AbstractThis thesis discusses ideological and rhetorical change of the Moderate Party of Sweden. The aim of the thesis has been to study the party during a time-span of almost 20 years, trying to identify changes related to each of the three party leaders.A hypothesis was developed, suggesting that the three party leaders each represented a different kind of ideology namely neo-conservatism, neo-liberalism and social liberalism. By studying newspaper articles and protocols from the Swedish Parliament, riksdagen, I was able to verify the hypothesis in all but the first party leader, Carl Bildt. It was showed that his ideology had more in common with New Right than with neo-liberalism.After identifying these changes I looked for explanations within Party Strategy Theory and Social Change Theory. My conclusions were that the changes could be understood by the great loss of voters in the election of 2002 and that agents within the Moderate Party acted upon the ambition to win new and old voters to the party, thereby recognizing the need for change.Keywords: Ideological Change, Rhetorical Change, The Moderate Party,Neo-Liberalism, Neo-Conservatism, Social Liberalism..

We set out to compare two different categories of workers: the, so called, white- and blue collar workers. The studies aim was to measure if there were any observable differences between the two in means of optimism and sense of coherence. There are two tools created for measuring optimism and sense of coherence, the Life Orientation Test ? Revised (LOT-R) measures an individual?s level of optimism and Aaron Antonovsky devised a test for measuring an individual?s level of sense of coherence (SOC). Optimism is best explained like a way to measure anticipation, how an individual expect future events to fall out.

This report present a working model for simulation of what happens to colors displayed on screens when they are observed through optical filters. The results of the model can be used to visually, on one screen, simulate another screen with an applied optical filter. The model can also produce CIE color difference values for the simulated screen colors. The model is data driven and requires spectral measurements for at least the screen to be simulated and the physical filters that will be used. The model is divided into three separate modules or steps where each of the modules can be easily replaced by alternative implementations or solutions.

AbstractMaster thesis in Business Administration, School of Business and Economics at Linneaus UniversityAuthors: Patrik Larsson and Pontus GislénSupervisor: Håkan LockingExaminer: Sven-Olof CollinTitle: The index effect- a study on Nasdaq OMXS30 and OMXH25Introduction: A significant part of the financial literature is based on the Efficient Market Hypothesis which assumes that prices in the market reflects all available information. Anomalies, such as the index effect, indicate weaknesses in this theory as it has been proved that it is possible to outperform the market using public information. Hence, the index effect can be linked to market efficiency which makes it interesting to study from a theoretical perspective. The mapping of the index effect is also interesting from a practical perspective, as it leads to a better understanding of whether investors and firms should take this anomaly into account.Problem: Is there an index effect, how does it behave and what can explain this effect?Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the index effect.

One of our reasons is that we think the subject usability is interesting, is that we think it is an important. Usability is maybe the most important element when you develop or choose a system because it can save money for the companies and give the users a more delightful and better work environment. The aim of the investigation is to find out if the implementation of a web portal is a direction to reach higher usability in a complex system that consists of several different interacting applications. The objective of our investigation is to show if the implementation of a web portal is a direction to reach higher usability in a complex system that consists of several different interacting applications. In our case we will try to see if Karlshamns AB:s recently implemented web portal is more useful than their previous application (Movex with interacting programs) One thought with the report is to give the system developers a perspective of how the usability can be in-house made applications versus standard applications. Also companies that not have any computer- or department for development and which are thinking of get hold of, change, replace or complement their system and applications, may have some interest in our thesis. We have used a qualitative investigation method in our study to answer our hypothesis.

Many companies have historically forced their interests through without any thoughts about the future needs of the humans and the society. In the last few years voices have been raised for a change, companies need to take their responsibility regarding sustainable development.The purpose of the report is to describe and explain possible relations between sustainabil-ity performance of companies and profitability, valuation, industry and size respectively.To be able to judge the sustainability performance of the companies Folksam (2006a) have been used. This is a solid investigation of the companies listed on the A- and O-lists of the Stockholm Stock Exchange by the end of 2005. The sustainability marks have been com-pared with the chosen key values for each hypothesis respectively. With this quantitative data as foundation, a quantitative approach and a deductive method have been used.In the first area of the investigation, profitability, the authors found correlation for the main hypothesis between sustainability performance and ?Return on Total Assets? through a statistical test.

