With the fast development of Internet and the e-commerce during the last decades, retailers are now introducing online stores. This has been adopted as a common strategy within the industry and the phenomenon seems likely to increase over time. Theory based on brand extension is used in this study to explain the effects on brand attitude and the link with willingness to pay when a traditional retailer introduces an online store. We execute an experimental study in order to investigate the effects where we use the offline- and online channel as well as two brands with different strengths as independent variables. Results show that brand attitude and its link to willingness to pay transfers to the online channel.

Today?s farmers are constantly affected by the fluctuating world market prices on grain and thereby the price risk that comes with the price fluctuations. The volatile prices of grain increase the price risk within the business, which in turn affects the profitability of the business. The fluctuating prices together with the increased price risk within the farm business have opened up the market for hedging instruments. In this master thesis project, the aim is to identify the underlying end-values of 30 Swedish farmers? related to their choice of using hedging and the product; forward contract.

Researchers in the field of political corruption generally expect voters in democratic states to lose trust in corrupted politicians. However, there are cases where corrupted politicians maintain their popularity, a phenomenon studied in this thesis. Focus lies on three cases of political corruption: the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who has been the subject of several judicial investigations and court cases; the impeached former president of Lithuania, Rolandas Paksas; and the German Christian Democratic Union's (CDU) involvement in a party funding scandal. The cases are chosen based on the method of agreement. Berlusconi, Paksas and CDU have all, in spite of their corrupt behaviour, kept or regained popular support among a large group of their country's citizens.

Requirements engineering is a widespread topic in the research field of informatics. However, there is little research regarding lack of requirements documentation and how it is perceived. The same applies for how requirements engineering in retrospect can be implemented. This is a debated issue on blogs and forums but it has not been reflected in the research area.Therefore, this study concerns research questions regarding how the developers, testers and requirements analyst experience the lack of requirements documentation and how requirements engineering in retrospect can be implemented.To answer these questions, data collection has been conducted through qualitative interviews with individuals affected by this problem in their everyday work.This study has provided an explanation of how the problem is perceived and what the consequences are, both direct and indirect. The impacts are divided into three categories and are presented as, emotional consequences, system implications and consequences regarding re source consumption.

The aim of this study is to examine the investment decision process for investments that arise due to strategic changes and are of strategic importance to the company. At the foundation of this study is the previous research in this area, done by King (1975) and Bower (1970), which examines the investment process on a more generic level. At the core is the investment decision process pertaining to Projekt X, an investment performed by NordiCorp. Having conducted a case study including six interviews with employees from various parts of the organization, combined with a large number of internal documents, the process regarding the investment decision was carefully illuminated. The results show that in many regards, this process follows the more generic investment process.

The aim of this study is to investigate how Lunds Vokalensemble achieves its goals and in which way the goals influence the choir's work. The study also explores the choir's artistic process. Qualitative interviews and observations were used as a method. Four singers and the director participated to the interviews. The results show that the choir's artistic goals have quite an influence on many aspects of the choir's work, both in a musical and a social way.

A pilot-study was used to investigate, types of assistance, assessed needs, outcomes and effects of special-needs assistance given to a subsample of compulsory school pupils in an effort to develop an evaluation strategy for identifying educational impacts of specific special-needs inputs.  Preliminary results indicate a tendency for postive outcomes for most pupils in the pilot group (n = 11) but also that many pupils have residual difficulties.  Pupils with residual difficulties mostly required special education asssitance with Maths, English or Swedish.  More pupils also needed support with behavioral difficulties.  More research and an expanding knowledge base is required in order to effectively evaluate outcomes of teacher support.  Schools need help in devising different methods of assistance and particularly for pupils with behavioral difficulties..

Earlier research has shown that generational differences between younger-supervisors and older-workers may cause tensions that lead to team ineffectiveness. There is however still a lack of research in this area. This thesis presents possible tensions that might occur between a younger supervisor and an older worker due to their age and generational affiliation, and how these tensions affect the team dynamics. The empirical data collection was limited to the boundaries of the dental care industry where these generational/age differences between younger supervisor and older worker are common. The thesis looks at the tensions from a qualitative perspective and data was collected in the form of in-depth interviews with selected dentists and nurses.

