There is a change happening in the Swedish market of commerce. Studies indicate that the trend of the last decades; that external shopping centres are more attractive than centres of commerce, is about to turn. It is predicted that the centre of commerce will be the most attractive in the future.No matter how the market will develop, it is important for merchants to take account of their customers by understanding their behaviour and preferences concerning what constitute an attractive marketplace. A marketplace is attractive in terms of the characteristics that creates its offer, these characteristics are called "determinants of attractiveness." This paper is based on a field study of 200 consumers in Norrtälje regarding why they are choosing to shop in the centre of Norrtälje. The purpose is to answer the question "What creates an attractive centre of commerce " in terms of a) the determinants of attractiveness and b) each determinants' influence on customer satisfaction.

Title: Competition for small audit firms ? a qualitative study on possible competitive strategies and how the upcoming changes will influence competition on the audit market    Subject: Auditing Tutor: Margareta Paulsson  Authors: Per Dahlström and Martin Holmberg Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding how smaller auditing firms use competitive strategies and why. The result aims to work as a support for owners and leaders of audit firms as they make decisions of how to compete in the future. We would also like to explore how smaller audit firms view the change of the mandatory audit, that is, our intentions are also to examine how they think the consequences on the market will be and their view on its affect on the competition of the market.    Methodology: Our methodological approach was characterized by a hermeneutic approach in order to explain and understand why the smaller audit firms do what they do. Our approach is a combination of inductive and deductive as it allows us to develop an understanding of the subject, then gather our empirical data and from that draw valid conclusions.

The aim of our thesis is to study and analyze the components and features a brand should have to provide a solid foundation for brand building. Furthermore, we show how brands can make use of trends in a brand establishment.This paper is written from a qualitative approach. Through both structured and semi structured interviews, we obtained valuable information from our respondents. Our frame of reference and empirical foundation are linked together through an abductive approach which has resulted in our analysis and conclusions.A trend brings with a set of emotional characteristics, which companies can?t influence but must adapt to.

Title: What drives the customer's choice of packaging and which factors influence the customer's packaging cost? ? in the automotive and manufacturing industriesAuthor: Lena AnderssonSupervisors: Annika Olsson, Division of Packaging Logistics, Lund Institute of TechnologyHelena Claesson, Volvo Logistics ABProblem: Which parameters are important for logistic people to think of when they are going to choose a package?Which cost factors are included in the packaging cost?What kind of added value can an emballage supplier provide their services with?Purpose: The purpose of the project was to study the parameters that drives the customer's choice of packaging and the factors that influence the total packaging cost. The study also consists of a valuation of what an emballage supplier can offer to add value to their services.Method: The study is based on interviews with people who are working at Volvo Logistics and Volvo Car Corporation. Volvo Logistics provide their customers with standard packaging material, which they own and administrate. Volvo Car Corporation is one of their customers.

This project was started within the Market-Design programme of Elforsk, with the aim of developing representative test systems of Swedish distribution networks. Using such test systems as a basis for reliability and customer interruption cost calculations makes it feasible to analyse the network tariff regulation of Swedish power  istribution companies. In particular, it enables studies of the incentives for companies to invest in system reliability. Until now, the available test systems are either not representative of Swedish conditions, or too small in scale and limited in function.Within this project we have created two test systems. In order to represent the diversity of actual Swedish distribution networks, we have created one test system for urban environments and another for rural environments.

Retail marketing is a field with many different enbranchements. Some of these can be considered relatively well explored, while the lack of knowledge concerning others is almost total. For example, the existing knowledge regardng the possible impact that non-musical sound can have on the customer can be considered non-existent. With this in mind, the intention with the thesis was to closer investigate how non-musical sound can influence the customer's decision process and attitude in and to a grocery store. The authors started out with theories on associative networks and automatic processing.

Rapporten inleds med en beskrivning av WM-datas Network Management struktur och Reporting Management behov. Därefter följer en beskrivning av de två analys tekniker Datamining och On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) vilka är de mest använda databasbaserade tekniker. Verktyget Tivoli Decision Support (TDS) är ett stödssystem som ska underlätta för beslutsfattare inom organisationen. TDS baseras på OLAP ? tekniken och rapporten visar avslutningsvis de möjligheter som verktyget ger avseende WM-datas Reporting Management..

