https://www.mdu.se/

Within the discipline of information systems sometimes the conception of the main object is that the information system must be computer based. An example of an information system that is non-computer based is the scenic theatre performance. Input is the message or knowledge the participants of the theatre production want to pass over to the audience; output is the information and experiences the performance in itself mediates to the audience. This has been produced through a system development process; although the developers not always have been aware about what development model has been used.

The dissertation combines some of the concepts found in theatre production with traditional system development concepts, and hence introduces new perspectives into the area of information systems. Some of the main findings in the study of theatre productions were the triplicity of a theatre production as a development process, an information system and an organization at the same time; the integrated relations of context, developers and users, which leads to spontaneous changes and overlaps of development roles; and the narrative and dramaturgical approach in the practical use of methods and techniques.

These aspects should be useful also in development of other types of information systems, whether computer based or using other information technologies. The triplicity gives arguments to redefine each of these concepts.

The generalizability of this approach has been validated through a second study, at a folk high school, which showed that models and concepts from theatre productions are possible to generalize to other information system areas than theatre, and that the borders of the organization coincides with the borders of the information system. Especially temporary organizations must be seen as ongoing, continuous development processes.

Detta är en lärobok i grundläggande programmering. Den fokuserar på att lära ut det som är gemensamt för de flesta programmeringsspråk – de grundläggande elementen och programkonstruktionerna och hur dessa relaterar till varandra, oberoende av språket. Vilket språk programmet skrivs i måste vara underordnat den uppgift programmet skall lösa. Boken går därför igenom grunderna i strukturerad programmering och visar otaliga exempel i såväl flödesdiagram, strukturdiagram, pseudokod som i källkod. I slutet av boken finns kapitel som går igenom grunderna även i objektorienterad programmering.

Boken tonar ner inlärningen av ett specifikt programmeringsspråk, men i slutändan måste program ändå skrivas i något språk. Exemplen är skrivna i C# som har slagit igenom som ett praktiskt programmeringsspråk på mycket kort tid och redan börjat göra sitt intåg i högskolekurser i programmering.

I första hand är boken avsedd för nybörjare i programmering på högskolenivå, som vill lära sig programmeringens grunder.

Problem: To find out appropriate marketing strategies for Iraniandry-fruit company to enter the Swedish market.Purpose: To find out an optimal entry mode for “Nature’s PowerAB” to follow while entering Swedish market.Method: Exploratory research is used predominantly to gain adeeper understanding and insight of something. The designis far more flexible and dynamic than that of descriptiveresearch. The collected data helps us explore and learnabout the current situation of the Swedish market withreference to its uncontrollable and controllable elementsand also helps us develop a marketing mix for NaturePower AB.Conclusion: The conclusion of this Master Thesis has implications forpistachio importers to Sweden.

The patient Botvid´s way to right care. The planning process of an inter-organizational care pathway project.

A general problem in an elderly patient’s care – and rehabilitation process, which involves different care providers, is that there is no one single staff that is responsible for the whole “production process” i.e. from diagnosis to completed treatment. All too often care providers focus on their own part of the process with insufficient communication with other providers, resulting in low quality of care. Poor co-operation also leads to increased demand for check-ups, unproductive waiting time, duplication of work and other inefficiencies. A solution to these co-ordination problems can be to introduce process orientation (integrated care pathways). A process view requires the concerned staff to look at their own work with other eyes. The process view implies that they need to change focus to what is best from the patient’s point of view.

Experiences from earlier reforms, that were centrally initiated and managed, show that the concerned staff (doctors, nurses etc.) had too little influence during the planning and implementation phases. Several official reports therefore call attention to the need for broad participation from all of the different staff categories in organizational development.

In this thesis a qualitative case study of the planning process of an inter-organizational project between primary care, hospital treatment and municipality care is presented. The aim of the project was to develop an organization that could support a process view among the care providers. The focus of the thesis is on how the project management acted to shape the necessary conditions for a process view to enable the professional staff to participate, and on the role that the change strategy played in this connection.

The results show that the professional staff had an active role in the management of the project. The initiator was a doctor, who managed the project team of 50 care staff together with a project leader. This team had a series of meetings and conferences during ten months. By exchanging ideas and experiences they found solutions to the operative problems that were the starting points for the project. They developed an action plan in consensus, with prioritized activities, which is now to be implemented.

