During the past year it has been made possible to buy back a company?s outstanding stock. This is done in order to change the capital structure towards a situation with less equity. A change in capital structure means a change in the cost of capital for a company and by that a change in the value for the stockholder. This Master Thesis studies the relation between capital structure and business risk.

The swedish song contest ?Melodifestivalen? is the most popular TV-show in Sweden according to number of viewers. Not only has it managed to remain the viewers? number-one choice year after year, it has also engaged a lot of the viewers (2, 4 millions in this year?s final) to vote for their favourite song. Melodifestivalen is classified as a creative organisation since it has evident elements of creativity in its process, product and among its employees.

This study investigates how the concept of Social Responsible Investment (SRI) can be applied to futures trading. More specifically, this study examines the possibility of creating a SRI-product for an investor, active in futures investments within commodities, energies and stock indices, and the content of such a product is suggested. We conducted a qualitative study, based on a number of interviews. The study suggests that investments in futures of specific assets are to be equated with investments directly in the underlying assets from a SRI point of view. Therefore, we analyzed the underlying assets of futures traded commodities, energies and stock indices, and used social screening, together with specific screening criteria, for the analysis.

På den nuvarande klädmarknaden råder en hård konkurrens eftersom utbudet av varor och tjänster har ökat. Konsumentens förändrade beteende har lett till att företag måste sticka ut med hjälp av sitt erbjudande. Ett sätt att utmärka sig på marknaden är att arbeta med relationer och få kunden att vilja återvända på grund av butikens service. En kund som känner sig trygg i shoppingsituationen kan bli en viktig stamkund. Den traditionella mannen finner inget nöje i att shoppa och vill därför att processen ska gå så snabbt som möjligt.

During the last year in the Innovation Engineering Program, at Halmstad University, a degree project was performed that was carried out during Fall semester in 2006 and Spring semester 2007. The project was performed by two students in corporation with LIC Audio AB, a company in Stockholm. The degree project was meant to result in a communication aid for people with a cognitive handicap. The project focused on people suffering from dementia because of the expressed need within this group. This aid should first and foremost help in a conversation between a person with dementia and another person, like a relative or nursing home staff.

Detta examensarbete är utfört i samarbete med AB Electrolux Mariestadfabriken som arbetar med produktutveckling och tillverkning av kyl- och frysskåp. Uppdraget var att utveckla ett helhetskoncept för insidan på en kylskåpsdörr i premiumsegmentet med fokus på infästning och modularisering av balkonger. Kylskåpet som helhetskonceptet ska placeras i har en inredning av rostfritt stål, vilket innebär att de lösningar som i dagsläget tillämpas för kylsdörren inte kan användas.Projektet inleddes med en undersökning av bakgrunden till uppdraget samt en förstudie där målgruppen definierades, konkurrenter identifierades och kraven från användarna samlades in. Efter detta följde en grundlig konceptframtagningsfas som innefattade generering av idéer, skapande av koncept, konceptval och detaljutveckling.Det slutliga helhetskonceptet visualiserades med en prototyp som erbjuder steglös justering av kylskåpsdörrens balkonger. Grundkonstruktionen består av två strängpressade aluminiumprofiler som har en dold infästning på dörren.

It is increasingly important for cities to attract visitors, potential new residents and businesses. Jönköping is one of the cities working with place marketing, a strategy that intends to mediate a positive image of the city, in order to accomplish just that.People often have a need to preserve the memory of a trip into something tangible. Anyone visiting Jönköping encounters a souvenir choice, much like the one in many other cities. Linked to the idea of positive place marketing, our work aims to investigate how we as product developers can create a product that en¬hances the image of Jönköping based on the thought that all residents are con¬sig¬nors. Accordingly, we develop three different products from the residents' own image of the city.Our research questions are:Based on the photographs, what image of Jönköping do the ambassadors mediate of their own city?As designers, what in Jönköping's history versus the image of Jönköping today, can we seize in order to give products for visitors a sense of authenticity?As designers, how can we use knowledge of place branding in the development of souvenirs?We performed interviews within three different aspects: history, souvenirs and place branding, all focused on the city of Jönköping.

