Bakgrund: Länge har paybackmetoden, nettonuvärdesmetoden och andra diskonteringsmetoder haft en ledande ställning när företag gör sina investeringsbedömningar. Metoderna har fått kritik för att inte ta hänsyn till beslutsfattarnas flexibilitet och på så sätt underskatta värdet av en investering. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att utreda i vilken utsträckning svenska företag använder sig av reala optioner och förklara varför metoden inte används i större utsträckning. Vidare syftar uppsatsen till att förklara varför användningen skiljer sig mellan USA och Sverige. Ytterligare ett syfte är att undersöka vilka kapitalbudgeteringsmetoder som används i Sverige idag . Metod: I uppsatsen har främst en kvantitativ metod använts i form av en enkätundersökning. Metoden kompletterades senare med den kvalitativa metoden, då i form av en intervju med en användare av reala optioner. Slutsatser: Payback- och DCF-metoden dominerar fortfarande bland de svenska företagen. Enkätundersökningen fann en användare av reala optioner. Resterande företag är nöjda med sina metoder och anser att reala optioner är en komplicerad metod som inte kan tillföra värde till företaget. / Background: When it comes to investment decisions the most frequently used methods are payback and the net present value model. These methods have been criticized for not taking decision makers flexibility into account and thus underestimate the value of an investment. Aim: The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent Swedish companies use real options and explain why the method is not used more widely. Furthermore, the study tries to explain why the use of real options differs between U.S. and Sweden. Another purpose is to examine what capital budgeting methods are used in Sweden today. Method: The mainly used method is the quantitative method in form of a survey. This method has been supplemented with the qualitative method, in form of an interview with one user of real options. Conclusions: The payback and DCF method is still predominant among Swedish companies. The survey found one user of real options. All other companies are satisfied with their used method and do not believe that real options can add more value.

The purpose of the current thesis was to investigate the role of gaze direction, when making preference decisions. Previous research has reported a progressive gaze bias towards the preferred stimuli as participants near a decision, termed the gaze cascade effect (Shimojo, Simion, Shimojo & Scheir, 2003). The gaze cascade effect is strongest during the final 1500 msec prior to decision (Shimojo et al.). Previous eye-tracking research has displayed natural viewing biases towards the upper visual field. However, previous investigations have not investigated the impact of image placement on the gaze cascade effect. Study 1 investigated the impact of presenting stimuli vertically on the gaze cascade effect. Results indicated that natural scanning biases towards the upper visual field impacted the gaze cascade effect. The gaze cascade effect was reliably seen only when the preferred image was presented in the upper visual field. Using vertically paired stimuli study 2 investigated the impact of choice difficulty on the gaze cascade effect. Similar to study 1 the gaze cascade effect was only reliably seen when the preferred image was presented in the upper visual field. Additionally choice difficulty impacted the gaze cascade effect where easy decisions displayed a larger gaze cascade effect than hard decisions. Study 3 investigated if the gaze cascade effect is unique to preference decisions or present during all visual decisions. Judgments of concavity using perceptually ambiguous spheres were used and no gaze cascade effect was observed. Study 3 indicated that the gaze cascade effect is unique to preference decisions. Results of the current experiments indicate the gaze cascade effect is qualified by the spatial layout of the stimuli and choice difficulty. Results of the current experiments are consistent with previous eye-tracking research demonstrating biases towards the upper visual field and offering support for Prevics theory on how we interact in visual space.

Syfte: Att nå förståelse för relationen mellan en byrå och en kund genom att analysera föreställningen om marknadsföring och reklam som något kreativt, samt beslutsfattande och makt i den kreativa processen. Frågeställningar: Vilken roll spelar föreställningen om marknadsföring och reklam som något kreativt i relationen mellan marknadsavdelning och reklambyrå, framförallt gällande beslut fattade i kreativa processer? Vari ligger makten över de kreativa besluten, och hur gestaltas den? Metod: Kvalitativ, tolkande metod baserad på intervjuer och autoetnografi Slutsats: Vi har funnit att föreställningen om reklambyråer som kreativa spelar stor roll i relation till kunden. Framförallt relaterat till vad vi valt att kalla kreativt kapital. Detta fungerar som ett sätt för byrån att erövra status och anseende på fältet, och samtidigt bygga tillit och legitimitet hos kunden. Vi har även funnit att den formella makten ligger hos kunden, men byrån sitter på en inte oansenlig indirekt makt genom att välja vad som presenteras för kunden. Vi finner det även nödvändigt att göra en uppdelning mellan formell makt och de facto makt, varav den senare är rörlig mellan relationens olika aktörer. / Advertising agencies are often considered as being creative. In this thesis we have examined the conception of agencies as creative. Especially we have taken an interest in how this conception affects the relationship between an agency and its client. This has been examined through the concepts of (creative) decision making, power and, to some extent, the Bourdieuesque concept of field and habitus. We have found that the conception of the creative ad agency have an impact on the relationship between agency and client, especially when we relate it to the concept of creative capital. Also, we have found that the power in the relationship in a formal sense lies at the client, but that the agency has a great deal of indirect power by the ability to choose what they should bring to the customer. There are also important to make a distinction between the formal power and the de facto power. With the latter meaning the power that actually takes place in the relationship, but in formal sense doesn’t really exist.

