Organising knowledge in a corporate environment : a case study at the development departments of Ecophon ABThe purpose of this master's thesis is to investigate how three development departments of a technical firm could organise their collection of documents and information resources to improve their management of information. Three sets of questions have been posed: 1) How does the target group of engineers deal with information, and what problems can be identified in this process? 2) What does their collection of resources consist of, how is it organised, and what problems are apparent? 3) How can principles of knowledge organisation be applied in a corporate environment?The investigation has been carried out as a case study. Three main methods of collecting empirical data have been used: surveys, unstructured interviews and collection observations. The results of the study have highlighted three major problem areas: the collection's lack of structure and searchability, the absence of policy regarding how employers should deal with information, and the inadequate knowledge among staff on how to search for, use and disseminate information.By looking at previous research on knowledge organisation, we have been able to draw conclusions regarding how the target group could organise and manage its information and knowledge in order to achieve greater efficiency in dealing with information and carrying out work tasks.

This is a thesis project in the field of information technology which begins by evaluating existing food price comparison systems and subsequently aims to design an improved, web based system for said purpose. The system features interfaces for price reporting, price comparisons as well as various search and review functions. The objective is to create a system able to compete with existing price comparison systems, which requires careful selection of products that can be found in all foodstores that also represent different households; a user-friendly price reporting and price comparison interface and an efficient tool for ensuring the validity of reported prices.The designed system features a more accurate formula for calculating average prices in events where the real price is missing; a more reliable security mechanism forv alidation of reported prices and a more comprehensible interface for viewing price reports, reporting prices, reviewing stores and products in comparison with existing systems. The system does, however, suffer from some optimization issues primarily in the form of inefficient database modeling; SQL queries and JavaScript code although testing has shown that these shortcomings do not hamper overall performance to such a degree that usability is compromised. Further usability testing performed on the system with five test subjects shows that a high level of overall user-friendliness has been achieved even though some special features, such as the detailed report containing price information per product for each store need to be improved.It is not possible to say at this time whether or not the designed system will be able to compete with existing ones or if the very concept of food price comparisons per se is viable in terms of profitability and marketability.

AbstractIn my study I have investigated how a constructed outdoor green environment can beused, managed and how it works. The study also investigates the concept of socialsustainability, where, for example, civil dialogue is a method to promote this. Thisinvestigation mainly gives account for the inhabitants viewpoint but also a gardenersperspective. The study focuses on the planning process of the study object, what theoutcome has been and how the users of the green environment, think about the result. Inthe process there has been a strong concern of involving the residents and others usingthe area.

Företags vilja att hållbarhetsredovisa har ökat markant under 2010-talet. I och med den ökade tillämpningen av hållbarhetsredovisning skapas även behov av ett ramverk. Det ramverk som idag är det mest framträdande inom hållbarhetsredovisning har skapats av organisationen Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). GRIs mål är att frivillig hållbarhetsredovisning ska vara lika tillförlitlig och jämförbar som finansiella rapporter.Hållbarhetsbegreppet kan delas in i tre områden vilka är social, ekonomisk och miljömässig. Resultat från tidigare forskning visar att det råder stora brister inom hållbarhetsredovisning eftersom redovisningen är frivillig och det därmed inte föreligger några lagstadgade krav.

The overall aim is to examine how the European Union Water Framework Directive has affected the local water management in the catchment Märstaån situated in the eastern part of the lake Mälaren river basin, Sweden. The first part of the study gives an historical overview of the area with focus on how the old agricultural landscape was handling the nutrient load from farming activities by means of different kinds of wetlands. By using the concept of the procedural landscape, introduced by Torsten Hägerstrand , together with historical maps with dates starting from the 17th century, the pre-modern landscape is analyzed.  The second part is an investigation, based on qualitative data, on how the different actors in the catchment area work together to secure the water quality for the Märstaån river. The analysis shows that the Märstaån catchment river systems are mostly unchanged in the rural areas.  The exception is the mainstream section of the Märstaån river running partly underground today and the Halmsjöbäcken river that is heavily affected by the Arlanda airport situated within the catchment area.

The problem area was identified due to the fact that research within internal audit is fragmented and insufficient, simultaneously to internal audit becoming more common in the public debate. Crises and scandals in companies such as Enron in the US and Skandia in Sweden have resulted in new regulations regarding how companies should be governed. These regulations have been established in Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) in the US, and in Sweden the Swedish code for corporate governance will be implemented in 2005. The regulations imply that companies must provide sound internal control and to accomplish that, companies should have an auditing and consulting internal audit function. The Swedish code for corporate governance denotes that companies can decide to comply or explain why the code is not complied.

