Since 2005 all companies listed on a regulated stock exchange within the European Union are required to present their financial reports in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Accounting Standards (IAS). The purposes of these standards are to accomplish international harmonization of accounting rules to make financial reports more comparable. However, recent research has shown that some firms tend to use goodwill strategically in a business combination by manipulating the acquired assets and consciously allocate the intangible assets to goodwill to reduce the depreciation in the income and decrease costs. This phenomenon may reduce the comparability between financial reports and thus has an opposite effect on the purpose of IFRS and IAS.The aim of this study is to show how the companies involved in this study allocate goodwill strategically. Furthermore, the introduction of the new standards has contributed to that goodwill now is a subject for impairment test, therefore we want to show whether this affected the comparability of the companies in this study.An empirical study was conducted, based on interviews with four Swedish managers.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of leadership and gender issues circulat- ing in Womentor leadership development programme, and to have a discussion around what conse- quences they may have on participants' careers. To answer the question I have used a qualitative approach in the form of 10 interviews and non-participant observations. The theories in this study are based on gender and leadership issues.The problem which forms the basis of this study is the underrepresentation of women at senior posi- tions. A basic assumption in this study is that notions of gender and leadership affect the individual's ability to act. The circulating concepts identified in Womentor are: The leader who wants to be a manager, The leader who gets things done, The communicative leader, Change leader, The motiva- tional leader and The leader as a role model.

Many researchers emphasize the increasing strategic importance of supply chain management, but there is still a lack of concrete guidance for managers faced with strategic decisions in supply chain. Within decision-making theories, the rational decision-making model is the most commonly used. This because of its suitable foundation, enabling a structure to the complex decision process. The rational decision-making model is today not developed to include the aspects of strategic decision-making made in supply chain. The purpose of this research is to adjust a structured rational decision-making model, making it applicable for strategic decision-making in supply chain.

In 1984 the Swedish government introduced a special law which gave tax benefits to foreign researchers who for a limited time was engaged in research or development work in Sweden. The purpose was to facilitate for companies to recruit skilled employees from outside of Sweden and to make Sweden more attractive to this important group of researchers and to strengthen the Swedish competitiveness. In 2001 the law for foreign researchers was reformed to include foreign experts, researchers, managers and other key personnel. In Sweden called ?expert tax?.As a result of this; problem with the predictability of who may have the potential to apply for the expert tax benefits was developed.

Title:Social media as a tool for organizational learningAuthor:David Chaaya & Filip FischerSupervisor:Stig Sörling & Tomas KällqvistBackground:People have always used different ways of communicating. Communication hasa vital role in organizations for control when management and employees are communicatingand interacting with each other to spread individual learning. Thru this contact, individuallearning can develop into organizational learning, which will benefit the whole organization.The most modern tool of communication is social media such as Facebook, Twitter andYoutube. The potential of these social media is disputed in society, but more and moreorganizations are using these kinds of media for communication.Aim:The purpose of this study is to illustrate how social media is used to control withinorganizations and also to create understanding how significant social media are fororganizational learning.Method:The method of this study originates from the ?aktörssynsätt? and is influenced byhermeneutics.

Since 2005 all companies listed on a regulated stock exchange within the European Union are required to present their financial reports in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Accounting Standards (IAS). The purposes of these standards are to accomplish international harmonization of accounting rules to make financial reports more comparable. However, recent research has shown that some firms tend to use goodwill strategically in a business combination by manipulating the acquired assets and consciously allocate the intangible assets to goodwill to reduce the depreciation in the income and decrease costs. This phenomenon may reduce the comparability between financial reports and thus has an opposite effect on the purpose of IFRS and IAS.The aim of this study is to show how the companies involved in this study allocate goodwill strategically. Furthermore, the introduction of the new standards has contributed to that goodwill now is a subject for impairment test, therefore we want to show whether this affected the comparability of the companies in this study.An empirical study was conducted, based on interviews with four Swedish managers.

Aim: The aim of this study is to examine how managers apprehend today's leadership and how they believe that future leadership will be influenced and developed when the people bourn during the nineteen forties pass on their management positions to a younger generation.Method: I share the hermeneutic view on science. I believe that knowledge is born with in the person who seeks to obtain it. I have chosen to conduct my study using a qualitative and inductive approach. I use an inductive approach as I answer my questions by using interviews in order to respond to my question at issues, and assumes from the empiric in my study.Result & Conclusions: The leadership role has changed from being? the one who decides?,? the director?, to becoming less peculiar and prestige.

