Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

In today's Sweden there are approximately 23 000 combination companies, and most of them have a connection with the agricultural sector. The most common type of additional operation is some form of contracting.
The aim for this degree project is to answer the following question: which problems and key factors exists within combination operations? The main topic will be within coordination and management questions within agricultural companies with an additional operation.
Litterateur written earlier within this subject will be used in this thesis. Mainly litterateur which contains information about combination companies and diversification of some sort. There are also other theories used in this thesis such as; resource based theory and decision making theory in order to understand the problems and key factors within combination companies.
In order to investigate the aim of this thesis we have chosen to perform two qualitative interviews with the managers of two different combination companies. These companies are managing traditional farm activities and also contracting operations. The interviews will thereafter be analyzed from the current theories and litterateur.
Some of the most important conclusions that has been made from the analyze are that the most limiting resource is time and that the company should adapt its' activities after the available amount of time. Further not being able to work the agricultural operations at an optimal rate because you are busy with the other activities, this may result in high costs. It is also very important be service minded in a combination company.