A great number of empirical researches show that hedging is associated with higher firm value, particularly hedging interest rate and exchange rate. However, there is no clear support for value-added risk management hypothesis in the case of producers of commodities. Moreover, according to Shrand and Unal (1997), there are two types of risks, core business risks (or core risk) and homogeneous risks (or non core risks), which are based on a firm's comparative advantages with respects to the source of risk. Firm can earn economic profits for bearing core risks in which it has a comparative information advantage. Firm earn a zero economic rents for bearing non-core risks, where it has no advantage information than its competitors.

PurposeThe purpose of this thesis is to investigate the market of pedagogic consulting and how the customers look upon these kinds of services and what the consultants think about the market. The following five questions were investigated:What is the situation of the market of pedagogic consulting?-          What needs and what demands are there of pedagogical consulting services? -          What are the economic possibilities for schools and municipalities to buy professional development and consulting services?What do schools and municipalities think about their needs and what do they think about buying professional development from consultants?-          How are the professional development offerings of the consultants recieved by schools and municipalities and is there a difference between the private and public sector of education? -          What impact could professional development have on schools?In what way is the marketing for pedagogic consulting done?Method In this study I have chosen to have a qualitative approach with an abductive perpective. I made these choices to get closer to what I wanted to investigate. Through the abductive methodology it was possible to go between theory and empirics.

The process of value creation is rapidly shifting from a product- and firm-centric view to personalized consumer experience today. Informed, networked, empowered and active consumers are increasingly co-creating value with the firm. The interaction between the firm and the consumer as well as the experience factor plays an increasingly important role in determining the success of a company?s offering. In this study, a special type of co-creating experience is investigated - ?omstartspex? - where the audience is interacting with actors during the play.

This is a report for our thesis that was conducted as a conclusion of our bachelor degree in Business engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). The work is done in cooperation with the firm Navigate Consulting Business Solutions AB.They have their leading expertise in Oracle E-Business Suite and has previously chosen to implement Oracle EBS R12. The modules that are planned to be implemented are general ledger (GL), accounts payable (AP), accounts receivable (AR), project module (PA), purchases, and CRM. For a consulting company like Navigate, it is particularly important to have a simple and effective time reporting process. We were therefore asked to provide new tabs with a decision-making process to determine if Oracle Time & Labor (OTL) is a useful time tracking system for their business.In order to achieve the company´s aim and objective we decided to follow a development method with five different phases.

LRF Konsult is a big consulting-firm with offices located all over Sweden. The corporation offers a wide range of services and a lot of the customers are small businesses active within the green sector. An analysis of the corporation made in 2006 showed that one of LRF Konsults weaknesses is that many customers are unaware of the wide range of services that LRF Konsult offers. The internal communication is believed to play a big role in marketing these services. Therefor, the objective of this thesis has been to investigate why the transfer of customers between accounting consultants and business advisors is not greater and how this can be improved.

Management Consulting firms are an important part of the knowledge economy and they capitalize on the analytical ability and knowledge of their employees. Much research have been made on large Consulting firms and their management of knowledge, but little is known about how small consultancies manage their knowledge. Even less is known about the management of knowledge in small consultancies specialized in change management. These firms rely solely on senior consultants and focus on the human aspect of organizational development. This thesis aims to show how these firms manage their knowledge and also provide an understanding of why.

The use of entertainment in various kinds of business events has recently increased in popularity among Swedish firms. Often, stand-up comedians are hired to entertain the employees or customers during these happenings. Generally, the firm invests a considerable amount of money in this service and is furthermore willing to pay a premium for a famous comedian. Although the market for this type of service is fairly large, the knowledge of the motives behind the investments is yet limited.A grounded theory study is carried out exploring the purpose of the entertainment as well as the rationales behind the preference for a famous comedian over an unknown. Two general types of contexts (internal and external) are identified and a number of objectives related to each type are distinguished.

This report is the result of a project work carried out at Karlstad University in conjunctionwith the local Consulting firm Camatec where most of the work has been performed.The work can be classified as a classic engineering work with supportive theories andcalculations which in this context is relevant.The engineering project has focused on developing new standards for a conveyor that is usedin the Värmland paper industry where large rolls of paper are produced. A conveyor can takeits appearance in many different forms but in this thesis it has been an exemplary look and ithas also become modulatable with a central section, a drive end and a turning end.The construction work has been build under CAD programs such as Pro Engineer, drawingshave been created and costings have been analyzed. Strength calculations have been made andcooperation from several different companies have erected to explore different solutions andideas for a modern and sustainable conveyor..

How debt affects companies is an issue that has received much attention. The fact that researchers disagree can make it hard for companies to choose a financingpolicy that maximizes the value of the firm and its return on equity. In a world with investors that are seeking to maximize profits the value of the firm can be affected differently by different economic conditions. The intention of this study is to answer these issues with quantitive methods, with focus on year 2010 and 2009, where the value of the firm is defined as P/E and P/B ratio. The outcome showed that liabilities only affected return on equity significant in one of four cases, and liabilites didn?t affect the value of companies significantly in any of these.

