Background: Our daily lives and personal interactions are increasingly featuring social media and social networks in particular. Topics regarding social media, its impact on society at large ? both on corporate as well as individual behavior ? has been the focus of many research papers. Personal use of social networks are regularly being mapped out by researchers aiming at clarifying concepts such as engagement, trust and interactivity, and mapped by companies seeking to maximize return on investment concerning their marketing efforts. The aim of our study is (i) to map how companies and/or organizations operating on the Swedish market use their company?s pages on the social media as a way of communicating with their followers and audience, as well as (ii) identifying whether ?Real-Time Marketing?, in our own definition, is used or not.Methods: The research methods used included both quantitative and qualitative content analysis.

The use of bio energy in Sweden has increased during the last few years and with every passing year, bio energy produces 3-4 TWh´s more energy than the previous year. The increase in the use of bio energy makes it an interesting prospect for forest companies to produce bio energy from the forest. Sveaskog has a fairly extensive bio energy programme, mainly in southern and middle Sweden. Their activity regarding bio energy in northern Sweden has been very restrictive or even non-existent. Because of this, during the winter of 2003-2004, Sveaskog initiated a number of degree projects with the purpose of looking at the use of bio energy in northern Sweden.

Women and men's equal, or unequal treatment has long been a topic of conversation and the workplace is a place where the topic has been and continues to be in question. This study examines the jargon and culture within student-run companies in Gothenburg from a gender equality perspective, focusing on female and male perceptions. The study poses the research question: What does the culture and jargon look like in student-run companies in Gothenburg from a gender equality perspective? The choice of method for the study has been qualitative semi-structured interviews, which has been performed on current and former employees from several student-run companies in Gothenburg. The results show, on average, that the jargon and culture are perceived as relatively equal, but that there can be considerable variation across different areas.

Introduction:By insight in the company and by monitoring the management, the board has an important function in creating trust in governance of the company. Furthermore, the board reduces the asymmetry of information between the owners and the management, which also is the function of the auditor, by auditing how the board governs the company and the accounting. In case the board does not effectively monitor the management, the auditor has to extend its monitoring, which increases the owners agency costs through the audit fee. The board composition can affect how effectively the board practices the monitoringProblem: How is the audit fee affected by the board composition?Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explain how the board composition affects the audit fee.Method: The study uses a quantitative method, where the data was collected from the annual reports of 112 limited companies listed on the NASDAQ OMX Large and Mid Cap lists on January 2, 2012.

Organizations over the world increasingly start to realize the possibilities of the use of a social intranet, also known as Enterprise 2.0. The social intranets can be used to collaborate and communicate with colleagues in the workplace. Both Cook (2008) and Coope (Barnett, 2011) say that Enterprise 2.0 is about to fundamentally change the way organizations communicate. But do companies know how these tools can be used?The study emanates from three questions:How can social intranets be used in business?How can internal communication and collaboration get easier through the use of a social intranet?What are the possible risks with the use of social intranets?In this study we have in a qualitative manner been interviewing two companies that currently use social intranets in their daily activities ? Securitas and Skåneme-jerier.

Purpose: The purpose of the investigation is to give an insight to hot the EU legal environment in the field of vertical relationships influences the competitiveness of the 2nd tier of the automobile industry. Conclusion:It follows that European legislation has succeedded in raising the competitiveness by breaking down the powers of the predominantly more powerful companies that the 2nd tier players do business with and by giving companies sufficient leeway to act. The comment must be made here that serious problems due to a power misbalance might still exist yet are not uncovered. In the course of my research I have found a lack of issues in my subject field. These problems however would have a more structural and economical cause, dealing with these problems would fall outside the boundaries of the competence of European competition legislation.

Communication can be heard in many different ways and it is important for all businesses, especially in B2B. The construction and maintenance of a brand plays just like the communication a very important part. These parts also have a lot to common and affect each other in a large extent. One problem that may occur in many companies is the failure to grow and gain a larger share of the market even if they in various ways are trying. Expander is one of those companies and in this research report we studied communication and brand building, focusing on brand management, relationships and integrated marketing. Here we drew the conclusion that all these areas are important for a company, especially in the Business-to-Business marketing in different ways.

