The liberal state, it has been argued, must be neutral between different conceptions of the good. Embodying ideals such as fairness and impartiality, state neutrality is intuitively appealing, but working as a restraint for state actions it is somewhat unsatisfactory. People make mistakes about their lives and people live less valuable lives than they could do. To then restrain the state from doing as much good as it can seems just as unappealing as neutrality at first seemed appealing. In this paper, a possible solution to this dilemma is presented.

This essay recognizes and criticizes a commonly held assumption that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) functions as a ?savings account of trust? between corporations and consumers. Based on five focus group interviews, the authors discuss how corporations that engage in society can sometimes raise and sometimes destroy the trust of potential consumers. One of our main findings is that CSR seems to raise the expectations among consumers. We then compare this phenomenon with the classical theory of the disconfirmation paradigm.

Fuel wood is currently the third largest assortment from the forest in Sweden after pulpwood and lumber. Branches and tops i.e. logging residues are one of the assortments of fuel wood which is a common by-product after harvesting nowadays. The way to utilize, disintegrate and transport the logging residues varies between northern and southern Sweden. Branches and tops are collected throughout the year at appropriate stands, but are consumed mainly wintertime.

It is well known that small businesses and entrepreneurs in the initial phase has difficult to gain access to external capital and bank loans. With the background of the problems that entrepreneurs face when they ask for capital has since the financial crisis the phenomenon of crowdfunding developed and evolved. Crowdfunding is an alternative source of funding for entrepreneurs to fund their ideas through small or medium-sized capital contribution from a larger amount of investors, often investors who have any kind of relationship with the entrepreneur or to the very idea. This study examined the factors that motivate and guide an investor's decisions when they select their projects. The results of the study show that the motives of the various existing forms of crowdfunding is big.

During recent years, financial innovation has given rise to numerous structured investment opportunities aimed towards the general public. These have enabled private investors to engage in high-risk investments offering as much as 400 per cent leverage while oftentimes not fully having grasped the risk involved. The issuers of these securities have been criticized for using advertising of a too aggressive and misleading nature.By presenting 819 potential investors with two different investment opportunities yielding the same return over a six day period, we have aimed to assess whether the inclination of being affected by judegmental heuristics varies with factors such as knowledge, overall attitude towards the asset class, risk appetite and experience from previous investments.We have observed that investors' perception of the attractiveness of an investment can be distorted by altering the information presented to the investor. However, our findings show that this tendency decreases with an increased level of knowledge, experience and risk appetite..

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of how medium-sized construction companies adapt and how they choose to reorganize their operations in relation to the recession. The study has as its theoretical starting point theories about organizational learning, the impact of the economy on construction companies and strategies for dealing with recessions. The method used to conduct the study was semi-structured interviews with representatives from 15 different construction companies. The results of the study show that they used several strategies to adapt and reorganize the business in accordance with the recession. Some construction companies had to make cost savings as a result of the recession.

This has been a practical innovation graduation project withthe focus of studying the impacts of downsizing on a learningorganization. The study took place at Karlsson Spools in Sala.This has been a part of an ongoing EU project funded by theEuropean Social Fund, ESF. We have, with the help ofinterviews and surveys, gathered information on the presentsituation and with the help of theoretical studies built aframework on how a learning organization is viewed intheory.During our study we found that there are many componentsto a learning organization. The company in question hasdisplayed some qualities that characterize a learningorganization such as a plan to train and further develop theiremployees. The problem we found was lack of communicationand how this has resulted in a less successful outcome of theongoing courses.

Graphic profiles are a part of companies? brand expressions. The graphical values reflect the brand values the business wants to convey. They consist of different graphic elements such as logo, company sign, colour schemes, templates, rules, fonts, pictograms, formats and references to how different graphic elements should look, for example, business cards, signs and materials for websites. This thesis aims to examine why firms choose to replace their graphic profiles by studying their underlying motivations.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how three banks country funds are performing relative to each other in regard to risk and return. And to find out if there is any underlying factor that may have affected the stock exchange in the different countries.Methodology: The study is based on secondary data and will apply the quantitative method, based on a deductive approach. The sample consists of three major Swedish banks and from them we have selected three country funds. The calculation formulas that have been applied are: Sharpe ratio, standard deviation and Arithmetic Average.Conclusion: The Writers concluded that Sweden funds had the highest yield to lowest risk in both periods in all three major banks. We have also concluded that the underlying factors affecting a country fund.

