Title: Competition for small audit firms ? a qualitative study on possible competitive strategies and how the upcoming changes will influence competition on the audit market    Subject: Auditing Tutor: Margareta Paulsson  Authors: Per Dahlström and Martin Holmberg Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding how smaller auditing firms use competitive strategies and why. The result aims to work as a support for owners and leaders of audit firms as they make decisions of how to compete in the future. We would also like to explore how smaller audit firms view the change of the mandatory audit, that is, our intentions are also to examine how they think the consequences on the market will be and their view on its affect on the competition of the market.    Methodology: Our methodological approach was characterized by a hermeneutic approach in order to explain and understand why the smaller audit firms do what they do. Our approach is a combination of inductive and deductive as it allows us to develop an understanding of the subject, then gather our empirical data and from that draw valid conclusions.

The aim of our thesis is to study and analyze the components and features a brand should have to provide a solid foundation for brand building. Furthermore, we show how brands can make use of trends in a brand establishment.This paper is written from a qualitative approach. Through both structured and semi structured interviews, we obtained valuable information from our respondents. Our frame of reference and empirical foundation are linked together through an abductive approach which has resulted in our analysis and conclusions.A trend brings with a set of emotional characteristics, which companies can?t influence but must adapt to.

Title: What drives the customer's choice of packaging and which factors influence the customer's packaging cost? ? in the automotive and manufacturing industriesAuthor: Lena AnderssonSupervisors: Annika Olsson, Division of Packaging Logistics, Lund Institute of TechnologyHelena Claesson, Volvo Logistics ABProblem: Which parameters are important for logistic people to think of when they are going to choose a package?Which cost factors are included in the packaging cost?What kind of added value can an emballage supplier provide their services with?Purpose: The purpose of the project was to study the parameters that drives the customer's choice of packaging and the factors that influence the total packaging cost. The study also consists of a valuation of what an emballage supplier can offer to add value to their services.Method: The study is based on interviews with people who are working at Volvo Logistics and Volvo Car Corporation. Volvo Logistics provide their customers with standard packaging material, which they own and administrate. Volvo Car Corporation is one of their customers.

This project was started within the Market-Design programme of Elforsk, with the aim of developing representative test systems of Swedish distribution networks. Using such test systems as a basis for reliability and customer interruption cost calculations makes it feasible to analyse the network tariff regulation of Swedish power  istribution companies. In particular, it enables studies of the incentives for companies to invest in system reliability. Until now, the available test systems are either not representative of Swedish conditions, or too small in scale and limited in function.Within this project we have created two test systems. In order to represent the diversity of actual Swedish distribution networks, we have created one test system for urban environments and another for rural environments.

Retail marketing is a field with many different enbranchements. Some of these can be considered relatively well explored, while the lack of knowledge concerning others is almost total. For example, the existing knowledge regardng the possible impact that non-musical sound can have on the customer can be considered non-existent. With this in mind, the intention with the thesis was to closer investigate how non-musical sound can influence the customer's decision process and attitude in and to a grocery store. The authors started out with theories on associative networks and automatic processing.

Rapporten inleds med en beskrivning av WM-datas Network Management struktur och Reporting Management behov. Därefter följer en beskrivning av de två analys tekniker Datamining och On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) vilka är de mest använda databasbaserade tekniker. Verktyget Tivoli Decision Support (TDS) är ett stödssystem som ska underlätta för beslutsfattare inom organisationen. TDS baseras på OLAP ? tekniken och rapporten visar avslutningsvis de möjligheter som verktyget ger avseende WM-datas Reporting Management..

Syftet med denna uppsats är att testa olika tradingmodeller inom valutahandel, byggda på tekniska indikatorer, för att undersöka om man kan nå en positiv avkastning.Undersökningen omfattar 24 olika modeller, byggda på fyra olika tekniska indikatorer och med tre olika money management strategier. Modellerna testas på fem olika valutapar under tre månaders tid. Slutsatsen är att det går att nå positiv avkastning och även positiv överavkastning med automatiska tradingmodeller om rätt indikatorer och money management strategier används. Modellernas avkastning är mer känsliga för valet av money management strategi än för valet av vilka tekniska indikatorer och parametervärden som ska användas..

