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The huge market potential of some fast growing markets attract many international organizations’ attention, especially China, as a huge automobile market is one of the most typical examples. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore how Volvo Cars increase brand equity in Chinese automobile market. To answer this question, a literature review about brand equity and marketing strategy is done to create an analytical framework which is the foundation of the empirical observation and research analysis. Furthermore, the study constitutes a valuable source of information of Volvo’s operated marketing strategy, as well as providing practical situation on customer perception on a brand through interviewing Volvo's owners in different countries. The results of analysis and discussion indicated that there are distinctive customer perceptions in China and the appraised the Volvo brand equity is not completely matching the strategic goals. In this case, in order to increase brand equity in China, Volvo should craft and execute the corresponding marketing strategy on brand for the distinctive Chinese customer perceptions. As such, this paper complements previous research through presenting the current situation of Chinese automobile market and comprehending how Volvo as global car brand operating and performing in China from brand equity perspective. In that sense, this paper can contribute and add some useful information in this study field for other further studies.

Short time-to-market is a key success factor in the todays’ dynamic business environment and many companies are trying to improve their product development processes. A challenge is to develop products according to the time plan and at the same time keeping the cost low and the quality high. This study focuses on the project management within the product development process in an automotive industry. The background of this study started as a request from the research and development department at the automotive company, which led to the following questions; 1) what are the most crucial factors for project success? 2) How can these factors contribute to a more successful outcome? 3) How can project management decrease product development lead time by sharing knowledge? The research approach is a case study and the data collection consist of interviews and questioners at two companies connected to project management in product development projects. Spider charts are created from the collected data containing eleven dimensions to show similarities and differences between the project managers working within the research and development department as well as between the two companies. The main conclusions are that there is a need to allow a certain level of flexibility when managing projects, in order to more easily handle late changes. Being involved in a project from the concept phase could facilitate the product development activities later on, due to a deeper understanding regarding previous decisions. Further, knowledge sharing methods, such as databases, has to be designed to be suitable for a specific organization and user friendly which enables the users to more easily search for specific types of knowledge. Lastly, a low level on the detailed focus is shown to be another success factor, however, in some cases there is still a need of this detailed focus to solve specific problems but the details may never become a higher focus than the holistic view. / <p>Studien är gjord hos Volvo Car Corporation och Vattenfall Research and Development AB har använts som benchmarkingföretag.</p>

Examensarbetet genomfördes av Philip Wockatz utan stöd och handledning. Detta ledde fram till att Kip Smith tog över som handledare strax innan presentationen.

How can an experience have such an impact that it can be described with the words “wow effect”? Though not a scientific term, it is often used vividly in the business world as an aspirational goal. The purpose of this thesis was to explore the structure behind positive experiences that lead to a so-called “wow effect” by combining cognitive theories and consumption-based emotion theories to create a method for assessing satisfaction in postpurchase experience. In collaboration with the Volvo Car Corporation, this thesis aimed to identify the relevant antecedents for such a possible experience and create a method for measuring it. The automobiles product category has shown high levels of variation in affect (Oliver, 1993) and as such, it has become increasingly important for automobile companies to be able to identify relevant antecedents of positive affect.