Title: Globalization ? Meeting a new market Author: Anna Nubäck Supervisor: Anders Nilsson Institution: School of Management, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola Course: Master in business administration, 15 credits (FED006) Purpose: The purpose of this essay is partly to create an understanding of the decision to establish a branch in Japan and especially to look at if and how the Swedish company in this study has adjusted its corporate culture to suit the Japanese market. Method: Data is collected thru a number of semi constructed interviews. A first telephone interview was followed by an interview made face to face that was also followed up by interviews performed over telephone. E-mails have been used to clear and correct collected data. I have also studied company reports, closely related literature, articles and papers on the Internet. Conclusion: My conclusion is that the company in this study based the decision to open a branch in Japan on the demand from one big customer and the potential to grow globally.

The advancements in digital technology and its availability contribute to the transfer of companycentricproduct development and value creation to networks or communities. It also changes the basisfor creation of customer relationships as described in previous research on Customer relationshipmanagement (CRM). The purpose of this case study was to gain an understanding of how companieslike our case study object Memoto who developed a physical product which gets added-value fromdigital product-related services looks upon product-centered communities as a way of buildingcustomer relationships. How Memoto looks upon incentives for participation in product-centeredcommunities was also examined.Our research indicated that firms in the start-up phase (which Memoto was when this study wasconducted) initially want to have more control over the process of innovation and hence have directcontact with end-customers. The reason for this is because they see a need to define the basis forfurther innovation work.

Agile systems development has in recent years become very popular, and many companies today claims to be working agile. At the same time there are studies about agile system development that indicate that there are difficulties in fully adopting the agile way. The purpose of this qualitative study has been to examine how true Swedish IT-companies conduct their agile system development compared to agile theory, and we have specifically for the purpose of the study designed a framework that has been used as an analytical tool. The framework helped us to maintain a structured and objective approach when we examined the participating companies and their practices. The study showed that there were differences regarding how true to agile theory the different companies conducts their agile projects, and that the differences in part depends on how long the companies have been working agile.

The river Göta Älv reaches between Vänern and Gothenburg and is the main raw water source for Gothenburg that supplies about 700 000 people with water. To protect and maintain a high water quality, continuously samples and water analyses are made throughout the river. In 1998 a protection area was founded between surte and Lärjeholm where the raw water intake is. This was made to increase the awareness of the importance to protect the water. However, there is a lot of contribution of untreated stormwater to Göta Älv within the protection area.Göteborg Water and Sewage Works commissioned this thesis where two areas, Tagene industrial area and Kärra residential area, with untreated stormwater outlets within the protection area are studied.

A common assumption in marketing is the wider variety of product a corporation has, the better for the consumer: more product - more choices. Companies often develop a line extension to broaden consumer range through product attributes including quality, function and design. These developed attributes within the product are not always optimal for the consumer. As a result, companies often become entangled in having a price higher than the cost and benefit of the products. This essay aims to analyze the consumer value of line extension products and how these evaluations relate to extended line product pricing.

A passive house in Norra Djurgårdsstaden drawn by Tengbom Arkitekter is going to be built. A shaft for airing is needed for a few apartments in the house.The airing shaft is designed for a few two room apartments in the house, which are not able to achieve satisfactory airing, as their outer walls are facing a single direction. The other apartments on the same floor are corner apartments. These apartments do not have the same difficulty with airing since they have their outer walls in different directions, with different pressures at the facades. The airflow in the airing shaft is supposed to be driven only by natural forces, by the sun. The purpose of natural driven forces is to achieve low energy consumption for the house.In this thesis, a design of the shaft for airing has been developed.Initially an open shaft for all apartments was analyzed.

Pictures are often used when marketing a tourist destination. Photographs of a place, a destination, are used to convince customers and stimulate daydreaming in order to turn a potential customer into a real customer. For some people the photographic representations of a place is the only one they experience. With this in mind, it is reasonable to question how representations of places and geographical imaginations are being (re)produced when marketing a destination by using photographs. This paper aims to study how representations of place and people are used when marketing a tourist destination via travel commercial.

