In this study, business experimentation for sustainable value creation is explored through seven cleantech start-ups by applying the systemic combining approach. The findings reveal novel descriptions of six different business experimentation types. The study also advances our theoretical understanding of how the specific roles of learning, signaling, and convincing dominate each of the experimentation types differently and how each type of business experimentation has a distinct purpose. Furthermore, our findings propose how business experimentation types can be applied as a continuum as part of the cleantech start-ups’ sustainable value creation process. Hence, our study contributes theoretically to our understanding of business experimentation for sustainable value creation and how the different types are applied in cleantech start-ups. We conclude our treatise with managerial implications and outline fruitful future research avenues.

Purpose This study aims to investigate how business-to-business (B2B) companies build brand personality via the products they provide and via their interactions with customers. Design/methodology/approach A multiple case study, which spans 10 years, investigates via interviews, observations, workshops and document analysis how two fast-growing B2B companies selling industrial equipment to manufacturers build brand personality. Findings The studied companies concentrate on different brand personality dimensions depending on the activities in which they engage. By focusing on brand competence in the realm of the actual product and brand warmth in the realm of the augmented product, the companies manage to create a complete and consistent brand personality. Research limitations/implications The research approach provides in-depth knowledge on how the companies build brands for a specific type of B2B product. However, the article's perspective is limited to that of management and therefore does not take customer reactions into account. Practical implications The study describes how firms can build strong B2B brands by emphasizing competence in product design and R&D and warmth in activities related to sales and customer service. Originality/value The study introduces a conceptually consistent view of brand personality in the form of warm and competent brands to the B2B marketing literature. It builds on and contributes to the emerging research on B2B brand personality. By relating the companies' brand-building activities to the type of products they sell, this study illustrates how context affects B2B brand building, and by integrating brand personality theory with product levels and marketing philosophy, it extends previous theory on B2B branding.

Electronic commerce is the selected field to investigate for this thesis, particularly pure player apparel brands. This has been of interest as consumers struggle when shopping online for apparel since they cannot test the product before purchasing with pure players, therefore, there is information asymmetry. Moreover, when consumers lack trust, they may be more hesitant to purchase online due to the perceived risk, therefore, companies should attempt to relieve their doubts. It has been recognized in previous research that electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) could provide guidance and develop confidence during the purchasing process. The aim of this study was to develop an understanding on how consumers perceive online reviews to assure that they will be satisfied with the order. Moreover, there were several factors identified in previous research that could influence the use of online reviews, therefore, those factors were recognized and analyzed in the context of pure players for this study. In addition, the study revealed two factors that influenced the use of online reviews. A qualitative method was utilized, to gain a deeper understanding on consumers’ opinions on the topic. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to provide the opportunity for individuals to further develop their responses. The results suggested that pure player apparel brands should include online reviews. They could improve the mechanism by considering the factors that were identified in this study.

The Metaverse is an immersive, interactive, and collaborative shared virtual 3D environment where people are represented by avatars and interact in real-time. The Metaverse is still an unexplored phenomenon that has recently become interesting to researchers. In general, there is scarce literature regarding the Metaverse, and when it comes to the servicescapes and esports industry, it is much scarcer. Knowing that the video game industry and esports (competitive video gaming), a business that attracts millions of people, are significant parts of the Metaverse, this qualitative research aims to analyze and explain how the Metaverse as a servicescape for esports is understood from the perspective of esports actors. The Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyze eight semi-structured interviews with experienced professionals within the esports industry. It was found that the Metaverse platform could serve as a servicescape for not only the esports industry but potentially for other industries as well. Even though the Metaverse phenomenon is considered to be surrounded by uncertainty and is still developing, it has a great potential for businesses to expand their marketing and business practices online in an immersive, engaging, and innovative way. The findings of this research will contribute to the literature by opening a window to understanding the complexity of the Metaverse platform as a servicescape and esports industry. In addition, these findings can be used to further research the Metaverse platform as a servicescape for marketing and business practices online.

Sedan den 1 januari 2005 skall alla börsbolag inom EU upprätta sina koncernredovisningar

enligt standarder utgivna av International Accounting Standard Board (IASB).

Syftet med standarderna är att kapitalmarknaden effektiveras genom att jämförbarheten

av redovisningshandlingar på den inre marknaden förbättras. IFRS 2 är den andra standarden

som IASB gett ut och heter Aktiebaserade betalningar. IFRS 2 omfattar optionsprogram

vilka är ett sätt för arbetsgivaren att rekrytera, behålla och motivera medarbetare.

