Hofstede constructed a culture dimension called Power Distance, measuring the inequality of Power. Germany and Sweden have relatively similar values according to his world-renowned research. But a series of interviews of Swedish entrepreneurs in Germany shows that these perceive a large difference in inequality of power in the two countries. This essay seeks to explain the difference between these subjective-qualitative experiences and the objective-quantitative data of Hofstedes Power Distance Index. We propose that a combination of differences in communication, exercise and visibility of power and formality influence the way Power Distance is perceived.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the working method partnering has been welcomed in the Swedish construction company NCC and find possible explanations to this. The theoretical background used to understand and discuss our findings mainly builds on value and network dynamics. The empirical study is of a qualitative nature and builds upon 13 semi-structured interviews and the participation in a two-day start up workshop with 21 representatives from involved parties. The study shows that partnering has been positively accepted at NCC. Possible explanations for this can be found in the contrast the method represents to the traditional way of working within the construction industry.

This study deals with sustainability reporting in three governmental and three non-governmental Swedish companies in different industries. With increasing demands from the society regarding company?s CSR - Corporate social responsibility, the perspective of accounting gets broader and covers even non-financial information to meet not only the owners? demands but also others stakeholders' requirements. Sustainability has become an important tool for creating company?s business value and a positive sustainable external image.

The importance of internal communication within companies has increased in recent years. However, there are still a number of companies that are not adapted to the modern world and the new modes of communication the Internet provides. This study evaluates the internal communication of a medium sized company by holding semistructured interviews with the employees. The goal of the interviews was to develop a requirement specification. This requirement specification was later used as the basis to analyze possible aids for the internal communication of the company.

 AbstractSystem methodology is in the very heart of system development, it is a crucial part of how you define your work, how you choose to approach the actual problem at hand and how to solve it. Researchers in the system development field has shown that not all methods in theory are in compliance with how it is practiced by the companies who use them. In our thesis we have studied a larger international IT- company and one of their local offices in Sweden, who some years back changed their system development method from a more traditional to an agile one. Our aim of this study has been to establish whether both of these methods has differed between theory and in actual use, and if so, why this has occurred and what the underlying rationality might have been to promote this change. Our questions that we sought to answer were; 1.

Nowadays, the world around us is changing faster and faster, the globalization is increasing and harder competition puts extra pressure on companies to be more innovative than ever before. One of the fastest changing industries is the IT industry where the actors always have to be up to date to keep their competitive advantage. The authors want to find out what makes some companies in this industry more innovative than others by examining what internal elements that are necessary for innovation. Much research has already been carried out within the field of innovation and especially about innovation management, although less research exists about smaller, non high tech service companies. Therefore the authors also tries to find out how applicable today?s theories are on this special field and thereby fill a smaller gap in today?s research.

Background: To maintain or increase the trust in the market, companies can disclose more voluntary information in the annual reports. According to prior research the annual report is the primary source of information for small shareholders and investors. Thus, it is of interest to investigate why companies chose to report the voluntary information inquired by this group. Purpose: We investigate some company-specific factors to decide whether these determine the extent of voluntary information, particularly inquired by small shareholders and investors, in the annual reports of listed Swedish companies. We also aim to discuss underlying causes for our result.

This thesis aims to investigate what requirements companies have in order to achieve a successful legislative compliance control. The implementation of an environmental management system can help the company to structure their business and succeed with their environmental legislative compliance.Both small and medium sized businesses perceive that it is difficult and time consuming because the legislation can be difficult to interpret if you do not have the required knowledge. There are many companies that hire help in the form of consultants who audit their compliance, but this leads to a risk that the company will be exposed when the knowledge does not remain in the company if the consultant would cancel the cooperation. There are not so many tools today for businesses to obtain good legal compliance. The methods used are usually checklists included in the control program, and it costs a lot of resources to do everything needed.This study strives to deliver the expressed needs of the businesses.

Purpose:The purpose of this study is to improve the knowledge regarding how entrepreneurial companies act and behave in relation to human capital, by studying their decision-making process for human capital investments. Furthermore this study shall enrich the understandings for how their way of handling human capital investments might change over time along with the development, growth and aging of the company.Methodology:For this case study the authors have chosen a qualitative approach. The authors have collected the empirical data by interviewing the CEO?s of six different entrepreneurial companies. To be able to process and analyze the empirical data the authors have used various theoretical frameworks and also previous studies.Theoretical framework:The theoretical framework brings up human capital and its importance, but also its role in the entrepreneurial company.

