Sweden has had statutory audit, which also includes a management audit, for all companies since 1988. A legislative proposal now suggests that the statutory audit shall be abolished for all small and medium sized companies starting on July 1, 2010. The aim for this master?s thesis is therefore to study how the service of auditing will be affected by the legislative proposal. To answer the research question the authors have taken on a qualitative approach and fifteen interviews with representatives for different Swedish auditing firms have been completed.

The purpose with this essay is to study how a micro enterprise builds a brand. This because the current situation makes it difficult to stand out from the vast amount of marketing messages available in the market without having an extensive marketing campaign. Small companies do not have the opportunity to put a lot of recourses as money into marketing as the large companies do. Neither do they afford to repair a brand failure.Brand building is a process that constantly is in progress in a company, large or small. To make this process concrete we have chosen to study the four factors; brand awareness, perceived quality, brand associations and brand loyalty.

This study aims to research how small companies that operate on the Swedish home electronic-market utilize marketing communications to communicate their message. The focus of this study has been to research these companies use of below-the-line activities in their marketing communications. Interviews have been conducted with representatives from each of the three companies Neonode, Jens of Sweden and Tonium, that compose the selection from the population in this study. The use of below-the-line activities in small companies is mainly motivated by lower cost, which suit small company budgets. Below-the-line activities are also used for branding and the creation of credibility among the consumers when the target audience does not yet know the brand.

This thesis studies private equity firms' implementation of management control systems in their portfolio companies and whether the systems are affected by cross-national differences. A comparative case study examines five different private equity firms to derive if there are any differences between the private equity firms' management control systems in the United States, Europe and China. The empirical observations are categorized according to the framework developed by Merchant (1985) and further developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003). Theory on the effect of multinationality on management control systems, also developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003), are used to explain possible findings. The applied theory includes the cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede (1984) and Hofstede and Bond (1988).

This study is on how small companies can use the Internet as a part of their marketing strategy to gain a leverage on their competitors with small means to survive and expand in the global market. Many Swedish small companies still don?t have a sufficient knowledge on how to use the communication channel despite the various advantages the Internet offers.Case studies were conducted of how AdLibris, A-lotterierna AB and SF-bokhandeln perceived the importance of using the Internet as a part of their communications strategy.This new communication channel demand new ways of applying traditional marketing principals. Careful analysis of the interviews and how the answers relate to new and old marketing theories makes the bulk of this study. The conclusion is that the Internet solely is not enough, a combination with traditional marketing tools is the way to succeed in their marketing efforts.

The globalization and the realization of a European common insurance market have increased the importance of cross border insurance contracts. Despite that, a gathered set of rules regulating cross border insurance contracts does not exist. The sets of rules within Private International Law which arises today when determining the applicable law regarding cross border insurance contracts are the law of 1993 on applicable law to certain insurance contracts (the law of 1993) and the law of 1998 on applicable law to contractual obligations (Rome Convention). Since the Rome Convention is the only Community instrument which still is in the form of a treaty, work has been done in order to convert it into a regulation, called the Rome-I-regulation. Therefore, the future Rome I-regulation is of importance for the thesis as well since it most likely will replace the Rome Convention.Swedish law is based on the principle of party autonomy, which means that the contracting parties have the right to freely agree on the content of the contract, including the choice of law.

The Private Equity industry has over the past years been booming and major external environmental changes have made the industry transform rapidly. Increased competition between Private Equity firms is one of the reasons why the industry has been and is being forced to focus more on addition of value through increased operational management. Consequently, the focus of value addition is by some said to be transferred away from deal making and financial skills, and into active operative management. This case study investigates how the portfolio management, and more specifically the measuring and management of performance, is carried out in a number of leading Swedish Private Equity funds with investments in the biotech sector. The biotech sector is characterized by extensive research and development, and many biotech companies often lack income and other measurable financial parameters in the initial phase.

