From a historical perspective, Sweden is a classic example of a social democratic state in view ofits early development of labor movements, democracy and focus on the welfare state. Today, as amember state of the EU, Sweden has however come to be influenced by America?s neoliberalpolities, where companies need to deliver more and better products/services while the consumerawareness and sensitivity has increased about company?s way to invest. Research shows thatScandinavian companies, primarily in Denmark and Sweden, has a leading position when it comesto responsible corporate behavior which has been the reason to our choice of studying howSwedish companies do to achieve success in CSR. To carry out this study, we have usedqualitative analysis, using semi-structures to interview companies in different industry sectors.

Within the subject of retouching there is an ongoing debate about whether fashion retailers should retouch their ads or not. There has been a large amount of criticism to the communication of stereotyped beauty ideals that is used by companies in their marketing. The stereotyped ideals also contribute to negative psychological effects among people. As a response to the criticism, or as a way to differentiate one-self from competitors, retailers are starting to use unretouched models in their advertising. How this affects the consumer's perception of CSR along with the attitudes and behaviors is still unknown.

This study examines differences between private and state-owned companies' sustainability reports for the year 2010. Three state-owned companies and three private companies in three different industries have been examined. An effort has been put to explaining if differences are related to the owner or to the industry. The basis for this is that the state owned companies are required to present a sustainability report according to shareholder demands, while the private owned aren?t obligated to present their sustainability efforts.The study has a qualitative basis, and empirical data have been collected by the authors.

Concurrently with higher demands on comparability between companies, all Swedish listed parent companies are guilty to apply international accounting standards, IFRS/IAS, no later than January 1, 2005. In this thesis IFRS 7 Financial instruments: Disclosures, that treats information about financial instruments, is investigated. IFRS 7 aims to establish a good international standard for disclosures about financial instruments. The purpose of this thesis is to study differences in the interpretation of IFRS 7 Financial instruments: Disclosures between Swedish life insurance companies, problems ? if any ? that associate with the recommendation, the recommendation?s effect on accounting and the attitudes towards IFRS amongst the Swedish life insurance companies.

This essay deals with the topic options costs and whether such costs would arise for smaller companies now when they have the opportunity to choose not to have an auditor. Small companies are defined as companies that fulfill at least two of the following three criteria?s: less than 1,5 million SEK in balance sheet, less than three employees and turnover less than 3 million SEK. The decision regarding internal revision does not only affect the company itself but also other parties such as the taxation authority, banks and others that can be influenced by the decision. This essays main focus is on the influenced parties, especially the taxation authority and the banks as these have been highlighted in debates in media and because the small companies themselves may have difficulties to foresee the consequences of the new changes. The opinions from accounting companies will be considered in the essay as they can be considered as experts regarding the different aspect within this area.

Study objects: Three different productions companies which the authors have chosen to be anonymous. Purpose: The purpose with this study is to examine why production companies choose to use 3D-animations in television commercials, and what different kind of aspects affects their decisions. Theoretical: The theoretical chapter reviews the history of 3D-animation andtelevision commercials and other fields that will be relevant laterin the analysis and discussion. Method: A case study has been made on three different companies, two of the companies are active in post-production and the other one is active in the consulting area. Data was collected through semistructured interviews with two of the companies.

Utvecklingen på den teknologiska marknaden har kommit att påverka företag i en allt större utsträckning då marknadsföring på Internet blivit allt viktigare. Den ökade använd-ningen av smartphones har bidragit till att fler och fler människor ständigt är uppkopp-lade vilket i sin tur har öppnat upp för nya sätt för företag att skapa relationer och att inte-ragera med sina kunder. En bidragande faktor är sociala medier som har öppnat upp för interaktion där företag och kunder kan kommunicera med varandra. De har även öppnat upp för kommunikation kunder emellan, vilket både skapar positiv och negativ word of mouth. I takt med utvecklingen av den nya telefonin, har mobilapplikationer kommit att få en allt större betydelse som marknadsföringskanal.

Marketing communications have earlier been conducted via traditional channels. Today companies have discovered the possibility of doing much of their marketing communication in cooperation with the web at relatively low cost. This development has led to the ability for small businesses to compete with large companies independent of geographic location. The purpose with this thesis was to examine how small businesses use their website in marketing communications with their customers in the consumer market. In order to reach this purpose we have conducted interviews with five small businesses in different business trade with varying degrees of website usage, located in Piteå and Luleå.

