The aim of this small thesis is to investigate if the probability of business failure is higher at the time of divestment than at the time of acquisition for portfolio companies that have been subject to private equity ownership. The background for this thesis is the widespread critique aimed at private equity firms, claiming that they increase the risk in their portfolio companies. We have performed a study of 53 buyout transactions, involving Swedish manufacturing companies, covering a time span of 13 years, from 1995 to 2007. We find evidence of an increased risk of business failure for the portfolio companies with a short forecasting horizon (within one year). The absolute increase in the sample is however small.

This report is a joint venture with SCA Skog AB in the Jämtland forest management area. The company is a major player in the timber market in northern Sweden, and also a large business globally with offices in over 100 countries. The purpose of the study was to find out how timber suppliers want feedback/follow-up after completion of timber business. To determine this, a questionnaire survey was sent out to 75 landowners who supplied the wood for the company during the past year. The questionnaire consisted of a total of 15 questions with the opportunity to comment on certain issues.

Title: Register now and stay in touch ? a study about the relationship between CRM-system and business performance.Purpose: The purpose with the study is to identify if there is a positive relationship between CRM-system and business performance in Swedish multinational companies in the industrial sector.Audience: This essay is addressed to the Swedish multinational companies in the industrial sector.Methodology/ Approach / Design: We have applied a qualitative method, with a deductive approach. Through an in-depth interview with the case company Benzlers AB, which provided the empirical basis, supplemented with the CSI-values.Conclusion: The study has presented evidence, that there is a positive relationship between CRM-system and business performance which has been confirmed by the positive increase in the CSI-value after the implementation of the CRM-system.Originality/ Value/ Contribution to knowledge The study contributes with its own results that fill in the knowledge gap about the subject in Sweden. The study finds that the CRM-system effectives the interaction with the customer and thereby business performance increase, with the CSI-value as unit. This therefore increases the value and importance of investigation of Swedish multinational companies, whose purpose is to satisfy the customer and at the same time, increase the business performance.Future research: For future research we suggest publishers to base the empirical basis through additional in-depth interviews with added case companies. In order to confirm the relationship between its validity in the industry, and also indentify what happens between inputs and outputs, which leads to increased business performance.Keywords: Customer Relation Management (CRM), CRM-system, customer satisfaction, business performance, Customer-Satisfied-Index.Thesis type: Business economy 61-91, Bachelor essay, Marketing (15 credits), spring 2010th..

De dynamiska förhållanden som råder för företagen i omvärlden. Har bidragit till att beslutfattare inom företagen har påbörjat att tillämpa olika typer av informationssystem för att effektivisera beslutsprocesser och informationshanteringsprocesser Den ständigt pågående ökning av information som erhålls via dagens informationssystem kan utlösa information overload, som i sin tur skapar ett förvirrat och dysfunktionellt beteende hos beslutfattare. Genom att tillämpa business intelligence bidrar till att information overload problematiken reduceras markant. Studien har till ambition att med hjälp av de befintliga teorierna inom ämnesområdet upprätta en egen analysmodell i syfte för att kunna estimera studiens åtta stycken aktörers beteendemässiga avsikt till att tillämpa business intelligence. Det genom att beskriva och tolka aktörernas syn på hur business intelligence kan komma att inverka på den framtida styrningen av affärsprocesserna.

Title: Theory and Practice: A study of Swedish Research on the Internationalization in Swedish Business and its Relevance to Practice´s, according to The Camber of Commers, Swedish Trade Council and researchers.Main issue: Within marketing science, there is an general ongoing discussion about the gap between researchers and practitioners, this leads to the thesis main issue on whether the Swedish marketing research conducted in the internationalization of Swedish companies, is relevant to practitioners and provides essential tools for practitioners to applicable in real business situations.Purpose: The purpose is to answer the problems of theory and practice, what it looks like and what the underlying factors and impact difference between internationalization theory and practice are.Method: The thesis has a qualitative methodology mainly based on theory, as well as empirical findings from researchers and organizations working with Swedish company's internationalization.Results: The result shows that there is a difference between theory and practice and that there are several factors underpinning this. Theories primary purpose is not to be practical but to explore an unanswered need to create an understanding to the researcher?s audience, which is other researchers, thereby are theories based on knowledge not demands from the practitioners. The result also shows that the internationalization theories can be applied in practice´s reality on the internationalization of companies. Research degree of generality has a sense of reality given by the empirical studies which therefore reflects the reality of the theory which gives theory a content of truth.Conclusion: The gap that exists between theory and practice has both positive and negative effects.

Companies that are facing the global market are put in to new challenges in order to streamline its business. One industry that has realized that changes are necessary is the construction industry, it is an industry witch is far behind the development of introducing information technology-tools systems in there business. It has shown there is a relation between high IT usage and high productivity, which is one of the reasons to why companies in the construction industry should purchase a business system especially for procurement. However, companies that have purchased a business system are facing difficulties in having their employees using it for its purpose. People react differently to changes and that?s why variations in quantities exist for usage of information technology-tools.

