In a time of economic turmoil and financial crisis profitability matters rise higher and higher on company agendas. Many companies are pressured to find profitability to avoid layoffs or even bankruptcy. Profitability essentially depends on the margin on the product or service sold and the costs associated with selling these products or services and hence these areas are of vital importance if companies are to improve profitability. Previous research has focused, for the most part, on product profitability while customer profitability has received less attention. This study is based on a case study of a Swedish publishing house and aims to investigate how the company?s Cost-to-Serve varies between its distribution channels.

This bachelor thesis is studying the development of Swedish law in relation with EU-law. There are two different points of view expressed in the theories of Europeanization. One that means EU makes a big influence on national policy, one that says path-dependency will make the national policies differ. The case used in the study is discrimination on the ground of disability as regards employment. The aim of this thesis is, through a case study, to analyze the relation between Swedish and European law and by that shed some light on the matter of Europeanization..

This thesis aims to open the Pandora?s Box of hedge fund styles through an index-based style analysis. This information asymmetry is due to both less strict disclosure requirements and inherent nature of hedge funds. We employ a multiple unconditional linear regression model wherein 23 Swedish hedge funds are regressed on 10 style indices. In addition to the increased interest in hedge funds and their performance drivers, our unique approach with regressing return on return motivates this study.

This study raises the question how the implementation of the balanced scorecard in the municipality of Gotland has been influenced by the way of communication. A case study is made in the administration of Social-and care management on Gotland. We have been focusing on two different ways of communication. The first one is Shannon and Weavers model where communication is explained as a transmission of a message through a channel to a receiver. The other one is sensemaking where it is focal to give the information meaning.

Essay in political science, C-level, by Ronak Bozorgi, fall semester 2007. Tutor:P.O. Norell. ?The affect of financial decline on politician?s activity.

Heat, clock scew and frequency optimization are some of the problems a semiconductor designer must face. By splitting a synchrounous block into multiple pieces which comunicates asynchronously with eachother and provide them with independent clocks, these problems may be reduced. GALS (Global Asynchronous Local Synchronous) is a wrapper that wraps a synchronous block and provides it with a clock. Multiple GALS-elements will make the whole system. The clockfrequency may be independently adjusted between each block.

SummaryAimThe study examines a theoretical model developed to capture cyclist´s perceptions of the route environment. The survey focuses on if level two and three in the theoretical model captures what it´s intended to do. More specific we ask ourselves how the three appraisals (unsafe/safe by traffic reasons, stimulating/inhibiting route environment, unsafe/safe by other reasons) in the model´s second level relates among themselves and if these three appraisals can capture the degree of environmental well-being/unwell-being in the model´s third level. The questions were: Do the three appraisals differ among themselves? What is the difference/-s in such cases? And, is there a correlation between any of the three appraisals and environmental unwell-being/well-being? What is the correlation in such case? MethodThe gathering of data was done through questionnaires.

Urbanisation has increased the distance between the urban and the rural. Urban agriculture can be a solution to overcome that distance. The characteristic of urban agriculture is the intensive production in intra urban and peri-urban areas. Until 1950s food production in cities was an important part of the urban economy and the urban food supply. Since the 1950s the urban located production of food has almost ceased in Sweden, partly as a result of cheap food imports.

The examination is focusing on the person who is working in the supervising position in a company. Two different case studies performed with qualitative interviews. One case study is in the service industry and the other case study is in the manufacture industry. The aim with this study is to bring greater understanding to the eventual problems of identity that a supervisor canexperience because of his/her working position boarder between groups. This considering three roles of the supervisor; one role as asupervisor, one role as a colleague and one role as a friend.

Title: ?The director should be treated with silk gloves.? A discourse analysis of the film director as a leader and a case study of a short film Seminar date: 19 February 2008 Course: Master thesis in organizational studies, 20 Swedish credits Author: Johanna Ranes Advisor: Ph.D. Nanna Gillberg Key words: Film, the film director, discourse analysis, social constructionism, gender studies, creative leadership. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to illustrate and problemize the consequences of the traditional male domination in film creation for a female director by critically examining the construction of the film director. Methodology: The study is based on a qualitative case study which was conducted as a participant observation.

The use of bio fuel is increasing every year. Nowadays you will find different alternatives to oil and electricity heating system. In this essay I have examined what the economic conditions are to invest in a bio fuel furnace. I have chosen to assume from a specific farm and do a case study on this farm. Malmvik farm is located just outside of Stockholm.

Sustainability issues have become increasingly high-profile and important in recent decades. In addition, quality issues have come to play a central role in corporate marketing, strategy and management. The word quality can be defined differently in different contexts. This paper focuses on the concept of quality, based on the Total Quality Management perspective, which in Swedish has come to be known as Offensiv kvalitetsutveckling. Offensiv kvalitetsutveckling has been described as a theoretical framework in which an organization continually strives to meet and preferably exceed customer needs and expectations at the lowest cost through continuous improvement, and in which all members of the organization are committed and focused on the organisation's processes. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, to clarify the applicability of the theoretical model Offensiv kvalitetsutveckling as a theoretical explanatory model. Second, to explore how Max Hamburgerrestauranger AB performs according to the values in Offensiv kvalitetsutveckling. A Multiple Case Study was conducted in order to explore these topics. The results showed that Max Hamburgerrestauranger AB is working in a dedicated and value-driven manner, aligned with the values ??that form the basis for Offensiv kvalitetsutveckling. The results also showed that the model for Offensiv kvalitetsutveckling could serve well as a theoretical explanatory model, but that the model would benefit from being developed, enriched or integrated with other models.

Value stream mapping is a tool that is frequently used by many different companies. It is a great tool used to achieve the work that follows the theories of lean production. The tool is used, however, only frequent on the factory floor and the method is also designed based on this type of use.An interest of applying the method on administrative parts of the company has occurred lately. Administrative parts of the company refers to the part that does all the planning such as purchasing, receiving orders, customer contact, contact with factory floor and other work that is made around the actual manufacturing. But the knowledge about applying value stream mapping on the planning part of the company is lacking because the method is relatively new.In this work, a comparison is made between the introduction of value stream analysis on production and planning.

The ambition with this study is to look into and create an understanding for how an intranet can work as a support system in work processes in capacity as a source of knowledge. We want to enhance the understanding for which kind of knowledge that can be coded in and transmitted by an intranet, and which that is lost in this process. We also want to clarify what it takes to get this knowledge, in collaboration with the intranet, to support the work in an organization. It is a qualitative case study at a Swedish bank. It consisted of semi standardized, half structured interviews with five people in one of the bank?s local offices.

This Master thesis studies how a diversified institutional care organisation can optimise its collective knowledge resources so to manage and distribute this knowledge to different parts of the organisation with help of the organisations intranet. The purpose of the study is to examine if knowledge management and the organisations intranet can be used to create, store, transfer and better use the knowledge within the organisation. Through a case study the thesis will look at different knowledge processes and their relation to the organisations intranet. The case study includes a questionnaire for the whole organisation and qualitative interviews with seven persons from different levels of the organisation. The theoretical framework of the study approaches knowledge management and intranet through four knowledge processes.