This field study examined how elderly and cognitively disabled people used and experienced a social companion robot. The following pages explores the questions: Which are the physical, social and affective qualities during the interaction? The aim was to through observations see how qualities of interaction could activate different forms of behavior. The results show that motion, sound and the eyes together created communicative and emotional changes for users who felt joy and were willing to share the activity with others. The robot stimulated to some extent users to create their own imaginative experiences but often failed to involve user or group for a long time and was also considered too large and heavy to handle..

We examined why file sharing is such a widespread phenomenon and what drives the persons that using file sharing, and what consequences it has on their consuming and ownership. We reached our goal by interviewing ten people who download files, using a qualitative method. We present the internet community where sharing files, copyright and the IPRED law are important ingredients for how the new generation consumer?s patterns look like. Today you can travel all over the world with a push on a button in just a few seconds.

Parallel imports often lead to lowered prices and is therefore regarded as good from a consumer's point of view. From a business'point of view this is not always the case. When do parallel imports occur? Is it possible to prevent parallel imports to protect an introduction of a product in another member state? The purpose of this thesis is to present situations where parallel imports occur and to see if it is compatible with competition law to prevent parallel imports. Furthermore I will analyse the future development after the group exemption of vertical restraints enters into force in June 2000.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) issues have been received much attention in businessand management practises globally. Jensen & Yeh (2009, 3) state that ?The agenda ofCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a factor in the process of globalization,and Chinese companies may sometimes feel pushed into this agenda without a clearunderstanding of the rationale behind it?. China?s textile and apparel industry, amanufacturing-based economy with its products bounding up with the consumers worldwide,has been facing enormous pressure to take CSR initiatives, particularly in relation toenvironmental issues and labor standards.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze green marketing and green brand building from a managerial perspective, with the intention to create an implementation guide for companies in the Swedish consumer market.  The essay is based on a qualitative approach with a mixture of inductive and deductive elements. We have interviewed five people with close links to green marketing. We have during the study identified a number of touch points to be particularly important in the process of incorporating green marketing. These findings are presented in full in chapter five. We have found that the framework of green marketing is established during the company?s choice of green strategy.

Over the last decade, the private insurance market has undergone a stable growth in turnover and growing demand for insurance products in all Member States of the European Union. Therefore, the creation of a single market in insurance will enable consumers to have access to wider choice of insurance products, and insurance companies to gain access to markets in various Member States and compete effectively. The EU legal framework for the insurance industry embraces the Treaty freedoms of services, establishment and capital, the EC Directives and the ECJ case-law. The present thesis identifies numerous factors that hinder the Community insurance market integration and offers possible remedies. The summary of the market obstacles is all-inclusive and reflects the responses to the questionnaires and the Commission surveys.

Castration of dogs holds many reasons and opinions, therefore methods, traditions and rea-sons vary. The approaches have during time changed from mostly surgical castrations to also including hormonal treatments. Castration is used to control the dog's reproductive abilities, for medical reasons and to possibly rectify problems of behavioral nature. How common a particular method of castration is in a country is highly dependent on the country's traditions. In Sweden it is most common with castration for medical reasons, such as possible elimina-tion of diseases, for example, benign colorectal tumors.

Study objects: Three different productions companies which the authors have chosen to be anonymous. Purpose: The purpose with this study is to examine why production companies choose to use 3D-animations in television commercials, and what different kind of aspects affects their decisions. Theoretical: The theoretical chapter reviews the history of 3D-animation andtelevision commercials and other fields that will be relevant laterin the analysis and discussion. Method: A case study has been made on three different companies, two of the companies are active in post-production and the other one is active in the consulting area. Data was collected through semistructured interviews with two of the companies.

