This thesis studies private equity firms' implementation of management control systems in their portfolio companies and whether the systems are affected by cross-national differences. A comparative case study examines five different private equity firms to derive if there are any differences between the private equity firms' management control systems in the United States, Europe and China. The empirical observations are categorized according to the framework developed by Merchant (1985) and further developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003). Theory on the effect of multinationality on management control systems, also developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003), are used to explain possible findings. The applied theory includes the cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede (1984) and Hofstede and Bond (1988).

I detta arbete görs en jämförelse av tre förskolors dokumentationsarbete, förmedling av dokumentationen till barnens föräldrar och huruvida internet används som hjälpmedel för denna förmedling. De tre förskolorna skiljer sig åt i sina pedagogiska utgångspunkter, där den ena är en Reggio Emilia-inspirerad förskola, den andra en montessoriförskola och den tredje arbetar uttalat med portfoliometodik för sitt dokumentationsarbete. Undersökningen görs med hjälp av observationer och intervjuer. Resultatet av studien är att förskolorna använder sig av liknande dokumentationsmetoder men med vissa skillnader som kan återkopplas till förskolornas pedagogiska inriktningar. Montessoriförskolan är den som skiljer sig mest genom att till exempel inte ha sitt arbete med portfolio tillgängligt för barn och föräldrar under förskoleperioden, medan den Reggio Emilia-inspirerade förskolan och förskolan med portfoliometodik liknar varandra i sina valda former av synliggörandet av dokumenterat material.

The objective of this study was to examine three common mobile phoneplatforms in relation to their network traffic features. The platforms to beexamined are Android, iOS 5 and Windows Phone. After the investigation wascompleted a prototype application was implemented in order to demonstratethese features in the most suitable platform. The application will function as atelephone call exchanger. In addition, the application must also send the userstatistic to a Web server, accept contacts from a Web server, as well as having aspecial administration part in which the userstatistc can be presented.

In this project an iPhone application for storing food and drink experiences was developed with focus on an easy interaction design. The already existing market of similar applications were studied and evaluated to extract their positive and negative features. Interviews with experts within the food and drink business where made in the pre study to get a good perception of how to divide and categorize the sections in the application. To optimize the usability, workshops with potential users with different technical experiences where continuously held during the development of the design.During the development two variants of development environments where evaluated. The final result of the application was developed in the environment that made the best impression and seemed to be the best alternative.The resulting product has a thought out design meant to be easy to understand, even for the first time users.

Eutrophication was recognized in the early 1900's and results in severe algal blooms, increased biomass production and eventually leads to an altered ecosystem. In Mälardalen we find the most eutrophic lakes. Most of the applied phosphorus and nitrogen into seas and oceans comes from agriculture, and the nutrients losses are affected by local weather conditions and soil type. Guidelines for storage and distribution of manure were introduced in the 80s, and the rules were strengthened January 1, 2010. Localities and previous county administrations can whether there are special reasons, grant an exemption for manure application during winter-periods despite the current ban.In this essay I have examined how many exemptions of manure application that has been granted at the Sagån river, and what implications it has for the eutrophication of Lake Mälaren.

Context. Performance and resource usage is often an important factor for database driven services. Depending on the purpose of the application, choosing the wrong type of database may require unnecessary hardware upgrades or replacements. Objectives. This study investigates the differences in performance and resource usage between different SQL- and NoSQL-databases.

In today's society it is becoming more and more important with direct marketing. Some of the direct marketing is done through e-mail, in which companies see an easy way to advertise himself. I did this thesis work at WebDoc Systems. They have a product that creates web documents directly in your browser, also called CMS. The CMS has a module for sending mass e-mail, but this module does not function properly and WebDoc Systems customers are dissatisfied with that part of the product.

AbstractTitle: Level/Degree/Grade:Authors:Supervisor:Research question:Purpose:How the bank may improve its financial counselling ? A qualitative case study.Bachelor Thesis; Business administration; Corporate finance.Andreas A?strand, Anton Persson, Kristoffer Wedebrand.Hans Mo?rner.How may the bank improve its financial counselling to private investors using portfolio theory?Our purpose is to examine the advice, with basis in portfolio theory, the bank?s financial advisors provide to their clients, the investors, and how they can improve. If we can identify and point out areas of improvement in the financial counselling, we hope to raise the question and contribute with an improved financial counselling. Another positive effect we are hoping for is to improve the situation for the investors whereas all parties benefit from an improved portfolio selection.This study is conducted through a qualitative case study, where we used a deductive approach and collected our data through personal interviews.The conclusion that emerges is that the financial counselling could potentially be improved if financial advisors improve their knowledge in portfolio theory.The originality shapes through the opportunity to investigate a specific bank and because of that an opportunity to examine a specific case more thoroughly was created. Our thesis contributes with opening La?nsfo?rsa?kringar?s and other banks? eyes to how their financial counselling could be improved through new knowledge in portfolio theory.

