The southern part of Sweden, Skåne, is frequently exposed to storms causing great damage to Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst.) stands. A storm during the winter 1999/2000 raised the attention of the problem. A lot of forest owners got large areas of spruce stands wind thrown during this storm. Can naturally regenerated birch (Betula sp.) be an alternative on these wind-exposed sites? This was the main question I was facing when discussilig the problems with Esben Möller Madsen, Söderåsens forest district. The aim of this master thesis was to present an economic analysis of Norway spruce versus birch.

Vi vill med denna uppsats undersöka vilka faktorer som styr prisspridningen på den svenska e-handelsmarknaden. De faktorer som studerats är produktens pris, popularitet, bransch, antal säljare och i vilken period som materialet samlats in. Undersökningen kom fram till resultatet att samtliga faktorer, förutom perioden för datainsamling, är statistiskt säkerställda på ett eller flera av våra prisspridningsmått. Det innebär att fyra av de fem faktorer som vi studerat påverkar prisspridningen..

AbstractDespite that e-business nowadays is established scepsis against it amongst consumers exists. We, as consumers, suppose that this skepticism is caused by bad communication from the e-business companies. This has lead to our suggestion that some con-sumers refrain from e-business because of bad communication or deficient trust.Our purpose with this paper was to investigate factors of communication between companies and consumers within e-business (B2C) from the consumers? point of view. We thereby have drawn conclusions regarding consumers? choice of e-business company.

The aim of this study is to investigate where and why the fitness clubs, Sats and Friskis & Svettis in Stockholms county, choose to locate their facilities in certain places and which their primarily targetgroups are. Furthermore, the aim is to gain knowledge of people?s health status in areas where the facilities are located, in order to see if they are located where exercise is most needed. Interviews were conducted with members of the fitness clubs but also with non members, i.e. people who lived in areas with an absence of fitness facilities.

During the early 1990´s, the Swedish commercial air traffic was de-regulated and the new market-condition made it possible for low-budget airlines to enter the Swedish market. The former monopolistic airline company, Scandinavian Airline Systems (SAS), was facing a new type of competition which had the advantage of offering much cheaper air trips than SAS. Adding the decrease of profitability that struck SAS as well as other airline companies after the terrorist attacks on the 11th of September, forced them to carry out a mayor reorganization programme. The programme, called ?Turn Around 2005?, was a direct economical measure that begun in 2002 and lasted until 2005 and resulted in a cost saving of 14,5 billion SEK as well as a notice or a transfer of 6000 employees.The purpose of this essay is to investigate if the opinion of the consumer, the image, corresponds with the profile that SAS wishes to mediate today.

Title: How does the buying decision process really function within e-commerce? - A qualitative study of consumer behavior when they consume on Internet.Institution: School of Economics, Linnaeus University, Va?xjo?.Course code: 2FE16E.Authors: Sara Hja?rne, Mathilda Perem, Ewelina Wallin.Tutor: Dan Halvarsson.Examiner: A?sa Devine.Key words: Buying decision process, purchase decision process need recognition, information search, evaluation, purchase decision, postpurchase behavior, consumer decision making, E-commerce, E- commerce channels, online shopping, online purchase, e-retail, internet shopping, electronic shopping, consumer behavior, online appereal shopping, social media, decision making, online retailing, website design, customer satisfaction, webshopping, perceived risk, convinience, Price, online consumption behavior.Background: Buying decision process is a model that marketers use to get a better understanding of their customers and their behavior when purchasing a product. This process consists of five different steps; need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and evaluation. Buying decision process has for a long time been an accepted model but scientists argue that the introduction of Internet as a channel for consumption has changed this process. The Internet has also led to a change of power in which customers today have greater influence, which greatly affects the buying decision process in e-commercePurpose: The purpose is to explore how consumers perceive their behavior when they consume through e-commerce.Research questions:How do consumers perceive the buying decision process they experience when they consume through e-commerce?How do consumers perceive different factors that are important to them when they consume through e-commerce?Methodology: Qualitative study, cross-sectional design, semi-structured interviews.Conclusion: This thesis shows that the traditional model of the buying decision process is not consistent with consumers' perception of how they are undergoing the process when applied to an e-commerce context.

