This study investigates whether the permanent measurement bias (PMB) has changed over time for Swedish companies listed on the Stockholm Stock exchange at least one year during 1996-2000 or 2005-2010. By using the Residual Income Valuation-model the markets' implicit value on PMB is generated through reversed engineering, as values for all variables except PMB are entered such as the market perceived them at the specific valuation date each year. This implicit value is classified into industries and then sorted by their median. Statistical tests are performed to see if there is a difference between the industry median and the accounting-based values on PMB. The difference from period one to period two is also statistically tested for.The study finds that the implicit values on PMB have changed somewhat between the periods; however the fluctuations are not statistically significant.

The market for management consulting services is changing with an increased level of competition and more specialized service providers. At the same time there is a high level of companies that fail in their efforts to establish themselves on the market. This thesis sets out to give the reader an increased understanding of the complex characteristics of the market for these services, focusing more specifically on which factors that have an effect on the strategy development for companies within the industry. The thesis is also aimed at providing the reader with a deeper understanding of how developing consulting companies can tackle the specific challenges facing them. In order to meet the purpose of the thesis, we have applied relevant theories to a generic strategy model in order to develop a model that is applicable for the management consulting industry.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate if a dynamic investment strategy on the Swedish asset market can accomplish better returns then a static investment strategy. The dynamic investment strategy is created by incorporating business cycle predictors and firm-level variables to predict future stock returns. The predictive regression is calculated wih 60 months of observation (1999 01-2005 12) and is then used to estimate future returns for 23 months in the period 2004 01 -2005 11. The structure of the regression, with linear functions of ? and ?, goes back to Shanken (1990) and Avramov and Chordia (2005) has had success with the variables chosen.

This master thesis has been performed at the department of Machine Design at KTH, The Royal Institute of Technology. The thesis has been a part of a global development project in collaboration with Luleå University of Technology, Lund Faculty of Engineering and Stanford University. Corporate liaison and sponsor has been Immerse Global Inc. The project was also performed on sponsorship from the Product Innovation Engineering Program, PIEp. The thesis is a representation of some of the contributions made by the authors.The lack of clean drinking water is one of the key issues facing the world today.

The work of the board in owner-managed firms often differ compared to the work of the board in large listed companies. Since the owners are working in different roles, the board in owner-managed firms might discuss topics outside the typical boards agenda, such as questions relating to ownership structure and operational matters. This thesis examines what external board members can contribute with in owner-managed firms, and which the most frequent difficulties are for the owners when deciding to recruit external board members. Through qualitative interviews, three owner-managed firms have been studied, which together with two expert interviews and five seminars, creates the empirics. In the analysis, the empirics are compared to what the earlier theory states.

The purpose of this thesis is to understand the reasons to why management consultants choose to leave their positions at large and established management consultant companies. The empirical data are made up of eleven interviews with men and women, both management consultants that have left their previous positions as well as a consultant who has chosen to stay with her first company and a representative from one of the large companies active within the management consultant industry. We have used the Job Embeddedness Theory combined with theories about identity, legitimacy, institutional norms and gender in order to understand the thoughts and reasoning behind the management consultants´ resignation. We have found that issues with the work itself and characteristics of the industry prevent the management consultants from being embedded within the management consultant company. Rather, some of the characteristics of the industry such as ?up or out? and the need to constantly perform work as a ?pushing-out mechanism?.

The Swedish construction industry is dominated by men; however this is starting to change. The average age of Construction Engineers is high and approximately 40 per cent of the employees will retire by the year 2015. Currently, female engineers dominate the graduating classes of Swedish Universities but this is not reflected in the Swedish Construction industry.With so many female engineers available, why is this? Does it require a change in company culture and their condition of work to attract them? Is it the attitude towards women in the industry among the employees that has to be changed? Or is it a woman?s thoughts and prejudices of the industry that creates obstacles?The purpose of this final thesis is to describe how contracting firms in the construction industry can make themselves more attractive for female engineers. To reach the purpose, a study among salaried employees and craftsmen was conducted.

 Background and aim: Media development and digitalization has expanded the PR industry's working area. More participants are on the media market and it is becoming more and more difficult to define what PR really is and what the PR agencies/departments really do. Is PR marketing, information, event marketing or maybe propaganda? We believe that the complexity to define the term PR can lead to a loss of critical approach to the business, especially among young people. Has the PR industry managed to eliminate their negative image among students in upper secondary school and what do they associate with PR today? The aim of this essay is to examine what a selection of students associate with the term PR and if they are critical to the PR industry or not.Method/Material: The method is a quantitative survey.