Purpose - The aim of this article is to provide a holistic framework for the acquisition of strategic resources. Design/methodology/approach - The literature dealing with resource creation is reviewed and analyzed from a resource-based point of view. The major methods of acquiring resourcesare identified through the literature review and the applicability of the framework proposed is illustrated with an empirical example. Findings - Three ways of acquiring strategic resources are identified - direct investments, organizational processes, and product market positioning. All three ways of acquisition can be intentional or unintentional. Arguments for using this six-dimension scale are provided through deductive reasoning, literature review, and the empirical example. Research implications/limitations - The study identifies the six dimensions of strategic resource acquisition. However, integration of these dimensions is not a subject addressed in this study. Cluster analysis of companies according to these dimensions could enhance our understanding of the characteristics of companies regarding resource acquisition. Originality/value - Whereas previous studies have generally used a single-theory approach, this study highlights the importance of having a holistic outlook when analyzing resource-based competitive advantages.

Bakgrund och problem: Efter att i flera år diskuterat behovet av företagsrekonstruktion lades det slutliga förslaget fram år 1992, se SOU1992:113, som ledde fram till ett införande av lagen om företagsrekonstruktion i svensk rätt år 1996. Bakgrunden till lagförslaget var att konkurs leder till kapitalförstöring och att företag som i grunden är livskraftiga men som genomgår en ekonomisk kris inte ska behöva gå i konkurs. Efter införandet av lagen har den kritiserats bland annat för att företag med likviditetsproblem ansöker om rekonstruktion för sent vilket ofta får konsekvensen att företaget går i konkurs. En annan anledning är att den sällan använts och att rekonstruktören inte har någon bestämmanderätt till skillnad från konkursförvaltaren som har auktoriteten att genomdriva det han/hon vill. I den rådande finanskrisen har rekonstruktion blivit vanligare. Avsikten med rekonstruktion är att företag ska få en bättre ekonomi genom att likvida medel frigörs genom verksamhetsförändringar samt att den kan vara räddningen för företag som genomgår en ekonomisk kris.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att beskriva och undersöka hur företagets ekonomi har förändrats genom en rekonstruktion.

Metod: Uppsatsens syfte bestämmer metodvalet vilket är att nyckeltal och årsredovisningar samt offentliga handlingar från Tingsrätten i Eskilstuna analyseras av ett specifikt företag som genomgår rekonstruktion samt att jämföra företaget mot branschgenomsnitt i form av nyckeltal.

Resultat och slutsatser: Resultatet visar för perioden före rekonstruktion på ett undermåligt utfall av företagets nyckeltal med en viss förbättring året före rekonstruktionen vid jämförelse med branschnyckeltalen. Under rekonstruktionen visar analyseringen av företaget på tydliga tecken hur företaget försöker förbättra sin ekonomi men fortfarande är under branschgenomsnittet. Efter rekonstruktionen får åtgärderna som gjordes under rekonstruktionen en viss effekt men inte tillräckligt för att företaget ska bli lönsamt vilket leder till att företaget får ansöka om konkurs. Slutsatsen av detta är bland annat att företaget ansökte för sent om företagsrekonstruktion vilket ledde till att kostnaderna blev för stora i förhållande till intäkterna.

Title: The engagement letter influence on the expectation gap – An empirical study on the expectation gap between auditors and small incorporated companies.

Keywords: Engagement letter, Expectation gap, Misunderstanding, Auditing, Audit, External Auditor, Client, Communication, Knowledge, General view

Problem: People outside the audit society have some mood points in what an external auditor is and what she/he does. Not everybody can understand an audit report and connect the auditor’s responsibility to it. These mood points mutually with ignorance about the auditor and its tasks can result in disagreement between auditors and interested parties, who have different needs and expectations on the auditor, which leaves the auditor-role with a built-in conflict in its role. The authors, in this essay, investigate whether, the relative new law, who request the auditors to establish an engagement letter with the clients, has decreased the misunderstandings between auditors and small limited companies.

Purpose: This essay is meant to investigate if the engagement letter has decreased the expectations gap between external auditors and clients.

Method: Facts has been gathered with the help of interviews with external auditors as well with clients. The questions that were asked during the interviews were half-structured, which gave the respondent the freedom to answer the questions freely but within the scope that was interesting for this essay.

