På grund av globaliseringen har konkurrensen mellan städer på senare tid ökat. Platser kan differentiera sig genom att arbeta med uppmärksamhet, inflytande, marknader, företag och evenemang. Detta medför att platsernas roll har förändrats där det riktas ett rampljus mot konstruktionen av platsvarumärke. Politiska dimensioner och platsens intressenter har betydande roller för ett starkt närvarande platsvarumärket. Genom att undersöka de tre begreppen; platsidentitet, platskultur och platsbild kan komplexiteten i konstruktionen av platsvarumärke tydliggöras. En fallstudie tillämpas för att studera platsvarumärke. Detta fall består av platsen Rosenlund i Göteborg där avgränsningen är projektet “Ett Blomstrande Rosenlund”. För att synliggöra konstruktionen av platsvarumärke tillämpas en identitets-baserad platsvarumärkes modell. Denna modell erbjuder ett sätt att se på platsidentitet som en dynamisk process. Med hjälp av modellen ges ett försök till att se hur de politiska dimensionerna, platsens intressenter samspelar med platsidentiteten, platskulturen och platsbilden. Empirin och analysen visar fragment av den komplexitet som råder i omformningen av ett platsvarumärke. Slutresultatet visar att det fanns en politisk närvaro under hela omvandlingprocessen. Här ser vi även en skiftning av de interna intressenternas inflytande på platsidentiteten. Omvandlingsarbetet visar tydliga tendenser att platsidentitet är en dynamisk process. Dock uppdagas det förutsatta och oförutsedda effekter som konstant influerar platsvarumärket. Här kan praktiken utnyttja erfarenheter och forskning i samband med omvandling av platsidentitet, varpå forma ett effektivare platsvarumärke. / The effect of globalization has tightened the competition between cities. Places are able to differentiate from another through attention, influence, markets, businesses and events. This affects the role of places and stresses the importance of place branding. Political dimensions and stakeholders are critical factors in the construction of place brand. Place identity, place culture and place image are the three elements of place branding which can unravel the complexity of the construction. Case studies are used to assess the complexity of a place. Whereas this case comprises the location Rosenlund in Gothenburg where the project “Ett Blomstrande Rosenlund” is the demarcation of this research. An identity-based model for place branding is used as an analyze tool to visualize how the elements and factors influence each other. This model presents place identity as a dynamic process. The empirical analysis shows fragments of the complexity that exists in the transformation of a place brand. As a conclusion a political presence throughout the transformation process is detected. As well as a shift of influence of the place identity between the internal stakeholders are discovered. The process shows a tendency of place identity as a dynamic process. In the transformation process there are presupposed and unforeseen effects that constantly influences the place brand. Experiences and research within the field of place identity can be used in practise, whereas to create a more effective place brand.The thesis is presented in Swedish.

The main aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions of stakeholders regarding reputation in schools in Fezile Dabi district. A qualitative approach was used. Multiple sources of data collection included semi-structured interviews, documents and visual data in the form of photographs. A literature review revealed that reputation management is imperative for schools to survive and continue existing. Determination of factors that contribute to good reputation and those causing bad reputation is important before school managers can embark on reputation management. Reputable schools attract more learners and resources because of the culture of learning and teaching in these schools. Four sites were purposefully selected and twenty internal and external stakeholders participated. The research sites were made up of two primary and two secondary schools all Quintile 1 and 2 schools. The study revealed that factors contributing to good reputation in the participating schools included: effective teaching, emotional appeal, clean physical surroundings, good leadership and management, involvement of parents and effective financial management. It was found that all participating schools had good academic results and received awards in sport and music, involvement in extra-curricular activities was regarded as a norm in these schools, thus they were boasting of high enrolment of learners. There were however, causal factors to bad reputation such as external factors- lack of leadership and management at district level and lack of skills regarding dealing with media. Internal factors included misbehaviour of learners and ineffective management. School managers in these schools were not creative and innovative in the use of strategies to strengthen reputation in their schools. The focus was only on effective teaching and extra-curricular activities. No new strategies were adopted by school managers to adapt to the changing school environment to ensure continued reputable schools. / Thesis (MEd (Education Management))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka förutsättningarna för ett samarbete mellan de interna intressenterna i en stads varumärkningsprocess. Utifrån uppsatsens syfte har en kvalitativ undersökning genomförts i form av sju intervjuer med intressenter inom den