The purpose with this thesis is to illustrate companies? way of using Key Account Management in the organization. We developed the four following research questions: Why do companies choose to use Key Account Management? How do companies identify and choose their key customers? How does a key account manager work? How do the skills needed by a key account manager look like? The results showed that KAM offered several important benefits, mainly of economical characteristics. Identification of the key accounts was mainly conducted through certain economical criteria the customers had to fulfil.

AimThe aim of this study was to try to understand youngsters and their attitude to alcohol in the countryside and in a large city. The questions at issue have been: How do youngsters from the countryside, who drink, and do not drink alcohol, view the school- family- and friendsituation? How do youngsters from a large city, who drink, and do not drink alcohol, view the school- family- and friendsituation? Can we understand youths? attitude to alcohol on basis of the factors: School, family and friends? Are there any differences and similarities?MethodInterviews have been implemented with four youngsters in a large city and in the countryside. To gain as much as possible from the interviews a questionnaire was distributed to two classes in year nine in the countryside, and one class in the large city. The interview material was analysed on the basis from earlier research and two theoretical models.ResultsAccording to the youngsters that drink, both in the countryside and the large city, the most common view in school was that high demands are put on the youngsters and that they should study more then they do.

Background: An accountant is supposed to secure that the information from a company is true and fair. Recently consulting, or giving advice, has grown to be a major part of an accountants daily work particularly in smaller companies which may have insufficient financial competence themselves. This means that an accountant occupies two parts, as an independent reviewer and as an initiated advisor, which have caused controversy. Purpose: The purpose is to outline and explain how the accountants and audit customers regard an eventual discrepancy between performing the audit and consulting, and to give suggestions how to manage this. The purpose is also to define what customers perceive as quality in consulting an auditor.

The environmental debate is more intensive than ever before and the demands on companies increase. There are a number of methods to make it easier for the companies to fulfil the demands. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) end ecodesign are some of the methods that can be used. Syntronic AB has the possibility to reduce the products´ environmental impact in the design phase. Therefore it is important for the company to make it possible to visualize the negative environmental impacts a product can cause in an easy way. It is also important to visualize for there clients if any improvement is possible. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a simplified model.

The purpose of this essay is to analyze and understand the effects that a recession can have on a company?s marketing department. In times of a recession most companies have less means to promote their products to their target market and to build their brand. This means that cutting the marketing budget will show some effects on today?s way of marketing.

Companies and organizations recognize the importance of collaboration to develop responsibility and ability of change in the workplace. The concept of collaboration was a relatively new idea in business in the late 1980s. In a Nordic context, collaboration is a traditional approach that companies use successfully for competition, survival and development. Collaborative organizational efforts cover management of committed people who can help companies achieve flexibility, customer loyalty, innovation and economic success on a challenging and competitive market. Many theorists believe that collaboration is the key to integrating technology, financial competence and innovation.

Europe has, since the economic crisis of 2007, gained increasing social segregation. The gap between rich and poor has increased and the large number of hidden statistics regarding people excluded from the labor market is greater than in many years. Social exclusion has thus taken a toll on community groups that already before the crisis had a hard time getting included. Groups such as young, elderly, immigrants and people with mental of physical disabilities. To curb this development, the European Commission have, since the 2004 directives, enabled public sector clients to, through procurement of goods, services and contracts, include measures that promote social consideration.Social consideration is a term that have been a part of Swedish procurement legislation since 2007, and was updated in 2010.

In this thesis we examine the relationship between board composition and firm performance in Swedish companies. The selection of companies includes all Swedish limited liability companies, with the exception of micro enterprises, that have been active between the years of 2009-2010. We develop hypotheses based on resource dependence theory, agency theory, and the resource based view, and test these with regression analysis against collected data. Specifically, we examine the effects of board diversity, outside directorships, and CEO duality. Our findings show that none of the theories provide sufficient explanatory power of the relationship between board composition and firm performance, and that further research is required to better understand the role and effects of company boards..

