Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether abnormal stock returns could be identified as a result of a layoff announcement during weak economy.Method: An event study methodology.Theory: Efficient market hypothesis, signal theory.Empirical results: Quantitative data from observations of stock prices in thirty two companies listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, in the period 2008 -2012.Conclusion: The results indicate that the market reaction was negative because there were negative abnormal returns on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during the period 2008-2012 in connection with the layoff announcements. The market reaction was milder when staff reductions were carried out as a result of a restructuring and stronger when staff reductions were carried out as part of a cost reduction program.The layoff announcements elicited different market reactions depending on the company's industry affiliation. The most negative reaction was in the Healthcare industry. Negative abnormal returns were lower in industries Industrials, Consumer Services and Consumer Goods. There were no abnormal returns for shares of companies in the industry Financials.

line of business/industry and family, to more clearly discern how male and female norms are acquired among female entrepreneurs. The purpose of this study was to gain a greater understanding and knowledge of women's conditions regarding entrepreneurship, in relation to society's norms. The study is based on a textual thematic analyses, using two themes derived from Helene Ahls ?The Scientific Reproduction of Gender Inequality. A Discourse Analysis of Research Texts on Women`s Entrepreneurship?.

This project is based on my fathers farm which lays outside Löberöd, twenty kilometres south of Eslöv in Skåne. While my family for some time have thought about building a new milkingstable with AMS(Automatic milking system) I decided to compare the AMS with a conventional milkingstable. We are abit concerned about how many cows we should have in the new stable. Because of that I calculated with two different number of cows. I have compared three different types of milking stables: One alternative is 180 cows milked in a double eigth hearing bone milking stable. The second alternative is 128 cows milked with two DeLaval VMS-robots. The third alternative is 171 cows milked with three DeLaval VMS-robots. One salesman from DeLaval and one salesman from A-betong helped me to get marketprices on the milkingrobots, building, ventilation and prices on all the concrete. In all the costs labour is included. The rest of the costs are calculated in a softwareprogram called K-data 03 which is a program with predicted costs. The calulations from the program showed that the price in the milkingpit system was 51 000 sek per cow.

When the competition is getting stronger and companies must work harder to find new markets, new products and create new needs to reach growth, it appears strange that they overlook an obvious target segment right in front of their eyes. For some years ago, marketers of fashion brands feared that older women would wear their clothes, because it gave bad promotion for the young economically viable target group. Today, older women have difficulties finding clothes with right fit, style and personal taste. They would gratefully accept a brand, they felt were aimed for them. The purpose of this study is to give new ideas to companies in the fashion industry, how to reach this target group, but also be a contributing reason for older women to see the market opening for them.

With a larger awareness of the climate changes and increasing electricity prices, energy efficiency measures in the industry have become more common. By rationalize the activity and by the same time decrease the emission of greenhouse gases the company can both save money and reduce negative environmental impact. For the Swedish industries the electricity price have traditional been relative low, which has resulted in a considerable larger usage than other European countries. By a deregulation of the European electricity market the electricity price will level off between the countries, which will cause a higher electricity price in Sweden than we are use to. To prevent that the Swedish industry don?t lose competitiveness against the other European countries, it will require energy efficiency activities in all different forms.ABB Sweden has decided to decrease their total energy usage with five percent in two years.

During the last decennium climate issues have become more and more important. Many steps towards an adaption of efficient energy supply systems have been taken all around the world. These steps have been created to ensure the next generation?s energy demand. In EU and Sweden objectives have been set to ensure that the energy consumption decreases by 20% year 2020 and by 50% year 2050 compared with the energy consumption levels of year 1995.

The regulations for energy consumption are consistently getting more and morestrict. This leads to a higher customer demand for energy analysis early in the buildingdesign process. Many building planners and architects use powerful modeling softwareto visualize their projects. These digital models contain sufficient information aboutthe building?s physical characteristics for reliable energy analysis.

A problem in the field of district heating is the oil burners needed to provide power when a peak load occurs. One possible way of reducing the needed amount of oil is to reduce the power demand for space heating in the district-heating substations when the need for district heating water exceeds a certain limit. This can be done by use of a locally working controller function.In this Thesis the options concerning load priority are evaluated. To evaluate the potential for using controller functions concerning peak load priority an experiment was brought out in a chosen district-heating substation. The impact on the indoor thermal comfort during a heat reduction was also taken into account.