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.

By identifying effects that a buyout-firm has on management control systems in its portfolio companies, the aim of this thesis is to explain how such effects differs between the companies and finally to explain why the effects differs even though the companies are owned by the same buyout-firm. The study is conducted as a qualitative case study based on interviews with representatives from the studied buyout-firm and three of its portfolio companies.By analyzing the empirical findings with frameworks and theories within management control systems and value creation, we cannot only identify effects that are common for all portfolio companies but we can also observe differences between the portfolio companies.The identified effects that are common for all portfolio companies are: increased internal reporting burden, increased perceived risk of getting laid off among managers and co-workers and replacement of the board immediately after acquisition.The effects that are observed only for two portfolio companies are: increased focus on short-term planning, higher financial targets, replacement of company management upon acquisition and moving of decision authorities to higher organizational levels. Differences are observed although the portfolio companies are owned by the same buyout-firm due to: differences in management and co-workers equity stake in the portfolio companies, differences in business complexity and differences in planned exit-horizon..

The study deals with the causes of unjustified differences in pay between women and men in the banking sector. The purpose of this paper has been to examine how a gender project implemented in the private banking organizations from a gender-and implementation perspective. The aim of the project examined is to even unjustified differences in pay between men and women in the banking and finance sector. The main issues are: ? How has the project been implemented and what are the real and perceived results? ? How can the opportunities and barriers to successful implementation course with emphasis on gender? The method used is a qualitative study, where the empirical material consisted of focus group interviews.

The economic prerequisite to many farmers in Sweden after the EU membership and the new agriculture policy has generated large demands on the farm management. Until year 2004 you got a grant based on what you had produced and not on consumer demand. In 2005 a new economic aid (Mid Term Revue) was introduced and the conditions has changed again. Due to this I have chosen to do a cost-benefit analysis on a case, to investigate if the present production is sustainable in the future. My conclusion is that the profitability is acceptable even if the farm has a high debt. But to make the production more profitable the products produced should be refined as much as possible at the farm, to get maximum economic return.

During the migration season in 2013 a study on spawning migrating salmon and the effect of water flow on the behavior was conducted of the salmon at the Forshaga hydropower station in the River Klarälven. The River Klarälven with its nine hydropower plants on the Swedish side, constituting migration obstacles for the migrating salmon. Fortum Generation AB has together with the County Administrative Board restored a salmon trap at the lowermost hydropower station in Forshaga, aiming at making it possible for the salmon to swim into the trap, and thereafter be transported by truck past the power plants and then continue their journey to the spawning grounds on their own. Unfortunately, it is believed that the trap does not work as well as it should. In this study, I focused on salmon position in relation to water flow and if the number of salmon that swam into the fish trap differed between salmon with previous experience of the trap (experienced) and salmon without experience (unexperienced).

Societal expectations of responsible corporate conduct are currently a fact. It is manifested ina corporate need for limiting and managing external effects, such as environmental impact.An environmental management system is a tool for organizations to structure theirenvironmental work and increase their efficiency. Managing the corporate operations toaccommodate to environmental objectives requires an organizational understanding of theobjectives as well as the procedures. A condition for a successful implementation is the coworkers´ willingness to participate and collaborate.A study made on the co-workers attitude towards the ISO 9000 standard (i.e. qualitymanagement system) reveals that the earlier positive findings are not completely true.

Ojämställdhet råder, framför allt inom det privata näringslivet, på chefsnivå i Sverige. Majoriteten av samtliga chefer män, endast 33 % av cheferna är kvinnor. Inom den privata sektorn är andelen kvinnliga chefer endast 25 %, medan det inom den offentliga sektorn råder det omvända; 64% av cheferna inom den kommunala sektorn är kvinnor, i landstingen är andelen 72%. Tidigare forskning har visat att de stereotypa attityder som finns avseende kvinnliga chefer påverkar kvinnors karriärmöjligheter. Föreliggande studie syftade därför till att undersöka vilka attityder som finns avseende kvinnliga chefer och om det finns någon skillnad i attityder beroende på respondentens karaktäristika.

The main aim of this thesis is to investigate the implications and dynamics behind consistency between individual resource allocation decisions and corporate strategy concept. The telecom industry, a high-velocity environment going through an extensive deregulation process, is put under the magnifying glass. Japanese telecom giant NTT Group is compared to its German counterpart Deutsche Telekom. Potential antecedent factors in the strategic decision-making process to consistency are studied. It is also examined whether there is a direct interplay between consistency and economic performance.