Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / Daniel A. Andresen / Scoreboard tool is a web application developed to provide a platform where administrators can conduct quizzes (typically in an organization) or employees can take a quiz (individually or in a team). These quizzes are generally conducted to improve the knowledge of the users (typically employees) taking the quiz. This project is a tool where the user can take online quizzes which comprise of various categories like technology, science, math etc . The categories have various sub-categories. The admin can also perform CRUD on teams. The quizzes are created by the admin using a database which has the questions for the quizzes. The quizzes are basically divided into quizzes with multiple choice questions and timed quizzes where a user has a specified time to complete the quiz. Once a user logs in he can view his quiz history where he can view the scores of the various quizzes taken and also the time and date when taken. At the end of the quiz the user is given the option of rating the quiz and also entering his/her opinion of the quiz. The users will also have an option to view their scores graphically and compare their scores with other teams in the form of reports and also as graphs. The important feature of this application is that the scores will be reported using reporting services. And another important feature is instead of manually testing the application test cases will be written for automated testing.

In resent years, the competition between insurance companies in Taiwan has become more and more intense. The main reasons are not only the overall environmental issue such as financial management policies, but also the similarities of the services provided by the insurance companies that easily cause price-cutting competition. Moreover, with the economy crisis happened last year, the financial status of insurance industry has been seriously impacted. It¡¦s becoming harder and harder to run insurance businesses. In this highly competitive financial industry, what strategies should be used in order to strengthen a company¡¦s operation system, to increase efficiency and finally create a competitive advantage? Before deciding which strategy to use, the decision maker has to first understand the ¡§performance verifying index¡¨ of his company, the factors that affect company¡¦s performance, and then evaluate his company¡¦s advantage and disadvantage that it has over its competitors, and finally guide the company toward a correct path. It has been realized that past documents clearly lack a model that can provide suggestions to corporations how to face intensive competitions by using an evaluation method that can verify both financial and non-financial factors. Therefore, this research intends to use the ¡§total performance scorecard¡¨ theory to build a performance verifying index/system for insurance industry, and then develop a strategy guide. This research used ¡§analytic hierarchy process, AHP¡¨ questionnaire to conduct surveys on financial professionals, government officers and scholars, and then develop a hierarchy for the performance verifying index, and finally construct a performance management system for insurance industry. This research found out that when a insurance company is making a performance management strategy, ranking from the most important to least important aspects, they should consider financial aspect, customer aspect, learning/growing aspect and internal corporate flow path aspect. The ten most important indexes are gain per stock (0.099), cash usage net income rate (0.095), cash flow rate(0.076), customer value creation(0.063), retention expense ratio(0.062), employee professions (0.061), underwriting quality audit(0.06), customer return rate(0.059), customer satisfaction(0.055), and employee inspiration (0.052). These findings can be used as a reference when insurance companies are making performance-management decisions and strategies.

<p><strong>Bakgrund och problem: </strong>En viktig tillgång som bolagen har tillgång till är det humankapital som finns i form av personalen. Denna tillgång är en dold tillgång då den ej kan tas upp i bolagens balansräkning. Detta beroende på att det ej går att definiera humankapital som en tillgång enligt redovisningsstandarden då den ej uppfyller kriterierna för att kunna klassificeras som en tillgång. För bolagen kan det ändå finnas ett behov av att redovisa humankapital externt genom årsredovisningen. Detta för att nå sina intressenter med information som kan stärka relationen mellan dem.</p><p><strong>Syfte: </strong>Vårt syfte är att undersöka på vilken nivå och frekvens de utvalda nyckeltalen förekommer inom olika branscherna på svenska börsen, samt dra paralleller till intressenternas intresse för humankapitalet.</p><p><strong>Avgränsningar: </strong>Data i studien kommer endast att inhämtas från bolagens senaste årsredovisning. Endast de nyckeltalen som används i undersökningen enligt Konradmodellen kommer att beskrivas.</p><p><strong>Metod: </strong>Bolagens årsredovisningar har undersökts genom att vi upprättade en scoreboard i excel och utifrån det analyserade vi årsredovisningarnas innehåll av de utvalda nyckeltalen. Vi analyserade därefter resultatet av de olika branscherna.</p><p><strong>Resultat och slutsatser: </strong>Undersökningens utfall visade på att det inte är någon bransch som har redovisat de undersökta nyckeltalen i någon större utsträckning. Resultatet från undersökningen var något oväntat då företagen inte verkar lägga ner resurser på att visa sitt humankapital för intressenterna. Detta kan bero på att intressenterna inte heller ser humankapitalredovisning som en tyngdpunkt i redovisningen utan sätter större vikt på de finansiella nyckeltalen.</p><p>Det var endast två branscher som höjde sig över snittet i undersökningen, och de var Finans och IT branschen. Dessa branscher räknas som kunskapsintensiva och resultatet var väntat att de skulle ligga i topp, då de har en större anledning att redovisa humankapitalet mot intressenterna.</p><p><strong>Förslag till fortsatt forskning: </strong>För vidare studier tycker vi vore intressant med en attityd undersökning för att undersöka den inställning som de olika företagen har gentemot redovisningen av humankapital. Detta för att få insikt i varför företagen väljer att redovisa de nyckeltal, förutom de lagstadgade, som redovisar humankapitalet. Ytterligare studier kan behandla mer djupgående hur redovisningen användas och analyseras av de intressenter som företagen har.</p><p> </p>

