Date                                    May 2012 University                          Mälardalen University                                             School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology Course                               Master Thesis, EFO 705 Authors                              Maha Al-azzawi & Mac Anthony Tutor                                  Carl G Thunman Examiner                           Ole Liljefors Title                                    Students Brand Preferences between Apple and Samsung Smartphone Purpose of the Study        Is to compare student brand preference between Apple and Samsung Smartphone Methodology                     Quantitative research approach  Conclusion                         This study showed that brand with high value of brand equity and identity would result in having high brand preference among students. The findings reveal that Apple has stronger brand preference more than Samsung among students. Key Words                        Brand equity, brand identity, Smartphone

The phenomenon which called Trading Up was rising in early 21st century. And it has become a common sense in today¡¦s world showing the global consumer behavior change. At 2003 year the Boston Consulting Group senior vice president Michael J. Silverstein and Neil Fiske present a new concept of New luxury, and he pointed out that the new luxury is a profitable new business model, it puts the high-quality products to the middle market. And it makes the consumer willing and eager to pay the premium price, and put these products first choice in their mind. In our reaserch finding, the new luxury management in the academic literature and practice are mostly made form Western countries.Asian countries, however, is on the rise in the luxury market and it occupies a very important position. Now many emerging countries, consumers are increasingly value the pursuit of self-importance, and the purchase of luxury goods to reward their purchase or to show their unique taste and style. In our reaserch we think that the good quality and low price strategy in New luxury goods must appeal consumers in the Asian market. Therefore, this research background and explore the following three points: First, finding the key elements of a new luxury brand in the fashion industry's of brand. Second, investigate the key elements influence of a new luxury brand to the brand equity.Third, investigate the difference of different types of new luxury brand to influent the brand equity Finally, the study found that¡G First, there are four key elements of a new luxury brand which is quality, perceived price, luxury doctrine and uniqueness. And they are arranged by the important influence of the uniqueness, quality, luxury doctrine, the final is perceived price. Second, the four key elements of brand new luxury brand is positively impact on association ,brand loyalty and brand awareness Third, in the band equity of new luxury brand, the brand association and brand loyalty have a positive impact on brand equity, but the impact of brand awareness to brand equity is not significant. Four different types of its new luxury brand for impact to brand equity is different.

There is international trend for the enterprises to develop to business groups. There are more and more large-sized or medium-sized business groups in Taiwan. However, the groups¡¦ diversification strategies often result in high risks. Especially the unrelated diversification. The Management has a motivation to do the earnings management when dealing with the non-core business. If the earnings quality is manipulated by the management, it will cause the investors to ignore the risk which diversification strategy will bring. So far, there is no research about the the impact of earnings management on medium-sized business group. The purpose of this research is to examine whether medium-sized business groups¡¦ management has a motivation to make earnings management. The results show that¡G 1. There are no direct relationships between related diversification, unrelated diversification and earnings management. It is considered that medium-sized group business probably be family enterprises with centralized shareholding. The management doesn¡¦t have strong intention to make earnings management. 2. Debt/Equity has positive correlation on earnings management. The creditor often has restriction to minimum working capital and highest-level liability ratio of the borrower. The management has a motivation to choose appropriate accounting principle to correspond with the each given financial ratio.

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Ohlson(1995) and Feltham and Ohlson (1995) explain the importance of the financial reports through clean surplus relation and build up the relationship of market value, book value and earnings. The main structure of Ohlson model is the balance sheet and the income statement; however, the model doesn¡¦t contain the information of cash flows. The purpose of this paper is to find the relationship of accruals, cash flows, and market value. The results of this paper show that to divide net income into accruals and cash flows is good at forecasting abnormal earnings and valuing market value. To divide accruals into separate accruals also is helpful to forecast abnormal earnings and value market value. The cash flows and the accruals are different at forecasting and valuing. Key words¡GAccruals, Cash Flows, Market Value

When the global financial tsunami because of the economic downturn a recession, the technology industry into the economic doldrums, the global chemicals industry psychiatric segment due is still not affected, the luxury goods pertaining to the operation of the Group, its brand value far exceeds the practical value of the product itself , was not only both classic and brand pandemic. Products to how to design and creativity to engage in global strategic management, use of mechanization on the the way of a unified image of everything the world's taste and style to attract the same consumers, quality fashion itself as a result of the special character and its products produced in other than value-added, resulting in fine fashion to build the business and brand strategy may be quite different from general consumer products.In recent years, power consumption of the Asian market as a result of the strong brands in many European goods more alcohol began to pay attention to this piece of the market in Asia. Mental Taiwan market competition and more heated, especially civilians legitimate luxury of the wind, the more worthy of our consideration.In this case study, Aaker and Keller comprehensive two scholars point to build brand equity through a case study of a method (case study), a French luxury products for the brand Louis Vuitton, come to the fore in the global competition in the market's success to carry out in depth interviews, and through secondary data collection, to explore the market in Taiwan to build brand equity and action methods. The main purpose of this study found that roughly summarized as follows: 1. Brand of luxury products-of-origin image and brand to create the background and history will help build brand image. 2. Continuous research and development into products and overseas market expansion, brand equity is the focus of luxury boutique practices. 3. The success of cutting-edge designer brands younger image reconstruction is to create an important source of brand awareness. 4. A high-priced luxury products and non-discount customers to shape the brand perception of high-value brands to build brand image. 5. To maintain an independent quality brand image and sales, outlets and flagship stores in the form of the establishment of brand equity. 6. Direct attention to the choice point to repeat before the exposure of consumers and enhance the effectiveness of ads to raise brand awareness. 7. Led the strong access control capability, a blend of high-quality image of a luxury boutique. 8. Advertising and event marketing as a brand marketing communication, to increase brand awareness and create a unique brand image. 9. In Taiwan, to ensure that the global image of the induced to adopt global strategies to establish brand equity products.

