Globalization has been a hot topic recently. Many firms experience that their domestic market is too limited for them to conduct their business in. This restriction leads to firms seeking customers on different markets, in different nations, where the companies’ supplies meet the consumers’ demands. Therefore, companies are constantly seeking new places to do business in. Developing economies have been in the scope of many firms recently, with China being in the frontline with its massive labour force and cheap labour costs. However, attention is heading towards the African continent, with its rich natural resources and, like China, large labour force. The purpose of this dissertation is to see how Swedish firms have tried to establish themselves on the emerging African market. In order to achieve this, an abductive research approach has been selected. Qualitative interviews with important people in four Swedish companies have been conducted. The empirical findings suggest that Swedish firms have great opportunities to enter the African market and continue to develop there. Furthermore, there is no method of expansion that is better than another. It all comes down to what specific assets that characterize the company in question. Whether it is a service-oriented company, a manufacturing company or an exporting company will perhaps decide what entry mode would be most suitable. To our knowledge, there is no dissertation that deals with this topic. Consequently, this paper will highlight this research area.

<p>Frequently discussed in different contexts, corporate strategy and strategic planning is something</p><p>which importance hardly will diminish over the coming years as competition grows harder. The needs</p><p>for companies to think ahead of their business operations have grown increasingly during the</p><p>decades.</p><p>From the viewpoint of an independent researcher I have decided to look at Swedish companies</p><p>operating in Sweden and abroad. I want to know how the strategic planning process takes place in</p><p>these companies, in order to give an insight to what the process could look like in Sweden today.</p><p>My research question has been: How is strategic planning perceived in Swedish companies?</p><p>I have selected some different theories from the university library’s collection of databases,</p><p>respectively dealing with leadership, outsourcing, business intelligence et cetera.</p><p>These theories are the foundation of the semi-structured and by telephone, in-person and internet</p><p>performed interviews with seven different managers at some selected companies in different</p><p>businesses, mainly located in northern Sweden. Asking questions based on the underlying theories I</p><p>have been able to draw some conclusions about the planning processes in the studied companies.</p><p>The study shows that almost all companies have some kind strategic planning process and that more</p><p>or less all of them to some extent consider some of the theories employed in the theory chapter.</p><p>While only two companies seemed to be quite strict, the rest had some emergent semi-structured</p><p>strategic plan with much flexibility, which is not necessarily wrong.</p>

<p>This dissertation intends to describe how small Swedish companies experience the handling of financing in China. Which include describing how small Swedish companies have chosen to finance their establishment, and whether Myers Pecking order theory is applicable. Further more, to show the inquired companies attitude towards external equity, and if any problems are experienced, connected to reaching long-term external finance. The specifikation of the problem for this dissertation is, How do small Swedish companies established in China experience the handling of financing? And to answer the specification of the problem a quantitative approach has been used. The data was gathered through a survey sent out to a number of small Swedish companies established in China. The definition of small Swedish companies has been set to less than 100 employees, and furthermore, established in China under any of the entry modes WFOE, FICE, Joint Venture or Rep/Sales Office.</p><p>The over all conclusions for this dissertation, are that internal finance is preferred, and in general is the use of external finance insignificant among small Swedish companies established in China. What can be concluded from this is that Myers Pecking order theory is applicable. Further more, there are strong indications that the inquired companies do not experience any financial gap, or in general any imminent problems surrounding reaching external finance. Important to add to the conclusion is that just because there are no imminent problems, does this not signify that companies do not experience any problems at all reaching external finance.</p>

Frequently discussed in different contexts, corporate strategy and strategic planning is something which importance hardly will diminish over the coming years as competition grows harder. The needs for companies to think ahead of their business operations have grown increasingly during the decades. From the viewpoint of an independent researcher I have decided to look at Swedish companies operating in Sweden and abroad. I want to know how the strategic planning process takes place in these companies, in order to give an insight to what the process could look like in Sweden today. My research question has been: How is strategic planning perceived in Swedish companies? I have selected some different theories from the university library’s collection of databases, respectively dealing with leadership, outsourcing, business intelligence et cetera. These theories are the foundation of the semi-structured and by telephone, in-person and internet performed interviews with seven different managers at some selected companies in different businesses, mainly located in northern Sweden. Asking questions based on the underlying theories I have been able to draw some conclusions about the planning processes in the studied companies. The study shows that almost all companies have some kind strategic planning process and that more or less all of them to some extent consider some of the theories employed in the theory chapter. While only two companies seemed to be quite strict, the rest had some emergent semi-structured strategic plan with much flexibility, which is not necessarily wrong.

