Background: As a result of the financial markets ever ongoing product innovation a new derivative was introduced in the USA in 1997. A derivative that derived it's value, not from the price of an underlying asset, but instead from a climate factor. It's been known for a long time that revenue in certain industries are affected by weather conditions. The suppliers of weather derivatives claim that these weather sensitive businesses can user weather derivatives in order to lessen weather risk. Purpose: To do a critical evaluation of how weather derivatives can be used by companies as a risk management tool.

The implementation of IFRS 2 led to significant changes in the accounting practices for corporations regarding stock related compensation. The new regulations required firms to account for the stock based compensation as an expense in the financial statements, rather than merely disclosing the information in the notes section to the statements. Following prior research on the area; specifically studies made in the U.S., where researchers find that companies change their use of stock based compensation due to the increased accounted expenses, this study hypothesizes that the same pattern may be found among companies listed on the Swedish stock market. The results of this study show that the use of option incentives has decreased during the studied period 2001-2008 and that the decrease in part can be derived from IFRS 2 and in part from other factors. The results are useful to future research, as they provide an overview of the effects that IFRS 2 had on companies, and various factors that influence the behavior of corporations, as well as in a larger perspective be a factor to take into account for future modifications of the IFRS..

The economic climate that has been going on for the last years has more or less affected everyone. This has created a need to get more knowledge about how our banks work and also how peoples own personal financial situation looks like. When our banks over this last period have compensated their employees with even greater deals of money, reactions has gone to the roof. This discussion has made us interested in the subject, which led to the decision to write an essay about remunerations within banks.The purpose of this essay is to investigate if our banks remunerations to their employees have any effect on their profit numbers. Does the size of the compensations vary with changes in the market? Do larger compensations contribute to a greater result?The study will look at Sweden?s four largest banks, Handelsbanken, SEB, Nordea and Swedbank.

ABSTRACTSofie Haag: Yrke: Operaproducent. En studie av operaproducentens roll och betydelse Sverige 2008. Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för musikvetenskap, 2009.The aim of this essay is to provide a better understanding of the role of the Swedish opera producer (often called "production manager") and the opera organisation in which he/she works. Very little has been written about this role, in Sweden as well as internationally. To fill this apparent gap, this study presents the results of inteviews with representatives of ten of Swedens´opera organisations, as well as three case studies.

Recent studies show that manufacturing companies to a larger extent use historical cost accounting in their internal accounts, at the expense of calculated costs. The explanation behind this is claimed to be that firms are subject to careful scrutiny by the stock market. Consequently, top management stresses the need of evaluating all parts of the firm from external accounting. However, lower management levels express a general concern that the incentive to invest in machines will decrease. This master thesis aims to investigate whether or not there is an objective reason behind this concern.

Intention: The purpose of this thesis is to see if an active investment decision in the Swedish Premium Pension System would result in a higher return than a non-active investment decision. A non-active investment decision is equivalent to leaving the money in AP7 Premium Savings Fund.Method: This thesis is a statistical analysis and has a descriptive character in which the calculations are based on secondary data, thus the thesis has a quantitative character. Furthermore three active portfolios in different risk categories have been chosen. These portfolios are compared with the AP7 Premium Savings Fund?s returns.

This thesis is based on an assignment from a unit within an international group manufacturing industrial products. The purpose of the thesis is to analyze and suggest ways to improve the cost accounting system in use at the unit. The main source of empirical data has been interviews with employees. The theoretical framework is based on a comparison between traditional/standard costing and activity-based costing (ABC). The cost accounting system in use is described in detail and classified as a traditional/standard cost accounting system.

