This study aims to investigate development and reasons behind sustainability reporting in large Swedish companies. By examining 15 companies? environmental and sustainability reports between the years 2000 and 2008, data was collected on matters such as frequency, scope and design. Identified trends were to a large extent in line with previous studies on international development; sustainability reporting is growing in several aspects. The authors have found one major reason for this development to be increasing requirements and expectations from stakeholders and a need for companies to legitimize their actions.

During the last years, the moral and ethics in companies has been a growing subject in media. Large multinational companies are to a bigger extent using workforce in developing countries and the working conditions at the workplaces in those countries, are more or less controlled. Even if a company carefully controls its own business, it can be using subcontractors that for instance use child labour or forced labour, or in some other way makes human rights abuses. When the world gets more globalized and the market where the companies act gets bigger, there will be new issues for companies to handle. The companies have to satisfy not only the interests of the costumers and the shareholders, but also the environment around it, containing many different stakeholders.

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.

The use of group contribution between consolidated firms is a common phenomenon in Sweden where taxation is not based on the return on the consolidated level but on the return on the individual firms. However, the process of handling the group contribution does not work without problems. This thesis analyzes three main issues where group contributions oppose the Swedish Companies Act. ? The Swedish Companies Act enacts the decision regarding group contributions to be made at a shareholder?s meeting.

Climate change is one of the most difficult problems that humans have to deal with. Today, the evidence of human effects on the climate change and the rise of temperature on earth are strong. It is extremely important that all countries get together and cooperate in order to be able to solve the problem with climate change. One step in the work on climate changes is the Convention on Climate Change, which was agreed on in 1992. The Convention on Climate Change resulted in the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement between a number of industrialized countries to limit or reduce the green gas emissions.

Strategic development is something that concerns all companies, regardless of which industry they?re in. There is extensive research on this topic but one can question if the same theory also applies to E-businesses. Using case studies, this paper looks at strategic development in E-businesses and tries to answer whether strategic development in internet based companies is unique or if existing theory can still be applied. The predominant approach is to look into if E-businesses, due to a turbulent environment, rely less on market research and focus more on internal resources than would be expected by companies in more stable environments.

Auditing demands knowledge in many diverse areas. To be able to provide all this knowledge it is necessary for the auditor to have access to persons with special skills. Through these contacts the auditor builds up a business network that brings support in the daily work. Our purpose with this study is to find out how auditor?s network in big auditing firms is organized and to show how they use their network.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what functions the public library has for parents of small children. If and how they make use of the library and what their opinion is about it. The research questions are: Which functions does the public library have for parents of small children? How do parents of small children use the library and what opinion do they have about it? Which factors have an impact on the parents of small children and how do they influence their use of and opinion about the public library and the functions of the library? The theoretical approach is based on Henrik Jochumsen and Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen?s model of the social room and the lifestyles and Marianne Andersson and Dorte Skot-Hansen?s model of the public library?s functions. To answer our research questions we have made seven qualitative interviews with parents of small children.

Agile systems development has in recent years become very popular, and many companies today claims to be working agile. At the same time there are studies about agile system development that indicate that there are difficulties in fully adopting the agile way. The purpose of this qualitative study has been to examine how true Swedish IT-companies conduct their agile system development compared to agile theory, and we have specifically for the purpose of the study designed a framework that has been used as an analytical tool. The framework helped us to maintain a structured and objective approach when we examined the participating companies and their practices. The study showed that there were differences regarding how true to agile theory the different companies conducts their agile projects, and that the differences in part depends on how long the companies have been working agile.

The study aims to investigate Swedish fitness companies positioning and strategic choices when internationalising in the Scandinavian countries and what has influenced this choice. Furthermore, the corporate risk and what obstacles they encountered will be examined.The study was conducted as a qualitative study with a deductive approach. The results are based mainly on primary data from interviews, as well as secondary data.The fitness companies? choice of strategy in internationalisation depends largely on its concept and positioning. The main obstacles in the internationalisation process are lack of communication, language difficulties and regulations.