Title: Management control of facility efficiency in municipalities - A case study of Halmstad municipalityLevel: BachelorSeminar date: 2012-05-31Authors: Markus Nilsson & Sara MattssonAdvisor: Sven-Ola CarlssonKey words: Control management in municipality, facility efficiency, management by objectives, internal rents and incentivesBackground: The public sector owns and manages a large property portfolio and in the municipalities, the properties are always a big cost item. Because of the outside world changes and the public interest, the properties should be used as efficiently as possible.Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how control management of facilities looks like a municipality. The paper also seeks to explain how employees work to make the facilities more efficient in a municipality.Methodology: The authors use a qualitative method with open interviews.Theoretical perspectives: The choice of theory was made with the field of management control and facility efficiency in mind. The theory therefore includes management by objectives, internal rents and reward systems, motivation and communication within organizations.Empirical foundation: The organization has undergone a reorganization 2010/2011. There are no clear incentives to reduce facility costs.

This paper describes Tempus Custode, a smartphone application with which the user may register working hours and travel time during the work day. The application communicates with a database via a server. The data stored in the database may be manipulated using an administrator tool, mainly for the composition of time reports. In this way, the user?s task of time reporting his day is greatly simplified.The application is able to automatically discriminate between work time and travel time, as it continuously fetches positioning data from the smartphone GPS receiver.

Context. Performance and resource usage is often an important factor for database driven services. Depending on the purpose of the application, choosing the wrong type of database may require unnecessary hardware upgrades or replacements. Objectives. This study investigates the differences in performance and resource usage between different SQL- and NoSQL-databases. The study is a comparison that focuses on how the databases perform in different applications.

Title: Management control of facility efficiency in municipalities - A case study of Halmstad municipalityLevel: BachelorSeminar date: 2012-05-31Authors: Markus Nilsson & Sara MattssonAdvisor: Sven-Ola CarlssonKey words: Control management in municipality, facility efficiency, management by objectives, internal rents and incentivesBackground: The public sector owns and manages a large property portfolio and in the municipalities, the properties are always a big cost item. Because of the outside world changes and the public interest, the properties should be used as efficiently as possible.Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how control management of facilities looks like a municipality. The paper also seeks to explain how employees work to make the facilities more efficient in a municipality.Methodology: The authors use a qualitative method with open interviews.Theoretical perspectives: The choice of theory was made with the field of management control and facility efficiency in mind. The theory therefore includes management by objectives, internal rents and reward systems, motivation and communication within organizations.Empirical foundation: The organization has undergone a reorganization 2010/2011. There are no clear incentives to reduce facility costs.

When searching for better and more practical interfaces between users and their computers, additional or alternative modes of communication between the two parties would be of great use. This thesis handles the possibilities of using eye and head movements as well as voice input as these alternative modes of communication. One part of this project is devoted to find possible interaction techniques when navigating in a computer interface with movements of the eye or the head. The result of this part is four different controls of an interface, adapted to suit this kind of navigation, combined together in a demo application. Another part of the project is devoted to the development of an application, with voice control as primary input method.

The study sheds light on pupils individual plans of development and portfolios from the perspective of children. It has an ethnographic standpoint. It was carried out on children and pupils in pre-school, pre-school class and third grade. By further investigating how children and pupils use their individual development plans and portfolios, in which settings and to whom they communicate them, this study is able to grasp the discourse that is created around the instrument itself. This study is also interested in and aims to find the theoretical frame, in essence, which envelops both the construction of childhood and children?s own activities within the limitations and opportunities that this structure offers.

Medieföretaget AB is a Swedish Media Company that covers several different business areas.The company daily produces one of the biggest newspapers in Sweden and publishes editorialnews on one of the country?s most visited news homepage. The company also has smallerfirms that produce new business models. Due to big changes in the media climate over theworld and a new company management team the company in November 2008 started adepartment for innovation. The main purpose of the department was to create a structuredway for managing ideas and to promote innovation.