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..

Lindex has a strong fashion position and is one of northern Europe's leading fashion retailers. Unfortunately their logotype no longer measures up to the fashion level that is required. Surveys and interviews have been conducted with employees at Lindex, disscusing their logotype. I have come to the conclusion that what is needed from Lindex side is strict guidlines for the employees to follow so that all information from Lindex to their customers is made with a great touch of fashion to it and in a coherent way..

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.

Utvecklingen inom IT-området har under de senaste åren varit explosionsartad. Allt fler branscher har börjat att leta efter nya sätt att tillämpa de olika framsteg som skett inom områdetDetta arbete behandlar en kombinerad litteraturstudie och intervjuundersökning kring objektorientering och Business Process Reengineering. Problemställningen för detta arbete har varit:- På vilka sätt kan objektorientering tillämpas för att utveckla de synsätt och de metoder som används inom Business Process ReengineeringSyftet med arbetet var att hitta ett antal generella tillämpningsområden utifrån problemställningen, samt att hitta ett antal fördelar, som dessa generella tillämpningar skulle kunna medföra.Resultatet av detta arbete visar att det finns områden inom Business Process Reengineering, där en objektorienterad tillämpning skulle kunna medför stora fördelar. Som exempel på detta kan nämnas förbättrade möjligheter att skapa och anpassa de informationssystem som skall stötta verksamhetsprocesserna. Även möjligheterna att skapa dynamiska metoder, där varje metodsteg utgörs av färdiga moduler som sedan kombineras, bör nämnas som en fördel..

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.

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.

The aim of our study is to explore the empowerment process among micro-business owners in Kayamandi, a black township of Stellenbosch in South Africa. What are the positive and negative implications for the empowerment process? Another aim is to find out the role of local and international support in this process. The theoretical framework of this study revolves around the concepts of gender, power and empowerment. Our methods are qualitative interviews and observations.

Today's industries are constantly evolving and the demands according to quality for products and services produced and performed are becoming more and higher. ISO 9001 is a standard that serves as a tool for organizations who wants to effectively control and manage their quality workforce on business different processes. A background to the introduction of a quality managementsystem towards Skärås svets och mekaniska in Västerås are that more and more customers demand this from a company to enable it to obtain an order of production.Efforts to introduce a quality system such as ISO 9001-2008 all begin with to carry out a situationanalysis of the business. Skärås svets och mekaniska currently has no existing quality management system so therefore there is no current directives regarding who is responsible, for a future certification in the business.By structuring a situation analysis of the business. You get a good overview of the business and how it is conducted today.

From a management point of view, enabling organizational creativity is often referred to as reducing immediate control, increasing autonomy and enhancing the access to slack resources. At the same time, the business environment of today is fiercer than it was only a decade ago, and this renders a quest for more efficient approaches to competitively run a business. This paper aims to examine creative industries and more specifically try to identify a set of elements that are common for successful companies. As this industry has not been subject to any considerable array of studies, this thesis seeks to establish a structure for how to take both organizational models and leadership theories into account when developing an understanding for the process, organization and leadership of the creative business. By studying six separate creative companies, our findings suggest that conventional theories on organizational creativity do not adequately account for all factors that contribute to these companies' creative success.

Context: During the 21st century several alarming reports have been published that deals with the depletion and pollutant of the earth by human interference. The earth is an ending resource and so are the mountains and bedrocks which are continuously mined in order to harvest its minerals. The idea behind Urban Mining is to (re)invent processes enabling further purpose for materials both from old deposits and new products providing secondary raw materials and energy. This thesis aims to investigate the challenges and opportunities of how firms and organizations can and will be able to strike a better balance between product-/service systems, economic growth and environmental stewardship in the context of Urban Mining as an approach. With the innovation of processes, technology, business- planning and creation in focus.Objective: How to future proof a business model for Urban Mining by the usage of business model design.Method: This thesis will be conducted using a case study approach, meaning that it will incorporate qualitative, exploratory and descriptive characteristics - aiming towards enabling both applied and fundamental research.Results: The result evaluates the business model element differences between traditional C&D industry and Urban Mining industry.

With a starting point in a project for reinforcing small scale business among immigrants in Sweden, carried out within Swedish for immigrants (sfi), the aim for this thesis is to examine the project from the view and experiences of the participants. Interviews with participants in the project have been inspired by the teoretical and methodological views of Grounded Theory.The interviews show that some participants want to start their own business, but almost as many don?t have that dream. The former group all have experience of being self-employed. They are aware of the difficulties but are nevertheless determined to proceed their dream.

This paper discusses the strategy and strategic change in the Swedish freight forwarding business and analysis factors that influence the forces of the business. Three companies of various sizes are chosen to be investigated as a case study, outline that cost leadership and differentiation are both important strategies for companies to compete in the market. However, companies outpacing competition do not only pursue either of the two strategies, the need the ability to add one (cost leadership) to the other (differentiation) in relationship to environmental change over time..