 The sawmill industry is a relative fragmented industry that is in an economic upswing andwith a hard competition. The customers have high demands on their suppliers and the highcustomer demand make it necessary for the companies to make a streamlining in planningand production. For that reason it is very important that the planning- and productionprocesses aren?t to complex and with a simple structure.The purpose of this report is to study and map out a marked out part of a planning- andproduction process, from adjust works to final delivery, at a company in the sawmill industry.Different methods have been used for the report, among others interviews and subordinatedmaterial.We have mapped out a marked out part of the planning- and production process at theCompany. This part we have studied, and we have analysed the process it self and otherthings connected to the process.We see the planning- and production process in the Company as complex.

Songs from the Crypt: Mapping the Forces that Hinder the Digital Revolution of Music Distribution This paper seeks an explanation to the low market share growth of the commercial digital music distribution in Sweden. The analysis identifies a spectrum of obstacles that hinder the digital distribution technology from becoming the main form of music distribution in Sweden. These obstacles make the digital music distribution less favourable in comparison with physical distribution from the consumer?s point of view. The authors suggest that in order for the digital distribution of music to become competitive the digital product would either have to be developed further to offer more customer value or the so called a là carte retail model would have to be replaced by a subscription-based distribution model.

After the formation of the European Union internal market in 1992, member state specific obstacles and barriers were largely removed. This was especially the case in harmonised industries where standardisation and technical regulation have led to legal certainty. Despite this, a large range of trade regulation continues to remain distortional to trade, in addition to the ongoing tariffs and subsidies. The key trade regulations relate to a number of areas involving technical regulations such as production labelling and the protection of intellectual property rights. Whilst policy makers claim justification based around the need to correct market failure in delivering desired outcomes, the question is whether these regulations are appropriate responses to market failures or if they have simply been imposed in an attempt to protect domestic markets.

This report has been performed for WSP Construction Design located at Arenavägen 7 in Stockholm. WSP Construction Design is one of the leading departments in Sweden in construction solutions regarding everything from building construction to industrial building. Great competencies regarding steel, wood and concrete constructions are available within the department which is well sought.Crane girders used in the industry are exposed to large loads that vary over time that includes instantaneous lifts and the crane girders movement which lead to the phenomenon fatigue in the crane girder and its ingoing welds. A control of fatigue needs to be performed after a certain lifespan measured in time which in turn is converted to a number of loadcycles. When the number of loadcycles amounts to a greater number the input welds resistance will have been reduced and the rate of utilization thereby increased.

Mitt mål var att skapa västra söders identitet och samlingsplats, vilken helt saknas idag. Utmaningen var också att transformera Hornsbruksgatan från en baksida till en tillgänglig plats. Högalidsparken förlängs ner till gatunivå - Hornsbruksgatan blir en blandning av park/ torg genom ett specifikt grönt plattsystem. Nya stråk och ramper binder ihop nuvarande gatu- och parknivån. Bebyggelsen är småskalig och nätt, ändå är programmet större än förslagit proram.

Summary Title Are older consumers of interest for the Swedish Apparel market?A study of older consumers? attitudes and interests in apparel Deadline 12 January, 2007 Course FEK 533 Authors Brusk Kutlay and Linda Nordén Tutors Björn Carlsson and Roland Knutsson Keywords Older consumer, apparel, lifestyle, attitudes, consumer behavior Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate weather the 50+ segment is a strong market for apparel, i.e. if it is an interesting market for the Swedish apparel industry. The aim is to contribute to a better understanding of consumers? attitudes toward apparel shopping on the Swedish market.

This thesis addresses online marketing within gaming industry. Some customer identifying methods and website development were introduced as well as examined over the Internet. An empirical study focusing on two gaming companies has been carried out. The purpose has been to describe the use of internet by online gaming companies for online marketing. The thesis will focus on finding out how online gaming companies identify their target groups on internet and how they use internet to reach out to their consumers.