To be a child and survive a natural disaster

Introduction: Despite the fact that children or adolescents often are exposed to disasters, we do not know what happens to these children or adolescents in the end. Much of the international research has been concerned with the effect of disasters on children or adolescents soon after the event and that research shows that adverse psychological reactions can be very strong in this group. We became interested in learning if there are longer-term effects, perhaps even when children or adolescents who experienced disaster reach adulthood. Only a few studies have addressed that question. Many children in the Swedish families vacationing in Southeast Asia, when the Indian Ocean tsunami struck in 2004 and we wondered if the experience left its mark on them years later, even when they have become young adults. Aim: The overall aim of our study was to investigate the long-term effects on Swedish individuals, eight to nine years after the Indian Ocean tsunami that they experienced when they were between 10 and 15 years of age. The specific aims were to examine, whether there was an association between different types of exposures and levels of social support and the adverse effects even after eight years. Another aim was to compare exposed children or adolescents with non-exposed children or adolescents as young adults. Did respondents individual experience produced late reminders of the experience nine years later and, if so, how do they handle them in young adulthood. We also wanted to compare respondents who had lost someone close to them with those who had not lost someone close during the tsunami 2004. To describe the bereaved as young adults was another specific aim. Methods: A questionnaire was distributed in 2013 to young adults who were residents in Stockholm County in 2004 and had been in South East Asia during the Indian Ocean tsunami. The questionnaire consisted of questions about background factors, exposures, the time up to six mounts post disaster and the present time. The respondents also could agree to be interviewed, and 17 respondents who had been seriously exposed to the tsunami were randomly selected for the interview. All the semi-structured interviews were done by telephone with the interviewer following an interview guide prepared for this study. Nine of the 17 had lost someone close to them, and the interviews with them were used as the basis for describing the group experience of loss. Results: The result showed that the percentage of respondents with associations between exposures and studied outcomes variables eight years post disaster increased for every additional exposure studied, indicating that the greater the number of different exposures, the greater the total impact. The most exposed respondents, compared with a population based matched sample, had significantly higher odds ratios that indicated higher psychological distress, lower self-rated health and more thoughts about suicide eight years post disaster. The least expose had less psychological distress than the matched sample. The level of perceived social support up to six months post disaster as well as perceived social support as young adults was associated with the outcomes variables studied. All 17 interviewed stated that they had experienced different late reminders of the 2004 tsunami. The respondents said they could try to make plans in advance to keep late reminders from occurring and they reported different strategies they could use to strive for balance. These included thinking, talking, letting their feelings out, doing something else, or actively trying to avoid the hurtful feelings. Compared, with those who had not lost someone close, those who had lost someone close experienced psychological distress, more posttraumatic stress symptoms and lower self-rated health as young adults. They also described inner feelings that did not follow what others might think they could see as outside observers. Conclusions: The negative psychological impacts on these young adults can still be observed eight or nine years after their exposure to the Indian Ocean tsunami in childhood or adolescence, and were associated with the exposures a certain child or adolescent have experienced and the social support they perceived after the natural disaster. These results also show that the respondents experience external and internal reminders nine years post disaster. Anyone who has lost a closely connected person, for example a parent or a sibling, can have more associations with negative outcomes, than respondents who did not lose someone close. The bereaved also had inner feelings of the loss that did not follow what others might think they could see as outside observers

Påverkar äktheten i socialt ansvarstagande den finansiella lönsamheten i företag? : En kvantitativ studie av 280 europeiska bolag

