Sammanfattning Miljö och hållbarhetstänk har fått en allt mer central position i vårt samhälle. Detta har gjort att allt fler fastighetsbolag väljer att miljöcertifiera sina byggnader, dels vid nyproduktion men även i samband med större renoveringar av befintliga byggnader.  Därför är syftet med den här uppsatsen att ”beskriva de attityder som finns bland lokalhyresgäster gentemot ”gröna byggnader”, samt att beskriva hur dessa attityder påverkar deras val av lokaler”. I teorikapitlet beskrivs grundläggande teorier för ”gröna” byggnader samt deras för och nackdelar, varumärkesperspektiv, varumärkespositionering och brand equity. För att besvara vårt syfte valde vi en kvalitativ metod. Vi använde oss av ett taktiskt urval där vi intervjuade 5 lokalhyresgäster och 3 fastighetsbolag med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuguider. Materialet bearbetades sedan utifrån en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Dessutom beskriver vi hur vi har arbetat med etiska överväganden och termer i form av validitet och reliabilitet diskuteras för att bedöma arbetets tillförlitlighet och trovärdighet. Resultatet visar dels på hyresgästernas relevans, kunskap, värderingar och faktiskt agerande rörande miljö och hållbarhet kopplat till de lokaler de hyr samt hur fastighetsbolagen tänker kring miljö och hållbarhet kopplat till företags varumärke, varumärkespositionering och differentiering. I analysdelen jämför vi teori kring varumärkesperspektiv, varumärkespositionering och brand equtiy med vårt resultat för att utreda orsakssamband till de två kategorier av hyresgäster vi kunde urskilja från resultatet. För att svara på detta diskuterar vi kring de fyra faktorer som sägs styra ett varumärkes brand equity, nämligen differentiering, relevans, kunskap och värderingar samt fastighetsbolagens sätt att positionera sig på. I slutsatsen visar uppsatsen på att det framförallt är positioneringsstrategier och brand equity faktorerna för kunskap och differentiering som påverkar ifall hyresgäster är villiga till att betala mer för “gröna” lokaler eller inte. / Abstract The environment and sustainability have become an increasingly central position in our society. Due to this more and more real estate companies have chosen to certifie there buildings, both when constructing new buildings but also in conjunction with major renovations of existing buildings. Since environmental responsibility are valued higher in today's society than it has been historically. Therefore, the purpose of this report is to describe the attitudes among tenants of premises, towards “green buildings”, and also to describe how these attitudes affect their choice of premises. The report is made from a brand positioning and brand equity perspective. In the theoretical framework, we present research of the advantages and disadvantages of "green" buildings. We also present the basic theories on brand perspective, brand positioning, and brand equity. To answer our purpose we chose a qualitative method. We used a tactical choice when we determined our respondent groups. We interviewed five tenants and three property companies using semi-structured interview guides. The material was then processed using a qualitative content analysis. In addition, we describe how we have worked with ethical considerations and the validity and reliability of this paper. The results showed both the tenants relevans, knowledge and values of the environment and sustainability linked to the premises they rent and also what property companies think about brand positioning and tenants knowledge. In the discussion section, we compare our theoretical framework to our results to investigate the difference between the two types of tenantgroups that we discovered from the results. To relate this too our purpose we discuss the four elements which are said to measure brand equity, namely differentiation, relevance, knowledge and values. We also discusses how the property organisations are positioning there brands. In the conclusion, the research shows that it’s mainly the positioning strategy and the knowledge and differencing factor of brand equity that affect if tenants are willing to pay more for “green” premises or not.

