The composition of the board of directors and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are two widely researched subject and discussed by the media. This study aims to examine the impact of the board of directors' composition on CSR performance among the largest companies listed on Nasdaq OMX stock exchange 2008 in Stockholm, Sweden. A linear regression analysis is applied to investigate the relationship and evidence is found that board attributes have an effect on CSR performance. Among these; the size of the board, outside directors and employee representatives all have a positive impact on environmental performance. Furthermore; female, outside directors and employee representatives have a positive impact on social performance.

This study evaluates the retention of nitrogen and phosphorus in four newly constructed wetlands in the municipality of Falkenberg, Sweden. The four wetlands have been selected because they have been specifically constructed with the aim to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus in farming areas. The process of selecting the specific wetlands has been done in collaboration with the county administration in Halland. Through field studies in collaboration with the landowners where the wetlands are sited, the areas that provide the wetlands with water were determined. The size of these drainage areas were determined in a GIS computer program. The type of land use within the drainage areas was also determined.

På grund av att kostnader för avhjälpande i många fall är omfattandet och ansvaret svårbestämt finns grund för att studera frågan ytterligare. Syftet med denna uppsats är således att redogöra för hur avhjälpandeansvaret ser ut i gällande rätt och hur det tolkas i rättspraxis. För att besvara detta syfte har en studie genomförts där gällande rätt jämförts med rättspraxis. Miljöbalkens 2 kap. samt 10 kap.

This study is a semi-­structured, qualitative depth-­interview study investigating Swedish institutional investors' perception of the fact that companies purchase non-­audit services from its signing auditor and if they see this as a threat to auditor independence. The study focuses on independence in appearance rather than independence in fact. The study is based on the current media debate on auditor independence and aims to provide a deeper insight to enlighten legislators how users of audited financial information look at the problem. The study builds on agency theory's notion that there is an information asymmetry between management and shareholders, which the auditor is to reduce. The results show that Swedish institutional investors perceive that there is a threat to auditor independence when companies buy non­-audit services from its signing auditor.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate whether the implementation of the Solvency II directive will create a competitive advantage for the Swedish insurance companies compared with other insurance companies in Europe.Therefore the theoretical perspective illustrates the specific requirements and risk culture of the insurance industry and defines the critical success factors for a successful implementation of the directive. The empirical foundation is built on the QIS 5 reports for Sweden and Europe, interviews with the financial services and If insurance company as well as information from a seminar organized by KPMG. The analysis shows that the Swedish insurance companies meets the capital requirements of Solvency II by a large margin and that they are accustomed to risk management and reporting requirements from the traffic light model. This implies that the three critical success factors for a successful implementation of Solvency II are met, although with some limitations, and that Swedish insurance companies could possibly have a competitive advantage.     .

Nybyggnation och underhåll av skogsbilvägar medför stora kostnader för skogsbruket. Georadar (GPR) är en teknik som kan användas för att läsa av en vägs struktur vilket ger ett möjligt tillvägagångssätt för att reducera kostnader vid upprustning av vägar. Detta genom att endast partier med sämre bärighet rustas upp och därmed läggs rätt mängd material på rätt ställe längs vägen. Alternativet är dagens subjektiva bedömning av åtgärdsbehov och godtycklig placering av grusmängd. Syftet med denna studie var att kvantifiera skillnader i spårbildning mellan 100 %, 75 % samt 50 % påförd materialmängd i överbyggnaden av total rekommenderad materialmängd för att uppnå bärighet motsvarande vägklass 3B, samt hur spårbildning i vägkroppen påverkas av vältning. Grusmängden för överbyggnaden dimensionerades med ledning från data insamlade med GPR och fallviktsmätare.

The aim of this masters thesis, based on discourse analysis and organization theory, is to study how individuals in different Swedish cultural organizations- and agencys are working with disaster preparedness.The purpose of this is to examine whether organizational structures affect different persons work, cooperation and practical application concerning disaster preparedness in collaboration with both external and internal organizations.The research shows that disaster preparedness are affected by priority issues as well as financial resources causing consequences for future work concerning this kind of issues.Another problem which is also examined and discussed in this thesis are the problematic approach to personal initiative which today is the leading operation for the organizations to deal with disaster preparedness instead of creating professional titles for the persons handles these complex issues..

