Abstracts in English, Afrikaans and Zulu / This study attempts to analyse the key FDI determinants in African countries using annual data for the period from 2003 to 2015. It firstly, gives the introduction and the background of FDI. Secondly, it provides both theoretical and empirical literature review on the key FDI determinants. Based on the literature review, the pre-estimation diagnostics (correlation analysis, descriptive statistics and mean and overall mean analysis), panel root tests, panel co-integration tests, main data analysis (fixed effects, random effects, pooled OLS, fully modified OLS and dynamic GMM) and robustness tests using the lagged variable approach were conducted to analyse the key FDI variables. Main data analysis indicated that the lag of FDI had a significant positive impact on FDI. The empirical results revealed that human capital development, infrastructure, growth rate, trade openness, natural resources, financial development, unemployment, exchange rate, government final consumption expenditure and population are the key FDI determinants in African countries. The robustness tests using the lagged variable approach were estimated to analyse if there is a causal relationship FDI and other variables such GDP, random effects revealed that there is uni-directional causality from GDP growth to FDI. Additionally, FDI was found to have been negatively but non-significantly affected by economic growth under the pooled OLS. / Hierdie studie poog om die sleuteleterminante van buitelandse direkte investering (BDI) in Afrikalande te ontleed deur gebruikmaking van jaarlikse data vir die tydperk 2003 tot 2015. Eerstens stel dit BDI bekend en verskaf ’n agtergrond daarvoor. Tweedens bied dit sowel ’n teoretiese as empiriese literatuuroorsig van die belangrikste BDI-determinante. Op grond van die literatuuroorsig is die volgende uitgevoer om die belangrikste BDI-veranderlikes te ontleed: voorskattingsdiagnostiek (korrelasieontleding, beskrywende statistiek en ontleding van gemiddelde en algehele gemiddelde), paneelworteltoetse, paneelkoïntegrasietoetse, hoofdataontleding (vaste effekte, ewekansige effekte, saamgevoegde gewone kleinste kwadrate [GKK], volledig gewysigde GKK en dinamiese veralgemeende momentemetode [VMM]) en robuustheidstoetse deur gebruikmaking van die gesloerdeveranderlike-benadering. Hoofdataontleding het aangedui dat die naloop van BDI ’n beduidende positiewe uitwerking op BDI het. Die empiriese resultate het aan die lig gebring dat mensekapitaalontwikkeling, infrastruktuur, groeikoers, handelstoegang, natuurlike hulpbronne, finansiële ontwikkeling, werkloosheid, wisselkoers, die staat se finale verbruiksbesteding en bevolking die belangrikste BDI-determinante in Afrikalande is. Die robuustheidstoetse deur gebruikmaking van die gesloerdeveranderlike-benadering het ten doel gehad om te ontleed of ’n kousale verband tussen BDI en ander veranderlikes soos BBP bestaan. Ewekansige effekte het getoon dat daar eenrigtingkousaliteit van BBP-groei na BDI is. Daarbenewens is bevind dat BDI negatief maar niebeduidend geraak is deur ekonomiese groei ingevolge die saamgevoegde GKK. / Lolu cwaningo luzama ukuhlaziya izinto ezinquma ngotshalo-mali lwamanye amazwe oluqonde ngqo olwaziwa ngokuthi yi-foreign direct investment (FDI) emazweni ase-Afrika ngokusebenzisa idata yonyaka yesikhathi sokusukela ngo 2003 ukuya ku 2015. Okokuqala, lwethula nokuhllinzeka ngesendlalelo nge-FDI. Okwesibili, luhlinzeka ngokubuyekeza imibhalo yethiyori kanye nobufakazi ngezinto ezibalulekile ezinquma nge-FDI. Ngokulandela imibhalo ebuyekeziwe, isilinganiso sokubonwa kwezimbangela okwaziwa nge-pre-estimation diagnostics (correlation analysis, descriptive statistics kanye ne-mean ne-overall mean analysis), uhlolo lwe-panel root tests, uhlolo lwe-panel cointegration tests, kanye nohlaziyo lwe-main data analysis (fixed effects, random effects, i-pooled ordinary least squares [OLS], i-fully modified OLS kanye ne-dynamic generalised method of moments [GMM]. kanye nohlolo olujulile ngokusebenzisa inqubo ye-lagged variable approach kwaqhutshwa ukuhlaziya izinto ezibalulekile ezinquma ngama-FDI variables. Uhlaziyo lwe-data enkulu lukhombise ukusalela emuva kwe-FDI kube nomphumela omuhle kwi-FDI. Imiphumela yobufakazi bocwaningo ikhombise ukuthi ukuthuthuka kwabantu, ingqalasizinda, izinga