In the future the Swedish pension system will face major problems. With an increasing aging population combined with a decreasing share of working population the financing of the pension system is becoming a bigger problem than previously predicted. This means the individual himself will have a bigger responsibility to invest money for their future retirement. It has been shown that a large proportion of the people who invests for their future pension have neither the interest nor the time to actively invest their pension capital. To make it easier for those who invest for their retirement, some Swedish banks have created so-called generation funds. These funds adapts to the age of the person who invests. This means that the funds risk decreases with the age of the investor. Therefore, this results in the fact that the individual who has invested in the generation funds does not need to worry about lowering the risk when they are approaching retirement. The purpose of this study is to investigate and compare the different generation funds offered on the Swedish market. Further study is also intended to show whether an application of two more active strategies as investment strategies has had a higher return than investing in the generation funds. In examining the generation funds, evaluation dimensions Treynor and Sharpe ratio have been used to calculate the risk-adjusted returns. Furthermore, an empirical test has been conducted in which a monthly saving of 500 SEK per month has been combined with a buy-and-hold strategy to see which of the banks generation funds have provided the highest returns during the period 2004-2011. This has in turn been compared with applying the moving average as a technical investment strategy to identify buy and sell signals.

Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk.

The Swedish household’s savings has increased the last couple of years, according to Statistiska centralbyrån. But the amount of households that trades on the stock market has decreased from the year 2012 to 2013. The diminished interest in stock trading carries a risk by leading to a smaller yield for the private savers, and also effect the business development and the economic growth. High brokerage fees will aggravate the ability to attract venture capital. A decrease in stock trading can also lead to a professional market, where new companies will find it difficult to get listed on the stock market. Previous research has shown that there are underlying factors that affects an investor's risk preference. To increase the Swedish private investors' interest in trading on the stock market, it’s going to require an act within the financial sector. Professional asset managers are in need to increase their understanding for Swedish investors risk tolerance, and adapt investment strategies accordingly to their preferences. The majority of previous research have a focus on U.S. investors and therefor there are an interest to investigate Swedish investors risk tolerance, to see if the results show differences. This study investigate which factors in life influence an investor's risk tolerance and to which level. This study has focused on the factors gender, age, income, education lever, employment, and relationship status, and used Grable and Lytton's 13-item instrument to measure the investor’s risk tolerance. The study is based on a quantitative research method, where an electronic questionnaire survey has been conducted on 234 respondents via Internet forums. The result shows that there is a correlation between underlying factors and an investor's risk tolerance. Gender and income were the variables with the clearest effect, where the results showed that men possesses a higher tolerance for risk, as compared to women. The result also shows that risk tolerance tends to increase with a higher household income. It also emerged that a more secure employment tends to lead to a higher risk tolerance, and that people who lives in a relationship tolerate more risk, than people who are single. In contrast, the result showed that a higher level of education had no impact on the investor’s attitude to risk. The study showed that men tends to prefer capital investments with more risk, and claims to have higher knowledge about trading in comparison with women. It also emerged that a large percentage of the respondents wish to place their capital in more risky investments, then they currently do today. By comparing the study with previous research, the result demonstrated that Swedish investors are more sensitive to risk than U.S. investors.

