Organisations tend to focus more and more on product and process development to increase their competitiveness. Several major organisations, among them ABB, have developed models aimed to more effectively control and manage product development processes. ABB is using its standardised model ABB Gate Model for this. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how the introduction of ABB Gate Model has affected the outcome of decisions and also the decision-making in the product development process. The study is limited to elucidate the version of ABB Gate Model handling product development projects.

Abstract In my work, I have tried to define and clarify the conception of sustainability seen from my perspective as a landscape architect. With a basis in literature studies, I have analysed and commented on different applications, contents and meanings of sustainability and endurance. This compilation is based on how a number of writers, researchers and authorities consider the importance of integrating ecological, social and economic aspects of sustainability in city planning. My perspective has mainly been founded on the anthologies and compilations from the 80´s and 90´s where Per G. Berg and Björn Malbert acted as editors.

Is it possible that by planning in a more sustainable way when building a new area, we can improve our environment?Most environmental problems are created in cities and therefore they should hold the solution. Through a more ecological urban planning a better foundation for sustainable housing could be created.This report follows the process in coming up with a proposal for a master plan for an area in Odense, Denmark. By going through principles for sustainable urban planning made by different organizations and persons and from these extract main principles, a background is founded to continue the proposal from.Denmark works a lot on expanding their green areas, maintain the existing ones and recreate what?s being destroyed as cities expand.

Old industrial sites bear witness of the unsustainable industrial developments in the past. Today many of them stand abandoned and empty, old structures lacking function in our present society. We have in this thesis participated in a visionary student competition arranged by IFLA, International Federation of Landscape Architecture by developing a proposal based on a vision of how Stockholm can stimulate a greener development. We have done this by turning an unsustainable industrial site in the city into an ecological node; Arboretum Lövholmen. Our aim is to develop an entry for IFLA?s visionary student competition by creating a new sustainable design for the industrial area of Lövholmen in Stockholm. We have worked with the following research questions: How can we create a visionary design proposal for Lövholmen that promotes sustainable development with the help of ecological design? How can the competition format be a design tool? How can the working process developing a competition entry progress? The competition demands have shaped our working process and functioned as a platform for the structure of this thesis.

The purpose of this thesis was to illustrate the connection between personal networks and entrepreneurial business in the music industry. It also aims to examine how and why entrepreneurs in the music industry use personal networks in their entrepreneurial business activities. In order to explore the extent to which entrepreneurs in the music industry obtain support through personal networks, a case study was conducted based on interviews with entrepreneurs in various areas of the music industry. The study has shown that entrepreneurs in the music industry clearly see distinct advantages through the use of their personal networks, especially in terms of an enhanced supply of resources and through an increased amount of business opportunities. Personal networks have also shown to constitute a considerable amount of moral support for the entrepreneurs in the development process of the entrepreneurial business.

Cultivable land is a limited resource and agriculture contributes to some of the most serious environmental problems facing the planet like, global warming, eutrophication and loss of biodiversity. The specialized, industrial agriculture with monoculture and extensive input of external energy, commercial fertilizer, and chemical pesticides are all essentially unsustainable. An adaptation to other methods of production is necessary to preserve the environment for future generations. The aim of this study is to describe the factors that distinguish sustainable from unsustainable agriculture. The results will be used to examine if and how the European Union (EU) works in order to create a more sustainable agricultural industry and to analyze the preconditions for such development.

The use of environmental management systems, and objectives-led corporate management have become a widespread phenomenon today. Identification and assessment of an organisation?s significant (environmental) aspects is crucial within this work. Identification and especially assessment of significant aspects is often considered as a problematic step in many organisations. There are no generally accepted methods how to undertake this crucial step.

This paper aims at assessing the relationship between female and male part-time employment and the business cycle in Sweden during the years 1987?2005 using quarterly time-series data and two alternative indicators of the business cycle. It further aims at determining whether the share of women working part-time has changed over time. Key results include that the relationship between the business cycle and female part-time employment is found to be significant and countercyclical. No significant effect is however found for men.

A flat organisation makes a horizontal career development possible, which means that it is more important to develop an individual?s knowledge base than to gain a higher title. This leads to a personal development, which motivates expats to stay. Since the responsibility of the career development mostly lies on expats themselves, companies should create conditions that make individual, internal job search possible. Like in IKEA:s case, it can be done through a strong and prestige less company culture, that penetrates the whole company.

The study was conducted at a business in the social service. The purpose was to examine how the business works with human resource planning. In order to answer the purpose two questions was formulated, which human resource planning strategy does the business use? And, how do businesses need to act according to the theory of strategic manpower to achieve human resource planning? Survey data collection was done through a qualitative research design, where interviews with five employees in the business took place.The study shows that the business is using a own made strategy in order to achieve human resource planning. The strategy consists of two steps, in step one they do an background analysis and step two a needs analysis where a goal- and responsibility description are designed and then a set of requirements.

Background: Knowledge of customer needs is a key factor in companies? struggle to develop successful products. Several studies illustrate that the main reason for failure in product development is lack of customer understanding. Lately considerable changes have occurred. Large-scale mass production is continuously being replaced by customer orientation, especially in the high technological market.

This study focuses on carpooling and how carpools can be better integrated into today's society. The purpose of the study is to investigate what affects the motorist?s decisions to become a member of a carpool. The study will highlight the barriers and drivers of membership in a carpool. It is important for the future to change the attitude of motorists and get more motorists to choose more sustainable modes, as is the concept of carpooling is a good solution.The study is based on a qualitative approach with six respondents from the Eskilstuna municipality.

The rural development programme is a tool for promoting sustainable development in the Swedish countryside. The master plan should, for example, give directions for the national interest and describe how it will follow up national and regional targets such as the EU's environmental quality standards. Because the municipality has considerable freedom to formulate the plan in its sole discretion, and that it contains the municipality's political vision, it is also feasible to make a discourse analysis of the plan text.In discourse analysis, including articles and documents written by Rural Network Working Group on land use planning to be included. The purpose of discourse analysis is to see if there are differences in the way rural areas are described and if there are any flaws in how the designer interprets the rural development programme. Furthermore, the analysis result in tools that are adapted to the standards we create and choose.The standards we have are being designed based on our values, which differ.

To Swedes in general and, to hunters in particular, there is a great interest for moose (Alces alces), witch is Sweden?s largest deer species. In the province of Öland (Sweden?s second largest island) the local people show a great interest for the moose existence, both for consumptive (hunting) and non-consumptive use (tourism). This became apparent in 2002 when the moose hunters on Öland voluntary agreed to temporarily postpone the moose hunt on the island.

Evaluation of sustainable work within real-estate companies is a relativelynew way of working and the number of companies starting towork with this routine increases every day. Chalmersfastigheter is areal-estate company providing faculties for universities. The company ismainly focusing on decision-making and outsourcing.The aim of this essay is to evaluate decision-making processes andensuring that the right decision is made, with other words, evaluatingthe decision and not the result from the decision. By identifying whatsustainability means for Chalmersfastigheter and in which processesdecisions are made, an evaluation is easily made to see if every decisionis based on the three aspects of sustainability; ecology, economy andsocial. The result from this evaluation will highlight how Chalmersfastigheter prioritize in decisions concerning sustainabledevelopment.This study is based on the ISO 14001 standard and the definition ofsustainable development presented in the Brundtland report.Akademiska Hus is used as an example to present how another companyin the same business has operationalized sustainability.