Forskningsprojekt

Information om projekten finns endast på engelska. 

Legislating the digital: the impacts and implications of regulatory change on practice and innovation in financial service firms.

The broad area of investigation is the intersection between regulation, innovation, and strategic management in the EU financial payment services sector. It specifically considers how payment service providers are adjusting their innovation and strategic management practices in efforts to comply with incoming regulation in the financial payment services sector (PSD2).

Project members: Einar Iveroth, Shruti Kashyap, Claire Ingram Bogusz
Duration: 2020-2022
Financing: Handelsbankens Research Foundations

Strategic decision-making and expert intuition

This programme examines the role of individuals long and deep experience for judgments and decisions in acquisitions and other strategic investments. By using the concepts of expertise and intuition from research in psychology, i.e. intuitive expertise, we explore the role of intuitive expertise in strategic investment decision-making. Decision-making is viewed from a process perspective, i.e. activities and events leading up to the commitment of making an acquisition.

In the programme we study the use of intuitive expertise by actors involved in acquisition decision-making. This includes the professional acquisition organisation (PAO), which works at the operational level with the acquisition (e.g. valuation, negotiation, due diligence, production of strategic and financial rationales), and decision-makers.

The aim of this programme is to increase our understanding of the role of expertise and intuition in strategic investment decisions.

Project members: Michael Grant, Fredrik Nilsson, Anna-Carin Nordvall
Duration: 2019-

Related publications

• Grant, M., Nilsson, F. (2023), “Intuitive Expertise and Financial Decision-Making.” Routledge.
• Grant, M., Nilsson, F., & Nordvall, A. C. (2020). The use of intuitive expertise in acquisition-making: an explorative study. In Marta Sinclair (Ed.) "Handbook of Intuition Research as Practice." Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Grant, M., & Nilsson, F. (2020). The production of strategic and financial rationales in capital investments: Judgments based on intuitive expertise. "The British Accounting Review", 52(3), 100861. 

Expertise in the fund industry

To outperform the stock market over time, on a risk adjusted level, have been considered theoretically improbable (if not impossible). However, there are some empirical evidence suggesting that some fund managers outperform the market, at least over a period of time. Investment strategies and financial models have been proposed as explanation for it. On the other hand, little if no interest has been directed at how the fund managers' expertise affects assessments and decisions.

Building on our previous studies of expertise and intuitive expertise in strategic decision-making this programme examines the fund industry taking the perspective of individual fund managers. We have two overarching questions:

1. What is expertise in fund management? How is expertise expressed, i.e. how does it appear in judgments and decisions relating to fund investments?
2. What role do models play when an expert in fund management makes judgments and decisions? How can the relationship between expert and models be described?

In the programme we study expertise and the use of intuitive expertise and models by actors involved in the fund industry.

The aim of this programme is to increase our understanding of what expertise is in the fund industry and how it is used in judgments and decisions. Furthermore, we want to understand what role models play in expert judgments and decisions.

Project members: Martin Abrahamson, Michael Grant, Fredrik Nilsson
Duration: 2022-
​Financing: SHB Forskningsstiftelser

Corporate governance matters: Investigating Swedish corporate governance characteristics and their outcomes

Corporate outcomes depend on an interplay between different corporate governance mechanisms. These mechanisms include the board of directors, incentives, ownership structures, legal and institutional environment, as well as the latest social pressures for sustainability. Countries differ in the setup of the corporate governance systems, but most corporate governance research comes from an Anglo-Saxon environment, most notably USA. In this research project we intend explore the Swedish corporate governance context and its impact on corporate outcomes. We focus on chosen aspects of a board of directors’ structure, including gender representation, as well as incentives systems to leading corporate decision makers.

Project members: Katarzyna Cieslak, Mattias Hamberg, University of Stavanger, Norway
Duration: 2020–2022
Financing: SHB Forskningsstiftelser

From Strategy to Operational Decision-Making in Banks: The Significance of Technical, Organizational and Cognitive Integration

One of the key lessons from the 2007/08 financial crisis is that weakly integrated control systems, and reporting processes can have significant negative implications for strategic, tactical and operational decision-making, as well as financial reporting quality. This hard-earned lesson has led to a growing interest amongst practitioners and academics in the relationships between three closely interrelated concepts: enterprise risk management; management control systems and; financial reporting processes.

The purpose of this explorative study is to examine how and why the different dimensions of integration (technical, organizational and, cognitive), which bring together both structures and actors, individually and collectively influence coordination between strategic and operational level decision-making in organizations.

The outcomes from this explorative study will provide valuable input in phase two of what is a comprehensive research programme described separately under the project heading ‘Integrated Reporting and Control: Bridging Technical, Organizational and Behavioral Domains’. 

Project members: Jason Crawford
Duration: 2019–   
Financed by: Svenska Revisionsakademin

Integrated Reporting and Control: Bridging Technical, Organizational and Behavioural Domains

The 2007/08 post financial crisis era is one in which a broader public debate continues to intensify, calling for increasing accountability and transparency in the relationships between business, investors and society. The accounting profession, together with decision-makers, investors, regulators and standard setters are collectively engaged in discussing how to improve the influence, relevance, trust and value of accounting information. In this space interest has grown among practitioners and academics in exploring the relationships between, as well as the potential to, integrate risk management, management control and financial accounting concepts. From a practitioner perspective this interest is driven in an effort to create integrated thinking and integrated reporting so that efficiency and performance gains can be realized, and value creation enhanced at the organizational level.

