The purpose of this thesis is to gain a holistic understanding of who are the consumers of fortified health food products; moreover to highlight what are the characteristics of the consumers who are likely to purchase these products. This thesis employed a quantitative strategy with an inductive and a grounded theory approach. The data was collected from a research company. Existing theories in the area of functional food were not possible to find. Considering that the area is new this seems plausible; however, previous studies provided insight for substantive framework.

This paper replicates a test performed by Burgstahler and Dichev (1997), which identifies a kink in the frequency distribution of earnings for companies listed on American stock exchanges. Their claim, that the kink is evidence of earnings management, has however been dismissed as a methodical consequence. To address this concern, this paper not only replicates the test in general, but also performs tests on a split sample, where founding family-owned companies are separated from the others, since earlier research has shown that founding family ownership is correlated with less earnings management. The results are in line with the findings of Burgstahler and Dichev, with a significant kink in the frequency distribution in the general test. The findings also show that the significance of the kink increases in the non-family-owned sample, while it disappears in the family-owned sample.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate new knowledge about how children search for library material and which strategies they use, and if the latest research gives any answers whether we should adapt systems and services or teach information seeking in a better way. In this thesis knowledge is understood as research publications but also results from projects in library practise, and studies concerning children 6 to 18 years old are included. The method used is a knowledge survey. We have gathered and evaluated documentation from different sources like citation and reference databases within the field of library and information science. The result implicates that there are, both in old and new documentation, three main search strategies children use in their search for information in a library context; they browse, they search in library catalogues and they use some sort of reference service.

This report is part of an Bachelor of Science work in forestry, conducted for the community of Borås, Sweden. In order to create a forest management plan for the area of Hestra, a survey was conducted. People living in the area were given the opportunity to reply to the survey. The questions in the survey are both personal and forestry-related. The aim is to reach out to the different categories of people when it comes to age, living and the different aspects of visiting the woods.

Kartläggning av de inställningar som finns hos förvaltningsfastighetsföretag med anledning av införandet av IAS 40 samt praxis. Intervjuade företag: Brinonva, Castellum, Heba, Kungsleden och Akelius..

Title: Management control of facility efficiency in municipalities - A case study of Halmstad municipalityLevel: BachelorSeminar date: 2012-05-31Authors: Markus Nilsson & Sara MattssonAdvisor: Sven-Ola CarlssonKey words: Control management in municipality, facility efficiency, management by objectives, internal rents and incentivesBackground: The public sector owns and manages a large property portfolio and in the municipalities, the properties are always a big cost item. Because of the outside world changes and the public interest, the properties should be used as efficiently as possible.Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe how control management of facilities looks like a municipality. The paper also seeks to explain how employees work to make the facilities more efficient in a municipality.Methodology: The authors use a qualitative method with open interviews.Theoretical perspectives: The choice of theory was made with the field of management control and facility efficiency in mind. The theory therefore includes management by objectives, internal rents and reward systems, motivation and communication within organizations.Empirical foundation: The organization has undergone a reorganization 2010/2011. There are no clear incentives to reduce facility costs.

The Baltic Sea is threatened by eutrophication that largely is due to nutrient leaching from farmland within the catchment area. To solve this problem the surrounding countries cooperate within various configurations such as HELCOM and the EU-financed project Baltic Compass. Poor manure management in Russia has been discussed frequently the last couple of years. A literature review of different types of reports and legal acts is the core of this degree project which has been performed in connection to two ongoing research projects financed by EU (Baltic Compass) and SIDA. It is supplemented with interviews with Swedish agricultural consultants and travel reports from two occasions when I had the opportunity to discuss with Russians active within the agricultural sector. Different hypotheses were investigated and discussed. The environmental debate in Russia is quiet and there is a widespread approach that economic profit always trumps environmental concern ? a Soviet heritage that influence the Russian agriculture considerably. The Russian legal acts on stable manure management focus mainly on sanitary questions and only secondary on nutrient leaching.

Uppsatsen syftar till att studera hur verksamhetsstyrningen på fyra utvalda företag ser ut i goda och dåliga tider. Vi har använt oss av ett kvalitativt angreppssätt genom ställda enkätfrågor till chefer samt en chefsrekryterare. Angreppsättet är även abduktivt då vi växlar mellan empiri och teorier. De utvalda företagen är placerade i Brandingers modell över planeringssituationer för att sprida dem enligt kriterierna "föränderliga affärsförutsättningar" och "lätthet att förändras". Vi har kommit fram till ett antal hypoteser som visar på tendenser att mer förändringsbenägna företag förändrar sin verksamhetsstyrning i större utsträckning.

