Background: The growth of the venture capital industry has given birth to new relations between investors and entrepreneurial firms. Venture capital firms are by definition investors serving as an active partner which implies a deeper relation between investors and entrepreneurs than has been the case previously. This new situation leads to a number of questions. Do venture capitalists really act as active partners with a long term interest in the venture? Do they add any value besides capital? How important is their influence in the portfolio company's decision making process? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to give a deeper understanding of the relation between venture capital firms and IT companies in the start-up phase.

Today every organization is committed to some kind of environmental scanning in order to get necessary knowledge of the world around them. The acquisition, organization and storage of information in combination with a strategic use, is today an important factor for a successful organisation in any sector of our society.In this Master thesis I have studied how an organisation such as The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv) handles its information resources. I have also looked at the flow of information within the organization. The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise is Sweden?s largest business federation representing 50 member organizations and 55 000 member companies.

The demands of environmental effects in today?s companies have been increasing more andmore. To be able to withstand customers, cooperatives and government demands the ISO14001 certification should not be neglected.In January 2007 the general management of SAS decided to introduce an environmentalmanagement system for SAS Tech. The work which has been carried out is a part of thecertification process of ISO 14001 which will be completed by the end of year 2009.The aim is to create auditroutines for the company in order to be able audit ISO 14001standard internally which is a demand to get certified and to keep the certification in thefuture. A schedule has been done which audits different part of the standard at every auditduring one year.

Banker är enligt lag tvungna att göra en bedömning av företags återbetalningsförmåga vid kreditgivning. Redovisningsinformation är en viktig bedömningsgrund vid kreditgivning och kvalitén på informationen är avgörande för beslut gällande utlåning. Det är revisorns uppgift att genom granskning kvalitetssäkra ett företags redovisning och förvaltning och resultatet av detta lämnas i en revisionsberättelse. Revisionsberättelsen är den enda offentliga rapport som revisorn lämnar och därmed den som intressenterna kan ta del av. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilken betydelse revisionsberättelsen har för bankerna vid kreditgivning till företag.

The securities market was to undergo a major change with the entry of MiFID I in November 2007. EU´s establishment if the directive sets high standards for investment firms to establish internal guidelines in accordance with MiFID I. As right now, the securities market is facing further change with the proposal for MiFID II.MiFID II seeks to overcome MiFID I´s shown deficiencies. The greatest need for change are the rules that secure investor protection, with specific focus on regulation on information service from investment firms to customers. This essay deals with the rules on information service enacted in MiFID I compared to the changes presented in MiFID II to investigate whether the changes could strengthen investor protection as desired.MiFID II is a more detailed framework than its precursor.

AbstractFor an audit organization, it is important to work toward maintaininga high error climate to handle errors in an efficient and propermanner. This means that it is important for accountants to worktowards high quality of work, reduce and manage errors that mayoccur in their daily work. Therefore, auditors must know how tohandle errors in order to improve efficiency, which can be affected byhow leadership is exercised in the workplace. The error climatemeans being able to act in a manner which will ensure a good jobtowards customers but also within the internal operations.The ethical leadership may thus have an impact on how auditorshandle the error environment both internally and externally. It is veryimportant for customers to have confidence in the business but also tomaintain the order and the general rules of society for accountingfirms.My study aims to show the thinkable relationship between ethicalleadership and the error climate.

The aim of the study was to describe what district nurses, who work with telephone- advice, document in patient record, to be able to develop their documentation. The Authors have examined 50 patient records. The examination tool is collected from ?Lokal anvisning för hälso- och sjukvården I Södra Älvsborg?. The audit areas was record keeping, review and planning, realization, individual nursing and the patients participation, information, education and agreement.

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.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera om det i samband med denavskaffande revisionsplikten skett förändringar i arbetssättet förbetydande intressenter samt undersöka hur synen på småaktiebolags trovärdighet efter reformen har förändrats.Metodik:I studien har ett kvalitativt tillvägagångsätt med en abduktiv ansatsanvänts. Insamling av data har skett genom semi-struktureradeintervjuer med respondenter från en arbetsgivarorganisation, trekreditgivare och två myndigheter.Resultat:De främsta slutsatser som dragits är att kreditgivares arbetssätt inteförändrats i den omfattning som förväntats. Myndigheternasarbetssätt har däremot påverkats i större grad, vilket förklaras medatt de arbetar mot intressenter på ett annorlunda sätt. Efterreformen är det inte trovärdigheten till bolag som förändrats, utantill de sammanställda räkenskaperna..

The translation of financial records of foreign subsidiaries gives rise to currency translation adjustments that affect total group equity. If unwanted, fluctuations in translation adjustments can be avoided using net investment hedges. This study aims to find the extent of net investment hedging in Sweden today and in a short historical perspective, and find explanations to varying levels of hedging and firms' decisions to hedge. Based on annual reports, we determine Swedish firms' net investment hedging policies and their level of hedging. The 32 largest companies listed on the Stockholm stock exchange in the years 1993, 2004, 2006, and 2009 are studied.

The aim of this study is to find and highlight the differences and similarities in the strategic communication in two real estate businesses with different proprietaries. In order to achieve the purpose, theories and previous research on public relations, strategic communication, mediatization, framing and new public management has been used. The study was conducted through interviews with two different organizations, Lerstenen who is based in Umeå, and Övikshem who is based in Örnsköldsvik. The analysis and results showed that the key difference between the firms was the spontaneity that influenced the private one, in contrast to the public firm that relied on solid structures to manage their communication. The results also showed that differences in basis conditions both allowed and hindered the possibilities with the communicative efforts that the two firms could do..

The thesis main objective is to establish the determinants for granting executive stock options and to examine their impact on performance for firms listed on OMXS30. The analysis is based on accounting data gathered from annual reports and Thomson Datastream. The empirical results display that firms grant stock options to mitigate the principal-agent problem. Furthermore, risk proves to be positively significant with executive stock options, implying that either executives increase the level of risk after being granted stock options or influence the decision of the remuneration towards stock options when the firm increase the level of risk, in purpose to boost the expected value of their options. No relation between executive stock options and firm performance could be established..

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.

AbstractThis paper intends, through a qualitative study to examine and analyze how a particular type of financial firms cooperate, and what this entails. The case study issue which shall be answered is "What does the firms Credit Suisse and Orn & Cie SA gain out of cooperating with each other?". By setting the general theories in the subject joint ventures, partnerships, against the empirical material gathered via interviews and data collection in Geneva, Switzerland  answers to what the cooperation between the two parties has resulted in for the respective companies has been found. The survey shows that the prevailing model of cooperation creates significant benefits for the two companies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between Earnings Management (EM) and certain characteristics of management forecasts, among a sample of Swedish listed companies. The forecast characteristics studied are: 1) Forecast venue: How explicitly is the forecast presented? 2) Forecast precision: How detailed is the estimated number? 3) Forecast measure: Which measure(s) are forecasted? We use a sample of 68 annual management forecasts, obtained from year-end reports between the years 2007-2011. EM during the forecasted year (2008-2012) is estimated using the cross-sectional modified-Jones model. The forecast characteristics are then related to the degree of EM during the forecasted period.