Syfte: På svenska småhusföretag kan kommunikationsbrister uppstå både internt och externt vilket kan leda till ett resultat som ej överensstämmer med kundens förväntningar. Detta beror på att luckor bildas i kommunikationen och en slags "visklek" uppstår. Det finns en modell vid namn GAP-modellen, vilken hjälper till att identifiera dessa luckor i organisationer. Målet med arbetet är att med hjälp av GAPmodellen ta fram ett arbetssätt för att förbättra hanteringen av kundönskemål hos småhustillverkare. Metod: För att besvara målet har litteraturstudie, intervjuer och en fokusgrupp utförts. Dessa har gjorts i samarbete med småhusföretaget Mjöbäcksvillan. Resultat: Ett antal förbättringsförslag har tagits fram för att förbättra Mjöbäcksvillans hantering av kundönskemål. Förbättringsförslagen kan sammanfattas till ”3 U” – utveckla huvudkontoret, utbilda säljarna och underlätta säljarens arbete. Konsekvenser: I arbetet har konkreta förbättringsförslag tagits fram för att undvika kommunikationsluckor på Mjöbäcksvillan. Dessa förbättringsförslag kan företaget använda sig av för att förbättra sin hantering av kundönskemål och därmed öka produktkvaliteten och kundnöjdheten. Begränsningar: Endast ett småhusföretag har undersökts, vilket leder till att resultatet ej är generaliserbart för alla företag i branschen. Dessutom valde företaget själva ut vilka kunder som skulle intervjuas, vilket kan leda till att endast de nöjdaste kunderna blev intervjuade. / Purpose: For Swedish house manufacturers, communication shortages can occur both internally and externally, which can lead to a result that does not match customer expectations. This is because gaps are formed in communication and a "whispering game" occurs. There is a model called "Gap Model of Service Quality" which helps identify these gaps in organisations. The aim of this report is to use the "Gap Model of Service Quality" to develop a way of working to improve the management of customer requests for house manufacturers. Method: To reach the aim, literature studies, interviews and a focus group have been conducted. These have been done in cooperation with the house manufacturer Mjöbäcksvillan. Findings: Several improvements have been developed to improve Mjöbäcksvillan´s management of customer requests. The improvement proposals can be summed up to: develop the headquarters, educate the sellers and facilitate the seller´s work. Implications: In the report, concrete improvement proposals have been developed to avoid communication gaps at Mjöbäcksvillan. These improvements can be used by the company to improve its customer demand management, thereby increasing product quality and customer satisfaction. Limitations: Only one house manufacturer has been investigated, which means that the result is not generalizable for all companies in the trade. In addition, the company itself selected which customers would be interviewed, which could result in only the most satisfied customers being interviewed.

For decades the question regarding foreign aid’s effectiveness has been disputed. The ongoing debate concerning whether foreign aid yields or prevents economic growth has been discussed by different scholars, though with dissimilar outcomes. Foreign aid is often criticized for creating destruction rather than stimulating developing countries economic growth, though the fundamentals for aid is to create opportunities for developing countries to evolve and gain better socio-economic structures. Different forms of aid are supposed to create different outcomes, i.e. short- and medium-term aid ought to stimulate the country while long-term aid such as infrastructure and education should create growth for the recipient country. The problem of aid is mostly corruption, corrupted regimes hinders the natural development for aid that is to say it hampers the positive outcome aid can produce. So, does foreign aid have a positive impact on recipient countries growth? The aim of this study is to acknowledge the importance of foreign aid. In order to analyse whether foreign aid results in economic growth for developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, a crosssection regression analysis has been conducted. To sum up the results of this study foreign aid doesn’t have a significant effect on economic growth in the region Sub-Saharan Africa although other variables such as education and foreign direct investment has a significant effect on growth.

Táto práca sa zaoberá s modelovaním synchronného stroja s permanentnými magnetmi pomocou metody konečných prvkov. K modelovaniu sme si zvolili 3 fázový synchronný stroj s permanentnými magnetmi na povrchu rotora z firmy VUES. Najprv vypočítame parametre stroja a potom spravíme statický model pomocou programu FEMM a Matlab a budeme hladať možné riešenia na 2D dynamický model. Pomocou programu Ansys Workbench spravíme 3D model tohoto stroja budeme a porovnávať výsledky simulácie.

