Background: The consumers of today have the possibility to choose from a wide range of products and services. Consequently, the ability to differentiate the products is essential for the brand owners. If a brand owner does not manage to differentiate its product, it can be difficult to make the consumers realise the benefits of the product and convince them to buy it. One way to differentiate the product is to create a distinguished brand identity. However, it is not enough to create a strong brand identity, the brand owner must also be capable of communicating the brand identity successfully.

The purpose of this thesis was to describe what factors influence consumers? choice when buying probiotic products. Functional Foods have been predicted a bright future on the food market but so far the concept have not been embraced by the consumers. The reasons for this are many and not clearly understood. Positive health effects are what set a functional food product apart from traditional food stuffs of the same type.

The purpose of this essay was to find conceivable marketing- and business strategies that can be combined with a company?s lifestyle.This essay is dependent on a number of interviews with the owner of a maternity clothing trademark, PROUD. PROUD is a new company that has many different options concerning expansion, trademark and its existing and future products and also the knowledge regarding the client?s attitude towards PROUD.The authors of this essay believe that the trademark should represent a lifestyle. For a company to be able to deliver, it has to understand what the future clients want and need.

This paper describes and develops a trade off model of optimal capital structure by Bradley et al. (1984). The model is then tested to examine how changes in corporate tax rates affect the optimal capital structure of firms. Based on theoretical implications of the model, four hypotheses are derived stating that firms? optimal debt-to-value ratio is (1) negatively related to financial distress costs, (2) negatively related to non-debt tax shields, (3) negatively related to firm volatility and (4) positively related to the corporate tax rate.

Every year 67000 tons of food is wasted by Swedish retail stores. The waste implies financial losses for the retailer and it has a huge impact on the global environment. Reducing in-store food waste is thus a win-win situation for both retailers and society. The most effective way to reduce waste is primarily by optimizing the logistics of supply, but customers expect a store with a wide range of products and stuffed shelves. Thus there will always be products about to expire.

Title: The appraiser?s choice of valuation method ? factors that influences the choice of company valuation methodsSeminar date: 04/06/07Course: Master thesis in Business Administration, 10 Swedish credits.Authors: Anne Benedicks and Veronica ÖbergAdvisor: Eron OxingProfession of category: Financial analysts, auditors and company lawyers.Key words: Company valuation, valuation methods, cash flow analysis, comparative valuation, the net asset value method.The Main Issue: What is of decisive importance when choosing a special company valuation method?Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify, analyse and evaluate the most common methods of valuation for financial analysts, auditors and company lawyers and those factors that influences the choice of method.Method: A multiple survey has been implemented for the actual profession categories. Primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey.Theoretical: The theoretical frame of reference is based upon the paper?s dependent variable, i.e. the role of the appraiser.

The research aims at revealing consumers? loyalty to a high involvement product category, connected to a loyalty membership club. Hence, the study aims at explaining similarities and differences between two markets, differently developed in terms of loyalty clubs. The study used IKEA, its loyalty club IKEA FAMILY and women as the company?s main target group, in a case format to study loyalty membership clubs.

The meaning of the covert co-ownership is that the parties must have intended that the property should be their common. A party must, to be able to claim ownership, have con-tributed to the acquisition financing through the financial contribution. Further shall the fact that the property should be their common be agreed or have been assumed by the par-ties. There are the circumstances for the purchase that should be considered in determining if covert co-ownership is presumed. Covert co-ownership has been established although one party only contributed a small part to the acquisition.

The thesis investigates how Uppsala University student nations steward their cultural heritage. The survey targets how student nations manage their cultural heritage, what financial priority they give it, their attitude towards it, and their awareness of it.A qualitative study of semi-structured interviews with representatives from 11 out of 13 student nations in Uppsala was implemented. The theoretical framework is based on the theory of David Lowenthal on the importance of cultural heritage, Susan Pearce?s theory on collecting, and Pierre Bourdieu?s theory on cultural capital. To investigate the importance of cultural objects theories by Ivo Maroevi?, Annette Weiner, and Igor Kopytoff was applied.The survey shows that stewardship of cultural heritage at Uppsala student nations is poor and in need of reform.

The purpose of this paper was, on the basis of the association?s annual reports, to describe appropriate key performance indicators for non-profit associations. The purpose was furthermore to study how the associations show their goal-attainment. The research was delimited to contain the second category of non profit associations, which include sports associations. The authors choose three non profit associations, which according to the law, shall draw up annual reports. The three ice hockey associations HV71, MODO Hockey and Frölunda Hockey Club, were thereafter chosen on the basis of those delimits.

January 1, 1999, a new sex purchase law was introduced in Sweden, Lag (1998: 408). The law implies that in a sex trade a crime is committed only by the consumer in the sex trade. The majority of consumers in prostitution are men and the suppliers are women. When prostitution is problematized it's usually from the woman's point of view and the perspective of the man is often overlooked. The new law has shed light on the consumer and made the male more visible in the public debate.

This essay is about the history of the Swedish board game-industry from the 1970?s to today. The essay focuses on the companies in the business and how they change during this period and about the causes of this change. This essay aims both at accurately describing the development of the industry as well as asking the question of what influence factors from outside of the industry have upon the change during this period of time. The material used in this essay is mainly extracts from interviews with people who have been working in the industry during the period, as well as literature on the subject and product-catalogues from certain years in the time-frame.From this material I have outlined the basic history of the industry.

Internet and social networks have become important features in today?s society. We spend numerous hours on browsing and communicating through these platforms. This development has also led to a shift of power from businesses to consumers. Today?s consumers have more control of if, when and what messages they are exposed to.

The purpose of this study has been to examine how customers, by interacting with each other, can communicate and create the image of a brand. We find this topic to be relevant since there are no previous studies conducted concerning the customers influence on the brand image. Our ambition has been to describe in what ways and to what extent the customer can affect and influence the brand image by communicating with other customers. To fulfill our purposed we have targeted three important questions which are:? In which ways can the customer affect the communicated image of a brand?? To what extent can the customer influence the brand image and the perceived value?? Who has control over the brand, the customer or the company?For this study we have used a qualitative approach in which we have conducted eight personal interviews with brand consultants and the editor of the magazine Dagens Media which has given us the foundation for our analysis.

Abstract Background: In 1997 the Kyoto Protocol was signed, it?s an international agreement which is aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Sweden's goal is to reduce energy using in buildings with 20 percent by 2020 and 50 percent by 2050. This is a comparison with levels from 1995 (Glad, 2006). For Sweden to be able to reach its goals, they need to construct more low-energy buildings (Åhman, Wahlström & Lundblad, 2010).