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The main purpose of this study has been to survey the pupils’ general comprehension of the content and aim of Swedish as a subject in upper secondary school and their attitude towards the subject. Furthermore the study aims at discerning whether there is a distinguishable difference between programmes with vocational and academic character. The study is based on the results of 101 answers from students in an opinion poll handed out at a Western Swedish upper secondary school. Throughout the analysis the results of the two programme groups have been weighed against each other. The result of the survey shows that: • The understanding of the aim and content of Swedish at upper secondary school is acceptable as a whole. One quarter of the students show a very good comprehension. • The pupils’ general attitude towards the subject is fairly positive. • There is a clearly discernable difference between the vocational programmes and the academic ones with regard to the comprehension of the subject’s aim. Vocational pupils generally show a weaker understanding than the academic pupils do. • There is an equivalent difference between the groups when looking at the comprehension of the content of Swedish as a subject. • The differences in attitude towards Swedish as a subject follow the pattern of the pupils’ comprehension. The pupils from the academic programmes generally have a more positive attitude. This pattern shows true for both attitudes with cognitive basis and for the ones based on emotion. / Huvudsyftet med denna undersökning har varit att kartlägga gymnasieungdomarnas generella förståelse för svenskämnets innehåll och syfte samt deras attityder till ämnet som sådant. Dessutom har en stor del av undersökningen syftat till att undersöka om det förekommer några skillnader i förståelse och attityd mellan elever på studieförberedande respektive yrkesförberedande program. Studien bygger på en enkätundersökning där svaren från 101 elever på en västsvensk gymnasieskola har behandlats. Genomgående har analyser gjorts där resultaten från de två programkaraktärerna, studieförberedande program och yrkesförberedande program, har jämförts. Av resultatet framgår följande: • Totalt sett visar eleverna en acceptabel förståelse för såväl svenskämnets syfte som dess innehåll. Ungefär en fjärdedel av eleverna visar en mycket god förståelse. • Totalt sett visar eleverna också en relativt positiv attityd till svenskämnet. • Det finns en klar skillnad i förståelse för svenskämnets syfte mellan de två programgrupperna. Eleverna på de yrkesförberedande programmen visar generellt upp en svagare förståelse än eleverna på de studieförberedande programmen. • Det finns även en motsvarande skillnad när det gäller elevernas förståelse för svenskämnets innehåll. • När det gäller elevernas generella attityd till svenskämnet visar resultatet att eleverna på de studieförberedande programmen delar en betydligt mera positiv attityd än eleverna på de yrkesförberedande programmen. Detta mönster gäller för såväl de känslomässigt som förnuftsmässigt baserade attityderna.

During the Fall of 2001 a survey created by Kathleen Cannings and sponsored by the Swedish Medical Association was sent out to a random sample of 1 out of every 12 medical doctors in Sweden. Using this data, linear regressions have been estimates to study the effects of variables such as age, gender, and unionization on the wages of Swedish doctors. The results indicate that variables such as age, tenure, and union bargaining all have a positive impact on wages. The relative wage advantage was around 7 percent for both age and union bargaining, while the effect of tenure was lower by about 5 percent. These three variables have more positive effects for male doctors, which suggest that gender discrimination is still a reality in the medical field. During 2001, male physicians could expect an almost 6 percent higher average wage than their female colleges.

