This paper analyses how Swedish fine-art oil paintings sold at auctions has performed as a monetary investment during the period autumn 1985 until spring 2006. An average price technique as well as a hedonic regression technique, applied to a sample of 19 213 auction sales, is used to construct price indices. The indices show somewhat different results, which is explained by the inability of the average price model to adjust for relative differences in quality between periods. The hedonic regression model on the other hand captures this effect, why the hedonic index is applied in a financial return model. By adjusting for transaction cost, the financial return of an average investment in paintings is calculated.

Municipalities must establish budget annually but they are free to decide how the governance should be designed, this can lead to lack of consistency and measurability within and between municipalities. The purpose of this thesis was to present a proposal for a unified and more measurable financial structure of a municipality where this was lacking. In our theory we describe the issues of traditional management control and we introduce an alternative control with non-financial ratios included, called the Balanced Scorecard. In the empirical data it is investigated how the governance of a municipality could be designed, according to the respondents. In the analysis the information gathered to reach the answers to what are considered to be useful governance in municipality, are examined. In the conclusion, we design Balanced Scorecards with both financial and non-financial ratios to the councils of the municipality..

Purpose:Our purpose with this essay was to see how a health promotion initiative could be profitability and how human resource cost accounting could be used for decision making. Does it cost more than it taste? Method:We have been using qualitative interviews with politicians, human health developerand accountants in a municipality. We have also collected data from a university lecturer which shows numbers from the health promotion initiative and how it is been affecting the involved staff. Result:The result show us that the politicians, human health developer and accountants all want to introduce physical exercising at work.

This study intends to explain the problem with the implementation of new Swedish accounting rules called K2. The rules are simplifications of the general accounting rules and the purpose is to make it easier for small companies to account. Despite this, few small companies have adopted the rules. This study seeks to explain the weak response to the K2-rules using institutional theory.The research objects of this study are Burger King, McDonald?s and two audits and accountants.

The purpose of our study is to determine whether a membership in FRII exercise any influence over the fundraising organizations accounting and work, and if that?s the case we want to study the effects.We began with a search for information about the theories we intended to use in our study and to establish hypotheses. We came to the conclusion that the agency theory and the stakeholder model were the most relevant theories for our work. We also chose to discuss problems in accounting, legitimacy theory and standard setting.We decided to conduct a total opinon poll due to the fact that FRII only have approximately seventy members. We also decided to conduct a cross section approach which means that the attempt of our study is broad but rather shallow.

Sustainability questions that concern the subjects of environmental and social aspects are increasing in today?s society, and therefore the sustainability report is a way for companies to show their work with sustainability development by working with a clear report and follow up. As the first country in the world, Sweden has decided, as from the financial year of 2008, that all governmental owned companies should present a sustainability report according to the guidelines of GRI. The aim of this essay was to identify and analyze actual events from a sustainability aspect for Vattenfall, from a medial perspective during the time period 2005-2009. We made a content analysis of one company?s sustainability reports during a time period of five years and we connected this to the medias reports of the company from the same period, to see if there were any connections between the subjects that media had elucidated.

Title: Nordea Life and Pension during financial crisis Subject: Business administration, Candidate thesis 15 p. Authors: Seyithan Öngörur och Adnan Yari Instructor: Peter Lindberg Date: 2010-01-13 Key words: Nordea, the financial crisis, advice, marketing, customer relationship Purpose: The purpose of the study is to provide an understanding of how the financial crisis has affected Nordea Life and Pensions market growth based on market share. We also want to give an understanding of what factors may be responsible for the outcome that it may be helpful in future financial crises. Method: A qualitative study was the basis for the study, where three interviews were carried out by the respondents from Nordea Life and Pension.  Theory: In this section we have focused on relevant theory and has divided them into different themes, advice, current legislation, marketing, consumption and buying behavior. Conclusion: The study shows that Nordea Life and Pension had a positive growth during the financial crisis and a number of factors are presented that may be the basis for the outcome.Proposal for further research: Since this study was limited to one company it may be intresting to investigate and examine the consuling industry market as a whole affected by the financial crisis. Contributions: This paper has provided an understanding of how Nordea Life and Pensions affected during a financial crisis, based on market share and the factors that may have been the basis for this..

Globalization has among other tendencies led to the emergence of new ways of doing business. One of the ways for organizations to meet the demands of a new competitive landscape has been through management accounting change, a field which has become increasingly popular in research. This paper builds on that research and seeks to investigate the case of the implementation of a new management accounting system in a Swedish company which was triggered by strategic change. Commonality through the interactive approach is by some researchers seen as a key to successful change. This approach is contrasted to the importance of symbolic constructs and change recipients? cognitive effort to understand the meaning of change for which Framing theory is applied.

Title: The component approach - From the harmonization process as a background to the perception of benefits and costs as effects.Authors: Elin Börjesson & Emma KarlssonTutor: Titti EliassonKey concept: Harmonization, Component approach and Benefit/CostBackground: With IFRS for SME's as a basis, the Accounting Board developed K3 which shall apply from financial year 2014. Upon introduction of the K3 companies will be forced to apply the component approach. When K3 with the associated component approach went out for consultation it resulted in a debate where some actors opposed the imposition of a requirement and not an option. It was questioned whether the costs with the component approach would be greater than the benefit of the implementation.Formulation of the problem: How is the introduction and use of the component approach seen by different operators from a benefit-, cost perspective?Aim: The aim of this essay is find out how the introduction and use of the component approach is seen by different operators from a benefit-, cost perspective.

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.

I Sverige infördes år 2005 nya regler för redovisningen i börsnoterade företag. Från och med den 1 januari blev dessa företag enligt lag tvingade att följa det regelverk som International Accounting Standards Board författar. Dessa standarder blev då gällande i hela EU.I vår uppsats inriktar vi oss på en av dessa standarder och dess amerikanska motsvarighet, nämligen IAS 38 som behandlar redovisning av immateriella tillgångar. Vi fokuserar på den typ av immateriell tillgång som uppstår genom forskning och utveckling. Den amerikanska motsvarigheten till denna standard heter FAS 2.International Accounting Standards Board är ett av två ledande organ som på ett internationellt plan definierar hur redovisningen ska se ut.

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..

BackgroundA cost that lately has been discussed related to audit is the higher cost for auditing of small stock company. The question is if this cost is higher than the total utility of statutory audit and should it in that case be statutory. SRF says that the condition for small stock companies development is an abolishment of statutory audit. FAR consider that auditing is important for development and continuation.PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there are any winners or losers among auditing firms and accounting firms in Sweden if the statutory audit for small stock companies abolish.MethodThe paper is both a qualitative and a quantitative study that is based on primary data made from an interview and a questionnaire investigation. ConclusionOur conclusion is that the big Winner is the accounting trade.

Earlier models that measured de facto harmonization of international accounting mainly used indices and other related statistical models. Those approaches do not account for the relative importance of individual balance sheet items or expense items being harmonized. This paper therefore proposes a different approach using Runsten?s (1998) permanent measurement bias model. That way it is possible to quantify the harmonization process by accounting for differences among companies.

The study describes the problems with analysis of real estate companies after the introduction of IFRS. With the introduction of IFRS (2005) and specially IAS 40 the real estate companies get the ability to appreciate its real estates to real value. With the difference in the accounting, grows the question if it has become some differences for analysts with analysis and valuation of real estate companies. We also look into how well this new standard effect the real estate companies from the view of the accounting quality and its characteristics..