Austria, Finland and Sweden - all small highly developed industrial and rich countries - entered the EU in 1995. Their macroeconomic performance since then was quite different. Real GDP in Finland und Sweden increased faster than in EU average, while those of Austria fell back. Austria lost its second rank in GDP per capita (at PPS) and is now the fourth richest EU country; Sweden fell back from the seventh to the eight rank, while Finland improved its position from rank 11 to nine. In a referendum in September 2003 Sweden refused to take over the Euro, whereas the other two countries are members of the Euro area. Ex post model simulations indicate that Finland appears to have profited most from EU membership (0.7 percentage point greater annual GDP growth since 1995), followed by Austria (+0.4 percent) and Sweden (+0.3 percent). / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

During the times of fast phased global business, organizations must discover new ways to make functional strategies to survive, so the search for competitive advantage remains the main objective for companies. Intangible assets are increasingly essential for value creation for firms due to their valuable, rare, inimitable, non-substitutable nature. Particularly corporate reputation can be identified as an essential intangible asset possessed by a firm, due to its tacit nature. Hence, managing and understanding the antecedent of corporate reputation management is crucial for gaining competitive advantage. Moreover, focus on valuing and understanding the intangibles is essential for SMEs, which usually possess fewer resources for evaluating and managing these resources compared to large and more structured companies. Worldwide SMEs are in general representing over half of the economy, and enhanced business performance can further positively influence on the economic wealth. We were able to identify a research gap since there are no studies on how to utilize corporate reputation management in the SME context without a large scale of resources or the separate marketing department. We want to fill the gap by providing empirical evidence on the process of improving reputation management in Finnish SME setting. The purpose of this thesis is to gain more in-depth understanding of the prevailing corporate identity and communication in the SME and how to utilize these as an antecedent of corporate reputation by evaluating the internal managerial perceptions of the Finnish engineering installation company, Alpha Group. Furthermore, the aim is to give practical suggestions for managing corporate reputation by implementing an appropriate way to communicate the desired corporate identity both internally and externally. A framework has been created from the previous literature where a process for managing corporate reputation is compiled. Corporate identity represents an antecedent of corporate reputation, whereas corporate communication can be seen as a management tool to manage it. To fulfill the purpose of the thesis, a qualitative study was conducted, with eight semi-structured interviews with the top and middle managers of Alpha Group. Through the interviews, we gained a more in-depth understanding of the current condition of corporate identity as well as internal and external communications. From our findings, we could conclude that scarcity of resources is limiting the development of intangible resources in Alpha Group. Reputation of Alpha Group is based on the operational factors, rather than managed intentionally, so currently it is strongly associated only to serve their clients. Corporate identity was found unclear within the organization and the organization did not have strategy for corporate communications. This has caused unidentifiable corporate identity within organization, which has led to scattered corporate identity between different locations and business units. We will provide practical recommendations for managers of SMEs in general and for Alpha Group, on how to manage corporate identity and establish corporate communication systems.

Den här uppsatsen belyser den svenska nationalismens uttrycksformer, så som de framgår av Stockholmstidningarna Dagligt Allehanda, Inrikes Tidningar och Stockholms Posten i mars 1805. Nationalismen undersöks huvudsakligen utifrån Michael Billigs teorier om banal nationalism, vilket syftar till oreflekterade, vardagliga attityder som skiljer mellan ”oss” och ”dem” och formar en nationell gemenskap. Undersökningens sidospår är att reda ut vilket förhållningssätt till Finland som förekom i de tre tidningarna. Finlandsfrågans relevans är tydlig inte minst med tanke på den bristfälliga militära viljan att försvara det svenska rikets östra rikshalva under finska kriget 1808–1809. Undersökningen visar att flera tecken på banal nationalism förekommer, trots att nationerna som politisk-juridisk samhällsform etablerades i Europa först långt senare. De mest framträdande dragen är (1) upprepandet av epitetet ”kongl.” i samband med platser, institutioner och titlar, (2) ett särskiljande gentemot Finland, som trots att det officiellt sett är en del av riket vid den här tiden, ställvis betraktas som ett främmande land, (3) adjektivet ”swensk” som är synonymt med inhemsk, och ur ett merkantilistiskt perspektiv får en positiv innebörd, (4) stereotypisering av ”dem” (i synnerhet fransmän) i förhållande till ”oss” (svenskar), och (5) deiktiska uttryck som refererar till och tar för givet att läsaren känner till att kontexten för annonser är Stockholm, vilket här betraktas som en föregångare till nationell deixis. Av resultaten dras slutsatsen att nationalismen antar banala uttrycksformer redan innan nationalstaten är formerad. Michael Billigs tes är att nationalismen i ett första stadium är hård, för att sedan bli banal och alldaglig, medan min uppsats söker visa på att den hårda nationalismen likväl föregås av banal nationalism. Beträffande Finland är slutsatsen att det redan 1805 betraktades som en egen nation i kraft av språklig och geografisk gemenskap, trots att det hörde till Sverige.

