Competition is keen in the fashion industry of today. Homogenous products and prices aredriving competition and most firms are struggling hard to attract customers. Brands havebecome one of the most important assets for success and are often critical for the choices of theconsumers. A strong brand is often considered as a substantial value in the eyes of the consumerand gives the individual firm a competitive advantage in the marketplace. To build a strongbrand it takes that the brand identity not is in conflict with the brand image of a firm or a product.Sometimes one of these conflicts exit and sometimes the firms are not even aware of it.In this thesis we study how two firms, Lindex and Prada, perceive their own image and then wecompare how the images of the firms are perceived by the customers.

Since the 1st of May 2004 Cyprus is part of the European Union. The Republic of Cyprus as a whole is part of the Union, but all of the advantages of the Union membership cannot be enjoyed in all parts of the country. Since December 1963 the Cypriot administration has been separated into two, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, and since 1974 the country is also territorially divided. The Greek Cypriot political administration is considered to be the legitimate representative of the Republic of Cyprus, the Turkish Cypriot administration is only recognised by Turkey. Since the disruption of the country in 1963 the UN has been trying to get the Cypriot parties to agree upon a peace solution in order to reunite the country.

Since the middle of the 1980´s the Swedish bank market has experienced a change concerning structure and pressure of competition. Before the year 1985, the market was characterized as a market with few operators but have changed to a market with many operators and seen as one of the most intense in Europe where the four major banks; Nordea, Handelsbanken, SEB and Föreningssparbanken together have a strong position. Their market share has recently decreased, mostly for the benefit of foreign banks and niche banks. The Swedish market has experienced difficulties in generating profits which mostly depends on new establishments that have increased the pressure on competition, a low growth as well as weakened customer relations. The development has resulted in a growing importance of market segmentation, mainly by the fact that costumers have become more disloyal as a result of the increased competition.Students are a market segment of interest for the financial market, mainly because of the expectations of their positive financial situation in the future.

Min undersökning utgår från en händelser där mina personliga intressen är starka men där ett barn vill något annat. Min utgångspunkt är en egen upplevd berättelse om en pojke som inte vill gå till skogen eftersom han inte upplevde skogen som en bra lekplats. Naturen är för många pedagoger förknippat med minnen från barndomen och dess traditioner om den goda utemiljön. Även jag upplever skogen som den mest perfekta inlärningsmiljö som förskolan har att erbjuda. Det gör att jag har valt att reflektera om varför barnets vägran väcker sådana tankar hos mig.

Aim: The aim of the study is to show how a Bildung-oriented biology teaching could be designed, along with providing classroom examples of such teaching. In this study, the term Bildung, is defined based on the German Didaktik tradition as competences for self-determination, constructive participation in society, and solidarity. Theory: The study is based om Englund?s thoughts of teaching as didactic choices that express different views of meaning, socialisation, method, and context. This is referred to as companion meanings. Additionally, the theoretical framework is influenced by Gadamer?s thoughts on understanding through dialogue and Klafki?s didactic analysis of educational content for Bildung-orientated approaches. Method: The empirical qualitative study is based on ten semi-structured interviews of biology teachers at Swedish Folkh?gskola.

AbstractTitle:The Impact of Management Control Systems on the Purchaser Function - A study of Scania and Sandvik Authors: Mohammad Reza Akhbari and Johanna Sullivan Svensson Published: 2011 Keywords: Management control, purchasing function, impact, control, control instruments, Key Performance Indicators, measurement, communication and organizational structure. Background and problem formulation: In order for a company?s business idea or vision to be fulfilled, the management of a company needs assistance from various means to intentionally affect the operation in the desired direction. Management control concerns activities of both financial and non-financial character in order to implement the strategy of a company and to reach profitability. Since the purchaser function is responsible of spending 50 percent of a company?s total revenue, the function has an optimal starting point to be a key actor in the shaping and execution of a company?s strategic plan.

The cooperation between university and industry life in the region of Gävle is always a topic of importance. University and High schools have various roles to fulfill: except administrating the training and supporting research they should also - as a third role - contribute to cooperation between organizations, business companies and other associations. In addition to that, they should support individuals by local as well as regional development. The purpose of our paper is to make a critical review of the cooperation between the University of Gävle (HiG) and industry life until today and the consequences in order to encourage students to stay in the Gävle region during and after their period of studies.Initial we started with a preliminary inquiry with a questionnaire as a base for students in three programs at the Department of Economy; the program for Bachelor of Science, the program for estate agent and another economy program with direction estate economy. From this preliminary inquiry we got the picture of the way the students looked at the problem.

