AbstractAccording to several researchers finance is scarce, scarcer for small businesses than for big enterprises. Small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, that want to start exporting and sales or manufacturing abroad need capital to get ready. Which capital structure and financial costs do they have, and which forms of finance do they actually use for that purpose. New american research by Mansi, Reeb (2002) has suggested, that there is a positive connection between leverage and a negative one between financial costs and internationalization, and that a non-linear model better describes this connection.This study has gathered data in two ways: Through a questionnaire from 37 SMEs and balance sheet figures from totally 166 manufacturing SMEs. In order to examine, whether the company was active on the international market, 200 SMEs in south Sweden were asked, if they exported to, produced or sold on any other market than their home market.

This is a tale about energy and power. It describes the geographer Halford Mackinder?s geopolitical theories and compares them with current views outlined by Zbigniew Brzezinski and Michael T Klare, among others. With a critical approach it also provides a historical account of a Europe that stands in front of an energy struggle so severe that the current world order seems destined to fall. Oil and natural gas, has since the beginning of the 20th century, been used as a geopolitical tool in order to create dependence, control and even sometimes overthrow empires.

The aim of the study is to investigate how a teacher uses multimodal resources with an interactive whiteboard while teaching reading and writing. The aim is also to investigate what view the teacher has on using an interactive whiteboard while teaching reading and writing. Video-recorded observations and audio-recorded interviews are the methods used to collect data. The analysis was performed from a multimodal perspective and is also inspired by interaction analysis. The result of the analysis showed that the teacher uses several multimodal sign systems in combination with those found on the interactive whiteboard.

The Swedish Migration Board has during a long time had problems with long processing times for persons that apply for asylum. The government has set targets that investigation should not exceed 6 months although it is done in almost 70% of cases.The study's aim has been to examine if steering can be linked together to long processing times and, if so, explain why. The intention has not been to provide a comprehensive picture of the problem but has defined itself to ensure steering impact. The study has been carried out by studying relevant governing documents, previous research and by interviews with administrators and decision-makers in two of the Migration Board asylum units.The analyses of the study show that a combination of inadequate steering and inadequate resources have contributed to aggravate the implementation, which has lead to long processing times..

Abstract The objective of our study was to get knowledge about how teachers think when they make purchases to preschool. Do they consider making environmentally conscious purchases? Do they work actively to transfer environmental consciousness to the children?We chose to interview nine preschool teachers and one cook in two different local municipalities. Our investigation showed that there was a very low engagement in these issues. The teachers said that they were very strictly bound to already existing public contracts and did not see any possibilities to influence the preschools consumption.The teachers hade no idea that not only their work could result in environmental savings in the school, but also result in attitudes changes among the children, their parents and, in the long term, society in general.

Companys usually have intern communication platforms where employees can gather information and communicate with eachother. These networks are not public which leads to less resources spent on development. If this network is also used as a work tool may inadequate usability decrease work effeciency. Thats why we, by using known design principles, evaluated an already existing network of this kind along with interviews and think out loud tasks for users. Four users had to do some tasks while they explained how they went through step by step to solve those. This report culminates into a couple of guidelines which can be used to create a user friendly network. The problems that prevented users to feel in control when working resulted in the following guidelines: Create shortcuts of frequently used functions.

Death can be seen as a sensitive subject and can by that be difficult for many people to talk about. Working as a nurse can imply caring for severe ill and dying patients, which can be regarded as a task that makes great demands. The aim of the present literature review is to illustrate nurses' experiences of problems in association with the care of dying patients to be aware of these. Nine scientific articles were analysed and the result showed that the problems the nurses experienced could be related to four different categories: problems related to organisa-tion/resources, to the nurse herself, to the patient and to family members. The literature review also illustrates consequences of these problems for nurses, and which components that could simplify the nursing care of dying patients..