AbstractDigital media in general and social media in particular are becoming more and more important to businesses across the globe. It is an effective way to reach out to consumers and establish a good relationship with existing customers. Most companies today use digital media in order to market themselves and to establish good public relations. A lot of those companies have also realized the enormous marketing capabilities that social media provides. However, in spite of the plethora of possibilities that comes with social media it can also, in some cases, hinder the companies ? success.

This research outlines studies about the relationship between social integration process of Japanese immigrants in Sweden and how social media assists in this process. The purpose of this research includes: To find out the reasons of migration to Sweden for six Japanese immigrants, any difficulties that they faced at the beginning of their immigration process and/or any positive qualities that they found in living in Sweden, whether they have accessed social media since they have moved in, if they do so, how the social media has been used and also, whether the social media has had a role to play in contributing to help their social integration process. In addition, it has been considered whether the participants have plans to return to Japan. In Sweden, there is relatively small Japanese migrant population. This social science research paper is the first in Sweden which explores the immigration process of Japanese migrants into Sweden.

Sweden needs a policy that stimulates economic growth. Year 1996 the Business Reorganization Act (1996:764) came into force. The goal with this law was to savebusiness, make it profitable and avoid unnecessary bankruptcies. Shortly afterwards itturned out that the law had no positive effect. A very few numbers of companies appliedfor reconstruction and the number of applications for bankruptcies continued to increase.In 2004, in order to stabilize the situation and bring about neutrality between twoproceedings, company reorganization and bankruptcy, the government proposed thereform of priority rules.

AbstractTitle: The Swedish real estate companies choices of valuation within investment properties and its further effects on the qualitative characteristics of accounting.-A study of the Swedish real estate companies listed and non - listed on the stock market, after the application of the international rule board.Background and Problem: From January 2005, all companies, listed on a stock market within the European Union, are required to prepare their consolidated accounts using common set of International Accounting Standards, IAS/IFRS. In Sweden, this opportunity has also been given to non-listed companies, to voluntary implement these rules in their consolidated accounts. One difference between Swedish accounting rules and contemporary International rules, deals with the accounting treatment of investment properties, which foremost affects the real estate market?s accounts. In contrast to the Swedish Financial Accounting Standards Council?s recommendation RR 24, the new standard, IAS 40, permits a choice between different accounting alternatives.

Background: The way in which corporate managers interpret, reason and evaluate uncertainties and constant changes, and how they take advantage of their experiences and wisdom can make a big difference for the long term survival of their companies. The requirements for efficiency and flexibility have increased in many ways, especially concerning the workforce needed and its degree of competency. In Sweden, employee recruiting industry has grown concurrently with the changes in the Swedish economy. Purpose: The purpose is to better understand the recruiting industry by performing a theoretical evaluation from a cognitive perspective. Delimitation: We intended to study the cognitive characteristics of the Swedish recruitment industry.

Companies in the western world can no longer compete by using traditional means such as product and price since the commerce of services continually grows. To avoid similarity and increase competitive advantages modern companies have to be more specified. The competition between companies has increased and customers are harder to reach. Customers of today can afford luxury but trend indicates that originality, identity, and status are more important than factual needs. Products created and consumed at the same time within the service market are often very homogenous (similar).

Title:Product abandonment ? A comparative study of five ABB-units Level:Master thesis in Business administration, spring 2011.Purpose:The purpose of this paper is to through a comparative analysis examine how different companies, within the same group, works with product abandonment and what factors influence the process.Problem:How important is situational and product specific factors in a product abandonment process in which the organizational factors are constant?Method:This study is based on primary as well as secondary data where interviews represent the primary data. Interviews, following the same interview guide, were made with five companies within the same group.Result:The results from the empirical studies presented in the text below recurring themes derived from the framework.Conclusions:Our conclusions are that the importance of product specific factors is of significant matters in a product abandonment process, even when organizational factors are constant. We base that on that although the companies are within the same group, under the same strategic direction and constructed according to the same organizational structure the product abandonment process is different for the respective companies.Keywords:Product abandonment, product deletion, product elimination, weak products, ABB .