The structural rationalization of rural firms in Sweden has led to many new creative ways of developing companies. The agriculture sector is characterized by the need of capital in form of buildings, labor and inventory. The rationalization process has led to free capacity in rural firms when new technology make buildings and inventory not longer necessary for the production process. To get a better cost coverage this free capacity can be used to start-up new business areas that help the rural firm to growth.The study aims to identify factors that motives entrepreneurs in rural firms to develop new business areas. The purpose is also to analyze driving forces that lies behind development of rural firms and the forces that support or not support development in rural firms.The study is built upon five cases that all can be categorized as firms with different size and orientation.

According to the EC fuel regulations 2 % bio fuel has to be blended in all fuel by the year 2005, and 5.75 % by the year 2010, which means ethanol for gasoline driven vehicles, so there will be a substantial demand for ethanol. Brazil already has an established industry for producing ethanol and is the leading producer and exporter of fuel ethanol. My purpose with this paper is to investigate why Brazil decided to develop ethanol production on a large-scale operation and to find out today?s situation. Focus will mainly be on ethanol production with sugarcane as a feedstock.

?Development of methods for the planning and implementation of ditch clearing with modern methods?, is a long title for an exam work but that is what this report describes. In Sweden, we have a limited area available, and with the present development with increasing market oil prices, and enormous forces on the renewable energy sources, we need every hectare possible to protect the output of the forests. So with this in mind, many people are now considering how to increase the production of the forests that are already available. A part of production increases is to manage the existing forests, and not to allow this area to go to cultivation or become marshland. We manage our forests in a way that benefits the environment, and we consider that our working practice over the years has shown us to be correct and well functioning. A part of our way of producing forests is to ensure that we have functioning drainage systems in the forest holdings which we administer. The responsible at Holmen Skog requested a good method to make inventories of the drainage systems of Holmen forests. This Degree Project is about ways to identify and implement drainage systems with modern methods. It deals with authorities regulations, and how they operate in different counties.

During 2007 the City of Stockholm installed five grid connected photovoltaic systems. The aim of this master thesis is to quantify the amount of produced energy and recommend routines to collect and analyse production data, to make production data accessible by the public and to gain experience for future installations.The total amount of produced energy until March 2009 is 227 000 kWh, with an annual rate of 150 000 kWh. The expected annual rate was 148 000 kWh.All system owners are positive about their plants and see economical benefits in scaling up such systems.The installations need very little attendance and maintenance, however it is recommended that an alarm function is installed for automatic feedback in case of a system failure. All future systems should be inspected during full operation to determine if the actual capacity is matching the installed capacity..

To achieve the requirements to decrease emissions of greenhouse gases by 20 % by 2020, Swedenneeds to increase its use of bioenergy. In doing so it seems natural that those who already haveaccess to large amounts of biofuels in the form of by-products such as straw, wood chips anddigestible materials take advantage of these assets locally. By combining production of heat withpower production at the farm it may be possible to not only reduce the direct use of fossil fuel forheating but also reduce energy costs.The purpose was to simulate different cases of using a small scale biofueled combined heat andpower plant for farm-based systems. A MatLab-model was developed and used to draw conclusionsabout the costs for production of heat and electricity with different conversion technologies.The model uses climate data to simulate the variations in heat energy demand on a day-to-day basis.The given heat demand is the base of the simulation and from this the possible electric output iscalculated. This study has focused on the impact of the following properties: electric-, heat- andtotal efficiency, fuel, fuel price and specific fuel requirements.

A Swedish company, company F, will establish a new factory in China. Company F is adivision within Company F. The factory in China will manufacture wire products. Thepurpose of this final thesis is to analyse which legal and practical measures the company hasto undertake during the process of localization to get approval from the Chineseenvironmental legislation.An analysis of the influencing factors on the environment from the production in theconstruction in Sweden was carried through. A material-balance was analysed according tothe flowchart of the production.

An important task for Region Skåne is to allocate resources to the health care districts. From 1999 to 2002 Region Skåne used needs-based resource allocation as a model for allocating resources. In a needs-based resource allocation individuals with the same socioeconomic and demographic characteristics are assumed to have the same level of need and are therefore allocated the same amount of resources. During the period of needs-based resource allocation a matrix model was used as a method. In the matrix model individuals were divided into cells after each combination of the socioeconomic and demographic variables.

