<p>In these days of globalization, with a higher level of openness and interaction over geographical, cultural and economical borders, the importance of the company’s intangible asset, its brand, is gaining importance as a differentiating factor. </p><p>Building a strong brand and the emphasis on strategic brand management is something that before was given less attention in firms but today we can see a general increase in awareness and relative emphasis in the strategic work of companies.</p><p>Countries as brands: Is it possible to consider a nation or a country as a brand the same way you consider a product? Well, looking in to the subject it seems to be a rather complex matter and there are many questions to be asked and answer. Nations around the globe are indeed marketing and positioning themselves for several purposes. It can be for example to attract tourists, investments and venture capital, qualified labour and business in general. So nations as brands do exist and it is of importance for the individual country to handle this valuable asset consciously. </p><p>There are many factors contributing to the image of a nation and how others consider a nation image to be. It is also different according to whom and where you ask.</p><p>The contributors to the image may be different channels of the mass media, famous persons and events, tourists visiting the country, national promotion agencies and also the main character in this study, the companies.</p><p>The nature of nation branding is inert and complex so there is of importance that the contributors mentioned above have a mutual and homogeneous vision for the nations image and are working together. </p><p>Companies tend to both contribute to and take advantage of the set of values that are more easily connected to a nation than others. Some companies do this more than others. The company should have: </p><p>The awareness of the individual company of what they want its brand to be and stand for.</p><p>The awareness of what the nation brand of Sweden stands for.</p><p>The ability to choose between weather to consciously connect their brand to Swedish values or not. </p><p>Accordingly, the main factor here is the awareness of the company in its strategic brand management. A nations image consists of a complex set of values and it is hard or maybe impossible to avoid some connection with this image but to a large extend the company can choose its positioned brand values. </p><p>And the final question to be asked here is weather there can be found factors that indicates that some business or products can have a greater use or advantage of its connections with its nations brand image than others. </p><p>The study</p><p>My first intention was to carry out this study by including large and well-known Swedish companies like IKEA and Volvo, investigating their strategical brand management concerning my core-questions. </p><p>This was not possible so the empirical part of this study was carried out by conducting interviews at two midsized companies in Arvika, Sweden. The first participating company is Klässbols Linneväveri, (Klässbols´ Linen mill), a recognized, successful textile company and the second one is Thermia AB a manufacturer of high quality, energy efficient heat pumps. I consider this inclusion of smaller companies to be even more interesting and rewarding when there is less to explore considering the big Swedish profile-companies. </p><p>The main criteria’s was that the respondent companies should belong to different fields of business and that they should have presence abroad through export. </p><p>For this particular study the most appropriate method and the one giving the richest and most valid image of the core question is the semi-structured interview. The actual interview took place at the locality of the two respondent companies. The persons chosen for the interviews at each company were picked by their position within the companies and were the ones most suitable and able to make the best possible contribution to this study.</p><p> </p><p>The main results found in this study are: </p><p>It is natural that companies connect their brand to the image of country, being the nation of origin or a nation of choice. Having a country name included in a brand name helps customers to evaluate the product and make purchase decisions.</p><p>The product or business of the company matters in the decision whether or not you should associate to the nations values or not. Sweden is associated with a set of values that you more easily can connect with certain businesses and products than others. </p><p>It is of importance that the product is designed in Sweden and that this origin is emphasized in the market communication. In comparison, the country were the product is produced is on a relatively lower level of importance, although this level depends on which business it considers. </p><p>Knowledge is power! To be able to make a conscious choice whether to connect to Swedish values or not, the individual company has to be aware of its own values and how they want to be seen as a brand.</p><p>As long as the choice to include Swedish values is strategical, and conscious and the company can live up to these values, it is right. But it is also evenly right to choose not to include the same values.</p>

