Background: The issue about corporate governance became more prominent in recent years as a result of corporate scandals and misconduct of executives. Firms, board members, and executives have been subject to criminal and civil actions over hidden debt, inflated earnings, insider trading, tax evasion, misuse of funds, and breaches of fiduciary duties. Firms such as Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco became well-known because of huge failures in governance. In addition to the scandals, nowadays, we can see that the financial crises have brought attention for today’s debate of corporate governance issue as well. Board is the major component of corporate governance like chief executive office (CEO), shareholders, stakeholders or community in general. This board is authorized to decide on the operations, management, and strategy of the company on behalf of the shareholders. Since the board members suppose to represent their interests. Problem: What is the relationship between main board composition factors and firm’s accounting profitability? Purpose: This thesis strives to analyze the level of correlation between selected board composition factors and accounting profitability of the Swedish Large Companies; by using appropriate statistical tools of correlation we aim to identify the association of selected variables. Method: This research is conducted with sample of 63 large caps from the OMX Nordic Exchange-Stockholm and includes data from 2005 to 2009. We adopt the perspective of a shareholder and the philosophical stance of a positivist. The study uses quantitative method since our sample size is large enough to use the method. Conclusion: The findings highlight that there is no significant relationship between some of the board composition factors namely- number of board directors, percentage of independent directors and experience of board member and the accounting profitability measure (Av. ROE) of Swedish large firms. Where as, in case of the proportion of female directors, we do find a significant correlation between the accounting profitability measure (Av. ROE) and percentage of female directors of Swedish large firms. The correlation results show a positive relationship between the variables

The ongoing financial crisis which has upset the financial markets of the world since the late summer of 2007 has not left Swedish corporations unaffected. Strategies which can be adapted within the firm to improve liquidity and cash flows concern the management of working capital and cash management, areas which are usually neglected in times of favourable business conditions. In this study it is examined how companies have adjusted their liquidity strategies before the crisis started to spread worldwide and a year afterwards, in the beginning of the 2009 when economies are in the middle of the turbulence, still feeling the consequences of the financial crisis and not yet started to recover. Research problem consisted of two main questions: Do active liquidity strategies have a positive effect on company’s profitability in times of financial turbulence/ economic turbulence?   Have the importance of key ratios in the measurement of liquidity changed during the time period? The primary purpose of the study was to evaluate and compare the use and extent of the liquidity practices in two time points. Furthermore, the aim was to measure if the changing of liquidity strategy is related to the profitability measured by return on assets (ROA). Sample consisted of companies listed on Stockholm Stock Exchange’s Small and Mid cap- lists, with some restrictions. The quantitative research strategy was employed and data was collected by using telephone interviews and financial ratios from financial statements. Hypotheses tested different aspects of cash management and liquidity practices. Statistical analysis was conducted by using regression analysis of the change scores and profitability. Overall findings suggested that the adaptation of liquidity strategies do not have a significant impact on ROA. Only increased use of liquidity forecasting and short-term financing during financial crisis had a positive impact on ROA. Moreover, it was found that the importance of the key ratios monitoring companies liquidity have not changed between the studied time points. Working capital ratio is the most commonly used liquidity measurement and in addition the use of working capital and DIO metrics has increased most during the crisis. More frequent monitoring and forecasting on liquidity levels and making more short-term investments can provide gains in profitability Based on the findings the adjustment of liquidity practices is beneficial for the companies, even though benefits are not always directly measurable in profitability. Furthermore, companies are recommended to maintain their focus on liquidity and working capital management in an economic downturn.

This paper discusses the indicators of financial success for Swedish companies from 1995 until 2005. Quarterly data on 42 Swedish companies were collected from the Datastream data base and analysed by using both portfolio analyses and parametric analysis. In this study, financial success is measured by using the acclaimed concepts of the Sharpe ratio and the Jensen’s Alpha. The Sharpe ratios of the companies are studied between 1995-2005 and this discussion is complemented by analysis of the Jensen’s Alpha in the second half of that time period i.e. 2000-2005. The relationship between these performance metrics and certain company-characteristics such as the book-to-market ratio, the ROA measure and capital structure is studied. The conclusion is that companies that have a high degree of profitability and maintain high book-to-market ratios outperform other companies in terms of generating excess returns to shareholders. Another interesting observation is the fact that company size does not have any significant relationship to company performance.

