Background and problem: Since the new law took place in 1999, it has been illegal towash a car with substances that can damage the environment on a paved street or on a driveway through a garage. This has conveyed to a new industry where more and more self-service car wash facility have opened around the country. Vetlanda Vägkrog AB has since 2012 been planning to install manual self-service car wash facility at the back of their restaurant business. The authors mission was to make an analysis in order to examine whether an investment of carwashes are lucrative enough for Vetlanda Vägkrog AB.Aim: The study's main objective was to analyze the profitability of an investment in a self-service car wash facility at Vetlanda Vägkrog AB, based on given data. The authors sub-aim was to clarify which factors in general that had played the greatest part in the establishment of a self-service car wash facility.Method: The authors have used an abductive approach in order to fulfill the aim of the study.

In this project a simulator has been developed (in C++) with the purpose of illustrating how changes in environmental regulations, tax levels and other policy measures affect the composition of an energy system. The aim of the project was to investigate how energy companies? investment strategies are affected when changes in economic and environmental conditions occur. A standard scenario has been created based on current Swedish conditions, but the user can create new scenarios and set parameters freely. The user is tasked with building power plants to supply the city/region with district heating and electricity during a pre-set number of years. When the simulation is finished the result is graded in the following categories: economy, environment and quality. To evaluate the simulator three scenarios were created (?early 20th century?, ?reduced environmental control? and ?future?) in addition to the standard scenario and these were compared with each other by examining how a select group of power plants perform under the given conditions.

Borglund et al. (2012) argues that today it is becoming increasingly important for companies to work with CSR because stakeholders are more engaged in issues related to social responsibility and the environment. However, much research shows that it does not play a major role how companies work with CSR issues if the information does not reach the final consumer. The focus of this paper is therefore to examine how some of the major clothing companies communicate about their work with CSR issues and if consumers believe that they have the information needed to make an informed purchasing decision that support sustainable development in the garment industry. Our study has among other things found evidence that companies doesn?t reach out with information about their work with CSR.

The phenomenon of social gaming is essentially an IT-service that people worldwideuses on a daily basis. This particular market is also young and generates tremendousamounts of data, which, from a data managing perspective, makes it naturallyinteresting. Throughout this thesis the social gaming market is described from the datamanaging and different actors perspectives. This is done by using literature reviewing,interviews with companies and analysis based on that information. The thesis initiallypresents important and central terms as well as different techniques.

This master thesis is an in-depth study of an existing heating system at a household cooperative in Uppsala that has been converted from district heating to a bedrock heat pump system. The study focuses on an economical system optimisation of the building?s complete heating system. The aim was to determine how well a heat pump system in large buildings actually work, find out possible ways to optimize the existing system and point out important system parameters for new heat pump installations in larger buildings.The project points out a possible energy cost reduction of 45 % without investment and further cost reductions with equipment investments. A reduction by 30 % is possible by improvements in the regulation system and 15 % is possible by maintaining the brine system.

Purpose: To examine how IR-related press releases affect share price for stock companies, and to explore how said companies practice Investor Relations.Methods: The study was conducted using an event study as well as e-interviews. The event study has a quantitative deductive research approach where the market model is used for calculating the abnormal return based on press releases. The e-interviews have a qualitative research approach and follow a semi structured interview guide. The study includes all listed stock companies within the Swedish construction industry and includes press releases from the last decade.Theory: The study is based on the efficient market hypothesis and its semi strong form, theories within Investor Relations and previous research.Results: The event study shows a significant negative abnormal return during a four day period starting the day after the press release event. The negative abnormal return could derive from investor relations being used by companies as damage control, or that the investors? expectations are too high as a result of IR.

Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze how insurance companies work to create value and confidence in their brands and then compare whether consumers perceive brands as companies seek.Method: The study is a gap analysis of both qualitative and quantitative in nature containing both interviews with insurance companies and a survey carried out on consumers. The study has been developed by analytical induction.Data: Consists of interviews with representatives from the insurance companies and survey responses from 99 consumers.Conclusion: From the study it can be concluded that the insurance industry is unique in its kind as a difficulty and complexity is obviously applicable to convey an overall impression to the consumer, which in turn will produce a brand value to the company. Creating a high brand value through good marketing where it maintained a good congruence between firms striving and consumer perception, is according to the scientists complicated because the lack of perceived quality affects the the big picture..

Shell companies are characterized by containing liquid assets such as cash, securities or other similar assets. Transactions of shell companies constitutes a severe problem since the purchaser often has the aim of obtaining undue tax advantages by not paying the tax debt of the company.Historically it has been complicated for the legislator to stop the set-up in an efficient way since the transactions as such are not illegal, instead rather commonly used for example to restructure companies or for the transfer of companies to the younger generation. The purpose of the current legislation is to prevent individuals and corporations to involve in shell company trade. Aiming for an efficient legislation, the tax rate is at a very high level.The issue with the rules is that also honest buyers are at risk of being covered. This calls for high demands in complying with the principle of legal certainty and the possibility to forecast the tax consequences.The purpose of the thesis is to identify and analyze eventual problems when applying the legislation.

Myanmar?s entry in Association of South Eastern Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1997 brought about several economic and social changes. One important change is tariff reduction through the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT-scheme), which increased Myanmar?s export to countries outside the ASEAN. The increase in exports facilitated trade creation and investment creation for Myanmar.

This thesis will through the use of various approaches determine the key drivers for dividend payouts for A-listed Swedish firm. The time frame reaches from 1997 to 2003 an the thesis covers 48 companies..

With the globalization, companies in the West chose to shift production to developing countries to cut down costs. This had a major impact when child labor and very poor working conditions in these factories were discovered and led many companies to take responsibility for their suppliers and the employees by adopting voluntary so-called Codes of Conduct.There is a subtle balance to enforce improvement of working conditions for employees at suppliers´ factories and to keep costs down. On the one hand, companies would like to conduct extensive audits at their suppliers to ensure code of conduct compliance and thus protect their legitimacy. On the other hand, audits are expensive so companies would like to minimize audits to keep costs down. Companies thus have to strike a delicate balance in relation to how many and what suppliers they choose to audit.

Background: Small businesses are key participants in the growth at the Swedish market, partly for the labour opportunities, the technology and economic development. These companies should get resources to grow, both political and economic resources. The medtech companies in an introduction and expansion phase meet with problems concerning the financing of their growth. Key participants whom offer financing are Venture Capitalists.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine Venture Capitalists demands on medtech companies in an introduction and expansion phase. A comparison between the demands and how well medtech companies achieve them will be done.

Background: Balanced scorecard is a relatively new strategy in analysing activities in a company. To carry out a strategy in an organization a successful implementation is very important. Strategy implementations are unique for each organization and to succeed it has to be formulated and implemented with the individual companies particular conditions as starting- point. A problem is that the implementation sometimes is treated as a small detail in the planning process. This problem depends on how the strategic plans is carried out.

The aim of the study is on basis of Peters and Waterman?s factor of success, to examine the successful companies, Ericsson and Huawei, and to analyze the R&D and positioning strategies of the companies.To accomplish the study we have used a case study using interviews and annual reports to collect data. Three persons have been interviewed, two from Ericsson and one from Huawei. All annual reports from the year 2004 until 2011 have been reviewed.Our finding is that Ericsson and Huawei do not, according to Peters and Waterman?s model, fulfill all factors of success and their R&D strategy varies depending on the situation and which knowledge the company already possesses and needs.

Since year 2005 the accounting has changed for public companies because of the new international standards, IFRS. IFRS 3 provides a single international accounting treatment for acquisitions and has broadened the definition of intangible assets. By IFRS 3 goodwill is defined as the excess of the cost of acquisition and is separated from intangible assets. Now goodwill must be annually tested by an impairment test. There are many valuation issues to considerate when it comes to deciding the value of goodwill.