Master thesis in business administration, School of business administration, Linnaeus University, accounting, 4FE03E, Spring 2011.Authors: Linda Åslund and Shirin Yousef.Supervisor: Professor Sven-Olof Yrjö CollinExaminer: Christopher von KochTitle: The Swedish code of good governance ? Who finds it useful? Background: Corporate governance has emerged to maintain the stockholders interests in corporations where the owners are separated from control in order to create confidence in the corporations. In 2005 the Swedish code of good governance emerged to prevent in part additional corporate scandals from happening and to make sure that the board is acting in the interest of the owners. The code is a complement to the Swedish Companies Act since it has a more strict demand in certain areas but it gives the companies a possibility to deviate by either complying or explaining their actions.Purpose: The purpose with this thesis is to examine who finds the Swedish code of good governance useful.Method: The research method of this survey is quantitative where the purpose is to investigate deviations in the companies? corporate governance reports.

The purpose of this study is to understand how codes of conduct function within the context of supply chain of electronic industry. This is a qualitative research and a case study is the research approach. Conclusions are that the codes of conducts could be perceived differently within different contexts. Therefore, cultural and legal issues should be considered while formulating, implementing codes of conduct or assessing the compliance..

Corporate social responsibility, CSR väcker intresse bland företag och även många forskare har uppmärksammat begreppet på senare tid. Det finns banker som har börjat ta hänsyn till CSR i låneprocessen. Däremot är den forskning som finns om hur ett företags arbete med CSR beaktas i låneprocessen begränsad, vilket gör det svårt att skapa en förståelse för området. För att kunna skapa en bättre förståelse har det resulterat i frågeställningen: Hur och varför beaktar banker företagens arbete med CSR vid kreditgivning? För att besvara frågeställningen har CSR definierats med sju dimensioner vilka har varit utgångspunkterna för den teoretiska referensramen, samt för den kvalitativa studien.

This paper investigates the determinants of corporate cash holdings for a broad sample of Swedish non-financial firms in the 1999 - 2009 period. Using a fixed effect regression model, we find that firms with riskier cash flow hold relatively high ratios of cash to total assets. This is in line with both the precautionary motive and agency motive for cash holdings. Net working capital is found to be negatively related to corporate cash holdings. A result commonly interpreted as support for a negative substitution effect between net working capital and cash.

CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility, har under de senaste decennierna utvecklats till en mer eller mindre obligatorisk del i ett företags verksamhet i dess strävan att lyckas överleva på den konkurrensutsatta marknaden. Det finns dock än idag stora skillnader i hur pass mycket olika företag ägnar sig åt CSR. Med utgångspunkt från en rad olika skandaler som media belyst de senaste två decennierna, och hur allmänheten reagerat på detta beroende på vilket företag det varit fråga om, har ett intresse väckts i varför vissa företag lägger mer resurser på CSR-arbete än andra.Denna studie ämnar undersöka huruvida det förekommer skillnader mellan industri- och konsumentföretags grad av CSR-arbete, och i så fall - mer specifikt - om dessa skillnader har att göra med om det är ett industri- eller konsumentföretag, eller om det endast är andra faktorer som spelar in. Studien bygger på en kvalitativ undersökning där två företag från respektive bransch undersöks på djupet, och kompletteras med en kvantitativ undersökning där hållbarhetsredovisningar samt webbsidor från ytterligare tre företag från respektive bransch studeras. Utifrån tidigare forskning samt det teoretiska ramverket som framtagits, genereras tre hypoteser där förväntningar på utfallet presenteras och testas.Undersökningen visar att det förekommer skillnader mellan valda företags CSR-arbete, inte bara mellan branscherna utan även inom dem.

This paper focuses on traditional clothing enterprise IT strategies. The purpose was to investigate the correlation between traditional clothing companies IT strategies and their brand. In a market where the competition is high it has become more important that the company targets a customer segment. To reach their targeted customers the company builds their brand with different corporate strategies. This segmentation is necessary because of the high exposure to competition, and a well-established brand could be a prerequisite for profitability.  In today?s market, IT has a major impact on the clothing business.

Who has the ownership of a company´s long-term strategy, and who should have it? Is it the board of directors or the senior management? Swedish law and regulations seemingly point in one direction, whereas the findings of studying the relationship between CEO and chairman of the board in eleven Swedish listed large- and mid-cap companies, point the other way. In a majority of the companies the senior management have the ownership of the long term strategy whilst the board of directors merely hold a control function. The possible effects on the companies managed as well as the rules and regulations they are managed according to, are analyzed..

