Background: The latest development within the business world has been characterized by deregulation and globalization which has made the company bigger and even more influential. The increased power has resulted in a shift of responsibility for the community from the public to the private sector. (Steinholtz och Löhman, 2003) There have been many trends regarding what accountability includes and how financial accounting can be complimented in a useful and reliable way. Some trends have come to stay whilst others have shown to be less successful or the world has not been ready for them. (Larsson, a, 2002) Purpose: The purpose with this paper is to look at the historical development towards accounting for sustainability and to investigate what factors that might have hade an impact on this development.

The requirement on audit was introduced when ownership was separated from management. The situation that arouse was that not only the owners, but also the stakeholders, required information about the company?s financial position. On this basis the audit would contribute to quality assurance of the financial information. One of the auditor's functions is to assess an ongoing stakeholder opinion.

The education sector can be seen as a cornerstone of today's society, an organization that is under constant change and evolve as society. The compulsory school system is of significant role in society that places high demands on its management. The following study investigates the requirements for documentation in primary school organization and operations, and how these requirements are perceived and affect the school's organization and activities of the study carried out at different levels of the organization so as to get an overall picture of its impact. In order to analyze and create understanding of the results, the study applies the theory of New Public Management and various reforms that can be linked to the increased documentation requirements and its influence in the public administration. Study results show that there is a mixed picture of the documentation impact on the school system. Shown are both positive and negative effects of the documentation requirements.

The main purpose of this study was to examine own and social influence on perfectionismwith individual athletes. The participants (n= 96) of this study represented ten different sportsand their ages was between 15 and 44. An interview with four of the participant wasconducted. The instruments used for this study was the Positive and Negative PerfectionismScale (Terry-Short et al., 1995) and for the interviews questions was based on own and socialinfluence. The results showed that there was a relationship between positive perfectionismand own influence, negative perfectionism and own influence, negative perfectionism andsocial influence.

The purpose of this study was to investigate and expand the knowledge of how bereaved spouses in palliative care handled their grief. Attempts were also made to distinguish common patterns among the experiences that the bereaved spouses expressed.  Furthermore the study aimed to understand how the bereaved spouses handled their grief, and to understand what helped them to move on. A qualitative method was used in this essay, related to the purpose of investigating the spouses? emotional experiences. The questions used to reach an understanding of the matter were: How did the bereaved experienced their grief? Were there important contributing factors worsening their grief or making it easier? How did the bereaved persons handle their grief, and what helped them to work things through and carry on with their lives? The result was analyzed by using Antonovsky?s theory; a feeling of coherence, Lazarus? coping theory combined with Folkman?s revised coping theory.

At two nursing homes for people with dementia a qualitative study was performed. The purpose was to investigate the therapy dog?s meaning to people with dementia from their perspective. Two women and five men with dementia were interviewed, everyone being somewhere between 60 and 87 years of age. All but one had previously owned a dog at some point in their lives.

Over a long time psychology was focusing on human frailties and mental diseases. In 1998, positive psychology was introduced - the scientific study of strengths, well-being and optimal functioning. Theory and research in the area has identified 24 character strengths, in which each individual owns and celebrates a number of top strengths, signature strengths. These strengths have been shown to be important in achieving happiness and well-being. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between character strength and psychological well-being, job satisfaction, harmonious- and obsessive passion and stress.

This paper concerns itself with the controversy between marginal theory and empiricism during 1946-63, its main focus is the debate that followed R.A. Lesters empirical research 1946 who wrote a critical paper concerning the maximization-principle. It also concerns itself with the debate that followed on Milton Friedman´s essay on positive economics..

The purpose of this dissertation is to describe small businesses? opinions about the auditor as a business adviser as well as their need for advice, dependent on which stage of the lifecycle model they belong to. This dissertation has a qualitative approach as the authors wanted to gain a deeper understanding about the problem area. As the lifecycle model in this dissertation consist of three stages, the authors have interviewed six small businesses, two in each stage. The interviews were conducted with the owner and took place at the location of the business.

This essay describes social workers view on the action contact person. The study was qualitative and six social workers were interviewed on the topic. The effort contact person were chosen as the object for this study since it is the most common action given to young people, despite the lack of research about this subject. The result was analyzed out of conduct action theory and the theory of street level bureaucrats as well as scientific research in this area. The result of this study shows that most of the social workers consider the action as positive.

The present study sought to examine the collaborative role of the student organization Here 4 U and the impact of this collaboration on the organization and its partners. As a point of departure a questionnaire was distributed to supervisors, principals and other cooperation partners of Here 4 U, the most prominent quantitative results of which were related to previous research, new institutional theory and empowerment theory. It turned out that partners interacting with Here 4 U felt that the collaboration was necessary and wanted to continue with it. The respondents to the questionnaire were asked to define the concept of collaboration. Factors emphasized by respondents included feeling of community, security, and common goals.

Goodwill accounting has for a long time been, and with the implementation of IFRS in 2005, has become an even bigger issue. Critics mean that reporting of goodwill impairments is subject to discretion that can be used by the managers. We have applied a study made by Carlin and Finch (2009) on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm during 2006-2012. Our study contains 50 of the 255 public companies at 2012-12-31. The purpose of the study is to investigate if companies use an opportunistic discount rate when testing for impairment in goodwill and if the relation between goodwill and net profit before taxes, goodwill intensity, is an incentive for opportunism.

We investigate the effects of various types of word-of-mouth (WOM) messages on consumer bahavior. The message is varied along two dimensions where one is valence and the other is whether or not it contains an explicit call for certain behavior or attitude change. We use an experiment in the form of a web-based survey. Five different scenarios were designed to represent neutral, positive, and negative WOM. The latter two came in two different versions - one with a recommendation and one without.

The aim of this study is to explain and try to get an understanding for how women who are partners to substance missusers handle their lifesituation. To fulfill the aim of the study a qualitive method is used with a focus group as a data collection method. The theoretical framework is coping theory and system theory. The results show that women who are partners to substance missusers describe that they have a lifesituation filled with stress and worry. Because of their situation the women create and adjust their behaviors.

AbstractTitle: Transparency within Public Relations ? A study about PR-companies understanding of opennessPages: 71Authors: Olof EhrsTutor: Virginia MeliánCourse: Media and Communication Studies, Bachelor Degree.Period: Autumn 2011.University: The Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, JMK,at Stockholm University.Background and aim: The PR-industry is continuing to grow in Sweden. The increase of working consultancies has made it more difficult to define what PR-activities really are in Sweden today. This exam reviews the presence and lack of transparency within the PR labour. The aim of the essay is to inspect the PR-companies relation to transparency and non-transparency.