Result: This study show that FAR through its new regulations in RS, in this particular essay, the engagement letter has not fulfilled its purpose to decrease misunderstandings between external auditors and clients, in this case, small firms. The engagement letter has been received as a contract as one of many. Our study shows that there have been no evident differences in knowledge-transfer between external auditors and clients. The engagement letter is designed by auditors with expertise which is not understood by the clients, which leads to a lack of interest by the clients that also reflects on the auditors. It seems though the engagement letter considers as insurance, above all by the auditors in situations when an actual misunderstanding, with legal actions as consequences, occurs.

Entrepreneurs are expected to play a crucial role in times of unemployment and economical regression. A “hunt for entrepreneurs” can thus be said to be occurring as they appear to be people who can save nations, societies, and companies in troublesome situations.

The project Diversity in Entrepreneurship (DiE) aimed to introduce a broad view of entrepreneurship in a regional context. Three development areas are emphasized that are strategically important to transforming a traditional industrial community into an entrepreneurial region: paying attention to the spirit of enterprise among underrepresented groups; stimulating entrepreneurship among young people; and considering the importance of culture in stimulating a diverse and entrepreneurial society.

An equality discourse is introduced through DiE that – emphasising social and mundane occurrences - stands in contrast to the historically rooted enterprise discourse that proffers companies as productive apparatus, where a few competent people – often men – have been, and still are, in charge. In the equality discourse, all people in the region make a difference, not merely a few. The encounter of the two discourses has resulted in confusion, and thus conflicts and collisions; but also in new possibilities.

A new perspective of entrepreneurship and regional development is developed where conflicts are put forward as constructive. That the two discourses met on the same regional scene is therefore seen as positive as many people have been made aware of the social, political, and economic contradictions which restrain some groups in society from creating a (working) life. Hence, the contradictions have enabled the inhabitants to see themselves, and others, as entrepreneurs in regional development processes. Openings have thus emerged to view entrepreneurship from a broader perspective that includes people, to create practices through which a more diverse working life is becoming discernible.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to challenge a traditional image of the content of entrepreneurship, which is associated with creativity, identity and discovery recognition. Design/methodology/approach A narrative approach is used in telling the story about the artist/entrepreneur Mikael Genberg. The story is based on interviews, newspaper material and observations. Taking this story as the point of departure, an alternative image of entrepreneurship is suggested. Findings First, from a traditional Schumpeterian perspective Genberg could be portrayed as a good example of a hero entrepreneur, an archetype of the creative artist/entrepreneur. Instead Genberg in this paper is described in terms of a creative imitator. Second, the Schumpeterian “hero entrepreneur” is associated with a fixed and strong identity. This picture is challenged and replaced by a demonstration of how double or multiple identities are used in legitimizing work which is argued to be more illustrative to the content of entrepreneurship than finding the true identity of the hero entrepreneur. Third, discovery recognition from a traditional perspective is attributed to the individual, while in this case opportunity creation signifies the process of making discoveries collectively shared. Research limitations/implications This study is exploratory and based on a single case, while the results cannot be taken as generalizations. Instead an alternative understanding of the content of entrepreneurship is illustrated. Originality/value The value of this study is the demonstration of an alternative image of the content of entrepreneurship.

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this research paper is to investigate opposing versions of entrepreneurship and to introduce a metaphor to stimulate a dialogue about the diversity and complexity of enterprising communities.

Design/methodology/approach – A discourse framework is developed in order to describe dominating – and even new and challenging – versions of entrepreneurship. The discourse analysis is presented in three steps: the introductory text to a handbook of entrepreneurship is deconstructed to expose some basic assumptions of entrepreneurship; drawing on several research articles, some dominating versions of entrepreneurship are analysed; drawing on research articles which have recently been published in two special issues in entrepreneurship journals, alternative versions of entrepreneurship are analysed.

Findings – This paper compares three dominating and three alternative versions of entrepreneurship. All the versions are related to the idea of entrepreneurship as a story of creation for our times, where it is implied that entrepreneurship appears to be something inherently good for society and for people. The versions share a common denominator but are also distinguished by different ontological and epistemological assumptions that make a dialogue between the versions problematic.

Research limitations/implications – The results of this research paper have obvious limitations because of the methodology employed and due to the limited number of texts analysed.

Originality/value – The concept of a discursive web to analyse the world of entrepreneurship is introduced.

