Abstract: Hightech EU/Japan ? a research about European hightech companies? interest in establishing business on the Japanese market with the help from a middleman. Subject: Marketing. Problem: The Japanese market is highly developed and therefore interesting for foreign companies. The Japanese culture is very different from the European and this together with the long distance creates problems for European hightech companies to compete on the Japanese market.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the conflict of interest between shareholders, life insurance companies and insurers in stock life insurance companies operated on a mutual basis from an agency-theoretic perspective. Further, this thesis aims to explore from an ownership-theoretical perspective, why this conflict of interest exist. A qualitative research has been performed and the empirical data is foremost based on interviews with persons from the life insurance industry and public prints. The study concludes that the stock life insurance company operated on a mutual basis has two principals whose interests are in conflict. History has shown that stockowners? interests have been prioritized on the expense of the insurers.

The retail banking market in Sweden is highly concentrated and oligopolistic. This has been confirmed by numerous reports from different competition authorities within the EU, for example the Swedish competition authority. A considerably high number of different sorts of competition barriers has been pointed out in these reports. The competition barriers are mainly directed to the smaller banks and the potential competition. The retail banking market in Sweden is dominated by four major banks, which together has over 80 percent of all market shares.

Volvo in Arvika produces wheel loaders, and the production is based on forecasts. When a machine is ordered, the customer can choose what type of equipment he or she wants, and these equipments are also made forecasts on. This is made by giving each equipment an estimated procentual usage that shows how many of the machines that will use this option. Today two people are working with the forecasts, planer A in Eskilstuna and planer B in Arvika. Planer A makes a forecast based on the historical outcome and planer B then makes adjustments of this based on how many options that are ordered.

Private state aid enforcement with respect to below market value transactions carried out by Swedish municipalities ? A study on the conformity of Swedish procedural and substantial rules with the principle of effectiveness of EC law Recently in Sweden, several local governmental entities (municipalities) have engaged in commercial transactions that, essentially, have been aimed at transferring the ownership of public services ? for example schools and local medical care centers ? to private undertakings. A few of these transactions have been declared by Swedish administrative courts to constitute illegal below market value transfers of public resources. The essay seeks to determine whether the Swedish national provisions that govern legal claims based on the directly effective Art. 88(3) of the EC Treaty, are compatible with the principle of effectiveness, i.e.

Recent changes in Swedish law suggest new groups of ?desired? labor migrants, which international students is an example of. Despite this, international students in Sweden have received little previous attention in the literature. The current study focused on international master students? experiences of job searching in Sweden and challenges they face in job searching, recruitment, and workplaces.

The study of the French market for softwood has been done in collaboration with VIDA AB. The aim of the study was to investigate important product quality and service quality dimensions, the customers? perception of the offering and generally describe the French market and present actors. The market for softwood around the world changes over time and new markets can mean opportunities for the sawmilling industry. The French market is the second biggest European market for softwood, has had presence of actors with sourcing of raw material from the Nordic countries for decades and there is a growing interest for building with wood. Theory being used is about the different dimensions that make up the total quality of softwood, together with intangible dimensions making up the total offering that helps the sawmilling industry to create positive perceived value for the customers. Methodological approach in the study was a case study research design, aimed at providing knowledge about one specific subject in one context. The general description was mostly carried out by literature studies and data from various statistics sources.

Due to the increase of the emission of greenhouse gas and climate changes more and more customers demand environmentally sustainable products. The increased demand of sustainable products from cradle to grave is something that has affected the food sector. Many retailers within the food sector feel that they are less or more forced to be environmentally friendly. Nowadays many retailers have chosen to show customers and stakeholders that they want to ?do good? by publishing annual sustainability reports. The Swedish food market has been one of many markets investing in being environmentally friendly.

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.

This bachelor of economics paper discuss that the increasing globalization has put the small companies in the Swedish textile and clothing industry in a situation where internationalization has become a necessity. Furthermore has the European Union lead to that this type of companies has to seek growth on foreign markets with great socio cultural distance from the home country, Sweden. Nowadays there?s no time to internationalize in the same course of action like before. Before, the Swedish companies begun their operations abroad in fairly nearby countries and only gradually penetrated more far-flung markets.

As of 1 July 2008 the revised Swedish Code of Corporate Governance applies to all Swedish companies whose shares are traded on a regulated market in Sweden. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether the introduction of the revised Code has affected the disclosure practice among Swedish companies. We investigate a sample of 43 small and mid cap companies listed on the OMXS Exchange that has previously not been covered by the regulation. We develop a disclosure index, measuring the disclosure level in annual reports before and after the introduction of the Code. The results from the study show that disclosure level has not increased after the introduction of the Code.

The aim of this study is to explore if and how library managers market their competence in communication with local politicians. It is also our aim to find a definition of the competence of librarians. The report identifies and describes problems and possibilitieswith marketing of competence to politicians on the basis of one Swedish municipality's library managers. In order to fulfil this aim we have used a literature study on marketing, competence, the political process and the librarian profession. We have alsocarried out an empirical study where we interviewed ten library managers in onemunicipality, seven politicians in the same municipality and ten representatives for central professional organisations mainly in Sweden.The results are that most library managers don't market their competence because they don?t believe in marketing competence.

Background: There has been an increase in savings and investment in recent years along with an increased interest in responsible investments. Ethical mutual funds has developed and gained increasingly popularity.Aim: The aim of the study is to examine if ethical mutual funds are an equivalent alternative to traditional mutual funds in terms of return, risk and risk-adjusted return on the Swedish Stock Market.Theory: Beta, Jensen's Alpha, Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio, and Modern Portfolio Theory.Method: Quantitative survey method, a statistical study.Conclusion:The study concludes that there is no significant difference between ethical and conventional mutual funds in terms of return, risk and risk-adjusted return. The small differences that exist between the two fund groups are in favor of the ethical fund group, indicating that funds is a comparable investment option compared to traditional mutual funds..

Since the 2006 election, the debate surrounding the Swedish labour market policy has intensified. There has been a discussion about a need for change towards a more flexible labour market. An example of this is on the other side of the strait, in neighbouring Denmark. Their flexicurity model, ?the golden triangle?, is characterized by a flexible labour market, generous unemployment benefits and active labour market policies.

?The new labour party? A study of the labor-market policy ideas of the Moderata samlingspartiet and their ideological change?Thesis in Political Science (C-level) at Karlstad University byJenny Ljung, Fall 2006Tutor: Susan MartonThe labour-market policy of the Swedish Moderaterna may have undergone changes in the liberal ideology. During the election the year 1991 Moderaterna focused upon questions that concerned the economic growth and the free market. In the election at year 2006 Moderaterna appointed themselves as ?the new labour party? and were called social liberals by several critiques.