Consumer involvement in the product development process, co-creation, is being practiced by numerous companies. Previous research has investigated how consumer participation in co-creation affects consumer attitude. However, little is known about how co-creation affects the attitudes of the observervers of co-creation. The effect of observed co-creation on consumer attitude should be important when deciding whether to apply co-creation or not, as the observing consumers make up a larger part of the consumer collective than the participating consumers do. The paper at hand aims to investigate how observed co-creation affects consumer attitude and purchase intentions.

Since the abrupt ending of the Cold Wars the international system of politics has been dominated by the unipolar United States. Leading scholars within structural realism sees this stage as just a temporary condition for various reasons. They also target China as aspirant to embody the role of a balancer against USA and pole in a bi- or multipolar system. Some even argue they are destined for superpower.With the help of realisms definition of power I estimate U.S., China's and India's capabilities and judge their potential superpower. I then go on to connect structural realism and role theory to estimate their different statuses in the system.

Almost every day newspapers cover companies and brands in crisis. This should worry companies as negative publicity has been shown to have a great influence on consumer perceptions on brands. In addition, brand crises have been shown to be contagious, meaning that they also affect consumers? views on other similar brands. This study aims to investigate spill-over effects of one brand crisis to another within a product category.

Because of a more globalised world the national states have been forced to make structural changes at both national, regional and local level to cope with different challenges. The regional community has become an important area which has resulted in a policy of more self governing, both for the regional and the local level.The aim of the thesis is to study the relation between regional and local level in the partnerships organisation. To fulfil the aim of the thesis, a case study of Region Skåne is used. The analyse is based on expressions such as cooperation, conflict, power and influence.The result of the thesis confirms that the opinion between the regional and the local level is very different. The representatives from Region Skåne experience the cooperation as quite good because it creates an opportunity for discussions and a possibility to learn from the other actors which in turn creates a qualification in the exchange of knowledge.

AbstractOil rich states all over the world share a common feature. They are less likely than other states, depending on other resources, to be ruled democratically. In this essay Saudi Arabia has been studied with the purpose of trying to find which mechanisms that lie behind why oil rich states do not have institutions or institutional change that promotes democracy.Saudi Arabia has the world's largest known reservoir of oil. The oil brings huge revenue each year to the Saudi Arabian government. Why have Saudi Arabia not developed democratically when their economic growth suggests that to be a natural step? Under the framework of historical institutionalism and path dependency theory, I have used process tracing trying to track the mechanisms behind Saudi Arabia's authoritarian rule down.

The xenophobic attitudes in Europe are stronger than even. Never before have the member states had as many right-wing parties in action. The aim with this report is therefore to consider whether the Schengen cooperation has had an influence on the development of xenophobia in the member states of EU. The Schengen cooperation became a part of the European Union in 1997, with the aim to abolish the internal border controls for citizens and strengthen the external boarders towards non-members. The intention is furthermore to investigate whether the distance to Schengen ?s external boarder has an impact on the xenophobic attitudes.Three countries are compared: Italy, Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Authors: Maria Bergholtz, Alexander WestessonTutor: Daniel EricssonTitle: Performance Measurement of Creative work ? a culture study at PS CommunicationKeywords: Key Performance Indicators, Organizational Culture, Macro-culture, Subculture,Micro-culture, Art, Business, Creativity, PS CommunicationIn the paper?s introductory chapter, the chosen problem area regarding art and business willbe presented. The paper?s studied empirical case will also be introduced here. This then leadsto the reports chosen research questions:How do the company management and the companies? creative personnel approach differ inthe discussion regarding performance measurement on PS Communication?-What causes these differences?What impact does the corporate culture have in the discussion about performancemeasurement of PS Communication?-Is the corporate culture weak or strong?The purpose of this paper is to resolve the stand still in the discussion regarding performancemanagement by creating an understanding of different people active in the organization?sapproach to performance measurement.

This essay aims to analyse the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, formally called MiFID, andwhether it improves the situation of the investor, the customer, on the market for securities. MiFID isa directive from the European Union and was implemented by the member states in 2007. Besideshaving the objective to harmonise the European financial market, the directive aims to increasecompetition and efficiency among the markets in the member states.After our initial reasearch in the area we choosed to do a textual analysis and divide the content ofMiFID into three main areas: trading venues, transparency and investor protection. These areas aresubsequently analysed in relation to the investor?s situation on the market for financial securities andthe overall question at issue is whether MiFID improves the situation of the investor.

