The purpose of this thesis has been to explore the topic of business simulation from a theoretical foundation in social constructivism and theories concerning leadership as the management of meaning. The most important findings are that business simulation can be used for strategical leadership by management to create a common vision in the organisation members, which affects their perception of the business and the decisions and actions they make, which in turn can lead to a more efficient organisation that becomes better at meeting set goals. This can be viewed in different ways from different theoretical viewpoints: as inducing targeted changes in mental models to create changes in decision making and actions; as a secondary socialization process where the vision of management is externalized as a business simulation that is in turn internalized by the organisation members that participate in the business simulation, or as a way to frame and define the reality of the organisational members which creates a shared reference point against which a feeling of organisation and direction can emerge. In the future, business simulations may become increasingly used by organizations to create a common vision or to communicate a new decision to the organization members..

This study aims to examine Business Intelligence research conduct within Swedish government agencies and workplaces in order to understand the recent debate regarding Business Intelligence research ethics and thus answer the following question: Does Business Intelligence praxis in Sweden meet ethical guidelines recommended by international field experts? A theoretical analysis of relevant and also recent publications, including a Business Intelligence method review, was conducted using qualitative content analysis. In order to validate the results from my theoretical analysis I conducted a series of interviews with a number of professionals who useBusiness Intelligence research in their work and decisionmaking process..

The purpose with our study is to investigate why Capgemini adopts the Rightshore strategy, how they implement this strategy and how it affects Capgemini?s core competence. We also aim to look at how the company?s knowledge management is supporting the offshoring strategey, in addition to how Capgemini ?keeps control of? its core competence in following the trend of offshoring to India?.

AbstractMaster thesis of one year in Business Administration, Swedish Business School at Örebro university,Marketing, HT 2011.Authors: Grunér, Linus and Malm, Ludwig Tutor:Pia Lindell Title:Brand building and creating relationships ? A study of a small business in the B2B market Keywords:Brand building, business relationships, SME, B2B. Problem:How does a small business in the B2B market work with brand building and creating relationships? What critical factors can be identified regarding the process of relationship-building and brand building within the context of a small business in the B2B market? Research objective:The purpose of this study is to use existing research to create understanding for how a company in the B2B market is working with relationship-building and brand building. The study also aims to identify any critical factors concerning the process of relationship-building and brand building.

AbstractMaster thesis of one year in Business Administration, Swedish Business School at Örebro university,Marketing, HT 2011.Authors: Grunér, Linus and Malm, Ludwig Tutor:Pia Lindell Title:Brand building and creating relationships ? A study of a small business in the B2B market Keywords:Brand building, business relationships, SME, B2B. Problem:How does a small business in the B2B market work with brand building and creating relationships? What critical factors can be identified regarding the process of relationship-building and brand building within the context of a small business in the B2B market? Research objective:The purpose of this study is to use existing research to create understanding for how a company in the B2B market is working with relationship-building and brand building. The study also aims to identify any critical factors concerning the process of relationship-building and brand building.

Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera vad som ligger till grund för ett beslut om att outsourca eller omlokalisera delar av verksamheten för ett företag med lönsamhetsproblem. Metod: Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ metod i form av djupintervjuer. Arbetet med att samla in empiriskt material och söka efter en teoretisk referensram har skett parallellt och vår ansats kan därför liknas vid en abduktiv. Teori: Transaktionskostnadsteorin, nätverksteorin och det resursbaserade synsättet utgör de huvudsakliga teorierna. Utifrån dessa undersöktes med vilket alternativ, outsourcing eller omlokalisering, ett företag kan komma tillrätta med sina lönsamhetsproblem och skapa konkurrensfördelar.

The structural rationalization of rural firms in Sweden has led to many new creative ways of developing companies. The agriculture sector is characterized by the need of capital in form of buildings, labor and inventory. The rationalization process has led to free capacity in rural firms when new technology make buildings and inventory not longer necessary for the production process. To get a better cost coverage this free capacity can be used to start-up new business areas that help the rural firm to growth.The study aims to identify factors that motives entrepreneurs in rural firms to develop new business areas. The purpose is also to analyze driving forces that lies behind development of rural firms and the forces that support or not support development in rural firms.The study is built upon five cases that all can be categorized as firms with different size and orientation.

