European cities of today are under the challenge to find ways to stay competitive and flourish in a rapidly changing world, where the old patterns of centrality and periphery not necessarily holds true. New and improved communication networks, a changed political geography in Europe, and the globalisation of not only the financial and industrial markets but also to a certain extent the globalisation of people, have all led to great challenges for cities and regions.In a changed spatial reality the classic monocentric models are challenged by newer models of urbanisation. The polycentric urban region is one such model which has been used to describe urban regions like the Randstad in the Netherlands and the Rhein-Ruhr region in Germany. Regions which lack the single dominant central city of the monocentric models of old, and instead shows a high degree of more equal-sized and sometimes more specialised cities in regional cooperation. The polycentric urban region is in that aspect a possible model for how other urbanised regions in Europe may act to be able to position themselves as attractive urban regions and regional hubs in the European urban network.Polycentric urban regions are not a universal solution, though.

In this thesis the subject innovation and the change of meaning is in focus. The purpose of the study is to present a new dimension of innovation as a change of meaning together with the cases we?ve studied. It is discussed throughout the article if theories of perception and association can affect the organization and its ability to create meaning-changing innovations. The industrial robotics is a market in need of, perhaps, if not other markets but of finding new ground that results in the change of meaning.

Real estate financing is one of the key figures for financial success and fundamental to asuccessful business. Funding will come in several different ways, from existing cashflows andassets to new capital requirements which are aimed at different markets.These markets are constantly changing and since the recent financial crisis, there have beenadjustments and austerity measures which led to that the banks have become more restrictive intheir lending.The real estate industry is characterized by both long-term and short-term thinking that ischaracterized by a solid continuity. Our thesis discuss how the demand is in the real estatebusiness and how mature the Swedish market is for junior financingwith focus aroundmezzanine debt and where are we headed in the near future.We've reached out to the key players in the industry on both the buy and sell side of real estatefinancing but also people between lenders and borrowers that handles transaction advice. Tohave been able to implement the analysisa survey and simulation of an investment calculationwas created. This questionnaire was answered by many real estate companies with senior peoplethat had operational positionsmost associated with corporate commitments.

Purpose: The main purpose of the thesis is to examine the profitability of Momentum Strategies on the Nordic stock markets. This will provide insight and contribute to the debate on efficient markets. Finding profitable Momentum Strategies will provide strong evidence of inefficiency in the market. A secondary purpose is to examine factors which might cause or impact the profitability of the Momentum Strategy. We will look closely at the relationship between the profitability and factors such as risk (CAPM-beta), market capitalization, trading volume and seasonality.

Scania?s discount rate - the return requirement of investments - refers to Scania?s WACC or weighted average cost of capital. The capital markets return requirement on equity and the credit market interest cost of borrowing is weighted to become the single discount rate, the WACC. The purpose of this study is to investigate which asset pricing model of APT and CAPM Scania should use in their WACC calculations. The company now uses a group WACC of 11 percent which is used in all company levels.

The aim of this study is to create understanding of why companies should collaborate with artists and how artists and businesses build strong partnerships. We also want to understand the development of relations between the music industry and companies, together with the problems, possibilities and implications it has for both artists and corporate identity and brand. The music industry has been changing rapidly during the digital revolution and new problems and opportunities have emerged which the music industry can choose to either embrace or renounce. This study is made with a qualitative approach based on interviews with relevant individuals from the music industry. We have carefully chosen these individuals to counterpart different segments of the music industry and to execute our purpose from various perspectives.

In this study, we examine the presence and consequences of CEO overconfidence in the Swedish market. We identify overconfidence with two insider-trading based measures and find that overconfidence is apparent among one third of CEOs in companies listed on the Swedish stock market. We also find that these CEOs are more prone to carry out acquisitions, as the probability of conducting an acquisition increases by 27 % if the CEO is overconfident. However, we do not find evidence that acquisitions by overconfident CEOs are more value-destroying. This finding contradicts results from previous studies conducted on Anglo-Saxon markets that suggest that overconfidence has a negative impact on the value-creation in acquisitions.

