The environmental issues have during the last decenniums gained an increased role in both the political arena and in the market economy. The society is therefore more knowledgeable about the environment and our impact on it. Through this enlightened state, stakeholders tend to put pressure on the organizations of today. They, more or less willingly, incorporate this responsibility to be a part of their business. Entrepreneurs in the environmental area have seen this rising market as an opportunity to gain market shares and other positive outcomes.

Purpose: To examine how IR-related press releases affect share price for stock companies, and to explore how said companies practice Investor Relations.Methods: The study was conducted using an event study as well as e-interviews. The event study has a quantitative deductive research approach where the market model is used for calculating the abnormal return based on press releases. The e-interviews have a qualitative research approach and follow a semi structured interview guide. The study includes all listed stock companies within the Swedish construction industry and includes press releases from the last decade.Theory: The study is based on the Efficient market hypothesis and its semi strong form, theories within Investor Relations and previous research.Results: The event study shows a significant negative abnormal return during a four day period starting the day after the press release event. The negative abnormal return could derive from investor relations being used by companies as damage control, or that the investors? expectations are too high as a result of IR.

In the last decades the Swedish labor market has been characterized by a stereotype perception on women?s role and position on the market. The perception speaks of the characteristics of female leadership as being less qualified causing the gaps between the two genders to transform into a gender segregated society. The historically slow progress has limited the career opportunities for women to reach top management. However the increasing discussions during the 21st century on how to reduce the gender differences in the labor market has made it more acceptable with women on higher positions.

One could argue that the most discussed topic in finance is whether or not it is possible to ?beat the market?. Even though many people claim to do this, there is little evidence to support the idea that one can consistently beat the market over a long period of time. There are indeed several examples of investors who have managed to outperform the market consistently for a long time, but the efforts of these individuals or institutions could by many be considered to be pure luck.One of the many strategies that have been evaluated by several researchers and is said to generate a risk adjusted return greater than that of the market, is one based on the P/E-effect. This strategy is based on the financial ratio P/E ? price divided by earnings ? and used by constructing portfolios consisting of stocks with low P/E ratios.

Background Apartment ownership is a popular and well established type of housing in many countries, such as Norway, Denmark and UK. During spring 2009 the Swedish Parliament passed a new legislation which made it possible for apartment ownerships also in Sweden. But apartment ownership has had a slow start, which partly can be explained by the recent recession.Purpose & methodThe purpose of this paper is to study the market of apartment ownership in Öckerö, Stockholm and Karlstad. The study is a qualitative examination where relevant companies from the submarkets have been interviewed.ResultThe result of this study shows that the interest for apartment ownership is over all high in all three submarkets. It is yet clear the knowledge about apartment ownership is generally poor among the public, and when the banks still misses proper routines for mortgages, it creates uncertainty, and slows down the market.

Background: In the past 10 years private label has increased significantly in the Swedish grocery market. This is an important strategic event, which is a great challenge to suppliers as it causes stiff competition. To handle this situation an increasing number of suppliers have to make the decision whether to produce private label or not.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to find and analyse factors that influence suppliers in the Swedish grocery market to produce private label. On this basis we intend to confirm or develop existing theories within the field of study.Research method: The study has a qualitative approach where empirical data has been gathered through interviews with suppliers and retailers in the Swedish grocery market.Results: This study has identified factors that underlie suppliers? decision to produce private label.

The producers of grain in Sweden are facing a rough future. The competition is getting harder all the time, in Sweden, in EU and also from the ?world market?. The producers have to be more efficient and have to have bigger units. Many producers might have to look for new alternative production opportunities.

The Swedish TV broadcasting market is constantly changing together with the players in it. The questionto be answered by this paper is how the players in the market handle these changes and to what extentthe players are changing the market. Also, are there any differences between the public service andcommercial players in this aspect? The purpose of this paper is to create a better understanding of theSwedish broadcasting market and its player's market orientation. Through case studies of the three mainbroadcasting companies, SVT, TV4-gruppen and MTG, the market is analyzed from their perspective.The conclusions from the analysis show that there are differences in the market orientation betweenpublic service and commercial players, where the commercial companies are more market driven..

