Within the interconnected global markets of today; people, products, and information travel at a pace never met before. In light of the global retail markets recent integration, consumers are opened up to new products and are beginning to develop a vetted interest in the heritage of those products. Within literature this process has been coined "Country of Origin" COO, and its impacts on consumer attitudes, product value- assessment, and overall behaviors has been one of the most emphasized areas of "international business" studies, during the last three decades. Numerous studies have shown a correlation between positive or advantageous associations to a country of origin, and the actual products representing and coming out of that country. It is by this synergetic process that so-called positive COO-effects are brought forth.The goal of this thesis stems directly from the still unexplored potential for Swedish firms to differentiate their products and brands on new international markets, through a strategic and coherent communication of relevant Swedish COO-effects.

The purpose of this essay is to look upon the gender structure in Sweden, during the late Middle Ages. Mainly I focus on how the church viewed men and women, since the material of my research, the miracle stories of three saints, was found credible and was written down by churchmen. The saints, whose miracles I have studied, are Birgitta Birgersdotter and Katarina Ulfsdotter of Vadstena and Niklas Hermansson of Linköping. These miracles have earlier been studied by the historian Anders Fröjmark, who has noticed that there are fewer heeled women than men figuring in the miracles. Because of this, Fröjmark draws the conclusion that women were less able to leave their homes and travel as pilgrims to the holy sites of the saints.

Purpose: Social media is a global phenomenon that has developed from an opportunity of contact between people, into a platform for contact between organizations and people. This essay aims to investigate the public relation strategies of one organization on a popular social network.The main question that this study aims to answer is how the travel agency Ving chooses to create and preserve relationships to the public on Facebook in order to maintain a good reputation. Asub-question explores whether any patterns exist in Ving?s approach of interaction with its stakeholders.Method/Material: This study consists of a quantitative content analysis in which the interaction between the organization and the audience has been studied. Posts published by the public as well as replications from Ving have been categorized and then analyzed using two analytical models.

Syftet är att identifiera olika typer av värdeskapande och konkurrensfördelar som kan uppstå i den fysiska resebyrån genom att undersöka och analysera; användandet av informationsteknologin, det fysiska servicelandskapet och erbjudandet för kunden. Relaterat till syftet har vi formulerat en forskningsfråga som blev enligt följande: Hur möjliggör traditionella resebyråer skapandet av olika typer av värde för sina kunder genom sitt fysiska servicelandskap? Vår uppsats är en kvalitativ forskningsmetod, då vi eftersträvat en djup undersökning för vår valda forskningsfråga. Vi har i uppsatsens gång använt oss av både primär- och sekundärkällor. Våra primära källor har bestått av sex intervjupersoner där vi använt oss av semistrukturerade intervjuer.

Researchers, planners, and government agencies agree that road safety for children must be a priority and in particular that children should have a safe and secure way to travel to and from school regardless of age or the distance travelled. In Sweden, child traffic safety is a key part of the country?s Nollvision, a long-term traffic policy goal of ?no deaths or serious injuries?. Unfortunately, many countries have recorded increases in child traffic accidents as the percentage of parents who drive their children to school and thus congestion around schools has increased. Common strategies include traffic safety education for children, the redesign and improvement of traffic infrastructure, bicycle training, and carpooling.This thesis assesses the traffic problem around Ludvigsberg School in the district Valbo in Gävle, Sweden.

Shopping for groceries often means that, as consumers, we travel to the grocery store ourselves, by ear, bike or on foot. At the store we pick out the groceries that we want, go the register and pay for them. During the last couple of years consumers in Sweden have been given the opportunity to let someone else select and transport the groceries to their home instead, so called home shopping. As this report is being written, the possibility to buy groceries this way is somewhat limited, but many forecasters believe that in the near future it will increase immensely. Because of the large volumes of groceries that are being transported, there is great transport work being done in the supply chain.

Researchers, planners, and government agencies agree that road safety for children must be a priority and in particular that children should have a safe and secure way to travel to and from school regardless of age or the distance travelled. In Sweden, child traffic safety is a key part of the country?s Nollvision, a long-term traffic policy goal of ?no deaths or serious injuries?. Unfortunately, many countries have recorded increases in child traffic accidents as the percentage of parents who drive their children to school and thus congestion around schools has increased. Common strategies include traffic safety education for children, the redesign and improvement of traffic infrastructure, bicycle training, and carpooling.This thesis assesses the traffic problem around Ludvigsberg School in the district Valbo in Gävle, Sweden.

ABSTRACTTitle: Elle & Café ? a study of fashion magazines cover pages.Number of pages: 38Author: Greta SimonssonTutor: Amelie HössjerCourse: Media and Communication Studies DPeriod: Spring Semester 2008University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityAim: The purpose of this essay is to:? Analyze the cover images from the 2007 editions of the magazines Elles and Café, using semiotic analysis.? Analyzes eventual resemblances or differences between the two magazine's cover images based upon the result of the semiotic analysis.Material and methods: The study of Elles's and Café's cover pages has been done using a model built upon semiotic analysis, developed with the purpose of suiting observation and examination of cover pages of fashion magazines. The cover pages were analyzed from the categories character, context, and environment.Main results: The main results include the observation that both Elles and Café chooses well-known figures from women's fashion industry as prime characters on their covers. In Elles, all main characters are famous women emerging from the music, television and fashion industries. The women in Café are known for similar professions.

