<p>This mini-thesis aims to contribute to the debate around the legislative process by summarizing and analysing it comprehensively. It will, without being exhaustive, seek to identify the most important legal requirements that the future Statute needs to meet in order to facilitate cross-border business of small and medium-sized businesses. It seeks to systematise and comment on the most important legal Key Issues and therefore clarify and enrich the debate.</p>

Bakgrund Från och med den 1:a januari 2005 ska alla börsnoterade bolag inom EU tillämpa IFRS. I de flesta länder råder valfrihet för onoterade bolag att tillämpa IFRS eller nationella redovisningsstandards. Det har dock visat sig att SMEs främst väljer att tillämpa de nationella reglerna, då IFRS anses för omfattande och kostsamma att tillämpa. Mot denna bakgrund tog IASB initiativet till ett förslag om ett införande av internationella enhetliga redovisningsstandards för små- och medelstora företag. Syfte Denna uppsats avser att undersöka hur redovisningsstandards som idéer sprids, vilka bärarna av idéerna är samt hur idéerna blir starka och uppnår legitimitet. Vidare avses att utreda vilka institutionella faktorer som kan förklara inställningen till införandet av internationella enhetliga redovisningsstandards för SMEs i olika länder. Avgränsningar Uppsatsen avgränsas till att omfatta länder som tillhör den anglosaxiska och kontinentaleuropeiska redovisningstraditionen samt ingår i EU eller EEA. Metod Syftet besvaras genom att analysera hur IASB gått tillväga avseende SME-projektet samt genom att tolka de yttranden som inkommit till IASB avseende diskussionsunderlaget ”Preliminary Views on Accounting Standards for Small and Medium-sized Entities”. Resultat Redovisningsidéer sprids genom idébärare samt genom tolkningsprocessen där de även blir starka och vinner legitimitet. Vilken redovisningstradition ett land tillhör är avgörande för inställningen till IFRS för SMEs. Beskattningssystemet är av stor betydelse, profession och normgivande organ har också inverkan, medan kapitalmarknadsstrukturen i landet är av underordnad betydelse. / Background All listed companies within the EU are obligated to apply IFRS in their accounting from January the 1st 2005. In most countries, companies are allowed to choose between applying the IFRS or their national regulations. It has shown that SMEs primarly choose to apply the national rules, since IFRS appears to be to complex and expensive. From this background IASB initiated a proposal regarding an implementation of international accountingstandards for small and medium-sized entities. Purpose This paper intends to examine how accounting standards as ideas are spread, who the carriers of the idea are and how the ideas become strong and gain legitimacy. Further, the intention is to examine what institutional factors, which can explain the attitude towards the implementation of international accounting standards for SMEs in different countries. Demarcation This study considers countries that belong to the anglosaxon or continentaleuropean accounting traditions and is a part of the EU or EEA. Realization The purpose is filled through analyzing IASBs line of action regarding the SME-project and through interpretation of the comments received by IASB, regarding the discussionpaper ”Preliminary Views on Accounting Standards for Small and Medium-sized Entities”. Results Accountingideas are spread through bearers of the ideas and by the interpretationprocess, where they get strong and also gains legitimacy. What accountingtradition a country belongs to is crucial in the regards to the attitude towards IFRS for SMEs. Taxsystem is of great importance, profession and standardsetters as well, whereas the structure of the capitalmarket is less important.

La tesi analizza le strategie di internazionalizzazione delle imprese agroalimentari di piccole e medie dimensioni, con particolare riferimento al caso italiano. In particolare, vengono prese in esame diverse forme di alleanze strategiche interorganizzative che tali imprese possono adottare per incrementare l'espansione internazionale e l'ingresso in nuovi mercati. A questo proposito, la tesi è essenzialmente articolata in due studi, uno riguardante il lato "a monte" della catena del valore (ossia il mercato di fornitura), e l'altro il versante "a valle", ossia il mercato del cliente finale. / The thesis analyzes agrifood SMEs internationalization strategies, with specific reference to the Italian case. In particular, the study focuses on the different forms of interorganizational strategic networks to foster geographic expansion and foreign market entry. Regarding this matter, moreover, the thesis is basically articulated in two studies, one concerning the upstream side of the value creation system (i.e. the supply market), while the other the downstream side (i.e. customer market).

