Background: Accounting of intangible assets have increased during the last years which have created a debate about if trademarks should be accounted as assets with the uncertainty of the value in mind. Valuation and accounting of trademarks are of interest for accountants and investors. These should be able toget information about the assets that are of importance for the company. A solid brand can be of great value for a company, which should be accounted for. Purpose: The purpose of this master is to examine the function of the brand in the different companies in the study and map the definitions that the different companies have of brands.

Previously studies have shown that the way companies explain outcome in their annual report is not totally trustworthy. Studies show that the management has a self serving bias when they explain the result to give a positive image of the company. Our study is based on investigations into this phenomenon in the telecom market in Sweden. Turbulent market conditions with, among other, deregulation of the monopoly of fixed telephony and a huge technical evolution, which has led to an increase in competition, is the reason to why we have chosen to study the telecom market in Sweden. As a benchmark in our study the attribution theory will be used.

Background: The Swedish Police authorities have accomplished several changes the last years. We have studied one of these changes, the co-ordination of two supporting functions, economy and staffadministration at the Police authorities in Östergötland, Jönköping, Södermanland and SKL (Swedish crime technical laboratory). The initiative to this change was taken in 2002 and in 2003 a decision was made to create a joint servicecenter.Purpose: The purpose of this rapport is, in a collaborator perspective, to study the employees´ experiences of the change process.Method: The empirical material was collected throw interviews with the employees who have taken part in the change process. Even the leader of the project has been interviewed.Results: We have distinguished five central aspects in the change process. These are information/communication and understanding, the project leader, teamwork, timeaspect/reflexion and the leadership.

The ongoing harmonization process aims to incorporate IFRS regulations into the Swedish accounting. As a consequence investment property?s starting from 2005 may be valued using the fair value method, in accordance to IAS 40. This involves major changes for listed property enterprises that from now on can value a large extent of their assets to fair value. All parties don?t appreciate this progress, opponents to fair value have expressed great concern that fair value don?t work in practice.

A recent development in the field of accounting has been an increasing use of fair values in financial reporting. In 2005, this development was reinforced in Sweden by the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards. The aim of this thesis is to discuss the problems related to the use of fair values, through a case study of the Swedish investment bank Carnegie. In May 2007, Carnegie announced that the result had been overly stated by 630 MSEK, due to the valuation of derivatives within the trading department. The empirical material consists of documents produced in the legal process between Carnegie and the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority.

Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva och analysera hur kommunala energibolag resonerar vid val av avskrivningsmetod samt hur kommunala energibolag har förberett sig inför införandet och hur de förhåller sig till implementeringen av komponentavskrivningar.Teorier: De teorier som använts i uppsatsen finner vi vara relevanta och applicerbara utifrån studiens syfte och frågeställningar. Vi har bl.a. använt oss av Burns & Scapens ramverk som ingår i den institutionella teorin, vilket är den teori som studien utgått ifrån.Metod: Studien utgår ifrån den kvalitativa ansatsen med hjälp av semi-strukturerade intervjuer och dokumentgranskning.Empiri: Empirin innefattar intervjuer med 5 kommunala energibolag inkluderande granskning av relevant dokumentation.Slutsatser: Studien har visat att de kommunala energibolagen upplever avskrivningsval som en svårbedömd process som präglas av en inre tröghet på grund av påverkande faktorer och inrotade regler och rutiner. I och med tolkningen och införandet av BFNs regelverk avseende komponentavskrivningar har ett internt motstånd byggts upp på grund av svåra och godtyckliga bedömningar. Detta har bidragit till en spretighet, vilket har påkallat behovet av tydligare rekommendationer och direktiv.

Too much attention has been given to mainstream approaches in performance management and management accounting research, without taking in to account changes in the environment with the rapid growth of online retailing. This paper evaluates how and/or if performance management differs in online contexts by using a conceptual model developed by Ferreira et al (2009). The model and its components are tested on three multichannel- and six e-commerce businesses. The result and its analysis is commented on by two e - commerce experts. The result shows that the operation method of the models twelve components do not differ in terms of work methods in online and offline contexts.

