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.

Sand pits are a valuable habitat which can hold many sand living species including several endangered ones. As many sand habitats with exposed sand are declining, sand pits have a potential as a substitute habitat. This study was conducted to see what effect the area of a sand pit has on species number and composition of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Also, the effects of other environmental variables were tested, for example the proportion open sand, vegetation cover, sun exposure and tree cover. The study was conducted in the county of Uppsala in 2008 and included 13 sand pits with areas between 200 and 180,000 m2.

Two field experiments were conducted in central Sweden in order to: 1) Determine a relationship between the number of approaching pine weevils (Hylobius sp.) and the number of attacks by pine weevils, in relation to the size of seedlings of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). 2) Determine if application of methyljasmonate (MJ) on seedlings of Scots pine will result in higher resistance towards attacks by pine weevils and/or have any effect on the number of approaching pine weevils. The field experiments were designed with two separate parts in close vicinity on the same clear cuttings: a) pitfall traps placed in patches of scarified soil that caught approaching pine weevils at 2.5 cm from the bait, which consisted of different sized seedlings of Scots pine some of which were subjected to application of MJ and b) the same type of seedlings planted out in patches of scarified soil. The first field experiment was conducted on a 1-year old clear cutting outside Uppsala in east central Sweden and the trapping part of the experiment consisted of 8 blocks with 6 treatments: 1) control, 2) small over-wintered seedling, 3) medium sized seedling, 4) medium sized seedling treated with 0.5 ml 100 mmol MJ 4 days prior to start of experiment, 5) large seedling, 6) vial with 9.5 ml of ?-pinene. The trapping experiment lasted for 6 weeks in the early summer.

Background: With the removal of audit requirement for companies in Sweden from the first of november 2010, a lot of companies has chosen not to keep the audit requirement. So far 57 percent of the small companies has chosen to keep the audit, in spite of that they don´t need to which led us to the problem statement: Which are the factors that affect a small limited company to choose to keep the audit, in spite that now there is a possibility to choose not to use audit anymore?Purpose: The purpose of the essay is to examine why small limited companies choose to keep the audit, in spite that now there is a possibility to choose not to use audit?Method: This research founds itself in a qualitative study with a deductive research approach. We have been studying secondary data in books and articles and preformed 29 phone interviews with small ltd company owners in Sweden. The selection consisted of 14 companies with credit debts and 15 companies without credit debts.

Background: Internet is a new phenomenon; small companies have only used Internet a couple of years. Internet created a lot of new possibilities for the companies. Internet is a new marketing and communication channel for the company. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how small companies can use Internet as a strategic tool. Another purpose of this thesis is to generate a better understanding of the application of Internet in small companies.

With an increased demand for biomass based energy and with development of better technique harvest biomass, new possibilities open up. With the possibility to combine traditional cleaning of road?s right of way with biomass harvesting, the work of suppressing tree vegetation could become profitable or at least decrease the road maintenance cost. However, knowledge about productivity and profitability in mechanical biomass harvesting in roads? right of ways are still limited.

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze homelessness in a medium-sized municipality from an organizational perspective. Some of the central questions in this study are: How is the cause of homelessness explained? How do different actors in the community address, prevent and combat homelessness? Who is responsible for the homelessness?This study is based on four semi-structured interviews with organizations that work with homelessness. The analysis is based on problem definition theory.The result of this study shows that homelessness is a problem in this medium-sized municipality even if it is not a big one and that it is often closely combined with substance abuse. The responsibility for the homeless is on the homeless themselves and the social service because that causes is, according to this study, individual based.  .

Background: With the removal of audit requirement for companies in Sweden from the first of november 2010, a lot of companies has chosen not to keep the audit requirement. So far 57 percent of the small companies has chosen to keep the audit, in spite of that they don´t need to which led us to the problem statement: Which are the factors that affect a small limited company to choose to keep the audit, in spite that now there is a possibility to choose not to use audit anymore?Purpose: The purpose of the essay is to examine why small limited companies choose to keep the audit, in spite that now there is a possibility to choose not to use audit?Method: This research founds itself in a qualitative study with a deductive research approach. We have been studying secondary data in books and articles and preformed 29 phone interviews with small ltd company owners in Sweden. The selection consisted of 14 companies with credit debts and 15 companies without credit debts.

The aim of this small thesis is to investigate if the probability of business failure is higher at the time of divestment than at the time of acquisition for portfolio companies that have been subject to private equity ownership. The background for this thesis is the widespread critique aimed at private equity firms, claiming that they increase the risk in their portfolio companies. We have performed a study of 53 buyout transactions, involving Swedish manufacturing companies, covering a time span of 13 years, from 1995 to 2007. We find evidence of an increased risk of business failure for the portfolio companies with a short forecasting horizon (within one year). The absolute increase in the sample is however small.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and analyze past development of mutual funds in large and small mutual fund companies and see if there are any differences between these two segments. Limitations on the number of funds have been made by choosing Nordic mutual fund companies that invest in emerging markets over an 11-year period. The study is made on 66 mutual funds managed by 13 mutual fund companies in which the segment of small fund companies includes seven fund companies with assets under management less than 100 billion SEK and the segment of large mutual fund companies includes six fund companies with assets under management more than 400 billion SEK. In the comparison of the segments the Sharpe ratio has been used to calculate the risk-adjusted return. The study shows small differences of the risk-adjusted return between the segments.

Even if the main purpose is to decide if the companies profitability and financial position is a determining factor for its growth, the purpose is to determine if there are any differences between big and small companies in there economical positions then they grow, in the selected industry. This thesis is mainly a quantitative study. The selected industry for the study is extraction of turf. The financial measurement that most clearly differ the growing companies from the not growing companies or the companies that didn?t change there amount of employees was the returns of the companies own capital.

Foreign invested SMEs have recently become increasingly interested in China. The enterprises are in this report categorized as second wave companies since they follow the footsteps of previous pioneers, of which mostly were larger companies. The ambitions of the SMEs are either to sell products on the ever expanding Chinese market or to utilize the potential of low cost production for global markets. The existing literature is fragmented and solely based on the experience of larger companies. We believe that SMEs are facing new and different challenges, and thus a new generic theoretical frame work is desirable.

Even if the main purpose is to decide if the companies profitability and financial position is a determining factor for its growth, the purpose is to determine if there are any differences between big and small companies in there economical positions then they grow, in the selected industry. This thesis is mainly a quantitative study. The selected industry for the study is extraction of turf. The financial measurement that most clearly differ the growing companies from the not growing companies or the companies that didn?t change there amount of employees was the returns of the companies own capital. It was also the returns of the companies own capital there the main difference existed between the big and the small companies.

Since 1983 all Swedish companies are legally obliged to allow themselves to be audited. Recently the question of whether small companies should be subject to this or not has frequently been discussed. Many find it superfluous and think it ought to be abolished. In England small companies no longer have to be audited. However, in a study by Jill Collis it has been shown that a large number of companies choose to be audited although there is no obligation for them to do so.

The importance of internal communication within companies has increased in recent years. However, there are still a number of companies that are not adapted to the modern world and the new modes of communication the Internet provides. This study evaluates the internal communication of a medium sized company by holding semistructured interviews with the employees. The goal of the interviews was to develop a requirement specification. This requirement specification was later used as the basis to analyze possible aids for the internal communication of the company.