Bachelor thesis, Business Administration and Economics Programme, School of Business and Economics at Linnaeus University in Va?xjo?.Spring of 2015 Title: Performance measurement from a cost leadership perspective - A case study on Gekås.Authors: Adrienn Csiszer, Hannah Lundberg & Helena WennerströmTutor: Eva GustavssonExaminer: Karin Jonnergård Keywords: Performance measurement, Performance measurement systems, Generic strategy, Cost leadership strategy, Financial and non-financial measurements. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how a company with a clear cost leadership strategy chooses to work with performance measurements, with a view to comparing a practical example to theorethical approaches. Methodology: The method chosen for this paper is a case study on Gekås AB. The presented data were collected through interviews conducted with four employees on Gekås. Conclusion: The study concludes that for a business with cost leadership strategy the financial measurements are more important than non-financial meausurements. For Gekås it is important to keep the performance measurement simple and understandable for the employees. They only use three measurements (sales, hours and sales per hour) in planning and in evaluation.

Traditionellt sätt har det varit svårt för forskare att dokumentera förekomsten ochomfattningen av manipulering av redovisningsmått. Big Bath Accounting är ett fenomen sominnebär att tveksamma redovisningsmetoder tillämpas i syfte att förvränga företagets verkligasituation, vilket ofta sker i samband med VD-byte och när företag redovisar ett för periodennegativt resultat. Intresset för ämnesvalet väcktes utifrån en tidigare studie om Big BathAccounting, som påvisade statistiska samband mellan nedskrivning av goodwill vid VD-byterespektive negativt resultat. I denna studie är syftet att utreda om statistiska sambandföreligger mellan företagets avsättningar vid VD-byte och negativt resultat enligt teorin BigBath Accounting. I studien undersöks inte alla avsättningar, utan endastomstruktureringsutgifter och övriga avsättningar, då de är svåra att kontrollera och utrymmekan finnas för kreativ tolkning.

The environment has become an important part in people´s lives, and in today´s society stakeholders demands have increased upon companies when it comes to sustainability reports. How these sustainability reports are designed depends on whom it?s for, laws and regulations, and the companies own norms and values. The purpose of sustainability reports is to measure, monitor and compare a company´s enviromental impact. It?s not only about integrating economics, but also enviromental and social standards together to get both financial and competitive advantages.Sustainable Value method is a new model and is the first real method that can be used to evaluate a company´s resources, both financial, social and enviromental to a sustainable value.This model is used to compare the resource efficiency between companies.In this thesis, a documentary study with an experimental approach has been made.Sustainability reports from six selected companies (in the engineering and forestry sector) have been investigated with respect to their accounting for carbon dioxide, and an experiment using the method ?Sustainable Value Approach? was subsequently performed.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva Financial Statements Insurance och diskutera om en användning av modellen skulle innebära någon förbättring beträffande dels förtroendet för de finansiella rapporterna, dels säkerställandet av revisorns oberoende. Som helhet har vi genomfört en kvalitativ undersökning. Vår undersökning innehåller emellertid. Den första delen är en undersökning av befintlig litteratur Den andra delen, den kvalitativa, består av intervjuer genomförda med representanter i de branscher vi anser vara relevanta för vår undersökning. Genom analys av undersökningen har det framkommit att Financial Statements Insurance inte har något användningsområde i realiteten.

Audit is a common concept in Sweden. This occurs in many contexts and situations and may intend a wide spectrum of areas. It might consider environment audit, amateur audit, internal auditing, external audit etc. In the business community external audit and the associated external auditor is possibly, from the general public's side, the most recognized. The external audits purposes in big features are checking limited companies economic accounting along with the board and CEO: s management.

In this paper we investigate 67 Swedish buyouts in the manufacturing and retailing sector between the years 2004-2012. The purpose is to measure changes in a set of financial key ratios to see if private equity firms are able to improve performance in their portfolio companies compared to a peer group consisting of other firms within the same industries. Furthermore, we examine if there is a difference in the change of the financial key ratios between private equity-owned firms in the two sectors. The key results are that the private equity owned firms have not outperformed their peers with respect to the chosen key ratios. We also conclude that there is no significant difference in the change of the financial key ratios between private equity-owned firms in the two sectors..

Housing cooperatives in Sweden practice very long depreciation times for their buildings and assets, subsequently depreciation costs are very low. This study aims at addressing issues relating to potential upward revisions of these costs and the revenue levels needed by housing cooperatives to address these changes, while also providing a detailed summary of some chosen financial ratios under different circumstances. This study's results are based upon recent (2015) market data within the Stockholm region, collected through a manual process and analyzed quantitatively. On average, housing cooperatives EBIT do not cover their financial costs and have low profit margins. The average depreciation time is considerably above what a technical evaluation by other sources may state.

During the Swedish banking crisis in the early 1990?s, the government paid out 65 billion Swedish kronor to save Swedish banks from bankruptcy. In the process, two banks left the private sector to be taken over by the state. This thesis builds on a study from 1998 in seeking to quantify the financial end result for the Swedish government from the subsidies. Taking a cash flow approach and accounting for the time difference, it starts with the money paid out during the years of crisis and subtracts the money that has since been returned to the government by successful management of the relinquished assets.