In today?s ever-evolving society the use of cash is replaced by digital services in the banking sector. Some local banks restrict manual cash handling while others remove it completely. This essay examines how management accounting is affected by restricted cash handling. The theory clarifies that management accounting strategies create guidelines and provides specific framework for employees and managers in the organization.

AbstractBackground: The company that this report addresses is, at time for investigation, in the midst ofa change in organizational culture, where two departments with different core competencies arebrought together into one. The purpose of this study is to review the potential problems that mayoccur in the change process when one or more subcultures come into conflict with organizationalgoals.Purpose and methodology: The reason for performing this study and the objectives are toexamine how subcultures influence and respond to organizational changes. The survey isconducted with a bottom-up approach in which participation in daily activities with thesubgroups is the foundation. The management's perspective has been omitted in consideration ofpast literature in the field where focus most often has been on their thoughts and views on theprocess of organizational change. The method used is participant observation and interviews.Results and Conclusion: Subcultures exist and they do affect an organizational change.

Working life changes, just like the rest of today?s society, at an accelerated pace. It is through changes and challenges that human beings develop, personally and professionally. Changes are often met by resistance. The purpose of this study is to see how different factors influence individuals? experiences of change.

Kandidatuppsats i kulturgeografi och geografi med kulturgeografisk inriktning.

This paper aims to study the Armenakis´ theory of readiness, "are they ready?", which consists of five key components affecting the outcome of an organizational change. In this case study, the intention is to investigate if any component is important; alternatively if it is possible to discern a pattern between components, i.e. how they correspond to each other. During the past 30 years have a research group lead by Armenakis has studied organizational change and how resistance to change can be avoided by preparing employees in the introductory phase of change. The main object for Armenakis is the question "what determines whether the employees (change recipients) adopt and support, or reject and resist a change".

This paper aims to study the Armenakis´ theory of readiness, "are they ready?", which consists of five key components affecting the outcome of an organizational change. In this case study, the intention is to investigate if any component is important; alternatively if it is possible to discern a pattern between components, i.e. how they correspond to each other. During the past 30 years have a research group lead by Armenakis has studied organizational change and how resistance to change can be avoided by preparing employees in the introductory phase of change. The main object for Armenakis is the question "what determines whether the employees (change recipients) adopt and support, or reject and resist a change".

The purpose of this paper is to investigate analysts' and investors' possibility to compare different companies' information in accounting for goodwill under IFRS in their annual and semi-annual reports. The study was based on IAS 34 on interim reporting, IAS 36 impairment of goodwill and the comparability requirement of the financial statements. Therefore, the comparability requirements? of the IASB Framework, previous studies on the comparability after the implementation of IFRS and also the relevance of goodwill was studied. We used a qualitative textual analysis to examine whether the recognition of goodwill is considered to be comparable between our sample of companies' annual and semi-annual reports from 2008 and 2009 data.

This essay examines the expected impact of the statury audit exemption in Sweden from anauditor perspective and any conscious changes made on the accounting firms to meet the abolition.The theoretical framework is divided into three parts where the first deals with the concept of audit, who the stakeholders are to revised information, the auditor's function from an agent and positive accountingtheoretical perspective and the expectation gap of what an auditor cando and what the client expect audit to be. The second part deals with the audit exemptions and effects in Denmark and England. The last section addresses the current debate, studies and statements by FAR SRS, small businesses, banks and the tax authority.The essay is essentially inductive with a phenomenological operator perspective. The thesis has a qualitative approach with four respondents who are authorized or approved as an auditor with extensive experience, active on four different accounting firms. The questionnaire is divided into two parts where the first part consists of a number of very open questions and the other part of more structured questions in order to obtain comprehensive answers.The survey shows that a number of new services, certifications and authentication degrees are to be expected in Sweden aswell.