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 .

This is a technical report about cement stabilization in general and the stabilizationprocess during the construction of a warehouse in Halmstad, Sweden in particular and iswritten at the section for economy and technology at Halmstad University incollaboration with NCC Anläggning.NCC encountered variations in compression strength in the stabilized material on the firstwarehouse that they constructed for the company Biltema. In our report we used thestabilization process of the second warehouse for the same company as a reference todetermine what could be done to get a more homogeneous result for future projects.We also looked in to what testing method is the most suitable to determine the result ofthe stabilization.After interviews with people involved in the process and visits on the work site we havecome to the conclusion that the most probable cause to the variations in compressionstrength is segregation in the ballast material. This segregation can occur in severaldifferent occasions in the process such as during the production, transportation andhandling on the work site.Other causes for the variation can be improper compaction, overlapping stabilization insome places and different duration of hardening of the samples that are tested.The best way to do in situ test of the stabilized material is to do seismic investigations asthose are non-destructive tests in comparison to taking core samples and you can discoverany cracks or air bubbles in the material..

Our paper is based on matrixes and the feedback process as tools in the daily work in the higher education system. The main purpose with this paper is to investigate if these tools can enhance the effect of formative assessment and increase students? empowerment in the courses. In do-ing so, we investigate if students experience that their efforts result in increased progression in their courses and if they acquire adequate proficiency in the subject matters native to their pro-grams, along with an increased desire for lifelong learning. Compulsory collection of data for profit is conducted through interviews of students in year one of the IT media program and the IT program.

AbstractVäxjö University, School of Social SciencesBachelor thesisTitle: Varför en rädsla för alternativmedicin? En studie om hur EU?s kosttillskottsdirektiv har implementerats i Sverige.Author: Annica BlomstrandSupervisor: Anne Haglund-MorrisseyThe aim of this study is to investigate the process of legislation and implementation of the directive of the European Union on the food supplements, focused on member state of Sweden.There are two questions in this study: What was the process of legislation in the period when the Directive on the food supplements became established? and How does the implementation of EU?s decision on the food supplements works in reality? In order to answer these questions, two different methods were used. One was qualitative analysis of the available text and the other one case-study (qualitative including interviews)The conclusion is that the implementation has not been successful. The process of legislation has followed its traditional way, which in its turn did not leave so much space to the thorough implementation of the Directive. Unfortunately, this is a process that overlooks citizens and countries with different premises, affected by the decision.Keywords: EU, kostillskottdirektivet, lagstiftningsprocessen, implementering, organisationsteori, fallstudie.

The Motor Group of the European Council was commissioned in the autumn of 1997 to prepare a proposal for a new European Bus and Coach Directive. In the beginning, most of the Member States did not have the accessibility requirements as their main concern; still a smaller network with actors from the National delegations from Britain, Germany and Sweden would influence the other National delegations in the Council group to finally agree to retain the requirement of accessibility of the Directive. Within the EU decision process, the European Disability movement acted as a strong player during the whole negotiation process using the proposal to a new Bus and Coach Directive as a tool to influence key actors to go towards a Directive with a strong approach for accessibility.Policy Transfer and Policy Transfer Network are used as analytical tools to understand and structure the transfer of the question of accessibility during the negotiation process. Actors understanding how the bureaucratic process works within the EU decision system have a chance to contributing for the changes in the directions they wishes for within a range of policy areas. The principal aim of the Directive was to guarantee the safety of passengers and to provide technical prescription in particular to wheelchair users.

The development of farm-operated biogas plants in Sweden is increasing. This study investigates the process that firms go through in developing such ventures. The aim is to identify obstacles and opportunities that individual farmers have encountered during the implementation process, and through a comparative analysis find similarities and differences between cases. The overall goal is to increase understanding of the factors that influence farmers? development of farm-based biogas production, and more specifically, explore opportunities for support organizations to contribute to the innovation process. Findings indicate that the implementation process has changed over time.

The aim with this master thesis is to analyze a scientific material concerning the context between learning and child/student development, and factors which controls process of learning, to create an image with quality account and teaching in mathematics, which then can raise the mathematical knowledge among students.The phenomena which stand in focus for the investigation is: why there is a negative tendency for development of knowledge in mathematics, among the Swedish students that TIMSSs investigations showed in intercultural comparison within the years 1993, 1999, 2003 and 2007.The method is the ethnographical method, which is based on: analyzing scientific theories about learning child/student development, factors which controls process of learning, and factors which controls process of learning the most and qualitative empiric investigation with qualitatively analyzes the questionnaires, which is about factors which are controlling the process of learning and factors which are controlling the process of learning the most.Result of the theoretical and empiric analyzes shows that factors as school environment, attitude for subjects and teaching, controls and influence the learning. To end a unenthusiastic tendency as a negative development of mathematical knowledge among students that is shown in TIMSS investigation and to elevate the students' performance in mathematics, an elevated qualitative account and teaching in mathematics, by the factors named. Safe school environments as the intercultural meeting place, the teachers influence part to the students' subjects' attitude in mathematics and goal related grading criteria in teaching, is all required for e qualitative teaching in mathematics..

