Background: The difference between the market value and the book value of the companies has dramatically increased. One explanation is that the inflow of capital on the market has increased. Another explanation is that companies have a larger share of intellectual capital. The question is how this has influenced the company-valuator's use of valuation-models? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to find out what relevance the substance valuation model has, the DCF-model has, and also discover new valuation-models, among company-valuators.

The purpose of this study is to examine if the experience of whale watching can lead to increased knowledge of environmental problems. We also want to find out whether increased knowledge in turn could lead to changing environmental attitudes and behaviors. The theoretical framework consists of theories about sustainable tourism, ecotourism and responsible environmental behavior. The paper also has a section where previous research on ecotourism impacts on behavior and attitudes is discussed and subsequently addressed in the analysis section.Data has been collected through a case study where seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals who participated in whale watching. The results show that all respondents had greater knowledge of whales by their experiences, the degree of knowledge was due to respondents' prior knowledge.

The local politicians in Sweden are responsible for a great deal of the welfare system why one would assume that there are a lot of demands put on them - demands for certain skills or a certain level of competence. I have in this study tried to find out how the demands on the local representatives concerning the demands for competence and the actual level of competence among the politicians are affecting the local politics. This was done through investigating how the local politicians are perceiving their level of competence and the demands put on them, but also how the employees are perceiving the demands and the level of competence put on the politicians. The study was made in the municipality of Gislaved in Southern Sweden. I was using both quantitative method (an opinion poll among the politicians and employees in the municipality) and qualitative method (interviews with three politicians and three employees and literature studies).In order to investigate the demands for competence I split the concept into ?soft? competence (socially and emotionally based skills), and ?hard? competence (skills based on knowledge, education and experience).

The increasing public concern regarding the government?s priorities in spending public resources puts pressure on public organisations to address quality issues in their practice. In United Kingdom both BRTF (Better Regulation Task Force) (BIS, 2005b) and the Hampton report (BIS, 2005a) highlighted management and quality problems in public organisations in UK. These reports revealed obstacles within institutions? intent to offer recommendations and appropriate solutions for agencies working with legal enforcement and control.

The aim of this small thesis is to investigate if the probability of business failure is higher at the time of divestment than at the time of acquisition for portfolio companies that have been subject to private equity ownership. The background for this thesis is the widespread critique aimed at private equity firms, claiming that they increase the risk in their portfolio companies. We have performed a study of 53 buyout transactions, involving Swedish manufacturing companies, covering a time span of 13 years, from 1995 to 2007. We find evidence of an increased risk of business failure for the portfolio companies with a short forecasting horizon (within one year). The absolute increase in the sample is however small.

This study aims to examine how performance management is compatible with the operations at Sida, Sweden?s International Development Cooperation Agency, by performing interviews with representatives from Sida. The public sector is facing increased demands on accounting, which has emerged as an institutionalized social norm in society. The nature of Sida?s operations, however, proves to be highly complex, rendering results based management difficult to implement.

One of the most serious and economically important defects caused by clostridia in milk products is the late blowing of semi-hard cheeses.Clostridia occur naturally in soil and can contaminate milk through crops contaminated by dung and soil followed by a less successful silage process, that give them opportunity to grow unaerobically. When anaerobic conditions occur, such as storage of semi-hard cheese, they ferment lactic acid to butyric acid and the gases CO2 and H2.At the fusion of Arla and MD Foods, a series of changes were conducted on the MPN method for lactic acid fermentation for clostridia in milk. These changes resulted in an increased accuracy due to an increased number of test tubes and the change of media from MRCM to BBB, Bryant & Burkey Broth, that was thought to be more selective for Cl. tyrobutyricum, the organism mostly found in hard cheese. When the number of dairy farmers that were given quality reduction fines increased, the new method was suspected and a validation was conducted.The validation included inoculation of different clostridia and bacillus strains into BBB substrate and enzymatic testing of positive samples with Rapid ID 32A.

Work, especially that in complex, dynamic workplaces, often requires subtle, local judgment with regard to timing of subtasks, relevance, importance, prioritization and so forth. Still, people in Nuclear Industry seem to think safety results from people just following procedures. In the wake of failure it can be tempting to introduce new procedures and an even stricter "rule following culture". None, or at least very little, attention is given to tacit knowledge and individual skills. I am aiming to highlight the inadequacy of putting too much trust in formalization and that reporting and trending of events will contribute to increased learning, an increased nuclear safety and an efficient operational experience.

This thesis focuses on the driver?s experience of the road and its surroundings. ?The view from the road? takes place every day and a high-quality ?road experience? is therefore a question of importance. Since cars made their breakthrough in the 1920-30, the approach to ?the driver experience? has varied notably.

During the last 15 years the Swedish media market has developed a great deal, thanks to the rise of new media. Literature, articles and investigations have contributed to producing the chapter of background of this essay. How the local newspaper and its organization has changed over time is being accounted in this essay. From the newspaper being the only product on the market to now having a spread out product portfolio. By doing the qualitative interview with research representatives of six local newspapers the aimis to answer the following questions: Who were your competitors 15 years ago? Who are your competitiors today? In what way has the increased competition changed your way of working at the division of advertisement and how do you consider the the increase of mediachannels having affected the customer? How do you see the future? The main results show that all six representatives agree on the fact that the competition has increased during the last 15 years.

It?s known that the drug information patients get at discharge from hospital is often insufficient. Patients? ignorance of which drug they use and how to take them can lead to drug related problems, can cause suffering and heavy expenses.The aim of this study was to shed light on the patients? understanding for drug information, which was given at discharge from hospital. The literature survey was used as a method and based upon a systematic choice of scientific articles, which were found in different databases during the period of April 1 to May 31, 2008.

A large amount of our time is spent indoors in an artificial climate. To make the experience pleasant there are requirements on the ventilation and the heating system. At the present time the most common form of heating is a radiator system complemented with a ventilation system. A ceiling heating system with combined heating and ventilation can replace the two separated systems. The benefit with a ceiling heating solution is that it saves space since the radiator system is no longer needed.

In the 1970?s it was predicted that in the beginning of the 21st century there would be a timber shortage in Sweden and a large scale introduction of the exotic tree species lodgepole pine started. An introduction of a foreign tree species means a risk of a negative influence on the forests ecosystem. Today, the stands that were established in the 70?s are middle-aged and the effect on the forest floor vegetation can be studied.

The purpose with this examination essay was to find out if participation of children in social welfare investigations had increased since the social services had started to work with BBIC. I compared the participation of the child before BBIC, then when social service had started to work with BBIC and I tried to see if there were increased participation in the investigations. My theoretic starting-point was the symbolic interactionism and I used the qualitative method of investigation. In my investigation I found that there is not yet any increase in participation of the child in the investigations when social service work with BBIC. What I found was that the reason to start an investigation often was that the parents made the problem for the child and that conditions at home for the child influenced the possibility of the child to communi- cate with an adult that the child did not know.

The aim of this study is to describe the market for Digital Signage in Sweden and give the reader an increased insight and understanding of the problems that suppliers and buyers of Digital Signage may encounter. The study is abductive and based on a number of qualitative interviews with representatives from potential buyers, an existing user, a supplier and a number of companies with insight into Digital Signage. Our findings show that the companies in this study have not yet reached the stage of being ready to invest in a system for Digital Signage, since the effects on for instance increased sales and potential savings on marketing communication have not yet been clearly proven. Furthermore the study shows that it is important that a supplier has a fundamental understanding of the business model of the buyer. In addition to this, service, support and IT-related issues are of great importance for the potential buyers.