The fashion industry is the third largest manufacturing industry in the world. Companies’ sustainability reports contain the organization's social, economic and environmental work. Comparability is a necessary principle for stakeholders to make investment decisions between companies based on their sustainability reports. Voluntary sustainability reporting has recently become more common. Furthermore, states årsredovisningslagen (ÅRL) in Sweden that certain companies are obliged to prepare sustainability reports. In the US, on the other hand, there are no requirements for companies to report about sustainability. The comparability between companies' sustainability reports is improved by following Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. The purpose of the study is to make a comparison between Swedish and American companies' sustainability reports and within each country in the fashion industry. The aim is to see how well companies’ sustainability reports in the US and Sweden follow the principle of comparability in terms of indicators in GRI's standards. To investigate this, a quantitative and qualitative method have been used. Theories used in the investigation to study comparability in American and Swedish clothing companies are the institutional theory and the legitimacy theory. The study shows that comparability is generally deficient between the US and Sweden and within each country. Worst comparability was found between Sweden and the US but within each country, Sweden had the best comparability

The Petri Box Calculus (PBC) consists of an algebra of box expressions, and a corresponding algebra of boxes (a class of labelled Petri nets). A compo- sitional semantics provides a translation from box expressions to boxes. The synthesis problem is to provide an algorithmic translation from boxes to box expressions. The axiomatisation problem is to provide a sound and complete axiomatisation for the fragment of the calculus under consideration, which captures a particular notion of equivalence for boxes. There are several alternative ways of defining an equivalence notion for boxes, the strongest one being net isomorphism. In this thesis, the synthesis and axiomatisation problems are investigated for net semantic isomorphism, and a slightly weaker notion of equivalence, called duplication equivalence, which can still be argued to capture a very close structural similarity of con- current systems the boxes are supposed to represent. In this thesis, a structured approach to developing a synthesis algorithm is proposed, and it is shown how this may be used to provide a framework for the production of a sound and complete axiomatisation. This method is used for several different fragments of the Petri Box Calculus, and for gener- ating axiomatisations for both isomorphism and duplication equivalence. In addition, the algorithmic problems of checking equivalence of boxes and box expressions, and generating proofs of equivalence are considered as extensions to the synthesis algorithm.

In this paper, we investigate how third mission strategies relate to changing legitimacy of universities. The work is based on a literature review and a case study of the largest business university in the EU (WU Vienna). First, we describe relevant trends and pressures for higher education institutions towards responsibility, accountability, and third mission. Second, we introduce the case in order to substantiate these trends, driven also by Austrian politics and international networks, some of them also emerging with a more socially oriented mission. Finally, we discuss isomorphic trends in higher education.

Zero-knowledge proofs protocols are effective interactive methods to prove a node's identity without disclosing any additional information other than the veracity of the proof. They are implementable in several ways. In this thesis, I investigate the graph isomorphism based zero-knowledge proofs protocol. My experiments and analyses suggest that graph isomorphism can easily be solved for many types of graphs and hence is not an ideal solution for implementing ZKP.

This paper establishes a basis for abelian categories, then gives the statement and proof of two equivalent definitions of an abelian category, the development of the basic theory of such categories, and the proof of some theorems involving this basic theory.

Thesis advisor: Eve Spangler / This research aims at contributing to the prevailing literature on the causal origins of the 2008 Recession. Organizations within major investment finance very likely converged towards increased speculation as the result of a process called isomorphism. This approach engaged in a multiple-embedded case study of eight banks including Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Case, Wells Fargo, Bank of New York, Mellon Financial, Bank of New York Mellon, PNC Financial (or PNC Bank), and U.S. Bancorp. The work draws from a qualitative content analysis of quantitative accounting data disclosed under annual financial reports between 2003 and 2008. Trend analyses and accounting ratios were utilized to locate points of convergence in the financial data for these organizations. Conclusively, the research found convergence in the valuation of revenues during certain periods, the valuation of net-income during certain periods, the proportion of noninterest income to revenues, the liquidity ratio, the investment of mortgage-backed securities, outstanding total loans, and net cash used in financial activities. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

We determine necessary and sufficient conditions for a Cayley digraph of the cyclic group of order n to have the property that any other Cayley digraph of a cyclic group of order n is isomorphic to the first if and only if an isomorphism between the two digraphs is a group automorphism of the cyclic group of order n.

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One of the central areas of focus in organizational theory that has been of particular interest is the organization-environment interface. While various theories have made vital contributions to the study of organization-environment relations, their emphasis on organization adaptation is varied. However, research and practice have amply demonstrated that organizations do not exist in a vacuum; that if an organization is to survive and meet its goals, it has to adapt to or somehow make accommodations with its cognitive and normative environment. This study explores the issue of an organization trying to adapt to its normative environment by deeply examining the situation of a national private nonprofit organization, with ties to the land-grant university and college system, which found itself in the midst of a turbulent environment. Specifically, the study discusses how that nonprofit was affected by this turbulence when it accepted funding from the nation's largest tobacco company to develop and implement a tobacco prevention program. The act of this nonprofit accepting funds from the tobacco corporation caused challenges in internal management, worsened relations with some of its core constituencies, and fomented discord within leading non-profit organizations. The notion of turbulence, the mechanism of isomorphism as espoused by the new institutionalists, and the role of agency was explored, supplemented by a strategic approach that included components of contracting standards that organizations could adapt to attain congruency with elements of their turbulent normative environment. In particular, this strategic approach utilized a framework borrowed from research conducted by Oliver (1991), emphasizing strategies of Defiance, Manipulation and Avoidance. What this study offers is a strategic approach to help non-profit organizations when they partner with a controversial source of funding, especially in cases where they are faced with these kinds of management dilemmas. / Ph. D.