practise CSR? It is this very empirical question that stands in the spotlight in this book chapter. We present a study of a project that the company in question presented and publicly highlighted as an example of CSR in practice: an electrification project that ABB, a multinational company, carried out in a village in rural Tanzania.
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Den svenska samh盲llsmodellen har m氓nga dimensioner, som kan ifr氓gas盲ttas, pr枚vas, utvecklas, utforskas och omvandlas. I denna skrift presenteras ett underlag f枚r s氓dana diskussioner som tar sin utg氓ngspunkt i AFA F枚rs盲kring - en f枚rs盲kringsorganisation i bolagsform, 盲gd av arbetsmarknadens parter - som belyses inom ramen f枚r samh盲llsekonomisk teori och teori om bolagsstyrning. Kan denna bolagsmodell finna sin plats i den framv盲xande europeiska ekonomin? Vilka utmaningar st氓r organisationen och dess huvudm盲n inf枚r? Hur m枚ta omgivningens krav?
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Taking a sociological perspective on the market for corporate control this thesis calls into question financial capitalism with its preference for clear shareholder-value governance of the corporation. The institutional setting chosen to show this is Sweden, with its particularly shareholder friendly governance regime and its very active takeover market. To this is added three longitudinal case studies of cross-border hostile takeover processes during the sixth takeover wave in Europe.
These reveal that the success of cross-border hostile bids has little to do with the theory of the market for corporate control, as a market where contests enable "good managers" to win over "bad managers", with the overarching goal of enhancing wealth creation for society at large. Instead the most successful actors on a market for corporate control are those who best understand that market's power dynamics - including the use of regulatory and moral arbitrage between different national frameworks and the leveraging of short-termism of institutional investors.
The case studies are then analyzed in relation to the revised Swedish takeover rules of 2009. This shows that the revision did not address the problems detected, focusing instead on enhancing deal making and further limiting the board's ability to work for long term value creation. As a whole this thesis calls for a development of a theory of a market for corporate control that in a more sustainable way will enable board of directors to focus on the corporation as value accretive entity.
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The study builds on the belief that change has become a normal state of affairs in business life, and that one highly contemporary actor - the private equity firm - has evolved to become specialized in change through repetitively changing its portfolio firms in its quest to generate value. The quest of reshaping a portfolio firm in order to optimize its strategic position, profitability, and financial structure in order to generate value has consequently been this study's starting point.
This dissertation presents how sense making, which is about the interplay of action and interpretation, changes over time and how it affects the strategic change of a portfolio firm. By studying and directly observing the communication and interaction between the portfolio firms's CEO, board, and management team in real-time during a prolonged period when change occurs at a revolutionary pace, this dissertation seeks to examine the development and influence of this sense making.
The study demonstrates how certain traits of private equity firms influence the timeline, risk profile, and governance of strategic change, how the presence of an idiosyncratic language influences the strategic change by transcending one mindset into a diametrically opposed ditto, and how the materialization of a mental iron cage affects the boundaries of the potential changes as well as adaptations and worldviews.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scaman.2010.11.002
The purpose of the article is to elaborate a position in debates on management teaching by properly remembering the origins of the agency theory of the firm. In a speculative piece, the precise role of agency theory in ongoing global financial crisis is conceptualized as carrier of hyper-ideological (un)consciousness.
Kapitalismen har g氓tt in i en ny fas - den finanskapitalistiska eran. D盲r dominerar de akt枚rer som hanterar kapitalets allokering 枚ver dem som engagerar sig i hur verksamheterna som s氓dana b盲st kan utvecklas. Ofta f枚refaller det dessutom vara de kortsiktiga finansiella akt枚rerna som avg枚r vad som sker i och med f枚retagen 枚ver tiden. Detta inneb盲r en p氓taglig risk f枚r att tillg氓ngen p氓 akt枚rer som f枚rs枚ker bygga uth氓lliga v盲rdeskapande strukturer begr盲nsas. P氓 sikt riskerar en s氓dan utarmning av 盲garfunktionen att hota de m氓nga m盲nniskornas v盲lf盲rd.
