The study aims to describe and analyze the image of Mary Magdalene as expressed in the French artwork from 1400 and 1600s that this study deals with. The study also examines the historical context in order to find explanations for why the images of Mary Magdalene have changed. In the study Erwin Panofsky?s iconographic method is used to analyze the artworks and finding their underlying meaning. Delimitations are made that only works of art made by French artists from the 1400 and 1600s are analyzed and delimitations are also made that Mary Magdalene will act on her own in the works of art.

A great number of empirical researches show that hedging is associated with higher firm value, particularly hedging interest rate and exchange rate. However, there is no clear support for value-added risk management hypothesis in the case of producers of commodities. Moreover, according to Shrand and Unal (1997), there are two types of risks, core business risks (or core risk) and homogeneous risks (or non core risks), which are based on a firm's comparative advantages with respects to the source of risk. Firm can earn economic profits for bearing core risks in which it has a comparative information advantage. Firm earn a zero economic rents for bearing non-core risks, where it has no advantage information than its competitors.

 The aim and scope of this study is to describe the coordination of joint efforts concerning chemicals and hazardous substances in the Baltic Sea region, between the Swedish Chemicals Agency (KemI) and the land-based pollution group of the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM LAND). Based on the description of the coordination, the second aim is to discuss the consequences for the Swedish Chemicals Agency in its policy shaping work towards a nontoxic environment. A qualitative and descriptive case study method is used for this purpose. Theories of coordination and achievement-inducing criteria for environmental goals are applied to the case. Components and related processes of coordination are applied to the descriptive part of the study, whilst the achievement-inducing criteria are applied in the discussion.

The pace of product development is increasing. It is important to keep high quality in theproducts even though the time for product development decreases. Those companies whichcan utilize previous experiences are positioned with a significant competitive advantage. ToABB Robotics it has become evident that the knowledge transfer process within the productdevelopment department is inadequate. This study was a result and an attempt to address thisunsatisfactory insight.

Abstract The internationalisation of a company is enabled by integration of markets. New markets mean new revenues, but also demand capital to finance the expansion. To bring in new capital may offer new possibilities but also higher debt-equity ratios, which affect how external interested parties value the company. This thesis, inspired by previous and mainly US based research, researches the debt-equity ratio of Swedish multinational and domestic companies, sampled from the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The research questions have focused on the impact of certain internationalisation variables on the debt-equity ratio; how does the debt-equity ratio differ between international and domestic companies? Can a difference be explained by the degree of internationalisation? Can a difference be better explained by the presence of international ownership? By measuring the concept internationalisation as both trade and presence, the questions were operationalised into four hypotheses.

Leverage buyout?s is an opportunity for companies, who can strengthen its market position by expanding its operations, and it add?s value to the company. At every LBO, copmanies make different values of the target company to finally come upp to a final bid. The final bid may in many cases be made of a surplus value, which is the differens between the value of the net-assets and the final bid. This we call goodwill and it has been a target in many discussions.

The number of LBOs in Sweden has increased during the last years and the current market trend is positive. MostLBOs involves private companies, but a few concerns public corporations on the national share market. In this thesis we will examine the conditions of a LBO of Cloetta Fazer AB. The purpose is to study existing conditions of Cloetta Fazer AB and to examine pros and cons with the deal. Based upon information presented in the frame of reference and in the empirical part, two cash flow valuations have been carried out.

Background: Many authors consider knowledge to be a significant source for competitive advantage. Replicating companies found their competitiveness on an ability to Leverage its knowledge base by replicating its business model in new contexts, a process often referred to as the McDonalds approach. Several authors emphasize that an efficient method for knowledge transfer may increase the risk for imitation. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine in an explorative manner how strategies for replicating complex knowledge systems are employed and developed. Furthermore, our ambition is to explore the notion of replication strategy.

Till följd av en ständigt ökad konkurrens blir det allt svårare att som ny aktör att ta sig in på olika marknader. Vad som däremot kan underlätta etableringsprocessen för nya företag och varumärken är att associeras och förknippas med redan etablerade och välkända varumärken. Företaget gooh! är ett nytt måltidskoncept som funnits i drygt två år och är ett samarbete mellan Lantmännen och Operakällaren. Det intressanta här är att företaget gooh! har två kända varumärken som medverkar och står bakom konceptet.I den här uppsatsen kommer vi att undersöka hur Marketing mix modellens faktorer påverkar en konsuments första köp av en gooh! produkt, med syfte att se om någon av dessa faktorer är mer viktig än någon annan samt att se hur dessa samverkar med varandra. Vi vill också i denna uppsats se hur konsumentens första köp påverkas av att två starka varumärken står bakom konceptet gooh!.Undersökningen baseras på en kvantitativ undersökning där vi slumpmässigt frågat 50 konsumenter som alla handlat i en och samma gooh! butik.Resultaten vi kommit fram till i denna undersökning tyder på att den valda ?platsen? av butik, dvs.

