The aim of this study is to research environmental factors and their impact among manufacturing companies in Umeå. In order to capture the essence of environmental impacts , two research questions were asked; which environmental factors are considered, and in what context are they evaluated among manufacturing companies in Umeå, and how are stakeholders an implication on corporate environmental efforts for manufacturing companies in Umeå? First and foremost relevant theories were discovered, using several databases. Second, they were incorporated into a conceptual framework, where their relationship and characteristics were displayed. The theories were then transformed into themes, which became the foundation of the interview guide. The study was conducted by interviewing six manufacturing companies with more than 10 employees in Umeå. The interviews were semi-structured, and a mixture of telephone interviews and in-person interviews. An analysis of the empirical material was undertaken, by analyzing the data using the theories found during the information search. Almost all participating companies consider environmental factors in one way or another, according to the findings of this study. Further, the customers were concluded to be the most important stakeholder in leading to environmental reform among the companies. However, other stakeholders were also recognized by the respondents, and had an impact in for the stakeholders’ specific circumstances.

Despite the vital role that statutory auditing plays in enhancing trust or credibility over the financial statements of business entities, most member states in the European Union community have decided to grant a waiver or exempt small companies from the service in order to reduce administrative burden and cost for these companies. In Sweden this is still a proposal that will be in effect by 2010. Since accounting has become the way firms measure their performance, auditing has also become an increasing need for users of accounting information such as stakeholders. This paper presents an investigation on the banks opinion and reactions about the new proposal or legislation concerning small companies in Sweden that will be exempted from statutory auditing. The study is focused on the banks perspective since banks are key players in providing funds to small companies and enabling their survival. In granting loans to companies, banks always require them to provide audited financial statements for assurance and credibility purpose. Thus our empirical findings have been carried out through the inductive research method based on three interviews undertaken with some personnel of the management of three major banking institutions in the city of Umea and Skelleftea. From this study we found that though statutory audit will be removed for small companies by government, banks will still require these companies to provide them with audited financial statements when it comes to granting loans to companies. Unfortunately, this policy may backfire as it opens the floodgates for companies to manipulate by keeping low figures to avoid tax or high to increase credibility.

Frequently discussed in different contexts, corporate strategy and strategic planning is something which importance hardly will diminish over the coming years as competition grows harder. The needs for companies to think ahead of their business operations have grown increasingly during the decades. From the viewpoint of an independent researcher I have decided to look at Swedish companies operating in Sweden and abroad. I want to know how the strategic planning process takes place in these companies, in order to give an insight to what the process could look like in Sweden today. My research question has been: How is strategic planning perceived in Swedish companies? I have selected some different theories from the university library’s collection of databases, respectively dealing with leadership, outsourcing, business intelligence et cetera. These theories are the foundation of the semi-structured and by telephone, in-person and internet performed interviews with seven different managers at some selected companies in different businesses, mainly located in northern Sweden. Asking questions based on the underlying theories I have been able to draw some conclusions about the planning processes in the studied companies. The study shows that almost all companies have some kind strategic planning process and that more or less all of them to some extent consider some of the theories employed in the theory chapter. While only two companies seemed to be quite strict, the rest had some emergent semi-structured strategic plan with much flexibility, which is not necessarily wrong.

This study builds on the paper by Arquette, Brown, and Burdekin (2008) and asks whether the factors which they find to be significant in influencing the differential between the share prices of Chinese securities traded on their home market in Shanghai versus share prices observed offshore in Hong Kong and New York have varying degrees of influence when compared across industries. This paper focuses on Chinese companies listed on both the Shanghai and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges and finds that the proxy variables of expected exchange rate change, relative market sentiment, and relative company sentiment are significant in determining the average discount observed and that their effects do indeed vary significantly from industry to industry.

No description available.

Every year many students are graduating from their university and are faced with the difficulty of acquiring an employment, especially large difficulty in Sweden as the unemployment rate is large amongst young adults. The companies are also facing a challenge, of how to receive the best applicants to their job openings, to ensure they will stay competitive as companies. The authors are examining how the students will acquire employment by investigating what demands companies have on applicants and employees at their companies, and what demands the students in Umeå believe the companies have. It is also examined how the companies are marketing themselves to future employees and students and how these marketing efforts are perceived by the students. The theories of interest to examine the research questions mentioned concern employer branding, marketing tools and planned behaviour. This thesis is using a mixed method approach. In the qualitative part of the thesis the authors used semi-structured interviews that were conducted with companies within the business sector in the municipality of Umeå. A survey in the form of a self-completion questionnaire was used in the quantitative part to measure the perception of Umeå University’s business program students. The result showed that the companies valued experience within their field and personality traits highest. The students had a good understanding of what demands the companies had on their employees and felt that they could fulfil most demands, however having experience within the field the company operates within was most difficult. Most companies used marketing tools such as attending recruitment fairs, holding lectures or engaging in student run organisations. The students did like these techniques the best, i.e. marketing through the university and through recruitment fairs, however, did not appreciate marketing through advertisement. The students value the opportunity to talk to current staff at a company and therefore like recruitment fairs and activities that are organized by the university. The main recommendation is that the students should get more work experience and the companies need to make it easier for the students to achieve this, hence, it will enable the students to fulfil more criterions companies have on their employees.

