Title: Governance strategies in local government: a study of the governance of municipal corporations in a Swedish municipality

Authors: Sven-Olof Yrjo Collin, Torbjorn Tagesson

Addresses: School of Business and Engineering, Halmstad University, SE-301 18, Sweden. ' School of Business and Engineering, Halmstad University, SE-301 18, Sweden

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: corporate governance; municipal corporations; governance strategies; Sweden; local government; latent capacity; financial control; executive compensation; chamber concert hypothesis; tradition; norms; knowledge; Kristianstad; municipalities; public policy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPP.2010.032303

International Journal of Public Policy, 2010 Vol.5 No.4, pp.373 - 389

Published online: 29 Mar 2010 *

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