According to statistics, a significant increase in sickness has occurred in the public sector in recent decades in Sweden. Human therapeutic professions is the area where the illness is most prevalent. The purpose of this study was through a qualitative method and hermeneutic approaches explore how conscious six social workers in the social services are on stress and how they cope with it. Further it investigates and analyzes how these results affect their daily work.One important result due to stress is that the social workers ability to treat their clients is impaired and they are less able to be empathetic. Inadequacy in the work environment leads to a sense of insufficiency by social workers, and a reduced quality of life.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att göra en systematisk beskrivning, utifrån ett aktörs- och aktivitetsperspektiv, av ämnet Crisis Management. Detta för att skapa ett djup och en förståelse kring begreppet Crisis Management och dess innebörd i ett svenskt företag. Vi har för avsikt att först utföra en teoristudie för att sedan kunna jämföra denna med praktiken, för att erhålla den bas som behövs för att diskutera och besvara vår problemformulering. Resultatet av ett effektivt Crisis Management blir enligt oss, att Crisis Mangement utgör en psykologisk effekt på företag och dess aktörer. Den trygghetskänsla, vilken Crisis Management genererar, föder en säkerhet hos företag.

This master's thesis aims to study the relationship between two publiclibraries and Berättarministeriet, a foundation that offers free writingworkshops for children in areas with high levels of unemployment. Theworkshops are located in spaces that formerly belonged to the libraries.Questions posed in this thesis are How can the relationship between thelibraries and Berättarministeriet be described?, Why did the relationship turnout differently in the two places? and How does the library see itself, inrelation to Berättarministeriet?The theories used are Ögland's taxonomy for relationships between librariesand local organizations, and Folkesson's theory on interaction betweendifferent professional groups, and this was studied through interviews. Theresults showed a relationship without much interaction, beyond a "handover"of children from one place to the other, with time and shortness of staff beingcontributing factors to the low level of collaboration. Regarding the differentrelationships in the two places the results were not conclusive, butnevertheless showed tendancies of issues in the legitimacy dimension, fromthe library towards Berättarministeriet.

The advancements in digital technology and its availability contribute to the transfer of companycentricproduct development and value creation to networks or communities. It also changes the basisfor creation of customer relationships as described in previous research on Customer relationshipmanagement (CRM). The purpose of this case study was to gain an understanding of how companieslike our case study object Memoto who developed a physical product which gets added-value fromdigital product-related services looks upon product-centered communities as a way of buildingcustomer relationships. How Memoto looks upon incentives for participation in product-centeredcommunities was also examined.Our research indicated that firms in the start-up phase (which Memoto was when this study wasconducted) initially want to have more control over the process of innovation and hence have directcontact with end-customers. The reason for this is because they see a need to define the basis forfurther innovation work.

Demands on businesses are constantly increasing and the competition in the market-place is becoming ever tougher. To gain the long-term confidence of customers, not only the best businesses, but also the best supply chains are required.Volvo Cars is experiencing a changing competitive situation and their retailers are having trouble stocking the right spare parts. Shorter product life cycles and the growth of Volvo?s product program result in an increase in the number of spare parts to be stocked. In order to adapt to market trends and meet customer demands, Volvo has developed the LDC model, establishing a number of regional warehouses in strategic locations in Sweden, de-signed to supply spare parts to the regions? retailers through so-called Vendor-Managed In-ventory (VMI).The purpose of the study is to examine Volvo personbilar Sverige?s (VPS) motivation for a modified customer-service strategy through LDC.

In this study we examined co-workers experiences of having a previous colleague as their leader, which is relatively common. We made qualitative interviews with six social welfare administrators who had been through this situation at work. The questions had been concentrated at how they were affected by the previous relationship, what expectations they had, and their view of how the business had been handled by their leader. The result of these interviews has then been connected to two leadership theories. The conclusion of the study was that the experience of the situation differs.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the communication between banks and their customers. Delimitations were made and the focus became towards upper secondary school students. The study was based on two interviews with bankers on different locations and with different stature, and a focus group consisting of eight upper secondary school students. The conclusion of the thesis was that there are certain problems in the communication between banks and upper secondary school students. The bank didn?t always communicate on the same level as the students when they presented their proposals.

This study aims to disclose how an asymmetric planogram structure of the brand with the highest actual variety may come to affect the brand itself and its category as a whole. The authors of the study feel that there is a gap still unfilled amongst previous extensive research examining how differences in either space or price vary between categories, products or brands. An in-store experiment was conducted by collecting quantitative data from daily sales, observations of customers and questionnaires. The results show that an asymmetric structure leads to customers being more attentive towards the brand, and perceives it to be more dominant over its surrounding competitors. Furthermore, results indicate that the customer perceived variety increases and we see tendencies to changes in sales..