In this thesis, the Swedish venture capital market and its profitability is analyzed. Venture capital is defined as capital that is invested in the early stages of a company's life cycle, in the two investment stages seed/start-up and expansion.A common view is that the profitability of Swedish venture capital has not been, is not and will probably not become high either. With this in mind, we try to answer to the following questions in this thesis:? What has the profitability of Swedish venture capital actually been historically?? Which reasons could be found in order to explain the historical returns for Swedish venture capital, and which factors has been identified in international comparative studies between venture capital markets?In order to answer these questions, data showing historical returns for the Swedish, European and American venture capital market has been gathered, an extensive literature study has been performed, and three interviews with participants from the Swedish venture capital market has been conducted.We conclude that the historical returns of Swedish venture capital is in line with the general view that they have been low. We also see a trend where Swedish venture capital funds that are not specialized in one investment stage generate lower returns than more specialized funds.

This master?s thesis concerns the performance of professional children?s theatre in public libraries. With qualitative interviews I have looked into how four children?s librarians and two theatre consultants appreciate professional children?s theatre, and furthermore I have looked into their view on the importance of theatre for children. My intentions have also been to investigate their views on the function and status of children?s theatre in public libraries and also the relationship between library and theatre activities for children.

Syfte: Studien har två huvudsakliga syften. Det första är att beskriva hur proxy voting sker i Sverige och i hur pass stor omfattning proxy voting förekommer. Det andra är att analysera proxy voting utifrån den teoretiska bild som finns om bolagsstyrning och ägande.Metod: Vi intervjuade nyckelpersoner i proxy voting-processen och genomförde en enkätundersökning med företag på large cap-listan.Slutsatser: Svensk bolagsstyrning är i förändring, ägare som visar upp ett nytt beteende. Det ställs krav på bättre informationssystem hos företag för att hantera proxy voting. Delade meningar om proxy voting som metod..

This master thesis aims to describe and examine Haninge cultural centre, inaugurated in 2002. We study the centre from an organization theory point of view, with focus on the buildings physical appearance. The question we want to answer is to what extent, and if, Haninge cultural centre fulfills the underlying vision, formulated by the municipality of Haninge. Is the centre the symbol of a new era of Haninge and a vivid democracy as it was meant to be? Is there a congruency between the image the building creates and the vision that was formulated by the municipality? We also seek out to see how the cultural centre relates to an older tradition of cultural centres.

Our purposes with this essay was to increase our knowledge about, and try to describe, how it happens when people get involved in gambling and becomes addictive to gambling, and what the way out of a gambling addiction could look like. Our framing of the question was: - How does gambling begin? - How does gambling evolve to an addiction and how does it go forward from there? - How do you leave a gambling addiction? Is there an experience of turning points? We did qualitative interviews with six former gamblers. Our main conclusions were that the initiation to gambling can be very different and still lead to similar effects. There seems to be a strong enticement surrounding the attributes of gambling, which are connected to developing a gambling addiction. The experiences of turning points were very palpable.

Denna uppsats beskriver och analyserar svenska konfektionsföretags ekonomistyrning med starka egna varumärken genom att studera fyra fallföretag. Företagens ekonomisystem beskrivs efter deras inbyggda statiska och dynamiska karaktär och det framkom att alla de studerade företagen har en relativt statisk styrning med fokus på budgetstyrning och mätbara mål. I uppsatsen jämförs företagen med varandra för att se få fram en branschnorm och sedan jämförs de mot teorin, detta för att se hur branschen och dess struktur påverkar företagens ekonomistyrning och hur tydligt detta är..

I denna uppsats studeras fyra individers väg ut ur olika problematiska livssituationer. Syftet är att belysa vändpunkter och uppbrottsprocesser. Möjlighetsperspektivet, vad det är som fungerar, fokuserades snarare än problembilder. Metoden var kvalitativ med halvstrukturerade intervjuer kring två teman: vändpunkter och vägen ut, i ett livshistoriskt perspektiv. Uppsatsens teoretiska perspektiv utgick från en uppbrottsmodell och ett symboliskt interaktionistiskt perspektiv.

