The purpose of this thesis was to study the importance of virtual communities for independent record companies. It also aims to examine how these companies use virtual communities in their marketing activities and how to gain competitive advantages by working with virtual communities. A case study based on interviews was conducted with managers from two independent record companies, Music Is My Girlfriend Recordings and B&B Records. Our study has shown that virtual communities are important for independent record companies as tools for finding and addressing the right target market. Useful information about the members of these communities can easily be gathered with the use of the various search options that are available.

This thesis intends to examine the role of the city, Dublin, in the Irish economic growth during the 1990s. It is a case study where Dublin is compared with current theories on post modern cities as growth machines and increasingly prominent actors in the global context. The study has an interdisciplinary approach but focuses on political science issues such as power distribution, global-local governance and local political organisation. It is a theory driven study that also intends to add aspects to the understanding of the cities of our time. I argue that Dublin has faced a lot of changes during the last decades in accordance with the post modern city.

The purpose of this study is to search for and compare how teachers in a multicultural municipal school and in a multicultural independent school design their teaching to benefit all the students in the classroom, regardless of background.I wanted to get information about how teachers work from an intercultural perspective. To get information I used qualitative methods, which includes interviews and observations. I interviewed four teachers working in a primary school. Two from a independent school and two from a municipal school.The result revealed that both the independent school and municipal school are working from an intercultural perspective where they try to find different methods to reach every student in the class. Their biggest similarity is that the teachers put a lot of effort on language development since the Swedish language is key to the Swedish society.

In the beginning of the 1990s the responsibility for the schools shifted from the government to the local authorities. This started an era with a freedom of choice for students where they themselves could choose which school to go to. The new system also opened up the possibility for independent private schools to exist side by side with local authority held schools. The overall aim of this study is to determine the factors that affect the location of these independent schools and the geographical pattern these independent schools create. The study in this paper is based on materials from statistics and interviews.

The hotel sector has reviewed big changes, as higher requirements on independent hotels have been set. In order to be able to compete with big hotel chains, it is no longer sufficient to only use the 4P of marketing mix, it is also required a bigger focus on the personnel. Trained and service aimed employees are service companies' intangible assets and they become more important. Globalisation and internationalisation has however contributed to that the labor market has become more open, and employees easier can compare employment conditions or change job.The aim of this essay is to analyze and to evaluate conditions for the internal marketing at independent hotels, in order to be able to achieve employee loyalty. The essay builds on a comparison between managers' and employees' views about internal marketing.A qualitative hermeneutical study has been used in order to be able to analyze and evaluate conditions for the independent hotels' internal marketing.

The authors of this paper intended to study and compare local secondary schools(municipally owned schools) and independent secondary schools(privately owned schools) in Stockholm County. The purpose oft his paper is to explore how secondary schools market themselves and whether the view and use of marketing is different between municipal and independent secondary schools. The essay is by nature multi-case study and interviews were conducted with representatives from four high schools, two municipal and two independent, one representative from Education Committee and one from Privet Schools? Association.The introduction of School reform in 1992 enabled opening of privately owned schools and empirical datas hows that before 1992 secondary schools did not have the same extent of competition and the need of marketing was not widespread, but today there is fierce competition among secondary schools. The introduction of School reform changed the conditions for the Swedish school market, greater freedom of choice led to atougherfight for the students, which in turn increases the competition between secondary schools.

Several industrial scandals, especially those about Enron and WorldCom, have lead to an intense debate about the independent audit and the independent auditor. A substantial part of the auditor?s income originates from counselling, and therefore the role of the auditor may be seen as double, and the auditor?s objectivity may be questioned. In the year of 2002, a new Auditors Act was legislated in Sweden. In the 21 § of the act, a model based on principles was introduced, to test the auditor independence in every single case.

Background: The theater market has matured ? supply now exceeds demand. Government funds are on a decrease, replaced by other means of financing. The city of Stockholm will be introducing a bonus system that will benefit independent theater groups that succeed to increase their revenue and attendance. Hence, the audience will play an even greater role, a tendency some free theater groups come to terms with by interacting with the audience to create value.Thesis statement: What factors lead to the long-term survival of the independent theater groups, allowing them to benefit from the imminent bonus system?Purpose: To analyze and evaluate the marketing strategies of the independent theater groups, in reference to their capability of long-term survival through value creation along with the audience, thereby increasing attendance and ticket revenue.Methodology: The study combines quantitative and qualitative approaches and methods.

Aim: The aim for this study of Swedish daily press is to see how the musical reporting is structured for the newspapers I have chosen to analyse. My main purpose is to investigate how the newspapers reporting are distributed between artists who belong to either a major record company or an independent record company. With this research I want to find out if there are any economic backgrounds to the content and if the reporting is equal to the market production.Method/Material: For this study I have studied, by quantitative research, every piece of musical reporting in seven daily newspapers for two weeks. Through thorough research I have determined the belonging of every article?s record company.

Independent schools are a central issue in the school world, the perception of independent schools varies and many people express opinions about them in the media. An independent school is according to the National Agency a school that has a different principal than the county or municipality. Independent schools may not charge fees but their revenue comes from municipal grants from municipalities (Berglund 2007, p. 10). An independent school can be driven by an association, foundation or company and to run an independent school requires a permit from the Education Department.The purpose of this paper is to see how four principals at independent schools with a Muslim profile are working to strengthen their students? Muslim identity in relation to the society they live in and how schools work with value issues.

The purpose of this study is to see how secondary schools in Skelleftea? County market themselves in order to attract students. How the schools portrait themselfs, what is in focus in the information material and how the schools communicate their message to the students who are about to choose schools are the questions asked. The study contains both municipal secondary schools and independent secondary schools. A text analysis has been implemented on texts from the schools websites and interviews were conducted with five respondents from the municipal secondary schools.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how Swedish independent record labels, or indie labels, fared on the Japanese market. The research questions were based on how Swedish independent record labels establish themselves on the Japanese market and how the cultural differences between the nations affect the business relationship. It was decided to execute a case study on two Swedish independent record labels and the Swedish export council for music. The ones chosen as study objects were B & B Records, Razzia Records and Export Music Sweden. The conclusions were that the indie labels need to understand the importance of personal business relationships when trying to get established on the Japanese market.

Swedish school system is today victim of facing competition. Today sees the school leadership the students like customers whom they depend to operate their school. But I have asked myself, what will be the new students see and how much this spectacle in both money and time that project will cost for the municipality and school teachers. The question is if whether the school will be better when the competition becomes school or just better marketed? I'm interested in how clearly ideologies emerge in schools brochures if we study them at critically and analytically way.

AbstractIn this essay, policy change and learning is studied in the case of the Social Democratic Party and their policy concerning independent schools. Their policy differs clearly from the right-wing parties. Between 1991 and 1994, the right-wing government made substantial reforms concerning independent schools. The question posed in this essay is whether the policy of the Social Democratic Party has changed as a result of these actions, and if they have approached their right-wing counterparts.Using the Advocacy Coalition Framework, defining a policy as a result of the values the actor holds, the question is studied by applying the theory's assumptions of policy-learning across coalitions. The argumentation of the Social Democratic Party, as it is expressed in official text documents before and after the right-wing government, is analysed.

Auditor independence is a subject that has been discussed frequently over the past decade. The meaning of auditor independence is complex and contains both independence of mind and independence in appearance. The environment must perceive the auditor as independent if the audited information is to have any value for the users of the audited statements. The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how auditors can manifest their independence.