Abstract Over the years the consciousness of risk has grown. It?s hard to influence risks, therefore there are guidelines stating that significant risk must be included in the annual report. This paper is a case study; the purpose was to examine how four Swedish listed companies chose to disclose their internal and external risks. Risk is initially described in general sense and then it figures to what constitutes an economic risk.Through a case study of four Swedish listed companies? annual reports we have, through qualitative methods found how the companies chose to disclosure their risks.

AbstractMaster Thesis in business administration, School of Business and Economics at the Linneaus University, financial control, spring 2010Authors:Stefan Hellman and Ewa Warnquist Supervisor:Magnus Willesson Title: Reward systems - a study of public companies? variable compensation system Background:Our interest of the variable compensation system in public companies was brought by the recent extensive discussions of bonuses in the time of a financial crisis. This has led to that the word bonus has been given a negative connotation and we wanted to find out how the system of variable compensation is structured in the companies at Stockholm Stock Exchange. Problem:How is the variable compensation system structured in public companies? Purpose:The purpose of this paper is to study how the variable compensation in public companies is structured.

This thesis studies the customer relationships and customer accounting methods used by a Swedish fashion company. The aim is to test the empirical applicability of the relationship based framework developed by Lind and Strömsten and to explain potential differences between empirical observations and theory. The framework is based on the categorization of four customer relationship groups and the appropriate customer accounting methods to be used for each relationship. The fashion company, that recently assessed the profitability of its customer base in an aim to implement a new customer strategy, is the object of the qualitative case study. The case study reveals that all customer relationships are to be found at Whyred, except the connective customer relationship.

The purpose of this study has been to create a communication plan to use at the launch of an independent fashion store and give a current storeowner an overall picture concerning which communication aspects to use during his ongoing business. To fulfill our purpose we have targeted one important question, which is:   Which communication fields are the most important to use, when you are about to launch an independent fashion store.  For this study we have used a qualitative approach in which we have conducted eleven personal interviews with people who has a strong understanding in communication regarding to this type of business. Most of our respondents are currently working actively with communication because they are active in retailing.The remaining respondent has a strong experience in the field of communication. In the final chapter we present our conclusions of the study. We have found the main factors in a communication plan, which is most important for a storeowner. Which are the most important communication parts for the owner to focus on before he launches the store? The basic need of knowledge in social mediaDevelop a unique concept to differentiate yourselfUnderstand the nature of networks and relationshipsThe relevance of store layout and sensory marketing which is an important tool when you need renewal and develop your concept.

This research examines the effects of creative store window displays of fashion brands in enhancing recall, attitudes, intentions and brand associations. A comparison has been made between high-end and low-end brands, creative versus non creative store window displays to identify differences in effects. The theory applied in this study has been used from creative advertising effects due to the lack of relevant research in store window display effects. Therefore this study is a contribution to the research of store window effects. The method used in this study compare fashion high-end brand with fashion low-end brand by placing the products in the store window display where the creativity has been manipulated.

In this thesis we will discuss the importance of human resource development in smaller companies and if it will change from when the Swedish economy was in an economic boom and later on came to be in a recession. We choose to use a more qualitative approach for this research in order to conduct a more in-depth study of five smaller sized companies located on Gotland, Sweden. In order to limit our research we had as an ambition to answer these following questions:? What obstacles are there when it comes to human resource development and knowledge transference within smaller sized companies?? What can simplify or enable human resource development and knowledge transference within smaller sized companies?? Does the teaching process change to a more tacit human resource development between co-workers when there is less room for conventional human resource development?The result of the research came to show that the biggest barrier, when it comes to competence development within smaller companies, is time. However, our research also showed that a majority of the companies has changed from a more external educational plan to a more internal educational plan which focuses on keeping the human resource development within the company.

Ever since Sweden joined EU on the 1st of January 1995 the auditing is regulated not only by our Swedish laws but also by EG:s directives. In the fourth directive the member states are given a possibility to dispense small companies from the duty to audit the accounts. It is up to every member state to decide whether they want to dispense the small companies or not and today Sweden is one of few member states who does not.The purpose of this essay was to describe how lenders and Skatteverket will act in case of a dispensation for small companies from the duty to audit the accounts. The study has been carried out by interviewing four lenders and Skatteverket.The study shows that the lenders and Skatteverkets acting in case of a dispensation for small companies from the duty to audit the accounts will part from each others. While the lenders stand before a big change Skatteverkets work will be next to unaltered.Half the lenders think that they will continue to demand that the companies? accounts be audited.