Product development is essential for all companies that want to survive in competitive markets regardless of the characteristics of the product that the company sells. Companies that sell products within product categories which can be seen as bad, also need to develop their products in order to remain competitive. If these bad products add a positive attribute, for example that they get organic, a contradiction within the product arises and they get incongruent. This thesis investigates which effects that follow a launch of an incongruent product. The thesis also examines if these effects are affected by the strength of the brand under which the product is launched.A total of 240 respondents participated in an experimental study where product incongruity was manipulated for two different product categories, where one well known brand and one unknown brand were examined in each category.

The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze how the mining equipment producers on a global market manage to handle the changing conditions concerning customer value. Our approach has been a comparative analysis between two different sites in order to answer the purpose. The case studies at Metso Mining have been made through interviews and visits at two geographical markets, South America and Scandinavia. The theoretical framework applied on our empirical findings is based on Blue Ocean Strategy, Customer Value and Resourced Based View. The empirical foundation is based on interviews with Metso Mining employees at Sorocaba in Brazil and Kiruna/Gällivare, Trelleborg and Staffanstorp in Sweden.

Bakgrund: Dagligen diskuteras utländsk makroekonomiska data i svensk media, där förväntningarna på utvecklingen av dessa sätts i sammanhang med utvecklingen på den svenska börsen.Syfte: Målet med den här studien var att utröna i hur stor utsträckning denna information kan anses vara betydande för en aktieinvesterare med kapital på den svenska börsen. Hänsyn togs även till börscykler samt varierande tidsperioder.Genomförande: Med grund i the Arbitrage Pricing Theory genomfördes multipla regressionsanalyser, med det svenska indexet OMXS30 som beroendevariabel. Undersökningarna baserades på månadsdata för perioden april 1991 till och med augusti 2006. Den makroekonomiska datan försköts därtill en period för att ta hänsyn till variablernas eventuella fördröja effekter på Stockholmsbörsen.Resultat: Integrationen mellan börserna visade sig ha ökat över tiden, med undantag för extraordinära perioder som IT-boomen, där makroekonomiska fundamentaldata istället slås ut. En positiv utvecklingen av långräntan samt konsumentförtroendet i USA tyder på en samtida börsuppgång i Sverige.

The construction and use of buildings in the EU accounts for half of the EU?s extracted materials and energy consumptions, and a third of greenhouse gas emissions. In the past decade, the construction sector has responded to such concerns by focusing on post production energy efficiency. However, new findings indicate that upstream construction processes influence emissions significantly ? necessitating a shift in focus to include material choices and building processes.

This study is based on a statistical analysis of fundamental key ratios on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during the period 2004-2012. In total 35 financial ratios of 90 companies were tested, ultimately five ratios remained within the 5% significance level. These ratios were ROA, P/B, Total Yield, EV/EBIT and Operating Margin. A custom made investment model was created based on the purpose to achieve a risk-adjusted excess return. The results in general did not show any significant difference in return between the model's portfolio and index.

The rising demand for electricity and heat raises a big challange for the society and engineers. Many products have been introduced to the market to supply more energy to the energy systems. Absolicon AB is a Swedish company that develops and markets a combined heat and power generating product. The product, Absolicon X10, uses a parabolic trough to concentrate the radiation of the sun onto a receiver. The receiveris equipped with mono crystalline solar cells and is cooled by a circulating liquid media.

This study aims at examining if abnormal returns have existed on theSwedish stock market surrounding the ex-dividend period between the years2002 and 2006. The ex-dividend period that is studied is the ex-dividend dayplus the following five days. The stocks that have been studied are the thirtymost traded stocks which together constitute the index OMXS30.Furthermore, the study investigates if the size of the dividend has an effecton the size of the abnormal returns.Previously performed studies on both the Swedish stock market and foreignstock markets have shown that abnormal returns exist during the ex-dividendperiod. However, the results from these studies are not unambiguous, why itis interesting to follow up these studies with a new study.The method used for investigating the existence of abnormal returns aroundthe ex-dividend period has taken its starting point in the previouslyperformed studies. However, some changes have been made in order tocalculate for differences in risk between different stocks (using beta) whichhas been neglected in the previous studies.The results of our study are that abnormal returns have existed for four outof six days in the ex-dividend period when calculating a mean value over allfive years.

In this degree project we wanted to investigate if there are any possibilities to get a higher income from grain growing by giving the grain to hens instead of selling it. We were also wondering if the manure has any value or if it only cost the egg producer money. If the egg producer cultivate his own grain and is able to store it in layer is there quite much money to earn. Expensive pasture makes it profitability to pay up to 1,35 Swedish crowns for a kilo of wheat. In our calculating we?ve used calculation from the company Lantmännen.

Goal: To describe which evaluation method is used by Swedish retailers to assess a potential retail location and to describe to what extent the retail brand effects this strategic decision. Design: Analysis of ten interviews with companies within five retail sectors in Sweden. Main study: Indication of what methods are used to evaluate a location and how a company's retail brand affects the decision. Results: Retailers use a mix of theoretical methods to evaluate the location attributes and possible profit. Most common among mixtures was an application of the analog method, residual method or the checklist method in combination with a financial assessment.

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.

Background: Companies with a high level of research, such as biotech companies, rarely generates any profit in the begining. Mostly their history is short and their pipelines usually consists of one or a few products only. Significant for the line of business is also a future very uncertain, where relevant objects of comparison are few. Altogether the facts above makes valuation of Biotech companies difficult. Swedish Biotech companies, compared to their american competitors, seem to be of relatively low value.

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.