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<p>In the process of Chinese central companies’ restructuring, the strategic merger is becoming the popular trend nowadays. The thesis chooses a specific case of Shanghai International Port Group (hereafter referred to SIPG) stock swap absorption merging Shanghai Port Container Company (hereafter referred to SPCC) which is the listed subsidiary company of SIPG for initial public offering in the whole happened in 2006. From the two aspects of financial indicators and market reaction, the thesis uses the method of financial analysis and event study analysis to do the value-added research about the case. One purpose of the research is to measure the current and follow-up value-added at and after the merger. Another purpose of the research is to find whether the value-added measured is abnormal or reflects the true intrinsic value.</p><p>In this paper, the Economic Value-added (hereafter referred to EVA), the Market Value-added (hereafter referred to MVA) and the Future Growth Value (hereafter referred to FGV) are used to measure the current and follow-up value added at and after the stock swap absorption merger between SIPG and SPCC. Through the research on the pivotal time point, the horizontal comparison of the EVA, MVA and FGV in the same time point and the vertical comparison of the value-added among different time points are taken respectively, which puts the emphasis on the research of the value-added before and after the merger in 2006 (2005, 2006) and the follow-up two years value-added after merger (2007, 2008).The analysis finds that both the economic value-added and the market value-added after the merger are above zero. The research shows that the market value-added is far more than the economic value-added and the future growth value has high proportion in the market value, which indicates the market value-added is more caused by the market anticipation than the incremental true intrinsic value and the economic value.</p><p>In this paper, event research method is used to do the research about the market response / reaction on the stock swap absorption merger between SIPG and SPCC. The event study which is based on the historical data of stock transactions chooses the appropriate event window, observes the change of stock price, calculates the abnormal return (hereafter referred to AR) and cumulative abnormal return (hereafter referred to CAR), and then detects whether the market value-added of listed company is abnormal or not. The study concludes that the market has the positive reaction about share swap absorption merger between SIPG and SPCC. The event of share swap merger can assuredly bring short-term abnormal value-added.</p><p>Finally, through combining the research findings and focusing on the value-added of companies before and after the merger, the thesis proposes some suggestions to the value manager of companies from financial management, corporate strategy, market tactics and information asymmetry problem which can help value managers to realize the companies’ goal of maximizing the value.</p>

This study focuses on the variability of Canadian's value added meat purchase patterns by animal species, by level of processing, by branding and by grocery store chains. The results highlight that meat price, advertising and household socio-demographic characteristics and regional segments are strongly related to meat demand. The findings also indicate that there is no one correct pattern of meat product development across animal products from different species. In addition grocery store meat purchase exhibits little store loyalty most households purchase meat at more than one store chain regularly. The implications of the study suggest the importance of meat marketing segmentation by socioeconomic and household demographic factors in the development of marketing programs and product promotion for the food industry in general and meat industry to expand sales by targeting marketing strategies. Public health implications include the fact that habit persistence is important and likely an impediment to behaviour changes. / Agricultural and Resource Economics

Background and problem: As Internet usage has become increasingly common and important in our society it is crucial for companies to acknowledge the impact of online branding. As differences between products are decreasing it is no longer sufficient to compete solely on price or quality. Thus the importance of brands and branding is increasing. Even though branding is a heavily research topic, almost all research has been performed with consumer markets in mind, more or less ignoring industrial markets. This is done in spite of most markets being predominated by industrial firms. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how printer manufac-turers’ online brand messages can be perceived regarding functional benefits and representational satisfaction, and how this may affect the examined brands. Method: To fulfil our purpose we chose to conduct a qualitative method, since this would provide us with in-depth answers. To structure our study we created a questionnaire to use as an analysical tool for our examination of the selected companies. Conclusions: The conclusions drawn from this study are that printer manufacturers mainly emphasise the functional factors of their products to a large extent. Further, almost all brands of our sample can be perceived to be augmented ones. Of the few companies with highly developed brands, those with separate web sites for business and consumer buyers were in majority. Finally, since most printer manufacturers stress functionality the added-value of their brands is not as sustainable as it could be.

