This paper examines what affects the demand for five Swedish ethical funds between the years 1997-2007. The purpose of this study is to examine if there is a relation between fund value and other values than just financial. This study examines if the number of conflicts in the world and the media?s coverage of the climate change debate could have an impact on the demand for ethical fund. A multiple linear regression shows that we don?t have a significant result from the examined variables except for household wealth.

The securities market was to undergo a major change with the entry of MiFID I in November 2007. EU´s establishment if the directive sets high standards for investment firms to establish internal guidelines in accordance with MiFID I. As right now, the securities market is facing further change with the proposal for MiFID II.MiFID II seeks to overcome MiFID I´s shown deficiencies. The greatest need for change are the rules that secure investor protection, with specific focus on regulation on information service from investment firms to customers. This essay deals with the rules on information service enacted in MiFID I compared to the changes presented in MiFID II to investigate whether the changes could strengthen investor protection as desired.MiFID II is a more detailed framework than its precursor.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka och skapa förståelse för vilka framgångsdrivarna är för företagsekonomiska institutioner.För att kunna uppfylla syftet har vi tagit fram BEN-modellen. Modellen består av ett antal framgångsdrivare som kan leda till konkurrensfördelar samt bestående konkurrensfördelar för en företagsekonomisk institution. Dessa leder i sin tur till framgång, något som vi själva definierat med fyra olika mätbara variabler; söktryck, genomströmning av studenter, ställning i arbetslivet samt forskningsproduktivitet.Studien har genomförts på tre olika företagsekonomiska instituitioner där intervjuer och samtal genomförts med personer i ledande befattning på respektive institution. Som komplement till intervjuerna har empiriskt material insamlats i form av statistik för att kunna utröna hur framgångsrika de är enligt BEN-modellen.Studien visar att ambition och entreprenörsskap är två viktiga framgångsdrivare. Dessa två drivare kan en institution erhålla genom finansiella resurser.

In this work an assessment of the compressed air system in the facilities of Vattenfall Heat Uppsala has been conducted. The facilities constitutes, among others, a combined heat and power plant, and two waste incineration plants. The compressed air is supplied primarily by seven rotary screw compressors and yearly electric energy consumption in these has been determined. Furthermore, the usage of compressed air has been mapped in order to find processes with energy savings potential. Several suggestions how to reduce the usage of compressed air have been presented, resulting in decreased need of electric energy and reduced CO2-emissions.The results show that total need of electric energy in the compressors, during a standard production year, amounts to 5.83 GWh.

The purpose of this study was to examine how food managers of Östergötland County disucss around their possibilities of reaching the government´s orientation towards 25 per cent of the food - procured, prepared and cooked in the school meal - coming from certified organic production. The study was a cross-sectional study in wich a qualitative approach was used. The sample consisted six food managers in Östergötland. Data processing was done through a semantic content analysis.  The result showed that involvment and intrest were significant factors for the introduction of organic food in the school meal. The three municipalities with the highest percentage of organic food used the SMART - concept.

This study aims to build a deeper understanding of how differences in identities and communication can affect the possibilities of achieving a successful merger between companies from different type of industries. Our study is of qualitative nature and looks into the specific merger between Företagshälsovården AB and Managementkonsulterna AB. The study builds upon 16 semi structured interviews which are carried out with employees from both parts of the organization and with management personnel. Firstly our study shows that the different identities existing within the different parts of the organization, highly affect the integration process after a merger. Secondly we show that the level of communication transmitted from the management, but also between the different parts of the organization, affects the possibilities of creating a successful merger.

This thesis will address a problem concerning availability of information systems at an enterprise within the financial sector and its external suppliers, so called trusted third party. The information system resides on the internal network of the enterprise and must be available to both employees of the enterprise and the trusted third party simultaneously. This contradicts the company policy which disallows third parties access to the internal network. The HAVECA-model introduced in this thesis provides a framework of methods, each solving a sub problem identified in the model. The identified methods are hardening, verification, control and assurance, together supplying a method for continuously securing the internal network against a trusted third party.

The aim of our master thesis is first and foremost to win the competition One Prize - mowing to Growing: Reinventing the American Lawn, announced in USA by the organization Terreform 1, the first of December 2009. Apart from winning the competition we have also tried to reach a deeper understanding of food production today and its future possibilities. Our ambition to present a winning design proposal has to a large extent decided the structure of the entire thesis. Our completed and submitted design proposal - growforgold.org - is a way of addressing urban food production in a creative way, keeping the sovereignty of the individual in mind. Instead of presenting a place-specific design solution our proposal aims to create incentives and possibilities for urban farming to take place anywhere and anytime. Our submission to the competition represents both a tool and a platform which, put in practice, could make landscape architecture happen through the hands of the individual.