In industry applications, such as power supply plants, the issue of interaction between fluid and structure is always presented. More precisely, the fluid flow affects the structure by applying force(s) on it and vice versa. As a result, the structure can move (vibrate) or deform. A good understanding of this problem can help to design the system in term of safety, stability and efficiency.This project aims to optimize and test the Unicorn FSI solver from the FEniCS project [1] to simulate the interaction of fluid and structure in an experiment, which was carried out at Vattenfall Research and Development. The target is to improve the Unicorn FSI solver to cope with a real industrial problem.

Consumer Information Processing (CIP) handlar om hur vi som konsumenter tar till ossoch påverkas av den information som ständigt omger oss vid en beslutssituation. Ämnethar länge varit i fokus för forskning inom marknadsföring då detta naturligtvisintresserar företagen i hög grad. Tidigare forskning hävdar att när vi som konsumentertar till oss av de intryck som omger oss, bearbetas dessa intryck tillsammans med dekunskaper vi har sedan tidigare (bottom-up processing och top-down processing).Studier har visat att information som tilldelas oss kan ha direkt påverkan på våra sinnenoch hur vi upplever en produkt.Denna studie undersökte hur olika typer av tilläggsinformation påverkade konsumentersupplevda smak av vin. Tolv testpersoner studerades i ett experiment bestående av tresteg där olika betyg presenterades på de viner testpersonerna bedömde. Resultatet avstudien visade att kvinnor i högre grad påverkas av negativ tilläggsinformation medanmän i högre grad påverkas av positiv tilläggsinformation..

Människan har under lång tid bedrivit handel med varor och tjänster. Genom att nya hjälpmedel för handel utvecklas, förändras handeln och dess former. Elektronisk handel kan bedrivas via Internet. Elektronisk handel via Internet medför flera fördelar, men också nackdelar, problem, konsekvenser och risker för företag som inför/bedriver Internethandel.Det finns skilda meningar om huruvida specialvaror bör säljas via Internet, och om företag som tillverkar och/eller saluför denna typ av varor bör bedriva Internethandel mot konsument. En litteraturstudie och en intervjustudie har genomförts för att undersöka om det är lämpligt för specialvaruföretag att införa Internethandel mellan företag och konsument.

This thesis concerns an energy audit of a food industry. The company's business consists of boiling and peeling shrimps, and producing mayonnaise-based salads. This type of work involves energy-intensive processes, such as steam generation, compression of air and refrigeration of large spaces. These needs are supplied with electricity. Furthermore, the industry is a major consumer of district heating, particularly for heating the supply air in the ventilation system.

Purpose: To examine how a tour operator works to implement sustainability in the development of the business, as well as what significance it has to consumers in selecting a tour operator. Furthermore, the purpose is to provide recommendations on how tour operators should work to communicate their commitments.Methodology: The research strategy applied is a case study which follows an abductive approach. Qualitative and quantitative methods were applied to complement each other. A semi-structured interview with a tour operator and a consumer survey constitute the empirical foundation.Conclusion: The conclusion of the study is that consumers show a positive attitude towards CSR, but do not see it as a determinant when choosing a tour operator. Thus, CSR does not constitute a competitive advantage against competitors.

The aim of this essay is to get a deeper understanding of a teachers' profession and to get knowledge of how earlier experiences can influence you as a teacher. I have interviewed a female teacher, Pia to get this understanding. As a tool to get the teacher's whole story I used the life story method. In her profession she is influenced by her own importance of security as a child.Her own needs of security has given her an deeper understanding for pupils like herself during the childhood; insecure and afraid. Her understanding for all kinds of behavior among the children has increased by her own experiences.The story shows that Pia is frustrated by the fact that she can't control her own working time.

The purpose of this study is to provide a longitudinal examination, within grocery retailing, of four marketing tools and their impact on enhancing customer loyalty. The study examines whether the relationship between the four marketing tools and customer satisfaction has a positive effect on attitude and behavior loyalty. The findings from this study show that the marketing tools have not helped enhancing loyalty between 2004 and 2007. Between these years, service quality has the most affect on loyalty. Self-scanning as an effective marketing tool could be questioned, the relation in this study is not supported.