The relationship between dividend policy and investment is a controversial area and the relationship between these two may differ depending on the company's priorities. The study examines this more closely by studying dividend policy's impact on investment and how it differs depending on the company?s market capitalization. The study is based on companies listed on the OMX Stockholm within the segments Large Cap and Small Cap, during the period between 2003-2012. Secondary data was obtained from each company's annual reports where relevant data was used to operationalized into measurable variables.

Large-scale land investments is not a new phenomenon, but increasing prices on food and agrofuels have inflated prices on land and has led to an enhanced interest in landinvestments from a range of different actors. The ProSavana project in the Nacala corridor in the Nampula province, northern Mozambique is a large-scale land investment with the purpose of establishing intensive commercial agriculture and is planned to be implemented this year (2013). The project is financed by Brazil and Japan in collaboration with the government of Mozambique. It is not quite clear how large-scale land investments affect the areas they are implemented in and how they can affect the possibilities for sustainable development in these areas. Both opportunities and problems can be observed within the social, economic and ecological dimensions of sustainable development.

År 2005 beslutades att svenska företag vars aktier är noterade på en reglerad marknadsplats ska upprätta sina årsredovisningar enligt regelverket IFRS. En av många förändringar som detta medförde var att den immateriella illgången goodwill årligen ska nedskrivningsprövas, istället för att som tidigare linjärt avskrivas. För att utföra en nedskrivningsprövning måste ett företag värdera goodwill. Det inbegriper att fastställa en rad antaganden och precisera nyckeltal. Information om processen ska enligt standarden IAS 36 finnas att tillgå i företagets årsredovisning.

Compressed air is a low efficiency media, and is thus very expensive to produce. This thesis work began by mind mapping how to create savings on the compressed air system at Billerud Skärblacka AB. Certain issues have been chosen for further studies.In order to identify the consumption of compressed air at PM 8 and 9, several measurements were made. At PM 8 there were not found any pressure drop, only large pressure variations for short periods of time. The causes of these pressure variations were not established.

My essay is on the subject of teachers work environment with focus on noise and communication. In the essay questions are raised on how a teacher can influence his or hers noisy work environment. A school is a large work place with many employees and is owned and administered by the county municipality which is an even bigger workplace. How big an acting space does a teacher have in such a large organization?My methods of research on these questions have been to conduct interviews and analyzing documentation from The Swedish Work Environment Authority.

Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka om det finns statistiska samband mellan avsättningar ochnytillträdd VD samt avsättningar och negativt resultat, och därmed undersöka om Big BathAccounting förekommer på OMX Stockholmsbörsens Large Cap.Teori: Litteraturgenomgången består av erkända teorier såsom agentteorin ochintressentmodellen. Agentteorins grundpelare är att alla är nyttomaximerande och arbetar till sinegen ekonomiska fördel vilket kan förklara en nytillträdd VD:s incitament att göra storaavsättningar under sitt tillträdande år. Intressentmodellen menar att redovisningen har som sitthuvudsakliga syfte att förse intressenterna med information om företagets finansiella ställning.Denna information ska sedan ligga till grund för beslutsfattande vilket medför att det är viktigt attinformationen är tillförlitlig.Metod: Studien är en kvantitativ undersökning där fyra uppställda hypoteser statistiskt testasmed Mann-Whitney test.Empiri: Studien omfattar OMX Stockholmsbörsens Large Cap under åren 2008 samt 2010.Undersökningen omfattar 88 observationer och av dessa har 10 stycken nytillträdd VD och 13stycken negativt resultat.Resultat: Det kan inte statistiskt säkerställas att skillnader i avsättning förekommer hos bolagmed nytillträdd VD, däremot är det statistiskt säkerställt att skillnader i avsättning i absolutabelopp förekommer hos bolag med negativt respektive positivt resultat.Slutsatser: Det kan enligt denna studie inte statistiskt säkerställas att Big Bath Accountingförekommer på OMX Stockholmsbörsens Large Cap..

The purpose of this essay is to investigate if the companies listed on Nasdaq/OMX Stockholm Large Cap use the earnings management phenomenon Big Bath Accounting to a greater extent when a change of management (CEO) is made.Management tends to use earnings management when there is a bonus plan linked to the result of the company. To gain maximum bonus the management will try to manipulate the result in a way that in a long term maximize their utility. Through the earnings management technique Big Bath the management is given the possibility to take one large cost as a one-time expend, even though the cost is supposed to run over several financial years. This, of course, within the legal framework. A big bath may occur when there is an impairment of goodwill, tangible and/or intangible assets or larger provisions for future expense, or both of them at the same time..

