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.

Ett par år in på 2000-talet präglas företagen av större marknader, globalisering och ökat fokus på IT. Mycket pengar går åt till resor världen över när man öppnar kontor, besöker fabriker eller utökar sina marknader. Man arbetar i globala team och utnyttjar kunskaper och erfarenheter som andra kulturer har. När lågkonjunkturen kommer får man tänka om, och man drar ner på både personal och resor. Hur fungerar det när man måste fortsätta sitt arbete men inte får resa som man gjort förut? Går det att fortsätta i vanlig ordning? Vad händer när man nu inte kan träffa sina kollegor, mötas och interagera som man brukade göra?Enligt Nationalencyklopedin har vi en inre drivkraft att kommunicera, att göra oss förstådda och att interagera med andra människor.

Japan is the first industrialized country that is experiencing the threat of a rapidly declining and aging population. This has shifted the focus and the limelight is now on the matter that for a long time has been ignored. That is, the Japanese women?s situation in the society. This thesis seeks to point out the relevance of gender in the construction of leadership in order to get a deeper understanding of the Japanese women?s situation today.

It is well known that small businesses and entrepreneurs in the initial phase has difficult to gain access to external capital and bank loans. With the background of the problems that entrepreneurs face when they ask for capital has since the financial crisis the phenomenon of crowdfunding developed and evolved. Crowdfunding is an alternative source of funding for entrepreneurs to fund their ideas through small or medium-sized capital contribution from a larger amount of investors, often investors who have any kind of relationship with the entrepreneur or to the very idea. This study examined the factors that motivate and guide an investor's decisions when they select their projects. The results of the study show that the motives of the various existing forms of crowdfunding is big.

This thesis focuses on interaction in netbased education. The purpose being to increase awareness about what promotes interaction in netbased education through understanding and categorizing the students? opinions . My method is qualitative with a phenomenographic approach. I have conducted a netbased survey with 21 respondents who have completed a netbased course. Further I have followed up and chatted with 7 of the respondents in the survey.

The foundation for this thesis lies in whether or not, and how, the body representation in printed commercials, specific products directed to the body (shampoo, body lotion etc.), has changed during the last fifty years. Four years have been chosen because of the changes in society that we believe might have had an impact. The commercials that have been picked out are the ones that best represent the general view of the body. We have found that the changes when it comes to body presentation has followed the social development to a certain degree, but it is difficult to say how much the society has had an affect on the body ideal in advertising. Representations of the male body is something that has escalated since the early 70?s, fifteen years earlier few commercials was made with male models, and the few there were, never showed more than the face.

In the growing concern for the state of the environment more tools are being integrated in the decision-making processes. Sweden actively makes use of environmental impact assessment (EIA), which is supposed to minimise negative impacts of a project, policy or plans on the environment. The EIA process in Sweden still requires certain improvements to be more efficient. In this study actor interaction was analysed with trust being the framework for analysis. The aim is to find out whether it is possible to use trust as a framework for analysis since trust research is very discipline dependent.

Business is changing and so are society?s expectations. Companies are expected to take responsibility for their trade and the context they are operating in, by looking at socially, economically and environmentally aspects. Many companies handle it by implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) to their line of action. This is often handled by collaborating with other organisations, such as non-governmental organisations.

The purpose of the study is to explore preschool teachers experiences of how immigrant parents become involved in the preschool activities and how their linguistic and cultural background appears in relation to participation.The survey was conducted through individual interviews with eight preschool teachers working in various multicultural preeschools.The results of this survey shows that the preschool teachers perceive that parents with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds are reluctant to participate in various forms of cooperation, such as parent meetings. Preschool teachers believe that the lack of parental participation depends on the parents linguistic and cultural backgrounds, such as different approaches to understand the pre-school educational activity or the view of parenting, and other things such as language difficulties.Another result reveals also a great lack of written methods, because teachers sometimes face difficult dilemmas. To seek itself the right approach in a current situation can be both difficult and time consuming, therefore, the preschool teachers wish that there were already complete methods for use..

