The aim of this study was to examine the perceptions within social services regarding men who are victims of domestic violence based on how gender, sexuality, masculinity and victimhood was constructed in the social workers' statements. Eight qualitative interviews were conducted with nine social workers who work within the social services and meet people who are victims of domestic violence. A social constructionist scientific approach has permeated the study and theories of gender, heteronormativity, masculinity and the ideal victim has served as the study?s theoretical views. The results of the study showed that some of the social workers ascribed men specific characteristics such as strength and fearlessness.

Abstract The growth of supra-national organizations, such as the European Union, has been a recent trend in today?s global environment, which has challenged traditional marketing concepts and product cues. One such cue that is significantly challenged is the 'origin cue'. An origin cue is conceived to be a socially constructed notion that consumers use to discern where goods come from and to accordingly evaluate products with. The origin cue is often predominantly materialized in the public sphere by a 'made in' labelling scheme.

A couple of hundred years ago half of the earth?s surface was covered by forest. Today, only half remains and every year an area the size of Nepal is disappearing. Deforestation, together with the burning of fossil fuels, is also one of the reasons for the increasing greenhouse effect. Another relatively unknown problem for the world?s forests is the trade with illegally harvested timber.

Abstract Title: A conjoint analysis of packaging attributes. How can the attributes of a product?s packaging best look like to attract the consumer? Authors: Linda Granberg & Helena Niklasson Supervisor: Jan Svanberg Department: School of Management, Blekinge Institute of Technology Course: Bachelor?s thesis in Business Administration, 15 credits Purpose: The purpose is to find out how visual and technical attributes on product packaging affects the consumers tendency to want to buy the product. Method: Conjoint analysis and a quantitative survey. Results: When developing a package for a food product we?ve reached the conclusion that it is most important to have clear product information on it. The consumer wants it to be simple and easy to use, the people under time pressure seeks product with new technology which can save them time..

The consumer often chooses the store depending on the quality of the fruit and vegetable department. A study has proven that about half of the purchases in this department are impulsive. This gives the store a good possibility to influence the consumer?s behaviour in the fruit and vegetables department. Compared to other products, like pasta or rice, there are few brands represented in the f & v-department.

Aim Our aim is to highlight perceptions of fibromyalgia among health care personell.MethodsA systematic literature review conducted with a deductive approach.FindingsHealth care personell felt insecure because of a lack of understanding which lead to avoiding contact with these patients. Many felt that the fibromyalgia patient was categorised and that they would have been better served with another name of their disease. There was a great distrust against the diagnosis and its aetiology. The patient was perceived as troublesome, illness-fixated and draining the personell of energy. The paradox that the patient is looking so healthy but bearing so much pain was confusing for the health care personell.Conclusions Communication and an empathic encounter was identified as important elements for patient care.

This study is about an ongoing project in the northern parts of Sweden. Quattro Helix is used as a model for the interaction between four institutional members of the society, in purpose of challenging existing social structures and achieveing community development. The aim is to increase the knowledge about Quattro Helix-model as an approaching method to face the problems in the society through cooperation between Civil society, state, academy and industry. Interviews with eight project members were used as the data-collecting method to capture the perceptions about the project constellations. Information was gathered from two representatives from each of the four actors.

The purpose of my study was to find out about the newly arrived students? views and perceptions of the Swedish high school, how this vision and perception looked like before they moved here, and if it has changed. I also wanted to find out how they perceived the meeting with the Swedish school, and if they believed that this meeting should or could be improved. In this study, I used a qualitative research method, the phenomenological method, in which I have used qualitative research interviews to collect the empirical data and detect patterns in my research. The theory I used is cultural encounters, and with it, I try to understand how people with different cultural backgrounds create interactions to work together in communities.

We investigate the effects of various types of word-of-mouth (WOM) messages on consumer bahavior. The message is varied along two dimensions where one is valence and the other is whether or not it contains an explicit call for certain behavior or attitude change. We use an experiment in the form of a web-based survey. Five different scenarios were designed to represent neutral, positive, and negative WOM. The latter two came in two different versions - one with a recommendation and one without.

This thesis examines effects that occur when consumers are placed in a negative category by the sender in an internet marketing context. The effects studied are attitude towards the ad, attitude towards the media, sense of being monitored and sense of being categorized. The authors argue that consumers will become increasingly aware of the fundamentals of internet marketing and how advertisements online are being directed towards them. Consumers will thus, to a larger extent than today, analyze advertisements and how they have been individually categorized by the sender. This will affect the way advertisements are perceived.

It has been found that customers in the home market perceive the retailer?s store image more positively than customers in the host market, even though this study has found that theretailer?s store image is generally perceived very positively by customers in both examined markets. In addition, this thesis has found that there is a significant difference in how IKEA?smanagement and customers perceive its store image. It can also be concluded that IKEA management perceived store image more positively than customers.

Fallstudie: Swedbank Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur ett varumärke kan framställas inom tre olika kontexter. Denna studie kommer att fokuseras kring aktörerna företag och konsument inom den interna företagsmiljön samt den fysiska och virtuella tjänstemiljön.Metod: Studien utgår från en etnografisk metod, där vi studerar och deltar i olika miljöer. För att erhålla datainsamling utfördes intervjuer, observationer samt dokumentanalys. Teoretisk referensram: Vi kritiserar traditionella brand management teorier kring företagets roll vid varumärkesskapande. Vi presenterar istället brand consumptions teorierna, eftersom dessa framhäver att varumärke skapas utav fler aktörer.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between space and consumer interaction at WEEKDAY, a contemporary fashion retail store in Malmö, Sweden. The thesis is based on a qualitative case-study and has a social constructionist approach. In order to understand the interaction taking place between consumer and environment we conducted observations guided by Kenneth Burke?s Pentad.The retail servicescape at WEEKDAY is conceived as a metaphorical stage where drama unfolds, analysing and defining the retail space using Kenneth Burke?s pentad of dramatism. We concentrate on the use of two terms of Burke?s pentad, the scene and the act, almost exclusively as we investigate how the scene stimulates the act.

Small scale internal consumer tests provide a company with a cheap way to get valuable information regarding their products advantages and flaws. Therefore the demand for possibilities to do this kind of test has increased. This report is part of a new sensory project at Unilever. It presents a method for sensory comparison of the company?s own products with the corresponding competitor products.

Introduction: A general guideline was introduced on October first 2010 regarding a mortgage cap, limiting the degree of leverage of housing as collateral. Through the new guidelines the marked conditions concerning consumers? choice of mortgage has changed. The consumers are limited in the sense that they can?t only use mortgage when purchasing a house.