The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of the dynamics behind Chinese-Western buyer-supplier relationships. The study takes on a partially inductive approach by commencing with exploratory in-depth interviews. The main body of the study consists of a cross-sectional survey. Data has been collected through an on-line questionnaire. The theoretical review consists of industrial relationships with specific accounts on the role of adaptation, trust and commitment; a stream of literature in cross-cultural relationships deriving from Hofstede?s culturalist legacy with specific reference to Chinese-Western relationships, including studies on relationship bonding, and the role of guanxi.

Människor tenderar att attribuera framgångar till sig själva och misslyckanden till externa källor, fenomenet kallas för Self-serving bias. Hur individer attribuerar kan enligt forskning påverkas av bland annat graden av självkontroll samt självkänsla. Enligt forskning kan intentioner eller beteendemål aktiveras automatiskt och omedvetet av en utlösande signal, så kallad priming, och därmed aktivt guida en persons självreglering. Denna studie har genom ett experiment, med 56 högskolestudenter, undersökt om priming av självkontroll och självförtroende kan påverka hur en individ attribuerar vid framgång och misslyckande. Resultatet visade ingen signifikant skillnad mellan priminggrupperna.

Actor-observer bias är tendensen där människan som aktörer tillskriver sitt beteende till yttre omständigheter medan observatörer tenderar till att tillskriva aktörens beteende till personliga faktorer. Syftet med denna studie var att få en klarare bild av hur människor i sin roll som aktör eller observatör attribuerar ett riskabelt bilkörningsbeteende. Deltagarna bestod av 101 svenska studenter från en högskola i Mellansverige varav 77 stycken var kvinnor och 24 stycken var män. Deltagarna fick svara på en enkät angående actor-observer bias och riskfullt bilkörningsbeteende. Resultaten visade att andras beteende förklaras mer av personliga egenskaper än då personen själv kör riskfullt medan yttre omständigheter inte gav skillnad för vare sig andra eller en själv.

The essay examines and compares three different textbooks used in gymnasieskolans A- course from a postcolonial perspective. The method used in the essay is a qualitative analysis. Edward Said?s postcolonial theories are used as a tool to facilitate the analysis of the textbooks. The purpose of the essay is to examine how the textbooks depicts different parts of the world, are they depicting a multicultural world view, or are the textbooks assuming a western perspective in their description of the world.

AbstractEssay in Political Science, D-level, spring 2010. ?Do the American mass media serve foreign policy interests? ? A scrutiny of two American newspapers? coverage of the coup d?état in Honduras in the summer of 2009?, Author: David Scott. Tutor: Anders Broman The bias of the American mass media has been widely discussed among scholars. Not only has this phenomenon caught the attention of political scientists, but also academics from other scientific fields.

New tools for the assessment of aphasia are important for bothclinical work and research. To see how they relate to already existing testscan increase their usefulness. Western Aphasia Battery ? Revised was translatedto Swedish and compared with the Swedish aphasia test A-ning, partlyto compare content and partly to see how sixteen people aged between 22and 92 with aphasia performed on the tests. The subtests did not correspondcompletely and the type of items included varied a lot.

Western scholars have long sought to grasp the essence of and explain Buddhism. Western representation of Buddhism has been in a manner that reflects their concerns and interests. In addition to this it is also known that Buddhism in Sweden is seen in a favorable way. This study tries to locate where this positive attitude toward Buddhism stems from and if it is represented in this manner in Swedish textbooks. Therefore three textbooks of upper secondary class of religion are to be examined, not only to see if there is a positive attitude towards it, but to see in what manner Buddhism is depicted in Swedish schools on the whole.

This paper aims to investigate the systematic risk exposure of Swedish hedge funds using a modified Fung & Hsieh (2004) asset-based style factor model. The results show that the average Swedish equity hedge fund and fund of funds had a significant positive exposure to the equity market portfolio and the spread between small cap and large cap stocks (SMB) during the sample period. This is consistent with our a priori expectations and previous international studies. We do not find the expected systematic fixed-income related risk exposure for the fixed-income hedge funds and fund of funds in the sample. The empirical material used in this study is taken from a publicly available fund database maintained by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen).

Academic research indicates that critical publicity can have a detrimental effect on brand attitudes. The negative effects have been showed to be buffered by cognitive bias elicited by strong favourable attitudes, commitment, brand certainty and brand identification. It has been proposed that the influence of such bias in a news reporting context should be studied, something that also is interesting from a brand perspective. The study therefore investigated whether a well-publicised scandal in one period can lead to increased critical publicity in the coming periods. A case study of Swedish grocery chain ICA was conducted.

The general aim of this paper is to describe how the European Union can affect and transfer their conditionality politics to the Western Balkan countries. A specific purpose of this study is to describe and explain what we in this paper consider to be a specific additional membership criterion, regional cooperation that has been especially designed for this region. The point of departure for this paper is Europeanization theory that will be used to study the European Union?s impact on non EU-members in Europe. The theoretical Europeanization mechanisms are taken from Heather Grabbes ?Europeanization model?.

Imperialism has for a long time been an important concept in international relations. The literature identifies many different types of imperialism. After the great de-colonization scientists stopped discussing ?classic? imperialism, i.e. using physical strength in the form of conquest and occupation to subdue weaker states.

In this thesis I discuss about economical and political transition in countries that is consecutively being induced by influential external actors. Looking closer on the role of the EU as a dynamic transitional force, with the intention of examining to what extent the EU can pursuit its interest and modify the economical as well as the political structures of transition countries. With relations to four transition states on the Western Balkans, more precise Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro and Macedonia (FYROM), I have examined the influential position of the EU. Another feature that is discussed is the approach of the EU and the cause of it in respect to the Western Balkans. Since the end of the crises in Kosovo the EU was given the leading roll in stabilizing and reconstructing the Western Balkans.

De som förespråkar en ändring av det rådande läget (status quo), inom exempelvis politik, har visat sig vara mer påverkade av naiv realism än de som vill behålla status quo. Ytterligare studier visar att den politiska tillhörigheten kan vara av betydelse för hur påverkade av naiv realism dessa utmanare är. I två studier har det testats om naiv realism påverkas av positionen till status quo (utmana eller försvara) eller av den politiska tillhörigheten. I båda studier har en tydlig favorisering av den egna gruppen påträffats, samt att personer i utmanarposition gentemot status quo gjorde signifikant större skillnad mellan ingrupp och utgrupp än vad försvarare av status quo gjorde. Den politiska tillhörigheten visade sig inte vara av betydelse.

In recent years, the characterization of the Third World and its inhabitants in West-originated children?s books has been subject to debate. Media attention around a selection of books has generated discussions on how this relates and aligns with Sweden?s national teaching curriculum. The objective of this study is to explore how a selection of authors, born in Western countries, have characterized and presented the Third World and its inhabitants in its literature.

This thesis is concerned with how identity is connected to historical writings and what normsshapes the perspectives of history. The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibilitiesfor identification offered in history books used for history teaching. This study is concernedwith what role the nation plays and how it shapes the conception of history, with the hope ofcounteracting negative attitudes towards those not being identified as ?Swedish? in the historytelling.The study was conducted through discourse analysis. The material for this analysis consistedof three history books directed towards 4-6th graders.The study shows how identity is created through putting ?us? against ?them?.