The primary goal of this paper is to critically examine five of the top nine US fast food chains to look at their history and to determine what factors have lead to their massive success. The companies that will be analyzed include: McDonald's, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Domino's Pizza, and Subway. Similarities and differences of these companies are compared and contrasted throughout the paper and clearly demonstrate how each company has managed to capture and maintain major market share in their respective food categories. Areas that are examined range from product quality to to business models to consumer psychology. A review of these companies reveals that there are specific success factors for each, and one overarching factor for all. Specific factors include, but are not limited to marketing technique, organizational structure and overall business concept. The one factor that seems critical to all is entering the market with an innovative and unique concept.

This thesis comprises three papers examining the impact of competitive pricing or competition on participants in energy markets. The scope of each paper is narrow but focused, dealing with one particular aspect of competition in each market under study. It is hoped that results from these three studies could provide valuable policy lessons to public policy makers in their task to create or maintain competition in different energy markets, so as to improve efficiencies in these markets. The first and second papers examine the load shifting behavior of industrial customers in Ontario under real time pricing (RTP). Using Hourly Ontario Energy Price (HOEP) data from 2005 to 2008 and industry-level consumption data from all industrial customers directly connected to the transmission grid, the first paper adopts a Generalized Leontief specification to obtain elasticities of substitution estimates for various industry groups, while the second paper adopts a specification derived from standard consumer theory to obtain price elasticity estimates. The findings of both papers confirm that in some industries, industrial customers who are direct participants of the wholesale market tend to shift consumption from peak to off-peak periods in order to take advantage of lower off-peak prices. Furthermore, in the first paper, a demand model is estimated and there is evidence that the marginal effect of hourly load on hourly price during peak periods is larger than the marginal effect during off-peak periods. An important policy implication from the results of these papers is that while RTP is currently limited to industrial customers, it does have positive spillover effects on all consumers. The third paper uses a unique panel dataset of all retail gasoline stations across five Canadian cities from late-2006 to mid-2007 to examine the effect of local competition on market shares and sales of individual stations. The base empirical specification includes explanatory variables representing the number of same brand stations and the number of different brand stations within a 3km radius to identify brand affiliation effect. It is found that the number of local competitors is negatively correlated with market share and sales. More interestingly, a same brand competitor has a larger marginal impact on market share and sales than a competitor of a different brand. These findings suggest that additional local competition leads to cannibalization of market share among existing stations, rather than create new demand. Another implication is that relying only on the number of different brands operating within a geographic market could understate the competition intensity in the local market.

