Several studies have investigated the relationship between different measures of innovative activity, such as patent statistics and R&D expenditures and some have looked deeper into the differences between large and small firms regarding number of patents issued per employee or per R&D dollar. In this paper, the objective is to find out if there are any indications of a barrier to entry (due to economical factors, lack of knowledge etc) for small firms to get into the field of patent handling. The approach is to first set up a hypothesis based on some simple assumptions about how firms would make decisions about whether to apply for a patent or not and thereafter use econometric methods in an empirical investigation. The data used for this study are figures on number of employees, number of patents granted and R&D expenditures for the Swedish firms in the pulp and paper industry. The main conclusion is that, based on the analysis of the data from this rather limited group of firms, no such barrier can be seen..

The purpose of this thesis is to construct a marketing model to be used both theoretically and practically when working with marketing in Swedish public libraries. This objective is achieved by first making a literature review of the written works on the marketing of libraries, and then studying the marketing activities at the public library in Bollebygd, Sweden. The theory is based on the marketing mix model the 7 ps, which serves as a framework for the presentation of the empirical result and the analysis. One of the questions posed in the beginning of the paper is how the library has worked with marketing over the past ten years. Through a combination of methods observation, textual studies and interviews the marketing activities employed at Bollebygds library are noted.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the underlying motifs leading to the decision to appoint a supplemental liquidity provider and how they vary between companies. As the first study of its kind to take on an internal company perspective, the goal was to broaden the knowledge base of the field and lay ground for further studies. The study has been conducted by interviewing companies providing the service, their customers and the stock exchanges which they are traded on. The results show that there are two main motifs for appointing a liquidity provider, 1) Creating conditions for increased trade and 2) Improving the pricing of the stock. There was also a supplemental group 3) Other motifs consisting of the observations that would not fit in any of the main categories.

LRF Konsult AB is a Swedish company with over 135 offices. During the time 2006-01-01 to 2008-06-16, 397 persons were recruited. New people will continue to be employed and because of that a need for consistant information for the recruits has been noted. The essay question is what a handbook should include to guide a newly recruited person. The newly recruited person that is referred to works at LRF Konsult AB with farming companies. The answer to the question is that it depends on the needs the employee has.

This report aims to provide an insight into the particle physics of today, and into the research that goes on within the field. The focus is partly on the recent discovery of the Higgs boson, and partly on how software can be used to simulate processes in particle accelerators. Basic concepts of particle physics and the search for the Higgs boson are discussed, and experimental results, including those from the Large Hadron Collider, are compared with simulations made in MadGraph 5. Furthermore, simple new models of particle physics are created in FeynRules, in order to make simulations based on the models. To support the presentations of these aspects, some of the underlying theory is built from the ground up.

This report aims to provide an insight into the particle physics of today, and into the research that goes on within the field. The focus is partly on the recent discovery of the Higgs boson, and partly on how software can be used to simulate processes in particle accelerators. Basic concepts of particle physics and the search for the Higgs boson are discussed, and experimental results, including those from the Large Hadron Collider, are compared with simulations made in MadGraph 5. Furthermore, simple new models of particle physics are created in FeynRules, in order to make simulations based on the models. To support the presentations of these aspects, some of the underlying theory is built from the ground up.

The purpose of this study was to examine how the authorities in Sweden collaborate when it comes to discourage trafficking for sexual purposes. More specifically the aim was to find which directives and problems the work of the individual authorities constitute in and how does it affect collaboration with other authorities. The study was based on interviews with six respondents, which have experience working within this field. Three themes were identified: what is collaboration, different perspectives, regulatory frameworks and different fundamental values within the organisations. The study concluded that collaboration is affected by several factors such as the absence of knowledge about trafficking for sexual purposes and the laws which regulate confidentiality, difficulties in defining collaboration as a concept and the authorities different ideas about what have to be done in the context of discouraging trafficking for sexual purposes.

The aim of this study is to examine educationalists experiences of play as an educational toolin the work to promote the social development in children with autism.The relevant issue, for this study, is: In what way does an educationalist work with play withchildren with autism? What are the results of using play in the educational work? What arethe possibilities and what are the obstacles in using play in educational work?This study has been carried out as a study of literature in the field and qualitative interviewswith five educationalists that are working in a mid Swedish county.The result of the study shows that educationalists have a positive view of using play in theirwork and are using play in varying ways in their everyday work. Using play as a method intheir work always happens according to the ability and condition of the child. They (theeducationalists) think that play has great opportunity and advance as a method and gives thechildren joy, increase their sense of ability, the base for the social participation in play, andthe development of social skills.There is a certain hesitation among educationalists when it comes to using play as a methodfor children with autism , but the most of the educationalists consider play as promoting thesocial development although the development always will happen at the pace(rate)of thechild..

