Sammanfattning Titel: Lågkonjunktur ? En studie i vilka skillnader som finns för variationen i antal anställda inom IT- respektive industribranschen Författare: Emilio Nilsson, Oscar Kacprzak Handledare: Emil Numminen Institution: Blekinge Tekniska Högskola Kurs: Kandidatarbete i Företagsekonomi Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka och analysera för hur företagets ekonomiska data för den relativt unga IT-sektorn förklarar antal anställda gentemot hur företagets ekonomiska data förklarar nyckeltalet för en äldre mer erfaren bransch som industrisektorn. Metod: Vi har samlat ihop kvartalsrapporter från 1999 års första kvartal till 2009 års första kvartal för totalt 10 stycken företag som vi bedömt lämpliga för studien, 5 företag från IT-branschen samt 5 företag från industribranschen. Vi har därefter fört regressionsanalyser med antal anställda som Y-variabel och totala intäkter, aktienivå, rörelsekostnader samt rörelseresultat som X-variabler för att finna korrelationen däremellan. Slutsats: De framkomna resultaten från regressionsanalyserna pekar på att det finns skillnader branscherna emellan.

Shell companies are characterized by containing liquid assets such as cash, securities or other similar assets. Transactions of shell companies constitutes a severe problem since the purchaser often has the aim of obtaining undue tax advantages by not paying the tax debt of the company.Historically it has been complicated for the legislator to stop the set-up in an efficient way since the transactions as such are not illegal, instead rather commonly used for example to restructure companies or for the transfer of companies to the younger generation. The purpose of the current legislation is to prevent individuals and corporations to involve in shell company trade. Aiming for an efficient legislation, the tax rate is at a very high level.The issue with the rules is that also honest buyers are at risk of being covered. This calls for high demands in complying with the principle of legal certainty and the possibility to forecast the tax consequences.The purpose of the thesis is to identify and analyze eventual problems when applying the legislation.

This thesis has been performed at International Aluminum Casting AB in Eskilstuna,Sweden.International Aluminum Casting is currently working with a number of improvementsin their production in order to achieve their vision of being the leading aluminum foundry in Sweden. As a step in their improvement efforts, focus was directed ondeveloping the company's fixtures for machining.Efforts were focused on two main objectives: to develop a complete proposal on afixture which leads to a more rational use of an assigned part and also form general design advice for development of fixtures in the future.During the work progress, discussions have been made with experts at International Aluminum Casting within the field of fixture design. The objective was to obtain sufficient knowledge about the underlying problems with the current fixture for the part. At this stage of the thesis, a number of essential criteria for fixture design were produced. Information and inspiration were obtained by examining the company?s currently developed fixtures.After gathering the necessary information the process of developing three different fixture concepts started.

This thesis will through the use of various approaches determine the key drivers for dividend payouts for A-listed Swedish firm. The time frame reaches from 1997 to 2003 an the thesis covers 48 companies..

With the globalization, companies in the West chose to shift production to developing countries to cut down costs. This had a major impact when child labor and very poor working conditions in these factories were discovered and led many companies to take responsibility for their suppliers and the employees by adopting voluntary so-called Codes of Conduct.There is a subtle balance to enforce improvement of working conditions for employees at suppliers´ factories and to keep costs down. On the one hand, companies would like to conduct extensive audits at their suppliers to ensure code of conduct compliance and thus protect their legitimacy. On the other hand, audits are expensive so companies would like to minimize audits to keep costs down. Companies thus have to strike a delicate balance in relation to how many and what suppliers they choose to audit.

Background: Small businesses are key participants in the growth at the Swedish market, partly for the labour opportunities, the technology and economic development. These companies should get resources to grow, both political and economic resources. The medtech companies in an introduction and expansion phase meet with problems concerning the financing of their growth. Key participants whom offer financing are Venture Capitalists.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine Venture Capitalists demands on medtech companies in an introduction and expansion phase. A comparison between the demands and how well medtech companies achieve them will be done.

