This cross-sectional postal survey explores the relationship between musculoskeletal painand level of education in Ullensaker municipality. We used a Standard Nordic Questionnaire(SNQ) to register self-reported musculoskeletal pain in 3325 persons in 2004 (participationrate 55 %). We registered educational level and a series of other demographic and life-stylevariables as well as functional ability and subjective health complaints. We found in thisstudy that educational level and musculoskeletal pain is associated. People with loweducational levels are prone to have more musculoskeletal pain than persons with highereducation. When it comes to musculoskeletal pain that is limiting persons in their daily tasksthe difference is even larger between persons with low educational level and persons withhigher education / I en postal tverrsnittstudie har vi undersøkt forholdet mellom muskelsmerter ogutdanningsnivå i Ullensaker kommune. Vi brukte et standardisert spørreskjema ommuskelsmerter (også kalt Ørebro-skjemaet) og fikk svar fra 3325 personer (svarprosent55%). Vi registrerte utdanningsnivå og en rekke andre demografiske- og livsstilsvariablesamt funksjonsevne og subjektive helseplager. Vi fant i denne studien ensammenheng mellom utdanningsnivå og muskelsmerter. Personer med lavtutdanningsnivå har mer muskelsmerter enn personer med høyere utdanning. Når detgjelder å bli hindret i sine daglige aktiviteter av smertene er forskjellene enda størremellom de med lav utdanning og de med høy utdanning / <p>ISBN 978-91-85721-43-6</p>

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In this thesis we use the GARCH(1,1) and GJR-GARCH(1,1) models to estimate the conditional variance for five equities from the OMX Nasdaq Stockholm (OMXS) stock exchange. We predict 95% and 99% Value-at-Risk (VaR) using one-day ahead forecasts, under three different error distribution assumptions, the Normal, Student’s t and the General Error Distribution. A 500 observations rolling forecast-window is used on the dataset of daily returns from 2007 to 2014. The empirical size VaR is evaluated using the Kupiec’s test of unconditional coverage and Christoffersen’s test of independence in order to provide the most statistically fit model. The results are ultimately filtered to correspond with the Basel (II) Accord Penalty Zones to present the preferred models. The study finds that the GARCH(1,1) is the preferred model when predicting the 99% VaR under varying distribution assumptions.

This thesis contributes to the under-researched field of political selection, namely one’s re-selection onto the party list after one has been elected in the previous term. The theoretical rationale is to introduce a broader concept of political selection to a field mostly focused on political recruitment, one’s first point of entry into Politics. We show that the framework developed to study political recruitment can be adapted to study any kind of political selection that involves a broad pool of aspirants from which successful candidates must be selected. To this end, we utilise a panel dataset containing data on 387 Czech legislators covering the period between 1996 and 2013. Using fixed- and random-effects panel models, we show that voting along the party line and preferential vote share at time t are strong predictors of getting a better party-list rank at t+1. Legislative experience, however, is negatively associated with how well one fares at the re-selection process. We also provide evidence that it is left-wing parties rather than their right-wing counterparts that discriminate against women at the re-selection stage. The study thus contributes, directly or otherwise, to debates on women’s representation, political careers and re-election.

This paper analyzes the effect of political and economic factors on the risk of regime change in countries between 1975 and 2010, using survival analysis with time-dependent covariates. The findings show that negative economic growth increases the risk of regime change in the following year, and that a higher level of GDP per Capita, as well as international trade, has an inhibiting effect on the risk of regime change in democracies. The results also show that countries with young regimes are more likely to experience a regime change, and that countries with a long tradition of democratic governance suffer virtually no risk of experiencing a regime failure. These findings lend heavy support to the democratic consolidation theory, while giving mixed support to other theories of economic and political causes of regime change. The more generalized approach to regime change used in this paper provides a stepping stone for opening up a greater understanding of the mechanisms which cause regime change in all types of governments, and regardless of the direction of the change in relation to democracy.

