Recent accounting scandals, often led by managers trying to improve results and thereby their own bonuses, have severely damaged the publics view of management. In the aftermath of scandals such as Enron, Parmalat and Skandia, demand has increased for Corporate Governance codes and similar regulation. The Swedish code for Corporate Governance came into effect on July 1, 2005. The code requires all Swedish companies listed on the Swedish Stock Exchange (OMX A- and O-list), with a turnover exceeding 3 billion SEK, to disclose a report regarding Corporate Governance, attached to the annual report.The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the new disclosure required by the Swedish Corporate Governance code will have a measurable effect on stock prices. The authors have applied event study methodology examining daily returns around the announcement of the Corporate Governance reports.

This paper tests the information signalling hypothesis on a sample of firms making open market stock repurchases. Using an earnings-based valuation model, we find that a majority of repurchasing firms are undervalued relative to their economic value. This result is consistent with previous academic studies, which claim that undervaluation is the prevalent factor explaining the observed abnormal return following the announcement of a repurchase program. We do not, however, find any evidence that the repurchase is consciously made by management to provide the market with new information. .

Does goodwill affect the cost of capital? Goodwill is an asset which is characterized by much uncertainty regarding both what it is and how much it is really worth. Based on economic theory about information risk and principal-agent problems as well as theory regarding the cost of capital we test for the hypothesis that debt and equity investors perceive goodwill as something risky and hence demand compensation for taking on this extra risk. The proxies used for the cost of capital are cost of debt, beta and the EP-ratio. On a general level we find that increasing the level of goodwill seems to result in higher cost of capital as represented by the three proxies.

Westra Wermlands Sparbank är en fristående Sparbank som är verksam i västra Värmland med huvudkontor i Arvika. Bankens affärsidé bygger på att vara lokala, finnas nära till hands för sina kunder och verka för bygden.För att kunna bedriva denna typ av enskild bankverksamhet behövs ändå en omfattande infrastruktur och produktsortiment. Att utveckla egna IT-system och exempelvis fonder är inte tänkbart då detta skulle bli alldeles för dyrt. Genom ett samarbete med storbanken Swedbank löses tidigare nämnda problem, men samarbetet genererar i ett annat problem, nämligen att Swedbank inverkar på Westra Wermlands Sparbanks varumärke och identitet.Syftet med denna uppsats är därför att få en djupare förståelse för varumärkeshanteringen hos Westra Wermlands Sparbank och att undersöka de effekter som uppkommer internt och externt vid ett företagssamarbete, som exempelvis det med Swedbank. För att få förståelse och kunskap inom ämnet har vi fördjupat oss i teorier kring varumärkets funktioner, brand equity, brand identity ? brand image samt kommunikation.

En eventstudie gjordes på aktierekommendationer publicerade på Privata Affärers hemsida mellan 2009-2010. Publiceringsdagen för rekommendationen utgjorde eventdagen och ett eventfönster på fem dagar innan och fem dagar efter. Rekommendationerna delades upp i olika kategorier för att kunna se skillnader mellan köp, avvakta och säljrekommendationer samt för Mid Cap och Small Cap. Uppsatsen kunde inte påvisa någon generell statistisk signifikant överavkastning i någon av de undersökta kategorierna..

This study aims to evaluate the value relevance of Piotroski?s (2000) nine fundamental signals. In order to do this, the signals are tested on the OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm between the years 2003 and 2009. The hypotheses of the study are whether the signals are value relevant and if the value relevance has changed. To test this, a Chi-square test and a regression are used.

I modern utveckling av hårdvara ligger det stort fokus på att producera processorer med fler och fler kärnor. Därmed behöver även mjukvaran utvecklas för att på bästa sätt utnyttja all denna parallella potential. En stor del av detta är då att kunna dela data mellan flera parallella processer, vilket uppnås med hjälp av parallella samlingsdatatyper. En vanlig operation på samlingsdatatyper är att iterera denna. Studiens mål var att analysera prestanda och beteende hos ett flertal kända algoritmer för iteration av datasamlingen kö.

