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The purpose of this study is to examine the differences and similarities regarding verbal politeness in greetings and requests in Swedish and the Chilean variety of Spanish. A survey with 12 questions, both open-ended and closed-ended, has been distributed to 20 native speakers of the two languages. Thus, the questions have been analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The results show that the perception that the Swedes and the Chileans have about verbal politeness is similar, since the speakers of both languages see it as a way to show respect towards others. The study also shows that Swedes and Chileans share a similar view upon politeness, i.e. as a social norm that facilitates social interaction between people.

Title: Enhancing Swedish Large MNEs’ Strategies in Chinese Market -By Analyzing the Perspectives of Consumers in Sweden and China Authors: Cheng Han and Xiaojing Gu Supervisor: Svante Andersson Level: Master Dissertation in International Marketing, 15 credits Keywords: Consumer behavior, Multinational enterprise, Marketing strategy, Swedish and Chinese market Background: With the trend of globalization, multinational enterprises noticed the potential market in China. Base on previous research, researchers indicated consumer behaviors have a sort of relationship and influence on MNEs’ strategies. Purpose: Investigate the distinctions between Swedish and Chinese consumer behaviors, due to the distinction, explore the way to enhance MNEs’ strategies in Chinese market. Research Questions: Q1: What are the differences between Chinese consumers and Swedish consumers evaluating same enterprises? Q2: How Swedish large MNEs develop their strategies for adapting the distinctions of Chinese consumers? Theoretical Framework: The theoretical framework includes theories regarding what factors of consumer behaviors are considered as influencing on enterprises’ strategies and the theories of general enterprise strategies. Methodology: This dissertation is a quantitative study accompany with case study. Empirical Framework: The empirical framework presents case descriptions and statistics. Analysis: The five hypotheses are analyzed and critical examined. Conclusion: Since consumers from different countries have different consumer behaviors, enterprises need to alter their strategies by adapting the distinctions of consumers.

More and more people choose to move from the countryside into the cities, which can eventually have a negative impact on rural municipalities. Rural municipalities with a negative populationgrowth may ultimatley be difficult to handle and offer health, education, social services and service. How will swedish rural municipalities reach a population growth? The purpose of the studie is to studie population developement in Osby and Åsele municipality, and how each municipality work with strategies to achieve and increase in population growth. A comparison between the two municipalities will then be made on the basis of natural population growth, internal migration and the role of immigration. In order to awnser the purpose, semi-structured interviews were conducted with both officals and politicians from each municipality. This is to gain a deeper understanding of how municipal different conditions and how they work with theses issues. The result showed that local conditions to attract a new population is different, but there are strategies of both municipalities to reach a population growth. Municipalities use of their advantages on the conditions that are to be able to market themselves and attract a new population.

This study aims to investigate how special needs teachers work with dyslexic pupils who are not reaching the goals of the subject of English. In addition, the focus is to examine dyslexic pupils’ experienced areas of difficulties and also how to structure the language teachings in order to facilitate for the pupils with dyslexia. The method of collecting data for this essay is based on a qualitative research approach through semi-structured interviews with special needs teachers. The results conclude that the informants do not support the pupils directly since their assignment is instead to coach the teachers, which mean that their main responsibility is to work primarily with school organization. Also, through this essay it became evident that dyslexia exists in every language and the specific learning disability is not equal with a failed grade in English.

Semiotics and the concept of signs can be used to analyse the signs that can be found in a Swedish primary school in order to understand and expand our understanding of the role of signifiers, including cultural ones, in child education. The study identifies what signs can be found, what purpose they have and what category of sign they belong to, whether they are signs as defined by Saussure, how they might be categorized within Peirce‘s triadic typology and, applying Barthes’ notion of cultural signification, the extent to which they contribute to maintaining and promoting a school’s identity and values. In order to analyse the signs, a Swedish public primary school located in Halmstad was visited and the visible signs were photographed and catalogued. In order to confirm the intentions behind the design and meaning of signs, an interview with a senior teacher was arranged. The result, and signs, that were documented and described; these included drawings, emergency escape signs, posters, diplomas and other instructions with picture or sign language representations. The signs were categorized and analysed using semiotic theories of signs suggested by Saussure, Peirce and Barthes. The study facilitates a clearer understanding of the range of functions of signs in schools, both for practical purposes and as signifiers of culture and identity, and also highlights the possible applications and limitations of using semiotic theories in investigating generated meanings in physical locations.

