<p>Syfte: Noggrann undersökning vad som ligger bakom detta samarbete, motiven, vilket inte framgås av de öppna källorna. Hur man har tänkt långsiktigt, kommer denna trend att hålla i sig och i så fall hur kommer det utvecklas med bl.a. utlands expansion. Jag har en egen hypotes att det eventuellt är en konspiration bakom det hela. Och även undersöka varför en del banker avstår från sådana verksamheter/allianser.</p><p>Metod: Data har samlats in genom de öppna källor, bankerna och försäkringsbolagens hemsidor, pressmedelanden från en rad olika tidningar för att få försöka få en bild hur den aktuella bilden ser ut. Den empiriska delen är gjord av intervjuer av korrespondenter på ledande personer från Handelsbanken, Swedbank, Folksam och Danske Bank. Därefter har jag kopplat vad som har sagts i empirin med relevanta teorier.</p><p>Resultat & slutsats: Motiven för samarbete och verksamhet är ganska enkla. Det är rena strategiska beslut om konkurrens och marknadsandelar. Det är två olika modeller som man går efter för att följa trenden, ena är egen verksamhet som Handelsbanken och den andra är samarbete som Swedbank och Folksam. Banker som inte har gått in i trenden som Danske Bank inte tycker att försäkringsverksamhet är någon naturlig del av den ordinarie bankverksamheten.</p><p>Förslag till fortsattforskning: Banker med inte någon verksamhet, varför exakt man inte har det, några särkskilda motiv. Och jämföra med hur det ser ut i andra länder och framför allt varför det ser ut så. Vad kommer att hända om en utomlands expansion sker? Hur kommer det att utvecklas?</p><p>Uppsatsens bidrag: En utomlands expansion är viktig i samband med försäkringsverksamheten. Framförallt hur man kan lyckas med bägge verksamheter. Generellt så tror jag att både banker och försäkringsbolag kommer att ha nytta av studien.</p> / <p>Aim: An accurate investigation about what is behind this cooperation, the motives which is not clear from the open sources. How have one thought in the long term, will this trend hold on and in that case how will it develop with, for example an expansion to oversees. I have a hypothesis that there is a possible conspiracy behind this. And also investigate why some banks choose to not be apart of these activity/alliances.</p><p>Method: The data has be collected from the open sources, the banks and insurance com-panies homepages, press, and a number of various news papers to get an current picture. The empirical part has been made by interviews from the correspondents from leading people in Handelsbanken, Swedbank, Folksam and Danske Bank. And thereafter have I connected this data to relevant theories.</p><p>Result & Conclusions: The motives behind this activity and cooperation are pretty sim-ple. It is pure strategic decisions whom have been made about competition and market shares. There are two different models that the banks follow to because of the trend. One is an own activity like Handelsbanken, and the other is a cooperation like Swedbank and Folksam. Danske Bank who has not been apart of the activity as yet, don’t think that the insurance activity is an obvious part of the ordinary bank activity.</p><p>Suggestions for future research: Banks who does not have any insurance activity, why exactly don’t they have it, is there any specific reason and then compare to how it is in other countries, why it is in a certain way, and if has shown a positive or negative effect. What will happen if an expansion takes place abroad and how will it develop?</p><p>Contribution of the thesis: An expansion abroad is important in relation to the insurance activity, and how to succeed with the both activity. I think both a bank and insurance company will have a benefit of this study. Here the author will discuss how the thesis has contributed to new knowledge for different interested parties. By contribution it is meant the expected usability of the conducted thesis.</p>

<p>Aim: After discussing marketing issues with representatives from a number of companies established on the Chinese market, we came to the conclusion that it would be interesting and useful to further investigate relationship marketing models from a Swedish perspective when doing business in China.</p><p> </p><p>The aim of the study is to highlight, by examples and experiences from firms dealing with or on the Chinese market, what makes up successful marketing between Swedish and Chinese businesses.</p><p> </p><p>Research question: Is relationship marketing with a dash of guanxi the recipe of success for Sino-Swedish businesses?</p><p> </p><p>The result of successful relationship marketing is a marketing network and it is an important asset for companies today. Competition is not between single business units or entities any more but between marketing networks (Kotler et al., 2006).</p><p> </p><p>To get a full view of relationship marketing between Sweden and China, we have also studied the Chinese culture context.</p><p> </p><p>Method: We interviewed 10 firms in various industries. Common for all respondents is an extensive experience of over 5 years of doing business in China. A questionnaire was used as a foundation for the interviews.</p><p> </p><p>In the analysis findings regarding how the respondents have handled their internationalization process are highlighted. Also how they handle the relationship marketing on a market, where guanxi have been a dominating way of doing business.</p><p> </p><p>Result and conclusions: Relationship marketing with a dash of guanxi is the road that most companies take already today and should take if not yet doing so. As we can see from the study, China is not under as strong influence of <em>guanxi</em> as it used to be. Our respondents offer insights and examples of that Chinese businessmen and women are adapting a more global approach to business negotiations. Operating on the Chinese market requires a relationship marketing approach although it is more personalized to better suit the Chinese culture context.</p><p> </p><p>Suggestions for future research:</p><p>* Relationship marketing in China and corruption: how is it handled, avoided, viewed.</p><p>* Relationship marketing in Sweden by Chinese firms: How can Chinese firms succeed on the Swedish market?</p><p>* Deeper research into relationship marketing strategies for Swedish companies in China.</p><p>* Study Swedish firms on the Chinese market today and how they experience the paradoxes mentioned by Fang and Faure (2008).</p><p> </p><p>Contribution of the research: The study offers insights in the actual marketing strategy implementation and how firms with extensive experience from China and the Chinese market approach it.</p>

