Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether abnormal stock returns could be identified as a result of a layoff announcement during weak economy.Method: An event study methodology.Theory: Efficient market hypothesis, signal theory.Empirical results: Quantitative data from observations of stock prices in thirty two companies listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, in the period 2008 -2012.Conclusion: The results indicate that the market reaction was negative because there were negative abnormal returns on the Stockholm Stock Exchange during the period 2008-2012 in connection with the layoff announcements. The market reaction was milder when staff reductions were carried out as a result of a restructuring and stronger when staff reductions were carried out as part of a cost reduction program.The layoff announcements elicited different market reactions depending on the company's industry affiliation. The most negative reaction was in the Healthcare industry. Negative abnormal returns were lower in industries Industrials, Consumer Services and Consumer Goods. There were no abnormal returns for shares of companies in the industry Financials.

The average length of life is increasing in the western world, hence the older population is growing. A common health problem among the elderly is malnutrition. Malnutrition causes decreased body strength and is associated with an amplified risk of infections, depression, fractures and increased mortality. The health care system is therefore faced with the challenge to prevent malnutrition among the growing population of elderly. This could be done by providing nutritious foods developed to meet the specific needs of elderly. The overall objective of this project was to test a healthy energy dense drink based on oats targeted for the elderly consumers as a strategy to prevent malnutrition among elderly.

This essay studies how advertisements in various anti-smoking campaigns can influence and persuade by using anti-logos as counter-arguments to the tobacco industry's logos. In contrast to tobacco advertising arguments such as freedom (logos), pleasure (pathos) and trademark (ethos) the anti-smoking campaigns create anti-logos arguments with various connotations such as repulsive pictures and sexual implications to influence groups of people not to start smoking or to quit smoking.Advertisement of tobacco does not exist nowadays due to legal restrictions in the western world; however several decades of myths created in the consumer consciousness still exist. Thus one can speak of a tobacco advertising ideology that exists and the various anti-smoking campaigns trying to change that ideology.The purpose of anti-smoking campaigns is to conduct a kategoria of myth that tobacco advertisement has created over the years. Anti smoking organizations do this by creating a new ideology to affect consumer?s attitude toward smoking and the tobacco myth with an anti-myth.

Shoplifting is a serious problem due to the fact that about 2 % of a retail store's turnaround dis-appears annually. This paper discusses the problem with shoplifting where a closed retail display of glass can prevent this kind of misbehavior. Hitherto the scientific research regarding how consumers react to a closed retail display is non-existing. With this in mind we want to investigate and enlighten the phenomenon regarding consumer behavior and product appreciation. The study is carried out at a retailer in the beauty industry in Sweden both in stores where the selection of perfumes have been displayed behind glass and in stores in which they have been displayed with open access.

Endocrine disruptive chemicals (EDCs) are found in many everyday products and can cause adverse effects on human health. Small children are particularly sensitive to EDCs and they are also exposed to them in a greater extent than adults. Despite this, EDCs are only banned in a few toys and childcare products. There are many sources of exposure and if no steps are taken to reduce the incidence of EDCs we may face an increasing number of people diagnosed with obesity, diabetes type 2 or various types of cancer.The Swedish Government has set a number of environmental objectives, one of which is calleda non-toxic environment. The Swedish Chemicals Agency was instructed to produce and conduct a national action plan to achieve this goal.

January 1, 1999, a new sex purchase law was introduced in Sweden, Lag (1998: 408). The law implies that in a sex trade a crime is committed only by the consumer in the sex trade. The majority of consumers in prostitution are men and the suppliers are women. When prostitution is problematized it's usually from the woman's point of view and the perspective of the man is often overlooked. The new law has shed light on the consumer and made the male more visible in the public debate.

Thesis purpose: The aim of this paper is to extend the knowledge of what influences the purchase decision of functional food in the store. By applying the M-R model in a new setting - the dairy department in grocery retailing in Sweden - and adding variables related to health attitudes, the aim is to contribute to existing research concerning in-store purchase decision making and store environment as well as consumer attitudes. Methodology: This thesis employs a quantitative strategy with a deductive approach and data has been collected with questionnaires. Theoretical perspective: Environmental psychology serves as an overarching framework where, more specifically, certain aspects of store atmospherics and some variables concomitant to health attitudes provide the theoretical base. Empirical data: The empirical data consists of customer purchasing a functional food product, Proviva, and this is contrasted with a test group, Bravo.