Laut dem Weltklimarat ist es zweifelsfrei, dass sich das Klima global ändert. Ein sich veränderndes Klima wirkt sich jedoch nicht nur auf die Umwelt, sondern auch auf Unternehmen aus. Diese Auswirkungen können sowohl positiver als auch negativer Art sein. Um auf diese Auswirkungen adäquat zu reagieren, ist es zunächst von Bedeutung, die positiven als auch negativen Effekte zu identifizieren und diese entsprechend zu interpretieren. Ziel der Befragung ist es daher, zu erfassen, wie sich Unternehmen vom Klimawandel betroffen fühlen und wie diese darauf reagieren. Des Weiteren wird untersucht, welche Faktoren einen Einfluss auf den Anpassungsprozess haben. Für die Befragung wurden im Juni 2012 über 2.000 Handwerksbetriebe angeschrieben, wovon insgesamt 207 Unternehmen antworteten. Zwei Drittel dieser Unternehmen nimmt den Klimawandel wahr. Allerdings fühlte sich in der Vergangenheit die Mehrheit der Unternehmen von Extremwetterereignissen nicht betroffen. Die größten negativen Einflüsse werden gegenwärtig als auch in der Zukunft bei den Kältewellen gesehen. Innerhalb des Unternehmens sind insbesondere die Logistik und der Einkauf in Zukunft negativ betroffen; positive Wirkungen werden sich hingegen beim Absatz erhofft. Insgesamt erwarten die Unternehmen eher negative als positive Effekte aus dem Klimawandel, wobei insbesondere das Nahrungsmittelgewerbe und das KFZ-Gewerbe mit negativen Auswirkungen auf ihren Betrieb rechnen. Da sich nur wenige Unternehmen von Extremwetterereignissen bzw. dem Klimawandel betroffen fühlen, verwundert es nicht, dass fast drei Viertel der Unternehmen keine Anpassungsmaßnahmen planen und der Teil, der Anpassungsmaßnahmen umsetzt(e) bzw. beabsichtigt umzusetzen, eher einen geringen Anteil ausmacht. Dies könnte darauf zurückgeführt werden, dass in etwa jedes zweite Unternehmen die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels gegenwärtig nicht finanziell spürt. Darüber hinaus fehlen finanzielle Eigenmittel, private Finanzierungsmöglichkeiten und öffentliche Fördermöglichkeiten. Des Weiteren besteht eine hohe Unsicherheit, ob Extremwettereignisse überhaupt auftreten, und welche Anpassungsmaßnahmen möglich wären. Basierend auf den Befragungsergebnissen ist zu empfehlen, Unternehmen mit Informationen zur Thematik Klimawandelfolgen und Anpassungsoptionen zu versorgen, Unternehmen zu Risikoanalysen zu motivieren und mögliche finanzielle Unterstützung im Rahmen der Anpassung an die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels anzubieten.

