To establish sustainability reports is an increasing trend for more and more companies. This has led to a spread of the international framework Global reporting initiative, GRI, guidelines to make a sustainability reports. This trend has got a lot of critics from various stakeholders who believe that companies in these reports communicate the information in a way of window dressing. Both negative and positive information has to be represented according to GRI: s principle of balance.  Window dressing is created by adding a greater emphasis on the positive information. The researchers review the context of the negative information to study the extent to which it is reported and whether there are patterns and variations in the reported information.

This dissertation discusses the preparations companies do when their auditor is about to visit them. We wanted to investigate if companies do some form of preparations with the intense of trying to influence the auditor in an, for the company, advantageous way. The purpose was to be fulfilled through the deductive process of theorization and from the gathering of empirical and the analysis of this data. We decided that a multiple case study would be the best approach for us, as we wanted to undertake a greater number of interviews than is normally done in a case study. The result from our study showed that auditors think that information from a company is more reliable, if its documentation is neatly kept, or if the relationship between the auditor and the company is good.

The amount of cargo has since the 1970s increased in Sweden and the road traffic accounts for a large part of the transported volume. In Stockholm County the amount of cargo is calculated to be doubled in size from year 2001 to 2020 which means a greater need for transport is required. Much of these transports are being carried out by haulage companies of varying sizes which acts externally as carriers for their customers. All of this despite a greater awareness, laws and demands regarding environmental performance.The trend shows that the haulage industry in Sweden are moving towards fewer but larger haulage companies, which means that the competition is getting tougher for the smaller haulage companies. Smaller haulage companies and research about their competitive strategies is a neglected part of this industry.

Most companies and organizations today depend on technology connected to the Internet. Schools and offices have therefore been providing computers, phones and other technology to the employees. The recent technological development and decline in prices for technology have contributed to making these products a part of everyday life for most people. This has made it very common for employees and students to bring their own devices into school and workplaces.The aim of this study is to define what "Bring your own device" means for Swedish companies and organizations and how it has been implemented in those. The aim is not mainly to generalize to all Swedish companies but create an understanding how the trend is used to provide a basis for continued research in this area.

In the proposition Nya förmånsrättsregler, 2002/03:49, the government suggests a new bill of beneficial rights, or FRL. The proposition has several changes, mostly for The Banking system. One of the changes is that the banks´ individual beneficial rights shall be replaced by a general beneficial right, where the beneficial value never exceeds 55 percent of the value of insurance bonds. Previously, the beneficial value was 100 percent.The purpose of this essay is to evaluate the relationship between the banks´ activities, and the new bill of beneficial rights, especially what the effects will become for the public companies within the printing houses, with 1 - 49 employees in the Skåne Region.The survey includes a total of 142 companies and it was distributed via e-mail. The conclusions from the study are that there are tendencies of increased difficulties for companies to get their credits granted by the banks.

BackgroundToday a common approach to solve a complicated problem is to assemble a temporary workforce in order to solve the problem by working together within a project. One of the difficulties with working in projects is to maintain the planned budget. Working hours and costs are often exceeded. Many companies presume that any certain project will succeed, a presumption that leads companies not to anticipate risks involved in a project. In companies today there is seldom time for evaluation or moderation of a project, in order to have time for evaluation there is a great need for an adequate planning of the project.IntentThe intention with this study is to create a model for planning, budgeting and evaluation of projects within consultancy companies.MethodWith the help of interviews and discussions within the group Hamnar och Byggkonstruktioner at Sweco has evidence to present a proposal on planning, budgeting and monitoring been developed.ResultsA model has been developed to ease for consultancy companies to plan, budget, monitor and evaluate projects.

Background: Knowledge management is a concept that is considered of increasing importance in the developing knowledge society. Previous research in the area has to a large extent been based on large multinational companies. Purpose: The thesis aims to clarify how middle-sized Swedish management consultancy companies work with knowledge management. The thesis intends to use existing theories about knowledge management to explain the effect of size and area of operation on management consultancy companies? knowledge management.

