In these days of globalization, with a higher level of openness and interaction over geographical, cultural and economical borders, the importance of the company?s intangible asset, its brand, is gaining importance as a differentiating factor. Building a strong brand and the emphasis on strategic brand management is something that before was given less attention in firms but today we can see a general increase in awareness and relative emphasis in the strategic work of companies.Countries as brands: Is it possible to consider a nation or a country as a brand the same way you consider a product? Well, looking in to the subject it seems to be a rather complex matter and there are many questions to be asked and answer. Nations around the globe are indeed marketing and positioning themselves for several purposes.

SEB Merchant Banking provides to its institutional customers a true market neutral product called Dynamic Manager Alpha (DMA). The DMA is constructed by a long position in an exceptionally well performing mutual fund and a beta adjusted short position in an appropriate index. The key to making the product market neutral is adjusting with the correct beta, since the beta changes, it is very important to have a good model for predicting beta in the future.This master thesis begins with describing what beta is in a CAPM sense. It then continues with recognizing the so called ?Two Beta Trap?, which separates two kinds of beta.

In recent years e-commerce has experienced a big increase in usage. Internet however, cannot offer the same level of personal contact as traditional shops can.E-commerce is characterized by impersonal and standardized web shops that do not stimulate any emotional connection between the customer and the company. Without this personal contact with the customer the possibilities for the company to stimulate loyalty decreases. Loyalty however, is as important in e-commerce as it is in traditional commerce. The authors of this paper chose the following problem for the study:What marketing strategies are fortunate for e-commerce companies to use to create loyal customers?To research this subject the authors saw it fit to combine qualitative and quantitative research methods.

This project has resulted in an website at www.tinadunker.se, where you also can download the project in it´s written form to get a deeper view of the project. This project aims to explore fear of violence in public places. Fear of violence reminds us that there is a problem in our urban environment that leads to spatial consequences in using public space. Many groups in our society experience fear in their everyday life but this project has focus on women?s fear.

This thesis examines history of the subject of mechatronics and innovation. The main reason tostudy mechatronics from a historical point of view is that it has never been done to a greater extent before. An overview is justified because various definitions have been used over the decades, but nowadays the subject has become more established. Focus in this thesis is mainly on development of the subject of mechatronics at Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Innovation is the other aspect of this thesis.

This thesis is about developing a design that provides improved vacuum seal between a lead coating and a plastic coating during plastic extrusion processes of cables. This report is a part of the course MSGC 17 for Bachelor Engineers in mechanical engineering.The work is performed at Nexans Norway AS in Halden where they have a production of high voltage cables for sea-, and offshore industry. A problem they face is that they do not get enough good seal at the attachment to the plastic extrusion machine. They want to achieve a vacuum between a lead coating on the cable and a plastic coating of the cable for plastic extrusion, which is something they do not achieve today. The thesis is thus to come up with a design that provides better sealing against the cable.The work involves a construction part with the phases of product development processes.

Have you encountered problems when you are unlocking a door? Perhaps you have had your hands full when you needed to unlock the door? Or, you might be suffering from a disease and have difficulties to put force on to small objects. To solve these problems there are different options. The most common alternative is a key button. With the key button, you do not need turn the pinion to unlock.

This is a field study based on participant observations and interviews, describing the cooking teacher's complex everyday life. The school's restaurant is a unique arena, freely hovering between two worlds: The school world and the restaurant reality. Here, the students are confronted with real situations and problems, similar to the ones occurring in a restaurant, still having the school's safety net beneath them. It is for real, but still not, a bit like a flight simulator.It is on that arena the cooking teacher works, combining the two roles of the teacher and the chef. Two roles built on their own traditions and values.

