Purpose: To explore the purchasing function, mainly the supplier selection activities, in the fast fashion apparel industry. The purpose is 1) to explore the criteria associated with supplier selection for fashion products, and 2) to analyze the purchasing activities in order to find characteristics and trends which are considered to be strategic for the buying company. Method: The empirics consist of qualitative interviews with employees with responsibility for the companies' purchasing activities, as well as information gathered from articles, annual reports, and company websites. Result: The study indicates that qualitative criterias have increased in importance, and have become an important part of supplier selection for fashion goods. A number of characteristics where identified as important for purchasing fashion goods, which can affect choice of supplier; examples are increased collaboration, increased re-buys and increased use of logistics services.

The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on the various factors that influence the balancebetween the working lives and family lives of social workers. The research questions posedwere: Do social workers consider there is a conflict between their working lives and familylives? Which factors make maintaining a balance between working life and family life moredifficult and which make it easier to do so? How do social workers describe equality betweenthe sexes in their own family? Regarding methodology, the selection method is strategic andcombines data sources with quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The material collectedand via online survey, targeted to 120 municipal employees social workers in a district councilin a big city, and through interviews with four social workers in a rural community. The studywas performed using gender theory and the demand-support-control model.

The aim of this study has been to investigate the significance of the newly started project Vimmerbymodellen for unaccompanied young refugees. This regarding to how the unaccompanied young refugees are participating in creating networks and meeting points in the local community. Vimmerbymodellen is described as an integration project where the nonprofit sector collaborates with the municipality. The empirical material has been collected through semi-structured qualitative interviews where five unaccompanied young refugees and four involved adults have been interviewed. The empirical material from these interviews has thereafter been analyzed through the concept of social capital, identity and empowerment.The main result of this study shows that participation in the project is expected to contribute to the creation of networks and meeting points which has significance for unaccompanied young refugees.

Familjeskogsbruket har sällan någon anledning att bekymra sig om grundläggande förändringar av verksamhetens inriktning.I ett slag har dock situationen förändrats för skogsägarna i de stormdrabbade områdena. Den uppkomna situationen gör att många olika beslut måste tas som kommer att forma skogsfastigheten i flera decennier. Det finns därför ett behov av att kunna styra skogsgårdens verksamhet så att varje enskilt beslut bildar ett enhetligt mönster mot ett gemensamt mål. Ett sätt att göra det på är att använda teorierna kring strategisk management och applicera dessa på familjeskogsbruken.Denna rapport har utgått från gängse metodik vid strategiframtagning och målsättningsarbete. Olika metoder och verktyg beskrivs till sitt innehåll och syfte.

Denna rapport jämför prestandan mellan state-of-the-art AI-botar i racing spelet TORCS och en AI-bot som kör med hjälp av ett artificiellt neuralt nätverk (ANN-bot). ANN-boten, som implementerades som en del av arbetet, använder en feedforward arkitektur och backpropagation för inlärning. Ett separat program som användes för att träna det neurala nätverket med träningdata som spelats in från TORCS implementerades också. Som state-of-the-art AI-botar användes AI-botar som har använts i en tävling. De fyra AI-botarna testades på åtta olika banor och data om hur lång tid varje varv tog och hur snabbt AI-botarna körde sparades och sammanställdes. Resultaten visar att på banorna som ANN-boten klarar av att köra runt så är ANN-boten snabbare än en den långsamaste state-of-the-art boten, men ANNboten klara inte av majoriteten av banorna som den testades på.

Title: Schibbye och Persson?s Journey: a qualitative analysis of Göteborgs-Posten?s coverage of ?etiopiensvenskarna? from a narrative perspective.Authors: Viktor Eriksson and Max SommersteinSubject: Undergraduate research paper in journalism studies, Dept. of journalism, media and communication (JMG) University of GothenburgTerm: Autumn 2013Supervisor: Mats Ekström, JMG, Gothenburg UniversityPages: 35Purpose: To examine how the narrative-model the hero?s journey is represented within the Swedish newspaper Göteborgs-Posten?s articles on Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye, two Swedish journalists who were imprisoned while conducting journalism in Ethiopia.Method: A combination of Ethnographic content analysis (ECA) and Compositional Interpretation (image-analysis).Procedure: A strategic selection of articles published in the supplement Skenprocessen i Addis Abeba, in Göteborgs-Posten.Results: The narrative model the hero?s journey is clearly represented as cultural frames in Göteborgs-Posten?s articles about Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson. The framing of the events are used to simplify the facts and to make them emotionally accessible.

