Fo?r att uppra?ttha?lla en ekonomisk ha?llbarhet inom ett fo?retag kra?vs ett ansvarsfullt fo?retagande inom organisationer, vilket skapar behov av ett systematiskt arbetssa?tt med ekonomiska styrmedel. Olika styrmedel kan vara relevanta fo?r olika syften, varfo?r valet och anva?ndandet av dem a?r kritiskt att studera. Studien underso?ker da?rfo?r genom en komparativ fallstudie vilka faktorer som pa?verkar valet och anva?ndandet av styrmedel i sma?fo?retag i Sverige.

Since the late 50th century, the automobile has been normative in the Swedish society (Lundin 2008). This has led to an urban environment deeply characterized by the motor vehicle and its necessities, while other means of transportation, such as train and bicycle, have been ignored and put aside. However, over the past decades, a new trend has been seen in urban planning as a consequence of the increasing knowledge of the negative qualities caused by the car. As a result, the bicycle is seen as a conceivable transport mode.This thesis examines cycling on four issues:- Why is there a need of more cyclists? - How can the total number of cyclists as well as the number of satisfied cyclists increase? - Which factors affect the choice of transport mode? - Which factors affect the choice of route?The first two questions are discussed from a literature study that was conducted at the beginning of the thesis.

This final thesis consists of an investigation of how suitable it is to vertically integrate forest in Swedish forest companies. Different strategies to obtain raw materials have been evaluated and the advantages and disadvantages have been weighted against each other. The investigations contain a number of interviews with represents from companies with different strategies and persons that in different ways have faced the question of issue. An account study of SCA´s forest ownership has also been performed. The benefits for a forest company to vertical integrate forest consist mainly of safety in delivery, control over the supply chain and company image.

A major issue that has been a subject for quite some time is whether there will be a scarcity of metals in the bedrock in the future and whether or not we might end up with a problem similar to that of the big oil crisis in the mid-seventies. Following the oil crisis many oil companies started up with risk management to control future risks. This work presents how Swedish mining companies work with risk management to handle risks that might come up in the future due to metal scarceness. How Swedish mining companies look at the possible metal scarceness and if they use risk management in their decision-making process is studied. By doing interviews with Swedish owned mining companies it was found that the mining companies did not see the future metal scarcity as a risk, even though 2/3 of the companies acknowledged the scarceness to be a reality.

AbstractThe aim of this qualitative study was to investigate how parents of children diagnosed with Autism, Aspergers Syndrome or ADHD/ADD describe their experience of the Swedish welfare support system in written biographies. To answer this question a study of five biographies written by parents with children diagnosed with ADHD, Autism and Asperger Syndrome where made. The conclusion was that the social network itself is of great importance to the parents. Families with single parents experienced a less positive experience of the Swedish welfare support system than parents with a spouse. The study also reveiled that families with a supporting social network and a solid financial ground in combination had the best experience of the Swedish social welfare support system.

The purpose of this dissertation is to describe small businesses? opinions about the auditor as a business adviser as well as their need for advice, dependent on which stage of the lifecycle model they belong to. This dissertation has a qualitative approach as the authors wanted to gain a deeper understanding about the problem area. As the lifecycle model in this dissertation consist of three stages, the authors have interviewed six small businesses, two in each stage. The interviews were conducted with the owner and took place at the location of the business.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate how well vision and strategies communicates from division level to underlying business unit levels with focus on the Balanced Scorecard Concept. The investigation was carried out within the ANS division and two of its underlying business units at the LFV Group (Swedish Airports and Air Navigation Services). ANS is responsible for the air navigation services in Sweden and the production of the services is carried out of the business units AER (En Route) and ATA (Tower and Approach). With Air Navigation Services means supervision and conducting air traffic mainly within national air space. The purpose of the services is to insure that air traffic could be carried out in a safe way.The Balanced Scorecard was introduced for the first time in the beginning of the 1990´s.

Different groups in the forestry sector were likely to have different views regarding the responsibility for an environmentally sustainable forestry and the benefits of certification and this study aimed to examine the attitudes that existed in the forestry sector to the certification schemes FSC and PEFC. In the study a survey and a questionnaire were sent out to different groups. The investigation was made with respect to three groups: forest owners, forest contractors and employees working with the certification schemes on a daily basis at the forest company Södra. The groups agreed that the owner of the forest had the main responsibility for an environmentally sustainable forestry. The study revealed that all three groups highly valued the environmental aspect of certification.

This study aims to investigate development and reasons behind sustainability reporting in large Swedish companies. By examining 15 companies? environmental and sustainability reports between the years 2000 and 2008, data was collected on matters such as frequency, scope and design. Identified trends were to a large extent in line with previous studies on international development; sustainability reporting is growing in several aspects. The authors have found one major reason for this development to be increasing requirements and expectations from stakeholders and a need for companies to legitimize their actions.

Background: Corporations are established and organized in order to create economic values for their owners and the main aim of every business enterprise is to be profitable and satisfy the financial expectations of their shareholders. However, corporate social responsibility focuses on the ethical aspects of corporate business in order to achieve the balance between the profitability and social responsibility. Nongovernmental organizations through their activities promote the respect for human rights and environmental care within the corporate world. Purpose and Scope: To make an in-depth study about the role of nongovernmental organizations regarding corporate social responsibility in order to increase the understanding of corporate social responsibility. Methodology: We used literature research for our thesis and we analysed the secondary data related to the corporate social responsibility.

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.

Background: To maintain or increase the trust in the market, companies can disclose more voluntary information in the annual reports. According to prior research the annual report is the primary source of information for small shareholders and investors. Thus, it is of interest to investigate why companies chose to report the voluntary information inquired by this group. Purpose: We investigate some company-specific factors to decide whether these determine the extent of voluntary information, particularly inquired by small shareholders and investors, in the annual reports of listed Swedish companies. We also aim to discuss underlying causes for our result.

The purpose of this essay is to examine Prostitutionsgruppens ("Prostitution group") concrete operation, its organisation and how the group have changed since sexköpslagens ("sexbuy law") incorporated.Prostitutionsgruppen was founded in 1981 and have been working against prostitution. Their main goal is to reduce the damage of prostitution. Their work consists of treatment and reaching out to help prostitutes. Another part of their work is to change the public attitude towards prostitution. They act as intermediary of the knowledge they have gained through meeting people in prostitution.I have interviewed one social worker in the group and researched earlier literature.

An efficient market implies that the use of fundamental analysis should not result in excess return, and that any return exceeding the market average can be explained by compensation for risk, accord-ing to The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). The focus of this study is to test whether the suc-cessful investment strategy developed by Piotroski (2000) generates excess return on American data, after risk adjustment by using Fama & French?s (1993) 3-factor and Carhart?s (1997) 4-factor CAPM. Initially we form stock portfolios based on companies characterized by high book-to-market values, additionally, we divide them into different performance classes by ranking them with Piotroski?s (2000) measure of financial performance, F_SCORE.

The aim of this thesis is to describe the development of profitability and capital structure in Swedish quoted companies during the period of 1990 to 2004. Further, the aim is to determine the relationship between profitability and leverage in order to conclude whether the choice of capital structure supports the pecking order theory or the trade-off theory of capital structure. The findings show that return on assets fluctuates between 3 and 11 percent and that return on equity fluctuates between 3 and 22 percent during the period. Further, the leverage and the cost of debt have decreased. This indicates lowered financial risk in Swedish quoted companies in the period between 1990 and 2004.