The access to credit for micro, small and medium enterprises is argued to be suffering from market disequilibrium with information asymmetries, adverse selection and capital rationing being present. Different instruments can and have been used by policy makers to try to battle these problems. This thesis focuses on one of them, the credit guarantee scheme (CGS). In order to establish what factors

In an effort to combat illegal cartel activities taking place in the European Union, in 1996 the European Commission decided to implement a leniency program for self-reporting firms who, in return for information about their cartel, could receive a substantial reduction, or a total exemption from any fines that would have otherwise been imposed on them. The wellbeing and survival of cartels is dep

In this master thesis we investigate the predictive performance of several well-known Value at Risk (VaR) estimation methods, given a specific company setting. The thesis is conducted at a Swedish financial institution that wants to be able to measure foreign exchange (FX) risk induced by cross-currency transactions carried out by the company. The goal of the thesis is to provide empirical evidenc

Methodology: Using an abductive approach, a qualitative case study of the sharing economy Desk Doubler has been implemented. Empirical data was collected through semi-structured interviews with employees at Desk Doubler and their customers with the purpose to create an understanding of how the perceived search, negotiation and monitoring costs have been affected by the use of Desk Doubler. Accordi

The aim of this thesis is to identify the roots of the leftover women phenomenon in order to understand why it has appeared. In particular, we examine why the leftover women are having difficulties in finding a husband in the Chinese marriage market. Additionally, we establish whether the leftover women phenomenon may be a consequence of the increasing patriarchal norms in China. Through an in-dep

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to contribute to logistics research arena in management practices using qualitative methods. Because previous research paradigm has been dominated by quantitative methods, where managerial work practices have been neglected or understated. Hence, by using the qualitative method the study can enrich the importance of manager work practice in logistics and br

Study of 5 spice varieties with different Packaging Materials and Light Sources. Santa Maria Co. has encountered issues in their spices assortment; light causes color bleaching in some spices due to light exposure. This phenomenon often happens when the spices are displayed in the retailer’s facilities and after the products leave the manufacturing facilities, meaning the Company has no longer th

Corporate inversion is the procedure of reincorporating abroad for tax purposes to reduce the corporate income tax. The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, we evaluate the shareholder value creation aspect of U.S. corporate inversions after 2004, a year when the U.S. imposed a number of regulatory changes to reduce the benefits of tax inversions. Second, we examine a number of board-related

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om svenska börsnoterade företags utdelningspolicy har ett samband med företagslednings aktieinnehav samt jämföra om någon bransch eller cap visar ett större eller mindre samband. Metoden som används i uppsatsen är en kvantitativ studie. Variabler skapas och introduceras för att undersöka om ett samband finns mellan styrelseägande och utdelningsandel. Denna u

This project discusses the effects of recycle streams on the dynamics and performance of chemical plants. The questions addressed are: can the current industry standard tuning methods still be applied to systems with recycle, and if not, how can they be modified? This is approached by analysing the arrest time tuning method when applied to an integrating process with and without recycle. The resul

This thesis explores the urban planning strategy for climate change adaptation in Skt. Kjelds Neighborhood, Copenhagen, Denmark. The aim is to understand the power relations between citizens and municipality through a Foucauldian governmentality analysis. Urban planning today is more than just creating a plan for the city's physical environment, including buildings, roads, parks, etc. It is pl

In this thesis it is discussed how the representation of Serena Williams in media can be understood through the lens of black feminist thought. Furthermore it is argued how the same image can be understood as empowering and oppressive. Through a combination of discourse analysis and document analysis the author examines the representation of Williams in several photographs and articles as our perc

Five consecutive experiments were conducted with the goal to produce a chromogenic silk film, namely a film that is optically responsive to pH and glucose, made of regenerated silk fibroin, laponite, organic dye and glucose oxidase enzyme. The goal also included that the film should be produced with simple methods, such as adsorption and mixing in water. 2 dyes well suited for adsorbing onto lapon

Syfte: Arbetet syftar till att utröna från ett intressentperspektiv vilken av de två värderingsmetoderna värdering till verkligt värde och anskaffningsvärdemetoden som bör användas av banker för att tillfredsställa de viktigaste intressenternas behov. Metod: En kvalitativ dokument- och litteraturstudie har gjorts. Lagstiftning och redovisningsmodeller har också studerats. Utifrån intressentrelevaPurpose: The essay seeks to from the stakeholder perspective discern which of the two accounting methods, historical cost and fair value accounting, should be used by banks to meet the needs of the most relevant stakeholders. Methodology: A qualitative review of literature, ancillary documents, legislation and accounting models forms the empirical base for the essay. From the stakeholder salience

This thesis uses three indicators of development (Human Development Index, human capital and infrastructure) to analyze regional development in post 1997 Indonesia. The main conclusion is that the Asia crisis had on the short-term an equalizing effect on the different growth paths of the Indonesian regions. These equalizing effects, however, stagnated and the capital, Jakarta started to diverge ag

Den svenska fjärrvärmesektorn står idag inför många utmaningar på grund av konkurrens från andra uppvärmingsalternativ kombinerat med ett minskande värmebehov i byggnader. För att öka dess konkurrenskraft måste fjärrvärmebolagen utveckla sätt att hålla produktionskostnaden för fjärrvärme på en mer eller mindre konstant nivå. Ett sätt att göra detta är att öka fjärrvärmesystemens effektivitet. För The district heating sector in Sweden is today facing several challenges due to competition from other heating alternatives as well as decreasing heat demand in buildings. To increase its competitiveness, the district heating companies have to find ways to keep their production costs at a more or less constant level. One way of doing this is to increase the efficiency of the district heating syste

Given monocular video of people performing daily tasks our objective is to estimate the 3D positions of 32 given joints associated to the human skeleton. Due to the success of deep convolutional networks in image classification, image segmentation and activity recognition we propose to estimate 3D joint positions from video using deep convolutional networks. The modeling is carried out within the

This study explores the analytical and conceptual closures within political economy and degrowth literature. In order to explore these closures, poststructural theories of postcolonial and queer have been used. Derridian deconstruction has been applied to the degrowth literature to illuminate the silences and contradictions present within the texts. A deconstructive reading of the degrowth literat

Problem / Background: Today more and more people suffer because of different types of stress at work, school and home. We live in a world that places high demands on us and wants us to constantly learn, develop and perform in various areas. Stress and difficult situations can even affect our learning and reduce the opportunities for growth and development. Because of that, we need to find ways and