Författare: Elin Sjöberg och Linda Wiberg Handledare: Anders Isaksson Datum: 2008-05-20 Ämne: Kandidatuppsats E-post:  elin_sj@hotmail.com lindowiberg@hotmail.com Sedan en tid tillbaka har fokus på företags ansvar gentemot miljö och samhälle ökat, detta har bland annat resulterat i att allt fler företag väljer att publicera hållbarhetsredovisningar. Hållbarhetsredovisningarna visar den ekonomiska utvecklingen som är bunden till sociala, etiska och miljörelaterade förhållanden. Samtidigt har saker börjat hända på finansmarknaden då både institutionella investerare och vanliga kunder ställer krav på att fondbolagen ska erbjuda produkter som har en etisk inriktning, så kallade social responsible investment, SRI. Informationen för att göra SRI-anpassade beslut och för att bedöma om ett företag får ingå i en etisk anpassad fond hämtas från flera källor, där hållbarhetsredovisningar är en av dem. Forskning visar på att det som redovisas i hållbarhetsredovisningar inte alltid är den information som en analytiker behöver för att på ett effektivt sätt kunna göra sin värdering av företaget. Men eftersom hållbarhetsredovisningen är en av de källor som finns tillgängliga i företag är det intressant att veta hur den används i en företagsanalys och vad analytikerna anser om den. Genom en bättre inblick i de etiska finansanalytikernas användning av hållbarhetsredovisningar kan företagen bättre förstå vad som krävs av dem och vilket innehåll som efterfrågas. Syftet med denna studie var därför att undersöka vad etiska finansanalytiker har för attityd till hållbarhetsredovisningar som verktyg vid etiska företagsanalyser.   Vi har genomfört sex stycken semi-strukturerade, kvalitativa intervjuer med olika analytiker eftersom vi ville skaffa oss djupare kunskaper om ämnet. I den teoretiska referensramen använde vi oss framförallt av tidigare forskning och undersökningar inom ämnet för att kunna besvara syftet med studien.   Slutsatserna vi kom fram till kan sammanfattas som följande:   Analytiker till etiska fonder verkar i en bransch som styrs av ett fåtal aktörer som levererar den etiska informationen i ett mönster som liknar institutionell teori. Analytikerna anser att ”yttre” ting som riktlinjerna från GRI och extern, oberoende granskning endast delvis hjälper företagen med hållbarhetsredovisningen eller höjer dess trovärdighet. Det viktigaste är att företaget redovisar det som är relevant för just dem, något som till stor del styrs av företagets bransch och geografiska läge. Det viktigaste i en hållbarhetsredovisning är att företaget tydligt och klart redovisar sina risker och möjligheter kopplade till miljön och att de uppvisar en hög grad av transrapens. Hållbarhetsredovisningen är viktig, men inte den enda källan som analytikerna använder sig för att hitta icke-finansiell information till sina analyser. Framförallt tror analytikerna att beaktandet av icke-finansiell information ska bidra till att undvika att aktien minskar i värde och att informationen kan bidra till att visa om företaget är stabilt på längre sikt.

Bachelor's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Bachelor's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--York University, 2000. Graduate Programme in Education. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-96). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ67765.

The aim of this thesis is to test whether incorporating principles of responsible investment will have an impact on financial performance when investing in emerging markets. A developed market is included to bring up potential structural differences between emerging and developed markets. Principles of responsible investment suggested by the UN concerns environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. The financial performance of highly rated ESG portfolios was evaluated by using the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and the Fama French 3-factor model. Alpha has been used as the performance measurement. Results reveal that incorporating principles of responsible investment by using a best-in-class approach generates statistically significant and positive alphas in emerging markets, while the developed market of the U.S generates an insignificant alpha.

This project examines the literal and literary bodies associated with the Sinhalese-Tamil conflict in Sri Lanka as they are represented in literary, journalistic, and anthropological accounts. These texts are populated by historical personages and fictional characters spun from imagination or based on actual people who serve as representatives of those who live in the day to day reality of violence. The goal of this project is to offer a re-visioning of the power relations between the aggressor and victim, the victor and vanquished, in violent conflicts. Island of Blood: Frontier Reports from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Other South Asian Flashpoints, a memoir by Anita Pratap, and The Terrorist, a feature film by Santosh Sivan, illustrate how Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, fashioned his own absent or invisible body and the bodies of the suicide bombers as the focal point of Tamil nationalism. Prabhakaran developed the cult of personality around himself by fostering an aura of mystery and employing religious symbolism. In particular, feeding emerges as the quintessentially nurturing function misappropriated by this malignant maternal figure Prabhakaran. The other category of bodies is comprised of the victims: the dead, the raped, and the other defiled bodies that are anomalous in military conflicts. These are the profaned and violated bodies. In Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost, the unidentified bodies of human rights violations provide forensic evidence for legal proceedings and in turn attain sanctified status as the survivors use their remains to build legal cases against the atrocity. Their mute presence serves as a powerful amplifier for the survivors. A. Sivanandan’s When Memory Dies has as its focal point an ethnically incited rape and murder. During intergroup conflicts rape is often used to weaken the enemy group’s integrity. However, I argue that When Memory Dies challenges this norm and suggests that those who are considered threats to group integrity, whether they be minorities, outcasts, unwed mothers or raped women, could paradoxically be the agents of social integration, especially in the time of unrest. / text