In these days of globalization, with a higher level of openness and interaction over geographical, cultural and economical borders, the importance of the company’s intangible asset, its brand, is gaining importance as a differentiating factor. Building a strong brand and the emphasis on strategic brand management is something that before was given less attention in firms but today we can see a general increase in awareness and relative emphasis in the strategic work of companies. Countries as brands: Is it possible to consider a nation or a country as a brand the same way you consider a product? Well, looking in to the subject it seems to be a rather complex matter and there are many questions to be asked and answer. Nations around the globe are indeed marketing and positioning themselves for several purposes. It can be for example to attract tourists, investments and venture capital, qualified labour and business in general. So nations as brands do exist and it is of importance for the individual country to handle this valuable asset consciously. There are many factors contributing to the image of a nation and how others consider a nation image to be. It is also different according to whom and where you ask. The contributors to the image may be different channels of the mass media, famous persons and events, tourists visiting the country, national promotion agencies and also the main character in this study, the companies. The nature of nation branding is inert and complex so there is of importance that the contributors mentioned above have a mutual and homogeneous vision for the nations image and are working together. Companies tend to both contribute to and take advantage of the set of values that are more easily connected to a nation than others. Some companies do this more than others. The company should have: The awareness of the individual company of what they want its brand to be and stand for. The awareness of what the nation brand of Sweden stands for. The ability to choose between weather to consciously connect their brand to Swedish values or not. Accordingly, the main factor here is the awareness of the company in its strategic brand management. A nations image consists of a complex set of values and it is hard or maybe impossible to avoid some connection with this image but to a large extend the company can choose its positioned brand values. And the final question to be asked here is weather there can be found factors that indicates that some business or products can have a greater use or advantage of its connections with its nations brand image than others. The study My first intention was to carry out this study by including large and well-known Swedish companies like IKEA and Volvo, investigating their strategical brand management concerning my core-questions. This was not possible so the empirical part of this study was carried out by conducting interviews at two midsized companies in Arvika, Sweden. The first participating company is Klässbols Linneväveri, (Klässbols´ Linen mill), a recognized, successful textile company and the second one is Thermia AB a manufacturer of high quality, energy efficient heat pumps. I consider this inclusion of smaller companies to be even more interesting and rewarding when there is less to explore considering the big Swedish profile-companies. The main criteria’s was that the respondent companies should belong to different fields of business and that they should have presence abroad through export. For this particular study the most appropriate method and the one giving the richest and most valid image of the core question is the semi-structured interview. The actual interview took place at the locality of the two respondent companies. The persons chosen for the interviews at each company were picked by their position within the companies and were the ones most suitable and able to make the best possible contribution to this study. The main results found in this study are: It is natural that companies connect their brand to the image of country, being the nation of origin or a nation of choice. Having a country name included in a brand name helps customers to evaluate the product and make purchase decisions. The product or business of the company matters in the decision whether or not you should associate to the nations values or not. Sweden is associated with a set of values that you more easily can connect with certain businesses and products than others. It is of importance that the product is designed in Sweden and that this origin is emphasized in the market communication. In comparison, the country were the product is produced is on a relatively lower level of importance, although this level depends on which business it considers. Knowledge is power! To be able to make a conscious choice whether to connect to Swedish values or not, the individual company has to be aware of its own values and how they want to be seen as a brand. As long as the choice to include Swedish values is strategical, and conscious and the company can live up to these values, it is right. But it is also evenly right to choose not to include the same values.

There are two types of air forces; the US, and the others. Most of what is written today concerning airpower comes from the pens of large nations. This has led to small nations view of airpower is being characterized by the theories of larger nations. Shaun Clarke questions whether such writings are applicable to the airpowers of the world’s small nations. Clarke’s theory explores the potential of offensive airpower in the context of small sized defense forces. His airpower theory has often been praised with the exception that it’s not empirically substantiated. The aim of this study is to test and analyze the explanatory power of Clarke’s theory on the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and the Second Lebanon War in 2006 with the purpose of creating empirical evidence in support of, or against, Clarke’s theory.   The results of the study are mixed. Clarke’s theory has a relatively high explanatory power about Israel’s success during the Yom Kippur War and low explanatory power during the Second Lebanon War. Finally, this study argues that smaller nations shouldn’t be discouraged from applying offensive airpower in a strategic manner.

Ämnet som studerades i följande uppsats var internationella studenters upplevelser av de studentföreningar som kallas ‘nationer’ i Uppsala (NE,u.å.). Mer specifikt berörde uppsatsen möjliga förväntningar på internationella studenter i samband med social interaktion kopplat till formella tillställningar samt arbete på nationerna. Det finns inte mycket sociologisk forskning om Uppsalas studentnationer trots att de har utgjort en social samlingsplats för studenter sedan 1600-talet (NE, u.å.). Än mindre sociologisk forskning finns, gällande internationella studenters möte med dessa föreningar som ur ett historiskt perspektiv skapats för och av svenskar. Syftet med studien var därför att utforska internationella studenters upplevelser och erfarenheter av nationslivet, som delvis utomstående och delvis deltagande, för att ge inblick i hur social interaktion på nationer ser ut för internationella studenter. För att uppfylla syftet har 10 intervjuer utförts som består av frågor gällande informanternas syn på möjliga förväntningar på dem vilka de har haft erfarenhet av inom Uppsalas studentnationer. De teoretiska perspektiv som har använts inom studien är Erving Goffmans dramaturgiska perspektiv, Jenkins sociala identitetsteori samt Bourdieus begrepp habitus och socialt kapital. Resultatet visade att internationella studenter upplever olika grader av tillhörighet samt främmandeskap inom nationslivet i förhållande till de sociala förväntningar som ställs på dem. Olika förväntningar illustrerade därtill hur nationen kan agera som både en främre- och bakre region, utifrån Goffmans definitioner av begreppen.

