As a result of global competition, companies within the automotive industry are required to improve their production systems to achieve sustainable and competitive production. To attain operational excellence, companies have adopted concepts like lean and World Class Manufacturing (WCM).In order to deliver, companies need to increase the availability and reliability of production equipment. This demands focus on both operational and strategic maintenance, and efficient equipment acquisition and management. The main objective of this thesis is to identify processes and success factors that are necessary for improved maintenance performance. By conducting a case study and by performing a literature review, the following has been studied: 1) how companies within the automotive industry work with maintenance and maintenance strategies, 2) implementation of maintenance strategies, and 3) new acquisition and spare parts management for maintenance. The results show that basic maintenance concepts and related terms are well defined in the literature.

Communication is essential for the survival of an organization. The management formulates strategies to ensure thatthe organization will get to where they want it to go. The strategy is then communicated to the co-workers through the line manager. But who is to say that the co-worker experience the message the same way as the line manager or the management for that matter? The purpose of this study is toinvestigate how the middle managers at Southern Älvsborg Hospital experience strategic internal communication andfurther how they communicate with their co-workers.Through a case study approach, the case being the communication of the hospitals research strategy, I conducted 13 interviews.I analyzed the material from the interviews using a hermeneutical approach and I used an interpretative approach to get a deeper understanding.

Marknadskommunikationens syften kan vara många, men att bygga företagets varumärke starkare kan vara en av anledningarna till kommunikation med omvärlden. Att som företag inneha ett start varumärke är en fördel på en allt mer globaliserad och konkurrensintensiv marknad. Det är därmed av vikt för företag att på ett tydligt sätt kommunicera sin identitet för att differentiera sig mot andra varumärken. En möjlig positioneringsstrategi att använda sig av för företag är att kommunicera varumärkets country-of-origin, något som enligt tidigare forskning kan vara extra gynnsamt för designrelaterade företag. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka svenska modeföretags användning av country-of- origin i sin marknadskommunikation.

Ett varumärke är bra för kunden på många olika sätt, först och främst så talar varumärket om ursprunget eller tillverkaren av produkten eller tjänsten, men det allra viktigaste som varumärket gör för kunden är att det ger kunden särskild mening och någonting som kunden förhoppningsvis kan identifiera sig med. Om kunden har information om varumärket så behöver han/hon inte leta så mycketefter information om varumärket vilket är bra ur ett ekonomiskt perspektiv då sökkostnaden blir låg.Vårt syfte med den här uppsatsen är att få en inblick i hur ett företag arbetar med att minska luckan mellan Brand Promise och Brand Delivery. Vi ville jobba mot ett lokalt företag eftersom vi är från området båda två och eftersom GavleNet har en aktuell och intressant produkt så valde vi arbeta mot dem. Vi har utfört muntliga och skriftliga intervjuer för att samla in data och även använt oss av relevant litteratur samt sökt i databaser och även på andra sätt utnyttjat Internet. Vi valde att arbeta utifrån en modell som heter ?Brand Relation Management Model?, den består av åtta faser: vision, kultur, identifiering, fastställa, arkitektur, engagera, kapitalisera och mätning.

Many design agencies and designers like to see design as a longtime strategic investment for any company. However, knowledge of design as a strategic resource depends on ones professional background and ones knowledge of design as such. It is common today that clients meet design agencies and therefore design with a certain skepticism concerning its role in the company. Within the prodctdevelopment-process the company?s different functions meet.

The aim of this study was to examine how sports journalists used religious metaphors when covering football during the time span of the study, and how the athletes were portrayed as a result of the usage. The aim was also to study if the usage differed between the two newspapers chosen for the study, one of which is a morning paper (Dagens Nyheters sport section) and one which is an evening paper (Sportbladet).To answer our questions we used a quantitative and a qualitative method, the later of the two was based on a metaphor analysis. The quantitative method consisted of a content analysis where different variables were examined. The time span of the study is articles from one year.The results show that the religious metaphors were used in many ways. Some religious metaphors, such as ones including the word miracle, were more prominent than others.

Dogs have been held as pets for thousands of years. Dogs held today usually get some sort of training some time during their life. You can train dogs for many different reasons such as general obedience or you can train them for competition. When training a dog every behaviour is followed by a consequence. These consequences are positive reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment and negative reinforcement.

