PR appears to be an indistinct division and a complicated resource for companies to value. The current circumstances are negative to the credibility and reliability of PR. This study emphasizes how an application of return on investment contributes to a more strategic use of PR and increases the status and credibility for the division.We experience that measuring the economic value of PR is of great importance and of current interest with few prior studies made. The purpose of this study is to find out how a PR-agency and one of its clients relates to and works with evaluation of PR-activities and to which extent the economic contribution of the activity is measured.The foundation which the theoretical reference grounds on is theories of Delusions of PR and the use of benefit-cost analyzes, Stages and Levels for Evaluating Public Relations Programs, Marketing Return on Investment and PR Return on Investment. The theoretical reference serves as a base during the analyze of the study.The conclusion, based on the empirical body of information, is that an application of return on investment could contribute with a higher status and credibility for the PR-division.

The translation of financial records of foreign subsidiaries gives rise to currency translation adjustments that affect total group equity. If unwanted, fluctuations in translation adjustments can be avoided using net investment hedges. This study aims to find the extent of net investment hedging in Sweden today and in a short historical perspective, and find explanations to varying levels of hedging and firms' decisions to hedge. Based on annual reports, we determine Swedish firms' net investment hedging policies and their level of hedging. The 32 largest companies listed on the Stockholm stock exchange in the years 1993, 2004, 2006, and 2009 are studied.

The overall purpose of this essay was to provide a better understanding of the importance of discretion for social workers in direct social services. To answer the purpose three questions were formulated: (1) How do social workers define and describe their discretion and their ability to independently accomplish their work? (2) How do social workers experience that workplace organization, policies and economic conditions interact with their discretion and (3) How do social workers experience that the interaction with the client can affect how they use their discretion in the individual case? The method used was qualitative interviews. The theoretical framework was Michael Lipskys (1980) Street-level bureaucracy and the four themes organization, professional role, skills and interaction.The results showed that the respondents, although they did not consider themselves to be affected by the economy still adapted to budget restrictions when they said that they were cost conscious in their work. This adjustment to budget framework could possibly be what made them not feel limited in their work.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how venture capitalists implement ESG issues internally, as well as before the investment decision and during the investment period.Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework consists of previous studies that identify different driving forces behind the work of the ESG and present a number of different strategies for implementing ESG issues in the investment process.Method: This study aims at providing an understanding of a phenomenon which implies an inductive approach. This thesis applies a qualitative method of data collection in the form of semi-structured interviews. The sample in this study consists of venture capital companies that were members of the SVCA (Swedish Venture Capital Association) during the time of the survey, 2015.Result: The empirical findings in this thesis consist of a presentation of the data that was generated from eleven interviews conducted with eleven different investors in the venture capital sector.Conclusion: This study indicates a lack of written policies regarding internal work with ESG-issues which were offset by the application of the "unwritten" policies. Implementation of ESG-issues during the pre-investment phase was dominated by an avoidance of investments in sectors which lead to a negative impact on society. During the post-investment phase ESG-issues was integrated by monitoring the portfolio companies' operations.

Purpose:The background to this study is an upcoming sale of a property. Owner of the property is currently city of Gävle and tenant is Jan Ekroth who runs the hostel Gamla Gefle in the buildings belonging to the property. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether Gamla Gefle AB has the financial ability to acquire the property and if it can be defended in a commercial plane.Method:In this study a qualitative method has been used, in which empirical data has been gathered from interviews and financial data taken from annual reports. These empirical data have been put against our theoretical framework and led to our analysis. In the analysis, cash flows and discounted future values have been calculated to determine the outcome of the investment.Results & conclusion:The study reaches the conclusion that the hostel Gamla Gefle should complete its acquisition of the property, in spite of an decrease of the annual cash flow.

The aim of this thesis is to create an understanding of the incentives for forest companies to invest in reducing carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, which is termed REDD. The Brazilian Amazonas was chosen as the base for the investment case. Brazil has the largest area of rainforest in the world, and also the biggest problem with deforestation. The Amazon region of Brazil comprises rainforest which is largely intact and unexploited. Accordingly, there is significant potential scope for prospective investments in a REDD-project, and so have a noteworthy impact in preventing deforestation.The research approach used the United Nation?s Clean Development Mechanism concept was used as a framework for ascertaining the investment costs in potential REDD-projects.

In Sweden there is a large interest in renewable energy but the market for solar power is still small compared to other countries such as Germany. Here many farmers produce their own electricity. The Federation of Swedish farmers have acknowledged the potential for Swedish farmer to produce electricity and there is an interest among the farmers. The agricultural branches in Sweden most suitable for solar power are pig production and poultry due to the even electricity need throughout a year. Swedish pig farmers are going through a period of unsteady profitability which makes it interesting to see whether producing their own electricity can affect the economic situation.

