Studiens syfte är att undersöka vilka faktorer som kan få fastighetsbolag att avvika från sina fastställda investeringsstrategier och hur de resonerar vid inträde på ett nytt geografiskt område eller nytt fastighetssegment.Det är vanligt förekommande att fastighetsbolag har en fastställd och uttalad investeringsstrategi vid förvärv och avyttring av fastigheter. Tidigare forskning visar att det förekommer avvikelser från dessa och att det i vissa fall endast är vissa delar av strategin som verkligen verkställs. Det saknas dock förklaringar till vad som kan få bolagen att göra dessa avvikelser. Studiens bidrag är därför att ge exempel på dessa faktorer samt ge ökad förståelse för deras resonemang vid inträde på nytt geografiskt område eller nytt fastighetssegment.Den använda metoden för insamling av empirin är genom kvalitativa intervjuer av respondenter med kännedom om bolagens investeringsstrategier. Av de fem respondenterna i studien är två av bolagen börsnoterade, ett är kommunalt och två är privata. Gemensamt för alla bolagen är att de äger sina fastigheter och är verksamma endast i tillväxtorter. Tre givna frågor har följts upp av eventuella relevanta följdfrågor. Intervjumaterialet har spelats in och därefter transkriberats för att kunna analyseras utifrån den aktuella frågeställningen och studiens syfte samt för att göra kopplingar till för studien relevant teori.Resultatet av analysen har mynnat ut i att följande faktorer kan få fastighetsbolag att avvika från sina investeringsstrategier: lönsamhet, individuell kunskap hos anställda, politiska beslut, för höga byggpriser, hållbarhet och miljö samt goodwill. Endast ett av de studerade fastighetsbolagen har de facto avvikit från sin investeringsstrategi till följd av politiskt beslut från det kommunala bostadsbolagets styrelse tillika ägare. / The purpose of this study is to investigate what factors could cause real estate companies to deviate from its original real estate investment strategy and find out how they reason when entering a new geographic area or real estate segment.Real estate companies usually have an investment strategy on real estate purchase and divestiture. Previous research shows that deviations occur from these and in some cases only parts of the strategy is realized. However, there is no explanation on what cause these deviations. This study contributes therefore by exemplifying these factors to enhance understanding their reasoning when entering a new geographic area or a new segment.The method applied to gather empirical data is by using qualitative interview technique on respondents with knowledge about the companies’ investment strategies using semi-structured interviews. Out of the five respondents two are listed on the Swedish stock market, one is owned by a municipality and two are privately owned. They all have in common to be owners of their properties and act in areas of growth. Three given questions were added by follow-up questions. The collected data was recorded and thereafter transcribed to be able to analyze and look for connections in line with the purpose of the study and relevant theories set in mind.The results of the analysis emanated into the following factors that could cause real estate companies to deviate from their investment strategy: profitability, individual knowledge of the employees, political decisions, too high construction prices, sustainability, environment and goodwill. Only one of the real estate companies did in fact deviate from its investment strategy due to a political decision from the members of the board, moreover its owner.

The thesis describes a stochastic procedure developed for assessing risk and reducing uncertainty inherent in the investment decision making process. It is proposed that the two most important profitability financial ratios in relation to investment decisions are the return on equity and the return on assets respectively. In order to exploit their use as criteria for risk measurement and uncertainty reduction, a stochastic formulation is adopted in which these ratios are expressed in probabilistic terms. A density function to describe their behaviour is derived; it is found that density distribution analysis for both ratios indicate that the Weibull distribution apart from being the most flexible and adaptable model of all those considered, provides the best overall fit to the data. It is accordingly used in the latter part of the research for evaluating industrial sector and company investment risk.

Venture Capital can play a key role for our future by placing their capital in sustainable investments. They have the capacity to fuel new ventures, sprung from ideas on how to solve the sustainability challenges we face today. In this paper we research the drivers and barriers for sustainable venture capital investment decisions. Our findings show that increased knowledge on sustainability issues is affecting the general public opinion, policies and governance and the way we choose to live, consume and do business. This in turn increases the market potential for sustainable businesses. Therefore, sustainable investments are more and more considered as a good investment, not only in regard to social and ecological aspects but also financial returns. A model with our findings showing the drivers and barriers for sustainable venture capital investment decisions will be presented aiming encourage and push toward a more sustainable future.

