Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe the situation for independent hotels. With a thorough case study of ?The Grand Hotel in Lund? ,our intentions is to gain knowledge about the demands a hotel must keep up with in order to be a successful independent hotel, in a market dominated by chain-constellations. Methodology: An abductive method is used as the study form the basis for hypothesis. The first part of the thesis, which describes the line of business, is based primary on secondary data.

Contemporary society focuses heavily on the individual and this is also characterized by an individual thinking that many people contribute to. This is furthermore shared in the field of entrepreneur research studies where a profound deal of time has been focused on the personal qualities of specific entrepreneurs. However, in modern settings today many corporations originate in a team-based structure, which therefore leads towards a different approach rather than examining exclusively on individuality. Previous research shows that entrepreneurial teams are establishing and growing at a steady pace, yet studies within this field has not developed in an extensive fashion. Entrepreneurial teams can be defined as a group of people who share a common goal, usually consisting of two or more individuals who commenced a foundation from the early stages of that specific firm and who originated an initial idea.

Sweden is described as one of the most forward-thinking countries in the world when it comes to equal opportunities, yet still management is being dominated by men. Looking at entrepreneurship and gender, the author has written four herstories about female entrepreneurs working, through enterprise, to bring about change to the male domination of top level management. The primary purpose of this master's thesis has been to look at theories on entrepreneurship/ management and gender to analyse how the entrepreneurs relate to their roles as [i] entrepreneurs, [ii] agents of change, and [iii] women. The findings show that they attach particular emphasis to their roles as entrepreneurs. As regards the work for change, being female is described as both advantageous and irrelevant, or insufficient.

Purpose: The aim is to investigate the mechanisms behind the destructive entrepreneurship in the assistance industry.Method: To investigate the destructive entrepreneurship in the assistance industry, we conducted a qualitative study in the form of semi-structured questions. In total, we interviewed four authorities and an employer organization.Theory: Theoretical framework: The study is based on Baumol's (1990) theory of productive, unproductive and destructive entrepreneurship and rent-seeking by Murphy et al (1991), but the study's principal theory that we have chosen to apply is the routine activity theory of Cohen & Felson (1979) that describes three elements that must come together in order for a crime to be committed.Conclusions and discussion: Our study shows that it is clear that there is both fraud and abuse within the assistance allowance, which can be done in different ways. Some users simulate their illness that they exaggerate their need for assistance. Some assistance providers have abused the compensation by paying lower wages and empty false wages etc. The study showed that there also exists a type of human trafficking.

Over the past few years the Åland islands have attracted growing internationalattention as an example of how to successfully secure the position of a minorityregion, and in the current situation the government of Åland has an intention toextend the efforts of spreading the example of Åland. The purpose of this essay isto shed light on the political discussion about the example of Åland, andinvestigate the underlying political reasons for emphasizing the example of Ålandinternationally. Through interviews with leading politicians on Åland I analyzeÅland as a norm entrepreneur. The research shows that besides altruism, selfinterestis a factor behind emphasizing the example of Åland. The essay showsthat the theory of norm entrepreneurship also can be applied on an autonomousarea, but instead of influencing international organizations themselves, theautonomous area use norm entrepreneurship as a tool for influencing domesticpolitics..

Entrepreneurship is said to be the missing link between knowledge and growth in the Swedish economy. New ventures run a high risk of failing and this holds true especially for technology ventures. Since company leaders have proven to exert an influence on organisations' survival possibilities, the selection of an appropriate CEO is important. The purpose of this study is to describe the importance of the CEO for ventures as well as to explain how knowledge and experience affect the opinion of who should be CEO. Using a qualitative case study research design including three life science companies, we show that there are three main factors crucial when selecting a CEO.

line of business/industry and family, to more clearly discern how male and female norms are acquired among female entrepreneurs. The purpose of this study was to gain a greater understanding and knowledge of women's conditions regarding entrepreneurship, in relation to society's norms. The study is based on a textual thematic analyses, using two themes derived from Helene Ahls ?The Scientific Reproduction of Gender Inequality. A Discourse Analysis of Research Texts on Women`s Entrepreneurship?.

