A positive aspect of globalization, from a western viewpoint, is the growing demand of advanced products in China and other developing countries. The construction industry is thriving in China and Swedish companies have taken part in various projects. However the situation have been difficult for some of the companies. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate how strategic and cultural factors affect the potential for Swedish companies to operate on the Chinese construction market. The theoretical framework of the study consists of Porter?s and Kotler?s theories about strategy, and Hofstede?s, Bjerke?s, and Daun?s research about different cultures.

In this paper, I have proposed a way of interpreting the philosophical subject of the Discours de la méthode that has remained relatively unexplored by contemporary commentators. By investigating the subjectivity that is expressed through Descartes? use of architectural metaphors, I laid bare some of the difficulties inherent in its discursive structure, as well as suggesting that the cogito in fact repeats and inscribes itself into this structure. In this context, the metaphor of the road (or travel) takes a supplementary role in relation to the architectural metaphor, marking the very conditions of existence of the architectonic subject. The subject, in order that it may establish itself as ?pure? and ?independent? thought, is dependent on a certain ?forgetfullness?; that is, only by forgetting its constitutive dependence on the diversity and historicity that is signified by the metaphor of travel, can it establish itself as its own source.

Since the early 1940s in Sweden, subsidies have been a recurring feature in housing politics.Throughout history, these have been used as a management measure to control theconstruction of housing and to promote the Swedish welfare state. The political parties aretoday disagreeing on how much responsibility the state should carry for citizens housing. Tosolve the conflict, the dwelling has to be defined. Is the dwelling to be considered a socialright, like education and healthcare or is the dwelling to be considered a product for the freemarket, driven by supply and demand?The positive population growth in Stockholm has lead to an increased demand for dwellings.The supply of dwellings has not been growing at the same rate, which has implied higherhousing prices and longer wait for rented apartments.

The financial sector is an important part of the infrastructure. As a consequence of deregulations on the financial market, several new actors have entered the market. This has made it even more important for banks to identify the factors that are decisive when customers chose a bank. The purpose of this thesis was to clarify which factors that are decisive to students choice of bank. A survey was performed among students at Luleå University of Technology.

AbstractMaster thesis of one year in Business Administration, Swedish Business School at Örebro university,Marketing, HT 2011.Authors: Grunér, Linus and Malm, Ludwig Tutor:Pia Lindell Title:Brand building and creating relationships ? A study of a small business in the B2B market Keywords:Brand building, business relationships, SME, B2B. Problem:How does a small business in the B2B market work with brand building and creating relationships? What critical factors can be identified regarding the process of relationship-building and brand building within the context of a small business in the B2B market? Research objective:The purpose of this study is to use existing research to create understanding for how a company in the B2B market is working with relationship-building and brand building. The study also aims to identify any critical factors concerning the process of relationship-building and brand building.

AbstractMaster thesis of one year in Business Administration, Swedish Business School at Örebro university,Marketing, HT 2011.Authors: Grunér, Linus and Malm, Ludwig Tutor:Pia Lindell Title:Brand building and creating relationships ? A study of a small business in the B2B market Keywords:Brand building, business relationships, SME, B2B. Problem:How does a small business in the B2B market work with brand building and creating relationships? What critical factors can be identified regarding the process of relationship-building and brand building within the context of a small business in the B2B market? Research objective:The purpose of this study is to use existing research to create understanding for how a company in the B2B market is working with relationship-building and brand building. The study also aims to identify any critical factors concerning the process of relationship-building and brand building.

This study aims to explain the Stuxnet-attack against Iran in 2009-2010 by using the IR-theory of structural realism. By doing so the theory also faces the challenge of the impact of the information revolution on security and international relations. The structural realism that is at hand is that of Kenneth Waltz and his Theory of International Politics from 1979.The study reaches the conclusion that Waltzs focus on the structure of the international system and the distribution of capabilities applies well to the case of Stuxnet as a cyber attack. The creators of the sophisticated Stuxnet, USA and Israel, also indicates that when it comes to this certain aspect of the information revolution and IR, states seem to still be the main actor. Finally the character of one of the major features of the Stuxnet-attack; the internet, is shown to have an anarchic structure that fits well as an extension of the realist view of the international system..

Sweden's contribution to the world today is not labor-intensive industry, it is high technology and know-how. Many of the rules concerning employment security for the workers derived from the industrial era and have been to some extent modified by hand. This paper focuses on the discrepancy between the purpose of the priority rules in Swedish law and how it works in the reality. My opinion is that due to the development of the labor market, a powerful revision of priority rules is needed. In addition to today's job market is knowledge-intensive I point in the paper at a number of factors that contributed to the loosening of the priority rules. Examples of these are the increased incidence of temporary staffing, more open markets and more multinational companies, political will to disadvantaged groups in the labor market should be prepared job and gender issues.