My dissertation scrutinizes the implications of a harmonized European corporate tax system for firms' and businesses' decision-making. Specifically, I examine the cross-border consolidation of profits and losses, the design of the apportionment formula applied to allocate the consolidated tax base to single group entities, and the locational investment decisions that are mainly driven by the consolidation of the tax base and its allocation to the group entities. All of my analyses are conducted using model-theoretical methods and simulations, a partial equilibrium business perspective is maintained throughout. (author's abstract)

The real estate market in Sweden in the current situation is found to be very attractive, which in return is influenced by number of elements such as interest rates, market conditions, etc. Real estate investments result in relatively large amounts, that is why investors like to be relatively sure regarding their investments, or at least that they are knowing to get their investment back in case of a sale. Real options are a complement to the calculation real estate companies does. Real options are used to take alternative solutions in regard, and also to contribute alternative values to the investment, which is mainly used if an investments outcome is not as desired. As a result to this complement to the calculation we wished to study the following: What can influence the application of real options in a real estate investing decision in private real estate companies? This study was done with a deductive method, and because of that a theoretical reference frame were formed, and afterwords investigate if the theoretical facts agreed with reality. To be able to compare the theoretical parts and the empirical parts, it was important that the empirical part was relevant to our subject. For the empirical fact to be as relevant as possible, this study was performed with a qualitative approach, and therefor four private real estate companies were interviewed, two bigger and two smaller. The real estate companies interviewed are active in the southern parts of Sweden. This study results in four conclusions drawn on the basis of the four interviewed real estate companies, regarding what can influence the application of real options in a investment decision. Three of the real estate companies finds that the risks with commercial real estates, and the external factors which influence market conditions affect their application of alternative solutions regarding their investments. All four of the real estate companies find that new incoming information and the experience, which the decision maker holds, affects application of real options. Thus, real estate companies must be able to know when and what alternative solutions to apply. / Fastighetsmarknaden i Sverige anses vara väldigt attraktiv i dagsläget, vilket flertalet faktorer bidrar till såsom ränteläge, marknadsförhållanden etcetera. Investeringar i fastigheter medför relativt stora belopp, därför tenderar investerare att vilja vara relativt säkra på sina investeringar, eller att de åtminstone kan få tillbaka den erlagda investeringen vid en eventuell försäljning. Ett komplement till de kalkyler fastighetsbolagen genomför är reala optioner. Reala optioner används för att ta alternativa lösningar i beaktan, samt för att kunna tillföra investeringen alternativa värden, vilket främst används om investeringen inte har ett önskat utfall. Detta komplement till kalkyler medförde att vi önskade undersöka; vad kan påverka tillämpningen av reala optioner vid beslut om fastighetsinvesteringar i privata fastighetsbolag? Studien genomfördes med en deduktiv metod, vilket medförde att en teoretisk referensram sammanställdes för att därefter undersöka om teorierna överensstämde med verkligheten. För att kunna jämföra de teoretiska bidragen med empirisk data gällde det att den empiriska informationen var relevant. För att det empiriska materialet skulle bli så relevant som möjligt är studien genomförd enligt en kvalitativ ansats, där fyra privata fastighetsbolag intervjuades, två större och två mindre. Fastighetsbolagen delades in i respektive grupp efter storleken efter deras fastighetsbestånd. De olika fastighetsbolagen är verksamma i stora delar av södra Sverige. Studien resulterade i att vi kom fram till fyra slutsatser dragna utifrån de fyra intervjuade fastighetsbolagen, angående vad som kan påverka reala optioners tillämpning vid investeringsbeslut. Tre av fastighetsbolagen ansåg att riskerna som kommersiella fastigheter har, samt de yttre faktorer som påverkar marknadsförhållandena spelar in på deras tillämpning av alternativa lösningar på sina investeringar. Alla fyra fastighetsbolagen ansåg att ny information som tillkommer och erfarenheten som beslutsfattaren besitter påverkar tillämpningen av reala optioner. Således är fastighetsbolagens förmåga att veta om vilka alternativa lösningar som kan tillämpas och när viktiga.

