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China's policy makers see international standards as a barrier to their country's economic development, more importantly, as an offence to the country's national pride. This belief has been reinforced by the view that multi-national companies have used international standards to force developing countries to deprive them of the ability to enter the international markets by forcing them to pay high royalty rates, due to the patents incorporated in these standards. Moreover, these standards, as they believe, have been created at international standards setting platforms dominated by multi-national companies and developed countries. In return, China has launched several initiatives to create home-made Chinese standards free from patent claims of these companies. China's home-madestandards, some of which differ significantly from international standards, also reportedly serve to protection of its domestic market. China's accession to the WTO was formally approved in November 2001 and China became the WTO's 143rd member on December 11, 2001. WTO membership opened a new era for China. In spite of the international expectations for removal of all trade protection mechanisms which are incompatible with the international trade regime, China is reported to have sought to reform its policies by employing new strategies concerning IPR and standards. The thesis of this report is that China has not diverged significantly from developing home-made Chinese standards after the country’s entry into the WTO, but Chinese authorities have adopted more flexible strategies to implement this policy. Accordingly, this report is about change in policy strategies. I argue that China has continued to enforce its own will upon foreign companies with a strong self-confidence stemming from its ability to negotiate on unequal terms with foreign companies, owing to its sheer market size. However, China's new strategies have been shaped by weak coordination and disagreement among government agencies and institutions. To illustrate the potential explanatory power of this account, I have examined two important home-made standards initiatives by China; Wireless Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure (WAPI) and Audio Video Coding Standards (AVS). From the examination of the WAPI and AVS cases, I conclude that China's strategies have continued to evolve through disagreements and negotiations between Chinese government institutions within policy boundaries set by China's WTO membership and increasing international criticism. / text

This dissertation is about curriculum and leadership in Arizona-Mexico border community schools. Specifically, I examine intended and received language arts curricula (i.e., what content is taught, to whom, and with what pedagogy) (Porter, 2004), the misalignments between these curriculum types, and the misalignments in leadership approaches in border community schools. My dissertation draws on both classic and critical curriculum leadership studies (e.g., Hallinger, 2008; Johnson, 2006) with an emphasis on Funds of Knowledge (e.g., Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992), cultural capital (e.g., Yosso, 2005), and habitus (e.g., Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990). I utilize ethnographic and phenomenological approaches to my study of four elementary and three middle schools located in two Arizona-Mexico border communities 120 miles apart from each other. Findings suggest that children living in border communities exhibit cultural capital (Yosso, 2005) and Funds of Knowledge (Moll et al., 1992), but these strengths are not considered in the intended curricula. Participants see the culture of the border and the culture of the school as two very separate constructs, particularly in relation to curriculum. The children in the study consider this reality commonsensical. Culturally responsive curriculum leaders, though positioned to change the status quo, are compliant and helpless against the dominant standardized regime. External forces silence everything these leaders know about research and practice. My dissertation concludes with implications for research, practice, and policy to blend culturally responsive structures, pedagogy, and behaviors to the standardization movement.

