We contribute to new knowledge in business administration and corporate law

Since the global financial crisis of 2008, corporate bonds have become an increasingly important source of financing for non-financial companies. Two main factors have been at play in this trend: the decrease in bank lending to non-financial companies and the historically low levels of interest rates. From being a negligible source of external finance a decade ago, the outstanding stock of corporate bonds has reached significant levels also in emerging economies. However, with a few exceptions, the corporate bond markets are still dominated by large non-financial companies worldwide.

In this joint research project between the Karl-Adam Bonnier Foundation and the OECD, the research team studies post-crisis trends, the functioning of corporate bond markets globally and the developments with respect to bondholder rights, as well as small firms’ use of corporate bond markets. The project runs during 2018-2020 and is carried out by Mats Isaksson, Serdar Çelik, and Dr. Gül Demirtaş.

The ability to create an intrapreneurial climate that favors innovation and renewal is central to a company’s continued success. Intrapreneurship Compass (IC) is a 4-year research project that designs, conducts and communicates annual surveys of the intrapreneurial climate in Swedish companies. The aim is to increase our knowledge and strengthen renewal at companies in Sweden. The long-term goal for IC is to become an attractive tool for companies to measure and develop their intrapreneurial climate, thereby improving their renewability and competitiveness.

The research project is co-funded by VINNOVA and carried out by Uppsala University under the leadership of Professor Ivo Zander, Dr. Katarina Blomkvist and Dr. Philip Kappen. The project ended in 2019.

There is a growing interest in so-called Born Globals, exceptionally export-oriented companies that from the outset aim to rapidly establish themselves in several foreign markets. Often they are innovative companies in high-tech industries such as IT, gaming, music or design. The research project Born Globals aims to identify Swedish Born Global companies, analyze their development, and investigate which qualities make them successful in foreign markets.

This research project is being conducted by Professor Magnus Henrekson, Dr. Shon Ferguson and Ph.Lic. Louise Johannesson at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), one of the leading private research institutes in economics in Europe. The project ended in 2018.

In the US, stock options have been crucial for the success of the entrepreneurial sector. In Sweden, however, stock options have been used considerably less and with limited success. The purpose of this research project was therefore to explain why and through which mechanisms stock options can be used to create incentives for different actors to successfully build an innovative company. Within the framework of the project, the major differences in the Swedish and American tax rules for stock options were studied in detail, as well as how options should be taxed.

The research project was conducted by the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), one of the leading private research institutes in Economics in Europe, led by Professor Magnus Henrekson. The project ended in 2016.

A challenge in entrepreneurial research is to measure entrepreneurship. Relying on the proportion of self-employed workers can be problematic, as an overwhelming majority has no or only a single employee, and no ambition to grow. Small businesses have been studied intensively for decades and access to data is widely available. Growth companies, however, have rarely been quantified and therefore not been studied in the same way. Indications show that these types of companies differ conceptually and are influenced differently by economic policies. The purpose of this research project was therefore to investigate how legal regulations and the design of the tax system affect growth-oriented entrepreneurship.

The research project was conducted by the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), one of the leading private research institutes in Economics in Europe, led by Professor Magnus Henrekson. The project was completed in 2015.

This research project has provided important insights into how the public policy agenda of corporate governance needs to adapt to developments in modern equity markets. Based on original empirical research it illustrates key changes with respect to the population of regulated corporations, the markets in which their shares are traded and the varying incentives among institutional investors to engage in truly informed corporate governance.

The project was conducted by Mats Isaksson, Head of the Corporate Affairs Division, and Serdar Çelik, Senior Economist, both at the OECD, and resulted in two reports, namely Who Cares? Corporate Governance in Today’s Equity Markets, and Institutional Investors as Owners: Who are they and what do they do? Their work has had a significant influence on today’s corporate governance debate and inspired further research. The project ended in 2016.