In this thesis we focus on the issue of crowdfunding and especially how a project relates to and embraces its community. While a lot of related research focus on what makes people give, our research instead delve into whether a creator looks upon the sponsors as something more than just a financial resource. To manage this task we used a triangular perspective consisting of a case study, a questionnaire and a netnographic study. The goal was to gain the perspectives of creators, crowdfunding platforms and sponsors on how the communication between the community and the project works and can be improved.       The three crowdfunding platforms we reviewed (Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, Rockethub) all had fairly similar models on how to attract sponsors and make them involved in the project, while the questionnaire and netnographic study demonstrated how a community could contribute in different ways.

Title: Predictions and explanation models for bankruptcy in stock-companies ? A study of three failed Swedish companies Author: Tim Svanberg Supervisor: Emil Numminen Department: School of Management, Blekinge Institute of technology Course: Bachelor?s thesis in business administration, 10 credits Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to find explanation for bankruptcy with the help of prediction models. The purpose is also to add explanation by using Behavioral analysis Method: Quantitative research of bankruptcies using financial prediction models and qualitative study of psychological pitfalls. The study is deductive. Results: I found that it is possible to explain the bankruptcies using the prediction models. The behavioural perspective adds further explanation.

AbstractIn the secondary-school program for hotel and restaurant complete courses or parts of courses are placed in workplaces so called workplace education (APU), this means that the content in the course plan must be discussed and be divided in a proper way between the school and the workplace, so that the students is gaining all the parts that is prescribed in the goals for the course.Interviews with tutors and teachers have been performed, with the purpose of investigating how the collaboration between the school and the workplaces should look like so that the APU fulfills the content and quality that are prescribed in the specifications of the education. The study shows that a better structure for collaboration between the school and the workplaces is needed. Lack of time and financial resources are the factors that according to the study reduces the possibility?s to (among other things) perform education of tutors, and for the teachers to plan and follow-up the APU-period..

AbstractStudent democracy as an objective and as a meansEssay in Political Science, D-levelAuthor: Erik LisshammarTutor: Susan MartonDespite attitudes towards student democracy being generally positive, students have almost no influence over their position. This implementation study looks into whether or not students? weak position of power results from something other than a democratising of schools taking priority when student influence is encouraged.With an aim of explaining what is hoped to be achieved and if these intentions are to be spread, the purpose is to investigate to what extent standards concerning student democracy are transferred between institutions. In order to find out, the question is posed of whether their aims for student democracy conform. This overriding question is coupled together with the following four defining research questions:1.

The structure of the thesis is based on opportunities to attract businesses to the region, the need of establishments in the region and benchmarking with establishment strategies of other cluster initiatives. The identified opportunities are the local business relationship with ABB, the prerequisites of life quality in the region and the availability of financial support. Further on has a number of opportunities to be developed been identified; diversification of the existing businesses, an expansion of the cooperation with universities and to simplify the contact with local authorities. Challenges that HVV is facing is: creating a more dynamic labor market, secure long-term labor supply, spread the image of the brand HVV and finally putting HVVs geographic scope. Two of the identified needs of establishments are strategically important: to establish a third-party logistician and commercializing systems for distributed generation and energy storage.

The Swedish processor Findus contracts approximately 500 pea producers annually to secure the company?s supply of green peas for human consumption. A production contract, which has had roughly the same design for decades, regulates the relation between Findus and the pea producers. Agriculture is typically a risky business. The main sources of risk in agricultural production are production risk and price risk.

The aim of this master thesis is to examine which criteria are generally used to guide pub­lic librarians in their acquisitions' decision. The study went ahead in France, principally at La Bibliotheque municipale de Lyon. It also includes a view of some special library services in the social field.Twenty persons were interviewed and an attempt was made to divide their answers into three sections: acquisition routines and criteria for media purchase, how to receive the library visi­tors and their influence on the acquisitions, and, finally, the librarians' own opinions on the matter. One important question was whether censorship is applied and in that case, would it be a deliberately way of acting or rather a spontaneous reaction, more or less unconscious.Censorship in real or manifested through a self-preservative reaction turned out to be a factor closely dependant on the library's financial situation. Many librarians affirmed they would find useful some kind of a written practical library acquisition policy..