Background: The market of sustainable investments is immature. As a result, there are problems with standardisation and information asymmetry. The United Nations has developed 17 global goals that must be achieved before year 2030. Therefore, it is of interest to examine if the global goals are used in asset management today and whether the global goals could contribute to reduce the recently mentioned problems. Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine how the 17 global goals created by the United Nations can be integrated with sustainable asset management as well as how they are used today. The study will also explore the problematics regarding standardisation of sustainability in the Swedish financial market and the information asymmetries that appears as a result of this. Completion: To fulfil the aim of the study, a qualitative method has been used. A document study of the 17 global goals of the United Nations has been conducted to constitute the base of the interview guide that was used during the six interviews held with sustainability experts. The interviews were held with representatives from three government-owned corporations and three from privately-owned corporations to acquire a broader perspective within the subject. Conclusion: The 17 global goals of the United Nations are vaguely integrated in the financial market. To increase the integration, industry standards, industry definitions as well as awareness-raising activities based on the global goals should be developed. Furthermore, the study has identified the lack of reporting of sustainability data from companies, which constrains the integration of the global goals in the financial market. There is also a prevalent information asymmetry where the 17 global goals could contribute with knowledge to ease the problematics. / Bakgrund: Marknaden för hållbara investeringar är relativt omogen. Till följd av detta finns det problematik med standardisering och informationsasymmetrier på den hållbara kapitalmarknaden. FN har tagit fram 17 globala mål som ska vara uppnådda år 2030. Därav är det av intresse att undersöka om FN:s 17 globala mål används i kapitalförvaltningen i dagsläget samt huruvida målen skulle kunna bidra till att minska den ovannämnda problematiken. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur FN:s 17 globala mål kan integreras med hållbar kapitalförvaltning samt huruvida målen används idag. Studien kommer även undersöka problematiken gällande standardisering av hållbarhet och de informationsasymmetrier som uppstår till följd av detta på den svenska hållbara kapitalmarknaden. Genomförande: För att besvara studiens syfte har en kvalitativ metod använts, där sex intervjuer med hållbarhetsexperter har genomförts. En dokumentstudie av FN:s 17 globala mål utfördes tidigt för att ligga som grund för den intervjuguide som utvecklades inför intervjuerna. Intervjuerna hölls med representanter från tre statliga bolag och tre privata bolag för att erhålla ett bredare perspektiv inom ämnet. Slutsats: Studien har kommit fram till att FN:s 17 globala mål är svagt integrerade på den hållbara finansmarknaden. För att öka integrationen bör det utvecklas branschstandarder, branschdefinitioner och kunskapshöjande aktiviteter utifrån FN:s 17 globala mål. Slutligen har studien identifierat att bristen på rapportering av hållbarhetsdata från företag begränsar denna integration samt att det råder en informationsasymmetri där FN:s 17 globala mål kan bidra med kunskap för att minska problematiken.

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p><strong>Date              </strong>2009-06-07<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Level             </strong>Master thesis in Information Technology and Business Administration, 15 hp, EIK024<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Authors        </strong>Anna Karlsson, akn05009@student.mdh.se                      Lena-Maria Lindström, llm05002@student.mdh.se</p><p><strong>Tutor            </strong>Peter Ekman<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Title              </strong>IT Governance with an IT investment focus</p><p><strong>Keywords     </strong>IT Governance, IT investments, IT decisions<strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Problem       </strong>To control and manage IT and IT functions in the organization has been a big challenge for many businesses for a long time. In order to make the management of IT more efficient IT Governance is needed. If the organization is going to be successful IT Governance is necessary and this type of governance enables a more effective use of IT that supports the business and its operations. The problem questions for this thesis are: <em>How is the company’s IT Governance built up? How are decisions regarding the company’s IT investments taken? How is the connection between the company’s IT investments and the company’s IT Governance?</em></p><p><strong>Purpose        </strong>The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze how a company’s IT Governance is built up and how the company uses IT Governance to reach the desired results from the IT investments.