Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats är att undersöka hur mångfald i styrelsen påverkar den finansiella prestationen för svenska tillväxtbolag listade på First North Growth Market. Tillväxtbolag står för hälften av hela arbetssysselsättningen och produktionen i höginkomstländer och utgör därmed en betydelsefull roll i samhället. Under de rådande omständigheterna med Covid-19 pandemin, drabbas företagens ekonomi och riskerar likvidation. En avgörande faktor för att tillväxtbolag ska fortsätta växa och överleva ekonomiska svårigheter, är styrelsens sammansättning. Därav studiens fokus på mångfald i styrelsen och dess påverkan på den finansiella prestationen i form av ROA och Tobins Q för svenska tillväxtbolag. Vidare har denna studie tillämpat agentteorin och The Upper Echelon Theory för att skapa förståelse kring kopplingen mellan styrelsens sammansättning, den finansiella prestationen och beslutsfattandeprocessen.Studien grundar sig i en kvantitativ forskningsansats tillsammans med ett positivistiskt synsätt, vilket gör det möjligt för resultatet att generaliseras. Studiens datainsamling består av 40 svenska tillväxtbolag listade på First North Growth Market. Resultatet i denna studie visar att mångfald inom kön i styrelsen påverkar den finansiella prestationen i form av ROA positivt. Vidare finner studien inget signifikant samband mellan ursprung, utbildning och den finansiella prestationen. / The purpose with this bachelor thesis is to explore how board of director diversity affects the firmfinancial performance for Swedish high growth firms listed in First North Growth Market. High growth firms stand for half of the work employment and production in high income countries and constitute therefore a significant role in society. During the current circumstances with the Covid-19 pandemic, the companies’ finances are affected and risk liquidation. A crucial factor for high growth firms to continue to grow and survive financial difficulties, is the composition of the board. Thereby this study’s focus is on diversity in the board and its effect on the firm financial performance in terms of ROA and Tobins Q for Swedish high growth firms. Furthermore, this study has implemented agent theory and The Upper Echelon Theory to create an understanding about the connection between the board’s composition, the firm financial performance and the decision-making process.The study is based on a quantitative research approach together with a positivist research philosophy, which makes it possible for the result to be generalized. The study’s data collection consists of 40 Swedish high growth firms listed in First North Growth Market. The result in this study shows that ROA was positively correlated with diversity in gender in the board. Further, the study’s results find no significant correlation between ethnicity, education and the firm financial performance.

While the differences in health between cultures co-existing in the same country have been well researched, there has been insufficient attention paid to the definition of culture used in these studies. Typically the ethnicity of an individual has been determined along biological lines or by the country of origin. However, the culture with which an individual identifies may not be so clear: an individual may identify with a number of cultures, from the social group with whom they socialise, to the religion they follow. Measuring the degree to which an individual identifies with a particular culture (their cultural identity), would allow an assessment of how membership in that culture influences health outcomes. The present study investigated the relationship between the cultural identity (CI) of Māori and their health. The main hypothesis was that a higher CI would be positively correlated with better health. The relationships between demographic factors (e.g. age, gender, & socio-economic status (SES)), CI, and a number of health indicators (self rated health, smoking behaviour, alcohol consumption, & exercise/sporting behaviours) were also examined. The sample used in the present study (767 adult Māori) was a subset of the data collected the Te Hoe Nuku Roa Māori profiles project. The development of a CI measure incorporated seven cultural indicators: Whakapapa (ancestry), Marae Participation, Whanaū associations (extended family), Whenua Tipu (ancestral land), contact with Māori people, Use of te Reo (Māori language), and kai (food preferences). A series of hierarchical linear regressions found that CI was not directly related to health indicators in the present study. There were weak interactions between CI, age, and smoking behaviour; CI, home ownership, and involvement in sport; and age, Crowding and involvement in sport. Additional findings were that more Sporting Involvement/exercise was moderately correlated with improved health, and there was a weak relationship between CI and SES. It was speculated that the lack of significant findings may be due to a difference in the quality of participants’ CI: The CI measure did not distinguish between those who learn their culture and those who live their culture (each group tending to be in differing social and economic positions). Recommendations from the study were: Further validation of the CI measure, and assessment of the distribution of CI over urban/rural areas, SES and age; additional research into the relationship between young Māori smokers and their CI; assessing how the level of Sporting Involvement varies across the social and economic realities of Māori; and the development of appropriate measures utilising the whanaū/household as the unit of analysis.

