The Private Equity industry has over the past years been booming and major external environmental changes have made the industry transform rapidly. Increased competition between Private Equity firms is one of the reasons why the industry has been and is being forced to focus more on addition of value through increased operational management. Consequently, the focus of value addition is by some said to be transferred away from deal making and financial skills, and into active operative management. This case study investigates how the portfolio management, and more specifically the measuring and management of performance, is carried out in a number of leading Swedish Private Equity funds with investments in the biotech sector. The biotech sector is characterized by extensive research and development, and many biotech companies often lack income and other measurable financial parameters in the initial phase.

What is the relation between literature and philosophy and what can we learn from it? Is there something about the novel and its language, fiction and narrative that separates it from philosophical litterature? In what way is knowledge about this useful to us, and is it possible to use fiction for the understanding of philosophy?This study makes an attempt to shed some light on the by no means obviuos distinction between philosophy and literature. The aim is to understand what, if in fact there is something that separates philosophy from literature, there is about the distinction that makes it possible for us to separate the ideas in literature from philosophical ideas, and in what way we can use the novel, or fiction in its widest meaning, to understand philosophy. When teaching philosophy you´re often required to make the abstract tangible. But if there´s a misconception about the distinction in what makes philosophical literature philosophical, then maybe there is something to learn from literature, or, at least, something about the fiction and its aesthetics, that makes it easier for us to relate to and understand, for example, the theories that are debated in moral philosophy.There are some philosophers who have used the form of fiction to make their thoughts on philosophical questions understandable.

Syfte: Syftet med vår magisteruppsats är att utreda hur involverade parter idag inom dagligvarubranschen i Sverige upplever Category Management. Syftet är även att belysa implikationer samt potentialer inom ramen för Category Management inom den svenska dagligvarubranschen. Metod: Vi har arbetat utifrån kvalitativ metod och genomfört både personliga intervjuer samt telefonintervjuer. Vårt empiriska material har därefter varit underlag vid den teoretiska kopplingen. Empiri: Vi har utfört personliga intervjuer med involverade aktörer inom den svenska dagligvarubranschen.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the driving forces and barriers which may exist at the implementation of green supply chain management (GSCM) within public organizations. Suggestions that may increase or reduce driving forces and barriers to public activities will also be provided, where such is found. The background of the study is that the public sector is such a major customer for many companies / providers, which makes the sector able to highly affect its suppliers. This essay is based on literature studies. The results showed that GSCM is a relatively unexplored area, especially applied on the public sector.

The aim of this master thesis is to discuss the access to literature and reading by mentally retarded persons, and how this is affected by library and care taking staffs awareness of mentally retarded persons needs of literature and reading. The reason why we decided to choose this essay topic, is that there is a lack of research about mentally retarded persons relationship with libraries, literature and reading in the field of library- and information science. This groups needs must be brought to sight, so that they can take part in the literature just as anyone else, on their own conditions. Our study involves interviews with four librarians, three reading representatives and a co-ordinator at the Easy-to-Read Foundation. We can establish that all of our informants prove to have significant knowledge about mentally retarded persons and their needs of literature and reading.

Bakgrund: För att kunna stilla kunders behov och skapa kvalitet och därigenom värde, krävs kunskap. Två teoribildningar som talar om värde och kvalitet respektive kunskap var för sig är Service Management och Knowledge Management. Service Management är huvudsakligen externt orienterad medan Knowledge Management är näst intill uteslutande internt orienterad, vilket medför att vissa "spänningar" återfinns dem emellan. Frågan är hur dessa"spänningar"hanteras i kunskapsföretags värdeskapande. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera vad Service respektive Knowledge Management bidrar till i förståelsen för kunskapsföretags värdeskapande.

We aim to investigate the risk exposure against commodity prices in the forestry and paper industry. The intension is also to study the affect that the changes in commodity prices has on a company?s market value..

A major issue that has been a subject for quite some time is whether there will be a scarcity of metals in the bedrock in the future and whether or not we might end up with a problem similar to that of the big oil crisis in the mid-seventies. Following the oil crisis many oil companies started up with risk management to control future risks. This work presents how Swedish mining companies work with risk management to handle risks that might come up in the future due to metal scarceness. How Swedish mining companies look at the possible metal scarceness and if they use risk management in their decision-making process is studied. By doing interviews with Swedish owned mining companies it was found that the mining companies did not see the future metal scarcity as a risk, even though 2/3 of the companies acknowledged the scarceness to be a reality.

In past decades information technology has changed the conditions of organizations, not at least within the industry. Advanced IT systems have become a fact in order to cope with rapid changes in the market and to effectively manage an organization?s knowledge. When organizations became more flexible and customized expectations from customers and stakeholders also become higher. These expectations and guidelines are documented in a company?s management system, which can be designed differently depending on what standards the company chooses to implement.

En sammanfattning av uppsatsen på maximalt 8000 tecken..

En sammanfattning av uppsatsen på maximalt 8000 tecken..

Syftet är att studera produktutvecklingsprocessen hos Findus Sverige AB, för att utreda vilken roll marknadsföraren har och hur detta påverkar projektets resultat..

This thesis has been carried out at the Department of Urban and Rural Development at SLU Ultuna during the spring semester 2009. The topic of the paper is how energy consumption can be influenced through design and if the conditions for good design decreases when solutions based on energy efficiency are used. The report is divided into one literature study and one part where energy efficient solutions are used in a design. The thesis work has its origin in a project called "Energihus i Uppsala." The planned building will be a center for energy research in Uppsala. The project aims to demonstrate to the public what is currently happening in research related to energy.

Objective To study if the Swedish venture capitalists consider business plans in their screening process, and in such case, what aspects they evaluate in order to develop a targeted template for Swedish entrepreneurs. A secondary objective is to describe what other factors Swedish venture capitalists evaluate as a part of their assessment. Methodology The method, which has been used in order to test the objective, has been carried out through extensive literature and article studies, interviews, and distribution of a short and comprehensive questionnaire to a multiplicity of venture capitalists throughout Sweden. Conclusion Generally, the findings of this thesis suggest that a business plan should include elements such as a summary of important elements, a thorough market analysis, financial information, exit strategy, and the risks associated with the project. The empirical material also reveals that venture capitalists also evaluate factors such as ownership influence, the entrepreneur?s industry knowledge, product knowledge and the personal chemistry in their evaluation process.

Environmental management officers ? leadership and employeeship in local environmental health authorityThe purpose of this study was to illustrate the working situation of municipal environmental health management officers. This is a qualitative study where I have interviewed ten environmental officers in ten municipalities in Sweden. The interviews were based on a half structured interview guide with questions. I have interpreted the interviews through different leadership theories.