</p><p><strong>Method        </strong>The thesis is a qualitative study. The thesis group has made three interviews; one at Swecon Anläggningsmaskiner AB, one at Volvo Construction Equipment AB and one at Telge nät AB. The respondents are all IT managers. The interviews were semi structured as the authors of the thesis wanted it to be more of an interview / discussion.</p><p><strong>framework</strong></p><p><strong>Theoretical   </strong>The theoretical framework of the thesis begins with a presentation of decision making in the organizations followed by a background to IT investments. Finally a presentation of IT Governance which is divided into four parts follows: who takes the IT decisions, which decisions are made, how are these decisions made and monitored and the fourth part that focuses on the company management’s involvement in IT Governance. The part is finished with a summarizing analytic model made by the authors of the thesis.         </p><p><strong>Conclusion</strong>   We have concluded that the three companies all have some sort of IT Governance, but how the IT Governances are built up varies. We also have concluded that the companies' ambition by using IT Governance is to reach the desired results from their IT investments.  By using IT Governance the companies are forced to pay attention to certain aspects eg., that the investments really are aligned with the companies businesses and that certain metrics are estimated for investments in the IT investment approval process.</p>

<p>Several organisations have called for clarifications on sustainable investment. The aim of this study is to map and compare the ethical criteria used by Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) funds in their assessment of companies. My attention is also to seek for clarifications on the definition on SRI. A theoretical framework has been used to identify core issues of socially responsible investment. The areas of interest are charitable giving, environmental technologies, negative and positive screening and shareholder activism. The empirical material consisted of qualitative interviews with 4 fund managers from 5 investment management firms in addition to written documents on the funds’ ethical criteria. The conclusions are that all of the funds use negative criteria in their assessment of companies, with similarities in what may be considered as unethical activity and differences in the extent. Most of the funds also seek to identify better-managed companies through an assessment of how companies comply with international agreements. Differences occur in the choices of international agreements as well as the minimum criteria for investing. Most of the investment management firms engage in shareholder activism with the aim to influence the companies’ corporate behaviour, thus with different levels of engagement. Some have dialogue with whom they invest in, some favour the idea of communicate with companies they do not invest in as well. Furthermore, the results of this study show that investments in environmental technologies are rare since these companies are too small. When it comes to charitable giving, donations to charity may be seen as SRI or may not be seen as SRI depending on if the concept refers to investment criteria.</p>

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the perception of value and risk in CSR as well as analyzing how financial institutions influence responsible behavior in business in order to create sustainable economic growth. Methodology: The study has a qualitative research method used by an abductive process. Data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with respondents from three venture capital companies and three banks. The sample of respondents was done through a convenience sample with respect to access and expertise in the research area. Conclusion: The most important meanings of the research results have shown that CSR holds an intrinsic value concerning contributing value as its conceptual meaning in terms of sustainable development. CSR can also be regarded as a dimension of risk management to reduce the risk of negative externalities on corporate activities. Investors and financiers contribute to sustainable companies through active ownership and improvements in the CSR dimensions. Finally, research results demonstrated that the responsible behavior of companies contributing to profitability, which in turn is part of sustainable development.

Background: There has been an increase in savings and investment in recent years along with an increased interest in responsible investments. Ethical mutual funds has developed and gained increasingly popularity. Aim: The aim of the study is to examine if ethical mutual funds are an equivalent alternative to traditional mutual funds in terms of return, risk and risk-adjusted return on the Swedish stock market. Theory: Beta, Jensen's Alpha, Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio, and Modern Portfolio Theory. Method: Quantitative survey method, a statistical study. Conclusion:The study concludes that there is no significant difference between ethical and conventional mutual funds in terms of return, risk and risk-adjusted return. The small differences that exist between the two fund groups are in favor of the ethical fund group, indicating that funds is a comparable investment option compared to traditional mutual funds.

