As a result of global competition, companies within the automotive industry are required to improve their production systems to achieve sustainable and competitive production. To attain operational excellence, companies have adopted concepts like lean and World Class Manufacturing (WCM).In order to deliver, companies need to increase the availability and reliability of production equipment. This demands focus on both operational and strategic maintenance, and efficient equipment acquisition and management. The main objective of this thesis is to identify processes and success factors that are necessary for improved maintenance performance. By conducting a case study and by performing a literature review, the following has been studied: 1) how companies within the automotive industry work with maintenance and maintenance strategies, 2) implementation of maintenance strategies, and 3) new acquisition and spare parts management for maintenance. The results show that basic maintenance concepts and related terms are well defined in the literature.

Communication is essential for the survival of an organization. The management formulates strategies to ensure thatthe organization will get to where they want it to go. The strategy is then communicated to the co-workers through the line manager. But who is to say that the co-worker experience the message the same way as the line manager or the management for that matter? The purpose of this study is toinvestigate how the middle managers at Southern Älvsborg Hospital experience strategic internal communication andfurther how they communicate with their co-workers.Through a case study approach, the case being the communication of the hospitals research strategy, I conducted 13 interviews.I analyzed the material from the interviews using a hermeneutical approach and I used an interpretative approach to get a deeper understanding.

Purpose:Only 60 percent of the newly started companies survive their three first years. The purpose of this report is to obtain a deeper understanding regarding how newly started companies work with their positioning and if there are some kind of a relationship between positioning and the survival rate of newly started companies.Research questions:Do newly started companies know what position is? Do they incorporate positioning in their day to day marketing?Approach:We have used a hypothetical-deductive way of reasoning and a qualitative study to gather the information needed. We have through interviews asked our questions to six newly started companies in three different cities.Findings:In our essay, we reached the conclusion that newly started companies do not spend sufficient time or energy on positioning their products. The companies interviewed only market their product as a good product.

This study is on how small companies can use the Internet as a part of their marketing strategy to gain a leverage on their competitors with small means to survive and expand in the global market. Many Swedish small companies still don?t have a sufficient knowledge on how to use the communication channel despite the various advantages the Internet offers.Case studies were conducted of how AdLibris, A-lotterierna AB and SF-bokhandeln perceived the importance of using the Internet as a part of their communications strategy.This new communication channel demand new ways of applying traditional marketing principals. Careful analysis of the interviews and how the answers relate to new and old marketing theories makes the bulk of this study. The conclusion is that the Internet solely is not enough, a combination with traditional marketing tools is the way to succeed in their marketing efforts.

In this thesis we study the development of post-earnings announcement drift (PEAD) in the Swedish equity market from 2000 to 2009. By forming portfolios based on the stock price reaction to quarterly reporting we show that the characteristics of PEAD have changed. We demonstrate that negatively surprising companies show a positive drift during a holding period of six months sufficiently large to render the trading strategy unprofitable. This development holds from 2005 and onwards and these results contradict many a study which finds the same portfolio construction to be indeed profitable. We argue that this development is a trend that will not only affect our study but future studies as well..

The purpose of this report was to investigate to which extent local presence of large herbivore mammals (Alces alces, Cervus elaphus, Capreolus capreolus, Dama dama and Sus scrofa) covaries with small rodents (Myodes glaerolus, Apodemus flavicollis and Apodemus sylvaticus? The hypothesis was that high abundance of wild ungulates would inhibit the density of small forest rodents. The data was collected during field work within FoMA (Environmental Monitoring Assessment)/SLU (Swedish University of Agricultural Science). The Ungulate dropping inventory and rodent trappings, which is the base in this report, where performed 2012 ? 2014 in Gnesta/Nyköping municipalities (G/N) with a relatively high density of wild ungulates and Vetlanda/Växjö municipalities (V/V) with relatively lower wild ungulate density.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to give a contribution to the studies of what strategies those are of importance for challengers in consumer technological markets aiming for the market leader position. To be able to investigate this phenomenon we have chosen to study Microsoft?s second position in the video game console industry. In addition, we want to illuminate Microsoft?s competitive advantages, how Microsoft can take advantage from Sony?s setbacks and what strategies those are of importance for Microsoft in the battle of becoming the market leader.

The thesis aims at describing how culture is produced and reproduced at IF Friskis&Svettis Stockholm, a Swedish non-profit training association. The authors claim that organizational identity plays a major part in determining ways of action within the organization. Selection processes, programming and internal recruitment and sensemaking are essential issues of the cultural production and reproduction..

The purpose of this thesis is to study how Malaysia Airlines communicated during the two largest crises of 2014. Key questions to be answered are: Did organizational hypocrisy occur? If yes, in what way? Which communication strategies were used? Did the company mediate an unequivocal message and how was the information framed? Did any aggravating factors, which worsened the organization?s reputation, appear? How did Malaysia Airlines manage possible rumours? Was the word contact used as a keyword? The method of choice is a quantitative content analysis and the material consists of 20 different analysis units. These analysis units were collected from social media and Malaysia Airlines website. The quantitative content analysis is based on the theory Situational Crisis Communication Theory, taken from PR, Strategy and Application, Managing Influence, by W.

