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.

AbstractEffective January 1, 2005 publicly listed companies were obliged to adopt a new financialreporting standard (IFRS/IAS). The objective of IFRS/IAS was to increase transparency andcomparability in financial reports between companies. The authors have chosen to write aboutIAS 40 where the accounting treatment for investment property and related disclosurerequirements are regulated.The purpose of this thesis is to investigate potential effects of valuation of investmentproperty at fair market value for real estate companies at times when market price decreasesand to investigate what an acceptable difference for the valuation could be.To fulfil this purpose the authors have chosen a qualitative method interviewing accountants,property analysts and a credit analyst to obtain a deeper understanding of the problem. Basedata for the thesis have been collected during meetings, telephone interviews and e-mails.Additional data was collected from public available sources such as the internet, relevantprofessional magazines and professional newsletters. The authors have designed a modelshowing how Income and Balance Sheet statements are influenced by changed valuation ofinvestment property.

Syfte: Denna studie ämnar undersöka hur sambandet ränteförändring och risk ser ut, utifrån bankernas perspektiv såsom bostadslångivare. Hur påverkas bostadspriser och hushållens boendekostnader av räntan? Innebär nuvarande situation på den svenska marknaden någon risk och är bankerna i så fall medvetna om denna? Finns det anledning att se över nuvarande strategi för bostadsutlåning för att bättre möta ett eventuellt högre ränteläge? Metod: Sambandet ränta ? risk utforskas genom antagandet att kreditrisk drivs av dels sjunkande bostadspriser och dels ökande boendekostnader. Alltså studeras hur dessa två faktorer påverkas av en ränteförändring. Denna del görs deduktivt genom tillämpning av kvantitativ data på diverse teori om bostadspriser.

The purpose of this work was to investigate and provide understanding regarding how AI can be used to make organizations more efficient, where risk management is also discussed. The basic model for the study is the Resource-based view, which is about making use of one's resources which are described through many different perspectives. The method used for this study was a qualitative analysis, which was applied through interviews with several people with high positions within companies and relevant skills, based on insight and experiential knowledge.These people work in different industries, therefore a large part of the work was intended to carry out a comparative analysis between a line of different businesses. The results showed that AI is in a developing phase, and based on the respective industry, it has developed in different ways. Finally, it turned out that AI can make businesses more efficient by, among other things, managing data and automating various work processes faster compared to humans.

The construction industry stands as one of the industries in Sweden where most employees tend to encounter accidents. At the same time, the Swedish authority of work environment estimates that there are large numbers of hidden statistics with accidents and incidents that never gets reported. To prevent accidents, the Swedish authority of work environment has decided that every company have to, beside report every accident and major incident to the authority of work environment, keep statistics and evaluate every incident that happens at their places of work.The people responsible for work environment at the Swedish building contractor Peab, believe that it is only a fraction of all incidents happening at their construction sites that actually gets reported. The purpose of this study is to investigate the reason why employees of Peab do not report incidents. By an inquiry and interviews with both craftsmen and office holders at Peab Bygg Öst 1, the employees? attitudes and knowledge have been studied and evaluated.The study shows that the craftsmen´s knowledge of incidents is relatively low.

AbstractEffective January 1, 2005 publicly listed companies were obliged to adopt a new financialreporting standard (IFRS/IAS). The objective of IFRS/IAS was to increase transparency andcomparability in financial reports between companies. The authors have chosen to write aboutIAS 40 where the accounting treatment for investment property and related disclosurerequirements are regulated.The purpose of this thesis is to investigate potential effects of valuation of investmentproperty at fair market value for real estate companies at times when market price decreasesand to investigate what an acceptable difference for the valuation could be.To fulfil this purpose the authors have chosen a qualitative method interviewing accountants,property analysts and a credit analyst to obtain a deeper understanding of the problem. Basedata for the thesis have been collected during meetings, telephone interviews and e-mails.Additional data was collected from public available sources such as the internet, relevantprofessional magazines and professional newsletters. The authors have designed a modelshowing how Income and Balance Sheet statements are influenced by changed valuation ofinvestment property.

The law firm industry has during the last years met new demanding conditions and one tool to handle these new conditions has been to implement a Knowledge Management system. Large investments have been made in these Knowledge Management systems but the implementations have met many challenges from within the organizations.With a multiple study, based on interviews with Knowledge Management Managers included in a Knowledge Management network, this thesis aims to study the challenges with Knowledge Management and the underlying causes. The result, based on McDermott's theories shows challenges within technical, personal, social and management areas where the law firm need to shift a focus from Information to Knowledge Management, create a culture of trust and integration and use the informal powerbase.The causes for these challenges are found in the base of Mintzbergs theories of Professional bureaucracy where the Knowledge Management is affected by strong self-regulated individualist, a divided organizational structure and industry conditions..

