This master thesis has been written in collaboration with Science Park Jönköping and is based on a problem related to corporate innovation. Science Park Jönköping believes that there is an untapped potential in existing industry in the form of ideas that are never commercialized. These theories are also supported in the research in which other authors have perceived that the ideas and inventions which do not belong to the core business risk ending up in drawers. If more of these ideas could be spin-offs or other forms of enterprise instead of staying in the drawers it would lead to growth, both for companies and for the society in large.The purpose of the thesis work is to, based on the case Science Park Jönköping, analyze how science parks and incubators can support the commercialization of ideas that derive from industry, who otherwise had been left lying. The work began with a mapping of the Science Park Jönköping operations and the skills they possess, and then other initiatives that aim to commercialize more ideas from companies were examined.

The European economy today is built on small and medium sized enterprises (SME?s) and SME?s recieve a lot more attention in the litterature now. Even though SME?s have earned more attention in the litterature there is a significant lack of information regarding purchasing and supplier selection in these companies?. This report aims to create bigger understanding of SME?s and their purchasing by showing how seven swedish SME?s select their suppliers.

Title: The way to successLevel: Final assignment for a Master?s Degree in Business AdministrationAuthors: Larisa Glazkova and Veronika LarssonSupervisor: Jonas KågströmDate: 2011 ? JanuaryAim: Many companies are started each year, but only some of them are successful and generate worthwhile profits. Many new companies do not survive the first few years. The purpose of this thesis is to identify factors that can lead to success for small and medium-sized enterprises in Gästrikland.Method: We analysed 559 interview surveys that were collected during the years 2004-2010 and success factors were defined. Additionally, financial reports from the database Retriever were analysed.

This paper intends to show how micro- and small businesses in the tourism and experience industry makes use of social media as a marketing tool. The study also shows the possibilities for businesses to market themselves to customers through social media. Small businesses usually don?t have the same conditions or the same marketing resources that larger companies have. For small businesses that lack marketing resources, social media is a great addition to marketing since the technology around social media is relatively simple.

The most dominating type of company in Sweden is the small-sized business and it usually lacks its own marketing department. The purpose of this paper was to analyze several small Swedish businesses which are specialized in different sectors of the Mechanic/Technology industry but they are similar in terms of having niched products and they are leading companies in the world. The objective was to do research about how small businesses work with marketing despite its lack of resources and capital.This survey has shown that customer contacts, customer relationships and especially for those investigated companies, it was very important to focus on globalization and product development in order to build a Point of Difference..

The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of capital structure in Swedish small and medium sized firms. The study includes 24.859 Swedish firms which are further analyzed with regards to their financial characteristics. These characteristics consist of short term debt, long term debt and total leverage. The study compares the relationship between these characteristics and six independent variables.The result shows that profitability is the greatest determinant for capital structure in Swedish small and medium sized firms with regards to total leverage. When profitability increases the total leverage of the firm decreases.

Sweden is facing a shift in generation where the people born in the 1940s are starting to retire which results in consequences. Before the year of 2013 more than 180 000 companies will have to change owner. A study indicates that the majority of all Swedes in the age of 18-70 can consider becoming company owners.Only ten percent of the companies for sale will reach the company broker and another 15 percent will be mediated by legal experts and accountants. This means that 75 percent of the companies for sale will not be available for the public market. As a potential buyer this is a problem.

This master thesis has been written in collaboration with Science Park Jönköping and is based on a problem related to corporate innovation. Science Park Jönköping believes that there is an untapped potential in existing industry in the form of ideas that are never commercialized. These theories are also supported in the research in which other authors have perceived that the ideas and inventions which do not belong to the core business risk ending up in drawers. If more of these ideas could be spin-offs or other forms of enterprise instead of staying in the drawers it would lead to growth, both for companies and for the society in large.The purpose of the thesis work is to, based on the case Science Park Jönköping, analyze how science parks and incubators can support the commercialization of ideas that derive from industry, who otherwise had been left lying. The work began with a mapping of the Science Park Jönköping operations and the skills they possess, and then other initiatives that aim to commercialize more ideas from companies were examined.

