When I was fifteen I decided that I wanted to become a blacksmith. At the time of my decision I had been obsessed with fantasy for several years. I came to the conclusion that if I could not live in a fantasy world then at least I would make bits and pieces from it. That became the entry point of my fascination for material and techniques. I started with blacksmithing since it had an aura of magic or mystique in the material and in the making process.

The common literature about strategic alliances offers a very fragmented picture. This thesis gives a theoretical overview on strategic alliances and builds the basis for the following examination of the different dimensions most strategic alliances have. The examination of the different dimensions is the crucial point of this thesis. Here the reader gets a detailed insight into the different dimensions and the implications they have on the design of a particular strategic alliance. This examination leads in the end to a more differentiated view on strategic alliances and the insight that no simple models exist, which give a sufficient basis for decision-making and understanding strategic alliances, today.

Bakgrund: Studien undersökte hur deltagarna affektivt och kognitivt upplever en fallbeskrivning som simulerar en oförutsedd situation i en kontorsmiljö. Det beskrivna fallet handlar om en personalfråga och kräver ett omedelbart beslut eftersom en försening kanske inte bara påverkar arbetsprestationen och klimatet i organisationen, men också kan leda till att organisationen förlorar ett kontrakt med en långsiktig inkomst.Method/DesignStudien är en explorativ och oberoende design som genomfördes vid Karlstads universitet. Deltagarna var 72 studenter i två olika kurser, personal- och arbetsliv och psykologi. Data för denna undersökning samlades in genom en enkät som mätte deltagarnas kognitiva (Situationsuppfattning efter Kleins RPD-modellen, 1993) och affektiva reaktioner (PANAS, Watson, Clark, & Tellegen 1985) på fallbeskrivningen. Den affektiva och kognitiva reaktionen backades upp av två tester som mäter en persons priorierade sätt att bearbeta information (PMPI, Burns och D'Zurilla, 1999) och att hantera situationer (Personal Temperament efter MBTI-skala).

The aim of my study is to look at two specific schools and their work with Internet in the classroom and compare their work to what experts say about how you should educate. The study focuses on how teachers guide the students to be critical to the information they encounter on the internet. What do the experts say? How should the teachers work with Internet in the classroom? What do the teachers say about their work with Internet? What do the teachers say regarding children and the Internet?  To answer these questions I have interviewed two teachers from different schools, which had classes with children 6 to 8 years old. The schools are very different from each other concerning investment on Internet devices in the classroom.

The purpose of this essay is to examine the United Nation?s work and structure to find possible factors that can explain why some peacekeeping operations have achieved to mainstream a gender perspective, when others have not. This study is based on two cases; the peacekeeping operation in Namibia and the peacekeeping operation in Kosovo.The theory I have chosen to apply is feminism, a theory that allows an alternative explanation to this phenomenon. The conclusion is that there are three decisive factors: The leadership and its will to recruit female personnel to decision-making positions, the number of female employees and whether the peacekeeping operation cooperates with local women-organisations or not. All this is of great importance whether the institutional hegemonic masculine culture within the United Nation and its peacekeeping operations, is challenged or not..

This rapport is about how often private forest owners follow the measures proposed in their forest management plan. The survey is made in cooperation with the forest-owners association Norrskog. The private forest owners are relatively satisfied with the forest management plans and with the measures proposed. There are some differences between those who live on or near their property and those who live many miles away. The forest owners who live on their property are those who follow the proposed measure of precommercial thinning to the largest extent. That group also values precommercially thinned stands higher than thinned stands. The complete opposite is the case for the group that lives far away from their property. Almost all of the respondents thought that the forest management plan would be or had been a good help in the decision making about the forest..

AbstractVäxjö University, School of Social SciencesBachelor thesisTitle: Varför en rädsla för alternativmedicin? En studie om hur EU?s kosttillskottsdirektiv har implementerats i Sverige.Author: Annica BlomstrandSupervisor: Anne Haglund-MorrisseyThe aim of this study is to investigate the process of legislation and implementation of the directive of the European Union on the food supplements, focused on member state of Sweden.There are two questions in this study: What was the process of legislation in the period when the Directive on the food supplements became established? and How does the implementation of EU?s decision on the food supplements works in reality? In order to answer these questions, two different methods were used. One was qualitative analysis of the available text and the other one case-study (qualitative including interviews)The conclusion is that the implementation has not been successful. The process of legislation has followed its traditional way, which in its turn did not leave so much space to the thorough implementation of the Directive. Unfortunately, this is a process that overlooks citizens and countries with different premises, affected by the decision.Keywords: EU, kostillskottdirektivet, lagstiftningsprocessen, implementering, organisationsteori, fallstudie.

