Level:This is a final thesis for a bachelor degree in Business Administration. The thesis is orientedin the field of marketing and written at the University of Gavle.Authors:Caroline Gustafsson & Caroline Tell LjungbergDate:May 2014Tutors:Lars-Johan Åge, Jonas Molin & Jens Eklinder-FrickTitle:The implementation process of ethical guidelines ? A qualitative study of the Swedishinsurance industryPurpose:The aim of this study is to create an understanding of different approaches to design andimplement organizational guidelines / codes to help the employees to behave ethically and deal withethical dilemmas.Method:By starting from the study's aim, it was appropriate to use a qualitative approach toconducting the survey. The study's empirical study consisted of semi-structured interviews. Weinterviewed ten companies in the Swedish insurance industry.

Nowadays, the world around us is changing faster and faster, the globalization is increasing and harder competition puts extra pressure on companies to be more innovative than ever before. One of the fastest changing industries is the IT industry where the actors always have to be up to date to keep their competitive advantage. The authors want to find out what makes some companies in this industry more innovative than others by examining what internal elements that are necessary for innovation. Much research has already been carried out within the field of innovation and especially about innovation management, although less research exists about smaller, non high tech service companies. Therefore the authors also tries to find out how applicable today?s theories are on this special field and thereby fill a smaller gap in today?s research.

This paper investigates the relationship between dividends and institutional and foreign ownership in Swedish firms. We use a dataset which covers the Swedish stock market over the period 1999-2009. The institutional ownership is defined as mutual funds, pension funds and insurance companies and these are analysed separately. The study confirms the expected positive relationship between the level of institutional investors in a firm and the size of dividends. We also confirm? the expected negative relationship between foreign investors and the size of dividends paid by Swedish firms.

AbstractThe purpose of this study has been to provide a deeper understanding of how companies in the travel industry works with social media and electronic Word-of-mouth (eWOM) by analyzing and investigating social media and eWOM and how it effects customers? expectations on the companies service quality. In connection with the purpose we have chosen the following research questions: 1. In which way can companies in the travel industry interact with their customers participation on the Internet through social media. 2.

Background: Today there are high claims on organizations to show a positive economic view. To satisfy the demands and expectations from interested parties it is very important to carefully plan the companies tied up capital and cash flows. Purpose: The purpose with the thesis is to describe what actions organizations take to resolve the conflict between showing a positive cash flow and the need to tie up capital.The purpose is also to explain the different factors that must be considered when making decisions regarding cash flow and capital tied up. Method: A qualitative study of the actions and factors wich must be considered when decisions in swedish construction companies are made regarding cash flow and capital tied up. Results: A model of the factors and actions that affect cash flow and capital tied up in projects.

Forecasting is an important part in attempting to predict how companies will perform in the future. The more accurate the prediction, the more valuable are the results obtained from the forecast. This thesis aims to investigate forecasts of return on equity, and whether a disaggregation of the leverage formula into its underlying components affects the forecasting ability positively. This is conducted by comparing a model based on the leverage formula's components with a model solely based on return on equity from previous years. The study includes manufacturing companies on the Swedish Stock Exchange over the period 1998-2011.

AbstractTitle:Course:Authors: Advisor: Keywords: Problem formulation:Purpose:Target Group:Theoretical perspectives: Methodology: ResultSwedish leaders abroad ? A qualitative study about culture ?s influence on Swedish leadersBachelor dissertation - Business Administration, LeadershipAmanda Elg and Carl-Johan SaltarskiIngemar WictorLeadership, culture, impact and adjustmentHow can Swedish leaders in multinational companies adjust their leadership to the national culture?The aim of our study is to investigate whether Swedish managers are affected by the differences in national culture that exists between Sweden and the country that they operate in. We want to explore if they adapt their leadership to the culture.Our study is directed towards a target audience of Swedish leaders and other interested parties who wants to increase the understanding of culture ?s influence on an international career and what is required of the leader to deal with the cultural clashes that may rise.We have focused on theories related to differences in national culture and how it can affect the leadership and the organization.The study is of the qualitative type with a deductive approach where the empirical materials are gathered through interviews.Our results demonstrate leaders implementation of culture and leadership to influence the leadership of the national culture in which they operate. We have seen how leaders are affected by the national culture and how the leader adapts to achieve a successful leadership.

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.

