Magnus Frostenson

• Frostenson, Magnus; Persson, Mats & Skinnarland, Sol (2024). From Distance to Distance: On How a Master’s Programme in Organisation and Leadership Went Through Pandemic Change. In Puiu, Silvia & Idowu, Samuel O. (Ed.), Online education during COVID-19 and beyond: Opportunities, challenges and outlook. Springer. ISSN 978-3-031-49353-9. p. 211–226. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-49353-9_11. Show summary

  The purpose of the chapter is to describe and analyse the changes of a master’s programme in organisation and leadership in a Norwegian university college before, during and after the pandemic. Already established as a programme with modules and in-callings once a month, enabling half-time distance studies, it underwent changes during the pandemic and found a partly new and more flexible shape after the pandemic had ended. The process is described as a change process which led to permanent new opportunities from a pedagogical and academic perspective. Measures taken to deal with the challenges are analysed and presented as innovative ways of developing the programme as a whole, for example opening up for permanent pedagogical solutions such as increased student responsibility for interaction.

• Lundh, Simon; Seger, Karin; Frostenson, Magnus & Helin, Sven (2023). Accounting as a means to legitimacy: The case of internally generated intangibles. Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management. ISSN 1176-6093. doi: 10.1108/qram-04-2021-0075. Show summary

  - Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the norms that underlie and condition the decisions made by preparers of financial reports. - Design/methodology/approach: This interview-based study illustrates how financial report preparers engage in behaviors linked to the perception of recognition and measurement of internally generated intangible assets by important stakeholders. All of the companies included in the study adhere to International Financial Reporting Standards when creating their consolidated financial statements. The participants selected for the study are involved in accounting decisions related to research and development in accordance with International Accounting Standard (IAS) 38. - Findings: The authors identify the normative assumptions underlying the recognition and measurement of internally generated intangibles, which are based on concerns of consistency, credibility and reasonableness. The authors find that the normative basis for legitimacy in financial accounting is primarily related to cognitive legitimacy and is not of a moral or pragmatic nature. - Originality/value: The study reveals that recognition and measurement of internally generated intangibles in financial accounting relate to legitimacy. The authors identify specific norms that form the basis of this legitimacy, namely, consistency, credibility and reasonableness. These identified norms serve as constraints, mitigating the risk of judgment misuse within the IAS 38 framework for earnings management.

• Frostenson, Magnus (2023). Controlling or constructing business through the Sustainable Development Goals. In Idowu, Samuel O. & Zu, Liangrong (Ed.), The Elgar Companion to Corporate Social Responsibility and the Sustainable Development Goals. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISSN 9781803927350. p. 130–141. doi: 10.4337/9781803927367.
• Frostenson, Magnus (2023). The Performance-Reporting Gap: A Key to Understanding the Relevance of Sustainability Reporting Information to Stakeholders. In Kacanski, Slobodan; Kabderian Dreyer, Johannes & Sund, Kristian J. (Ed.), Measuring Sustainability and CSR: From Reporting to Decision-Making. Springer. ISSN 978-3-031-26958-5. p. 85–93. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-26959-2_9. Show summary

  There is a vague relationship between corporate sustainability performance and reporting. In this contribution, this is discussed in terms of a ‘performance-reporting gap’. The gap is described and analyzed as problematic from an information use and relevance perspective and from an internal sustainability control perspective. An overarching consequence of the gap is that the quality and usability of information in sustainability reports depend on how companies treat the gap. In addition, the gap reflects underdeveloped processes of sustainability control in companies. It is suggested that the gap could be narrowed through clearer accountability structures and controllable sustainability processes within firms, more sophisticated materiality analyses and relevant strategic planning and pursuit of reporting processes.

• Frostenson, Magnus & Johnstone, Leanne (2023). Moving beyond the external face of accountability: constructing accountability for sustainability from within. Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal. ISSN 2040-8021. 14(7), p. 124–151. doi: 10.1108/SAMPJ-04-2022-0198. Show summary

