Glocal Pharma

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.tandfebooks.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. An exploration of how global pharmaceutical products are localized - of what happens when they become ‘glocal’ - this book examines the tensions that exist between a global pharmaceutical market and the locally bounded discourses and regulations encountered as markets are created for new drugs in particular contexts. Employing the case study of the emergence, representation and regulation of Viagra in the Swedish market, Glocal Pharma offers analyses of commercial material, medical discourses and legal documents to show how a Swedish, Viagra-consuming subject has been constructed in relation to the drug and how Viagra is imagined in relation to the Swedish man. Engaging with debates about pharmaceuticalization, the authors consider the ways in which new identities are created around drugs, the redefinition of health problems as sites of pharmaceutical treatment and changes in practices of governance to reflect the entrance of pharmaceuticals to the market. With attention to ‘local’ contexts, it reveals elements in the nexus of pharmaceutcalization that are receptive to cultural elements as new products become embedded in local markets. An empirically informed study of the the ways in which the presence of a drug can alter the concept of a disease and its treatment, understandings of who suffers from it and how to cure it - both locally and internationally - this book will appeal to scholars of sociology and science and technology studies with interests in globalization, pharmaceuticals, gender and the sociology of medicine

Glocal Pharma

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.tandfebooks.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. An exploration of how global pharmaceutical products are localized - of what happens when they become ‘glocal’ - this book examines the tensions that exist between a global pharmaceutical market and the locally bounded discourses and regulations encountered as markets are created for new drugs in particular contexts. Employing the case study of the emergence, representation and regulation of Viagra in the Swedish market, Glocal Pharma offers analyses of commercial material, medical discourses and legal documents to show how a Swedish, Viagra-consuming subject has been constructed in relation to the drug and how Viagra is imagined in relation to the Swedish man. Engaging with debates about pharmaceuticalization, the authors consider the ways in which new identities are created around drugs, the redefinition of health problems as sites of pharmaceutical treatment and changes in practices of governance to reflect the entrance of pharmaceuticals to the market. With attention to ‘local’ contexts, it reveals elements in the nexus of pharmaceutcalization that are receptive to cultural elements as new products become embedded in local markets. An empirically informed study of the the ways in which the presence of a drug can alter the concept of a disease and its treatment, understandings of who suffers from it and how to cure it - both locally and internationally - this book will appeal to scholars of sociology and science and technology studies with interests in globalization, pharmaceuticals, gender and the sociology of medicine

Delivering performance: the capital market framing of financial numbers from a preparer perspective

This paper investigates the work involved in making sense of specific financial numbers within a preparer organization and conveying this understanding at the corporate-capital market interface. An observation-based study was undertaken of the investor relations team’s interactions during the silent period up to the release of the quarterly report for a large Northern European bank. This rare empirical material was used to trace the successive framing (Goffman, 1974) of the Core Tier 1 ratio, a regulated measure of capital adequacy that the case organisation “delivered” on in its quarterly report. We argue, in contrast to prior literature, that preparers of corporate financial reporting are limited in their choices of the economic reality they present by the very process of constructing a meaning of financial numbers. The process of framing involved anchoring specific numerical representations to perceived intraorganizational realities, market audience expectations, as well as past representations of financial performance. We observed how specific interpretations of financial numbers, as expressed in words and phrases that became imbued with meaning, were moved between spatio-temporally separated sites through the circulation of cues. These cues provide a scaffolding for the enactment of interpretational frames within specific situations – and across sites. The development and circulation of cues in interactions between investor relations professionals and numerous other parties at the corporate-capital market interface contribute to making financial numbers meaningfully anchored, widely distributed and influential representations of organizational reality

Markets for Promoting Innovation in Health Care? A Market Practice Study of Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI)

