Mergers and acquisitions are common business practices and a large amount of studies point to the complexity of these endeavors and the difficulty of executing them successfully. Different kinds of mergers and acquisitions exist and one of the most uncommon forms is referred to as the reverse merger.

The reverse merger is unusual in the sense that the acquiring company conforms to the ways and culture of the target company. Being such a rare event, little previous research regarding the reverse merger, and specifically the integration process of such an acquisition, exist. As a result, further enquiry was deemed necessary, which is why the purpose of this study is to explore said integration and identify areas of complexity in this process.

In order to identify areas of complexity, the authors conducted a case study at a company who recently had partaken in an acquisition intended to be a reverse merger. The majority of the data was collected through in depth interviews on site as well as participatory observations.

The findings in this study indicate three different areas of complexity: lack of cultural awareness, lack of planning as well as lack of communication. These three areas are intertwined and it is suggested that they are accounted for when pursuing a reverse merger. In addition, the findings of this study can be used as a foundation for future research.

This thesis brings up the phenomenon of manufacturing companies transforming themselves to become product and service oriented companies. The thesis aims to discuss the importance of customer support service as a competitive advantage during such transformation process. Earlier research has been focused on the advantages and general challenges with adding services to the core products, but what is lacking is to what extent these offerings fulfil the true needs of the customers as combined offerings result in increased complexity of the development, production, delivery and support processes. As the customer support is the most ignored factor among transforming manufacturing companies, it becomes crucial to highlight the importance of it as a key factor to gain competitive advantage. Thus the aim is to answer: What complications are there in succeeding with the customer support service for transforming manufacturing companies towards services?

To understand what role the customer support service has in relation to transforming manufacturing companies, a case study is conducted at Scania CV AB. The company is offering among other services, the Fleet Management service which is sold together with the vehicles as a way to offer total solutions and become this way service oriented. In Scania´s case, it is the service salesmen at Scania retail organisations that are aimed to act as a first line support towards the customers. Therefore the aim is to investigate and analyse the complications the service salesmen are faced with in supporting their customers. More specifically, the customer´s perspective is studied from the internal organisational view to better visualise the role of the customer support service in relation to the transformation towards services. The study shows that there shouldn´t exist any service without any centralised customer support function as increased sales of services has resulted in increased need for an efficient support service and the fact that the customers base their perceived value on the value-in-use of the offerings. It was further found that the service salesmen need improved IT skills and support from the authorities in terms

of tools and strategies to obtain an effective value communication of the total solution and this way sustain a professional customer relationship.

Increasing the situational awareness within the supply chain by sharing information and conducting accurate demand forecasts helps the companies in staying competitive, overcoming different uncertainties and enhancing financial gains. Furthermore, it is important for the supply chain entities to get accurate, timely and relevant information to be able to gain benefits within the network of the supply chain. Despite having the knowledge of the importance of such actions, firms across different industries are affected by poor, delayed and inexact information. Lack of information sharing within the supply chain compels supply chain players in making decisions with limited demand forecast information, which affect forecasting of future demand. This study has investigated the difficulties in information sharing and how these difficulties affect the aspect of demand forecasting. To conduct the research, a qualitative case study method has been chosen. A pre-study along with reviewing literature was done in order to provide a theoretical framework for the study. The empirical data included semi-structured interviews with eleven Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) businesses in the Swedish manufacturing industry.

The analysis shows that in order enable information sharing within the supply chain, two capabilities i.e. connectivity and willingness need to be taken into consideration. The difficulties identified in this study inhibit these two capabilities leading to challenges in information sharing within the supply chain. Three difficulties inhibiting connectivity were identified: high cost of IT-systems, IT-incompatibility and user-friendliness of IT-systems. Furthermore, four difficulties inhibiting willingness were identified: collaboration complexity, lack of trust, unawareness of benefits of information sharing and culture. Difficulties in information sharing inhibit the ability to share information which leads to lack of information sharing, lack of access to right type of information and low quality of the shared information. Literature and the empirical data shows that information sharing, access to the right type of information and high quality of the shared information are crucial when it comes to demand forecasting. Therefore, difficulties within information sharing inhibit the ability to conduct demand forecasting and lead to demand forecast uncertainties i.e. errors and inaccuracies in the forecasts. The results of this study have implications from a managerial, sustainability and theoretical aspect.

Global competition has been making it harder for the European manufacturing sector to stay competitive and at the same time value for the customer is not only created by the product, but also from factors as technical knowledge, co-development and availability. Therefore, manufacturing companies are shifting their focus from selling products to selling integrated combinations of products and services. Paper companies operating in less commoditized segments that require a high technical know-how has so far resisted commoditization. But increased competition makes it hard for this kind of companies to maintain premium prices. Therefore the purpose of this study firstly is to explore what PSS (Product-service systems) strategies are used by suppliers of intermediate goods and secondly, determine how the case company could develop PSS in the future. To fulfill this purpose the following research questions have been formulated:

Main research question:

How can paper companies operating in less commoditized segments develop their product-service systems further?

Sub-research questions:

What kind of services should the case company offer?

How should the case company package their service offering?

In order to answer the research questions a qualitative approach has been applied. This has been done by conducting a case study on an international paper company operating in less commoditized segments, where two business units were selected to focus on. In total 19 employees from the case company were interviewed. To further support the findings and to get inspiration of possible PSS, employees from eight external companies were interviewed.

