Title: Culture?s Affect on the Determinants of Customer Satisfaction in Retailing: The Case of a European Retailer in the U.S. and China Date of the Seminar: 29th of May 2007 Course: BUS 809 Master thesis in International Marketing Authors: Lisa Bustamante Chesley Norman Charlotte Valind Advisors: Johan Anselmsson Cecilia Cassinger Keywords: International Retailing, Determinants of Customer Satisfaction, Culture, United States, China Thesis purpose: Our study aims to identify the determinants of customer satisfaction of two national cultures in a global retail setting, in order to clarify what role culture has, if any, in customers? satisfaction with an international retailer. Further, this will uncover if a Western perspective of determinants of satisfaction is a universal means of capturing what satisfies customers across cultures in a retail setting.

The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on a present trend of professionalization in Swedish local environmental politics, which have recently seen a decline in active participation of the citizens in favor of an increased governmental regulation. With the aim to closer investigate this relatively new phenomenon, the paper is a qualitative single case-study of environmental policies in the Swedish municipality of Karlskrona. In this case, the municipality is obviously balancing between regarding the interests of the national level and the interests of its own citizens at the same time. This motivates the use of system-theory, and relates to the classical political paradox between participation and efficiency which is also a present theme in the paper.This text-analysis based on interviews with personnel and documents from the municipality shows a visible trend of professionalization in the local politics of the municipality of Karlskrona, from a large grade of participation and a strong bottom-up approach in the days of Agenda 21 to now being more strongly top-down defined by national environmental objectives and principally operated on a professional level..

The purpose of this study has been to explore the expectations of the primary school on the activities of the pre-school. In order to limit the study I have chosen to compare the expectations found in two different schools. In the first case, the pre-school is integrated with the after-school centre and grade one to three (primary school), into the same building. In the other case, the pre-school share localities with the after-school centre in a separate building, with its own yard, within the primary school area. Since the purpose is rather comprehensive, it has been divided into sub-themes with separate set of questions.

Fortifikationsverket which is the landlord for the Swedish national defence has a great problem in their forestry due to the relatively large amount of metal objects in their timber. These metal objects cause different types of economical losses in the timber refinement chain. To enable out sorting of logs containing metal objects already in the harvesting phase, Fortifikationsverket is interested of the possibility to utilize some type of metal detector in a harvesting head for that purpose.The goal of this study was to, with help of a case study, enlighten the problem that metal objects in timber cause for Fortifikationsverket and their customers of timber and to investigate conditions of to mount and utilize some kind of metal detector in a harvesting head at present.The saw timber deliveries by Fortifikationsverket during the time period 2003-2005 was used as a reference volume for calculations of economical losses. In this case study was included two sawmills where timber from Fortifikationsverket were delivered to for further refinement. Factors investigated were the type of damage metal objects caused in these two sawmills and the economical signification of these damages.

AbstractTitle: Effective internal communication ?A case study on communication between a manager and the employees in a sportsclub.Number of pages: 40, without enclosuresAuthor: Susan AnderssonTutor: Peder Hård af SegerstadCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Second term 2005University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: I aim to do a case study of a work situation, where there is no natural or direct form of feedback between the manager and the employees, and compare the purpose of the information efforts with how it is perceived by the employees.Material/Method: Qualitative research method, including an assembling method in the form of interviews, and a processing method of those interviews.Main results: All the used channels combined together (except one channel) seem to have created the right condition so that the content of the information can be perceived and used as the way it was supposed to, even though there?s no direct feedback of the information. The manager gets feedback indirectly and can therefore adapt the messages, or the information efforts, to the receivers.Keywords: Organizational communication, Internal communication, Information, Feedback..

Summary Title: Taxes and Human Capital as Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in EU: The role of Most Favoured Nation treatmentAuthor: Andreas HelmerssonSupervisors: Cecilé Brokelind and Rikard LarssonProblem discussion and problem Formulation: The recent year?s rapid increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) is a clear indication of increasing globalisation. In order to stay competitive companies must take advantage of talented people, new technology and new markets around the world. Not only companies but also countries and regions, such as EU, need to take advantage of globalisation and the advantages that come with the increase in FDI around the world. Studies have shown that FDI does not only make companies more competitive but it also stimulates the economic growth of the region where the FDI takes place.

This paper aims to study the Armenakis´ theory of readiness, "are they ready?", which consists of five key components affecting the outcome of an organizational change. In this case study, the intention is to investigate if any component is important; alternatively if it is possible to discern a pattern between components, i.e. how they correspond to each other. During the past 30 years have a research group lead by Armenakis has studied organizational change and how resistance to change can be avoided by preparing employees in the introductory phase of change. The main object for Armenakis is the question "what determines whether the employees (change recipients) adopt and support, or reject and resist a change".

