Stakeholder management is a topic that has received increased attention in later years. Researchers have tried to answer the question of which stakeholders that really matters to organizations and developed ways for identifying and prioritizing among stakeholders. This thesis fills a void in academia by looking exclusively on external stakeholders in large and complex projects such as the construction of power plants. The thesis investigates the approach towards external stakeholders as well as the process of identifying and prioritizing external stakeholders in this specific setting. By using attributes identified in earlier research, a theoretical framework was created that was used to investigate two of Sweden’s largest companies through a qualitative case study. The thesis describe how stakeholder identification and prioritization occurs in the different case companies and ultimately contribute with a new model that can be used by managers to prioritize among external stakeholder in organizational projects.

Background: Coronary heart disease kills more than 7 million people worldwide each year. High levels of blood fat, cholesterol, contributes significantly to coronary heart disease. Lifestyle changes combined with lipid-lowering drugs, statins, is an effective treatment. But adherence to statins is low, not even a myocardial infarction always contributes to adherence. Adherence requires patient education and good communication between patient and physician. There is no deeper knowledge of why coronary heart patients stops with statin treatment. Objective: To describe how coronary heart patients experience the disease and the statin treatment, and furthermore, opportunities and difficulties to adhere with statin therapy. Design: An exploratory qualitative study. Method: 10 male coronary heart patients, 55-78 years were strategically selected from a cardiology clinic in a larger Swedish hospital. Patients were interviewed individually in a semi-structured form, 2009/2010. Data processing was done according to content analysis and yielded four themes: empowerment, effects, decision basis, and trust. Results: The patients did not mentioned heredity among the factors they could not affect in association with the disease. Several patients saw the medication as a limitation, doubted its efficacy, but mostly took it anyway, at least for a limited time. Medication and illness were associated with each other. Information requirements were in most patients. Many patients wanted to discontinue the statin therapy. Conclusion: Retention of power over the own body, good reference base for decision about adherence, and trust in health care. These are crucial components of patients’ adherence to statin therapy, in connection with coronary heart disease. / Bakgrund: Kranskärlssjukdom dödar drygt 7 miljoner människor i världen per år. För höga halter av blodfettet kolesterol i blodet bidrar kraftigt till kranskärlssjukdom. Livsstilsförändringar kombinerat med blodfettssänkande läkemedel, statiner, är en effektiv behandling. Följsamheten till statiner är dock låg, inte ens genomgången hjärtinfarkt ökar följsamhet. Följsamhet kräver patientutbildning och god kommunikation mellan patient och läkare. Det saknas djupare kunskap om varför kranskärlspatienter slutar med statiner. Syfte: att beskriva hur kranskärlspatienter upplever sjukdomen och statinbehandlingen, samt möjligheter och svårigheter att följa statinbehandlingen. Design: explorativ kvalitativ studie. Metod: 10 manliga kranskärlspatienter, 55-78 år valdes strategiskt via en kardiologklinik på ett större svenskt sjukhus. Patienterna intervjuades personligen i semistrukturerad form, 2009/2010. Databearbetning skedde enligt innehållsanalys och gav fyra teman: egenmakt, effekter, beslutsgrund, tilltro. Resultat: Patienterna nämnde inte ärftlighet bland faktorer som ansågs opåverkbara i samband med kranskärlssjukdomen. Flera patienter såg medicinen som en begränsning och tvivlade på effekten, men tog den oftast ändå, åtminstone under en begränsad tid. Likhetstecken sattes mellan medicinering och sjukdom. Informationsbehov fanns hos flertalet patienter. Många patienter ville sluta med statinbehandlingen. Slutsats: Bibehållen makt över sin egen kropp, god referensgrund för beslut om följsamhet samt förtroende för sjukvården, är avgörande förutsättningar för kranskärlspatienters följsamhet till statinbehandling.

The aim of this paper is to try to explain how specific, foreign policy decisions are made, and why one state decides to use violence against another state. A qualitative method is used, and text and documents are analysed. The two theoretical points of departure are central within foreign policy analysis: realism´s theories on external threats and constructivism´s theories on ideas´ policy influence. The empirical case chosen is the US decision to use military violence against Iraq. The paper investigates whether the real threat from Saddam Hussein´s Iraq was the cause of the American military attacks, or whether the ideas of leading politicians in the USA were decisive for the decision to invade the country. The main theoretical assumption is that politicians´ ideas – rather than real, external threats – influence their actions.  The differences between President Clinton´s benevolent Iraq policy and President Bush´s aggressive Iraq policy can be summarized as a result of a combination of a changed external environment and differences in ideas on the use of military violence. The general conclusion is that politicians´ ideas – rather than real, external threats – influence their decision-making on specific foreign policy decisions.

