Venture capital firms and private equity firms have been the subject of much controversy in the last decade. During this period economies throughout the world have seen a steady increase of these types of firms as owners of companies. In Sweden this has certainly been the case and many argue that this trend will continue to grow stronger in the future. This trend is by many regarded as dangerous and as a threat to the ownership model that has characterized the Swedish economy for decades. Family ownership has been widely regarded as the most beneficial and responsible ownership model in Sweden.

The following essay investigates emission rights accounting. Presently there are several methods through which emission rights can be accounted for by companies. The rights can for instance be valued at fair value or nominal value and as marketable securities or intangible assets; due to a lack of consensus or clear standards companies use these or other accounting methods to value their rights. This essay investigates whether there is a relationship between the company?s choice of accounting method, the key ratio number of owned emission rights/total assets, the accounting firm used and the yearly result as a sign of earnings management.Through a quantitative study based on questioners and numbers from the annual reports three hypothesis are tested.

Machine-to-machine (M2M) communication is a phase in the digital revolution connecting computing devices with each other bringing along new business opportunities for companies. Although being a fast growing field it has not been researched to any greater extent, particularly not within the academical literature. Consequently, information on how M2M can affect organisations seems strongly needed. This thesis uses three perspectives, derived from already recognised business benefits of M2M, as an aid to select proper theoretical tools to investigate the phenomenon. The purpose of this thesis is to gain knowledge of how an M2M adoption affects a firm?s organisation, customer offerings and customer relations.

The thesis handles the principal-agency problem between shareholders and the Chief Executive Officer. The purpose of the thesis was to examine the link between CEO compensation and corporate performance measured as a change in Market to Book ratio. Data was collected from corporate annual reports between the years 2000 ? 2008 and the study covers 39 Swedish companies from the Stockholm Stock Exchange Large Cap list. To examine whether there is a link between the CEO´s compensation and firm performance, we performed a regression analysis, and no significant relation is found.

The Swedish Code for Corporate Governance was introduced on July 1, 2005. All companies then listed at OM Stockholmsbörsen A-list and those on the O-list with a market value of more than three billion SKr must implement the rules in the Code. The Code includes rules for corporate governance as a complement to the legislation. The Code is based on the principle comply or explain. This means that the companies are aloud to diverge from the rules if they explain why.

As the media attention society on the world climate change, interest in the environment and social impact has increased. This has in turn made even more companies choose to maintain a sustainability report that contains the three aspects of economic, environment and social impact. The demand for sustainability reports has increased among stakeholders. It has made the companies that establish this form of reports experienced economic benefits. The sustainability report than became a useful way to compete among businesses.

The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of the dynamics behind Chinese-Western buyer-supplier relationships. The study takes on a partially inductive approach by commencing with exploratory in-depth interviews. The main body of the study consists of a cross-sectional survey. Data has been collected through an on-line questionnaire. The theoretical review consists of industrial relationships with specific accounts on the role of adaptation, trust and commitment; a stream of literature in cross-cultural relationships deriving from Hofstede?s culturalist legacy with specific reference to Chinese-Western relationships, including studies on relationship bonding, and the role of guanxi.

China is a unique market that differs from the Western market in many ways. Companies are not required to publicize financial reports, and furthermore a heavy focus on business relationship building can make it hard for companies to have high quality streams of data to get insights about their markets. For a consultant company to successfully enter the Chinese market and helping producing and technological global firms improving their insights on the Chinese market, the consultant company needs to understand which the important factors are and how those factors can help in creating value for their potential customers. To help the analyzing and consultant firm called Kairos Future, a qualitative case study was conducted on 16 different global companies with focus on industrial production. The case study was mainly conducted through face to face interviews with decision makers who had a broad understanding of their respective companies.

Träffsäkerheten på Going Concern-varningar (GC-varningar) internationellt sett är låg, 40 procent, men enligt tidigare studier är den lägre i Sverige, under 20 procent. De fyra största revisionsbyråerna i världen, Big four, marknadsför sig med sin branschkännedom och flera studier pekar på att de har högre revisionskvalité än mindre byråer. Samtidigt finns det studier som visar att det inte finns någon skillnad på kvalitén mellan de fyra största och de mindre byråerna. Syftet med denna studie är att pröva om stora byråer har högre kvalité än medelstora och små byråer och om det finns skillnader mellan de enskilda byråerna inom respektive storlekskategori. Revisionskvalité mäter vi i form av GC-varningar och anmärkningar på finansiell stress (eget kapital understiger hälften av aktiekapitalet).

Abstract: Private equity used to be synonymous with tremendous yields and rates of return. However, the private equity market trembled in 2008, due to the financial meltdown caused by the worldwide credit crisis. Considering the current low number of exits within the private equity industry, the purpose of this thesis is to examine if there has been any change in how private equity firms control their portfolio companies since the inception of the crisis. One private equity company and two portfolio companies have been studied. The case study is prepared from interviews with senior directors in the portfolio company and investment managers in the private equity firm.

Today, Sweden has about forty companies owned by the government. These are active on markets with variable competition. Some have been given special areas of responsibility that in a practical notion make them monopolists. The period when most public companies where formed (and with that the following subjection to competition) during the nineties and early 2000's, forced the formerly protected businesses to act on the terms of the open market. Parallel to this development the brand has for the last twenty years evolved into something great strategic importance for the business, including the business-to-businesses (B2B).

SAMMANFATTNING Examensarbetets titel: Drivkrafter & Bromsklossar för Innovation i Professional Service Firms ? En fallstudie av två Big Four byråer Seminariedatum: 4 juni 2008 Ämne/kurs: FEKK01, Examensarbete kandidatnivå, 15 poäng Författare: Noel Lindell, Sebastian Sedeki, Christofer Österlindh Handledare: Håkan Lagerquist Nyckelord: Tjänsteinnovation, Processinnovation, Professional Service Firm, Big Four, Innovation Syfte: Syftet är att skapa en djupare förståelse för hur man arbetar med innovation och vilken syn man har på innovation i Big Four byråerna. Vi strävar efter att förklara hur man arbetar med att tillvarata inventioner, hur innovation uppstår inom olika fält och i vilken utsträckning. Ambitionen är att vårt resultat ska vara normativt för hur man ska kunna öka innovationsgraden i en Big Four byrå. Metod: Studien är en kvalitativ fallstudie med abduktiv ansats.

The use of vision applications are growing and the demand for integration and connectivity with other industrial automation control devices is increasing. Some businesses that are using vision technology follow US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) regulation concerning audit trail. This thesis investigates the possibility to use vision technology for counting objects, achieving connectivity and to follow FDAs audit trail regulation. A market survey has been used to select suitable hardware and software to be used in the design of an application that is able to count objects and that uses standard industrial network connection i.e. OPC data access and Microsoft?s .NET components over Ethernet.

Mycket har förändrats de senaste åren inom revisionsbranschen. Revisionsplikten har avskaffats för små- och medelstora företag, vilket lett till stora omställningar. Revisorerna är nu inte obligatoriska för dessa företag, vilket öppnar upp marknaden för redovisningskonsulter. Redovisningskonsulternas roll har blivit allt mer omfattande. Vissa källor menar även att revisorns och redovisningskonsultens roller kommer närma sig varandra mer och mer i framtiden.

Law and regulations regulate the auditors? independence. An auditor should not only be independent in general, but independence in fact and independence in appearance. However, the regulations do not specifically describe how to act independence. It is the concerns of the auditor were he puts his limit for the independence.