This paper is based upon a regional development project in a 'vulnerable' Swedish region consisting of three municipalities. At a first glance, this is a region in decline that is lacking in entrepreneurial initiatives. During a crucial time period the project 'Diversity in Entrepreneurship' (DiE) was launched to help the region to become more entrepreneurial and inclusive. An underlying logic was built into the project, which is associated with the critical pedagogy of Paolo Freire. From a Freirean perspective regions lacking in entrepreneurship could be reconsidered emphasizing that the entrepreneurial initiatives are always there - latent - however restrained by certain discourses; in this case a dominant enterprise discourse. Above all the enterprise discourse suppresses the ability for particular groups in society to view themselves as entrepreneurs. The purpose of this paper is to introduce Freire's critical pedagogical perspective to entrepreneurship and regional development. An episode illustrating how the enterprise discourse suppresses an equality discourse, introduced by way of the DiE-project, makes the point of departure for discussing the process of 'conscientization', which refers to a type of learning that is focused on perceiving and exposing contradictions and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality (Freire 1970). Some key Freirean ideas or concepts are explained, first as they were expressed by Freire and then applied to entrepreneurship and regional development. It is then discussed how these concepts found their expressions in the project. The critical pedagogic perspective not only emphasizes an entrepreneurial potential in every individual, but it also gives an idea of what kind of processes could release entrepreneurial initiatives among those who do not view themselves as entrepreneurs.

Offentliga stödinsatser för att främja entreprenörskap och nyföretagande tilldrar sig ett stort intresse. I detta papper diskuteras offentliga initiativ som syftar till ett skapa entreprenöriella processer. Betydelsen av ideologiska utgångspunkter (metaidéer) ställs i relation till allmänna förutsättningar för att skapa entreprenöriella processer. Vi har följt ett Equal-finansierat projekt, Mångfald i Företagsamhet (MiF), med syfte att utveckla strategier, metoder och arbetssätt för att utveckla en organisatorisk infrastruktur som främjar företagsamhet och som präglas av mångfald. Projektet har visat sig framgångsrikt i att initiera ett antal aktiviteter som vi identifierar som entreprenöriella processer. Vissa problem har identifierats beträffande de företagsfrämjande strukturerna, bland annat beroende på att ideologin bakom projektet uppfattats på olika sätt. Mångfaldstanken ses som ett fruktbart perspektiv på samspelet mellan individ och kontext, en tanke som även genomsyrar ett nystartat företag i regionen. I papperet diskuteras entreprenöriella processer ur ett resursperspektiv. Med betoning på samspelet mellan finansiellt, humant och socialt kapital ser vi det kulturella kapitalet som en avgörande faktor för att starta entreprenöriella processer. Ur ett mångfaldsperspektiv diskuteras hur metaidén kan leda till ett bättre företagsklimat, som en del i en framväxande bred social, kulturell och geografisk miljö.

I vår undersökning har vi granskat hur kvinnor upplever sin arbetstillfredsställelse inom informationssystemutveckling (IS), om kvinnorna påverkas av organisationskulturen och hur det i sin tur i så fall påverkar deras karriärer. Vi har tittat på kvinnornas möjligheter till utbildning inom företaget samt vilka ambitioner som finns. Syftet med undersökningen är att undersöka och kartlägga hur karriärmöjligheterna och de eventuella hindren ser ut för kvinnor som jobbar inom informationssystemutveckling i Sverige idag. Vi har genomfört sju stycken intervjuer med kvinnor på olika företag i Västerås, Enköping och Eskilstuna och ställt frågor utifrån en intervjuguide. Den teori som användes som utgångspunkt för undersökningen är delvis hämtat ur en artikel av Baroudi, J. och Igbaria, M. ”An examination of gender effects on career success of information system employees” där en undersökning som genomfördes i USA 1994/1995 redovisas med tillhörande teorier om kvinnor som arbetar med informationssystemutveckling. Resultatet från deras undersökning jämförde vi sedan med resultatet vi fick från vår undersökning. Teoriavsnittet kompletteras även av en artikel från 2000 som baseras på Baroudi, J. och Igbaria, M undersökning som genomfördes 1994/1995. Utifrån respondenternas svar har vi kunnat hitta gemensamma nämnare. En av slutsatserna är att den flextid som innebär oregelbunden arbetsbörda och obekväma tider är det som mest utmärker sig för IS. Flextiden styrs av de många och krävande arbetsuppgifterna inom IS, då stora förändringar måste ske på kort tid, till exempel nya programvaru-uppdateringar och viruslarm. Alla som ger sig in i denna sektor måste vara väl medvetna om dessa saker eftersom det påverkar både det sociala livet och familjelivet.

