This paper examines the interpersonal and intercorporate networks of interlocking boardmembers among Sweden's 50 largest publicly traded companies in 1985 and 2005. We find that both the interpersonal and intercorporate networks of 1985 are considerably more coherent and densely connected than those of 2005. The observed changes in social network structure are compared to changes in company ownership in Swedish publicly traded companies during the same period, and it is found that the observed changes in network density and cohesion can be related to a notable increase in the number of foreign board members. These results imply that the social organization of the Swedish system of corporate governance has changed notably during the period. Social network theory suggests that these changes can explain the greater demand for external regulation, decreased homogeneity of board members and increase in board member compensation observed under the period.

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka två företag med olika ägarförhållande och vinstintresse, för att se om de skiljer sig åt avseende vad de prioriterar att kommunicera av sitt CSR-arbete till sina intressenter, samt vilka CSR-kategorier företagen väljer att arbeta med. Vår avsikt är att undersöka om och hur ägarförhållande och vinstintresse kan bidra till att forma företagens CSR-strategier. Området är intressant att undersöka då ägarförhållande och vinstintresse som bidragande faktorer till att forma CSR-arbete och kommunikationen av detta är relativt outforskat..

There are many views in the concept of corporate reputation and the massive research in the area tends to result in many new definitions. Research has shown that a good corporate reputation has a positive relation to Sustainable Competitive Advantage, financial performance and attraction to competent employees. The many views in the concept make it especially interesting to examine the view on corporate reputation in a perspective of big Swedish corporations. Another interesting area to examine is whether the companies manage their reputation or not. The empirical findings of this essay are based on qualitative interviews to get a deeper understanding in the area of reputation.

This thesis intended to examine how small enterprises within the retail industry work with brand building of their corporate name. More specifically it intended to examine how they do to choose corporate name and corporate logotype, and how they work to create a desired corporate image. A case-study was performed with three case-companies from different industries. The method was deductive as the empirics were brought in with starting-point in the theoretical frame of reference. The study showed that there are differences in the way small enterprises within the retail industry work with the brand-building of their corporate name.

The purpose of this essay is to study the impact of different factors on corporate capital structure. The factors studied in relation to corporate debt ratio are industry affiliation, size and profitability. The study involves all 252 companies quoted on the Stockholm stock exchange and cover a time period from 2007 to 2011. The result shows that branch affiliation has a significant impact on corporate debt ratios. Regarding size and profitability, however, these factors do not have an evident impact on corporate debt ratios..

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) har fått en allt större roll under senare år. Fler och fler företag ser värdet av och engagerar sig i frågor rörande miljö, samhälle och socialt ansvarstagande. Under många år har det förts en debatt kring huruvida engagemang i dessa frågor kan ha påverkan på lönsamheten i företag och i så fall vilka samband som finns. Resultaten av tidigare studier har varit olika och ingen tydlig slutsats har kunnat dras. Den här studien syftar till att försöka svara på om CSR har inverkan på företags lönsamhet.

During the last years, the moral and ethics in companies has been a growing subject in media. Large multinational companies are to a bigger extent using workforce in developing countries and the working conditions at the workplaces in those countries, are more or less controlled. Even if a company carefully controls its own business, it can be using subcontractors that for instance use child labour or forced labour, or in some other way makes human rights abuses. When the world gets more globalized and the market where the companies act gets bigger, there will be new issues for companies to handle. The companies have to satisfy not only the interests of the costumers and the shareholders, but also the environment around it, containing many different stakeholders.

Swedish Development Cooperation emphasizes the need for collaboration among actors on a national level. In that context, the purpose of the thesis is to investigate how Public Private Partnership (PPP) on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) may influence the changing role of the state. The thesis is informed by Critical Discourse Analysis. In order to investigate the social constructions of reality, the thesis is a critical study of language related to ?Globalt Ansvar: Swedish Partnership for Global Responsibility? to identify through what discourses Collaboration on Corporate Social Responsibility is produced; and the implications in relation to Public Private Partnership.

