Mankind has always been communicating, it is almost impossible to not communicate. The communication tree has grown a new branch, the environmental communication branch, and an ISO standard, the ISO 14 063 Environmental communication- guidelines and examples was issued October 2006. The purpose of this thesis is commissioned by the managing director of NQA Nordic AB in order to examine and analyse how organisations communicate environmental issues today, and how big the need for ISO 14 063 actually is, and further more if there are needs and wishes to make ISO 14 063 a certifiable standard. The main conclusion is that the there is a need for the standard, but it is difficult to say in which form since the knowledge about the standard is far to low among the organisations examined in this thesis. Clarity and transparency as ISO 14 063 promotes are important ingredients in organisations? environmental work, so sure a standard for environmental communication can help improve environmental performance, for example through opening up for two-way communication and from that on take part of the stakeholders? opinions.This study is based on a literature study and a questionnaire survey where 70 organisations (in this case authorities, corporations and non-governmental organisations) randomly chosen from the seven criteria, which ISO 14 001 defines as the environment: land, water, air, flora, fauna, natural resources and man and his collaboration with those.

AbstractThis master thesis is a hermeneutic inspired case study of how the value base regarding the environmental and social responsibility in the Swedish coffee company Löfbergs Lila AB is affecting the company's business. A thesis inspired by hermeneutics means that it is based on two ideas, the one of interaction between entirety and partitions and the one of interpretation (Alvesson & Sköldberg 1994). This cause that the emphasis is on how the reality is interpreted and that it never can be seen as completely objective.The case study was conducted during the spring semester of 2010 at Karlstad's University and consists of both empirical and theoretical material collected during this time. The empirical material in this thesis includes, among other things, interviews with four representatives of Löfbergs Lila AB, written material from the company regarding its work related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), some information about the coffee industry as a whole and different certifications for "ethical? coffee that exists on the Swedish market.The basic idea with CSR as a business strategy is that it can be financially beneficial for companies to take a social and environmental responsibility outside of the company (Vogel 2005).

Because of among other things the globalization and a focus on core competencies knowledge has become very important for the companies of today, especially for research-intensive companies. The problem is that the companies become more sensitive to how knowledge is created and spread, that is, how organizational knowledge is created. Especially sensitive are companies who are small, young and research-intensive. The purpose with this thesis is to explore how organizational knowledge is created in small, young and research intensive companies.The theory is based on a five-phase model of organizational knowledge creation and four modes of knowledge conversion described by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995). These concepts constitute the foundation of the analytical model used in the thesis.The study is carried out by qualitative, highly structured interviews with low standardization.

The globalization and the realization of a European common insurance market have increased the importance of cross border insurance contracts. Despite that, a gathered set of rules regulating cross border insurance contracts does not exist. The sets of rules within Private International Law which arises today when determining the applicable law regarding cross border insurance contracts are the law of 1993 on applicable law to certain insurance contracts (the law of 1993) and the law of 1998 on applicable law to contractual obligations (Rome Convention). Since the Rome Convention is the only Community instrument which still is in the form of a treaty, work has been done in order to convert it into a regulation, called the Rome-I-regulation. Therefore, the future Rome I-regulation is of importance for the thesis as well since it most likely will replace the Rome Convention.Swedish law is based on the principle of party autonomy, which means that the contracting parties have the right to freely agree on the content of the contract, including the choice of law.

The purpose of this bachelor's thesis is to examine how public libraries in Sweden handles their weeding procedures. A series of questions are asked: How does libraries in Sweden motivate weeding? What principles constitutes the procedure of weeding? Which aspects are given most importance when weeding is decided. How does views on weeding differ between libraries of different sizes? How does longer or shorter professional experience influence the view on weeding? The study was done through an online questionnaire which was sent to a number of staff members on different libraries via e-mail.

The aim of this report is to analyse the logistics of a medium sized restaurant and give an overall solution for improvements on the restaurant's logistics. The restaurant of interest belongs to Laponia Hotel and is located in Arvidsjaur, Sweden. Investments for over 100.000 Euros are planned for the hotel, which includes a reconstruction of the restaurant. The details on how the restaurant will be reconstructed are not yet known. I therefore chose to analyse the problemin general terms and find a solution that is focused on the logistic system itself rather than its layout.

The Swedish carrot market is dominated by a few big companies and three of them stands for 50 % of the market. During the last twenty years the number of growers has decreased, the area and the harvest have increased. The big producers have invested in advanced and expensive postharvest equipment that fulfils the high standards of the food industry. Few carrot producers are members of an organisation and they keep contacts with there buyers one by one. The buyers are mostly wholesalers and these have during a long period of time decreased the number of suppliers.

Biogas mainly consists of methane and carbon dioxide, where methane is theenergy-rich gas, and is naturally created when organic matter breaks down in absenceof oxygen, also known as anaerobic digestion. A biogas plant re-creates the anaerobicconditions inside a digester where the organic substrate is fed into and digests toproduce biogas. The gas is then used to produce energy by combustion and can beseen as a completely renewable fuel.Today, energy from biogas is used primarily by major stakeholders such asmunicipalities and thus the plants become very large with high investment- andconstruction costs. There are currently few small plants in Sweden, even though thepotential for agriculture and medium-sized to smaller farms to become self-sufficientin terms of electricity and heat is great. Farms have a natural stock of digestibleorganic material in form of manure or crops for example, which are constantlyavailable.