The findings show that the case company has a relevant service portfolio but there are areas of improvement when looking at the execution of services and conceptualization of the PSS. Furthermore, the findings show that the PSS should be product oriented and that the two business units should focus on slightly different services even though they are both operating in less commoditized segments.

The findings also show that the case company must have services that are bundled with the product in order to avoid that the customers’ purchasers makes cost-break-downs. At the same time the case company should define the value on as many services as possible in order for the customer to perceive the value added from services. Towards current customers this can be done by documenting the service that the customer has been receiving and the value that has given, and bring it to price negotiations. Moreover, adding a price on the service makes customer perceive the value of the service more and therefore some selected services should be charged for.

With an increasing urban population around the world, the need for urban freight distribution is constantly growing. Many cities face problems with traffic congestion, especially during eak hours in the morning and afternoon. At the same time, the roads are often nearly empty during nighttime. In some cities, like Stockholm, heavy haulage is not permitted to enter the city during the night. This means that carriers are forced to perform these deliveries during the day, which leads to inefficient distribution.

To investigate the possibilities to use nighttime hours for deliveries, which could lead to a more efficient distribution system and increased sustainability of the city, a pilot project has been initiated by the City of Stockholm to test off-peak deliveries. Other similar trial projects have encountered difficulties with getting businesses to participate, and the incentives to shift to offpeak deliveries have been unclear. Therefore, this thesis aims to investigate what incentives there are for actors within a supply chain to make this shift and the key factors that enable the supply chain to benefit.

The thesis is performed as a case study on the pilot project in Stockholm, and uses a business model perspective to analyze how value is created and captured throughout the supply chain. The results show that there is potential for supply chains to increase its total value through offpeak deliveries as a result of increased efficiency, improved delivery reliability and increased utilization of trucks. Pricing models and relative negotiation power between actors have a large effect on how the value is distributed. The main contributors to creating increased value are sufficient delivery volume, compatible processes, and full utilization of trucks. The possibility to use off-peak deliveries for marketing is relatively unexploited and could potentially create more value.

This report is a study of departure punctuality at the SJ train depot in Hagalund. The purpose of the report has been to find underlying patterns and reasons behind late departures.

The theoretical framework that has been used is a combination of Lean and Six Sigma, where the management tool Lean has its basis in optimal resource utilization and minimizing of waste. The Lean concepts that have primarily been used are Visualization and Standardization, this since those are areas in which SJ have been lacking.

The practical work behind the report has been done using the Six Sigma method DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control), where a large focus has been put on Measuring and Analyzing.

The quantitative data that’s been used has come directly from SJ’s own late departure reports, where trains departing 5 minutes or more past the scheduled time are considered to be late. This lateness is automatically registered, where the scheduled departure time is called Right Time (RT) and RT > 5 hence indicated a late departure.

The reason behind the lateness is also noted for all departures, but this data is entered manually and the reason is chosen from a limited, predefined list of lateness codes (JDE codes).

A data mining of the late departure statistics for the Timetable period 2012 (December 11^th 2011 to December 8^th 2012) revealed large flaws with the manual lateness reporting, where inconsistent usage of the JDE codes made it impossible to discern any underlying patterns in lateness factors. 

To circumvent the data flaws an experiment was mad during November 2012, where all late departure reporting during the month was monitored to ensure proper JDE code usage. The result revealed a large previously unknown source of delay, “Human error”, which had hitherto been hidden in the catch-all code “Miscellaneous”. 

A visualization of the automatically collected departure data, the RT data, in turn revealed clear issues during personal shift changes, and also concluded 1pm-6pm CET to be a late departure heavy time of the day. The visualization of departure data was also compared to the visualization of trains’ time spent at the depot, the so called turn time, where trains spending less than three hours at Depot Hagalund could be shown to affect the general departure punctuality to a higher degree than other trains. Through use of regression analysis it could also be shown that trains arriving late with a short turn time, to a higher degree also departed late, whilst trains with a longer turn time were seemingly statistically unaffected by delays in arrival. 

The purpose of the thesis was to investigate what barriers exist for internal supply chain integration within companies in the fast moving consumer goods industry and empirically contribute to the field of integrated supply chain. This was considered to be an interesting topic to investigate, since the fast moving consumer goods industry is characterized by volatile demand which requires a responsive supply chain.

The theoretical frame of reference includes literature within the fields of integrated supply chain and lean enterprise. The area of integrated supply chain has previously primarily been focusing on the integration between actors in the external supply chain, i.e. between suppliers, manufacturers, and customers. Little research has seemed to be devoted to internal supply chain integration, i.e. the integration of functions within companies. The existing literature within the area of internal supply chain integration often comprehend issues related to collaboration, information sharing, communication and the challenge of counteracting objectives among functions. Furthermore, a philosophy aimed at coping with variation in demand as well as making internal processes more efficient is lean. The lean production theory has developed into lean enterprise theory aimed at expanding lean principles to cover the whole company.

 In order to fulfill the purpose of the study, a qualitative approach was chosen including a single case study at  Mondelëz Sweden. A single case study was chosen because the aim was to study a complex, social phenomenon within a specific context. The data has been collected through 23 interviews with unstructured as well as with semi-structured nature.

