Small!size!enterprises!within!the!outdoor!industry!seldom!use!a!structured!process!or!method!when!involving!users!in!product!development.!One!reason!for!this!is!that!many!structured!development!processes!are!designed!for!large!companies!with!very!different!resources.!When!involving!users!in!product!development!processes,!the!most!common!user! is! an! elite! athlete.! She! or! he! often! has! different! requirements! than! the! regular!consumer!and!in!the!customers?!point!of!view;!this!leads!to!nonCmaximized!developed!products.!!The! result! of! this! thesis! is! a! user! involvement! process! for! small! outdoor! companies!based! on! the! Sister! Kenny! Research! Center! Innovation! Handbook,! a! product!development!process,!which!itself!is!based!on!a!phaseCgate!model.!The!process!focuses!on!the!user!category!enthusiastic!amateurs,!since!this!is!what!companies!in!the!industry!require.!The!process!also! focuses!on!how!and!where! small!outdoor! companies! should!involve!users!and!give!recommendations!on!how!many!users!that!should!be!involved!in!a! product! development! process,! different! from! what! the! theory! recommend.! The!process! also! builds! on! that! ideas! should! come! from! the! users! first,! and! then! being!further!developed!by!the!company's!product!developers.!The!degree!of!communication!between!users!and!the!company!is!shown!and!the!report!clarifies!the!user!involvement!intensity!in!product!development!processes.!!The!involvement!process!that!has!been!developed!has!also!been!summarized!in!a!guide!that! can!be!used!by! a! company!on! a!daily!basis.!This! contains! information!on,! among!other!things,!how!users!are!selected!and!how!to!plan!a!workshop.!!! !.

Multi-brand portfolios are characterized by comprising many brands in the same product category. Companies that have chosen to organize their products according to this strategy are facing both possibilities, such as expanding the accessible market size, and challenges such as how to organize the brands, their individual roles and their relation and position to the other brands in the category to maximize revenues. To address these aspects of multi-brand portfolios, I have investigated four product categories where multiple brands are represented at Mölnlycke Health Care, Unilever, Fagerhult and L?Oréal; how the multi-brand portfolios are organized, how the segmentation, positioning and product differentiation are done and what advantages and disadvantages that are associated with this strategy. My conclusions are that multi-brand portfolios can be organized in many different ways and to become successful, they have to be set in relation to the company?s whole brand architecture.

The business world has been through an extreme transformation over the past decades, which have forced companies to look at themselves from a new point of view. Consumers have a complete new set of ways to gather information and are more motivated than ever to make sustainable consumption choices. This change of attitudes among consumers has made companies focus on other things than price versus quality. A whole new concept has been brought up to questioning: environmentalism. Consumers demand more organically produced products.

Together with Attends in Aneby a thesis of 15 ECTS (credits) have been undertaken. The assignment was to develop a new incontinence product for single use. Users of the product value comfort, flexibility, softness, comfort and a discreet product. Users are for individuals with incontinence problems that usually receive the products via prescription. The product must also have an attractive price and good quality from the purchase / originator's perspective.Currently there are two models that Attends supplies, which the project intends to develop, (Slips / Briefs and Pull On's).

The term "Project" have become a growing work model that exist in almost all bransches. A project is a work effort made over a finite period of time with a start and a finish to create a unique product, service, or result. Science shows that time limitation has an impact on humans to perform under pressure, which challanges the contributor to deliver. This report contains an examination about project management, both coming from scientific results and an external business. The point of this study is to bring ideas of improvement, which can make the work method more effective in this company..

Background: In the eighties the debate concerning the declining relevance of the traditional calculation started. The reason was that the method of calculating not had been changed despite that the costs and manufacturing had changed in many companies. This led to the development of activity-based costing. Management by means of activity information is called activity-based management, but there is no general accepted definition of what the term com- prises. Neither are there any studies which describe within which areas activity information is used as a base for decisions.

