Uppsatsen redogör för ett revisionsutskotts arbetsuppgifter, redogörför revisionsutskottens arbete i företag noterade på stockholmsbörsens A-lista samt att analysera om revisionsutskotten i fråga arbetar enligt svensk kod för bolagsstyrning och därmed bidrar till bättre corporate governance.

[Abstract: This study examines the observed difference between Swedish and foreign owners when it comes to nominating committee participation. The background to the study is that foreign owners seem to participate in Swedish nominating committees to a lesser extent than their Swedish counterparts. The focus is on institutional owners and the companies studied are all listed companies who follow the Swedish code of corporate governance. Particular attention is paid to perceived differences in behavior that can be explained using the common corporate governance related theories of Exit, Voice and Loyalty as well as Agency Theory. These explanations are chiefly related to differences in attitudes regarding insider information, different knowledge levels regarding the purpose and workings of nominating committees of the Swedish kind as well as differences due to home market biases.].

Corporate Social Responsibility has been defined as the responsibility towards stakeholders and the society in whole and the expression was founded in the 1950´s. Reporting in corporate social responsibility has been termed corporate social disclosure and has been divided into three areas: environment, ethics and human resources. The aim of this study is to explain variations in corporate social disclosure and the different media used by corporations to communicate these disclosures. A survey was conducted, which included all Swedish corporations listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, and all public-owned corporations. The results show that corporate characteristics such as size, industry and profitability can explain some of the variation in social disclosures and also have an effect on the extent and variation of the media used.

Denna uppsats bygger på fyra grundstenar; Svensk kod för bolagsstyrning, Combined Code on Corporate Governance, riktlinjer från OECD, EU:s rekommendationer. För att skapa förståelse för dessa olika regelverk samt möjliggöra en analys, har teorin om Agent och Principal, samt den om Corporate Governance använts. Förutom studier av regelverk har diverse intervjuer genomförts med svenska och engelska börsnoterade företag som lyder under bolagskoderna, samt även intervjuer med revisionsföretag. Dessa har fungerat som informationskällor, referensramar, och underlag för analys och slutsatser. Det ges även sammanfattningar av Svensk kod för bolagsstyrning, samt för Combined Code on Corporate Governance, en redogörelse för riktlinjerna publicerade av OECD och EU:s rekommendationer.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the potential presence of a relationship between the quality of corporate financial disclosure and the volatility in stock price in the Swedish market. This was carried out by investigating the hypothesis that an accurate annual report with high information quality results in a decrease in volatility. Previous studies have been done with this approach and in some cases the above stated hypothesis was found to be true. Thus, in the absence of a perfect efficient market the level of information quality may to some extent explain the volatility in stock price. However, the result of our study gave no evidence in support of this hypothesis.

From July 2005 on, the new Swedish Corporate Governance Code will be applied gradually by companies listed on the stock exchange or any authorized financial market in Sweden. The Code has been drawn up in order to clarify and to improve the self-regulation in Swedish companies. The need for codified self-regulation standards has been considered as urgent due to negative trends on the market such as the last few years? corporate scandals in domestic and international trade and industry. The sought-after consequence is to clarify the mission framework for corporate directors.Ch.

Uppsatsen är en fallstudie utav Föreningssparbankens internrevision. Internrevisorernas arbete inom FSB har undersökts utifrån effektivitet, snabbhet, förändring och dess intressenter. För att även kunna diskutera internrevision mer generellt har fallstudien kompleterats med en expertstudie som innehåller synpunkter från experter inom internrevision. I studien har det visat sig att det är vanligt att ett förväntningsgap föreligger mellan internrevisorn och dess intressenter..

The accounting scandals that have attracted attention in recent years have led to internal control becoming a more central part of business activity. Doubts about what firms actually do have increased, all caused by the attention of accounting scandals. To counter this, frameworks and laws evolved and gained a significant role in the organization and its surroundings. The aim of the present study is to find out how four companies in the Kristianstad region are working to ensure its internal control and how they work to minimize risk and reduce uncertainty. We have used a qualitative method and interviewed a person in a senior position in each company.

