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The huge market potential of some fast growing markets attract many international organizations’ attention, especially China, as a huge automobile market is one of the most typical examples. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore how Volvo Cars increase brand equity in Chinese automobile market. To answer this question, a literature review about brand equity and marketing strategy is done to create an analytical framework which is the foundation of the empirical observation and research analysis. Furthermore, the study constitutes a valuable source of information of Volvo’s operated marketing strategy, as well as providing practical situation on customer perception on a brand through interviewing Volvo's owners in different countries. The results of analysis and discussion indicated that there are distinctive customer perceptions in China and the appraised the Volvo brand equity is not completely matching the strategic goals. In this case, in order to increase brand equity in China, Volvo should craft and execute the corresponding marketing strategy on brand for the distinctive Chinese customer perceptions. As such, this paper complements previous research through presenting the current situation of Chinese automobile market and comprehending how Volvo as global car brand operating and performing in China from brand equity perspective. In that sense, this paper can contribute and add some useful information in this study field for other further studies.

En undersökning om Simulation inom utbildningsområdet, med hjälp av medieteknik. I artikeln diskuteras bland annat hur erfarenhet-baserad undervisning, som en digitalsimulation med fysiska kontroller, kan vara ett utmärkt tillägg för hur man undervisar. Dessutom kan det vara ett sätt att ge en individ mer självförtroende och får hen att mer tänkaundermedvetet hur arbetet kan göras bättre. För att utreda detta har arbetet fokuserat på en typav simulation, nämligen inom truckkörning. Undersökningen har också samarbetat med Volvo Car Body Components för att se vad de upplever som risker inom truckkörning, och vad som då borde fokuseras på en sådan simulation.Simulation har sedan presenterats för deltagare med och utan kompetens i truckkörning, föratt sedan utreda om de känner att de skulle kunnat använda upplevelsen undermedvetet somerfarenhet för framtida strävanden. Det är diskuterbart om resultatet på undersökningen är användbar eller inte, då mängden avdeltagare kunde har varit större. Dock kan det argumenteras för att arbetet gjort ger chansenför flera undersökningar inom simulation-baserad undervisning att kunna visa att bara för ettsätt av utbildning funkar, betyder inte det att det finns det sätt att göra något bättre.

Short time-to-market is a key success factor in the todays’ dynamic business environment and many companies are trying to improve their product development processes. A challenge is to develop products according to the time plan and at the same time keeping the cost low and the quality high. This study focuses on the project management within the product development process in an automotive industry. The background of this study started as a request from the research and development department at the automotive company, which led to the following questions; 1) what are the most crucial factors for project success? 2) How can these factors contribute to a more successful outcome? 3) How can project management decrease product development lead time by sharing knowledge? The research approach is a case study and the data collection consist of interviews and questioners at two companies connected to project management in product development projects. Spider charts are created from the collected data containing eleven dimensions to show similarities and differences between the project managers working within the research and development department as well as between the two companies. The main conclusions are that there is a need to allow a certain level of flexibility when managing projects, in order to more easily handle late changes. Being involved in a project from the concept phase could facilitate the product development activities later on, due to a deeper understanding regarding previous decisions. Further, knowledge sharing methods, such as databases, has to be designed to be suitable for a specific organization and user friendly which enables the users to more easily search for specific types of knowledge. Lastly, a low level on the detailed focus is shown to be another success factor, however, in some cases there is still a need of this detailed focus to solve specific problems but the details may never become a higher focus than the holistic view. / <p>Studien är gjord hos Volvo Car Corporation och Vattenfall Research and Development AB har använts som benchmarkingföretag.</p>

Examensarbetet genomfördes av Philip Wockatz utan stöd och handledning. Detta ledde fram till att Kip Smith tog över som handledare strax innan presentationen.