In a time of economic turmoil and financial crisis profitability matters rise higher and higher on company agendas. Many companies are pressured to find profitability to avoid layoffs or even bankruptcy. Profitability essentially depends on the margin on the product or service sold and the costs associated with selling these products or services and hence these areas are of vital importance if companies are to improve profitability. Previous research has focused, for the most part, on product profitability while customer profitability has received less attention. This study is based on a case study of a Swedish publishing house and aims to investigate how the company?s Cost-to-Serve varies between its distribution channels.

The use of entertainment in various kinds of business events has recently increased in popularity among Swedish firms. Often, stand-up comedians are hired to entertain the employees or customers during these happenings. Generally, the firm invests a considerable amount of money in this service and is furthermore willing to pay a premium for a famous comedian. Although the market for this type of service is fairly large, the knowledge of the motives behind the investments is yet limited.A grounded theory study is carried out exploring the purpose of the entertainment as well as the rationales behind the preference for a famous comedian over an unknown. Two general types of contexts (internal and external) are identified and a number of objectives related to each type are distinguished.

Every year, thousands tons of edible food are discarded by the grocery stores. This is food that could have gone to people that?s in need of it. In many countries, so called food banks are established in order to supply welfare organizations with this kind of food. Today there is no equivalent system existing in Sweden.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the companies on Nasdaq OMXS Large and Mid Cap to see if there are interesting patterns regarding their WACC assumptions, used when performing impairment tests on goodwill, during 2007-2009. If so, can we explain these patterns? MethodWe have gathered information about the WACC assumptions presented in the annual reports of the 133 companies that were listed on OMXS Large and Mid Cap during the spring of 2011. To complement this quantitative information we have also conducted an interview with Peter Malmqvist and contacted eight of the companies that were in the study.ConclusionWe can conclude that not all companies present their WACC assumptions in the annual report, even though IAS 36 states that this should be done. Of the 45 companies that were included in our study, eight had lowered their WACC during 2008 and increased it in 2009.

Kitron had wishes to be able to test and measure how disturbance affects their vehicle electronic units before they have been verified by SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden in Borås. This work started with the writing of a demand specification together with Kitron for a product PSQS, Power Supply Quality Simulator, which can generate some test pulses according to a standard for electronic units to Volvos vehicles. A design proposal was developed with the help the demand specification and was verified with the help of simulations. All electric schematics was designed with the guide of the design proposal. The pulses realized in the works of this thesis are those which Kitron experienced that they have a need to test in their own premises and which are possible to generate with the means available.

A large part of the Namibian low income population lack access to grid distributed electricity. This mean they are effectively shut out from basic functions such as lighting, information technologies and hygienic food handling. Hence, finding ways of providing affordable off-grid electricity is an important, not to say critical, task.This master thesis is an innovation and concept development project that has been carried out in cooperation with organisations in Sweden and Namibia. The purpose of the project has been to (1) develop a concept for off-grid electricity supply in Namibia and (2) to gain a deeper knowledge within the area of innovation and product development for the Base of the Pyramid population, i.e. the poorest, but largest, socio-economic part of the global population.Essential in this project has been to acquire user understanding and to identify user needs to create a foundation for developing the concept.

First time labelling occurred was when animal owners marked their cattle in order to distinguish the differences. The need for labelling was added when the trade had expanded during Roman times in order for the customers to know who manufactured their craft. Trademarks are characterized as a way to distinguish one's own product or service from someone else. The marketing purpose is to create an identity. The brand has an important role as an effective competitive tool for businesses.A brand can have many different functions, which will simplify a customer's decision making process in selecting a service or product.

The purpose of this thesis is to identify the factors that drive efficiency and effectiveness in technical development projects performed at A?F?s department of product development. In addition to identifying and analyzing these factors, the thesis also analyzes what needs to be taken in to account in order to implement a measurement system that is able to both monitor and control the identified factors.The thesis has been performed in a qualitative manner. It is based on interviews with people from several different technological companies, within different lines of business, all of which are customers to A?F?s department of product development.The results show that there are seven critical factors for project efficiency and effectiveness.