In a time when economic crises relieving one another, it is especially interesting to study how companies choose to finance their operations. Since there is a lack of studies that include banks, and their capital structures, with the rest of the finance market, it is uncertain whether the theories of capital structure are applicable. Therefore, this essay aims to study whether there is any correlation between the two variables debt-equity ratio and return on equity (ROE) for Swedish corporations on the finance market.In accordance with the theorems that the professors Modigliani and Miller filed, in 1958 and 1961, which describes a clear link between debts, increase corporate value through the tax shield and indirectly increased yields. Although these theorems are the foundation of the modern research they focus on perfect markets. Therefore, this paper has also chosen to place great emphasis on theories such as Trade-off and Pecking-order.

Introduction: A general guideline was introduced on October first 2010 regarding a mortgage cap, limiting the degree of Leverage of housing as collateral. Through the new guidelines the marked conditions concerning consumers? choice of mortgage has changed. The consumers are limited in the sense that they can?t only use mortgage when purchasing a house.

This study examines whether there is an association between the length of the client-auditor relationship and audit quality, using absolute unexpected accruals estimated by industry as a measure of audit quality based on a modified Jones model. The study is motivated by the proposal on mandatory audit firm rotation for publicly traded companies from the European Commission, which is based on the notion that longer auditor firm tenure creates a familiarity threat which reduces the audit quality. Both the relation between audit quality and auditor partner tenure and audit firm tenure is examined in this study, using multivariate regression controlling for auditor type (Big 4 versus non-Big 4), signing auditors (one versus two auditors), firm size, profitability, Leverage and age. There is a significant negative relationship between audit quality and audit partner tenure when only companies employing Big 4 is tested, which indicate that auditors constrain managements extreme accounting measures with longer tenure. The results provide no significant evidence of an increase in the absolute unexpected accruals with audit firm tenure, when only Big 4 companies are tested.

Syfte: Studiens syfte är att analysera och undersöka om det finns något samband mellan den finansiella risken och lönsamheten. Det övergripande syftet är att se om valet av finansiell risk fungerar som finansieringsstrategi i verkligheten.Metod: Studien bygger på den deduktiva ansatsen där teorier kommer att testas och analyseras mot empiriska data tagna från årsredovisningar. Den kvantitativa metoden används då data från 305 stycken årsredovisningar ska användas för att finna om det finns samband och variation mellan finansiell risk och lönsamhet definierad som vinstmarginal, Rt och Re. Årsredovisningarna utgörs av sekundärdata som samlats in från databasen Retriever. De statistiska metoder som används är bland annat medelvärde, standardavvikelse, regressions- och korrelationsanalys, hypotesprövning och t-test.Resultat och slutsats: Såväl korrelation- och regressionsanalys som hypotesprövning och t-test visar att det finns samband mellan finansiell risk och lönsamhet definierad som Re.

The recent turbulence in the financial markets has contributed to the banks becoming more restrictive to lend to real estate financing. Deleveraging in Europe's banking sector has also contributed to banks reducing their Leverage and increasing capital adequacy to meet the new requirements. Loan-to-value ratios in real estate loans have fallen while banks' interest margins have increased, which has made property investors to look for alternative sources of funding in the capital markets. The two most interesting forms of financing for real estate right now is bonds and preferred shares as they fit property companies that generate stable and predictable cash flows. A bond is an interest-bearing debenture certifying that the purchaser has lent money to the company that issued the bond.

 Problem: For what type of investors are index funds versus exchange-traded index funds best suited?Objective: The purpose of the paper is to determine how an index fund or an exchange-traded index fund (ETF) suits different types of investors with different requirements in terms of time frame, investment size and purpose of investment. The comparison is based on fees and trade practicality. This is going to describe the advantages and disadvantages with the two different financial instruments.Method: The study is a comparative study using two methods; one of which is a case study, the other is a qualitative interview. The case study focuses on fees and is made on an exchange traded fund (XACT OMXS30) and a simple equity index fund (Erik Pensér equity enhanced index).