Background and problem: Higher and other demands are made on management control systems in organizations which have a superior non-financial objective. Systembolaget, a state-owned company with monopoly to sell alcoholic beverages in Sweden, combines two main objectives which can be considered as conflicting, one financial target and one superior non-financial public welfare target. The research questions are focused on the translation of information through the organization?s levels and if the management control system makes it possible to run the organization according to both of the two main conflicting objectives.Purpose and Delimitations: To describe, analyze and evaluate how management control can be used in an organization, which is not profit maximizing and has both non-financial and financial objectives. The essay does not try to describe or draw generalized conclusions regarding general perspectives on Systembolaget?s assignment and objectives.Method: A qualitative and evaluative case study based on interviews with five employees at different levels in Systembolaget has been carried through.

Title: The auditor?s recommendations to small businesses in the choice of K2 and K3Authors: Christopher Dimovski and Dennis Carlsson Published: Spring 2014 Background: The background of this study is the introduction of the new K-regulations. For small businesses, there is a possibility to choose between the rule-based K2 and the principal-based K3. It becomes mandatory to apply the K-regulations from 2014. We want with this study understand and explain the significance of the auditor and its recommendations to small businesses in the choice between K2 and K3. Aim: The aim of this study is to describe how the auditor makes recommendations to small businesses in the choice between K2 and K3 and through that create an understanding of what influence the auditor have when it makes recommendations and at the end contribute to the building of models. Formulation of problem: How can we understand and explain the auditor?s recommendations to small businesses in the choice of K2 and K3?Methodology: We have used a qualitative method where we have interview eight auditors.

Background: Non-profit organizations have a large and significant role in Swedish society and Thunberg (2006) choose to express it like Sweden stops without nonprofit effort. But in several non-profit organizations, and then perhaps especially in sports, there exist problems with the economy. Tate (in Vermeer, Raghunandan & Dana, 2009) explains that the audit of non-profit organizations differs from the audit of for-profit companies as they often have differences in culture, organizational structure, financial requirements, accounting standards, financial reporting, financial statements and the auditor's risk environment. While the audit is different, it should also be noted that in the vast majority of non-profit organizations, there are no statutory requirements for audit, but despite this, 99% of all non-profit organizations have some form of audit regulated by their statute (Lunde?n & Lindblad, 2011).

Syftet med rapporten är att försöka genomföra en traditionell företagsanalys på ett antal utvalda fotbollsklubbar från både England och Sverige. Vidare har det också undersökts vilka begränsningar och regler som UEFAs regelverk Financial Fair Play innehåller och vilka utmaningar implementeringen av detta regelverk kan innebära för klubbarna. Genom fotbollsklubbarnas årsredovisningar samt sex intervjuer har vi kommit fram till att en traditionell företagsanalys, som nyckeltalsanalys inte går att tillämpa på fotbollsklubbar på grund av ägartillskott och Soft Budget Constraint. Fotbollsklubbarna verkar i en hög grad av Soft Budget Constraint då det inte finns några incitament för klubbarna att sköta sin ekonomi. Financial Fair Play har instiftats för att förhindra både ägartillskott och stöd från stater i form av skattelättnader.

The global financial crisis hit hard on banking operations worldwide and the sector fell under considerable scrutiny, with particular criticism directed against the banks' own trading practices. A bank owned by the Swedish financial corporation HQ seemed to go without serious financial damage duringthe crisis.In 2008 Finansinspektionen began a review of HQ's activities and a number of shortcomings were identified. Among other things, HQ's risk management was questioned by Finansinspektionen and further how this potentially affected the valuation of complex financial products.In our paper we have chosen to highlight both national and international laws and guidelines that HQ used for their operations and study if HQ followed those laws and guidelines. We also want topresent the theoretical model used by HQ for the valuation of its European options and how HQ calculated their capital requirements ratio. Our purpose is to show how the valuation affected the capitalrequirement ratio and whether HQ followed the necessary laws and guidelines for the valuation of complex financial products.We have chosen to carry out a case study from a deductive approach.

The recent accounting scandals in large companies in both USA and Europe, such as Enron and Scandia, have led to a huge debate about the quality of financial reports approved by auditors who, at the same time, offer consultancy service to their audit clients. Many researchers and experts argued that there is a role conflict when an auditor offers consultancy service to audit clients. They argue that the main duty of an auditor is to verify the truthfulness of the company's financial statements. Giving consultancy service to the audit clients will impair the auditor's role to examine the company's books independently because of the economic bond between auditors and audit clients.As a result of the Enron scandal, the legislators in the USA have made restrictions to how auditors provide non-audit service to audit clients. However, the legislators in Sweden, unlike the US, did not choose to introduce such restrictions.

Background and problem: The financial crisis 2008-2009 came out from an over-optimism among those who took the real estate loans in the U.S., and especially so-called subprime loans. After the 2008 financial crisis, it has become a global uncertainty in the financial market with low growth, and even financial crises in the euro countries have appeared. The real estate industry is a capital-intensive industry where companies have a high leverage to implement their investment. This means they have a larger proportion of debt relative to equity than companies in other industries. As investments require a lot of capital, real estate companies become dependent on having a working relationship with both the banks and the capital market.