Entrepreneurial failure is probably a subject that is not well understood. This might have to do with the methodological difficulties of screening out failed entrepreneurs. In this thesis a tool is developed for analyzing supposed entrepreneurial failure. In this model entrepreneurs are surrounded by different stake holders. By using the failure deconstruction model to analyze my own entrepreneurial effort I find that it has neither been a successful project nor a disastrous one.

The invisible entrepreneurship is a study of owners of businesses with foreign heritage. It describes the unexplored relationship between ethnicity and class within this group of entrepreneurs.The result of the study is a model which I have found to be suitable to use when depicting the relationship between the ethnic profile and class. The model indicates that the importance of ethnicity decreases as both the owner of, and the business reach a more prominent class. The method of collecting data has been interviews with owners of businesses and Grounded theory has been used to analyse this data. Theories on ethnicity, owners of businesses with foreign heritage, and class in relation to ethnicity have been discussed on the basis of social constructivism.

Entrepreneurship is a subject of growing attention, especially within public policy, media and research. Many studies have been done, but the subject of entrepreneurial exit has to a large extent been ignored. The aim of this study has been to investigate how entrepreneurs at an early stage in their career think about exit within a near future, and what factors influence their attitude towards exit. The study was conducted through a survey answered by 253 entrepreneurs active within business incubators in Sweden. Based on previous research on entrepreneurial intentions, a model of exit intentions was developed, and tested against several other factors.

Entrepreneurial firms face unique challenges in attracting and acquiring human resources due to difficulties associated with resource constraint and organization legitimacy, often described as liabilities of "smallness" and "newness". The aim of this paper is to examine the "smallness" and "newness" challenges met by small entrepreneurial firms, which strategies they apply to counter these challenges, and if these strategies can be explained by the firm's HR philosophy. Since few studies on Human Resource Management (HRM) in small entrepreneurial firms exist, a framework combining theory from the research fields of HRM, entrepreneurship and small firms has been developed. Employing a qualitative case study design of five small Swedish entrepreneurial firms, our findings demonstrate four "smallness" and "newness" challenges and seven strategies that either counteract or prevent them. Furthermore, results showed that the strategies applied seemed to have no significance with regards to the firm's HR philosophy.

From autumn 2008 Sweden has reinstalled the Special Education Needs teacher education. For future special education teachers and active teachers in the field, it is important to know the history and be aware of future visions to create a good role for the Special Education Needs teachers. This study examines attitudes towards special education and Special Education Needs teachers amongst school principals and classroom teachers at seven schools in Umeå municipality. School principals were interviewed, and a survey was handed out amongst the selected General Education teachers. From this it appears that school principals have a picture of special needs education and Special Education Needs teachers' work that corresponds well with the objectives of the school's governing documents.

This study is about the female entrepreneur in rural areas in Sweden. Five women were interviewed with the aim to examine their way of living (livsform), their motivation, what significance it is to be a woman in business and how female entrepreneurs can be encouraged to start their own business. The conclusions : ? The women in this study live an independent life , but the their way of life (livsform) has changed during their life ? Female entrepreneurship can be promoted trough greater knowledge of the female business, better advice to the entrepreneurs, more networking groups and reducing bureaucracy. ? The driving forces for the women is to do what they like and are interested in, at the same time as they have time for the family and children. They also like to work in the rural areas. ? Female entrepreneurship can be promoted through greater knowledge of female businesses in the community, by creating virtual meeting places such as networking groups and mentor groups on internet.

The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of teacher´s motives to engage in outdoor education in their teaching. A qualitative approach through interviews was used and a total of eight teachers were interviewed. The result showed that there were several motives to engage in outdoor education. These motives were divided into three main categories which were: to engage in outdoor education from teacher`s interest, to engage in outdoor education based on teacher`s perceptions of children's needs and to engage in outdoor education based on external factors..

Being able to reflect, evaluate and justify your views is an important part of adult life. Moral education can be a path to develop this knowl-edge; however, it is possible that the moral education gets more obscure when it is not a separate subject. The purpose with this essay is to examine the need of moral education and the presence and the framing of moral education of seven teachers in religion. The purpose is also to analyse where and how the moral education should be included in the curriculum. The survey was conducted through qualitative interviews with a hermeneutic approach.