Background: There has been a movement of power towards customers in most markets which puts higher demands upon the Customer orientation of organizations to survive competition. In general the opinion is that satisfied customers also are profitable for the organization. Even though a consciousness exists about this connections importance for the organization there exists no prominent economical theory showing how a organization should work with customer adaptation and how management should be shaped for success in this area. In the field of competitive sports clubs a similar trend is discernible since the field is increasingly commercialized.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to adapt The Balanced Scorecard as a model to the demands on management that Customer orientation causes and to use the knowledge created during the study to show how Customer orientation in a competitive sports club could look.Realization: The study first takes the form of a literature study which emerges into a theoretic development. Above that a case study of Linköpings Hockey Club has been accomplished so that knowledge created from the literature study could be used on competitive sports clubs.

This study aims to investigate how value is constructed in horse business, in order to increase knowledge and contribute to development of theory in this field. This is important since the horse plays a significant role in the rural development in Sweden. The study assumes that value is something created through relationships in the social network. Therefore theories of sensemaking are combined with a discourse analytic method. By interviewing customers to two companies, one with orientation on trotting horses and one with orientation on showjumping horses, it was found that value is constructed through retrospective stories.

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:Behovet av kundorientering i fastighetsföretag, finns det?Author:Joel Nilsson ErlemanTutor:Agneta SundströmPurpose:Thru a quality point of view, examine and analyze how Akelius AB customer orientatesthem self in an area such as Brandbergen, were the demand is larger then the supply.Method:Through a qualitative research approach with an inductive and a hermeneutic orientation thestudy approaches Akelius AB and the company?s costumer orientation thru several interviews and asurvey. The gathered data?s purpose is to answer research questions to investigate how costumerorientations function and to how to implement it in real estate companies.Theory:The theory explains the meaning of Customer orientation and its use in real estate companies.The theoretical discussion is based on a five-gap model, which is used to analyze the service quality inAkelius AB and to analyze the relation to their costumers.Empire:The findings show how Akelius experience costumer orientation in Brandbergen and thecostumer?s perception of Akelius AB service quality.Analysis:Compares the theory and the empirical data to see the service quality thru using the GapModel.Conclusion:Akelius AB satisfy their customer?s need in what could be expected of them. In thesituation with increased demand and lower supply Akelius AB have the possibility to offer theircostumers a much lower quality than the costumers usually wants and expect.

This paper examines the customer relationships of a telecom operator and how their customer accounting is done. The aim is to use the framework developed by Lind & Strömsten (2006) to categorize customer relationships and see to what extent the framework predicts which type of customer accounting method is used for each customer relationship. A case study was made at Telenor Sverige AB where different customer relationships are identified and linked to the customer accounting techniques that are used for financial measurement of the customers. Findings include that all but one of the customer relationships described in the framework were recognized at Telenor and that most customer accounting techniques mentioned in the framework were in fact used and associated with different customer relationships. The results of the case study also highlight that some differences exist between the predictions of the framework and the observations at Telenor..

Background: Knowledge of customer needs is a key factor in companies? struggle to develop successful products. Several studies illustrate that the main reason for failure in product development is lack of customer understanding. Lately considerable changes have occurred. Large-scale mass production is continuously being replaced by Customer orientation, especially in the high technological market.

Research in the FMCG sector shows that in-store atmosphere has a great impact on customer attitude and behavior. Despite this, there is a lack of knowledge regarding how the atmosphere influences the customer in a fashion store setting. The purpose with this paper is to investigate if and how visible in-store atmospherics influence customer attitude and behavior in a fashion store setting. We also investigate if behavior and attitude is affected by the customer's expertise and the purpose of the visit. The study takes place in two different fashion stores within the same fashion chain.

The companies of today figures on a hardly competitive market. This makes it necessary for the company to find new way to create competition advantages. Since it is no longer enough to compete with the technical quality of the product the companies are forced to also enhance the functional quality. To accomplish this it becomes necessary for producing companies to be customer oriented. A customer oriented company culture can be reached with the help of internal marketing in which different activities work to inform and teach the employees about the company strategy and also about their own role as part-time marketers.This thesis examines Electrolux, a company which is currently striving to develop a customer oriented company culture.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the co-creation process and how value is created based on a service orientation using a network perspective. The thesis is studied from a social-constructionist philosophy, using a qualitative approach of data collection and the theoretical framework includes network theories, theories of service-orientation and co-creation. We have conducted semi-structured interviews with a small firm and its network, which consists of a customer, a supplier and a partner. We found that Håkansson?s ARA framework combined with Ballantyne and Varey?s triangulation of value-creating activities help to acquire an understanding of the actors? bonds, the resources? ties and the activity links that exist in a network.

Protean career är en av de nya karriärerna och en ny syn på karriär. Den bygger på att individen själv i hög grad styr över sin karriär och dennes utveckling och baserar denna främst utifrån sina värderingar. För att undersöka förekomsten av Protean career orientation och dennes eventuella samband med kompetensutveckling genomfördes en enkätundersökning på en arbetsplats som resulterade i 134 deltagare. Korrelations- och regressionsberäkningar utfördes på insamlad data. Resultaten visade att det fanns ett samband mellan Protean career orientation och kompetensutveckling och att det förstnämnda var en stark prediktor för kompetensutveckling.

Since companies have realised the importance of customer loyalty and since the service sector has gained higher significance in recent years, we found it interesting to study what leads to customer loyalty in service companies. The theories we have chosen to consider are customer loyalty, service quality, service guarantees, affinity marketing, loyalty programmes and customer clubs, the customer in focus and other factors that influences customer loyalty. To find out how service companies are working with cus- tomer loyalty, we have conducted a case study within three service companies. Our findings are that customer loyalty has a significant importance for the companies we studied. Quality and personnel were the factors we found had the greatest impact in service companies concerning customer loyalty.

In recent time, agile methods have been devoted much attention, and the concept is widely used in the IT industry in particular. An increasing number of companies are interested in this way of working. The following report is the result of a study on the ability to create value for customers in business development through the use of agile methods. We ask what the advantages and limitations of agile methods are in the creation of customer value. Grounded Theory and an initial literature review was used to answer this question.

ABSTRACT New in a foreign country ? the importance of civic orientationJessica Gerhardt & Hiba Sultan We have examined the information on parenting in Sweden that is given to new immigrants through civic orientation. The aim of the study was to investigate how new arrivals are being informed of Swedish laws and regulations relating to child rearing and corporal punishment. The study also aims to examine how a lack of information about raising children in civic orientation can affect newly arrived families. Our empirical work has been created by a focus group interview with the child and family unit on social services and a call interview with an SFI-teachers who teach newly arrived immigrants in civic orientation.

In recent time, agile methods have been devoted much attention, and the concept is widely used in the IT industry in particular. An increasing number of companies are interested in this way of working. The following report is the result of a study on the ability to create value for customers in business development through the use of agile methods. We ask what the advantages and limitations of agile methods are in the creation of customer value. Grounded Theory and an initial literature review was used to answer this question.

The structures of organizations have gone through a dramatic change over the last years; as a result customer service is no longer a small side activity but a critical part in customer relationship management. Development in information technology has created opportunities as well as challenges for organizations when it comes to providing a customer service with capacity of sensing and responding to customers' needs. Previous research shows a relationship between customer response capability and customer knowledge processeses, this study investigates and confirms this relationship. However, findings show that dedication and understanding for customers needs has a direct impact on both customer response capability and customer knowledge processeses, this result indicates that customer knowledge processes and customer relationship management are difficult to differentiate. Furthermore, this study explores IT-related resources impact on customer response capability and customer knowledge processes.