Purpose                           The purpose of this study is to create an understanding of how e-commerce companies use loyalty programs in order to retain their customers and to increase its consumption, and compare this with customer perceptions of loyalty and learn what makes them loyal. Theoretical framework      The theoretical framework starts with definitions of loyalty and customer loyalty. Further, it discusses what a loyalty program is, how rewards today and in the future affect the consumers, and other promotion offers that are commonly used. The theory also discusses how previous points work in e-commerce. Method                                                    To take advantage of the companies? point of view and at the same the customers? perspective, the survey is based on a combination of a qualitative and quantitative study. In the study, two companies in the fashion industry were interviewed and 391 respondents participated. Empirical study                 In the empirical study the interviews with the two e-commerce companies are first presented, which revolves around their use of loyalty program.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of logotypes within the visual identity and identify possible reasons that motivate companies to change their logo. This paper should also clarify how different parts of the visual identity affect each other and how they are interconnected. The thesis research question is formulated with the purpose in mind and has led to the following question: How can a logo change contribute to enhanced visual identity? Since we wanted to obtain a better understanding of the chosen research area with help of interviews have we chosen a qualitative method for this thesis. During the process we have let the empirical material control the chosen theories.

The numbers of mergers and acquisitions have increased significantly in the last period of time. Although this popularity for mergers and acquisitions, most of the mergers and acquisitions fail to create value. One explanation to this failure of value creation is, according to several studies, how companies treat integration of information systems in the pre-merger evaluation. The research within the field argues that information system integration should have a proactive role in mergers and acquisitions, meaning that information system integration should support the organizational change and normally be considered in the premerger evaluation. The aim of this thesis is to study issues that affect whether companies choose to consider information system integration proactively, when involved in mergers and acquisitions.

This report is the result of a project in the course Independent Projekt in Molecular Biotechnology at Uppsala University during the spring of 2014. The foremost purpose of the course is to give students the opportunity to carry through exstensive work in a project environment. This project was formed based on a comission from the biotechnology company SweTree Technologies, and the goal has been to compose a summary of the different techniques and methods that exist in the field of mass propagation of trees through the method of somatic embryogenesis.The project group has obtained information about the area mainly throgh reading patents, trying to find key components and bottlenecks in other companies? somatic embryogenesis technologies. This paper is divided into different sections, containing the patents of the automation of different steps in the process.

The manufacturing industry is currently in a short-term downturn while the competition is increasing. The result of this is that companies must find new ways to bring out their products. Traditional competitive strategies, such as low pricing, is not sufficient today as the customer is inquiring something more than just a good product. Higher demands are presented on an accurate, well functional, communication between customer and companies, as this has become an important strategic factor in achieving long-term profitability.The aim of this independent project was to analyze and evaluate the communication process between a company and its sales companies.In order to illustrate this process, a case study was carried out at Alfa Laval, their sales companies and employees at their distribution center in Tumba. In order to see the differences in attitudes between the management, the sales companies and the employees regarding communication and involvement a gap analysis were used.The theoretical part of the study considers theories about business mission, communication, involvement, quality and creating value.The result showed that a smaller gap exists between the sales companies and the management while a slightly larger one exists between the employees and the management.

This paper is about basic set theory and cardinalities for infinite sets. One of the results are that the line R and the plane R2 contains exactly the same number of points. Because of that the set theory is described with a formal language this the paper has an appendix about formal languages..

Authors: Maria Bergholtz, Alexander WestessonTutor: Daniel EricssonTitle: Performance Measurement of Creative work ? a culture study at PS CommunicationKeywords: Key Performance Indicators, Organizational Culture, Macro-culture, Subculture,Micro-culture, Art, Business, Creativity, PS CommunicationIn the paper?s introductory chapter, the chosen problem area regarding art and business willbe presented. The paper?s studied empirical case will also be introduced here. This then leadsto the reports chosen research questions:How do the company management and the companies? creative personnel approach differ inthe discussion regarding performance measurement on PS Communication?-What causes these differences?What impact does the corporate culture have in the discussion about performancemeasurement of PS Communication?-Is the corporate culture weak or strong?The purpose of this paper is to resolve the stand still in the discussion regarding performancemanagement by creating an understanding of different people active in the organization?sapproach to performance measurement.

