Background and problem: The importance of banks was clearly shown during the last financial crises, when the crises that started in the banking sector spread to the rest of the world. This is one of the reasons that this thesis is focused on banks in particular, one other reason is that a lot of previous studies has chosen to exclude banks because of the fact that their balance sheet differ from non-financial companies. This thesis is a beginning in filling in the gap that exists in the knowledge of banks capital structure. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to prove that it is possible to explain the capital structure in banks and that differences in the capital structure of the banks in Great Britain, Sweden and the United states of America exists. Method: The fact that our study is partly a replication of two earlier studies made a deductive approach most appropriate.

The increased media clutter requires of brand managers to be innovative and creative in their choices of marketing communications in order for brands to be salient in the minds of consumers. Recent studies emphasize incongruent marketing as a means of "standing out" from this competitive clutter and reaching existing and new potential customers. The aim of this thesis is to examine the effects of brand incongruent sponsorships (sponsorships which are incongruent with established brand associations) on consumer response to well-established brands from the perspective of high and low levels of loyalty. A quantitative survey was conducted and the results show that incongruent sponsorships improve brand attitude, brand interest and brand credibility, while not affecting ad attitude, purchase intention and word-of-mouth intention for customers of low loyalty. For highly loyal customers the findings were that brand attitude, brand interest, brand credibility, purchase intention and word-of-mouth intention remained unchanged while ad attitude decreased.

This study was conducted in the Master program at The Music Pedagogical Center (MPC) at The Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Korta musikresor (Short Music Journeys) is the Swedish term used for a receptive method of music therapy adapted from the tradition of The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (BMGIM) and the theory and practice of Expressive Arts Therapy. The KMR method uses carefully selected short pieces of music, lasting between 2 and 5 minutes, to work on various psychological problems and life- crises. The music session is conducted in a slightly altered state of consciousness with a clear focus being established beforehand in a verbal dialogue with the psychotherapist. There is also the possibility of using artwork to process and explore the imagery after the music listening.

As Sweden has become a multicultural society the need for developing new educational approaches rises. The preschool is a crucial piece in this as it is the one of the first institutions where the children start to develop the language skills. The aim of this study is to investigate the language development approach as practiced by teachers, in their preschool programs, and determine if the teachers work methods can be considered intercultural. This is done to gain a deep understanding on several language development methods and analyze the teachers' approach within the framework of intercultural pedagogy perspective. The theoretical framework used in the study is the intercultural perspective.

AbstractThe aim of this study was to illuminate and collect existing research from the beginning of the 21 st century about nurses work environment in institutional and elderly care in Sweden.A literature review was made by analyzing eleven scientific articles. The result showed mainly information about nurses work load. The information dealt with high work demands, too much responsibility, shortage of staff, time press and stress. Furthermore nurses reported a lack of co-operation between staff and management. An important part in nurses? work was appreciation from colleagues, management, patients and relatives.

AbstractAt the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 the nations stated that traditional environmental policies were not sufficient to handle the multidimensional challenges posed by sustainable development. Governments needed to broaden their political decision making procedures in order to coordinate and integrate environmental, social and economic policies. Therefore a new tool was introduced in Agenda 21, National Strategies for Sustainable Development (NSDS). The aim of an NSDS would be to bring together actors from all parts of society to jointly reach a consensus on how to work towards the vision of a sustainable society. An NSDS would be seen as a strategic tool to help focus national policies for SD.

The aim of this thesis is to ascertain how primary school teachers would like to improve their mathematics teaching. The central questions for this research are:In what ways do teachers want to improve their mathematics teaching?How do the teachers justify their statements?What main features can be distinguished out of the teachers answers?Three interviews and seven surveys have been used to collect information from a total of nine teachers, at one primary school. Teaching pupils from preschool to sixth grade. The results have been analysed, interpreted and discussed using a drama pedagogical perspective, inspired by a holistic approach to learning.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the role of bibliotherapy at hospitals and also what knowledge of and insights on bibliotherapy a few Swedish hospital librarians have. Questions investigated are: What role do the hospital librarians think literature has in the treatment of a patient? What is their view on their role as a hospital librarian and do they believe that they can have a part in the treatment of a patient? Is the concept bibliotherapy commonly used or is there another term in use? How important is the linkage between healing and literature? In this study, the view on bibliotherapy is limited to a hospital perspective. The purpose of the study is therefore to investigate bibliotherapy at the hospital. Six qualitative interviews with hospital librarians were performed at three general or combined general/medical hospital libraries.