The aim of the present thesis is to find deeper knowledge about women?s experiences of sexuality, desire and pleasure during childbirth. In this thesis there are statements of women?s different kinds of pleasurable and sexual feelings and experiences during birth. Furthermore, factors that may influence some women?s feelings and experiences of a sexual kind are discussed in relation to the common notion that women above all feel fear and pain when giving birth.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen var att genom en litteraturstudie undersöka vilka huvudsakliga förklaringar som fanns till unga vuxnas psykiska ohälsa. Det var också av intresse att få se om det fanns någon skillnad i sättet att förklara orsakerna till psykisk ohälsa hos män respektive kvinnor. Studien innehöll artiklar ur Läkartidningen, Psykologtidningen, Transmittorn samt en rapport från SOU. Resultatet visade att unga vuxnas psykiska ohälsa bottnade till stor del i ett allt mer individualiserat samhälle. Det hade lett till att ett stort ansvar, många gånger högt över vad individen mäktade med, hade lagts ned på individnivå.

AbstractAccording to several researchers finance is scarce, scarcer for small businesses than for big enterprises. Small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, that want to start exporting and sales or manufacturing abroad need capital to get ready. Which capital structure and financial costs do they have, and which forms of finance do they actually use for that purpose. New american research by Mansi, Reeb (2002) has suggested, that there is a positive connection between leverage and a negative one between financial costs and internationalization, and that a non-linear model better describes this connection.This study has gathered data in two ways: Through a questionnaire from 37 SMEs and balance sheet figures from totally 166 manufacturing SMEs. In order to examine, whether the company was active on the international market, 200 SMEs in south Sweden were asked, if they exported to, produced or sold on any other market than their home market.

Glulam?s position at the Swedish market for building constructions has been established over the past decades. Factors affecting glulam demand are found both in global and national contexts as well in customer attitudes and knowledge of the material. Arguments for environmentally friendly and sustainable construction processes and energy-efficient designs are nowadays common, which is something that should motivate increased usage of wood as a renewable material. For the glulam industry to increase its sales, improve profitability and thereby gain market share in present competitive climate, reliable market information and updated market intelligence is required.

In several countries that have been early in the development of wind farms, there is today a second hand market for the used wind turbines. The European Union (EU) has established a waste hierarchy in order to minimize throwaway mentality. The second hand market is a part of this as the steps are to minimize, reuse, recycle, extract energy and landfill.In order to promote the development of renewable energy, there are energy certificates for the producers that provide it, wind power being one type of renewable energy. After 15 years the energy certificates for a specific wind turbine are no longer paid, and after that there are several different scenarios for the wind turbine. The scenarios investigated in this bachelor?s thesis are export of the wind turbine to countries that are not as far along as Sweden in their development towards renewable energy, selling in Sweden to individuals, and recycling of the wind turbine, as it mostly consists of metals and therefore is recyclable.

Are different ways of life possible in a world that increasingly becomes "Westernized" or globalized? This study examines and analyzes the diverse and complex way of life that includes socioeconomical nomadism as the Irish Traveller community are availing themselves of on the island of Ireland. In a broader perspective the study of the Travellers is put in context to how modern society emerged, and what characterizes the contemporary western societies. This is to understand the way Travellers nomadic lifestyle has been constrained and how the interrelationship between the dominant society and the extended family group constituting Travellers social composition has affected their livelihoods. Their social role is considered from two identification points ? home and work.Nomadism as a phenomenon, its history, expression and possible motives are being described in this work.

The use of the robust and durable woody ground covers is increasing, not in the least in public places. The group includes low shrubs of different height that effectively build low, tight vegetation that covers the ground. Despite all the good qualities the knowledge about them is quite low and there are ideas about them of being dull. The woody ground covers manage to struggle against weeds effectively by competing for nourishment and water, but above all, by the canopy of the ground covers that prevent the weeds from getting enough light. In that way the woody groundcovers can effectively compete with the annual weeds.

This work is about getting to know tufting as a technique and to design tufted products for home furnishing.It all began in Finland, where during springtime 2004, I got in contact with the technique oftufting for the first time. A very pleasant meeting that resulted in two carpets and a longing to continueand learn more. It was then that an idea for my final project started to take form. My wish was to designtufted ?floor jewelleries? and cushions.I made a base for my project during a design project in autumn 2004.