This essay in economic geography describes what intra-firm trade as a concept is and different ways to determine in which cases trade is to be labeled as intra-firm trade (IFT) or not. The method used by the author is most easily described as descriptive. This method was chosen in order to test if existing theories; classic and neoclassic economics, new trade theory and international business studies, are capable to explain the phenomena of IFT. The theories are tested trough primary and secondary literature but also trough reasoning by the author.The conclusion is that the most reasonable way to determine whether trade occurs intra-firm or not, is to decide upon a 5-% rule where it when one part owns 5-% of the voting strength in the other company is to be considered intra-firm trade. This is a conclusion based on several reasons; the strongest one being that a common view on IFT could boost comparative studies as the U.S already collects data based on the 5-% rule.Classic and neoclassic economics are incapable of explaining IFT as aprerequisite for these theories is that markets are perfect.

The regulatory framework for constructional calculations in Sweden did expire In January the 1.st, 2011.Since then the constructional regulatory that originally were composed by Boverket (BKR) has been replaced by new common range (Eurocodes) for the entire European Union. This transition has led to changes in existing rules and standards regarding dimensioning area in Grids and has forced a need for updating to structural Engineers.The new calculation system has caused time-consuming studies of the new rules and a proper understanding of all the advice and regulations for the entire profession.This study has been carried out in cooperation with the firm "Knut Jönson Ingenjörs AB i Stockholm?, that has been affected by this transition as all other Consulting firms. The firm has requested for a calculation method of wall beams according to Eurocodes. The study's focus is therefore to clarify the rules and guidelines regarding the design of wall beams according to the new regulation.

In family firms altruistic effects can arise in order to preserve the ownership of the firm within the family. The family firm may chose to carry or take measures against these effects. Regardless, it will lead to different agent costs. Therefore, the aims of the study were to explain how altruistic effects in family firms exert an influence on the administrative systems and possible counter measures.In order to explain the origin of altruistic effects, we built a theory which showed that the altruistic effects were followed by agent costs. The family can take measures to counteract these original effects.

Sammanfattning: Intern Kommunikation - En studie av den interna kommunikationen på Consulting AB inför, under och efter en organisatorisk förändringDatum: 2013-05-29Nivå: Kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomi, 15 hpInstitution: Akademin för ekonomi, samhälle och teknik (EST), Mälardalens Högskola, VästeråsFörfattare: Frida Källgren, Johan Olsson och Markus WallströmTitel: Intern Kommunikation - En studie av den interna kommunikationen på Consulting AB inför, under och efter en organisatorisk förändringHandledare: Birgitta SchwartzSidor: 38Bilagor: 2Nyckelord: Kommunikation, Intern kommunikation, Förändringsprocess, organisatorisk förändring, Ledarskap, KommunikationskanalerProblemformulering: Hur kommunicerade Consulting AB internt inför och under förändringen till kontorslandskap? Hur har den interna kommunikationen på Consulting AB förändrats till följd av den organisatoriska förändringen? Hur skulle den interna kommunikationen inför och under förändringsprocessen kunnat göras bättre?Syfte: Syftet är att undersöka den interna kommunikationen på Consulting AB inför och under deras förändring till kontorslandskap, huruvida den interna kommunikationen förändrats till följd av förändringen samt om den hade kunnat genomföras på ett bättre sätt.Metod: Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ studie med abduktiv ansats. Intervjufrågorna var semistrukturerade och intervjuerna gjordes med sammanlagt sju personer.Slutsats: Bra ledarskap och kommunikation under förändringsprocessen. Genom hårt arbete och noggranna val av kommunikationskanaler har ledarskap och kommunikation uppfattats som väl fungerade under denna period.Öppnare kommunikation. Kommunikationen har i och med förändringen till kontorslandskap blivit öppnare och det på grund av fler konversationer mellan en eller flera medarbetare snarare än att använda mejl.Vissa förbättringsmöjligheter inför framtida projekt har upptäckts och dem är förberedelse inför arbete i kontorslandskap, tydligare information kring eventuella förändringar, skapa en större delaktighet bland personalen, inte stirra sig blind på avdelningsplacering i kontorslandskapet och uppföljning av förändringen..

In this thesis we examine the relationship between board composition and firm performance in Swedish companies. The selection of companies includes all Swedish limited liability companies, with the exception of micro enterprises, that have been active between the years of 2009-2010. We develop hypotheses based on resource dependence theory, agency theory, and the resource based view, and test these with regression analysis against collected data. Specifically, we examine the effects of board diversity, outside directorships, and CEO duality. Our findings show that none of the theories provide sufficient explanatory power of the relationship between board composition and firm performance, and that further research is required to better understand the role and effects of company boards..

This thesis work is about how technical consulting companies can accept their organization before a coming recession. Technical consulting companies are together with the rest of the actors in the construction business constantly depended on the current economic situation on the market. How to adapt the organisation depends on the current situation on the market.To adapt the organization in the best way possible the companies need to recruit and educate personal. It is then very important to find a solution on how the current change of generation in the companies will be handled. The large and very much competent group of 40-talists will in a few years retire.