The focus of this research is Virginia’s Secondary Highway Construction System funding allocations and its impact on statewide deficient lane miles reduction. The research question guiding this study is: “Which of the four allocation models -- the current Secondary Highway System allocation model or one of three alternatives of this model based on Brian D. Taylor’s geographic equity categories (outcome, opportunity, and market) best maximizes statewide deficient lane miles reductions?” Taylor defines each of these geographic equity categories (independent variables for this study) for all levels of government. While Taylor’s research focus has been on equity as it relates to transit and congestion pricing, this study applied his construct to highways. As a result of scanning subjects related to transportation, the need for this study became apparent. Since the 1980’s, Virginia’s highway allocation formula has not changed (Virginia Department of Transportation, 2005). The Virginia General Assembly has sponsored follow-up studies through a series of resolutions over the years (Auditor of Pubic Accounts, 2004). To date, none of the legislatively sponsored research findings have prompted an update of Virginia’s highway allocation formula (Virginia Transportation Research Council, 2008). There is a significant academic and professional literature on federal transportation politics and specific transportation engineering issues. However, there is very limited research on the development of state level highway transportation funding methodologies. This study used the quantitative research approach, which is concerned with determining the relationship between one factor (an independent variable) and another (a dependent or outcome variable) in a population (Walker, 2005, Newman, 1998, and Geddes, 1990). Therefore, this study employed the quantitative research approach to study cause and effect (Mulhall, 2004, Loughborough, 1995, and Collier 1995) relationships of Virginia’s Secondary construction allocations to individual counties and statewide deficient lane miles reductions overall. The .20 portion of the formula for area was examined because this data rarely changes due to locality annexations. Conversely, the .80 portion of the formula was excluded from the analysis because of the demographic variability due to population shifts. As such, the Federal Highway Administration and states update population statistics from the decennial census with the apportionment of funds for formula based programs such as Virginia’s Secondary Highway Construction program (Federal Register, 2002). This researcher concluded that of the four geographic allocation models, the geographic opportunity equity maximized an additional 4.15 statewide deficient lane miles reductions over the baseline model. This study recommends using the geographic opportunity equity model when allocating Virginia’s Secondary Highway Construction funds to maximize the statewide deficient lane miles reductions above the baseline model, the geographic market equity model and the geographic outcome equity model.

Examensarbete i foretagsekonomi, Ekonomihögskolan vid Linnéuniversitetet, 2FE93E, VT 2017 Författare Johan Asplund, Henrik Norrman och Therese Rodger Handledare Andreas Stephan Titel Hur investmentbolag paverkar kapitalstrukturen i sina innehav - En fallstudie av Ratos Bakgrund Bolags kapitalstruktur, fördelningen mellan bolagets tillgångar och skulder, visar hur bolaget finansierar sin verksamhet. Private Equity bolag lånar kapital för att kunna investera i nya uppköp av onoterade bolag och har ofta en begränsad planerad ägarhorisont. Kapitalstruktur har undersökts under lång tid men inte hur en majoritetsägare påverkar kapitalstrukturen i sina andelsbolag. Tidigare studier fokuserar pa exempelvis kapitalstrukturer i industriföretag eller kapitalstrukturer i småforetag. Syfte Syftet med studien ar att analysera om ett investmentbolag påverkar kapitalstrukturen i sina innehavsbolag nar de genom uppköp har gått in som en majoritetsägare i dessa bolag och vilka effekter förändringen kan leda till. Metod Studien utgår från en kvantitativ ansats där finansiella nyckeltal av Ratos innehavsbolag undersöks före och efter det att Ratos gått in som majoritetsagare i bolaget. Dessa nyckeltal jämförs sedan med branschspecifika nyckeltal genererade från SCB. Resultat I studien återfinns inget entydigt bevis på att vårt valda Private Equity bolag, Ratos, ändrar kapitalstrukturen väsentligt på något sätt efter att ha gått in som majoritetsägare i ett bolag. / A company’s choice of capital structure is a well documented field in financial research but no unambiguous results are available regarding how the company is best financed or what actually defines the optimal capital structure for a company. The purpose of this study is to examine the possible changes on a company’s capital structure once a Private Equity company has become the majority owner. In this study a deductive approach has been used and a quantitative survey has been applied. Financial ratios from yearly reports of companies before and after the Swedish Private Equity company Ratos became the majority owner have been analysed and compared with the hypothesis that a Private Equity majority owner would significantly change the capital structure of the acquired company. The selection criteria for the companies was that Ratos should own more than 50 % of the company in order to actually have an impact on how the company is financed, in addition the selected companies needed to have data available in the form of yearly reports both prior to Ratos becoming the majority owner and at least two years afterwards in order to study the eventual changes of the take over. Financial ratios such as debt to equity ratio, leverage and return on equity were then calculated and results analysed. Theories of capital structure such as the Trade off theory, Pecking order theory, Miller and Modigliani and the Agency theory have also been applied to analyse the outcome. The method of comparison used was the differencein-difference method with data from Statistics Sweden (SCB) from similar relevant companies. The results of this study do not indicate that the capital structure of the company changes significantly within the first two years after acquisition by the majority owner Ratos. Suggestions for further studies would be to analyse a wider group of Private Equity companies as majority owners and observe eventual changes in capital structure in takeovers.

