Since personal computers and broadband Internet connections have become more and more prevalent, the application of e-Learning using the Internet is regarded as an important issue. In the literature, reflection plays an important role on improving learning performance. Hence, the issue on how to promote learners¡¦ reflection levels in a web-based learning environment becomes an essential research topic. The purposes of this research were to explore whether there are fits between reflection teaching strategies and thinking styles for better promoting learners¡¦ reflection levels. Further, learners¡¦ satisfactions on reflection learning were also discussed. A total of 223 graduate and undergraduate students, voluntarily participated to use the developed reflection learning system in this research. Twenty four learning situations are presented in the experiment according to the differences of reflection teaching strategies (constructive, guiding, and inductive) and thinking styles (legislative, executive, and judicial). And these learning situations are simplistically classified as fit or non-fit group. Learners were randomly assigned to either fit or non-fit group, and their reflection content was evaluated by two experts who have been well-trained. The results showed that there are fits between reflection teaching strategies and thinking styles for better improving learners¡¦ reflection levels. On the other hand, there is no significant difference on learners¡¦ satisfactions of reflection learning, but learners¡¦ average satisfactions on this kind of reflection learning is positive. Furthermore, this research also finds out that learners with at least one thinking style ranking on top of 25% adopting inductive reflection teaching strategy have higher satisfactions on reflection learning than learners adopting guiding reflection teaching strategy.

Facing the impacts of market transformation, low birthrate and transition of the educational system, the Private Higher Technical and Vocational Education needs to innovate and to establish the marketing strategies for sustainable operation. Meanwhile, the educational institutions need to recognize the students as customers and to develop marketing strategies based on the students¡¦ needs and values. Architecture integrating with interior design has become an oncoming market and industry followed the environmental transition and human life quality. The education of architecture and engineering has progressively transformed into the concept of interior and spatial design, and the source of students for architecture of higher technical and vocational education has been oriented to the fields of commercial design and industrial design. This study was to establish the marketing strategies focused on a case of Department of Architecture and Interior Design in ChengShiu University. The research procedure of this study following by the Porter and SWOT analysis including¡G1) establishing the 3 main principles including the school¡¦s ¡§branding¡¨, department¡¦s ¡§products and service¡¨, ¡§vision supply¡¨ based on literature and document review¡F2) scholar and expert opinion survey by the ways of unstructured-direct interviews to establish 18 strategies¡F3) ranking the strategies by the ways of sampling questionnaire. After the statistics and analysis of 335 responding questionnaires by SPSS for Windows 10, the students generally had higher effect on the principle of ¡§vision supply¡¨ including the strategies ¡§creating the opportunities of jobs and advance study¡¨, ¡§alliance with industry¡]supplying part-time and practical training¡^¡¨ and ¡§ counseling for professional certification and national examination¡¨. They had lower effect on the principle of school ¡§branding¡¨. The marketing strategies via this approach would be focused on the ways of vision planning, employment, curriculum and faculty to meet the students¡¦¡]customers¡¦¡^ needs and to create their values. Therefore, the motive for sustainable operation of the department of architecture and interior design is to establish unique ¡§products¡¨ and ¡§services¡¨ based on the students¡¦ need and to create the vision for students.

This study aimed to investigate Chinese EFL interlanguage complaint behaviors in terms of production collected by role play and DCT. Four contextual factors were involved: social distance, social status, gender and obligation. A total of 320 role plays were elicited from 80 college students, including 20 native speakers of English, 20 native speakers of Chinese, 20 EFL-low proficiency learners and 20 EFL-high proficiency learners. Additionally, the DCT data were elicited by 180 participants, including 60 native speakers of Chinese, 60 native speakers of English, 30 EFL-high proficiency learners and 30 EFL-low proficiency learners. Three aspects of complaints were examined: complaint strategies, complaint modifications and the effect of language proficiency. Results showed that no matter in role play or on DCT, participants tended to use more indirect strategies to avoid conflicts with others. Below the level of Reproach was the main complaint strategy they used. Besides, the complaint strategies used by the four groups were quite similar in role play. However, they differed in the frequency of strategy use, the preference orders, and modifications used in making their complaints. On the other hand, participants performed quite differently on DCT. They differed in strategy use, but there were no significant difference in frequency use, preference orders, and the use of modifications. Furthermore, NS-E tended to use more direct strategies than EFL learners. This result echoed Olshtain and Weinbach¡¦s (1993) findings that learners would use less severe strategies than native speakers because learners would try to ¡§¡Kavoid straightforward face-threatening interactions at all costs¡¨ (p. 115). Besides, proficiency effect is found in EFL learners¡¦ interlanguage complaints production. It is more difficult for EFL-L learners to make complaints because of their low L2 proficiency. For future studies, gathering natural occurring data to compare the differences between role play is suggested. Besides, due to time limitation, the issue of interlocutor gender differences is not discussed and future work could include this matter to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the speech at of complaints.

