When the Soviet union collapsed at the beginning of the 1990s, a democratization began to develop. During the Jeltsin years, democracy in Russia was developing steadily, but since Putin became president at the turn of the century it has started to move back towards authoritarian rule. The purpose of this study is to explore the reasons for why the democracy in Russia never became consolidated and to understand why the country again has moved towards an authoritarian rule, like the one during the Soviet union.In order to fulfill the aim of this study, two theories were used. These were Linz and Stepan's consolidation theory, about the five arenas that have to be developed, and Samuel P. Huntington's theory about authoritarian nostalgia.

Problembakgrund: Den traditionella investeringsstrategin består av bland annat Modern Portföljvalsteori och Capital Asset Pricing Model, men på grund av empiriska problem efterfrågas alternativa investeringsstrategier. Denalternativa investeringsstrategini denna uppsats består av småbolags-, värdebolags- och momentumeffekt. Detta innebär att forskning visat att investering i småbolag tenderar att ge högreavkastning än i stora bolag, att företag med högt värde tenderar att ge högre avkastning än tillväxtbolag och att man bör satsa på förra årets kursvinnare.Syftet: Syftet med denna uppsats är jämföra, småbolag med stora bolag, värdebolag med tillväxt bolag och årets kursvinnare med årets kursförlorare, på den svenska marknaden för åren 1996-2012, för att se om den ena ger högre avkastning än den andra. Vi vill se huruvida dessa effekter finns på den svenska marknaden.Metod: Vi har använt en kvantitativ studie och jämfört avkastningen mellan de båda grupperna. För att sedan se om vi finner någon signifikant skillnad har ett T-test använts.

In this paper Swedish hedge funds and strategies are discussed and analysed. These new financial forms seem to draw recently a huge attention both in media, press and the academic world. The fact is that hedge funds have existed already for a long time but it is still known too little about them. After the introduction of hedge funds, different asset pricing models are discussed including the most basic of all ? CAPM and further Fama and French three factor model as well as the expanding model with conditioning approach.

During the past year it has been made possible to buy back a company?s outstanding stock. This is done in order to change the capital structure towards a situation with less equity. A change in capital structure means a change in the cost of capital for a company and by that a change in the value for the stockholder. This Master Thesis studies the relation between capital structure and business risk.

Swedish listed property companies report their investment properties under the standard IAS 40 that gives the opportunity to value investment properties to either historical cost or to fair value model. One problem with the fair value model is that there is no observable market price since the real estate market is far from complete which means that the price of the asset is hard to determine because of the limited information.IAS 40 gives companies the opportunity to choose between internal or external valuation and this study aims to show how the property companies? values appeared between the years 2007-2011. From the result we will study if there could be a difference in the outcome depending on if the company chose either internal or external valuation.To investigate this we observe all Swedish real estate companies listed on OMX Nordic Stockholm and their financial reports during this period of time and complement this information by interviewing people working with these matters in the property companies. The methodology for the study is therefore partly quantitative and partly qualitative since we collect data both from financial reports and from interviews.

This study was the foundation for an evaluation of an employment project in Sweden. The project offers occupations in carpentry as well as kitchen work for people with psychiatric disorders, substance abuse and other social difficulties. This studies purpose was to analyze the projects significance to its participants and also to distinguish weather the project influences the participant?s life in a professional or private way. The methodological tool was five qualitative interviews with the participants and three qualitative interviews with the employees.

The concept of leadership development plays an important role within the modern organization. As a result of the increasing interest in developing leadership competencies, investments in leadership development programs are becoming a common part of business strategies. However, the return on those investments is seldom evaluated. The reason for this is considered to be the complexity created by the many factors that influence leadership but have no relation to the program. This is a case study based on interviews with participants from a one-year leadership development program that was carried out at AB Previa.

Complex Vertebral Malformation (CVM) is an autosomal recessive inherited defect in the Holstein breed. The defect has lead to structurally malformed calves and losses of pregnancies. To determine the effect of CVM on fertility in the Swedish Holstein Breed 375 Holstein bulls used in breeding by Svensk Avel and Skånesemin were assigned to this study. 228 bulls matched the criteria of birth year, 1995-1999, > 75 inseminations and a known CVM-status. Of the total 228 bulls 53 of them were CVM-carriers and 175 were non-carriers. The SAS-programme was used to determine the effects of CVM-status, the bull?s father and birth year on Non-return rates (NRR) for 28, 56 and 168 days.

