Testing a product on users before releasing it on the market can be very rewarding but also costly for companies. Therefore testing products on just the right number of users, that will be enough to include the benefits of the tests while keeping down the costs, would be most beneficial. A common advice means that five participants are enough to include in such tests. This advice is based on research mainly from testing computer-based interfaces on users. Though, how well this advice can be applied when testing physical products on users is less investigated. This thesis has investigated how many participants that are needed when testing physical products on users. A literature study and an analysis of data collected from physical products tested on users were conducted. The results show that using five participants when testing physical products on users cannot be counted on to be enough. The results also show that the number of participants to use, when testing physical products on users, vary.

Purchasing counterfeited luxury products and downloading pirated items have becomemore common nowadays. Fashion and IT industries are affected negatively by consumers’supportive attitude towards piracy and counterfeits. Many luxury branded companies havetheir exclusive brand names stolen by counterfeits producers. Likewise producers ofcomputer software, music, and movies are affected by individuals who download/streamtheir items for free. Consumers’ attitudes towards counterfeiting and piracy are importantto examine as to understand their acceptance and rejection towards counterfeits and piracy.The purpose of this thesis is to examine consumers’ attitudes towards counterfeits andpiracy. What is accepted and rejected by consumers? To answer the research questions, aqualitative method is used. The data is collected through semi-structured interviews with12 consumers of both/either counterfeits and piracy. The study is performed in Skåne(Scania), Sweden, mainly in Malmö, Perstorp and Kristianstad.We implemented the Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory of Moral Reasoning, ConsumerTheory and different attitudes for analysing the empirical presentation. The result of thestudy showed that the interviewees had a more accepting attitude towards piracy while themajority of them had a rejecting attitude towards counterfeits. Due to the fact thatcomputer and IT have become a part of the everyday life for many individuals. However,the interviewees who buy counterfeits consume the items while they are on vacationabroad since the supply of counterfeits in the Swedish market is not very big. When itcame to piracy and counterfeited products, the age of the interviewees did matter to someextent. Also, price was one important element why consumers are interested in counterfeitsor download piracy.This study contributes to fill the gap in the lack of studies of consumers’ attitudes towardsboth piracy and counterfeits. The conclusions can be used as a guideline and tool forcompanies to be aware of consumers’ attitudes towards illicit products. Keywords: Counterfeit products, Piracy, Consumer attitude, Physical products, Digitalproducts, Luxury brands, Genuine luxury brand, Illicit forged products

Businesses within the physical product domain seek to transform the way they manage new product development, through more flexible approaches. Traditionally, this was done through a fixed approach, characterized by linear and rigid workflow. In this context, however, a complete transition over to a flexible approach, characterized by iterative workflow and adaptability, is not feasible in most cases. To increase flexibility more suitably, hybrid approaches emerged, which combine elements from fixed- and flexible project management approaches. Existing literature lacks in the area of suitability assessment for when and how to combine these two approaches. Therefore, this exploratory study set out to identify factors that affect the suitability of any of the three approaches, fixed, flexible, or hybrid. The thesis took a qualitative approach, collecting data from semi-structured interviews and company documents. Interviewees included project managers and developers. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis. The findings revealed a total of 19 relevant factors within four primary areas, Communication & Engagement, Knowledge & Principles, Contextual Constraints, and Risk & Change Management. Stakeholder- and Team Communication and engagement were shown to be highly influential and recurrent factors. The practical contributions of the thesis aim towards increasing the assessment capabilities amongst managers, trying to determine the suitability of any particular project management approach. By evaluating the factors, conditions regarding the characteristics of a project can be established and more appropriate management approaches can be adopted. / Tillverkande organisationer inom den fysiska produkt-domänen som strävar efter att förbättra sättet de hanterar utvecklingen av nya produkter, kan vända sig till flexibla metodiker. Traditionellt sett gjordes detta genom mer fasta metodiker som kännetecknas av linjära och stela arbetsflöden. I denna kontext är det oftast inte optimalt att helt övergå till ett flexibelt arbetssätt, som kännetecknas av iterativa arbetsflöden. För att öka flexibiliteten på ett mer lämpligt sätt har hybrida metoder utvecklats, vilket kombinerar element från både fasta och flexibla projektledningsmetoder. Den befintliga litteraturen brister när det kommer till lämplighetsbedömning för när och hur organisationer ska kombinera dessa två. Därför syftar denna explorativa studie till att identifiera faktorer som påverkar lämpligheten för någon av de tre arbetssätten: fast, flexibel eller hybrid. Studien använde sig av en kvalitativ forskningsmetodik och samlade in data genom semistrukturerade intervjuer och företagsdokument. Intervjupersonerna inkluderade projektledare och utvecklare inom studierelevanta områden. Analys av samtlig data skedde genom metoden Tematisk analys. Resultaten visade på totalt 19 relevanta faktorer inom fyra huvudsakliga områden: Kommunikation & Engagemang, Kunskap & Principer, Kontextuella Begränsningar samt Risk- & Förändringshantering. Intressent- och Team Kommunikation & Engagemang visade sig vara mycket påverkande och återkommande faktorer. Studiens praktiska bidrag syftar till att öka förmågan hos företagsledare att bedöma lämpligheten hos en specifik projektledningsmetod. Genom att utvärdera faktorerna kan förhållanden gällande ett projekts karaktärsdrag fastställas och mer lämpliga projektledningsmetoder tillämpas.