The research sought to investigate the Critical Excellence Factors (CEFs) that drive Excellence in banking industry. Moreover, it examines whether customers perceive the service of an excellent bank differently from a less-excellent bank. Three hypotheses were formed then tested through case study and survey strategy (triangulation), within the Saudi banking industry context. The study combines the EFQM excellence model as an internal assessment tool (case studies), with the SERVQUAL gap model for external assessment (questionnaires). Analysing and contrasting the two sets of results allowed the study to achieve its main objective. Based on the empirical work, the study identifies several CEFs that must be carefully considered when driving excellence in banking. These factors were proposed in a generic integrated model for driving Excellence in Banking.

A method was developed for extending a fine-scaled forest gap model to a watershed-scaled landscape, using the Eastern Cross Timbers ecoregion as a case study for the method. A topographic wetness index calculated from digital elevation data was used as a measure of hydrologic across the modeled landscape, and the gap model modified to have with a topographically-based hydrologic input parameter. The model was parameterized by terrain type units that were defined using combinations of USDA soil series and classes of the topographic wetness index. A number of issues regarding the sources, grid resolutions, and processing methods of the digital elevation data are addressed in this application of the topographic wetness index. Three different grid sizes, 5, 10, and 29 meter, from both LiDAR-derived and contour-derived elevation grids were used, and the grids were processed using both single-directional flow algorithm and bi-directional flow algorithm. The result of these different grids were compared and analyzed in context of their application in defining terrain types for the forest gap model. Refinements were made in the timescale of gap model’s weather model, converting it into a daily weather generator, in order to incorporate the effects of the new topographic/hydrologic input parameter. The precipitation model was converted to use a Markov model to initiate a sequence of wet and dry days for each month, and then daily precipitation amounts were determined using a gamma distribution. The output of the new precipitation model was analyzed and compared with a 100-year history of daily weather records at daily, monthly, and annual timescales. Model assumptions and requirements for biological parameters were thoroughly investigated and questioned. Often these biological parameters are based on little more than assumptions and intuition. An effort to base as many of the model’s biological parameters on measured data was made, including a new technique for estimating optimal volumetric growth rate by measuring tree rings. The gap model was set up to simulate various terrain types within the landscape.

Master Thesis in Marketing,SchoolofBusinessandEconomicsat Linnaeus University, spring 2012 Authors: Sophie Lindgren and Amanda Tuvhag Title: Corporate Social Responsibility – A successful business strategy or just a trend? Purpose: First of all, this thesis wants to describe managers’ expectations regarding customers’ perception about their retail stores CSR initiatives and furthermore their implemented CSR initiatives. Secondly, to describe customer awareness and engagement towards retail stores CSR initiatives. Finally, to compare the results from retail store and customers, in purpose to identify possible gaps between these two. Research questions:RQ1: What expectations regarding customers’ perception of retail stores CSR initiatives do manager of such stores have and how do they perform CSR activities? RQ2:    How aware are customer regarding retail stores CSR initiative and what level of engagement do customer have concerning retail stores CSR activities? Method:    The empirical material is based on both a quantitative and a qualitative investigation. The quantitative investigation is the main study and contains of a customer survey whereby the collected sample consist of 150 respondents. A pilot study have been conducted in order to improve the intension of the survey. Further, the qualitative investigation contains five in-depth semi-strucutred interviews with local store managers of the selected retail stores. Conclusion: Customer thinks retail stores CSR initiatives are important, but they seldom support them. Retail store expect customers to value CSR products/action low in relation to other factors, but retail store are engaging themselves in several CSR actions. Keywords:    Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), marketing strategy, business ethics, sustainability, reputation, food industry, retailers, gap-model, perception, customer, retail store industry, expectation, environmentally certified, ecological products, fair trade.

