Abstract The increased focus on social capital theory has made its way into labour economics. This has led to the creation of a vast literature about the use of networks and informal search methods in the labour-market, a literature that to some extent also deals with immigrants search behaviour and their relatively high unemployment rate. Characteristic for the literature in the area is the lack of analysis of actual networks. Which types of contacts do these networks contain; how are the networks used in the labour-market; and which type of network generates a high amount of social capital. These questions are important for the general understanding of how social capital functions, within the labour-market, but also for the understanding of how immigrants use their networks in order to find themselves jobs.

This thesis uses ten years of data to examine the underlying drivers behind changes in the taxi price, specifically we look at the relationship between the taxi price and changes in the underlying costs. We use a two-step error correction framework to investigate how changes in costs affect prices in the long run as well as in the short run. We also study if the price adjustment process is asymmetric. Furthermore, we examine if price discrimination exists on the taxi market in Stockholm. We find that in the long run the pass-through effect is almost complete, whereas in the short run prices are considerably less sensitive to cost changes.

This field study examined how elderly and cognitively disabled people used and experienced a social companion robot. The following pages explores the questions: Which are the physical, social and affective qualities during the interaction? The aim was to through observations see how qualities of interaction could activate different forms of behavior. The results show that motion, sound and the eyes together created communicative and emotional changes for users who felt joy and were willing to share the activity with others. The robot stimulated to some extent users to create their own imaginative experiences but often failed to involve user or group for a long time and was also considered too large and heavy to handle..

The results from 13 interviews and one opinion poll answered by resident physicians were interpreted as stories about identity as primary material for this thesis. The resident physicians stress the importance of considering whether their work primarily concerns curing people from diseases or if the process of working with sick people also includes how to handle the pressure of work, either by adapting to it or changing it, and the search for balance between work and private life. Residents separate themselves from older physicians by saying that younger physicians accentuate empathy to a greater extent while older physicians emphasise a high work load. Identity seems to effect how the residents perceive and relate to their work, themselves as residents and different types of patients..

This thesis investigates young people's (16-21) preferences in reading through a surveyincluding interviews and questionnaires. The groups attitudes towards reading and libraries,their reading and library habits, and to what extent eight libraries had bought the preferredliterature were also examined.Some reports from the 80's were used to find the changes. The result shows that youngstersread and visit libraries somewhat more frequently. Trivial literature is not as dominant, moreteenage-books were read. Popular themes are love, history, reality, fantasy/sf, and detectivestories.

The focus of this master thesis is the library politics of the French Right wing party the National Front and the debate that followed the application of this politics. This qualitative study is divided into two parts where the critics to this politics represents one side and the adherents the other. The critics are composed by representatives from the French, Swedish and ? to some extent ? international library sector, while the adherent side is made up of politicians from the National Front and their adherents. The empiric material mostly consists of articles published in library, Right wing and daily press.

Purpose: To analyze and clarify differences between indie and major labels in the use of and attitude towards the Internet as a marketing and distribution channel.Method: In this study, we use mostly qualitative but also quantitative methods. Representatives from four record labels, two indie and two major labels have been interviewed, and we have also examined the companies? activities on the Internet.Conclusions: This study points to a number of differences between indie and major labels. Indie labels are generally more open to business development and innovation. As for marketing, indie labels make use of web services such as Myspace and Facebook to a greater extent than major labels.

Companies today face more and more demands from society and stakeholders. It is no longer about just satisfying shareholders, sales and making a profit. Consumers are becoming more aware of products effects and the consequences it has on humans, our environment and the generation ahead of us. NGO:s and society request that companies take responsibility and actions toward a more sustainable business. Many investors analyze companies? sustainability regarding social and environmental issues when it comes to choosing a company to invest in.

För företag inom logistik och lager är kostnadseffektiva och pålitliga logistiklösningar viktiga faktorer. Inleverans till lager, plock från lagerhylla, pack till kolli samt leverans till slutkund är exempel på logistiska aktiviteter och ständigt pågår förbättringsarbeten för att kostnadsoptimera och säkerställa att rätt artikel lagras, plockas och levereras på ett säkert och optimalt sätt.Denna examensrapport redovisar en heuristisk metod för att kostnadseffektivt och säkert plocka och packa läkemedel. Systemlösningen för metoden är implementerad och i drift på två av KD Pharmas läkemedelslager i Sverige. Metoden kan härledas från två klassiska, datalogiska problem som var för sig är lösbara med kända algoritmer men som i kombination är ett komplext problem som endast ger lösningar genom iterativa metoder. I akademiska sammanhang brukar dessa två problem kallas ?Traveling Salesman? respektive ?Binpacking?, det vill säga problemlösningar som syftar till att finna kortast väg genom ett nodnät och effektivt packa stycken i boxar.

The purpose of this essay is to examine which factors that influence the design of internal control in municipal context and how well it works. We choose seven municipals, where we interviewed the administrative managers, the chairmen of the committees and two persons of the staff in each activity unit. The interviews were performed by telephone, due to the keeping of the essay?s timeframe.The theory in our essay comprises eight hypotheses. These hypotheses were operationalised into different variables aiming to make statistical tests possible.

The purpose of this thesis was to illuminate how companies work with their brand identity and particularly how it is applied in their positioning. The empirical data has been collected through interviews with two companies in Sweden working with brand identity as a stated strategy. The study shows that companies discover, develop and build their brand identity based on their core identity and core values. The core value can be strengthened through customer satisfaction surveys. In order to develop the brand identity in companies, management has to be aware of their brand person- ality, as an essentiality for survival.

The study?s purpose is to find out how important cultural competence is for the guidance of people with multicultural backgrounds. I also want to illustrate that what is seen as normal in one culture may mean something different in another culture. The study will also in some extent explore culture clashes and its problems in the guidance context. The method used in the study is qualitative and the five respondents were all practicing Muslims.

The purpose of our essay is to describe and analyse the experience of adults growing up with alcohol abusing parents and how their adult lives have been affected by this. The essay consists of both theoretical and empirical studies and we have used a qualitative method. We used a semi structured interview where we interviewed eight persons. We used symbolic interaction to analyse the collected data. The result is to a large extent consistent with previous research.

This thesis investigates the effect of profit growth and profitability on market capitalization amongst Nordic companies during the turbulent period 1997-2005. Our results suggest that profitability have a significant impact on market capitalization for six of the nine years studied, whereas profit growth does not seem to affect market capitalization. Consequently, our results imply that the effect of other factors on share price performance may be greater than previously suggested. These findings are only partly in line with theories on corporate valuation which suggest that market capitalizations are to a great extent driven by both profit growth and capital returns, regardless of whether the stock market is particularly unstable..

Studies show that activity based costing (ABC) is not widespread in practice even though it has been present in the academic world since the 80's. This thesis examines the reasons for the discrepancy between theory and practice through a case study of a Swedish manufacturing company. The intension is to answer the question of what contributes to the choice of precision in product costing.We found arguments for increasing precision in product costing but not to the extent of a full-scale ABC implementation. The company's estimation of the value of increased precision. In the study three company unique factors were isolated that affected the company's estimation of value; drifting purpose of product costing, historical use of product costing and knowledge about product costing..