The purpose of this thesis was to examine relevance of the proposition made by new insitutionalists about institutional and technical environment. This proposition originaly made by Meyer & Rowan (1977) has two core assumptions: The first is that all organizations are controlled by combinations of types of demands; technical demands for efficient production and institutional demands to adept to cultural and normative expectations. The second assumption is that there exists a few organizations dominated almost entirely by one typy of demand. Organizations dominated by institutional demands are said to live in an Institutional environment, while technical organizations is said operate in a technical environment. This thesis has examined if these assumptions are still applicable in describing organizational interaction with the environment.

Social enterprises are increasingly gaining ground as an organisational form in Sweden, however the institutional structures for financing these types of organisations are yet to be established. With its usual origin within the civic society, social enterprises prioritise a higher goal than to maximise economic profit, which often causes these organisations to be dependent upon resources from external constituents within its Institutional environment. The aim of this study was to examine how a social enterprise, which derives from the civic society, acts to mobilise resources from constituents in its Institutional environment. This was executed through a case study of Jordbro Världsorkester (JVO) - a typical organisation in the civic society which takes the form of a social enterprise - by identifying how assets were used to gain resources in strategic responses to institutional processes and examining how institutional processes affects how JVO acts. Throughout the study, qualitative interviews were conducted with JVO and constituents in its Institutional environment and a theoretical framework was developed which explains how capital is used to gain more capital in an emergent strategy of strategic responses as the organisation gets in contact with institutional processes from its Institutional environment.

Non-profit organizations gain increasing attention in society but their legitimacy often decrease by scandals in separate organizations. Doctors without borders (MSF) constitutes an exception and has managed to retain their legitimacy. The aim of this study was to examine how MSF built and retained its legitimacy towards institutional actors in their environment, when the branch in general is suffering from a crisis of confidence. In a case study, this was done by identifying the institutional pressures on MSF and examining which strategies MSF uses to handle the pressures. The study was conducted through qualitative interviews with employees at MSF and actors in their environment.

Globalization allows companies to expand and establish themselves in other markets, which can have unexpected consequences for those who are not aware of the controversy or sacrifices that are required, and Gothenburg, Sweden is not an exception. The study has focused on two institutional theories that can explain whathappens when a foreign direct investment takes place, Institutional work and Institutional duality. The study was conducted at Business Region Gothenburg and the interviews took place at department of establishment and investment. The result shows that to overcome institutional barriers they use networking, relations, and marketing of the region of Gothenburg as examples. The paper also argues that by performing some sort of institutional work, institutional duality occurs..

This study examined constructions of horses and means staff working with horses parallel to therapy in institutional care ascribes to horses. A narrative method was used and the theoretical framework was social constructionism. A question was asked to the narratives: How can practice in institutional care be understood through these stories? The result showed different pictures of institutional care. Horses seem to provide a multi-faceted therapeutic tool.

The aim with this study was to examine what it is that govern the way that municipalities develop the non-institutional care for youth. An extensive development of non-institutional care for children is a visible trend in municipal social service and probable reasons for this development are, among other things, research that show inadequate results of the institution care and economy. Our main questions at issue were how the municipalities argue the priorities that have been done within their youth care services with regard to the non-institutional care and how they reason considering this? Furthermore we asked why the municipalities have chosen to develop their non-institutional care for youth the way they have and on what grounds they make their choices? This study consists of eight qualitative interviews with politicians and employees in four different municipals along with analysis of relevant documents. We have found that what governs the way that municipalities develop the non-institutional care for youth has to do with that the municipalities found it vital to find alternative solutions to the expensive and ineffective institutional care, that they comprehend that the quality of non-institutional care are higher then of the institutional care and that the non- institutional care is seen as more effective with regards to economic results and achieved treatment results.

This paper investigates the relationship between dividends and institutional and foreign ownership in Swedish firms. We use a dataset which covers the Swedish stock market over the period 1999-2009. The institutional ownership is defined as mutual funds, pension funds and insurance companies and these are analysed separately. The study confirms the expected positive relationship between the level of institutional investors in a firm and the size of dividends. We also confirm? the expected negative relationship between foreign investors and the size of dividends paid by Swedish firms.

This thesis examines the subject of change in public administration from an instrumental and an institutional structure perspective. The purpose of the thesis is to examine whether institutional structures affect the development of instrumental structures and if it in turn is possible to affect institutional structures by changing the instrumental structures. This case study is primarily based on a series of deep interviews with senior administrators and politicians within two new administrations in the municipality Karlstad, both which have been created by merging several smaller administrations, but also thorough analysis of several official document such as protocols from the municipal council meetings, Tja?nsterskrivelser and internal PMs.   The result of the analysis indicates that both institutional structures and the forming instrumental structures affect each other and  that their ability to affect each other depends on the dominance over the organization each structure has.  In my specific research case we can see that the institutional structure of the city-technical and housing administration has affected the outcome but the institutional structure of the cultural and tourism administration hasn?t.  While the structural change of the city-technical and housing administration hasn?t effected the institutional structure but the structural change of the cultural and tourism administration has affected the institutional structure of this specific administration..