Tidigare studier visar att det kan finnas en tendens att bolag överger optionsprogram på

grund av IFRS 2. Detta då IFRS 2 lett till en mer dealjerad redovisning av optionsprogram

och då detta medfört negativa ekonomiska konsekvenser för bolagen på grund av

kostnadsföringen av dessa program. Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva och förklara

hur svenska bolag förhåller sig till IFRS 2 och om detta haft en inverkan på svenska bolags

val att ha kvar optionsprogram. Detta skall ställas mot storleken på bolaget. För att

uppnå studiens syfte har författarna valt att genomföra en kvantitativ studie i form av en

webb enkät. Studien innefattar samtliga bolag i Large –och Small Cap som idag har optionsprogram

och eller som haft optionsprogram utgivna efter 7 november 2002 men

som valt att slopa dessa.

Vidare har en omfattande litteraturinsamling gjorts för att ge en förståelse kring IFRS 2

och den problematik som finns med standarden. Enligt IFRS 2 skall optionsprogram

kostnadsföras enligt verkligt värde. Problematiken uppstår enligt många med de optionsvärderingsmodellerna

som finns för att beräkna det verkliga värdet, exempelvis

Black & Sholes då de inte ger en tillförlitlig värdering. Andra problem som IFRS 2 lett

till är exemplvis att kostnadsföringen av optionsprogram blir för omfattande för de

mindre bolagen då de inte har samma resurser som de större bolagen.

Resultatet visar att de bolag som valt att ha kvar optionsprogram har gjort detta på

grund av att det är ett sätt för dem att locka till sig kvalificerad personal. Att IFRS 2

medfört att resultatet påverkas negativt har ingen betydelse för att nyttan överstiger

kostnaden. De bolag som valt att slopa optionsprogram har gjort detta på grund av

andra faktorer än de redovisningsmässiga och IFRS 2 har inte något med detta val att

göra. Exempelvis anser dessa bolag inte att nyttan överstigit kostnaden och att optionsprogram

inte varit ett bra sätt att motivera personalen på. Att mindre bolag skall ha en

högre tendens till att överge optionsprogram i jämförelse med större bolagen, eller vice

versa, till följd av IFRS 2 är inget som denna studie kunnat utpeka.

On Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and weblogs, consumer activity is increasingly institutionalized, guarded by rules and norms. Consumers take on tasks previously performed by trained media workers, but they also create new activities, emerging as a new breed of media workers, institutionalizing new fields of the media and advertising industries and their associated practices (Dolbec and Fischer 2015). It has been described how amateur workers develop new ethical norms and rules for publishing, by taking journalistic/editorial decisions on what content to publish and how, within their new institutional domain (Abidin & Ots, 2015).

This paper is focused on a specific group of stakeholders – everyday Internet users who manufacture themselves into a new form of social media microcelebrity known as the ‘Influencer’ (Abidin 2015). Since 2005, many young women have taken to social media to craft ‘microcelebrity personas’ as a career – “a new style of online performance that involves people ‘amping up’ their popularity over the Web using technologies like video, blogs and social networking sites” (Senft 2008: 25). In their most basic capacity, Influencers produce advertorials on blogs and social media platforms in exchange for payment or sponsored products and services (Abidin 2015). Owing to their power to shape purchase decisions, their clients have progressed from small home businesses to bluechip companies including Canon, Gucci, and KLM. Until recently, the most effective advertorials are those that are seamlessly woven into the daily narratives Influencers publish on their blogs and social media, such that readers are unable to tell apart ‘paid opinions’ from ‘unpaid’ sentiments (Abidin 2014). However, along with the maturity of the field, there is a gradual standardization of new advertising formats.

The conducted study explores how semi-professional microcelebrity Influencers create advertising market innovations. Researchers have previously described how consumer fans help firms innovate (e.g. Füller et al 2008), and how fan cultures celebrate their favourite brands by creating their own advertisements (Muniz & Schau 2005; for overview see Ots & Hartmann 2015). This paper takes a slightly different approach – rather than seeing consumers as co-creators, it demonstrates how new actors outside the traditional media and advertising industries, make innovations that compete with the incumbents. We focus on these vernacular advertising innovations in the age of social media, and seek to understand how Influencers orientate towards a youth market in the saturated, visually dominated attention economy of Instagram. The findings include a typology of innovative advertising formats emerging outside the traditional media companies, along with their associated publishing rules as defined by the semi-professional Influencers.

