Introduction and research question:  This study investigates the widely discussed notion ?Corporate Social Responsibility? and its practice in the tourism industry. In the contemporary society more companies are realizing the significance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its potential as a means of differentiation.  The author?s interest in this particular phenomenon was awakened after reading about the business case of Scandic Hotels. This is a company that nowadays is referred to as ?Scandinavia?s leading hotel chain?.

In central Jönköping, on Munksjöns northern waterside a shopping centre will be built, on the block Atollen. The construction will begin in autumn of 2007 and will be finished according to plan in 2009. Atollens goal is to counteract the competition from external retailers and strengthen the retail trade in the city centre, leading to more attractive and competitive city centre.Atollen will not be a shopping centre in traditional style and design, it will be focused on shopping and experience. The shopping centre shall be a natural venue with a wide and exclusive store mix, concentrated against trend conscious customers. This will be created with the help of a futuristic design and architecture, with light, open and transparent spaces.

Dagens textilbransch karaktäriseras till stor del av snabbt föränderliga trender. Det råder en hård konkurrens på marknaden och kunden besitter i stor utsträckning en god kunskap och en medvetenhet, vilket ställer högre krav på det utbud som företaget erbjuder. Vidare har hemtextilbranschen under de senaste åren präglats av en ökad konkurrensnivå. Flera aktörer så som exempelvis stormarknader, färghandlare och byggvaruhus har utökat sitt sortiment med hemtextil och är därmed med och tävlar om hemtextilkunderna. I denna situation är det viktigt att ha ett välplanerat sortiment eftersom det bland annat speglar företagets affärsidé samt kommunicerar vad affärsidén erbjuder och till vem.

The corporate world has become increasingly unpredictable and complex. Several companies are dependent on a rapidly developing market. The development has created a positive impact on production but on working conditions it has resulted in increased work pace and load. Psychosocial and stress-related problems has increased. The development has also meant a greater awareness of work environment issues relevant to competition for customers and employees.

AbstractTitel: The optimal salary system in the real estate industry Authors: Emma Bjo?rkman och Tere?se Emanuelsson Widstro?m Tutor: Tommy BergquistProblems background: The challenges companies face is to recruit, retain and motivate empolyees to work in a way that promotes the company. Skilled staff are difficult to recruit, more difficult to maintain and expensive for companies to lose but undeniably the most important key to success. How should the optimal salary system be composed to attract operators in a competitive market such as real estate industry, with a predominance of commission based salary?Purpose: To examine how the salary system is linked to motivation and goals in the real estate industry.

Authors: Stina Johansson, Anna Lennartsson, Caroline WennerstenTutors: Peter Caesar Title: Communication without boundaries? ? a study about the problems of Gothenburg culture festival communications to multicultural areas.Keywords: communication, multucultural areas, communicationmodel, attitudes, diversity marketing, culture, Gothenburg Culture Festival  Background: There can be many problems with communication in multicultural areas. It has become more important for companies to communicate in order to gain competitive advantage. Gothenburg Culturefestival has a large number of visitors and since last year they have noticed that there are not as many visitors from some multicultual areas in Gothenburg. This makes it interesting to see what kind of problems that exists in the current communication. Problem statement: What noise is there in communicating to a multicultural target group and how does they affect the goals and the result with the communication?Purpose: The purpose of this paper is based on the communicationmodel and from there describe the communication between companies and multicultural areas, and from this identify problems with such communication.Method: 118 respondents were selected through a convenience sample and then  asked questions through structured interviews based on a questionnaire.

The intrest and development of bioenergy and energy from renewable sources in Sweden has increased rapidly over the last few years. There are a whole lot of alternatives for those who would like to venture and invest in renewable energy production. Production of renewable energy opens up many opportunities for forestry and farming to venture a new branch of production, on basis of the primary production. Several of the new energy sources grows on farmland or in the forest. The opportunities exist in the primary products, as well as in refining and reselling, in the value chain of energy. The starting-point is the Farmer as an energyproducer. This master thesis studies the nature of farmer-own firms, who has invested in production of renewable energy.

