Signed, Sealed, Forgotten?
(2025) BUSN79 20251Department of Business Administration
- Abstract
- Purpose: The purpose of this thesis has been to examine if and how Swedish SMEs use post audit reviews to learn from their capital investment decisions.
Methodology: This explorative study applies a qualitative research approach, using both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected through semi structured interviews with six managers across six different Swedish SMEs, while secondary data were extracted from internal- and public documents from the same organisations.
Theoretical perspectives: The theoretical perspective centres on organisational learning, with particular consideration toward organisational memory and learning processes.Additionally, prior research on post audit reviews has been extensively utilised.
... (More) - Purpose: The purpose of this thesis has been to examine if and how Swedish SMEs use post audit reviews to learn from their capital investment decisions.
Methodology: This explorative study applies a qualitative research approach, using both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected through semi structured interviews with six managers across six different Swedish SMEs, while secondary data were extracted from internal- and public documents from the same organisations.
Theoretical perspectives: The theoretical perspective centres on organisational learning, with particular consideration toward organisational memory and learning processes.Additionally, prior research on post audit reviews has been extensively utilised.
Empirical foundation: The empirical foundation is built upon the six interviewed Swedish SMEs, all operating within the manufacturing industry. All organisations were interviewed through a semi-structured interview guide. This approach enabled a comparative analysis on their post audit reviews and organisational learning processes.
Conclusions: The findings conclude that post audit reviews are utilised within Swedish SMEs. These post audit reviews varied in execution, but were generally prosecuted informally. Their fundamental purpose was to facilitate learning for ongoing and future investments, with evidence of both single- and double loop learnings. The informal approach was not perceived to incur hindrance for the organisation's learning capabilities. Instead, the learning processes were supported by transactive memory systems and tacit knowledge, guided through managerial judgement rather than formalised procedures. Externally-owned organisations demonstrated slightly more formalised practices, though these were mainly intended for control rather than learning purposes. Moreover, while Swedish SMEs were able to partially mitigate the shortcomings of an informal approach, other challenges were still deemed to be prevalent. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9205731
- author
- Jansson, Albin LU and Odqvist, Eric LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- BUSN79 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Post Audit Review, Post Completion Audit, Capital Investment Decision, Organisational Learning, Organisational Memory.
- language
- English
- id
- 9205731
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-26 10:59:47
- date last changed
- 2025-06-26 10:59:47
@misc{9205731,
abstract = {{Purpose: The purpose of this thesis has been to examine if and how Swedish SMEs use post audit reviews to learn from their capital investment decisions.
Methodology: This explorative study applies a qualitative research approach, using both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected through semi structured interviews with six managers across six different Swedish SMEs, while secondary data were extracted from internal- and public documents from the same organisations.
Theoretical perspectives: The theoretical perspective centres on organisational learning, with particular consideration toward organisational memory and learning processes.Additionally, prior research on post audit reviews has been extensively utilised.
Empirical foundation: The empirical foundation is built upon the six interviewed Swedish SMEs, all operating within the manufacturing industry. All organisations were interviewed through a semi-structured interview guide. This approach enabled a comparative analysis on their post audit reviews and organisational learning processes.
Conclusions: The findings conclude that post audit reviews are utilised within Swedish SMEs. These post audit reviews varied in execution, but were generally prosecuted informally. Their fundamental purpose was to facilitate learning for ongoing and future investments, with evidence of both single- and double loop learnings. The informal approach was not perceived to incur hindrance for the organisation's learning capabilities. Instead, the learning processes were supported by transactive memory systems and tacit knowledge, guided through managerial judgement rather than formalised procedures. Externally-owned organisations demonstrated slightly more formalised practices, though these were mainly intended for control rather than learning purposes. Moreover, while Swedish SMEs were able to partially mitigate the shortcomings of an informal approach, other challenges were still deemed to be prevalent.}},
author = {{Jansson, Albin and Odqvist, Eric}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Signed, Sealed, Forgotten?}},
year = {{2025}},
}