The data draws on a larger study of social media Influencers in Singapore since mid-2010, including over a year of intensive participant observation conducted with these Influencers in the flesh in the capacity of various roles. These interactions and observations were archived in extensively detailed field diaries. 120 personal interviews were conducted with Influencers, Influencer management agencies, (prospective) clients, readers, and friends and family of Influencers between December 2011 and July 2013. Social media content from blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, AskFM, and popular public forums was archived until December 2015. Fieldwork entailed continued interaction with other actors involved in the Influencers’ social milieu, including their peers, backend production management, sponsors and advertisers, and readers. As such, although the data is drawn mainly from the textual and visual content of publically accessed blogs and associated social media platforms including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, the analysis is highly contextualised and shaped by long-term ethnographic work among these Influencers. 

This chapter discusses the emerging practices of social media Influencers. In focus are six influential Instagram Influencers who were ‘exposed’ for involving themselves in campaigns aiming to discredit telecommunications providers in Singapore. In the absence of enforced legal boundaries and industry norms regarding advertising formats and advertising ethics, brand scandals are frequent, causing concern among regulators, brand managers, and platform owners. When starting to accommodate commercial brands and contents in social media posts, Influencers are constantly at risk of breaching their contract of trust with their followers. The case study shows how Influencers, followers, and eventually also the brand clients, are sensitive to what they experience as deceptive and unethical behaviours that will put normative pressures onto the Influencers to conform to certain ethical standards.

The new "liquid" media environment involves a range of new professions, practices and practitioners (Deuze 2011). Based on a rich ethnographic study containing personal interviews and participant observation, this paper looks at semi-professional Influencers in the social media marketing industry and asks how these new branding professions and their practices emerge and institutionalize. Specifically, the material draws on data collected between 2011 and 2015 among women Influencers in the ‘lifestyle’ genre in Singapore who advertise products and services in the industry verticals of Fashion, Beauty, and Electronic goods on blogs, Twitter, and Instagram.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore organizational identity as a potential process.

Design/Methodology/Approach: We applied a qualitative method and followed an inductive approach that was applied to a multiple-in-depth-case study for which we conducted semi-structured interviews with 26 members of two organizations, the Swedish consulting company REACH and the Swiss digital agency WONDROUS. Following a narrative approach, both for structuring the empirical findings, as well as conducting the analysis, we used over 16 hours of interviews to create company narratives and subsequently analyzed them in multiple steps in the fashion of a narrative analysis.

Findings: Based on our empirical findings and the empirical analysis, we developed a conceptualization, the Flux Model. We contribute to the existing body of literature by proposing that the Flux Model visualizes the dynamics of how organizational members socially construct organizational identity on the premise of their own (self-)perceptions. By presenting the different parts of the model and their multiple layers, the process of how organizational identity is continuously becoming is illustrated.

Research Limitations/Implications: The scope of our study is restricted to the two case companies in question. If our abstractions from the cases in form of the Flux Model help to better understand the process of organizing, managers become liberated to make deliberate choices about their organizations’ identities. For research this means an even tighter connection to individual psychology and a deepening of the perspective that organizational identity can not only be viewed as something companies have.

Originality/Value: Out of skepticism towards the usefulness of viewing organizational identity as a process, we applied a symbolic interpretivist perspective and allowed for the possibility that we might not find a process after all. The primary value of this study we believe to be found in the extensive presentation of empirical data, together with our narrative analysis and our conceptual contribution (the Flux Model).

Banks lends money to companies through so called floating charges, which are significant for Sweden. Assets, such as stocks, machines and customer claims are used as collateral. If a company went bankrupt, before the new priority right law was used, the bank was in favour to get the entire loan back. Now, after the law reform, the bank only can insist on getting 55% of the given security. Other creditors are now better prioritised than the banks. The purpose with the law reform is to minimize the unnecessery bankruptencies, for example suppliers that cannot handle the loss when a big customer goes bankrupt.

The purpose of this thesis is to emphasize what expected consequenses the new law will have on the bank’s granting of credit to small and medium sized companies and how these effects will affect the companie’s credit support.

To answer the purpose with this report a qualitative research was made involving interviews with banks. Further a quantitative research, consisting of a inquiry research, addressed to 250 production companies in the Jönköping region was made.