This thesis focuses on how companies in the textile and clothing industry view or interpret the idea of corporate social responsibility. The purpose of the study is to create an understanding for how this view affects the dissemination and the implementation of the idea in the organization and what might be the effects on the organization of those processes. In order to identify any differences in how the view affected the processes I have studied the current discourse on CSR simultaneously with my theory and conducted a comparative case study of two Swedish clothing brands. The theory focuses on the diffusion of ideas and change management within organizations. My data shows that the two companies have different ways of interpreting CSR and that this indeed affects their dissemination of the idea in the organization.

Den här uppsatsen behandlar ett problem som identifierats bland små till medelstora svenska modeföretag: det stora beroendet av outsourcade produktionsagenter och fullprisproducenter. Syftet med uppsatsen är att identifiera de förutsättningar och hinder dessa modeföretag kan stöta på när de försöker integrera dessa utlagda kompetenser till en intern lösning. Genom detta hoppas författarna kunna tillföra nya perspektiv för befattningshavare som är intresserade av att omstrukturera sin nuvarande inköpsmodell.De metoder som använts för att samla in det teoretiska och empiriska underlaget var skrivbordsstudier, såväl som strukturerade och ostrukturerade djupintervjuer med grundaren av ett svenskt jeansföretag, samt en anställd på en stor svensk modekedjas inköpsavdelning.Resultaten understryker den strategiska betydelsen för växande modeföretag att äga sin inköpsfunktion. Genom att äga kompetenserna för mönsterkonstruktion och inköp kan företag minska sitt beroende av externa organisationer och öka flexibiliteten i sin produktutvecklingsprocess. De hinder som identifierats utgörs bland annat av en ökad affärsrisk under övergången till en intern inköpsavdelning till följd av avsiktliga störningar i värdekedjan av producenterna, samt de extra kostnaderna för det ökade administrativa arbetet.This essay focuses on a problem identified among small to mid sized Swedish fashion companies: the large dependence on out sourced production agencies and full price producers.

The Swedish consumer electronic industry has recently experienced an increasingly intensive price war. The price war has forced some operators in the business to declare bankruptcy, as the only way to compete has been by driving down prices. A challenge that retail chains in the consumer electronics industry is facing is to increase their margins. If store personnel can success with upselling, the companies will increase their profits. The purpose of this paper is to examine if the sales people in the consumer electronic industry can influence the customer to buy a more expensive product and what the effects the upselling has on the customers' attitudes.

Introduction: Bokföringsnämnden started the K-project in 2004. The purpose was to collect rules and standards for different categories of companies in a complete set of regulations. Small businesses were given the option to choose between K3 which is the main regulatory and K2 which is a simplified regulatory framework. One specific difference between the regulations is that companies may not capitalize development costs if the company applies K2, this may causes problems for the companies that can give rise to such costs.Purpose: The purpose is to explain the problems that companies have identified in the choice of regulatory frameworks and the implications that may follow the specific rule in K2 on the company's activities and financial report.Frame of reference: K3 contains definitions and requirements that must be met so development costs can be capitalized in a company. Information presented in the financial statements should be relevant to the reader.

The harmonization within EC Company Law has been relativley successful. Despite its relative success; important differences still remains in European company law.The freedom of establishment itself, and the ECJ?s interpretation of the freedom provides European companies with a substantial cross-border mobility. As a consequence of this mobility, together with the differences in national legislation; mandatory rules in company law can be easily evaded. A typical example of this is that a Swedish enterprise, by running their business through a British private limited company, can escape the Swedish legislation on capital contributions when forming a company with limited liability for its members.

There is much literature covering strategic change under different circumstances but very little concerning how companies act strategically under sudden and radical changes to market conditions. Based on three different events (the terrorist attack in the USA September 11th 2001, the Tjernobyl accident April 26th 1986 and the Islamic revolution in Iran 1979) with such radical changes as a result we chose three companies that were affected (SAS, Asea Atom and Atlas Copco). The result of the events that were studied in this thesis is extremely unusual to their character. The events themselves were sudden and of a temporary nature but the results were long term changes of market conditions. Through personal interviews the authors have tried to establish how the companies have perceived the events and how the top management has strategically handled the situation.

Today Internet is clogged up and packed with homepages and information from both private persons and commercial companies. This has led to a decreased availability for a company to be noticed. The most common tool for consumers to use while searching for products online is via search engines. But because of the nature of these, not all companies can have good placements. Our research question was, "How do small online-companies attract consumers to their website"? The purpose of this thesis is to identify how a company works through online-communications and how to attract consumers to their home page.