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The thesis studies the impact of the financial support of the Environmental and Rural Devel-opment Programme of 2000-2006 on farm diversification and other activities in the rural areas of the Västra Götaland County for the period 2000-2005. Furthermore, it analyses if diver-sification within the firms has improved efficiency due to economies of scope. The statistical data of this study is based on a telephone survey of a total population of 50 firms that have received financial support for diversification, within the County of Västra Götaland. The response rate of the telephone survey was 80 per cent of the total popula-tion. The statistical analysis is based on chi-square and logit models in combination with a descriptive analysis in order to test the hypothesis of the thesis. Therefore, the empirical analysis has both a quantitative and a qualitative character. The result of the study shows that about 87.7 per cent of the surveyed firms have diversi-fied their economic activities during the years 2000-2005. Firms owned by women tend to have diversified to a larger extent compared to men. Further, women show a tendency to be more successful with a higher degree of diversification within the service sector com-pared to men. The enterprises within the production and refinement sectors have, on the other hand, a propensity to focus on traditional agricultural production despite the diversi-fication. A majority of the interviewed firms have received benefits from scope economies, which imply that the firms utilise joint production with shared inputs. The scope econo-mies existed among studied firms previous to the support and there are no significant changes in the economies of scope due to the financial support. Overall, the financial sup-port seems to have had a positive impact on the firms’ economic situation since none of the studied firms has experienced a decline in employment, turnover or income.

<p>The thesis studies the impact of the financial support of the Environmental and Rural Devel-opment Programme of 2000-2006 on farm diversification and other activities in the rural areas of the Västra Götaland County for the period 2000-2005. Furthermore, it analyses if diver-sification within the firms has improved efficiency due to economies of scope.</p><p>The statistical data of this study is based on a telephone survey of a total population of 50 firms that have received financial support for diversification, within the County of Västra Götaland. The response rate of the telephone survey was 80 per cent of the total popula-tion. The statistical analysis is based on chi-square and logit models in combination with a descriptive analysis in order to test the hypothesis of the thesis. Therefore, the empirical analysis has both a quantitative and a qualitative character.</p><p>The result of the study shows that about 87.7 per cent of the surveyed firms have diversi-fied their economic activities during the years 2000-2005. Firms owned by women tend to have diversified to a larger extent compared to men. Further, women show a tendency to be more successful with a higher degree of diversification within the service sector com-pared to men. The enterprises within the production and refinement sectors have, on the other hand, a propensity to focus on traditional agricultural production despite the diversi-fication. A majority of the interviewed firms have received benefits from scope economies, which imply that the firms utilise joint production with shared inputs. The scope econo-mies existed among studied firms previous to the support and there are no significant changes in the economies of scope due to the financial support. Overall, the financial sup-port seems to have had a positive impact on the firms’ economic situation since none of the studied firms has experienced a decline in employment, turnover or income.</p>

Much of industry is seeking scope economies, but this requires more complex and flexible product realisation. Modelling technologies have potential to support the life cycle engineering of both Economies of Scope and Scale (EoSS) manufacturing systems. However when companies operate in dynamic environments it is not sufficient to model manufacturing systems in isolation. Rather a holistic modelling methodology is needed which can create structural and behavioural models of dependencies between the manufacturing systems, and the business and engineering environments in which they operate; so that a suitable balance between economies of scope and scale can be achieved. This thesis describes the conception and development of a step wised Extended Modelling Methodology (EMM) which facilitates reasoning, and related decision making, about EoSS manufacturing systems. The EMM was conceived from exploratory research in two SMEs, following which it was applied and case tested in a large manufacturing company. Little academic attention to date has been paid to theorising about the link between ‘Economies of Scope and Scale (EoSS) phenomenon' and ‘manufacturing systems design'. Hence many questions about EoSS manufacturing remain unanswered, such as: (1) academic communities need to know what EoSS actually means and how state-of-the-art modelling can support qualitative and quantitative analysis of EoSS system phenomenon; and (2) industry needs to know how they can benefit from EoSS, what attended costs they might incur, and what best balance between scope and scale economies can be achieved. With these general requirements in mind the thesis reports on the conception and industrial application of the EMM. This has: (A) developed new ideas about EoSS, which can be used to characterise EoSS phenomenon; (B) introduced a new way of visualising architectural aspects of EoSS at multiple-levels of abstraction; and (C) with reference to case studies has illustrated the use of multi-level modelling to enable predictions to be made about EoSS benefits and costs.