This thesis examines the establishment of auditors as third party assurers of sustainability reports in Sweden. This is done through a qualitative case study that examines the subject from both a preparer?s and an assurer?s perspective. Empirical data was analyzed using a combination of agency- and legitimacy theory. The study reaches the conclusion that sustainability reporting companies in the study demand a verification service for reported sustainability data in order to increase creditability, meet increased stakeholder demand and increased accounting complexity.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att kasta ljus över ämnet Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Inom detta ämne kommer fokus att ligga på det initiativ som heter Global Compact (GC), och som blivit föremål för såväl beundran som skepticism. Målet är att utröna om GC i Sverige blivit, eller är i riskzonen för att bli, en front för det som i uppsatsen kallas kulörtvätt, eller om det tvärtom är en välfungerande sammanslutning som hjälper till att sprida CSR. Frågeställning: ”Hur och vart åberopar de svenska företagen sitt medlemskap i Global Compact?”, ”Av vilka anledningar ansluter sig företag till Global Compact?”, ”Vilka effekter kan företagens frivilliga val av Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) som rapporteringssystem ha på de åtaganden av transparens och kommunikation som Global Compact medlemskapet för med sig?” Metod: För att uppfylla syftet och frågeställningarna används en kvantitativ och en kvalitativ metodel. Intervjuer har genomförts med Global Compacts svenska medlemsföretag och dessutom har hemsidor, årsredovisningar, artiklar samt litteratur inom området använts.

The purpose of this study was to identify the positive and negative aspects of the work and dynamics of a management team and from that recommend how the team can improve. The aim was also to investigate whether there was a gap between how the members of the management team comprehend themselves and how the project, section and team managers comprehend the management team. The management team contains of seven core team members and is the head function of a research and development site in central Sweden. The results are based on interviews with the present members of the management team and three former members, a survey among the project, section and team managers and by participating observation on meetings with the team. The results show that the management team is an overall well-functioning team that with some changes and improvements, especially concerning communication and information, can reach even further.

Denna studie syftade till att finna svar hur verksamheter som genomför evenemangsprojekt arbetar med riskhantering och vilka sekundära effekter riskhanteringen kan leda till. Studien syftade även till att finna svar ifall evenemangsansvariga anser att riskhantering är lönsamt. Anledningen till att vi valt att studera detta ämne är för att evenemangsindustrin är en av de störst växande marknaderna. Evenemang av olika karaktär attraherar stora folkmängder och riskerna blir mer påtagliga desto fler människor som samlas på en och samma plats. Teori och tidigare forskning visar att alla evenemangsprojekt inte genomför en tillräcklig riskhantering, trots att riskerna är många och dess konsekvenser kan vara förödande.Vi har genomfört kvalitativa intervjuer med personer som arbetar med evenemangsprojekt för att få en uppfattning om hur de arbetar och ser på riskhantering.

Title: How to Construct the Perfect Scandal ? a study of the news reported by Expressen concerning the SD-scandalAuthor: Linnea IvarssonThis C-paper presents the incident concerning the political party Sverigedemokraterna in Expressen in November 2012. The newspaper was the main source of the news reporting with the mobile phone camera film from the occurance and led the way of the news reporting in Sweden about three party members.The paper investigates how the story telling of the so called SD-scandal was constructed, using Critical Discourse Analysis as the analysis method combined with selected parts from the analysis method of critical linguistics. The theories that have been used to establish the results of the analysis are Critical Discourse as a theory based on Norman Fairclough and Teun A. van Dijks theoretical keystones combined with Sigurd Allerns and Ester Pollacks theories and schematic point of view on the constructions of political scandals in media.With the theories and analysis methods above mentioned the results turned out to confirm the theory about how political scandals in media are constructed and designed with certain strategies and agenda.

Uppsatsens syfte är att jämföra risk och avkastning från en etisk fond med risk och avkastning från åtta slumpmässigt valda fonder och SIX RX-index för att utreda om etiska investeringar är jämförbara med andra investeringar. Skälet till att en egen etisk fond sätts samman är att vi ser problem med innehållet i etablerade etiska fonder.Genom att ställa upp finansiella och etiska kriterier har vi valt ut 34 bolag som ingår i vår egenkonstruerade etiska fond. För att uppfylla vårt syfte har vi valt att jämföra fondernas utveckling genom att studera fondernas avkastning, risk och sharpe-kvot under perioden 2002 - 2004.Inledningsvis placeras uppsatsen i ett teoriskt ramverk och den effektiva marknadens relevans för arbetet förklaras. Därefter följer en allmän diskussion om små placerares val och möjligheter i fråga om sparande. Utvärdering av fonder beskrivs därefter ingående och tre olika metoder att mäta en fonds prestation diskuteras.

The increasing public concern regarding the government?s priorities in spending public resources puts pressure on public organisations to address quality issues in their practice. In United Kingdom both BRTF (Better Regulation Task Force) (BIS, 2005b) and the Hampton report (BIS, 2005a) highlighted management and quality problems in public organisations in UK. These reports revealed obstacles within institutions? intent to offer recommendations and appropriate solutions for agencies working with legal enforcement and control.

Purpose:        The intention of this study is to distinguish if there is a correlation between mutual funds administration fee and their return. The study will also observe if there is a difference regarding the return between active and passive management fees.Method:        The study is founded on a deductive approach because the study is based on existing theories. Quantitative research based on statistical data has been used. A correlation analysis has been applied to determine if there is a correlation between the chosen variables.Conclusion:   The conclusion of the study is that active management of funds mainly do not give a higher return than passive management funds. Neither is the administration fee dependent on the risk a fund has..