Typically, design is approached as a sequence of decisions in which designers select what they believe to be the best alternative in each decision. While this approach can be used to arrive at a final solution quickly, it is unlikely to result in the most-preferred solution. The reason for this is that all the decisions in the design process are coupled. To determine the most preferred alternative in the current decision, the designer would need to know the outcomes of all future decisions, information that is currently unavailable or indeterminate. Since the designer cannot select a single alternative because of this indeterminate (interval-based) uncertainty, a set-based design approach is introduced. The approach is motivated by the engineering practices at Toyota and is based on the structure of the Branch and Bound Algorithm. Instead of selecting a single design alternative that is perceived as being the most preferred at the time of the decision, the proposed set-based design approach eliminates dominated design alternatives: rather than selecting the best, eliminate the worst. Starting from a large initial design space, the approach sequentially reduces the set of non-dominated design alternatives until no further reduction is possible ??e remaining set cannot be rationally differentiated based on the available information. A single alternative is then selected from the remaining set of non-dominated designs. In this thesis, the focus is on the elimination step of the set-based design method: A criterion for rational elimination under interval-based uncertainty is derived. To be efficient, the criterion takes into account shared uncertainty ??certainty shared between design alternatives. In taking this uncertainty into account, one is able to eliminate significantly more design alternatives, improving the efficiency of the set-based design approach. Additionally, the criterion uses a detailed reference design to allow more elimination of inferior design sets without evaluating each alternative in that set. The effectiveness of this elimination is demonstrated in two examples: a beam design and a gearbox design.

Whereas research related to the experience of faculty of color is increasing, little attention has been focused on Chinese faculty's career experience in the United States. The purpose of this study was: (1) to identify and describe factors which influence Chinese faculty decisions to apply for, accept, and remain in faculty positions at a Research Extensive University in Texas; and (2) to determine the challenges and support Chinese faculty have experienced with respect to promotion, tenure and recognition at a Research Extensive University in Texas. To address the purpose of the study, four research questions were used as guidance for collecting and analyzing the data. The purposive sample consisted of sixteen Chinese faculty members (four female and twelve male) across different disciplines, ranks and genders, from seven different colleges at the studied university. All participants are first generation Americans who obtained at least a bachelor's degree in China, received their doctoral degree or postdoctoral training in the United States, and found faculty positions in the United States. This study used a qualitative research design with in-depth interviews, observations and document reviews as the major tools for data collection. Constant comparative method was adopted to analyze data. Major findings concluded that factors such as traditional Chinese culture, family influence, the ability to access American academic freedom, advanced research environments, flexibility and job security, have significant influences in determining Chinese faculty decisions to work within academia in the United States. Additionally, Chinese faculty tended to regard individual barriers (i.e. challenges in mastery of English language, a lack of teaching experience, no undergraduate educational background in the United States, an unfamiliarity with the American culture, and insufficient communications skills in general) rather than institutionalized barriers (i.e. occupational discrimination, stereotypes and prejudice) as primary factors that impeded their professional development. Furthermore, Chinese women faculty experienced racial and gender issues in their lives and faced more challenges than their male counterparts in developing their career in the United States. The researcher hoped that this study could contribute to the scant literature on Chinese faculty's career experiences in the United States, shed some light on understanding what factors influenced their career development, and provide some implications for practice and recommendations for further research.

With the increased attention of different stakeholders on the environmental performance of businesses, several firms are increasingly focusing on product recovery and reuse activities which are not only profitable but may also help to reduce the environmental impact of their operations. This dissertation focuses on managerial challenges associated with such value-added recovery and reuse activities. The first essay examines how a firm should bring a product to market, in particular, whether to lease or sell products. Motivated by claims that leasing can be an environmentally superior to selling, we analytically investigate if either leasing or selling can be both more profitable for a monopolist and have a lower total environmental impact. The second essay first experimentally examines the effect of remanufactured products on the perceived value of new products. This effect is then incorporated to analytically investigate an OEM's strategy in the presence of competition from third-party remanufacturers. In the third essay, motivated by a major IT company, we investigate the optimal product recovery and remanufacturing strategy for a firm that can offer trade-in rebates to achieve price discrimination. We also consider the effect of potential entry of third-party remanufacturers on the firm's recovery and remanufacturing strategy.

