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.

Objective: The papers objective is to create a deeper understanding for whether or not cultural and psychic distance affects corporate establishments in the EU.Method: The results have been gathered through intense data collection through interviews with ScaniaAB and Business Sweden. There has also been extensive research of 36 different companies and their first establishments in different countries. We have then analyzed the results through cultural and psychic distance and through Uppsala University's internationalization process model.Conclusion: The conclusions of this paper are:Corporate establishment often occurs in neighboring countries because of the similarity to the domestic markets which contribute with a greater security.Since the introduction of the EU single market, corporate establishments have become easier within the single market.The cultural and psychic distance does exist within the EU, however the internal market decreases these distances and the impact on corporate establishments.The market commitment is essential to the corporates survival within the new market.Cultural and psychic distance affects small firms more often since their lack of network and experience.Cultural and psychic distances are two different but related phenomena..

Begreppen ha?llbarhet och CSR, corporate social responsibility, ses ba?da som ett sa?tt fo?r ett fo?retag att ta socialt ansvar fo?r samha?llet och samtidigt minimera risker fo?r ova?ntade ha?ndelser. Bankernas roll i att bidra till en ha?llbar utveckling a?r betydande pa? grund av sin fo?rmedlande roll i ekonomin. Bankerna har en stor inverkan pa? den ekonomiska utvecklingen i va?rlden.

Title: Bergslagens Sparbank ? A market survey of the bank?s corporate customer?s attitudesSeminar date: 2010-02-05Course: Individual essay, 30 higher education creditsAuthors: Mathias Lindberg, Bogdan EfimovAdvisor: Pia LindellKey Words: relationship marketing, finance industry,  customer satisfaction, customer loyaltyPurpose: The purpose of this essay is to try to identify those factors that lead to customer satisfaction and customer loyalty among the corporate customers to Bergslagens Sparbank. The purpose is also to find out what the corporate customer think about Bergslagens Sparbank and why they think as they do.Method: For this essay the authors have chosen to use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The reason for that a combination of these methods have been chosen is because the authors thought that it was a proper way to answer the essays main questions since these questions are of both qualitative and quantitative nature. Further the essay is built on an abductive approach.Conclusions: We have identified several factors that create customer satisfaction and customer loyalty among the corporate customers to Bergslagens Sparbank.

The main argument of the thesis is that multinational companies (MNCs) can promote democracy through corporate social responsibility (CSR). MNCs hold some prerequisites giving them the means to create positive changes. But they lack one important prerequisite: knowledge about local conditions. Therefore the best CSR result is reached through partnerships with local NGOs.H&M's CSR-work in Bangladesh, including a partnership with the Bangladeshi women's rights organisation Karmojibi Nari, serves as an illustrating case. It is argued that the CSR-work promotes democracy through strengthening the civil society, through indirectly implementing national laws concerning labour legislation and human rights and through raising awareness about rights and legislation among the workers.The CSR process changes the terms for both NGOs and MNCs.

Denna uppsats bygger på fyra grundstenar; Svensk kod för bolagsstyrning, Combined Code on Corporate Governance, riktlinjer från OECD, EU:s rekommendationer. För att skapa förståelse för dessa olika regelverk samt möjliggöra en analys, har teorin om Agent och Principal, samt den om Corporate Governance använts. Förutom studier av regelverk har diverse intervjuer genomförts med svenska och engelska börsnoterade företag som lyder under bolagskoderna, samt även intervjuer med revisionsföretag. Dessa har fungerat som informationskällor, referensramar, och underlag för analys och slutsatser. Det ges även sammanfattningar av Svensk kod för bolagsstyrning, samt för Combined Code on Corporate Governance, en redogörelse för riktlinjerna publicerade av OECD och EU:s rekommendationer.

Businesses role in society is changing. Corporations are expected to take responsibility, not only for their traditional business conduct, but also for social and political issues. A rise in globalization and international trade has led to an increased interest in the concept of CSR. Accordingly, stakeholders are expecting multinational companies to be accountable for existing issues in developing countries. New business models are needed to meet increased expectations of responsibility and shared value creation. Based on an understanding of the need for new business models a multinational corporation is studied in a local context, where a radically new way of doing business is developed.

In organizations today Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is becoming a common means to try to gain legitimacy and credibility for their business. A successful CSR strategy has the potential to generate positive outcomes for a company and reaching out to stakeholders about the corporation?s contribution in the field is an important part of the work. In this study I examine how the employees at Max Hamburgare receive the corporation?s efforts within sustainability, how it is perceived and what this means to the employees.

