The purpose of this thesis is to critically investigate how to understand the regional transformations that are occurring in Sweden and Denmark. At a higher level of abstraction the results can be generalised to a wider context and I have found that there is an ideological hegemony that explains the regional transformation. Nation states are reterritorialising due to a changing world where global capital is becoming increasingly flexible and competition between states, regions and municipalities is needed to adjust. By using Sandberg's model of structural reforms I have shown that the differences between Sweden's and Denmark's reterritorialisation are due to differences in national political culture and existing administrative systems. In fact these two structural reforms are based on the same regionalist ideology as a reaction to the changing global economy.To investigate the regional transformations I have carried out an idea and ideology analysis on the recent Swedish proposal from Ansvarskommittén, Strukturkommissionen in Denmark and the proposal by the Danish government which was carried out in 2007.

The market for management consulting services is changing with an increased level of competition and more specialized service providers. At the same time there is a high level of companies that fail in their efforts to establish themselves on the market. This thesis sets out to give the reader an increased understanding of the complex characteristics of the market for these services, focusing more specifically on which factors that have an effect on the strategy development for companies within the industry. The thesis is also aimed at providing the reader with a deeper understanding of how developing consulting companies can tackle the specific challenges facing them. In order to meet the purpose of the thesis, we have applied relevant theories to a generic strategy model in order to develop a model that is applicable for the management consulting industry.

In January 2005 the emission allowance system was introduced within the European Union and the first period ends at the end of 2007. The system was introduced in order to decrease the wastes of carbon dioxide and the system is a part of ratifying the Kyoto ?protocol which first period runs between 2008-2012.The idea of the system is to reduce the wastes of carbon dioxide where it costs less to do so and the expenses for the society therefore are as diminutive as possible. Different theories explain that companies can benefit from environment legislation and can depending on the company?s attitude gain competitive advantages improve its productivity and thereby increase its profitability.With this in mind, the study aims at examining how the introduction of the emission trade system has influenced Swedish smaller companies in the distant heating industry, with focus on the factors attitude, innovation, competition and profitability.

Background: The increasing globalization of business and research has led to an increased demand for international meetings. This is a market that a number of countries wish to access and the competition is fierce to get the chance to host major conferences. Stockholm has a pronounced good position in the international meeting market and this essay will examine what it takes to be a successful meeting destination for international congresses.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the fundamental factors that must be met for a meeting destination to be successful in the international market for conventions.Question at issue: How can a city develop into a more attractive meeting destination for international congresses?Method: Persons with key positions in the Stockholm meeting industry have been approached by qualitative interviews by the authors.Theory: As a theoretical framework the authors used the value of the physical meeting, generally on the congresses, the planning process for site selection for the meeting, the meeting platform and image.Conclusion: The authors' findings are based on the empirical material gathered during the study interviews. The results from these interviews show the importance of facilities and hotels, availability, and the image..

The modern beauty market is concentrated with intense competition where cosmetic brands fight to stay on top. A popular method in order to gain sales and increase margins is to influence existing customers to buy more with the use of suggestive selling. The purpose of this paper, was to further examine the different effects of suggestive selling with the use of complementary versus non- complementary goods in the form of customer satisfaction, customer view of the service encounter, as well as success in sales. In addition, the influence of the customer's purchase amount on the tendency to buy an extra product in a suggestive selling situation was examined. The study was conducted through the use of a field experiment with the support of surveys in 'The Body Shop'.

The store manager can make great benefits of having an eye on how the staff works towards the customer, because the personnel is an important tool when competing with other stores. This paper is focusing on the part that relates to the staff in the store, which is one of the key tools in the competition for customers after the customer made it to the store. Many stores have guidelines which the staff should follow when they meet with customers. If the staff is too tightly controlled by these guidelines, customers can perceive the first encounter with the staff as artificial and as if the genuine friendliness does not exist. It is important that the staff looks at the individual customer and treat every customer in a personal way and that the staff can see the customer?s needs.

Den Svenska Basketligan är en av få europeiska nationella ligor (oavsett sport) som tillämpar det stängda seriesystemet inom lagidrott. Sedan säsongen 92/93 har den högsta svenska ligan i basket varit stängd och upp- och nedflyttning har vilat på framförallt ekonomiska skäl, och inte sportsliga. Detta är väldigt ovanligt i Europa och i akademisk litteratur görs en tydlig uppdelning mellan europeisk och amerikansk idrottsstruktur. En faktor som bidrar till att göra ligans karaktär stängd är att mästarlagen och övriga topplags deltaganden i europeiska och regionala sammanhang är oregelbundna.I uppsatsen tillämpas ett systemteoretiskt perspektiv som grund och teorier om konkurrens och kompetensutveckling används som stödteorier. 5 spelare, varav 3 med internationell erfarenhet,2 coacher samt en basketfokuserad skribent ger i uppsatsen deras synpunkter på hur ligans struktur påverkar deras och ligans internationella konkurrenskraft.Studiens resultat pekar på att det finns stora möjligheter till en förbättrad internationell konkurrenskraft, men att det krävs förändringar i strukturen och synen på vad basketligan har för syfte..

