Recent years have been very turbulent for most private equity firms. Especially the financial meltdown in global economy has affected the industry, but also the public pressure has made private equity houses change their control strategies towards more conventional methods used in public companies. This thesis aims to put light on the control methods used in listed private equity houses which use a buyout strategy. The paper describes how the control methods change over the different phases the asset experience and how different value generating strategies use altered control methods. Using Merchant's (2003) framework for management control systems and Berg and Gottschalg's (2004) research on value generating strategies in buyouts the thesis shows that action controls as designing instructions for the board and a business plan, together with goal alignment is the commonly used control strategy directly after the acquisition.

Research question: How does the industrial company Scania work to get more women in leadership positions?Purpose: The purpose of this work is to describe how companies in a male-dominated industry can work to get a higher share of female leaders.Method: This survey was based on a deductive approach with a qualitative method. Theories have been obtained primarily from scientific articles and the empirical part has been collected through interviews from the companies Wiminvest and Scania.Conclusion: The conclusions the study came up with was different elements that companies in male-dominated industries can work with to get a higher share of female leaders. The first thing that companies can do is to join the project BON or similar projects to work on this issue. They can work with workshops and lectures to disseminate knowledge about the topic.

The aim of this master thesis is to study the integration in Sweden between forestry and bulky industries as fiber- and sawmilling companies. The analysis is based on theories about transaction cost economies and competitive strategy. The studied companies are active on the Swedish roundwood market. The buying actors on this market were divided into two groups; fiber- and sawmill industries. Three companies from each group were chosen subjectively by the author.

Internship is a new form of interaction between the academic world and the market and a phenomena increasingly popular among elite universities in Europe. The educational system has traditionally kept an academic approach where the institutions for higher education have acted isolated without extensive influence from the market. Today pressure from the market has led to intensified interaction between the universities and companies among many European elite universities. We have carried out a situational analysis concerning interaction between the academic institutions and companies in Europe. More specifically, we looked at the potential for Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) to strengthen its position on the educational market by adjusting its strategies and implement internships as a part of the education.

AbstractArtists ? the invisible assets; a qualitative study about the view on music rights and artist brands as intangible assets within music companies.This paper is a study of what view representatives from Swedish music companies have on activating music rights and artist brands as intangible assets. Throughout the paper, a discussion is held regarding what the representatives think about activating these intangible assets. From this, we have identified and analyzed possible pros and cons to such activation.Our interest to this question was brought to us when we realized that most music companies in Sweden have intangible assets without activating them. This is, even though these are their main source of income.

The aim of this master?s study is to examine the function of the public library in the local community at present. I have searched for the answers to the following questions: Which position has the public library in the local cultural policy? What characterizes each library and which are the priorities? What is the local profile of the public library? What cooperation partners does the public library have and what do they mean to the library? Does the public library intensify the local community in any way? To answer this, I have made three qualitative case studies. Interviews and collection of documents were carried out in three different communities.

Background and problem discussionThe temporary employment industry has grown extensively during the past two decades since the market was deregulated. Companies today need to be flexible to meet fluctuating demand and economic climate in society which has made the market expand. When using employees not directly employed by the company there is a risk that long term effects appears that the companies have not thought of.Aim of studyTo create a model of what negative aspects companies should consider when making the decision to use temporary employees.Methodological frameworkThe study performed through an abdicative literature study and with an empirical data collection method of a qualitative approach where we interviewed five hiring companies and one temporary agency on the decision of hiring temporary employees.Frame of referenceProblem areas with the use of temporary employments were identified through four perspectives of the organization; the structural, human resource, symbolic and political perspective. The problem areas we address are organizational learning, motivation, risk of eroding human capital, belongingness and conflicts. These will be described and presented together with management control to counter the problems.EmpiricsThe empirics are focused on what aspects the companies of the study considered when making the decision to use temporary employment, what the companies? different reasons for using temporary employment are and what they do to minimize possible negative effects.Analysis and conclusionsCompanies use temporary employees mostly to become more flexible, both numerically and in their competence.

