The aim of this small thesis is to investigate if the probability of business failure is higher at the time of divestment than at the time of acquisition for portfolio companies that have been subject to private equity ownership. The background for this thesis is the widespread critique aimed at private equity firms, claiming that they increase the risk in their portfolio companies. We have performed a study of 53 buyout transactions, involving Swedish manufacturing companies, covering a time span of 13 years, from 1995 to 2007. We find evidence of an increased risk of business failure for the portfolio companies with a short forecasting horizon (within one year). The absolute increase in the sample is however small.

The simple view of reading is a theory in which reading is divided into decoding and linguistic comprehension. The theory has been used to explain and to subgroup reading disabilities. Research has also investigated if additional factors are of relevance to reading. In the present study, decoding was divided into the factors orthographic decoding and phonological decoding, while comprehension was divided into word comprehension and grammatical comprehension. The purpose was to analyze these factors and their contribution to reading ability in children in fourth grade: one group with reading difficulties (n=36) and one group with typical reading ability (n=36).

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the status of Swedish real estate companies in terms of financial health and risk of financial distress. The background is the ongoing financial crisis, which partly can be derived from the American real estate sector. Publicly available accounting information from 16 listed real estate companies has been analyzed for a period of one year using financial ratios covering both the operational and financial activities. We find that the deceleration in the economy and in the real estate sector have forced the real estate companies to make large write downs, in line with the relatively new accounting rules, IFRS. Write downs are likely to reoccur during the following periods and real estate companies will therefore probably be forced to continue to show negative results.

During the past year it has been made possible to buy back a company?s outstanding stock. This is done in order to change the capital structure towards a situation with less equity. A change in capital structure means a change in the cost of capital for a company and by that a change in the value for the stockholder. This Master Thesis studies the relation between capital structure and business risk.

Our study aimed at gaining insight of co-workers experiences of different factors that affects the verbal communication and leads to dialogue and misunderstanding between co-workers and their managers. The empirical material was gained from semi-structured interviews with co-workers at various departments within the same organization. We used a hermeneutic interpretive approach and our data was analyzed concerning different factors affecting communication. The result has been interpreted using the theories of deliberative conversations and dialogue competence. We have also used Illeris theory of learning.

This research aim was to examine the relationship between the choice of lunch dish, level of education, gender and age of the participants. The understanding of diet and it´s influence on health was also of interest to the research, as was cooking interest and travel habits. The goal was to demonstrate how these factors affect the adult individuals in their choice of lunch. A questionnaire was filled in by 99 guests in a chosen restaurant. The results show that many of these factors influence the choice of dish, especially those related to gender.

The purpose of this thesis is to study what motivational factors motivates the staff in the public elderly care and to investigate how the staff ranks the different motivational factors and if the rankings differ depending on gender, age, education, type of employment, time of employment, employer, income and ethnic background. The thesis is based on a questionnaire study with a total of 97 participants. The questionnaire was constructed with the help of prior similar studies conducted in the USA and Malaysia over a sixty-year time period. These studies are then used to analyze the results. The participants in our thesis were given ten motivational factors to rank according to what they believed motivated them the most.

American football is a well-known sport in America. In addition to the design and rules of the game and the surface it is played on, there are also other differences that are not directly visible. One difference noted in this study is how the teams in the game provide players. Each team has a board of directors together with the team's leadership and they will determine which players are most suitable for the team. These players are recruited to the team after graduating from a U.S.

The aim of this study is to, from a child?s family relations, describe the usage of terms relating to factors of risk and safety in science and in investigations concerning children in need of protection. It is also of importance in what way the terms are used when the Social Services suggest that measures should be taken, and in which way the children have been heard in the investigations.The issues raised in this study are: (a) How is the current life situation and life quality of the children discussed? (b) The value of factors concerning risks and protection. (c) How is the children?s own descriptions taken in to consideration? (d) Is gender issues considered? (e) How is Lagerberg?s model (Lagerberg, 1998) useful in investigations?The method of analysis is mainly qualitative however it is combined with analysis of literature relevant to the study.

Background/Literature: Workplace environment has a significant influence on the livelihood of many in today?s world. In Sweden one million employees feel the effects of ill-health due to a dissatisfactory workplace environment. Consequently there has been a recent focus on the promotion of health in the workplace with an emphasis on physical activities. However scientific research has shown that psychological and social aspects need to be addressed in addition to the physical aspects.

Our purpose of this paper is to seek an understanding of which service quality factors that affects customers in their decision making progress regarding purchasing financial services such as pension products. We also seek to evaluate the different service quality factors by compare their relative strength against each other. The study aim to investigate if there are any connections between customer behavior variables such as gender, age and income in comparison to these service quality factors related to pension products.The findings aim to help a small financial institute such as our case company Plain Capital to understand how their customers experience service quality regarding pension products.In order to find empirical results we conducted a qualitative research as well a quantitative research. The qualitative research employed both a focus group interview with pension savers and an interview with our case company Plain Capital. We were able to identify the service quality factors for pension?s products with help from the focus group interview.

In this paper we explore the relations between context and feedback generated in three user-centered evaluations of a flash-based game. Whether it?s the social context, the physical context or the degree of intrusion from the evaluator, they all contribute to the quality of the feedback received. The selection of test subjects is a narrow process, which gives the above mentioned factors different meaning. Contextual factors have shown to influence the feedback given within both usability and user-experience.

Background:IT development has in recent decades been fast progressing. In Sweden many schools have begun to invest in IT and new technologies. What happens at the schools that are investing in IT equipment and modern technology?Purpose:The purpose of this study is to elucidate the conditions for and the success factors and barriers that principals and teachers will experience in IT. Principals' experiences are complemented and mirrored against the teachers.

Populism has been an integral part of the Finnish political system since the late 1950's. At that time the Agrarian Populist Party, better known as The Rural Party, emerged and thrived for decades until the party financially broke down in the 1990's. Reemerging on the political scene as the True Finns, the party is more radical and more influential than ever, gaining enough support to be the third largest party of the 2011 parliamentary election. Sweden, Finland?s neighbor, in contrast has a history with very little populist presence or radical right populist parties (RRP-parties).

The purpose of this report was to investigate what characterizes a good psychosocialwork environment, and whether it may have impact on a vessel's safe voyage. Thisreport is proposed to increase the understanding of what creates a good psychosocialwork environment and its potential effect on safety at sea. In order to find out thesuccess factors for a good work environment group interviews were conducted in socalledunstructured focus groups. During these conversations, the participants discussedfreely by the question "what is a good psychosocial work environment for you?? Thesuccess factors were thereafter applied on selected accident reports, to investigate theextent to which they were represented and taken into account.The results of the study show three categories of factors: colleagues, communicationand competence, where colleagues are the main contribution to a good psychosocialwork environment.