Many researchers emphasize the increasing strategic importance of supply chain management, but there is still a lack of concrete guidance for managers faced with strategic decisions in supply chain. Within decision-making theories, the rational decision-making model is the most commonly used. This because of its suitable foundation, enabling a structure to the complex decision process. The rational decision-making model is today not developed to include the aspects of strategic decision-making made in supply chain. The purpose of this research is to adjust a structured rational decision-making model, making it applicable for strategic decision-making in supply chain.

This thesis studies the way valuation of investment properties is conducted in accordance with IAS 40 and how reliable these valuations are. This has been conducted by studying ten Swedish real estate companies listed on the NASDAQ OMX, during the period 2005-2008. The study shows that all companies use valuation models to determine the fair value of investment properties. Two different types of models have been identified. Companies that use the cash flow model show inconsistencies in time horizon, and how they determine the horizon value.

In December 2004 an earthquake coursed waves that hit Thailand. Over 5000 people died, and Sweden was the tourist country that has been effected the worst. The catastrophe precipitated Sweden in crises and the demand became high for Swedish government to act. Swedes followed the development via media, why media became the crucial element for how the public perceived politicians? acting.

Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka och presentera vilka investeringskriterier som svenska kommuner använde år 2011 vid byggnadsinvesteringar, samt i vilken utsträckning extern hjälp vid investeringsbedömning och utförande av byggnadsinvesteringar användes.Frågeställning: Vilka samband fanns mellan investeringsandel per omsättning och i hur stor utsträckning beslutade byggnadsinvesteringar blev dyrare än beräknat?Vilka skillnader fanns mellan större och mindre kommuner med hänsyn till investeringsbedömningar i byggnader?I vilken utsträckning förekom samarbete mellan kommuner gällande byggnadsinvesteringar?I hur stor utsträckning anlitades extern hjälp med projektledning och kalkylering vid byggnadsprojekt?Metod: Studien är baserad på en webbenkätundersökning med 44 deltagande kommuner och en personlig intervju. Denna undersökning analyserades och jämfördes sedan med en referensram baserad på sekundära källor.Slutsats: Större kommuner behöver förbättra sina planeringar och kontrollera sina byggnadsinvesteringar i och med att investeringarna ofta är större och fler saker kan gå fel än för mindre kommuner.Fler kommuner borde samarbeta mer vid byggnadsinvesteringar för att på det viset kunna matcha byggföretagen vid upphandling.Kommunerna bör fortsätta kontrollera den externa hjälp de använder vid byggnadsinvesteringar och göra tydliga kontrakt..

Investors have been shown to be driven by emotional and psychological factors. This contradicts classical financial theories, for example the Efficient Market hypothesis which states that all investors act rationally. Behavioural Finance is an area of study which describes various psychological factors which may result in irrational investor behaviour.The primary question of the study is: which factors do operating people in the financial sector consider themselves to be influenced by? The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors which affect the process of creating forecasts or making financial decisions. The study examines in addition if there is a correlation between length of investor experience and overconfidence in forecasting accuracy and Investment decision making.The study includes both quantitative and qualitative analysis.

This dissertation aims to explore how an investment appraisal differs depending on if it is conducted by a municipal or a private real estate company. Municipal and private real estate companies are not performing on totally equal terms in the property market. A municipal company in Sweden has a public service mission. The consequence due to that mission is that they have limited yield potential but on the other hand the right to certain subsidies. They are also limited by the law of public purchasing (in Swedish: Lag om offentlig upphandling) in the investment process.

I ett samhälle där relationer, även sådana av icke romantisk karaktär, har en central roll imänniskors liv är det viktigt att försöka förstå vad som ligger till grund för individers engagemangi relationer. The Investment Model säger att engagemang i relationer ökar då individerupplever ökade belöningar, minskade kostnader, färre attraktiva alternativ samt att deinvesterat mycket i relationen. I föreliggande tvärsnittsstudie undersöktes 61 grundskolelärarei Göteborgs Stad, med hjälp av the Investment Model, angående upplevt engagemang tillsitt arbete via ett frågeformulär. Studien visade att grundskolelärare med längre anställningstidupplever att de investerat mer i sitt arbete än vad de med kortare anställningstid angav..