The aim of this study was to understand how evaluations are implemented and used in procured nursing homes for elderly. Our methodological approach consisted of a single-case study research. The case in this study was Växjö municipality. Three procured nursing homes for elderly were chosen in the municipality as examples of implementation and use of evaluation. The method for retrieving empirical data and the analyzing of it was based on triangulation.

The purpose of this essay is to look at how museums design their activities as tourist destinations through the dissemination of history. In order to research this problem we have posed the following questions: How do museums act in order to animate and interpret history? What does the future hold for the museums? In order to find the answers to these questions we have made a deep-going analysis of the activities of four museums, Nordiska Museet, Etnografiska Museet, Historiska Museet and Naturhistoriska Museet. These museums have been analyzed by means of interviews, observations and the study of documents. Our theoretical perspective is informed by a hermeneutic perspective as well as Foucault´s definition of museums as institutions, and the concept of storytelling.

Structuring education so that students can discover connections between schoolwork and their everyday lives is a crucial task for a teacher. This is especially true in today?s school system that seeks to foster a spirit of lifelong learning, since educational motivation depends on being able to connect to the tasks at hand. In a system where these connections are not present, students will be motivated only by institutional mechanisms such as test results and grades. This leads to them using a number of techniques for ?optimizing the system? by getting maximal results for minimal effort. This essay looks at two pedagogical movements that aim to decrease the gap between schoolwork and students? reality.

The aim of this study is to examine the collection One Thousand and One Nights (also: The Arabian Nights) from a european perspective, by comparing different european translations. The study focuses on three translations into Swedish from different periods of time and how the tales have changed in the translation process - depending on the prevailing line of approach and Western perceptions of Eastern standards. The thesis of the study is that Eastern culture, from a Western perspective, has been seen as exotic and different but not as a high literary culture and that this view has affected the translations into european languages. The study shows, among other things, that Western culture is many times considered normative in the translations and that the translators often give their own voices a prominent role, also that common Western notions of the East affects the translations.The word ?orientalism? is used frequently in the study and it refers primarily to the image of the Orient as it is described in Edward Saids' book Orientalism: as a Western construction whose main purpose is to strengthen its own conception of the Orient and thereby strengthen the Western identity as better than the Orient.

From an environmental and climate perspective we are becoming more and more aware of what we eat. Consumers want to know how their food is produced and where it is coming from. A term commonly used in this discussion is local produce. At this time, there is no clear definition of the term and a wide range of definitions can be found. However, despite this lack of definition, the term is often being used by producers, traders and consumers..

This essay is a work on Mircea Eliades's interpretation of the religious human understood as "homo religiosus" and the role of the shaman from the Eliade perspective. In Eliade human existence consists of a dichotomy between the sacred and the profane. The question is whether one can understand the concept of Eliades ?axis mundi?, center of the universe? Can we create an understanding of human existence with Eliade? Can one use  phenomenology of religion as perspective for the exploration of ?reality?? Furthermore, this paper aims to understand the role of the shaman has religious worldviews. Shamaism  is through an ecstatic technique traveling to other cosmic plane, in order to gain knowledge that would otherwise not be reached.

The purpose of this law-sociological study was to, on the basis of the District Court's decree to single custody, analyze the District Court?s comprehensive ideas and fall-oriented interpretations of the concept of the best interest of the child and the way they are constructed in connection with the District Court's application of the new law regulation of 6kap. 5§ FB regarding collaboration between parents. Our empirical data consisted of ten decrees to single custody. The decrees were examined and analyzed on the basis of social constructionism as a theory and the idea-analysis as the study's method.