The aim of this study has been to examine the role of control mechanisms when it comes to building relationships in a small business network. In order to reach this goal, we have performed a case study of a Swedish supplier of machines to the engineering industry, which acts as the exclusive representative of a foreign manufacturer on the Swedish market. Main results: A number of control mechanisms, both formal and informal, could be identified in the network. Their specific use, as well as relative importance differ between different actors in the network. In general, the importance of formal control mechanisms decreases as the relationship evolves over time and the importance of informal ones, mainly trust, increases in a corresponding manner..

The process of producing a video game is one that goes through a number of phasesduring the span of the entire production. One of these phases is the concept design phase,which is part of the pre-production. This phase is an important aspect of the productionas it is where all the different parts and ideas concerning the game are brought togetherto define what the game is going to be. Though a clearly important part of the videogame production surprisingly little research have been done on the subject of conceptdesign. This thesis presents what place concept design has in the overall game productionand how the design process is handled.

Abstract Title: Total Cost of Ownership ? Revealing the true cost of owning and operating equipment. Authors: Anna Bladh Anna Ström Tutors: Michaela Boye, Parts and Service, PTD, Alfa Laval Göran Berg, Parts and Service, PTD, Alfa LavalCharlotta Johnsson, Department of Automatic Control, LTH, Lund UniversityBertil I. Nilsson, Department of Industrial Management and Logistics, LTH, Lund UniversityCarl-Henric Nilsson, Department of Business Administration, Lund University Core issue: ?Which costs should be included in a general Total Cost of Ownership model regarding centrifuges, and what input variables are needed in order to calculate those costs in a user-friendly way and with a maintained level of accuracy?? Purpose: The theoretical purpose of the thesis is to identify the cost items that have the greatest impact on a TCO calculation for a centrifuge.

Techniques used in the building of a number of ships from the Mediterranean will be presented in this paper. The two techniques thnat will be discussed are shell-based technique and skeleton-basedtechnique. An attempt to clearify and delineate the transition between these two techniques will be made. The possible reasons for transition will then be described and discussed. The development ofthe techniques is going to be identified with help from four wrecks by analyzing their edge joineriesand this facts will be used as a basis for a chronological presentation.

Purpose - To analyze the relationship between supply chain management maturity, supply chain performance and financial performance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME:s).Design/methodology/approach - The data comprises 15 SME:s that participated in a local logistic study in Gävleborgs län. The levels of supply chain mature within these firms were based upon an interview study and the financial performance of the firms was then examined using financial reports-based data.Findings -The results of this study indicate that there is a strong relationship between SCM maturity and SC performance in SMEs, some relationships between SCM maturity and financial performance, as well as some relationships between SC performance and financial performance. This means that if firms use maturity indicators in the SCOR areas to improve their processes, they will most likely achieve a positive effect on supply chain performance and probably also on financial performance. The result implies that the supply chain maturities in these firms are higher than expected with no one at the adHoc level.While this study is based on a rather small number of participating firms, it would be valuable to further test the significance of the indicated correlations between SCM maturity and performance in a large-scale survey.Research limitations/Implications - The research is an attempt to understand supply chain maturity and it´s implication on financial performance. Developing supply chain maturity is an opportunity for a company to gain superior performance.

In 2002 the Norrköping municipality decided to establish a number of supportive teams and one teaching group with the purpose of developing alternative supporting efforts for children with social problems. This development work came to be called BUSS. BUSS today consists of four local teams, team Ett, team Norra, team Torpet and the Mathson School.The teams? focus, beyond the commission from Norrköping municipality, is to reduce the number of children being placed outside their own homes, get them to function in school, develop their self-confidence and social competence. Also their task is to support parents and take up a functional spare time for the children.

Due to fast growing and rapid changes in markets today, most of the organizationsthat are trying keep up with these changes have a high demand for software that areof high quality and comes with a low price. To meet these goals software companieshave to implement new methods to develop software that are suited for rapidchanges. The concept of agile methods can fulfill this need. Our purpose with thisthesis was to investigate how well agile methods could be applied in organizationsthat could be identified as adhocracies. A case study was conducted in anorganization which we could identify as an adhocracy.