Zugl.: München, Univ., Diss., 2009

Abstract The exclusion of Africans, women and the disabled from employment and active participation in the economy, has until recent years been a defining characteristic of the South African private and public sectors. As far back as the founding of the Union of South Africa in 1910, laws were passed to improve the lot of the White minority at the expense of other population groups. Blacks, women and the disabled were considered second class citizens not deserving equal and fair treatment in employment or any other vital aspect of life. The post-1994 democratically elected government inherited the negative legacy of apartheid and thus found itself responsible for correcting the many societal injustices and imbalances of the past. This article investigates the progress made by the post-apartheid government, if any, in promulgating and implementing policies to address the imbalances of the past. More specifically, the focus of the article is on assessing the effectiveness with which the Employment Equity Act, 1998 (no. 55 of 1998) is being implemented in the public service. The study demonstrates that progress has been made in employing Blacks and women, but not in employing the disabled. Possible causes and remedies to address the poor representation of disabled persons in the public service were also addressed. The former National Department of Agriculture is used as a practical case study to add empirical evidence in support of literature survey and anecdotal data.

Much of the recent scholarly attention has been devoted to the low fertility situation experienced by a growing number of developed countries. In this context, the theoretical framework explicitly incorporating the issues of gender in explanations of low fertility has been gaining notable popularity. This dissertation is focused primarily on the application of McDonald's theory of gender equity to the fertility context of two post-communist "low" and "very low" fertility countries, namely Poland and Estonia. Additionally, it tests the relative importance of gender equity at the societal level and the level of the family, contrasts the results of using different operationalizations of gender equity in the family, and compares the effects of gender equity on male and female fertility. I estimate two sex-specific models for Poland and two-sex specific models for Estonia, which respectively use three and two independent variables capturing gender equity in different institutions as well as in the family. All the models use intended fertility as the dependent variable operationalized as either the intention to have the second or higher order birth or the number of additional children intended. The main findings of this dissertation support the gendered explanation of low fertility in Poland and Estonia. More specifically, they indicate that gender equity in the family significantly increases fertility intentions of Polish men and women and Estonian women but not men. However, in none of the models there is evidence that gender equity in institutions outside the family matters to fertility. All in all, the findings support the gendered approach to fertility. The results of my dissertation indicate that it is important to pay attention to how we measure gender equity. I observe some variation in the findings depending on how stringent definition of equity is used. Finally, my research suggests that the importance of gender equity for women's fertility might be more universal but it is also not completely irrelevant to the fertility of men. I conclude this dissertation with a discussion of the implications of my findings and the potential for future development of research in this area.

L’objectif de cette thèse est de comprendre l’influence de l’équité sur la fidélité des cadres du secteur de la téléphonie mobile en Côte d’Ivoire. En nous appuyant sur la revue de la littérature, nous avons construit un modèle de recherche et formulé des hypothèses.Les données collectées auprès de 111 salariés cadres ont été analysées en suivant une approche plutôt quantitative. Les principaux résultats obtenus mettent en évidence que l’équité a une influence sur la fidélité des cadres. Mais cette relation entre ces deux variables est essentiellement indirecte. Cela suppose que certains facteurs importants, en l’occurrence la satisfaction des salariés, jouent un rôle majeur sur la fidélité des salariés. Enfin, la relation entre l’équité et la fidélité est fortement modérée par des paramètres personnels, principalement celui relatif à l’âge des salariés. / The intent of this thesis is to understand the influence of equity on the executives’ loyalty, especially those working in the mobile phone industry in Ivory Coast. Relying on literature review, we built a research model and came up with hypotheses.Data collected from 111 salaried managers have been quantitatively analyzed. The principal results exhibit the impact of equity on managers’ loyalty. However, the relationship between those two variables is essentially indirect. These imply that other relevant factors, in this case the satisfaction of the wage-earner, significantly impact the loyalty of the salaried managers. Finally, the relationship between equity and loyalty is strongly moderated by personal parameters, mainly the one related to the age of employees.