AbstractThe purpose of this study has been to provide a deeper understanding of how companies in the travel industry works with social media and electronic Word-of-mouth (eWOM) by analyzing and investigating social media and eWOM and how it effects customers? expectations on the companies service quality. In connection with the purpose we have chosen the following research questions: 1. In which way can companies in the travel industry interact with their customers participation on the Internet through social media. 2.

Today, the management concept of lean has stretched far from its origins in the Japanese automobile industry. When reaching the Swedish restaurant industry, the conditions for a successful implementation of lean change as a result of the high employee turnover and the significant amount of part-time employees characteristic for the industry. Combined with a high-end service profile, these workforce characteristics seem inconsistent with some of the basic principles of lean. By conducting a case study, this thesis aims to investigate the effects of a variable workforce on the enablers for a successful implementation of lean in a high-end service industry. Using a theoretical framework consisting of enablers for an implementation of lean in services, the study finds that the variable workforce inhibits an implementation of lean by complicating the effects of traditional training, as well as the possibility of understanding the lean concept at all levels of the organization.

This study investigates whether the permanent measurement bias (PMB) has changed over time for Swedish companies listed on the Stockholm Stock exchange at least one year during 1996-2000 or 2005-2010. By using the Residual Income Valuation-model the markets' implicit value on PMB is generated through reversed engineering, as values for all variables except PMB are entered such as the market perceived them at the specific valuation date each year. This implicit value is classified into industries and then sorted by their median. Statistical tests are performed to see if there is a difference between the industry median and the accounting-based values on PMB. The difference from period one to period two is also statistically tested for.The study finds that the implicit values on PMB have changed somewhat between the periods; however the fluctuations are not statistically significant.

Problem definition: By what marketing communications do consumers want companies in the jewelry industry to communicate its potential CSR activities?Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate in what kinds of marketing communications consumers want the jewelry industry to communicate its potential CSR work.Method: The study has used a quantitative approach to data collection, focused on a survey to answer the purpose of the study and the problem definitions.Conclusion: The study found that the respondents want a clearer communication of CSR work in the industry and that the most suitable communication channels according to respondents differ depending on gender. The female respondents think that the most appropriate channels are product promotions and direct marketing. In contrast, the male respondents think that the channels social media, newspaper and television advertising as well as web sites are more suitable..

Increased consciousness about environmental and sustainable issues has led to consumers and companies who are more in favor of reuse and recycle. Even though this is a fact, people today are buying new things more often compared to before. For instance for a mobile phone the functionality lifecycle is eight years which can be related to the economic lifecycle today which is 1.5 years compared to 3 years in 1995. Only 1-2 percent of the mobile phones thrown away in Sweden today are handed in for recycling. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether an international company within the recycling and reuse of mobile phone industry has a market in Sweden.

Aeroseum is an aviation museum located in an old military underground hangar. The ventilation system in the hangar is designed for the military purpose of the hangar. This design includes a solution with air flowing through the space between the construction of the hangar and the rock surface. The solution is intended to avoid a buildup of inflammable gases. This design leads too high humidity levels in the hangar.

The market for management consulting services is changing with an increased level of competition and more specialized service providers. At the same time there is a high level of companies that fail in their efforts to establish themselves on the market. This thesis sets out to give the reader an increased understanding of the complex characteristics of the market for these services, focusing more specifically on which factors that have an effect on the strategy development for companies within the industry. The thesis is also aimed at providing the reader with a deeper understanding of how developing consulting companies can tackle the specific challenges facing them. In order to meet the purpose of the thesis, we have applied relevant theories to a generic strategy model in order to develop a model that is applicable for the management consulting industry.

During and after World War II Sweden was spying in the occupied Baltic countries which had been occupied, from 1943 by Nazi Germany and from 1944 by the Soviet Union. It began in 1943, with the Germans still occupying the Baltic countries, when Sweden and its intelligence service ?C-byrån? recruited volunteers among the Baltic refugees in Sweden and sent them back to the countries they had fled from. Many of the Baltic refugees to Sweden were men aged 25-45 so the Swedish intelligence service had a good recruiting source. This started the first period of intelligence operations in the three Baltic countries.

The purpose of this thesis is to understand the reasons to why management consultants choose to leave their positions at large and established management consultant companies. The empirical data are made up of eleven interviews with men and women, both management consultants that have left their previous positions as well as a consultant who has chosen to stay with her first company and a representative from one of the large companies active within the management consultant industry. We have used the Job Embeddedness Theory combined with theories about identity, legitimacy, institutional norms and gender in order to understand the thoughts and reasoning behind the management consultants´ resignation. We have found that issues with the work itself and characteristics of the industry prevent the management consultants from being embedded within the management consultant company. Rather, some of the characteristics of the industry such as ?up or out? and the need to constantly perform work as a ?pushing-out mechanism?.

