The purpose of this thesis was to investigate whether accounting quality is a priced factor by investors. The event studied is the release of year-end result and the release of the annual report. To assess accounting quality a sample of 30 companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during 2003 to 2007 are studied. We assess accounting quality by the absolute size of discretionary accruals using the modified Jones model developed by Dechow et al. (1995).

The lack of housing in the Swedish metropolitan areas is today a well-known fact. This isespecially true for the region in and around Stockholm. Due to the large amount ofmunicipality-owned land within Stockholm municipality the area for many new housingprojects are acquired through land allocation. How much time this process of land allocationconsumes for a typical project is today not really known. Equally unknown is the exactoutcome of the process, i.e.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to test for the existence of Capital Structure Arbitrage oppertunities in the equity-credit markets. Methodology: The mispricing of Credit Default Swap contracts are calculated and used as input in an Equity-Credit market trading strategy. The returns are then evaluated with a modified Value-at-Risk simulation. Theoretical perspectives: A Merton-based structural model, CreditGrades, is used for credit pricing and a mispricing-convergence trading-strategy between the credit and equity markets is implemented. Empirical foundation: Daily quotes for the Credit Default Swap spread of 37 European firms were collected for a period of two years, as well as equity-prices for the same period and the previous two years, used for model calibration.

The future of the forest owners? associations are intimately coupled to the development in family forestry. Forecasts have been made that predicts that the number of forest properties for sale on the open market will increase as the interest among the children of the property owners is considered to decrease. The associations are also affected by continuing individualism in the society which may affect attitudes to as well as interest in membership. The objective of this study was to study the attitudes among grown-up children of members in a forest owners association towards overtaking the forest property as well as membership in a forest owners association.

Rapid Granulator is one of the world's largest producers of granulators, which is a kind of grinderwho grinds discarded plastics to granules which later can be reused when pressure molding plastics.The company wanted help in developing a new, or alternatively extending their previous,measurement equipment. The old equipment was hard to use, required changes in the code fordifferent measurement scenarios and had a limited array of measuring quantities. Rapid had an ideaof a similar concept only with a greater number of input ports, better range of applicable sensors andan advanced yet easy to use interface. The system is supposed to be placed at Rapid's test departmentwhere it will be used as a tool for finding faults and provide data which can be used for furtherdevelopment of the granulators.The project's members accepted the task and immediately began searching for suitable componentsfor the system. After the search was completed a list of costs, limitations, sensors, I/O's anddevelopment environment was presented to Rapid's staff.

On ocean beds around the world sinking particles of residual biomass from animals and vegetation have, over time, accumulated into thick layers of sediment. For researchers these layers of sediment contain valuable information about the earth?s past climate, information that can be used to predict future climate change and to estimate natural vs. human causes of today?s global warming.The Institute of Geosciences at Stockholm University studies sediment cores that have been acquired with an apparatus called piston corer.

The accounting scandals that have attracted attention in recent years have led to internal control becoming a more central part of business activity. Doubts about what firms actually do have increased, all caused by the attention of accounting scandals. To counter this, frameworks and laws evolved and gained a significant role in the organization and its surroundings. The aim of the present study is to find out how four companies in the Kristianstad region are working to ensure its internal control and how they work to minimize risk and reduce uncertainty. We have used a qualitative method and interviewed a person in a senior position in each company.

This thesis examines the deregulation reform of the Swedish railroad industry, focusing on passenger transport between 1988 and 2005. The purpose of the thesis is to examine the effects from the deregulation reform on prices, market concentration and to determine whether SJ (the state owned incumbent) has been conducting strategic behaviour in order to prevent new entrants to the market. The chosen method consists of interviews with the MD at SJ between 1988 - 1998 Mr Karl-Erik Strand, the transportation researcher at SSE Mr Gunnar Alexandersson. Statistical sources and companies financial reports have also been used. The results that I have found were besides the fact that the market concentration is still significant high and the profitability among the operators low, is that the prices has increased more than CPI during the period but the competitive tendering has resulted in lower government subsidies after the deregulation.

This paper analyzes the auditor choices for a sample of 300 predominantly small Swedish firms, all located in Umeå. Our hypothesis was based on the complexity of a firm, the need of external financing, leverage, and the need of extra consultance from the auditfirm. Our definition of auditor quality is based on prior studies, and is frequently used by authors in this area. The assumption is based on that the auditor quality increases with the size of the auditfirm and the degree of the auditor. The auditor quality is therefor depending on the choice between an auditor from the group ?Big 5? or not, and the choice of an auditor with an higher degree.

Today there are many students with behavioral and developmental disorders in schools. One of these disorders is ADHD. The medical designation ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. I have chosen to research how two students with ADHD can be included in a fifth grade classroom.This research paper addresses the issues surrounding the student?s day-to-day life with a focus on the classroom.

The advancements in digital technology and its availability contribute to the transfer of companycentricproduct development and value creation to networks or communities. It also changes the basisfor creation of customer relationships as described in previous research on Customer relationshipmanagement (CRM). The purpose of this case study was to gain an understanding of how companieslike our case study object Memoto who developed a physical product which gets added-value fromdigital product-related services looks upon product-centered communities as a way of buildingcustomer relationships. How Memoto looks upon incentives for participation in product-centeredcommunities was also examined.Our research indicated that firms in the start-up phase (which Memoto was when this study wasconducted) initially want to have more control over the process of innovation and hence have directcontact with end-customers. The reason for this is because they see a need to define the basis forfurther innovation work.

Metso Paper in Karlstad is acquiring Kvaerner Pulping and Kvaerner Kamfab, also located in Karlstad. Following this acquisition, there are going to be changes in the organizational structure and some employees might even loose their jobs. There are guidelines from the European Union how to handle situations like this, the purpose of these are to protect the employees. There are also Swedish laws that regulate the protection of the employees when a company is acquired, who is going to keep their job and who is to be made redundant.The transaction between the companies is large why they need an approval from the European Union. The European Union has certain demands for the approval.

Incompatibility between donors and recipients can cause fatal hemolytic transfusion reactions (HTR), kidney damage and death and immunization of the recipient. Antigens on the surface of erythrocytes in the ABO blood group system and regular natural antibodies against these in the patient?s plasma must be considered. An individual always has a corresponding antibody of IgM in their plasma. Irregular antibodies acquired by transfusion or pregnancy and active in body temperature also cause the HTR incompatibility.

International expansion has long been associated with a positive trend that many companies, regardless of industry, choosing to realize mainly to expand its market share and hence its profitability. Various theories describe differentiated strategies to promote corporate expansion. Either they shall be financed by internal funds, or balancing equity with debt, or only increase leverage in order to achieve the desired results. This study focuses on the Swedish fashion market and its degree of internationalization. The purpose is to attempt to discern whether there exists a correlation between the degree of internationalization and its financial performance.The study was based on a quantitative approach where secondary data was collected so that we then would be able to perform regression calculations.

Purpose: The purpose of the investigation is to give an insight to hot the EU legal environment in the field of vertical relationships influences the competitiveness of the 2nd tier of the automobile industry. Conclusion:It follows that European legislation has succeedded in raising the competitiveness by breaking down the powers of the predominantly more powerful companies that the 2nd tier players do business with and by giving companies sufficient leeway to act. The comment must be made here that serious problems due to a power misbalance might still exist yet are not uncovered. In the course of my research I have found a lack of issues in my subject field. These problems however would have a more structural and economical cause, dealing with these problems would fall outside the boundaries of the competence of European competition legislation.