<p>Aim. The aim of the study is to highlight Dutch nurses’ opinions about assisted death. Background. Since 2002 it has been legally justified for physicians to assist a patients’ death in the Netherlands. Public and ethical debate, scientific research, guidelines for prudent practice and legislatures focus predominantly on the role of physicians, seemingly assuming that the tasks of other health care professionals are less important. Though, the nurse cares for the patient on a daily basis, and has a close relationship with the terminally ill and their next of kin. Method. A qualitative method was used. Twelve nurses were used in the study, and they received a questionnaire with open questions where they were supposed to motivate their personal opinions related to assisted death. Results. Three main categories (and seven sub categories) highlights the nurses’ opinions; the meeting (discussion, next of kin), inner conflicts (religion, participation) and influences (pain relief, living will, laws and criteria). Conclusions. The Swedish taboo concerning assisted death need to be removed. The quality of the palliative care is decisive of when the patients’ request of assisted death is putted. Continuous discussion elicits underlying factors of why a request of assisted death is putted.</p> / <p>Syfte. Syftet med studien är att belysa nederländska sjuksköterskors personliga åsikter om dödshjälp. Bakgrund. I Nederländerna har det varit lagligt för läkare att assistera en patients död sedan 2002. I den allmänna och etiska diskussionen kring beslut som rör läkarassisterad död, i forskningen, i riktlinjer och i lagstiftning fokuseras på läkarens roll, övriga vårdgivares arbetsuppgifter antas vara mindre viktiga. Detta antagande kan ifrågasättas då sjuksköterskan vårdar patienten dagligen, ofta i en nära relation till den sjuke och hans eller hennes närstående i livets slutskede. Metod. För att uppnå studiens syfte användes en kvalitativ metod. I studien ingick tolv nederländska sjuksköterskor som fick ett frågeformulär med öppna frågor där de skulle motivera sina personliga åsikter till dödshjälp. Resultat. Resultatet visar tre huvudkategorier (och sju underkategorier) som belyser sjuksköterskans åsikt; mötet (diskussion, anhöriga), inre konflikter (religion, deltagande) samt influenser (smärtlindring, testamente, lagar och kriterier). Konklusion. Den svenska tabun kring läkarassisterad död bör tas bort för att utveckla debatten. Kvaliteten på den palliativa vården avgör ofta om och när patientens förfrågan om dödshjälp kommer. Kontinuerlig diskussion tydliggör underliggande faktorer till varför en förfrågan om dödshjälp ställs.</p>

<p>Introduction:</p><p>Venture capital investment process is complex and different firms vary greatly in their investment practices. This has resulted in authors given several different factors that could be imperative for venture firms investment decisions. There is thus no consensus in the field of venture investing.</p><p>Purpose:</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to list which factors are important for venture capital firms investment decisions in start-up firms.</p><p>Method:</p><p>The authors conducted structured phone interviews with seven venture capital firms in Sweden.</p><p>Conclusion:</p><p>The authors found the following factors to be important for venture firms investment decisions in start-up firms; Busienss plans that demonstrated the thinkings of the entrepreneur, communicate ideas, visions, product, market, competition, growth potential as well as the planned intentions with the recived funds. They also desired realistic, concreate, simple plans that explained the implementation process of the start-up firm. The second factor that was important was markets where large markets, market growth, market share, market entry and global markets were mentioned. The third factor of importance was product, in which uniqueness, simplicity, patents and time-to-market were listed. Management was the fourth factor of importance, in which sensibility, competence, technical skills, entrepreurial spirit, attitude, humbelness, determination, openness, drive, chemistry and confidence were included. The fifth factor of importamce financial embraced ROI, economioes of scale, valuation and the size of the investment. The last two important factors that the authors found to be important for the venture firms in the study were location and industry.</p>

