Waste-to-energy is currently at the forefront of clean technologies. It consists of the burning of different types of wastes (solid, liquid, gaseous) that provide heat and electricity. With high efficiency levels in energy production (80-90%) and low flue gas emissions, this type of energy production has quickly spread throughout Europe. In addition, laws created by both the EU and national governments have created new agendas regarding landfill and waste disposal.   Problem: We have identified three different problems that currently exist: (1) the lack of academic literature which explores specifically business models within the renewable energy industry and the potential that business models possess in exploiting the opportunity within the market place; (2) which methods are effective within a business model in achieving the value that a firm wishes to create, capture, and deliver; (3) current academic literature does not provide enough understanding of the influences and pressures that stakeholders place upon shaping a firm’s current/potential business model.   Purpose: The purpose of this investigation is to examine the business models used by three different waste-to-energy firms in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden and to identify the methods used to create, capture and deliver value. Moreover, we aim to identify and investigate the stakeholders within the waste-to-energy industry of these three companies with the goal of explaining the influence and pressures they place upon the firm’s business model through the use of institutional theory.

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The world experiences large-scale ecosystems degradation in an every part of the planet - in rich as well as in and poor parts. Unstable economic conditions together with weak law enforcements make low income countries face more severe forms of natural destruction. This draws the attention on the need to design economic policies that are environmentally sound and while at the same time ensuring the well-being of their inhabitants in economic, social and natural settings. A number of countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia have experienced a unique historical period of transition from communist regimes to free democratic societies. This has been followed by numerous effects on their financial situations as economic hardships caused by the collapse of economies injected by the assistance from the Soviet and committees of socialist countries mutually aiding each other, opening up of opportunities as private ownership and market liberations. Not all countries succeeded in liberalizing their economic structures and reforming economic and political environments. Simultaneously, the natural environment underwent various effects, both positive and negative, after the Iron Curtain fell and exposed destructing effects of command and control economy. Mongolia has experienced all the hard aspects of the transition and started to climb up on the income ladder from the low income to the lower middle-income list of the World Bank, but also seen many negative price aspects of development. Water resources have been severely degraded in recent years due to anthropogenic impact. However, there are reforms taking place in water sector institutions that have recently attracted wide attention nationwide.This thesis will give detailed picture on current state of water resources in the country and the system that coordinates them. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is used as an approach to highlight the relationship between water resource quality and income per capita in Mongolia. This is followed by a detailed discussion on water institutions development and the coordinating mechanisms badly needed among sectors involved. The research suggests that collaborative actions are important if sustainable water management is to be reached. More generally, I recommend further research issues on the generated topic as my thesis is one of the first discussions coupling the EKC and institutional theory aspects together.

Abstract Title: Implementing CSR in Supply Chains Authors: Emmy Johansson and Stina Olén; Supervisor: Glenn Sjöstrand Date of submission: May 30, 2009   For decades there has been a debate about the environmental and social responsibilities of companies. The work conducted by corporations to meet the increasing demands from wider society to take responsibility is all summed up in the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Pressured to take responsibility also in the supply chains of their businesses, the corporations have increasingly integrated suppliers in their CSR strategies.   In this thesis the obstacles and possibilities with implementing CSR in supply chains are assessed, through a case study. The thesis is written on commission by a large Swedish industrial company that is working with implementing its CSR strategy in its supplier evaluations, and through using a theoretical framework based on institutional theory and CSR theory that implementing process is studied. Having understood that the process is affected by the norms, values et cetera that are inherent in the company, the aims of this thesis have been to understand and explain how the institutional embeddedness affects the implementation of the company’s CSR strategy in its supplier evaluations.   The thesis applies qualitative research methods with emphasis on primary sources. The main empirical data was gathered through ten interviews with employees at different levels in the company, but corporate documents with relevance for the implementation were also studied.   The results of this study indicate that the institutional embeddedness affects the implementation of the CSR strategy in supplier evaluations both positively and negatively. Firstly, it makes the reactive approach of the company, the unclear objectives and guidelines, the lack of commitment from the managers, and the lack of cooperation appear problematic for the implementation. Secondly, we conclude that the institutional embeddedness creates opportunities for an improved implementing process, as there are elements in the institutional identity that correspond with the strategy, but also that there are individual actors with much institutional resources that have potential to change the institution and create commitment towards the implementation.     Keywords: corporate social responsibility, supplier evaluations, implementing strategy, institutional theory, institutional embeddedness

During Nov.2008 to Apr. 2009, firms in Taiwan encountered dramatic financial crisis, and this impact made unemployment rate still climbing and economic depression. In order to reduce the impact from financial tsunami, every firm takes some strategies to resist it. The objective of our study is to find out the influence from financial tsunami on the listed companies. More importantly, we base on the three mechanisms (mimetic force, normative force and coercive force) of institutional theory and the perspectives of population theory to analyze why firms choose those strategies. We collect and analyze 201 returned questionnaires. We find when firms face both high market force, mimetic force and coercive, they tend to choose manipulation strategies. When firms face both low market force, mimetic force and coercive force, they tend to choose compromise strategies. When firms face high market force and low mimetic force and coercive force, they tend to use defiance strategies. When firms face low market force and high mimetic force and coercive force, they tend to use acquiescence strategies.