Problem: Hur skiljer sig Swedbanks Private Banking-tjänst ifrån dess Privatrådgivningstjänst i termer av kundkaraktäristika, relationsmässigt mervärde samt finansiell avkastning? Hur skiljer sig bankens fokusering ifrån kundens efterfrågan baserat på dessa variabler? Vad beror dessa eventuella skillnader på?Hur ser en modell som förklarar sambandet mellan avkastning och kontaktintensitet ut och är en exklusivare rådgivningstjänst så som PrivateBanking-tjänsten nödvändig att tillhandahålla för kundens räkning baserat på dessa variabler?Syfte: Definiera det mervärde Swedbanks AB:s PrivateBanking-tjänst medför i form av avkastning och relationsmässiga sådana, och vad som driver kunden att betala för denna tjänst jämfört med ordinär Privatrådgivning. Detta kommer generera en slutsats huruvida Private Banking-tjänsten medförnågon överavkastning, samtidigt som en modell kommer kunna skapas som visar ett eventuellt samband mellan avkastning och kontaktintensitet, vilket visar nödvändigheten med exklusivare sådana. Detta för att finna de eventuella gap som finns mellan kundens uppfattning och bankens tyngdpunkter.Metod: Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ undersökning i form av intervjuer med Private Banking- och Privatrådgivare på Swedbank AB. Därefter har en kvantitativ undersökning genomförts i form av enkäter till kunder som innehar Swedbanks rådgivningstjänster.

The technological progress of the world has had a massive effect on how we communicate with one and other, it also has had an big impact on how companies communicate with their customers and consumers. Today you cannot only communicate a ?promise to your costumers and consumers you also have to ?deliver? what it is you promise. Strategic communication is today not only to market your product but to ensure that your strategic communication is shown even in you innovation, design and product development.  This thesis is conducted in collaboration with No Picnic AB.The purpose of this study was to get an insight in how Swedish companies use their strategic communication. We aim on bringing a new point of view of strategic communication with innovation, design and product development also as a communication channel.

Out of totally 1862 hectares of the Swedish fruitacerage, only 142 hectares are cultivated according to the EU-standards for organic farming. Only 73 hectares are connected to the Swedish control organisation KRAV. Therefore only fruit from this acreage can be sold as organic. The aim of the study was to further investigate the organic fruit production regarding cultivation, market and firm strategy. Through interviews with 36 fruitproducers the situation for organic fruit and the companies were examined.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how social media can affect and influence the B2B-relationship. Social media is now a widespread and accepted tool for communication in many B2C-companies; therefore we find it interesting to examine how social media can find its place in the communication mix of B2B-companies. We are also aiming to distinguish standards in how social media is practiced and discussed in the context of the B2B-market. We have applied a qualitative method for this study and we have interviewed seven respondents, which are experts in social media or working with market communication at B2B-companies in Sweden. During our study we have identified several comparable attributes within the B2B market and their opinions about how social media should be approach and adopt in the communication mix of the company..

Problem statement: In what ways do companies work strategically with event marketing?To answer the problem statement, the following research questions help us gain the necessary understandings:What role does event marketing play in a company?s marketing mix?What are the deciding factors that make companies select certain events?What objectives do companies have with event marketing?How do companies evaluate their event marketing?Purpose: Through analyzing multiple case studies of event users and event organizers, this essay attempts to gain an understanding of how companies work strategically with event marketing as a promotional tool.Method: Primary data collection was compiled through a series of six interviews of both event users and event organizers. This qualitative data has contributed towards the formulation of six case studies that outline the research findings. In addition to interviews, secondary data was compiled through literature, scientific articles, and internet-based materials.Conclusion: The findings of this paper show that event marketing is an integrated promotional tool that is used to further strengthen a company?s comprehensive marketing mix.