The purpose of this thesis project was to study how different companies are working with LastTime Buy and through that study propose improved ways of working with this for Scania CVAB. The project aimed at studying the work processes from three different perspectives:decision models, quality aspects and liability aspects between companies.To study this, qualitative interviews with one or several representatives from differentcompanies that are affected by or involved in Last Time Buy were used. Representatives wereselected partly from Original Equipment Manufacturers, suppliers, component manufacturersand companies offering third part solutions for Last Time Buy. The companies also reflecteddifferent industries. The interviews aimed to create an understanding for the methods used atthe different companies but also the ways of thinking and the knowledge behind the choice ofthese working methods.The analysis shows that the Original Equipment Manufacturers used very similar decisionmodels for Last Time Buy, but that external factors or the company strategy made them reachdifferent results.

When a decision is to be made on what long term strategic forest management plan to use, consideration must often be taken to multiple objectives. Such decisions are very complex and a promising approach to handle them is by Multiple Criteria Decision Analyses (MCDA). The study is based on the problem that the MCDA that have been implemented into forest management planning have only had capacity to compare and evaluate a limited number of management plans; which means that there is a risk the most suitable plan is missed. The aim with this study was to test the applicability of combining the MCDA tools: the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for including consideration to multi-objectives into strategic forest management planning. The study was based on the process of creating and selecting a management plan, using Heureka PlanWise, suitable for all the major objectives found in the forest holdings of a municipality in northern Sweden.

Background: Critical conditions to become an attractive supplier of knowledge based IT-services in the B2B market are many. Besides the fact of supplying a service of high quality one must as a supplier communicate values which are understandable and desirable for a new buyer. Buying a knowledge based IT-service involves several risks; the consultant might not have sufficient knowledge or have difficulties understanding the corporate culture and collaborating with other staff within the client?s organization. Since services are intangible offers and it can be intricate to put right price level for something which can only be evaluated when the project is finished, puts severe strain on suppliers competing with other companies in the same market when looking for new clients.

What drove me to write this paper is the will to  examine if there is a philosophically and scientifically viable  alternative foundation for an objective morality other than what we like to refer to as "God". The  American philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris presents in his book The Moral Landscape a thesis for an objective morality based on science in which he states that  science can determine human values. The purpose of this paper is to perform a theoretical trial of The Moral Landscape, examining Harris' thesis and it's relations to the philosophical obstacles that stands in its way, these being mainly the famous philosophical principle "Hume's Law" and G.E. Moore's "Naturalistic Fallacy and Open Question Argument" and thus will serve as my main theoretical foundation. The results of my study was not conclusive since Harris in fact doesn't succeed in bridging the gap between facts and values on a scientific ground.

Riskbedömning är en väsentlig del av klinikerns vardag. Varje patient ska riskbedömas och riskgrupperas, vilket sedan utgör grund för val av behandling, behandlare och revisionsintervall. I tandvården i Sverige idag används det ett flertal olika stödsystem eller riktlinjer för riskbedömning av oral hälsa. Syftet med studien var att ta reda på vilka stödsystem/riktlinjer som finns för riskbedömning av oral hälsa i Sverige idag och ge en beskrivning av de mest frekvent använda systemen samt göra en jämförelse av dessa. Syftet var också att undersöka huruvida dessa system är evidensbaserade och utvärderade samt att kartlägga kunskapsläget, gällande evidensbasering och utvärdering av stödsystem/riktlinjer, för riskbedömning av oral hälsa.

Denna uppsats lyfter ut Graham Allisons tre teorier från boken Essence of decision och applicerar dessa på U 137-krisen. Krisen inträffade 1981 då en sovjetisk ubåt gick på grund utanför Karlskrona. Var och en av de tre teorierna är ursprungligen gjorda för att förklara beslutsfattandet under Kubakrisen utifrån olika perspektiv. Uppsatsen prövar de tre teorierna på U 137-krisen och utser den teori som bäst förklarar utrikespolitiskt agerande under krisen. Huvuddelen av uppsatsen beskriver de tre teorierna Rational actor model, Organizational Behavior samt Governmental Politics och applicerar dessa på U 137-krisen.

Previous research has, by studying large listed firms, identified cost reductions and knowledge transference as the primary reasons for outsourcing.  Previous research has also indicated that Business Process Outsourcing is likely to increase in popularity and experience high annual growth going forward. This study aims to explore why mid-sized and large firms decide to in Jämtlands län, fully or partly, outsource their finance/accounting activities. Theories regarding transaction cost economics and resource based view composes the foundation of this study and the information used has been gathered through the use of semi-structured interviews.  The results shows, like the chosen theories and previous research indicates, that the outsourcing decision is primary based on expected cost reductions.

I denna rapport kartläggs attityder angående skolmedling på en mellanstadieskola i Norrbotten och då främst bland elever men också bland föräldrar och skolpersonal. Tyngdpunkten ligger på skolmedlingens funktion och betydelse för den enskilda eleven i termer av empowerment, recognition och socialt klimat..