Title: The Relationship between Internationalization and Firm Performance Seminar date: 5 June, 2008 Course: Masters thesis in Business Administration, Programme for Managing People, Knowledge and Change, 15 University Credit Points (15 ECTS). Authors: Cheng Hsun Chiang and Márton Pap Advisor: Dan Kärreman Key words: Internationalization, Performance, Multinationality, Degree of Internationalization (DOI), Country of Origin Purpose: To illuminate various crucial aspects of internationalization by systematically contrasting the different models of the multinationality-performance relationship and searching for underlying reasons. Methodology: Meta-analysis on previous theoretical and empirical research. Our emphasis in this paper has been put on the qualitative aspects of the previous research unlike many other conventional meta-analyses that focus on the comparison of the empirical data. Theoretical perspectives: Five main models have been developed by earlier studies to describe the relationship between internationalization and performance: positive linear, no or ambiguous relation, inverted U-shaped, standard U-shaped and S-shaped curve.

The aim of this study was to understand how the professional in social work handles the media scrutiny. When the media writes about social services there is seldom anything positive written about it, many social services organizations are instead heavily criticized and scrutinized by the media. When social services organizations are scrutinized by the media there is a crisis at work, and therefore should be handled as a crisis. Therefore, we describe how a crisis management might look like in an organization. The study is qualitative therefore we have interviewed four municipalities in Sweden that have been exposed by the media at a national level.

The aim of the study was from preschool teachers perspective to describe, analyz and understand how teachers in preschool works with children in special needs in image and drama. I have done eights interviews with preschool teachers. From a theoretical base, i use the Nilholms perspectives. I have also Antonovsky and Vygotskijs perspectives. The resultat showed that the majority of preschool teachers have see that image and drama has a great significance over childrens learning in preschool..

Unga möter unga is an activity that concentrates on sexuality, coexistence and relations. The project was founded by ?Ungdomsmottagningen centrum?. Ungdomsmottagingen centrum collaborates with the University of Gothenburg in implementation. When us students of socialwork programs have our practical vocational training place during term six we get the possibility to choose to participate on this activity aside of our other practical training.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how a bank?s features and internal factors have affected its choice of method in calculating the capital requirement.Theoretical and Empirical Method: The research strategy of this study has been of a qualitative nature with a deductive approach. The choice of method was depth interviews with respondents from a targeted sample of Swedish banks. These respondents were chosen based on the knowledge they possess as key employees in the capital requirement process and their involvement in choosing their banks? method for calculating the capital requirement.

The project is a practical and theoretical test of IP telephony with Skype in order to form a base for a comparison between IP-Telephony with Skype and the Public Switched Telephony Network (PSTN). PSTN is the common standard that most of us use for telephony today. The objective for the study is to simplify the choice between PSTN and IP-Telephony for the Swedish private customer user group. The project is supposed to answer the following questions. - How easy is it to start using IP-telephony with Skype? - How is the quality of IP-telephony compared to PSTN? - Are all services provided by PSTN available and accessible using the IP-solution? - How are the usability and the availability of support with IP telephony? - Is IP-telephony a cheaper solution and in that case under which circumstances? Within the project a collection of practical and theoretical tests have been performed to be able to form an opinion on the IP-solution in the following areas, installation, function, quality, usability, costs, accessibility and security.

This paper aims to discover if the customers meeting with a company?s website can be described through theories derived from both web usability and theories concerning physical meetings between customers and salespersons in a traditional way. The conducted research involves five interviews as well as participating observations witch where analyzed with a hermeneutical approach. The most prominent results are that the web based customer meeting can be described through both of the theoretical perspectives witch results in a broader and more colorful portrayal of the individuals encounter with a commercial website..

