The purpose of this final thesis is to investigate the effects of seasonal changes in the horticulture industry. In this study this includes mainly garden designers, constructors of gardens and parks and horticultural businesses at Österlen. Today the most important issue,both in private and in public environment, is that the winter occupation in this area is not big enough. The consequence of this issue can result in the loss of competence to other industries if educated personnel has to stay employed only over season. The study is trying to identify and rank factors that are contributing to the problem, and propose solutions that means work opportunities for companies in the horticulture industry as well as for their employees, during twelve months of the year..

ABSTRACTMany wind turbines have problems with icing and there is still no effective method to de-ice without stoppage of production and power loss. Here I therefore consider other methods than those available today, and particularly, I consider how these methods could be applied to wind turbines of the company Oxel. A surface where the water droplets do not attach might be the basis for a useful method. If no water attaches, no ice could form. To accomplish this a hydrophobic surface is nessesary, for example wax.

Warehouses are a key aspect of modern supply chains and play a vital role in the success or failure of businesses today. Figures from the USA indicate that the capital- and operating costs of warehouses represent about 22 % of a company?s logistics costs while figures from Europe indicate 25 % (Baker & Canessa, 2009). Because warehousing is such an important function within a company, the authors chose to focus on this in their thesis. The purpose of this thesis has been to examine the significance of a Warehouse Management System (WMS) and item identification with attention to logistic efficiency.

AbstractTitle: When the cat is away? A study of pedagogical leadership at a distanceLevel: Final assignment for Degree of Master of science (one year) in Educational ManagementAuthor: Evelyn JoelssonSupervisor: Ulla SebrantDate: 2013 mayLeadership is a subject that has been discussed for many generations. Today?s leadership is something completely different than what has been practiced before, in the more hierarchical companies, when leadership was something you were born to do and the workers had no choice but to follow. In the globalised world that we live in today there are demands of a different kind than before and physical distance between leaders and their followers gets more and more common.

Active ownership is widely regarded as positive for the development and performance of businesses. In this paper, we investigate the impact of ownership concentration and owner identity on return on equity (ROE) in Swedish companies between 1986 and 2008, and show that active ownership might suffer from opposing effects. We find evidence, albeit weak, that ownership concentration has a positive effect on profitability, but that it levels off at high levels of ownership shares. Furthermore, we propose that family ownership has a negative effect on profitability. Our results are dependent of choice of statistical method, but show nonetheless a need to reevaluate what seems to be a universally positive view of active ownership..

This work is a product development of a product which facilitates enduro drivers swallowing fluid while driving. My own experience of the problem and a custom survey gave me some frames and requirements of how such a product would look. To obtain the different concepts the method of brainstorming was used where I outlined the various proposals. The basic concept was that some kind of pump would build pressure in the liquid and when the user opens the nozzle the liquid will come out without the need to use the mouth to suck. The screening phase consisted of two steps.

Many studies have been conducted of different types of business networks in recent years. Despite this, there is a lack of research concerning industry-transcending formal networks which are limited to a specific region. We have conducted a case study of Örebro Promotion, which is an industry-transcending network including over 500 members. Örebro is a medium-sized city in the middle of Sweden. The purpose with our study is to create an understanding of why enterprises choose to be a part of the network and what they feel is the gain of their membership.

Maize for silage has been used as fodder in different parts of the world for a long time and has recently become more common also in Sweden. Our cold climate has been a problem as maize is very sensitive to low temperatures and frost. With new varieties and better techniques for cultivation it is now possible to grow maize in the southern and middle parts of Sweden. As for the north of Sweden the length of the cultivation season is a limiting factor as there are too few days with temperatures of over +10 ºC. Maize is well suited for silage making but oxygen-free conditions are required.

The majority of the Swedish population were self-provided within agriculture a hundred years ago. Times do change and today the situation is the other way around - most of us live within city boundaries and only few work with farming and related agricultural businesses. One thing that has not changed though, is the need of supplies from Swedish agriculture.What do we think of those products? Are we even aware of the connection between us and agriculture? The Federation of Swedish Farmers, LRF (Lantbrukarnas riksförbund), started their project to strengthen the link between consumers and producers in 2008.This paper is part of the project and its aim is to investigate consumers' views and values upon the effects and products from Swedish agriculture.Opinions and values have been studied through interviews influenced by phenomenology. The results show that the informants in general had a positive approach and thinking concerning the products and effects from Swedish agriculture.

