What the Tweet is going on? - A Study on how Rumor, Social Media Attention and Twitter Sentiment affects Share Volume

We study rumors and Twitter attention focusing on acquisition transactions and how it affects market reaction, defined as abnormal trading volume, prior to announcement. We study 98 acquisition transactions, were 45 firms had tweets prior the acquisition announcement. We collected tweets one day prior to the announcement and 10 days back and perform sentiment analysis to proxy for investor sentiment. We find with statistical significance that firms with tweets has a 17.1% higher abnormal trading volume than those without, thus enable us to reject the null hypothesis. These findings are in line with previous research on how Twitter sentiment affects the stock turnover. As for how the sentiment in a tweet influences the abnormal trading volume, we can see that tweets with a neutral sentiment do affect the abnormal trading volume by 91,1% at 1% significance. We suggest by our findings that investors are not rational or rightly informed but overreact and trade on the unjustified information betting it could come true

How to Differentiate the Difference - A quantitative study on the determinants of discrepancies between expected and actual credit ratings in insurance companies

We study the determinants of discrepancies between expected and actual credit ratings among insurance companies. We analyze 124 public insurance companies with an assigned credit rating, and model discrepancies as the difference between expected and actual credit ratings. We find relatively strong evidence that embedded value has no association with a positive or negative difference, and that embedded value facilitates more accurate credit ratings. We find weak evidence supporting that earnings management is associated with overestimated ratings relative to financial strength. Firms reporting under IFRS are found to be significantly associated with overestimated ratings. Interpretations suggest that this relationship is explained by the opportunistic and discretionary nature of IFRS 4. Finally, we find that life insurers exhibit overestimated ratings. Life insurers’ financial statements are underlined to be difficult to assess, and in that, profitability is hard to derive. Increased complex risk exposure for life insurers might also entail that rating agencies cannot, or do not, acknowledge the actual risk exposure of life insurers. Determinants of discrepancies between expected and actual ratings have not been addressed until now. As such, our findings have apparent benefits for users of financial statements and for rating agencies, as well as users of credit ratings. We contribute not only by filling this gap, but to direct future research towards exploring this framework further.MSc in Accounting and Financial Managemen

Barriers to business model innovation : An exploratorive multiple case study of subcontracting manufacturing SMEs in Jönköping County

Background – In today´s globalized environment, a stronger emphasis on moving production to low-cost environments is present. Assembling a complex product usually involves multiple smaller manufacturing firms across the globe. As a result, smaller specialized firms have an important role in the market but are also strongly dependent on the demand for the final product. Hence, their business model can be dependent on a specific patch which inhibit innovation and evidently leaving them vulnerable to changes in the environment. One main challenge for companies´ business model is the question of continuous flexibility and adaption to an ever changing business context. Purpose - The purpose of this thesis is to explore dynamic capabilities as a source of business model innovation in manufacturing subcontractor SMEs in Jönköping County. The studies aim is to explore how these firms develop dynamic capabilities in order to identify and then overcome barriers for business model innovation. Method – Primary data was collected through a multiple case study of three manufacturing companies in Jönköping County. The data was later coded and findings cross-case compared with a lens of dynamic capability view in order to find similarities and dissimilarities. Conclusion- The findings from the three case companies indicates that dynamic capabilities are interdependent to each other, meaning all need to be taken into consideration for continuously successful business model innovation. Disregarding the development of one business model component can restrain others, thereby resulting in inadequate innovations. A sensing capability was identified however yet the abilities to seize and reconfigure opportunities taking the whole BM into consideration were not present for all of the three case companies. By lack of a coherent development of the BM, barriers become present and a sustained competitive advantage is unreachable. All three cases agreed upon the human resource management to be the major challenge for their organization to sustain a healthy growth

Methods to create compressive stress in high strength steel components

Residual compressive stresses can be used to increase the lifetime of parts under cyclic stress as they negate the applied tensile stresses that cause crack initiation and propagation in the material. The goal of this project was to investigate methods to induce stresses, their advantages and disadvantages as well as depth and magnitude of induced stresses, and also to find methods of analyzing the induced residual stresses. This was done on behalf of Epiroc Drilling Tools AB in order for them to induce stresses on the insides of their long, narrow and hollow rods, where stress induction is difficult. Shot peening was used as a reference as that is the method currently in use by the company. The results show that the two most promising methods are cavitation peening and laser shock peening; two relatively new methods with large magnitudes and depth of induced stress as well as a great capability of inducing stresses on the hard-to-reach insides of the rods. Ultrasonic needle peening, ultrasonic shot peening as well as induction hardening, cryogenic treatment and friction stir processing were also investigated. Methods of analyzing the stresses include X-ray diffraction and slitting, hole drilling and ultrasonic methods

Methods to create compressive stress in high strength steel components

Residual compressive stresses can be used to increase the lifetime of parts under cyclic stress as they negate the applied tensile stresses that cause crack initiation and propagation in the material. The goal of this project was to investigate methods to induce stresses, their advantages and disadvantages as well as depth and magnitude of induced stresses, and also to find methods of analyzing the induced residual stresses. This was done on behalf of Epiroc Drilling Tools AB in order for them to induce stresses on the insides of their long, narrow and hollow rods, where stress induction is difficult. Shot peening was used as a reference as that is the method currently in use by the company. The results show that the two most promising methods are cavitation peening and laser shock peening; two relatively new methods with large magnitudes and depth of induced stress as well as a great capability of inducing stresses on the hard-to-reach insides of the rods. Ultrasonic needle peening, ultrasonic shot peening as well as induction hardening, cryogenic treatment and friction stir processing were also investigated. Methods of analyzing the stresses include X-ray diffraction and slitting, hole drilling and ultrasonic methods

Methods to create compressive stress in high strength steel components

Residual compressive stresses can be used to increase the lifetime of parts under cyclic stress as they negate the applied tensile stresses that cause crack initiation and propagation in the material. The goal of this project was to investigate methods to induce stresses, their advantages and disadvantages as well as depth and magnitude of induced stresses, and also to find methods of analyzing the induced residual stresses. This was done on behalf of Epiroc Drilling Tools AB in order for them to induce stresses on the insides of their long, narrow and hollow rods, where stress induction is difficult. Shot peening was used as a reference as that is the method currently in use by the company. The results show that the two most promising methods are cavitation peening and laser shock peening; two relatively new methods with large magnitudes and depth of induced stress as well as a great capability of inducing stresses on the hard-to-reach insides of the rods. Ultrasonic needle peening, ultrasonic shot peening as well as induction hardening, cryogenic treatment and friction stir processing were also investigated. Methods of analyzing the stresses include X-ray diffraction and slitting, hole drilling and ultrasonic methods