Användandet av olika incitamentsprogram och aktierelaterade ersättningar i synnerhet har ökat sen 80-talet. Aktierelaterade ersättningsprogram används för att uppmuntra persona-len att aktivt deltaga för att förbättra företagets resultat. Ersättningarna i dessa program be-står antingen av köpotioner, teckningsoptioner, syntetiska optioner eller konvertibler. Sedan den 1 januari 2005 gäller de nya redovisningsreglerna IFRS 2. Dessa regler styr redo-visningen av aktierelaterade ersättningar. IFRS 2 kräver att alla företag noterade på någon börs inom EU kostnadsför dessa ersättningar i resultaträkningen. Innan implementeringen av de nya reglerna räckte det med att ta upp dessa ersättningar i notform. IFRS 2 kräver att dessa regler retroaktivt skall användas för att påvisa dess effekter på 2004 års resultaträk-ning. Anledningen till detta är att potentiella investerare skall ha möjlighet att kunna jämfö-ra resultaträkningar från olika år. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka vilka effekter företagen på den svenska A-listan skul-le få erfara om IFRS 2 var implementerad redan år 2004. Vidare ämnar vi att beskriva hur aktierelaterade ersättningsprogram används och hur detta påverkar företagen. Uppsatsen är genomförd med en kvantitativ ansats och har baserats på sekundärdata från företagens årsrapporter. Vårt urval är det samma som totalpopulationen på den svenska A-listan. De slutsatser som vi kunnat dra i vår uppsats är att majoriteten av de noterade företagen på A-listan använder någon form av aktierelaterade ersättningsprogram. Den mest använda optionstypen är teckningsoptioner. I medel skulle resultatet minskat med 0,89 procent på grund av IFRS 2. Utspädningseffekten som orsakats av aktierelaterade ersättningar var i medel 0,54 procent. Företagen på A-listan använder i huvudsak Black & Scholes-modellen vid värdering av de aktierelaterade ersättningsprogrammen. Vidare indikerar resultatet av vår studie att företag som använder köpoptioner skulle ha haft mest negativ resultatpåver-kan på grund av IFRS 2. En annan intressant slutsats är att större företag tenderar att in-volvera alla anställda i sina aktieoptionsprogram medan mindre bolag föredrar att rikta des-sa aktierelaterade ersättningar endast till chefer och ledning. / The use of incitement programs and share-based programs in particular has increased since the 1980`s. These share-based programs are used to encourage the employees to actively participate in increasing the company’s result. The payment in these share-based compen-sations either is; call options, subscription options, synthetic options or convertibles. From January 1 2005, the new accounting regulation IFRS 2 regarding share-based pay-ments are implemented. The IFRS 2 demands all companies noted on a stock exchange in the European Union to account for the share-based payments and expense these in the in-come statement. Before this implementation, these payments only had to be described in a disclosed form. However for the year 2004, the effects due to the IFRS 2 have to be taken into consideration in the income statement. The reason for this is that potential investors must have the possibility to compare the financial statements between different time peri-ods. The purpose with thesis is to cover what effects the companies’ on the Swedish A-list should have had if the IFRS 2 were implemented already the year 2004. Secondly, the aim is to cover and describe the utilization of share-based programs among these companies and to explain how they are affected. The thesis is conducted through a quantitative approach and based on secondary data from annual reports of the companies’. Our selection is the total population on the Swedish A-list. The conclusions made in our thesis are that the majority of the A-listed companies’ use some kind of share-based programs. The most frequently used option type is the subscrip-tion option. On average, the decrease in result was 0,89 percent due to IFRS 2. On average the dilution effect due to the use of share-based programs decreased the result per share by 0,54 percent. The companies on the A-list use the Black & Scholes formula to valuate the share-based payments. Our study also indicates that the companies using call options should have experienced the greatest result decrease due to the IFRS 2. Another interesting conclusion is that the larger companies in our study are most likely to involve all the em-ployees’ in the share-based programs while the smaller companies prefer to only involve executives and other leading personnel.

