Background: Today small business firms represent a considerable part of swedish economy, and the number of small firms has steadily increased the last ten years in relation to the total employment. The fact that there are firms willing to grow, it ought to be interesting observing their motives of growth, and what kind of strategies that can be identifiable in these firms. Purpose: To examine the motives of growth in small business firms, and to study which growth strategies the firms use when expanding their business. Realization: The study is accomplished through telephone interviews with six small business firms in the province of Jönköping. The firms contain between 10-49 employees.

The aim of this study was to analyze society's efforts for girls who are victims of honorrelatedviolence and oppression. More specifically its aim was to examine what efforts thesociety can offer girls who are exposed to honor-related violence and oppression, and howsocial services and shelters cooperate on issues of honor. We have chosen to focus on girlswho are victims of honor-related violence, but we are aware that even boys and men face thisproblem. The study was conducted using a qualitative approach through interviews. Tocomplete the study we have conducted eight interviews throughout Sweden.

Background: Today, the trademark is the heart of the company and the management of brandimage and identity require certain attention and care. In an increasingly tough business climatewhere the brand today has a central and important role, it is understandable that the companieswant to take maximum advantage of it. In the company the brand is a great resource with analready known identity and established values that can help new products to enter the market. Toextend the brand is a popular growth strategy but it is important to do it properly in order not tofail. J Lindeberg and Peak Performance are two Swedish fashion companies which both havemade brand extensions.

The purpose of this study is to look at the line extensions of the Swedish dairy company Skånemejerier. We have chosen to focus on how trends in ecological products and Functional Food influence the line extensions. The competition in the food sector have made it harder for companies to be seen in the market area and the companies have to make their brands more visible. That is one of the reasons why companies work with line extensions. The study is based on a qualitative approach because we wanted to come closer to our subject in order to establish a greater understanding for the case itself.

Background: Mass customization has been identified as a competitive business strategy by both companies and academics because of its ability to incorporate the voice of the customer into companies? products and services. Although mass customization may sound appealing, the strategic concept is still developing and firms adopting this business strategy face several challenges. Production concerns are of high relevance since mass customization implies a high level of customer involvement in the product design. Since the areas are closely linked it is reasonable to ask how a mass customization strategy affects production concerns.

The purpose of this study is to examine immigrants' experiences of social services' treatmentand their expectations of social services. In this study we have used the following questions:how immigrants have experienced the treatment of the social service, the way in whichimmigrants would like to be treated by social services as well as what kind of beliefs andexpectations immigrants have concerning the social services' duties and powers. We haveused a qualitative method in the study that consists of ten semi-structured interviews. Thetheoretical concepts we have used are culture, ethnicity, cultural competence, professionalismand social psychology. The survey reveals a majority of negative experiences, such as afeeling of being ?tossed around?, suspicion and discrimination by the caseworkers due to theethnicity of the respondents.

The thesis had its starting point in the first paragraph of the eleventh chapter in the Swedish social services act, which discusses the immediate risk assessments that has to be made when the social services receive a report about a child. The thesis highlights an area that has received a lot of attention in media since the spring of 2014, when an eight year old girl was fatally abused by her legal guardians. The social services had at the time received a report about the girl but it was left unread. This tragic case has brought attention to the routines used by the social services for dealing with reports and risk assessments. This thesis was conducted through individual interviews with social workers working with children and families in the social services, with the aim to acquire an enhanced understanding of how social workers perform immediate risk assessments and what these assessments are based on.

Our common future involves many important challenges. People and nature need to improve the relationship in order to reach an ecologically sustainable development. In a society where consumption of products steadily increases, the consumer awareness about social and environmental issues connected to the products becomes an importent factor. More and more companies choose to work more actively with these issues and more and more products get labelled by some of the eco labelling organisations. From the cradle to the gate means that a study has been done on a part of a products life cycle.

The aim of this paper is to spread some light over contract treatment from the perspective of the District Courts, Social Services and Probation Services, and understand the reason for local variation of the number of people sentenced to contractual treatment.Essential questions asked in this paper are; What advantages and disadvantages are known by the cooperating parties regarding contract treatment in comparison to prison? What parameters are considered when the cooperating parties decide upon contract treatment? What impact does the shared responsibility of cost have? What do the respondents think is the reason for the local variation?In order to answer the essential questions a qualitative and descriptive method has been used to highlight the main question of our study; What is the reason for the local variation in number of contract treatment sentences in Halmstad and Ystads district courts?The paper shows that the local variation between the Probation Services districts is dependent on the conditions to propose a contract treatment. In Halmstad it is not conditioned for the Probation Services to have a responsibility agreement with the Social Services to the same extent as for the Probation Services in Ystad..

