This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using different benchmarking models to measure and compare the efficiency of Swedish gas distributors. It also discusses to which extent the results of a benchmarking study should influence the revenue-cap which will be implemented in the gas distribution sector in Sweden from year 2011. The discussion is based on arguments from both theory and practical applications of benchmarking. The results suggest that benchmarking Swedish gas distributors against distributors in another country using a parametric model is most favorable, but the reliability will be increased if non-parametric models are used also. Partial and total productivity measures could be used to confirm results of other benchmarking analyses.

Background: As a result of the financial markets ever ongoing product innovation a new derivative was introduced in the USA in 1997. A derivative that derived it's value, not from the price of an underlying asset, but instead from a climate factor. It's been known for a long time that revenue in certain industries are affected by weather conditions. The suppliers of weather derivatives claim that these weather sensitive businesses can user weather derivatives in order to lessen weather risk. Purpose: To do a critical evaluation of how weather derivatives can be used by companies as a risk management tool.

Under de senaste sju åren har golfintresset i Sverige stadigt minskat. Denna studie tar upp möjligheten att genom en mer dynamisk prissättning återvinna golfintresset i Sverige och öka golfklubbars intäkter. För att åstadkomma detta utgår studien från att teorier om intäktsmaximering (revenue management), hämtade från besläktade branscher som flyg och hotell, även är applicerbara på golfbranschen. För att undersöka frågeställningen ?Hur kan en modell för ytterligare differentierad prissättning tas fram för den svenska golfmarknaden?? har en kvantitativ undersökning gjorts.

The care for the elderly in the municipalities has recently seen the need for a formalized system for quality assurance. Under increasing demands for monetary efficiency while bound by law to retain acceptable standards in health care, there is need for efficient and at the same time quality-assured management. The municipalities often solve this puzzle by introducing systems and standards influenced by theory-clusters such as NPM (New Public Management), TQM (Total Quality Management) or other quality management theories.This essay focuses on how the public administration in the municipalities defines quality and designs and implements system for formalized quality assurance. Our basic view of organizations is institutionalist and our theoretical framework includes theories about quality, NPM and TQM..

Under de senaste sju åren har golfintresset i Sverige stadigt minskat. Denna studie tar upp möjligheten att genom en mer dynamisk prissättning återvinna golfintresset i Sverige och öka golfklubbars intäkter. För att åstadkomma detta utgår studien från att teorier om intäktsmaximering (revenue management), hämtade från besläktade branscher som flyg och hotell, även är applicerbara på golfbranschen. För att undersöka frågeställningen ?Hur kan en modell för ytterligare differentierad prissättning tas fram för den svenska golfmarknaden?? har en kvantitativ undersökning gjorts.

Writers: Johan Lundqvist Eriksson and Elin SandbergSupervisor: Stig AnderssonEnglish title: Allocation of revenue in the hospitality industryKeywords: Revenue allocation, cost allocation, profit center, Du Pont model, taxes and manipulation of data.Date: January 2012Since the taxes for food and lodging has been different in Sweden for many years, the hospitality industry has come up with a way to save money on tax paying. When private customers stay for a weekend where the meals are included, the business is placing more than the relevant revenue on the lodging part, which has the lower tax. Because of this the results has improved and tax money has been saved. Now when the Swedish government has decided to lower the tax on food to the same level as the lodging, the chances for correct revenue allocation arises. When we approached the hospitality industry with our problem area a big interest was showed from the head chefs. They now see a chance to get more income on the meals and through this be able to show better results towards the owners.Two hotel managers at two different hotels and their head chefs were chosen for interviews.

Målet med vår uppsats är att ur ett sociologiskt perspektiv undersöka den upplevda tryggheten i Halmstad utifrån unga kvinnors syn. Vi vill även undersöka diverse strategier som används för att hantera situationer som känns mindre trygga. Vi använde oss av kvalitativa intervjuer där åtta unga kvinnor i åldrarna 18-25 intervjuades. Det framgick att de unga kvinnorna upplever att Halmstad är en relativt trygg stad, men att det trots detta helst inte vistas i centrum kvällstider utan sällskap. De unga kvinnorna använde sig av olika strategier i hopp om att förebygga otrygghet.

Laws, regulations and generally accepted accounting principles hold options on how companies should recognize revenue. Generally accepted accounting principles are determined by standard-setting bodies as the Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Supervisory Authority, which is influenced by international standard-setting bodies as the IASB. Service revenue is generally recognized when performance is completed, but there are variations in when a performance is considered complete. The different accounting options available create difficulties in comparing companies over time and between companies, which in turn creates difficulties to achieve a true and fair view. By clarifying what methods and principles in accounting for service income the unlisted companies in Sweden are using and why these differences exist, we have been able to study how the comparability and the true and fair view is affected by these differences. The aim was to study the underlying factors that companies do their financial report differently.