The freedom of establishment is a fundamental right on the internal market which enables companies to take up and pursue activity in other member states, ?host states?, in a non discriminatory way. In situations where a company wishes to use the right to establish in a host state, complications will be discovered since the member states are applying different principles for deciding the nationality of a company. Since the Treaty of the Function of the European Union recognize both principles, and both of the legal areas company law and European international private law lack harmonization regarding companies wishing to perform such a transaction, the situation today brings the possibility that such a company could be covered by the legal system of several member states, or maybe no legal system at all.The Court of Justice of the European Union has through case law contributed to make the scope of the freedom of establishment a little bit clearer but there are still difficulties regarding situations when a company wishes to transfer its seat to another member state with a change of nationality. Today?s measures, for example the SE-company, is not enough to satisfy the companies wishing to transfer their seat to another member state.

The goal of this Master thesis has on the one hand been to create a simulation environment for robots, where not only the simulations in this work can be performed, but also similar robot simulations, and on the other hand to study regulators that can increase the possibilities of rejecting disturbances on an industrial robot. The robot model used has three degrees of freedom, corresponding to the three main links on ABB:s IRB7600. The simulation environment is created using Matlab, Simulink, and Robotics Toolbox. It is constructed in a general way and can be used for simulations of other robot objects created in Robotics Toolbox. A gain scheduling is added to the LQ-regulator, where the feedback matrix is varied depending on the arm position in the workspace.

The current trend towards globalisation and democratisation has made the theories of politics in pluralistic societies, and how to make them work, of particular interest and concern. Lijphart's theory of consociational democracy is an important influence in this field. At the same time the importance of civil society in transition studies and democratisation processes has been reinforced over the last thirty years. However, the complex political situation that plural societies face, creates obstacles for a healthy civil society. This thesis is based on a case study of Lebanon, a country with deep ethnic divisions and a government that resembles a consociational democracy.

This study focuses on nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe. Anchored in theories that this region historically has been characterized by a nationalism that is based on the ethnic group rather than on liberal or civic concepts, it is the purpose of this study to explore whether these theories still apply in recent times when the region has been liberalized, for example manifested in the entry to the European Union. The research question has been tested through analysis of the constitutions of a number of Central and Eastern European countries in order to investigate what type of nationalism that the states have codified in their basic political documents. The results show that some of the states give expression to the historical ethnic nationalism in their constitutions, which indicates that the theories still are relevant..

The function of traditional leaders in the modern states of Africa has been under debate for decades. The dominant research discourse suggests that these institutions should be integrated into the state in order to minimize the amount of parallel political spheres, since the latters are considered to affect state legitimacy negatively. But are the states in a situation where they need to compete with the traditional institutions in order to gain more legitimacy? If so, is the struggle for legitimacy a zero-sum game where there can only be one winner? Or is it possible for these institutions to co-exist or even benefit from each other? The aim of this bachelor?s thesis is to research if, and to what extent, African citizens? confidence in traditional institutions has an effect on state legitimacy. This has been done by statistically analyzing the data from the latest completed round of the Afrobarometer survey, a study that has been conducted in 20 different countries across West- and Northeast Africa.

In today?s society it is not uncommon for people to move across borders. We are more likely to work and study in other countries, initiate cross-border relationships, acquire property in other states and change our residence. Therefore it is not uncommon for a per-son to leave inheritance in several states. The laws of succession differ between countries which creates an uncertainty among the devisors when planning their successions.

Research and innovation are areas that have been evolving quickly during recent years. However, it has been difficult for individual countries to make progress on their own. To solve this problem the European union have launched the most expensive research and innovation program to this day. By combining national governments throughout Europe, the EU wants to create cutting edge technology that will strenghten the region and make the union able to compete on a worldwide stage. However, trying to combine national governments has not been easy, the programs struggle with byrocracy and member states of the European union are tentative about supranational institutions. By engaging in the program national governments have been afraid of how this will affect their sovereignty.