The brown bear population in Alberta, Canada has been decreasing, while the Swedish has been increasing and all the affecting parameters are not known. This study examined the difference in these populations to see if an explanation could be found in differences between the forest management. The aim of the paper was to see if stand treatments had an influence of brown bears habitat selection in autumn in Sweden and how the results can be used in Alberta. This was done by analyzing bear positions in Sweden with forest data, and comparing forest management data for the study area in Sweden with forest management data for Alberta. The results displayed that mature forests over 60 years that have been commercially thinned are selected by bears rather than forests over 60 years that have not been commercially thinned in.

Since the mid 1900s the organizational perspective in media producing companies has changed. The focus has shifted from just being a laborer to the person behind the effort. The most important for an efficient and smooth organization is the motivation of the employees and the social working environment. Former research argues that managers must be coaches and that crucial factors for the survival of organizations are creativity, innovation and adaptability. With this study we investigate what motivates employees to use their creative skills.

This essay is about the development process I have undergone during my experience-based preschool teacher education. I write about my internal process, about how I as a childcare worker go from assertiveness and believing in myself into fighting doubts, thoughts and feelings as a preschool teacher. The purpose with this essay is to make the difficulties with managing new knowledge and practicing it in real life visible, and at the same time overcome your uncertainty in a new professional role. The essay is based on two stories from my professional life where I, in the first one portray my actions and behavior as a childcare worker and in the second one as a preschool teacher. Based on my stories I try to answer questions as what does the individual learning process look like when going from one professional role to another in the same profession? What impact does theoretical knowledge have on practical knowledge?I have used reflection and writing as methods for my paper.

For over 40 years, there's been a debate in Sweden of whether it's good or bad with maintenance therapy for heroin addicts. This method is far more acknowledged in other parts of Europe and in USA. The aim of this paper was to explore how public actors manifest their thoughts concerning the subject of the substitution program in Sweden. This approach includes the complex of problems that can be found in statements and the discourses that these operators stand for and support. In my analysis the philosophical thread was principally based on Michael Foucault ideas, but also on other theories related to social constructionism.

The social policy defines what is social problems. There is no clear scientific explanation to why children fare badly and unity in what constitutes a bad parenthood that leads to deficiency of care (Sundell&Egelund 2000). The society's values are fickle and influences what to be defined as social problems. In the prevailing period, the discourse produces the social norm (Claezon 2004).The aim with this study was to examine which children that fare badly and attitudes about it the good and the insufficient parenthood between 1921-1923 and 1997-2007. The survey was a qualitative file study in witch we studied child welfare.

Wildlife fences are today commonly used along highways to reduce the risk of vehicle collisions with wildlife. Since traffic and roads have expanded over the years, wildlife behaviour has become more interesting not only for the prevention of vehicle collisions but also to understand how human activities impact their natural habitats. Moose is one of those animals that have increased in interest in such studies. In this study, I tested if the probability to cross wildlife fences of moose would increase with increasing home range sizes, and also at what time of the year they cross. The study area is situated in Nordmaling municipality, located in Northern Sweden in the County of Västerbotten.

Managers operating within the dynamic society of today are said to rely on intuition when effective and quick decisions are to be made. This skill or phenomenon has aroused an interest within the academic world of management whom has explored intuition, its relation to decision making and its influencing factors, especially in the private sector. Intuitive decision making is however not isolated solely to this sector but also involved in decision making associated to the public sector. Therefore, the aim of the thesis is to investigate whether managers at the hospital Akademiska in Uppsala involve intuition in decision making and to what extent the factors time, amount of information, individual experience and decision complexity influence the intuition.The theoretical framework includes academic research regarding how intuition and rationality affect decisions, the concept of intuition and factors influencing the intuitiveness of decision making. Furthermore the theoretical discussion explores intuition connected to leadership, negative aspects of intuitive decisions and a comparison between different factors that separates public and private sector in terms of decision making.

In today?s technological society, there are increasingly less physical demands on the locomotor system. However, despite that notion strength and function in the hand?s complex biomechanical system are in fact both needed to cope with daily life. The grip function is a main function in the hand and is used in many examples of scientific research, for instance when assessing physical health and predicting the probabilities of premature mortality.