Ever since it was first introduced in an article in the Journal of Finance 1952, Harry Markowitz? mean - variance model for portfolio selection has become one of the best known models in finance. The model was one of the first in the world to deal with portfolio optimization mathematically and have directly or indirectly inspired the rest of the world to develop new portfolio optimization methods. Although the model is one of the greatest contributions to modern portfolio theory, critics claim that it may have practical difficulties. Partly because the Markowitz model is based on various assumptions which do not necessarily coincide with the reality.

The major difference between venture capital-firms and other financiers is that their business idea is not only providing capital but also knowledge in business development. The ownership structure of an venture capital-firm can be private as well as public. The Swedish government is today one of the major actors in the Swedish venture capital-industry. The purpose of this study is to shed light on how venture capital-firms involve itself in its portfolio firm and if this contributes to an increased value of the portfolio firm. We also try to shed light on differences in how a public and a private venture capital-firm gets involved in its portfolio firm and if there is any difference in how they can contribute to added value.We have chosen to interview two public and two private venture capital-firms and one of their portfolio firms.

Background: The devolopment in the exchange market has attract a large number of investors. The information flow is extensive and it might be hard to follow the dynamic market. Some investors therefore choose to place their capital in a stock portfolio which is manged by a professional firm with no influence from the capital owner, this management is called discretionary managing. Purpose: the purpose of the thesis is to examine the working methods and the rationality regarding the management of the discretionary portfolios. The purpose is also to try to examine whether there is a relation between the selected risk, return and fees.

Background: The importance of creativity and innovation is frequently stressed in modern literature on management. The significance of innovation gives entrepreneurs the reason to prior to the commencement of a relationship with a venture capitalist, obtain necessary insights regarding the influences such a relationship may have, in terms of innovation. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to scrutinise the influence of venture capital firms on their portfolio companies regarding their ability to be innovative. Delimitations: The intent is to study the impact of a venture capitalist from the viewpoint of its portfolio companies. In other words, what the portfolio companies have perceived as changes is our main area of concern, rather than what the venture capitalist has perceived as change.

Purpose: The study examines the risk a rising from the acquisition of shares, and its relation to the expected return. We would like to see how a high-risk portfolio is related to a low-risk portfolio. Although studying the portfolios annual performance.Theory: The theories that have been used in the study are, Capital asset pricing model, CAPM and portfolio theory.Method: The study is based on a quantitative method, the time interval is from 2008 to 2010.The annual reports, historical stock prices for companies and the index are used to perform calculations based on the essay theories.Conclusion: The beta value has positive liner correlation with the expected return. When there are bad times in the world, the companies are negatively affected regardless of industry. The Portfolios developed in the same direction during the time period..

Detta arbete syftar till att skildra hur portfoliometoden fungerar som pedagogiskt verktyg, hur den används i grundskolan och i vilken utsträckning det är möjligt att använda metoden som ett utvärderingsinstrument. Arbetet skildrar hur portfolio fungerar i teorin jämfört med hur den fungerar i verkligheten utifrån olika pedagogers synvinklar. Tyngdpunkten ligger på hur portfoliometoden tillämpar kunskap, utveckling och lärande utifrån LpO 94 och hur portfolio fungerar för att ge elever större kunskap om hur man kritiskt granskar och utvärderar sitt eget arbetsmaterial. Trots ordentliga förberedelser visade det sig inte vara så lätt att få pedagoger att ställa upp på min undersökning. Bortfallet blev allt för stort för att kunna dra någon riktigt slutsats genom den.

Sammanfattning Med denna forskning har jag från olika perspektiv belyst portfolio som verktyg till aktivt lärande. Jag har också försökt förstå hur elever och pedagoger upplever varandras utveckling med portfolio som arbetssätt. Intressant har också varit vilka tankar och drivkrafter ligger bakom valet av portfoliometodiken. Genom frågor till skolledare och enkäter med elever och pedagoger i en portfolioskola har jag velat, med ett täckande perspektiv, bidra till tidigare forskningar. Jag använde mig av intervjufrågor till skolledare och enkäter av kvantitativ och kvalitativ karaktär för pedagoger och elever.

Inom kommunikationsbranschen råder det hög konkurrens om arbeten för både nyutexaminerade arbetssökande och de med erfarenhet. En viktig del i ansök-ningshandlingarna är en portfolio som visuellt visar personens kompetens och talang.Denna kvantitativa studie har genom en webbenkät med 50 byråer inom kom-munikationsbranschen undersökt hur de rekryterar ny personal samt deras per-spektiv kring portfolion i samband med detta. Studien har även syftat till att belysa skillnader i svaren beroende på byråernas storlek.Resultaten från enkäten visade att den vanligaste kanalen vid anställning inom kommunikationsbranschen är via personliga kontakter och att det är portfolions kvalité som väger tyngst vid anställning. Vid ansökan föredrog byråerna en digital portfolio men vid en arbetsintervju såg de helst en kombination av en fysisk och digital portfolio. Mindre skillnader fanns i svaren beroende på byrå-storleken..