Hedge funds have the past few years become an increasingly popular investment alternative and in the last decade hedge fund assets managed have quadrupled to USD 2000 billion, a growth rate of around 25-30% per year. One explanation for this substantial increase is that hedge funds' minimum limits on capital invested has declined, which have made ??them available to retail investors. The recent turmoil in financial markets has also contributed to investors finding their way to hedge funds, whose goal is to generate stable returns regardless of how the market develops.Using Sharpe?s, Treynor?s and Jensen's performance measures, I have investigated whether hedge funds manage to generate higher risk-adjusted returns than traditional managed funds.

Abstract The objective of our study was to get knowledge about how teachers think when they make purchases to preschool. Do they consider making environmentally conscious purchases? Do they work actively to transfer environmental consciousness to the children?We chose to interview nine preschool teachers and one cook in two different local municipalities. Our investigation showed that there was a very low engagement in these issues. The teachers said that they were very strictly bound to already existing public contracts and did not see any possibilities to influence the preschools consumption.The teachers hade no idea that not only their work could result in environmental savings in the school, but also result in attitudes changes among the children, their parents and, in the long term, society in general.

In this report a study is carried out with the aim to identify added values of EPC projects implemented in schools in order to increase the interest of EPC projects on the market. The report examines how the planned maintenance, supervision, maintenance and corrective maintenance is affected, how insurance premiums and terms are affected, the indoor environment and how the tasks of the operating staff is changing. A literature study of energy savings, energy use in schools, maintenance and insurance as well as how energy efficiency improvements are related to the Swedish environmental objectives has been made. Visits were carried out in Ludvika, interviews were also carried out with operation technicians and local strategists in Ludvika as well as employees of insurance companies.Schools often have neglected maintenance and problems with ventilation and indoor environment. Schools also have a large energy saving potential due to their low utilization, mainly because they are empty parts of the year.

Modern technology and fast development of heat pumps, the hunt for savings in energy consumption and the strive for environmentally friendly energy sources, convenience, and financial profit, have made heat pumps a reasonable alternative for the heating of houses.When the heat pump starts it will consume a considerable amount of current, which may result in a short-lived voltage-drop if the power grid is weak compared to the start-up current.The company Fortum Distribution which owns and administrates electrical network is interested in an investigation that deals with heat pumps affect on the quality of electricity.The purpose of this investigation is to study fast electrical fluctuations (flicker) as a result of start-up currents for single as well as multiple heat pumps on the same electrical station and from this evaluate whether there will be any problems installing heat pumps..

The failure of Structural Adjustment Programs and its neoliberal policies to effectively reduce poverty have led to the creation of Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) by The World Bank and International Monetary Fund. PRSP, connected to both the Comprehensive Development Strategy and the HIPC initiative, are built on the notion of national ownership and stakeholder participation and thereby expand potential conditionality to include matters of governance. This thesis examines the evolution of PRSP and how the process of participation affects national governance structures. By analyzing the role of rules and norms within the World Bank and IMF from a historical point of view the thesis explains why the participation process has developed the way it has. It concludes that neoliberal norms, still at heart within the World Bank and IMF, have an impact on the process of participation within nation states and thereby its governance structure.

Latent heat storage is a way to store thermal energy when a phase change material undergoes a phase change. The advantage of latent heat storage is the capability to store more energy per mass unit than other heat storage methods. The most commonly used phase change in latent heat storage is the transition between solid and liquid. Phase change materials can be divided into organics, inorganics and eutectics.In the Nordic electricity market the price of electricity is set every hour by Nordpool spot, which leads to price fluctuations because of changes in demand. The main goal of this report is to create a latent heat storage system in a single-family home and investigate the possibility to save money by charging the latent heat storage system when the price of electricity is low, and discharge when the price is high.The thermodynamic model consisted of a ?tube-in-tube? heat exchanger with phase change material in the outer tube and water as the heat transfer fluid in the inner tube.