The Swedish agricultural sector is currently experiencing substantial structural changes, where the number of agricultural enterprises continuously decreases and the average farm size increases. In order to maintain competitiveness, it is important to be aware and adapt to changes concerning the surroundings of the company (Johnson et al., 2011). Agricultural commodity prices sharply fluctuate on the global market in recent years, affecting the profitability of farmers. High volatility market requires tools to reduce price variations and increases the need of decision-making (Bouder & Beth, 2003). Farm-based grain handling facilities increases the sale options regarding agricultural commodities; a flexible strategy to get additional compensation for the storing the grain produced on the farm (Edling, 2002; Edwards, 2013).

The textile business is one of the oldest industries of our time, and it employs nearly 1.4 million workers within the European Union alone. It is not unusual that this is the foundation of a country?s industrialisation. Even though the industry brings many positive factors, there are also negative factors that will influence the industry?s growth in the future.

An uncountable number of companies are present in foreign markets as a result of what we commonly choose to call globalization. This is especially true for Swedish companies traditionally operating on small markets. A company that is about to establish on a new market is faced not only with possibilities but also with challenges and risks. Researchers have found that companies that establish on foreign markets will have to deal with competitors on the national as well as on the global market, and therefore need consider how they globalize their brands. In addition to this, a brand can only reach international success if its message is coherent within and across every single market.

The Swedish agricultural sector is currently undergoing a substantial structural change. The number of farm enterprises is continuously decreasing and the average farm size is increasing. In combination with increasing number of competitors in the insurance market, the competitive rivalry within this market has increased significantly. With this knowledge in mind, Länsförsäkringar Uppsala initiated this study, which aims to provide an understanding of customer?s view on customer value, related to agricultural insurance and financing.

Farmers are constantly facing changes, and the exposure to risk requires monitoring these changes. Financial risks, institutional risks, market risks and production risks are the different risk categories that the farmers face. Production risks stems from factors the farmer cannot affect or is beyond his control. The crop?s output is the basis for the primary income of agricultural operations, which is why it is important for farmer to manage their production risk. A tool to reduce the consequences of production risks is crop insurance.

This thesis aims at determining the heat losses in a property vent stack and its roof valve. Upon request of a company, the vent stack is analysed for possible heat recovering solutions to be implemented, while relining of the drain system is executed and with a suitable payback time for the economic investments. The heat loss calculations are based on data for properties that are located in the Stockholm region, but also easy to change depending on the situation. The calculations are done on pipes made out of cast iron, which still is the most common type of drain pipe in Sweden, and these are the pipes that relining is usually made on. The calculations that needed to take several variables into account have been done in MatlabR2014a and the thermos dynamical properties that were used in those calculations have been extracted from EES.Three different types of heat losses in the vent stack have been taken into consideration in this thesis.

AbstractAt Saltvikens copperindustry, which is located in the municipality of Oskarshamn, copper was refined from sulphiteore some hundred years ago. The ore underwent several steps in the process before the final product was received. These steps all had an influence on the environment through discharge of heavy metals. The area where the copper industry was located is today considered to be of specific national interest due to its valuable nature and cultural values, as well as its value for recreational outdoor activities. Therefore, it is important to determine the present level of contamination and if any transport of contaminants have occurred, and to identify the risks that are associated with the site both at present and in a longer time perspective.Thirtynine soil samples and 16 sediment samples have been analyzed.

AbstractAccording to several researchers finance is scarce, scarcer for small businesses than for big enterprises. Small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, that want to start exporting and sales or manufacturing abroad need capital to get ready. Which capital structure and financial costs do they have, and which forms of finance do they actually use for that purpose. New american research by Mansi, Reeb (2002) has suggested, that there is a positive connection between leverage and a negative one between financial costs and internationalization, and that a non-linear model better describes this connection.This study has gathered data in two ways: Through a questionnaire from 37 SMEs and balance sheet figures from totally 166 manufacturing SMEs. In order to examine, whether the company was active on the international market, 200 SMEs in south Sweden were asked, if they exported to, produced or sold on any other market than their home market.