The new priority right law brings several consequences affecting the relationship between banks and companies. Most of the consequences are negative for both banks and companies, as the majority of both parts believes that the banks will demand more securities in the future to ensure their loans. To solve this, new lending out forms, especially factoring and leasing, will be used.

The result of this research shows that most of the purposes with the law reform will not be fulfilled. The largest positive expected effect of the change is that the suppliers will take a smaller damage when a customer goes bankrupt.

The world is not on track to achieve Agenda 2030-the approach chosen in 2015 by all UN member states to engage multiple stakeholders for the common goal of sustainable development. The creation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) arguably offered a new take on sustainable development by adopting hybrid and principle-based governance approaches, where public, private, not for profit and knowledge-institutions were invited to engage around achieving common medium-term targets. Cross-sector partnerships and multi-stakeholder engagement for sustainability have consequently taken shape. But the call for collaboration has also come with fundamental challenges to meaningful engagement strategies-when private enterprises try to establish elaborate multi-stakeholder configurations. How can the purpose of businesses be mitigated through multi-stakeholder principle-based partnerships to effectively serve the purpose of a common sustainability agenda? In selecting nine scholarly contributions, this special issue aims at advancing this discourse. To stimulate further progress in business studies, this introductory essay, furthermore, identifies three pathways for research on multi-stakeholder engagement processes in support of the Decade of Action along three coupling lines: multi-sector alignment (relational coupling), operational perception alignment (cognitive coupling) and goal and strategic alignment (material coupling).

Background: The day-of-the-week effect has been a widely studied field ever since the concept was introduced in the early 1970s. Historically, negative returns on Mondays have been the most common finding. In line with improved market efficiency, researchers have started to question the existence of this anomaly.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the weak-form efficiency level within the Swedish stock market by using sophisticated statistical approaches. The authors aim to investigate if the day-of-the-week effect was demonstrated between 2000 and 2017.

Method: To properly provide answers to this investigation, a quantitative study has been conducted on the OMXS30. The data has been analysed by using different kind of sophisticated statistical methods such as GARCH and TGARCH.

Conclusion: The results show that the day-of-the-week effect was not demonstrated within the OMXS30 during this time period, providing evidence for improved market efficiency.

In recent years, the financial investments into sponsorships have increased. This is also significant on a local level. Both corporations and local authority invest extensively in sponsorships today and a growing interest has risen in sport event sponsorships. Although more financial resources are invested in sponsorships, there is a lack of sponsorship evaluation. There are evaluation methods present, but the literature has neglected to explain how local corporations and local authority evaluates a sponsorship of a international sport event hosted in a local geographical area.

The purpose of this thesis is therefore to explore how local authority and corporate sponsors evaluates their sponsorship investment of a global sport event arranged in a local geographical area. The research method of this thesis was qualitative and the primary data was collected by conducting a multiple case study including four local corporate sponsors and one local authority sponsor of the cross-country World Cup in Ulricehamn 2017.

The findings revealed that the local corporate sponsors evaluated the sponsorship by using non-numerical, hence intangible metrics, while the local authority sponsor used numerical metrics, hence more tangible metrics. 

Abstract Background: Smart beta is one of the most popular investment strategies at the moment and projections show that the money invested in Smart Betas will continue to increase. The reason for the growing popularity is that it is a hybrid between active and passive investment. Where the Smart Beta strategy avoids the flaw of holding too many overvalued stocks in passive investing as well as reducing the management fees that comes with active investments. There are many different ways to construct a Smart beta. Several studies have been done to see if there is a possibility to create a Smart Beta based on ROE and they have all showed positive results. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if a Smart Beta based on ROE would perform better than the Swedish market. This thesis will also investigate which are the optimal weights for the Smart Beta. Method: Three different strategies are used in order to select stocks for the portfolios these portfolios are weighted in three different weightings. The performance of all portfolios are calculated through backtesting and then compared against the benchmark OMXSGI. Conclusion: The average return of the betas is higher than the comparable index, however they have taken a small amount of additional risk. The risk-adjusted measurements show that the extra risk is compensated with additional return, since the Smart Betas have higher average risk-adjusted measurement ratios. Therefore, a Smart Beta based on ROE should be created. The Last ROE strategy shows that the best returns and risk-adjusted returns and the Sharpe weighting (SW) was substantially better than the other weightings. Although, the time-horizon is relative short and it needs more research in order to make a conclusion with more certainty. 

