This paper is an assessment of whether the Nordic countries constitute an optimum currency area (OCA) or not. Hodrick Prescott-­?filtered data of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and rate of employment are used to investigate the similarity of business cycles between the target countries through a series of correlation analysis with Sweden as the base reference country and also by using a linear regression model. Additionally there is an evaluation of trade volume and labour mobility between the countries. Our results indicate that Iceland had the least similar business cycles within the Nordic countries and that the area should therefore possibly comprise Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. .

Today`s society requires that municipalities focus must be more on effectivity and quality. Because of this it is important for municipalities to look after the controlling systems. Many municipalities choose to adopt models that reflect the efficacy. The municipality of Vellinge has chosen to implement balanced scorecard in all their efficacies. We found it interesting when it was exposed that 70 % of all implementations of balanced scorecard fails.

Background: It has been shown that EDI can yield positive effects within companies. Which effects are possible for a company to direct assign to the introduction of EDI and is it possible to estimate the total effect.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to estimate and analyze the effects of using EDI in electronic business. We also want to contribute with a model for measure and estimate the effects of EDI.Accomplishment: We have studied literature concering EDI and realized a preliminary studie in form of interviews with experts to establish deeper knowledge of EDI. We have also tried to estimate the effects obtained in companies in three different businesses, power, government and transport industry.Result: To obtain as good effects as possible it is important that the co- oporation is built on trust and engagement. Before implementing the EDI-system a thorough overhaul of the processes in the company should be done, involving both the top managers and the staff.

This essay presents a business plan for the idea of a Pet Shop in Stockholm. The initial purpose of the essay was to investigate weather the company would be financially profitable or not. During the process we encountered problems and pitfalls that we felt contributed to the fact that our business idea is yet not realized. Therefore the second purpose of describing the process that an entrepreneur goes through when starting a new business came about. Besides the business plan for Pet Shop we present a selection of the theories that we found relevant for our situation, among others behaviour of entrepreneurial teams, network theory and execution.

The digitalization of the media industry has involved great changes for the Swedish daily press. Instead of subscribing on a daily newspaper, more people tend to read newspaper's free edition online.  The recent recession has contributed to strike hard against the newspaper's economy. This is the problem our research is based upon. How will the newspaper develop and which measures have to be done to get a well functioning business model that is suited for future conditions?We have made qualitative interviews with Swedish newspapers: Göteborgs-Posten, Norrköpingstidningen, Sydsvenskan and with the danish newspaper Politiken.

Då mängden information bara ökar, så ökar även behovet att ha åtkomst till informationen lättillgängligt. Detta skapar då ett behov för ett gränssnitt som kan söka bland informationen. I detta arbete har det undersökts om en implementation av Vector Space Model ger mera relevanta resultat jämfört mot en enklare implementation som inte baseras på Vector Space Model. Sökningen utförs i en relationsdatabas med ett inverterat index, databasen fylls med data ifrån internetforumet Stack Overflow. Genom att bygga en sökmotor som returnerade två olika resultatlistor för varje sökning så fick tio användare testa och utvärdera resultatens relevans.

The environmental debate is more intensive than ever before and the demands on companies increase. There are a number of methods to make it easier for the companies to fulfil the demands. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) end ecodesign are some of the methods that can be used. Syntronic AB has the possibility to reduce the products´ environmental impact in the design phase. Therefore it is important for the company to make it possible to visualize the negative environmental impacts a product can cause in an easy way. It is also important to visualize for there clients if any improvement is possible. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a simplified model.

This paper presents a study of the Swedish public service television broadcaster - Sveriges Televisions (SVT) transfer pricing model. The aim of the thesis is to examine the motives for using transfer pricing from a theoretical perspective and if SVT?s transfer pricing model fulfils these motives. We will also examine any potential managerial problems the existing transfer-pricing model might cause and discuss how these could be solved. We have in our study found that the main motive for using transfer pricing within SVT is to allocate internal resources as efficiently as possible.