In recent years, increasing emphasis has been placed on streamlining the supply chain. Keeping inventory and warehouses is considered to be a waste of resources. It is however difficult to completely eliminate the need for inventory and warehouses in a supply chain. The purpose of warehousing is to provide a service for the customer. By keeping what the customer demands in inventory it is possible to make a quick delivery when a need arises.

Wind power is a growing energy sector in Sweden. However, it still represents only a small part of the total electricity production, about 0.7%. In order to create good conditions and to facilitate the establishment of wind power in Sweden, the government has for example, created a national centre for wind use. The objective has been to reach the governmental goal, which is an expansion of wind power by 10 TWh by year 2015 compared to the level in 2002. The Swedish electricity market was deregulated in 1996 which refers to the introduction of a competitive market in electricity production and trade.

Garden center and market gardens are a growing trade, undergoing great changes with new actors and purchasing habits. The interest in gardens and plants is steadily increasing, official statistics show an increase of garden plants and flower consumption, of an annual 3 per cent. Garden centers and market gardens are in great need of development to be able to tackle the prevailing competition, and maintain a steady growth. Many companies are heading for a generation shift and are founding it difficult to find and employ younger managers. The aim of this report is to examine different strategies of garden centers and market gardens through the manager/ owner?s views and opinions about competition, growth and success.

The awareness regarding environmental issues is increasing and as a result a large number of products are eco-labeled. This enables the consumers to make enlightened environmental decisions when purchasing products. Eco-labeling is no longer for products only, but also for services like hotels. It?s difficult to determine what it actually means to eco-label a hotel and what kind of benefits it includes.

The purpose of this study is to investigate and increase the understanding of how the two commercial companies IKEA and SAS and the two aid organizations/nonprofit organizations UNICEF and Save the Children use perceptions of Christmas to produce messages in their Christmas advertising/commercial film. The study also discusses if there may be communicative and pictorial similarities and differences in how these brands constructs messages in commercials, and why it may be that the brands choose to use these messages in commercials based on the recipient possible interpretations. The theories used in this study are promotional culture, framing theory, preferred meaning, semiotics (denotation and connotation), myth and rhetoric (ethos, pathos and logos). The method used to answer the purpose and issues are the qualitative method that uses the theories semiotic and rhetoric to analyze the material. The study's results derived from the qualitative content analyzes of the material (the brands IKEA, SAS, UNICEF and Save the Children Christmas advertising films) show that IKEA message might want to show that they want to help the customer and that they pay attention to the customer needs.

Sweden?s tourism increases and new hotel opens. Since 1978 to 2011, the hotel rooms in Sweden doubled. International congresses, sports- and artistic events are a few examples of what affects the hotel industry. Sweden is seen as an attractive destination and future forecast looks to have a positive trend.

To create a profitable and competitive business an important factor today is a well-functioning logistics. Through effective internal material flows effective logistics can be achieved. Unnecessary handling and movement of materials is a waste which affects the internal material flow. These wastes should be identified and eliminated as much as possible to improve the internal materials handling and through that achieve a more efficient business. At Fagerhults Belysning AB, where professional lighting systems are developed, manufactured and marketed, a new inventory has been built and changes in the assembly has been made during the past year.

The increased interest in a sustainable environment puts pressure on companies in the manufacturing industry. Rexcell Tissue & Airlaid AB (Rexcell) in Skåpafors produces paper to be converted into tabletop and hygiene products. Rexcell is certified according to the environmental management system ISO 14001, gaining competitive advantages by showing that the company works toward a sustainable environment and that they follow current legislation. The activities at the company are classified as hazardous to the environment according to the Environmental code. Every year, the activities are inspected by an independent inspector.