Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to adjusting corporate goals so that they are not only based on maximizing corporate profits, but include ethical standards on socially desirable behavior (Boatright, 2008). Even though many companies have integrated CSR into their business operations, there are still many issues that are difficult to tackle. Especially Multinational Corporations (MNCs) in the global business environment face many challenging situations due to the fact that they often have linkages to countries where the local government is either unwilling or unable to take care of its responsibilities. MNCs often find themselves with increased responsibilities when they start solving some of the issues that earlier have been the sole responsibility of states. A specific case situation discussed in this paper is related to ?conflict minerals?.

The purpose of this study is to examine and explain why three Swedish public libraries failedin their ambition to act as information services for small and medium-sized firms (SMF). To support this purpose two major assumptions are made:1) Public libraries who plan to run this kind of "business" must act with the same means as "professional" services.2) The service must be adjusted to the information needs of the customer.Based on these assumptions sixteen factors which are crucial to the "success" for this kind of service are presented.Applied to the information services of Lidkoping, Sölvesborg and Västervik, these factors reveal a number of shortcomings and mistakes made by the libraries.To understand this result these information services are seen as parts of a traditional Swedish public "library-thought". It is shown that, fundamental ideas in the way the public libraries are defined, like the responsibility to act in a neutral and democratic way, also characterised the three information services.These ideas together with the opinion of SMF as a "rational" information-consumer resulted in information services who did not meet the information-needs and information-behaviour of SMF..

This study is a first attempt to try to understand what the variables could be that make the person responsible for the grave sign up for grave gardening services by the church or to maintain the grave by him- or herself. There has been almost no research done within this subject. This study has been made by a qualitative research method and interviews have been performed with both persons responsible for the grave who have gardening services made by the church and with those who maintain the grave by themselves. The characteristics that are affecting consumer behaviour and the buyer decision process are presented in the theoretical part of this study. That is done so it can be seen if a comparison between the results of the study and the basic theoretical concept is possible, resulting in an understanding of how the costumers think and argue about this question.

The work with this paper began with a belief that the permission aspect plays acrucial part when it comes to consumers perceptions of marketing through E-mailand SMS - especially when it comes to advertising that is received through a devicethat the consumer has a strong personal relationship with. The questions to beinvestigated was: "How do users of computers and mobile phones feel aboutadvertisement received through E-mail and SMS?" and "In what way does the usersrelationship to the computer or mobile phone affect how they feel about theadvertisement?". The study was based on a questionnaire as well as an analysis of theresponses in combination with previous research on the subject.The results showed that the majority of the respondents from this papers surveywere found to have a negative attitude toward advertisement through both E-mail andSMS. However, the respondents turned out to have a slightly higher tolerance foradvertisement through E-mail than towards advertisement through SMS.

Problem formulation: What factors influence the customer?s choice of bank? How is the customer loyalty towards the customer?s current bank?Purpose: The main purpose is to see what factors are definitive to the customer?s choice of bank and how strong the customer loyalty is towards the bank. It is also interesting to see whether customers who are satisfied with their current bank may still consider switching to something else.Method: The method is both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection, with main focus on a quantitative survey. The qualitative part consists of interviews with a smaller focus group to receive a deeper insight of the consumer?s thoughts regarding the main purpose and problem formulations.Conclusion: The main factor when choosing a bank is recommendations from family or friends.

In this paper I study how the repeal of the Swedish wealth tax (1 of January 2007) has affected people´s labour supply behaviour. This particular issue is relevant because it may help us understand some of the effects of the earnings tax changes that have taken place in Sweden. Accoring to standard economic theory a repealed wealth tax is similar to an income effect for the persons who previously paid the tax. That means that they theoretically will want to consume more leisure, that is decrease their labour supply. The method I am using to test this hypothesis is a difference-in-difference approach where the treatment group consists of persons who previously paid the tax and the control group of comparable persons who did not pay the tax.

To identify and evaluate apple cultivars is not an easy task, since the taste and appearances of the fruit are affected by where the apple tree grows. At the Balsgård new apple gene bank there is a unique and interesting collection of over 260 different cultivars from all over the world. To find out if these cultivars are consistent with previously published descriptions, the fruit was evaluated for some of the cultivars. Among the evaluated cultivars some were selected that could be suitable for cultivation and/or fruit breeding. A few cultivars were in addition analyzed at a consumer evaluation at the Kivik apple market where visitors could vote for the most beautiful apple and the best taste.

