The world's natural resources are constantly being reduced, which increases the pressure on companies to actively engage themselves in environmental activities. Meanwhile, stakeholders focus is being broadened and it is now important not only to supply a particular product or service but also show that they are actively pursuing an environmental agenda. Companies can use various tools to aid in environmental efforts, but also to demonstrate to the world that the company is actively engaged in environmental activities. One such tool is the environmental standard ISO14001 which provides the company with guidance and support on how the business must manage its environmental efforts. To show a business' progress in environmental performance, it is advantageous to use environmental performance indicators as they enable stakeholders to easily understand how the business works with environmental issues.Authors in the field explain that the environmental management system propagation is limited in service organizations.

Blekinge Hospital suffers from a budget shortage of 100 million SEK, while the government now requires that hospitals will no longer be running a deficit. Blekinge Hospital will then use their limited resources to survive in the future and the activity must be enhanced in order to keep costs low without having to lay off personnel. The idea is that the organisation should be more efficient with a more efficient resource usage. Performance measurement systems are important tools for achieving the policies set out within an organization, measuring and evaluating performance is a way to see where improvements in efficiency may be necessary in the business. Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is one of several measuring systems, where the focus is on measuring non-financial performances.

Title: The Relationship between Internationalization and Firm Performance Seminar date: 5 June, 2008 Course: Masters thesis in Business Administration, Programme for Managing People, Knowledge and Change, 15 University Credit Points (15 ECTS). Authors: Cheng Hsun Chiang and Márton Pap Advisor: Dan Kärreman Key words: Internationalization, Performance, Multinationality, Degree of Internationalization (DOI), Country of Origin Purpose: To illuminate various crucial aspects of internationalization by systematically contrasting the different models of the multinationality-performance relationship and searching for underlying reasons. Methodology: Meta-analysis on previous theoretical and empirical research. Our emphasis in this paper has been put on the qualitative aspects of the previous research unlike many other conventional meta-analyses that focus on the comparison of the empirical data. Theoretical perspectives: Five main models have been developed by earlier studies to describe the relationship between internationalization and performance: positive linear, no or ambiguous relation, inverted U-shaped, standard U-shaped and S-shaped curve.

Syftet är att analysera vilka variabler som påverkar performance positivt i nystartade BioMed och ITT-företag och i denna process även beskriva och jämföra hur dessa variabler ser ut i de två branschgrupperna och hur företagen har utvecklats. Vi har använt oss av en kvantitativ metod och har genom ett enkätutskick fått empiriskt material från 20 grundare av BioMed-företag och från 30 grundare av ITT-företag. Slutsatserna är att i BioMed påverkas nystartade företags performance positivt av: grundarens ålder, arbetserfarenhet, branschkunskap, start-up-erfarenhet och ett heterogent nätverk. Nystartade ITT-företags performance påverkas positivt av : grundarens ålder, utbildningsnivå, arbetserfarenhet, branschkunskap, antalet grundare, initial kapitalmängd i företaget och att ha affärsänglar och riskkapitalbolag som kapitalkälla. Connects olika insatser får generellt sett inte bra betyg av grundarna och därmed drar vi slutsatsen att Connects betydelse för företagens performance inte är stor.

Bakgrund: Rottne industri a?r ett fo?retag som tillverkar skogsmaskiner, na?rmare besta?mt sko?rdare och skotare. En viktig del av fo?retagets strategi i dagsla?get grundar pa? att bedriva en genero?s reservdelsverksamhet ut mot kunder. Reservdelsverksamheten har vuxit och blivit en konkurrensfo?rdel fo?r Rottne industri.

Authors: Maria Bergholtz, Alexander WestessonTutor: Daniel EricssonTitle: Performance Measurement of Creative work ? a culture study at PS CommunicationKeywords: Key Performance Indicators, Organizational Culture, Macro-culture, Subculture,Micro-culture, Art, Business, Creativity, PS CommunicationIn the paper?s introductory chapter, the chosen problem area regarding art and business willbe presented. The paper?s studied empirical case will also be introduced here. This then leadsto the reports chosen research questions:How do the company management and the companies? creative personnel approach differ inthe discussion regarding performance measurement on PS Communication?-What causes these differences?What impact does the corporate culture have in the discussion about performancemeasurement of PS Communication?-Is the corporate culture weak or strong?The purpose of this paper is to resolve the stand still in the discussion regarding performancemanagement by creating an understanding of different people active in the organization?sapproach to performance measurement.

