This study aims at examining the prospects for a policy transfer of a Swedish municipal environmental policy (that of Växjö) to the French urban commune Blois, for which an ambition of becoming a leading eco-city in France, was declared by the mayor in 2008.In the analysis, emphasis is laid on mechanisms to institutionalize the main environmental policy principles, such as political and institutional structures and processes. Other prospects for an institutionalization of a new environmental policy that are to be investigated are economic structures as well as visions of the different decision-makers concerned. Research methods used in the study are qualitative interviews, document studies and a questionnaire.The findings of the analysis show that today?s prospects for an environmental policy in Blois close to that of Växjö, are clearly limited. The limitations can partly be found in economic structures but these seem to be rather related to a lack of priority amongst actors.

The purpose of this study is, on the basis of institutional theory, to contribute with moreunderstanding about resistance to management accounting change and also to survey reasonsfor the resistance and how to cope with the resistance.The study is a qualitative case study and semi-structured interviews have been used tocomplement the study?s theoretical area, consisting of scientific articles.The conclusion from the study is that resistance to management accounting change can beunderstood and explained by the institutions of each organisation and its underlying structures. Afurther conclusion is, with the structures in mind there are many reasons for resistance and alsomany ways to cope with the resistance. A model has been produced in purpose to createunderstanding and to survey the resistance to management accounting change..

The purpose of this thesis is to make a comparative literary study of ten laboratory experiments with different kind of sources for query expansion terms. The experiments are grouped according to categories of term sources, which are: search results, collection dependent knowledge structures, collection independent knowledge structures and one that combines the two last mentioned sources into one. To enable a comparison all other variables were held as constant as possible. There is the improvement measured in mean average precision, which is used to measure the various sources potential. The result from the study shows a strong connection between the kind of source for the expansion term and improvement of the result.

The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how venture capitalists can use their network in order to reduce information asymmetries between themselves and the venture management team. A qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews, consisting of open questions, have been used to receive gradate information in order to reach our explorative purpose. Our theoretical framework consists of relevant studies made on the dynamics of networks and the problems that can arise in the complex relationship between a principal and an agent. We have been interviewing two venture capital firms and therepresentatives from two business angel networks. We also made an additional interview with an influential financial actor in order to try to verify our conclusions Our conclusions are that an extensive network can be used by venture capitalists in order to; verify ventures? technologies, complement the competences in the venture management team, and arrange co-investments, resulting in reduced information asymmetries between themselves and the venture management team.

The purpose of this thesis is to identify power structures and instruments of power within the Jehovah?s witnesses and investigate how they affect the baptized youths baptized within the organization. The material consists of qualitative in-depth interviews and is analyzed with Foucault's theories of power. The results show that the participants have a very strict relationship to the rules of the congregation and also that they take great care in observing these rules carefully. It becomes evident that young members are exposed to disciplinary measures from the organization.

In recent years, awareness of the climate change has increased around the world. Environmental issues have been taking into consideration, both by individuals and companies. Therefore the demands for new environmental friendly technology have increased, also known as cleantech. To further establish and develop cleantech it requires capital. Venture capitalists have as well seen the potential.To increase the number of Venture capital investments in cleantech, it is important the investments generate good returns.

AbstractAccording to several researchers finance is scarce, scarcer for small businesses than for big enterprises. Small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, that want to start exporting and sales or manufacturing abroad need capital to get ready. Which capital structure and financial costs do they have, and which forms of finance do they actually use for that purpose. New american research by Mansi, Reeb (2002) has suggested, that there is a positive connection between leverage and a negative one between financial costs and internationalization, and that a non-linear model better describes this connection.This study has gathered data in two ways: Through a questionnaire from 37 SMEs and balance sheet figures from totally 166 manufacturing SMEs. In order to examine, whether the company was active on the international market, 200 SMEs in south Sweden were asked, if they exported to, produced or sold on any other market than their home market.