Event is something that an increasing number of Swedish cities are investing in since it contributes to higher attractiveness of cities and generate economic revenues. New arenas are built around Sweden to meet the increasing demands to host such events. Event projects are carried out in Sweden and it is important that the planning phase is carried out thoroughly to get a successful project. This thesis aims to look more closely at selected organizations and how they plan their projects and whether it is possible to follow project plans in the event projects. Karlstad has many events that recur annually, including the Swedish Rally.

WPF is a newly introduced graphical system that is a part of Microsoft?s .NET Framework. This report will evaluate WPF and its features. A comparison is made mainly towards the previous version of .NET which is .NET 2.0. The work is partly theoretical and partly implementational.

Demands on businesses are constantly increasing and the competition in the market-place is becoming ever tougher. To gain the long-term confidence of customers, not only the best businesses, but also the best supply chains are required.Volvo Cars is experiencing a changing competitive situation and their retailers are having trouble stocking the right spare parts. Shorter product life cycles and the growth of Volvo?s product program result in an increase in the number of spare parts to be stocked. In order to adapt to market trends and meet customer demands, Volvo has developed the LDC model, establishing a number of regional warehouses in strategic locations in Sweden, de-signed to supply spare parts to the regions? retailers through so-called Vendor-Managed In-ventory (VMI).The purpose of the study is to examine Volvo personbilar Sverige?s (VPS) motivation for a modified customer-service strategy through LDC.

It is estimated that 22 000 contaminated areas exist in Sweden today. In order to classify the risk of contaminant migration from these areas and to prioritize which of these contaminated areas should first be treated, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has designed a method, for the investigation of contaminated areas (MIFO). One of these contaminated areas is the landfill Gräsötippen outside Köping. The landfill has been used by both Yara AB and the Köping municipality between the years 1945 and 1975, and both industrial and household waste have been deposited there. The aim of this report is to survey which contaminants that can be found in the soil and water in the landfill Gräsötippen and to evaluate the migration of these contaminants.

In today?s IT world where software is constructed in a rapid pace, testing has become a crucial area to master when testing has to be done at a greater speed. To still be able to handle the demands of high quality software, companies have to spend more resources on testing and introduce test automation. By automating test cases the testers can gain time which they can spend on doing more complex testing and thereby increase the quality of the software.In this thesis we have helped Extenda AB, who delivers systems to retail companies, to introduce test automation in one of their customer specific projects. This has been done using their own in-house ?capture/replay? tool ECP (Extenda Cashier Player).We have also derived a process that explains how Extenda can introduce test automation on other customer projects.

In 1996, the Swedish government deregulated the Swedish electricity market. As a consequence of the deregulation, Swedish customers could start to freely choose between different electricity companies. Different enterprises have tried various strategies in order to shape their image to attract new customers; often focusing on an image revolving around price and environmental friendliness.The purpose of this essay has been to analyze customers? relations to the electricity market. In order to analyze customers? relations a quantitative study has been conducted; focusing on customer satisfaction and customer commitment.

Syfte: Syftet med vår studie är att utreda och analysera hur två kommunala bostadsföretag arbetar med kundorientering idag jämfört med för tio år sedan. Vårt mål är att utifrån en uppföljande studie redogöra för hur kundorienteringstankarna har utvecklats under den senaste tioårsperioden. Arbetar de kommunala bostadsföretagen mer kundorienterat idag jämfört med för tio år sedan? Vi vill även öka kunskapen kring kundorientering och belysa vilka fördelar som finns att vinna hos de kommunala bostadsföretag som väljer att arbeta kundorienterat. Metod: För att genomföra studien har vi samlat information från litteratur och från två intervjuer. Intervjuerna har utförts personligt på respektive respondents kontor.

Chemical substances are spread diffusely and uncontrollably as a result of the increased consumption of goods. REVAQ is a certification system that works to reduce the flow of hazardous substances to Swedish treatment plants and to create a sustainable nutrient recycling. According to REVAQ, the yearly accumulating rate of metals should not exceed 0.2% in soil per year. Silver and bismuth are two metals that do not fulfill this requirement. The silver concentration in sludge decreased during the last decade, however the last few years, it has leveled off.