AbstractIn this thesis we aim to extend the current theories about a concept called persona. A persona is a model of a user, mostly based on qualitative research and made with such accuracy that it to some extent can be used as a replacement of a real user in a development process and as a communicative tool. We will present a way of constructing this persona without meeting the actual users and follow up with interviews from the organization using them. This will lead to a model over the process of introducing personas as a concept in an organization,previously not familiar with the concept. The model is adapted to also work for projects and organizations where the concept is already known..

In 1989 the United States choose, after years of conflict, to carry out a military intervention in Panama, to remove Manuel Noriega, convicted for drug dealing and for threatening the lives of the Americans living in Panama. The aim of this study is to examine whether George H. W Bush?s arguments for the military intervention comply with the principles of the just war.The method chosen for this study is a qualitative literature study, based primarily on secondary data. It is a case study with two complementing theories, the theory of the just war and the world system theory.The result showed that the American intervention both can be justified and unjustified following the principles of the Just War Theory.

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that manifests as an increased level of glucose in the blood. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 347 million people have diabetes worldwide. In year 2004, 3.4 million people died from the consequences of high blood glucose. In the Swedish population the prevalence of diabetes is estimated to 3-4 %, out of which 85-90% are Type 2. Among senior citizens a prevalence of diabetes is seen in Sweden up to 14 - 15%.

Syftet med denna litteraturöversikt är att göra en utvärdering över de mekanismer som är viktiga vid tumörmetastasers nybildning av kärl s.k. angiogenes och med vilka metoder man kan hindra dem. Tumörceller som prolifererar ohämmat utan att stimulera angiogenes begränsas av brist på näring och ineffektiv bortförsel av slaggprodukter och kan därför sällan växa och bli större än cirka 1mm. Detta medför att även om det kliniskt finns många små metastaser i en patient så innebär det sällan något problem för patienten. Om tumörcellerna däremot muterar så att de kan stimulera angiogenes så tillåts tumörerna växa sig större och förstör då kringliggande vävnad vilket tillslut resulterar i patientens död. Mycket forskning görs i nuläget inom ämnesområdet och man har som mål att med hjälp av angiogeneshämmare göra cancer till en kronisk men hanterbar sjukdom istället för den sjukdom med dödlig utgång som den ofta är idag. Den första angiogeneshämmaren som godkändes för medicinskt bruk i USA var Avastin (Bevacizumab) som är en antikropp som binder till och oskadliggör vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), vilket är en av de faktorer som stimulerar angiogenes. Detta får som följd att de tumörer (60 % av alla humana) som uttrycker denna faktor hämmas i sin tillväxt.

The purpose of this study was to try to understand the Swedish population regarding the perceptions of the Swedish welfare system, based on the reactions that occurred after Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's statement about raising the retirement age. Our results demonstrate that the reactions on changes in the pension system in fact rooted in a safety factor and not the change in the pension system itself, through which the Swedish welfare system acts as a safety net for the population. Further the results shows that these safety factors create a form of egoism. With an interaction between empiricism and theory, where the starting point of the material was of an inductive approach, the material abstracted into different levels from which the result emerged. The focus of this study lies in the understanding of how human beings act according to one's need for security in major changes, which may be of importance to a comprehensive understanding of changes in social structures..

The aim of this thesis is to describe the development of profitability and capital structure in Swedish quoted companies during the period of 1990 to 2004. Further, the aim is to determine the relationship between profitability and leverage in order to conclude whether the choice of capital structure supports the pecking order theory or the trade-off theory of capital structure. The findings show that return on assets fluctuates between 3 and 11 percent and that return on equity fluctuates between 3 and 22 percent during the period. Further, the leverage and the cost of debt have decreased. This indicates lowered financial risk in Swedish quoted companies in the period between 1990 and 2004.

Research within gender and leadership has often focused on leaders in male dominated work areas, but quite recently interest has arise for examine leadership in female dominated work areas. This thesis analyzes possible differences connected to theories about gender stereotypes that may exist among male and female leaders within a female dominated organization. Further, possible underlying reasons to why or why not differences between genders might be found are investigated. The research question is addressed through a single embedded case study design at the Swedish public organization Försäkringskassan. The primary focus is middle managers, and twenty qualitative interviews were conducted with leaders and co-workers at two local offices and at the organizations headquarter.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether there is a difference between the respondent groups preparers and non-preparers position in IASBs question if a reversal of previously impaired goodwill should be prohibited. The background is an exposure draft sent out by the IASB and we examine the answers, in form of comment letters, sent in by the respondents to reach our purpose. Our method is positivistic in the sense that we study already existing theories when we create our hypothesis which gives our assumption about how the result of the respondent?s answers will be. Our data, which we have collected from the comment letters, is qualitative secondary data.

