This study in Public Administration uses feminism and historical institutionalism toanalyze a highly debated contemporary policy problem that concerns genderequality in the policy of parental leave. The parental insurance was introduced in1974 with the governmental goal of gender equality. In 1974 only 0,5 percent of thenumber of days of parental benefit was paid to men. Today, 40 years later, the goalremains the same and the numbers of days of parental benefit paid to men are 24,8percent.The debate that has characterized the Swedish policy of parental insurance andspecifically the design of the parental benefit is the debate of freedom of choiceversus quota.Our study focuses on ideas and arguments that influence the policy of parentalbenefit. The study assumes, with basis in the theories of feminism and historicalinstitutionalism, that a policy like parental benefit is slow-moving and that pathdependency has lead to a slow development of gender equality..

The number of studies on IFRIC 15 is very limited. The available studies have either been conducted before the introduction of IFRIC 15 or at an early stage of the implementation. This study examines IFRIC 15s practice from a longer perspective. The purpose of this study is to explain the effect that the interpretation IFRIC 15 has had on accounting objectives and qualitative characteristics of the revenue recognition of Swedish construction companies. The study will also analyze whether the construction companies has changed their perception of IFRIC 15 after applying it form a longer time perspective.

Purpose: The study examines the risk a rising from the acquisition of shares, and its relation to the expected return. We would like to see how a high-risk portfolio is related to a low-risk portfolio. Although studying the portfolios annual performance.Theory: The theories that have been used in the study are, Capital asset pricing model, CAPM and portfolio theory.Method: The study is based on a quantitative method, the time interval is from 2008 to 2010.The annual reports, historical stock prices for companies and the index are used to perform calculations based on the essay theories.Conclusion: The beta value has positive liner correlation with the expected return. When there are bad times in the world, the companies are negatively affected regardless of industry. The Portfolios developed in the same direction during the time period..

In this report a study is carried out with the aim to identify added values of EPC projects implemented in schools in order to increase the interest of EPC projects on the market. The report examines how the planned maintenance, supervision, maintenance and corrective maintenance is affected, how insurance premiums and terms are affected, the indoor environment and how the tasks of the operating staff is changing. A literature study of energy savings, energy use in schools, maintenance and insurance as well as how energy efficiency improvements are related to the Swedish environmental objectives has been made. Visits were carried out in Ludvika, interviews were also carried out with operation technicians and local strategists in Ludvika as well as employees of insurance companies.Schools often have neglected maintenance and problems with ventilation and indoor environment. Schools also have a large energy saving potential due to their low utilization, mainly because they are empty parts of the year.

Background: Ambiguity and confusion of ideas within the area of social responsibility have led to that companies not really know how to work with these types of questions. One way for companies to deal with their social responsibility is to affiliate to an initiative that exists and through this show their standpoint. One of these is Globalt Ansvar, a Swedish governmental initiative that is based on Global Compact?s principles and the guidelines of OECD. What does it mean for the companies when showing their point of view? Is this a way to gain legitimacy?Purpose: The purpose with the thesis is to judge if organisations? work with Corporate Social Responsibility gains more legitimacy by affiliating to Globalt Ansvar.Research method: A survey made through telephone interviews with representatives from all of the fifteen Swedish companies which today are affiliated to Globalt Ansvar.Conclusions: In order to give the affiliated companies more legitimacy, Globalt Ansvar has to be a legitimate initiative.

This paper will answer which factors are important for the business relation between a small Swedish import company and a Chinese contractor. The problem is based partly in theories that points to cultural and organizational differences between Sweden and China, and partly in current examples from Swedish companies. The relevant data has been collected by interviews with three small Swedish companies that are currently using Chinese contractors.The result is that the differences between the countries and organizations exist, but that they do not interfere with the inter-company relations. The conclusion is that our result contradictsthe established theories in the field, and that a more comprehensive investigation is warranted..

Abstract The development towards an international accounting standard implies that Swedish groups of companies that are not quoted on the stock exchange can use a parent company perspective or an entity perspective while making their group accounting. The purpose of this study is to describe and explain the motives behind the groups of companies choice of perspective and to show how these motives agrees with the effect it has on the profit and loss account and on the balance sheet.The study includes four fictitious groups of companies based on real groups of companies. Every group of companies includes 1-3 subsidiary companies, where at least one is owned by the parent company with 51-70 %. Some assumptions were made before the consolidation.Relevant key numbers have been calculated according to both perspectives and then compared. A total of three semi structured interviews have been carried out two with representatives for the real groups of companies and one with a chartered accountant.