<p>Biometrics is a collection of methods for identifying and authorizing individuals with something they are, or do. It is considered to be one of the most secure technologies for security, both physical and logical. Security is something very important for organizations today, but yet there has been a low interest in investing in biometrics for security in Sweden.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis has been to establish factors to why biometrics has not been implementedto any large extent, even though the technology has been around for long. We have evaluated the attitudes and views of individuals, as well as company leaders. Problem and questions with biometrics that often are discussed are privacy concerns, costs and ROI (return on investment) and user acceptance. Foremost there is a concern about the costs of implementing such a solution, although some claim that money can be saved by avoiding the costs in more traditional security methods, such as password administration and in security cards.</p><p>There is a range of different technologies to use, such as facial-scan, voice-scan and the most mature and well known technique, finger-scan which has been around for a long time, especially for identifying criminals. All these techniques have there positive and negative sides, often measured in different levels of universality, uniqueness, permanence and collectability, e.g. eye-scan has a high uniqueness, facial-scan has a high universability and signature-scan has a low permanence level.</p><p>We have collected our data through interviews with companies and suppliers of biometric systems as well as a questionnaire given to private persons. By interpreting the data in a qualitative way we have made our analysis and reached a conclusion.</p><p>Our result shows that a cost related to biometric solutions is the largest reason why investments have been absent. This verifies the results of other authors, that the cost is the largest obstacle. Another important factor is that companies believe that biometrics is for organizations with a very high security need. Further our result show that individuals are positive towards biometrics.</p> / <p>Biometri är ett samlingsnamn för tekniker som identifierar och auktoriserar individer, antingen något de är eller gör. Biometri anses vara en av de säkraste teknologierna för säkerhet, både fysisk och logisk. Säkerhet är något som är mycket viktigt för organisationer i dagens läge, men än så länge så har investeringar i biometriska säkerhetslösningar i Sverige uteblivit. Syftet med denna magisteruppsats har varit att fastställa faktorer som bidrar till att biometriska lösningar inte har blivit implementerade i någon större utsträckning, trots att teknologin har funnits länge. Vi har utvärderat individers samt företagsledares attityder och synsätt angående biometri.</p><p>Frågor och problem som ofta relateras till biometri är personligintegritet, kostnader och avkastning på investering samt användaracceptans. Framförallt är det osäkerheten kring kostnaderna av en implementering av en biometrisklösning. Det finns även de som hävdar att biometriska lösningar kan spara pengar jämfört med traditionella system därför att man undviker till exempel lösenordsadministration och passerkort.</p><p>Det finns en rad olika tekniker att använda, exempelvis ansiktsavläsning, röstigenkänning och den mest mogna och kända tekniken, fingeravtrycksläsning som har existerat en längre tid, framförallt för att identifiera kriminella. Det finns positiva och negativa sidor med alla dessa tekniker, de mäts oftast i olika nivåer av hur många som kan använda det, hur unikt biometrin är, beständighet och hur biometrin samlas in.</p><p>Genom intervjuer med företag och leverantörer av biometriska lösningar samt en utdelad enkät till privat personer har vi samlat in data. Vi har sedan tolkat data kvalitativt och utfört vår analys och slutligen kommit fram till ett resultat.</p><p>Vårt resultat har visat att kostnader relaterade till biometriska system är det största skälet till varför investeringar har uteblivit. Detta bekräftar vad många andra författare tidigare har funnit, att kostnaderna är det största hindret. En annan viktig faktor är att företag anser att biometri är något för verksamheter som kräver den allra högsta säkerheten. Vidare har individer en positiv inställning till biometri.</p>

Bakgrund: I november 2014 beslutade Riksbanken att ta steget mot en nollränta och i februari 2015 gick Riksbanken ut med ytterligare en sänkning till -0,10 procent. På så vis fick Sverige för första gången en negativ reporänta. Enligt makroekonomisk teori ska en sänkning av reporäntan stimulera konsumtion och investeringar i ekonomin. Huruvida reporäntan och dess räntesänkningar skapar förutsättningar för företag att investera är ett aktuellt och viktigt forskningsområde. Forskningen i ämnet är tunn på den svenska marknaden och således är forskningsbidraget från denna studie av betydelse.Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka och analysera hur förändringar i reporänta, makro-ekonomiska faktorer samt finansiella indikatorer påverkar investeringar hos svenska företag.Genomförande: Studien bygger på en kvantitativ metod. En Vector Autoregressive model har skapats för att redogöra hur reporäntan, de makroekonomiska faktorerna och de finansiella indikatorerna påverkar företagens investeringar. För att möjliggöra en analys av dessa effekter har impulse response functions skattats i modellen. På så vis undersöks det hur en isolerad enhetsökning i de valda variablerna påverkar företagens investeringar över flera tidsperioder. För att genomföra en mer omfattande analys skattas tre modeller där den första tar hänsyn till både makroekonomiska faktorer och finansiella indikatorer. Den andra modellen exkluderar de finansiella indikatorerna och den tredje modellen speglar reporäntans utveckling i två olika tidsperioder.Resultat: Företagens investeringar påverkas av flertalet faktorer. En enhetsökning av utlåningsräntan, växelkursen och företagens inflationsförväntningar uppvisar ett signifikant negativt samband. En enhetsökning av BNP-tillväxten visar däremot ett signifikant positivt samband. Reporäntan visar ingen direkt effekt på investeringar i de första två modellerna. Däremot uppvisar reporäntan skillnader i den tredje modellen, där ett negativt samband förekommer i den första av de två observerade tidsperioderna. / Background: The central bank of Sweden decided in November 2014 to set the repo rate close to zero. Further they decided to lower the repo rate to -0,10 percent in February 2015. In regard to this, Sweden had a negative repo rate for the first time. According to macroeconomic theory a decrease in the repo rate is performed to stimulate an economy’s investments and consumptions. Whether or not a decrease in interest rates gives greater incentives for firms to invest is a topical subject and an important field of research. In addition to this, the existing research on the Swedish market is insufficient within this field, which gives us further motives to conduct this study.Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine and analyse how changes in the repo rate, macroeconomic factors and financial indicators affects investments of Swedish firms.Completion: The study is conducted with a quantitative approach. A Vector Autoregressive model is created in order to examine the impact of changes in the repo rate, the macroeconomic factors and the financial indicators on firms’ investments. Impulse response functions are estimated to allow a further analysis of these effects. Hence, it is conceivable to examine how one isolated unit-increase in a specific variable affects firms’ investment through several time periods. Furthermore, we estimate three models, one which includes both macroeconomic variables and financial indicators and another which excludes the financial indicators. The last model reflects the repo rate’s impact on investments in two separate time periods.Result: Investments of firms are affected by numerous of factors. One unit-increase of the lending rate, the exchange rate and firms’ expectations of inflation exhibit a negative relation to investments. Furthermore, one unit-increase in GDP-growth tends to increase investments. However, the repo rate has no impact on investments in the first two models. In spite of this, evidence from the third model indicates that the repo rate has a negative impact on investments during the first period.

This dissertation consists of four chapters. Chapter 1: Introduction and summary of the thesis. This thesis consists of three essays (chapters 2-4) within the field of macroeconomics and development. The purpose of this first chapter is to provide an overview of the issues covered and the results obtained. Chapter 2: Life cycles, oil cycles, or financial reforms? Private savings rates in Indonesia. What goes steady with private savings? This chapter investigates reasons for the sustained growth in private savings in Indonesia between 1970 and 1994, in a period characterised by economic growth, demographic changes, terms of trade movements, and some financial reforms. The main finding is that predictions from a simple life cycle model do well in as much as the growth in private savings rates is associated with a fall in the dependency ratio. This suggests that the a reduction in the number of children relative to working age population has alleviated houshold budget constraints, thereby boosting savings rates. Chapter 3: Incredibly helpful? Foreign aid and stabilisation reforms in sub-Saharan Africa. What is the role of foreign aid in macroeconomic stabilisation? This study addresses the ambiguous impact of aid on stabilisation reforms in the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zaire and Zambia. These countries have all received significant amounts of aid in connection with stabilisation attempts, but differ in their respective achievements. One important reason for the discrepancies appears to be that reform commitment as well as aid conditionality is more credible in some circumstances tha others. A review of factors with potential influence on reforms suggests that stabilisation aid has been less effective in countries with a history of high levels of aid, and that stabilisation has followed on comprehensive reform programs which have not been undermined by preceding failed reform attemts. Chapter 4: Foreign Direct Investment and Structural Adjustment Lending. The recent surge in FDI flows to developing countries has been attributed to liberalisation efforts. Using data on World Bank structural adjustment lending for a sample of developing countries, this chapter looks at the impact of the design and outcome of structural adjustment programs on multinational firms’ investments. An important finding is that there are considerable changes before and after reforms regarding the characteristics which attract FDI, with an increased importance of the economic environment of host countries. While we find no convincing relationship between the results of reforms and an increase in FDI inflows, there is evidence that countries that undertook consecutive reform programs experienced higher growth in FDI. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk.

