The Role of Law, Corruption and Culture in Investment Fund Manager Fees

This paper considers an international sample of venture capital and private equity funds to assess the role of law, corruption and culture in setting fund manager fees in terms of their fixed management fees, carried interest performance fees, clawbacks of fees and cash versus share distributions of fees. The data highlight a role of legal conditions in shaping fees paid to fund managers. In countries with better legal conditions, fixed fees are lower, carried interest fees are higher, clawbacks are less likely, and share distributions are more likely. These findings suggest legal conditions help to align the interests of managers and shareholders. More specifically, we examine which element of legal conditions matter most, and discover that corruption levels play a pronounced role in shaping fund manager fee contracts. We also show that cultural forces such as Hofstede's measures of power distance and uncertainty avoidance likewise play a role in influencing fees.Managerial Compensation; Incentive Contracts, Private Equity; Law and Finance

The Role of Law Corruption and Culture in Investment Fund Manager Fees.

This paper considers an international sample of venture capital and private equity funds to assess the role of law, corruption and culture in setting fund manager fees in terms of their fixed management fees, carried interest performance fees, clawbacks of fees and cash versus share distributions of fees. The data highlight a role of legal conditions in shaping fees paid to fund managers. In countries with better legal conditions, fixed fees are lower, carried interest fees are higher, clawbacks are less likely, and share distributions are more likely. These findings suggest legal conditions help to align the interests of managers and shareholders. More specifically, we examine which element of legal conditions matter most, and discover that corruption levels play a pronounced role in shaping fund manager fee contracts. We also show that cultural forces such as Hofstede`s measures of power distance and uncertainty avoidance likewise play a role in influencing fees.Managerial Compensation; Incentive Contracts; Private Equity; Law and Finance;

Efficient Management of Water Utilities : Sustainability Analysis of Swedish Performance

In Sweden, a sustainability index (SI) has been used since 2014 as an internal benchmark management tool to analyse and steer municipal water and wastewater (WW) activities toward sustainability. A consistent trend in national results from SI across all years is that while day-to-day operations are working well, there are deficiencies in strategies for long-term planning. The nationalresults show that only 2 per cent of the 184 participating water utilities in the 2020 SI results have a good level of performance (green) and meet the requirements for sustainable climate adaptation and flood security, and only 4 per cent of 184 were green and meet the requirements for sustainablestatus of the WW facilities”. Therefore, the present work investigates and focuses on water utilities that demonstrate good ability to improve their long-term sustainability outcomes. The goal of the thesis was to present these utilities as good learning examples to inspire other utilities seeking to improve their outcomes, and to clarify and flesh out the driving factors, strategies,and important explanations for their success, as well as the challenges they face.Four studies were conducted. The first study addressed the project of future water supply in Växjö after 10 years of operation as an evidence-based case study for long-term planning. The second addressed the evaluation of the use of the SI tool through eight case studies. The third study examined in depth 10 selected WW organisations that improved their “climate adaptation and floodsecurity” parameter. The fourth study examined 11 selected organisations that have improved the status of their WW facilities. Document analysis and semi-structured interviews with managers of the organisations were conducted in all four studies. It was found that WW organisations need a complete picture when using their results for discussions with policy makers or for benchmarking. It was also found that the role of the farsightedmanager was important and evident throughout the process, as was the investment in quality and innovative technology; that the current WW fee system does not cover future maintenance costs; and that there is intergenerational inequity due to the current low level of reinvestment. Some unique strategies that had a major impact on the organisations’ success were: the formation of aninterdisciplinary group in two organisations, setting aside 1 per cent of replacement value annually for reinvestment, a quick decision-making process and loose budget, and more specific renewal plans (namely three- to five-year plans). Some of the challenges cited are division of responsibility, economic challenges, and the need to prioritise. Most respondents expressed a desire forreinvestment funds to be established. They also complained about the inadequacies of WW legislation and called for changes. They also stressed the importance of clarifying the division of responsibilities in the legislation

High-Speed Mobile Networks for Modern Farming and Agricultural Systems

ABSTRACT High-Speed Mobile Networks for Modern Farming and Agricultural Systems J.Santos Najar-Ramirez High-speed mobile networks are necessary for agriculture to inventory individual plant health, maximize yield and minimize the resources applied. More specifically, real-time information on individual plant status is critical to decisions regarding the management of resources reserved and expended. This necessity can be met by the availability of environmental sensors (such as humidity, temperature, and pH) whose data is kept on storage servers connected to static and mobile local area networks. These static and mobile local area networks are connected to cellular, core and satellite networks. For instance, agricultural experts remotely working on vast acreage farms from business offices or while traveling can easily connect their notebook computers and other portable devices to these networks in order to check farm status, send email, read industry news or arrange a visit to neighbor farms or suppliers. Today, several mobile phone companies offer broadband service with 2Mbps downlink in rural and dense urban areas, however, they do not typically exist in farm areas. Although these networks (such as 802.11ac/n, 3G, 4G, etc) are significant achievements, they do not meet the projected needs of the agricultural industry. The present use model of high-speed networks for email and multimedia content, together with agriculture’s expected intensive use of real-time plant and environmental condition monitoring, with statistics/plots and real-time high resolution video, necessitates a highly integrated and highly available networked system. For agricultural experts, attentive to market needs, seamless high-speed wireless communication ‘anywhere, anytime at any speed’ is critical to enhancing their productivity and crop yields