The fast developments in information and data technology during the recent years have accentuated the need for the business manager to interpret and act on information from the surrounding environment. Today we know little about what information is really used in the unique decision-making. Further, little is known about how information should be designed to fit people with a more intuitive approach to interpreting information. This study is therefore about the difference between peoples approach to interpreting information and how information should be designed to fit those with a more intuitive approach to interpreting information. The application is made to dairy farms in Sweden. The literature review describes the strategic leadership, the decision-making process and the intuitive and the analytic thinking.

Background: Change factors have appeared in advertising and customer understanding has grown among companies, which have led to important competitive advantages. Advertising agencies are not the only ones benefiting from this expertise anymore, but companies are starting to thus take clients from advertising agencies. They are also taking intermediaries, such as production, over more and more jobs from advertising agencies. This has led to an even tougher competition in the market and that advertising agencies are losing their jobs. The increased competition in the market, has also led many companies choosing to change its advertising agency, to think in new and changing strategies in the enterprise.

Svenska Lantchips is a Swedish SME sized snack manufacturer. Being a small, medium sized, family-owned business with branches throughout the world, they make an interesting company for a case study. The case study I have conducted focuses on the internationalisation process of this family owned company ? how they, despite their size, find ways to keep up an unique business structure, designed for internationalisation.The aim of this essay is to compare Svenska Lantchips? internationalisation process with traditional internationalisation theories and see if these are compatible with this company. The theories used are The Uppsala Model, The Network Model, and The Born Global Theory, with The Born Global Theory representing the younger generation of models.After undertaking an in-depth interview with Michael Hansen, business developer at Svenska Lantchips, I collated a substantial amount of material, which I have used as the basis of this essay.

Denna rapport har undersökt hur interaktivitet, genom interaktiva barnböcker på mobila enheter med pekskärm, kan påverka engagemanget för läsande hos barn i tre till fem års ålder. Detta har gjorts genom att en interaktiv barnbok skapades och deltagande observationer sedan utfördes vid sex tillfällen på tre förskolor där barnen fick testa den utvecklade produkten. De deltagande observationerna kompletterades sedan med åsikter om digitalt lärande från förskollärare på respektive förskola genom semistrukturerade intervjuer.Resultatet från undersökningen visar på en tendens till att engagemanget hos barnen kan ökas genom att införa interaktivitet i barnböcker genom att leverera dessa på mobila enheter med pekskärm. Undersökningen är dock gjord i för liten skala samt att produkten och undersökningen innehåller för många brister för att kunna ställa upp en faktisk teori. Istället ställs en hypotes upp som skulle behöva testas vidare under längre tid och i en mer rigorös undersökning..

This thesis studies how readers of the electronic book (the e-book) use and perceive the electronic medium as a carrier of fiction. In this study it is assumed that fiction is mostly read in printed format. Therefore it is interesting to ask why some readers choose to read on screen. As there are all too few studies conducted on how readers perceive and use the e-book as a medium, this study aims to enrich an undeveloped research area. The study is based upon a qualitative questionnaire.

Background: The demand for sending letters, in the traditional aspect, has decreased because of electronic sources which have replaced a big part of letter communication. The Postal Service constantly strives for lowering costs and due to the changeable demand, a greater awareness is required regarding recourses and their usage. The previously mentioned measures in combination with commonly occurring quality issues during the collective process at the letter terminal in Alvesta would be improved by applying a lean-perspective to the process. A first step towards saving of time is to apply the ?value stream mapping?-method on the collective process for small and large letters.Purpose: To map the process of collection for small and large letters to be able to identify waste of recourses and furthermore give suggestions on how the Postal Service would be able to reduce the waste of recourses identified.

In this essay there will be four text books from grade 1 studied, the first one are from the year 1976 and it will be going forward to the year 2012. The aim of this study is to see how the genders are depicted and represented, as well as what roles the genders are given. I do also want to see if there is a notable change in this over time. I will be doing a study based on the quantity of the contents, and I will also be doing a critical discourse analysis.The result of the study showed that there were more gender-based constructions that referred to women in all of the four books, which indicates that women are represented more often in these reading books. It is most common to portray the genders in their stereotypical roles, which again are present in society, but sometimes these roles are depart from what?s present in society.

