In theory, the logic behind partnerships is simple: All organisations have strengths, but no organisation has all the strength required to do everything. Triggered by global perspectives and challenged by sustainability objectives, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 pointed out needs for corporate responsibility. In this conference, Private-public partnership, PPP, was identified as a potential way to work towards sustainability, especially as a way to emphasize a corporate responsibility commitment. Nowadays, organizations exist to satisfy the needs and interests of all their stakeholders, such as customers, markets, shareholders, as well as secondary stakeholders such as media, NGOs, and society at large. Addressing all stakeholders and working towards a sustainable business development makes PPP a potential solution, but also a source of challenges.

IT has become more evident in most organisations and has grown to be a part of the infrastructure rather than a tool for competitiveness. Therefore focus should now lie on how IT is adjusted to the business rather than on the usage of IT. To make the best use of IT in the business the CIO needs to start think more business-oriented instead of as before, technology-oriented. To develop the IT-department in that direction the IT-staff need to start cooperate with the business and gain knowledge about stakeholders, markets and the way of working for other staff members in the business.With this as a basis, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate attitudes regarding cooperation between the IT-department and the business and if there is any difference if the CIO has business related background or not.To fulfil the purpose a quantitative investigation with the help of surveys was conducted. The sample consisted of 18 companies with 100-200 employees in the area of Jönköping.

This essay gives the reader an overview of the different problems and issues a landscape architect might meet, in the process of planning and realizing an eco-village. Its aim is to stimulate new ideas, based on the traditional, present and future working field of landscape architects. The essay does not claim to cover all imaginable aspects of social sustainability within an eco- village, but refers to the presented sources for further in-depth reading. Although the original focus has been on physical planning, the interviewees? words have been of big importance, and to a certain extent changed the constitution of this essay.

Hur kan B2B-byråer anpassa sina tjänster efter konjunkturläget, utan att kompromissa med kvalitet och genomslag?Vi har genom intervjuer med elva Business-2-Business företag i Skåne, och tre B2B-byråer samlat information till undersök-ningen. Detta i ett försök att kartlägga företagens och byråer-nas arbetssätt. Denna information har sedan legat till grund för den analys som gjorts av den generella bild vi skapat oss av företagens och byråernas arbetssätt, för att utifrån den kunna föreslå ett mer tillfredsställande arbetssätt för alla parter..

Background: Increasing globalization makes companies more influenced than before by actors and factors in their environment. For some this has lead to a more dynamic and complicated business context. Therefore it is of strategic importance to understand what is currently going on as well as to have a general idea of what the future brings. Purpose: To contribute to a deeper understanding of how a corporate management can perceive its business environment and how it affects he gathering of business information from a strategic perspective. Realisation: In-depth interviews were conducted with all four members of the management in the studied company, Volvo Competence Center in Skovde, Sweden.

Business plan competitions have long been used as a mean for entrepreneurial organizations and Universities to educate students in entrepreneurship. But what's in it for the entrepreneur This thesis aim is to understand what utility business plan competitions have for the participating entrepreneurs. It consists of interviews with Swedish entrepreneurs at various stages in the entrepreneurial process, who has participated in business plan competitions to get ahead. The conclusions of the study are that business plan competitions are good for the entrepreneur from a motivational and developmental perspective but not from a financial perspective..

I wrote this essay with the aim to explore, understand and get some insights into what it is that effects the possibilities to plan for ecological sustainability and make it happen. There is no clear definition of sustainable development but world top meetings and reports have developed goals and strategies. I will present some of the theory at hand but most of this essay is based on six interviews with planners at local governments from around the country. Several of the local governments are using the goals issued by the state government by putting them into their large scale plans. During the interviews some obstacles were identified, like a lack of resourses, disadvantaging powerstruktures, conflicts with marketeconomy and simply different meenings about what ecological sustainability is in practice. My method of getting information through interviews and documenting them by taking notes had, as all methods, it?s weakneses.

Background and problem discussion: Sustainability reporting has recently risen in importance and a rising number of companies choose to issue voluntary stand-alone sustainability reports. Their non-regulated nature increases the opportunity for management to angle the information in these disclosures to their own advantage. Lately the focus has shifted from examining what kind of information is provided in environmental disclosures, to analyzing how the information is presented.Purpose: The purpose is to examine if managers in the energy sector use optimistic tone when issuing sustainability reports. The aim is to find out if the tone applied in environmental disclosures is in congruence with either the environmental or economic performance or if an excessively positive tone is being used to mislead readers.Limitations: This study is limited to information found in environmental disclosures from private companies in the energy sector, issued in 2012 or 2013. Environmental performance is defined as the amount of CO2e emissions and economic performance refers to annual company revenues.Methodology: The quantification of optimistic tone is conducted using a content analysis, relying on a pre-specified wordlist and a pilot study.