lokukhula komnotho, ukuvuleka kwezokuhwebelana, imithombo yemvelo, intuthuko yezezimali, ukusweleka kwemisebenzi, izinga lokushintshiselana ngezimali, izindleko zokusebenzisa izinto kukahulumeni, kanye nesizwe sonkana, yizinto ezinkulu ezinquma nge-FDK kumazwe ase-Afrika. Uhlolo olujulile olusebenzisa inqubo ye-lagged variable approach lwalinganiselwa ukuhlaziya ukuthi ngabe bukhona ubuhlobo bembangela yobuhlobo obukhona phakathi kwe-FDI kanye namanye ama-variable afana nawe-GDP. Imiphumela engahlelekile ye-random effects ikhombise ukuthi kukhona uhidehide lwembangela phakathi kokukhula kwe-GDP kanye ne-FDI. Nangaphezu kwalokho, i-FDI itholakale ichaphazeleka kabi kodwa ngokungabalulekile kakhulu ngokukhula komnotho ngaphansi kwe-pooled OLS. / Business Management / M. Com. (Financial Management)

Bostadsbolag i Sverige kan vara kommunalt eller privat ägda och styrs utifrån olika lagarberoende på ägarform. Deras olika förutsättningar till värdeöverföring gör det intressant att undersöka skillnader mellan ägarform i bostadsbolag. Kommunala bostadsbolag ska finnas för att verka för allmännyttan samtidigt som de ska drivas under affärsmässiga principer. Syftet med studien är att jämföra kommunala och privata bostadsbolag när det kommer till deras redovisning av värdeöverföringar och investeringar. För att besvara studiens två frågor om hur det skiljer sig mellan kommunalt respektive privatägda bostadsbolag när det kommer till värdeöverföring och investering och hur redovisningen av värdeöverföring och investering kan tolkas utifrån intressenternas kontra ägarnas perspektiv, har en kvalitativinnehållsanalys valts som metod. Det insamlade materialet kommer vara både kvalitativ och kvantitativ data som hämtas från bostadsbolagens årsredovisningar. Resultatet visar på att kommunala och privata bostadsbolag investerar mer än vad de delar ut. Däremot delar kommunala bostadsbolag ut mer än vad de enligt lag får göra om undantagbortses. Vilket innebär att kommunala bostadsbolag använder sig utav undantagsregel för att få dela ut mer än vad som först är tillåtet. Både kommunala och privata bostadsbolag väljer att beskriva sin utdelning på liknande sätt hänfört till lag. Däremot vad gäller investeringar beskrivs det mer fritt vad de gör för investeringar och varför. Det varierar därför betydligt mer i hur de uttrycker sig kring investeringar än vad det gör med värdeöverföringar. Resultatet visar även att företagsledningar prioritera sina intressenter efter deras grad av kontroll på bolagets resurser. Detta uppmärksammas tydligast vid redovisning av investeringar eftersom bolagens olika sätt att beskriva dessa kan tyda på att de försöker tillgodose olika intressenter. Utifrån ägarperspektivet prioriteras utdelning i störst grad av de privata bolagen än det kommunala. Medan investeringar förespråkas av kommunala bostadsbolaget eftersom de har ett ska bidra till allmännyttan. De privata bostadsbolagen investerar mer om det anses vara ekonomiskt gynnsamt för ägarna i framtiden. / Housing companies in Sweden can be municipal or private owned and are regulated by different laws depending on ownership. Their different presumptions make it interesting to investigate the differences between ownership in housing companies. The municipal housing companies purpose is to work for the public good and simultaneously operate under business principles. The aim with this study is to compare municipal and private housing companies regarding their reporting of value transfers and investments. The study aims to answer the two questions: How do municipal and private owned housing companies differ in their value transfer and investments? How can the accounting of value transfers and investment be interpreted from the stakeholders versus the owners perspective? To answer the questions a qualitative content analysis has been chosen as a method. The collected data will be both qualitative and quantitative and will be retrieved from the housing companies annual reports. The results show that municipal and private housing companies invest more than they are transferring. However the municipal housing companies are also transferring more than they are able to according to the law, if exceptions are ignored. This means that municipal housing companies are using the exception rule to transfer more than what