Bakgrund: Investmentbolag hanterar kapital och investerar i huvudsak i andra aktiebolag. Ett vanligt tillvägagångssätt när det kommer till att värdera ett investmentbolag är att analysera substansvärdet. Trots att information om marknadsvärden på investmentbolagens innehav finns tillgängliga, avviker ofta börsens värdering av investmentbolagen från det så kallade substansvärdet och det uppkommer rabatter och premier. Genom den forskning som gjorts på området saknas det en genomgående uppfattning för vilka förklaringar som påverkar investmentbolagens substansrabatter och premier. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att analysera och undersöka vad som orsakar att investmentbolagen noterade på Nasdaq Stockholm i perioder värderas till en substansvärdepremie/-rabatt. Metod: En kvantitativ forskningsmetod har använts för att besvara studiens syfte. För att besvara studiens syfte har fyra potentiella förklaringar till substansrabatterna/-premiernas uppkomst undersökts. Data har samlats in och kategorisats under respektive investmentbolag under den undersökta tidsperioden. Paneldataanalyser har utförts för att studera eventuella samband mellan potentiella förklaringar och värderingens avvikelse från substansvärdet. Slutsats: I sju av nio fall visade studien att avkastningen på OMXSPI kan förklara substansvärdesförändring med en positiv koefficient. Det vill säga att substansvärdepremie/-rabatten rör sig i en positiv riktning vid en en-procentig förändring i index. Utifrån det lir slutsatsen att det finns relativt starka underlag för att OMXSPI delvis kan förklara investmentbolagens avvikelser från substansvärdet. Studien visar att det inte går att med statistisk signifikans att härleda övriga förklaring till avvikelsen. Därför kan vi inte med säkerhet säga att några av förklaringarna förutom OMXSPI besitter statiska samband med substansvärdepremie/-rabatten i investmentbolagen. / Background: Closed-end funds manage capital and invest mainly in other listed companies. A common approach when it comes to valuate a closed-end fund is to analyse the net asset value. Although information about the closed-end fund holdings is available, the market valuation of the closed-end funds often deviates from the so-called net asset value and discount and premiums arise. Through the research done in this area, there is no comprehensive understanding of which explanations actually affect the closed-end funds NAV discount and premiums. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyse and investigate what causes the closed-end funds listed on Nasdaq Stockholm to be valued at a NAV discount or premium during certain periods of time. Method: A quantitative research method has been used to answer this papers purpose. To answer the purpose of the paper, four potential explanations for emerge of NAV discount and premiums have been investigated. Data has been collected and categorized under respectively closed-end fund during the examined period. Panel data models were built to analyse the possible relationship between potential explanations and the valuation deviation to the net asset value. Conclusion: In seven out of nine cases, the study showed that the return on OMXSPI can explain net asset value change with a positive coefficient. That is, the NAV premium / discount moves in a positive direction in the event of a one percent change in the index. Based on this, it is concluded that there is relatively strong evidence that OMXSPI can partly explain the closed-end funds’ deviations from the net asset value. Furthermore, the study shows that it is not possible to derive other explanations for the deviation with statistical significance. Therefore, we cannot say with certainty that the explanations besides OMXSPI have a statistical relationship with the NAV premium / discount in the closed-end funds.

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In context of the forthcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, this study examines how scope 3 emissions and the reporting thereof affect the cost of debt. Further, it investigates how scope 1 emissions affect the cost of debt and how the two scopes differ in materiality. As a theoretical foundation, this thesis uses previous research on environmental risk management, carbon risk premium, scope 3 emissions and cost of capital. By collecting a sample of 1710 firm-year observations for publicly listed European companies during the period 2019-2022, this quantitative study utilizes fixed effect regression models to find the relationship between scope 3 emission and cost of debt. No evidence of a relationship between scope 3 emissions and cost of debt is found. When looking at scope 1 emissions, the results show that companies with lower scope 1 emissions are rewarded by creditors with a reduced cost of debt. Regarding reporting of scope 3 emissions, we find no evidence suggesting that scope 3 disclosure lowers the cost of debt.