Private Equity har länge utgjort ett attraktivt tillgångsslag på grund av dess höga riskjusterade avkastning. Den historiskt höga avkastningen i kombination med dagens låga räntor och starka kapitalmarknad har bidragit till ett växande intresse för tillgångsslaget, däribland hos privatpersoner. Syftet med arbetet var att kartlägga den svenska Private Equity-marknaden och privatpersoners möjlighet till exponering mot tillgångsslaget, genom att undersöka för- och nackdelar för företag att ha med privatpersoner som investerare samt för- och nackdelar för privatpersoner att exponeras mot Private Equity. För att fastställa respektive för- och nackdelar applicerades en kvalitativ forskningsmetod bestående av semistrukturerade intervjuer med nyckelpersoner inom området.  Av studiens resultat framgick det att främst kapitalstarka privatpersoner som anses som professionella eller semi-professionella investerare har möjlighet att investera direkt i Private Equity. Det framgick även att möjligheten för mindre kapitalstarka individer att investera i tillgångsslaget är begränsad, främst på grund av lagstiftningen och högt satta lägsta investeringsgränser. Utefter studiens resultat och analys kunde slutsatsen dras att det föreligger flertalet tydliga för- och nackdelar med att ha med privatpersoner som investerare och för privatpersoner att investera i tillgångsslaget. Att ha med privatpersoner som investerare kan bidra med fördelar i form av att de kan bidra med kunskap, kompetens, erfarenhet och affärsmöjligheter. Privatpersoner utgör även en intressant källa till kapital för Private Equity-fonder och företag. Privatpersoners delaktighet innebär även nackdelar. Privatpersoner som investerare medför stora administrationskrav, en möjlig operationell risk samt utgör en osäker källa till kapital. En ytterligare nackdel med att ha med privatpersoner som investerare, sett till att enbart ha institutionella investerare, är att det kräver fler investerare för att uppnå samma nivå av kapital. Fördelarna för privatpersoner att investera i Private Equity är främst att tillgångsslaget bidrar till hög avkastning och diversifiering. Vidare kunde slutsatsen dras att investering i tillgångsslaget innebär en inlåsningseffekt som förhindrar irrationella beslut och bidrar följaktligen till högre avkastning. Nackdelarna för privatpersoner vid investering i Private Equity kunde fastställas till mindre likviditet, brist på transparens och höga förvaltningsavgifter. Komplexitet hos tillgångsslaget och individens generella kunskapsbrist påvisades även vara nackdelar som bidrar till lägre lönsamhet. / Over the past decades Private Equity has been an attractive asset class due to its high risk-adjusted return. The historically high return in combination with today's low interest rates and strong capital markets has contributed to increased interest for the asset class, including among private individuals. This study was set out to identify the Swedish Private Equity market and private individuals' access to the asset class by examining the advantages and disadvantages for companies to have private individuals as investors and the advantages and disadvantages for private individuals to be exposed to Private Equity. To determine the advantages and disadvantages, a qualitative research method was applied in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with key people within the field. The results of the study showed that mainly high-net-worth individuals who can be considered as professional or semi-professional investors have the opportunity to invest in Private Equity. It also emerged that the opportunity for less wealthy individuals to invest in Private Equity is limited, mainly due to the legislation and high minimum investment limits. From the study it could be concluded that there are several clear advantages and disadvantages with both having private individuals as investors as well as for private individuals to invest in the asset class. Having private individuals as investors can contribute with benefits in the form of knowledge, competence, experience and business opportunities. Private individuals also constitute an interesting source of capital for Private Equity funds and companies. The main disadvantages, with having private individuals as investors, concluded from the study was that their participation places great demand on administration, may pose an operational risk and that they compose an uncertain source of capital. A further disadvantage with having private individuals as investors, compared to having only institutional investors, is that a larger number of investors is needed to raise the capital that the funds require. The main advantages for private individuals to invest in Private Equity, concluded from the study, are the high returns and contribution to diversification. Furthermore, it could be concluded that investing in the asset class has a lock-in effect that prevents individuals from making irrational decisions, which in turn contributes to a higher return. The disadvantages of investing in the asset class are concluded to be less liquidity, the lack of transparency and high management fees. The complexity of the asset class and individuals general lack of knowledge are also shown to be a disadvantage that contributes to lower profitability.

