Competition is keen in the fashion industry of today. Homogenous products and prices aredriving competition and most firms are struggling hard to attract customers. Brands havebecome one of the most important assets for success and are often critical for the choices of theconsumers. A strong brand is often considered as a substantial value in the eyes of the consumerand gives the individual firm a competitive advantage in the marketplace. To build a strongbrand it takes that the brand identity not is in conflict with the brand image of a firm or a product.Sometimes one of these conflicts exit and sometimes the firms are not even aware of it.In this thesis we study how two firms, Lindex and Prada, perceive their own image and then wecompare how the images of the firms are perceived by the customers.

The interest for children´s clothing has increased in society. More and more children are born and parents are older when they have children. Education has become a natural feature in most people´s life, just as both parents often work today. The households have therefore better economy and thus greater consumption opportunities. Parents are, in greater extent, looking for personal and different clothing with focus on quality and, to some extent, exclusivity rather than just a cheap and functional garment.

The purpose of this essay is to examine for the age discrimination towards older people in the working life. The essay practice EU-law and national law to examine the age discrimination. It also looks for the limits towards age discrimination. A presentation of the rules will make it easier to see how employers are possible to get around the ban against age discrimination. This essay also illustrates how age discrimination emerges in recruitment processes and then how to discourage age discrimination.

The Swedish Armed Forces have undergone a significant change where we have gone from recruitment through duty and replaced it with a voluntary based defence. Across Europe, countries that have undergone the same type of change demonstrate change in the quality of those recruited. The focus in this paper is how recruitment quality looks in Sweden after three years of volunteer based defence and if officers at P7 can see a change in quality on those recruited. This work aims to investigate whether soldier quality has changed from conscription recruited to voluntary recruited soldiers. The question that the work tries to answer is whether one can see a change in quality in soldiers and in that case how.The result can be summarized as one begins to see a change in recruiting quality but it is not something that is visible at the regiments.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur rekryteringsprocessen vid anställning av chef går till samt vikten av organisatorisk och personlig matchning av chef och företag. Författarna är även intresserade av betydelsen av psykologiska kontrakt i rekryteringssammanhang. Studien är inriktad mot rekryteringsföretag specialiserade på chefsrekrytering som organisationsmässigt skiljer sig så mycket som möjligt från varandra för att få en bredare syn. Undersökningen har delats in i olika områden som består av rekryteringsprocessen, meriter och personlighet samt organisatorisk passform. Studien är utförd genom intervjuer på sju deltagande rekryteringsföretag belägna i Mälardalen.

The purpose of this thesis is to test whether firms have target capital structure, and if so with what speed they adjust toward this target. Findings that support this purpose are also in line with the trade off theory. One of the key elements of this thesis is the method used, which successfully enables fulfilling the purpose. The panel data method captures the data characteristics of the cross sectional and time series dimension. By using this approach the dynamic effects of capital structure can be studied, thus if there actually is an adjustment towards a target the speed can be estimated.

The development of farm-operated biogas plants in Sweden is increasing. This study investigates the process that firms go through in developing such ventures. The aim is to identify obstacles and opportunities that individual farmers have encountered during the implementation process, and through a comparative analysis find similarities and differences between cases. The overall goal is to increase understanding of the factors that influence farmers? development of farm-based biogas production, and more specifically, explore opportunities for support organizations to contribute to the innovation process. Findings indicate that the implementation process has changed over time.

The value of a company's employees is considered to be higher and more important for a business success than ever. Losing employees is not only a loss of valuable knowledge, it also implies a significant cost related to the recruitment of new employees. To attract potential personnel, it is important for the companies to understand how to communicate with talents. Choosing a communication medium for a job advertisement is not easy when new options constantly arise. Despite the development of new communication mediums and channels, such as social mediums, the traditional communication medias still remain available.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate how consumer advertising has an effect on other groups than the intended, the so-called extended audience of advertising. Previous research shows that consumer advertising can influence investors and employees of a company as well as affect the attractiveness of a company as a potential employer. In addition, research shows that more perceived cognitive effort in advertising results in positive signaling effects for consumers. This study aims to further build on these concepts in order to gain additional understanding of how consumer advertising can influence extended audiences. More specifically, it examines if more (versus less) effort in advertising can improve the future prospects on the labor market for an employee of the advertising company, by looking at recruitment consultants as an extended audience.

