With the expansion onto the international market almost a decade ago, Swedish energy corporation Vattenfall began it's breaking and burning of coal on German soil. Criticism aimed at Vattenfall peaked in the mid 2000s with the revelation of large quantities of carbon dioxide emissions and the re-location of villages and graveyards in German states Brandenburg and Saxony. The purpose of this thesis is to show where the responsibility for these activities lie. By analyzing the history of, and the political debate surrounding, Vattenfall, I will show that the prevailing policies of right- as well as left-wing parties in the 20th century were all, regarding this matter, market oriented. I will also show that these market promoting policies made possible a situation where the transparancy of, and state control over, Vattenfall were close to eliminated.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explain which factors that affects Swedish listed companies choice of placement for the corporate governance report when the regulation gives different options.Methodology: The chosen research philosophy is positive, research strategy is deductive and methodology is quantitative.Theoretical Perspectives: As support for the dependent (placement) and independent factors agency theory, positive accounting theory, accounting choice, legitimacy-, stakeholder-, and institutional theory are used.                  Empirical foundation:The sample consists of 249 companies. The empirical data consists of the companies Annual reports and Corporate Governance reports for financial year 2011 or when split financial year, 2010/2011. Limitations: A limitation of the study is that it is based on observations from only one year why it is not certain that the results should have been the same if a comparison between several years had been done.Conclusions: The factors size and growth explain the placement of the Corporate Governance Report in Swedish listed companies..

Background: Critical conditions to become an attractive supplier of knowledge based IT-services in the B2B market are many. Besides the fact of supplying a service of high quality one must as a supplier communicate values which are understandable and desirable for a new buyer. Buying a knowledge based IT-service involves several risks; the consultant might not have sufficient knowledge or have difficulties understanding the corporate culture and collaborating with other staff within the client?s organization. Since services are intangible offers and it can be intricate to put right price level for something which can only be evaluated when the project is finished, puts severe strain on suppliers competing with other companies in the same market when looking for new clients.

The environmental debate is more intensive than ever before and the demands on companies increase. There are a number of methods to make it easier for the companies to fulfil the demands. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) end ecodesign are some of the methods that can be used. Syntronic AB has the possibility to reduce the products´ environmental impact in the design phase. Therefore it is important for the company to make it possible to visualize the negative environmental impacts a product can cause in an easy way. It is also important to visualize for there clients if any improvement is possible. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a simplified model.

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.

Uppsatsen redogör för ett revisionsutskotts arbetsuppgifter, redogörför revisionsutskottens arbete i företag noterade på stockholmsbörsens A-lista samt att analysera om revisionsutskotten i fråga arbetar enligt svensk kod för bolagsstyrning och därmed bidrar till bättre corporate governance.

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.

[Abstract: This study examines the observed difference between Swedish and foreign owners when it comes to nominating committee participation. The background to the study is that foreign owners seem to participate in Swedish nominating committees to a lesser extent than their Swedish counterparts. The focus is on institutional owners and the companies studied are all listed companies who follow the Swedish code of corporate governance. Particular attention is paid to perceived differences in behavior that can be explained using the common corporate governance related theories of Exit, Voice and Loyalty as well as Agency Theory. These explanations are chiefly related to differences in attitudes regarding insider information, different knowledge levels regarding the purpose and workings of nominating committees of the Swedish kind as well as differences due to home market biases.].

Denna studie syftar till att uppmärksamma uppfattningar om klimatförändringarna utifrån fem informanters perspektiv och med kopplingar till relevant litteratur inom klimatområdet. Viktiga aspekter av klimatförändringar som diskuteras är informanternas syn på människans inverkan på klimatet, fördelningen av ansvar och viljan till förändringar och uppoffringar..

This study explores whether environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues affect the monetary value of a company.The samples used in this study have been taken from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in South Africa. Since 2010, JSE have been categorizing companies using the King Code III criteria to establish a Socially Responsible Investment index (SRI index). Companies that fulfill the required number of criteria are classified as 'best performers' using the SRI index.  In this study the monetary value of a random sample of 'best performers' has been compared to the monetary value of a random sample of companies without an SRI index evaluation.This study found that companies without a SRI index have a higher unique risk, which means a lower stock price with a higher dividend yield. Companies with an SRI index evaluation have a lower unique risk, which means a higher stock price and lower dividend yield. In conclusion, this study shows that SRI adjusted companies have an enhanced monetary value in comparison to non- SRI adjusted companies..

In this study environmental work in the Swedish hotel chain "Scandic" is investigated. Earlier studies point out sustainability and different environmental certificate programs as essential for the housing sector to contribute to sustainable tourism. The purpose and willingness to fulfill such a mission has been investigated by interviewing central actors in the hotel chain. The result shows that there is a desire to be part of environmental certificate programs mainly for the reason to be part of the system and not for the benefit of nature. Sustainable development is understood as being environmentally friendly. Different solutions to adapt and being more environmentally friendly is discussed.

Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka vad större svenska företag innefattar i begreppet CorporateSocial Responsibility (CSR) med fokus på den sociala delen samt att undersöka vilkaaktiviteter de har för att bekräfta sin tolkning av begreppet. Uppsatsen ämnar även undersökavilka faktorer som påverkar till CSR-arbete samt om det går att koppla företagens CSR-arbetetill företagens mångfaldsarbete. För att besvara syftet har intervjuer gjorts via telefon hos sjustörre svenska företag, verksamma inom varierade branscher, med personer ansvariga förrespektive företags CSR-verksamhet. Resultaten av studien har visat på att intressenter har enstor inverkan på företags CSR-verksamhet samt att CSR-arbete anses vara ett bra verktyg förföretag att påvisa ansvarstagande vilket i längden ökar företagets goda rykte. Dessutom harproblematiken kring begreppet CSR komplexitet framkommit samt att de sociala CSR-aktiviteter är svårmätta och svårdefinierade..

This study aims at examining the prospects for a policy transfer of a Swedish municipal environmental policy (that of Växjö) to the French urban commune Blois, for which an ambition of becoming a leading eco-city in France, was declared by the mayor in 2008.In the analysis, emphasis is laid on mechanisms to institutionalize the main environmental policy principles, such as political and institutional structures and processes. Other prospects for an institutionalization of a new environmental policy that are to be investigated are economic structures as well as visions of the different decision-makers concerned. Research methods used in the study are qualitative interviews, document studies and a questionnaire.The findings of the analysis show that today?s prospects for an environmental policy in Blois close to that of Växjö, are clearly limited. The limitations can partly be found in economic structures but these seem to be rather related to a lack of priority amongst actors.

This paper is about how transport companies in the future will be able to adapt their activity to an environmentally sustainable development without the effect of negative company economic consequences. Today, the environmental threat is a global problem and knowledge about that effluent of carbon dioxide have a negative impact on the climate is generally known. A transport system that works well is important for Sweden, but the sector has a negative impact on the environment. Regulation and legislation for increased environmental requirements often meets resistance and fear that the work will be hampered by increased costs for environmental work that can lead to an international decrease in competitiveness. The transport companies have outside pressure from the society to do something about the environmental issue, however the companies? customers are not ready to pay a higher price for environmental work.