Proefskrif--PU vir CHO

<p>Småföretagen är viktiga för vitaliteten i den svenska ekonomin och det är där den största</p><p>andelen nya arbeten skapas. Småföretag saknar oftast egna resurser för att finansiera sin</p><p>tillväxt och är därför förpassade till externa kapitalkällor. Kunskapen kring kapitalstrukturen i</p><p>nya företag har dock varit begränsad, då de flesta studier har gjorts på listade och etablerade</p><p>företag.</p><p>Tidigare forskning visar att många av småföretagets finansieringsbeslut är relaterade till</p><p>företagsledarens karaktärsdrag, framförallt kontrollbehov, kunskap, erfarenhet, riskbenägenhet</p><p>och mål. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka huruvida företagsledarens karaktärsdrag</p><p>påverkar den externa finansieringen i nystartade småföretag inom tillverkningsindustrin.</p><p>Dessutom ska uppsatsen undersöka om teorierna kring det finansiella gapet och pecking</p><p>order-teorin är tillämpbara på dessa företag.</p><p>För att ge svar på studiens syfte har befintlig teori presenterats om pecking order, finansiellt</p><p>gap samt olika karaktärsdrag hos företagsledaren. Teorierna har legat som grund för den</p><p>empiriska undersökning som genomförts. Undersökning har varit kvantitativ och åstadkommits</p><p>genom enkätutskick till nystartade småföretag inom tillverkningsindustrin.</p><p>Genom ett underlag på 58 företag har uppsatsen kommit fram till att det inte i någon större</p><p>utsträckning finns ett finansiellt gap mellan nyregistrerade småföretag inom tillverkningsindustrin</p><p>och externa finansiärer. Däremot kan undersökningen styrka pecking order-teorin</p><p>om att det finns en viss föredragen ordning av finansieringsalternativ. Vad gäller karaktärsdragen</p><p>visar denna uppsats att företagsledarnas kontrollbehov och riskbenägenhet påverkar</p><p>företagets val av kapitalstruktur. Företagsledarnas kunskap och erfarenhet av externt kapital</p><p>samt målsättning för företaget påverkar däremot inte kapitalstrukturen. För framtida forskning</p><p>rekommenderas en noggrannare analys mellan variablerna för att se om några kan förklara</p><p>samma påverkan på företagets kapitalstruktur</p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>According to several researchers finance is scarce, scarcer for small businesses than for big enterprises. Small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, that want to start exporting and sales or manufacturing abroad need capital to get ready. Which capital structure and financial costs do they have, and which forms of finance do they actually use for that purpose. New american research by Mansi, Reeb (2002) has suggested, that there is a positive connection between leverage and a negative one between financial costs and internationalization, and that a non-linear model better describes this connection.</p><p>This study has gathered data in two ways: Through a questionnaire from 37 SMEs and balance sheet figures from totally 166 manufacturing SMEs. In order to examine, whether the company was active on the international market, 200 SMEs in south Sweden were asked, if they exported to, produced or sold on any other market than their home market. From the balance sheet I collected data about leverage, financial costs and other important figures.</p><p>Some of the results were interesting. Firstly there is a financial gap for external financing especially for venture capital but also for bank loans. Though average leverage tends to a negative development from export to foreign establishment, multiple regression models show a slightly negative connection with internationalization, which is against the modern theory of internationalization. The non-linear model performs some percent better than the linear one. Financial costs rise through the different steps of internationalization, but the multiple regression models cannot confirm any statistical connection. </p><p>The pecking order for financing is as follows: Internally generated funds, IGF, bank loans and owners capital. This order was constant for financing all company activities, export or activities abroad. The percentage of choices for all activities tends to similarity with other studies of financing behavior like Cressy, Gandemo, Olofsson (1996): IGF 75,7 %, bank loans 64,9 % and owners capital 54,1 %. Important factors to determine the choice of finance in this study are: Control aversion, preferences towards internal and external finance and capital structure. </p><p>My conclusions are several but most importantly, that this study deals with small businesses, which have financial problems regarding bank loans and above all venture capital. The problems tend to aggravate along the internationalization process, maybe in most cases temporarily. I suggest, that new financial possibilities must be created to strengthen business development in the targeted direction. Since research on the subject is not very advanced, I would recommend more and larger studies in this field.</p>

