Within the interconnected global markets of today; people, products, and information travel at a pace never met before. In light of the global retail markets recent integration, consumers are opened up to new products and are beginning to develop a vetted interest in the heritage of those products. Within literature this process has been coined "Country of Origin" COO, and its impacts on consumer attitudes, product value- assessment, and overall behaviors has been one of the most emphasized areas of "international business" studies, during the last three decades. Numerous studies have shown a correlation between positive or advantageous associations to a country of origin, and the actual products representing and coming out of that country. It is by this synergetic process that so-called positive COO-effects are brought forth.The goal of this thesis stems directly from the still unexplored potential for Swedish firms to differentiate their products and brands on new international markets, through a strategic and coherent communication of relevant Swedish COO-effects.

AbstractDigital media in general and social media in particular are becoming more and more important to businesses across the globe. It is an effective way to reach out to consumers and establish a good relationship with existing customers. Most companies today use digital media in order to market themselves and to establish good public relations. A lot of those companies have also realized the enormous marketing capabilities that social media provides. However, in spite of the plethora of possibilities that comes with social media it can also, in some cases, hinder the companies ? success.

The aim of this study is to map the consumption patterns of the poor. We also examine if loyalty can be created in this segment, and try to discover different types of poverty. This study is of great importance since the poor segment has been slightly overlooked in marketing research. Therefore we have also turned to other academic disciplines such as sociology, ethnography and consumer culture in order to analyze our empirical input. The study is abductive and we have in a qualitative and ethnographical manner conducted interviews in order to obtain information and reveal categories.

The purpose of this essay is to analyze and understand how producerbrands are able to communicate their brand through today's marketing channels, also how development and changes that occur in the society can affect the producers communication abilities. We have seen a tendency that many retailers have created their own brands that are competing with the producers, this leads to the fact that producers in some cases are having trouble communicating their brand to the end-consumer. The fact that the producers marketing through retailers now is more limited than before, the producers now have to capture the consumers wants and needs through other channels.This essay is based on a qualitative method involving seven interviews. The persons that we've chosen to interview are carefully selected based on their specific knowledge about the subject in question..

Aim: The aim of our study is to analyze and evaluate from a marketing perspective how estate agents can use facebook to strengthen their brand. Method: We have used an inductive study form where we?ve used a quality and a quantity data gathering method. The data has been gathered from an interview with Botkyrkabyggens marketing coordinator and from an internet survey based on a convience selection and a snow ball selection.Theory: SWOT, Brand Equity, Word of Mouth, Customer Relationship ManagementConclusion: Facebook can create and measure "word of mouth" effects, and also create better information management and flow of information compared to traditional marketing for an estate agent. The risks of facebook is the difficulty in educating the staff about the site and the fact that facebook dominates the policies and rules which suddenly can change.

The aim of this study is to analyze and describe the research front within information science. To reach this purpose we ask the following research question: Which research themes can be identified within the subject field of information science by using bibliographic coupling in combination with cluster analysis.The data for our study consists of articles from the journals Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology and Journal of Documentation throughout the years 2004-2006. The bibliographic information from the articles was analyzed with the combined methods of bibliographic coupling and cluster analysis. This gave fifteen clusters within which we identified research themes. When analyzing these results we found four main fields of research within the research front of information science: Information retrieval, bibliometrics, knowledge organization and information science as research discipline.

Participating in peace support operations has been and remains a significant part of the Swedish defense and security politics. Since the end of the Cold War, the Swedish national defence has been more and more dismantled, in favor of international peace support operations which have become an increasingly important task for the Swedish defence. Why then, is Sweden so engaged in conflicts so far from home? Using two classic theories of international politics, realism and liberalism, this study aims to shed light on arguments from the Swedish parliament on why it is important for Sweden to participate in international peace support operations. After analyzing arguments of the Social Democrat Party, the Moderate Party, the Green Party and the Liberal Party concerning three different peace support operations which Sweden has participated in, the result shows that although both realism and liberalism are influencing the parties? argumentation, liberalism is the theory which is used more often.