In light of the coming workforce shortage in Sweden the competition for human capital will be intensified on the market where employers compete in order to attract skilled labor. The competition will be most noticeable in the knowledge-intense industries, where the employees are seen as the companies? most valuable asset. The purpose of this paper is to examine how small knowledge-intensive companies can improve their position in the labor market by using the HR-model People Capability Maturity Model in order to affect their companies' Employer Brand. We take the basis of the theoretical framework in which we examine and identify the key dimensions of the Employer Brand concept and present the People Capability Maturity Model more closely.

By identifying effects that a buyout-firm has on management control systems in its portfolio companies, the aim of this thesis is to explain how such effects differs between the companies and finally to explain why the effects differs even though the companies are owned by the same buyout-firm. The study is conducted as a qualitative case study based on interviews with representatives from the studied buyout-firm and three of its portfolio companies.By analyzing the empirical findings with frameworks and theories within management control systems and value creation, we cannot only identify effects that are common for all portfolio companies but we can also observe differences between the portfolio companies.The identified effects that are common for all portfolio companies are: increased internal reporting burden, increased perceived risk of getting laid off among managers and co-workers and replacement of the board immediately after acquisition.The effects that are observed only for two portfolio companies are: increased focus on short-term planning, higher financial targets, replacement of company management upon acquisition and moving of decision authorities to higher organizational levels. Differences are observed although the portfolio companies are owned by the same buyout-firm due to: differences in management and co-workers equity stake in the portfolio companies, differences in business complexity and differences in planned exit-horizon..

This essay deals with the topic options costs and whether such costs would arise for smaller companies now when they have the opportunity to choose not to have an auditor. Small companies are defined as companies that fulfill at least two of the following three criteria?s: less than 1,5 million SEK in balance sheet, less than three employees and turnover less than 3 million SEK. The decision regarding internal revision does not only affect the company itself but also other parties such as the taxation authority, banks and others that can be influenced by the decision. This essays main focus is on the influenced parties, especially the taxation authority and the banks as these have been highlighted in debates in media and because the small companies themselves may have difficulties to foresee the consequences of the new changes. The opinions from accounting companies will be considered in the essay as they can be considered as experts regarding the different aspect within this area.

The most dominating type of company in Sweden is the small-sized business and it usually lacks its own marketing department. The purpose of this paper was to analyze several small Swedish businesses which are specialized in different sectors of the Mechanic/Technology industry but they are similar in terms of having niched products and they are leading companies in the world. The objective was to do research about how small businesses work with marketing despite its lack of resources and capital.This survey has shown that customer contacts, customer relationships and especially for those investigated companies, it was very important to focus on globalization and product development in order to build a Point of Difference..

This thesis seeks to explain the effect of private equity ownership on the amount of invest- ments made in a company. We use three capital expenditure based key ratios to determine if there is a tendency for private equity owned firms to invest more or less than comparable companies. Our dataset involve 27 Swedish buyout companies that were sold by a private equity fund between 2001 and 2009. Each buyout is assigned a peer group of two firms in similar size and in the same industry. Firstly, we compare the key ratios to determine potential differences in the level of investment.

The workplace has a direct impact on the physical, psychological, economic and social well-being of the workers. A healthy workplace leads to increased health among the employees which also makes the employees more productive (Källestål, 2004). A poor working environment can have negative consequences for individuals, companies and society (SOU, 2009:47).This is a qualitative study that investigates companies? view of health promotion and how they practice health promotion in working life. Five private and five public companies, with representatives from the management were interviewed.

The companies? managements acknowledge personal relations and trust, through good communication and predefined responsibilities and goals, as key factors to succeed in strategic alliance. These factors did not always exist according to the employees? involved. This research, in contrast, suggests that these factors are subordinate to the correlation between the company?s vision and the alliance objectives, hence level of priority, which indicates that management has hidden motives for entering the strategic alliance.

All companies face risk in their daily business. Internationalised companies tend to experience higher risk due to for example unfamiliar business environment than companies that act only on the national market. Estonia became independent as late as in 1991 and is therefore a new interesting market for many companies in neighbouring countries like Sweden. Risks that are most apparent for an internationalised company are political risk, currency risk, capital and interest rate risk, business risk and credit risk. Our intention of this study was to find out how Swedish companies acting on the Estonian market faced the different risks when entering the Estonian market and how they value the risks today.