The globalization is the period of economic transformation according to the business competition. A number of multinational companies from industrial countries have to move their productions to a new emerging country which has a lower-labor cost, a strategic location, as well as an access to production material. Sweden is one of those countries that decide to re-locate their business center in other countries. The capital of Swedish companies has been distributed especially in Asian countries. Thailand is one of destinations that Swedish companies prefer to put the capital because of its labor cost, human quality, and strategic location. The objective of this thesis is to present the consequence of multinational companies from Sweden in Thailand as the main purpose. The economic relationship and cultural harmonization between these two countries will be discussed. This study is a qualitative research which requires qualitative methods to analyze data. Qualitative interviewing, case study and second data analysis has been the main approaches for data collection. The result of the study brings the conclusion that the capital movement from Sweden to Thailand during the globalization brings the positive development to both sides. Sweden gains more business revenue both in Thailand and Asian region, while Thailand gains wealth and sustainable development from the Swedish investment.

Climate change affects the health of people and the environment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published research that explains the danger of greenhouse gas emissions on humans, wildlife, and the planet. Initiatives and policies are enacted every day to counter the harm that is done to the environment. Many companies now publish environmental impact reports or Corporate Sustainability Reports (CSR) to promote industry transparency. Participating in environmental and social initiatives is also a competitive advantage for these Fortune 500 companies. Customers can support a company based on their environmental friendliness or social responsibility. Companies are then encouraged to promote social issues like workplace diversity, women in management, and community development; and environmental issues like habitat conservation, green building, and energy reduction. The general merchandising sector companies scored from highest to lowest in the following order: Walmart, Nordstrom, Sears Holdings, Macy’s, PPR, Target, Kohl’s, JC Penney, Dollar General, Belk, Neiman Marcus, Shopko Stores, Follett, Family Dollar, Dillards, Newegg.com, Michael’s Stores, and Fry’s Electronics. These companies represent the most successful companies based on their strategies to reduce their environmental impact. Extended Producer Responsibility, green building, and community initiatives are three categories that are imperative to discuss when addressing environmental and social reporting.

Outsourcing is an important subject in the industrial business. Most of the companies in Sweden have some sort of outsourcing relations with foreign countries. The last decade many Swedish companies have moved their production to China through outsourcing relationships. In the recent years there are signs of a shift in the outsourcing trend. The trend includes Swedish companies to move their production from China to closer markets, for example,countries in Eastern Europe.This is mainly caused by changes in external factors, such as increasing transportation cost, increasing labor costs in China and the lack of flexibility have made companies reorganize their production alternatives. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the factors that lie behind the decision to outsource and if there are any differences when it comes to the outsourcing process depending on the market.The research was conducted through interviews with companies with existing outsourcing relations in those markets. The purpose of the interviews was to obtain an insight of the outsourcing process, how factors importance vary from situation to situation and what complications that have occurred.The result shows that there often are more complications with China than with Eastern Europe. That smaller companies seems to have more difficulties when the outsourcing relations with China are established. The result also indicated that if flexibility and speed-to-market is important parts of the companies’ business model it is more likelythat an outsourcing relationship with Eastern Europe will be beneficial.The contribution of the dissertation mightbe of importance for smaller companies who are in the process of outsourcing or consider to start an outsourcing relationship with a foreign market.

China is today the third largest importer of crude oil in the world. Since 1993 when the country’s consumption of oil first exceeded the capacity of its domestic production, China has become a net importer and has witnessed a growing appetite for oil during the past decade. Energy security has been given enormous emphasis in the country’s foreign policy making, and is believed to be one of the most important components of China’s foreign policy in the 21st century. While enough ink has been spilled on the assessment of what China’s energy security policy looks like, few scholarly inquiries have been made into the domestic sources of China’s energy security policy. The purpose of this article is to reevaluate such a policy by identifying the different domestic stakeholders and analyzing how the potential divergence between the state and the oil companies influences the final policy outcome.