This article critically analyzes public procurement of innovation (PPI) as an instance of using markets or market-like aspects as a means to resolve public concerns. It reports findings from a case of procuring radiation therapy equipment for a university hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. By extending a line of literature built on economic sociology as well as science and technology studies (STS), the study elaborates on public actors’ efforts in framing markets to promote innovation. The case illustrates how the participating actors constructed the notion of innovativeness to be introduced into health care as means of addressing various public concerns. It also reveals the intended—and unintended—consequences of PPI as manifested in various actors’ claims on the value of PPI realized in practice. The study suggests that it is extremely difficult to frame a market for the realization of innovation via procurement as a policy instrument because we cannot predict the ultimate impacts of devices and practices employed in such initiatives. By formulating a practice-based critique of PPI, our study invites important questions about the potentiality of such instruments for governing innovation without delimiting their consequences to the success-or-failure dichotomy as prescribed in predefined tools and strategies

Valuation Studies? Our Collective Two Cents

This article presents the results of a poll made among the members of the editorial and advisory boards of Valuation Studies. The purpose is to overview the topic that is the remit of the new journal. The poll focused on three questions: 1. Why is the study of valuation topical? 2. What specific issues related to valuation are the most pressing ones to explore? 3. What sites and methods would be interesting for studying valuation? The answers to these questions provided by sixteen board members form the basis of the article. Based on these answers, it identifies a number of themes concerning the study of valuation, elaborating on the rationale for attending to valuation, the conceptual challenges linked to this, and the specific issues and sites that deserve further attention

Sambandet mellan revision och kostnaden för lånat kapital i svenska aktiebolag som inte är revisionspliktiga : En kvantitativ studie om revisorns betydelse i svenska mindre aktiebolag

The most common way for small companies in Sweden to finance themselves is through loans from various credit institutions. In recent years, financial crises have affected the regulation of credit and, above all, the limited credit management has affected smaller companies, as they are considered to be a greater risk for creditors. Since the audit obligation was abolished in Sweden in 2010, only 30 percent of the companies are required by law to have an auditor. In addition, 80 percent of all start-ups choose not to hire an auditor. Earlier research suggests that auditing can be an important factor in reducing the risk and thereby the interest cost on lending to small businesses, as an auditor can contribute to ensuring the reliability of the company's financial reports. In addition, previous studies describe that companies that hires auditors who work at a large and well-known audit firm, known as the Big Four auditor, or who have a higher education level, receive a lower interest cost. Since there are no previous quantitative studies based on the Swedish context, this study aims to test and explain whether there is a link between the voluntary audit and the company's interest costs in Sweden. Furthermore, the study aims to test and explain whether the relationship is dependent on the type of auditor that is hired. Through a literature study, three hypotheses are formulated, which are tested in this study using statistical tests. The tests are based on 327 randomly selected companies' annual reports and each hypothesis is tested separately to be able to fulfill the purpose of the study. The result shows that there is a significant correlation between the use of an auditor and a company's interest costs. However, the study does not strengthen previous research on whether a Big Four auditor or an authorized auditor lowers the interest cost of a company. The conclusion of the study is therefore that companies in Sweden that are not required to be audited should hire an auditor to obtain lower costs for borrowed capital, but which type of auditor the company hires is less important. Det vanligaste sättet för mindre företag i Sverige att finansiera sig på är genom lån från olika kreditinstitut. De senaste årtionden har olika finansiella kriser påverkat regleringen kring kreditgivning och främst har den åtstramade kredithanteringen drabbat mindre företag eftersom dessa anses utgöra en större risk för kreditgivarna. Sedan revisionsplikten avskaffades i Sverige år 2010, är det endast 30 procent av de svenska aktiebolagen som enligt lag måste ha en revisor. Dessutom väljer 80 procent av alla nystartade företag att inte anlita någon revisor. Tidigare forskning menar att revision kan vara en viktig faktor för att risken och därmed räntekostnaden vid kreditgivning till små företag ska minska, eftersom en revisor kan bidra med att säkerställa tillförlitligheten i företagets finansiella rapporter. Dessutom beskrivs i tidigare studier att företag som anlitar revisorer som arbetar på en stor och välkänd revisionsbyrå, så kallade Big Four-revisorer, eller som har en högre utbildningsnivå, erhåller en lägre räntekostnad. Då det inte finns tidigare kvantitativa studier som baseras på en svensk kontext syftar denna studie till att testa och förklara huruvida det finns ett samband mellan den frivilliga revisionen och företagets kostnader för lånat kapital i Sverige. Vidare syftar studien till att testa och förklara om sambandet är beroende av vilken typ av revisor som anlitas. Genom en litteraturstudie formuleras tre hypoteser, vilka testas med hjälp av ett flertal statistiska tester. Testerna utgår från 327 slumpmässigt utvalda företags årsredovisningar och varje hypotes testas var för sig för att kunna uppfylla studiens syfte. Resultatet visar att det finns ett signifikant samband mellan anlitandet av en revisor och ett företags kostnader för lånat kapital. Däremot stärker inte studien tidigare forskning angående huruvida anlitandet av en Big Four-revisor eller en auktoriserad revisor sänker räntekostnaden i ett företag. Slutsatsen för studien är därför att icke-revisionspliktiga aktiebolag i Sverige bör anlita en revisor för att erhålla lägre kostnader för lånat kapital, men vilken typ av revisor företaget anlitar är av mindre betydelse.

