SummaryThe purpose of this thesis is to examine what effect the IFRS 2 has on earnings, equity, financial strength and return on equity for listed Swedish companies with active stock option plans. The purpose is further to investigate the companies? attitudes towards IFRS 2 and to find out if companies tend to deviate from stock option plans due to the changed accounting rules. We also want to examine the view of IFRS 2 from an auditor?s perspective.We have used a deductive approach and a mix of quantitative and qualitative research methods with a view to get a completely clear picture within the field of study.

 Problem: For what type of investors are index funds versus exchange-traded index funds best suited?Objective: The purpose of the paper is to determine how an index fund or an exchange-traded index fund (ETF) suits different types of investors with different requirements in terms of time frame, investment size and purpose of investment. The comparison is based on fees and trade practicality. This is going to describe the advantages and disadvantages with the two different financial instruments.Method: The study is a comparative study using two methods; one of which is a case study, the other is a qualitative interview. The case study focuses on fees and is made on an exchange traded fund (XACT OMXS30) and a simple equity index fund (Erik Pensér equity enhanced index).

1.1 billion people are today living without sustainable access to improved water. The debate over the water sector has been dominated by the discussion over whether public or private actors are the most competent to manage it. In this paper the arguments pro and contra the two positions are presented to try to overview the debate and to try to find new ways to approach the question of the people living without clean water. By examining possible alternatives towards the discussion of public and private actors, it might result in some new approaches on how to move closer towards a solution. One alternative is local, small- scale projects which focus on the situation of the targetgroup in most need.

AbstractTitle: Cheap Monday ? A qualitative study of the consumers? opinions of the brand (Cheap Monday ? En kvalitativ studie av konsumenternas åsikter om märket)Number of pages: 38 (40 including enclosures)Author: Oskar NorlanderTutor: Göran SvenssonCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Autumn 2007University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The purpose of this essay is to examine from the customers? perspective how the Swedish jeans-brand Cheap Monday in just three years time could become such a prominent brand on the Swedish market. An additional purpose is to examine whether there is some kind of brand community connected to the brand or not.Material/Method: The main method used in this essay has been qualitative interviews with ten consumers of the brand. The answers from these interviews has then been analysed using two different theories, Keller?s Customer Based Brand Equity and Muniz and O?Guinnn?s Brand Community.Main results: The main results of this essay is that Cheap Monday is a brand that has become successful due to people?s perception of who the users of the brand are.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to do a brand survey of Metro in Karlstad. The study will originate from the terms ?brand identity? and ?brand associations?, where the brand identity is the organization?s desired view of the brand, and the brand associations define the associations held by the consumers.Issues: What is Metro?s brand identity? What are the brand associsations of Metro in Karlstad? How well do the brand identity and the brand associations correspond?Theoretical framework: The study is done from the perspective of media and communication studies, where the theoretical terms are defined from literature regarding brands.Method: The study is carried out using a qualitative document analysis, interviews, and a quantitative survey. The document analysis was made on Metro?s own documents regarding values and target audience.

This study was conducted on behalf of SCA forest AB, Västerbottens forest administration. Timber procurement from non-industrial private forest owners has become an increasingly important part of SCA:s wood supply. The objectives of this study was to report the current forest conditions in the private forests in the county of Västerbotten, analyse the potential for procurement of wood from private forest owners, and provide a basis for decisions on future strategies for timber procurement from private owners.Material and data have been collected from different sources, mainly from Swedish National Forest Inventory and SKA-VB08. This material was the basis for the analysis and calculations performed with the Heureka application PlanWise. This study area was divided into six different analytical areas (Coastal south, Coastal middle, Lycksele, Inland south, Inland north, Skellefteå), where each area of analysis is represented by a number of municipalities.In this study, two scenarios were specified; one describing the current forest management with current harvesting levels and the effects of these assumptions, the second to illuminate what potential there is for future timber harvesting.

In this paper the effect of capital structure on profitability has been investigated among Swedish companies. The essay intends to examine how the relationship between debt and profitability appear among Swedish companies and if the relationship differs between industries. The purpose is to find out how debt affects the profitability of Swedish companies.A quantitative approach has been applied. The selection was made among companies listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, which resulted in a sample of 207 companies. Several regression analyzes has been formed, based on the independent variable debt-ratio and the dependent variables profit margin, pre-tax profit margin, operating margin, return on assets and return on equity.

