The starting point of this study is theories of European integration, which are used to formulate different scenarios about the future of the European Union. This is made in regards to the eurocrisis which has intensified the discussion about how to change the construction of the euro to overcome the economic difficulties that has arisen. In this study, four different scenarios are presented: "An updated Europe", "A new Europe", "The death of the euro" and "Goodbye Greece". The first two scenarios takes its starting point in the neofunctionalist theory of European integration and describes how the EU might increase its level of integration in different ways. We can either see a development where the EU tries to improve the implementation of the rules that are meant to coordinate the member states? economic policy, or we might encounter a more advanced integration where fiscal policy competences are transferred to the EU-level.The latter scenarios, however, takes another theory in to account, liberal intergovernmentalism, and describes how the eurozone might be fragmented in different ways due to conflicts of interest between lenders and countries that has to receive loan-packages.

The aim of this master thesis is to study the integration in Sweden between forestry and bulky industries as fiber- and sawmilling companies. The analysis is based on theories about transaction cost economies and competitive strategy. The studied companies are active on the Swedish roundwood market. The buying actors on this market were divided into two groups; fiber- and sawmill industries. Three companies from each group were chosen subjectively by the author.

Venture capital firms and private equity firms have been the subject of much controversy in the last decade. During this period economies throughout the world have seen a steady increase of these types of firms as owners of companies. In Sweden this has certainly been the case and many argue that this trend will continue to grow stronger in the future. This trend is by many regarded as dangerous and as a threat to the ownership model that has characterized the Swedish economy for decades. Family ownership has been widely regarded as the most beneficial and responsible ownership model in Sweden.

Background: Thanks to the globalization and the EU the international trade is growing faster than ever and companies are able to change ownership across the borders of the nations. Today one can talk about global marketplace with a deeper integration of the economies of the world. The rapidly growing list of mergers of Swedish companies since the last 10 years indicates that the global companies of today is using mergers as a strategic tool for continue their growth. However the number of unsuccessful mergers is big. The need of understanding and knowledge about different cultures is growing in the global business climate of today, since the collaborations across de national borders are increasing.Problem formulation: Which international strategies are fortunate in international mergers with Swedish companies?Purpose: The purpose is to analyze the integration of the three mergers; Vin&Sprit ? Pernod Ricard, Astra - Zeneca and Telia ? Sonera.Method: This study is a case study with a qualitative approach.

A future expansion of wind power in the Nordic power system makes the balancing for the transmission system operator Svenska Kraftnät (SvK) more complicated. Up to the hour of delivery the balance responsible parties? (BRP) makes prognoses and plans, for consumption and production, to help maintain the balance in the electrical grid. How well this is accomplished is affected by the setup of the market design. Therefore SvK has proposed the following possible changes in market design: Increase the imbalance costsIntensify the regulation of imbalancesIncrease the temporal resolution on the different marketsPresent the prices for balancing power in real-timeModify the balancing market to simplify auction of consumption bidsA mapping over the BRPs? processes within planning and trading on the day-ahead, intra-day, and the balancing market has been performed in this thesis.

China is considered as one of the world?s fastest growing economies and the future of China looks promising. Even though the Chinese market attracts many new foreign companies to enter the market there are entry barriers which companies may encounter as obstacles, which will aggravate the market entry in China. As a result companies loose business opportunities and therefore it is of great importance for Swedish companies, which are planning a Chinese market entry, to identify which entry barriers that are considered to be the most difficult obstacles to overcome.The purpose of the thesis is to examine which entry barriers that are generally considered to be the most difficult obstacles for Swedish companies to overcome when entering Chinese markets and to rank the five most difficult entry barriers to overcome.Information about these entry barriers have been gathered from Swedish companies, which have carried out successful market entries in the Chinese markets, through an e-mail questionnaire.The result generally shows that the most difficult entry barriers to overcome in China were: bureaucracy, property laws, language, cultural differences and difficulties finding local partners. The ranking of the entry barriers? result shows that bureaucracy is the most difficult obstacle to overcome, followed by cultural differences, language, relations and access to distribution channels.We conclude that companies experience different difficulties overcoming these entry barriers, which depends on the companies? size, years in China, markets and if the entry barriers were considered controllable or uncontrollable.

Globaliseringen ökar och företag använder sig i allt större utsträckning av internationella leverantörer. Fördelarna med detta är många, bland annat kan man uppnå kostnadsfördelar och få ett större produktutbud att välja mellan. Men det medför även utmaningar som företagen måste handskas med, osäkerheter gällande leverans, kvalitet och även leverantörens kapacitet inom olika områden är svår att bedöma i förhand. Trots dessa utmaningar och svårigheter är det snarare en regel än undantag att använda sig av leverantörer i lågkostnadsländer.Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka faktorer som ligger bakom företags beslut att använda sig av leverantörer i lågkostnadsländer samt vilka kriterier som är avgörande vid valet av dessa leverantörer.Studien är genomförd med en kvalitativ metod och empirin samlades in genom åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med lika många företag. Företagen är detaljhandelsföretag och använder sig alla av leverantörer i Kina.

