Today, Sweden has about forty companies owned by the government. These are active on markets with variable competition. Some have been given special areas of responsibility that in a practical notion make them monopolists. The period when most public companies where formed (and with that the following subjection to competition) during the nineties and early 2000's, forced the formerly protected businesses to act on the terms of the open market. Parallel to this development the brand has for the last twenty years evolved into something great strategic importance for the business, including the business-to-businesses (B2B).

Because of an increasing demand from customers and changing external environment, there is a need for continuous improvements, for both manufacturing and service organizations, to meet these demands. Manufacturing organizations have been working systematically with quality improvements for a long time, but it has not been as common for service organizations. Because of that the methods to use for implementation of the systematic improvements have not been designed to fit service organizations, and not either for public organizations. The purpose of this thesis is to explain if and why the Swedish Road Administration?s organizational culture and handling of ideas and deviation support an implementation of continuous improvement management.

In this essay I examine if socio cultural theory is present for teachers when pupils and students are using computers in class, especially when using blogs as a tool for learning. The aim of the essay is also to examine if blogs among pupils in class can promote peer support, co-operation and reflective dialogue, and in that case in what way. The essay consists of two studies, one small interview study and one literature study.  The interview study is made with the qualitative method phenomenographic analysis, presenting four Swedish teachers who have much experience using blogs in education. The aim of the literature study where some national and international research studies of relevance are presented, is to broaden the perspective.The result of the interview study shows that a socio cultural theory is highly present among the teachers who already use blogs in education. In addition, those teachers experience that the blog in the classroom supports dialogue and co-operation among the pupils.  In contrast, the literature study shows that most teachers in Sweden who made their pupils work with computers in classroom seem to let their student work alone, without guiding them and without creating co-operation or dialogue in the classroom.

The aim of this study is to investigate how Swedish listed real estate companies use quantitative sustainability measures - mainly sustainability index with a financial focus. Sustainability management is a controversial issue that is used more and more constructive. A sustainable management approach in corporate cunduct is complex and based on a number of aspects of business visions, objectives and daily procedures. The study identifies aspects that are considered relevant in real estate companies where the selection of sustainability indicators is based on the support of scientific research in this field. The study intendeds to clarify how Swedish listed real estate companies have selected aspects and indicators of sustainability management and how these work towards a sustainable development.

The SMEs’ internationalization strategy—Foreign Market Entry Modes selection Title: 1st of June 2006 Date of the Seminar: Bus 809. Master thesis in international marketing Course: Han xiao Author: Ulf Elg, Associate professor, Lund University, Sweden Advisors: Ying Bin, Associate professor, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, China. Guest researcher, Lund University, Sweden Internationalization, entry mode, SMEs, foreign market Keywords: The purpose of this study is to understand the internationalization process of the SMEs, and try to define the motives and internal factors impact their foreign market entry mode selection. Thesis purpose: This thesis is based on qualitative method using case study. The primary information sources are the interviews with key-persons in internationalization process of SMEs Methodology: The literature review in this study concerns areas of SMEs’ motives for internationalization, foreign market entry mode approaches and influence of internal & external factors.

The aim with my study is to highlight, illuminate and examine the social and maternal health care motivational work of pregnant women with a risk or abuse of alcohol and / or drugs, and what actions can be considered for these women. In addition, the aim is to explore how social services and maternity care might interact in this type of case. The aim is to convey the subjective experience of each of the interviewees. For the purposes of this study, I have chosen to use the qualitative research method. I have interviewed social workers in individual and family care, and midwives.

AbstractPurpose ? The purpose of this study is to investigate possible reasons for long lead-time in a customer driven production, and how the lead-time can be reduced. To fulfil the purpose the study has been broken down into two questions.1. Whichfactorsaffectthelead-timeinacustomer-drivenproduction?2.

Marketing is a broad subject with many different areas. Part of the marketing that has been of great importance is the 4P:s also known as the marketing mix. Marketing mix is included in one of the traditional marketing approaches. In recent years there have been some changes and have begun looking at new ways of looking at marketing. One of the ways is entrepreneurial marketing to the effect that the company tries to use its resources optimally.

