A reform of higher education in Sweden in 1993 led to stiffer competitive climate among educational institutions. The reform meant that educational institutions now had the opportunity to plan their curriculum autonomously. Prior to the reform educational planning was restricted to the Swedish government. The new rules spelled a greater opportunity for educational institutions to profile themselves based on their educational offerings. The higher degree of competition means that marketing becomes increasingly important when recruiting new students.

Many theories describe failed states as potential threats to international security due to the breeding ground they constitute for transnational terrorism. Ken Menkhaus believes however that transnational terrorists are dependent on a state for their own protection in order to be able to operate.This essay seeks out the relevance in Ken Menkhaus? theory which states that transnational terrorists rather exploit corrupted states than operate in countries where there is a state collapse. His theory will be applied on a case study on post-Libya after Gadhafi?s fall.

Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union a lot of hope has been put on civil society to help develop Russia into a more democratic society. This study explores the constructive elements in the relationship between civil society and the state in Russia, and how this enables the work toward political development. By using Julie Fishers theory about political development and organisational autonomy I discuss the varying and often complex ways in which civil society and the state interacts. These are often not mentioned in the liberal tradition, which believes that civil society's most important democratic function is to act as a watchdog for the state.There is very limited political space for NGO's in authoritative Russia. The existing oppositional NGO's are important for the political development, but they are few and their impacts on society are limited.

The aim of this study is to explore how the people with a mental functional disorder experience living support. This studies research questions are; What kind of help do the clients receive from living support? Do they feel that they need more help or do they receive more help then they fell that they need? What does the relationship look like between the clients and the supporter? To answer these questions a qualitative research approach was used. Four clients where interviewed. The results are presented using themes and quotations.

Customer Relationship Management, CRM, är ett väletablerat begrepp inom marknadsföring och företags hantering av kundrelationer. Företag liksom akademiker riktar ett stort intresse mot just CRM, men samtidigt visar forskning att många implementeringar ute på företagen inte ger resultat som är tillfredställande. Anledningen tycks vara att företag tenderar att fokusera på den tekniska aspekten av CRM, istället för att se CRM som en helhetsansats för att hantera kundrelationer. CRM förenar relationsmarknadsföringens grunder med IT för att skapa lönsamma och långsiktiga relationer. För en lyckad utkomst av CRM anses själva implementeringen vara viktig och forskning belyser att utan planering, tydliga syften och förståelse för själva organisationsförändringen mot en ökad kundorientering som en CRM- implementering innebär, finns det risk för att initiativet misslyckas.  Studien syftar till att beskriva, diskutera och analysera CRM utifrån implementeringsfasen och faktorerna Ledning, Strategi, Medarbetare, Organisation, Kultur och Teknik för att skapa förståelse för hur företag uppfattar CRM och dess implementering. Studien har en deduktiv ansats där faktorer som i tidigare forskning definierats vara viktiga vid en implementering av CRM har legat till underlag för den empiriska studien.

Background: The international accounting standard regarding goodwill gives opportunities to several accounting procedure choices, as goodwill is a complex, intangible asset. The valuation of goodwill affects equity/asset ratio and income statement, which gives that the stakeholders? impression of the group?s financial statement is affected by the valuation of this asset. It has been pointed out that difficult economic times bring impairment loss to the fore. During financial crisis, equity/asset ratio may be significant as the economy of the groups is expected to be strained.Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to explain the appearance of the possible relationship between a group?s impairment loss for goodwill and their equity/asset ratio, during financial straits.

The purpose of this study has been to examine how customers, by interacting with each other, can communicate and create the image of a brand. We find this topic to be relevant since there are no previous studies conducted concerning the customers influence on the brand image. Our ambition has been to describe in what ways and to what extent the customer can affect and influence the brand image by communicating with other customers. To fulfill our purposed we have targeted three important questions which are:? In which ways can the customer affect the communicated image of a brand?? To what extent can the customer influence the brand image and the perceived value?? Who has control over the brand, the customer or the company?For this study we have used a qualitative approach in which we have conducted eight personal interviews with brand consultants and the editor of the magazine Dagens Media which has given us the foundation for our analysis.

By using contemorary work-theory this thesis aim to show how Yarden. En bera?ttelse, puts into play the circumstances of precarian work, circumstances that have gender political as well as identity political overtones. It tries to show how the idea of ?class-jouney? is used as a conciliatory element.

Violent crime can traditionally be classified as a reactive or an instrumental aggression. A reactive aggression is often characterized by some sort of provocation by the victim and the act is impulsive and the offender reacts by harming the victim. The provocation can be a threat, an insult or an attack and the act can be said to be a reaction induced by emotions. An instrumental act of violence however, often described as planned, targeted and emotional cold. The goal of the act can be to acquire money or power to maintain their status.

Violent crime can traditionally be classified as a reactive or an instrumental aggression. A reactive aggression is often characterized by some sort of provocation by the victim and the act is impulsive and the offender reacts by harming the victim. The provocation can be a threat, an insult or an attack and the act can be said to be a reaction induced by emotions. An instrumental act of violence however, often described as planned, targeted and emotional cold. The goal of the act can be to acquire money or power to maintain their status.

This thesis seeks to investigate how Swedish first class hotels by use of IT can improve customer service and thereby increase the share of loyal guests. The authors have conducted a qualitative study predominantly consisting of an interview-based case study at one of Stockholm?s largest independent hotels. To get a broader and more generalized picture of the hotel industry four smaller studies at other hotels in Stockholm were also conducted. The findings suggest that the use of IT can improve the communication between the hotel and its guests and make possible a continuing relationship between visits that strengthens guest commitment.

In this paper, we examine the attitudes of 16- to 19-year olds towards stealth viral marketing in the form of videos posted on websites such as Youtube. Apart from their general attitudes towards the phenomenon, we were also concerned with their views on the ethics involved in this marketing method and how this affects their view on the companies behind the advertising. To accomplish this, we administered a survey to a sample chosen by convenience. Using the Persuasion Knowledge Model and prior research on the subject, we then analyzed the gathered data and reached the conclusion that the respondents in our sample were mainly positive towards stealth viral marketing in this particular form, that they generally did not consider it unethical and that even though most considered the companies to be responsible for such videos, teenagers were not likely to take negative actions against them if they found out that a video that they had seen was in fact a stealth viral video..

The aim of this thesis was to examine how a coordinator at a social welfare project in support of job seekers, achieve results in his efforts to reduce the number of clients with social assistance. The method of data collection was a mixture of open thematic interviews and semi- structured interviews with open questions. The coordinator was interviewed four times during the length of the project. In addition, two of his clients were interviewed. The data also includes a report from the relevant social services and other documents such as newspaper articles.

Theory of mind involves the ability to take another person?s perspective in thought, emotions and intentions.  There is today a lack of instruments to assess children?s development of Theory of Mind (ToM) in Swedish. ToM is considered by many scientists to be the basis for development of pragmatic competence. The relationship between these two abilities is complex and not fully resolved. Both abilities are important components for the development of social skills.    The purpose of this study was to compare 4 and 5-year olds ToM-ability measured with a Swedish version of Wellman and Liu?s ToM-scale, Sally Anne and Social Emotional Test with estimated pragmatic competence measured with the Children?s Communication Checklist (CCC).

Background: The increasing number of actors on the market has led to a more intense competition among superstores. With this, marketing has gotten an even more essential meaning. The marketing activities superstores perform are adapted to the context in which the store is located. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to, from different theoretical dimensions, compare superstores? application of marketing strategies in Tokyo with the marketing strategies used by superstores in Stockholm.