The purpose of this master thesis is to present a model that illuminates the important factors when deriving technical information from market data within a company. For companies to be able to become and stay competitive in the market, product quality is an important factor. Whilst good product quality leads to customer satisfaction and loyalty, lack of quality brings costs in service and replacements. To improve product quality, the developers need information and knowledge about what quality issues affect existing products. Most companies gather data from market about known issues, but in order eliminate known quality issues in new products; this data has to be transformed into information and knowledge.

How projects are managed can have a big impact on the project`s result. There are different types of frameworks on the market whose purpose is to help project leaders to pursue a successful project. Those frameworks focus on larger product development projects and both the literature and companies have addressed that the frameworks are too comprehensive for smaller product development projects. They have therefore asked for a framework that is more suitable for those smaller projects. To complete a project on time and to the planned cost is important in both larger and smaller product development projects.

This paper?s objective is to investigate whether Modigliani and Miller (MM) I & II proposition from 1958 with regard to capital structure, is still valid among public Swedish firms.We have chosen the 63 firms on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (OMX) that Affärsvärlden magazine?s general index (AFGX) has categorized as industrial firms. We based this selection on the assumption that these firms are relatively capital intense and have a clear focus on production and, therefore, mainly uses capital structure as a mean to finance their production and not as a means in itself.To be able to fully evaluate these firms we have calculated the current key ratios based each firm?s annual report. To make the figures comparable across the entire population we adjusted them to each firm?s turnover.The results we have reached concur with MM?s proposition I regarding capital structures independence of the firm value.

This paper takes it points of departure in a gender equality perspective and the perceived paradox between the governmental labour market policy and family policy. The first policy area has the aim to put people to work, whereas the other introduces a reform, vårdnadsbidraget, that point in the opposite direction. Which are the problem representations within the two policy areas and are the problem representations concordant or contradictive? From a constructivist perspective, langue is closely related to power through defining and ascribing meaning to reality. Drawing on political documents, speeches and articles formulated within the government, this paper analyzes problem representations through the use of discourse analysis and feminist political theory.

The last few decades largeincreases in institutional and foreign ownershipin Swedish listed companies have created a concernthat the traditionalSwedish ownership model are disappearing.With increasing globalizationand ever morecapital-intensive markets, so have great owners forced to admitcapital fuelled institutionaland foreign investors into their companies. By from an agency theoryperspective examine how different ownershiptypes and ownershipconstellations affects the cost ofequity, we want to see if there is reason for concern. Is the change in ownership structure affecting theSwedish listed firms?Our results show that the owneridentity or ownership constellations don?t affect the cost of equity that much.The only owner-identity that shows a significant correlation with the cost ofequity is the institutions and they relate to a lower cost of equity. Theresults show that companies with two controlling shareholders relates to lowercost of equity which can show that ownership structure affects the cost.

AbstractThe object of this study has been to analyze how companies within the music industry can successfully market their artists, this due to the complexity of today?s marketing environment, where technology has rapidly changed the way of communicating, and therefore contributed to a highly competitive market. The vast change of technology has resulted in several possibilities as well as difficulties breaking through, what could be seen as, a media sorl. Our purpose has been to outdo how companies market, as well as which factors that are vital, for a successful promotion of their artists. To be able to carry out our aim, we have created one key question; How can companies within the music industry market their artist to make them reach success?We have used a qualitative research approach for this study, this to be able to generate more depth concerning the chosen topic.

Syfte: Undersöka om det är möjligt att generera en överavkastning på aktier gentemot marknadsindex på OMXS Industrials enligt Net Current Asset Value strategin.Metod: Studien baseras på en kvantitativ metod för att undersöka historiska aktievärden. Datan som används i undersökningen hämtas från Thomson Reuters Datastream och de statistiska värdena bearbetas i Microsoft Office ExcelTeoretiska utgångspunkter: Studien har sin förklaring med utgångspunkt från teorierna om den effektiva marknadshypotesen och CAPM modellen, samt ett avsnitt som utreder principerna om hur värderingsstrategier bör följas.Resultat: Beroende på längden av innehavsperioden visar studien att det i de samtliga fall är fullt möjligt att överträffa marknadsindex, och att den riskjusterade avkastningen i de flesta fall är högre än marknadsindex..