The Swedish construction industry is dominated by men; however this is starting to change. The average age of Construction Engineers is high and approximately 40 per cent of the employees will retire by the year 2015. Currently, female engineers dominate the graduating classes of Swedish Universities but this is not reflected in the Swedish Construction industry.With so many female engineers available, why is this? Does it require a change in company culture and their condition of work to attract them? Is it the attitude towards women in the industry among the employees that has to be changed? Or is it a woman?s thoughts and prejudices of the industry that creates obstacles?The purpose of this final thesis is to describe how contracting firms in the construction industry can make themselves more attractive for female engineers. To reach the purpose, a study among salaried employees and craftsmen was conducted.

 Background and aim: Media development and digitalization has expanded the PR industry's working area. More participants are on the media market and it is becoming more and more difficult to define what PR really is and what the PR agencies/departments really do. Is PR marketing, information, event marketing or maybe propaganda? We believe that the complexity to define the term PR can lead to a loss of critical approach to the business, especially among young people. Has the PR industry managed to eliminate their negative image among students in upper secondary school and what do they associate with PR today? The aim of this essay is to examine what a selection of students associate with the term PR and if they are critical to the PR industry or not.Method/Material: The method is a quantitative survey.

Thesis Purpose: The purpose of our thesis is to explore different plausible scenarios concerning the future of the Swedish produce industry with regards to branding. Methodology: In order for us to answer the research question and fulfill its purpose, we have utilized a qualitative approach combined with of both an inductive and deductive theoretical approach. Our study is both explorative and speculative. Theoretical Perspective: The theoretical framework of our research is based upon Porters Five Forces and Competitive Advantage combined with Kapferers Brand Identity Prism and his ideas on Brand Innovation. Additionally, we have utilized the Game Theory.

Collaboration is a form of organization on the rise in Sweden. For health care, it is ofinterest to collaborate with industry to ensure that needs for specialist education andtraining are met and that products developed meet the relevant requirements.Conversely, industry actors have an interest to have a close collaboration with healthcare in order to gain insight into customer needs, provide information about theirproducts and to test products in development.The starting point of this study is an agreement and regulatory framework for formsof collaboration between public health care in Sweden in general and thepharmaceutical industry, the medical device industry and the laboratory technologyindustry. The research questions concerns how this agreement has evolved and theprocess surrounding its emergence may contribute to knowledge about collaborationas a form of organization and the relationship to concepts such as legitimacy,corruption and institutional theory.By tracking the emergence of the current regulatory framework genealogicalthroughout history, the study uncovers how the agreements have played a role in andcontributed to the legitimization and institutionalization of collaboration practices andhow crises have changed the shape of the practices. A theoretical treatment ofrelevant concepts such as legitimacy, institutionalization of practices, corruption andstigmatization of organizations form the basis for an interpretation and analysis of theprocess.The conclusions of the examination of the historical process that led to the currentagreements contribute to empirical knowledge of how crises and stigma affect thelegitimacy of collaboration practices and how the repair of legitimacy can be donesuccessfully after a crisis. The treatment of the empirical material is also a historicalsource for the development of ethics agreements between public health care andpharmaceutical industry and the medical industry in Sweden..

Foreign invested SMEs have recently become increasingly interested in China. The enterprises are in this report categorized as second wave companies since they follow the footsteps of previous pioneers, of which mostly were larger companies. The ambitions of the SMEs are either to sell products on the ever expanding Chinese market or to utilize the potential of low cost production for global markets. The existing literature is fragmented and solely based on the experience of larger companies. We believe that SMEs are facing new and different challenges, and thus a new generic theoretical frame work is desirable.

The thesis mission is to investigate whether the swiveling laser that Vectura (former Vägverket Konsult) has in use to measure the road areas and straddle measuring can be used to detect differences in the reflective road markings function. This is to increase use of the swiveling laser and get rid of the manual measurements performed today.Currently, the measurement of road markings reflective function is performed with both mobile and handheld measuring instruments. The purpose of this thesis is to develop better methods for determination of road markings? reflective function, in order to facilitate the description and suggestions for improvements of the maintenance of road markings reflective function.The questions that the thesis has been to start with are:Can the swiveling laser detect differences in longitudinal and transverse road markings reflective function?The accuracy of measurement has been sweeping the laser over the reference instrument (LTL-2000)Is it necessary with a conversion factor for swiveling laser data against the reference instrument data?To answer the question 2 and 3, there has been a field work in Värnamo where a road stretch with longitudinal road markings and zebra crossing (transverse road markings) has been investigated with a swiveling laser and LTL-2000.The formulas and calculations contained in the thesis are drawn from scientific reports that are produced by VTI in Linköping. The same formula that was used to calculate the optical measurement data was also used for the swiveling laser data.