This thesis attempts to clarify the impact of cultural differenceson customer expectations of service level. Furthermore, wewant to determine whether or not expectations of service differenough to be quantifiable between two countries, Sweden andthe US, mostly regarded as similar in business practices. The conclusion showed that higher ratings on four of Hofstede?s five cultural indexes were associated with higher customer service expectations overall, and in all four SERVQUAL dimensions. This research contributes to retail internationalization and customer expectations theory.

Background: To be a parent to a child dying of cancer affect not just the parents themselves, but the whole family. Experiences of fear, powerlessness and anxiety surrounds them. Nurses need knowledge about parents? experiences to help and support these parents adequately. Aim: The aim of the study was to describe parents? experiences of losing a child to cancer, from diagnosis to the child?s death.

The purpose of this study is to describe children?s life issues. What kind ofquestions they have aboutlife, their thoughts about life. Another purpose of this study is to see the differences in how children?s thoughts about life have changed through the years.

Abstract This is a qualitative study of elderly people's experiences of loneliness and quality of life. Also the relationship between loneliness and quality of life are examined. Previous research has shown that social loneliness is about when the social context are lost while emotional loneliness can occur with the loss of close relationships. Quality of life is about a sense of connection but also the quality of life arises in the difference between the expectation of what one is and what one wishes to have. This study has shown that the interviewees preferences, activities, social networks and low expectations on their life situation makes interviewees perceive themselves to be less lonely and have a good quality of life.

The deregulation during the last decade within the airline businesses have called upon a more fierce competition among airlines. This fact forces airlines to continuously focus on service development in order to offer attractive solutions to satisfy customers changing needs and stay competitive. This paper focuses on service development at Scandinavian Airlines. The aim of this case study is to examine the sources of information used in service development and new service development at Scandinavian Airlines. Further the aim is to examine whether information derived from customers can be shown to play a more important role in either service development or new service development.

Public Service är ett svårdefinierat begrepp. De gamla idealen handlar mycket om enmedieideologi som baseras på etermediernas möjligheter och begränsningar, vilket har skapatsvårigheter när Public Service har letat sig ut på Internet. Kritik från bland annatbranschorganisationen Tidningsutgivarna ifrågasätter Public Service-företagens breddning påwebben. De anser att gränserna för vad Public Service-företagen får och inte får göra äralltför otydliga.Med hjälp av fyra kvalitativa samtalsintervjuer (tre personer från Sveriges Television samt enfrån Tidningsutgivarna), och med kvalitativa textanalyser av statliga propositioner ochutredningar angående Public Service-uppdraget undersöks hur Public Service-uppdraget ochdess medieföretag påverkas av medieutvecklingen.I uppsatsen jämförs resultaten med Anna Maria Jönssons tankar kring Public Service och denmedieideologiska inriktningen ?Social ansvarsideologi?.

Vi ville se om kunderna har olika förväntningar på service beroende på vilken butik de handlar i och hur detta påverkar säjarnas och föetagets agerande. Studien visade att företagen har profilerat sig på två helt skilda sätt. Detta har gjort att kunderna förväntar sig olika nivå av service vilket också företagen förstått och därmed leverarar de den service kunderna efterfrågar..

