Many design agencies and designers like to see design as a longtime strategic investment for any company. However, knowledge of design as a strategic resource depends on ones professional background and ones knowledge of design as such. It is common today that clients meet design agencies and therefore design with a certain skepticism concerning its role in the company. Within the prodctdevelopment-process the company?s different functions meet.

Propose/Aim: The aim of this thesis is to examine the professional role of the Community Manager working for gaming companies. The thesis will examine which background and previous experience a Community Manager should have and the tasks included in the assignment to see how this new role can contribute to the development of gaming companies.Material/Method: The method used in this study is of a qualitative character. The data has been gathered through e-mail interviews with five people working as Community Managers in the gaming business and in addition, through a textual analysis of five job advertisements. The results were analyzed on the basis of carefully selected theories in the field of strategic communication.Main results: The main result of this study is that the Community Manager's most important task is to act as a link between the players and the game developers by communicating with both sides. The Community Manager can receive important feedback from the players which can contribute to the game development. .

This study addresses the issue of mergers between consulting firms. Previous research has shown that there are specific factors that determine the outcome of a merger and that success is more likely if companies are more similar. The purpose of the study is therefore to define relevant factors and understand when resemblance matter and under what conditions disparity may cause problems. Furthermore, the aim of the study is to find a pattern of which factors are more important in a successful merger. The problem of the study is addressed through a qualitative research approach and is conducted on six different mergers.

The study focuses on mapping how well prepared the counties in the west region of Sweden is in case of restructuring. The study explores what kind of activities and routines that contributes to prepare the organization for restructuring. The study also aims to investigate the effect of precedent restructuring, and if the counties who experienced restructuring are more prepared than others.The research within the field of restructuring characterizes of an evaluating nature and the focus has been after the restructuring occurred. There have also been a lot of studies of the negative consequences on individual and organizational level. Since downsizing is a frequently used method by management despite its consequences is it important to investigate how organizations can learn and thereby be more prepared for restructuring.

ABSTRACTTitle: Senses strategic importance to the customer experience in dressing roomAuthors: Anna Andersson & Alexandra LundqvistTutor: Dr. Bertil Hultén, Associate Professor Linneaus School of Business and Economics Linnaeus UniversitySubject:  Bachelor thesis 15 hp. Business Economics C, Marketing. Linnaeus University, spring 2011Presentation of the question: Is it possible for companies to enhance customers experience in dressing rooms by strategically working with the senses?Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the senses relevance to the customer experience in the dressing room and create an understanding of the dressing room from a customer and business perspective.

This essay conducts a descriptive analysis of the ideas expressed by NATO´s official security strategy "Strategic Concept" from 2010 and the European Union?s security strategy "A Secure Europe in a Better World" from 2003. The purpose of this analysis is to examine whether the ESDP and NATO are compatible with each other when it comes to the role of security policy actor. To do so, I´ve chosen to analyse the actors' security strategies based on three dimensions. These dimensions are: Their view of the international scene, their views on cooperation and their views on how to reach security.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how the ongoing controversy surrounding the Internet, the phenomena of digitalization and file sharing will affect the music industry in the form of the ?big five? labels. Furthermore the thesis aims to present a recipe of strategies for the companies? survival by studying their situation through a theoretical perspective in conjunction with a comparative analysis with industries facing the digitalization challenge. The theoretical contribution lies in the Strategic perspective at an industry level.

Att lyckas med att skapa nytta av sina IT-investeringar är något som många företag har problem med. Många företag anser att de investeringar inom IT som genomförts är misslyckade och har enbart genererat i en ökad kostnad. Forskare anser att en anledning till att de inte lyckas med att generera nytta av IT-investeringar är att deras IT-strategi och affärsstrategi inte stämmer överens med varandra. Strategic alignment handlar om hur strategier är i nivå med varandra och arbetar för att nå samma mål. Det krävs enligt forskarna att företaget arbetar för att få en god strategic alignment, eller strategisk samstämmighet, mellan IT- och affärsstrategier för att de IT-investeringar som görs genererar i nytta för företaget.