varumärkesbyggande processen i Södertälje. Vetenskapliga teorier med inriktning på främst varumärkning av städer och samarbeten har används vid analys av den inhämtade informationen. De slutsatser vi har dragit i denna uppsats är att samarbete som strategi är möjlig men att denna kan inneha sina begränsningar när en stad skall varumärkas. Genom att undersöka den varumärkesbyggande processen i Södertälje har vi uppmärksammat den komplexitet som föreligger hos varumärkning av en plats med flera intressenter. Förutsättningarna för ett samarbete mellan de interna intressenterna inom turism- och besöksnäringen i Södertälje anser vi vara möjligt genom engagemang, delat ansvar och kommunikation. Vi anser dock att det ur ett större perspektiv, då en hel stad skall inkluderas, kan uppstå motsättningar om näringar som inte kände en naturlig roll att deltaga skall inkluderas i den varumärkesbyggande processen. / The purpose of this thesis is to examine the possibilities for cooperation between the internal stakeholders of a city's branding process. Based on the purpose for this thesis a qualitative study was conducted in the form of seven interviews with stakeholders in the branding process of Södertälje. Scientific theories, focusing primarily on the branding of cities and cooperation, have been used in the analysis of the collected information. The conclusions we have drawn in this thesis is that cooperation as a strategy is possible but can be limited when applied on a city. By examining the branding process in Södertälje, we have noted the complexity that exists in the branding of a city with several different stakeholders. We believe that the prospects for cooperation between the internal stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industry in Södertälje to be possible through commitment, shared responsibility and communication. We do however believe that disagreements may occur when a broader spectrum of the city’s stakeholders, whom do not feel a natural role to participate, are included in the branding process.

The main aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions of stakeholders regarding reputation in schools in Fezile Dabi district. A qualitative approach was used. Multiple sources of data collection included semi-structured interviews, documents and visual data in the form of photographs. A literature review revealed that reputation management is imperative for schools to survive and continue existing. Determination of factors that contribute to good reputation and those causing bad reputation is important before school managers can embark on reputation management. Reputable schools attract more learners and resources because of the culture of learning and teaching in these schools. Four sites were purposefully selected and twenty internal and external stakeholders participated. The research sites were made up of two primary and two secondary schools all Quintile 1 and 2 schools. The study revealed that factors contributing to good reputation in the participating schools included: effective teaching, emotional appeal, clean physical surroundings, good leadership and management, involvement of parents and effective financial management. It was found that all participating schools had good academic results and received awards in sport and music, involvement in extra-curricular activities was regarded as a norm in these schools, thus they were boasting of high enrolment of learners. There were however, causal factors to bad reputation such as external factors- lack of leadership and management at district level and lack of skills regarding dealing with media. Internal factors included misbehaviour of learners and ineffective management. School managers in these schools were not creative and innovative in the use of strategies to strengthen reputation in their schools. The focus was only on effective teaching and extra-curricular activities. No new strategies were adopted by school managers to adapt to the changing school environment to ensure continued reputable schools. / Thesis (MEd (Education Management))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013

The purpose of this research is to explore the relationship between city branding and community sport focusing on the role of citizens. Community sport means more than just organized sport events, covering all of physical activities, recreation, and leisure that are based on the region. Therefore, Community-based Sport and Recreational Physical Activity (CSRPA) is closely related to urban experience and quality of life of local residents. Specifically, the objectives of this research are to: (1) evaluate the perceptions of internal stakeholders of city branding through CSRPA; and (2) examine the possibility of considering CSRPA as branding opportunities. Participatory city branding theory provided the most relevant theoretical frameworks to shed light on co-creative image building process by leveraging citizens’ participation to CSRPA. The methodology used in the study was case study with the city of Ottawa, Canada. City representatives (n=17) took part in semi-structure interviews to elucidate their perceptions and lived experiences associated with Ottawa city branding. Citizens (n=127) participated in an online survey to express their voices surrounding city brands and sport participation. The findings of the study suggest that CSRPA constitutes an interesting opportunity to contribute to co-creative city branding by incorporating citizens’ voices and promoting collaborative public governance.

