In order to strengthen the entity of the company, enlarge the size of the company and let the company become more competitive, a company should have, not only well-planed prospects and goals, but also solid operation strategies and implemented the strategies certainly. According to the present and future prospects of the company, the thesis makes a so-called ¡§double growth in five years¡¨ plan as a mid-term and long-term goal. The basic target is to double the turnover and capital values in five years. However, the essential meanings are as below. 1. to solve the current difficulties of the company 2. to increase the effectiveness and create more profit 3. to maintain the competitive advantage of the company 4. to lead the company into a second business establishment 5. to establish a foundation for future sustainable development Regarding to the operation strategies, the thesis is mainly aimed at the condition which meets the case-study company to provide the feasible action plans. The focused contents include brand, professional ability, negotiating ability, low-cost strategy, human resources management, marketing opportunity and future relative business. This research targets at a case study of water and electrical engineering company, which is located in Kaohsiung. The study structure starts with planning the mid-term and long-term goal, developing the operation strategy, assessing the strategy and implementing the plan, followed by a systematic analysis and discussion, and then expecting to achieve the goal of ¡§double growth in five years¡¨ plan and keep the competitiveness of enterprise. Next, the research has merged the theory of strategic management with practical operation experience, and has linked the thinking mode of strategy with operation activities of the enterprise for achieving the goal of internalizing the strategic knowledge. The research method is to collect the opinions by consulting many experts, scholars and professional suppliers, and refer to many reference articles, and precede the case analysis and descriptive research. The following conclusions have been obtained after summarizing the above information. 1. In order to overcome the difficulties and create a new era for the company, the small-sized and medium-sized construction or electrical engineering companies should plan the operation strategy and implement it certainly. This can break through the difficult position to create company value. 2. According to the research analysis, some operation defects, which existing many years, have been found in the case-study company. Those defects should be improved as soon as possible, in order to promote the company and achieve the mid-term and long-term goals. 3. Learning and utilizing of the strategic management knowledge are the necessary management tools for each manager in the present time, as well as the best weapon towards success for each enterprise.

The evolving roadmaps of TQM (i.e. Six Sigma and Lean Production) have reached a consensus that creating value to customers is the aim of quality management. However, it is not uncommon that suppliers do not have a thorough understanding of customer value, do not know the methods and tools to enable value creation, or not knowing how to demonstrate suppliers’ competence in creating customer value. Although quality management has provided the fundamentals for creating value, further development is required in order to reduce or close the gap between the strategic and the tactical implications of customer value. This dissertation describes the development of quality management toward customer value creation in order to reduce the “gap” between value creation as the aim of quality management and the value as perceived by customers. The development of quality management requires a Profound Knowledge of Customer Value (PKCV), guiding principles that enable organisations to gain customer-related knowledge and to take necessary actions in order to create, deliver, and optimise customer value through quality management. The principles of PKCV are: appreciation for a value-creating system, knowledge about customer value modes, theory of improvements, and perceptions. A central point in the PKCV is Value Modes Effect & Analysis (ValMEA), a concept which connects the higher and the lower level of customer value abstraction by describing that customer value appears in different “modes” in different contexts. This interconnection indicates that customer value is not just a concept that is goals/needs-related (fulfilment of goals or needs) or product-related (linked with a product), but also is competence-related (implying suppliers’ value creation potential). Hence, customer value is both the input and the output of a value-creating system, which “reveals” the bi-directional relationship between quality improvements and customer value. This means that customer value measurements may lead to the identification of improvement opportunities, and suppliers’ efforts in improving quality may influence customers’ perceptions regarding the value of the product. Through a re-interpretation of the principles of Six Sigma and Lean Production and the adaption of tools to capture customer value, quality management can be further developed toward customer value creation.

The main objective of this thesis is to understand why there is imbalance of exchange students of Sweden and Thailand. We have analyzed the interviewed data of Swedish students who had experience of studying at universities in Thailand. Our research has revealed the factors and issues behind the imbalance situation. After analyzing factors we have proposed some recommendations in order to improve the pedagogy to increase the number of Swedish students deciding to study at Universities in Thailand so that the exchange imbalance could be reduced. Furthermore, we have proposed a favor product package for Swedish students that can help them to decide to study in Thailand.

The main objective of this thesis is to understand why there is imbalance of exchange students of Sweden and Thailand. We have analyzed the interviewed data of Swedish students who had experience of studying at universities in Thailand. Our research has revealed the factors and issues behind the imbalance situation. After analyzing factors we have proposed some recommendations in order to improve the pedagogy to increase the number of Swedish students deciding to study at Universities in Thailand so that the exchange imbalance could be reduced. Furthermore, we have proposed a favor product package for Swedish students that can help them to decide to study in Thailand.

