This thesis examines the deregulation reform of the Swedish railroad industry, focusing on passenger transport between 1988 and 2005. The purpose of the thesis is to examine the effects from the deregulation reform on prices, market concentration and to determine whether SJ (the state owned incumbent) has been conducting strategic behaviour in order to prevent new entrants to the market. The chosen method consists of interviews with the MD at SJ between 1988 - 1998 Mr Karl-Erik Strand, the transportation researcher at SSE Mr Gunnar Alexandersson. Statistical sources and companies financial reports have also been used. The results that I have found were besides the fact that the market concentration is still significant high and the profitability among the operators low, is that the prices has increased more than CPI during the period but the competitive tendering has resulted in lower government subsidies after the deregulation.

On a highly competitive market, quality is an important aspect to take into account, both in terms of goods and services. The Swedish timber market is very competitive and to achieve long-term success focus on the customer, in this case private forest owners, is a prerequisite. SCA Skog AB Jämtlands forest management administration is dependent on the acquisition of timber from private forest owners to fulfil their mission to the supply of SCA's paper and sawmills in Sweden with raw material. To be able to develop the cooperation with private forest owners, the administration investigates their quality management by measuring the customer satisfaction index (CSI). The purpose of the study was to identify a practical and systematic method to handle deviations and suggestions for improvements to achieve a higher customer satisfaction.

Keywords: ID-method, internet, security, digitzing, bank Background: The digitizing of our society continues to grow and more parts of our lives is spent on the internet. The banks are one of the institutions that is at the forefront of this development since they established themselves on a early basis. The banks meeting points have since this establishment moved from the regular bank office out on the internet. A problem that has occurred during this transfer is the possibility to positive ID a customer in a virtual world. It is essential to offer the customer methods to identify themselves that are both safe and easy to use.

This thesis examines political consumerism as a political tool for change. Consumers' attitudes and behaviour towards political consumerism is of special interest. The method used is a questionnaire with 59 participating students. Their answers are analysed both quantitatively and, to a lesser degree, qualitatively. The theoretical framework consists of Fishbein and Ajzen's theory of reasoned action and previously published research of essence.The consumers in this study generally rank corporate social responsibility (CSR) as important.

Due to a constantly increasing competitive pressure it is of great importance to constantly strive for improvements in order to gain competitive advantages. Lean Production is a concept that has been introduced with the aim to minimize waste and increase profitability. The purpose of this report is therefore to investigate how to perform effective planning according to the principles of Lean Production, in companys with customer exclusive products, through a case study at Sandvik Mining and Construction (SMC), and to investigate how SMC kan improve their planning of drifting rods at the production unit in Sandviken.The study started by creating a theoretical framework, to describe the subject planning and planning based on Lean Production. This frame work constituted the base for the case study which took place at Sandvik Mining and Construction, and also for the model and planning tool that has been introduced.The result of the study is partly a general model with factors that contribute to a more effective planning. These factors has beed identifed as SMED, which focuses on reducing set up times and in the end to facilitate the planning.

On a highly competitive market, quality is an important aspect to take into account, both in terms of goods and services. The Swedish timber market is very competitive and to achieve long-term success focus on the customer, in this case private forest owners, is a prerequisite. SCA Skog AB Jämtlands forest management administration is dependent on the acquisition of timber from private forest owners to fulfil their mission to the supply of SCA's paper and sawmills in Sweden with raw material. To be able to develop the cooperation with private forest owners, the administration investigates their quality management by measuring the customer satisfaction index (CSI). The purpose of the study was to identify a practical and systematic method to handle deviations and suggestions for improvements to achieve a higher customer satisfaction.

The furniture retail industry in Sweden has gone trough large changes during the last decades. Today the industry is tough and in the maturity stage where few new companies enter, especially if they do not have a unique offer. The furniture companies have become larger and fewer, the changes have lead to difficulties for smaller and medium sized companies to grow and be profitable.Our purpose is to analyse, evaluate and compare three smaller companies in Stockholm with the intention to find what kind of marketing strategies they are using to survive on the Swedish market. First we interviewed the three companies to see what they do to survive on the market, then we asked 100 persons to fill in a questionnaire to see if they had the same opinion as the companies described.With help from theories we prepared questions which laid the foundation to the empirical part of the essay.The result from this study shows that the three companies differ from each other when it comes to using relationship marketing and placing the customer in the centre. All of them are aware of the importance of doing so, but because of different limits and possibilities they can not fully adjust everything to the customer.

