As collaboration between companies move beyond the single transaction into more long-term relationships the consequences of a company's control system become more complex. The aim of this paper is to provide an understanding of how intra- and inter-organizational control and work practices interact through examining how a company's intra-organizational control influences its customer relationships. The empirical research is performed through a qualitative case study where interviews have been conducted with management and sales staff within the case company as well as with one of the customers. The empirical findings have been analyzed using frameworks and theories regarding management control and customer relationships. The study reveals that the intra-organizational control of the case company affects its relationships with customers in a number of ways.

Abstract?Understand the customers value in use ? A multiple case study of three industrial companies? or ?Förstå kundens bruksvärde ? En multipel fallstudie av tre industriella företag? brings out the problem that it is easy to assume, what the value is for the customer.The questions asked for this thesis are:? How does the companies in focus, gather information about what effects the customers value in use?? How do the companies use this information in their business?The purpose is to examine how some industrial companies gather information about the customer?s value in use, on the bases from the five activities from Porter and how they can use this information.Three semi structured interviews were made for this investigation, with representatives from Atlas Copco Rock Drills, IL Recycling and Johnson Pump.The conclusions are that to gather information about the customers value in use, the company must work close with the customer. This information helps the company to improve their products, services and their relationships..

Title: The customer?s contribution to the innovation-process ? a study of using customers to discover latent needs. Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Author: Robert Klein Supervisor: Agneta Sundström Date: 2014-06 Aim: The purpose of this study is to gain enhanced understanding of what knowledge costumers contribute with in an innovation-process lead by a producer of goods, and how that knowledge is used to fulfill latent needs. The area of research has formerly described which results customer-involvement lead to, but have been scarce in describing how results are produced. Method: From a qualitative onset, a case-study collecting data through observations and interviews capturing customer knowledge contributions, and producer use of fetched knowledge has been conducted. Data has been analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Results have been processed in several steps in which material has been categorized and enriched continuously. Result & Conclusions: Customer-knowledge is broken down into market-knowledge, everyday-knowledge, and specialist-knowledge, which all are significant to a producer of goods.

Mobile TV ? is the introduction on the Swedish market about content and customer relationship? This study explores and defines key factors of decisive importance for the introduction of mobile TV in Sweden, using the TAIDA model. In order to summarize and analyze the factors, four interviews with key actors have been carried out. The answers have been compared to generate the two different criteria that are used for presenting four different scenarios. The purpose of the study is to constitute data in the decision making process.

Title: The customer?s contribution to the innovation-process ? a study of using customers to discover latent needs. Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Author: Robert Klein Supervisor: Agneta Sundström Date: 2014-06 Aim: The purpose of this study is to gain enhanced understanding of what knowledge costumers contribute with in an innovation-process lead by a producer of goods, and how that knowledge is used to fulfill latent needs. The area of research has formerly described which results customer-involvement lead to, but have been scarce in describing how results are produced. Method: From a qualitative onset, a case-study collecting data through observations and interviews capturing customer knowledge contributions, and producer use of fetched knowledge has been conducted. Data has been analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Results have been processed in several steps in which material has been categorized and enriched continuously. Result & Conclusions: Customer-knowledge is broken down into market-knowledge, everyday-knowledge, and specialist-knowledge, which all are significant to a producer of goods.

The ski resort is a business unlike any other. While providing the customer with a service, it produces the service in a manner that in many respects resemble the traditional producing company. Therefore, since the challenges facing the ski resort are a mixture of what can be found in these different environments, this study aims to investigate the applicability of Lean principles in this context. With a qualitative approach based on direct observation, combined with survey data from 2819 respondents, we evaluate the expected effects on customer value of ten commonly defined Lean principles. The study finds that although Lean theory can help disseminate customers throughout the resort and provide greater transparency, the nature of the operations calls for caution.

Title: Satisfaction and loyalty from a customer viewpoint Level: Final assignment for Master degree in Business Administration Authors: Thomas Blomqvist and Per Nilsson Supervisor: Lars-Torsten Eriksson Date: Januari 2010Purpose: The overall purpose of our paper is to describe Alfas customers based on the level of satisfaction and loyalty. We also want to find out if there are specific characteristics of customers with a high degree of satisfaction and loyalty.Method: We have used both secondary and primary data in the paper. We started with a review of relevant literature to seek knowledge in the field of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Thereafter we conducted a prestudy by interviewing three of Alfas employees, and finally we conducted a quantitative survey on Alfas customers. The results were analyzed and compared against current theory of customer satisfaction and customer loyaltyResults & conclusion: The results suggest that Alfa is successful in meeting customer expectations in service delivery, even if we can confirm differences in outcome between the three businessareas.

