Nyckelord: Kulturell påverkan, etik och religion, konsumentbeteende, internationell marknadsföring och svenskhet. Syfte Syftet med detta examensarbete är att skapa fördjupad förståelse för hur kulturella faktorer, såsom religion och etiska värderingar, påverkar svenska företags utformning av deras internationella marknadsföring med fokus på den saudiarabiska marknaden. Utifrån denna förståelse syftar studien till att undersöka de svenska konsumenternas reaktioner på företagens eventuella åtgärder och anpassningar efter den saudiarabiska kulturen, studien syftar även till att se om de finns några likheter och skillnader mellan olika generationer, kön och låg- respektive höginkomsttagare. Problemformulering Hur påverkar kulturella faktorer, såsom religion och etiska värderingar, svenska företags utformning av deras internationella marknadsföring i Saudiarabien? Hur påverkar företagens ageranden de svenska konsumenternas uppfattning av företaget och finns det några likheter och skillnader i attityderna mellan olika konsumentgrupper, såsom generationer, kön och låg- respektive höginkomsttagare? Metodval Studien fokuserar på två stycken stora svenska detaljhandelsföretag som opererar på den saudiarabiska marknaden. Undersökningen bygger på både kvalitativ och kvantitativ data. De data som samlats in och som ligger till grund för studiens resultat och slutsatser är genomförd via litteraturstudier och en enkätundersökning på 171 stycken deltagare. Resultat och slutsatser Kulturella faktorer har en stor inverkan på företagens internationella marknadsföring, men de har valt olika tillvägagångssätt. De svenska konsumenterna reagerade olika starkt mot olika sorters anpassningar och det är av stor vikt för företagen att skilja mellan vilka anpassningar som hemmarknaden accepterar och inte. Kunder tenderar att byta ut ett varumärke på grund av etiska skäl och det av stor betydelse för företagen att ha en långsiktigt hållbar marknadsföring. / Keywords: The impact of culture, ethics and religion, consumer behavior, International marketing and swedishness Purpose The purpose of this study is to create a deeper understanding about cultural factors, such as religion and ethical value, and the impact on Swedish business international marketing designs with focus on the Saudi Arabian market. With this knowledge the purpose of this study continues to focus on which effects this may have on the Swedish market and if the effects differ between different generations, gender and low-income respective high-income earners. Problem How do cultural factors, such as religion and ethical values, have an impact on Swedish business international marketing design in Saudi Arabia? Which impacts have the adaptations on the Swedish market and are there any differences between different groups of consumers, such as generations, gender and low-income respective high-income earners? Method This study focus on two big Swedish retail companies that operates on the Saudi Arabian market. The investigations in this study are built on both qualitative and quantitative data, one literature study and one survey that included 171 participants. Results and conclusions Cultural factors have a large impact on the businesses international marketing designs, but they have chosen different way to handle the situations. The Swedish consumers reactions were different regarding on the adaptations and it’s really important that the business know which adaptations that they are accepting and not. Customers may change from one brand to another because of ethical values and the companies need to have a long-term sustainable marketing.

In the United States, rural culture is frequently thought of as traditional and “authentically” American. This belief stems from settler colonial histories in which Native lands are stolen and “settled” by white colonial communities. Through this process, the rugged “frontier” becomes a symbol of American identity, and rural communities become the home of “real” Americans. Because settler colonization is invested in maintaining systems of white supremacy, sexism, and heteropatriarchy, these “real” Americans are figured as normatively white and straight. This dissertation analyzes the rhetorical construction of rurality in the United States, specifically focusing on the ways in which settler colonial histories shape national discussions of rural sexuality. I theorize a rhetorical practice I call rural drag, a process by which individuals in settler society can assert membership in white heteropatriarchy by performing “rurality.” I trace the development of this rhetorical practice through three case studies. In the first, I analyze 19th-century Texan legislative writings during the creation of Texas A&M University. These writings and related correspondences reveal a baseline of white supremacist and settler colonial rhetorics upon which the university established its ethos. In the second, I look at how these rhetorics continue to inform performances of sexuality and gender at Texas A&M. These performances derive from earlier rhetorical practices designed to create a space for white settler privilege. Together, these two case studies suggest that rhetorical practices shape and are shaped by the spaces in which they are practiced and the rhetorical histories of these spaces. In my final case study, I interrogate national discourses of rurality through an analysis of country western music to show how rhetorics of rurality are simultaneously local and national. I conclude by challenging scholars of rhetoric and queer studies to recognize that the relationship between rhetoric and place is key to recognizing our relationship to privilege and oppression in the United States. To further this, I propose a decolonial queerscape pedagogy that accounts for the multiple overlays of sexual identities and practices that travel through the academy while challenging the colonial histories and actions upon which the academy is built.

Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka den kris som uppstod kring H&M:s textilförbränning 2017 genom att analysera medierapporteringen samt en intervju ur Uppdrag granskning. Uppsatsens problemställningar har undersökt hur denna kris uppkom samt vilka faktorer som låg till grund för denna. Den teoretiska tyngdpunkten är issues och issues management, hållbar kommunikation, förväntningssamhället (Nextopia) samt agenda setting. I resultatet presenteras en analys av den kodade medierapporteringen och intervjun utifrån en tematisk samt diskursanalytisk metod där materialet har tematiserats till att kretsa kring miljö, etik och ansvar samt källhantering. Miljöaspekten är inriktad mot konsekvenser av textilproduktion och etik och moral har visat sig vara en betydelsefull faktor för krisskadandet. Gemensamt för samtliga artiklar är att de är någorlunda presenterar en samstämmig bild av H&M:s textilbränning och att detta var en bidragande faktor till krisen. Slutligen visar uppsatsen på att vi har en rad förväntningar på media samtidigt som vi har förväntningar på H&M som företag, vilket tillsammans bidrar till krisskapandet. Mediernas uppbyggnad och syfte påverkar även att rapporteringen inte alltid är rationell. Det kan även vara problematiskt att förutspå hur förtroendekapital som skapas via PR-aktiviteter kan komma att tolkas i en framtida kontext. Agenda setting är ytterligare en bidragande orsak till krisskapandet och varför vissa händelser hamnar på mediernas agenda. Gränsen mellan hållbar och ohållbar kommunikation är inte alltid helt spikrak och genuint hållbar kommunikation kan endast legitimeras av organisationer med hållbara strategier och affärsmodeller.

This paper is an attempt to identify new ways to improve consumer’s response to ethical fashion branding through written mission statements and fashion films. It examines material by three fashion brands: H&M, Stella McCartney and People Tree. Additionally, it reviews and summarizes findings of previous literature in the field of ethical and sustainable fashion branding and builds a list of principal factors that play in the success of ethical fashion branding. The paper concludes with providing recommendations to improve the branding of each case study. / BA Thesis

This essay aims to establish a marxist perspective upon a phenomena that could be seen as typical neoliberal–femvertising. I have noticed an expanding trend in fashion; the use of feminism as branding. Fashion brands such as Dior and H&M have lately profiled themselves with feminism, framing it as radical as well as feminist. Meanwhile, the theory of reification by Georg Lukács claims that capitalism fools us to believe that we may acccomplish human aims and characteristics through commodities. I will investigate if it is possible to look upon this phenomena as an example of reification? The attempt brings the capitalistic dimension of femvertising into daylight and questions it´s feminist pretense.

The aim of this thesis is to define fast fashion as a trend in the contemporary retailing with a deeper focus on the Czech market. It provides an analysis and further comparison of marketing strategies and business activities of five chosen retailers (C&A, H&M, Marks&Spencer, Reserved and ZARA) who are mutual competitors on both, domestic and foreign markets. The empirical part presents information about Czech consumers and their perception of the marketing strategies that particular companies apply in the Czech Republic.