Background: In the eighties the debate concerning the declining relevance of the traditional calculation started. The reason was that the method of calculating not had been changed despite that the costs and manufacturing had changed in many companies. This led to the development of activity-based costing. Management by means of activity information is called activity-based management, but there is no general accepted definition of what the term com- prises. Neither are there any studies which describe within which areas activity information is used as a base for decisions.

Purpose: To examine how video-game releases affect the share price, and if video-game reviews have any impact on the share price of gaming corporations. Method: A quantitative deductive research approach is applied with event study methodology used as basis. The investigated companies were the five largest gaming companies listed on the U.S. NASDAQ exchange. A total of 29 video-game launches and 85 reviews where examined.  Theory: The study is based on The Efficient Market Hypothesis, Agent Theory, Public Relations Theory, Nextopia and previous research.Results: The result contains 114 observations in five companies.

The competition amongst companies is getting tougher and the economic markets are getting even bigger with new products and businesses. One way for companies to differentiate themselves from the competitors is through packaging design. If the merchandise is to send a reliable and solid message to consumers, the attributes of the packaging must be consistent and uniform. If the different attributes are not coherent, the message loses credibility towards the consumer. Through the sent messages, the pack signals the products? expected quality and price.This paper includes two studies, in which the main objective is to discover and build understanding about Swedish consumers? perception of a product?s price depending on the pack?s design.

AbstractAuthors:Stefan Harrå and Magnus BjörkAdvisor: Markku PenttinenTitle: Accounting Consequences of the change in pension accounting Background to problem: When the revised IAS 19 comes into force January 1, 2013, it means that two of the three accounting principles for defined benefit pension plans are disappearing, including the corridor method. The corridor method has made it possible for companies to defer its actuarial gains and losses. Now that the corridor approach abolished then the unrecognized actuarial gains and losses immediately be covered by equity, which involves very large amounts of some companies. Why the amounts have grown so big is much because of the discount rate. The discount rate is a controversial parameter, and there is disagreement on how it should be fixed.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the accounting implications this will have for the company applied the corridor method, and if there is some parameters in the actuarial assumption that is more important than others.Methodology: The thesis has mainly been based on a qualitative research through qualitative interviews with a small sample that is affected by this change.

Background: During the year 2002 approximately 27 000 people lost their jobs because of companies filing for bancruptcy. In 2002 the number of companies filing for bancruptcy in Sweden were 6740. This is approximately twice as many as in the year of 1974 when the first major study concerning bancruptcies in Sweden was carried out. The accumulated amount of unpaid bancruptcy claims for the period 1991 ? 1997 was 51 billion SEK.

This paper aims to give an insight into how venture capital work with their investments in the school sector. The purpose of the paper is to examine their work, regarding to goals of the company and the process of controlling the goals.  The study also aims to determine the way the companies work with value growth.This study uses a qualitative research method, where the theories license to operate, the relationship value management framework, agency-principal and new public management theory is tested in relation to the collected data. Eleven persons were interviewed in this paper. This paper also aims to give an overview to venture capital in the school sector, where it will examine whether financial goals could collide with social goals.What the study can tell is that venture capital does not have a license to operate in this sector, according to the theory.

Background: The real estate market has previously been subsidized by the government. The construction has been characterized by standardization and large scale complex. In the current situation there are other conditions on the real estate market, subsidies do not occur at the same degree and the market is more competitive. Customer influence has also changed. Today the customers want to customize their apartment by personal needs and lifestyle.

The development of the Internet has led to a new platform for Web pages, Web 2.0. An interactive environment where users generate content. Facebook, which is one of the most popular social media sites, has opened up new opportunities for companies to communicate directly with individuals. Facebook has encouraged this by offering the technology and the possibility by developing the feature pages.The purpose of this study was to examine how Swedish Facebook users relate to company's presence on Facebook through pages. The study also intended to find out how Swedish Facebook users think that companies should behave on their Facebook page.