Technology scaling beyond Moore’s law demands cutting-edge solutions of the gate length scaling in sub-10 nm regime for low power high speed operations. Recently SOI technology has received considerable attention, however manufacturable solutions in sub-10 nm technologies are not yet known for future nanoelectronics. Therefore, to continue scalinginsub-10 nm region, new one(1D) and two dimensional(2D) “nano-materials” and engineering are expected to keep its pace. However, significant challenges must be overcome for nano-material properties in carrier transport to be useful in future silicon nanotechnology. Thus, it is very important to understand and modulate their electronic band structure and transport properties for low power nanoelectronics applications. This thesis tries to provide solutions for some problems in this area. In recent times, one dimensional Silicon nanowire has emerged as a building block for the next generation nano-electronic devices as it can accommodate multiple gate transistor architecture with excellent electrostatic integrity. However as the experimental study of various energy band parameters at the nanoscale regime is extremely challenging, usually one relies on the atomic level simulations, the results of which are at par with the experimental observations. Two such parameters are the band gap and effective mass, which are of pioneer importance for the understanding of the current transport mechanism. Although there exists a large number of empirical relations of the band gap in relaxed Silicon nanowire, however there is a growing demand for the development of a physics based analytical model to standardize different energy band parameters which particularly demands its application in TCAD software for predicting different electrical characteristics of novel devices and its strained counterpart to increase the device characteristics significantly without changing the device architecture. In the first part of this work reports the analytical modeling of energy band gap and electron transport effective mass of relaxed and strained Silicon nanowires in various crystallographic directions for future nanoelectronics. The technology scaling of gate length in beyond Moore’s law devices also demands the SOI body thickness, TSi0 which is essentially very challenging task in nano-device engineering. To overcome this circumstance, two dimensional crystals in atomically thin layered materials have found great attention for future nanolectronics device applications. Graphene, one layer of Graphite, is such 2D materials which have found potentiality in high speed nanoelectronics applications due to its several unique electronic properties. However, the zero band gap in pure Graphene makes it limited in switching device or transistor applications. Thus, opening and tailoring a band gap has become a highly pursued topic in recent graphene research. The second part of this work reports atomistic simulation based real and complex band structure properties Graphene-Boron nitride heterobilayer and Boron Nitride embedded Graphene nanoribbons which can improve the grapheme and its nanoribbon band structure properties without changing their originality. This part also reports the direct band-to-band tunneling phenomena through the complex band structures and their applications in tunnel field effect transistors(TFETs) which has emerged as a strong candidate for next generation low-stand by power(LSTP) applications due to its sub-60mV/dec Sub threshold slope(SS). As the direct band-to-band tunneling(BTBT) is improbable in Silicon(either its bulk or nanowire form), it is difficult to achieve superior TFET characteristics(i.e., very low SS and high ON cur-rent) from the Silicon TFETs. Whereas, it is explored that much high ON current and very low subthreshold slope in hybrid Graphene based TFET characteristics open a new prospect in future TFETs. The investigations on ultrathin body materials also call for a need to explore new 2D materials with finite band gap and their various nanostructures for future nanoelectronic applications in order to replace conventional Silicon. In the third part of this report, we have investigated the electronic and dielectric properties of semiconducting layered Transition metal dichalcogenide materials (MX2)(M=Mo, W;X =S, Se, Te) which has recently emerged as a promising alternative to Si as channel materials for CMOS devices. Five layered MX2 materials(exceptWTe2)in their 2D sheet and 1D nanoribbon forms are considered to study the real and imaginary band structure of thoseMX2 materials by atomistic simulations. Studying the complex dispersion properties, it is shown that all the five MX2 support direct BTBT in their monolayer sheet forms and offer an average ON current and subthresholdslopeof150 A/mand4 mV/dec, respectively. However, onlytheMoTe2 support direct BTBT in its nanoribbon form, whereas the direct BTBT possibility in MoS2 and MoSe2 depends on the number of layers or applied uniaxial strain. WX2 nanoribbons are shown to be non-suitable for efficient TFET operation. Reasonably high tunneling current in these MX2 shows that these can take advantage over conventional Silicon in future tunnel field effect transistor applications.