In the process of Chinese central companies’ restructuring, the strategic merger is becoming the popular trend nowadays. The thesis chooses a specific case of Shanghai International Port Group (hereafter referred to SIPG) stock swap absorption merging Shanghai Port Container Company (hereafter referred to SPCC) which is the listed subsidiary company of SIPG for initial public offering in the whole happened in 2006. From the two aspects of financial indicators and market reaction, the thesis uses the method of financial analysis and event study analysis to do the value-added research about the case. One purpose of the research is to measure the current and follow-up value-added at and after the merger. Another purpose of the research is to find whether the value-added measured is abnormal or reflects the true intrinsic value. In this paper, the Economic Value-added (hereafter referred to EVA), the Market Value-added (hereafter referred to MVA) and the Future Growth Value (hereafter referred to FGV) are used to measure the current and follow-up value added at and after the stock swap absorption merger between SIPG and SPCC. Through the research on the pivotal time point, the horizontal comparison of the EVA, MVA and FGV in the same time point and the vertical comparison of the value-added among different time points are taken respectively, which puts the emphasis on the research of the value-added before and after the merger in 2006 (2005, 2006) and the follow-up two years value-added after merger (2007, 2008).The analysis finds that both the economic value-added and the market value-added after the merger are above zero. The research shows that the market value-added is far more than the economic value-added and the future growth value has high proportion in the market value, which indicates the market value-added is more caused by the market anticipation than the incremental true intrinsic value and the economic value. In this paper, event research method is used to do the research about the market response / reaction on the stock swap absorption merger between SIPG and SPCC. The event study which is based on the historical data of stock transactions chooses the appropriate event window, observes the change of stock price, calculates the abnormal return (hereafter referred to AR) and cumulative abnormal return (hereafter referred to CAR), and then detects whether the market value-added of listed company is abnormal or not. The study concludes that the market has the positive reaction about share swap absorption merger between SIPG and SPCC. The event of share swap merger can assuredly bring short-term abnormal value-added. Finally, through combining the research findings and focusing on the value-added of companies before and after the merger, the thesis proposes some suggestions to the value manager of companies from financial management, corporate strategy, market tactics and information asymmetry problem which can help value managers to realize the companies’ goal of maximizing the value.

The market of today consist of products/services who resemble each other, the differences are small. Their for it’s necessary for the companies to provide added values to the product so it will stand out from the rest of the products and lead to purchase. A well used strategy in the fashion industry is marketing with celebrities, this is considered successful because it brings attention and strengthening to the brand. Because of this, the strategy also branch out to other industries, but the question is if it’s as successful there? There’s also a serious down-side with the strategy and that is that there’s a great risk with using celebrities. These could, of different reasons, be dangerous for the companies and cause large amount of costs. This is something that the companies must respect. This thesis aims to describe and compare why companies use celebrities in their commercials to strengthening their brand. It will also examine the procedure of the companies choice of celebrity and contingent risks that may emerge of the strategy. The writers have chosen a corporate management perspective and their for the customer perspective will not be brought up. The study has been realized with a qualitative study, totaly eight marketing managers at different companies, within different industries where interviewed. With a helping hand from the theories, the authors have succeeded to answer the study’s question. The main theory were brand identity. After that the empirical data has been analyzed with help from the theories, the authors have reached following conclusions. The ultimate reason why companies co-operate with celebrities are to create attention and to increase the knowledge of the brand. The celebrity can be useful by many different reasons, no matter what goals or effects the companies want to achieve, the strategy is considered successful. Companies first choice of celebrity is someone who can represent the identity that the company wants to be associated with, for example different values. In general, companies