Governance, delegation or constellation?: An empirical study of corporate governance in a Swedish municipal corporation in the waste industry

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Abstract

Corporate governance studies are dominated by a delegation view stating that governance rights originate from the owners and are delegated to agents, such as the board and the chief executive officer (CEO). We contrast this view with a constellation view where rights are located among governance actors. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the relevance of these two dichotomous views. Using a structured induction method on a single case study of a Swedish municipal corporation we abstracted three concepts: octopus governance, interactive governance and potentiality of governance. By relating them to the two views we conclude that the constellation view of governance is empirically more relevant under moderate situations, while the delegation view is more relevant in dramatic situations.

Keywords: Delegation, Constellation, Governance Rights, Municipal Corporation, Sweden

Authors’ individual contribution: Conceptualization — S.-O.Y.C. and E.S.; Methodology — S.-O.Y.C. and E.S.; Writing — S.-O.Y.C. and E.S.; Project Administration — S.-O.Y.C. and E.S.; Funding Acquisition — S.-O.Y.C. and E.S.

Declaration of conflicting interests: The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

JEL Classification: G34, D02, D21, L32, P12

Received: 08.03.2024
Accepted: 20.09.2024
Published online: 24.09.2024

How to cite this paper: Collin, S.-O. Y., & Smith, E. (2024). Governance, delegation or constellation?: An empirical study of corporate governance in a Swedish municipal corporation in the waste industry [Special issue]. Corporate Ownership & Control, 21(3), 45–59. https://doi.org/10.22495/cocv21i3siart4