Access to correct and updated intelligence about our environment is in an increasingly degree considered important in the private as well as in the public sector. At Mälardalens University, competitive intelligence as an area of research is closely related to Information Design - a multidisciplinary consideration which goal is to improve the receiver´s understanding of intended messages. This study was conducted in order to find out how Information Design was representedin different kinds of literature regarding Competitive Intelligence. Also, it describes the main focus areas concerning Competitive Intelligence in the same literature. Through an explorative "pearl-growing" method combined with searches through referrals, 60 different sources provide a broad basis for analysis.

A relatively new sector in the world is the one concerning social enterprises and their development. Social enterprises are enterprises that are working with social objectives, their goal is not to make as much money as possible. This essay is looking at the development in social enterprises in two countries; Great Britain and Sweden and how the employee numbers in the enterprises have changed over time. The result shows a large increase in the number of employees in the enterprises in Sweden, however the enterprises in Great Britain does show a declining number of employees. This essay also tries to examine whether a couple of external factors, taken from a series of already existing theories, are affecting the possibility of development in these enterprises.

The purpose of this paper is to perform an in-depth analysis of how New Public Management reforms have impacted management practises in two publicly financed elderly care providers in Sweden. The paper studies one public and one private elderly care provider and analyses to what extent they have implemented New Public Management methods. The results are based on interviews with several persons within the two organisations and analysed using the seven New Public Management doctrines as described by Christopher Hood (1991; 1995). The major finding in the thesis is that the level of exposure towards New Public Management reforms differs between the two studied organisations where the private provider is exposed to the reforms to a greater extent than the public. The paper concludes that the main reasons for the low extent of exposure in the public provider could be attributed to the lack of measurable standards performance as well as the proximity to the political leadership..

Denna studie undersöker vilka strategier fyra organisationer från den ideella sektorn använder sig av för att hantera sitt samarbete med staten. Studien tar sitt avstamp i Staffan Johanssons teori om hur påtvingar ideell sektorn ett homogeniseringstryck. Genom att undersöka olika egenskaper hos den ideella sektorn, såsom ideologi, ekonomiska förutsättningar och möjligheten att vara me och påverka undersöks hur organisationerna uppfattar sin roll i samarbetet. Studien visar att ideologin och de ekonomiska förutsättningarna spelar avgörande roll för hur organisationerna kan strukturera både sig själva som organisation liksom deras arbete. I relationen till staten framstår det som viktigt att resursberoendet inte är allt för ensidigt för att organisationerna skall kunna hålla på sin särart och styra sin organisation i en självvald riktning..

This report presents a thesis project at the School of Engineering, Jo?nko?pingUniversity, where the task has been to develop a proposal for a parish communitycentre for the Swedish church?s parish community in Bankeryd.Background1 st of November in 2004 the parish in Bankeryd appointed a special commissionof inquiry called Framtidsgruppen (Future Group), to analyse the parishcommunity?s different activities during the past 5 years and analyse the futureactivities and needs for the upcoming 5-10 years. This analysis would underlie theneeds of building a new centre for the parish community.Implementation, results and conclusionThe main focal points which this report is concentrated on has been to develop abuilding that is well suited for the activities, well adjusted for disabled persons andthe building shall be appealing in an architectural point of view.Based on the information provided from the parish community, studies ofliterature, reference objects and discussions with the contact person at the parishcommunity and the instructor of this project, the programming has beendeveloped. The building?s programming has been the source for the continuedwork with floor plans and the building design..

The aim of this qualitative study was to explore which inner conceptions about the abused older women the professional social workers had and how they experienced the enconter of an abused old woman in an intimate partner relation. The theoretical background is social construction by Berger and Luckmann. This theory was uset to analyze the transcribed interviews. This study is based on nine interviews with five professionals in social services, three volunteers from the voluntary sector and one social worker who worked in a community based support group for abused older women. The result of this study shows that older women were often abused, by a relative they were dependent on, in their home.

The project has been provided by Zenit design group and the goal for this project was tomanufacture and perform tests of a prototype that supersaturates water in a continuous flow ofwater. The project has involved finding and sorting out relevant data in scientific papers, books,communication with foreign manufactures and other platforms for information.The project has resulted in manufacturing of a test rig and an oxygen infuser based onmembrane technology. The test rigs purpose was to perform tests on oxygen infusers fordifferent comparison test and performance benchmarks in a in a laboratory provided by Zenit.The project led to satisfying results using the oxygen infuser manufactured by the authors withcomparable levels of saturation to the reference infuser.The theory behind this project is based on medical research, belonging terms will be explainedbut the authors have chosen to delimit the project from the medical area. The reason for this islack of knowledge in this area and its irrelevance to the mechanical engineering education insuch..