Commercial strategies are becoming more common in an increasing number of sports - Swedish golf is no exception. Previous research shows that new opportunities for non-profit organizations, to assign parts of their operations to a limited company, do not have any economic importance. The supplementary question arises why more golf clubs nonetheless choose to corporatize its activities? Is the purpose of commercial strategies generally linked to business- or sport-related success? This paper, containing two studies, aims to create an understanding of the underlying drivers of commercialization, and furthermore to quantitatively demonstrate how commercialization is reflected within Swedish golf in terms of strategy and marketing. Swedish golf clubs were categorized as more or less commercial, and examined based on business-related variables such as communications, brand awareness and price discrimination, as well as sports-related variables as success factors and success indicators.

Human Resource Management (HRM) has an increasingly strategic role in today?s organizations as the supply of managers is an integral part of the strategic work. In order to retain competence and knowledge, firms are usually designed so that the employees can develop their careers within the firm. Company X is a company in the financial sector and is an example of such firm. However, at Company X: Department Y, very few employees apply for the management positions when they are announced.

To effectively manage a forest resource for both economic and other values good planning is required. The problem is complex since you want to know which forest to cut and when. Often a hierarchical planning structure is applied, including strategic (long-term), tactical, (medium-term) and operational level. Today SCA Forest is one of few forestry companies in the northern Sweden with an integrated forest wood supply and industry. The goals of the company are to supply their own industries with wood and to manage the resources of the forest through a long-term perspective with satisfactory profitability.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the existence of the discipline Design Thinking in a project that aims to strengthen Sweden as a brand. The study will generate knowledge about Design Thinking, with the purpose to increase the understanding of how the discipline can be used as a strategic tool in the processes of strengthening Nation Branding. The authors have used a descriptive and qualitative approach where the Shanghai World Expo in 2010 was examined. The theoretical framework contains previous research in the field, data has been analysed in relation to Lockwood's ten principles of how an organization can become more design-minded and Anholt?s hexagon, which features the parameters that creates a country's Nation Branding.

Problem Discussion: Nissan Diesel became a part of the Volvo Group in the end of March, 2007. A year has passed and the integration process is making progress but it is perceived to lack some momentum. Our sponsor would like to understand if there are any potential barriers to the integration process. (Haspeslagh, et al., 1991) and (Pablo, 1994) presents two different sets of determinants that can be used to decide the level of integration; ?difference in organizational culture? and ?strategic task? (Pablo, 1994) and ?Need for Organizational Autonomy? and ?Need for Strategic Interdependence? (Haspeslagh, et al., 1991).

There is much literature covering strategic change under different circumstances but very little concerning how companies act strategically under sudden and radical changes to market conditions. Based on three different events (the terrorist attack in the USA September 11th 2001, the Tjernobyl accident April 26th 1986 and the Islamic revolution in Iran 1979) with such radical changes as a result we chose three companies that were affected (SAS, Asea Atom and Atlas Copco). The result of the events that were studied in this thesis is extremely unusual to their character. The events themselves were sudden and of a temporary nature but the results were long term changes of market conditions. Through personal interviews the authors have tried to establish how the companies have perceived the events and how the top management has strategically handled the situation.

Abstract________________________________________________________________Författare/Author Richard TähtinenTitel/Title Youth hockey from a coach perspective. A qualitative study about coaches´appreciations concerning youth hockeyThe aim with this study is to strengthen the knowledge about coaches´ appreciationsconcerning youth hockey. This study contains interviews with three leaders that operate onthe strategic level within youth hockey and three coaches working with youth players in theages of 11 and 12. I have divided my main results into 4 categories, based on an earlier studyfrom Karin Redelius (2002). These categories include the following themes:1) Competition on the good and the bad2) The importance of winning3) Shake-out versus sports on children’s terms4) Instruction, play and learningThe main conclusions in this study show that leaders on the strategic level appreciate youthhockey in a very similar way.