Background Social media have changed the way of communication and interaction between the organizations and the costumers. The huge merge of social media has led the companies to change their current marketing strategies into the use of social media marketing during the last years. An increasing number of companies adopt this kind of performance and there is a need to study this phenomenon more in depth and explore it through the perspective of strategic renewal. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and explore to the phenomenon of strategic renewal through social media marketing. The authors will explore into the challenges and opportunities of strategic renewal through social media marketing in companies located in Swedish rural areas. Method Social media marketing is considered a new phenomenon. The studies held, do not examine social media marketing through a strategic renewal perspective and how rural area companies located in rural areas in Sweden face the challenges and opportunities occurred. Therefore, an abductive approach and case study method were chosen for this research. 7 companies were chosen as the interviewed companies. Within this research primary data were collected through semi- structured interviews with the investigated companies. Conclusion The authors have found that, the interviewed companies pursue strategic renewal through social media marketing, but they do not consider this strategy as the main one but as a complementary one. As a result, certain challenges are emerged, and the investigated companies should face and integrate them to the opportunities generated from this kind of strategic renewal. This will lead to a better performance of the companies since pursuing strategic renewal through social media marketing can help in every factor of the company making them competitive and able to stand out.

This paper examines family owned tourism businesses with a special focus on succession. In Nordic countries tourism has been widely promoted and used in rural development as a replacement economy for ‘traditional’ livelihoods based on rural production. Because the tourism and hospitality industry, especially in rural areas, is dominated by family enterprises, the topic of succession is of great relevance for tourism and tourism destinations. This paper looks at family businesses’ special characteristics, challenges and advantages in terms of ownership structure, lifestyle, motivations, employees and destination impact. This paper concludes that, while family-owned Small and Medium-sized enterprises make up the backbone of the tourism industry, especially in rural destinations, there exists insufficient research on their significance within tourism. A small percentage of family owned tourism businesses are successfully handed over to succeeding generations. Those that do are exceptional and more sustainable both in financial and marketing terms and therefore extremely advantageous for destinations. On the other hand, family businesses that fail to be passed on to following generations can have a devastating effect on tourism and destinations in general. / Den här uppsatsen behandlar familjeägda turistföretags betydelse för varaktigheten i landsbygdsdestinationer med fokus på succession. I våra nordiska länder har turism på senare år använts som landsbygdsutveckling och i viss mån som ersättning för de mer traditionella näringarna som jordbruk och fiske. Eftersom turism och besöksindustrin, speciellt i de perifera områdena, domineras av familjeföretag är succession inom dessa av stor betydelse för turism och turistdestinationer. Uppsatsen tar i övrigt upp familjeföretagens kännetecken, utmaningar och fördelar beträffande ägarstrukturer, livsstil, motivation, medarbetare och destinationspåverkan. Familjeföretag utgör ryggraden för turismindustrin i allmänhet och landsbygdsdestinationer i synnerhet men trots det saknas forskning om den här typen av företags betydelse för turism. Endast en liten andel av familjeägda turistföretag genomgår ett generationsskifte. Det gör att de som klarar en succession är unika och mer varaktiga både ur finansiell och ur marknadsmässig synpunkt vilket är mycket fördelaktigt för destinationen. Å andra sidan kan de företag som inte lyckas med en succession vara förödande för hela samhället där de verkar.

Die Studie analysiert das Wanderungs- und Umzugsverhalten in den sächsischen Gemeinden Mügeln, Stolpen, Oederan und Kirchberg. Die Anzahl der An-, Ab- und Ummeldungen in den Jahren 1999 bis 2008 wurden nach Alter, Geschlecht, Herkunfts- und Zielregion ausgewertet. Dabei wurde zwischen Kernstädten und dörflichen Ortsteilen unterschieden. Die Untersuchungsergebnisse richten sich insbesondere an die Landes- und Kommunalpolitik, an Planer und Akteure der regionalen Entwicklung. Sie sollen helfen Pläne und Handlungskonzepte für ländliche Städte und Dörfer im demografischen Wandel angemessen zu gestalten.

Nach einem Ideenwettbewerb erhielten vier sächsische Dörfer die Möglichkeit, ihre Themendorfidee mit Unterstützung von Experten aus den Bereichen Tourismus und Regionalentwicklung konzeptionell zu untersetzen. Die Broschüre fasst die individuellen Erfahrungen der vier Themendorf-Pilotvorhaben zusammen. An Hand von Beispielen aus dem Granitdorf Demitz-Thumitz, Krabatdorf Schwarzkollm, Dorf der Sinne Höfgen sowie dem Textildorf Großschönau werden Methoden und Erfahrungen praxisnah vorgestellt. Wichtige Arbeitsschritte wie Potenzialanalyse, Leitbilderarbeitung, Öffentlichkeitsarbeit und Inszenierung des Themas sind anschaulich aufgezeigt. Diese Arbeitshilfe richtet sich an Gemeinde- und Ortsvertreter, touristische Anbieter und Unternehmen, Verbände und Vereine, Regionalmanager sowie an Einwohner und weitere an der Themendorfentwicklung interessierte Akteure.

Diss. Stockholm : Karol. inst.