With the introduction of the Swedish Code for Corporate Governance in December 2004, most companies listed on the major Swedish stock exchanges were required to have a nomination committee responsible for, among other things, evaluating the incumbent board and nominating new candidates. This master thesis aims at analyzing the effects of these nomination committees on institutional investors in their corporate governance, through a qualitative study of 13 interviews. We have found that institutional investors have become more active through their participation in nomination committees and that they have gained more influence over the companies in which they own shares. We believe that in reality nomination committees have more influence over the selection of the board than was intended when the Swedish Code was written..

Syftet med denna undersökning är att finna en möjlig förklaring till hur det teoretiska området angående corporate social responsibility har utvecklats i ett tidsperspektiv. Uppsatsen undersöker hur definitionen av CSR växt fram och vad definition har påverkats utav. Det andra som studerades var hur ämnet CSR har växt fram. Ser CSR likadant ut idag som det gjorde för femtio år sedan eller hur har det utvecklats?För att göra denna studie, används följande metod.

This paper describes and develops a trade off model of optimal capital structure by Bradley et al. (1984). The model is then tested to examine how changes in corporate tax rates affect the optimal capital structure of firms. Based on theoretical implications of the model, four hypotheses are derived stating that firms? optimal debt-to-value ratio is (1) negatively related to financial distress costs, (2) negatively related to non-debt tax shields, (3) negatively related to firm volatility and (4) positively related to the corporate tax rate.

Today, there is no uniform definition of what an ethical fund is. Fund management companies choose themselves what they believe is ethical and not. The lack of the definition makes it difficult for consumers to understand why these funds are special compared to other funds. The purpose of this study is to examine three Swedish companies; KPA Pension, Swedbank Robur and Folksam, to obtain a clearer picture of the concept ethical funds and its definition. The study describes each company's view of Ethics and how they may affect other companies to work for a more sustainable world.

The purpose of this essay is to study the two cases ?The hijacking of a bus in Årdal? & ?The double murder in Ljungsbro? from media ethics aspects.  The aim for this study is to clear up if the the Swedish newspapers have reported according to the mediaethic rules and to see if there is any differences between the newspapers reporting. The following theories has been used to reach the objective: the journalism task, news values, the liberty of press and speach, media ethical rules and discursive discrimination. The study has used a critical discourse method formed by Teun a. van Dijk to analyse the material, mainly through macro- and microstructures.

The purpose of this essay is to study the two cases ?The hijacking of a bus in Årdal? & ?The double murder in Ljungsbro? from media ethics aspects.  The aim for this study is to clear up if the the Swedish newspapers have reported according to the mediaethic rules and to see if there is any differences between the newspapers reporting. The following theories has been used to reach the objective: the journalism task, news values, the liberty of press and speach, media ethical rules and discursive discrimination. The study has used a critical discourse method formed by Teun a. van Dijk to analyse the material, mainly through macro- and microstructures.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the potential presence of a relationship between the quality of corporate financial disclosure and the volatility in stock price in the Swedish market. This was carried out by investigating the hypothesis that an accurate annual report with high information quality results in a decrease in volatility. Previous studies have been done with this approach and in some cases the above stated hypothesis was found to be true. Thus, in the absence of a perfect efficient market the level of information quality may to some extent explain the volatility in stock price. However, the result of our study gave no evidence in support of this hypothesis.

The aim of the study is to examine ideas surrounding copyright law and related rights appearing in the referral statements that the participants of the library sphere gave to the department writ Ds 2003:35. These ideas reflect the positions the library sphere take regarding issues surrounding the copyright law and related rights. The department writ was preceded by a directive from the European Union; Directive 2001/29/EC of the European parliament and of the council of 22 may 2001 on the harmonization of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society. The writ Ds 2003:35 was later followed by a proposition from the government which was co-herent with the preceding writ. The empirical material has been analyzed with a starting point in the polarizations, artist/audience, private/public and original/copy, presented in PhD Martin Fredriksson?s book Skapandets rätt.

In autumn 2010, the Division of Civil Engineering at the Swedish building contractorPEAB made a campaign to increase the number of reported incidents. Informationwas sent to the branch manager who was responsible to enlighten the employees onthe establishment. The goal of PEAB Division of Civil Engineering is to have at least 10reported incidents per accident that generate more than 8 hours absence. Therefore,it is important that the employees understand how the report system for incidentsworks. The number of reported incidents differs between regions.