The furniture industry is an integral part of the European economy and is now facing economic, environmental, and regulatory challenges. Within the European Union (EU), a large amount of furniture every year goes to incineration or landfill, with only 10% being recycled. One of the causes is the increased supply of low-quality furniture that is put on the market, causing increased consumption levels, resulting in an increasing amount of waste. Additionally, most of the climate impact occurs within the extraction of raw materials. From an environmental perspective, vast opportunities present themselves. Simultaneously, new stricter legislation demands decreased use of resources and climate impact, and the introduction of new circular economy guidelines forces companies to act. By adopting a circular approach in the organisation, companies can improve their resource usage and climate impact. However, the adoption itself demands new types of business models, which is a challenge for the corporates in the furniture industry to realize.  The furniture industry can be split into two sections, business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C), where the first one has reached a bit further than the latter, regarding circularity. This can be explained, among other things, by knowledge gaps between the two sections and that Product-Service System (PSS) is more established for B2B. PSS integrates products and services to fulfil the customer’s needs, which is seen as an enabler for circular economy. The aim of this thesis is to explore the furniture industry within B2C in Sweden by identifying which circular business practices are offered today, as well as exploring the challenges and opportunities for furniture companies to implement more circular business practices. In addition, it examines which prerequisites are central to a more circular furniture industry. To achieve the purpose of this thesis, a qualitative approach has been used through a case study at a large Swedish B2C furniture company. Data has been collected through a literature study and an interview study where a total of 14 respondents have been interviewed. The interviewees consisted of both internal respondents at the case company as well as external parties consisting of experts and suppliers. In addition, a mapping consisting of a website study has been conducted to identify the current circular business practices that B2C furniture companies offer in Sweden today. The result indicates that linear business models are currently dominating in the furniture industry and that there is an extensive demand for low-priced furniture, which often lacks quality. Regarding circular business practices, there is a limited amount that is being offered on the market. Out of 40 companies considered, four offered two circular business practices, 18 companies offered one circular business practice and 18 companies offered none. The offers included furniture care guides, reconditioning services, furniture leasing, recycling guides and second-hand sales. The most central obstacles a circular furniture industry faces are the price aspect and the consumer attitude, where circular initiatives in many cases can be more expensive compared to buying new products. Cheap furniture has worse prerequisites for circularity due to the inadequate design and lack of spare parts. In addition, the hygiene aspect and logistical issues were found to be central barriers as well. On the other hand, one major opportunity for circular business practices is changes in consumer attitudes, which is changing with the coming generation due to an increasing interest in sustainability. Furthermore, there are upcoming directives and legal requirements as well as benefits consisting of increased profitability for companies in an early transition to a more circular business. The most essential prerequisites to enable a more circular furniture industry is enabling cooperation between actors and joint efforts to change current trends. It is thus clear that a change in the furniture industry is required, which requires actors to dare to change towards a more circular business.

