This thesis studies the stock price reaction around 68 announcements of special dividends and share redemptions on the Swedish stock market between the years of 2003 and 2007. We show that for the Swedish private investor, the tax effect of a share redemption is lower than that of a special dividend. Moreover, a share redemption could be interpreted as a signal of undervaluation. These two factors lead us to assume that the stock market would react more positively in connection to the announcement of a share redemption. We test this hypothesis through an analysis of the risk-adjusted abnormal return for the observations in the sample.

Recent accounting scandals, often led by managers trying to improve results and thereby their own bonuses, have severely damaged the publics view of management. In the aftermath of scandals such as Enron, Parmalat and Skandia, demand has increased for Corporate Governance codes and similar regulation. The Swedish code for Corporate Governance came into effect on July 1, 2005. The code requires all Swedish companies listed on the Swedish Stock Exchange (OMX A- and O-list), with a turnover exceeding 3 billion SEK, to disclose a report regarding Corporate Governance, attached to the annual report.The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the new disclosure required by the Swedish Corporate Governance code will have a measurable effect on stock prices. The authors have applied event study methodology examining daily returns around the announcement of the Corporate Governance reports.

This master's thesis aims to explore the field of evaluative bibliometrics. In short, this field of research uses bibliometrics - i.e. the application of mathematical and statistical methods to books and other media of communication - as a research assessment tool. In recent years, evaluative bibliometrics has been an increasingly used method in research evaluation and is today used and implemented in many countries worldwide. Today, in Sweden, we can also see that evaluative bibliometrics is highly recognised and, in some cases, used in practice.

Sufficient and accurate search support is a crucial factor for successful information searching on web sites. This thesis evaluates the search support on the second version of the web site studera.nu with particular focus on how the web site meets up to criteria formulated on the basis of theories from research in information seeking and information searching. The evaluation is a preliminary investigation that may serve as a basis for a future more comprehensive evaluation. The four major questions for my thesis have been: 1. In which different ways can a user search? 2.

This report summarizes a Bachelor Degree Project in Integrated Product Development, carried out during the fall 2007 till spring 2008 by three students at the Product Design Engineering Program at the University of Skövde. The project was performed in cooperation with Lundbergs Möbler AB in Tibro. Lundbergs wants to start selling furniture to the public eldercare. The purpose of this project was to adjust one of their chairs. The project layout was to first make a preliminary investigation where the market, competitors? assortment and the purchasing process are studied.

The purpose of this paper is to apply the Dual-Effect hypothesis in Pritmani, Shome and Singal paper (2003), in order to analyze the exchange rate exposure on firms listed on the U.K. market. The study will examine if the foreign involvement of the firm will affect the share price of the firm.In addition to evaluating the Dual-Effect hypothesis in Pritmani et. al. (2003), we will evaluate the effect of foreign interest rates impact on U.K.

Within system development users have rarely been involved or received much attention during the development. Most of the times, the primary focus within system development lies on insuring functionality, rather than making the system usable. The literature specifies that a non user-centered approach can contribute to a product with low usability, which can lead to an ineffective and unsatisfactory experience for the end users.The purpose of this thesis is to begin an investigation to see if the use of non user-oriented system development methods is a possible cause of low usability in the final system.To achieve the purpose of this thesis, we have conducted a case study. Within the case study we examined the usability of a time reporting system. The case study included seven minor studies; an investigation concerning the development of the system, an expert evaluation of the system, interviews and observations of users, developed paper prototypes and executable prototypes, both which user testing was performed on.The result of this study shows that by working with user-entered methods, the usability in the time reporting system increased after the design had been revised.

It is well proven that physical exercise has an impact on our bodies as well as our minds. The aim of this study is to examine if this impact also affects economic behaviour. Three hypotheses regarding the impact of acute exercise on overconfidence, risk enhancement and well-being have been tested by collecting questionnaires from 364 participants at Friskis & Svettis, Kungsholmen who all were asked to answer the questions either before or after exercising. The differences between the before and after group were analysed, indicating small increases in all three test areas after exercising. These increases were, however, not large enough to reject any of the null-hypotheses of zero effect on the given five per cent significance level.

