This qualitative study was conducted to investigate how large publicly listed companies inSweden apply its code of conduct on external parties as well as how such application is bestcarried out. Three overarching steps (implementation, monitoring and actions) weredeveloped from previous research to serve this purpose. Agency and contract theory wereimportant to understand the underlying problems of application of codes of conduct onexternal parties. It was found that companies that adequately address all of the three stepsexperience a successful application of its code of conduct on external parties. Companies thatdo not address the three steps as thoroughly do not experience the same compliance with theircode of conduct. It was further found that many companies fail to adequately address theemphasized areas. Extensive deficiencies put companies in a vulnerable position as externalparties associated with a company might have a negative impact on the company’s brand andreputation. An outlook shows that companies are not prioritizing all of the steps sufficientlyand it is thus suggested that they revise their plans. The project was carried out incooperation with KPMG Forensic and Advokatfirman Delphi. A content analysis and a survey were used to collect necessary data.

This thesis shows that the mapping of semantics to syntax can be more complex than is generally assumed. In general, the mapping of semantics to syntax is thought to be many-to-one; for instance, many types of external argument roles are mapped to a subject position, and a theme or patient role is mapped to an object position. Contrary to this view, I show, by studying the syntax and semantics of external arguments, that one-to-one mapping between syntax and semantics is possible. External arguments are generally assumed to be introduced by a functional head, called Voice or v, regardless of the semantics of the argument, rather than being actual arguments of the verbs. A high Appl head similar to Voice has recently been argued to introduce external arguments as well as arguments of other semantic types. At present, no theories propose how these heads are distinguished in argument structure. This thesis articulates the differences between the external argument introducing heads and explores the consequences of these differences. Moreover, this thesis proposes a new type of event-related applicative, namely peripheral Appl. Like Voice and high Appl, peripheral Appl introduces an argument external to the verb phrase. The key differences among the external argument introducing heads are in their semantics as well as their syntactic position. Semantically, Voice is specified for agentivity, but high and peripheral Appls are specified for non-agentivity. Syntactically, high Appl merges below Voice, not above, while peripheral Appl can merge above Voice. An important result emerging from this thesis is that not all external arguments are treated in the same way in syntax: not only are agent and non-agent external argument roles mapped into different positions, but different types of non-agent roles are also mapped into different positions.

This thesis shows that the mapping of semantics to syntax can be more complex than is generally assumed. In general, the mapping of semantics to syntax is thought to be many-to-one; for instance, many types of external argument roles are mapped to a subject position, and a theme or patient role is mapped to an object position. Contrary to this view, I show, by studying the syntax and semantics of external arguments, that one-to-one mapping between syntax and semantics is possible. External arguments are generally assumed to be introduced by a functional head, called Voice or v, regardless of the semantics of the argument, rather than being actual arguments of the verbs. A high Appl head similar to Voice has recently been argued to introduce external arguments as well as arguments of other semantic types. At present, no theories propose how these heads are distinguished in argument structure. This thesis articulates the differences between the external argument introducing heads and explores the consequences of these differences. Moreover, this thesis proposes a new type of event-related applicative, namely peripheral Appl. Like Voice and high Appl, peripheral Appl introduces an argument external to the verb phrase. The key differences among the external argument introducing heads are in their semantics as well as their syntactic position. Semantically, Voice is specified for agentivity, but high and peripheral Appls are specified for non-agentivity. Syntactically, high Appl merges below Voice, not above, while peripheral Appl can merge above Voice. An important result emerging from this thesis is that not all external arguments are treated in the same way in syntax: not only are agent and non-agent external argument roles mapped into different positions, but different types of non-agent roles are also mapped into different positions.

The relationship between the business-formation process and the use of government or outside counselling is examined, by differentiating, among a total group of 78 small-firm owners, between those who created their ventures and those who bought them. The group of venture initiators was found as having requested government help in one-third of the start-ups, while none of the business buyers had resorted to such support. At the same time, the first group displayed a more internal locus of control disposition than the other, thus reinforcing earlier findings about entrepreneurs. Both groups, however, were strongly internal-oriented compared to general populations. SOMMAIRE: À partir d'un groupe de propriétaires, créateurs ou acquéreurs, de petites entreprises, l'auteur établit le rapport entre le processus d'établissement et le recours au counselling gouvernemental ou exterieur. On constate que le tiers des propriétaires qui ont créé leur entreprise ont demandé l'aide du gouvernement, contre aucun parmi ceux qui s'en sont portés acquéreurs. On a également constaté que le premier groupe avait une nette tendance à établir Ie siège du contrôle à l'interieur des structures comparativement aux autres, ce qui renforce les constatations précédentes au sujet des entrepreneurs. Toutefois, les deux groupes à l'étude mettaient un accent beaucoup plus prononcé sur le controle interne que le reste des entreprises.

The SME sector of Jiangsu Province of China contributes quite a big percentage to the GDP and solves the unemployment problem. Moreover, the import-and-export industry has been the pillar industry that boosts the development of the economy ofJiangsuProvince. With the take-off ofJiangsu’s economy, problems have also appeared; the import-and-export-oriented SMEs have been influenced by many internal and external factors, and some of the factors are: Yuan appreciation, inflation, industrial structure, skilled employees, and CRM, etc. Therefore, the thesis is going to analyze the internal and external factors that influence the development ofJiangsuimport-and-export-oriented SMEs by researching the books and articles, and make qualitative case studies to observe how these factors have influenced the case companies. In order to make the qualitative case analysis, the authors have travelled back toJiangsuprovince and interviewed with different SME managers with selective questions.