Technology scaling beyond Moore’s law demands cutting-edge solutions of the gate length scaling in sub-10 nm regime for low power high speed operations. Recently SOI technology has received considerable attention, however manufacturable solutions in sub-10 nm technologies are not yet known for future nanoelectronics. Therefore, to continue scalinginsub-10 nm region, new one(1D) and two dimensional(2D) “nano-materials” and engineering are expected to keep its pace. However, significant challenges must be overcome for nano-material properties in carrier transport to be useful in future silicon nanotechnology. Thus, it is very important to understand and modulate their electronic band structure and transport properties for low power nanoelectronics applications. This thesis tries to provide solutions for some problems in this area. In recent times, one dimensional Silicon nanowire has emerged as a building block for the next generation nano-electronic devices as it can accommodate multiple gate transistor architecture with excellent electrostatic integrity. However as the experimental study of various energy band parameters at the nanoscale regime is extremely challenging, usually one relies on the atomic level simulations, the results of which are at par with the experimental observations. Two such parameters are the band gap and effective mass, which are of pioneer importance for the understanding of the current transport mechanism. Although there exists a large number of empirical relations of the band gap in relaxed Silicon nanowire, however there is a growing demand for the development of a physics based analytical model to standardize different energy band parameters which particularly demands its application in TCAD software for predicting different electrical characteristics of novel devices and its strained counterpart to increase the device characteristics significantly without changing the device architecture. In the first part of this work reports the analytical modeling of energy band gap and electron transport effective mass of relaxed and strained Silicon nanowires in various crystallographic directions for future nanoelectronics. The technology scaling of gate length in beyond Moore’s law devices also demands the SOI body thickness, TSi0 which is essentially very challenging task in nano-device engineering. To overcome this circumstance, two dimensional crystals in atomically thin layered materials have found great attention for future nanolectronics device applications. Graphene, one layer of Graphite, is such 2D materials which have found potentiality in high speed nanoelectronics applications due to its several unique electronic properties. However, the zero band gap in pure Graphene makes it limited in switching device or transistor applications. Thus, opening and tailoring a band gap has become a highly pursued topic in recent graphene research. The second part of this work reports atomistic simulation based real and complex band structure properties Graphene-Boron nitride heterobilayer and Boron Nitride embedded Graphene nanoribbons which can improve the grapheme and its nanoribbon band structure properties without changing their originality. This part also reports the direct band-to-band tunneling phenomena through the complex band structures and their applications in tunnel field effect transistors(TFETs) which has emerged as a strong candidate for next generation low-stand by power(LSTP) applications due to its sub-60mV/dec Sub threshold slope(SS). As the direct band-to-band tunneling(BTBT) is improbable in Silicon(either its bulk or nanowire form), it is difficult to achieve superior TFET characteristics(i.e., very low SS and high ON cur-rent) from the Silicon TFETs. Whereas, it is explored that much high ON current and very low subthreshold slope in hybrid Graphene based TFET characteristics open a new prospect in future TFETs. The investigations on ultrathin body materials also call for a need to explore new 2D materials with finite band gap and their various nanostructures for future nanoelectronic applications in order to replace conventional Silicon. In the third part of this report, we have investigated the electronic and dielectric properties of semiconducting layered Transition metal dichalcogenide materials (MX2)(M=Mo, W;X =S, Se, Te) which has recently emerged as a promising alternative to Si as channel materials for CMOS devices. Five layered MX2 materials(exceptWTe2)in their 2D sheet and 1D nanoribbon forms are considered to study the real and imaginary band structure of thoseMX2 materials by atomistic simulations. Studying the complex dispersion properties, it is shown that all the five MX2 support direct BTBT in their monolayer sheet forms and offer an average ON current and subthresholdslopeof150 A/mand4 mV/dec, respectively. However, onlytheMoTe2 support direct BTBT in its nanoribbon form, whereas the direct BTBT possibility in MoS2 and MoSe2 depends on the number of layers or applied uniaxial strain. WX2 nanoribbons are shown to be non-suitable for efficient TFET operation. Reasonably high tunneling current in these MX2 shows that these can take advantage over conventional Silicon in future tunnel field effect transistor applications.