This essay focuses on the reception of Yahya Hassan?s debut YAHYA HASSAN in Swedish media, mainly daily newspapers. Following the work of Magnus Nilsson it analyzes the ?reading strategy of the politics of identity? in ?immigrant literature? and outlines structural racism in the literary scene. By bringing attention to the critics? use of this reading strategy, it is possible to unveil the ?ethnic filter? through which literature by Swedish authors with a ?non-Swedish identity? is being read in contemporary Swedish literary criticism.

The purpose of this study has been to examine how customers, by interacting with each other, can communicate and create the image of a brand. We find this topic to be relevant since there are no previous studies conducted concerning the customers influence on the brand image. Our ambition has been to describe in what ways and to what extent the customer can affect and influence the brand image by communicating with other customers. To fulfill our purposed we have targeted three important questions which are:? In which ways can the customer affect the communicated image of a brand?? To what extent can the customer influence the brand image and the perceived value?? Who has control over the brand, the customer or the company?For this study we have used a qualitative approach in which we have conducted eight personal interviews with brand consultants and the editor of the magazine Dagens Media which has given us the foundation for our analysis.

ABSTRACTTitel: ?Some kids really love those commercials? -A study of how children experience and construe commercials. (Vissa barn älskar faktiskt sånna dära TV-reklamer? ? En övergripande studie om hur barn upplever och tolkar tv-reklam.)Number of pages: 40Author: Lotta NorbergTutor: Amelie HössjerCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Autumn term 2007University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The aim of this essay is to make a study of how children experience and construe commercials. Key questions to be answered are; can children distinguish commercials from TV programmes? What do the children think of commercials? How do they watch commercials? What do they think about a ban against commercials directed to children? Do they understand the purpose of commercials? Do their buying habits change?Material/Method: A qualitative method with 18 interviews and 3 observations with 7, 9 and 11 year old children.Main results: The children in my study can distinguish commercials from TV programs.

Who is the journalist, a conversation analysis of interviews with party leaders during the 2006 election period, focus on the ideology of journalismÖrebro University, Department of Humanities, Media- and Communication studies, C-studySupervisor: Mats EkströmAuthor: Erica HellstrandIn contemporary society the media is part of the politics, or maybe, politics is part of the media. Whatever the case, they are important to each other, the media play a conclusive role in the connect between politics and citizens, and thus, results of election. The relation between the media and politics should continuously be studied and discussed in the continuously changing modern society.This paper examines the practice of news journalism in interviews with swedish party leaders during the 2006 election period. Focusing on how the ideology of journalism and the professional identity of journalists affect the practice the researcher hopes to contribute to the further understanding of the area. Steven E.

The representative democracy has become weakened during the last decades. At the same time the United Nations declared at the Rio de Janeiro meeting in 1992 that environmental problems can best be solved by involvement of all concerned citizens in decision-making. The main purpose of this study has been to examine if citizens panels is a possible way to involve citizens in environmental decision-making and what the outcomes can be. Furthermore the study has investigated what the participation has contributed to environmental politics and how representative the results have been. This has been carried out by investigating the Piteåpanel in the municipality of Piteå by conducting interviews.The result of the study shows that the involvement of the citizens in the decision-making influenced the environmental politics of the municipality.

SammanfattningÄmnesfördjupande arbete inom marknadsföring, Ekonomihögskolan vid Linnéuniversitetet Civilekonomprogrammet, 4FE03E, VT 2011.Författare:David BrooHandledare:Sarah PhilipsonTitel:Mobiltelefoni ? en djungel för konsumenterna. Vilka faktorer påverkar deras val av mobiloperatör?Syfte:Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkar de svenska konsumenternas val av mobiloperatör. Ett delsyfte är att undersöka vad som påverkar deras lojalitet till sin operatör.Frågeställning:Vilka faktorer påverkar de svenska konsumenternas val av mobiloperatör?Metod:Det teoretiska materialet består av litteratur och vetenskapliga artiklar.

Discussions about the democratic deficit of the European Union have gotten more intense and the criticism usually points towards a great gap between the citizens and the EU politics. In this study the political communication policy is being put under the scope to investigate to what extent the policy is designed to counter the democratic deficit, supported by the theory of deliberative democracy. The analysis examines three aspects of the deficit ? decentralization, participation and the distribution of information ? and makes research into the communicative measures that have been implemented. The importance for EU to make deliberation possible is stressed throughout the essay and in the conclusion I argue that improvements still need to be made.  .

The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze why or why not Swedish municipalities implement the gender equality policy ? ?right to work fulltime?. In order to understand this institutional change, the analysis is based on a theoretical framework consisting of two fields: political representation and feminist institutionalism. The study is divided into two empirical inquiries. The first part is based on a quantitative survey that describes the casual relationship between two independent variables; women´s political representation and party ideology, and the dependent variable; political decision about ?right to work fulltime?.