The purpose of this thesis is to look into the knowledge city concept and the preferences and requirements of companies on such a city. Furthermore, suggestions of ideal conditions in a knowledge city are proposed. The thesis has been conducted through a qualitative approach where a deductive procedure has been implemented. In order to examine knowledge cities, Barcelona has sketchily been looked at as an early example of a knowledge city, whereas a more exhaustive observation of Copenhagen was conducted. Since the concept of knowledge cities is a rather new phenomenon, models from several disciplines constitute the theoretical framework.

AbstractThe aim of the study is to investigate what the concept of ?love of reading? means and how selected teachers act strategically to increase the love of reading in pupils in grade two. The Swedish concept of love of reading (läslust) has not always had the same meaning; in the past it was used in connection with the desire to pursue further studies, while the term is used today when talking about pupils? own will to read books. The ability to read is a significant part of a pupil?s schooling, and therefore it is important to work to ensure that pupils love reading.

The purpose of this study is to describe if and how a seasonal based company named SkiStar, learns through the exchange of experience and knowledge. We have analyzed gathered qualitative and empirical data to explore this subject. We conducted three semi-structured group interviews with employees from the SkiStarshop division. They described their routines and procedures in SkiStarshop. The collected data was processed and analyzed through our theoretical framework.

The hotel industry in Stockholm is characterized by intense competition, and within the next couple of years the construction of a number new hotels is planed. As the number of hotels in Stockholm increase, the competition will increase and the importance of having well functioning strategies will become vital. The purpose of this essay is to examine how two hotels within the hotel industry in Stockholm experience and handle the competition. The two hotels that are included in the study are Clarion Hotel Stockholm and Scandic Continental. The essay derives from models and theories that are related to marketing and competition.

In this thesis a study about funding in civil-society organizations is carried out. The aim is to understand how an organization in civil-society is affected by different forms of financing models. The empirical material in the thesis consists of a case study of three Swedish civil-society organizations (CSO) producing social services in the field of rehabilitation of people with a drug addiction. The case study consists of mainly interviews with people holding a leading position in the three organizations together with a study of for the research question relevant documents. From the empirical material, including an extensive analysis of these organizations different income sources, a partial model of how to categorize and analyze different forms of funding in CSOs is developed.

The distance between home and work has increased in recent decades. By the development of infrastructure and public transport, jobs farther from home have become more accessible and this development has in turn increased commuting. Commuting travellers often pass over administrative boundaries which often serve as borders for public transport pricing. Also the market control prices. Research shows that travel times and costs significantly affect commuting choice.

The Open Access (OA) movement came to be as a reaction against the enclosure of information resources, facilitated by new distribution technologies. The purpose of the OA movement is to make research results freely available. The aim of this master´s thesis is to increase the understanding of how libraries outside of the academic sphere and within research institutes relates to OA. As a theoretical framework I created two different ideologies, the OA ideology and the nonsharing ideology. I also conducted six interviews with librarians.

It has become popular for political scientists to discuss the transformation from government to governance and the networks? greater influence on public policymaking. However, this debate lacks methodological, empirical and theoretical research about the relationship between governance networks and representative democracy. The main objective of this essay is to understand the relationship between governance networks and representative democracy through a case study of the governance network Leader Linné. The theoretical framework includes four analysis models about the relationship between governance networks and representative democracy that are analysed by five factors connected to representative democracy.

This paper investigates whether the traditional accrual based trading strategy first documented by Sloan (1996) can be refined using fundamental analysis. Specifically, this is done by implementing the composite signal F_SCORE introduced by Piotroski (2000) to identify financially strong or weak firms. We find that by applying both investment models simultaneously, in a model we call P_KOMB, the mean market-adjusted return earned by an investor exploiting the accrual anomaly can be increased by 14.8% annually. This is achieved by taking a long position in strong firms (as defined by the composite signal) in the lowest accrual portfolio, while an offsetting short position is taken in weak firms in the highest accrual portfolio, repeated annually between 1997 and 2007. Consistent with prior studies, positive market-adjusted returns can be attained through assessment of accruals as well as key value drivers found in historical financial data.

AbstractThe research in the interdisciplinary field of natural-human-health-design has in recent decades gainedmomentum and led to new or new-old ways of thinking and acting in terms of planning and design of outdoorenvironments with the aim of health promotion. Concrete concept models and design guides have begun toemerge as a result of this research.The purpose of this work is to use these guides to develop a design proposal for a supposed health garden,with Wij Trädgårdar in Ockelbo as a base. This has been done in the form of a process description. The targetgroup for the design proposal is long-term unemployed and people who have come to Sweden as refugees.Since the specific design recommendations could not be found for the selected target group, the main materialwas general guidelines for health gardens in combination with guidelines for health gardens directed to targetgroups with stress-related problems, which is a broad target group for which there are relatively much currentresearch.The result is a process description of the progression towards a sketch on a health garden, designed for aspecific spot on Wij Trädgårdar, but available for use in other locations, provided adjustments is made to thespecific location. The sketch is supplemented with plant suggestions to different parts of the garden.

By today?s date there are a lot of companies that are in great need of restructuring their paperwork in a more organized way. This can be excellent arranged with the help of properly constructed computer software. The aviation industry is no exception, but actually a good example of this. Täby Air Maintenance (TAM) is a company which is situated in Örebro.

This thesis addresses the driving forces behind the Swedish state?s procurement of Helicopters 14 and 16 and the decommissioning of Helicopter 4. These actions have significantly affected the Swedish Armed Forces, especially the Helicopter Wing, in carrying out their operational tasks. On numerous occasions the Helicopter Wing has been unable to perform its tasks. For instance, the Nordic Battle Group 08 had no helicopters to exercise with and, until recently, Sweden had completely lacked the ability to hunt submarines with helicopters for almost ten years.This thesis also aims to compare the decisions in 1999-2000 regarding Helicopter 14 with the decisions in 2010-2011 regarding the acquisition of Helicopter 16, to find if there is a general trend and how much the Armed Forces were able to influence decisions.

The accounting scandals that have attracted attention in recent years have led to internal control becoming a more central part of business activity. Doubts about what firms actually do have increased, all caused by the attention of accounting scandals. To counter this, frameworks and laws evolved and gained a significant role in the organization and its surroundings. The aim of the present study is to find out how four companies in the Kristianstad region are working to ensure its internal control and how they work to minimize risk and reduce uncertainty. We have used a qualitative method and interviewed a person in a senior position in each company.

The idea of this thesis emerged from our common interest to explore the life cycle of Swedish tourist destinations. This study has historical features since we tried to identify crucial historical and current push and pull factors, which influenced destinations upturns and downturns. In order to achieve our primary goal and identify those factors, we made two case studies. We chose Åre and Mölle as our cases and these two areas will represent Swedish destinations, and their life cycles, as a whole. The destinations? developing processes and their nowadays profile are not the same as for two hundred years ago which was a reason and motivation that made us start exploring this specific subject.

Smartphone applications, or apps, are an increasingly important part of omnichannel retailing. While the adoption and usage of apps for communicating with consumers has grown exponentially over the past few years, there is little academic research in this area. The primary purpose of this thesis is to describe how the involvement in a product category affects consumers' intention to use a retailer-branded smartphone application during their shopping trip. Drawing upon recent IS-literature with models TAM and UTAUT, our results indicate that product category involvement constitutes an important factor on the intention to use a retailer-branded smartphone application. By viewing involvement as a multidimensional construct, our study shows that the degree of hedonic and expressive value a product cateogry provides consumers with has important effects on intention, and these relationships are not moderated by consumers' age.