Le but de cette thèse était de concevoir des matériaux à base de nanoparticules de ZnO qui puissent être utilisés de manière efficaces comme couche de down-shifting sur la face avant des cellules solaires photovoltaiques. Le défi principal a donc été d’obtenir des nanoparticules de ZnO avec un rendement de photoluminescence (PL QY) aussi élevé que possible. Diverses méthodes ont été et comparées utilisées pour la synthèse de nanoparticules de ZnO. Nous avons en premier lieu étudié des particules synthétisées par voie physique (le dépôt par jet d’agrégats de basse énergie, LECBD). Les particules résultantes démontrent une faible PL QY. Nous avons par la suite étudié des particules commerciales qui se sont comportées comme celles issues de la LECBD. Par conséquent, nous ne les avons pas retenues. Enfin, nous nous sommes concentrés sur des particules produites par voies chimique humide: la co-précipitation de l’acétate ou du sulfate de zinc en présence d’hydroxyde alcalin. Pour chaque cas, les paramètres de synthèses ont été variés pour optimiser les propriétés optiques en vue de l’effet de down-shifting. Avec un choix approprié de la nature (Li+) et de la quantité d’ions alcalins, le PL QY a été accru à 13 %. Nos résultats reproduisent l’état de l’art concernant cette technique. Cependant, la technique par hydrolyse s’est révélée bien plus intéressante. La seule réaction d’hydrolyse n’a pas initialement conduit à des particules très brillantes. Nous avons donc proposé une approche originale : l’ajout d’un acide faible, l’acide polyacrylique (PAAH), durant la synthèse. Alors que le PAAH a déjà été utilisé comme agent passivant de la surface de ZnO, son utilisation pendant la synthèse n’a jamais été tentée. Notre travail montre que en contrôlant la quantité et le poids moléculaire (longueur de chaine) du PAAH introduit pendant la croissance, un nanocomposite hybride très efficace à base de nanoparticules de ZnO et de PAAH peut être obtenu, avec un PL QY aussi élevé que 20 %. En mélangeant le PAAH avec son sel de sodium, PAANa, le nanocomposite présente un PL QY record de 50%, qui augmente jusqu’à 70 % après un mois. Les raisons physico-chimiques de cet accroissement sont discutées dans le manuscrit. Nos explications pointent vers un effet combiné de la taille, de la morphologie et de la composition. Dans la partie suivante, des nanoparticules de ZnO pouvant être dispersées dans l’eau ont été obtenues avec succès tout en maintenant leur rendement quantique entre 20 % et 34 % ; ce en utilisant un mélange de PAAH/PAANa de ratio volumique, de concentration et de volume réactionnel optimaux. Nous insistons sur la nécessité d’obtenir un compromis entre une bonne capacité de dispersion et un fort PL QY. Cette partie de la thèse pave la voie vers des applications industrielles ultérieures.Finalement, l’effet de down-shifting des nanoparticules luminescentes de ZnO a été simulé pout déterminer le gain potentiel de rendement de cellules photovoltaïques. / In this thesis, we aim at designing mechanically stable ZnO nanoparticle based materials as a luminescent down-shifting layer that can be processed on a scalable amount and deposited on standard solar cells at a reduced cost. The main challenge was thus to get ZnO nanoparticles with as high photoluminescence quantum yield (PL QY) as possible. Different methods have been used and compared to synthesize ZnO nanoparticles. We have first studied particles synthesized by a physical route (the Low Energy Cluster Beam Deposition relying on the adiabatic expansion of a plasma). The resulting particles did not exhibit a PL QY high enough to be interesting for down-shifting. We next investigated commercial particles which behaved as the LECBD ones. We consequently discarded them. Eventually, we concentrated on nanoparticles produced by wet chemistry. Two routes were explored: the conventional co-precipitation method of Zn acetate or sulfate in presence of an alkaline hydroxide and the hydrolysis of ZnEt2. For both cases the synthesis parameters have been tuned to optimize the optical properties for down-shifting process. When appropriately choosing the alkaline ion (Li+ instead of K+) nature and amount, the PL QY has been increased to 13 % in the co-precipitation method. Our results reproduce the state-of-the-art knowledge concerning this technique. The hydrolysis route proved to be even more interesting. The sole hydrolysis reaction did not lead to very bright particles. We have thus proposed an original strategy: the addition of a weak acid, the polyacrylic acid (PAAH) during the synthesis. If PAAH has been used previously as a passivating capping agent of ZnO, its use during the synthesis has never been tempted. Our work shows that by tuning the amount and molecular weight (chain length) of PAAH introduced during the synthesis, a very efficient hybrid nanocomposite consisting of ZnO nanopaerticles in a PAAH matrix can be obtained with PL QY as high as 20 %. When mixing PAAH to its sodium salt PAANa, the nanocomposite exhibits record values of PL QY of 50 %, increasing to 70 % over a month. The physico-chemical reasons for this enhancement are discussed in the manuscript. Our explanations point to a combined effect of the size, morphology and composition. In the subsequent part, ZnO NPs dispersible in water have been successfully achieved while maintaining their PL QY high, between 20 % - 34 %, using a PAAH/PAANa mixture at the optimal volume ratio, concentration, lengths and volume. We highlight the need to get a compromise between a good dispersibility and a high PL QY. This part of the thesis paves the way for the further industrial applications. Finally, the down-shifting effect of luminescent ZnO nanoparticles on solar cells has been simulated to obtain a potential enhancement of solar cell efficiency by the ZnO NPs down-shifting layer.

