Account receivables tie up large amounts of capital in. Various reports show that the actual time for customer to pay their invoices is getting longer. This is a problem both from a society and a business economic perspective. The purpose of the essay is to find out if Swedish companies have longer credit days than normal contractual terms of payment and if so, can the business cycle or the geographical distribution of sales have an impact and does it make a difference if the companies have an active monitoring of the actual customer credit days. To answer this, we studied 12 listed companies in four different sectors between the years 2000-2008. In the analysis, we reason about the results of the study and how the various factors may have influenced the outcome.

Sveriges skogsindustri är beroende av skogsmaskinentreprenörer för råvaruanskaffning. För att trygga försörjningen till industrierna, effektivisera och förbättra drivningstjänsterna är det viktigt att företagen i branschen är lönsamma. Syftet med den här studien är att identifiera hur lönsamma skogsmaskinentreprenörer i Götaland arbetar för att uppnå goda ekonomiska resultat. Med hjälp av gränsvärden för nyckeltalen avkastning på eget kapital, avkastning på totalt kapital, soliditet, nettomarginal och kassalikviditet identifierades de mest lönsamma skogsmaskinentreprenörerna. I en kvalitativ intervjustudie intervjuades företagarna om hur de arbetade med att leda sina företag, vad de ansåg vara den viktigaste framgångsfaktorn och deras syn på möjligheter till ökad lönsamhet. Tillsammans med tidigare studier formulerades faktorer och förbättringsområden som påverkar skogsmaskinentreprenörernas lönsamhet.

The purpose of this Bachelor thesis is to analyze if there is a correlation between stock prices and the amount of searches of the companies names on Google. The theories used in the study were Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH). Regressions analysis is used as the statistical method to see if there is a significant correlation between the stock prices and the amout of searches of the company name on Google. The data used were the rate of return of three companies (ABB, Oriflame and Sandvik) on the Nasdaq OMX Nordic stock market, the rate of return of the Nasdaq OMX Nordic stock market index (OMX Stockholm_PI) and the Google search frequency from Google Trends on each company. The result showed no significance and the conclusion of the thesis is that there is no significant correlation between the three studied companies and their search frequency on the search engine Google..

This thesis investigates if a system for small scale electricity production located in anurban environment can be profitable. The work has been divided up into two parts,one extensive literature study and one case study. The purpose of the literature studywas to investigate the area, resulting in a choice of which technology to be studied indepth in a case study.In the case study a system containing small scale wind turbines and photovoltaicsmounted on Gränby Centrums roof was examined. From data containing wind power,wind direction and total irradiation, possible production from a system weresimulated. Three products of each technology were examined in the simulations.From the simulated production an economic analysis was carried out, this toinvestigate if a system is profitable.

I denna studie undersöktes faktorer som kan påverka individers positiva attityder gentemot organisationsförändringar. Syftet med studien var att titta på individen och dess attityd gentemot organisationsförändringar. Undersökningsmetoden bestod av en enkätundersökning, i vilken fokus ligger på åtta olika faktorer som kan tänkas påverka eller skapa positiva attityder hos individerna i organisationen vid en förändring. Urvalet bestod av individer från tre olika organisationer med olika förändringserfarenheter. Kön, ålder, erfarenhet samt utbildning varierade bland våra respondenter.

In efforts to strengthen local economies, business development programs are often a way in which governmental organizations and state affiliates try to facilitate innovation and successful entrepreneurship. There is a mutual interest from both the public and private sector that these funds are put to good use. Extensive research has been conducted with the focus of the general effect of public support programs. However, not much research has been done on what external factors affect the situation for receiving businesses. This study attempts to examine whether one specific such factor, the level of maturity on the markets that the recipients operate in, has a discernible effect on the needs for different types of entrepreneurial support.

Modern semiconductor design methods makes it possible to design increasingly complex system-on-a-chips (SOCs). Testing such SOCs becomes highly expensive due to the rapidly increasing test data volumes with longer test times as a result. Several approaches exist to compress the test stimuli and where hardware is added for decompression. This master?s thesis presents a test data compression method based on a modified facsimile code.

The aim of this study is, using the Swedish expression ?kulturtant? (cultured lady) as starting point, to understand how and why women consume the products of the culture industry more eagerly than men. The study is using the concepts put forward by Pierre Bourdieu; fields, capital and habitus. It is a qualitative study based on discussions in focus groups, interviews and material gathered through Google Alerts. In the literature this gap between the sexes with regard to the higher consumption on behalf of women has been referred to as the ?puzzle? of women´s cultural consumption.The empirical results show that the women in the study are well aware of what they want to gain by participating in cultural activities like reading, going to concerts, watching plays or going to the movies.