This Bachelor thesis is a qualitative study of the public debate regarding the role of Public service in the media converged society today. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the public debate, that is the Swedish Public service television and people with broad representative knowledge about Public service, motivates a change of the function of the Swedish Public service television.Our issues are: What does the public debate say about the function of Swedish Public  service television in our society today and how is a change motivated in this debate? How does the public debate look upon today´s media convergence and the fragmentation of the audience which, according to Denis McQuail, is a consequence of this?The method of this thesis is a qualitative analysis and we have analyzed ten opinion articles and Swedish Public service television magazine ?DittSvt?. The theoretical background was obtained from Henry Jenkins and Håkan Hvitfelts theories and thoughts about mediaconvergence. We have supplemented this with Denis McQuails theory regarding the fragmentation of the audience.In this thesis, we see that the public debate is a lot about diversity in Swedish Public service television programming and that the democratic base is still very important.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att utreda vilka företag som lämpar sig för en implementering av ett shared service center. Metod: Under arbetets gång har en abduktiv ansats använts där det varit en kontinuerlig interaktion mellan teori och empiri. Det har gjorts en kvalitativ studie av ett fallstudieföretag med hjälp av intervjuer, facklitteratur och vetenskapliga artiklar. Slutsatser: De företag som är mest lämpade för en etablering av ett shared service center bör vara:? Stora ? de måste kunna uppvisa stordriftsfördelar? Multinationella ? centraliseringen till shared service måste få märkbar effekt? Expansiva ? realisera besparing i personalkostnader ? Lågkostnadsstrateger ? syftet med ett shared service center passar företagets paradigm? Förändringsvilliga ? det är ett stort projekt som måste stödjas av organisationen.

Our study illustrates the nature and characteristics of the virtual world Second Life. We have identified that the online community aims to satisfy hedonistic needs through social and conspicuous consumption, for online use only, concentrating on socially accepted identity construction..

Service Design is a relatively new, unexplored and exciting phenomenon that through an interdisciplinary work methodology designs services. A discussion has been going on for a long time regarding whether there is a difference between products and services. Services are often classified as immaterial, heterogeneous, non-storable and inseparable in relation to products. A question that arises is if something specific characterises the work methodology used regarding service design. The aim with this paper is thus to explain the work methodology when working with service design.

This master thesis concerns the subject of a reference service named Book-a-librarian. The service makes it possible for the library-user to indulge in a subject with the help of a librarian after having made an appointment in advance. The main purpose of this thesis is to study the function of it. The methods used are a mix of literature and empirical studies to be able to comprehend and explain the practical nature of the service as well as placing the service in a theoretical framework. The empirical study is performed by a questionnaire, where librarians working with the service are asked to participate.

Background: Since the coining of the phrase lean production by Womack, Jones and Roos in 1990, this mass production system of Japanese origin has been implemented in a multitude of organizations throughout the world, the results being predominantly positive from a financial point of view. The possibly negative effects of mass production on worker motivation have been discussed since quality of work life became an important political issue in Sweden in the 1970?s. As the popularity of lean service is now increasing, there are still unresolved issues regarding the transferability of a mass production system to the service industry, particularly with regards to the motivation of service employees.Purpose: The purpose of our thesis is to study the lean system of a Swedish bank, SEB Way, from a management- as well as an employee perspective in order to describe how lean may affect the work motivation of service employees.Research procedure: The study is empirically based on observations and interviews on multiple hierarchical levels at SEB. We have conducted a total of 13 interviews with front line employees at SEB, with the central SEB Way team as well as two external lean specialists.Results: The study indicates that SEB Way has little direct influence on the intrinsic work motivation of the SEB front line employees, as work motivation was present prior to the implementation of lean.

The thesis is aiming to investigate what happens in the customer-service worker interaction when the service worker is wearing religious attributes. In order to operationalize this the Muslim head scarf, hijab, is chosen as stimuli. Reviewing previous research and theory in this field, it is clear that people have a preference for people that they perceive to be like themselves, this is referred to as homophily. Further on, the study investigates the ethnicity dimension of the service worker customer interaction. Theoretical areas of attractiveness and color are also investigated.

In this study we have examined the possible quality standards and methods for applications with service workshops in the forest industry. The purpose of the methods presented here was to start the work of standarardising the maintenance service in the industry and be of use for service providers in their quality effort.The methods we used to accomplish the study were interviews and field visits together with a comprehensive literature research. Our results are presented in the form of four solution proposals: a standard based on existing SIS standards for terminology and key indicators, checklists that are filled in by mechanics with customer participation, the construction of a instructions database, and the implementation of the method 5s.We believe our suggestions can help the service providers in the four problem areas that we have identified: long term strategy, documentation, recruitment of competent technicians, and standard procedures in their operations. These improvements will be beneficial for both the service provider and the customer..