A positive aspect of globalization, from a western viewpoint, is the growing demand of advanced products in China and other developing countries. The construction industry is thriving in China and Swedish companies have taken part in various projects. However the situation have been difficult for some of the companies. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate how strategic and cultural factors affect the potential for Swedish companies to operate on the Chinese construction market. The theoretical framework of the study consists of Porter?s and Kotler?s theories about strategy, and Hofstede?s, Bjerke?s, and Daun?s research about different cultures.

The concept of the work-first principle (arbetslinjen) might be considered old, but still serves as the main principle as well as an instrument in the Swedish labour market and social policy today. The original idea was that work and willingness to work was to be rewarded, especially due to a common opposition against the passive receipt of grants. The general definition of work, today, is that it is something desirable that should be achieved and that unemployed primarily will be offered training or work rather than grants and subsidies. When the Moderate party re-launched themselves as Sweden's "workers' party of today", in the beginning of the 2000's, the concept was brought back into the spotlight. In the elections of 2006 and 2010, the labour market was widely debated and become a controversial issue, with the concept of the work-first principle playing a major role.The purpose of this thesis is to analyse and problematize how the concept was presented and explained in the nationwide newspapers Aftonbladet and Svenska Dagbladet during the 2010 elections, this in order to increase the understanding of the concept?s contemporary definition and policy implications.

Problem discussion: Syncron experience a challenge in realizing the full market potential of its newly developed IT-based price management system, Global Price Management (GPM). The system has already been implemented and is currently running with success within the IT-structures of the first customer. The fact that the development of the system has been initiated by a customer, and thereby has left Syncron oblivious of the real underlying drivers and incentives for the development, is part of the problem. Understanding the customers? incentives for developing their pricing process thus reducing the application uncertainty is a good starting point.

Studien syftar till att; genom en fallstudie på ett utvalt företag, analysera och skapa förståelse kring prissättningsförmåga och prissättningsarbete som konkurrensfördel i tjänsteföretag. Trots studiens fokus på ett enskilt fall och en specifik situation är förhoppningen att studiens slutsatser i någon utsträckning även ska vara av generellt intresse för andra tjänsteföretag. Ramen för studien utgörs av en abduktiv och explorativ ansats, inom vilken undersökningsdesign och metoder för datainsamling och tolkning har bestämts. Företaget SJ har studerats genom en fallstudie. Som metoder för insamling av data har främst kvalitativa, semistrukturerade intervjuer använts.

En sammanfattning av uppsatsen på maximalt 8000 tecken..

Real options analysis is a method for assigning value to flexibility in decisions, coming from uncertainty in future outcomes. This thesis ascertains to what degree this method is superior to traditional net present value analysis, with regards to ease of implementation in relation to the benefits from being able to measure the total value. Real options analysis is evaluated with a case study of the Swedish online gambling market, and conducted with the binomial framework of Copeland and Antikarov (2003). The authors find the sensible use of real options dependant on the specific situation to which it is applied, i.e. a certain degree of future uncertainty and managerial flexibility is necessary for justification of the increased workload.

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.

AbstractTitle: Brand communication ? An analyze of Borka and BayIcons communicative labor in relations with WJOS. (Varumärkeskommunikation ? En analys av Borka och BayIcons kommunikativa arbete i relation till WJOS)Number of pages: 53 (55 including enclosures)Author: Johan LarssonTutor: Göran SvenssonCourse: Media and Communications Studies CPeriod: Second term / autumn 2007University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/aim: The purpose of this essay is to study how two small Swedish clothing companies, Borka and BayIcon, manage their brand communication. Brand communication includes work with target groups, brands, media and finally communication in a bigger perspective.

AbstractTitle: Manipulation or relation ? the language as an instrument for influence (relation eller manipulation ? om språket som medel för påverkan)Number of pages: 42Author: Matilde JohanssonTutor: Peder Hård af SegerstadCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Autumn term 2007University: Division of Media and communication, Department of information science, Uppsala universityPurpose/Aim: The aim of this essay is to gain a deeper understanding of how communication consultants work with communication. The purpose is to sort out whether or not the consultants have the same view in their strategic work with influence as they have when they build relations to customers. In the end the essay will answer if the perspective is the same between their strategic work, their relations and the research definition of how to obtain a genuine dialogue and a good relationship.Material/Method: This is a qualitative research. I have interviewed five communication consultants from three different corporations.

The purpose of the essay is to investigate whether the principles formulated by Peter Ackerman and Christopher Kruegler, concerning strategic non-violent conflicts, can serve a purpose when analyzing improvised non-violent conflicts. The principles are derived from factors that have been prominent in earlier successful improvised non-violent conflicts.The essay is based on two research questions; if the factors included in the principles formulated by Ackerman and Kruegler, exist in the two cases that this study investigates, and if those principles offer a satisfactory explanation for the outcome of an improvised non-violent conflict.To answer the questions the study uses a comparative method, where the improvised non-violent conflict of 2004 in Ukraine is compared to the improvised non-violent conflict of 1988 in Burma.The answer to the first question shows that the factors contained in the principles previously mentioned, exists in both cases. The answer to the second question is more uncertain, as there seems to be doubts on whether the case of Ukraine really was completely improvised. Another reason for caution is that the factors contained in the principles, only consider actions made by non-violent actors, and not by opponents or third parties. Thus the risks of missing vital explanatory factors are substantial..

Today every organization is committed to some kind of environmental scanning in order to get necessary knowledge of the world around them. The acquisition, organization and storage of information in combination with a strategic use, is today an important factor for a successful organisation in any sector of our society.In this Master thesis I have studied how an organisation such as The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv) handles its information resources. I have also looked at the flow of information within the organization. The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise is Sweden?s largest business federation representing 50 member organizations and 55 000 member companies.

The purpose of this Master?s thesis is to discuss marketing as it applies to some school libraries. Today?s marketing is about relations. It involves the establishment, maintenance and development of relations with users, non-users and other library related relationships.

Printed newspapers are on the decline, while digital versions are in rapid growth. Consequently the industry must draw up new business models around the digital format - models that can produce revenue streams equivalent to those that the print format used to produce. However, after a decade of 'free' online news, consumers now hesitate to pay. In their struggle for survival, strategic pricing is a central issue for newspapers. This study aims at describing how Swedish newspapers price their digital content, by analyzing their pricing processes and five factors that may influence the choice of paywall and price levels.

The purpose of this thesis is to clarify the connection between word-of-mouth and viral marketing, to identify properties of and strategic ways to implement viral marketing and to examine how a company can influence the customers? perception of the brand in social media.This purpose served to answer our research question: How can companies deliberately create viral marketing?To answer this question we based our study on a qualitative method where we conducted eight interviews with different people, all with experience in our research field. We focused on our respondents? own opinions and were more interested in their personal experiences rather than the market in general.In our last chapter our analysis clearly demonstrates that companies can deliberately create viral marketing. This is possible if companies create material that appeal to and that triggers the costumer to share.

The purpose of this essay is to examine the Swedish relations to Nato and by doing so see on what terms the cooperation is executed and why. However, Sweden is not a member of Nato and is thereby not seen as an ally of the organization but even so Sweden has a close cooperation with Nato. The theories used in this essay is The Rational Actor Model and The Organizational Behaviour Model by Graham Allison and Philip Zelikow. To this a number of additional theorises are used as to complement these two main theories. The aim with these theories is to see which one gives the most satisfying explanation of the Swedish strategy to cooperate with Nato and still not be a member of the alliance or if all theorises are needed.