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Darbo tikslas – išanalizavus teorinius personalo valdymo sistemų kūrimo aspektus ir ištyrus jų kūrimo konsultavimo poreikį, parengti personalo valdymo sistemos kūrimo konsultavimo modelį. Tyrimo objektas – personalo valdymo sistemos. Tyrimo uždaviniai: 1. Išanalizuoti mokslinius požiūrius į personalo valdymą ir pagrįsti sisteminio požiūrio į personalo valdymą būtinumą; 2. Išanalizuoti personalo valdymo sistemas ir jų kūrimo procesą; 3. Ištirti personalo valdymo sistemų kūrimo konsultavimo poreikį; 4. Pateikti personalo valdymo sistemos kūrimo konsultavimo modelį. Šis mokslinis tiriamasis darbas parašytas vadovaujantis moksline, mokymo metodine, publicistine literatūra lietuvių, anglų, rusų kalbomis, teisės aktais ir informacija, gauta interviu, anketos pagalba, dokumentų analizės metodais bei kitais šaltiniais. Naudota mokslinės literatūros analizė ir sintezė, sisteminė ir loginė analizė, loginis modeliavimas. Pagrindiniam tikslui pasiekti ir minėtiems uždaviniams įgyvendinti, buvo atlikti du tyrimai. Pirmasis – kiekybinis tyrimas – apklausa, antrasis – kokybinis, atliktas interviu metodu. Tyrimo metu buvo siekiama nustatyti Plungės rajono kaimiškose vietovėse veikiančių įmonių, organizacijų personalo valdymo sistemų kūrimo konsultavimo poreikį. Išanalizavus teorinę ir sociologinės apklausos metu sukauptą informaciją, pateikiamas personalo valdymo sistemos kūrimo konsultavimo modelis. Šiam darbui atlikti panaudotas modeliavimo metodas. / The purpose of the study - a theoretical analysis of the personnel management aspects of systems development and testing of the development of counseling needs, develop a personnel management system development-consulting model. Object of study - the personnel management system. Objectives of the study: 1. Analyze the scientific approaches to the management and staff based on a systemic approach to staff management is the need to. 2. To analyze the personnel management systems and their development processes. 3. Investigate the need of personnel management systems. 4. Provide the personnel management system development consulting model. This research were written in accordance with scientific, teaching methodology, publicist literature in Lithuanian, English and Russian languages, laws and information obtained in interviews, questionnaires aid, methods of analysis of documents and other sources. For the purpose of the study scientific literature were used, analysis and synthesis, systematic and logical analysis, logic simulation. Two researches were carrying out to reach the main objective and to implement studies aims. First – quantitative research – survey, second – qualitative research, conducted the interview method. The study was design to determine the Plunge district, in rural areas of the companies, organizations, personnel management systems, creating the need for counseling. After analysis of the theoretical and sociological survey accumulated information, the... [to full text]

According to provisional data, as of 1 June 2003, there were 279 thous. farms producing agricultural products (further – farms), whose land property consisted of one hectare of agricultural land or more, or whose agricultural land though being less than one hectare, gave income from agricultural products sales no less than forty minimum standards of living. Those farms had 2939 thous. ha land, of which 2542 thous. ha were agricultural land. On the average one farm had 10.6 ha of land, of which 9.1 were agricultural land. The average size of the farm in Lithuania is equal of a half average size of the farm in the EU as well as it is equal of the average farm size in Portugal. Some economic and social indices. The strategical plans of agriculture forecast two trends of farms development: specialized competitive farms, producing traditional products and supplying them to processing and trading companies; farms engaged in untraditional activity and producing ecological products, which realize their produce in market niches. Smaller cooperative farms will develop along with the large commodity production farms. The period of demographic transition ended in the 70ties when stabilization of demographic processes set in. Since 1989 till 2005 the rural population had reduced from 1188.0 to 1145.2 thou, i.e., only by 3.6. These were the lowest rates of rural population reduction in the second half of the 20th century. The recent stabilization of rural population is predetermined... [to full text]

Diss. (sammanfattning) Alnarp : Sveriges lantbruksuniv. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Masters of Science / Substance abuse among the youth is one of the main social challenges in South Africa and around the world. The purpose of this study was to explore the reasons of substance abuse among the youth in Grabouw, Western Cape Province of South Africa. The reason why this research was conducted was because the Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning Unit (ITLU) of the University of the Western Cape approached the Department of Social Work with research topics that emerged from the Faculty of Community and Health sciences involvement in the Theewaterkloof communities. One of the concerns expressed by the community of Grabouw is the high prevalence of substance abuse in this community. This study therefore explored the reasons for substance abuse amongst the youth of Grabouw. The research was conducted using the ecological approach as a theoretical framework. A qualitative research methodology was used to explore the phenomenon under study. The research project followed an explorative, descriptive and contextual research design and with this the researcher sought to understand the reasons for substance abuse. The data was gathered through semi-structured one-on-one interviews and focus group discussions and was later analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. The findings showed that the reasons for substance abuse among the youth in the rural area of Grabouw are contextual reasons in which the family plays a major role in influencing substance use and also peer pressure, lack of recreational facilities, low religious involvement, experimenting and negative role models within the family and community, the ‘dop’ system, unemployment, availability and affordability were identified as the major reasons for substance abuse. The second major theme that emerged from the study was the psychological reasons for substance abuse. This includes low self-esteem, relieving stress, sexual stimulation, motivation to do unlawful things and boosting performances in sporting activities. The researcher has put forward various recommendations that will contribute towards solving substance abuse.