Small business enterprises have escalated in Sweden during the last decade. However, new established companies are struggling to maintain their selves during the startup process and according to a survey from Tillväxtanalys, only 68 % of startup companies from 2008 were still active three years later. One of the main reasons is lack of capital and the most common approach to finance companies is to apply for a bank loan. In other words, commercial banks are of great importance for new businesses. Although, the problem arises when there is no previous history from the new businesses that the bank could base its credit assessment on.

This study examines how and why organizations evaluate training and development within the organizations. The study has a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews, with office and organization development managers. The purpose of the study is to contribute with knowledge about how three large Swedish organizations evaluates training and development programs for staff members. Another purpose is to describe why the organizations evaluate training and development programs and to research if there is a further need to develop the organization evaluation methods. Therefore the research questions are Why and how do organizations evaluate training programs? What further need is there to develop organizations evaluation methods?The conclusion of this study shows that evaluation of the training and development programs are not a high priority among the selected organizations.

In this undergraduate thesis you will venture on a journey through the land of democratic values and urban planning. My research question is stated as: whether or not urban planning can show effects on democratic values and whether or not the municipalities in Sweden takes these possible effects into account when planning their city centres. You will in my theory part of this thesis be able to read about different views on urban planning and on democracy. Famous authors like Robert D. Putnam and Richard Florida will be examined as well as other theorists on democracy and urban planning.

With the technological development of the last decades, an increasing number of genealogists are carrying out their research online. The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine how and why genealogists' information behavior has been influenced by the use of online services for genealogy. Using a conceptual model of genealogists' information behavior as theoretical basis for the study, I examine how the use of online services affect genealogists? search process, what information they are looking for and what information resources they use.

In Sweden, discussions about artistic freedom are common both in a political and media context. At the same time, the role of contemporary art in Sweden?s society continues to grow and contemporary art has become more visible to the public. In the present work, we analyze the ?artistic freedom? concept by examining what it stands for and how it is being used.

This is a qualitative study aiming to find out how and why teachers work with art, music and movement in the English subject in the early years. In this study we have conducted a background study of previous research and as a starting point and as a point for reference we have relied on education policy documents like The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and the Swedish curriculum for the English school subject. Our research has consisted of interviews with six teachers and ten observation occasions in a total of three different primary schools. Our result show that there seems to be a consensus in both theory and praxis when it comes to integrating art, music and movement in learning and teaching of English in the early school years. The use of methods including art, music and movement in early language learning seems to promote the language development for all students but especially for young learners that require extra support for their language development.

AbstractEvidence based research has shown that organized parent support programmes have a goodeffect in strengthening the role of the parent and preventing problems during growth. Thisin turn has a great significance for Public Health.Komet is one of the evidence based programmes used in Sweden, based on Americanprogrammes and adapted to Swedish conditions.This qualitative study consists of interviews with six children between six and nine yearswith behaviour problems, whose parents have taken part in the Komet programme.With Grounded Theory as research approach the children?s experiences of the programmeand relations within the family have been looked into and analysed.The result of this study suggests that a space for growth of their own is a common need ofthe children, and that this can be achieved by giving them the opportunity to function in afamily environment where they are seen and understood.The Komet programme contributed to this by giving the family tools to strengthen relationswithin the family, create calm and make the children more visible.The self image of the children in this study had improved which gave them more room togrow in a strengthened family situation. This in turn improved conditions for good feelings,and sense of well being, of importance for child development and health..

The aim of this study is to describe how a theme about vitamins and analytical chemistry can be planed and implemented in a summer research school managed by AstraZeneca. The description of the theme is intended to be used as an instructor?s guide to upcoming summers-research-schools with the same theme. The students, which participated in the summer school of 2007, went to upper secondary school. During the summer school they were going to investigate the content of vitamin C in different fruits and vegetables.

The right touch is a project investigating the necessity of the graphic designer in relation to prose text.The project is partly theoretical and partly practical. A series of interviews with graphic designers, publishers and writers has been conducted to discuss the relationship between content and form in prose. In addition to these interviews, I have done theoretical research on the historical, political and economical context of the designed prose. Based on the findings during the theoretical research, a series of practical experiments was also executed. This project has had several outcomes but one of the more noteworthy is two methods for challenging the references in the act of designing prose (choosing a typeface, for example) using algorithms.

