Introduction: The concept of CSR was first coined in the 1950?s and refers to corporate vol-untary work to contribute to a sustainable society. In Sweden, companies within the finance sector are among the worst when it comes to implementing CSR in their daily work. The debate on whether companies should engage in CSR activities or not, is extremely relevant nowadays. Right now we are facing a time where the demand on companies to take their social responsi-bility becomes more intensified.

Background: An evaluation of analysts´ forecasting ability is interesting since their estimates constitute an important part in stock valuation and investment decisions. The recent years´ development in the stock market has lead to criticism of analysts? deficient forecasts. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate analysts´ forecasting ability concerning companies quoted at Stockholmsbörsen between 1987 and 2002. We also intend to discuss possible explanations for analysts? behavior in case of deficient accuracy.

An increasingly globalized market is leading to hard competition among manufacturing companies, which means that they are forced to become more customer focused to survive in the market. A Customer Relationship Management system is a system that will be of assistance to help companies succeed in building long term relationships with their customers. Best of Breed and ERP-based are two types of CRM systems. The study has focused on analyzing and examine the need for CRM systems at manufacturing companies. Our question formulation has been:? What need do businesses want to satisfy with a Best of Breed-based and ERP-based CRM system?? Are there any differences in the use of Best of Breed-based and ERP-based CRM system?In this study, we have chosen to carry out interviews and quantitative surveys with manufacturing companies to get their view of CRM-systems.

Gunsta is situated about 10 km east of Uppsala. Today there are plans to establish 1000 new households in Gunsta before year 2030. The required energy for heating houses and water would be distributed via a district heating system, which also includes 200 existing residences. The annual required energy, according to this study, would be 16.2 GWh with a maximal peak effect of 6.9 MW. To meet this need, the study suggests a system with heat pumps to upgrade the 31?C water from a 1.8 kilometre deep borehole.

The purpose of this project is to study Partab's material distribution process, furthermore identify critical problem areas within the company. Further the aim is to provide suggestions to new work procedures regarding material distribution and related processes. Appropriate literature has been used as a support in this process. The main goal of a commercial company is to generate cash flow, and maximize the return on investment. Streamlining material supply and the use of material is a part of this process. Virum and Persson define logistics as: "Logistics is the approach and principles founding the process of planning, development, coordination, organisation, management, and control of material distribution from supplier to user".

AbstractThe importance of good construction planning affects the final costs of the production and the timing of the project. Planning for building projects has been studied with the aim of identifying how three week planning appears in the construction industry today.A case study has been conducted in Navisworks Simulate to assess whether the software is suitable to connect the task schedule with the BIM model to create a 4D model. 4D models are used for performing 4D construction simulation to visualize the project. In order to use the benefits of the model, investment in equipment and software is required. This means higher costs for the companies.

Umeå Energi are working towards a goal, that in the year of 2018, they will be completely climate neutral. As a part of this, one target is to reduce their grid losses by 4 % of the 2012 level, which corresponds to an overall reduction of the grid losses of just over 1.7 GWh. In many residential areas, the distribution grid is designed and rated for electric heating as the heating in the houses. As many of the houses later has been converted to other types of heating, their electricity use has decreased and the total power output from many of the secondary substations has decreased significantly. Because of this, many of these stations today are well oversized, which in turn means that the energy losses in these stations are unnecessarily high.In this degree project, 25 secondary substations have been studied, all located in residential areas in and around central Umeå.

AbstractThe importance of good construction planning affects the final costs of the production and the timing of the project. Planning for building projects has been studied with the aim of identifying how three week planning appears in the construction industry today.A case study has been conducted in Navisworks Simulate to assess whether the software is suitable to connect the task schedule with the BIM model to create a 4D model. 4D models are used for performing 4D construction simulation to visualize the project. In order to use the benefits of the model, investment in equipment and software is required. This means higher costs for the companies.

Background: Within real estate companies assets according to IFRS/ IAS 40 should be valued at fair value, to compare with previous valuation criteria according to which real estate should valued at cost. Two models can be used within IAS 40, these are value at cost and fair value. When valued at cost the real estate value in the balance sheet should be specified at cost. The method chosen by the company should be used for all real estate within the company except for the premises used by the company. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to analyse and evaluate how real estate companies experienced the problems that arose when converting to IAS 40, and to analyse the effects on the companies key ratios as a result of the change of accounting method.