Issue of study: The development of technology and society is closely linked. Mutual dependency and complex interrelationships make straightforward analysis of issues regarding the future of technology and society hard to perform. Therefore, the study addresses the question of how organizations should describe and analyze the interactions of technology and society in order to gain a better understanding of what the future may bring. Purpose: ? To develop a method for analysis of the future course of issues regarding technology and society in interaction.? To apply and test the developed method through a case study, where it is used to analyze the future of the Russian fuel market.

Title: Reward systems and Commitment-A study of Eniro 118 118, Ernst & Young and Henses men'sfashion.Authors: Marlene Backlund, Vida Miraftab & Marcus SvenssonSupervisor: Arne SöderbomCourse: Dissertation 15 ECTSKey words: incentive programs, commitment and justicePurpose: The purpose of the study is to learn about the relationship betweenrewards and employee commitment in the case companies.Method: We have chosen to design the study, from a hermeneutic visibleway, and the essay approach is abductive. Study research methodis qualitative. We have chosen the method of interview in the casestudy. Theory: The thesis theoretical framework is separated into two main parts,incentive systems and commitment. The chapter is summarized ina model.Empirical method: A total of nine interviews conducted, three interviews in three casecompanies.

Problem discussion: How should information be handled to facilitate and benefit from modularity? How should Clarkson Inc. adapt their information handling to modularity and what benefits can be reaped by doing this? Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to help Clarkson Inc. adapt their information handling to modularity and to extract theories, methods and tools to guide companies in similar situations.

In this report, a case study of conditions for Swedish language development in children of immigrant origin is presented, and its results explored. The boundaries of the case study are defined as preschool pedagogues? facilitation of Swedish language development through co-learning, in children of immigrant origin in an ethnically segregated urban area. Concepts central to the report include dialogue, second language learning and perspectives on language difficulties. For the theoretical background of the report, a basic sociocultural theorem is used, which links language as well as other areas of development to verbal interaction in a social context.

This study aims at examine what kind of interest the European Union (EU) have in promoting a democracy process in Eastern Europe. The study is a descriptive case study where the case Ukraine is used to draw general conclusions. The questions asked to pursue the aim are: why does the EU want to promote a democracy process in Ukraine, what kind of methods does the EU use  and why is Russia trying to prevent the EU-Ukraine development and instead supporting a Russia-Ukraine development. In this study an analytical model is created and used to analyze EU:s way in promoting democracy in Ukraine. The analyze model consists of six steps used to describe the general promotion of a democracy process and it?s applied in the empirical analysis.

Då samordnad individuell plan infördes i lagstiftningen 1 januari 2010 var syftet att personer med behov av insatser från fler organisationer än en skulle erbjudas en samordnad individuell plan för att tydliggöra de olika organisationernas ansvar, och förbättra för den enskilde klienten. Syftet med vår studie var att undersöka hur samordnad individuell plan förändrat samverkan mellan kommun och landsting när det handlar om personer med dubbeldiagnos. Studien har bedrivits kvalitativt med en deduktiv strategi, där fyra yrkesverksamma inom en och samma stad har intervjuats. De teorier som användes var case managment samt systemteori. Våra slutsatser är att tillvägagångssättet bör förändras för att undvika extra arbete, det behövs ytterligare riktlinjer för hur samverkan skall bedrivas innan ett gott resultat av lagändringen kan ses, båda organisationerna lägger stor vikt vid klientens behov, klienten blir mer delaktig när SIP används samt att organisationerna behöver mer kunskap om varandras arbetsområden..

The last decade has created an increasing pressure on companies to decrease their impact on the environment and to increase their effectiveness of recycling the company?s resources, especially for the steel industry. Companies have also started to realize the economic aspects of an effective internal reverse logistics. In the past the value of an effective internal reverse logistic was something that companies tend to underestimate and there are few academic studies done in this area. The purpose of this essay has been to identify key factors to create an effective in plant storage, transport, sorting and handling of returned steel. From these factors a generalized model for creating an effective return steel flow will be developed.

Title: Process description of round timber transports ? a case study at Tra?frakt Go?taland ABAuthors: Karl ? Johan Tern, Christian Johansson and Andreas IvarssonTutor: Anders JerrelingExaminer: Fredrik KarlssonBackground: Today the profitability of forest haulers is unsatisfactory. Negotiations on prices are more about the relative strength of the negotiation parties rather than a discussion about actual costs. Adding extensive changes in the forest haulers cost structure has led to insufficient knowledge of whether the negotiated prices really correspond to their costs.Methodology: We decided to carry out a case study at Tra?frakt Go?taland AB, a special interest organisation whose members represent the majority of forest haulers in Go?taland.Purpose: To describe the processes and underlying activities of round timber transports.