In Sweden the real estate sector accounts for 33 % of energy consumption and just below 10 % of the emission of carbon dioxide. As a consequence of the external pressure from climate change it?s in everybody?s interest to reduce the energy consumption and thus reduce the emission of carbon dioxide. An additional incentive to reduce the energy consumption is the substantial increase of the energy price since the deregulation of the electricity market in 1996.In this study the techniques that exist to build multi-storey residential buildings with high energy performance will be investigated. Further the study intends to investigate the optimal energy performance from a real estate economic perspective.In order to investigate the optimal energy performance a model has been created with the parameters investment cost, rental revenues, operation and maintenance cost, discount rate and investment horizon.The result shows a relationship between a high investment cost and a high energy performance for newly constructed multi-storey residential buildings.

In today?s society climate change has grown to one of the largest global issues. To reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, large changes of the energy system are required. An increasingly popular solution is investments in local production of renewable energy resources like wind, solar or geothermal power. The following report examines the possibility for implementing a solar power plant on the new hospital Nya Karolinska Solna. Two different technologies for extraction of solar energy has been studied, solar thermal collectors  to meet the need of heating and solar cells to satisfy the need for electricity linked to operating the hospital building.

Umeå Energi are working towards a goal, that in the year of 2018, they will be completely climate neutral. As a part of this, one target is to reduce their grid losses by 4 % of the 2012 level, which corresponds to an overall reduction of the grid losses of just over 1.7 GWh. In many residential areas, the distribution grid is designed and rated for electric heating as the heating in the houses. As many of the houses later has been converted to other types of heating, their electricity use has decreased and the total power output from many of the secondary substations has decreased significantly. Because of this, many of these stations today are well oversized, which in turn means that the energy losses in these stations are unnecessarily high.In this degree project, 25 secondary substations have been studied, all located in residential areas in and around central Umeå.

Sex equality law within the European Union is well developed and has since the Rome Treaty, given rise to several directives and other judicial acts on this matter of community law. The concepts of direct and indirect discrimination emerge from the general principles of Equal pay and Equal treatment and have been codified and amended several times until present.The lasts years, authors within the field of Equality Law has been pointing out that there is a common desire for simplification of discrimination law in Europe. The question has arisen whether this simplification could be implemented trough the introduction of a general justification defence for direct sex discrimination.The concept of direct sex discrimination - when a person of one gender is treated less favourably, on the grounds of gender, than a person of the other gender would be treated in similar circumstances - leaves no possibilities for such justification today. Indirect sex discrimination ? which arises from the equal application of neutral rules that shows an adverse impact on one group ? can be justified if the rule answers to true requirements of the job.Does the proposition that direct discrimination should be justified find support in the inconsistency of the present legislation? This paper will examine this and other questions concerning the wish for a general justification defence through studies of case law from the European Court of Justice as well as differing opinions from authors within the field of equality law..

This thesis calculates and compares the values of improved environmental quality due to future possible investment alternatives in biogas production facilities at Käppalaförbundets Reningsverk (Käppala Sewage Treatment Works) in an attempt to determine which alternative yields the highest such value. Käppala faces three investment alternatives for the usage of biogas. The alternatives are production of vehicle fuel, district heating and thirdly, heat and power production. Estimates of the value of environmental change are calculated for each of the three investment alternatives, and these estimates are then compared. The environmental change in question is the change in discharge levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and particle matter.

For a long time economic tax equalization system in Sweden has been creating dispute between Swedish communities. Despite the main purpose of the system - to reduce disparities and create equal economic opportunities for all communities ? some regions were not satisfied.The main purpose of this study is to determine what extant has equalization tax on investment spending of Danderyd municipality during 2000-2010 year period. The study is based on annual reports and personal interviews. The theoretical frame of the investigation is founded on Fjertorp's classification of investments and public choice theory.The investigation shows that there were no significant changes neither in investment spending or equalization tax during 2000-2010 period, even after the last changes of economic tax equalizations system in 2005.

In recent years, awareness of the climate change has increased around the world. Environmental issues have been taking into consideration, both by individuals and companies. Therefore the demands for new environmental friendly technology have increased, also known as cleantech. To further establish and develop cleantech it requires capital. Venture capitalists have as well seen the potential.To increase the number of Venture capital investments in cleantech, it is important the investments generate good returns.

Background: Increasingly, companies choose to finance their business with corporate bonds which has resulted in an increased demand on credit ratings. As such the rating agencies have a very important role in the financial markets. Examining the value of a credit-rating can be very interesting for both issuer and investor. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to identify and define the value of rating. Execution: The study is built upon nine interviews with rated and non-rated firms and investors.