Prior research on the ability of financial ratios to predict bankruptcies has shown a significant difference between the companies that went into bankruptcy and those that survived. This paper investigates whether there is a difference in the prediction ability of financial ratios during the last financial crisis compared to relatively normal macroeconomic environments in which most previous studies have been conducted. We use univariate analysis to compare companies that went into bankruptcy during 2010 and 2011 with companies that remained active. Our dataset consists of 51 failed companies that are matched with 102 companies that remained active. All companies were Swedish limited companies with more than 50 employees and the comparison is made with 26 financial ratios.

Det finns mycket tidigare forskning och litteratur om hur design som kommunikationsmedel kan tilla?mpas i praktiken, ba?de genom estetisk och strategisk design. Da?remot framga?r inte huruvida tilla?mpningen av design som kommunikationsmedel a?r branschspecifik eller generellt ga?llande fo?r fo?retag oavsett bransch. Fo?retag kan nyttja design som ett kommunikationsmedel fo?r att kommunicera sin varuma?rkesidentitet till konsumenterna sa? att deras syn pa? imagen blir liksta?lld med identiteten.

Pets like dogs and cats have a considerable importance for humans and research demonstrate a variety of positive economic and social effects in society due to our pet companions. The presences of pets are increasing on a global scale with correlation to economic development in low- and middle income countries. For example dogs have doubled in India over a five year period. The feed industry for dogs and cats is also the fastest growing sector in the food industry and certain pets have a significant animal protein intake which, depending on the choice of resources may provide a high ecological footprint. Examples of environmental effects with distribution and manufacturing of pet food are increased greenhouse gas emissions, waste, use of water and energy.

The Island of Öland has one of the best wind climates for land based wind power in Sweden. An objective for the Island is to become self sufficient using electricity from renewable source of energy such as wind. There is currently 55 MW capacity installed on the Island and it is estimated that grid congestion will occasionally occur if more than 135 MW was installed.The aim of this thesis is to investigate he possibilities for load management by smart charging of electric vehicles, EV. The definition of smart charging is that the charging is done to some extent with an ICT-system, (information and communication technology) that correlates wind electricity generation to the charging of electric vehicles. The purpose is to avoid grid congestions on the sub-sea cable that connects Öland to the mainland because that in turn would curtail wind energy production.

This bachelor thesis is about illustrating the fundamental principles for planning, locatingand designing bicycle parking spaces. The study aims to give an understanding of theneed and demand for bicycle parking spaces today, as well as to determine how these canbe met according to different theories. The study also aims to investigate the issue withincorrectly parked bicycles, which occurs frequently in the cityscape and therefore createsan obstacle in street spaces.An observational study on the new bicycle lots along Götgatan was conducted in orderto analyze how the theories of bicycle parking spaces are applied in practice. Cyclistswere then interviewed in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the cyclists? revealedpreferences.

When new land use policies are made, opinions of stakeholders need to be taken in account, to avoid future conflicts. The motivations of commercial enterprises are often clear and easily communicated but due to inaccessibility and language barriers the indigenous people?s perspectives and needs are harder to reveal. This study therefore aims to identify species and sites of importance for the local people in Masihulan village on Seram Island, East Indonesia. This is a first step to facilitate better integration of local people´s needs into local government decision-making processes.Researchers at the Center of International Forestry Research (CIFOR), with headquarter in Indonesia, have developed an approached called ?Multidisciplinary Landscape Assessment? that aims to assess important natural resources for local communities in tropical countries.

AbstractGlobalisation has lead to changes on many levels of our society; -industrial, technological, and corporate to name a few. This is an ongoing process which affects the society we live in today. The process is affecting the working-conditions for everyone through the changes of the relations on the working market. The unions have enjoyed a very special role in Sweden for a long time, but that role is now affected by these changes. The relationship between state and unions is changing, and the unions? influence in politics is decreasing.

The term CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is frequently discussed today. Many large companies work actively with CSR related questions. However, few empirical studies exist on what this work entails and why it is undertaken. Instead, most of the academic research focuses on what the term itself should mean. To bridge this gap this study centers on the employees? perceptions of CSR.

Denna rapport redogör för skapandet av varumärket Deco Retro. Samt den tillhörandedesignprocessen för att skapa en visuell identitet och profil för varumärket. VarumärketDeco Retro togs fram som ett undervarumärke till Kitsch Sweden AB som behövde ettvarumärke som passade deras nuvarande och framtida produkter. Deco Retro ska bidra meden stärkt identitet och värde för de produkter som ska säljas under varumärket. Designarbetetkring varumärket strävade framförallt efter att kommunicera den idé, identitet och de värdensom under projektet tagits fram för varumärket, samtidigt som det ska ha bidragit med enestetiskt tilltalande grafisk design.

