The DuPont formula is one of the most well known and basic tools used for financial statement analysis and is highly useful for understanding firms strategies and operating environment. Previous studies on American listed companies have also shown that analysis of the changes in the DuPont components is useful in forecasting contexts. In this thesis we test whether disaggregating the change in return on net operating assets provides incremental information about future performance for Swedish listed and not listed companies. We find that the change in asset turnover is a leading indicator of increased profitability for both listed and private companies, regardless of size. We also find evidence that the usefulness of the disaggregation for understanding future performance is greater in capital intense industries and lesser in service industries..

 The luxury market has steadily grown from the industrial revolution and onwards. Changes in society, trends and the increased living standards has enabled more people to consume luxury goods.The world is going through a major economic crisis at the moment. Studies shows that companies that have focused on added value rather than lowering prices has survived past financial crisis. It is also obvious that companies act very different during times of crisis. Adding to the problem is trends that point to a more careful consumption and environmental awareness.

AbstractTitle:The Impact of Management Control Systems on the Purchaser Function - A study of Scania and Sandvik Authors: Mohammad Reza Akhbari and Johanna Sullivan Svensson Published: 2011 Keywords: Management control, purchasing function, impact, control, control instruments, Key Performance Indicators, measurement, communication and organizational structure. Background and problem formulation: In order for a company?s business idea or vision to be fulfilled, the management of a company needs assistance from various means to intentionally affect the operation in the desired direction. Management control concerns activities of both financial and non-financial character in order to implement the strategy of a company and to reach profitability. Since the purchaser function is responsible of spending 50 percent of a company?s total revenue, the function has an optimal starting point to be a key actor in the shaping and execution of a company?s strategic plan.

This is an examination of how interdependence affects the behaviour of politicians and their ability to govern the way they want to. I analyze the memoirs of two Swedish prime ministers, Tage Erlander and Ingvar Carlsson to explore their experiences. I focus on how the increasing interdependence affects the politicians with regards to security, welfare, and financial policies. Sweden had a special position between Soviet and NATO during the cold war. This meant Sweden gave priority to it's neutrality policy during the cold war, compared to increased trade cooperation.

The purpose of this paper is to through a conceptual definition, outline the meaning of integrated reporting. The empirical study aims to identify the development of integrated reporting in terms of driving forces and participants. We also intend to identify and explain the effects of integrated reporting and to describe, analyze and create an understanding of what is required of companies and the challenges an application of integrated can bring. To achieve the purpose of this paper, we have formulated a central question; What is integrated reporting and what will this development mean for companies?  To answer the central question of this paper we have chosen to apply a qualitative approach with case studies as a research strategy.

Bakgrund: För att avgöra huruvida aktieanalytiker som grupp betraktat tillför värde för investerare måste frågan ställas om det är lönsamt att följa analytikernas konsensusrekommendationer. Ett problem med att följa dessa är att rekommendationerna som utgör konsensus kan förbli oförändrade under långa perioder vilket innebär att de vanligtvis blir mindre informativa med tiden. Studier som istället utvärderar värdet av reviderade rekommendationer har visat att det kan vara mer lönsamt att följa analytiker när de ändrar uppfattning om en aktie.Syfte: Syftet med studien är att utvärdera revideringar av aktieanalytikers rekommendationer på den nordiska marknaden och att analysera investeringsstrategier baserade på dessa som tar hänsyn till transaktionskostnaders inverkan på avkastningen.Genomförande: De reviderade rekommendationerna har utvärderats kvantitativt med data från Inquiry Financial för perioden 2006 ? 2009. Vi konstruerar sex portföljer för varje studerad marknad, där de olika portföljerna består av upp- respektive nedgraderade aktier med olika innehavsperioder för att testa huruvida revideringarna kan sägas vara informativa.Resultat: Resultaten visar att reviderade rekommendationer är informativa på flera av de studerade marknaderna, där aktiekurser fortsätter att stiga för uppgraderingar och sjunka för nedgraderingar flera månader efter att revideringen har skett.