Abstract According to several researchers finance is scarce, scarcer for small businesses than for big enterprises. Small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, that want to start exporting and sales or manufacturing abroad need capital to get ready. Which capital structure and financial costs do they have, and which forms of finance do they actually use for that purpose. New american research by Mansi, Reeb (2002) has suggested, that there is a positive connection between leverage and a negative one between financial costs and internationalization, and that a non-linear model better describes this connection. This study has gathered data in two ways: Through a questionnaire from 37 SMEs and balance sheet figures from totally 166 manufacturing SMEs. In order to examine, whether the company was active on the international market, 200 SMEs in south Sweden were asked, if they exported to, produced or sold on any other market than their home market. From the balance sheet I collected data about leverage, financial costs and other important figures. Some of the results were interesting. Firstly there is a financial gap for external financing especially for venture capital but also for bank loans. Though average leverage tends to a negative development from export to foreign establishment, multiple regression models show a slightly negative connection with internationalization, which is against the modern theory of internationalization. The non-linear model performs some percent better than the linear one. Financial costs rise through the different steps of internationalization, but the multiple regression models cannot confirm any statistical connection. The pecking order for financing is as follows: Internally generated funds, IGF, bank loans and owners capital. This order was constant for financing all company activities, export or activities abroad. The percentage of choices for all activities tends to similarity with other studies of financing behavior like Cressy, Gandemo, Olofsson (1996): IGF 75,7 %, bank loans 64,9 % and owners capital 54,1 %. Important factors to determine the choice of finance in this study are: Control aversion, preferences towards internal and external finance and capital structure. My conclusions are several but most importantly, that this study deals with small businesses, which have financial problems regarding bank loans and above all venture capital. The problems tend to aggravate along the internationalization process, maybe in most cases temporarily. I suggest, that new financial possibilities must be created to strengthen business development in the targeted direction. Since research on the subject is not very advanced, I would recommend more and larger studies in this field.

Factoringbranschen är en snabbväxande bransch som erbjuder många företag nya sätt att finansiera sitt rörelsekapital. Factoringtjänster går ut på att köpa kundfordringar från företag eller att låta företag pantsätta sina kundfordringar mot likvida medel. Factoringbranschen i Sverige, har sedan 90-talet upplevt en enorm tillväxt. Den svenska forskningen på området har dessvärre inte upplevt samma tillväxt. Vi upplevde att den finns en avsaknad av teoretisk kunskap om factoring i Sverige. Detta gav upphov till studien och dess syfte. Studiens syfte vara att, med teoretiskt etablerade modeller förklara hur situationen ser ut inom factoringbranschen. Vi önskar att förklara hur factoringverksamheten i Sverige ser ut, med hjälp av agentteorier.Vi genomförde, med en deduktiv ansats, en kvantitativ studie för att undersöka vår problemformulering. Studiens fokus utgick från ett kundperspektiv för att ge kunder till factoringföretag större förståelse om vilka effekter som factoringtjänster orsakar.Genom bidrag från aktörer inom factoringbranschen, kunde vi genomföra studien. Vi genomförde statistiska hypotestester och intervjuer med aktörer för att erhålla ett resultat. Vårt resultat visade att de valda agentteorierna, var relevanta för att förklara den rådande situationen inom factoringbranschen.Vår studie mynnade ut i ökad kunskap om vad som påverkar pris och avtal inom branschen. Informationsgapet mellan kund och factoringföretag var uppenbart och gav upphov till ökande kostnader för kunden, i form av dolda avgifter och obalanserade avtalsstruktur. Vi hoppas att utifrån kundperspektivet ge framtida kunder en bättre kunskap om vilka åtaganden som finansieringen ger upphov till.Studiens slutsats, efter observerat resultat är: Det finns agentkonflikter mellan factoringföretag och kundföretag i Sverige, främst på grund av det stora informationsgapet mellan factoringföretagen och kundföretagen. De undersökta agentteorierna är relevanta för att beskriva förhållandet mellan factoringföretag och deras kunder.

No description available.

Funding is essential for companies to function. All companies must relate to the funding issue, whether they are working with it in an active manner or not. Funding can be done in two ways, either through equity or debt and the ratio between these are called capital structure. Already in 1958 Modigliani and Miller concluded that a company’s capital structure does not change the value of the company, thus the company’s debt in relation to equity is irrelevant. Since then, there have been several theories that look onto capital structure in a different manner and what is the optimal ratio between equity and debt.