AbstractOne of the most common business models for agriculture is according to Lantbrukarnas Riksförbund (2010) that two or more agricultural companies merge and form a company together. To create strong owners and to be competitive there is a recognized need to create relationships between small firms according to Mazzarol , Mamouni Limnios and Reboud (2013). Oerleman and Assouline (2004) argues that it is possible to achieve success in agriculture by following certain strategic priorities.This paper examines why farmers choose to venture into collaboration and whether cooperation are linked to the strategies of the company. The paper also discusses the pros and cons of partnerships in agriculture. A qualitative comparative research design has been used to answer to the topics and we have interviewed respondents from four different agriculture companies, which have been active in some form of cooperation or collaboration.

This paper focuses on the subject of Simone de Beauvoir and how she creates her view of motherhood. With help from Toril Moi?s method ? which she calls personal genealogy ? as a standpoint I have read Beauvoir?s autobiography Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter with and against her essay about women, The Second Sex.The genealogy tries to understand the term ?making? and the idea of production or construction and the personal genealogy sees the subject ? the person ? as an extraordinarily complex effect of a whole network of different discourses or determinants. In order to be able to understand Beauvoir?s view on motherhood I have read her philosophy with and against the feminist philosopher Ulla M.

Abstract. The trade in prostitution/sexual services is regarded as a major social problem in Sweden. The prostitutes are seen as a group of passive, neglected and exploited victims, subject to repeated and forced outrage. However, there exists a network of sexworkers who claim their free will in selling sex as a trademark. They describe themselves as active subjects with a business of selling sex out of free will.

Our consumption habits are today under development and alteration. The market for mobile commerce is increasing, as well as the use of social networks with mobile devices. This relatively new approach to online shopping requires that retailers adjust to new strategies related to trust issues. The purpose of this study is to examine how social networks affect the establishment of trust between retailers and customers in mobile commerce. We investigate what kind of strategies retailers apply in order for consumers to gain trust in the mobile environment.

The purpose of this study is to see how five different local radio stations, P4, within the public service organization Sveriges Radio communicate with their listeners through Facebook and how they differ from each other.We have also studied how the radio stations follow Sveriges Radios? policies for socialmedia usage and how the communication through Facebook can benefit thetraditional radio. Our study contains a combination of quantitative content analysis with qualitative interviews. We studied the five stations? Facebook pages from for the quantitative content analysis and interviewed those who were responsible for the social media pages, such as web editors and channel managers.Our conclusions are that the P4-stations communicate through Facebook to create a dialogue with the listeners and to reach two-way communication; the stations published mostly written updates that encouraged interactivity.

The centre of attention in this essay is on public-private-partnerships in Swedish city planning. It discusses the phenomenon and tries to identify the problems and possibilities that may appear when private and public actors are trying to work together to plan new cities or parts of cities in a process with network structures. The main questions that is asked is ?what vision for the city can we se, and who's vision is it?? together with the question of where the actual power to make the city plan and the vision can be find. The soon-to-be-built area Ulriksdal in Stockholm were Peab AB and Solna Stad stands as main actors has been chosen to illustrate the possible problems and is analysed from different angles, but the writers intention is also to say something on the matter in general.

This study aims at examining the prospects for a policy transfer of a Swedish municipal environmental policy (that of Växjö) to the French urban commune Blois, for which an ambition of becoming a leading eco-city in France, was declared by the mayor in 2008.In the analysis, emphasis is laid on mechanisms to institutionalize the main environmental policy principles, such as political and institutional structures and processes. Other prospects for an institutionalization of a new environmental policy that are to be investigated are economic structures as well as visions of the different decision-makers concerned. Research methods used in the study are qualitative interviews, document studies and a questionnaire.The findings of the analysis show that today?s prospects for an environmental policy in Blois close to that of Växjö, are clearly limited. The limitations can partly be found in economic structures but these seem to be rather related to a lack of priority amongst actors.

Within telecommunication and routing of tra?c in IP-networks a protocol named?Open Shortest Path First? (OSPF) is widely used. This means that a server dealswith the routing over a network with given weights by calculating shortest paths touse for routing. If we assume that a desired tra?c pattern is given the problem isto ?nd out if it is possible to set the weights so that the desired tra?c pattern is apart of a shortest path graph.

The ability for companies to anticipate the future and stay in the forefront of the competition is essential for successful business. The tool of Environmental Scanning is basics in the process of developing prescriptive strategies as well as vital in evolving emergent strategies. The complexity lies in gathering relevant information and transforming the information into adequate data, which can be utilised by management to optimise strategies. The purpose of this study is to scrutinise how successfully operating Swedish manufacturing companies, listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange?s ?Large Cap?-list, organise their Environmental Scanning actions and how this affects the development of strategies. Prior research on the subject has been used as foundation to presenting relevant theories.