  Purpose Motivated to know more about the internal means through which accountability for sustainability takes shape within organisations (in what ways and by whom), this paper aims to explore how accountability for sustainability is constructed within an organisation during a process of establishing a control system for sustainability. Design/methodology/approach This paper adopts a qualitative case study approach of a decentralised industrial group, operating mainly in Scandinavia, between 2017 and 2020. Both primary and secondary data are used (e.g. document analyses, semi-structured interviews, informal conversations and site visits) to inform the findings and analysis. Findings The findings reveal a multi-faceted path towards accountability for sustainability that involves several concerns and priorities at organisational and individual levels, resulting in a separate sustainability control systems within each subsidiary company. Although hierarchical structures for accountability exist, socialising accountability activities are needed to (further) mobilise sustainable accounts. Practical implications Successful sustainable control systems require employees making sense of formalised accountability instruments (e.g. policies and procedures) to establish their roles and responsibilities in organisations. Social implications This paper proposes socialisation processes as important for driving forward sustainability solutions. Originality/value This study elaborates on the internal accountability dynamic for the construction of sustainable accounts. Its novelty is built upon the interaction of hierarchical and socialising accountability forms as necessary for establishing a control system for sustainability. It furthermore illustrates the relationship between the external and internal pathways of accountability.

• Frostenson, Magnus; Helin, Sven & Arbin, Katarina (2022). Organizational sustainability identity: Constructing oneself as sustainable. Scandinavian Journal of Management. ISSN 0956-5221. 38(3). doi: 10.1016/j.scaman.2022.101229. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In the literature, organizational sustainability identity tends to be treated as something that is ‘engineered’ within business organizations through control, reporting, target setting, strategic communication, and other instruments. Through a case study of a company mainly active within the recycling industry, an alternative understanding is given. A distinct organizational sustainability identity is, rather, a social construct based on perceptions of the core operations as “sustainable in themselves” and collaborative work with customers that is perceived as entailing sustainable solutions. Understood in this way, organizational sustainability identity has relatively little to do with formal controls such as codes, policies, reports used by management to position the company as sustainable. Rather, for organizational members, the process of constructing oneself as sustainable builds on convictions about the core operations and the possession of specific capabilities manifested in customer relations. The article adds to current literature through its constructivistic approach and through identifying underlying beliefs that condition the process of forming an organizational sustainability identity.

• Borglund, Tommy; Frostenson, Magnus; Helin, Sven & Arbin, Katarina (2021). The Professional Logic of Sustainability Managers: Finding Underlying Dynamics. Journal of Business Ethics. ISSN 0167-4544. 182(1), p. 59–76. doi: 10.1007/s10551-021-05000-1. Show summary

  The role of the Sustainability Manager (SM) is expanding. Whether SMs are turning into a new profession is under debate. Pointing to the need for a distinct professional logic to qualify as a profession, we identify what is contained within a professional logic of SMs. Through analyzing ambiguities present in the role of the SMs, we show that there is no specific distinct professional logic of SMs, but rather a meta-construct building on market, bureaucratic, and sustainability logics. In addition, we point to the complex configurations of and relationships between these underlying logics. The complexities also explain why the SMs differ from traditional professions and why it is problematic to talk about a ‘SM profession’. Rather, SMs are ‘organizational professionals’. The article builds on 21 interviews with SMs working for Swedish companies.

• Frostenson, Magnus & Englund, Hans (2021). Performative technologies and the differentiation of professional practice - the teacher example . Arbetsmarknad & Arbetsliv. ISSN 1400-9692. 27(4), p. 49–67. Show summary

  The study concerns the extent and use of instruments for evaluating teachers’ work performance. Based on a questionnaire to 2,000 Swedish teachers, the article points to a varying extent and use of performance measurement techni-ques. Coaching talks, course evaluations, and performance-based remuneration are more common than parent surveys, classroom observations and collegial assessments. The instruments are more common when the principal education organiser is a stock company. The instruments are used by school management for different purposes, primarily for individual salary negotiations. Based on these differences, it is argued that control is a partial explanation for the ongoing differentiation of the teaching profession.

• Frostenson, Magnus (2021). Corporate Social Responsibility in Sweden. In Idowu, Samuel O. (Eds.), Current Global Practices of Corporate Social Responsibility: In the Era of Sustainable Development Goals. Springer. ISSN 9783030683863. p. 351–365. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-68386-3_16. Show summary

  There is now a body of literature covering the history of CSR in Sweden and the shapes that the concept has taken in Swedish business. In recent years, however, a number of overarching trends have influenced the understandings and practices of CSR in Sweden. This chapter identifies such trends and discusses their implications. Thereby it complements earlier descriptions of CSR in welfare states. The chapter identifies three interrelated tendencies affecting how CSR has developed in Sweden: First, the regulatory development including both hard and soft regulation; second, an outspoken governance perspective on CSR, including ownership pressure on business to operate according to sustainability criteria; third, the interwoven demands of the multi-stakeholder context and business concerns that co-exist and define business practices. One conclusion is that CSR in Sweden has become strongly conditioned by institutional and ideological paradigms that define responsible business behavior. Political and multi-stakeholder activism influences CSR thinking to a higher extent today compared to a decade ago. It is obvious that the concept of sustainability has gained ground at the expense of CSR. Swedish companies do not object to being part of the sustainability agenda.

