Many sources point to the same conclusion; throughout the history the research sphere, mass media, governmental industry policies and public life in common have not paid the same attention to medium-sized companies as to small, new or large companies in Sweden. Yet, there are some researchers claiming the need for the medium-sized companies to grow, becoming tomorrow?s Swedish new large companies. Hence, the need for understanding the specific growth conditions of the medium-sized companies are definitely clear. This study aims firstly to identify whether there are specific requirements and obstacles for growth in connection to being a medium-sized company.

This thesis describes how large Swedish companies finance their debt and identifies some factors that affect their decisions. The study is based on 10 well-known companies of which 9 are listed on Nasdaq OMX Nordic. The results show that the companies display several similarities concerning their debt structure and the factors which their choices are based upon. All companies in this study primarily use corporate bonds for their long-term borrowing, commercial papers for the short-term borrowing, and bank-facilities as back-up. There is a tendency that smaller companies in larger extent use bank-loans for long-term borrowing due to larger emissions costs when using market financing.

The market of electronic commerce is under constant growth and change. New technology makes it possible for the consumer to obtain digital products in a quick and easy manner. Record companies adjust more and more to this ever changing environment. The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate how Swedish retailers of MP3 work with bundling strategies. A case study was conducted on two Swedish retailers, CDON and Homedownloads.

With the introduction of the Swedish Code for Corporate Governance in December 2004, most companies listed on the major Swedish stock exchanges were required to have a nomination committee responsible for, among other things, evaluating the incumbent board and nominating new candidates. This master thesis aims at analyzing the effects of these nomination committees on institutional investors in their corporate governance, through a qualitative study of 13 interviews. We have found that institutional investors have become more active through their participation in nomination committees and that they have gained more influence over the companies in which they own shares. We believe that in reality nomination committees have more influence over the selection of the board than was intended when the Swedish Code was written..

Society?s interest for environmental issues was reinforced in the 1960:s when the book by Rachel Carson, ?Silent Spring?, came out. She described a picture of a world without birds singing and this got the environmental debate going. Today, this debate has reached the corporate world since stakeholders are putting pressure on companies to show greater environmental awareness. Many companies show uncertainty when they are faced with these new market demands.

In this thesis we examine the relationship between board composition and firm performance in Swedish companies. The selection of companies includes all Swedish limited liability companies, with the exception of micro enterprises, that have been active between the years of 2009-2010. We develop hypotheses based on resource dependence theory, agency theory, and the resource based view, and test these with regression analysis against collected data. Specifically, we examine the effects of board diversity, outside directorships, and CEO duality. Our findings show that none of the theories provide sufficient explanatory power of the relationship between board composition and firm performance, and that further research is required to better understand the role and effects of company boards..

In today?s fashion market there are a great number of actors that offer a huge selection ofproducts. The fashion world today covers the whole world and a result of this, the competitionamong fashion companies are enormous, leading to a tough climate for companies in today?sfashion industry. There is an overproduction of goods on the market and companies mustcompete for customers because of today's homogeneous goods and prices.

The aim of this study is to examine how the library of the Swedish Tax Agency and the Swedish Enforcment Authority have changed during the last decade. The study is based on qualitative interviews with the librarian in the two goverment agencies? primary library and four personel from three different office libraries. The result shows that the libraries hasn?t changed drastically in their role over the last decade but instead slowly decreased in use in relation to online databases..

Due to a rising debate concerning corporate governance that has caused increasing demands for companies? transparency, several codes of conduct have been introduced. The Swedish Code for Corporate Governance is obliged to companies with a turnover exceeding three billions. There are companies that voluntarily apply the Swedish Code. Possible causes to this phenomenon ought to be that the code for corporate governance conveys legitimacy through the insight into the affairs of a company the public receives, through the report of the corporate governance that is published in the annual report and on the home page of the company.

Prior research on the ability of financial ratios to predict bankruptcies has shown a significant difference between the companies that went into bankruptcy and those that survived. This paper investigates whether there is a difference in the prediction ability of financial ratios during the last financial crisis compared to relatively normal macroeconomic environments in which most previous studies have been conducted. We use univariate analysis to compare companies that went into bankruptcy during 2010 and 2011 with companies that remained active. Our dataset consists of 51 failed companies that are matched with 102 companies that remained active. All companies were Swedish limited companies with more than 50 employees and the comparison is made with 26 financial ratios.

Cloud computing is a new buzzword within the IT-industry, and introduces a whole new way of working with IT. The technique delivers web based services, which results in that the user no longer needs to install an application locally on a computer. Since the application no longer needs to run on a local entity, but in a datacenter located on a service provider, the users no longer need any specific hardware more than a computer with an internet connection. Cloud computing also offers IT-infrastructure and development environments as services, these three service types is better known as cloud services. Through the usage of different types of cloud services, the need for maintenance and hardware is significantly reduced.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the organizational buying behaviour in the purchase of travels abroad. We have conducted a case study of two companies, one medium sized and one larger. Our empirical studies have shown that the companies? buying process is divided into two types, the process of recruit a new travel supplier and the process of a straight rebuy of a regular travel service. In the recruiting process we found that the evaluation process of the purchase is an ongoing process that contradicts estab-lished theories.

This Degree project is a study about the Mortgage Cap, introduced in October of 2010, and its impact on the demand for rented apartments. The mortgage cap was introduced to decrease the households? loan-to-value ratio and thereby increase their economical resistance during times of financial instability.The past ten years Swedish households have continuously increased their average loan-to-value ratio. In an attempt prevent this negative development Finansinspektionen introduced a mortgage cap stating that banks should no longer grant mortgages corresponding to more than 85 percent of the property?s market value.In order to answer the main question two methods were used both a survey and two interviews.

The purpose of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of Swedish companies? use of corporate sponsorships as a tool for communication. The research describes motives and goals of corporate sponsorships, the selecting process and methods used in evaluating its effects. The empirical data has been colleted through interviews with two companies sponsoring athletics at a top level in Sweden. The study shows that the principal objectives and motives companies have with sponsorships are related to brand exposure, image improvement and relationships.

Neighbourhood offices were established in the municipal of Lund by a decision in the municipal council 1999. During following years four offices opened in the surrounding villages; Veberöd, Genarp, Södra Sandby and Dalby. By using a goal oriented model and making interviews I study whether the offices reaches the goals of more effective service, developed IT-support, a stronger local democracy and a better feeling for service. The offices has improved the information to the citizens and efforts have been made to strengthen the local democracy but more complex matters can not be handled at the offices today, which is a disappointment for many involved.To explain the result of the evaluation I use Vedungs ?A general theory of public efforts result?.