The Swedish agricultural sector is currently undergoing a substantial structural change. The number of farm enterprises is continuously decreasing and the average farm size is increasing. In combination with increasing number of competitors in the insurance market, the competitive rivalry within this market has increased significantly. With this knowledge in mind, Länsförsäkringar Uppsala initiated this study, which aims to provide an understanding of customer?s view on customer value, related to agricultural insurance and financing.

When contemplating entering an alliance the rationale behind the decision should differdepending on the size of the companies involved as well as on other important factors. The importantfactors influencing the decision are related to the resource pooling potential of the alliance,the power structure along with the business network the companies are a part of. Theanalysis has shown proof of a need for cooperation if one wish to succeed in the telecommunicationindustry and it has also determined which resources that are deemed to be most important toget in touch with, for our study object, to facilitate its access to the market. Those resources aredefined as a direct channel to the customer, funds/capital and the access to relevant businessnetworks. To get in touch with these lacking resources, three alternative approaches has beenproposed; all of them involving a strategic alliance decision.

The aim of this masters thesis, based on discourse analysis and organization theory, is to study how individuals in different Swedish cultural organizations- and agencys are working with disaster preparedness.The purpose of this is to examine whether organizational structures affect different persons work, cooperation and practical application concerning disaster preparedness in collaboration with both external and internal organizations.The research shows that disaster preparedness are affected by priority issues as well as financial resources causing consequences for future work concerning this kind of issues.Another problem which is also examined and discussed in this thesis are the problematic approach to personal initiative which today is the leading operation for the organizations to deal with disaster preparedness instead of creating professional titles for the persons handles these complex issues..

Title: The battle of the budget ? Communication in a modern policy (Slaget om budgeten ?Kommunikation inom den moderna politiken)Numbers of pages: 39Author: Niclas KarlssonTutor: Peder Hård af SegerstadCourse: Media and Communication studies CPeriod: Autumn 2009University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science,Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: The purpose of the paper is to see how Minister of Finance Anders Borg andthe Social Democratic economic spokesman Thomas Östros communicate their messages tothe public.Material/Method: The material is the minutes of the budget debate in the SwedishParliament. The method is rhetorical analysis and content analysis.Main result: Trust making is very important for both of them, especially when the financecrisis reached Sweden. The most common rhetorical quality is ethos.Keywords: Strategic political communication, rhetorical analysis, political trust..

This study examines how Qatar and Russia utilize football as an instrument of foreign-policy. While previous reasearch has primarily focused on mega-events, such as the Olympic games and the FIFA World Cup, this thesis expands the scope by analyzing how footbal functions as a strategic tool for nation branding in both countries. The study employs a comparative qualitative case study appraoch, based on Simon Anholt?s nation branding framework, modified to include four dimensions instead of six. The analysis demonstrates that both Qatar and Russia leverage football to advance their foreign policy objectives, but in markedly different ways.

Purpose/aim: The purpose of this thesis is to examine if, and in that case how, the municipality of Umeå worked strategically with its communication during 2014 when Umeå was chosen as ?European Capital of Culture?. The research is mainly focused on the outlines of their communication plan, main goals, what  communication strategies the municipality has chosen to and their choice of media channels.Material/method: Two methods are used for this research; qualitative interviews with four employees within the communication team during Umeå2014 and a text analysis of three formal documents which provide the framework of communication policies and media strategies during Umeå2014.Results: The results clearly indicate a well structured, strategic planning outlined in the formal documents. The four people intreviewed all had a good knowledge of the policies and strategies in the documents, they also described their work in accordance with these..

The postindustrial market increasingly demands service infused products to add more value to the customer in order to be competitive. Much research regarding digitalized services indicates that companies have to be innovative in order to compete on the market. However, companies within different industries face different challenges with digital service development. This study has been conducted because there are little known about the opportunities and the challenges different industries faces with a globalized market. Our research question is what the challenges are and what opportunities does strategic digital service development entails for companies.

