CleanTech is the sector where technologies intended to reduce the harmful effect that our current lifestyle has on the environment are found. In Sweden the companies developing these technologies has not yet managed to get their deserved part of Swedish venture capital. A number of venture capitalists do invest in CleanTech, however the majority is hesitant. The hesitation is to a large extent said to be born in the many risks associated to a CleanTech investment. This thesis attempts to address this issue by describing and analyzing how venture capitalists reduce risks when investing in a CleanTech company. An abductive approach has been used to conduct the study, mainly based on primary, qualitative data. The data was gathered through six face-to-face interviews with Swedish venture capitalists active within the CleanTech sector.

The different risks expected to be found in a CleanTech investment are first presented grouped into three broad risks groups; Agency risk, Business risk and Innovation risk. This is followed by a framework covering methods and tools that can be applied by venture capitalists in an attempt to reduce risks in their investments. These being; Convertible equity, Syndication, Information system, Monitoring, Milestones, Bonding, Share options, Stage financing and Intellectual property rights.

The respondents do not view the risks associated to CleanTech as high as generally perceived. They acknowledge that the risks exists but not to any larger extent than in any other investment. When reducing risk in their investment the respondents make use of commonly known and generally used methods and tools. These are not deliberately chosen in order to reduce a specific risk but rather to safeguard the investment as a whole. It is not just the tools in themselves that leads to a successful reduction of risk, but rather when combined with the respondent’s as well as the entrepreneurs skills and experiences.

Internprissättning handlar om de priser som tas ut på varor, tjänster och krediter när de förflyttas runt mellan företag i intressegemenskap. Internprissättning är ett aktuellt ämne i och med att globaliseringen i världen ökar och varor och tjänster förflyttas runt mellanländer på ett helt annat sätt än för några år sedan.

Skatteverket kräver att internprissättningen inom koncerner ska upprättas enligt armlängdsprincipen. Denna princip bygger på att prissättningen sker på ett marknadsmässigt sätt, precis som om företagen skulle befunnit sig på armslängds avstånd ifrån varandra.

Syftet med den här studien är att förstå internprissättningen från ett praktiskt perspektiv och för att göra detta så upprättar vi en dokumentation av ett företags internprissättning, i enlighet med Skatteverkets riktlinjer.

Vår ambition är att vi ska upprätta en korrekt dokumentation som Företaget kan använda sig av och under arbetet öka vår förståelse för ämnet samt väva samman teori och praktik på ett effektivt och resultatgivande sätt. Vi har därför haft tät kontakt med Företaget för att inhämta all information och sätta oss in i organisationens arbetssätt.

Skatteverket tar upp fem olika metoder som kan användas när internpriser ska fastställas enligt armlängdsprincipen, men det är endast en utav dessa vi använder oss av i studien. Vi utgår sedan från denna metod för att visa att Företaget tar ut marknadsmässiga internpriser.

Empirin består av dokumentet i färdigställd form. Resultatet blev en dokumentation som beskriver Företagets verksamhet, de transaktioner som sker mellan Företaget och dess dotterbolag samt hur Företaget använder sig av armlängdsprincipen vid internprissättning.

Under studiens gång har vi insett att det är skillnad på teori och praktik, Skatteverkets riktlinjer för hur dokumentationen ska se ut är väldigt konkreta, men det har ändå varit svårt att applicera en färdig modell på hur verkligheten ser ut i Företaget. Vi tror att den här dokumentationen är ett viktigt verktyg för Skatteverket i sin kontrollprocess, men den är också av stor vikt för företagen eftersom de då tvingas arbeta med och se över sina internpriser. Vilket i sin tur leder till positiva effekter för samhället på längre sikt.

Bakgrund

Inom de investmentbanker som idag erbjuder heltäckande tjänster inom värdepappershandel och företagsrelaterade finanstjänster uppstår konflikter som grundar sig på vems intresse som kommer i första hand. I denna process har finansanalytikern en central roll där det finns en risk att hamna i en intressekonflikt med corporate finance avdelningen. Finansanalytikerns oberoende är viktigt då analyserna har påverkan på kursbildningen på värdepappersmarknaden.

