During the last years, the importance of sourcing in firms has increased. Globalization, fierce competition and an increased level of outsourcing are common explanations to why firms have highlighted the potential to realize savings and the value creation that the Purchasing department can generate. One trend that follows in parallel with globalization is an increased pressure from society on firms to take responsibility for the impact that its products and services have on the environment. This responsibility creates even more attention as outsourcing involves trade with suppliers in low wage countries, where the level of environmental and social responsibility is not always satisfying. The Purchasing department, the firm?s interface with suppliers should therefore, together with the firm?s Environmental department, play a key role in the firm?s contribution towards sustainable development.

Health and physical exercise has a become trend in today's society and the work with health promotion has increased in organizations. This is not only a way for organizations to get healthier and more efficient employees, but also a way to regulate the employee?s identity by getting them to identify with the organization. This bachelor essay studies how health promotion can be used as a management strategy. This is done by interviews and by performed observations at the recruitment company, Adecco, in the Stockholm region.

Abstract AimThe purpose of this study has been to investigate the possible differences in grades and attitudes towards further studies that can be explained by the student?s level of physical activity. The questions we wanted answers to were:- Does students in more sports-oriented programs have better grades than students in more theoretical programs?- Is there a relationship between physical activity and study-results?- Are there any differences in attitudes towards further studies for students at the different programs?- Which other variables could be affecting the students grades?Method The extent of this study has included 3 municipal schools and 6 classes (2 from each school) ? in all 119 students and 6 teachers. 3 different social sciences programs have participated ? two sports-oriented and one without any sports-oriented concentration .

Infection with the bovine lungworm - Dictyocaulus viviparus - is occasionally a problem in Swedish cattle herds. The infection could act in synergism with other infections such as Corona virus to create a poorer welfare and productivity in cattle. Studies have shown that a diagnosis can be made with both the Baermann method and with an ELISA. In Norway diagnosis of BVDV on a herd level is attained through pooled serum samples. The question was raised whether pooled serum samples could be used in a similar fashion to attain status on a herd level for lungworm.

We have the tradition in Sweden to build villas and houses with a wooden framework. It has become natural for us because we have so much forest in our country. Building with wood has advantages, it is easy to process, but also disadvantages, as it is sensitive to moisture.Finland has long made use of the thermal blocks to build villas. It is a type of bricks that are a bit like a sandwich element, with a core of EPS and concrete on both sides of the core material. The concrete is hollow, so that after the walls has been bricked up you pour concrete into the hollow bricks.The issue of this report is to find out if concrete can be an alternative to wood as framework material in villas.

The purpose of this study was to examine health promotion and ill-health prevention in the workplaces of the City District Committees in the City of Malmö. More specifically, we wanted to find what types of health problems there were and what kinds of strategies were applied to prevent them. Furthermore, the aim was to examine whether the leaders of the City of Malmö saw any effects of the strategies in use and if so, which. Finally, the intention was to compare our empirical results to previous research in the field of health promotion and ill-health prevention in workplaces. We conducted a qualitative study consisting of semi-structured interviews with five leaders in different levels, two personnel secretaries, two employees assigned to improve the health of the personnel in the City Districts, and one safety representative.

The aim of this study was to develop a simple model for calculating stock costs for bio fuel at Billerud Karlsborg and subsequently recommending a suitable stock level of bio fuel. The stock components considered in the model are GROT (branches and tops), bark, dry wood chips, raw wood chips from barking and sawdust. The calculations are based on a probability distribution of historical deviations between ordered and delivered volumes. The model presents two different ways to manage the supply in case of irregular deliveries. The first way is to stock enough volume to cover the deviations and the second way is to compensate with a quick purchase from the spot market (at extra high purchase prices).

The purpose of my thesis has been to examine the public debate in daily newspapers about children in 1882. For material I have used newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet from the year 1882. My study is based on a regulation concerning public schools from 1882 and a labour law concerning child labour from 1881. I have also examined other articles that focused on children to get an overview of what the papers wrote about them. With the articles I found in the Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet I have made a quantitative content analysis. As a method for the content analysis, I have used text analysis as a tool. As a result of my study I found a total of 228 articles about children and of those 82 dealt with the elementary school regulation and the child labour law in various ways. The other articles concerning children discussed issues such as how to raise your children, charity questions and accidents and crimes involving children. These articles were written from a perspective where society showed concern over the children's environment. Often the articles expressed great confidence and trust in the public schools as educators and as a place for learning and supervision..

