An efficient market implies that the use of fundamental analysis should not result in excess return, and that any return exceeding the market average can be explained by compensation for risk, accord-ing to The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). The focus of this study is to test whether the suc-cessful investment strategy developed by Piotroski (2000) generates excess return on American data, after risk adjustment by using Fama & French?s (1993) 3-factor and Carhart?s (1997) 4-factor CAPM. Initially we form stock portfolios based on companies characterized by high book-to-market values, additionally, we divide them into different performance classes by ranking them with Piotroski?s (2000) measure of Financial Performance, F_SCORE.

The purpose of this report is to examine what will happen with the financial control of a company if changes from a family owned company to a public company listed on a stock market. The expectations were that the control would have a more short-term focus with more financial measures. The result shows that the changes were experienced as minor. The rate and the work in the finance department showed to be the major changes due to the change of owners..

 This abstract describes the bachelor degree thesis in computer technology at Växjö University. The company BSR in Växjö has requested an application that can measure a cars performance, with attributes like acceleration times and engine power estimation. The communication between car and computer is via the USB port on the computer and the OBD-II socket on the car with the network protocol CAN, controller area network. Cars from VAG have been the primary focus group and the application has been tested on a Volkswagen Passat CC from 2009. The system is developed in the programming language C# in the environment Visual Studio with the framework .NET.

The present study investigates the relationship between narcissism, using identified facets in the five-factor model for the grandiose and vulnerable narcissistic personality, and job performance. The results, based on analyses of correlations from previous studies, meta-analyses and norm-data, show general differences regarding the grandiose and vulnerable narcissistic facet profile and their respective relationship to job performance. The results confirm previous study implications of the facet level data?s ability to capture aspects of the personality that a broader measure misses. Similarly, the results demonstrated that facets could differentially predict job performance in both a negative and positive direction.

Large companies in today?s business environment are to a great extent depending on their credit score by rating institutes like Moody?s and Standard & Poor?s. There is however indications that these big institutes are not always rating companies accurately. This is why this thesis aims at developing a new credit rating model, CRITA-Score, with the objective of determining a company?s financial health more accurately.

Title: The Investment Savings Account ? Standard Taxation ? Right in TimeAuthors: Gustav Mårtensson and Erica Nordström LöfSupervisor: Göran HäggBackground: In order to facilitate and stimulate financial investments among privateinvestors the organization Aktiespararna made a proposal for a standard-taxed account. As aresult of this, the Swedish government decided to implement the Investment Savings Accountin January of 2012. The introduction of the Investment Savings Account implies that there arenow three different types of accounts for financial investments that are differently taxed onthe Swedish Market. Private investors can improve their after-tax results by combining AssetAllocation and Asset Location, according to earlier studies.

The purpose of this thesis is to map out and investigate how the banking sector affects a customer?s willingness to change bank, and what the switching costs are for a customer when making these changes. A case study was performed through qualitative and quantitative questionnaires and interviews. The qualitative part was carried out to create hypotheses. The hypotheses was tested in a quantitative survey to be able to either accepted or rejected these them.

AbstractTitle: Level/Degree/Grade:Authors:Supervisor:Research question:Purpose:How the bank may improve its financial counselling ? A qualitative case study.Bachelor Thesis; Business administration; Corporate finance.Andreas A?strand, Anton Persson, Kristoffer Wedebrand.Hans Mo?rner.How may the bank improve its financial counselling to private investors using portfolio theory?Our purpose is to examine the advice, with basis in portfolio theory, the bank?s financial advisors provide to their clients, the investors, and how they can improve. If we can identify and point out areas of improvement in the financial counselling, we hope to raise the question and contribute with an improved financial counselling. Another positive effect we are hoping for is to improve the situation for the investors whereas all parties benefit from an improved portfolio selection.This study is conducted through a qualitative case study, where we used a deductive approach and collected our data through personal interviews.The conclusion that emerges is that the financial counselling could potentially be improved if financial advisors improve their knowledge in portfolio theory.The originality shapes through the opportunity to investigate a specific bank and because of that an opportunity to examine a specific case more thoroughly was created. Our thesis contributes with opening La?nsfo?rsa?kringar?s and other banks? eyes to how their financial counselling could be improved through new knowledge in portfolio theory.

