Background: The increasing globalization of business and research has led to an increased demand for international meetings. This is a market that a number of countries wish to access and the competition is fierce to get the chance to host major conferences. Stockholm has a pronounced good position in the international meeting market and this essay will examine what it takes to be a successful meeting destination for international congresses.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the fundamental factors that must be met for a meeting destination to be successful in the international market for conventions.Question at issue: How can a city develop into a more attractive meeting destination for international congresses?Method: Persons with key positions in the Stockholm meeting industry have been approached by qualitative interviews by the authors.Theory: As a theoretical framework the authors used the value of the physical meeting, generally on the congresses, the planning process for site selection for the meeting, the meeting platform and image.Conclusion: The authors' findings are based on the empirical material gathered during the study interviews. The results from these interviews show the importance of facilities and hotels, availability, and the image..

This paper investigates the level of consciousness regarding to the diversity work in the municipalities of Malmö, Lund and Landskrona. The study focuses on persons in a middle management position connected to various spheres of activities in each municipality. A survey concerning each municipality's diversity plan, diversity work, recruiting process, education and knowledge was used to investigate the participants' consciousness. The survey poses similar questions regarding equality between the sexes to compare the results from each field. The paper presents an overview of the development of Sweden's labour market and society, and gives an account for the differences between immigrants and natives positions in the labour market.

Recent years there has been discussed how the critical situation in the housing market threatens the Stockholm region's growth. The thesis objective is to examine whether there is a scientific link between the lack of housing supply and growth. The thesis also intends to identify solutions for increased housing construction, for instance by examining the conditions for a greater regional perspective and influence on the region's housing supply. The thesis empirical study is based on semi-structured interviews with representatives from the Government, municipalities and the housing industry.In Sweden, research on the relationship between housing shortages and growth has not been conducted to that extent it can be said to exist scientific evidence regarding the growth threat. However, in Britain and the U.S, empirical studies show that a lack of housing supply has hindered growth through negative impact on countries' gross domestic product.

An old and well known problem in sawmilling is to determine which dimensions /products those are most profitable to produce. Existing optimization models maximize the value of the log. In other words, based upon the market prices of the dimensions the models calculate the best way to split the log. Yet there is a great uncertainty if the most well paid dimensions really are the most profitable to produce. The costs of the process from lumber to sawn products are hard to determine and are therefore often left out from the optimization process. In this study the economic contribution of different dimensions/products are analysed.

Organising knowledge in a corporate environment : a case study at the development departments of Ecophon ABThe purpose of this master's thesis is to investigate how three development departments of a technical firm could organise their collection of documents and information resources to improve their management of information. Three sets of questions have been posed: 1) How does the target group of engineers deal with information, and what problems can be identified in this process? 2) What does their collection of resources consist of, how is it organised, and what problems are apparent? 3) How can principles of knowledge organisation be applied in a corporate environment?The investigation has been carried out as a case study. Three main methods of collecting empirical data have been used: surveys, unstructured interviews and collection observations. The results of the study have highlighted three major problem areas: the collection's lack of structure and searchability, the absence of policy regarding how employers should deal with information, and the inadequate knowledge among staff on how to search for, use and disseminate information.By looking at previous research on knowledge organisation, we have been able to draw conclusions regarding how the target group could organise and manage its information and knowledge in order to achieve greater efficiency in dealing with information and carrying out work tasks.

This paper investigates whether the traditional accrual based trading strategy first documented by Sloan (1996) can be refined using fundamental analysis. Specifically, this is done by implementing the composite signal F_SCORE introduced by Piotroski (2000) to identify financially strong or weak firms. We find that by applying both investment models simultaneously, in a model we call P_KOMB, the mean market-adjusted return earned by an investor exploiting the accrual anomaly can be increased by 14.8% annually. This is achieved by taking a long position in strong firms (as defined by the composite signal) in the lowest accrual portfolio, while an offsetting short position is taken in weak firms in the highest accrual portfolio, repeated annually between 1997 and 2007. Consistent with prior studies, positive market-adjusted returns can be attained through assessment of accruals as well as key value drivers found in historical financial data.

Aim: The aim for this study of Swedish daily press is to see how the musical reporting is structured for the newspapers I have chosen to analyse. My main purpose is to investigate how the newspapers reporting are distributed between artists who belong to either a major record company or an independent record company. With this research I want to find out if there are any economic backgrounds to the content and if the reporting is equal to the market production.Method/Material: For this study I have studied, by quantitative research, every piece of musical reporting in seven daily newspapers for two weeks. Through thorough research I have determined the belonging of every article?s record company.

