Abstract: Private equity used to be synonymous with tremendous yields and rates of return. However, the private equity market trembled in 2008, due to the financial meltdown caused by the worldwide credit crisis. Considering the current low number of exits within the private equity industry, the purpose of this thesis is to examine if there has been any change in how private equity firms control their portfolio companies since the inception of the crisis. One private equity company and two portfolio companies have been studied. The case study is prepared from interviews with senior directors in the portfolio company and investment managers in the private equity firm.

The need to attract and retain individuals who add value to the organization constitutes an increasing challenge facing human resource professionals. In this context it is essential to establish stronger links between the individuals and the organization they work for. The aim of this study is to explore and discuss the role of ethical core values such as trust, respect, fairness, and honesty as a critical antecedent to employee commitment. From the perspective of employees, a comparative case study is conducted in two organizations with two different reasons to exist - a profit organization and a non-profit organization. The study concludes that organizations should have a high focus on people's core values when they recruit new employees as well as for educating and training their existing employees and managers.

In the era of urbanization and globalization, many small, rural and post-industrialcities struggle for growth. The competition for citizens and visitors is intense, andone commonly used strategy is to promote the city to a target audience. Placemarketing, however, is homogenized to a great extent. Marketing thus seems likea useless approach, yet almost every city does it.By using discourse analysis and institutional theory, this essay aims to explainwhy the city of Kramfors markets itself. There are several problems arising due tothe marketing of places, especially concerning the discrepancy between the city?simage and identity.

En kvalitativ studie genomfördes med syfte att undersöka personalvetares upplevda yrkesidentitet och dess utveckling med ökande erfarenhet i rollen.Ansatsen är interpretativ och materialet samlades in genom sex semistrukturerade intervjuer med personalvetare. Materialet transkriberades för att genom meningskoncentrering och tematisering kunna analyseras.Studien visar att yrkesrollen är tydlig men att den i låg grad internaliserats av intervjupersonerna. Två spänningsområden framträder; den beteendevetenskapliga kunskapen kontra arbetsrättens dominans och humanism som värdegrund i relation till förväntan att företräda arbetsgivarens nyttotänkande. Diskrepansen mellan förväntningar och verklighet försvårar socialisationen in i yrket och kräver en re-identifikation. Avsaknaden av verifikation från omgivningen visar på att professionen inte är institutionaliserad i samhället vilket ytterligare försvårar identifieringen med yrket.

Trioplanex International AB is a part of the group Trioplast Industrier AB, which produces packaging materials for the film and hygiene industry. The group is active throughout Europe, where most of the production is located in Sweden, with head office in Smålandsstenar. Operations in Landskrona consist of Trioplanex International AB and Trioplast Landskrona.Semi-finished articles consisting of paper cores, so called bobbins, give rise to a high amount of core waste in any form of core cutting. The objective of the report is to map out all core waste and illustrate the material flow with regard to present layout and equipment.In the beginning of the project an analysis of the current process was carried out with focus on the cutting equipment. A case study in the form of an improvement work took place in order to reduce the causes which had the biggest impact on existing machinery.Improvement proposals were discussed by the author together with supervisor, assigner and other parties involved.

The Swedish do-it-yourself (DIY) market has expanded in recent years and is today a SEK90 billion market. Competition is fierce, however, and the DIY retail chains compete over market share with extensive marketing campaigns. Advances in computer technology have made it possible to acquire and compile huge quantities of point of sale data. However, due to a lack of economic theories and statistical methods, this data cannot be effectively utilized and the effects of the campaigns are not measured in any detail. In this study a new method was used to examine the effects of marketing campaigns in the DIY consumer market.

The aim of the present study is to describe the experiences of high school students as regards the effects of their activities, in and out of lessons, being published on the web. In addition, a further purpose is to acquire knowledge about whether a website could be used as means of increasing the students level of attention, and focus, to their activities in school; and, furthermore, how such a website should be designed to correspond with the students requests.The implemented methods are interviews with students, school administrators and teachers. A survey was conducted covering the student?s personal experiences and opinions. Furthermore, an interface test of the website was performed.

