This essay highlights the Swedish retail companies? engagement in ethics and environment issues as a part of the business concept. The Customer is today more aware about what is going on in the world than ever before. Two of the main reasons are the Internet and the globalization. In relation to the customer being more aware about the situation in the world today, the demand for products which have been produced in consideration of ethical and environmental values has increased.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur moderbolagets aktiekurs reagerar, därmed påvisa eventuell onormal avkastning när ett moderbolag beslutar sig för och sedan avyttrar en del av ett dotterbolag till börsen (Equity Carve?Out). Delsyftet är att undersöka sambandet mellan onormalavkastning i storleken på avyttrade andelar samt beskriva de motiv som anges och analysera detta mot storleken på avknoppad andel.Metod: Undersökningen är en eventstudie med en kvantitativ ansats. Empirin består av sekundärdata i form av börskurser och index.Teori: Eventstudien bygger på hypotesen om effektiva marknader, teorin om asymmetrisk information, agent teori samt teorin om avknoppningsfördelar.Empiri: Eventstudien bygger på 25 Equity Carve?Outs genomförda mellan åren 1991?2007 och behandlar aktieutvecklingen dels vid beslut och dels vid genomförandet av en avknoppning, detta relateras sedan till tidigare forskning.Resultat ECO mellan åren 1991 och 2007 har generellt medfört svagt positiva priseffekter vid beslutet om avknoppning och positiva priseffekter vid avyttringen.

The purpose of this study is to analyse how a distribution and sale-network for quality softwood lumber should be designed to fit sawmilling companies? business concepts, and at the same time satisfy customer needs regarding delivery time and quality aspects. This thesis work is a case study based on a sawmilling and retail company in Sweden. AB Karl Hedin is a private owned sawmilling company with 500 employees. The company?s turnover is 1500 million SEK, it includes 4 sawmills, 16 builders merchants stores and a packaging company.

This paper is a degree project on the C-level, 15 points at University West, Department of Business and IT dept. Informatics. This study is about agile methodology and its impact on IT projects. Requirements management is a process within an IT project, where customer has certain requirements that must be met by an IT system. The difference between the traditional and agile development is in the requirements management process and it can cause problems in a project.

During the last few decades a new kind of business operation have developed and this hasforced organisations to adapt themselves to a new competitive environment characterized byincreased customer demands as well as a larger amount of competitors. Therefore companieshave had a shift in their strategies from focusing on sales numbers to focusing on thecustomer. To build lasting customer relationships, in order to create customer loyalty, havebecome an important part of the organisational strategy and the collection of consumer datais essential in achieving this loyalty. Customer relationship management systems assistorganisations in managing information about individual customers as well as managing allaspects of customer contact, with the purpose of increasing customer loyalty towards thecompany. The collection of consumer data also enables for companies to design personalizedoffers to individual customers in the form of direct marketing.

Due to increasing international competition and new technology IT-consultants has been forced to oversee their business models lately. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the process and consequences of a shift in business model for a consultant by using a methodology based on action research. The empirical foundation consists of a field study with observations, notes, interviews and business related documents. The case describes a consultant?s process of shifting business model from profits based on man-hours to selling a standardized system.

The thesis aims to examine the occurrence of Earnings Management (EM) preceding Seasoned Equity Offerings (SEOs) on the Swedish capital market. EM refers to activities and adjustments carried out by managers. The underlying purpose of these actions is to adjust net income. The procedure is typically done by borrowing income from future periods. Evidence of EM around SEOs has been documented on capital markets around the world, and the effects on firms' post-offering performance are severe.

Machine-to-machine (M2M) communication is a phase in the digital revolution connecting computing devices with each other bringing along new business opportunities for companies. Although being a fast growing field it has not been researched to any greater extent, particularly not within the academical literature. Consequently, information on how M2M can affect organisations seems strongly needed. This thesis uses three perspectives, derived from already recognised business benefits of M2M, as an aid to select proper theoretical tools to investigate the phenomenon. The purpose of this thesis is to gain knowledge of how an M2M adoption affects a firm?s organisation, customer offerings and customer relations.

New innovation and technology have influenced the development of product development processes and the four largest banks in Sweden have more or less been forced to adapt their products and services along new customer requirements. It may therefore be considered appropriate to involve customers in this process. This by collecting customer information and allow customers to influence the process to a greater extent. The payment solutions of Sweden?s largest banks' continue to evolve and to pay with electronic money has come to change banks' product development processes of payment solutions.

The aim of this research was to examine how the relationship between consultants and their customers can increase the value for the customer and to see how consultants can act to gain closer relationships with the customers. An empirical study has been performed through case studies with a consultant and six customers to the consultant. The theoretical areas for the analysis are customer value and relationship development between seller and buyer. Our conclusions of the research were that values for the customers are increases with closer relationships. The increased value lays in lesser uncertainty when repurchasing.

This paper was written at the Baltic Business School in Kalmar. The purpose was to analyze and determine the importance of packaged holidays within the tourism and travel sector and how value can be created for the customer. This have been done with a focus on the chosen parts; customer needs and how packaging can create value, how companies can work to give the customer increased value through packaging, last but not least how companies segment the market and if there are specific segments that prefer packaging. We have applied the qualitative method through conducting four face-to-face interviews and one phoneinterview. The purpose of this paper is not to generalize, but to show patterns in the chosen subject.

This thesis focuses on RM and customer relationships and tries to answer two research questions: how firms can retain customers and how to generate profitable customer relationships by using relationship marketing. We conducted case studies on JOB media, a company in Luleå, and Polardörren, a company in Öjebyn, Piteå. Our research has revealed that in many ways our case study companies conform in major ways to the theory in this particular area. However there are differences between how these two firms go about in regard to customer retention and establishing profitable customer relationship. We have discovered that JOB media, which is a service company is more inclined to maintaining close and long-term relationships with its customers.

At several occasions, an important question has been brought forward within the world of advertising and media. This is the question of whether or not ?good? advertising should be encouraged by the media. The question has an origin in a belief that such advertising can create values not only for the advertiser, but also for the medium. Although this question has arisen in business media, and although many managers work from the assumption that such relationship exists, there are none or little proof that it actually does.

The purpose of this thesis was to look into how event management companies got knowledge about their customers? expectations and how they are influenced by these expectations. A case study was conducted based upon interviews with two employees from two companies that are in the business. The study has shown that event management companies do try to get awarness about their customers' expectations, especially by listening and discussing with the customer. Personal contact is an efficient way of communicating and a way to avoid misunderstandings, which is a common mistake when customers' expectations are not met.

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.