In order to become even more competitive, a partnering with other niche players is essential in achieving a competitive advantage and it enables opportunities for reintermediation. From an intermediate perspective, there are great possibilities for those who become content coordinators to enter the market. By becoming a bundler of services and products, the content coordinators will become the actors that will capture the most profit in the value web. The value creating drivers that have been identified in the business landscape of intermediates concern owning the content or owning the customer relationship. We find the possibilities of an intermediate actor, such as a content coordinator to achieve competitive advantage through strategic fit is subject to the context and the ability of creating more innovative and co-creative distribution systems.

The main purpose of this Master Thesis has been to evaluate whether active fund management is profitable on Emerging Markets. The material used to examine this consists of 106 actively managed funds, with varying length during the period 1988-2006 and who uses MSCI Emerging Markets (MSCI EM) as benchmark index. The thesis has been written under the supervision of the Asset Management Department of Länsförsäkringar AB (LFAB) and the Department of Production Economics, Linköping Institute of Technology. Apart from the main purpose, the methodology used is also meant to form a template for in-depth or similar studies, preferably by the assigner of this survey, LFAB.The results shows that the median manager underperforms the MSCI EM throughout the whole period, which leads to the conclusion is that active management on Emerging Markets is not profitable. A grouping of the funds based on tracking error still shows that a majority of the managers in all of the groups underperforms against the benchmark.

Swedish authorities have been dealt a mission by the Swedish state, where each agency works on the basis of their assignment. Communication has become more and more important for authorities, there are several reasons for the use of communication and they may differ from authority to authority. Some authorities claim that the purpose of the communication work is to create awareness and recognition among citizens. A communication form that has become increasingly important for government agencies is social media, according to the government authorities should implement social media in their communication work because it is very important that the authorities are available where the citizens are. Previous research has focused on the risks and opportunities that the social media generates for the public sector.

It is important for every store to have a good financial performance which can be affected by the average purchase and the number of customers in the store. Customers shopping experience can affect both of these factors and therefore it is important for retailers to know about how an in-store environment can affect this experience. The purpose of this study is to give retailers an indication of the importance of consumers' shopping experience and how this may affect the store's financial performance. To study this subject an in-store survey was conducted in four grocery stores in Stockholm where a total of 320 consumers answered a total of 41 questions about their shopping experience. By sales data it was possible to conduct a statistical analysis to see which variables regarding consumers shopping experience influenced the average purchase.

A good flow of information in organizations is one of the key aspects of how we define a well-functioning organization. The information flow could be internal as well as external between actors within as well as outside of the organization. In a logistics organization this flow of information is equally important as in any other kind of organization. In this paper we have explored information flows in logistics organizations by applying, boundary spanning and the mobile-stationary divide perspective. In boundary spanning the main goal is to erase or relocate some of the boundaries within an organization, in our case to make the flow of information internally as well as externally better.

The aim of our study is to explore the empowerment process among micro-business owners in Kayamandi, a black township of Stellenbosch in South Africa. What are the positive and negative implications for the empowerment process? Another aim is to find out the role of local and international support in this process. The theoretical framework of this study revolves around the concepts of gender, power and empowerment. Our methods are qualitative interviews and observations.

Examensarbete, Civilekonomprogrammet, Ekonomihögskolan vid Linnéuniversitetet, Controller, 4FE12E, VT 2014Författare: Madeleine Olsson och Julia HenrikssonExaminator och Handledare: Fredrik Karlsson Titel: Prestationsmätningssystem: Planering, Styrning och Uppföljning i tjänsteföretag ? en utvärdering av IKEA Hemmas PMS Nyckelord: Prestationsmätningssystem, KPI, nyckeltal, utvärdering, utvärderingsstudie, tjänsteföretag, informationsflöde Bakgrund: Det är vitalt att organisationer löpande förvaltar sitt prestationsmätningssystem (PMS) i syfte att säkerställa att rätt saker mäts. Om inte måtten följs upp kontinuerligt och utvärderas, kan prestationsmätning bli en kostsam process som inte leder till några förbättringar för organisationen. Önskemål från IKEA Hemma var att utvärdera deras PMS. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att utvärdera funktionaliteten i IKEA Hemmas prestationsmätningssystem. Systemets uppbyggnad samt effekterna av PMS:et analyseras för att identifiera prestationsmätningssystemets utvecklingsområden.

Development in spin dynamic occurs in the whole world because of therising demands on fast electronic storage for example hard drivesand RAM (Random Access Memory). Measuring the spin resonance of amaterial gives you the insight of the theoretical speed for amagnetic memory. This means the maximum storage speed is below thefirst resonance. All magnetic materials have different propertiesthat will inflict the resonance frequency which brings that theconstructors of memories need to know which magnetic material theywill use to obtain best results. In the market for normal users themaximum storage speed in a RAM memory is 1.6 GHz.