Syftet är att analysera vilka variabler som påverkar performance positivt i nystartade BioMed och ITT-företag och i denna process även beskriva och jämföra hur dessa variabler ser ut i de två branschgrupperna och hur företagen har utvecklats. Vi har använt oss av en kvantitativ metod och har genom ett enkätutskick fått empiriskt material från 20 grundare av BioMed-företag och från 30 grundare av ITT-företag. Slutsatserna är att i BioMed påverkas nystartade företags performance positivt av: grundarens ålder, arbetserfarenhet, branschkunskap, start-up-erfarenhet och ett heterogent nätverk. Nystartade ITT-företags performance påverkas positivt av : grundarens ålder, utbildningsnivå, arbetserfarenhet, branschkunskap, antalet grundare, initial kapitalmängd i företaget och att ha affärsänglar och riskkapitalbolag som kapitalkälla. Connects olika insatser får generellt sett inte bra betyg av grundarna och därmed drar vi slutsatsen att Connects betydelse för företagens performance inte är stor.

The research within the management control systems-field and more specifically performance management has been rather shallow and not much has happened the last decades besides the balanced scorecard. The researchers see a lack of studies focusing on the effects of an integrated performance management system and also how it affects the different hierarchical levels and the tasks to perform.We decided to perform an essay with case study-characteristics by looking at both the strategic and tactical level at Volvo Group, or more specifically Group Trucks. We performed three different interviews, one at the group level and two at the division level. The aim was to see what effect an integrated performance management system had on the tactical level (i.e. the divisions).Our findings and corresponding analysis suggested that Volvo was a rather centralized company in order to get the performance management system to work by enabling a ?weekly control?.

Companies today are facing more and different kinds of demands from the society and their stakeholders. It is no longer enough to just deliver the products, and not just the quality of the products that matter. The consumers are getting more conscious about the many ways in which companies affect the society and the environment in which we live. The financial sector, that among others includes stakeholders such as insurance companies, banks and fund companies are starting to realise the importance of the non- financial issues that companies are encountering. Analysing the companies sustainability when it comes to social and environmental issues, has become an increasingly important factor when for example choosing companies to invest in.

Essay in political science, C-level, by Ronak Bozorgi, fall semester 2007. Tutor:P.O. Norell. ?The affect of financial decline on politician?s activity.

Background: The interest in shares has increased over the years, despite several stock market crashes. One reason for this is the emergence of stock trading online,which makes it easier for individuals to trade in shares. However, there has been much criticism towards financial analyst with the lack of fundamental basis to support their recommendations.Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the share valuation models swedish financial analysts today applies and consider appropriate. A comparison will also be carried out in previous studies, to see if the application of the modelsand their suitability has changed.Method: The study used a qualitative approach with deductive approach. Semistructured interviews were conducted and the basis for the study's primary data.The theories and previous studies obtained through secondary data.Results: Our results demonstrate that no single model applied, is appropriate.

This master?s thesis examines the possibility to heuristically optimise instruction cache performance in a Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler. Programs that do not fit inside the cache all at once may suffer from cache misses as a result of frequently executed code segments competing for the same cache lines. A new heuristic algorithm LHCPA was created to place frequently executed code segments to avoid cache conflicts between them, reducing the overall cache misses and reducing the performance bottlenecks. Set-associative caches are taken into consideration and not only direct mapped caches.

 Performance appraisals- a study of the performance appraisals significance as a tool for development in the public sector.Anders Larsson and Åsalill OlssonPerformance appraisals have been given a central role in leading businesses in the public sector and are seen as a tool to create development opportunities and achieve better results. This has resulted that performance appraisal in many organizations takes up capacity and time. This was the starting point of our interest to study whether the time spent on performance appraisals effectively pays for itself in the organization, in other words whether the effects expected actually are achieved. The paper examines first line managers` views on staff appraisal purposes and effects of a function within the Landstinget. The survey design, methodology and transaction are of qualitative and quantitative method with three different sources: literature review of previous research, interviews with first line managers in Landstinget Västmanland and the results from an employee satisfaction survey conducted on behalf of Landstinget Västmanland.