The smartphone market is growing rapidly, between Google Play and App Store more than 25 billion apps have been downloaded since 2008. Today many companies develop their own smartphone applications (apps) for their customers. We believe that many apps are developed without much consideration about the actual value it brings to the customer, and through them, value for the company. Instead they create applications with hope of keeping the company modern. Developing and implementing apps in a business is neither easy nor free and must therefore add value to the business in some way.

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to clarify and analyze the servicescapes impact on brand image and customer loyalty among general dealers. The research question that we have used in the study is what characterizes the connection between the servicescape and the possibility to maintain and strengthen the customer relation among general dealers. The study is based on a qualitative approach and we have conducted eight interviews with experts and special advisers within the field. We have chosen to focus our study on the fact the market for general dealers have changed and the demands from the customers are severed throughout the years. The servicescape consists of the physical surroundings where the service is produced, examples of factors that influence the servicescape is the employees and the customers.

The way you address people is depending on the existing culture, to be on familiar terms with people you don?t know or elderly people is totally unacceptable in some cultures. Some behaviour might be acceptable in one culture, and unacceptable in another. Culture exists on different levels in the society, and what combines people within a culture are that they share the same norms and values.This study identifies and deals with the resemblances and the differences in the customer relationship within one specific organization with activity in several different countries. Two of these countries, which can be seen as each others cultural contrasts, were chosen for the study, Sweden and Spain.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine how the build-up of customer relations can be characterized at the end of the industrial selling process and how companies engage their cross-functional selling teams into this relationship building effort. Through a case study of Omega, a multinational company engaged in the selling of products of an industrial character, it was revealed that the build-up and maintaining of the customer relationship is of acute importance, as it presents the company with a window of opportunities. Through its relationship with the customer the company can be able to sell other products, which are related to the original purchase made by the customer. For the company?s competitors the established relationship might also serve as a barrier when attempting to enter the market or increase market share.

Syfte: En komparativ studie och beskriva möjligheterna för att skapa en effektiv portfölj av olika aktieportföljer, där det undersöks om faktorerna som företagens omsättningsstorlek, branschen de är aktiva i och valet att ha utländska aktier, har betydelse eller inte för att skapa en effektiv portfölj med hänsyn till dess korrelation, avkastning och risk. Metod: Uppsatsen utgår från en kvantitativ studie, som sträcker sig från april 2008 till april 2010, då historiska aktiekurspriser används för olika sorters uträkningar, som baseras på uppsatsens huvudteorier; CAPM, Sharpekvot och portföljteori. Utgångspunkten är deduktiv, där slutsatserna har dragits från teorierna.       Slutsats: Utifrån uträkningarna, kunde det inte dras generella slutsatser där de undersökta faktorerna inte utmärkte sig i något mönster. Däremot visade sig att det blev högre avkastning till liknande risk eller lägre risk till liknade avkastning när man väljer aktier som är olika varandra, då korrelationen inte samvarierar. Det bästa resultatet är när utländska aktier blandas in i portföljen.    .

AbstractThe banking industry has during later years gone through several technological changes (Svenska Bankföreningen 2014). These big changes have led to several advantages seen both from a customer ? and corporate point of view. Advantages in easier usage, increased availability and more competition have made the banks more cost effective at the same time as the customer is being offered better prices. Even though the advantages seem to weigh over the disadvantages there are still those who thinks that things where ?better in the past?.

There is a tough competition in food-stores these days. Storeowners have been forced to try something new to attract customers. One way to accomplish that is to add private labels to the assortment. There are several benefits with these labels; its higher margins for this type of brand and the brand can also strengthen the stores image in the customers mind. When private labels first entered the market, the customer had a relatively low attitude towards the brands.

Title: The impact of service quality on customer loyalty - when a service changes from being free to become surcharged Authors: Carl Johan Olsson, Marcus Johansson and Victor Carlsson Supervisor: Hans LundbergCourse: Bachelor thesis in business administration, 15 Credits (15 ECTS) Keywords: Service quality, customer loyalty, price movementPurposeThe purpose of this essay is to increase the understanding if the perceived quality by the service users correlates with a future loyalty to a service when it cease from being free, to become charged.? Does the perceived quality of a service by the service users affect a future loyalty to a service, when it cease from being free, to become charged?MethodIn this essay we have chosen to implement a quantitative research method based on a survey. This choice was made in order to reach a sufficient large amount of service users and empirical data to answer our problem.ConclusionsAccording to the theory, customer satisfaction can be expressed through a comparison between customer?s expectations and the experience of using a service, and there are also positive correlations between service quality and customer satisfaction. Additionally, loyalty is based on service quality and customer satisfaction.

