Smartphone applications, or apps, are an increasingly important part of omnichannel retailing. While the adoption and usage of apps for communicating with consumers has grown exponentially over the past few years, there is little academic research in this area. The primary purpose of this thesis is to describe how the involvement in a product category affects consumers' intention to use a retailer-branded smartphone application during their shopping trip. Drawing upon recent IS-literature with models TAM and UTAUT, our results indicate that product category involvement constitutes an important factor on the intention to use a retailer-branded smartphone application. By viewing involvement as a multidimensional construct, our study shows that the degree of hedonic and expressive value a product cateogry provides consumers with has important effects on intention, and these relationships are not moderated by consumers' age.

The Swedish bank Handelsbanken has, according to their own way of measuring, been more successful than a weighted average of their competitors during the last 38 years. They have also handled the recent financial crisis, as well as the one in the 1990´s, better than most other banks. This paper studies their management control system at branch level in order to identify the controls which have been enforced to ensure that a low risk level is retained in the lending. The controls that have been identified are; (1) A decentralized organization with the offices as profit centers where the manager has restrictions regarding risk level and the results are measured as K/I (cost/revenue). (2) The absence of bonuses and individual follow-up regarding performance measurement.

Varje år insjuknar 30.000 svenskar i stroke, av dessa avlider 10.000 personer. De som överlever behöver effektiv rehabilitering. CI-Terapi är en behandlingsform där den mindre påverkade extremiteten fixeras och den paretiska extremiteten tvingas till rörelse. Syftet med studien är att granska befintlig forskning angående CI-Terapins effekter på rörelseförmågan och beteendeförändringar hos individer som drabbats av stroke. Studien genomfördes som en litteraturstudie där data söktes på Cinhal, Pedro, Pubmed, Academic Search och Swemed.

The research work performed in this thesis has been carried out at the Production Tech-nology Centre where the Thermal Spray research group of University West has its work-shop and labs.This research work has been performed in collaboration with the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad, India.First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to my supervisors Dr. Nicolaie Markocsan and Dr. Nicholas Curry for their guidance, great support and valuable suggestions without which this work could not have been possible. I would also like to thanks Prof. Per Nylén for keeping faith in me and providing me an opportunity to work at PTC, which is a great place to perform research.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the primary motivation for studying abroad among students at Södertörn University, and also examine how the time studying abroad will affect the students on a personal level. The essay is based on a qualitative approach of ten interviews with students who have already completed an exchange program. With the help of the theoretical concepts of push and pull factors, motivation categories, human capital and previous research, the results and analysis showed a coherent pattern. It turns out that the majorities of students are primarily motivated by the opportunity to enjoy a nice nature, new environment and get to know new people. The time studying abroad mostly contributed to the student?s personal development and also gave an understanding of other people and different cultures.

Gränslöst arbete innebär att ansvaret ligger hos individen och denne själv kan bestämma var, hur och när arbetet ska utföras. Prestationsbaserad självkänsla bidrar till utmattning och sömnsvårigheter och att använda sig av kompensatoriska strategier är ett sätt att hantera gränslösheten. Syftet med studien var att undersöka sambanden mellan prestationsbaserad självkänsla, strategier och återhämtning bland personer med gränslöst arbete. En enkätundersökning genomfördes. Deltagare var 93 män och 47 kvinnor som arbetar på ett privat företag inom säkerhet och utbildning.

In this Master thesis, microwave connections between circuit boards are constructed. The primary frequency band is the X-band (8-12 GHz). The purpose of the connections is to enable a more simple and cheaper way of mounting the circuit boards inside a container. The connections have been designed and evaluated, using different computer programs. A few prototypes have been built and measured.

Mergers and acquisitions are common phenomenon in today´s society in order to increase shareholder value. Two years ago a fusion of Sweden´s two largest companies in the industry of real estate took place and even though three out of four mergers and acquisitions financially fail this certain case turned out highly successful. The aim of this thesis is to examine how the organizational structure and the management control have been designed and characterized the organizational performance and furthermore what are the success factors of the integration. By studying an acquisition and its potential effects on organizational structure and management control parallel to a model that describes the best practice guidelines for managers to successfully deliver value from their acquisitions, it can be shown that an acquisition has direct effects both on the acquirer and the acquired company and thus the new organizational structure. The main results, thus, is that through active leadership, increased specialization, and more decentralized and thus efficient management control a new organization has emerged consisting of the best features of two separate worlds..

