High brand equity is a great asset for companies that operate their business in a free and competitive market. Brand equity can arise from both product-related and non-product related attributes and may be viewed from many different perspectives. This study examines which different attributes that contribute to enhance brand equity from customers point of view at the Swedish market for agricultural machinery. The study have been developed using a comprehensive literature search in order to investigate the field regarding brand equity and brand image. The literature review results in one product specific and one non-product specific approach in order to examine factors that contribute to enhanced brand equity. This takes the form as one survey-based approach regarding the non-product related attributes which is examined by interpreting the extra value added by different attributes.

The transformation of the Swedish Armed Forces is bringing about major changes in many areas. Indirect fire is one capability affected by these changes. Financial savings, a shrinking organization and higher eligibility requirements mean that fewer soldiers will gain access to exclusive high-tech support resources such as the JAS 39 Gripen aircraft and the ARCHER artillery system. This thesis aims to examine whether access to indirect fire capability can be increased through the use of civilian products and communication networks. Technology development in the civilian mobile communications area is exponential and nations such as the USA, facing challenges similar to those of the Swedish Armed Forces, devote substantial resources to research and development.

This essay examines if formative assessment causes any impact on upper secondary school students results in social science. Other questions asked are which group of students benefits most from formative assessment and if any connections can be found between the students result and their cognitive approach to learning, problem solving capability and attitude to school.Two classes from a school in Stockholm were chosen to participate in the study. The theoretical framework is mostly based on former research performed by Black and William (1998, 2003). Multiple methods were used, including an experiment with a parallel-group design with two groups, a survey and a problem solving test. Statistics is used to describe and analyze collected data.Both groups were taught during five lessons in the same field of knowledge with the same kind of teaching, apart from formative assessment.

To be competitive in the corporate climate of today it is important to have effective logistic activities. A common resource within the internal logistics is forklift trucks, which are used to lift and transport material. It becomes more and more important to decide whether to buy, lease or rent the forklifts to obtain an optimal economic situation. Many companies have issues with internal pricing. It is difficult to price products and services correctly. It is common to price the overall instead of what it really costs.The purpose of the thesis is to present a model for the acquisition of forklifts for internal logistic operations, regarding financing and internal pricing, to obtain economic effectiveness and an optimal forklift fleet size. The study focused on a specific research question, and for this purpose interviews with experts were held, observations were made and a literature study was done.

Organizations that want to maintain a good innovation capability can seek knowledge both within and outside its boundaries. Opening up innovation processes, through so-called open innovation, allows organizations to combine internal and external knowledge sources in order to include previously excluded perspectives to the innovation process. This study examines how knowledge is created and transferred when conducting open innovation through crowdsourcing. It is done based on Nonaka?s (1991; 1994) theory of how knowledge is created through conversion processes, where implicit knowledge can be converted into explicit knowledge and vice versa.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the two new phenomena; the pricing model Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW) and the launch of daily newspapers in the iPad. A quantitative study was conducted in order to examine what would happen if the PWYW-model where to be used by a daily newspaper for its iPad product, and what this would signal to consumers about the brand in terms of brand association and brand attitude. Furthermore, we have investigated which of these factors that are affecting willingness to pay in this PWYW-situation. Moreover, a secondary purpose was to test the two possible presentations of the digital newspaper in the iPad; Product and Access ? and how the results differed between these two.

Wind power is a growing energy sector in Sweden. However, it still represents only a small part of the total electricity production, about 0.7%. In order to create good conditions and to facilitate the establishment of wind power in Sweden, the government has for example, created a national centre for wind use. The objective has been to reach the governmental goal, which is an expansion of wind power by 10 TWh by year 2015 compared to the level in 2002. The Swedish electricity market was deregulated in 1996 which refers to the introduction of a competitive market in electricity production and trade.

This thesis explores some issues regarding estimations of the cost of capital on the Stockholm Stock Exchange through reverse engineering of the Residual Income Valuation model and through usage of the Capital Asset Pricing Model. Previous studies are in conflict of whether the risk premium changes considerably over time or not. Furthermore, the risk premium estimated by CAPM tends to be fairly stable. In this study, reverse engineering of the cost of capital implied by analysts? forecasts shows a significant difference in the risk premium over time.

