In these days of globalization, with a higher level of openness and interaction over geographical, cultural and economical borders, the importance of the company?s intangible asset, its brand, is gaining importance as a differentiating factor. Building a strong brand and the emphasis on strategic brand management is something that before was given less attention in firms but today we can see a general increase in awareness and relative emphasis in the strategic work of companies.Countries as brands: Is it possible to consider a nation or a country as a brand the same way you consider a product? Well, looking in to the subject it seems to be a rather complex matter and there are many questions to be asked and answer. Nations around the globe are indeed marketing and positioning themselves for several purposes.

Konflikterna i Great Lakes-regionen har präglats av både flyktingströmmar och etniska dimensioner. Vi har genomfört en fallstudie på detta område för att undersöka vilken betydelse flyktingar har för konflikterna i regionen.Vi visar hur flyktingströmmarnas karaktär och flyktingskapets utsatthet leder till skärpta etniska spänningar och bidrar till försvagandet av stater. Flyktingarnas osäkra livssituation och kollektiva minnen innebär ett särskilt starkt identitetsbehov, vilket kan leda till ökad etnisk polarisering och gör att de blir lätta att mobilisera politiskt.Flyktingströmmar orsakar ett allvarligt försvagande av stater, eftersom de på ett fundamentalt sätt underminerar statens legitimitet, genom exempelvis deras förlorade förtroende för staten och dess institutioner samt deras inblandning i väpnade attacker mot hemlandet.Generellt uppmärksammas flyktingströmmar oftast bara som en allvarlig konsekvens av konflikter, men vi visar hur de också kan förstås som en starkt bidragande orsak till inomstatlig och regional instabilitet..

Since companies have realised the importance of customer loyalty and since the service sector has gained higher significance in recent years, we found it interesting to study what leads to customer loyalty in service companies. The theories we have chosen to consider are customer loyalty, service quality, service guarantees, affinity marketing, loyalty programmes and customer clubs, the customer in focus and other factors that influences customer loyalty. To find out how service companies are working with cus- tomer loyalty, we have conducted a case study within three service companies. Our findings are that customer loyalty has a significant importance for the companies we studied. Quality and personnel were the factors we found had the greatest impact in service companies concerning customer loyalty.

This paper was part of the ongoing cooperation between the Swedish Civil Aviation Authority and the Department of Psychology at Lund University. The purpose of this study was to develop a self-report measure regarding human factors, for the air traffic controllers to fill out before they start their working shift. This in order to aid the team leaders in their judgment regarding the air traffic controller's ability to perform at the right safety level. The self-report measure would also serve as an aid for the air traffic controllers who have a responsibility regarding their own performance. If successful this self-report measure would make it easier for the air traffic controllers to be alert regarding certain factors that can have a large impact on their performance.

The demands on the adult literacy-rate are very high in Sweden. People with reading and writing difficulties may find it hard to fit into the community and to succeed in school. To accommodate the needs of students with learning disabilities, Swedish schools provide easy-to-understand materials. The purpose of my thesis is to examine how easy-to-read textbooks for high school students are different from regular textbooks. The study was carried out using a content analysis and I examined the books according to criteria specified by the Swedish author Torbjörn Lundgren.

This thesis has been made in cooperation with Forsheda Stålverktyg AB which develops and manufactures injection moulds and diecasting tools. The main concern has been their Trading-system which provides them with considerable amount of quality lost function.Focus has to however be put on the analysis of the Trading-system due to the fact that this has previously meant various quality issues for the company.This thesis treats quality assurance of the Trading-system, identification of the problems in the process and improvements of these problems.Quality assurance is carried out when a company detects that their quality based costs become too high. Quality based cost are? the costs that would disappear if a company's products and its different operational processes were absolute? (Sörqvist, 2001 p.30, free translation from Swedish). High quality based costs often result in increased quality problems, which can lead to substantial economic loss for the company.This work has resulted in a thorough review of the Trading-system whereupon problems have been identified.

The purpose of this research is to survey and describe some science teachers? conceptions of which assessment criteria they use at the marking process. Questions which are relevant for this research are the following: 1. Which assessment methods form the basis for science teachers? marking process? 2.