The RoHS Directive was introduced in order to restrict hazardous substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment, EEE. It currently restricts the use of six hazardous substances/compounds; cadmium, lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, PBB, and PBDE. The RoHS Directive currently includes category 1-7 and 10 in the categories of EEE listed in Annex 1A to the WEEE-Directive (Waste of EEE). The aim with the report is to investigate and elucidate prospects and obstacles to increase the scope of RoHS. This report mainly considers the inclusion of product categories 8 (Medical Devices) and 9 (Monitoring and Control Instruments).

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of how medium-sized construction companies adapt and how they choose to reorganize their operations in relation to the recession. The study has as its theoretical starting point theories about organizational learning, the impact of the economy on construction companies and strategies for dealing with recessions. The method used to conduct the study was semi-structured interviews with representatives from 15 different construction companies. The results of the study show that they used several strategies to adapt and reorganize the business in accordance with the recession. Some construction companies had to make cost savings as a result of the recession.

Public procurement in Sweden is regulated by the Act on Public Procure­ment (lagen om offentlig upphandling, LOU, in Swedish). The Public procurement in Sweden stands every year approximately for 500 bil­lion Swedish crowns of the taxpayers? money. It is therefore im­portant that the money is spent in the best possible way. The focus in this study is set on the relationship between the small- and medium sized building entrepreneurs and the government.

As companies worldwide are in search of competitiveness and larger shares of the market, organizational change has become a key-factor to sustain a competitive edge. But as organizations consist of people, the human aspect of change is not to be disregarded. When change occurs, humans need time to find their new role in the organization, a process that takes time. In this thesis the authors ask themselves what an implementation process of a new managerial role looks like. To answer this question they?ve studied LRF Konsult.

Background and problem: The abolishment of the mandatory audit in Sweden resulted in a marketorientation in which the small sized enterprises gained a stronger position. Theaudit firms are faced with the challenge to better meet the clients need and todemonstrate the value of audit now when it is optional. In coherence with thisclient focus it is endorsed to implement a value-based pricing that primarilyconsiders the client?s value and willingness to pay. The value of audit andaccounting services to small sized enterprises is not yet fully investigated, whyit is difficult to implement a value-based strategy.Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the value of audit and accounting servicesto the small sized enterprises through the study of which attributes theseservices consist of and which priority the small sized enterprises attach to thedifferent attributes.

This thesis aims to investigate what requirements companies have in order to achieve a successful legislative compliance control. The implementation of an environmental management system can help the company to structure their business and succeed with their environmental legislative compliance.Both small and medium sized businesses perceive that it is difficult and time consuming because the legislation can be difficult to interpret if you do not have the required knowledge. There are many companies that hire help in the form of consultants who audit their compliance, but this leads to a risk that the company will be exposed when the knowledge does not remain in the company if the consultant would cancel the cooperation. There are not so many tools today for businesses to obtain good legal compliance. The methods used are usually checklists included in the control program, and it costs a lot of resources to do everything needed.This study strives to deliver the expressed needs of the businesses.

In this thesis we will discuss the importance of human resource development in smaller companies and if it will change from when the Swedish economy was in an economic boom and later on came to be in a recession. We choose to use a more qualitative approach for this research in order to conduct a more in-depth study of five smaller sized companies located on Gotland, Sweden. In order to limit our research we had as an ambition to answer these following questions:? What obstacles are there when it comes to human resource development and knowledge transference within smaller sized companies?? What can simplify or enable human resource development and knowledge transference within smaller sized companies?? Does the teaching process change to a more tacit human resource development between co-workers when there is less room for conventional human resource development?The result of the research came to show that the biggest barrier, when it comes to competence development within smaller companies, is time. However, our research also showed that a majority of the companies has changed from a more external educational plan to a more internal educational plan which focuses on keeping the human resource development within the company.