Syfte

Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats är att beskriva hur ett antal svenska investmentbanker arbetar för att främja finansanalytikerns oberoende i sin yrkesroll. För att tydliggöra oberoendet kommer intressekonflikten mellan analysavdelningen och corporate finance avdelningen att beskrivas då problematiken kring finansanalytikerns oberoende här är som tydligast.

Metod

En kvalitativ ansats har valt för att uppfylla uppsatsens syfte. Tre personliga djupintervjuer genomfördes med investmentbanker och Finansinspektionen. Ytterligare en telefonintervju genomfördes med ett analyshus som marknadsför sig som oberoende. Detta gav sammanlagt tre olika perspektiv på problemet.

Slutsats

Investmentbankerna främjar finansanalytikerns oberoende genom att skapa förutsättningar för att denne ska kunna ha en hög integritet i sin yrkesroll. Dessa förutsättningar skapas genom att följa lagen och de rekommendationer som Finansinspektionen ger. Tillsammans med interna regler och incitament stärks finansanalytikerns oberoende gentemot corporate finance avdelningen.

Entrepreneurial activity brings benefits to Sweden in terms of job opportunities as well as other national advantages. This put pressure on the government to create a dynamic environment for business creation. Business Incubator is one example of a partly governmental owned organization operating to help entrepreneurs starting their business by providing mentoring and education. A crucial factor when starting a business is to gather enough seed-capital. However, many entrepreneurs lack the capital to finance the start-up from own savings or loans constituting a gap between supply and demand of financing. Instead the entrepreneurs need to look for alternative equity sources of capital. Therefore, the aim of the report is to focus on the interaction between the entrepreneur, Business Incubator and equity investor.

The purpose of the report is to analyze the availability and attractiveness of equity financing for start-ups participating in a Business Incubator.

The method used in order to fulfill the purpose is a mixed research approach, meaning that the findings are based on both quantitative- as well as qualitative data. A survey aimed at Business Incubator entrepreneurs contributes the quantitative findings while four in-depth interviews contribute with the qualitative findings. These two kinds of data are compared and analyzed in order to reflect the availability and attractiveness of equity, using a multidimensional aspect.

The findings show that all sources of equity for Business Incubator entrepreneurs are represented, meaning that there are many opportunities for finding equity financing. For this study, however, Business Angel financing is the most common. The Business Incubators attract equity investors via their personal networks and there is therefore no “one way” to finance a start-up, instead everything is dependent on the persons involved in the process and their motivations and creativeness. Even though equity financing is the least desired source of equity for entrepreneurs it is sometimes inevitable. Furthermore, the Business Incubator mediates between the entrepreneur and the equity investor and a well functioning interaction and collaboration provide advantages to all parties but also national welfare and economic growth.

When a firm decides to go public, two abnormalities often occur. The first is called underpricing and can be defined as a capital loss made by the company the first day of trade due to that the offer price is lower than the closing price after the first day of trade. The increase in stock value is equal to capital the issuing firm could have gained initially; this capital loss is referred to as the “money left on the table”. The second abnormality, underperformance, is a result from underpricing. It means that the stocks that were underpriced the first day also tend to underperform 3-5 years after the initial public offering (IPO) compared to competitors within the same industry.

These two abnormalities together constitutes a problem for the firm because they loose money. However it also enables investors to make a quick profit. There are many studies covering this area, however mostly made by Americans, therefore the aim of this report is to investigate whether the two abnormalities exist on the Swedish market.

In order to fulfill the purpose, companies that were listed 1998-2007 were investigated. Their stock performance is analyzed both on the day of IPO, where we found that 51% of the companies listed were underpriced, with an average of 23%. Further, the average “money left on the table” per company was 3.9 MSEK. The stock prices have also been analyzed on a one- as well as a five year period after the IPO in order to analyze the long-run performance and later compare it to the rest of the industry as well as industry index. We found that most of the companies that where underpriced also tend to follow underperformance. However, how long they underperform depends in which industry they operate. The IT industry, for example had a negative performance after 5 years whereas the Industrials industry has the turning-point from negative performance before 5 years.

