Bachelor thesis, Business Administration and Economics Programme, School of Business and Economics at Linnaeus University in Va?xjo?.Spring of 2015 Title: Performance measurement from a cost leadership perspective - A case study on Gekås.Authors: Adrienn Csiszer, Hannah Lundberg & Helena WennerströmTutor: Eva GustavssonExaminer: Karin Jonnergård Keywords: Performance measurement, Performance measurement systems, Generic strategy, Cost leadership strategy, Financial and non-financial measurements. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how a company with a clear cost leadership strategy chooses to work with performance measurements, with a view to comparing a practical example to theorethical approaches. Methodology: The method chosen for this paper is a case study on Gekås AB. The presented data were collected through interviews conducted with four employees on Gekås. Conclusion: The study concludes that for a business with cost leadership strategy the financial measurements are more important than non-financial meausurements. For Gekås it is important to keep the performance measurement simple and understandable for the employees. They only use three measurements (sales, hours and sales per hour) in planning and in evaluation.

This study focuses on young adults with mild mental retardation and how their early adult life is a few years after leaving high school. They have grown up in a society where the view on mentally disabled has undergone big changes. Political decisions regarding handicapped, laws, official principles and social reforms have been dominated by the prinziple of normalization.The purpose has been to describe how the young adults themselves experience their life. The questions were: How is the every day life for young adults with mild mental retardation? Do they have asset to community support in order to reach as normal life as possible? How satisfied are they with their life?The investigation is a quality study through interviews with four young adults and their parents.

As IT service departments in organisations are becoming more complex and customised, the indirect costs are increasing in relation to the total costs. The difficulty of fully estimating and identifying the spread of the cost in the IT service department is increasing. As a result, firms tend to budget the business unit as a total cost rather than as a spread of defined costs. In order to deal with this challenge an ABC calculation will be applied. The Time Driven ABC model will be conducted in OMX´s Servicedesk unit within the IT services.

The goal of this paper is to provide a model for a sustainable electricity system to an island, in the Pacific Ocean near the equator.The method which has been used is to model supply and demand of electricity in the computer program Stella, through the creation of a dynamic system that balances them against each other. The result from the model will then be used to calculate the electricity price per kWh for the island.The result of the work is that electricity from solar energy is comparable with electricity produced from oil, if the oil pays for all its external costs, and the potential for pumped hydro storage plants is located. It also requires that consumers of electricity can be their own producers to avoid the expenditure of tax and reducing the cost of distribution. But since oil is a finite resource and has had a rising cost in recent years, while solar energy has had a declining cost, perhaps this will be a more competitive solution in the future.

Sense of coherence amongst employees with reduced work-capacity at Samhall.Sanela Jakupovic TrostekScientific essay in public health, 15 hp, Academy of Health and promoting Working Life, University of GävleThe aim of this study was to examine how employees at Samhall who has reduced work-capacity experienced their sense of coherence (SOC). The study includes gender, age and civil status in the analysis. The study includes 34 respondents which are divided as 20 men and 14 women. To measure SOC a quantitative method with a 29 standardized questionnaire was used.It was found that the employees felt, in general, low SOC, which means more difficult adaptation to their life situation. Noteworthy is that 70 % of the men in this study showed low SOC compared to 35,7 % of the women.One conclusion that can be drawn is that within Samhall, it showed that women had a higher SOC mean value than men which means they are more equipped to handle, understand and find meaning in their work life. Keywords: Antonovsky, Samhall, disability, work-capacity, sense of coherence (SOC).

The aim of this study was to examine former criminals? experiences of help and support of importance to leave a criminal life style. The study consists of six interviews with former criminals and earlier studies on the subject. These studies show that relapse in crime are most common among those who are socially excluded from society. They also show that important factors to end a life in criminality are for example a supportive social network.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine how gender patterns are described in the modern picture book. Focus is on the description of men and women and their emotions and living conditions. Do the descriptions follow stereotypes in the form of binary opposites strong/weak, active/passive etc. in which one component of the pair, often associated with masculinity, is privileged or are there examples of breach of normative gender? The analysis is based upon forty of 149 picture books that are presented in a children's book catalogue published by The Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs Statens kulturråd, in the year of 2000.

