In a time when milk producing farm businesses face decline in profitability it is of great importance to examine how the situation can be improved. This thesis is a study off efficiency in milk producing farm businesses represented by Swedish, Dutch and German farms. The aim of this study is to investigate whether any differences exist between companies in these countries. Moreover, the study includes a mapping of a number of factors that determine how efficient milk production can be managed. This mapping is based on a literature review on prior efficiency studies followed by qualitative interviews with milk production advisors as well as a questionnaire sent out to dairy farmers in Sweden.

Rising energy prices and higher energy demands have led to an increased focus on energy efficiency, in particular in the real estate business, where high potential for energy savings exists. Within the next few years, buildings that were constructed in the sixties and seventies will be in need of renovation. One of the challenges of these renovations will be to improve energy efficiency. A real estate company that is facing this challenge is Uppsalahem AB, based in the city of Uppsala, Sweden. This study focused on analyzing energy efficiency measures when renovating old buildings.

The study examines how efficiency and effectiveness are measured in charity organizations in Sweden. The rules of Svensk Insamlingskontroll, Årsredovisningslagen and Bokföringslagen make up the accounting framework upon which efficiency and effectiveness are measured in charity organizations. The study is based upon interviews with the sector's main actors: Svensk Insamlingskontroll, Frivilligorganisationernas insamlingsråd, auditors and the charity organizations themselves. The interviews are supplemented by studies of the guidelines issued by Svensk Insamlingskontroll. Today's measure of efficiency is the percentage of a charity organization's income that benefits their goals, called nyckeltalet.

Although Lean has received an increased amount of attention in the service context, research still has not established how successfully Lean manages to increase service productivity; since service productivity consists of both efficiency and quality. Research regarding productivity discusses the risk of a tradeoff between efficiency and quality in service production processes. Therefore, this thesis aims to explore if the tradeoff in a production setting with low variability in demand and low customer participation exists, after Lean has been implemented. With a qualitative approach, a case study has been conducted at Scandinavian Airlines Ground Handling to evaluate the effects of Lean in the baggage handling process. The result of the study shows that the tradeoff has not been overcome; efficiency has increased at the expense of quality.

In a time when milk producing farm businesses face decline in profitability it is of great importance to examine how the situation can be improved. This thesis is a study off efficiency in milk producing farm businesses represented by Swedish, Dutch and German farms. The aim of this study is to investigate whether any differences exist between companies in these countries. Moreover, the study includes a mapping of a number of factors that determine how efficient milk production can be managed. This mapping is based on a literature review on prior efficiency studies followed by qualitative interviews with milk production advisors as well as a questionnaire sent out to dairy farmers in Sweden.

The report is about efficiency of a current production group where there is no clear production flow and there are some buffers between the operations. The efficiency is done with the help of a tool that is calledWork process of flow production which is used by Atlas Copco CTO. The most obviously results are that the lead time drops from 25 hours to 425 minutes and that the balancing loss decreases from 85 % to 8 %. The report focus on decreasing transports, decreasing buffers, more reliability in lead time and quality. And a more stimulating labour content for the workers is another result..

This thesis investigates how the level of implementation of New Public Management affects an organization?s efficiency. According to theory, a high level of implementation leads to a more efficient organization. This thesis is based on two case studies conducted on two units within Stockholms Stad. One of the units shows a high level of implementation of NPM and a high level of efficiency.

In recent decades, demands has emerged that the companies shall take a greater social responsibility for the impact that they have on their environment and that this impact shall be reported, which is known as Sustainability Reporting. The Sustainability Report is based on a number of general principles that ensure the content and the quality of the Sustainability Report. One of these principles is the principle of completeness. In the research, this principle seems to have been interpreted in terms of number of reported aspects and indicators, which can be a limited view where only the existence of the aspects and indicators is observed. By including the degree of the reporting in terms of full, partial and no reporting as well as a comparison between the real and the alleged reporting, our intention is to extend the principle of completeness and to develop a tool that we also apply through an empirical survey in a particular area.