The purpose of this study was to explore self-regulated learning strategies (SRLS) and the relationship between SRLS and academic achievement of junior high school students with learning disabilities (LD). One hundred fifty-three male and seventy-five female LD students in Kaohsiung City were recruited in this study. Data were collected from the questionnaire and in-depth interview. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, multiple regression techniques were conducted to analyze the quantitative data obtained. In addition, an inductive content analysis was conducted to analyze the interview result. The main findings were as follows: 1. ¡§Goal-efficacy strategy¡¨ was the most common used of all participants; while SRLS ¡§meta-monitoring and value-affection strategies¡¨ was the least used. 2. Female LD students applied ¡§goal-efficacy strategy¡¨ and ¡§strategy-usage strategy¡¨ significantly more often than their male counterparts. 3. LD students with higher academic achievement used SRLS significantly more often than LD students with lower academic achievement. 4. There were a significant positive correlation between SRLS and academic achievement. ¡§Strategy-usage¡¨ in particular was the most significant predictor for LD students¡¦ academic performance. 5. The result of students¡¦ and teachers¡¦ interviews supported the quantitative result. Several explanations were found relating self-regulated learning strategies to LD students¡¦ academic performances. Based on these results, some suggestions were made for facilitating the LD education and future research.

In this paper we discuss the electoral behavior of the 7th Legislator Election in single-member districts. The system impacted the election essentially. According to Median Voter Theorem by Anthony Downs, the candidates become imperious to look for support from the median voters rather than the partisans. And the candidates manipulate the elections with moderate campaign strategies. Base on Downs¡¦ theory, in this paper we extended the analysis by considering conditions such as the properties of electoral districts and candidates¡¦ status to clarify the electoral behavior in the election.

<p>Financial experts from various financial institutions are often seen in media. Media’s objec-tive towards the society is to report occurring events of interest to its audience. Media ap-pearances through giving expert opinions, is for financial institutions costless and a reason-ably effective way of promoting their top analysts and strategically position their firms. For the financial institutions, there exists competition for being allowed to participate and give expert reports when media is in need for a comment, and therefore a media strategy is con-sidered required. The purpose, used as guidance in this thesis, is to describe the Swedish financial media en-vironment and analyze why certain financial institutions are more active than others. The method when conducting research in this thesis is a combination of both an inductive and deductive approach. The underlying factor behind this choice, rests in the strive to ful-fill the purpose in most satisfying manner and receive as valid and reliable data as possible. The study also uses both quantitative and qualitative data. Statistical research in media companies’ databases and interviews with persons with key positions at the financial insti-tutions has been conducted. The thesis stresses the fact that the broadcasting companies approach strategies towards the Swedish financial industry differently. However, this thesis proves that another reality governs. In truth, all the broadcasting companies have common references for the most appealing financial expert when asking for expert opinions. The financial institution’s standpoints differ in the area of media appearance. The thesis concludes that financial institutions with the most prominent desire to participate and comment a broad range of financial segments in media are proved to be successful in this area. In general though, as a financial institution on the Swedish market, this thesis shows no correlation between having an outspoken media strategy and being successful in this field. This thesis concludes that when discussing which financial institutions that is more suc-cessful than others, the size of the company is important to take into consideration. The study has also proved that financial experts, often equivalent with the analyst, are appeared to be vital for any financial institution in order to succeed in media.</p>

<p><strong>Purpose: </strong> To explore how a company can make its marketing mix, the four Ps, greener. This is done with a case study of the Rockwool Group.<em> </em></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Background: </strong>The Rockwool Group is the world’s leading producer of stone wool. It consists of twenty-one factories in three continents and its primary business area is within insulation. The Rockwool Group’s products improve the quality of life and helps to alleviate environmental problems, such as the greenhouse effect, smog and acid rain.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Problem: </strong>Today many companies want to improve their greenness. A way to do this is by greening the marketing mix. The current green marketing literature only touches upon certain aspects of the marketing mix, but there are no recognized studies that provide guidelines on how to green the marketing mix.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Methodology: </strong>The data collection consists of several semi-structured interviews with employees from different departments. The authors interviewed employees from three subsidiaries from different parts of the world – Scandinavia, North America and the Balkans.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Through the case of the Rockwool Group the authors have explored how to green the marketing mix. This has shown that product, place and promotion have several factors that can be greened. However, this specific case study only shows how prices set a premium are greened. Another case focusing on standard prices can provide further suggestions to green the price.</p>

