Background: There has been an increase in savings and investment in recent years along with an increased interest in responsible investments. Ethical mutual funds has developed and gained increasingly popularity.Aim: The aim of the study is to examine if ethical mutual funds are an equivalent alternative to traditional mutual funds in terms of return, risk and risk-adjusted return on the Swedish stock market.Theory: Beta, Jensen's Alpha, Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio, and Modern Portfolio Theory.Method: Quantitative survey method, a statistical study.Conclusion:The study concludes that there is no significant difference between ethical and conventional mutual funds in terms of return, risk and risk-adjusted return. The small differences that exist between the two fund groups are in favor of the ethical fund group, indicating that funds is a comparable investment option compared to traditional mutual funds..

Sara Lidman?s second novel Hjortronlandet (1955) unfolds in the north of Sweden in the early 20th century. It describes the progress of modernity and the conflicting interests of an old local culture and a new more ?civilised? one. The two cultures are constituted by different value systems and in the novel they are represented by two neighbour communities.

To understand and explain how the borderland between civil and corporate societies areconstructed and reproduced in the organisations subjectivity. I want to study the navigationsand interpretations of the different actors in the field in an explorative manner.? How do the leaders of the organisations interpret governing and strategic management? Whatconcepts are used? How is the leadership constructed?How do they discuss the demands of management and structure coming from outside theorganisations? How are the organisations shaped by accountability and normative conceptions of leadership?What is their view on the demands coming from within the organisations? What role does thedemocratic governance body have in relation to the employees and the management?What is their view on employment, relations with trade unions and employer associations andthe managerial position of the organisations?The Swedish context with strong emphasis on membership and democratic rights for themembers and volunteers has not gained a large impact on the international researchconcerning non-profit management. Instead the service delivering organisations working withgovernment contract and hired recruiters and volunteer management is in focus. This makes ita very interesting area of research.

Purpose: To evaluate the management development course held at FöreningsSparbanken in Ronneby during 2000. The evaluation aims to map and describe what effects the course has had on the participants. We will assess to what degree the effects meets the objectives of the course set by the manager of the bank (future management recruitment, leadership, change catalyst, aligning the strive towards a shared organisational objective). Above mentioned also implies that the organisation should be influenced in some regards. Conclusion: Our conclusion is that all of the participants have as a result of the course increased their emotional intelligence in varying levels. We also conclude that the course participants? progress has not spread to the non-participants.

This bachelor thesis argues for consumers' views on origin labeling effect and their willingness to pay for goods with this kind of label. The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors that influence and to measure willingness to pay for a national origin labeled product previously only competeing with a less expensive conventional product, when a further regional product is introduced in the purchasing decisions of consumers. This is achieved by testing whether Simonson's (1989) theory of the compromise effect is applicable to increase consumers' willingness to pay for eco-labeled food products. The factors affecting the willingness to pay; trust in eco- label, opinions about the products of their own nation and the surrounding region. Furthermore presents theory about what underlying the consumer consumption choices.In order to achieve credible results 240 respondents have participated in a questionnaire survey.

The main question of this study is about how reorganizations influence on the mental social working environment for chiefs in municipal care. We want to find out how chiefs experience their mental social working environment in a reorganization. The method we used was a qualitative method. We interviewed eight chiefs in municipal care. The interview was done in two different municipalities, where we interviewed four in each municipality.

Many studies have pointed out that generosity depends on different things like gender, age and nationality. We wanted to see if predetermined factors like genetics also had an effect on the intention of generosity. There is a ratio between the index finger (2D) and ring finger (4D) that is determined by the levels of testosterone in the amniotic fluid and that have had some significant effect on personality attributes like musical and leadership skills. We wanted to see if that ratio had any effect on the intention of generosity. We experimentally examined a group of priest student and two groups of young handball players and let the groups answer a survey that included a sort of dictator game and we photo copied their hands to get their 2D:4D-ratio.

Denna studie syftar till att identifiera vad det är som driver eller hindrar lantbrukare i Östergötland att ställa om sitt lantbruk till ekologisk produktion och huruvida de identifierade påverkningsfaktorerna skiljer sig åt mellan konventionella och ekologiska lantbrukare. Semistrukturerade intervjuer med tre konventionella samt fyra ekologiska lantbrukare genomfördes för att undersöka deras erfarenheter. Respondenternas erfarenheter redovisas i sex identifierade teman; Gårdsspecifika förutsättningar, Ekonomi, Politik, Administration och regelverk, Miljö och hälsa samt Produktionsteknik. En jämförelse mellan de båda grupperna genomförs och det empiriska materialet ställs mot tidigare forskning. Resultatet av studien visar att skillnader mellan ekologiska och konventionella lantbrukares uppfattningar kring hinder och drivkrafter förekommer, men inte inom alla teman.

