The purpose of this paper is to examine and analyze past development of mutual funds in large and small mutual fund companies and see if there are any differences between these two segments. Limitations on the number of funds have been made by choosing Nordic mutual fund companies that invest in emerging markets over an 11-year period. The study is made on 66 mutual funds managed by 13 mutual fund companies in which the segment of small fund companies includes seven fund companies with assets under management less than 100 billion SEK and the segment of large mutual fund companies includes six fund companies with assets under management more than 400 billion SEK. In the comparison of the segments the Sharpe ratio has been used to calculate the risk-adjusted return. The study shows small differences of the risk-adjusted return between the segments.

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.

The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the availability of construction materials affect children's constructions and play. Observations were made when the children were allowed to play and build with very little and much of the material play-doh dough in preschool. The study is aimed at children aged 3 ? 5 years. Interviews were also conducted with educators in departments where the children spent time to give support to this study.The result shows that the children create as many designs of any material amount.

Since companies have realised the importance of customer loyalty and since the service sector has gained higher significance in recent years, we found it interesting to study what leads to customer loyalty in service companies. The theories we have chosen to consider are customer loyalty, service quality, service guarantees, affinity marketing, loyalty programmes and customer clubs, the customer in focus and other factors that influences customer loyalty. To find out how service companies are working with cus- tomer loyalty, we have conducted a case study within three service companies. Our findings are that customer loyalty has a significant importance for the companies we studied. Quality and personnel were the factors we found had the greatest impact in service companies concerning customer loyalty.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine if companies? incentive programs for employees is designed in such a way that it makes it possible for managers to reach their goals. Method: Qualitative with a semi standardised questionnaire Results: Our results is that the incentive programs for employees in their present form don?t give the companies a good possibility to effect the employees to perform towards the goals of the system. The performance measures in the incentive programs for employees is suitable in comparison with the goals of the program but the construction and the use of the systems doesn?t give a satisfied result in comprising with the goals.

This study describes and reviews horse stable equipment from companies who builds and sells the equipment. In the study the companies various equipment was compared with regulations in the law of prevention of cruelty to animals. The purpose with this study was to find out if the companies stable equipment are approved according to the regulations within this area. The study used at five randomly picked companies.This study showed that three of the five examined companies refered, in one way or another, to the law of prevention of cruelty to animals on their website. Unfortunately not any of the companies referred to todays existing law of prevention of cruelty to animals.

Purpose:Only 60 percent of the newly started companies survive their three first years. The purpose of this report is to obtain a deeper understanding regarding how newly started companies work with their positioning and if there are some kind of a relationship between positioning and the survival rate of newly started companies.Research questions:Do newly started companies know what position is? Do they incorporate positioning in their day to day marketing?Approach:We have used a hypothetical-deductive way of reasoning and a qualitative study to gather the information needed. We have through interviews asked our questions to six newly started companies in three different cities.Findings:In our essay, we reached the conclusion that newly started companies do not spend sufficient time or energy on positioning their products. The companies interviewed only market their product as a good product.

Shear Strength and Deformation Characteristics of Uppsala Clay with CRS and Standard OedometerTyra Morell Bonin & Magdalena MählerTo see how much a clay compact under different pressure one can use several different methods and in this project, two methods were used, the Standard Oedometer and a CRS apparatus. A Standard Oedometer is a full-time manual device and the CRS apparatus is a modern electric and automatic device. The aim of the project was to see similarities and differences between the two methods and examine which method that were most reliable. This has been done with repeated laboratory tests and afterward evaluations. With this information one can get a picture of how the clay will behave and how it will deform in nature.

In Sweden there are 299 000 working in the construction industry. The construction industry is one of the industries where most accidents occur every year. During the last ten years there have been 111 death accidents in the construction industry and 48 of them were falling accidents. That means, in average, one death accident every month.Falling accidents gives serious injuries to the persons who are affected by them. It is anticipated that this report will investigate the factors beyond the falling accidents and also to present proposals that can decrease the number of falling accidents in the future.To secure a healthy and safe construction site it is of great importance that both the employers and the employees cooperate towards the same goal.

The essay that you are now holding in your hand is a survey about how different companies calculate their logistic costs and the activities which are included. We have examined five companies within the county of Kalmar. The research objective has been to study how aware companies are about their logistic activities and costs. The conclusion of the report is that they put their logistic costs together with other costs which they distribute among their products. The companies identify additional logistic activities than costs which regarding to us is one step in the right direction towards the awareness concerning future effectiveness in the business..

Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) is currently used more and more within construction design and planning as well as construction as a streamlining tool aiming to improve communication and decrease the number of construction defects. VDC is constantly developing, but what comes next? The augmented reality (AR) technology is currently not used within construction in Sweden but should be considered as the next step in line regarding the integration of reality and digital information. Using this technology design can become reality even before it?s actually built.The purpose of this study has been to carry out an inventory of the existing AR technology and its shortcomings, and also to identify possible applications within the construction phase.

AbstractBachelors thesis, Bygg och fastighetsekonomprogrammet vid Högskolan i Halmstad Vårterminen 2009Authors: Emma Stenberg och Emma SvenssonTutor: Sven-Ola CarlssonTitle: Ägarlägenheter - en framtida investering Background and problemThe concept of owner?s apartment has been discussed in Sweden since the 19th century. It was not until the first of may 2009 that it got legislated to be allowed in Sweden. The concept that people should be allowed to own their apartments instead of owning a part of the tenant-owner?s association is a new phenomenon in Sweden.

When a crisis hits a company, it is very important that the company communicate with its customers. Communication is important for a company in crisis because this is a way for the company to tell their side of the story and thereby try to get the customers to see things their way. Because mass media reaches a lot of people, it is a simple and fast way for companies in crisis to get their message out to the world. Mass media can be very useful for a company, but it can also be a problem. Mass media and companies in crisis may or may not have the same purpose with the communication.

In the construction industry the number of female managers is very low, only four percent (SCB, 2010). In fact, women with management positions has risen by six percentage overall, the last seven years (SCB, 2010). If women in managerial positions continue to grow at this rate, the proportion of women managers will be equal to that of male managers in 2033. More women are needed in the maledominated construction industry in particular because it is deemed that they have a different way of thinking and acting (Granér, 1994). Nelton (1991) believes that companies can take advantage of female managers to be more competitive on the market, the reason why is because women can see other possibilities when solving problems. Rapacioli (2010) argues that the recruitment of women into management positions not only benefits the individual itself but also the company. We have used a qualitative study with a deductive approach. Six respondents from the same company were interviewed, two of them have management positions and the other four were underemployed.The research question of this paper is: What differences and similarities are seen between male and female leadership in terms of their characteristics in the construction industry?The purpose of this paper is to examine similarities and differences in leadership in the construction industry where the focus is on the female and male characteristics. To fulfill our purpose we chose a qualitative study. We have interviewed six respondents at one company in the construction industry. Two of the six respondents have management positions and the remaining four are employed. In this paper we have concluded that there are some differences and similarities between men and women´s leadership in terms of their characteristics.

A large cost at the construction sites today is the labour cost of the workers. But unfortunately the worker potential is not used to full. It is not unusual to take into a count with a work-­?place-­?additional-­?time of 50% in some cases. By increasing the workers' motivation and responsibility for their tasks may reduce the time considerably, which also increases the potential for greater gains in construction projects.By using the situational leadership may the workers level of maturity develop entirely.