The purpose of this thesis is to develop an understanding of the change in values, seen through company culture, experienced by a family business when the leadership transfers from the founding family to an external CEO. In a family business, strongly rooted family values are reflected by the very nature of the organization they have created. If a family member is the successor of a healthy and grow-ing family business, the successor should by default share most of the incumbent‟s personal values and as such be able to keep the organization on its current track. However, it is not possible to completely evade the possibility of mis-matching values, and this issue lingers and is even more pressing when the company is faced with an external leader. By conducting a qualitative multiple case study with semi-structured interviews on two Swedish family businesses, and then performing a case analysis through pattern matching, we attempted to answer if the family business‟ values, in the sense of organizational culture, change in relation to the change to external leadership, seen from an employees‟ perspec-tive. We also sought to answer why the organizational culture changes or not in relation to the change to external leadership, and what role the personal values of the leader play. From our analysis, we could conclude that the organizational values do change, even if only slightly, and that the reason for this is the fact that the external CEOs does not have iden-tical personal values to the founding families/owner. The pattern was found that recruiting an external leader enhances the value of efficiency in a company, and that the leader‟s per-sonal values reduces the resistance to change, influence the organizational culture and sub-sequently makes it change, given that the leader is an accepted part of the company‟s power structure. It would be beneficial to, in future research, connect our study one step further back in the causality chain and look at how previous experiences of the external CEO in-fluences the organizational culture.

A common perception in many SMEs is that the corporate culture is fuzzy and hard to manage. A common problem is that many business owners and managers in SMEs do not understand the importance of a well-functioned culture, but instead focus on the core business. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to examine how SMEs can strengthen and use the corporate culture as a competitive advantage. The research contains an analysis of corporate culture in four different Swedish SMEs, two small-sized and two medium-sized enterprises. In order to fulfil the purpose of this thesis a qualitative research method, through semi-structured interviews, is used. The empirical findings indicated that some companies embrace and develop actively with corporate more proactively than others. The overreaching conclusion is that all the participating companies see corporate culture as important. However, there are differences in how to manage corporate culture and also differences in which way the companies perceive their corporate culture as a competitive advantage. Significant findings from the research are that visions and motives help corporations to make their culture more tangible. Along with proper internal information the culture becomes stronger and more functional. The CEO has an important and influential role when managing corporate culture.

This report investigates the internal knowledge transfer process of consultancy firms on both the organizational and individual levels. Essentially, the creation and application of knowledge yield the key competence for consultancy companies, a large part of which in- volves knowledge transfer. Knowledge transfer is seen as a process of making knowledge available to the organization, allowing others to harvest the full value of it and ultimately creating value for the firm. However, the transfer of knowledge is no simple and linear process; it entails challenges that can impede the process and complicate consultancy com- panies’ daily operations. By being aware of these obstacles, companies can better prepare themselves against them. Therefore, this report seeks to reveal challenges arising on an or- ganizational and individual level for consultancy companies, why they occur and suggest ways to prepare for them. To conduct this study, we have been approaching the topic from a positivist perspective. Two case studies of prominent consultancy companies - KPMG and Grant Thornton - were constructed. The empirical findings were then analyzed and compared to renowned theories in the field: the SECI- model of knowledge conversion by Nonaka &amp; Takeuchi (1991; 1995) and the stage theory of knowledge transfer by Szulanski (1996; 2000). The conclusion of this study is that challenges arising from knowledge transfer in consultancy firms concern individuals and time. Therefore, these two resources should be taken into account at all times.

The last thirty years there has been a dramatic change in relationship marketing. The use of computers connected to the Internet at work places has increased over time and social media is widely used in marketing strategies. Social media is a new phenomenon to communicate with each other, it enables market information based on individual consumer’s experiences. Therefore managers are seeking a way to incorporate social media into their strategies, but this is more common within B2C than B2B. The purpose is to investigate the potential for industrial corporations, within the warehousing industry, to use social media for maintaining established relationships within B2B, as a part of their marketing strategy. The primary data is collected by qualitative interviews with relevant corporations. The study includes four corporations within the industrial industry, an illustrative corporation that have issues regarding using social media or not, and one expert interview.  The secondary data is collected from previous research, articles and journals. From the theoretical framework and empirical research, it seems to be more useful for corporations acting in the market of B2C rather than in B2B to use social media. Major of the interviewed corporations were thinking of using social media as a part of their marketing strategy, but almost no one were using it as a tool today. The younger generation, raised in a technological society, seem to generally have a broader knowledge of social media and what advantages and disadvantages the use can lead to. From this thesis it does not seem that one social media is better than another since different social media platforms are used in different ways. Therefore, it is not possible to say that one specific social media suits all corporations. However, if a corporation decides to use social media as a marketing tool, they need to be aware of the time required for it and be prepared for negative effects since they are open platforms, free for everyone to express their feelings. Within B2B, the trend of having a personal relation with customer and supplier is very strong and social media can never replace this personal relationship. The conclusions and recommendations is instead to use social media as an integrated marketing tool within their strategy.