Ägarlägenheter är en speciell form av tredimensionella fastigheter, vilken endast är avsedd att innehålla endast en bostadslägenhet. Det har varit möjligt att bilda ägarlägenheter sedan maj 2009. De 24 ägarlägenhetsförrättningar som registrerats i fastighetsregistret under de två första åren har kartlagts och en analys av olika aspekter på hur förhållandet mellan enskilda ägarlägenheter och gemensam egendom reglerats i förrättningarna har genomförts. I ca 20 % av ägarlägenhetsprojekten bildades ägarlägenheterna innan byggnaden blivit upp­förd. Förfarandet är bra för finansiering av byggprojektet, men leder till en osäkerhet om ifall lägenheterna i den färdiga byggnaden överensstämmer med den beslutade fastighets­indelningen. Att ta fastighetsbildningsbeslutet som en preliminärfråga i dessa fall medför att förrättningen inte avslutas förrän byggnaden är klar och därigenom kan lantmäterimyndig­heten säkerställa att fastighetsindelningen överensstämmer med byggnadens slutliga utformning. Byggherren är nästan alltid ensam sakägare i förrättningen. Detta gör handlägg­ningen smidig för förrättningslantmätaren men gör också att ingen rättspraxis kommer att utvecklas inom området. Detta medför ett större behov av väl utformade rekommenda­tioner att följa vid handläggningen. Byggnadsutformningen har i ett flertal ägarlägenhetsprojekt anpassats för att öka den enskildes frihet och minimera behovet av samverkan mellan samfällighetsföreningen och ägarlägenhetens ägare. Lantmäteriets rekommendationer anger att fönster, ytterdörrar och balkongräcken bör ingå i ägarlägenheten, men de kan dessutom helt eller delvis ingå i en gemensamhetsanläggning för att t.ex. yttre underhåll ska skötas gemensamt. Det anges inte hur detta ska formuleras i förrättningshandlingarna och hur det regleras i förrättningarna varierar. I flera förrättningar finns skrivningar om att det yttre underhållet är en del av gemensamhets­anläggning, vilket inte faller inom anläggningslagens tillämpningsområde, då det enligt anläggningslagen krävs att det är ett objekt som upplåts. Det finns ett behov av tydligare rekommendationer från Lantmäteriet om hur sådana anläggningsbeslut ska utformas och i studien föreslås att endast varianten där hela fönstret, ytterdörren eller balkongräcket upplåts för gemensamhetsanläggningen ska rekommenderas av Lantmäteriet. Ägarlägenheternas andelstal i gemensamhetsanläggningar sätts vanligtvis efter de två huvudprinciperna lika andel per lägenhet respektive andelstal efter boarea. Det finns olika varianter på principen andelstal efter boarea, vissa syftar till att ge enklare andelstal för att underlätta för samfällighets­föreningens förvaltning och andra till att boarean inte ska få fullt genomslag på andelstalen. Det är inte möjligt att med de genomförda förrättningarna som grund förklara valet av princip för att sätta andelstal med spridningen mellan lägen­heternas boarea i projektet. Storleken på den lägsta årliga avsättningen till samfällighetsföreningens underhålls- och förnyelsefond varierar mellan projekten. Flera förrättningslantmätare har låtit byggherren sätta summan, andra räknade på 0,3 % av anläggningskostnaden och vissa har satt summan godtyckligt. Det är bra att relatera avsättningen till prisbasbeloppet för att undgå inflations­effekter. / Since May 2009, during the first two years with the new rules which allows formation of condominiums inSweden, 394 condominiums in 24 separate projects have been formed. According to the Swedish law a condominium is a property unit. In approximately 20 % of the projects the property units have been formed before the building was built. This possi­bility is good for financing but can lead to differences between the borders of the property unit and the final building construction. To make a property formation order and not to conclude the cadastral procedure until the building is in place and the final drawings are made is a good way for the cadastral authority to keep control of the final result. Usually there is just one party in the condominium cadastral procedure. This means that it will not be any appeals and no precedents will be formed. Therefore there are requirements for a high standard on the recommendations regarding how to form condominiums. In some condominium projects the building construction has been adapted to give less need for the condominium owners to cooperate with the joint property association. There are recommendations which states that windows, exterior doors and balcony parapets should be a part of the condominium, but they can additionally be a part of the joint facility. Some of the practical solutions in the dossiers regarding joint facilities do not, according to the author, follow the intentions of the legislator. Better recommendations are needed in this area and enhancements are proposed in the thesis. The participatory share for each condominium has been set either with the same share per apartment or by some different models in relation to the apartments floor area. It has not been possible to explain the choice with the spread between the apartments floor area. According to the law the joint property association in these cases must set aside funds in a reserve. The amount of money that initially is noted in the articles of  the association differs between the condominium projects, and is either based on a proposal from the developer, calculated as 0,3 % of the construction costs or just arbitrary decided.