Background: Over the last three years uranium prices have soard from US $14 per pound (lb) to the current price of US $120/lb and this rapid incline of the commodity have created a boom within the uranium prospecting and min-ing industry. There are currently 435 nuclear reactors all over the world and these reactors demand 180 millions of pounds of uranium each year to run at full production. Currently the uranium mining industry only sup-plies 110 million pounds of the demanded quantity. The remaining 70 mil-lion pounds are coming from secondary sources such as decommissioned nuclear warheads and other sources. Market estimations say that the sec-ondary sources will only cover the shortage up until around 2012 then primary sources have to supply almost the whole quantity demanded. These factors imply that some sort of analysis model for uranium mining companies would be needed. Purpose: The purpose of this report is to valuate three companies within the ura-nium industry and to establish if the current market value is coherent with the fundamental value of these companies. The authors will propose a valuation model that could be used when valuating companies within the uranium industry. Method: A qualitative method has been used in order to value three companies within the uranium mining business that are fairly large players on the market. The valuation of these companies is based upon a discounted cash flow analysis, a relative PV valuation and relative valuation. The compa-nies included in the report are corporations that are quoted at Toronto Stock Exchange and they have started mining uranium. Data have been collected through annual reports and the companies Internet pages. Other secondary information such as valuation theories has been collected from academic search engines and books on the subjects. Conclusions: The current market values of uranium mining companies are not coherent with the actual fundamental values according to the authors. Both funda-mental and a comparative approach could be used when valuing these companies and the most important part in the valuation is to try and fore-cast the commodity price and then to estimate the companies possible mining reserve/extractable resources.

This thesis comprises five empirical essays using Swedish data. Three of the essays examine open market share repurchases, one essay investigates changes in investors’ shareholdings surrounding equity rights offerings (ROs), and the last essay investigates owner-managers’ equity portfolio choices. The first essay examines stock performance around initiation announcements of open market share repurchase programs, the price impact of repurchase trading and the long-run stock performance following the initiation announcements. The study uses a unique data set of initiation announcements and actual share repurchases conducted by firms listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (SSE). The results show that initiation announcements of open market repurchase programs exhibit a 2 day abnormal return (AR) of 2% on average. The price impact on the actual repurchase days is positively correlated with the daily repurchase volume, and is both statistically and economically significant during the first 3 repurchase days in a repurchase program. The long-run abnormal stock performance is positively associated with the fraction of shares bought in the program and is on average 7% for the first year following the initiation announcement. The results indicate that repurchase trading provides price support and that the market participants detect and perceive the initiation announcement and the first repurchase days in a repurchase program as a signal of undervaluation. The second essay examines differences in the market performance of Swedish firms that initiate repurchase programs infrequently (1-2 programs), occasionally (3-4 programs) and frequently (5 or more programs) over the period 2000-2009. It is found that infrequent repurchase programs are greeted with a stronger positive reaction than occasional and frequent programs. However, over the long-term, infrequent repurchase programs show no AR while occasional and frequent repurchase programs show significant positive ARs. A positive relationship between AR and repurchase size is documented for all types of repurchase programs. The third essay examines the market liquidity impact of open market share repurchases in an electronic order-driven market. The study uses a detailed data set of daily repurchase transactions on the SSE together with intraday data on bid-ask spreads and order depths which enables an investigation of the liquidity effects on the actual repurchase days. It is found that repurchase trades inside the order-driven trading system contribute to market liquidity through narrower bid-ask spreads and deeper market depths. After controlling for trading volume, price and volatility, a significant decrease of the bid-ask spread on repurchase days relative to surrounding non-repurchase days is still found. However, repurchases executed as block trades outside the order-driven trading system have a detrimental effect on the bid-ask spread, consistent with a negative response to the presence of informed managerial trading. The fourth essay examines changes in equity ownership surrounding ROs by firms listed on the SSE. The results show that domestic individual investors on average reduce their shareholdings following rights issues, whereas domestic institutional investors and foreign investors increase their holdings. However, when ownership