Detta examensarbete utfördes på Karlstads universitet i samarbete med Volvo Car Group, en svensk tillverkare av premiumbilar. Arbetet är fokuserat på ett kvalitetsproblem på Volvos produktionslinje då ett tillverkningsfel uppstår när montörer sätter sig i bilarna för att utföra arbetsuppgifter. Detta gäller på andra generationen av XC90 och senare bilmodeller. Ett permanent instegsveck uppstår och återhämtar sig inte när kunden får sin bil levererad. Idag har Volvo inga provmetoder som kan efterlikna problemet och ett arbete sattes igång under 2015 för att komma fram till en ny provmetod. Arbetet fick avslutas mitt i projektet pga. andra prioriteringar, vilket resulterade i en prototyp som behövdes utvärderas vidare för att kunna bli en fullständig provmetod.   Målet för det här examensarbetet var att utvärdera prototypen med hjälp av designprocessen. En förstudie utfördes med fokus på information från det tidigare projektet, nuvarande provmetoder, läderteknik, granskning av sätesdesign, benchmarking och observationer på Volvos bilmodeller direkt från fabriken och ute hos återförsäljare. Efter förstudien påbörjades en utvärdering om prototypen kunde efterlikna problemet mellan Volvos olika varianter av stolar, såsom sportstolar. Genom att betygsätta resultatet med en betygsskala mellan 1–5 var det möjligt att se stor skillnad mellan stolarna med referens från produktion. Andra typer av slitage som nötningsskador uppstod innan det önskade resultatet, speciellt på stolar inriktade på god komfort. På sportstolarna var den avancerade geometrin ett problem att applicera efter provmetodens möjligheter.   Sista delen av projektarbetet utfördes det en bedömning av prototypen baserat på resultatet från mätningarna. Prestandan från prototypen bedöms vara svår att efterskapa på alla typer av stolar. Ett av de större problemen var att få lädret i ett skört tillstånd då prototypen hade en begränsad rörelse. För att projektet skulle fortlöpa så utfördes en kort granskning baserat på erfarenheterna där fokus låg på faktorer som hade påverkat resultatet mest, dessa var rörelse och material. Resultatet för att kunna efterlikna samma instegsveck i produktion är det optimalt med en tryckrörelse på 45° riktat mot sätets sidobolster samt ett mjukt PUR-skum. Detta gav ett optimalt resultat på alla stolar utan att andra slitage uppstod. För att lösa problemet är det nödvändigt för Volvo att titta på två områden, antingen åtgärder inom produktion med extra skydd eller tillämpa konstruktionsändringar i stolarna med en nyutvecklad provmetod som är framtagen på rätt premisser. / This thesis was carried out at Karlstad University and in corporation with Volvo Car Group, a premium car manufacturer from Sweden. The work focuses on a quality problem at the assembly line. A problem occurs on the front seats with the new generation of XC90 and further released car models. It is to Volvo Cars knowledge that an early wear occurs on the leather seats when assemblers ingress and egress the cars during work tasks and the wear then never recovers. To fix this problem and previous work has been carried out at Research &amp; Development in 2015 but was unfortunately required to be held because of other priorities. The previous work resulted in a prototype which purpose was to become a new test method to this issue. However, the prototype needed further investigation to verify if it can replicate the early wear like the seats at the assembly line.   The goal of the research was to evaluate the prototype with a theory based on Engineering Design Process. A pre-study was performed focusing on collecting data from the previous project, current test methods, leather technology, seat design, benchmarking as well as an excursion of Volvo’s lineup of cars at the assembly line and dealerships. After the pre study, a measurement task was performed with the variety of different seat design. This was done to evaluate whether the prototype met the requested requirements or not. By grading the result with a number between 1-5 it was possible to see a difference between the seat design and to replicate the wear problem. Other attritional wear would occur before the desired outcome of wear, especially on comfort seats. It was hard to apply the sports seat to the benefits of the prototype because of the more advanced design.   The last part consisted of an assessment on the prototype and was based on its performance. The results show that the prototype does have a problem to replicate the wear and isn’t applicable on all available seats. One of the main issues was to get the leather in a brittle state based on the movement from the prototype. Furthermore, a short research was carried out on in-depth knowledge of this work to gain an understanding and cognition for continued work. For replicate the requested wear a pressure movement was required at a 45° angle and aimed to the seat side bolster with a soft polyurethane foam. It shows successfully results at every kind of seat design. To solve this issue it’s necessary for Volvo to consider precautions at the assembly line or changes in seat design with a newly developed test method based on the right premises.

How can an experience have such an impact that it can be described with the words “wow effect”? Though not a scientific term, it is often used vividly in the business world as an aspirational goal. The purpose of this thesis was to explore the structure behind positive experiences that lead to a so-called “wow effect” by combining cognitive theories and consumption-based emotion theories to create a method for assessing satisfaction in postpurchase experience. In collaboration with the Volvo Car Corporation, this thesis aimed to identify the relevant antecedents for such a possible experience and create a method for measuring it. The automobiles product category has shown high levels of variation in affect (Oliver, 1993) and as such, it has become increasingly important for automobile companies to be able to identify relevant antecedents of positive affect.