The absence of female directors on Swedish corporate boards is currently a hot topic for both politicians and business leaders all over the world. This thesis aims to discuss reasons for the scarcity of women on boards in Swedish publicly listed companies as well as what actions are taken to alter the composition of these boards. A rigorous selection of gender theories have been used together with data collected from in-depth interviews with mainly board members and nomination committees. Extensive analysis has led to findings that historical perceptions of differences between men and women linger as of today, which prevents women to reach top executive levels as well as board positions. The increasing use of headhunters has encouraged companies to look beyond male-dominated networks in an attempt to widen the range of potential board nominees.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to compare the scheme structure of two national classifications system, namely the Swedish SAB system and the German ASB. It has been assumed that there are no major differences between the two models of classification systems or the main classes into which documents are placed. The classification theory and subject analysis, which form the basic theory on which my research is based, are taken from Dahlberg, Langridge and Rowley. A comparison of 30 monographs classified in the SAB system Sveriges allmänna biblioteksförening and in the German ASB system Allgemeine Systematik für öffentliche Bibliotheken showed that the classification structure was primarily responsible for determining where a particular document was placed. However, despite the fact that the subject in various documents may be similar, my research will demonstrate that the structure of the two codes also depends on different interpretations of the main subject in a document.

The purpose of this paper is to perform an in-depth analysis of how New Public Management reforms have impacted management practises in two publicly financed elderly care providers in Sweden. The paper studies one public and one private elderly care provider and analyses to what extent they have implemented New Public Management methods. The results are based on interviews with several persons within the two organisations and analysed using the seven New Public Management doctrines as described by Christopher Hood (1991; 1995). The major finding in the thesis is that the level of exposure towards New Public Management reforms differs between the two studied organisations where the private provider is exposed to the reforms to a greater extent than the public. The paper concludes that the main reasons for the low extent of exposure in the public provider could be attributed to the lack of measurable standards performance as well as the proximity to the political leadership..

Companies spend huge amounts on communicating their brand through marketing. Many of these contact areas where the consumer comes in contact with the brand is con-trolled by the company. The brand image is also affected from outside the company. It can be from users, media, blogs etc.Burberry is an example of a company that got in trouble with their brand image after hooligans where associated with their products. If a company with a brand with a strong image is associated whith consumers that are not compatible with the target group the company wants, there is a risk of a negative affect on the brand image.Our purpose is to investigate and describe the phenomenom when a company brandimage is affected by being associated whith consumers not compatable whith, by the company, intended target group.We have chosen a qualitative research where we use a multiple case study.

Background: Increasing globalization makes companies more influenced than before by actors and factors in their environment. For some this has lead to a more dynamic and complicated business context. Therefore it is of strategic importance to understand what is currently going on as well as to have a general idea of what the future brings. Purpose: To contribute to a deeper understanding of how a corporate management can perceive its business environment and how it affects he gathering of business information from a strategic perspective. Realisation: In-depth interviews were conducted with all four members of the management in the studied company, Volvo Competence Center in Skovde, Sweden.

This study is a semi-­structured, qualitative depth-­interview study investigating Swedish institutional investors' perception of the fact that companies purchase non-­audit services from its signing auditor and if they see this as a threat to auditor independence. The study focuses on independence in appearance rather than independence in fact. The study is based on the current media debate on auditor independence and aims to provide a deeper insight to enlighten legislators how users of audited financial information look at the problem. The study builds on agency theory's notion that there is an information asymmetry between management and shareholders, which the auditor is to reduce. The results show that Swedish institutional investors perceive that there is a threat to auditor independence when companies buy non­-audit services from its signing auditor.

In this master thesis a category of men otherwise often taken for granted is examined: noncriminal,non-violent men. With the help of in-depth interviews with young men who havepreviously lived a life with drugs and criminal behaviour, I examine the young men's identityand masculinity projects. To do this, I use theories by researchers R.W. Connell and MichaelS. Kimmel, among others.

Pappersbruket BillerudKorsnäs AB är idag en av Sveriges ledande tillverkare och leverantör av förpackningspapper, kartong samt wellråvaror. Företaget har en framtida målsättning att i tillverkningsprocessen bli självförsörjande på energi och detta genom en intern förbränning av biobränsle i form av bark och flis i sodapannor. Sodapannan utgör på så sätt fabrikens energidistributionssystem. Vid den kontinuerliga förbränningen av svartlut följer stoft och slagg med rökgaserna och fastnar på sodapannans värmeytor som består av rörpanel. Detta är problematiskt då slagg på värmeytorna försämrar värmeupptagningen och gör den ineffektiv.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of consumer generated advertising as a marketing tool to encourage online word of mouth. Subsequently, the researchers aim to examine if there are certain design factors in consumer generated advertising that influence the effectiveness of consumer generated advertising in encouraging online word of mouth. The study conducts a multiple case study of several consumer generated advertising campaigns. It consists of in-depth studies of these cases in combination with quantitative analyses of the encouraged word of mouth. The different cases are examined on several design factors that could possible increase the volume of encouraged word of mouth..

This paper examines the film distribution and exhibition sector in Europe. The general analysis of these sectors? situation was made. Moreover, the comparative and more in depth analysis of three countries by the Porter?s five forces model was made; These were United Kingdom, France and Denmark.

This report is a B.Sc. Forestry thesis work at the school for Forest Management, SLU. The work was an assignment from the forest owners? association Mellanskog. The aim of the work where to investigate the economical result of removing undergrowth trees before first thinning, and a follow-up of the contractors and their compliance with Mellanskog standards. This thesis work was divided in three parts: The first was to find a relation between the net volume from the first thinning and the cost of cleaning undergrowth trees. Secondly there was a follow-up in the field, to investigate whether the contractors have done the undergrowth cleaning according to Mellanskog?s directives.

Background: The meeting industry has had undergone a extensive changes due to a number of factors. The globalization has meant that supply increases and congress organizers have more options to choose from. Development in communications, for instance internet, means that meetings can take place without a physical presence. Congress organizers as clients have also changes. Stockholm as position as a leading city to hold congresses in has also changed for the worse, in 2006 Stockholm dropped of the top-10 list.

Since 1998, the Swedish preschool has its own curriculum and with this the preeschool became the first step of a lifelong learning. The aim of this study was to explore how preschool teachers perceive their work before and after the Swedish curriculum was inserted. A qualitative method was used in this study. Four different in-depth interviews were conducted with preschool teachers, all experienced working at least before 1993. The curriculum theory and curriculum history were used to analyze the empirical data.

This study will chart the changeover work, with a standpoint in the SMED-theory, at the company Peter Ernst AB in Värnamo. They are suppliers in plastic moulding industry and delivers to amongst other Saab in Trollhättan and Scania. The company are in a very competitive market, and they have to make manufacturing more efficient and rationalise their costs to be able to compete. A big problem, which the company has identified, is their long changeovers. It brings higher costs, a more stressful work climate and holds back the company from becoming more efficient.Field studies will be conducted on the changeover, which will be observed and filmed.

The essay treats how a process of implementation was executed and the teachers? relation to two curricula, Lpo94 and Lgr11, with two different grading systems, which have functioned as models for one and the same year. The purpose is to investigate the ways in which a change in curricula and syllabus affects teachers in their teaching and assessment practice in the subject of Swedish at secondary school. The investigation had a phenomenological approach and was executed by means of in-depth interviews, questionnaires and one observation. The results are based on a methodological triangulation with qualitative and quantitative data where visible similarities and differences are brought out.