According to World Bank Report published in 2012, the rural population in Sweden is 15.3 %. Rural population is calculated as difference between total populations minus urban population. 15.3 % clearly shows how important rural areas are for Sweden’s future development. Entrepreneurship plays the integral role in rural area development. However, earlier research has shown only economic perspective of rural development. On the other hand, the new ways to discover the challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurs in small firms were needed.

The death of a spouse is one of the most profound and life-altering events adults will ever experience. While the experience of spousal bereavement is traumatic at any time, there is evidence to support the fact that young women who are widowed experience unique challenges. The purpose of studying young widows was to understand the meaning of spousal bereavement for individual participants. The research tradition of phenomenology was chosen to inform the study, and the guiding question became what is the lived experience of spousal bereavement for young women? The study participants were five women who were under the age of 45 at the time of their husbands death. The experiences of these young widows were illuminated through stories and reflections on the journey of a young widow. Five themes emerged from their experiences. Young widows grieve both the loss of a companion and the death of their dreams. Accompanying these losses can be the challenges of single parenthood, the need for career, financial and lifestyle changes, and the readjustment to life as a single adult. Increased understanding from the perspective of the bereaved widow, along with strategies and interventions for nurses working with this group of women, will provide nurses and health care professionals with skills to better assist this client population.

A framework for assessing the key statistical parameters of complex flows in choosing appropriate turbulence prediction methods on a quantitative basis is developed. These parameters characterise flow/modelling matching conditions quantified in this work. Matching conditions are important in classifying complex turbulent flows in order to frame best practice for model predictions to inform computational aerodynamics design optimisation in the context of virtual test beds. In the incompressible low Reynolds number shear flows considered here, the boundaries of the 'conforming domain' within which turbulence models are valid need to be defined, based on basic mechanisms of turbulence, and the statistical parameters. This has led to a new guideline ‘localness map’ for standard model applications. Since the choice of turbulence model depends on the complexity of the flows considered, it is useful if systematic sets of the parameters indicate the type of flow. They are that of residence time, the degree of spatial non-locality, the straining, and the non-Gaussianity, each of which is appropriately normalised. It can be demonstrated that the quantified map, in particular that of localness for the shear flows, provides a firm foundation for evaluating a wider range of Underlying Flow Regimes, including locating the Underlying Flow Regimes on the generalised localness modeling map as a framework for best practice guidelines. This work produces 7 sets of quantitative localness-structural parameters, which are used as baseline sets for grouping the Underlying Flow Regimes, and hence it opens the possibility of having complete modelling maps for Application Challenges to assess the need for zonal modelling.

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Bakgrund: Tjänstefiering i tillverkningsföretag är ett aktuellt ämne där företag övergår från att endast sälja varor till att erbjuda kombinationer av varor och tjänster. Denna förändring är inte helt enkel eftersom företaget måste förbättra attityden mot tjänster i företagskulturen samt upprätta lämplig infrastruktur för produktionen av tjänster. Genom att använda sig av extern tjänsteleverans där man samarbetar med en annan part är det möjligt att bli mer flexibel och dela riskerna. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att identifiera och kategorisera utmaningar med tjänsteproduktion för en serviceorganisation i ett tillverknings-företag. Vidare analyserar vi även hur användningen av externa tjänste-leverantörer påverkar dessa utmaningar. Genomförande: Genom att göra en fallstudie på ett tjänstefierat tillverkningsföretag i Sverige, och intervjua fyra chefer inom serviceorganisationen har vi haft möjlighet att utöka och fördjupa den nuvarande litteraturen som handlar om utmaningar med extern tjänsteleverans. Teori: Ett teoretiskt ramverk med utmaningar i de tre delarna av tjänste-produktion har skapats; tjänsteutveckling, intern organisatorisk design och leverans av tjänster. Slutsats: Att använda sig av externa partners vid leverans av tjänster medför flertalet utmaningar för en serviceorganisation i ett tillverkningsföretag. Vår studie visar även att extern leverans av tjänster påverkar vissa utmaningar med tjänsteutveckling såväl som med intern design av en organisation.