Thesis advisor: Vincent Cho / District leaders are under tremendous pressure to narrow persisting achievement disparities with a dearth of guidance from existing literature. Rorrer, Skrla, and Scheurich (2008) proposed a theory that district leaders enact four essential roles when engaging in systemic reform that improves achievement and equity: (1) providing instructional leadership which consists of building capacity and generating will, (2) reorienting the organization, (3) establishing policy coherence, and (4) maintaining an equity focus. However, these roles are not well understood. Therefore, this qualitative case study contributed to research and practice by exploring how leaders in a Massachusetts public school district that made gains in improving achievement and equity attempted to generate will, defined as intrinsic motivation, when enacting the role of instructional leadership. Drawing upon semi-structured interviews and a review of documents, this study concluded that leaders enacted the role to varying degrees in ways that were consistent with Rorrer, et al. (2008). Data revealed that leaders attempted to act as transformational leaders and distribute leadership in a manner that connected with individual’s values, beliefs, and desires. Furthermore, when enacting these leadership constructs, leaders attempted to use extrinsic motivators, including recognition, data, and resources such as time for collaboration and professional learning, to promote autonomy and self- determination. Recommendations include how district leaders can enact this role in a more informed, proactive and deliberate manner. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Robert C. Bartlett / At the beginning of the fifth book of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle tells us that, according to common opinion, justice is lawful and fair. He concludes his examination of justice with a discussion of equity, which proves to be neither strictly lawful nor strictly fair—and yet Aristotle tells us that equity is, in a certain sense, the highest form of justice. This dissertation explains how Aristotle reaches this startling conclusion. I begin with an exploration of the careful taxonomy of justice that Aristotle lays out in the first half of book five. But Aristotle abruptly abandons this taxonomy midway through the book when he turns from the simply just to the politically just. For this reason and others, I argue that the second half of the book is not, as some have asserted, the application of the universal principles of justice to a political situation, but a new beginning and a fresh attempt to articulate the virtue of justice, free from the flaws we discover through a careful study of the first half of the book. Aristotle’s political justice takes its bearings from the health of a republican government, that is, a government of free and equal citizens. And yet political justice, like political courage, remains on the level of politics. Aristotle’s discussion of equity at the end of the book presents the virtuous form of justice, which corrects the flaws of justice as lawfulness and justice as fairness and permits justice to take its place in the economy of a noble human life. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

The link between the cost of equity and reinsurance purchased by insurers is examined in this study. This work extends the research on the economic value implications of corporate risk management practices. Utilising a framework based on the theory of optimal capital structure, this study puts forward two hypotheses to test empirically the cost of equity – reinsurance relation in the United Kingdom’s non-life insurance market. The first hypothesis tests the effect of the decision to reinsure on the insurers’ cost of equity, whereas the second hypothesis focuses on the link between the extent of reinsurance purchased and the cost of equity. Panel data samples drawn from 469 non-life insurance companies conducting business in the UK insurance market between 1985 and 2010 are used to test these hypotheses. The study employs a modified version of the Rubinstein-Leland (R-L) model to estimate the cost of equity. Both the hypotheses put forward are supported by the empirical evidence obtained through regression analysis. The empirical results suggest that, on average, users of reinsurance have a lower cost of equity than their counterparts who do not reinsure. The results also suggest that the relationship between the cost of equity and the level of reinsurance purchased is non-linear. It is inferred from this result that reinsurance can lower the cost of equity for primary insurers provided the cost of reinsuring is lower than the reduction in frictional costs achieved through reinsurance. This finding validates the use of the theory of optimal capital structure as the appropriate framework to guide this research. Robustness and sensitivity tests confirm that the influence of multicollinearity and endogeneity on the estimates is negligible. This study thus provides new and important insights on the impact of reinsurance (risk management) on firm value through its influence on the cost of equity. These findings are deemed useful to various stakeholders in insurance companies, including investors, managers, regulators, credit rating agencies and policyholder-customers.

