Sweden's school voucher reform has made the Swedish school system into one of the world's most liberalized. The debate concerning the ownership of Swedish schools is intense and the Swedish Minister of Education is open to restricting private equity owned companies from running schools. Interestingly, fewer calls are heard for restricting smaller profit-driven companies from owning schools. This essay aims to examine whether or not the quality of education provided by an individual school changes if it is acquired by a large private equity owned school group. This is done by conducting a comparative study on four independent schools recently acquired by AcadeMedia, Sweden's biggest private equity owned school group.

This paper aims to investigate the systematic risk exposure of Swedish hedge funds using a modified Fung & Hsieh (2004) asset-based style factor model. The results show that the average Swedish equity hedge fund and fund of funds had a significant positive exposure to the equity market portfolio and the spread between small cap and large cap stocks (SMB) during the sample period. This is consistent with our a priori expectations and previous international studies. We do not find the expected systematic fixed-income related risk exposure for the fixed-income hedge funds and fund of funds in the sample. The empirical material used in this study is taken from a publicly available fund database maintained by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen).

AbstractTitle: How has IAS 38 affected accounting in small and large companies?A study of the differences in the accounting of financial ratios between small and large companies.Authors: Jasmine Choudrey & Rana QadriMain Course: Business EconomicsThe aim of this study is to make a comparative examination between small and large companies in Sweden and to analyse how accounting of intangible assets has been affected or changed due to the introduction of the new accounting recommendations and IAS 38.Main theory: There are no theories available on these type of researches due to the fact that the introduction of the IFRS is relatively new. Instead the essay discusses facts about the financial ratios and IFRS as a starting point for the study.Method: The examination will be a combination of both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The quantitative part will be based on statistics and financial ratios from the different companies annual reports. These financial ratios will be analyzed by performing a confidence interval.

Background: Within real estate companies assets according to IFRS/ IAS 40 should be valued at fair value, to compare with previous valuation criteria according to which real estate should valued at cost. Two models can be used within IAS 40, these are value at cost and fair value. When valued at cost the real estate value in the balance sheet should be specified at cost. The method chosen by the company should be used for all real estate within the company except for the premises used by the company. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to analyse and evaluate how real estate companies experienced the problems that arose when converting to IAS 40, and to analyse the effects on the companies key ratios as a result of the change of accounting method.

Title: Valuing Real Estate FCFE and interest coverage under macroeconomic uncertainty with scenario analysisAuthors: Marcus Ewerstrand, Jakob MattssonAdvisor: Gert SandahlBackground and problem: After the collapse in the Swedish economy in the beginning of the 1990-ties, the company Secerum was launched. Securums objective was to handle unsecured credits from Nordbanken by transferring a large portfolio of properties and to setup a number of companies who would be in charge for the prospects of these assets. One company that was established during this remarkable period was Castellum, in the year of 1994. After a successful process of raising capital to its development of corporate strategies and formation of several affiliated companies which operates locally, Castellum was publish on the Stockholm stock exchange 1997/1998. Now, thirteen years later after its establishment, the credit crunch in the US.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to test four different hypotheses from the aspect of the title of this paper. H 1 Consumers trust the pharmacy employees? advice and suggestions for their purchase decisions more than the brand awareness they have received through the companies marketing communication H 2 Consumers are enough affected of a company?s marketing communication to choose their brand even if the pharmacy employees recommend other brands. H 3 Building brand equity through pharmacies can only be successful if the company has built up a trust for their brand among the pharmacy employees. H 4 Without building brand equity the marketing communication strategy for Ferrosan cannot increase their brand value and create loyalty.

Då TV-reklam idag är ett frekvent inslag i de kommersiella TV-kanalerna ville vi ta reda på vilken typ av reklamfilm som uppfattades som mest lämpad vid varumärkesbyggande. För att ta reda på detta valde vi att genomföra kvalitativa djupintervjuer med sex personer, tre kvinnor och tre män, i åldrarna 18 - 65 år. Vi valde att avgränsa oss till de tre genrerna humorreklam, känsloreklam och kändisreklam, och valde ut två reklamfilmer inom varje genre som vi ansåg representativa för respektive genre. Vi valde att använda oss av semiotik och brand equity som teoretisk ansats då vi ansåg att de passade väl in i vår studie.Under intervjuerna visade vi reklamfilmerna för intervjupersonerna och ställde därefter frågor utifrån två förutbestämda frågeområden; varumärke och reklamfilmsgenre. Majoriteten av intervjupersonerna ansåg att humor var den genre som var mest lämpad vid varumärkesbyggande, men när det gällde personligt tyckande visade det sig att humor och känsloreklam var lika mycket uppskattade.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to test four different hypotheses from the aspect of the title of this paper. H 1 Consumers trust the pharmacy employees? advice and suggestions for their purchase decisions more than the brand awareness they have received through the companies marketing communication H 2 Consumers are enough affected of a company?s marketing communication to choose their brand even if the pharmacy employees recommend other brands. H 3 Building brand equity through pharmacies can only be successful if the company has built up a trust for their brand among the pharmacy employees. H 4 Without building brand equity the marketing communication strategy for Ferrosan cannot increase their brand value and create loyalty. Methodology: The research method that was chosen is a detective argumentation that starts from theories and explain different parameters regarding the subject I am concentration on. It is a case study where the companies branding strategy towards pharmacies in Sweden is analyzed bys a mix of semi-structured interviews, documentation analysis and a quantitative research . Theoretical framework: The theoretical model that has been prepared gives me the possibility to analyze different parameters regarding branding that are important when building a brand in an new market.