Vi har genom friluftslivets individualisering sett en allt större efterfrågan på fysiska aktiviteter kopplade till hälsa och träning. Vi har gått mot ett mer upplevelsebaserat samhälle där vi köper livsstilar i form av de känslor och erfarenheter de ger oss och vi söker hela tiden efter nya utmaningar. Syftet med vår uppsats var att undersöka vad som ligger till grund för hur vi genom träning och hälsa inom resande går mot ett allt större individualiserande där det egna intresset är centralt samt granska trenden träningsresors förutsättningar för att bli en trend som står sig stark i framtiden. För att besvara syfte och frågeställningar har vi använt oss av en litteraturundersökning för att undersöka hur trenden hälsa och träning sett ut genom historien samt en kvantitativ enkätundersökning där vi har ställt frågor kopplade till träningsresor och fysiska aktiviteter utomlands. De resultat vi kommit fram till i vår enkätundersökning visar att trenden träningsresor har potential att växa även i framtiden, även om den kan tvingas förändras något för att möta nya efterfrågningar. Genom vår litteraturundersökning har vi kunnat se att individualisering och det egna intresset blir allt viktigare genom historien, vilket vi även kan se en fortsatt efterfrågan på i vår enkätundersökning, i form av eget bestämmande över både tid, pengar och aktiviteter..

This is a reception study on how the idea of Paneuropa, as launched by the austrian count Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi in 1923, was received by the political weekly magazine Tidevarvet, a product of ? and an opinion forming organ for ? the social liberal wing of the Swedish suffrage- and peace movements. The main purpose is to examine to what extent there was an existent Europeanism in the public debate in Sweden during the interwar period, and how that discourse was constructed through the conceptual pairings disruption/unity and parts/whole. The study is conducted mainly through discourse analysis, combined with partly new research into sources such as the parliament, the newspapers and civil society to try to initiate a mapping over the wider reception of the Paneuropa project in a Swedish context. The study finds that the subject of Paneuropa is present throughout the almost entire period of the publication, namely 1924?1936, and that the question of a federal Europe is closely connected to the pacifist attitude of the editorial staff in general and writer/editor Elin W?gner in particular.

Frågeställning: Vilken typ av människor har störst benägenhet att ändra sina resvanor?Vilka marknadsföringsstrategier är bäst lämpade för att få Eskilstunas invånare att ändra sina attityder och beteenden så att de väljer mer hållbara resealternativ?Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att presentera marknadsföringsåtgärder som Eskilstuna kommun kan använda sig av för att främja hållbart resande samt att redogöra vilka målgrupper dessa åtgärder bör riktas mot.Metod: Vi valde att göra en kombinerad kvantitativ och kvalitativ studie. Kvantitativ data har vi hämtat från sekundärkällor i form av tidigare undersökningar som är gjorda i Eskilstuna och andra jämförbara kommuner i Sverige. Primärdata i denna studie är kvalitativ och kommer från intervjuer med olika personer som jobbar med att främja hållbart resande. Teorin och empirin vävdes sedan samman till en analys.Slutsats: I slutsatsen presenterar vi vilka målgrupper som är intressanta att arbeta med samt med vilka marknadsföringsåtgärder vi anser att Eskilstuna kommun bäst kan nå dem.

Detta examensarbete behandlar växter som trivs vid havet. Arbetet baseras på frågan vilka växter som tål ett vindpinat och utsatt läge? Arbetet beskriver vad man skall tänka på när man börjar planera en trädgård vid havet. I arbetet har jag tagit upp vilka träd och perenner som man kan använda sig av när man skall skapa en trädgård vid havet. Syftet med arbetet är att man skall kunna använda sig av mitt arbete när man åker till plantskolan för att inhandla växter.

This essay focuses on tourists' information seeking. The main focus was to examine whether there is a connection between how the informants in different tourist styles the different tourist styles are presented by Eva Wolf as the tourist of recreation, action, culture, compromise, and individualism seek information to their forthcoming vacation. The result was reached through a qualitative method, where ten informants with various tourist roles were interviewed separately. The informants were chosen by personal contacts. In addition to these interviews, three representatives from the tourist industry were contacted and interviewed by e-mail.

The purpose of this study is to investigate differences of how the Swedishemployees union ?Unionen? communicates with its members, on one hand thosewho are members of local union clubs and on the other non-club members. Thenumber of non-club members has increased due to labour market changes implyingthat workplaces have been fragmented and hence affect the possibility to form localunion clubs.The questions posed in the study are: How does Unionen communicate with itsmembers? How does the communication differ between club members and non-clubmembers? What are the preferences of Unionen´s members as far as communicationwith the central organization? What kind of information do the members seek andhow do they find it? What values does Unionen represent? Are there differencesbetween the messages that Unionen is sends out and how members and non-clubmembers, respectively, perceive them?A case study method has been used applying both quantitative and qualitativeanalyses. Quantitative methods have been used in illustrating the number ofdiscussion subjects at Unionen´s website, the members needs for receivingcommunication and channel usage while qualitative methodologies have been usedin interviews with Unionen´s members, club chairmen and union representatives aswell as semiotic picture analyses and analyses based on methods of Uses andgratifications theory.One conclusion of the study is that two significant differences of communicationhave been found between members and non-club members.

Movie and literary tourism is a genre that has been recognized around the world for a long time but that has only recently got a grip on Sweden. More and more famous books are being cinematized and because of the success of these movies we can now walk in the traces of Wallander as well as the Millenniummovies.The focus of this study is mainly about the tourists? motivation when it comes to this form of tourism and the purpose is to try understand what needs come in to play when a movie and literary tourism attraction is chosen. The study objects are two movie and literary walks which are based on books and movies with a fictitious storyline.The performed research was based on a multiple strategy with the qualitative method - consisting of respondent and informant interviews - in focus and the quantitative investigation - in the form of an one-page questionnaire - more as a complement.On the basis of the most fundamental theory of motivation in general (Maslow, 1970) and the tourism research?s more specific travel motivation theory (Pearce, 2005), the conditions for movie and literature as sorts of tourism have been made clear.