Background: Balanced scorecard is a relatively new strategy in analysing activities in a company. To carry out a strategy in an organization a successful implementation is very important. Strategy implementations are unique for each organization and to succeed it has to be formulated and implemented with the individual companies particular conditions as starting- point. A problem is that the implementation sometimes is treated as a small detail in the planning process. This problem depends on how the strategic plans is carried out.

The aim of the study is on basis of Peters and Waterman?s factor of success, to examine the successful companies, Ericsson and Huawei, and to analyze the R&D and positioning strategies of the companies.To accomplish the study we have used a case study using interviews and annual reports to collect data. Three persons have been interviewed, two from Ericsson and one from Huawei. All annual reports from the year 2004 until 2011 have been reviewed.Our finding is that Ericsson and Huawei do not, according to Peters and Waterman?s model, fulfill all factors of success and their R&D strategy varies depending on the situation and which knowledge the company already possesses and needs.

Valmets own foundry in Karlstad has during a long period of time had problems being profitable. The goal today is to turn this around. Today there are three different productionlines; engine blocks, Yankeecylinders and components for the wind turbine industry. This master thesis has focused on examining if value stream mapping is a useful tool to use in a foundry, and therefore outside the typical manufacturing industry. The target has also been to evaluate if there is a possibility to improve the flow in the foundry and also the results.During the 20 weeks this work has been done at the foundry data has been collected and analyzed.

Fuel pellets are a refined bio fuel mostly consisting of residues from sawmills and wood industry. At Rindi Västerdala AB's combined bio energy plant in Vansbro fuel pellets are produced, while the waste heat from the process is used for district heating. The pellets are produced from sawdust, wood shavings and dry wood chips that is dried, milled and pressed into small cylindrical rods. The advantage of refining the wood material in this manner is that the energy value is greater per unit volume and unit weight, thereby the cost of transportation per energy unit is reduced. Also, less storage space is needed.Pellet manufacturing is a complex process since many parameters affects the final results.

Since year 2005 the accounting has changed for public companies because of the new international standards, IFRS. IFRS 3 provides a single international accounting treatment for acquisitions and has broadened the definition of intangible assets. By IFRS 3 goodwill is defined as the excess of the cost of acquisition and is separated from intangible assets. Now goodwill must be annually tested by an impairment test. There are many valuation issues to considerate when it comes to deciding the value of goodwill.

Nowadays, the world around us is changing faster and faster, the globalization is increasing and harder competition puts extra pressure on companies to be more innovative than ever before. One of the fastest changing industries is the IT industry where the actors always have to be up to date to keep their competitive advantage. The authors want to find out what makes some companies in this industry more innovative than others by examining what internal elements that are necessary for innovation. Much research has already been carried out within the field of innovation and especially about innovation management, although less research exists about smaller, non high tech service companies. Therefore the authors also tries to find out how applicable today?s theories are on this special field and thereby fill a smaller gap in today?s research.

Existing studies concerning private labels are unclear as to whether private label manufacturers carry out product development themselves. Furthermore, there is a lack of studies comparing product development processes in private label companies and national brand manufacturers. This study highlights a set of critical product development factors and assesses their prevalence in four different companies in the Swedish retail business. The study is based on a number of qualitative interviews with key personnel responsible for various table fats. Findings indicate two levels of involvement in the product development process on the private label side.

We have left the industrial society, and instead, we live in a post-industrial knowledge and information society. It is often said that industrial production has disappeared or that it has changed greatly. This means that fewer are employed in the manufacturing sector while the service sector is increasing, resulting in that the boundaries between production and administration decreases. The production goes from mass production to more flexible and specialized solutions. This puts greater demands on the logistics chain that continually need to work to meet customer requirements.

In Sweden, there an increasing need for transport and this leads directly to fuel demand of the transport sector is expected to increase. Both politicians and industry believes that renewable fuels are a realistic and significant method to reduce the transport sector's environmental impact. This study aims to document the Swedish haulage contractor?s attitude to biodiesel. Also to document the strengths and weaknesses of biodiesel, based on opinions from the ultimate consumers.