Within the studied company six barriers for internal supply chain integration have been identified from the empirical findings. These barriers are related to: the understanding of the concept of integrated supply chain; existing silos; uncertainty regarding responsibilities; communication, information sharing; and the use of corporate values. The authors suggest that principles should be used to guide the internal supply chain integration. The principles are tied to the corporate values and should be used to monitor the methods used in the daily work in order to overcome the barriers and become more integrated. The proposed implications for companies in the fast moving consumer goods industry involve both long-term suggestions for internal integration as well as short-term implications enabling direct momentum.

Customers have more frequently started to choose Private Labels in front of Manufacturer Brands  in the  grocery store shelves.  This is  a result of the last decade´s Private  Label development that has taken place across numerous countries and retailers. In recent years the Swedish grocery market has moved into an established Private Label state, as retailers have managed  to  increase  their Private  Labels’  quality,  image  and  penetration.  However,  it becomes  increasingly challenging for  retailers  to  assess  and  manage their  Private  Label portfolios as they become more and more sophisticated.

The  study  investigates  generations  of  Private  Labels  within  a  grocery  retailer  with  the purpose to provide knowledge of how generations of Private Labels can be used to assess and manage a Private Label portfolio. The study used the model generations of Private Labels to classify Private Labels after four defined Private Label generations. The chosen research approach was to conduct a case study at the leading grocery retailer in Sweden. A qualitative study was conducted to investigate the characteristics of the retailer’s Private Labels. A quantitative  study  was  conducted  to  investigate  the  penetration  of  the  Private  Label generations across grocery categories. In addition, three multiple regression analysis were conducted to test relations between Private Label penetration and a number of variables for each generation. The analysis included five variables, which had been identified as possible determinants of Private Label penetration in previous research.

The results of the study showed that the studied retailer held a well-developed Private Label portfolio that included three out of four Private Label generations. The retailer had no Private Labels within the first generation, which was defined as the least sophisticated generation. The third generation, characterized by me-too products, held the largest penetration among all the studied grocery categories. The study found that the variable share of articles had a significant positive relation to Private Label penetration for the three present generations. The study illustrates how the retailer can categorize and assess its Private Label portfolio based on generations of Private Labels. The study also provides knowledge of how the retailer can manage the generations of Private Labels based on its objectives and market situation.

Using the World Management Survey method, the authors mapped and analysed management quality in Swedish primary care centres. On average, private sector providers were better managed than public providers. Centres with a high overall social deprivation among enrolled patients also tended to have higher management quality. Management quality was positively associated with accessibility (length of waiting times), but not with patient-reported experience.

Purpose – The study aims to compare management practices in private and publicly owned elderly care homes. The demands for cost-effective care combined with emphasis on client experience highlights the importance of appropriate management practices.

Design/methodology/approach – The study utilises a survey of 500 homes covering management practices on monitoring, performance management and staff development. These are highly correlated, allowing for treating the practices both in aggregate and individually in the analysis. Additional questions capture information on site and management conditions.

Findings – Management practices employed at the elderly care homes vary greatly, with high and low individual scores found in most homes. But private homes consistently score higher than public homes, especially when it comes to incentive practices. Also, elderly care homes of both ownership forms score at the top and bottom of each management practice. But looking at the average management score, there are fewer private homes that score really low and more private homes that score really high.

Practical implications – The results identify given characteristics and maturity of the various management practices employed to plan and control operations in the elderly care homes and provides managerial and staff insights into their use.

Originality/value – The application and impact of standard management practices has previously been limited in publicly funded services. Little is known about management practices in elderly care and whether the practices are associated with better performance.

The ongoing discussion regarding blockchain technologies is focused primarily on cryptocurrencies, but blockchain features and functionalities have developed beyond financial instruments. As the technologies provide new functionalities, the associated value proposition changes as well. This study explores the relationship between blockchain technologies and their underlying value drivers. Four identified distinct blockchain stages of increased maturity are analyzed and discussed. This covers the evolutionary technology types focused on transactions, smart contracts, decentralized applications, and the introduction of artificial intelligence supporting decentralized decision making. In addition, we address management issues around appropriate blockchain adoption using a blockchain value driver-focused framework that gives decision makers actionable questions and recommendations. We provide practitioners with a method for assessing suitable blockchain adoption that addresses the specific value creation associated with a given organizational strategy. For academics, we critically identify and assess the characteristics of the blockchain stages and their strategy implications and provide a structured approach conceptualizing blockchain technology evolution.

The question of how to handle a disruption in a large organization is largely dependent on what kind of organization that is subject to a disruption, in addition it is also a question that has many areas to consider. The victim of a disruption will most likely not have the initiative due to the nature of disruptions. However, changes in the environment that could indicate a transformation can be observed. But to successfully look into the future and foresee what is going to happen, is almost impossible. This means that an organization that faces a disruption will have to be reactive in such a situation. To handle a disruption efficiently the organization must be prepared in such a way that it can retake the initiative and disrupt the disruptor. The areas that have been given focus are the general strategic understanding and how to increase the organizations innovative capacity.

When facing a high degree of uncertainty and duress, there is a tendency among people to revert to their core competencies. This can be utilized by the disruptor, which leads to that continued use of the core competence can lead to a trap, where the perceived use of the organizations strong point might in fact turn out to be the competitor’s strong suit. The functional fixation also lead to a stovepipe mentality, which in turn leads to inefficient intra unit communication and thus hinders the creation of synergy effects.

