The subject of this study is the ?work strategy? (arbetslinjen); the idea that work and active measures are preferred over cash benefits. The aim of the study is to investigate why the work strategy, which has been almost undisputed for nearly a century, has had widely changing contents over the years, what measures have been taken and which groups have been included. It also attempts to find out whether there is a correlation between unemployment rates, society and the different aspects of the work strategy. The study is conducted as an idea analysis, mainly of dissertations on the work strategy and public inquiries, and covers five time periods from the 1920?s until today.

The thesis tries to answer how a combination of financial metrics and marketing metrics can improve strategic decision making. The purpose is to develop a strategic working method for general dealers. The method is based on the two theoretical frameworks "The strategic resource model" and "The importance-performance matrix". The suggested method is being tested in a small retail store environment on the Swedish market. The result of the test shows that a better suited strategy can be developed when this strategic method, which combines financial metrics with marketing metrics, is being used.

Ethiopia is a developing country situated on Africa?s horn. Ethiopia ranks 173rd on United Nations human development index where the least developed country ranks 186. About 85% of all Ethiopians are employed in agriculture. Onion is one of the basic ingredients in the Ethiopian cuisine and thus an important crop.

In the Western world the interest in science in schools is steadily declining. Focusing on interest is important to encourage students to lifelong learning which is a written purpose of the Swedish curriculum. This literature study examines if biology education outside in nature could be a part of the solution for this problem and the question of issue is how can education outdoor enhance students? interest for biology and what other aspects does this effect simultaneously? The method of block search was selected for addressing this question, utilizing the ERIC and ERC databases. The results show that situational interest increased with outside education due to aspects such as: novelty, hands-on, knowledge acquisition and social interaction.

In recent time, agile methods have been devoted much attention, and the concept is widely used in the IT industry in particular. An increasing number of companies are interested in this way of working. The following report is the result of a study on the ability to create value for customers in business development through the use of agile methods. We ask what the advantages and limitations of agile methods are in the creation of customer value. Grounded Theory and an initial literature review was used to answer this question.

This study was carried out at Luftfartsverket (LFV Group, SwedishAirports and Air Navigation Services), AstraZeneca and Svenska Spel. The purpose of the study was to examine and compare how these companies work towards becoming, and maintaining to be, an employer of choice. Facts were sought about the companies and their work to become an employer of choice.To get a discerning and profound picture, a qualitative method with semi-structured interviews with twelve key persons in this work was conducted. The method Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used for analysis.The results showed that an amount of factors have an input on how attractive the employer is. Common were compensation and benefits, competence development, leadership, information and health-related activities.

This study compare if there is any differences between Fairtrade certified and uncertified coffee producers in Aceh Tengah, Indonesia. The aim was to compare the way the two groups of farmers produces their coffee and see if there were any differences between them, income, post harvest, production etc. During a visit in the district of Aceh Tengah, producers from both groups were given a questionnaire with questions about their farm and their production. The results of the questionnaires showed that the certified producers felt they had benefits being a part of a certified cooperative. Even with the experienced benefits the certified cooperatives gave the connected producers, like agronomy consultation and workshops the uncertified producers had a higher income from the coffee per hectare. This study also indicated that introduction and presence of Fairtrade and the connection to the world market Fairtrade brings with it, has gained the entire area, for example with more stabile coffee prices..

Learning Management Systems (LMSs) hold great potential to support learning activities, for example by providing teachers and students with new and extended spaces for interaction and collaboration. However, this potential appears to be difficult to realize, and despite their perceived learning benefits, the reality is that LMSs are being used primarily for administrative purposes. Meanwhile, external pedagogical tools are successfully put into practice to improve learning outcomes, and the aim of this study is therefore to identify and discuss benefits and disadvantages associated with the LMS as a concept. By interviewing secondary school teachers, we disentangle the idea of integrating administrative and pedagogical aids into a single platform, providing detailed insight into the use of digital tools in secondary education. The study contributes to a deepened understanding of integrated learning environments, and we conclude that there is a conflict between structure and flexibility that needs to be addressed before determining the design of a digital learning space..

This study attempts a literature based reconstruction of the impact of globalisation and modernisation on the gender identities in Vietnam. Recognising the explanatory albeit normative capacity of critical theory ? specifically the feminist and globalisation critical approach ? this thesis argues that in spite of the economic benefits of modernisation, it enhances existing unequal structures. By focusing on women in the labour sector, simultaneously Vietnam's comparative advantage and one of its economically marginalised groups, a contradictory movement can be discovered. Notwithstanding the economic development, a regression in terms of women's possibilities to self-empowerment seems to cancel the benefits for the individual.

The study has shown that retailers in the mid-price segment differentiate their brand through developing a strong company identity around the brand. The personality involves store atmosphere, merchandise and advertising. Larger companies have chosen to lay the responsibility on management level, which facilitates on store level. By controlling the strategies on a central level the company can make sure that the stores are steered in the direction that the company wants them to be steered in, and also that they follow the positioning-concept. The company can also devote its efforts to working with its core value, which is service.

Previous studies of central tire inflation (CTI) in truck transport of roundwood have shown potential benefits to include more even wood flow and reduced road damage. The greatest benefits are found to be during periods of low bearing capacity such as spring thaw. No previous studies have examined geographical variations in the potential benefit of CTI-equipped trucks. The aim of the study was to develop and use a simple method for geographically prioritizing the use of CTI-equipped trucks within a forest company´s sector of activity.The host company for the study was Holmen Skog. The area studied consisted of Holmen Skog?s entire sector of activity extending from the province of Västerbotten to the province of Småland.

This study aims to explore how self scanning affects consumers impulse buying. Up til this day researchers are not aware how technologies like self scanning affects consumers behavior in-store. Consumers with self scanners are able to keep track of the rising sum, which could affect their buying behavior, especially when it comes to impulse purchase. Furthermore customers have to commit to scanning products which keep them from browsing the store for offers, which could limit the impulse buying. This study undertake a descriptive methodology with Beatty and Ferrells impuls model from 1998 as a theoretical platform where we examine disparities between self scanners and non self scanners.

I have made a research about two different methods for introducing small children to Nursery School/Kindergarten. I choose to do this as I have found very little about this in the literature we have studied during my education to become a pre-school teacher.This period in the life of very small children and their parents is a big change in their daily life. The more traditional way to start pre-school is to do it very gradually during two weeks, the two-week method. This means that the parents visit the pre-school together with their child for a very short time, about one hour the first day. After one week they leave their child with the staff for about an hour and at the end of that week they try to leave it full time (6-8 hours).

Real options analysis is a method for assigning value to flexibility in decisions, coming from uncertainty in future outcomes. This thesis ascertains to what degree this method is superior to traditional net present value analysis, with regards to ease of implementation in relation to the benefits from being able to measure the total value. Real options analysis is evaluated with a case study of the Swedish online gambling market, and conducted with the binomial framework of Copeland and Antikarov (2003). The authors find the sensible use of real options dependant on the specific situation to which it is applied, i.e. a certain degree of future uncertainty and managerial flexibility is necessary for justification of the increased workload.

This document is a summary of my work to create a project management system for a small firm working with computer graphics. The intention is to manage customers, projects, images and invoices in the easiest possible way. To make the system as flexible as possible a web-interface was chosen which makes it possible to access the system from any computer, making it independent of any particular operating system. The only requirement on the user environment is that the computer must have a connection to the Internet to be able to access the system. The different techniques that have been used to develop the project management system is primarily Ruby on Rails and a MySQL database.