By studying literature concerning design, didactics and reflection, and complementing those explorations with interviews with experienced design educators, this thesis challenges the idea of aesthetic media education being purely aesthetic in its characteristics. Drawing from their own experiences as a media aesthetics educator and an industrial designer, the two authors argue that the work flow used within most fields of design, commonly known as the design process, might provide a suitable didactic alternative to a field of education lacking relevant methodology. The literature study offers a better understanding of the design process and how it may be defined and viewed within an educational context. The interviews provide a more practical insight into the world of design education. The result shows that the design process as a didactical method theoretically offers both elements of critical thinking as well as direction and frames for students lacking aesthetic and artistic experience.

Den genomförda studien avsåg att undersöka om det förelåg likheter eller skillnader i synen på konflikter mellan medarbetare och chefer på ett företag, samt vilka diskurser som kunde utrönas. För det syftet utfördes intervjuer med personer inom båda dessa grupper, intervjuerna ställdes sedan samman, analyserades och jämfördes med varandra. Analysmetoden som användes var diskursanalys och resultaten av intervjuerna visade att det fanns både likheter och skillnader mellan medarbetare och chefer i uppfattningen av konflikter och konflikthantering. Vissa mönster påträffades även i uttalandena, där dessa passade ihop och kompletterade varandra utifrån diskursanalytisk synvinkel. Konflikter är ett både viktigt och intressant område för ett företags utveckling och välbefinnande.

This essay intervenes in the politics of urban segregation in Stockholm. The main aim of the essay is to analyze and describe how advanced marginality and territorial stigmatization are expressed in the lived experiences of four unemployed youths, that have participated in a labor market training program located in the ?social vulnerable? area Rågsved. With a theoretical framework based in Henri Lefebvre?s production of social space the empirical findings are interpreted in regard to how the youths produce social space in dialectical interplay with urban politics, advanced marginality, territorial stigmatization, and their local neighborhood.

This thesis is based on an assignment from a unit within an international group manufacturing industrial products. The purpose of the thesis is to analyze and suggest ways to improve the cost accounting system in use at the unit. The main source of empirical data has been interviews with employees. The theoretical framework is based on a comparison between traditional/standard costing and activity-based costing (ABC). The cost accounting system in use is described in detail and classified as a traditional/standard cost accounting system.

Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate how a pricing capability can be developed on a general as well as on a practical level in an industrial company working on the international business-to-business market. Methodology: We have conducted a case study of the work on pricing at Triton. After mapping the events we have evaluated the results. We have conducted interviews with people with information concerning Tritons work in the Pricing area. Theoretical perspectives: The theory includes organization and structure, pricing for the market with emphasis on transactions and theories on how to understand the customer.

The number of elderly continues to increase in Sweden which puts pressure on the elderly care. Aproposed solution is to increase the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) inhome care to both streamline care and enable older people to manage on their own to a greaterextent. So far Västerås is the only municipality that has made a decision on an ICT solution, whichthey have chosen to call ?eHemtjänst? (eHomecare). The purpose of this paper was to investigatethe specific prerequisites and requirements for Gothenburg city regarding the potentialimplementation of eHemtjänst.

Camera surveillance can provide good protection against certain types of crime, but it can also invade our privacy. The County Administrative Board monitors compliance with the rules by visiting those places to which the general public has access. They have to issue permits before general camera surveillance to those places which the general public has access. In certain cases, in stores for example, general camera surveillance is permitted only if the Country Administrative Board is notified in advance. The Data Inspection Board is a public authority and responsible for the camera surveillance for those places to which the public not has access.

The increasing health problems in our society have been lifted to the surface and debated for quite some time now. Even though the statistics of bad health somewhat have dropped, the problems still remain. Many companies are wrestling with this and are suffering from huge financial losses due to the costs of people frequently calling in sick for work. This has resulted in an increasingly high expansion of different types of preventive measures in order to avert health problems. But far from all companies reach these goals and it is there for of high value to study how important resources can be used in a more efficient way.The purpose of this study is to achieve a deeper understanding for Health promotive services in companies and to understand which influential factors are crucial in the process of reaching successful strategic Health promotions.