The purpose of this study was to examine the school counsellors and social service workers experience of how the child psychiatry manage their authority in the collaboration concerning children with mental health problems. The study was conducted using qualitative interviews with school counsellors, social service workers and one former employee of the Swedish child psychiatric care. Our results are divided into two themes: Collaboration and distribution of responsibility and Children who fall between the cracks. Examples of groups of children who according to our study are at risk of falling between the cracks are those who apart from mental issues have substance abuse issues or social issues, those whose parents are in a child custody dispute, children who are acting out and children with self-harm issues. The study also reveals that it's easier for children whose parents are active and knowledgeable to get help from the child psychiatric care and that it's a requirement for both parents and children to be highly motivated.There are established social hierarchs between agencies who partake in collaboration regarding children with mental illness.

Outsourcing has grown more so than any other sector of IT services. According to a research by the analytic company Gartner soon four of ten jobs in the IT sector will be outsourced. For a nation like Sweden that means about 40,000 jobs going abroad. Business managers look to outsourcing as a means of reducing their operating cost and their need for capital spending. Companies turn to outsourcing to save money and seek expertise outside.

The 1st of January this year the state owned Swedish Luftfartsverket changed their name into the shorter name LFV. The shorter LFV is a more modern version in terms of that the name is a proof of that the classic organisation of the state, Luftfartsverket, with this stepbreaks through boarders and finds new ways. Plans have existed before but since 2005 when Luftfartsverket lost its assignments from the government and become a state owned business corporation, the plans have intensified. Now, also for all the employees, it isgetting obvious that something is going on in the organisation.The purpose of this paper is to see how this newly made change of name and logotype have been recieved and how it has effect the strategic choosen respondents within the organisation LFV. These choosen respondents have thorough knowledge of the organisation of LFV.

Companies around the globe all have one thing in common; they are surrounded by individuals or groups of individuals that can influence the company in one way or another. These individuals and groups of individuals are called stakeholders. This study in concerned with the importance of a company?s awereness of and relationship with which stakeholders surround them. The fact that more companies show awareness of responsible conduct, in particular of the environment and social aspects of management may be a way to build a strong corporate image.

Problem: The authors have, during the process of development of this thesis, tried to create an understanding of how a number of organizations, all working with different approaches around the ?brand Sweden?, perceive the efficiency and benefits of using extended concept around embassies as a tool in their strategic work. The embassies in question have an evolved concept in the sense that they don not only hold a traditional political and legal role. The problem facing us authors was the issue whether theses embassies are efficient arenas to coordinate the forces and resources of the organizations concerned, in the mission to enhance the visibility and awareness of Sweden abroad.Purpose: The purpose is to describe the strategic work with marketing Sweden to be able to look in to whether the evolved concept behind the embassies in question are used as a tool in within the work of the organizations. We wish to research this to be able to evaluate if this arena is perceived as efficient for the organizations concerned.Method: In order to get a background to which one establish and communicate a nations brand the authors have studied literature within the subject.

This essay has examined the effects that new issues had on the four Swedish football clubs that are organized as sport limited companies. The difference between a limited company and a sporting limited company is that the clubs always have majority ownership by the 51% rule. Previous research on sport limited companies and on new issues has been associated with the agent theory and the pecking order theory in order to explain the effects.The thesis is a qualitative study with an inductive approach, where the interviews have been selected as the method of collecting data. Through the years the clubs have performed new issues several times. The study says that the clubs perform a new issue for two reasons, either for investment purposes or because they have a poor economy and must collect liquid assets.

Stratego is a boardgame not very different from chess, that contains hidden information. Because of this, existing programs play at beginner level. The purpose of this thesis is to adjust a minimax algorithm so that it passes the demands of Stratego, and then build a Stratego agent around it. Tests with existing minimax algorithms leads to the development p-e-minimax. This algorithm uses two different values in its nodes to simulate the different information available to the agent and its opponent.

Background: It is necessary for a company to hold some unique and irreplicable competitive advantage in order to be able to succeed in a market. In a market where public procurement is an important part the competitive advantages will be characterized by the fact that some of the participants on the market are public organizations and that their actions as for procurement fall under the legislation LOU. The characteristics of competitive advantage also depend on and change with continuous changes on a market. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study the competitive advantages that are presenton a current market characterized by public procurement and how these are created. The purposes is also to based on the trends on the market today study and predict the nature of the competitive advantage on the market in the future as well as the changes that we think will occur on the relevant market.