Being a successful global business player depends on firm?s ability to mobilize its resources worldwide. For this reason getting the right people with the right skills, at the right time, at the right place is crucial and makes expatriation one of the most important issues of today?s business world agenda. In terms of expatriation; national culture provides the context for the whole process.

Det är idag vanligt förekommande att studera på högskola och en akademisk utbildning är ofta ett krav i en platsannons. Vi har valt att studera hur mycket vikt som läggs vid utbildning, kunskaper och egenskaper vid en rekrytering inom bankbranschen och även se till hur en rekryteringsprocess genomförs. Studiens fokus ligger således på hur rekryteringsarbetet sker. Rapporten utgår ifrån frågeställningen: Hur sker rekrytering i bankbranschen? Vilka kunskaper och erfarenheter värderas och varför är det så?För att undersöka huruvida den teoretiska referensramen inom ämnet stämmer överens med verkligheten har undersökningen genomförts med hjälp av en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod.

I dagens hårda globala konkurrens blir det allt viktigare för företagen att dra ner på kostnader och koncentrera sig på sin kärnverksamhet. Ett svar på detta är outsourcing som blir allt vanligare bland företag. De tjänster som outsourcas blir också mer kvalificerade, det kan till exempel vara en hel ekonomiavdelning. Detta sker dock inte helt utan problem, att outsourca något strategiskt viktigt som en ekonomiavdelning ställer stora krav på bra styrning. Undersökningen ämnar identifiera hur en gemensam styrning av en outsourcad ekonomienhet kan utformas, samt identifiera hur styrningen kan utformas för att tillgodose både det levererande och de köpande organisationernas mål.

Outsourcing, att flytta egenägd produktion till en extern leverantör kan vara ett effektivt verktyg som hjälper företag att minska sina kostnader, fokusera på sin kärnverksamhet eller etablera sig på en ny marknad, om det används rätt. Innan beslutet om outsourcing ska tas är det viktigt att tänka igenom och eventuellt använda sig av befintliga beslutsmodeller för att fatta beslut baserat på rådande förhållanden. Det finns flera typer av beslutsmodeller, varav två tas upp i rapporten: flödesorienterade och ekvationsorienterade beslutsmodeller. Att ha produktionen långt ifrån sin övriga verksamhet där regelbundna kontroller inte kan göras, kan i längden orsaka problem. Leverantören har kontrollen över tillverkningen och känslig information riskerar att spridas.

AbstraktTitel Hur påverkas ett regionalt nätverk av outsourcing? - en studie av klusterinitiativet Tunga fordonForskningsproblemet Outsourcing, flytt av produktion till extern part belägen utomlands, är ett led av den konstanta utveckling och globalisering som har lett till nya möjligheter för företag. Att företag utför outsourcingaktiviteter är en bidragande faktor till att tillväxten i Sverige minskar då den regionala utvecklingen hämmas. Detta ställer krav på regioners förmåga att vara innovativa och effektiva för att stärka sin konkurrenskraft. Industristaden Ljungby i Småland har ansetts vara en stark region men samtidigt sårbar då företag inom mindre regioner ofta är inriktade mot en specifik bransch.

Purpose: We wish to gain a deep knowledge about product development processes in relation to the aspect of time in companies in highly technological and rapidly changing markets. The purpose is to establish how organizations better can employ time as a resource to make the product development process more efficient. Conclusions: Information we gathered from theory and primary data show that information flow, synchronization and time profit when seeing time in three dimensions are factors which should be reflected in the architecture of a product development process. To illustrate our findings, we decided to create a model..

Every business is subject to service failures. The process of correcting these failures and turning disappointed customers back into happy ones is called service recovery. This is particularly important in the hotel business, where there are many moments of truth where customers may become dissatisfied. To further complicate things, service recovery is a process where you may have to correct errors of others - people beyond your control. The research field is relatively new and there are no turn-key solutions as to how to systematically work with service recovery.

This paper is about the importance of engagement, cohesion and clarity in offshore outsourcing projects. The focus is on how the communication is handled between co-workers in different countries. My research is based on qualitative studies of literature on the subject, along with interviews with leaders in various companies in Sweden that utilize offshoring to countries in Asia. This study shows that the companies interviewed who utilize offshoring are all taking care to create engagement, cohesion and clarity in their offshore offices. It also shows that companies can succeed with their offshore strategy without using agile development methods, contrary to what literature on the subject recommends.