Stora Enso Packaging är ett av Sveriges ledande företag inom wellpapptillverkning. Företaget tillverkar specialdesignade förpackningslådor och har fabriker i Vikingstad, Jönköping och Skene. Då alla företag i branschen har samma råvara, papper, har Stora Enso Packaging identifierat service mot kund som ett sätt att skapa konkurrensfördelar. Leveransledtiden mot kund är ett serviceelement som detta examensarbete avser att titta närmare på.Examensarbetets syfte är att utreda möjligheten att gå från en ledtid på femton dagar till tio dagar för nyorderprocessen på Stora Enso Packaging  i Vikingstad, kartlägga denna process samt föreslå rutiner och systemstöd för minskningen av ledtiderna.För att lösa uppgiften har kartläggning av Stora Enso Packagings nyorderprocess genomförts. Kartläggningen har tagits fram via intervjuer av anställda som är inblandade i nyorderprocessen samt av material på Stora Enso Packagings intranät.Då nyorderprocessen analyserats har en rad olika teorier fungerat som stöd.

The international requirement of Swedish healthcare today is high and due to a good reputation and a long history of reliable methods through extended experience. For those Swedish companies within this business, the process of internationalization is often a attractive option.This study aims to describe, analyze and translate how minor Swedish companies within the care keeping section establish their business on the international market.The study is based upon a qualitative approach and is an empirical study carried out through semi-structured interviews.The result presented in the study shows that internationalization of companies within this business does often require a lot of time and money, is based upon establishments through networks and were learning-by-doing often is used as a strategic approach for the companies penetrating a new market.The study also accounts for major entry barriers, which declares for being to some part of political nature, but mostly of cultural nature.Differences in language and culture are shown in the study to be a major entry barrier and host-countries different cultural levels are very conclusive for the success of internationalization. .

AbstractDigital media in general and social media in particular are becoming more and more important to businesses across the globe. It is an effective way to reach out to consumers and establish a good relationship with existing customers. Most companies today use digital media in order to market themselves and to establish good public relations. A lot of those companies have also realized the enormous marketing capabilities that social media provides. However, in spite of the plethora of possibilities that comes with social media it can also, in some cases, hinder the companies ? success.

According to the current regulations described in IAS 27 - Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements, an investment company is required to consolidate all entities that it controls. However, this thesis outlines the creation of a new system, where those entities are instead measured at fair value, taking changes in fair value into account in the income statement. By recalculating the consolidated accounts for five major investment companies in accordance with the new system, this investigation concludes that the new system would provide investors with more relevant but less reliable accounting information. In addition, the historical financial performance of Investor, Industrivärden, Ratos, Kinnevik, and Lundbergföretagen, is evaluated using their recalculated consolidated financial statements. The evaluation indicates that the overall volatility in the companies' consolidated financial statements would have been higher during the time period 2005-2009, in comparison to official reports..

Social networks have become an important factor in today?s society. Companies as well as individuals are using these platforms to interact with one another on a daily basis. This phenomenon has mostly been acknowledged by companies on B2C markets where these social network sites are being used to communicate their brand. On B2B markets however, the usage of these platforms have not been as optimistically implemented.

There are many views in the concept of corporate reputation and the massive research in the area tends to result in many new definitions. Research has shown that a good corporate reputation has a positive relation to Sustainable Competitive Advantage, financial performance and attraction to competent employees. The many views in the concept make it especially interesting to examine the view on corporate reputation in a perspective of big Swedish corporations. Another interesting area to examine is whether the companies manage their reputation or not. The empirical findings of this essay are based on qualitative interviews to get a deeper understanding in the area of reputation.

This paper was made together withTechPay AB, by their request.The dissertation has been divided into two separate parts; one of which is fully theoretical, with the focus on the security requirements of a digital cash register, and how to meet these requirements.The second part covers the implementation of anAndroid-oriented Java-library,created with help from the security requirements found in the first part. The purpose of this library is to make it easier to develop a cash register that uses payment terminals from TechPay.This paper also covers different communication protocols, encryption techniques and recommendations from authorities, banks and Android. This paper also contains a small review of how users are validated in applications on the current market that handles money transactions..

In agricultural educations you learn to use different economic planning tools, as basis for decision. The purpose and goal of this work has been to find out if economic planning tools are used by the farmers in Sweden. We choose to do an investigation through personal interviews, and used an inquiry to get as equivalent answers as possible from the farmers. This work contains a literature study with relevant facts about the questions that is brought up in the inquiry. This study of literature explains shortly some different calculation methods and bases for decision. It also contains useable information that is important to know before an investment. The questions that are asked to the farmers have focused on the use of calculation methods and economical planning tools.