Technology based self-service (TBSS) used in supermarket self-scanning checkouts is a relatively new phenomenon in Sweden. Studies on TBSS as a self- checkout device have been formerly carried out but with focus on the customer perspective. The authors therefore saw a challenge in covering the self-scan checkout concept, from a company perspective. The purpose of this research paper is to investigate, through a management perspective, the changes brought about by implementing an innovative TBSS system in Swedish supermarkets, and its effect on the competitiveness of the company. This is done by presenting and linking the theoretical framework and empirical study in the research.

Title: Strategies for competition ? a study of the Swedish contact lenses market.Authors: Pernilla AArskog and Annika Lange.Background: As a market gets more mature and the competition increases, it is more important for a company to apply the right strategic perspective. There are four fundamental strategic perspectives for a service-oriented business: a core product-, a price-, an image- and a service perspective. This study is a about service management and take its point from the theories from the Nordic School about strategies for competition, customer value, perceived customer quality and customer loyalty.Purpose: The main purpose with this study is to analyze and evaluate how the actors at the Swedish market of contact lenses should compete to gain further competitive advantages.Method: The study includes four qualitative interviews with two traditional opticians and two Internet based businesses, but also a survey with 106 contact lens users is included.Analysis: In the analyse part of this thesis it was concluded that the traditional opticians conception about their customer not agrees with what the customer evaluate as important. Many of the customers have thought about changing their optician, and besides that do not recommend their optician, and can there for not be categorize as loyal customers.

För att underlätta program-till-programkommunikation har SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) utvecklats. SOA har som mål att bidra med riktlinjer för att det ska bli lättare för två applikationer att kommunicera med varandra (Samtani & Sadhwani 2002a). Web Services är en standard som bygger på SOA-arkitekturen och det som gör Web Services speciellt är att tekniken ska vara plattforms- och språkoberoende (Clabby, 2003).Sun och Microsoft har utvecklat varsin plattform för utveckling av Web Services-applikationer. I denna rapport genomförs en litteraturstudie för att undersöka vilket stöd plattformarna har för utveckling av Web Services och för att ta reda på vilka skillnader som finns mellan plattformarna. Skillnaderna undersöks sedan för att se om de kan leda till problem då en användare vill integrera Web Services skrivna i olika plattformar.Resultatet i denna rapport visar att de båda plattformarna har ett bra stöd för att utveckla Web Service-applikationer.

This essay is a qualitative study about Swedish fire-fighters´ ideas of women and people from other ethnic backgrounds than Swedish. The problem in focus is why there are difficulties for those groups of people to be employed in the Swedish fire service. Can there be ideas of these groups which are not favourable for them? And if this is the case, can those ideas be explained by gender theory about construction of masculinity? The purpose is to investigate whether the absence of women and people from other ethnic backgrounds can be explained by the fire-fighters´ ideas of those groups. The study consisted of a one day observation and four one hour long interviews with fire-fighters from different positions within the Swedish fire service.

The study has shown that retailers in the mid-price segment differentiate their brand through developing a strong company identity around the brand. The personality involves store atmosphere, merchandise and advertising. Larger companies have chosen to lay the responsibility on management level, which facilitates on store level. By controlling the strategies on a central level the company can make sure that the stores are steered in the direction that the company wants them to be steered in, and also that they follow the positioning-concept. The company can also devote its efforts to working with its core value, which is service.

Bauhaus har arbetat fram en ny affärsplan för 2011-2012 där ett internt mål är att bli ?bäst på service?. Ett steg på vägen är ett nytt utbildningsprogram som syftar till att göra medarbetarna mer kundfokuserade. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur personalen respektive ledningen upplever att Bauhaus satsning på nya utbildningar har tillfört större kundfokus inom företaget samt hur den interna kommunikationen skapar förutsättningar för att satsningen ska lyckas. Teoretiskt utgår studien ifrån vad som skapar tjänstekvalité samt hur företag kan påverka tjänstekvalitén.

The main focus of this study was to investigate how Swedish military veterans experience that events during an international service affect them after completed mission. This also includes the contact with their relatives. Secondly, this study deals with the course of the crisis, personal defense mechanisms, cumulative stress and post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD).The study was performed using a qualitative method and comprises individual interviews with six Swedish veterans. The responders were all men of different military positions, who participated in one or more international missions during 1993 to 2011.The results of this study show that, according to the veterans, the return back home is the most strenuous part of an international mission. With all the new experiences that an international service brings fresh in their memories, it is hard to re-adjust to the life of a civilian.In connection with the return back home, different degrees of stress reactions were also commonly seen, for example sleep disturbance, restlessness and exhaustion.

