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.

The aim of this thesis is to expand the understanding of 16th century Flemish art by approaching paintings by artists Pieter Aertsen (1508-1575), Joachim Beuckelaer (1533-1574) and Pieter Bruegel (c. 1525-1569) from a different perspective. This is done by extending the discourse of art history, into a discourse of literary history and primarily 16th century novels by authors such as François Rabelais and Miguel de Cervantes. The paintings are studied in relation to these 16th century novels, by comparison and as a testament of this specific time period. A widening contextualization is also constructed in which a connection to the expression of the carnivals ambivalent form, as well as the notion of lower classes is explored.

The aim of the study was to investigate social workers and managers experiences of ending child welfare investigations within the statutory period of four months. We also investigated their experience of investigation time is used in practice. To get answers for our purpose, we conducted a qualitative study. We strategic selected three social workers and four managers to our interviews.The results showed that both social workers and managers have experience with child welfare investigations that are not completed within the statutory time. A township that departed had no experience.

The aim of this thesis is to expand the understanding of 16th century Flemish art by approaching paintings by artists Pieter Aertsen (1508-1575), Joachim Beuckelaer (1533-1574) and Pieter Bruegel (c. 1525-1569) from a different perspective. This is done by extending the discourse of art history, into a discourse of literary history and primarily 16th century novels by authors such as François Rabelais and Miguel de Cervantes. The paintings are studied in relation to these 16th century novels, by comparison and as a testament of this specific time period. A widening contextualization is also constructed in which a connection to the expression of the carnivals ambivalent form, as well as the notion of lower classes is explored.

This thesis presents the implementation of a knowledge base system for rough sets [Paw92]within the logic programming framework. The combination of rough set theory with logic programming is a novel approach. The presented implementation serves as a prototype system for the ideas presented in [VDM03a, VDM03b]. The system is available at "http://www.ida.liu.se/rkbs". The presented language for describing knowledge in the rough knowledge base caters for implicit definition of rough sets by combining different regions (e.g.

This thesis investigates collaboration between teachers and librarians concerning reading support activities in senior high schools in Sweden. The following questions were posed: 1. How do the teachers and school librarians cooperate when it comes to promoting reading? 2. To what degree of cooperation is that? And how is the level of cooperation perceived? 3.

This field study examines how politically active radical feminists have reached their position in a group called Sällskapet. The aim of the study is to examine different paths, with the purpose to gain understanding of how to become a politically active radical feminist. Also, processes of social recognition on the field are examined; what is recognized and what taste preferences and behaviors gain a lower value? The different paths to the feminist position have been examined through a qualitative method consisting of a mixture of interviews and participant observations. The question if the position in Sällskapet requires specific experiences has been analyzed through Pierre Bourdieu?s theoretical framework, with a particular emphasis on the concept of habitus, symbolic- and cultural capital.

The web as an arena for news reporting and information sharing to consumers has grown for many years in the expense of the traditional newspapers. The revenue stream has however not followed the same transformation which has led to a remarkably lower profit when news and articles are distributed through the web. Banner advertising is a method that is commonly used by online magazines to generate profit where advertisers pay to expose their message. One method to measure banner ads effectivity, and indirectly, what the advertiser would pay, is through Click-Through Rate (CTR), how many clicks a banner ad receives in relation to the amount of banner views. One of the variables that play an important role in the banner ad effectivity is the placement of the banner ad.

Through qualitative interviews with five teachers from three schools, two public schools within the same school management and a Waldorf school, the purpose of this study is to find out teachers' views on the phenomenon of life skills in the lower classes in school. What is the subject, how do teachers work with life skills, and should it be seen as a separate subject or integrated in all school subjects?The results show that the definition of life skills is a term with many interpretations. Two concepts that can be seen as the common denominators in the educators' views on the subject, however is, social and emotional skills. This is something that educators believe develop self-awareness and empathy in children and sees that as important as learning other subjects.

The purpose of this paper is to examine different methods for organisation and retrieval of pop and rock music recordings, and the problems concerned with this organisation. The focus is the question whether values towards pop and rock music influence the organisation of music in major Swedish record collections. As a background for this discussion, the study also discusses how music is organised in these collections, and what kind of problems are associated with their organisation. Also included in the paper is a minor investigation of how problems with the organisation of pop and rock music are dealt with in library and information science, and how values towards pop and rock music are dealt with in society in general. The main focus of the study, however, is an empirical study of how values towards pop and rock music manifest themselves in the pop and rock organisation of six Swedish institutions with major collections of music recordings.

As students of graphic design the craft of print is close to our hearts. One of the most essential mediums of the evolution of printing techniques is the poster. In a world where digital mediums are being utilized to a greater degree everyday, our love for the printed poster makes us wonder if the days of the poster are counted.What we did was to take a closer look at the role of the poster in promoting events. We focused on the Stockholm area and did qualitative interviews with three different event promoters. Live Nation which is an international live entertainment promoter, Dramaten which is one of Sweden?s most well respected theaters and Stockholm Live which is a stand up comedy promoter in Stockholm city.From doing this we learned that economics play an important part in defining the role of the poster.

Storytelling is a complex action that requires many linguistic and other cognitive abilities, like memory and attention. Resent research has shown a correlation between oral story retelling and picture arrangement among children with neurodevelopmental disorders. The present study analyzes if this correlation exists among a convenience sample of children from the general population. 77 children between 3:11 and 9:0 years old accomplished Bus Story Test and a picture arrangement task from WISC III. Significant correlations was found between picture arrangement and Bus Story Test?s subscores sentence length, subordinate clauses and information.

A variety of studies have been conducted on the use of the balanced scorecard in the public sector. Fewer studies, however, is made at a lower, more local level within municipal departments. The aim is to describe the scorecard application by two different departments, while scorecard adjustment over time and actors and their rules are addressed in this context. This has led us to the following problem: How can scorecard application be described in two different departments in a municipal context? In the theoretical framework we presented fundamental theories of balanced scorecard in different contexts, a scorecards translation process and the rules that guide and limit the actors in the organization.

Today, there is no uniform definition of what an ethical fund is. Fund management companies choose themselves what they believe is ethical and not. The lack of the definition makes it difficult for consumers to understand why these funds are special compared to other funds. The purpose of this study is to examine three Swedish companies; KPA Pension, Swedbank Robur and Folksam, to obtain a clearer picture of the concept ethical funds and its definition. The study describes each company's view of Ethics and how they may affect other companies to work for a more sustainable world.

The aim of this study was to examine musculoskeletal disorders among dental hygienists inrelation to work postures (sitting, standing, and altering) and to study differences in thegroups regarding numbers of disorders, locations and degrees. A mail questionnaire wasdistributed among 200 dental hygienists in the region of Skåne. The response rate was 79 %.The majority of the dental hygienists were working in a sitting position. Only43 dental hygienists were altering their working position and two were working in a standingposition. The results showed that 85 % of the dental hygienists have experiencedmusculoskeletal disorders in the last 12 months.