The credit rating industry is a global industry with only three major actors, Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings. The “big three” control the majority of the credit rating market and have powers, in the form of credit rating issuances, which they use to influence financial markets worldwide. Ever since their involvement in the fall of corporate giants in early 2000 and the financial crisis of 2008, the power and influence of the credit rating agencies, as well as questions regarding conflict of interest and transparency, have been a hot topic of debate.   The impact of credit ratings can be seen across multiple markets; however the focus of this study is on the stock market where every day investors can be affected. As Moody’s is one of the three largest CRAs in the world and is present worldwide, we apply their credit ratings when investigating the impact. Due to different characteristics of large and small markets, and since the US market is well studied; this study is conducted on the Swedish market. Thus, the aim of our study is to investigate the impact credit ratings from Moody’s have on the Swedish stock market and also, give a perspective on how the financial crisis of 2008 influences the potential impact.   We apply an event study method to isolate the events and measure the abnormal returns. To estimate the expected market return we use the market model on estimation periods of 60 to 120 days. The sample contains 71 individual credit rating changes from 17 firms listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and considers all uncontaminated credit rating changes issued by Moody’s on the Swedish market during the time period of 1990 to 2012.   Empirical evidence showed that the Swedish stock market is susceptible to Moody’s negative credit ratings but almost unaffected by the positive credit ratings. These findings are in line with previous research of Holthausen & Leftwich (1986) amongst others. Still, the effects discovered were not prolonged and no clear difference in impact was found after 2008.

Purpose: The purpose with this study is to clarify what importance a co-occurrence event can have on a smaller town, and also what positive and negative consequences it can have on the town seen from a social, economic and political aspect. I will also look at what magnitude the festival have on the local commercial and industrial life and how it affects those who live there. I will also determent how the moving of the festival might come and affect the local businesses, the local population and the community it-self. Method: I will thorough-out this study work with qualitative research methodology. I will there-for process the empirical data that will be collected and used for this study from a qualitative research methodology point of view. I will likewise go through with two deep-going interviews with people well familiar with the subject to increase and strengthen the validity of my study. The information this will give me will be discussed and analyzed from a hermeneutic perspective.  Result: The result of this study shows the tremendous value a specific event can have on its host community. In Hultsfred, where the local population is very proud over the music festival, there are no limits for the development of the event it-self, and its impact on Hultsfred. The festival contributes with a big local commitment and a lot of enthusiasm, which makes the expansion of the festival possible. In the case of Hultsfred, the festival has generated in several education opportunities, a new form of truism, increase knowledge of the town Hultsfred, a stronger community brand and a bigger and more improved industrial life. The town of Hultsfred has seized the opportunity of maximizing the music festival and its benefit towards the community. They have also used the festival for making them-self a brand and a niche, all in favor of evolving and expanding the community. / Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att se vad ett stort återkommande evenemang kan har för betydelse för en liten ort, och vilka positiva och negativa konsekvenser evenemangen kan leda till sett ur ekonomiska, sociala och politiska perspektiv. Syftet är också att undersöka vilken betydelse Hultsfredsfestivalen har för lokalsamhället och dess näringsliv, hur orten Hultsfred påverkats av festivalen och hur den fått festivalen att bli en så stor del av kommunen. Slutligen kommer jag kartlägga vilka konsekvenser kommunen kan komma att ställas inför i och med festivalens flytt. Metod: Jag kommer igenom studien arbeta med kvalitativa forskningsmetoder. De empiriska data som samlas in och används som grund för studien kommer därför bearbetas på ett kvalitativt sätt. Jag kommer även genomföra två semistrukturerade intervjuer på personer med god insikt i ämnet för att öka studiens giltighet. Datan som dessa ger, samt den empiri studien innefattar kommer tolkas och analyseras utifrån ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv. Resultat: Resultatet av denna studie visar vilken oerhörd betydelse ett arrangemang kan ha på en ort. I Hultsfred, där lokalbefolkningen känner en oerhörd stolthet för festivalen, finns det inga begränsningar för hur långt man kan ta det. Festivalen bidrar till ett stort lokalt engagemang vilket ger festivalen utrymme att växa och utvecklas. I Hultsfreds fall har festivalen genererat i flertalet utbildningar, en ny turism i form av upplevelseindustri, ökad kännedom om kommunen i nationella sammanhang samt ett förbättrat och utvecklat näringsliv. Man har i Hultsfred och kommunen tagit vara på festivalen och använt sig av den för att skapa sig ett varumärke och en nisch, allt för att förbättra orten och dess tillväxt.

Bergkvist insjön AB is a sawmill yard which is capable of producing 350,000 cubic meter of timber every year this requires lot of internal resources. Sawmill operations can be classified as unloading, sorting, storage and production of timber. In the company we have trucks arriving at random they have to be unloaded and sent back at the earliest to avoid queuing up of trucks creating a problem for truck owners. The sawmill yard has to operate with two log stackers that does several tasks including transporting the logs from trucks to measurement station where the logs will be sorted into classes and dropped into pockets from pockets to the sorted timber yard where they are stored and finally from there to sawmill for final processing. The main issue that needs to be answered here is the lining up trucks that are waiting to be unload, creating a problem for both sawmill as well as the truck owners and given huge production volume, it is certain that handling of resources is top priority. A key challenge in handling of resources would be unloading of trucks and finding a way to optimize internal resources.To address this problem i have experimented on different ways of using internal resources, i have designed different cases, in case 1 we have both the log stackers working on sawmill and measurement station. The main objective of having this case is to make sawmill and measurement station to work all the time. Then in case 2, i have divided the work between both the log stackers, one log stacker will be working on sawmill and pocket_control and second log stacker will be working on measurement station and truck. Then in case 3 we have only one log stacker working on all the agents, this case was designed to reduce cost of production, as the experiment cannot be done in real-time due to operational cost, for this purpose simulation is used, preliminary investigation into simulation results suggested that case 2 is the best option has it reduced waiting time of trucks considerably when compared with other cases and it showed 50% increase in optimizing internal resources.