Syftet med studien är att bidra med kunskap om hur olika intressentgrupper upplever projektkontoret i sin organisation. Använd metod är semistrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer med fysiska möten. Totalt nio intervjuer genomfördes på två projektkontor med interna intressenter. Till intervjudata användes sedan tematisk analys som metod. Metoden är uppbyggd på tematisering av den kodade intervjudata vilket resulterade i sex olika teman. Dessa teman är jämt fördelade på de två projektkontoren. Resultatet skildrar två helt olika projektkontor. På det första projektkontoret upplevde de interna intressenterna kontroll och styrning av projektkontoret genom ett tydligt arbetssätt med coachning och stöd i det dagliga arbetet med projekt. Projektkontoret strävade efter att ständigt förbättra sig och utvecklas och ett av deras utvecklingsområden var resursallokering i sin produktportfölj med styrning. På det andra projektkontoret fanns också kontroll och styrning men i mindre utsträckning och med en oenighet i ledningen om projekt begreppet och hur det skulle användas. De interna intressenterna var en mer blandad grupp med olika kompetenser och hade olika behov av stöd och coachning från sitt projektkontor och det rådde ständig personalbrist. Projektkontoret var inte helt etablerat och hela organisationen var ovan med de nya arbetssätten som projektkontoret innebar och därför saknades rapportering och etablerade projektverktyg.  Slutsatsen är att för att ett projektkontor ska ha kontroll och något att säga till om behöver det vara implementerat och accepterat i sin organisation och behöver ha befogenheter som medel för att utöva makt och driva igenom saker. / The purpose of the study is to contribute with knowledge of how different stakeholder groups experience the Project Management Office in their organization. The method used is semi-structured qualitative interviews with physical meetings and a total of nine interviews were conducted at two project management offices with internal stakeholders. Thematic analysis was then used as the method for the interview. The method is based on the thematization of the coded interview data, which resulted in six different themes in total. These themes are distributed among the two project management offices and became three themes at each Project Management Office. These themes depict two completely different project offices. At the first Project Management Office, the internal stakeholders experienced that there was control and management of the project management office by using a clear working method with coaching and support in the daily work of the project. The Project Management Office constantly strived to improve and develop and one of their development areas was resource allocation in its product portfolio with control. At the second Project Management Office there was also control and management but to a lesser extent and with a disagreement in the management about the project concept and how it would be used. The internal stakeholders were a more mixed group of different competencies and had different needs for support and coaching from their project management office and there was a constant lack of staff. The Project Management Office was not fully established, and the entire organization was not used to the new working methods that the Project Management Office stood for and therefore reporting and established project tools were missing. The conclusion is that in order for a Project Management Office to have control and something to say about, it needs to be implemented and accepted in its organization and needs to have powers as a means of exercising power and pushing things through.

