The characteristic of services as an effort carried out in a "moment of truth" implies a risk for failures. This study sheds new light on how alternative offerings that customers are initially exposed to can affect satisfaction and loyalty in the service failure and recovery context. More specifically, two aspects of the initial offering are studied: promised general service quality and the presence of a promise about a specific product attribute. Based on a presentation of the main theoretical perspectives, hypotheses are formulated and a scenario-based experiment in a hotel setting is designed to explore these. The results indicate that a higher level of promised service quality can result in more positive evaluations of satisfaction and stronger word-of-mouth intentions than for a lower level of promised service quality.

This paper examines the relationship between the experienced quality in the offering of a brand, emotional attachment and consumer commitment. The study aim to explore several dimensions of the experienced quality in the offering of a brand. Further we examine two conceptualizations of emotional attachment - Brand Attachment and Brand Love - and intend to declare the two of being two separate phenomena. We then conduct a relationship-based analysis wherein the mediating ability of Brand Attachment and Brand Love, between the experienced quality in the offering of a brand and consumer commitment, is examined. Therefore we conduct a focused quantitative study, wherein 171 customers of the fashion retailer H&M have responded to a comprehensive survey both online and in-store, to examine this fun-damental relationship and its components.

De flesta svenska gåsbestånden har ökat kraftigt de senaste decennierna, och de stannar ofta längre i Skåne innan och under flytt än vad de tidigare gjort. Detta har lett till ett ökat tryck på landskapet, särskilt i områden där stora flockar samlas som till exempel vid vattendrag. Syftet med studien är att illustrera vikten av gässens avföring med hänsyn till näringstillförsel i jämförelse med andra lokala näringskällor. Fyra dammar inventerades mellan maj 2004 och mars 2005..

The purpose of this study was to describe how women with fibromyalgia experienced their quality of life. The method used was a literature study with a descriptive design. The search for scientific articles was done by the databases Academic Search Elite, CINAHL, Medline via PubMed and Cohrane Library. The articles were quality-tested and the content studied, resulting in four categories as follows. Research involving the physical aspects of the quality of life showed that sleeplessness, tiredness and pain was commonly occurring symptoms in women?s daily life which affected their life-situation.

Denna uppsats är en fallstudie som går ut på att beskriva företaget Icehotel AB och hur de gått tillväga för att bli ett attraktivt turistmål och framgångsrikt företag.Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ undersökning där vi intervjuat företagets VD Yngve Bergqvist samt kunder som besökt Icehotel. I resultatet redovisas svaret från dessa intervjuer.Vi har valt att lägga tyngdpunkten på marknadsföringen av Icehotel och hur de lyckats nå ut till människor från hela världen. I teoridelen tar vi upp Turistmarknadsföringens 8 P och Attraktionsutveckling. I analysen tillämpar vi sedan dessa på företaget.I slutsatsen diskuterar vi kring hur Icehotel gått tillväga för att bli ett framgångsrikt företag. Vi tar upp promotion av företaget, samarbetspartners samt den professionella marknadssegmenteringen..

ABSTRACTBackground: To be stricken with a cardiac infarction is among other things linked to different risk factors.  Many studies show that the participants in cardiac rehabilitation programs learn to deal with the risk factors, increase their quality of life and lessen the risk for re-infarction.Objective: To describe the lifestyle and perceived quality of life of the individuals after having participated in cardiac rehabilitation program and to see if they had maintained their results up to a year after having a cardiac infarction.Method: The 19 individuals who had participated in cardiac rehabilitation in 2010 after having had a cardiac infarction were asked to participate in the study. Everyone agreed to participate. The study was made analyzing the surveys, one a locally made, that the individuals had filled out four and eight months after cardiac infarction, and the other the generic Quality of life questionnaire EQ-5D, that the individuals had filled out two and twelve months after cardiac infarction. Result: The individuals have not changed their lifestyle after having participated in cardiac rehabilitation which can be interpreted that they have followed existing recommendations. The mean weight increased with one kilogram, no depression is shown and they stress less.

Six different Digital Proofing Systems from three different techniques have been evaluated as totechnique, printing quality, economy and usability. Digital proof from two paper qualities, coatedand uncoated, has been compared with references printed in offset, to see how good they match eachother. Only two Proofing Systems manage to print on reference paper. The other Proofing Systemsuse special paper for digital proof.Measurements and visuell judgement show that the Digital Proofing Systems visualise referencepictures with quite good quality. Proof optimised for coated paper visualise the colours with goodresult.

In order to measure the quality of the logs, one can with help of Fast Fourier Transform technique get the signals resonance peaks. With help of these peaks you can see whether the quality of a tree is good or bad. This report contains the work of a where a program has been developed to be able to process a vibration created by an automatic hammer hitting on a log of wood. From the processed signal the program should be able to show both the raw wavesignal and the processed measured data from the resonance peaks. Beyond the raw wavesignal and resonance peaks the program should also be able to control the automatic hammer.

