Bakgrund: CSR är ett omdiskuterat ämne som har blivit mer närvarande i dagens affärsvärld. Fler företag anammar CSR i deras verksamhetsstrategi men detta antas främst gälla för de större företagen. Det råder större okunskap om små och medelstora företagens CSR-arbete och den strategiska betydelsen av CSR för dem, speciellt för IT-företag som innehar en central roll i det svenska samhället.  Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att kartlägga huruvida CSR appliceras i verksamheten hos svenska små och medelstora IT-företag. Vidare består syftet av att analysera om det förekommer samband mellan CSR och den subjektiva samt finansiella prestationen, för att således få en djupare förståelse för dessa företagens CSR-arbete.  Metod: Studien har använt sig av en kvantitativ metod och med en deduktiv ansats. Studiens population består av 241 svenska små och medelstora IT-företag, varav 35 företag svarade på studiens enkätundersökning. Företagsinformation hämtades från databasen Amadeus och finansiella data om företagen blev inhämtad från årsredovisningar. Studien har använt sig av subjektiva såväl som objektiva mått. De statistiska dataanalysmodellerna som studien har använt sig av är bivariat analys, Friedmans ANOVA och PLS-SME.  Slutsats: Studien resultat visar att svenska små och medelstora IT-företag arbetar mest med de affärsmässiga dimensionerna som är den ekonomiska dimensionen och dimensionen om ansvar gentemot intressenterna, och få företag väljer att kommunicera ut deras arbete. Signifikanta samband hittades för både den ekonomiska och humanitära dimensionen i de två subjektiva prestationsmåtten. Studien bidrar med kunskap om små och medelstora IT-företagens CSR-arbete och den strategiska betydelsen av CSR för dem. / Background: CSR is a controversial topic that has become more present in today's business world. More companies are adopting CSR in their business strategy, but this is assumed to apply to larger companies mainly. There is greater ignorance about small and medium-si]ed companies' CSR work and the strategic importance of CSR for them, especially for IT companies that play a central role in Swedish society. Purpose: This study aims to map whether CSR is applied in the operations of Swedish small and medium-sized IT companies. Furthermore, the purpose consists of analyzing whether there is a connection between CSR and subjective and financial performance to gain a deeper understanding of these companies' CSR work. Methodology: This study has used a quantitative method and a deductive approach. The study population consists of 241 Swedish small and medium-sized IT companies, of which 35 companies responded to the study's survey. Company information was retrieved from the Amadeus database, and the companies' financial data was retrieved from annual reports. The study has used subjective as well as objective measures. The statistical data analysis model's bivariate analysis, Friedman's ANOVA, and PLS-SME were applied. Conclusion: The results show that Swedish small and medium-sized IT companies work primarily with business-like CSR, including the financial dimension and stakeholder dimensions, and few companies choose to communicate their work. Significant correlations were found for both the economic and philanthropic dimension in the two subjective performance measures. The study contributes knowledge about small and medium-sized IT companies' CSR work and the strategic importance of CSR for them.

