As companies exert themselves to find new ways of achieving market dominance and stronger brands, the phenomenon co-branding has become increasingly popular. By cooperation between two different firms the combined effects can result in synergies not only on the balance sheet, but even through softer values such as Brand recognition, equity and larger market share. Recently the fashion company H&M launched a collection together with the esteemed fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. The objective of this paper is to examine the effects the collaboration had on consumer?s attitudes towards the two brands.

The purpose of the thesis is to examine why women face greater difficulties than men in the management consulting industry when advancing as well as to identify potential success factors that enable women to overcome the existing difficulties. In order to fulfil the purpose, a theoretical framework including gender and organisational theory has been applied to a qualitative case study of two Swedish management consulting firms. A number of difficulties have been identified related to women's career advancement, which are the following: the male leader and the stereotypical male leadership, firms having higher expectations on women's performance, women's reluctance to self-promotion and to play "the organizational game", women's preference of social networks, men's tendency to promote other men, and the choice and conflict between a career and family life. The identified success factors that enable women to overcome these difficulties are: adapting the male leadership style, having an extrovert behaviour, becoming more active in professional networks, promoting one self, actively seeking to gain more attention, and prioritising one's career. These success factors can be summarised as women adapting a more male-like behaviour.

In September 2008, a proposition to limit auditors? liability for statutory audit was launched by a Swedish Government official report. Auditors? legal liability in this respect has been joint and unlimited for more than 60 years in Sweden. By using a qualitative literature study method, this paper aims at discovering how the proposed change in legal liability affects the legitimacy of auditors in Sweden.

Purpose: This paper aims to describe the socialization process that audit associates experience within an auditing firm that is included in the Big 4-sphere. Our purpose is also to describe which attributes that characterize the organizational identity, and how these attributes are reflected in the self-image of the associates. Furthermore, we seek to explain how the socialization process has influenced the organizational identification. This subject is of interest since the business of auditing is facing higher demands from regulators and politicians, due to the bankruptcy of HQ-bank among others during the financial crisis in the beginning of the 21st century. Earlier research claims that the socialization process of recruits, especially in the initial state of the employment, has a major impact on their future values and attitudes in their job performance.

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.

All inclusive travel has become a popular way to travel abroad. When tourists pay for everything in advance their need for contact with the local people will be reduced. The consequences of this can be dissatisfaction from the local people as they are left out and do not share the financial benefits created by tourism. During the purchasing cycle of an all inclusive travel, it is possible that the tour operator can influence a sustainable development.The aim of this paper is to compare how a large and a small tour operator in their purchase of all inclusive holidays interacts with local players to create sustainable development, thereby creating a surplus value to the customer. The hypothesis is that the amount of knowledge and application of this knowledge regarding sustainable development differs in the purchase process between large and small tour operators.This paper was carried out as a case study.

It has been even more important in the forest sector in recent years to look at the whole chain from suppliers to end users, to improve operations and improve performance and the profits of the company. The research and development have been concentrated on the buyer?s market and product development, probably because this research has capability to give an increased cash flow. But to obtain stability and continuity in the production and selling units, the suppliers should also be investigated. The aim of this thesis is to study a one company's existing suppliers of roundwood and investigate the differences and attitudes they have about the company offerings.

Background and problem - Integrated reporting is a hot topic today and is predicted to be the future of companies? external reporting. In December 2013 a new framework on integrated reporting was released and one part of the framework concerns governance and how it supports the organization?s value creation. A recent study on integrated reporting in Sweden showed the area of governance to be poorly reported.

One special feature in the Swedish nature, mainly in the county of Uppland is one distinctive kind of dip, which can be distinguished from its fast and unaccounted drainage. These dips are called ?glupar? and can mainly be found in coarse-grained pebbled moraine under the highest shoreline (HK). During spring, and particularly when snowmelting occur, the wateramliptude fluctuates a lot until late summer or the beginning of fall comes; these dips are then often almost fully drained. During winter however, the waterlevel stands high.

SAMMANFATTNING Examensarbetets titel: Drivkrafter & Bromsklossar för Innovation i Professional Service Firms ? En fallstudie av två Big Four byråer Seminariedatum: 4 juni 2008 Ämne/kurs: FEKK01, Examensarbete kandidatnivå, 15 poäng Författare: Noel Lindell, Sebastian Sedeki, Christofer Österlindh Handledare: Håkan Lagerquist Nyckelord: Tjänsteinnovation, Processinnovation, Professional Service Firm, Big Four, Innovation Syfte: Syftet är att skapa en djupare förståelse för hur man arbetar med innovation och vilken syn man har på innovation i Big Four byråerna. Vi strävar efter att förklara hur man arbetar med att tillvarata inventioner, hur innovation uppstår inom olika fält och i vilken utsträckning. Ambitionen är att vårt resultat ska vara normativt för hur man ska kunna öka innovationsgraden i en Big Four byrå. Metod: Studien är en kvalitativ fallstudie med abduktiv ansats.

This paper tests the information signalling hypothesis on a sample of firms making open market stock repurchases. Using an earnings-based valuation model, we find that a majority of repurchasing firms are undervalued relative to their economic value. This result is consistent with previous academic studies, which claim that undervaluation is the prevalent factor explaining the observed abnormal return following the announcement of a repurchase program. We do not, however, find any evidence that the repurchase is consciously made by management to provide the market with new information. .

Law firms are defined as knowledge-intensive companies. Due to the dependency regarding the resource of knowledge among the firms employees and to the fact that they often are categorised as a type of professional service firm. The purpose of this study is to investigate the different types of profitsharingsystems as a form of reward with focus on the theoretical differences and effects of the True Partnershipmodel and the Stockholmmodel. In addition to these models we will look into the Human Resource processes of; recruiting, integration, retaining and development of employees. The main purpose of the study is to examine the theoretical level on how the profitsharingsystems effect different Human Resource processes and through the knowledge of these connections using this as an analogy when to analyse other law-firms and knowledge?intensive company?s.

Background: The demand for sending letters, in the traditional aspect, has decreased because of electronic sources which have replaced a big part of letter communication. The Postal Service constantly strives for lowering costs and due to the changeable demand, a greater awareness is required regarding recourses and their usage. The previously mentioned measures in combination with commonly occurring quality issues during the collective process at the letter terminal in Alvesta would be improved by applying a lean-perspective to the process. A first step towards saving of time is to apply the ?value stream mapping?-method on the collective process for small and large letters.Purpose: To map the process of collection for small and large letters to be able to identify waste of recourses and furthermore give suggestions on how the Postal Service would be able to reduce the waste of recourses identified.

The purpose of this Master?s Thesis is to examine the information use and information behavior of the scientists at the company ?Forskningsbolaget?. For this purpose an Information Audit was carried out using both interviews with six managers and a questionnaire, which was sent out to the entire population of 213 scientists. After finding out what information the scientists use and how they obtain it the aim was to answer the question of to what extent the company?s Information Centre can meet these needs.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate which the main determinants of capital structure in Swedish listed firms are and to identify which incentives lies behind managers choice of capital structure determinants. Further, the study investigates whether the Post Keynesian theory and theories which incorporate behavioral aspects can be used to explain the capital structure decisions or if the traditional Neoclassical theory give an better explanation. We have used a qualitative method to analyze the determinants of capital structure and the managers incentives behind capital structure decision. We conducted a survey which was sent to 83 Chief Financial Managers and financial executives in Swedish firms listed on Mid Cap or Large Cap. The questionnaire was on-line which enabled for the respondents to quickly and convenient respond.