In 2010, Airwatergreen AB started testing their new technology, the Airwaterwell, an atmospherical water generator of their own design that is running on solar heat, with a production capacity of three litres of water per day and m2. The purpose was to focus on foreign aid organizations as main purchasers for project investments towards rural communities in developing countries that suffer from lack of, or compromised quality of drinking water. In order to further understand if this technology would bring a positive impact in the developing countries, the company contacted the Swedish University of Agriculture for a socio-economic study of the Airwaterwells? potential. The authors elected Cost benefit analysis as the appropriate method for conducting the study and India became the study region because of its many problems with water related issues such as diseases as well as insufficient water supply for households. The regions that this study is based on are Gujarat, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh given their differences in income, health situation and poverty rate.

Abstract The growth of supra-national organizations, such as the European Union, has been a recent trend in today?s global environment, which has challenged traditional marketing concepts and product cues. One such cue that is significantly challenged is the 'origin cue'. An origin cue is conceived to be a socially constructed notion that consumers use to discern where goods come from and to accordingly evaluate products with. The origin cue is often predominantly materialized in the public sphere by a 'made in' labelling scheme.

In this essay we have approached the problem with retailer brands that copy marketing leaders to get consumers attention in the storeshelf. We have sought to explore how much a designed package would change the consumers opinion of a brand and if this effect is different depending on if the brand is a retailer brand or a market leader. Also we sought to find if this effect would be greater with a salient color on the package. We made a quantitative study and with regression analysis we found that a designed package did have effect on the consumers opinion of the brand, and that the design with the salient color made the biggest effect..

In latter years there has been a discussion about the increasing importance of intangible assets and how to incorporate this fact into strategies, accounting and valuation. The ?Internet-bubble? is a recent event that drew much attention to intangible assets, and was an indicator of how complex it can be to value assets in general and intangible information in particular. Legislators recently addressed this issue by introducing IFRS3, which led to an update of IAS38, which in turn revised the methods for handling intangible assets. A specific intangible asset that has caused much debate is research and development (R&D), since it is commonly not allowed to be realized as an asset, which could cause implications concerning analysis and valuation.

DefinitionerInitial public offering (IPO)Den första försäljningen av ett företags aktier på den publika marknaden.AvnoteringHändelsen då ett börsbolags aktie tas bort från marknaden.Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX)Ett omfattande och för ämnet väl undersökt amerikanskt regelverk.Private Equity (PE)Aktiekapital som inte är börsnoterat, investerare som investerar direkt i privata bolag eller köper ut publika bolag från börsen.International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS)Internationella regler som styr rapporteringen av olika typer av transaktioner och händelser.Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)Förvärv och sammanslagningar av bolag.Definitioner hämtade från http://www.nasdaq.com/investing/glossary/.

Background: The value of stock recommendations have been debated for a century andthe debate has escalated since Alfred Cowles (1933) published his research in ?Can StockMarket Forecasters Forecast?? As of late, savings in stocks has increased and the householdsare managing their savings more actively. The consequence of the increased interestin stocks has resulted in a growing market for stock recommendations. Not just financialmedia but daily newspapers have embraced this new found interest, hence stock recom-mendations can be found in almost all large newspapers in Sweden. Furthermore, this phe-nomenon has also lead to intensified research within stock recommendations.

Syftet med denna studie är att identifiera styrkor och svagheter i byggandet av varumärket Asea Brown Boveri, ABB i Storvik. Det ska vidare påvisa om varumärket bör ompositioneras i kundernas sinne, och i så fall hur denna ompositionering skulle kunna åstadkommas. Studien baseras på litteraturstudier samt intervjuer med sju externa kunder och två interna medarbetare på ABB. Resultaten visar på tydliga brister i varumärket inom projektarbeten medan de inom ramen för service och reparationer har en relativt stark position på marknaden. En ompositionering av varumärket är därför nödvändig, vilket kan åstadkommas bland annat via utökade resurser och åtgärder inom marknadsföringen..

The general consensus is that the gap between the Swedish variable mortgage rate and the repo rate has increased over the last years. Although the Riksbank in recent times has cut its base rate, many banks have chosen either to leave the interest rate on variable mortgages unchanged, or they did reduce it but by less points than the reduction in the repo rate. The linear relationship between the repo rate and the variable mortgage rate has changed over the last decade and the mortgage margins these days are relatively high. This can somewhat be explained by the new rules introduced in the bank sector requiring banks to increase liquidity and equity. Since mortgage loans play an important role in banks? lending business it is of interest to gain knowledge in whether a repo rate reduction latterly has generated a limited affect on the banks lending rates..