Background: To maintain or increase the trust in the market, companies can disclose more voluntary information in the annual reports. According to prior research the annual report is the primary source of information for small shareholders and investors. Thus, it is of interest to investigate why companies chose to report the voluntary information inquired by this group. Purpose: We investigate some company-specific factors to decide whether these determine the extent of voluntary information, particularly inquired by small shareholders and investors, in the annual reports of listed Swedish companies. We also aim to discuss underlying causes for our result.

This study examines the effects of credit risk and Information disclosure in the new bank regulating system Basel II on bank and bank customer. The effects are then discussed in a perspective of the economic man and information asymmetric theories. Furthermore is the Basel II effects on the capital adequacy of Andelsbanken för Åland examined.The approach of the study is qualitative and several interviews with individuals on different levels of the examined bank, Andelsbanken för Åland, have been carried out during the collecting of empirical facts about the effects of the regulating change from the Basel I system to Basel II.The research findings are as follows:Andelsbanken för Åland have increased its capital adequacy ratio from 12,7 percent to 14,4 percent, mostly due to lower risk weights on housing mortgages compared to Basel I. Andelsbanken för Åland have started to use a completely new credit risk and customer assessment system which classifies every customer and gives them a credit rating. The system cause a much heavier information gathering of the customers profile as well as a much better assessment of risk than the previous system, which the bank finds positive.

Previous studies have shown that there is a relationship between voluntary disclosure and analysts' forecast accuracy. However, there has been no research conducted specifically on bridges. Bridges contain information on how components such as price, volume, foreign exchange rates and acquisitions have impacted the financial performance between two periods. The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate the usage of bridges in quarterly financial information of companies listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. We provide a descriptive mapping of bridges and find that 30 out of 268 companies are presenting bridges as a part of their voluntary disclosures, with large firms being the most frequent users.

Background: Enterprises often refer to their employees as ?Our most valuable assets? in annual reports and other written statements. In reality, employees are seen as an expense rather than an asset in annual reports and the voluntary disclosure is often insufficient. Human capital disclosure has been discussed through decades and the latest topic in voluntary disclosure is called integrated reporting. Knowledge firms should disclose more about their employees than industrial companies due to the fact that the employees are a considerably more important asset to these types of enterprises.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study the disclosure of human capital, compare the disclosures between knowledge firms and industrial companies, and study the development of the human capital disclosures between the years 2003-2013.

Background: Enterprises often refer to their employees as ?Our most valuable assets? in annual reports and other written statements. In reality, employees are seen as an expense rather than an asset in annual reports and the voluntary disclosure is often insufficient. Human capital disclosure has been discussed through decades and the latest topic in voluntary disclosure is called integrated reporting. Knowledge firms should disclose more about their employees than industrial companies due to the fact that the employees are a considerably more important asset to these types of enterprises.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study the disclosure of human capital, compare the disclosures between knowledge firms and industrial companies, and study the development of the human capital disclosures between the years 2003-2013.

The association between disclosure level and asymmetric information is a matter of importance andconsiderable interest to the financial reporting community. The theory in this area suggests that acommitment by a firm to increased levels of disclosure should lower the information asymmetry thuslowering the cost of equity. This theory may be compelling, but so far the empirical results have beenambiguous. Due to increased globalization the demand for high quality accounting standards has risen. In2005 The International Accounting Standard Board launched the standard named IFRS 3.

Social media on the Web has become more common over the last decade and in recent years it has grown immensely. The social media with the highest amount of members is Facebook, where not only private persons are found - companies started to establish their profiles on the network in 2006. However, little is known about how these companies succeed and reach their audience with information dissemination and interact with them. The aim of this study is to contribute with information to local companies on how they can manage to maintain their activity with different approaches and strategies. This study examines how three different local companies chooses to spread information and maintain relationships with their members on Facebook.

Background: Goodwill has been a hot and debated topic for a longer period of time. Researchers have debated how goodwill should be accounted for and have not come to a solution. In 2005 IFRS standards came which meant that goodwill no longer will be amortized according to plan, but to be put through a yearly impairment test.Problem: A number of disclosure requirements in the financial reports have been made in an effort to avoid companies to account for goodwill differently. Apparently there still is a problem of how companies account for goodwill and there are several studies in the subject. But no one has studied how it is between two different industries, which make this study interesting to execute.Purpose/questions: This study have the purpose to investigate how the industries day to day wares and health care regards the disclosure requirements for goodwill by the impairment tests.

Kundfordringar har en osäker karaktär vilket skapar svårigheter vid värdering. Enligt svensk lagstiftning ska kundfordringar värderas till det belopp som förväntas inflyta. God redovisningssed sätter gränser för hur kundfordringar ska värderas och ger utrymme för möjliga värderingsprinciper. Då kundfordringar ingår i omsättningstillgångar, vilka anses vara några av de mest manipulativa kontona i det finansiella redovisningssystemet, behövs studier inom ämnet.Studiens syfte är att besvara hur missvisande redovisning av kundfordringar kan undvikas samt undersöka och jämföra hur kundfordringar framställs i årsredovisningar. En undersökning genomförs på tio olika företag som är noterade på Stockholmsbörsens lista över stora företag, Large cap.