The purpose of this study is to examine the changes in law and other types of politicialregulation regarding unauthorized absence during the reformation of the Swedish schoolsystem in 2010. How was this ?new? approach on unauthorized absence established; whatmade it possible and which view on ?unauthorized absence? does it implicate? The study hasa discourse analytic approach in which it examines central policy documents regarding thetopic of inquiry. The study has found that the alliance-government?s education policy onunauthorized absence is pervaded by one hegemonic discourse termed the mono-culturaldisciplinary discourse.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera hur socialsekreterare arbetar med aktivering av försörjningsstödstagare och vilka faktorer som påverkar arbetet med aktiveringen. Materialet för studien består av fyra intervjuer med socialsekreterare som arbetar med ekonomiskt bistånd i en kommun i Sverige. Resultaten visar att aktivering av arbetslösa försörjningsstödstagare utförs i form av jobbaktivering eller resursaktivering. Alla intervjuade socialsekreterare ser på aktivering som en bra och nödvändig åtgärd, som både har en stöttande och kontrollerande funktion med tyngdpunkt på stöd. Vidare visar resultaten att det finns faktorer på tre nivåer som påverkar arbete med aktivering:Samhällsnivå: Socialtjänstlagen, arbetsmarknaden, politiska beslut, skärpta regelverk, information och samverkan;Organisationsnivå: otydligt uppdrag, riktlinjer och kriterier; resursbrist, tidsbrist, arbetsbelastning, bristande samverkan, bristande information;Individnivå: socialsekreterarens erfarenhet och utbildning, syn på aktivering; klienteras utbildning, arbetslivserfarenheter, motivation, socialkompetens och eventuella individuell problematik, önskningar, mål och syn på framtid, tidigare erfarenheter av kontakt med socialtjänsten..

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?.

Sweden experienced a decline in exports of 16 percent in the period after the financial crisis. The decline has created a lot of question marks regarding the traditional exports which has started a process with the aim of finding Sweden?s next cash cow in export.Sweden adopted stringent environmental laws early which positioned them as a strong nation in environmental awareness. The stringent environmental legislation meant that the Swedish companies were required to minimize the environmental impact, which created a demand for eco-efficient products. Despite the early demand for eco-efficient products, the international success of the Swedish cleantech companies has been modest.The government can increase firms international competitiveness by encouraging, supporting and promoting activities on the domestic market.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the perception of value and risk in CSR as well as analyzing how financial institutions influence responsible behavior in business in order to create sustainable economic growth.Methodology: The study has a qualitative research method used by an abductive process. Data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with respondents from three venture capital companies and three banks. The sample of respondents was done through a convenience sample with respect to access and expertise in the research area.Conclusion: The most important meanings of the research results have shown that CSR holds an intrinsic value concerning contributing value as its conceptual meaning in terms of sustainable development. CSR can also be regarded as a dimension of risk management to reduce the risk of negative externalities on corporate activities. Investors and financiers contribute to sustainable companies through active ownership and improvements in the CSR dimensions.

The digitization in the Swedish health care sector is rapidly growing. This study investigates whether the digitalization in health care has led to higher quality and an increased value for patients. Interviews with staff in various health care professional categories were conducted to qualitatively study how the implementation of digitization is perceived in practice by those directly involved. Furthermore, an observation was made, where a doctor was followed duringa workday to study the different digitalization software tools that are being used. Previous studies and other relevant literature accompanied the study of digitalization in health care. Organizational theories were compared with the practical organization management at the studied health care organization, as well as their dependence on other authorities and companies.

The recent financial crisis has entailed in a fierce debate whether CEOs variable remuneration has caused unsound risk exposure in public companies. Hence it is considered as interesting to elucidate if this connection exists empirically. With grounding in principal-agent theory, and its implicit assumption of risk adverse agents, this study aims to find empirical evidence for a positively correlated relationship between CEOs variable remuneration and company risk exposure. Through a regression analysis of multidimensional data from 102 listed Swedish companies during the period of 2000-2009, we show that the relationship between CEOs variable remuneration and company risk, in contrast to our expectations, is significantly negative. The coherent result is interpreted as the inherent risk in companies seems to explain the usage of variable remuneration for CEO, rather than vice versa.

Feed costs constitute a large part of the expenses of dairy farmers. Pasture is a high quality feed with a low cost. However, feeding with concentrates has been shown to enhance milk yield (Leaver, 1985; Bargo et al., 2003; Stockdale, 2004). The purpose with this study was to investigate how milk yield and milk composition were affected as the concentrate proportion in the diet decreased. Pasture behaviour was examined to see if the different concentrate levels affected the time cows spent grazing and ruminating.