Obesity and overweight are today classified as one of the largest epidemics in the Western world and is threaten a large part of the population. As a reaction to this a major health trend has emerged in recent decades. Every day consumers are exposed to information from the media about what is healthy or unhealthy to eat and the recommendations change frequently.There is great interest in healthy food on the Swedish food market, but still healthy foods only represents a small proportion of the total food sales. The essay examines the gap between the current and potential demand for healthy food and if it can be explained by any of the following factors: lack of information, price, taste or cognitive behavioral.To study these questions a quantitative method have been used and 213 questionnaires were collected. The intention is to draw general conclusions about the entire population.

AbstractIn this essay I am examining the representation of popmusic with particular focus on gender and identity in two youth magazines called Kamratposten and Julia. Using the method of Norman Faircloughs critical discourse analysis I have studied ten interviews with popmusicians from each magazine based on the theorys of representations, discourses within popularmusic and queer theory. The intention with this study was to examine how popularmusic is represented in youth magazines. If the magazines were reproducing femininity and masculinity in the interviews with the musicians, and in the representation of popmusic in the magazines. And also if there were any differences and similarities between the magazines regarding the representation of popmusicians.The analysis lead to the conclusions that how popmusic is represented in the magazines depends on what the magazines wan´t to represent on the basis of their target groups and ideologies.

The purpose of this essay was to find an understanding of what factors whichaffect refugee reception in two municipalities in the southern part of Sweden, themunicipality of Vellinge and the municipality of Landskrona. Three interviewswere made with three local politicians and these interviews were then analysedusing postcolonial theory. With the help of Matthew J. Gibney we identified sevenfactors which aided us in the analysis these were: Integration history, Ethnicaffinity, Determining who is a refugee, The wealth of the municipality, Thehousing market, The labour market and The action of other municipalities.We found that these factors were all useful in creating an understanding ofrefugee reception in the two municipalities. However they affected themunicipalities differently.

Title: Globalization ? Meeting a new market Author: Anna Nubäck Supervisor: Anders Nilsson Institution: School of Management, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola Course: Master in business administration, 15 credits (FED006) Purpose: The purpose of this essay is partly to create an understanding of the decision to establish a branch in Japan and especially to look at if and how the Swedish company in this study has adjusted its corporate culture to suit the Japanese market. Method: Data is collected thru a number of semi constructed interviews. A first telephone interview was followed by an interview made face to face that was also followed up by interviews performed over telephone. E-mails have been used to clear and correct collected data.

Recently, the selections of ethical funds are increased; at the same time investors with social and moral preferences have increased in the capital market. There are currently debates on whether ethical funds perform better or worse than funds without ethical criteria. This also involves a vivid discussion on whether investors know about the consequences of investing in ethical funds. Therefore, this study involves theories about the rationality and decision theory, in addition to what mainly control the investment decisions. The study also discusses portfolio theory since this is one of the underlying theories behind fund management and its development.The purpose of this study is to explain if ethical limitations in the selection of securities affect risk and return in the fund portfolio.

The purpose of this thesis is to illustrate how non-profit organizations map the market of potential donors and how they apply their knowledge about the motives of the potential donors. The case-study of Church of Sweden Aid shows how a Swedish non-profit organization applies this in the daily work. In its strategic marketing the organization actively use marketing surveys in different forms. By employing an analyst Church of Sweden Aid has a possibility to make another step forward in order to understand its donor market and to adjust its strategic marketing plan to it. Church of Sweden Aid says that they don?t work with the donor?s motives.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to study various views of sponsorship in relation to public libraries as found within three cultural policy documents. The main objective is to discover which ideas are considered relevant in the partnership between the Swedish retail chain, Åhléns, and the children?s public library, ?Room for Children? (Rum för Barn). In 2005, Åhléns provided SEK3.14 million in sponsorship to ?Room for Children? at Kulturhuset in Stockholm.

The purpose of this study is to examine the capital market reaction generated by layoff announcements. The study takes place in Sweden and tests 138 news concerning layoffs which are categorized according to a content analysis. They are divided as: positive or negative news. The layoffs are also divided into three subgroups with varying sizes: 0,98 percent or less, between 0,99 and 4,49 percent or 4,5 percent or larger. The study uses an event study method to measure the reaction of the capital market.