This study investigates how consumer attitudes toward a company are affected by the company?s Corporate Social Responsibility work and their marketing efforts thereof. The Swedish fast food chain ?Max? provides the empirical setting. The theoretical framework for the study is based on Vanhamme and Grobben?s (2009) model regarding CSR?s effect on a company?s reputation, which is connected to perceptions? effect on attitude based on Fishbein and Ajzen?s (1975) theory.

In this study I have investigated how role playing may change young students´ attitudes and behavior. According to the Swedish National Agency for Education´s governing document, Läroplanen för de frivilliga skolformerna, 1994, the principals at Swedish schools are required to inform students about the risks connected with alcohol and traffic. Scientists bring to our attention the need for emotional information to change attitudes and behaviors. The Historical Wine- and Sprits Museum in Stockholm has arranged a role play that gives emotional information to school students in order to affect their attitudes towards drunk driving. My study is a qualitative examination of this role play.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of physical activity for people suffering from depression and which nursing interventions nurses can do to make this patients start to exercise. The method used, is a review of articles from Ci-nahl, Cochrane, Elin, PsycInfo, Pubmed and Science Direct, which were analyzed according to Polit och Hunglers criteria for scientific research. The result from the nine studies shows that physical activity has an antidepressive and anxiety reduc-ing effect. Interventions emerged is supporting, encouraging, activating and teach-ing about physical activity as health-promoting measure. Conclusion: Nurses can as an intervention introduce exercise as complementary treatment for people suffering from depression.

Sponsoring is today a more common form for corporation in the trade of culture. This has led to a situation, in which companies and institutions of culture, must be more versed in sponsorship. In this essay, we aim at understand and give an account for how the corporation, in a sponsorship relationship might work.A sponsorship relationship also means that a lot of knowledge is needed in other doctrines. The law aspect is one of these, which we also will concern in this essay, another aspect is the integrity of the culture.The main purpose with this essay is to find information, which might work recommendingly, for organizations that works with sponsorship. Mainly we will considerate sponsorship as a source for the financing of culture.In this essay we have discovered that sponsoring has become increasingly important for financing cultural activities, and a good corporation demands a great deal of commitment from both parties.

Utredningshemmet in Hässleholm, Sweden, is a special residential home for acute management and investigative evaluation of juvenile delinquents.Utredningshemmet has, since 1991, used an investigative model, which is based on systems theory. The investigative work is done in close co-operation with social workers, youths and their parents.This study takes into account the youths, who have had a commissioned placement to carry out an investigation of their needs of care and treatment, 71 juvenile delinquent cases. They are divided into three one year intervals: 17 cases in 1993, 28 cases in 1998 and 26 cases in 2003.The purpose of this evaluation is to illustrate changes in the social workers, parents and youth's level of satisfaction during the development of the special residential home's investigative model.Approximately one to three months after discharges social workers, youths and their parents completed a level of satisfaction questionnaire. The results demonstrate no significant difference in the level of satisfaction between different time periods. There are, however, differences in satisfaction levels between social workers, who have the highest level of satisfaction, parents, who have the next highest level and finally the youths level of satisfaction..

The purpose of this thesis is to reach a deeper understanding of the context of teachers? information seeking. Research in the role of the library in a learning perspective is in demand. To reach our aim we investigate what teachers say about their experiences of the user training during their studies and what effect it had on their information seeking as teachers. We interviewed four teachers and analyzed the transcripts of their sayings about their experiences of their information seeking during their education and a teaching profession.

The eutrophication of inshore seas, lakes and watercourses is mainly due to leaching of nitrogen and phosphorus (P) from agriculture. Many efforts are made to reduce the lea-kage of phosphorus in Sweden and the Baltic Sea countries. Phosphorus is also a finite resource and the mining of good quality raw material gets more and more difficult. Se-dimentation dams in combination with filters is one relatively new method to separate P from run-off and drainage water from agricultural land. This study was a part of an IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute?s project which tests the capacity and func-tion for separation of phosphorus in four phosphorus filters.