Syfte: Studien syftar till att undersöka förhållandet mellan standardisering och anpassning. Detta genom att undersöka prestationen för olika marknadsstrategier beroende på anpassningsgrad samt omvärldsfaktorer. Problemformulering: Hur korrelerar anpassningsgraden för marknadsstrategier till prestation? Metod: Kvantitativ och kvalitativ metod har används i första hand för att angripa vår problemformulering. Valet av ansats är viktigt för att kunna avgöra lämplig analysmetod. Det finns sedan två sätt att mäta hur verkligheten ser ut och det är genom induktion och deduktion. För att få en bra överskådlig bild har fallstudie varit en utmärkt val. Flerfallstudier består av flera fall och avsikten med en sådan studie är att få fram det säregna med huvudfallet genom att jämföra med andra fall. Dessa utgör vår population och därmed måste ett urval göras för att det inte skall bli för stort och det måste rymma inom vår tidsram. Totalt har 1102 produkter undersökt för sju olika varumärkena i tio länderna. Teorier: Lönsamhet och prestation är av stor vikt i uppsatsen eftersom beslutet för om en marknadsföringsstrategi ska standardiseras eller anpassas kommer i slutändan ned till den ekonomiska vinsten för företaget. Det finns tre övergripande synsätt, total standardisering, total anpassning eller att använda en mix av dessa. Vi har använt oss av AdaptStand process modellen, och det beror på att modellen visar hur företag bör gå till väga vid utformning av marknadsstrategier. Modellen är en kombination av standardisering och anpassning och utgör ett hjälpmedel för att finna vilken grad en strategi ska anpassas/standardiseras. Marknadsmixen, de fyra P:na, har haft en ledande roll i uppsatsen. Dock föll ett av P:na bort och det var plats. Anledningen till detta var på grund av att det var svårt att få tag på informationen som behövdes för att det skulle vara relevant för att besvara problemformuleringen. Slutsatser: För att man ska vara lönsam måste man finna en balans som är tillåten mellan marknaden man vill etablera sig i samt företagets kärna. man kan inte tillämpa en marknadsstrategi fullt ut, dvs. med en total anpassning eller total standardisering. Man måste visa för den nya marknaden att man tar hänsyn till deras behov och omständigheter samtidigt ska man inte ge för mycket av vad som kärnan i ens eget företag. Kärnan kan vara namnet, logo, produkterna, förpackningarna osv. Man måste hitta en balans som fungerar för båda parter om man vill vara långvarig och lönsam på den nya marknaden och slå igenom som en världsprodukt. / Objective: This study aims to examine the relationship between standardization and adaptation. This by examining the performance of different marketing strategies depending on the degree of adaptation and environmental factors Problem formulation: How to correlate the degree of adaptation marketing strategies to performance? Methodology: Quantitative and qualitative methods have been used primarily to attack our problem. The choice of approach is important to determine the appropriate method of analysis. There are then two ways to measure the reality and it is through induction and deduction. To get a good overall picture this methodology an excellent choise for our case. More Case Studies consists of a number of cases and the purpose of this study is to seek out the peculiarity of the main case by comparing with other cases. These are our population and therefore a choice hade to be made and that was to make sure that the population become too large and it must fit within our time frame. A total of 1102 products were investigated for seven different brands in ten countries. Theories: Productivity and performance are of great importance in the essay because the decision of whether a marketing strategy to standardize or adapt will ultimately down to the economic benefit for the company. There are three general approaches, total standardization, overall adjustment, or to use a mix of these. We have used the AdaptStand process model, and it is because the model shows how companies should design there marketing strategies. The model is a combination of standardization and adaptation, and as a tool for finding the degree to which a strategy will be adapted / standardized. Marketing mix of the four P's hade a leading role in the essey. However, one of the P´s fell away and there was place. The reason for this was because it was difficult to obtain information needed for it to be relevant to answer the problem formulation. Conclusions: In order to be profitable you have to find a balance that is allowed between the market they want to establish themselves in and the company's identity. You can not use a marketing strategies in full use which a total adaptation or total standardization. You have to show for the new market that the company takes their needs and circumstances in to consideration at the same time the companies should not give too much of what is their identity. The identity may be such as the name, logo, products, packaging and so on. One must find a balance that works for both parties if you want to be a lasting and profitable company in the new market and to make it as a world product.

Dagens revisionsberättelse har förändrats ett flertal gånger genom åren. Det var i och med Kreugerkraschen på 1930-talet som det började ske förändringar på revisionsområdet. Därefter har lagstiftningen uppdaterats kontinuerligt under åren och detta har lett till att revisionsberättelsen ändrat utformning och innehåll. Det senaste förslaget på förändring av revisionsberättelsen kom under hösten år 2007 från FAR/SRS. Förslaget går ut på att betygsätta olika områden för ett företag och presentera detta i revisionsberättelsen. De frågeställningar som vi ville ha besvarade med vår undersökning var om dagens utformning av revisionsberättelsen är tillfredsställande för intressentgruppen kreditgivarna, som var vårt avgränsade undersökningsobjekt. Vi ville även ta reda på vilka attityder de har till faktorerna i det framtagna förslaget, och om det finns fler områden som de skulle vilja ha värderade. Vårt syfte med undersökningen var att skapa en modell utifrån det resultat vi fått fram från empirin. För att samla in vårt empiriska material har vi genomfört fyra intervjuer med fyra olika bankkontor, vi har därmed använt oss av kvalitativ undersökningsmetod. Innan vi genomförde våra intervjuer hade vi gjort en analysmodell med antaganden, som vi sedan prövade empiriskt genom att genomföra intervjuerna. Det vi kom fram till med vår empiriska undersökning är att kreditgivarna inte är helt nöjda med dagens utformning av revisionsberättelsen. Majoriteten ansåg att det vore bättre med en mer informationsgivande revisionsberättelse, med kommentarer från revisorn. Vi kom även fram till att det är bättre att skapa kategorier som revisorn kan ge omdömen inom, istället för att plocka ut specifika faktorer som ska betygsättas. Vi skapade därefter en modell med de kategorier vi kom fram till: skötseln inom företaget, värderingar, framtidsfaktorer och övrigt. / The present auditor´s report has been through many changes over the years. Due to the Kreugercrash in the 1930s changes started to appear in the audit profession. After that the legislation has been updated continuous during the years and has led to changes in the auditor´s report. The latest proposal of changing the auditor´s report came as a suggestion from FAR/SRS during the autumn in 2007. The idea of the proposal is to grade different parts of a company and present the results in the auditor´s report. The questions we wanted to be answered with this essay were if the present auditor´s report is satisfactory for the lenders. We also wanted to know which attitudes the lenders have to the factors in the proposal, and if there are more parts to be valued. Our purpose with this essay is to create a model from the results of our interviews. The empirical material is based on four interviews with four different banks, in that way we have used a qualitative method. Before we did our interviews we created an analyzing model with assumptions, to test empirical. The results of our empirical investigation were that the lenders are not completely satisfied with the present auditor´s report. The majority considers it to be better with more information in the auditor´s report, and also comments from the auditor. We came to the conclusion that it would be better to create categories with opinions from the auditor, instead of grade specific factors. With these categories we created a model, the categories are: the care of the company, valuation, future prospects and others.

