A growing need to strengthen ones position on the market, even as a city in competition with other cities, has resulted in an increasing number of municipalities developing brand platforms. When the city of Umeå developed their platform, they identified decision makers and investors as one of four important target groups.The aim of this study is to explore the portrayed image of the city of Umeå in two Swedish trade journals which addresses the specific target group decition makers and investors in both public and private sector. The aim is also to compare the image of Umeå in the two papers, to the ambition of the municipality, expressed in the brand platform.In order to make the observations as firmly established as possible, the method of the study is a combination of a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative text analysis. The study draws on the theories of Eli Avraham and Philip Kotler, concerning how to improve city images and how to market a specific city among others. The study shows that the city of Umeå in large extent is portrayed in accordance to the ambition which the municipality expressed in the brand platform.Umeå is displayed as an expanding city.

During my final examination project, I have been working with a design process to develop a new set of candle lanterns for the company Sagaform AB. This company has a large and significant role on the Swedish interior design and retail market. The assignment was developed when the company stated that they would like to supplement and expand its existing range of products. The research and surveys I have done have helped me to create eight different concepts and one of them ready to compete with the existing candle lanterns on the market. The result of my concept proposal expected to be included in Sagaform?s 2013 spring catalogue. During the project I have developed 3D-rendered images, a physical model, and a solid foundation for making prototypes. The Balloon has an attractive design language that fits both every day and more festive events.

The financial sector is an important part of the infrastructure. As a consequence of deregulations on the financial market, several new actors have entered the market. This has made it even more important for banks to identify the factors that are decisive when customers chose a bank. The purpose of this thesis was to clarify which factors that are decisive to students choice of bank. A survey was performed among students at Luleå University of Technology.

The Swedish e-commerce has been established for about 25 years, with strong growth from the millennium onwards. The companies that are active within it has many different backgrounds. Mail order companies were some of the early adaptors but today it is also common for companies to first create the e-commerce part of the business, before opening a store. A long list of companies has over the years come and gone, the rotation of the e-shops that are popular have constantly changed. We asked ourselves why.We wanted to get an understanding of the Swedish e-commerce, both from a business perspective and from a customer perspective.

The purpose of this essay is to acquire variables that explain and may be used as a base for wage estimation in the private sector in Sweden. The factors that are assumed to have an impact on wage estimation are based on earlier Swedish and international studies. Business survey data, which is based upon monthly questions to firms in various sectors of the Swedish economy posed by the Swedish National Institute of Economic Research, will be analyzed to find out weather they have an impact on Swedish wage settings or not. Tests including business survey data are yet rarely frequent, why this essay will be some kind of a pioneer within the area. To estimate significant factors that influence wage setting in Sweden, three different wage equations have been modeled and tested with a regression model.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the employees´ duty of loyalty to their employer when making statements on social media networks and if this opposes the employees´ right to freedom of speech. Another purpose of this thesis is to investigate freedom of speech from an EU juridical point of view. Also a discussion concerning gender issues on this subject takes place is presented in the thesis. The questions to answer the purpose of this thesis are the following: Where is the line drawn for what an employee can publish on a social media network without breaching their duty of loyalty towards their employer?, and How does an employee´s freedom of speech relate to these types of statements on a social media network? The method used for this thesis is the classical legal method.The legal inquiry shows that duty of loyalty is a hidden clause in all employment contracts, and it must be respected by the employee.

IKEA HaparandaTornio employ some two-hundred people in its furniture retail store.Keeping track of staff statistics and employee information has previously been achievedthrough the use of a basic Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet. The store?s human resourcesdepartment requested an upgrade to this system with the hope of speeding up andsimplifying the administrative process, as well as to make it easier to monitor HR-relatedtarget statistics. The following report documents the development process of that upgrade ascarried out by the author. The project draws on research in usability design and cognitivepsychology to develop a user-friendly interface.

The economic development and industrialization that has taken place in many parts of the world during the past century has brought about a huge increase in economic welfare. During this process, it has repeatedly been debated whether the gains from economic development are shared by everyone or just a few. In the field of economics, vast research has been conducted on this particular subject ever since the 1950?s. The most famous contribution might be said to be Simon Kuznets article, Growth and Income Inequality from 1955 and the ?inverted U?-hypothesis that was formulated on the basis of that article.

The economic development and industrialization that has taken place in many parts of the world during the past century has brought about a huge increase in economic welfare. During this process, it has repeatedly been debated whether the gains from economic development are shared by everyone or just a few. In the field of economics, vast research has been conducted on this particular subject ever since the 1950?s. The most famous contribution might be said to be Simon Kuznets article, Growth and Income Inequality from 1955 and the ?inverted U?-hypothesis that was formulated on the basis of that article.

Social media has recently expanded dramatically, as more people are using different media such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter, to express their opinions. This increases the possibilities to spread information and an unclear legal regulation in this area can create adverse consequences. Freedom of expression is a constitutional right, which forms an important cornerstone of a democratic society. Public employees? freedom of communication means that they can submit information to the media, without fear of reprisals from the authorities.

Today most studies regarding marketing are made on traditional marketing channels, answering questions like which jingle is best or which TV-channel a company should focus their marketing budget on. There is also the science regarding the best way of marketing on Social Networking sites or how to get as many 'likes' as possible, and so forth. However research has also been made in the field of in-store marketing and how a retailers or brand owners can affect customers in "the moment of truth". Until now most of these studies discuss how to get the attention of the customer in the store since both time as well as level of commitment in general is scarce when a customer is in a grocery store doing the necessary weekly- or complementary-shopping. It seems like most of them make the very same conclusion; catching the attention of a customer is vital to sell them your product.

Management by contract is nowadays a common method within the public sector since the NPM overtook as paradigm with its mechanisms of control inspired by the private sector. The public agency is foremost a service provider where they interact with citizens in the service process. Swedish eldercare has significantly increased its expose to competition which means that eldercare can be executed not only by the municipalities own provider. Such an adaption increases the requirements to inspect quality and how the purchasers assure goal achievement by control. The outmost liability stays with the municipality to ensure that the service produces god care since their position as the service purchaser implies the responsibility to plan, precise and evaluate the required work that the executor has to accomplish.

The purpose of this essay is to analyze and clarify what?s behind the success of artistsin the music sector and what characterizes sustainable success for these. We arecurious about what lies behind the success of an artist and what makes an artist have asustainable career. The essay is based on a qualitative approach where six interviewshave been performed with people in various positions in the Swedish music industry. The interviewees have been selected after their knowledge and experience within thefield.

Companies within the e-commerce industry currently try to overcome the disadvantages of not being able to provide a physical inspection of products, and this is especially an issue for the apparel industry. One way of trying to overcome this issue is by presenting apparel with a short video of a model wearing the garment. The aim in this thesis is to investigate how these video presentations affect consumers' emotions, cognitions and intentions. Since previous studies have found that different shopping scenarios can moderate the effect of stimuli in the atmosphere on the consumers' emotions, we also aim to see if a video presentation, depending on the shopping scenario, could have a negative impact on site visitors. Moreover this thesis investigates the moderating effects of involvement on consumers' cognitions.

The project has been implemented in collaboration with Carl-Johan Lundberg on Deltagruppen Ltd in Jönköping. Problem introduction comes from Carl-Johan's own experience from the hotel sector. The problem that all hotels has is that they sell two products, i e. simple - and double rooms. Persons that travel in companies do not desire always to share bed.Focus in the work is to develop a product that holds together two simple beds and forms double bed, concurrent that it goes that converters to two simple bed without needing to disassemble the product and be done invisible.