Sammanfattning Behovet av kapital är väldigt stort för ett företag vid uppstarten av verksamheten. Svårigheten att få externt kapital uppstår oftast vid denna fas, då kan nämligen en affärsängel bidra med kapital och vara till stor hjälp för företaget. Affärsängel är en privatperson eller en samling av privatpersoner som investerar finansiellt kapital. Dessa änglar tillför också affärsmässig kunskap till onoterade företag, där de finner tillväxtpotential. För att ett företag skall kunna använda riskkapital som en finansieringskälla på bästa sätt, måste de först uppfatta vad en affärsängel har för egenskaper samt hur de agerar. Syftet med denna uppsats, är att studera hur aktiva affärsänglar resonerar rörande sina investeringar i livscykelns–hypotes. Vidare att studera hur informations-asymmetrin mellan den aktiva affärsängeln och entreprenörer påverkas före och under investeringsprocessen. Vi har utfört en kvalitativ undersökning genom intervjuer med fyra olika affärsänglar i Sverige, för att få en uppfattning om en affärsängels investeringsstrategier samt relationen mellan en affärsängel och entreprenören. Affärsänglar som har valts, är erfarna av denna typ av investering. Detta val på grund av att vi skall få en bred och djupare förståelse om hur affärsänglar går till väga, samt vilka värderingar som affärsänglarna fokuserar på vid sina investeringsbeslut. Den valda teorin som är hämtad från tidigare studier, artiklar och relevanta böcker, vilka är relaterade till investeringens livscykelteori samt informationsasymmetrins teorier, hur dessa påverkar en affärsängels investerings beslut samt strategier i deras dagliga arbete. Med dessa teorier i beaktande har vi samlat in empiriskt material från affärsänglar, vilket redovisas i det empiriska kapitlet. Analysen har skapats i ljuset av empirin och de teoretiska referensramarna, detta för att skapa en trovärdig och realistisk syn på hur en affärsängel agerar under sina investeringsbeslut. I slutsatsen beskrivs de mest väsentliga faktorerna som ligger till grund för affärsänglarnas investeringar. / Abstract The need for capital is very large for a company at the startup of operations. The difficulty to obtain external capital usually occurs at this stage, since it would permit an angel to provide capital and be very helpful for the company. Angel is an individual or a collection of individuals who invest financial capital. These angels also bring business knowledge to unlisted companies where they see growth potential. For a company to use equity as a financing source in the best way, they must first understand what an angel investor has the properties and how they act. The purpose of this thesis is to study how active business angel’s argue regarding their investments in the life cycle hypothesis. Furthermore, to study how information asymmetry between the active business angel and the contractors is affected before and during the investment process. We conduct a qualitative survey through interviews with four business angels in Sweden, to get an idea of a business angel investment strategies and the relationship between an angel and entrepreneur. The business angels that have been selected are experienced in this type of investment. This choice is due to us to have a broad and deep understanding of how business angels go about it, and the values that business angels are focusing on in their investment decisions. The chosen theory is taken from previous studies, articles and relevant books, which are related to the investment's life cycle theory and information asymmetry theories, how they affect a business angel’s investment decisions and strategies in their daily work. With these theories in mind, we've gathered empirical data from business angels, which are reported in the empirical chapter. The analysis has been created in light of empirical and theoretical frameworks in order to create a credible and realistic view of how an angel investor acting in their investment decisions. In conclusion described the most significant factors underlying business investment angels.

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Project management has become a natural way of conducting activities in companies.  The goal is continuous improvement in project performance.  The way knowledge is managed in the company is crucial for gaining competitive advantage.  Knowledge management and learning, has been recognized by academics and practitioners as important to achieving success and improvement in projects.   Achieving continuous improvement is considered a difficult task.  The difficulty lies in capturing and storing the knowledge and learning from one individual to another and from one project to another.  In this study the researcher has reviewed the mechanisms and processes from recent research which are supposed to facilitate knowledge transfer and learning.  Nevertheless, the academic and practitioner researchers do not seem to have a common ground on how to facilitate knowledge transfer and learning, even though there are many mechanisms and processes suggested.  Their results are not concurrent in effective and efficient facilitation of knowledge and learning. The researcher has conducted a qualitative case study through seven interviews.  The empirical study was done in a Company X which provides air traffic services.  It shows that some of the practices institutionalized by Case Company X are different from what the literature suggests.  Moreover, the environment wherein these mechanisms and processes co-exist is particular from what the literature suggests.  A learning landscape of Case Company X is identified based on the empirical data.  Recommendations and suggestions are provided in the end to increase knowledge transfer and improve learning in and between projects at Case Company X.