Varumärkeskapital är det mervärde som ett varumärke ger en produkt i förhållande till om varumärket inte funnits på produkten. Konsumentbaserat varumärkeskapital innebär vidare att det är i konsumentens medvetande som varumärkeskapitalet existerar. Snabbrörliga konsumentvaror kännetecknas av att de köps ofta och att deras kontakt med konsumenten är begränsad, vidare är de ofta lätta att byta ut.Den här studien undersöker genom kvalitativa intervjuer hur företag bygger varumärkeskapital inom en marknad för snabbrörliga konsumentvaror. Åtta varumärkesansvariga på företag verksamma inom en marknad för snabbrörliga konsumentvaror har intervjuats för att få reda på deras syn på byggande av varumärkeskapital inom nämnda kontexten.Hela studien utgår i grunden från fem dimensioner av varumärkeskapital nämligen varumärkesassociationer, varumärkeskännedom, varumärkeslojalitet, upplevt värde samt andra varumärkestillgångar. Intervjuerna har sedan analyserats utifrån dessa dimensioner stött av andra relevanta teorier inom ämnet, analysen har också sin grund i det valda syftet.Resultaten av denna studie påvisar hur varumärkeskapital skapas för snabbrörliga konsumentvaror inom de fem dimensionerna av varumärkeskapital.

This study will focus on the fund raising market and what characteristics that can be found in marketing in this market. The donations to fund raising organizations has increased lately and therefore we found it interesting to study how their marketing has developed over time and what risks that can be found. When talking about marketing in fund raising organizations it?s difficult to not include the donors. Therefore have we also studied what value creates for the donors and how the organizations work to gain their trust.

Purpose:Only 60 percent of the newly started companies survive their three first years. The purpose of this report is to obtain a deeper understanding regarding how newly started companies work with their positioning and if there are some kind of a relationship between positioning and the survival rate of newly started companies.Research questions:Do newly started companies know what position is? Do they incorporate positioning in their day to day marketing?Approach:We have used a hypothetical-deductive way of reasoning and a qualitative study to gather the information needed. We have through interviews asked our questions to six newly started companies in three different cities.Findings:In our essay, we reached the conclusion that newly started companies do not spend sufficient time or energy on positioning their products. The companies interviewed only market their product as a good product.

We have conducted a quantitative study investigating whether an Ingredient Branding collaboration between private label and national brands could be executed with success in the Swedish market. The objective was to measure the consumers? response to two products from different product categories, representing hedonic and utilitarian products. We have been able to establish that by adding a branded ingredient to a private label product, one obtains a more positive product attitude as well as a higher perceived product quality and taste. The study also shows that attitudes towards the ingredient brands were improved by the collaboration whereas the brand attitude towards the private label did not change significantly.

This study is on how small companies can use the Internet as a part of their marketing strategy to gain a leverage on their competitors with small means to survive and expand in the global market. Many Swedish small companies still don?t have a sufficient knowledge on how to use the communication channel despite the various advantages the Internet offers.Case studies were conducted of how AdLibris, A-lotterierna AB and SF-bokhandeln perceived the importance of using the Internet as a part of their communications strategy.This new communication channel demand new ways of applying traditional marketing principals. Careful analysis of the interviews and how the answers relate to new and old marketing theories makes the bulk of this study. The conclusion is that the Internet solely is not enough, a combination with traditional marketing tools is the way to succeed in their marketing efforts.

Denna uppsats behandlar varumärkesassociationer samt dess påverkan på varumärkeskapital. Uppsatsen är genomförd som en fallstudie och undersöker hur det svenska telekommunikationsföretaget Tre tolkar konsumenters associationer till varumärket Tre. Detta jämförs sedan med de varumärkesassociationer som föreligger kring Tres varumärke på marknaden.Varumärkesassociationer formas primärt hos konsumenter och är således inte enbart en process som företag styr. Detta innebär dock inte att associationerna är opåverkbara från företagets sida. En central faktor som påverkar skapandet av varumärkesassociationer har i denna uppsats påvisats vara konsumenters kontakt med företaget, där framförallt den första kontakten tenderar att forma associationerna.

ABSTRACTTitle: First steps towards successful recruitment ? A study about a small Swedish firm?s recruitment strategyCourse: Bachelor Dissertation - LeadershipAuthors: Filip Agby, Damir Macanovic and Thomas MennerdahlAdvisor: Anders BillströmKey Words: Recruitment in small firms, recruitment strategy, wrong fit recruitment, HRM, right staffProblem enunciation: What pros and cons could the choice of recruitment strategy mean for a small Swedish firm. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to give recruiters a better understanding of how a small Swedish company could use different recruitment strategies, together with systematic preparations, to affect the experienced recruitment result. Another purpose is to study if earlier mentioned international research about small firms? recruitment strategies is applicable to a small Swedish firm.Theoretical framework: The section initiates by introducing the reader to the subject through describing Human resource management with a focus on recruitment.

In this thesis we study the development of post-earnings announcement drift (PEAD) in the Swedish equity market from 2000 to 2009. By forming portfolios based on the stock price reaction to quarterly reporting we show that the characteristics of PEAD have changed. We demonstrate that negatively surprising companies show a positive drift during a holding period of six months sufficiently large to render the trading strategy unprofitable. This development holds from 2005 and onwards and these results contradict many a study which finds the same portfolio construction to be indeed profitable. We argue that this development is a trend that will not only affect our study but future studies as well..