This master thesis is developed based on the desire of the water and sewage department in the municipality of Karlskrona. The department, which vouches for the quality of produced drinking water and sewage cleaning, was in need of help dealing with risk analysis.The water and sewage department is obliged to identify and assess risks according to Swedish legislation. However, no guides for this purpose regarding safety, health, environment and quality were available. The aim of this report was to accomplish a guideline for the performance of risk analysis within water and sewage plants. If the guideline is used, the requirements in the legislation will be obtained.

Abstract The Act of Education outlines that good quality in schools and preschools, focusing on continuous improvement, promote children?s learning and this in turn is on of the most important factors for child and youth welfare.This thesis was based on the authors´ pre-understanding that there are opportunities to improvement in the quality of preschools. The focus was on studying how analyses can provide a base for quality work, and the purpose of this study was to identify and describe the analytical methods that can be used in the process of continual improvement for quality development in preschools.A qualitative study was conducted in two preschools that have received quality awards. It was conducted through interviews with the preschool principals and through studies of various documents.In the comparative analysis of theory and empirical data, it was made clear that there was a regular analysing process going on at the investigated preschools and an emphasize of reflection could also be identified. Keywords: Quality development, preschool, analytical methods, processes, reflection .

Testing has always been an important task in the scope of software quality. Though it has never been as much appreciated within the management of the organisations as the software development has. However testing is becoming more attractive within organisations because it becomes more evident how much money working systems saves in contrast to defect ones. A tester often use testing tools to simplify the work progress. There are a lot of tools nowadays but not many evaluating models which helps the tester to know which one to recommend.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the Swedish public libraries acquisition processes when it comes to fiction for adults. The thesis focus on how the librarians responsible for acquiring view literary quality when they manage their collections and how their views coincide with that of the user?s explicit wishes. Furthermore this thesis looks at the librarians reading habits and how they coincide with that of their perceived users.The study uses literature pedagogic perspective theory to see how the librarians look at fiction and what they value in it. In order to get answers six librarians have been interviewed in this study that uses a qualitative approach to getting answers.

Introduction: The complexity of the neonates? way of expressing pain is a difficulttask for the pediatric nurse. The Swedish national guidelines for prevention and treatmentof pain in the newborn infant is suggesting that departments regularly use structuredmethods, such as pain assessment instrument, for the assessment of pain in the neonatalperiod. Previous research shows that pain assessment instruments are only used in abouthalf of all pain assessments in Sweden. Neonate's cannot verbally communicate their pain,and are therefore dependent on the pediatric nurse to acknowledge the pain.

The concerning issue of declining number of hunters in North America is also apparent in Europe and Sweden. When the bulk of research found on human dimensions and hunting participation has almost exclusively been done in the United States, this report seeks to add to the needed knowledge on a national level focusing on the causes of hunter declines related to social factors within Sweden. Using hunter data reaching from commune, county to National level, this report describes the correlation between a number of variables and the hunting participation in Sweden.The typical Swedish hunter lives in an area with low population density, the person usually has higher education, the living situation is stable with no recent moving and there is relatively good access to forest land. Persons with weaker connection to the Swedish culture such as foreign citizens, people with foreign background and people born outside ?the Nordic countries? are less likely to start hunt or participate in hunting.A strong relationship was found between the favorite game, moose (Alces alces), and the amount of hunters participating in the hunting.

This thesis examines the effects of the Swedish school reforms that took place in the early 1990?s. Theories such as Principal-Agent, Stewardship and Lipsky?s street-level bureaucracy are discussed as well as New Public Management (NPM). These reforms were heavily influenced by NPM, causing an increased level of street-level bureaucracy, and according to Principal-Agent theory some outcomes could have been predicted.

The background to the work bases on the consumers view around Swedish and foreign meat products, and how the attitude around the meat products is pursued in the shops. The consumers request high meat quality and security . Many consumers value local produced and ecological meat products but the price is too high. We have done verbal interviews with consumers on three different shops, where we asked questions and had dialogues around Swedish meat products where the consumers have told us their arguments and opinions about Swedish and foreign meat. The result shows that the majority of consumers consider that it is important to know that meat is produce in Sweden.