The thesis main objective is to establish the determinants for granting executive stock options and to examine their impact on performance for firms listed on OMXS30. The analysis is based on accounting data gathered from annual reports and Thomson Datastream. The empirical results display that firms grant stock options to mitigate the principal-agent problem. Furthermore, risk proves to be positively significant with executive stock options, implying that either executives increase the level of risk after being granted stock options or influence the decision of the remuneration towards stock options when the firm increase the level of risk, in purpose to boost the expected value of their options. No relation between executive stock options and firm performance could be established..

BakgrundAlkoholkonsumtionen i Sverige har stigit under senare år och låg 2007 på 9,74 liter ren alkohol per invånare och år. 17% av männen och 9% av kvinnorna beräknas ha en alkoholkonsumtion som kan riskera att skada hälsan. Termen riskbruk syftar på en riskabelt hög alkoholkonsumtion utan beroende. Antalet ?riskbrukare? är mycket större än antalet alkoholberoende.

This study investigates whether auditors affect the tendency to report correct taxes for small companies. Since November 2010 the smallest companies in Sweden are no longer obliged by law to have an appointed auditor to perform the former yearly audit. The auditor shall during the audit, amongst other tasks, investigate whether the audited companies follow Swedish law, and report them if they do not. The presence of the auditor might influence the actions of companies to act according to law, and reduce errors in the reporting. Errors regarding tax reporting will result in a revised tax decision if detected by The Swedish Tax Agency.

In order for a business management to be able to make informed decisions for their companies need enterprise management system regularly checked by internal audits. The aim of purpose with this work was to develop a working manual for integrated internal audits. This was done through a litterature study and interviews with auditors. An in-depth interview was conducted with an experienced auditor to get more understanding and depth of the internal audits process, and how the manual could be designed. Discussions were held with the person responsible for environment, health and safety at Swedspan Hultsfred to adjust the manual to the company?s internal management system.

This paper?s objective is to investigate whether Modigliani and Miller (MM) I & II proposition from 1958 with regard to capital structure, is still valid among public Swedish firms.We have chosen the 63 firms on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (OMX) that Affärsvärlden magazine?s general index (AFGX) has categorized as industrial firms. We based this selection on the assumption that these firms are relatively capital intense and have a clear focus on production and, therefore, mainly uses capital structure as a mean to finance their production and not as a means in itself.To be able to fully evaluate these firms we have calculated the current key ratios based each firm?s annual report. To make the figures comparable across the entire population we adjusted them to each firm?s turnover.The results we have reached concur with MM?s proposition I regarding capital structures independence of the firm value.

On the 1st of November 2010, the statutory audit was abolished for small limited companies. The amendment of the abolished statutory audit includes smaller private limited companies that for two years does not exceed more than one of the two following limits: net revenue of three million kronor, total assets of one and one half million kronor and three employees. The principal rule of chapter 9 section 1 Companies Act remains that a limited company should have at least one auditor. For limited companies included of the amendment has a opportunity to choose bokslutsrapporten instead of the auditor?s report as a proof of quality of the accounting and the financial reporting.

This master thesis concerns itself with the actual work of knowledge workers, consultants to be specific. We have through interviews and observation tried to get inside of the ?black box? of the consultants firm Consult in an effort to describe their way of working through a theoretical framework. In this framework we attempt to combine knowledge work theory with that of organizational development, OD. We try to introduce the situation of the individuals we study, the consultants, through Alvesson (2004) and Løwendahl (2005).

Background: Non-profit organizations have a large and significant role in Swedish society and Thunberg (2006) choose to express it like Sweden stops without nonprofit effort. But in several non-profit organizations, and then perhaps especially in sports, there exist problems with the economy. Tate (in Vermeer, Raghunandan & Dana, 2009) explains that the audit of non-profit organizations differs from the audit of for-profit companies as they often have differences in culture, organizational structure, financial requirements, accounting standards, financial reporting, financial statements and the auditor's risk environment. While the audit is different, it should also be noted that in the vast majority of non-profit organizations, there are no statutory requirements for audit, but despite this, 99% of all non-profit organizations have some form of audit regulated by their statute (Lunde?n & Lindblad, 2011).

