A trend of environmental consciousness is developing for some years in every market and sometimes gave birth to a sub-market such as the organic-cosmetic market. This market represents an important part of cosmetics in general and major companies can be identified. Marketers have noticed this trend and sometimes use it into their communication strategy but it still has to be studied properly in order to determine its impact on the purchasing behavior of consumers and their perception of the brand. Indeed, we think that this environmental consciousness can challenge the balance between Brand Image and Brand Awareness in this market.   This paper is aiming to explore the impact of this specific trend on the organic-cosmetic market and studies its influence over the Brand Knowledge management, more precisely the relationship between Brand Image and Brand Awareness. In that goal, we chose to make interviews in front of the shops of two companies interacting on this market: The Body Shop and L’Occitane en Provence. Combined with data collected from previous research into a deductive approach, it led us to some general conclusion concerning the level of Brand Image and Awareness of those companies, their relationship and the impact of environmental consciousness on this relationship.   We concluded from those results that the brand L’Occitane en Provence had a slightly lower Brand Awareness than its competitor but its customers had a more important environmental consciousness that led them to this company due to its values and specific type of product. We can then conclude that on such markets impacted with this type of external factor, if the company implements it in its communication strategy or its core values, then its need for Brand Awareness is lower. One can now wonder if this trend in particular or any other external factor can be used in other markets on the same way.

Background: One of the main distinguishing factors that we have identified between thedifferent market structures is the level of barriers to entry. Market entry barriers are relevantwhen considering new market entry. The main barriers to entry include Cost advantages ofincumbents, Product differentiation of incumbents, Capital requirements, Customer switchingcosts, Access to distribution channels and Government policy. Purpose: The purpsoe of this paper is to identify factors that may influence entry modedecisions in an oligopolistic market situation. Method: Our thesis is based on a single case study of a Danish company in Sweden. We havechosen to do a qualitative research method. We have gathered our empirical data by doing emails and face-face interviews. Conclusions: We answered our research questions such as, “What factors affect entry modedecisions?” These factors could be both internal and external but we concentrated on factorsrelated to external environment within the new market because they are decisive in the choice ofentry modes strategy within a new market since the firm usually has little or no control overthem. For this study, external factors that affected Strandmöllen AB’s choice of entry modes intothe Swedish market are: business environment, cultural distance, market barriers and competitionintensity. Our second research question is, ‘Which entry modes can a firm use to enter anoligopolistic market situation?’ Strandmöllen AB is a wholly owned subsidiary of StrandmöllenAS. The entry mode strategy was by acquisition of ScanGas, a small Swedish gas supplier. Suggestions for further research: This subject area (oligopolistic) is quite rare. We could notfind much material on entry modes in an oligopolistic situation. Authors think that with moreresources and more time, this could be an interesting area to expand academic research on.

This thesis evaluates how municipal transit ridership in mid-sized cities is influenced by external factors. External factors are forces outside a municipality’s direct control but potentially affect the municipality in some way, in particular its transit ridership. The thesis also determines the appropriateness of municipal levels of response to each factor. Two mid-sized municipalities in Ontario, Canada – the City of Kingston and Region of Waterloo – were studied. The evaluation, first, identifies the trends or “current conditions” between the municipalities and five sets of external factors to determine influence on ridership. The factors are 1. Population Growth and Density; 2. Demographics (Seniors, Students and Immigrants); 3. Regional Location; 4. Federal/Provincial Impacts; and 5. Fuel Prices. Second, the municipality’s level of response was measured in three ways. Staff awareness of the factor and its influence was gauged using key informant interviews and municipal councillor surveys conducted by the researcher. Internal policy and guidance documents measured whether policies relating to each factor are appropriate. Finally, observations of implemented initiatives determined whether they appropriately deal with each factor. The study finds that more external factors act on Waterloo than Kingston. Therefore, Waterloo has strong incentives to prioritize – among many municipal responsibilities – its transit system and to focus on increasing ridership. The strongest incentives for Waterloo are population growth, the student demographic and federal/provincial impacts. Kingston has only one strong incentive: the senior demographic. The study also finds that Waterloo has appropriate levels of response to more of the external factors than does Kingston. Recommendations for Kingston and Waterloo are provided for improving their levels of response to each set of factors. The paper concludes that municipal size is an important driver, but internal levels of response are critical success factors. The data analysis matrix developed for this study can be used by other municipalities to help identify appropriateness of internal responses as they relate to the influence of external factors within their municipality.