This paper deals with the subject of expressions of masculinity in relation to nationalism and citi-zenship, focusing on how these expressions played a role in the shaping of the masculine ideal in the Civil Guard in Vaasa and Västerbotten's Shooting Association during the period of 1918 to 1944. The focus of the study lies on how masculinity, nationalism, and citizenship were connected in the two movements and how they contributed to an idea of an ideal masculinity and a male role as defender and protector of the nation. To accomplish this George L. Mosses’ theory of the evolu-tion of a modern masculine stereotype has been applied, in connection with theoretical concepts of nationalism and citizenship. The material has been subjected to a qualitative analysis with a herme-neutic approach, to be able to interpret and understand it in relation to the above mentioned theoreti-cal concepts. A comparative method has also been applied to the material, to enable placing these two local groups in a larger context by comparing them to one another. This paper argues that these two groups were based on an ideal of the masculine protector and citizen of the nation. A strong sense of duty to the nation followed closely the idea of a male citizen, whose task of maintaining skills of shooting and bodily fitness played a role in creating the ideal man of the nation. The three concepts of masculinity, nationalism, and citizenship played a crucial role in this process and there-fore they were interrelated. This study shows that shooting was viewed as preparation for war in a politically unstable environment during the examined time period. In both movements, the fear of conflict and/or war was present in varying degrees and the general political situation in Europe gave rise to a strong sense of vigilance. Class conflict was present in both countries and affected the two groups as well, though the situation in Finland was more on edge and culminated in the Finnish Civil War of 1918. Shooting was a way of creating strong, able, and well-adjusted citizens. It was also important that young boys and men were introduced to shooting in particular and sports in gen-eral. The Swedes and the Finns in their respective groups arranged shooting competitions together and established a close contact with one another in some form of mutual exchange. Efforts were made in shaping the male body both on the inside and outside, especially in the Finnish group where bodily strength and appearance was of great importance.

No description available.

This thesis deals with system of personal taxation in northern european countries -- Denmark, Finland and Sweden. At the end of this thesis are introduced suggested changes of Czech personal taxation, which are based on systems of investigated countries. The suggestions are to cancel expending rates, to cancel the supergross wage, to improve tax morality and to introduce taxation of benefits and system of high income taxation.

This master's thesis deals with the topic of Sámi poetry. The main aim of this work was to examine the history and development of lyric poetry written in North Sámi in Finland. Apart from that I also tried to find certain attributes or trends common in Sámi poetry. In this thesis I used the encyclopedic method. In the first part of the thesis I examine the North Sámi yoik from a literary perspective. Yoik is often considered to be the foundation of Sámi literature and also in this work it has turned out to be very important for Sámi literary development. The influence of the yoik can be seen through the whole history of Sámi poetry. In the next chapters I introduce important poets and their work from the end of the 19th century to present. I focus mainly on authors originating from the Finnish side of Sámiland. In addition to that I present some important historical and social events that had an impact on literature. In the final chapter, I briefly deal with the situation in publishing and translating Sámi poetry. Because my knowledge of North Sámi is very limited, I analyzed all the literary works presented in this thesis with the help of Finnish or English translations. In spite of that I managed to find some common trends in Sámi poetry. Keywords: Finland, Sámi literature, poetry, yoik, Northern...

No description available.

<p>Motivating employees is essential for any organization aspiring to succeed. However, the process of motivating is not straightforward due to the diversity of individual’s needs. The task has been made even more difficult by the fact that personalized needs have altered in recent years. For instance, in many circumstances financial compensation is not considered as the main motivational factor of employees. Therefore, various other motivational practices have been developed, which take into consideration such issues as the work environment and the job itself.</p><p>This thesis is a comparative study between Sweden and Finland. The study has an objective of exploring how corporate culture affects the use of motivational practices in the Information Technology industry.</p><p>According to the findings gathered from two organizations, Sasken Finland Oy and SYSteam, culture does influence the choice of motivational practices. The issue of how culture affects, depends on whether corporate culture is task or person-oriented.</p>

<p>Do the corporate cultures have to integrate in an international merger? In March 1999, the two large Nordic IT companies, Tieto of Finland and Enator of Sweden, announced their intentions to combine their businesses. The new entity was to have over 10,000 employees and net sales of more than 1 billion Euro. TietoEnator (TE) was to become one of the leading suppliers of IT services on the European market. The combination was announced as a Merger of Equals – the merging companies being of about the same size, and operating mainly in their respective home markets, thus avoiding competition with each other. The authors´ interest to this case has emerged from the fact that company fusions generally, and international mergers of equal partners in particular, are considered as high- risk projects. </p><p>The issues discussed in this paper are expected cultural differences between Finland and Sweden, and between Tieto and Enator; differences in management style and market structure and buyer behaviour between the two companies, and differences in the industry environments and business climates of Finland and Sweden. </p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze the TietoEnator´s merger process from two perspectives: the cultural perspective and the strategy perspective. The main objective is to exemplify some theories in organizational and strategic research by connecting the theories to the significant events of the TietoEnator merger case. Five executive employees of TietoEnator in Sweden give their personal view on the merger and the development of the company. The strategic (vision, mission, and strategy objectives) statements of the company before, during, and after the merger are compared and analyzed. </p><p>Conclusions: the cultural distance should not only be considered as a negative issue. The paradox of cultural proximity, where two neighbouring cultures show significant cultural differences, is according to our findings not expected to lead to serious problems if handled in a constructive manner. Selective integration and leveraging the positive tensions between the different cultures is the key to success in internationalisation through merger.</p>