This study addresses the issue of mergers between consulting firms. Previous research has shown that there are specific factors that determine the outcome of a merger and that success is more likely if companies are more similar. The purpose of the study is therefore to define relevant factors and understand when resemblance matter and under what conditions disparity may cause problems. Furthermore, the aim of the study is to find a pattern of which factors are more important in a successful merger. The problem of the study is addressed through a qualitative research approach and is conducted on six different mergers.

Theability to beat the market is one of the most discussed topics in finance. Thereare very few investors that manage to accomplish this over longer periods oftime. Most of the financial research claims that this is impossible unless theinvestor increase the risk in the portfolio. However numerous of researchershave shown that it exist anomalies on the stock market which either indicatesthat the Capital Asset Pricing Modell (CAPM) or Fama and French three-factormodel fails to explain stock returns or that the market is not fully efficient.One investor that has claimed that the stock market is not fully efficient andthat it is possible to generate abnormal return is Benjamin Graham. Graham isone of the legends on Wall Street and he has shown that by using few variablesbased on public information, one can manage to beat the market over longer timeperiods.There arejust a few studies that have tested Graham?s criteria?s, however all of themindicates that they work but that the standard deviation might be higher forthe portfolios.

Bakgrund: Det har inte alltid varit en given förutsättning att företag antas fundera kring etiska, miljömässiga och moraliska åtagande. Företeelsen har i allt större utsträckning vuxit fram under de senaste decennierna, samtidigt som en oundviklig medvetenhet om att både privatpersoner och företag måste börja förhålla sig till jordens begränsningar blivit allt starkare. Ett verktyg som delvis uppkommit till följd av ovanstående omständigheter är hållbarhetsredovisning, som i grunden är kompletterande redovisningsinformation rörande etik, miljö och samhällsengagemang. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att upplysa kring hållbarhetsområdet, med fokus på hållbarhetsredovisning enligt GRI. Samtidigt ska studien mer ingående undersöka hur och varför företag är benägna att upprätthålla och vidareutveckla sin hållbarhetsredovisning enligt GRI:s ramverk.

This study aims to investigate development and reasons behind sustainability reporting in large Swedish companies. By examining 15 companies? environmental and sustainability reports between the years 2000 and 2008, data was collected on matters such as frequency, scope and design. Identified trends were to a large extent in line with previous studies on international development; sustainability reporting is growing in several aspects. The authors have found one major reason for this development to be increasing requirements and expectations from stakeholders and a need for companies to legitimize their actions.

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..

In what French philosopher Gilles Deleuze labelled Control Societies, mechanisms reminiscent of censorship ? that is, restriction of information that administrators of power wish to regulate the spreading of ? are present in the concept of copyright. This kind of censorship has the advantage of not being scrutinized by public eyes in the way that the work of institutionalized censorship agencies such as the Swedish Statens Biografbyrå was. It is not unlikely that expanded possibilities for punishing anyone who spreads copyrighted material will result in larger and larger areas that may not be accessed, as the avoiding of conflict and repressive actions will emphasize the behaviour to take detours around information that is deemed taboo and therefore suspicious and dangerous. The ACTA trade agreement is one proposed tool for such extended possibilities for punishment.This essay does not however claim that copyright and censorship are the same ? but rather that the institutional execution of power that was previously a matter of state censorship has a lot of similarities with current and prognosticated application of copyright laws by corporations.

In what French philosopher Gilles Deleuze labelled Control Societies, mechanisms reminiscent of censorship ? that is, restriction of information that administrators of power wish to regulate the spreading of ? are present in the concept of copyright. This kind of censorship has theadvantage of not being scrutinized by public eyes in the way that the work of institutionalized censorship agencies such as the Swedish Statens Biografbyrå was. It is not unlikely that expanded possibilities for punishing anyone who spreads copyrighted material will result in larger and larger areas that may not be accessed, as the avoiding of conflict and repressive actions will emphasize the behaviour to take detours around information that is deemed taboo and therefore suspicious and dangerous.The ACTA trade agreement is one proposed tool for such extended possibilities for punishment. This essay does not however claim that copyright and censorship are the same ? but rather that the institutional execution of power that was previously a matter of state censorship has a lot of similarities with current and prognosticated application of copyright laws by corporations.While claiming to protect the individual, the disciplinary power executed actually aims to protect the one executing it; the purpose of the power structure is to replicate itself..

Abstract Title: The Future of ABC at Sandvik Tooling ? Incorporating ABC with information systems in order to drive business development from a cost point of view. Authors: Jenny Andersson and Camilla Salomonsson. Supervisor: Charlotta Johnsson ? Department of Automatic Control, Lund University.