The main purpose of the study was to analyze and compare higher educational systems and the major variables affecting them in Sri-Lanka and Kenya. Data were collected through questionnaires, interviews, and literature reviewed. The conceptual framework of the study is in accordance with a model for a cross-cultural national study of comparative education systems developed by Dr. Herbert B. Wilson, Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona. The findings of the study indicated that a comparative education system is significantly intertwined and affected by a number of important variables including (1) certain national characteristics such as culture, traditions, religion, politics, patriotism, international contact, life cycles, geography, economy, climate, demographic trends, and social organization; (2) socializing agents including family, tribe, clan, caste, social institutions, religion, military, media, literature, communication, schools, research stations, museums, publications, and public libraries; (3) the history and philosophy of education in public, private, religious, and proprietary sectors; (4) curriculum and instruction including scope, level, sequence, methodology, and mission; (5) enabling activities including administration, authority, control, financing, and political climate; (6) providing activities including availability and preparation of faculty, students, and administrators, and (7) certain current problems and issues affecting education. The major conclusions indicate that the building of a strong system of higher education is an accretive process involving not only the availability of resources but the arising national aspirations and attitudes as well as the development within the population of an awareness of the personal, regional, and national returns from education, particularly higher education. Such public and private awareness is the catalyst for the development and effectiveness of a productive higher education system.

The Tamil Tigers were one of the most organized, focused, and influential organizations in Asian politics during the last three decades. Throughout the existence of the organization, the goal of the LTTE was to establish a separate Tamil state – Tamil Eelam - comprising the Northern and Eastern parts of Sri Lanka where Tamil-speaking populations were dense. The Sri Lankan civil war, which ended in May of 2009, claimed tens of thousands of lives, displaced hundreds of thousands of residents, and impeded the economic well-being of Sri Lanka. This thesis employs the operational code analysis as a way to better understand the character, behaviour, and norms of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. An additional purpose of this thesis is to test the utility of this model in the case of a terrorist organization such as the LTTE. The Operational Code Analysis framework was premiered by Nathan Leites in his two-part study of the Bolshevik Party, and was subsequently revived and re-imagined by a number of academics. The iteration of the Operational Code framework used in this thesis is a qualitative analysis which is comprised of ten questions: five ‘philosophical’ and five ‘instrumental’. This examination reveals that while this model has much to offer in analyzing this terrorist organization, it is in some ways a flawed method of exposition. However, the model produces unexpected insights about the stated beliefs of the LTTE.

Global awareness of environmental issues such as climate change and resource depletion has grown dramatically in recent years. As a result, there has been a surge of interest in developing alternative building techniques and materials which are capable of meeting our structural needs with lower energy and material consumption. These technologies are particularly attractive for housing. Much of the global demand for housing is currently being driven by economic growth in developing countries. Additionally, natural disasters such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami have destroyed houses in many countries where limited economic wealth makes reconstruction a challenge. This has resulted in shortages of permanent housing in these areas. This thesis explores the structural behaviour of earthbag housing under vertical compressive loading, in an attempt to broaden our quantitative understanding of this alternative building technique. Furthermore, this technique is assessed, along with other alternative construction techniques, for suitability in southern Sri Lanka, an area heavily damaged by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. It was determined that the compressive strength of unplastered earthbag housing specimens meets or exceeds the vertical compressive strength of conventional stud-frame housing technology using a variety of fill materials, with the greatest strength being observed for soil-filled bags. Furthermore, the results of observational research from a site visit to Sri Lanka in 2006, combined with resource availability data and interviews with Sri Lankan citizens, suggest that earthbag housing is a very promising technique for housing construction in the southern coastal region. / Thesis (Master, Civil Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2008-09-10 16:29:45.005

The main objective of this thesis is to analyze the bilateral air services agreements of Sri Lanka under the existing legal, regulatory and the infrastructural framework of civil aviation in Sri Lanka. In order to achieve this objective, this thesis is divided into following chapters, Chapter One - Deals with the history and evolution of bilateral air services agreements in the history of world civil aviation. / Chapter Two - This Chapter has two sections. Section one addresses briefly the history and evolution of the air transport industry of Sri Lanka. Section two looks into the legal and regulatory framework within which the air transport industry works in Sri Lanka. Negotiation and Conclusion of bilateral air services agreements is also explained in this section. / Chapter Three - Contains a detailed analysis of the main provisions of the bilateral air services agreements concluded by Sri Lanka. / Chapter Four - The existing infrastructure and the prospects for the future is discussed in this chapter along with the challenges faced and to be faced in the future. / Finally, the findings of this research are presented with recommendations for the betterment of air transport industry of Sri Lanka.