The objectives of this thesis are: first, to investigate the impact of investor sentiment in UK financial markets in different investment intervals through the construction of separate sentiment measures for UK investors and UK institutional investors; second, to examine institutional herding behaviour by studying UK mutual fund data; third, to explore the causal relation between institutional herding and investor sentiment. The study uses US, German and UK financial market data and investor sentiment survey data from 1st January 1996 to 30th June 2011. The impact of investor sentiment on UK equity returns is studied both in general, and more specifically by distinguishing between tranquil and financial crisis periods. It is found that UK equity returns are significantly influenced by US individual and institutional sentiment and hardly at all by local UK investor sentiment. The sentiment contagion across borders is more pronounced in the shorter investment interval. The investigation of institutional herding behaviour is conducted by examining return dispersions and the Beta dispersions of UK mutual funds. Little evidence of herding in return is found, however strong evidence of Beta herding is presented. The study also suggests that beta herding is not caused by market fundamental and macroeconomic factors, instead, it perhaps arises from investor sentiment. This is consistent between closed-end and open-ended funds. The relation between institutional herding and investor sentiment is investigated by examining the measures of herding against the measures of investor sentiment in the UK and US. It suggests that UK institutional herding is influenced by investor sentiment, and UK institutional sentiment has a greater impact as compared to UK market sentiment. Open-end fund managers are more likely to be affected by individual investor sentiment, whereas closed-end fund managers herd on institutional sentiment.

Comparing the performance of a pure momentum strategy with a strategy based on intermediate past returns on OMXS 1999-2018, this study shows that a pure momentum strategy significantly outperforms a strategy based on intermediate past returns. The pure momentum strategy delivers significant returns, primarily for portfolios based on shorter formation and holding periods. Furthermore, this study show that these significant returns are not due to loading on common systematic risk factors. Moreover, this study shows that by implementing a scaling component to the pure momentum strategy, investors can mitigate the crash risk in momentum strategies to some extent.

Intresset för hållbara fonder har ökat kraftigt de senaste åren och idag investerar var fjärde person i denna typ av fond. Studiens syfte var att undersöka vilka psykologiska aspekter som påverkar vid investering i miljövänliga fonder, en underkategori till hållbara fonder. Detta har skett med stöd från ett flertal beslutsteorier samt teorier inom beteendefinansiering. Undersökningen har gjorts genom en kvantitativ metod med hjälp av enkäter, där en sambandsanalys gjordes genom korstabeller. Resultatet visade att altruism är en stark faktor till att människor väljer att investera miljövänligt. I övrigt har resultatet påvisat att motiven mellan investerare som sparar i miljövänliga fonder och investerare som sparar i konventionella fonder ur många aspekter är lika. / Sustainable mutual funds have increased with popularity during the past recent years. Presently, one in four people invests in this type of mutual funds. The aim with the following study was to examine which psychological factors have an impact on investment decisions in environmental funds. Specifically, looking into one of multiple subcategories of sustainable mutual funds. The study was made with support from several decision making theories and theories within behavioral finance. The study used surveying as a quantitative method with a context analysis by crosstabs. The results suggested that altruism is a strong factor towards one's choice to invest in environmental funds. The results also suggested that the motives between investors who invests in environmental funds and investors who choose to invest in traditional funds are similar in many aspects.