The main purpose of this essay is to investigate the legal position for employers concerning protection against what employees can express about one?s employer in social media.It may regard dissatisfaction concerning employment, tort or so-called whistleblowing. The spread through social media may be comprehensive and thus cause more damage to the employer.Employees within the public sector as well as in the private are protected by the liberty of speech, which is constitutional, even the protection of sources or the right to criticize can offer some protection. This gives the employees the possibility to widely express themselves in private social media as long as it can?t be classified as a violation, which per se is very rare.However, certain differences between the both sectors will be pointed out.There are still no constitutional rights regarding social media, but a grey area has emerged concerning the legal position.

The essay deals with the subject about branding and the communicative process that entails between businesses and consumers. The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding of the opportunities and risks of brand building through sponsorship and Co-Branding. This descriptive analysis is made by highlighting the partnership between two strong brands in the Swedish market, Åbro & AIK, and how internal and external associations related to their impact on brand equity. The study has led to the conclusion that the sponsorship should be seen as synonymous with Co-branding, ie. a synergy between two or more brands.

This work is done to try to solve a scientific computer problem and its basis derived from the web, as there are a variety of ways to program to it. The most common languages used by developers, both private and corporate are PHP, .NET and Ruby. But why do companies or a private developer choose a specific programming language? Is it because it is better and has more features than the others, or because they are forced? This essay uses a questionnaire and through tests sees which is best and which one is the most popular/used. To illustrate the problem, a survey is conducted and sent to several companies and asked them to answer the questions regarding the issue.

During the last decades, brand equity has been a priority topic for both practitioners and academics. In accordance with the structural changes in the economic settings caused by the so-called "new economy", corporations being confronted with a shift on perceived business value structure from tangible assets to intangibles. On the other hand firms increasingly are adopting more responsible behaviour towards their societies. In this context, one critical question is to understand how corporate conduct may affect brand equity. The purpose of this study was to find how brand equity (BE) measurement methods embrace corporate responsibility (CR), based on a literature review.

AbstractThe purpose was to investigate whether a recovery perspective, viewed from a psychosocial approach is applied in municipal / private and county related care and rehabilitation. A recovery perspective means that the attending staff ensures that the clients are viewed as holistic individuals, where all aspects of life are considered to ensure adequate care and rehabilitation. A questionnaire was answered by staff in psychiatry, social psychiatry and addiction treatment from different areas of the municipal / private and county related sector.The results show no difference in application of a recovery perspective between these two types of organizations. However, there is a slight tendency (non-significant) to lower-rated general individual competencies for municipal / private. There is also a strong tendency (non-significant) to a general difference between the aspects of the implemented recovery perspective, where the tendency is that the respondents as a whole estimate that the organization to a greater degree creates good conditions for a recovery perspective compared to the degree they are actually working on that basis.

This paper examines pupils? conception of the Swedish schools constitutive values expressed in the Swedish curriculum. The main question was, at to what extent the schools constitutive values have influenced the pupils conception of their own values. That question problematizes the relation between values, constructed and carried by central administration, and their interpretation at local level by pupils. The study was conducted with qualitative analysis which included qualitative interviews with seven pupils in the last year of the Swedish school system.

The aim of this master thesis is to study how the development of a public library by means of ideas and methods from the private sector can be related to traditional core values. We base our study on institutional theory, which focuses on norms and values in an organisation, and new institutional theory, which focuses on how organisations are influenced by changes in the environment. We also use New Public Management with a market focus to analyze the implications of a development towards a more market oriented view.The method used is that of a case study of a new library concept, Idea Stores in London. Idea Stores are a number of new public libraries in Tower Hamlets developed from the results of a major opinion survey about libraries. The Idea Stores combine traditional library services with elements of adult education and lifelong learning in a partnership with local learning centres.

Purpose: Examine if there is a connection between the athletic performance and the financial status in football clubs.Theoretical perspectives: This thesis is based on the theory that the modern football club is like every other company trying to maximize profit. The clubs should therefore use the same business strategies.Empirical foundation: The study is based on 25 observations over five years and five Allsvenska football clubs. The data is a compilation of the key ratios from the annual reports and the league table, years 2004 through 2008 in the clubs. Year 2009?s league table place is also included since tests have been done with one year?s displacement between the financial status and the league table.Conclusion:There is no correlation between solidity and the place in the league table in Allsvenska football clubs.There is no correlation between net profit and the place in the league table in Allsvenska football clubs.There is no correlation between equity and the place in the league table in Allsvenska football clubs..