Root rot is a big hurter and a huge economic problem for the Swedish and European forestry. The severest hurter is Heterobasidion annosum (Fr.) Bref and it occurs as two different species in Sweden. Commonly referred to as the P-type (Heterobasidion annosum s.s. (Fr.) Bref.) and the S-type (Heterobasidion parviporum Niemelä & Korhonen). Therefore a lot of research has been carried out in this topic to find a solution and reduce this problem, one alternative that have shown to be profitable is stump treatment in thinnings.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the identity, competences and professional development of corporate librarians. I have done an empirical study based on semi structured interviews with 11 information professionals who were working at Astra Zeneca at the time of the re-organizations of the company in 2009 which ultimately led to the closing of the libraries. I have also examined the views on competences and professional development of librarians in general, both in Sweden and in Denmark. I have used Thomas Brante?s theories on profession types as well as Anders Ørom?s theories on librarian identities as my theoretical framework.

Organising knowledge in a corporate environment : a case study at the development departments of Ecophon ABThe purpose of this master's thesis is to investigate how three development departments of a technical firm could organise their collection of documents and information resources to improve their management of information. Three sets of questions have been posed: 1) How does the target group of engineers deal with information, and what problems can be identified in this process? 2) What does their collection of resources consist of, how is it organised, and what problems are apparent? 3) How can principles of knowledge organisation be applied in a corporate environment?The investigation has been carried out as a case study. Three main methods of collecting empirical data have been used: surveys, unstructured interviews and collection observations. The results of the study have highlighted three major problem areas: the collection's lack of structure and searchability, the absence of policy regarding how employers should deal with information, and the inadequate knowledge among staff on how to search for, use and disseminate information.By looking at previous research on knowledge organisation, we have been able to draw conclusions regarding how the target group could organise and manage its information and knowledge in order to achieve greater efficiency in dealing with information and carrying out work tasks.

The purpose of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding about why Swedish banks choose to work and report CSR and also analyze differences and similarities between two banks.Research question: Why do Swedish companies within the financial sector choose to report and work with Corporate Social Responsibility?The major incentives to work and report CSR are because it benefits bank´s businesses, which is driven by stakeholders. Stakeholder pressure is also an important incentive, especially pressure from customers and employees. The incentives that differed between the two banks were morality of the business leader, society and the priority of stakeholders. The incentives that we could not support were guidelines and competitors-.

The report assesses the typical questions regarding Corporate Social Responsibility within the automotive industry. An attempt as to whether Corporate Social Responsibility has an impact on growth companies is demonstrated. Volkswagen Group is within the required analytical criteria, which are to be studied. Also, the fact that they recently launched ?Strategy 2018? makes it even more interesting to immerse into.

The problem area was identified due to the fact that research within internal audit is fragmented and insufficient, simultaneously to internal audit becoming more common in the public debate. Crises and scandals in companies such as Enron in the US and Skandia in Sweden have resulted in new regulations regarding how companies should be governed. These regulations have been established in Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) in the US, and in Sweden the Swedish code for corporate governance will be implemented in 2005. The regulations imply that companies must provide sound internal control and to accomplish that, companies should have an auditing and consulting internal audit function. The Swedish code for corporate governance denotes that companies can decide to comply or explain why the code is not complied.

With the introduction of the Swedish Code for Corporate Governance in December 2004, most companies listed on the major Swedish stock exchanges were required to have a nomination committee responsible for, among other things, evaluating the incumbent board and nominating new candidates. This master thesis aims at analyzing the effects of these nomination committees on institutional investors in their corporate governance, through a qualitative study of 13 interviews. We have found that institutional investors have become more active through their participation in nomination committees and that they have gained more influence over the companies in which they own shares. We believe that in reality nomination committees have more influence over the selection of the board than was intended when the Swedish Code was written..

