It is a common view that companies should focus on building brands to increase profitability and stabilize cash flows. However, building and keeping brands alive is costly. Many firms spend large sums on branding only because they are supposed to, without knowing if they will actually gain from it. Up to date, there is limited convincing evidence that branding actually contributes to shareholder value creation. This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between brand strength and profitability and shareholder value.

Den agila utvecklingsmetoden scrum är en erkänd metodik inom systemutveckling som möjliggör noggrann utvärdering, testning och iteration inom utvecklingsprojekt. Scrum appliceras i projekt där scrumteamet normalt består av 3-9 personer. Vi presenterar i detta examensarbete resultat från en deltagande observation i ett småskaligt, tidsintensivt utvecklingsprojekt. Vi beskriver konsekvenserna av att med ett team bestående av två personer applicera scrum i ett utvecklingsprojekt med scrumartefakter såsom sprinter, dagliga scrummöten och produktbackloggar.  .

How the renovation of the vast Swedish existing building stock with renovation needs will be performed is considered as decisive in order to achieve the target set by the Swedish government of reducing the energy use by 20 percent by 2020. Consequently, the challenge of the building sector consists in reducing the energy use in the existing building stock but at the same time ensuring that the indoor environmental quality is improved and the cultural values are maintained.So far, there have been a few renovation projects which strongly have reduced the energy use and at the same time have taken into account the environmental aspects and the cultural values. The main reasons are that there have been few incentives and a lack of routines in order to steer efficiently a ?sustainable renovation?.The participants in a Nordic project on sustainable renovation thought that it would be a strong advantage to link the concept of sustainable renovation to the Miljöbyggnad certification system. Indeed it is trusted by the Swedish building and construction sectors and can provide sustainability targets in order to steer renovation processes.The objective of the master thesis is to show how the Miljöbyggnad certification system could be integrated in practice in the renovation process of Riksbyggen, an organization which administers housing associations (Bostadsrättsföreningar) and build houses.

Att mötas med hjälp av distansteknik har för många organisationer blivit ett alternativ i och med att de vill hålla nere sina kostnader och arbeta effektivare. Det övergripande syftet med studien är att undersöka användarnas syn på audiovisuella beslutsmöten inom en myndighet mellan två eller fler aktörer över geografiskt skilda platser. Vi vill med detta syfte studera vilka fördelar och hinder som medarbetare ser med användningen av audiovisuella interna beslutsmöten. Detta finner vi intressant att undersöka då vi ser en trend av att företag och verksamheter globaliseras och blir geografiskt utspridda över världen. Vilket innebär att kostnaderna blir högre i form av tid, pengar och produktivitet.

Flustret is a restaurant and an entertainment place situated by Svandammen in Uppsala. It all began in 1842 as a café serving coffee, tea, chocolate and pastry. During the years the building has had numbers of different owners. The owners of today are running Flustret in a same friendly spirit that has been characteristic from the beginning. The buldings history is now approaching an age of 165 years. Throughout the years different historical layers have been placed on top of each other, leaving a layer of patches.

In today?s competitive market, design is an important element for the companies. They must succeed with delivering an increased value and an experience for the consumer to be able to survive. The Swedish company?s have become better in the design area, the higher standards the consumer?s demands forces the company to invest more in design.

Projektet har genomförts i samarbete med Lokalförvaltningen, Göteborgs Stad.Eftersom behovet av lokaler i en stad förändras över tid efterfrågas en byggnad som kan användas till flera olika ändamål under dess bruksperiod. Ombyggnation av befintliga byggnader kan bli kostsamma och tidskrävande eftersom bärande komponenter eller fasta installationer ofta måste flyttas eller bytas ut. En flexibel byggnad som redan vid uppförandet förbereds för ombyggnation kan enkelt anpassas och användas till flera olika verksamheter. Att bygga mer effektivt och flexibelt minskar kostnader och bidrar till ett mer hållbart byggande. Syftet med arbetet var att ta fram en byggnad som genom enklare omställningsarbeten i byggnadens invändiga utseende kan fungera för tre olika verksamheter.

On the first of January 2012, a new public authority was formed in Värmland, due to a new legislation on public transport. The first task for the new public authority was to produce a plan for the development of public transport. In order to do so, it had to execute an extensive consultation process about the long-term goals of public transport. The purpose of the thesis is to investigate how a public authority can use a consultation process as a means to clarify accountability and produce unified goals. To answer that, I have done a case study about how the new regional public authority in Värmland for public transport has acted in the process of writing a plan for the development of public transport.