Authors: Marie Andersson, Maria Gustafsson and Johanna Olsson.Tutor: Peter CaesarTitle: Don?t forget the story ? a study about internal StorytellingKeywords: Internal Storytelling, Internal marketing, Communication, Organizational culture, Internal branding, Fellowship, Motivation, Participation.Background: Something that can be problematic for managers in an organization is to find an effective way to spread information that will received by all the employees. One way to spread information and messages to the employees is by using internal Storytelling. The use of internal Storytelling aims to create an environment to build up an engaged personnel. Organizations use internal Storytelling when they want to create collective stories and frame of references among the employees within the organization, and also spread the values of the brand and information about the organization.Problem statement: How can internal marketing be affected by internal Storytelling?Method: Our study is based on a case-study of SCA Packaging Sweden AB.

There is limited research done in the area of management control in the relationship between companies. This study investigates management control in outsourcing relationships and the decision to change sourcing strategy and to insource functions. The empirical research was conducted at an international company, which in this study has been anonymized. The research is mainly based on interviews. To extend and verify the conclusions drawn, another company, AB Ph.

Problem discussion: That empowerment and autonomy can lead to desirable effects on employees is clear. Previous research has found correlations between empowerment and e.g. motivation, job satisfaction, productivity, loyalty and commitment. However, a control problem arises when employees have more freedom in decision-making which could potentially lead to undesirable outcomes. It thus becomes a type of dilemma for management and managers where you have to try to balance a restrictive use of the control system (to maintain control) and an enabling use (to promote empowerment).Purpose: The purpose of this study is therefore to identify how a company can use its control system in order to achieve empowerment while maintaining acceptable levels of control.

 This bachelor?s thesis purpose is to examine how library staff experiences the meeting with non-Swedish speaking users of public libraries, and how they solve different situations. Today there is not much research on this subject but we find these questions important to study because we think it is good to be aware of the situations that can arise and discuss how to solve any problems. To have a basis for this qualitative study we conducted group interviews with library staff, where they are asked about their experiences with non-Swedish speaking users. In the analysis the results of the interviews are compared to previous research and related to communication theory, which is the theoretical framework for this study.

The aim of this dissertation is to examine why smaller municipalities[1] in Sweden experience difficulties when implementing the 16 environmental objectives that are designed to solve Sweden's environmental problems.The theoretical framework used for this dissertation is implementation theory which provides three conditions that need to be met in order to have a successful implementation.  These three conditions have shaped the research questions that examine if Torsby municipality has the "understanding," "ability" and "will" needed to implement the decision correctly.  The dissertation employs a case study method to examine why Torsby municipality has experienced difficulties implementating the target: programmes and strategies for planning, which is an interim target to environmental objective number 15: A good built environment.  Qualitative text analysis and interviews with politicians and civil servants from Torsby municipality and the county administration board of Värmland have been conducted in order to answer the research questions.   The material used for this dissertation is mostly from the government bills that are the foundation of the Swedish environmental policy and the documents and reports about the environmental objectives that the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket), the Swedish Environmental protection agency (Naturvårdsverket), and the Environmental objectives council (Miljörådet) have released.The result of this dissertation supports previous research which has shown that smaller municipalities have problems implementating the environmental objectives due to a lack of financial resources. This dissertation also shows that the problems can be due to a lack of understanding the purpose of the objectives.  This leads to a lack of political will to implement the objectives.  Since the municipalities do not have the political will to implement the objectives the appropriate resources needed for a successful implementation are not appointed and therefore the municipalities are not able to fully implement the environmental objectives. [1] Municipalities with less than 20 000 inhabitants..

The aim of our study was to increase understanding of older people?s views on social media?s and identity by asking the question: How do seniors perceive identity on Facebook? Based on a qualitative approach with written interviews conducted by e-mail, we contacted respondents who had and used a Facebook account. In our study we used categories, such as seniors, identity, Facebook and networking to be able to answer our research question. The result of this study is shown as a description of nine respondent?s testimony regarding identity on Facebook.