Background: Mass customization has been identified as a competitive business strategy by both companies and academics because of its ability to incorporate the voice of the customer into companies? products and services. Although mass customization may sound appealing, the strategic concept is still developing and firms adopting this business strategy face several challenges. Production concerns are of high relevance since mass customization implies a high level of customer involvement in the product design. Since the areas are closely linked it is reasonable to ask how a mass customization strategy affects production concerns.

In today's fast-paced, intense and complex media environment, it is hard for non-profit charity organizations to reach out and get their messages heard.In this study we examine whether the theories of advertising signaling also applies for charities. Past studies of the signaling theories indicates that higher perceived advertising expense leads to more positive effects on purchase behavior and brand perceptions. However, we believe that this does not apply for a charity organization. We argue that since charitable organizations have a fundamentally different mission than commercial companies, they will need different ways to signal quality and credibility, and therefore the common signal-theories will not hold for these organizations.To test our hypotheses, we conducted two surveys where the respondents saw one of five versions of the same ad for a well-known Swedish charity organization, or one of two ads for a commercial corporation. The ads had been manipulated to simulate different levels of perceived cost.Our results shows that perceived ad cost only affects attitude towards the ad if a charity was the sender, whereas perceived ad cost affects intentions, attitudes and credibility if a commercial corporation was the sender.

The purpose of this study is to create an understanding for marketing directors? viewabout how event marketing effect the company?s brand equity in four separatebusinesses. Our question formulation the study aims to answer is:How does event marketing effect the brand equity in international companies?We have chosen to perform a qualitative study with a semi structured research interviewto find out how event marketing as a marketing method, can be applied from theperspective of a marketing director in relation to our theoretical reference frame.To create structure and increase the understanding of our thesis, we will describe thebasics in brand and sponsorship theory, which will fall in to the marketing method ofevent marketing. Further we will describe the brand equity model that we will latermodify for our purpose.

This thesis treats the topic of user-generated comments connected with news stories on news sites, meaning electronic word-of-mouth combined with PR. The writers have examined how different types of comments affect consumers' perception of the article and also what communication effects these comments generate in terms of attitudes, purchase intent and word-of-mouth intent. The results interesting to the news site owners, is that lots of comments and negative comments generate a negative effect by making the actual article less credible, attractive and worth reading (relative to the subsequent comments). On the positive side, serious comments imply that the news story is perceived as more interesting, than a news story followed by non-serious comments. From a brand equity perspective, the interesting results show that few comments compared to lots of comments, generate a better attitude to the brand, even though there is no difference in how positive or negative the comments are.

The purpose of this study is to examine how parliament executes its responsibility of oversight against the government. In Sweden, parliamentary oversight of the government rests with a standing committee of parliament known as the constitutional committee.Drawing on general principal-agent theory I construct a model in which members of the constitutional committee are seen as agents in double and conflicting agency assignments. This constitutes a problem for the agent. Since it is the party group in parliament that controls the fulfilment of the agents? objectives, the agent is presumed to follow the party assignment to the detriment of the parliament assignment.The model generates two hypotheses concerning they type of oversight we should expect the members of the constitutional committee to perform against the government.

This master thesis investigates quality procedures and measuring of solid carbide end mills, with the main focus on measuring equipment. The thesis has been written in collaboration with a special production department for solid carbide end mills at Sandvik Coromant in Gimo. The department?s needs and constraints have been the foundation of the project and the main research question is: how to measure end mills in order to ensure good quality of the produced end mills. The project has contained both a theoretical study consisting of a literature review and practical studies in the workshop with the objective to identify an end mill?s main parameters and the relationship between an end mill?s geometry and the manufacturing processes.

The purpose with the thesis is to analyze and investigate the purpose of the co-operations between different brands within the hotel sector. We differentiate these purposes of the collaborations in regard to connections to quality- and environmental oriented symbols..