The Department of Forest Products and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences has received means from Vinnova for a preliminary study of the organisation of logging work of today and how a better logging organisation should be brought about. This thesis reports results from qualitative interviews with nine forest machine contractors regarding the situation of their companies. The interviews have been analysed with respect to the genesis of the companies, which tasks they perform or that they could consider perform-ing, business relationships of the companies, relationships between the different partners of the companies, and the state of competition experienced by the contractors. The companies have developed either from the contractor previously being machine operator employee or from that the contractor in making has owned a machine and needed work. Their primary business is mechanised logging.

The public spaces of the city from a social sustainability perspective, Jubileumsparken, a public space for the young, aims to see how public spaces can be open and accessible to all young people in the community. New public spaces can be created and formed by urban planning. A public space that is undergoing considerable development is Jubileumsparken, which is situated in Gothenburg. This area constitutes the case study for this thesis. Due to the commercialization in the neo-liberal society of today, there is a risk that economically weak people, such as the young, the unemployed or students, can?t take part of all public spaces.

The aim of this thesis is to use Gabriel Tardes theories concerning imitation, repetition and the public opinion as a way of understanding how transmedial communication develops over time. This involves a study of social media, traditional press and public organizations in relation to each other. The campaign, What are you doing? (Vad håller du på med?, 2013), launched by the Swedish military as a way of drafting more soldiers, is used as an example of how the theories can be applied to help us understand connections, patterns and social behavior in the rapid mutation and viral spreading of information. By discussing the campaign and its effects, the ambition is to give an understanding of how a campaign of this scale could be planned for and structured.

To thoroughly think with safety and security in mind is an important issue in planning of public city spaces. Spaces intended to be available to all inhabitants of a city should have a welcoming appearance. Unfortu-nately, this is not the situation in many pedestrian walkways, parks and such spaces, possibly due to lack in safety and security. This master thesis intend to examine questions at this issue ? what makes you feel safe and what causes insecurity in public city spaces. The safety aspect treats the human psychological and sociological ways of perceiving her milieu and other humans in it, and how the physical shape of her surroundings can affect the sense of safety.

In the paper we bring up and analyse the attitudes librarianshave towards youth and youth programs in the public library.The purpose is to raise awareness among librarians and tomake the process of change and development. We have usedsemi structured interviews in order to answer our researchquestions and conducted the interviews with five librarians incharge of the youth programs in different public libraries. Inthese interviews we asked about their views on youth as auser group, youth programs and how this affects theiropinions on the roles of the public library. We have also triedto see how the librarian?s opinions differ from how thelibrary runs their youth programs today.We have used two different models as theoretic framework.One of them has defined three different roles of the publiclibrarian and is constructed by Maj Klasson and the other is adeveloped version of Andersson & Skot-Hansen?s classicmodel of the roles of the public library made by Jochumsen,Rasmussen & Skot-Hansen.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to identify and describe thedifferent roles that are expressed in a public library by researchingthem in the four policy documents concerning Västerås public libraryin 2010 and by interviews with three specially chosen key persons.Further studied are the discourses that can be perceived in thematerial and whether or not the roles could come in conflict witheach other. Laclau and Mouffes discursive theory constitutes themethodical frame for this thesis and by using terms from discursivetheory the analysis was made in four steps.Seven roles were identified from the policy documents concerningVästerås public library and the interviews with the key persons. Thefirst role of the public library was the intermediary of knowledge andinformation, the second was viewed as a democratic role, the third asa marketing role, the fourth as a role that handled the collaboration,the fifth role was to improve literacy, and the sixth and seventh roleswere as a culture centre and a meeting place. With the help fromkeywords five major discourses were found within the material.

This essay discusses the interaction between the authorities in Nacka municipality in Sweden and supervisors within the eldercare. In Nacka politicians have gradually started delegate responsibility for how care-giving for the elder should be done and focus instead on formulating economical objectives and overall rules. It is up to the approved supervisors of eldercare to deliver good care and quality. The method chosen to accomplish this is public choice. This method is a part of the big New Public Management (NPM) reform which have had a big impact on Swedish public sector since the 1980´s.

Purpose:The purpose of this thesis is: to determine key success factors for an organisation?s internal process of internalising future trends forecasting. Methodology:A qualitative approach has been chosen by examining three different companies (Electrolux, H&M and, Sony Ericsson) through interviews and other data. The empirical material have been analysed by using valid theory as a platform from where the analysis can be performed. This has created a conceptual analysis that enables the use of the conclusions in other similar companies.