AbstractTitle: How has IAS 38 affected accounting in small and large companies?A study of the differences in the accounting of financial ratios between small and large companies.Authors: Jasmine Choudrey & Rana QadriMain Course: Business EconomicsThe aim of this study is to make a comparative examination between small and large companies in Sweden and to analyse how accounting of intangible assets has been affected or changed due to the introduction of the new accounting recommendations and IAS 38.Main theory: There are no theories available on these type of researches due to the fact that the introduction of the IFRS is relatively new. Instead the essay discusses facts about the financial ratios and IFRS as a starting point for the study.Method: The examination will be a combination of both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The quantitative part will be based on statistics and financial ratios from the different companies annual reports. These financial ratios will be analyzed by performing a confidence interval.

Theoretically, when an organization grows large it has to formalize its structure and exercise control by more regulations. The negative side effect might in turn be demotivated employees (machine bureaucracy). However, practice seems to contradict theory. Therefore, we decided to investigate how a large company, in this case Microsoft, succeeds in creating motivation despite some machine bureaucratic tendencies. The essential findings are that the employees feel motivated by the fact that they are allowed freedom with responsibility.

Diesel electric propulsion is in many ways a good alternative to conventional shaft propulsion, both economically and environmentally. There are also many other good side effects which need to be considered, i.e. better manoeuvrability, more efficient use of space and less noise on board. However, there are applications where diesel electric propulsion is not profitable. Large ocean going ships? profitability is much depending on fuel costs and the diesel electric alternative cannot compete on long journeys with large low speed engines.This thesis will treat the aspects of choosing between a diesel electric system and a classic mechanical propulsion system.

This master thesis was initiated with the aim to answer at what level of installed capacity of wind power in the northern parts of Sweden it would be beneficial to improve the transmission capacity from the northern Sweden. During the process of this work the aim has changed to try and create a model that can be used to analyze how well the hydro power installed in the northern Sweden can even out the quick changes in wind power production.To create a good model of all hydro power in northern Sweden is a very large job, unfortunately too large for a master thesis. This report therefore ends with an extensive analysis of the simplifications that have been made and their effects as well as a list of the future work that has to be done.The model that has been created have shown to be effective and produce good results. The conclusions that can be made is that the northern Swedish hydro power have very good possibilities to balance the wind power production. Only a few cases where water have been spilled even though there has been some free capacity has been discovered.

This thesis investigate how energy efficient measures has spread throughout the data centers in Sweden. These questions are put up against a theoretical use of such concepts such as green IT, technological evolution, large technical systems and knowledge dissemination. These theories are used to answer the questions that are encountered during the study, such as how green IT is approached, how big of a role environmental thinking has had in the evolvement of these new technologies. The study has been conducted in a longitudinal manner, it is an observation of the phenomenon that is data centers over a longer period of time. 23 non structured interviews spanning over 27.5 hours of recorded material have been conducted alongside a study of archived material.

Emotional intelligence (EQ) has been claimed to be the most critical factor in determining a person's success in life, both personal and professional. EQ highly affects academic and job performance, leadership, stress, and well-being but is still not widely accounted for in recruitment processes. During the last 20 years a large number of researchers have shown interest in the concept of emotional intelligence, but few have studied its practical implications and how EQ-tests are used as a selection tool in recruitment processes. To create an understanding of the motivation for using the test, as well as its role in recruitment decisions, qualitative interviews have been conducted with recruiters at companies in Stockholm, Sweden. All interviewed companies use the self-assessment test EQ:i 2.0.

The concept of large paintings includes panoramas, cycloramas and other paintings thatin size exceeds the normal magnitude of wall hung paintings. When these large paintingsare mounted in the ceiling, they are referred to as plafonds. When they are performedon canvas, certain kinds of structural distortions and stress occurs. In addition, becauseof their size and mounting high up in the ceiling, plafond paintings are often difficult tohandle, which leads to less or no maintenance. A plafond may therefore be left withoutattendance for many decades.This thesis has its focus on what happens with plafond paintings on canvas when they areexposed to gravitational forces, and the problems involved in restoring large paintingsmounted in the ceiling.

The purpose of the study is to examine and analyze the relation between the existence of global companies and given support to immigrant- owned companies with large cultural difference from public services. This helps answering the question "Which affect does the existence of local dominating companies have on the establishment of small companies owned by immigrants with large cultural differences?" This has been accomplished through a field study containing twelve interviews with small companies in two different cities and two interviews with the community officials in each city. The research was thereby narrowed to only treat the two cities in Sweden in order to examine the relation between public services support to small immigrant-owned companies and how the immigrants experience the support from them. The analyze was made due to a handful of theories such as the The network theory IP model, Hofstede's 4+1 model and the Product Life Cycle.