In 2008-2009, firms in Taiwan encountered dramatic financial tsunami, and this crisis made unemployment rate still climbing and economic depression. In order to reduce the impact from financial tsunami, every firm chooses some strategies to resist it. The purpose of our study is to find out the influence from financial tsunami on the listed companies. More importantly, we base on the three mechanisms (mimetic force, normative force and coercive force) of institutional theory to analyze the real reason for choosing strategies. We collect and analyze 201 returned questionnaires. The finding of this study is that the main factor of choosing strategies is from the mimetic force and normative force. In fact, the enterprise is affected by mimetic pressure deeply, and then it would tend to use the passive strategies. The enterprise is affected by normative pressure deeply, and then it would tend to use the active strategy. Interestingly, whether the enterprise is affected by coercive pressure or not, it doesn¡¦t affect the strategies choosing.

With the blooming of economy after the policy of reforming and opening up, China has become the world's factory, and meanwhile, the increasing income level has led to the demand for luxury consumption. However, those who cannot afford luxury consumption in the Chinese market turned to the counterfeit goods to meet their needs for a conspicuous satisfaction. For the counterfeiting issues in Chinese market, Chinese cultural has been blamed for the main cause, but rarely have researchers taken a delicate view of Chinese culture. This study take the concepts of authoritarian personality and face maintenance which are important in the Chinese cultural characteristics, combining with normative beliefs and cognition of regulative failure as independent variables to identify their relations with the attitude toward counterfeit boutique purchasing behavior, the dependent variable in this study. Meanwhile, we discovered some interesting findings after comparing data from Taiwan and China. In this study, cultural dimensions are used in market segmentation of strategic consideration, hoping for discuss the rampant counterfeiting problems in China. This study provides quality brands in the Chinese market different ways of thinking to fight against counterfeiting.

Institutional environments and the following institutional factors are viewed as the important characteristics in examining firm¡¦s strategic choices as well as the firm¡¦s endogenous resources and the industrial factors. In addressing the multinational company¡¦s location choices issues, institutional factor and the MNC¡¦s reactive strategies are seldom examined since the data limitation. This research tries to discuss the possible institutional sources impact on multinational company¡¦s location choices in China from the institutional theory viewpoint. There are giant institutional transitions in China since the open-market policies in the early 1990s. The announcement of the 12th ¡§five year plan¡¨ in China has estimated to generate great impact on multinational company¡¦s location choices. Thus, this research tries to addressing the multinational company¡¦s location choice issues in China context. Utilizing the in-depth interviewing method from Taiwanese multinational companies, this research supports the arguments from the institutional theory in location choice issues. In that, the higher coercive forces, or the formal forces instead, in a host country, the more likely that the multinational company will choose the acquiesce strategy to move. Moreover, the multinational company¡¦s acquiesce strategy in reaction will also generate economic side-effect in decision-making process. Additionally, in deciding the new location choice, the formal as well as the informal institutional forces will generate impact in multinational company¡¦s location choice, as argued from revised eclectic paradigm. The results provide a beginning in addressing location choice issues in China from the institutional viewpoint.

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<p>The purpose of this text is to contribute to theunderstanding of a specific academic discipline (in Swedishcalled Ekonomistyrning). Another purpose is to contribute to arenewal of this field. Theoretical bases are theories from thesociological field like new institutional theory and theoriesof social constructions. The text consists of two parts. Thefirst part is about the academic discipline and the second isabout newer practices and a renewal of the discipline. In thefirst part twelve prominent academics give their views ofdifferent aspects of the discipline. The images are groupedtogether in different categories and also discussed from aninstitutional theory point of view. The second part puts focuson the pragmatic orientation in theory and on two kinds ofnewer production in practice. Two companies that producetelevision programmes and four biotech-companies are described.Interpretations are made regarding the nature of theirmanagement and control activities. Contributions from the firstpart are that (1) there are two aspects of the discipline. Thefield has first of all a strong pragmatic orientation but alsosmall and growing academic influence. The limit (2) for what isconsidered ekonomistyrning are wider and not so obvious asbefore. Traditional parts of the discipline (3) like budgetinghave been questioned and reconsidered. Consultants (4) havecreated room for new concepts like JIT, BPR, TQM, BSC and SCMinside the discipline. Contributions from the second part arethat (1) individuals are self managed and guided by theirknowledge and that these companies use (2) a "new" kind ofmanagement systems like e.g. milestones. These kinds of newpractices give vital contributions to the discussion about arenewal of the discipline. Arguments are given (3) forregarding management and control as human activities ratherthan technical questions. This calls for an extended use of newmodels, of a different language and of new images based onsocial sciences.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>Ekonomistyrning, Management Accounting,Management Control, Social Construction, Institutional theory,Images taken-for-granted.</p>