This thesis? objective is to evaluate the recently proposed Shy (2002) approach of estimating consumer Switching costs. We apply Shy?s method for estimating Switching costs on the Swedish markets for bank deposits and telecommunications. The evaluation has been achieved by comparing estimated results to economic theories, related empirical studies, and our expectations.

The purpose of this thesis is to map out and investigate how the banking sector affects a customer?s willingness to change bank, and what the Switching costs are for a customer when making these changes. A case study was performed through qualitative and quantitative questionnaires and interviews. The qualitative part was carried out to create hypotheses. The hypotheses was tested in a quantitative survey to be able to either accepted or rejected these them.

This thesis focuses on Chinese?Swedish code-switching of bilingual children in Sweden. The purpose is to, through a case study, study what Chinese?Swedish code-switching looks like in daily conversations between bilingual children and their parents. Three main questions are formulated from the purpose of the thesis, foucusing on the types and frequencies of code-switching, the grammar of code-switching, and the motivation of code-switching.The linguistic material comes from voice recordings of naturally occurring conversations between three children and their parents, which are transcribed afterwards.

This thesis is performed in collaboration with Kraftpowercon AB in Surte, Sweden. Focus has been on to identify the powerlosses in one of Kraftpowercons halfbridge DC-DC converters. First theoretical calculations are made, the calculations is verified with measurements of six different operation modes. In a later stage, methods like soft switching and synchronous rectifying are proposed to increase the efficiency for the converter. To achieve softswitching for the halfbridge, the LLC resonant converter topologies are implemented and examined.

The essay that you are now holding in your hand is a survey about how different companies calculate their logistic costs and the activities which are included. We have examined five companies within the county of Kalmar. The research objective has been to study how aware companies are about their logistic activities and costs. The conclusion of the report is that they put their logistic costs together with other costs which they distribute among their products. The companies identify additional logistic activities than costs which regarding to us is one step in the right direction towards the awareness concerning future effectiveness in the business..

Many corporations turn to IT-outsourcing to focus more on their core competence or to cut the IT-budget. There is one caveat, the costs presented at a first glance does not always present the entire truth. Instead the costs run deeper and so-called hidden costs exist beyond the contractual cost. Reducing these hidden costs may very well be crucial to the entire IT-outsourcing endeavor. However many firms are not aware of these costs and as such they have a reduced chance of success.

The aim of this study is to investigate English teachers? communication when teaching English in grade three in Swedish schools. The investigation seeks to find out what language is, and why it is, dominant and how the proportions in the teachers? uses of English and Swedish in time are distributed. The study also describes what attitudes teachers have to the English language and if, if so how, two categories of strategies, namely body language and code switching are used.The study was performed in two steps with different methods for collection of qualitative empirical data.

As the usage of loyalty programs increases, this study takes a new approach to examine how these programs influence consumers? attitudes toward brands. This paper is influenced by the recent findings that question the capability to create a clear picture of the effects of loyalty programs by conducting quantitative research. This is based of the differentiation between attitudes and actions, leading to the fact that quantitative research have only captured the actions of members of loyalty programs. In contrast to that, this paper uses qualitative interviews to create a more in-depth point of view.The paper immerses the reader in the theoretical viewings of what loyalty is and how it emerges from satisfaction.

Rapporten beskriver ett examensarbete genomfört på uppdrag av Motoman Robotics Europe AB i Torsås. Uppdraget gick ut på att hitta en lösning för att helautomatiskt kunna växla svetspistoler med en Motoman HP-20 industrirobot. Projektet har i första hand varit ett utvecklingsarbete med fokus på en fungerande praktisk lösning. Arbetet har fortskridit i nära samarbete med och handledning av konstruktörer på företaget samt stöd från vår lärare. Resultatet har blivit en kompakt och estetiskt tilltalande konstruktion som uppfyller kraven som uppdragsgivaren ställt..

The Swedish sports retail industry has experienced extensive growth during the last decade, and this has attracted new entrants to the market, both start-ups and international followers. This has inevitably put more pressure on incumbents, which are now confronted with major challenges as how to retain their customers and market shares. Customer loyalty has been proved to be an important factor for customer retention and proposed to constitute inertia of switching behavior. In light of this problematization, the purpose of this study is to describe the underlying factors of loyalty and whether purchase habits could further explain customer loyalty. The aim is also to understand the strategic implications of the factors involved.

At a manufacturing company, due to the competition the price is reducedtowards the manufacturing cost. Therefore it is important to maintain control ofones costs and keep calculations up-to-date.This thesis deals with cost accounting at a aluminium-processing company. The report focuses on calculating machine cost per hour since the manufacturing costs are the major part of the total product cost.Managers on the company believe that the costs they use in calculations todayneither is up-to-date nor advantageous in a market aspect and due to that their calculations need to be revised. The machines cost per hour is a major part in the manufacturing calculation. The company wants to provide a competitive price that also covers their costs.

This bachelor?s thesis examines costs of welfare services in municipalities of the region of Västra Götaland in Sweden. Previous research provided reasons to expect a link between costs of welfare services and demographic changes. Furthermore, Willam J. Baumol?s theory about ?the cost disease? also provided reasons to expect a link between welfare services and salary levels.

The purpose of this essay is to identify the costs of illness in different organizations, and compare the calculated result with the actual result in their annual reports.We collected information thru interviews with the personnel manager in the selected organizations, and used the annual reports to add necessary information.When we applied our model, we found that the selected organizations, in some cases, have a cost of illnes which is up to seven times higher than shown in their annual reports. It?s, in general, the costs that aren?t related to the salary (additional costs), which are much higher than shown.The absence of a model that calculates the costs of illnes can result in wrongful decisions. If a model would be applied in an organization, it should increase the awearness of the actual costs of illnes, which can lead to better decisions througout the whole organization.This report is written in Swedish..

Research and Development-costs constitutes an important part in contemporary companies. R&D are treated differently depending on their definition and how the historic value is decided. The main goal for this essay is to bring clarity to how the definiton of the term R&D is decided in accounting as well as in tax law. Another goal is to decide how the historic value is calculated. It is also interesting to examine under which circumstances the costs can be activated in the balance sheet, and under which circumstances deduction for the R&D-costs may be allowed.

The use of gabions means a reduced amount of filling material in the road section and a more narrow construction. Also the use of limestone cement columns can be reduced. All together this results in lower costs. The columns stand for about 55% of the total costs for the road. If gabions are used you can reduce the total costs with over 10%..