This study highlights the structures and networks thatexist among financial analysts on the Swedish financial market. The study isbased on nine semi-structured interviews with buy- and sell-side analysts, anindependent analyst and an Investor Relations Manager. The theoretical framework of the study is based on acombination of the research fields Behavioral Finance and Social Studies ofFinance. These two research fields have proven to be a good basis for thequalitative approach used in the analysis. The study is divided into four thematic areas: Fundamentals / Psychology, Independence and consensus, Ranking and Social network. The results show that there are a large number offactors, structures and interpersonal relationships that affect how analystsmake their decisions and conduct their analysis. Among other things, theinterdependence between analysts and their counterparts prohibits the movetowards a more clear system for compensation. These structures can also have animpact on analysts' rationality from an individual perspective and a network perspective. Furthermore, we have found that technological developments willpose major challenges for the sell side's ability to generate revenues in the future. / Denna studie belyser de strukturer och nätverk som förekommer bland aktieanalytiker på den svenska finansmarknaden. Studien baseras på nio semi-strukturerade intervjuer av aktieanalytiker på köp- och säljsidan, en fristående analytiker samt en IR-ansvarig. Den teoretiska referensramen som studien baserar sig på är en kombination av forskningsfälten Behavioral Finance och Social Studies of Finance. Dessa två forskningsfält har visat sig utgöra en bra grund för den kvalitativa ansats som använts i analysen. Studien är uppdelad i fyra tematiska områden: Fundamenta/Psykologi, Självständighet under konsensus, Ranking och Nätverk. Resultaten visar att det finns ett stort antal faktorer, strukturer och interpersonella relationer som påverkar hur analytiker fattar sina beslut och genomför sina analyser. Bland annat innebär de ömsesidiga beroendena mellan analytikerna och deras motparter att en utveckling mot ett mer tydligt ersättningssystem förhindras. Dessa strukturer kan även ha en påverkan på analytikernas rationalitet ur ett individ- och nätverksperspektiv. Vidare har vi funnit att den tekniska utvecklingen kommer innebära stora utmaningar för säljsidans förmåga att generera intäkter i framtiden.

This research investigates the European Mobile Telecommunications industry, looking at the biggest strategic challenges Mobile Operators are going to face in the next years. Mobile Services platforms represent the most important paradigm in the industry. Companies as Apple, Google and Facebook have successfully married new consumer devices and Internet platforms with a variety of online services and content undermining Operators ́ central role in the value network. This scenario highlights the importance to investigate how Operators can adopt successful strategies to keep on playing a meaningful role in the Mobile Services domain.These strategies are identifies and mapped adopting a value network model for the Mobile Services domain. This model is the main contribution of this research, tracking new ways of cooperating among them. Operators ́ strategies revolve around two main drivers: defeating networks congestion (investing in network upgrade, optimization & spectrum auctions, charging Service Providers for HQ delivery services and elaborating data price plans for mobile customers) and finding new revenue opportunities (working with Service Providers to offer Location-based services, offering charging services to interested parties and working on Mobile Services platforms).As first step, the investigation offers an overview over the industry, looking at static (actors, technologies, services, devices, end-users and value network configuration) as well as dynamic (trends as Open Mobile, MVNOs, Fixed-Mobile Convergence and Substitution and 4G adoption) aspects. Then the research continues analyzing Mobile Services platforms, proposing an interesting approach to classify scientific articles about this topic. Italy is analyzed as case study and subsequently the model is developed. To conclude the study deals with some reflections about the delicate topic of shaping strategies after a massive usage of end-users data to provide innovative and sophisticated mobile services.

Freight transport is a large contributor to emissions of CO2 and to mitigate its environmental impact is essential in strive for a sustainable future. Existing reports usually discuss the issues from a national or global perspective, but rarely provide any concrete or practical information on an organizational level. This report aims to describe the key driving factors of CO2 emissions caused by freight transport and recommend suitable measures for organizations to mitigate their environmental impact. To do this, a case study at Atlas Copco’s business area Industrial Technique (ITBA) is performed, four different business scenarios are created and the emissions from the scenarios are simulated. ITBA is a decentralized organization with most of the production sites and sub suppliers in Europe. Over 90% of the finished goods are sent to a distribution center in Belgium and then delivered to the customers. Today, most customers are located in Europe and this market accounts for nearly 80% of the distributed weight. However, ITBA believe in a strong growth in the North American and Asian markets and that the customer base will look much different in 2020. More customers at longer distances from the distribution center will lead to a heavily increased use of air freight, resulting in higher emission levels. This study shows a clear correlation between the total CO2 emissions and the share of air freight. In order for ITBA to expand their business and at the same time lower their emissions, actions are required. This report shows that a lower share of air freight and the use of several decentralized distribution centers can reduce the emissions significantly. Other means to lower the emissions include relocation of production sites, education to increase the awareness within the organization and including environmental performance when evaluating third party logistics.

