Recent developments suggest that private and public companies are moving towards a more service-oriented business. Service orientation means that hardware is often sold in packages with service agreements, which makes the investment more difficult to assess. The challenges that arise will be to assess the value of the overall package, the information needed to make informed decisions and the operational requirements in combination of hardware, software, support agreements, training and more. The paper therefore aims to examine how decision makers can evaluate the benefits of these investments and obtain a stronger base to make better decisions. There is within the area of radiology in the region of Västra Götaland a pronounced need for a better flow of information regarding medical equipment and related service agreements.

Drawing on a broad theoretical framework that includes theories about globalisation and honourculture, this thesis aim is to demonstrate that globalisation and honourculture, constitute a conceptual network, i.e a structural relational matrix in which concepts are embedded. Being part of conceptual network, these concepts are related to each other ontologically. The idea of conceptual network, and the thesis as a whole, draw upon what has been called ?relational perspective?This study aims to show the impact of globalisation on honourculture. The study shows the importance of narrative in the construction of discursive boundaries.

Previous work by researchers as Eugene F. Fama and Kenneth R. French, show that average return on stocks are related to a firms characteristics like size and book-to-market ratio. These kinds of patterns in average return is not explained by The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), and are therefore seen as anomalies. Fama and French have proposed a three-factor model, which captures patterns observed in U.S average returns associated with size and value.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to examine what the data from recent Library- and Information Science studies tell us about the importance of school libraries in a student perspective. Our theoretical framework is built upon Elisabeth Tallaksen Rafste?s concept about the values of school libraries to students. Our aim is to investigate how students between the ages of 15 and 18 use and experience school library.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse and problematize the concept of culture and its changes during the 1960s. By examining articles out of the periodical Ord&Bild 1962-1972, I show how an aesthetically marked concept, closely related to the concept of art, changes into an anthropological perspective where attention is drawn to the social, economical, political and ideological aspects. This change is viewed in relation to the works of three prominent cultural theorists from the 1960s: Raymond Williams, Marshall McLuhan and Herbert Marcuse.The change that the concept of culture undergoes can be illuminated in several ways. Epistemologically questions of art, its objectivity and relation to reality, are replaced by questions of the function of art and of its role as reproducing ideas and norms of a bourgeois society. Economical and social aspects are used as critical factors in discussing the role and conception of culture, a perspective that gives the discussion a political and ideological edge.

The aim of this study has been to, through a couple of chosen theories, examine in what way and for what purposes Japan has used its international aid system, How can the nation have been said to have implemented and acted in lines with the philosophies and principles set forth in the ODA declaration. What approaches, concerning positive and negative aid sanctions in the matters of aid to Cambodia and Burma, have been chosen and what have the motives for these choices been. What have been the determining factors of the outcome related to these sanctions - economic, political and/or matters of identity? I have found that a concern for possible decrease in economic profit and investment related areas, combined with a feared loss of political prestige and worsened diplomatic relations to the neighbouring countries in the Asian society, have come to overtrump the notion of advocating democracy, human rights, environmental and anti-militaristic issues..

The gap between practise and theory is often described in negative words in teachers? professional lives. Learning study is a model for teachers´ professional development where a theoretical framework is used to enhance practice. The theoretical framework used by teachers in learning study is variation theory. In this study the research object is variation theory and the aim is to present how variation theory becomes a guiding principle to understand teaching and learning processes.

This study examines whether it would be profitable for travel distributors in the charter to expand its offerings to other travel related products, and also the products that are in demand. We are also studying the role that brand has for customers' choice of travel.According to Hellman, e-commerce is to be preferred since it is competitive because it gives the travel distributors the opportunity to lower down prices. Therefore, we also investigated the proportion of respondents who would consider buying these travel-related goods through the travel distributors? websiteIn support of this study, is a survey with a population of 100 charter travellers. Respondents are divided into two groups where the first group consists of people who have booked their trip in stores, and the other via the Internet.

In this Masters thesis we investigate query expansion using an electronic thesaurus. We formed 30 topics from the library and information science field. For each topic three searches were made in the bibliographic database LISA Library and Information Science Abstracts via CSA Cambridge Scientific Abstracts. LISA has an electronic thesaurus attached. We used this thesaurus to form baseline queries, baseline queries expanded with synonyms, and baseline queries expanded with both synonyms and related terms.

The retailing industry has an extremely high density of brands. In order to differentiate its offer, both retailers and suppliers, are constantly forced to come up with new ways to launch their products. A collaborative strategy between two brands is called co-branding, which means that both the private label and the supplier's brand are displayed on the new product packaging. Several studies have shown that a co-branding strategy is successful, but many operators are still reluctant to use co-branding in fear of long-term losses due to potentially damaged business relations. The objective of this study is to explain how the product- and brand related value for customers, retailers and suppliers is affected by co-branding between private labels and national brands.

This master´s thesis is a comparative study of the importance of eight factors suggested in the literature to be related to the perceived utility of the service Book a librarian (Swe. Boka en bibliotekarie). Disciplinary differences were also analysed. 73 encounters between students and librarians in 11 Swedish academic libraries were studied using a survey. Six factors were significantly related (at the .05 level) to the utility of the service.

In this essay I examine how the norm-critical material ?BRYT! ett metodmaterial om normer i allmänhet och heteronormen i synnerhet? is used by Hyresgästföreningen in Stockholm in their education of personnel in the perspective of equalisation. I?ve mostly been interested in how the personnel who takes part in workshops about the material react and reflect in relation to the purpose of the material. How do they discuss about norms and the connection to discrimination and how do they look upon the power and responsibility that comes with power in relation to norms?  Earlier research in norm critical pedagogy and the critic of tolerans pedagogy perspective helps me to analyse how critical pedagogy stands above non-critical pedagogy in many perspectives.By observing workshops and by interviewing personnels taking part in these workshops I?ve examined how they react on both the practical and theoretical parts of the material.To summarise my examination I find the personnel who is educated in working with the material discover new experiences in knowledge and on how norms and discrimination functions.

The purpose of this paper was to look at the perception of self-determination for adults with intellectual disabilities from their perspective. We wanted to examine the experience of the space available for self-determination in some key areas of life, and how their own thoughts and ideas have been addressed by others. Through interviews with six people with intellectual disabilities, we have found that a single definition of self-determination is elusive. The key seems to be that you get the opportunity to do what you want, to have your voice heard and to receive and take responsibility. The space for self-determination is perceived by respondents as both large and small.

ABSTRACT The main purpose of IT security policies is to protect companies against intrusion and unwanted spread of information. Statistics show that IT related crimes tend to increase and because of that it is important, from the company?s side of view, to be well prepared. The IT security policy is an important part of that preparation. A lot of the crimes related to IT can be deduced indirectly to employees at the companies where the crime takes place.

[Abstract: This study examines the observed difference between Swedish and foreign owners when it comes to nominating committee participation. The background to the study is that foreign owners seem to participate in Swedish nominating committees to a lesser extent than their Swedish counterparts. The focus is on institutional owners and the companies studied are all listed companies who follow the Swedish code of corporate governance. Particular attention is paid to perceived differences in behavior that can be explained using the common corporate governance related theories of Exit, Voice and Loyalty as well as Agency Theory. These explanations are chiefly related to differences in attitudes regarding insider information, different knowledge levels regarding the purpose and workings of nominating committees of the Swedish kind as well as differences due to home market biases.].