The popularity of rock-climbing is continuously increasing. However, little research is available on the pedagogy of rock-climbing. Student climbing self-efficacy and the learning activities and instructional strategies used were monitored throughout a five-month long high school rock-climbing program. The baseline rock-climbing experience of consenting participants (n = 26) ranged from novice to the junior competitive level. This case study of a single class of 30 students included both quantitative and qualitative data sources. Data collection methods included: (a) questionnaires, (b) observations of the learning environment, (c) individual reflection journals, (d) focus group interviews, and (e) a course outline. Quantitative analysis revealed no significant change in the self-efficacy scores of participants. Qualitative analysis provided insight into: (a) the type of learning environment conducive to improving climbing self-efficacy, (b) the influence of the sources of self-efficacy, and (c) the activities that were more efficient for developing student climbing self-efficacy. This study explored how sources of self-efficacy can be translated into learning activities and instructional strategies for rock-climbing programs. Learning activities and instructional strategies should be meaningful, diversified, individualized, progressively challenging, and take place in a safe and collaborative environment. A future study may investigate the effect of participation in climbing programs on motivations to pursue climbing independently. / Graduate / 0523 / 0575 / 0633

Det här arbetet är handlar om uppgifter inom bildämnet. Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka hur bilduppgifter styr mottagarens skapande och i slutändan de bilder som produceras. Som blivande lärare så har jag upptäckt det lustfyllda och kreativa arbete som konstruerande av bilduppgifter för med sig, samtidigt väcktes frågor kring makt och styrning av andra människors skapande. I uppsatsen undersöker jag denna styrning genom att konstruera tre bilduppgifter som med form och formuleringar försöker styra tre informanter med olika mycket erfarenhet inom bildämnet mot ett och samma mål. Detta för att se om det fanns tillfällen då informanterna begränsades i sitt skapande, eller om det gick att se möjligheter för uppgifterna att uppmuntra och främja deras kreativa arbete. Flera olika sätt att utföra och jobba med bilduppgifter synliggjordes och tillsammans skapar de en bild av hur man kan förhålla sig till bilduppgifter, både som mottagare och som den som konstruerar bilduppgifter. Undersökningen resulterade även i en gestaltning som sammanfattar undersökningen och visar på det kreativa arbete som går in i att konstruera bilduppgifter. Relationen mellan uppgiftens försök till styrning och de bilder som producerades skapade ett slags kretslopp i tre delar, uppgiften och dess försök till styrning, informanternas bilder samt hur och om styrningen fungerat. Gestaltningen resulterade i tre verk och ställdes ut på Konstfacks Våruställning 12-22 maj 2016.

This thesis explores the capacities, challenges and differences of three Swedish environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs). It uses a case study method to examine the ENGOs Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, Friends of the Earth Sweden and Keep Sweden Tidy Foundation. The study will explore what capacities and challenges the organizations have to sustain and develop, using capacity development as an analytical framework. Qualitative methods are used for gathering data. The findings of this study indicates that all three of the organizations have several capacities that is suggested by the theory capacity development, such as monitoring and evaluating the organization, developed communication to donors and supporters, accountability, clear aim and goals, etc. These three ENGOs is well established in the society of Sweden and have been active for a minimum of three decades. However, there are always capacities and strategies that can develop and be more effective, as well as addressing organizational challenges. The challenges founded in this study that all three organizations have in common, is the issues of being dependent on external funding and donations, and the communication between branches of the organizations as well as among members of the staff. Increased communication could better unify the organization and less dependence of external funding and donations could make the organizations more stable as well as sustainable.