is allowed according to the main rule. Both municipal and private housing companies are describing their value transfers in a similar way with reference to law. On the contrary investments are usually described more openly about what kind of investments they are doing and why. Therefore, it varies considerably more in how they express themselves in terms of investments compared to value transfers. The results also show that company managements prioritize their stakeholders according to their degree of control over the company's resources. This is more clear when reporting investments, as the companies different ways of describing these may indicate that they try to satisfy different stakeholders. From the ownership perspective, dividends are prioritized more by the private companies than the municipal ones. While investments are advocated by the municipal housing company because they must contribute to the community. The private housing companies invest if it is considered to be financially for the owners in the future. This study is written in Swedish.

Rapporten handlar om att jämföra fyra olika värmesystem med varandra. Dessa värmesystem är bergvärmesystem, sjövärmesystem, markvärmesystem och akvifersystem. Strukturen på rapporten ser ut på följande: Först beskrivs varje systemför sig, alltså hur hela systemet fungerar och sedan beskrivs nackdelar samt fördelar för varje system. Vid val av rätt värmesystem är det olika för olika villor eftersom alla har olika förutsättningar. Vid diskussion jämförs dessa fyra värmesystem med varandra utifrån just dessa förutsättningar.  De förutsättningar som jämförs med varandra om de olika systemen går att hitta under rubriken målformulering längre fram. / This rapport is about evaluating four different heating systems. These systems are first, each system is described, how it works and then pros and cons with each system. Choosing the right heating system is different for different buildings since they all have different conditions. In the discussion these four systems are compared to each other considering all these conditions. The Conditions examined can be found in the beginning of the report.

This report discusses the IT archetypes "governance strategy" and how it could be linked to the IT benefits at the company. The study is based on IT investments that have taken place in ten banks operating in Sweden today, where the reality was modeled on the basis of a questionnaire survey and an additional interview. The aim was to examine whether it is possible to find any correlation between the governance in the banks and obtained benefits for an IT investments. While the competition is intensifying in most companies there is a greater demand for efficiency in IT. The need for IT solutions is greater than ever and the number of IT investments is increasing significantly in most workplaces today, especially on banks. But even if the investments are increasing in numbers it does not necessarily mean that all types of investments are effective and beneficial to the company. The benefits of IT investments are often difficult to measure, and the calculations become even more complex the larger the organization is. According to the framework Val IT Framework 2.0, from 2008, there was a global study made by Price Waterhouse Coopers in Belgium. The surveys, which were based on the response of 750 IT executives and managers, showed that the importance of IT is increasing and that there is much room for improvements in terms of returns on IT investments. To make it easier finding the underlying structures the study was divided into two parts, one benefit study and one archetype study. The structure of both the studies is based on research done by Peter Weill and Jeanne Ross in the field of IT governance and research in IT benefits by Gunasekaran. The main purpose of this report is to present a new way of thinking - where banks can predict the benefits of an IT investment just by viewing their corporate governance and invest in the most profitable IT investments only. The results of this study shows that there are some relations between received benefits in IT investments on the examined banks and their archetype. Most of the banks have an archetype that is similar to the IT duopoly and investments which generally results in strategic benefits.