Knowledge is considered nowadays as the main source of competitive advantage and, therefore, its appropriate application has been gaining great attention. The present study focuses on the use of integrative mechanisms in consulting firms as part of the knowledge application process during the action-planning stage of projects. Concepts such as knowledge, types of knowledge and Knowledge Management processes are clarified and then developed in a consulting firm context, in order to identify the advantages and disadvantages that this type of project-based organisations has due to the important role that knowledge plays in the consulting process. Furthermore, two main paradigms of Knowledge Management in consulting firms are developed based on a synthesis of the relevant literature. Next, different views of Knowledge Integration are exposed and the four mechanisms for Knowledge Integration proposed by Grant are assigned to each paradigm. These paradigms are used as theoretical base for the research and as selection criteria of two representative consulting firms, which constitute the unit of analysis of a qualitative study, which aims to rank the importance of the above mentioned Knowledge Integration mechanisms in the action-planning stage of the consulting project life-cycle.   The research approach is deductive and subjective in terms of ontology. Critical realism more closely represents the study in terms of epistemology and the main sample characteristics are non-probabilistic, purposive and heterogeneous. The data are collected through surveys and semi-structured interviews and are analysed following a commonly accepted qualitative data analysis method.   The study results regard the ranking of the four integrative mechanisms in terms of their usefulness during the action-planning stage of consulting projects. The results cannot be generalised due to the sample characteristics but they qualitatively reflect the importance of mechanisms for integration of knowledge in these two firms during this particular stage. By doing so, the study implies that, although the two consulting firms represent different paradigms of Knowledge Management, they have a similar predisposition to give priority to a certain Knowledge Integration mechanism against another.

It is necessary for multinational corporations (MNCs) to manage their knowledge flows effectively in order to gain or maintain competitive advantage. The knowledge management (KM) process needs to be cost effective, which can be achieved through a standardized “one-size fits all” strategy. Some scholars argue that a standardized KM strategy is not possible in international KM, since countries are different and cultural differences makes it necessary to adapt the KM strategy with regard to different cultures. It becomes a question about standardization versus adaptation of KM. This study aims on describing the factors affecting international KM and thereby whether it is appropriate to standardize or adapt international KM. The empirical findings in this study derive from qualitative interviews with internationally experienced managers at three MNCs with subsidiaries spread over the world. By studying different factors that affect KM, it is shown that the MNCs mainly benefit from standardized KM strategies.

The purpose of this study was to determine the current levels of global knowledge and attitudes of sixth grade elementary school students in Kaohsiung City; to compare the differences of students¡¦ global knowledge and their global attitudes between different personal background; to analyze the relations between students¡¦ global knowledge and their global attitudes, and to explore the forecasting abilities of students¡¦ global knowledge and global attitudes on students¡¦ personal background. The field of ¡§global knowledge¡¨, as used in this study, consists of four sub-categories that include world history and geography, global systems, global issues, and cross-cultural understanding. The filed of ¡§global attitudes¡¨, as used in this study, consists of five sub-categories that include the area of interdependence, the human rights, international cooperation, acceptance of people from other countries and a desire for peace, instead of war. The study took into consideration differences in knowledge and attitudes which stemmed from different backgrounds and experiences. The correlations among the knowledge, attitudes, and other variables, i.e., school location, gender, ethnicity, parents¡¦ social economic status, source of information, frequency of going abroad, and tutoring hours for learning English per week were explored. The researcher compiled questionnaires about global knowledge and global attitudes for the sixth graders in Kaohsiung City. The sample was consisted of 790 students with collected 749 valid questionnaires from public primary schools. The data was analyzed by using the SPSS software, Independent t test, One-way ANOVA, Scheff¡¦s method statistical methods ,Pearson Product-moment Correlation, and Stepwise Regression Analysis. The empirical results of the above study were synthesized as follows: (1)The average ratio of correct answers among sixth-graders in the area of global knowledge was 56.45 %, while performance levels across the four sub-fields varied. The best scores were achieved in global issues; the second highest in cross-cultural understanding, the third in global system, and the lowest scores, in world history and geography. (2) On a Likert scale of 1 to 5, the average score on the scale measuring global attitudes was fixed at a positive 4.31. The degree of inclination in attitudes toward five dimensions on the global attitude scale differed. The most positive attitude was toward the area of interdependence; the second favored the human rights; the third indicated international cooperation; the forth was acceptance of people from other countries and the final measurement of student attitudes confirmed a desire for peace, instead of war. (3) Students¡¦ global knowledge and global attitudes were positively correlated. (4) Variables of parents¡¦ social economic status, tutoring hours for learning English per week and school location proved to be reliable predictors of different levels in the global knowledge possessed by the sixth grade students participating in the study. Students who were high parents¡¦ social economic status had higher scores than those who were low. Students whose tutoring hours were longer for learning English, scored higher than those who have not. School location was near to urban area, also scored higher than that was far from urban area. (5)Variables of school location, tutoring hours for learning English per week, parents¡¦ social economic status, and gender proved to be reliable predictors of different levels in the global attitudes possessed by the sixth grade students participating in the study. When school location was nearer to urban area, students¡¦ global attitudes were more positive; Students¡¦ tutoring hours for learning English per week were longer, their global attitudes were more positive. Students with higher parents¡¦ social economic status showed more positive attitudes. Female students¡¦ global attitudes were more positive than males. According to the results of this study, the researcher makes some suggestions for families, primary schools, the society and the future investigations.