Bakgrund: Vår utgångspunkt i uppsatsen är att produktskillnaderna blir allt mindre och det emotionella värdets betydelse blir allt större. I och med detta får varumärket en allt större betydelse även inom business-to-business. Syfte: Vi avser att undersöka ICA Menyföretagens identitet samt vad dess varumärke står för. Dessutom vill se hur användbara de modeller vi använt är i business-to-business-relationer samt utforma en egen modell som förklarar hur märkeslojalitet uppnås i en sådan relation. Avgränsningar: Vi kommer endast att beröra så kallad business-to-business samt varumärkets emotionella värde.

Aim: A business ratio is a measuring instrument that companies use in their financial report to show profit and progress. As it is today, there are no standards to follow that shows which business ratio to present in a companies annual report. Our aim with this report is to see if there are any trends in the use of business ratios by looking into how thirty growth companies are applying them.Method: To see what business ratios are used in practice, we have collected information from the thirty companies? annual reports. With help from the literature, we have created an understanding about the most frequently used business ratios.

This essay describes some factors that may effect small business survival in relation to becoming a supplier for bigger companies that may implement the use of EDI for electronic invoicing.The purpose of this study is to analyse and evaluate what impact may occur during the introduction of EDI between small and big business.Following on from the introduction of methods used in this study there will be a complete analysis made detailing results.From our research we have found that most small business have developed a professional working relationship between themselves and their clients.The adoption of EDI by big business has revolutionised the day to day dealings between both supplier and consumer in that EDI has empowered both chains to collaborate data in real time.In conclusion our research illustrates that in order for small business to survive the must implement EDI. The results of our study have shown that the introduction of EDI to both small and big business has had a positive outcome..

Uppsatsens syfte har varit att ge indikationer på förekommande CSR-verktyg och arbete relaterat till socialt hållbart företagande samt dess effekter inom svenska statliga företag. Genom att relatera de statliga företagens hållbarhetsarbete med dess effekter kan uppsatsen bringa information till detta, hittills, outforskade område samt visa på vilka utfall detta socialt hållbara arbete kan medföra. Uppsatsen använder som ansats och metod jämförande dokumentstudier av tre statliga företag ? Apoteket, Systembolaget och Bilprovningen ? valda utifrån ett idealistiskt urval till följd av deras framträdande roll inom hållbarhetsarbete bland statliga företag. Insamling av material genomfördes med hjälp av företagens hållbarhetsredovisningar samt andra tillgängliga informationskanaler. Undersökningen visar på både likheter, skillnader och mönster mellan studiens tre statliga företag. CSR-inriktade verktyg och processer existerar inom företagens uttalade strategier och planer, dock finns ett behov att förbättra processer kring uppföljning för att försäkra sig att arbetet drivs igenom enligt planerna samt att lärdomar kan dras från de utfall arbetet medför..

There is no commonly accepted definition of a business method. It ought to consist of a method or a process of doing business. Business methods constitutes a broad category of patents, it is hard to tell exactly what can be interpreted in to the term. Most of the world's legal systems have made an exception from patentability for business methods. In the USA the exception was abolished in a case 1998.

Since the 1990s, when the number of transnational companies increased, it has created challenges regarding the responsibility of human rights. As a response to these challenges the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) unanimously endorsed the new policy UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) in 2011. UNGP does not have the status av international law, yet simply as guidelines and its implementation is based on good will and voluntary efforts. Now, 10 years later, this study aims to get understanding regarding if UNGP is considered as norm by the Swedish Government, Volvo and Gothenburg Municipality. The material of the study consists of sustainability reports, annual reports and governmental documents with focus on human rights in relation to business published between the year of 2011, when UNGP was endorsed, until 2020.

Background: Today small business firms represent a considerable part of swedish economy, and the number of small firms has steadily increased the last ten years in relation to the total employment. The fact that there are firms willing to grow, it ought to be interesting observing their motives of growth, and what kind of strategies that can be identifiable in these firms. Purpose: To examine the motives of growth in small business firms, and to study which growth strategies the firms use when expanding their business. Realization: The study is accomplished through telephone interviews with six small business firms in the province of Jönköping. The firms contain between 10-49 employees.