Este estudo tem por objetivo verificar como a reputação afeta as decisões de investimento das firmas. Já existe um consenso na literatura de que uma boa reputação contribui para o desempenho da firma, mas ainda são poucos e recentes os estudos que verificam as relações entre reputação corporativa e decisões de investimento. Portanto, deseja-se verificar se a reputação afeta a probabilidade de uma empresa ser classificada como subinvestimento, investimento eficiente ou sobreinvestimento; e também qual é o impacto da reputação na taxa de crescimento do investimento de uma firma. Para isso utiliza-se uma base de dados longitudinais de 180 firmas espanholas entre 2000 e 2015. A mensuração para reputação corporativa é feita através da classificação no ranking de reputação Merco, que divulga anualmente uma lista com as cem empresas espanholas com melhor reputação naquele ano. Os dados financeiros e de estrutura de propriedade são obtidos através do sistema SABI. Inicialmente, o modelo tem como variável dependente uma binária que representa se a empresa pertence ou não a determinado nível de investimento. Neste caso, regressões logísticas são utilizadas para determinar como a reputação afeta a probabilidade da empresa ser classificada por apresentar subinvestimento, investimento ótimo ou sobreinvestimento. Em seguida, a variável dependente é a taxa de investimento da firma, portanto, o método GMM-sys é aplicado para controlar a endogeneidade provocada pela inclusão da variável dependente defasada no modelo. Também são estimados modelos considerando a restrição financeira da firma, seu tamanho e sua estrutura de propriedade. Os resultados mostram que a reputação interfere de maneira positiva na taxa de investimento das firmas espanholas. Além disso, quando a empresa tem melhor reputação, sua dependência de caixa para fazer investimentos também aumenta. Contudo, a reputação não é significativa para aumentar a probabilidade de uma empresa apresentar investimento eficiente, nem para explicar o investimento das firmas consideradas restritas financeiramente. / The objective of this research is to verify how reputation affects investment decisions. There is already a consensus in the literature that a good reputation contributes to firm performance; however, there are few recent studies that examine the relationship between corporate reputation and investment decisions. Therefore, our desire is to verify whether reputation affects the probability of a company being classified as underinvestment, efficient investment or overinvestment; also, we attempt to analyze the impact of reputation on the growth rate of a firm\'s investment. A longitudinal database of 180 Spanish firms between the period of 2000 and 2015 is used. The measurement for corporate reputation is done by ranking in the Merco reputation ranking, which annually publishes a list of the 100 most reputable Spanish companies in that year. The financial and ownership structure data are obtained through the SABI system. Initially the model has as dependent variable which is a binary that represents whether the company belongs or not to a certain level of investment. In this case, logistic regressions are used to determine how the reputation affects the probability of the company being classified as having underinvestment, optimal investment or overinvestment. Later, the dependent variable is represented by the investment rate of the firm, so the GMM-sys method is applied to control the endogeneity caused by the inclusion of the lagged dependent variable in the model. Models are also estimated considering the firm\'s financial constraint, its size and its ownership structure. The results show that reputation interferes in a positive way in the investment rate of Spanish firms. In addition, when the company has a better reputation, its dependence on cash to make investments also increases. However, reputation is significant in increasing the likelihood that a firm will be able to make an efficient investment, or to explain the investment of firms that are considered financially constrained.

Considerando a importância dos fatores financeiros nas decisões de investimento e as restrições financeiras das firmas, os intermediários financeiros mostram-se como importantes provedores de fonte de recursos para a viabilização dos investimentos. Devido a esta ligação, um possível canal de transmissão no qual o setor financeiro afeta o crescimento e risco das empresas ocorre pela dependência de recursos financeiros externos, portanto, o risco e retorno das firmas devem ser afetados pelas dificuldades das entidades financeiras. Atentando a esta circunstância o objetivo deste estudo é de verificar na economia brasileira os efeitos do alastramento de risco do setor financeiro para a economia real nas decisões de investimentos das firmas, as quais perpassam por conjunturas de restrição financeira. Para atingir tal objetivo utiliza-se informações financeiras e retorno das ações das empresas de capital aberto no Brasil no período de 1997 a 2015. O alastramento do risco do retorno é estimado por um processo VAR-GARCH, e o contágio financeiro pelo indicador de co-excessos condicionais. Essas variáveis são inseridas em um modelo neoclássico acelerador de investimento modificado, para um grupo de firmas restritas e outro de não restritas, classificadas pelos índices KZ e WW. A estimação do modelo de investimento é realizada pelo GMM system e os resultados mostram que o nível do alastramento do risco do setor financeiro para as firmas impacta negativamente nas taxas de investimento das empresas restritas tanto pelo índice KZ, quanto pelo WW. O estudo amplia a literatura nacional utilizando um enfoque microeconômico do alastramento do risco e dos co-excessos condicionais e abordando a questão do alastramento do risco no modelo de investimento. / Considering the importance of financial factors and financial constraints in firm\'s investment decisions, financial sector show up as important source of funds providers to the viability of industry investments. Because of this connection, a possible transmission channel in which the financial intermediaries affect firm\'s growth and risk is from the dependence on external financial funds, so the risk and return of firms should be affected by the difficulties and vagaries of financial sector. In accordance to this circumstance this study aim\'s to verify the effects of the financial sector risk spillover and contagion to the real economy in constrained, and unconstrained, firms\' investment decisions. To achieve this goal, we use financial data and stock returns of publicly traded companies in Brazil from 1997 to 2015. The risk spillover is estimated by a VAR-GARCH process, and financial contagion by an index called conditional co-exceedance. These variables are included in a modified neoclassical accelerator model of investment, splitting the observations into groups of constrained and unconstrained firms, classified by KZ and WW indexes. The estimation of the investment model is performed by GMM system, and the results show that the level of financial sector risk spillover negatively impact investment rates of constrained companies, both by the KZ and WW segregations. This study contributes to the national literature using a microeconomic approach to the risk spillover and conditional co-exceedances addressing it to the investment model.