This thesis treats how accountancy companies works to maintain customer relations. This is getting more important in the accounting business because there are several inner and outer factors available that may affect customer relations in this business area. The main question with the thesis is: How works accountancy companies with keeping customers?The purpose with the research was to investigate and identify which inner and outer factors that may be important from a company perspective to keep customers. Another purpose was to investigate if there existed any differences between the companies in how they are handling different factors like for example a law change and how it could affect customer relations.

Cause-Related Marketing (CRM) is a marketing activity that has grown popular in the USA and studies have been carried out that explore how American consumers perceive and react to CRM. In Sweden, however, CRM has not yet found ground to any greater extent, and therefore there is limited research on how Swedish consumers react to CRM and how they perceive it. In this study, eight Swedish consumers are interviewed regarding their perception of CRM. The main findings of the investigation are that Swedish consumers fit well into a model that is based on American consumers? responses to CRM.

The last years? financial situation has contributed to an increased willingness from the banks to handle risks. The most important risk to cope with is a risk that is related to a customer?s ability to repay loans. Forecasts indicate that in the future, Swedish farmers will be facing profitability challenges, which points to a need to reconsider the banks procedures considering risk management in credit granting for agricultural businesses.Today?s risk management will be given two complements in this study.

The aim in this thesis is to study what attitude music teachers in Sweden and New Zealand have towards Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in music education and obtain a better understanding of how their attitudes affect the way they use ICT in their teaching. Another intention is to discuss differences and similarities between the teachers´ preferences regarding this issue in the two different countries, and whether it has any effect on teaching. It's a qualitative study based on interviews with music teachers from both countries. Through the answers we can get an impression about how ICT is used in music education, how the curriculum is interpreted when it comes to use ICT in music education and how the teachers' attitudes towards ICT affect the music education. This thesis shows that teachers are positive towards ICT in music education but the attitude, knowledge and the way of using it differs, due to access to technology and different opinions about what is essential in music and what is pedagogical.

The purpose of this paper is to study how Swedish CFOs perceive that the requirement for companies to issue quarterly reports affect business operations in the company. The fact that it is regulations on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, and not the law, that requires companies to issue quarterly reports makes Sweden unique in Europe. The paper is based on interviews with CFOs from 32 companies quoted on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The major finding in the study is that a majority of the CFOs perceive that the pressure for short term results, created by quarterly reports, affect their work and the investment decisions made in the company. Also CFOs feel that the market over interprets the information given in quarterly reports.

The last years? financial situation has contributed to an increased willingness from the banks to handle risks. The most important risk to cope with is a risk that is related to a customer?s ability to repay loans. Forecasts indicate that in the future, Swedish farmers will be facing profitability challenges, which points to a need to reconsider the banks procedures considering risk management in credit granting for agricultural businesses.Today?s risk management will be given two complements in this study.

Syftet med föreliggande uppsats var dels att psykometriskt utpröva en svensk översatt självskattningsskala för bland annat skam, Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA) och dels att undersöka i vilken grad patienter, som får korttidsbehandling av social fobi med hjälp av kognitiv beteendeterapi upplevelse av skam förändras. För den psykometriska utprövningen utgjordes jämförelsegruppen av 72 st psykologstuderande vid psykologiska institutionen, Stockholms universitet. Den kliniska gruppen utgjordes av 8 st behandlingsdeltagare. Resultaten visar att TOSCA har en god intern konsistens och en hög test-retest relia¬bilitet. Dock kunde ej testets samtidiga validitet påvisas i denna studie.

This paper investigates a number of components that influence the relationship between consultant and client in a procurement process of ERP. The paper deals with Trust, Commitment, Cooperation and Satisfaction. The problem lies within the fact that consultants do not know how and to what extent the components affect relationship quality. Based on the theories in the areas of procurement, relationship marketing and relationship quality, information has been gathered about how the various authors believe a procurement process works, how they view relationship marketing and how relationship quality is created. The components discussed are trust, commitment, cooperation and satisfaction.