Almost every day newspapers cover companies and brands in crisis. This should worry companies as negative publicity has been shown to have a great influence on consumer perceptions on brands. In addition, brand crises have been shown to be contagious, meaning that they also affect consumers? views on other similar brands. This study aims to investigate spill-over effects of one brand crisis to another within a product category.

An employee that informs on illegal or unethical behavior in the workplace is what has been called a whistleblower. Employees that have become whistleblowers have often faced tragic consequences, like threats from the organization, unemployment, bankruptcy and divorce. The purpose of this paper is, on the basis of different ethical perspectives to describe the justification of the whistleblowing phenomenon and apply this to the Swedish whistleblower Ingvar Bratt who ?blew the whistle? when he found out that Bofors AB, the company he worked for, were smuggling arms to the countries Dubai and Bahrein. The method that has been used in this paper is what Björn Badersten call a normative ?givet att?- analysis.

Embedded Systems Lab at Umeå University is currently part of a research project with the purpose to examine the behavior of dairy cows inside a barn. Each cow needs to be tracked with a precision of 50 cm, and since GPS-technique has poor functionality at indoor environments, an indoor positioning system needs to be developed.Embedded Systems Lab has already developed an indoor positioning system using IR-light and radio, but since this system demands extensive infrastructure and is rather expensive, an alternate positioning system using ultrasonic pulses and radio is being examined.In this report the range, beam angle and current consumption of ultrasonic transmitters- and receivers are investigated. Three different driver stages for the transmitter is tested, and two amplifier solutions for the receiver. The report also describes how the length of the transmitted ultrasonic pulse affects the received signal, accessibility of a ?shadowed? signal, and the effect of different sound frequency..

AbstractThis study focuses on three generations of Kurdish women's view on honor. The study is a qualitative research based on three individual interviews. The aim of this study is to examine how three generations of immigrant women from a culture of honor is influenced over time by the majority culture and its values together with how these women affect each other mutually both consciously and unconsciously within the family. The study is based on two questions: What does"honor" mean to the three generations of women who are Muslim and Kurdish? Did these three generations of women?s idea of honor change over time as they have lived in Sweden? Results of this study have shown that the concept of honor has its focus on the woman's body, sexuality and chastity.

AbstractThis study focuses on three generations of Kurdish women's view on honor. The study is a qualitative research based on three individual interviews. The aim of this study is to examine how three generations of immigrant women from a culture of honor is influenced over time by the majority culture and its values together with how these women affect each other mutually both consciously and unconsciously within the family. The study is based on two questions: What does"honor" mean to the three generations of women who are Muslim and Kurdish? Did these three generations of women?s idea of honor change over time as they have lived in Sweden? Results of this study have shown that the concept of honor has its focus on the woman's body, sexuality and chastity.

The consumer of today is bombarded by an increasing number of commercial messages, which makes it harder and harder for brands to cut through the clutter. Because of this, new methods are developed and introduced to the market every day. One of the most widely discussed of these methods is guerrilla advertising. Even though the method has received numerous praises there are not any academic proofs supporting these arguments. The authors, of this thesis, have examined if guerrilla advertising is more or less effective compared to traditional advertising and what the reasons for the result are.

The goal of this qualitative essay is to approach the knowledge of people who commit crimes. From a development psychology point of view, questions relating to childhood ang growth are some of the important subjects we choose to discuss. Our purpose is also to reveal the linkage between criminal behavior and different theories of the above mentioned perspective. To bridge the gap between the general and the individual, our survey was based on profound interviews with four inmates in prison. This offer an opportunity to capture the individual´s inner thoughts, feelings and experience about the criminal action.

The goal has been to design a product for unloading and storing small gadgetsin the hallway. The aim has been to facilitate the search for importantsmall objects that people never seem to find when they need them the most.The aim has also been to provide a sense of relief when people enter theirhome, and they can empty their pockets on one spot in a very simple yet orderlymanner. The product would be able to sort out, and make the gadgetsaccessible, take as little space as possible, be easy to use and not be perceivedas heavy and clumsy. The work has been done with close involvement of afocus group consisting of 20 people of different ages and with different occupations.The behavior of the focus group has been observed and test modelshave played a crucial role in advancing the work troughout the project. Theresult is a series of storage products for the wall, of simple shapes which canbe combined together in different ways depending on hallway and the user?sindividual taste or preference..