The following study presents the results from one focus group discussion and eight individual interviews investigating how sustainable investments impact climate change. The demand for sustainable investments is currently growing, but there is a lack of research conducted within the area. We therefore aim to fill an academic knowledge gap surrounding the understanding of sustainable investments. To achieve this, we to identified the concepts defining sustainable investment practices and simultaneously identified the predominant factors for investors when making them. To assess the practice characteristics, we compared it with traditional investments. The informants were investors and professionals with occupations connected to sustainable investments. Furthermore, the study has the theoretical frameworks of the ecological modernization theory and value-belief-norm theory for assessing and analyzing study results. The results and conclusion of the study were that there is no universal definition of sustainable investments, causing distrust and concerns regarding the practice. Therefore, definitive conclusion about what sustainable investments can achieve for the climate is challenging to assess. Informants' willingness to invest in sustainable investments was connected to their values and knowledge. Results show a knowledge gap between individual's understanding of investments climate impact due to lack of accessible information for some investors. Finally, regulations concerning sustainable investments came into force during the time of the study. / I uppsatsen presenterar vi resultaten från en fokusgrupp och åtta intervjuer där vi studerat hur hållbara investeringar påverkar klimatförändringarna. Efterfrågan på hållbara investeringar växer men för närvarande saknas det forskning inom området. Vi strävar därför efter att fylla ett akademiskt kunskapshål kring förståelsen om hållbara investeringar. För att uppnå det ville vi identifiera begreppen som definierar “hållbara investeringar” och hitta de avgörande faktorerna för investerare när de väljer att investera hållbart. För att bedöma hållbara investeringar jämförde vi dess egenskaper med traditionella investeringar. Informanterna var investerare och yrkesverksamma med yrken kopplade till hållbara investeringar, vidare bygger studien på teorierna om ekologisk modernisering och value-belief-norm theory. Resultaten och slutsatsen från studien visar att det inte finns någon universell definition av en hållbar investering, något som orsakar misstro och oro angående praxis. Det är därför svårt att dra en absolut slutsats om vad hållbara investeringar kan uppnå för klimatet. Informanternas vilja att investera i hållbara investeringar baserades på deras värderingar och kunskap. Det fanns även kunskapsluckor mellan individerna angående investeringarnas påverkan på klimatet på grund av brist på tillgänglig information för vissa investerare. Slutligen trädde regler om hållbara investeringar i kraft under studietiden.

The aim of this thesis is to create a tool which quantifies qualitative measures into an indicator system. The system is created on behalf of a company which is associated with investments in new technologies on the energy market. The indicator system is to take into consideration important factors in the first part of an investment cycle, in other words, the screening phase. Qualitative measures will, in each indicator, become quantified and will together create a weighted grade on a potential investment that can help the investor decide whether or not to move forward with said investment. The aim of the thesis is also to evaluate the indicator system on current possible investment options in order to analyse and discuss how the final product will work in the investor company ́s actual context. The method consists of two main parts, a gap analysis which is conducted within the investor company and its owners and a compilation of which indicators that are of greatest importance in a screening phase according to earlier research. The main result of the study is the full indicator system which consist of four indicators: technology readiness of the potential investment, contextual analysis of the potential investment, diversity within the company and the financial burn rate of the company. When applied to current potential investments the result showed that there was negligible to moderate correlation between the indicators, which was important for the system to be validated. It was also concluded that a potential investment should exceed 60 percent of the possible maximum grade in order to pass through the screening phase. The results also showed that there were four apparent gaps, namely consensus between the involved actors, utilization rate of the organizations competencies, to enter new markets and the right competency to do so. The future potential investments of the investor company should therefore aim to fill in these gaps in order to strengthen the role of the company. If doing so while using the indicator system, the risks of choosing investment options that does not fit into the investor company ́s context, will be minimized.

