This paper replicates a test performed by Burgstahler and Dichev (1997), which identifies a kink in the frequency distribution of earnings for companies listed on American stock exchanges. Their claim, that the kink is evidence of earnings management, has however been dismissed as a methodical consequence. To address this concern, this paper not only replicates the test in general, but also performs tests on a split sample, where founding family-owned companies are separated from the others, since earlier research has shown that founding Family Ownership is correlated with less earnings management. The results are in line with the findings of Burgstahler and Dichev, with a significant kink in the frequency distribution in the general test. The findings also show that the significance of the kink increases in the non-family-owned sample, while it disappears in the family-owned sample.

The purpose of this study is to better understand, from a foster parent perspective, how the integration process of the foster child is carried out in the foster family. The purpose is to identify the challenges and success factors in the process. The study is based on a qualitative method. The data consist of interviews with six foster families. The study?s theoretical framework is mostly based on system theory and also on the theory of ambivalence.The results show that most of our families considered five factors to be important in order to facilitate the integration process.

The thesis aims to study how rainbows families are being treated by the authorities and the surroundings. It focuses on how homosexual parents are met in society. Although, homosexuals have the legal right to have a family and enter into marriage, the social norms are still far behind and rainbows families are seen as ?the others? and abnormal.  Earlier researches have been studding how the authorities still assumes that every family are living in a heterosexual family constellation. By this assumption they exclude families who are not living in a heterosexual family.

Overweight and obesity is currently a major health problem in our dogs all around the world and it is becoming more common each year. There are few studies on the proportion of overweight dogs in Sweden, but it was estimated to be 33% in 2005. Studies in other countries report that between 25-40% of all dogs are overweight. The aim of this study was to survey the animal care for an overweight dog. It was also important to develop a scientifically based advice.

The purpose of this study was to gain knowledge and a picture of how foster parents perceive their task, the role of the placed children and their biological parents.  Even how they perceived their family have been affected by the mandates removal. Consistently showed the most positive experiences with strong ties to the children placed. However, there are experiences of the need for additional guidance, support, education and contact with the client to enhance a sense of competence in the task and prevent collapse. Burnout experienced often based in the placed child's difficulties in integration.

The purpose of this study explains the relationship between corporate governance and the auditor's role in Swedish family firms with the definitions micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and how this relationship is affected by the firms strategy. The study is based on a survey sent out to 3000 Swedish SMEs, of which 280 responses from family firms could be used. Our findings showed that the auditor in the family firms didn?t have a specific role or contributed added value to the firm, and that the strategy didn?t affect the outcome. Furthermore, we found correlation between the perceptions of the auditor's role and added value depending on the family firms type of corporate governance.

Military dogs in Sweden spend their first 18 months after weaning with a foster owner that has volunteered to care for its upbringing. The foster owner is advised by a consultant and offered three opportunities to train the dog together with other foster owners. There is a positive correlation between the number of attended training opportunities with the consultant, or other professional dog trainers, and the results of the dog in the temperament test at the end of the 18 months. The test results are in turn positively correlated with the likelihood of the dog to enter service. This thesis aims to investigate why the number of training opportunities is important for the dog?s chance to enter service by identifying foster owner factors that influence the success of the dog and which temperament test items the factors have the strongest impact on.

The purpose of this article is to examine issues concerning quality assurance in the Swedish family counselling. To obtain the purpose following factors have been analysed: what kind of requirements/criteria are put on the companies/practitioners, what the respondents think about the lack of common standards and criteria and their opinions concerning ?Lagen om valfrihetssystemet?. Monitoring of criteria, privatisation and increased competition are other factors that have been analyzed. The material was obtained from the family counsellors own association and was analyzed in the light of previous research and theories regarding the quality of family counselling however we also considered theories about quality within social work in general.

The purpose of this study was to within a Swedish context and from five persons of foreign descent stories study how they have been affected by interpreting for their parents during their childhood and how this has affected the relationships within the family. Studies conducted in an American context have shown that children interpreting for their parents in everyday situations are prone to undertake roles similar of a family leader. Previous studies also show an increased danger of depression among children who interpreted for their parents. The study was conducted by the use of semi-structured interviews with five male respondents with a varying ethnic background. Using Antonovsky´s theoretical formulation ?sense of coherence? we were able to determine that although our respondents during their childhood were subjected to a large amount of stressful elements they also maintained a high sense of well-being.

In this thesis we have developed a framework of features associated with eCommerce platforms and then defined them. Thanks to our interviews with eCommerce-developers, we have been able to define multiple eCommerce features with the focus on an owner?s perspective. Much of the previous research in the area, takes a user perspective when the functionality of eCommerce-platforms have been assessed and evaluated. We have therefore taken an owner?s perspective in the evaluation of eCommerce platforms and therefore produced a suggested framework with key features associated with the owner's functions.

This essay studies the concept of "livspusslet", a term in swedish that directly translates as "the jigsaw puzzle of life". In recent public debate it has been used to articulate issues concerning the combination of family life and a professional career. The empirical material consists of newspaper articles from nationwide daily newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet between 2009 and 2011. The concept of "livspusslet" relates to the debate about family values, gender equality and the public view on the issue of combining family life with a career. The widespread use of the concept indicates that the social practices surrounding the debate over family policy is shifting.

Placing children in foster care is today considered the best alternative for children unable to stay in their biological environment. A nuclear family consisting of a father, a mother and a child is the most common family structure within foster care today. The purpose of this thesis is to gain insight on the family norms that control the foster care system. It's a qualitative study based on interviews with six professional social workers within the field of foster care. This method gave us empirical material, that was later analyzed from two main theories and one theoretical concept.

The purpose with this essay is to take part of the process when a family is placed on the family-institution, Trollbacken. We want to know what makes the social welfare secretaries place a family in institutional care. Has Trollbacken lived up to the social welfare secretary expectations and are the social welfare secretaries following Trollbackens recommendation regarding the follow up treatment. We also want to know to what value the social welfare secretary assigns Trollbackens investigation and are they able to see changes in the family due to the placing on Trollbacken. The method is qualitative and is based on interviews from six social welfare secretaries that work around and in West Sweden.

The financial result of a transfer of ownership or external sale is to a great extent depend-ent on how the transfer is implemented and how the tax rules apply. The applicability of the Swedish tax rules regarding transfer of ownership in closely held companies largely de-pends on the interpretation of the prerequisite, equal or similar activity, which can be found in section 57, clause 4 of the Swedish Income Tax Act.The ruling made by the Supreme Administrative Court in RÅ 2010 ref. 11 changed the concept of equal or similar activity. The ruling lead to that the shares in a closely held com-pany was qualified due to that the capital from the original company had been transferred to the operating company. According to the ruling the original company had been split into several companies, thus was the companies considered to carry out equal or similar activity.

?Intensive family therapy?Journal studyAbstractThe Family board in Falun gives since a couple of years priority to intense familytheraphy work with families in need of help/support. Intensive family therapy (IFT) was developed during the 1970s with the purpose of helping families. The theoretical mainlines upon which the IFT ? model is based is the, structural-, strategic- and systemic perspective.