The aim of the study was to gain a better understanding of how some people aged between 20-35 years? experience Facebook in relation to identity creation, communication and stress. The analysis is drawn from seven semi-structured interviews with a sample of Facebook members, four women and three men aged 20-35 years and during the interviews respondents answered questions based by the following topics. Does Facebook allow changing identities? In what way is Facebook a communication tool for enabling relationships? How can Facebook be related to stress and coping? The results showed that respondents perceived Facebook as an easy means of communication and maintaining relationships.

The tomato is an important crop worldwide, and in recent years it has received great attention due to its rich content of carotenoids, which in studies indicate to have health benefiting properties. Many studies have been done in this area of research and in how to optimize the carotenoid content in tomatoes and tomato products. The objectives of this essay were to summarize present data in this field. The results were as follows:There are nine different carotenoids identified in tomatoes. Lycopene and ?-carotene are the ones that have been given the greatest attention.

This thesis calculates and compares the values of improved environmental quality due to future possible investment alternatives in biogas production facilities at Käppalaförbundets Reningsverk (Käppala Sewage Treatment Works) in an attempt to determine which alternative yields the highest such value. Käppala faces three investment alternatives for the usage of biogas. The alternatives are production of vehicle fuel, district heating and thirdly, heat and power production. Estimates of the value of environmental change are calculated for each of the three investment alternatives, and these estimates are then compared. The environmental change in question is the change in discharge levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and particle matter.

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 aim of this study was to, on the basis of normalization and autonomy; investigate how staff working in group homes discusses about sexuality of people with an intellectual disability. Our study was based on ten semi-structured interviews of both care staff and heads of group homes to get responses from different levels within the same organization. The empirical material was analyzed through the theory of social constructivism, which focuses on how we construct the world through interaction and language, and the normalization principle whose goal is that all people with developmental disabilities should have the opportunity to live like all other people. We view these theories as useful to gain understanding of the questions in our study. The result of this study showed that the subject only comes up for discussion when problems arise, that the communication on the subject is inadequate and more discussion is requested.

The purpose of this study was to try to understand the Swedish population regarding the perceptions of the Swedish welfare system, based on the reactions that occurred after Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's statement about raising the retirement age. Our results demonstrate that the reactions on changes in the pension system in fact rooted in a safety factor and not the change in the pension system itself, through which the Swedish welfare system acts as a safety net for the population. Further the results shows that these safety factors create a form of egoism. With an interaction between empiricism and theory, where the starting point of the material was of an inductive approach, the material abstracted into different levels from which the result emerged. The focus of this study lies in the understanding of how human beings act according to one's need for security in major changes, which may be of importance to a comprehensive understanding of changes in social structures..

Differences between groups or individuals in a society with regards to access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) are known as the digital divide. The digital divide pertains to differences in physical access to computers and the Internet as well as knowledgein using technology. Important factors affecting the digital divide are disabilities, age, gender, socioeconomical background, ethnicity and geography. The digital divide appears on several levels: internationally, nationally, regionally and locally. Individuals who, for some reason, have limited or no access to information and communication technologies risk, among other things, to experience social exclusion.

This study focuses on how the idea of sustainability is dealt with by companies, how the idea changes when moving through a company structure and how the different individuals interpret the idea. To date, many different studies have been written on the subject of sustainability, but few share the perspective addressed in this particular study. This case study was formed at a paper mill in the central part of Sweden. Semi-structured interviews with employees working on different hierarchical levels, within the same company, were chosen in order to get an insight into how the idea of sustainability is implemented throughout an entire company. The interviews have been transcribed to help identify contrasting patterns.This study has shown that the idea of sustainability, and its context within society, differs from how the idea is perceived in the organization.

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 natural disasters of recent time have caused the people of Sweden to donate very large amounts of money to different fundraising organizations. With this in mind, we found it interesting to examine the extent of disclosure in the annual reports of the Swedish fundraising organizations. Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify which factors that influences the extent of disclosure of accounting principles in the annual reports of Swedish fundraising organizations. To fulfill this purpose we conducted a content analysis of 149 annual reports from Swedish fundraising organizations. To help us explain the levels of disclosure we applied stakeholder theory, institutional theory and legitimacy theory.

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.