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.

Virtual Communities is an increasingly common phenomenon on the Internet. Most of the Virtual Communities are operated and maintained on a non-profit basis with a direction towards entertainment. However, as more state administrated and commercial services become web-based, we believe that the number of Virtual Communities with a community-based or commercial direction will increase in a near future. In this thesis, we describe our participation in, and studies of, a number of Virtual Communities with focus on the IRC-channel ?3dfxsweden?. On the basis of our experiences, we describe the social elements that form the foundation on which the Virtual Community rely on.

Investors have been shown to be driven by emotional and psychological factors. This contradicts classical financial theories, for example the Efficient Market hypothesis which states that all investors act rationally. Behavioural Finance is an area of study which describes various psychological factors which may result in irrational investor behaviour.The primary question of the study is: which factors do operating people in the financial sector consider themselves to be influenced by? The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors which affect the process of creating forecasts or making financial decisions. The study examines in addition if there is a correlation between length of investor experience and overconfidence in forecasting accuracy and investment decision making.The study includes both quantitative and qualitative analysis.

The knowledge of value-enhancing factors in condominiums is very important for real estate agents when valuing condominiums, but it is also of interest to the owner for an upcoming renovation and sale. Previous research has sorted out the most fundamental factors affecting value of condominiums such as location size, age and condition.The purpose of this paper is by consumer?s actual preferences regarding various attributes identify the most value-adding factors in condominiums. Thereby we want to add and nuance previous research.This has been done through a quantitative method in which possible buyers have ranked how various attributes affect their willingness to pay. The results were analyzed and the median of the various attributes have been recognized.The result shows in accordance with previous research that the location is the primary value-adding factor.

To be able to hinder the global warming the emissions of greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide foremost, must decrease. By switching to green electricity, it is possible to reduce the emissions from electricity producing sources.In 1999, Swedenergy conducted a study about whether or not Swedish households would consider buying green electricity. According to the study, about 75 percent were willing to buy green electricity. 40 percent of these were prepared to pay a premium for green electricity. However, according to the results from the study, only one percent actually bought green electricity, and since 1999, this proportion has merely increased slightly.

The improvement programme Six Sigma has often been surrounded by an air of success since it was introduced in the 1980s. Yet there are cases in which introduction of the Six Sigma improvement programme show far from successful results, even complete implementation failures with no traces of the Six Sigma methodology or any improvements after completion of the introduction. These failures can cause severe damage to organizations through direct monetary loss caused by a negative result of the investment. Indirectly the failure can cause confusion in the organization and loss of employee motivation. The conclusions have been derived based on a qualitative case study at a Swedish telecommunications company.

The purpose of this study was to examine how food managers of Östergötland County disucss around their possibilities of reaching the government´s orientation towards 25 per cent of the food - procured, prepared and cooked in the school meal - coming from certified organic production. The study was a cross-sectional study in wich a qualitative approach was used. The sample consisted six food managers in Östergötland. Data processing was done through a semantic content analysis.  The result showed that involvment and intrest were significant factors for the introduction of organic food in the school meal. The three municipalities with the highest percentage of organic food used the SMART - concept.

Calculated and measured energy in residential buildings is going to differ. The reason to this may be due to many factors. In this study there is a study on how these factors affect the energy use in a building. To get an insight in what defines energy, there is first a description of energy supply both worldwide and used in Sweden, followed by a description of the energy balance. In this study energy will be studied in residential buildings only.

The share of problem gamblers increased for men between 18-24 years old during the period 1999-2009, while the share were steady or decreased for other classes of population. This study examines the relation between this development of problem gambling and the Swedish gambling market. The factors that are studied are the functioning of the market with a focus on the new Internet market for gambling, the games and the underlying risk factors in those, the marketing and other factors outside the gambling market. First a large literature review was made to map the development as detailed as possible. After that a qualitative analysis of the content in television commercials was done to see if they were made for the problem group.

Stroke is one of the most common diseases in Sweden and the third most common cause of death (National guidelines concerning stroke, 2000). Dysphagia is a common problem for stroke patients with almost 50 percent of patients suffering from severe swallowing dysfunction (Axelsson, Asplund, Norberg & Eriksson, 1989). The purpose of this study was to investigate how stroke patients with dysphagia experience their swallowing disorders. The method used was a qualitative literature study. An analysis of content was carried out using ideas and inspiration from Graneheim and Lundman (2003).

A two-factor design of experiments done on GGAB for the identification of two selected factors influence on the length of the scattering of heat exchanger gaskets. The work consists of four parts: study, choice of survey method, the performance of investigation and analysis of the results. Chosen factors on the study are considered to be the most effecting of the length distribution of seals during the production of GGAB. The study is the first of its kind both in GGAB and in the rubber industry and has an experimental nature..

The relationship between China and Japan has historically been problematic and, in some ways still is. One of the issues where both of the states cannot agree on is the island dispute. While both states are claiming sovereignty over the island and there do not seem to be an ending to it in the near future. If the island dispute continues to escalate it could have a negative impact in the Asian region and eventually rest of the world as well. However due to the complexity of the dispute a deeper knowledge is needed and a mutual understanding is needed.

The purpose of this essay was to investigate affecting factors concerning social workers in social services assessments with cases of abuse. We wanted to see if social workers in social services tend to make different assessments of the need of substance abusers care. Our survey was carried out as a vignettesurvey with complementary interviews as means to deepen the outcome results.Our survey showed that the included social workers in social services in some senses make different assessments when it comes to choice of effort put in for the client. We shed light on different factors and circumstances, which could bear meaning for the social workers in social services assessments. Examples of factors were the social workers in social services age, gender, working experience and attitude towards substance abusers..

Our study aimed at gaining insight of co-workers experiences of different factors that affects the verbal communication and leads to dialogue and misunderstanding between co-workers and their managers. The empirical material was gained from semi-structured interviews with co-workers at various departments within the same organization. We used a hermeneutic interpretive approach and our data was analyzed concerning different factors affecting communication. The result has been interpreted using the theories of deliberative conversations and dialogue competence. We have also used Illeris theory of learning. The result shows a number of factors that affects communication between co-workers and managers.

Urban densification as a planning strategy is of interest in the planning context of today. It is also seen as a part of the sustainable development. Urban densification as a concept is commonly used in the discussion of a sustainable development. Thus, the question about urban densification is an important challenge in the current planning context. A deeper understanding of the process which urban densification has developed from is necessary, since planners then will be more able to manage this challenge.