Background: Businesses are traditionally valued with the so called Discounted Cash Flow-model. When valuing newly-started businesses, surrounded by high uncertainty, and whose capital mostly consists of unrealized Business opportunities, the Discounted Cash Flow-model needs to be complemented if the total value of the business is to be captured. A valuation with the help of real options is capable of valuing these unrealized opportunities, which often exist in newly-started businesses. The unrealized opportunities are to be found in the business plan of the business, why this needs to be valued to capture the total value of a newly-started business. Purpose: To demonstrate what the use of real options can result in when valuing businesses.

Human Resource Management (HRM) consultants are becoming more common. Simultaneously there is a lack of HRM in small and medium enterprises (SME?s). SME?s states neither to afford, nor have the time to perform HRM in their business.This thesis is a Working Scholarly essay based on qualitative method, based on ten semi- structured interviews.

The purpose with this essay is to enlighten the small business´ existence at times of expansion, identify threats and possibilities and also to try to find ways to encourage growth in the small business.To answer our purpose we carried out a literature study to later implement six interviews with small business leaders. We separated the companies into three categories; small business without employees, small business with 2-5 employees and small business with 6-10 employees.We confirm that the main reason why small business leaders think both once and twice before hireing new labour force are because of the high costs. The change in government has so far not given the small business what was promised, but there is still hope for improvement and simplification.The economic part of owning a company has been pointed out as the greatest threat in relation with expansion and the big responsibility in another persons possibilities to earn his/her living is also burdensome. The possibility to take on more work increases with the number of workers, which is positive..

The communicating home concept has been defined byidentifying the dominating communication technologiesto/from and in the homes, the most important customerbehavior and user needs, the dominating products and thedominating actors of the industry.The evaluation of the communicating home industry has beenperformed with a five forces framework analysis and theoriesregarding value migration and value structures of industries. Ithas been concluded that actors of communication technologies,goods and access services will compete fiercely. The barriersof entry will however be high. When it comes to contentservices the situation is completely different. These actors will,to the largest extent, meet lower competition and low barriersof entry.

The aim of this thesis is to develop a new business model for district heating and cooling firms which can contribute to a stabilization of the Swedish national energy system. The business model is developed for a district heating and cooling firm and is exemplified with Fortum Heat. The theoretical investigation around the topic creates a rigid base for following qualitative empirical studies. Osterwalder?s canvas for business model generation is used together with a Casual Loop Diagram to identify a number of Business opportunities which stabilizes the national energy system.

The structure of the thesis is based on opportunities to attract businesses to the region, the need of establishments in the region and benchmarking with establishment strategies of other cluster initiatives. The identified opportunities are the local business relationship with ABB, the prerequisites of life quality in the region and the availability of financial support. Further on has a number of opportunities to be developed been identified; diversification of the existing businesses, an expansion of the cooperation with universities and to simplify the contact with local authorities. Challenges that HVV is facing is: creating a more dynamic labor market, secure long-term labor supply, spread the image of the brand HVV and finally putting HVVs geographic scope. Two of the identified needs of establishments are strategically important: to establish a third-party logistician and commercializing systems for distributed generation and energy storage.

Businesses role in society is changing. Corporations are expected to take responsibility, not only for their traditional business conduct, but also for social and political issues. A rise in globalization and international trade has led to an increased interest in the concept of CSR. Accordingly, stakeholders are expecting multinational companies to be accountable for existing issues in developing countries. New business models are needed to meet increased expectations of responsibility and shared value creation. Based on an understanding of the need for new business models a multinational corporation is studied in a local context, where a radically new way of doing business is developed.

AbstractEqual opportunities from an employer brand perspective- What does the future manpower inquire?Authors: Erik Frick & Niklas HalldénInstructor: Karin JonnergårdExaminer: Sarah PhilipsonBackgroundWe are living in a society that originates from a patriarchy founded many thousand years ago. This has put women in an inferior position in the labour market. To promote equal opportunities we argue for that companies can utilise employer brand. Employer brand is a new theoretic concept that is being used more frequently among scholars and companies.Presentation of the problem? Which role do equal opportunities play to attract potential manpower from an employer brand perspective?MethodOur method has a quantitative approach and we have choosen to carry out a survey.