Private Banking är en banktjänst för förmögna individer och företag som syftar till att hjälpa dem med förvaltning av deras kapital men även andra tjänster såsom hjälp med deklarationer. Storbanker idag kämpar med att återfå kunders förtroende efter finanskrisen 2008 och fokusen på riskhantering har blivit viktigare. Kunder har blivit mer känsliga för risker och därmed försöker banker dra fördel av detta genom att skapa värde i riskhanteringsprocessen. I detta värdeskapande eftersträvar man en bra relation till kunden som därmed kan generera i ökade marknadsandelar.  Vår problemformulering i uppsatsen blir då följande: ”På vilket sätt kan den svenska storbanken Nordea öka sina marknadsandelar inom Private Banking med hjälp av riskhantering?” Syftet med vår uppsats blir därmed att få en djupare inblick i hur Nordeas Private Bankingtjänst arbetar med riskhantering och hur det påverkar deras marknadsandelar. För att kunna få denna förståelse har vi genomfört en kvalitativ studie i form av en fallstudie på Senior Private Banking Managern på Nordea. Valet av Nordea grundar sig på att de vann pris för bästa aktör i Norden samt att de är den största finanskoncernen i Norden. I uppsatsen har vi använt oss av en abduktiv ansats för att kunna få fram förståelse mellan vår teori och empiri. Slutsatsen i denna uppsats är att det är kommunikation av risker som är den viktigaste biten i riskhanteringen för att kunna öka marknadsandelar samt att kunna göra en korrekt risk- samt kundprofilering. Om detta görs på rätt sätt kan Nordea som storbank och koncern skapa förtroende samt värde för kunden som resulterar i kundnöjdhet. Agentteorin som bland annat regleras av fast lön resulterar dessutom i att rådgivaren tänker på kundens behov i första hand och gör att riskhanteringen fungerar. Vårt bidrag med denna studie är att vi har visat att Nordeas arbetssätt med riskhantering är värdeskapande för kunden och är en bidragande faktor till att deras ökande marknadsandelar. / Private Banking is a banking service for wealthy individuals and companies that aims to provide help with the management of their capital but also other services such as help with declarations. Today large banks are fighting to regain their customers’ trust after the financial crisis of 2008 and the focus on risk management has become increasingly important. Customers have become more sensitive to risks and consequently banks are trying to adapt to this and create value in the risk management process. In this value creation the aim is to have a good relationship to the customer, which in turn can generate into increasing market share. Our problem formulation therefore becomes the following in the thesis: ”In what way could the Swedish large bank Nordea increase their market share within Private Banking through risk management?”  The purpose with our thesis is to get a deeper insight in how Nordea is working with risk management and how it affects their market shares. To get this understanding we have done a qualitative study in terms of a case study on the Senior Private Banking Manager in Nordea. The choice of Nordea is based on the fact that they won prize for best provider of Private Banking services in the Nordic together with being the largest financial group in the Nordic. In the thesis we have used an abductive approach to get the understanding between our theory and empirics. The conclusion of this thesis is that communication of risks is one of the most important parts in the risk management to be able to increase market shares together with being able to do a correct risk and customer profiling. If this is done in the right way, Nordea as a large bank and financial group, could create trust and value for the customer that can result in customer satisfaction. The agency theory that among other things is regulated by fixed salary results in that the advisor thinks about the customer needs in first place and therefore results in an effective risk management work. Our contribution with this thesis is that we have shown that the way Nordea is working with the risk management is value creating for the customer and is contributing to an increase in their market shares.

Syfte: Studera sju portföljer och notera den bästa typen av portfölj med högst avkastning till lägst risk. Metod: Sekundärdata är grunden för uträkning av samtliga portföljers avkastningar, risker och korrelation. Studien är deduktiv med kvantitativa inslag av kända teorier av nobelpristagare i ekonomisk vetenskap.  Slutsats: Studien visar att stora bolag i olika branscher är ett vinnande portföljinnehåll för denna studie. Stora bolags aktier har visat högre avkastning till lägre risk jämfört med små bolag under studiens tid då ekonomiska kriser drabbade marknaden. Den mest presterande portföljen var därför storbolagsportföljen. Vidare forskning: Längre tidsperspektiv och nya teorier som Jensens alfa samt Treynorkvot är av intresse för vidare forskning för att styrka vår slutsats. / Intention: To study seven portfolios and note the best type of portfolio with the maximum return at a minimum risk. Method: Secondary data is the basis for calculation of the total portfolio returns, risk and correlation. This study is deductive based using a quantitative method of world-known theories of Nobel laureates in economic sciences. Conclusion: The study shows that the best efficient portfolio contains large companies in different lines of business. Large companies' shares have higher returns at lower risk compared to small companies in circumstances to difficult economic situations globally. The best performed portfolio was the portfolio with large companies.                                       Further Research: Longer period of time study and a study of new theories such as Jensens Alfa and Tretnor ratio would be interesting for further research.

This study discusses about the relationships between the qualities of collateralized shares by the broad of directors and the bank performance. In this study, we focus on the quantitative indicators of collateralized shares. Base on individual collateralization data, we build up the sets of the loans permitted by banks. In additon, this study is based on the multiple regression model to find out the relationships between the qualities of the collateral loans and the bank performance. By the conclusion, this study tries to give some advice to the banks about measuring the loans with collateralized shares. There are few conclusion of this study: 1. The stocks with higher price volatility are not good collaterals. The banks which have the loan with the collaterals with higher price volatility usually have bad proformance. The banks should pay attension to this indicator. 2. The collaterals are better with high ¡¥market price-to-book value¡¦. 3. By literature review, the higher proportion of collateralized shares by the broad of directors, the shares seem to be the worse collaterals for the banks. However, in this study, we find out some trade-off relationship between the profit and the risk in measuring this indicator.

