Sammanfattning Examensarbete i företagsekonomi, Internationella handelshögskolan i Jönköping, Revision, Magisteruppsats, VT 2011. Författare: Caroline Lillevang & Anna Norrsell Karlsson Handledare: Gunnar Rimmel & Fredrika Askenmalm Titel: Oligopolets fall? – En analys av EU kommissionens förslag till att lösa upp revisions- och rådgivnings-branschens marknadskoncentration Bakgrund och Problem: Enligt den utgivna Grönboken är det nödvändigt för den finansiella stabiliteten att re-visions- och rådgivningsbranschen och dess marknadsstruktur utvecklas. EU kommissionen vill lösa upp mark-nadskoncentrationen och diskuterar bland annat ett införande av krav på gemensam revision för större bolag samt krav på byrårotation. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka huruvida Grönbokens förslag är rätt väg att gå för att uppfylla EU kommissionens önskan om att förändra revisions- och rådgivningsbranschens marknadsstruktur. Avgränsningar: Studien berör EU kommissionens Grönbok Revisionspolitik: Lärdomar från krisen. Avgräns-ningar är gjorda till frågor rörande den omdiskuterade marknadskoncentrationen inom revisions- och rådgiv-ningsbranschen med fokus på frågorna gällande förslag om gemensam revision samt byrårotation. Studien har även valts att avgränsas till hur Sveriges sex största revisionsbyråer ställer sig till EU kommissionens framtagna förslag i den utgivna Grönboken. Metod: Studien har ett kvalitativt angreppssätt och primär data har samlats in genom personliga intervjuer. Resultat och slutsatser: Författarna finner att EU kommissionens förslag inte kommer ge det utfall som ämnas uppnå. Vidare anser marknadens aktörer att ett utvidgande av lagen inte är rätt väg att gå för att lösa upp den rå-dande marknadskoncentrationen, utan anser att fokus bör läggas på att minska existerande etableringshinder och därigenom låta marknadsekonomin själv styra. Förslag till vidare forskning: I november år 2011 kommer uppföljningsåtgärder att presenteras av EU kommis-sionen och om förslagen rörande obligatorisk byrårotation samt gemensam revision införs kan intressant forsk-ning göras kring de faktiska utfallen. Vidare förslag på fortsatt forskning är att utifrån intressenters perspektiv undersöka behovet av att lösa upp marknadskoncentrationen samt hur de ser på de givna förslagen. I april 2010 presenterades ytterligare en Grönbok inom bolagsstyrning, vilken hotar den väl fungerande bolagsstyrningen i Sverige. Något som gör den Grönboken intressant att studera är att frågor rörande aktieägarnas delaktighet är centrala, vilket också diskuterats i den aktuella studien.Nyckelord: Marknadskoncentration, ”too big to fail”, byrårotation & gemensam revision.

Sambandet mellan personlighet och arbetssökande beteende har mestadels undersökts bland studenter tidigare. Denna studie undersökte om känslomässig instabilitet påverkade sättet att söka arbete hos 123 arbetssökande icke-studenter mellan 20-65 år. Enkäten som användes bestod av Personality Questionnaire (Bäccman & Carlstedt, 2010), som mäter personligheten utifrån femfaktorsmodellen, samt Job Search Behavior (Blau, 1994), som mäter förberedande och aktiva arbetssökande beteenden. Det fanns ett samband mellan känslomässig instabilitet och båda arbetssökande beteenden. Känslomässig instabilitet kunde dock inte ensam predicera vilket arbetssökande beteende individer väljer, men tillsammans med ålder kunde känslomässig instabilitet predicera förberedande arbetssökande, och ålder kunde även ensamt predicera förberedande arbetssökande. Ålder kan vara en bättre prediktor än känslomässig instabilitet för arbetssökande beteende i en svensk population. / The relationship between personality and job search behavior has mostly been investigated among students before. This study investigated if neuroticism affected job search behaviors for 123 unemployed non-students between 20-65 years. The survey used consisted of Personality Questionnaire (Bäccman & Carlstedt, 2010), measuring personality based on the five-factor model, and Job Search Behavior (Blau, 1994), measuring preparatory and active job search behaviors. There was a relationship between neuroticism and both job search behaviors. Neuroticism alone could, however, not predict which job search behavior individuals choose, but along with age neuroticism could predict preparatory job search, and age could even solely predict preparatory job search. Age may be a better predictor than neuroticism for job search behavior in a Swedish population.

