The purpose of this Bachelor Thesis is to investigate whether the introduction of IFRS, and in particular IAS 40 regarding fair value accounting of investment property, has lead to increased financial risk for Swedish real estate companies. Financial risk is measured using several financial risk ratios during the period 2000-2009, effectively covering the period before and after the introduction in 2005. The financial risk is found to actually have decreased significantly in comparison with the control group. The relative decrease supports the notion of a factor unique to the real estate companies at least partially driving the change, possibly IAS 40. However, this change is, due to the statistic method employed, only an indication of the direction of change, and consequently interpretations of the magnitude of change cannot be made.

During some time there has been a debate whether or not logging contractors? profitability can be considered poor. The contractors? situation is important for maintaining long term relationships and continuity in the forest industry. A thorough analytic picture is however missing.

This thesis intended to examine how small enterprises within the retail industry work with brand building of their corporate name. More specifically it intended to examine how they do to choose corporate name and corporate logotype, and how they work to create a desired corporate image. A case-study was performed with three case-companies from different industries. The method was deductive as the empirics were brought in with starting-point in the theoretical frame of reference. The study showed that there are differences in the way small enterprises within the retail industry work with the brand-building of their corporate name.

Background: Performance measurement as a management control tool has received considerable academic attention. As the number of inter-organisational relationships, such as customer-supplier relationships, increases, there is a new scope for performance measurement as a management control tool. In order for a company to assess the effectiveness of its supplier relationships it has to define, measure and evaluate variables that are critical for the success of the relationship. The role of management control, and thereby of performance measurement, has increasingly been discussed in theory. However, empirical research in this area is still somewhat limited.

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.

Hedge funds have the past few years become an increasingly popular investment alternative and in the last decade hedge fund assets managed have quadrupled to USD 2000 billion, a growth rate of around 25-30% per year. One explanation for this substantial increase is that hedge funds' minimum limits on capital invested has declined, which have made ??them available to retail investors. The recent turmoil in financial markets has also contributed to investors finding their way to hedge funds, whose goal is to generate stable returns regardless of how the market develops.Using Sharpe?s, Treynor?s and Jensen's performance measures, I have investigated whether hedge funds manage to generate higher risk-adjusted returns than traditional managed funds.

This thesis investigates the effect of profit growth and profitability on market capitalization amongst Nordic companies during the turbulent period 1997-2005. Our results suggest that profitability have a significant impact on market capitalization for six of the nine years studied, whereas profit growth does not seem to affect market capitalization. Consequently, our results imply that the effect of other factors on share price performance may be greater than previously suggested. These findings are only partly in line with theories on corporate valuation which suggest that market capitalizations are to a great extent driven by both profit growth and capital returns, regardless of whether the stock market is particularly unstable..

The DuPont formula is one of the most well known and basic tools used for financial statement analysis and is highly useful for understanding firms strategies and operating environment. Previous studies on American listed companies have also shown that analysis of the changes in the DuPont components is useful in forecasting contexts. In this thesis we test whether disaggregating the change in return on net operating assets provides incremental information about future performance for Swedish listed and not listed companies. We find that the change in asset turnover is a leading indicator of increased profitability for both listed and private companies, regardless of size. We also find evidence that the usefulness of the disaggregation for understanding future performance is greater in capital intense industries and lesser in service industries..

The purpose of this essay is to study the impact of different factors on corporate capital structure. The factors studied in relation to corporate debt ratio are industry affiliation, size and profitability. The study involves all 252 companies quoted on the Stockholm stock exchange and cover a time period from 2007 to 2011. The result shows that branch affiliation has a significant impact on corporate debt ratios. Regarding size and profitability, however, these factors do not have an evident impact on corporate debt ratios..

