There is a common belief that the arts contain knowledge of creativity that can enrich the business world. Similarly, the arts are in need of additional support from the private sector and know-how of business practices. In short, there is a need for mutual understanding. With my background as a dancer paired with my studies at the Stockholm School of Economics I have taken the challenge of bringing the two worlds closer together. By changing a social system, like an organization, it is possible to get a better understanding of it.

There are widespread discussions about the use of retouched models in media, ranging from bloggers to legal decision-makers. Research shows that there are negative psychological effects on especially females being exposed to idealized, retouched model images. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of using retouched models in advertising from a marketing perspective, based on attitudes, perceived quality and purchase intentions.Based on theories about attractiveness, halo-effects and social comparison, an experimental study was done, investigating the different responses on above mentioned parameters to advertisements showing either retouched model images or non-retouched model images. Initially it was also tested if the retouched models were seen as more attractive than the non-retouched models. The results showed almost no differences between the reactions to the advertisements with retouched models compared to the advertisements with non-retouched models, when all respondent groups were analyzed together.

The present study is embedded in the research field of Personal Information Management (PIM) and its goal is to contribute to this research area by showing information management aspects in untraditional contexts, as in the social networking site Twitter. The aim and purpose of this two year's master thesis was to investigate the beha-viour of librarians within the context of Twitter. The objectives of this thesis focus on the query of the informa-tion management aspect of Twitter, and on the investigation into whether Twitter offers the possibility to reach a state of flow while using it, as well as inquiring into the relationship between Mihaly Csikszentmihalyis flow theory and PIM. The theoretical framework of this thesis is centred upon the flow theory and the conditions that are necessary to reach a state of flow. To fulfill the purpose of this thesis a directed content analysis is applied as an investigative method, where its in-depth research aspects will be applied upon the empirical material, which contains 429 tweets.

This essay deals with the subject of communication through Facebook. In this survey we studied 100 youths from Karlstad and their communication habits and behavior patterns on Facebook. The social network site Facebook has since its start in 2004 made a mark in modern communication. Today in 2010 the site has more than 500 million users. This paper wants to study what happens to other types of communication.

This exam report contains studies about how the weather affects the construction site from a planning and productivity perspective. In 1960?s the contractors started to build during the winter, since then the demands to obtain a good construction has been higher on both the contractor and then promoter.In this report you will see how the different actors at the construction site handle the weather problems. By several interviews of the actors at the construction site there have been opinions about the weather situation which has been collected. To get a wide perspective of the problem, field studies from four different construction sites been made.Weather statistics over Halmstad is a mayor part of this report.

There have previously been very few studies of forests on Seram Island in the Eastern Indonesian archipelago and none before on lowland limestone primary forests. The COLUPSIA project on collaborative land use planning has therefore chosen Seram as one of two project sites. The objective of the COLUPSIA project is to establish collaborative and equitable land use planning. In order to achieve its objective the COLUPSIA project aims to improve understanding of traditional resource management and how it interacts with governmental systems, as well as enhancing knowledge about tropical landscapes and ecosystem services.The aim of this study was to contribute to the COLUPSIA project through describing lowland limestone forest on Seram Island in respect to (1) forest structure, (2) tree species richness and (3) tree species composition. We set up 5 plots, each of 0.2 ha, at one site, Mawalai, and collected data on tree variables (tree diameter ?10 cm) as well as for some other life forms and environmental data.

Car-commercials are something that many people come in contact with on a daily basis.This is a study on commercials for cars and is focusing on visual effects that are madein post-production. In this report we are trying to find out if and how visual effects incommercials for cars affect how the observer remembers them. The second subjects thatwe use in this report is popularity and we try to find out if and in that case how visualeffects affect the commercials for cars popularity. We also investigated how frequentlycommercials for cars are showed on TV and how the visual effects are in them, it givesa better foundation to the other parts.The methods we applied were interviews, quantitative and qualitative content analysisof car commercials and also observation analysis of the 6 swedish TV-channels thatshows commercials and have the most viewers, to get an idea how frequently thesecommercials are shown. The commercials that were applied in this paper was from late2011 to early 2012.

This study investigates how tagging is being used in a new way when members of a Swedish dating site get to tag themselves in an act of self-presentation with the aim of meeting new people. In the study seven members of the dating site Mazily were interviewed about their self-presentation, tagging and identity formation there. The questions concerned how they formed their own tags, but also how they interpret and use other members' tags in their search for a potential partner.I have been using queer theories for this study, in order to find out what kind of norms and structures that lie behind and affect the members' behaviour on the website. My study finds that the interviewed members to a high degree reflect about both their own and other members tagging and self-presentations. Although they spend quite some time trying to analyse other people on the website they have a great sense of understanding that a person may give two very different impressions on the site and offline.