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 study intends to explain the problem with the implementation of new Swedish accounting rules called K2. The rules are simplifications of the general accounting rules and the purpose is to make it easier for small companies to account. Despite this, few small companies have adopted the rules. This study seeks to explain the weak response to the K2-rules using institutional theory.The research objects of this study are Burger King, McDonald?s and two audits and accountants.

This cross-sectional study investigated the use of health benefits in relation to the self-rated health of employees at two medium-sized industrial enterprises in Hälsingland. The method used to investigate this was through a self-designed questionnaire consisting 19 questions about health, lifestyle and health benefits at the workplace. A total of 100 questionnaires were distributed in the two companies, hence 50 surveys at each workplace. The response rate was measured to 88 % and 74 %, which means a loss of 6 persons and 13 persons. The results showed that Company nr 1 offers its employees a health benefits consisting of free access to gym in the company premises after working hours and financial contributions to training-cards.

The purpose of this bachelor's thesis is to examine how public libraries in Sweden handles their weeding procedures. A series of questions are asked: How does libraries in Sweden motivate weeding? What principles constitutes the procedure of weeding? Which aspects are given most importance when weeding is decided. How does views on weeding differ between libraries of different sizes? How does longer or shorter professional experience influence the view on weeding? The study was done through an online questionnaire which was sent to a number of staff members on different libraries via e-mail.

Rapporten har ett fokus på Byggnads Informations Modeller (BIM), ett IT-tekniskt verktyg och arbetssätt som har vuxit fram i byggbranschen alltmer under de senaste åren. Hur detta IT-verktyg används hos medelstora byggentreprenadföretag redovisas i denna rapport.Syftet med rapporten är att verka positivt på utvecklingen mot effektivare och resurssnålare arbetsprocesser inom byggbranschen genom att bidra med kunskap om hur användandet av BIM ser ut bland dessa företag, varför det ser ut som det gör, ifall BIM behövs och vad som kan förändra läget i någon riktning.Metodarbetet har bestått av litteraturstudier och intervjuundersökningar.Arbetet inleddes med studier av rapporter och texter relaterade till BIM och intervjuer med representanter för ledande branschföretag inom bygg samt ett par branschorganisationer med inriktning på BIM. Därefter följde ytterligare litteraturstudier med inriktning på förändring och förändringsarbete och enkät och intervjuteknik. Arbetet ledde fram till olika grundteser och förklaringsmodeller som låg till grund för och utformade de intervjufrågor som ställdes vid huvudintervjuerna med elva medelstora byggentreprenadföretag.Huvudintervjuerna gav ett resultat som visade att företagen generellt sett såg på BIM som något positivt, med fördelar såsom lättare kommunikation och som ett hjälpmedel att minska fel i produktionen. Resultatet visade även att det fanns utmaningar såsom mjukvarukompabilitet och en beroendeproblematik mellan projektets involverade parter som innebar att för att tekniken ska kunna ge fördelar måste alla parter använda tekniken.Förklaringarna till det låga användandet bland medelstora byggentreprenadföretag var flera, vanligast var brist på krav från beställarna.

Sedan tidigt 90-tal har internet utvecklats och fått ett större inflytande på marknaden. Web 2.0 har varit en del i den utvecklingen och definieras som en teknologisk infrastruktur som har aktiverat det sociala fenomenet på webben. Web 2.0 har där igenom gett konsumenter en möjlighet att kommunicera med företag via sociala medier. I och med utvecklingen av Web 2.0 kan företag interagera med sina kunder genom nya kommunikationskanaler såsom Facebook, Twitter och Youtube med flera. Sociala medier har en ekonomisk fördel då marknadsföring kan genomföras till en lägre kostnad.

 Date                   May 28, 2009Level                  Bachelor thesis in Business Administration/Information TechnologyAuthors             Jennie Andersson, Niklas Fridell, Visar HoxhaTutor                  Marie MörndalDepartment    HSTTitle                    ERP-solutions in small to medium sized enterprises ? possibilities and problemsSummary          ERP-solutions have penetrated the market for SME: s, offering the same advantages larger enterprises have enjoyed for years. For a significantly cheaper price, SME: s can nowadays acquire ERP-solutions and become more effective and increase their profit.  The authors have examined five SME: s in both the production and service company segment and have come to the conclusion that an ERP-solution would indeed benefit these companies in many levels but also induce certain obstacles the examined companies must overcome, both financial and organizational.Purpose            The purpose of this thesis is to examine if and how SME: s can become more efficient and developed and increase their profit by implementing an ERP-solution. Further, the purpose is to discuss which conditions that exists for the examined SME: s in order to implement an ERP-solution.Method            The thesis consists of a qualitative research where the authors have interviewed either the owner or employees at management level by using semi-structured interviews.