This thesis explores the impact of educational enrolment on family formation in Sweden. The aim is to identify factors that are important for students’ childbearing and to find potential explanations as to why so few students have children while enrolled in education. Three independent studies are carried out, two quantitative and one qualitative. Study I examines the associations between age, earnings, a student financial aid reform, and female students’ first, second and third birth risks. Study II takes a gender perspective and compares the influence of mothers’ and fathers’ enrolment and earnings on parental couples’ propensities to have a second or a third child. In both these studies the analyses are performed using longitudinal register data. Study III explores male and female students’ childbearing intentions, and the motivations behind them, through individual in-depth interviews with childless students. Several findings point towards the significance of economic factors. The results in Study I show that earnings have a clear impact on female students’ birth risks, and in Study III economic security is found to be an important motive behind the students’ childbearing intentions. However, the student financial aid reform investigated in Study I had no noticeable impact on students’ childbearing behaviour. The negative effect of educational enrolment on childbearing risks, as well as the significance of earnings and economic security, is clearly weakened by age. In addition to economic security, the interview accounts indicate that non-material aspects, such as the biological risks of postponement, knowing one’s future prospects and being content with life, are also important for the timing of childbearing. The implications of educational enrolment for family formation are also found to be largely dependent on gender, as in Study II mothers’ educational enrolment had a much stronger negative impact on couples’ continued childbearing than fathers’ enrolment. Further, compared to the males, the female respondents in Study III had much more knowledge about the parental leave system, and parental leave and their benefit level were also things they took into account to a much larger extent when discussing their childbearing intentions. The gender differences are likely associated with the Swedish earnings-related parental leave insurance and mothers still taking the largest part of the leave. The fact that both economic security and the biological risks associated with postponement are seen as crucial factors for timing of family formation implies that some students, particularly females above age 30, find themselves in a difficult situation. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>

This thesis examines two proposals, Särskilda åtgärder vid allvarlig fara för den allmänna ordningen och inre säkerheten i landet (2015/16:67) och Tillfälliga begränsningar av möjligheten att få uppehållstillstånd (2015/16:174), in light of the concept of securitization, and analyze the effects the resulting provisions to the law and the government bill may have on displaced people. The theoretical framework used for analysis is primarily the theory of securitization in international relations and secondarily the perspective of human security. The analysis of the proposals shows that the Swedish Government considers the inflow of a high amount of asylum seekers as a threat to national security, and the special measures are in need to ensure public order and national internal security. This points to the fact that asylum seekers it to be considered as securitized. Additionally the proposals confirms that asylum seekers is to be seen as a security issue threatening specific societal structures. Hence the need of id-checks. The proposed legislation concerning limiting residence permits is viewed, both from a majority of the national consultative bodies and the Government itself, as affecting asylum seekers in various negative ways. The conclusion of the analysis is that the combination of legislating identity checks and proposing legislation to limit residence permits indicates a more significant shift in Sweden's migration policy than has been evident in the public sphere. Policies has gradually changed from defending rights and guarding safety for fleeing human beings to primarily focus on protecting the nation and guarding the citizens. Furthermore, this study accentuates a previously obscure phenomenon in Swedish migration policy. A Swedish government has proposed legislation based on protecting the Swedish society from severe threats from people in need of security and protection, which the Swedish parliament has passed as a law.

The interest in business models has lately increased, which could be traced back to the dot-com burst during the 2000s. There exists no general definition of business models. Howev-er, researchers all agree that business models are used to illustrate the design and architec-ture of the value creation process of companies. Today’s research of business models has mainly been focused on e-commerce. This thesis contributes to the research of business models by extending the research to focus on SMEs in the biotech industry.In order to explore business models for SMEs in the biotech industry, a qualitative study with an abductive approach were conducted and the data was collected through in-depth interviews. The data was analysed and compared with existing research to find themes and patterns.All the participating companies in this study were so-called university spin-off, they were founded by a researcher or researchers still working within a university who created an idea and transformed it into a new venture.The SMEs, who involved the customers at an early stage, also seemed to be the ones most successful. By keeping the customer focus and capturing the demand, the SMEs were able to prioritise between features in the product development to please the consumers. Finally, the SMEs who were founded and still ran by a researcher seemed to lose the customers fo-cus.

Conference tourism is a young and vibrant industry, which is growing and developing at a prompt rate (Rogers, 2013). The rapid growth of conference tourism and its importance (e.g. economic benefits for destinations) caused a significant academic interest in this topic in 1990's (Yoo &amp; Weber, 2005). Witt et al (1995) argued that the concrete conference theme and the conference destination are likely to make an impact on an individual’s decision, but it is still not clear if a destination or a conference per se attracts people the most. Hence, the aim of this study is to investigate variables that are the most and the least important for attendees of conferences from Sweden when they decide which conference they will attend. Moreover, it will focus particularly on the leisure motivations of conference participants, for instance, destination choice, and their importance for conference attendees.  The empirical study of Yoo and Chon (2008) about the measurement scale of factors affecting convention participation decision-making proved that the ‘destination stimuli’ factor is the first among conference participants from the US, the UK and Australia. This study will partly replicate the study of Yoo and Chon (2008), but at the same time, makes its own contribution to the field of the conference participation decision making process. Firstly, it broadens the geographical scope of the studies within the conference participation decision making process, as have been suggested by Yoo and Weber (2005). Moreover, Yi and Park (2003) argued that culture difference might have impact on decision making process, so it is worth to test if there are any difference between Scandinavian and British, American and Australian conference participants.  The study has been conducted using the quantitative method, particularly, survey method, which have been sent out using the Internet Survey Monkey tool in order to increase the response. Overall, we received 143 valid replies that helped us to make a conclusion that for academics from Umeå University in Sweden the ’educational opportunities’ are the most important factor, while ‘destination stimuli’ one does not affect their decision to go to some conference at all. So, it is worth to test if the difference in the results between Yoo and Chon (2008) study and the current one are caused by the cultural difference or by any other feature. Moreover, it is recommend to extend the geographical scope of the studies within the conference participation decision making process.