The thesis presents a study on important attributes which should be considered by the supplier in buying situations in the electronic manufacturing services (EMS) market. Hence, the importance level of attributes is investigated to see which attributes are more or less important when business-to-business (B2B) customers place an order. This can be interpreted as the relationship between the created value and the accompanying cost. For the success of this research work, both the qualitative and quantitative methods need to be applied. The importance of nine aspects is examined including: payment term, warranty, brand, product quality, delivery, packaging, certificates, supporting service and after-sales service. To identify which one is significant, a classification of the twenty-three attributes covering the nine aspects is conducted using Kano’s evaluation table. The findings through this research indicate that delivery, product quality and supporting service are the three most important aspects. A focus on these aspects is supposed to help the company to get value for the customers and also bring significant benefits for that company.

Key words:         Customer value, value-adding factors, e-commerce, apparel industry, Vietnamese market, customers’ perception.  Background:      Along with the development of many applications from Internet, Electronic Commerce (e-commerce) has changed the business scene in the global economy by emerging as a new, efficient channel of doing business. The apparel industry has also been approaching this way of doing business as an attempt to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of operations at various extents. In the Vietnamese market, Ninomaxx being well-known as leading fashion brand for young and proactive people is in the process of launching its very first online shop. However, the lack of information and the vagueness in regard to customers preference and shopping habit in the context of e-commerce leads to many difficulties for fashion companies like Ninomaxx. These lacking can all be traced back to one universal cause that is the insufficiency in understanding customers’ perceived value. Accordingly, it raises the authors’ interests to conduct a research of customers’ perception concerning customer value in Vietnamese apparel industry within the e-commerce context. Purpose:             The purpose of this thesis is to identify elements of e-commerce that customers perceive as value-adding factors in the context of Vietnamese apparel industry. Accordingly, thesis will examine how value can be created and enhanced for customers in the case of Ninomaxx and Vietnamese apparel firms in general. Method:              In this thesis, authors chose to collect and analyze data mainly through a quantitative approach. Prospective customers of Ninomaxx, whose ages were from 17 to 30, were the surveyed group. A questionnaire was employed to collect response from the group and was distributed in two ways: an online link and offline papers. Various nonparametric statistical techniques and one extensive model were used to analyze results of the survey. Conclusion:    From the perception of Vietnamese customers from 17 to 30 years old, there are 5 elements of e-commerce that are identified as very strong value-adding factors, namely, availability of information on the website, accuracy of demonstrating products’ color on website, seller’s ensuring products’ quality, seller’s trustworthiness and safety of using products. There are additionally 11 strong value-adding factors from perception of apparel customers in Vietnam. However, there is evidence of differences in customers’ response regarding their demographic characteristics and Internet usage. Apparel companies should consider accordingly in order to form the optimal strategy for e-commerce retail channel in Vietnam.

I Sverige råder det hög konkurrens och låg kundrörlighet på bankmarknaden samtidigt som många banker har dålig kunskap om vad de ska erbjuda för att locka till sig nya kunder. Ett specifikt segment som Swedbank är intresserade av att locka till sig är universitetsstudenter. I dagsläget erbjuder Sveriges stora banker enbart klassiskt finansiella mervärden till dessa studenter. Detta innebär att bankerna inte särskiljer sig, vilket i sin tur gör att studenterna inte lockas till att byta bank eftersom samma mervärden redan erbjuds hos deras nuvarande banker. Därmed finns det en möjlighet att utforska nya mervärden som en student kan tänka sig att byta bank för. Detta för oss in på följande problemformulering: - Vad för mervärde eller vilka mervärden ska en bank erbjuda universitetsstudenter (18-26 år) vid Umeå Universitet för att få dem att byta från sin nuvarande bank, samt varför är dessa mervärden av betydelse för studenterna och för banken? Vid skapandet av denna uppsats har vi berört teorierna ”Mervärde”, ”Brand Loyalty- & Illoyalty”, ”Lifestyle Branding & Marketing”, ”Pioneers” och ”Blue Ocean Strategy”. Vidare har vi arbetat både kvalitativt (fokusgrupp) och kvantitativt (enkätundersökningar). Fokusgruppen utfördes med fyra stycken fjärdeårselever vid Umeå universitet där vi undersökte vad för mervärden en bank bör erbjuda till universitetsstudenter. De erhållna mervärdena prövade vi sedan i enkätundersökningen. Enkäten fördelades ut till 121 stycken studenter vid alla de fyra olika fakulteten vid Umeå universitet med ett fokus på att ta reda på vilket eller vilka mervärden den generella studenten kunde tänka sig att byta bank för. När datainsamlingen var klar gjordes en analys av resultatet där vi tog reda på varför vissa mervärden är av betydelse för studenterna och Swedbank. I arbetets slutsats kom vi fram till följande: Det vi har kommit fram till är att det existerar två starka mervärden som kan göra att universitetsstudenter kan tänka sig att byta bank. Dessa mervärden är Rabatt på studentlitteratur och Rabatt på gymkort. Detta grundar sig att mervärdena både har en betydelse för Swedbank och universitetsstudenterna, vilket skapar vinster för båda parterna. Detta för att Swedbank kan få nya och lojala kunder samtidigt som studenterna kan erhålla mervärden som passar deras livsstil.

