Innovation has been identified as one of the key factors for economic growth long ago. However, the emergence of ?knowledge century? further strengthened the role of the concept since proper management of the knowledge is essential to make the best out of the innovative capacity of the companies as well as the countries. This necessitates a balanced intellectual property rights (IPR) systems, since these rights provide the basis to solve the market failures faced by innovating firms by creating property rights over knowledge. There is an inherent dilemma between invention and diffusion.

As social interactions migrate to the ubiquitous Internet we are facing a change in theway we relate to each other, which presents interesting new opportunities foranonymity to create identities. An aspect of this radically evolving technology thatexhibits strong possibilities for altering or producing identities is the rapidly growingonline game genre MMOG (Massive Multiplayer Online Game) which isentertainment that millions of people all over the globe engage in daily. Thisrelatively new platform for socialising has become of cultural and social significance,which is why it calls for examination and research. Thus, the main research questionsasked in this thesis are as following: How does players of MMOGs utilise the nighcomplete anonymity to present or modify their identities online? In which ways areMMOGs used as a platform for socialising and development of social groupdynamics? After observing a large group of players in a popular MMOG, as well asconducting several interviews with key identities within the group, I discovered three fundamental parts of identity creation, and created a model for use and applicationin different social situations and constellations..

I denna magisteruppsats undersöks eventuella långsiktiga samband mellan den svenska aktiemarknaden och aktiemarknaderna i Tyskland, Storbritannien, USA och Japan. Detta sker genom en kointegrationsanalys med Engle-Grangers metod. Undersökningen omfattar åren 1992-2010 och resultaten visar inga tecken på att det skulle existera några långsiktiga samband mellan den svenska aktiemarknaden och någon av de utländska aktiemarknaderna. Resultaten ger därmed indikationer om att den svenska aktiemarknaden tillsammans med de utländska aktiemarknaderna i undersökningen är kollektivt effektiva i åtminstone den svaga formen enligt Fama (1970). Då inga långsiktiga samband existerar bör även portföljdiversifiering mellan den svenska aktiemarknaden och de utländska aktiemarknaderna i undersökningen fungera effektivt på lång sikt..

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om ryssladsspecifik räntevolatilitet smittar av sig på de baltiska staterna. Efter den asiatiska krisen 1997 är contagion ett av det mest debatterade ämnena inom internationell finansiell ekonomi och definieras som kriser som smittar av mellan regioner. Metod: 1998 utförde Sebastian Edwards en studie baserat på en bivariat GARCH-modell där han undersökte om volatilitet i den korta räntan sprids från Mexico till Argentina och Chile. Jag följer Edwards (1998) metoder för att undersöka om Baltikums räntevolatilitet är påverkad av rysslandsspecifik volatilitetsspridning. Resultat: Med bristande tillgång till långa tidsserier för emerging markets kan jag inte påvisa någon volatilitetsspridning.

Assignment Birino AB are aware of the fact that their work tasks can be improved. The author?s assignment is to identify one task and improve it with relevant tools.Purpose See if the authors can improve health and effectiveness by changing the work task.Method The authors have conducted qualitative interviews, a quantitative survey and an experiment to see how the change worked in practice. The data the authors have collected will then be presented with relevant theories to answer our research questions/issues.Conclusion The authors have done a work process that can be used as a tool for change and improvement of health and effectiveness. This process can be implemented in different companies and not just the company that the authors have chosen to work with. .

Given that the oil prices have risen and the environmental regulations has become more stringent, the interest in operating efficiency has increased. The project has investigated the possibility of producing electricity from waste heat generated in the diesel process. One technique to utilize and convert energy into electricity is the ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle). This process is based on the Rankine process (the steam process), the difference from the traditional Rankine process is that instead of water as a working medium, an organic substance is used. The main component used in the process is a evaporator, a turbine, a condenser and a pump.

Mergers and Acuisitions are becoming increasingly common. This can be explained with the fact that the competition is increasing. Therefore many companies are forced to join other markets. This thesis inquires into the process of Mergers and Acqusitions when one company buys another company. The main focus is set on how three different banks handle the process of Mergers and Acqusitions and what results this leads to. These are: Kaupthing Bank, Nordea and Citibank.