Outsourcing is an important subject in the industrial business. Most of the companies in Sweden have some sort of outsourcing relations with foreign countries. The last decade many Swedish companies have moved their production to China through outsourcing relationships. In the recent years there are signs of a shift in the outsourcing trend. The trend includes Swedish companies to move their production from China to closer markets, for example,countries in Eastern Europe.This is mainly caused by changes in external factors, such as increasing transportation cost, increasing labor costs in China and the lack of flexibility have made companies reorganize their production alternatives. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the factors that lie behind the decision to outsource and if there are any differences when it comes to the outsourcing process depending on the market.The research was conducted through interviews with companies with existing outsourcing relations in those markets. The purpose of the interviews was to obtain an insight of the outsourcing process, how factors importance vary from situation to situation and what complications that have occurred.The result shows that there often are more complications with China than with Eastern Europe. That smaller companies seems to have more difficulties when the outsourcing relations with China are established. The result also indicated that if flexibility and speed-to-market is important parts of the companies’ business model it is more likelythat an outsourcing relationship with Eastern Europe will be beneficial.The contribution of the dissertation mightbe of importance for smaller companies who are in the process of outsourcing or consider to start an outsourcing relationship with a foreign market.

Ett av de vanligaste sätten att bedriva näringsverksamhet i Sverige är genom att bilda ett aktiebolag. De svenska aktiebolagen regleras genom ett omfattande regelverk i aktiebolagslagen. Ägarna i ett privat aktiebolag är inte alltid tillfreds med reglerna i aktiebolagslagen, utan vill reglera vissa förhållanden ytterligare mellan sig. Aktieägarna har möjlighet att genom aktieägaravtal reglera vissa förutsättningar för verksamheten. När aktieägarna väljer att reglera vissa förhållanden mellan sig i ett aktieägaravtal kan det uppstå skillnader mellan vad som gäller enligt aktieägaravtalet och vad som gäller enligt aktiebolagslagen. Det råder en självständighet mellan avtalsrätten och aktiebolagsrätten vilken innebär att aktieägarna inte med bindande verkan kan avtala vissa förhållanden sinsemellan samt att avtalet inte ses som aktiebolagsrättsligt gällande i vissa fall. Uppsatsen har som syfte att utreda de rättsverkningar som ett aktieägaravtal kan ge upphov till i två situationer, det handlar dels om när avtalsparterna är aktieägare, dels när avtalsparterna är styrelseledamöterna. I situationen med aktieägarna utreds två scenarier dels om ett partnermöte kan utgöra en bolagsstämma, dels om själva aktieägaravtalet kan utgöra ett protokoll med beslut som får samma rättsverkningar som ett bolagsstämmobeslut. I situationen med styrelseledamöterna utreds huruvida de kan bli bundna av avtal och vilka följder det kan få. Slutsatserna som presenteras i uppsatsen är att den svenska aktiebolagsrätten är mycket försiktig vid tillåtandet av att ge aktieägaravtal rättsverkningar även aktiebolagsrättsligt. Enligt uppsatsförfattaren finns det dock anledning att, under förutsättning att vissa rekvisit är uppfyllda, tillåta verkningar för aktieägaravtal inom aktiebolagsrätten. / One of the most common ways to carry out business activities in Sweden is by establishing a limited liability company, which are regulated by extensive rules in The Swedish Companies Act. The shareholders of such companies are not satisfied at all times with the rules in the Act and therefore want to regulate certain conditions between each other. They have the possibility to regulate such conditions by enter into a shareholder agreement. When the shareholders choose to regulate conditions between each other there might be a difference between what is valid according to the agreement and to the Act. In Sweden there is autonomy between the contract laws and the corporate law, which means that shareholders mutually cannot contract certain conditions and that the contract in some occasions does not become binding according to corporate law. This thesis has as its purpose to investigate the legal effects of a shareholder agreement in two situations; firstly when the parties are the shareholders and secondly when the parties are the members of the board of directors. In the first situation two scenarios are investigated, firstly if a meeting prior to a general meeting can have the same legal effects as a general meeting and secondly if the shareholder agreement can have the same legal effects as the minutes from a general meeting. In the situation with the members of the board it is investigate if they can enter into a contract and the legal effects thereof. The conclusions presented in this thesis are that the corporate law in Sweden is very cautious in giving shareholder agreements legal effects. According to the author of the thesis there are however certain occasions where the shareholder agreement should be given legal effects not just between the parties but also in relation to the corporate law, if certain requirements are fulfilled.

