The purpose of this project is to help a growing company reform their static information system to a dynamic system compatible with growth. The solution consists of migrating the legacy system that they have in FileMaker to an open technology platform. To solve this specific problem “patterns” have been used and this project explains these general solution “patterns”. We understand patterns like a generic solution to persistent design problems. General solutions will not only be useful in this specific problem, but they will be useful in all kind of similar migration projects as well. This thesis gives a detailed explanation of how to apply these patterns into the AEMI specific problem and how they can be useful in the migration process. The solution of the problem then, is following the advice of “patterns” to achieve our goals; these goals are the requirements that are given from the company supervisor. After the migration process a redesign process must be done in order to organize the information. This redesign consists of organizing the migrated information as well as adding the new information in the correct place. This thesis focuses on the process of migrating from a legacy system to a MySQL system through the use of the generic solution called “patterns”.  The final result is a MySQL database with all the old and new information together in a more adaptable platform for the company’s scalability.

This essay looks at the various differentiation strategies for a company in the fashion industry. The chosen fashion company for this study is Zara. The reason for this is that Zara is a relatively new company which has grown quickly and today has a big market share. The aim of this thesis is to decide which differentiation strategies are the more relevant ones for Zara to attract new customers. This will be done through a discussion and analysis of all five of the differentiation strategies which are; product-, channel-, image-, service- and personnel differentiation. The theoretical framework gives an overview of the differentiation strategies; it also provides the reader with a description of branding, consumer decision process, competitive advantage, strategic customer and key competitors. These marketing factors can be describing and supporting factors to the most suitable differentiation strategy for Zara. The methodology chapter provides a description of the method choices for this thesis; this study is done by a qualitative approach. The methodology chapter also consists of a part about secondary sources, interviews, different question types used in the interviews and source criticism. The empirical findings consist of information gathered from face to face interviews. The interviews where done with three managers of Zara in France, Paris. In the analysis chapter there will be a discussion about the differentiations strategies that are mentioned in the theoretical framework, this will be combined with the empirical information gained through personal interviews with the managers at Zara. There will also be an analysis and discussion about the marketing factors mentioned above. The conclusion will conclude the analysis of the empirical and theoretical parts of this thesis and answer our research question. In the conclusion there is a description and summarize of the various differentiation strategies. In the conclusion there is a description and summarize of the various differentiation strategies discussed in the theoretical chapter. As a conclusion there is a need for improvements to the personnel-, service- and channel differentiation strategies. The needed future improvements will be discussed closely in the conclusion.

Problem: Internationalization is a complex process, and Chinese firms have in recent years received a lot of attention on their expansion overseas, to Europe, which is a relatively new phenomenon. Research in this field of study is very limited and it does not have a long history even though it has received attention.Purpose: The purpose of this dissertation is to explore if the Chinese firms have followed the western internationalization theories when investing abroad. Focus is on the Chinese firms‘ investment into the European market. We explore the strategies that the Chinese firms have used and compare it with the existing internationalization models in order to find out how well they fit with the western theories.Methodology: In this dissertation a qualitative method is used, based on an interpretivistic philosophy with an inductive research approach. The research question is answered through semi-structured interviews with Chinese firms in different parts of Europe.Conclusions: After studying the Chinese firms‘ internationalization to the European market we can conclude that existing internationalization theories are not able to explain the expansion of the Chinese firms.

Speaking a foreign language is a major part of communicating in that language. Since LGY 69, spoken English has received the same attention in teaching as the writing of English; and in the national tests today spoken English is considered 1/5 of the test grade.  However, students in many cases find it more difficult to speak English than to write it and some teachers still focus more on writing and grammar than on speaking. In this essay, I am trying to show how a group of fairly fluent students tackle the oral part of their national test and what strategies they use to overcome linguistic difficulties. In order to do so I have filmed five groups and a total number of 17 students when they do the oral part of their national tests in English in grade nine and also have the students fill out a questionnaire about the experience. The tests took place in March and April 2010. This essay shows that the most frequently used strategy is pauses, unfilled and filled, but that for other strategies the individual differences are great. It also shows that group dynamics play an important role when doing the test and students who are not able to do the test with people they normally talk to do worse in the test setting and that the performance of both boys and girls suffer when being put in mixed groups.

The pharmaceutical market is a billon euro industry and the competition on the market is highly intensive. Primarily there are two competitors on the market, partly the originators which provide the market with new drugs, and partly the generics which produce copies of the originators‟ drugs. The originators are able to be granted patent protection of the drug under the European patent system, provided that the drug fulfils the requirements for patentability. During the period of patent protection the generics are not able to produce copies of the drug, but once the duration of the patent has expired the generics are able start the production. Thus, in order to hinder the generics to make copies of the drug, the originators apply various patent strategies. This has been noted by the European Commission, which conducted a sector inquiry of the pharmaceutical market in 2009. The presentation of the competition within the market focused on the applied strategies by the originator and concluded that all measures will be taken to hinder restrictions on the competition. In conjunction, the General Court judged in a recent case that the originator AstraZeneca constituted an infringement of the competition law when their strategies were applied. The complexity of determine whether a strategy is lawful or not, is due to the interface between the intellectual property law and the EC competition law. This implies that the strategy can be lawful under the IP law but unlawful under the competition law. The Court has established that any strategy, regardless of its legality under the IP law, constitutes an infringement of the competition law if it might restrict the competition. The Courts do not provide sufficient guidelines of the conditions that constitute the infringement. Consequently, the strategies‟ legality is at present time uncertain.

