Increased competition in the IT industry has sparked a need for developing faster innovation processes with more predictable output. One of the biggest issues when it comes to achieving a faster flow through the innovation process lies in managing its high degree of variation. Proposing a solution to this problem, Lean Software Development (LSD), was developed to provide a framework for how IT companies should organize its software development process to achieve increased speed and quality. This study examines to which extent LSD, as a set of values, principles, methods and tools, can be used to improve flow efficiency in the innovation process. A case study of a multinational IT company was made by conducting ten semi-structured interviews with current employees.

The transformation of the Swedish Armed Forces is bringing about major changes in many areas. Indirect fire is one capability affected by these changes. Financial savings, a shrinking organization and higher eligibility requirements mean that fewer soldiers will gain access to exclusive high-tech support resources such as the JAS 39 Gripen aircraft and the ARCHER artillery system. This thesis aims to examine whether access to indirect fire capability can be increased through the use of civilian products and communication networks. Technology development in the civilian mobile communications area is exponential and nations such as the USA, facing challenges similar to those of the Swedish Armed Forces, devote substantial resources to research and development.

The electric vehicle market has potential to contribute to Sweden?s national goal to have a fossil fuel independent transport sector by 2030. However, the market answers to a lot of challenges making it difficult for the market to fully reach its potential. The volume of electric vehicles has seen a steady increase during the last year (2012), although many of these vehicles are mostly for PR purposes or bought by the public sector that wants to lead by example. Still, barriers in the form of high purchase costs, an anxiety for the limited battery capacity and the lack of standardisation are some of the problems that the market is struggling to solve.

This paper presents why and how teachers use newspaper articles in the classroom when they educate their pupils in chemistry, biology and nature science. All the teachers have worked over 20 years and are, when interviewed, at a Swedish gymnasium in Dalarna. I also have, in a small study, interviewed some of their pupils to get their view about teachers using news paper articles during lessons.The teacher?s use of newspaper articles in the classroom can be divided in different ways. They can use the articles to illustrate up to date links to everyday life.

Tourism is often being viewed as one of the worlds largest sectors and a great contribution to growth and development. There is a large motivation amongst developing countries to promote themselves as a tourist destination, since they expect the tourism to generate economic growth. The government of Thailand has been promoting tourism since 1960, and the number of foreign visitors has increased from 100 000 back then to 13.5 million in 2006. The purpose of this paper was to investigate weather the increasing tourism industry in Thailand has pulled resources away from other sectors of the economy towards the tourism sector, and in that way harming Thailand?s international competitiveness and causing deindustrialization.

With increased globalization more companies are sending their employees abroad in order for the company?s survival on the market. Many studies in the field of International Business describe unsuccessful foreign assignments and the importance of intercultural support regarding expatriation. Due to the fact that company X is an international organization we found an interest in studying how the company handles their expatriation process in Sweden. This became the purpose of our study.

The international requirement of Swedish healthcare today is high and due to a good reputation and a long history of reliable methods through extended experience. For those Swedish companies within this business, the process of internationalization is often a attractive option.This study aims to describe, analyze and translate how minor Swedish companies within the care keeping section establish their business on the international market.The study is based upon a qualitative approach and is an empirical study carried out through semi-structured interviews.The result presented in the study shows that internationalization of companies within this business does often require a lot of time and money, is based upon establishments through networks and were learning-by-doing often is used as a strategic approach for the companies penetrating a new market.The study also accounts for major entry barriers, which declares for being to some part of political nature, but mostly of cultural nature.Differences in language and culture are shown in the study to be a major entry barrier and host-countries different cultural levels are very conclusive for the success of internationalization. .

As commonly known, Social Media is a rapidly growing area. Since consumers to a great extent are present in Social Media, this new internet environment is increasing in relevance for consumer marketing. For controversial brands that are regulated in conventional marketing channels Social Media is an extra ordinary marketing opportunity, since social media is a legal grey area. More and more controversial brands are taking advantage of this opportunity, but the effects of these marketing activities are fairly unknown. Therefore there is an interest in examining the controversial brands marketing progression in Social Media.

