This thesis examines the deregulation reform of the Swedish railroad industry, focusing on passenger transport between 1988 and 2005. The purpose of the thesis is to examine the effects from the deregulation reform on prices, market concentration and to determine whether SJ (the state owned incumbent) has been conducting strategic behaviour in order to prevent new entrants to the market. The chosen method consists of interviews with the MD at SJ between 1988 - 1998 Mr Karl-Erik Strand, the transportation researcher at SSE Mr Gunnar Alexandersson. Statistical sources and companies financial reports have also been used. The results that I have found were besides the fact that the market concentration is still significant high and the Profitability among the operators low, is that the prices has increased more than CPI during the period but the competitive tendering has resulted in lower government subsidies after the deregulation.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om det finns ett samband mellan lönsamhet och storlek på rörlig samt total VD-ersättning i de största svenska aktiebolagen. I uppsatsen diskuteras även funna samband samt bakomliggande teoretiska förklaringar till VD-ersättningens storlek. För att undersöka om VD-ersättning och företags lönsamhet korrelerar utförs kvantitativa undersökningar med hjälp av regressionsanalyser för respektive år mellan 2002 och 2007. Populationen som undersökningen baseras på är de företag som i september 2009 var registrerade på Stockholmsbörsens segment Large och Mid Cap.Undersökningen resulterade i slutsatsen att inget samband mellan vare sig rörlig eller total VD-ersättning och lönsamhet kunde styrkas. Istället gavs indikationer om andra faktorer som påverkade VD-ersättningens storlek.

In an ever more competitive environment Sandvik Materials Technology,SMT, runs a large-scale program to improve their processes for product development.The purpose with the program is to increase the company?s Profitability by increasingthe number of new products in their product portfolio. The strategies SMT is usingfor reaching their goals are to change the way they work with product development byreducing lead time and learning how to prioritize products with the highestProfitability. In the R & D Department the work of improvement pursue by adaptingLean R & D to their way of working. Lean R & D encourages working withcontinuous improvements and eliminating waste.The main purpose for this Master?s Thesis is to develop didactic support to make iteasier to implement Lean in SMT R & D department.

Purpose: The purpose is to research different co-operations between venue owners and WISPs, when WLAN is deployed in a public space. The aim is to establish viable business models for the interaction between the two vital actors in the public WLAN industry. In this work, the advantages and disadvantages of revenue and cost sharing will be defined, along with technical and commercial issues that need to be resolved. Methodology: A number of case studies of the current situation have been conducted in the most attractive venues for WLAN, airports. As the public WLAN market had most widespread adoption and is most mature in the USA, case airports were chosen both there and in Scandinavia.

Frågeställning: Hur skiljer sig lågprisflygbolagens strategier jämfört med de traditionella, vilken är den vinnande strategin?Huvudsyfte: Genom utvalda teorier och nyckeltal jämföra och se skillnader mellan flygbolagens strategier och hur det påverkar lönsamhet och utveckling.Metoder: En jämförande studie baserad på sekundärdata på fem stora flygbolag för att hitta olikheter i strategier. Främst används bolagens årsredovisningar, vetenskapliga artiklar och relevanta teorier för insamlandet av data.Slutsatser: Biljettpriset inom flygindustrin blir en allt viktigare faktor att anpassa sig efter för överlevnad på marknaden. Lågprisflygen har genom kostnadsreduceringar genom enklare bokningssystem, mindre personalstyrka, avlägsna flygplatser och enhetlig flotta kunnat sätta lägre priser än de traditionella. Detta innebär att effektiviteten har ökat och detta sätter press på de traditionella flygbolagen att kostnadsreducera och utveckla servicen ytterligare för att ha en chans att klara konkurrensen.

Under det senaste decenniet har den svenska elektronikhandeln präglats av en allt hårdare konkurrenssituation och lägre lönsamhet. Det har lett till att stora butikskedjor gått i konkurs. För att vända trenden måste företagen hanterar sina butiksverksamheter effektivt. Det blir därmed avgörande hur butikschefen sköter butiken. Av den anledningen är det intressant att underso?ka butikschefers arbetssätt för att se vad som leder till hög lönsamhet.

The aim of the project is to develop a tool for a management system at the advertising agency ofConfetti. The company has during a longer period of time felt a need of introducing a quality and environmentalsystem but have a lack in resources of knowledge, time and money. Their goal is to have aconcrete documentation which describes their quality policy and the function of the activity.The work has been performed by mapping and analyzing the processes of the company according tothe process model with focus on one pilot process. New routines have been developed and documentedin a management system.Confetti would like their management system to fulfil the ISO-standard so that they eventually inthe future can be certified. Therefore a literature study has been done according to management systemsand standards.