<p>Drawing from research on the halo effect and protected values, consumers’ adoption intentions and willingness to pay a premium for renewable energy were explored. A moderated mediation was tested through two-instance repeated-measures linear regressions in a behavioral experiment with an Amazon MTurk sample. Besides, non-parametric tests were also used to test moderations of protected values and consumers’ demographics. In line with the expected halo effect, the effects of the renewability of the energy sources on consumers’ adoption intentions were mediated through consumers’ perceived comfort. These mediation effects were stronger among consumers with high protected values compared to those with low protected values. The non-parametric tests revealed that people with protected values were also found reluctant to pay a premium price for fossil fuels. Future directions to study the relationship between the renewability of energy sources and consumers’ willingness to pay a premium considering consumers’ demographics are also discussed </p>

Fastighetsmarknaden är en högt bidragen faktor till klimatkrisen. Grön finansiering och statliga stödprogram, som det tidigare investeringsstödet och dess miljöbonus, har gjort det förmånligt att producera- och investera i Miljöcertifierade bostadsfastigheter. Vidare finns krav på hållbarhet från bostadsfastighetsaktörernas finansiella investerare. Med andra ord finns det idag en efterfrågan att investera i hållbara fastigheter. En hållbar kvalitetsstämpel som finns är miljöcertifieringar. Rapporten syftar att undersöka hur investerarna resonerar kring en grön premie för nyproducerade bostadsfastigheter med en miljöcertifiering på den svenska marknaden. Med en grön premie syftar rapporten till förmånliga skillnader för bostadsfastigheternas hyresnivåer, drift- och underhållskostnader, direktavkastningskrav samt priserna vid en transaktion. Rapporten kartlägger även den gröna premiens utveckling över tid på den svenska marknaden. En kvalitativ metod används genom en semistrukturerad intervjustudie med respondenter från fem olika aktörer marknaden. Resultatet visar att investerarna på marknaden anser att det finns mervärden med miljöcertifiering, både när det gäller finansiella fördelar samt skillnader för faktorer som bland annat antalet intressenter för en fastighet samt direktavkastningskravet, det sistnämnda är dock väldigt svårt att kvantifiera. Skillnaden i antalet intressenter gör också att grundläggande ekonomisk teori om utbud och efterfrågan används, vilken antyder att det finns en premie för priset då fastigheten är miljöcertifierad. / The real estate market is a highly contributing factor to the climate crisis. Green financing and governmental support programs, such as the previous investment support program and its environmentally based bonuses, have made it advantageous to produce and invest in certified green residential properties. Furthermore, the financial investors demand a higher degree of sustainability. In other words, there is a demand to invest in sustainable real estate. A grade in sustainability is accessed through green certifications. The report aims to examine what the real estate investors think about the existence of a green premium for newly produced residential properties with a green certification on the Swedish market. A green premium is considered throughout the report as favorable differences in the property rent levels, operating and maintenance costs, yield and transaction prices. The report also maps the development of the green premium in the Swedish market over time. A qualitative method is used through a semi-structured interview study with respondents from five different actors on the real estate market. The results show that real estate investors believe that there is value premium associated with a green certification, both in terms of financial benefits and favorable differences regarding factors such as the number of potential buyers and yield, though the latter is very difficult to quantify. The differences in the number of potential buyers resulted in further usage of the basic economic theory of supply and demand, which suggests that there is a premium for the transaction prices in case of the property being certified green.

Despite the growing body of research in related disciplines, including economics, management, politics, psychology, and sociology, marketing research has largely overlooked the downstream consequences of economic inequality, despite its undeniable impact on individuals' consumption decisions and experiences. This dissertation endeavors to bridge this knowledge gap by uncovering two novel consumer consequences of economic inequality. To accomplish this, it draws upon a diverse range of data sources, including individual-level experimental and survey data, as well as aggregate-level transaction and census data. Additionally, it examines economic inequality across multiple levels, encompassing communities, counties, states, and countries, and operationalizes it both as objective and perceived economic inequality. In Essay 1, I investigate how economic inequality in a consumer's region affects their access to peer-to-peer (P2P) services. Across diverse types of P2P services, I find convergent evidence that increased economic inequality in a consumer's region reduces providers' willingness to serve them, ultimately resulting in their diminished access to P2P services. This adverse effect of economic inequality can be attributed to providers perceiving consumers from more unequal regions as less trustworthy. This perception leads them to perceive heightened financial risks associated with serving these consumers. Moreover, this negative impact of economic inequality attenuates when providers perceive greater interpersonal similarity with consumers from unequal regions. In Essay 2, I explore how economic inequality within one's society affects their education decisions through the lens of perceived education premium. Firstly, it encourages people to attend college as it amplifies the perceived education premium of college—the income gap between college graduates and high school graduates. Secondly, it motivates people to choose majors with higher earning potential but lower personal interests, as opposed to those that align more with their genuine interests but pay less. This shift towards prioritizing extrinsic motivations over intrinsic ones is driven by people's perception of a more significant education premium between majors—the income disparity between higher-paying and lower-paying majors. / Doctor of Philosophy / Economic inequality, defined as the unequal distribution of income among various groups in a society, has been on the rise globally in recent decades. Amid the growing economic inequality, researchers have been delving into its profound impacts on individuals across diverse domains, exploring its influences on their mindsets, perspectives on the world, social lives, and overall well-being. It's surprising that there has been relatively little research on how economic inequality affects people's consumption decisions and experiences, given its undeniable influence on them. In this dissertation, I explore the impacts of economic inequality on consumers' access to P2P services and education decision-making. In Essay 1, I investigate how economic inequality in a consumer's region affects their access to peer-to-peer (P2P) services. I examine whether P2P providers are equally willing to serve consumers from regions with varying levels of economic inequality. I reveal a disconcerting reality: providers are less willing to offer P2P services to consumers from more unequal regions, driven by the perception of these consumers as less trustworthy and posing a higher financial risk. These differing attitudes ultimately lead to reduced access to P2P services and region-based discrimination for consumers from regions characterized by higher economic inequality. Fortunately, these adverse outcomes can be mitigated by an increase in perceived interpersonal similarity between providers and consumers. In Essay 2, I investigate how economic inequality in one's society shapes their education decisions. I find that as economic inequality rises, people become more willing to pursue a college education because they perceive a wider income gap between well-educated individuals and those with lower levels of education. Besides college decisions, economic inequality also influences people's choice of major for a similar reason. In a society characterized by greater economic inequality, people gravitate towards majors that promise higher earning potential, even if these fields do not align closely with their personal interests. This preference is driven by their perception of a greater wage difference between higher- and lower-paying majors. These findings provide policy implications for several pressing challenges in higher education.