This paper presents a study that evaluates the performance of stock recommendations issued on Swedish stocks during 2003. The selection of recommendations in this paper originates from banks, major brokerage firms and financial press located in Sweden. The total of 171 recommendations consisted of 99 buy recommendations and 72 sell recommendations. Forecast revisions presented in this paper suggest that Investment managers have no ability to predict performance winners, nor do their forecasts in general have any significant impact on stock prices. A mere 50 percent of the recommendations in this revision had a weak ability to outperform their benchmark indexes as in other similar revisions.

This study test the short-termism of companies listed on the market OMX Stockholm 30. We will use a deductive point of view where the purpose of this study is to investigate whether corporate short-term returns can be explained by the independent variables related to corporate governance and compensation practices. This is to investigate whether there is an intentional action on raising the short-term return in order to achieve a higher CEO compensation. In the study, theories dealing with corporate governance and agency theory have resulted in two hypotheses. Basic Hypothesis H1 is: if short-termism of Swedish industry due to the company's short-term returns can be explained by the independent variables related to the company's management and compensation. This hypothesis could not be verified through the quantitative study. Alternative Hypothesis H2 is: the compensation of a CEO can be explained by the independent variables related to company performance and size.

Export is a top priority for Sweden's economy but for Swedish companies it may involve uncomfortable risks of exporting without sincere consideration. When the United Nations Security Council puts an embargo against a country, this often mean an import and export restriction. The thought is to push undemocratic regimes into respecting human rights. When the embargo is in force, however, the parties are not able to fulfill their contractual obligations, which practically means that the agreement will be suspended. The problem is what happens when an embargo is in force for a longer period of time.

This study test the short-termism of companies listed on the market OMX Stockholm 30. We will use a deductive point of view where the purpose of this study is to investigate whether corporate short-term returns can be explained by the independent variables related to corporate governance and compensation practices. This is to investigate whether there is an intentional action on raising the short-term return in order to achieve a higher CEO compensation. In the study, theories dealing with corporate governance and agency theory have resulted in two hypotheses. Basic Hypothesis H1 is: if short-termism of Swedish industry due to the company's short-term returns can be explained by the independent variables related to the company's management and compensation. This hypothesis could not be verified through the quantitative study. Alternative Hypothesis H2 is: the compensation of a CEO can be explained by the independent variables related to company performance and size.

ABSTRACTCourse/level: Enterprising and Business Development, Bachelor Thesis, AUT2012, 2EB00ETutor: Magnus ForslundAuthors: Linn Danielsson & Alexander OlofssonKey words: Strong diversity, Consistent Corporate Culture, Core Values, Corporate Strategy,Definition of Diversity, Working with Diversity, Management, Standardization.Title: Diversity or Corporate Culture ? A case study on the paradoxical relationship betweendiversity and corporate cultures in corporations and organizations.Background: Diversity and corporate culture can in various ways result in corporate andorganizational advantages. While diversity promotes innovation, creativity and companydevelopment corporate culture possesses advantages such as efficiency, community and unity.Diversity and corporate culture seems to create various benefits that are both beneficial forcompetitive advantage.Problem discussion: I would be beneficial for companies and organizations to maintain bothdiversity and corporate culture since they complement each other. However, diversity andcorporate culture have different purposes and benefit in different ways. The question is howtwo such different strategies can meet.Question for research: How does diversity and corporate culture co-exist in corporations andorganizations?Purpose: The aim of this study is to create further understanding for the co-existence betweendiversity and corporate culture in corporations and organizations.Method: The study is made qualitatively with a hermeneutic approach and based on a casestudy on two corporations within the real estate industry.

The main aim of this thesis is to investigate the implications and dynamics behind consistency between individual resource allocation decisions and corporate strategy concept. The telecom industry, a high-velocity environment going through an extensive deregulation process, is put under the magnifying glass. Japanese telecom giant NTT Group is compared to its German counterpart Deutsche Telekom. Potential antecedent factors in the strategic decision-making process to consistency are studied. It is also examined whether there is a direct interplay between consistency and economic performance.