In a time of economic turmoil and financial crisis profitability matters rise higher and higher on company agendas. Many companies are pressured to find profitability to avoid layoffs or even bankruptcy. Profitability essentially depends on the margin on the product or service sold and the costs associated with selling these products or services and hence these areas are of vital importance if companies are to improve profitability. Previous research has focused, for the most part, on product profitability while customer profitability has received less attention. This study is based on a case study of a Swedish publishing house and aims to investigate how the company?s Cost-to-Serve varies between its distribution channels.

Den nya rehabiliteringskedjan med sina fasta tidsgränser för långtidssjukskrivna har fått stor uppmärksamhet i svensk media under senare tid. De nya reglerna fokuserar framförallt på tidiga insatser för långtidssjukskrivna med målet återgång i arbete. Intervjuerna i föreliggande studie utfördes med sju försäkrings-kassahandläggare på olika försäkringskontor. Syftet var att undersöka vilka erfarenheter och upplevelser handläggarna på Försäkringskassan har av den nya rehabiliteringskedjan och arbetslivsinriktad rehabilitering. Resultatet visade att det är en mängd olika faktorer som påverkar handläggarnas arbete.

 Problem   Are there any abnormal changes in the parent company's share price at the news of a spin?off.ObjectiveThe main purpose of the study is to investigate how the news of a spin-off affects the parent company's share price. In other words if the news of the Spin-off gives an abnormal return on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during the specific period of 1998?2008. In addressing this, the paper will also investigate the following sub sections: are there any differences in the abnormal returns in various sectors and what the reasons to perform a spin?off in the Swedish market are.MethodAn event study in which market data is used to measure specific events? impact on the value of the company and on the effects on the stock market.

During the last years the number of Swedish detective stories which take place in the province outside the big cities has increased enormously. In this study I have analysed the novels by the three authors Viveca Sten, Åsa Larsson and Johan Theorin to investigate the connection between the milieu and the story and in what way it is involved in the crime riddle.They all keep to the formula of the classical detective story but represent different variations within this formula. In spite of the differences in their stories the basic pattern is the same. As their protagonists the authors are emotionally connected to the place in the novels. This connection it strengthen by the authors themselves as well as the publishing companies when introducing them on the market.

PURPOSE: To investigate to what extent product brand positioning models can be used to analyzecorporate brand positioning;METHODOLOGY: The phenomenon is observed from a positivist epistemological position within a primarilyinductive research design. The research strategy is defined as qualitative, while the method of ethnographiccontent analysis is implemented to analyze primary data;THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE: Product and brand positioning literature; Product brand positioning rhombus;EMPIRICAL DATA: Ethnographic content analysis of brand commercials;CONCLUSION: As shown by the extensive literature review product brands (PB) and corporate brands (CB) coexistin corporate environments. One of key insights of this study shows that product brand positioning(PBP) and corporate brand positioning (CBP) processes can also co-exist in the same corporate environment.Moreover, PBs can be built based on the CB, making the investment in CB a long term return on investment.The study also observes that PBP messages include the ?against whom? attribute, highlighting differentiationin the competitive environment; when on the corporate level, this evolves, and in some cases becomes quitethe contrary, when the concept of ?from whom? or ?by whom? is stressed more than the differentiation amongother CBs in the competitive environment. This stresses the importance of including brand identity elementsin CBP..

The purpose of this work is to raise ideas and interest for land that is very much forgotten,unused and neglected in terms of maintenance and usability. Railroads are often seen as adirty and loud intrusion in the landscape and therefore cities turn their backs on them. Theland around railroads is not considered useful despite its often central location and scrublandis common in these areas.The starting point of this work is the restrictions and possibilities linked to the land withinthe security distance 30 meters from the railroad center. Within this security distance thereare numerous limitations and regulations due to the nature of railroad use. These limitationsare counted for in the initial chapter and lay the foundation for the rest of the work.

Stressrelaterad ohälsa är idag vanligt förekommande och forskning kring arbetsrelaterad stress och utmattning är omfattande. Däremot är forskning om medarbetares och chefers upplevelser tämligen begränsad. Det sociala stödet från omgivningen har visat sig vara av stor vikt när den drabbade ska återgå i arbete och chefen har en viktig roll i detta skede. I Studien undersöktes på uppdrag av ett företag vilket stödbehov chefer har i denna process. Tio personer deltog och genom en halvstrukturerad intervju studerades deras upplevelser samt vilket stödbehov som fanns.