This paper examines the power producing dams along the Ume-river as an integral part of and a result from the urbanization process in Sweden during industrial capitalism. The aim of the paper is to contribute to the knowledge of the urbanization process in Sweden in general and of its traces along the Ume river in the county of Västerbotten in particular. The paper applies the theory of concentrated urbanization and extended urbanization put forward by Neil Brenner and Christian Schmid (2015) and argues that the building of power producing dams along the Ume-river is part of an extended urbanization process. This becomes particularly evident when examining the vast physical structures that is the dams, situated in an otherwise remote and sparsely populated area. These vast physical structures are also very well connected to a nation wide electric grid that has connections to bordering countries as well.

In recent decades, demands has emerged that the companies shall take a greater social responsibility for the impact that they have on their environment and that this impact shall be reported, which is known as Sustainability Reporting. The Sustainability Report is based on a number of general principles that ensure the content and the quality of the Sustainability Report. One of these principles is the principle of completeness. In the research, this principle seems to have been interpreted in terms of number of reported aspects and indicators, which can be a limited view where only the existence of the aspects and indicators is observed. By including the degree of the reporting in terms of full, partial and no reporting as well as a comparison between the real and the alleged reporting, our intention is to extend the principle of completeness and to develop a tool that we also apply through an empirical survey in a particular area.

Syfte: Syftet med studien a?r att analysera yngre vuxna i Stockholms sparbeteende info?r inträdelsen på bostadsmarknaden utifrån livscykelhyoptesen.Teori: Den främsta teoritillämpningen fo?r studien är livscykelhypotes om människans generella och rationella sparbeteende. Även Maslows behovshierarki behandlas då den angriper det social- psykologiska perspektivet angående behovet av att ha en bostad och Behavioral Finance angriper andra yttre faktorer som kan påverka huruvida en ma?nniska sparar eller inte.Metod: Studiens metodansats besta?r av en metodkombination, detta innefattar en enka?tunderso?kning med svarsalternativ som skedde inom Stockholmsomra?det. Det innefattar a?ven tre intervjuer med etablerade experter inom studiens omra?de.

In today's changing environment, an increasing number of companies are realizing thebenefits of analyzing business information and thereby stay competitive. By making use ofdecision support systems, known as Business Intelligence (BI), organizations are expected tocollect and process business data and thus get more out of their business.Nowadays it is not enough for organizations to have access to corporate data inside officewalls, they must also be able to bring the information "on the go", which has been thefoundation for the progress of mobile BI solutions. As the mobility increases and thecorporate data leaves the office, new risks arise, which is one reason as to why manycompanies hesitate at the idea of introducing mobile BI solutions.In this paper we explore two security aspects in the area of mobile BI solutions. Our researchquestion is as follows: How does security aspects affect a company's decision to acquiremobile BI solutions? The survey was conducted through interviews in cooperation with thefirm Optivasys, exclusively dedicated to the BI solution QlikView.A significant part of the theory we studied describes security as critical; however, ourresearch suggests a solution on how companies can manage the security aspects.

This study aims to measure the effect of accounting conservatism and to identify thebusiness activities causing firms to undervalue owners? equity. To estimateaccounting conservatism, we have followed the hypothesis that no firm over time cangenerate a return greater than its cost of equity, i.e. CAPM. Thus, if a firm in factgenerates an excess return over time, we assume that the excess return is an estimateof accounting conservatism within that firm.The hypothesis originates from the corporate valuation model ?Economic ValueAdded®? which tries to adjust for accounting bias.

Master Thesis in Business Administration, School of Business Administration, Linaeus University, Finance 4FE03E, Spring 2011Authors: Benni Hansson, Axel SandquistTutor: Christopher von KochExaminer: Sven-Olof CollinTitle: Compensation as a means of monitoring or recruiting ? a study on ownership structure in Swedish listed companies.Keywords: CEO compensation, compensation structure, ownership structure, ownership types, ownership concentration, agency theory, resource dependence theory, managerial theoryBackground: There has been extensive research on CEO compensation, however not a lot on Swedish listed firms. Many studies have an agency theoretical perception on CEO compensation. In accordance with this, compensation is used as a means to solve monitoring and incentives problems.Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the role of CEO compensation, by studying ownership structure.Method: To examine the role of CEO compensation we use a multi-theory approach, based on agency theory, resource dependence theory and managerial theory. The companies examined are Swedish listed firms the in years 2005 to 2009.

Background: The way in which corporate managers interpret, reason and evaluate uncertainties and constant changes, and how they take advantage of their experiences and wisdom can make a big difference for the long term survival of their companies. The requirements for efficiency and flexibility have increased in many ways, especially concerning the workforce needed and its degree of competency. In Sweden, employee recruiting industry has grown concurrently with the changes in the Swedish economy. Purpose: The purpose is to better understand the recruiting industry by performing a theoretical evaluation from a cognitive perspective. Delimitation: We intended to study the cognitive characteristics of the Swedish recruitment industry.