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.

Background: Recently, the Swedish food culture has expanded by leaps and bounds. Interest in food and cooking has taken more space in the Swedish welfare state. Products and icons, such as organic free range chicken or Per Moberg have had greater impact on the way we consume food. Consumers have become increasingly aware of what they should and should not be eating. With an increased interest in food, supply and distribution channels have become increasingly important for the major grocery retailers (Board of Agriculture 2011).

The furniture retail industry in Sweden has gone trough large changes during the last decades. Today the industry is tough and in the maturity stage where few new companies enter, especially if they do not have a unique offer. The furniture companies have become larger and fewer, the changes have lead to difficulties for smaller and medium sized companies to grow and be profitable.Our purpose is to analyse, evaluate and compare three smaller companies in Stockholm with the intention to find what kind of marketing strategies they are using to survive on the Swedish market. First we interviewed the three companies to see what they do to survive on the market, then we asked 100 persons to fill in a questionnaire to see if they had the same opinion as the companies described.With help from theories we prepared questions which laid the foundation to the empirical part of the essay.The result from this study shows that the three companies differ from each other when it comes to using relationship marketing and placing the customer in the centre. All of them are aware of the importance of doing so, but because of different limits and possibilities they can not fully adjust everything to the customer.

Brämhults Juice AB is one of Sweden?s leading producers of fresh fruit juices and drinks. The fruit drinks last 3 days once opened and when stored in a refrigerator kept at 7°C. Since factors that shorten the drinks? best before date are usually not noticed until the entire batch has expired, it would be advantageous to find a way to accelerate the drinks? natural deterioration, so that an unusal short best before date is noticed before more products are shipped off to the stores.

The relational database model was defined in the 1970?s and is the dominating database type today.  The main difference between data from a relational database and a hierarchical data structure is that the relational database stores records in tables. The records have no particular order, but can include links in terms of relationships with other records. A hierarchical structure organizes data in the form of a tree structure  and  can for an example be found in organizational structures in which different levels involves different responsibilities. If the data stored in a relational database is to be presented in a hierarchically, a conversion of the data structure is required. The intention of this paper is to describe how such a conversion can be performed.  To investigate the conversion methods, case studies has been conducted on the basis of a specific organization?s hierarchical structure.

The demand for shopping centers has increased in recent time and more shopping centers have been built. To become competitive shopping centers has evolved to become more than just a place for shopping. In the recent past Galleria Duvan in Karlstad has been run by foreign owners who has not been involved or renovated the shopping center. During the spring of 2011 AlbérFastigheter bought Galleria Duvan and they are now renovating and negotiating new deals with the tenants. Our problem has led us to the following question: How can a centrally located shopping center, such as Galleria Duvan, develop a strategy to strengthen their position on the market.

This master?s thesis was performed at PartnerTech AB in Åtvidaberg. It addresses the problem of managing test results obtained from testing electronics manufactured by PartnerTech. PartnerTech has developed a test system, called Tor, which performs tests on manufactured boards and stores the test results in files. The Tor system consists of both hardware and software part, where the software runs on an ordinary PC with MS DOS/Windows 2000.

This thesis was carried out at Atlas Copco Tools and Assembly Systems. The purpose hasbeen to develop a design tool to be used for development of new electric motors for AtlasCopcos electric nutrunners. The focus of the thesis has been to increase productivity bydecreasing the power losses in an electric tool. The productivity is defined as themaximum number of tightenings a nutrunner can perform without becoming too hot.Before starting the development of this design tool an existing Matlab script, whichcalculates the losses in a slotless electric motor, has been studied and modified torepresent the real losses in a better way. The modification has been made by performingpractical studies of different losses and then adjusting existing parameters in the Matlabscript.Because design changes in one part of a mechatronic system can lead to a decrease inperformance of another part the choice of parameters that can be changed has been madeso that other parts of the system is affected as little as possible.A study of the existing tools efficiency during an entire tightening has been made toincrease the understanding of when and where the different losses appear and to comparethe modified Matlab script with the measured values.The design tool was formed so that it executes the Matlab script, that calculates thelosses, for a number of different design options and stores the alternative which producesthe least losses.

A common assumption in marketing is the wider variety of product a corporation has, the better for the consumer: more product - more choices. Companies often develop a line extension to broaden consumer range through product attributes including quality, function and design. These developed attributes within the product are not always optimal for the consumer. As a result, companies often become entangled in having a price higher than the cost and benefit of the products. This essay aims to analyze the consumer value of line extension products and how these evaluations relate to extended line product pricing.

Tailor Store är ett företag som säljer måttbeställda plagg på nätet. De har skjortor, pikétröjor, chinos, shorts, kalsonger, strumpor och accessoarer i sortimentet. Under hösten 2011 ska sortimentet utökas med kavajer och kostymer. De har tillsammans med sin fabrik tagit fram några prover på en kavaj. De proverna blev Tailor Store inte riktigt nöjda med och ville därför att jag skulle konstruera och gradera ett mönster som de skulle kunna använda i sin kommande produktion av herrkavajer.

Values, where an organization describes the attitude its members should have towards their work, are being used to a larger extent than before. The neoinstitutional theory describes organizations? attempts to create legitimacy through activities that are not really connected to their core activities. On the basis of the aforementioned theory this study examines to what extent employees and store managers at Clas Ohlson use and relate to the values of the organization in their everyday work. The study covers these individuals awareness of the impact of values in their work as well as the way they relate to values.

Under det senaste decenniet har den svenska elektronikhandeln präglats av en allt hårdare konkurrenssituation och lägre lönsamhet. Det har lett till att stora butikskedjor gått i konkurs. För att vända trenden måste företagen hanterar sina butiksverksamheter effektivt. Det blir därmed avgörande hur butikschefen sköter butiken. Av den anledningen är det intressant att underso?ka butikschefers arbetssätt för att se vad som leder till hög lönsamhet.

A debate on environmental issues and food safety has been ongoing in Sweden and it is suggested that consumers' are seeking local produce instead of global and exotic foods. Moreover, studies show that the consumers? positive attitude towards local produce does not reflect their actions. The purpose with this thesis is to contribute to a better understanding of the dissonance between the consumer?s attitudes and actual behaviour towards local produce.

Multiple factors are involved in control of beef sensory quality so great variation can be induced. The perception of meat quality can be affected anywhere in the product chain. Both the environment and the set of genes of the animals have an effect on the final output. A problem facing the beef industry today is the significant variations in meat quality between individual animals, which is reflected in the uneven quality of the meat that reaches the consumer. If the quality of meat in stores varies significantly over time, the consumers? trust may decrease.

ForskningsfrågorHur kommer företag att arbeta med showrooms och pop-up butiker i framtiden?Hur ska företag integrera sina olika försäljningskanaler för att behålla en stark position på marknaden?Syfte Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur detaljhandeln kommer att utvecklas i framtiden genom användandet av nya kreativa försäljningskanaler, för att nå nya samt redan befintliga kunder. Vidare syftar uppsatsen till att undersöka vikten av att företagens olika försäljningskanaler är integrerade för att kunna möta kundernas efterfrågan. Syftet är även att skapa en förståelse utifrån hur företag, genom sin kanalintegration, kommer att få konkurrensfördelar på marknaden.Metod Uppsatsen är skriven med en kvalitativ forskningsmetod som har en induktiv ansats med deduktiva inslag. Vi har under studien insamlat empirisk data genom semistrukturerade intervjuer samt två fokusgrupper.Slutsats I denna studie kommer vi fram till att pop-up butiker är ett fenomen som kommer bli allt vanligare, då det är en försäljningskanal som har många fördelar.