ABSTRACTTitle:The town's largest employers, is there a need to exchange?Level:Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business AdministrationAuthor:Emmelie Eriksson, Malin StrömSupervisor:Lars EkstrandDate:2012 ? JuneAim:?Gain a deeper understanding of the topic corporate culture?Get an understanding as to how corporate culture influences the daily operations?Possibly be able to help with any concrete to help the investigated company toimprove its corporate cultureMethod:Data collected through both quantitative and qualitative surveys in the form of aquestionnaire answered by 71 people, three interviews with the employees with leading rolesat the investigated company and an observation. The material is analyzed with a hermeneuticsapproach, which means that we have assumed facts and then built our work on trying to findan understanding and to draw our own conclusions based on the perspective that we found.Result & Conclusions:The results of this study show that the company needs to work on itscorporate culture. We have found a few points we would like to improve in the company weexamined. We believe that it is the company's reputation and it begins already in thecompany's own recruitment process it is the main finding from our study.Suggestions for future research:Interesting would be to seek employment with thecompany you want to investigate to see how the whole recruitment process goes on toperform deeper analysis, another idea would be to ask the employees that enjoy to work thereagainst those who does not enjoy to work at the company to find the basic building blocks ofcorporate culture to this particular company.

ABSTRACTTitle:The town's largest employers, is there a need to exchange?Level:Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business AdministrationAuthor:Emmelie Eriksson, Malin StrömSupervisor:Lars EkstrandDate:2012 ? JuneAim:?Gain a deeper understanding of the topic corporate culture?Get an understanding as to how corporate culture influences the daily operations?Possibly be able to help with any concrete to help the investigated company toimprove its corporate cultureMethod:Data collected through both quantitative and qualitative surveys in the form of aquestionnaire answered by 71 people, three interviews with the employees with leading rolesat the investigated company and an observation. The material is analyzed with a hermeneuticsapproach, which means that we have assumed facts and then built our work on trying to findan understanding and to draw our own conclusions based on the perspective that we found.Result & Conclusions:The results of this study show that the company needs to work on itscorporate culture. We have found a few points we would like to improve in the company weexamined. We believe that it is the company's reputation and it begins already in thecompany's own recruitment process it is the main finding from our study.Suggestions for future research:Interesting would be to seek employment with thecompany you want to investigate to see how the whole recruitment process goes on toperform deeper analysis, another idea would be to ask the employees that enjoy to work thereagainst those who does not enjoy to work at the company to find the basic building blocks ofcorporate culture to this particular company.

Background: The background shows that since the consumption patterns constantly are changing and the Internet usage is growing it creates more opportunities for the companies to interact through new media. There are two ways to go for companies that intend to use social media as a marketing strategy, to be in the possession of their own information or get help from a third party.Problem definition: What factors are important in the long term survival of the companies when choosing a social media?Objective: The objective of this essay is to analyze and evaluate the personal blog and the company blog as an information technology strategy.Method: The essay will have a hermeneutic and quantitative approach in the form of a survey. Theories: Consumer Behavior, The Buying Decision Process, Involvement Theory, Business Concept, Branding, Total Communication Theory, Word-of-mouth/web and Service Profit Chain.Empiric: The empiric will consist of the results from the survey.Results: The result shows that the blog is effective as an information technology strategy however the companies should adapt their choice of blog to the products that they sell.Conclusion: Important factors for companies that seek long-term survival are involvement, communication and loyalty. It is also important to use a relationship marketing approach. .

This paper supports the thesis that creative consumer advertising also can be used as a recruitment tool. By increasing the level of creativity used in their communication, a company can affect the attractiveness of themselves as future employers. The creative advertising influences the brands perceived creativity. It also increases the perceived social, development- and reputational value as well as the future intentions with the brand. By being more creative the brand is also viewed as making more marketing effort, which in turn affects the perceived potential of the brand in a positive way.

Environmental issues and sustainable development is a high priority in today?s society and has received substantial attention lately. In the inaugural speech it is expressed that the goal for the IT?politics is a sustainable information society for everyone, which can be achieved by using IT to support sustainable growth. The Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications has developed a document which outlines three specific proposals on what the government should focus on during a three?year period (2008?2010) that with the use of IT will contribute to a sustainable society.

This essay aims to investigate how students raised in Jehovah's Witnesses have experienced their career counseling during their middle and high school education. My main objectives are, based on the testimonies of former Jehovah's Witnesses, to investigate how career counselors can find a strategy to approach these students in a non-threatening way. I also try to take into account the contextual elements which are of great importance when counseling students raised as Jehovah's Witnesses. A qualitative study has been carried out with five informants with a background in the movement. The material has then been analyzed using a qualitative, narrative method.