Abstract

Introduction: It has during the latest years occurred several large business scandals both abroad and in Sweden where auditors have been involved. The need for stabile conditions and well functioning professional codes of ethics for companies, especially auditing firms have been growing during the latest years. FAR has seen it as their task to define the meaning of the Swedish term ”god revisorssed”. This is specified through FAR’s nine professional codes of ethics, which came out in a new edition in 2003. The opinions about what is considered as high moral and ethical reasoning often goes apart. In previous studies it has been shown that these opinions have been affected by different factors, such as age, gender and size of the auditing firm. With this background it is interesting to examine auditor’s ethical reasoning with help of the FAR professional codes of ethics.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine and explain auditors’ ethical reasoning, and also investigate which factors that affect ethical reasoning.

Method: In this study a quantitative method is used to get a broad study where general connections can be found. The data used is primary data from a survey. The survey consists of three ethical dilemmas which the respondents have to take a standpoint to and grade. The respondents also answered some general short questions about their background. The results are presented with help of mean calculations and other methods of descriptive statistics, and an interpretation of the respondents’ comments.

Results: From the means that have been calculated for the three dilemmas, it is possible to draw the conclusion that the auditors in this study are relatively ethical. It is not enough to only study the mean values to determine if the auditors are ethical or not. To get a fairer point of view it is better to read the comments given by the respondents. It is by these comments that it is possible to examine how the auditors reason about ethical dilemmas. The results also show that the auditors reason different about the different professional codes of ethics. In comparison with the factors: gender, age, ethical education, experience and size of the firm with ability to ethical reasoning, a statistical connection could not be found.

Background: The increased globalization and trade over domestic borders within the European Union (EU) has lead to the implementation of new international accounting standards. This is necessary to create an effective capital market, where comparisons between companies located in different countries can be made, due to a more harmonized accounting. Obstacles to overcome when establish a more harmonized accounting in the EU is for example different accounting backgrounds and valuation methods.

Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to as far possible study whether the establishment of IAS 40 contributes to an increased harmonization and more comparable accounting of investment property for listed companies within the EU.

Method: This thesis involves both a quantitative –and a qualitative research method. We have used primary data in forms of interviews, and secondary data in forms of annual reports, regulations, literature and articles in the thesis. Using both primary –and secondary data results in a higher reliability and validity.

Frame of reference: There are two alternative valuations methods according to IAS 40, the cost –and the fair value model. The cost model means a valuation to historical cost minus depreciation. Valuation in compliance to the fair value model on the other hand means that the investment property shall be valuated to market value. When using the cost model a note of the fair value shall be included in the financial statement. A company has according to IAS 40 the possibility to choose between internal –or external valuation when estimating the fair value.

Empirical results and analysis: Our empirical result is presented mainly through annual reports from listed investment property companies in Sweden, England and Germany. We found that the fair value model was used by all the analysed companies in Sweden and England in 2005, the year of the implementation of IAS 40 in the EU. By analysing the annul reports from the investment property companies we found indications that the fair value model also tends to become the generally excepted valuation model in Germany. Furthermore, our empirical result shows that a majority of the Swedish investment property companies regularly used internal valuation, but there is a pattern of external valuation as a complement to the internal valuation. In England and Germany all investment property companies used external valuation and there was no use of internal valuation even as a complement to the external valuation.

Conclusions: Based on our empirical results we draw the conclusion that the accounting for listed investment property companies within the EU is more harmonized and comparable today than before the implementation of IAS 40 in 2005. However, IAS 40 gives the companies the possibility to decide weather to use the cost –or the fair value model and the use of external valuation is optional. This can be viewed as obstacles to achieve a total harmonization of the accounting within the EU for listed investment property companies. From our empirical findings we draw the conclusion that the fair value model tends to become the generally excepted valuation model within the EU. Also, we do not perceive the use of the cost model as a barrier to the harmonization process because the fair value still has to be left in a not in the financial statement. However, we believe that in order to achieve a more harmonized and more comparable accounting for listed investment property companies within in the EU a directive about a minimum of external valuation must be included in IAS 40. This in order to avoid companies to use only internal valuation of the properties as this may effect the result.