Purpose - Currently, the hype surrounding digitalization proclaims that the way in which companies create and capture value will change dramatically. Companies that adjust their business models to embrace digital technologies will need different skill sets and competences. Current research tends to focus on the impact of digital technologies on corporations or more generally the labor market, but the authors lack detailed insights into how companies perceive this development to influence their needs regarding employee qualifications. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore how companies perceive the impact of digital technologies on the education and training needs of current and future employees.

Design/methodology/approach - This study draws on eight case studies from the food industry. It focuses on one occupation certified within the German “dual system” of vocational education and training (VET), the machine and plant operator with focus on food technology.

Findings - The findings suggest that the impact of different digital technologies on employees’ job positions, working tasks and training needs is carefully considered in decisions regarding the implementation of digital technologies. Despite some company- specific contingencies, the perceived implications for VET needs are largely similar across the sample.

Originality/value - This study draws attention to the importance of reviewing VET needs in relation to the decision of implementing digital technologies.

Current changes in the media industries not only provide a range of new business opportunities for entrepreneurial start-ups, they also force legacy media firms to engage in corporate entrepreneurship and (re-)develop their entrepreneurial orientation as part of their strategic renewal. In recent years, media entrepreneurship has emerged as an area of study within media business studies, but it still lacks theoretical anchoring. While in mainstream entrepreneurship research entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has developed into a highly prominent theoretical concept, it has been largely overlooked for the study of media firms to date. This paper introduces entrepreneurial orientation to media business studies. It characterizes EO’s different dimensions and reviews relevant studies, and then illustrates the dimensions of the EO concept by drawing on the case example of a European online publisher. The case shows how different dimensions of EO are at play in the media firm and how the relevance of these dimensions is not stable over time, but in constant flux. Such process perspective on EO is outlined as a major future research opportunity for media entrepreneurship studies.

This editorial reviews current research about media entrepreneurship and introduces the four papers published in this special issue. These papers move the emerging academic field of media entrepreneurship forward by outlining the relevance of context for enhancing our understanding of entrepreneurial phenomena, by introducing the theoretical concept of ‘entrepreneuring as emancipation’, by analyzing the institutionalization of media entrepreneurship education, and by categorizing different investment types in corporate entrepreneurship. The editorial concludes by calling for continuing efforts to theory-building to further develop the field.

This book series publishes monographs and edited volumes devoted to studies on entrepreneurship, innovation, as well as business development and managementrelated issues in Africa. Volumes cover in-depth analyses of individual countries, regions, cases, and comparative studies. They include both a specific and a general focus on the latest advances of the various aspects of entrepreneurship, innovation, business development, management and the policies that set the business environment. It provides a platform for researchers globally to carry out rigorous analyses, to promote, share, and discuss issues, findings and perspectives in various areas of business development, management, finance, human resources, technology, and the implementation of policies and strategies of the African continent. Frontiers in African Business Research allows for a deeper appreciation of the various issues around African business development with high quality and peer reviewed contributions. Volumes published in the series are important reading for academicians, consultants, business professionals, entrepreneurs, managers, as well as policy makers, interested in the private sector development of the African continent.

This chapter provides an introduction to this edited volume and its main themes Context, Challenges, and Cases. It briefly introduces the different chapters included in each of these themes.

This introductory chapter addresses manangement challenges across different types of African organizations. Based on a literature review of how management challenges in Africa have been studied to date, it introduces this volume´s three parts - Practices, Processes and Performance. It also gives a brief insight of the chapters that discuss these challenges in detail.

This book focuses on management challenges in different types of companies, ranging from small to large, from private to public and from service to manufacturing in the African context. With empirical data from countries as diverse as Rwanda, Kenya and Ethiopia, it discusses the increasing economic importance of the African continent, covering relevant topics on sustainability and environmental issues, exports, logistics, HR issues, innovation and financial reporting. Through different conceptual insights and empirical case studies, the research presented serves as a useful resource for academics, students, and policy-makers interested in in-depth studies on management challenges in Africa.

Current research commonly investigates two different growth strategies, organic growth and growth by acquisitions. Studies on acquisition-based growth typically draw on cross-sectional quantitative studies of large US-based firms, treating all types of acquisitions as one mode. Our study takes a different approach, and explores different growth strategies of a smaller sample of medium-sized companies drawing on a longitudinal, qualitative design. This research design allows us to identify eight different growth modes. Thereby, we illustrate that dynamic growth processes in medium-sized firms are much more diverse and complex than commonly assumed.