In developing countries, land management, government intervention in peri-urban land, and the striking decline of agricultural land have all affected farmers’ livelihoods and the capacity of locally supplied food for ever-growing cities. A growing body of literature has focused on the exploration of these issues in rural areas, which are believed to be the backbone of the national agriculture economy, and in peri-urban areas of large cities, which have experienced extreme changes during recent decades. But the issues are also relevant to peri-urban mid-sized cities where urbanization is in a different phase compared to the above areas. This study examines the main changes underway in the agrarian transition of peri-urban areas of Vinh city, a mid-sized city in the North Central Coast region of Vietnam. Vinh was chosen given its unique position in transforming from a mid-sized to a large city. This study explores the dynamics of agricultural production, and the role of the Vinh government in mediating urbanization and its impacts on farmers’ livelihoods. In order to attain the objectives, interviews with local leaders, and a survey with farmers were conducted, and a GIS database was also developed. The findings regarding agricultural production in the case study demonstrate that this mid-sized city, in the early phase of development, manifests itself as a duplicate of larger cities, escalating the threat of food accessibility from local sources. Duplication is in the sense that the peri-urban population in Vinh still depends largely on agriculture with a shift to commercial agriculture with higher value products despite the shrinkage of agricultural land. Agricultural production primarily uses manual family labor, and traditional products are substantially subsistent. Compared to larger cities, post-production activities (including processing, packaging, marketing, and delivery) and the organization of the agrofood supply chain in Vinh are underdeveloped due to minimum support from local and outside agencies. The case study confirms that as general trend in developing countries, Vietnam’s land policies favor the expropriation of agricultural land for industrialization and modernization. The findings also demonstrate the heterogeneity of land administration in Vietnam, structured from the ‘bottom-up’ mechanism, through which Vinh’s local authorities have the prerogative to not issue land use right certificates of agricultural land despite the national policy. This has occurred in order to control land markets to satisfy the city’s goal of transforming to an independent municipality. The situation is perpetuated by the absence of agricultural land legislations in a peri-urban context while contemporary legislation has been developed to address the rural areas because of their importance in the national agriculture economy. This is an issue for land management in Vietnam as well as in other developing countries. Finally, the findings on land expropriation in the peri-urban areas of Vinh city also confirm that direct government intervention through land expropriation in developing countries, with low compensation and lack of alternative vocational training, undermines farmers’ livelihoods and threatens the local food supply.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are seen as backbone for economic growth because they are regarded as catalyst for entrepreneurial skills, innovation and employment. Since in Sweden approximately 99.89% of enterprises are SMEs, they take an important role in country’s economic development.        Most of the countries especially EU nations have abolished the statutory audit provision for (SMEs). The new Swedish legislation of statutory audit exemption came into effect on 1st November, 2010. In accordance with this new legislation, (SMEs) within two out of three following criteria; turnovers 3 million Swedish Kronor, balance sheet total 1.5 million Swedish Kronor and 3 total numbers of employees are exempted from statutory audit requirement. Despite the fact that audit exempted SMEs are voluntarily conducting financial statements audited.                       As per above matters, this study finds the expected benefits of audit exempted SMEs in Sweden when they go for voluntary audited financial statements. In order to attain our research findings, this study chooses to conduct qualitative research method by semi- structured interviews with respondents from SMEs. Besides that, bankers’ opinion on audited financial statements and voluntary audits are discussed in order to complement our main research finding.  When it comes to collect empirical data, we use convenient data sampling from Sweden, particularly in Umeå due to the cost and time limitations.            According to our empirical results, the expected benefits for audit exempted SMEs in Sweden voluntarily conducting their financial statements audit are as follow: Security with the audited financial information Right amount of tax paid to tax authorities Easy to get bank loan                 Better relation with creditors, investors and suppliers   In accordance with empirical results of bankers, we can confirm that bank will grant loan easily to clients who have their financial accounts audited. As a contribution of new knowledge we find that in Sweden, banks used credit scoring lending technique when it comes to grant bank loan. The interest rate determination is also relied on credit rating of companies. Companies who have good credit rating will be granted loan with lower interest rate. As for small companies who would like to get external financing from banks, the requirement criteria could describe as; audited financial statements, collaterals, business plan, owners’ grantee for loan repayment and good credit history.

Much research has been conducted within Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and it is currently a highly debated topic. Today, CSR is not only pursued in response to public pressure, but is also seen as a source of competitive advantage and differentiation. The problem that this thesis deals with is that many SMEs do not use CSR as a proactive competitive tool in a strategic manner. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to develop an evaluation framework for SME‟s CSR projects, and to use this framework to analyze Casall‟s CSR projects in order to provide recommendations for Casall regarding strategic CSR. CSR as a concept is first discussed with the use of previous literature. This leads to the development of an evaluation framework for SME‟s CSR projects. The methodology is carefully considered, and a qualitative case study is chosen to be conducted at Casall. The results and analysis are presented in accordance with the theoretical framework and method. An in-depth analysis is conducted with the help of the evaluation framework. This leads to recommendations on Casall‟s existing and future engagement in CSR projects. The five recommendations are to simplify the guidelines for producers, adapt the guidelines for producers, get engaged in the local community, implement an internal code of conduct, and raise customer awareness of their engagement in CSR. This thesis contributes to the academic society by combining theories into a practical framework for evaluating SMEs‟ CSR projects. More specifically, the framework is used to guide Casall in their future CSR involvement. The framework can also be useful for other SMEs to evaluate and integrate suitable CSR projects into corporate strategy.