The ?good girl? is today an accepted and widespread notion. It is delimited to young girls and women who are characterised to be, for example, ambitious, high performing, working too much and risks developing mental illnesses. In today?s society women are assumed to pursue their career alongside maintaining the main responsibility for the household and family.

Syftet med uppsatsen har varit att synliggöra livsberättelsens och berättandets menings- och identitetsskapande kraft och funktion. Det är en metodologisk studie med strävan att fokusera på livsberättelse, både som fenomen och som social handling. För att göra detta har uppsatsen koncentrerats på min informants, Sveas, livshistoria.Narrativ metod, som legat till grund för studien, har varit av kvalitativ art i form av livsberättelseintervju i kombination med dialogisk-performance analysmodell med utgångspunkt i hermeneutiken.Som teoretisk referensram för arbetet ligger livsvärldbegreppet, social konstruktionism, livsberättelseperspektivet och minnets roll.En muntlig livsberättelse berättas alltid i enlighet med kulturella konventioner och i relation till olika diskurser och offentliga berättelser som dominerar det sociala och kulturella sammanhang som berättaren lever i..

This study is a statistical content analysis, of masters? theses written in 2005 at the Swedish School of Library and Information Studies in Borås. The relations between their epistemological discourses, theories, methods, themes and chosen alignment within the education, the so-called ?kollegium?/college, are examined. The results are put in relation to the concepts multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity to see what kind of discipline Library and Information Science (LIS) can be described as, on the basis of this material.

Studien processinriktat och resultatinriktat motivationsklimat på svenska och spanska högstadieskolor undersöker skillnader och likheter inom processinriktat och resultatinriktat klimat. I denna studie undersöks det hur dessa två klimat ser ut på svenska och spanska skolor och detta ur svenska och spanska idrottslärares perspektiv. I studien används Nicholls (1989) teori om de två motivationsklimaten. Empirin är inhämtad via semistrukturerade intervjuer med idrottslärare på tre svenska och tre spanska högstadieskolor. Detta i kombination med Nicholls (1989) teori och andra modeller, ligger till grund för den senare gjorda analysen.

This thesis provides a systematic literature review of a selection among current papers andarticles on Green Information Systems (IS). The main focus is on the current state of Green ISin academic research. This study aims at gaining a deeper understanding and a clearer view ofthe state-of-the-art of IS for environmental sustainability research, with the goal of clarifyingthe diffuse idea of what Green IT/IS is, and what differentiates Green IS from Green IT.To support the objective of this study, the articles selected for data analysis were collected byusing a systematic literature review as research and analytical method. Within the thesis, adescriptive angle with an interpretative character is used to analyse the data extracted.A theoretical framework based on concepts from sustainability, Green IS and Green IT isemployed in order to analyse and compare terminologies and frameworks used in the studiedarticles. Furthermore, the different dimensions of sustainability and the various terms used todescribe Green IS are analysed comparatively.The result and analysis are discussed in a conclusion confirming the on-going ambiguity ofthe terms Green IT and Green IS and the transformative power of IS.

Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva hur sjuksköterskor bemöter alkohol- och drogmissbrukare som söker vård, samt att beskriva faktorer som kan påverka sjuksköterskors bemötande. Metoden som författarna använde sig av var att i databaserna Academic search elite, Pubmed, Cinahl samt PsycINFO söka vetenskaplig litteratur. Studien genomfördes som en litteraturstudie med deskriptiv design, och i resultatet inkluderades 28 vetenskapliga artiklar. Huvudresultatet av studien gällande sjuksköterskors bemötande visade på två huvudkategorier. Ett negativt bemötande och ett positivt bemötande.

Pupil achievement and behaviour in schools was earlier seen as given by socioeconomic and biological factors. But since the late 1970s the school effectiveness research has come to give school factors a much greater role for pupils? attainments. Research has shown that schools´ pedagogical and social climate, which is to be seen as a complex product of deeply felt values and norms held by school principals and teachers and developed through practical actions, can explain variations in effectiveness between schools. Effectiveness is here to be seen as a higher mean cognitive and non cognitive student outcome than is expected with regard to initial attainment or family background.