CSR is a far reaching concept and practice, whose popularity and diffusion has increased rapidly in recent years. Research indicates that CSR has made an evolutionary journey from primarily being characterized by reactiveness to develop into a risk minimizing and proactive competitive advantage and should be looked upon as an answer to heightened societal pressure and awareness. Based on a review regarding different relevant theoretical perspectives, this Master Thesis discusses CSR as a concept and practical matter in relation to various strategically chosen representatives of a selection of professions.Moreover, the data were collected through in-depth semi structured interviews. The findings show that CSR is a contemporary and highly context dependent phenomenon whose inherent multiplicity brings a distinct aspect of uncertainty to it, in terms of both meaning and practice. And in some parts there is a reluctance to communicate CSR due to a fear of missing out of important aspects.

The aim of this Master's thesis is to understand public library users' perceptions of librarians' attitudes to users and professional knowledge. The purpose was also to investigate the relative importance to the user of pleasant or a knowledgeable librarian. As a theoretical framework we use theory from business economy where the experience of the user is in focus. Answers were sought to the following questions: How do users perceive librarians attitudes to users? How do users perceive librarians professional knowledge? How do users want to be treated by public librarians? What kind of knowledge should public librarians have, according to users? We interviewed twelve students in university education that are users of public libraries.

This Master Thesis is written at the Royal Institute of Technology during the spring and summer of 2008.The assignment was to investigate what factors on a broadband market determine how well it performsin terms of how many people have access to broadband. These are the factors that determine whetheror not a country or market will be able to achieve a high broadband penetration. The purpose of thisthesis was to establish a better understanding for what a market should look like or how a strugglingone can be complemented in order to succeed.As a foundation for this investigation, a group of benchmark countries were chosen and evaluated. Inaddition to this, a group of, developing MENA2-countries were chosen and evaluated. Finally, interviewswere performed with some of Sweden?s leading internet service providers, the regulatory agency andinfrastructure company, Skanova.Among the benchmark countries were Sweden, France, Canada, South Korea and Japan.

This thesis report describes the development of concepts regarding how weight can be reduced to the analytical instrument Biacore 4000. This thesis has resulted in five different concept proposals, all of which is solutions to reduce the instrument's weight.The thesis started with a pre-study where the instrument's structure and function were studied using both Solid Works, the opportunity to study the instrument in real life were also possible done. During this phase, a weight study was conducted as well, in which the instrument's weight distribution was studied and mapped.Following the initial phase, the work proceeded by developing concrete concepts to reduce the weight of the instrument where focus mainly was on the two cabinets. In addition, another two concepts were revealed, both with a more general approach.At the final phase of the thesis, the concepts were compiled and evaluated among themselves and the initial instrument.The thesis resulted in a study of the instrument's structure and weight distribution, with suggestions on how weight may be reduced for the instrument.The result factors such as materials, and manufacturing were aspects that were taken into consideration.At the final section of the report, suggestions for further work in which different aspects are discussed can be found..

Quality Assurance in Service Procurement --- Total Quality and Total Quality Management refer to popular management philosophies in organizations these days. The purchasing department has an important part in the strive for organizational quality as several studies show corporate spend is significant and increasing. In this Master Thesis I study the actions companies take to ensure quality in service procurement. I argue that managing quality when sourcing services is particularly tricky, because of the special characteristics that belong to services. The purpose of the study is to examine whether different actions are taken to ensure the quality of different kinds of services.

Extended Producer Responsibility (ERP) is a form of product take-back regulation that requires the producers to manage their products at the end of life. By internalising the products? entire life cycle costs into the market price the ultimate objective of such regulations is to reduce the environmental burden from the products. This Master´s thesis seeks to examine if the total life cycle cost of a product actually is borne by the producer, and if not, predict who will then take this cost. This is done by analysing the market for take-back activities in three different categories of products; electrical and electronic equipment, cars and wind power stations.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the female reader of science fiction literature, a genre by tradition dominated by men. Through qualitative interviews with seven female science fiction readers, the relation between the reading and the readers? lives, as well as their concepts of the science fiction genre and the community of science fiction readers, was examined. The main theoretical framework used for the analysis was Yvonne Hirdman?s gender theory, Judith Butler?s concept of identity and Louise M.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how opinions and values are expressed in BTJ?s reviews of children?s literature. According to debates reviewed and interviewed librarians, many consider BTJ to be too directing when it comes to the libraries? purchases of books. Therefore I find it important to study how the reviews are written.

