This paper investigates, through an actor-network theory perspective, how the recreation area Lo?vsta-Kyrkhamn-Riddersvik northwest of Stockholm has developed from being a dumping site into becoming a nature reserve. This investigation also tries to describe and explain which values that have been promoted in the area by the local voluntary associations and companies. Lo?vsta-Kyrkhamn-Riddersvik has been inhabited for more than 3000 years, originally with farming as the most important business.

Companies that invest in e-learning have different expectations regarding the outcome of the investment. According to literature and articles it is common that companies see reduction of costs as the primary benefit with e-learning. Therefore we ask ourselves the question if companies have attained the expected benefit of the investment in e-learning and to what extent cost reduction have been a determining factor in the investments? The purpose of the thesis is to examine if companies that invest in e-learning have attained the expected benefits. We also want to examine what the reason for investing in e-learning is and if cost reduction is the primary reason for investing. The study is founded on a qualitative method that is based on a case study in eight companies.

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate and develop a useful theory of human behavior that recognizes the importance of our emotions. The new framework, called the theory of emotional choice, is developed by a holistic method in which results from the fields of psychology, sociology and (neuro-) biology are used to mutually support the conclusions. The theory is distilled into six preliminary points, which are based on the finding that we are not thinking as logical, rational and longsighted as is often assumed. Instead the regular human thinking is suggested to be shortsighted, intuitive and ruled by our emotions and our needs for generality, causality and normality.To demonstrate the usefulness of the new framework, it is used in an analysis of financial bubbles. Additionally, the fields of negotiation, election and ethics are suggested as potentially interesting to analyze with the new theory..

The purpose of this study is to find out how teachers work with fairytales in preschools raising several questions;How would the teachers describe the literary environment at the preschools? What does theory say about the literary environment?What type of fairytales do the teachers perceive that they work with? How does theory describe these fairytales?What is the underlying purpose for teachers working with fairytales? What purposes are described in theory?My study is based on qualitative interviews conducted with three teachers working in preschool in a small town. The study is based on hermeneutic theory.  I have also used other theory to complete the study.         The teachers all see the possibility of using storytelling as a means to developing the children´ s vocabulary. Some of the teachers also use books and stories as a way of indirectly addressing ongoing personal problems.                                                                                                      The results of my study show that fairytales can be a valuable tool for personal development for children. Working with fairytales could be crucial to how children develop their curiosity and desire to learn and manage ongoing traumas in their lives.

Musical improvisation is an infinite artistic well. It helps the musician to make a personal performance and lets the music reflect the inner feelings. It is a language with which the performer can adapt the formulation to the specific situation. Yet so many have fear and respect when facing the phenomenon. In this study Dan Alkenäs discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using musical improvisation as a pedagogical method in school education.

This study aims at contributing to the studies of political implementation. The theory of implementation claims that local implementation that meets the demands of national policies is close to none existing. By examining the implementation of industrial policy in two Swedish municipalities that differs in location, prosperity and political believes I am putting the theory to the test. If the test were to show that the implementation is rather well executed in these two cases, where the risk of failure is great, the questions about whether the theory is valid or not will rise.By interviewing the two local government employees in charge of the work with industrial policy, and studying their strategic documents I got my answers. This by looking at their work but also their attitudes towards the national policy in terms of understanding the policy, being able to work with it, and wanting to work with it.

A description and analysis of the sales process of ERP systems is presented; also the consequences for the parties involved are discussed. The chosen methodological basis is an inductive research design consisting of a case study based on interviews. The analysis of the empirical data is done with a proposed analytical framework. Based on the agency theory, the analysis is tightly knitted together with opportunism. There are three controlling factors: relationships (relationship marketing), contracts (principal-agent theory), and competition.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate which the main determinants of capital structure in Swedish listed firms are and to identify which incentives lies behind managers choice of capital structure determinants. Further, the study investigates whether the Post Keynesian theory and theories which incorporate behavioral aspects can be used to explain the capital structure decisions or if the traditional Neoclassical theory give an better explanation. We have used a qualitative method to analyze the determinants of capital structure and the managers incentives behind capital structure decision. We conducted a survey which was sent to 83 Chief Financial Managers and financial executives in Swedish firms listed on Mid Cap or Large Cap. The questionnaire was on-line which enabled for the respondents to quickly and convenient respond.

