The purpose of this master thesis was to explore and develop prototypes for visualization of trade statistics in a market surveilance application. In such an anapplication a large amount of information is processed. This information is then summarized and presented to the market surveillance staff. The practical part of this thesis was done at Scila AB in Stockholm. Three prototypes were developed based on modern visualization methods.

This essay discusses and evaluates the international currency market in regards to efficiency. To prove the theory that, the difference between expected and actual exchange rates is explained by the difference in expected and actual interest rates and the difference in expected and actual inflation between countries, a model was developed. This model was inspired by the paper of Sebastian Edwards (1982), and is based on three theories; UIP, IS/LM and the Efficient Markets Hypothesis. The model uses 16 regressions estimated from three pairs of curriencies: $/SEK, £/SEK and ?/SEK.

The automotive industry is a highly competitive market characterised by low profit margins or huge losses. Cost reductions have been of top priority for all OEM?s (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and will continue to be so for many years to come. Beside cost reductions, reducing the time-to-market is of greatest importance to stay in the competition. OEM?s that are slow to market with products that neither matches customer expectations nor the products of their competitors, will soon loose market shares and see their economical performance falter.

Background: Our daily lives and personal interactions are increasingly featuring social media and social networks in particular. Topics regarding social media, its impact on society at large ? both on corporate as well as individual behavior ? has been the focus of many research papers. Personal use of social networks are regularly being mapped out by researchers aiming at clarifying concepts such as engagement, trust and interactivity, and mapped by companies seeking to maximize return on investment concerning their marketing efforts. The aim of our study is (i) to map how companies and/or organizations operating on the Swedish market use their company?s pages on the social media as a way of communicating with their followers and audience, as well as (ii) identifying whether ?Real-Time Marketing?, in our own definition, is used or not.Methods: The research methods used included both quantitative and qualitative content analysis.

The study tries to increase the understanding of the phenomenon known as the Big bath, on the question whether the market accepts Big bath accounting principle or not. Big bath is an accounting theory meaning that a company is likely to increase its impairment in a specific year. This could be as a reaction on a change in the leadership, a depreciation of the result or maybe an external decrease in demand. Through a quantitative survey of the market it is examining whether the companies themselves are inclined to use the procedure and if the stock market accepts it. The study concludes that Big bath similar procedures are a fairly common accounting practice and that the stock market does not seem to mind. .

Because of the large economic growth in China there are many companies who have economic interests in the Chinese market. Also in the forest market companies have started to invest in China and the interest for the market is growing. The question is how the Chinese forest market will develop in the years to come? How will China?s entry on the market of forest products affect the global forest market? The purposes of this study are to describe production, consumption and trade of forest products, and China?s possible competitive advantage in the forest industry. The purpose of this study is also to describe how China?s entry on the forest market affects the world market of forest products.

This report is a market research for the company 4 Body and Mind, a start-upcompany that works with personal training online. They wanted to know if themarket for elderly care could be interesting for them to enter. This report is hence aresearch of the market for health and welfare technology in elderly care within thepublic sector in Sweden. A general fact is that the world's population is getting older.This combined with rapid growth of individuals in the age 65+ changes the demandson the elderly care in Sweden?s municipalities.

The number of elderly people has been steadily rising in Sweden for a long time and as a proportion of the population, the increase has been even greater. The population structure in the country means that in the not too distant future, there will be a sharp rise in demand for care and elderly accommodation.A tighter credit market as a consequence of new rules and regulations with a stricter capital and liquidity requirements combined with market turbulence, has made financing property developement more difficult and more expensive which has resulted in many companies using alternative sources of finance.DEmand for safe investments with low risk is high as the market is volatile and banks, pension funds, fund management and life insurance companies are looking for investments outside the stock market that can deliver a safe return in the longer term. There has also been a debate about whether institutional investors as the AP pension funds really should own properties directly.As properties for care and elderly accommodation are definable assets with predictable payment flows, long leases and often a local authority as tenant that would not risk cancelling payments, these would be highly appropriate for securitisation, i.e. to issue bonds or other tradable securities based on the cash flows from the assets.In other words, the securitisation of rent flows would offer the opportunity to create an attractive investment product of the type being demanded, well suited to institutional investor requirements, while at the same time, it can provide an attractive financing opportunity to meet the need for more care and elderly accommodation..

The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding on how market leading pharmaceutical companies in Sweden limit the market share decrease when these companies patent expires. In order to respond to the purpose, two research questions have been asked: how do pharmaceutical companies deal with market strategies prior to the expiration of a patent: and how the market strategies is used when a patent has expired and as a consequence, generics entered the market. A case study was implemented based on two interviews with a brand manager and a therapy area manager within the company Pfizer AB in Sweden. The results suggest that pharmaceutical companies implement strategies in numerous ways which differs substantially from the theories, this having to do with Swedish legislation. The main aim with the execution of the strategy, before and after patent expiration is not to limit a decrease in market share hence, rather to retain the pharmaceutical companies strong brand image.

Background: Low Price-Earnings ratio, low Book-to market ratio and low stock prices can give the impression that a stock is ?cheap?. Is it through systematic use of these portfolio strategies possible to beat the market index ? in other words does financial illusions exist? Purpose: To examine if the Stockholm Stock Exchange is an efficient market. Limitations: The efficiency is tested solely through the chosen portfolio strategies: low Price-Earnings ratio, low Book-to-market ratio and low stock prices.

Ethanol fuel is a biofuel, which been widely reported in the public debate and on the fuel market the last years. Ethanol is sold as both E85 and as a five percent admixture of all petrol sold in Sweden. Research studies on ethanol fuel often focus on environmental issues surrounding the production and utilization of ethanol as a fuel, and omits the private and business aspects of the subject. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the economics of ethanol as a fuel. How the Swedish market for ethanol is and how it evolved over time and what the future prospects are.

The report is a result of a bachelor thesis at the department of business administration, School of Business, Economics and Law, Gothenburg University, spring term 2008. The study examines the potential return of Swedish Venture Capital firms? Cleantech investments, carried out in 2006 and 2007, compared to the return on their other investments.The study has identified a number of factors affecting the return. These have been classified within three areas: the characteristics of the Venture Capital investment, the characteristics of the Venture Capital firm and the market potential for Cleantech. The impacts on potential return for these factors are investigated by means of an interview survey with 18 Swedish Venture Capital firm covering 45 investments in Cleantech.Our research indicates a worse potential return on Cleantech investments compared to other investments.

The purpose of this essay is to examine cost-benefit-analysis as a method of evaluation of labour market policy. To illustrate the possibilities and difficulties of the method chapter four contains a partial cost-benefit-analysis of the results of a labour market project in Kävlinge. The questions this essay strives to answer are the following: What possibilities and difficulties do cost-benefit-analyses entail? How would one conduct a cost-benefit-analysis of the project in Kävlinge?The method used in this essay is mainly a literature study of cost-benefit-analysis of labour market programs. The labour market project Brännpunkt is used as an example in a partial cost-benefit-analysis.The applied cost-benefit-analysis of the Brännpunkt project in Kävlinge shows that it is possible to calculate the profit for the society as a whole, given that the necessary information is obtainable.

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 report is a market research for the company 4 Body and Mind, a start-up company that works with personal training online. They wanted to know if the market for elderly care could be interesting for them to enter. This report is hence a research of the market for health and welfare technology in elderly care within the public sector in Sweden. A general fact is that the world's population is getting older. This combined with rapid growth of individuals in the age 65+ changes the demands on the elderly care in Sweden?s municipalities.