Our purpose of this paper is to seek an understanding of which service quality factors that affects customers in their decision making progress regarding purchasing financial services such as pension products. We also seek to evaluate the different service quality factors by compare their relative strength against each other. The study aim to investigate if there are any connections between customer behavior variables such as gender, age and income in comparison to these service quality factors related to pension products.The findings aim to help a small financial institute such as our case company Plain Capital to understand how their customers experience service quality regarding pension products.In order to find empirical results we conducted a qualitative research as well a quantitative research. The qualitative research employed both a focus group interview with pension savers and an interview with our case company Plain Capital. We were able to identify the service quality factors for pension?s products with help from the focus group interview.

Every day consumers are bombarded with different marketing messages from all possible directions. At the same time consumers starts to actively and consciously avoid these messages. Therefore, marketers have to start thinking outside the box and find new ways to get consumers' attention. One of these methods is called guerilla marketing. The strength of guerilla marketing is its way to be unexpected and unusual.

The subject for this paper is the Class Action against Skandia Association, a civil organization formed in 2003 with the aim of claiming compensation for some 1.2 million life insurance customers. The background to its formation was one of the largest financial scandals in Sweden in recent times, involving a number of questionable affairs within the insurance corporation Skandia and its subsidiaries, most notably the life insurance company Skandia Liv. The interests of both the stake- and stockholders of the company seem, in certain ways, to have been grossly misrepresented. The scandal, as well as the reaction it spawned, pose a number of questions. In this study, we focus on two: a possible, and in many ways apparent crisis in the representation of interests in Swedish society, and the role of civil society in upholding the balance between these interests.We argue that what is often held to be the ?greed? or ?immorality? of individuals in scandals such as Skandia is, to a great extent, a mere reflection of the ?rational? underpinnings of modern-day capitalism.We find that trust has been a key mechanism of control in the relationships between consumers and agents in pension and life insurance markets, and that ?the Swedish model? that distinguished post-WWII Swedish society was a model heavily based on trust towards existing models of bureaucratic governance.

Women ledaers and profitability, is there a correlation? Earlier research show different outcome on the correlation between women leaders and profitability. A Swedish consultant firm, Caran has a belief that more women leaders would create more financial profit, we ask us if that is the true situation. Using two different IC measurement methods we have shown the difficulties in calculate intagible resources, which methods that can/ can not be used and if women leders create financial value. We found the women leaders in Caran to add more value per dollar spent on the woman leaders than the value added per dollar spent on men leaders.

The average length of life is increasing in the western world, hence the older population is growing. A common health problem among the elderly is malnutrition. Malnutrition causes decreased body strength and is associated with an amplified risk of infections, depression, fractures and increased mortality. The health care system is therefore faced with the challenge to prevent malnutrition among the growing population of elderly. This could be done by providing nutritious foods developed to meet the specific needs of elderly. The overall objective of this project was to test a healthy energy dense drink based on oats targeted for the elderly consumers as a strategy to prevent malnutrition among elderly.

This is a project in Entrepreneurship and Creativity on masters? degree. The purpose was to verify whether the Swedish retail trade within the beauty care business was ready for an in-troduction of colour cosmetics. Through the qualitative research grounded theory, I made several phone interviews with independence retail traders within the Swedish beauty care business. The selection of respondents is based on statistical facts and geographic coverage of Swedish beauty care shops.

The Swedish business cycle is in a strong position at the moment, leading to great results and larger profits. This strong business posture has encouraged companies to increase both their liquidity and revenue. Now there is a dilemma, what actions should or could a respectable business take on these newfound liquid assets.The purpose of this paper is to deliver a clear picture of what options there are for such companies listed on the Swedish stock-market, and how the market wants them to act. To these means we have studied the basic theories linked to this subject and reviewed the cause and effects that motivates them. We have also conducted interviews with the people representing the market through their line of business.In the theory we found several options on what companies in similar situations tend to do.

With the digital revolution within video games, the need for Digital Rights Management (DRM) has increased significantly, alongside with the increasing problem of copyright pirates. To counter pirates, DRM was created to prevent illegal copying of software, this to ensure that the Distributors received an income for their work. DRM has, since the start of its use, been getting, a lot of bad criticism from the users of the software protected by DRM. The main function of this paper is to describe the creation and development of DRM by analysis of the vision of different groups on this phenomenon. The main questions are as follows, is it possible to define the very reason for why DRM was created and if so, can its development through time be defined too? What differences in opinions are there when it comes to DRM, counting the two major groups of creators, sellers, distributors (referred to as distributors) versus individual users (referred to as consumers)? In what way will the research results suggest that the future DRM will develop?The development has gone from solving puzzles in a handbook to start the game each time the user wants to play, to serial numbers that is needed during the installation of the game.