The global semiconductor industry had gone through a consecutive years of prosperity in the 1990s due to the strong demand in personal computer as well as the enormous internet investiment. Even more, it gained an eruptive growth in years 1999 and 2000. The semiconductor fabrication companies¡¦ capital spending in new equipment segment grew year by year. The equipment suppliers¡¦ revenue and gross margin had then set record high. However, combined the internet bubbled in 2000 with the shortage of killer application, the chip makers¡¦ capital spending had thereafter dramatically slowdown for years and hence seriously impacted the equipment suppliers¡¦ financial performance. Ever after the great recession in year 2000, the equipment suppliers have been taking steps to alleviate the industry downturns¡¦ impact in their financial report. Meanwhile, the companies have also identified ways to further grow their business. Besides, the semiconductor industry has been introducing advanced nanomanufacturing technologies which demand huge resource commitment as well as capital investiment. The chip makers have therefore urged the equipment suppliers to assist them in area about cost reduction and productivity improvement. This study takes the world biggest semiconductor frabication equipment maker, Applied Materials, as an example, to investigate the company¡¦s strategically responsivenesses against the business cycles, the current industry environment and its desire in business growth. The conclusions are: 1)Applied Materials has been taking joint ventures, outsourcing and global development center establishments to reduce its operation cost. It had also entered the fab service market to create a new niche. 2)In response to the customers¡¦ demand in productivity improvement , Applied Materials has been activating differentiation strategies to develop high-productivity products. It has also been performing Continuous Improvement Plans (CIP) to further reduce its products¡¦ Cost Of Ownership (COO) to meet the customers¡¦ requirement in cost reduction. 3)The equipement suppliers have been conducting related constrained diversification strategies to extend their business scope. They mostly used the Mergers & Acquisitions to enter the new markets. 4)The strategy effectiveness (in view of the shareholders¡¦ return on investment), is positively related to its consistency with the company¡¦s core competencies. In other word, the higher the consistency is, the better the ROI will be. Keyword: Internal Environment Analysis, External Environment Analysis, Strategic Responsiveness, Diversification Strategy, Differentiation Strategy, Mergers & Acquisitions

QC 20110118

Abstract Problem: The desire for development in less privileged countries like Uganda has created the need for the privileged countries like Sweden to embark on external knowledge transfer through different projects, as one of the objectives to achieve development. However, some factors tend to limit the success of this external knowledge transfer process. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to find out the factors that lead to the barriers and limitations of knowledge transfer in development projects. Since there are differences in objectives between nonprofit and profit making projects, the research is also aimed at highlighting the extent to which the affecting factors hinder the achievement of objectives and goals. Method: Qualitative methods were used in this research. Telephone interviews were conducted after sending questionnaires to four respondents from different organizations that were actively involved in the projects. In order to have balanced results, two respondents each from Uganda and Sweden were interviewed. Trustworthiness and ethical issues were put into consideration while conducting the interviews, in a bid to create a desirable atmosphere for conducting the study. Result: External knowledge transfer is affected by factors like culture, individual factors, and knowledge management factors. Apart from the mentioned factors, research found that instead of organizational factors that would affect profit making projects to a greater extent, factors like the political will, ownership and local needs are the ones that affect development projects. Conclusion: The factors that affect the external knowledge transfer process are to a greater extent human, and are controllable. In development projects, the recipient country should identify the needs that would initiate the external knowledge transfer process. Most of the affecting factors would be controlled through building of relationships and strong ties, local ownership, and political considerations. All this put into consideration, external knowledge transfer between developed and developing countries stand a high chance to succeed.

Background: In Sweden, only 652 companies have managed to reach the criterions stated by Dagens Industri in their ranking of the Swedish gazelle compa-nies. Rapidly growing companies are very important for the creation of job opportunities and economic wealth. Growth is associated with significant costs, especially for a manufacturing company, and capital is therefore vital for a company’s prosperity. Capital can be either internally generated or externally provided. Previous research has shown that companies firstly prefer internally generated funds, then debt and last new equity. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe, analyze and provide examples on how Swedish gazelle companies have financed their growth, what financing options they have and for what purposes they needed finance. The thesis will also examine the importance of external financer’s contribution with financial and human capital for the growth of the gazelles. Method: A qualitative approach has been used to meet the purpose of the thesis. 12 in-depth, unstructured phone interviews have been conducted with some of the fastest growing gazelle companies in Sweden. Conclusions: A company can finance its growth using owner’s equity, retained earnings, leasing, factoring, public subsidies and loans, bank loans, venture capital and business angels. All these sources of finance are represented in the empirical findings except for factoring. Internally generated capital has mainly been used to cover working capital and to some extent smaller in-vestments. The externally provided capital has mainly been invested in larger investments like machines, property and product development. The financial capital has been the main contribution by external financers except for business angels, where the human capital was most important.

