Customer loyalty is an important issue for the success and sustainability of an online business. Moreover, the concept of affiliate marketing online business has become well-known among online shoppers in the past several years. Nevertheless, there is little research investigating customer loyalty towards affiliate marketing websites, especially in China, where this kind of websites are known as ‘cash-back website’. Therefore, this research investigates customer loyalty towards cash-back websites (51fanli.com as the leading cash-back website) in the China market. Based on previous studies and interview, this research applies six factors (cash-back promotion, price comparison service, WOM in social community, quality web design, privacy and security, trust) as core and supplementary services which influence customer perspective in loyalty. This study aims to find out which factors in cash-back websites can influence customer loyalty in the China online market. In this research, questionnaires are sent to cash-back website users to collect quantitative data. A statistical analysis is used to verify the nine hypotheses to analyze the collected data. The result points to five factors in both core and supplementary services that support customer perspective towards loyalty, while only ‘WOM in social community’ has no correlation with Chinese customer perspective towards loyalty. After comparing the results of the two groups of customers, those used 51fanli.com and those who did not use 51fanli.com, the research discover that customers who used 51fanli.com have stronger opinions on ‘privacy and security’ factor. Customer perceived value has significant positive relations to customer satisfaction that may influence customer loyalty. Furthermore, managing the loyalty programme in order to maintain high switching cost is only applicable to customers who have high satisfaction towards the website. Finally, some managerial implications suggested cash-back websites to adapt unique strategies to gain more customers and cautiously use switching cost. Maintaining a good reputation on privacy and security is another key success factor of cash-back websites in China market.

Problem: Is the free cash flow a value relevant accounting measure in relation to the Swedish stock market? Objective: The aim is that by using an investment strategy to examine whether the free cash flow is an accounting measure that could be perceived as value relevant in relation to the Swedish stock market. Method: The paper is based on a quantitative survey of empirical evidence that has been collected from companies listed on the Large and Mid-Cap lists of the Swedish stock market. Theoretical Frame of reference: value relevance, cash flow, portfolio theory, drive theory Results: It was concluded that the study results conform to the Finnish survey results. The portfolio shows higher returns than the OMX index.

This study investigates whether the girls' education project "Haydi Kzlar Okula!" was able to increase girls' schooling and to what extent it was effective. In Turkey, there is still gender disparity in primary education although it is compulsory. "Haydi Kzlar Okula!" is UNICEF and Turkish Ministry of Education's joint project, which aims to increase girls' primary enrollment. The project consists of increasing public awareness, free books and incentives (in the form of conditional cash transfer) for female students. To find the magnitude of the program's impact, data is collected from Turkish and European statistical databases and a panel data analysis is employed. The results show that if the program has been implemented in a province, girls' enrollment rate increases by 1.310-2 units and total schooling increases by 1.410-2 units. Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) found to have a bigger impact on girls' enrollment rates than total enrollment rates but the impact is not statistically significant. When a dummy for poverty is included in the model, then CCT becomes significant and the impact can be interpreted as; 1% increase in the conditional cash paid to a province results in 1.310-4 units increase in girls' enrollment rates. It is concluded that the project's impact is statistically significant but the magnitude is smaller than expected. Improvements are needed for increasing the effectiveness of the project. New cash transfer schemes should be implemented and community contribution should be encouraged. Another result of the analysis show that school buildings and adult literacy have greater impacts than the girls' education project.

This paper presents the feasibility study of setting up the new potting tray production line based on the two alternatives: partly outsource a process in the production line or wholly make all processes in-house. Both the qualitative and quantitative approaches have been exploited to analyze and compare between the make or buy decision. Also the nature of business, particularly SMEs, in Thailand has been presented, in which it has certain characteristics that influence the business doing and decision, especially to the supply chain management. The literature relating to the forecasting techniques, outsourcing decision framework, inventory management, and investment analysis have been reviewed and applied with the empirical findings. As this production line has not yet been in place, monthly sales volumes are forecasted within the five years time frame. Based on the forecasted sales volume, simulations are implemented to distribute the probability and project a certain demand required for each month. The projected demand is used as a baseline to determine required safety stock of materials, inventory cost, time between production runs and resources utilization for each option. Finally, in the quantitative analysis, the five years forecasted sales volume is used as a framework and several decision making-techniques such as break-even analysis, cash flow and decision trees are employed to come up with the results in financial aspects.

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Detta arbete är skrivet för inköpsavdelningen på enheten PGI4, representerat på Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery i Finspång (SIT), med målet att reducera kostnader genom ett förbättrat arbete med Cash Management. Då inköpt material utgör en så pass stor del av värdet på slutprodukten, nära 60 procent, inses genast vilket stort inflytande inköpsfunktionen har på företagets totala kostnader. Även om Cash Management ägnas störst fokus hos företag med likviditetsproblem, finns det mycket att vinna genom att arbeta aktivt med konceptet också i goda tider. Därmed är syftet med arbetet att; ”analysera möjligheterna för inköpsavdelningen på Siemens PGI4 att utnyttja Cash Management för att reducera de totala kostnaderna”. Längs arbetets gång har en totalkostnadsmodell tagits fram för att tydliggöra kostnaderna relaterade till inköp, och därefter har områden specifikt intressanta ur ett Cash Management-perspektiv identifierats. Utgående från dessa områden har undersökts hur dagens verksamhet ser ut på SIT samt hur andra företag hanterar liknande aktiviteter. På så vis har lösningarna tagits fram angående vad inköp på SIT bör arbeta annorlunda med, samt hur de kan nå förbättringar. Genom tydligare riktlinjer för standardkontrakt, ekonomistyrning och villkor för transporter och prognostisering kan arbetssätt inom inköp förbättras. Ett utnyttjande av kassarabatter kan ge kostnadsbesparingar motsvarande 1% av köpesumman. Rekommendationer kopplade till orderprocessen och fakturering syftar till att undvika de årliga kostnaderna på 2,4 miljoner SEK och 300 000 SEK för tidiga leveranser respektive räntefakturor. Ett utnyttjande av inköparnas kompetens inom lagerstyrning, kan resultera i sänkningar av lagernivåer genom att styra lager per leverantör.

