Forest as an investment alternative has become more and more popular over the last few years. Between the years 2004 and 2007 increased the price level on forest land with 70 percent in Jämtland. In this thesis a comparison has been conducted between forest in Jämtland and an investment in the stock market. The risk in the two investment alternatives has been included in the comparison. The thesis includes two different studies between the two alternatives.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how social media can affect and influence the B2B-relationship. Social media is now a widespread and accepted tool for communication in many B2C-companies; therefore we find it interesting to examine how social media can find its place in the communication mix of B2B-companies. We are also aiming to distinguish standards in how social media is practiced and discussed in the context of the B2B-market. We have applied a qualitative method for this study and we have interviewed seven respondents, which are experts in social media or working with market communication at B2B-companies in Sweden. During our study we have identified several comparable attributes within the B2B market and their opinions about how social media should be approach and adopt in the communication mix of the company..

The demand from Swedish companies of new potential markets to enter is increasing. One of these companies is Väderstad-verken which has the vision to grow approximately 15 percentages every year. To make this possible they must find new emerging markets to enter to be able to grow. Together with Väderstad-verken we have chosen India as a case study. Mainly because of its big agricultural sector that hasn?t yet been developed to modern standard.

Background: Mutual funds have become an important part of the Swedish deposit market. Savings in mutual funds add up to almost 20 percent of the households'assets. When the pension reform is carried out all employees are going to have savings both in mutual and bond funds. But only if the fund overperforms the market it is worth investing. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore if Swedish mutual funds have generated higher returns than market portfolio in the late nineties.

The purpose with this work is to investigate the cost to produce piglet in a case study company. The starting point is going to be the agriwise (www.agriwise.org) calculation which I am going to change and adapt to the case study company. To day the pig market is bad but we have probably reached the bottom. The market has started to rise. It is no business to produce piglets today.

The global market is becoming increasingly integrated and to keep up with growing competition and to achieve even greater success, companies expand to foreign markets. Previous studies have shown that the concept of psychic distance has an important impact on international performance regarding small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). The aim of our study is to provide the reader with a deeper understanding of how psychic distance influences export performance regarding Swedish SMEs. Through a single case study of a Swedish SME, we chose to research three different markets in three different continents. Our findings show that psychic distance influences export performance through export marketing strategy and active learning.

We have in this essay studied the Swedish Hedge Fund Market available for the average Swedish private investor. We have closely looked at the risk measurements that are applicable on the evaluation of Hedge Funds today, and furthermore studied how they are communicated and what they actually contribute with in terms of risk and yield. Our survey attempts to clarify the shortcomings in the communication between the Hedge Fund Managers and their smaller investors. Do they really know where they put their money? The market is rapidly expanding and our goal was to find improved ways to inform about the Hedge Funds risks and opportunities.

A new line of business has arisen on the Swedish information market. The information broker is still quite an unknown actor but the future seems to hold a prosperous outcome for this kind of alternative information service. The information broker has many definitions but can generally be described as an intermediary between information sources and users. The Swedish market for this kind of information professionals has not yet developed into a big, well-established and lucrative branch as for example the one in the USA. The Swedish actors are still coping with resistance in form of insufficient support from the government, competitiveness from other more established information services and the clienteles lack of understanding the brokers purpose and utility.

Former studies have shown that a considerable part of industries? energy usage can stem from idle times in the production. This thesis, carried out at Siemens Industry sector, evaluates the potential for using the control system to automatically put machines into energy saving mode during idle times. The main part of the thesis consists of a case study performed on machine tools at a Scania production site in Södertälje. Through load measurements the potential for energy savings was determined.The results show that there is a great potential for energy savings during idle times at the site.

The purpose of our study is to find out if insiders in Sweden generate abnormal earnings through insider trades. We want to pinpoint the cause for abnormal earnings by dividing transactions after company market value, size of the trade and type of insider. A quantitative approach using the market model have been used. We have conducted an event study over two short term event windows. We conclude that insiders in Sweden generate positive abnormal earnings for sales and negative for purchases in our ?long? event window.

The purpose of this thesis is to through brand communication and Red Bull?simage examine how they position themselves as leaders on the Swedish energydrink market. We chose relevant theories within buzz marketing, word ofmouth, sampling and events. Our method of preference was quantitativequestionnaires which we spred through email to students at the LinneausUniversity and other social networks such as Facebook and blogs. Our empiricalstudy is based on our questionnaires and information about Red Bull.

Due Diligence is today an important part of the transaction process through sales of properties and isan important process for both sellers and buyers. The process intends to review an asset before atransaction to minimize the risks associated with the acquisition by detecting weaknesses and verifythe asset's characteristics. The use of Due Diligence has become increasingly common over the pasttwenty years in the Swedish real estate market and there is no indication that this trend will decreasebut rather increase. Although there is widespread use of the process both in acquisitions ofcorporations and properties, both in Sweden and in the rest of the world, it is costly for thepurchasers and the concept is far from fully developed.This thesis aims to clarify what the real estate market thinks about the potential development of theprocess itself and the role of the actors. The main question is what opportunities exist to develop theconcept of Due Diligence in real estate transactions.

The attention on environmental issues has never been as huge as today. The climate is changing and more and more evidence suggest that the cause behind climate changes is an increase of carbondioxide into the atmosphere. The increase in turn is considerd to be an act of human activity. Therefore some companies have decided to become climate neutral and implement information technology in their business in order to reduce their emissions. This thesis has three aimes: to calculate a small company´s carbondioxide emissions, study whether or not information technology could help to reduce these emissions and furthermore find out why some companies decided to become climate neutral and describe the concept climate neutral.

A protection helmet for young people (3-7 years) in winter environment has been developed in this thesis. The result is a concept proposal for development at STIGA Sports AB in Eskilstuna. This thesis work has been performed during 20 weeks, for a Master of Science in Product and Process development at Mälardalen University Eskilstuna Sweden in September 2009 to January 2010. The helmet is shown as a CAD model with detailed solutions to the outer shell, interior and adjustability (in sizes 50-56 cm) which are the three focused areas in the development. Also a physical model in scale 1:1 has been developed and is shown in this thesis work.To achieve the best result possible the process started with an analysis of the market and the product.

This Bachelor Thesis is entitled ?Swedish parental leave and gender equality. Effects on women?s conditions on the labour market?. Through our empirical results in conjunction with economical and sociological theories, this Bachelor Thesis attempts to answer the questions: 1) Why are the claims for Swedish parental leave unevenly distributed between men and women? 2) Does the uneven distribution result in discrimination of women on the labour market? 3) How do different designs of parental leave scheme influence women?s conditions on the labour market and which possibilities are there to change these conditions through changes in the design? We make use of case studies from Denmark, Iceland and Great Britain, which work as basis for policy implications for the Swedish parental leave scheme.