External pressure can have negative, as well as positive effects on the organization as a catalyst for change. If the organization is too rigid, i.e. hierarchical structures, poor information flow and experience based leadership, then the organization will tend to focus inwards when confronted by change. On the other hand if the organization is flat and has a leadership that is instead based on intellectual capabilities, then the pressure might lead to a higher capacity for innovation.

However, a flat and ad hoc organization can have problems with coping under too much pressure.

Acceleration of technological development has resulted in increased customer requirements. Momentarily customer demand fluctuates that creates uncertainties, which puts pressure on manufacturing companies to respond and incorporate this into the manufacturing strategy to stay competitive. Additionally, manufacturing companies experience complexities with non-linear production flows that share interfaces. Research in manufacturing strategy is more focused on traditional linear production structures and flows. Thus, the objective of this thesis to analyze integration of shared interfaces between non-linear production flows.

Empirical research was conducted in form of a single case study at a production facility of a manufacturing company, to fulfill the thesis objective. The ambition of the case company is to improve the handling of semi-finished products to achieve an increased efficiency. Interviews, observations, analysis in product profiling by Hill et al. (1998) have resulted in that infrastructural misalignments are considered as major aspects affecting integration of shared interfaces. Further, issues regarding the management of infrastructural aspects are found through in-depth interviews, workshop and analysis. Adjustments to these issues have to be considered to achieve an efficient integration of shared interfaces between production flows.

This thesis contributes within the area of manufacturing strategy and infrastructural decision areas. A contribution within this area is the extension of the product profiling framework usage with a comparative analysis of production flows with the considered dimension of shared interfaces. The comparative analysis showed that there were misalignments between aspects that were shared interfaces in the complex production flows. Furthermore, integration of shared interfaces is seen as a way for manufacturing companies to decrease production complexity and increase responsiveness to respond to market requirements.

Four companies dominate the Swedish telecom operators market. The market is mature and operators try to find ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors. The trend among telecom operators is to find new ways to add value to their products, besides their traditional voice services. This study is delimited to the adding of mobile applications and how that could be done based on customer needs to add value to the customers.

A widespread concept within value added services is Mass customization. The core of the concept is to individualize products and at the same time produce them with the efficiency of mass production. Mass customization can be implemented on different levels. The levels differ depending on how and where the customers are involved in the production of the product. The purpose of this study is to find a way for telecom operators to find a suitable level of mass customization, with focus on the adding of applications.

By conducting a case study of a Swedish telecom operator we have developed a framework that helps companies to find a suitable level of mass customization. The framework has good potential to be used within different types of industries. By applying the framework, we have identified  the  most  important  success  factors  for  telecom  operators  working  with  mass customization. These are market conditions, revenue streams and customer demand. The results clarify that the level of mass customization, which best meets these success factors for telecom operators, is a level where customers are involved in a relatively small extent. The most suitable level of  mass customization for  telecom operators is  to pre-install mobile applications. The study also contributes to the mass customization literature with customers’ opinion about the different levels of mass customization.

The  construction  industry  has  during  a  long  time  suffered  from  poor  development  in  productivity compared to other industries, especially the manufacturing industry. Many initiatives for industrialization have been made during the past decade in order to benefit from standardized products and processes, in Sweden most notably through "Miljonprogrammet" in the 1960s. This era was heavily influenced by the prevailing production philosophy in the manufacturing industry at the time - mass production. Today the industrialization  initiatives  are  based  on  concepts  from  lean  production  where  the  focus  is  upon eliminating all forms of waste through what is related to as industrial construction.

This report is based on the purpose to, using lean philosophies and tools, investigate how concepts from industrial construction is applied in the production of residential buildings using prefabricated concrete elements. The perspective of lean production is chosen because it is suitable for the study of value flows, especially in a production environment. One of the largest  Swedish construction firms  - NCC  AB, currently deploys technical platforms and conceptual products in order to industrialize the processes used to construct rental housing with production cost and time reduction in focus. One of the key components used are prefabricated concrete elements which means the company is suitable as a case study.

Some of the main results extracted through this research is that the studied company and in extension the entire construction industry performs poorly in terms of continuous improvements. This could be a main explanation for the industry’s productivity development in comparison with other industries, especially the manufacturing industry. Further, three areas of particular importance are derived from the case study and compared to theory within industrial construction. These areas are, in this report, labeled pillars for industrialization and it  is  argued for  that  these pillars  needs  to be considered  in order  to  enable a successful industrialized construction process.

The R&D department is a necessity for manufacturing companies in the creation of competitiveness and to gain knowledge for developing new products. Investments in R&D are there for very important and it is also vital to assess whether the investment proposal has a value for the company. It is often difficult to see the direct effects of an investment when the investment is done at an early stage in the value chain and the issues around the investment and the added value to the organization as a whole may remain unanswered.

