The market for management consulting services is changing with an increased level of competition and more specialized service providers. At the same time there is a high level of companies that fail in their efforts to establish themselves on the market. This thesis sets out to give the reader an increased understanding of the complex characteristics of the market for these services, focusing more specifically on which factors that have an effect on the strategy development for companies within the industry. The thesis is also aimed at providing the reader with a deeper understanding of how developing consulting companies can tackle the specific challenges facing them. In order to meet the purpose of the thesis, we have applied relevant theories to a generic strategy model in order to develop a model that is applicable for the management consulting industry.

We were assigned to do this master thesis by Husqvarna AB who at the time for this thesis just had implemented a new material and production planning system called Replenishment system. Husqvarna AB wanted us to examine the effects of their new planning system to see if it was profitable or not. Husqvarna AB had for a time considered their delivery and supplier service to bee their biggest problem and they wanted to solve this problem by improving the communication with all involved actors in the logistic chain, which they hoped would result in a better mix of products in their warehouses. The aim of this report was therefor to analyze eventual effects for Husqvarna AB when changing from a traditional material- and production planing system to a more information intensive one. The result of this report showed effects on decreasing administrational routines and improved flexibility and lead-times.

Background: There has been a movement of power towards customers in most markets which puts higher demands upon the customer orientation of organizations to survive competition. In general the opinion is that satisfied customers also are profitable for the organization. Even though a consciousness exists about this connections importance for the organization there exists no prominent economical theory showing how a organization should work with customer adaptation and how management should be shaped for success in this area. In the field of competitive sports clubs a similar trend is discernible since the field is increasingly commercialized.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to adapt The Balanced Scorecard as a model to the demands on management that customer orientation causes and to use the knowledge created during the study to show how customer orientation in a competitive sports club could look.Realization: The study first takes the form of a literature study which emerges into a theoretic development. Above that a case study of Linköpings Hockey Club has been accomplished so that knowledge created from the literature study could be used on competitive sports clubs.

In  the  constantly  changing working  life  of  today, where  emphasis  on  human  capital  grows stronger,  the  importance  of  recruiting  and  retaining  good  staff  increases.  Successful recruitment  requires  a  first-rate  recruitment  process.  In  literature  on  recruitment recommendations for successful recruitment are presented.   The  aim  of  this  study  is  to  describe  similarities  and  differences  between  these recommendations and Svenska Spel?s recruitment practice on the basis of a description of the recruitment process at AB Svenska Spel, and also to identify possible reasons for differences between theory and practice.  To  meet  the  purpose  of  this  study  literature  and  scientific  reports  have  been  studied. Interviews  with  five  HR-specialists  and  four  managers  have  also  been  conducted.  The recruitment process is therefore described out of the employer?s point of view.

The means to political participation at the local level in Sweden are changing and this change is analyzed through a case study. The first aim is to explore the forms of public political participation in Swedish municipal Älvkarleby, namely public question time in local government, citizen motions and open meetings. A part of this is also to analyze he every day contact between citizens and representatives. The second aim concerns the reasons why politicians decide to support these means to participationThe empirical material consists mainly of semi structured interviews with local politicians, civil servants, participating citizens and local press. Official documents such as public minutes are also used in the process of creating an image of local participation.Local political participation is found to be limited but yet having the potential to strengthen democracy, provided that public decision-makers are open to a dialogue with the participants.Using Kjell Arne Røvik's theories of organisational change, the changes in local democracy can be explained as being partly rational, partly symbolic and partly identity shaping political decisions..

The world gets smaller and smaller and goods, services, people and information are nowadays more and more able to freely cross borders. Half of the Swedish GNP consists of export and almost 70 % of that amount is goods. Because of today?s increasing globalization the Swedish companies are now faced with both new opportunities and threats. Companies with goods which are manufactured in Sweden gets challenged by increased competition from cheap goods produced in other countries and companies can no longer afford to entirely focus on the domestic market.

The purpose of this study was to examine creativity in psychosocial work. The aim issues where to find out how creativity develops in social work, why the relation is important for the innovativeness and how the creativeness can change a person. Through a qualitative method with interviews of four persons in psychosocial work and with one man who's a professor in philosophy, four relevant themes were identified. The themes are about the relation, the meeting, the dialog and the changing. All four themes are related to creativity and I used existential, philosophic and also psychoanalytic theories when I analyzed the material.