Intangible feelings of sorrow and grief, caused by events like separation, death, loss and trauma, all leave some kind of traces in us and they play an important role in our development. The individualistic society here in Sweden has shaped us to keep our feelings inside and at bay; since our childhood we have learnt that showing emotions like tears, sorrow and sadness are signs of weakness and can make others and yourself feel uncomfortable. With the starting point from my own experience and understanding of how we can deal and handle grief, I take a closer look on how jewelry, objects and rituals can be of importance in a grieving process and our lack of visual outer display of grief in today?s society. Through Sara Ahmeds theory I found a new possible way of understanding emotions and how they shape us.

In my degree project I have focused on how to make it easier for ambulance personnel to remove a motorcycle helmet after an accident. During my research I have interviewed ambulance personnel from different cities and a trauma surgeon to get a better understanding of how they work today and the problems they experience. Some of the problem areas are that you need a lot of force to remove the helmet, that the padding catches the ears and that the chin guard catches the face. Since ambulance personnel always assume that there is a neck injury after an accident, all these problems make it difficult to remove the helmet safely.The result is a motorcycle helmet with a focus on safe removal after an accident, to reduce the risk of worsening a neck injury. The solution suggested is that a small part of the back of the helmet is detachable, to make the opening larger.

The purpose with this study was to examine six caseworkers and two clients? experiences of interaction in the investigative work of social assistance. Moreover, how the interaction between caseworkers and clients are affected by the structure of the social assistance unit. The study also wanted to show how interaction rituals contribute to the change in assessment procedure in the investigative work. The study even aimed to highlight the ways in which social exclusion occurs in investigative work from caseworkers and client?s capital and gender.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate some aspects of teaching environmental issues, as they are manifested in another culture. In this paper, I will discuss how you teach environmental issues, how the teaching environment is formed, and what an environmental issue means to a South African teacher, as well as, if there are any cultural aspects to what an environmental issue is. Seven observations were made and qualitative interviews with four teachers teaching Life Science in Cradock, South Africa - The results showed that these South African teachers, independent from each other, followed a similar pattern in their teachings. These patterns contain gathering information concerning environmental issues in the immediate surroundings, as well as using the text book and teaching environmental issues through lectures. It was not possible to draw a conclusion about the cultural aspects in association to environmental issues.

 This essay is about how the educators can use the play as a tool to develop childrens social skills with eachother. The work is based on a qualitative study using a survey, where the educators can tell how they work within the play. I chose to use five different participants in my essay. All of them work in the same preschool, south of Stockholm.In this essay I have two questions. These two are:What do the educators tell about the importance of play for children's interaction?How do the educators tell how they work with the play to develop the children?s social interaction?Previous research shows that play gives the children opportunity to develop socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically.

Sociala nätverk, eller så kallade communityn är ett fenomen som fått större betydelse idag och snabbt spridit sig runt om i världen. Communityn Facebook har blivit känd för att den samlar många användare och har en god målgruppskännedom, vilket gör Facebook till en attraktiv marknadsföringsplats som har uppmärksammats av en rad olika företag och organisationer.Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka vilka möjligheter och begränsningar Facebook har som marknadsföringskanal, samt undersöka svenska företag och organisationers användning av Facebook i sin marknadsföring. Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ metod och vår uppsats bygger på en empirisk studie, med material från ett antal informant-, samt respondentintervjuer. Frågorna har kretsat kring vad våra informanter och respondenter anser kännetecknar Facebook, deras erfarenheter av Facebook som marknadsföringskanal, samt deras åsikter om Facebook som marknadsföringskanal i framtiden. För att få bästa möjliga svar på våra frågor ansåg vi att vi behövde intervjua personer med kunskaper om Facebook från både ett utifrån och ett inifrånperspektiv.Resultatet från vår undersökning visar att marknadsföring på Facebook inbjuder till stor kreativitet hos företagen och organisationerna.