The aim of this thesis is to examine the existence and prevalence of earnings management in Swedish companies. Theoretical frameworks often suggest that there are strong incentives to practice earnings management. The research area of earnings management has, to date, mainly focused on detecting earnings management. However, to our knowledge, no such studies have been conducted on Swedish companies. This thesis provides evidence of the existence and prevalence of earnings management in Swedish companies.

Uppsatsen är baserad på en fallstudie gjord på Tetra Pak. Syftet med fallstudien var att utforma en lista med faktorer att som bör beaktas för att ett införande av ett Competence Management-system ska bli framgångsrikt. Tillvägagångssättet i fallstudien har varit en dokumentstudie och ett antal intervjuer. Använda teorier är hämtade från områdena Change Management, Knowledge Management, Competence Management och Human Resource Management. Undersökning resulterade i ett antal intressanta faktorer som bör beaktas.

According to the basic values of the Swedish Trotting Association the horse and its welfare should always be held in highest consideration. One part of the animal welfare work in the organization is to ensure good horse management practices by controlling all active trainers through the local licensing committees situated at the Swedish racetracks. The Swedish Board of Agriculture stated that high quality animal welfare assurance programs used by the industry organizations can be used in the risk assessment of the official animal welfare control to make the official control work more effective and the ambition of the Swedish Trotting Association is to establish an animal welfare assurance program which may be approved by the Swedish Board of Agriculture. Racehorses are exposed to welfare hazards both in their management as well as during training and racing and factors like handling, training, feedstuff, stable environment, medication and the possibility to express natural behavior all affect the welfare of the horses. The aim of the project is to investigate and evaluate the animal welfare work performed by the licensing committees and to give advice on how to improve the industry?s animal welfare control.

The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of activities, flows and waste in a company's production process. By performing a value stream analysis, non-value adding activities are identified in a production process and then the suggested improvements that can reduce lead times will be stated. The value-stream mapping identifies the flow of information and the flow of material in a production process and this provides the basis for the identification of non-value adding activities.We conducted the study at Lammhults Möbel AB in Lammhult Sweden, where the production flow of Spira-21 has been investigated. This to identify any non-value adding activities that affect the flow negative and consumes time and money in a non-value adding way.A reasonable approach for the project was taken by studying the methodologies and theories. We conducted interviews and site surveys at Lammhults Möbel AB where the flow of information and material in the production process were investigated.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka frekvensen av krisstrategier inom livsmedelsbranschen och hur pass sofistikerade dessa strategier är. Vidare vill vi se närmare på en del av de moment som crisis management-teorierna behandlar. Förekomsten av krisstrategier är stor, men endast ett fåtal av företagens strategier uppfyller våra kriterier för att anses såsom mycket sofistikerade. Företagen anser själva att det är viktigt med crisis management, medan de i verkligheten inte i lika hög utsträckning har de element som författarna till den crisis management-teori, vi använt oss utav, menar ska finnas med. Företag som varit i en kris har mer sofistikerade krisstrategier än de som inte har upplevt en kris under de senaste 20 åren..

Background: Fall injuries are a costly problem for society, with costs ranging up to 14 billion a year. In addition to economic loss accidental falls also creates human value losses and reduced quality of life for its victims. In order to prevent the occurrence of injury related to accidental falls healthcare providers utilize various scientifically developed risk assessment tools, one of them being Downton Fall Risk Index. Method: Empirical, quantitative cross-sectional study. Objective: The purpose of the extended essay was to describe the categories in Downton Fall Risk Index that have a bearing on patients' risk of falling while in hospital and in municipal care, and to illustrate how nurses can use the fall risk assessment tool.

Local participation in nature conservation has gained more attention over the last decades due to international conventions as well as local and national initiatives. This development can be seen as a reaction to a more expert oriented nature conservation characterized by centralized control and strict preservation of so called "original" nature. The overall objective of this thesis is to contribute to research on new forms of conservation where democracy and local participation is included. The case study focuses on the process of producing a pre-study for a suggested national park in southern Jämtland in the Swedish mountain region, and aims to investigate to what extent local participation was included. The pre-study was led by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and the County Administrative Board (CAB) in Jämtland.

