Hedge funds have the past few years become an increasingly popular investment alternative and in the last decade hedge fund assets managed have quadrupled to USD 2000 billion, a growth rate of around 25-30% per year. One explanation for this substantial increase is that hedge funds' minimum limits on capital invested has declined, which have made ??them available to retail investors. The recent turmoil in financial markets has also contributed to investors finding their way to hedge funds, whose goal is to generate stable returns regardless of how the market develops.Using Sharpe?s, Treynor?s and Jensen's performance measures, I have investigated whether hedge funds manage to generate higher risk-adjusted returns than traditional managed funds.

IT is a natural part of the work today when it comes to projects. There are many aspects that are wholly or partly dependent on IT support actions to proceed efficiently. Although there is still situations where IT is deselected as a tool. The factors that make it look like this is not always included in the calculation, which resulted in the failure that could have been remedied with the right tools to solve the problems. The project form which today is increasingly common with all major groups involved enables IT tools' impact also becomes an increasingly provided they are used properly.

The increasing holdings by institutional investors have raised concerns about the institutions passive investment strategies and the implications for corporate governance. A way for investors to address moral hazard and opportunistic behaviour of management is to demand conservatism in accounting practices. This paper analyses the relation between institutional ownership and accounting conservatism in the Swedish market by studying firms on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm over a three-year period. Furthermore, the study investigates whether ownership by institutions with high probability of monitoring managers leads to higher conservatism in financial reporting. To measure accounting conservatism this study uses the asymmetric timeliness measure developed by Basu (1997).

Problem: Is the free cash flow a value relevant accounting measure in relation to the Swedish stock market?Objective: The aim is that by using an investment strategy to examine whether the free cash flow is an accounting measure that could be perceived as value relevant in relation to the Swedish stock market.Method: The paper is based on a quantitative survey of empirical evidence that has been collected from companies listed on the Large and Mid-Cap lists of the Swedish stock market.Theoretical Frame of reference: value relevance, cash flow, portfolio theory, drive theoryResults: It was concluded that the study results conform to the Finnish survey results. The portfolio shows higher returns than the OMX index..

America finds itself divided in the midst of strict abortion laws and a contentious presidential election. This era of polarization, raises the question of whether such a great division has permeated through to the U.S Supreme Court. This paper uses two dominant theories of legitimacy; traditional and ideological, respectively, to analyze and compare this issue. The theories are compared empirically by investigating the level of public trust across opposing political affiliations. Unlike most previous research, the results suggest that variation in trust aligns with the ideological distance to the Court between democratic and republican voters. Trust is also found to be dependent on whether the electorate agrees with the decisions of the court or not.

 Background: Euthanasia means help to die. Some terminally ill patients wish for euthanasia. Purpose: Illuminating terminally ill patients' desire for voluntary euthanasia. Method: A general literature study. Seven articles were reviewed and analyzed.

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 purpose of this essay was to further develop the discussion around the street-level bureaucrats and the dilemmas that they meet in their work environment. The paper will try to accomplish this by putting the spotlight on the professional role, the organizational control of the street-level bureaucrat and the effect of society on the work environment. Something that also will be discussed is the well-known difficulty of implementation of new programs and methods, especially when street-level bureaucrats are involved. The street-level bureaucrats that this paper focuses on are caseworkers within Försäkringskassan and handle benefits and take decisions about the need for rehabilitation for people who are ill and unable to work.I have used a qualitative method for this study. The empirical material consists of six interviews at two different offices.The main cause of the dilemma of the street-level bureaucrat is that there is a conflict between the human side and the professional role.

Politicians attract their voters by promising more jobs and investment in education, health and social care. Against this background, I wonder how the situation of artists will be affected by the followingquestions:? What political views on the artist's position in society appeared in propositions of Socialdemokraterna and Moderaterna?? In what way did these propositions influence the conditions of artists?? How have the artists of Värmland been affected by different (Socialdemokraterna and Moderaterna) cultural policies? With my investigation I find out more about the artists' conditions on a national level, but I also investigate the situation in Värmland. By examining policy proposals and reports, I learn more about the issues. I also conduct a survey and three in-depth interviews to obtain opinions from various sources.The respondents are the cultural departments of Värmland and representatives from cultural organizations.What is clear from my research is that politicians differ on some issues, especially those relating to commercialism and artist salaries.

This report analyzes disposable packaging and returnable packaging with the methods life cycle analysis and life cycle costs analysis. These two different packaging are analyzed through the company Clas Ohlson?s packaging-flow. To get a picture of how the flow works, a visit at the company and email contact have been done with Clas Ohlson to get relevant informationToday Clas Ohlson has a big flow of articles to the stores without larger variations in the demand, with the exception of autumn, which is when customers start shopping for Christmas. Clas Ohlson?s articles are placed on a pallet and are wrapped into plastic-film for protection and to make sure that nothing will be stolen.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur konsulter arbetar med nyttovärdering vid ERPinvesteringar,samt finna kritiska framgångsfaktorer som kan fungera som stöd för ERPkonsulter.Vi har genomfört en fallstudie på SYSteam Anderstorp där vi på ett kvalitativt vissamlat in data via dokumentundersökningar, observationer och intervjuer. Vid analys avinsamlad data kunde vi identifiera fem steg en ERP-konsult bör gå igenom för att värderanyttor vid ERP-investeringar. Dessa steg är 1processkartläggning, 2identifiering av nyttor,3värdering av nyttor, 4genomförande och 5uppföljning. Vidare har vi i varje steg kunnatidentifiera kritiska framgångsfaktorer som vi anser kan underlätta en ERP-konsults arbetemed nyttovärdering. Sammanlagt har vi kunnat identifiera fjorton kritiska framgångsfaktorer.De slutsatser vi kunnat dra av denna studie är att befintliga modeller för nyttovärdering ochvärdehemtagning tenderar att bli för teoretiska för att kunna tillämpas i praktiken.

Aggression is a normal part of a dog?s behaviour repertoire and has always been an evolutionary relevant behaviour. Even if aggression in some contexts is relevant, it is one of the most common problem behaviour reported by dog owners. It has been discussed if some breeds are more likely to show aggression and therefore should be banned. On the 1st of January 2008 a new act was enforced by the Swedish government giving the police force greater authority in decisions to apprehend and euthanize dogs if they after an appropriate evaluation of the dog?s temperament think it is necessary.

The aim of this study is to examine what social workers consider as ?challenging behaviour? among adolescents, but also to examine the connection between investigation and intervention in cases where such behaviour is being displayed. The questions of the study are to examine what social workers think of the instrument of assessment BBIC (Children?s Needs in Focus) and how the usage of BBIC affect social workers understanding of challenging behaviour. Moreover, it is a qualitative study and the respondents are all social workers with various length of professional experience who work with making decisions in juvenile welfare cases.

This thesis describes how large Swedish companies finance their debt and identifies some factors that affect their decisions. The study is based on 10 well-known companies of which 9 are listed on Nasdaq OMX Nordic. The results show that the companies display several similarities concerning their debt structure and the factors which their choices are based upon. All companies in this study primarily use corporate bonds for their long-term borrowing, commercial papers for the short-term borrowing, and bank-facilities as back-up. There is a tendency that smaller companies in larger extent use bank-loans for long-term borrowing due to larger emissions costs when using market financing.

Open source software has recently been discussed, not least in media as a revolution in IT. A number of advantages have been listed in changing proprietary software into open source software. Examples of such pros are no expenses for license fees and improved efficiency. In spite of this, few users have made this change. One of the reasons is a distrust of the quality in open source software.