Pricing is a complex yet important process that has a large influence on profitability; however few managers utilize pricing as a strategy to increase competitive advantage. The potential of pricing based on specific customer’s needs should be acknowledged, since it is beneficial for the customers by allowing them to recognize the true value of a product. It is also beneficial for marketers since they can present the price in the content of a total solution tailored for those customer needs. Even though a value-based pricing strategy is considered superior to alternative pricing strategies, few companies practice it. The limited amount of researches that has been conducted in the field of value-based pricing strategies has revealed various obstacles in the implementation phase. However, it is still not proved that these obstacles can be found in all industries. The purpose of this thesis is to present research in the field of pricing, by adding to prior research, practical observations on obstacles when implementing a value-based pricing strategy. A qualitative case study at Volvo Construction Equipment in Sweden was conducted and the results show similarities with prior researches. However additional obstacles were identified and further evidence from this study stresses the importance of possessing fundamental knowledge about value-based pricing strategies; as it impacts a company’s ability to implement it successfully and entirely. Therefore this thesis includes the fundamental knowledge and describes how obstacles connected to the concept are perceived in practice. Further a managerial framework is provided to help companies interested in implementing value-based pricing strategies.

The pursuit of beauty in today's society is growing day by day. According to ITIS report about cosmetic industry development trend in 2010, the global cosmetics market in 2009 reached 3,474 billion U.S. dollars, twice as much as nine years ago. Cosmetic industry in Taiwan began to flourish since 1960s. Taiwan cosmetic industry is filled with United States, European and Japanese brands until 1990s. Promoted by government policy, many domestic brands emerge in 2000s. At this point, the Korean cosmetic brands entered Taiwan, making Taiwan cosmetic market more diverse and more competitive. The Korean cosmetic brands became more popular among the youth, and opened lots of stores. This study chose top 3 Korean cosmetic brands: The Face Shop, Skin Food, Etude House to understand what values the Korean cosmetic stores provide, and how the Korean cosmetic stores can survive and grow. So, this study has four major objectives: 1. To understand the correlation between service quality, customer value and customer satisfaction in Korean cosmetic stores. 2. To explore the impact of consumption emotions on customer satisfaction. 3. To understand the effect of country of origin on customer satisfaction. 4. To analyze the influence of different levels of consumer innovativeness on customer satisfaction. This study uses personal interview and online questionnaire to investigate the consumers of The Face Shop¡BSkin Food¡BEtude House.The results include: 1. Customer value is a mediator between service quality and customer satisfaction. 2. Different utilitarian values have no significant influence on customer satisfaction; different hedonic values have significant difference on customer satisfaction. 3. The main effects of country of origin, consumer innovativeness and consumption emotions have significant influence on customer satisfaction.

Because TTL (Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corporation) has monopolized the domestic market of tobacco and liquor for a long time, the operating attitude focuses mainly on distribution. How to adjust the management tactics and remold the staff with corporatizational concept becomes the critical point for making a transition. Therefore, through the probe of interior and exteriot CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index) in Kaohsiung Operation Center of TTL to investigate the CRM (Customer Relationship Management), we hope to propose suggestions based on the research results. Via promoting the CRM mechanism, the corporation can offer high quality product or service, so as to fulfill the enterprise mission and the government policy of profit-making, and moreover, the goal to realize the corporate social responsibility and achieve sustainable development. Through collecting and analyszing materials by means of literature study and questionnaire investigation, the research obtains the following conclusion: 1. With respect to Customer Satisfaction, the best rating falls on "operating achievements" and "geniality;" 2. In the aspect of Customer Management, "customer segmentation" and "targeted customer" receive the highest rating; 3. "Mutual reliance" and "public praise" earn the best rating in the aspect of customer service; 4. "Service" ranks the highest in providing customer value; 5. "Market share" wins the best score in promoting value added for customer; 6. Among new staff, satisfaction goes to "public praise" and the "complementary distribution system;" 7. Staff with less education is more satisfied with "customer relationship," "high value in C/P" and "returning and exchanging goods;" 8. What senior retailers concern is the "corporate image;" 9. The big retailers are relatively satisfied with CRM; 10. Consolidate the responsibility for regional operation and construct prospect of enterprise development; 11. Set up market competition order and protect the health rights and interests of those who are under the age of 18.