During the last decade working with competence has emerged as a more strategically important area. Today the human resources in a company are considered a competitive advance and the HR-units play a significant role when it comes to HR-management. Different motives for investing in strategies that promote competence development and learning also exist. The purpose of this paper was to examine how the process of competence development was managed at a large global company. The empirical material consisted of four persons who were interviewed and the analysis of the material was inspired by grounded theory.From the analysis four major themes or core factors emerged as central to the interviewed persons' understanding of the competence development process; solid preparatory work in relation to competence development, communication, awareness of responsibilities and finally the taking action and evaluation of the action.

Titel: Det Intellektuella kapitalets påverkan på aktievärdet Seminariedatum: 2008-01-15 Ämne/Kurs: FEKP01 Magisteruppsats, 15 ects Författare: Cecilia Englén Sofia Wikstrand Handledare: Leif Edvinsson Christer Kedström Nyckelord: bokfört värde, marknadsvärde, tillväxt, förnyelse, risk, förtroende förväntningar Syfte: Vi ämnar med uppsatsen att utifrån ett antal faktorer analysera hur företag informerar om sitt Intellektuella kapital. Metod: Undersökningen i denna uppsats bygger på tre ?pelare? i form av tre informationskällor. Informationskällorna är börsanalytikers principer, bolagsanalyser och bokslutsanalyser. I den första delen har vi använt oss av intervjuer, och i de övriga delarna har vi granskat tre bolag som är listade på Stockholmsbörsen.

Deregulation on the market for agricultural products leads to a more globalised market with increasing price fluctuations. This, in turn, places the farmer in positions influenced by new risks but also improved opportunities. The farmers are faced by uncertainty in terms of financial outcome. To be able to utilise these new market conditions it becomes increasingly important for farmers to continuously follow the price trend, and to develop strategies how to manage the risks exposed by a volatile market. Farmers with different conditions perceive risk in different ways. Hence, their risk management behaviour will vary.

The Youth Outcome Questionnaire 2.0 Self Report (Y-OQ 2.0 SR) has been implemented in residential treatment centre in the Municipality of Örebro as a result of the strive for a more evidence-based working approach within social work. This study aims to examine how personnel and adolescents describe the treatment/counseling and support and the application of the Y-OQ 2.0 SR in the units. The questions cover the values the personnel and adolescents ascribe to the application of the Y-OQ 2.0 SR, if the result from Y-OQ 2.0 SR is congruent with how the adolescents have been affected during the placement, which obstacles and/or possibilities emerge in the management of the instrument and if there are any indications that the Y-OQ 2.0 SR is advantageous or disadvantageous in the treatment process. The study has a qualitative approach; four interviews were carried out with adolescents and five with personnel. The result shows that structure is an important component in attaining a change in behaviour.

Since 1996 the Swedish households have ten folded their volume of loans for own homes that is attached to a floating interest rate. Also in 1996 the Swedish electric market was deregulated. These two facts have increased the volatility in the household expenses for these two commodities. This thesis studies the risk for homeowners attached to the exposure against the electric and the credit market. The risk model used is Cost-at-Risk which is usually used by public authorities for analysing the risk involved with national debt.

This report that is written in cooperation with Peab Sverige AB, studies the information and knowledge management from the production support to the production management. The conclusion of this report is that to have a good and functional information and knowledge management it is necessary that the company has a good way of regain and handling experiences from its projects. The way to do this is to develop the managing system on the production management?s terms. It is also critical to find an easy way for the production management to use the system..

AbstractBackground: The company that this report addresses is, at time for investigation, in the midst ofa change in organizational culture, where two departments with different core competencies arebrought together into one. The purpose of this study is to review the potential problems that mayoccur in the change process when one or more subcultures come into conflict with organizationalgoals.Purpose and methodology: The reason for performing this study and the objectives are toexamine how subcultures influence and respond to organizational changes. The survey isconducted with a bottom-up approach in which participation in daily activities with thesubgroups is the foundation. The management's perspective has been omitted in consideration ofpast literature in the field where focus most often has been on their thoughts and views on theprocess of organizational change. The method used is participant observation and interviews.Results and Conclusion: Subcultures exist and they do affect an organizational change.

Existing studies concerning private labels are unclear as to whether private label manufacturers carry out product development themselves. Furthermore, there is a lack of studies comparing product development processes in private label companies and national brand manufacturers. This study highlights a set of critical product development factors and assesses their prevalence in four different companies in the Swedish retail business. The study is based on a number of qualitative interviews with key personnel responsible for various table fats. Findings indicate two levels of involvement in the product development process on the private label side.