ABSTRACTSince Robert D. Putnam first wrote about the causes behind the regional differences in economic and political development in Italy, the theory of social capital has truly flourished in the fields of social science. This days you constantly hear politicians and scholars stressing the important role of the quality of the social fabric to a society?s wellbeing. There all looking at ways to construct policies and institutions that help the spread of social capital.

The harmonization within EC Company Law has been relativley successful. Despite its relative success; important differences still remains in European company law.The freedom of establishment itself, and the ECJ?s interpretation of the freedom provides European companies with a substantial cross-border mobility. As a consequence of this mobility, together with the differences in national legislation; mandatory rules in company law can be easily evaded. A typical example of this is that a Swedish enterprise, by running their business through a British private limited company, can escape the Swedish legislation on capital contributions when forming a company with limited liability for its members.

Background: The growth of the venture capital industry has given birth to new relations between investors and entrepreneurial firms. Venture capital firms are by definition investors serving as an active partner which implies a deeper relation between investors and entrepreneurs than has been the case previously. This new situation leads to a number of questions. Do venture capitalists really act as active partners with a long term interest in the venture? Do they add any value besides capital? How important is their influence in the portfolio company's decision making process? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to give a deeper understanding of the relation between venture capital firms and IT companies in the start-up phase.

Den här uppsatsen syftar till att redogöra för i vilken mån Sveriges storföretag prioriterar arbetet med att optimera sitt rörelsekapital. Studien var av en explorativ sort där målet var att identifiera och uppmärksamma tidigare okända mönster och samband angående hur kapitalrationaliseringsarbetet utförs utifrån perspektiven fokus, ansvar och mätningar.Informationen som studien bygger på inhämtades genom en enkätundersökning som skickades ut till CFO:n på de 200 största svenska företagen rankade efter omsättning, exkluderat finansiella företag. Svarsfrekvens bland respondenterna blev 25 % då exakt 50 företag valde att svara på enkätutskicket. Enkäten skickades elektroniskt och besvarades genom att svara på ett webbaserat program.Resultatet från studien visade att majoriteten av Sveriges största företag prioriterar Working Capital Management. Till vilken nivå de väljer att fokusera på Working Capital Management beror på det enskilda företagets förutsättningar som till exempel vilken bransch de opererar inom..

The aim of this paper is to study intra household allocation of capital income by using data on Swedish observations. The 1991 tax reform was to change the taxation on capital income from a progressive to a flat tax system. Before the tax reform there were incentives to allocate capital income to the spouses with the lowest income of labor in order to reduce the total tax burden. The data describes the year of 1989 and 1993, those we choose to examine. Using Swedish data from LINDA database we estimate a quotient by ordinary least squares (OLS) regression.

In this diploma work the approach of determining the required amount of reinforcement in slabs exposed to pure tension is processed, on behalf of Ramböll Uppsala. It is a well-known problem in the industry that there are uncertainties in the determining of the amount of crack reinforcement, especially for structures exposed to pure tension. Cracking caused during the time of dehydration in concrete slabs is the most common defect according to statistics made by CBI[1], which provides numbers as high as 35 % of all the defects caused on slabs are generated by cracks. Comparisons between Sweden's former national standard BBK 04, Building Regulations for concrete structures due to restrained forces of shrinkage, and the current European standard Eurocode 2 are carried out through theoretical studies and concludes with several examples of calculations. Rigorous calculations of both standards, BBK 04 and Eurocode 2 with application of the national annex in Sweden and Denmark are performed.

This master thesis is about designing and dimensioning a boat for transport of caravan, car, trailer or ATV. Buoyancy and stability are important properties as the pontoonboat should also be able to serve as a workboat. Many of the vessels on the market today that is being used for similar purpose are stable enough, but their hull is often similar with barges and thus too slow. This work has been to construct a boat that has good stability but also has a hull that enables it to move faster, is more maneuverable and having a more attracting design than today?s barges.