The death of a spouse is one of the most profound and life-altering events adults will ever experience. While the experience of spousal bereavement is traumatic at any time, there is evidence to support the fact that young women who are widowed experience unique challenges. The purpose of studying young widows was to understand the meaning of spousal bereavement for individual participants. The research tradition of phenomenology was chosen to inform the study, and the guiding question became what is the lived experience of spousal bereavement for young women? The study participants were five women who were under the age of 45 at the time of their husbands death. The experiences of these young widows were illuminated through stories and reflections on the journey of a young widow. Five themes emerged from their experiences. Young widows grieve both the loss of a companion and the death of their dreams. Accompanying these losses can be the challenges of single parenthood, the need for career, financial and lifestyle changes, and the readjustment to life as a single adult. Increased understanding from the perspective of the bereaved widow, along with strategies and interventions for nurses working with this group of women, will provide nurses and health care professionals with skills to better assist this client population.

Introduction: The Roles of women in family businesses and the challenges and opportuni- ties they face in relations to these roles in the family businesses will be explored in this re- search. Although women are accepted very important players, yet the roles of women are not frequently well-defined. The thesis will explore roles of women who play an important role in family firms and challenges and opportunities they have within the Family Business- es in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore what roles women in family business in Bangladesh and Pakistan have, and challenges and the opportunities they face in relation to these roles. Method: A qualitative approach was used to accomplish the purpose of this thesis. E-mail interview questionnaires from the participants were filled to gather information regarding the roles they play in the family business and the challenges and opportunities they have in the family business. Conclusion: Gender and the succession issue have a central role to play in the women par- ticipation in the family business. These factors along with invisibility issue are viewed as main challenges faced by women in the family businesses. Some of the results lead us to conclude that women situation in both countries is not so bad rather they have good posi- tions in the family businesses. So it was not in conformity with the literature written on women invisibility.

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Purpose - Identify the most frequent challenges of growth perceived by micro firms. Design/methodology/approach - The data was collected through 30 qualitative interviews, conducted in April and May of 2011. In addition, the data was analyzed in accordance of the different characteristics of the participating firms to identify patterns of the most frequent challenges of growth perceived by micro firms. Findings - The findings from this research implicates that challenges to grow in micro firms differs from different sectors, if the firms is enrolled within a business incubator or not, and according to the age of the firm. Research limitations/implications - This study may not be global since the research was fulfilled in Sweden. As the institutions and regulations might differ from other countries there are some common nominators that Sweden shares with other nations and regions for instance the financial system. Practical implications - Evidence from this research has shown that time is the most frequent perceived challenge to grow in micro firms, and that time is the foundation of many other perceived challenges. Originality/value - Researchers have stated that empirical findings on what affect micro firms growth has been neglected, the previous studies have been focusing on SMEs rather than micro enterprises.

Course/Level: Master thesis, Strategic Marketing Management Authors: Daniel Andersson, Pontus Hjertqvist Thesis advisor: Jukka Hohenthal Title: Customer Involvement in New Service Development: Organizational Implications and Challenges Background: The nature of services is becoming technology-based, which implies that customers are becoming increasingly autonomous from the service firm. Understanding how to involve customers in the development process of such services as well as to recognize the challenges brought by customer involvement in this context should be seen as key issues for developing successful new services. Research questions: RQ1: How are customers involved in the development process of technology-based services? RQ2: How do challenges brought by customer involvement impede new service development? Purpose: The purpose of this thesis was to explore how an organization within the banking industry in Sweden involves its customers in the new service development process Methodology: A qualitative single embedded case study strategy, combining inductive and deductive reasoning. The empirical investigation was conducted using a triangulation of secondary data and primary data collected from semi-structured interviews. Conclusion: Customers are involved in three out of four of the fundamental phases in the development process. The findings acknowledged that a lack of formal routines and process of managing customer involvement impeded the organization to successfully involve customers in their new service development programs. As such, the findings suggests that organizations need to employ a new organizational design optimized for customer involvement in their NSD-programs, where current structures, processes, and mindsets need to be adjusted accordingly. Keywords: New service development, customer involvement, technology-based services, organizational challenges.