Background: Competence development has become more important since the pressure on effectiveness is increasing and organisations are expected to constantly improvement. The design of the competence development activities is governed by the strategy which in turn will affect the outcome of the same. A knowledge intense business in which changes recently have taken place is healthcare, a business in which competition also has increased as a result from globalization. Due to this, it is highly important to take care of and improve the competence of individuals. According to this, we have found that healthcare is an interesting business to study with regard to competence development.

Title: Artists? identity and image ? a brand perspective The purpose of this study has been to create an understanding of how artists in the music business can be seen as brands and to see what stands out when having this approach. During the study we have focused on the two terms identity and image. We find this issue interesting and relevant since branding has been widely discussed in business economy, but not enough when it comes to artists in the music business. To answer our research question we have targeted three aims for this essay, which is to clarify and analyze:? Identity and image when people are viewed as brands? What specifically characterizes the image of the artists when they are seen as brands and what it might mean that artists are considered as brands? How artists identity and image can be highlighted, shaped, influenced and how it can changeIn this study we have used a qualitative approach to get the topic in depth and gain a greater understanding for the subject.

Problemdiskussion: IT?investeringar är ofta den största investeringen ett företag gör.För ett medelstort företag blir det extra viktigt om att försäkra sigom ett lyckat IT?projekt. Denna uppsats lyfter fram skillnadernamellan vad teoretikerna anser vara en kritisk framgångsfaktor ochvad praktikerna har för syn på dessa.Syfte: Studiens syfte är att designa och utvärdera ett Business Case av enIT?investering för ett medelstort företag. Vi vill skapa en ökadförståelse hur ett Business Case kan utformas för ett SME och vadden bör innehålla för att öka chanserna för att lyckas medprojektet då det idag sker många misslyckanden vidimplementering av affärssystem.Avgränsningar: Ofta innehåller ett Business Case många fler punkter än de vi valtatt behandla.

The preschool should lay the foundations for lifelong learning in a good educational activity. Preschool curriculum is designed to enhance the quality of the educational activities. To translate the curriculum in business, the importance of early childhood special education knowledge. With regard to the completion of theoretical knowledge requires the ability to translate theory into real action. Professionalism is essential to anchor the curriculum in daily operations.The study's purpose was to investigate preschool teachers' perception of professionalism and how the implementation of the preschool curriculum in their daily business functions.The study was an interview with four pre-school professionals with the spread in age and experience.

A Social Enterprise is a business that features a mixture of characteristics that originates from the third and private sector. A general conception of Social Enterprises is that they aim to improve social welfare by the use of sustainable business models. The mixture of social and business features has created ambiguity about how to define Social Enterprises. The purpose of this study is to clarify Swedish Social Enterprises as a phenomenon and to examine antagonism that arises from mixing the two different sets of organisational characteristics. This is achieved by conducting a qualitative study of ten Swedish companies that the market considers to be Social Enterprises.

This master of economics paper discuss that the globalization has lead to increasing internationalization among small Swedish IT- companies in the service sector. Sweden has a long history of foreign trade but in the beginning of the industrialization only large companies that produced goods answered for the foreign trade. Before, the Swedish companies begun their operations abroad in fairly nearby markets and only gradually penetrated far-flung countries. Now this is no longer possible. When small companies nowadays seek growth in other countries there is no time internationalize with the same approaches as before, especially when the company offers a service.

To start a company on the Internet is something that has appealed a lot of people during the last couple of years. Some of the companies have succeeded in their struggle but a lot of companies have failed to live out their ambition. This paper deals with the concept of e-commerce and aims to study whether or not the companies that has succeeded has made use of business models and what other factors that is important that you wont find in any written theory.The paper also aims to study the concept of business models and what a business model consists of. To be able to do this research we have interviewed three different companies that are all active in e-commerce and have survived for at least three years. Two of the companies are classical web shops that sell products to their customers and the last one is a site with articles about hardware and IT business in general.

Hur definierar lärare sitt ledarskap, vad har format deras syn på och vad upplever de som väsentligt i sitt ledarskap? Detta arbete har undersökt dessa frågor genom att dels genomföra intervjuer med två lärare och dels genom en enkätundersökning på en gymnasieskola. Den teoretiska ansatsen har varit hermeneutisk, dvs att resultaten har tolkats utifrån den innebörd som läggs in i handlingar och begrepp. Det visade sig att lärare definierar sitt ledarskap ganska varierande och att detta kan förstås utifrån avsaknaden av en gemensam teoretisk bakgrund..