A field guide is always a handy, but rare, little document, especially for a secondary educator. Therefore, the purpose of this project was to research, develop, write and present this document, for the Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve. The University of California Natural Reserve System oversees thirty-six multi-acre, natural reserves. One part of the overall mission of these reserves is an educational outreach program in which curriculum is made available to the school systems. The curriculum is to be used to educate the students about each specific reserve area, to engage students in learning about their environment and to create an awareness of the need for conservation of wild areas. The final products from this research are a secondary-level geology guidebook, for students, with suggested classroom and in-field lessons, specifically written for the Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve, Big Sur, California, along with a revised and updated geologic map of the Reserve and a teaching rock collection, for use at the Reserve. / text

Despite its close proximity to downtown, East Austin is one of the underprivileged and under-developed areas in the City of Austin. Ethnic minorities and low-income persons in inner-city areas often lack access to big box retail due to these stores being disproportionately located outside of their neighborhoods. The aim of this study is to identify the current accessibility of big box retail for East Austin’s residents in order to confirm the potential impacts of big box retail growth on minority and lowincome populations. Using GIS-based network analysis, it is possible to measure whether the residents in East Austin have equal access to big box retail stores, as compare to other Austin areas. Although residents in East Austin have greater accessibility to other neighborhood-type retail like drug stores, small-format value stores, and supermarkets, they must travel farther to access community-type retail like home improvement stores,department stores, large-format value stores. Moreover, these populations have access to fewer cars, and must rely on public transit. Socio-economic characteristics of East Austin include a high percentage of individuals living below the poverty line, high disability rates, low to no vehicle ownership, and high percentages of female headed households. Finally, the study proposes new mixed-use, mixed-income development models as a way to improve retail access to minority and low-income population. / text

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between students’ academic motivation and personality in different classes at a university in central Sweden. The study was conducted on students of economics and nursing, who were asked to answer a paper questionnaire. The questionnaire of consisted two parts, the first part was a TIPI test which measured personality traits using the Big Five theory and the second part was an AMS test that measured academic motivation. A total of 106 students participated in the study, including 50 from economics and 56 from nursing. The main result showed that the strongest significant correlation was between the personality trait conscientiousness and internal motivation. This relationship was found to completely rely on the nursing students replies, giving an indication that the nursing students who were self-disciplined and targeted were motivated by internal factors. This relationship was not found in the replies from the economics students. There was some difference between the two study specializations. / Syftet med studien var att undersöka förhållandet mellan akademisk motivation och personlighet hos studenter med olika studieinriktningar på en högskola i Mellansverige. Studien genomfördes på studenter från ekonom- och sjuksköterskeprogrammet som fick besvara en pappersenkät. Enkäten bestod av två delar, varav den första var ett TIPI-test som mätte personlighetsdimensioner med hjälp Big Five-teorin och den andra var ett AMS-test som mätte akademisk motivation. Totalt deltog 106 studenter i undersökningen, varav 50 från Ekonomprogrammet och 56 från Sjuksköterskeprogrammet. Huvudresultatet visade att det starkaste signifikant sambandet var mellan personlighetsdimensionen samvetsgrannhet och intern motivation. Detta samband visade sig helt bäras av sjuksköterskestudenternas svar, vilket gav en indikation på att de sjuksköterskestudenter som var självdisciplinerade och målinriktade motiverades av interna faktorer. Detta samband återfanns över huvudtaget inte hos ekonomstudenterna. Det förelåg en viss skillnad mellan de två olika studieinriktningarna.

<p>Mentoring has gained a great deal of popularity across various professional fields and disciplines over the past few years. More recently, planned mentoring has become an important form of intervention with young people (Philip, 2003). Although mentoring can be an effective strategy for dealing with youth, the mentoring is only as good as the relationship that develops out of the process between mentors and mentees and the match that is made between the two parties. The number of mentor programmes that is running continues to grow yet the quality of these programmes remains unknown as this area lacks agreed upon sets of standards and / bench marks that could be used to determine the effectiveness of these programmes (Sipe, 1988 -1995). The primary aim of this study is to evaluate the mentors&rsquo / perceptions of the effectiveness of a mentor training programme run by Big Brother Big Sister South Africa.</p>

The objective of this research, conducted between November 1972 and March 1974, was to determine the effects of pollution on the benthic macroinvertebrates of Big Lick Creek. Big Lick Creek, a tributary of the Mississinewa River, is located in east central Indiana and has a permanent length of about 32.2 km. Sewage and industrial waste from the cities of Dunkirk and Hartford City are discharged into this stream.The composition and distribution of macroinvertebrate populations, collected with artificial substrate samplers, were used to determine the extent of stream pollution. Samplers consisted of cylindrical barbecue baskets (28 x 18 cm) filled with 12 concrete spheres 7.5 cm in diameter. Samplers anchored to the stream bed at five locations bracketed major sources of pollution. Chemical and physical determinations were performed to provide a general background for existing biological conditions.Significant chemical and bacteriological conditions encountered in the stream below the sewage effluents of Dunkirk and Hartford City, Indiana were as follow: (1) dissolved oxygen minima of 2 ppm or less; (2) free carbon dioxide maxima in excess of 60 ppm; (3) increases in nutrients such as the various forms of nitrogen and phosphate; and (4) drastic increases in fecal coliform densities.Twenty-six species of benthic macroinvertebrates were collected during the study with marked reductions in the number of species occurring below the effluents of Dunkirk and Hartford City. The average number of species occurring below these polluting effluents was 10.5 as compared to 22 farther downstream in recovery zones.Limiting and selective effects of organic pollution were indicated by the composition of the benthic community at each station. Tubificids, tolerant of excessive organic pollution and associated low dissolved oxygen levels, constituted more than 99 per cent of the benthic communities sampled below Dunkirk and Hartford City. Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri, L. udekemianus, and Tubifex tubifex were the dominant species. A maximum tubificid density of 13,050/m2 was obtained below Hartford City.Samples taken from a recovery zone 14.8 km downstream from Dunkirk and a corresponding zone 10.1 km below Hartford City showed more diverse fauna. In the recovery zone below Dunkirk, species other than tubificid represented 17 per cent of the total number of invertebrates collected. In the analogous zone below Hartford City, these species constituted 89 per cent of the total taken. Chironomid larvae comprised 13 per cent of the total obtained in the recovery zone downstream from Dunkirk, and 89 per cent in the similar zone below Hartford City. Chironomus was the dominant chironomid genus.All species collected, in numbers sufficient to be considered, were members of an indicator association (Gaufin 1958) characteristic of organically enriched environments. According to the pollution classification system of Goodnight and Whitley (1961), Stations 1 through 4 were heavily polluted and Station 5 was in good condition.

Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur företag, med hjälp av den moderna alltmer avancerade och utvecklade teknologin, systematiskt kartlägger konsumenternas köpbeteenden, genom s.k. business intelligence. Uppsatsen ämnar ta reda på hur teknologin appliceras hos företag samt hur och i vilken mån den data som samlas in används för att få konsumenter till önskade köpbeslut. Teori: Arbetets teoretiska kärna utgörs dels av ett teoretiskt ramverk, i vilket redogörs för business intelligence, samt ett avsnitt där teorier om konsumenternas köpbeteende presenteras. Metod: Arbetet har sin metodologiska utgångspunkt i en kvalitativ forskningsansats där fokus ligger på semistrukturerade intervjuer. För att besvara forskningsfrågorna har ett djupgående angreppssätt används. Empiri: Intervjuer med respondenter, i form av ämnesspecifik expertis, från IBM Sverige, HUI Research och Coop Sverige AB har genomförts. Resultat: Resultatet som presenteras i undersökningen visar på att konsumentförståelse i huvudsak genereras ur kundkortsdatan vilken fungerar som såväl informationsinsamlare som relationsskapare. Utöver det finns det ett växande intresse för kartläggning av rörelsemönster i butik. Vidare påvisar resultatet att det föreligger en problematik vad gäller resursutnyttjandet av data vilket främst grundar sig på att företag inte förmår att utnyttja den insamlade datan på effektivt sätt, något som bl.a. förklaras av såväl en resurs- som integritetsmässig problematik. Slutsats: Studien visar att den teknologiska utvecklingen har medgett en datainsamling större än vad som i många fall kan hanteras och utnyttjas på ett för verksamheter och organisationer maximalt sätt. Företag utnyttjar inte den data de har tillgång till i proportion till den kapacitet som de teknologiska verktyg man har för datainsamling besitter. / Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how companies, with the help of advanced and developed technology, are able to understand consumer buying behavior through so called business intelligence. The purpose is also to find out how this technology is applied within the companies and the extent to which data is gathered in order to lead get consumers to desired purchasing decisions Theory: The theoretical core consists partly of a theoretical framework that describes business intelligence, as well as a section in which theories of consumer buying behavior is presented. Method: The thesis has its methodological basis on a qualitative research approach where focus is pointed at semi-structured interviews. A profound approach has been used to answer the research question. Data: Interviews has been conducted with topic-specific expertise, the respondents are from the following companies: IBM Sverige, HUI Research and Coop Sverige AB. Result: The results presented in the thesis show that the understanding companies have of consumer behavior mainly are extracted from data that loyalty cards can produce. The information from these cards can be collected in order to build a better relationship with the customers. Beyond that, there is a growing interest in identifying patterns of customer movement in stores. Furthermore, the results indicate that there is a problem concerning utilization of data resource, which mainly is based on the fact that companies are not able to utilize the data collected in an efficient manner which partly can be explained by problems concerning effective utilization of resources as well as the privacy concerns of customers. Conclusion: The study shows that technological improvements have made it possible to obtain a larger amount of data than most companies are able to utilize in an efficient way. Companies do not use the data they have access to in proportion to the capacity of the technological tools the companies possesses making it possible to obtain large amount of data.

Since 2007 the American sitcom the Big Bang Theory has spread throughout the world. With its twenty million watchers it is one of the most popular sitcoms of our time. The starting point for this essay is that the humourus series with the more or less geeky main characters is more than just entertainment - it is a part of the mediatization of religion. This means that media is affecting the recipients’ view on religion in general and the personal religion. As we watch TV, we get socialized into how to act in our every day life. In this case, it is about religion depicted as entertainment. Through a film analysis of a number of selected scenes from the first three seasons of the series, this essay stresses the representation of the religious traditions Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and religion in general. On the basis of etnocentrism, exitocism and a differentiation between religious praxis and religious beliefs my conclution is that Jews are portrayed in a very ”modern” and secular way, Christians are narrow-minded and quite stupid and Hindus are doing strange rituals and believe in very unreasonable phenomena. Religion in general is portrayed as something accepted but it should be rational and religous practice has its own time and place.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-109).