Bakgrund och problem: Sverige är ett av de mest hållbarhets medvetna länderna i världen (Robecosam, 2021) med ett stort antal företag som prioriterar och rapporterar CSR-aktiviteter. Med det i åtanke är CSR ett växande intressant ämne vilket är ett omdiskuterat inom akademisk forskning, framförallt vilken effekt den har för företag som implementerar det. Vi valde att utforska vidare på detta i Sverige i förväntan av att se ett samband med förbättrat ekonomiskt resultat för de företag som engagerar sig i CSR.Syfte och bidrag: Föreliggande studie har syftet att undersöka vilken påverkan corporate social responsibility (CSR) har på corporate financial performance (CFP) hos svenska börsnoterade små- och medelstora företag under år 2019. Det forskningen är tänkt att bidra till är ökad förståelse för CSR och vilken betydelse det har för företag som implementerar det. De som kan dra nytta av den informationen är investerare, forskare och företag.Metod: Det valda metodvalet var multipel linjär regression med 1 oberoende variabel, vilket representerar CSR, och 3 kontrollvariabler. Den oberoende variabeln som användes var ESG. De kontrollvariabler som användes var kapitalstruktur, företagsstorlek och ålder. De valda beroende variabler var Return on equity (ROE), Return on assets (ROA) och Tobins Q vilket representerade finansiell prestation (CFP).Slutsats: Föreliggande studiens slutsats var att metodvalet visade sig vara insignifikant och därför kunde inte syftet visa om CSR påverkar CFP positivt. Det rekommenderas därför att använda andra metodval vid undersökning av CSR-CFP relationen hos små- och medelstora företag (SME) i framtida studier. / Background and problems: Sweden is one of the most sustainability-conscious countries in the world (Robecosam, 2021) with a large number of companies prioritizing and reporting CSR activities. With that in mind, CSR is a growing topic of interest which is debated within academic research, especially the effect it has on companies that implement it. We chose to explore this further in Sweden in the expectation of seeing a connection with improved financial results for the companies that engage in CSR.Purpose and contribution: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact corporate social responsibility (CSR) has on corporate financial performance (CFP) in Swedish listed SMEs during the year 2019. What the research is intended to contribute to, is increased understanding of CSR and what significance it has for companies that implement it. Those who can benefit from the findings of this research paper are investors, researchers and companies.Method: The choice of method was a multiple linear regression with 1 independent variable, that represented CSR, and 4 control variables. The variables used were ESG as the independent variable. For control variables, capital structure, company size and age were used. The selected dependent variables were return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA) and tobin's Q which represented corporate financial performance (CFP).Conclusion: The conclusion of the present study was that the choice of method was found to be insignificant and therefore the aim of showing that CSR affects CFP positively could not be confirmed. It is recommended to use other methodological choices when examining CSR-CFP from small- and medium sized enterprises (SME) in future studies.

This study investigates the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP)and corporate financial performance (CFP) within the context of a particular CSPelement: environmental investment. Two models of the determinants of companies’environmental investment are estimated in order to capture the difference betweenfirms’ actual and expected level of environmental investment. The regressionresiduals are used as our measure of corporate social performance. Both market-basedand accounting-based measures of financial performance are applied to representcorporate financial performance. With the analysis of a sample encompassing 223Chinese heavy-polluting companies, we have found that it is more likely to observe asignificantly positive relationship between firms’ environmental endeavors and theiraccounting-based financial performance among firms that are more active to disclosecorporate information. Besides, building on our empirical findings that corporatesocial performance is positively correlated with accounting-based financialperformance but has no correlation with market-based financial performance, wesuggest a priority for managers from Chinese heavy-polluting industries when theyfulfill social demands of various stakeholders.

Στην μελέτη αυτή εξετάζονται μία σειρά από συναφή ζητήματα τα οποία συνδέονται άρρηκτα μεταξύ τους: Α) Πως μετριούνται οι κοινωνικές επιδόσεις των εταιρειών; Β) Ποιες συνέπειες μπορεί να έχει μία καλή κοινωνικώς απόδοση; Γ) Ποιες σχέσεις τεκμηριώνονται εμπειρικώς ανάμεσα στην απόδοση σε κοινωνικούς όρους και στην απόδοση σε οικονομικούς όρους. Δ) Είναι εφικτό ένα κοινωνικό συμβόλαιο μεταξύ επιχειρήσεων και κοινωνίας; Ποια μορφή μπορεί αυτό να πάρει; Ε) Τι ρόλους καλείται να παίξει και πως η Κοινωνική Λογιστική των Εταιρειών; Ποια επιμέρους είδη Κοινωνικής Λογιστικής έχουν αναπτυχθεί και ποιες σκοπιμότητες-χρησιμότητες υπηρετούν; ΣΤ) Τι εννοείτε ως ηθική συμπεριφορά στον Τραπεζικό τομέα; Ζ) Case-Study: «Η Alpha Bank» / In this study i examine, throw desk research, a series of related issuew which are closely connected: A) How the Corporate Social Performance is measured? B) What consequences can have a socially good performance? C) Which relationships are empirically documented between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance? D) Is it feasible a social Contract between corporation and society? E) Which roles has been called the Micro-Social Accounting to play? What kinds of Micro-Social Accounting have been developed and which scope does each serve? F) What do we mean as ethical behaviour in banking sector? G) Case-Study: “Alpha Credit Bank”