Competition on today’s market is fierce. Providing a defect-free product is no more a competitive advantage. Now money and focus is put on managing the supply chain, a competitive tool to thriving in today’s business climate. There are two distinct flow pipelines: the order information transfer pipeline and the product transfer pipeline, both dependent on the collaboration efforts of individuals. Evolving within supply chain management equals integrating the supply chain from basic to complex; from baseline or functional to internal or external. Bringing focus to where it is found to be lacking, this literary study highlights and connects issues that may arise during implementation of external supply chain integration. The focal point is thus on employee reactions to change, with each stage of implementation that the implementation issues connect to. Simultaneously, the study provides (pre)requisites to management during the different stages, which would support the implemented transition in its different phases. The result of this study is a Manger Model that gives an overview of each of the implementation stages, the requisites for management and issues regarding employees at each of the stages. Constructed to be applicable to more than just external integration the model encompasses all the gathered models and theories through a discussion of not only the complexity of the internal and the external supply chain, but also the complex nature of the individuals caught within the implementation, both from the manager’s as well as the employee’s point of view.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether Karlstad City Fiber Network visual elements in the form of a pair of speech bubbles fit into the organization's holistic external communication and branding. The study examines whether Karlstad City Fiber Network image of the organization and the speech bubbles match the stakeholders view and how the visual elements are perceived and recognized by stakeholders. The theory associated with the study is theories of corporate visual identity, image, identity and branding and visual communication. These three elements are important to be aware of when a generation of an effective external communications. Qualitative interviews with employees at Karlstad City Fiber Network and Karlstad municipality has undertaken to give an idea of ​​what the organization wants to achieve and what their opinions are. Karlstad City Fiber Network wants stakeholders to perceive the brand building marketing records as playful, with a twinkle in his eye and inviting to dialogue while the direct information shall be straight and free of jargon. The organization wishes that stakeholders see them as a safe choice as well as local and accessible for inhabitants of Karlstad. Karlstad City Fiber Network sees it as a great advantage to be taken of Karlstad Municipality, which also welcomes the urban network is municipal. Through focus group interviews with Karlstad City Fiber Network stakeholders, the inhabitants of Karlstad, it has emerged that the speech bubbles is not recognized, but it is only when the speech bubbles is put into a context, such as newspaper or newsletter that it can be linked to anything that advocates the municipality of Karlstad and dialogue. It is concluded that corporate visual identity is the link between the visual and the context of an organization's marketing. Stakeholders see Karlstad City Fiber Network as a credible organization that is simple yet eye-catching newsletters, but believe that their marketing is somewhat vague and confusing. / Studiens syfte är att undersöka huruvida Karlstads Stadsnäts visuella element i form av ett par pratbubblor passar in i organisationens helhetliga externa kommunikation och varumärke. Studien undersöker om Karlstads Stadsnäts bild av organisationen och pratbubblorna stämmer överens med intressenternas bild samt hur de visuella elementen upplevs och känns igen av intressenterna. Teorin som är kopplad till studien är teorier inom corporate visual identity, image, identitet och varumärke samt visuell kommunikation. Dessa tre delar är viktiga att vara medveten om vid ett framställande av en effektiv extern kommunikation. Kvalitativa samtalsintervjuer med medarbetare på Karlstads Stadsnät samt Karlstads kommun har genomförts för att ge en uppfattning om vad organisationerna vill uppnå och vilka deras åsikter är. Karlstads Stadsnät vill att intressenterna ska uppfatta den varumärkesbyggande marknadsföringen som skämtsam, med glimten i ögat och inbjudande till dialog samtidigt som den direkta informationen skall vara rak och utan facktermer. Organisationen önskar att intressenterna skall se dem som ett säkert val samt lokalt och lättillgängligt för Karlstadsborna. Karlstads Stadsnät ser det som en stor fördel att vara ägt av Karlstads kommun, vilka också ser positivt på att Stadsnätet är kommunalt. Genom fokusgruppintervjuer med Karlstads Stadsnäts intressenter, det vill säga Karlstadsbor, har det kommit fram att själva pratbubblan inte känns igen utan att det är först när pratbubblan sätts i en kontext, till exempel tidningsannons eller informationsbrev som den kan kopplas till något som förespråkar Karlstads kommun och dialog. Slutsatsen är att corporate visual identity är länken mellan det visuella och kontexten hos en organisations marknadsföring. Intressenterna ser Karlstads Stadsnät som en trovärdig organisation som har enkla men ändå iögonfallande informationsbrev, men anser att deras marknadsföring är något otydlig och förvirrande.

The main objective of this research is to estimate internal and external wage effects associated with a changing share of college graduates in Canada. This paper uses data drawn from the Canadian 1991, 1996, and 2001 Public Use Microdata File for 25 to 65 years old individuals working full-time and full-year in metropolitan areas. These workers are then separated into four different levels of education groups in order to estimate the effect of change in the share of college-educated workers on their earnings. <p>The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimates, controlling for potential work experience, total years of schooling, individual occupation, employment industry, immigration status, visible minority status, show a significant positive relationship between the percentage change of the share of college-educated workers and the percentage change of individuals real weekly wage rates. We found that one percentage point increase in a census metropolitan areas share of college-graduated workers was associated with a 0.35 percentage change in all workers wage rates in that city. For separated education groups, our results showed that a one percentage expansion in the supply of college-graduated workers raised less than high schools wage rate by 0.245 percent, raised high-school graduates wage rate by 0.363 percent, raised more than college-educated workers wage rate by 0.385 percent, and raised college-educated wage rate by 0.326 percentage. These results are consistent with the conclusion arrived at by E. Moretti, (2004) that all types of workers earnings increased when a citys share of college graduates rose.