Can the lack of functional cross-cultural communication among individuals within an international organization be the reason for cultural clashes to occur, and lead to conflict between two cultures within the same organization?Our aim is to try to create a potential model of how cross-cultural problems can be studied, in order to contribute to the solution of the problem. And to examine whether the theories, which form the basis of our model can be applied in reality.The research have assumed from the hermeneutical approach for a holistic view of the problem area. The deductive approach has been used in order to distinguish whether the theories can be applied to reality, and qualitative research method for collecting data.The focus lies within cross-cultural communications, which defines the various cultural factors that can affect organizational culture. Hofstede dimensions and the social structure are mentioned and cultural factors as language and religion.

This study investigates communication and data in information systems. The paper deals, more specificly, with communication in a CRM-system implemented in a Swedish-founded company in Beijing, China. It discusses cultural, political, linguistic and gender based dilemmas that can arise from the use of a CRM-system in an international and bilingual environment. Fifty-nine interviews were conducted in Sweden and in China, either in Swedish or English. The result of this study shows that communication in the information system is affected by factors, that are not originated in technical shortcomings of the system, but rather from cultural, political, linguistic and gender based pre-knowledge among individuals.

The intention with this essay has been to examine how the public instances working with cultural heritage in Sweden deals with the housing built under the period of the so called miljonprogrammet (?the million programme?) during 1965-75. The interest in the built environment from the 1960s and 70s has increased in the last ten years within the field of cultural heritage. The purpose with this study is to examine which cultural values that are assigned to the housing of the million programme. The purpose is also, as mentioned before, to study how the field of cultural heritage deals with this type of built environment.

This Bachelor's thesis examines and describes the ideas and ideological traits surrounding the public library within the governmental cultural policy. The Bachelor's thesis demonstrates how the public library ? even though its relevance in the modern society has shifted over time ? has maintained a connection to the governmental cultural policy and has therefore been shaped by the ideological changes in the political sphere as a whole. The main issues are: Which ideas concerning the public library's functions are expressed in the governmental cultural policy? Which ideological tendencies can be identified in the national cultural policy? Which ideas concerning the public library can be extracted through the found ideological tendencies? The method used in order to study the governmental bill is an ideology analysis based on a framework created by Dorte Skot-Hansen.

?Fan fiction writing?, or the writing of stories based upon a popular entertainment franchise, has become a topic of academic discussion. Fan fiction writers have waked the ire of movie producers, since they often write fiction that is in direct contradiction to the movie?s plot or spirit. While most academic studies on fan fiction have concentrated on his confrontational aspect of the writers? psyches, we have found that the writers actually have a much more nuanced approach to their work, and are not necessarily hostile towards the directors and producers.

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate what the users/visitors do at the Filipstads Bergslags Library when they are there. The questions we asked were "What do the visitors do when they are at the library?" and "How do the visitors give priority to the librarys services?" From these two questions we asked a third "How do the visitors view the library and its functions and what function do they see as the most important to them?" The method we used was a user study and we did this at the request of the management at the library. A questionnaire was constructed and handed out in a pilot study. We made some changes in the questionnaire before we started to hand it out at the library.

This thesis studies private equity firms' implementation of management control systems in their portfolio companies and whether the systems are affected by cross-national differences. A comparative case study examines five different private equity firms to derive if there are any differences between the private equity firms' management control systems in the United States, Europe and China. The empirical observations are categorized according to the framework developed by Merchant (1985) and further developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003). Theory on the effect of multinationality on management control systems, also developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003), are used to explain possible findings. The applied theory includes the cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede (1984) and Hofstede and Bond (1988).

Denna kandidatuppsats syftar till att undersöka hur hotellverksamheter praktiserar Revenue Management, genom att behandla interna och externa influenser..