The aim of this thesis is to explore possible differences between public and private companies? way to manage projects. In order to analyze the managerial aspects, we have studied the project of a new payment system implemented at the public-transport organization Upplands Lokaltrafik (UL). The project enables mobile payment by text message (SMS). Most theory concerning the management of projects is developed for private companies.

The purpose of this essay was to examine pupils who leave the Swedish nine-year compulsory school system without reaching the requirements for the Swedish senior high school, and then to compare with those who reach the requirements. I used the following questions to help me reach this purpose:- Where in life are those pupils who reached the requirements for the Swedish senior high school?- Where in life are those pupils who did not reach the requirements for the Swedish senior high school?- What differences are noticeable between these two groups?The method that I used to examine these questions was to send out a questionnaire to the pupils. I also tried to make an explanation to the results with the help of Erwin Goffmanns theories.The result of this essay shows that there is not a big difference between the two groups. They both did equally well after they finished the Swedish nine-year compulsory school..

Purpose: The study examines the risk a rising from the acquisition of shares, and its relation to the expected return. We would like to see how a high-risk portfolio is related to a low-risk portfolio. Although studying the portfolios annual performance.Theory: The theories that have been used in the study are, Capital asset pricing model, CAPM and portfolio theory.Method: The study is based on a quantitative method, the time interval is from 2008 to 2010.The annual reports, historical stock prices for companies and the index are used to perform calculations based on the essay theories.Conclusion: The beta value has positive liner correlation with the expected return. When there are bad times in the world, the companies are negatively affected regardless of industry. The Portfolios developed in the same direction during the time period..

The purpose of this degree project is to give an overview of the planning system of four Swedish forest companies. The involved companies are ATA TIMBER, SYDVED, BERGS SKOG and VIDA SKOG. The study is based on information from a literature study and by interviews with personals from the four companies. Each company is described to get a better insight of the companies work and what potential they have. The description of the planning process comes after that. The companies are described separate from each other and will be compared later in this essay.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explain which factors that affects Swedish listed companies choice of placement for the corporate governance report when the regulation gives different options.Methodology: The chosen research philosophy is positive, research strategy is deductive and methodology is quantitative.Theoretical Perspectives: As support for the dependent (placement) and independent factors agency theory, positive accounting theory, accounting choice, legitimacy-, stakeholder-, and institutional theory are used.                  Empirical foundation:The sample consists of 249 companies. The empirical data consists of the companies Annual reports and Corporate Governance reports for financial year 2011 or when split financial year, 2010/2011. Limitations: A limitation of the study is that it is based on observations from only one year why it is not certain that the results should have been the same if a comparison between several years had been done.Conclusions: The factors size and growth explain the placement of the Corporate Governance Report in Swedish listed companies..

The workplace has a direct impact on the physical, psychological, economic and social well-being of the workers. A healthy workplace leads to increased health among the employees which also makes the employees more productive (Källestål, 2004). A poor working environment can have negative consequences for individuals, companies and society (SOU, 2009:47).This is a qualitative study that investigates companies? view of health promotion and how they practice health promotion in working life. Five private and five public companies, with representatives from the management were interviewed.

The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding on how market leading pharmaceutical companies in Sweden limit the market share decrease when these companies patent expires. In order to respond to the purpose, two research questions have been asked: how do pharmaceutical companies deal with market strategies prior to the expiration of a patent: and how the market strategies is used when a patent has expired and as a consequence, generics entered the market. A case study was implemented based on two interviews with a brand manager and a therapy area manager within the company Pfizer AB in Sweden. The results suggest that pharmaceutical companies implement strategies in numerous ways which differs substantially from the theories, this having to do with Swedish legislation. The main aim with the execution of the strategy, before and after patent expiration is not to limit a decrease in market share hence, rather to retain the pharmaceutical companies strong brand image.

Problem: What are the characteristics of Polykemi?s management control system and how is it affected by growth? Purpose: To describe and analyse the management control system of a medium-sized family-owned company from the perspective of Simons? Levers of control. Research design: An abductive, interview-based case study of Polykemi AB. Conclusion: Polykemi?s management control system is primarily a traditional one which is rather strong in terms of Levers of control.