Auditing demands knowledge in many diverse areas. To be able to provide all this knowledge it is necessary for the auditor to have access to persons with special skills. Through these contacts the auditor builds up a business network that brings support in the daily work. Our purpose with this study is to find out how auditor?s network in big auditing firms is organized and to show how they use their network.

Several studies have investigated the relationship between different measures of innovative activity, such as patent statistics and R&D expenditures and some have looked deeper into the differences between large and small firms regarding number of patents issued per employee or per R&D dollar. In this paper, the objective is to find out if there are any indications of a barrier to entry (due to economical factors, lack of knowledge etc) for small firms to get into the field of patent handling. The approach is to first set up a hypothesis based on some simple assumptions about how firms would make decisions about whether to apply for a patent or not and thereafter use econometric methods in an empirical investigation. The data used for this study are figures on number of employees, number of patents granted and R&D expenditures for the Swedish firms in the pulp and paper industry. The main conclusion is that, based on the analysis of the data from this rather limited group of firms, no such barrier can be seen..

Auditing demands knowledge in many diverse areas. To be able to provide all this knowledge it is necessary for the auditor to have access to persons with special skills. Through these contacts the auditor builds up a business network that brings support in the daily work. Our purpose with this study is to find out how auditor?s network in big auditing firms is organized and to show how they use their network.

Background: In the current labor and business policy debate in Sweden there is a major focus on the need for it to become easier to set up small firms, and that it needs to become easier for small firms to hire staff. In order to set up and run a business, funding is required. Firms can choose to work more or less actively with this issue, but they all need to relate to it. There are basically two ways to fund a business, either through equity or through debt. The ratio between these two sources is called the firm?s capital structure.Purpose: To chart the capital structure of small firms in Sweden.

Background for the research problems: Small companies are very important for the economic stability and development, something which the economic crises in recent years have underlined. Therefore it?s important to minimize administrative costs for smaller companies and also in other ways facilitate their further development. For these reasons accounting has been simplified and auditing abolished for smaller companies in many countries. In Sweden auditing for small companies was abolished nearly three years ago.

Background for the research problems: Small companies are very important for the economic stability and development, something which the economic crises in recent years have underlined. Therefore it?s important to minimize administrative costs for smaller companies and also in other ways facilitate their further development. For these reasons accounting has been simplified and auditing abolished for smaller companies in many countries. In Sweden auditing for small companies was abolished nearly three years ago.

The purpose of the set of regulations as regards to accounting and auditing within the Union, is primarily to ensure a high quality of the large public companies financial reporting and hence protect the capital market investors. As the set of regulations also applies to the small companies, these are burdened by administrative costs that are disproportionate. To increase the competitiveness of the European companies, the European council has stated that it is essential to reduce the companies? administrative costs. The main principle is that all companies are under an obligation to statutory audit, however Member States may make audit exemptions for small companies.

Syfte: Syftet med vårt examensarbete är att försöka identifiera och analysera hur revisorer definierar revisionskvalité och hur de förvissar sig om att de genomför revision med hög kvalitéMetod: För att nå fram till ett resultat har en abduktiv ansats med en kvantitativ metod använts för denna explorativa studieTeoretiskt perspektiv: Studien utgår ifrån befintlig teori och vetenskapliga studier men även resultatet av våra pilotintervjuer som använts för att urskilja faktorer som kan förklara vårt syfte. Teorier som använts är professionsteori, institutionell teori och byråkulturell teoriEmpiri: Det empiriska materialet grundar sig på en enkätundersökning som vänder sig till Sveriges revisorer i FARs medlemsregister. Det empiriska materialet har analyserats av statistiska testerResultat: Analysen påvisade att de faktorer som har den största positiva påverkan på revisionskvalité är expertis tillsammans med revisorns kompetens.

Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration,Mid Sweden University in ÖstersundSpring term 2008Title: Abolishment of statutory audit ? a qualitative research on banks attitude when credit rating small businessesAuthor: Rima Harouki, Carina HoffmannSupervisor: Anna-Maria JanssonBackground & problem: In Sweden the statutory audit has been mandatory for every corporation since 1983. With the membership in European Union it became possible to allow exception from statutory audit for small businesses, according to the fourth commission of EG. Today, in the European Union, there are few countries that still have statutory audit for smaller businesses, Sweden is one of them. There are discussions about whether Sweden should follow the trend of abolishment and an analysis management by the justice of the Supreme Court Bo Svensson was recently presented, which ended in the conclusion that statutory audit ought to be abolished.

This essay examines the expected impact of the statury audit exemption in Sweden from anauditor perspective and any conscious changes made on the accounting firms to meet the abolition.The theoretical framework is divided into three parts where the first deals with the concept of audit, who the stakeholders are to revised information, the auditor's function from an agent and positive accountingtheoretical perspective and the expectation gap of what an auditor cando and what the client expect audit to be. The second part deals with the audit exemptions and effects in Denmark and England. The last section addresses the current debate, studies and statements by FAR SRS, small businesses, banks and the tax authority.The essay is essentially inductive with a phenomenological operator perspective. The thesis has a qualitative approach with four respondents who are authorized or approved as an auditor with extensive experience, active on four different accounting firms. The questionnaire is divided into two parts where the first part consists of a number of very open questions and the other part of more structured questions in order to obtain comprehensive answers.The survey shows that a number of new services, certifications and authentication degrees are to be expected in Sweden aswell.

The purpose of our essay is to examine if variation exists in the way that auditors try their independence, this so called analysis-model. We will suggest some factors that influence the way auditors practise the analysis-model. The institutional theory predicts no differencies since the normative pressure could be expected to be severe. But we found that among other things people?s qualifications, personalities and audit firm?s size and age influence the way auditors try their independence.

The requirement on audit was introduced when ownership was separated from management. The situation that arouse was that not only the owners, but also the stakeholders, required information about the company?s financial position. On this basis the audit would contribute to quality assurance of the financial information. One of the auditor's functions is to assess an ongoing stakeholder opinion.

Since 1987 until November 2010, the entrepreneurs who choose to conduct its? company in the Swedish corporate form aktiebolag had no opportunity to evade or deselect the mandatory audit. The only choice that really was there to make was to which audit firm they would turn to and the Swedish auditor?s position was rather unchallenged. Today the circumstances are different and the small businesses have been given a chance to take charge of their own situation now being able to remove the auditor.

The Swedish Tax Agency is a government authority whose mission is to collect taxes and fees for financing the public sector and welfare in Sweden. Under the last decade the tax gap in Sweden has been constant and small businesses with a max turnover of 25 millions Swedish crowns are the biggest group in the tax gap. In the government inquiry about abolishment of statutory audit for small businesses (2008) there has been laid some proposals that the Swedish Tax Agency should get new control tools and increased rights to control small businesses tax accounts. In the science some controversies exists about tax authority?s ability to get taxpayers to pay taxes and fees to the society through using deterrence and compellence control methods versus more service? This ground has guided us to our presentation of a problem: ?How the Swedish Tax Agency works with influencing small businesses behaviour through preventive actions and controls?? The purpose of this study is to research and understand how the Swedish Tax Agency works in their control activities to influence small businesses behaviours regarding taxes and fees.

Background: Sweden has, since 1983, had a statutory audit for all joint-stock companies. However, according to EG?s fourth corporation directive, member countries can decide on their own if this applies for small joint-stock companies. An investigation was launched in the fall of 2006 to form an opinion on the importance of the audit reporting by law and what an abolishment of this rule would mean for small joint-stock companies. Critics are claiming that the cost of audit for small companies is exceeding the cause in these micro companies.Audit is regulated by Swedish translation (RS) of International Standards on Auditing (ISA) and is to be applied in all companies comprised by the statutory audit.