The 1990s were one of the most profitable periods for European airline companies, mainly because of development of world economy and increasing globalisation trends. However, towards the end of the decade, a global economic downturn, high oil prices and new forms of competition turned the industry towards troubled times. The European air-travel industry had to face and accept the new airline business concept, called low-cost or no-frill airlines. In these conditions, traditional airlines had to rethink their strategies and question the old business model. As a response to the competition, European traditional full-service airlines formed alliances or networks to expand the route network and to increase efficiency.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att bidra med ökad förståelse för hur företag agerar i en premarket competition situation genom att identifiera de strategier företag använder sig av. Detta ska ske genom att undersöka det pågående standardkrig som utspelas mellan operativsystem för mobiltelefoner på mobiltelefonmarknaden. Denna magisteruppsats är en kvalitativ studie. Den består av fem mindre fallstudier, minicases, av Symbian, Microsoft, Palmsource, SavaJe och Linux. Baserat på teorier om premarket competition, strategilogik och den nya ekonomin, värde och strategiska allianser har vi utvecklat en teoretisk referensram som testas och diskuteras i en analys för att bidra med ökad förståelse för premarket competition.

We have been able to draw some conclusions based on our research. First we haveconsidered that the publisher is dependent on a large network and to work closelywith their customers. We can see that the competition in the music industry hasgenerally increased, the technological progress has created new opportunities, and asa result of this, new players have joined the music industry. We have been able todraw conclusions in the fact that more companies and songwriters start up their ownpublishing company, resulting in an increased competition for the individualpublisher.We can also see as a final result that music is used in lots of different contexts andthat the publishers thereby are offered a wide range of business opportunities, but thatthe solvency of the customers has become lower. With this knowledge, we canconclude that the publisher?s power and revenues will increase, and that the publisheras an actor has been given a more important role in the industry.

The thesis has two purposes. First, to give a practical insight into the challenges that Swedish companies might face, and how these challenges are tackled, when implementing strategy in a local area. Second, to develop a general applicable model as a conceptual contribution to the field of international strategy implementation in local areas. This empirical-driven thesis is written in a qualitative and explorative approach, where abduction is adopted in order to find mysteries and contribute to the forming of new theories. The empirical foundation is twenty-two interviews and observations of three large Swedish companies.

Mergers and Acuisitions are becoming increasingly common. This can be explained with the fact that the competition is increasing. Therefore many companies are forced to join other markets. This thesis inquires into the process of Mergers and Acqusitions when one company buys another company. The main focus is set on how three different banks handle the process of Mergers and Acqusitions and what results this leads to. These are: Kaupthing Bank, Nordea and Citibank.

This paper is the result of a study of competition and cooperation in regard to tourism between the five largest municipalities in Norrland in northern Sweden. The municipalities are Luleå, Skellefteå, Umeå, Sundsvall and Gävle. The aim was to study the relation between competition and cooperation between these municipalities. An important theoretical aspect in this study is coopetition, where competition and cooperation occur at the same time. The studies on coopetition in the Nordic kontext is limited and the main literature on coopetition study the relationship between firms. This study however takes a geographical standpoint and aims to fill the gap in the literature on how competition and cooperation are connected to each other between chosen municipalities. To do this the tourism strategies of the municipalities were studied thoroughly. These written strategies provided information about how the municipalities view their competitive advantages and disadvantages and some general information about how they cooperate with the nearest regions. To find out how the municipalities think about competition and cooperation with the other four specific municipalities interviews were made with experts on the tourism field in each municipality. The results show that the municipalities do not have established strategies for how they are to be competitive compared with other specific municipalities. They do not see it as profitable to compete, instead they should complement each other. At the same time however, most of the municipalities mostly cooperate with municipalities in a short distance from them, and due to lack of resources only briefly or not at all with the municipalities studied here..

This thesis examines the approach for implementing strategy that has been applied by the study object, Svenska Spel. The specific approach originates from the theories of Elliot Jaques, whose key proposal is that individuals have different capability of carrying out tasks over different time-spans. The main purpose of the study is to analyze how the approach has influenced the management control systems in use, in order to ensure that the strategy is successfully implemented on corporate as well as operational level. Twenty in debt interviews conducted with employees, representing a vertical cross section throughout the organization, are the main source of the study?s empirical foundation.

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.

Internet dating is a relatively new phenomenon that, in using the opportunities of the internet, has taken traditional dating to a new level. The business idea is simple as such. The company provides its customers with a platform that enables interaction, leaving the value creation to the customers. A qualitative study is conducted investigating and mapping the Swedish market for Internet dating. It is researched what the characteristics of the companies are, what the Internet dating businesses in Sweden offer, what the prevailing market conditions are, and lastly what challenges lie ahead for the industry and how they can be solved.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine and analyse which effects a service strategy has on the control system of an organisation. The thesis takes a service perspective, and it is assumed that a service strategy gains competitive advantage and that the goal of the service strategy is to increase the customers? satisfaction level. A qualitative in-depth case study was performed on a Swedish beauty company. The organisation?s vertical structure was examined, from central to local level.

The aim of this paper was to examine the specific experience of being bicultural, what ackulturation strategy the person utilized and what influenced the use of this strategy. The findings were analyzed with the help of Pierre Bourdieu?s concepts of habitus and cultural capital. The empirical data was collected through qualitative interviews with four women of Chilean background, who either were born in or had been living in Sweden since childhood. The results of the interviews showed that all the respondents predominantly utilized the integration strategy, meaning that they participated in and felt a connection to both the Swedish and Chilean culture.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the researcher experiences its role in real life in relation to the field of education and adult learning. The context of the study is the academic department of education and adult learning in Swedish institutions. This is a qualitative study, inspired by Grounded Theory. Data consist of interviews, texts from policy documents and reports. Both the aspects gender and context have been taken into consideration.

This is a final project which makes up 20 credits at the Landscapearchitecture programme at SLU in Alnarp. The thesis is design based. My final project is comprised two parts; of a competition entry for ? A New Square in the Centre of Täby? as well as a theoretical study that derives from the competition proposal. The competiton itself was announced on March 1st 2007 with the final hand-in date on May 28th 2007. The program of the competition asked for a flexible urban square that offers a diverse range of activities that can be used during both night and day, all year around. I became interested in the term ?mutlifunctionality? and I went on to use the subject as a base for my design approach.

Predatory pricing is one of the most frequently discussed topics in competition law and should be considered both from a legal and economic perspective. The concept of predatory pricing can bedescribed as a situation where a company is pricing at a level that, according to the assessment theories, is unreasonably low. The problems with this type of conduct arises when the low prices hinder competition. A company which uses predatory pricing will likely deter rivals entry to the market or drive the existing ones out of it. In the long run, the effects on competition will likely be higher prices which will hurt customers and consumers as well as competition.

People in Sweden and in Europe have been traveling a lot more lately. Because of the economic boom that has been in a lot of countries people do have more money to spend. Sweden and especially Stockholm has lately become a very popular destination. Also big congresses and business meetings like to choose Stockholm for their meetings. The capital as it looks today does not have the capacity to let all those people stay at the hotels at the same time.