All companies wants? to be as profitable as possible. The company in question is one of the leaders in it´s field in Sweden. In order to increase profits as much as possible it is important to identify and eliminate eventual quality defect cost as far as possible.This study was performed in Huddig AB, and the purpose of this study is to try to develop a routine for monitoring the quality defect costs, and to improve communication and create feedback between production and aftermarket.In addition to an extensive literature review on quality defect costs most of the work have been conducted at the company. Own observations and interviews have been done with the staff to get a picture of the current situation and to try to come up with improvement proposals.During the study it was proved that much of the quality defect costs in essence, derived from the production, which is seen as positive because it is the easiest part of the company to improve.

The purpose of this essay is to review Mundekulla, which is a small, relatively newly established Swedish company operating in the field of conferences. Today they are serving ecological and environmental friendly food to their customers and we choose to investigate if this is a successful concept by asking the customer?s opinions. Our task is to analyze and understand how this company can develop a stronger concept regarding their conference area. This essay will also focus on trends and how the ever changing world can affect Mundekulla in the future.

Data sets are continuously increasing within organizations. Data sets will also be in larger amounts,have shorter lifetime, is becoming more varied and holds various degrees of uncertainty. Together,these dimensions are included in the term Big Data. There is no universally accepted definition ofBig Data and how it should be used. Applications that turn out to be part of a Big Data conceptoften begin as investments in an organization in order come to new insights or create new businessperspectives.

The aim with this project was to investigate how research grants in Sweden are distributed inthe selected fields; natural science, medicine and life science. Our client Olink producesdetection kits for biomarkers and our goal with this study was to give an indication of apossible new market area for their products. Three foundations were included in the study;VINNOVA, Vetenskapsrådet (Swedish Research Council) and Stiftelsen för strategiskforskning (Swedish foundation for strategic research). Nearly a thousand research grantswere analysed which included a total of 4,92 billion Swedish kronor. Seven selecteduniversities were contacted; Chalmers tekniska högskola, Karolinska Institutet, Kungligatekniska högskolan, Linköpings universitet, Lunds universitetet, Sverigeslantbruksuniversitet, Uppsala universitet.

This report is a thesis work for a B.Sc. in Forestry exam at the School for Forest Engineers, SLU. The aim of the work was to compare fuel consumption during work in practical field conditions with a standardized method developed by Skogforsk (The Forestry Research Institute of Sweden), (Brunberg, 2005) for harvesters and forwarders from different manufacturers and of different sizes in order to promote the development of more fuel efficient machines. Two studies were carried out. - Statistics of fuel consumption were collected. - An inquiry was sent out in order to get more detailed information of different aspects influencing the fuel consumption. The studied machines were divided into two classes, large machines (> 150 kW), and average size machines (100 ? 150 kW), and of the manufacturer Timberjack and Valmet. Our results shows a 15 % lower fuel consumption for average size harvesters and an 8 % higher fuel consumption for large harvesters compared with Skogforsks model.

The study was conducted with an landscape approach with an subject related approach in the field of environmental psychology to investigate how road design affects drivers' choice of speed. The purpose was to portray road environments on thoroughfares in urban areas to motivate motorists to keep the speed limit and thus increase road safety for vulnerable road users. The task question was formulated, how can thoroughfares in suburban settings be portrayed to motivate motorists to reduce speed? The study was conducted throughout a literature review of motivational speed measures along with interviews with road design experts at the Swedish Transport Administration. Case studies were conducted on three thoroughfares in the Stockholm suburbs Vallentuna, Upplands Väsby and Danderyd.

The study deals with the beliefs that relatives of alcohol and drug dependent persons, and representatives from social services have to the various forms of support available for the relatives. Those who participate in the study points out that there are many people who have a need for support as a relative of an alcohol or drug addicted individual, but that there are circumstances that make them choose not to seek assistance. The study shows that the relatives can experience a reluctance to seek support from social services because of how the organization looks like. The study is qualitative, where the collection of the empiric material has consisted in six semi-structured interviews. Three of them have been with relatives of alcohol-or drug-dependent persons and three have been with social workers in various professions, whose work consists of helping both the relatives of people with alcohol and drug dependence as well as people who are dependent.