Background: Diabetes mellitus is one of today's major public health problems, affecting up to 347 million people worldwide. Several studies have shown a correlation between hearing loss and diabetes mellitus. However, it is still unclear whether this correlation differs between type 1-diabetes and type 2-diabetes.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is any difference in prevalence of hearing loss in type 1-diabetics versus type 2-diabetics.Method: A meta-analysis was performed based on ten studies that were identified through the database PubMed and through manual searching of references. Odds ratios for the risk of developing hearing loss were calculated in each study. Pooled odds ratios were calculated using a random effects model.Results: Pooled odds ratios indicates that both type 1-diabetics and type 2-diabetics are more likely to develope hearing loss compared to non-diabetic controls.

Background: The district nurses profession has traditionally been health promotion. In order to find patients with excessive alcohol intake, district nurses use AUDIT. Research shows that health professionals find it difficult to face alcohol abusers in primary care. AIM: The aim is to describe how district nurses work with AUDIT. Method: Semi-structured interviews with six informants were carried out.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om det finns några mönster och samband i hur förskolepedagoger upplever förutsättningar för barns lärande beroende på ålderssammansättningen i gruppen. Studien är kvantitativ med webbenkät som metod för insamling av data från pedagoger. Undersökningen omfattar alla förskolor inom en kommun i Värmland, totalt 55 kommunala avdelningar och 144 pedagoger. Följande ålderssammansättningar ingår i studien: åldersindelade grupper, småbarnsavdelningar (1-3), avdelningar för äldre barn (3-5) och syskonavdelningar (1-5).Studien har sin utgångspunkt i interaktionistiska teorier, vilket innebär att förskolans verksamhet studeras utifrån olika samspelade aspekter, faktorer och nivåer. I studien ses förutsättningar för barns lärande i förhållande till förskolans kvalitet, vilken i sin tur tolkas som ett komplext fenomen som skapas i samspel mellan olika faktorer på struktur-, process- och resultatnivåer.

The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate the differences between the traditional way of conducting a reference interview and the electronic way. The main questions of this thesis are: How does the electronic reference interview appear in comparison to the traditional one? How do the librarians experience the differences? Is quality affected in the electronic reference interview? Examples from Fråga biblioteket Ask the Library have been used in this study. The method used in the investigation is based on qualitative interviews in combination with studies of relevant and recent literature. The librarians interviewed all have experience from both traditional and electronic reference work.

ABSTRACT Bjelkenbrant, Pernilla, 2007: Musik och kommunikation ? en kursutvärdering (Music and communication ? a course evaluation) The purpose of this study is to do a quality assurance of the course ?Music and communication? (MUPR1205) as it was implemented in a class of music students at the program of Arts and Culture at Törnströmska upper secondary school in Karlskrona during 2006/2007. The overall question is to what extent the shaping of the course involves the attainment of the values and goals formulated in the national school documents. The study includes an interpretation of course goals related to overall goals, and a suggestion of how theories of the relationship music ? society can be applied to those goals to make a successful course structure.

The boiling properties are an important quality issue of the potato. In order to obtain adequate boiling properties the growth of the potato needs to be controlled and interrupted at the right time. However, it is difficult to determine when to stop the growth. Specific gravity can easily be measured and can sometimes be used as a tool for estimating the boiling properties. This report discusses different aspects of the specific gravity of the potato and how it can be used as a tool to determine the appropriate time for vine killing.

The boiling properties are an important quality issue of the potato. In order to obtain adequate boiling properties the growth of the potato needs to be controlled and interrupted at the right time. However, it is difficult to determine when to stop the growth. Specific gravity can easily be measured and can sometimes be used as a tool for estimating the boiling properties. This report discusses different aspects of the specific gravity of the potato and how it can be used as a tool to determine the appropriate time for vine killing.

At the beginning of the 1970´s forestry feared an imbalance in the future wood supply. Because of this anticipated "timber slump" forest companies undertook a variety of measures to counter this. One of these measures was the introduction of exotic tree species. The choice finally ended up with lodgepole pines which were considered a fast growing tree species compared to our native tree species. Theambition for the new lodgepole pine stands were to run these with rotation periods of between 40-60 years, thus smoothing out the ?timber slump? that was anticipated.