AbstractMaster Thesis in business administration, School of Business and Economics at the Linneaus University, financial control, spring 2010Authors:Stefan Hellman and Ewa Warnquist Supervisor:Magnus Willesson Title: Reward systems - a study of public companies? Variable Compensation system Background:Our interest of the Variable Compensation system in public companies was brought by the recent extensive discussions of bonuses in the time of a financial crisis. This has led to that the word bonus has been given a negative connotation and we wanted to find out how the system of Variable Compensation is structured in the companies at Stockholm Stock Exchange. Problem:How is the Variable Compensation system structured in public companies? Purpose:The purpose of this paper is to study how the Variable Compensation in public companies is structured.

ABSTRACT Title: Salesmen & Compensations - A qualitative study regarding salespeoplesexperiences with different compensation plans. Authors: Milenko Bijelic & Robin Heimberger Supervisor: Lars-Johan A?ge, Jonas Molin & Jens Eklinder Frick Date: 2014 - JuneAim: The aim of this study is to examine how salespeople respond to a fixed compensation plan versus a compensation plan based on a variable pay and how the implementation of these compensation plans can affect sales peoples? emotions and motivation.Method: For this study, a qualitative method has been used. Data for the study has been collected through semi-structured interviews and the empirical data has been presented and analyzed using the well-grounded theory.Result & the contribution of the thesis: The result of this study shows that there are differences in how the compensation plans tend to affect salespeople regarding an number of different factors. The study contributes with a greater understanding about how compensation plans affect salespeople.Suggestions for future research: For future research we suggest a quantitative study with the same aim as we have used for this study so that a generalizable understanding about sales peoples? experiences with different compensation plans can be conducted.Key words: Compensation plans, motivation, stress, variable pay, fixed pay .

ABSTRACT Title: Salesmen & Compensations - A qualitative study regarding salespeoplesexperiences with different compensation plans. Authors: Milenko Bijelic & Robin Heimberger Supervisor: Lars-Johan A?ge, Jonas Molin & Jens Eklinder Frick Date: 2014 - JuneAim: The aim of this study is to examine how salespeople respond to a fixed compensation plan versus a compensation plan based on a variable pay and how the implementation of these compensation plans can affect sales peoples? emotions and motivation.Method: For this study, a qualitative method has been used. Data for the study has been collected through semi-structured interviews and the empirical data has been presented and analyzed using the well-grounded theory.Result & the contribution of the thesis: The result of this study shows that there are differences in how the compensation plans tend to affect salespeople regarding an number of different factors. The study contributes with a greater understanding about how compensation plans affect salespeople.Suggestions for future research: For future research we suggest a quantitative study with the same aim as we have used for this study so that a generalizable understanding about sales peoples? experiences with different compensation plans can be conducted.Key words: Compensation plans, motivation, stress, variable pay, fixed pay .

Background and problem: Whether or not the pay to executives is fair is widely debated. During the last years especially the variable pay has been in the spotlight. But at what levels are the compensations really at? Media?s focus is mainly on the absolute highest compensations which may result in a skew view on pay-for-performance incentives.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to establish the levels of compensation to executives in a wide range of randomly selected companies listed on the Stockholm stock exchange during the years 2001 to 2005. Furthermore, the impact of a set of firm specific variables on compensation levels will be analyzed with basis in several hypothesis.Delimitations: The variable pay considered in this thesis will only be variable cash bonuses.

Background: The background explains different financial crises and the effect those crises had on the Swedish acquits regarding Variable Compensation. The resent discussion regarding Variable Compensation and the main problems with bonuses is also explained. Our theories for this essay is mainly based on the new directions from Finansinspektionen FFFS 2009:6,7 and stakeholder theory. Other theories used are agency theory, stewardship theory and economic man.Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to analyze the new directions for Variable Compensation and to investigate if these new directions can lead to a more long-term thinking for managers in banks. Method: We used semi-structured interviews with open questions for our survey.

This study test the short-termism of companies listed on the market OMX Stockholm 30. We will use a deductive point of view where the purpose of this study is to investigate whether corporate short-term returns can be explained by the independent variables related to corporate governance and compensation practices. This is to investigate whether there is an intentional action on raising the short-term return in order to achieve a higher CEO compensation. In the study, theories dealing with corporate governance and agency theory have resulted in two hypotheses. Basic Hypothesis H1 is: if short-termism of Swedish industry due to the company's short-term returns can be explained by the independent variables related to the company's management and compensation. This hypothesis could not be verified through the quantitative study. Alternative Hypothesis H2 is: the compensation of a CEO can be explained by the independent variables related to company performance and size.