Riskkapitalbolagens verksamhet är mycket omdebatterad då förespråkare hävdar att riskkapitalbolagen bidrar till långsiktigt stabila företag och kritiker menar att de bryter ner värde hos sina portföljbolag. Denna debatt har föranlett många studier i ämnet men ytterst få har undersökt portföljbolagens syn på riskkapitalbolagens inblandning. Författarna har därför valt att bygga vidare på en tidigare studie som, genom att jämföra värdeutvecklingen för 13 portföljbolag under två år med utvecklingen hos en grupp jämförbara bolag, undersökt om riskkapitalbolagen skapar uthålligt värde hos sina portföljbolag. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka huruvida strategiska skillnader mellan portföljbolagen och jämförelsebolagen har påverkat värdeutvecklingen i den tidigare studien samt hur riskkapitalbolagens inblandning har bidragit till dessa skillnader. Detta gjordes genom en enkätundersökning där samtliga bolag i den tidigare studien tillfrågades att medverka, av dessa valde 13 företag, sju portföljbolag och sex jämförelsebolag, att delta.

Bakgrund: Corporate rebranding är ett relativt nytt fenomen som innebär att ett företag väljer att omdefiniera sitt varumärke på grund av förändringar inom företaget eller omgivningen. Men det är fortfarande relativt ostuderat och ingen studie behandlar den eventuella kopplingen med en dynamisk marknad.Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att skapa en förståelse för hur fenomenet corporate rebranding fungerar inom en dynamisk marknad, där vi valt att utgå från telekombranschen som exempelmarknad.Metod: Studien har en hermeneutisk ansats med ett deduktivt angreppssätt för kopplingen mellan teori och empiri. Studien har vidare använt sig av en komparativ design med fallstudieinslag utifrån en kvalitativ strategi.Referensram: Referensramen består av teorier om dynamiska marknader som leder in till globalisering, lokalisering samt glokalisering. Därefter definieras varumärke med respektive underliggande teorier och avslutningsvis corporate rebranding.Slutsats: Den dynamiska marknaden har gett upphov till ett stort antal rebranding-processer inom branschen, där tre strategier för att hantera ett nytt globalt varumärke har identifierats. Slutligen har varumärkets roll inom branschen blivit av en mer dynamisk karaktär där syftet är att ha ett varumärke som är mest lämpat för de förändringar som skett inom såväl den interna som externa miljön..

This thesis aims to find a more cost effective model for purchasing and logistics at asmall company. The studied company is a BMX (bicycle motocross) and MTB(mountain bike) retailer. The questions to be answered are: How large parties shouldbe ordered and what mode of transportation is to be used? A literature orientation ofthe field was followed by visits to the company, obtaining information from twodifferent logistics companies and interviews of four other companies in the sameindustry. The study shows that it´s difficult to develop an optimum order quantity fora small company since there often are other factors affecting how large amountshould be ordered.

Background: In today?s business environment it is important to find new customers. An action that has been widely used is to enter foreignmarkets. Most firms are always seeking to maximize their profits,which can be achieved if an entry into a foreign market is performed.Due the European Union (EU), new economies open theirborders for international trade and foreign investments. In 2004 Poland received membership.

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.

My essay is on the subject of teachers work environment with focus on noise and communication. In the essay questions are raised on how a teacher can influence his or hers noisy work environment. A school is a large work place with many employees and is owned and administered by the county municipality which is an even bigger workplace. How big an acting space does a teacher have in such a large organization?My methods of research on these questions have been to conduct interviews and analyzing documentation from The Swedish Work Environment Authority.

In the future the Swedish pension system will face major problems. With an increasing aging population combined with a decreasing share of working population the financing of the pension system is becoming a bigger problem than previously predicted. This means the individual himself will have a bigger responsibility to invest money for their future retirement. It has been shown that a large proportion of the people who invests for their future pension have neither the interest nor the time to actively invest their pension capital. To make it easier for those who invest for their retirement, some Swedish banks have created so-called generation funds.