The purpose of this study is to examine in which way two Swedish tabloid newspapers, Aftonbladet and Expressen, most commonly frame gambling in the news coverage on their websites in a time when research reveals that it has become increasingly harder to determine what is journalistic material and what is advertisement. At the same time, gambling companies have taken over a large part of the advertising space at Swedish tabloid websites. There has, in its extent, been done insufficient research within the journalistic field of news coverage when it comes to gambling and this study seeks to fill in some of the investigative blanks. In order to analyze how frames emerge from the news coverage we collected articles from a six-month period, as close to the initiation of the study as possible, by using eight different words or short phrases that led to the total empirical data of 302 news articles. Methodologically the study uses quantitative content analysis mainly based on the theory of framing. Furthermore, we also apply the theoretical aspects of agenda setting and news selection. The result clearly shows that the Swedish tabloid newspapers frame gambling in a positive and non-problematic way and there is a remarkable over representation of articles that are based on what we call “the happy winner frame”. In the conclusion we discuss both social and media related implications of the newspapers way of framing gambling in their online news coverage. We also offer a couple of propositions for future research within this field of medial science.

Good working conditions have become one of the most important factors in today’s Swedish workplaces. The impact that culture has on companies and their atmosphere is of great importance for overall productivity. Existing research has mainly focused on large established businesses. As a consequence, the work that has been conducted on small entrepreneurial companies is limited. There are studies highlighting the difficulty of transitioning from a small firm to a large entrepreneurial firm. Still, there is a lack of studies investigating this process in depth. Gaining insight into this process is highly relevant for practitioners, policy makers and researchers alike. Therefore, we have chosen to study this field closer. In order to explore this field and to dive deeper within the concept of organizational culture, a shadowing method has been used on a newly started growth oriented company. The company is founded by two opportunity driven leaders who strongly believe in a happy workplace where the focus lies on the individual and where problems are met with a “how hard can it be” attitude. We followed the firm for 8 weeks. During that time we were present full time in their facilities, conducted formal interviews, informal interviews, interacted with employees and the entrepreneurs during lunches and small gatherings. In order to develop an entrepreneurial culture they follow an ideology that is based on a few cornerstones; they strive to have short decision paths, a familial atmosphere, individual focus, strong commitment mixed with a fun factor. When investigating how the culture expresses itself we have found four different forums of particular interest; the office where the decision process takes place, the group meetings where beliefs and values are shared, the individual meetings where feedback is provided and the recruitment process where the cultural marketing takes place. Our conclusion is that these forums work together in a circular motion that expresses – shapes - shares - aligns the organizational culture of this small and young company.

There have been uncertainties to what a performance audit generates, as audit impact have an inherent causality problem. Prior studies present several factors that affect perceived audit impact, but the generalizability is low and not applicable in a Swedish context, thus this thesis contributes to the development of the existing knowledge by investigating audit impact. This thesis consists of a sample of three performance audits which are investigated through a mix methods approach with a total 23 interviews and multiple public documents, analyzed with earlier studies and theories as a benchmark. The findings indicate that audit impact is complex where several factors affect audit impact, this thesis indicated that usefulness and quality of the performance audit are the main factors that affects perceived audit impact. There are also additional effects by the performance audit that fall outside of the audit impact definition. Due to the small sample size and the fact that performance audits often are regulated by local laws one must be careful in what context these findings are solely applied in another context.

<p>Abstract</p><p>The debate on grammar has been on the agenda for thousands of years. Several different arguments and theories have been used in order to explain the importance of grammar in school. Some newer arguments have been added, while others have stayed, either in their original version, or in a modernised one.</p><p>This essay aims to clarify the role grammar play in school. In order to do that we have looked into its history, the curriculum, modern research and interviews made with active teachers.</p><p>The results of the literary studies, the studies of the curriculum and the field studies show that the very presence of grammar in school is disputed. The curriculum of today speaks of an orientation in language, with grammar as a part of it, based on the students’ own language. This way of thinking is also visible in modern research. The field studies, on the other hand, show a more conservative view. The teachers that were interviewed for this essay were unfamiliar with the exact content of the curriculum and tended to teach based on old arguments and ways of thinking. The fact that modern research shows the disadvantages of traditional education in grammar is something that the interviewed teachers seem to be unaware of. Modern studies of grammar adapted to the language of the students’ demand an effort from the teachers as the teaching aids are not adapted to this way of thinking. One solution to this problem ought to be further training of the teachers, so that these get a fair opportunity to be up to date with newer research.</p>