The aim of this Master Thesis is, from a sociocultural perspective, to investigate the views the teaching librarians at Södertörn University Library (SHB) have on learning, information literacy, and their own pedagogical role, and how their views affect user education and their ideas about the future of user education.The research questions used were: How do the teaching librarians view learning? How is this view reflected in their work with user education? How do the teaching librarians envisage user education in the future, and how do they work to reach that goal?Five semi-structured interviews were conducted with the teaching librarians at SHB. The interviews were then analysed using qualitative content analysis.The results of the study show that the teaching librarians at SHB share a sociocultural view on learning, and take a communicative oriented approach to user education. They believe that communication and interaction support learning, and in the classroom they stimulate discussions both between librarian and student, and between the students themselves. In the future, they hope for improved collaboration between librarians and academic staff, and that user education will become a natural element of the curriculum..

In this Master Thesis work, a new method called MultiScat, is compared with the conventional method with alfa-correction, for computing concentrations from intensities in X-ray spectrometric analysis. The conventional model is a linear model, which only takes the photoelectric effect into consideration. It doesn't consider Rayleigh and Compton scattering even though it has a great impact on the measured intensities. Here MultiScat differs a lot. MultiScat is based on a solution of the Boltzmann transport equation.

During 2001-2002 a prototype, IMIS (Integrated Mobile Information System) was developed at BTH (Blekinge University of Technology) to demonstrate how mobile IT-systems can be used in healthcare. The prototype was based on the activity theory of Engeström. An ongoing project started in spring 2003. The purpose of the project is further development of IMIS with special focus in the diabetes healthcare. Participants in the project are scientists and students at BTH, ALMI Företagspartner, Blekinge FoU-enhet, Barndiabetesförbundet Blekinge, Blekinge Diabetesförening, Vårdcentralen Ronneby and Vårdcentralen Sölvesborg.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate if there might be a possiblecorrelation between young women´s fascination with the vampire narrative andtheir search for identity in the late modern age. With the help of contemporarysociological studies in the field of the late modern man and today?s youth culture,I?ve chosen to do qualitative interviews with eight young women in order to examinehow today?s society affects their process of identification. Lately we?ve been ableto see an enormous interest for books that deal with the vampire saga, and while thereaders are mostly young females, it brought me to ask the question why the combinationof teenage drama and vampires seems to be such a winning concept.We live in a time where most young females experience a lot of pressure trying to addup to the demands of society, and as the media keep producing images of youngwomen being thin and looking like supermodels, most teenagers feel a lot of pressureand anxiety trying to live up to such unnatural ideals that in the long run might lead tovarious health issues and eating disorders.As a result of this thesis I?ve found that the vampire narrative answers to some ofthe existential needs we have as members of a late modern society.

Written declarations in the European Parliament have not been given muchattention in the field of political science. The scope of this Master's thesis is toexamine whether symbolic politics are present in written declarations and howthis may show. In this study, the aspects of symbolic politics of writtendeclarations of the sixth parliamentary term are examined using a taxonomy foridentifying symbolic politics developed by Peter Santesson-Wilson. Thetaxonomy is applied on 15 written declarations, all adopted by the EuropeanParliament, dealing with a variety of EU-related issues, ranging from July 2004 toJuly 2008.The main findings of the study show that symbolic politics is a presentphenomenon in nearly all written declarations (13 out of 15 cases) subject to thisstudy.In the final chapter of this study inter alia symbolic politics as a deliberateaction is discussed in the view of written declarations. Irrespective of this, onecould say that symbolic politics are institutionalised in the European Parliament,at least when it comes to written declarations..

Title: Development and continuity: A new institutional case study of a Danish public library in changeAbstract: The purpose of this master's thesis is to discuss and analyse the relationship between the traditional core values belonging to the institution of the public library, and the development work that takes place at the institution. The thesis also investigates the relationships that influence the development work.By investigating a library that is considered progressive in its development work, our purpose is also to unveil alternative values that compete with the traditional core values. By illustrating the perception among seven staff members and the director at Aarhus Public Libraries, we want to illuminate the terms for development among public libraries. In addition to our interviews, an activity plan is studied.We base our study on new institutional theory which focuses on norms and values in an organisation. This focus helps us to understand the development work from a comprehensive view.Our study shows that the development work at Aarhus Public Libraries is taking place in a complex environment that consists of several different actors and different interpretationsof the traditional core values of public libraries.

This thesis has been performed at the system development company Verendus System AB, together with the home care company Basic Care Unit (BCU).The thesis has consisted of developing a web based informationsystem for BCU in which they can administrate their business. At the time of writing this thesis, BCU was using a windows-application to administrate their activities, which was both costly aswell as resulting in an unnecessary burden. The aim the thesis has thus been to create a platform-independent information system that simplifies and streamlines BCUs work by being user-friendly aswell as imposing some simplifying features.The students has been developing the system by the help of a work method they themselves developed. The method consisted of working in several iterations that each had several milestones. The method resulted in the students knowing easily when each iteration was finished or not.The thesis resulted in a working platform independent prototype.