This thesis has aimed to study steering process and institutionalization in the context of educational policy work. This has been conducted by using empirical material from the political decision-making process that preceded the implementation of a new national program on how principals should be educated and certified. By using an aggregated theoretical point of view containing new institutionalism and traditional Swedish curriculum theory, the process was analyzed from different perspectives. The results depict a process that contained several actors who tried to shape the principal education program differently. From the theoretical perspectives, the decision-making process could be understood as an act of both self-interest as well as trust in their own beliefs and cultural values.

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.

Background: Investors have several options to choose from when the goal is to achieve the highest yield at the lowest cost and risk. Stocks are a common investment options, but is also associated with risks. Portfolios are usually constructed with several different assets to reduce the unsystematic risk of investment. Funds are similar to composite stock portfolios, the big difference is that they dealt with in their entirety and investors may not affect the fund's content. The problem remains that whether you choose stocks or mutual funds there is still uncertainty as to how the future will unfold.

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.

This study examines how and why organizations evaluate training and development within the organizations. The study has a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews, with office and organization development managers. The purpose of the study is to contribute with knowledge about how three large Swedish organizations evaluates training and development programs for staff members. Another purpose is to describe why the organizations evaluate training and development programs and to research if there is a further need to develop the organization evaluation methods. Therefore the research questions are Why and how do organizations evaluate training programs? What further need is there to develop organizations evaluation methods?The conclusion of this study shows that evaluation of the training and development programs are not a high priority among the selected organizations.

The Catholic Church launched several crusades during the medieval ages in order to regainthe holy lands and spread the word of God. Their main enemy, the Muslims had grownstronger and needed to be suppressed. This common enemy united Europe under the banner ofthe Catholic Church. In order to fund these crusades the church turned to the wealthyEuropean kings and lords and asked for funding. In return the kings received an indulgenceletter, and also greater respect from their subjects because of their new appreciation from thepope.

Background: Investors have several options to choose from when the goal is to achieve the highest yield at the lowest cost and risk. Stocks are a common investment options, but is also associated with risks. Portfolios are usually constructed with several different assets to reduce the unsystematic risk of investment. Funds are similar to composite stock portfolios, the big difference is that they dealt with in their entirety and investors may not affect the fund's content. The problem remains that whether you choose stocks or mutual funds there is still uncertainty as to how the future will unfold.

The study aims to illustrate how women victims of male violence in intimate relationships are treated during the legal process and with professional perspective describe what women?s experiences considered to be in the legal process. The study also aims to draw attention to the interventions for abused women during the legal process.The results are based on interviews with professionals in the justice system, and on observations in the courtroom. Overall our results show that abused women are in need of a great quantity of help and support before, during and after the negotiation. The legal process is very stressful for the women.

The purpose of this study is to investigate ethnic discrimination in the recruitment process. National and international law protect individuals from ethnic discrimination by potential employers during the recruitment process.Despite the laws in place to protect human rights, minorities in society do not have the same opportunities in the labor market as the rest of the population. Minorities continue to have difficulties compared to Swedish nationals in the recruiting process. Highly educated immigrants seeking employment in Sweden continue to report being treated unfairly based on their ethnic background.Ethnic discrimination in the recruiting process is based on prejudice and stereotypes that affect decisions whether it is visible or hidden, intentional or unintentional.Under the law, it is not legal to base a decision on prejudices or stereotypes. Therefore, it is important for the employer to highlight the job requirements to ensure the recruitment process is ethical.

The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of resource schools 1 as a human services organization and institution, based on teachers and principals? perspectives. The purpose of resource schools is to provide the students tools and resources to enable them to return to the regular school within two years. The study also aims to examine more closely how this objective applies to the studied resource schools in the studied municipality, as well as highlighting the success factors and barriers that exist to achieve the goal. Previous studies show that this kind of differential practice tends to become a permanent solution.

Background: Investors have several options to choose from when the goal is to achieve the highest yield at the lowest cost and risk. Stocks are a common investment options, but is also associated with risks. Portfolios are usually constructed with several different assets to reduce the unsystematic risk of investment. Funds are similar to composite stock portfolios, the big difference is that they dealt with in their entirety and investors may not affect the fund's content. The problem remains that whether you choose stocks or mutual funds there is still uncertainty as to how the future will unfold.

Bakgrund: Läkemedelsbranschen är idag en av de mest reglerade branscherna på marknaden. Forskning och utveckling har en stor betydelse för läkemedelsföretagen. För att lansera ett läkemedel krävs det att företagen genomför kliniska prövningar, deras utfall kan mycket väl avgöra företagens framtid.Problemformulering: hur stor inverkan har de olika faserna inom produktutvecklingen på aktiekurserna för företag i läkemedelsbranschen.Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur marknaden reagerar när läkemedel som är under utveckling går in i de tre olika kliniska faserna.Metod: Studien baseras på kvantitativ data där ett bekvämlighetsval gjorts på sju stycken läkemedelsföretag. PR meddelanden där läkemedel i utveckling går in i fas-1, fas-2 och fas-3 kliniska prövningar har valts ut som enskilda händelsen i eventstudien som genomförts. Vi har studerat vad som händer 5 dagar före och 5 dagar efter att händelsen utspelar sig.

The purpose of this study is from a case study develop a model that aims to cost effectively improve productivity in a manufacturing production process. The study highlights the importance of having knowledge about customer needs and using a holistic process perspective when improving productivity to identify the relations between the process stations and by this find problems that cause waste and losses in productivity. Tools and methods used to make production more efficient such as single minute exchange of die, spaghetti diagram, 5s and master production schedule is presented an applied in the model to see how these effect costs, productivity etc.Maintenance effects on quality and productivity in a manufacturing company will as well be covered in this thesis. The results and conclusions finally reveals how the process improvement tools, maintenance and production planning for example effects each other and why it is important to establish an attitude in the company where continuous process improvement should be emphasized..

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the innovation process of companies, and to analyse how important success factors and obstacles are in their innovation process.Method: The investigation strategy used for this essay was to interview companies that work with innovations. The essay has a qualitative approach. Both primary ? in the form of interviews - and secondary data ? literature found in books, scientific articles and internet - have been used to achieve our results.Results: The result of this essay is: there is not just one inovation process that is applicable to all companies. On the other hand, there are some guidelines that could be followed in the process.

People are given better opportunities to participate in polity today. Democratic equality entails that all individuals are equal and therefore they should be included in the process of making the decisions. How can participation be defined and does it mean that having the possibility to participate means that people can influence the process of making the decisions in polity process?This paper focuses on participation and influence in polity and examine the relationship between having the possibility to participate and having the possibility to actually influence polity process on more local level. Therefore I have been examining the citizens? participation and influence in Helsingborg which is my case study.