don’t reflect much about the risks that may appear. / Dagens marknad består till stor del av produkter/tjänster som liknar varandra, skillnaderna är ofta små. Därför krävs det att företagen tillför ett mervärde till produkten som gör att den sticker ut från mängden, vilket i sin tur ska leda till köp. En välanvänd strategi inom klädbranschen är marknadsföring med kändisar, denna anses vara framgångsrik eftersom den ger stor uppmärksamhet och stärker varumärket. Av denna anledning har även strategin spritt sig till andra branscher, men frågan är om den är lika lyckosam även där? Det finns dock en allvarlig baksida med strategin och det är att det finns stora risker med att använda sig av kändisar. Dessa kan av olika anledningar vara till skada för företaget och orsaka stora kostnader. Detta är något företagen måste ha i beaktning. Syftet är att beskriva och jämföra varför företag använder sig av kända personer för att stärka sitt varumärke. Dessutom kommer det att undersökas hur företag går tillväga i sitt val av kändis samt vilka eventuella risker som kan uppstå med denna marknadsföringsstrategi. Författarna har valt att utgå från ett ledningsperspektiv och därför kommer inte kundperspektivet att belysas. Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ ansats, totalt intervjuades åtta stycken marknadschefer på olika företag inom olika branscher. Med hjälp av teorier inom området så har författarna lyckats besvara forskningsfrågan. Huvudteorin var brand identity. Efter att den empiriska data analyserats med hjälp av teorierna så har författarna kommit fram till följande slutsatser. Den främsta anledningen till att företag använder sig av kändisar är för att skapa uppmärksamhet och öka kännedomen om varumärket. Kändisen kan användas i marknadsföring av många olika anledningar, oavsett vilka mål företaget har och vilka effekter man vill uppnå, strategin anses vara lyckosam oavsett mål. Företag väljer i första hand en kändis som kan representera det som företaget vill förknippas med, till exempel olika värden eller ledord. Generellt sett så tar företag lätt på de risker som kan uppstå när de använder sig av en kändis i sin reklam.

Taxable persons’ right to deduct input VAT is an integral part of the VAT system and may in principle not be limited. Carousel schemes deprive the Member States a great deal of tax revenue, investigations show that up to EUR 100 billion disap-pear every year. In order to stop these trading arrangements and reduce the big amount of tax revenue which disappears every year, some Member States would like to deny traders involved in carousel frauds the right to deduct the input VAT. It exist different opinions regarding taxable persons’ ability to deduct input VAT when involved in carousel frauds. The ECJ has given judgements in three interest-ing cases dealing with the right to deduct in case of carousel fraud. In the Optigen case, it was established that taxable persons who do not know or have any reason to believe that they are involved in a carousel fraud cannot be denied the right to deduct the input VAT. In the FTI case, it was concluded that taxable persons in-volved in carousel frauds can be jointly and severally liable to pay the VAT to-gether with the person, actually liable to pay the VAT. A precondition for making a taxable person jointly and severally liable is that the taxable person has to be aware or should have been aware that the transaction made, was involved in such a scheme. If the taxable person did not know or had no reason to suspect this, he cannot be made jointly and severally liable. The ruling in the Kittel case confirms the Optigen judgement as well as concludes that when a taxable person is aware or should have been aware that he is involved in a carousel scheme, he is not enti-tled to deduct the input VAT. If this is the case, it is possible for the tax authori-ties in the different Member States to deny taxable persons this right as well as claim a refund. These judgements clarify when the national tax authorities can deny a taxable per-son the right to deduct input VAT when the transactions are made in a chain of fraud. However, another problem occurred, it is up to the national courts to de-cide when a taxable person should be aware that he is involved in a carousel fraud. This decision shall be based upon objective factors, no guidelines or any other help as to what these objective factors should consist of have been published. This creates an interpretation gap for the national courts followed by the risk of having an outcome with different interpretations from the courts in the Member States. / Den avdragsrätt som beskattningsbara personer besitter utgör en oskiljaktig del av mervärdesskattesystemet och kan därför i princip inte inskränkas. Karusellhandel berövar medlemsstaterna på stora mängder skatteinkomster. Olika undersökning-ar visar att upp till 100 miljarder euro försvinner varje år till följd av karusellbe-drägerier. Vissa medlemsstater vill kunna neka avdragsrätt för beskattningsbara personer som är inblandade i olika typer av