Biogas is an expanding sector within the broad field of agriculture and animal production. Small-scale biogas offers local combined power and heating production and the substrate is transformed into high-quality biological fertilizer. This bachelor thesis focuses on a pig farm in south-western Sweden, where biogas is produced from pig manure, evaluates and suggests ways of optimizing the process and investigates whether investing in an upgrading plant would be a feasible and more cost-efficient option. The results show that the biogas plant is working well, although the production differs from the original plans. This shows in turn that planning and examining the basic conditions before making the investment is of great importance, as well as monitoring and keeping detailed statistics of the running process.

This paper aims to analyze the effect of the American Subprime crisis of 2007 through the perspective ofHaynes Minsky?s model according to Charles Kindleberger. The investigation revolves how the anatomyof a financial crisis develops and how it is applicable to the Subprime crisis. More specific conclusionsare derived from applying Minsky?s model to the three largest American indices; Dow Jones industrialaverage, S&P500 and NASDAQ.To deepen the analysis the Case-Shiller home price indices acts as a second parameter tocompliment Minsky?s perspective with Robert J.

Background: The standard of living should be the same for everyone, whether the apartment is placed in an old or new building. The residential properties that were built from 1965 until 1974 is now beginning to become old and in need of restoration. The financial crisis during the nineties contributed to the lack of maintenance on the buildings in Sweden. As the public buildings gets older more and more defects occurs. The coordination and maintenance will therefore have a more significant role in the housing company ?s work.The increasing interest about how old a building can be, attract much attention.

AbstractTitle: Interactivity and participation - a qualitative study about the making of machinima withWorld of Warcraft (Interaktivitet och och deltagande ? en kvalitativ studie kring skapandet avmachinima med World of Warcraft)Number of pages: 68 total, 50 without appendixAuthor: Peter BrandbergTutor: Else NygrenPeriod: Autumn 2006Course: Media and Communication Studies CUniversity: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The aim of this study is to take a closer look at the phenomenon machinima by analysing a number of specific movies from the site worldcraftmovies.com. This analyse is focusing on how the content of these movies relate to the wider game culture of the MMORPG World of Warcraft, what specific elements in the movies is referring to and if there is differences or similarities between different genres (or categories).Material/Method: The method used in analysing the movies is a combined method inspired by hermeneutic, semiotics and discourse analysis.Main results: Instead of answers this study raises many questions about the diverse content of the movies. A general division can be seen between movies focusing on the games rules and movies that are trying to present a fictive world. But the study also shows how there are many movies moving between these two points.

Värdering till verkligt värde infördes i regelverket 1 januari 2005 i och med införandet av IAS 40. IAS är en förkortning av International Accounting Standards och IAS 40 ger börsnoterade bolag med förvaltningsfastigheter möjlighet att värdera och redovisa dessa fastigheter till historiskt anskaffningsvärde eller verkligt värde. Efter införandet har de flesta börsnoterade bolag valt att redovisa till verkligt värde.För att belysa problematiken med värdering och redovisning till verkligt värde används förvaltningsfastigheter som ett illustrationsexempel. Detta för att se hur kreditinstituten genomför värderingar och hur de påverkas när börsnoterade bolag redovisar till verkligt värde. Syftet med uppsatsen är att utröna om det föreligger några risker när verkligt värde appliceras på förvaltningsfastigheter.Djupintervjuer med tjänstemän på kreditinstitut har genomförts för att bringa klarhet i hur kreditinstituten ser på och hanterar värdering och redovisning till verkligt värde.Kreditinstituten använder sig av värderingsmodeller för att värdera enligt verkligt värde vilket inte är i enlighet med värderingstrappan.

In Sweden there are about 4 million hectares of bare peat (mire). This land has great potential to be transformed into productive forest land, provided drainage is carried out and, in some cases, even fertilization with ashes. Drainage of mires is necessary because the high groundwater table prevents trees from growing due to reduced oxygen availability. Some of the key nutrients that trees need to grow appear in too small quantities in mires, especially potassium (K) and phosphorus (P). Ash from the combustion of biomass contains these elements and is therefore suitable as a fertilizer.