The purpose is to increase awareness of the importance of staff engagement in the work environment and how the organization works to engage employees to want to participate actively in the work environment. The questions we seek answers to in this study is the following: What affects the staff to engage in the work environment from a management perspective Are there external factors that affect the organization and the individual's engagement to work with the working environment? We have create a model that is based on recent research to define our definition of engagement. The model contains four factors : Clarity, Advocacy opportunities, resources and feedback. The method we have used to answer the purpose in this study is ten qualitative interviews with persons with work environment responsibilities. The result shows that the engagement regarding work environment is important to get the employees to actively participate. To get the engagement from the employees the organizations need to provide, clarrity, advocacy opportunities, resources and give mutual feedback. External factors such as high and low season affect the organization's work environment, but not the individual engagement regarding work environment.

When companies go international some factors present in the host country act like forces that might drive the company to standardize or adapt its strategies. The choices between to standardize or to adapt to local needs are of a great importance, since it can have significant impact in the company’s performance in the foreign market. In this paper these forces are characterized in country specific and industry specific factors. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of external factors in the customers’ value creation in a new foreign market, under standardization and adaptation strategies. In order to fulfill the purpose of the paper, a qualitative research was conducted using a single case study of a Swedish SME, focusing on a single product, namely machine guarding, in connection with one foreign market, Brazil. The study shows that the factors that were most influenced in the customers’ value creation were social/cultural aspects and competition, which tend to lead the company to adapt in order to fulfill local needs and to react to the competitiveness. It was also presented that economic factors and market size did not represent any influences in the standardization or adaptation strategies of the company studied. However, other external factors, as technological, political/legal and industry structure, have shown impact to some degree, whether in adaptation or standardization strategies.

This thesis evaluates how municipal transit ridership in mid-sized cities is influenced by external factors. External factors are forces outside a municipality’s direct control but potentially affect the municipality in some way, in particular its transit ridership. The thesis also determines the appropriateness of municipal levels of response to each factor. Two mid-sized municipalities in Ontario, Canada – the City of Kingston and Region of Waterloo – were studied. The evaluation, first, identifies the trends or “current conditions” between the municipalities and five sets of external factors to determine influence on ridership. The factors are 1. Population Growth and Density; 2. Demographics (Seniors, Students and Immigrants); 3. Regional Location; 4. Federal/Provincial Impacts; and 5. Fuel Prices. Second, the municipality’s level of response was measured in three ways. Staff awareness of the factor and its influence was gauged using key informant interviews and municipal councillor surveys conducted by the researcher. Internal policy and guidance documents measured whether policies relating to each factor are appropriate. Finally, observations of implemented initiatives determined whether they appropriately deal with each factor. The study finds that more external factors act on Waterloo than Kingston. Therefore, Waterloo has strong incentives to prioritize – among many municipal responsibilities – its transit system and to focus on increasing ridership. The strongest incentives for Waterloo are population growth, the student demographic and federal/provincial impacts. Kingston has only one strong incentive: the senior demographic. The study also finds that Waterloo has appropriate levels of response to more of the external factors than does Kingston. Recommendations for Kingston and Waterloo are provided for improving their levels of response to each set of factors. The paper concludes that municipal size is an important driver, but internal levels of response are critical success factors. The data analysis matrix developed for this study can be used by other municipalities to help identify appropriateness of internal responses as they relate to the influence of external factors within their municipality.