Title: How to manage stress seen from a leadership perspective Authors: Lina Jonsson, Kristian Olsson, Mattias Olsson, Shabnam Tahajjod Supervisor: Marie Aurell Department: Department of Business Administration, IEM Course: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, FEC 007 Question of issue: How can we understand stress managing at a workplace seen from a leadership perspective? Method: We have chosen a qualitative method for our thesis with inter-views as qualitative data collection. The interviews had a low grade of standardization. Result: On the basis of our question of issue we have drawn the con-clusion that it is important to create comfort at the workplace, that there are a safety and a feeling of handle the work tasks and that there is a plentiful information flow between managers and employees to manage to handle the workplace stress situa-tion..

Partnering is a new and exciting way of cooperation in the Swedish construction industry. In countries like Denmark and the United Kingdom the concept has been developed during a number of years while the Swedish construction industry has been more reluctant.Partnering is seen by many as the solution to the problems that often occur in design and build contracts. Many others believe that it is a way for the big entrepreneurs to gain unfair advantage. Never the less the concept is fast getting more and more appreciation, especially in the region of Karlstad where many new buildings are built that way.We have focused on the new development of Carlstad Conference Center (CCC) which is currently built with a partnering concept. The main method that have been used in this thesis are interviews with personnel on different positions in the project.

 This thesis aims to through certain parts of the brand equity investigate the trust of consumers for a brand that recently experienced a product-harm crisis. It also wants to investigate why this trust exist, if it does. Structured interviews were carried out at 60 respondents in Uppsala. The results show that the respondents have positive associations with ICA, they think that ICA maintains a high quality on their products and services and that 50% more often choose to do their grocery shopping at ICA. The conclusion of the study is that ICA has a strong brand equity resulting in brand trust from consumers, which is founded in the brand reliability and brand intentions of the company. .

Improved wireless datacommunication with the forest machines might be the next big step in the logging process. The use for wireless communicationsystems within the forestry is among other things to report the production from the forest machines, to supply the machine opera-tors with the right information and for safety. CDMA2000/ 450 is a third generation mobilecommunicationsystem which could replace the old NMT- 450 and for comparatively low costs. The reason for the low costs is that you only have to use the old NMT- 450 masts and supply them with new equipment. In the test of CDMA2000/450, that has taken place in northern Uppland, two kind of files have been sent.

This paper discusses the world heritage of Falun and its influence on the marketing of Falun as a destination. The reason for this study is the fact that world heritage nominations can lead to an increased pressure on the destination and an increase in popularity for the place. A world heritage is something unique and odd that can be used in the marketing of the destination in the purpose of attracting tourists, company investments and so on. It has been vital for the study to interview people that work with marketing or have important rolls within the world heritage.With this background the study is focused on three major questions:What meaning does the world heritage have in the marketing of Falun?Is the world heritage important for Falun? If yes: For who and why?Which organisations/persons in Falun have the greatest influence on the marketing process?In order to answer or discuss this question there are discussions in the paper regarding the notions of place marketing as well as the importance of a well outlined marketing strategy as a basis for the formulation of a product portfolio and segmentation strategy as well as strategy for developing a strong profile on the market.The answers to the question are relative and can have a different view in the future.

Shear Strength and Deformation Characteristics of Uppsala Clay with CRS and Standard OedometerTyra Morell Bonin & Magdalena MählerTo see how much a clay compact under different pressure one can use several different methods and in this project, two methods were used, the Standard Oedometer and a CRS apparatus. A Standard Oedometer is a full-time manual device and the CRS apparatus is a modern electric and automatic device. The aim of the project was to see similarities and differences between the two methods and examine which method that were most reliable. This has been done with repeated laboratory tests and afterward evaluations. With this information one can get a picture of how the clay will behave and how it will deform in nature.

A project exploring the boundaries between 2D and 3D. What is surface and what is substance? A countinuation of previous projects where I?ve examined the journey from two dimensional paper to three dimensonal objects. This project deals with the journey from three dimensonality back into a flat two dimensional surface, and the question if something can be both 2D and 3D at the same time. I decided not to center the project around a specific item, but rather let the project itself be in focus.