This study is one of the first of its kind to examine actual consumer purchasing decisions for forest products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Consumer purchasing was examined based on the presence or absence of a promotional brochure and a price premium for red oak and yellow poplar surfaced-four-sides (S4S) boards. This research also compared typical demographic factors for purchasers and non-purchasers of FSC certified S4S boards. Finally, the study examined subscales from a previously designed ecoscale to determine whether two of the subscales were effective predictors of the sale of FSC certified boards. Due to significant interactions between the price premium and the promotional brochure, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistics could not be interpreted. However, these strong interactions indicate that these two factors are interdependent. Examining respondents' understanding of the trade term, "certification," showed that most did not understand the term as it is used by the forest products industry. Respondents did not link certification directly with the environment, but rather stated that it was a measure of quality excellence. This illustrates that the forest products industry must use more specific descriptions that consumers will understand when referring to certification. Based on survey results from this study, a large proportion of respondents who paid more for FSC certified boards were unable to recall whether they had cost any more than the alternative product. Respondents of this study were not found to have a high level of confidence in the environmental claims of any group. These included forest products companies, industry associations, and independent organizations. The subscales of a previously designed ecoscale were not found to be strong indicators of a respondents' likelihood to purchase FSC certified S4S boards. This project should be seen as a starting point for additional researchers interested in studying actual purchase decisions of consumers of environmentally conscious products, such as certified hardwood boards. / Master of Science

Rainfed agriculture is inherently risky, with climate change expected to intensify its variability. In the West African Sahel, where agriculture is crucial not only for subsistence but for national and household incomes through cotton production, the need to safeguard farmers' livelihoods against risk is essential. Formal crop insurance providers in such contexts cannot easily rely on traditional models, where indemnifications are based on realized losses, and have instead proposed a stream of index-based insurance products which indemnify clients based on a predefined, and yet objective parameter (the index). One promising product for Burkinabe cotton farmers is, the Double-Trigger Index-Based Insurance (2TIC), whose two-tier triggering mechanism has the potential of reducing moral hazard and minimizing basis risk. This dissertation uses three essays to consider a farmer-centric approach to assessing the implications of this double trigger mechanism for index-based insurance. The first essay explores cotton farmers' judgments of fairness vis-à-vis the 2TIC indemnification system by using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Logistic Regression Analyses, and examines if and how these judgments affect decisions to subscribe. The second essay assesses the impact of 2TIC on farmers' cotton-derived net income by employing Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM). The third essay compares the actuarially fair premium of the 2TIC with the commercial premium paid by cotton farmers, by using statistical approaches. The study provides important evidence-based insights into how 2TIC can be improved and promoted by incorporating farmers' needs and perspectives.