I dagens Europa är stora löneskillnader mellan kvinnor och män samt låg representation av kvinnor på höga befattningar fortfarande ett stort problem. Mot bakgrund av detta har EU framlagt ett lagförslag om kvotering till börsbolagens styrelser. Debatten om jämställdhet är livlig och högaktuell. Parallellt med detta agerar näringslivet i en kamp om kompetensen där jämställdhet anses vara en viktig komponent för att vara en attraktiv arbetsgivare. Då studien antar ett nyinstitutionellt perspektiv har antagandet varit att organisationerna anpassar sig till omgivande krav för att vinna social legitimitet och således att jämställdhet är en viktig legitimitetsskapande faktor i denna process. Detta medför att jämställdhet är på väg mot en utveckling som innebär att den institutionaliserade jämställdheten blir allt mer löskopplad från organisationen. I samband med detta har studien avgränsat sig till två uppmärksammade fall där stora företag inom näringslivet samverkat för att offentligt hantera jämställdhet. Syftet har varit att undersöka hur dessa organisationer agerat utifrån omgivande krav på jämställdhet. Då detta innefattar att undersöka handlingar och meningsskapande valdes för studien ett diskursanalytiskt förfarande för att undersöka de rapporter och texter som organisationerna själva producerat för sitt offentliga framträdande. Även en intervju genomfördes med en av initiativtagarna. Resultatet visar att två tydliga mönster kan urskönjas i olika former av institutionell påverkan. Den legitimitetsskapande mekanismen ligger i uppfattningen om jämställdhet som ett kvantitativt mått som innefattar andel kvinnor. Organisationernas anpassning skiljer sig något åt då den ena tydligare härleds till att uteslutande skydda medlemmarnas autonomi medan den andra uppvisar vad som tolkas som ett försök till standardisering av jämställdhet i näringslivet. Kanske följer jämställdhet en utveckling från lag till standard. / In Europe today the wage gap between men and women and the low representation of women in top positions remains a major problem. Because of this, the EU has tabled a bill on quotas for listed companies' boards. The debate on gender equality is lively and topical.  In parallel with this act the enterprise companies is competing to attract the most competent employees and gender is considered an important component of being an attractive employer. As the study adopts a perspective of new institutionalism the assumption has been that the organizations adapts to ambient requirements to overcome social legitimacy and thus gender equality is an important factor of legitimacy in this process. This means that gender equality is moving towards a development whereby the institutionalized gender equality is becoming more loose coupled from the organization. In this context, the study has limited itself to two high-profile cases in which large companies in the industry worked together to publicly address the issues of gender equality. The aim has been to investigate how these organizations acted on surrounding equality requirements. This includes to examine the reports and texts that organizations themselves produced for its public appearance to find their purpose and underlying ideas of gender. Also, an interview was conducted with one of the initiators. Because of this a discourse analysis procedure were chosen for this study. The results shows that two distinct patterns can be detected throughout the various forms of institutional impact. The legitimacy formation mechanism lies in the quantitative discourse that includes participation of women. The organizations’ adaptation differs slightly. One clearly deduced to mainly protect members' autonomy while the second shows what is interpreted as an attempt at standardization of gender equality in the enterprise business. Maybe that the gender equality throughout these cases is following a development from a bill towards a standard.