<p>This is a bachelor thesis within marketing that aims at finding how branding strategies is affected by the market it operates and how it influences the possibilities to create a global brand. This will be carried out by looking at branding strategies, global branding and branding on the emerging markets with comparison to mature markets. The authors will do this by conducting a case study where two companies will be studied, one from an emerging market and one from a mature market.</p><p>The development of a case study came from the explanatory nature of the purpose and the decision was made to look into the lingerie industry since this is a market that is easily segmented and that uses branding. The authors used one company on each market that were in the lingerie industry and the companies that came to be investigated were Beijing Aimer Co Ltd. and Miss Mary of Sweden AB. The authors used theories of branding, empirical material from interviews as well as secondary information about the markets in order to conduct the study.</p><p>The authors concluded that there are a number of different strategies a company has to consider for their brand: What market(s) to cover, pricing strategies, name strategies and extension strategies. All are combined and need to fit each other to have a good branding strategy. Then there are different conditions for companies on mature and emerging markets. In the emerging markets, branding is a relatively new concept and differentiation with the help of branding has been missing. A mature market, on the other hand, is often saturated of brands which make it hard for companies to stand out in the clutter. This can make it easier for a company to target a niche in the market.</p><p>When globalising the brand, the companies also need to take other things into consideration. It is important to know the market the company wishes to reach and there can be images that stick from the country of origin of the brand, which also influences the globalisation of the brand and is different for mature and emerging markets.</p><p>What the authors found from the empirical findings was that the companies are not as the theories would suggest and the Chinese company seems to be very aware of their brands. What the authors also found that both the companies were failing in their branding strate-gies, but in very different ways. Aimer, who desperately wants to create an international brand, is failing due to country of origin effects, while Miss Mary is failing in their segmentations strategy which makes them less resident to competitors in a mature and cluttered marketplace.</p>

<p>There is a gap between the citizens and the political institutions of the European Union. Many theorists think that this is due to the fact that the EU suffers from a “democratic deficit” and that the EU is perceived as a project made by and for the political elite. Several years of low participation in the European Parliamentary elections and the French and Dutch rejection of the European Constitutional Treaty in Spring 2005 shows that the EU has weak legitimacy in the eyes of the people.</p><p>In 2004, Margot Wallström was charged to renew the European Commission’s communication strategy and to reconnect with the citizens by stimulating dialogue and debate. This thesis is a critical study of the deliberative qualities of the new communication strategy based on Habermas’s discursive theory, which discusses the strategy’s possible effects on EU legitimacy. It finds that the communication strategy, despite several deliberative apects, have little chances to have an impact on EUs legitimacy, since it fails to engage “common people” in the debate and since it is not part of a major institutional reform but just an “icing on the cake”.</p>

<p>The purpose of this study is to analyze Swedish hedge funds in terms of pursued investment strategies, risks and returns.</p><p>The study deals with a large number of quantitative data and delimitations were used to obtain a sample that better fulfills the purpose of this paper. The time frame chosen for increas-ing validity and reliability was almost four years. Furthermore, the study uses secondary data due to difficulties and costs as-sociated with obtaining primary data though this is not consi-dered as lowering the quality of the study.</p><p>The theory section starts by presenting the differences between hedge funds and mutual funds and then focusing on different hedge fund strategies, risks associated with hedge funds and fi-nally risk and return measurements. This section provides an overview for the empirical findings and analysis.</p><p>In the empirical findings and analysis, statistical calculations of and Analysis the risk measurements standard deviation, Sharpe ratio, track-ing error and correlation are conducted for the sample. The re-sults are related to the hedge funds strategies. Later on the strategies are weighted against each other. Finally, all strategies are compared to OMXS to find the investors‟ most appropriate investment structure.</p><p>After categorizing the different hedge funds with respect to pursued strategies, the result shows how there are clear dispari-ties in risk and returns for the different strategies. We found indications of a significant relationship between high return and high risk as well as between low return and low risk.</p><p> </p>