This Master of Science thesis was completed at the Department of Machine Design at the Royal Instituteof Technology in Stockholm in collaboration with Lund Faculty of Engineering, Luleå University ofTechnology and Stanford University. At Stanford University a global product development project wasrealized as part of the course ME310. The project was initiated by the American company ImmerseGlobal whose vision was to develop a new type of Atmospheric Water Generators, a machine that absorbsthe moisture in the air and via a water system transforms it to pure drinking water. The project was partlyfinanced by the Product Innovation Engineering program, a Swedish research and development programfor increased innovation capability in organizations.In parallel with the global project in the ME310 course the product development process was studied inorder to compare it with a product development course at the Royal Institute of Technology, IPU. Thetwo courses are similar to each other in several aspects.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse and propose improvements to the cost accounting system in use at an airline operating on the Swedish market. The choice of study object is based on the airline?s desire to have its cost accounting system evaluated. During the analysis we have identified a number of points where the current cost accounting system does not correspond to its intended purpose. These points include significant groups of costs not being considered in the current system, potential over capacity is not visible and logic connections between distribution keys and the use of resources are sometimes lacking.

Den här uppsatsen handlar om hur två grannkommuner har valt att organisera kring resursfördelning för barn i behov av särskilt stöd. För att ta reda på detta har vi studerat de av regeringen formulerad styrande dokument samt skolplanerna i kommunerna. Vi har också tagit del av offentliga dokument från varje kommun som visar det mål och visioner de har för skola och utbildning. För att skapa oss en djupare förståelse kring tankarna runt de val som görs och hur de kan te sig ute i de olika verksamheterna har vi intervjuat en skolledare, en specialpedagog samt de ansvariga för resursfördelning på berörda kommuner. Intervjuerna gav oss de svar vi sökte i våra ursprungliga frågeställningar.

This paper is about the importance of engagement, cohesion and clarity in offshore outsourcing projects. The focus is on how the communication is handled between co-workers in different countries. My research is based on qualitative studies of literature on the subject, along with interviews with leaders in various companies in Sweden that utilize offshoring to countries in Asia. This study shows that the companies interviewed who utilize offshoring are all taking care to create engagement, cohesion and clarity in their offshore offices. It also shows that companies can succeed with their offshore strategy without using agile development methods, contrary to what literature on the subject recommends.

This is a study of the discussions and sense making that HR-professionals and HR-students present concerning the phenomenon of diversity, through the theory of social representation.Our purpose is to study the reasoning around the phenomenon of diversity and what meaning HR-students and HR-professionals create around it. This study also attempts to examine how HR-professionals and HR-students reasoning and interaction differ from each other. In this study we have used the qualitative method of social representation through focus groups.The common themes found in the data material were the meaning of the phenomenon diversity, how the work with human resources can be connected to the phenomenon of diversity and diversity as an issue in society. The main result in this study was that we found a wide range of meaning put into the word diversity by the participants and that the individuals in the focus groups actively strived for consensus..

This case study examines how upper secondary schools in a municipality in the northern parts of Sweden structure their special pedagogy with students who have ADHD and dyslexia, students? and parents? experiences of this, and what regulates the schools management in this particular aspect. The results show that all the schools have special pedagogues and other support staff employed, though in varied extent. Furthermore, the resources are distributed differently from school to school. The focus, however, is always around communication between the concerned parties.

This paper examines how debt cancellation, given under the HIPC-initiative, has affected corruption over the period 2000-2006. The examination is foremost interesting due to earlier research showing that high corruption leads to unequal distribution of economic resources. This, combined with the objective of the HIPC initiative to reduce poverty, indicates that combating corruption must be successful in order to fulfill the goals of the initiative. A linear regression shows that countries that have benefited from the HIPC-initiative indeed have a lower corruption than other countries. A panel-data analysis shows on the other hand that no effect on corruption due to debt cancellation or reforms undertaken in the program can be confirmed..

The intension with the thesis is to investigate how mass communication is adopted as a strategy to increase the membership activity within religious communions in Sweden. In the years past it has shown a decreased activity within religious communion, deliberate strategies have been missing and efforts on resources for less effective strategies have been made. The study has been carried out through a review of existing theory within the field of subject, communication within religious communion and the use of mass communication within religious communion. The Swedish church was chosen as a case, where three persons were interviewed. The result from this study shows that the Swedish church communication operates on several different levels: these are detached and self-determinate.