Asset management in insurance companies differs from conventional asset management to the extent that respect has to be taken to both assets and the commitments the insurance company has towards its customers. A model that has proven to fit well regarding the matching of assets and liabilities is the Asset Liability Management Model (ALM model). In addition to the matching in the balance sheet, the ALM model can be used in a company's work with strategic portfolio allocation by applying it as a basis for analyzing investment strategies with expected risk and return. From this, the ALM model also becomes relevant for calculating key figures according to the legal framework Solvens II which includes laws and regulations regarding the demands on economical strength (solvens) of insurance companies.Hence, the goal of this masters thesis has been to, on behalf of Bliwa Livförsäkring, create an ALM model to support the asset management department of Bliwa in their work with defining a credible way of analyzing the future risk and return of Bliwa's asset portfolio and insurance undertakings.The ALM model generally consist of four submodels, the scenario model, the liability model, the asset model and the company model, where the scenario model often is named as the core of the ALM model. The course of action has been to develop these submodels individually, with focus on the scenario model.

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the possibility of integrating an item tracking systemwith a monitoring system currently under development at Fifth Generation Technologies (P) Ltd.A literature study of RFID technology and the networks ZigBee and MiWi was done. Based onthe literature study a concept for a distributed system was developed.The concept is to have several RFID readers placed in the area where tracking is to be performedand allow them to communicate with each other through wireless communication. The RFIDreaders shall be able to form zones and filter the data that is forwarded from the zones to theservers and thus perform some of the work that the server would normally have to do. Theconcept has been evaluated by prototype development and testing. The prototype uses an ultrahigh frequency RFID reader and a MiWi network.The test indicated some limitations with the selected technologies.

IT has become more evident in most organisations and has grown to be a part of the infrastructure rather than a tool for competitiveness. Therefore focus should now lie on how IT is adjusted to the business rather than on the usage of IT. To make the best use of IT in the business the CIO needs to start think more business-oriented instead of as before, technology-oriented. To develop the IT-department in that direction the IT-staff need to start cooperate with the business and gain knowledge about stakeholders, markets and the way of working for other staff members in the business.With this as a basis, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate attitudes regarding cooperation between the IT-department and the business and if there is any difference if the CIO has business related background or not.To fulfil the purpose a quantitative investigation with the help of surveys was conducted. The sample consisted of 18 companies with 100-200 employees in the area of Jönköping.

This Masters thesis is concerned with the complex planning process of setting up a citizen bureau in a public library. The aim is to find out how citizen bureaux are designed and to suggest a simplified model of strategic planning. The planning process is studied from a business perspective in the library context, and this perspective is also used to study citizen bureaux and their written plans elsewhere. A combination of qualitative methods are used: observations, focus group discussions and interviews. Observations in the public library showed a great need for an environmental analysis as well as structure to the planning process.

Changes in the workplace have led to new ways of organizing and structuring organizations. Organizations? desire to increase competitiveness, efficiency and flexibility has resulted in new conditions in the field of human resources. The new conditions have also created new roles and changing responsibilities for those working within human resources.The purpose of this study was to investigate how the implementation of Ulrich's model for HR transformation can impact on the human resource departments managerial support to first-line managers in the municipality of Uppsala. Today the municipality of Uppsala organizes its human resources based on the Ulrich's model, which divides the work into the units service center, the expert unit and business partners.

The neo-classical conception of the market place does not provide a framework to account for ethical or moral action. As a result, the neo-classical model is unable to explain the impact of ethical and moral issues on business sustainability present in the modern economy. To address this limitation, this thesis investigates whether theories of ethics can help explain the motivations and actions of stakeholders within the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In addition, the thesis explores whether theories of ethics are presented differently within aspects of the stakeholder model. Semi - structured interviews were conducted with various stakeholders within the CSR sector, including a NGO, a commercial firm and a CSR consultancy firm.

The environmental debate is more intensive than ever before and the demands on companies increase. There are a number of methods to make it easier for the companies to fulfil the demands. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) end ecodesign are some of the methods that can be used. Syntronic AB has the possibility to reduce the products´ environmental impact in the design phase. Therefore it is important for the company to make it possible to visualize the negative environmental impacts a product can cause in an easy way. It is also important to visualize for there clients if any improvement is possible. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a simplified model.