The main aim of this master thesis was to see the process of an interactive online reference service from idea to final product. The reference service we have studied is developed and used by the Library of the National Institute for Working Life in Stockholm, Sweden and goes by the name phibi. Our goal was to review the whole realization process from the reasons why a service like this was created, how the service was introduced and implemented inside the organisation and finally what the result and consequences were for both the library staff and for the users of the service. Phibi is designed to be a tool that fosters communication between the library staff and the remote users where the users get the opportunity to be helped with their questions by the library staff although they are not physically present in the library. To understand the process we conducted a case study with 11 interviews of the library staff, the superior and the initiator to phibi.

The purpose of this study is to develop a general understanding of the areas of alliances and service quality as well as their relation to each other, through a consumer perception. Further, to discover more detailed and close up knowledge of customer perceived service quality within airline alliances. This is done by identifying particularly significant dimensions in the service process that have an influence on the perceived service quality.The thesis is based on qualitative study using a critical incident technique to explore the issue of service quality. In the research of the material the iterative approach has been used. The primary information sources are the interviews with customers-members of airline alliance.

The main aim of this master thesis was to see the process of an interactive online reference service from idea to final product. The reference service we have studied is developed and used by the Library of the National Institute for Working Life in Stockholm, Sweden and goes by the name phibi. Our goal was to review the whole realization process from the reasons why a service like this was created, how the service was introduced and implemented inside the organisation and finally what the result and consequences were for both the library staff and for the users of the service. Phibi is designed to be a tool that fosters communication between the library staff and the remote users where the users get the opportunity to be helped with their questions by the library staff although they are not physically present in the library. To understand the process we conducted a case study with 11 interviews of the library staff, the superior and the initiator to phibi.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to study an electronic reference service from a user perspective. By qualitative interviews with eight students the thesis examines their information behaviour, why and when they use the service, the user?s experiences of the service and the communication with the librarian. The users have all used the Swedish electronic reference service Fråga biblioteket ? Forskningsbibliotek.

The main aim of this master thesis was to see the process of an interactive online reference service from idea to final product. The reference service we have studied is developed and used by the Library of the National Institute for Working Life in Stockholm, Sweden and goes by the name phibi. Our goal was to review the whole realization process from the reasons why a service like this was created, how the service was introduced and implemented inside the organisation and finally what the result and consequences were for both the library staff and for the users of the service. Phibi is designed to be a tool that fosters communication between the library staff and the remote users where the users get the opportunity to be helped with their questions by the library staff although they are not physically present in the library. To understand the process we conducted a case study with 11 interviews of the library staff, the superior and the initiator to phibi.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine how disabled people who receive the shut-in-service in one community define service quality. The purpose is also to examine the shut-in-service and to look at the users' context. Answers are sought to the following questions: - How do users experience the service quality of the shut-in-service? - What kind of service does the shut-in-service offer to the user? - How can the user be described and which are his/her requests? The analysis is based on theory about service quality by Christian Grönroos. The theory makes a distinction between two kinds of service quality, technical vs functional quality, as experienced by the user through the profile of the organization.

Sweden is going through big changes within the bank sector. Increasing card usage, decrease of cash acceptance in the society, an attempt to reduce money laundering, and a possible increase in profitability has lead to the rescindment of cash management among three of the four major banks. This has lead to a big debate in the society, a lot of frustration from customers, and a drop in customer satisfaction for every bank that started the process of removing cash management. The purpose of this study is to find out how the banks could keep their customer satisfaction when removing cash management. When doing the study, the rescindment of cash was a deduction of a part of the service, compared to the normal adding or starting of a service. The study was done through a focus group that was the base of a questionnaire that got answered by 125 respondents.

The thesis explores an ongoing dialectical process between different levels of employees including top management to workers of Scandinavian Airline Service (SAS) regarding a new change program and to find out the possible social construction among them. In particular, it searches for the constructed reality of SAS ground service employees at Malmö Airport with regard to the preparatory stage of SAS Strategy 2011. A possible ambiguity in dialectical process is explored as it relates to an organization?s ability to effectively influence the understanding and identity of its employees through discourse.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the co-creation process and how value is created based on a service orientation using a network perspective. The thesis is studied from a social-constructionist philosophy, using a qualitative approach of data collection and the theoretical framework includes network theories, theories of service-orientation and co-creation. We have conducted semi-structured interviews with a small firm and its network, which consists of a customer, a supplier and a partner. We found that Håkansson?s ARA framework combined with Ballantyne and Varey?s triangulation of value-creating activities help to acquire an understanding of the actors? bonds, the resources? ties and the activity links that exist in a network.

Service branding is a subject that has been excluded from the traditional branding theory. Our main purpose with this paper is to distinguish what characterizes service branding. To do this, we have looked in to both service marketing theory as well as branding theory. We have also looked at the existing theory concerning service branding. Six qualitative interviews have been performed to explain what characterizes service branding.

Although Lean has received an increased amount of attention in the service context, research still has not established how successfully Lean manages to increase service productivity; since service productivity consists of both efficiency and quality. Research regarding productivity discusses the risk of a tradeoff between efficiency and quality in service production processes. Therefore, this thesis aims to explore if the tradeoff in a production setting with low variability in demand and low customer participation exists, after Lean has been implemented. With a qualitative approach, a case study has been conducted at Scandinavian Airlines Ground Handling to evaluate the effects of Lean in the baggage handling process. The result of the study shows that the tradeoff has not been overcome; efficiency has increased at the expense of quality.

As self-service technologies become more common in service provisions, a deeper understanding is needed of how customer satisfaction is affected by automated service encounters. Drawing from theories of customer satisfaction, human interaction, and the dynamics of complex service provisions, the differences between automated and interpersonal service encounters in the initial part of a service provision are examined in terms of customers? evaluation of the service encounter itself, overall satisfaction, as well as the service encounter?s impact on global evaluations and evaluations of other non-dependant service encounters. The study was performed on people travelling by air on Swedish domestic routes. Passengers were asked to evaluate the airline?s performance on different attributes of the air travel they had undertaken, as well as to form an overall evaluation of the service.

The aim of this thesis is to study Stadshuskällaren?s operational processe flow and identify their operational characteristics. The uniqueness of Stadshuskällaren is that they are breaking the law of trade-offs regarding volume/variety, much like Toyota managed to do ? which spawned the entire field of research of the ?Lean Philosophy?. In the thesis the characteristics we identify through analysis, which enables Stadshuskällaren to break the trade-off, are compared with the principles of Lean service theory, which ultimately stem from Toyota.

The purpose of the study was from the perspective of young people that has completed a stay at HVB-home. The respondents are between 15-21 years both boys and girls. The basic questions were: How do the respondents look upon this HVB-homes service process? How do the respondents look upon this HVB-homes service contents? How do the respondents look upon this HVB-homes service regarding available information and how the staff is available? What positive and negative experience do they have from their stay at the HVB-home? We also wish to get a picture of what is important to change to improve the quality on this HVB-home. To receive answers to those questions we formed a questionnaire.

This thesis is an addition to pictures and animation that has been developed using CATIA V5. The animation and the images are a market basis to test whether the product is of interest in the Nordic market. The thesis is structured with elements of the Fredy Olsson method. In this thesis there is also a short presentation of the company Tylö AB, which been chosen to market test the product. A product definition with the sub-headings; ?Description and use of product?, ?Environmentand users?, ?Economy? and ?Product inquiry?, are the basis for the product.