This study was conducted to examine how the contextual conditions combined with the Performance Measurement System literature affects the design of the measurement system. This master thesis is performed at UTT, a part of Scania's R&D department that is responsible for the construction of the test beds. It is in these test beds tests are performed to measure and verify components or products. The tests have different characteristics and have a great variety, everything from trying new developed concept to verifying final test for a product

that is supposed to go into production. UTT has requested a model that will stand as a decisions tool for test bed investments, where the decisions is made in an early stage and includes taking into account the added value for R&D as a whole. A case study has been conducted by the authors in accordance with the theories revolving Performance

Measurement Systems and the focus has been on examining the specific context that the R&D department at Scania provides. The reasoning of the report and the result and analysis buildup is based on three research questions that take on the contextual problems, together with the Performance Measurement System theories, creating a tool for UTT that helps them evaluate test bed investments in an early stage.

This research covers an analysis of the Swedish consulting firm Centigo. This is a continuously growing medium-sized company where one of the challenges has been to understand how and when to improve and update their working methods and knowledge sources in order to stay competitive. After a few years of fast growth the point where change is needed has been coming closer. Parameters such as company size, choice of strategy, company core values and existing sources of knowledge have been taken into account, and the aim has been for the company to continue the delivery of profitable and well-conducted projects to its customers.

The study has been carried out by looking closely at the company’s knowledge management system (KMS) in general, and knowledge sharing between projects in particular. Empirical data has been gathered through both interviews as well as a questionnaire; in an attempt to answer how smaller knowledge intensive firms, the chosen subset of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) manage and reuse their knowledge. In addition, main areas of improvement are discussed together with suggestions on possible development of the existing KMS.

The results show that, as an enterprise becomes larger, demands on codification increase. Today, in the research company, employees rely almost exclusively on the personalization strategy based on face-toface communication rather than on codification. A balance between the two strategies is a requirement to stay competitive and should fit the organization when it comes to culture, firm size, values and the degree of similarities between projects.

Moreover, demands on better structural capital as exemplified by frequently used document templates and enhanced working processes have been found to be two of the areas of improvement. Junior consultants were found to support this point to a larger degree, whereas managers and other more experienced consultants were more content with the way things were managed. This phenomenon is likely to derive of; to what extent the employees know “who knows what”. As such, this is one of the weaknesses with the existing KMS, and a feature to further develop for the system to better support its intended purpose.

The contribution of this case study to the existing body of knowledge and KM theories fills a knowledge gap, since most studies are made on larger companies in other fields and focuses on detailed methods and means of codification. In addition, many studies are made on American companies with a larger focus on IT rather than management itself. Delimitations of this study include smaller management consultancy firms in Sweden and do not cover larger or foreign companies as many factors differ and consequently affect both the KM strategy and KMS.

Strategic Sourcing has gained great importance over the last few decades and during this era researchers have presented several theories and methods within the area. For instance, Purchasing Portfolio Management including analyzing the purchasing portfolio and egmenting suppliers are common in order to find and direct suitable strategies towards different groups of suppliers with similar characteristics. Until now Strategic Sourcing has focused on handling the top 20 % of the suppliers, although an upcoming trend is to focus on the remaining 80 % of the suppliers. The phenomenon is called Tail Spend Management and the aim is to achieve lower administrative costs, lower prices and increased efficiency etc. To use traditional categorization models in order to manage this part of the supplier base (the Supplier Base Tail) is improper partly because the models focus on top suppliers. They also provide actions that are too costly and time consuming to use for managing Tail Spend. Further, the categorization criteria for traditional models do not correspond to the characteristics of Tail Spend. The purpose of the study is thus to develop a categorization model with corresponding strategic actions for the Supplier Base Tail. The model is based on traditional categorization frameworks. By a case study including qualitative interviews and quantitative data, causes to Tail Spend were found, which were linked to Tail Spend categories found in modern theories. The categories were fit into the categorization framework and corresponding strategic actions were also developed from the theoretical framework and complementary interviews. The study aims to contribute to theory by extending earlier research about Purchasing Portfolio Management in order to be applicable for Tail Spend. The empirical contribution lies in the developed categorization model that aims to manage the  upplier Base Tail and address the causes to Tail Spend found in the unit under study.

Change Management (CM) plays a key role to manage an individual, a group, or an organization from a current state to a desired future state. The purpose of CM is to promote and support activities and actions to higher productivity levels and higher adoption rates simultaneously as stakeholder’s commitment, comfort, and confidence increase in e.g. new solutions, services, products, systems, tools, methods, or ways of workings Previous research claims a gap between CM theory and practice exists, and that a vast number of theories and models available to academics and practitioners is both contradictory and confusing, and that limited empirical evidence supports of the plethora of CM frameworks and models. Thus, this study investigates and clarifies CM-related activities and factors, that could contribute to bridge the gap between practice and research. Regarding the research process, this study builds upon a literature review and a case study. Additionally, a conceptual CM model is composed which builds upon CM-related aspects, activities, enablers, and factors. The case study focuses on lessons learned and current CM practices. In the latter parts of study is the conceptual CM model applied to the empirical findings to find and analyze differences and gaps between practice and theory. At last, is it concluded that no single CM model alone, covers the plethora of activities and factors that are listed in the conceptual CM model. Hence, this study recommends both practitioners and researchers to take multiple CM models into consideration, to support and potentially improve CM practices. In conclusion, this study confirm that a research gap exists between practice and research, as several significant and distinguishing CM-related activities and factors, have been identified and analyzed.