The manufactory industry, due to decline in profit margins, is seeking new business opportunities by moving towards servitization and value-adding services in after-sales. We have therefore conducted a case study to investigate a manufacturing company in their current transformation towards servitization. By studying the management perspective, we aimed to understand how Information Technology, by adding value, could play a role in the transformation process. This study shows that information technology can take an integrating role, by supporting new value-adding services to provider and customer, as well as a co-creating role, where both provider and customer benefits by learning from each other, in the changing work process initiated by new services. The study has also shown that Information Technology, together with organization, information and people, are crucial components in the manufactory industry?s transformation towards servitization.  Furthermore, the study has also shown that the value chain has the potential to drastically change due to the value-adding that the information technology brings to the progress of servitization..

Business across the Internet has increased in recent years and most companies that are selling trips have increased their sales online. Many companies that are selling trips strive for customers to receive and experience a personal service online. The meeting between the client and a webpage service system on the Internet should work. Service encounters are an essential part of the contact between customer and company and play a big part in how the first impression is perceived by the customer. To understand how a service encounter works, meeting face to face, companies need to understand how customers perceive that meeting.

Many companies are currently working to optimize and streamline their processes and production lines to achieve higher profitability. In increasingly competitive markets, companies are working to find solutions to increase the value of their production with such a small use of resources as possible. A tool used to accomplish this is the Lean management system. Lean comes from the production system that Toyota has been developing since the early 1900's, The Toyota Production System (TPS). The Lean philosophy helps companies, by working towards continuous improvement in its operations, to achieve higher customer satisfaction, more efficient production and ultimately higher profitability. Many companies are working to implement Lean in their organization. But there are many who fail to implement a complete change towards Lean.

AbstractMarie Widerberg (2010). Portfolio i förskolan med perspektiv på specialpedagogik. (Portfolio in primary school with perspective on special education.) Sektionen för lärarutbildningen, specialpedagog utbildningen 90 hp.Examensarbetets syfte är att med perspektiv på specialpedagogik, undersöka hur portfolion används på förskolor i en mindre kommun samt belysa specialpedagogens roll. Undersökningen utgår från följande frågeställningar: På vilket sätt påverkar och utvecklar portfolion enligt pedagogerna, det enskilda barnet och förskolans verksamhet? På vilka sätt används portfolio som ett underlag till pedagogernas egen reflektion kring sin verksamhet och sitt förhållningssätt? Vilka möjligheter och hinder menar pedagogerna att det finns i arbetet med portfolio? samt Vilken roll kan specialpedagogen ha i arbetet med portfolio och hur kan portfolion användas som ett specialpedagogiskt redskap? Arbetet ger en översikt av tidigare forskning om portfolio, specialpedagogik samt specialpedagogens roll i förskolan.

This thesis gives an introduction to securitization in general and the tranching of collateralized debt obligations in particular. It does this by using a firm-value model to simulate the underlying portfolio via monte-carlo simulations.The simulations in turn give a loss-distribution from which the various tranchings of the CDO?s are derived. To get an understanding of the influence of different variables involved in the tranching the simulations are repeated several times where the portfolio variables are changed to generate different tranchings. This to give a understanding of the influence different variables have on the tranching and consequently risks involved in CDO?s in particular but also general risks and problems of securitizations..

Business across the Internet has increased in recent years and most companies that are selling trips have increased their sales online. Many companies that are selling trips strive for customers to receive and experience a personal service online. The meeting between the client and a webpage service system on the Internet should work. Service encounters are an essential part of the contact between customer and company and play a big part in how the first impression is perceived by the customer. To understand how a service encounter works, meeting face to face, companies need to understand how customers perceive that meeting.

The insurance industryis challengedby major changesthrough internationalizationand thusgrowingcompetitionwithmore optionsand greater availabilityfor customers.Solvency II, a new regulatoryframework and anew standard forinsurance companies,is therefore implemented in a steptowardsa more competitive Europeaninsurancemarket. Solvency II will result in extensive structural changes for many insurance companies. Newstandards andinternal models must also be implemented by the companies. Solvency IIhasa tightening effect on thesolvency capital requirements forinsurance companies. At the same time it also leads tomajor changesandincreased demandon risk management andinternal control, alongside with demands fordisclosure of informationto the market.