In late summer 2006 we experienced historically high oil prices, and due to this event we found it appropriate to investigate what influence oil price changes has on the Swedish stock market. The purpose with our research was to see the affect that oil price changes has on the Swedish economy, and if the influence of the oil price is still as strong as it used to be. To help us draw conclusions we have applied the Arbitrage Pricing Theory. With use of statistical analysis we have been able to examine the relation between oil prices and other macroeconomic variables, and how these affect the Affärsvärlden Generalindex. Our results show that oil has a significant influence, our regression analysis show that a 1 unit increase in the oil price results in a 0.08 unit decrease in Affärsvärldens Generalindex. Our study has also given us indications that the oil price effect on the Swedish economy has decreased since the mid 1980´s. We can also draw conclusions that since the 1970´s, society has moved from heavy oil dependency towards a more diversified usage of energy sources. The results for Sweden are in line with the influence of oil has on other world economies. / Under sensommaren 2006 erfarde vi historiskt höga oljepriser. Med denna händelse som grund fann vi det relevant att undersöka oljans påverkan på den svenska ekonomin. Syftet med denna uppsats var att se hur skillnader i oljepriset påverkar Sveriges ekonomi och om oljan fortfarande har en lika stark påverkan som tidigare. Som verktyg för att påvisa detta har vi använt oss av ”Arbitrage Pricing Theory”. Med hjälp av statistisk analys har vi kunnat se påverkan av oljeprisfluktuationer och andra makroekonomiska variablers påverkan på ekonomin. Affärsvärldens Generalindex har använts som definition av ekonomin. Våra resultat visar att oljan har en signifikant påverkan på svensk ekonomi, en 1 enheters uppgång av oljepriset resulterar i en minskning med 0,08 enheter på Affärsvärldens Generalindex. Vår studie ger även indikationer att oljeprisets påverkan har minskat sedan mitten av 1980-talet. Vi kan också utläsa att samhället har skiftat från ett tungt oljeberoende i energiförbrukning mot mer diversifierade typer av energikällor, detta sedan 1970-talet. Resultaten visar även att Sveriges relation till olja är i linje med andra världsekonomier.

The authors have noticed that during the last couple of years the interest about China has grown not only as an attractive market for production but also as a consumer market. A limited amount of books and articles have been written about SMEs entering the Chinese consumer market and even fewer articles have been written about Swedish SMEs entering China to sell their products. This is what caught the author’s attention of writing this thesis. Sweden has for a long time been good at exporting to other countries. Now when the Chi-nese market has opened up to western companies there are a lot of potential on this market that is estimated to be one of the largest in the world. There are still differences between China and other market not at least the culture. But as time and globalisation goes on the Chinese people learn how to react to the new world of companies from the west that tries to get its share of the highly attractive Chinese market. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how previous experience and knowledge af-fected the long-term establishment on the Chinese market for the selected Swedish SMEs. Also the knowledge that was obtained when entered China that made the establishment possible was investigated. By interviewing four Swedish small and medium sized companies that have managed to export their products to China and also managed to stay there the authors have gotten to a better understanding of the process of export and the different knowledge's that the com-panies gets in this process of internationalisation. By also interviewing a consultant with a long experience of Chinese-Swedish relations and doing business with China the authors have got a good picture of the issues of today’s SMEs trying to export to China. The analysis revealed that the single most important aspect of making a successful long-term establishment on the Chinese market is the commitment the company can give. It is crucial in order to gain crucial connections and to provide the necessary service that is de-manded by the Chinese customers. / Det ökade intresset för Kina de senaste åren har inte undgått författarna av denna uppsats, på senare tid har inte bara Kina varit målet för strategiska produktionsetableringar men man börjar även få upp ögonen för den växande köpkraften i landet. En begränsad mängd böcker och artiklar tar upp ämnet om SME som gör entré på den kinesiska marknaden. Än mindre forskning finns om svenska SME som går in i Kina med målet att sälja sina produk-ter. Detta fångade författarnas intresse. Sverige har under lång tid varit ett exporterande land. Nu när det kinesiska marknaden har öppnats för västerländska företag finns det stora möjligheter på en av de största markna-derna i världen. Kina är en unik marknad och skillnaden mot andra marknader är avsevärd, inte minst kulturskillnaderna. Men under globaliseringens gång lär sig det kinesiska folket att hantera den nya världen och västerländska företag som ger sig in på den attraktiva kine-siska marknaden. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur tidigare erfarenhet och kunskap påverkat de utvalda företagens långsiktiga utveckling på den kinesiska marknaden. Den kunskap som tillvaratogs under tiden i Kina som underlättade vidare utveckling kommer att undersökas. Genom att intervjua fyra svenska företag som har lyckats slå sig in på den kinesiska mark-naden har författarna lyckats få en djupare förståelse om exportprocessen och de olika sor-ters kunskap som företagen erhåller under internationaliseringsprocessen. Genom att också intervjua en konsult med lång erfarenhet av relationer med Kina och det ekonomiska kli-matet i Kina har författarna fått en god bild av vilka svårigheter som SMEs stöter på vid export till Kina. Analysen avslöjade att den enskilt viktigaste aspekten i att en etablering lyckas långsiktigt på den kinesiska marknaden är det engagemang företaget kan leverera. På det viset kan företa-get få tag på de nödvändiga kontakter som krävs och leverera den typ av service som krävs av de kinesiska kunderna.