AbstractEqual opportunities from an employer brand perspective- What does the future manpower inquire?Authors: Erik Frick & Niklas HalldénInstructor: Karin JonnergårdExaminer: Sarah PhilipsonBackgroundWe are living in a society that originates from a patriarchy founded many thousand years ago. This has put women in an inferior position in the labour market. To promote equal opportunities we argue for that companies can utilise employer brand. Employer brand is a new theoretic concept that is being used more frequently among scholars and companies.Presentation of the problem? Which role do equal opportunities play to attract potential manpower from an employer brand perspective?MethodOur method has a quantitative approach and we have choosen to carry out a survey.

In this study we aim to investigate what employees at a callcenter see as prospects, opportunities and barriers of learning within a company. To answer the purpose of this essay, two questions were formulated; "What opportunities for learning does employees experience in the company?" and "How can learning in the workplace improve for the sellers?". First, we present what previous research has highlighted regarding workplace learning and learning within the callcenter industry. Afterwards we present ten semi-structured interviews with leaders and sellers within a telecom company in Stockholm.

AbstractEqual opportunities from an employer brand perspective- What does the future manpower inquire?Authors: Erik Frick & Niklas HalldénInstructor: Karin JonnergårdExaminer: Sarah PhilipsonBackgroundWe are living in a society that originates from a patriarchy founded many thousand years ago. This has put women in an inferior position in the labour market. To promote equal opportunities we argue for that companies can utilise employer brand. Employer brand is a new theoretic concept that is being used more frequently among scholars and companies.Presentation of the problem? Which role do equal opportunities play to attract potential manpower from an employer brand perspective?MethodOur method has a quantitative approach and we have choosen to carry out a survey.

High technology companies in Sweden spend a huge amount of money on research and product development in proportion to what they get back in earnings from their inventions. Product development has traditionally been regarded as much more important than business development. This thesis aims to point out the critical factors behind successful business development processes for high technology companies. We have chosen to make a case study of Hexagon, a highly successful and innovative company within the measurement technology business. Internal and external actors that are important for business development have been identified and interviewed in order to understand how ideas are developed and executed.

The purpose of the study is to examine how retailing trough brand owned outlet stores effectsthe fashion brand. The problem that the essay is aimed to solve is how the fashion brand isinfluenced by selling through outlets and what opportunities and risks it has on the brand. Thestudy has been carried out by qualitative methods using interviews to answer the questionformulation. Three empirical perspectives have been chosen; an expert-, business- andconsumer perspective which have been linked up with three applicable theories. The fashionbrand Acne and its two stores; the flagship store and the outlet store have been chosen as acase study.

Good business relations can contribute to the success of IT-outsourcing, and create new Business opportunities. Despite a sharply increasing trend to outsource IT-operations there is a high degree of failures related. The cause may be that some important factors have not been taken into account. The purpose is to investigate elationships within IT-outsourcing and test if specific factors identified by previous research are being concerned in IT-outsourcing relationships and also to investigate the view IT-outsourcing customers and suppliers have on business. Research shows that business relationships are widespread throughout companies. It demonstrated that a small number of business relationships can have a major impact on a company's financial performance and may create stability. Business relationships can be divided into an arm's length relationships and strategic alliances depending on the degree of involvement.

Background: Companies and organizations of today spend large amounts of money on IT-based business solutions. Such business solutions normally include business- consulting and software-creation (IT-related services). Due to the rapid development of the technology within this field of business the IT-customers find it difficult to select among potential suppliers on objective grounds.Purpose: To increase the understanding for the professionl approach of the people involved in the sales- and purchase process of IT-related services in a business-to-business context. The study is taking the buyers'as well as the sellers'perspective into account when analyzing the process. Method: The empirical findings were collected from eight companies in Linköping and Stockholm.