This thesis follows a qualitative method and aim to describe firms? international business at an emerging market seen from a network perspective. The purpose of the thesis is to study in what way business relations and networks influence the process of internationalization and describe the way in which companies handle the external network in relation to acquisitions. Further does our purpose include analyzing if a firm?s network may be the main factor for why international business occurs.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is a social-psychological relevance in allowing animals to be involved in therapy work. I have examined if the animals may contribute to effects on human relationships between caregivers and patients, and if the animals can contribute to helping patients to achieve better well-being. Through previous research and a quantitative interview I have received answers to the following questions: How are animals used in the treatment work? How do animals affect the relationship between caregiver-patient? In what ways do animals in treatment affect relationships between people? How do the professionals who work with animals believe that animals can affects the patient? I have interviewed people working in different kinds of treatment work using animals. The areas examined include work with animals at youth care, police, disability care, elderly care and school.

Common wisdom dictates that because payment of dividends decreases funds available for investment, a high payout ratio is to be associated with low earnings growth. This notion has been challenged in recent years by empirical research that has found a positive relationship between payout ratio and future earnings growth, both on the aggregated market level and the company level in different countries. This study investigated the aforementioned relationship on the Swedish market by statistically analyzing future earnings growth as a function of payout ratio on a large sample of publicly listed companies over the period 1980 to 2011. The results are in line with those found in previous research and indicate that companies with high dividend payout ratio tend to experience strong future earnings growth. The results are robust to the presence of mean reversion, the use of an alternative accounting measure of earnings, non-symmetrical earnings growth cycles and alternative practices for dealing with outliers..

Big dangerous Russia, environmental thief or house warmer? The Nord Stream pipelines are a highly debated theme in Europe and the EU. A number of different countries will be subject to the pipelines direct or indirect. This paper aims to figure out what kind of threats and possibilities Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Germany consider to be the consequences with the pipelines.The study takes as a standpoint the area of security studies and the widened of the same. The three standpoints within the security study that will be used are military security, environmental security and energy security.

Given that the oil prices have risen and the environmental regulations has become more stringent, the interest in operating efficiency has increased. The project has investigated the possibility of producing electricity from waste heat generated in the diesel process. One technique to utilize and convert energy into electricity is the ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle). This process is based on the Rankine process (the steam process), the difference from the traditional Rankine process is that instead of water as a working medium, an organic substance is used. The main component used in the process is a evaporator, a turbine, a condenser and a pump.

There are several competing views on how to best utilize air power. Following his quantitative study of air power, Robert Pape developed a theory which focuses on undermining the target state's military strategy. According to Pape it is possible to explain the outcome as a result of military vulnerability. This essay seeks to determine if Pape's theory can predict the outcome of Operation Unified Protector. By using a mixed methods approach on four hypotheses, it will be determined if the operation was a successful case of coercion, if NATO acted according to Pape's model and whether this achieved the desired effects or not. The results reveal that the theory could not successfully predict the outcome of the conflict.

This thesis examines how techniques from place marketing, developed to market places, can be used in the process of designing a visual identity for an institution. The thesis is a case study of the development of a new visual identity for the public art institution Malmö konsthall. The essay presents Malmö Konsthall, defines the term visual identity and describes the main principles in place branding. I then define target audiences and key values, discuss the application of place marketing principle and go through the design process of the new visual identity. The process showed that theories about flagship buildings, signature design and signature districts have the biggest influence on the design.

The Swedish energy company Vattenfall is currently the owner of the district heatingsystems in Nyköping and Motala. To be able to also offer cooling solutions tocustomers are becoming more and more important. This report describes the resultsof an investigation of the cooling market in the two cities and the potential needs forcooling today and in the coming 20 years. The total potential for the coming 20 yearsis estimated to be roughly 17 MW for Nyköping and 9 MW for Motala.Two possible district cooling systems for each of the two city centers was modeledand a comparison was made between different cooling techniques namely absorptionand compressor chillers.Absorption chillers driven with district heating during the summer is one way ofincreasing the load in a combined heat and power plant and thereby the possibleelectricity generation. The cost of heat production must be low for absorption chillerto be able to compete as an alternative.

Background: It has been shown that EDI can yield positive effects within companies. Which effects are possible for a company to direct assign to the introduction of EDI and is it possible to estimate the total effect.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to estimate and analyze the effects of using EDI in electronic business. We also want to contribute with a model for measure and estimate the effects of EDI.Accomplishment: We have studied literature concering EDI and realized a preliminary studie in form of interviews with experts to establish deeper knowledge of EDI. We have also tried to estimate the effects obtained in companies in three different businesses, power, government and transport industry.Result: To obtain as good effects as possible it is important that the co- oporation is built on trust and engagement. Before implementing the EDI-system a thorough overhaul of the processes in the company should be done, involving both the top managers and the staff.