Current research commonly investigates two different growth modes, organic growth and growth by acquisitions. Studies on acquisition-based growth typically draw on cross-sectional quantitative studies of large firms that treat all acquisitions the same. Our study takes a different approach, and explores different growth modes of a smaller sample of medium-sized companies drawing on a longitudinal, qualitative case-study design. This research design allows us to identify eight different growth modes that companies combine in unique ways over time. Thereby, we illustrate that patterns of dynamic growth in medium-sized firms are much more diverse and complex than commonly assumed.

In this chapter, we argue that well-conducted qualitative research can play an important role in advancing the field of media management through theory building. We outline and compare different perspectives to qualitative research and how these can be used in terms of sampling, data collection and analysis. We also introduce relevant criteria to assess the quality of qualitative research and present some ethical considerations.

As a concept stemming from practice, business development has received scarce academic attention. In this paper, we explore core business development activities of micro-firms and the challenges they perceive in conducting them. Based on interviews with 30 micro-firms, we identify three core business development activities that leverage the firm's resource base, complemented by three support activities that secure and organize the firm's resources. We find the business development activities to be tightly related to the three practices of leveraging, securing and organizing resources. We also identify three important contextual influences on business development in micro-firms: industry, age and if the firm is in an incubator. Our findings contribute to developing a conceptualization and theorization of business development for micro-firms, which is relevant as the vast majority of companies worldwide are micro-firms, but many never embark on a growth path. Based on our results, we outline practical implications, for example, how companies could overcome their perceived lack of time and an agenda for future research encouraging further studies comprising micro-firms with different qualities.

The interface of the organization and its industry constitutes a vital space for development. Conducting a systematic literature review, we confirm that management research has paid rather little attention to exploring the relationship between the industry context and family business management to date (see also Le Breton Miller & Miller, 2015). Despite this lack of research, many scholars and practitioners alike could name numerous family businesses that hold world class in their niches. Given the pace of environmental changes, there is a clear need to better understand the interface of family business and industry over time. Building on our findings from a longitudinal, in-depth case study of a 4th generation family business and its niche of high-quality Scandinavian Design furniture, we propose a multi-level model of co-evolution that comprises not only the micro- and macro-levels of family business and its industry, but also the meso-level of inter-actor cooperation in its market niche.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore individual career management by family members in the context of their family firms.

Design/methodology/approach: The interpretative interview study of family members active in family businesses explores how this context affects the choice, planning, goals and development of family members' careers in their family business.

Findings: The authors find that career management in the family business setting focuses on fulfilling the family business goals rather than the personal goals of family members. Career management is rather reactive and less self-directed than current literature on career development recommends. Based on the results, the authors develop a process model for individual career management in the family business context.

Originality/value: Little is known about individual career management of family members in a family business context, as research on careers in family firms has so far focused mainly on transgenerational succession. The authors explore how in family firms, the trend towards self-directed, individual career planning is in tension with a commitment to the family business and its legacy.

The purpose of this study is to follow up on the ‘comply-or-explain’ principle more than two decades after the Cadbury Report was published. We investigate the rate of compliance and quality of explanations provided in case of non-compliance in the context of Sweden. This country has been pointed out as a role model for corporate-governance practices. The empirical study comprises the 241 companies listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm in 2014. We analyze the quality of the explanations in the light of the Swedish Corporate Governance Code. Our findings confirm that the comply-or-explain principle in Sweden is effective. Around half of the companies use the possibility to deviate from the Code. A clear majority of the explanations, 71.8%, are informative. This study provides insights for academic scholars and policy-makers alike how the comply-or-explain principle works in a country that is viewed as a role model for how corporate governance should be implemented. In addition, the high-quality explanations provided by listed companies on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm can serve as an inspiration for other listed companies in European countries, thereby outlining a contribution to business practice.

Entrepreneurship education has witnessed a shift from teaching about entrepreneurship in different forms towards encouraging the action and activity-based training of students for entrepreneuring through business plan writing on fictitious or concrete ventures to enacting these ideas in real life. For example, Ollila and Williams-Middleton (2011) describe ways in which a venture creation approach allows students to “test the waters” while reflecting on real-life situations and while exploring entrepreneurial behaviours (see also Williams-Middleton & Donnellon, 2014). Though there has been a growing focus on simulating or experiencing entrepreneurial behaviours through entrepreneurship education, little space has been given to students’ reflexivity in positioning themselves as learning subjects beyond educational settings. Yet very often questions posed by our students in the classroom, for example when listening to entrepreneurs telling them about their venture journeys, start with a “why” statement, clearly expressing their desire to engage with reflexivity. Reflexivity is then not only understood as a kind of generalized self-awareness (Swan, 2008, p. 393) but also as a concern for the world at large (Swan, 2008, p. 394). 

