Large companies in today?s business environment are to a great extent depending on their credit score by rating institutes like Moody?s and Standard & Poor?s. There is however indications that these big institutes are not always rating companies accurately. This is why this thesis aims at developing a new credit rating model, CRITA-Score, with the objective of determining a company?s financial health more accurately.

Syfte: Då vi har funnit att en stor del av tidigare forskning kring varumärken fokuserar på konsumentmarknaden vill vi närmare undersöka varumärkets betydelse i en industriell kontext.Metod: Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ undersökning genom ostrukturerade och öppna intervjuer. Vi utgick från våra respondenters svar och analyserade därefter svaren med hjälp av relevanta teorier. Undersökningen har således en induktiv ansats med ett tolkande synsätt. Teoretiska perspektiv: I vår teoretiska bas har vi samlat teorier från tre olika ämnesområden; nätverksbyggande och relationsmarknadsföring, inköpsteorier samt varumärkesteorier. Dessa tre områden ligger till grund dels för vår egen förståelse för ämnet samt för hur vi tolkar och analyserar det empiriska materialet.Empiri: Vårt empiriska material består av tio djupgående intervjuer på totalt fem företag.

This essay is about democracy and how a democracy index can be used as a tool to illustratethe gap between reality and ideal. The purpose of this study can be expressed by two researchquestions: Does the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) democracy index illustrate thedistance between reality and the ideal of democracy presented by Dahl? and Can the EIU'sdemocracy index be modified by a) internal adjustments and b) using the variables includedin World Economic Forum?s (WEF) equality index?By using a combination of theories (Dahl?s theory of democracy, Rawls theory of justice andchosen theories critical to liberal democracy) as an analytical framework the following twoquestions have been answered:1) Which of the variables included in the EIU's democracy index have the potential to capturethe level of political equality?2) Which of the variables included in the WEF?s equality index have the potential to capturethe degree of political equality?By using a quantitative method the study?s third and last question has been answered:3) How strong is the rank correlation between the EIU?s democracy index and the WEF?sequality index, that is; how strong is the rank correlation coefficient (rho)?The data presented by the WEF?s equality index indicate that women are systematicallydiscriminated against as a group. From a democratic perspective the EIU may need tomeasure inequalities at a group level in order to capture the lack of political equality betweenindividuals. By reformulating some of the EIU?s variables, by revising the EIU?s point systemand by using the variables included in the WEF's equality index to extend EIU?s democracyindex, the chances of capturing the gap between reality and the ideal of democracy presentedby Dahl would likely increase..

Communication can be heard in many different ways and it is important for all businesses, especially in B2B. The construction and maintenance of a brand plays just like the communication a very important part. These parts also have a lot to common and affect each other in a large extent. One problem that may occur in many companies is the failure to grow and gain a larger share of the market even if they in various ways are trying. Expander is one of those companies and in this research report we studied communication and brand building, focusing on brand management, relationships and integrated marketing. Here we drew the conclusion that all these areas are important for a company, especially in the Business-to-Business marketing in different ways.

SammanfattningBara de senaste åren har det lanserats ett flertal nya betalningstjänster för mobiltelefoner, men ingen har fått det genomslag som förväntades. Varför tar inte konsumenterna till sig dessa lösningar?  Denna studie lyfter fram faktorer som har direkt påverkan för användandet av dessa nya tekniker. Faktorerna har identifierats med hjälp av vår litteraturstudie på utökade TAM-modeller från tidigare forskning som försöker förklara acceptans och adoptering av mobila betalningar. Faktorerna som framkom genom litteraturstudien är grunden för vår kvantitativa undersökning, som använder enkäter för insamlandet av data.

Frölunda-Aspvik Säteri, a company just outside Stockholm within the agriculture and forestry sector, has developed a business idea around countryside tourism as a complement to their existing business. The idea is to offer a high quality and functional way of living in small cottages surrounded by beautiful nature and landscape of cultural importance. There will also be a range of additional activities available such as hunting, canoeing, cycling etc. The project should be done with minimum impact on the surrounding environment and the importance of the ecological system should be at the forefront of all business decisions. At present the company wants to have a better understanding of what the future trends are within tourism, how its business idea fits in with future trends within tourism and how to stay competitive.The purpose of this research paper is to identify the social driving forces that have an impact on people?s lifestyle and choice of holiday destination in the future, and present how these factors affect the travel industry.