In the media world today it is important for TV-companies to differentiate since the number  of competitors has increased. The competition is more complex today because of the  possibility to broadcast throughout satellite and cable. As a company you need a strong brand  in order to differentiate the company from the competitors. The brand of media companies are  set by the content of the offer, which means that the program and the people connected to the  television program has an importance for the sake of how people experience the company. For  a commercial TV channel the content is also important because it attracts the viewers and as a  consequence, also attracts the advertisers.

An industry in distress was the breeding ground for a noted pricing strategy, labeled name-your-price. The industry was the music industry and the pricing strategy bears reminiscence of how medieval buskers earned their living during the dark ages; by letting the customers decide how much the good was worth, embodied by a thrown coin into a hat or similar collector. Translated into the contemporary corporate environment of today, where technical innovations provides access to the intellectual property for free, a few mighty economic actors have once again turned to the strategy were it all started; letting the customer set the price. The hat has been replaced by a box for your credit card number and the live music by a MP3 file, but the similarity is striking. The business model have been applied in other industries as well with various levels of success, thus the purpose of this thesis is to set up a framework for where the name-your-price strategy is applicable.

At the dusk of the Second World War, when the Red Army was approaching Tallinn and the second Soviet occupation of Estonia could be foreseen, almost a tenth of the population left the Estonian coasts to seek refuge in the West. About 30 000 of those ended up in Sweden, among which were some of the most prominent Estonian novelists and poets. Sweden would become the literary center for the worldwide exile Estonian diaspora. However, the fact that a few dozens of Estonian authors published some 2 000 titles in Sweden, where most of the authors as well as the main publishing houses resided, was and has remained unknown to most Swedes as it has gone fairly unnoticed to the field of Swedish Literary Studies. From the perspective that the exile Estonian literature written in Sweden is actually part of our history of literature, this thesis aims to find out what factors have had impact, and how, on the authors? opportunities to gain recognition by the Swedish literary establishment and eventually being included in the Swedish literary historical works.

This study investigated a local aspect of theSwedish elementary school modernization process between the years 1871-1882.Previous studies have been drawn from the school inspectors own reports andshow that the schoolboards housed a negative and resentful attitude towardsreforms and the school inspectors often felt that the parish priests were moreinclined to changes than the schoolboards themselves.  Other research on elementary schoolmodernization has stressed the matching grants as a major cause of developmentand further establishment. In this study, however, a schoolboards own notes inthe form of meeting protocols during an eleven year period as well as a letterby a priest Erik Lundberg, Redogörelseför skolhusfrågan i Tierp dated 6 October 1880 were analyzed to see if theprevious explanation of school modernization, in particular with regard to thereluctance to change by the schoolboards goes to demonstrate and confirm. Theresults of this study have shown that even if the schoolboards do notimmediately follow the school inspectors instructions, it seems not primarilybeen due to resentment. Reforms within the school world are well known forbeing time-consuming but for the current period, as this study concerns andwithin this specific parish there were conflicts of interest which are notshown when only the inspector?s accounts and reports are examined.

Frågeställningar: Vilket är förhållandet, om ett sådant finns, mellan ett företags CSR-arbete och dess lönsamhet? I vilken utsträckning bedriver KappAhl aktiviteter inom CSR? Går det att utläsa något förhållande, och i så fall vilket, mellan KappAhls CSR-arbete och företagets lönsamhet?Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om det finns ett förhållande mellan företags CSR-arbete och deras lönsamhet.Teori: I studien redogörs för vilka definitioner av CSR som används idag och olika teorier kring ämnet som vi fann användbara.Empiri: I empirikapitlet granskas diverse åsikter kring förhållandet mellan CSR och lönsamhet samt vilka faktorer som kan påverkas av att ett företag arbetar med CSR. Vidare har vi valt företaget KappAhl som undersökningsobjekt. Vi har genomfört en intervju med KappAhls miljöchef Ann-Marie Heinonen och vi har även använt oss av information om företaget som huvudsakligen har hämtats från dess hemsida..

Bakgrund & Problem: Många studier pekar på att det är stor skillnad mellan den formuleradeföretagsstrategin och den faktiska prestationen. Detta har benämnts som ?The Strategy toPerformance Gap?. En föreslagen metod för att komma tillrätta med detta gap är Gartner GroupsCorporate Performance Management (CPM) initiativ. Stora och internationellt verksamma företagborde ha mest att tjäna på att minska gapet, de torde även vara de som har kommit längst inyttjandet av nya teorier för att nå dit.