Vätternrundan is an annual sporting event that takes place in the Swedish town Motala since 1966. It is one of the world largest recreational bicycle rides and attracts over 20 000 participants each year. This study focuses on event effects and how an event can be of value within the principles of place marketing. Within this study five representatives were interviewed with semi-structured interviews.The results show that the representatives describe Vätternrundan as a positive event which mostly generates positive effects for the city itself and for the people living and working there. The effects consist of the events ability to create awareness of the place, the possibility to extend the tourism season and several social effects like solidarity and interaction.The result also shows that Vätternrundan is a well-known brand and because of this it can be used as an advantage in place marketing.

This report gives an overview of applications of the Greenroads rating system whichin turn is an environmental review system for roads. The focus of this report isapplications during the construction phase, ie on solutions which adhere to theentrepreneur's area of responsibility as opposed to the designer's. The study was undertaken in cooperation with Skanska (a global contractor andFortune 500 company) which provided a project suitable for an exemplatory study ofGreenroads. Please note that the project in particular was not specifically designedwith Greenroads in mind. Therefore and because of that the site provided anexcellent opportunity to study effects of application contra non-application. The approach of this study was to first review the system, thereafter to performinterviews with key personel at the site in different roles as to receive different viewsof selected points of application. Selected possibilities of application are cathegorizedand presented with comments and suggestions for adoption. Lastly Greenroads is briefly compared to the rating system which today is the mostwidely used by Skanska, LEED.

The aim of this study was to increase the knowledge about whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus) ecology to enhance the ability to predict and also to prevent the crop damage they cause. The largest proportion of damage in Sweden has been reported at stopover sites during spring migration in February, March and April. Therefore, this study focused on an important stopover site, Lake Tysslingen, situated in south-central Sweden. Specifically, the relation between the duration and period migrating swans stage at the stopover site and mean temperature (measured at three different weather stations) for the years 2001-2010 was studied. Furthermore, the swans´ selection for certain fields in relation to field type, distance to roosting site, a supplemental feeding site and forest edge within agricultural land surrounding the lake was analyzed.

For many individuals gambling gives an opportunity for relaxation and social relations. The positive effects of gambling are for most individual?s considerable more than the negative effects. Even if gambling gives positive effects there is individuals that cannot control there gambling and therefore develop an addiction which disturb there life situation and health. The aim of this study was to describe which personal characteristics distinguish people with a pathological gambling and which psychological, physical and social consequences this pathological gambling causes for the individual.

In this study, we have examined how Swedish tour operators are using social media as part of their marketing plan. Our purpose was to find out which strategies they use in the area of social marketing. The companies that were examined were Ving, Fritidsresor and Jambo tours, and the social network site that the research focused on was Facebook. The examination was conducted with a content analysis of the companies' Facebook pages and qualitative, structured interviews with the companies. The aim was to compare the various tour operators Facebook pages in order to get a broader overview of the companies marketing strategies.

The aim of this study is to investigate and analyze the potential effects on a number of social workers that may arise from listening to stories of domestic violence, and how these social workers deal with the potential effects. The study is based on qualitative interviews with seven social workers that work with domestic violence. The theoretical perspective that we used was the theory of coping. The results of this study have indicated that the respondents have been affected of listening to the stories of domestic violence. Examples of different impacts that the work has had on some of the social workers is that they avoid movies and/or books with elements of violence, they are more aware of the domestic violence in the surroundings and there has also been changes in their cognitive schemas.

This report gives an overview of applications of the Greenroads rating system whichin turn is an environmental review system for roads. The focus of this report isapplications during the construction phase, ie on solutions which adhere to theentrepreneur's area of responsibility as opposed to the designer's. The study was undertaken in cooperation with Skanska (a global contractor andFortune 500 company) which provided a project suitable for an exemplatory study ofGreenroads. Please note that the project in particular was not specifically designedwith Greenroads in mind. Therefore and because of that the site provided anexcellent opportunity to study effects of application contra non-application. The approach of this study was to first review the system, thereafter to performinterviews with key personel at the site in different roles as to receive different viewsof selected points of application. Selected possibilities of application are cathegorizedand presented with comments and suggestions for adoption. Lastly Greenroads is briefly compared to the rating system which today is the mostwidely used by Skanska, LEED.