A growing need to strengthen ones position on the market, even as a city in competition with other cities, has resulted in an increasing number of municipalities developing brand platforms. When the city of Umeå developed their platform, they identified decision makers and investors as one of four important target groups.The aim of this study is to explore the portrayed image of the city of Umeå in two Swedish trade journals which addresses the specific target group decition makers and investors in both public and private sector. The aim is also to compare the image of Umeå in the two papers, to the ambition of the municipality, expressed in the brand platform.In order to make the observations as firmly established as possible, the method of the study is a combination of a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative text analysis. The study draws on the theories of Eli Avraham and Philip Kotler, concerning how to improve city images and how to market a specific city among others. The study shows that the city of Umeå in large extent is portrayed in accordance to the ambition which the municipality expressed in the brand platform.Umeå is displayed as an expanding city.

The case study investigates study association representatives? perspectives on the activities of the popular education within the social sector in Örebro and why they are organized. It further investigates the cooperation and dialogue between the study associations and the municipality of Örebro regarding this activity. The study is based on critical realism. A questionnaire survey was conducted among all ten study associations in Örebro, combined with qualitative interviews with representatives from six of the active associations.

The flexibility of the labour market is considered as an instrument for increasing economic growth.Therefore has the use of flexible employment, also called atypical employment, increased. The atypical employment is characterized by insecurity in comparison with a traditional permanent full- time employment. One of the most common atypical employments is the manning employment, which is insecure whether it is permanent or not. The insecurity in the industry is based on insecure income, unpredictable working hours and poor psychosocial work environment.In order to encourage a continued increase of flexibility in the labour market while the need for security for staffing employees would be satisfied was Directive 2008:104 adopted. A certain amount of security has been achieved.

This essay started with a describing of Vision2020 that aims to get incoming tourism doubled and to make global travellers choose Sweden as their destination at the first place. Furthermore, we discuss those 12 priority markets that a Swedish leading communications company in the tourism Visit Sweden puts effort and promotes. Poland was not on the list of the selected countries. With our research we aim to show that the Polish market has potential. Compelling factors point to that Sweden and Poland are neighbour countries with good transport connections and, not least, that the countries have long historical relationships with each other.

The challenges facing low voltage grids are rising as an increasing number of domestic houses transition from fossil fueled heating to electricity based heating. Several environmental goals and visions have the same transition from fossil based power to electricity based power in mind for the transportation sector. One of the most important tools for this transformation is widely regarded to be the electric vehicle. With the demands of the electric vehicle pressuring the power grid, several questions arise regarding the growth of the electric vehicle market and what repercussions it may have on the grid. This paper focuses on a typical low voltage grid in southern Sweden and what effects a growing electric vehicle market may have on it. Through computer-assisted simulations based on several future scenarios regarding the EV market, this paper finds that few modifications and reinforcements are needed on this particular grid within the next 10 to 15 years.

Listed corporations achieve effectiveness through segmentation of investors. Categorization of like- minded investors diminishes goal incongruence. This thesis aim to examine an Investor models accuracy, provided by a Professor Emeritus in Economic Psychology in 2001. This model segments investors as active, passive, speculative and naive investors. This thesis has a demarcation to private investors on the Swedish stock market. It has a deductive and qualitative approach as the purpose is to study the Investor model.

This Master?s thesis aims to study how the concept ?youth? is understood and used in papers and publications about public libraries, written at The Swedish School of Library and Information Science from 1972 to 2002. It does this by answering three questions: Firstly, how is the concept ?youth? formulated in papers and publications at SSLIS from 1972 - 2002? Secondly, has the concept ?youth? changed in the analysed texts during the chosen time and, if that is the case, what constitutes this change? And, finally, what types of consequences for the understanding of the users can this have for the writers and readers of these texts? Discourse analysis is used to analyze how this concept is constituted, transformed and understood. Among the things studied in the discourse analysis is the interdiscursivity and intertextuality of the texts, as well as the meaning of the word, the wordings and modality of the analysed texts.

The aims of the study were to investigate the prevalence and antibiotic resistance of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli in chicken and chicken products, and to investigate farmer awareness of antibiotic resistance development. The study was conducted in the Can Tho province in Vietnam during six weeks in October to November 2008. Ninety-six samples from raw chickens were collected from twelve market places and analysed for the presence of Campylobacter. A total of 96 cloacal swabs from 20 farms were obtained and analysed for the presence of Campylobacter. Farmers were asked to answer eight questions concerning the housing of the chickens, modes of handling sick animals as well as use and knowledge of antibiotics and resistance development to antibiotics.

