Due Diligence is today an important part of the transaction process through sales of properties and isan important process for both sellers and buyers. The process intends to review an asset before atransaction to minimize the risks associated with the acquisition by detecting weaknesses and verifythe asset's characteristics. The use of Due Diligence has become increasingly common over the pasttwenty years in the Swedish real estate market and there is no indication that this trend will decreasebut rather increase. Although there is widespread use of the process both in acquisitions ofcorporations and properties, both in Sweden and in the rest of the world, it is costly for thepurchasers and the concept is far from fully developed.This thesis aims to clarify what the real estate market thinks about the potential development of theprocess itself and the role of the actors. The main question is what opportunities exist to develop theconcept of Due Diligence in real estate transactions.

Purpose Based on the new comprehensive income due to changes in IAS 1, the authors aim to describe how a listed corporate accounting is affected by IAS 1 and the new income statement.Methodology This study uses an inductive approach with a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, using financial rapports from the investment company Latour. This case study is based on Latour?s all published financial statements under the period 2008 to 2012.Result The study resulted in different observations of Latour's operational and financial performance, share price trends as well as ratios. The study's authors can see that Latour's net income and comprehensive income differ due to changes in IAS 1. They can also observe the effect of clean surplus in Latour?s income statement.

General concerns about environmental issues may mean that the demand for bio-based products will increase. Opportunities that arise on markets, together with the declining demand for newsprint, may trigger firms in the Swedish forest industry to increase their development of new products. One product that has received a lot of attention during recent years (and is a contender) is nanocellulose. The purpose of this master thesis was to examine the Swedish forest industry?s view on the market potential of nanocellulose.

Background: The debate about environment, labor conditions and aid to developing countries has the last years been a much discussed subject The pressure on the companies to live up to their responsibility is beginning to be noticed in the market.Purpose: To find out if a retail company investing in Corporate Social Responsibility thereby direct can effect it?s stock value. Using interviews to investigate if and how stock analysts and corporate finance professionals valuate a company?s CSR initiatives.Theoretical perspective: The description of CSR is leading to the main theory, The Brand Value Change, and the Market Hypothesis. Additionally a theory of the Consumer Buying Process and CAPM-model about financial risks is presented.Method: An event study of 30 companies to investigate if there is any change in their stock values and interviews with three professionals from the financial sector to find out about their attitude to CSR.

The market for fashion and interior consists of a large amount of retail chains, which together creates high competition. To be able to compete and to be the most obvious choice for the customers, retailers must review their activities that exist in the company and improve them. This concerns store chains since it is so important that the stores communicate the retailers strategy and it is very critical because of the impact that the stores have on the communication with customers. It is after all in the stores that the buying decision is made. With this information, it is important to strive for uniformity through the chain and especially the stores.

The first aim of the thesis is to analyse the problems of trust, according to game theory, in the Russian market for private pensions insurance. The second aim is to find suitable strategies to solve the problems. Problems of trust have arisen because, (i) buyers of insurance have had negative experiences when dealing with insurance companies and corruption has decreased trust for all players in the market, (ii) incomplete information makes it difficult to separate honest actors from dishonest, and (iii) dishonest insurance companies do not get punished because of corruption and weaknesses in the law. Mutual risk-sharing is a potential solution as necessary conditions already exist in the Russian society. There are groups who (i) share the same type of risks, (ii) are aware of moral hazards, and (iii) are able to control each other.

This paper focuses on traditional clothing enterprise IT strategies. The purpose was to investigate the correlation between traditional clothing companies IT strategies and their brand. In a market where the competition is high it has become more important that the company targets a customer segment. To reach their targeted customers the company builds their brand with different corporate strategies. This segmentation is necessary because of the high exposure to competition, and a well-established brand could be a prerequisite for profitability.  In today?s market, IT has a major impact on the clothing business.

Today there is still irrelevant pay differential in society. In Sweden in 2010, the average pay differential was 15,4 percent between the sexes. Only 0,8 percent better than EU:s average.In Sweden the individual salaries increasingly have begun to characterize the Swedish labor market. Based on this, the aim of this study is to highlight the issue of equal pay between men and women from the perspective of individual salary. This would also been doing with a background in the regulatory environment of equal pay.When it comes to equality between women and men it is the area of labor law in EU who is the most developed and in Sweden this is the area who is most affected by EU law.