Fast pace of change in the business of technology is the reality of many organizations today. The software development industry is one example where this nature is prominent. Companies need to adapt in ways that eases the persistence against change from external forces. Companies need to turn into Learning Organizations as these help people and organizations embrace change. Two key components of the Learning Organization are the teams, as they are considered to be the fundamental units of organizations, and managers, as they have the biggest impact on facilitating learning in the organization. Therefore, this study has investigated how managers could act to create conditions for encouraging team learning of a software development company to become a Learning Organization.

This has been done by conducting a case study at the company Ericsson in Kista, Sweden, who is market leaders within the software development industry. The case design consisted of a two phase method that included both a quantitative and qualitative data collection method.

The results indicate that Ericsson could be classified as a Learning Organization and in addition display promising characteristics when it comes to having team learning capabilities. Furthermore, the findings suggest that in order for managers to encourage team learning they should take on a coaching and supporting role to understand the need of the teams; challenge the status quo; empower teams through giving them mandate; allocate time for learning as an integral part of the daily work; and reward learning in teams.

The findings of this study have implications both in a theoretical aspect and a sustainability aspect. From the theoretical aspect, the findings provide with further empirical data in a field that is currently dominated by theoretical literature. Furthermore, the findings display a practical example of how managers of a market leading company with promising characteristics of team learning capabilities have acted to create such conditions. From a sustainability aspect, the results of this study give firms a sustainable competitive advantage through increased business performance, healthy labor conditions that are a result of healthy team dynamics and possible encouragement to future attention towards emphasis on environmental aspects.

The concept Lean Production has nowadays become an accepted paradigm in several industries and it has become a fundamental part of manufacturing companies, as it seeks to reduce waste and deliver a high customer value. Lean Production is a technique that is a highly efficient manufacturing practice that helps organizations to carry on a competitive advantage. The concept works as a system of methods and measures which when combined have the potential to carry about a lean manufacturing.

The objective of this research is to investigate how Strålfors Svenska Card can succeed in carrying out changes in their production in order to reduce waste, with reference to Lean Production. The study starts with a brief historical review about lean production, which is followed by a theoretical framework with useful concepts to adapt. The theoretical frameworks used in this research are: Lean House, “4P” Model, Lead the Change, Culture, Processes and Performance Measurements. The main research question of this thesis is: What are the main barriers for a successful lean implementation in Strålfors Svenska AB? Subsequently, the main research question was broken down to four sub questions. These are: How developed and mature in the organization are process methods? How are performance measurements employed? Which role does standardization, such as availability of tools, have? Which role do soft aspects, such as culture and values, play in understanding concepts? 

Strålfors Svenska Card has to build a good platform in order to success with their implementation of lean production. Moreover, it means that the organization has to focus on developing necessary critical factors that are in the guideline with lean production. The researchers has used observations, interviews, surveys and value stream mapping in order to collect necessary data. 

Life Cycle Costs has for long been confined to the corners of the engineering department as a simple backward looking tool to understand direct costs at machine level from a very constricted operational perspective. It was and is still being just used as a reference when the question of purchase of similar machines or lines come up in the future to get a ballpark idea of the direct costs to estimate an overall budget for the purchase to be proposed to the higher management. But this approach has greatly limited the scope of Life Cycle Costing which as the name suggests has a much broader implication dealing with the entire life cycle of a machine, a line, a product or a service and could be a potent aid in decision making at various time horizons of a product or service life cycle.

This thesis is aimed at presenting and illustrating one such approach that can bridge the gap between past and future costs, engineering and management decisions, and direct and overhead resource usage. To do that, we have taken two well-known concepts, Activity-Based

Costing and LCC, and merged the best parts while adding the usage of Monte Carlo simulations, uncertainty, and some additional insight. The result is an approach that is flexible, highly effective, and efficient for most cost management considerations (including LCC) and that can handle risk and uncertainty in a credible fashion. This is evident both from its theoretical foundations and also from the detailed case study provided in this thesis document. The applicability has been tested in an automotive component manufacturing giant,  in their headquarters in Italy. The thesis tends to research in scientific light the current applicability of the Life Cycle Costing and its relation to decision making and strives to broaden the scope of Life Cycle costing to a potent cost management tool which will have a strong effect on the process of strategic capital expenditure decision making and can be used in various significant areas of cost assessment. The breadth of the model enables it to be applied to cost estimations from the earliest levels of development of a product or service i.e. the concept and design phase in an all-encompassing manner considering all form of costs related to the product or service starting from the earliest costs of concept development and research to every other costs that the product or service is destined to incur in its life cycle be it direct or indirect costs with potentially analyzing all contingent costs that might arise due to risks through significant uncertainty and risk analysis in a structured framework powered by the Monte Carlo Simulation. Thus this model could unequivocally standout as an all in one solution for cost management including Life Cycle Costing in its ambit while also pitching important inputs for strategic decision making process of capital investment which tend to have very significant long term organizational implications.

This master thesis is written on behalf of KTH Royal Institute of Technology and the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI). The study investigates how infrastructure ownership could affect the transition from small-scale to large-scale electric road systems (ERS) and how infrastructure ownership affects the foreseen future roles of the ERS stakeholders. The authors have used a qualitative research method, including a literature study within the areas of infrastructure transitions and infrastructure ownership and a case study on ERS. Conclusions are based on the chosen theoretical framework and the empirical findings from conducted interviews within the following stakeholder segments; agencies, electric utilities, road carriers, construction firms and road power technology firms.