The development of technology and the mechanization in the Swedish forestry has during the last 60 years resulted in depopulation of the country side and due to that the amount of distance forest owners has increased. Therefore the forest companies need to make some adjustments in order to keep the distance forest owners as customers and to attract new ones. The purpose of this essay was to examine and analyze the distance forest owners satisfaction with Södras service offering and quality of service and further develop some proposals for action. A web-based survey was sent out to 634 distance forests owners in Stockholm, Sweden, all members of Södra. 269 respondents participated in the survey and of them, 27 did also participate in a follow-up telephone interview.

The music distribution in Sweden and the world is rapidly changing. The music industry, however, has been reluctant to change the way they distribute music. The consequence has been that illegal music files have been available for downloading to anyone with an Internet connection. Because of the illegal downloading a new law have been implemented in an attempt to stop this behaviour. Our theory is that in implementing the IPRED-law, the sites that were hosting most of the illegal material will experience a severe decrease in traffic.

Aggression between laboratory mice is a common problem and can result in welfare issues such as mice hurting or killing each other and also stress. Swedish laws and regulations clearly states that mice must be housed with a companion due to their natural social structure. Many studies have investigated the effect off enrichment, group size, cage size and other potential changes in in their environment on the occurrence of aggression. Even with these changes aggression can exist and therefore a new solution was tested in this paper. The proposed solution was to house an intact mouse with a castrated one and thus fulfill laws and regulations while still maintaining the physiology of one of the mice for the purpose of medical experiments.

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss how a Swedish public library approaches their costumers. I will show how a library interacts with their costumers compared to a business, which has a different economic work frame, a building materials supplier. My aim is to pinpoint differences and explore new methods for the library in order to improve their service.The theoretical frame of the thesis is based on Richard Norman's notion the Moment of truth. The moment of truth is the moment when a business has to convince their customer that they offer both the product, proficiency and service that the customer needs. Service encounters at two organizations have been observed and their differences and similarities compared.

Male piglets have been castrated for centuries to avoid contamination of their meat with boar taint, a strongly unpleasant odour that makes the meat inedible. Today boar taint can be prohib-ited by vaccination against gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) using Improvac®. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of vaccination on growth performance and behaviour of vaccinated male pigs compared to surgically castrated male pigs. The effect of two feeding regimes, restricted (SLU-norm) and semi ad libitum, was also included in the study. At birth, pigs (n=206) were randomly allocated to the two treatment groups; surgically castrated and vaccination.

In this composition, a study of consignment inventory on basis of the factors which are important for implementation and application of consignment inventory are made. Logistics chain from subcontractor to end customer is becoming more complex when the volume of items constantly increases to satisfy the needs of the market. From that perspective, companies had large inventories but today it is a lot of different solutions to streamline inventory management. One way that recently becomes increasingly common is to let the subcontractor fill up the customers stock using different approaches such as VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory). A further step in the evolution can be to make use of consignment inventory where the vendor owns the stock of the customer.

Aim: This paper aims to produce a serviced office concept adjusted to Statens fastighetsverk. The concept will make SFV:s properties more attractive for renting. Method: Information has been collected from interviews with 13 different serviced office companies, one serviced office agent and eleven government authorities. Also litterateur, reports and internet have been used in gathering information.I will use following questions:¨      How is the serviced office concept designed?¨      Which customer segment should SFV direct to and what need does the segment have?¨      How shall a marketing plan look like for the concept?¨      How should a concept designed for SFV look like? Result & Conclusions: Serviced office space is a company that letting functional workspace with access to shared facilities e.g. reception, office machines, internet, phone and more.

Intense competition and pressure from various market participants is prevalent in today?s modern and technologically developed society. It is important to keep a high standard of service and customer care to be able to keep your position on the market. The focus of the paper is to study how a store manager can influence their employees to perform better on the job, in terms of service to customers and increased sales. The aim is to analyze the different tools store managers use to motivate their employees with the goal of improving service to the customer and to increase sales.