Transfer pricing including internal loans have increased in recent years, making it easier for companies to minimize their taxable income. After the Swedish court case Diligentia, there have been discussions regarding the influence of a parent company's transparency and control of the subsidiary with regards to the interest rates on internal loans. In court cases that followed Diligentia, the Swedish Tax Agency argued that a parent company always could be assumed to have sufficient transparency and control of the operations in the subsidiary, and therefore reduce the risk on their debt obligations. This thesis seeks to analyze the effects of the transparency and control a parent company has with regards to interest rates on internal loans. The analysis is conducted by analyzing court cases similar to Diligentia.

Denna studie jämför hur Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) och Fama-French trefaktorsmodell förklarar och förutspår avkastning på en global aktiemarknad. CAPM utgår ifrån att investerarna förväntar sig en riskfri ränta adderat marknadspremien multiplicerat med företagens exponering mot marknaden. Fama-Frenchs är en utvidgning av CAPM modellen, där företagens storlek och book-to-market-värde läggs till som förklarande variabler för avkastning. Genom regressionsmodeller och prediktioner för portföljer indelade i storlek och book-to-market jämförs modellerna. Fama-French tycks vara genomgående bättre på att förklara och förutspå avkastning under perioden 1990m07-2013m02 för samtliga portföljer, förutom portföljen för stora företag med medelhögt book-to-market värde.

Researchers and practitioners have recognized the need for ?transforming? every policy of the company into a competitive advantage tool. Thus, both the pricing approach and the supply chain practices of the firm have emerged as an important determinant of success. In this study, however, we are not only interested in these two aspects, but also in a third one-namely cultural conflicts as an obstacle and challenge. The interaction of the tree factors is extensively presented against the backdrop of Skanska and four of their closest Polish suppliers.

Studien syftar till att; genom en fallstudie på ett utvalt företag, analysera och skapa förståelse kring prissättningsförmåga och prissättningsarbete som konkurrensfördel i tjänsteföretag. Trots studiens fokus på ett enskilt fall och en specifik situation är förhoppningen att studiens slutsatser i någon utsträckning även ska vara av generellt intresse för andra tjänsteföretag. Ramen för studien utgörs av en abduktiv och explorativ ansats, inom vilken undersökningsdesign och metoder för datainsamling och tolkning har bestämts. Företaget SJ har studerats genom en fallstudie. Som metoder för insamling av data har främst kvalitativa, semistrukturerade intervjuer använts.

This study examines the effects of credit risk and information disclosure in the new bank regulating system Basel II on bank and bank customer. The effects are then discussed in a perspective of the economic man and information asymmetric theories. Furthermore is the Basel II effects on the capital adequacy of Andelsbanken för Åland examined.The approach of the study is qualitative and several interviews with individuals on different levels of the examined bank, Andelsbanken för Åland, have been carried out during the collecting of empirical facts about the effects of the regulating change from the Basel I system to Basel II.The research findings are as follows:Andelsbanken för Åland have increased its capital adequacy ratio from 12,7 percent to 14,4 percent, mostly due to lower risk weights on housing mortgages compared to Basel I. Andelsbanken för Åland have started to use a completely new credit risk and customer assessment system which classifies every customer and gives them a credit rating. The system cause a much heavier information gathering of the customers profile as well as a much better assessment of risk than the previous system, which the bank finds positive.

Title: Pricing of IPO:s on the Swedish stock market Authors: Mikael Gustavsson Martin Kvist Henrik Wannberg Tutor: Anders Hederstierna Problem: There are certain sets of problems for underwriters when they are pricing potential stock-exchange companies. The problem partly consists of estimating the demand at an IPO and also to accurately value the business in comparison to the market. To set the price per share is problematic, since the company carrying out the public offering wants to optimise the amount of capital at the same time as they want the share to be subscribed in full. If the IPO would not be carried out, it could cause harm to the position of the underwriters. Purpose: To investigate whether underpricing exists associated with IPO:s on the Swedish market during the period 1995-1999.

Urban operations is one of the most difficult challenges a modern army can be tasked with. These challenges have been studied in history and present with various perspectives, but rarely from a combat engineering point of view. The purpose of this thesis has been to study the urban capabilities of a Swedish combat engineer company by examining if it can perform similar combat engineering fieldwork that supported the basic capabilities mobility, defence and effect in Operation AL FAJR, Fallujah Iraq 2004. These are the capabilities a Swedish engineer company are primarily designed to support in urban operations.For example, the study of Operation AL FAJR has shown that fieldwork supported mobility with breaching minefields, obstacles, walls and doors. Defence by creating defensive positions and obstacles.