Thesis Purpose: The purpose of our thesis is to explore different plausible scenarios concerning the future of the Swedish produce industry with regards to branding. Methodology: In order for us to answer the research question and fulfill its purpose, we have utilized a qualitative approach combined with of both an inductive and deductive theoretical approach. Our study is both explorative and speculative. Theoretical Perspective: The theoretical framework of our research is based upon Porters Five Forces and Competitive Advantage combined with Kapferers Brand Identity Prism and his ideas on Brand Innovation. Additionally, we have utilized the Game Theory.

Background: Every year 56 million people die around the world and it is estimated that 60% of these people are in need of palliative care. It has been shown that patients in the palliative care experienced their situation as uncertain. When life no longer was certain, the patients tried to live their life day by day and make the best of it. Problem: When patients were diagnosed with an incurable disease the future became unsure, because their life would come to an end. Therefore patients with a palliative diagnosis could be in need of experiencing feelings of security.

Collaboration is a form of organization on the rise in Sweden. For health care, it is ofinterest to collaborate with industry to ensure that needs for specialist education andtraining are met and that products developed meet the relevant requirements.Conversely, industry actors have an interest to have a close collaboration with healthcare in order to gain insight into customer needs, provide information about theirproducts and to test products in development.The starting point of this study is an agreement and regulatory framework for formsof collaboration between public health care in Sweden in general and thepharmaceutical industry, the medical device industry and the laboratory technologyindustry. The research questions concerns how this agreement has evolved and theprocess surrounding its emergence may contribute to knowledge about collaborationas a form of organization and the relationship to concepts such as legitimacy,corruption and institutional theory.By tracking the emergence of the current regulatory framework genealogicalthroughout history, the study uncovers how the agreements have played a role in andcontributed to the legitimization and institutionalization of collaboration practices andhow crises have changed the shape of the practices. A theoretical treatment ofrelevant concepts such as legitimacy, institutionalization of practices, corruption andstigmatization of organizations form the basis for an interpretation and analysis of theprocess.The conclusions of the examination of the historical process that led to the currentagreements contribute to empirical knowledge of how crises and stigma affect thelegitimacy of collaboration practices and how the repair of legitimacy can be donesuccessfully after a crisis. The treatment of the empirical material is also a historicalsource for the development of ethics agreements between public health care andpharmaceutical industry and the medical industry in Sweden..

The purpose of this study was to increase the knowledge and understanding of what impact support-groups, such as represented by Qvinnoqulan, can have on women with drug-addiction. The questions at issue for the essay was: How does a selection of women who participate in Qvinnoqulan describe their thoughts, experiences and reflections of the group? What sense has Qvinnoqulan made for the women on a personal level and for contributing to live a life without drugs? To answer the questions a qualitative method was used and five interviews were made with women who participated in the activities of Qvinnoqulan. To analyze the data a social constructionist perspective and an empowerment perspective was used. The result of the study showed that the women were in the process of rebuilding a new life without drugs and reconstructing a new identity.

The aim was to describe the experiences of couples where the male partner had undergone radical prostatectomy due to prostate cancer. Furthermore, the study explored how the operation had affected their sexual life, whether the couples had received enough post surgical support and information concerning these issues, and to describe the kind of support and information these couples desired. Twenty men and ten partners participated. All the men experienced a varying degree of post surgical erectile dysfunction and only five men had received support concerning their sexual life. Eleven men desired professional visiting support activities.

The aim of this study was to examine if performance-based self-esteem, personality (Type A), perceived stress, age and gender predict the value of own or others life-stress (VLS). The aim was also to examine whether the variables were correlated significantly with each other. The investigation was conducted in a town in the mid-south of Sweden. The instrument consisted of two forms where the first measured Type A personality and the second tapped perform-ance-based self-esteem, perceived stress and the level of life-stress. The results showed that the level of life-stress could explain, on the basis of the predictors, performance-based self-esteem, personality (Type A), perceived stress, age and gender.

The purpose of this essay is to try to understand the relationship between the structures of modern working life and the development of burnout. By using the method of qualitative interviews we wanted to see if the Effort-Reward Imbalance Model could be applied to the data we had collected. Two questions have been highlighted in our research:        ? Is it possible to establish a relationship between the structures of modern working life and the development of burnout among the subjects interviewed?  ? Is it possible to explain the development of burnout among our interviewed subjects through the Effort-Reward Imbalance Model?    Our theoretical frames are the general theories of the modern society and the modern working life as developed by Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck and Zygmunt Bauman. We have also used Johannes Siegrist?s medical-sociological Effort-Reward Imbalance Model (ERI-Model).