In developing countries, land management, government intervention in peri-urban land, and the striking decline of agricultural land have all affected farmers’ livelihoods and the capacity of locally supplied food for ever-growing cities. A growing body of literature has focused on the exploration of these issues in rural areas, which are believed to be the backbone of the national agriculture economy, and in peri-urban areas of large cities, which have experienced extreme changes during recent decades. But the issues are also relevant to peri-urban mid-sized cities where urbanization is in a different phase compared to the above areas. This study examines the main changes underway in the agrarian transition of peri-urban areas of Vinh city, a mid-sized city in the North Central Coast region of Vietnam. Vinh was chosen given its unique position in transforming from a mid-sized to a large city. This study explores the dynamics of agricultural production, and the role of the Vinh government in mediating urbanization and its impacts on farmers’ livelihoods. In order to attain the objectives, interviews with local leaders, and a survey with farmers were conducted, and a GIS database was also developed. The findings regarding agricultural production in the case study demonstrate that this mid-sized city, in the early phase of development, manifests itself as a duplicate of larger cities, escalating the threat of food accessibility from local sources. Duplication is in the sense that the peri-urban population in Vinh still depends largely on agriculture with a shift to commercial agriculture with higher value products despite the shrinkage of agricultural land. Agricultural production primarily uses manual family labor, and traditional products are substantially subsistent. Compared to larger cities, post-production activities (including processing, packaging, marketing, and delivery) and the organization of the agrofood supply chain in Vinh are underdeveloped due to minimum support from local and outside agencies. The case study confirms that as general trend in developing countries, Vietnam’s land policies favor the expropriation of agricultural land for industrialization and modernization. The findings also demonstrate the heterogeneity of land administration in Vietnam, structured from the ‘bottom-up’ mechanism, through which Vinh’s local authorities have the prerogative to not issue land use right certificates of agricultural land despite the national policy. This has occurred in order to control land markets to satisfy the city’s goal of transforming to an independent municipality. The situation is perpetuated by the absence of agricultural land legislations in a peri-urban context while contemporary legislation has been developed to address the rural areas because of their importance in the national agriculture economy. This is an issue for land management in Vietnam as well as in other developing countries. Finally, the findings on land expropriation in the peri-urban areas of Vinh city also confirm that direct government intervention through land expropriation in developing countries, with low compensation and lack of alternative vocational training, undermines farmers’ livelihoods and threatens the local food supply.

During the past decade, advances in information technology have facilitated the rapid international expansion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Cloud computing has enabled a new wave of firms to offer services on the web regardless of geographic distances. The aim of this study is to explore how cloud computing affect the external variables network and culture in the internationalization process of an SME. In order to explore the impact on these external variables, a qualitative case study is carried out on a business-to-business SME offering cloud services within small and open economies. The findings explain why closeness was important and why the cloud service firm was limited to a gradual internationalization process although the technology has the potential to break this pattern or accelerate it. The results from this study are valuable for scholars since the internationalization process of cloud service firms is an under-researched area. It is also useful for cloud service SMEs when making strategic decisions in the internationalization process.

The world market has during recent decades become an increasingly globalized arena, in which lowered trade barriers, enhanced technology, worldwide communication and containerization have made internationalization an easily obtainable option for companies. The once dominating multinational enterprises are present day challenged by small- and medium sized enterprises as global actors, and competitiveness is an ever-increasing factor, making the pursuit and exploitation of opportunities essential.   The International Entrepreneurship Theory has during the last two decades emerged as a theory explaining the phenomena of small- and medium sized enterprises internationalizing their operations at an early age; a theory comprehending entrepreneurial behavior, the ability to explore and take advantage of opportunities overlooked by others in order to create value in the organization.   The purpose of this thesis is to create an understanding of the emergence, definition and theoretical framework of the International Entrepreneurship Theory. By implementing a deductive research approach and a quantitative research method, empirical data is collected in order to confront the theoretical framework in the analysis. The analysis will further be the basis for conclusions and recommendations that will conclude our thesis.