Purpose: To examine how IR-related press releases affect share price for stock companies, and to explore how said companies practice Investor Relations.Methods: The study was conducted using an event study as well as e-interviews. The event study has a quantitative deductive research approach where the market model is used for calculating the abnormal return based on press releases. The e-interviews have a qualitative research approach and follow a semi structured interview guide. The study includes all listed stock companies within the Swedish construction industry and includes press releases from the last decade.Theory: The study is based on the efficient market hypothesis and its semi strong form, theories within Investor Relations and previous research.Results: The event study shows a significant negative abnormal return during a four day period starting the day after the press release event. The negative abnormal return could derive from investor relations being used by companies as damage control, or that the investors? expectations are too high as a result of IR.

Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze how insurance companies work to create value and confidence in their brands and then compare whether consumers perceive brands as companies seek.Method: The study is a gap analysis of both qualitative and quantitative in nature containing both interviews with insurance companies and a survey carried out on consumers. The study has been developed by analytical induction.Data: Consists of interviews with representatives from the insurance companies and survey responses from 99 consumers.Conclusion: From the study it can be concluded that the insurance industry is unique in its kind as a difficulty and complexity is obviously applicable to convey an overall impression to the consumer, which in turn will produce a brand value to the company. Creating a high brand value through good marketing where it maintained a good congruence between firms striving and consumer perception, is according to the scientists complicated because the lack of perceived quality affects the the big picture..

Shell companies are characterized by containing liquid assets such as cash, securities or other similar assets. Transactions of shell companies constitutes a severe problem since the purchaser often has the aim of obtaining undue tax advantages by not paying the tax debt of the company.Historically it has been complicated for the legislator to stop the set-up in an efficient way since the transactions as such are not illegal, instead rather commonly used for example to restructure companies or for the transfer of companies to the younger generation. The purpose of the current legislation is to prevent individuals and corporations to involve in shell company trade. Aiming for an efficient legislation, the tax rate is at a very high level.The issue with the rules is that also honest buyers are at risk of being covered. This calls for high demands in complying with the principle of legal certainty and the possibility to forecast the tax consequences.The purpose of the thesis is to identify and analyze eventual problems when applying the legislation.

This thesis will through the use of various approaches determine the key drivers for dividend payouts for A-listed Swedish firm. The time frame reaches from 1997 to 2003 an the thesis covers 48 companies..

With the globalization, companies in the West chose to shift production to developing countries to cut down costs. This had a major impact when child labor and very poor working conditions in these factories were discovered and led many companies to take responsibility for their suppliers and the employees by adopting voluntary so-called Codes of Conduct.There is a subtle balance to enforce improvement of working conditions for employees at suppliers´ factories and to keep costs down. On the one hand, companies would like to conduct extensive audits at their suppliers to ensure code of conduct compliance and thus protect their legitimacy. On the other hand, audits are expensive so companies would like to minimize audits to keep costs down. Companies thus have to strike a delicate balance in relation to how many and what suppliers they choose to audit.

Background: Small businesses are key participants in the growth at the Swedish market, partly for the labour opportunities, the technology and economic development. These companies should get resources to grow, both political and economic resources. The medtech companies in an introduction and expansion phase meet with problems concerning the financing of their growth. Key participants whom offer financing are Venture Capitalists.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine Venture Capitalists demands on medtech companies in an introduction and expansion phase. A comparison between the demands and how well medtech companies achieve them will be done.

In autumn in 2010 the project group came in contact with the travel company Golf Joy in Halmstad. They had been briefed on the problems of their customers had when they travel with their golf bags and contacted Halmstad University for help in solving this problem. When we heard about this idea, we became curious and contacted the company. After a successful meeting, we took the problem with us to the school and began to brainstorm to see how we could solve the problem. The goal was to produce a stylish and functional travel golf bag with the cart and bag in one and launch it in the golf season in 2012.

The aim of the study is on basis of Peters and Waterman?s factor of success, to examine the successful companies, Ericsson and Huawei, and to analyze the R&D and positioning strategies of the companies.To accomplish the study we have used a case study using interviews and annual reports to collect data. Three persons have been interviewed, two from Ericsson and one from Huawei. All annual reports from the year 2004 until 2011 have been reviewed.Our finding is that Ericsson and Huawei do not, according to Peters and Waterman?s model, fulfill all factors of success and their R&D strategy varies depending on the situation and which knowledge the company already possesses and needs.

The purpose of this Bachelor Thesis is to examine what happens when the solitary reading experience becomes a social activity. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with three women belonging to the same reading group. I have used Sten Furhammar?s reading dimensions and categories to explain their reading experience, and Jenny Hartley, Elizabeth Long and Immi Lundin to explain the function that the reading group has for them, and the relationship between reading experiences in a book-discussion.My result shows that they started the reading group because they lacked an opportunity to discuss their readings with people that had the same interest in books. They do all have different ways to read, which is displayed by Furhammar?s categories personal and impersonal reading for experience.

Since year 2005 the accounting has changed for public companies because of the new international standards, IFRS. IFRS 3 provides a single international accounting treatment for acquisitions and has broadened the definition of intangible assets. By IFRS 3 goodwill is defined as the excess of the cost of acquisition and is separated from intangible assets. Now goodwill must be annually tested by an impairment test. There are many valuation issues to considerate when it comes to deciding the value of goodwill.

The challenge that companies currently face in their attempts to break through the media clutter has resulted in an increased use of provocative advertising worldwide. History shows that this strategy can result in a brand crisis due to negative consumer sentiment. Despite this fact, advertisement generated crisis remain a relatively unexplored field in the academic world of marketing. The objective of this thesis is to further explore crisis creation from provocative advertising, evaluate the affiliated negative consumer consequences, and to examine the effects of two contrasting company strategies to remedy these types of crisis situations. An experiment was conducted on Swedish and Norwegian students in order to examine whether the communication and information sharing between the target consumers and others could explain the development and consequences of provocative advertisement crisis due to its psychological effects.

Nowadays, the world around us is changing faster and faster, the globalization is increasing and harder competition puts extra pressure on companies to be more innovative than ever before. One of the fastest changing industries is the IT industry where the actors always have to be up to date to keep their competitive advantage. The authors want to find out what makes some companies in this industry more innovative than others by examining what internal elements that are necessary for innovation. Much research has already been carried out within the field of innovation and especially about innovation management, although less research exists about smaller, non high tech service companies. Therefore the authors also tries to find out how applicable today?s theories are on this special field and thereby fill a smaller gap in today?s research.

Existing studies concerning private labels are unclear as to whether private label manufacturers carry out product development themselves. Furthermore, there is a lack of studies comparing product development processes in private label companies and national brand manufacturers. This study highlights a set of critical product development factors and assesses their prevalence in four different companies in the Swedish retail business. The study is based on a number of qualitative interviews with key personnel responsible for various table fats. Findings indicate two levels of involvement in the product development process on the private label side.

Introduction: Sleep is necessary for human survival. Difficulty sleeping occurs in about one in four adult person in Sweden, insomnia in every ten. There are several reasons for difficulty sleeping, where stress is one of the most common. The quality of life and health are affected negatively. Treatment with proven efficacy against insomnia is not only sleep medication, but also cognitive behavioral therapy, CBT.

Life is for us humans a social life. We are constantly in different social communities with various purposes. Throughout life we are part of different groups, for better or worse. The basic social communities, in our society, are the groups we live, work, learn and grow in. This essay deals with the groups children develop and learn in, in school and leisure time center.