<p><strong>Background</strong></p><p>The internationalization of SMEs can be expected to gain further momentum because the world economy is becoming increasingly integrated with continued declines in government-imposed barriers and continued advances in technology</p><p> </p><p><strong>Purpose</strong></p><p>The purpose of this paper is to design a theoretical framework for the internationalization of Small and Medium Enterprises, research, analyst and discuss.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Theoretical Framework </strong></p><p>We have created a model of the internationalization of SMEs which includes four elements: Resource, Mode of Entry, Competitor and Marketing. We believe they are primary considerations for the SMEs to develop foreign operation.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Method</strong></p><p>We will use qualitative method in our research</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p><p>Optimize the allocation of resources, suitable way to entry foreign market, determine own Competitive advantage, positioning, decision making and controlling.</p><p><strong> </strong></p>

<p>Traditional theories, models, and methods often address a general view of the environment including sociocultural, technological, political, and economic factors. However, there is a lack in infrastructural attention in these concepts which this thesis intends to contribute with by analyzing how regional specific infrastructural variables can be aggregated to one comparative measure and what that measure’s scope of use could be in the market analysis? Hence, the purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the strategic planning process research with a supporting quantitative tool, based on statistical metrics, for determining the market potential.</p><p>This thesis has an inductive approach and is primary based on documentary secondary data and the strategic planning process is the main theory of concern when evaluating the possibilities of infrastructural assessment. As a complement, the infrastructural concerns in the economics are also dealt with.</p><p>The empirics are compiled and calculated in a manner which allows an indexing and the finalized result is presented as an Infrastructural Status Index (InfraStat Index). Some of the utilities of this index are that it can be a complementary part of the PEST- and SWOT-models and a supporting tool in companies’ strategic planning processes. The index has both business and macroeconomic scopes of use and one of the summarizing conclusions is that further research within this concept should incorporate more variables in order to retrieve a more comprehensive result.</p>

<p>Syfte</p><p>Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera vilka effekter införandet av internationellt gällande redovisningsregler har på den svenska redovisningen. Detta ska belysas genom studerandet av hur IAS 38 har påverkat redovisningen av varumärken.</p><p>Metod</p><p>Studiens kommer att bedrivas med en kvalitativ ansats där datainsamlingen kommer att ske genom intervjuer och skriftliga källor.</p><p>Slutsatser</p><p>Studien visar att implementeringen av IAS 38 ej görs på ett enhetligt sätt och att inte samma metoder för att värdera varumärken används av företagen vilket skapar problem med jämförbarheten mellan olika företag. Vidare visar studien att varumärken är en av de vanligaste tillgångarna som identifieras vid förvärv och att företagen oftast överväger en särskiljning av varumärket från goodwill vilket visar att implementeringen av IAS 38 är på god väg. Slutsatser som dras av studien är att det kommer att krävas tid och även en specialisering inom revisionsbranschen för att implementeringen av internationaliseringen ska få full effekt, vilket är att skapa enhetlighet, jämförbarhet och ett rättvisare värde på företaget på en internationell nivå.</p> / <p>Aim</p><p>The aim of the thesis is to analyse what impact the current international accounting standards have on Swedish accounting. This will be illustrated through the study of the affect of IAS 38 on the accounting of brands.</p><p>Methodology</p><p>The thesis will be investigated through a qualitative approach with collected data from interviews and written sources.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>The study shows that the implementation of IAS 38 is not carried out in a homogeneous way. The companies are not using the same methods in their valuations of brands and that causes problems when comparing different companies. Moreover, the essay demonstrates that the brand of a company is one of the most common assets identified in company acquisitions. That companies often consider a distinction between the brand and goodwill shows that IAS 38 is well on its way to be established. The conclusions drawn from this study are that for the implementation of the internationalization to succeed it will require both time and a specialization within the accountancy branch. The aim of the adaptation of IAS 38 is to create homogeneity, comparability and a more equal value of the companies on an international level.</p>

