This study examines how management consulting firms work with business- and functional strategy and how these strategies are interrelated. More specifically we focus on business strategy (business unit level) and knowledge strategy (functional level) and whether these are aligned or not, i.e. whether strategic congruence exists.A number of recent studies have examined the importance of business strategy and knowledge strategy in management consulting firms separately, but few have pointed out the importance of the alignment between them. With this study we contribute to the strategic field of research with a model that describes how management consulting firms should work with their knowledge strategy given their business strategy. The model is developed through a synthesis between theories in the field of strategic congruence, business- and functional strategies and thereafter tested by an empirical case study of six management consulting firms.

AbstractTitle:Course:Authors: Advisor: Keywords: Problem formulation:Purpose:Target Group:Theoretical perspectives: Methodology: ResultSwedish leaders abroad ? A qualitative study about culture ?s influence on Swedish leadersBachelor dissertation - Business Administration, LeadershipAmanda Elg and Carl-Johan SaltarskiIngemar WictorLeadership, culture, impact and adjustmentHow can Swedish leaders in multinational companies adjust their leadership to the national culture?The aim of our study is to investigate whether Swedish managers are affected by the differences in national culture that exists between Sweden and the country that they operate in. We want to explore if they adapt their leadership to the culture.Our study is directed towards a target audience of Swedish leaders and other interested parties who wants to increase the understanding of culture ?s influence on an international career and what is required of the leader to deal with the cultural clashes that may rise.We have focused on theories related to differences in national culture and how it can affect the leadership and the organization.The study is of the qualitative type with a deductive approach where the empirical materials are gathered through interviews.Our results demonstrate leaders implementation of culture and leadership to influence the leadership of the national culture in which they operate. We have seen how leaders are affected by the national culture and how the leader adapts to achieve a successful leadership.

The values politicians relate with public administration are likely to affect the way that they want the public administration to be organised. The purpose of this study is therefore to examine which values Swedish parliamentary parties relate with public administration and more particularly how they emphasise these values.The study is conducted as an analysis of theoretically relevant bills that the government party and the parliamentary parties have introduced to the Riksdag, and reports and statements of opinion from the parliamentary committees. The documents are from the Riksdag´s sessions from 2000/01 to 2005/06. After examining the documents the conclusion can be drawn that the value that is most emphasised during the period is legal security. This might mean that legal security will have more influence on the decisions taken about the organisation of Swedish public administration..

Foreign invested SMEs have recently become increasingly interested in China. The enterprises are in this report categorized as second wave companies since they follow the footsteps of previous pioneers, of which mostly were larger companies. The ambitions of the SMEs are either to sell products on the ever expanding Chinese market or to utilize the potential of low cost production for global markets. The existing literature is fragmented and solely based on the experience of larger companies. We believe that SMEs are facing new and different challenges, and thus a new generic theoretical frame work is desirable.

SAMMANFATTNING Titel: Relationsmarknadsföring Vs Internet Författare: Krzysztof Fluder Fadi Safar Handledare: Marie Jönsson Kurs: Kandidatarbete, EFE305 Forskningsfråga: Har ett företag som tillämpar relationsmarknadsföring samma slags kundrelationer och kundprofiler som ett företag där man använder Internet som försäljningskanal? Syfte: Att identifiera hur relationerna mellan företag/kund ser ut samt att se om det finns en skillnad i kundprofil mellan två företag som tillämpar två helt olika försäljningskanaler inom lastpallsindustrin. Metod: Vi har gjort en kvalitativ undersökning där vi granskat två företags kundrelationer och kundprofiler. Vi intervjuade två företagsledare med olika sorters försäljningskanaler men inom samma bransch. När vi skrev ner våra intervjufrågor var vi tvungna att tänka på två saker.

 Level:                                 Master thesis in business administration, 15 creditsDate of seminar:                2009-05-29Title:                                  Stick to your knitting ? Outsourcing of the economic function in some small private limited companies in VästeråsAuthors:                             Johanna Eriksson 1982johanna.erik@gmail.comSandra Hansson 1982shn04005@gmail.comTutor:                                 Leif CarlssonPurpose:                             From a company perspective describe why the chosen companies in Västerås decided to either outsource or to have their economic function internally, define how the outsourcing process looks like and examine how the companies that have chosen to outsource have experienced their outsourcing situation. Further, we wish to contribute with advice for companies that are considering the option of outsourcing their economic function.Method:                             An intensive study of existing literature and a pre-study were conducted in order to create a framework for the thesis. The pre-study was conducted with one business counselor and two suppliers of economic services and resulted in local practical examples that supplemented the found literature. The main research consisted of semi-structured personal interviews among twelve companies in different sizes in Västerås.

This master thesis attempts to answerthe question if a startup with amaterial innovation needs a specialbusiness development model. Mainstreambusiness development literature is notwell adapted to the rigor of testing anew material and bringing it tomarket. This was studied using threedifferent methods. First of thetheories that are considered canonicalfor high tech business development wasexamined. The next step was to go into the role of a business developer inone of the hottest high tech materialinnovation startups this decade,Disruptive Materials.

