The goal of this Masters Thesis is to analyse economic value added generated by non-financial companies listed on Prague stock exchange. Main goal is not only to calculate the amount of economic value added, but also to compare results of two economic models used to specify Re (Minimal required return of companys own capital), necessary to calculate economic value added. Next goal is to analyze link between economic value added and stock price. Correlation between this two parameters would be a sign of possibility to predict future stock price in dependance on generated economic value added. For this Masters thesis, It is important to have all balance sheets, P/L statements and stock market data for all selected corporations. All these informations were exported from database Thomson Reuters Eikon available on University of economics in Prague.

It is widely held that CEOs are central to the successful financial performance of companies. Yet, little attention has been given to the correlation between CEO tenure and financial performance of companies specifically. The purpose of this study was to determine whether CEO tenure has an impact on financial performance of companies in South Africa. The financial performance variables for the study were ROA and ROE. The performance of 30 JSE listed companies from three industries, namely, mining, retail and real estate, between 1995 to 2007 was examined. This gave a total of 62 data observations across the selected three tenure categories: short tenure (one to three years); medium tenure (four to five years); and long tenure (six or more years). The results showed that the average tenure for South African CEOs was four years; this was slightly lower than the findings of previous studies conducted in the USA. Medium and long tenure showed better financial performance for ROA than short tenure, while there was no statistically significant finding for ROE. Therefore from an ROA point of view, as tenure increases so does financial performance, until a certain point at which it is anticipated that lengthy tenure will lead to a decline in financial performance. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

This study examined the relationship between return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA), the business sector, and long-term performance of new firms 5 years after the initial public offer (IPO) date. IPOs have a high rate of delisting from stock exchanges, and understanding possible predictors of long-term performance will benefit business owners and investors. The purpose of this study was to determine if ROE and ROA are predictors of long-term performance of IPOs on U.S. stock exchanges. The research question examined whether there is a statically significant relationship between the ROE, ROA, business sector, and market capitalization of IPOs. This study followed a correlational design to analyze the research question and its hypotheses. Both shareholder theory and financial ratio models constituted the theoretical framework for this study; public databases provided all the historical financial data on publicly traded companies. The population for this study included all firms that pursued an IPO within the United States stock exchanges from January 2007 through December 2009. Using Spearman correlations, the results suggested no significant relationship between ROE and any business sector with market capitalization of IPOs. However, there was a significant correlation with ROA and market capitalization for these IPOs. The implications for positive social change in this study are new insights for leaders concerning the survivability and monetary gain for new firms entering the public market and the new firm's ability as a result of this gain to provide new jobs thereby improving the economy.

Background: During recent years, the growing attention to environmental, social, and governance factors (ESG) as a recognized sustainability performance measurement has led to that corporate participation in sustainable development as one of the main concerns among stakeholders. The Nordic countries have been outstanding leaders in terms of sustainability for years and consistently ranked excellent on ESG scores. The role of ESG and its effect on value creation has been widely discussed by academics and stakeholders, but the results differ. Purpose: This thesis aims to study the relationship between ESG scores and a firm’s performance in terms of ROE in Nordic countries between 2020 to 2022 and investigate whether investing in environmental innovation strengthens or weakens the correlation between the two variables. The study uses both stakeholder and shareholder theories to explain the results. Method: The linear regression models were conducted on data collected from Thomson Reuters Eikon’s database (2023) between 2020-2022 on 150 firm observations and 450 firm-year observations to fulfil the study's purpose. Conclusion: The findings show a significant positive relationship between ESG scores and ROE, but environmental innovation weakened this relationship. The conclusions were drawn that Nordic firms which take more value into sustainability practices, especially ESG scores, enhance their financial performance, which is supported by the stakeholder theory. But firms with higher ESG, which invest more in environmental innovation, wouldn't pay off through better financial performance in the short run. Furthermore, the results from statistical models for two dummy variables, year, and country, indicate that the relationship between ESG scores and financial performance is neither significantly affected by time nor significantly by Nordic countries.

Building on Lee Epstein et al. (2006) article “The Changing Dynamics of Senate Voting on Supreme Court Nominees”, this study seeks to explore the representation of ideological questions during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas and Brett M. Kavanaugh. As previous studies seek to explore the characteristics and political agenda of confirmation hearings, there is more to be discovered about the representation of ideological questions. In addition, more studies tend to explain the reasons why landmark decisions such as Roe v. Wade has managed to be overturned and scholars have demonstrated the need to study ideological polarization in the Supreme Court. To study overrulings and ideological polarization in the Supreme Court, this article explores the very beginning of the issue: the confirmation hearings of justices to the Supreme Court of the United States. By being attentive to the main themes of questions during the confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas and Brett M. Kavanaugh, this paper explores the representation of ideological questions versus questions of fact. This theoretical perspective facilitates the exploration of further studies regarding upcoming confirmation hearings. This article indicates the reliance on the theory of Lee Epstein et al., and claims that the previous confirmation hearings have a strong representation of ideological questions.