With the introduction of the Swedish Code for Corporate Governance in December 2004, most companies listed on the major Swedish stock exchanges were required to have a nomination committee responsible for, among other things, evaluating the incumbent board and nominating new candidates. This master thesis aims at analyzing the effects of these nomination committees on institutional investors in their corporate governance, through a qualitative study of 13 interviews. We have found that institutional investors have become more active through their participation in nomination committees and that they have gained more influence over the companies in which they own shares. We believe that in reality nomination committees have more influence over the selection of the board than was intended when the Swedish Code was written..

Studiens syfte är att belysa hur de mest omsatta bolagen på Stockholmsbörsens A-lista har valt att tillämpa svensk kod för bolagsstyrning. Detta utförs genom att kartlägga eventuella avvikelser från koden samt dess motiveringar Vidare studeras samband mellan bolagens tillämpning av koden, och hur ägarstrukturen i bolagen ser ut. För att åstadkomma detta används exit- och voiceteori. Informationen har inhämtats genom en omfattande granskning av berörda bolags årsredovisningar samt bolagsstyrningsrapporter. Resultatet visar på att tillämpningen av koden varierar mellan olika bolag.

In a time when concern for the environment is a topic that is met with both love and hatred, organic goods and services become increasingly common on the market. Communication efforts with the purpose of increasing the proportion of organic products consumed are being conducted by both private and public actors. However, achieving attitudinal and behavioral change within complex areas such as this comes with many difficulties.Within public opinion change, a common way of achieving a change in behavior is to use fear appeals and scare tactics. Earlier studies have shown that messages prompting a low level of fear can be more effective than messages prompting a high level of fear, since a high level of fear tends to raise defense mechanisms in the consumer. The purpose of this essay is to examine whether fear and defense mechanisms is a problem when it comes to making consumers choose organic products, as well as studying whether messages prompting low levels of fear are more effective than those prompting high levels of fear.This quantitative study is conducted in the form of a questionnaire-based experiment, comparing the effectiveness of two messages prompting different levels of fear.

Studies show that visual elements in store have a great impact on consumers. Of all the impressions that the brain receives the visual impressions count for 83 %. One of the visual elements that retailers can use in-store to influence consumers is signs. Today, there are a lot of studies on regular signs but this is very limited when it comes to motion displays. Motion displays are signs printed on electronic paper with animated messages.

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to examine how the population living in Christiania considers their residential area in relation to the surrounding society, and why you as an individual choose to live there. We have used the qualitative method and we have performed interviews with a total of six persons. We have used Tönnies two notions regarding gemeinschaft and gesellschaft, and Goffmans theory about stigma. We choose these theories because we thought that they were most relevant for our study. Our question at issue is: Why does a person seek to live in an alternative society, with different norms in comparison to the majority society? Through our interview persons we learned their stories and their opinions considering their residential area and we concluded that Christiania differs from the remaining society in several ways.

Shaping visual stories - content in exhibitions is an essay on how content has been shaped in the two exhibitions "Memento mori" and "Hästen - tyglad, piskad, älskad". The study focuses on how exhibitions can be defined through their content as well as how the exhibitors'different intentions towards the exhibition affect the working process as well as the result. This is put in relation to theoretical models and discussions on ideals in the field of exhibition and what impels these to find an answer to the question: What makes an exhibition?.

This literature study summarizes the signals dogs use in intraspecific communication. The purpose is to clarify the way dogs communicate so that situations where their intentions are misjudged can be avoided. The signals are divided into olfactory, visual, auditory and tactile and every section starts with a short anatomic and physiologic description of the sense organ that is used to register the current signal type. The interspecific communication between dog and human regarding its development and function is brought up. To end with suggestions are given of how veterinary technicians in clinics can make use of knowledge about the way dogs communicate.

Vårt syfte med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur chefskapet förändras för verksamhetschefer i primärsjukvården i och med införandet av kundval. Vi vill även se hur man kan förbereda och utveckla verksamhetschefer i de landsting och regioner där man ska införa kundval. För att besvara uppsatsens frågeställning har vi använt oss av olika teorier om chefskap och ledarskap, Kotters teori om misstag och förberedelser vid en organisationsförändring samt Hirschmans teori om exit, voice och loyalty. Uppsatsens empiri består av intervjuer med avgångna verksamhetschefer inom primärsjukvården i Landsting Halland, en personalstrateg samt en sakkunnig person inom ämnet kundval. Empirin består även av en beskrivning av modellen Vårdval Halland..