Syftet är att beskriva hur en svensk ideell förening mäter och redovisar effektivitet samt vilka effekter det har på verksamheten. I och med att ideella föreningar till skillnad från företag inte har ett vinstdrivande syfte så kan således inte effektivitet mätas på samma sätt som i den privata sektorn. I denna uppsats studeras ett fall, en kristen församling, för att få en inblick i hur en ideell förening mäter effektivitet och redovisar den.

Denna uppsats utförs genom en fallstudie av både kvalitativ och kvantitativ karraktär. Författarna har besökt församlingen och genomfört en enkätundersökning av medlemmarna och deras attityder kring effektivitet och hur den redovisas till medlemmarna. Vidare har författarna intervjuat styrelsemedlemmar för att få en djupare inblick i ämnet.

Vad som skiljer ideella föreningar från vinstdrivande organisationer är att de har ett icke-ekonomiskt syfte och att de bedrivs mestadels på frivillig basis. En ideell förening är beroende av bidrag från medlemmar och kommun. Normer och praxis inom redovisning är utarbetad utifrån den privata sektorn och präglas då av ett vinstdrivande syfte och finansiella mått. För den ideella sektorn lämpar sig ickefinanseella mått i form av måluppfyllelse bättre. I och med att ideella föreningar inte har en egen lagstiftning så påverkas redovisningens utformning också av ett vinstdrivande perspektiv.

Den effektivitet som församlingen mäter och redovisar i sin årsredovisning är statistik på antalet medlemmar och deltagare i församlingens olika verksamheter. Däremot redovisas effektivitet i form av målsättning snarare verbalt på församlingsmöten. Genom synen på redovisning som ett informationssystem är verbal kommunikation också en form av redovisning. Icke finansiella mått är viktigast för församlingen, anser styrelsemedlemmarna, för att de kan påverka medlemmarna till att engagera sig mer i verksamheten.

Finansiella mått kan församlingen också ha användning för så länge redovisningen av dem genomförs på ett sätt så medlemmarna kan ta till sig den informationen. Om redovisningen genomförs så att medlemmarna förstår informationen kan den få en positiv effekt på verksamheten för att den kan motivera medlemmarna att engagera sig mer. Studien har lett till en modell som visar hur effektivitets-redovisningen kan påverka en förening positivt. Genom att sätta upp mätbara delmål både för styrelsen och för medlemmarna kan motivationen ökas och mer resurser bli tillgängliga för verksamheten. Med fler motiverade medlemmar och mer resurser kan församlingen nå sina mål och öka effetkiviteten. Utvärdering av de uppnådda målen och redovisning av resultaten ska inspirera medlemmarna till att sätta nya mål och en enighet bland medlemmarna att sträva efter att uppnå de nya målen.

Business owners and founders are a minority of any bank’s business clients. Scientific studies of traditional credit markets often show a lower probability of loan approval or higher loan costs for female business owners compared to male business owners. With this background the question arises whether female business owners have to struggle with this problem less on Internet credit markets.

In this current study, DIW Berlin investigated business loans on the largest German Internet platform, smava. smava connects private individuals who wish to take on installment loan at a fixed interest rate or wish to lend money. The findings show that female borrowers are positioned at least as well as their male counterparts on smava. If all other loan and borrower-specific characteristics remain the same, then the loan requests of female business owners have even better prospects for success than loan requests from men. There are indications that this result is not platform-specific, but also applies to other innovative credit markets.

Abstract:

Swedish private equity firms have demonstrated a historical success in the buyout industry. However, current trends in the industry such as institutional changes, phenomenon of capital overhang and an influx of new entrants have intensified competition among buyout firms. To maintain the expected high gains, private equity firms must actively create values for their portfolio companies. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze how private equity firms with a hands-on approach add value to the companies under management.

A literature review on value-creation by private equity firms was conducted. The valuecreation methods were classified by the authors under the four themes: governance engineering, financial engineering, operational engineering, and strategic redirections. In order to collect the empirical data, the authors chose an inductive approach, used semi-structured interviews with representatives from five private equity firms.