The subject for this paper is the Class Action against Skandia Association, a civil organization formed in 2003 with the aim of claiming compensation for some 1.2 million life insurance customers. The background to its formation was one of the largest financial scandals in Sweden in recent times, involving a number of questionable affairs within the insurance corporation Skandia and its subsidiaries, most notably the life insurance company Skandia Liv. The interests of both the stake- and stockholders of the company seem, in certain ways, to have been grossly misrepresented. The scandal, as well as the reaction it spawned, pose a number of questions. In this study, we focus on two: a possible, and in many ways apparent crisis in the representation of interests in Swedish society, and the role of civil society in upholding the balance between these interests.We argue that what is often held to be the ?greed? or ?immorality? of individuals in scandals such as Skandia is, to a great extent, a mere reflection of the ?rational? underpinnings of modern-day capitalism.We find that trust has been a key mechanism of control in the relationships between consumers and agents in pension and life insurance markets, and that ?the Swedish model? that distinguished post-WWII Swedish society was a model heavily based on trust towards existing models of bureaucratic governance.

Through interviews, a questionnaire survey and an in­depth analysis of the Swedish magazines Veckorevyn and Magazine Café has a number of parameters been made visible. It was difficult to obtain an unambiguous result when the journal's target audience is crucial for the cover design. Nevertheless, we can generally say that the transparent varnish of covers, PMS colors and enclosing the journal in plastic do not increase the attention value, as this occurs in many magazines. Due to today's tough competition among journals, we believe that they will need to niche themselves much harder to survive. We also believe that the new, big trend is that more covers will become more plain and stylistically pure, with one big communicating image and fewer coverlines, as many covers were designed during the 1940s..

This paper investigates the relation between stock performance and owner share retention in Swedish public equity listings during 2009 to 2013. The listings during the period are studied and divided into binary groups of "exits" and "non-exits", which are used in a statistical regression model to determine if there is a significant difference in average stock performance. The study finds that stocks of exit-companies on average significantly underperformed stocks of non-exit-companies during 2009 to 2013. Nevertheless, due to the limited number of observations available and the unusual market conditions, caution is required in interpreting these results..

The purpose of this essay is to examine the Swedish relations to Nato and by doing so see on what terms the cooperation is executed and why. However, Sweden is not a member of Nato and is thereby not seen as an ally of the organization but even so Sweden has a close cooperation with Nato. The theories used in this essay is The Rational Actor Model and The Organizational Behaviour Model by Graham Allison and Philip Zelikow. To this a number of additional theorises are used as to complement these two main theories. The aim with these theories is to see which one gives the most satisfying explanation of the Swedish strategy to cooperate with Nato and still not be a member of the alliance or if all theorises are needed.

As a teacher in baking and patisserie courses there can be difficulties in following the curriculum for Patisserie 1. If this leads to an education that is not the same for all the schools in the country, it creates a problem that has to be solved. The results of this investigation show that teachers generally do not follow the curriculum but instead chooses their own solutions. Some conclusions that have come forth are that the National Agency for Education needs to make the curriculum clearer and give tangible examples of products, that can either be classified as easy or complicated, in the field of baking and pastry courses. I have chosen the standardized interview method.

This Master's thesis concerns the professional knowledge of the librarian. The image of this knowledge is regarded as constructed in a social context, which is why the discourse analytic approach is selected as method. The empirical material consists of two texts concerning the education of librarians. A theory of knowledge, emanating from Aristotle, is applied to the results to find examples of the forms of knowledge that are excluded from the discourse. A number of themes, or ways, in which it is possible to discuss the phenomenon of the librarian's knowledge, are identified in the texts.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine if companies? incentive programs for employees is designed in such a way that it makes it possible for managers to reach their goals. Method: Qualitative with a semi standardised questionnaire Results: Our results is that the incentive programs for employees in their present form don?t give the companies a good possibility to effect the employees to perform towards the goals of the system. The performance measures in the incentive programs for employees is suitable in comparison with the goals of the program but the construction and the use of the systems doesn?t give a satisfied result in comprising with the goals.

The importance of internal communication within companies has increased in recent years. However, there are still a number of companies that are not adapted to the modern world and the new modes of communication the Internet provides. This study evaluates the internal communication of a medium sized company by holding semistructured interviews with the employees. The goal of the interviews was to develop a requirement specification. This requirement specification was later used as the basis to analyze possible aids for the internal communication of the company.