Today's industries are constantly evolving and the demands according to quality for products and services produced and performed are becoming more and higher. ISO 9001 is a standard that serves as a tool for organizations who wants to effectively control and manage their quality workforce on business different processes. A background to the introduction of a quality managementsystem towards Skärås svets och mekaniska in Västerås are that more and more customers demand this from a company to enable it to obtain an order of production.Efforts to introduce a quality system such as ISO 9001-2008 all begin with to carry out a situationanalysis of the business. Skärås svets och mekaniska currently has no existing quality management system so therefore there is no current directives regarding who is responsible, for a future certification in the business.By structuring a situation analysis of the business. You get a good overview of the business and how it is conducted today.

From a management point of view, enabling organizational creativity is often referred to as reducing immediate control, increasing autonomy and enhancing the access to slack resources. At the same time, the business environment of today is fiercer than it was only a decade ago, and this renders a quest for more efficient approaches to competitively run a business. This paper aims to examine creative industries and more specifically try to identify a set of elements that are common for successful companies. As this industry has not been subject to any considerable array of studies, this thesis seeks to establish a structure for how to take both organizational models and leadership theories into account when developing an understanding for the process, organization and leadership of the creative business. By studying six separate creative companies, our findings suggest that conventional theories on organizational creativity do not adequately account for all factors that contribute to these companies' creative success.

The aim and goal of this work has been to design and implement a voltage reference network for a 12-bit PSAADC, Parallell Successive Analog to Digital Converter. A chip containing the design has been sent away for fabrication. Because of the long processing time, no measurement data are presented. The main specifications for the voltage reference generator is to generate stable reference voltages with low noise and a good PSRR. Efforts has also been made to minimize the power consumption..

This paper investigates the compensation for risk in the context of the Swedish stock market with a special focus on downside risk. Using daily market data collected from the A-list of the Stockholm Stock Exchange between the years 1983 and 2005 the purpose is to answer the question whether Swedish investors are compensated for holding stocks with high downside risk, measured as downside beta. Using panel data analysis it is shown, in accordance with most previous evidence in international research, firstly that stocks with high beta values on average experience higher returns than stocks with low beta values, and secondly that stocks with high downside beta values experience higher returns than stocks with high beta values in general. On the other hand, cross-sectional regression methodology using a bivariate regression approach shows that downside beta does not explain excess returns very well. Instead, regression analysis suggest that high upside beta does a much better job in explaining excess return over this time period compared to downside beta.

Context: During the 21st century several alarming reports have been published that deals with the depletion and pollutant of the earth by human interference. The earth is an ending resource and so are the mountains and bedrocks which are continuously mined in order to harvest its minerals. The idea behind Urban Mining is to (re)invent processes enabling further purpose for materials both from old deposits and new products providing secondary raw materials and energy. This thesis aims to investigate the challenges and opportunities of how firms and organizations can and will be able to strike a better balance between product-/service systems, economic growth and environmental stewardship in the context of Urban Mining as an approach. With the innovation of processes, technology, business- planning and creation in focus.Objective: How to future proof a business model for Urban Mining by the usage of business model design.Method: This thesis will be conducted using a case study approach, meaning that it will incorporate qualitative, exploratory and descriptive characteristics - aiming towards enabling both applied and fundamental research.Results: The result evaluates the business model element differences between traditional C&D industry and Urban Mining industry.

The purpose of this master´s thesis was to investigate the role and function of the annual reports of public libraries: for what purpose are they put together and how are they evaluated and utilised. The study presents different views on the structure and content of library annual reports. Focusing on a specific public library and its municipal administration, the authors identify and describe problems and possibilities regarding the library annual reports. The study also provides a general view of their occurrence, their addressees and the importance attached to them.In a review of current literature on accounting and activity reports the authors place the annual reports of public libraries in a wider context. The study also presents two current models of performance measurement - the Intangible Assets Monitor and the Balanced Scorecard - which were developed in the private sector, and the authors discuss their relevance when applied to public libraries.Data were collected both in interviews and by means of a questionnaire.

With a starting point in a project for reinforcing small scale business among immigrants in Sweden, carried out within Swedish for immigrants (sfi), the aim for this thesis is to examine the project from the view and experiences of the participants. Interviews with participants in the project have been inspired by the teoretical and methodological views of Grounded Theory.The interviews show that some participants want to start their own business, but almost as many don?t have that dream. The former group all have experience of being self-employed. They are aware of the difficulties but are nevertheless determined to proceed their dream.