By using univariate analysis, tobit and logit regressions, this thesis investigates determinants of asset writedowns. After controlling for variables indicating reductions in asset values, the results show that changes in senior management are significant in explaining the writedown decision and magnitude, which is in line with previous research. The explanatory power of changes in senior management has not increased with the transition to IFRS in 2005. No evidence is found supporting the hypothesis that the explanatory power of management incentives is higher for more discretionary types of asset writedowns..

Racial discrimination can occur in many ways ? intentional and non intentional ? and in many places ? perhaps most observed in the labor market. The Swedish labor union, LO, is an important party in this market, and discusses the issue frequently in a number of different documents. These documents are being analyzed as discourse in this study, with attention paid to the rhetoric regarding ?immigrants?, i.e.

In 1996, the Swedish government deregulated the Swedish electricity market. As a consequence of the deregulation, Swedish customers could start to freely choose between different electricity companies. Different enterprises have tried various strategies in order to shape their image to attract new customers; often focusing on an image revolving around price and environmental friendliness.The purpose of this essay has been to analyze customers? relations to the electricity market. In order to analyze customers? relations a quantitative study has been conducted; focusing on customer satisfaction and customer commitment.

Vobbla Racing is a racing team who has an online sales department that is in need of an upgrade to be more efficient and easier to use. Before this study their present homepage was anything but structured. The products were sorted in an illogical order which made it difficult for the customer to find a wanted product. The customer had to summarize the products, transport sums and other costs. The order had to be e-mailed or phoned in to Vobbla Racing Produkter.

Today we live in a more or less globalized society where borders do not pose the same obstacle as before. This is why it is interesting to examine whether different countries have similar views on how to communicate with a specific audiencePurpose: The purpose of this thesis is to use the data gathered to inform businesses with information. The information can then be used to assist companies when it comes to advertising, the design of messages and the choice of media channels when communicating with people born during the 80?s. Furthermore, the investigation intends to find out if there really is a global market for people born during the 80?s.Method: The authors believe that a purely quantitative or qualitative approach is not appropriate.

This study aims at examining if abnormal returns have existed on theSwedish stock market surrounding the ex-dividend period between the years2002 and 2006. The ex-dividend period that is studied is the ex-dividend dayplus the following five days. The stocks that have been studied are the thirtymost traded stocks which together constitute the index OMXS30.Furthermore, the study investigates if the size of the dividend has an effecton the size of the abnormal returns.Previously performed studies on both the Swedish stock market and foreignstock markets have shown that abnormal returns exist during the ex-dividendperiod. However, the results from these studies are not unambiguous, why itis interesting to follow up these studies with a new study.The method used for investigating the existence of abnormal returns aroundthe ex-dividend period has taken its starting point in the previouslyperformed studies. However, some changes have been made in order tocalculate for differences in risk between different stocks (using beta) whichhas been neglected in the previous studies.The results of our study are that abnormal returns have existed for four outof six days in the ex-dividend period when calculating a mean value over allfive years.

In 1996, the Swedish government deregulated the Swedish electricity market. As a consequence of the deregulation, Swedish customers could start to freely choose between different electricity companies. Different enterprises have tried various strategies in order to shape their image to attract new customers; often focusing on an image revolving around price and environmental friendliness.The purpose of this essay has been to analyze customers? relations to the electricity market. In order to analyze customers? relations a quantitative study has been conducted; focusing on customer satisfaction and customer commitment.

Food insecurity is a great problem worldwide and Ethiopia is one of the sub-saharan countries that are suffering from poverty and food insecurity and a large part of the population are living in a state of undernourishment. To reduce these problems, a successful horticulture production can be an important factor. Compared to other crops, fruit production in Ethiopia has not been a large part of the agricultural sector. However, the demand on the domestic market is increasing as well as the production for avocado and mango. To increase food security it is important to focus on ways to decrease post-harvest losses of food products and not only have the productivity of agriculture in focus.

Dissertation in political science, D-level by Niklas Andersson, Spring Semester 2010. Tutor: Malin Stegmann McCallion?Societies in Crisis ? When Washington Take Over?An economic meltdown wreaks havoc on the world and has plunged the Western world into a spiral of economic stimulus in order to keep their way of life intact. At the same time the same institutions that support these countries have had another agenda for more unfortunate and less influential countries where nothing has been free and everything been to a price of self-sacrifice in order to get the consent of the IMF and the World Bank. Everything according to the points stated in the so called Washington Consensus.The purpose of this dissertation is to research what impact the Washington Consensus has on the state in terms of power over the market and sovereignty.

Most of the portable electronic devices use a battery as a primary power source. Nowadays, when the applications are becoming smaller and smaller and more power efficient, the designer needs to concentrate more on reducing power consumption, using secondary power sources and introducing power storage devices. Multiple power source availability and a power storage device on the board will make the applications much more useful and efficient in everyday use. This thesis proposes a power supply unit (PSU) for wireless sensor platforms which is capable of supplying a sensor node with energy from multiple sources, as well as status information from the PSU. Present power storage devices, like electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs) and batteries, have become more and more common as their characteristics have developed.

This paper presents a study of the Swedish public service television broadcaster - Sveriges Televisions (SVT) transfer pricing model. The aim of the thesis is to examine the motives for using transfer pricing from a theoretical perspective and if SVT?s transfer pricing model fulfils these motives. We will also examine any potential managerial problems the existing transfer-pricing model might cause and discuss how these could be solved. We have in our study found that the main motive for using transfer pricing within SVT is to allocate internal resources as efficiently as possible.

In Sweden, large scale planting of Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) started in the beginning of the 1970?s. At first, the aim was production of pulpwood, but later, also production of timber became considered realistic. Today, Sweden has more than 520 000 ha of Lodgepole pine.

This report is part of the major thesis carried out at Stoneridge Electronics in Bromma,Stockholm during autumn and winter 2005-2006. The background to the thesis is the trendwithin the automotive industry where color displays have become more common for presentationof information to the driver, a trend that has come to the commercial vehicle market. Thepurpose of the thesis has been to evaluate whether programmable logic, with respect to FPGAtechnology, could be suitable for display control and graphics generation of these more complexcolor displays in automotive environment.Within the scope of the thesis the FPGA technology has been investigated, i.e. whatopportunities and threats there are with aspect to environmental and security requirements. Inaddition, the market of FPGAs and pre-built IP-cores has been investigated.

In recent years, global organizations safeguarding financial stability has started to track commercial property markets. One of the reasons for this refers to the fact that commercial property constitutes a large share of bank lending. Simultaneously, bank exposures to commercial property are extensive and risky since collateral values are strongly correlated to borrowers cash flows. Since banks are viewed to play a key role for financial stability, studying the relationship is well motivated. To better understand how commercial property markets interact with financial stability, this paper develops an econometric model for studying the commercial rental market.

Husqvarna is a world leading producer of chainsaws with a well-established brand name. Husqvarna now has an interest in investigating the possibiltiy to expand their production of chains and guide bars to include cutting equipment for timber-harvesters.This project is a technical study which aims to answer questions about cutting equipment for timber-harvesters that have been decided in cooperation with Husqvarna. The questions have mainly been focused on forces, cutting speeds, service and maintenance -as well as general questions regarding the size of the Swedish market.Two methods have been applied to answer the questions. Interviews with retailers of harvesters, producers of harvester heads and harvester drivers.The main findings in this project show that there is a relatively small selection of harvester chains on the Swedish market. In contrast to the selection of harvester chains the selection of guide bars is quite large.