The results show that the studied firms undertake to a large extent similar actions when it comes to corporate governance and financial engineering. With governance engineering, the firms attempt to strengthen the portfolio companies’ governance system through proper

due diligence, the appointment of a competent and independent board of directors, an appropriate and deep management incentive program, establishment of a close relationship with management, and periodic management reports. The key to efficient governance is to give the portfolio firms 100% focus on operational and strategic issues in the board meetings. All but one firm use significant debt to lever the buyouts as it is evident that the pressure of debt repayment incentivizes management to better handle scarce capital.

Operational engineering and strategic redirection are the two themes in which the firms mainly distinguish themselves. Operational engineering largely concerns running operation more efficiently through a combination of cost-cuttings (divestment of non-profitable

product and customer, outsourcing, centralizing purchases) and higher revenue growth (finding new markets, providing more after-sale service, extending product range). Strategic redirection incorporates the focus on core competences, making strategic decisions about investments, divestments, and add-on acquisitions.

There have been differences in actions taken by the studied firms. Factors that could affect the behavior of private equity firms are the type of companies acquired, the firm size, their perception of risk and reward regarding a particular action, as well as years of experiences in the industry. There is no common timeframe for actions taken by the studied firms. Nevertheless, all firms emphasize the importance of implementing fundamental changes in the early years of the investments.

In society today large corporations are striving to regain the trust, which has been lost dur-ing the many accounting scandals that occurred lately. As a response to minimize the con-flicts countries have introduced codes of corporate governance. It is common knowledge that a company’s stakeholders and shareholders have different knowledge and interest in the company and the annual report is the agent’s main communication channel towards the principals. The Swedish code of corporate governance was implemented in July 2005 in an attempt to reduce the information gap between the managers of the company and the own-ers.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine if and how the Swedish code of corporate govern-ance has affected the content in annual reports in Sweden. We will evaluate and explain why listed companies have changed the information provided in their annual reports from the year 2001 prior to the codes existence, during the code’s implementation in year 2005, and after the implementation in 2006.

A deductive method created our research model, which was used as a tool to gather the empirical findings. Agency Theory, Institutional Theory and the Swedish code constitute the foundation for our evaluation of 65 companies’ annual reports from three individual years. Once our research model was created, an explorative and inductive method was used analyse and interpret the empirical findings.

Our conclusion is that corporate governance information in annual reports has increased, and the implementation of the Swedish code of corporate governance has affected the in-formation provided to the shareholders. Between 2001 and 2005 a rapid growth in infor-mation can be view, while only minor improvement can be found between 2005 and 2006. The Swedish code has been successful in its implementation as stakeholders and share-holders have received more information from the annual reports. However, we are ques-tioning the Swedish code for its extensive dimensions. Some areas of the Swedish code are provided with sufficient guidelines, while others would bring with it improved information to the shareholders by more detailed instructions. Many of the investigated companies have had their corporate governance information reviewed by an external auditor in 2005 and it is unexpected to see that this has been excluded in 2006. The examined companies provide information regarding many of the Swedish code’s rules, but we found the information re-lated to internal control, managing director and attendance at the general meeting insuffi-cient.

Sammanfattning

Problem: Det har skett stora förändringar i svenska privatpersoners fondsparande de senaste åren. Finns det skillnader i lönsamhet mellan Storbankernas fondbolags fonder och de mindre fondbolagens fonder? Tar fondbolagen olika stora risker och leder de alltid till en högre avkastning? Skiljer sig förvaltningsavgifterna åt mellan fondbolagen? Jämfört med benchmark, har fonderna presterat olika i de olika fondbolagen?

Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte är att jämföra de Svenska Storbankernas fondbolags fonders prestation med Bancos och Kaupthings fonders prestation, genom att ställa fondernas avkastning i relation till dess risker och avgifter.

Metod: Uppsatsen består av en deskriptiv kvalitativ undersökning med ett subjektivt urval. Vi använder oss av sekundärdata för att samla in information om de olika fondbolagens fonders utveckling när det gäller avkastning och risk.