The aim of this thesis is to describe the development of profitability and capital structure in Swedish quoted companies during the period of 1990 to 2004. Further, the aim is to determine the relationship between profitability and leverage in order to conclude whether the choice of capital structure supports the pecking order theory or the trade-off theory of capital structure. The findings show that return on assets fluctuates between 3 and 11 percent and that return on equity fluctuates between 3 and 22 percent during the period. Further, the leverage and the cost of debt have decreased. This indicates lowered financial risk in Swedish quoted companies in the period between 1990 and 2004.

Title: Competitive Advantages in Professional Football Cubs ? A Resource-Based Analysis Authors: Daniel Grass, Mattias Holst, Bengt Jönsson Semester: Spring 2001 Supervisors: Leif Edvinsson, Allan T. Malm Problem: In order to be a successful football club, the management team has to consider a variety of business issues. Since money is having such an impact on the football industry of today, the financial status of the clubs sets the condition for how clubs are able to achieve their main objective, i.e. to be successful on the football field.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the research library of Linnæus University is used by students as a meeting place. Building upon Putnam's theory of bonding and bridging social capital and Audunson's conception of high and low intensive meeting places, it aims to explore the research library's potential for creating social capital and thus strengthening both learning and democracy in a university context. Borrowing part of the survey design from a study conducted as part of the Norwegian PLACE project, this study collects responses from 134 students as to their use of the library as a meeting place. The results show that the Linnæus University library is used for a variety of meetings of both high and low intensity, why it should provide a good setting for the creation of social capital. There seems to be a connection between how often one visits the library, as well as to which department one belongs, and how one uses the library as a meeting place.

Background: The regulation of banks is increasing in order to stabilize the financial market. Despite this increase in regulation, financial crises still continue to occur. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is gradually increasing the capital requirements for banks, yet the increase in capital requirements doesn?t seem to solve the problem. This raises the question: how does capital regulation affect banks? Purpose: The purpose of this study is, primarily to illustrate the effects that capital regulation has on risk and efficiency on banks within the European Union, but secondary also study the relationship between risk, efficiency and capital regulation.Method: To achieve the purpose of this study, a deductive approach has been used, where the problem is assumed to be due to an agency problem.

In order to drive innovation and growth in a nation is it important to have innovative companies. Many of those innovative companies are smaller companies, which are in need of capital injections for expansion of its operations or to be able to produce a commercial product. In many cases the banks will not lend because they believe there is too great a risk that they will not get their money back. It is in this situation venture capital becomes interesting. Venture capitalists? see the potential the product and/or entrepreneur possesses and are therefore more willing to take the risk in investing in these companies.

In this diploma work the approach of determining the required amount of reinforcement in slabs exposed to pure tension is processed, on behalf of Ramböll Uppsala. It is a well-known problem in the industry that there are uncertainties in the determining of the amount of crack reinforcement, especially for structures exposed to pure tension. Cracking caused during the time of dehydration in concrete slabs is the most common defect according to statistics made by CBI[1], which provides numbers as high as 35 % of all the defects caused on slabs are generated by cracks. Comparisons between Sweden's former national standard BBK 04, Building Regulations for concrete structures due to restrained forces of shrinkage, and the current European standard Eurocode 2 are carried out through theoretical studies and concludes with several examples of calculations. Rigorous calculations of both standards, BBK 04 and Eurocode 2 with application of the national annex in Sweden and Denmark are performed.

High-performance equine athletes have an energy requirement that often reaches twice the maintenance requirement. Horses are grazers and adapted to a grass diet, and diets high in grains and concentrates are associated with digestive upsets and behavioural disorders. It could therefore be of interest if the energy requirement of a high-performing horse could be met by forage. It is important that the forage have a high concentration of energy so that the horse is able to consume the whole amount of energy needed from the forage without exceeding the maximum voluntary intake. The purpose of this literature study was to investigate if the energy demand of a high-performance horse can be covered by forage produced under Northern Swedish climate conditions.

The stakeholders for requirements elicitation need to be identified at an early stage and their knowledge is the basis for what is to become a requirements specification. Just because a stakeholder holds a lot of expertise and knowledge it does not mean that the stakeholder can communicate the knowledge in a clear way. Validation of knowledge means that knowledge is valued and recognized in a structured way. People and organizations can evolve by exchanging knowledge, experience and skills.  The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of knowledge management between requirement elicitation and external stakeholders.