The management of information is one of the key aspects within a successful andefficient product development process, particularly regarding complex products.Scania CV AB is at the moment developing a new IT-system, OAS, which aims tomanage the company?s product data. With this as a background, the purpose of thismaster thesis is to identify the cross-functional user needs within Scania?s organizationconcerning product data and the management around it.To fulfill the purpose, an empirical study consisting of 40 personal interviews with 50representatives from different functions within Scania?s organization was carriedthrough. The empirical data was then analyzed focusing on identifying thecross-functional needs and issues.The study points out that there is a big potential regarding improvement among themanagement of product data.

One year Master's thesis, Degree of master in Business and Economics, School ofBusiness and Economics at Linnaeus University, Management, 4FE10E SpringSemester 2014.Author: Johanna Björklund and Sarah Gustafsson.Mentor: Magnus Forslund.Title: Lean in the public sector - Potential barriers to a long-term Lean work.Background: Organizational changes are something that is constantly done inorganizations, and in the last decade, there has arisen a plethora of different changemodels. A reorganization that is popular among companies today is Lean. Lean is aconcept that was developed within the Japanese automotive industry, but has evolvedfrom the Japanese shop floor and is now a concept that can be found in, for example,several Swedish municipalities.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to create an understanding of why the conceptLean may have difficulty getting a hold in the in the long term.Methodology: The study was done with a qualitative research approach and through anabductive approach. As we intended to create an understanding, of what potentialbarriers that may affect that a Lean work, in some cases, does not become a long-termcondition, it seemed natural to choose a hermeneutic approach to knowledge. Theempirical data collected via individual unstructured interviews, through a groupinterview, and by non-participant observations.

The aim of this literature review was to elucidate how suicidal and self-harming patients should be treated and cared for, mainly in the acute phase in somatic care. Searches were conducted in databases with relevant keywords. Qualitative and quantitative articles were included, would not be more than 20 years, be written in Swedish or English, and match the aim of the study. Results showed that nurses and patients felt that the treatment would be respectful, non-judgmental and characterized by active listening and clear communication. Poor care was described as disrespect and lack of understanding.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att identifiera, utifrån leverantörens synvinkel, lämpliga förändringar i processer som leder till reducering av slöseri i byggprojekt. Därefter vill vi ta fram en referensram för hur Supply Chain Management bör utformas och styras för att genomföra förbättringar inom de identifierade förändringsområdena.Uppsatsen bygger på en kvalitativ fallstudie av en materialleverantör i branschen, samt en vetenskaplig rapport inriktad på slöseri inom byggprojekt. Fallstudien baseras på material från interjuver och observationer. Både byggbranschen och fallföretaget studerades utifrån utvalda teorier om slöseri och värdeskapande samt Supply Chain Management.Den teoretiska tyngden ligger på Supply Chain och Supply Chain Management. Därefter användes teorier för slöseri och värdeskapande samt vilka beståndsdelar och hur man ska analysera de olika beståndsdelarna.

Umeå University currently uses two Course Management System, Moodle and Sakai (Cambro). Both Moodle and Sakai are based on open source code and are today the two more popular choices among Swedish Universities. They both have different strengths and weaknesses both from a technical perspective and a user perspective. This can create problems for a course responsible/teacher when it comes to planning the course structure at a distance course but also when planning the course structure on a campus course that uses a Course Management System. With this as my starting point my formulations of questions become:How do the Course Management Systems that Umeå University uses differs, both from a technical perspective and user perspective?What possibilities is there in the Course Management Systems to use a different Course Structure?Is there a noticeable difference on the view of Course Management System of teachers and students at different departments?The purpose with my essay is to create a basis that course responsible/teacher can use to plan the course structure.

Syftet med denna studie inom den svenska dagligvaruhandeln är att studera vilken attityd konsumenter har och varför, när de värderar utbudet av EVM och LVM i butiken. Jag ville ta reda på vilka attibut och känslomässiga värden det är som påverkar konsumenten när, hon/han i sitt medvetnade positionerar EVM och LVM i förhållande till varandra. Eftersom problemområdet utgör en kunskapslucka inom Category Management litteraturen valde jag en explorativ inriktning. Genom den kvalitativa metodens djupintervjuer sökte jag uppnå en förståelse för problemområdet. det som farmkom i studien var att om man inom Category Management säger sig ha konsumenten i fokus så måste butikens varumärkesportföljen ses över.

Over a long period of time, there has been a rich debate in the academic and financial world if active management can generate an excess return. Many experts say that the current active management strategies is nothing more than a money grab that produces large gains, for banks and investment firms, through high management fees while producing no excess value for the individuals buying their service. In short, an effective market makes it almost impossible for fund managers to produce value for their clients in the long run.No argument has only one side though, other experts say that active management has a role to play because not all investors are rational. This irrationality can lead to mispricing on financial assets in the marketplace and in turn lead to an ineffective market where active management can fill a much needed role. The purpose of this study is therefore to see if active management strategies can create a higher risk adjusted return, taking management fees into consideration, during times of high volatility when the uncertainty is at its peak.