Referensram: I referensramen presenteras de olika riskmåtten och de riskjusterande måtten som används i denna uppsats. Portföljteorin och CAPM presenteras i detta avsnitt.

Slutsats: Syftet med uppsatsen var att jämföra Storbankernas fondbolag med de mindre fondbolagen för att se om det fanns några uppenbara skillnader i deras avkastning i förhållande till dess risk. Vi kom fram till att Storbankernas aktiefonder presterade bättre i förhållande till den risk som tagits. Räntefonderna skilde sig inte mycket åt, detta kan bero på att vår uppsats är inriktad mot risk och då denna kategori av fonder inte utsätts för en hög risk blir det svårt att analysera skillnaderna mellan de olika fondbolagen.

In the recent years auditing scandals all around the world, deficient internal control has attracted a lot of attention. This has contributed to further requirements on insight and internal control. Those scandals have seriously damaged the auditor’s profession and contributed to a reduced trust among the public. Therefore an extensive work to recover and stringed the trust was started all around the world. In the USA, the Sarbanes- Oxley Act was introduced in year 2002. In Sweden, the Code group has carried out a similar work and introduced the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance in July 2005. The purpose of the introduction of the Code of Corporate Governance is that it should con-tribute to an improved governance of the Swedish listed companies, but also serve as a role model to other types of companies that are of public interest. This increases the demands on the company’s internal control whose purpose is to secure the company’s assets and protect the owner’s investments. The general information that the board and the CO submit in the annual report can in some cases, when the review demand large industry and market knowledge, be difficult for an external auditor to evaluate. Internal auditors usually possess large industry knowledge and therefore the collaboration with the external auditor becomes even more important. Internal and external audit are two professions with different roles, responsibilities and functions. However, both profes-sions are important for a company and those that have an interest in it.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine both from the external and internal auditor’s perspective if the collaboration between them has been influenced by the introduction of the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance.

This study has been carried out with a qualitative research method and data has been collected through personal interviews with three external and three internal auditors within the Stockholm area.

This study has shown that the code have not yet had that much impact, but it has increased the external auditor’s work load in form of advice on how to implement the code. The code is expected to increase the collaboration between the external and inter-nal auditor within the internal control. Since the external auditor will become more de-pendant on the work of the internal auditor, more planning will be necessary. The in-vestigation further showed that if an increased regulation is to lead to a better aditing is dependent on the board, how they choose to structure and implement the new regula-tions within the company.

This paper sets out to identify the core characteristics of family ownership logic. Based on 20 in-depth conversations with family business owners representing different generations, life-cycles, sizes, and industries, listed or privately held, we suggest a family ownership logic indicating seven core characteristics. This logic is characterized by a stable and persistent ownership with few owners and a relative stable strategic development for which tradition and emotional ties are important. This paper concludes that in order to better understand family ownership logic we need to turn to alternative views on corporate governance and theories on psychological ownership. The implications of the family ownership logic are manifold. Related to agency theory and stewardship theory our empirical material raises several questions of relevance for the debate on governance in family-controlled firms.

Building on the literatures on asymmetric information and risk taking, this paper applies conjoint experiments to investigate lending officers' probabilities of supporting credit to established or existing SMEs. Using a sample of 114 Swedish lending officers, we test hypotheses concerning how information on the borrower's aility to repay the loan; alignment of risk preferences; and risk sharing affect their willingness to grant credit. Results suggest that features that reduce the risk to the bank and shift the tisk to the borrower have the largest impact. The paper highlieghts the interaction between factors that influence the credit decision. Implications for SMEs, banks and research are discussed.

Using a human-capital perspective and the similarity-attraction paradigm, we examine the role of general and specific human capital in the decision policies of 114 Swedish loan officers in their assessments of small-business loan requests. We found that human capital characteristics had marginal impact on decision policy contingencies and that specific human capital had no significant influence on the probability of loan approval. However, we did find that the similarity between the loan officers’ human capital and the pplicants’ human capital was a significant indicator of loan approval. The findings offer interesting insight into the heterogeneity of loan decision processes and outcomes and future research opportunities are suggested.