The transport system is a large sociotechnical system, which is characterized by a high level of complexity, capital intensity and asset durability which makes it difficult to accomplish radical system transitions. Political regulations and progressive environmental targets have created a demand for new solutions within the transport system. One widely discussed, possible solution is ERS, which are considered to be beneficial from both an environmental and socio-economic perspective. The main identified barriers for a transition to ERS are related to the complex system design. Further, the matter of how the ERS infrastructure should be owned and financed remains unclear.

It will be argued that the government needs to play a key role, both as a coordinator and financier, during the initial phase of an ERS expansion. In order to obtain a high level of competence, which is considered as vital, it is important with close cooperation between different public and private stakeholders and to have a procurement process which is strongly focused on functionality. The authors suggest that in order to decrease system complexity and increase stakeholder cooperation, cross-sectorial system suppliers should be formed. During an initial deployment of ERS towards a national system, it is suggested to only have one cross-sectorial system supplier which manages the constructions and operations of ERS, in order to decrease complexity and increase knowledge. As the system and technology matures and knowledge regarding ERS has been established, it is suggested by the authors to introduce competition at the cross-sectorial system supplier level nationally.

There are many barriers for public private partnerships (PPP) during an initial expansion phase of ERS due to large investments, immature technology and the necessity for an overall control of a large-scale system. In addition, early investments in a large-scale system is considered as unattractive among private actors due to the high risks. However, it will be argued that PPP structures or private ownerships are suitable in closed systems as the level of complexity is lower. These systems should be subsidized by the government as they will drive innovation and stimulate the development. Depending on the degree of capital intensity and governmental regulations, PPP structures could become suitable also in a national system, when the system has matured. The suggested stakeholder structure with cross-sectorial system suppliers facilitates for a possible future PPP structure.

Rapid advancements in Information and Communications Technology (ICT/ IT)   enablemore people and things to connect, where everything that can benefit from a connection will have one. The idea of an all-connected world offers huge opportunities for companies to take, but also challenges in terms of understanding its business characteristics.

The purpose of this research was to find a strategic position within the emerging paradigm of Internet of Things (IoT), from an ICT enabler perspective. The purpose was satisfied by synthesizing an adequate theoretical framework from previous business research- comprising three main elements each forming separate research questions. The areas of focus have been The Environment of the firm, The Internal Core and Business model under an Ecosystem perspective. Building on this an empirical study has been performed through observations from seminars and unstructured and semi-structured interviews, so that to answer what characteristics IoT holds today and in which direction it is expected to develop. The characteristics have been matched with the internal core capabilities of our case study organization, and analyzed in conjunction with the economical logic of a Business Ecosystem.

By using the concept of Value Design, as a Business Model extension suitable for an Ecosystem environment, we have been able to position the case study company within the emerging paradigm of IoT- where a collaborative approach, driving interoperability between different industry verticals is recommended. The findings are two-fold; on one hand we have successfully exemplified the use of the, prior to this research, untested concept of Value Design, while on the other provided a structured way to address how to position an ICT enabler in a market as complex and turbulent as the IoT has proven itself to be.

In today’s society, IT is a part of the everyday life. People have become more or lessdependent on the IT that exists, both in their private life and in their work. An IT system that is not working properly, pose major problems for the people and organizations that rely on it. A robust IT system is thus something that has become increasingly important. The IT industry has in recent years also undergone major changes in pace with the growing use of cloud based services.The purpose of this study is to analyze what impact cloud computing may have on the robustness of IT systems. As well as to provide organizations with recommendations on how they should set-up their IT systems from a robustness perspective. The analysis is based on empirical studies and logical reasoning and has been conducted through a case study of Swedish Armed Forces. The study is based on a two-phase method  which consists of both qualitative and quantitative data collection.The results indicate that cloud computing itself does not automatically make IT systems more robust, but it is the cloud provider's help in both technology and expertise that plays a crucial role for the robustness. A hybrid cloud which is a composition of a community cloud and a public cloud is currently a recommended option. The hybrid cloud makes it possible to separate the services and place the services with high robustness demands in the community cloud and the services with lower robustness demands in the public cloud.

Pedagogical projects have often, at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, as well as elsewhere, been initiated and managed by individual enthusiasts rather than dedicated teams. This generally decreases the possibility of successful implementation of more ambitious ideas, e.g., changing educational programs, implementing the CDIO syllabus, or strengthening the pedagogical development of larger parts of the faculty. To enable wider and more effective change, KTH top management therefore launched a universityencompassing three-year project in 2014, in which a group of highly motivated teachers from all schools at KTH were appointed part-time pedagogical developers (PDs). The PDs were given the task of promoting pedagogical development and facilitate cooperation and knowledge exchange among faculty members, as described in two previous papers at CDIO conferences. From 2017, the outcomes of this project are supposed to be integrated parts of the KTH line organization. The project has led to numerous actions, which would have been difficult to set in motion unless given the freedom in time to explore and to develop into a collective effort rather than a myriad of individual “stand-alone” examples. By addressing key areas for pedagogical development, our group of dedicated faculty have tried to surpass the suboptimal "lock-in" of strict individual reasoning and to deal with surfaced questions and relevant issues in a broader collective manner. A major insight confirmed by the project and its many sub-projects has indeed been the fundamental importance of collegial discussions and the creation of processes that facilitate and support teacher cooperation. We have also, through discussions with faculty at KTH, confirmed the need for clearly defined, tangible incentives for teachers, motivating them to participate in pedagogical development activities, even if this means less time left for the traditional pathway to rewards within academia, i.e. research. In this paper, we chart changes that have occurred in the educational practices at KTH by describing and discussing the project’s focus on pedagogical development of faculty, actual execution of changes in the engineering educations, lessons learned along the way, and visions yet to be realised.

