Advertisers of today are facing a great challenge in a landscape where it becomes even more difficult to break through the clutter and convince consumers to buy their products. In order to succeed, they need to come up with new ways of communicating with their customers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if micro-blogging could be considered an effective media choice in order to enhance the perception of brand associations and traditional communication effects. The subject is of interest as brands are putting increasingly more resources into this communication channel. However, at the current date the marketing effects of micro-blogging is unexplored in academic research.

Recent corporate challenges require effective communication in order to secure a company?s reputation. Companies as a result, need to be committed to a series of corporate social and environmental practices along with their financial commitments to their shareholders and investors. In fact, businesses are required to go above their ordinary operations and involve all potential stakeholders that can be affected by their strategies. Companies also need to communicate social, environmental and economic consequences of their activities along with their CSR commitments to their internal and external stakeholders in order to make a better corporate image and improve their market opportunities.

The concept Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) describes a company's social and environmental work. More and more companies have embraced the concept of CSR and for some businesses, it has become equally important to present its efforts within CSR as to present its latest profits.The purpose of this essay is to establish an overall picture of a company's CSR efforts and to discuss the potential conflict between CSR and the aim for profit We investigate how businesses can improve their CSR effort so that it contributes to a positive development for the society while still creating economic value for the company. The study is based on a qualitative study of four Swedish companies in the fashion industry: Kappahl, Gina Tricot, Åhlens and Indiska. The results show that according to the theoretical framework, the four companies do not reach a complete strategic approach to CSR. To achieve this it is necessary for the companies to change their current CSR-activities..

The awareness regarding environmental issues is increasing and as a result a large number of products are eco-labeled. This enables the consumers to make enlightened environmental decisions when purchasing products. Eco-labeling is no longer for products only, but also for services like hotels. It?s difficult to determine what it actually means to eco-label a hotel and what kind of benefits it includes.

Denna uppsats analyserar matchningseffektiviteten mellan lediga jobb (vakanser) och arbetslösa. Det faktum att den svenska Beveridgekurvan skiftat utåt under 1990-talet är en indikation på att de arbetslösa inte lika effektivt ?matchas? ihop med de lediga jobb som skapas. I uppsatsen identifieras två faktorer som påverkar matchningseffektiviteten; sökbeteendet hos arbetsgivarna och de arbetslösa, samt regionala obalanser mellan utbud och efterfrågan på arbetskraft. Sammanfattningsvis kan sägas att båda faktorerna tycks bidragit till sämre matchningseffektivitet under 1990-talet..

This thesis investigates the 200 year old phenomena of savings banks and if they increase the economic growth (GDP) in the local region they act in. That is being done by testing three hypotheses; the savings banks increase the attractiveness of the region they act in; the savings banks increase the entrepreneurship in the region they act in; and the savings banks increase the economic growth in region they act in. This quantitative cross-sectional study with data from the year 2010, finds that the savings banks increase the attractiveness of the local region, most likely through the efforts and financials they put into different local projects. A positive result is also found for increased entrepreneurship in the regions that have a local savings bank. The result is explained by the savings banks relationship lending, which increase the likeliness for a company to get the credit they need to start and develop.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka huruvida BNP-gap kan förutspåinflationen bättre jämfört med arbetslöshetsgap. Svensk kvartalsdata från1993 till och med 2005 har använts. Gapmåtten skapas med två olika metoder,en linjärregression och ett HP-filter. En direkt prognosmodell används föralla prognoser med out of sample metodik. Prognoshorisonterna somanvänds är ett kvartal, fyra kvartal samt åtta kvartal.

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.

Pharmaceuticals are environmental pollutants that are a major threat to aquatic ecosystems and very little is known about their ecological consequences. In this study growth, survival and behaviour (sociability, activity and boldness) of perch fry (Perca fluviatilis) were examined in order to study the possible effects of exposure to a benzodiazepine anxiolytic drug, Oxazepam, during embryonic development. The study tested following hypotheses: (1) perch growth is affected positively by exposure during embryonic development; (2) early perch survival is affected positively by exposure during embryonic development; and (3) boldness and activity increases while sociability decreases in perch fry exposed during embryonic development. Embryos of naturally spawned perch were exposed to water with two different concentrations of Oxazepam. The embryos were exposed during different parts (24-hour periods) of the embryonic development, because embryos may be more vulnerable at certain times during embryonic development and/or because the exposure at different times can produce different effects.

This thesis aims to describe how a fashion designer should balance art and commerce in order to succeed in the fashion industry. We aim to define the Swedish term KRÄDD, and sort out how a designer or CEO in the fashion business should relate to the term, as well as the balance between cultural and economic capital. We present theories of the origins and fluctuations of fashion, as well as social studies on cultural capital, and brand building. The study is made in a qualitative manner where the empirics consist of interviews with 13 respondents that have different positions in, and experience from the fashion industry, including designers, journalists, buyers, a CEO and a PR-professional. In our conclusion, we emphasize the need for a balance between cultural and economic capital in order to succeed as a fashion designer.

Over the past twenty years, the cooperation within the European Union (EU) has strengthened and expanded with both more number of Member States and stronger influence on international politics. The unique character of the Union and its ability to enforce peace and humanitarian intervention has attracted attention in political science. This prominent position of the Union is perceived by many scholars who often hold this derived from the Union's influence in international relations. Various terms have been used to define the powers of the Union. The British researcher Ian Manners states that the unique identity of the Union in the international arena is formed by its normative power.  An important policy area within the Union is the environmental cooperation.

Syftet med denna studie är att, med hjälp av ett urval tillväxtvariabler, analysera hur det kommer sig att länder rika på naturresurser generellt uppvisar lägre tillväxt än länder som saknar naturtillgångar. Fenomenet brukar benämnas ?the Resource Curse?, eller ?resursfällan? som det här kommer kallas. Utmärkande för denna studie är att jag valt att analysera hur variablen statlig konsumtion interagerar med naturresurstillgången i landet och hur denna interaktion kan leda till att länderna i analysen fastnar i resursfällan..

Today almost every artist has a music video. With today?s technology it has become a lot easier for smaller companies or amateur filmers to produce and distribute their work. But how important is an artist?s music video and where do people find their music these days? Other questions we wanted to answer were if there is a typical way a music video looks like based on its genre.

Uppsatsen är en kvantitativ studie som undersöker vilka faktorer som har kunnat förklara den svenska swapspreaden under tidsperioden 2001-12-31 till 2008-10-31. Resultatet är en linjär regressions modell som påvisar att swapspreaden är kointegrerad med svenska statens upplåningsbehov samt räntespreaden för europeiska kommersiella obligationer. På kort sikt förklaras swapspreaden av bland annat att den är mean reverting kring ett långsiktigt samband med tidigare nämnda variablerna, basis risken, den historiska volatiliteten på aktiemarknaden, bankaktiers utveckling i förhållande till övriga aktiemarknaden samt lutningen på Money Market kurvan..

The Swedish industrial society has left several areas with contaminated soil and water which today is of danger for the environment and human health. One of these areas with contaminated soil and water is the region where the former Glava glassworks operated during 1859 to 1939. The main object in this study has been to study the responsibility for the contaminations according to the Environmental Code. The method used is a qualitative content analysis of relevant literature to answer the following questions:What types of contaminations can be found in the area of Glava glasswork and what health issues can these cause?What kind of activity has been conducted in the area that have caused the contaminations in soil and water?According to law, what are the responsibilities for the contaminations in soil and water at Glava glassworks?The contamination in the region has been confirmed to originate from the glasswork due to the environmental engineering survey made in the area in 2009.