This study sets out to research the effects of perceptions regarding teacher education as well as the teacher profession in general amongst college students studying to become teachers. The aim of the study is to get a better understanding in what perceptions that constitutes the foundation of the aspects that may affect the students of education by interviewing students about how they perceive their education. The study relies on a sociocultural perspective to analyze the data as well as justify the relevance of the study. The method for researching this will consist mainly of interviews and literature studies. Four students of education, where two are Swedish and two are Finnish, will act as the main source of empiric information.

The results from 13 interviews and one opinion poll answered by resident physicians were interpreted as stories about identity as primary material for this thesis. The resident physicians stress the importance of considering whether their work primarily concerns curing people from diseases or if the process of working with sick people also includes how to handle the pressure of work, either by adapting to it or changing it, and the search for balance between work and private life. Residents separate themselves from older physicians by saying that younger physicians accentuate empathy to a greater extent while older physicians emphasise a high work load. Identity seems to effect how the residents perceive and relate to their work, themselves as residents and different types of patients..

Organizational learning has become more and more important in the last decades as the environment in which organizations exist continues to change rapidly and unexpectedly. In order for organizational learning to happen, the individuals within the organization must learn. Just as different individuals possess different skills, each individual also has their own learning style. As the use of teamwork increases, so does the need for techniques to put high performing teams together and with organizational learning as one of the objectives the question is, how do we maximize learning, efficiency and performance in teams? This study uses a quantitative method to examine how teams, from a course at the Stockholm School of Economics, perform on the individual learning, team efficiency and team performance scale based on the individual learning styles within the team.

Background: Due to outsourcing, the material flows in the telecom equipment industry have undergone major changes, which in turn has imposed new challenges for packaging supplier Nefab who delivers to the industry. In order to achieve market intelligence, Nefab wants to map the material flows, and investigate possibilities of further reusable logistical packaging systems.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe the typical features of the logistical material flows in a technically based, rapidly growing industry, and analyze the driving forces and obstacles, which influence the selection of logistical packaging system. Procedure: After developing a theoretical framework consisting of general logistical theories and theories related to logistical packaging, we have interviewed companies in the logistics channel of Ericsson Radio Systems.Results: We have found the main characteristics of material flows in our investigated industry to be Variations in Demand, Focus on Time-to-Customer, and Globalization of Logistics Channels. Regarding driving forces and obstacles in the selection of logistical packaging systems, we have identified Transportation Characteristics, Customer Demands, Quality, Handling & Administration, and Current Packaging System as important factors..

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the procurement of maintenance at SvK. Byunderstanding the process that has led to the current procurement strategy; providesuggestions to how the procurement of maintenance can be improved to ensure thequality of future maintenance of the national grid.A god client can be associated with a number of qualities, ?acquisition competence?.Vinnova describes acquisition competence as the ability to plan, formulate,communicate and monitor. Different businesses and industries have different needsand opportunities and operate in different economic structures which requireadjustments in their acquisition competence. A number of areas have been identified,called areas of focus, where clients can adjust their competences to their markets.The areas of focus are competition, competence/quality, control and communication.By defining the need of acquisition competence for SvK and identifying problems, anumber of suggested strategies have been proposed.

This study aims to look at female executives? view of their leadership in the male-dominated construction industry. The study is  qualitative and focuses on the respondents' subjective perceptions. We have conducted six interviews with women in different companies whose positions within each company varied. Using theories of subjectivity, emotions, impression management and organizational structures, to support the analysis conducted, this study shows that there are obstacles for women in the industry, but it also shows that it  seems to be facing a brighter future.

C3LOOPS is an application for DJs and VJs based on surface interaction. A system is said to be based on surface interaction if it presents content on a two dimensional, endless surface that a user navigates through zoom, pan and incremental text filtering where processing is tightly coupled with the content without breaking the workflow. C3LOOPS is designed to encourage improvisation and collaboration. During improvisation changes occur rapidly. Allowing navigation through time as well as the two spatial dimensions of an interaction surface the possibility of unlimited undo operations opens up.

Hedge funds have the past few years become an increasingly popular investment alternative and in the last decade hedge fund assets managed have quadrupled to USD 2000 billion, a growth rate of around 25-30% per year. One explanation for this substantial increase is that hedge funds' minimum limits on capital invested has declined, which have made ??them available to retail investors. The recent turmoil in financial markets has also contributed to investors finding their way to hedge funds, whose goal is to generate stable returns regardless of how the market develops.Using Sharpe?s, Treynor?s and Jensen's performance measures, I have investigated whether hedge funds manage to generate higher risk-adjusted returns than traditional managed funds.