Institutional Investors in Swedish Corporate Governance
The main contribution of this book is empirical. The three studies included all contribute to the relatively limited extant evidence on the governance role played by different classes of institutional investors in a market characterized by shareholder-oriented governance, such as the Swedish one, in particular by considering the role of the shareholder-constituted nomination committee.
The first study shows how the domestic traditional institutional investors active on the Swedish market have had an impact on the governance of listed firms by demonstrating that their involvement in the nomination committees are related to subsequent increases in the proportion of women directors.
The second study shows how activist hedge funds also engage, but that the end result of their involvement in investee firms tend to be a takeover.
The third study, meanwhile, suggests that foreign traditional institutional investors appear more disinclined to engage in governance matters, as evidenced e.g. by their reluctance to participate in the nomination committees of listed firms. As such, there appear to be clear differences in the level of governance engagement between classes of institutional investors as well as the firm-level effects of this engagement.
Mikael Ehne pursued doctoral studies at the Stockholm School of Economics from the end of 2013 until April 2018 when he passed away. Mikael’s conscientious work on the importance and role of institutional investors in Swedish corporate governance had come a long way and was the object of final revisions with the supervisory committee. In line with the express will of his immediate family, his manuscript for a dissertation is now published posthumously.