Aim: This study deals with two research questions: RQ1: What competitive advantages does DHL gain from external and internal factors? RQ2: What competitive disadvantage does DHL have? And what DHL can learn from analyzing competitive disadvantage? Method: primary data for this research has been mainly collected through interviews. Moreover, the official reports are used as secondary data to present the empirical situation of DHL. Conclusion: By concerning the external and internal factors of DHL, the SWOT analysis is conducted. The strength of DHL is customer satisfaction, green programme etc; weakness is price, liability insurance etc; opportunities are cooperation development, innovation etc; and threats are tough competitors. The strength and opportunities are regarded as DHL’ competitive advantages, while the weakness and threats are DHL’s competitive disadvantage that need to be fixed. Further study & Implication: In this thesis there is no information to indicate if DHL has any unmet needs, but it must be there. If DHL can enhance itself by providing unmet needs to customer, there is no doubt DHL would be more competitive in the 3PL industry. It is interesting to investigate more work on DHL unmet needs. This study contributes to the companies which plan to develop their competition from inside to outside in the market, especially in 3PL industry. This thesis gives authors deep insights into company success factors and suggestions for dealing with the problems which company may encounter.

Bakgrund: Tjänstefiering i tillverkningsföretag är ett aktuellt ämne där företag övergår från att endast sälja varor till att erbjuda kombinationer av varor och tjänster. Denna förändring är inte helt enkel eftersom företaget måste förbättra attityden mot tjänster i företagskulturen samt upprätta lämplig infrastruktur för produktionen av tjänster. Genom att använda sig av extern tjänsteleverans där man samarbetar med en annan part är det möjligt att bli mer flexibel och dela riskerna. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att identifiera och kategorisera utmaningar med tjänsteproduktion för en serviceorganisation i ett tillverknings-företag. Vidare analyserar vi även hur användningen av externa tjänste-leverantörer påverkar dessa utmaningar. Genomförande: Genom att göra en fallstudie på ett tjänstefierat tillverkningsföretag i Sverige, och intervjua fyra chefer inom serviceorganisationen har vi haft möjlighet att utöka och fördjupa den nuvarande litteraturen som handlar om utmaningar med extern tjänsteleverans. Teori: Ett teoretiskt ramverk med utmaningar i de tre delarna av tjänste-produktion har skapats; tjänsteutveckling, intern organisatorisk design och leverans av tjänster. Slutsats: Att använda sig av externa partners vid leverans av tjänster medför flertalet utmaningar för en serviceorganisation i ett tillverkningsföretag. Vår studie visar även att extern leverans av tjänster påverkar vissa utmaningar med tjänsteutveckling såväl som med intern design av en organisation.

Negotiation poses a unique challenge in the modern workplace which is likely to be especially difficult for socially anxious individuals. Previous research has shown that externally focused attention strategies are useful at alleviating social anxiety symptoms and in helping improve negotiation outcomes; however this intervention has never been examined amongst socially anxious negotiators. This study examined the effect of external- and self-focused attention manipulations on anxiety, perspective (observer-field), and monetary negotiation outcomes. Thirty-eight high social anxiety (HSA) and 52 low social anxiety (LSA) female participants completed a dyadic negotiation simulation with a partner. The external-focus manipulation was successful at increasing attention focus in the desired direction, while the self-focus manipulation was not and, thus, was discarded from subsequent analyses. Results demonstrated that externally focused attention resulted in significant decreases in state anxiety during the negotiation and a significant shift in perspective from observer to field, for participants in both the HSA and LSA groups. However, these changes did not translate into better objective negotiation performance, as measured by the total commission (i.e., money) earned. The implications of the results for social anxiety and the development of workplace intervention programs are discussed.

There has been nothing written, as far as we researched, about the decision-making when a family manager decides upon the advice of an external consultant. With this research we tried to build an understanding on the topic with a special focus to the role of emotions in the process. Five family managers of five different family businesses in Sweden were interviewed. The interviews were semi-structured so that the factors that play a role in the decision-making could be explored. The factors that were identified were coded and afterwards further analyzed, together with the help of new gathered theory. In other words an abductive approach was used. We found that emotions in the decision-making mainly arise when the advice is given in the field of expertise of the family manager concerned. The emotions arise from a psychological ownership of the family manager over a pre- formed solution or approach to the issue the consultant is hired for. In order for the advice to be accepted, the advice has to be in the line of the preformed solution or approach. We believe these findings to be valuable to encourage more research on the topic, but also the findings can contribute to the everlasting field of research to find the optimal technique to consult to family businesses.

This study strives to investigate why some small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from Northeast Italy internationalize at inception and some internationalize gradually. The main literature regarding both, Born Globals and Stage-Models, were reviewed. In face of a high degree of fragmentation in the Born Global literature the study was developed through an abductive logic of reasoning. This basically means that we started by clustering already accepted internal and external factors, working then, towards a unified explanation. A qualitative study was developed with four SMEs. The main results show that no factor can singularly drive a company to internationalize at inception. Instead, the interaction of internal and external factors determines how SMEs internationalize. The findings provide empirical insights on the internationalization behavior of SMEs and redress the apparent theoretical gap in this field.