There are over 1,5 billion Muslims living on earth and the religion is one of the world´s most increasing. Sweden is a country with a cultural diversity where about 300 000 Muslims lived in 1999. Today, the requirement for knowledge about caring for Muslims and the need of culturally competent nursing care are increasing.The aim of this study was to define cultural factors which the nurse has to recognize to be able to give culturally competent care to the Muslim patient. The method that has been used was a The Sunrise Model, which illustrates Leininger´s theory of culture care diversity and universality, provides a theoretical framework for the study. The results are presented on the basis of Leininger´s three cultural factors; cultural values, beliefs and lifeways.

Background: Today many companies are competing to get space in our minds. Companies spend a tremendous amount of money on building strong brands. It is not just about making us aware of their logo, today it?s more about giving the brand a ?soul? and to load it with different values. Due to today?s globalization there is also interesting to look at it from a cultural perspective.

Title: Culture?s Affect on the Determinants of Customer Satisfaction in Retailing: The Case of a European Retailer in the U.S. and China Date of the Seminar: 29th of May 2007 Course: BUS 809 Master thesis in International Marketing Authors: Lisa Bustamante Chesley Norman Charlotte Valind Advisors: Johan Anselmsson Cecilia Cassinger Keywords: International Retailing, Determinants of Customer Satisfaction, Culture, United States, China Thesis purpose: Our study aims to identify the determinants of customer satisfaction of two national cultures in a global retail setting, in order to clarify what role culture has, if any, in customers? satisfaction with an international retailer. Further, this will uncover if a Western perspective of determinants of satisfaction is a universal means of capturing what satisfies customers across cultures in a retail setting.

Objective: The papers objective is to create a deeper understanding for whether or not cultural and psychic distance affects corporate establishments in the EU.Method: The results have been gathered through intense data collection through interviews with ScaniaAB and Business Sweden. There has also been extensive research of 36 different companies and their first establishments in different countries. We have then analyzed the results through cultural and psychic distance and through Uppsala University's internationalization process model.Conclusion: The conclusions of this paper are:Corporate establishment often occurs in neighboring countries because of the similarity to the domestic markets which contribute with a greater security.Since the introduction of the EU single market, corporate establishments have become easier within the single market.The cultural and psychic distance does exist within the EU, however the internal market decreases these distances and the impact on corporate establishments.The market commitment is essential to the corporates survival within the new market.Cultural and psychic distance affects small firms more often since their lack of network and experience.Cultural and psychic distances are two different but related phenomena..

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to study cultural sponsorshipof cultural institutions and cultural events in some particular pointsof views. Namely, how do the Moderate party look at culturalsponsorship based on their motions and how these motions havebeen received by the Swedish parliament. The aim has beenbroken down into three questions. Firstly, how does the Moderateparty look at sponsorship of cultural institutions and culturalevents based on their motions on the subject. Secondly, whatviews have been existed in parliament both in committee andplenary, against the motions? Thirdly, what are the most relatingparagraphs for the different material groups.

The paper's purpose has evolved during the process of researching and writing it. In the beginning it was to investigate if art and culture could increase the strength and knowledge of a brand and if there existed a knowledge about this amongst Swedish companies, situated in Stockholm. During the process the purpose has evolved into exploring the type of companies that acknowledge this and those that don't. By using Bourdieu's terminology and tools, the reasons behind the use of art has been analyzed.The paper employs an explorative approach by accessing data through interviews and public data provided by the Internet through web pages and government files.The paper comes to the conclusion that what Holt calls cultural branding has not evolved, when looking at the companies that are accurate for this study. Out of 24 companies only one comes close to observing socio cultural movements through the arts.

The aim of this master?s thesis is to identify differences and similarities, regarding security, in two goods terminals in an organisation in the transport and goods sector. In this thesis we use Cultural Theory as an analytical instrument to investigate organizational culture, as seen from a security perspective. Cultural Theory is a theory seen from two perspectives, the stable perspective and the mobile perspective. These two perspectives concentrate on different research areas.