Research Question: What is it that determines if large companies in the same country and industry use their Country of Origin or not when they want to attract new customers abroad? Purpose: Our purpose with this Minor Field Study is to find out if companies within the Brazilian textile industry are using their COO and identify which factors that determine why they use it or not. By analyzing these factors, if and why they are important or not, we can develop a model with the purpose to give companies an idea of how close they are from to being able to use their COO. Method: We have worked with a qualitative research method where we interviewed two Brazilian companies, CI Hering and Karsten, which is working within the Brazilian textile industry. Theoretical framework: Our theories are mainly concerning the subjects of branding, nation brands, COO and competitive identity. We have also studied the so called Nation Brands Index and its hexagon. We will use theories of nation branding and COO to illustrate their importance to a country’s international companies. Empirical framework: This part will show the outcome of our interviews with Hering and Karsten but also present some data on the nation brand of Brazil and activities linked to it. Conclusion: We have found that there are six factors that mainly determine if a company will use its COO when trying to attract new customers abroad, and how appropriate this will be. The six factors are: Strong identity/image, brand awareness, knowledge, consistent and strong nation brand, research and willingness. Our final conclusions are that international companies that want to manage their reputation can benefit from relating their identity to some of the aspects in the national identity of their country. Associating to your COO is a way of doing this that aligns your company´s image to the image of your home country.

Purpose – The purpose of this dissertation is twofold. First, to identify and design a theoretical model of different factors that are important when evaluating fast changing industry environment. Second, to conduct interviews designed after the model and determine what factors are important within the company’s specific industry. Design/methodology/approach – A range of published research literature on Industry environment such as clusters, innovation and hyper competition has been used in this thesis. Our main approach has been to follow Porter’s Five Forces Model and applying it on the modern IT-industry. Findings – This research identified three additional forces for evaluating industry environment, namely Innovation, Complementary product & Cooperation and Customer Readiness. Limitations – The research was limited to northeastern Öresundsregionen, Sweden. The interview questions where limited to pre-designed factors.  Originality/value – The findings of this research provide the companies and researchers with a context for understanding this specific type of industry environment. It will also provide companies with a set of tools and best practices to apply when evaluating their own environment.

No description available.

Abstract   Introduction The way banks compete has changed dramatically during recent years, mostly because of international trends such as advances in information technology, globalisation and deregulations. This has made competition harsher meaning that survival and success requires knowledge about the competitors and understanding about the way they act and react. Within marketing there is a need to identify suitable strategies to acquire knowledge about competitor’s marketing and methods to how to react to it.   Purpose The purpose of our research study is to analyse how companies in the bank industry are aware and react to their competitor’s marketing activities.   Method We have conducted a qualitative study and used a mix of the inductive and deductive research approaches. We chose to do semi-structured case studies, gathering descriptive data from large Swedish banks with offices located in Jönköping. The banks that were included were Handelsbanken, Nordea, SEB, and Swedbank.   Conclusions Our analysis concludes that staying aware of competitors marketing is important for companies to be able to react and counter on a promotion attack. We found that there are certain methods that can be used to stay alert: competitor marketing analysis, customer focus and probing. We also concluded that standardisation, differentiation and presence are required to react to competitors marketing.

Course:        Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, 15 ECTS   Topic:          The Impact of Strategic Purchasing on an Organization’s Profitability                      A Case Study of Ghana Telecom Company                                                     Supervisor:     Mats Viimne Background:  The purchasing function contributes directly to the operating results and                        profitability of an organization. It has been argued out that, the fact that                        purchasing is responsible for spending more than 60 percent of an organization’s                            sales dollars highlights the profit-enhancing potentials of the purchasing on an                        organization.                                     Problem:       How can strategic purchasing affect the profitability of an organization?   Purpose:       The purpose of this research is to describe how strategic purchasing impact on                       the profitability of Ghana Telecom Company.       Method:      The author collected both primary and secondary data in order to fulfill the                       purpose of the paper; the primary data was gathered directly from relevant sources                     in Ghana Telecom Company, through telephone and email interviews. The                     secondary data was obtained from indirect sources, such as textbooks, articles, and                     websites. The method used can be described as a qualitative.   Conclusion: An organization’s purchasing strategy is becoming recognized as a strategic weapon                     equal in importance to its marketing, conversion and finance strategies as pointed                      out by Dobler et al. Ghana Telecom Company’s strategic approach to buying include                     multiple sourcing, short-term contracting and competitive bidding as a measure                     towards increasing its profitability by being able to source at the lowest cost, and                     having other sourcing alternatives, which leads to cost reduction.

