Summary Title: Taxes and Human Capital as Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in EU: The role of Most Favoured Nation treatmentAuthor: Andreas HelmerssonSupervisors: Cecilé Brokelind and Rikard LarssonProblem discussion and problem Formulation: The recent year?s rapid increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) is a clear indication of increasing globalisation. In order to stay competitive companies must take advantage of talented people, new technology and new markets around the world. Not only companies but also countries and regions, such as EU, need to take advantage of globalisation and the advantages that come with the increase in FDI around the world. Studies have shown that FDI does not only make companies more competitive but it also stimulates the economic growth of the region where the FDI takes place.

There are many views in the concept of corporate reputation and the massive research in the area tends to result in many new definitions. Research has shown that a good corporate reputation has a positive relation to Sustainable Competitive advantage, financial performance and attraction to competent employees. The many views in the concept make it especially interesting to examine the view on corporate reputation in a perspective of big Swedish corporations. Another interesting area to examine is whether the companies manage their reputation or not. The empirical findings of this essay are based on qualitative interviews to get a deeper understanding in the area of reputation.

In the present case, the conception of policy hitchhiking gets evaluated in terms of its implications for democracy. This task is executed through the accomplishment of a case study of the use of social- and environmental clauses in the Swedish competitive tendering.A useful definition of policy hitchhiking, including different types of actors, is created.Through the defining of democracy and policy hitchhiking, the author comes to the conclusion that policy hitchhiking in some respects does meet democracy values.The thesis? result can in some sense be regarded as a contribution to the pursuit of knowledge of how power is distributed in the society and how the current distribution can be explained and understood..

Researchers and practitioners have recognized the need for ?transforming? every policy of the company into a Competitive advantage tool. Thus, both the pricing approach and the supply chain practices of the firm have emerged as an important determinant of success. In this study, however, we are not only interested in these two aspects, but also in a third one-namely cultural conflicts as an obstacle and challenge. The interaction of the tree factors is extensively presented against the backdrop of Skanska and four of their closest Polish suppliers.

Multi-branch companies are facing many challenges in order to become successful. Competitive advantages can be gained through a unified strong brand, standardised products and economies of scale. This normally calls for centralisation. On the contrary is decentralisation, which is said to improve work motivation and local market orientation, which are also Competitive advantages. The focus of this thesis is to study how local branch managers want their companies to be structured in accordance with this dilemma.

Banks find themselves at a highly competitive market where it is important to achieve high customer satisfaction if they want to attract customers and stay competitive. Some studies suggest that the gap between customer expectations and perception within the five quality dimensions influences the customer satisfaction. With SERVQUAL the authors of this thesis have investigated the suggested relationship and have discovered no indications of a relationship between the gap and customer satisfaction. Instead the results indicate that there is a relationship between perceived service and customer satisfaction. The thesis also indicates that the most important quality dimension for the bank customer is reliability.

Traditional product features such as price, quality and supply service have been extended and nowadays includes environmental aspects as well. It raises new and increasing demands on haulier companies. The transport sector is responsible for a large part of the pollutants causing today?s environmental problems. The business is being closely monitored and to operate environmental friendly is seen as one of the most important elements for the industry?s future development.

The degree project was made forZetterbergs Industri AB. The company is market leading in Europe in the heavyvehicle industry, designing and building body systems for trucks.In their line of products is the hook lift called Livab, a flexible and uniqueproduct. The hook lift is often demanded by customers because its special ability tobe able to operate in situations with low roof clearance. The main operation principleof the hook lift can be described as a truck stand, laid down.There are two main versions of the hook lift Livab, AL 26 and AL 32. These are ofdifferent load capacity, 17 and 25 metric tons of gross weight respectively.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how secondary teachers in the subject of history are using the textbook in their teaching. Four questions are being dealt with in this thesis. What importance is being placed on the use of history textbooks by the secondary teachers? What priorities do the secondary teachers have? How do they deal with student interests? And what is the importance of the secondary teachers? work experience? I have interviewed four secondary teachers with different work experience to complete this thesis. A Dictaphone has been used in all the interviews. Research has shown that textbooks now have a central role in teaching and the lack of alternative materials and reduction of teaching hours has made it difficult to replace. The main conclusions of the thesis are that the history textbook has a dual role depending on the teacher you ask, and that the history book is used differently by the teachers.