This study is focused on some individuals' experience of the concept of culture in their everyday life. Some questions about culture were asked to some persons living in a small village in the isle of Gotland and some persons in the capital of Sweden, Stockholm, in the autumn in 2007 in a field study.The study showed that peopele tend to shape their own life world in the continuous activity in their near surroundings, in the garden and in reading literature and listening to music. There were some differences in the life world depending on where they lived,  in the country side or in town. Urban life has more offers as to popera and theatres but negatively more violence and stress.A study of literature on the ethnological concept of culture is included. The answers of the individuals also led to different topics such as nostalgia, mind, fear, feelings, body and soul which were enlightened by scientist from the respective fields..

Bakgrund: Betydelsen av en välfungerande bankverksamhet, och därmed även den ekonomiska styrningen däri, torde blivit allt större på grund av den accelererande globalisering som idag sköljer över vårt samhälle. Det faktum att de undersökta bankerna verkar på samma area med likvärdiga produkter är även det av stort intresse beträffande homogeniteten i den ekonomiska styrningen. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera Sveriges storbankers centrala ekonomiska styrning i form av graden av decentralisering, användandet av budget samt valet av nyckeltal. Rapportförfattarna söker även analysera likheter och skillnader i dessa styrsystem då detta torde vara intressant eftersom de alla tillhandahåller liknande tjänster på en relativt mogen marknad. Genomförande: Det empiriska materialet består till lejonparten av intervjuer med nyckelpersoner inom de svenska storbankerna (FöreningsSparbanken, Handelsbanken, Nordea och SEB).

This paper aims to explore the reception in Sweden of the work and ideas of neuroscientist Antonio R Damasio, expressed in his four published books. The material used is mainly articled and reviews published in Sweden between 1995 and 2011 regarding Damasio?s books. To analyze the reception, paradigm theories by Kuhn, and Bourdieu?s ideas regarding field, habitus and capital has been used.

Hedge funds have the past few years become an increasingly popular investment alternative and in the last decade hedge fund assets managed have quadrupled to USD 2000 billion, a growth rate of around 25-30% per year. One explanation for this substantial increase is that hedge funds' minimum limits on capital invested has declined, which have made ??them available to retail investors. The recent turmoil in financial markets has also contributed to investors finding their way to hedge funds, whose goal is to generate stable returns regardless of how the market develops.Using Sharpe?s, Treynor?s and Jensen's performance measures, I have investigated whether hedge funds manage to generate higher risk-adjusted returns than traditional managed funds.

The aim of this paper is to examine how confidence in co-operative behaviour of partner is reached in a relationship between an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist. A case study has been conducted on a Swedish football club that has involved venture capital in order to develop the organization. The paper presents a theoretical approach which draws on a control model of interorganizational relationships developed by Dekker (2004) and a model developed by Shepherd & Zacharakis (2001) illustrating how control, trust and confidence is reached in a venture capitalist-entrepreneur relationship. The relationship between the football club and the venture capitalist can simultaneously be seen as an interorganizational relationship and a relationship between an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist. Because of the complexity of the relationship, different control problems prevail.

During my practical training I have seen what after-school offers children. Large groups of children and little staff, often results in that the children had to play freely until they go home. Few activities are offered to the children and the staff is busy looking after the children and ensures that they are not fighting.The purpose of this study is to find out how children feel about their leisure activities and if they think they are being offered a meaningful leisure. The main research questions were:How do children experience their leisure-time?Do after-school offers children a meaningful leisure and is it the children's interests and needs that govern the activities and the environment?How do the number of children in the leisure group affect the leisure time?The methods to collect data in the study are observations and interviews.

PURPOSE: By analysing collected data using theory, we aim to interpret the design, implementation and the usage of BSC in NPO?s to be able to contribute to the research. METHODOLOGY: A case study design has been made through semi-structured interviews and backed up by a quantitative survey and internal documents. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES: Based on the sources given from the creators of the scorecard together with some sceptics and some followers, we have outlined the bases of balanced scorecard. To map out the non-profit sector and its strategic needs, the theories have tried to settle the specific need for the strategic tool given.