The discrepancy in the rights for healthcare between undocumented migrants and the citizen in Sweden is a prerequisite for the existence of Läkarkliniken. Because of the chosen patient group the clinic stands outside the regulations from the National Board of Health and Welfare. The aim of this study was, from an institutional perspective, to investigate how such a unique player is designed and where the influences to the design origin from. The task was conducted thorough a qualitative case study with base in depth interviews. High levels of isomorphism were observed between Läkarkliniken and the general healthcare, however differences were seen as well.

In 1992, the European Union began institutionalizing the cooperation against terrorism within the EU structure. Since then, this cooperation has gone through a number of changes. From a historical institutionalistic point of departure we explain these changes by identifying sources of institutional resilience and institutional change. Based on these results, we were able to pose hypotheses of when and what category of change was most likely to take place.The results show that the cooperation against terrorism within the EU was most likely to remain stable because of strong sources of institutional resilience. If change would occur through an increase in the sources of institutional change, it was most likely to be of a less extensive category.

The aim of the study is to examine how the executive leadership and the decision-making process are shaped by the leadership environment in a transition democracy as Venezuela. The questions I intend to answer are: What kind of leadership environment surrounds the leadership and what kind of consequences does it have on the leadership and the decision-making process in Venezuela? To answer my questions I will use the literature: Political Leadership in Liberal Democracies (Elgie, Robert 1995, London: Macmillian), together with the method ?The cultural determinist school of history? by Tomas Spencer, later reproduced by Kellerman. The leadership environment provides unique opportunities for a leader to gain control over the decision-making process. Institutional structures and the needs of the society are major parts in determining how the political leadership is exercised.

The aim of this study is to understand which roles institutional personnel in HVB-homes (homes for care or living), that include animals ascribe the animals for the young clients in treatment. Using the termsrole, role-taking, primary socialisation and secondary socialisation within the perspective of symbolic interactionism, we intend to analyse the expericences from the institutional personnel of what roles the animals are ascribed in treatment of young clients. We also wanted to find out if the institutional personnel have certain expectations on the animals as tools in the treatment and whether the institutional personnel believes that the animals have important roles in the treatment of the young clients.To find the answers of our aim and approach to our problems, we have used a qualitative study where we have interviewed six institutional personnel distributed in three different HVB-homes that uses animals in treatment of young clients. Our empirical material shows that the institutional personnel ascribe the animals a variety of roles, which among others are: friendly and familiar, meaningful, safe, comforting and soothing. Other roles that the institutional personnel ascribe the animals for the young clients are: teaching in order to develop empathy and responsibility; helping in therapy situation and having an activating role.

This study has a double purpose. First, it explores and maps out the use of quantitative key indicators in social performance reporting within a microfinance portfolio. This was done on behalf of Storebrand Asset Management, who would like to aggregate and report the social results of their microfinance investments to their customers. The study concludes that the extent of social reporting and types of indicators used varies, meaning that it is hard to aggregate data for use in further reporting. Thus, the work towards the goal of social reporting has only just begun.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether institutional ownership has an influence on CEO compensation in companies where the institutions have invested. In order to fulfil the purpose of the thesis a quantitative study was carried out within the Swedish corporate context where we have studied Swedish institutional investors and companies quoted on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Our period of study was the financial year of 2007.The empirical questions at issue is; Was there a connection between Swedish institutional ownership and the size of the CEO compensation, and, does Swedish institutional ownership lead to a certain type of CEO compensation in terms of structure?Our results did not suggest that an increased institutional ownership neither leads to a certain type of salary level nor a certain kind of salary structure. These results contradict earlier American research, which has been done within this area and has previously shown a secured connection.The reasons for our results may be many and it is difficult to state any concrete conclusions to why we received differing results.

This study is an institutional analysis of the firm both as it is theoretically conceptualized and how it takes shape and changes. The role of power relations between manage¬ment and employees is especially examined with the aim of evaluating pos¬sible connections between the firm as an institution and power relations within it. Based on a comparison of two cases (two selected periods of the same organization) it asks ?How closely does each case match the conceptual characteristics of the firm??; ?What are the power relations between management and employees in each case??; and finally ?What factors account for the resulting differences??. It is found that there is a negative correlation between employee power and proximity to the firm as a concept.