No description available.

Pubblicato nel 1974, Yo el Supremo definisce l’idea di pensiero su parola e approccio alla storia di Augusto Roa Bastos. Sintesi del binomio oralità/scrittura che converge nel bilinguismo paraguaiano, sancisce l’impossibilità di creare un discorso assoluto attraverso il testo storico e il testo letterario. La parola scritta, elemento falsificatore e manipolatore della realtà in quanto portatrice del discorso ufficiale che si identifica con il discorso storico, viene decostruita attraverso dalla contrapposizione con la parola orale, portatrice della memoria viva, che mantiene il discorso collettivo del ricordo. Costruito su una pluralità di testi e voci che si sovrappongono e mostrano la realtà da diverse prospettive Yo el Supremo mette in continuo dialogo la volontà di potere del Supremo iscritta dalla Circular perpetua, con la volontà di libertà delle voci e dei testi che si contrappongono a tale discorso assoluto distruggendolo. / Published in 1974, Yo el Supremo defines the ideas on word and history that typify the work of Augusto Roa Bastos as a writer. The synthesis of the duality between orality and writing converges in paraguaian bilinguism and Yo el Supremo sanctions the impossibility of creating an absolutist discourse. The written word falsifies and manipulates the reality that is considered as the bringer of the official discourse of history and it is deconstructed by opposition with the oral word, keeper of the collective memory. Constructed on a plurality of texts and voices that superimpose and reveal reality from different perspectives, Yo el Supremo puts in continuous dialogue the will to power of the Supreme that is described in the Circular perpetua, with the will to freedom of the voices and texts that confront this discourse, destroying it.

My dissertation, Writing and Ethics in The Southern Cone: Literature between the Singular and The Specific, reads a series of examples from the last dictatorship and the current post-dictatorship period in the Southern Cone--novels and essays from Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay (including works by Augusto Roa Bastos, Roberto Bolaño and Horacio Verbitsky), and a critical debate between artists and intellectuals in Chile (Nelly Richard and Willy Thayer). My goal is to expose their ways of conceiving how communities and individuals are structured by language that organizes subjects according to logics of belonging and rejection according to political values and practices. I take as my point of departure the work of philosopher Peter Hallward on individuation and the formation of groups and communities, from his book Absolutely Postcolonial: Writing Between the Singular and the Specific (2002). I read my textual examples through the terms developed by Hallward, the Singular, the Specified, and the Specific. The Singular describes a way of imagining community identity as a self-creating and self-reinforcing unity where the only members are those who are innate to the singular concept that self-defines it. The Specified refers to a method by which subjects individuated themselves over and against a particular cause or people and thus define themselves by means of this difference. Lastly, the Specific describes a community that is radically indifferent to difference, arguing instead for a form of membership where any subject belongs. My dissertation shows how these three concepts are present in the historical and cultural ideas used by a contemporary generation of thinkers and artists to define the effects of the cultures of dictatorship and post-dictatorship in the Southern Cone. Understanding these concepts helps to elucidate how the cultural discourses during this period were structured and executed in relation to communitarian formation. In short, by reading my Southern Cone case studies through the optic of logics of individuation, I am able to produce a new way of seeing how the region’s intellectuals read the intersections of history, culture, politics, and community in the wake of Latin American dictatorships. / text

