Over the last decade, the private insurance market has undergone a stable growth in turnover and growing demand for insurance products in all Member States of the European Union. Therefore, the creation of a single market in insurance will enable consumers to have access to wider choice of insurance products, and insurance companies to gain access to markets in various Member States and compete effectively. The EU legal framework for the insurance industry embraces the Treaty freedoms of services, establishment and capital, the EC Directives and the ECJ case-law. The present thesis identifies numerous factors that hinder the Community insurance market integration and offers possible remedies. The summary of the market obstacles is all-inclusive and reflects the responses to the questionnaires and the Commission surveys.

Title: Culture?s Affect on the Determinants of Customer Satisfaction in Retailing: The Case of a European Retailer in the U.S. and China Date of the Seminar: 29th of May 2007 Course: BUS 809 Master thesis in International Marketing Authors: Lisa Bustamante Chesley Norman Charlotte Valind Advisors: Johan Anselmsson Cecilia Cassinger Keywords: International Retailing, Determinants of Customer Satisfaction, Culture, United States, China Thesis purpose: Our study aims to identify the determinants of customer satisfaction of two national cultures in a global retail setting, in order to clarify what role culture has, if any, in customers? satisfaction with an international retailer. Further, this will uncover if a Western perspective of determinants of satisfaction is a universal means of capturing what satisfies customers across cultures in a retail setting.

Several studies have investigated the relationship between different measures of innovative activity, such as patent statistics and R&D expenditures and some have looked deeper into the differences between large and small firms regarding number of patents issued per employee or per R&D dollar. In this paper, the objective is to find out if there are any indications of a barrier to entry (due to economical factors, lack of knowledge etc) for small firms to get into the field of patent handling. The approach is to first set up a hypothesis based on some simple assumptions about how firms would make decisions about whether to apply for a patent or not and thereafter use econometric methods in an empirical investigation. The data used for this study are figures on number of employees, number of patents granted and R&D expenditures for the Swedish firms in the pulp and paper industry. The main conclusion is that, based on the analysis of the data from this rather limited group of firms, no such barrier can be seen..

This master's thesis examines the possibilities of correction and change in a classification scheme, with regard to the changes that occur in the world the classification system intends to describe.Applying a comparative method and classification theory, the classification of the example of the former Yugoslavia (1918-1941, 1945-1991), its republics and successor states, and the languages, formerly known as Serbo-Croatian are examined through a comparison of the main classes and divisions of language, geography, and history, in Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), and Klassifikationssystem för svenska bibliotek [Classification for Swedish Libraries] (SAB). Eight editions of DDC, from 1876 to 2014, are compared to seven editions of SAB, from 1921 to 2013. The editions have been selected in order to show the changes prior to, and following, the First World War, changes after the Second World War, and changes following the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991.The examination shows that both systems have updated their editions according to the changes in former Yugoslavia over the years. DDC has well constructed facet schedules, especially Table 2 concerning geography, but fails, in some cases, to construct a logic and hierarchical structure for the republics and languages of Yugoslavia, partly due to the fixed classes and divisions that survive from the very first edition of DDC from 1876, but also as a result of the decimal notation, and its limitations, itself.SAB seeks to construct a hierarchically logic and equal scheme for the languages, areas, and states of the former Yugoslavia. Although the facets for geography and chronology aren't as developed as the ones in DDC, the overall result is that of a logically consistent and hierarchically clear classification, with short notation codes, thanks to the alphabetic mixed notation, which allows more subdivisions than the numerals and the pure notation of DDC.This study is a two years master's thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies..

AbstractTitle: Message sent ? SUDD AB:s internal communication in the digital age (Message sent ? SUDD AB:s interna kommunikation i den digitala tidsåldern)Number of pages: 40 (44 including enclosures)Author: Lea KaufmannTuthor: Göran SvenssonCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: HT 2006University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: Analyze whether a small long distance company such as SUDD AB can obtain a well-functioned internal communication by using new communication technologies.Material/Method: The analysis is based on qualitative interviews with SUDD AB:s complete staff.Main results: Proven that internal communication is a complicated and very important process also within a small company. New communication channels do not necessarily guarantee an uncomplicated and efficient internal communication but the need to collaborate with old-fashioned channels persists.Keywords: communication, information, channels, effects, content, effectiveness.