Customers put their printing suppliers to severe claims for shorter production time and faster deliveries.Printers always look for new solutions to increase the satisfaction of their customers. Oneexample of such a solution is web to print, where the customers book their printed matters atInternet.The solution involves design of printed matter by using templates that are made unique for thecustomer's printed matter. Web to print is suitable for reiterated printed matters. By using templatesthe customer doesn´t have to redo their layout for every new edition. Bromma tryck AB hasinvested the system CiPublisher, which is applied for the customer to make their printed matter atInternet.The purpose of the examination work is to investigate the needs of the customers of Brommatryck for a web to print solution and how such a system should be adapted.The result shows that the customer who is in need of a web to print solution wish such a system tobe easy managed and also usable.

Background: As Porter?s diamond (1990) suggested, the business environment highly influences firms? strategies. Today, most of the companies have to decide their strategy depending from a worldwide business environment. Yet, strategy researches and the growing importance of marketing for business success also show that customer dimension must be taken into consideration. On some markets and in certain industries, the offer is much higher than the demand and then, companies need to attract customers.

ABSTRACTTitle: Senses strategic importance to the customer experience in dressing roomAuthors: Anna Andersson & Alexandra LundqvistTutor: Dr. Bertil Hultén, Associate Professor Linneaus School of Business and Economics Linnaeus UniversitySubject:  Bachelor thesis 15 hp. Business Economics C, Marketing. Linnaeus University, spring 2011Presentation of the question: Is it possible for companies to enhance customers experience in dressing rooms by strategically working with the senses?Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the senses relevance to the customer experience in the dressing room and create an understanding of the dressing room from a customer and business perspective.

Purpose                           The purpose of this study is to create an understanding of how e-commerce companies use loyalty programs in order to retain their customers and to increase its consumption, and compare this with customer perceptions of loyalty and learn what makes them loyal. Theoretical framework      The theoretical framework starts with definitions of loyalty and customer loyalty. Further, it discusses what a loyalty program is, how rewards today and in the future affect the consumers, and other promotion offers that are commonly used. The theory also discusses how previous points work in e-commerce. Method                                                    To take advantage of the companies? point of view and at the same the customers? perspective, the survey is based on a combination of a qualitative and quantitative study. In the study, two companies in the fashion industry were interviewed and 391 respondents participated. Empirical study                 In the empirical study the interviews with the two e-commerce companies are first presented, which revolves around their use of loyalty program.

In supporting an efficient way to gather and develop contact information for the Uppsala Association of Technology Physicist alumni, it is crucial to have in place an adequate and user-friendly system allowing the continuous collection and storage of such contact information. This can achieved by the creation of a website where alumni can enter information about themselves and where such information in turn is stored in a database. A database containing relevant tables has been developed in MySQL. In utilizing phpMyAdmin, the programming language PHP and Web Server Apache, a fully functional website to be included on the Association's website has been created..

The most common preventive and treatment service for children in child welfare services in Sweden is the contact family program. The number of children who are involved in the program has steadily increased. Usually it is a single mother who apply for or is offered this service. The aim with a contact family is that the parent should get respite and that the child should have its network enlarged and sometimes get a male role model.The purpose of this study was to look into how children´s perspective was considered in the contact family process. I have studied the process in order to see how it works and to see to what extent children is participating.

We were commissioned by Bulten Stainless AB to identify and analyze their customer order flow. Because the company had problems with delays in the production and deliveries to the customer, the task also included investigation of how the company work with prevention and management of delays. The purpose of the project also included to identify critical factors for effective order flow in smaller workshop companies.The information about the flow and how the work takes place within the company were collected through observations on the company and interviews with the staff. This information was used to draw maps over the customer order flow and to write a description of the current situation within the company. Both strengths and weaknesses of the companies work could be identified through analysis of the present situation.

In relation to the development of IT-products it is very important that the software supplier is aware not only of the target group but also the field of application. Usability should characterize the whole IT-design process as, in relation to this context, design includes more than merely those aspects which are visible to and thus can be interpreted by the naked eye. The study examines the specific qualities and properties that substantiate the usability and the demands that a customer rightfully expects from an IT-product. The user and the customer are highlighted in the same context in order to demonstrate that it is through the customer that an IT-product is defined as being useful. Thus, from this perspective, the user and customer can be considered as being the same person.