This study is a quantitative study designed to examine whether training in health issues may have contributed to the increase in head managers' psychological capital (PsyCap). Construction consists of the following components: self confidence, hope, optimism and resilience. A high PsyCap considered beneficial in organizational change and steer towards the positive development and helps individuals in stressful situations. The results show an increase of characteristics such as hope and optimism among managers (N = 15) who have undergone training in health issues compared with managers who have not undergone training. However, the tests show no significant difference in head managers' attitudes to health breaks, not the severity of granting health breaks in the groups as a result of training.

This paper describes and develops a trade off model of optimal capital structure by Bradley et al. (1984). The model is then tested to examine how changes in corporate tax rates affect the optimal capital structure of firms. Based on theoretical implications of the model, four hypotheses are derived stating that firms? optimal debt-to-value ratio is (1) negatively related to financial distress costs, (2) negatively related to non-debt tax shields, (3) negatively related to firm volatility and (4) positively related to the corporate tax rate.

Stadsmarknadsföring är ett begrepp som har blivit allt vanligare de senaste åren. Det skrivs mycket litteratur om ämnet och de flesta städer har idag utvecklat ett varumärke i syfte att försöka hävda sig i konkurrensen om turister, invånare och företag. I den här uppsatsen utvärderas Stockholms marknadsföring. Uppsatsen tar avstamp i litteraturstudier som har gjorts som beskriver hur marknadsföringen av en stad bör gå till generellt, för att senare kunna analysera hur Stockholm har valt att marknadsföra sig. Det råder en del missuppfattningar kring vissa av de begrepp som handlar om stadsmarknadsföring som jag kortfattat försöker reda ut.

Women ledaers and profitability, is there a correlation? Earlier research show different outcome on the correlation between women leaders and profitability. A Swedish consultant firm, Caran has a belief that more women leaders would create more financial profit, we ask us if that is the true situation. Using two different IC measurement methods we have shown the difficulties in calculate intagible resources, which methods that can/ can not be used and if women leders create financial value. We found the women leaders in Caran to add more value per dollar spent on the woman leaders than the value added per dollar spent on men leaders.

Background: The design industry is relatively immature in Sweden but large on the international market, where companies have used services from industrial design firms for a long time. Companies incresignly realise that design is an efficient mean to gain competitive advantages on the market. Several design companies fancy growth and to receive a wider market share to expand on the international market. One of them is Design Communicaton who has made a couple of acquisitions, to receive wider comptences and to cover different segments. That has lead to an increased brand portfolio with different subbrands, which can be complicated to handle efficiently in the internal and external communication.

Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka ?venture capital?-branschen och hur omfattande problemen med asymmetrisk information och ?moral hazard? är samt hur risk hanteras. Syftet är också att arbeta fram en hypotes för framtida kvantitativ forskning. Ansats/metod: Med en deduktiv ansats har en kvalitativ studie genomförts. Datainsamling av empirisk primärdata har skett genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Teoretisk referensram: Det teoretiska kapitlet tar upp grundläggande teorier kring asymmetrisk information, ?moral hazard?, ?agency costs? och riskhantering.

The purpose of this thesis is to identify power structures and instruments of power within the Jehovah?s witnesses and investigate how they affect the baptized youths baptized within the organization. The material consists of qualitative in-depth interviews and is analyzed with Foucault's theories of power. The results show that the participants have a very strict relationship to the rules of the congregation and also that they take great care in observing these rules carefully. It becomes evident that young members are exposed to disciplinary measures from the organization.

This thesis revolves around my work Desirable Objects, an installation in glass and other materials, which deals with objectification based on female and animal trophies. The topics included are those that have been crucial to my working process; craft, post-colonial studies and European hierarchical dualism, where woman and nature are seen as connected, but inferior. My motivation has been to get a better understanding of underlying power structures, and put this knowledge in relation to my own work. This process has led me to make a full body casting of my own body as a method of self-exploitation, in an attempt to expose myself to a similar power perspective. By making the dualistic connection between woman and nature, I am commenting a phenomenon that in my view has resulted in a similar exploitation of both..