Previous research has argued that with growing size firms increasingly rely on more formalised planning and control systems. This paper addresses what kind of systems high-growth companies use and perceive as most beneficial for their growth. A pilot study served to identify which planning and control systems medium-sized firms most commonly employ as well as how these are perceived in relation to business growth. Findings from the pilot study were translated into an e-mail survey administered to the entire population of medium-sized high-growth firms ('gazelles') in Sweden, generating a response rate of 35.2%. In the pilot study, three formalised planning and control systems were identified as most commonly used. A clear majority of the surveyed gazelles use one or several of these systems and perceive them as important for achieving continuous growth. However, the integration of these systems (strategic planning, management systems, and enterprise resource planning) was rather low. Overall, strategic planning was the system relied on the most, while management systems were used the least. The originality of this paper lies in the exploration of the use of different formalised planning and control systems and their perceived relation to high-growth.

Whereas media ownership issues have interested scholars for decades, research has largely ignored the implications of specific ownership forms on the corporate governance of media companies, that is, how these companies are directed and controlled. This article attempts to address this gap by exploring the corporate governance of the ownership form of business foundations—a type of ownership that is increasing in different countries around the world. We analyze the corporate governance of three business foundations in the Swedish newspaper sector that together hold 26% of the market and outperform their industry peers. The control function, which is at the heart of corporate governance, is typically performed by companies’ owners. However, foundations do not have a physical person as owner; thus, this control function is replaced by the foundation’s charter, which stipulates the aim of the foundation’s business activities. When steered by professional top management, the charter’s long-term orientation facilitates the careful implementation of strategic directions without short-term performance pressures. We conclude the article by outlining several advantages and disadvantages of this ownership form for the media industry. 

How entrepreneurship is portrayed in media can play an important role for how attractive it is perceived as a career and/or investment option. Communities need people of all ethnicities to be interested in starting businesses because economic development is tied so closely to community development. To date, little to no community development literature has been published about how newspapers frame ethnic minority entrepreneurs and how that might affect the community. This article examined such framing and its implications. This article presents a textual analysis of how ethnic minority entrepreneurship is represented in US newspapers included in the LexisNexis Academic Database from 2003 to 2008. Overall, ethnic minority entrepreneurship, including the struggles the entrepreneurs face, is almost invisible in the newspapers, despite its importance for the economy. From the articles that were published in this field, important patterns were identified. The article concludes with suggestions about how community development officials can assist ethnic minority entrepreneurs.

In this paper, we introduce discourse analysis as a method to investigate on different levels of analysis how the major German newspapers discuss the phenomenon of 'entrepreneurial spirit', and how this discussion changes over the years 1997-2003 (and thus before, during and after the Internet boom). We relate the analysis to the context of entrepreneurship in Germany over the same period and conclude with implications for policy-makers.

Background:  Over the years, traditional entrepreneurs started businesses due to either pull or push factors within their environments. Research has been carried out in profiling different types of entrepreneurs and their characteristics. The social media influencers are new forms of entrepreneurs who recently appeared due to changes in the technological environments. The existence of social media platforms has enhanced the possibility of entrepreneurial activities online. The platforms are available for everyone, but some have more entrepreneurial orientation or characteristics than others.

 Purpose: The aim of this research is to measure the entrepreneurial orientation and the characteristics of social media users, compare social media influencers with other social media users, to determine if differences exist.

Methods:       This research uses the Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation scale (Bolton & Lane, 2012) and the Individual Personality Traits measuring scale (Al Mamun, Bin Yusoff, & Ibrahim, 2018). This is a deductive study, testing the above-mentioned theories on social media users, and a quantitative study aided using data collected from online survey.

Conclusion:   The results of this study show that Social Media Influencer have higher entrepreneurial traits than non-Social Media Influencers.  The result also supports the three-factor structure and satisfactory reliability of the IEO scales and subscales. Subsequently, I found out that non-SMIs do create online contents and carry out entrepreneurial activities online too.