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.

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 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..

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.

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.

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.

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.

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..

Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera hur företag definierar socialt ansvar samt varför företag redovisar sitt sociala ansvar. Det empiriska materialet samlades in genom sju semistrukturerade intervjuer, där respondenter fick besvara frågor kring socialt ansvar och deras redovisning. Studiens resultat visar på att socialt ansvar är ett begrepp som är beroende av situation och individ, definitionen av socialt ansvar är även kopplat till vilken verksamhet företag bedriver.  Vilken tolkning företaget gör av begreppet socialt ansvar, leder till att syftet med redovisningen av det varierar. En anledningen till att företag väljer att redovisa sitt sociala ansvar är för att de anser att det är ett sätt att visa sina intressenter vad företaget har gjort, en form av marknadsföringsmaterial.

From a historical perspective, Sweden is a classic example of a social democratic state in view ofits early development of labor movements, democracy and focus on the welfare state. Today, as amember state of the EU, Sweden has however come to be influenced by America?s neoliberalpolities, where companies need to deliver more and better products/services while the consumerawareness and sensitivity has increased about company?s way to invest. Research shows thatScandinavian companies, primarily in Denmark and Sweden, has a leading position when it comesto responsible corporate behavior which has been the reason to our choice of studying howSwedish companies do to achieve success in CSR. To carry out this study, we have usedqualitative analysis, using semi-structures to interview companies in different industry sectors.

CSR är en förkortning för Corporate Social responsibility och innebär kortfattat att företag eftersträvar ansvarstagande genom att arbeta med sociala, ekonomiska och miljömässiga aspekter. Det finns relativt lite forskning kring den interna kommunikationen av CSR-relaterad information i jämförelse med den externa kommunikationen. Samtidigt är den interna kommunikationen av CSR-relaterad information betydelsefull för att den interaktiva kommunikationen, mellan de anställda och konsument ska vara välfungerande. Slutkonsumenter skapar sedan en huvudsaklig uppfattning om ett företag baserat på den utvärdering de gör av företagets totala verksamhet. Företag som arbetar med att kommunicera CSR-relaterad information på ett samordnat sätt genom samtliga kommunikationskanaler kan därmed skapa kundrelaterade konkurrensfördelar på marknaden.