Background: Nespresso is a part of the Nestlé group and was founded in 1986, in the liaison of the revolutionary new method of brewing coffee. The idea was that everyone should be able to brew themselves a cup of espresso that would taste as if a professional barista had done it. Nespresso has now turned in to a new coffee culture. From the beginning Nespresso only sold their products via their club, Nespresso Club, but in year 2000 they opened their first store in Paris. The first store in Sweden opened year 2006 in Stockholm, followed by one in Malmö year 2012.

Construction projects are generally designed as a general contract or a complete contract. In a general contract the commercial contract that is being used is AB 04 and related advice and instructions, AMA AF 07. In AB 04 there is an insurance requirement that stipulates that the contractor shall take all risks and liability insurance for the contract where the client must be co-insured.Construction law is almost exclusively regulated by the various standard contracts, one of those is AB 04. The Construction Contracts Committe is an organization that has published the standard contracts in this area of law and also the advice and instructions to help the parties to understand the agreements. The insurance requirement occurs in an area of law that is complex and the meaning of the concept is not entirely clear, nor which of the parties? interests and responsibilities that are covered by the types of insurances that are provided by the insurance requirement.

As trading through advertisements increases, for example via advertisement websites such as Blocket, trading and contracting between individuals also increases. The contract law is the applicable legislation when individuals are trading between one another, because of the fact that individuals are to be considered equal against each another, and no consumer protection provisions are applicable. The contract law is not compelling, and general principles of contract law are therefore frequently applied within the legal area of contract law.Consistent declarations of intent shall have been delivered from both parties for a binding agreement to have been concluded. The declaration of intent, for example tender and acceptance are examples of a will to legally act. Other than tender and acceptance, the declaration of intent is usually difficult to establish and determine.In the event of the commencement of a negotiation stage between the parties, the declarations of intent are not deemed to be binding, but rather binding in the sense of a moral attachment for the parties.

Title: Competition for small audit firms ? a qualitative study on possible competitive strategies and how the upcoming changes will influence competition on the audit market    Subject: Auditing Tutor: Margareta Paulsson  Authors: Per Dahlström and Martin Holmberg Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding how smaller auditing firms use competitive strategies and why. The result aims to work as a support for owners and leaders of audit firms as they make decisions of how to compete in the future. We would also like to explore how smaller audit firms view the change of the mandatory audit, that is, our intentions are also to examine how they think the consequences on the market will be and their view on its affect on the competition of the market.    Methodology: Our methodological approach was characterized by a hermeneutic approach in order to explain and understand why the smaller audit firms do what they do. Our approach is a combination of inductive and deductive as it allows us to develop an understanding of the subject, then gather our empirical data and from that draw valid conclusions.

This study aims to describe how a company behind a well-established brand in the fashion industry has strategically chosen to communicate with their target market. Interviews with four individuals in different positions within the company have generated qualitative data, which is presented and analyzed in relation to the theoretical frame of reference in this study. The results show that the company does not use conventional marketing, but relies rather on marketing based word-of-mouth generated by its customer base due to its unique store concepts. Previous research has shown that this type of marketing strategy is effective and beneficial to the brand equity, a conclusion that is demonstrated to also apply to the survey object of this study. Furthermore, it is also shown that this is largely due to the distinct and coordinated image that the company maintains through strict standardization..

Goal: To describe which evaluation method is used by Swedish retailers to assess a potential retail location and to describe to what extent the retail brand effects this strategic decision. Design: Analysis of ten interviews with companies within five retail sectors in Sweden. Main study: Indication of what methods are used to evaluate a location and how a company's retail brand affects the decision. Results: Retailers use a mix of theoretical methods to evaluate the location attributes and possible profit. Most common among mixtures was an application of the analog method, residual method or the checklist method in combination with a financial assessment.

The North-American sociologist Michael Lipsky has characterized social workers as street-level bureaucrats with a substantial discretion in the relationship between the welfare state and its citizens. Within Lipsky´s theoretical framework social workers appear as a powerful group that socializes the citizens to uphold certain expectations towards the welfare state and its (re)distributional programs. From this point of view, it is important to learn more about social workers and the attitudes they express towards the welfare state. The aim of this study is to analyze how the welfare-political attitudes of future social workers are affected by their social background (e.g. class background and ancestral homeland).