Theability to beat the market is one of the most discussed topics in finance. Thereare very few investors that manage to accomplish this over longer periods oftime. Most of the financial research claims that this is impossible unless theinvestor increase the risk in the portfolio. However numerous of researchershave shown that it exist anomalies on the stock market which either indicatesthat the Capital Asset Pricing Modell (CAPM) or Fama and French three-factormodel fails to explain stock returns or that the market is not fully efficient.One investor that has claimed that the stock market is not fully efficient andthat it is possible to generate abnormal return is Benjamin Graham. Graham isone of the legends on Wall Street and he has shown that by using few variablesbased on public information, one can manage to beat the market over longer timeperiods.There arejust a few studies that have tested Graham?s criteria?s, however all of themindicates that they work but that the standard deviation might be higher forthe portfolios.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the networks of interlocking directors in the 50 largestSwedish companies on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during the years 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005and 2010 and seek explanations for the observed developments.Our findings indicate that the density and concentration of the network has decreased during thefirst ten-year period and stayed constant during the second period. The development of theoverall network is not consistent throughout all corporate groups. Most notablyHandelsbankssfären seems to experience increased density and connectivity whileWallenbergsfären is experiencing the reverse.The changes during the first ten-year period is deemed to come mainly from changes inregulations pertaining to both the opening for international capital investments as well as looserrestrictions on domestic capital investments. These changes have caused decreased concentrationof ownership, as well as the emergence of new owners, which is reflected in the board ofdirectors.During the second ten-year period the changes are more pertaining to the individual boards andboard members, without flowing through into the overall network. Our findings indicate thatthese changes are caused by the increased professionalization of boards and board work, whichhas gained momentum through the creation of the Swedish Corporate Governance Code..

Intangible assets are often a significant part of Swedish companies? assets. Most of these are accounted for as goodwill, arising from acquisitions. After EU:s decision to adopt IFRS as the new accounting standard, intangible assets will to a larger extent be recognized separated from goodwill. This thesis aims to quantify this change and to analyze what specific intangibles are affected most by the transition to IFRS.

This report describes a bachelor thesis work performed at the cloud storage company CloudMe in Linköping, Sweden. The storage service provided by CloudMe allows users to access their files seamlessly from multiple units at the same time. In the cloud there is storage provided for contacts, calendar and e-mail, which is data nowadays normally used by smart phones.Exchange ActiveSync is a protocol developed by Microsoft which, among much more, provides functionality to synchronize the previously described data. This protocol is supported by the smart phone developers and the ability to synchronize over the exchange protocol is implemented in products by default. Due to this fact it would be preferable to implement support for synchronization from CloudMe to phones over this protocol.

The first of May 2005 changes were made in the Annual Accounts Act. The 2006 Annual Report of companies with more than ten employees or assets over 24 million SEK must include environmental information in the directors' report if it affects the company's development, result or position. A survey made by KPMG 2007 investigating the environmental information of companies listed on Large Cap Segment of the OMX Stockholm exchange showed that only a third of the companies, included in the survey, complied with the new law requirements. I have examined how the environmental information in the directors' report is formulated and why the information is formulated in that fashion. I have examined seven companies listed on the Large Cap Segment of the OMX Stockholm exchange. Four companies from the materials sector and three banks from the financials sector were included in the survey.

Den här rapporten presenterar examensarbetet utfört på Sekonden IT AB, vilket gick ut på att utveckla en lösning till Sekondens synkroniseringsproblem med kontakter i Exchange. Syftet med den här rapporten är att beskriva hur jag har gått tillväga för att lösa Sekondens synkroniseringsproblem, vilka hinder jag stött på och hur jag löste dem.För att utveckla en lösning till Sekondens synkroniseringsproblem behövdes en testmiljö sättas upp, liknande Sekondens servermiljö. En stor del av examensarbetet handlade om att få flera olika program att fungera tillsammans, vilket ledde till att jag spenderade mycket tid på installation och konfiguration. Jag har utvecklat en lösning som bestod av; en webbtjänst för att utföra synkroniseringsuppgifter, en Windowstjänst för att kontinuerligt anropa webbtjänsten och ett gränssnitt för synkroniseringsval, placerat i Sekondens intranät..