abstract: In the current photovoltaic (PV) industry, the O&M (operations and maintenance) personnel in the field primarily utilize three approaches to identify the underperforming or defective modules in a string: i) EL (electroluminescence) imaging of all the modules in the string; ii) IR (infrared) thermal imaging of all the modules in the string; and, iii) current-voltage (I-V) curve tracing of all the modules in the string. In the first and second approaches, the EL images are used to detect the modules with broken cells, and the IR images are used to detect the modules with hotspot cells, respectively. These two methods may identify the modules with defective cells only semi-qualitatively, but not accurately and quantitatively. The third method, I-V curve tracing, is a quantitative method to identify the underperforming modules in a string, but it is an extremely time consuming, labor-intensive, and highly ambient conditions dependent method. Since the I-V curves of individual modules in a string are obtained by disconnecting them individually at different irradiance levels, module operating temperatures, angle of incidences (AOI) and air-masses/spectra, all these measured curves are required to be translated to a single reporting condition (SRC) of a single irradiance, single temperature, single AOI and single spectrum. These translations are not only time consuming but are also prone to inaccuracy due to inherent issues in the translation models. Therefore, the current challenges in using the traditional I-V tracers are related to: i) obtaining I-V curves simultaneously of all the modules and substrings in a string at a single irradiance, operating temperature, irradiance spectrum and angle of incidence due to changing weather parameters and sun positions during the measurements, ii) safety of field personnel when disconnecting and reconnecting of cables in high voltage systems (especially field aged connectors), and iii) enormous time and hardship for the test personnel in harsh outdoor climatic conditions. In this thesis work, a non-contact I-V (NCIV) curve tracing tool has been integrated and implemented to address the above mentioned three challenges of the traditional I-V tracers. This work compares I-V curves obtained using a traditional I-V curve tracer with the I-V curves obtained using a NCIV curve tracer for the string, substring and individual modules of crystalline silicon (c-Si) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) technologies. The NCIV curve tracer equipment used in this study was integrated using three commercially available components: non-contact voltmeters (NCV) with voltage probes to measure the voltages of substrings/modules in a string, a hall sensor to measure the string current and a DAS (data acquisition system) for simultaneous collection of the voltage data obtained from the NCVs and the current data obtained from the hall sensor. This study demonstrates the concept and accuracy of the NCIV curve tracer by comparing the I-V curves obtained using a traditional capacitor-based tracer and the NCIV curve tracer in a three-module string of c-Si modules and of CdTe modules under natural sunlight with uniform light conditions on all the modules in the string and with partially shading one or more of the modules in the string to simulate and quantitatively detect the underperforming module(s) in a string. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Engineering 2020

The aim of this study was to identify the characteristics of non-traditional female students and their perceived reasons for university studies.

This thesis validates SIMLOX as a simulation tool for wind energy operation and maintenance (O&M). SIMLOX have been used for modeling O&M in other sectors since 2002 but have recently begun to be used for simulating wind energy. This study validates SIMLOX for the newly introduced sector by creating a model of an existing offshore wind farm. The model used real historical data as input and the output was compared to real system response quantities (SRQs). Example of SRQs which were compared was time based availability, energy based availability, energy production, weather days, and item replacements. The study showed that SIMLOX is very well suited for this type of studies. It also showed that the major difficulty lies in obtaining proper input data. All models simulated the exact right number of major item replacements. The time based availability was considered to be the most important SRQ. The time based availability turned out to be between 0.11 - 0.66 percentage points too high compared to reference data. This most certainly depended on an overestimated work schedule for the technicians. Validation is the process of determining the degree to which a model is an accurate representation of the real world from the perspective of the intended uses of the model. This report presents all necessary knowledge to validate SIMLOX as a tool for wind energy simulations but it is thus up to the user to decide whether or not the output is accurate enough for their intended use.

This thesis investigates how body positivity and sustainability are discursively constructed by fast fashion brands. The brand chosen as a case study is H&M, as it describes itself as being both environmentally and socially involved. Yet, despite H&M's claims, during our preliminary research we were able to detect the lack of accessibility of sustainable collections to plus size customers. In this essay, we analyze how H&M communicates body inclusivity in its sustainability reports, website, and YouTube campaigns promoting conscious lines. Drawing on theories of representation, biopolitics, and post-feminism, we sought to critically analyze the previously mentioned material through a multimodal critical analysis. The results show how H&M discursively constructs health communication in different ways depending on which clothing line the brand is promoting and to which consumers it is being advertised. Class discourses were recognized, leading to exclusive access to sustainable clothing for higher income shoppers. We believe this work is relevant to opening up the discussion about democratization and making sustainable items fully accessible to everyone.