During the latest 50 years, the Swedish porcelain tableware industry has gone from being rather successful to experience significant problems. Our empirical study attributes these problems to underlying changes in consumer buying behaviour, whereas current generation theory supports our findings. The younger generation has significantly different preferences compared to older generations, with less focus on quality and more focus on variability, and there is reason to believe that these findings also are applicable to other consumer purchases. The successful porcelain companies of tomorrow will be the ones that continuously can adapt to these and further changes in consumer buying behaviour..

AbstractTitle: Wireless Fidelity ? A Scenario Analysis Authors: Mellberg Ola, Technology Management, Lund UniversityMårtensson Jens, Technology Management, Lund University Tutors: Andersson Jens A, Faculty of Engineering LTHKarlberg Johan, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communication ABSvensson Claes, Lund University Discussion: The most significant impacts on the telecom industry over the past decades have been the rapid growth of the Internet and mobile telephone services. Currently these two worlds are converging. Moreover, the fast expansion of wireless high capacity Internet access, increased distribution of local/public hotspots and rapid development of wireless network cards have opened new opportunities for the mobile telecom industry. Research Questions:To what extent could the explosion of local and public wireless networks, using WiFi technology, affect the future telecom industry? Who will ultimately master the WiFi innovation and to what degree could this innovation open new possibilities for external players to enter the mobile voice industry? Purpose: The purpose of the Master Thesis is to provide Sony Ericsson Mobile Communication AB with the most transformational scenarios, which will enable employees to recognise patterns and interpret the meaning of WiFi-related events as they unfold.

The field of the social economy and of the work integration social enterprises (WISE) in particular, is for many a more or less unknown area. Unlike ordinary enterprises the WISE's are different due to their aim of integrating disadvantaged people through work. In comparison with other small enterprises earlier research has shown that the WISE's are dealing with challenges regarding recruitment, participation, leadership, sustainable business ideas but above all, the access to funding. The purpose of this essay has therefore been to examine and analyze the financial situation of eight WISE's located in the Stockholm County. The results indicate that half of the enterprises perceive their economic situation as very unstable and as an obstacle to their further development.

The ambition of this project is to make an overview of the Swedish upholstery industry and to make a suitable complement to the Carl Malmsten upholstery collection.The Swedish furniture industry employs about 20 000 people in 815 companies. Totally the branch had a turnover of 17,5 billion Swedish krona in the year 2000. Of these 815 companies most of them are small family driven companies with low-tech industry. 10 % of the 815 companies stand for 60% of the production. These are large-scale companies and have a hi-tech industry, even compared with other types of industries.

According to Food and Agriculture Organization newsprint is defined as: Uncoated paper, unsized (or only slightly sized), containing at least 60 percent of mechanical wood pulp. The consumption of newsprint in Sweden was just over 798 000 tonnes in 2009, which represents approximately 90 kg per person. Although there are studies that predict a drastic reduction in newsprint consumption in the Western world, there seems to be a clear difference between forecasts for the future given by statistical analysis of newsprint consumption and forecasts given by experts in the industry. The former predict a continuing increase while the experts see a coming decrease in consumption.In this report, both demand and business strategies of newsprint in Sweden are studied. The study also presents a forecast of the future which is based on historical data and qualitative interviews.

In the proposition Nya förmånsrättsregler, 2002/03:49, the government suggests a new bill of beneficial rights, or FRL. The proposition has several changes, mostly for The Banking system. One of the changes is that the banks´ individual beneficial rights shall be replaced by a general beneficial right, where the beneficial value never exceeds 55 percent of the value of insurance bonds. Previously, the beneficial value was 100 percent.The purpose of this essay is to evaluate the relationship between the banks´ activities, and the new bill of beneficial rights, especially what the effects will become for the public companies within the printing houses, with 1 - 49 employees in the Skåne Region.The survey includes a total of 142 companies and it was distributed via e-mail. The conclusions from the study are that there are tendencies of increased difficulties for companies to get their credits granted by the banks.

