This thesis examines the established theories on the phenomena of merger of equals. In contrast to an acquisition, a merger of equals is complex since the very nature of it entails that none of the involved parties are in control. Merger of equals are therefore viewed as one of the most difficult types of partnership and data show that over fourty percent of all mergers fail to achieve their targets. Still, research on the phenomena is limited. The main purpose of this thesis is to analyse the implicit factors to why a merger of equals fail.

Today, there is no uniform definition of what an ethical fund is. Fund management companies choose themselves what they believe is ethical and not. The lack of the definition makes it difficult for consumers to understand why these funds are special compared to other funds. The purpose of this study is to examine three Swedish companies; KPA Pension, Swedbank Robur and Folksam, to obtain a clearer picture of the concept ethical funds and its definition. The study describes each company's view of Ethics and how they may affect other companies to work for a more sustainable world.

Corporate Social Responsibility is a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns into their core business and in their interaction with stakeholders on a voluntarily basis. The purpose with our thesis is to study how Swedish insurance companies work with Corporate Social Responsibility and to analyse the underlying strategies of the companies? social, environmental and economical activities. We will analyse where, how and for whom value can be created with CSR. Where does the value creation take place, how can it be created through these activities and who will benefit from Corporate Social Responsibility? Theories point out that companies need to assemble and value the total package of benefits to be able to create successful corporate initiatives.

The purpose of this thesis is to gain understanding of how companies proactively can manage their reputation. The thesis analyzes three multinational companies in Sweden and uses two theoretical approaches - the reputation risk view and the reputation strengthening view - to gain an overall perspective of how companies work with their reputation. It focuses on investigating which key areas of reputation risk the focal companies identify and how they manage the reputation risks within these areas. Moreover, it examines which stakeholders the companies believe are most critical from a reputation point of view and in what ways the companies work with strengthening their reputation among those stakeholders. In order to find a general approach, the thesis investigates the similarities and differences that exist between the respective companies in the study.

The aim of this thesis is to get an idea of how service companies set their prices. The method used was a case study approach, which was conducted at three real estate companies. The study showed that when setting their prices, the main aspect is their own costs. However, we have found that several other aspects play a big role when setting prices on services in real estate business such as individual customer behaviour and market competition. We have also found that the real estate companies charge very similar prices.

This thesis addresses online marketing within gaming industry. Some customer identifying methods and website development were introduced as well as examined over the Internet. An empirical study focusing on two gaming companies has been carried out. The purpose has been to describe the use of internet by online gaming companies for online marketing. The thesis will focus on finding out how online gaming companies identify their target groups on internet and how they use internet to reach out to their consumers.

Background The stocksaving has during the last century increased and become more popular in Sweden and during the last 20 years the number of Swedes who save in stocks has more than doubled. While the interest in stocksaving has increased so has the interest in private saving. Today there is a group of people who live of the income which is generated from the stockmarket, they are called ?Daytraders? and they do ?Daytrading?.  They constantly observe the stockmarket and act as soon as new information that can affect the stockrate is revealed.

This report is a literature review that aims to describe marketing contexts for mango production in Kenya. The institutional conditions in the country are not well developed for marketing purposes, which causes many difficulties and problems for the society. In Kenya most mango producers are poor small-scale farmers with limited resources. Mango is a perishable commodity and to keep its value and quality it is essential to have the opportunity to sell the mangos in the right time. Inefficient and undeveloped infrastructure and marketing systems hinders the mangos to reach the market in time though, which causes large losses of produce.The Kenyan mango production has increased during the last decade but due to market losses for the producer, the small-scale farmers? profits have not improved.

New companies go public through Nasdaqs growth market First North constantly. The reasons for going public are many, and the interest at the moment is big. There are different ways to go public, the most common being the traditional IPO. This study is about the companies that have been listed on Nasdaq First North between 2008 and 2013 through traditional IPO, or by RTO (reverse takeover).The differences between these two ways of going public are that the IPOs are reviewed more thoroughly by Nasdaq and the market. This makes the study interesting, as the RTOs go public in a faster way, and avoid the review from outside parties largely.