Sammanfattning Denna magister uppsats undersöker huruvida ledarskap, ägarstruktur och kontroll påverkar svenska familjeföretags investerings prestation på marknaden. I undersökningen har 90 svenska företag analyserats inom en 15 års period (1990-2005). Ledarskap har delats upp i tre olika strukturer, den första strukturen står för grundar ledarskap. Regressionsanalysen i denna uppsats visade att en grundare har en positiv påverkan på företagets investerings prestation då grundaren agerade som Verkställande Direktör (VD), Styrelseordförande (SO) eller båda. Detta kan förklaras utifrån teorier som gör tydligt att en grundare äger entreprenörskaps anda och utmärkande kunskaper inom området ifråga. Resultatet för den andra strukturen, ättlings ledarskap visade att då ättlingar till grunderaren verkade som antingen VD, SO eller båda i företaget förekom en negativ påverkan på företagets finansiella prestation. Detta kan förklaras utifrån teorier som menar att en ättling inte har samma kunskap eller ambitioner som grundaren till företaget. Ättlingar har oftast ärvt högre poster inom företagen på grund av sina familjerelationer till grundaren snarare än på grund av sina kunskaper inom området. Den tredje ledarskapsstrukturen är externa ledare. Externa ledare är antingen en VD, SO eller båda som har blivit inhyrda till företaget av ägarfamiljen. Regressionsanalysen visade ett insignifikant resultat. När resultaten för ägarstruktur och andel röster av ägare analyserades i både företag med röstdifferensiering och utan röstdifferensiering visade det sig att när grundaren agerade som VD, SO eller båda i företag utan röstdifferensiering förekom ingen minoritets expropriation eller principal-agent konflikter inom företaget, vilket betyder att företagets finansiella prestation påverkades positivt. Liknande resultat hittades även för företag med röstdifferensiering som hade externa ledare i sin ledning.

Abstract This is unique study of import is of the greatest importance, since no studies of import across regions have earlier been performed. Import is a driving force of innovations and therefore most important for a stable growth. This master thesis is about interregional import, as well as the strong spatial concentration of imports in the Swedish system of network. Five hypothesises are presented in the last section of chapter two. The variables to be used in the analysis are then divided into two main groups, before empirically tested in different combinations of regression models. The main conclusion of this thesis is a significant correlation between import, and the two independent variables export and firm R&D, and its result goes in line with the theoretical framework of this thesis, regional specialisation in import and export nodes.

