This thesis deals with the characterization of Japan and Japanese people by Swedish travelers during the Meiji period. It seeks to answer what aspects of Japanese people two Swedish travelers chose to highlight, and how these aspects were presented in their travelogues. This thesis also has a second aim. By applying Edward Said?s theory of orientalism, it wants to answer if Swedish travelogues were influenced by western 19th century ideas of colonialism and imperialism.

Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka huruvida betraktaren kan urskilja en konstnärs budskap i ett specifikt verk. Det hävdas att vi baserar våra tolkningar på vad vi till exempel har för utbildning och vad våra tidigare erfarenheter är. Det blir ett problem då man måste ställa frågan: "Kan någon annan än konstnären förstå konstnärens budskap?"Arbetet berör även vårt fysiska synsinne, vår perception och bildsemiotik. Bildsemiotik är läran om bilder, bilder som tecken och betydelse.

Due to increasing international competition and new technology IT-consultants has been forced to oversee their business models lately. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the process and consequences of a shift in business model for a consultant by using a methodology based on action research. The empirical foundation consists of a field study with observations, notes, interviews and business related documents. The case describes a consultant?s process of shifting business model from profits based on man-hours to selling a standardized system.

Studier som berör ämnet hur fysisk aktivitet påverkar det psykiska välbefinnandet hos äldre är något som berör alla. Fysisk aktivitet har i tidigare forskning visat sig påverka båda den fysiska och psykiska hälsan positivt. Mycket forskning är gjord på området, dock är de äldre underrepresenterade som målgrupp inom området. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka i vilken utsträckning fysisk aktivitet påverkar det psykiska välbefinnandet, med inriktning självkänsla och fysisk självuppfattning, hos äldre. Undersökningen innefattade en experimentell undersökningsmetod med en randominiserad, kontrollerad design.

Choosing a new plastic material for a container includes several different steps. In this case,the Finnish company Hackman needed a new type of packaging material for theircutlery- and kitchentool series »Hackman tools«. The project was carried out in cooperationwith the design agency Ytterborn & Fuentes, which has Hackman as a client.Several different demands were put on the material in order to fulfill as many of the clientswishes as possible. The most urgent problem with the existing container was the difficultysfor the customer to clearly see the contents in the container. Because of this problemthe customer tried to open the container in the shop.

Outdoor recreation habits in metropolis and rural areasThis study aims to examine the perception of nature and outdoor recreation habits from an urban-rural prospective. The urbanization process continues in Sweden and the populations of the cities are growing continuously. Trends to build more compact and ?climate smart? reigns and with this a risk that green areas and areas where outdoor recreation can be practiced are situated further and further away from the urban population. Analyzing the responses from a survey made by the research program Friluftsliv i förändring 2007 we have examined if and which differences exists between urban and rural areas regarding their perception of nature, outdoor recreation habits and factors influencing the practice of outdoor recreation.

It is now increasingly common for organisations to work actively with HR issues. Furthermore, it is a constant top priority for organisations to remain profitable. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether so called soft HR values, as manager?s communication skills, has an actual impact on hard values in terms of costs for the organisation. Leadership is largely characterised by emotional communication, which together with personnel costs were the main focus of the research.

Marketers of today are confronted by the fact that it is increasingly difficult to gain the customer's attention, as they first have to break through the ad clutter. In a landscape where the general attitude towards advertising is negative, one way to successfully deliver the message to the customer involves communicating through personal impact. By using stimuli containing identical information with different senders, this thesis seeks to quantitatively explore whether brands can make use of the personal networks of its employees, in their social media marketing strategy. The purpose of the study is to investigate if communication via the employees could enhance traditional communication effects, such as buying intention and electronic WOM intention. Furthermore, the study aims to examine which role the employee should hold when communicating on behalf of the brand, and if the communication effects vary with the degree of product involvement.

Media society is under a constant development and in line with this change, firms must adapt to the market. We have investigated what fashion companies in fact are doing to communicate in the dynamic market. We wanted to find out how to communicate and how they can market themselves in a new and innovative way to create long-term customer relationships. We have used a theoretical frame of reference based on marketing communication, fashion marketing, branding and relationship marketing theories. We have assumed four themes throughout the survey which are: customer contact and relationships, emotion in communication, branding and relational communication.

The most dominating channel for communication, connecting companies and customers, during the 1900 century was those who included either physical contact or phone contact. However, when Internet started to make its way as a channel for communication, a whole new opportunity opened up for the companies. Since then Internet has grown to be an important part for any company that wants to gain market shares. One of those markets is the market of travelling.This paper discusses the Swedish industry of travelling, and different travel organizers use of Internet as a mediate for long-term relationships. The paper is built on a comparison between three companies that all distributes journeys, this is to examine the Internet communications effect on the electronic relationship (e-relation) with customers.Three travel organizers with similar visions and objectives are compared in this paper, these are Apollo, Fritidsresor and Ving.

Because of the globalization of society, English as a foreign language (EFL) has become easier to access through internet and outside school English activities, so called ?extramural English activities? (EEA). Previous research indicates a positive relation between pupils? EFL vocabulary development and EEA (Sundqvist, 2009). This development may influence teachers? lesson planning, because of pupils? wide span of interests and the resulting different levels of EFL vocabulary.

The aim of my thesis was to examine if educators need to be critical of what they read to the children from a gender perspective. I examined how picture books depict gender and if the books enhances or breaks perception of gender roles. I also examined educator?s perception of gender and if they think picture books can affect children?s perceptions of gender, but also what educators think about gender equality through picture books. The study is based on analysis of five picture books and interview with five educators.The results of analyzes showed that picture books are stereotyped and enhances perceptions of gender roles.

AimThe aim of this study is to examine students' previous experiences of stay in the nature and their experiences of nature in the context of teaching situations in friluftsliv at GIH. It also aims to elucidate how the teaching of friluftsliv at GIH affects their former interpretation about nature. The questions of the study are: What past experiences of stay in the nature elucidate GIH-students? Have the students approach to nature changed according to the education? If yes ? how? What affects students' perception of nature? MethodTo answer the questions, a quantitative approach (questionnaire survey) and qualitative methods (interview study) was used. The qualitative method is based on phenomenology and hermeneutics.

This study intends to elucidate which view customers has about Sony Ericsson as a trademark compared with it?s biggest competitors and how the company can expand and create added value around its products. The aim with this essay is to study and to analyze Sony Ericsson?s creation of value and to increase understanding about strategy development. We have chosen to do this study on the basis of customer perspectives.We have used existing theories that treat matters: added value, marketingmix and trademark image.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to do a brand survey of Metro in Karlstad. The study will originate from the terms ?brand identity? and ?brand associations?, where the brand identity is the organization?s desired view of the brand, and the brand associations define the associations held by the consumers.Issues: What is Metro?s brand identity? What are the brand associsations of Metro in Karlstad? How well do the brand identity and the brand associations correspond?Theoretical framework: The study is done from the perspective of media and communication studies, where the theoretical terms are defined from literature regarding brands.Method: The study is carried out using a qualitative document analysis, interviews, and a quantitative survey. The document analysis was made on Metro?s own documents regarding values and target audience.