AbstractTitle: Transparency within Public Relations ? A study about PR-companies understanding of opennessPages: 71Authors: Olof EhrsTutor: Virginia MeliánCourse: Media and Communication Studies, Bachelor Degree.Period: Autumn 2011.University: The Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, JMK,at Stockholm University.Background and aim: The PR-industry is continuing to grow in Sweden. The increase of working consultancies has made it more difficult to define what PR-activities really are in Sweden today. This exam reviews the presence and lack of transparency within the PR labour. The aim of the essay is to inspect the PR-companies relation to transparency and non-transparency.

Purpose: The purpose with our study is to accomplish a quantitative research of all municipalities in Sweden and see why they apply Balanced Scorecard. The study will also investigate the spread of Balanced Scorecard, even the benefits and how they use it. Method: In our study we have chosen a quantitative research. The study has been accomplished with a questionnaire survey which we sent to all of the Swedish municipalities. We have also done a literature study to get more knowledge about relevant theories.

The regulations for energy consumption are consistently getting more and morestrict. This leads to a higher customer demand for energy analysis early in the buildingdesign process. Many building planners and architects use powerful modeling softwareto visualize their projects. These digital models contain sufficient information aboutthe building?s physical characteristics for reliable energy analysis.

Our purpose with this study was to look at the pawnbrokers role in the Swedish welfare state from the customers perspective. Our purpose was also to see how the customers used the loan. We wondered why people used the pawnbroker's and how the pawnbroker's could be understood as a providing alternative related to the three spheres state, market and family? Above looking at previous science we also did three interviews with people who worked at a pawnshop, a budgetadvisor and a smaller investigation with customers of a pawnshop.We came to the conclusion that the customer needed the money from the loan to buy food in many cases, according to the investigation we did with the customers. According to the employees the customers needed the money for different things, such as paying the bills or unexpected expenses.

Att ha en fungerande kommunikation mellan kund och bolag är viktigt för att en verksamhet ska kunna fungera. Genom kommunikation byggs även lojalitet där kunderna återkommer i framtiden och blir därigenom mer lönsamma för ett bolag. De förändringar inom IT som ägt rum i samhället har förändrat den kommunikation som finns mellan kund och bolag, inte minst inom banksektorn där kunder numera kan utföra nästintill alla ärenden online. Då den personliga relationen mellan personal och kund minskar är det svårt att upprätthålla nivån av lojala kunder. De flesta större aktörer inom bank- och försäkringsbranschen har, för att skapa lojala kunder, i olika utsträckning infört så kallade helkundskoncept där målet är att få en kund att samla alla sina tjänster i samma bolag.De två övergripande frågorna som behandlas i denna uppsats är dels hur arbetet med helkundskoncept har förändrats i och med ökat IT-användande och dels om helkundskonceptet kan bidra till att öka kundernas lojalitet gentemot det undersökta bolaget och dess varumärke.Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur den ökade användandet av IT påverkat det valda företaget samt hur arbete med helkundskonceptet utvecklats över tid och vad det har inneburit för såväl kunder som företag.Den teoretiska bakgrunden behandlar ämnen som varumärkens funktioner, marknads- och kundkommunikation, återkoppling från kunder samt lojalitetsbegreppet.

The purpose of this research is to evaluate traditional market segmentation variables, as criticism has been directed towards these variables. Based on our problem discussion we find it motivating to undertake investigation in order to understand which connotations an ethnographic approach will provide. Methodology:We have applied an ethnographic approach, which has enabled us to attain under the surface knowledge from our respondents. Theoretical perspective:As we wanted to evaluate existing traditional segmentation variables, we decided to only include theory regarding these variables. Empirical data:In order to collect our data, we observed seven respondents at Ikea and conducted observations and in-depth interviews in their homes.

The purpose with this essay is to study how companies use the repositioning process and identify the risks involved from a business perspective. We have chosen to base our essay on the following research questions:What reasons are there for a company to initiate a repositioning?, What does it mean for companies to implement a repositioning?, What are the risks with a repositioning?We have used a qualitative research method and have chosen to interview six respondents which in various ways are actively working with brand repositioning. Our study has been implemented with and deductive character.The most important conclusion that we observed after implementing our study is that repositioning is a high-risk project. Instead of changing their entire brand image, companies should instead make small changes and revitalize the brand by developing the strength that already exist.

I made this examination essay to investigate the possibilities and problems with machinery import. The rules intend to loaders and agriculture machines are still pretty flexible. It is today rather simple to make a registration or inspect those machines. There are still some practical problems to be aware of. It is very important to have the right contacts abroad, it is not always that you have time or moment to inspect the machines before purchase. In that case you have to trust your contact or partner about condition, equipment or working hours of the machine. Another important thing is payment before delivery: There is a huge risk that you do not get the machines that you paid for. If problems come up, you need to know the laws, your rights and your duties. A Swedish company does not pay any value-added taxes when it buys from another member of the European union. On the other hand must the machine be sold included value-added tax, if the buyer is a Swedish company.