Background: In recent research literature, some researchers mean that companies in fast changing markets have to act proactively while others find that companies have to adapt to conditions and to react. This makes it interesting to study how software companies act strategically and also to study to what extent a flexible organisation is required by companies who proact and by those who react. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is the study how different types of software companies act strategically and what this requires of the company in terms of flexibility. Delimitation: The study treats only Swedish software companies with more than ten employees. Proceed of the Study: Representatives from four case companies as well as a consultant have been interviewed.

There is no doubt about the significance of nature on the health of human beings. Not only is the tree an element of nature that is of great value to our survival, it also serves as a valuable object and symbol of human beings? enjoyment and appreciation of the environment. The purpose of this study is to present the relationship that a person may have with a specific tree. Three women and two men are interviewed about their trees and the places where they are located.

We live in a society that has changed rapidly in recent years. The Swedish welfare state identity consisted of structures that had been formed from an emancipatory project. Today, these structures seem to have been erased and replaced by a different form of society. When a society is changing it affects the political, social and economic levels.In this social change Social Democracy seems to have lost its hegemonic position in society and describes itself as standing in a crisis. An effort to modernize the party has therefore begun.

The demand from Swedish companies of new potential markets to enter is increasing. One of these companies is Väderstad-verken which has the vision to grow approximately 15 percentages every year. To make this possible they must find new emerging markets to enter to be able to grow. Together with Väderstad-verken we have chosen India as a case study. Mainly because of its big agricultural sector that hasn?t yet been developed to modern standard.

Introduction: Interplay between all the different subsystems of the financial markets is currently considered as an important internal force in the market. In a financially liberalized economy exchange rate stability is a basis for a wellbeing stock market. If these interactions between all the different subsystems of the financial markets are not detected, this means that there is information inefficiency in the markets.Problem: Can we find any correlation between changes in currency, interest rate and bonds with the stock market index? If so, how do these changes affect the Stockholm Stock Exchange?Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine if there is any linkage between the interest rate, currency and bonds with the stock market. The researchers wanted to find out how these variables affect the stock market index OMX S30 which consists of the 30 largest companies on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.Method: This research has been based on a quantitative approach.

A recent development in the field of accounting has been an increasing use of fair values in financial reporting. In 2005, this development was reinforced in Sweden by the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards. The aim of this thesis is to discuss the problems related to the use of fair values, through a case study of the Swedish investment bank Carnegie. In May 2007, Carnegie announced that the result had been overly stated by 630 MSEK, due to the valuation of derivatives within the trading department. The empirical material consists of documents produced in the legal process between Carnegie and the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority.

The first purpose of this thesis is to investigate if, how, and why the perceived collective identity in the town of Karlskrona has changed. Collective identities can due to their socially constructed nature change rapidly in light of new collective experiences. The reason for suspecting such a change in Karlskrona is the immense impact that the change in the global economy, according to Saskia Sassen, has on cities. By interviewing politicians and media representatives from Karlskrona the perceived identity is drawn. The second purpose of this thesis will then be to test if the identity as it is perceived by Karlskronas habitants differ from the one that town officials present through city marketing.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to test for the existence of Capital Structure Arbitrage oppertunities in the equity-credit markets. Methodology: The mispricing of Credit Default Swap contracts are calculated and used as input in an Equity-Credit market trading strategy. The returns are then evaluated with a modified Value-at-Risk simulation. Theoretical perspectives: A Merton-based structural model, CreditGrades, is used for credit pricing and a mispricing-convergence trading-strategy between the credit and equity markets is implemented. Empirical foundation: Daily quotes for the Credit Default Swap spread of 37 European firms were collected for a period of two years, as well as equity-prices for the same period and the previous two years, used for model calibration.