Publicity is argued to have relatively great impact on attitudes and behaviours of consumer. Especially great is the influence of negative information. At the same time it is likely for brands to be subject to negative publicity. Since companies are investing gigantic sums into buidling strong and positive associations around their brands it is of great economic interest to have a better understanding how negative publicity influence brand equity and what factors might moderate this effect. This thesis focuses on brand strength as a moderating factor of negative publicity.

Publicity is argued to have relatively great impact on attitudes and behaviours of consumer. Especially great is the influence of negative information. At the same time it is likely for brands to be subject to negative publicity. Since companies are investing gigantic sums into buidling strong and positive associations around their brands it is of great economic interest to have a better understanding how negative publicity influence brand equity and what factors might moderate this effect. This thesis focuses on brand strength as a moderating factor of negative publicity.

Burkina Faso as well as most sub-Saharan African countries struggle with providing food for a fast growing population. The dominating farming system is agroforestry parklands. Agroforestry parklands can broadly be defined as areas where scattered trees occur on farmlands as a result of selective clearing. The presence of trees in crop fields may in the long term have a positive effect on the production of annual crops. It is commonly discussed, but not proven, that the presence of trees leads to increased groundwater recharge due to higher infiltration capacity of the soil.

Background: Performance measurement as a management control tool has received considerable academic attention. As the number of inter-organisational relationships, such as customer-supplier relationships, increases, there is a new scope for performance measurement as a management control tool. In order for a company to assess the effectiveness of its supplier relationships it has to define, measure and evaluate variables that are critical for the success of the relationship. The role of management control, and thereby of performance measurement, has increasingly been discussed in theory. However, empirical research in this area is still somewhat limited.

The swedish song contest ?Melodifestivalen? is the most popular TV-show in Sweden according to number of viewers. Not only has it managed to remain the viewers? number-one choice year after year, it has also engaged a lot of the viewers (2, 4 millions in this year?s final) to vote for their favourite song. Melodifestivalen is classified as a creative organisation since it has evident elements of creativity in its process, product and among its employees.

AbstractEnglish title: Outsourcing of operation and maintenance -An interview study about newly reconstituted housing cooperatives motives for outsourcing of operation and maintenance. Swedish title: Outsourcing av drift och underha?ll -En intervjustudie av nyligen ombildade bostadsra?ttsfo?reningars motiv till outsourcing av drift och underha?ll.Authors: Jonas Lindquist & Carl Melin Published (year): Spring 2013 Tutor: Sven-Ola Carlsson Examinator: Marita BlomqvistBackground: Now days there are no questions for organizations about if they will outsource parts of their business. It is rather a question about what should be outsourced. In terms of organizations our found theory tells what is being outsourced is everything that does not belong to the organization?s core business, such as supporting functions.

Reasons for performing this study: Colic has for a long time been seen as a serious health problem in the equine population. Even so, the knowledge of colic seems to differ a great deal among the people interacting with horses. A large number of studies have for several years looked at risk factors that cause colic, in order to provide knowledge about them. The knowledge can then be used as tools for developing prophylactic methods in order to reduce the number of horses that develop colic. Objectives The aim with this study was to investigate if people have the correct knowledge about colic in horses, which risk factors that cause colic today and describe prophylactic methods that can result in avoidance of colic in horses. Method Eleven veterinary practices were contacted in order to send out two questionnaires for a study of six weeks.

AbstractA beautiful death ? Manliness in four Japanese samurai moviesThis thesis deals with the samurai and his portrayal in Japanese historic movies and what kind of messages he conveys in form of masculinity to theater audiences. Four movies were chosen, two from the 1960s and two from the 2010s. The reasoning behind this was to look at two eras of samurai movies and if possible try to see differences between them. The history of the samurai, being a man and woman in modern Japan, R.W Connell and famous Japanese authors from different time eras acted as tools to try to answer the questions in hand.

Benign Childhood Epilepsy with Centrotemporal Spikes - BCECTS is a common neurological syndrome but the possible cognitive effects are still relatively unknown. In the study 12 children with the diagnose BCECTS, 9 boys and 3 girls between the ages of 5,5 and 13,5 years, were examined. An extensive battery of neuropsychological tests were administered. The results indicates normal cognitive functioning as compared to the normal population, with one exception; an aspect of attention. But the results also indicate several negatively effected performances when compared to the cognitive g-factor of each child.

The construction industry is currently receiving much criticism for inefficiency and slow development while demands for reduced built in moisture and efficiency increases. This report examines whether the use of field factories can meet these requirements and what factors that will be critical for future use of field factories. Industrialized construction with field factory is compared with traditional loose timber construction and industrial construction in the fields of execution, logistics and working environment. The aim of this report is to provide a basis for field factories current and future use and development. To achieve the aim of the report, people with experience in the use of the various methods was interviewed and literature studies in the various fields done.

AbstractDue to the success of the Populist Party Sverigedemokraterna in the Swedish election of 2006, the daily paper Sydsvenska Dagbladet published a number of columns written by well-known academics, writers and debaters. Their aim was to address the question of why this happened in the election and what it is in the Swedish society today that brought forward these trends. The first and the last word was given to the writer Fredrik Ekelund, and therefore the debate was named Ekelunddebatten.The debaters are fighting to present their view of the world as the only option when categorizing different societal groups and appointing themselves as group representatives. My aim is to unravel these different conceptions of the world and to do this I use the Dicourse Analysis as a method. I discuss the results with Critical Discourse Theory as a theoretical base and also from the view of the current societal discourses: the working class discourse, the multicultural discourse and the discourse of political correctness.I mainly observe four different conceptions of the world with different posing of problems.

Researchers and practitioners have recognized the need for ?transforming? every policy of the company into a competitive advantage tool. Thus, both the pricing approach and the supply chain practices of the firm have emerged as an important determinant of success. In this study, however, we are not only interested in these two aspects, but also in a third one-namely cultural conflicts as an obstacle and challenge. The interaction of the tree factors is extensively presented against the backdrop of Skanska and four of their closest Polish suppliers.

The technological progress of the world has had a massive effect on how we communicate with one and other, it also has had an big impact on how companies communicate with their customers and consumers. Today you cannot only communicate a ?promise to your costumers and consumers you also have to ?deliver? what it is you promise. Strategic communication is today not only to market your product but to ensure that your strategic communication is shown even in you innovation, design and product development.  This thesis is conducted in collaboration with No Picnic AB.The purpose of this study was to get an insight in how Swedish companies use their strategic communication. We aim on bringing a new point of view of strategic communication with innovation, design and product development also as a communication channel.

The Anybus CompactCom modules are today using the Anybus NP30 processor. These modules are used for communication between industrial machines and larger network protocols. The communication loads on these systems are increasing every day and the limiting factor for the system is the processor.HMS, the company that develops the Anybus CompactCom, has shown interest for a benchmark test between the old processor and a new processor, ARM Cortex-M3. This project includes that benchmark. To be able to get results that reflect reality a test environment was created to simulate Anybus CompactCom conditions.

During the last decades the housing sector has increased continuously, and housings and services accounted for 40 % of the energy usage in Sweden during 2011. The expansion in number of buildings in society has resulted in an increase in both energy usage and emissions of greenhouse gases. It is crucial to enable a sustainable development of society and as a result, the demand to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide is a current question. In this study, the carbon dioxide emitted from the housing sector in Stockholm is estimated. The housing sector can be divided into different types of houses such as apartment blocks, single-family houses and holiday houses. By collecting information of the energy purchased in respective households, a computational model is generated that calculates the total emission of carbon dioxide.