I detta kapitel diskuterar vi m枚jligheterna f枚r fr盲mst de stora noterade f枚retagen att bygga uth氓lliga v盲rdeskapande strukturer p氓 den alltmer globaliserade kapitalmarknad som v盲xt fram under de senaste 氓rtiondenas finanskapitalism. Finansiellt sparande som f枚rvaltas via mellanh盲nder har gett upphov till en radikalt f枚r盲ndrad aktie盲garbild, samtidigt som b氓de regelverk f枚r bolagsstyrning och andra normer "vandrar" 枚ver nationsgr盲nser. Vi intresserar oss s盲rskilt f枚r hur denna omvandling av kapitalmarknaden p氓verkat hur f枚retagen styrs (j盲mf枚r begreppet corporate governances)
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This insightful book focuses upon corporate governance processes, and explores the conditions required for effective corporate governance and control in 21st century globalized and financialized economies. In presenting a comprehensive study of a cross-border hostile corporate take-over process, describing the actors, institutions and events involved, this book examines and questions the current forms of corporate governance and control - both from a national and a global perspective. Using Old Mutual's takeover of Skandia as a case study, the authors address corporate governance theory, and highlight its two fundamental dimensions: financial and operational flows.
An important conclusion of the book is that the motives and theories of contemporary financial markets appear to have gained in importance at the expense of the corresponding operational considerations, something that has dramatically changed the rationales of different types of actors. The book critically questions these transformations, calling for the reconsideration and redesign of regulating institutions and corporate governance processes.
This critical investigation of the competition for corporate control in the era of modern financial capitalism will prove a fascinating read for students, academics and researchers in the fields of corporate governance, finance and international business. It will also appeal to policymakers and practitioners within the realms of corporate finance, banking and the wider financial services industry.
This book can be ordered from Marston Book Services Ltd: or from Edward Elgar +44 1235 465 500. Email: info@e-elgar.co.uk
"If governments, NGOs, and corporations really cared, CSR would not be the solution, no matter how pompous and serious we parade as being." (p. 196)
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Hur g氓r det egentligen till n盲r styrelser utses i stora svenska f枚retag? Vilka slags personer, kompetenser och erfarenheter efterfr氓gas - och varf枚r? Varf枚r finns det s氓 f氓 kvinnor i f枚retagsstyrelserna i Sverige? Har det skett n氓gon internationalisering av svenska bolagsstyrelser - och i s氓 fall i vilken utstr盲ckning och med vilka motiv? Och har tillkomsten av nomineringskommitt茅er inneburit n氓gon verklig f枚r盲ndring av hur det stora bolagens styrelser s盲tts samman?
F枚rfattarna har genomf枚rt en studie av hur rekryteringsprocesser ser ut i svenska storf枚retag. Det empiriska materialet omfattar - ut枚ver statistiska uppgifter - bland annat trettio ing氓ende intervjuer och n盲stan lika m氓nga kortare uppf枚ljningsintervjuer med styrelseordf枚randen, styrelseledam枚ter, medlemmar i nomineringskommitt茅er, 盲gare och 盲garrepresentanter, verkst盲llande direkt枚rer, styrelseledam枚ter och rekryteringskonsulter.
Boken inleds med en genomg氓ng av grundl盲ggande fakta kring styrelsers st盲llning och d氓 s盲rskilt i relation till 盲gare, revisorer och verkst盲llande direkt枚rer. Vidare beskrivs en styrelses huvudsakliga uppgifter, ansvar och arbetsformer. Skriftens fokus ligger dock p氓 hur styrelser rekryteras och sammans盲tts - b氓de p氓 sj盲lva den process d盲r de enskilda ledam枚terna vaskas fram - nominreingskommitt茅ernas arbete - och p氓 hur ett effektivt samarbete mellan ledam枚ter kan 氓stadkommas.
En av de viktigare slutsatserna fr氓n studien 盲r att det f枚refaller vara en v盲sentlig skillnad mellan rollen som verkst盲llande direkt枚r och uppdraget som styrelseledamot - en skillnad som l盲nge varit underskattad. Denna slutsats 枚ppnar f枚r en breddning av vilka erfarenheter och komptetnser som betraktas som v盲rdefulla - och d盲rmed utvidgas m盲ngden av potentiella ledam枚ter.
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鈥淔roud, Johal, Leaver and Williams鈥檚 book contains three extended case studies of the ways in which narratives of corporate strategy, finely subdivided into firm, industry and grand economic stories, are reflexively related to accounting numbers and circulated among corporate managers, analysts, consulting firms and best-selling authors of how-to management books. All this takes place in an economy in which the stock-market has become an object of interest to large strata of society, slowly but surely turning the attention of almost everybody towards day-to-day movements in share prices.鈥