Bakgrund och problem: En viktig tillgång som bolagen har tillgång till är det humankapital som finns i form av personalen. Denna tillgång är en dold tillgång då den ej kan tas upp i bolagens balansräkning. Detta beroende på att det ej går att definiera humankapital som en tillgång enligt redovisningsstandarden då den ej uppfyller kriterierna för att kunna klassificeras som en tillgång. För bolagen kan det ändå finnas ett behov av att redovisa humankapital externt genom årsredovisningen. Detta för att nå sina intressenter med information som kan stärka relationen mellan dem. Syfte: Vårt syfte är att undersöka på vilken nivå och frekvens de utvalda nyckeltalen förekommer inom olika branscherna på svenska börsen, samt dra paralleller till intressenternas intresse för humankapitalet. Avgränsningar: Data i studien kommer endast att inhämtas från bolagens senaste årsredovisning. Endast de nyckeltalen som används i undersökningen enligt Konradmodellen kommer att beskrivas. Metod: Bolagens årsredovisningar har undersökts genom att vi upprättade en scoreboard i excel och utifrån det analyserade vi årsredovisningarnas innehåll av de utvalda nyckeltalen. Vi analyserade därefter resultatet av de olika branscherna. Resultat och slutsatser: Undersökningens utfall visade på att det inte är någon bransch som har redovisat de undersökta nyckeltalen i någon större utsträckning. Resultatet från undersökningen var något oväntat då företagen inte verkar lägga ner resurser på att visa sitt humankapital för intressenterna. Detta kan bero på att intressenterna inte heller ser humankapitalredovisning som en tyngdpunkt i redovisningen utan sätter större vikt på de finansiella nyckeltalen. Det var endast två branscher som höjde sig över snittet i undersökningen, och de var Finans och IT branschen. Dessa branscher räknas som kunskapsintensiva och resultatet var väntat att de skulle ligga i topp, då de har en större anledning att redovisa humankapitalet mot intressenterna. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: För vidare studier tycker vi vore intressant med en attityd undersökning för att undersöka den inställning som de olika företagen har gentemot redovisningen av humankapital. Detta för att få insikt i varför företagen väljer att redovisa de nyckeltal, förutom de lagstadgade, som redovisar humankapitalet. Ytterligare studier kan behandla mer djupgående hur redovisningen användas och analyseras av de intressenter som företagen har.