This thesis examines the effects of electricity visualization in an office building. The subject was investigated through the creation of a web based visualization tool that was made accessible to the about 1500 employees in a large office building. The visualization was available for three weeks. During this period interviews, user studies and observations took place in order to evaluate what, if any, effects the visualization had on the attitudes and behaviors in the office. Electricity use data was collected and analyzed to see if the project had a statistically significant effect on the electricity consumption in the office.The results from the interviews and the data analysis indicate that no reduction in electricity consumption took place, and a number of factors that could increase the chances of success were identified.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to, from a users perspective, investigate which factors affect the library use for six persons with disabilities or visual handicaps. My method has been a case study and the methods applied are interviews and observation. As a theoretical framework I use Tom Wilsons theories and models about information behaviour and transform them to a model about library use. Answers are sought to the following questions: - What does the library use look like for six persons with disabilities or visually handicaps? - How do they experience the library in their own municipality? - Which factors affect the disabled persons library use and experience of the library? All interviewees showed a very positive attitude towards the library and the majority of them visited the library regularly or received audio books by mail.

I have studied the suburban municipality of Botkyrka, south of Stockholm, from a rural perspective. Through that I`ve compared how countryside comes into being with the planning and building of suburbs. I have looked for a definition of Countryside, and found that it is often explained or defined in negative terms, as what it is not. In that it says nothing about what it really is, or about the qualitiies it has to it. Botkyrka is a suburb, but it does in large parts consist of countryside. Apart from defining countryside and rural I´ve been searching for a definition of suburbia, of it´s structure and the mental picture we have of it as a cultural phenomena. In order to understand the role that suburbs have in planning I describe their history from Italian renaissance villas to sprawl. By opposing urban and rural, modern urban planning and how rural areas are created, I´ve come to a definition of rural planning and the making of countryside. To make countryside, planning and building should come from individual needs and desires. A relationship to the surroundings based on continous interaction between the human beeing and it´s environment, a constant process of shaping and reshaping. To put my thoughts to the ground I have collected examples of projects and ideas, that fits into my view of what rural planning and making countryside is all about. They are put in different categories according to the possibilities of influence and to what degree it is put into private hands. The first category is ?allemansrätten?, every mans right. That is the rigt to use private land as long as you don´t disturb or destroy.

Kevin Roberts has extended the comprehension of strong consumer brands to a higher level where loyalty beyond reason is established. He calls this new status Lovemarks. As the concept of Lovemark has only been applied in B2C markets, this thesis is directed to find out the applicability of Lovemarks in B2B context. In order to fulfill the research purpose, three main questions are answered based on a cross-sectional research approach: What role do intangible factors play in B2B branding? Is the idea of B2C Lovemarks transferable to B2B context? How should a B2B Lovemark be characterized? The results of the qualitative interviews indicate insights of high investment and involvement, integrated brand communication, balance between function versus emotion, brand?s trustworthy personality, customer partnership, and finally, the potential establishment of B2B Lovemarks.

En av samhällets viktigaste frågor idag rör den framtida energitillförseln till den byggda miljön och dess koppling till miljö- och klimatfrågor. Energitillförseln sker idag till 80% genom fossila bränslen och bygg- och fastighetssektorn står idag för 40% av världens energianvändning. De CO2-emissioner som förbränning av fossila bränslen genererar påverkar jordens växthuseffekt. EU-direktiv rörande en effektivisering och minskning av energianvändningen har implementerats för att minska belastning ur energi- och miljösynpunkt på jorden. Sverige har satt som mål att minska energianvändningen med 20% till år 2020 och 50% till år 2050 i jämförelse med värden från år 1995.

Bakgrund: Fundamenten i vården grundar sig i ett värdefullt bemötande där patientens grundläggande behov tillgodoses. Ett fungerande team i vårdarbetet är en viktig del i att skapa en personcentrerad och patientsäker hälso- och sjukvård. Dessa faktorer är viktiga delar i ett gott omhändertagande av patienter på en akutmottagning.Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att utforska vilka omvårdnadsbehov som blir tillgodosedda hos kritisk sjuka eller skadade patienter samt funktionen av teamsamverkan på akutmottagningen på Akademiska sjukhuset i Uppsala.Metodbeskrivning: En kvalitativ fältstudie inspirerad av principerna för praktisk etnografi. Med hjälp utav ett observationsprotokoll utfördes 50 observationer som sedan analyserades med deskriptiv statistik samt en innehållsanalys.Resultat: Resultaten från denna studie visar att personalen var skickliga på att kommunicera och skapa en relation med patienterna. Däremot var de inte lika bra på att göra patienterna delaktiga i vården.

The foremost objective of business organizations is to generate value for shareholders and to opt for strategies which optimize it. Hence it is of key concern for business leaders to appreciate how operations best are run to maximize value creation. This study explores how financial theory can reveal the link between one particular business strategy and the corresponding effect on shareholder wealth. The question in focus is whether construction companies can enhance their value creation by implementing shift-work to increase the weekly production rate. The thesis particularly targets apartment block projects in Sweden and has the construction company Peab AB as primary object of study.