Purpose - To analyze the relationship between supply chain management maturity, supply chain performance and financial performance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME:s).Design/methodology/approach - The data comprises 15 SME:s that participated in a local logistic study in Gävleborgs län. The levels of supply chain mature within these firms were based upon an interview study and the financial performance of the firms was then examined using financial reports-based data.Findings -The results of this study indicate that there is a strong relationship between SCM maturity and SC performance in SMEs, some relationships between SCM maturity and financial performance, as well as some relationships between SC performance and financial performance. This means that if firms use maturity indicators in the SCOR areas to improve their processes, they will most likely achieve a positive effect on supply chain performance and probably also on financial performance. The result implies that the supply chain maturities in these firms are higher than expected with no one at the adHoc level.While this study is based on a rather small number of participating firms, it would be valuable to further test the significance of the indicated correlations between SCM maturity and performance in a large-scale survey.Research limitations/Implications - The research is an attempt to understand supply chain maturity and it´s implication on financial performance. Developing supply chain maturity is an opportunity for a company to gain superior performance.

This paper studies the research foundations created in 1994 from the former wage earners? funds out of a portfolio management point of view. Firstly it describes the seven largest foundations and their different portfolio management structures. Secondly it analyses the performance of these foundations measured as the intercept, Jensen?s a, in a linear regression of the excess returns of a portfolio versus a proxy for the market, as well as the Sharpe-ratio.

The thesis main objective is to establish the determinants for granting executive stock options and to examine their impact on performance for firms listed on OMXS30. The analysis is based on accounting data gathered from annual reports and Thomson Datastream. The empirical results display that firms grant stock options to mitigate the principal-agent problem. Furthermore, risk proves to be positively significant with executive stock options, implying that either executives increase the level of risk after being granted stock options or influence the decision of the remuneration towards stock options when the firm increase the level of risk, in purpose to boost the expected value of their options. No relation between executive stock options and firm performance could be established..

Syftet är att beskriva och analysera VBM ochBSC samt diskutera möjligheten att integreradessa. Studien bygger på en kvalitativ metod därteoretiska begrepp inom Value BasedManagement och Balanced Scorecard analyserasoch jämförs med empiriska undersökningar iform av intervjuer. Kombinationen av VBM och BSC resulterar i ett lämpligt styrverktyg för många företag. Det är ingen perfekt kombination. Koncepten kompletterar dock varandra och ger en mer heltäckande bild av företagets verksamhet och strategiska möjligheter..

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how key performance indicators are being used as performance management tools within the production industry. Specifically the purpose is to investigate how the KPI:s within the telecommunications industry drives reusability regarding production test systems. This thesis will also highlight today?s cost models and suggest improvements of the KPI and what new ones could be introduced. A case study at Ericsson AB has been performed.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether there are any key factors for success to look for in launching a new business that affects the subsequent performance of the venture. Further on, the study will examine if there are any differences between believed and actual factors for success for an entrepreneur and the key factors for success given by existing theory. The purpose of looking in to the assumed gap between existing theory and entrepreneurs? believed and actual factors is to distinguish factors that make start-ups evolve. It is then important to investigate how they have worked with their business start-up and how they have worked with key factors for success in order to understand the impacts of their decisions.

Authors: Maria Bergholtz, Alexander WestessonTutor: Daniel EricssonTitle: Performance Measurement of Creative work ? a culture study at PS CommunicationKeywords: Key Performance Indicators, Organizational Culture, Macro-culture, Subculture,Micro-culture, Art, Business, Creativity, PS CommunicationIn the paper?s introductory chapter, the chosen problem area regarding art and business willbe presented. The paper?s studied empirical case will also be introduced here. This then leadsto the reports chosen research questions:How do the company management and the companies? creative personnel approach differ inthe discussion regarding performance measurement on PS Communication?-What causes these differences?What impact does the corporate culture have in the discussion about performancemeasurement of PS Communication?-Is the corporate culture weak or strong?The purpose of this paper is to resolve the stand still in the discussion regarding performancemanagement by creating an understanding of different people active in the organization?sapproach to performance measurement.

The aim of this study is to enhance the knowledge of target and performance management?s effects on the judiciary. In the past decades there have been a number of reforms in the general public sector of many countries. The management philosophy often used to describe these public sector reforms is called New Public Management (NPM). One main theme has been an increased focus on the management control systems, for example a greater emphasis on target and performance management.

Background: When firms grow through acquisitions it is commonly debated whether the two entities ought to be better off as standalone companies rather than as a merged company. This thesis aims at discussing this issue of M&As advantages and disadvantages in terms of source of synergies from the perspective of resource allocation. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze to what extent pre-M&A differences (against similarities) in resource allocation and corporate culture between the acquiring and target firm have an impact on the post-M&A performance. Theoretical framework: Efficient market hypothesis, resource based view, strategic fit. Methodology: A longitudinal study is conducted on the EU market during 1992 to 2002 based on balance sheet and income statement data.