Abstract: The fashion industry is perhaps the most unpredictable one where change occurs very rapidly. In order to be attractive and interesting in this competitive industry, a brand must constantly be up to date and differentiated from other brands to attract the consumers. This has given rise to an increasing growth of brands that cooperate for marketing reasons and more specifically, clothing retailers that perform designer collaborations with exclusive designers to create limited collections.Studies describing the effects of those collaborations on the retailers brands are rare and especially from a consumer perspective. Since H&M has been a pioneer in designer collaborations and has done it more times and for more years than any other retailer we have conducted our study on their case. Our intention was to investigate how the designer collaborations have affected the brand equity and image of H&M, if the collaborations have increased the willingness to pay for H&M's other ranges and if they have affected H&M's ability to extend its brand to higher price segments, through an experimental study.

People in today?s society are becoming more and more aware of how important it is to use energy as efficiently as possible. This is clearly noticeable by an increase in home produced heat with e.g. solar panels or heat pumps heating systems. These changing customer demands forces district heating technology to be redesigned, which is why there is an ongoing research regarding the next generation of district heating - low temperature district heating (LTDH).

Studien handlar om reciprocitet i parförhållanden. Den teoretiska grunden hämtas från anknytningsteorin, equity-teorin och sociala utbytesteorin. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur reciprocitet hänger samman med ovillkorlig självacceptans och relationsrelaterad ångest samt hur ovillkorlig självacceptans och relationsrelaterad ångest korrelerar sinsemellan. Deltagarna (n = 97), 15 män och 82 kvinnor, rekryterades via Internet, där de fick besvara en enkät, sammansatt av tre skalor som mätte konstrukten: reciprocitet, relationsrelaterad ångest samt ovillkorlig självacceptans. Korrelationsanalyser visar en positiv korrelation mellan relationsrelaterad ångest och underläge i utbytet i parförhållanden samt en negativ korrelation mellan relationsrelaterad ångest och ovillkorlig självacceptans.

Internet commerce is nowadays a well known phenomenon. There is awareness that a lot of newly created companies operate their business through the Internet. You can see a tendency where many young people try to establish an Internet business with the hope of success and expansion on today?s fierce market rivalry. To achieve success, companies have to consider factors like business concept, logistic knowledge, future vision, resources and contacts when initializing their business.Having this in mind, we can clarify the purpose with this paper: ?To analyze in what way On-line shopping companies that sell consumer electronics, cell phones and music/entertainment products, have expanded? The paper is based on telephone interviews with three On-line shopping companies.

SammanfattningDetta examensarbete undersöker hur ett globalt industriföretag arbetar med kunskapshantering utifrån ettKnowledge management-perspektiv. Målföretaget undersöks genom Talent management-konceptet People Equity. Vi baserar vår uppsats på empiri bestående av tolv kvalitativa intervjuer med medarbetare från företaget. Våra teoretiska utgångspunkter grundas primärt på Alvesson och Kärremans deskriptiva modell om hur företag arbetar med kunskapsstyrning, Model of managerial intervention. Utifrån analys av insamlad empiri placerar vi ut målföretaget på ovan nämnda matris.

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.

AbstractAttitudes towards the reference situation and the meetings between library users and librarians have become the subject of much debate in the library setting today. The aim of this two years master´s thesis has been to examine six librarian?s attitudes and apprehensions concerning the interactions between the librarian and the users in the library setting. We were also interested in knowing how a library can work to become more service oriented and customer centred. We conducted six interviews with librarians located at three different libraries in Sweden.

This report covers the product development of a new type of extendable table for the company Karl Andersson och Söner. The company wants to expand their product collection with a new product. Karl Andersson och Söner is a well-known family company that has been located in Huskvarna since 1898, and they are producing furniture for private- and the public environment.The aim with this project is that the product should lead to increased sales, as well as expand their collection to appeal a wider audience. The work is permeated by two issues, to achieve as good results as possible. The issues will bring up how to make a table better, in terms of the competitor?s options, and how to apply a design process to develop a table that meets the markets needs and requirements.The design process of the work consists of strategically picked parts from three separate design processes.

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.