In 2010 mandatory audit was revoked for small and medium sized companies in Sweden. At the same time the authorization for accounting consultants was established with the aim of raising the knowledge and status of the profession. Even though The Swedish Companies Registration Office has discovered more errors in the accounting after the mandatory audit was eliminated, it especially concerns those companies who does not have neither an auditor or an accounting consultant. One of the reasons often mentioned to be audited is the auditors role when it comes to lending decisions. Our empirical studie show that the auditors most important function, being unbiased, is not what is of greatest importance for the credit institutions.Instead it was professional skills, and for small and medium enterprises (SME) it was consulting they requested the most.

The aim of this small thesis is to investigate if the probability of business failure is higher at the time of divestment than at the time of acquisition for portfolio companies that have been subject to private equity ownership. The background for this thesis is the widespread critique aimed at private equity firms, claiming that they increase the risk in their portfolio companies. We have performed a study of 53 buyout transactions, involving Swedish manufacturing companies, covering a time span of 13 years, from 1995 to 2007. We find evidence of an increased risk of business failure for the portfolio companies with a short forecasting horizon (within one year). The absolute increase in the sample is however small.

In this thesis a method for evaluating investments in small scale hydro power is presented. An analysis of the future position that small scale hydro production will have on the Nordic electricity market is also carried out. This is done by an inventory of technology and economic and environmental aspects. The inventory is also a guide as to how the project should be implemented.Hydrolyzer is the name of the Excel tool developed to evaluate investments. The tool requests input data from the user and then evaluates the investment and generates a sensitivity analysis.

This thesis investigates if a system for small scale electricity production located in anurban environment can be profitable. The work has been divided up into two parts,one extensive literature study and one case study. The purpose of the literature studywas to investigate the area, resulting in a choice of which technology to be studied indepth in a case study.In the case study a system containing small scale wind turbines and photovoltaicsmounted on Gränby Centrums roof was examined. From data containing wind power,wind direction and total irradiation, possible production from a system weresimulated. Three products of each technology were examined in the simulations.From the simulated production an economic analysis was carried out, this toinvestigate if a system is profitable.

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to examine how the population living in Christiania considers their residential area in relation to the surrounding society, and why you as an individual choose to live there. We have used the qualitative method and we have performed interviews with a total of six persons. We have used Tönnies two notions regarding gemeinschaft and gesellschaft, and Goffmans theory about stigma. We choose these theories because we thought that they were most relevant for our study. Our question at issue is: Why does a person seek to live in an alternative society, with different norms in comparison to the majority society? Through our interview persons we learned their stories and their opinions considering their residential area and we concluded that Christiania differs from the remaining society in several ways.

Cambodia, in Southeast Asia, has tropical monsoonal climate with distinct dry and rain seasons. Many people are poor and live in rural areas. Farmers mainly culture rice, and raise pigs, cattle and poultry as well. During two months, a minor field study was performed in Cambodia. The main purpose was to evaluate the impact of contributions done by projects that started in 2005 and were managed by the local organization CelAgrid.

This essay aims at understanding the experience of the use of ayahuasca, and similarities and differences between interview protocols and socio-cultural identities. The work is based on field studies conducted in the Peruvian Andes, in the village of Pisac September to November 2009. What has emerged is that the experience does not seem to be dependent on cultural manifestations as much as it is dependent on general human cognition. Theories have been applied on an empirical phenomenological descriptive study. Various brain activities, along with mental mechanisms contribute to a deeper understanding of the findings in the descriptive analysis.It seems that the cultural differences, which I have classed as typological in the phenomenological study, mostly are expressions of meaning for the informants.

The aim of this work is to analyze if a change in the benthic community can be detected two years after a restoration of a small stream. The samples were taken in a small stream at Tinnerö Eklandskap just south of Linköping. In addition to the restored area, two reference sites upstream and downstream of the restored area were sampled to compare to the restored site. The method used for sampling of benthic fauna in the stream was kick sampling. ASPT, Berger-Parker and Renkonen-indices were used to find out if there was any difference between the reference areas and the restored area.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att beskriva hur företag i logistikkedjan, rederi ? hamn ? åkeri, förberett sig inför de nya länderna, Lettland, Litauen och Polens inträde i den Europeiska Unionen den 1 maj 2004. Vi har även valt att undersöka vilka omvärldsanalysmetoder företagen använder sig utav, hur de i så fall tillämpar dessa och ge eventuella förslag på omvärldsanalysmetoder..

The European Union provide 27 % of total volume raw milk produced in the world. This number is steadily decreasing due to that the world milk production increase is more rapid than EU production growth. The growing middle-class change the demand for food, a higher standard of living increase the demand of milk products as well as other various animal products. Since 1984 the EU milk quota has limited the supply from EU, but the quota will expire April 1st 2015. The European Milk Board expect that the removal of quotas will make the farm gate price decline.