Import from China : The straight way to success?

Abstract The interest in China today is enormous, and media talk about successful firms and entrepreneurs that engage in business with China. This positive image has created a general per-ception that China offers the moon and the stars for Swedish micro and small sized enterprises (MSEs). We still believe that there are many opportunities to extend or build busi-ness upon import from China. However, we question media’s communication that import from China is a straight way to success. If this is an accurate picture of the situation, what is it that makes Swedish companies hesitating about establishing import business from China? The purpose of this thesis is to identify the reasons for Swedish MSEs to engage in import from China, as well as recognizing the problems they experience. We will by analysing the underlying factors of the problems describe different ways to handle these issues. We have chosen a qualitative approach with semistructured, deep-going interviews, which we have carried out on six companies that have gone through with the import process from China. The empirical findings will be the base in order to verify the theories on this subject. We have come to the conclusion that there is a division between production companies and trading companies when it comes to the reason to start importing. Trading firms generally follow the opportunities while production companies are forced to take action because of push effects. Also, the hype about China has helped in choosing China before other countries. The companies in this thesis have generally no trouble in finding a supplier but rather to find suitable suppliers. The major problems in trading with China are quality and delivery, which many companies handle by shortterm procedures like over-explicitness, constant reminders and increased specifications. They argue that these problems depend on lack of understanding, variation in outlook, different behaviour, as well as pride and attitudes among the Chinese. However, we believe that these issues have their roots in culture, linguistics and different views of how relationships should be considered. Thus it would be a more long term solution to handle the underlying issues which in the extension is a more successful way of importing from China

Renovation of Swedish single-family houses to passive house standard : Sensitivity analysis

A third of Sweden’s two million single-family houses were built in the period 1961-1980, and many of them are in need of renovation. Energy use in these houses is high, and they are fairly homogeneous in technical terms. A previous study of four reference houses showed that final energy use could be reduced in theory by approximately 65-75 % after renovation, by implementing conventional passive house components renovation measures. This paper evaluates the results and uncertainties arising from the previous study by performing a local sensitivity analysis of the most important input parameters, such as number of inhabitants, climate zone, orientation of the houses and alternative renovation measures in a Swedish context. The results presented in this paper show that the previously estimated final energy use reduction can be increased even further, to 75-80 %, by introducing additional renovation measures. The climate zone was shown to have the largest impact, with twice as much space heating required in the coldest evaluated climate compared to the mildest. The impact from inhabitants was less than expected, due to a counterbalancing impact on the final energy use from internal gains and domestic hot water

Renovation of Swedish single-family houses from the 1960s and 1970s to net-zero energy buildings : Case study

This paper evaluates whether a net-zero energy building (NZEB) can be attained by implementing on-site renewable electricity production when renovating to Passive House level. The assessment is based on the Swedish single-family housing stock constructed between 1961 and 1980, using two case study houses and three locations. Specific conditions of the houses, such as the type of heat generation and available roof area for installation of a photovoltaic system, determine whether a NZEB renovation is possible. Overall, the assessment showed that it is not cost-effective to aim for NZEB when implementing a PV system, based on the alternatives in this study

Parenteral Vaccination against Influenza Does Not Induce a Local Antigen-Specific Immune Response in the Nasal Mucosa

The immune response in the nasal mucosa to influenza vaccination in 23 patients scheduled for tonsillectomy was studied. A statistically significant increase in influenza virus–specific serum and oral fluid antibodies was observed 7 days after vaccination. The numbers of influenza virus– specific antibody-secreting cells (ASCs) in peripheral blood also increased significantly 1 week after vaccination. The numbers of ASCs in tonsils and nasal mucosa were compared with data from a recent study of nonvaccinated volunteers. The numbers of influenza virus–specific ASCs in tonsils were significantly higher in the vaccinated group, but, surprisingly, there was no significant difference between the groups in the numbers of ASCs in nasal mucosa. This suggests that the influenza virus–specific antibodies detected in oral fluid are not produced locally in the nasal mucosa and may originate from a systemic source, indicating that the vaccination may favor a systemic immune response