In a globalized world, competitiveness is based on the high IP (intellectual property) of our export products and innovations are therefore important for new companies to establish and develop. It´s not enough to just have big international companies but it is also necessary to invest in new companies that can be competitive in the future. By helping entrepreneurs with innovation support in the early stages, new technology-based businesses are established and developed. The purpose of this paper was to examine how innovation support in the early stages affects the establishment and development of new technology-based companies. Furthermore, we investigated how this will affect Sweden's international competitiveness.

Because of the mass tourism industry that exploits sensitive locations all over our planet a new kind of tourism came into focus in the 1980?s. This new form of tourism was named ecotourism, and as the name reveals ecotourism deals with low-impact travel. Today, all sorts of places can be gazed upon in a flick of a switch; all you need is a television set. It is well known that destination marketing successfully uses visual media as a tool to sell trips to potential tourists.

The aim of this thesis is to assess the strategic importance of Central Asia as a whole and interests of great powers in the region in particular within the theoretical framework chosen. The work shows Central Asia as an area of the New Great Game, analogue of the original Great Game which was played out between the British Empire and Tsarist Russia in XIX century. The parallels between the original Great Game and the New Great Game are drawn in order to understand the scope and the true intentions of the players of the latter one. Also, the security issues in the contemporary Central Asia are explored and analyzed to provide with the background for future predictions. Furthermore, the indirect purpose of the thesis is to examine whether the international system has changed from that of two centuries ago by comparing the structure of the international systems at the time of two Games.

AbstractDigital media in general and social media in particular are becoming more and more important to businesses across the globe. It is an effective way to reach out to consumers and establish a good relationship with existing customers. Most companies today use digital media in order to market themselves and to establish good public relations. A lot of those companies have also realized the enormous marketing capabilities that social media provides. However, in spite of the plethora of possibilities that comes with social media it can also, in some cases, hinder the companies ? success.

The aim of this study was to describe how the best interest of the child can be constructed in investigations concerning permission for international adopt, where adequate parenthood is investigated. Qualitative research interviews were used as method. Seven investigators from six different sections of the city of Stockholm were interviewed. The information was analysed on the basis of a sociological approach to law and social constructionism.The result showed that adequate parenthood is a condition in the interest of the child. Adequate parenthood is specified as the parent?s qualities and possibility to care for an adopted child.

The aim of this paper is to clarify the up till now somewhat shady definition of legitimacy, and to investigate what happens to this concept when it is transferred from the boundaries of the nation state to the realms of the international arena. By creating a model of legitimacy from which an institution can be evaluated, the purpose of this paper is to investigate what legitimacy is and how important it is for the actors within the international society. The next step involves evaluating what makes the UN a legitimate institution and how its foundation is affected by the blatant disregard of its authority by one of its? most influential members.The theoretical framework consists of a summary of what contemporary analysts? views of legitimacy are, which I have incorporated into my own institutional model of legitimacy. The role of institutions is central to all aspects of this study.

The purpose of this composition was to examine which international and Swedish laws exist to govern the protection of asylum seekers claiming persecution on the grounds of sexual orientation. Additionally I wanted to look at what the need for such a right to refuge would be based upon, i.e. why asylum seekers ought to be granted such protection. In order to fulfil my objectives I based my material on international and Swedish laws, comparing these to studies of what negative impact growing up and living as homosexual in an oppressed environment can have on the individual, psychologically and socially. To highlight and exemplify my material I used Iran as a case-study to reflect my facts upon.I found that there has been, and still seems to be a lack of interest in and commitment to the persecution of homosexuals around the world.

Shopping is one of the most important social activities today and the majority of all shopping takes place in Shopping Centres. The number of Shopping Centres has increased and it is important to attract visitors by using the right marketing strategy. Christmas is an extra important period because the turnover normally increases three times in December compared to a ?normal? month. The purpose of this study is to analyze the marketing of Shopping Centres during the Christmas period, and analyze how this marketing contributes to the visitors? choice of Shopping Centre. This is a positivistic study that combines a quantitative and a qualitative method.This study concludes that range of stores and distance are the most important factors when a visitor decides which Shopping Centre to visit. During Christmas it is important to create a Christmas feeling, preferably made by offering decorations and music.