Syftet med denna undersökning är att finna en möjlig förklaring till hur det teoretiska området angående corporate social responsibility har utvecklats i ett tidsperspektiv. Uppsatsen undersöker hur definitionen av CSR växt fram och vad definition har påverkats utav. Det andra som studerades var hur ämnet CSR har växt fram. Ser CSR likadant ut idag som det gjorde för femtio år sedan eller hur har det utvecklats?För att göra denna studie, används följande metod.

This paper describes and develops a trade off model of optimal capital structure by Bradley et al. (1984). The model is then tested to examine how changes in corporate tax rates affect the optimal capital structure of firms. Based on theoretical implications of the model, four hypotheses are derived stating that firms? optimal debt-to-value ratio is (1) negatively related to financial distress costs, (2) negatively related to non-debt tax shields, (3) negatively related to firm volatility and (4) positively related to the corporate tax rate.

Today, there is no uniform definition of what an ethical fund is. Fund management companies choose themselves what they believe is ethical and not. The lack of the definition makes it difficult for consumers to understand why these funds are special compared to other funds. The purpose of this study is to examine three Swedish companies; KPA Pension, Swedbank Robur and Folksam, to obtain a clearer picture of the concept ethical funds and its definition. The study describes each company's view of Ethics and how they may affect other companies to work for a more sustainable world.

The environmental situation is becoming increasingly critical. The energy sector and other industries have a big impact on our climate and the public is raising their voice for companies to admit their responsibility towards the environment and society. Companies engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and happily disclose their responsible performance in annual reports. But what messages are they conveying in their CSR-reporting, and what attitudes towards CSR can be found underneath the explicit content? The aim of this study is to discover which discourses exist in CSR-reports from Swedish energy companies, and how these discourses operate.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the potential presence of a relationship between the quality of corporate financial disclosure and the volatility in stock price in the Swedish market. This was carried out by investigating the hypothesis that an accurate annual report with high information quality results in a decrease in volatility. Previous studies have been done with this approach and in some cases the above stated hypothesis was found to be true. Thus, in the absence of a perfect efficient market the level of information quality may to some extent explain the volatility in stock price. However, the result of our study gave no evidence in support of this hypothesis.

This bachelor thesis in business economics raises the topic about Corporate Responsibility (CR), this topic is currently being discussed in a variety of channels and today an increasing number of companies are involved in corporate responsibility. How do Skanska work with sustainability and why are they doing this? It is also important to see the results of the work with sustainability will lead to. We will go into more depth in one of Skanska's projects, project M25, to investigate the CR strategies they use and see how they actually work with sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze how and why Skanska is working to implement CR policies in their operations and more specifically from the M25 project in order to achieve sustainable business development.

Corporate social responsibility, CSR, är ett aktuellt koncept och dess efterfrågan ligger till grund för studien. Konceptet präglas av begreppsförvirring som bidrar till att framställningen av konceptet är intressant att studera. Studien syftar till att beskriva hur managementkonceptet CSR framställs i svensk populärmanagementpress utifrån ett utbudsperspektiv, där förespråkare för managementkoncept är identifierade som drivkraft för adoption. I studien utvecklas en modell för hur CSR-konceptet framställs i populärmanagementpress. Genom modellen kan detta beskrivas och analyseras.

Bakgrund: Vi tycker oss kunna skönja en utveckling i Sverige där potentialen för företagens sociala ansvarstagande ökat till följd av att den traditionella trygghetsgaranten, staten, alltmer dragit sig tillbaka. Samtidigt konstaterar vi att begreppen som behandlar detta område ofta saknar konkreta förslag på vilka aktiviteter som är lämpliga för företag att ägna sig åt. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att beskriva statens roll och den allmänna opinionen i det svenska samhället vad avser förutsättningarna för företagens sociala ansvarstagande. Genom att företrädelsevis använda teoribildningen inom Corporate Citizenship ämnar vi visa och förklara vilka konkreta möjligheter detta kan innebära för företag verkandes i Sverige. Genomförande: Empirisk data har företrädelsevis samlats in med en postenkät riktad till 3000 individer ur den svenska allmänheten.