Kan jag med design skapa en helhet för evenemanget som speglar Växjö med närområde som värd både gentemot beställare och användare, genom att i projektet använda design och event marketing som verktyg för att gestalta dess kärnvärden för CoMA/Växjö för festivalen World New Music Days 2009.

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The motivation of this paper is to propose a simple and reliable method to identify on-road vehicle events, particularly in the driving situations. A content rhythm is extracted by applying a virtual line lies on the same position of each frame. Thereupon a simplified representation of a continuous video is to record the temporal information of vehicle status. Thus, vehicle situations such as changing lane, safe distance and speed display can be detected instantly by analyzing the statistical characteristics of content rhythm. The proposed method can not only prevent accidents but also improve the traffic safety by monitoring the on-road vehicle status. Experimental results show the proposed method is reliable for vehicle event detection.

Interorganizational alliances are widely recognized as critical to product innovation. A notable trend is the rapid growth of new product development (NPD) alliances between large, well-established firms and small, growing firms. This dissertation is comprised of two studies on the formation and termination of asymmetric new product development alliances. In study one I examine the factors that drive the changes in shareholder values of the partner firms. I develop and empirically test a model of short-term changes in shareholder values of larger and smaller firms involved in NPD alliances, using the event study methodology on data covering 167 asymmetric alliances in the information technology and communication industries. The model accounts for selection correction, potential cross-correlation across the residuals from the models of firm value changes for the larger and smaller firms, and unobserved heterogeneity. The results suggest that both the partners experience significant short-term financial gains, but there are considerable asymmetries between the larger and smaller firms with regard to the effects of alliance, partner and firm characteristics on the gains of the partner firms. The findings of this study have important implications for managers of both large and small firms. In study two I develop and test a framework of the determinants of new product alliance (NPA) terminations. The hypotheses for study two are tested on a unique database comprised of 401 new product alliances involving 24 pharmaceutical firms during 1990-2005. NPA terminations are modeled using Cox’s proportional hazard specification that accounts for the unobserved heterogeneity of firms with multiple NPAs, competing risks and ties among NPA duration times. The results suggest that NPA terminations are not made in isolation but are influenced by composition of the firm’s portfolio. The results also suggest that NPA terminations are predicted to a great extent by competition between alliances (i.e., product market rivalry) and competition within alliances (i.e., partner value). The findings of this study have important implications for managing a portfolio of new product partnerships.

Current research on account behavior has focused on responses to failure events in which one person is the victim and another is the transgressor. This study builds on this research by using a framing lens to examine account behavior in a conflict situation in which individuals are both actors and recipients of failures. After establishing the relationship between organizational conflict and failure events, the study explored the relationship between account behavior and three aspects of issue development framing: conflict naming, conflict blaming, and intentionality. Employees of nonprofit organizations were asked to read and respond to a vignette-based scenario depicting a conflict between two directors of a nonprofit organization. The research findings indicated that conflict framing was a significant predictor of account strategies. Specifically, the use of mitigating statements was more likely when the event was cast as intentional and the reproacher accepted blame. A clear interaction emerged between gender and conflict naming. In all, this research indicated that more attention should be paid to conflict framing when studying individuals' or corporations' use of account strategies.

After experienced two energy crises, the shock of oil price volatility has become more and more critical economically and strategically. In recent years, the phenomena of high demand, high oil production, and high price of oil have resulted in significant impact on economy and people¡¦s welfare in Taiwan. Two major suppliers are Chinese Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and Formosa Petrochemical Corporation (FPC) in Taiwan. Their responsive strategy become more challenging. To discuss this subject deeply, the event study is applied to understand how the differential price strategy influences their operation. Besides, the non-parametric method is also used to analyze the behavior of the competitive price. Empirical results indicate that after taking the measure of remaining price constant, total sales volume of CPC doesn¡¦t increase. In the other hand, total demand of FPC decreases as expected after increasing price. The results also show that CPC¡¦s operation becomes poorer, and FPC¡¦s operation becomes better. The reason behind FPC¡¦s success may be by expanding foreign market timely. However, the statement needs more data to prove it. Finally, two chosen strategic behaviors can¡¦t explain the price setting of unleaded gasoline, but Bertrand¡¦s statement may explain the phenomenon of price-cutting in 98 unleaded gasoline.

Objective: Today, many healthcare organizations have implemented health care reporting systems in the hope of learning from experience to prevent or reduce adverse events, medical errors or accidents. However, most applications have failed or not been implemented as predicted. This study presents an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) that integrates subjective norm, trust, and management support into the TAM to investigate what determines healthcare professional reporting system acceptance. Design: The proposed model was empirically tested using data collected from a survey in the hospital environment. The structural equation modeling technique was used to evaluate the causal model and confirmatory factor analysis was performed to examine the reliability and validity of the measurement model. Measurements: Questionnaire administered items measuring the behavioral intention to use the reporting system and five hypothesized antecedents. Results: Our findings indicated that all variables significantly affected healthcare professionals¡¦ behavioral intention to use the reporting system. Among them, the subjective norm had the most significant influence. Conclusion: The proposed model provides a means to understand what factors determine healthcare professional¡¦s behavioral intention to use a reporting system and how this may affect future use. In addition, antecedents to the behavioral intent can be used to predict reporting system acceptance in advance of system development.