Turkiet är, givet dess geografiska position samt storleken på sin militärmakt (TAF), en central Nato-medlem. Landet har dock under stora delar av dess historia haft problem med att få civil kontroll över TAF. Detta har resulterat i återkommande militära interventioner med perioder av direkt eller indirekt militärt styre. När Rättvise och utvecklingspartiet (AKP) år 2002 kom till makten spåddes Turkiet gå en mer demokratisk framtid till mötes. Detta då ett närmande till EU, med målet om ett turkiskt EU-medlemskap, stod högst på agendan.  Men hur kom de turkiska civil-militära relationerna egentligen att utvecklas och vad är statusen på dessa idag? Har den civil-militära utvecklingen gjort att risken för en militär intervention nedgått? Med dessa frågor som fond syftar denna studie till att utöka förståelsen för hur AKP:s första 18-år vid makten har påverkat de turkiska civil-militära relationerna för att därigenom, med fokus på TAF:s organisatoriska och sociala struktur, bedöma hur detta i sin tur påverkat risken för en militär intervention i den inhemska politiken.  Studien, vilken nyttjar Janowitz teori om nya nationer, kommer fram till att Turkiets civil-militära relationer successivt utvecklats från att ha haft många likheter med idealtypen demokratiskt konkurrerande till att gradvis närma sig auktoritär en-partikontroll, vilket är den idealtyp som dominerar vid studiens tidsmässiga slutpunkt, år 2020. I takt med den civil-militära utvecklingen har den civila kontrollen över TAF stärkts avsevärt. Detta har inneburit att TAF:s organisatoriska och sociala struktur förändrats i grunden vilket gjort att risken för en militär intervention gått från att inledningsvis varit hög till att vid tiden för studiens slutskede bedömas som låg.

I den övergripande luftmaktsteoretiska debatten framkommer kritik mot att små nationers specifika förutsättningar i krig tenderar att exkluderas. Konsekvensen blir att små nationer i allt för stor utsträckning kopierar stora nationers doktrinära tänk istället för att generera egna idéer. Shaun Clarke försöker genom sin luftmaktsteoretiska ansats vända denna trend och har närmare undersökt små nationers möjlighet att genom strategisk attack nå framgång mot större motståndare.   Genom sin originalitet anses Clarkes luftmaktsteori vara ett viktigt tillskott i den övergripande luftmaktsteoretiska debatten, men kritiseras samtidigt för att inte vara tillräckligt empiriskt underbyggd. Syftet med denna undersökning är att möta denna kritik och genom en teoriprövande ansats empiriskt undersöka förklaringskraften hos Clarkes teori. Därigenom även bidra till ett trovärdigare vetenskapsteoretiskt underlag, med fokus på den lilla nationen och dess ambition att utveckla förmågan strategisk attack. Forskningsstrategin representeras av en tvåfallstudie av Yom Kippur kriget 1973, samt Falklandskriget 1982, där Israel respektive Argentina utgör de huvudsakliga analysperspektiven. Resultatet påvisar att såväl Israel som Argentina tillämpat luftmakt utifrån Clarkes teoretiska beskrivning. Undersökningen stärker därmed Clarkes luftmaktsteori rent empiriskt. För små nationer, med ambition att utveckla sin förmåga till ett mer strategiskt nyttjande av luftmakt, så är den viktigaste slutsatsen från denna undersökning att strategisk attack inte primärt handlar om kinetisk energi som appliceras på strategiska mål. Utan det är istället de mänskliga reaktionerna och besluten bakom tillämpningen av strategisk attack som står i centrum.

Uppsala's student life largely consists of the student nations. The student nations are required to count the number of guests due to fire safety and to meet the regulations from the Public Health Agency of Sweden concerning the current pandemic. This report presents how a mobile application that shows if the student nations are calm, active, crowded, or full was created. The students in Uppsala can use the application to aid the decision of where they want to go, and the nations can use it to count the number of guests. By using this application, the nations are encouraged to keep track of the number of guests continuously and therefore contribute to a more safe environment in the student life of Uppsala. The vision for the application is to be reliable, user friendly, and have a quick response time. This was evaluated through several user experience metrics. During the performed user tests it came to our attention that the application was overall easy to use, had good functionality and that the user interface was minimalistic as well as appealing. However, some of the initial specifications of requirements were not fulfilled, and it appeared that some aspects of the application called for improvements to fulfill these requirements. / Uppsalas studentliv består till stor del av studentnationer. Nationer är skyldiga att veta hur många gäster som befinner sig i deras lokaler på grund av brandsäkerhet och för att följa Folkhälsomyndighetens föreskrifter angående den nuvarande pandemin. Den här rapporten presenterar hur en mobilapplikation skapades som visar om det är lugnt, aktivt, trångt eller fullt på studentnationerna. Uppsalas studenter kan använda applikationen för att underlätta i beslutet om var de vill gå, och nationerna kan använda den för att räkna antalet gäster. När nationerna använder applikationen uppmanas de att hålla koll på antalet besökare kontinuerligt och på så sätt bidra till en säkrare tillvaro för studenter i Uppsala. Visionen är att applikationen ska upplevas som pålitlig, användarvänlig och ha snabb responstid. Detta utvärderades genom användbarhetstester. Under dessa uppmärksammades det att applikationen totalt sett var enkel att använda, hade god funktionalitet och att användargränssnittet var minimalistiskt samt tilltalande. En del av de ursprungliga krav som sattes upp uppfylldes däremot inte, och vissa aspekter av applikationen kräver förbättringar för att uppfylla dessa krav.