• Frostenson, Magnus & Grafström, Maria (2021). Mediatisation and the construction of what is morally right and wrong in contemporary business. Media, Culture and Society. ISSN 0163-4437. 44(3), p. 532–548. doi: 10.1177/01634437211048369. Show summary

  The recent discussion on mediatisation prompts questions about how it arises and how social spheres are marked by it. In this article, we use business as an example of a social sphere to show that the production of normativity by and through the media is a central aspect of mediatisation. The empirical case of the article is the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Six specific techniques were used by the media to construct the case as an instance of corporate misbehaviour that met public recognition. The techniques are instrumental in forming the predicament of a modern mediatised business sphere, it is argued.

• Persson, Mats & Frostenson, Magnus (2021). Mergers, Acquisitions, and the Marriage Metaphor: Time for a (Re)Look? In Cooper, Gary L. & Finkelstein, Sydney (Ed.), Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. ISSN 978-1-80071-719-0. p. 53–66. doi: 10.1108/S1479-361X20210000020005. Show summary

  As an object of study, mergers and acquisitions are often characterized as containing two entities that in one way or the other become one. Metaphorically, researchers frequently talk about this relationship in terms of a “marriage.” In this chapter, the authors discuss the marriage metaphor with regard to its adequacy in M&A studies. The authors suggest that the metaphor contains strong normative understandings that to some extent condition how we understand M&As. This chapter highlights three dimensions to problematize the metaphor: sequence of events, number of partners, and power relations in a marriage. For each dimension, the underlying metaphorical belief is discussed and a specific risk is identified. The general message is that M&A research should consider more closely the nature of the relationship between the two (or more) parties of M&A to provide a better understanding of which situations that are actually studied.

• Persson, Mats & Frostenson, Magnus (2021). Support and opposition in an attempted higher education merger. Tertiary Education and Management. ISSN 1358-3883. 27, p. 59–72. doi: 10.1007/s11233-021-09065-5. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The study explores an ultimately unsuccessful merger of three Norwegian public university colleges. It shows how social practices of support for and opposition to the merger were the effects of the intersection(s) between why the merger was necessary and how the proposed merger process was enacted. Support and opposition may change during the merger process, since participants move in and out of positions given how the process unfolds. We relate support and opposition to identity. A merger supports attractive identities if it is consonant with overarching normative ideals of higher education and experienced fairness during the merger process. The findings have implications for how we can better understand and explain why some merger initiatives lead to termination instead of a merger.

• Karlsson, Fredrik; Hedström, Karin; Frostenson, Magnus; Prenkert, Frans; Kolkowska, Ella & Helin, Sven (2021). Attempts to share information between public sector organisations over time: A case-based exploration of value conflicts. Information Polity. ISSN 1570-1255. 26(3), p. 289–310. doi: 10.3233/IP-200234. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Despite the importance of inter-organisational information sharing (IOIS) in the public sector, such endeavours often fail. Existing research has shown that the values held by collaborating organisations are one important factor affecting these kinds of initiatives. However, research has sought only to a limited extent to address how value conflicts come into play over time. Therefore, this paper aims to explore how conflicting values shape an inter-organisational information-sharing practice in the public sector over time. Using the local/global network framework, we analyse four years’ worth of information sharing in an inter-organisational advisory group in the context of Swedish nuclear waste management. We conclude that different value conflicts are emphasised to different extents at different points in time. That is, values do not uniformly affect IOIS activities, and such conflicts over time reduce the set of potential IOIS activities. We also conclude that when IOIS activities are driven by an individual organisation’s values, individual value rational activities may co-exist with a dysfunctional long-term IOIS practice.

