Hedge funds? importance within the financial system has during the most recent years increased dramatically. These special funds are unique instruments that differ from traditional mutual funds in a variety of ways, however especially in how they expect returns. Due to the fact that hedge funds are able to hold short positions they possess the possibility to become market neutral investment vehicles.Because of this possibility to sustain positions neutral to market fluctuations, the concept of absolute returns became a unique selling point for hedge fund managers and promises of stable returns unchallenged by market conditions was assured. This research paper aims to examine the theory of absolute returns in hedge funds by examining hedge funds from the Nordic region during the last years of economic turmoil that has occurred by  analyzing the results from their strategies, partially by quantitative measurements as well as qualitative.  The results show that none of hedge fund strategies managed to deliver absolute returns over the chosen period..

Our thesis focus on how retirees perceive Tv4s news casts of economy news where we focused on five different aspects: What is the relationship between the news cast and the viewer and how does the viewer express their understanding of the news cast and the way it is constructed? What are the viewers attitude towards the news content and how do they find the news cast useful for them personally?We choosed retirees as our target group due to their vulnerable economic position in today?s society and TV as an important medium for them due to the digital divide. The study was performed with twelve qualitative interviews and one group interview where six retirees took part.We discovered a big interest for economic news in the target group. The majority had a sympathetic view of the news cast they saw but they also expressed skepticism toward the economy segment and/or news castings. The majority expressed a lack of trust for the journalists and the experts brought in to share observations and make announcements, and the financial business overall.

Background - The trend of new soccer stadiums took off in England and the three key factors of this trend where security, economic value and growth. In the early 2000s the trend came to Sweden and Växjö. The soccer stadium, Värendsvallen were old and needed modernization.Purpose - The overall purpose of this study is to understand how Östers IF as a nonprofit organization has organized themselves when planning a large and complex project as the construction of a new soccer stadium. It also aims to portray how Östers IF has moved from concept to reality with the new soccer stadium.Method - The case study of the project organization in Östers IF where made ??using semi-structured interviews and participant observations.

Hedge funds have the past few years become an increasingly popular investment alternative and in the last decade hedge fund assets managed have quadrupled to USD 2000 billion, a growth rate of around 25-30% per year. One explanation for this substantial increase is that hedge funds' minimum limits on capital invested has declined, which have made ??them available to retail investors. The recent turmoil in financial markets has also contributed to investors finding their way to hedge funds, whose goal is to generate stable returns regardless of how the market develops.Using Sharpe?s, Treynor?s and Jensen's performance measures, I have investigated whether hedge funds manage to generate higher risk-adjusted returns than traditional managed funds.

Title: Besparingar inom Barn- och utbildningsnämnden.Seminar date: 29th of May 2009Course: Degree thesis in Business Administration, bachelor thesisAuthors: Amela Smajlovic and Sten SundfeltAdvisor: Leif HolmbergPurpose: Our purpose is to explain the cost-saving process that many municipality organisations face because of the global financial crisis.Limitations: We have limited our study to the municipality of Landskrona and Kristianstad.Method: Our study has a qualitative approach. By using open interviews we have been able to get an open dialog with our respondents.Theory: We have compared with different theories, such as Rombach?s budget-theory and Wildavsky?s role theory.Empirics: The material is based on interviews and conversations with key figures in different levels of the organisations in Landskrona and Kristianstad.Conclusions: The success of a cost-saving process depends on the engagement, awareness and how inclined to changes the persons in the organisations are. Has everybody the willingness to take responsibility fore the organisation and the changes that the surrounding world claims?.

Music today is a big part of a person's everyday life and can influence emotions as wellas initiative and motivation. This effect together with development in technology hasled to that music today is accessible and can be played from a large amount of differentkinds of products. This in turn has meant that the demand for smaller audio playbackdevices is greater than ever.The goal of this project is to develop a concept for energy-efficient speakers withwireless communication that has the ability to obtain and play high quality music. Thespeakers will use the latest available technology and at the same time, using digitalsignal processing, have a low environmental impact through high energy efficiencyand low power consumption. Parallel to this work a pilot study will be conducted tosee trends in listener preference of sound.The result achieves the goals pledged while power consumption in sleep mode is solow that they meet the demands of tomorrow.