Denna studie behandlar de fyra böckerna Brott och straff av Fjodor Dostojevskij, Kråkflickan, Hungerelden och Pythians anvisningar alla tre skrivna av Jerker Eriksson och Håkan Axlander- Sundquist. Jag utför en illustrativ komparativ analys av mördarnas psyke och böckernas struktur samt undersöker det didaktiska värdet av att göra denna studie.Genom att psykologiskt analysera böckernas mördare har jag kunnat göra en psykologisk profil till de fyra. Raskolnikov som är dubbelmördare i kriminalromanen Brott och straff har en narcissistisk, schizofren läggning som beror på att hans omedvetna strider med det medvetna om det moraliska i att mörda. Viggo Dürer, den onda mördaren av ett femtiotal barn, som figurerar i trilogin är klart psykopatisk med en könsidentitetskonflikt. Victoria Bergman, den trasiga föräldramördaren som är huvudperson i Kråkflickan, Hungerelden och Pythians anvisningar lider av dissociativ personlighetsstörning till följd av upprepade övergrepp i barndomen.

Farmers? main reason for crossbreeding dairy cows is that they have seen a decline in functional traits, especially in the Holstein breed. Throughout crossbreeding, the farmers can combine functional and production traits of different dairy breeds and utilize the heterosis effects which emerge when two or more breeds are crossed. Results from different studies with Holstein crossed with Jersey, Brown Swiss, Normande and Scandinavian Red have shown that the crosses had higher fertility, longer productive life, had fewer stillborn calves and had easier calvings than purebred Holstein. The Holstein crosses have shown very good results and sometimes even better than the purebred Holstein for fat production, which gave higher amount of energy corrected milk (ECM) and higher income for the farmers.

In 2005 we made a research in a Swedish community board about their view on the political and ideological intentions of ?a school for all?. The results from that study were the background to this research.The aim with this research was to find out how principles in the same community were thinking about ? a school for all? and if they were leading a development towards ?a school for all?. In that context they were given the opportunity to explain their definition and reasoning about ?inclusion? and ?integration?.

Recent years have been very turbulent for most private equity firms. Especially the financial meltdown in global economy has affected the industry, but also the public pressure has made private equity houses change their control strategies towards more conventional methods used in public companies. This thesis aims to put light on the control methods used in listed private equity houses which use a buyout strategy. The paper describes how the control methods change over the different phases the asset experience and how different value generating strategies use altered control methods. Using Merchant's (2003) framework for management control systems and Berg and Gottschalg's (2004) research on value generating strategies in buyouts the thesis shows that action controls as designing instructions for the board and a business plan, together with goal alignment is the commonly used control strategy directly after the acquisition.

 Abstract  Interest in Lean grows and spreads to the public from industrial and service sectors. Lean is currently used in administrative processes and it is called Administration but can administration be Lean? The aim of our study is to develop a useful model for a successful implementation of Lean Administration by using various scientific articles, books and information from the case study.The part of the purpose is to: ? Identify critical success factors that arise? Identify the challenges arising from the implementation of Lean Administration.We have studied a Division within Distribution at GE Healthcare in Uppsala. The model that we have developed provides challenges and success factors for a successful implementation.In order to succeed in implementation, a culture that promotes continuous improvement must exist in the organization. A key success factor is to understand Lean Administrations structure and principles.

This report is a Master?s Thesis performed by Andreas Adolfsson and David Jacobsson atChalmers University of Technology. The purpose of this master?s thesis is to evaluate anew method for load-shedding, the voltage controlled underfrequency load-sheddingdeveloped by ABB. This report presents a comparison between conventionalunderfrequency load-shedding and this new method for load-shedding.

Collective collapse occurs when a majority of players in a team suddenly perform below expected level in a match of great, often decisive, importance in spite of a normal or good start of the match or when a team underperforms right from the start of the match. The aim of this study is to investigate collective collapse, focusing on emotional contagion. The study is a qualitative study based on semistructured interviews with nine handball players in an elite team. The results show six factors presented as themes. These are Preparations, The coach and leadership, Emotional contagion, Communication, Role Acceptance and Incongurence.