Skivindustrin har genomgått en stor förändring de senaste åren och denna förändring har gett upphov till ett stort problem för skivbolagen: konsumenterna köper inte skivor i samma utsträckning som tidigare. Vad som har orsakat denna förändring finns det många åsikter om, likväl som det finns många förslag till vad som bör göras för att vända på den. Skivbranschen består av ett fåtal stora bolag, majorbolagen, och en uppsjö av små bolag, independentbolagen. Det som denna rapport fokuserar på är hur independentbolag bör agera strategiskt för att klara sig i den förändrade omvärlden. För att kunna reda ut detta och ge ett strategiskt förslag så behövs först independentbolagens uthålliga konkurrensfördelar identifieras.

Some MNEs encounter frustration or failures when they enter a new market. The main reason is due to a lack of adaptation. There is a lack of theoretical study about the local adaptation phenomenon of Swedish MNEs in China. Most studies are at the level of experience. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to find out the dimensions subject to local adaptation and their degree for the Swedish MNEs in China.

The Vaxholm conflict was initiated when the Swedish Trade Union for Construction Workers shut down a construction site in order to prevent a Latvian construction company to build a school after the two parties had failed to agree upon a collective agreement in compliance with Swedish regulations. An emotional public debate followed that resulted in a discussion of the proposal for the Services Directive of the EU, based upon the country-of-origin principle. In this thesis we will analyze whether the country-of-origin principle or the country-of-destination principle is best suited to capture the gains-of-trade that the common market hoards and improve welfare within the EU. We conclude that the country-of-origin principle is the more apt of the two, though it leads to some short-run costs such as structural unemployment. But these will be more than outweighed by the gains in aggregate welfare for the EU in the long run..

In Sweden plans to build high speed railways have been around since the early 1990s and the planshave developed to be more precised since. The future Swedish high-speed rail network is supposedto consist of two lines. Götalandsbanan; from Stockholm to Gothenburg, and Europabanan fromJönköping through the Öresund Region to Hamburg.The description of the aim to build high-speed railways in Sweden has in former reports always beento achieve rapid passenger traffic between big Scandinavian cities and Europe. There are almostnothing mentioned about the possibilities of high-speed transports of cargo on these railways. Thisstudy aims to clarify the freight transport market for Götalandsbanan and Europabanan.Today there is only one transport system with high-speed freight trains.

This project includes development of new packaging for dry spices and an investigation of how to automate the production line. The preliminary investigations show needs of an environmental friendly packaging possible to re-close. After screening for suitable materials three concepts were developed, a stand-up pouch, a plastic jar and a metal can. The pouch was excluded in a concept choosing process. In this process it was also decided to further develop the metal can concept.

The idea of using algae in different areas and exploring its possibilities is nothing new. Already in the early 1950s microalgae was explored as a possible food resource because of its high protein content. Lately there has been an increased interest in its potential for industrial use. Wastewater treatment is a possible use of algae since the algae grow well on the nutrients present in the water. This offers the possibility to grow algae for nutrient reduction and use the biomass for energy or animal feed since many alga species has a good nutritional value. Approximately 800-1000 m3 water is applied per 1000 m2 of greenhouse area during one season in a tomato production.

In this thesis work a Geographical Information System (GIS) based methodology to identify locations suitable for the installation of wave energy converters has been developed. Parameters of importance have been identified and a GIS-database has been set up, containing data about the marine environment. In a case study of the Swedish west coast the methodology has been applied, resulting in a number of maps showing possible areas. The results show that large areas are suitable for installation of wave energy converters, from a technical and economical point of view. When consideration is taken to other interests in the area, such as navigation, fishing and environmental protection, the size of the suitable area diminishes considerably.

The goal with this master thesis has been to evaluate and to examine the stationary resistance bridge. The resistance bridge uses a 4-point measuring to determinate the resistance, which is used in the manufacturing of the conductor. It is then used when the resistance is to be decided for coarser aluminium conductors. A conductor has to fulfil certain demands to be able to move forward in the process. One of these demands is the resistance in ohm/km, which has demands that the measure values of the resistance bridge are as true and precise as possible.

This paper aims at assessing the relationship between female and male part-time employment and the business cycle in Sweden during the years 1987?2005 using quarterly time-series data and two alternative indicators of the business cycle. It further aims at determining whether the share of women working part-time has changed over time. Key results include that the relationship between the business cycle and female part-time employment is found to be significant and countercyclical. No significant effect is however found for men.

The purpose of this study is to determine who visits the V Frölunda Library, Gothenbug,what magazines they read and why. The data presented in this thesis are collectedusing four methods: general observation and counting numbers of visitors, interviewswith 202 magazine readers, the completion of 1308 questiomaires regarding approximately350 maghes and interviews with more than 100 library visitors.The data indicates that men are significantly overrepresented among magazine readersas compared to the female visitors. These men are primarily from the white collar sectorof the community. This leads to a pronounced underrepresentation of the blue coIlarworkers. Young people visit the magazine room in the library at a rate about twice thatexpected from the population distribution.Women are primarily interested in magazines dealing with the home whereas men aremore interested in business, cars, boats and sports.

Burnt Spine-cap Sárcodon fuligíneovioláceus are one the most endangered mycorrhizal fungal species in Europe. They have their main distribution in Sweden. It form mycorrhiza with pine and dependent on limestone, which makes it connected to a rare environment. It has therefore been important to study the ecology of it further and to recognise the requirement it has on the environment more accurate and what it need to establish in a new area. In this study, 31 of 34 known sites in Sweden was visited and studied in field and their history analysed through aerial photographs.

The electric vehicle market has potential to contribute to Sweden?s national goal to have a fossil fuel independent transport sector by 2030. However, the market answers to a lot of challenges making it difficult for the market to fully reach its potential. The volume of electric vehicles has seen a steady increase during the last year (2012), although many of these vehicles are mostly for PR purposes or bought by the public sector that wants to lead by example. Still, barriers in the form of high purchase costs, an anxiety for the limited battery capacity and the lack of standardisation are some of the problems that the market is struggling to solve.

The background for my thesis is the fact that with rising electricity and oil prices it becomes interesting to calculate on alternative heating systems. I have chosen to calculate upon my parents? farm, which today heats the dwelling house with wood. This is very time-consuming work, time which could be spent on other work. The main objective for this study is to compare three different heating systems to decide how they differ considering effort and cost. The result from the calculations was that grain-heating system demanded the least amount of work, but the total cost was a little higher compared to chips heating. Chips heating required half as much work as today?s wood heating and had a little lower total costs compared with the corn heating. Which system to choose largely depends on how the own work is valued.

Approximately 400 people in Sweden die each year by lung cancer caused by radon gas. Authorities have in recent years invested big resources and organized campaigns to encourage people to take action against high occurrence of radon in residences. With low frequency of applications for radon allowances as the main measure, a lot interprets on a very low commitment. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the reasons for the low commitment among people. The study is based on a questionnaire survey sent to 444 house owners in Uppsala.

Plant nutrients are important for all life on earth and are also important as fertiliser infood production all over the world. Because of this, plant nutrients are of great valuebut they also bring problems. As an example, the loss of nitrogen and phosphorusfrom agriculture and urban society's sewage systems contributes to some of today?smajor problems in water environment. Another problem associated with plantnutrients is that finite recourses are used in the production of mineral fertilizers.