Detta examensarbete ämnar att undersöka samt föreslå hur kvalitetssäkring kan utföras för att införliva kundens behov och intresse till en färdig produkt som kunden vill köpa. Syftet är att skapa en fördjupad kunskapsbild kring kvalitetssäkring för företag. Utförandet sker genom en kvalitativ metodprocess i form av en fallstudie för att studera, analysera och beskriva fenomenet. Det är av intresse eftersom krav på kvalitet ständigt ökar då nya tekniska lösningar tillkommer och nya former av affärsverksamheter uppstår. Kunder kräver produkter med bättre kvalitet, lägre pris, bättre prestanda och allt detta till en ständigt minskad leveranstid. För att veta vad kunden efterfrågar och säkerställa att det uppfylls måste företag arbeta med en offensiv kvalitetsutveckling. Det gäller att företag får en förståelse av att kundtillfredsställelsen är essentiellt för alla verksamheter, inte för att försörja, sälja eller ge service utan för att uppfylla de behov som driver kunder till att göra affärer. För att kunna möjliggöra en hög kundtillfredsställelse presenteras olika metoder och verktyg som Quality Functional Deployment och Design For Manufacture and Assembly inom fyra olika områden som alla måste ha ett fungerande tvärfunktionellt samarbete. De fyra områdena är identifiering av kundbehov, designprocessen, produktionsprocessen samt verifiering av kvalitet. Under identifiering av kundbehov ges förutsättningarna för hur bra en produkt kan bli på marknaden. I designprocessen utförs de viktigaste besluten som påverkar produktens slutgiltiga pris. Produktionsprocessen innebär att på ett standardiserat sätt producera produkter som uppfyller fastställda specifikationer med små variationer. Slutligen används verifiering av kvalitet för att säkerställa att produkten uppfyller specifikationen. Efter att en teoretisk referensram och empiri presenterats i examensarbetet analyseras och diskuteras dessa för att se hur fallföretaget arbetar med kvalitetssäkring. Till sist ges slutsatser för vad fallföretaget kan förbättra i sitt arbete med att säkerställa en högre kundtillfredsställelse. / The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate and suggest how quality assurance can be accomplished and incorporated with customer needs to a product that customers want to purchase. The goal is to create a deeper understanding about quality assurance in businesses. It’s conducted by a qualitative case study to learn, analyze and describe the phenomenon. This is of interest because the requirements for quality are constantly increasing as new technology becomes available and new businesses arise. Customers require products with better quality, lower price, better performance and all this to a constantly reduced delivery time. Therefore, companies must work with a total quality management to discover customer needs and ensure that they will be fulfilled. Businesses must gain an understanding that customer satisfaction is the ultimate objective of every business: not to supply, not to sell, not to service, but to satisfy the needs that drive customers to do business. In order to enable a high customer satisfaction, different methods and tools as quality functional deployment and design for manufacture and assembly are presented within four different areas which all must have a good cross-functional cooperation. The four areas are identification of customer needs, design process, production process, and verification of quality. The identification of customer needs provides the conditions for how successful a product can be on the market. During the design process the most important decisions that affect the final price of the product is taken. The production process means that in a standard way, with minor variations, produce products that meet defined specifications. Finally, verification of quality is used to ensure that the product meet the specifications. After a theoretical framework and empirical evidence has been presented in the master thesis, an analysis and discussion is established to see how a company works with quality assurance. Finally, conclusions are presented about how companies in a similar situation can improve their efforts to ensure a higher customer satisfaction.