The objective of this thesis has been to investigate the approval process for an image. This investigation has been carriedout at four catalog-producing companies and three companies working with repro or printing. The information wasgathered through interviews and surveys and later used for evaluation. The result of the evaluation has shown that allbusinesses are very good at technical aspects but also that the biggest problem they have is with the communication. Theconclusion is that businesses need a clear construction for the image process.

This bachelor thesis in business economics raises the topic about Corporate Responsibility (CR), this topic is currently being discussed in a variety of channels and today an increasing number of companies are involved in corporate responsibility. How do Skanska work with sustainability and why are they doing this? It is also important to see the results of the work with sustainability will lead to. We will go into more depth in one of Skanska's projects, project M25, to investigate the CR strategies they use and see how they actually work with sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze how and why Skanska is working to implement CR policies in their operations and more specifically from the M25 project in order to achieve sustainable business development.

In order to become even more competitive, a partnering with other niche players is essential in achieving a competitive advantage and it enables opportunities for reintermediation. From an intermediate perspective, there are great possibilities for those who become content coordinators to enter the market. By becoming a bundler of services and products, the content coordinators will become the actors that will capture the most profit in the value web. The value creating drivers that have been identified in the business landscape of intermediates concern owning the content or owning the customer relationship. We find the possibilities of an intermediate actor, such as a content coordinator to achieve competitive advantage through strategic fit is subject to the context and the ability of creating more innovative and co-creative distribution systems.

The mobile revolution is here to stay, and today most people have (at least) one cell phone at home. Some even a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant)as a complement for the simpler tasks at the office, e.g sending e-mail, word processing, browsing the Internet etc. Many business have also given the employees the opportunity to do some of the business tasks inbetweeen customer visits with the help from a cell phone or PDA.Despite all this, the so called Internet connected mobile revolution is often mentioned as a big failure. Maybe because the people in general tended not to use the new technology as much as the companies predicted. This could be because they still haven't learned how it works, or just don't seem to have the need for services provided.After a couple of failures in the development process, almost every cell phone has support for mobile Internet today.

For many providers of ERP-system, Poland is one of the most valuable markets in Central andEastern Europe. The Polish market for ERP-systems is still a growing market, especially; wecan see the low utilization of ERP-systems among small and medium-sized enterprises. Thisis due to several factors, primarily the cost of implementing the system and the necessary infrastructure.Subsequently due to the lack of knowledge, where there is no sufficientknowledge of the benefits arising from the use of an ERP-system in their business, and thereis a fear within the companies that its business would start stagnating.This paper investigates the implementation process of a Polish consulting company whichworks towards small and medium-sized businesses. The key success factors will be studied inthe implementation of ERP-systems, and the instance factors of the interrelationship betweenthe consultant and client from a consultant perspective. The review of the literature has beenidentified and discussed in relevance to the empirical study.

A good flow of information in organizations is one of the key aspects of how we define a well-functioning organization. The information flow could be internal as well as external between actors within as well as outside of the organization. In a logistics organization this flow of information is equally important as in any other kind of organization. In this paper we have explored information flows in logistics organizations by applying, boundary spanning and the mobile-stationary divide perspective. In boundary spanning the main goal is to erase or relocate some of the boundaries within an organization, in our case to make the flow of information internally as well as externally better.

Syftet med denna kvalitativa undersökning är att jag vill beskriva och analysera homosexuellas komma-ut-processer. Datainsamlingsmetoden som använts är intervjucitat med kvinnor från den skrivna litteraturen, Lesbisk identitet, Dubbelliv och Komma ut, samt livsvärldsbaserade temaintervjuer med tre av mina vänner. I intervjuerna har jag utgått från dessa olika teman; upptäckt, resans gång och dagsläge. Jag har även med ett par citat från egna erfarenheter.Mina teorier jag har använt mig av är, Fuchs Ebaughs Exitprocess, Pennebakers begrepp Disclosure och Inhibtion, jag har även använt mig av interaktion, roll- och stigma inom socialpsykologi. Jag kommer att göra ett försök till att beskriva och analysera dessa områden inom mitt ämne; komma-ut-process i sin helhet, Vad är det som påverkar kvinnornas agerande i en komma-ut-process och hur personer i det sociala nätverket involveras i en komma-ut-process.

The work with this report has been focused on developing a methodology model for control at purchase. The methodology model covers parts classification, dispatching systems, batch shaping and more. The aim with the methodology model is that it will be used as an aid for a cost effective material planning to increase the value for customer.The work covers also a description of the present situation and the purchase process at Company X. Six parts have been applied, two from each class (A, B and C), in the methodology/model. The parts that have been applied are included in the flow between Company X and their supplier Company Y.Data have been collected trough literature studies, interviews and the company?s business system.

The project was based on a request to improve an already existing program and hardware at the electrical engineering department at the royal institute of technology. For maximum ease of use, tests have been done on students to properly design the program for what it is meant to be used for. These tests have been transcribed and analysed, then brought back to the group in a discussion and then transcribed and analysed again, I call this process the ?four step process? (this process is presented and explained in chapter 6.4.). A part of this master thesis was also to analyse the four step process to enhance validity of this research.The project resulted in a new program with a new graphical view and features to help students and researchers to work with the technical tool for electromagnetic readings of planar objects.