Vi har undersökt vad två olika företag gör, enligt dess IT-chefer, för att styra och säkerställa att de kan förvalta och utveckla befintliga informationssystem över tiden. Undersökningen genomfördes som en fallstudie utifrån intervjuer med IT-cheferna vid dessa två företag. Resultatet visar att informationssystem och dess förvaltning ses som en naturlig del i företagets kärnverksamhet, eftersom IT-chefen placerats i företagets ledning. De undersökta organisationerna strävar efter en IRM baserad systemarkitektur för att hålla nere kostnaderna och samt att hålla informationen aktuell och samlad på ett ställe. Den snabba tekniska utvecklingen i kombination med stora kostnader vid investeringar i nya system har gjort att resurserna i huvudsak satsas på att underhålla och utveckla befintliga informationssystem..

Companies and organizations recognize the importance of collaboration to develop responsibility and ability of change in the workplace. The concept of collaboration was a relatively new idea in business in the late 1980s. In a Nordic context, collaboration is a traditional approach that companies use successfully for competition, survival and development. Collaborative organizational efforts cover management of committed people who can help companies achieve flexibility, customer loyalty, innovation and economic success on a challenging and competitive market. Many theorists believe that collaboration is the key to integrating technology, financial competence and innovation.

Every year big events takes place in different cities, one of the largest half marathons in the world is located in Gothenburg and is called GöteborgsVarvet. These kind of events rely on volunteers to even be able to manage the pressure from the arrangement. The purpose of the study was to investigate the motivation factors among volunteers? at GöteborgsVarvet 2012. This study is a part of a bigger project called EVINN that is an EU-financial researchproject which aims to develop arrangements.

Syfte: Målet med denna studie är att finna det mest effektiva kösystemet de valda företag verksamma inom detaljhandeln.Metod: Detta är en kvalitativ och kvantitativa studie som grundar sig på intervjuer med företag inom detaljhandeln som använder sig av linjär kö, könummerlappssystem eller en hybrid av båda samt beräkningar och simulering av företagens kösystem.Teori: Studien grundar sig på Kendall?s notation, det villsäga kömodellsberäkning men även teorier kring linjär kö samt könummerlappssystem.Slutsats: Kostnadsbesparingar är möjliga om kösystem granskas då det ligger kostnader i form av personalkostnader och kundens väntetid..

The purpose of this research is to examine the implications of the provisions in the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance (the Code) concerning auditor attestation of the internal control report. We will focus on how the auditors? augmented responsibilities will affect the efficiency in the audit process.Our research indicates that the main benefit from reviewing the internal control report is achieving more reliable internal controls, which results in greater prevention of misstatements in the financial statements. This will affect the efficiency in the audit process since the auditor can place more reliance on internal controls when performing audit procedures. This implies that the benefits of preventing misstatements could outweigh the efforts and resources spent on reviewing the internal control report..

With the introduction of IFRS, the IASB left the previously used method of amortization and instead introduced fair value. Studies show that firms manipulate the value of goodwill based on agency related incentives and opportunities, such as bonus payment, management tenure and acquisition of firms. The responsibility of checking the quality of financial reports, and give other market participants reasons to trust them, is primarily on accountants. The transition to fair value thus creates a problem for accountants to actually check the fair values produces by firms. Our purpose is to investigate whether the working method of accountants is purposeful in order to maintain the credibility of goodwill values.

This paper examines the film distribution and exhibition sector in Europe. The general analysis of these sectors? situation was made. Moreover, the comparative and more in depth analysis of three countries by the Porter?s five forces model was made; These were United Kingdom, France and Denmark.

När ett företag importerar eller exporterar varor och tjänster i utländsk valuta kan de exponera sig mot valutakursrisker. Värdet på en valuta idag är kanske inte densamma imorgon vilket kan både gynna och missgynna företag verksamma inom handel. Världsekonomin utsattes för chocker och en av de värsta finansiella kriser upplevdes under 2009/2010. Eftereffekterna kan fortfarande ses av länder exempelvis lokaliserade i Euroområdet. Valutakurser påverkas av makrorelaterad information vilket kan orsaka stora volatila fluktuationer av kurser som kan leda till enorm ekonomisk skada eller stor ekonomisk vinst för företag.