Policy changes towards global sustainable development have important consequences for how these policies are organized. New and alternative models of organizing tend to emphasize indirect control rather than direct control and supervision. However, our understanding of their effects and consequences is not very well elaborated. The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of specific characteristics and effects of organizing alternative environmental policies towards sustainable development. The paper is based on a field study of the latest attempt in Sweden to work towards sustainable development. In 1998, the Swedish government formulated a programme for local investments aiming at positive environmental effects and increased employment rates. In this article, we have posed more general questions on how to understand and to theorize upon the organizing of sustainable development. We suggest a view of the implementation of environmental policies towards sustainable development as a chain of translation. These translations highlight unintended consequences of the policies, e.g. the creation of a temporary linguistic community allowing local and global 'time spaces' to merge.

Abstract

Date 12th June, 2008

Course Name Master Thesis EFO 705

Program MIMA‐International Marketing

Group Satu Kristiina Castren 821118‐P147

Kaleem Ullah Muhammad 801202‐P310

Tutor Tobias Eltebrandt

Title

What should be done to improve employee motivation at Lammin Osuuspankki branches in Lahti?

Problem Statement

What should be done to improve the motivation of employees by the

management at the branches of Lammin Osuuspankki in Lahti?

Purpose of the Research

The purpose of the research is to study internal marketing at Lammin

Osuuspankki Lahti branches focusing on employee motivation. This research is designed for the management of Lammin Osuuspankki so that they can encourage the employees to work in an effective way. The authors will find the factors that are effecting the motivation of employees at the branches and need further improvement to increase the motivation of the employees. The research aim is to improve the employee motivation at the branches through our suggestions.

Methodology

For this research, the authors have used primary and secondary data to collect the information needed. The primary data was collected by qualitative and quantitative methods. The quantitative data was conducted by a survey, which was based on a theoretical model, the dynamic Triangle of motivation and the adapted job characteristic model. The qualitative primary data was gathered by two interviews. The secondary data was collected mainly from books, online databases and articles.

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework includes two models: The Dynamic triangle of

Motivation and the modified Job Characteristic Model. The dynamic Triangle of Motivation looks at the values and attitudes and the needs that influence motivation for employees at a learning organization. The Job characteristic Model is a framework for studying the impact of job characteristics on job satisfaction and job outcomes.

Conclusions

The conclusions revealed the different preferences and importance of the motivational factors to the employees at Hämeenkatu and Paavola bank branches. The authors concluded all the motivational factors that require improvement to increase the motivation of employees at Hämeenkatu and Paavola branches. In short, other than cultural harmony and communication between co‐workers inside social dimensions all the other factors required improvement to improve the motivation of the employees.

The aim of the present article is to put culture on the agenda when discussing and working with IC reporting and IC management. Differences between Spain and Sweden in the Meritum work are discussed in relation to the interest and experience of IC among firms; and the way the firms develop IC management and IC reporting. We propose that culture might affect the assumptions of knowledge as well as the creation and the adoption of new knowledge. Thereby culture may determine the emergence of IC management and reporting. However, there are no national cultural differences with respect to the development of IC management and reporting.

Abstract

Date 29th May 2008

Title Friis & Company in Thailand: the case study for

entrepreneur

Authors Sitichai Chokphiboonkarn

Tharinat Phatthararangrong

scn07001@student.mdh.se , tpg07001@student.mdh.se

Tutors Tobias Eltebrandt

Problem Which factors should an entrepreneur consider when

establishing Friis and Company in Bangkok.

Purpose The main purpose of the thesis is to study Friis

& Co's overall business and analyze Bangkok in order to find

out the criticalfactors for the entrepreneurs who want

to establish Friis and Company in Bangkok. Afterward,

the authors will provide a business plan as a

recommendation for any entrepreneur who

wants to establish Friis and Company in Bangkok.

Method Primary data was collected through questionnaires sent

to Thai women who live in Bangkok as well as interview

with Friis and Company franchise department and branch

owner in Västerås,Sweden. Secondary data was gathered

through books, article and internet.