The report addresses four main tasks, situation analysis of the company's total costs and transportation volume, cost analysis associated with the adjustment of the filling ratio, transport costs for the expansion and new expenses on a combination of expansion with new adjusted filling ratio.  Increasing transport costs for the company was the main reason for the request of the current situation analysis. A survey of the total cost with the actual volumes and transport provider pricing is the basis of the analysis that extends from May 2006 to October 2008. The results show an increase in costs, both overall expense and per cubic meter of transported goods. Volume spreads, trends, and seasonal variations are according to our and the company?s expectations.

AbstractTitle: Environmental demand solutions - a study within real-estate business.Problem statement:Today, the society stands before a permanent accelerated environmental threat. Companiesbecome increasingly over the environmental problems and more companies look over theiractivity and how it influences the environment. Historical the environmental issue has been forgotten and it is first during the end of 1990 the environmental issue intensive has been noticed. Earlier the environmental work?s high costs was the cause, but now the companies realized the weight and the importance of imposing focus on environment commitments and sees it, as an investment.

Cycle time has a direct influence on number of returnable crates needed and therefore a crucial parameter for cost structure and pricing of the user fec in the pool system.For providing the growing market, number of crates has to increase as well as the utilization of existing crates. To accomplish this aim, cycle time for the whole supply chain has to be fully unravelled and understand.The purpose is to map cycle time and stock movements, to see how, where and when crates are being used in the supply chain. The goal is to make a method of cycle time calculation, together with suggestions of improving the pool system and decrease cycle time.The study has been a combination of qualitative and quantitative research and comprises the three biggest wholesalers in Sweden; ICA, Coop and Axfood. Furthermore have 65 grocery shops, connected to the wholesalers, been investigated and mapped.The study has come to a conclusion that cycle time for an average returnable crate is 19 days. The full-size and half-size crates have a bit longer cycle time, 21-22 days, while Dual Height-crates and shallow haif-size crates have 17-18 days.

Our purpose of this paper is to seek an understanding of which service quality factors that affects customers in their decision making progress regarding purchasing financial services such as pension products. We also seek to evaluate the different service quality factors by compare their relative strength against each other. The study aim to investigate if there are any connections between customer behavior variables such as gender, age and income in comparison to these service quality factors related to pension products.The findings aim to help a small financial institute such as our case company Plain Capital to understand how their customers experience service quality regarding pension products.In order to find empirical results we conducted a qualitative research as well a quantitative research. The qualitative research employed both a focus group interview with pension savers and an interview with our case company Plain Capital. We were able to identify the service quality factors for pension?s products with help from the focus group interview.

Abstract One of the leading causes of food borne infections in the world is due to Salmonella by con-suming poultry products including eggs and meat. According to US Food and Drug Admin-istration (2009), 2 to 4 million cases of Salmonellosis in humans occur every year only in US. Salmonella causes wide range of diseases with enteric and typhoid fever, food poisoning, di-arrhea and gastro-enteritis. Many serotypes of Salmonella do not have host specificity and cause disease in all kinds of animals and humans. Salmonella has capability to modify accord-ing to the changing environment and it can develop resistance against routine elimination practices of sanitation, chemical treatments and antibacterial drugs. Newly established poultry industries in Pakistan are confronting various infectious diseases including Salmonellosis while in Sweden Salmonella prevalence in animal products con-sumed for humans is extremely low.

This thesis studies settlement continuity on Gotland between approximately AD 200 and AD 1700. The method used is to calculate correlation between the geographical distribution of all known Iron Age stone-wall-houses (on Gotland known as "kämpagravar") and all farms included in the detailed taxation maps from approximately 1700. The number of remaining house foundations is between 1800 and 1900. A model to estimate the number of removed foundations is presented. It is based on the assumption that the settlement density was proportional to land use around 1700, and that the rate of removal is related to the current land use.

Frigoscandia Freezer AB have seen themselves as an entrepreneur company for a long time, but have lately begun to realise that they have to go against a more administrative era. With that insight they have begun to examine their enterprise in order to achieve this. The division Team Spare Parts has started a project with the intention of checking-up the inventory management, and improving it for the future. To get support for this and other point of views, they decided to let us do our exam thesis as a part of the project.The first part of the thesis deals with the appropriate inventory theory. All calculations in the other parts of the thesis have been based upon this.