Bakgrund: Debatten om Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) har pågått i över 40 år och har under de senaste åren blivit allt mer aktuell även i Sverige. Detta till följd av dels de ökade krav som medarbetare och konsumenter ställer på företagen och dels på grund av en ökande internationalisering, en snabbare informationsspridning och ett hårdare företagsklimat. Idag finns flera exempel på företag som kompletterar målet om att maximera vinsten med ett mål om socialt ansvarstagande. Samtidigt strävar dagens marknadsförare i allt större utsträckning efter att skapa holistiska marknadsförings-aktiviteter, med syfte att bygga ett starkt varumärke som kan skapa konkurrensfördelar. Syfte: Denna uppsats har till syfte att öka förståelsen för CSR:s påverkan på ett företags varumärke.

Title: How to manage stress seen from a leadership perspective Authors: Lina Jonsson, Kristian Olsson, Mattias Olsson, Shabnam Tahajjod Supervisor: Marie Aurell Department: Department of Business Administration, IEM Course: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, FEC 007 Question of issue: How can we understand stress managing at a workplace seen from a leadership perspective? Method: We have chosen a qualitative method for our thesis with inter-views as qualitative data collection. The interviews had a low grade of standardization. Result: On the basis of our question of issue we have drawn the con-clusion that it is important to create comfort at the workplace, that there are a safety and a feeling of handle the work tasks and that there is a plentiful information flow between managers and employees to manage to handle the workplace stress situa-tion..

The business cycle of the wood flooring branch is currently high however that situation may not be sustainable. In a possible future weaker business climate, the importance of marketing becomes accentuated for firms that aim to maintain their sales levels. We can see trends that competition among the Swedish and foreign manufactures is already stepping up. The intent of this study is to establish marketing guidelines for floor- and molding manufacturers, so they can establish a clearer brand image in DIY retail outlets. By comparing the approach of sports- and DIY stores to brand and product placement, this study aims to bring new knowledge to the DIY branch for improved consumer and product handling.

Large companies in today?s business environment are to a great extent depending on their credit score by rating institutes like Moody?s and Standard & Poor?s. There is however indications that these big institutes are not always rating companies accurately. This is why this thesis aims at developing a new credit rating model, CRITA-Score, with the objective of determining a company?s financial health more accurately.

Syfte: Då vi har funnit att en stor del av tidigare forskning kring varumärken fokuserar på konsumentmarknaden vill vi närmare undersöka varumärkets betydelse i en industriell kontext.Metod: Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ undersökning genom ostrukturerade och öppna intervjuer. Vi utgick från våra respondenters svar och analyserade därefter svaren med hjälp av relevanta teorier. Undersökningen har således en induktiv ansats med ett tolkande synsätt. Teoretiska perspektiv: I vår teoretiska bas har vi samlat teorier från tre olika ämnesområden; nätverksbyggande och relationsmarknadsföring, inköpsteorier samt varumärkesteorier. Dessa tre områden ligger till grund dels för vår egen förståelse för ämnet samt för hur vi tolkar och analyserar det empiriska materialet.Empiri: Vårt empiriska material består av tio djupgående intervjuer på totalt fem företag.

Communication can be heard in many different ways and it is important for all businesses, especially in B2B. The construction and maintenance of a brand plays just like the communication a very important part. These parts also have a lot to common and affect each other in a large extent. One problem that may occur in many companies is the failure to grow and gain a larger share of the market even if they in various ways are trying. Expander is one of those companies and in this research report we studied communication and brand building, focusing on brand management, relationships and integrated marketing. Here we drew the conclusion that all these areas are important for a company, especially in the Business-to-Business marketing in different ways.

Finnhamn is a small group of islands in the Stockholm archipelago. At Stora Jolpan, the biggest island, there is a hostel. The main building was built in 1915 and is called Utsikten. The purpose of this project is to on behalf of the Archipelago Foundation (Skärgårdsstiftelsen) find alternative systems that can replace the existing heating system of Utsikten (an oil-fired boiler and electricity heaters) to a system with renewable energy. The alternative system that this project focuses on is a system of solar collectors combined with a wood chip boiler.