The Telecom industry is facing a paradigm shift, where the industry is converging with Internet technologies and the market is becoming more sophisticated. This results in more demanding customers, and the need for offering more content and services with a focus on usability for the end-users. The operators are starting to loose both their strong position and revenue in the Telecom industry, due to new technology and the fact that other actors are starting to enter the market, offering new content and services. In the end, the operators have two choices, to become bit-pipe providers, and only focusing on network management, or keeping the control over their networks. The latter would mean that they block other actors who are taking parts of their revenue, e.g.

Due to the well-developed rhetoric and the relative easiness to estimate costs, cost considerations are usually more in-depth than revenue considerations when discussing strategies impact on profitability. To avoid dysfunctional companies and poorly judged strategy decisions it is necessary to develop the rhetoric of revenue considerations.By collecting data from 230 respondents in a quantitative study of two grocery stores in Mora, the study aimed to assess the relationship between choice of generic strategy and self-reported buying behavior, considering differing decision-making processes of customers.The results of the study indicate that a differentiation strategy performs better than a low-cost strategy in terms of buyer frequency, number of goods and cost of purchase. However, due to a poor data collection method, the results are weak, and should therefore be questioned. The study indicates that reliability considerations for behavioral measures should be treated in the same respect as psychological measures, and therefore illuminates the need for new methods and measures to be developed..

This paper seeks to investigate whether there is a positive relationship between bonus as a part of total executive compensation and lower accounting quality among Swedish companies. In this study, accounting quality is defined as the degree by which a company's earnings are subject to earnings management. To detect earnings management accrual-based modified Jones model is applied to companies listed on the Large-, Mid- and Small-Cap lists on the Stockholm stock exchange during 2011. We find a statistically significant positive relationship between bonus as a part of total executive compensation and lower accounting quality. Thus, in line with prior research, our results suggest that managers, interested in maximizing their bonus, will select income increasing accruals to manage earnings upwards.

The Swedish bank Handelsbanken has, according to their own way of measuring, been more successful than a weighted average of their competitors during the last 38 years. They have also handled the recent financial crisis, as well as the one in the 1990´s, better than most other banks. This paper studies their management control system at branch level in order to identify the controls which have been enforced to ensure that a low risk level is retained in the lending. The controls that have been identified are; (1) A decentralized organization with the offices as profit centers where the manager has restrictions regarding risk level and the results are measured as K/I (cost/revenue). (2) The absence of bonuses and individual follow-up regarding performance measurement.

This report is a thesis work for a B.Sc. in Forestry exam at the School for Forest Engineers, SLU. The work was an assignment from Sydved and the aim of the work was to investigate the economical output of removing understorey trees before first thinning. Four treatments were studied. - no cleaning before thinning - cleaning of all trees less than DBH 5 cm before thinning - cleaning of all trees less than DBH 7 cm before thinning - cleaning of all trees less then DBH 9 cm before thinning The result shows a decrease of the cost per m3 for the harvester with about 38% if all trees less than DBH 9 cm was cleaned before thinning compared with the un-cleaned area. At the same time the total net revenue increases with about 22%. .

AbstractTitle:The Impact of Management Control Systems on the Purchaser Function - A study of Scania and Sandvik Authors: Mohammad Reza Akhbari and Johanna Sullivan Svensson Published: 2011 Keywords: Management control, purchasing function, impact, control, control instruments, Key Performance Indicators, measurement, communication and organizational structure. Background and problem formulation: In order for a company?s business idea or vision to be fulfilled, the management of a company needs assistance from various means to intentionally affect the operation in the desired direction. Management control concerns activities of both financial and non-financial character in order to implement the strategy of a company and to reach profitability. Since the purchaser function is responsible of spending 50 percent of a company?s total revenue, the function has an optimal starting point to be a key actor in the shaping and execution of a company?s strategic plan.

Title: Competitive Advantages in Professional Football Cubs ? A Resource-Based Analysis Authors: Daniel Grass, Mattias Holst, Bengt Jönsson Semester: Spring 2001 Supervisors: Leif Edvinsson, Allan T. Malm Problem: In order to be a successful football club, the management team has to consider a variety of business issues. Since money is having such an impact on the football industry of today, the financial status of the clubs sets the condition for how clubs are able to achieve their main objective, i.e. to be successful on the football field.