<p>Cloud computing is a new buzzword within the IT-industry, and introduces a whole new way of working with IT. The technique delivers web based services, which results in that the user no longer needs to install an application locally on a computer. Since the application no longer needs to run on a local entity, but in a datacenter located on a service provider, the users no longer need any specific hardware more than a computer with an internet connection. Cloud computing also offers IT-infrastructure and development environments as services, these three service types is better known as cloud services. Through the usage of different types of cloud services, the need for maintenance and hardware is significantly reduced. Therefore, the need for IT-competence in a company is reduced, which offers the company to focus on their core business strategy. A problem with cloud computing is that because it is such a new phenomenon, there is no established definition. This makes the subject hard to understand and easily misunderstood.</p><p>Cloud computing surely seems to solve many of the problems with reliability of systems and hardware that companies struggle with on a daily basis, but is it really that simple? The purpose of this thesis is to understand which types of company preconditions that affect the integration of cloud services in a company. We will also clarify the concept of Cloud computing by divide and describe its different components.</p><p>To investigate the different types of company preconditions and there approach to cloud services we have performed interviews at different companies in associations with our case study.</p><p>The result shows that a cloud service only can be integrated to an organization as long as the organization possesses the right preconditions. We think that cloud services can bring great advantages to organizations that meet these preconditions and that cloud services has the potential to ease the way of work for organizations in the future.</p> / <p>Cloud computing är ett nytt trendord inom IT-branschen och innebär ett nytt sätt att arbeta med IT. Tekniken bygger på att användare av en applikation inte behöver installera en applikation på sin lokala dator utan applikationen förmedlas som en tjänst genom Internet. Då applikationen inte körs på någon lokal enhet utan i en datorhall hos tjänsteleverantören behöver inte användaren ha någon mer specifik hårdvara utöver en dator och en Internetanslutning för att ta del av tjänsten. Även IT-infrastruktur och utvecklingsmiljö som tjänst erbjuds på samma sätt inom Cloud computing, dessa tre typer av tjänster kallas för molntjänster. Genom att använda olika typer av molntjänster minskar den interna driften av system, underhåll av hårdvara och således behövs minmal IT-kompetens inom företag, detta tillåter företag att fokusera på sin kärnverksamhet. Då Cloud computing är ett nytt fenomen finns det ingen erkänd definition av begreppet ännu, detta resulterar i att ämnet blir svårförstått och misstolkas lätt.</p><p>Cloud computing verkar onekligen lösa problematiken med driftsäkerhet som företag tvingas att handskas med dagligen, men är de verkligen så enkelt? Syftet med uppsatsen är att redogöra för vilka förutsättningar som företag besitter som påverkar hur bra olika typer av molntjänster kan integreras i företagets verksamhet. Uppsatsen ska även redogöra för begreppet Cloud computing genom att dela upp och beskriva de olika delar som begreppet består utav.</p><p>För att utreda detta har vi bedrivit en fallstudie genom intervjuer hos utvalda företag för att undersöka företagens förutsättningar och förhållningssätt gentemot olika typer av molntjänster.</p><p>Resultatet visar att de rätta förutsättningarna krävs för att ett företag ska kunna integrera molntjänster i sin verksamhet. Vi anser att molntjänster kan medföra stora fördelar för de företagen som besitter dessa förutsättningar, och att molntjänster har potential att underlätta verksamheten för många organisationer i framtiden.</p>

Thesis Purpose Examine the possibility of small IT companies being benefited from a Cloud Computing transition. Through one case study of a software development company and interviews from five Hallstahmmar’s IT companies, we showed how Cloud Computing can enable organizations to decrease IT investments and related costs. Besides we critically analyzed some drawbacks of this latest concept.   Methodology Primary and secondary data has been collected based on a qualitative method and a structured approach. The collected material of the secondary data was mainly based on latest journals. The interviewing parts have been recorded and summarized.   Theoretical Perspective We have used theories of various aspects of business related to Cloud Computing; e.g. innovation and Cloud Computing, business model and Cloud Computing in order to acquire a complete knowledge base for analyzing our empirical data.   Empirical Foundation A case study of TotalAssist, interview data of LifeCenter AB and interviews of four IT companies of Hallstahammar, are our empirical foundation of the reserach.   Conclusion IT companies of Hallstahammar may adopt the Cloud Computing paradigm. Besides, yet this new concept has its risks. Security remains a concern among many CIO’s. In addition, we recommend means that a company can pursue while implementing a Cloud Computing transition.

Cloud computing is a new buzzword within the IT-industry, and introduces a whole new way of working with IT. The technique delivers web based services, which results in that the user no longer needs to install an application locally on a computer. Since the application no longer needs to run on a local entity, but in a datacenter located on a service provider, the users no longer need any specific hardware more than a computer with an internet connection. Cloud computing also offers IT-infrastructure and development environments as services, these three service types is better known as cloud services. Through the usage of different types of cloud services, the need for maintenance and hardware is significantly reduced. Therefore, the need for IT-competence in a company is reduced, which offers the company to focus on their core business strategy. A problem with cloud computing is that because it is such a new phenomenon, there is no established definition. This makes the subject hard to understand and easily misunderstood. Cloud computing surely seems to solve many of the problems with reliability of systems and hardware that companies struggle with on a daily basis, but is it really that simple? The purpose of this thesis is to understand which types of company preconditions that affect the integration of cloud services in a company. We will also clarify the concept of Cloud computing by divide and describe its different components. To investigate the different types of company preconditions and there approach to cloud services we have performed interviews at different companies in associations with our case study. The result shows that a cloud service only can be integrated to an organization as long as the organization possesses the right preconditions. We think that cloud services can bring great advantages to organizations that meet these preconditions and that cloud services has the potential to ease the way of work for organizations in the future. / Cloud computing är ett nytt trendord inom IT-branschen och innebär ett nytt sätt att arbeta med IT. Tekniken bygger på att användare av en applikation inte behöver installera en applikation på sin lokala dator utan applikationen förmedlas som en tjänst genom Internet. Då applikationen inte körs på någon lokal enhet utan i en datorhall hos tjänsteleverantören behöver inte användaren ha någon mer specifik hårdvara utöver en dator och en Internetanslutning för att ta del av tjänsten. Även IT-infrastruktur och utvecklingsmiljö som tjänst erbjuds på samma sätt inom Cloud computing, dessa tre typer av tjänster kallas för molntjänster. Genom att använda olika typer av molntjänster minskar den interna driften av system, underhåll av hårdvara och således behövs minmal IT-kompetens inom företag, detta tillåter företag att fokusera på sin kärnverksamhet. Då Cloud computing är ett nytt fenomen finns det ingen erkänd definition av begreppet ännu, detta resulterar i att ämnet blir svårförstått och misstolkas lätt. Cloud computing verkar onekligen lösa problematiken med driftsäkerhet som företag tvingas att handskas med dagligen, men är de verkligen så enkelt? Syftet med uppsatsen är att redogöra för vilka förutsättningar som företag besitter som påverkar hur bra olika typer av molntjänster kan integreras i företagets verksamhet. Uppsatsen ska även redogöra för begreppet Cloud computing genom att dela upp och beskriva de olika delar som begreppet består utav. För att utreda detta har vi bedrivit en fallstudie genom intervjuer hos utvalda företag för att undersöka företagens förutsättningar och förhållningssätt gentemot olika typer av molntjänster. Resultatet visar att de rätta förutsättningarna krävs för att ett företag ska kunna integrera molntjänster i sin verksamhet. Vi anser att molntjänster kan medföra stora fördelar för de företagen som besitter dessa förutsättningar, och att molntjänster har potential att underlätta verksamheten för många organisationer i framtiden.

Goal of this thesis is to provide a summary of information connected to cloud project management. The thesis describes, what cloud is, what types of cloud there are and also describes project management methodologies and their specifics. In the practical part of this thesis one of the methodologies is applied to a practical project. The thesis contains also a summary of practical information about cloud projects and risks associated with cloud projects.

The Diploma thesis deals with design and development of an information system for sports clubs on the platform of Google App Engine. The theoretical part covers The Cloud Computing and types of CC. There is also analyzed in detail the Google App Engine. Practical part deals with analysis and development of the information system for sports clubs.