In today's marketplace, firms' exposure to business uncertainties and risks are continuously increasing as they strive to meet dynamically changing customer needs under intensifying competitive pressures. Consequently, modern supply chains are continuously evolving to effectively manage these uncertainties and the allied risks through both operational and financial hedging strategies. In practice, firms extensively use operational hedging strategies such as operational flexibility, capacity flexibility, postponement, multi-sourcing, supplier diversification, component commonality, substitutability, transshipments and holding excess stocks as operational means for risk management. On the other hand, financial hedging which involves buying and selling financial instruments, carrying large cash reserves or adopting conservative financial policies, changes the cash flow stream of the firms and may help to reduce the firms exposure to business risks and uncertainties. Overall, in this dissertation we explore how risk management can be integrated with operating decisions so as to improve the firm value creating more wealth for the shareholders. In the first essay, we focus on capacity flexibility as a means of operational hedging for risk management in an MTO production environment under demand uncertainty. We demonstrate that capacity flexibility may not only be used to hedge against the demand uncertainty, but may also be employed to effectively protect against possible suboptimal operating decisions in the future. In the second essay, we focus on operational hedging in financially constrained startup firms when making short-term production and long-term investment decisions. We provide an analytical characterization of the optimal investment and operating decisions and analyze the impact of market parameters on the operations of the firm. Our findings highlight an interesting operational hedging behavior between the process investment decisions and the short-term production commitments of the firm when they are faced with financial constraints. Our third essay focuses on the value of integrated financial risk management activities by publicly traded established firms under the risk of incurring financial distress cost. Different from the existing operations management literature, we study the risk management by a public corporation within the value framework of finance; hence our findings do not require any specific assumptions about the investors' utility functions. Moreover, we contribute to the operations management research by examining the impact of the costs of financial distress on hedging and operating plans of the firm. Overall, in this dissertation, we examine the effective integration of operational and financial risk management so as to improve the firm value creating more wealth for the shareholders. / text

Inom EU har det sedan länge funnits en strävan att harmonisera skattesatser gällande moms mellan medlemsländerna. För 2015 har en ny momsregel trätt i kraft med syftet att långsiktigt skapa en mer rättvis konkurrens på marknaden inom EU. Motivet bakom regeln bottnar i s.k. strategisk momsplacering, vilket många storföretag inom IT ägnat sig åt. Företag har lokaliserat försäljningsverksamheter i länder där momssatserna varit väldigt låga och därmed kraftigt kunnat hålla nere skatteinbetalningarna. Med den nya regeln förändras regelverket gällande inbetalning av moms vid försäljning av elektroniska varor och tjänster till privatpersoner. Vid fortsatt försäljning av dessa varor ska moms betalas in till det land där konsumenten är bosatt. Den här studien har utifrån statistisk sekundärdata av omsättningsnivåer för relevant bransch, sökt finna ett samband mellan omsättning och valda variabler utifrån premisserna för den nya momsregeln. Detta har genomförts för ett urval av Europeiska länder. De mest framhävande analyserna har berört momssatsernas påverkan på dessa omsättningsnivåer. En tydlig ståndpunkt bakom motivet för den nya momslagen är att företagens lokaliseringsbeslut tidigare bestämts utefter momssatser. Med hjälp av ekonometrisk teori och regressionsanalyser har detta påstående försökts bemötas på bästa möjliga sätt. Resultaten från denna studie pekar på att ett sådant samband funnits. Lokaliseringsbeslut för företag som säljer ovannämnda varor och tjänster har påverkats av momssatser. Motivet bakom regeln går att styrka utifrån resultaten av denna studie. Samtliga omsättningsnivåer för undersökta länder har uppvisat ett statistiskt signifikant beroende av momssatser för undersökta perioder. / For a long time there has been an ambition to harmonize VAT rates among the member states within the EU. In 2015, a new VAT rule was introduced in order to realize this ambition and create a fairer competition within the market of EU. This new rule has been introduced due to strategically decisions made by companies dealing with VAT. Sales activities of larger corporations have been located in countries within the EU where the VAT rates have been very low, and thereby been able to pay low taxes. Along with the new VAT rule, the rules of payment with VAT concerning sales of electronic goods and services to individuals will change. VAT due to sales activities of these goods will be paid to the country of the consumer. This study has by statistical secondary data of relevant business tried to find a connection of the premises of this new VAT rule and turnover levels by a selection of European countries. Analyzes which concerns VAT, especially VAT rates in the different countries has been of major interest to analyze in this study. The new rule clearly state that corporation selling electronic goods today decide the location of sales activities with respect to VAT rates, and in this study that statement has been investigated with help of econometrical theory and regression analysis. The results of this study did indicate that such a link exists. The location decisions made by these companies are determined along with VAT rates. Therefore the motive behind the rule is justified based on the results of this study. The turnover levels for each country have all shown a statistically significant dependent of VAT rates for the investigated time periods.