An increased demand for processed goods on the property market has contributed toinvestments within the Swedish sawmill industry. The purpose with this study is to make amarket investigation of pre cut lengths within a defined geographic area. The constituent forthis investigation is HAL (AB Hilmer Andersson) who invests in a new plane facility and twofinger jointing machines in affiliation to their sawmill in Lässerud, the vest part of Värmland.To investigate the demand of pre cut lengths and identifies the value creating factors and costfactors which the customer within the segments industry and property market perceive, havedifferent customer value theories been used. Theories of customer value and the theory aboutoffering has been the source of creating the qualitative interview with a selection of currentand new potential customers for HAL.The result of the study first gives an introduction of HAL?s new offering and a description ofHAL?s current customers, which gives the reader an understanding of why searching for newcustomers is made in the defined area.

Background:Life-cycle costing (LCC) is an investment calculation that takes intoaccount operating costs throughout the investee lifecycle. LCC calculations are mainly usedto evaluate investments that have no revenue side. Attempts to apply the LCC calculations forbuilding-related investments have occurred since the 1980s. Despite the advantages ofusing LCC calculations, use has not passed through in full. The main obstacles have beenidentified as a lack of relevant input data, and insufficient experience of workingwith LCC calculations.

This thesis examines underpricing and the long run performance of IPO firms on the Swedish equity market during 1994-2010. We further investigate whether any correlation exist between underpricing and post-IPO performance during 36 months. We use a sample of 80 IPO firms. To examine the aftermarket performance we compare total return of each firm with a matching industry index. In order to strengthen our analysis, we run a second test, comparing actual return for each firm with expected return, adjusted for firm specific risk.

Internet dating is a relatively new phenomenon that, in using the opportunities of the internet, has taken traditional dating to a new level. The business idea is simple as such. The company provides its customers with a platform that enables interaction, leaving the value creation to the customers. A qualitative study is conducted investigating and mapping the Swedish market for Internet dating. It is researched what the characteristics of the companies are, what the Internet dating businesses in Sweden offer, what the prevailing market conditions are, and lastly what challenges lie ahead for the industry and how they can be solved.

The authors have during the spring semester 2011 studied the subject destination development during a political crisis, focusing on Tunisia. At the beginning of 2011 the country was in an uncertain political situation when the revolution of the Tunisian people occurred. This created massive demonstrations on the streets, and resulted in the current government's resignation. More effects of the revolution has been seen in a drastic decline of inbound tourists in the country, which in turn affected the country's population and economy. From this point on Tunisia as a destination needs to recover to once again become attractive to tourists.

Klädbranschen har fått stor uppmärksamhet gällande hållbarhet och miljökostnader. Tidigare forskning har främst täckt frågor kring hållbara material och transporter samt arbetsförhållanden för dem som producerar kläderna, medan andra aktiviteter som ingår i ett klädföretagets värdekedja inte har fått så stor uppmärksamhet, trots att de också har en stor påverkan på miljö och kostnader.Innevarande uppsats handlar om klädföretag och hur deras rutiner gällande upphängning av kläder på galgar fungerar. Syftet med arbetet har varit att undersöka var i värdekedjan kläderna galgas och hur returhanteringen av galgarna sker samt hållbarhetsperspektivet kring detta.Teorin har tagits fram från olika vetenskapliga artiklar, böcker samt hemsidor, och informationen som redan finns i ämnet och som är relevant för undersökningen presenteras. Teorin tar upp termen Supply Chain Management (SCM) och hur det ser ut i klädbranschen. En överblick av aktiviteter som ingår i ett klädföretags värdekedja ges, där "pre-retail"-aktiviteter och returflöden får stor uppmärksamhet.

This is a thesis project in the field of information technology which begins by evaluating existing food price comparison systems and subsequently aims to design an improved, web based system for said purpose. The system features interfaces for price reporting, price comparisons as well as various search and review functions. The objective is to create a system able to compete with existing price comparison systems, which requires careful selection of products that can be found in all foodstores that also represent different households; a user-friendly price reporting and price comparison interface and an efficient tool for ensuring the validity of reported prices.The designed system features a more accurate formula for calculating average prices in events where the real price is missing; a more reliable security mechanism forv alidation of reported prices and a more comprehensible interface for viewing price reports, reporting prices, reviewing stores and products in comparison with existing systems. The system does, however, suffer from some optimization issues primarily in the form of inefficient database modeling; SQL queries and JavaScript code although testing has shown that these shortcomings do not hamper overall performance to such a degree that usability is compromised. Further usability testing performed on the system with five test subjects shows that a high level of overall user-friendliness has been achieved even though some special features, such as the detailed report containing price information per product for each store need to be improved.It is not possible to say at this time whether or not the designed system will be able to compete with existing ones or if the very concept of food price comparisons per se is viable in terms of profitability and marketability.