The meeting industry is a growing industry around the world, and the technological development in recent decades is one of the contributing factors to the increased travel opportunities and meeting industry's expansion. It can be assumed that the technology could replace some of the personal meetings, but humans have always had a need to meet in physical locations in work related purposes, therefore there is no evidence that personal meetings will disappear. Technological development should be seen as complementary rather than a substitute to the existing professional meetings. Public and private sectors within countries has drawn attention to meeting industry's potential, as favored destinations in terms of economic administration, image creation, expansion and acquisition of further market share in the global market. Meeting industry is complex precisely because there are so many different actors and stakeholders that integrate.

This thesis aims to study brand change, which can be of interest since a brand during its lifetime can be expected to meet a lifecycle consisting of five phases; innovation, introduction, growth, maturity and recession. In order to avoid the recession phase and the sales decline that follows there is a need for a change of the brand.In order to study brand change, theoretical framework is compared to two real world cases that have gone through an active change.The conceptions of positioning, repositioning and revitalization are clarified. Positioning deals with how brands are located in customer?s minds as well as on the real market. Repositioning implies a change of the current position and is also often a move towards a new market segment.

Syftet med uppsatsen var att undersöka huruvida den riskjusterade avkastningen från en traditionellt förvaltad lång indexportfölj kunde ha varit högre om portföljen hade förvaltats enligt en Equity Market Neutral-strategi. Vidare ämnar undersökningen att testa huruvida de skapade portföljerna uppvisar låg korrelation, dvs marknadsneutralitet, med underliggande marknad som är förenligt med strategin. För detta ändamål används Svenska Handelsbankens Månatliga Modellportfölj mellan åren 1998-2003. Vidare är syftet att utifrån analysen av undersökningens resultat kunna dra slutsatser om det kan finnas information i traditionella långa indexportföljer, liknande Handelsbankens Modellportfölj, som kan öka den riskjusterade avkastningen men som inte utnyttjas och som skulle kunna tas till vara via implementeringen av en Equity Market Neutral strategi. Undersökningen visade att portföljerna uppvisade såväl högre absolut- som riskjusterad avkastning jämfört med modellportföljen, och låg korrelationen gentemot marknaden sett över hela den undersökta perioden.

To establish sustainability reports is an increasing trend for more and more companies. This has led to a spread of the international framework Global reporting initiative, GRI, guidelines to make a sustainability reports. This trend has got a lot of critics from various stakeholders who believe that companies in these reports communicate the information in a way of window dressing. Both negative and positive information has to be represented according to GRI: s principle of balance.  Window dressing is created by adding a greater emphasis on the positive information. The researchers review the context of the negative information to study the extent to which it is reported and whether there are patterns and variations in the reported information.

Previous research has discussed how voluntary disclosure relates to the cost of equity capital. Theories of estimation risk support a negative association between disclosure and cost of equity capital, as empirically documented by Botosan (1997) among others. In this Bachelor thesis we investigate whether such a relationship exists on the Swedish capital market. Using the CAPM to estimate the cost of equity capital and a disclosure index based on Aktiespararen?s annual evaluation of corporate disclosure, we test a model where disclosure explains cost of equity capital.

The situation on the Swedish labour market is different in opportunities whether you are a native Swede or someone who has a foreign background. People with foreign backgrounds tend to have lower wages, higher rate of unemployment and often have temporary employment contracts. There is a conception that the Swedish culture is the standard and other foreign cultures are abnormal and different. The purpose of this study has been to investigate why there is discrimination on the labour market against ethnic minorities and how the Swedish history has contributed to the structural ethnic discrimination that we are struggling with. I have been using the right dogmatic method and a social science perspective as complement in order to answer the purpose.

The overriding purpose of this graduate thesis is to evaluate if municipalities and county councils can deviate from the legislation of public procurement during procurement of customer choice agreements within the health and social care area. The intention of this Quasi-market is to provide the users with competition in terms of quality rather then the general principal rule of economic value.My conclusion results in a legal situation without rules of general procedure. So far the authorities make their own regulation in the field of customer choice agreements. The problem lies within the authorization of new contractors and their right to make an appeal against resolutions made by the authorities social care divisions.One solution is to legislate within the present law of public procurement. Another way to solve the problem is to create a lex specialis apart from the present public procurement regulation..