Background: Sweden and the rest of the world went through the biggest financial crisis at the end of 2008 since the 1930s. The major Swedish banks have goodwill related to their acquisitions inside and outside Scandinavia. Swedbank, SEB and Nordea has acquired in the Baltic countries and Russia, however Handelsbanken has established itself in Great Britain. The crisis in the Baltic countries led that real wages fell, unemployment rose, real estate prices collapsed and the number of borrowers who had trouble repaying their loans increased rapidly. All this led to the problem of impairment of goodwill in the Swedish banks that had expanded rapidly in the Baltic countries.Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the application of IFRS 3 in Swedish banks before, during and after the financial crisis, and to investigate the low-downs in the four majorSwedish banks in 2006-2010.Completion: The study is primarily based on the case studies by the examination of the annual reports from all banks as well as evaluation of the interviews.The authors have chosen to makea strategic choice of a small number of cases through the concentration on the impairment of goodwill in the bank sector of Sweden.Results: The result of this study is that there are problems for banks in implementation of IFRS 3 in practice because of insufficient information in the banks' financial statements.Generous estimates used in the calculation of impairment testing.

China is a unique market that differs from the Western market in many ways. Companies are not required to publicize financial reports, and furthermore a heavy focus on business relationship building can make it hard for companies to have high quality streams of data to get insights about their markets. For a consultant company to successfully enter the Chinese market and helping producing and technological global firms improving their insights on the Chinese market, the consultant company needs to understand which the important factors are and how those factors can help in creating value for their potential customers. To help the analyzing and consultant firm called Kairos Future, a qualitative case study was conducted on 16 different global companies with focus on industrial production. The case study was mainly conducted through face to face interviews with decision makers who had a broad understanding of their respective companies.

Over the last decade, the private insurance market has undergone a stable growth in turnover and growing demand for insurance products in all Member States of the European Union. Therefore, the creation of a single market in insurance will enable consumers to have access to wider choice of insurance products, and insurance companies to gain access to markets in various Member States and compete effectively. The EU legal framework for the insurance industry embraces the Treaty freedoms of services, establishment and capital, the EC Directives and the ECJ case-law. The present thesis identifies numerous factors that hinder the Community insurance market integration and offers possible remedies. The summary of the market obstacles is all-inclusive and reflects the responses to the questionnaires and the Commission surveys.

Uppsatsens syfte är att utreda hur EU:s förändringar i moder/dotterbolagsdirektivet kommer att påverka svensk lagstiftning i form av IL och SFL. Förändringarna i direktivet har gjorts för att förhindra bolagens användande av s.k. hybridlån för att uppnå dubbel icke-beskattning i medlemsstater. Utöver den här förändringen har det även infogats gemensamma skatteflyktbestämmelser i direktivet, bestämmelser som samtliga medlemsstater måste följa. Sverige har sedan tidigare implementerat moder/dotterbolagsdirektivet i svensk lagstiftning och har även en lag mot skatteflykt.

Even if the main purpose is to decide if the companies profitability and financial position is a determining factor for its growth, the purpose is to determine if there are any differences between big and small companies in there economical positions then they grow, in the selected industry. This thesis is mainly a quantitative study. The selected industry for the study is extraction of turf. The financial measurement that most clearly differ the growing companies from the not growing companies or the companies that didn?t change there amount of employees was the returns of the companies own capital. It was also the returns of the companies own capital there the main difference existed between the big and the small companies.

The purpose of this master thesis is to map and analyze the appropriate valuation approaches used for Intellectual Property rights and develope a model for valuing patents. This project has been executed on behalf of Electrolux?s Group Intellectual Property and is intended to be used for managerial purposes.Project limitations include patents that doesent concern technology oriented products and services, real option methods, financial forecasts, decisions concerning patents taken by the R&D division, patent applications in general and taking into account unexpected future management decisions regarding patents.Electrolux?s Intellextual Property team applies, manages and protects the groups Intellectual Property rights including patents, designs and trademarks. With an increased globalization and the rise of emerging markets, incentives have increased further to protect and safeguard the group?s innovations.Mainly there are three different valuations approaches for valuing intellectual property rights, these include the income based approach, cost base approach and market based approach.

Purpose: Examine if there is a connection between the athletic performance and the financial status in football clubs.Theoretical perspectives: This thesis is based on the theory that the modern football club is like every other company trying to maximize profit. The clubs should therefore use the same business strategies.Empirical foundation: The study is based on 25 observations over five years and five Allsvenska football clubs. The data is a compilation of the key ratios from the annual reports and the league table, years 2004 through 2008 in the clubs. Year 2009?s league table place is also included since tests have been done with one year?s displacement between the financial status and the league table.Conclusion:There is no correlation between solidity and the place in the league table in Allsvenska football clubs.There is no correlation between net profit and the place in the league table in Allsvenska football clubs.There is no correlation between equity and the place in the league table in Allsvenska football clubs..