The purpose of this master thesis is to map and analyze the appropriate valuation approaches used for Intellectual Property rights and develope a model for valuing patents. This project has been executed on behalf of Electrolux?s Group Intellectual Property and is intended to be used for managerial purposes.Project limitations include patents that doesent concern technology oriented products and services, real option methods, financial forecasts, decisions concerning patents taken by the R&D division, patent applications in general and taking into account unexpected future management decisions regarding patents.Electrolux?s Intellextual Property team applies, manages and protects the groups Intellectual Property rights including patents, designs and trademarks. With an increased globalization and the rise of emerging markets, incentives have increased further to protect and safeguard the group?s innovations.Mainly there are three different valuations approaches for valuing intellectual property rights, these include the income based approach, cost base approach and market based approach.

This essay aims to explore the philosophical meaning of the expression ?present and real? in Clara ? or, On Nature?s Connection to the Spirit World by F. W. J. Schelling.

Francisella tularensis, the causative agent of the zoonotic disease tularaemia, is highly contagious and potentially fatal for a wide range of wildlife species of the northern hemisphere, also humans. Although recognized as a pathogen for over 100 years, much still remains to be elucidated concerning the ecology and transmission of the bacterium, hence this literature overview aims at compiling data regarding the aquatic association and the role of mosquitoes in transmission of Francisella tularensis subspecies holartica, the sole subspecies in Sweden. While a linkage between the bacterium and natural waters stands beyond dispute, there is no consensus in the literature concerning its potential as a reservoir. However, two prevailing theories can be distinguished; one proposes the water association being mammaldependent and thus merely the result of contamination from semi-aquatic mammals living in close vicinity to the water source. The other, quite contrary, suggests mammal-independence and hence that water, possibly in association with protozoa, serves as an environmental reservoir for the bacterium.

The aim of this study was to investigate if behaviour, ear positions and cortisol in lamb which were given access to play followed the different phases of the reward cycle of anticipation, consumption and relaxation. The study was done on 8 Dorset and 12 Dorset x Fine Wool uncastrated male lambs with an average age of 10 weeks. The lambs were housed pairwise in litter pens (2 x 3 m). Pairs of lambs were taken to a play arena (5.9 x 5.5 m) three times a week during five weeks (first week for learning). They were then first kept in a holding pen where they could look into the play arena for 5 minutes and thereafter released for 20 minutes in the play arena which had a ball, two chains and a tunnel.

AbstractBackground: Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide and accounted for 7.6 million deaths, about 13% of all deaths, in 2008. Several factors can affect patients' quality of life such as physical and psychological symptoms, relationship to people around and the environment. In palliative care professionals need to have good knowledge in order to improve patient quality of life and to give them as good a life as possible in the final stages of life.Aim: The purpose of this overview study is to describe the experiences of quality of life in patients with incurable cancer.Method: We conducted an overview study that was based on ten scientific articles. All articles are qualitative studies, from the year 1995 - 2011, and are from Sweden, Finland, UK, Canada and the USA. Qualitative analysis was used to group the various themes and subthemes for overview study purpose.

This thesis analyses the cost accounting system KPP and its use within the Swedish health care. KPP is designed to calculate and assign health care costs to individual patients. This would facilitate evaluations and comparisons of the costs for certain diagnosis, patient groups or clinics with a different mix of diagnosis. The study investigates the following questions: 1. Does the KPP-model theoretically work as a cost accounting tool for health care purposes? 2.

This study is based on interviews with six students from Stockholm that have shared their feelings/opinions about how they experience their identity as a student. The aim of this master?s thesis is to examine how the identity of students is constructed but also how the post modern society affects the life that the students are living. With a higher demand on education and responsibility of making the right decisions, the student?s main concern is not only her studies, but also the goal to succeed in her life.

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain disorder. It affects muscles and connective tissue. It's a very complex disorder that has no adequate treatment or cure. The research has progressed but there are still some questions to be answered. Quality of life for these patients is decreased and leads to suffering.