The transformed municipality ? Economic and social growth in Örnsköldsvik 1997-2007Author: Kristina HanssonThis thesis focuses on the economic and social growth in the municipality of Örnsköldsvik. It is a single case study and the municipality is studied through economic theories concerning regional growth in the period of 1997-2007. The aim is to analyse whether these theories, such as Åke E. Anderssons and Ulf Strömquists K-society, and other more or less microeconomic assumptions, also are applicable in smaller local contexts.

This thesis is about university spin-offs and the competition in high technology industries. In the light of efforts to increase the competitiveness of the European Union, an effective transfer of cutting edge technology from universities to the industry plays an important role. University spin-offs, start-ups founded to exploit academic inventions, are likely to face considerable market entry barriers. This is among other reasons due to high capital requirements for further technology development and lack of complementary resources. With a combination of relevant literature and empirical investigation, commercialisation of technologies within spin-offs is investigated and analysed.

This Master of Science thesis was completed at the Department of Machine Design at the Royal Instituteof Technology in Stockholm in collaboration with Lund Faculty of Engineering, Luleå University ofTechnology and Stanford University. At Stanford University a global product development project wasrealized as part of the course ME310. The project was initiated by the American company ImmerseGlobal whose vision was to develop a new type of Atmospheric Water Generators, a machine that absorbsthe moisture in the air and via a water system transforms it to pure drinking water. The project was partlyfinanced by the Product Innovation Engineering program, a Swedish research and development programfor increased innovation capability in organizations.In parallel with the global project in the ME310 course the product development process was studied inorder to compare it with a product development course at the Royal Institute of Technology, IPU. Thetwo courses are similar to each other in several aspects.

Införandet av redovisningsstandarderna IAS/IFRS år 2005 innebar förändringar för företagen, och en av de större förändringarna var redovisningen till tillgångars verkliga värde. I IAS 36 anges hur prövningar av eventuella nedskrivningsbehov ska genomföras, och det sker genom en jämförelse mellan tillgångens redovisade värde och återvinningsvärdet, vilket är det högre av tillgångens verkliga värde minus försäljningskostnader och nyttjandevärdet. Beräkningen av verkligt värde minus försäljningskostnader vållar sällan problem för företagen, medan beräkningen av nyttjandevärdet är mer komplicerat; framtida kassaflöden från tillgången ska uppskattas och diskonteras med en diskonteringsränta vilken återspeglar företagets kapitalkostnad. Då valet av diskonteringsränta kan vara komplicerat då IAS 36 Bilaga A anger allmänna riktlinjer har två branscher, verkstadsindustrin och dagligvaruindustrin, undersökts för att avgöra hur företag i praktiken väljer sin diskonteringsränta. Undersökningen visade att majoriteten av företagen i undersökningen använt Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) före skatt som sin diskonteringsränta, vilket är i enlighet med IAS 36.

In this thesis an explorative study was undertaken with the aim to study how a number of private care providers, as well as politicians and officials from councils in and around the Stockholm and Uppsala counties, think about the future of the Swedish elderly care from a property perspective, i.e. homes for the elderly. The analysis shows that there is a demand for capacity in 6 out of 16 municipalities, and that the property is an important part of this capacity, and the fulfillment of it. This was mainly due to the cost of capital, but also because of several other factors such as lack of land, a wish to guide the design, ideology, and in many cases a wish to use the property as an instrument of domination to control private health care providers.Also, the property was show to be connected to economic competition, to freedom of choice, and to quality. The problems related to the property in the market for elderly care still remains to be solved.

In 1993 the internal market within the European Union was formed and ensured free movement of goods, services, capital and people. This led to the removal of trade barriers between members of the European Union. When opening up for competition, price differences between countries decreased and more jobs were created. A single currency was introduced by eleven countries in 1999 with the goal of reducing transaction costs, eliminating exchange rate risk and to further simplify trade. In 2001 Greece joined the collaboration and introduced the euro.

Background: Traditionally defined boundaries and borders between organizations are at present being re-evaluated because of new and tougher demands. Today we can see a trend where these boundaries are being lowered or even eliminated when organizations choose to co-operate instead of compete. Purpose: In order to create an understanding for the partner selection process in the newly founded joint ventures between the companies which are building the Swedish 3G Network, the determining factors are being studied. Delimitation: The studies companies are co-operating as network operators but are at the same time competing as mobile operators. This relationship is in the literature described as co-opetition, which will not be investigated in this paper.

Internets framfart har skapat ändrade förhållande på marknaden för kommunikation och marknadsföring. Företag marknadsför sig alltmer på Internet och e-handeln har samtidigt ökat kraftigt. Debatten kring nya sätt att marknadsföra sig på Internet och hur konsumenterna reagerar på information är i full gång. I en undersökning gjord av Posten visar det sig att 7 av 10 svenskar gör sina distanshandelsköp på Internet och att de har en sofistikerad informationssökningsprocess. Påståendet görs att konsumenter litar mer på vänner, bekanta och andra konsumenter på ?nätet? .

I och med framväxten av samhällsentreprenörer har ett nytt begrepp introducerats påden svenska marknaden. Det handlar om den nya generationen företagare som sermöjligheten i att tjäna pengar samtidigt som de driver verksamheter som skapar ettmervärde för samhället. Samhällsentreprenörerna i Sverige står dock framför ett problem,att på ett hållbart sätt finansiera sin verksamhet.Denna studie syftar till att kartlägga hur finansieringen av svenska samhällsentreprenörerser ut. Undersökningen bygger på en kvalitativ studie där vi har undersökt tresvenska verksamheter, som faller under definitionen ?samhällsentreprenör?.

In subsequent to Post-colonialism the African nations have dilated into different political directions. While some nations have established well-functioning democracies, others are still under authoritarian regimes. The aim of this thesis is to examine if civil society has an impact on democratic development in West Africa. Therefore the theoretical starting point is Putnam?s theory of social capital, but this study will also examine other possible causal explanations for democratic transition.This study will be based on a comparative analysis of Ghana and Guinea.

The role of religion, of religious individuals and organizations, is currently discussed within both a private and public sector of development. I have viewed documents from the World Bank and DFID where the religious presence is a growing fact and previous theories that religion would disappear with economic development have been abandoned. As a result DFID conducted a large study on the importance of religion for development work, RaD 2005-2011, under the directions of Professor Carole Rakodi. Rakodi (2011) concluded that religion was highly related to the success or failure of developmental projects, and to understand the values people had religion needed to be understood within its specific cultural context. She developed an analysis model to conduct this work.

In light of the coming workforce shortage in Sweden the competition for human capital will be intensified on the market where employers compete in order to attract skilled labor. The competition will be most noticeable in the knowledge-intense industries, where the employees are seen as the companies? most valuable asset. The purpose of this paper is to examine how small knowledge-intensive companies can improve their position in the labor market by using the HR-model People Capability Maturity Model in order to affect their companies' Employer Brand. We take the basis of the theoretical framework in which we examine and identify the key dimensions of the Employer Brand concept and present the People Capability Maturity Model more closely.

Svenska börsnoterade företag anpassade år 2005 sin redovisning enligt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Detta medförde att företagens goodwilltillgångar skulle nedskrivningsprövas. Nedskrivningsprövningen kan göras genom att diskontera framtida kassaflöden med en diskonteringsränta. Denna studie undersöker om företag opportunistiskt justerar diskonteringsräntan vid nedskrivningsprövning av goodwill. Om detta varierar ökar över tid, om företagens börsvärde påverkar och om de tillfällena då företag sänker sin diskonteringsränta jämfört med föregående år ökar det opportunistiska beteendet.

The real estate industry is a sector where the companies generally have a capital structure which is high leveraged. The financing? with the related terms ? is therefore specifically of high importance for the companies in the sector. Traditionally, the way of obtain financing is by borrowing from the bank. Lately, due to new bank regulations, the banks have become more restrictive in their lending which have lead to a growth of other financing alternatives.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera om förändringar i arbetet med rörelsekapital hade ett samband med lönsamheten i företag. Som mått på rörelsekapital används Cash Conversion Cycle och som mått på lönsamhet används ROA.Teoretiskt perspektiv: Den teoretiska referensramen består av teorier om Working Capital Management, Cash Conversion Cycle, Lean, Supply Chain Management och Supply Chain Finance.Metod: I denna uppsats används en kvantitativ metod där sekundärdata samlas in från årsredovisningar för 2005 och 2013. Denna data ligger till grund för fyra korrelationsanalyser. Den beroende variabeln i korrelationsanalyserna är ROA och defyra oberoende variablerna är Cash Conversion Cycle, dagar i lager, dagar som kundfordring och dagar som leverantörsskuld. Urvalet i denna studie består av svenska aktiebolag inom branschen tillverkning och industri med fler än 50 anställda.Empiri: Empirin består av fyra tabeller som presenterar de beräkningar som gjorts.Slutsats: Sambandet mellan förändring i Cash Conversion Cycle och förändring i ROA blev väldigt svagt positivt men inte signifikant.