karusellhandel som ett försök att stoppa dessa arrangemang och för att minska de skatteintäkter som årligen förlo-ras. Det finns olika åsikter om möjligheten att neka avdragsrätt för beskattningsbara personer involverade i karusellhandel. EG-domstolen har avkunnat domar i tre in-tressanta mål som rör avdragsrätten vid karusellhandel. I Optigen målet fastställ-des att beskattningsbara personer som inte vet eller har någon anledning att miss-tänka att de är inblandade i en karusellhandel inte kan bli nekade att dra av den in-gående mervärdesskatten. I FTI målet drogs slutsatsen att beskattningsbara per-soner involverade i karusellhandel kan bli solidariskt betalningsansvariga för sälja-rens mervärdesskatteskuld. Förutsättningen för att sådant ansvar skall kunna åläg-gas är att den beskattningsbara personen visste eller hade skälig anledning att misstänka att han var involverad i ett karusellbedrägeri. Däremot kan en beskatt-ningsbar person som inte visste eller hade skälig anledning att misstänka att han var inblandad i ett karusellbedrägeri inte åläggas solidariskt betalningsansvar. Do-men i Kittel målet bekräftar Optigen domen samtidigt som den fastställer att be-skattningsbara personer som medvetet eller som haft skälig anledning att misstän-ka att han är inblandad i ett karusellbedrägeri kan förlora avdragsrätten. Om så är fallet kan följaktligen de nationella skattemyndigheterna neka avdragsrätt för en beskattningsbar person samt kräva en återbetalning av redan utbetalad mervärdes-skatt. Dessa domar klarlägger när de nationella skattemyndigheterna kan neka en be-skattningsbar person avdragsrätten när en transaktion är genomförd i samband med ett karusellbedrägeri. Ett annat problem uppstod dock eftersom det är upp till de nationella domstolarna att bestämma när en beskattningsbar person skall ha skälig anledning att misstänka att han är involverad i ett karusellbedrägeri. Detta beslut ska baseras på objektiva faktorer, det finns emellertid inga riktlinjer eller annan hjälp att ta till för att bestämma vad dessa objektiva faktorer skall vara. Det-ta skapar ett tolkningsproblem för de nationella domstolarna, vilket kan resultera i olika tolkningar mellan medlemsstaterna.

Competition in the logistics service industry has constantly increased over the last decades which has lead to the traditional services offered by third-party logistics (TPL) providers becoming commodities and no longer offering attractive profit margins. When the company’s core product becomes a commodity, the company’s performance of supplementary services becomes vital for competitive advantage. The term “value-added service” is defined as a service adding extra feature, form or functions to the basic service and stands for all types of activities which are not directly based on services traditionally offered by TPL providers, i.e., transportation and warehousing. The term value-added service is mainly used in the logistics literature while supplementary service is used in the service management literature. Although value-added services can offer obvious advantages in form of customer lock-in and improved competitive advantage, such services are still offered at a low level and there is much space for development. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how TPL firms develop value-added services and to investigate what the driving forces and barriers for developing and providing such services are. In the frame of reference, literature within service management, outsourcing, third-party logistics, value-added services, innovation and learning have been used. In the thesis, an inductive research approach is used and qualitative study has been carried out by applying multiple case studies as a research strategy. The empirical material is gathered from three TPL providers: Bring Logistics Solutions, Aditro Logistics and Schenker Logistics. Data was collected through several interviews conducted at the three target companies and the findings have been analysed using the existing theory stated in the frame of reference. The main conclusions from analysing the development process of value-added services are that this process in most cases is initiated by customer request and that development of value-added service can occur both in the beginning or during an ongoing relationship, though a lack of information about a customer’s business in the beginning of the relationship can hinder the TPL provider to develop value-added services. Apart from the TPL provider and the customer, firms such as IT companies, transport suppliers and other companies can be involved in the development process. No formal innovation process is applied for developing value-added services. The main driving force behind value-added services is meeting customer demands. Lack of proactiveness from the TPL provider’s side can be a barrier for developing value-added services, as well as problems with achieving successful organizational learning. The difficulty for the TPL firm to coordinate offering so many different services can be also seen as a barrier.

