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This thesis advances an explicit, consequent, and wholesome ethnomethodological perspective on brand community. It recognizes brand community as a social problem – something to be continuously solved and achieved. The two main perceivably stable features of the Nikonian community are (1) practical usefulness and (2) the social link. The authors suggest that both features are constantly accomplishe

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.

Caran has a strong belief that women leaders affect the financial profitability positive. Since women leaders are intangible resources it is very difficult to calculate its exact value. The authors found that one of their measurement methods can’t be used to calculate the value of women leaders. The other measurement method can calculate significance between women and men leaders and provides an i

The thesis provides with the broad overview about the consumer awareness of the gender dimension within brand personalities. The research contributes to branding theory and gender studies and demonstrates that consumer gender influences does not influence the perceived brand personality gender. However, it also shows that consumers prefer brands with a clear gender, but not necessarily the same ge

Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to investigate how a pricing capability can be developed on a general as well as on a practical level in an industrial company working on the international business-to-business market. Methodology: We have conducted a case study of the work on pricing at Triton. After mapping the events we have evaluated the results. We have conducted interviews with p

Many researchers emphasize the increasing strategic importance of supply chain management, but there is still a lack of concrete guidance for managers faced with strategic decisions in supply chain. Within decision-making theories, the rational decision-making model is the most commonly used. This because of its suitable foundation, enabling a structure to the complex decision process. The rationa

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study the adaptation of recently recruited young professionals to a top consulting firm through their identity construction efforts. We analyze the influence of a major organization-related discourse on young professionals in order to account for the effects of emotional labor on their adaptation to work. Methodology: We have studied our empirical material

Problem: What are the characteristics of Polykemi’s management control system and how is it affected by growth? Purpose: To describe and analyse the management control system of a medium-sized family-owned company from the perspective of Simons’ Levers of control. Research design: An abductive, interview-based case study of Polykemi AB. Conclusion: Polykemi’s management control system is primarily

Women ledaers and profitability, is there a correlation? Earlier research show different outcome on the correlation between women leaders and profitability. A Swedish consultant firm, Caran has a belief that more women leaders would create more financial profit, we ask us if that is the true situation. Using two different IC measurement methods we have shown the difficulties in calculate intagible

To introduce a standardized component assortment takes a lot of effort in order to make real cost savings. The rationalization effect itself is important, but perhaps even more important is to state the aim of the standardization efforts in a well-defined way. How can an organization assure that they are working in a proper way? How do they know that their efforts are being interpreted into the wh

Problem discussion: Long-term supplier relationships have become more common. Hence, supplier evaluation is a critical activity for many companies. However, making a relevant supplier evaluation is time consuming. Therefore, it is important to decide which of the suppliers to put an extra effort on. Should all suppliers be evaluated in the same way? Previous, focus has been on purchasing of direct

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to research and analyze how the establishment in new markets of small and medium Swedish fashion companies can be made more efficient from a network perspective. Methodology: The researchers have decided to take a phenomenological standpoint and undertake an exploratory study in order to gain understanding of the phenomenon of market entry and the use of netwo

This paper is a report from a Minor Field Study conducted in Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras. I conducted semi-structured interviews with women subjected to domestic violence with the objective of finding out and highlighting their view on the problem of domestic violence, the Law against Domestic Violence and the institutions connected to it. I further conducted interviews with different profession

We have identified a number of different roles within the controller’s role itself. Two types of discrepancies were discovered. The first one, called interpretation gap shows that there is a discrepancy between the managers’ expectations on the role of the controller and the controllers’ interpretation of these expectations. The second discrepancy illustrates that there are expectation gaps occurr

The purpose of this thesis is to get a better understanding of consumers’ perception and knowledge of Fair Trade and Fair Trade products in Sweden. Literature was reviewed before the empirical research was conducted. A quantitative method, in form of a questionnaire survey, has been used. We have entered different areas related to our topic. Corporate Social Responsibility and ethical consumerism

Upon marketing the system in Europe and the USA cost savings generated from reduced work force have been prevailing. Since the cost of labour is much lower in the Asia Pacific region other factors have to be stressed. The parameters of flexibility and quality assurance may however cover any initial investment in a production system. Our purpose is to value flexibility and quality in a manufacturin

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to give a contribution to the studies of what strategies those are of importance for challengers in consumer technological markets aiming for the market leader position. To be able to investigate this phenomenon we have chosen to study Microsoft’s second position in the video game console industry. In addition, we want to illuminate Microsoft’s competitive ad

This master thesis concerns whether Swedish non-financial listed firms act in accordance with the optimal capital structure theory and/or pecking order theory. The examined period is 1998-2004 and we discover that Swedish companies neither follow optimal capital structure theory nor pecking order theory. From our results we conclude that there exists no single point of the capital structure which