Energy-wise houses in Järinge - technical follow-up The company JM built energy-efficient houses in Tensta in Stockholm. They have built a total of 16 houses divided into two parts of A-houses and B-houses. The buildings are an attempt by JM to minimize energy-use of the buildings without affecting the comfort and living standards. The project aims to examine the data for the 16 houses on the basis of data and produce a report showing how the buildings worked through a technical perspective. JM approximates that the purchased energy will not be higher than 95 kWh/m2 per year.

This paper examines the film distribution and exhibition sector in Europe. The general analysis of these sectors? situation was made. Moreover, the comparative and more in depth analysis of three countries by the Porter?s five forces model was made; These were United Kingdom, France and Denmark.

This paper is partially a literature study of human error and interruptions and partially an investigation of pilots and Air Traffic Control. The aim of the investigation was to find out where interruptions occur and how to reduce or eliminate them. The objective of this paper was to investigate what type of interruptions pilots and ATC deals with and during which phases they occur. The paper has revealed that private pilots causes more interruptions for ATC personnel than commercial pilots. The cause for this is probably the less experienced private pilot and the fact that Swedish is used before English by private pilots in communication with ATC.

Social kompetens är ett relativt modernt uttryck som allt oftare förekommer i olika sammanhang i arbetslivet. Den offentliga sektorn har genomgått stora förändringar de senaste 20- 30 åren, och detta har bidragit till att arbetssökande nu bedöms på ett annat sätt av arbetsgivare. Numera är det mycket vanligare att en arbetssökande värderas mer efter sina personliga egenskaper än sina formella kvalifikationer. Studiens syfte är att undersöka samt ge exempel på hur förändringen inom den offentliga sektorn under de senaste decennierna har påverkat rekryteringsprocessen samt vilken roll social kompetens spelar i dagens rekryteringsförfarande inom statliga myndigheter. Undersökningens ambition är att till viss del öka förståelsen för ett av samhällsforskare redan identifierat problem, och kanske även synliggöra några av de möjliga ?dolda? funktioner som begreppet i praktiken skulle kunna fylla.

Overall aim of this master?s thesis is to describe and identify perceived barriers in Swedish businesses within solar energy field and analyze, based on four theoretical viewpoints, how these barriers can be handled. In other words how can the barriers be overcome or eliminated to better succeed in the commercialization process? The method applied is qualitative in which data has been collected through phone interviews originated from seven Cleantech businesses which operate within solar energy. Furthermore this thesis has a descriptive- and an explorative purpose.

The study was a quantitative cross-sectional study which aimed at investigating college students? eating habits in relation to the Swedish food agency dietary recommendations. The likely factors associated with eating habits and attitudes towards dietary recommendations were also investigated. Non probability sampling method was used giving rise to convinient study sample of 51 individuals (41 women and 11 men) ages 19 to 37. The participants were part of four different types of educations, Care and health, Economy, Engineering, computering and societal planning and Culture and media.

This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using different benchmarking models to measure and compare the efficiency of Swedish gas distributors. It also discusses to which extent the results of a benchmarking study should influence the revenue-cap which will be implemented in the gas distribution sector in Sweden from year 2011. The discussion is based on arguments from both theory and practical applications of benchmarking. The results suggest that benchmarking Swedish gas distributors against distributors in another country using a parametric model is most favorable, but the reliability will be increased if non-parametric models are used also. Partial and total productivity measures could be used to confirm results of other benchmarking analyses.

Denna uppsats avser att belysa frågan varför prototyper är ett viktigt verktyg i en utvecklingsprocess av ett mobilt system. Fördelar och nackdelar som verktyget kan innebära behandlas och olika tillvägagångssätt beskrivs. Arbetet med detta baseras i ett praktiskt utvecklingsprojekt på IT-kunsultföretaget Citerus. Projektuppgiften var där att genom en informationflödesanalys definiera olika flaskhalsar i informationsflödet på olika hotell för att sedan föreslå ett effektiviserande system. Projektet koncentrerades vidare på städpersonalen och deras arbete. Utifrån fortsatta studier föreslogs ett mobilt system som ger städpersonalen information för att lättare och effektivare göra sitt jobb. I flera olika forskningsdiscipliner som berör design och systemutveckling förespråkas ett utvecklingssätt med hjälp av prototyper.