Sweden has had statutory audit, which also includes a management audit, for all companies since 1988. A legislative proposal now suggests that the statutory audit shall be abolished for all small and medium sized companies starting on July 1, 2010. The aim for this master?s thesis is therefore to study how the service of auditing will be affected by the legislative proposal. To answer the research question the authors have taken on a qualitative approach and fifteen interviews with representatives for different Swedish auditing firms have been completed.

The study has shown that retailers in the mid-price segment differentiate their brand through developing a strong company identity around the brand. The personality involves store atmosphere, merchandise and advertising. Larger companies have chosen to lay the responsibility on management level, which facilitates on store level. By controlling the strategies on a central level the company can make sure that the stores are steered in the direction that the company wants them to be steered in, and also that they follow the positioning-concept. The company can also devote its efforts to working with its core value, which is service.

This master thesis was carried out at ELFA, one of the largest catalogue distributors of electronics in northern Europe. ELFA offers a wide selection of products such as measuring instruments, fuses and screwdrivers. The master thesis handles the possibilities of an increase in the internal flow of products. The background to this problem is ELFA?s acquisition of two new companies, which brought the product range in the warehouse from 55 000 to 80 000 products.

Information technology and globalization has led to an increasing competition and service production has been more and more independent of locations. This has made a market of outsourced telephone costumer service possible. Due to high establishment the market has been saturated and with that price has sunk. Customer companies have the last few years got more negative to outsourcing of their telephone customer service as they through operating the customer service internally want to get closer to their customers.In the empirical study the writers try to figure out which companies the callcenters should try to aim towards to get long and profitable cooperation. This will be done through deducing guiding principles from theories about how different factors around companies costumer service should look like.

This Bachelor-paper is an investigation of organisational flexibility in Swedish andPolish television companies. The essay is based on four main questions which is thananalysed by looking at different categories that defines a flexible organisationalstructure.The questions are:? What is the internal and external perceived judgment about the TV-channelsorganisational flexibility?? What are the differences regarding Public service channels in Sweden andPoland as well as the differences between commercial channels?? What are the differences regarding public service- and commercial TVchannelsin Sweden as well as in Poland? Which of the companies are considered being the stronger and the weakest inan organisational flexibility point of view?In order to answer these questions have we used following main theories.? Readiness for business process reengineering - Abdolvand, N. & Albadvi, A.& Ferdowsi, Z (2008)? Decisionprocess - Jacobsen D.I.

Syfte: Syftet med examensarbetet är att undersöka möjligheter till effektivisering av fjärrvärmeinstallationer i småhus med hjälp Lean. Detta har gjorts genom att besvara de tre följande frågeställningarna:Hur ser en fjärrvärmeinstallation i småhus ut i dagsläget?Vilka slöserier går att identifiera i processen för fjärrvärmeinstallation i småhus?Hur kan slöserier i processen för fjärrvärmeinstallation i småhus minskas?Metod: För att uppfylla examensarbetets syfte har en fallstudie genomförts på Jönköping Energi som är en leverantör av fjärrvärme. Där har intervjuer och dokumentationsstudier använts som datainsamlingsmetoder. Litteraturstudier har gjorts för att samla in information kring teorier som sedan använts för att utvärdera och analysera empirin.Resultat: Genom studien har slöserier identifierats i processen för fjärrvärmeinstallation i småhus.

A foundation of our welfare state is that we have a social safety net. This safety net is designed to pick up individuals who are in need of help and support to manage their way of life. This essay regards people who need help with care or people who need help with an addiction. This essay is a qualitative text analysis, which aims to see whether, and if so how, help-seekers are constructed in 40 social service documents within a municipality in central Sweden. We have endeavored to illustrate the power that the written word possesses and which categories of people are constructed depending on the language and content of the social documents.

The purpose of this study is to identify how the needs, demands and preferences for a certain service appear among University students in Kalmar. This is necessary to examine in order to create and design a possible service that will solve the problem with the University students eating habits.This study is based on a qualitative method with quantitative elements. The qualitative method contains of three focus group discussions. The quantitative method contains of a questionnaire. All respondents in this study fits in the target group.One important conclusion that we have stated after the investigation of this study, is that the nature of this problem seems to differ from person to person.