<p>The harmonization within EC Company Law has been relativley successful. Despite its relative success; important differences still remains in European company law.</p><p>The freedom of establishment itself, and the ECJ’s interpretation of the freedom provides European companies with a substantial cross-border mobility. As a consequence of this mobility, together with the differences in national legislation; mandatory rules in company law can be easily evaded. A typical example of this is that a Swedish enterprise, by running their business through a British private limited company, can escape the Swedish legislation on capital contributions when forming a company with limited liability for its members. These rules are thereby undermined.</p><p>The fact that these, otherwise mandatory, rules can be evaded should result in a questioning of their existence. The main purpose of rules on minimal capital contributions is to safeguard the interests of the creditors of the company. The analysis in this thesis shows that the Swedish legal capital regime is very unlikley to fulfill its purpose. The alternative, English company law, can in various aspects be seen as more efficient.</p> / <p>Den gemenskapsrättsliga harmoniseringsprocessen har på bolagsrättens område varit relativt framgångsrik. Trots detta går det i dagsläget inte att tala om någon konform europeisk bolagsrätt. Betydande skillnader kvarstår mellan de nationella bolagsrättsliga regelverken.</p><p>Den EG-rättsliga etableringsfriheten, och EG-domstolens tolkning av densamma, innebär att de europeiska företagen ges ett relativt stort mått av gränsöverskridande rörelsefrihet. En följd av denna mobilitet tillsammans med skillnaderna i de nationella regelverken är att tvingande nationell bolagsrättslig lagstiftning relativt</p><p>enkelt kan kringgås. Ett typexempel på detta är att svenska företagare, genom att bedriva sin verksamhet i ett engelskt aktiebolag, kan undgå det svenska kravet på tillskjutande av ett minsta aktiekapital vid bildandet av ett privat aktiebolag. Det svenska kapitalkravet kan därmed sägas vara underminerat.</p><p>Blott det faktum att det svenska kapitalkravet underminerats innebär att dess existens bör ifrågasättas. Syftet med kapitalkravet är främst att skydda borgenärernas intressen i bolagen. Mot bakgrund av vad som framkommer i denna uppsats kan det svenska kapitalkravets effektivitet betvivlas. Alternativet, den engelska bolagsrätten, kan ur en rad aspekter sägas vara mer ändamålsenlig.</p>

Abstract Purpose This study is designed to determine whether managed care has had an influence on the number and distribution of procedures with demonstrated volume and outcome endogeneity in Florida healthcare markets; in addition, methods are developed to determine which measures of managed care activity best predict the impact of managed care on surgical procedure utiliation. Rationale A shift in surgical procedure volume on the basis of preferred provider arrangements has the potential to redistribute surgical procedures within hospital markets. The surgical procedures for which such a distribution could have the greatest impact on population health are those for which the volume of cases performed has a strong inverse influence on the outcomes observed. A shift in high risk surgical procedures to low volume hospitals could potentially reduce the number of cases performed at high volume centers and increase cases at low volume centers, adversely impacting quality in both. Methods A retrospective population based cohort design is used to capitalize on the variability among Florida metropolitan statistical areas between 1995 and 1999, a period which captured the full business life cycle of managed care plans in Florida. Multiple regression models are used to measure the impact of changes in managed care activity as measured by penetration, index of competition and consolidation on the change in the number and distribution of seven procedures for which volume is associated with patient outcome, controlling for socio-demographic and market factors known to influence surgical procedure utilization. Difference scores derived for each of the model variables were used to measure change from the baseline in 1995 to 1999. Post hoc analysis of the count data models was performed using the cases from all study years in a log linear generalized estimating equation to provide validation of the difference score approach. Key Findings Study procedure volume increased over the period, and remained a consistent proportion of the total inpatient surgical procedure volume. Procedure rate remained stable over the study period with substantial small area variation. Change in managed care concentration was consistently and negatively associated with procedure volume at both the MSA (&betaâ&beta = -19.67; p = 0.0489) and hospital level (&betaâ&beta = -4.088; p = 0.0027).Change in the total population and the number of specialty surgeons had a substantial, consistent and positive relationship to change in procedure volume at both the market and hospital level. The change in the index of competition was positively associated with change in hospital market share (&betaâ&beta = 0.1005; p = 0.05); whereas, neither change in managed care penetration nor change in managed care index of competition was predictive of change in procedure volume at the market level. The managed care variables were not correlated when difference scores were tested providing evidence that the managed care variables measure different constructs and behave differently. Implications As markets for managed care became more concentrated, the number of surgical procedures with volume and outcome endogeneity declined; the specific reasons for the observed decline require additional study. Competitive managed care markets have a favorable impact on hospital market share for these high risk, high margin procedures. Studies of managed care require consideration of the stage of managed care development in order to understand its influence and the use of difference scores as a method to measure change over time has substantial potential for the study of health care markets.