Syfte: Det ställs idag högre krav på att företag inte enbart kan fokusera på att tjäna pengar utan att de också måste börja ta ansvar för miljö, samhälle och ekonomi. Till följd av de ökade kraven på företagen har vikten av begreppet Corporate social responsibility (CSR) ökat de senaste årtiondena. En populär inriktning hos tidigare studier inom området CSR är om CSR påverkar företagets finansiella prestation (CFP), vilka visat på motsägelsefulla resultat. Dock har forskning identifierat ett äkthets-gap mellan företags uttalade ansvarstagande och vad som i verkligheten utförs. Det har även konstaterats att en CSR-kommitté samt att konsekvent CSR påverkar äktheten i CSR. Syftet med denna studie är därför att undersöka hur äktheten hos investeringar i Corporate social responsibility, CSR, med avseende på hur en CSR-kommitté och konsekvent CSR, påverkar företagens lönsamhet, CFP. Metod: Studien antar en positivistisk forskningsfilosofi med en hypotetiskt deduktiv ansats. Utifrån ett kvantitativt tillvägagångssätt har sekundärdata inhämtats från databasen Thomson Reuters Datastream. En longitudinell design har använts där data har inhämtats över en sexårsperiod där det slutgiltiga urvalet har analyserats med hjälp av multipla regressionsanalyser i statistikprogrammet IBM SPSS. Resultat & slutsats: Studien visar att lönsamheten är högre hos företag som innehar en CSR-kommitté, än för företag utan CSR-kommitté, vilket indikerar att företag genom ett äkta engagemang i CSR uppnår ökad lönsamhet. Ledningens benägenhet att förmedla socialt ansvarstagande leder till ett bättre samarbete med företagets intressenter som ger ett högre finansiellt utfall. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Studier som undersöker företags konsekventa CSR-aktiviteter över en längre tidsperiod för att identifiera effekterna av den nya hållbarhetslagen. Eftersom förekomsten av en CSR-kommitté påverkar företags lönsamhet önskar vi även ytterligare forskning angående vilka faktorer som kan förstärka eller försvaga utfallet. Uppsatsens bidrag: Ur ett teoretiskt perspektiv bidrar denna studie till redovisningslitteraturen genom att undersöka sambandet mellan finansiell prestation och äktheten hos bolagens CSR-motiv. Ur ett praktiskt perspektiv kan denna studie vara betydelsefull för företag som planerar att implementera en CSRkommitté eftersom detta bidrar till företags lönsamhet.Aim: Todays’ companies are facing an increased demand from society that they need to shift their priorities from just making money to being socially responsible. Due to the increased demand, the importance of the concept Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has also increased in the last decades. A popular branch in prior CSR studies has been to investigate if CSR-investments affects the Corporate financial performance (CFP) which has shown conflicting results. However, previous research has identified an authentic gap between what companies are promising and what they implement in reality. Therefore the aim with this study is to investigate how authentic investments in CSR, with regard to how a CSR committee and consistent CSR, influence corporate financial performance (CFP). Method: The study is based on the philosophy of positivism with a hypothetical deductive approach. Secondary data has been collected from Thomson Reuters Datastream with a quantitative approach. A longitudinal design has been used where data has been collected over a period of six years and the final sample has been processed and analyzed with regression analysis in IBM SPSS. Result & Conclusions: This study shows that companies’ financial performance is higher in the presence of a CSR-committee, which indicates that a company by engaging in authentic CSR-activities gets a higher financial performance. Management preferences to communicate the company's social responsibility results in a better financial performance due to a better relationship with the stakeholders Suggestions for future research: Suggestions for future research may investigate how the consistency of companies CSR is influenced by the new legislation over a longer period of time. Since the CSR-committee is influential for the financial performance we would also like to see further studies involving factors that might weaken or strengthen this relationship. Contribution of the thesis: From a theoretical perspective this study contributes to the accounting literature by investigating the relationship between financial performance and authentic CSR motives. From a practical perspective this study can be of interest for companies that are planning to implement a CSR-committee since this is an influential factor for the financial performance

The innovativeness impact on brand value : A winding journey of accounts difficulty to inform about the most essential