Syftet med denna uppsats är att testa olika tradingmodeller inom valutahandel, byggda på tekniska indikatorer, för att undersöka om man kan nå en positiv avkastning.Undersökningen omfattar 24 olika modeller, byggda på fyra olika tekniska indikatorer och med tre olika money management strategier. Modellerna testas på fem olika valutapar under tre månaders tid. Slutsatsen är att det går att nå positiv avkastning och även positiv överavkastning med automatiska tradingmodeller om rätt indikatorer och money management strategier används. Modellernas avkastning är mer känsliga för valet av money management strategi än för valet av vilka tekniska indikatorer och parametervärden som ska användas..

This thesis studies how readers of the electronic book (the e-book) use and perceive the electronic medium as a carrier of fiction. In this study it is assumed that fiction is mostly read in printed format. Therefore it is interesting to ask why some readers choose to read on screen. As there are all too few studies conducted on how readers perceive and use the e-book as a medium, this study aims to enrich an undeveloped research area. The study is based upon a qualitative questionnaire.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att göra en systematisk beskrivning, utifrån ett aktörs- och aktivitetsperspektiv, av ämnet Crisis Management. Detta för att skapa ett djup och en förståelse kring begreppet Crisis Management och dess innebörd i ett svenskt företag. Vi har för avsikt att först utföra en teoristudie för att sedan kunna jämföra denna med praktiken, för att erhålla den bas som behövs för att diskutera och besvara vår problemformulering. Resultatet av ett effektivt Crisis Management blir enligt oss, att Crisis Mangement utgör en psykologisk effekt på företag och dess aktörer. Den trygghetskänsla, vilken Crisis Management genererar, föder en säkerhet hos företag.

This master's thesis aims to study the relationship between two publiclibraries and Berättarministeriet, a foundation that offers free writingworkshops for children in areas with high levels of unemployment. Theworkshops are located in spaces that formerly belonged to the libraries.Questions posed in this thesis are How can the relationship between thelibraries and Berättarministeriet be described?, Why did the relationship turnout differently in the two places? and How does the library see itself, inrelation to Berättarministeriet?The theories used are Ögland's taxonomy for relationships between librariesand local organizations, and Folkesson's theory on interaction betweendifferent professional groups, and this was studied through interviews. Theresults showed a relationship without much interaction, beyond a "handover"of children from one place to the other, with time and shortness of staff beingcontributing factors to the low level of collaboration. Regarding the differentrelationships in the two places the results were not conclusive, butnevertheless showed tendancies of issues in the legitimacy dimension, fromthe library towards Berättarministeriet.

Demands on businesses are constantly increasing and the competition in the market-place is becoming ever tougher. To gain the long-term confidence of customers, not only the best businesses, but also the best supply chains are required.Volvo Cars is experiencing a changing competitive situation and their retailers are having trouble stocking the right spare parts. Shorter product life cycles and the growth of Volvo?s product program result in an increase in the number of spare parts to be stocked. In order to adapt to market trends and meet customer demands, Volvo has developed the LDC model, establishing a number of regional warehouses in strategic locations in Sweden, de-signed to supply spare parts to the regions? retailers through so-called Vendor-Managed In-ventory (VMI).The purpose of the study is to examine Volvo personbilar Sverige?s (VPS) motivation for a modified customer-service strategy through LDC.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the communication between banks and their customers. Delimitations were made and the focus became towards upper secondary school students. The study was based on two interviews with bankers on different locations and with different stature, and a focus group consisting of eight upper secondary school students. The conclusion of the thesis was that there are certain problems in the communication between banks and upper secondary school students. The bank didn?t always communicate on the same level as the students when they presented their proposals.

This study aims to disclose how an asymmetric planogram structure of the brand with the highest actual variety may come to affect the brand itself and its category as a whole. The authors of the study feel that there is a gap still unfilled amongst previous extensive research examining how differences in either space or price vary between categories, products or brands. An in-store experiment was conducted by collecting quantitative data from daily sales, observations of customers and questionnaires. The results show that an asymmetric structure leads to customers being more attentive towards the brand, and perceives it to be more dominant over its surrounding competitors. Furthermore, results indicate that the customer perceived variety increases and we see tendencies to changes in sales..

This is a report of our examination project in electronics carried out for Bofors Test Center in Karlskoga. The task was to construct an electronic devise for starting up different kinds of measuring systems in exact time during test sequences. The modules that are used today are old and unreliable. Our goal was to construct a prototype, which later on is supposed to be developed into a useful system..