Hur motiverar svenska börsbolag sina nedskrivningar på goodwill? : Ett retoriskt perspektiv

Sammanfattning: Goodwill has been a controversial matter both in question of definition and whether it should be handled with impairments or not. This study does not aim to examine its definition, but to examine how Swedish companies motivate their goodwill impairments. This study is based on the article written by Sandell and Svensson in which they classified companies' motivations for goodwill impairments according to seven categories: Excuse, Concession, Mystification, Justification, Wordification, Silence and Refocusing. The research of this study is based on these categories. Our research question “how do Swedish listed companies motivate their goodwill impairments?” is answered by a qualitative content analysis where we study the notes in the annual reports about goodwill. Our results indicate a change, since one category could not be identified at all, while others have been used more frequently.