The structural rationalization of rural firms in Sweden has led to many new creative ways of developing companies. The agriculture sector is characterized by the need of capital in form of buildings, labor and inventory. The rationalization process has led to free capacity in rural firms when new technology make buildings and inventory not longer necessary for the production process. To get a better cost coverage this free capacity can be used to start-up new business areas that help the rural firm to growth.The study aims to identify factors that motives entrepreneurs in rural firms to develop new business areas. The purpose is also to analyze driving forces that lies behind development of rural firms and the forces that support or not support development in rural firms.The study is built upon five cases that all can be categorized as firms with different size and orientation.

There is much literature covering strategic change under different circumstances but very little concerning how companies act strategically under sudden and radical changes to market conditions. Based on three different events (the terrorist attack in the USA September 11th 2001, the Tjernobyl accident April 26th 1986 and the Islamic revolution in Iran 1979) with such radical changes as a result we chose three companies that were affected (SAS, Asea Atom and Atlas Copco). The result of the events that were studied in this thesis is extremely unusual to their character. The events themselves were sudden and of a temporary nature but the results were long term changes of market conditions. Through personal interviews the authors have tried to establish how the companies have perceived the events and how the top management has strategically handled the situation.

The purpose of this study was to examine if there was a relation between birth order, gender and locus of control. There where 162 participants in the study, 44 men, 115 women. Birth order was coded into three levels. There where no significant differences between birth order and locus of control. The result showed that female participants where more external when it came to locus of control.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the criticisms of the Swedish library education 1990-2005. By studying four different magazines, we tried to find the various opinions. The years investigated are 1990 to 2005. We have studied articulated opinions, not all opinions, in four library journals.

As the globalization progresses, the matters of transfer pricing have become essential to multinational enterprises and tax administrations. For states it is important that the transfer pricing is correct to defend their tax base. Incorrect transfer pricing can also have dire effect on the enterprises. They run the risk of both double taxation and tax penalties. Some of the most difficult assets to put a transfer price on are intangibles.

This thesis work is about how technical consulting companies can accept their organization before a coming recession. Technical consulting companies are together with the rest of the actors in the construction business constantly depended on the current economic situation on the market. How to adapt the organisation depends on the current situation on the market.To adapt the organization in the best way possible the companies need to recruit and educate personal. It is then very important to find a solution on how the current change of generation in the companies will be handled. The large and very much competent group of 40-talists will in a few years retire.

Change is inevitable when software is built and deployed. It?s not particularly problematic to manage change if there is just one system. But in a large global IT organization, with several systems and people who develop, problems may arise. If organizations don?t control change, change will control the organization.

Chronic valvular disease (CVD) is the most common cardiac disease in dogs, which account for 75% of all the cardiac cases. Cavalier King Charles spaniel (CKCS) is the most affected breed and it´s 13th times more likely that a CKCS, between the age of 7-10 years, will die or be euthanized for cardiac disease, compared with other breeds. The prevalence has been proven to bee independent of coat color and weight but highly dependent on age and gender in CKCS. In 2001 the Swedish Kennelclub and the Special club for cavalier King Charles spaniel created a breeding program against CVD in CKCS. In this program dogs are not allowed to breed until 4 years of age and have to have a heart auscultation without murmurs.

Nordmaling is a small muncipality that has gotten a lot of critic in media over the last two years. In order to regain a good reputation and to communicate a strong message towards external groups, Nordmaling have decided to develop a branding platform that can represent the organization in both external and internal communications. In order to develop a brand the organization must understand its identity.The purpose of the study was to examine the employees? thoughts of their organization in order to be able to define the organizational identity and give recommendations of core values that the organization can apply to their brand. To understand how the employees perceive their organization and what they think the organization stands for, the main focus was to study their view on values, standards, goals and vision of the organization through focus interviews and a survey.

The population over 65 years of age is increasing and health in elderly has been a subject of research for decades but voice function and vocal health has not been prioritized. The purpose of this study is to obtain reference value for the Swedish version of Voice Handicap Index (RHI) and the Throat Scale among people over 65 years of age and assess voice function and vocal health for this age group. The questions were as followed:1) What is the reference value of RHI for people over 65 years of age? 2) What is the reference value of the Throat Scale for people over 65 years of age? 3) Is there a correlation between a self-rated VA-scale on the perceived degree of voice problems, and the self-rated RHI-/Throat Scale result? 4) Does age, gender or previous profession matter for the self-perceived voice?In total 100 individuals participated in the study, 50 women and 50 men, between 65 and 92 years old. The reference value of RHI for people over 65 years of age was 13,4 points and the reference value for the Throat Scale was 7,7 points.

The Swedish nonprofit sector is experiencing a sectoral change, moving closer to the corporate sector to become more commercialized. The recruitment of leaders with corporate experience constitutes one of the factors influencing this development. Hence, to create an understanding of this sectoral change, the thesis aims to investigate the motivational forces underlying the leaders' decisions to work within the nonprofit sector. Additionally, the thesis seeks an understanding of why the leaders' decisions were made later in their careers. Through conducting qualitative interviews with leaders representing top management of six humanitarian organizations in Sweden, the study finds that nonprofit leaders with corporate background, analogous to volunteers and employees, are motivated by a sense of relatedness to the vision of the organization.

This study is an institutional analysis of the firm both as it is theoretically conceptualized and how it takes shape and changes. The role of power relations between manage¬ment and employees is especially examined with the aim of evaluating pos¬sible connections between the firm as an institution and power relations within it. Based on a comparison of two cases (two selected periods of the same organization) it asks ?How closely does each case match the conceptual characteristics of the firm??; ?What are the power relations between management and employees in each case??; and finally ?What factors account for the resulting differences??. It is found that there is a negative correlation between employee power and proximity to the firm as a concept.

The 1st of January this year the state owned Swedish Luftfartsverket changed their name into the shorter name LFV. The shorter LFV is a more modern version in terms of that the name is a proof of that the classic organisation of the state, Luftfartsverket, with this stepbreaks through boarders and finds new ways. Plans have existed before but since 2005 when Luftfartsverket lost its assignments from the government and become a state owned business corporation, the plans have intensified. Now, also for all the employees, it isgetting obvious that something is going on in the organisation.The purpose of this paper is to see how this newly made change of name and logotype have been recieved and how it has effect the strategic choosen respondents within the organisation LFV. These choosen respondents have thorough knowledge of the organisation of LFV.

Background: The population of the world is getting older and in the year of 2020, 1.2 billion people will be 60 years or older. A common health complaint affecting the quality of life in elderly persons are sleep difficulties. Physical activity is claimed to improve sleep quality and the maintenance of a normal circadian rhythm. Several studies have shown positive effects of physical activity on sleep quality, still the evidence of physical activity as sleep-promoter is insufficient. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate associations between physical activities and sleep quality in persons ?60 years of age.

This paper discusses the strategy and strategic change in the Swedish freight forwarding business and analysis factors that influence the forces of the business. Three companies of various sizes are chosen to be investigated as a case study, outline that cost leadership and differentiation are both important strategies for companies to compete in the market. However, companies outpacing competition do not only pursue either of the two strategies, the need the ability to add one (cost leadership) to the other (differentiation) in relationship to environmental change over time..