This study test the short-termism of companies listed on the market OMX Stockholm 30. We will use a deductive point of view where the purpose of this study is to investigate whether corporate short-term returns can be explained by the independent variables related to corporate governance and compensation practices. This is to investigate whether there is an intentional action on raising the short-term return in order to achieve a higher CEO compensation. In the study, theories dealing with corporate governance and agency theory have resulted in two hypotheses. Basic Hypothesis H1 is: if short-termism of Swedish industry due to the company's short-term returns can be explained by the independent variables related to the company's management and compensation. This hypothesis could not be verified through the quantitative study. Alternative Hypothesis H2 is: the compensation of a CEO can be explained by the independent variables related to company performance and size.

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.

Does the country people live in affect the probability of them experiencing happiness? Can a country variable in an ordinal regression model be affected when microeconomic and macroeconomic factors are added to the model? The possible outcomes are either that the country variable affects less when the additional predictors are added to the model, or that they stay the same. The micro data is collected from the European Social Survey database, the macro data is collected from the World Bank. The country variable becomes less substantial when additional variables are added to the model. The variable with the most influence over expected happiness apart from the country variable is whether the individual often socializes with friends or not.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om det finns ett samband mellan lönsamhet och storlek på rörlig samt total VD-ersättning i de största svenska aktiebolagen. I uppsatsen diskuteras även funna samband samt bakomliggande teoretiska förklaringar till VD-ersättningens storlek. För att undersöka om VD-ersättning och företags lönsamhet korrelerar utförs kvantitativa undersökningar med hjälp av regressionsanalyser för respektive år mellan 2002 och 2007. Populationen som undersökningen baseras på är de företag som i september 2009 var registrerade på Stockholmsbörsens segment Large och Mid Cap.Undersökningen resulterade i slutsatsen att inget samband mellan vare sig rörlig eller total VD-ersättning och lönsamhet kunde styrkas. Istället gavs indikationer om andra faktorer som påverkade VD-ersättningens storlek.

The purpose of the study is to investigate how board structure influences CEO compensation for companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 2004. The theoretical frame of reference is based upon the corporate governance theory, the principal-agent theory and previous empirical research in the area. A cross sectional regression analysis is used, where a number of control variables are included and significance tests are conducted. The study is based on information regarding CEO compensation, and possible factors affecting the compensation, from 267 companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange A- and O-list in the year 2004. We find that the board structure has no significant effect on the CEO compensation.

The thesis handles the principal-agency problem between shareholders and the Chief Executive Officer. The purpose of the thesis was to examine the link between CEO compensation and corporate performance measured as a change in Market to Book ratio. Data was collected from corporate annual reports between the years 2000 ? 2008 and the study covers 39 Swedish companies from the Stockholm Stock Exchange Large Cap list. To examine whether there is a link between the CEO´s compensation and firm performance, we performed a regression analysis, and no significant relation is found.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the attitudes and willingness towards climate compensation in air travel. The study discuss if people feel a personal responsibility about the environment. Earlier research shows that tourists are positive towards climate compensation, but in reality very few use this service. The main question is: Which are the reasons for travellers not to use climate compensation? The used methodology is qualitative and based on ten interviews with people who have travelled by air one or several times since January 2007, when the service was first established.

The thesis handles the principal-agency problem between shareholders and the Chief Executive Officer. The purpose of the thesis was to examine the link between CEO compensation and corporate performance measured as a change in Market to Book ratio. Data was collected from corporate annual reports between the years 2000 ? 2008 and the study covers 39 Swedish companies from the Stockholm Stock Exchange Large Cap list. To examine whether there is a link between the CEO´s compensation and firm performance, we performed a regression analysis, and no significant relation is found.

Agency theory describes the conflict of interest between the principal (stockholders) and the agent (CEO). Aligning the incentives of executives with those of the owners is the most direct way to mitigate the agency problem. If there is no meaningful link between CEO compensation and company performance, it is doubtful that the large sums of assets in public corporations are being managed efficiently. In theory the solution is simple reward the CEO when shareholders wealth increases. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if there is a relationship between company performance and CEO compensation among Swedish companies, in materials and information technology industry.