The business climate of today, with increasing globalization, has resulted in structural changes in the commercial and industrial sectors. As a result, many large companies have moved their production abroad. Therefore the smaller companies have become increasingly important for growth and employment nationally. Small businesses are a significant contributor to the well-being of nations and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role for Sweden, both in terms of economic contribution and employment. Success has been discussed and investigated for a long period of time and the question is how it should be defined and measured. Many theories have been produced including different definitions and research methods. For this thesis, however, success is defined as the growth and financial performance of a firm measured in volume growth, relative change in net turnover, and value growth, relative change in equity. As a side condition, profit margins must be positive for a company to be classified as successful. This thesis hence aims to determine which factors influence the success of small and medium-sized enterprises in Sweden and how they influence the success of these enterprises. Eleven manufacturing SMEs, seven successful and four unsuccessful, were investigated and analyzed separately and then compared with one another in an attempt to determine which specific factors contributed to their respective performance. The four unsuccessful companies were included in the investigation for comparison to be able to identify the specific factors for successful companies. The analyses resulted in the following areas: Organization, Vision and Strategy, Characteristics of the CEO, Core Competences, Recruiting, Product Development and Innovations and Market. Among these factors Vision and Strategy, Core Competences and Customer Interaction were identified as the factors that have the greatest impact on success. Additionally, two clear relations between factors could be determined, i.e. between Clear vision and strategy and Defined culture as well as a relation between Flexibility and Customer Interaction. The conclusions are generalizable to all manufacturing SMEs in Sweden since the sample selection is representative for the target population. Furthermore, the success factors could be applied to companies abroad as well if the business climate and the conditions are similar. Whether the factors can be applied to firms that act within different SNI-codes (Swedish Standard Industrial Classification) besides manufacturing is yet to be proved. For further research we suggest a deeper investigation, where the information is obtained from more than one sources within the company. Also, the external networks of the company could be of interest to interview. Other aspects to investigate further would be potential differences between small and medium-sized firms and whether or not the results are applicable for other industries.

Frågeställning: Hur skiljer sig lågprisflygbolagens strategier jämfört med de traditionella, vilken är den vinnande strategin? Huvudsyfte: Genom utvalda teorier och nyckeltal jämföra och se skillnader mellan flygbolagens strategier och hur det påverkar lönsamhet och utveckling. Metoder: En jämförande studie baserad på sekundärdata på fem stora flygbolag för att hitta olikheter i strategier. Främst används bolagens årsredovisningar, vetenskapliga artiklar och relevanta teorier för insamlandet av data. Slutsatser: Biljettpriset inom flygindustrin blir en allt viktigare faktor att anpassa sig efter för överlevnad på marknaden. Lågprisflygen har genom kostnadsreduceringar genom enklare bokningssystem, mindre personalstyrka, avlägsna flygplatser och enhetlig flotta kunnat sätta lägre priser än de traditionella. Detta innebär att effektiviteten har ökat och detta sätter press på de traditionella flygbolagen att kostnadsreducera och utveckla servicen ytterligare för att ha en chans att klara konkurrensen. Marginalerna har blivit mindre vilket pressar ner lönsamheten inom industrin. Traditionella flygbolag behöver anpassa sig efter de nya kraven och omstruktureringar är nödvändigt. / Problem formulation:  How does the low price airlines strategies differ from the traditional airlines strategy, which is the winning strategy? Main purpose: With chosen theories and key figures see the differences between airlines strategy and how it affects profitability and development. Method: A comparing study based on secondary data from five big airlines in order to find differences in strategy. Mostly the companies' annual reports, scientific articles and relevant theories are used for the collection of data. Conclusions: It is becoming more important to adjust the ticket price on air travelling to survive on the aviation-market. Low-price airlines have been able to lower the ticket price through cost reductions with easier booking systems, smaller workforce, less attractive airports and a uniform fleet. This productivity increase is forcing the traditional airlines to reduce their costs and improve their service to deal with the competition. The marginal's are getting smaller and profitability is getting lower. Traditional airlines have to adjust after the new demands and restructures are needed.

This thesis analyzes the bank-specific, industry-specific and macroeconomic determinants of bank profitability (ROA) in 31 OECD Countries between 2000 and 2009 using a panel data. Each country

Maintenance has had a tremendous impact on company’s proficiency to optimize its production system in order to meet its long term objectives. Generally, a production system in which maintenance is not given attention may easily lead to the system producing defective product as a result of machine defect. The purpose of this thesis is to utilized tools and methods to analyze the impact of maintenance implementation in a production system. The analytical Hierarchy process was utilized to filter the defining factors and sub-factors considered to be related to the life length and performance of production equipment in the research which was carried out at SCA Packaging Sweden AB. Various cost associated with these factors were analyzed using the cost breakdown structure, an element of life cycle cost analysis. Finally, economic evaluation of the filtered factors was performed to show the benefits associated with implementing maintenance. The result shows that while investment on maintenance implementation might be a cost at the earlier stage of implementation because it is hard to measure and follow up its impact on company’s business. Nevertheless, its role in improving company productivity profitability is indispensable. Thus, maintenance is a profit centre rather than a cost centre.