Syfte: Att utveckla ett starkt varumärke är ett sätt för företag att utmärka sig från mängden, vilket idag är nödvändigt på grund av den ständigt ökande konkurrenssituationen. Varumärket anses vara ett av företagens mest värdefulla tillgångar men är problematiska att värdera. Problematiken beror bland annat på att värdet på varumärken påverkas av flertalet olika faktorer, däribland företagets innovationsförmåga. Utifrån denna bakgrund har studiens syfte utformats: att undersöka hur värdet på företags varumärken påverkas av deras innovationsförmåga. Metod: Vi har gjort en sekundärdataundersökning, där data tänkts samlas in från databasen Retriever och, eftersom det visade sig att kvalitén i den var bristfällig, från företagens årsredovisningar. P.g.a bristerna i Retrievers databas och otydlig information i årsredovisningar kompletterades studien med tre semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Studien genomfördes på Stockholm Nasdaq OMX om omfattade de största 250 företag som hade minst ett registrerat varumärke. Företag med irrelevant data för studiens syfte eliminerades. Data analyserades genom Pearsons korrelationsanalys och linjär regression. Intervjusvaren analyserades med hjälp av ”well-grundad teori”. Resultat & Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar på att det finns ett positivt samband mellan varumärkesvärdet och FoU. De kompletterande intervjuerna bidrog till att vi uppmärksammandes på skillnaderna mellan praktikers och forskningens syn på väsentligt redovisningsinformation och att bristerna som standarderna har ger företagen möjligheten att kringgå rekommendationerna. Studiens slutsats är att företags varumärken påverkas positivt av företagets innovationsförmåga. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: På grund av begränsade resurser och databasens låga kvalitet har begränsat möjligheten att samla in tillfredsställande data. Därför är ett förslag till fortsatt forskning att genomföra studien på en annan börs än Stockholm Nasdaq OMX. Uppsatsens bidrag: Främst bidrar denna studie till att belysa problemet med att den information som företagen idag redovisar inte är tillräcklig för att ge kunskap om företagens innovations- förmåga och immateriella tillgångar. Ett bidrag är även att det finns ett samband mellan företags varumärken och deras innovationsförmåga hos de företag som undersökts, men på grund av den begränsade datamängden är det svårt att dra några generella slutsatser om detta samband.Aim: Developing an strong brand is a way for companies to stand out of the crowd, which today is necessary to conquer on the competitive market. The brand value is one of the most important assets in annual reports, but there are difficult to estimate an reliable value. It depends on the fact that the brand value is affected by few different factors, including innovativ-eness. Due to the thesis background the purpose enunciate: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate it there is a correlation between companies brand value and innovation capacity. Method: We have done a secondary data analysis, with help from the database Retriever. The combination of faint information and lack of quality in Retrievers capacity it contributed that we had to use semi-structured interviews as an complement to full follow the purpose. The paper per- form at Stockholm Nasdaq OMX and included de 250 largest companies that at least had one registered brand value. Companies with inapplicable data for the purpose of the study was elimi- nated. As a final the data was analysed by dint of linear regression, Pearsons correlation analysis, and interviews thru ”well-grounded theory”. Result & Conclusion: The result of the study indicated that there are positive relation between brand value and R&D. The complemented interviews contributed that the authors observed diff- erences between practitioners and researchers on the perception of between essential accounting information and the opportunities to provide principles to circumvent the recommendations. The conclusion of the study is that companies brand value are positively affected by the innovativeness. Suggestions for future research: Due to the lack of resources and qualitative database it wasn’t possible to satisfy the purpose of the study. Consequently our suggestion for future research will contain the recommendation to do the study on another stock exchange. Contribute of the thesis: Mainly this study contributes to illuminate the fact of accounting information: companies doesn't inform sufficient information to increase knowledge for there own business innovativeness and immaterial assets. Which can be seen as a problem. Second contribute comprises that there is, hence small or implicit, relation between brand value and their companies innovativeness at the researched companies. Consequently the results gets difficult to draw general conclusion from

Late Reminders Nine Years Post Disaster in Adults Who As Children or Adolescents Were Exposed to the 2004 Southeast Asian Tsunami

Objective: The main aim of this study was to determine if young adults, who as children and adolescents were heavily exposed to the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia, had late reminders of this disaster nine years post disaster and, if so, how they handled these late reminders. Method: The subjects who had been exposed when they were between 10 and 15 years old were interviewed nine years post disaster when they had reached adulthood. Results: All those interviewed stated that they had experienced different late reminders of the 2004 tsunami even nine years later. They said that they could plan in advance or deal with late reminders should they occur. Two types of reminders were identified, one type designated as external and the other as internal. The interview subjects described how they had handled these reminders by striving for balance by thinking, talking, letting feelings out, doing something else or by avoiding. Conclusions: These young adults strived to find a balance between their function as adults in society and continued effects from the 2004 tsunami. A person, even if not affected functionally, can be affected in different ways in adulthood by the natural disaster they had experienced during childhood or adolescence. This is something important for anyone to think about when he or she meets persons who have been heavily exposed to a natural disaster many years earlier

Children or adolescents who lost someone close during the Southeast Asia tsunami 2004 – The life as young

Introduction: To lose a person close suddenly, during childhood or adolescence, can be devastating. Many children or adolescents experienced the 2004 Indonesian tsunami when they were between 10- and 15-years-old. This study, from Stockholm, Sweden, describes the long-term effects of loss, eight- or nine-years post disaster, in young adulthood. Method: A mixed-method approach was used including statistical analyses (n = 210) and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Results: It was shown that there was a significant difference between bereaved (n=34) and nonbereaved (n = 176) respondents concerning, psychological distress, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and self-rated health. Three themes were found by using the IPA approach (n=9): Living in traumas, carrying heavy baggage, and living with change. Conclusion: The respondents described personal feelings of grief that are not expressed in their outward appearance or behavior in their daily living. When meeting young adults that have lost someone close in childhood or adolescence, this is important to have in mind.Funding: Kempe Carlgrenska fonden</p