The ability for companies to anticipate the future and stay in the forefront of the competition is essential for successful business. The tool of Environmental Scanning is basics in the process of developing prescriptive strategies as well as vital in evolving emergent strategies. The complexity lies in gathering relevant information and transforming the information into adequate data, which can be utilised by management to optimise strategies. The purpose of this study is to scrutinise how successfully operating Swedish manufacturing companies, listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange?s ?Large Cap?-list, organise their Environmental Scanning actions and how this affects the development of strategies. Prior research on the subject has been used as foundation to presenting relevant theories.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether institutional ownership has an influence on CEO compensation in companies where the institutions have invested. In order to fulfil the purpose of the thesis a quantitative study was carried out within the Swedish corporate context where we have studied Swedish institutional investors and companies quoted on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Our period of study was the financial year of 2007.The empirical questions at issue is; Was there a connection between Swedish institutional ownership and the size of the CEO compensation, and, does Swedish institutional ownership lead to a certain type of CEO compensation in terms of structure?Our results did not suggest that an increased institutional ownership neither leads to a certain type of salary level nor a certain kind of salary structure. These results contradict earlier American research, which has been done within this area and has previously shown a secured connection.The reasons for our results may be many and it is difficult to state any concrete conclusions to why we received differing results.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the price effect on the initial day of trading of IPOs and the price effect on the announcement day of SEOs on Stockholm Stock Exchange. A second purpose it to conduct studies on which factors influencing the price effects and if these factors can be explained by the same fundamental ideas. Theories regarding capital structure and the pricing of IPOs and SEOs are covered. The capital structure theories involve; Miller and Modigliani's cost of captial theory, Static Tradeoff Model and the Pecking Order. The Efficient Market Hypothesis is presented and previous theories are investigated.

Sammanfattning Denna studie utreder om ett långsiktigt samband mellan oljepriset och valda aktieindex kan påvisas. Tre typer av aktieindex har valts, generalindex, industriindex och råvaruindex, för Sverige respektive Norge. För att undersöka det långsiktiga sambandet mellan oljepriset och aktieindex används kointegrations- och regressionsanalys. Studien visar att det bara förekommer ett långsiktigt samband mellan oljepriset och ett fåtal av aktieindexen. Nyckelord: Olja, Kointegration, Tidsserier, Aktieindex Abstract This Study investigates if a long-term relationship between oil price and selected stock indices can be proved.

Medieval glasses have for long been a neglected object group in archeological research in Sweden. With that in mind I choose to write about those in my essay. The aim of this paper is to bring the medieval glasses into the archaeological research. I intend to show where you can find medieval glass in Sweden and what kind of glasses have been made. I will also discuss why the archeological research is so limited when it comes to the medieval drinking glasses.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate whether accounting quality is a priced factor by investors. The event studied is the release of year-end result and the release of the annual report. To assess accounting quality a sample of 30 companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during 2003 to 2007 are studied. We assess accounting quality by the absolute size of discretionary accruals using the modified Jones model developed by Dechow et al. (1995).

ABSTRACT TITLE: Oil price shocks impact on the British and the Swedish stock markets SEMINAR DATE: 2007-06-07 COURSE: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration and Economics, 10 Swedish credits (15 ECTS) AUTHORS: Carl Hersaeus, Sven Piehl Trygg ADVISORS: Hossein Asgharian, Göran Andersson KEY WORDS: Dummy Variables, United Kingdom, Oil Price, OLS, Regressions, Stock Markets, and Sweden PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to study whether, and how, oil price shocks have an impact on British and Swedish stock markets. METHODOLOGY: Our paper is based on secondary data, focused on historical spot prices on Brent oil and stock indices from Sweden and UK. We construct dummy variables to register positive and negative disturbances in the oil price. Furthermore we try to find a relation between the price disturbances and the different stock indices. THEORY: We take off from earlier studies, which prove that there is a relation between oil prices and stock markets.

The purpose of this study is to examine which factors played an important role in the food price crisis of 2007-2008. Theories used are Microeconomic theory, explaining changes in supply and demand, and Macroeconomic theory, explaining the impact of changes in exchange rate on prices. A theory regarding speculation is also used to explain the impact of speculative activities effects on price. The method used is multiple regression analysis in order to determine the effects which ethanol production, oil price and dollar exchange rate had on the surge in the price of corn, rice and wheat.The data used is in monthly observations during the period 2005-2008. However, other factors are taken into consideration during the study, such as production quantity, stock size, economic growth, speculative activity and population growth.

Background: Mergers and acquisitions have evolved from initially almost exclusively having been an American phenomenon, to becoming a common occurrence throughout the world. Companies though, are not defenseless against hostile bids, but must take many factors into account when selecting defense measures. Purpose: This paper aims to enhance the understanding of acquisitions through hostile bids on the companies studied. More specifically, this study aims to create a deeper understanding in how Scania and Skandia have chosen their defense measures, or could have chosen, before and during their hostile bidding processes with specific concern for their strategic credibility. Method: This paper is based on two companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange exposed to hostile takeover attempts in a similar time period.