Thailand possesses high potential for solar energy, which has been given more attention from both government and the private sector lately. While the major investment in solar energy has gradually shifted from governments to private sectors, this paper aims to compare private investment's net present value (NPV) and production risks of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) projects. The scope of this paper includes PV projects on three different scales: 3 kW, 5 MW and 73 MW installed capacity in 74 locations across Thailand. The study utilizes RETscreen software to estimate means and variability in electricity productions in Thailand. Cost-benefit analysis is the method used to measure projects’ NPV and profitability, while portfolio theory is applied to capture the profit variability or production risk. The analysis also includes 3 feed-in-tariff (FIT or adder) scenarios that are likely to happen in the solar energy policy in Thailand; which are 8 baht/kWh, 6.5 baht/kWh and the case where there is no support at all. The study finds that 3 kW PV projects yield negative NPV, which means investment losses, in all scenarios and locations in the country. On the other hand, 5 MW PV projects result in positive NPV in all scenarios and locations and it is concluded to be the most profitable scale among three. 73 MW PV projects are considered as policy dependenceas the projectsyield negative NPV without the supports. Sensitivity analysis shows that the costs of 3 kW projects have to reduce at least by 60% in order to turn the projects to profits. With respect to allocation of risk, the production risks of 73 MW projects are slightly higher compared to the other two scales. Also, it is shown that the technologies located in north of Thailand have higher production risks, but yield approximately the same expected net benefits as technologies located in the rest of the country. As for conclusions, the future of PV technology in Thailand is still bright, but the investors should intensely consider about scale and location of the implementation. Further researches can examine other scales of PV technology and the drives behind the risk characteristics in Thailand.

Pricing is a complex yet important process that has a large influence on profitability; however few managers utilize pricing as a strategy to increase competitive advantage. The potential of pricing based on specific customer’s needs should be acknowledged, since it is beneficial for the customers by allowing them to recognize the true value of a product. It is also beneficial for marketers since they can present the price in the content of a total solution tailored for those customer needs. Even though a value-based pricing strategy is considered superior to alternative pricing strategies, few companies practice it. The limited amount of researches that has been conducted in the field of value-based pricing strategies has revealed various obstacles in the implementation phase. However, it is still not proved that these obstacles can be found in all industries. The purpose of this thesis is to present research in the field of pricing, by adding to prior research, practical observations on obstacles when implementing a value-based pricing strategy. A qualitative case study at Volvo Construction Equipment in Sweden was conducted and the results show similarities with prior researches. However additional obstacles were identified and further evidence from this study stresses the importance of possessing fundamental knowledge about value-based pricing strategies; as it impacts a company’s ability to implement it successfully and entirely. Therefore this thesis includes the fundamental knowledge and describes how obstacles connected to the concept are perceived in practice. Further a managerial framework is provided to help companies interested in implementing value-based pricing strategies.

Frågeställning: På vilket sätt används CRM av Handelsbanken och hur påverkar det bankens lönsamhet? Syfte: Syftet med detta arbete är att kunna öka kunskapen om hur Handelsbanken tillämpar CRM och för att undersöka om användandet av CRM i bankens verksamhet är lönsamt eller inte. Metod: För att svara på studiens syfte blev en intervju utförd med Handelsbanken. Ännu en anledning till varför en intervju gjordes var på grund av att det var nödvändigt för att få det primärdata som behövdes och för att förstå hur banken använder sig utav CRM. Information blev även hämtat från olika källor såsom litteratur, internet och databaser. Slutsats: Slutsatsen med detta arbete är att Handelsbanken har gynnats av att använda sig utav CRM och att fördelarna är fler än nackdelarna då det inte finns några nackdelar med Handelsbankens användande av CRM. CRM skapar alltså lönsamhet och är något som banken bör fortsätta använda sig utav i framtiden då det gynnar företaget positivt. / Research question: In which way does Handelsbanken use CRM and how does it affect their profitability? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge of how Handelsbanken implements CRM and to examine if the implementation of CRM is profitable or not. Method: An interview with Handelsbanken was performed in order to answer the purpose of the study. Another reason why an interview was performed was because it was necessary to obtain primary data and to understand how the bank uses CRM. Information was also obtained by searching through different sources such as literature, internet, and databases. Conclusion: The conclusion of this study is that the use of CRM has been in favor for Handelsbanken. The bank has obtained more advantages than disadvantages using CRM because the bank has not experienced any disadvantages at all. The conclusion is therefore that CRM creates profitability and it is something that Handelsbanken should continue to use because it affects the company in a positive way.