In the global society of today it takes more and more to become a successful purchaser. One part of this is to understand distinctions between different countries. The first and the biggest thing that you think about are the languages. Of course this is a big obstacle but there are also big cultural differences to be considered. According to Van Weele (2002) this is something that not, until these days, have been prioritized but today it is becoming more common in the industries.The biggest question we asked ourselves before the work started was how cultural and verbal differences affected the global procurement on Husqvarna.

Innovation has been identified as one of the key factors for economic growth long ago. However, the emergence of ?knowledge century? further strengthened the role of the concept since proper management of the knowledge is essential to make the best out of the innovative capacity of the companies as well as the countries. This necessitates a balanced intellectual property rights (IPR) systems, since these rights provide the basis to solve the market failures faced by innovating firms by creating property rights over knowledge. There is an inherent dilemma between invention and diffusion.

?How does the Turkish debate appear concerning the EU-discourse in relation to political conditionality? Is Turkey accepting the demands that are being made?? These questions are answered in this thesis through a qualitative document analysis of the debate concerning EU as it is in Turkish newspapers and statements made by Turkish political representatives. The debate is used to describe the association?s process in a candidate country through investigating how the process and the relationship between EU and Turkey are discussed within the country. The national debate is then used to compare with the accession process for the Central and Eastern European countries based on conditionality to discover if Turkey is different from other candidate countries and if so explain why.

Eastern Europeans in Gotland is an essay with the purpose to find out how persons born in Eastern Europeans countries have adapted and integrated on Gotland. European community and notions about other groups of immigrants on Gotland have been relevant questions besides. The results of the essay show that the conditions for adaptation and integration are very different between the periods of time and for the individuals, depending on how they arrived to Sweden. The migrant workers quickly adapted to the labour market and had good premises to be in a position of financial independence. The demands of skills were low in the 60?s, but as a result of this, many of them didn?t learn the Swedish language very well and during the crisis in the 90?s they were no longer that attractive on the labour market.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 the satellite states of the former Communist bloc immediately departed on a journey towards democracy and market capitalism. Among the many tasks of the newly elected governments, one was to transform the paternalist Communist welfare state into a social system that would decrease the oversized role of the state, at the same time as protecting the citizens from the hardships ensued from the transition.I have studied the evolution of new welfare systems in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, three countries generally agreed as the most similar and most successfull transition countries of the Eastern bloc. Gøsta Esping-Andersen's prominent typology of welfare regimes, consisting of the liberal, corporatist and social democratic regime-types, has constituted the theoretical basis of the analysis. Simultaneously, applying new cases to the typology implies an element of theory testing.The study shows that 40 years of Communism and partial isolation from the West has not prevented these three countries from developing welfare states fully compatible with those of Western Europe and the Anglo-Saxon nations and that all three of them in fact fall within the scope of the corporatist regime-type..

The aim of this thesis is to discuss and analyse the American cotton subsidies? effect on the world market in general and developing countries in particular. The amount of U.S. subsidies is substantial compared to most other countries, but a great deal of the effect is due to the USA?s significant share of the market.

For one month during the beginning of 2011, the world followed the violent events in Libya. During this time the United Nations was faced with a complex question, could they handle the ongoing violence and find a solution to the killings or would the hostile situation go on. We now know what happened, but not why. It is this question that this essay aims to answer. This essay covers the discussion of sovereignty on the one hand and humanitarian intervention on the other and responsibility to protect in between.

Northern Stories is a narrative video-project, mixed between how to work with the movieformat and the programs involved. As well as the complexity of how it can be to work in collaboration with a company and an investigation in how to evolve my design process. This from a designer?s point of view and with the intention to produce a finished product..