Gender balance within the business administration field at university level is an area that has gained increased attention in the last decade. As gender balance contributes positively to the scientific and educational achievements within all disciplines, many studies have tried to understand the decision-making processes of students when selecting a business specialisation. However, little attention has been devoted to the finance discipline although there is a remaining gender imbalance within the field at higher-level economic studies. This thesis was performed as a qualitative case study and is based on interviews with second-year bachelor students facing their choice of specialisation at the Stockholm School of Economics. Through an application of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), this study aims to examine factors that influence female business students' intentions to choose a specialisation.

The purpose of this essay is to illustrate how an organisation with several different cultural activities, such as a regional museum, works with anemphasis on participation. The essay focuses on Kulturparken Småland AB, which encourages the public to be more involved in its activities. Aqualitative approach is used, including nine interviews with employees at theorganisation. A number of theories form the basis of this study: institutionaltheory, which focuses on the context of the organisation, Bourdieu?s theoriesof different capital and Abbott?s theory regarding professionals.

This study aims to show how teachers talk about their teaching with regards to gender in relation to literature.We have interviewed four teachers of Swedish for upper secondary school to discover how they feel about, and understand, the fact that gender is a factor in the teaching of literature and that they should present to the students literature written by both male and female authors. To analyze the interviews we use Sannersted's (1991) theory about teachers as street-level-bureaucrats ("närbyråkrater"). He states that teachers are persons who have to follow what politicians have decided but they are fairly free to choose how they do it, but to be able to follow a decision as closely as possible three qualifications have to be met. The teachers have to understand the decision, be able to follow it and want to follow it. We find that the teachers that we have interviewed are aware that they discuss gender issues with their students and they all claim that they present a variation of authors to their students.

Collaboration is a form of organization on the rise in Sweden. For health care, it is ofinterest to collaborate with industry to ensure that needs for specialist education andtraining are met and that products developed meet the relevant requirements.Conversely, industry actors have an interest to have a close collaboration with healthcare in order to gain insight into customer needs, provide information about theirproducts and to test products in development.The starting point of this study is an agreement and regulatory framework for formsof collaboration between public health care in Sweden in general and thepharmaceutical industry, the medical device industry and the laboratory technologyindustry. The research questions concerns how this agreement has evolved and theprocess surrounding its emergence may contribute to knowledge about collaborationas a form of organization and the relationship to concepts such as legitimacy,corruption and institutional theory.By tracking the emergence of the current regulatory framework genealogicalthroughout history, the study uncovers how the agreements have played a role in andcontributed to the legitimization and institutionalization of collaboration practices andhow crises have changed the shape of the practices. A theoretical treatment ofrelevant concepts such as legitimacy, institutionalization of practices, corruption andstigmatization of organizations form the basis for an interpretation and analysis of theprocess.The conclusions of the examination of the historical process that led to the currentagreements contribute to empirical knowledge of how crises and stigma affect thelegitimacy of collaboration practices and how the repair of legitimacy can be donesuccessfully after a crisis. The treatment of the empirical material is also a historicalsource for the development of ethics agreements between public health care andpharmaceutical industry and the medical industry in Sweden..

Our main purpose with this paper was to figure out what makes a magazine successful. We wanted to analyze and examine factors of success for magazines, with a focus on music magazines, from a marketing perspective. Also, we wanted to see specific factors of success for the music magazine Groove. To do this, we interviewed seven people from different areas within the business with different kinds of expertise. We interviewed two people from Groove Magazine, two people from other music magazines and in addition to this, two people from a grand publishing company and also one person from a soccer magazine.

Agile as an idea was created in 2001 through the Agile Manifesto with focus on social relationships, communication and flexibility. This was a reaction to the traditional, hierarchical organization with the goal of restoring balance within organizations in the IT business. Today we can see a transit of Agile from the IT-industry to other industries and areas, such as HRM.There is a challenge in attempting to traditionally control a social idea such as Agile, and there is a lack of empirical studies of the organizational context and its effect on the interpretation of Agile in practice. This study is an attempt to connect Agile to the science of business administration.The purpose with this study is therefore to research the organizational contexts effects on the interpretation of Agile in practice, within IT and HRM. Where Agile is established or well known.To fulfill our purpose we chose social constructivism as our scientifically approach, and conducted 12 in-depth interviews.

In Sweden there are laws and recommendations from The National Board of Health and Welfare about the importance of a user's involvement in and possibility of influencing services directed at them. Even with such good intentions the same board reports that it is hard to know if people experience that they do. The purpose of my study was to examine how professionals can use their knowledge to help users increase their sense of influence in services that they use. My focus has been on adults with neuropsychiatric disabilities within the autistic spectra, such as Asperger syndrome, and on the professionals working with them. The specific problem among people with neuropsychiatric disabilities is a lack of social skills.