While researchers have made various efforts to explain how different integrating mechanisms influence risk management, management control and more recently financial accounting concepts, much of that focus has been on structures rather than actors, providing limited insights into the coordination of strategic and operational decision-making.

The aim of this programme therefore is to increase our understanding of these important interrelated concepts, by examining how and why different integrating dimensions (technical, organizational and, cognitive) which capture both structures and actors, individually and collectively influence coordination in organizations.

Project members: Fredrik Nilsson, Jason Crawford
Expert reference group: Charlotta Hjelm, Länsförsäkringar, Pia Marions, Skandia, Frank Hartmann, Rotterdam School of Business School and Uppsala University
Duration: 2019–2022 
Financed by: Jan Wallanders och Tom Hedelius stiftelse samt Tore Browaldhs stiftelse​

Strategic pricing and price models

An research activity performed by Centre for Advanced Studies in Innovative Pricing (CASIP). Its focus is how new price models may enable firms to realize strategy, recognising that modern business models usually lead to multiple relationships where pricing has an impact on incentives and long-term joint developments. CASIP has developed a model which is currently tested for practical use, supported by a computerised graphical tool.

Project members: Mathias Cöster, Einar Iveroth, Nils-Göran Olve
Co-operation partners: Masaki Hayashi, Department of Game Design, Carl-Johan petri, Alf Westelius, Linköping University
Duration: CASIP is an ongoing research collaboration where the participating researchers continue to arrange tracks in conferences, write articles, inspire doctoral candidates in their research activities, and apply for external funding.
Financed by: Uppsala University

The Neuroaccounting group

We explore associations between brain-controlled functions and accounting behaviour. This new group has emerged out of collaborative work with neuroscientists and psychologists, building on the proposition that knowledge about the brain is essential if we want to understand why and how accounting information affects judgment, decision-making and other behavioural outcomes.

Project members: Janina Hornbach, Jenny Gustafson Backman, Lars Frimanson and Frank Hartmann.
Financed by: The Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Science, Handelsbankens Research Foundations, The Swedish Research School of Management and Information Technology, and The Swedish Auditing Academy

The information content of interim reporting from a financial analyst perspective

In the last decade, there have been continuous discussions as to whether stock markets impose excessive disclosure requirements on listed firms. In Sweden, the expression “kvartalskapitalism" is used to denote the shortsighted view on corporate decision­-making that frequent reporting nurture. Several large firms listed in London (e.g. BHP Billiton and Unilever) have opted to reduce their reporting frequency and reporting depth. These changes stand in stark contrast to the increased reporting requirements caused by the introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards.

Our point so far is not to prematurely argue that quarterly reports are necessary or unnecessary, but to show that we do not know what information is in the report, and we do not know how the market reacts to it. Consequently, the purpose is to investigate whether quarterly reports provide useful information to investors. In particular, we are interested in the interplay between quarterly reports and financial analyst expectations. This interplay determines market reactions and ultimately sets the firms capital cost.

Project members: Joachim Landström, Mattias Hamberg, Daniel Brännström, Qishen Yang
Duration: –2018
Financed by: SHB Forskningsstiftelser

The Teachings of Management, Perceptions in a society of organisations

The project seeks to relate ideas of organisation and management and give a comprehensive overview over a belief system that is often taken for granted or ignored all together. It identifies a coherent set of presumptions prevalent in contemporary society and seen to be necessary to the idea of 'organisations', despite the generally acknowledged fact that they are largely unfeasible.

Project member: Karin Brunsson
Duration: –2017

Payout policies and stock preferences

Financial economics has undergone a very rapid development in the past forty years and the research within the area has indeed changed. With access to detailed data related to stock ownership in public listed firms in Sweden, researchers (as well as students) at the department have exploited and contributed to the field by detailed empirical studies. For instance, international collaboration with academics in the U.S. as well as in the Netherlands and South Africa have exploited the database with a focus primarily on: (a) stock portfolios and portfolio performance by individual investors, (b) payout policies (i.e., ordinary cash dividends and stock buybacks) in Swedish firms, (c) payout policy in public firms after controlling for the ownership structure (dispersed, concentrated), (d) various corporate events. Specifically, the following projects, and co-authors, within the area of financial economics are as follows:

1. “Payout Concentration in Industrial and Financial Firms” (Kent Baker, American University, Washington, USA; Adri De Ridder, UU).
2. “Payout Policy in Industrial and Financial Firms” (Kent Baker, American University, Washington, USA; Adri De Ridder, UU).
3. “Corporate Dividend Policies and a test of the life-cycle theory” (Kent Baker, American University, Washington, USA; Adri De Ridder, UU).
4. “Trading and stock buybacks programs” (Alice Bonaime, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA; Adri De Ridder, UU)
5. “Reverse Stock Splits and Ownership Structure” (David Burnie, University of Michigan, Kalamazoo, USA; Adri De Ridder, UU).
6. “Alphabetic biases and stock investments” (Annalien de Vries, University of Stellenbosch, South Afrika; Adri De Ridder, UU).
7. “Investment mistakes within the Swedish PPM-system” (Marc Kramer, University of Groningen, The Netherlands; Adri De Ridder, UU).