Bakgrund Bankers kreditgivning till företag föregås av en noggrann granskning och kontroll av företagets status. För att sänka riskerna till en acceptabel nivå används olika bedömningsverktyg. Kreditbedömingen skiljer sig dock mellan olika banker. Vissa tar in mer information och gör en grundligare riskanalys, medan andra går mer på magkänsla. Kassaflödesanalysen är ett verktyg som vissa kreditgivare använder sig av. Analysen är ett komplement till resultat- och balansräkningen. Länsförsäkringar Älvsborgs (LF) är en relativt ny aktör på kreditmarknaden. De vill utöka sin kreditverksamhet och effektivisera kreditbedömningsprocessen.   Syfte Syftet med rapporten är att undersöka hur kreditvärderingsarbetet hos LF kan förbättras och effektiviseras. Effektiviseringen avser primärt total handläggningstid för ett kreditärende och sekundärt personalens arbetstid för ett ärende. Undersökningen syftar också till att se hur kassaflödesanalys kan inkluderas i kreditbedömningsprocessen.   Metod Undersökningen är en kvalitativ studie, som med hjälp av intervjuer och litteraturinsamling av olika dokument skapar en empirisk bas. Kvalitativa undersökningar försöker förklara sambandet mellan teori och bakomliggande sociala faktorer för en frågeställning.   Slutsatser Kreditrisken vid utlåning minskar om kassaflödesanalys införs som standardiserad arbetsmetod vid handläggning av kreditärenden hos LF. De kan också effektivisera den totala handläggningstiden, när beslutsfattandet delegeras ut i organisationen. Färre kreditärenden behöver handläggas av högre instanser inom LF, vilket leder till minskad total arbetsinsats och högre effektivitet. Handläggarnas arbetstid för respektive kreditärende ökar. Viss tidseffektivisering uppnås dock när beslutsunderlaget blir tydligt och handläggaren inte behöver sitta och fundera på sitt beslut, eller lägga tid på att redogöra för beslutsunderlaget hos högre instans. Kassaflödesanalysen bör vara integrerad i det befintliga KB (kreditberedning) systemet för att handläggningen skall fungera effektivt. LF bör också genomföra en ordentlig utbildningsinsats i samband med systemändringen.

According to earlier research farmer's crop orientation in developing countries mainly depends on farm size, large-scale farmers prefer cash crop while small-scale farmers prefer subsistence crops. The first aim of this study is to see if this hypothesis can be applied on six households in Babati District in rural Tanzania. The second aim is to investigate if other factors than farm size affect crop portfolio choice and the final aim is to see if those crop portfolio models can be improved. A case-study research design and qualitative interviews are used. The primary data is based on a fieldwork that took place from the 18th of February until the 7th of March 2009 in the study area. From a theoretical perspective the underlying assumptions of the Marcel Fafchamp's model Crop portfolio choice under multivariate risks is discussed in connection to the result of the study. Interviews were made with six households of different farm size. The result of the study indicates that both small-scale and large-scale farmers are using cash crops. The fact that all crops can be used for selling, gives also small-scale farmers in season with higher prices, an opportunity to sell a large share of their crops. It's thereby not possible to state that large-scale farmers devote a larger share of their land for cash crop than small-scale farmers do.

A large body of literature has explored that investor sentiment and customer satisfaction have been viewed as important metrics to evaluate asset prices, little attention has been paid to whether investor sentiment influence the impact of customer satisfaction on stock returns. This paper examines whether customer-based portfolios can create abnormal returns by employing different risk-adjusted models in different sentiment states. This study finds that portfolio composed of firms with better customer satisfaction can continuously beat the benchmark index and create abnormal returns when adopting different risk-adjusted models. Furthermore, portfolio with better customer satisfaction can significantly outperform the market even in pessimistic and neutral investor sentiment state. This is because of higher CS firms can create stable business cash flows, alleviate customer complaints and strengthen customer loyalty, which will create insurance-like protection for firms in pessimistic investor state, which results in significant abnormal returns even in pessimistic investor state. These results suggest that customer-based metrics are valuable information that should be included in financial models.

English Abstract Drawing on agency theory and the institutional perspective, this paper aims to examine the relationship between corporate governance and cash holdings for the business group-affiliated firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and in the Over-The-Counter market. The empirical results reveal that the group-affiliated firms hold more cash than non-affiliated firms. The findings show that the entrenched business group effects dominate the institutional network group¡¦s effects and indicate that the presence of a pyramidal group ownership structure in the group-affiliated firms leads to a principal-principal conflict and therefore an increase in agency problems. To avoid the confounding effect by which the different corporate governance mechanisms would lead to different predictions regarding corporate governance effectiveness, this paper constructs a corporate governance index by aggregating the six characteristics related to corporate governance effectiveness: the cash flow rights, the control-cash flow rights deviation, the control-affiliated directors, the control-affiliated supervisors, board independence, and the ITDRS rankings. The results show that good governance mechanisms are effective in mitigating the principal-principal agency costs and moderating the effect of group affiliation in affiliated firms¡¦ cash holdings. Keywords: Business Group-Affiliated Firms, Cash Holdings, Corporate Governance, Board Structure, Group Diversity