Bergslagens Sparbank as well as other independent(fristående) sparbanker have discoveredthat some of their customers can not separate them from Swedbank. Some customers maythus believe that they are the same bank. This study seeks factors that may contribute to thisproblem, and measures that can counteract. We refer to this problem as brand confusion andmainly have our focus on factors derived from brand alliance, but also from the companyitself and the banking industry. We use a qualitative method where we collect empirical datafrom interviews with four sparbanker.

A large proportion of businesses around the world is today ISO 9001 certified and is consequently conducting internal audits on a regular basis. It has however not been possible to conclude that internal audits always add value to the organisation, despite the large utilisation of this tool. Some authors, e.g. Alic & Rusjan (2010) and Wealleans (2000), mean that there are possibilities that internal audits may be used as a value-adding improvement tool. This has led to the emergence of this master?s thesis.The purpose of the case study was therefore formulated to examine how internal quality audits can be made more effective and used as an improvement tool.

Bortom historien slut ? Beyond the end of historyAccording to Robert Dahl there are seven criteria that have to be fulfilled in order for a state to be democratic. Dahl also states that there are several factors that effect the development of democracy. In today?s world it is mostly developing countries that have failed to bring about democratic changes.

Managers operating within the dynamic society of today are said to rely on intuition when effective and quick decisions are to be made. This skill or phenomenon has aroused an interest within the academic world of management whom has explored intuition, its relation to decision making and its influencing factors, especially in the private sector. Intuitive decision making is however not isolated solely to this sector but also involved in decision making associated to the public sector. Therefore, the aim of the thesis is to investigate whether managers at the hospital Akademiska in Uppsala involve intuition in decision making and to what extent the factors time, amount of information, individual experience and decision complexity influence the intuition.The theoretical framework includes academic research regarding how intuition and rationality affect decisions, the concept of intuition and factors influencing the intuitiveness of decision making. Furthermore the theoretical discussion explores intuition connected to leadership, negative aspects of intuitive decisions and a comparison between different factors that separates public and private sector in terms of decision making.

The purpose of this research is to examine some historical aspects of Robert Putnam?s thesisabout voluntary associations and social capital. According to a micro perspective theory ofsocial capital the trust and reciprocity required and created by associations is important toexplain the disparity between institutional performance and socioeconomic development ofsocieties. The social patterns governing this therefore set a precedent for the future. Using themutual sickness benefit societies in Sweden as variable for voluntary associations around1884, the essay discusses the possible links between social capital, associations and long termeconomic development.

Many perceive a boom in nostalgia and what is retro, especially within the marketing discipline. This thesis studies how nostalgia functions in the advertising context and aims to shed light on which effects there are from nostalgia evoking communication, what connections there are with other important factors as well as aspires to develop the understanding of the underlying psychological aspects and the emotional bonds to events (as nostalgia evoking stimuli in the thesis), which pave the ground for nostalgic emotions. Point of origin has been classical measures of communication effects and models of connections and causality and to these important factors have been added. Results show clear connections and correlations between nostalgia and positive communication effects, even with control for other factors that may interfere. However, the results show that some factors have moderating effects that should be important to take into consideration, namely how well the brand and the event in the ad are perceived to fit the advertising context.

The main purpose of this study was to examine how people who have felt mentally bad, describe their subjective experience of what leads to a mental well-being. The overall research questions were; how does the individual define mental well-being, how does the individual describe the turning-point during her tough period, and in what way does the individual consider that her own effort has influenced her well-being? In order to answer these questions, qualitative research interviews were conducted with persons who?ve felt mentally bad and who?ve got some kind of professional help, and who think that they have a mental well-being today. The empirical material was analyzed from a theoretical resilience perspective. The study?s result showed first of all, that there are different ways to define well-being.

In 2007 the Swedish government appointed a commission of inquiry with the task to submit a proposal of reduction in the requirement of a minimum legal capital for private limited liability companies. The commission of inquiry?s main proposal involved a reduction to SEK 50,000 compared to the prevailing SEK 100,000. Following a complementary proposal from the Justice Department suggesting a reduction to SEK 1, this paper aims at providing an understanding of the function and purpose of a minimum legal capital and the consequences that follows from an abolition of the statutory capital requirement. The thesis concludes that the legal capital?s main purpose is that of a standard contract internalizing the shareholder?s risk in business.