Small business enterprises have escalated in Sweden during the last decade. However, new established companies are struggling to maintain their selves during the startup process and according to a survey from Tillväxtanalys, only 68 % of startup companies from 2008 were still active three years later. One of the main reasons is lack of capital and the most common approach to finance companies is to apply for a bank loan. In other words, commercial banks are of great importance for new businesses. Although, the problem arises when there is no previous history from the new businesses that the bank could base its credit assessment on.

Background: The Swedish fashion industry grows steadily, today it?s populated by many small and medium sized companies. Due to the big clothing chains dominant position small businesses risks to be ousted out of the fashion industry.Smaller companies may find it difficult to reach out to the customer by traditional advertising because their budgets are often smaller. It is therefore important for smaller companies to create loyal customers. If the smaller sized businesses in the fashion industry do not follow the rapid developments in society and focus on building strong brands and relationships, they will have problems with surviving in the long run.Problem definition: Which communicative factors are important in the choice of brand strategy to create a long-term survival for small and medium-sized companies in the fashion industry?Purpose: The purpose of the essay is to analyse and evaluate the brand as a communications tool for building a brand image.Method: The data which is being used in the essay is collected from interviews with companies and survey of each company's existing and potential customers.Theoretical perspective: Relationship Marketing Perspective and Transaction Marketing PerspectiveTheories: Brand Strategies, Total Communication, Brand Equity, Involvement Theory, Service Value Profit Chain.Empiric: The empirical data is primary data gathered from interviews with a representative for each company and from the questionnaires distributed to the customers of each company.Analysis: The analysis is an interpretation of the empirical material collected from interviews with each company and customers survey.

AbstractAccording to several researchers finance is scarce, scarcer for small businesses than for big enterprises. Small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, that want to start exporting and sales or manufacturing abroad need capital to get ready. Which capital structure and financial costs do they have, and which forms of finance do they actually use for that purpose. New american research by Mansi, Reeb (2002) has suggested, that there is a positive connection between leverage and a negative one between financial costs and internationalization, and that a non-linear model better describes this connection.This study has gathered data in two ways: Through a questionnaire from 37 SMEs and balance sheet figures from totally 166 manufacturing SMEs. In order to examine, whether the company was active on the international market, 200 SMEs in south Sweden were asked, if they exported to, produced or sold on any other market than their home market.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether a so-called "expectation gap" exist between the accounting consultants and their clients. The excistence of an expectation gap has already been confirmed between auditors and their clients. Interviews were conducted with both accounting consultants and managers to find out what expectations they have for each other. The factors that influence the occurrence of an expectation gap and the size of them are many but the most important factor may be regarded as individuals' different needs and requirements. The gap can be reduced or entirely eliminated by ensuring the quality of an accounting consultant's work, for example, REKO and / or that management have more realistic demands that actually can be met.

Warehouses are a key aspect of modern supply chains and play a vital role in the success or failure of businesses today. Figures from the USA indicate that the capital- and operating costs of warehouses represent about 22 % of a company?s logistics costs while figures from Europe indicate 25 % (Baker & Canessa, 2009). Because warehousing is such an important function within a company, the authors chose to focus on this in their thesis. The purpose of this thesis has been to examine the significance of a Warehouse Management System (WMS) and item identification with attention to logistic efficiency.

Websites are often developed by small businesses, organizations or individuals which may lead to that the testing gets left behind; the focus is on getting a finished product that can be deployed as quickly and as cheaply as possible.Functional testing is important also for websites and a variety of aids exist. With the right tools and methods the development work is facilitated, and it leads to products with fewer faults.This report shows in the form of a case study how an appropriate tool for functional testing can be selected and how it can be used within development of a website. An analysis of the tools available is reported and JSystem is selected as the most appropriate for this case.It turned out that JSystem could not be used fully as intended in terms of deployment, but a well-functioning alternative solution was developed.A number of test cases were created without any unsolvable problems and JSystem performed well. In JSystem test cases in Java are created in Java, which gives a high flexibility..