Conclusion There are many factors that the entrepreneurs should

consider when establishing Friis and Company in

Bangkok.

Entrepreneurs can gain benefit from Friis and Company

strengths and opportunities. However, they also need to

find the solution to their weaknesses and threats.

After that target group need to be determined in order

to find the target customer of the products. Then the

marketing mixes are designed to suit and match with the

preference of the target group.

Recommendation Business plan has been generated in order to give a

practical guideline for entrepreneurs who want to establish Friis and Company in Bangkok.

TB control has suffered from budget reductions in South Africa. It is critically important to develop cost-effective strategies to reduce the TB burden. Costs to public budgets can be substantially reduced while maintaining or improving case detection and treatment outcomes, by using farm-based LHWs.

The end of the twentieth centry, and the beginning of the twenty-first, was a revolving period with many mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies among Swedish IT-companies. Such events are likely to affect more than just the companies directly involved, i.e. the bankrupt and consolidating parties, and this thesis considers the contextual embeddedness of mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies by studying them in a business network setting.

The primary aim of this thesis is to further the understanding of business network change and its underlying dynamics. A business network is a conceptual description of the interrelatedness of companies, which makes them problematic to describe and understand. This thesis suggests a force-based approach to business network change, which focuses on the forces underlying the change rather than the actual alterations of the business network. The suggested approach emphasizes the change and enables an exploration and description of business network change based on its underlying forces, linked to form a change sequence. The events that occur and the forces they give rise to can be used to describe the character of such business network change sequences.

To enable a study of a change sequence within the Swedish IT-related business network, this thesis will use a technique designed to gather information about events and parts of the business network structure by systematizing data from news items describing mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies involving Swedish IT-companies during the years 1994-2003. This data structuration technique enables a longitudinal and retrospective study of a business network change sequence. The analysis indicates a high possibility of inter-linkages between mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies involving Swedish IT-companies, and describes a business network change sequence with high intensity and wide extension, which is the type of business network change with the highest potential impact, here referred to as ‘turbulence in business networks’.

Denna uppsats behandlar SSAB Tunnplåt och deras önskan att öka försäljningen av tunnplåt. Detta antas kunna uppnås genom att förbättra kommunikationen genom säljverktygen. Säljverktygen innefattar telefonsamtal, personliga möten, broschyrer, videokonferenser, branschtidningar, e-post samt SSAB Tunnplåts hemsida. Eftersom företaget inte erhåller tillräcklig kunskap om säljverktygen medför detta att företaget inte kan förändra eller förbättra säljverktygen för att effektivisera kommunikationen. Syftet med undersökningen är därmed att tillhandahålla uppdragsgivaren med förslag och förbättringar gällande säljverktygen samt redovisa deras användning.

In today's economy, the production and consumption of images rivals the production and consumption of products, challenging basic notions of economic practices, transforming what constitutes an economic system and shifting the appropriate sites of analysis: "Images are now as much amaterial force in and between societies as are economic and political forces". Constructing and using images related to information technology, silicon, and digital fabrics, has been one way of (re)presenting a city in the late twentieth century. Examples from the early 1990s are Osaka as a"city of intelligence," Barcelona as a "city of telematics," Amsterdam as a "city of information," and Manchester as a "wired city." More recent examples include Stockholm, of course, as an "IT City" or a "Mobile Valley," Boston as the "Cyber District," Colorado Springs as "the Silicon Mountains," and the beach area between Santa Barbara and San Diego as the "Digital Coast." How such images are created, how they are circulated, and whether they have any correspondence to the lived city, are beyond the scope of this paper-as is the question of whether the images of Stockholm as the Internet City or as the Mobile Valley are "true." The concern of this paper is to show the functions that these images perform-in a spatial sense. In other words, what does an image of Stockholm as an IT City do? What happens when Stockholm is mentioned as the "Internet Capital of Europe" on the cover of Newsweek? What are the results of Stockholm's being identified as the "most dynamic and attractive European region (in which) to work and live" by the German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche? These questions are answered by first offering atheo retical account, in spatial terms, of what images do and then studying the IT-related images of Stockholm presented in articles, reports, photographs, and Internet searches. 