This paper investigates decision-making under uncertainty and complexity. The focus point of the study was to investigate how organizations in Stockholm has come to a decisions on how to manage the trial implementation of a congestion tax in terms of their company cars. The study was conducted as a survey with complementary interviews with the decision makers in change of congestion tax problem. The aim of the study was to gain an understanding for the decision making processes, and how and why the companies decided as they did. The theory on which we based our study emanated from both systems theory and business economic theory on decision making.

Problems: How does Volvos CE: s four Swedish plants work with investment appraisals? Does the work differ between the plants? If differences exist, what can be improved in order to make the work more uniform?  Purpose: To map the work with investment appraisals at Volvo CE: s four Swedish plats, to analyze differences in work between the plants and give proposals to a more homogenous working.Method: A method of qualitative nature. The study mainly contains raw data from semi structured interviews. Secondary data, such as internal policy documents and documentation of completed investment projects, has supplemented the raw data. Analysis: The mapping shows significant differences in work with investments between Volvo CE: s Swedish plants.

The debate on the future of Nuclear power in Sweden has increased with the discussion on global warming. The uncertainty of fossil fuel- and carbonprices the latest years has aroused considerable interest in Nuclear from power companies, industry and politicians. Nuclear power plants have negligible CO2 emissions and are not directly affected by increased price of emission rights and fossil fuels. The future power production needs to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases to become sustainable. The purpose of this study is to examine the value for power producers to have the option to invest in Nuclear power and how a Nuclear power venture would affect future electricity prices. The study uses two methods, a traditional cash flow model and real option analysis, to estimate the value of Nuclear power.

Studies have shown that mergers and acquisitions often fail and that a reason to this might be that investment banks do not take any responsibility for the post merger integration. Despite this there have been no studies of the potential benefits of an investment bank taking a holistic approach to the M&A-process and including post merger integration in its service. This study identifies a couple of investment banks that does this and calls them holistic investment banks. In M&A-theory a successful process is often described according to so called success factors that need to be fulfilled in order to achieve a successful result of the merger or acquisition. The business model and work approach of one holistic investment bank is analyzed in this case study on the base of seven success factors from established theories.

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.

Our purpose in this paper is to examine if there is any profitability for a company with a factory in the timber industry to invest in a combined heat and power, CHP. Based on analysis and the results that the paper generates, we will give Derome AB a suggestion on how it is a profitable investment or not to installing in a CHP.By investing in a CHP plant, you can get a high efficiency, which means that companies can use their resources more effectively. The Swedish wood industry has by-products of production that can be used for combustion in their boiler which is an advantage.The essay is a qualitative study where we have a case company, Derome AB. In this company, we interviewed two employees who have knowledge in the study. They have helped us to provide information and data about their business.We chose to use the pay-off- and the net present value method, NPV, to see if there are profitable advantages for the investment.

AbstractDate              2009-06-07Level             Master thesis in Information Technology and Business Administration, 15 hp, EIK024Authors        Anna Karlsson, akn05009@student.mdh.se                      Lena-Maria Lindström, llm05002@student.mdh.seTutor            Peter EkmanTitle              IT Governance with an IT investment focusKeywords     IT Governance, IT investments, IT decisions Problem       To control and manage IT and IT functions in the organization has been a big challenge for many businesses for a long time. In order to make the management of IT more efficient IT Governance is needed. If the organization is going to be successful IT Governance is necessary and this type of governance enables a more effective use of IT that supports the business and its operations. The problem questions for this thesis are: How is the company?s IT Governance built up? How are decisions regarding the company?s IT investments taken? How is the connection between the company?s IT investments and the company?s IT Governance?Purpose        The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze how a company?s IT Governance is built up and how the company uses IT Governance to reach the desired results from the IT investments.Method        The thesis is a qualitative study.

Title: A study about the purchasing process of ITLevel: Master thesis in Information Technology and Business Administration, 15 hp, EIK024Authors: Emelie Johanson and Mikael LindströmTutor: Peter Ekman, Mälardalens HögskolaKeywords: IT-investment, purchase, decisionProblem: In the last decades the amount of IT investments increased and has become an important resource within most organizations. IT gives the ability to compete and could also be a condition for many to be able to compete. In different businesses it could vary in where they put their focus when they choose an IT investment. This thesis examines how the purchase process of IT looks. How does processes differs in a bigger company versus a smaller company? From these two perspectives this study examined these research questions: Who makes the decisions whether or not an IT solution should be purchased? What aspects decide when companies are to choose between different IT solutions? Where in the purchase process do problems usually emerge?Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze the purchasing process of IT from a business perspective.