This study focuses on a specific organization of a Security Operations Center (SOC) as a case studyto first identify specific challenges related to the work process, preceding with identifying whichprinciples from various process models, such as agile and traditional methodologies from softwaredevelopment companies, can be implemented. Initially, the study presents relevant research on agile and traditional process models as well asresearch on SOC. Subsequently, six semi-structured interviews are planned and conducted withemployees within a specific SOC-type organization to identify the current work process and thechallenges affecting the organization?s work process. The results of this study indicate a description of the current work process in the organization aswell as a variety of challenges related to technical and organizational issues.

Frölunda-Aspvik Säteri, a company just outside Stockholm within the agriculture and forestry sector, has developed a business idea around countryside tourism as a complement to their existing business. The idea is to offer a high quality and functional way of living in small cottages surrounded by beautiful nature and landscape of cultural importance. There will also be a range of additional activities available such as hunting, canoeing, cycling etc. The project should be done with minimum impact on the surrounding environment and the importance of the ecological system should be at the forefront of all business decisions. At present the company wants to have a better understanding of what the future trends are within tourism, how its business idea fits in with future trends within tourism and how to stay competitive.The purpose of this research paper is to identify the social driving forces that have an impact on people?s lifestyle and choice of holiday destination in the future, and present how these factors affect the travel industry.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether abnormal stock returns could be identified as a result of a layoff announcement during weak economy.Method: An event study methodology.Theory: Efficient market hypothesis, signal theory.Empirical results: Quantitative data from observations of stock prices in thirty two companies listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, in the period 2008 -2012.Conclusion: The results indicate that the market reaction was negative because there were negative abnormal returns on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during the period 2008-2012 in connection with the layoff announcements. The market reaction was milder when staff reductions were carried out as a result of a restructuring and stronger when staff reductions were carried out as part of a cost reduction program.The layoff announcements elicited different market reactions depending on the company's industry affiliation. The most negative reaction was in the Healthcare industry. Negative abnormal returns were lower in industries Industrials, Consumer Services and Consumer Goods. There were no abnormal returns for shares of companies in the industry Financials.

Companies acquiring ERP systems are often dissatisfied with the project and therefore consultancy firms wish to make use of project models in order to achieve success in implementations. Since research on ERP implementations in service companies is limited, there is a need for mapping of critical activities in implementation projects in this line of business. Under these premises, the purpose of our master thesis is to develop a model for implementation of ERP systems, specified in activities, which can be used by mid-sized consultancy firms with mid-sized qualified service companies as customers.A literature study including project models, modern models and methodologies for ERP implementation, commonly existent activities, success factors and system development methods was carried out. Starting out with this, a theoretical model for ERP implementation was generated. In excess of this, a case study was conducted, where the implementation of the ERP system Microsoft Dynamics AX at the service company Eurostep, performed by the consultancy firm Medius, was studied.

Many organizations utilize decision support systems in order to handle different tasks and tosupport the decision-making process. Decision support system is a broad term used to referto several different types of systems. These types of systems can handle a wide range ofoperations within the organization. Consequently this will have an impact on differentoperations within the organization. The main aim of this study was to create a betterunderstanding regarding the impact of decision support systems on the various operationswithin the City Council's procurement units which in turn will increase effectiveness.

Purpose: We will understand and explain Dell?s value gap through an extended intellectual capital theory. This will be done by deriving the value to the different parts of the intellectual capital value scheme. We will also use value scheme to describe the ongoing strategy shift. Methodology: The qualitative method and an abductive reasoning have been employed during the progress.

In May 2007 a committee called ??Ansvarskommittén??, assembled by the Swedish government, came with a proposal of changing the Swedish regional structure. The committee which consisted of representatives from all the sitting parties in the parliament proposed that the present regional structure consisting of 20 county council districts and 21 counties would be reduced to between 6-9  regions called ??regionkommuner??.The purpose of this study is to analyze how the committee?s proposal balances democratic and economic values by using a qualitative method. The committee?s proposal is analyzed by a comparison in five political areas with two differentiated regional theories called old and new regionalism.

The objective of this study is to examine how Lean can make the utilization of inventory more effective and, from a Lean perspective, examine how the value-adding activities related to inventory can increase. To examine this, a case study was perfomed at Svenska Fönster. The conclusions of this study are that Lean can advantageously be applied on inventory to increase the efficiency. .