changes are adjusted with changes in ownership in matched non-issuing firms, it is documented that domestic institutions significantly increase their shareholdings in RO firms, whereas foreign investors decrease their holdings in these firms. A positive (negative) association between the 6 month benchmark adjusted return following the offering and the change in shareholdings by foreign investors (domestic institutional investors) is also documented. Finally, the fifth and last essay investigates how Swedish owner-managers (CEO or Chairman) invest in the Swedish stock market conditional on a major investment in their own firm. No evidence is found that owner-managers seek diversification benefits when they invest in other Swedish stocks. In general, they choose other stocks that show higher correlation among themselves than the average Swedish stocks. It is also found that owner-managers within high-tech industries invest significantly more of their total Swedish stock investments in IT stocks than owner-managers within other industries. / <p>QC 20130515</p>

Bakgrund och problem: Efter införandet av IFRS 2 ska svenska börsbolag behandla aktierelaterade ersättningar som en kostnad i redovisningen. Då detta inte krävdes tidigare, medförde de nya reglerna diskussioner om vilka konsekvenserna skulle bli. Frågan är om kostnadsföringen av dessa ersättningar lett till att bolag utformat sina aktierelaterade incitamentsprogram annorlunda efter införandet av IFRS 2. Syfte: Att undersöka om införandet av IFRS 2 har påverkat svenska börsbolags utformning av aktierelaterade incitamentsprogram samt förklara orsaken till en eventuell förändring. Metod/Empiri: Information har samlats in via årsredovisningar från 42 svenska noterade bolag under en tidsperiod av tio år. Datamaterialet analyseras genom observationer och regressionsanalyser där isolering sker av påverkan från företagsspecifika faktorer. Slutsatser: Studien visar på att förekomsten av optionsprogram minskar under åren 2003 och 2005 samtidigt som antalet aktieprogram ökar. Förändringen sker samtidigt som införandeprocessen av IFRS 2 och stämmer överens med antagandet om att kostnadsföringen av aktierelaterade ersättningar ligger bakom förändringen. Att kostnadsföring påverkar bolagsbeslut i utformning av incitamentsprogram överensstämmer med studier, som visar att beslutsfattare i bolag anser att bolagets intressenter koncentrerar sig på den redovisade vinsten. / Background and problem: Swedish listed companies treat share-based payments as an expense since the adoption of IFRS 2. The adoption meant a change compared to previous accounting treatment, which triggered discussions regarding the consequences of such expensing. The question is if the expensing of share-based payments resulted in changes in the design of share-based incentive programs. Aim: Investigate whether the adoption of IFRS 2 has affected the design of share-based incentive programs in Swedish listed companies and explain the reason for such change. Method/Empirics: Information has been collected through annual reports from 42 Swedish listed companies over a period of ten years. In order to analyze the impact of IFRS 2, observations are made together with regression analysis where the impact of firm-specific determinants is accounted for. Conclusions: The existence of option plans are reduced between 2003 and 2005, while the number of share plans is increasing. The change takes place at the same time as the implementation process of IFRS 2 and is consistent with the assumption that the mandatory expensing of share-based payments is causing the change. The reason for expensing affecting corporate decisions regarding share-based incentive programs is that decision makers believes that company stakeholders focuses on reported earnings.

<p>Användandet av olika incitamentsprogram och aktierelaterade ersättningar i synnerhet har ökat sen 80-talet. Aktierelaterade ersättningsprogram används för att uppmuntra persona-len att aktivt deltaga för att förbättra företagets resultat. Ersättningarna i dessa program be-står antingen av köpotioner, teckningsoptioner, syntetiska optioner eller konvertibler.</p><p>Sedan den 1 januari 2005 gäller de nya redovisningsreglerna IFRS 2. Dessa regler styr redo-visningen av aktierelaterade ersättningar. IFRS 2 kräver att alla företag noterade på någon börs inom EU kostnadsför dessa ersättningar i resultaträkningen. Innan implementeringen av de nya reglerna räckte det med att ta upp dessa ersättningar i notform. IFRS 2 kräver att dessa regler retroaktivt skall användas för att påvisa dess effekter på 2004 års resultaträk-ning. Anledningen till detta är att potentiella investerare skall ha möjlighet att kunna jämfö-ra resultaträkningar från olika år.</p><p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka vilka effekter företagen på den svenska A-listan skul-le få erfara om IFRS 2 var implementerad redan år 2004. Vidare ämnar vi att beskriva hur aktierelaterade ersättningsprogram används och hur detta påverkar företagen.</p><p>Uppsatsen är genomförd med en kvantitativ ansats och har baserats på sekundärdata från företagens årsrapporter. Vårt urval är det samma som totalpopulationen på den svenska A-listan.