Title: Inflation and Investments, with Focus on Inflation-linked Bonds.Investors face many types of risks when allocating assets in a portfolio, e.g. volatility and inflation risk. Inflation risk will mainly affect investments in the long perspective. This thesis will examine those risks that an investor is commonly exposed to when allocating assets in a portfolio and in particular inflation-linked risk and how to eliminate it. We examine the correlation between different assets and inflation to determine the assets? ability to hedge inflation risk.

Syfte med denna studie har varit att studera relationen mellan motivation och portfolio, både digital och pappersbaserad. Samt att studera huruvida den ena metoden är mer motiverande för eleverna än den andra och hur relationen ser ut mellan portfolio och några av de sex utvalda motivationsteorierna som redogörs för i uppsatsen.Den metod som har använts i denna uppsats är forskningskonsumtion vilket innebär att resultatet är baserat på tidigare forskning inom de områden som berörs i denna uppsats, det vill säga motivation och portfolio. Utifrån dessa artiklar samt ytterligare litteratur har sedan en analys och diskussion gjorts för att undersöka relationen.Resultat som framkom i undersökningen visade att portfolio har en motiverande effekt för eleverna, framförallt den digitala portfolion, detta då den har flera tekniska fördelar jämfört med den pappersbaserade portfolion. Det framkom även att elevernas motivation i samband med portfolioarbetet visade en tydlig koppling till motivationsteorierna som tas upp i uppsatsen.Mina slutsatser av denna uppsats är att framförallt den digitala portfolion är en gynnsam metod att använda för att elevernas motivation ska öka. Dock bör teknologin i den digitala portfolion fortsätta utvecklas för att minska risken för tekniska problem.

Background: Today small business firms represent a considerable part of swedish economy, and the number of small firms has steadily increased the last ten years in relation to the total employment. The fact that there are firms willing to grow, it ought to be interesting observing their motives of growth, and what kind of strategies that can be identifiable in these firms. Purpose: To examine the motives of growth in small business firms, and to study which growth strategies the firms use when expanding their business. Realization: The study is accomplished through telephone interviews with six small business firms in the province of Jönköping. The firms contain between 10-49 employees.

Background: The growth of the venture capital industry has given birth to new relations between investors and entrepreneurial firms. Venture capital firms are by definition investors serving as an active partner which implies a deeper relation between investors and entrepreneurs than has been the case previously. This new situation leads to a number of questions. Do venture capitalists really act as active partners with a long term interest in the venture? Do they add any value besides capital? How important is their influence in the portfolio company's decision making process? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to give a deeper understanding of the relation between venture capital firms and IT companies in the start-up phase.

The purpose of this essay is to illustrate how and why teachers in New Zealand use portfoliosas a part of their teaching. The purpose is also to investigate if, and in that case how, a sociocultural perspective on learning can be shown through the work with portfolios. Toinvestigate this we have made a case study in New Zealand where we interviewed sixteachers. The result of the investigation shows that our teachers use portfolios in both asummative and a formative way. In a summative way to gather what the children have done inschool, and in a formative way to help the students to assess what they have done, how theyhave done it and what they are going to do next.

Portfoliometodik är idag ett känt begrepp, likaså digital elevportfolio. Båda dessa begrepp, och en av de programvaror som främst är utvecklade för att vara en aktiv digital elevportfolio, har en central roll i den här studien. Portfolio Manager 2, som programmet i fråga heter, är utvecklat i Sverige av svenska pedagoger.Studien har en kvantitativ ansats med enkäter som redskap. En köns- och specialpedagogisk betraktelsegrund fanns i studien, vilket också resulterade i nya pedagogiska rön.Studien är utförd i 5 klasser på 2 olika svenska skolor i slöjd, där samtliga elever gick i åk 5.Lärarenkäten var utformad så att den skulle kunna ge en bedömning av ?fenomenet? PM2 som helhet, då PM2 även innehåller verktyg av det mer administrativa slaget.Studiens resultat bekräftar tidigare studier, dvs.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine whether hedge funds generate higher risk-adjusted returns than traditional managed funds in Sweden.Methodology: This study was based on quantitative data about the funds historical returns. The funds historical returns were taken from the database Morningstar and the risk-free rate from the Swedish central bank. Random samples of 36 funds have been divided into three portfolios in the form of a hedge fund portfolio, stock portfolio and mix fund portfolio.Result & Conclusion: The study concluded that the stock portfolio has shown the highest average yield for the study period where all portfolios below market index. Hedge fund portfolio has achieved the highest risk-adjusted return calculated by the portfolios Sharpe Ratio. Of all hedge strategies, arbitrage had the highest average return and risk-adjusted returns..