The law firm industry has during the last years met new demanding conditions and one tool to handle these new conditions has been to implement a Knowledge Management system. Large investments have been made in these Knowledge Management systems but the implementations have met many challenges from within the organizations.With a multiple study, based on interviews with Knowledge Management Managers included in a Knowledge Management network, this thesis aims to study the challenges with Knowledge Management and the underlying causes. The result, based on McDermott's theories shows challenges within technical, personal, social and management areas where the law firm need to shift a focus from Information to Knowledge Management, create a culture of trust and integration and use the informal powerbase.The causes for these challenges are found in the base of Mintzbergs theories of Professional bureaucracy where the Knowledge Management is affected by strong self-regulated individualist, a divided organizational structure and industry conditions..

Syfte:                        Denna studie syftar till att undersöka huruvida avskaffandet av revisionsplikten fick de effekterna som önskades av EU samt Svenska regeringen, vilket var att minska de administrativa bördor och kostnader för mindre bolag. Det har nu gått en tid sen avskaffandet och det är nu möjligt att se vilka effekter som de berörda företagen har märkt av. Metod:                        Undersökningen ämnade utföras med en kvantitativ metod med hjälp av enkäter. Men på grund av få respondenter och stort bortfall används istället en kvalitativ metod. Uppsatsen har en induktiv metod. Slutsats:        Studien visar att alla de företag som ingick i undersökningen upplever en minskning av kostnaderna efter att revisionsplikten avskaffades, samt att majoriteten av företagen även anser att den administrativa bördan minskat. En del av företagen har valt att ta hjälp av konsulttjänster efter att de valt bort revison..

We have performed a case study on Acne Jeans, a creative Swedish fashion company, which initiated a cooperation with the Swedish venture capital firm Öresund. The aim of our paper was to examine what motivates a venture capital firm to transform the management control system of a creative company, into a more formal system of control. Main results: Öresund did not have an excessive impact on the management control system of Acne Jeans, due to three main reasons. First of all, Acne Jeans had a satisfactory management control system prior to the cooperation. Furthermore, the relationship between the two parties was characterized by mutual trust.

This study investigates a method for identifying human capital and its effect on company valuation. We devise a measure for the efficiency of human capital based on the personnel cost. We include all companies listed in the financial and industry sector on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm in an attempt to examine human capital and its effect on firm valuation. Our results indicate that a higher efficiency of human capital has a positive effect on return on assets. However, we find that our measure can be interpreted in two ways; either as a firm?s level of human capital efficiency or its dependency on human capital, to achieve its net sales and revenue.

En studie om hur en ökad kommersialisering inom revisionsbranschen påverkar revisorers well-being. Begreppet kommersialisering representeras av de tre aspekterna marknadsorientering, kundorientering och affärsorientering medan well-being aspekten representeras av lycka, arbetstillfredsställelse och arbetsmiljö. Det empiriska resultatet av studien tyder på att kommersialiseringsaspekterna marknadsorientering och affärsorientering har en positiv påverkan på revisorers well-being.             .

Syftet med denna uppsats är att utreda om förvaltningsrevision tillför något värde eller om det bara är en historisk kvarleva som innebär en extra kostnad för företagen.För att uppfylla uppsatsens syfte skapade vi en egen teori om förvaltningsrevisionens värde. Denna teori kretsar kring relationerna VD ? Styrelse, VD/Styrelse ? Ägare, VD/Styrelse ? Bank och VD/Styrelse ? Staten. För att undersöka riktigheten i vår teori gjordes dels en intervjuundersökning och dels en enkätundersökning på Internet.Vår undersökning visar på att förvaltningsrevisionen främst riktas till externa aktieägare. Även leverantörer, banker och staten framhålls som intressenter till förvaltningsrevisionen.

New laws and recommendations within corporate governance during the last years have affected the way board of directors work. The board is said to have and fulfill three roles: a control role, a service role and a strategy role. These roles could be understood by three theoretical theories: the agency theory, the resource dependence theory and the stewardship theory. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether, and if so how, the board work differs between two small firms based on these roles, given that one of the firms is a publicly listed firm and the other is a privately owned firm. Using a qualitative case study as research method we find that the board work differs between the two companies when it comes to these roles.