</p><p>De slutsatser som vi kunnat dra i vår uppsats är att majoriteten av de noterade företagen på A-listan använder någon form av aktierelaterade ersättningsprogram. Den mest använda optionstypen är teckningsoptioner. I medel skulle resultatet minskat med 0,89 procent på grund av IFRS 2. Utspädningseffekten som orsakats av aktierelaterade ersättningar var i medel 0,54 procent. Företagen på A-listan använder i huvudsak Black & Scholes-modellen vid värdering av de aktierelaterade ersättningsprogrammen. Vidare indikerar resultatet av vår studie att företag som använder köpoptioner skulle ha haft mest negativ resultatpåver-kan på grund av IFRS 2. En annan intressant slutsats är att större företag tenderar att in-volvera alla anställda i sina aktieoptionsprogram medan mindre bolag föredrar att rikta des-sa aktierelaterade ersättningar endast till chefer och ledning.</p> / <p>The use of incitement programs and share-based programs in particular has increased since the 1980`s. These share-based programs are used to encourage the employees to actively participate in increasing the company’s result. The payment in these share-based compen-sations either is; call options, subscription options, synthetic options or convertibles.</p><p>From January 1 2005, the new accounting regulation IFRS 2 regarding share-based pay-ments are implemented. The IFRS 2 demands all companies noted on a stock exchange in the European Union to account for the share-based payments and expense these in the in-come statement. Before this implementation, these payments only had to be described in a disclosed form. However for the year 2004, the effects due to the IFRS 2 have to be taken into consideration in the income statement. The reason for this is that potential investors must have the possibility to compare the financial statements between different time peri-ods.</p><p>The purpose with thesis is to cover what effects the companies’ on the Swedish A-list should have had if the IFRS 2 were implemented already the year 2004. Secondly, the aim is to cover and describe the utilization of share-based programs among these companies and to explain how they are affected.</p><p>The thesis is conducted through a quantitative approach and based on secondary data from annual reports of the companies’. Our selection is the total population on the Swedish A-list.</p><p>The conclusions made in our thesis are that the majority of the A-listed companies’ use some kind of share-based programs. The most frequently used option type is the subscrip-tion option. On average, the decrease in result was 0,89 percent due to IFRS 2. On average the dilution effect due to the use of share-based programs decreased the result per share by 0,54 percent. The companies on the A-list use the Black & Scholes formula to valuate the share-based payments. Our study also indicates that the companies using call options should have experienced the greatest result decrease due to the IFRS 2. Another interesting conclusion is that the larger companies in our study are most likely to involve all the em-ployees’ in the share-based programs while the smaller companies prefer to only involve executives and other leading personnel.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Finance and Economics. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Customer loyalty as a concept is a critical strategic option in today’s competitive environment. It is no surprise therefore that managers and researchers have increased their study and understanding of the concept as a strategic marketing imperative over the past decades to capture market share and improve profitability. Indeed the theoretical perspective is that competitive pricing as well as company image and reputation contribute to customer satisfaction and that service quality along a number of pathways drives customer loyalty and profitability thus: service quality--&gt; customer satisfaction--&gt; customer loyalty --&gt; market share --&gt; profitability. A few empirical studies have found these linkages to be true. However these factors differ in importance based on the cultural setting. We investigate (1) whether these relationships exist and (2) which of these factor(s) is/are important in motivating consumer loyalty from the perspectives of retail banking customers in Ghana. The study draws on customer behaviour and attitude premised on the SERVQUAL and SERVPERF models originated by Parasuraman et al., (1988), Cronin and Taylor (1992), and Brady and Cronin (2001) respectively as well as other researches based on the literature on customer satisfaction and loyalty. We used both quantitative and qualitative research approaches in our study and have drawn from both primary and secondary sources of data. We made use of a 7 point likert scale to develop indexes for the main constructs measured in this study and applied correlation, chi square (χ2) and regression analyses to evaluate the hypothesised relationships. Further we qualitatively analysed aspects of the data hinging on explanatory aspects of our research. The results among other things reveal that whilst service quality (especially empathy and reliability) and bank image and reputation are important instigators of customer satisfaction and loyalty, competitive pricing showed a weak linear relationship with customer satisfaction and loyalty (r &lt; 0.5). On the other hand, increased market share was found to influence banks’ profitability. Finally we discuss the management implications of the study in terms of customer retention and profitability strategies for the banks in Ghana. We emphasise that management strategies that are service quality conscious, use person-organisation fit approaches to recruitment and effectively communicate strategies could help institutionalise a culture that is customer relation centred, help banks survive the competition, retain their customers and in the long run increase their profitability.

