The Swedish population is today exposed to more ads than ever. The number of advertising channels is growing, as well as the number of companies and their advertising expenses. As the products are becoming more alike, the harder it gets for the companies to convince the consumers their product is better than their competitors?. In order to succeed they need to understand what they communicate to the consumers through their different marketing activities, and how that affects the consumers? view of the brand and the product.

It exists today a widespread interest for employee satisfaction, much effort are used in companies to achieve job satisfaction within their employees. One theory that has received a great deal of publicity is Hackman & Oldhams Job characteristics model which addresses the question of how companies can provide job satisfaction through organizational change. The foundation of the theory is that five core job characteristics are responsible for creating job satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to study these characteristics through the employees and their boss and to determine how they believe these characteristics to affect employee satisfaction. The paper focuses on a company located in a branch widely known for low employee satisfaction.

Purpose: The purpose with this paper is to get a deeper understanding for prizes and awards as a marketing tool and phenomena. Further we want companies/organizations that use this should be able to make better decisions concerning marketing towards students. Maybe they will get better results on the basis of our investigations. Method: We used the qualitative method when we did the interview that was also non-standardized. The survey was quantitative, and the case study comprises both qualitative and quantitative method. Conclusion: Companies/organizations that arrange this type of competitions have to look over their marketing of the competition.

The aim of this paper is to present a case study that increases the understanding of pooled purchasing between independent companies, but also acknowledges the importance of relationships. While previous research has established the advantages and disadvantages of pooled purchasing, our paper shows that successful relationships can render additional synergies and benefits. At the same time, one must consider the time and resources needed to create successful relationships as well as the resulting interdependencies. These implications are well established within the field of purchasing and network theories. However, the authors believe that these implications need to be more explored in regards to pooled purchasing..

The aim with this paper is to elucidate the current situation of the Swedish glulam market. This thesis paper will also consider prospects for the future and analyse the relationship between customer and producer and what makes a specific supplier attractive to their customer. The companies that are included in the paper are: Martinsons Group AB, Moelven Töreboda AB and Setra Group AB, Långshyttan. These three companies are the members of the organi¬sation Svenskt Limträ AB and produce the largest part of glulam in Sweden. Together they produce 140 000 ? 150 000 m3 a year. The study is based on interviews with all three producers and a customer survey, where I have interviewed five customer to each producer.

The purpose of this paper is to get a conception how prioritization and decision making works in technologically advanced companies. We wanted to understand how to administrate models and how to prioritize the best ideas and relate these to technologically advanced companies. How does the company make these decisions and who is responsible?We have chosen to observe TranSiC, a Swedish technologically advanced company that manufacture silicon carbide transistors. They currently have nine employees and mange 10-20 projects simultaneously, but are aiming to expand their business.

The most dominating type of company in Sweden is the small-sized business and it usually lacks its own marketing department. The purpose of this paper was to analyze several small Swedish businesses which are specialized in different sectors of the Mechanic/Technology industry but they are similar in terms of having niched products and they are leading companies in the world. The objective was to do research about how small businesses work with marketing despite its lack of resources and capital.This survey has shown that customer contacts, customer relationships and especially for those investigated companies, it was very important to focus on globalization and product development in order to build a Point of Difference..

Certifications is common for IT in relation to individual program languages or program applications. Certifications for educations that endures several years is not as common to see. In this paper the situation for the Systems Science programme is researched, by investigating how the programme looks around in Sweden. Also by using interviews, show how companies and people responsible for the programme in Umeå, think the contact is between them and how the knowledge of the Systems Science students are from the view of the companies that employ them. In the end the conclusions show that there are differences in the Systems Science programme, and that the companies have quite a similar view of what the Systems Science students are good and not so good at.