Marinediesel has, to meet there customers needs for a suitable sterndrive to powerboats, developed a prototype. The prototype is currently in the testing phase. The opportunity to test the sterndrive under load inside the workshop has not previously been possible. Until now the drive has been tested in a test bench without any load on the propeller axle. The prototype has also been tested under real conditions mounted on a boat.The idea with my thesis was to create a test bench that can run around the clock in order to be able to test things like wear and service intervals and other things that require that the test interval is long.

Denna studie fokuserar på effekten av IFRS/IAS på earnings management. Huvudsyftet är att identifiera earnings management före och efter införandet av IFRS/IAS för att klargöra om de internationella redovisningsstandarderna har påverkat förekomsten av resultatmanipulering inom svenska börsbolag. Perioden som studeras är åren 2002-2008. För att identifiera earnings management används den modifierade Jones-modellen som går ut på att detektera förekomsten av godtyckliga periodiseringar som ett mått på resultatmanipulering. Vi kontrollerar även för om variablerna storlek och bransch kan förklara förekomsten av företeelsen före och efter införandet av IFRS/IAS.

As a small and land scarce country, effective waste management is ofoutmost importance in Singapore. In this study the production of biogasthrough anaerobic digestion from the organic fraction of municipal solidwaste (OFMSW) was compared to incineration of the waste. At the momentalmost all of the OFMSW in Singapore is incinerated. Three differentscenarios were compared to the reference scenario (incineration): one with alarge scale biogas plant that can treat half of all OFMSW in Singapore, onewith a medium scale biogas plant about 15 times smaller than the large oneand one with a small scale biogas plant that can treat waste from e.g. ashopping center or a food center.By using life cycle assessment (LCA) the different scenarios were comparedin terms of global warming potential (GWP), acidification, eutrophication,energy use and land use.

This master of economics paper discuss that the globalization has lead to increasing internationalization among small Swedish IT- companies in the service sector. Sweden has a long history of foreign trade but in the beginning of the industrialization only large companies that produced goods answered for the foreign trade. Before, the Swedish companies begun their operations abroad in fairly nearby markets and only gradually penetrated far-flung countries. Now this is no longer possible. When small companies nowadays seek growth in other countries there is no time internationalize with the same approaches as before, especially when the company offers a service.

The global market is becoming increasingly integrated and to keep up with growing competition and to achieve even greater success, companies expand to foreign markets. Previous studies have shown that the concept of psychic distance has an important impact on international performance regarding small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). The aim of our study is to provide the reader with a deeper understanding of how psychic distance influences export performance regarding Swedish SMEs. Through a single case study of a Swedish SME, we chose to research three different markets in three different continents. Our findings show that psychic distance influences export performance through export marketing strategy and active learning.

This paper examines family owned tourism businesses with a special focus on succession. In Nordic countries tourism has been widely promoted and used in rural development as a replacement economy for ?traditional? livelihoods based on rural production. Because the tourism and hospitality industry, especially in rural areas, is dominated by family enterprises, the topic of succession is of great relevance for tourism and tourism destinations. This paper looks at family businesses? special characteristics, challenges and advantages in terms of ownership structure, lifestyle, motivations, employees and destination impact.

This report is the final result of the master thesis that have been done at  Sharpman Engineering. Sharpman Engineering is a small development and manufacturing company that produces and make drawings for everything from heavy duty log raft to aids for disabled people. The purpose have been to make one concept that make it easy for elderly and people having problem with knee- and back problem to stand up from a sitting position. The final result will the company have for further investigations and use for a pre-serial production with the goal to produce a new working product.To get an overview of what is on the market have a comprehensive survey has been done, followed by a survey on patent. This patent survey are for no intrusion on existing patents should occur and give new ideas.

Örebro UniversityDepartment of Social SciencesSociology and social psychology, Continuation course, 61-90 p.Essay 15 p, Spring -08.Title: ?Youth (work)seekers?Author: Karolina LindellAbstractThis essay focuses on young people?s social background when they apply for their first job. I have interviewed four young people from a small town in Sweden, to see how social background and identity affects their vital conditions in general. I?m interested understanding the relationship between structure and agency.