• Arbin, Katarina; Frostenson, Magnus; Helin, Sven & Borglund, Tommy (2021). Explaining workers’ resistance against a health and safety programme: An understanding based on hierarchical and social accountability. Safety Science. ISSN 0925-7535. 136. doi: 10.1016/j.ssci.2020.105131. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The seemingly paradoxical phenomenon of workers’ resistance to health and safety measures has been explained in various ways, for example through production or efficiency pressure, risk-taking behaviours or problematic safety cultures. This article addresses resistance but analyses it through the lens of hierarchical and social accountability. In a case study of a Swedish paper mill, a health and safety programme is resisted by workers even though it enjoys support from the local trade union. Explanations for this is found in the socialising form of accountability that conditions how workers perceive of work-related health and safety. The aspects of work identity, facilitation and visibility are identified and understood in terms of accountability. Who you are, how you perform work, and what is visualised is filtered and evaluated through horizontal relationships rather than in terms of hierarchical accountability to the company.

• Frostenson, Magnus (2020). Accounting Systems and Integration of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into Corporate Operations. In Rendtorff, Jacob Dahl (Eds.), Handbook of Business Legitimacy. Responsibility, Ethics and Society. Springer. ISSN 978-3-030-14621-4. p. 1–15. doi: https:/doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68845-9_110-1. Show summary

  Following the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), many companies claim to adopt them in one way or the other. Guided by the “SDG Compass” and other tools, companies are advised to go through a process of trying to understand the SDGs, defining priorities, setting goals, integrating, and reporting and communicating the results. The article points to the nature of implementing the SDGs in business, including going from macro to micro goals, managerialism, and instrumental rationality, all implicitly present in the discourse of SDGs. Such an understanding on how to implement the SDGs, however, requires a strong role of the accounting system of the firm. Based on a theoretical framework, the various roles of accounting assumed in the managerial and instrumental approach to the SDGs are discussed. These roles include the potential of the accounting system to territorialize (sustainability) issues, mediate these to other arenas or higher-order contexts, adjudicate between success and failure, and subjectivize or incentivize people within the organization. The problem of playing out these roles in relation to the SDGs is discussed, as well as the perils of doing it, including the risk of losing sight of ethical business conduct as an action-guiding principle.

• Frostenson, Magnus & Englund, Hans (2020). Teachers, performative techniques and professional values: how performativity becomes humanistic through interplay mechanisms. Cambridge Journal of Education. ISSN 0305-764X. 50(6), p. 695–710. doi: 10.1080/0305764X.2020.1761943. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In recent years, research has pointed to the development of ‘post-performative’ teachers and cultures within the education system. This article provides explanations for how it is possible that teachers marked by performative rationality also hold and enact seemingly humanistic professional values. The study points to three interplay mechanisms that reconstitute teachers’ understandings of the role that the techniques and values play, including a reconstruction of professional values in performative terms. Thus, the article provides an explanation for the alignment of performativity and humanism in ambiguous school contexts.

• Borglund, Tommy; Prenkert, Frans; Frostenson, Magnus; Helin, Sven & Du Rietz, Sabina (2019). External facilitators as ‘Legitimizers’ in designing a master's program in sustainable business at a Swedish business school: A typology of industry collaborator roles in RME. The International Journal of Management Education. ISSN 1472-8117. 17(3). doi: 10.1016/j.ijme.2019.100315. Show summary

  This article offers new knowledge on the role of industry as external facilitators in the case of designing responsible management education (RME). Drawing on a case of a Swedish business school that developed a two year master's profile in sustainable business, we find that industry partners acted as external facilitators in the form of ‘Legitimizers’. This type of external facilitator, Legitimizer, complements Vazquez-Brust and Yakovleva’s (2017) existing categories: ‘Guides’, ‘Monitors’, ‘Enablers’, and ‘Networkers’. Based on the findings, we propose that business can take on four types of legitimizing roles in academia – business collaboration: The Visitor, The Planner, The Co-operator, and The Co-educator. We further identify various forms of legitimacy, particularly cognitive and pragmatic, that the corporate activities and interactions generate. Interestingly, in the case of RME, companies are instrumental to legitimizing the education, rather than being the ones seeking legitimacy.