Background: To maintain or increase the trust in the market, companies can disclose more voluntary information in the annual reports. According to prior research the annual report is the primary source of information for small shareholders and investors. Thus, it is of interest to investigate why companies chose to report the voluntary information inquired by this group. Purpose: We investigate some company-specific factors to decide whether these determine the extent of voluntary information, particularly inquired by small shareholders and investors, in the annual reports of listed Swedish companies. We also aim to discuss underlying causes for our result.

The flexibility of the labour market is considered as an instrument for increasing economic growth.Therefore has the use of flexible employment, also called atypical employment, increased. The atypical employment is characterized by insecurity in comparison with a traditional permanent full- time employment. One of the most common atypical employments is the manning employment, which is insecure whether it is permanent or not. The insecurity in the industry is based on insecure income, unpredictable working hours and poor psychosocial work environment.In order to encourage a continued increase of flexibility in the labour market while the need for security for staffing employees would be satisfied was Directive 2008:104 adopted. A certain amount of security has been achieved.

Since a few years back television has been on a verge of an enormous digital change. Web-TV is now growing at an incredible rate and is said to completely change the way we consume TV. The purpose of this essay is to determine and gain an understanding of how representatives of the broadcast industry looks at the phenomenon of web-TV and especially the different kinds of online video services and how they believe this will affect the television. Methods used are qualitative interviews which we compared with previous studies on the subject and acknowledged communication theories. The respondents were people with good insight and understanding of the media and TV industry.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the working method partnering has been welcomed in the Swedish construction company NCC and find possible explanations to this. The theoretical background used to understand and discuss our findings mainly builds on value and network dynamics. The empirical study is of a qualitative nature and builds upon 13 semi-structured interviews and the participation in a two-day start up workshop with 21 representatives from involved parties. The study shows that partnering has been positively accepted at NCC. Possible explanations for this can be found in the contrast the method represents to the traditional way of working within the construction industry.

Investors have been shown to be driven by emotional and psychological factors. This contradicts classical financial theories, for example the Efficient Market hypothesis which states that all investors act rationally. Behavioural Finance is an area of study which describes various psychological factors which may result in irrational investor behaviour.The primary question of the study is: which factors do operating people in the financial sector consider themselves to be influenced by? The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors which affect the process of creating forecasts or making financial decisions. The study examines in addition if there is a correlation between length of investor experience and overconfidence in forecasting accuracy and investment decision making.The study includes both quantitative and qualitative analysis.

This is a thesis written at the Swedish University of Agriculture inAlnarp within the landscape architecture education. The essay dealswith the landscape architect's professional identity and how it isdescribed in different contexts along with how it is perceived byprofessional landscape architects.Misunderstandings and preconceptions concerning the landscapearchitect's professional identity is common, both within and outsidethe branch of industry that includes the vocation. This raises problemswithin the industry and for the individual landscape architect. To findout if the root of the problems lies in available descriptions of theoccupation a study has been made. The study includes how thelandscape architect is defined in easily accessible information fromthe internet and in literature as well as in industry-orientedinformation such as dissertations and information from SverigesArkitekter (the Swedish Architects).

A persistent problem in the construction industry is its low margins of profit. It is often difficult to earn money due to low efficiency and high costs. Logistics on the construction site answers for a large amount of these costs and it is therefore of interest to find new, more efficient logistic solutions. The purpose of this thesis is to compare two different logistic systems and further to evaluate which one that is the most efficient and profitable. A comparison is made between the traditional logistic systems used for years and a new logistic system developed by an industry association called BEAst.

The use of internet is growing rapidly and many people choose to spend a lot of their time in the virtual world. This is the reason why we believe that it is important for companies to consider using internet as a tool to reach their customers. Today many companies, especially within the fashion industry, have acknowledged this and use internet marketing to reach existing and potential customers. Social media and search marketing are two helpful tools that can be used in order to make a company visible on the web, given that they know how to use them effectively. The purpose of this study is to examine how companies within the fashion industry can use social media and search marketing to reach their customers and what kind of attitude they have towards using these tools.

The female labour is still a rather unexploited resource in many parts of the world. Unleashing women?s potential, giving them the possibility to start their own enterprises would increase the economic growth. Not only does women's entrepreneurship foster greater equality in the world but it also creates a more versatile economy. Sweden is considered to be one of the most equal countries in the world; still, entrepreneurship is an area with sharp gender differences, especially in some industries.