The purpose of the essay has been to clarify why and how small companies, whose major resource is knowledge, establish strategic alliances and which opportunities it brings. We have increased our understanding for the concept of strategic alliances through empirical search and through well-known scientist work. The method, which has been used in the essay, is principally qualitative interviews and gathering secondary data from articles from well-known authors. Our study has given that we have found that entering strategic alliances can make growth and by that way create competitive advantages for the company in question. We also found that there are risks with strategic alliances and the company can protect themselves by legal actions.

The aim of this study was to use stories from three people who previously lived in homelessness to increase the knowledge of the social network's impact on the process of exiting homelessness. In order to answer our questions, whether the social network facilitated or hindered the way out of homelessness, we have used a narrative method to take advantage of these person's life stories. As a theoretical perspective, we used the ecology of human development, based on the idea that human development occurs in interaction with their environment at different levels. Results showed those interviewees' networks had a significant impact on their path out of homelessness and that these relationships both facilitated and hindered this process. At the same time, these relationships affected our interviewees in different ways and were found in various areas of life, which indicates that there is more than one way out of homelessness.

Heart failure is an illness that requires life-long treatment and often affects everyday aspects of a person?s life. Self-care is a significant part of the treatment. Good self-care resources make it possible for people with heart failure to make the lifestyle changes they often need to maintain or improve their level of health. Self-care means having knowledge of and being able to recognize the symptoms and signs of deterioration that can occur with heart failure, so that the person can take appropriate measures ? and it also means knowing when it is time to seek professional help.

The main purpose of this master thesis is to investigate the information seeking of lay politicians, part-time politicians and professional politicians in connection with the possible upcoming fusion of the two administrative regions, Västra Götaland and Värmland. The focus of this study has been to study how politicians use and evaluate information and sources of information, and to investigate if there are any differences in how different categories of politicians seek information. Seven politicians were interviewed using semi-structured questions, and a phenomenographic approach was used to analyze the data. In Sweden there are few available studies of how politician seek information, but some international studies have focused on information needs, information sources, selection and evaluation of information. I have used previous research, and data from respondents to compile and analyze my results in three descriptive categories.

AbstractAim: The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper knowledge of how nurse anesthetists feel about their own profession. It was hoped that by gaining a deeper understanding of how the nurse anesthetist is experiencing its own profession, it will create better conditions for development and evolution of the nurse anesthesia profession and skills. Method: for the study a qualitative approach was used in which ten anesthesia nurses were interviewed, aged 27-55 years, four men and six women participated in the study. The interviews were processed and analyzed based on qualitative content analysis. As a theoretical framework Patricia Benner seven skill domains was used.

Heart failure is an illness that requires life-long treatment and often affects everyday aspects of a person?s life. Self-care is a significant part of the treatment. Good self-care resources make it possible for people with heart failure to make the lifestyle changes they often need to maintain or improve their level of health. Self-care means having knowledge of and being able to recognize the symptoms and signs of deterioration that can occur with heart failure, so that the person can take appropriate measures ? and it also means knowing when it is time to seek professional help.

This thesis presents the question of a possible breakthrough for mobile payment solutions in Sweden. The way payments are made and the way cash is being used in the society is changing. To be accepted as an alternative method, if cash isn't king anymore, the new technology will have to acquire user acceptance. In this thesis a case study of Swish, a mobile payment solution for P2P-payments, is presented. The focus of the study is customer value and technology acceptance of the service.

In the future network-based Swedish Defence (NBD), attaining information superiority will be of great importance. This will be achieved by a network of networks where decision-makers, information- and weapon-systems are linked together. As a part of the development of NBD, we have performed a study of user interface design for a future network-based tool package for analysis of sensor systems, referred to as the C2SR-system. This thesis was performed at Ericsson Microwave Systems AB, Sensor and Information Networks, during the autumn 2002. A pre-study concerning the requirements of usability, trustworthiness and functionality of a user interface for the C2SR-system was performed.

This Master?s Thesis deals with a special problem that may be of importance when planning a frequency hopping mobile communication network. In normal cases the Frequency Assignment Problem is solved, in order to plan the use of frequencies in a network. The special case discussed in this thesis occurs when the network operator requires that the frequencies must be arranged into groups. In this case the Frequency Assignment Problem must be solved with respect to the groups, i.e.

After the honor killings of Fadime and Pela, an extensively discussion started in the media, debating honor-related violence and oppression. This debate also made us, the authours of this paper, to pay attention to the problem. As a professional in social work, there are several good points to be made by having an in-depth knowledge in the field, both to discover individuals exposed to honor-related violence and to be able to protect them. The study was conducted by four qualitative interviews with professionals in social work with a professional experience of honor-related problems. Through the interviews, the social worker's view of honor problems emerged.

Human capital is professional service firms' most valuable resource and its quality is closely linked to the quality of its services. The purpose of this study is to investigate how professional service firms appraise their employees. A comparative study between an architecture firm and a management consulting firm is conducted with the aim to identify and explain similarities and differences in performance appraisal. Two qualitative case studies are performed and interviews as well as documents are used to explore the area. The thesis builds on a critical perspective and it has an explorative approach.

Increased resource efficiency in an energy system could result in large economic and environmental benefits. Tekniska verken i Linköping AB (Tekniska verken) is responsible for the district heating network in Linköping. Their vision is to create the world?s most resource efficient region. An important step towards this vision is more efficient usage of produced heat, something which could be achieved through integration of a seasonal heat storage in the energy system.

The aim of this study was to examine how newly qualified social workers from Linnaeus University in Kalmar feel that the school has prepared them with the professional skills to meet the demands that exist within social work. Social work education is a generalist training that will result in a professional qualification. With a qualitative approach eight newly qualified social workers were interviewed.We used the sociology of knowledge as an overall theoretical approach. We also used experience- based knowledge as a theoretical approach. One of the study's conclusion was that the graduates had difficulty linking theory to practice.

This paper examines the professional role of the music journalist and how it has been affected by the expansion of the Internet. The study aims to examine  the profession's outlook and how professional music journalists are working to reach the public with interesting information, despite the fact that the audience of today often can be first to deliver the news. Through qualitative research interviews with three current music journalists the professional role and its development is examined. Based on theories and previous research on journalism, how the media communicates and its importance to society, what it is to be a music journalist and the spread of digitization and the impact of file sharing the results are analyzed. The conclusions of the study are that it isn?t a profession that is disappearing but rather a profession that is working towards a new future.

To end up as an immigrant in an unknown country and to try to participate in the majority society means both psychological and physical difficulties where their whole life is changing. Gemensamma Krafter is a prevention changing work in a housing area in Borlänge. It works among other things as a meeting place for people from different cultures. The aim with this study was to describe and to get increased understanding for the lives of a number of immigrant women who lives in Borlänge/Sweden and which importance ?Gemensamma Krafter? has had for them.