Set against a changing backdrop of reforms in higher education and English language teaching (ELT), the thesis explores the notion of professionalism for university English teachers in Vietnam: What is defined as professionalism in this particular period of time? How is professionalism constructed in this context? The research approaches professionalism as a critical concept: A list of aspired traits and features are always value-laden and concern the question of power. From this premise, the thesis discusses a “kaleidoscope” relationship between different actors in the making of professionalism. Using Freidson’s (2001) ideas on the contingencies of professionalism, the study views the notion as a process rather than a product. Professionalism has its own logic that needs to be respected, but this logic is also incidental to other logics for its establishment and development. The study uses embedded case study to address its research questions. Defining the case as professionalism for university ELT teachers in contemporary Vietnam higher education, the thesis studies the notion as articulated at national, institutional, and individual levels. The primary data sources include five national policies, institutional policies and management practices at a university and its foreign languages department, and interviews with six academic managers and eleven ELT lecturers. The data were analysed using thematic analysis approach within constructivist, interpretive traditions. The results show that professionalism for ELT lecturers in Vietnam can largely be characterised as a professionalism of entrepreneurship, measurability and functionality. ELT is largely considered as a tool for international integration. Each type of professionalism project involves several actors (the state, expert groups, the institution, and ELT academics) with their own logic, but they interrelate in responding to the imperatives of the knowledge-based economy and globalisation. How the meaning of professionalism is established and argued for by the different actors in this study reveals that it is not easy to conceptualise the notion in a binary system of “from above” professionalism versus “from within” professionalism; and “organisational” professionalism versus “occupational” professionalism. The complexities of the logics of professionalism – with an ”s”, affect whether a professionalisation project can be perceived as being positive or negative – Is it professionalisation or is it deprofessionalisation? The relativity of “from above” and “from within” reflects the contingencies of professionalism, and also suggests authority power is plural, shifting, and fluid, rather than single, normative, and static. Meanwhile, it means human’s individual power is not of an ultimate freedom but dependent on external conditions. With these considerations, the study proposes interpreting professionalism as a ”social contract”. This helps not only recognise a mutual relationship between the state, the institution, and academics, but also illuminate how each party enables, maintains, and contributes to this relationship.

Entrepreneurship is considered as a critical factor for the development of transition economies and currently attracts a growing body of research. Following a qualitative case-study research strategy, this paper is occupied with the emergence of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, as a location of high-tech entrepreneurship in the country. While the legacy of the socialist past is part of Sofia reality, the entrepreneurs in the capital appear to make considerable efforts to overcome these barriers. Applying a social capital perspective I articulate the link between entrepreneurship growth and entrepreneurs’ social context. Internationalization from early stage of start-up development is perceived as the main growth path, which requires the entrepreneurs to accumulate new social relations. Adopting a process oriented analysis, I observe the shift in the social capital content and how start-ups can benefit from their pre-existing and emerging social relations. I contend that the acquisition of social capital by studied entrepreneurs has a specific added value for the studied companies as in this process they are required to adopt new norms and practices that are distinctive from those generally observed domestically. This process, however, poses certain concerns for start-ups’ survival prospects due to its high costs.

This qualitative descriptive case study investigates four Chinese international students’ use of online resources for academic writing in a western Canadian university. This study has direct implications for English as a Foreign Language/English as a Second Language writing instruction as well as international students’ use of university library. Methodological triangulation was used to collect data. This included a semi-structured interview, a computer-based writing task, and a think-aloud activity. Data was coded and analyzed within cases and re-analyzed across the four cases. The salient themes that emerged from this analysis include: indispensable role of online resources in academic writing; a solution to language problems; ability of evaluation; a solution to plagiarism; influences of search habits; concerns about graduate students; and the importance of professors. Four major findings of the study include: important uses of online resources for solving language problems; students’ search skills in online databases; students’ use of the UVic library; and the importance of professors’ instruction. These findings will be helpful for educators to consider as they work to integrate online resources for international students’ writing instruction; and for academic libraries to consider as they offer services to assist EFL/ESL learners. / Graduate / 2017-12-05 / 0727 / 0399 / 0515 / ketien0421@gmail.com

The purpose of this case study is to determine if there are any under- or overrepresented industries in CRM case studies. CRM stands for customer relationship management and can be applied as a system to help the sales manager in an industry to control the activities and their customers. CRM enable long-term relationships with customer and to retaining key customer. The top findings in this case study is that the hotel industry is by far the leader of CRM case studies and therefore the overrepresented industry. The underrepresented industries when it comes to amount of CRM case studies is the digital content industry, retailing industry, pharmaceutical industry and the telecommunication industry. The conclusion in this case study is that all the service industries are dependent on the CRM-systems and therefore a lot of case studies have been composed about the subject. Another conclusion is that that CRM-systems cannot be ignored by any industries since the economy is customer orientated.

