Municipal corporations can be seen as a method of disintegrating municipal operations, but retaining control through those corporations. We assume that the municipal influence of the corporation can be described through the concept of governance strategy. Through a case study of seven corporations in one Swedish municipality, we found that emphasis was put on corporate strategy as a governance mechanism and that the board only retained a latent capacity. Furthermore, financial control and executive compensation were hardly ever used as governance mechanisms, which led us to formulate the ’chamber concert’ hypothesis: the use of governance mechanisms is influenced by traditions, norms, knowledge and governance needs. Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

In recent years, the local government sector in European countries has undergone important changes involving, among other things, the externalisation of local public service provision through various forms of corporatisation, public-public collaboration, public-private partnerships and contracting out. An important consequence of these institutional changes has been the recasting of local governance systems through the need for increased cooperation between public and private actors. This article addresses these matters with comparative reference to the experience in Italy and Sweden. In doing so, it considers local governments in their constitutional and legal contexts, leading to more detailed discussions of their externalisation initiatives and resultant organisational forms and governance arrangements. Issues of ownership have been important concerning the significance of 'community' and 'place' in the management of public affairs. © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

The demand for information and transparency from listed corporations has recently increased. In spite of an increased demand for mandatory disclosures from regulators, corporations choose to voluntarily disclose additional information in order to satisfy demands from the capital market. However, the extent and content of information in those voluntary disclosures vary across corporations. The aim of this study is to explain the variation in the content of information in voluntary disclosures by listed corporations. The analyses are based on data collected from 431 annual reports from corporations listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during the years 2002 and 2005. The findings support explanations from agency theory and positive accounting theory that size and the debt ratio are positively correlated with the content of information in voluntary disclosures. Corporations with a high share of management ownership disclosed less information than corporations with a low share of management ownership. The study also shows that variations in voluntary disclosures can be explained by factors derived from institutional theory and ’international capital market pressures’. The results indicate that foreign ownership and international listing to some extent have a positive effect on the content of information in voluntary disclosures. Industry was another factor that had a significant influence on voluntary disclosures. One important finding is that regulation to some extent can stimulate voluntary disclosures; our results did not indicate an ’unintended chilling effect’ due to too much regulation. In general, the corporations disclosed more voluntary information after the introduction of IFRS. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Studies of audit fees have focused on the audit market and on the organisational costs related to the production of audit. Audit is, however, an activity that is oriented towards the principal of the organisation, and could therefore be expected to vary according to the relationship between the agent and the principal, and vary according to the organisation of the principal. This is the governance issue of auditing. We hypothesize that audit fees are used mainly as a signalling device by agents and as a means of reducing conflict among agents when communicating to principals, be they citizen, the mass media or interest group. The model is tested on data from Swedish municipalities, thus extending the study of audit fees to political organisations. The test results supported the ordinary propositions of organisation and markets, as well as the proposition of the principal, thus suggesting that audit could be managed without managing auditors.

Municipal corporations exist in an institutional twilight area, being both private and public, a characteristic, which presumably would be reflected in their choice of accounting standards. The literature of accounting choice does not, however, live in a twilight area, but is fragmented into two main divisions: positive accounting theory (PAT) and institutional theory (IT); only in a very few cases do the theories meet or cross-fertilize. We use both theories in this paper and derive hypotheses from them to explain accounting choices made by municipal corporations. Through testing the hypotheses on a sample of 545 Swedish municipal corporations, we indicate the empirical relevance of both PAT and IT. We conclude by suggesting an integrative approach of PAT and IT in an eclectic alternative. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Municipal corporations can be seen as a method of disintegrating municipal operations but retaining control through those corporations. We assume that the municipal influence of the corporation can be described through the concept of governance strategy. Through a case study of seven corporations in one Swedish municipality, we found that emphasis was put on corporate strategy as a governance mechanism and that the board only retained a latent capacity. Furthermore, financial control and executive compensation were hardly ever used as a governance mechanism, which led us to formulate the ‘chamber concert’ hypothesis: The use of governance mechanisms is influenced by traditions, norms, knowledge, and governance needs.

The demand for information and transparency from corporations has increased over the last few years. Today, there are other information dissemination channels besides annual financial statements. One important channel is the Internet. The aim of this study is to explain the extent and content of social disclosure information on corporations' websites. The empirical data in this study is based on annual financial statements and such websites. A multi-theoretical framework is used in order to explain the extent and content of social disclosures on corporate websites. The findings support the positive correlation of size and profitability with the content of social disclosure information on these websites. In general, State-owned corporations disclose more social information on their websites than privately owned corporations do. There are significant differences between different industries. This is true regarding not only the extent of social disclosures, but also their content. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

The demand for information and transparency from corporations has increased over the last few years. Today, there are other information dissemination channels besides annual financial statements. One important channel is the Internet. The aim of this study is to explain the extent and content of social disclosure information on corporations’ websites. The empirical data in this study is based on annual financial statements and such websites. A multi- theoretical framework is used in order to explain the extent and content of social disclosures on corporate websites. The findings support that size and profitability are positively correlated with the content of social disclosure information on these websites. In general, State-owned corporations disclose more social information on their websites than privately owned corporations do. There are significant differences between different industries. This is true regarding not only the extent of social disclosures, but also their content.

The understanding of the board of a corporation and its behavior is limited, despite the board’s societal importance. We present a contingency approach to the board’s functional emphasis, considering a fourth function in addition to monitoring, decision making, and service or resource provision. The additional function is conflict resolution (or principal identification). The approach contrasts with mainstream research by assuming that the firm is a nexus of investments, avoiding the empirical assumption that the shareholder is the sole principal. We derive propositions that are not restricted to any empirical category of a corporation, and address praxis implications for managing functional disharmony.

The understanding of the board of a corporation and its behavior is limited, despite the board’s societal importance. We present a contingency approach to the board’s functional emphasis, considering a fourth function in addition to monitoring, decision making, and service or resource provision. The additional function is conflict resolution (or principal identification). The approach contrasts with mainstream research by assuming that the firm is a nexus of investments, avoiding the empirical assumption that the shareholder is the sole principal. We derive propositions that are not restricted to any empirical category of a corporation, and address praxis implications for managing functional disharmony. © 2008 Virtus Interpress.