This dissertation intends to describe how small Swedish companies experience the handling of financing in China. Which include describing how small Swedish companies have chosen to finance their establishment, and whether Myers Pecking order theory is applicable. Further more, to show the inquired companies attitude towards external equity, and if any problems are experienced, connected to reaching long-term external finance. The specifikation of the problem for this dissertation is, How do small Swedish companies established in China experience the handling of financing? And to answer the specification of the problem a quantitative approach has been used. The data was gathered through a survey sent out to a number of small Swedish companies established in China. The definition of small Swedish companies has been set to less than 100 employees, and furthermore, established in China under any of the entry modes WFOE, FICE, Joint Venture or Rep/Sales Office. The over all conclusions for this dissertation, are that internal finance is preferred, and in general is the use of external finance insignificant among small Swedish companies established in China. What can be concluded from this is that Myers Pecking order theory is applicable. Further more, there are strong indications that the inquired companies do not experience any financial gap, or in general any imminent problems surrounding reaching external finance. Important to add to the conclusion is that just because there are no imminent problems, does this not signify that companies do not experience any problems at all reaching external finance.

The purpose with this paper is to investigate and get deeper understanding of case studies about Swedish companies. I will focus on the way the case studies have been constructed, the purposes of the studies and how well the findings may be implemented to other contexts. I find this interesting because case studies are something that can benefit every company in other to in some way improve and streamline the business. The data used in this paper will be obtained from various case studies within the subject “Swedish companies” and therefore analyzed to draw conclusions. The findings from this study is that every case study is unique, and there is not one single, optimal way to construct a case study. One must take the purpose of the study into consideration and establish the study from this. However, there are common traits between case studies, such as the ways of obtaining data for the studies and the uniqueness of research question. How well the findings of a case study can be generalized to other contexts also depends on the uniqueness of the purpose of the study.

To integrate the previously disadvantaged population that suffered from the apartheid in South Africa, the government has implemented policies to let them participate in the country’s growing economy. These policies are called the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies and are affecting both local and international businesses. Through a qualitative research method with a deductive approach, the research creates a deeper understanding of how Swedish firms adapt and commit as an effect of the BEE policies. Through already established internationalization theories, we created a theoretical framework as a platform to gather and analyze the empirical data. The theoretical implications show how the BEE policies can disrupt and challenge the commitment that is characterized in different entry modes. It also challenges previous research and brings up Swedish companies’ willingness to adapt with the policies and commit their resources in order to overcome the obstacles of BEE and benefit the growth of South Africa.

Marknaden ställer idag högre krav på vad företagen redovisar och intressenterna är inte längre bara uppmärksamma på hur företaget redovisar ur ett ekonomiskt perspektiv. En ökad medvetenhet hos företagen kan i många fall inbringa konkurrensfördelar om företagen väljer att tillgodose dessa krav. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) syftar till att redovisa vad företaget har gjort, inte bara i ekonomiska resultat utan även beträffande miljö och sociala aspekter. Vi har i vår studie valt att granska med hjälp av en innehållsanalys hur tre svenska företag, H&amp;M, Stora Enso och TeliaSonera, arbetar med CSR och vart tyngdpunkten ligger hos de olika företagen. Studiens syfte är att på ett komparativt sätt och genom en innehållsanalys ämna svara på vilka likheter och skillnader det finns i de tre företagens hållbarhetsredovisningar, samt vad som kan tolka eventuella likheter och skillnader. Vi har använt oss av ett klassificeringsschema som hjälpt oss att dela in vårt empiriska material i fem olika kategorier; Miljö, Energi, Human resources, Produkter och Community involvement. Våra resultat visar att det, till viss del, går att förklara företagens motiv till innehållet i hållbarhetsredovisningarna med utgångspunkt i legitimeringsteorin. Det är framförallt motivet till skillnaderna som kan förklaras genom legitimitetsteorin. Det går emellertid inte att utesluta att andra faktorer påverkar varför det förekommer skillnader, och särskilt likheter, i de redovisade uppgifterna för de tre företagen. / Program: Civilekonomprogrammet