The environmental debate is more intensive than ever before and the demands on companies increase. There are a number of methods to make it easier for the companies to fulfil the demands. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) end ecodesign are some of the methods that can be used. Syntronic AB has the possibility to reduce the products´ environmental impact in the design phase. Therefore it is important for the company to make it possible to visualize the negative environmental impacts a product can cause in an easy way. It is also important to visualize for there clients if any improvement is possible. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a simplified model.

The lifecycle of fashion products get shorter and shorter. Companies in the fashion business needto make sure that they can offer their customers the right products, in the right quantity at theexact right time. The competition on the fashion market today is tough and if companies aregoing to be successful they need to have access to the most reliable suppliers, and also offer theircustomers products with high quality to attractive prices. It is therefore of highest importance toevaluate and choose the right sourcing strategy. Product category and type of organisation aresome of the factors that will determine which strategy that is most appropriate.

The study examines selectivity of the customer base and scarcity of a product?s effect on attitude and value towards a product or service. A questionnaire study is made from three different situations. The result varied depending on the situation; however it was found that selectivity of the customer base and scarcity has a great impact on the attitude and the perceived value towards a product or service. Selectivity of the customer base was found having the highest level of impact on both attitude and perceived value.

To identify the underlying forces behind a product hype is difficult and the findings often seem random and unclear. To create a better understanding behind the affecting mechanisms would consequently be a valuable addition to the surrounding research area. The purpose of this paper is to understand if there exist common denominators between different product hypes and in such a case, which these are and how they function. By conducting a case-study on four products which have enjoyed immense sale success on the Swedish market, the possible presence of structural resemblance will be analyzed. From the study we can conclude common denominators such as the presence of an underlying trend and an overbalance of indirect decision basis do exist.

By exposing their products in blogs, companies have the opportunity to reach out to hundreds of thousands of consumers daily. Instead of using conventional Internet advertising such as banners and ads, some companies chose to make use of product placement in blogs. By choosing to expose their products in blogs, companies use a medium that blog readers are familiar with and can relate to, and can thereby solicit customers for their products and brands.We will examine whether product placements in fashion blogs are an effective way for businesses to market themselves and their products. We measure this efficiency, by keeping a record of the sales of ten product placed garment and accessories that we have selected from four of the largest blogs in Sweden. The stores we examine sales of product placed goods in are volume brand stores such as Zara and H&M etcetera.

This study aims to investigate how consumers perceive variety in grocery stores and further how private brands have affected consumers? perceptions of variety in grocery stores.The study focuses on the perceptions and attitudes towards variety and the impact of private brands on perceived variety. Hence, a qualitative rather than quantitative study has been used. Photo elicitation has been used in both focus groups and in-depth interviews, which have been the empirical data collection of the study. Scientific articles and books have also been used in the process.

This study is based on the development of a new software, which is used as a recommendationtool for selecting the best product. As part of the software development has an external partnerbeen asked to assist. The report will process the expectations that different people have on anew project but also how information is communicated to an external partner.The results from this study show that a software's function is closely linked to its usability.Therefore shall usability been taken into account when a new resource is created. The study alsoshows the importance of being able to share information, on how the program will beconstituted, to someone outside the organization..

The purpose of this thesis is to through the analysis of interviews with finance professionals in listed companies answer the question on what lies behind capital structure decisions, and to see how well the prevailing theories fit the answers. This article is an explorative and descriptive hypothesis creating study. We have used a qualitative method to analyse practice through theory. We have conducted telephone interviews with CFO:s and financial executives in Swedish listed companies on how they reason when they make capital structure decisions. We have then thoroughly reviewed the theory and empirical tests of the theories.

Problem: The relations between first and second tier suppliers within the automotive industry have changed drastically during recent years. Previously involving the supply of simple components, today the relation involves collaborative product development of complex subsystems. The situation is rather new for the actors, hence there are a number of problems that act as restraints for the collaboration. In order to come to terms with these problems, it is important to determine the underlying causes. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to make a survey of the main problems in the collaborative product development between first and second tier suppliers within the Swedish automotive industry.