Background: Theoretical, it?s been questioned why dividends exists in companies based upon the fact that there is a separation between ownership and control. According to the agency theoretical perception, dividends is used as a manner to unify the interest of this separation, which in turn lower the agency cost, and increase the efficiency of companies.Purpose: The aim of this master thesis is to scrutinize and analyse the association between Swedish firms? owner structure and owner types and their inclination to dividend.Method: We attack the problem with a hypothetical-deductive research method by using the existence of a universal theory, the agency theory. From our theoretical framework we propose a set of hypotheses.

New laws and recommendations within corporate governance during the last years have affected the way board of directors work. The board is said to have and fulfill three roles: a control role, a service role and a strategy role. These roles could be understood by three theoretical theories: the agency theory, the resource dependence theory and the stewardship theory. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether, and if so how, the board work differs between two small firms based on these roles, given that one of the firms is a publicly listed firm and the other is a privately owned firm. Using a qualitative case study as research method we find that the board work differs between the two companies when it comes to these roles.

During the last years, the importance of sourcing in firms has increased. Globalization, fierce competition and an increased level of outsourcing are common explanations to why firms have highlighted the potential to realize savings and the value creation that the Purchasing department can generate. One trend that follows in parallel with globalization is an increased pressure from society on firms to take responsibility for the impact that its products and services have on the environment. This responsibility creates even more attention as outsourcing involves trade with suppliers in low wage countries, where the level of environmental and social responsibility is not always satisfying. The Purchasing department, the firm?s interface with suppliers should therefore, together with the firm?s Environmental department, play a key role in the firm?s contribution towards sustainable development.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to study how public librarians? view mediation of fiction: the knowledge needed, the thoughts expressed about their own and other adults reading of fiction and how the informants define their roles as mediators of fiction. The method used was qualitative interviews with six librarians at main libraries in Swedish cities of different sizes. The theoretical starting points are Louise M. Rosenblatt?s reader-response theory, Michail Bachtin?s theory of speech genres and Åse Tveit?s and Jofrid Karner Smidt?s theories about mediation of fiction.

This thesis focuses on RM and customer relationships and tries to answer two research questions: how firms can retain customers and how to generate profitable customer relationships by using relationship marketing. We conducted case studies on JOB media, a company in Luleå, and Polardörren, a company in Öjebyn, Piteå. Our research has revealed that in many ways our case study companies conform in major ways to the theory in this particular area. However there are differences between how these two firms go about in regard to customer retention and establishing profitable customer relationship. We have discovered that JOB media, which is a service company is more inclined to maintaining close and long-term relationships with its customers.

Companies acquiring ERP systems are often dissatisfied with the project and therefore consultancy firms wish to make use of project models in order to achieve success in implementations. Since research on ERP implementations in service companies is limited, there is a need for mapping of critical activities in implementation projects in this line of business. Under these premises, the purpose of our master thesis is to develop a model for implementation of ERP systems, specified in activities, which can be used by mid-sized consultancy firms with mid-sized qualified service companies as customers.A literature study including project models, modern models and methodologies for ERP implementation, commonly existent activities, success factors and system development methods was carried out. Starting out with this, a theoretical model for ERP implementation was generated. In excess of this, a case study was conducted, where the implementation of the ERP system Microsoft Dynamics AX at the service company Eurostep, performed by the consultancy firm Medius, was studied.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the process of technology sourcing within firms active in the CRT-market. The primary focus of the study is the motives, risks and problems associated with technology sourcing, to construct key learnings for organisations consider undertaking this way to access research and development or those organisations that are already operating in the CRTmarket. Method: As method has abduction been used. The empiric material of the thesis is based on qualitative research in form of interviews in a conversational manner. For correct interpretation and understanding a hermeneutics approach has been used.