Every actor of the society has its own expectations about the companies. Shareholders are interested in the maximization of the profitability, managers are interested in sustainability, and partners are interested in fulfilment of the business ethics. And the company with well-structured CSR policy should be able to meet expectations of all stakeholders. This can cost large part of the company's resources. It can potentially impact on company’s profitability whether positively or negatively. Using the quantitative research method we tried to explore the impact of CSR policy on the short-term profitability. Our research question is composed as:What is the relationship between CSR and short-term profitability?The main purpose of this study is to analyze and present positive or negative links between CSR policy and corporate financial performance (CFP) using different profitability indicators. We analyzed impact of weighted average CSR score and environmental rank on the short-term profitability.The theoretical framework of the thesis consists of different theories, such as stakeholder theory, shareholder theory, agency theory, legitimacy theory and etc.The research conducted in accordance with the functionalist research paradigm, the objectivist ontological and positivist epistemic research philosophies using the deductive approach. Our result indicates that there negative relationship between CSR performance and short-term profitability. Also we found that CSR policy can negatively impact on return on assets. This in turn could have negative implications on shareholders and stakeholders. No positive correlation between CSR policy and profitability observed. All in all, the expenses on CSR policy have a negative impact on indicators of financial performance.

This study explores the impact of ESG Scores on firm performance and seeks to establish whether the impact increased since the 2008 financial crisis. This is done by performing regressions on ESG Scores, and the respective pillars of Environmental, Social, and Governance, and firm performance, measured as both accounting-based performance, using ROA, and market-based performance, using Tobin’s Q. The study adopts a quantitative approach, utilising a random-effects model to analyse panel data across two sample periods - a pre-crisis period, from 2003-2006, and a post-crisis period, from 2010-2019. In addition, t-tests were performed to see if the impact changed significantly from the pre-crisis to post-crisis period. The study analyses data from 218 firms from the STOXX Europe 600 index, with four smaller sub-samples. The results indicate that ESG Scores have a positive impact on firm performance, with market-based firm performance being significantly correlated both before and after the crisis. Accounting-based performance, however, was only significantly correlated with ESG Scores before the crisis. In addition, the Environmental pillar was positively correlated with both measures of performance before and after the crisis, and the same was true for the Social pillar, except for with post-crisis accounting-based performance. Interestingly, the Governance pillar was not significantly correlated with performance in any of the regressions. Finally, while the average ESG Score among the observed companies increased in the post-crisis period, the impact of ESG performance on firm performance did not change significantly. The results of this study are supportive of the stakeholder theory perspective over the principal-agent theory, and show that ESG performance does indeed positively impact firm performance. Future research could explore whether other events have played a significant role in the rising importance of ESG, or if the results of the present study can be replicated across different time periods and geographical regions.

No / Local procurement by public bodies is one type of short food supply chain (SFSC), which have been argued to contribute to economic regeneration and local sustainable development. In the current UK policy environment, quantifying actual local economic gains could add much-needed weight to arguments in favour of local procurement in the NHS and other public bodies. To aid such quantification, this paper exemplifies and evaluates the use of a “quick and simple” tool called LM3, designed to measure the local economic benefit of initiatives like SFSCs. LM3 is calculated for the Cornwall Food Programme (CFP), a localised procurement initiative. The findings confirm that the CFP has a considerable impact on the local economy. Notwithstanding this conclusion, difficulties in data collection combined with inaccuracies inherent to the LM3 process created a large margin of error in the findings. Moreover, a qualitative evaluation of the CFP added a valuable understanding of the wider economic impact of the CFP. The use of an even simpler and more reliable “LM2” multiplier tool is recommended for future studies, accompanied by some qualitative evaluation to create a fuller picture of local economic impacts.