Background: Sweden and the rest of the world went through the biggest financial crisis at the end of 2008 since the 1930s. The major Swedish banks have goodwill related to their acquisitions inside and outside Scandinavia. Swedbank, SEB and Nordea has acquired in the Baltic countries and Russia, however Handelsbanken has established itself in Great Britain. The crisis in the Baltic countries led that real wages fell, unemployment rose, real estate prices collapsed and the number of borrowers who had trouble repaying their loans increased rapidly. All this led to the problem of impairment of goodwill in the Swedish banks that had expanded rapidly in the Baltic countries.Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the application of IFRS 3 in Swedish banks before, during and after the financial crisis, and to investigate the low-downs in the four majorSwedish banks in 2006-2010.Completion: The study is primarily based on the case studies by the examination of the annual reports from all banks as well as evaluation of the interviews.The authors have chosen to makea strategic choice of a small number of cases through the concentration on the impairment of goodwill in the bank sector of Sweden.Results: The result of this study is that there are problems for banks in implementation of IFRS 3 in practice because of insufficient information in the banks' financial statements.Generous estimates used in the calculation of impairment testing.

The study sheds light on how individuals from different countries experience the labour action Komjobb. The study aim to examine in which consideration experiences of the action Komjobb differs among the participants. The study is based on eight qualitative interviews and analyzed by using the method of phenomenography. We have based this research on a theory about Social constructivism. Other theories that we have used are Bauman's theory about the changing value of work in the modern and postmodern society and Andersson's theory of unemployment as a social category.

Landscape architect is a profession that withholds varying tasks inside countries and between countries. In many countries the landscape architect profession does not exist. Spain is a country where the landscape architect profession is not recognized, and the professions that work with landscape architecture are architects, engineers, biologists and agronomists. "Paisajista", in English "Landscaper," is in Spain a common name for those who design gardens and parks. Sweden is one of the countries with most landscape architects due to its population and the profession is well established.

Sweden introduced a development assistance policy in 1952 and thirteen years later Sida, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency started, in 1965. But in 1995, five separate development assistance authorities came together and established the new Sida as it is today. Sida is Sweden?s representative in the development assistance policy field and they work through projects that have to be presented through a Country Strategy Process (CSP). The aim of this paper is to point out Sida?s perspective on the conducted development assistance policy and what guide lines that are followed.

One trend that can be seen in the EU countries is that employees want to exit from the workforce before they turn 60 years. A Dutch study of some EU countries has noticed that an early retirement from labor in many countries is considered as a social right. This has created an ?early exit-culture?. Large early outflows of the labor have created an institutionalization, the right to cease work early.

The Sub-Saharan countries have for a long time struggled with poverty and conflicts which might have proven hostile for investors. The analysis aims to see if there is a significant correlation between foreign direct investments (FDI) and economic growth and which cultural and institutional factors seem to be significant in this correlation. Considered are also other variables and their influence that might explain what motivates and gives incentives for foreign direct investments (FDI) and are used in the construction of a regression analysis. This to see whether there is an effect on the economic growth in relations to FDI. The results show that FDI is of significance to the economic growth in the region and the study shows that corruption seems to be the most significant institutional factor in the correlation with effect on economic growth and the ability to attract FDI..

The aim of this research is to examine the Göteborg International Film Festival Fund (GIFFF, 1998?2011) as a part of the festival's overall operations, to provide answers to questions about if/how the Fund can be understood as an expression of the festival's fundamental values, and how the Fund can be recognized within the festival's strategic development. The GIFFF is also discussed in relation to contemporary academic studies that interpret Western film funds for the developing countries ? such as Hubert Bals Fund and Fond Sud Cinéma ? as an expression of Eurocentrism.The investigation is based on the contemporary film festival research, previous academic studies on Göteborg International Film Festival, the festival?s printed material ? such as programs and press releases ? as well as interviews with the former festival director Gunnar Bergdahl, who initiated the Fund, and festival editor Ulf Sigvardson, who ran the Fund during its final years of existence.The conclusions are: The Fund's objectives ? such as to support filmmakers and film schools in the developing countries, and also to screen their films at the festival ? can be seen as a broader interpretation of the vision that was determined by the festival founders, that the festival should be a platform for independent filmmaking and also help screen the films that otherwise would not reach the Swedish audience. Also, the Fund was a significant part of the festival's expansion strategies during the 1990s.