The presented master thesis is an exploratory study on the motivational factors of the Swedish Mumpreneurs to start a business. Providing a nuanced and detailed review of the evolution of the literature on female entrepreneurship, the phenomenon of ‘Mumpreneurship’ is being introduced as a new, internationally widespread concept. Following a close look at this particular contestable subject, the study shows how different internal and external factors can influence the motivation of the Swedish mothers with small children to enter self-employment. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the motivational factors of Swedish female entrepreneurs with children, so-called ‘Mumpreneurs’, to establish a business. Design/methodology/approach: A small sample of businesses with mothers as founders in the boundaries of Sweden were surveyed, with a prepared interview guide, focusing on the factors of motivation, marital status, children, family and challenges. Findings: The empirical findings of the study draw conclusions on the basis of 8 in-depth interviews conducted with Swedish Mumpreneurs. The findings of the exploratory research indicate that various internal and external factors motivate Swedish mothers with small children to replace previous employment with entrepreneurial activities. It can be argued from the results of the presented paper, that the need for independence and self-achievement, high levels of stress and lack of job opportunities, flexibility and happiness, are all instrumental in the investigation of the motivational factors. Research limitations/implications: The study has been conducted using a relatively small sample of women entrepreneurs with children in Sweden. Therefore, the findings are not representative and cannot be generalized for the whole population. The topic of interest would benefit if a research were conducted in a longer time span and replicate in range of different industries in order to further test the results.

The purpose of the report was to do an inventory of nursery gardens in the surroundings of Umeå and to find which one of the nursery gardens that had the greatest risk of being polluted by pesticides and to examine which pesticides that had been used in the nursery gardens in the past. Five nursery gardens were selected and examined through interviews, visits and protocols from the municipality of Umeå and from that information an assessment by the methods for inventory of polluted soil (MIFO), which the Swedish form of EPA has designed, has been done. The historical use of pesticides on each site was examined through interviews, visits and protocols from municipality of Umeå. The result showed that two of the nursery gardens had a great risk of being polluted and the total historical use of pesticides resulted in total 107 different products. In conclusion the two of the nursery gardens that had a great risk of being polluted will eventually have to take sample of the soil for further analysis.

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>Date: 2008-11-5</p><p><strong>Level</strong><strong>:</strong>           C thesis in Business Administration, 15ECT</p><p><strong>Authors</strong>:       Beatrice Yola Konlaan       Prince kofi Hanson</p><p><strong>Tutor:           </strong>Mats Viimne</p><p><strong>Title:             </strong>The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on an Organization’s  stakeholders: Case study: DHL, Sweden.</p><p><strong>Problem:</strong>      How does a corporate social responsibility performance    benefit its stakeholders?</p><p><strong>Purpose:</strong>       This research work will seek to find out how aware DHL is about CSR activities and in what ways this awareness can be impacted on its Stakeholders.</p><p><strong>Methods:      </strong>A qualitative method of approach was used for this research work, with regards to primary data; interviews (face-to-face interview, telephone and email interview) were used. Secondary data sources were literature, articles, journals and internet sources from the university data bases.</p><p><strong>Co</strong><strong>nclusion</strong><strong>:  </strong>The impacts of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities on stakeholders have an overall influence on the organization hence steps must be taken to understand the broad issues that should be addressed, management should come out with an inclusive strategy for stakeholder involvement to carry out research and surveys on effective strategic conversations with stakeholders.<strong></strong></p><p>The involvement and early engagement of stakeholders in the planning process of decision making and implementation is very vital in view of the fact that stakeholders are those affected and affecting change in the community. Stakeholder involvement and collaborative decisions on CSR issues represent a high level of participation programs. However, it is not easy, and must be complemented in many cases with conflict resolution.</p><p>The awareness creation of CSR activities by DHL on its stakeholders would add a very useful contribution to business development and profit making by this organization. The consciousness of CSR would cause all stakeholders alike to play their apart in the sustainability of CSR.</p><p><strong>Key words: </strong>Corporate social responsibility (CSR), Stakeholders, DHL, Sweden.</p>

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Since the 9/11-attacks several nations have been confronted with a new international threat, its nature traces back to the political- and religious- radical movements of the 20th century Cold War. Ever since, various states have been under threat by terrorist organizations around the world due to mainly participating in worldwide counter-terrorist interventions created by western alliances. In Sweden, amongst other countries, the state took security-precautions that would imply total control of information throughout the territorial borders. The assigned proposition was accepted by the Swedish parliament in June 18th 2008, after this date wild spread criticism was still in effect ever since the Swedish government first publicly announced the proposition in May 8th 2007. This study emphasizes on understanding why the Swedish government chose to present this proposition to parliament, in order to complete this task the study will present the motives and the alleged threats that were the core of the proposition and its value-maximizing goal of creating a new surface for Swedish homeland security. The core questions of the study to be examined are; “How was the decision-making progress being managed?”, “What was the core arguments of the opposition in the official debates?” and “Why did the government choose to announce the proposition?”. In addition, the study will present the solution to the problem through the usage of Allison &amp; Zelikow’s famous geopolitical study “Essence of Decision”, in where the Swedish government will take the place of the “rational actor” in this national dilemma. As the process moves forward the reader will be aware of the consequences and the options of the Swedish government during the decision making process, and due to this also able to determine the cause of action that was required by the state to prevent the later confirmed threats.