When referring to the same event, people can have different assumptions. What is interesting to see is why these assumptions are different, why do people have different stories? Some of the reasons could be different levels of expectation, different communication channels or even different cultural backgrounds. We have analysed all these by having a case study within a company that has recently gone through a change management/strategy implementation process.The research reviewed in this paper originates in two different worlds. One world is a research world where stories come from textbooks and articles.

This study aims at using discourse analysis to analyze SFI students attitudes to religion and religiosity in an SFI-context. The questions are: How is the discourse constructed and maintained by religion and religiosity of SFI students in an SFI context? How do SFI participants experience that their religion has affected their time at SFI?Using a case study approach, interviews were conducted with a group of SFI students. The results show that the religious discourse in SFI is influenced by the SFI-context and affected based on the current education discourse that exists there. Furthermore, the discourse is designed and maintained by the participants private religious beliefs and the religion of the majority of the group, One canhere speak of a strong social unit forming a plausibility structure The power structure that emerges is that the majority has the power to define the significance of religion and place within the SFI context. In the SFI-context the participants view is that religion is something private that should not be expressed in the school environment.

This thesis aims to examine why women are prevented from attaining high positions in organizations. By executing a case study through qualitative interviews with employees from the Human Resource Department at the agency for Swedish Armed Forces, this study presents eight general and specific explanatory factors that hinder women from making a vertical career. The general factors include that women are discriminated against, women are perceived as less competent, men have created organizations and it is easier to recruit men. The specific factors include that a hierarchical organizational structure is correlated to inequality, that both the agency for Swedish Armed Forces and leadership are associated with masculinity and that women with civil competence face double misfortune. The division between general and specific factors indicate that the explanatory factors vary between organizations, which among other things implies that equality work should be tailored for the specific organization.

This paper explores the accessibility for patrons with different physical disabilities in regards to materials, service, the library building and its website at two typical, medium-sized public libraries in Sweden.The case study is based on interviews, observations, and document and literature studies. As a theoretical framework for this study, Buckland?s model of information barriers is used to describe, discuss and evaluate how the two libraries work with accessibility. In addition, international and national guidelines are used to measure whether additional actions are required of the libraries to improve the accessibility.The results show that both libraries are well suited in various respects to provide for the different needs and the requirements of patrons with physical disabilities. Some obstacles still exist in both libraries, especially in the lack of literature in accessible formats in different languages.

This Bachelor?s thesis is about bossless organizations. We have observed that the hierarchical structure that the majority of organizations is structured by today is a remnant of a time long gone, and can be an obstacle for independent thinking and responsibility inside organizations. We want to question the accepted perception that an organization is best structured in a hierarchic form.The purpose of the thesis is to provide an understanding of how a bossless organization works and to give a concrete explanation of the consequences of this kind of organizational structure.The thesis is of a qualitative nature and is designed with an inductive approach at an organizational level. We conducted a case study on a bossless company and supplemented this with secondary sources from three other bossless organizations.It concludes that the bossless approach can work and that there are a number of advantages to benefit from it.

This thesis aims to identify bottlenecks in the internal communication of aSwedish public library. Specifically, it addresses the behaviour of the library staff when they seekfor work-oriented information through interaction with their colleagues. A fundamental assumptionof this study is that the information-seeking process depends on organisational culture. I have madean exploratory case study in a medium-sized Swedish public library, where relevant issues areidentified and correlated with the culture of the organisation.I have used Schein's three-level model to describe the culture of the library; this model definesculture as a set of basic assumptions and the actions of people as expressions of their culture. Datafor the study were gathered using several approaches, including interviews with the library staff andobservations of them.

The SMEs? internationalization strategy?Foreign Market Entry Modes selection Title: 1st of June 2006 Date of the Seminar: Bus 809. Master thesis in international marketing Course: Han xiao Author: Ulf Elg, Associate professor, Lund University, Sweden Advisors: Ying Bin, Associate professor, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, China. Guest researcher, Lund University, Sweden Internationalization, entry mode, SMEs, foreign market Keywords: The purpose of this study is to understand the internationalization process of the SMEs, and try to define the motives and internal factors impact their foreign market entry mode selection. Thesis purpose: This thesis is based on qualitative method using case study.