Actors deliberately change their preferences, contrary to the assumptions of rational decision models. This study shows why, and to some extent how. Preferences are necessarily ambiguous and unstable. Rationality is a regulating myth which has had a profound influence on Western conceptions of what an actor is.The aim of this study is to help individual actors understand the theoretical grounds of their actions. The analysis provides tools for examining decision methods and preference changes.

The spread of digital photography has created major changes in the previously stable Swedish photofinishing market. We investigate how companies act to survive in the face of technological change, through our research question: What strategies have actors in the photofinishing business chosen during the changeover from analog to digital photofinishing? Using a deductive method, we have conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 actors in the photofinishing business. Innovation management studies innovation from a number of perspectives, describing effects of innovations on the competitive ability of established actors, and on the value of their resources. The companies were not prepared for the speed of the change.

Title: The component approach - From the harmonization process as a background to the perception of benefits and costs as effects.Authors: Elin Börjesson & Emma KarlssonTutor: Titti EliassonKey concept: Harmonization, Component approach and Benefit/CostBackground: With IFRS for SME's as a basis, the Accounting Board developed K3 which shall apply from financial year 2014. Upon introduction of the K3 companies will be forced to apply the component approach. When K3 with the associated component approach went out for consultation it resulted in a debate where some actors opposed the imposition of a requirement and not an option. It was questioned whether the costs with the component approach would be greater than the benefit of the implementation.Formulation of the problem: How is the introduction and use of the component approach seen by different operators from a benefit-, cost perspective?Aim: The aim of this essay is find out how the introduction and use of the component approach is seen by different operators from a benefit-, cost perspective.

Sammanfattning Utvecklingen och utbredningen av Leveraged buyouts förvärv har ökat i Sverige de senaste 5-15 åren, detta kan vara ett resultat av ett mer flöde på kapital och intresse av att investera. Dessutom har förmodligen den allt mer mogna private equity marknad tillsammans med det ökande behovet av effektivisering av bolagen bidragit till att allt fler förvärv sker med belånat kapital. Vi har i denna kvalitativa uppsats intervjuat tre private equity företag med syfte att försöka klargöra vilka investeringskriterier som ligger till grund för en leveraged buyout-transaktion, samt vilka branscher som lockar dessa private equity företagen. I slutsatsen har det framkommit att PE-företagen gör investeringar i mogna företag utan några preferenser på specifika branscher. Vidare har vi funnit att de två viktigaste faktorer som PE-företagen tar i beaktning vid investeringar är stabila kassaflöden och kompetent företagsledning i målbolagen..

This survey examines how a regional archive, Värmland Archives, interprets and works from the departure point of national cultural accessibility goal ?Everyone should have the opportunity to participate in cultural life?. And it is also a comporative study of discourse regarding accessibility between Värmland Archives and some other actors in the archival cultural system. Critical discourse analysis, according to Norman Fairclough, is used as a theory method. A discourse analysis is made on empirical data based on document study and qualitative research interviews. My conclusion is that if the term Accessibility is seen as a focal point the accessibility discourse in the documents of Värmland Archives and of the other actors studied can not be clearly discerned. Värmland Archives´s interpretation of terms regarding accessibility analyzed in the survey, varies among the staff regarding how the archives and its services should be accessible, and what accessibility means in the context of the archives.

Titel: Private equity-ägande och dess ekonomiska konsekvenser hos portföljbolagBakgrund: Det finns omstridda resultat inom den akademiska världen när det gäller vilka ekonomiska konsekvenser private equity-ägande leder till. Olika studier har kommit fram till att private equity-ägda portföljbolag både över- och underpresterar gentemot jämförbara företag. Skillnaderna i studiernas resultat tycks påverkas av vilken marknad som studien är utförd på. Detta då studier som är gjorda på marknader med spridd ägarkoncentration tenderar att visa på att private equity-ägande leder till positiva ekonomiska konsekvenser och tvärtom på marknader med koncentrerat ägande. Tidigare studier har också valt att fokusera på att studera private equity-ägda portföljbolag under högkonjunktur eller under både hög- och lågkonjunktur, det finns således till vår kännedom ingen tidigare studie som isolerar sin studie till att endast inkludera lågkonjunktur, vilket understryker relevansen av denna studie.Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att genom en empirisk analys avgöra om och vilka ekonomiska konsekvenser PE-ägande får hos portföljbolag under en lågkonjunktur på den svenska marknaden som präglas av hög ägarkoncentration.Metod: Denna studie har en deduktiv ansats där fokus ligger på teorier som berör private equity-bolags applicering av strategiska och organisatoriska förändringar hos portföljbolag.

Venture capital firms and private equity firms have been the subject of much controversy in the last decade. During this period economies throughout the world have seen a steady increase of these types of firms as owners of companies. In Sweden this has certainly been the case and many argue that this trend will continue to grow stronger in the future. This trend is by many regarded as dangerous and as a threat to the ownership model that has characterized the Swedish economy for decades. Family ownership has been widely regarded as the most beneficial and responsible ownership model in Sweden.