The aim of our master thesis is to study the way valuation of real estate is conducted by real estate companies. Furthermore we want to identify the factors that affect the relevance and reliability of the valuation. The reason for this is the introduction of IFRS, in 2005, and the application of the IAS 40 rules stating that real estate are to be recognized at fair value on the balance sheet. To do this we have performed a case study on 10 Swedish real estate compa-nies listed on the Stockholm stock exchange, OMX, Large Cap and Mid Cap list to see how the share value has performed in relation to the reported net asset value since 2005 and how they value their collection of properties. We also studied the assumptions made by real estate company analysts.

The purpose of this study has been to examine how customers, by interacting with each other, can communicate and create the image of a brand. We find this topic to be relevant since there are no previous studies conducted concerning the customers influence on the brand image. Our ambition has been to describe in what ways and to what extent the customer can affect and influence the brand image by communicating with other customers. To fulfill our purposed we have targeted three important questions which are:? In which ways can the customer affect the communicated image of a brand?? To what extent can the customer influence the brand image and the perceived value?? Who has control over the brand, the customer or the company?For this study we have used a qualitative approach in which we have conducted eight personal interviews with brand consultants and the editor of the magazine Dagens Media which has given us the foundation for our analysis.

The purpose of this investigation is to come across the associations of consumers who are being exposed to a brand extension from a different product category. Moreover, our aim is to contribute to the knowledge of how consumers respond to these extended products, by investigating the influence of the parent brand. To fulfill our purpose, this study was conducted through qualitative interviews with consumers. In order to carry out our investigation and analyze our findings the following theoretical framework has been used: Customer-based equity, Parent brand affect and Perceived fit. Our data was collected through ten semi-structured interviews including consumers of Fiat and Marlboro brand extensions.

 AbstractThis study is performed by studying seven livestock businesses in the agricultural sector. The focus of the essay has been put on the structures that limit and enable the lives of the farmers in this study. One of these major structures that affect everyday life is the gender structure and to this day the housewife role exists where the women are responsible for the home, family and domestic pets while the men are responsible for the production, machinery and the heavier tasks on the farm. This is grounded in the history and the development that agriculture has gone through, but also in the strong patriarchal power structure that exists in this industry. In this essay I also show how the life form analysis of Liselotte Jakobsen and the independent life form can not be fully applied to the farmer as he is not completely independent in his work.

This thesis builds on the core problem: What Factors Affect IT-related Group Communicationwithin Oragnizations? With sub-questions: How does the daily communication in the workplacepresent itself? How can the individual affect communication? The purpose of this paper is toinvestigate which factors influence group communication positively and negatively, andhow communication affects the daily work in an organization. For this study, the fourinterviewees, from four different organizations, have been selected to participate in astructured interview conducted with the help of an interview guide. To analyse thequalitative data derived from interviews, a method of creating patterns and themes wasused. This is presented by selected quotations from the interviews in order to provide aricher depiction of the collected data.The result could indicate large gaps in both formal and informal communication, whereemail turned out to be one of the biggest single problems.

Piglet survival is of importance because it affects the farmer?s economy and the welfare of the pigs. There are several factors affecting piglet survival and they are often linked to each other. This paper will focus on how the behaviour of the sow can affect the growth and survival of the piglets and also possible causations of differences in maternal behaviour. Sows in intensive production systems have different possibilities to express their maternal behaviour than free ranging sows.

This thesis aimed to investigate how a rising sea level would affect the livable area of the island Fongafale, Tuvalu. Through the IPCC stabilization scenarios it was examined which areas of the island that would be affected by flooding. The local population?s perceptions of the effects of climate change were studied to see how the consequences of a world-wide problem such as global warming affect people's lives. The paper clarified the Tuvaluans place in the discussion of climate refugees, explained IPCC's work and described the results of previous studies concerning people in Fongafales perceptions and concerns about climate-related changes.