Background: The strategic importance of purchasing departments is increasing, yet supply risks are rather uncharted. The procurement of coffee involves supply risks and the purchaser needs to be able to handle these to enable the roasting-house to produce coffee as specified. Purpose: To chart risks in connection with the procurement of coffee as well as the possibilities of handling these. The thesis also examines if general risk management theories are applicable on the supply risk present within Swedish roasting-houses and can become an integral partof the purchasing process. Method: A qualitative case study of the purchasing process of Swedish roasting- houses.

Today?s farmers are constantly affected by the fluctuating world market prices on grain and thereby the price risk that comes with the price fluctuations. The volatile prices of grain increase the price risk within the business, which in turn affects the profitability of the business. The fluctuating prices together with the increased price risk within the farm business have opened up the market for hedging instruments. In this master thesis project, the aim is to identify the underlying end-values of 30 Swedish farmers? related to their choice of using hedging and the product; forward contract.

During the last decades the local business as well as the multinational organization hasexperienced prominent changes in the technical field. The requirements for reaching newmarkets and achieving higher efficiency in daily work have risen to a whole new level. Totake advantage of the possibilities of IT the user has to be aware of the company?s businessactivities, what shortcomings and chances of development exist today. This is what makes itinteresting to depict the current situation of the company?s business.

The network with its virtual business structure challenge the established vertical business structure. Part of the network theory that has developed focuses on relationships that forms B2Bnetworks. One way to create a B2B-network is for independent businesses to form a organization promoting co-operation. For co-operation to be successful it requires well thought-out actions, but a lack of how these actions are implemented have been noticed. This study explores how encouragement of co-operation can be done practically.

The purpose of this report was to investigate how the Umeå School of Business and Economics at Umeå university can work to increase the share of courses and programmes that discuss sustainable development. Furthermore the purpose was to develop an action plan that can be used to increase that share. Methods used were a questionnaire directed towards the educators at the Umeå School of Business and Economics and an assessment of the content of courses and programmes connected to the Umeå School of Business and Economics. There was no clear structured way of working with education for sustainable development, but at the same time there was a will to integrate sustainable development in the education. Curricula were according to the educators an important tool to achieve this integration, their experience were that there are not enough time, people and money to work with sustainable development in the education and they would like to see more clear directions from the management.

Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka vad företag bör investera i för att öka köpbenägenheten hos kunden. Uppsatsens bisyfte är även att undersöka vilka butikschefernas upplevda problem med franchisingkonceptet är vid investeringar i butikerna. Metod: I uppsatsen har det utförts en tvärsnittsundersökning på mikronivå. En enkätundersökning och tre intervjuer har utförts och det abduktiva tillvägagångssättet har fått vara utgångspunkten för undersökningen.Teori: Teorierna som har använts i uppsatsen är marknadsföringsmix, servqual, customer value och agentteorin. Empiri: Data som tagits fram till denna uppsats har varit till för att se butikschefernas syn på framtida investeringar och franchisingkonceptet och enkätundersökningen har resulterat i empiri kring vilka faktorer som påverkar kunderna.Resultat:       Företaget bör skräddarsy marknadsföringen för respektive butik, utifrån vilket kundsegment butiken har. Företaget bör investera i allt som ökar servicegraden, såsom investeringar i snabbare system och i kurser och samarbeten som bidrar till säkrare, kunnigare och trevligare personal.

I läroplanen för de frivilliga skolformerna, Lpf 94, står det att rektorn har, när det gäller gymnasieskolan, ett särskilt ansvar för att elever ska få kunskaper om sex och samlevnad samt att kunskapsområden ska samordnas, inkludera flera ämnen och utgöra en helhet för eleven. Enligt skollagen ska alla elever ha rätt till en likvärdig utbildning. Om inga tydliga mål ställs upp av skolledaren och ingen samordning finns för sex- och samlevnadsundervisningen så finns det en risk att inte alla elever får ta del av den. Den avgörande faktorn för hur och om undervisningen i sex och samlevnad sköts, är hur väl rektorn tar sitt ansvar, styr och samordnar det hela.Uppsatsen handlar om hur olika gymnasierektorer talar kring och tolkar sitt speciella ansvar för sex- och samlevnadsundervisningen samt hur de har konkretiserat sitt ansvar. För att undersöka det har vi valt att göra en kvalitativ studie där vi har intervjuat rektorerna.