Klientinflytande vid bankvärdering av privatbostäder

Vid värdering av bostäder används ortsprismetoden. Det innebär att värderaren jämfört tidigare försäljningar i området. Vid en värdering kan klienten försöka påverka värderingen genom klientinflytande. Klientinflytande betyder att klienten försöker ändra värderingen för egen vinning. Syftet med denna uppsats är att få en ökad förståelse för om klientinflytande förekommer i samband med bankvärdering i Sverige och på vilket sätt det yttrar sig. Uppsatsen syfte besvaras genom en kvalitativ metod med hjälp av en semistrukturerad intervju. Data har samlats in med hjälp av åtta respondenter. Respondenterna är registrerade fastighetsmäklare i Karlstad kommun från olika mäklarföretag och är i denna undersökning anonyma. Efter intervjuer och sammanställning av data kunde slutsatser dras. En slutsats är att klientinflytande förekommer och att klienten försöker påverka värderingen genom att påverka valet av jämförelseobjekt. Det gick även att dra en delvis slutsats om att det är vid värderingens platsbesök hos klienten som klientinflytande förekommer. Ytterligare en slutsats är att påverkansmekanismerna expertmakt och informationsmakt är förekommande i Sverige. When valuing homes, a method that can be used is comparing sales method, meaning that the valuer compares previous sales in the area. In a valuation, the client can try to influence the valuation through client influence. Client influence means that the customer tries to change the valuation for their own gain. The purpose of this paper is to gain an increased understanding of whether client influence occurs in correlation with bank valuation in Sweden and in what way it occurs. The purpose of the essay is answered through a qualitative method with the help of a semi-structured interview. The data were collected with the help of eight respondents. The respondents are registered real estate agents in Karlstad municipality from various real estate companies and are anonymous in this survey. After the interviews and compilation of the data, some conclusions could be drawn. One conclusion is that client influence is something that occurs in Sweden and that the client tries to influence the valuation by influencing thechoice of comparison sales. It was also possible to draw a partial conclusion that it is during the valuation's site visit to the client that client influence occurs. Another conclusion is that mechanisms of influence like expert power and information power is something that occurs in Sweden.

Valuation and Calculation at the Margins

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Governing by drugs : Conniving patients, beguiled doctors and disciplining drugs

In April 2001, the Swedish government decided to immediately remove Viagra from the public pharmaceutical reimbursement system (Swedish Book of Statutes 2001, 140). All patients who still wanted their use of these pharmaceuticals to be subsidized were henceforth required to submit individual applications for subsidy to the government itself. This highly publicized and much-debated decision marked a clear break with the established practice whereby prescription drugs that were granted marketing approval were consistently included in the public pharmaceutical benefits scheme. Under this scheme, patients prescribed subsidized drugs paid only a portion of their direct cost. Following the government’s decision, Viagra was still available for purchase in pharmacies by those holding prescriptions, but the patients were now to assume the cost....