Information system development (ISD) has long been treated as the process that system developers craft an artifact to support business operation based on their special expertise. However, a significant portion of projects still have failed because the developed outcome cannot fit users¡¦ needs. An emerging internal service concept indicates that, by treating ISD as one type of service, the requirement definition can be viewed as a knowledge integration process in which users and developers integrate their own knowledge to develop the new knowledge to counter problems faced by business. By incorporating this concept into research design and taking intellectual capital perspective into account, this study proposed a model to examine the antecedents and consequences of knowledge integration between users and developers. An empirical survey methodology is applied and we use PLS to test the research model. The results showed that user-IS developer knowledge integration can benefit project performance, and human capital, relational capital and structural capital increase the effectiveness of knowledge integration, indicating the important mediating role of knowledge integration. Furthermore, the result also found that the relational capital plays a moderating role between human capital and knowledge integration. In sum, differing form prior research that focused on separate and different perspective on user-IS developer knowledge integration, this study proposed a comprehensive model to explore the antecedents of knowledge integration. The implications toward academic and practitioner are also provided.

College labortary is a knowledge-creating place. The members of labortary learn, use and create knowledge among it. If there is an effective way to manage those activities of lab, it will be made a great research results. So this study focuses on knowledge management of lab, and finds a simple, but useful framework which can be used by labortary manager. Labortary manager can this framework to figure out what activity of labortary should be emphasized. Knowledge management framework consider about the continuance of knowledge-acceding. A great labortary will keep its knowledge well-preserved. And avoid unnecessary knowledge-losting. We find knowledge of labortary can be seapared into two parts. One part is a core-knowledge and the other is applied-knowledge. The labortary manager should make a long term investment on core-knowledge and use project management for applied-knowledge.

The economy development of Taiwan was facing the bottleneck in the1990s. The government set forth knowledge-based economy which involves high-tech industrial programs in order to break through the bottleneck. Computer networks were used to encourage economy, to accelerate production efficiency, and to enhance Taiwan¡¦s international competitiveness. The ratio of R&D expenses and GDP was 2.06% in the year of 2000, was 2.54% in 2004, and went higher and higher every year. Though the goal of 3.0% R&D expenses and GDP rate in the year of 2010 was still pursuing, the investment expenses in R&D produced great innovation effect index. And the exceptional achievement was within 10th place in the world. The results of this study indicate that if the ratio of R&D expenses and GDP. could be increased to above 3.5%, the technical innovation ability will be accelerated and elevated by the knowledge diffusion effect. Therefore, Taiwan¡¦s international competitiveness could be raised up to within 5th place in the world. A sound and integral constitutional government system creates political and economical stability. And this kind of stability is essential to economic prosperity. Economic growth depends upon the developing of knowledge-based economy. Thus, the non-economic turmoil and anarchy which are likely to hinder the development of knowledge-based economy in nowadays Taiwan should be eliminated completely.

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