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:08:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 71060100669.pdf: 1049926 bytes, checksum: 96322281746ee575bfae6db078939a82 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-01-29T00:00:00Z / A relevância da tecnologia de informação (TI) nas empresas é percebida de várias formas. Uma das maneiras de perceber tal importância é através dos altos volumes de recursos financeiros investidos em projetos de TI. Além disto, há evidências indicando uma tendência crescente nos orçamentos de capital de projetos de TI. Este cenário pode conduzir à discussão sobre os métodos utilizados para justificar tais investimentos, face os vários tipos de retornos esperados e os riscos envolvidos. Em adição, certos projetos podem incorporar características tais como flexibilidade gerencial a fim de aproveitar situações benéficas ou evitar situações prejudiciais, possibilidade de criação de oportunidades futuras a partir dos investimentos atuais e divisão da sua análise e execução em etapas. Se assim for, tais projetos podem ser avaliados através da abordagem de opções reais. Esta abordagem reconhece e precifica o valor adicionado pelas decisões contingenciais que podem ser tomadas ao longo da vida útil do investimento, provendo uma perspectiva dinâmica à avaliação. Esta pesquisa objetiva verificar se, de fato, projetos de TI podem ser avaliados através do emprego de opções reais e sob que condições este uso pode ser feito. Para tanto, foi realizada uma revisão bibliográfica envolvendo características dos investimentos em TI. Em seguida, foram pesquisados elementos tipicamente observados nas avaliações, tais como tipos de projetos, retornos esperados, riscos envolvidos e os métodos de avaliação. Posteriormente, deu-se ênfase ao método de opções reais, destacando os seus principais conceitos e as circunstâncias nas quais seu uso é indicado. Uma pesquisa empírica foi conduzida no setor de indústrias alimentícias, envolvendo as empresas mais relevantes localizadas no estado do Ceará. A metodologia empregada foi eminentemente qualitativa, utilizando questionários para obter alguns dados descritivos e entrevistas a fim de coletar as informações principais da pesquisa. Os executivos responsáveis pela gestão de TI nas empresas participaram da pesquisa, fornecendo dados sobre as características dos projetos e como eles são atualmente avaliados. A pesquisa mostrou uma série de exemplos de projetos analisados nas empresas que incorporavam opções reais. Houve uma predominância de opções de expansão e de postergação nos projetos, ao mesmo tempo em que não houve qualquer indício de opções de abandono ou contração. A pesquisa também evidenciou que, em alguns casos, o método de opções reais poderia ter sido empregado no processo decisório para justificar os investimentos. Apesar de nenhuma das empresas pesquisadas ter aplicado explicitamente o método de opções em seu processo decisório, percebeu-se que os conceitos são usados ainda que de maneira não formal e não mensurável. Isto indica a possibilidade de incorporação do método em casos nos quais os projetos apresentam características de decisão contingencial e geração de oportunidades futuras, ou seja, aqueles de natureza estratégica. A pesquisa concluiu que o uso da abordagem de opções reais, mensurando o valor adicionado gerado pelas opções existentes nos projetos, pode tornar o processo decisório sobre investimentos em TI mais claro e objetivo do que simplesmente usar intuitivamente os conceitos de opções. / There are some ways to perceive the relevance of information technology (IT) in companies. One of these ways is through the high volumes of financial resources invested in IT projects. Besides, there are many evidences indicating a growing tendency in IT capital budget. This scenery can lead to a discussion about the methods utilized to justify these investments, considering the several kinds of expected benefits and involved risks. Besides, certain projects can incorporate characteristics like managerial flexibility in order to take advantages in positive situations and avoid negative situations, possibility of future opportunities creation and analysis and execution in stages. In this circumstance, these projects can be evaluated through real options approach, which recognizes and assesses the added value due to contingent decisions that can be taken thorough the life time of project, providing a dynamic perspective to the valuation. The goal of this research is to verify if, in fact, IT projects can be evaluated through real options approach and under which circumstances this can be done. So, it was conducted a bibliographic revision about IT investments characteristics. After this, elements observed in valuations were researched, like project classification, expected returns, involved risks and valuation methods. Further, the object of study was real options analysis, with emphasis in the circumstances that indicate their use and their major concepts. An empirical research was conducted in the food industry sector, specifically with the greatest companies located in Ceará State. The predominant methodology was qualitative, using surveys to collect some descriptive data and interviews to collect the core information. The IT management responsible executives participate of this research, providing data about the IT projects characteristics and how they are actually evaluated. The research showed a number of examples of projects analyzed in companies that incorporated real options. There was a predominance of expansion and delaying options in the projects, while there was no evidence of abandonment and contraction options. The research also showed that, in some cases, the real options method could have been used in decision-making to justify the investments. Although none of the researched companies apply explicitly the real options method, it was perceived that the options concepts are used informally. This indicates the possibility of incorporating the method in cases where projects have features for a contingency 9 and opportunities, that is, those of strategic nature. The research concluded that the use of real options approach, measuring the value added generated by the existing options in the projects, can make decision making on IT investments clearer and more objective than just intuitively use the options thinking.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-29T14:11:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_8599_Texto completo.pdf: 755854 bytes, checksum: 7dec662a6c946a861679f40622381b3e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-25 / Analisa-se a obra Vigilia del Almirante, de Augusto Roa Bastos, publicada em 1992, em seus aspectos textuais mais marcantes, a partir dos procedimentos utilizados pelo escritor para a criação da metaficção historiográfica, que o autor revela ser fruto da comemoração do quinto centenário desde a viagem de Cristóvão Colombo à América. Busca-se, no preenchimento das lacunas deixadas pela história do descobrimento, a compreensão da feitura de um Colombo ficcional. A verdade particular da ficção estudada permite que se construa e se desconstrua a paródia da personagem principal. A obra de Roa Bastos invade a história e retoma a figura de Colombo de modo poético e revisional. Conceitos como romance histórico, mímesis, verossimilhança, estranhamento e outros mais são abordados para o estudo do texto. Igualmente, as categorias do romance são percebidas neste estudo, como personagens, tempo, espaço e enredo, além das particularidades do gênero textual em questão. / Analyzes the work Vigilia del Almirante, Augusto Roa Bastos's, published in 1992 in his most striking textual aspects, from the procedures used by the writer to the creation of the historiographical metafiction, which the author reveals himself to be the result of the fifth centennial celebration from the voyage of Christopher Columbus to America. Seeks, in filling the gaps left by the history of the discovery, understanding the making of a fictional Columbus. The particular truth of the studied fiction allows us to build and deconstruct the parody of the main character. The work of Roa Bastos invades the history and resumes Columbus figure of poetic and revisional mode. Concepts such as "historical novel", "mimesis", "likelihood," "defamiliarization" and others are addressed to the interpretation of the text. Also, the categories of romance are perceived in this study, as characters, time, space and plot, beyond the particularities of the genre in question.