Gamla normer som kretsat kring kärlek och relationer har idag försvunnit och kärleken har, likt samhället, moderniserats. Relationer har blivit friare och partners har blivit utbytbara. Den känslomässiga investeringen har därmed kommit att bli svårare i moderna relationer. Men trots detta söker människor efter sin perfekta match och ett långvarigt förhållande. Gift vid första ögonkastet är ett samtida realityprogram där deltagare som längtar efter kärlek ska gifta sig med en främling. Programmet ger insyn i hur par, från att aldrig ha träffat varandra, ska gifta sig och under ett par veckor bo ihop som hustru och man. Under programmets gång ska de bygga en relation för att vid programmets slut bestämma om de vill vara fortsatt gifta eller om de ska skilja sig. För att se hur moderna relationer och känslomässig investering förmedlas i reality-TV utgår den här studien i observationer av det svenska och amerikanska Gift vid första ögonkastet. Studien visade att kärleken i Gift vid första ögonkastet utgjordes av ett stort frihetsbehov och att kommunikation både möjliggjorde och skapade problem för den känslomässiga investeringen. Det var när deltagarna visade att de var redo att släppa på delar av sin frihet och värderade tilltro till sin partner som det känslomässiga engagemanget kom att kommuniceras som allra tydligast. / Old norms that revolve around love and relationships have today disappeared and love has, like society, been modernized. Relationships have become freer and partners have become replaceable. The emotional investment has thus become more difficult in modern relationships. But despite this, people are looking for their perfect match and a long-lasting relationship. Married at First Sight is a contemporary reality show where participants who long for love are about to marry a stranger. The program provides insight into how couples, from never having met each other, gets married and live together as a wife and husband for a couple of weeks. During the program they will build a relationship so that they in the end of the program can decide whether they want to remain married or whether they want to divorce. To see how modern relationships and emotional investment are conveyed in reality TV, this study is based on observations of the Swedish and American Married at first sight. The study showed that love in Married at first sight consisted of a great need for freedom and that communication both enabled and created problems for the emotional investment. It was when the participants showed that they were ready to let go of parts of their freedom and valued trust in their partner that the emotional commitment came to be communicated most apparent.

Uppsatsen strävar efter att jämföra svenska hushålls fastighetsinvesteringar i ett EU land(Kroatien) och ett land utanför EU (Montenegro). Uppsatsen analyserar empiriska resultatetför att hitta både det positiva och det negativa som en investering i länderna medför. Kroatienoch Montenegro valdes på grund av författarnas etnicitet och deras kontaktnät medprivatpersoner som investerat i länderna samt likheterna i klimat och kultur för att minskapåverkande faktorer. Författarna strävar för att utöka den vetenskapliga kunskapen omtransaktionskostnader från privathushålls perspektiv I både utvecklade och underutveckladeländer med potential. Det finns massor med vetenskapligt baserad information omtransaktionskostnader tillgängligt men nästan enbart från ett kommersiellt perspektiv.Frånvaron av forskning kring transaktionskostnader för privatpersoner är oroväckande ochjust därför är denna uppsats nödvändig. För att göra detta konstruerades två enkäter för attsamla information om processerna vid dessa typer av internationella investeringar.Information som samlades in analyserades med hjälp av tidigare forskning omtransaktionskostnader och transparens samt teorin om The New Institutional Economics.Sedan diskuterades resultatet och både skillnaderna mellan de utvecklade ochunderutvecklade länderna samt hushållens och kommersiella perspektivet var förvånansvärt. / The study seeks to compare Swedish household property investment in a EU country(Croatia) and a country outside of EU (Montenegro). The study analyzes the empirical resultsto find both the positive and negative that derives from an investment in the countries. Croatiaand Montenegro were chosen because of the origins of the authors and their connections toprivate investors in these countries. The authors seek to broaden the current scientificknowledge about private household property investments in the area of transaction cost andinvestments in both developed countries and underdeveloped countries with potential.Scientifically researched information about transactional cost is a widely available but acommon consensus in these papers is that the subject matter is commercial. The absent ofresearch of transactional cost for private household investors is alarming and to fill this gap,this study is essential. To do this, two surveys were constructed to obtain information on theprocess of investments in these countries. The information obtained from the surveys wasexamined with the help of prior studies on transactional cost and transparency but also withthe theory on the New Institutional Economics theory. The results and findings were laterdiscussed and the difference of both the developed and underdeveloped perspective and thehousehold and commercial perspective were astonishing.

