Transparency in European football : A study of financial disclosure transparency from a supporter perspective

Background and Problem: Despite the exploding increase in revenue by more than 500 percent (1996-2014) among European football clubs, the operating profit in the “big five” leagues are, paradoxically, inexistent or very low. Hence, there is a need for more transparent financial reporting in European football. To preserve the game’s well-being and establish a sustainable future, UEFA introduced Financial Fair Play (FFP) back in 2010 as a part of their club licensing requirements. The transparency that FFP is intended to improve is however only disclosed to UEFA and its member associations, which is only one of many stakeholders. In times of financial turmoil in European football clubs, where fair play and sustainability is frequently discussed since the implementation of FFP, one could ask; is it really fair play that not all European football clubs are obligated to be transparent towards all their stakeholders and supporters? Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to, from a supporter perspective, look at how transparent European football clubs’ financial disclosure is. Methodology: The research has elements of both a deductive and an inductive approach and uses a disclosure checklist with a cross-sectional design, in order to measure disclosure transparency.  Empirical Results and Conclusion: Even though the empirical findings proved that financial reporting transparency are present within European football, the conclusion is that the financial reporting is generally not transparent within the industry.

Big Bath and Impairment of Goodwill : A study of the European telecommunications industry

Income decreasing strategies conducted by management could be harmful for various stakeholders. One example is big bath accounting, which could be accomplished in numer- ous ways. This study focus on big baths achieved by recognising impairments of goodwill. Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine patterns of association between big bath accounting and impairment of goodwill within the telecommunication service industry in Europe. Further, this study aim at contributing to the discussion regarding utilisation of big baths through impairments of goodwill, and takes the perspective of an external stakehold- er. Delimitations - The study is restricted to European telecommunication entities comprised in STOXX Europe 600 Index. Method - This study was conducted using a hybrid of qualitative and quantitative research strategy with a deductive approach. The five indicators used to identify various big bath behaviours were inspired and derived from theory and previous research. Data from 2009 to 2015 was collected from the companies’ annual reports and websites, and analysed by the help of codification of each fulfilled indicator where 2009 merely served as a compara- tive year for 2010. By the use of a scoreboard the collected data was summarised on an ag- gregated yearly basis as the industry, not the specific companies, were analysed. Empirical findings - The results of this study suggests that big baths are executed among tele- communication companies within Europe. These are conducted simultaneously as impair- ments of goodwill are present, facilitated by earning management. A possible explanation is considered to be the room for interpretation inherent in IAS 36, enabling goodwill impair- ments to be recognised on managers’ command. Thereby an impairment could be “saved” for better or worse circumstances, or recognised when there exist an opportunity to max- imise (the manager's) wealth in the future. This study reveal the co-occurrence of goodwill impairments and big bath-indications, however a review of causal relationships are not en- abled by the limitations of the chosen method. 

Barns och föräldrars upplevelser av barnsjuksköterskans bemötande inom barnonkologisk omvårdnad : 12 månader efter diagnostillfälle

Varje år drabbas 250-300 barn under 15 år av cancer i Sverige. Tidigare ansågs barncancer nästintill obotligt, men dagens framsteg inom medicin har gjort att allt fler barn överlever sin cancer och perspektivet inom hälso- och sjukvård har därmed ändrats radikalt. När barn drabbas av cancer påverkas hela familjen. I denna kaotiska situation är ett bra bemötande av största vikt. För att kunna ge ett bra bemötande och god omvårdnad till barnet och familjen krävs att barnsjuksköterskan har kompetens och kommunikativ förmåga. Även ett bra samarbete mellan barnsjuksköterskan och familjen är av stor vikt. Syftet med studien var att beskriva barns, två till fem år, och deras föräldrars upplevelser av barnsjuksköterskans bemötande inom barnonkologisk omvårdnad, 12 månader efter diagnostillfället. Studien är en kvalitativ studie med deduktiv ansats, där intervjuerna analyserats med innehållsanalys utifrån Swansons omvårdnadsteori. 12 barn i åldern två till fem år ingick i studien, och föräldrarna medverkade som komplement till barnens deltagande. Resultatet visar att barnsjuksköterskans bemötande har stor betydelse för barns och föräldrars upplevelser och välbefinnande i omvårdnaden. Viktigast för ett bra bemötande var delaktighet, tillgänglighet och kontinuitet, information samt att ha ett barnperspektiv. För att skapa bästa förutsättningarna för ett bra bemötande krävs att barnsjuksköterskan gör barnet och familjen delaktiga i vården, ser barnet som en individ och har kompetens och kunskap. Mer forskning behövs kring hur barn och familjer upplever barnsjuksköterskans bemötande och hur det påverkar deras upplevelser av vården, inte bara inom barnonkologisk omvårdnad utan även generellt inom pediatrisk omvårdnad.