Sedan apoteksmarknaden avreglerades har många nya aktörer etablerats, både stora apotekskedjor och privatägda apotek. Alla slåss de om samma marknad, den marknad som Apoteket AB hade innan avregleringen. P/S Apotek är ett nyöppnat apotek på Sankt Eriksplan och deras uppdrag var att ta reda på vad kunderna efterfrågade hos ett apotek. P/S Apotek hade tänkt erbjuda två unika tjänster som inte finns på andra apotek, hälsokväll och specialistrådgivning. Syftet med denna uppsats är därmed: Att undersöka vad ett nyöppnat apotek skall erbjuda för produkter, service och tjänster samt vilka kunder de skall satsa på för att erhålla marknadsandelar.   Fyra olika metoder har använts för att kunna nå fram till målet med examensarbetet: benchmarking, dold observation, kvalitativa intervjuer och enkätmetodik. Resultatet av undersökningarna blev att de potentiella kunderna ville ha längre öppettider på vardagskvällar. Det viktigaste kriteriet som de potentiella kunderna värdesatte hos ett apotek var sortimentet. Produkter som de gärna vill ha på apoteket är bl.a. hudvårdsprodukter, självtester, träningsrelaterade produkter och hjälpmedel för äldre och handikappade. Bland de kvinnliga tillfrågade var hälsokvällen relativt populär. Tjänsten specialistrådgivning fick positiv respons hos 3 av de 5 segment. För att bestämma vilka kunder P/S Apotek skall satsa på har segmentering genomförts. Det segment som P/S Apotek bör satsa på är segment 4 (kvinnor i åldern 41 - 65 år) med avseende på de tjänster de vill erbjuda, hälsokväll och specialistrådgivning. / After the marked deregulation, many new players have entered the Swedish pharmacy business. Both major pharmacy companies and small privately owned companies have entered the new market. Before the deregulation this entire market was owned by Apoteket AB, which had a monopoly on the market. This report is about a newly opened pharmacy, P/S Apotek. P/S Apotek needed to know what the customers demanded and if there was an interest in some of the unique services that they wanted to offer. The purpose of this report was thus: to investigate what a newly opened pharmacy should offer product-wise and service-wise and what customers they should focus on in order to gain market shares. Four different methods have been used within the report: Benchmarking, non-participant observation, qualitative interview method and questionnaire survey. The result of the surveys was that the customers wanted longer opening times on weekday nights. The most important criteria that the customers valued, for a pharmacy, was the selection. Products that the customers wanted in a pharmacy included skincare products, self-tests, athletics supplements and aid for elderly and impaired. Among the women that were surveyed the "healthcare night" was popular. The service specialist advice was popular among most of the customers. In order to determine what customers P/S Apotek should focus on a segmentation was conducted. This resulted in that segment 4 (women aged 41-65) seemed to be the most interested in the services P/S Apotek wants to offer, "healthcare night" and specialist advice. Thus, if P/S Apotek is going to offer these services, segment 4 should be the target group.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is practice that is followed with the controversy of whether is a real management tool or rather is a fad. A good context in order to study this polemic is the current crisis that has affected worldwide, because if CSR practices are kept in this context means that it is not a fad. Spain is the country chosen for focused this report, due to it is one of European countries most affected by economic crisis. So, this thesis seeks to check which polemic part is right as well as observes CSR situation in Spanish companies so far. CSR situation of large companies and SMEs are the main points investigated, in order to do this, it uses a quantitative and qualitative methods. Firstly, using surveys it is examined large companies’ situation, more specifically IBEX 35 companies that are Spanish enterprises that list at the stock market. Secondly, SMEs situation is analyzed qualitatively using gatherings, interviews and the documentary that are conducted by a Spanish awareness camping called “El valor de ser grande”. Moreover, it is reviewed and analyzed the existing literature creating a theoretical framework built on the pillars of CSR. The research allowed us to obtain the main features about Spanish companies both large companies and SMEs regarding CSR. In large companies CSR is root and is perform for years to gain momentum over time, i.e., it is performed as fundamental element in the company. Instead, in SMEs CSR is beginning to gain further strength and is increasingly performed but it still has a long way to go. Therefore, it is said that CSR is in the second phase, the first one was in big companies and now it is up to SMEs. Moreover, it is confirm that the crisis has increased CSR value to society and business provoking a clean effect over bad CSR policies. In conclusion, this research proves that companies have increased CSR actions in the crisis context so far. Therefore CSR is not a fad, although this will not be final result until the crisis is over and then its final effect will be rechecked.