In this project a simulator has been developed (in C++) with the purpose of illustrating how changes in environmental regulations, tax levels and other policy measures affect the composition of an energy system. The aim of the project was to investigate how energy companies? investment strategies are affected when changes in economic and environmental conditions occur. A standard scenario has been created based on current Swedish conditions, but the user can create new scenarios and set parameters freely. The user is tasked with building power plants to supply the city/region with district heating and electricity during a pre-set number of years. When the simulation is finished the result is graded in the following categories: economy, environment and quality. To evaluate the simulator three scenarios were created (?early 20th century?, ?reduced environmental control? and ?future?) in addition to the standard scenario and these were compared with each other by examining how a select group of power plants perform under the given conditions.

We have carried out a study of a classification system for the Swedish collection at The Royal Library in Stockholm from 1887. It was printed in 50 copies. The constructor, Bernhard Lundstedt, and his colleagues used it as guidance in lack of a catalogue. We regard it a local classification system. Little research has been done on old classification systems, but Francis Miksa points out the importance of examining them.

The aim of this essay is to investigate whether the role of the teacher and the teaching in the classroom is affected when the Ipad is introduced in an one-to-one situation, and if so how these effects occur. Previous research show that the introduction of new technology in education offers hope of a more effective way of learning but that this at the same time leads to challenges for traditional ways of teaching and traditional views on knowledge (Säljö & Linderoth (red.) 2009, Erixon (red.) 2014).The method used is a qualitative interview in combination with observations used as a complement to the interviews. Four teachers working on an upper secondary school have been interviewed and one lesson in English taught as a foreign language and one lesson in social science have been observed.The results show that the use of Ipad changes how the teachers relate to and use the teaching material, as all material can be gathered in the Ipad and accessed at all times and can also be shared with the pupils. The Ipad also makes it easier for the teachers to offer pupils individual instructions which the teachers view as positive. In addition, the Ipad enables a change in regards to the pupils as they switch from being users to becoming producers in the use of the Ipad which in the teachers? opinions offers more profound ways of learning..

The purpose of this study was to investigate if female and male reporters and interviewees get the same amount of time in the news feature in the Swedish news programs TV4-Nyheterna and SVT 1 Rapport. The aim of this study was also to investigate if there is a breakdown of the reporting lines between male and female reporters, that is, if they are reporting on various topics. In our study we also determined if the two television channels in any way are different when it comes to gender.Our main theory was that men are overrepresented both among reporters and interviewees and that they are dominant in both hard and soft news. We thought that SVT 1Rapport would have a better gender balance than TV4-Nyheterna because SVT 1 has been working on gender issues for a long time.We were using a quantitative content analysis to examine the 19:30 news on SVT 1 Rapport and 22:00 news on TV4-Nyheterna for two weeks in November 2010. We examined domestic and foreign news and determined how much time each sex got.

This bachelor?s thesis studies Carl Str?mbergs ?ppeltr?dg?rd, a private garden consisting of a large number of apple trees and varieties. The garden is located outside ?rebro, in N?rke, and is owned by a unit owner association whose goal is to preserve and determine the varieties. Through interviews, articles, site visits and documents from Carl Str?mberg, the purpose have been to get an understanding of who Carl Str?mberg was, how he collected the apple varieties and how that process was affected by the climate amongst apple growing and pomology during that time.

The aim and research questions of this study are concerned about how, and what kind of, problems and subjects that citizens raise during verbal interaction with politicians and officials in the field of participatory democracy. The theoretical framework of the study dominates by theories with a positive approach towards participatory democracy, but there is also a broader discussion on the phenomenon?s strengths and weaknesses.The case in focus of the study is a specific phenomenon of participatory democracy created by the municipality of Växjö. The empirical material that is analysed is consisted of written text based on the verbal interaction from these meetings between citizens and politicians/officials.The outcome of the study shows that most of the verbal interaction was held between citizens and politicians/officials in a vertical direction and that a major part of the responsibility concerning the raised subjects is estimated to be in the hands of the latter part. In the light of under what circumstances the meetings are practised, the democratic and collective minded performance of the citizens is argued to be in good condition, despite the dominating vertical interaction and estimation of trust..