This study has a double purpose. First, it explores and maps out the use of quantitative key indicators in social performance reporting within a microfinance portfolio. This was done on behalf of Storebrand Asset Management, who would like to aggregate and report the social results of their microfinance investments to their customers. The study concludes that the extent of social reporting and types of indicators used varies, meaning that it is hard to aggregate data for use in further reporting. Thus, the work towards the goal of social reporting has only just begun.

The world's natural resources are constantly being reduced, which increases the pressure on companies to actively engage themselves in environmental activities. Meanwhile, stakeholders focus is being broadened and it is now important not only to supply a particular product or service but also show that they are actively pursuing an environmental agenda. Companies can use various tools to aid in environmental efforts, but also to demonstrate to the world that the company is actively engaged in environmental activities. One such tool is the environmental standard ISO14001 which provides the company with guidance and support on how the business must manage its environmental efforts. To show a business' progress in environmental performance, it is advantageous to use environmental performance indicators as they enable stakeholders to easily understand how the business works with environmental issues.Authors in the field explain that the environmental management system propagation is limited in service organizations.

The research regarding the six day war and the aerial operations named Operation Moked is extensive but there are certain shortcomings in the research that examines both the operation and the principle of surprise.The aim of this paper is to contribute to this research by utilising existing military theories on the principle of surprise in order to identify indicators that are representative of surprise.  These indicators are thereafter used in a study of Operation Moked in order to examine the extent of in which the principle was utilised.The result of this research goes to show that the principle of surprise was utilised in great extent by Israel during Operation Moked..

According to many scholars America's soft power is in decline, a power resource whose importance has been increasing in world politics. This makes it interesting to examine if there is a difference between how Democratic and Republican administrations wield their soft power.This thesis is a hypothesis-testing study and the purpose is to test the hypothesis that Democratic administrations, to a greater extent than Republican, can create, utilize and defend soft power. My thesis is based on Joseph Nye's theory of soft power and the focus of this study is the aspects of the foreign policy resources. In order to measure this concept I have made my own operationalization where five different indicators serve as my guidance. I use the method of least likely-cases to select and motivate the administrations being tested, which gives me a comparative study of the Democratic administrations of Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton and the Republican administration of George H.

The objective of this study is to determine if and how Swedish businesses measure the efficiency of their purchasing departments.In this study I have interviewed six medium to large successful companies and asked them· Which ratios they use to measure the efficiency of their purchasing departments· Why they use these ratios and· How the results of these measurements are usedI can conclude that although there are no ratios or other measurements that directly measure the efficiency of purchasing indirect measures do exist.The measures applied are usually the result of demands from management and the results are reported back to management and used to follow development within a particular field of purchasing. Benchmarking, especially external benchmarking, is unusual..

In this thesis a possible cost effective runner change of some of the units in the hydroelectric power station Olidan is investigated. The possibility to drive a unit at the same efficiency point through a change of the turbine shaft speed and the rate of discharge is tested. Furthermore the theories behind model testing, determination of efficiency increase from model to prototype and efficiency measurements shall be discussed and analyzed with Olidan as a starting point.A predicted curve has been built on information from model tests and field measurements on the existing runners and runner data from the test of the new model. The predicted curve shows the difference in efficiency between an existing runner and a modern one. It is the difference in efficiency that is used in the calculations that are to show whether changing to a pair of new runners will be cost effective or not.

This quantitative study explores how employee perceived efficiency within customer service is affected by standardized routines, digital tools, and motivational factors. The study is based on survey data collected from 42 employees across five customer service departments in a larger organization. The theoretical foundation integrates Weber?s bureaucracy theory, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), and the Job Characteristics Model (JCM), allowing for a multidimensional analysis to capture the employees' experiences of efficiency. Findings reveal a statistically significant positive relationship between perceived efficiency and both standardized routines and perceived digital tool usefulness and ease of use. Furthermore, the study identifies that skill variety and task significance are positively correlated with experienced meaningfulness, which indicates a potential mediating relationship between these motivational aspects and perceived efficiency.