The aim of this thesis is to practice the theoretical methods that are concerned during the product development process of two new products. The theoretical concepts that embody the two products are created out of a product specification which is given by a commissioner with a private interest. The primary tasks of the design of the concepts are aimed on the products shape, which is to be created as a flexible structure by using silicon rubber as material.The storage box is a further development of the already known food storage box, or lunch box, which is common used in consumer kitchens. The main idea is to design a flexible product by using silicone rubber. It will able the storage box to be compressed when it is not used, be storage friendly and not consume more space than necessary in a storage compartment.

ABSTRACTBackground: People with colorectal cancer undergoing rectum amputation get a permanent colostomy, which affects the social life. It may be valuable for health care what these people experience living with colostomy in order to provide the greatest possible support. Objective: The aim of this study is to describe how people who received a colostomy experience their daily lives and the support they have received from the health services.Method: Qualitative interview study with six people, with a descriptive phenomenological approach.Results: The analysis of the interviews about how it's like to live with a colostomy resulted in three themes: 1) Living with a colostomy gives an uncertainty that affect the social life, 2) Physical and psychological impact of getting a colostomy and 3) Support for health care and relatives.Conclusion: Subjects had a positive attitude towards life, which contributed to that they could adjust to living with a colostomy and feel a meaningfulness of life. The study shows that all the interviewed people overall were satisfied with the information provided by the healthcare personnel. It was good with both oral and written information and very appreciated with repeated information. One aspect that could be improved was the information given aboute the closure of anus during surgery and the following complications.

The health care system in most western countries is undergoing rapid changes with an increasing amount of people living with chronic cancer. These people have to deal with their disease in every day life together with working and family life. The relationship between health services and every day life has changed and raises new requirements. Earlier research has shown that maintaining every day life is important for cancer patients and their families. This study comprised patients with lymphoma receiving their diagnosis during 2003 ? 2005.

Development of services that?s provided through mobile application technology in today's modern IT society has become a full-fledged market where numerous players trying to make themselves heard in everything from innovative new services to the further development of existing services. In these services actors wants to find new areas of use by taking advantage of the mobile technology.We have investigated how value is created and how the value is captured in the services provided through mobile applications. Through this, we wanted to identify the critical success factors in how a newly developed service should be designed to create value. This has been done through a thorough literature review, together with an indepth evaluation of existing applications.

The purpose of this paper is to study how people without home experience social services and how they experience their space of action when they meet social services. In order to answer these questions, a qualitative approach has been used. The empirical material consists of five interviews with people who have contact with social services because they are homeless. To support my analysis of the space of action for the persons being interviewed, I?ve used two theoretical perspectives, power analysis by Michel Foucault and Rational Choice.

Small!size!enterprises!within!the!outdoor!industry!seldom!use!a!structured!process!or!method!when!involving!users!in!product!development.!One!reason!for!this!is!that!many!structured!development!processes!are!designed!for!large!companies!with!very!different!resources.!When!involving!users!in!product!development!processes,!the!most!common!user! is! an! elite! athlete.! She! or! he! often! has! different! requirements! than! the! regular!consumer!and!in!the!customers?!point!of!view;!this!leads!to!nonCmaximized!developed!products.!!The! result! of! this! thesis! is! a! user! involvement! process! for! small! outdoor! companies!based! on! the! Sister! Kenny! Research! Center! Innovation! Handbook,! a! product!development!process,!which!itself!is!based!on!a!phaseCgate!model.!The!process!focuses!on!the!user!category!enthusiastic!amateurs,!since!this!is!what!companies!in!the!industry!require.!The!process!also! focuses!on!how!and!where! small!outdoor! companies! should!involve!users!and!give!recommendations!on!how!many!users!that!should!be!involved!in!a! product! development! process,! different! from! what! the! theory! recommend.! The!process! also! builds! on! that! ideas! should! come! from! the! users! first,! and! then! being!further!developed!by!the!company's!product!developers.!The!degree!of!communication!between!users!and!the!company!is!shown!and!the!report!clarifies!the!user!involvement!intensity!in!product!development!processes.!!The!involvement!process!that!has!been!developed!has!also!been!summarized!in!a!guide!that! can!be!used!by! a! company!on! a!daily!basis.!This! contains! information!on,! among!other!things,!how!users!are!selected!and!how!to!plan!a!workshop.!!! !.