High school marching bands have several performance options beyond the Friday night football game. These options range from non-competitive regional festivals to performance circuits that culminate in a final national contest. All of these extra-curricular events require resources such as funding, equipment, staffing, and parental involvement (Corral, 2001). The fundamental question was created to investigate opportunities available for participation in music regardless of socioeconomic status, geographic location, etc. Participation in music was explored from the vantage point of marching band – one of the most resource intensive programs in music. Marching band was used in this study because the activity often requires resources that go above and beyond what many administrators, parents, and some directors claim justifiable. The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to examine the effects that resources, financial and otherwise, have on directors’ decisions to participate in marching band competitions. High school marching bands from across the United States were compared to determine the amount of finances and resources invested by each program. The purpose was to find out if resources play a role in a band director’s decision to compete at various national or non-national events. Students who desire to participate in music should have the opportunity to participate in any extra-curricular event without regard to economic distinction. Even though marching arts are not offered at all high schools, those who do commit to investing extreme time and resources to the activity. The nature of marching band, coupled with the relatively small amount of scholarly research on marching bands and resources, made it a unique scenario worthy of further inquiry.

The purposes of the study were to determine the level of priority of importance of administrative problem areas and specific problem items preventing the implementation of special programs for the educable mentally retarded in Utah. The study was conducted using a survey of twenty-seven school districts in the state of Utah lacking a sequential program for the educable mentally retarded in grades one through six. A questionnaire was sent to 184 selected respondents, including school board chairmen, superintendents, and elementary principals. Responses were received from 92 percent of the original selection. The respondent was asked to rank each of the problem items according to one of five choices, major, moderate, average, minor, or no problem to implementation. Results were evaluated on the basis of agreement among the rankings of the respondents, the relationship of the rankings, priority of the administrative areas, priority of the problem items, and individual group rankings. Statistical treatment revealed significance at the .01 level for the level of agreement and relationship among the rankings of the administrative problem areas. Further treatment revealed the priority of administrative problem categories in order of major importance to be: (1) professional personnel, (2) pupil personnel; (3) supervision , (4) communications, (5) research, (6) finance, and (7) policy. Individual problem items used in the questionnaire were ranked by priority of importance as perceived by the respondents as a combined group as well as by individual groups. There were sixty-two problem items ranked in order of priority. The conclusions arrived at as a result of the analysis of the data included: (1) there was a high level of agreement among the perceptions of the administrators in ranking the importance of the problem areas and specific items , (2) the respondents as individual and combined groups perceived the category of obtaining and retaining qualified professional personnel as the major problem to implementation of the special program, (3) the individual problem of greatest concern was the obtaining of a qualified classroom teacher for the educable mentally retarded, (4) communications are needed to inform the parents, public, and school faculty to gain support for t he educational needs of the educable mentally retarded, (5) administrators recognize the need for early identification of the potential retardate, accurate diagnosis and educational placement as important to program implementation, and (6) it appeared that present school policies are adequate in meeting the needs of program implementation of the educable mentally retarded.

The Neurological Impress Method is a system of unison reading in which the student and the instructor read orally together. The theory underlying the method is that the auditory feedback from the reader's own voice and from someone else's voice accurately reading the same material establishes a new learning process. The effectiveness of the impress method with students identified as having a specific learning disability was examined. The subjects were 16 sixth through ninth graders, ranging in age from 13 to 16, and assigned to a special school setting. Each student had been receiving special education services for at least two years and was reading at least two years below grade level as indicated by a standardized reading achievement test. The experimental group received tutoring in the impress method 15 minutes daily, four days a week, to comprise a total of 10 hours of training in the technique. Pre- and posttesting were done to assess reading instructional levels and attitudes toward reading. Scores in both achievement and attitude were compiled,and a statistical analysis was performed that determined the results to be significant. It was concluded that the Neurological Impress Method is an effective remedial procedure for use with learning disabled students. The procedure produced significant results which were manifested by improvements in reading achievement and development of improved attitudes toward the reading process.

The objective of this research is to isolate and analyze those areas which represent the greatest difficulty in expense, ad ministrative burden and confusion. Information was gathered by survey and interviews to determine what services are offered by underwriting firms and what services small businesses have found most beneficial in planning and executing their offering. The information gathered in Utah is compared with that gathered in California to determine the differences in the public equity markets of the two regions . These differences are the bas i s for the recommended changes in the underwriting procedures in Utah.