• Englund, Hans; Frostenson, Magnus & Sutter Beime, Kristina (2019). Performative Technology Intensity and Teacher Subjectivities. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. ISSN 0031-3831. 63(5), p. 725–743. doi: 10.1080/00313831.2018.1434825. Show summary

  Critical educational literature suggests that an increased reliance upon neoliberally inspired management technologies transforms the very foundations from which images of the ideal teacher are constructed. The purpose of this paper is to add to this literature by (i) identifying and analysing a number of theoretical qualities associated with performative technologies, and (ii) discussing how such qualities contribute to the emergence of performative teacher subjectivities. Drawing upon the findings from a qualitative interview study into the extensive use of performative technologies in a Swedish upper secondary school, we discuss four key roles of performative technologies—referred to as territorializing, mediating, adjudicating, and subjectivizing—and the intensity by which they play out such roles. A key conclusion is that the intensity by which performative technologies territorialize, mediate, and adjudicate educational practices affects self-reflection and internalization among teachers and, hence, is important for understanding the subjectivizing role of performative technologies.

• Frostenson, Magnus (2019). Business Legitimacy and the Variety of Normative Contexts. In Rendtorff, Jacob Dahl (Eds.), Handbook of Business Legitimacy. Responsibility, Ethics and Society. Springer Nature. ISSN 978-3-319-68845-9. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-68845-9_53-1. Show summary

  Legitimacy research suggests that companies obtain moral legitimacy when acting in accordance with commonly held norms and values of the social system. In recent years, more attention has been paid to the fact that such systems are heterogeneous. Assumptions about what is morally right and wrong differ, not only between normative contexts but also within them. For that reason, the issue of moral legitimation becomes complex. The focus of the chapter is on the nature of the normative contexts in which companies attain legitimacy. Light is shed on the variety of normative contexts and the way that companies relate to these. It is argued that normative contexts differ with regard to both the number of competing normative ideas and the strength of these ideas. In addition, multinational companies face a multitude of social systems in which moral legitimation takes place. The chapter provides a model for understanding various normative contexts. It is argued that depending on the nature of the contexts, moral legitimation will operate differently.

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• Frostenson, Magnus (2024). Hållbarhetsredovisning: Grunder, praktik och funktion. Liber. ISBN 978-91-47-15140-0. 128 p. Show summary

  I dag hållbarhetsredovisar så gott som alla större företag och även många medelstora och mindre. Men vad innebär hållbarhetsredovisning, vilka krav finns och vilka regler måste företagen följa? Den här boken hjälper dig att förstå bakgrunden till hållbarhetsredovisning, vilka regler och standarder som finns, hur man upprättar en hållbarhetsredovisning och vilken funktion den fyller. Denna fjärde upplaga är grundligt omarbetad och behandlar bland annat EU:s direktiv CSRD och de nya standarderna ESRS liksom utvecklingen av GRI Standards.

• Borglund, Tommy; De Geer, Hans; Sweet, Susanne; Frostenson, Magnus; Lerpold, Lin & Nordbrand, Sara [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2021). CSR and Sustainable Business. Sanoma Utbildning. ISBN 9789152360460. 366 p.
• Borglund, Tommy; De Geer, Hans; Sweet, Susanne; Frostenson, Magnus; Lerpold, Lin & Nordbrand, Sara [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2021). CSR och hållbart företagande. Sanoma Utbildning. ISBN 978-91-523-6027-9. 350 p.

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• Frostenson, Magnus (2023). Accounting context, Encyclopedia of Stakeholder Management. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISSN 9781800374232. p. 6–11. doi: https:/doi.org/10.4337/9781800374249.ch02.
• Frostenson, Magnus; Persson, Mats & Skinnarland, Sol (2022). Ambiguous organizational change: Revisiting the role of projects. Show summary

  Public organizations are replete with projects of different kinds. Projects within public organizations may be used instrumentally as part of an agenda of change. However, such an agenda is not necessarily clear from the outset, as both projects and the base organization may change during lifetime of the projects. For that reason, it is necessary to understand the role of projects in organizational change, not only through looking at the projects as such, but also how they relate to each other and the overall idea of organizational change. The purpose of this article is to explain organizational change by means of parallel project establishment and management. This article sheds light on and analyses a project context of a Norwegian administrative county, where projects became instrumental to changing the organization. However, while traditional approaches often assume that projects are means used to change organizations, we argue that organizational change is ambiguous since projects are re-constructed during the course of time. Ongoing change also pertains to the base organization itself, which is reflected in the projects. Reasons for this multiple and partly parallel nature of change are found in both central and local priorities that emerge underway.

• Lundh, Simon; Seger, Karin; Frostenson, Magnus & Helin, Sven (2019). Appearing to others: On the relevance of the external image to internal accounting choices .
• Frostenson, Magnus (2019). SDGs and accounting: A theoretical explanation for why the SDGs are integrated into corporate operations-or not .

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