This study aims to analyzing the role of Islam, regionalism, and external factors (the involvement of the Russian Federation, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Iran) in the Tajik Civil War (1992-97). It analyzes all these three factors one by one. In the thesis, it is argued that all of the three factors played an active and equal role in the emergence of the war and that in the case of the absence of any of these factors, the Tajik Civil War would not erupt. As such, none of the factors is considered to be the only player on its own and none of the factors is considered to be the basic result of other two factors.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide the reader with a deeper understanding of what impact external factors could have on international active Swedish SME’s. Since these factors influence the firm throughout the internationalization process we will investigate how firms mitigates the impact of external factors at later stages in the internationalization process. Furthermore, we will investigate how companies prepare themselves when it comes to external factors. To conduct this research, we have decided to use a qualitative research approach so that we as researcher can receive a deeper understanding of the international business environment. The thesis will use the abductive research approach since we match the theory regarding external factors with the empirical findings.   The Literature review has been conducted to conclude theroies regarding external factors, internationalization, export performance and finally a theory regarding divestment. This has resulted in a conceptual framework, which show how the theories are linked to each other. The conceptual framework has later been used to analyze the empirical data. The empirical data has been gathered through four case companies, which has been presented in the chapther empirical findings.   The analysis includes a discussion that compares the differnces and similarities between the theoretical framework and the empirical findings. It also includes the differences and similarities between our respondents and their experience from external factors and its impact. The final chapter concludes the thesis with results from our resource questions and further includes implications, recommendations, limitations and suggestions for further research in this subject. The main theoretical implication is the filling of the research gap regarding external factors and their impatcs for Swedish SMEs. Furthermore, the thesis concluded that it would be beneficial for companies to develop a strategy to overcome the obstacles that come from external factors when a company is internationalized. Our thesis has concluded that it is better to be proactive to external changes rather than be reactive on the international market.

This dissertation seeks to deepen understanding towards language change by answering three questions: What is the unit of change? What is the manner of change? What are the factors of change? Three cases of linguistic innovation in the Chinese language are examined. Adopting a usage-based approach, I analyze the language data of these three linguistic innovations, and the results provide unanimous answers to the three questions. First, the basic unit of language change is a construction, and it can be of any length, such as phrasal, clausal or discourse-length. Second, these cases of linguistic innovation present a scenario of change led by high-frequency exemplars, demonstrating that language change can be abrupt rather than gradual. Third, the external factors giving rise to the exemplars prove crucial in reconstructing language change in progress. All three case studies present linguistic innovation as a response to a changing material reality. I thus advocate a usage-based constructionist approach that considers external factors in the investigation of language change, as it allows us to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the process.

Understanding consumer behavior is one of the pivotal elements for success in any business. Among the various concepts in consumer behavior, the consumer decision-making process has gained much attention from both academics and practitioners. In Taiwan, scholars and practitioners have paid significant attention to external factors that influence consumer decision-making in various industries. However, few such studies have focused on external factors regarding purchases of products and services in the Taiwanese sport industry. The purpose of this study was to investigate the external factors that influence Taiwanese college students' shoe purchase intention. Data were collected to examine do external factors differed between genders and grade levels. Six external factors were identified from the literature review. The external factors were brand, price, style, durability, comfort, and athletic ndorsement/ promotion. This study utilized a 5-point Likert scale survey to examine the external factors influence Taiwanese college students' shoe purchase intention. A total of 416 Taiwanese college students from Southern Taiwan University were surveyed. Descriptive analysis, multiple regressions analysis, and one-way ANOVA were employed in this study. First of all, descriptive statistic analysis is used to categorize the participants based on their gender, age, grade, favorite athletic shoe brand, and how often did they purchase athletic shoes. Second, multiple regression analysis was used to predict which external factors had the most influence in Taiwanese college students' athletic shoe purchase intention. The results of multiple regression analysis demonstrated that comfort and style were the most influential factors in Taiwanese college students. Third, one-way ANOVA were used to measure the difference between gender and grade level for Taiwanese college students shoe purchase.