Purpose/ aim: The aim is to examine if IKEA expand too fast. We try to find answers to this problem. This is a huge problem to IKEA and other large-scale companies which plan to expand in the world. Design/methodology/approach: Data on customers’ feelings has been collected through questionnaires. The analysis includes a description of the sample and statistic test. After the test, the relationship between price and quality will be found. Findings: The analysis showed that the expansion of IKEA is fast enough to affect the quality of the products. There is a positive relationship between the quality and price. The rule is that the higher the price the better the quality. The data collected from the questionnaires shows that people think that the quality of IKEA’s products has decreased. In the analysis, the details are showed. What happened, and why did it  happen? From this we suggest that IKEA should slow down the steps to expansion and pay more attention to the quality of the products. Originality/ value: The topic about IKEA’s expansion is a totally new area, which hasn’t been researched upon before. Most people think IKEA is a miracle and they always hope IKEA will build more stores in the world, but with this we disagree. Based on these findings we would argue that IKEA should slow down the steps to expansion and pay more attention to the quality of the products. This study has value for all the large-scale companies that want to find a way to analyze if a company expands too fast.

Syftet med studien var att behandla utvärderingsfasen inom offentliga upphandlingar och mer specifikt från ett leverantörsperspektiv. Offentliga upphandlingar utförs för att få bra kvalitet till ett lågt pris. De kan utföras genom lägsta pris eller ekonomiskt mest fördelaktiga anbud. Genom begärda avslutade upphandlingar kunde modeller som använts identifieras ända ner till dess korresponderande matematiska modell. Poängvägningsmodeller anses inte konsistenta på grund av att de påverkas av irrelevanta variabler likaså den relativa kvalitetsvärderingsmodellen i teorin. Detta betyder att icke intressanta anbud påverkar utfallet för de andra anbuden. Studien visade att det med fördel går att välja den relativa kvalitetsvärderingsmodellen över poängvägningsmodellerna då den inte lider av problemet med irrelevanta variabler. Genom analys likställs den relativa kvalitetsvägningsmetoden med den mer resurskrävande kvalitetsvägningsmetoden som använder sig av absolut påslag/avdrag. Analys visade att rangordningen av anbuden inte förändrades. Genom en känslighetsanalys visades att viktningen för kvalitet och pris från poängvägningsmetoden inte spelade någon roll i den relativa kvalitetsvärderingsmodellen, även detta till fördel då den många gånger godtyckligt sätts av upphandlaren. / The purpose of this study was to address the evaluation phase within the area of public procurement and more specifically, from a supplier perspective. Public procurement is carried out in order to get good quality at a low price. The procurement can be performed by the lowest price or by the most economically advantageous tender. Previously concluded contracts were requested and the evaluation model that they used was identified and also it’s corresponding mathematical model. The score-weighted models were not consistent because they depended on irrelevant variables, as did the relative quality-weighted model in theory. This means that non-competitive tender affects the outcome of the other tenders. The study showed that it is more beneficial to choose the relative quality-weighted model over the score-weighting model, as it does not suffer from the irrelevant variable situation. The relative quality-weighted model is equivalent to the more superior quality-weighted model with discrete premium/discounts. This is the case as the ranking of the tenderers bids were the same in the two models. Furthermore, it was shown through a sensitivity analysis, that the weighting for the quality and the price from the score-weighted model played no role in the relative quality-weighted model; this is also an advantage as the purchaser often arbitrarily sets it.

Lake Okeechobee is the largest lake in the southeastern United States and is a central component of the hydrology and environment of the Everglades ecosystem in South Florida. The natural state of the lake has been degraded as wetlands and natural habitats in the Lake Okeechobee watershed have been replaced with farms, urban areas, and dairy operations. Excessive phosphorus loadings from these diverse sources have been identified as the leading causes of the lake’s impairment. For more than four decades, many resources have been allocated to regional and local restoration efforts to reduce phosphorus loadings into the lake. However, phosphorus loadings have not decreased and the recovery of the lake could take more time, particularly with today’s limited local budgets. Market-based instruments, such as water quality trading programs, have emerged over the past decades to cost-effectively achieve water quality objectives in impaired watersheds. The main objective of this dissertation was to assess the environmental and economic benefits of implementing a phosphorus trading program in Lake Okeechobee watershed, compared to a conventional command-and-control approach. A comprehensive literature overview of nationally and internationally implemented trading programs was conducted to highlight advantages and challenges of these programs towards achieving water quality goals, and to outline the essential elements of a successful program. Furthermore, a modeling framework, integrating a hydrologic-water quality model with an economic model, was developed to assess the potential cost savings that trading might offer over a command-and-control approach. The modeling framework was applied in three priority basins of the Lake Okeechobee watershed. In each case, while developing trading scenarios to achieve phosphorus load reduction targets, the trading program was less expensive than the conventional command-and-control approach. This research provided the foundation for stakeholders to better understand whether water quality trading has the potential to work in the Lake Okeechobee watershed and to facilitate the development of a pilot program. In addition, it offered some insights on the potential economic opportunities that pollution sources would have by participating in the trading program. The modeling framework developed in this dissertation could facilitate the assessment of future water quality trading programs in other watersheds.