Enligt IAS 40 ? Förvaltningsfastigheter, definieras förvaltningsfastigheter som ?mark eller byggnader eller del av byggnad som innehas i syfte att generera hyresinkomster eller värdestegring?. Onoterade fastighetsbolag i Sverige har idag möjlighet att välja mellan att värdera sina fastigheter till anskaffningsvärde eller verkligt värde.IAS ? International Accounting Standards är en internationell redovisningsstandard inom EU som började tillämpas i januari 2001, men blev obligatorisk för börsnoterade bolag år 2005. Dessutom har alla medlemstater möjlighet att lagstifta om IAS-redovisning i icke-noterade bolag.

Syftet med detta examensarbete var att undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkat acceptansen hos användare, inom den kommunala verksamheten, vid införande av ett datoriserat system. Med acceptans menas att användarna ska kunna utföra sina arbetsuppgifter på ett bra och lätt sätt. Studien har gjorts utifrån användarnas perspektiv.Genom att genomföra en intervjuundersökning på ett flertal kommuner där användarna använder systemet Vabas/Duf, har undersökts hur användarnas upplevda acceptans påverkas av faktorerna delaktighet, användbarhet och lättanvändhet, vid införande av ett datoriserat system. Delaktigheten vid införandet av ett system innefattar även information och utbildning.Resultatet från undersökningen visade att delaktigheten ökade användarnas acceptans. Ingen avgörande slutsats kunde däremot dras mellan acceptans och faktorerna användbarhet och lättanvändhet, då resultatet från de båda grupperna inte visade någon märkbar skillnad..

High housing- and construction costs is a fact in Sweden today. Prices on building materials more rapidly than producer price index for industrial goods. Prices tend to rise during market boom but does not adapt during diminishing demand. The effects of fading demand can rather be deduced through discounts and quotations. During 1992-1998 when the Swedish construction sector found it self in severe crisis the prices of construction materials kept rising more rapidly than PPI for industrial merchandise.

Abstract The objective of our study was to get knowledge about how teachers think when they make purchases to preschool. Do they consider making environmentally conscious purchases? Do they work actively to transfer environmental consciousness to the children?We chose to interview nine preschool teachers and one cook in two different local municipalities. Our investigation showed that there was a very low engagement in these issues. The teachers said that they were very strictly bound to already existing public contracts and did not see any possibilities to influence the preschools consumption.The teachers hade no idea that not only their work could result in environmental savings in the school, but also result in attitudes changes among the children, their parents and, in the long term, society in general.

Trioplanex International AB is a part of the group Trioplast Industrier AB, which produces packaging materials for the film and hygiene industry. The group is active throughout Europe, where most of the production is located in Sweden, with head office in Smålandsstenar. Operations in Landskrona consist of Trioplanex International AB and Trioplast Landskrona.Semi-finished articles consisting of paper cores, so called bobbins, give rise to a high amount of core waste in any form of core cutting. The objective of the report is to map out all core waste and illustrate the material flow with regard to present layout and equipment.In the beginning of the project an analysis of the current process was carried out with focus on the cutting equipment. A case study in the form of an improvement work took place in order to reduce the causes which had the biggest impact on existing machinery.Improvement proposals were discussed by the author together with supervisor, assigner and other parties involved.

Information technology and globalization has led to an increasing competition and service production has been more and more independent of locations. This has made a market of outsourced telephone costumer service possible. Due to high establishment the market has been saturated and with that price has sunk. Customer companies have the last few years got more negative to outsourcing of their telephone customer service as they through operating the customer service internally want to get closer to their customers.In the empirical study the writers try to figure out which companies the callcenters should try to aim towards to get long and profitable cooperation. This will be done through deducing guiding principles from theories about how different factors around companies costumer service should look like.

In this essay we map and evaluate obstacles and problems that can occur during the establishment of international companies in Russia. This is done by investigating Swedish companies, which are established in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. We used secondary and primary data from books, previous surveys, reports, articles and the Internet. We also interviewed the following companies: Alfa Laval, Kockum Sonics AB, Höganäs Keramik, Skanska, Assa Abloy, Advakom, AnoxKaldnes, Lindab, Delovoj Peterburg, HL-Display and also a journalist from the Swedish Radio.Most of the problems named by the interviewees were similar, but some differences were also found. The differences were primarily found in the ranking of importance between the different problems.