The change in statutory audit in 2010 made the auditor market more competitive and commercial market. Since audit is no longer mandatory for small and medium sized enterprises, the need of providing value-added audit has been increased. The value-added audit is a concept used by audit firms, trying to meet client expectations, but can the demanded value depend on the client? The purpose of the study is to try to explain the client's demand for value-added audit. The study can provide a better understanding of what factors affect the client's demand. The demanded value has been divided into two different groups: audit-value and added-value. In accordance with accounting theories, for example stakeholder theory and agency theory, the model of the study has been developed. The model illustrates factors that might affect the client's demand of value-added audit, including the expected relation for the different factors. The empirical material is collected, partly through a survey study, partly through secondary data. The result indicates factors that might tend to affect the client’s demand of value-added audit, which are in line with earlier studies. Our conclusion is that client’s demand of value-added audit may depend the importance of internal stakeholders, leverage and position. The new understanding may promote are more effective value-added audit for the client and the auditor. During the study, a lesser studied area was identified, which were if the marketing strategy of various audit firms are different. The variation of marketing may therefore be interesting to study in future research. / I samband med slopande av revisionsplikten 2010, har revisorns arbetsmarknad förändrats till att bli en mer konkurrensutsatt och kommersiell marknad. Eftersom det inte längre är obligatorisk för alla aktiebolag att anlita en revisor har behovet av att påvisa ett tillfört värde för klienten ökat. Mervärdet är ett koncept som revisionsbyråer använder för att försöka möta klientens förväntningar, men kan värdet av revisionen variera beroende på klient? Syfte med studien är att försöka förklara klientens efterfrågade värde av revisorn. Tanken med studien är att bidra med en bättre förståelse kring vilka faktorer som påverkar klientens efterfrågade värde, vilka har delats in i två värden: revisionsvärde och mervärde. Med hjälp av relevanta redovisningsteorier, exempelvis intressentteori och agentteori, har studiens modell utvecklats. Modellen illustrerar faktorer som kan antas påverka klientens efterfrågade värde av revisorn samt vilket samband som förväntas föreligga för respektive faktor. Studiens empiriska material har insamlats, dels genom en enkätundersökning, dels genom att hämta sekundärdata från respektive klients årsredovisning. Resultatet av studien indikerar på faktorer som tenderar till att påverka klientens efterfrågade värde av revisorn, vilka överensstämmer med tidigare forskning. Vår slutsats är att klientens efterfrågade värde av revisorn kan bero på följande faktorer: betydelsen av interna intressenter, skuldsättningsgrad och befattning. Den nya förståelsen kan främja en mer effektiv och värdeskapande revision, dels för klienten, dels för revisorn. I samband med studien identifierades ett mindre utforskat område inom värdeskapande revision, vilket var om marknadsföringsstrategin varierar mellan revisionsbyråer. Revisionsbyråernas marknadsföring kan därmed vara intressant för framtida forskning att studera.

<p>Дестинацијска конкурентност&nbsp; има&nbsp; све&nbsp; значајнију&nbsp; улогу&nbsp; у&nbsp; локалном економском развоју, док су&nbsp; перспективе&nbsp; њеног унапређења, посебно значајне за неразвијене регионе попут Јабланичког округа.&nbsp; У докторској дисертацији је извршен преглед владајућих ставова из литературе о конкурентности туристичких дестинација, и дата су тумачења водећих модела дестинацијске конкурентности,&nbsp; индекса конкурентности&nbsp; &ndash;&nbsp; TTCI, модела&nbsp; Ritchie &amp; Crouch као и модела Dwyer &amp; Kim.&nbsp; Детаљно је приказана ресурсна основа туризма Јабланичког округа, кроз преглед и тумачење географског положаја, природно-географских карактеристика, друштвено-географских карактеристика као и материјалне базе посматраног подручја. Кроз методолошки део, извршен је приказ инструмената, процедура и узорачког оквира истраживања. Резултати истраживања су потврдили, делимично потврдили или оповргнули постављене истраживачке хипотезе што је пропраћено одговарајућом дискусијом. На крају дисертације су дати предлози будућих истраживања, и изнете идеје за мотивисање интерних стејкхолдера за покретањем промена ради повећања конкурентности туристичке дестинације Јабланички округ.</p> / <p>Destinacijska konkurentnost&nbsp; ima&nbsp; sve&nbsp; značajniju&nbsp; ulogu&nbsp; u&nbsp; lokalnom ekonomskom razvoju, dok su&nbsp; perspektive&nbsp; njenog unapređenja, posebno značajne za nerazvijene regione poput Jablaničkog okruga.&nbsp; U doktorskoj disertaciji je izvršen pregled vladajućih stavova iz literature o konkurentnosti turističkih destinacija, i data su tumačenja vodećih modela destinacijske konkurentnosti,&nbsp; indeksa konkurentnosti&nbsp; &ndash;&nbsp; TTCI, modela&nbsp; Ritchie &amp; Crouch kao i modela Dwyer &amp; Kim.