Music streaming services are changing the music industry from the inside. After being struck by the piracy wave in the early 2000's, the industry was characterized by declining sales, layoffs, and a seemingly futile battle on what had become a culture of copyright infringement. After the successful launch of the music streaming service Spotify, the Swedish recording industry took a turn for the better. Music streaming services are creating both new opportunities and challenges to the music industry. This paper aims to study some of the opportunities and challenges concerning the creation of new music.

This essay examines how three big Swedish newspapers depicts e-sports and computer gaming and how the depiction change during 2000-2013. The study will also examine whether e-sports is being portrayed as competitive sport. The purpose is to investigate which attitudes that can be identified towards computer gaming and its culture in major newspapers such as Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet and how these attitudes eventually changed over time. The sources that will be used in both the quantitative and qualitative analysis are based on web articles, mainly because the paper editions does not provide much, if any, information about computer gaming and e-sports and also because of the convenience of being able to quickly find articles to study. Results indicate that computer gaming is being depicted in a clear negative fashion during 2000-2006, and that the depiction of e-sports is somewhat positive but not as glorifying as for the years 2007-2013. During this period, there is a apparent tendency of e-sports being introduced to readers who are unfamiliar with the gaming culture. As for the attitudes towards computer gaming, the depiction is still somewhat negative, mainly because the debate about computer games and violence was revived because of several acts of violence in shape of school massacres and mass murder.

Sustainability has become more interesting to several companies through the last years, the trend attracts lots of attention around sustainability. Sustainable development means different to different people. The most frequent definition that we have found and which we believes compare with our definition of sustainable development.?a social change which satisfies daily needs without endanger next generation?s possibilities to satisfy their needs?.We have in this project commence from the English word sustainability and establish our own apprehension of its meaning, in the Swedish translation we have chose to call it sustainable development.This study is a part of an extensive project which is going on around the world and the material of the empirical study is designed after the international variation.Our study on over fifty small and medium sized enterprises has got the conclusion about what they think of sustainable development. We have compiled their answers and then the answers have been divided in three main categories.These main categories are:? Environmental-? Social-? Economic sustainabilityWe have also described what kind of obstacles which can be considered as standstill?s in the work with sustainable development, we have been summery them in three main categories:? Time? Cost? KnowledgeWe have seen that enterprises mostly see it as an Competitive advantage to work with the main categories which is included in sustainable development, but the three standstill?s makes it difficult fore them to reach right up to sustainable development..

The competitive situation for businesses has experienced drastical changes as an effectof globalization and changes in consumer demands. Product related Competitive advantages arerisking to quickly become presumptions for competition. The demand for increased innovationpace, along with the intense price competition, has led to buisnesses trying to find new ways todifferentiate themselves and Corporate Social Responsibility has became one way of doing so.The bad working conditions associated with the textile industry have rised a debate about thebusinesses? Corporate Social Responsibility. The future is heading towards more and morecompanies choosing to take their social responsibility, many of those experiencing this to be anadvandage in the relation with the consumers.

Being able to predict the future had been an invaluable Competitive advantage for any corporation. Forecasting is a vital part of any business, hence a good forecast allows enterprises to invest in a beneficial way. However, there are several ways to prepare forecasts and the forecast methodology can vary. An industry that is dependent on forecasts is the energy industry. By predicting consumers' energy consumption, Swedish energy companies can hedge on the Nordic power market Nord Pool.

The de-regulation of commercial air traffic in the early 1990?s lead to that many new airline companies entered the market. Many of these new actors were low budget airlines which meant that the traditional airlines met a new type of competition. This situation contributed to the fact that ticket prices dropped in many countries. It has become more and more common that the traveller prefers to fly with low budget airlines rather than with the traditional airlines.