Using a human-capital perspective and the similarity-attraction paradigm, we examine the role of general and specific human capital in the decision policies of 114 Swedish loan officers in their assessments of small-business loan requests. We found that human capital characteristics had marginal impact on decision policy contingencies and that specific human capital had no significant influence on the probability of loan approval. However, we did find that the similarity between the loan officers’ human capital and the pplicants’ human capital was a significant indicator of loan approval. The findings offer interesting insight into the heterogeneity of loan decision processes and outcomes and future research opportunities are suggested.

Morningstar is an independent provider of investment research and provide information on approximately 380 000 investment offerings about mutual funds. Morningstar are most known for their “star” rating system, which rates funds from the lowest 1-star to the highest 5-stars.

Since investors frequently use fund data provided by Morningstar, we will evaluate whether investing in funds with higher fees and higher ratings would end up with higher returns. Examinations will be made if there is a relationship between mutual fund performance and the management fees within top-rated (5-star) funds and bottom-rated (1-&2-star).

The mutual funds which are included in this thesis are United Kingdom (UK) managed and invested in three different markets; Asia-Pacific except-Japan, Europe except UK-Large Cap, and the United States (US) Market. This allows us to compare different markets at different stages of maturity.

The results clearly show that the top-rated funds within all three markets outperformed the bottom-rated funds. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the investor in general will earn a higher return by paying a higher management fee (TER) for the top-rated funds in all regions. The results also show that the TER for the bottom-rated funds in Europe and US market is higher compared to the top-rated funds. This means that the investor will pay higher fees for funds that do not perform well.

Several recent corporate governance scandals relate to non-disclosure or high amounts of pension benefits given to executive directors. The lack of disclosure and transparency has gained pensions benefits greater attention as a significant part of the total remuneration received by executive directors. Due to the associated problems there is a greater need for better disclosure and in turn heightened transparency towards shareholders.  

This qualitative case study focuses on general retailers in Sweden and the United Kingdom. Due to the lack of research five general retailers from respective country were chosen to be examined and compared during 2006-2010. The aim is to examine the disclosure of individual pension benefits of executive directors and the development in levels of pension benefits in the following general retailers Bilia, Clas Ohlson, Debenhams, Dunelm Mill, Fenix Outdoor, Halfords, JD Sports Fashion,  Kappahl, Mekonomen and N Brown Group.

The findings show that the majority of general retailers have complied with their respective corporate governance code during 2006-2010. The level of disclosure has differentiated, where UK general retailers have a higher level of individual disclosure. The development in levels of pension benefits has shown that there are higher amounts of pension benefits in Swedish general retailers. A negative trend in the development of the Chief Executive Officers amounts of pension benefits has mainly been present in 2007-2009. Reversal of the negative trend came in the last year of the case study. No distinctive trends were found in the development of pension benefits for all other executive directors.

The mandatory use of IFRS by all publicly listed companies in the European Union created challenges for accounting and reporting of business combinations, goodwill impairment and disclosures for these items. Major issues are allocation of amounts to goodwill and specific intangible assets arising from acquisition. This study presents an in-depth exploration of compliance with IFRS 3 and IAS 36 using content analysis methodology of annual reports of eight European telecommunications companies that were chose because the industry is well known for significant acquisitions involving intangibles. The results show only partial compliance with little change over the four year period since mandatory IFRS adoption. While results cannot be generalized outside this group, the in-depth analysis yielded important insights for continued research using broader research methods.

The mandatory use of IFRS by all publicly listed companies in the European Union created challenges for accounting and reporting of business combinations, goodwill impairment and disclosures for these items. Major issues are allocation of amounts to goodwill and specific intangible assets arising from acquisition. This study presents an in-depth exploration of compliance with IFRS 3 and IAS 36 using content analysis methodology of annual reports of eight European telecommunications companies that were chose because the industry is well known for significant acquisitions involving intangibles. The results show only partial compliance with little change over the four year period since mandatory IFRS adoption. While results cannot be generalized outside this group, the in-depth analysis yielded important insights for continued research using broader research methods.