This paper presents a systematic, university--wide approach to creating an encompassing movement towards faculty development. In 2014, KTH Royal Institute of Technology launched the pedagogical developers initiative, appointing part--time pedagogical developers among teachers from all schools of KTH, to implement and strengthen good teaching and learning practices among faculty and students. They are teachers active in different educational programmes, with experience of, and interest in, pedagogical issues. In line with CDIO standard 10, the purpose of the pedagogical developers’ initiative is to facilitate cooperation and knowledge exchange between faculty members, and to establish communities of practice. The paper presents the activities, processes for developing these activities and preliminary results from the initiative’s second year, which focused much on supporting faculty development by putting into place a series of workshops, a format chosen for its combination of active community-building learning and time efficiency. The topics of the workshops emerged to meet faculty needs identified by the pedagogical developers during the first year. The workshops were created by smaller teams of pedagogical developers from different schools of KTH. This enabled a wide array of experiences and perspectives to be incorporated into the workshops. Main focuses of the workshops have been on creating internal discussions in dynamic communities of practice on specific subjects of interest, and on creating forums for exchange of ideas, open to the whole faculty. During Autumn 2015, the workshops have been offered as voluntary add-on parts of the basic course in teaching and learning offered to faculty at KTH. This first round of workshops generated a positive interest from teachers, and participant feedback indicates that they particularly appreciated the opportunity to work directly with their own courses and the opportunity to discuss pedagogical aspects with peers. 

This paper put emphasis on change agents within the universities and how local initiatives can be systematically approached and ramped up. Rooted in the challenges and constraints that have been addressed in past educational program initiatives, the case consists of specific focus areas to leverage impact. Universities continuously strives to provide the best conditions for an inspiring and prosperous learning environment, and to provide educational programs with teaching of excellent educational quality. KTH is no exception and therefore the university management has initiated a pedagogical program starting in 2014. One of the first thing initiated within the framework of this pedagogical program is the creation of a group of 24 pedagogical developers.

The focus for the pedagogical developers is to facilitate the opportunities for KTHs faculty to work together and create consensus on educational development in different teaching teams. This paper presents the University's pedagogical developers' initiative as a whole and how this has been outlined in detail to reach specific redesign targets. The School of Industrial Engineering and Management pedagogical group consists of five practicing teachers that besides this new role also engage heavily in various courses of the School's departments. Since the pedagogical initiative is aligned with several important CDIO aspects, e.g. the learning environment, formats of formative feedback, assessment and examination there is also importance to reassure this in the existing Master level programs.

At KTH the five-year comprehensive Master of Science in Engineering programs concern distinct vocational educations in which the CDIO aspects are very important. At the same time the programs has been divided in a basic level (B.Sc. in Engineering) of three years and a advanced level (M.Sc.) of two years. This has for instance made it harder to align the progression between first cycle level and second cycle level regarding for instance the CDIO efforts (e.g. oral and written communication, teamwork). This paper will therefore discuss and enhance how the pedagogical programme, we as pedagogical developers, can support and strengthen the initiation and implementation of the CDIO aspects in the education.

In today's organizations, it has become increasingly important to utilize the knowledge

accumulated among employees and convey it across the organization, which traditionally can lead

to competitive advantages for the organization. In the case of public healthcare, increased

utilization of the accumulated knowledge means better opportunities to offer highly specialized

care. The healthcare sector has conventionally been a knowledge-intensive sector, where there are

high demands on the skill levels among the professionals. This means that there is much to gain

of having a structured way of managing skills and knowledge in an organization that operates

within such an industry.

This thesis examines how the Department of Physical Therapy at Karolinska University Hospital

is currently working on knowledge management and how to develop future improvements within

this field. The aim is to investigate whether Nonakas SECI-model of knowledge creation is

applicable in the context that the Department of Physical Therapy at Karolinska University

Hospital operates within.

The method consists of a case study of the Department of Physical Therapy with both qualitative

and quantitative aspects of data collection. Interviews, observations and surveys have been

conducted at the Department of Physical Therapy with the intention to obtain an unbiased and

comprehensive view of the clinic and represent the empirical parts of the study. The theoretical

framework is developed on a literature review in the subject of Knowledge Management.

Current conditions and outlooks for knowledge management at the clinic are identified based on

empirical work with the support of acknowledged theory within the subject. Centered around the

SECI-model, future measures for enhancing the knowledge management capability are presented.

The results of this study show that there are no conditions that directly oppose the application of

Nonakas SECI model as a basis for a knowledge management strategy for the Department of

Physical Therapy. Also in this study, seven tools that can increase opportunities for improved

knowledge sharing are proposed.