Climate change is one of the most difficult problems that humans have to deal with. Today, the evidence of human effects on the climate change and the rise of temperature on earth are strong. It is extremely important that all countries get together and cooperate in order to be able to solve the problem with climate change. One step in the work on climate changes is the Convention on Climate Change, which was agreed on in 1992. The Convention on Climate Change resulted in the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement between a number of industrialized countries to limit or reduce the green gas emissions.

Syftet med studien är att skapa en djupare förståelse för, samt belysa och jämföra hur små företag som har både fysiska- och webbaserade butiker, potentiellt kan effektivisera försäljningen genom att kombinera sina fysiska- och webbaserade kundrelationer.Studien är utformad som en jämförande fallstudie där sex företag undersöks genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer. De företag som har intervjuats är små produktföretag som bedriver försäljning via både en fysisk- och webbaserad butik. Företagen som har intervjuats är alla belägna i Kalmar eller på Öland.Kundrelationer är en väsentlig del för alla små försäljningsföretag som vill vara konkurrenskraftiga. Det är därför viktigt att arbeta fram strategier för kundhantering. Kundrelationer inom fysiska- och webbaserade verksamheter har olika styrkor och svagheter.

Research on the power of customer involvement, and in particular recommendation is very resourceful. Many studies have mapped the reasons for why customers are willing to recommend, however they often ignore potential differences among brands and how that may affect these reasons. This study is built on a quantitative survey investigating how consumers interact with brands, depending on category affiliation. The categories used were Bhat and Reddy's symbolic and functional, consisting of three brands respectively where each brand represented a different product type.The evolvement of social media has also transformed the platform of recommendation from physical to virtual and changed the way people connect. Thus, taking the investigation further, potential differences between symbolic and functional brands was tested in different social media platforms.

The governing set of regulations for structural engineering in Sweden used to be Boverket, BKR. However in the beginning of the 21st century a changeover to new regulations, the Eurocodes, started.The transition was completed in year 2011 when the Eurocodes became the mandatory design work policy for all countries within the European Union. The Eurocodes were implemented to simplify and remove potential barriers to trade that may exist when countries have different design rules.  Since the changeover it has been important for all construction companies to update their knowledge base and their design software.When comparing the two calculation processes they seem similar, but there are a couple of differences worth noting.  With the new regulations, engineers will find that the process when designing joints in timber structures has changed.  What used to be a fairly easy and straight forward calculation procedure has now become tedious and time consuming.The objective of this degree project is to present a product, a dimensioning tool that will help structural engineers when computing lateral load carrying joints in timber structures.The degree project is made up of two parts where the first part is the written report describing the background and theory behind load carrying computations. The second part of the project is the actual dimensioning tool which includes several worksheets in Microsoft Excel. The program treats single and double shear connections of the following:Nail jointsScrew jointsSteel plates (thick and thin types) The user can edit the following parameters:Type of plate/ number of shearsStrength class of timber membersMember and plate sizeType of fastenerDiameter of fastenerLength of fastenerYield moment of fastenerkmod and partial factors for design load carrying capacityThe dimensioning tool was created and developed in collaboration with structural engineers at the company Byggteknik AB.

Sedan 1980-talet har det skett en stor utveckling inom det informationstekniska området. Den teknologiska utvecklingen har inneburit stora förändringar inom flera olika områden i samhället. I takt med att teknologin har gått framåt har det också vuxit fram nya kommunikationssätt mellan företag och kund. Detta beror till stor del på internet och persondatorns inträde i folkhemmet som möjliggjort att vem som helst när som helst kan finna information och jämföra olika företags erbjudanden. Denna utveckling har ställt nya krav på företagen och företagens fokus har flyttas från att vara marknadsorienterade till att bli kundorienterade och relationsskapande.

The purpose of this study is to examine and explain why three Swedish public libraries failedin their ambition to act as information services for small and medium-sized firms (SMF). To support this purpose two major assumptions are made:1) Public libraries who plan to run this kind of "business" must act with the same means as "professional" services.2) The service must be adjusted to the information needs of the customer.Based on these assumptions sixteen factors which are crucial to the "success" for this kind of service are presented.Applied to the information services of Lidkoping, Sölvesborg and Västervik, these factors reveal a number of shortcomings and mistakes made by the libraries.To understand this result these information services are seen as parts of a traditional Swedish public "library-thought". It is shown that, fundamental ideas in the way the public libraries are defined, like the responsibility to act in a neutral and democratic way, also characterised the three information services.These ideas together with the opinion of SMF as a "rational" information-consumer resulted in information services who did not meet the information-needs and information-behaviour of SMF..

This thesis investigates how web agencys in Stockholm use, value and incoroprate the terms usability, user experience and interaction design in their work process. The purpose of this study is to investigate how creative professionals works with the notions of usability, user experience and interaction design with focus on the end user. Our definition of creative professionals is every employee at a web agency involved in the work process of developing digital artefacts in any capacity. We wanted to investigate how these notions are considered, consciously or unconsciously, during the workprocess. Semi-structured interviews were conducted at three different web agencys with eight different employees.