Nowadays, the European airline market is characterized by two major different airline business models; the full service airlines and the low cost airlines. Secondary, appeared for the first time in 1985 in form of the Irish low cost carrier Ryanair. In recent days, the European low cost market stands out through its growth potential and high competitiveness. Therefore, startup companies aiming to join the wave of success as well as insolvency of newly established airlines are part of the daily occurrence. The challenge, that established low cost airlines are faced with, is to create competitive advantages against new entrants and direct competitors under the circumstances of environmental changes. In addition to the described problem a model was developed in order to picture the situation. This paper aims to provide an answer to the specific question: How do low cost airlines use relationship marketing in order to enhance, maintain and attract new customers? The second step is to figure out how those tools affect the airlines generic strategy. The purpose of this study is to find out how low cost airlines in Europe deal with tools of relationship marketing and what are the effects those tools have on generic strategies. This thesis is based on a case study within the European low cost airlines market, with a special focus on three airlines: Ryanair, EasyJet and Air Berlin. These questions are addressed using information obtained in interviews with respondents from the airlines that were recently conducted in Brussels and Bremen by personal interviews and additionally by telephone interviews and email contact. The results show that relationship marketing tools are used in a different extent by the airlines. The authors could not find evidence that using relationship marketing tools is the single solution to compete more successfully than without. It is further argued by the authors that RM is just one aspect strengthening the generic strategy in order to gain sustainable competitive advantage.

TGF-β negatively affects the maintenance and expansion of hematopoietic stem cells ex vivo and its inhibition has been widely studied as a treatment for numerous hematopoietic disorders and cancers. Current inhibitory strategies (small molecule ATP competitors and neutralizing antibodies) are compared to a novel cell-permeable peptide-based inhibitor of TGF-β RI. Multiple levels of assay from biochemical to functional are utilized with the aim of applying the most successful inhibitor to hematopoietic stem cell culture. The neutralizing antibody proved ineffective in the short-term biochemical assay but was extremely effective at neutralizing TGF-β signalling in proliferation and hematopoietic colony-forming cell assays with no evidence of toxicity. The small molecule inhibitors (SD-208 and Pyrazole TGF-β RI inhibitor) were equally effective at micromolar levels in all forms of assay, with SD-208 being slightly more potent. The novel peptide inhibitor proved ineffective in all assays, which is likely a result of its rapid degradation in live cells.

This thesis develops a conceptual framework to determine the probability of adopting HT canola when producers are assumed heterogeneous. The model is based on the framework developed by Fulton and Keyowski (1999), but is modified from a deterministic model to a probabilistic model. The study also considers the gross returns from adopting HT canola. Canola production in Manitoba, Canada is chosen as the region of analysis for the empirical component of the study. In 2002, 74 per cent of total canola acres in Manitoba were devoted to HT canola production. Factors such as soil type, producer risk profile, experience, productivity, and management ability are considered as potential determining factors which distinguish adopters of HT technology from non-adopters. Based on an initial assessment of Manitoba canola data, which shows the incomplete adoption of HT technology in Manitoba, a model is developed which considers adoption of a new technology as a function of the characteristics of the adopters. The conceptual model is tested empirically in two-stages. The first stage employs Ordinary Least Squares analysis to estimate the expected yield of different canola varieties to determine whether producers realize a benefit from the adoption of HT varieties. A logit analysis is conducted in the second stage, and considers different attributes of producers such as risk aversion, management ability, productivity and expected yields to determine the probability of producers adopting HT technology. The results show two primary findings. First, certain HT varieties can be shown to give producers higher returns. Second, differentiating characteristics of producers are key in determining the likely adoption of HT canola.

This thesis develops a conceptual framework to determine the probability of adopting HT canola when producers are assumed heterogeneous. The model is based on the framework developed by Fulton and Keyowski (1999), but is modified from a deterministic model to a probabilistic model. The study also considers the gross returns from adopting HT canola. Canola production in Manitoba, Canada is chosen as the region of analysis for the empirical component of the study. In 2002, 74 per cent of total canola acres in Manitoba were devoted to HT canola production. Factors such as soil type, producer risk profile, experience, productivity, and management ability are considered as potential determining factors which distinguish adopters of HT technology from non-adopters. Based on an initial assessment of Manitoba canola data, which shows the incomplete adoption of HT technology in Manitoba, a model is developed which considers adoption of a new technology as a function of the characteristics of the adopters. The conceptual model is tested empirically in two-stages. The first stage employs Ordinary Least Squares analysis to estimate the expected yield of different canola varieties to determine whether producers realize a benefit from the adoption of HT varieties. A logit analysis is conducted in the second stage, and considers different attributes of producers such as risk aversion, management ability, productivity and expected yields to determine the probability of producers adopting HT technology. The results show two primary findings. First, certain HT varieties can be shown to give producers higher returns. Second, differentiating characteristics of producers are key in determining the likely adoption of HT canola.

TGF-β negatively affects the maintenance and expansion of hematopoietic stem cells ex vivo and its inhibition has been widely studied as a treatment for numerous hematopoietic disorders and cancers. Current inhibitory strategies (small molecule ATP competitors and neutralizing antibodies) are compared to a novel cell-permeable peptide-based inhibitor of TGF-β RI. Multiple levels of assay from biochemical to functional are utilized with the aim of applying the most successful inhibitor to hematopoietic stem cell culture. The neutralizing antibody proved ineffective in the short-term biochemical assay but was extremely effective at neutralizing TGF-β signalling in proliferation and hematopoietic colony-forming cell assays with no evidence of toxicity. The small molecule inhibitors (SD-208 and Pyrazole TGF-β RI inhibitor) were equally effective at micromolar levels in all forms of assay, with SD-208 being slightly more potent. The novel peptide inhibitor proved ineffective in all assays, which is likely a result of its rapid degradation in live cells.