In today?s World is climate change an important and hot topic. Climate scenarios for Sweden show a warmer climate, especially during the autumn, winter and spring. The same climate scenarios also show that the precipitation will increase during this part of the year, however, during the summer the opposite is expected to occur. The purpose of this essay is to examine how future climate change will affect Stockholm especially the expected increase in precipitation, which may lead to a rising level of the Lake Mälaren. During 2000/2001 was Stockholm hit by a flood. This flood nearly resulted in major consequences and showed that there were significant risks for the city of Stockholm and increasing precipitation will result in even more water in the drainage systems of Lake Mälaren. The results presented here show that it is important to increase the drainage capacity of Lake Mälaren in order to reduce the risks of flooding in the central parts of Stockholm.

Business valuation is something that is carried out on a daily basis and relevant to both small and large businesses. Valuations are often long and complex processes that may be difficult to understand, even for those who have received an education in the field. In this thesis, we try to create a better understanding of how this process works.   Since we are aware of many aspects of the theory behind business valuation, but very little insight into the practical activities, we have chosen a deductive approach, i.e. to go from theory to empirical data.   The conclusion is that the methods presented in the theory is largely used in practice, and that the process of valuation mighty seldom differ between valuations. For the seller to be able to charge a higher value for their companies, it is important to have knowledge of, and review the value-creating factors in the company.

The aim of this study is to investigate wether the participatory democracy is a threat or a complement to the representative democracy. To achieve my purpose I will focus on two different lokal councils, the civil council in Hovsjö and the youth council in Västra Skogås, which have been objects of the urban policy in 1998. The theoretical framework on which this study is based consists of the participation democratic theory, representative democratic theory and implementation theory. By problemizing these theoretical frameworks in comparison with eachother I will mapp how these two lokal councils were implemented. The research question is: In what way was the civil council and the youth council a complement or threat to the representative democracy? In which way was it difficult to implement them?The method used for this purpose is a qualitative comparative case study.

This essay deals with the topic options costs and whether such costs would arise for smaller companies now when they have the opportunity to choose not to have an auditor. Small companies are defined as companies that fulfill at least two of the following three criteria?s: less than 1,5 million SEK in balance sheet, less than three employees and turnover less than 3 million SEK. The decision regarding internal revision does not only affect the company itself but also other parties such as the taxation authority, banks and others that can be influenced by the decision. This essays main focus is on the influenced parties, especially the taxation authority and the banks as these have been highlighted in debates in media and because the small companies themselves may have difficulties to foresee the consequences of the new changes. The opinions from accounting companies will be considered in the essay as they can be considered as experts regarding the different aspect within this area.

The purpose of this master thesis is to map and analyze the appropriate valuation approaches used for Intellectual Property rights and develope a model for valuing patents. This project has been executed on behalf of Electrolux?s Group Intellectual Property and is intended to be used for managerial purposes.Project limitations include patents that doesent concern technology oriented products and services, real option methods, financial forecasts, decisions concerning patents taken by the R&D division, patent applications in general and taking into account unexpected future management decisions regarding patents.Electrolux?s Intellextual Property team applies, manages and protects the groups Intellectual Property rights including patents, designs and trademarks. With an increased globalization and the rise of emerging markets, incentives have increased further to protect and safeguard the group?s innovations.Mainly there are three different valuations approaches for valuing intellectual property rights, these include the income based approach, cost base approach and market based approach.

The demand for district heating is expected to decrease in the future, due to competition from heat pumps and energy efficiency measures in buildings. Development of existing district heating systems is therefore necessary for district heating companies to maintain market shares. This Master?s thesis describes and investigates the heat and electricity production and profitability of a combined Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) and heat pump that is integrated with an existing district heating system. The studied district heating system is utilizing heat from waste incineration. In Sweden waste constitute 20 % of the fuel mix used in district heating systems, and this share is expected to increase in the future.

Today, we can see that social navigation is embedded in different kinds of websites, but there is still little support for social navigation in the web browser. Our main concern has been how we construct a tool that fills this hole in the web browser. By letting the theory, the prototype and the focus group serve as input/output to each other we could create a better overview of how the different pieces were intertwined. This has been a crucial mental model for us to obtain since it has helped us to understand how we could realize the theory through our prototype and thereby come to the conclusion of what aspects of the theory that we should put forward to further development. After constructing the prototype we thought that it would support social navigation, but realized after analyzing the discussion of the focus group that we are not there yet.