This study aims to investigate how consumers perceive variety in grocery stores and further how private brands have affected consumers? perceptions of variety in grocery stores.The study focuses on the perceptions and attitudes towards variety and the impact of private brands on perceived variety. Hence, a qualitative rather than quantitative study has been used. Photo elicitation has been used in both focus groups and in-depth interviews, which have been the empirical data collection of the study. Scientific articles and books have also been used in the process.

Today many industrial companies invest a lot of resources on research and development to resist the tough competition on the global market. This leads to a high risk game when the companies start many development projects, with uncertain outcome where some of the projects have to be terminated prematurely. The main purpose with this study is to identify factors, both internal and external, that influence the decision to terminate projects prematurely in Swedish development projects. Factors mentioned in the literature will be compared with case studies on three Swedish industrial companies to demonstrate the most important ones when taking such decisions. First a literature study was made to identify basic terms, a general project model and factors affecting the decision.

1998 års företagsskatteutredning föreslår i SOU 2001:11 att beskattningen av kapitalvinster på företagsägda näringsandelar (BKN) avskaffas. Denna uppsats behandlar frågan om hur ett sådant avskaffande skulle påverka de s.k. fåmansföretagsreglerna i IL 57 kap. I uppsatsen visar jag att de nuvarande reglerna i IL 57 kap. inte skulle förmå uppfylla deras syfte vid ett eventuellt avskaffande av BKN.

At first glance, the group CEO's (koncernchefens) legal position looks easy. It is the CEO?s responsibility to lead and make decisions on matters which affect the entire group, all while defending the company?s best interests. However, when one looks closely at how the Companies Act (Aktiebolagslagen) regulates how a company should organize itself, as well as the options available to manage the group, one rea-lizes that simply appointing a group CEO does not necessarily make the company compatible with the Companies Act. A group CEO threatens to reduce both the Board and CEO's legal administrative districts which are not in accordance with legal and commercial principles.In order to introduce a group CEO it requires a detailed investigation of the group's legal relationships.

Uppsatsens titel: Leverantörens varumärkesstrategi ? En studie om hur konsumenters beteende kan påverka en leverantörs varumärkesstrategi gällande private label och national brandsKurs: Examensarbete, Civilekonomexamen, Marknadsföring, 30hp (4FE62E)Lärosäte: Ekonomihögskolan vid Linnéuniversitetet, KalmarFörfattare: Amanda Andersson och Rebecca DanielssonHandledare: Christine TidåsenExaminator: Bertil HulténDatum: 2014-05-26Nyckelord: Private Label, National Brands, Varumärkesstrategi, Leverantör, Konsumentbeteende, Attitydslojalitet, Beteendelojalitet Bakgrund: Varumärkesutbudet på hyllorna i dagligvaruhandeln har förändrats. Denna uppsats fokuserar på hur en konsuments beteende gällande varumärkena private label och national brands ser ut. Vidare utgår uppsatsen från hur konsumentens beteende kan påverka leverantörens varumärkesstrategi gällande private label och national brands. Syfte: Examensarbetets syfte är att beskriva hur konsumenters köpbeteende och tankar kan påverka en leverantörs varumärkesstrategi gällande private label och national brands. Vidare avser uppsatsens författare generera slutsatser gällande hur leverantörer kan hantera sin varumärkesstrategi.

Background: Goodwill has always been frequently discussed and a lot of scientific research has been done regarding factors that affect companies? impairment of goodwill. Previous research has concluded that companies reporting low results are more prone to do impairments of goodwill than companies reporting better results which possibly can be seen as a form of earnings management.Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to examine if goodwill impairments occur to a greater extent among Swedish listed companies when the companies are reporting lower earnings. A subsidiary purpose is to see if there has been an improvement since 2008 regarding the size of reported goodwill in comparison to equity in the years 2009-2011. And to analyze the development of the companies goodwill impairments in relation to reported goodwill.Methodology: Three quantitative studies have been performed for the years 2009-2011 where all the listed companies on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm have been included.