<p>Today, the global market is a fast expanding environment. There are more and more companies that go abroad to compete with companies from all over the world. The barriers between countries have been lowered and trade is encouraged. Therefore, international expansion is an important factor for many companies. The purpose of this dissertation is to study the effect international expansion has on firm performance. Since there is limited previous research within the field of international expansion and performance done on Swedish companies this dissertation tries to fill that gap.</p><p> </p><p>The study is performed on listed Swedish companies. Several factors are used to measure the international expansion and performance of the companies. The relationships between international expansion and firm performance were positive when international expansion was measured as Number of Countries and Market Commitment. When international expansion was measured as Foreign Assets and as the GL-Index (Gerlofstig-Lindstrand Index), support was given to a positive relationship. The relationship between Foreign Board and firm performance as well as Foreign HR (Human Resources) and firm performance was to some extent supported. The remaining two measures of international expansion were Foreign Assets and International ownership. These measures showed no supported relationships between international expansion and firm performance. To conclude, the results of the study indicated that there are some support for a relationship between international expansion and firm performance for listed Swedish companies.</p><p> </p><p>This study contributes to the lack of research on the effect of international expansion on performance of Swedish companies. Swedish managers can use the conclusions drawn from the study as guidelines for international expansion.</p>

<p><p>Internationalization research has for a long time been dominated by a strong focus on how large firms from large and developed economies expand into other developed countries. Until recently, little attention has been devoted towards understanding that part of the internationalization process in which small and medium sized firms from small and open economies, attempt to establish themselves in undeveloped countries. This research gap is the point of departure for this thesis.</p><p> </p><p>By using a recently published conceptual framework by Laanti et al. (2009) the authors study how five groups of factors have shaped the internationalization process of a small Swedish electricity company in the midst of starting up business in Congo Kinshasa. In this in-depth single-case study, data was collected through semi-structured interviews with representatives of PPC Engineering AB. The study finds that the importance of different factors vary throughout the process, but in this case, when seen as a whole, <em>host country factors</em> and <em>company specific factors </em>play the most prominent roles. Furthermore, Laanti et al.’s (2009) conceptual framework is redesigned to explain the dynamic process of internationalization. However, more research is needed to determine the extent to which this framework can be generalized.</p></p>

<p>In this paper we aim to identify the most important factors that influence the decisions made by large Western MNCs concerning post entry changes (PEC) in the BRIC markets. Thiss tudy attempts to explain processes and reasons why these changes take place. In addition we make a comparison between strategies followed and the differences between them for each of the BRIC markets.Most academic literature focuses on entry mode theories, however little has been written onPEC. PEC today is a hot topic in the current international business environment. This isevident in the market as many Western MNCs that invested in emerging markets throughJoint Ventures (JV) during the late 1980s and 1990s are now restructuring their strategies in order to further their growth (Luo, 2007).The paper uses a qualitative study to explain and explore PEC strategies in each of the four BRIC markets, using case studies of three Italian large MNCs: Artsana, De Longhi and Luxottica.The study finds that firstly BRIC markets should not be seen as a whole, as academic literature has a tendency to suggest. Secondly, the study finds that country-specific conditions directly affect PEC choices and decisions differently in each market. We have identified a number of variables which influence PEC, of these economic conditions and institutional context pressures were found to be the most important determinants for PEC within the MNCs studied. This study will help management to better choose appropriate PEC and set the most suitable operational mode for each specific environment.</p>

<p>In this paper we investigate small and young companies’ motives for internationalization. There are many reasons for companies to engage in foreign direct investment. This study is based on theories including four categories of internationalization drivers that motivate firms to establish themselves abroad. Theses categories consist of market, resource, efficiency, and strategic resources seeking motives. A fifth category was added in order to include network seeking motives.</p><p>The survey was conducted using a web based questionnaire. The target population consisted of companies that are members of nine Swedish business incubators and science parks. E-mails were sent to representatives in the incubators and science parks and were then forwarded to the companies, asking them to participate in the study.</p><p>We conclude that the member companies of Swedish incubators and science parks responded most positively to network and market seeking motives. We therefore regard the companies as network seekers and market seekers. Four motives were by the responders associated with the highest degree of importance. Two were in the category of network seeking motives: starting new collaborations and staying close to main client or supplier. The other two were in the category of market seeking motives: reaching new markets and limitations of the home market.</p>

With the advent of neoliberal globalization in the 1980s, international student mobility (ISM) has become a significant social and educational phenomenon. Given the increasing magnitude of international student flows from developing countries to the developed or major member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), this research explores major OECD policy positions on international students, related priorities in higher education, and the influence of the GATT, the WTO and the GATS on higher education in these countries. Chinese graduate student perspectives are also drawn upon to understand Chinese student migrations to Canada in pursuit of higher education. The research considers ISM as a social and educational phenomenon of student migration across borders for higher education. Given the focus on exploration, meanings and understandings, an interpretive approach and qualitative case study strategy have been utilized to examine relative policy positions and to understand the experiences of Chinese graduate students who study at the University of Alberta (U of A) with the view to contribute towards qualitative studies of ISM. / Theoretical, Cultural and International Studies in Education