Background: It has been shown that companies that lived under protected conditions for a long time have had difficulties to adapt to major changes. With that in mind an even more extensive low-cost competition in the Swedish grocery market will make a threat for the traditional grocery stores' long-term survival. The question then becomes, which strategies will be successful and lead to higher customer loyalty.Problem: Are the traditional grocery stores using strategies that can compete in addition to pricing and will those strategies lead to long-term survival?Objective: Is to analyse and evaluate two traditional grocery stores' strategies and to examine whether these are consistent with customer demand.Approach: First we have created a more fundamental understanding of the situation in the Swedish grocery market. Then we have implemented two interviews in each grocery store.

The Smart Grids development is driven by forces concerning safe electrictransmission done in an energy efficient way. Vattenfall Eldistribution AB has a visionto transform their electricity network into Smart Grids. To invest in Smart Grids theyhave a need to show their customers what advantages they will get from thedevelopment. This led to the formulation of this dissertation project where the aim isto identify products and services related to Smart Grids that will increase thecustomer satisfaction for Vattenfall Eldistributions private customers.The project started with a mapping of existing products and services on the Swedishelectricity market. From the mapping several development possibilities for VattenfallEldistribution were identified.

The corporate world has become increasingly unpredictable and complex. Several companies are dependent on a rapidly developing market. The development has created a positive impact on production but on working conditions it has resulted in increased work pace and load. Psychosocial and stress-related problems has increased. The development has also meant a greater awareness of work environment issues relevant to competition for customers and employees.

University of ÖrebroDepartment of social SciencesSociology, Contnuation Course, 61-90hp.Essay 15hp. Spring 2008Title: Who is resbonsible? A soceityscientific discussion about burnout.Author: Emilie FuchsAbstractThe purpose with this essay is to do a critical comparation between two different perspectives, burnout as an individual problem and burnout as a social problem. The first perspective states that the individual itself is responsible for her sickness while the second perspective states that the society and foremost the labour market should work in order to prevent people from beeing burned out. With that purpose in mind I want to enlighten and hopefully bring up the topic for discussion.The essay is based upon the following questions:? How can you sociologically understand the labour market of today?? How can you understand burnout in an individual context?? How can you understand burnout in a social context?By studying and reading four books, I have presented the two different perspectives of burnout.

The purpose of this thesis is to highlight the work with line extensions by companies in the media industry. To obtain this purpose a case study was performed to learn about Norrbottens Media?s actions regarding their new launch of the magazine Extra. Information was gathered through an interview and media observations and was analyzed and compared to previous studies on the subject. Results of this case study show that the main reasons for the company?s line extension were new trends on the market and that the company had unexploited recourses to make use of.

This report investigates the possibility to use non-petroleum based adhesive (biobitumen) in asphalt. The main reasons for replacing bitumen are the fact that oil prices are rising, the threat of peak oil and the fact that the asphalt industry is becoming more environmentally friendly.The main purpose of this report is to investigate whether there are any non-petroleum based adhesives on the market. If so, how can they be used? The questions covered are:? Are there any other alternative asphalt coatings available?? Can bio-oils be used in asphalt?? If the bio-oils can be used, what are the details their properties?? How does a cold climate affect the bio binders?? What is the Swedish asphalt industry?s opinion about bio asphalt?The project was concluded through literature studies, consultations with people in the asphalt industry and through several interviews.The conclusion of this report is that there are some existing non-petroleum based adhesives on the market. They are mainly used for bike paths, sidewalks and parkareas.

The aim of this study is to examine and analyze how management control mechanisms evolve within an organization when a requirement of return on equity is imposed, as well as why the mechanisms evolve the way they do. A case study was performed on Samhall, a Swedish state-owned company, which has the aim to help people with disabilities develop by providing meaningful work. The framework provided by Samuelsson, defining five means of control in organizations was used to structure the study. Further, theories within New Public Management have been used to provide the reader with a proper background to the research area. Theories from the institutional field of organizational research have also been used to provide further depth to our analysis.