The EU Taxonomy Regulation[1] (“EU Taxonomy”) is a relatively new classification system for determining what economic activities are considered sustainable. By creating a common language between investors, issuers, and policymakers, the regulation aims to increase transparency and help investors assess whether investments meet robust environmental standards. This thesis aims to investigate how the EU Taxonomy, as a legal instrument, aims to serve its legislative objective and secondly identify potential challenges of the regulation.  Findings indicate that the regulation can create an adequate commonly held classification system as long as the technical criteria for each sector keep up with new scientific discoveries and technological advancements. A regulation to develop uniform understanding across the EU and delegated acts to amend the legislation seems like the most appropriate legal instrument. Areas for improvement concern revising the scope of whom it applies, and this process has begun with the proposal of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Other areas for improvement concerns the political nature of what sectors should be included in the taxonomy, for instance, whether nuclear energy and gas should be deemed sustainable or not. The taxonomy may strive to be a neutral classification system; however, member states’ economic incentives affect what is included.  Finally, this thesis concludes that it is too early to predict the taxonomy’s breakthrough. In theory, it is a significant idea. Still, we can only know with time whether we have reached a more common understanding, transparency and eventually have facilitated a transition through this regulation.  [1] Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June 2020 on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment and amending regulation (EU) 2019/288.

Trenden med hållbara investeringar har vuxit sig starkare och intressenter ställer krav på etiskt företagande och söker möjligheter till hållbara investeringar. Fenomenet ESG, miljö (E), sociala aspekter (S) och bolagsstyrning (G), är ett av få medel som bedömer och jämför hållbart företagande. Konstruktionen av ESG betyg har förändrats, förr bedömde detta hur väl företag arbetade med hållbarhetsaspekterna, numera fokuseras betygen snarare kring företags exponering mot dessa aspekter. Detta har lett till att ämnet har fått ökad relevans för marknadsaktörer. Tidigare forskning har genererat tvetydiga resultat inom ämnet. Inom denna kontext ämnar uppsatsen undersöka huruvida ESG kan minska den systematiska risken. Detta i syfte att se om hållbarhets beaktning kan ge investerare fördelar i form av lägre risk inom en aktieportfölj. Detta har genomförts med en kvantitativ metod då statistiska tester har tillämpats i syfte att undersöka sambandet mellan betavärde och ESG betyg. Resultaten visade ett statistiskt samband för det allmänna ESG betyget för företagen inom EU, dock ett positivt samband vilket indikerar att högre ESG betyg korrelerar med högre systematisk risk. Vidare diskuteras geografiska skillnader för stora företag inom EU och USA. Trots de icke signifikanta sambanden för företagen inom USA, observerades en negativ korrelation vilket öppnar upp för en diskussion huruvida marknadskrafter eller statliga ingripanden är vägen framåt för hållbara investeringar. / The trend of sustainable investment has been steadily increasing, and stakeholders request both sustainable practices from companies and ways to make sustainable investments. ESG, environmental social and governance, offers one of few ways to judge and compare sustainable business practice. The shift in constructing ESG scores, going from a metric describing a company's sustainable performance to being centered around risk exposure, has led to the area being of higher relevance for market practitioners. Previous research has generated ambiguous results regarding the area. In this context this paper aims to examine whether ESG considerations can minimize systematic risk, resulting in benefits for investors. This is done through a quantitative methodology with a regression analysis in search for a connection between beta value (proxy for systematic risk) and ESG scores (provided by Refinitiv). The results show a statistically significant correlation between the global ESG score and beta within the EU region. However, the correlation was positive, indicating that higher ESG scores gives higher systematic risk. Furthermore, the paper discusses the indicated geographical differences between the examined regions of large cap companies in the EU and USA. Despite the non-significant results from the USA sample, the observed negative correlation can spark a debate whether market power or government involvement is the way forward within sustainable investments.