This thesis studies private equity firms' implementation of management control systems in their portfolio companies and whether the systems are affected by cross-national differences. A comparative case study examines five different private equity firms to derive if there are any differences between the private equity firms' management control systems in the United States, Europe and China. The empirical observations are categorized according to the framework developed by Merchant (1985) and further developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003). Theory on the effect of multinationality on management control systems, also developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003), are used to explain possible findings. The applied theory includes the cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede (1984) and Hofstede and Bond (1988).

The aim of this thesis is to examine the debate in Swedish library press concerning privatization of public libraries. The aim of the thesis stems from a desire to know whether Swedish librarians, as has been alleged in contemporary right wing debate, are politically biased and adherents of socialism. The debate is analysed using the method of idea and ideology analysis, using the tool of ideal types of the ideologies socialism and neo- liberalism. As material I have chosen articles from the magazines Biblioteksbladet and DIK Forum, from the years 1989 to 2010. The reason for choosing the topic of privatization is that it is a controversial question and a topic one could expect to generate a heated debate.Four positions can be discerned in the debate.

The need of raw material does of course fluctuate but the long term view is an increasing demand due to the growing consumption of sawn timber products, pulp, paper and lately also biomass. This has led to a keener competition for wood. At the same time there is an ongoing structural change of a significant part in the Swedish wood supply market, the private forest owners. In 1992, 22 % of Sweden´s 335 000 private forest owner lived apart from their forest. In 2007 this figure had risen to 36 %.

The aim of this study was to explore and gain understanding of the situation between managers in different forms of human service organizations. I chose to use a qualitative method and conducted semi-structured interviews with five professional middle managers in the public sector. To accomplish my purpose, I worked on the basis of several questions. The questions dealt with the role of middle management and what it involves, how it is perceived and what the middle managers think of the specific requirements for them and their leadership in organizations that provide services relating to people.  As a result of the analysis I have used the theory of social roles that describes the meaning of the different roles and role conflicts that arise in connection with various and conflicting expectations. The review of the results shows that middle managers in human service organizations experience to have to deal with a complex leadership role.

Around the year 2007, several news segments appeared in the Swedish media with focus on the social website Facebook. At the time, an increasing number of people in Sweden started to join the social platform and accepted the terms of contract to get access of the website, without further consideration of what they were agreeing to. This resulted in some private individuals felt violated when it turned out that major points of the contract entail that user?s private information, photos, videos and other publications that was shared on the website, were considered property of Facebook cooperation. Even though this incident made users more aware of what they should, and should not publish on the website, the episode did not result in users closing there accounts on Facebook.

Private equity bolag som skapar värde genom leveraged buyout har under de senaste åren fått ökad konkurrens inom den process vilken syftar till att finna attraktiva investeringar som kan generera avkastning enligt uppsatta avkastningskrav. Processen som karaktäriseras av informationsasymmetri och kallas för deal sourcing har därmed blivit ett svårare moment för dagens private equity bolag. Denna empiriska fallstudie undersöker hur svenska private equity bolag inom kategorin leveraged buyout i praktiken arbetar med deal sourcing och vilka drivkrafter som processen utformas efter i syfte att finna potentiella investeringar. Detta undersöks i ljuset av den akademiska forskning som tidigare gjorts på området. Studien utgår ifrån tio intervjuer med företagsrepresentanter vilka har insyn i och är delaktiga i processen med att finna bolag.

The number of LBOs in Sweden has increased during the last years and the current market trend is positive. MostLBOs involves private companies, but a few concerns public corporations on the national share market. In this thesis we will examine the conditions of a LBO of Cloetta Fazer AB. The purpose is to study existing conditions of Cloetta Fazer AB and to examine pros and cons with the deal. Based upon information presented in the frame of reference and in the empirical part, two cash flow valuations have been carried out.

Private equity-investeringar innebär kapitalsatsningar i onoterade företag med ett aktivt och tidsbegränsat ägarengagemang. Detta kan indelas beroende på tidpunkten och kapitalbehovet för investeringen och benämns: affärsänglar, venture capital och buyout. Det finns en allmän uppfattning att dessa bolag agerar som affärspirater, vilka suger ut tillgångarna i företag för att sedan sälja av det utan att tänka på konsekvenserna. Det finns en ovetskap om vad som egentligen tillför värde och på vilket sätt detta sker. På uppdrag av Svenska Riskkapitalföreningen skrivs därför denna uppsats.

With this master thesis we wanted to find out in which way the concept of public service is connected to different perspectives, ideals, visions of the future and forms of organizations. The purpose with our thesis was to do an analysis of different concepts regarding to public service. To the analysis of concepts we used Swedish newspapers and analysed the issue of public service that had been discussed in articles written during the last five years. From this material and other papers about public service we developed a model of public service ideals. We wanted to find out what the different perspectives thought about the Swedish television and their commission.

This thesis examines the relationship between OECD-DAC and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) within an aid efficiency context. The ability for these two actors to cooperate is highly important and determines the outcome for a major part of the development aid in the new millennium. The development agenda for the new millennium emphasizes aid efficiency as a key to a more successful aid, and this requires increased cooperation between all actors. The analysis made is a discourse analysis. The discourse of aid efficiency is analyzed, both its preconditions and results.The analyze finds out that there is a gap between OECD-DAC and CSOs in terms of how to handle aid efficiency.

AbstractDuring the last decade the public sector has been influenced by new ways of measuring performance and governing, taking inspiration from the private sector. The Swedish municipal community Vellinge has since 2004 adopted ?The Balanced Scorecard? by Kaplan & Norton, measuring not only the financial parts but also other, important factors. The adoption took place since the Swedish government applied new demands on county councils and municipal communities through ?God ekonomisk hushållning?.

The value of a good reputation for organizations is increasing today as consumers and citizens become more aware of brands. If a crisis hits an organization, there is now more to lose than before concerning reputation. Therefore the organization?s communication strategies must be developed to sustain the organization?s reputation during and after a crisis.In the field of crisis communication there are two distinguished theories which concern what an organization with help from crisis communication should do to undergo a crisis without losing its reputation. These theories are image repair theory and situational crisis communication theory (SCCT).

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine the professional discourses that can be identified in the public library field. My main focus is to look at the professional views on the added value of public library. Questions posed in this study are: how does the professional language look when it comes of speaking and reasoning about the public librarys added value and function, which discourses can be identified in the professional language about the public library, what could the discourses entail for the future of public library? The empirical data consist of four interviews where the respondents have been constituted by public librarians.

This thesis describes and examines a new line of business, CleanTech. CleanTech comprises a wide range of different types of companies and is not yet well defined. In this thesis only the Swedish market is considered, and a variety of players on the market are included to give the most extensive picture of the current situation. Recent research shows that a gap has arisen between governmental financing and private equity-investments in CleanTech-companies. This gap occurs mainly in companies in expansive phases and causes problems both for the companies and for the line of business as a whole. To investigate this gap the Swedish CleanTech-business is described in terms of earlier and existing financing, age and size of the companies and their turnover and profit.

The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyse the development of libraries on Tjörn, an island on the Swedish west coast. I have divided the thesis in two parts, one in which I will describe the libraries development between the years 1873 to 1952 in the municipality of Stenkyrka and one in which I will describe the libraries development between the years 1976 and 1985 in the municipality of Tjörn. The study is mainly based on written materials and a theoretic model will also be used in which I apply three factors, society, the libraries economy and individual actors on the library activity. The libraries in Stenkyrka during the early period were dependent of public grant from the state for their survival and the libraries were undeveloped. The society around them was poor and hardly any money or assistants came from the municipality.