Återköp utgör en stigande andel av företags utdelningspolitik. Enligt von Eije och Megginson (2008) är market-to-book ett nyckeltal som influerar utdelningspolitiken. Denna studie undersöker hur market-to-book påverkar valet mellan utdelning och återköp. Signalhypotesen används för att förklara hur market-to-book kan sända signaler om under- eller övervärdering av företag och på så vis förklara detta val. Studiens resultat visar att det inte finns något samband mellan market-to-book och hur företag resonerar kring sin utdelningspolitik.

Denna studie undersöker huruvida aktiv strategi villkorlig en diskret regression modell (DRM) skapar mervärde relativt en passiv buy-and-hold strategi i form av avkastning, risk samt variationskoefficient. Modellens metod, en binär logistisk regression, estimerar den förväntade relativa avkastningen mellan en indexfond (AFGX) samt den korta riskfria räntan (SSVX). För estimera den relativa avkastningen mellan tillgångarna använder DRM data från aktiemarknaden, räntemarknaden, obligationsmarknaden, inflationsindex samt industriproduktionsindex. Timingbeslutet görs vid varje månadsskifte och kapitalet placeras i den tillgången med högst förväntad avkastning under kommande månad med start den 1:e januari 2002 och slut den 31:e december 2005.Den empiriska diskussionen visar att mervärdet av DRM´s avkastning, risk och variationskoefficient kontra de fast viktade portföljerna uteblir. Således blir slutsatsen att DRM inte klarar av att mäta den förväntade relativa avkastningen mellan tillgångarna och den passiva strategin i denna kontext förblir ett bättre alternativ..

Title: Establishing in China?s ?good-enough? market - A benchmarking study on Scandinavian engineering industries? further establishment in China. Problem discussion: The Chinese market is gaining importance for Scandinavian engineering industries and is by many considered a crucial market to be successful in. These companies have a tradition of producing premium products for premium customers. However, in China many are currently experiencing the threat from local competitors producing products of somewhat less quality aimed at the vast Chinese middle market - the good-enough market.

Background: As companies are operating in more globally and complex environments, the need for risk control is accelerating. In an ever-changing environment, companies cannot merely focus on traditional risks, which include financial and insurable risks. To maintain competitiveness, companies need to extend their risk management to include all risks, traditional as well as operational and strategic risks. Purpose: The purpose is to describe and position risk management for Telecom operators, in comparison with the risk management literature, with regards to structure, processes, learning process, visions and benefits. In addition, our aim is to link risk management perspectives with the different strategies for knowledge management.

The purpose of this study is to examine how risk is perceived by the urban architect's in the region Dalarna, as well as how this is reflected in their everyday work with risk and decision- making according to urban planning. The ambition is also to show how their risk awareness could be improved. The study is written in cooperation with Länsstyrelsen Dalarna as a part of their regional long-term goal to improve the region's proactive risk' and crisis management. The study is based upon 12 semi-structured interviews with local urban architects conducted during the summer and autumn 2007. The result shows that some architects are motivated for working with risk and think that risk awareness should be integrated in their everyday work, while others are not motivated and think that risk is more of a passing trend.

Scania?s discount rate - the return requirement of investments - refers to Scania?s WACC or weighted average cost of capital. The capital markets return requirement on equity and the credit market interest cost of borrowing is weighted to become the single discount rate, the WACC. The purpose of this study is to investigate which asset pricing model of APT and CAPM Scania should use in their WACC calculations. The company now uses a group WACC of 11 percent which is used in all company levels.

This study will focus on the luxury market and how this market has been affected by the present recession. The economic downturn have had a major impact on today?s business and consumption, practically all industries have been affected. However there exist different opinions about how the luxury market have been influenced, certain experts mean that this segment is recession proof while others believe that this market will experience the worst side-effects. For that reason we find it interesting to analyze the luxury market and develop our own opinion about the impact of the recession.

The real estate industry is a sector where the companies generally have a capital structure which is high leveraged. The financing? with the related terms ? is therefore specifically of high importance for the companies in the sector. Traditionally, the way of obtain financing is by borrowing from the bank. Lately, due to new bank regulations, the banks have become more restrictive in their lending which have lead to a growth of other financing alternatives.

The essay's purpose is to find out why municipalities engaged in local labor market policies and the study focused on a smaller survey unit. In the paper an analysis is made of the Torsås municipality's labor market policy. The work also intends to structure the political organization and their cooperation with other players. The survey methods used were interviews and a case study. The essay results are based on two interviews.

Beslut om och var man ska genomföra en direktinvestering grundar sig på en rad faktorer. En av dessa är den risk som är förknippad med investeringen. Den här uppsatsen tar upp risk i form av volatilitet dels på aktiemarknader men också för växelkurser. Med utgångspunkt från två teorier där den ena säger att hög risk är förenat med en lägre nivå av direktinvesteringar samt en motsatt som istället menar att hög risk leder till en högre direktinvesteringsnivå undersöker jag situationen för USA och Sverige. Genom att undersöka just dessa länders marknader får man en bild av ekonomins storleks betydelse för huruvida risken påverkar direktinvesteringar eller inte.

This thesis studies the stock price reaction around 68 announcements of special dividends and share redemptions on the Swedish stock market between the years of 2003 and 2007. We show that for the Swedish private investor, the tax effect of a share redemption is lower than that of a special dividend. Moreover, a share redemption could be interpreted as a signal of undervaluation. These two factors lead us to assume that the stock market would react more positively in connection to the announcement of a share redemption. We test this hypothesis through an analysis of the risk-adjusted abnormal return for the observations in the sample.

This thesis investigates whether it is accordance between the different profit measures in the financial market. The first aim of the thesis is to examine if it exists a difference between the profit measures that companies publish in their fourth quarter interim report and the measures that they state in their annual report, issued some months later. The second aim is to examine whether there is a divergence in definitions and the assumption regarding the risk of bankruptcy between profit measures published by companies and analysts. The study focuses on Swedish companies listed on the OMX Stockholm Large Cap and concerns the years of 2006 and 2007. The analysts interviewed are working in Sweden with listed Swedish companies.

This study examines how the stock prices are affected when articles, which negatively describe the companies? incentive programs, are published. According to the efficient market hypothesis, only new information should have an effect on the stock price. Furthermore, this study aims to examine whether this reaction is dependent of the economic climate. During the period of September 2005 to September 2009, stock price data was collected from the NasdaqOMX stock exchange and 75 articles were gathered from leading Swedish newspapers.

Until recently, the art market has expanded for several consecutive years. The primary art market is characterized by an unclear pricing mechanism and an infinite as well as limited supply. Previous business studies have so far primarily focused either on art as an investment or on the gallery?s activities. This thesis takes an explorative approach and aims to shed a light on the art collector?s behavior on the Swedish market for contemporary art.

In a historical view, house prices have developed at the same rate as inflation. In the end of the 20th century the prices on the housing market started to differ from the inflation rate, and today the deviation is strong and the real price increase has been very strong.The financial crisis in 2008, which was a result of a subprime mortgage crisis on the American real estate market, has made several agents on the housing market in Sweden question today?s prices. Robert Schiller, an American economist who predicted the mortgage crisis in 2008, claimed during the Nobel Prize ceremony 2013, that Sweden shows signs of a financial bubble ? "I think that people here in Sweden have an illusion that increasing prices is a lasting trend, but that is more suggestive of a bubble".