This essay deals with classification of images using the subject classification system Outline. This classification system is used in regional museums and they do often have large collections of pictures. The regional museums have their main focus of culture history. The purpose is to look at Outline from four different aspects: 1. In what way is the system constructed looking at classification theory, 2.

Syfte: Tanken med detta arbete har varit att se hur en fusion med företag i fyra olika länder som deltagare påverkat en stor organisation som Nordea, undersöka vilka skillnader de olika kulturerna för med sig och vilka problem de orsakat i integrationsprocessen. Jag ville även jämföra vilka olika ledarstilar som existerade i de olika länderna och ta reda på om det påverkat chefernas ledarstil i Sverige. Även massmedians bevakning under integrationsprocessen undersöks för att se deras inställning till sammanslagningen.Metod: I denna uppsats har både sekundär- och primärdata använts. Jag har studerat vad andra skrivit om fusioner, kulturens påverkan och olika ledarstilar men jag har även samlat in egen primärdata genom intervjuer med två personer från Nordea. Sedan har jag jämfört resultatet av intervjuerna med teorin för att få en bra bild om hur fusionen och integrationsprocessen fungerat i Nordea.Resultat & slutsats: De olika kulturerna inkluderade olika ledarstilar i fusionen och en viss anpassning har krävts av cheferna för att samarbetet ska fungera.

Syfte: Tanken med detta arbete har varit att se hur en fusion med företag i fyra olika länder som deltagare påverkat en stor organisation som Nordea, undersöka vilka skillnader de olika kulturerna för med sig och vilka problem de orsakat i integrationsprocessen. Jag ville även jämföra vilka olika ledarstilar som existerade i de olika länderna och ta reda på om det påverkat chefernas ledarstil i Sverige. Även massmedians bevakning under integrationsprocessen undersöks för att se deras inställning till sammanslagningen.Metod: I denna uppsats har både sekundär- och primärdata använts. Jag har studerat vad andra skrivit om fusioner, kulturens påverkan och olika ledarstilar men jag har även samlat in egen primärdata genom intervjuer med två personer från Nordea. Sedan har jag jämfört resultatet av intervjuerna med teorin för att få en bra bild om hur fusionen och integrationsprocessen fungerat i Nordea.Resultat & slutsats: De olika kulturerna inkluderade olika ledarstilar i fusionen och en viss anpassning har krävts av cheferna för att samarbetet ska fungera.

Nine out of ten larger companies have an intranet today which is supposed to improve the communication withinthe company and save money. A great part of these intranets were established in the beginning of the 1990?swithout giving any thought to the users and their needs. How does the communication inside the corporationslook like when the intranets that are supposed to be the source for every information request, aren?t usable? Whatother sources do the users use and how much?The aim of this master thesis is to examine information source selection at a specific company.

This research shows and analyses how pupils in ninth grade in the nine-year compulsory school look at being multilingual, at the Swedish language and at Swedish as a second language. I also want to know if language and culture knowledge are taken care of in school as it says in official documents for the Swedish school and as it also is desired in an intercultural education. For my research I do eight interviews in a suburb school south of Stockholm.My work includes a limited account for the current research about being multilingual, Swedish as a second language and about the close relationship between language and culture. The applied theory is a social constructivist theory which in short can be explained like that we construct social structures that have consequences on the individual as well as on the society.I show in my research how the view of the world around the pupils influences their view on their languages, their school and their neighbourhood. I also draw conclusions from my interviews that language knowledge is little appreciated in school and that Swedish as a second language has a low status..

This essay presents a business plan for the idea of a Pet Shop in Stockholm. The initial purpose of the essay was to investigate weather the company would be financially profitable or not. During the process we encountered problems and pitfalls that we felt contributed to the fact that our business idea is yet not realized. Therefore the second purpose of describing the process that an entrepreneur goes through when starting a new business came about. Besides the business plan for Pet Shop we present a selection of the theories that we found relevant for our situation, among others behaviour of entrepreneurial teams, network theory and execution.