After the formation of the European Union internal market in 1992, member state specific obstacles and barriers were largely removed. This was especially the case in harmonised industries where standardisation and technical regulation have led to legal certainty. Despite this, a large range of trade regulation continues to remain distortional to trade, in addition to the ongoing tariffs and subsidies. The key trade regulations relate to a number of areas involving technical regulations such as production labelling and the protection of intellectual property rights. Whilst policy makers claim justification based around the need to correct market failure in delivering desired outcomes, the question is whether these regulations are appropriate responses to market failures or if they have simply been imposed in an attempt to protect domestic markets.

This thesis aims to investigate the voting premium for companies differentiating voting rights between share classes on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The voting premium represents the value of a vote attached to the share. The voting premium can be estimated from the price premium between two listed share classes with differentiated voting rights. Rydqvist's dissertation (1987) serves as a model for this study which investigates whether the theory of the so called "oceanic games", along with a proxy variable for cost of control, can predict the voting premium during 2010-2012. To the original model developed by Rydqvist, control variables for differences in liquidity between share classes are added to investigate for an increase in the explanatory power.

Since January 1 2005 all companies listed on a regulated stock exchange within the EU are required to present their consolidated accounts in conformity with IFRS. Among many other consequences goodwill will no longer be amortized over its useful life but instead annually tested for impairments in accordance with IFRS 3. The aim of this paper is to scrutinize the impairment test of goodwill as outlined in IAS 36 and analyze its implications. We conclude that the impairment test will probably lead to the recognition of internally generated goodwill in the consolidated accounts. We also conclude that the impairment test on highly aggregated levels will probably hasten the pace of this recognition since internally generated goodwill is used to shield acquired goodwill from impairments.

Tidigare forskning har indikerat att det kan existera informationsasymmetrier i aktiemarknaden mellan olika marknadsaktörer. Personer med insyn har oftast tillgång till särskild information som inte är tillgänglig för marknaden. Detta innebär att möjligheter till abnormala avkastningar existerar för dessa personer vid handel av bolagets finansiella instrument. Denna studie undersöker i första hand huruvida insynshandel på Aktietorget och Nordic Growth Market genererar abnormal avkastning samt om det föreligger en skillnad i resultat mellan dessa marknadsplatser. Det som ligger till grund för studien är insiders samtliga köp- och säljtransaktioner under 2005 för bolag noterade på Aktietorget och Nordic Growth Market.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how three banks country funds are performing relative to each other in regard to risk and return. And to find out if there is any underlying factor that may have affected the stock exchange in the different countries.Methodology: The study is based on secondary data and will apply the quantitative method, based on a deductive approach. The sample consists of three major Swedish banks and from them we have selected three country funds. The calculation formulas that have been applied are: Sharpe ratio, standard deviation and Arithmetic Average.Conclusion: The Writers concluded that Sweden funds had the highest yield to lowest risk in both periods in all three major banks. We have also concluded that the underlying factors affecting a country fund.

The market risk premium is one of the most important parameters in finance. Its value and the ways to calculate a risk premium for the market is a widely debated subject. This thesis examines numerous ways of calculating a risk premium for the Swedish market with regard to how good an estimation they make of a real risk premium. Estimations based on historical periods ranging from 20 to 85 years is calculated as well as a premium based on forward-looking estimates. The real risk premium is solved out for a selection of companies and an index with the help of CAPM.

This market study was written on behalf of Uni4 Marketing (U4M) and investigates the Egyptian softwood market. The objective was to identify what characterises a good softwood supplier according to Egyptian importers. In addition to this U4M?s competitiveness compared to their competitors was evaluated. The study also identified possible sources of competitive advantage possessed by U4M.

NCC ROADS Sweden east is a part of the NCC Corporation. The company mainly produces aggregates, asphalt and concrete. They have taken the environmental issues seriously and been working with that since the middle of the nineties. When manufacturing asphalt large a quantity of fossil energy is needed. The company is now about to make further progresses by manufacturing environmental friendly asphalt (?green asphalt?) with using bio-energy.

Hedge funds have the past few years become an increasingly popular investment alternative and in the last decade hedge fund assets managed have quadrupled to USD 2000 billion, a growth rate of around 25-30% per year. One explanation for this substantial increase is that hedge funds' minimum limits on capital invested has declined, which have made ??them available to retail investors. The recent turmoil in financial markets has also contributed to investors finding their way to hedge funds, whose goal is to generate stable returns regardless of how the market develops.Using Sharpe?s, Treynor?s and Jensen's performance measures, I have investigated whether hedge funds manage to generate higher risk-adjusted returns than traditional managed funds.

Diet and lifestyle are closely interrelated and believed to have a significant influence on four major public diseases - cardiovascular disease, cancer, hypertension and obesity, but also affects functional deficiencies like gluten- and lactose intolerance. Health added-value foods are thought to reduce health-related risks or delay the onset of these major diseases. Therefore, interest among scientists, researchers and the public in general has been growing remarkably over the last decade regarding these special foods. The Swedish market seems to be a good target for health added-values food. However, as there are many risks and cost factors involved for companies to enter the market or invest in R&D, it is important to take a step back and analyze the current market situation.

Increased consciousness about environmental and sustainable issues has led to consumers and companies who are more in favor of reuse and recycle. Even though this is a fact, people today are buying new things more often compared to before. For instance for a mobile phone the functionality lifecycle is eight years which can be related to the economic lifecycle today which is 1.5 years compared to 3 years in 1995. Only 1-2 percent of the mobile phones thrown away in Sweden today are handed in for recycling. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether an international company within the recycling and reuse of mobile phone industry has a market in Sweden.

Följande uppsats undersöker hur svensk utbetalningspolitik har utvecklats under åren 1992-2012. Urvalet består av de företag som under våren 2014 var noterade på Stockholmsbörsens ?Large?, ?Mid? eller ?Small Cap? lista. Återköpens andel av den totala utbetalningsandelen visar sig inte vara lika hög som andra internationella studier har visat. Det är istället utdelningarna som utgör merparten av de totala utbetalningarna.

This study will focus on the fund raising market and what characteristics that can be found in marketing in this market. The donations to fund raising organizations has increased lately and therefore we found it interesting to study how their marketing has developed over time and what risks that can be found. When talking about marketing in fund raising organizations it?s difficult to not include the donors. Therefore have we also studied what value creates for the donors and how the organizations work to gain their trust.

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.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how social media can affect and influence the B2B-relationship. Social media is now a widespread and accepted tool for communication in many B2C-companies; therefore we find it interesting to examine how social media can find its place in the communication mix of B2B-companies. We are also aiming to distinguish standards in how social media is practiced and discussed in the context of the B2B-market. We have applied a qualitative method for this study and we have interviewed seven respondents, which are experts in social media or working with market communication at B2B-companies in Sweden. During our study we have identified several comparable attributes within the B2B market and their opinions about how social media should be approach and adopt in the communication mix of the company..