Public participation in urban planning is meant to increase democracy in the planning process. Even though all citizens have the option to participate in urban planning debates, few seize their chance to partake. This thesis describes a study on how user needs are met and prioritized in design processes concerning urban planning. The aim was to determine whether user-centered design (UCD) methods could be used as an avenue for public participation in urban planning and ultimately invite more citizens into the planning process.The thesis details a design process where a team worked to develop Farsta, a suburb of Stockholm. The design problem was the question of how Farsta could become an attractive business location.

This thesis is based on the implementation of a bilateral rural development program in Burkina Faso. The main purpose of this study was to put the actual implementation process of a bilateral development program in view. This was done by investigating how two dominant perspectives in the implementation literature can explain what in fact happens during the realization of an aid program. A further aim of the thesis was to explore the limitations of these two dominant theories, in order to get a full understanding of the complexity of the realization of an aid program. Based on the implementation theory, this study shows that the realization of an aid program can be understood from three different angles.

Previous research has, by studying large listed firms, identified cost reductions and knowledge transference as the primary reasons for outsourcing.  Previous research has also indicated that Business Process Outsourcing is likely to increase in popularity and experience high annual growth going forward. This study aims to explore why mid-sized and large firms decide to in Jämtlands län, fully or partly, outsource their finance/accounting activities. Theories regarding transaction cost economics and resource based view composes the foundation of this study and the information used has been gathered through the use of semi-structured interviews.  The results shows, like the chosen theories and previous research indicates, that the outsourcing decision is primary based on expected cost reductions.

The Swedish National Labour Market Administration wishes to acquire further knowledge about how the evaluation process of vocational rehabilitation at the employment service operates as a part of the quality assurance of this activity. The primary task for vocational rehabilitation at the employment service is to investigate the work capacity of unemployed people, to give them increased knowledge and better understanding of their own capacity concerning work or education. The aim of this study was to survey the evaluation process of vocational rehabilitation at the employment service in Sweden. Data were collected through telephone interviews with 15 occupational therapists employed at the employment service, who were working with vocational rehabilitation. The result shows that the investigation of work capacity can take place in different environments and that the space of time for an investigation can vary.

Phosphate is a used as a surface treatment method which is used for various purposes in the industry. In this case, phosphate coated wire is used in the processes to achieve a desirable outcome. The reason to why phosphate coated wire is used in the production process is because phosphate acts as an accumulator, where it stabilizes the lubricant on the surface of the wire. Lubrication is important because it plays a major role in the roll quality and characterizes important benefits regarding the outcome.Currently, SKF has to wash away all phosphates residues after extrusion process in an operation called tumbling. The main reason for this is simply because the surface has to be completely free from lubricants and coatings till the next step of process.

With this essay we want to describe the transformation process that the real estate owner has to go through to sell the current rented flats to tenant. We also want to provide an understanding how the valuation is performed in the transformation process and highlight the issues that affects the price in the valuations. In the essay we would like to see if the valuation and the transformation process differ in a public real estate company compared to a private real estate company. Based on this we have asked us the following question to answer: -Is there any differences in how real estate?s are valued in the transformation process between public real estate companies and private real estate companies? We have used a qualitative approach to keep our main question.

The aim of the thesis is to investigate to what extent the pedagogy process has been affected by the close collaboration between librarians and teachers when it comes to education on the information search process. The thesis shows that the librarian is seen as an acting intermediate for information, and is regarded as a part of the learning process. The issues covered comprise of how students, teachers and librarians perceive that the students becomes information literate, how they perceive that the subject fields are covered, and how information has been transmitted, and how all this has been affected by the fact that the librarian is actually less available in person. Also, the following questions are discussed; how do librarians, teachers and students interact through the homepages of the course and "the landscape of studying"? And in what respect have the old library halls changed into that, which is available 24 hours a day, with different kinds of meeting opportunities where the search of information has been integrated with group projects? The foundation of this study is built on an evaluation of a project comprising of virtual study environment at the University of Linköping.

The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on how evidence-based librarian and information practice (EBLIP) is understood and practised at some Swedish hospital libraries, and also to analyze how EBLIP functions as a strategy to bridge the gap between research and practice as described by Haddow & Klobas. The theoretical framework for the study is partly based on Haddow & Klobas description of the gap between research and practice in the field of LIS and partly a description of the EBP-process which plays a key role in the use of EBLIP. Interviews have been done with four people, three librarians, all with management experience, and an academic development officer, active at three different hospital libraries where EBLIP is practiced. All informants believed that it is important to make use of research results in order to improve services and practice. In their efforts to apply the research findings the informants face a number of hindrances, which indicates a gap between research and practice.