&nbsp; Detaljno je prikazana resursna osnova turizma Jablaničkog okruga, kroz pregled i tumačenje geografskog položaja, prirodno-geografskih karakteristika, društveno-geografskih karakteristika kao i materijalne baze posmatranog područja. Kroz metodološki deo, izvršen je prikaz instrumenata, procedura i uzoračkog okvira istraživanja. Rezultati istraživanja su potvrdili, delimično potvrdili ili opovrgnuli postavljene istraživačke hipoteze što je propraćeno odgovarajućom diskusijom. Na kraju disertacije su dati predlozi budućih istraživanja, i iznete ideje za motivisanje internih stejkholdera za pokretanjem promena radi povećanja konkurentnosti turističke destinacije Jablanički okrug.</p> / <p>Destination competitiveness plays an increasingly important role in local economic development, and the prospects of its&nbsp; improvement are&nbsp; particularly significant for the underdeveloped regions like the Jablanica District. Doctoral dissertation&nbsp; inspected the ruling positions&nbsp; from&nbsp;&nbsp; the literature on the&nbsp; competitiveness of tourist destinations, and&nbsp; gave&nbsp; interpretation&nbsp; of leading&nbsp; models&nbsp; of destination competitiveness, like index of&nbsp;&nbsp; competitiveness&nbsp; -&nbsp; TTCI, model&nbsp;&nbsp; Ritchie &amp; Crouch and model Dwyer &amp; Kim.&nbsp; Detailed&nbsp; display of Jablanica district&nbsp; tourism resource&nbsp; base was given, through review and interpretation of&nbsp; geographical location, natural and geographical characteristics, socio-geographical characteristics as the material base of the observed area. Through methodological part, presentation of the instruments, procedures and sampling research frame, was given. Research results have confirmed, partially confirmed or denied the proposed research hypotheses&nbsp; as&nbsp; accompanied by a corresponding discussion. At the end&nbsp; of the dissertation,&nbsp; suggestions for future research, and set out ideas for&nbsp; motivating the&nbsp; internal stakeholders to initiate changes&nbsp; in order to increase&nbsp; the competitiveness of tourist&nbsp; destination of Jablanica district are provided.</p>

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe Kenya Power employees’ perceptions of their adoption and implementation of online internal communication tools as a means of creating and managing long lasting relationships among all employees in the organisation. The theoretical point of departure for this study was framed within online internal communication and relationship management while principles of e-government were also considered. A single case study design was adopted for the study which combined both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques while data was triangulated using an online self-administered questionnaire, focus group moderator’s guide and an interview schedule. The results guided by the theoretical criteria indicate that the implementation of online internal communication tools was done at Kenya Power without considering the internal stakeholders’ needs and preferences. The consequence is that employees have developed negative perceptions about internal online communication resulting in low adoption for relationship management activities. The findings of this study could be useful for other public sector organisations in that it will help them to positively change employees’ perceptions as well as enhance the implementation and adoption of internal online communication tools for the purposes of relationship building which could result in better internal communication and public sector services. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication)

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe Kenya Power employees’ perceptions of their adoption and implementation of online internal communication tools as a means of creating and managing long lasting relationships among all employees in the organisation. The theoretical point of departure for this study was framed within online internal communication and relationship management while principles of e-government were also considered. A single case study design was adopted for the study which combined both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques while data was triangulated using an online self-administered questionnaire, focus group moderator’s guide and an interview schedule. The results guided by the theoretical criteria indicate that the implementation of online internal communication tools was done at Kenya Power without considering the internal stakeholders’ needs and preferences. The consequence is that employees have developed negative perceptions about internal online communication resulting in low adoption for relationship management activities. The findings of this study could be useful for other public sector organisations in that it will help them to positively change employees’ perceptions as well as enhance the implementation and adoption of internal online communication tools for the purposes of relationship building which could result in better internal communication and public sector services. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication)