Modern heavy trucks tend to get more and more equipment demanding electric power. As a result, the electric power left for startingbecome more and more limited. If a complete view of the entire starting system-battery, starter and the combustion engine - is used, the total system can be investigated and optimized. This thesis is a study of the starting system and its components. Theories for each component are presented and models are derived for a complete starting system. Focus lies on the battery and starter motor. The purpose of the modelling work is to gain knowledge of the starting system. Some results can also be obtained from the simulations - it is very important to keep the electrical resistance as low as possible and the differences between battery types are surprisingly big.

The contemporary globalisation of economic activities has enormously accelerated the pace of innovation and technology development throughout the world. Continuous transformation of the marketplace and tremendous growth of demand on knowledge-intensive products and services has led to further evolution of knowledge management and project management studies. Increasing number of research done on knowledge management aspects within project environment evidences the expanding interest on the two areas of study. Incubators, representing the accumulators of knowledge management practices which facilitate the innovation and entrepreneurship through start-up projects, encompass vast number of issues for investigation related to the mentioned study areas. Past researches done in incubator field mainly concerned with the knowledge management aspects, neglecting the project management perspectives on it. Only few articles were found which refers to both fields of study within the incubators, although with an emphasis on project management models as catalysts of innovation. Our research basically aims to explore, examine and illustrate both knowledge management and project management interrelationship, in the context of incubators. It provides with a conceptual model, which depicts the contribution and correlation of project management, organisational knowledge management and project specific knowledge management. Based on the observation and analysis of the empirical data collected using the IT knowledge-based risks model as our methodological framework, it was found that incubators do not share the same knowledge management challenges as IT companies. Combining the conceptual model derived from the findings of literature review, and the methodological framework, we developed a new model representing knowledge management challenges in the management of start-up projects within incubators. Out of ten challenges observed in the IT sector, our research finds eight main challenges in incubators that are related to knowledge management. According to the perceptions of the interviewees chosen from a sample of three incubators in Sweden, the main challenges are (i) handling business coach exit, (ii) communicating lessons learned, (iii) creating knowledge map, (iv) establishing knowledge network, (v) selecting appropriate team, (vi) storing knowledge from previous projects, (vii) integrating different expertise and (viii) transferring complete knowledge. Each of the mentioned challenges was placed in each of the three domains defined in the conceptual model, in order to accentuate the domain it directly affects or is mostly affected by.

The aim is to describe how to build a foundation of resources in RBSUs by addressing the issues of access to and control on resources in order to understand this context and to further develop the language of RBSUs. The research lies in the interpretative field of inquiry. Abduction is used to combine empirical data with theoretical studies in order to try to investigate patterns that could give an understanding of the phenomena that is studied. Descriptive research approach using multiple-case study design is used. The first part of the theoretical frame of references explores existing theories on resources. This leads to RBSUs basic resources. The second part explores different means for accessing and controlling resources. The chosen approach is qualitative. Interviews have been conducted for data collection. Documents are gathered and analyzed to support the interviews. Following each stage of RBSUs development, it is described what resources are the most important ones to each RBSU and how they got access to and control over those resources. The major contribution is that RBSUs access and control their basic resources in different ways depending on the stage of the RBSU development. In addition, the findings describe and allow understanding how RBSUs‟ founders make their choices when it comes to build a foundation of resources in each of those stages.

The last century has witnessed blooming achievements of females as rising workforce in modern society. With their active participation in business world recently, female entrepreneurship research has caught extensive attention globally, not only from academic field, but also from market entities, policy makers, social activists, as well as broad masses, concerning the social and economic contribution of female-started entreprises. Current studies within this topic concentrate on two issues: the difference between male and female entrepreneurs; demographic research for certain countries, regions, or industries. Following a qualitative research approach, this thesis applies implementations of actors view and grounded theory. With the purpose to create in-depth business knowledge, a well-structured empirical exploration is conducted mainly through theoretical sensibility acquisition, secondary data collection and face-to-face dialogues focusing on the issue of conditions for female entrepreneurs to start up and to develop a business.The researchers share their comprehensive (from both micro and macro perspective) understanding about this subject: There is no such a formula of necessary conditions existing. Female entrepreneurs need to define them according to the type of the ventures they establish and the demand for their projected growth, pursue them by taking actions instead of waiting for all conditions to be ready. The forthcoming female economy brings millions of opportunities that favor female entrepreneurs to start up enterprises, despite the current situation where they have not received effective supports that they deserve. In the end, the researchers create a new term „femesh‟ to conclude their findings and their anticipation for the future blossom of female entrepreneurs. Especially, the academic research process is described as an exploration adventure for searching orchids in the forest, together with the romantic writing style of the authors, bringing enjoyable readability without losing its preciseness, accuracy and logic as an academic research.

Aim: The first customer is important because that it’s in many cases the only objective evidence that your product or service works in real life and that someone is willing to pay for it. The first customer is your first reference.   The aim of this study is to: Investigate how 7 start-up companies in the ICT-business developed reference. Establishing recommendations on what to focus on when creating reference customers. Present complementary recommendations for start-up companies regarding important factors, besides those investigated against the theory, which have been discovered to be important when building a successful company.   Method: The method in this study is a combination of a case study and cross-sectional study with qualitative data. The questions in the interviews were predefined and complemented with open ended questions according to the answers on the pre-defined questions. The data collected, the answers, were written down, summarized and analyzed regarding whether they did or did not support the theoretical statements investigated. A theoretical statement could be supported or not supported, partially or strongly   Result & Conclusions: The access to a professional network and good social skills are most important when establishing the first reference. Business skills can be developed during the process but the recommendation is to acquire or secure them as soon as possible. How to achieve the desired states has also been concluded.   Suggestions for future research: The largest limitation is the sample size of the data. Less than 10 companies were interviewed and some of the suggested statements can’t be significantly either confirmed or deferred. The study was also limited to one round of interviews. A study, with two rounds of interviews and a larger set of companies interviewed is suggested for further research. An extended study could also cover companies that didn’t survive the IT crash of 2000 and investigate if the suggested parameters and strategies were present and deployed or implemented.       Contribution of the thesis: The investigation has verified the importance of networks, customer type (brand name) and social capital when establishing a reference. It has also showed that the skills needed to develop a business doesn’t need to be present when company is established since it can be acquired and secured during the development of the first reference. It has also contributed with a set of recommendation for entrepreneurs in general not only regarding the establishment of reference customers where the most important recommendation is to build and maintain the personal and professional networks.

Many authors (refer: Swayne and Tucker, 1973; Kahneman and Lovallo, 1994; Baron, 1998; Stewart et al., 1998; Simon et al., 1999; Simon and Houghton, 2003; Baum and Lock, 2004; Mathews, 2008) have examined the traits and skills of the entrepreneur. Others have been more interested in their behaviors (refer: Bhave, 1994; Byers et al., 1997; Sarasvathy, 2001; Shook et al., 2003; Baron, 2007; Davidsson, 2008), trying to describe the entrepreneurial processes on the initial stages of venture development. However, studies that try to define how an entrepreneur reacts when facing changes have not been found in the literature. The focus of this research is thus, to explore the attitude of the entrepreneur towards changes throughout the development of the start-up project. The theoretical background is divided into three main parts: the entrepreneurial attitude, the attitude towards change, and the relation between perceptions of organizational climate and attitudes. The first section reviews the literature about the traits and behaviors that define an entrepreneur. The second section concentrates on research papers concerning the attitude towards change for middle managers in well-established firms. Finally, the third section, through a review of the relevant literature, emphasizes the importance of the impact of the working environment perception on people’s attitude towards work. The approach of this qualitative study is inductive at first, but also incorporates a deductive approach during the data analysis using a grounded theory method. The data were gathered through seven semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs from Cyprus, India, Mexico, United Kingdom, and Sweden. The outcome of the present study is a model emphasizing the main results of the research. It presents three main reasons (interest/work experience in the business area, definition of the gap in the market, and desire to create) that lead to the decision to initiate the project. The market and future perception, as they have an impact on the actual start of the process, are presented and discussed as well. Concerning the attitude towards changes occurring during the process, four different reactions have been found to be relevant (adaptation, search for assistance, determination/commitment, and passion/persistence). Furthermore, the help provided by the learning experience, the social networking, and the future planning to overcome changes were also identified. Finally, the perception by the entrepreneur of the change and the overall process are explained.

Previous entrepreneurship research has shown that networks are of great importance when discovering and exploiting business opportunities, i.e. in the start up process of new venture (e.g. Davidsson and Honig 2003; Evald, Klyver, and Svendsen 2006; Klyver, Hindle, and Meyer forthcoming). The value of a network is referred to as social capital, which refers to the amount of resources, both tangible and intangible, that an entrepreneur or entrepreneuse might have access to through the members of their network (Nahapiet and Ghoshal 1998). Social capital is the product of social interactions (Anderson et al. 2007), implying that a person’s social abilities, i.e. social competence, can influence the creation of social capital (Baron and Markman 2000, 2003). Social capital the factor that helps the entrepreneur “get through the door”, while the entrepreneur’s social abilities determine the outcome of that interaction (Baron and Markman 2000:107). The focus of this study is, thus, to explore whether entrepreneurs and entrepreneuses utilize different types of the social capital in the process of starting a new venture and whether they perceive social competence to have an influential role in this process. The theoretical framework consist of three main theoretical areas; social capital, social competence, and psychological gender. The first part is based on Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998) model of social capital and describes theories explaining factors influence social capital embedded within a person’s network relationships. The second part covers social competence and the abilities that constitute this concept. Further, five dimensions are identified as comprising social competence, i.e. social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking ability, apparent sincerity, and social manipulation (Baron and Markman 2000, 2003; Hoehn-Weiss et al. 2004; Ferris et al. 2005, 2007; Riggio 1986). The last part discusses whether there might exist differences between entrepreneurs and entrepreneuses regarding their behaviours and their psychological gender (Bem 1974, 1975, 1977; Spence et al. 1975). The research design show similarities with both an inductive and a deductive approach, with a focus on the induction since little research within the entrepreneurship field has combined the different topics comprising the scope of this study. Further, this implies qualitative research methods and the empirical data was collect through conducting 14 semi structured interviews with entrepreneurs and entrepreneuses as well as through a questionnaire aiming at determine the respondents’ psychological gender. The results of the present study indicate that entrepreneurs and entrepreneuses utilize different the types of social capital in the stages of the start up phase. Further, the study show that social competence plays and important role in the start up process and that there is a circular relation between social capital and social competence. Moreover, the results of the study indicate that male and female entrepreneurs behave differently in the start up phase and that their perceptions about and usage of their social competence might differ.

The current recession has made it difficult for companies to find customers and therefore tofinance their business which often leads to cuts in the marketing budget. Social mediamarketing could be the solution in these situations. The purpose of this study is to investigatehow marketing efforts in social media, specifically in blogs and Facebook, can be successfulin attracting consumers and also retain customers over time for start-up companies. This wasexamined through interviews with two recently started retail companies along with consumersurveys in these companies’ target markets. The paper has shown that Facebook is moreefficient than blogs and that social media is effective in spreading word-of-mouth andcommunicating with customers. The conclusion of this study is that Facebook is an effectivetool for start-up companies, both to reach new consumers and also to retain current customers.

In order to relieve small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the predicament of inadequate capital and immature technology in the beginning of new ventures as well as to realize sustainable business development, Taiwan gevernment has been heavily investing in many universities to set up incubation centers in the hope to provide start-ups abundant resources with the help of academic institution¡¦s counseling expertise; therefore, the cost and risk for start-ups in the beginning of new venture and R&D phase can be reduced and more sound and competitive SMEs could be incubated under the tutelage of incubation centers. The study mainly discusses the relationship between key success factors (KSFs) of high-tech start-ups and the counseling resources from incubation centers. Firstly, the study establishes the structure of empirical study based on the collection and discussion of domestic and foreign literatures. Since the counselling clients of incubation centers majorly consist of start-ups, the study adopts in-depth interviews to investigate these start-ups via case study. By organizing and analyzing the in-depth interviews with start-ups, the study tries to investigate the relationship between two fundimental dimentions of resources from incubation centers and enterprise characteristics, as well as the performance and competitiveness in start-ups. The objectives of this sudy are to: 1.Understand how incubation centers utilize the relevant resources from government to nurture start-ups. 2.Investigate how the resource platform of incubation center guides the KSFs of high-tech start-ups. 3.Evaluate what the three dimensional roles of resources, innovation, and values play in the competitive strategy of high-tech start-ups, and find out the KSFs therein and their future prospects. 4.Understand how start-ups and entrepreneurship influence the success of the business.

Head Start, an early intervention program administered by the Administration for Children and Families of the Department of Health and Human Services, offers children of low-income families comprehensive services in an effort to even the playing field with their more advantaged peers upon entering kindergarten. Despite the many areas that Head Start addresses, evaluative efforts continuously focus primarily on cognitive gains as a result of Head Start as an intervention. This study examined the potential long-term effects of the health component of Head Start. More specifically, the study investigated whether Head Start impacts a family?s ability to make positive changes in the home in the way of preventive health measures with regard to childhood obesity, immunizations, and dental health, three important areas of childhood health. Participants in the research study included children enrolled in Head Start between 2004 and 2006, and children on the waiting list within the same time. Followup interviews were conducted with families in both groups that inquired about health behaviors specifically related to childhood obesity, immunizations, and dental health. The Head Start (HS) Group and Waiting List Control (WLC) Group were compared to determine if Head Start made a difference in a family?s probability of engaging in more proactive health measures. Responses of the HS Group were also compared with responses from their initial health assessment upon enrolling in Head Start to determine if they demonstrate positive changes. Results did not support hypotheses, and in many instances the WLC Group demonstrated better proactive health measures than the HS Group. Because of operational difficulties, there is limited inference about the impact of the Head Start program. Possible contributors to the results include a small sample size due to the mobility of the target population and overrepresentation of Hispanic children in the study. Limited differences observed between the HS and WLC groups confirms the importance of further investigating the long-term impact of Head Start in areas other than cognitive gains.