Den ökade globaliseringen och senaste finanskrisen ställer höga krav på uppföljning och medvetenhet av ett företags prestation. Business Intelligence (BI) är ett område vars syfte är att förbättra en organisations prestation genom analys av historisk data. BI är ett komplext område som inte bara handlar om tekniska lösningar, även om det är en förutsättning. För närvarande investeras det mycket i olika BI-lösningar och företagen behöver veta vad resurserna bör läggas på. I dagsläget finns det ingen modell som bedömer ett företags arbete med Business Intelligence utifrån ett flertal dimensioner.Syftet med den här studien var att utveckla en mognadsmodell för Business Intelligence och sedan jämföra de undersökta företagen Axfood, Scania och Systembolagets mognad.

When contemplating entering an alliance the rationale behind the decision should differdepending on the size of the companies involved as well as on other important factors. The importantfactors influencing the decision are related to the resource pooling potential of the alliance,the power structure along with the business network the companies are a part of. Theanalysis has shown proof of a need for cooperation if one wish to succeed in the telecommunicationindustry and it has also determined which resources that are deemed to be most important toget in touch with, for our study object, to facilitate its access to the market. Those resources aredefined as a direct channel to the customer, funds/capital and the access to relevant businessnetworks. To get in touch with these lacking resources, three alternative approaches has beenproposed; all of them involving a strategic alliance decision.

AbstractBackgroundEvery company has some kind of employee turnover and we can tell that som business has higher employee turnover than other business. Employee turnover is individual for all companies but in companies that is in the same business simularities can be seen. The employee turnover in the line of business hotel, merchandise trade and restaurants was according to Confederation of Swedish Enterprise closer to 40 % during the period of 2006-2007 and close to the business with highest turnover, the service sector. This is comparable to the buildning activity that with it?s 22 % is one of the business with lowest turnover.

Detta examensarbete har genomförts på företaget Navigate Consulting Business Solutions AB, ett konsultbolag som erbjuder tjänster inom affärssystem, såsom val av affärssystemslösning, implementering och förvaltning.Företaget vill utöka sitt framtida affärssystem, Oracle E-Business Suite R12, genom att lägga till tidrapporteringsmodulen Oracle Time and Labor. För att ta reda på om tidsrapporteringsmodulen möter verksamhetens krav och förväntningar är det nödvändigt att företaget får en uppfattning hur systemet möjligtvis kan lämpa sig, innan de bestämmer sig för att implementera.Med detta som bakgrund och utgångspunkt syftar detta examensarbete till att visualisera den tidrapporteringsprocess och de krav som Navigate har för Oracle E-Business Suite R12, genom användning av prototyp.En inkrementell och iterativ arbetsmetod har tillämpats vid utveckling av denna prototyp. Resultatet av detta examensarbete är en interaktiv prototyp över företagets tidrapporteringsprocess. Stora delar av deras krav har visualiserats, och det har totalt producerats femton skärmbilder för att utveckla prototypen. Dessa har kopplats samman och tillförts med interaktivitet genom prototypverktyget Justinmind Prototyper.Trots att det har inneburit en tidskrävande process för utveckling av prototypen har man funnit potentiella fördelar.

The purpose of this Bachelor?s thesis was to examine the information needs of the international students at the University of Borås. A further aim was to examine the types of information sources the international students was using to satisfy their information needs and the environmental factors keeping them from achieving this. This was done through focus group interviews with international students from four different countries ranging from the ages 20 ? 35.

The most vital for a business is to understand how to please and satisfy its customers in order to make them loyal to the company. Companies weapon for competition in the retail business is defined through the retail mix. The retailer however often have limited resources whereas they have to prioritize between the factors included in the retail mix. The main purpose for this paper is to investigate what kind of internal connections that may occur between the factors in the retail mix, with focus on the job satisfaction as a catalyst on driving the values of the parameters included in the retail mix, where the factor service is the starting shot for the others included..

Bakgrund: Dagens snabbföränderliga värld och höga konkurrenstryck ställer krav på innovativa investeringar för en verksamhets fortskridning. Nytt paradigm inom IT-branschen är molntjänst, där utbjudande leverantör bör ta hänsyn till vissa faktorer för att erhålla ett gynnsamt utfall. Vanligt förekommande inom IT-branschen är att nyttja Business Case i beslutssituationer där olika faktorer noga övervägs innan investeringsbeslut fattas.Syfte: Studiens syfte är att med hjälp av Business Case identifiera och belysa avgörande faktorer och riskkällor vid investeringsbeslut. De identifierade riskkällorna ska också undersökas i syfte att söka minimera dem. Med hjälp av teoretisk och empiriskt underlag ämnar studien sammanställa ett Business Case för säkrare investeringsbeslut vid multidimensionella IT-investeringar.Metodik: Detta är en fallstudie utifrån en kvalitativ forskningsmetod.

This study is about the female entrepreneur in rural areas in Sweden. Five women were interviewed with the aim to examine their way of living (livsform), their motivation, what significance it is to be a woman in business and how female entrepreneurs can be encouraged to start their own business. The conclusions : ? The women in this study live an independent life , but the their way of life (livsform) has changed during their life ? Female entrepreneurship can be promoted trough greater knowledge of the female business, better advice to the entrepreneurs, more networking groups and reducing bureaucracy. ? The driving forces for the women is to do what they like and are interested in, at the same time as they have time for the family and children. They also like to work in the rural areas. ? Female entrepreneurship can be promoted through greater knowledge of female businesses in the community, by creating virtual meeting places such as networking groups and mentor groups on internet.