In Paper [I], we theoretically assess green public procurement (GPP) as an environmental policy instrument and its ability to lead to the achievement of environmental objectives. Central to our analysis is the extent to which polluting firms choose to adapt to the public sector's environmental requirements and to invest in greener technologies. Our main finding is that the potential of GPP to function as an objective-effective instrument of environmental policy is limited and can actually be counterproductive. From an environmental policy point of view, it is crucial that GPP aims for environmental standards beyond just the technology of the polluting firms and that it is designed with reference to defined environmental objectives. In Paper [II], we use data on Swedish public procurement auctions for internal regular cleaning service contracts to provide novel empirical evidence regarding GPP and its effect on the potential suppliers' decision to submit a bid and their probability of being qualified for supplier selection. We find only a weak effect on supplier behavior, and this suggests that GPP, as used in practice, does not live up to its political expectations. However, several environmental criteria appear to be associated with increased complexity, as indicated by the reduced probability of a bid being qualified in the post-qualification process. As such, GPP appears to have limited or no potential to function as an environmental policy instrument. In Paper [III], I examine how GPP is organized in Sweden and how the potential suppliers respond to varying buyer market shares using data on Swedish public procurement auctions for internal regular cleaning service contracts. The level of GPP stringency is found to vary systematically across authority types, buyer market share, and political coalition in the relevant council or in Parliament. The results also indicate quite a substantial dispersion in GPP stringency, suggesting a low degree of coordination among contracting authorities when implementing the policy. After controlling for GPP stringency and other covariates, increased buyer market share is associated with a significant increase in the probability of potential suppliers submitting a bid. The European Commission encourages public authorities to split procurement contracts into multiple contracts in order to increase the competiveness of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). In Paper [IV], I use data from Swedish public procurement auctions for internal regular cleaning service contracts to study the effect of contract size and number of contracts on SME participation and probability of winning. The results indicate that SME participation is negatively related to both contract size and the number of contracts in the procurement. A possible interpretation is that reduced contract size in order to stimulate SME participation is counteracted by reduced incentives for them to enter into procurements with multiple contracts. Medium-sized firms are also more successful when bidding for smaller contracts relative to large firms. Nevertheless, the results indicate that the award rate for SMEs is positively correlated with the number of contracts in the procurement. / Green Public Procurement: An Efficient Environmental Policy Tool?

This thesis comprises three papers examining the impact of competitive pricing or competition on participants in energy markets. The scope of each paper is narrow but focused, dealing with one particular aspect of competition in each market under study. It is hoped that results from these three studies could provide valuable policy lessons to public policy makers in their task to create or maintain competition in different energy markets, so as to improve efficiencies in these markets. The first and second papers examine the load shifting behavior of industrial customers in Ontario under real time pricing (RTP). Using Hourly Ontario Energy Price (HOEP) data from 2005 to 2008 and industry-level consumption data from all industrial customers directly connected to the transmission grid, the first paper adopts a Generalized Leontief specification to obtain elasticities of substitution estimates for various industry groups, while the second paper adopts a specification derived from standard consumer theory to obtain price elasticity estimates. The findings of both papers confirm that in some industries, industrial customers who are direct participants of the wholesale market tend to shift consumption from peak to off-peak periods in order to take advantage of lower off-peak prices. Furthermore, in the first paper, a demand model is estimated and there is evidence that the marginal effect of hourly load on hourly price during peak periods is larger than the marginal effect during off-peak periods. An important policy implication from the results of these papers is that while RTP is currently limited to industrial customers, it does have positive spillover effects on all consumers. The third paper uses a unique panel dataset of all retail gasoline stations across five Canadian cities from late-2006 to mid-2007 to examine the effect of local competition on market shares and sales of individual stations. The base empirical specification includes explanatory variables representing the number of same brand stations and the number of different brand stations within a 3km radius to identify brand affiliation effect. It is found that the number of local competitors is negatively correlated with market share and sales. More interestingly, a same brand competitor has a larger marginal impact on market share and sales than a competitor of a different brand. These findings suggest that additional local competition leads to cannibalization of market share among existing stations, rather than create new demand. Another implication is that relying only on the number of different brands operating within a geographic market could understate the competition intensity in the local market.