Background: During the year 2002 approximately 27 000 people lost their jobs because of companies filing for bancruptcy. In 2002 the number of companies filing for bancruptcy in Sweden were 6740. This is approximately twice as many as in the year of 1974 when the first major study concerning bancruptcies in Sweden was carried out. The accumulated amount of unpaid bancruptcy claims for the period 1991 ? 1997 was 51 billion SEK.

The main aim of this study was to investigate and compare different methods for the extraction of forest fuel from environments close to an archipelago. The study was based on relevant literature and published reports as well as personal communications. Forestry has traditionally been characterized by intense efforts to rationalize and mechanize the cutting technique used for timber and pulpwood. In line with the increasing importance of forestry, more concentrated efforts can be expected in the area of techniques and methods, especially for the above-mentioned product lines. In Sweden, forestry is of major importance and the Swedish economy and standard of living have mainly been created based on the revenues generated from it. Thus, it is vital that Swedish forests are harvested in an efficient and responsible manner. The demand for biofuel is growing and today accounts for 15% of total Swedish energy production, a share that will probably increase. This study is based on three research questions, which are described under the heading of Aim. The results reveal that the most profitable method for handling forest fuel is the traditional one, which is also the most commonly used method in southern Sweden, namely the stockpiling of logs in a clearing by means of forwarders followed by splintering at the place from where they will be distributed. Today, the high cost of barge transport required for the extraction of forest fuel in an archipelago environment renders such operations unprofitable.

A great number of empirical researches show that hedging is associated with higher firm value, particularly hedging interest rate and exchange rate. However, there is no clear support for value-added risk management hypothesis in the case of producers of commodities. Moreover, according to Shrand and Unal (1997), there are two types of risks, core business risks (or core risk) and homogeneous risks (or non core risks), which are based on a firm's comparative advantages with respects to the source of risk. Firm can earn economic profits for bearing core risks in which it has a comparative information advantage. Firm earn a zero economic rents for bearing non-core risks, where it has no advantage information than its competitors.

The economic prerequisite to many farmers in Sweden after the EU membership and the new agriculture policy has generated large demands on the farm management. Until year 2004 you got a grant based on what you had produced and not on consumer demand. In 2005 a new economic aid (Mid Term Revue) was introduced and the conditions has changed again. Due to this I have chosen to do a cost-benefit analysis on a case, to investigate if the present production is sustainable in the future. My conclusion is that the Profitability is acceptable even if the farm has a high debt. But to make the production more profitable the products produced should be refined as much as possible at the farm, to get maximum economic return.

The deregulation during the last decade within the airline businesses have called upon a more fierce competition among airlines. This fact forces airlines to continuously focus on service development in order to offer attractive solutions to satisfy customers changing needs and stay competitive. This paper focuses on service development at Scandinavian Airlines. The aim of this case study is to examine the sources of information used in service development and new service development at Scandinavian Airlines. Further the aim is to examine whether information derived from customers can be shown to play a more important role in either service development or new service development.

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, OTEC, is a sustainable energy conversion technology that is not yet commercialized. OTEC is a technology that utilizes the temperature difference in oceans between the warm surface water and the cold water at 1 000 m depth to run a Rankine Cycle. This technology can produce electricity and provide synergies like fresh water, air conditioning and aquaculture. A simulation program for three alternative OTEC systems has been created in order to decide which OTEC system is most profitable; closed, open or hybrid system. In this simulation a production cost analysis is performed in order to investigate and decide which one of the three systems that has the lowest production cost. The production cost analysis also analyzes if the Profitability is affected by the size of the facility. After these analyzes, the most profitable of the three different OTEC-systems is expanded by an installation of solar collectors in order to see if the thermal efficiency is improved. The result shows that the most profitable system varies with the size of the facility.

Att uppnå en hög lönsamhet och produktivitet är viktiga prioriteringar inom organisationer. Mycket pekar på att ett effektivt arbetsmiljöarbete ökar dem båda. Det finns indikationer på att arbetsmiljöarbete inte utnyttjas för att ge lönsamhet. Till synes verkar inte den kunskapen vara allmänt känd. I arbetsmiljöarbete finns pedagogiska processer, då främst i den psykosociala arbetsmiljön.

Purpose:  The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the major car companies have been affected by the global financial crisis. We would also want to look at how revenues and profits have been affected, and what the consequences have been both within the company and the market in general. It?s also interesting to see how Profitability and financial stability has been affected. We had chosen to do a ?before-after? comparison, and we chose to compare the years 2007 and 2009.Boundaries: We have chosen to concentrate on a corporation in the Asian market, more specifically Toyota.