It is now increasingly common for organisations to work actively with HR issues. Furthermore, it is a constant top priority for organisations to remain profitable. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether so called soft HR values, as manager?s communication skills, has an actual impact on hard values in terms of costs for the organisation. Leadership is largely characterised by emotional communication, which together with personnel costs were the main focus of the research.

Purpose: We will understand and explain Dell?s value gap through an extended intellectual capital theory. This will be done by deriving the value to the different parts of the intellectual capital value scheme. We will also use value scheme to describe the ongoing strategy shift. Methodology: The qualitative method and an abductive reasoning have been employed during the progress.

Communication between people who already know eachother, and who use a social online platform to do so, have been thouroghly studied for years. Thus, the majority of the people we connect with on a day to day basis are friends and acquaintances. As children we were taught not to talk to strangers, and as we grew older we learned to avoid people who act suspiciously. These and many other factors are part of the reason we avoid strangers, but are we doing so wrongfully? Studies have shown that there are many benefits in everyday interaction with strangers, some of which are an estimated increase in happiness and letting people seemingly forget about previous grievances.

Teckenspråket är ett visuellt språk, med möjligheter att uttrycka mycket information simultant. Faktorer som har en avgörande betydelse för språket är handens form, placering och rörelse, i kombination med ögon- och munrörelser. Utvecklingen av videosamtal via 3G har inneburit att döva kan konversera mobilt på sitt modersmål. Tidigare har de i många situationer varit hänvisade till sitt andraspråk, svenska. Denna uppsats undersöker hur döva upplever kvaliteten på kommunikation via videosamtal, samt huruvida de för teckenspråket viktiga faktorerna får tillräckligt med utrymme i dagens 3G-telefoner.

Kommer snart ;).

If P&C Insurance Company faces a challenge when their treasury system needs a new interface to a software as a service application. They need a suggestion for configuration for how the system and the application can work together. The work presented in this report is a suggestion for how you can make business configuration of an IT-based Treasury System in general. The exact configuration for the case received from If is presented as a separate report, found in Appendix A and is called the If-report. The If-report presents the suggested technical set-up of the configuration.

Tack vare bättre och bättre förutsättningar för utveckling av mobila applikationer, samt utbredning av internetbaserade tjänster, presenteras här ett underlag inför val av mobil utvecklingsplattform. De undersökta plattformarna är Android och Iphone på grund av deras växande utbredning på smartphonemarknaden. Studien presenterar förutsättningar för att utveckla webbtjänst-understödda applikationer för intern distribuering. Ett visuellt tilltalande användargränssnitt är också i fokus för den typen av applikation studien riktar sig mot.Vi har kommit fram till att Android är lättare att lära sig om man kommer ifrån en Java- eller .Netmiljö samt lättare att distribuera. Iphone har däremot bättre stöd för att utveckla grafiskt tilltalande applikationer.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate potential associations between usage of the cash flow statement report and time perspective in which companies? acts and set goals. Method: Our approach is quantitative, using empirical data summarized in a statistical procedure. The result is thereafter analysed through the developed analysis model from which conclusion is drawn. Results: We have in the investigation stated that the usage of the cash flow statement report varies depending on the time perspective in which companies? acts.

This essay is about democracy and how a democracy index can be used as a tool to illustratethe gap between reality and ideal. The purpose of this study can be expressed by two researchquestions: Does the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) democracy index illustrate thedistance between reality and the ideal of democracy presented by Dahl? and Can the EIU'sdemocracy index be modified by a) internal adjustments and b) using the variables includedin World Economic Forum?s (WEF) equality index?By using a combination of theories (Dahl?s theory of democracy, Rawls theory of justice andchosen theories critical to liberal democracy) as an analytical framework the following twoquestions have been answered:1) Which of the variables included in the EIU's democracy index have the potential to capturethe level of political equality?2) Which of the variables included in the WEF?s equality index have the potential to capturethe degree of political equality?By using a quantitative method the study?s third and last question has been answered:3) How strong is the rank correlation between the EIU?s democracy index and the WEF?sequality index, that is; how strong is the rank correlation coefficient (rho)?The data presented by the WEF?s equality index indicate that women are systematicallydiscriminated against as a group. From a democratic perspective the EIU may need tomeasure inequalities at a group level in order to capture the lack of political equality betweenindividuals. By reformulating some of the EIU?s variables, by revising the EIU?s point systemand by using the variables included in the WEF's equality index to extend EIU?s democracyindex, the chances of capturing the gap between reality and the ideal of democracy presentedby Dahl would likely increase..