There is a lot going on in the construction business right now. It feels like everywhere you turn there is a building sight. Furthermore the business is heading a generation change and the need of recruiting new construction engineers is huge. How is the business going to handle the transition that they are facing? The question has been in progress for at while and I wanted to find out what the current students feel about taking the step into the working life and replace the veterans.A research is made about student?s opinion about their education and future work life.

Common wisdom dictates that because payment of dividends decreases funds available for investment, a high payout ratio is to be associated with low earnings growth. This notion has been challenged in recent years by empirical research that has found a positive relationship between payout ratio and future earnings growth, both on the aggregated market level and the company level in different countries. This study investigated the aforementioned relationship on the Swedish market by statistically analyzing future earnings growth as a function of payout ratio on a large sample of publicly listed companies over the period 1980 to 2011. The results are in line with those found in previous research and indicate that companies with high dividend payout ratio tend to experience strong future earnings growth. The results are robust to the presence of mean reversion, the use of an alternative accounting measure of earnings, non-symmetrical earnings growth cycles and alternative practices for dealing with outliers..

Master Thesis in Business Administration, School of Business Administration, Linaeus University, Finance 4FE03E, Spring 2011Authors: Benni Hansson, Axel SandquistTutor: Christopher von KochExaminer: Sven-Olof CollinTitle: Compensation as a means of monitoring or recruiting ? a study on ownership structure in Swedish listed companies.Keywords: CEO compensation, compensation structure, ownership structure, ownership types, ownership concentration, agency theory, resource dependence theory, managerial theoryBackground: There has been extensive research on CEO compensation, however not a lot on Swedish listed firms. Many studies have an agency theoretical perception on CEO compensation. In accordance with this, compensation is used as a means to solve monitoring and incentives problems.Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the role of CEO compensation, by studying ownership structure.Method: To examine the role of CEO compensation we use a multi-theory approach, based on agency theory, resource dependence theory and managerial theory. The companies examined are Swedish listed firms the in years 2005 to 2009.

The purpose of the study was to examine if intrinsic motivation and work commitment to the organization differs between permanent doctors and hired doctors. The total of 63 doctors who participated in the study made an internet-based survey with 21 questions taken from the Basic Need Satisfaction at Work Scale and 3 questions from the section ?work commitment? in QPS Nordic. The main results of the study showed that permanent doctors perceived a higher level of intrinsic motivation on all the three needs autonomy, competence and relatedness. Furthermore the result showed a tendency that permanent doctors perceived a higher level of work commitment to the organization then hired doctors..

Purpose/Aim: This essay explores the framing and representation of pensioners in Swedish press during the period of 2002-2008. The aim was to investigate what meaning news give elderly people on the manifest level, and also what meaning the media texts construct on the latent level.Material/Method: For this paper I have investigated framing of pensioners using quantitative analysis of 100 news articles, followed by a qualitative hermeneutic analysis applied on the most frequent frames discovered in the quantitative study.Main results: Four frames were identified concerning pensioners: crime victims, heroes in daily dues, economically advantaged and economically disadvantaged. The dualistic result in the economy frame was investigated in the qualitative research. The study revealed that pensioners as a group may have good economic standards, although there are individual differences. Three stereotypes were discovered in the articles: ?kind granny?, ?fragile and miserable? and ?look what I can do?..

Instrumental conditioning, the use of reinforcement and punishment, is used when training horses and these procedures may have different consequences regarding animal welfare. The aim of this study was to investigate what kind of reinforcers that are used in training horses and when these reinforcers are used. This study has its focus on positive reinforcement and its advantages and disadvantages. Interviews of five A-level and B -level equestrian coaches about their training methods were conducted to complement the literature search and give a greater understanding to why certain methods are used or not in training horses. The results show that negative reinforcement seems to be the foundation of training horses whereas positive reinforcement is used but not to the same extent.

This thesis concerns how the power quality in the grid is affected by the connection of wind power plants. As things are at present, Fortum Distribution AB has a number of wind turbines and wind parks connected to the own grid. As the pressure on building and connecting additional wind power is increasing, so is also the interest of how the already existing wind power generation affects the power quality in the nearby distribution grids. The study is performed by direction of Fortum Distribution AB and is limited to the 10 kV/40 kV-grid in Bohuslän, Sweden. The methods for calculation of power quality are compared to the results of a number of measurements.