The automotive industry is a highly competitive market characterised by low profit margins or huge losses. Cost reductions have been of top priority for all OEM?s (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and will continue to be so for many years to come. Beside cost reductions, reducing the time-to-market is of greatest importance to stay in the competition. OEM?s that are slow to market with products that neither matches customer expectations nor the products of their competitors, will soon loose market shares and see their economical performance falter.

Theability to beat the market is one of the most discussed topics in finance. Thereare very few investors that manage to accomplish this over longer periods oftime. Most of the financial research claims that this is impossible unless theinvestor increase the risk in the portfolio. However numerous of researchershave shown that it exist anomalies on the stock market which either indicatesthat the Capital Asset Pricing Modell (CAPM) or Fama and French three-factormodel fails to explain stock returns or that the market is not fully efficient.One investor that has claimed that the stock market is not fully efficient andthat it is possible to generate abnormal return is Benjamin Graham. Graham isone of the legends on Wall Street and he has shown that by using few variablesbased on public information, one can manage to beat the market over longer timeperiods.There arejust a few studies that have tested Graham?s criteria?s, however all of themindicates that they work but that the standard deviation might be higher forthe portfolios.

This essay discusses and evaluates the international currency market in regards to efficiency. To prove the theory that, the difference between expected and actual exchange rates is explained by the difference in expected and actual interest rates and the difference in expected and actual inflation between countries, a model was developed. This model was inspired by the paper of Sebastian Edwards (1982), and is based on three theories; UIP, IS/LM and the Efficient markets Hypothesis. The model uses 16 regressions estimated from three pairs of curriencies: $/SEK, £/SEK and ?/SEK.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to research and analyze how the establishment in new markets of small and medium Swedish fashion companies can be made more efficient from a network perspective. Methodology: The researchers have decided to take a phenomenological standpoint and undertake an exploratory study in order to gain understanding of the phenomenon of market entry and the use of networks. The researchers have chosen to undertake a qualitative study and to adopt an abductive approach. Two ?case companies? have been chosen which are Filippa K and House of Dagmar.

The construction industry has demands on energy use in permanent buildings. How much energy that is permitted to use during the time the building is produced has no requirements. The purpose with this study is to learn how far Skanska has come with the work of making the building site more energy efficient.A literature study has been performed in the beginning of the study to survey what energy efficient arrangements that can be applied and how they operate. Using site visits and interviews the situations on the building sites have been studied as well as the energy efficient measure that are in use.Skanska has come a long way with the work of energy efficient building sites and they keep improving. They have improved half of their cabins so they use 50 % less energy.

AbstractMaster thesis in Business Administration, School of Business and Economics at Linneaus UniversityAuthors: Patrik Larsson and Pontus GislénSupervisor: Håkan LockingExaminer: Sven-Olof CollinTitle: The index effect- a study on Nasdaq OMXS30 and OMXH25Introduction: A significant part of the financial literature is based on the Efficient market Hypothesis which assumes that prices in the market reflects all available information. Anomalies, such as the index effect, indicate weaknesses in this theory as it has been proved that it is possible to outperform the market using public information. Hence, the index effect can be linked to market efficiency which makes it interesting to study from a theoretical perspective. The mapping of the index effect is also interesting from a practical perspective, as it leads to a better understanding of whether investors and firms should take this anomaly into account.Problem: Is there an index effect, how does it behave and what can explain this effect?Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the index effect.

The aim with this study is to investigate the market reactions to announcements of special dividends and redemptions in Sweden and thus if these announcements can signal information. This study is an event study, where the event is the day of the announcement of a suggestion regarding issuance of special dividends or redemptions. The abnormal returns were estimated for two samples with the market adjusted returns model, one including special dividend announcing firms and the other redemption announcing firms. The signalling hypothesis and the hypothesis of a tax induced clientele effect are the most important hypotheses for this study. The Efficient market hypothesis is another theoretical base that may explain the market reactions to the studied announcements, especially the pre-announcement activities that may occur.