SummaryThe purpose of this thesis is to examine what effect the IFRS 2 has on earnings, equity, financial strength and return on equity for listed Swedish companies with active stock option plans. The purpose is further to investigate the companies? attitudes towards IFRS 2 and to find out if companies tend to deviate from stock option plans due to the changed accounting rules. We also want to examine the view of IFRS 2 from an auditor?s perspective.We have used a deductive approach and a mix of quantitative and qualitative research methods with a view to get a completely clear picture within the field of study.

In January 2005 the emission allowance system was introduced within the European Union and the first period ends at the end of 2007. The system was introduced in order to decrease the wastes of carbon dioxide and the system is a part of ratifying the Kyoto ?protocol which first period runs between 2008-2012.The idea of the system is to reduce the wastes of carbon dioxide where it costs less to do so and the expenses for the society therefore are as diminutive as possible. Different theories explain that companies can benefit from environment legislation and can depending on the company?s attitude gain competitive advantages improve its productivity and thereby increase its profitability.With this in mind, the study aims at examining how the introduction of the emission trade system has influenced Swedish smaller companies in the distant heating industry, with focus on the factors attitude, innovation, competition and profitability.

The Armed Forces is looking to improve control of where articles are and the monitoring of their condition within its clothing supply. That is why Försvarets Materielverk is working on a motion to tag the Armed Forces clothing with passive RFID-tags. A cost/benefit analysis has been made in this report in order to find out whether the investment is economical justifiable and what costs and benefits arose. The analysis tool that was used is based on the PENG-model. The analysis had three scenarios with the difference that each scenario included various amounts of clothing to tag.  There has also been made an analysis where only the benefits regarding decreasing amount of lost clothes and simplified inventory were included.The result of the first analysis was that none of the scenarios was profitable during the first year.

Problem: Companies are becoming more active in social media. They usechannels such as Facebook, to communicate and interact with theirenvironment. In connection with this, companies must also be prepared todeal with crises in social media. Previous research shows no clear guidelineson how companies can work in social media to prevent crises.Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine how companiesin the communications industry can work with Facebook to prevent crises.We hope that our study can provide new perspectives and guidance on howcompanies can work with emergency communication for prevention.Methodology: We used a qualitative research to arrive at our results. Thismeant we got an insight into the complex world that companies are workingin.

Bankruptcy is a problem for the society in form of high costs for including suppliers, customers, employees, investors, banks, insurance companies etc. The purpose of this study is to confirm or dismiss a bankruptcy prediction model that has been developed in a previous Swedish study, in order to predict bankruptcy with help of specific key figures. The model has only been tested in a larger perspective where the population consisted of all small firms in Sweden, in this study the model´s reliability is tested by that it instead been applied to a minor perspective, where the population only includes Stockholm. With a quantitative approach of 12 different key figures from a total of 60 Swedish smaller registered companies in Stockholm between the years 2005-2007, has been studied. The companies are divided into two groups, companies with good financial health and companies that have ended up in bankruptcy.The results shows that the model is applicable in a smaller population, but some of the key figures do not generate essential or any type of information about bankruptcy, but the majority of the key figures in the model did.

Due to the globalization and constant changes in society, competition has become a big factor in profit-driven companies and organizations. Innovation has become an effective way for the companies to increase their competitiveness. By adapting to the constant changes in society e.g. the technological advances, companies can retain their competitiveness on the market.The purposeof this study is to exemplify and describe how a profit-driven company managesinnovationbyinterviewing four office managers in different work units in the same company.The resultsshows, among other things,that interactive learning can bean initiation to innovation processes and that the participating company in this study workshard to promote innovation in work units..

Kevin Roberts has extended the comprehension of strong consumer brands to a higher level where loyalty beyond reason is established. He calls this new status Lovemarks. As the concept of Lovemark has only been applied in B2C markets, this thesis is directed to find out the applicability of Lovemarks in B2B context. In order to fulfill the research purpose, three main questions are answered based on a cross-sectional research approach: What role do intangible factors play in B2B branding? Is the idea of B2C Lovemarks transferable to B2B context? How should a B2B Lovemark be characterized? The results of the qualitative interviews indicate insights of high investment and involvement, integrated brand communication, balance between function versus emotion, brand?s trustworthy personality, customer partnership, and finally, the potential establishment of B2B Lovemarks.

The paper investigates the role of packaging within brand management of FMCG food companies and their attitude towards packaging. This study enhances the understanding of how FMCG food companies actually work and strive to work with packaging..