Three experiments examine how collaboration influences visual search performance. Working with a partner or on their own, participants reported whether a target was present or absent in briefly presented search displays. The search performance of individuals working together (collaborative pairs) was compared to the pooled responses of the individuals working alone (nominal pairs). Collaborative pairs were less likely than nominal pairs to correctly detect a target and they were less likely to make false alarms. Signal detection analyses revealed that collaborative pairs were more sensitive to the presence of the target and had a more conservative response bias than the nominal pairs. This pattern was observed when the search difficulty was increased and when the presence of another individual was matched across pairs. The results are discussed in the context of task sharing, social loafing and current theories of visual search.

In this thesis I have searched for and analyzed possible mechanisms of domination and strategies for resistance in the novel La isla bajo el mar by Isabel Allende. This was done with a post-colonial and feminist perspective, focusing on the structural divisions that can be found within these frameworks and using binary oppositions to identify different unequal power relations. These oppositions showed me the unjust structures that are being present in the novel, and made it easier to identify the mechanisms used to oppress certain groups of people. After identifying the mechanisms of oppression, I could also point out the strategies of resistance used by Teté, the main character, and oppressed groups together to resist this domination and the power of the norms in society.

Although substantial research has been conducted into reading strategies, the difference between the reading strategies the students think they learn in class and the reading strategies the teacher considers she teaches is given little critical attention in the academic world. This study aims to investigate the relationship between non-English major students’ application of seven reading strategies for the CET-6 test and the teacher’s formal instruction in these with a view to improving teaching practices at university level.   A reading comprehension test and a questionnaire were given to 16 non-English major sophomore graduate students to establish what reading strategies are most and least utilized by students. A questionnaire was also presented to the teacher to ascertain what reading strategies she had taught. It is established that there are differences in the students’ and the teacher’s perceptions of what reading strategies have been taught and their suitability in the CET-6 reading comprehension text.

The purpose with this research is to examine how the green marketing in retail trade can be developed in order to promote the eco-labeled products closer to the consumer. The method for the survey includes interviews with managers of a few retailers and their customers in the industrial sector. The purpose with the interviews was to produce the retailer and the customer’s perspective of products with eco-label on. The research is limited to the region of Västra Götaland. The results from this research indicate that there is a lack of communication between the retailer and the consumer. The consumers don’t think that the product is available. And the retailer thinks that there is not any demand of the product. Further the examination presents that the eco-labeled products is about 30% more expensive than a conventional product, which mean that it does not generate much profit to the retailer.

Schyman’s legs in Let’s Dance as a communication strategy - a case study of “Feministiskt initiativ” in the election campaign 2010. (Schymans ben i Let’s Dance som kommunikationsstrategi, en fallstudie om Feministiskt initiativ i valkampanjen 2010). Author: Joanna Morell, Tutor: Ann-Marie Morhed 2009 was the first time where Swedish political parties were entitled to have TV- commercials, another sign of political communication taking one step closer to the strategic marketing communication. A type of communication that also is expensive. The Swedish political party Feministiskt initiativ (Fi) have existed since 2005 and is not yet a part of the Swedish parliament. They have not been entitled to the economic support that is given to Swedish parties with more than 2,5 percent of the votes in the last two elections. As a result Fi is completely dependent on economic contributions. Because of this it is crucial for them to get good value for the money they spend on communicating their brand. But how can then Fi, who have limited resources, make themselves heard? This question is what makes this study important. The purpose of this study was to investigate Fi and in which degree they made their brand visible to the public in the election campaign of 2010. I wanted to examine how efficiently they ran their election campaign, and by efficiently I mean to what degree the sender and receiver perception matched each other regarding the subjects: profile, communication and communication means. To examine if the sender and receivers perception matches each other; I’ve done a qualitative study, which includes a personal interview with the head of communication for Fi and four group interviews with people who voted for Fi, and people who didn’t. The result of these two will be reflected to theories that involve organizational identity and image, communication gaps and communication planning. The result of my study shows that Fi had small resources to communicate their profile through media. As a result Fi had limited access in media during the election campaign. The party used price efficiently strategies such as social media, network projects and the “brand Schyman” (living the brand). Because of the small resources communication gaps have evolved. Since Fi mainly use the strategy with the party as a network project there is a possibility that the wrong perception of their identity spread, which risks making existing communication gaps even bigger. This essay is 50 pages and is written in the autumn semester of 2010, for the course of Media and Communication Studies C. For the Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University.