From the perspective of a system developer, this study presents an in-depth analysis of the CiRM implementation process in Malaysian local government. The study was motivated by the lack of studies examining the CiRM implementation process initiatives in the local government sector. Furthermore, the performance of the Malaysian Government in this initiative has been subjected to various criticisms, i.e., not properly servicing its public. This raises the question as to what has happened during the period of the CiRM implementation process in Malaysia. As there has been a demand for local governments to invest more in CiRM projects, the need for existing and potential system developers in the Malaysian government to have an implementation framework that could guide their effort in implementing the system has become more vital. This study combines the case study research and grounded theory approaches. Twenty in-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with system developers from ten local governments (i.e., five interviews from four pilot-cases and fifteen interviews from six primary-cases). The analyses of these data were divided in three main phases. The first phase involved a within and cross-case analyses of the pilot cases. The second and third phases involved a within and cross-case of the primary cases. These analyses enabled a set of determinants on CiRM implementation in the Malaysia local governments to be developed. The determinants were established by fitting their characteristics to the lifecycle of the CiRM system implementation process. Some of the determinants were found to be common to the existing literature while others were found to be enhancing the existing knowledge in CiRM implementation process. These determinants were then developed to shape a theoretical framework for the CiRM implementation process in the local Malaysian governments. This framework not only describes the main determinants in the implementation process, but also the forces and activities that lie within it.

The competiveness within the global market has forced large manufacturing companies to reorganize their global operations. To act proficiently abroad is therefore no longer a choice but an important prerequisite. In global production networks, there are different plant roles that serve different purposes. One of the important roles within these networks is the core plant role. There are limited amount of the researches done regarding the core plant role. There is also a lack of consistency regarding the definition of the core plant role. It is also evident that there is a knowledge gap regarding the managerial aspects of this plant role both in the academia and in the industry. Managing a core plant requires certain capabilities. It is important to target this knowledge gap since global manufacturing is becoming a common norm for large enterprises and the importance of the core plant role is getting more evident. There is also a lack of understanding towards the challenges that a core plant must deal with both within the organization and globally towards the other plants within the manufacturing network. To address this knowledge gap further, two research questions were created ―What key capabilities are required in order to manage the core plant role?” (RQ1) and ―What are the main challenges in managing the core plant role?” (RQ2). Case study was chosen as the research method for this study since it is the most appropriate method when investigating a phenomenon in its own context. Interviews were the main research technique used to collect data. 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted in eight different cases. A literature review was conducted and was the foundation for the interview guide used in the interviews and for the data analysis. The results show that various capabilities are important for the management of the core plant role. Proximity to R&D and knowledge were the most emphasized factors. For the main challenges in terms of managing a core plant, the communication, cooperation and coordination where the most challenging aspects. Based upon finding, two frameworks have been proposed a concluding generalization and contribution of this research study. The study provides a generalization based upon data that has been collected from companies from different industries. These findings are a contribution towards both the large enterprises operating globally and the academia.

Legitimacy is a central concept within organization studies and it is widely accepted that being granted legitimacy is crucial for organizations in today’s society. Legitimacy is known to be based on rationality which during the course of research development has come to include not only technical aspects, but also socially constructed factors affected by stakeholder’s personal values. Moreover, it is known that there are multiple dimensions of legitimacy and that organizations are evaluated based on method of operation, output and goals, and vision. These can be judged differently by stakeholders in the same field, arriving at possibly contradictive legitimacy judgements regarding the same organization. However, we are not familiar with if the context in which an organization operates affects the legitimacy judgement made by its stakeholders. This thesis therefore aimed to study how the context an organization operates in can affect the legitimacy judgement with a comparative case study. The study shows that the operational context in itself can be a factor in the evaluation of the organization. It also indicates that different contexts can cause different and contradictive legitimacy judgements among the stakeholders even though the operational task and output is essentially the same.