High heels ? a fashion that has not gone out of style after hundreds of years. Despite their esthetic advantages, high heels become uncomfortable and harmful after repetitive and long term use. With this as a starting point, Huyen Nguyen ? a student at the Innovation Engineering Program at the University of Halmstad ? decided to make a final thesis project. The project goal has been to combine the esthetic advantages of high heels and bring a comfortable solution to the equation.

Every plan and program decided on by an authority or municipality, where the environmental impact can be considerable, must be environmentally assessed according to Environmental Code, the Planning and Building Act (PBA) and the Regulation on Environmental Impact Assessment.The purpose of this study is to examine the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for The Region Development Plan for the Stockholm Region, RUFS 2010. The plan was approved by at that time the Regional Planning Office (Regionplanekontoret), which procured the process by consultants. RUFS 2010 includes two merged plans ie. a regional Development Plan (RUP) and the Regional Spatial Plan for Stockholm. It was necessary to establish an environmental assessment of RUP, but not for the regional plan.

Purpose;the purpose of this study is to investigate whether a product ad observer's purchase intention, perception of product quality, brand image perception and price perception is affected depending on the size of the text that was used in the ad to communicate the product price.Methodology;the study was conducted using a quantitative method through a survey. The implementation of the study has been done by using three variants of the same suit ad where the three different variants have been manipulated on the text size on the price information, by reduced / increased the text size. The implementation has also been carried out using two different ad sender, with three ads for each sender.Result and conclusion;the text size on the price of a product ad mainly affects the observer's price and quality perception, where the small text will have a positive effect on quality perception and a negative effect on the quality perception. Even brand image changes depending on the text size where small text will have a positive effect..

Photography has a big role in information sharing today. Especially in the hotel industry where it is the closest thing a customer can get to the product that is being sold. This study intends to find out how you can make use of rhetorical models and techniques of photography to enhance the communication skills of photos of hotel rooms. The main focus was to understand the difference between informative and emotional photographs and what consumers themselves focus on when choosing a hotel, and also how to use the collected information to create a larger buying interest through hotel photography. Using previous research work and quantitative data collection method, we have concluded that the informational and emotional photography methods have obvious differences but also many similarities, and are most effective used together and that the hotel consumer is more aware of the images influence then we assumed..

The creation of value is considered the core purpose and central process of economic exchange. Value creation is now conceptualized as shared by both producers and customers, and value is seen as fundamentally derived and determined in use, the integration and application of resources in a specific context, rather than in exchange, embedded in products and manifested as price. The field of research is abundant with publications but these do not fully further the understanding of value creation and co-creation in a way that is meaningful for theoretical development and decision making in business and marketing practise. Without a thorough understanding of the factors characterising value co-creation, the nature as well as content and locus of co-creation cannot be identified. In that case value co-creation easily becomes a concept without substance. Until now, individual publications on co-creation have focused on few or different aspects, have emphasized the process from either the customer?s or from  the firm?s vantage point, have different theoretical approaches and have ignored the complexity in interactions between actors.The purpose of this essay is to analyse how five fundamental aspects of co-creation of customer value are perceived in contemporary marketing literature. Discussing the different views on co-creation, this essay concludes that thoughthere are evident points of agreement, finding one generally valid doctrine of predestination or value co-creation is improbable.

The aim of this dissertation is to examine and compare William Easterly?s and PGU?s (Shared Responsibility: Sweden's Policy for Global Development) different views on development and international development cooperation. The methodological approach chosen in this study is an analysis of ideas based on the following questions:1. Which principles should be applied to development and international development cooperation?2.

Systems development methods has always been an important part of the systems development process. It affects not only the product, but also the organization itself. Today more and more companies are abandoning the more rigid traditional methods for the more flexible agile ones. A transition like this is bound to affect the product and the organization, but in what ways? Is it a difficult transition to make, and how does it affect social environment and dynamics? Does it change how people communicate information to each other? This study was conducted at a local branch of a larger international IT-company.

