Is the sustainability information useful? A qualitative study of the Swedish institutional investors.

Title: Is the sustainability information useful? A qualitative study of the Swedish institutional investors. Seminar date: 2012-05-31 Course: BUSN69 Degree Project – Accounting and Auditing, 15 ECTS Credits Authors: Gustav Rybrink and Lisa Törnblom Advisor/s: Amanda Tan-Sonnerfeldt Five key words: Sustainability information, Institutional investors, Usefulness, Integrated Reporting, GRI Guidelines Purpose: The intention with this thesis is to provide the reader with a better knowledge about how the Swedish institutional investors perceive the usefulness of sustainability information. The thesis will also attempt to illustrate the institutional investors’ opinions regarding the development towards integrated reporting. Methodology: The thesis has an interpretive research approach and has applied a qualitative research with both an inductive and deductive approach. The conducted interview has been followed a semi-structured form and the secondary data has been gathered from trustworthy sources. Theoretical perspectives: The theoretical framework and literature review consist of established theories from the company perspective and previous research from the investor perspective. Since there are no applicable theories able to explain the empirical result an analytical framework has been developed by the researchers. The analytical framework is drawn from the decision usefulness approach and has resulted in five analytical criteria. Empirical foundation: The empirical data is gathered from telephone interviews with seven Swedish institutional investors. The empirical data was thereafter assembled and analysed with the developed analytical criteria. Conclusions: The institutional investors generally have a good perception of the disclosed sustainability information. However, there are number of indications which contradict with the initial impression. This can be argued to descend already from the ambiguities in the initial terminology of sustainability. Further, the respondents were positive to the development towards integrated reporting and they could see possible future benefits

Energieffektivisering av Malmö Studenthus - En fallstudie av Taxeringsintendenten 3

This thesis has been carried out in cooperation with Malmö Studenthus via Miljöbron whom requested suggestions on how they can improve their energy usage in their property Taxeringsintendenten 3 which is located in Rosengård, Malmö. The building was built in the 70s and is currently being used as a student residence with 665 newly renovated apartments. The thesis is topical as in recent years more resources are focused on how to overhaul the existing housing stock relating to energy use in Sweden. New targets are set at both national and global level, which requires greater demands on reduced energy consumption in society. A large proportion of the targets can be achieved through the rehabilitation of buildings from the so called Million Homes Programme. The goal of this thesis was to investigate what energy saving potential four different measures would have on the building. The four different proposals for action that have been investigated are the following: • Insulation of double-glazed windows • New windows and balcony doors • New curtain walls • New insulation and surface facade The results are based on literature studies, field studies in the form of pressure and air leakage testing, and thermography. Calculations and simulations were conducted in the computer programs U-norm and Isover Energi 3, in order to compare specific energy consumption before and after the completion of the four measures. All calculations and simulations were based on two reference apartments. The conclusions to be drawn from the work carried out are that there is much to do to improve the energy performance of the building. A great improvement can be achieved through the retrofitting of the facades on the balcony side, as they are leaky and poorly insulated. After completion of the thesis it can be stated that the renovation of the ventilation system was only completed to a certain extent, which means that it is very difficult to get an overall picture of how the ventilation works in the current situation. The ventilation system should be thoroughly surveyed to provide a clear picture of what needs to be done to complete the reconstruction of the ventilation system to a dual-flow ventilation with heat recovery. Keywords: energy efficiency measures, the million homes programme, energy, apartment buildings, pressure and air leakage testin

Building Bridges. The case of Implement – Knowledge Sharing in a management-consulting firm with a bold growth strategy

The main purpose of this study is to examine how Knowledge Management is conducted in a practical setting. This research concerns a single case study conducted from an interpretative, qualitative perspective. The empirical base is a single case study of a management-consulting firm consisting of nine interviews with employees. Contextual factors on Knowledge Management forms the theoretical framework backed up with research on knowledge and Knowledge Intensive Firms. The analysis and the empirical findings are presented under the same chapter. The analysis of the empirical material is divided into twelve sections, each representing one contextual factor. Our research suggests that there is a possibility to manage knowledge in this specific context. For this to be possible we have identified that six out of twelve contextual factors are critical

Mälsåkers Slott

Läsåret 1990-91 har vi valt ett större restaureringsprojekt, Mälsåkers slott vid Mälaren. Tessinslottet från 1680-talet skadades svårt vid en brand 1945. Den avbrända takkonstruktionen rekonstruerades, de rötskadade bjälklagen byttes mot nya i betong och de gamla originalfönstren ersattes.  Vårt syfte med Mälsåkersstuierna har varit att träna ett arbetssätt och utveckla en metodik för undersökningoch analys. Först därefter konkretiseras diskussionen om byggnadens användning med utgångspunkt från dess egna förutsättningar.  Studier av allt från grund till takstolar, från yttre miljö tillinteriörer och snickeridetaljer har kopplats till arkivstudier och till undervisningen i övrigt. Målet har varit att visa hur byggnaden är konstruerad och på vilket sätt den utnyttjats under århundraden med förändringar av inredningar, rumssammanhang och konstruktiva system.

Validation of a prediction model for post-chemotherapy fibrosis in nonseminoma patients

Objective - To validate Vergouwe's prediction model using the Swedish and Norwegian Testicular Cancer Group (SWENOTECA) RETROP database and to define its clinical utility. Materials and methods - Vergouwe's prediction model for benign histopathology in post-chemotherapy retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (PC-RPLND) uses the following variables: presence of teratoma in orchiectomy specimen; pre-chemotherapy level of alpha-fetoprotein; β-Human chorionic gonadotropin and lactate dehydrogenase; and lymph node size pre- and post-chemotherapy. Our validation cohort consisted of patients included in RETROP, a prospective population-based database of patients in Sweden and Norway with metastatic nonseminoma, who underwent PC-RPLND in the period 2007–2014. Discrimination and calibration analyses were used to validate Vergouwe's prediction model results. Calibration plots were created and a Hosmer–Lemeshow test was calculated. Clinical utility, expressed as opt-out net benefit (NBopt-out), was analysed using decision curve analysis. Results - Overall, 284 patients were included in the analysis, of whom 130 (46%) had benign histology after PC-RPLND. Discrimination analysis showed good reproducibility, with an area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.82 (95% confidence interval 0.77–0.87) compared to Vergouwe's prediction model (AUC between 0.77 and 0.84). Calibration was acceptable with no recalibration. Using a prediction threshold of 70% for benign histopathology, NBopt-out was 0.098. Using the model and this threshold, 61 patients would have been spared surgery. However, only 51 of 61 were correctly classified as benign. Conclusions - The model was externally validated with good reproducibility. In a clinical setting, the model may identify patients with a high chance of benign histopathology, thereby sparing patients of surgery. However, meticulous follow-up is required