Experiences have become a new trend within the world economy today and a new way to add value to companies. A new economy is emerging named the Experience Economy. The customers’ demands of experiences are increasing and companies need to satisfy these demands and adapt them-selves to this emerging economy. The Experience Economy is today the fastest growing industry in Sweden and has grown steadily during the last decade. The Experience Economy is something that needs to be adapted within all industries in the society and is seen as the key factor towards economic success. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study how Swedish compa-nies have implemented experiences in the society and give future recommendations for their industries. Frame of reference: In this section theories and definitions regarding the Experience Economy from a producer perspective are presented. The theoretical frame does also contain the evolvement, culture, design and added value of experiences in today’s society. Method: In order to answer the purpose of the thesis a qualitative method has been utilized. The data collection contains of 14 companies within 13 sections of industries providing experiences in the Swedish market. Conclusion: The results presents the spreading of experiences in the Swedish society, the industries that are better suited for the Experience Economy and further more the future aspects of the development of this economy. / Upplevelser har utvecklats till att bli en ny trend inom världsekonomin idag. Denna trend är sedd som ett nytt sätt att generera mervärde till företag. En ny ekonomi har uppkommit vid namn Upplevelseekonomi. Konsumenterna idag efterfrågar mer upplevelser vilket företagen måste tillfredsställa. Upplevelseekonomin är idag den snabbaste växande industri i Sverige och har ökat under det senaste årtiondet. Upplevelseekonomin är något som är nödvändigt att implementeras inom alla samhällets industrier och ses idag som nyckeln till ekonomisk framgång. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera hur svenska företag har implementerat upplevelser i det svenska samhället och vidare ge framtida rekommendationer för de olika industri-erna. Referensram: I denna del presenteras teorier och definitioner rörande Upplevelseekonomin från ett producent perspektiv. Refe-rensramen innehåller även utvecklingen, kulturen, designen och mervärdet av upplevelser i dagens samhälle. Metod: För att genomföra syftet av denna uppsats på bästa sätt har en kvalitativ ansats valts. Insamlad data består av 14 företag inom 13 industrier som tillhör Upplevelseindustrin i Sverige. Slutsats: Resultatet visar spridningen av upplevelser inom det svenska samhället, industrier som visat sig vara bättre lämpad för Upplevelseekonomin, samt framtida aspekter.

Problem area and purpose Nowadays, 2006, the downloading of music and movies is an increasingly more burning issue. But while the music industry has made great progress in using the Internet as a distribution channel the film industry has been at a standstill for several years. Recently however there has been progress in the form of a few film companies beginning to offer their customers legal ways to acquire films over the Internet. But with this progress one central question arises, which this report will try to answer; what are the important factors for selling films as the Internet moves from primarily being a information channel to also functioning as a distribution channel? The purpose is to examine what the consumers find important when purchasing film, and to establish to what degree there is a substitution effect between DVDs and downloadable films. Method The report is first and foremost based on an Internet survey with a total of 383 participants. The respondents are divided into two separate selections, the first consisting of people already with a genuine interest in film (both watching and purchasing) and the second selection consisting of people with a more average interest. To get a wider perspective, but also to get an in-depth view of the business, we interviewed a Swedish journalist with strong connections both with the film companies and with the consumers. Theory The survey is based on three theoretical concepts; added value, differentiation and substitution. Together these concepts form two variables, Inclination to purchase DVD and Inclination to pay for downloading. Depending on the respondents’ answers to the survey, different values are given the variables, which in turn shows how inclined the different groups are to substitute DVD with downloaded films. Result and conclusion The report’s result shows that the first selection is not very inclined to replace DVDs with downloaded films, while the second selection shows slightly more interest. In conclusion, the most important factors for the consumers when, or rather if, downloading films are low price and an easy and functional system. When looking at the industry today this is not what the companies are offering the consumers, which puts the film industry’s role as Internet distributor in question.