Denna studie behandlar implementering av lean på en informationsprocess för fel- och avvikelserapportering i produktutvecklingen hos Saab AB, under affärsområdet Security and Defence Solutions (SDS) och sektionen Command & Control Systems (C2S). Målet med studien är att genom kartläggning av informationsflödet analysera hur leanfilosofi och leanmetoder kan implementeras för att utvärdera och förbättra informationsprocesser samt vilket problematik som finns förknippat med detta och kan avhjälpas av detta. Studiens mål är även att analysera hur mätetal kan användas för att mäta effektivitet och att se vilka potentiella risker som finns förknippat med detta samt så är målet att analysera hur ett företags organisationskultur påverkar flödet i informationsprocessen samt en implementering av lean. Uppgiften löstes genom att skapa en gedigen kunskap inom området genom teoretiska källor och simultant så utfördes en omfattande fallstudie med 21 kvalitativa intervjuer som huvudsaklig bas där flera perspektiv framkom som bidrog till en övergripande kartläggning över informationsflödet. Det empiriska materialet analyserades gentemot det teoretiska ramverket, där Likers 14 identifierade principer för implementering fungerat som utgångspunkt, vilket ledde fram till att ett flertal slutsatser kunde dras. Slutsatserna sammanfattas och illustreras i en figur som påvisar den generella problematik som behöver begrundas vid ett införande liknande det analyserade. I figuren belyser vi slutsatsen att företagskulturen genomsyrar varje steg av implementeringen av lean och att det första steget måste vara att se till så att kulturen är mottaglig för implementeringen och den förändring det innebär. Detta illustreras genom en organisationskulturgrund som stödjer hela den fortsatta implementeringen. I figuren belyses sedan problematikerna: stress och tidsbrist, informell felrapportering, IT-problematik, mätetal – visualisering samt bristfällig kommunikation. Slutsatsen som dras är att dessa problematiker, samt förändringsovilja inom företagskulturen, måste begrundas vid ett införande av lean och som också kan avhjälpas vid en implementering. / This study deals with lean implementation on an information process for the error and deviation handling in the product development at Saab AB, the business area Security and Defence Solutions (SDS) and the section Command & Control Systems (C2S). The purpose of this study is to analyze how the lean philosophy and lean methods can be implemented to evaluate and improve information processes. The purpose is also to identify the problems that are associated with this and can be helped by this. The aim of the study is also to investigate how metrics can be used to measure effectiveness and to identify the potential risks that are associated with this and finally the aim is to analyze how a company's organizational culture affects the flow of an information process and an implementation of lean. The task was solved by first creating a solid knowledge in the field through theoretical sources, and an extensive case study of 21 qualitative interviews was conducted. Several perspectives emerged that contributed to an extensive mapping over the information flow. The empirical data were analyzed against the theoretical framework, where Liker´s 14 identified principles for implementation served as a starting point, which led to several conclusions. The conclusions are summarized and illustrated in a figure that shows the general problems that need to be looked in to when implementing lean on a similar process to that in the case study. The figure illustrates our conclusion that the corporate culture affects every step of the implementation of lean and that the first step must be to ensure that culture is receptive to the implementation and the change it implies. In the figure we illustrate this with an organizational culture that supports the entire basis of the implementation. The figure highlights the problems identified through the empirics and the analysis: stress and time constraints, informal bug tracking, IT issues, metrics - visualization and poor communication. The conclusion that is drawn is that these problematic, and the reluctance to change in corporate culture, needs to be considered when implementing lean and also that these problematic can be remedied with and implementation.

Indian IT companies have garnered a good market share in the global IT servicesmarket. Research has been emerging on the competitiveness of the Indian IT industryand the opportunities which led to the success of the Indian IT industry. However,considering the current challenges posed to the Indian IT industry, Indian IT companieshave to move up in the value chain and achieve technology led catch-up with theincumbents to maintain the market share in a highly competitive market. The first part of this study investigates the windows of opportunities created by technoeconomic paradigm shifts and discontinuities that will help the Indian IT companies tomove up in the value chain. To capitalize on the opportunities, Indian IT companieshave to improve their innovation efforts. In the second part of this study, certaindeterminants which improve the ideation capability of the organization are investigatedin the Indian IT companies and its effects are discussed. The report also discussesvarious strategies that can be employed by the Indian IT companies to capitalize on theopportunities and to achieve technology led catch-up.