A theoretical framework for analysing control implementation structures and processes is discussed. The framework is applied to a comparative study of a control strategy implemented in Germany and one implemented in Sweden. The differences between these control strategies are explained. In Germany, legislation was used to combat single-source, measurable emissions. Environmental problems that are identifiable and measurable lend themselves to such detailed legislation. However, this is not the case with newly defined environmental problems such as diffuse emissions. Thus, in Sweden, openly formulated directives were used to combat diffuse, hard-to-measure emissions. This illustrates the recent tendency in Swedish environmental control, which is a change from centralized control through regulation to decentralization of environmental control through reforms.

This article discusses the changing role of municipalities in the control of new environmental problems. The definition of environmental problems changes over time. It could be said that the change mirrors a learning pro¬cess, whereby the most prominent problems are solved first. Single source emissions have been dealt with and now diffuse emissions are increasingly becoming the environmental challenge.

The results of an empirical study of four environmental projects concerning the control of diffuse emission are presented with regard to the new role of municipalities. This study shows how municipalities are moving from their traditional control and supervisory role to a cooperative and "joint-vision" role.

The concept of joint vision involves a competence development of interest groups that are not fully informed and that partially have competitive roles. Joint vision demands a leadership that encourages open undertakings and personal responsibility not supervision and control by others.

This paper strives for a conceptualization of sustainability, design and contemporary consumption. By sketching out how effective production systems have created an abundance of products, the paper links this development to the aestheticization of society and an increased interest in design. In market economies characterized by profusion, corporations engage in activities filling their offerings with aura, aesthetics, symbols and meaning. In such lands of plenty, conspicuous consumption becomes a thoroughly expressive activity and highly problematic for actors with ambitions to design a sustainable future. Our conclusion is that sustainability must ultimately be seen as intertwined with social processes such as fashion, identity and identity construction.  

Metaforer som verktyg för ideologisk styrning. Fågel, fisk eller mittemellan? Forskare och praktiker har sedan slutet av 1980-talet med växande intresse studerat och använt metaforer som ett redskap för att förstå eller kontrollera organisationer. I den teoretiska diskussionen återfinns argument allt från en optimistisk till en pessimistisk inställning till metaforanvändning. Den förstnämnda inställningen utgår från en humanistisk ansats medan den andra ofta intar en mera kritisk och emancipatorisk hållning. Föreliggande uppsats vill bidra till diskussionen genom att presentera och analysera två fall där metaforer har använts för att påverka uppfattningar och föreställningar hos anställda. I synnerhet är artikeln en analys av hur metaforiska budskap har använts i broschyrer inom två olika personalutbildningar i svensk detaljhandelsverksamhet. Vår huvudsakliga slutsats pekar mot att metaforisk kontroll inte gör ledningen av organisationer mer mänsklig utan bidrar till att bekräfta och befästa befintliga strukturer och att objektifiera personalen. Men samtidigt förefaller den ideologiska styrningen knappast vara speciellt slagkraftig.

This paper elaborates on the problem of managing the ecological challenge from a competence point of view. The aim of this paper is to discuss a set of competence areas from a management perspective, which together form the concept of ecological competence. Conceptual reflections about ecological competences establish a first step in specifying descriptions of an ecological learning process and may contribute as an analytical tool for researchers interested in exploring this subject more. Empirical data from Sweden demonstrates learning elements of emerging "ecological spaces".

Thailand’s economy has gone through a quick development during the past two decades As a result of the economic crisis in 1997, His Majesty the King Bhumibol Adulyadej introduced the philosophy of sufficiency economy (SE). SE is built upon a model which can be used every day, notonly during crises, to strengthen the economy within the country and the society. Due to the worldwide attention on the philosophy it is interesting to research how applicable SE is in Sweden or generally worldwide.The aim of the field study and the thesis is to obtain a contemporary interpretation of the applicability of sufficiency economy.The approach of the field study consisted of four main steps; feasibility study, research tool, the field study procedure and evaluation. The study includes a literature study with a combination of interviews with key persons, a multinational company situated in Bangkok and Thai students. The intention of the selection was to obtain a conceptual interpretation of SE in relation to the interviewed people. The answers of the different groups were first put in their own context, and then a comparison was made in order to make the analysis.Several different opinions were uncovered regarding the interpretation of SE. It is necessary to interpret it at an individual level.The rational decision making and following the middle way is important to achieve a balanced life. However it is a knowledge gap within theThai society where it is important to have a stable government and the right spokesman of SE.