The objective of this study has been to examine which significant values are of importance in the telecom sector today, and in a continuing perspective yet to be. To ensure the factors of relevance in the study, we have identified three purposes: - Our first purpose is to clarify the eminent values in the competitive market of the mobile phone operators today, and the reason for its importance.- The second purpose is to understand the function of the brand regarding to value creation and loyalty in the sector of mobile phone operators.- The third purpose is to explore the potential approaches for mobile phone operators to increase value.In this study, our approach has been a qualitative methodology by conducting seven interviews with respondents related to the telecommunication sector.As a result of the process, we find the need to divide the concept of value into two dimensions, which we entitle organizational related values and customer related values. We have found the values related to the characteristics of the market in aspects of its infrastructural features but also in regards to the homogenous core service.Our findings in the empirical data with support to our theoretical frame of reference, is the current highly important organizational related value of constant high result quality (well-functional technological aspect), and the value enhancer by a low price; the strategy of bundling also results in higher value. This result in customer related values that perceives as safeness, availableness and convenience. The brands are a significant source of customer related values with identity value, image value and assuredness. A continued advancement in process quality and individualization will imply greater customer related values of closeness, freedom and flexibility. .

AbstractTitle: Interactive marketing and Internet - A study of Radi Medical Systems? educational site (Interaktiv marknadsföring och Internet - En studie utifrån Radi Medical Systems webbplats för kundutbildning)Number of pages: 43 (including enclosures 47)Author: Daniel PalmgrenTutor: Mats LindCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Spring 2008University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The aim of this thesis is to examine if Radi Medical Systems? educational site has the potential to create value for the company?s customers, and by that promote improved customer relations. Questions asked are: What kinds of visions does the company have for the site? Which services are offered to the customers through the site? How do the customers experience these sInervices?Material/Method: Information from interviews with representatives from Radi Medical Systems and their customers, observations of the webpage and information from an internal Radi document concerning the educational site has been collected and analyzed through the use of a theoretical framework, in order to provide an understanding for the questions asked. The visions were discussed and analyzed by general concepts of interactive marketing and Internet.

This study presents a holistic view of which factors small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have to consider, in moving their customer order decoupling point (CODP) further from the customer, thereby becoming more customized. The study also investigate whether SMEs and larger enterprises differ in the strategic questions relating to what influences an enterprise to become more customized, which prerequisites are required and which problems enterprises should anticipate and prepare for. These questions are important, given that strategic change is challenging, and can take considerable time to accomplish; it therefore needs to be based on the right decisions. This study is motivated by the fact that the markets SMEs are selling to tend to become more and more complex and harder to anticipate. Increased globalisation and use of IT and ICT have lead to greater uncertainty in customer demand.

Frågeställning: Hur profileras ett företags corporate branding identity i reklamkampanjer till utlandet och hur stort utrymme får nationstillhörigheten i denna kontext? Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur, varför och i vilken utsträckning företag använder sig av corporate branding i sin marknadsföring till utlandet, samt värdet av och i vilken utsträckning nationstillhörigheten används i det avseendet. Genomförande: Uppsatsen utgår ifrån teori omfattande traditionell marknadsföring, varumärken och reklam, nationsvarumärken och nationers image vilket relateras till corporate branding och modellen the corporate branding toolkit. Med hjälp av en semiotisk näranalys, av en av respektive företags kampanjer, försöker författarna skönja hur företagens corporate branding identity och nationstillhörighet speglas i marknadsföringen. Summering: Även om det bör råda balans mellan komponenterna i ett företags corporate branding identity kan tyngdpunkten variera beroende på företag.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att illustrera vilka faktorer som påverkar kundrelationer och hur ett företag bör gå tillväga för att förbättra dessa samt för att bevara sina kunder. Vi vill ge en illustration på hur en välorganiserad kundrelation kan framkallas. Uppsatsen är även en undersökning som kommer att framhäva Länsförsäkringarnas varianter av strategier och metoder inom kundrelation, detta kommer även att baseras ur kundens perspektiv. Det vitalaste kommer att handla om hur Länsförsäkringarna kan förbättra och utveckla detta. Metod: Vi valde att använda oss av primärdata för att öka trovärdigheten genom enkätundersökning och intervjuer, våra sekundärdata användes för att ge stöd till den primäradatan med författares och forskares teorier. Sedan jämförde vi resultatet från intervjuerna och enkätundersökningen med vad teoretikerna anser för att se om det överensstämmer med resultatet. Resultat & slutsats: Vi tycker att det har varit ett intresseväckande arbete att följa Länsförsäkringarnas tillvägagånssätt om hur de bemöter kunderna och relationen till dem.

SummaryThe purpose of this thesis is to examine what effect the IFRS 2 has on earnings, equity, financial strength and return on equity for listed Swedish companies with active stock option plans. The purpose is further to investigate the companies? attitudes towards IFRS 2 and to find out if companies tend to deviate from stock option plans due to the changed accounting rules. We also want to examine the view of IFRS 2 from an auditor?s perspective.We have used a deductive approach and a mix of quantitative and qualitative research methods with a view to get a completely clear picture within the field of study.