Intelligent IT-based solutions, often called Smart Grids, are considered to be the future balancers of renewable energy sources. One area within the Smart Grid concept is called demand response, which is focused on making customers more consumption flexible by making them more active in their consumption. In this thesis the aim is to analyze a business model by investigating the income potential for a demand response solution as well as its market potential. This has been done through literature studies, interviews and development of a computational model.The use of 5000 households with flexible consumption can provide a cost reduction of 17.2% or 2.4 million SEK for a balance responsible party during an average year. If the solution is used to make strategic bids on the regulation markets the study indicates that the largest potential for revenues lies within this strategy.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate which the main determinants of capital structure in Swedish listed firms are and to identify which incentives lies behind managers choice of capital structure determinants. Further, the study investigates whether the Post Keynesian theory and theories which incorporate behavioral aspects can be used to explain the capital structure decisions or if the traditional Neoclassical theory give an better explanation. We have used a qualitative method to analyze the determinants of capital structure and the managers incentives behind capital structure decision. We conducted a survey which was sent to 83 Chief Financial Managers and financial executives in Swedish firms listed on Mid Cap or Large Cap. The questionnaire was on-line which enabled for the respondents to quickly and convenient respond.

This essay in economic geography describes what intra-firm trade as a concept is and different ways to determine in which cases trade is to be labeled as intra-firm trade (IFT) or not. The method used by the author is most easily described as descriptive. This method was chosen in order to test if existing theories; classic and neoclassic economics, new trade theory and international business studies, are capable to explain the phenomena of IFT. The theories are tested trough primary and secondary literature but also trough reasoning by the author.The conclusion is that the most reasonable way to determine whether trade occurs intra-firm or not, is to decide upon a 5-% rule where it when one part owns 5-% of the voting strength in the other company is to be considered intra-firm trade. This is a conclusion based on several reasons; the strongest one being that a common view on IFT could boost comparative studies as the U.S already collects data based on the 5-% rule.Classic and neoclassic economics are incapable of explaining IFT as aprerequisite for these theories is that markets are perfect.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how social workers who worked with financial assistance perceived their work situation and the impact work-related stress had on their health and quality of work. Further, the study intended to find out if they felt that they received support from their employer that could prevent stress-related sick leave. The following two research questions were to be answered: In what way does work-related stress affect social workers? health and job quality according to their own experience? What kind of support and help experienced social workers were available within their organization? To receive answers to the questions semi-structured interviews with five social workers were conducted, analyzed and interpreted. The results showed that when social workers have a heavy case burden, high stress and a risk of deteriorated job quality occurred.

Betydelsen av kulturer har ökat till följd av globaliseringen och uppkomsten av multinationella företag. En intressant aspekt är därför att undersöka huruvida det är nationell kultur eller organisationskultur som präglar ledarskapet i ett utländskt dotterbolag vars kultur är vitt skild från moderbolagets. Därför ämnar denna studie att undersöka vad som influerat utformningen av ledarskapet på det svenska multinationella företaget Perten Instruments dotterbolag i Kina. Detta genom att se om ledarskapet speglar landets egna nationella kultur eller om det har influerats av företagets organisationskultur och därmed mer stämmer överens med den svenska kulturen. Studien utfördes genom intervjuer med anställda på moderbolaget i Sverige och dotterbolaget i Kina.

In the years 1996-2001 the European Union`s copyright-directive was drawn up. This directive led to much lobbying activities from both copyright holders and library organisations like EBLIDA and IFLA. The Internet and filesharing networks like Napster had led to strong reactions among some copyright holders. Internet gave people an easy opportunity of accessing copyright protected material. Some researchers of copyright have written books where they state that the copyright holders utilize authors fear of illegal copying to strengthen the copyright laws, and by that benefit economical.

On 1 January 2005, IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards)was mandatory for all listed companies within the European Union. The introduction is to create a transparent and consistent reporting. Mainly to provide companies, investors and financiers the same access to world capital markets. Since the introduction of IFRS, the goodwill value is determined by annual impairment tests. If an impairment of goodwill is a fact the goodwill decreases in value.

The concept of a Sharia compliant financial system has been a frequently discussed topic among scholars, bankers and media since the 1960th. It origins from the prohibition of interest, riba, which is stated in the Quran. Islamic banking is spread across the Muslim world and also exists in some western countries. This paper will try to create an image of what Islamic banking is in theory and in practice. This will be done by looking into the different methods of interest free banking, the Quran and the annual reports of four Islamic banks in different countries.