Den befriade sången. Stina Aronsons berättarkonst Liberated song. Stina Aronson’s narrative art Abstract This thesis discusses the narrative art of the Swedish author Stina Aronson (1892-1956) with special emphasis on Hitom himlen (“This Side of Heaven”) from 1946. This work forms the subject of the first part, with formal aspects like narrator construction, composition and genre as the starting-point. These aspects, and the originality with which they are treated by Aronson, are put in relation to modernist æstheticism. In the next step the modernist approach is linked to a discussion of modernity. The basis of this thematic analysis consists of entities like language, time, faith and individuality, all of which play an important part in Aronson’s writing. The thematization of individual freedom versus determinism makes the work a counterpart to existentialism, the current philosophy of the time. What becomes especially apparent is a striking ambivalence towards modernity, but also towards a more traditional, almost pre-modern, attitude to life prevailing in the severe Læstadianist village community described. This interpretation deviates from the idea of pure civilization criticism and of the near idealization of the world described, which has dominated earlier analyses of the Aronson’s work. Gender issues, too, play an important part in the thesis, especially in the section analyzing the main characters and the attitudes they represent. The two central characters of the text are women and they are fundamentally different. The criticism of the village community and the destructive effects on the individual of the austere faith is most evident in the portrait of Mira, one of the women. She emerges as a more modern character than the others, driven by an urge to break free and make her own destiny, a project which, however, fails completely. There are several reasons for this, but the decisive factor is that as a woman she is more strictly bound by conventions and norms in the surrounding environment and interpretative community. Part II discusses the author’s other works published in book form. The textual forms and their possible relation to modernism are discussed to some extent, but above all the same issues concerning modernity and gender are tested as outlined in the first part. Ambivalence vis-à-vis the modern is also noticeable in the early works, albeit in a less sophisticated way. The problematization of gender roles is a marginal but essential element in these works, most evident in those produced around 1930 and gradually becoming more and more complex. What is striking is the recurrent existence of gender-transcending characters. Aronson’s characters are depicted over and over again as untypical of their sex, which altogether conveys the image of a world where there is something fundamentally wrong with expectations. In the collected works of Aronson these themes remained constant throughout the great variation in genre, form and contents ever since the début in 1921 to her last work in 1952: opposition against all forms of normalizing categories prescribing how people should believe, communicate, experience time and function as man or woman.

This report describes a comparative study of the current pre-school curricula in Sweden and Poland and their practical application on a pre-school situated in each of the respective countries. The objective is to analyze and compare the curricular content in terms of knowledge development and to investigate how each curriculum is made visible in a practical context with the intention of uncovering differences between the pre-schools. The theoretical base of this study is rooted in the framework factor theory and the epistemological foundations of Vygotskij and Piaget. The investigation is qualitative and the main research methods are participant observations and conversation interviews. The frame factors that were considered in the investigation of the scopes of practice are planning, division of work, density of personnel, group structures, preferred way to work and judgment. The conclusion is that these factors also proved to be very diverse in the two pre-schools.   The curriculums and pre-scholar scopes of practice were clearly based on different epistemological traditions. Although the conclusion is not entirely univocal, the investigation indicates that the Polish pre-school is strongly influenced by Piaget, while its Swedish counterpart is influenced by Vygotskij.

The study of appropriateness in language use is part of pragmatics, and how speakers give and respond to complements is a source of data in such studies. Compliments are strategies to explicitly or implicitly ascribe qualities that are mutually appreciated by the speaker and the addressee of a compliment. When individuals from different cultures interact in conversations, including the giving and receiving of compliments, and their behaviour is based on different conventions, it may lead to misunderstandings. Earlier studies (Cedar, 2006 & Sharifian, 2005, 2008) suggest that pragmatic transfer can cause cross-cultural misunderstanding. Second language users seem to transfer first language pragmatic rules into second language domains. This study will examine whether pragmatic transfer occurs in Swedish as first language into English as a second language in compliment responses. It will be assumed that pragmatic conventions are influenced by both linguistic and social norms. A Discourse completion task was used in order to obtain the data. The Discourse completion task consisted of one questionnaire in English, and one translated into Swedish, with situations where a compliment was given and the participant was instructed to imagine him/herself in that situation and give their most probable response to that compliment. The results showed that there was no significant difference between compliment responses given in Swedish and those given in English by native Swedish speakers. Thus, pragmatic transfer could have occurred. The Swedish participants’ compliment responses were also compared to compliment responses of Scottish English L1 speakers. The results are discussed in relation to other studies of pragmatic transfer in compliment responses, and suggestions for future research are considered.