We are surrounded by things. They have their own personalities. Some evokes our emotions. We want to own them. We develop strong relationships to each other.

In these days of globalization, with a higher level of openness and interaction over geographical, cultural and economical borders, the importance of the company?s intangible asset, its brand, is gaining importance as a differentiating factor. Building a strong brand and the emphasis on strategic brand management is something that before was given less attention in firms but today we can see a general increase in awareness and relative emphasis in the strategic work of companies.Countries as brands: Is it possible to consider a nation or a country as a brand the same way you consider a product? Well, looking in to the subject it seems to be a rather complex matter and there are many questions to be asked and answer. Nations around the globe are indeed marketing and positioning themselves for several purposes.

The way you address people is depending on the existing culture, to be on familiar terms with people you don?t know or elderly people is totally unacceptable in some cultures. Some behaviour might be acceptable in one culture, and unacceptable in another. Culture exists on different levels in the society, and what combines people within a culture are that they share the same norms and values.This study identifies and deals with the resemblances and the differences in the customer relationship within one specific organization with activity in several different countries. Two of these countries, which can be seen as each others cultural contrasts, were chosen for the study, Sweden and Spain.

The aim of this paper has been to investigate how accounting firms govern their organizations with regards to the complexity in the service that they offer. The service includes the general accounting tasks which through standardization can be cost efficient, the advisory services that entail flexibility, and the relationship with the customer which needs to be taken into consideration when delivering the financial reports. These three components are important but require different approaches when it comes to governing the organization. The conducted case study has shown that the accounting firms govern their organizations bureaucratically and mainly through behaviour and accounting controls. The advisory services demanded by customers are standardized, not analytical, and therefore do not require the firms to take flexibility into consideration.

This thesis focuses on RM and customer relationships and tries to answer two research questions: how firms can retain customers and how to generate profitable customer relationships by using relationship marketing. We conducted case studies on JOB media, a company in Luleå, and Polardörren, a company in Öjebyn, Piteå. Our research has revealed that in many ways our case study companies conform in major ways to the theory in this particular area. However there are differences between how these two firms go about in regard to customer retention and establishing profitable customer relationship. We have discovered that JOB media, which is a service company is more inclined to maintaining close and long-term relationships with its customers.

AbstractTitle: Coach, vän eller både och? ? en kvalitativ studie om coachning inom arbetslivetAuthors: Jonas Näslund & David ÖhrlingTutors: Ulla Moberg & Larsåke LarssonPurposeThe purpose of this thesis is to examine how coaching in working life serves, aiming to find what influences the interaction between coach and client. To seek to answer the purpose we raised a number of research questions which discussed, among other the coach's intentions and the parties' relationship.TheoriesThis thesis is based on a number of different theories, where the Leader-member Exchange Theory is considered the main theory. LMX is used when studying the relationship between a manager and an employee. Other theories used in this thesis are for example the Social exchange theory and one-on-one-coaching.MethodThe methods used in this thesis are semi-structured interviews, observations and recordings of coaching sessions.

The purpose with this thesis was to describe the importance of the creative industries for a town. We thought that towns could design a strategy to attract creative industries and creative people to establish their business in the town. During the study some important topics, such as a town brand, a town image and a town identity has been identified as factors that can influence and attract people and creative industries. Towns can use these topics in their marketing of the town. The method that we used was a case study: we conducted interviews to collect information about the chosen case study, the town of Skellefteå.

This essay studies the relationship between politicians and municipal chief officers from the point of view of the bureaucracy and its role in democracy and the substance of the chief position. I conducted interviews and observations with politicians and senior officials from the local public administration in Bromölla. The roles of the chief officer and politicians have certain common characteristics which makes it difficult to separate them. Senior officials working full time in contrast to part time politicians give them an advantage in the political process. Budget cut backs both enhance the role of politicians and chief officers in the administrative organisation.

Within the subject of retouching there is an ongoing debate about whether fashion retailers should retouch their ads or not. There has been a large amount of criticism to the communication of stereotyped beauty ideals that is used by companies in their marketing. The stereotyped ideals also contribute to negative psychological effects among people. As a response to the criticism, or as a way to differentiate one-self from competitors, retailers are starting to use unretouched models in their advertising. How this affects the consumer's perception of CSR along with the attitudes and behaviors is still unknown.

What happens when employees within the police-force make mistakes in their line of duty? This essay set out to investigate the relationship between labour law sanctions and the criminal law punishments for wrongful acts for government employees. This relationship is also set in the perspective of how acts or statements of xenophobia are handled within the Swedish police-force. Further, the essay aims to examine the principle of ne bis in idem in relation to labour law sanctions and criminal law punishment for wrongful acts, and if these two should be considered in line with this principle. Regarding the relationship between labour law sanctions and criminal law punishment for government employees, the determination for which system to use in any given situation is not fully stipulated.

Title: The Swedish Business School at Örebro University ? A case-study of the relationship between teachers and studentsDate of seminar: 2009-06-04Course: Bachelor thesis in Business and Administration within Organization, 15 ECTSAuthors: Malin Blomqvist, Lisa Skoglund, Charlotte WallinAdvisor: Gabriella WennblomPurpose: The purpose of this thesis is to enhance the understanding about the relationship between teachers and students at the Swedish Business School at Örebro University. The purpose is also to describe the relationship with organizational theory.Research methodology: This thesis is based on a qualitative method. Semi structured interviews have been implemented with both teachers and students. Literature in the organizational area has been searched through to give a base for the study.Theoretical framework: This thesis uses the theory of stakeholders and the theory of resource dependence.Conclusions: Teachers and students are different stakeholders towards the Swedish Business School at Örebro University, where teachers is an intern stakeholder and students an extern stakeholder.

This essay consists of a heuristic analysis of referents in the Swedish educational act, leaning on the methodological guidelines of discourse analysis. The overall aim of the essay has been to analyse in what way language in the educational act works as guidelines and law in relation to teachers? work. To correspond to this aim an openly structured questionnaire has been used, providing an empirical view of how teachers understand certain words, or referents, in the educational act. This empirical data has then been shaped to a spectrum view of the definitions of the referents showing a number of deductable facts, including the significance of the apparent use of institutional and professional language, which then have been viewed from two theoretical perspectives.

The purpose of this thesis is to create a greater understanding of relationships and networks on regulated markets. This includes what the climate are like on such a market and how different aspects within relationships and networks are affected by regulations. By the use of a deductive approach, a qualitative study was performed. This was carried out by interviewing different actors on the Swedish market of alcoholicbeverages. The theoretical framework includes relationship quality, consisting of power and dependence, cooperation,adaptation and trust.

The purpose of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of Swedish companies? use of corporate sponsorships as a tool for communication. The research describes motives and goals of corporate sponsorships, the selecting process and methods used in evaluating its effects. The empirical data has been colleted through interviews with two companies sponsoring athletics at a top level in Sweden. The study shows that the principal objectives and motives companies have with sponsorships are related to brand exposure, image improvement and relationships.

The present study examines six young men?s, born in the 1980?s, experiences of their relationships with their fathers. The focus of the study lies on the son?s evaluations of their fathers? influence on them, the men?s emotional language and the experience of the fathers? presence versus absence. The relationship with the fathers and the fathers? emotionality are also being discussed.