In this essay we aim at finding an appropriate flash estimator of the quarterly Swedish private consumption (PK). With the aid of the statistics program TRAMO we study if monthly data from the consumer survey (HIP) and retail industry (DH) can be used in a transfer function model (TFM) to forecast PK. In the work of assessing the state of the market and the business trend, fast information from the national accounts is needed for making decisions for the economic politics in Sweden. A way to speed up the information process is to use leading economic indicators to asses this development. Another way to get information faster is to use a flash estimate.

Benchmarking is an established method of working which is often used in order to develop the quality of the organization. However, almost 70% of the organizations with benchmarking fail due to the lack of planning and structuring of the benchmarking exercise. Maintenance sections in the paper and pulp industry are one of those who have decided to conduct benchmarking. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain knowledge of how the maintenance sections in the paper and pulp industry deliberately structure and plan to use benchmarking as a driving force for quality development in the maintenance sections.The study is a hermeneutic case study. Telephone interviews and document analysis have been used as data acquisition methods.The results show that there is a lack of both planning and structuring in the benchmarking process, and lack of management commitment for quality improvements within industrial maintenance.

Background: The recent years in the Swedish Fast Moving Consumer Goods industry have been characterized by a palpable shift in power balance, favouring the retailers. Since the shift in power balance has strengthened the negotiation position of the retailers, the suppliers now have to, to a greater extent than before, accommodate to the retailers? goals, whether they be financial or strategic. Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate how this recent power shift has affected the relationships of suppliers and retailers. This development has resulted in the rather new and unexplored area of retailer value, which this study further aimed to explore.

The construction industry has not undergone the same logistical development as the manufacturing industry; this, in combination with increased material price, leads to the fact that the construction industry must be improved. This master thesis is a part of the research cooperation Brains & Bricks goal of reducing production costs for the construction sector by 25 percent. Brains & Bricks is a cooperation between Linköping University, Peab and Katrineholms municipality. The master thesis aims to identify improvements in the flow of material, the Supply chain operation reference, SCOR, model has been used and the work has been carried out on one of Peab?s construction sites. At present the business is characterized by bad communication both between the construction site and the office as well as between the construction site and suppliers.

Summary Title: How to make decisions on software based servicedevelopment in the mobile handset industry.?The Rapid Model for Holistic Application Evaluation Authors: Per-Inge AnderssonPatrik Dreveborn Tutors: Björn Regnell, Department of Computer Science,Lund UniversityRobert Wenglén, School of Economics and Management,Lund University Problem formulation: Academically the questions of finding out what constitutes a sound decision base and finding out how to handle the issue of a holistic approach must be addressed in order to make a well balanced and relevant decision model. The core question is which decision criteria to include and which drivers are important in estimating the status of the criteria? Practically to provide Sony Ericsson with a formalized evaluation process for decisions on software development that is transparent, objective and challengeable. Purpose: Academically to contribute to the field of decision making research by elaborating on how to make a holistic, rapid and rational decision model.

Outsourcing has grown more so than any other sector of IT services. According to a research by the analytic company Gartner soon four of ten jobs in the IT sector will be outsourced. For a nation like Sweden that means about 40,000 jobs going abroad. Business managers look to outsourcing as a means of reducing their operating cost and their need for capital spending. Companies turn to outsourcing to save money and seek expertise outside.

Summary                                                               Overweight and obesity in Sweden and in the rest of the industrialized world continues to increase. This results in increased costs both to society and the healthcare system. Part of this development is the increasing consumption of sugar and that is what should be restricted to tackle this growing social problem. Part of the increased consumption of sugar in Sweden was the launch of pick and mix ingrocery stores.  This study aims to examine how store managers look at their public health responsibilities, and investigate how managers of grocery stores think about health and health aspects in general and about the sugar consumption in particular. Semi-structured "face to face" interviews was used to collect data and seven grocery store managers participated in the study.

This thesis is concerning private brands on special display. ICA Gott Liv! was used as a study object and a latin square design was employed, using 2 ICA Kvantum stores. Two displays were built in order to compare which created the most awareness and interest, one with the best selling Gott Liv! product and one with four randomly chosen Gott Liv! products. The data was collected using triangulation, questionnaires, sales data and observations were conducted in the two stores. The results indicated that private brands works as well as manufacturer brands on special display and a display with four randomly chosen products creates more interest and higher sales than the display with the best selling product..