The construction industry develops at a high pace today. Because of this the construction companies has to rethink and try to develop at the same pace. One of the biggest challenges in the construction industry today is to improve the logistics since improved logistics leads to lower costs. This is something that the construction companies have started to realize and they are beginning to invest more money in order to improve the logistics. It is especially important to have good logistics when the conjuncture turns for the worse.

This paper deals with the question of why companies choose to go on trade fairs and exhibition examines how the media works. The essay's main focus is on stand contractors and why those hired to produce other company stands. The study is based on three interviews, a visit to a trade fair and a questionnaire survey. Together with the relevant literature is given a clear picture of how companies are thinking in their choice of attending the fairs, but also why stand contractors are involved in the process. We concluded that some companies do not know why they participate in fairs and many feel compelled to contribute to not be forgotten in the market.

Title:Product abandonment ? A comparative study of five ABB-units Level:Master thesis in Business administration, spring 2011.Purpose:The purpose of this paper is to through a comparative analysis examine how different companies, within the same group, works with product abandonment and what factors influence the process.Problem:How important is situational and product specific factors in a product abandonment process in which the organizational factors are constant?Method:This study is based on primary as well as secondary data where interviews represent the primary data. Interviews, following the same interview guide, were made with five companies within the same group.Result:The results from the empirical studies presented in the text below recurring themes derived from the framework.Conclusions:Our conclusions are that the importance of product specific factors is of significant matters in a product abandonment process, even when organizational factors are constant. We base that on that although the companies are within the same group, under the same strategic direction and constructed according to the same organizational structure the product abandonment process is different for the respective companies.Keywords:Product abandonment, product deletion, product elimination, weak products, ABB .

The aim of this thesis is to accomplish an understanding on how librarians experience their professional role at private companies. The study is based on qualitative interviews with persons who have a degree in Library and Information science, but does not work as an ordinary librarian. To answer why the respondents work at private companies, this thesis dwells on how the education in library and information science prepares their students to face an alternative career; why the respondents wants to work at private firms instead of a library; if the salary is a key factor in order to choose a career; if the respondents think the companies appreciate their qualifications, and finally, if the respondents think they intrude on other professions' territory? Working at a private company, with a degree in library- and information science, is not, according to the respondents, easy. Although appreciated by their knowledge in the field of information, the interviewees think that the title librarian is hard to cope with.

Abstract ? ?Costs to consider in connection with the implementation of a new ERP system?Date: January 8th 2013Level: Master thesis in business administration, 15 ECTSInstitution: School of Sustainable development of society and technology, Mälardalen UniversityAuthors: Sanna Hellblom-BjörnTitle: Costs to consider in connection with the implementation of a new ERP systemTutor: Cecilia LindhKeywords: ERP-system, business system, implementation, implementation costsResearch question: What costs and issues should companies take into account in order to  establish a realistic budget in connection with the implementation of a new ERP system, and increase the chances for a successful implementation?Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to investigate the hidden costs that may arise in connection with the implementation of an ERP system that companies should take into account in order to establish a realistic budget. The paper will also examine how companies can reduce their costs and affect the outcome of the implementation. It should be investigated by means of interviews, reports and articles.Method: In order to answer the question in the paper secondary data is collected in the form of articles, books and reports. Primary data was collected through interviewing a company that has implemented a new business system, a company that performs implementations and a Senior manager of ERP Services.

China has in recent years experienced a great economic growth, which has attracted the interest of several Swedish companies. Notisum is one of those companies and they have started up a subsidiary in Shanghai, China. This paper is intended to describe Notisum and EnviTools internationalization to China focusing on the obstacles encountered and how the company handled them. In order to achieve this, empirical data was collected through an interview and a literature review. By studying Notisums and EnviTools internationalization process to China, several obstacles were found.

In the last decades the continuous work for more sustainable manufacturing has become a large part of the manufacturing companies? operations. It is also well known that the factory planning shapes the manufacturing process to a great extent. Consequently it is logical to assume that the manufacturing companies? factory planning process plays a major role in the work for increased sustainability.