Titel:?Ja tack, jag tar chansen att bli riktigt rik i PostkodLotteriet, samtidigt som jagstödjer våra barn, djuren och miljön...? ? en kvalitativ retorikanalys om argumenten iPostkodLotteriets direktreklamFörfattare:Kari Mette Bergkvist och Elisabeth OlofssonHandledare:Monica Djerf-PierreKurs:Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskapFördjupningskurs VT-07Sidantal:56Syfte:Syftet med vår uppsats är att se hur PostkodLotteriet argumenterar för sinverksamhets legitimitet i sin direktreklam.Metod och material:En kvalitativ retorikanalys av 10 stycken direktreklammaterial från PostkodLotterietHuvudresultat:Vid en närmare analys av materialet så såg vi flera intressanta tendenser, där detframkom tydligt att de i sin argumentation spelade mycket på retorik. Vidare såg viargumenten för PostkodLotteriet som mest lyfter fram ett eget vinnande, kombineratmed den goda gärningen för förmånstagare som ett sätt att existera på marknaden,där företag och organisationer allt mer måste visa upp ett aktivt Corporate SocialResponsibility-arbete för att kunna legitimera sig. Slutligen blev det nästan paradoxaltatt förmånstagarna som ändå är grunden för PostkodLotteriet och som tydligt är ibehov av att synas på marknaden i kombination med andra företag, till viss del självabidrar till att upprätthålla ett avstånd och ?ett tredje rum? till dem man hjälper genomatt låta företaget man samarbetar med vinna mycket, mycket mer på samarbetet..

The purpose of this essay was to investigate affecting factors concerning social workers in social services assessments with cases of abuse. We wanted to see if social workers in social services tend to make different assessments of the need of substance abusers care. Our survey was carried out as a vignettesurvey with complementary interviews as means to deepen the outcome results.Our survey showed that the included social workers in social services in some senses make different assessments when it comes to choice of effort put in for the client. We shed light on different factors and circumstances, which could bear meaning for the social workers in social services assessments. Examples of factors were the social workers in social services age, gender, working experience and attitude towards substance abusers..

Background: The environment and the design of auditing regulation can vary significantly between countries, which can affect the form, content and quality of the audit report. The purpose of the International Standards on Auditing, ISA, is to facilitate the work for auditors on an international basis. Sweden today follows the RS 600 which is based on ISA 600, which contains standards for when an auditor use work performed by other auditor. In October 2007, came a revised and redrafted version of ISA 600 that will be enforced in Sweden in the audit of the financial year beginning on 1 January 2011. To what degree the new requirements will affect the group audit is clearly dependent on how the reporting, evaluation and instructions between the group auditor and other auditor has been carried out previously.Aim: The aim with this paper is to explain the reporting between the group auditor and other auditor in an international corporate group.

The accounting scandals that have attracted attention in recent years have led to internal control becoming a more central part of business activity. Doubts about what firms actually do have increased, all caused by the attention of accounting scandals. To counter this, frameworks and laws evolved and gained a significant role in the organization and its surroundings. The aim of the present study is to find out how four companies in the Kristianstad region are working to ensure its internal control and how they work to minimize risk and reduce uncertainty. We have used a qualitative method and interviewed a person in a senior position in each company.

We would like to learn more about how the restrictive policy against incentive programmes affects the board’s of Swedish state owned commercial firms ability to govern management in an efficient way. We also want to find out if there are different consequences in reference to this that are not directly linked to corporate governance issues. Our empiric observations have been made in order to profoundly explore the subject and examine it through the eyes of professional individuals, all expressing different views and standpoints. We conclude that the most efficient structure is when an active board is complemented by a well structured and individualised incentive programme. However, this thesis conclude that this structure is not possible given the current guidelines and policies employed by the state, which in turn might lead to sub optimizations in the governing..

Sustainability work is something that is emphasized more and more. Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, is discussed and the question of how much responsibility companies should really take is frequently in the news. Companies tend to ask themselves how much responsibility they should take. CSR is a common concept of companies environmental and social work and a concept we tend to see here and there in our modern society. CSR includes companies? social responsibilities, both in terms of carbon footprint, working conditions, social responsibility and more.

Abstract Tutor - Anders Richtnér History - Theories suggest that Lean Product Development strategies dramatically increase a company's performance through enabling faster T-T-M, Quality and Costs of Product Development. Purpose - The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate whether the implementation of LPD actually affect corporate performance measurements T-T-M, Quality and Cost, in a positive way. Methodology - This Bachelor thesis is an exploratory investigation of the concept of Lean Product Development within a global IT- company, performed through four case studies, interviews and complementing corporate performance data. Findings - With empirical data and subsequent analyzes in mind, we note the following; it is clear that the project that produced the best results, in terms of T-T-M, Quality and Cost, also was the one furthest in the process of implementing Lean Product Development..

Bakgrund och problem Medvetenheten och intresset för företagens ansvarsroll i samhället har ökat. Idag har debatten till mångt och mycket kommit att handla om ett samlingsbegrepp för samhällsansvar - Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Läkemedelsföretagens kärnverksamhet är att förbättra människors hälsa och livskvalitet och därmed kan det ses som att CSR redan är integrerat i företagens kärnverksamhet. Motiven till varför läkemedelsföretag arbetar med CSR är således inte självklara. Problemformulering AstraZeneca och Pfizer arbetar med CSR trots att deras kärnverksamhet redan kan sägas innehålla ett samhällsansvar.