Institutional investors influence corporate payout and research and development (R&D) investment policies. Higher payouts are encouraged by institutional investors, especially in firms with high free cash flow and poor investment opportunities. They also positively influence stock repurchases, particularly in firms with high information asymmetry. The substitution of stock repurchases for dividends as a percentage of total payout is encouraged by institutional investors. Institutional owners persuade firm management to increase research and development (R&D) investment overall and specifically in firms with higher stock liquidity, higher information asymmetry, lower free cash flow, and better investment opportunities. Institutional investors decrease agency costs in payout and R&D investment policy decisions.

Syfte: Uppsatsen syfte är att klargöra och analysera reporäntans ränteförändringars påverkan på aktiekurserna för samtliga svenska banker i large cap på Stockholmsbörsen. Metod: Kvantitativa händelsestudier har gjorts med deduktiv forskningsansats på fyra företag, samtliga noterade på Stockholmsbörsen. Den onormala avkastningen för de undersökta aktiekurserna har beräknats en dag före till en dag efter samtliga realiseringar av reporänteförändringar som skett mellan åren 2004 till 2015.  Teori: Den teoretiska referensramen för studien består av den effektiva marknadshypotesen och överreaktionshypotesen. Slutsatser: Studien har påvisat att det råder signifikant samband mellan ränteförändringar och de studerade aktiernas avkastning vid realisering av ränteförändringarna. / Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to clarify and analyze the changes in the discount rate and its impact on stock prices of all Swedish listed banks in large cap on the Stockholm stock exchange. Methodology: Quantitative event studies has been done with deductive research approach on four companies, all listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The abnormal returns for the examined stock prices have been calculated one day before to one day after all the realizations of the changes in the discount rate that occurred between year 2004 to 2015. Theory: The theoretical framework in this study consists of The Effective Market Hypothesis and The Overreaction Hypothesis. Conclusions: The study has shown that there is a significant correlation between the changes in the discount rate and the equity returns of the studied stocks.

Bakgrund: Aktierekommendationer är vanligt förekommande i finansiell media samtidigt som teorier säger att man inte systematiskt kan över- eller undervärdera en aktie. Trots detta visar studier att finansmarknaden influeras av aktierekommendationer då handeln ökar efter en annonsering, vilket innebär att de finansiella kunskaperna en student har lärt sig under sin utbildning inte påverkar lika starkt när den sedan väljer att följa en aktierekommendation. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkar ekonomistudenters uppfattning av aktierekommendationer och hur stor påverkan valet av utbildningslinje har för hur studenten bedömer aktierekommendationer. Referensram: Referensramen kommer ge en förförståelse samt behandla de teorier som är väsentliga för att utreda studien. Referensramen innefattar prisbildning, EMH, behavioural finance, risk, kulturella influenser, utbildningens influenser och skolornas bakgrund. Metod: För att bäst kunna besvara och undersöka syftet genomförs studien som en förklarande surveyundersökning med en kvantitativ ansats. Undersökningen utförs genom en elektronisk enkät som skickas ut till studenter. Empiri: Det empiriska materialet består av enkätsvar från studenter från fyra olika ekonomiska utbildningslinjer som bearbetats med stistiska metoder. Slutsats: Valet av utbildningslinje påverkar studentens uppfattning om aktierekommendationer. De faktorer som påverkar är tron på den effektiva marknadshypotesen, studentens finansiella intresse, kön, riskbenägenhet, teoretisk kunskap samt kultur. Dessa faktorer påverkar utbildningslinjerna olika starkt. / Background: Share price recommendations are a common feature in the financial media. At the same time the financial theories argue that an asset can't systematically be over- or under valued. In spite of this, former studies show that share price recommendations do influence the financial market since the trade increases after an announcement. This means that the financial knowledge the student obtain during its education won’t matter when he or she chooses to follow a share price recommendation. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate which factors influence students’ opinions about share price recommendations, and how big effect the students’ business education has on that opinion. Theory: The frame of reference will give the reader a deeper knowledge beyond the theory and also theoretical perspectives essential for analysing the study. The frame of reference will consist of asset pricing, the effective market hypothesis, behavioural finance, cultural influences, educational influences as well as the schools backgrounds. Methodology: For best being able to answer to the purpose of this study, an explanatory survey investigation with a quantitative method is being made. The study will be investigated through an electronic questionnaire that will be sent to students. Empirical findings: The empirical material consits of the answers of students from four different business educations. Conclusions: The business educations affect the students’ opinion about share price recommendations in differing ways. The influencing factors are whether the student believes in effective market hypothesis, the students’ personal interest in finance, gender, risk appetite, theoretical knowledge, and culture.