The proportion of women entrepreneurs in Sweden is, as in many countries, smaller than the proportion of men entrepreneurs. Sweden has therefore created political measures with the ambition to increase women entrepreneurship. However, knowledge about the determinants of women entrepreneurship is needed in order to enable the promotion of it and, at the same time one can question the treatment of women entrepreneurs as a homogenous group. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the determinants of women entrepreneurship and whether these determinants fluctuate regionally. If this proves to be the case, a more spatial/individual approach should be used, when creating measures to promote entrepreneurship.

This thesis investigates the 200 year old phenomena of savings banks and if they increase the economic growth (GDP) in the local region they act in. That is being done by testing three hypotheses; the savings banks increase the attractiveness of the region they act in; the savings banks increase the entrepreneurship in the region they act in; and the savings banks increase the economic growth in region they act in. This quantitative cross-sectional study with data from the year 2010, finds that the savings banks increase the attractiveness of the local region, most likely through the efforts and financials they put into different local projects. A positive result is also found for increased entrepreneurship in the regions that have a local savings bank. The result is explained by the savings banks relationship lending, which increase the likeliness for a company to get the credit they need to start and develop.

Background: Corporations are established and organized in order to create economic values for their owners and the main aim of every business enterprise is to be profitable and satisfy the financial expectations of their shareholders. However, corporate social responsibility focuses on the ethical aspects of corporate business in order to achieve the balance between the profitability and social responsibility. Nongovernmental organizations through their activities promote the respect for human rights and environmental care within the corporate world. Purpose and Scope: To make an in-depth study about the role of nongovernmental organizations regarding corporate social responsibility in order to increase the understanding of corporate social responsibility. Methodology: We used literature research for our thesis and we analysed the secondary data related to the corporate social responsibility.

The purpose with this essay is to investigate whether the legal capital can be justified as creditor protection and whether the legal capital prevent entrepreneurship.Historically the legal capital has been justified by means of creditor protection. Nowdays the development within EU rather reduces or abolish the legal capital. Sweden has recently, 1 of April 2010, reduced the legal capital from 100 000 Swedish crowns to 50 000 Swedish crowns. In the preparatory work it has been admitted that the legal capital does not in reality offer creditors much protection. Although the lawmaker decides to retain the legal capital and justifies the legal capitals existence with the argument that involuntary creditors has the need of the legal capital.

Corporate spending on information technology is persistently increasing and a majority of companies are currently employing an intranet. Intranets have implications for internal communication but are also instruments for the dissemination of corporate culture. Existing research on intranets and corporate culture is limited to Swedish organizations within the industrial or IT-sector and to foreign companies. The purpose of this study is to understand how or if corporate culture can be embedded into an intranet. Specifically, this study addresses the research question: How is corporate culture communicated via an intranet in a Swedish service-sector company? We perform a qualitative case study and find that communication on intranets is still characterized by a traditional top down approach.

The aim of this study is to examine the Christian community called Plymouth Brethren and how they interpret religion in relation to their entrepreneurship and business practices. The community has a strong faith in God, uses the Bible as the guiding principle in everyday life, and also has the ambition to live together within the group in seclusion from the rest of society.Based on interviews with Plymouth Brethren in the county of Småland, the study describes how they perceive the relationship between the Christian faith and entrepreneurship and practice religion in the context of their family business. As the study illustrates the Christian faith is significantly motivating their enterprises of business and the Bible is their guiding principle even when it comes to how they should run their businesses..

Frågeställning: Hur profileras ett företags corporate branding identity i reklamkampanjer till utlandet och hur stort utrymme får nationstillhörigheten i denna kontext? Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur, varför och i vilken utsträckning företag använder sig av corporate branding i sin marknadsföring till utlandet, samt värdet av och i vilken utsträckning nationstillhörigheten används i det avseendet. Genomförande: Uppsatsen utgår ifrån teori omfattande traditionell marknadsföring, varumärken och reklam, nationsvarumärken och nationers image vilket relateras till corporate branding och modellen the corporate branding toolkit. Med hjälp av en semiotisk näranalys, av en av respektive företags kampanjer, försöker författarna skönja hur företagens corporate branding identity och nationstillhörighet speglas i marknadsföringen. Summering: Även om det bör råda balans mellan komponenterna i ett företags corporate branding identity kan tyngdpunkten variera beroende på företag.