Den globala modeindustrin är idag en av de mest konkurrenskraftiga branscherna i världen där särskilt premiumsegmentet har haft stor tillväxt på senare tid. I takt med att det regelbundet tillkommer nya företag på marknaden är det svårt för företag att särskilja sig från sina konkurrenter. Premiumvarumärken inkluderar exklusivitet men grundar sig desto mer i ett känslomässigt engagemang från kunderna. Med detta i beaktning är premiumvarumärken i särskilt behov av att lyfta fram sina betydande egenskaper och bygga starka varumärken. Modevarumärken inom premiumsegmentet är mindre beforskat i jämförelse med de andra segment, vilket belyser relevansen av denna studie. Således var syftet med denna studie att identifiera hur modeföretag inom premiumsegmentet på den skandinaviska modemarknaden arbetar med varumärkesbyggande, avseende varumärkesidentitet och produktmix. Studiens teoretiska ramverk utgår från två huvudområden: varumärkesidentitet och produktmix och nyttjades för att få en grundläggande förståelse för studiens forskningsområde. För att kunna besvara studiens syfte och dess frågeställningar nyttjades en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med utgångspunkt i fem stycken intervjuer med skandinaviska modevarumärken. Intervjuerna var av strukturerad och semistrukturerad karaktär och genomfördes genom onlinemöten och mail. Resultatet visar att varumärkesidentitet är särskilt centralt för modevarumärken inom premiumsegmentet med hänsyn till att den bör genomsyra alla delar i varumärket såsom produkter, pris, distribution och service. Produkten verkar vara särskilt betydelsefull för hur identiteten ska kommuniceras. Likväl är produkten extra viktig för modevarumärken inom premiumsegmentet med hänsyn till att de har ett högre pris och därmed större förväntningar på dess värde. I studien framgår det även att distribution är särskilt utmärkande då många var överens om att det fanns en strävan efter att befinna sig tillsammans med andra lyxiga varumärken. Slutligen visar resultatet att varumärkesidentiteten och produktmixen bör vara tydlig och konsekvent för modevarumärken inom premiumsegmentet. / The fashion industry is today one of the most competitive industries in the world where especially the premium segment have had a significant growth recently. As new companies regularly enter the market, it is difficult for companies to separate themselves from their competitors. Premium brands include exclusivity and are based on an emotional interest from customers. With this in mind, premium brands are in particular need to highlight their significant attributes and build strong brands. Fashion brands within the premium segment are less researched in comparison to the other segments, which highlights the relevance of this study. Accordingly the purpose of this study was to identify how fashion companies within the premium segment of the Scandinavian fashion market work with branding, regarding brand identity and product mix. The theoretical framework of this study is based on two main areas: brand identity and product mix and was used to gain a fundamental understanding of the research area. In order to be able to answer the purpose of the study, a qualitative research method was used based on five interviews with Scandinavian fashion brands. The interviews were of a structured and semi-structured quality and were conducted through online meetings and email. The result shows that brand identity is particularly central for fashion brands in the premium segment, considering that it should permeate all parts of the brand such as products, price, distribution and service. The product seems to be particularly important for how the identity is communicated. Nevertheless, the product is especially important for fashion brands in the premium segment, considering that they have a higher price and therefore bigger expectations of its value. In the study, it also appears that distribution is particularly distinctive as many agreed that there was an aspiration to be together with other luxury brands. Finally, the result shows that the brand identity and product mix should be clear and consistent for fashion brands in the premium segment.

This research implemented a multiple case study design to investigate the effects of aesthetic and emotional labor in the premium airline context of Emirates, in comparison to the low-cost airline context of easyJet. This was achieved through the conduct of interviews with flight attendants from each airline as they are the frontline employees who are mostly concerned with the implementation of these standards. Even before the recruitment process employees are introduced to the requirements of aesthetic and emotional labor as airlines aim to find those who will best ‘fit’ their organizational culture, and that through training they will be even more equipped to represent the company during their interactions with customers. Thus, flight attendants are regarded as a strategic resource that contributes to the competitive advantage and organizational performance of airlines. Taking into consideration that aesthetic and emotional labor standards define the very nature of flight attendants’ job and that their performance determines the organization’s performance, the potential effects on their performance cannot be disregarded. The main themes that were yielded through the thematic analysis of the empirical findings were found to be parallel to some of the performance factors in Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation, while aesthetic and emotional labor were located as components within identified themes. Thus, this provided us with a general theoretical framework that allowed us to further discuss our findings in connection to relevant theory. Results showed that the different operational business models as well as the different cultures of each airline mostly contributed to the differences that were found in regard to the implementation of standards between the two contexts. Aesthetic labor standards were found to have a stronger effect on employees’ performance in the case of Emirates due to the fact their supervision was stricter. In both cases, aesthetic labor standards were not found to have an effect on employees' performance when it comes to their interaction with customers. While easyJet was found to receive a more diverse training when it comes to interaction with customers, in both cases emotional labor standards were found to have an overall positive link to employees’ performance not only when it comes to interaction with customers but also when it comes to dealing with co-workers, managers and the demands of the job in general. However, the aspect of personality was found to be a moderating factor influencing employees’ understanding and following of standards. It should be noted that the results of this research cannot be generalized. Further investigation across different contexts and airlines is suggested so as to conclude whether the results are representative of a specific context.