The aim of the thesis is to determine the relation between subjectively perceived and financially measured performance of a firm. The introduction of the thesis is focused on performance characteristics and measurement. Further, based on foreign and domestic researches, subjectively perceived performance is defined and comparison with objectively (financially) measured one is made. Results of the researches prove that between subjectively perceived and financially measured performance, there exists substantial to very strong statistical association. Following on an own research was carried out. As the tool for data collection serves a questionnaire sent to firms from the Czech and Slovak Republic. The data collected are compared with values of select financial measures: with ROA, ROE, ROS and Gross Sales. Said own research also confirmed a positive correlation between subjectively perceived and financially measured performance of the firm, albeit weaker than in foreign researches.

Web service-based mobile applications have become emergent in the recent years. Representational State Transfer (REST) architecture style introduced the concept of Resource Oriented Architecture (ROA), which has been widely used for building applications for all platforms. This master’s thesis designs and develops a Web service-based mobile application for Android platform following the constraints of REST architectural style. It also proposes an authentication model for RESTful applications. The master’s thesis is completed at the company Inspectera HK AB in Norrköping, Sweden. The developed application is called the “Mobile version of Inspectera Online.”

This thesis investigates whether environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance impacts financial performance in the Swedish market. ESG performance is measured using the overall ESG score and the three individual pillar scores (environment, social, and governance). Financial performance is assessed using a market-based financial measure(Tobin's Q) and an accounting-based financial measure (Return on Assets, ROA). Further, we introduce a one-year lag between ESG performance and financial performance. We analyze a total of 858 firm-year observations from 266 firms listed on the NASDAQ Stockholm stock exchange over the five-year period from 2018 to 2022, with controls for firm size and leverage. Our findings reveal that none of the ESG performance measures have an impact on the financial performance measures (ROA or Tobin’s Q). This indicates a need for further research into the complexities of the ESG impact on firm financial performance within the Swedish context.