In order to become even more competitive, a partnering with other niche players is essential in achieving a competitive advantage and it enables opportunities for reintermediation. From an intermediate perspective, there are great possibilities for those who become content coordinators to enter the market. By becoming a bundler of services and products, the content coordinators will become the actors that will capture the most profit in the value web. The value creating drivers that have been identified in the business landscape of intermediates concern owning the content or owning the customer relationship. We find the possibilities of an intermediate actor, such as a content coordinator to achieve competitive advantage through strategic fit is subject to the context and the ability of creating more innovative and co-creative distribution systems.

Purpose: The purpose with our study is to accomplish a quantitative research of all municipalities in Sweden and see why they apply Balanced Scorecard. The study will also investigate the spread of Balanced Scorecard, even the benefits and how they use it. Method: In our study we have chosen a quantitative research. The study has been accomplished with a questionnaire survey which we sent to all of the Swedish municipalities. We have also done a literature study to get more knowledge about relevant theories. Finally we have compiled the questionnaire in Netigate and Excel, and analysed the result from the questionnaire. Results: Balanced Scorecard is well-known in the Swedish municipalities and 36 percent of the municipalities use this scorecard in whole or in parts of the organisation.

Quality Assurance in Service Procurement --- Total Quality and Total Quality Management refer to popular management philosophies in organizations these days. The purchasing department has an important part in the strive for organizational quality as several studies show corporate spend is significant and increasing. In this master thesis I study the actions companies take to ensure quality in service procurement. I argue that managing quality when sourcing services is particularly tricky, because of the special characteristics that belong to services. The purpose of the study is to examine whether different actions are taken to ensure the quality of different kinds of services.

The postindustrial market increasingly demands service infused products to add more value to the customer in order to be competitive. Much research regarding digitalized services indicates that companies have to be innovative in order to compete on the market. However, companies within different industries face different challenges with digital service development. This study has been conducted because there are little known about the opportunities and the challenges different industries faces with a globalized market. Our research question is what the challenges are and what opportunities does strategic digital service development entails for companies.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to test four different hypotheses from the aspect of the title of this paper. H 1 Consumers trust the pharmacy employees? advice and suggestions for their purchase decisions more than the brand awareness they have received through the companies marketing communication H 2 Consumers are enough affected of a company?s marketing communication to choose their brand even if the pharmacy employees recommend other brands. H 3 Building brand equity through pharmacies can only be successful if the company has built up a trust for their brand among the pharmacy employees. H 4 Without building brand equity the marketing communication strategy for Ferrosan cannot increase their brand value and create loyalty. Methodology: The research method that was chosen is a detective argumentation that starts from theories and explain different parameters regarding the subject I am concentration on. It is a case study where the companies branding strategy towards pharmacies in Sweden is analyzed bys a mix of semi-structured interviews, documentation analysis and a quantitative research . Theoretical framework: The theoretical model that has been prepared gives me the possibility to analyze different parameters regarding branding that are important when building a brand in an new market.

AbstractA general store is a grocery store that is located in the countryside. In today's modern society, it is difficult for general stores to compete with the supermarkets and discounters in terms of price and supply. The purpose of this thesis is to create an understanding of both the rural merchants and its customers? perspective on a well-­?functioning general store. We have conducted a case study of three general stores where we interviewed the merchants about how they do to please their customers? needs and identify key elements of a well-­?functioning general store.

As changes occur more frequently in IT- and software development, it is important for the companies to meet the demands and needs of its customer. The companies have to be able to adapt themselves continuously in order till fulfill its customers changing needs in an effective way, which results in big changes of the companies? structures. The more traditional way of working is often replaced with more alternative approaches as a response to the reputable deficiencies of its predecessors. As an effect of the rapid change and development some companies now see big potential in switching to more Agile and flexible methods and some companies have no choice but to change their way of working.

