This dissertation aims to explore how an investment appraisal differs depending on if it is conducted by a municipal or a private real estate company. Municipal and private real estate companies are not performing on totally equal terms in the property market. A municipal company in Sweden has a public service mission. The consequence due to that mission is that they have limited yield potential but on the other hand the right to certain subsidies. They are also limited by the law of public purchasing (in Swedish: Lag om offentlig upphandling) in the investment process.

Background: Theoretical, it?s been questioned why dividends exists in companies based upon the fact that there is a separation between ownership and control. According to the agency theoretical perception, dividends is used as a manner to unify the interest of this separation, which in turn lower the agency cost, and increase the efficiency of companies.Purpose: The aim of this master thesis is to scrutinize and analyse the association between Swedish firms? owner structure and owner types and their inclination to dividend.Method: We attack the problem with a hypothetical-deductive research method by using the existence of a universal theory, the agency theory. From our theoretical framework we propose a set of hypotheses.

Consumption of meat and poultry has increased during the last ten years while the production in Sweden has decreased. Cheap imports are competing with Swedish products and consumers, restaurant and retail let the price decided what to purchase. Swedish food producers can become better at communicating the added values that meat and poultry produced in Sweden has. Social media gives companies a possible tool for communication in order to communicate and create a relationship with consumers. The rise of social media does not only affect consumer decisions making, but also corporate communication. The objective of this project is to investigate how social media can connect the farmer to the consumer.

New rules for bank capital adequacy were introduced in 2013. This caused a changein funding of real estate companies. The bank could not cover as much of thecompanies funding?s as before and they had to explore other funding opportunities,such as bonds. Bond funding in Swedish real estate companies regularly consists ofunsecured corporate bonds and the secured ones are not that common.

The workplace has a direct impact on the physical, psychological, economic and social well-being of the workers. A healthy workplace leads to increased health among the employees which also makes the employees more productive (Källestål, 2004). A poor working environment can have negative consequences for individuals, companies and society (SOU, 2009:47).This is a qualitative study that investigates companies? view of health promotion and how they practice health promotion in working life. Five private and five public companies, with representatives from the management were interviewed.

Title: What´s the problem? - A study of revenue recognition in IT-consultant     companiesProblem: How do the chosen IT-consultant companies recognize their revenues? What difficulties do the interviewed companies experience in connection with the revenue recognition?Purpose: The purpose of this empirical study is to study how companies in the IT-consultant industry recognize revenues, and to investigate if the companies perceive any difficulties in connection with the revenue recognition. The aim of the study is to give useful advice and guidelines to companies in the IT-consultant business based on the extracted result. Method: The survey took place in Vasteras and started with a preliminary interview with a certified accountant, who had great knowledge of the subject revenue recognition. Then seven companies from the IT-consultant industry were selected, whereof two took part in semi constructed interviews.  Study of the other five companies? ways to recognize revenue was made through their annual reports.   Conclusion: One of the studied companies recognizes their revenues according to the rules in IAS 18, which is because it is listed on the stock exchange.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the companies on Nasdaq OMXS Large and Mid Cap to see if there are interesting patterns regarding their WACC assumptions, used when performing impairment tests on goodwill, during 2007-2009. If so, can we explain these patterns? MethodWe have gathered information about the WACC assumptions presented in the annual reports of the 133 companies that were listed on OMXS Large and Mid Cap during the spring of 2011. To complement this quantitative information we have also conducted an interview with Peter Malmqvist and contacted eight of the companies that were in the study.ConclusionWe can conclude that not all companies present their WACC assumptions in the annual report, even though IAS 36 states that this should be done. Of the 45 companies that were included in our study, eight had lowered their WACC during 2008 and increased it in 2009.

In today?s Sweden there is great belief in entrepreneurship and the benefits it can bring to the country. The Swedish government has taken note of this growing enthusiasm and realized the contribution it can make to facilitate national growth. Successful efforts have been made in Sweden to support entrepreneurship and innovation, which has resulted in a relative ease for individuals to start their own businesses.The number of companies started today is higher than ever and there are signs of a common faith in growth among new entrepreneurs. Unfortunately only a small fraction of these new businesses succeed in growing big.

Many companies have a specific dress code in the workplace. In some companies, the code is not very extensive, while other companies have uniform requirements. What is little understood however, is what effect different staff clothing might have on consumer response in terms of satisfaction, purchase intent, attitude, interest and so on. Some limited research has shown how different levels of congruence between individuals in their marketing, and the brand they are representing, can affect customers. To avoid any wrong focus in marketing it is key to understand the knowledge gap on the potential impact the personnel in the store have on its customers.

Soybean meal from South America is the most common protein feed used for animal production in Sweden. Production of soybean has negative effects on the environment and the transports from South America to Sweden causes considerable CO2 emissions. Therefore it is a growing interest in locally produced protein feed in Sweden. Protein feeds that are possible to grow in Sweden are rapeseed, peas, faba beans and lupins. Those are adapted to the Nordic climate and are perfect to grow in cereal rotations.

Problem: After several corporate scandals concerning accounting around the world a discussion concerning corporate governance arose. The public demanded greater insight and better corporate governance in public companies. The discussions led to the development of codes of corporate governance, codes such as the Sarbanes Oxley Act, the Combined Code and the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance. The Swedish code is a clarifying of the Swedish law, a codification of praxis and in some cases an increase in the demands on reporting of information from the companies.Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to describe what effects the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance has had on the content of annual reports of listed companies and if different types of companies have been affected in different ways.Method: The investigation was conducted using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Through a preliminary study knowledge about the subject was gathered.

Abstract  This paper examines the Copenhagen Climate Conference held in the Bella Center in Copenhagen, December 2009. The aim of this paper was to analyse the highly anticipated conference, and why it did not result in a binding protocol between the world?s states. The focus of this paper was to examine two key actors in the Copenhagen negotiations: the people?s republic of China and the European Union.

This thesis aims to explain the emergence of the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union, and its institutional shaping, by using elements of Neofunctionalism and Liberal Intergovernmentalism.Using Neofunctionalism, the Common Foreign and Security Policy can be explained both as a side-effect of Europe's economic integration, and as a way to maintain the former and the European Union's position as an economic superpower. The institutional shaping is a result of lack of convergence between important national interests. Therefore it rests on a firm intergovernmental base, with rigorously limited use of supranational decision-making.For Liberal Intergovernmentalism, geopolitics and ideology, and to a certain level log-rolling, have played important roles. The reunification of Germany convinced France to form an alliance between the two countries. France, determined to achieve an economic and monetary union, thus offered Germany a political union, including a Common Foreign and Security Policy on intergovernmental terms.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine the environmental scanning by the employees and politicians at the central administration at the County Council of Kalmar län. The background of the study is the closing of the administration library in January 2003, which gave more tasks to the hospital libraries of the County Council.The main questions of this study concerns the information needs of the employees and politicians, what electronic sources they prefer to use to satisfy those needs and if they are experiencing a need for more support and help, from a librarian or by the development of a common catalogue of hyperlinks. All 104 persons in the population were asked to answer a questionnaire on the Intranet. The task was performed by 60 persons.

Agency theory describes the conflict of interest between the principal (stockholders) and the agent (CEO). Aligning the incentives of executives with those of the owners is the most direct way to mitigate the agency problem. If there is no meaningful link between CEO compensation and company performance, it is doubtful that the large sums of assets in public corporations are being managed efficiently. In theory the solution is simple reward the CEO when shareholders wealth increases. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if there is a relationship between company performance and CEO compensation among Swedish companies, in materials and information technology industry.