Significant Attributes and Challenges Related to Cross-Functional Team Communications

Purpose The purpose of the research work is to investigate the importance of the communication in the cross-functional teams and in what which communicational tools provide better convenience of communication in cross-functional team members. Methodology An empirical study including the data collection from the interviews conducted from the participants working in cross-functional teams. Qualitative approach has been adopted to understand the communicational attributes in the cross-functional teams. For the analysis both deductive and abductive approach has been used. With the help of theoretical framework and empirical data, conclusions drown for better understanding of the concept. Findings The author has divided the search in two main segments, communicational effects on cross-functional team performance and effectiveness of particular communicational tools used by team members and team leaders. Empirical findings shows that without proper communication, cross-functional team are less tend to perform well to achieve set goals as well as face to face communications are more effective than other communicational tools.  Research limitations The research work is limited to Scandinavian countries. Organizational communicational structures are not studied due to time factor. Other limitation of this research work is effect of cultural differences on communication. Implications The research work provides deep understanding of the different communicational effects on cross-functional team performance. The choice of communicational tool and proportional importance for the team members will help managers while selecting the tools of communication with the team members. Originality / value During the literature studies, author determined that there is potential of research for the communicational tools used in cross-functional team communications. The social media is taking over the traditional communicational tools which provide value for findings. 

Using health-related quality of life instruments for children with long-term conditions : On the basis of a national quality registry system

Introduction: There has been a continuous development of new technologies in healthcare that are derived from national quality registries. However, this innovation needs to be translated into the workflow of healthcare delivery, to enable children with long-term conditions to get the best support possible to manage their health during everyday life. Since children living with long-term conditions experience different interference levels in their lives, healthcare professionals need to assess the impact of care on children’s day-to-day lives, as a complement to biomedical assessments. Aim: The overall aim of this thesis was to explore and describe the use of instruments about health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in outpatient care for children with long-term conditions on the basis of a national quality registry system. Methods: The research was conducted by using comparative, cross-sectional and explorative designs and data collection was performed by using different methods. The questionnaire DISABKIDS Chronic Generic Measure -37 was used as well as semi-structured interviews and video-recordings from consultations. Altogether, 156 children (8–18 years) and nine healthcare professionals participated in the studies. Children with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) (n 131) answered the questionnaire DISABKIDS and children with rheumatic diseases, kidney diseases and T1D (n 25) were interviewed after their consultation at the outpatient clinic after the web-DISABKIDS had been used. In total, nine healthcare professionals used the HRQOL instrument as an assessment tool during the encounters which was video-recorded (n 21). Quantitative deductive content analysis was used to describe content in different HRQOL instruments. Statistical inference was used to analyse results from DISABKIDS and qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the interviews and video-recordings. Results: The findings showed that based on a biopsychosocial perspective, both generic and disease-specific instruments should be used to gain a comprehensive evaluation of the child’s HRQOL. The DISABKIDS instrument is applicable when describing different aspects of health concerning children with T1D. When DISABKIDS was used in the encounters, children expressed positive experiences about sharing their results with the healthcare professional. It was discovered that different approaches led to different outcomes for the child when the healthcare professionals were using DISABKIDS during the encounter. When an instructing approach is used, the child’s ability to learn more about their health and how to improve their health is limited. When an inviting or engaging approach is used by the professional, the child may become more involved during the conversations. Conclusions: It could be argued that instruments of HRQOL could be used as a complement to biomedical variables, to promote a biopsychosocial perspective on the child’s health. According to the children in this thesis, feedback on their results after answering to web-DISABKIDS is important, which implies that healthcare professionals need to prioritize time for discussions about results from HRQOL instruments in the encounters. If healthcare professionals involve the child in the discussion of the results of the HRQOL, misinterpreted answers could be corrected during the conversation. Concurrently, this claims that healthcare professionals invite and engage the child.