This thesis is based on the present needs for the factory planning support, of which the most important ones are: • A structured reuse of knowledge and support for industries. Because today the industry handbook in factory planning is not satisfying enough to support this complex process. • Better methods to represent and communicate data between software within the factory layout area for easier data communication and thereby information access, exchange and reuse. To support the factory planning, based on the mentioned needs, a mapping of the present factory planning process is made based on knowledge from industry and academy. Since the factory planning process is a huge and complex process that no one can handle by themself, a puzzle work is performed. Based on gathered information and knowledge an activity model is developed, to structure the data and information. The model gives a better overview on the actual course of events and in this way also “captures” the most important information to be represented for data exchange among different software applications and different people. In this thesis the most important information in factory layout is gathered and structured in a concept model for factory layout. Since the concepts depend on the context in which they are used, it is extremely important to present every concept in its relationship with other related concepts within the area.  A general theory and state-of-the-art definitions in the area is presented and discussed for a factory planning information management system. An evaluation and discussion is made for the state-of-the-art software in the area of concern.

A data-driven approach is considered a viable means of dealing with thehigh degree of dynamics caused by the constant changes that occur withinproduction logistics systems. However, there is a dearth of knowledgeregarding the consequences of employing a data-driven approach inproduction logistics in real industrial environments. This thesis aims toextend the existing body of knowledge concerning the opportunities andchallenges of a transition to a data-driven state in relation to productionlogistics through investigating real industrial cases.In addition to reviewing the literature, this thesis aims to answer threeresearch questions. First, it seeks to determine how enabling technologiescontribute to value creation in a data-driven production logistics system.Second, it studies three industrial companies, analyses their productionlogistics flows and compares the tradition approach to a data-drivenapproach by means of discrete event simulation. Third, through interviewswith several experts with different competences who work for the casecompanies, it aims to identify the challenges associated with the transitionto a data-driven approach.The results show that following a systematic and balanced approach totechnology implementation is important with regard to value creation. Thepotential benefits include improved operational performance, improvedvisibility through real-time control and the possibility for dynamicscheduling and planning. The challenges associated with the transition canbe divided into two major categories: organisational and technical.Moreover, the identified challenges can be mapped against each step in theproduction logistics data life-cycle.Among the identified challenges, some represent potentially valuableavenues for future research. Investigating the possibilities for addressingthe data ownership challenge among stakeholders is one such avenue.Additionally, future studies could address the fact that the technologiesrelated to data analytics, such as artificial intelligence, big data andblockchain, lack a large-scale implementation history when compared withtechnologies such as radio frequency identification. Given the limitations ofprior studies, another possible research avenue involves analysing the dataanalytics use cases in more detail within real industrial environments. / Datadrivna metoder betraktas som ett sätt att hantera den höga dynamik som orsakas av ständiga förändringar i industriella system för produktionslogistik. Dock finns det idag begränsad kunskap gällande konsekvenser av att tillämpa datadrivna tillvägagångssätt på produktionslogistik i industriell miljö. Denna avhandling syftar till att utöka den befintliga kunskapen om möjligheter och utmaningar vid övergången till datadriven produktionslogistik genom att utreda verkliga industrifall och genomföra litteraturstudier. Tre forskningsfrågor har formulerats för att nå detta syfte. Först, att utreda hur den möjliggörande tekniken bidrar till värdeskapande i ett datadrivet produktionslogistiksystem. För det andra, att utreda potentiella förbättringar i och med en övergång till datadrivet produktionslogistiksystem, där studier har genomförts på tre industriföretag, deras produktionslogistikflöde samt en jämförelse (genom diskret händelsestyrd simulering) mellan nuläge och börläge. För det tredje, att identifiera utmaningarna vid en övergång till datadrivet produktionslogistiksystem, där flera experter med olika kompetenser har intervjuats i företagen. Resultatet visar att ett systematiskt balanserat tillvägagångssätt för teknikimplementering är viktigt för värdeskapande. Potentiella fördelar inkluderar förbättrad driftsprestanda, förbättrad synlighet genom att ha realtidskontroll och underlätta dynamisk schemaläggning och planering. Övergångsutmaningar är indelade i två huvudkategorier; organisatoriska och tekniska. De identifierade utmaningarna kartläggs mot varje steg i produktionslogistikens livscykel. Bland de identifierade utmaningarna har vissa en särskild potential för framtida forskning. Att undersöka möjligheten att ta itu med utmaningen för dataägande bland intressenter är en av möjligheterna för vidare forskning. Dessutom, teknologier relaterade till dataanalys, såsom AI, big data och block chain har mindre storskalig implementeringshistorik jämfört med annan teknik, såsom RFID. Ett möjligt alternativ för vidare forskning är att analysera användningsfall av dataanalys i mer detalj, givet alla begränsningar som finns inom verklig industriell produktionsmiljö. Nyckelord Produktionslogistik, Data-driven, Smart, Transition, Teknologi, Simulering