Sven-Olof Yrjö Collin

Ethnic and gender diversity, process and performance in groups of business students in Sweden’

This article investigates the complex interrelation between ethnic and gender diversity, process and performance among groups of business students. The article is based on an empirical survey of business students working on a complex assignment in groups of two to five in a small Swedish university. The results indicate that gender diversity leads to positive group outcomes, while ethnic diversity appears to create negative group outcomes. Intervening process variables, such as group communication, conflict and effectiveness in problem solving, were not found to be influenced by diversity, or to influence group outcomes. While the non‐influence of intervening variables can probably be explained by methodological difficulties, the negative outcome for ethnic diversity indicates a need to help students better manage ethnic diversity in order to reap its benefits.

Window of entrepreneurship : explaining the influence of corporate governance mechanisms on corporate entrepreneurship in two riding schools

The concept of window of entrepreneurship is used in order to explore the relationship between corporate governance and corporate entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a propensity, which can be triggered or terminated through the influence of corporate governance mechanisms. The window of entrepreneurship expresses the temporary character of entrepreneurship, indicating that a firm can open or close the firm for entrepreneurial action. We find indications of the window of entrepreneurship in two riding schools, one governed by a private firm and one governed by an association. The mechanism of the board of directors was found to be conducive for opening the window in the two cases. The mechanism of the product market and the market for managerial labour influenced the closing of the window. Thereby it has been indicated that corporate entrepreneurship is a propensity that can be triggered and terminated.

The auditor as consigliere in family firm

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop and test a concept of auditor as consigliere in family firms, that captures additional functions to monitoring, those of advice, mediating, and convey ...

Why reduce profit? Accounting choice of impairments in Swedish listed corporations

Positive accounting theory and institutional theory are used in conjunction in order to explain accounting choice. The theory is applied on IAS 36 (impairment of assets), and tested on a sample of listed Swedish corporations. We find that the choice is mainly induced by agency and general business factors and to a slighter degree by institutional factors. Especially, we find that institutional influence will be stronger when it is in the interest of important stakeholders; that impairments can be used as a mean of signalling trust to absent owners and that the institutional element of tradition cannot be tested separately from the agency element of opportunism.