Abstract Title: Enabling Smart Research and Development through Knowledge Conversation Seminar date: 2005-06-08 Course: Master thesis in business administration, 10 Swedish credits (15 ECTS) Authors: Andreas Johnsson, Johan Rosendahl Advisors: Lars Bengtsson Key words: Knowledge management, Knowledge conversation, Research and development, Ba, Trelleborg Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to create a model that shows how knowledge management aimed at research and development processes can be used and how the theoretical fields can be connected. Methodology: The thesis is based on abductive perspective where empirical and theoretical material has been mixed to create a foundation for the analysis. Theoretical perspectives: Theories concerning knowledge management and research and development have primarily been used. These have been complemented with material about team structures and incentive systems. Empirical foundation: The empirical material is based on semi structured, mostly qualitative interviews and strictly quantitative inquiries performed at Industrial Hose within the Trelleborg group.

The current demanding business environment requires corporations to act fast in finding effective solutions to problems given the myriad of challenges they face (Dyllick & Hockerts, 2001). The challenges include the impact of climate change on business practices, natural resource consumption, chemical pollution, technological change etc. Moreover, the forces of globalization, heightened concerns about the deteriorating quality of the physical environment and increased stakeholder power are also increasingly having a real influence on business practices (Rainey, 2008). Since 1992, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has encouraged the adoption of the concept of ecological efficiency (eco-efficiency) to support business efforts aimed at addressing some of these challenges. The aim of eco-efficiency is to reduce the amount of energy and materials used in production processes to achieve economic and environmental benefits (WBCSD, 2000).

The psychosocial work environment in hard professions is hardly studied and this study was implemented to observe port workers psychosocial work environment in ports of Västerås and Köping. There are two purposes with this study: firstly, to examine how ports of Västerås and Köping, Mälarhamnar AB, can improve and develop their business by using psychosocial methods. To do this, a questionnaire study and three interviews with workers were done and the results were used in a SWOT- analysis. Secondly, the aim is to be able to use the results and make a difference in the Business development by adjusting the psychosocial work environment. The results show that the employees are happy at work and are happy with their work colleagues.

Title:                          Leadership development of individuals in management positions Authors:                    Carl Renér and Peter Simonsson  Institution:                Linneaus University, School of Business and Economics Program:                   Human Resource Management Course:                      Business administration ? Organization including thesis, 15 credits Supervisor:               Olle Duhlin (Linneaus University, School of Business and Economics) Examiner:                 Mikael Lundgren (Linneaus University, School of Business and Economics) It is widely known that the role of managers may result in stress and a heavy workload. As a result of this negative effects organisations have to counteract and find new solutions and systems to facilitate and assist leaders in their work. A popular method for leadership development has come to show both in research and in practice, especially in recent years, this popular method is known as mentoring. This form of leadership development is often applied in so called mentoring programs.

There are numerous of ideas and theories around the present development in our global society, describing an ever changing era based and propelled by information and communication technology (ICT). How influential has this development been on political visions and intentions and on the business worlds views on important competencies? The purpose of this thesis is to describe the national and international visions of important competencies in the ?information society?. Through a case study, focused on how the training and consultancy industry apprehends and answer to this change and development, as they often act as agents for new trends in the business world both as accommodators and originators. The growth and speed of the universally available information demands knowhow in seeking, analyzing and managing information, and this competence is crucial today.

Information technology development has in recent decades had a major impact on retailing.Discount supermarket chains began to offer customers the possibility to shop without therequirement to do this over the counter, instead the customer could help themselves buyingthe products they wanted. Retailing today has an even greater focus on the self service in thesupermarkets, recently many retailing chains has introduced self-checkout systems toincrease the profits and reduce staffing requirements. In the 1960?s the start for today's ecommercewas founded, however the development took off 30 years later in the beginning of1990. During the first years of 2000 the consumption on the Internet increased rapidly.

Environmental issues and sustainable development is a high priority in today?s society and has received substantial attention lately. In the inaugural speech it is expressed that the goal for the IT?politics is a sustainable information society for everyone, which can be achieved by using IT to support sustainable growth. The Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications has developed a document which outlines three specific proposals on what the government should focus on during a three?year period (2008?2010) that with the use of IT will contribute to a sustainable society.

The aim of this thesis is to identify and analyse the antagonism between conservation and development which occurs in historical towns.The base of the study is theories in destination development and cultural heritage tourism in historical towns as well as the consequences expressed in these theories concerning conservation and development. The standpoint was that an empiric study needed to complement the theory. This filed study took place in Dubrovnik in Croatia. The thesis identifies the antagonism between conservation and development based on the theoretical research. Moreover the study adds a perspective to the research through the identification of further dimensions of this antagonism.

This paper contains an analysis that sets out to investigate how sustainable development is portrayed in textbooks used in gymnasium level civics education. The study covers three textbooks, all in current use. The paper sets out to explore the relationship between the books chapters on economics and those about environmental issues. The sum of these two parts is in the context supposed to make up the books big picture of green sustainable development, i.e. the ecological aspect of sustainable development. An analytical model will be used to categorise and compare the three textbooks.The method chosen for this is analysis of ideas by use of ideal types.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to contribute to the development of business relationships between a supplier and its customers. The research area and research problem was further developed into three research questions. The research questions concerns the following subjects: the substance of business relationships and dimensions within relationships management that can be used in order to contribute to the development of a company?s business relationships.

We are living in network society, where information and communication together with the technical development stands in the centre. Characteristic for network society is quick changes, new meaning of time and space, convergence and new possibilities of communication. Network society contains new technical developments, several with thepurpose to improve the possibilities of communication between human beings, which in some ways creates new social demands and expectations. In this study, I focus on the Internet, which is an important channel for the information, communication and marketing in network society. As whole network society, the Internet is constantly developing.This study, implemented with qualitative interviews, has the purpose to give new, deep and interesting knowledge about business to business companies? communication and marketing on the Internet.

This study aims to investigate development and reasons behind sustainability reporting in large Swedish companies. By examining 15 companies? environmental and sustainability reports between the years 2000 and 2008, data was collected on matters such as frequency, scope and design. Identified trends were to a large extent in line with previous studies on international development; sustainability reporting is growing in several aspects. The authors have found one major reason for this development to be increasing requirements and expectations from stakeholders and a need for companies to legitimize their actions.

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.

Authors: Kosovare Islami and Selma SumicDate: 2014-06-02Title: How social is the social economy? ? social businesses and their regional innovation system.Level: Bachelor thesis in Business AdministrationSupervisor: Bengt JohannissonExaminer: Frederic BillKey words: Social entrepreneurship, regional innovation system, business - to - businessThe purpose of this paper is to create a model of regional cooperation network for social enterprises as the base of an innovation. This model will be created through the empirical basis. The model proceeds from the three pillars that have been developed and include social entrepreneurship, business - to - business and regional innovation.Entrepreneurship has multiple definitions which treats such as innovative thinking, targeted and creative individuals. Social enterprise has attracted more widespread interest, while it is considered one potential solution for the development of a sustainable society.

During later years coaching has gained popularity. Coaching offers help to learn rather than to teach and enables optimal performance. The method that builds consciousness, strengthens choices and leads to change in the wanted direction, can deduce to some of history's most successful educationalists. A coaching area steadily increasing is business- and executive coaching. The overall purpose with this paper is to explain what coaching is generally speaking, with specific focus on business- and executive coaching.