Aim?Rekryteringsgruppen? (RG) is an organisation that through co-operating with the National Health service aims at optimizing the ability for physically disabled persons to rehabilitate. RG is a non-profit organisation ?using physical and mental exercise for disabled people, mainly neurologically disabled persons.? One of the goals that RG wants to achieve is ?that the target group will be able to live such an active and independent life as possible?. As no previous studies have been done in order to review the adaptation of RG:s work and its effects on the disabled, the purpose of this paper is to examine spinal cord injured individuals perception of independence concerning situation of life, ability to function and physical activity.MethodData have been collected by using three questionnaires.

The increasing holdings by institutional investors have raised concerns about the institutions passive investment strategies and the implications for corporate governance. A way for investors to address moral hazard and opportunistic behaviour of management is to demand conservatism in accounting practices. This paper analyses the relation between institutional ownership and accounting conservatism in the Swedish market by studying firms on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm over a three-year period. Furthermore, the study investigates whether ownership by institutions with high probability of monitoring managers leads to higher conservatism in financial reporting. To measure accounting conservatism this study uses the asymmetric timeliness measure developed by Basu (1997).

Title:Changes in the auditing work of asset management companies.Advisor:Bengt BengtssonExaminer:Stig SörlingAuthors: Mattias Skog & Andrea CyganikPurpose:The purpose is to examine how the work of auditing asset management companies has changed since the crisis 2008.Methodology:The study is based on an adductive approach using a quantitative method.Theoretical framework:The theoretical framework includes previous studies and literature concerning the auditing business, the financial crisis, principal agent theory and stewardship theory.Empirical findings:The empirical material is based on answers from 22 auditors in 6 different auditing firms, and it was conducted by sending them a survey.Conclusion:The study showed that the major changes were changes in laws and regulations controlling the auditing business. New guidelines and laws were set to try and improve the quality of the auditing business while trying to restore stained reputation. New regulations were also set to increase the control the government have of inspecting the business through finansinspektionen..

Background:Persons living with a mental illness often have to put up with a financial disadvantage. Their ability to work is often limited and because of that they have to rely on the welfare reform to get an income. This income is often low compared to other citizens which by itself is something strongly associated with mental illness. Purpose: The purpose in this study was to describe how people living with a mental illness experience that their economic situation has an impact on their daily life. Method: This study is a literature review containing nine scientific articles from previous research.

Given a considerable increase in knowledge-based companies, the interest for measuring and valuing intangible assets, particularly human capital, has increased accordingly. Human capital has climbed the management research agenda as human assets make substantial contribution to the value creation in knowledge-based companies. Neither internal nor external financial statements reflect the value of an organization?s human assets. Against this backdrop, we find it interesting to explore how counting and controlling for human capital is devised.

Given a considerable increase in knowledge-based companies, the interest for measuring and valuing intangible assets, particularly human capital, has increased accordingly. Human capital has climbed the management research agenda as human assets make substantial contribution to the value creation in knowledge-based companies. Neither internal nor external financial statements reflect the value of an organization?s human assets. Against this backdrop, we find it interesting to explore how counting and controlling for human capital is devised.

This thesis is about developing a design that provides improved vacuum seal between a lead coating and a plastic coating during plastic extrusion processes of cables. This report is a part of the course MSGC 17 for Bachelor Engineers in mechanical engineering.The work is performed at Nexans Norway AS in Halden where they have a production of high voltage cables for sea-, and offshore industry. A problem they face is that they do not get enough good seal at the attachment to the plastic extrusion machine. They want to achieve a vacuum between a lead coating on the cable and a plastic coating of the cable for plastic extrusion, which is something they do not achieve today. The thesis is thus to come up with a design that provides better sealing against the cable.The work involves a construction part with the phases of product development processes.

The purpose of this thesis was to study how an internationalization process to China may appear for a small Swedish enterprise and to identify important factors that may be essential for the process. The focus extends from the point where the enterprise makes its first connection with China up to the point where they are well established. Their business is up and running and they have begun production. To gain a deeper understanding of the subject a gathering of existing theory and research articles was conducted. The gathering of theory yielded knowledge of different approaches and methods that can be used to implement internationalization and provided a greater understanding of cultural and regional differences in China compared to Sweden.

This report aims to examine how Brunneby Musteri is to update the brand attention for Brunneby Musteri at retail stores. Brunneby wish to assure their brand will catch the customers? eye in the store and therefore get assistance to discover what to improve. The family business Brunneby Musteri (Brunneby) was founded in 1941 and is located nearby Göta Kanal in the county of Östergötland. Brunneby produce products such as lemonade, jam, jelly, marmelade, cider and vinegar.