AbstractThe development of new economies from the industrial revolution to the information society of today has led to an increase in goods, services and information technology. It has also affected the way that organizations are formed and shown that organizations transform more and more into networks. This has left an impact on the concept of marketing and an increase in the handling of internal relations within companies. The marketing concept has developed from the 4P:s, price, place, product and promotion, to relations marketing as a new perspective.This study focuses on a description of relations marketing in medium - sized advertising agencies. The advertising business has a long history of close customer relations and advertising agencies strongly depend on new customers.

Syftet med den här studien är att ta reda på om det förekommer konflikträdsla mellan individer i en organisation, och i så fall vad det skulle kunna bero på. Efter sökning av artiklar och genomgång av litteratur i ämnet gjordes en enkät- och intervjuundersökning bland ett urval av undersköterskor på Universitetssjukhuset i Örebro. Bland cirka 630 anställda undersköterskor lämnades 100 stycken enkäter ut, varav 60 stycken besvarades. Parallellt med enkätundersökningen har fem av de anställda undersköterskorna på USÖ intervjuats. Två av dem valdes ut på grund av att de redan vid utlämnandet av enkäterna muntligen uttryckte egen erfarenhet av konflikträdsla.

Title: Images of Sweden in ItalyNumber of pages: 5252 (589 including enclosures)Author: Oskar GustafssonTutor: Martin NilssonCourse: Political Science C level ? Bachelor?s ThesisPeriod: Spring term 2010University: School of Social SciencesLinnaeus UniversityPurpose/Aim: The purpose of my research study is to, through the use of political science theories on soft power and marketing theories about nation branding and in comparison to previous studies on the image of Sweden in Italy, gains a better understanding of the image of Sweden in Italy, with special focus on national political institutions and young Italians.Method: The method of analysis is a combination of qualitative methods: interviews where information about the image of Sweden amongst national political institutions were gathered and a survey where information was gathered about the image of Sweden amongst young Italians.Main results: On the basis of the results I have gained it can be concluded that a positive and well informed image of Sweden emerges when it comes to cultural and social factors but a more restricted and somewhat negative image come to light when asking national political institutions and young citizens in Italy about their views and knowledge on Swedish domestic and international politics and economics.Keywords: Soft power, Public Diplomacy, Nation Branding, Images of Sweden, Italy..

Modern societies are generally becoming increasingly capitalist in nature and economies of these societies are thus likely to become more focused on consumer consumption. Advertising plays a vital role in contemporary society where we, as consumers and citizens, are surrounded by it everywhere we look and everywhere we go. This puts pressure on advertisers to become more creative and to explore new ways of marketing their products and services in an already saturated environment. We believe that the added pressure and the already established role of marketing in society make advertisements an interesting and telling object for analysis. This is particularly the case with regards to the concept of selling and marketing products that have qualities that are known to be less than beneficial for our health.This paper analyzes four commercial advertisements marketing beer; a product that we argue has qualities that can be seen as potentially bad for the health of individuals and for societies.

Companies of today are facing a development where it is more significant to focus on existing customers since the approach constitute a more cost reducing way, compared to finding new customers. During the last decades the marketing has therefore moved towards a relationship based marketing. Companies emphasize creating long-term relationships with customers, instead of consider the sale as a non-recurrent phenomenon. To engender customer loyalty has been an essential objective in the creation of long-term relationships.In this essay the authors have chosen to do a study which enlighten how companies in the ready-made apparel business produce added value to their brand and through this generate customer loyalty. Through a case study we analyze how Filippa K, Tiger of Sweden and Gant do to maintain value in their brand, in both a business- and customer perspective.

The automotive industry is today in a world of globalisation and external factors can influence the car companies and it is important that they progress with the people. When an external factor, as the oil price, increases dramatically, it will affect the economies in different matters. Other external factors are impacted by the oil price, for example inflation, unemployment and target rates. In addition, people are changing their preferences due to the attention of the environment. With this as the foundation the problem of the essay were divided into three aspects.

Syftet med denna examensuppsats var att undersöka och beskriva svenska stridspiloters upplevda mentala hälsa. En enkät utformades bestående av ett skattningsbatteri med frågor om sömn och trötthet, OSLO-3, CAGE, HADS, frågor om fysiska symptom, GHQ-12 och SRE. Enkäten skickades ut till 129 JAS 39 piloter i ordinarie tjänst vid flygdivisioner i Försvarsmakten och Förvarets Materielverk (FMV). Resultatet visade att 77% av piloterna i studien bedömdes ha symptom på mild depression och 46% hade symptom på mild ångest. De flesta av de deltagande piloterna hade inte några alkoholrelaterade problem och 83% uppgav att de hade lätta fysiska besvär.ANOVA-analysen visade att de deltagande piloterna på utbildningsförbandet i medeltal hade signifikant högre poäng på GHQ-12 än piloterna på insatsförbanden.

The working capital describes the short-term financial position and focus on cash flow and the actual inflow and outflow of money in the company. Working capital is part of the company's financing and consists of the company's current assets and current liabilities. There are resources that are used in the daily activity and can be optimized. The more effective they are in circulation, the higher value they create. The control of working capital is called Working Capital Management and has its basis in the company?s Working Capital Policy.