The employment interview is an important part of the recruitment process because the recruiter then has a chance to form an opinion about the applicant as a person. The purpose with this study has been to examine if there are any differences between inhouse-recruiters and recruiting consultants concerning the employment interview and its assessment methods. Five inhouse-recruiters and five recruiting consultants have been interviewed on the basis of a manual. There are differences between the groups in 6 of the 17 themes that have been examined: purpose with the employment interview, private-, double- or panelinterview, length of the interview, personal chemistry, appearance and objectivity in the assessment. Many of the differences are caused by the fact that inhouse-recruiters recruit for their own organisation and recruiting consultants recruit for a client.

Because of the currently large recruitment needs within the Swedish nuclear powerindustry, it is necessary to recruit trainers from other recruitment groups than that ofexperienced operators at nuclear power plants. The foundation for a trainingprogram regarding these recruitment groups, here called ?aspirants?, has in this thesisbeen prepared. It contains a suggestion for main topics in the program. It also includesdiscussion on the balance between forms of education and a concrete example ofhow a lesson could be performed.These suggestions has been developed through analysis of interviews and surveyresponses from student groups most suited for the propositioned trainee program,and individuals with service as a trainer or closely linked to training activities withinthe industry.The analysis suggests that the candidates gets, besides the opportunity to practice asoperating staff before the theoretical training begins, a training program, tightly boundto the power plant with multiple instances of practice and the chance of going intothe power plant and see how things that are being raised in theory, look in real life.The practice, in addition to helping to create an understanding of the plant, it will facilitate networking with the operations staff to build a relationship and trust.Candidates should have plenty of opportunity to educate and see both other aspirantsand experienced trainers train.

Title: The significance of small talk on leadershipDate of seminar: 13 October 2010Course: Bachelor paper in Business, in Organization, 15 ECTSInstitution: Swedish Business School at Orebro UniversityAuthors: Linda Andersson & Ebba HallbergAdvisor: Gabriella WennblomPurpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe how leadership is affected by the small talk, with these three managers. This with the manager?s perspective as a starting point, within the three services we examined.Research methodology: This paper is based on a qualitative method. Targeted open interviews were carried out with three respondents. Literature in the organizational field has been searched through to give a base for the study.Theoretical framework: This paper uses the theory of communication, the theory of leadership and the theory of small talk.Conclusion: The conclusion we make is that the small talk makes it easier for the modern leadership, this is because the small talk, among other things, allows the manager to spread information and to avoid misinterpretation, and that the manager become more involved in the company.Keywords: Communication, small talk, leadership.

This paper describes and develops a trade off model of optimal capital structure by Bradley et al. (1984). The model is then tested to examine how changes in corporate tax rates affect the optimal capital structure of firms. Based on theoretical implications of the model, four hypotheses are derived stating that firms? optimal debt-to-value ratio is (1) negatively related to financial distress costs, (2) negatively related to non-debt tax shields, (3) negatively related to firm volatility and (4) positively related to the corporate tax rate.

Since 1987 until November 2010, the entrepreneurs who choose to conduct its? company in the Swedish corporate form aktiebolag had no opportunity to evade or deselect the mandatory audit. The only choice that really was there to make was to which audit firm they would turn to and the Swedish auditor?s position was rather unchallenged. Today the circumstances are different and the small businesses have been given a chance to take charge of their own situation now being able to remove the auditor.

The field of the social economy and of the work integration social enterprises (WISE) in particular, is for many a more or less unknown area. Unlike ordinary enterprises the WISE's are different due to their aim of integrating disadvantaged people through work. In comparison with other small enterprises earlier research has shown that the WISE's are dealing with challenges regarding recruitment, participation, leadership, sustainable business ideas but above all, the access to funding. The purpose of this essay has therefore been to examine and analyze the financial situation of eight WISE's located in the Stockholm County. The results indicate that half of the enterprises perceive their economic situation as very unstable and as an obstacle to their further development.