Title: Strategies for competition ? a study of the Swedish contact lenses market.Authors: Pernilla AArskog and Annika Lange.Background: As a market gets more mature and the competition increases, it is more important for a company to apply the right strategic perspective. There are four fundamental strategic perspectives for a service-oriented business: a core product-, a Price-, an image- and a service perspective. This study is a about service management and take its point from the theories from the Nordic School about strategies for competition, customer value, perceived customer quality and customer loyalty.Purpose: The main purpose with this study is to analyze and evaluate how the actors at the Swedish market of contact lenses should compete to gain further competitive advantages.Method: The study includes four qualitative interviews with two traditional opticians and two Internet based businesses, but also a survey with 106 contact lens users is included.Analysis: In the analyse part of this thesis it was concluded that the traditional opticians conception about their customer not agrees with what the customer evaluate as important. Many of the customers have thought about changing their optician, and besides that do not recommend their optician, and can there for not be categorize as loyal customers.

Purpose: To examine how video-game releases affect the share Price, and if video-game reviews have any impact on the share Price of gaming corporations. Method: A quantitative deductive research approach is applied with event study methodology used as basis. The investigated companies were the five largest gaming companies listed on the U.S. NASDAQ exchange. A total of 29 video-game launches and 85 reviews where examined.  Theory: The study is based on The Efficient Market Hypothesis, Agent Theory, Public Relations Theory, Nextopia and previous research.Results: The result contains 114 observations in five companies.

The rise in prevalence and severity of obesity and related diseases imposes increasing costs on society. The objective of this thesis is to discuss and estimate the possible effects of a so-called fat tax as a tool for minimizing these costs. Two alternatives for differentiation of the value-added tax (VAT) on food are compared. The first alternative is an increase of the VAT levied on food containing saturated fatty acids. The second alternative is a subsidy on fruit and vegetables in the form of a VAT at zero percent, instead of today?s twelve percent.

The Swedish processor Findus contracts approximately 500 pea producers annually to secure the company?s supply of green peas for human consumption. A production contract, which has had roughly the same design for decades, regulates the relation between Findus and the pea producers. Agriculture is typically a risky business. The main sources of risk in agricultural production are production risk and Price risk.

This report deals with issues related to construction waste. Building material that has not been built into the project is defined as construction waste. Cost of construction waste amounts to 4-12 % of the total cost of the project. Moreover, cost of construction waste is 1-3 % of the production cost. The aim of this study is to increase knowledge about the main causes of waste within the construction industry.

Chemotherapy is one of the most important methods of treatment available today for the treatment of neoplastic diseases and gives many patients an increased quality of life and a prolonged survival time (McKnight, 2003). The object of this study was to find out more about owners? views on and experiences of chemotherapy of dogs when it comes to for example quality of life, side effects and if they would make the same decision and treats their dog again in the future. A questionnaire was in the spring of 2009 sent out to the owners of 100 dogs that had been treated with chemotherapy for neoplastic diseases at Universitetsdjursjukhuset, Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet (SLU) in Uppsala between 2002 and 2008. The response rate was 67 %.

Ever since Internet revolutionized the world, e-stores and e-commerce has grown into becoming a natural part of consumer's everyday life. Much thanks to it's facilitative and time saving characteristics. Online, consumers are provided with a huge assortment and the opportunity to shop any time they like. Yet, the absolute greatness of e-stores is the possibility to push Prices below the physical store Price, which seems to be most appreciated to a large extent by consumers worldwide. The fact that e-store sales in Sweden grew 14% last year verifies this.As more players step into the virtual world of e-commerce the competition gets tougher.

Chemotherapy is one of the most important methods of treatment available today for the treatment of neoplastic diseases and gives many patients an increased quality of life and a prolonged survival time (McKnight, 2003). The object of this study was to find out more about owners? views on and experiences of chemotherapy of dogs when it comes to for example quality of life, side effects and if they would make the same decision and treats their dog again in the future. A questionnaire was in the spring of 2009 sent out to the owners of 100 dogs that had been treated with chemotherapy for neoplastic diseases at Universitetsdjursjukhuset, Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet (SLU) in Uppsala between 2002 and 2008. The response rate was 67 %.

In the last decade, member states of the European Union have adopted a range of measures to decrease the dependency on fossil fuels. This has led to an increased use of biomass in heat and power production. In some countries, the lack of forest resource has led to large scale power producers importing their biomass needs. Due to high energy content and homogeneity, wood pellets have become an internationally traded commodity used for large scale power production. The Baltic States have emerged as one of the largest wood pellet exporting regions in Europe.