Syftet med denna studie är att analysera om, och i så fall hur, svenska börsnoterade företag använder impression management (IM) i VD-ord samt om företagens karaktäristika har ett samband med IM. Denna studie fokuserar på sambandet mellan företagets finansiella resultat och användandet av IM i form av läsbarhetspåverkan. Det vill säga, huruvida företag med förbättrade eller försämrade finansiella prestationer rapporterar positiva respektive negativa nyheter i VD-ord på olika sätt. VD-ord är ett populärt avsnitt i årsredovisningen eftersom företagets ledning där får möjlighet att översätta komplexa förhållanden, annars uttryckta i siffror och redovisningsposter, till en lättförståelig, användarvänlig och informativ text. VDord blir till skillnad från årsredovisningens övriga innehåll inte granskat av revisorer och kan därför utsättas för IM i syfte att influera eller förvirra intressenters perception om ett företag.IM i VD-ord utgör studiens beroende variabel och mäts med hjälp av ett läsbarhetstest utvecklat av Rudolf Flesch. Företagens karaktäristika är studiens oberoende variabler och uttrycks genom finansiell prestation och förändringen i finansiell prestation över tid. Företagsstorlek och företagsålder är studiens kontrollvariabler. Finansiell prestation mäts genom avkastning påtotala tillgångar (ROA). Förändringen i finansiell prestation över tid mäts genom den procentuella förändringen i nettovinsten år 2017 jämfört med år 2016. Företagsstorlek reflekteras av totala tillgångar och företagsålder reflekteras av antal börsnoterade år. För att analysera sambandet mellan studiens variabler har statistiska bearbetningar och tester utförts. Studien observerar svenska börsnoterade företag listade på Large-cap i alla branscher förutom finanssektorn.Resultaten visar att VD-ord i genomsnitt är svåra att läsa och därför begripliga endast för en begränsad publik. Det finns en signifikant, positiv relation mellan förändringen i finansiell prestation över tid och IM i VD-ord. Även om finansiell prestation och företagsstorlek har positiva samband med läsbarhet i VD-ord, så är dessa samband inte signifikanta. Företagsålder har ett negativt samband med läsbarhet, emellertid är sambandet inte signifikant. / This study aims to investigate the use of impression management (IM) in CEO-letters of companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Another intention is to analyze different company characteristics and their relation to IM. For instance, how the financial performance of companies affects their use of IM, in terms of readability manipulation of CEO-letters, i.e. whether companies report positive or negative news in CEO-letters differently depending on the company’s financial performance. CEO-letters are a popular section in annual reports because the company’s management is able to translate complex conditions, otherwise expressed in numbers and accounting records, into an easy-to-understand, user-friendly and informative text. However, CEO-letters are not audited and may therefore be exposed to IM inorder to influence or obfuscate stakeholders’ perception of the company.Using the Flesch reading ease formula and statistical analysis, this study explores how the readability of CEO-letters in annual reports tends to vary with several company characteristics and business cycles. The analysis controls for variables previously identified as relevant to the use of IM, such as company size, company age, company performance and companyperformance over time.The results show a significant positive relationship between readability and financial performance over time, measured as the percentage change of net profits compared to previous years. Furthermore, company performance measured as return on assets (ROA) and company size has an insignificant positive relationship with readability. Also, company age has a negative relationship with readability, however, not significant. In addition, this study finds that most companies’ CEO-letters are difficult to read and comprehensible to a limited population.