A relatively new sector in the world is the one concerning social enterprises and their development. Social enterprises are enterprises that are working with social objectives, their goal is not to make as much money as possible. This essay is looking at the development in social enterprises in two countries; Great Britain and Sweden and how the employee numbers in the enterprises have changed over time. The result shows a large increase in the number of employees in the enterprises in Sweden, however the enterprises in Great Britain does show a declining number of employees. This essay also tries to examine whether a couple of external factors, taken from a series of already existing theories, are affecting the possibility of development in these enterprises.

The bachelor's thesis is to examine the explanatory factors affecting the choice of capital structure in real estate companies. The analysis is based on data collected from the main financial reporting from 2007; all listed real estate companies listed on Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish stock market. Based on previous research and theories, we have defined five independent variables that are linked to the debt ratio, which are: profitability, growth, firm size, cost of debt and operational risk. The statistical tests have resulted in that we can say with certainty that profitable firms tend to have a lower debt to equity ratio. We can also say with certainty that property companies with high interest costs have a high level of indebtedness..

This essay discusses organizational culture and focus on corporate creativity and innovation. The aim is to see which organizational factors that foster creativity and innovation in organizations. The essay will provide answer on how organizational culture can encourage creativity and innovation and how organizations can promote the rise of a creative work environment. The research design of this essay is a qualitative case study with interviews at Gotland Energi AB (GEAB). The interviews provided insight in factors that can foster creativity and innovation in organizations.

In order to get full understanding of management culture and practice one must understand the underlying factors. This thesis examines the philosophical foundations for management in the People's Republic of China with its primary focus on the period 1949 -2012. China with its strong economic development in the recent decades is becoming an increasingly important actor in the world economy. Interaction between China and the rest of the word is considerable and currently Chinese firms increasingly expand outside China. This gives further importance especially for westerners to gain a deeper understanding of Chinese views and customs with regard to management.

This master thesis is an analysis of how the amount of health centers per inhabitant has changed since the Swedish government implemented a new health care reform in 2010. The reform implies a free choice of health centers in the Swedish regions and opens up the market for private firms. The purpose of the thesis is to study the effects of the different financing systems toward the health centers in the regions. The models are based on theories of the need of health care. Two of the independent variables which are studied are income and age.

Mergers and acquisitions are a phenomenon which can occur for a variety of reasons. It may for example be that the organizations want to gain larger market shares or to complement and learn from each other and thus become more competitive. After the completion of an acquisition or merger, a process is initiated to create an affiliation between the two companies' employees. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there is something that management can do to make the integration process as efficient as possible. The empirical research in this paper consisted of interviews and surveys with respondents from two accounting firms that recently completed a merger.

Previous work by researchers as Eugene F. Fama and Kenneth R. French, show that average return on stocks are related to a firms characteristics like size and book-to-market ratio. These kinds of patterns in average return is not explained by The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), and are therefore seen as anomalies. Fama and French have proposed a three-factor model, which captures patterns observed in U.S average returns associated with size and value.

Previous studies have shown that there is a relationship between voluntary disclosure and analysts' forecast accuracy. However, there has been no research conducted specifically on bridges. Bridges contain information on how components such as price, volume, foreign exchange rates and acquisitions have impacted the financial performance between two periods. The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate the usage of bridges in quarterly financial information of companies listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. We provide a descriptive mapping of bridges and find that 30 out of 268 companies are presenting bridges as a part of their voluntary disclosures, with large firms being the most frequent users.

Background: Increasingly, companies choose to finance their business with corporate bonds which has resulted in an increased demand on credit ratings. As such the rating agencies have a very important role in the financial markets. Examining the value of a credit-rating can be very interesting for both issuer and investor. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to identify and define the value of rating. Execution: The study is built upon nine interviews with rated and non-rated firms and investors.

The interest in businesses active on the countryside and their funding situation has increased in recent years. In a survey, conducted by Leif Berndtsson (2003), it was reported that there is a lack of external capital in rural areas. According to Berndtsson (2003) the lack of external capital inhibits the rural firm?s growth. The essay attempts to answer whether the shortage of external capital is a factor that inhibits development for rural businesses.

This thesis examines a project that has been conducted at a software development company. The aim is to investigate which problems firms of this kind faces performing projects. We choose a theoretical frame consisting of a modern view on how to manage projects. The view argues that the management of each project has to be adapted to the situation at hand. This theory is divided into two separate streams of reasoning; one emphasize learning, delegation of responsibility and flexibility, while the other argues for control, time planning and the importance of keeping to the plans.When we compare the theories to the case we draw three main conclusions: A thorough phase of investigation is required to produce the necessary planning documents.

Managing credit risk might be the single most important business area for any commercial bank. The assessment of "good" and "bad" corporate clients is a important task for a creditor. A bad debtor is a corporate client with hardships in meeting the continous claims (interest payments) that a creditor requires. One way of evaluating or separating a "bad" client from a "good" client is to assess the propensity for the client to file for bankruptcy. This thesis examines 226 firms in the Swedsh market in the quest of predicting corporate bankruptcy.

Eftersom intressenter visat sig använda revisionsberättelsen som beslutsunderlag, kan en reaktion på den orena revisionsberättelsen innebära en negativ följd för företaget. Därmed har vi undersökt hur det reviderade företagets organisatoriska outcomespåverkas av den orena revisionsberättelsen. Vidare syftar även studien till att förklara hur vidtagna åtgärder begränsar effekten av den orena revisionsberättelsen. Med utgångspunkt från tidigare forskning och teori skapadesegna hypoteser. Hypoteserna menar att den orena revisionsberättelsen påverkar organisatoriska outcomes och att dessa effekter kan dämpas genom vidtagna åtgärder.För att realisera syftet genomfördes en dokumentstudie.

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.

 This paper evaluates the effect of exchange rate risk on the sum of bilateral trade. To distinguish the effect between different types of countries, two groups are defined: advanced and developing economies. Economic theory on exchange rate risk and trade proposes ambiguous effects of increased volatility. However, the ex ante hypothesis is that developing economies are more sensitive to volatility. Contrarily to the hypothesis, the empirical results suggest that advanced economies would benefit up to twice as much from a removal of exchange rate risk.