This thesis work is made by Torbjörn Johansson on Karlstad University for Uddeholms AB. The assignment in this thesis work was to investigate tough cutting in three different tool steels: Vanadis 4 Extra, Vancron 40 and Sverker 21. The research was to compare the wear of the tool after cutting in each one of the tool steel alloys. The research was also made to see if the tool cutting in Vancron 40 has a better wear than the tool cutting in Vanadis 4 Extra and also compare the results with Sverker 21. All three of these alloys are a part of Uddeholms AB:s range of products, and is used in applications like forming tools and knife tools. Vancron 40 is a powder steel with a very good combination of mechanical properties like ductility, adhesive strength and hardness.

Ethanol fuel is a biofuel, which been widely reported in the public debate and on the fuel market the last years. Ethanol is sold as both E85 and as a five percent admixture of all petrol sold in Sweden. Research studies on ethanol fuel often focus on environmental issues surrounding the production and utilization of ethanol as a fuel, and omits the private and business aspects of the subject. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the economics of ethanol as a fuel. How the Swedish market for ethanol is and how it evolved over time and what the future prospects are.

Background: Sweden has, since 1983, had a statutory audit for all joint-stock companies. However, according to EG?s fourth corporation directive, member countries can decide on their own if this applies for small joint-stock companies. An investigation was launched in the fall of 2006 to form an opinion on the importance of the audit reporting by law and what an abolishment of this rule would mean for small joint-stock companies. Critics are claiming that the cost of audit for small companies is exceeding the cause in these micro companies.Audit is regulated by Swedish translation (RS) of International Standards on Auditing (ISA) and is to be applied in all companies comprised by the statutory audit.

The purpose of this thesis is to try to understand, with the help of existing theories and empirical findings, the parameters which are of importance in the development of the pricing capability. We have used a qualitative and abductive methodology approach. The empirical findings have been collected via semi-structured interviews which we have conducted via personal and telephone interviews. Seeing pricing as a capability within the company our theoretical framework mainly consists of the resource-based view and an article explaining and given proof how pricing can be seen as a capability. We also describe the most used pricing strategy today within business-to-business companies, the cost plus strategy.

The master thesis, conducted at Metrima AB, concerns the development of a non-intrusivedistribution meter as a basis for individual tap water billing in apartments.The project is conducted in response to the market interest in individual tap water billing inapartments as an answer to environmental concerns regarding water consumption. Due to thehigh installation cost of traditional water meters, a new method of determining waterconsumption, without having to cut water pipes, is proposed.The proposed method distributes the total water consumption for an apartment complex toindividual apartments according to distribution meters, measuring water run-time, in eachapartment. The water run-time is estimated by measuring the water pipe?s outward vibrationsand temperature changes.A test environment was established and a prototype built, using a tilt- and vibration sensor forvibration sensing and a precision temperature sensor to measure temperature changes. As bothsensors work well in the test environment, further testing was done in 3 apartments for aduration of 5 days.

Worldwide consumption of cheese has increased over the years. The average Swede consumes somewhere around 20 kilograms of cheese per year, which is an increase of a 100 % over the past 50 years. One of the most popular kinds of cheese during the past decades is mozzarella, due to its? use as pizza cheese. Flavor and consistency differ between the traditional kind, made out of buffalo?s milk, and the industrially made kind, made out of cow?s milk.

Research in solar energy is taking big steps in both solar heating and solar electricity. It´s not only the technologies alone, but also the combination of both solar electricity and solar heating which is what is called a solar hybrid. The idea of a solar hybrid is that a solar cells efficiency decrease with increased temperature and can with help from a solar collector be cooled and the heat can be utilized. This thesis report compares heat production and electricity production with respect of, in first hand, a solar hybrids geometry in the cooler. The theory chapter describes solar heating and how different solar cell technologies work and their environmental impact at the production and how compatible these technologies are for the solar hybrid.

Conqueror for Indigo is production treated with an active chemical to maximize the ink adhesion.ArjoWiggins has found that another chemical, the candidate compound, would improve the propertiesof the paper. ArjoWiggins therefore wish to replace the current compound. To strengthenthe patent requirements for ink adhesion needs to be determined. A theory is developed to whychemicals with certain properties maximize the ink adhesion. Experiments are performed but theresults are inaccurate.