Environmental impact and management of energy is a highly topical issue in today's society. Climate impact must be reduced. The Government has set a target to reduce energy consumption in buildings by 20 % by 2020 and 50 % by 2050 compared to the energy use in 1995.With this in mind, we chose to examine how property owners can work on improving energy efficiency in existing apartment buildings. We also wanted to investigate profitability of different increasing energy efficiency measures and the calculation methods and the risk assessment performed by such investments. To tie in with government objectives, we also saw the possibilities of achieving these goals.20 companies were interviewed, of which 14 were property owners and 6 were consulting firms that works with energy efficiency.

This thesis is a feasibility study into how Fresenius Kabi may rationalize their destruction process in regards to cost, recycling, and work environment. The two main objectives are to identify scrap flows and the possibility to improve or replace the equipment that is now carrying out the physical scrapping. The flow has been visualized by a flow chart of the material and communication. A chart of the problem established to visualize where improvements are necessary. Based on the problems proposals are presented on how to improve the flow thru the plant.During analyze of the physical scrapping equipment it was also necessary to take a deeper look at how they are carrying out there work today, how does the procedure look like, working environment and where are the weaknesses.

Volvo Penta has been producing boat engines since 1907 and are world leading in this seg­ment. They have today an extended range and also sell industrial power stations. Quality, safe­ty and environmental care are three core values for Volvo and together they strive to give their customers the right product with the right quality.Volvo has developed a production system named Volvo Production System, VPS, and one of the pillars is continuous improvements. Within this pillar you can find value stream map­ping, which is used to analyze the value stream through the process. This tool gives a wide perspective and helps to keep focus on the entire process instead of just parts of it.Volvo Penta in Vara has earlier done value stream mapping but without good results since they didn?t take set-up times and imbalances in account.

Background: An accountant is supposed to secure that the information from a company is true and fair. Recently consulting, or giving advice, has grown to be a major part of an accountants daily work particularly in smaller companies which may have insufficient financial competence themselves. This means that an accountant occupies two parts, as an independent reviewer and as an initiated advisor, which have caused controversy. Purpose: The purpose is to outline and explain how the accountants and audit customers regard an eventual discrepancy between performing the audit and consulting, and to give suggestions how to manage this. The purpose is also to define what customers perceive as quality in consulting an auditor.

The management of water resources and waste water varies between the countries of the EU. For many years, a large part of the water in Europe has been contaminated by, among other things, insufficiently treated waste water and emissions from agriculture. The EU Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC and the Urban Waste Water Directive 91/271/EEC are intended to harmonize fresh-water management and waste water management within the whole EU, aiming at safeguarding drinking water of good quality and a high quality of all water within the EU today and in the future. There are however some problems concerning the waste-water directive. One problem is the huge investment needed in Slovakia to fulfil the demands of the waste-water directive for waste-water management in larger communities (with more than 2000 inhabitants).

This thesis aims to investigate what requirements companies have in order to achieve a successful legislative compliance control. The implementation of an environmental management system can help the company to structure their business and succeed with their environmental legislative compliance.Both small and medium sized businesses perceive that it is difficult and time consuming because the legislation can be difficult to interpret if you do not have the required knowledge. There are many companies that hire help in the form of consultants who audit their compliance, but this leads to a risk that the company will be exposed when the knowledge does not remain in the company if the consultant would cancel the cooperation. There are not so many tools today for businesses to obtain good legal compliance. The methods used are usually checklists included in the control program, and it costs a lot of resources to do everything needed.This study strives to deliver the expressed needs of the businesses.

Aim: To investigate the quality of life and the social life situation, with special focus on the consequenses of fear of hypoglycemia (FoH), in Islet transplanted patients.Method: 11 patients were included, four women and seven men, who have been Islet tranplanted at Uppsala University Hospital during the years 2001-2009. Two questionaires, Short Form 36 (SF-36) and the Swedish version Hypoglycemia Fear Survey (Swe-HFS) were used to investigate the quality of life, in relation to fear of hypoglycemia. Also, telephone interviews were conducted to investigate the patients social life situation in relation to FoH, after Islet transplantation and were analysed using content analysis method.Results: The mean value for quality of life was lower than that in the normal population. Three out of ten patients experienced FoH. Three predominant themes were revealed, one theme associated with pre- transplant, was ?Struggle for control of Social Life Situation? and two themes associated with post-transplant, were ?Regain power and controll of  Social Life Situation? and ?At Peace with the balance between the Present and the Future?.Conclusion: The patients experienced improved control over social life situation and quality of life in relation to FoH may been improved following islet tranplantation..