Vi har undersökt vilka skillnader som finns mellan investeringsprocessen för corporate venturing och investeringsprocessen för venture capital. Vårt empiriska material består av investeringsprocessen för Volvo Technology Transfer och vårt teoretiska material består av investeringsprocessen för venture capital. Detta är alltså utgångspunkten för vår jämförelse. Våra slutsatser är att det finns vissa väsentliga skillnader mellan processerna. Skillnaderna beror på investerartypernas olika mål och resurser.

Background: Research results show that the potential of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has increased. That means there is a growing pressure on Swedish companies to act with responsibility: general public has a positive attitude towards companies that communicate their CSR. Advertising agencies have been criticized by their way to manage the question of social responsibility. One of the characteristics of an advertising agency is their anonymity; even though their products are extremely visible, it is rarely clear who gave rise to an advertising production. If this is put in relation to CSR in general, we find ourselves in a contradictory situation when CSR in many cases is about exposure of the responsible corporation.

Klädbranschen är präglad av långa, världsomspännande produktionsled vilket gör det intressantoch viktigt att se hur stora, internationella företag arbetar med CSR. Kraven på att företag tarsocialt ansvar ökar samtidigt som företag är påverkade av sin historia, kultur och specifikaomständigheter som kan påverka vad som är viktigt för företaget. I denna studie undersöks vadfyra klädföretag, H&M, Gap, Uniqlo och Zara, alla från fyra olika länder, väljer att betona i sittCSR-arbete. Information publicerad på företagens hemsidor samt rapporter har legat till grundför empiri som analyserats utifrån ett teoretiskt ramverk. Den insamlade informationen har ställtsmot EU-kommissionens definition av CSR och analyserats utifrån teorierna.

AbstractThis master thesis is a hermeneutic inspired case study of how the value base regarding the environmental and social responsibility in the Swedish coffee company Löfbergs Lila AB is affecting the company's business. A thesis inspired by hermeneutics means that it is based on two ideas, the one of interaction between entirety and partitions and the one of interpretation (Alvesson & Sköldberg 1994). This cause that the emphasis is on how the reality is interpreted and that it never can be seen as completely objective.The case study was conducted during the spring semester of 2010 at Karlstad's University and consists of both empirical and theoretical material collected during this time. The empirical material in this thesis includes, among other things, interviews with four representatives of Löfbergs Lila AB, written material from the company regarding its work related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), some information about the coffee industry as a whole and different certifications for "ethical? coffee that exists on the Swedish market.The basic idea with CSR as a business strategy is that it can be financially beneficial for companies to take a social and environmental responsibility outside of the company (Vogel 2005).

CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility, har kommit att bli ett allt viktigare fenomen i dagens samhälle. Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka och identifiera bakomliggande faktorer som påverkar vilka incitamenten är för CSR inom norsk fiskodlingsindustri.Uppsatsen utfördes i form av en kvalitativ flerfallsstudie där vi genomförde semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem norska fiskodlingsföretag. Empirin visade att det finns stora skillnader i företagens syn på CSR beroende på storlek. Ekonomi visade sig vara det starkaste incitamentet för CSR, dock fanns undantag där även idealistiska incitament visade sig vara av betydelse.I analysen kunde tydliga kopplingar göras mellan empirin och både intressentteorin och Carroll?s pyramid.

The purpose of this thesis is to shade light on some of the problems associated with rights issues with regard to Swedish law. This thesis is limited to discuss problems regarding directed rights issues, rights issue discounts, underwriting agreements and asset to share compensation. The common factor for these matters is that the current legal situation is somewhat uncertain which allows for differences interpretation and judgment..

Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka huruvida bolagsstyrning har en påverkan på ett bolags rapportering av CSR på den svenska marknaden. Liknande studier finns utförda i andra länder men det finns ett kunskapsgap i Sverige och förhoppningen är att komma med ett resultat som är mer tillämpbart för svenska förhållanden. Eventuella resultat kan komma till nytta för företag som vill förändra sina CSR policyer.Metod: Vi använder oss av en kvantitativ ansats för att med hjälp av statistiska metoder svara på vår problemformulering. De metoder vi har använt är korrelationsanalys, för att undvika problem med multikollinearitet, och därefter en multipel regressionsanalys för att testa sambandet mellan beroendevariablerna (CSR rapportering) oberoende variablerna (styrelsens sammansättning) och våra kontrollvariabler.Slutsats: Vår slutsats är att en bolagsstyrelses sammansättning påverkar företagets rapportering av CSR. Fler kvinnliga ledamöter i styrelsen leder till en ökad rapportering av både miljömässig och social CSR.