The purpose of this study explains the relationship between corporate governance and the auditor's role in Swedish family firms with the definitions micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and how this relationship is affected by the firms strategy. The study is based on a survey sent out to 3000 Swedish SMEs, of which 280 responses from family firms could be used. Our findings showed that the auditor in the family firms didn?t have a specific role or contributed added value to the firm, and that the strategy didn?t affect the outcome. Furthermore, we found correlation between the perceptions of the auditor's role and added value depending on the family firms type of corporate governance.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera sambandet mellan länders utdelningsmönster och corporate governance system samt förklara varför denna koppling ser ut som den gör med hjälp av den teoribildning som finns på området.Till undersökningen har tre EU länder valts. För att kartlägga ländernas utdelningsmönster har finansiell data insamlats för respektive lands samtliga noterade företag. Dessa data har sammanställts till tre nyckeltal gällande utdelningsnivå för varje land och år mellan år 1989 till år 2007.Det finns skillnader mellan länderna både beträffande corporate governance system och beträffande utdelningsmönster. De viktigaste faktorerna inom corporate governance som i uppsatsen visat sig haft störst betydelse för utdelningsmönstrets utseende är ägarstrukturen samt kapitalmarknadens struktur. Störst andel spritt ägande och starkast inflytande från aktiemarknaden återfinns i Storbritannien, följt av Sverige och sist Tyskland som tvärtom kännetecknas av ett mycket koncentrerat ägande och lägre påverkan från aktiemarknaden.

Master thesis in business administration, School of business administration, Linnaeus University, accounting, 4FE03E, Spring 2011.Authors: Linda Åslund and Shirin Yousef.Supervisor: Professor Sven-Olof Yrjö CollinExaminer: Christopher von KochTitle: The Swedish code of good governance ? Who finds it useful? Background: Corporate governance has emerged to maintain the stockholders interests in corporations where the owners are separated from control in order to create confidence in the corporations. In 2005 the Swedish code of good governance emerged to prevent in part additional corporate scandals from happening and to make sure that the board is acting in the interest of the owners. The code is a complement to the Swedish Companies Act since it has a more strict demand in certain areas but it gives the companies a possibility to deviate by either complying or explaining their actions.Purpose: The purpose with this thesis is to examine who finds the Swedish code of good governance useful.Method: The research method of this survey is quantitative where the purpose is to investigate deviations in the companies? corporate governance reports.

A co-operation is established when a group of people, sharing the same preferences and values, come together in order to satisfy a common need. The co-operative association should be democratic, governed and supervised by its members and open to everyone. The purpose of this article is to, from our ideal type, study similarities and differences regarding the corporate governance of the consumers? and the producers? co-operative movement. The motive behind our choice of alignment is that the mechanisms of corporate governance often are described from the perspective of the joint-stock company, making it valuable and interesting to study these mechanisms from the co-operative point of view.

A co-operation is established when a group of people, sharing the same preferences and values, come together in order to satisfy a common need. The co-operative association should be democratic, governed and supervised by its members and open to everyone. The purpose of this article is to, from our ideal type, study similarities and differences regarding the corporate governance of the consumers? and the producers? co-operative movement. The motive behind our choice of alignment is that the mechanisms of corporate governance often are described from the perspective of the joint-stock company, making it valuable and interesting to study these mechanisms from the co-operative point of view.

Undersökningens syfte är att analysera hur portföljbolags Strategiska inriktning och CorporateGovernance-arbete påverkas av ett skifte till Private Equity-ägande. Uppsatsens empiriska material består av intervjuer med anställda i två stora, forskningsintensiva bolag som avnoterats från Stockholmsbörsen genom Private Equity. I undersökningen identifieras hållpunkter för portföljbolagets Strategi och Corporate Governance-arbete, vilka alla på något sätt påverkats av övergången till Private Equity. Det kan konstateras en märkbar förskjutning i portföljbolagets strategiska inriktning till följd av Private Equity-bolagets tydliga ägarstrategi.Vidare medför ägarskiftet förändringar i styrelse och ledning, samtidigt som avståndet mellan ägare-styrelse-ledning reduceras avsevärt..

Bakgrund: Styrelseskandaler som orsakat oroligheter i affärsvärlden har skapat ett behov av ett tydligt regelverk för bolagsstyrning, den skulle förstärka svenska noterade bolags och svenska börsplatsers konkurrenskraft på den internationella kapitalmarknaden. Den svenska koden för bolagsstyrning har kommit att bli en viktig del av regelsystemet på den svenska kapitalmarknaden. Den kräver att svenska börsnoterade bolag skall presentera bolagsstyrningsrapporter. Rapporternas kvalité är viktig för intressenterna som använder sig av bolagsstyrningsinformation.Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera utvecklingen av tillämpningen av den svenska koden för bolagsstyrningen. Författarna vill undersöka rapporternas kvalité och se hur den har förändrats mellan åren.