The purpose of this study is to see how adolescent students in high school formulate their thoughts of death and if a belief in transcendent existence affects their thoughts. The study was done on two separate schools, one municipal school and one private religious school, in minor cities in Sweden. The method used was qualitative inquiries and the amount of participants was four from each school, eight in total. The result of the study showed that six out of eight participants had a belief of a transcendent existence, three from the municipal school and three from the religious private school. The result also showed that the participants from the municipal school that had a belief in an transcendent existence also had a belief in a form of ?afterlife?, this was however not reflected on the students in the religious private school where result showed that one out of four had a belief in a form of ?afterlife? and three view death as the final stage of existence..

The Swedish market for unsecured loans has frequently been attacked by media and government officials. Some actors have been accused of exploiting customers and charging inappropriately high interest rates. Despite the public interest very little academic work has been published on the topic. Therefore it is our purpose to investigate why the prices can differ so much between the different actors. Further, we also aim to conduct a market overview as a secondary purpose which will help us in reaching our primary purpose.

The aim of this thesis is to study how the form of ownership affects the freedom within an artistic organization such as a museum or an art gallery. I have compared a publicly owned organization, Moderna Museet, with a privately owned organization, Magasin 3. The study is limited to only investigating the area of exhibition activities. A qualitative method has been chosen, and the empirics have mainly been collected through semi-structured interviews.The result shows that the form of ownership affects the freedom. Overall, one can conclude that the missions of the organizations look different, where the privately owned organization is given a greater freedom within their mission than the publicly owned organization.

This essay notice film and TV-series as a resource, which can be utililized by the tourism industry. To be more concrete, the aim of this essay is to examine if and how the Television series ?Midsomer murders? can be utilized as a tourism product. To fulfill the purpose of this essay, two different methods have been used: the study off literature and a content analyses, the later in form of a picture & film analyses. The results of this study showed that ?Midsomer murders? have qualifications enough to be a successful tourism product.

This study focuses upon the new societal objects that are termed public privatepartnerships where the public sector forms strategic alliances with the private sectorand the civil society to manage the wicked issues of today. An exampel of suchcooperation is Vänerhamn AB where the municipalities around the lake of Vänernand the private shipping companies got togheter to handle an economic crisis of theshipping buisiness. The partnership Vänerhamn has developed from a problematicactivity to a healthy company and the aim of this thesis is to illuminate thisdevelopment through an historical institutional approach, focusing critical junctureto discover if the governance theory can be used to understand the partnershipspositive process. This will be done through research questions about the organisation of thepartnership, about the members interests with the partnership and about eventuallycoordination problems in the partnership. The questions derive from dimensions ingovernance theory, central for the activity of partnerships. Interviews with centralinformants where held and it was complemented through a document analyses inorder to search for indications of the dimensions and that is the methodologicalapproach of the study. The conclusion of this thesis is that the governance theory can be used tounderstand Vänerhamns postive development since the members interest with thepartnership to a begining was not at all conformed and that led to obviouscoordination problems.

The Public vs. private movement has over the past decades identified numerous significant differences between public and private organizations. The observed differences covers almost every field in administrative economics ranging from organizational structure, management accounting, goal-setting and in the past few years even leadership. Strangely, in the majority of these studies little or no regards are given to organizational characteristics or fundamental differences between compared organizations and if these organizations really are comparable when studying the effect of sector.The aim of this study is to compare leadership in relatively similar organizations from both the public and private sector and so clarify if earlier identified differences in leadership styles still surface when leaders working with approximately the same thing in a similar work context are studied.A sample of 348 Swedish principals was drawn from both municipal and private elementary schools. The respondents answered a web-based survey based on the CPE-model resulting in leadership styles mapped according to three orientations: change, production and employee.

This Master?s thesis is an analysis of metaphors in relation to actors, and of discourses used in the copyright-debate in two major Swedish daily newspapers and one American: Göteborgs-Posten, Svenska Dagbladet and New York Times during the years 2001-2006. We aim to answer the following questions: Which metaphors were being used in the copyright-debate to create the archetypal villain, hero, winner and loser in editorials, debate and letters to the editor in the three newspapers? Which discourses did those metaphors relate or conform to? Which similarities or differences could be found when comparing the two countries? newspapers regarding representations and constructions of villains, heroes, winners and losers in the copyright-debate? Firstly we distinguished who the actors in the debate were, following parts of Theo van Leeuwen?s actors? analysis. Secondly we distinguished which metaphors were being used to describe the actors as either villains, heroes, winners or losers.

This thesis has aimed to study steering process and institutionalization in the context of educational policy work. This has been conducted by using empirical material from the political decision-making process that preceded the implementation of a new national program on how principals should be educated and certified. By using an aggregated theoretical point of view containing new institutionalism and traditional Swedish curriculum theory, the process was analyzed from different perspectives. The results depict a process that contained several actors who tried to shape the principal education program differently. From the theoretical perspectives, the decision-making process could be understood as an act of both self-interest as well as trust in their own beliefs and cultural values.