Background: Of those who start companies, only about 30 % are women. Women's companies also often have both fewer employees and lower turnover. Several efforts are therefore being made to try to influence and encourage more women to start businesses and to get them to expand. Two of these ventures are special network for women and about women entrepreneurs as role models, something that also the theories believe is very important for a more egalitarian business. While entrepreneurship is encouraged for growth in the community, it also has a male character, something that needs to be considered.Purpose: As both the EU and the Swedish government through measures such as Tillväxtverket, is investing large sums to promote networking and role models, we intended to analyze the importance of networking and role models for entrepreneurial women.

Purpose This thesis tries to create an understanding of how male homosexual entrepreneurs, both as persons and as a concept, relates to the fact that entrepreneurship, as well as the society as a whole, is heteronormative. Moreover, it examines by what methods the male homosexual entrepreneurs cope with the seemingly paradox of a homosexual man who also is an entrepreneur. Method The method has been qualitative from a social construction-point of view. We have made semi-structured interviews with nine male homosexual entrepreneurs and structured the findings from the interviews with a computer programme and mind mapping techniques. We have compared the structured findings with theories, in an abducting manner, to find out an answer to the purpose of this thesis.

Business plan competitions have long been used as a mean for entrepreneurial organizations and Universities to educate students in entrepreneurship. But what's in it for the entrepreneur This thesis aim is to understand what utility business plan competitions have for the participating entrepreneurs. It consists of interviews with Swedish entrepreneurs at various stages in the entrepreneurial process, who has participated in business plan competitions to get ahead. The conclusions of the study are that business plan competitions are good for the entrepreneur from a motivational and developmental perspective but not from a financial perspective..

This thesis intended to examine how small enterprises within the retail industry work with brand building of their corporate name. More specifically it intended to examine how they do to choose corporate name and corporate logotype, and how they work to create a desired corporate image. A case-study was performed with three case-companies from different industries. The method was deductive as the empirics were brought in with starting-point in the theoretical frame of reference. The study showed that there are differences in the way small enterprises within the retail industry work with the brand-building of their corporate name.

The purpose of this essay is to study the impact of different factors on corporate capital structure. The factors studied in relation to corporate debt ratio are industry affiliation, size and profitability. The study involves all 252 companies quoted on the Stockholm stock exchange and cover a time period from 2007 to 2011. The result shows that branch affiliation has a significant impact on corporate debt ratios. Regarding size and profitability, however, these factors do not have an evident impact on corporate debt ratios..

This is a qualitative case study that aims to examine the small entrepreneur?s choice of financing solutions and their thoughts on various forms of financing. The authors have chosen to specifically examine entrepreneurs who do not have experience that stretches more than three years in entrepreneurship and the restaurant business. The study used three different companies in the restaurant business in Stockholm and semi-structured interviews were conducted with all owners of the company, corresponding to a total of six respondents. The study's findings show the relationship of entrepreneurs who believe that the experience of the industry and entrepreneurship is valuable also are more prone to giving away some ownership in exchange for a certain expertise and funding..

ABSTRACTCourse/level: Enterprising and Business Development, Bachelor Thesis, AUT2012, 2EB00ETutor: Magnus ForslundAuthors: Linn Danielsson & Alexander OlofssonKey words: Strong diversity, Consistent Corporate Culture, Core Values, Corporate Strategy,Definition of Diversity, Working with Diversity, Management, Standardization.Title: Diversity or Corporate Culture ? A case study on the paradoxical relationship betweendiversity and corporate cultures in corporations and organizations.Background: Diversity and corporate culture can in various ways result in corporate andorganizational advantages. While diversity promotes innovation, creativity and companydevelopment corporate culture possesses advantages such as efficiency, community and unity.Diversity and corporate culture seems to create various benefits that are both beneficial forcompetitive advantage.Problem discussion: I would be beneficial for companies and organizations to maintain bothdiversity and corporate culture since they complement each other. However, diversity andcorporate culture have different purposes and benefit in different ways. The question is howtwo such different strategies can meet.Question for research: How does diversity and corporate culture co-exist in corporations andorganizations?Purpose: The aim of this study is to create further understanding for the co-existence betweendiversity and corporate culture in corporations and organizations.Method: The study is made qualitatively with a hermeneutic approach and based on a casestudy on two corporations within the real estate industry.

Denna studie fokuserar på företagsstorleks inverkan på sambandet mellan Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) och Corporate Financial Performance (CFP). Huvudsyftet är att mäta om effekten av CSR på CFP skiljer sig mellan små och stora företag noterade på Nasdaq OMX Nordic Stockholm. Perioden som studeras är åren 2006-2009 samt år 2011. För att utröna om företagsstorlek har inverkan på sambandet tillämpas modererande regressionsanalys som går ut på att fastställa huruvida någon interaktionseffekt förekommer eller ej. Vi kontrollerar även för variablerna bransch och tid.