This diploma thesis deals with the analysis of structural and dynamic organization of thyrotropin releasing hormone receptor (TRH-R) and δ-opioid receptor (DOR) within plasma membrane (PM) in relation to the specific sub-compartments of PM denominated as domains or membrane rafts. Modern fluorescence microscopy techniques FLIM, FRAP and RICS were used for this purpose. The experiments were performed on the live cells derived from HEK293 cell line. To reach the main goal of this work, the integrity of PM structure was altered by depletion of cholesterol which was performed by incubation of cells with β cyclodextrin. Results clearly support our previously suggested idea that the vast majority of TRH-R is localized in non-raft regions of plasma membrane. This work also compared different modes of performance of FRAP and results obtained by FRAP and RICS because these methods are to some extent analogous. This is one of the first works that used the RICS approach to characterize the G protein-coupled receptors. In the second part of this work, the setup of transient transfection of the HEK293 cells with DOR-ECFP and DOR EYFP constructs was established. Simultaneously, the functionality of these constructs, i.e. the ability of DOR to activate the cognate G protein was determined. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

High-resolution three-dimensional (3D) shape reconstruction of objects has huge potential for applications in the field of design, security, entertainment, biomedicine, industrial quality control etc. Of the available techniques, optical methods have the distinctive advantage of facilitating non-contact and non-intrusive measurements. Of late, integration of optical measurement system with the computer based data processing has improved the quality of the results. Of the available techniques, structured-light illumination (Fringe Projection) is the most effective, owing its simplistic experimental architecture and analysis. Traditional Fringe Projection techniques function with the use of fringes generated using interferometric methods. With the advent of digital light projectors, digitally generated fringes have taken the place of interferometry based fringes. Despite the technological advances that this field has witnessed over last couple of decades, digital fringe projection technique still suffers from various shortcomings. This thesis presents a strategic solution to the challenges faced by the technique in its application to out-of-plane deformation measurement of objects under impact loading. First part of the thesis reports the developmental work on building an LED-Grating based optical projection system for implementation of linear-fringe projection profilometry. Successful use of the developed system in measuring out-of-plane deformation experienced by multiple targets under impact loading with a time sapling of 20,000 frames per second is re-ported. However, for performing ballistic impact measurements using the liner-fringe projection method, an order of magnitude higher time-sampling is needed. This is due to the disadvantages associated with linear fringe projection technique: (1) results in wrapped phase map (2p ambiguity) estimation, and (2) the deformation/shift of the recorded fringe pattern in the modulation direction sets a limit on unambiguously measurable whole-plane displacement. Typically, fringe pitch dictates the limit of maximum detectable displacement, and thus to be able to capture larger deformation from the earlier state, coarser fringe pitch is required to be projected; while this adversely affects the resolution of measurement system. Hence, there is a need to develop a fringe projection system which has capability for whole-plane displacement without affecting the resolution and/or necessitating higher temporal-sampling. Circular Fringe Projection (CFP) technique is proposed in the second part of the thesis as a novel solution to address the above issues. CFP technique offers additional advantage of relaxing the temporal resolution requirements of the imaging system by decoupling the maximum measurable deformation rate and the frame rate of camera. A new image analysis method is also developed to extract the underlying phase distribution of the recorded circular-fringe patterns, as the conventionally used single-frame linear-fringe analysis methods are incompetent at demodulating the circular fringes. Experimental results obtained in 3D shape measurement and whole-field out-of-plane displacement measurements of a deforming object reported in this thesis, not only confirms the ability of the proposed CFP technique in overcoming the shortcomings of the widely used linear-fringe projection technique, but also its suitability for deployment in ballistic-impact measurements.

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