Assessing the outcome of corporate responsibility is often argued to be complicated due to long-term effects and qualitative aspects. Epstein (2008, p.261) establishes that: ?Though many think that sustainability is too difficult to measure, companies have found that unless the impacts are measured, they are commonly ignored in the resource allocation process?. Corporate responsibility is often referred to as a business case, i.e., that social and environmental concern add value to the business (Heikkurinen, 2010; Porter & van der Linde, 1995). Hence, for corporate responsibility to be a business case a strategy, corporate structure and systems, programmes and actions linked to performance measures need to be in place to assess the outcome; environmental, social as well as financial.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the conditions that prevail when companies put their marketing in social media with the purpose of creating a perception of the risks and opportunities it brings to businesses and ultimately how it may affect the corporate image and identity.Theories: The basis of the problem area are presented through a theoretical framework with the purpose of highlighting the notions of social media, communi- cation, marketing communication, groundswell, corporate identity and image.Methodology: To investigate the research questions this study adopted a qualitative approach in which the authors study the properties of a phenomenon in order to seek a deeper understanding of the problems we have presented. There is an exploratory approach to knowledge and the authors have chosen to conduct qualitative research interviews based upon three themes: driving forces, challenges and impacts.Conclusion: The study revealed that traditional models of communication are no longer applicable in social media. Companies are up for a challenge and must clarify their sole purpose when establishing communication in the social landscape. The general motivation for marketing in social media is making profit, however, building relationships is not a natural motive for most companies. The risks companies expe- rience is the exposure caused by social media and the study also reveals that this fear is firmly attached to their lack of knowledge of these new channels of communicat- ion and their primary areas of use which indicates that skilled employees plays a vi- tal role with their use of social media in their communication process.

ABSTRACTCourse/level: Enterprising and Business Development, Bachelor Thesis, AUT2012, 2EB00ETutor: Magnus ForslundAuthors: Linn Danielsson & Alexander OlofssonKey words: Strong diversity, Consistent Corporate Culture, Core Values, Corporate Strategy,Definition of Diversity, Working with Diversity, Management, Standardization.Title: Diversity or Corporate Culture ? A case study on the paradoxical relationship betweendiversity and corporate cultures in corporations and organizations.Background: Diversity and corporate culture can in various ways result in corporate andorganizational advantages. While diversity promotes innovation, creativity and companydevelopment corporate culture possesses advantages such as efficiency, community and unity.Diversity and corporate culture seems to create various benefits that are both beneficial forcompetitive advantage.Problem discussion: I would be beneficial for companies and organizations to maintain bothdiversity and corporate culture since they complement each other. However, diversity andcorporate culture have different purposes and benefit in different ways. The question is howtwo such different strategies can meet.Question for research: How does diversity and corporate culture co-exist in corporations andorganizations?Purpose: The aim of this study is to create further understanding for the co-existence betweendiversity and corporate culture in corporations and organizations.Method: The study is made qualitatively with a hermeneutic approach and based on a casestudy on two corporations within the real estate industry.

Background: The global responsibility for multinational companies is a current matter of subject. Now when the world increasingly is getting globalized, economic growth is created, which brings a bigger demand of responsibility on companies. The leading companies from every industry is often becoming the frame for how the production process works and is therefore exposed to outer pressure which, for example, is coming from consumers and the media. Since consumers at present are more aware of what they are buying and where it comes from, it is important that the companies take social responsibility. We have therefore studied three big companies within the clothing industry to see in witch way they are taking their social responsibility.Purpose: Our purpose was to explore how companies within the clothing industry describe their work with Corporate Social Responsibility, code of conducts and where the incentive behind this work is coming from.Method: We have, through a qualitative study, examined how three large companies work with Corporate Social Responsibility.

The purpose of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding about why Swedish banks choose to work and report CSR and also analyze differences and similarities between two banks.Research question: Why do Swedish companies within the financial sector choose to report and work with Corporate Social Responsibility?The major incentives to work and report CSR are because it benefits bank´s businesses, which is driven by stakeholders. Stakeholder pressure is also an important incentive, especially pressure from customers and employees. The incentives that differed between the two banks were morality of the business leader, society and the priority of stakeholders. The incentives that we could not support were guidelines and competitors-.

The report assesses the typical questions regarding Corporate Social Responsibility within the automotive industry. An attempt as to whether Corporate Social Responsibility has an impact on growth companies is demonstrated. Volkswagen Group is within the required analytical criteria, which are to be studied. Also, the fact that they recently launched ?Strategy 2018? makes it even more interesting to immerse into.

Those companies that have taken a stand in corporate social responsibility and work with these issues often experience difficulties orienting themselves in these areas. There is a picture of how companies want to be in their CSR commitment on corporate websites and a different reality which is reflected in the media. These different images are not in harmony with each other.The purpose of this study is to revise the CSR work of Sweden?s largest clothing companies.To answer the problem of this study a qualitative method has been used. The choice to explore a few clothing companies resulted in a multi-case study.