Technology based self-service (TBSS) used in supermarket self-scanning checkouts is a relatively new phenomenon in Sweden. Studies on TBSS as a self- checkout device have been formerly carried out but with focus on the customer perspective. The authors therefore saw a challenge in covering the self-scan checkout concept, from a company perspective. The purpose of this research paper is to investigate, through a management perspective, the changes brought about by implementing an innovative TBSS system in Swedish supermarkets, and its effect on the competitiveness of the company. This is done by presenting and linking the theoretical framework and empirical study in the research.

Sometimes one get sucked in old thinking which results in that the development brakes down. This is exactly what has happened in the industry Baby Versatile Concept will enter. With innovative solutions on elementary problems and new developed functions the marked not yet seen will the product take land. Though the problem already from start had high potential it was no surprise that, by the realization of the ideas in mars, interested venture capital of four hundred thousand Swedish kronor. Already by the start of the project a concept patent was planned and will now be realized.

As technology have continued to develop over the latest decades and become more advanced the pressure on the general citizens understanding of technology becomes a essential part to live in our society today. The transition have affected our society in great ways and have made a great impact on different groups, one of them being the elderly population in our society. The purpose of this study is to examine how the fast technological development in the latest decades have affected the elderly in our society. This from their perspective by gathering empirical data through semi-structured interviews with elderly people involved in the Agnes-project, a research project focused on improving the general quality of life for older people and increase their knowledge about technology. The study has shown that after the older peoples time involved in the Agnes-project their quality of life had improved in different areas. Areas such as increased cognitive activity, increased interest in new technology and an improvement in their communication with friends and family.

The competition policy in the EU should guarantee that the competition is not distorted in the way that would prevent or create difficulties for the free mobility of goods and services between Member states. It is prohibited for companies to abuse their dominant position according to Article 82, if it affects trade. The essence of Article 82 is control of market power. The perfect competition results when supply and demand appoint the price and quantity of a product. Firms are encouraged to compete then it results in efficiency, quality products and lower prices.

The Swedish agricultural sector is currently undergoing a substantial structural change. The number of farm enterprises is continuously decreasing and the average farm size is increasing. In combination with increasing number of competitors in the insurance market, the competitive rivalry within this market has increased significantly. With this knowledge in mind, Länsförsäkringar Uppsala initiated this study, which aims to provide an understanding of customer?s view on customer value, related to agricultural insurance and financing.

The students have been assigned a task from Consid, were they are supposed to develop a web based platform for handling the company?s consult CV:s. The key features of the system are to simplify the administration part at mission procurements towards customers and to match qualified consultants to certain missions.Consid is an international it-consult company and have about 1000 consults working for them. When Consid makes mission procurements towards a customer they have to manually match the best consult against a certain mission, this is both time consuming and complicated.The students started the project with big visions and thoughts about how the work would be performed and how the system would be developed. After the initial meetings and the closer it came to the beginning of programming it became clear that the expectations were too big.

The aim of this thesis is to describe the customer?s attitudes toward the contracting for availability, i.e., which factors are from the customer?s perspective necessary for the fulfilment of a supplier-customer agreement? Furthermore, the objective is to describe and analyse a supplier-customer relation in the Defence Industrial sphere.The present study has been carried out as a case study using an abductive approach. The thesis is based on a practical problem, i.e. which factors will be important to the customer when a contractor in the Defence Industry wants to increase its commitment of service, and how will their relationship change? The thesis is above all focused on generating knowledge that can lead to rapid and concrete measures and that can be used in the analysis of an increased industrial commitment but also as a case study of a problem of a more general nature in the Defence Industry.

AbstractC-level essay in political science, by Frida Orlinder, spring semester 2008Supervisor: Susan Marton?Good contracting? ? A study of contracting in public procurement regarding the transportation of school children?Over the last decades models influenced by the market have been gaining influence in public administration all over the world. New Public Management has been presented as a theoretical ?shopping basket? from which concepts can be applied to the administration of municipal services. The purpose of this essay is to investigate in an explorative way how New Public Management (NPM) views contracting and the role of the internal customer in contracting.