Due to the growth of multinational concerns during the last decades, with large parts of international trade involving such corporations, the field of transfer pricing, including financial transactions such as internal loans, have received a great deal of attention in tax legislation. The internationally accepted foundation for transfer pricing is the so called Arm's length principle, expressed in Swedish law through the "Korrigeringsregeln". In the Diligentia court case, the concepts of transparency and control were given a crucial role in the calculation of an Arm's length's price of interest rates. The Swedish tax agency interpreted the ruling in that case as if a parent company always can be assumed to enjoy sufficient transparency and control to reduce the risk on their debt obligations. A great deal of uncertainty therefore surrounded their position and to what extent the Diligentia-ruling could be cited as precedent.

Laws, regulations and generally accepted accounting principles hold options on how companies should recognize revenue. Generally accepted accounting principles are determined by standard-setting bodies as the Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Supervisory Authority, which is influenced by international standard-setting bodies as the IASB. Service revenue is generally recognized when performance is completed, but there are variations in when a performance is considered complete. The different accounting options available create difficulties in comparing companies over time and between companies, which in turn creates difficulties to achieve a true and fair view. By clarifying what methods and principles in accounting for service income the unlisted companies in Sweden are using and why these differences exist, we have been able to study how the comparability and the true and fair view is affected by these differences. The aim was to study the underlying factors that companies do their financial report differently.

The main purpose of this essay is to investigate professional artists experience of the need and use of information in their creative work. I have collected the material through qualitative interviews with four professional artist working with different materials and techniques. One of the results of the study is that the artists first of all used information as a source of inspiration in their creative work. They gathered their information from various scources, for example; pictures, exhibitions, visual arts, books and novells, depending on what project they are working with. Other important information scources were colleges, especially for the technical information need.

The Public Sector Scorecard (PSS) is a younger version of the balanced scorecard, created for public and nonprofit organizations. The latest model of PSS is divided into three main groups and seven perspectives, while the balanced scorecard consists of four perspectives. Organizations who use either PSS or the balanced scorecard are supposed to have a clear vision spread all over the unit. This study has sought differences between the two models of financial control in both theory and practice. The first part of the study is a theoretical comparison between the models? structures and terms used in them.

This paper describes and develops a trade off model of optimal capital structure by Bradley et al. (1984). The model is then tested to examine how changes in corporate tax rates affect the optimal capital structure of firms. Based on theoretical implications of the model, four hypotheses are derived stating that firms? optimal debt-to-value ratio is (1) negatively related to financial distress costs, (2) negatively related to non-debt tax shields, (3) negatively related to firm volatility and (4) positively related to the corporate tax rate.

Shorter hospital stays increases the need for well functioning post hospital aftercare. Persons close to the patient are often involved in the aftercare and need information about self-care. This need is frequently not satisfied. The aim of this study was to investigate if the next-of-kin of patients cared for at the thoracic clinic at Uppsala University hospital, have received information about self-care and how they perceive the information they have been given. METHOD: To investigate this, questionnaires were sent out by mail.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to examine the information needs of reporters at a Swedish daily newspaper, and see if they are met by the information resources provided by the newspaper. It examines if there are resources which are not used and why. The examination is based on Henczel?s model for information auditing.

The meaning of the covert co-ownership is that the parties must have intended that the property should be their common. A party must, to be able to claim ownership, have con-tributed to the acquisition financing through the financial contribution. Further shall the fact that the property should be their common be agreed or have been assumed by the par-ties. There are the circumstances for the purchase that should be considered in determining if covert co-ownership is presumed. Covert co-ownership has been established although one party only contributed a small part to the acquisition.

This thesis treats the information the insurance company is going to give the policyholders just before the insurance is to be concluded and soon thereafter. The purpose for the essay is to investigate whether the mentioned information can be considered to meet the purpose referred to its establishment. The investigation will also show if the penalty for not upholding this obligation is reasonable in relation to the aim the duty to inform the policyholders is meant to uphold.Information to be provided before the contract is concluded should facilitate the choice of insurance. The information to be given to the policyholders as soon as possible after the contract is concluded should be given as a form of confirmation and information on conditions that has not been stated before. The purposes that have been mentioned is for both the information to consumers and companies.The conclusion that can be made after the analysis is that the information is of great importance for the policyholder, both for consumers and companies.