Background and Problem: Sustainability reporting is a growing interest in today’s organizations and it is essential to report on non-financial matters. Many of the existing frameworks have been criticized for being used only of symbolical reasons which is why the concept of integrated reporting and the &lt;IR&gt; framework have been developed. One of the cornerstones in the &lt;IR&gt; framework is human capital which is one of the most valuable assets in an organization. Traditionally, employee costs have only been treated as an expense and there have been limited disclosures in corporate reports. In the current business world it is instead seen as an investment in human resources. Since previous studies have shown an increase of human capital disclosures when corporate reports become integrated, integrated reporting might be the solution to this problem. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine if there are differences in human capital disclosures between integrated reports and separate annual and sustainability reports in companies listed at OMXS30. Delimitations: This study’s empirical examination is limited to include the companies listed at Stockholm OMX30. Only corporate reports issued for the year 2014 are treated. Methodology: For this study a self-constructed disclosure scoreboard with human capital- related items has been used to collect data from the companies’ corporate reports. Also additional information beyond the pre-determined items has been collected to extend the data collection. Empirical Results and Conclusion: The results show that human capital seems to be a subject that is relatively little reported about. The integrated reporting companies do not disclose more information compared to non-integrated reporting companies. However, the results show that integrated reporting companies seem to have a more future-oriented focus and that the disclosures are more dispersed throughout the reports. It can be concluded that company sector and size do not affect the amount or type of information.

This thesis examined an ability of the scoreboard indicators created by the European Commission to capture macroeconomic imbalances expressed as the changes of GDP. We conducted an empirical analysis for panel data of 27 EU countries in the 1997-2011 period. We adopted three different dynamic panel data models based on the three estimators: the Arrelano- Bond, the Arrelano-Bover and the corrected LSDV estimator. Our results suggest that despite some bad characteristics of our dataset we can conclude that some of the indicators such as 3- year average of current account balance or percentage change in export market shares seem to be inadequate for measuring the imbalances. Moreover, the indicators were proved not to be able to predict an occurrence of imbalances.

Foreign investments in SADC are regulated by Annex 1 of the SADC Protocol on Finance and Investments (SADC FIP), as well as the laws of SADC Member States. At present, SADC faces the challenge that this regime for the regulation of foreign investments is unstable, unsatisfactory and unpredictable. Furthermore, the state of the rule of law in some SADC Member States is unsatisfactory. This negatively affects the security of foreign investments regulated by this regime. The main reasons for this state of affairs are briefly explained below. The regulatory regime for foreign investments in SADC is unstable, due to recent policy reviews and amendments of key regulatory instruments that have taken place. Major developments in this regard have been the suspension of the SADC Tribunal during 2010, the amendment of the SADC Tribunal Protocol during 2014 to bar natural and legal persons from access to the Tribunal, and the amendment of Annex 1 during 2016 to remove investor access to international investor-state arbitration, better known as investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). The regulation of foreign investments in SADC has been unsatisfactory, among others because some SADC Member States have failed or neglected to harmonise their investment laws with both the 2006 and the 2016 Annex 1. Furthermore, SADC Member States such as Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles, Eswatini, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have multiple Regional Economic Community (REC) memberships. This places these Member States in a position whereby they have conflicting interests and treaty obligations. Finally, the future of the regime for the regulation of foreign investments in SADC is unpredictable, due to regional integration efforts such as the recent formation of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Zone (T-FTA) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The T-FTA is entitled to have its investment protocol, while the AfCFTA investment protocol will be negotiated from 2018 until 2020. These developments entail that the 2016 Annex 1 will soon be replaced by an investment protocol at either the T-FTA or AfCFTA levels, thereby ushering a new regime for the regulation of foreign investments in SADC. The unknown nature of the future regulations create uncertainty and instability among foreign investors and host states alike. This study analyses the regulation of foreign investments in terms of Annex 1 and selected laws of SADC Member States. In the end, it makes the three findings mentioned above. In order to address these findings, the study makes four recommendations. The first is that foreign investments in SADC must be regulated at African Union (AU) level, by means of an AfCFTA investment protocol (which incidentally is now the case). Secondly, investor-state disputes must be referred to the courts of a host state, optional ISDS, the African Court of Justice and Human Rights (ACJ&HR) or other agreed forum. Thirdly, an African Justice Scoreboard (AJS) must be established. The AJS will act as a gateway to determine whether an investor-state dispute shall be referred to the courts of a host state, ISDS, the ACJ&HR or other forums. Fourthly, the office of an African Investment Ombud (AIO) must be created. The AIO shall facilitate the early resolution of investor-state disputes, so as to reduce the number of disputes that may end-up in litigation or arbitration. / Mercantile Law / LL. D.