Despite the fact that the issue has been discussed for several decades, there are still no rules in Sweden mandating political parties and candidates to disclose received donations. Because of this lack of transparency, Sweden is not fulfilling some of its international obligations and has fallen behind in the international trend to increase the transparency of election campaign finance. The lack of disclosure rules in Sweden has led to extensive criticism, most notably from the Council of Europe´s group of states against corruption, Greco, who criticized Sweden in light of the guidelines on the subject from the Council of Europe. At this writing, a new proposal for disclosure rules is being prepared at the Department of Justice, DoJ. The proposal is to be presented in spring 2013.

Redovisningen av kundfordringar är komplex. Posten är förhållandevis svår att värdera och en felaktig värdering kan förvränga företagets finansiella ställningar. IAS 1 p.9 har ett fåtal regler som uppfattas som vaga för redovisning av kundfordringar vilket gör att skillnaderna ökar. Framförallt öppnas det upp utrymmen för manipulation av redovisningen.Syftet med studien är att ge en bättre förståelse av hur kundfordringar redovisas och att tolka och analysera hur upplysningar av redovisningsmetoder i årsredovisningar underlättar förståelsen av innehållet i rapporteringar. För att syftet ska uppnås studerades 24 företag.Studien visade att även fast alla undersökta företag är börsnoterade (på large cap OMXS30) så råder det stora skillnader i deras disclosure av information kring tillämpande redovisningsmetoder.

Since 2005 the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has prescribed a mandatory requirement that all ?Publicly Consolidated Entities? abide by the ?International Financial Reporting Standards? (IFRS). However, due to a difference in institutional elements, between countries, differences in financial reporting are still possible. This essay aims to identify such differences between Swedish and British companies in their adaptation of the IFRS, specifically differences in; ?Disclosure Requirements for Goodwill? specified in ?IAS 36 p 134?.

Lagstiftning och normgivning kring årsredovisningen, vill skydda intressenter mot felaktig och bristfällig information. Det finns en del i årsredovisningen som inte är lagstadgad, den benämns frivillig information. Omfattning och val av vilken frivillig information som företag väljer att redovisa beror till stor del på vilken redovisningsstrategi som företaget tillämpar.Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva och analysera vilken redovisningsstrategi som svenska aktiebolag noterade på Stockholmsbörsen tillämpar, när de redovisar frivillig information i årsredovisningen. Vidare är syftet att undersöka vad som påverkar val och utformning av redovisningsstrategi, vi utreder huruvida anlitad revisionsbyrå är en förklarande variabel, samt om det finns andra aktörer och faktorer som påverkar.Vi har undersökt variablerna; anställda, kreditgivare, aktieägare, andra företag noterade på Stockholmsbörsen, branschkollegor, anlitad revisor och Vd/företagsledning, för att utreda om dessa aktörer och faktorer påverkar valet.Både en kvantitativ och kvalitativ metod har använts för att uppfylla uppsatsens syfte. Genom en enkät, via e-mail, till företagen i vårt urval, har vi undersökt i vilken utsträckning de olika variablerna påverkar samt huruvida det leder till att en viss redovisningsstrategi tillämpas.

Background and problem discussion: Sustainability reporting has recently risen in importance and a rising number of companies choose to issue voluntary stand-alone sustainability reports. Their non-regulated nature increases the opportunity for management to angle the information in these disclosures to their own advantage. Lately the focus has shifted from examining what kind of information is provided in environmental disclosures, to analyzing how the information is presented.Purpose: The purpose is to examine if managers in the energy sector use optimistic tone when issuing sustainability reports. The aim is to find out if the tone applied in environmental disclosures is in congruence with either the environmental or economic performance or if an excessively positive tone is being used to mislead readers.Limitations: This study is limited to information found in environmental disclosures from private companies in the energy sector, issued in 2012 or 2013. Environmental performance is defined as the amount of CO2e emissions and economic performance refers to annual company revenues.Methodology: The quantification of optimistic tone is conducted using a content analysis, relying on a pre-specified wordlist and a pilot study.

Corporate Social Responsibility has been defined as the responsibility towards stakeholders and the society in whole and the expression was founded in the 1950´s. Reporting in corporate social responsibility has been termed corporate social disclosure and has been divided into three areas: environment, ethics and human resources. The aim of this study is to explain variations in corporate social disclosure and the different media used by corporations to communicate these disclosures. A survey was conducted, which included all Swedish corporations listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, and all public-owned corporations. The results show that corporate characteristics such as size, industry and profitability can explain some of the variation in social disclosures and also have an effect on the extent and variation of the media used.