The Gift 2.0 - A Museological Study of donations of Objects and its Underlying Motives, is a study in order to explain why people choose to donate items for museums, rather than any other alternative.The empirical study consists of qualitative, semi-structured research-interviews conducted with seven selected curators from various museums, with extensive experience of the subject acquisition. I have chosen to only examine Swedish cultural-historical museums. The hypothesis that I assumed was first and foremost that the heritage sphere is what Pierre Bourdieu calls a field. The reason that people would donate objects to museums, is that the donation itself brings cultural capital to the donor, from people with the same habitus. Since I felt that Bourdieus theory of field, capital and habitus could not explain all the reason why people donate items to museum, my second hypotheses was that certain objects are what Annette Weiner called inalienable possessions, objects that at any cost may not be sold or bartered away.

More than 1000 Swedish Warmblood foals are shown every year at foal inspections which are arranged around the country. Six traits are evaluated at these inspections: type, head-neck-body, correctness of legs, walk, trot and canter. No previous genetic studies have been done on the data from these evaluations. The purpose of this study was to do genetic analyses of the traits which are evaluated at foal inspections. The purpose was also to see if there are any correlations between the results of the foal inspections and the results from the tests of three-year-old horses.

In the last decades, high speed cutting has become an attractive technology in the wood industry. The possibility of reducing global costs in addiction with an increase in productivity, were the main reasons for the enlargement of the use of this technology. As usual, these advantages are accompanied by disadvantages that should be carefully analyzed. If on the one hand cutting forces are reduced with increasing cutting speeds, on the other hand, the centrifugal forces affecting the tool are higher. Exposed to such high loads, there is a considerable risk of tool failure that embeds hazards for both machine and workers.

The aim of this study is to compare attitudes to change among innovation and economics students and teachers at one of the universities in Sweden.Data about students? and teachers? attitudes to change was gathered using a survey.Keeping in mind that knowledge can lower ones resistance this study is based on a hypothesis that individuals from the innovations program have a lower resistance to change. The study is also based on earlier research in regards to comparisons between students and teachers.The results of the study show that teachers have less resistance to change than students. Individuals in the innovation program are however less resistant to change than individuals in the economics program.One can discuss whether or not results of the study show that the hypothesis is correct.The difference between individuals in the economics- and the innovation program are statistically significant and has moderate effects in reality. The differences between teachers and students are statistically significant but only have a small effect.It is however a starting-point for future studies that will possibly explore the subject more profoundly..

Environment friendly transports are one of the main topics in the industry and society today.Shell organizes an annual university competition called Shell Eco Marathon. The goal is to buildthe car that consumes the least fuel during a race. KTH participated for the first time in 2006.The engine for this competition, DoubleTwo, has been developed within the school. Theprinciple is a two stroke counter piston HCCI engine with variable compression ratio. HCCIstands for homogenous charge compression ignition.

Background: The international accounting standard regarding goodwill gives opportunities to several accounting procedure choices, as goodwill is a complex, intangible asset. The valuation of goodwill affects equity/asset ratio and income statement, which gives that the stakeholders? impression of the group?s financial statement is affected by the valuation of this asset. It has been pointed out that difficult economic times bring impairment loss to the fore. During financial crisis, equity/asset ratio may be significant as the economy of the groups is expected to be strained.Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to explain the appearance of the possible relationship between a group?s impairment loss for goodwill and their equity/asset ratio, during financial straits.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between IPO and revenue growth of primary-listed companies on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm. The study is limited to examining the listing?s impact only on sales growth, during a period of seven years.Theoretical Framwork: The theoretical framework applied in the study aims to answer the purpose and research questions. In this study previous research is of great importance.Methodology: The study is based on a quantitative research approach with statistical elements. The study is conducted through the collection of annual reports of listed companies from the database Retriever Business.

The authors study the effects of brand salience on how consumers form brand attitudes and how consumers value the importance of various brand attributes. The study was conducted through two separate tests, the one focusing on the link between brand salience and brand attitudes and the other focusing on the link between brand salience and evaluations of attribute importance. Both tests measured brand salience as the ease with which brands are recalled by respondents who have been cued with a specific product category. The results show that brand salience has direct effects on both brand attitudes and the evaluation of attribute importance. As brands are recalled, high brand salience for a brand creates a more positive attitude towards that brand in the mind of the consumer.

Purpose: To examine how video-game releases affect the share price, and if video-game reviews have any impact on the share price of gaming corporations. Method: A quantitative deductive research approach is applied with event study methodology used as basis. The investigated companies were the five largest gaming companies listed on the U.S. NASDAQ exchange. A total of 29 video-game launches and 85 reviews where examined.  Theory: The study is based on The Efficient Market Hypothesis, Agent Theory, Public Relations Theory, Nextopia and previous research.Results: The result contains 114 observations in five companies.