This thesis describes existing cloud storage systems. Description of the prerequisites of developing cloud and distributed systems are presented. Current storage systems such as Dropbox, iCloud and Google drive are described. Description is mainly focused on the resources of both protocols and derive a conclusion for the use in the cloud storage systems. The practical part of this work is focused on creating two labs, what will be implemented in the teaching syllabus of Projecting, Administration and Security of Computer Networks subject. The first of the labs is focused on the implementation of own cloud services. In the last lab students attention will concentrate on interception of communication secured with SSL protocol.

Abstract  Purpose:  The purpose of the research was to define Product-Service-System (PSS) and Product-as-a- Service (PaaS), identify the challenges and match mitigations with them when closing the supply chain from a B2C retailer’s perspective. The following three research questions were defined:  RQ1: How are Product-Service-System and Product-as-a-Service defined and related to the environmental sustainability context?  RQ2: What are the challenges that B2C-retailers with a Product-as-a-Service model encounter in regard to closing their supply chain loop?  RQ3: How can the closed loop supply chain related challenges that B2C-retailers encounter be mitigated to unfold the environmentally sustainable potential of PaaS business models?  Methodology: A systematic literature review was used for defining PaaS and PSS with an environmentally sustainable focus. The second part of the research is based on a qualitative research method with the use of an interview study setup where 2 industry experts and 4 PaaS companies from the fashion, furniture, mobility and whitegoods industries were interviewed. The empirical data was collected using six semi-structured interviews over zoom.  Findings:  Both PSS and PaaS are focused on providing the product with a service. The biggest difference between PSS and PaaS is that the former is seen as a paradigm shift with regards to linear models whereas the latter is seen as a practical business model to transform a linear system. Based on the intended use, PSS and PaaS are both not inherently more sustainable than linear business models. The standardised definition was further used and integrated for the development of the framework which displays the challenges and mitigations of different levels for an environmentally sustainable PaaS model. The final framework displays 25 challenges. To those challenges, 24 mitigations could be connected. Furthermore, there were 16 challenges that had not been cross validated and a total of 19 challenges that could not be matched with any mitigation. Those unmatched challenges show the need for further research in this area.  Contributions/value:  The contribution that this thesis brings to existing literature is threefold. First, PSS and PaaS are defined and related to environmental sustainability, solving the fragmentation that was caused in prior research. Secondly, the challenges found widen the scope of existing knowledge about PSS and PaaS in a CLSC. Thirdly, mitigation horizons were elaborated on in this research, giving practical handlebars to managers for overcoming challenges in the B2C PaaS field and theoretical insights for matching challenges and mitigations. Additionally, this thesis points out possibilities for future research, with which we hope to motivate other researchers to shed light on under-researched areas.  Keywords:  Product-as-a-Service (PaaS) - Product-Service-System (PSS) - Servitization - B2C Retailer - Circular Economy - Circular Business Model - Environmental Sustainability - Challenges - Mitigations - Closed Loop Supply Chain

Cloud Computing (CC) is one of the fast growing computer network technologies and many companies offer their services through cloud network. Cloud Computing has many properties with respect to the existing traditional service provisions like scalability, availability, fault tolerance, capability and so on which are supported by many IT companies like Google, Amazon, Salesforce.com. These IT companies have more chances to adapt their services into a new environment, known as Cloud computing systems. There are many cloud computing services which are being provided by many IT companies.The purpose of this thesis is to investigate which cloud environment (public, private and hybrid) and services (Infrastructure as a Service, Software as a Service, and Platform as a Service) are suitable for Swedish Armed Forces (SWAF) with respect to performance, security, cost, flexibility and functionality. SWAF is using private (internal) cloud for communications where both sensitive and non-sensitive information are located in the internal cloud. There are problems like maintenance of hardware, cost issues and secure communication while maintaining the private cloud. In order to overcome those problems we have suggested a hybrid and community cloud environment and SaaS, IaaS, PaaS services for SWAF.For suggesting these cloud environments and cloud services we have performed a literature study and two empirical studies (survey and interviews) with different organizations.A new cloud model is designed based on the suggested cloud environment, separate storage spaces for sensitive and non-sensitive information, suitable services and an effective infrastructure for sharing the internal information for SWAF.