Abstract Title: The relationship between Open innovation and Swedish forest companies - Why do Swedish forest companies choose to either implement or to not implement Open innovation? Course: 2FE897, Master`s thesis in Entrepreneurship, Department of Business Studies. Key Words: Open innovation, closed innovation, innovation process, collaborative innovation, Swedish forest companies.  Purpose: Aims to identify the reasons why or why not Swedish forest companies implement open innovation, but also to find out if there is an ideal open innovation form among Swedish forest companies. Methodology: Abductive approach and qualitative method. Semi structured interviews areconducted with managers from five Swedish forest companies and one startup. Theoretical perspectives: We collected and created a theoretical framework based on open and closed innovation models. We will also bring up different forms of open innovation. Empirical foundation: The empirical data in this thesis are based on our semi structured interviews. Conclusions: Companies prefer a mix of open and closed innovation. Why companies use Open innovation: cost effective, more efficient, boost brand reputation and remain competitive with external knowledge. Why companies continue to use closed innovation: Easier to measure results, keep control, manage and estimate budgets. Collaborative innovation is concluded to be the ideal open innovation form.

Background and problem: There is a need for more research that is specific to a particular branch of industry when it comes to capital budgeting. Especially when it comes to mapping how companies within the Swedish forest industry proceed capital budgeting when investing in tangible fixed assets. The reason for this is that the research regarding the subject within the industry is either made abroad, focusing only on a few companies or excluding the non-financial considerations that are made during the capital budgeting process. It is not reasonable to not take these considerations into account, due to the fact that it has a great impact on the capital investment decision. Besides this, it is through both the financial and the non-financial consequences that the complex reality can be captured. In other words, capital budgeting can only be studied in large when including both financial and non-financial considerations at the same time as there is a need to delimit the research to one industry and one country.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to map how companies within the Swedish forest industry handle capital budgeting when investing in tangible fixed assets. The mapping will be done by determining which calculation methods that are frequently used and what financial and non-financial considerations that are made. The purpose is also to define the reasons as to why the Swedish forest companies prioritize precisely these considerations when managing capital budgeting. The ambition is to make sure that the research’s conclusions depict capital budgeting in the industry and trought that contribute to a greater understanding of the practical application of capital budgeting within Swedish forest industry.  Method: The thesis is primarily described as a qualitative research that is based on interviews. The empirical data is mostly gathered through semi structured interviews with respondents from different Swedish forest companies and the interviews are supplemented with information from various websites, annual reports and internal documents.  Conclusions: Swedish forest companies are influenced by a number of factors which in turn affects how they handle capital budgeting when investing in tangible fixed assets. The financial considerations are mainly found through the usage of different investment calculation methods, where the payback method followed by the net present value method are most commonly used. The non-financial considerations are mainly characterized by industry specific conditions together with a focus on environment, security and competitiveness.