There is an irregularity in the interregional migration in Sweden. An increasing proportion ofthe population is drawn to the metropolitan areas, which creates problems for the smallermunicipalities and towns when their population declines. At the same time, our whole societyis faced with a great challenge: we need to redirect towards a sustainable development, wherethe environmental issues are discussed and dealt with to secure that all present and futuregenerations are given equal opportunities to live a good life.The aim of this study is to, focusing mainly on the environmental dimension of thesustainability concept, examine the attractivity of housing with sustainability claims. Toanswer this, three research questions were used:? Was the migration motive to reduce their environmental impact a part of the decision tomove, among migrants who had moved to housing with sustainability claims?? If the motive was a part of the decision, how much impact did it have compared to othermigration motives?? Which factors in housing aiming at sustainability are considered important by peopleliving in housing with sustainability claims?The research questions have been answered using quantitative data, gained in the form of selfadministeredquestionnaires which were distributed in four different residential areas withsustainability claims in the county of Västra Götaland, Sweden.

Many perceive a boom in nostalgia and what is retro, especially within the marketing discipline. This thesis studies how nostalgia functions in the advertising context and aims to shed light on which effects there are from nostalgia evoking communication, what connections there are with other important factors as well as aspires to develop the understanding of the underlying psychological aspects and the emotional bonds to events (as nostalgia evoking stimuli in the thesis), which pave the ground for nostalgic emotions. Point of origin has been classical measures of communication effects and models of connections and causality and to these important factors have been added. Results show clear connections and correlations between nostalgia and positive communication effects, even with control for other factors that may interfere. However, the results show that some factors have moderating effects that should be important to take into consideration, namely how well the brand and the event in the ad are perceived to fit the advertising context.

There is an irregularity in the interregional migration in Sweden. An increasing proportion ofthe population is drawn to the metropolitan areas, which creates problems for the smallermunicipalities and towns when their population declines. At the same time, our whole societyis faced with a great challenge: we need to redirect towards a sustainable development, wherethe environmental issues are discussed and dealt with to secure that all present and futuregenerations are given equal opportunities to live a good life.The aim of this study is to, focusing mainly on the environmental dimension of thesustainability concept, examine the attractivity of housing with sustainability claims. Toanswer this, three research questions were used:? Was the migration motive to reduce their environmental impact a part of the decision tomove, among migrants who had moved to housing with sustainability claims?? If the motive was a part of the decision, how much impact did it have compared to othermigration motives?? Which factors in housing aiming at sustainability are considered important by peopleliving in housing with sustainability claims?The research questions have been answered using quantitative data, gained in the form of selfadministeredquestionnaires which were distributed in four different residential areas withsustainability claims in the county of Västra Götaland, Sweden.

In today?s IT-community, consumers use the internet in a increasing rate to find information or to purchase products and services. This has led to a growth in the market, but also a greater competition between e-stores and web shops. To separate yourself from the masses has become more important, the question is; what strategy should the IT-salesman use? The meaning of this scientific study is to find and focus on witch the primary factors/aspects are, that controls and is the very foundation for the consumer making a purchase, by using the internet.

The aim of this study was to compare educational systems in Sweden, Czech Republic, Italy and Scotland. In the light of the Bologna Declaration signed in 1999, I was particularly interested in comparing social work educations in these four countries. Especially to clarify how far they have come to fulfill the goals of the common European educational policy.Central questions asked were: How do the educational systems look like in each of the four countries? How are the social work educations organized in each of them? In what ways do the social work educations differ? How can we explain such differences?Each country in this study represents a different welfare regime, and therefore I was challenged to find out if this has an impact on the implementation of the incentives of the Bologna Declaration. By studying various documents from the European Union, documents from each country and presentations of various social work programmes, I have come to the conclusion that the differences found mainly depends on the historical and socioeconomic traditions in the countries.

Companies have in the past decades changed fromtraditional manufacturing organizations into serviceorganizations. For these service organizationsinformation and competence have become animportant resource. The traditional view oninformation is that an employee use and search forinformation to reduce uncertainty for their decisionmaking. Even though information is strategicallyimportant for organizations, information is not valuedin any way. Hence, this thesis aims to valueinformation in terms of the utility it brings to theorganization.The conclusion is that four factors are important whenvaluing information in terms of utility.

The purpose of this report was to investigate how the abiotic factors (temperature, pH, nutrients, oxygen levels and water content) would affect the decomposition of oil-contaminated soil and how a variance in structured soil would affect the decomposition-rate. A minor field-study was made and soil where structured in five different ways (one was a default pile and was used as a reference). The study took place over 137 days and three samples were taken (start, middle, end) and analyzed for aromatic and aliphatic compounds. The result of this study shows that there is a significant difference between all methods for the aliphatic compounds and no significant difference for the aromatic compounds. The abiotic factors that affect decomposition vary from organism to organism, depending on what type of environment it will function the best.