I och med friskolereformen i början på 1990-talet har förutsättningarna för skolor förändrats och konkurrensen hårdnat. Marknadsföring av skolor har blivit allt vanligare och vilket anseende skolan har är avgörande. Tidigare forskning har visat att nöjda anställda leder till att kunder blir tillfredställda och lojala, de som tar hand om sina anställda och agerar på deras idéer visar ett bättre resultat. Därför kan intern marknadsföring ses som ett verktyg för att hantera denna konkurrens.Syftet med denna uppsats är att utifrån ledningens perspektiv få förståelse för och beskriva vilka faktorer inom skolbranschen som påverkar den interna kommunikationen och vilka förutsättningar dessa faktorer ger för intern marknadsföring. Studien har intagit ett Grounded Theory-inspirerat tillvägagångsätt och tillämpar intervjuer för att svara på syftet.

Mobil teknologi integreras idag i allt högre grad med centrala stödsystem. Studien har undersökt vilka möjligheter som finns för fältservicetekniker att arbeta direkt i stödsystem, Service Management System (SMS), m.h.a. nya tekniker. Hur kan en bra mobil arbetsplats utformas? En enkätundersökning har utförts där 14 personer som arbetar som fältservicetekniker eller som servicechefer har deltagit.

An industry in distress was the breeding ground for a noted pricing strategy, labeled name-your-price. The industry was the music industry and the pricing strategy bears reminiscence of how medieval buskers earned their living during the dark ages; by letting the customers decide how much the good was worth, embodied by a thrown coin into a hat or similar collector. Translated into the contemporary corporate environment of today, where technical innovations provides access to the intellectual property for free, a few mighty economic actors have once again turned to the strategy were it all started; letting the customer set the price. The hat has been replaced by a box for your credit card number and the live music by a MP3 file, but the similarity is striking. The business model have been applied in other industries as well with various levels of success, thus the purpose of this thesis is to set up a framework for where the name-your-price strategy is applicable.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka meningsskapande som ett socialpsykologiskt fenomen. Mer specifiktförsöker studien förstå vad som motiverar kundtjänstarbetarna på ett callcenter i västsverige, till attfortsätta arbeta med ett arbete som är lågavlönat, hårt reglerat och monotont.I studien kommer läsaren att få ta del av empiri baserad på tio livsvärldsintervjuer, därkundtjänstarbetare berättar om sina upplevelser av att arbeta i ett callcenter. Empirin visar attmajoriteten av kundtjänstarbetarna upplever sitt arbete ogynnsamt, då kundtjänstarbetarna sällan fårutvecklas eller självförverkligas inom arbetet. Flera kundtjänstarbetare finner heller inget tydligtsyfte med att göra sina arbetsuppgifter. Istället arbetar flera kundtjänstarbetarna för att få enekonomisk tillgång.

It has been demonstrated in this study how people working in frontline jobs in service organizations are exercising ?micro power?. The use of ?micro power? is defined as ?to in ones professional role, without objectively defensible reasons, impose sanctions on a customer?. The interviewees are explaining their use of ?micro power? with mood, working conditions, and customers? behavior.

This master thesis is about designing and dimensioning a boat for transport of caravan, car, trailer or ATV. Buoyancy and stability are important properties as the pontoonboat should also be able to serve as a workboat. Many of the vessels on the market today that is being used for similar purpose are stable enough, but their hull is often similar with barges and thus too slow. This work has been to construct a boat that has good stability but also has a hull that enables it to move faster, is more maneuverable and having a more attracting design than today?s barges.

The educational underachievement of children in foster care has been known for a long time. This study aimed to compile and analyze the current knowledge about interventions, intended to improve foster children?s school achievements. The method used was a systematically undertaken narrative review. Despite a comprehensive searching strategy, only ten relevant studies were found, indicating that little has been done to improve the educational outcomes for children in public care.

In this thesis the marketing strategies of two public libraries have been explored and studied.The public library of Kalmar participates in the project GÖK which partly is a marketing project. The public library of Kalmar thereby differs from the public library of Trollhättan which is not involved in the project.The main aim of this thesis was to focus on their marketing strategies and see if there were any differences. The thesis was also concerned with the customers and their experiences of the quality of the services offered by the public libraries of Kalmar and Trollhättan, including the customers' perceptions of the operative marketing, and finally if there was a connection between marketing and customer-centered quality. Qualitative methods as well as quantitative methods were used for the collection of information .The preliminary assumption that Kalmar had a more explicit marketing strategy has been confirmed in the study. However, the customers at the public library of Trollhättan were more satisfied with the total quality of the services offered.