Divestitures have grown in importance and popularity over the years, rivaling other strategic transactions in mergers and acquisitions. The dominating opinion in academic research is that divestitures overall generate an abnormal return for the parent company stock. This thesis will focus on how Swedish companies perform in the short-term around the announcement of a divestiture. A multiple linear regression analysis finds significance for divestiture gains being attributed to companies focusing on core competencies and to companies with low returns on assets and high returns on equity. However, no significance is found for the size of the companies or financial distress. / Avknoppningar är idag en populär företagstransaktion. Den dominerade åsikten i den globala forskningen kring avknoppningar gör gällande att de generar en överavkastning för företaget i förhållande till marknaden. Denna kandidatuppsats ämnar undersöka vilka faktorer som kan påverka denna överavkastning genom att studera svenska företag på Nasdaq Stockholm. En multipel regressionsanalys visar att företag som säger sig utföra avknoppningar för att fokusera på kärnverksamheten generar en överavkastning. Vidare blir det en överavkastning på företag som har låg avkastning på totalt kapital och hög avkastning på eget kapital. Ingen verkan hittas dock för att storleken på företaget eller skuldstrukturen har en inverkan på överavkastningen.

Existing literature has identified mothers as the primary reproductive educators of their daughters and has determined mother-daughter conversations about reproduction to be an indicator of daughters’ sexual and reproductive behaviors. The overturning of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, had an immediate impact on the reproductive lives of many people, including daughters. Through one-on-one interviews with 10 daughters, this qualitative study identifies three changes in mother-daughter reproductive conversations that were influenced by the overturning of Roe v. Wade: (a) The initiation of conversations, (b) the topics of conversations, and (c) the tone of these conversations. The results of this thesis not only provide initial insight into how daughters felt that their conversations with their mothers about reproductive issues changed in the wake of this monumental event, but also have the potential to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the larger impact of the event itself.

The aim of this study is to analyze whether any media bias and framing can be observed in the U.S. news reporting surrounding the topic of the abortion debate. And if yes, how they are being presented to their respective audiences.For this, thirty articles have been analyzed in total; published respectively by Fox News and CNN in the timeframe of June 2021 until June 2023. This covers the time before, after, and during the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the law of Roe v. Wade. For the analysis I referred to Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, as well as the theories of framing and media bias. Additionally, the theory of hegemony was applied to the results. These theoretical concepts were accompanied by a combined paradigmatic approach of interpretivism and critical theory.The results of the analysis indicate that both news outlets present bias, framing, and hegemonic ideologies within their reporting. The content of Fox News showed a tendency of an anti-abortion stance in its rhetoric, utilizing frames concerning morality, freedom, politics, and the abortion industry. Meanwhile, CNN’s content tended to take an oppositional stance by utilizing pro-abortion rhetoric, as well as frames concerning harmful information, freedom, the danger of Conservatives, and politics. These findings led me to conclude that there are significant implications for media hegemony inherent in the reporting of both outlets.

Tick-borne encephalitis is a vector-borne zoonotic disease with more than 12,000 annual clinical reported cases globally (WHO, 2021). Tick-borne encephalitis is caused by the flavivirus and transferred by Ixodes ricinus from roe deer to human and affects the central Nervous system. Climate change also increases tick-borne encephalitis incidences in Sweden and fluctuated considerably from year to year. A quantitative study design with secondary data was conducted to analyze the spatial and temporal pattern of Tick-borne encephalitis in Sweden from 1986-2020. The distribution of Tick-borne encephalitis within age and sex, along with other factors were also analyzed. The results showed that Tick-borne encephalitis with passing each year spread across the country. Male and age group, 50-59, have more incidence of Tick-borne encephalitis. Incidents were associated with climate conditions such as temperature and precipitation, which provided a favorable environment for Ixodes ricinus for its lifecycle activities, host searching, and disease transmission. Roe deer population, other vertebrates abundance, vaccination, population interest, economy, and land change are the critical factors that facilitate the disease incidence or control. People who visit forests for hunting, trekking, leisure, and professional activities without proper immunity and preventive measures are at risk to infect with Tick-borne encephalitis. The theory One health approach showed suitable performance for the control of this vulnerable climate zoonotic disease.

This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between social sustainability and financial performance in Nordic large and mid-cap firms. Lately, there has been an increasing focus on ESG factors, however previous studies of the ESG factors’ relationship to financial performance have given mixed results. Moreover, in previous studies, the focus on social sustainability has fallen behind compared to the environmental and governance pillars. Therefore, the study analyses the relationship between the social pillar of ESG and financial performance, as well as the 4 social subcategories making up the social pillar. Thereby making the study a multi-ESG level study during the period 2018-2022. The study relies on a sample of 136 Nordic firms (123 for the ROE models) extracted from the LSEG database and tests the relationship between social sustainability and financial performance using nine panel regression models. Our findings are mixed, some showcasing negative, positive, and insignificant results. We find the social pillar of ESG to be a negative predictor of ROE, the social category of product responsibility was found to be a positive predictor of Tobin’s Q, and finally, the category of human rights was found to be a negative predictor of ROE. The other ESG variables were found to be insignificant as predictors of financial performance. The study thereby contributes to the research by investigating the under-researched pillar of sustainability, i.e. social sustainability, as well as shedding a light on the relationship in a Nordic context.