It is important, for companies operating on a homogeneous product market, to understand and adapt to customer needs. Since coffee is a homogeneous product in food retail it is vital for coffee companies to work extensively with differentiation and the fierce competition. The prevailing homogenity makes it difficult for companies to develop the product itself and must therefore work to create added value to the product.The purpose of this thesis is to carry out a study on consumer decision-making when purchasing homogeneous products, and to examine how companies work to strengthen their brand and gain market share in a homogeneous product market. The market that this thesis highlights is the coffee market.To answer the purpose of this thesis the writers have conducted a questionnaire survey regarding consumers? decision-making process and interviewed two marketing managers for two major actors on the coffee market.

Background: The starting point of the thesis is the growing importance of negotiations that serve to establish a relationship between the parties involved as companies? business activities are getting more complex. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to find and to analyze which elements are of importance for parties, when creating a successful negotiation with regard to building long-term relationships, and if those elements differ for sales and procurement negotiations in companies with business activities of various kinds. Research method: The study was realized with the help of twelve qualitative interviews. Result: The elements of importance when creating a successful negotiation with regard to building long-term relationships were mainly elements of co-operation and to some extent elements of competition.

The ability for companies to anticipate the future and stay in the forefront of the competition is essential for successful business. The tool of Environmental Scanning is basics in the process of developing prescriptive strategies as well as vital in evolving emergent strategies. The complexity lies in gathering relevant information and transforming the information into adequate data, which can be utilised by management to optimise strategies. The purpose of this study is to scrutinise how successfully operating Swedish manufacturing companies, listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange?s ?Large Cap?-list, organise their Environmental Scanning actions and how this affects the development of strategies. Prior research on the subject has been used as foundation to presenting relevant theories.

For a company to survive it has to make a profit. To make a profit transactions are necessary and to achieve this a company can choose to focus on creating loyal customers. Loyal customers can contribute to secured revenues, increased market shares and reduced marketing costs. Research within customer loyalty has mainly focused on different types of loyalty and the impact it has on customers behavior. However, there is a lack of research concerning which factors that create loyal customers.

The object with the study of this literature was to describe differente programs of care and patients and relatives experience and opinion about the caring for patients with Anorexia Nervosa. The method the author used was a descriptive literature study based on imperial studies. The studies were based on 15 scientific articles within the chosen field. The results shows that these patients hade special needs to be seen and heard as individuals, involved in their own treatment, and have good contact with the caring staff. The study also shows which methods were mostly appreciated involving nurses, patients and relatives.

Introduction     Knowledge has come to be an increasingly important factor for both individuals in the labor market and companies in competition. When a person leaves an organization the knowledge often follows, and a knowledge gap is created. When knowledge is shared within an organization, the individual?s knowledge is available for all members of the organization. Knowledge can thus be converted from human capital to structural capital.

The competition has increased with the establishment of the new banks and the credit institutes taking on the market, the big banks are no longer alone on the market.In speed with the increased range, have also the marketing and the recruit of new bank customers become more driven.Bank customers with lacks in the Swedish language, is a segment with potential which doesn?t get used by the banks and in turn of that the bank customers doesn?t get their needs satisfied.The purpose with this survey was to analyze if the four largest banks, Föreningssparbanken, Handelsbanken, Nordea and SEB had prepared strategies that were directed to bank customers with lacks in the Swedish language. In those cases the banks had strategies, respective measures were presented.Furthermore the bank customers with lacks in the Swedish language were studied if they experienced that the banks were using measures to satisfy their language needs in contact with the banks and presented the benefit of them.The information about the banks strategies was assembled through interviews with persons from each bank. The bank customers experience was assembled through a questionnaire survey.The result showed that the banks hade different strategies for reaching out to these customers, it was from showing understanding to multicultural offices. Half of the customers appreciated that the banks pressured themselves for them by being patient, explained the services and in some cases had staff that could several language.

Recently, retailers within the Swedish grocery retail sector have launched lines of products under its own brand, quite often produced by manufactures within the same category of products. The common term of this phenomenon is called private labels. Therefore, private labels could be seen as competitors against branded goods, despite the fact that it is, in several cases, the same manufacturer who produces each of the products.The main purpose of this study is to provide understanding of how the manufacturers choose to position themselves, formulate their strategies and compete on the market among private labels, also to examine the motive behind the manufacturer's choice to produce private labels. The study intends to provide a broader view of how the interaction between manufacturers, retailers, private labels and branded goods appears on the Swedish market. We decided to use a qualitative research method and personal interviews to approach the study.