Det första Baselfördraget har kritiserats kraftigt för sin okänslighet för låntagares riskattribut. Empiriska undersökningar så som Arak, Corcoran 1996 visar hur låga risker hos kreditvärdiga aktörer passerar ouppmärksammade av banker. Hos obligationsmarknaden premieras dock de låga riskerna vilket speglas i lägre kreditkostnader för de kreditvärdiga aktörer som sökt sig dit. Uppsatsen utreder de förmodade framstegen inom Baselfördragen i deras förmåga att kvantifiera samt prisjustera för kreditrisk. I detta syfte definieras och testas tre kreditprissättningsmodeller.

Abstrakt -  As energy prices rise, energy-saving in buildings is becoming increasingly important. By applying different construction and installation technologies, to new buildings the energy consumption can be reduced effectively, compared to similar existing buildings. These technical measures are often an investment in the long term and will reduce energy costs significantly. The purpose of this report is to show how to reduce energy consumption in a small house. It is presented in this report that both building's technical saving arrangements (the sealing of a building) and an installation technical arrangement (changing from the F-system to the FTX-system) would reduce energy consumption in newly built detached houses, if compared with a similar existing house but without these technical measures. The report presents also detailed calculations showing how much energy an existing 2-storey house, built in the year 2007 in Eskilstuna, consumes and how much energy would be saved if these corrective measures were applied to a new building. It is also reported how much money would be saved each year over a 10 year period if the measures were applied. The results show that both solutions are a good investment in the reduction of energy consumption and hence the cost involved. Keywords: energy, heat energy, infiltration, FTX-system, free temperature effectively. .

- To be trapped in a roller-coaster That ?s how some of the patients are describing the situa- tion of living with heart failure. To be stuck in their home not knowing if they will have to seek care today and not knowing if they will have the energy to attend that birth- day party later this week.Each year 2-3% of the Swedish population are diagnosed with heart failure, which results in 30,000 new individu- als with the disorder. Cardiovascular disease is rapidly in- creasing in the world and before 2030, people with heart failure will increased by 100%. Our improved living condi- tions and better health have allowed us to grow older and made us more dependent on other types of care, care at home.Today the patients are only looking for changes in weight and if they have excessive water in their body.

Bullying is a serious problem for many children and youths in today?s society. Surveys have shown that more than 145 000 children and youths are concerned by the problem as a victim or as bullies. The purpose with this survey is to obtain a clear picture of the students? views of bullying in physical education and health.The main questions in this study are:·         Does bullying occur in a bigger extent within the subject physical education and health than within other subjects?·         In which elements during physical education lessons is the risk highest to be exposed to bullying?·         Are there any differences concerning the students? views of physical education in relation to what age they are. To acquire an understandable picture of bullying I have chosen to do a literature study where different kinds of definitions are presented.

The task was to deliver a solution that could be implemented in today?s production of the FH truck. To make the project successful it was most important that the end result had a high maturity level. For that reason an analysis of ergonomic, laws and regulations, and possible materials where conducted. To show that this project is profitable and can be realized a ruff cost estimated of material and tools is added to the research.

This thesis aims to examine the conditions for entrepreneurship in Taiwan by the occurrence of cultural phenomenon guanxi. Based on the concept of familiness and guanxi, the family is central in this study of family business. Traditional descriptions of the Asian culture claim that guanxi is vital in the business context. Though, recent studies indicate that significance of guanxi seems to be changing. Therefore the purpose of this thesis is to create an understanding of the importance and relevance of guanxi in the context of Taiwanese family business.By travelling to Kaohsiung, Taiwan to interview six managers of Taiwanese family firms this study?s empirical material was gathered for further processing based on a qualitative approach.

Flow measurement is one of the greatest challenges in order to calculate efficiency in hydropower. Most hydropower plants in Sweden use differential pressure methods for flow measurement. These methods are dependent on constant conditions in the waterways. A change in these conditions, like turbine improvements, prevents differential pressure methods to verify efficiency improvements. Since efficiency improvements can?t be verified by one measurement system, another method, which isn?t affected by changing conditions, can be used.

Taiwan has over the past thirty years experienced a substantial political transformation. Being ruled by Chinese nationalists since World War II, Taiwan started its democratic transition in the late eighties. The new democratic system did not only provide people with freedom to vote, it also marked the beginning of a search for a new national identity. Based on the international theory of constructivism, this paper defines and studies the Taiwanese people?s progression away from a dominant Chinese national identity towards a uniquely defined Taiwanese identity.