The purpose of this paper is to find out which portfolio theory one should use during a financial crisis. We will examine two different portfolio theorys, the Minimum Variance portfolio and the beta portfolio.We have chosen to study two different portfolios, and followed their development during the financial crisis with its start in 2008 and the IT bubble with its start in the middle of 2000.The data has been collected from OMX internet database making it quantitative study. The beta portfolio's objective is to follow the index and the Minumim Variance portfolio´s objective is to spread the risk by investing in stocks with low volatility. By following the two different portfolios, and compare the development to the index, we will be able to determine which theory is most suitable to use during a recession. The studyperiods we chose were both in a recession and it turned out that the most appropriate portfolio to use was the Minimum Variance portfolio because stock in this portfolio tends to be less sensitive to economic fluctuations..

Could patterns change the way we as consumers feel about a product as it ages and wears down? Why do some products increase their value as they are being worn downand others do not? Could the same affection that increases with your favourite jeans or an old, worn down, scratched and beautiful wooden furniture, be applied on otherproducts with different ability?s and history?The goal was to explore patterns and beautiful aging in products to increase the consumers desire to keep the well used product a little bit longer. Not to prolong the products ?lifetime? from brand new till it?s no longer inhabit their main function, but at that precise momentwhen you as a consumer decides to through it away in favour for a new, updated version. To buy ?new and fresh?.Patterns with different expressions, colouring and size, were explored that increase the value of a product which in this project contained handles and varies of surfaces on casseroles, frying pans, whisks, cutlery etc.

The discovered horse meat scandal has had great impact in the media and given many question marks as to how consumers should be facing meat labels. In the survey made lead consumers to ask themselves, whether they think about their consumption of reliable markings discovered at a risk and, if they have changed their consumption habits since discovered horse meat scandal. The survey was carried out in a grocery store in Karlstad city central, where the results show consistent numbers. People do not like change, and in this case, do not like to change their consumption patterns. The same patterns of consumption before and after the horse meat scandal reflects the results but with only three respondents exception.

The food industry is one of the fastest growing industries in Swedish e-commerce today. However, e-commerce still represents a very small part of the total food sales in Sweden. Experts have noted that, in order for e-commerce to expand in this field, Internet food sales must increase.The aim of this study is to form an understanding of why Swedes do not purchase more food products online. The theoretical framework consists of various marketing theories concerning consumer behavior and the acceptance of new innovations. The methodology used for the purpose of this study has a qualitative approach and in order to answer the questions at hand two focus groups were assembled.

Background and problem: The importance of banks was clearly shown during the last financial crises, when the crises that started in the banking sector spread to the rest of the world. This is one of the reasons that this thesis is focused on banks in particular, one other reason is that a lot of previous studies has chosen to exclude banks because of the fact that their balance sheet differ from non-financial companies. This thesis is a beginning in filling in the gap that exists in the knowledge of banks capital structure. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to prove that it is possible to explain the capital structure in banks and that differences in the capital structure of the banks in Great Britain, Sweden and the United states of America exists. Method: The fact that our study is partly a replication of two earlier studies made a deductive approach most appropriate.

I en värld där individer möts av mängder av ekonomiska begrepp och ekonomisk information dagligen har forskning visat att människor har svårt att engagera sig och ha den förståelse som krävs för att hantera sin egen privatekonomi. Begreppet ?Financial Literacy? nämns ofta som en förklaring till människors olika kunskapsnivå och förståelse. I människors yrkesmässiga roll tas denna förmåga ofta för given vara uppfylld. Denna uppsats har undersökt ekonomiska kunskaper och ekonomisk förståelse hos enskilda näringsidkare, en företagsform där privatekonomin och näringsverksamhetens ekonomi är nära sammankopplade.

Through certain exceptions in the Swedish regulation on credit agreements for consumers, a new form of instrument for credits has arisen on the national market. The instrument, which is most commonly known as easy credits and was first seen on the Swedish market for consumer credits in 2006, has developed to become part of a vast problem with excessive debt incursion. In order to counteract this development and to harmonise the internal market within the EU, directive 2008/48 EC on credit agreements for consumers was introduced in 2008. In Sweden, the implementation of the directive has led to a proposition for a new regulation on credit agreements for consumers (SFS 2009/10:242 Ny konsumentkreditlag) coming into effect on the 1 January 2011. The proposition puts up stricter rules on creditors granting consumer credits in their course of business, and revokes the former exemption on information and practices preliminary to the conclusion of the credit agreement for minor credits.