Study objects: JM, Folkhem and ABB.Purpose: The purpose with this study are to examine how the supplier relations are in the construction branch and compare that result with how the supplier relations are for ABB a production company.Theoretical: The theoretical chapter illustrates important and relevant parts of supplier relations, purchasing and supplier strategies to give good overview. The theoretical review will combine information from different fields to consent with the research problem.Method: A case study has been made on three different companies, one of the companies was active in the production industry the other two were active in the construction industry. Data was mainly collected through semi structured interviews on each of the three companies.Conclusions: The size of the company decided which point of view the company had on purchasing, traditional or modern view. All three companies had a centralized purchasing organization but the construction firms were more decentralized than the production company. The reason was that the construction firms were dependent with more flexibility when every construction project is unique..

Since the Chinese economy?s reform in 1980, it has been attracting enormous foreign investments. Many Swedish firms from different sectors such as technology, manufactory production, consumer, service industries and so on, had started their investments in China. China has become the first choice for global manufacturing due to the huge market, continuous economic growth, stable political situation, sound investment environment and the WTO membership. In addition, China's enormous potential in finance, service, infrastructure, telecommunications, wholesales and retail industries will also attract a great deal of foreign capital.

General concerns about environmental issues may mean that the demand for bio-based products will increase. Opportunities that arise on markets, together with the declining demand for newsprint, may trigger firms in the Swedish forest industry to increase their development of new products. One product that has received a lot of attention during recent years (and is a contender) is nanocellulose. The purpose of this master thesis was to examine the Swedish forest industry?s view on the market potential of nanocellulose.

BackgroundIncubators are important facilities for economic growth in society. The main purpose of incubators is to accelerate knowledge intensive firms onto their market by both providing resources and an entrepreneurial environment.Problem Companies within incubators are encouraged to share knowledge and experience with each other with the goal to stimulate development and invention of new technology. This exchange involves interaction on an inter-personal and inter-organizational level. Incubators need to create an open and transparent environment in order to enable this exchange on both levels.Purpose The purpose of this study is to enhance the understanding of how knowledge and experience exchange occurs within the context of incubator systems. By understanding how incubators can capture knowledge and learn from the incubator process, this study can contribute by insights of how the incubator process can be further improved.Method This bachelor thesis is written from an abductive approach and is based on a qualitative case study of Ideon Innovation in Lund.

Accounting firms operate in environments with high competition for graduates and students today expect employers to be present on Facebook and the like. We aim to describe whether two major accounting firms use social media in their graduate recruitment. We chose to do case studies of Grant Thornton and Ernst & Young and how they use social media channels aimed towards graduates. Through a through study of how the two companies communicated through various social media, we concluded that Grant Thornton was significantly better than their larger competitor at social media use. Both companies use Facebook as their main communication channel.

Since the Bruntlandreport was published 1987, companies have shown their environmental commitment through an environmental account. Companies started these accounts because their rivals started having them and today most large companies have a environmental account or sustainable development report. The information given by the companies have been seen as slanted, and others see it only as a part of the image production for the companies. There have been several investigations of the stakeholders of environmental reports and it is not clear who is the primary stakeholder, in other words who actually reads them. All different stakeholders have different views of what an environmental account should encompass.

The value investing philosophy, which can be traced at least to the teaching of Graham and Dodd in the 1930?s, entails identifying and investing in potentially under valued stocks with a potential for extraordinary returns. The focus of this thesis is to identify patterns and characteristics in financial accounting data preceding creation of shareholder value. The authors of this thesis utilize a multivariate discriminant analysis in order to identify indicators of value creation and subsequent extraordinary returns in value stocks. A discriminant function is derived which successfully identifies which value stocks will eventually become growth stocks.

Background for the research problems: Small companies are very important for the economic stability and development, something which the economic crises in recent years have underlined. Therefore it?s important to minimize administrative costs for smaller companies and also in other ways facilitate their further development. For these reasons accounting has been simplified and auditing abolished for smaller companies in many countries. In Sweden auditing for small companies was abolished nearly three years ago.