Quality defects are a common problem for producing companies, but causes and consequences are often unknown. The purpose of this thesis assignment is to develop a step-by-step analysis method for identifying the root causes of quality defects based on previously examined consequences. The first steps focus on customer recovery meanwhile the following steps concentrate on process recovery. The analysis method is process-orientated as the complete production and delivery process are scrutinized upstream by the combination of commonly used quality tools.   For testing the applicability of the presented method this thesis comprises a case study conducted at one company receiving complaints about quality defects. For the Case Study Company the consequences and causes of quality defects are described, analyzed and suggestions for improvement are developed.   In the investigated case, the developed method helps to identify causes and consequences of incomplete delivery, the company’s major quality problem. The upstream approach proved advantages for two reasons. First of all including the customer side guarantees that the cause analysis is limited to the relevant problems. With the help of the method the severity of consequences depending on the customers’ awareness of defects and available time can be detected. Secondly problems can be scrutinized in natural order as difficulties in production once identified can be followed step by step to the causes in a preceding step. The main causes identified in this case study are a lack of process definition and of standardization. Thus, the portrayed case suggests that regular appearances of quality defects are not a coincidence. The reasons are the underlying, possibly insufficiently defined and managed processes.   The general finding of the thesis assignment is the presented analysis method that comprises a systematic process-oriented approach designed to examine consequences and causes of quality defects. In contrast to the root cause analysis approaches found in literature each analysis step is described in detail. This makes the method easy to apply in practice. Therefore the method is a valid tool to deal with a high degree of complexity. The case study proved that it is effective and efficient to scrutinize problems with these characteristics. Under different circumstances the application of single quality tools might be sufficient and hence resource effective. Further investigation is necessary since this method has only been tested in one case study.

This thesis focuses on the way in which characters’ speech in the well-known American writer Katherine Paterson’s two novels for children, The Great Gilly Hopkins (1978) and The Same Stuff as Stars (2002), is translated by Romualda Zagorskienė and Renata Valotkienė, respectively in 1989 and 2005. The aim of this analysis is to consider and compare how Zagorskienė and Valotkienė deal with lexico-grammatical features that are hard to translate: grammatically deviant forms, colloquial forms, dialect and, especially, kinds of vocabulary that mark each character’s sociolect, such as the use of swearwords or name-calling. Further, the thesis looks at the effects of the strategies they choose on the presentation of characters and their relationships in the novels. The hypothesis that a number of lexico-grammatical features of characters’ speech will be standardized in translation has been raised, as this is suggested by current theoretical and practical research in translation studies. Thus, at first several relevant theoretical issues, based in particular on Gillian Lane-Mercier and Tiina Puurtinen’s theoretical research on the translation of tenor in fictional dialogues and literary sociolects, as well as what are known as the universals of translation are presented. In the thesis, the analysis of Zagorskienė and Valotkienė’s strategies is divided into two major parts. First, in Section 3, a detailed analysis of Zagorskienė and Valotkienė’s strategies for translating swearwords... [to full text] / Šiame darbe nagrinėjamos veikėjų kalbos vertimo strategijos įžymios amerikiečių rašytojos Ketrinos Paterson knygų vaikams „Smarkuolė Gilė Hopkins“ (The Great Gilly Hopkins, 1978 m.) ir „Kaip ir žvaigždės“ (The Same Stuff as Stars, 2002 m.) lietuviškuose vertimuose. „Smarkuolę Gilę Hopkins“ 1989 m. į lietuvių kalbą išvertė vertėja Romualda Zagorskienė, o „Kaip ir žvaigždes“ – 2005 m. vertėja Renata Valotkienė. Darbo tikslas – išanalizuoti R. Zagorskienės ir R. Valotkienės taikytas vertimo strategijas ir palyginti būdus, kuriais vertėjos perteikė leksines ir gramatines veikėjų kalbos ypatybes, pavyzdžiui, gramatiškai netaisyklingas žodžių formas, šnekamosios kalbos formas, dialektus ir ypač leksiką, kuri būdinga tam tikro veikėjo sociolektui (pavyzdžiui, keiksmažodžius, plūstamuosius žodžius ar epitetus). Be to, šiame tyrime nagrinėjamas vertėjų pasirinktų strategijų poveikis veikėjų ir jų tarpusavio santykių pavaizdavimui. Hipotezė, kad tam tikros leksinės ir gramatinės veikėjų kalbos ypatybės verčiant sunorminamos, keliama remiantis šiuolaikiniuose teoriniuose ir praktiniuose vertimo tyrimuose keliamomis prielaidomis. Todėl, pirmiausia aptariami atitinkami teoriniai klausimai, daugiausia – Gillian Lane-Mercier ir Tiinos Puurtinen teoretiniai vertimo tyrimai, kurių objektas – literatūrinių dialogų intonacijos, emocinių atspalvių (tenor) ir literatūrinių sociolektų vertimas. Aptariamos ir vadinamosios universaliosios vertimo strategijos (translation universals). Nagrinėjant R... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

Kiekvieną dieną naudojame įvairius prietaisus ir įrankius skirtus palengvinti mūsų gyvenimą. Pramonės gamyklos įdiegia naujus įrenginius, kurie pagreitina ir atpigina gamybos kaštus. Kiekvienas netinkamai suprojektuotas įrenginys gali kelti pavojų vartotojui ar aplinkai. Elektrotechniniai įrenginiai išsiskiria specifiniais elektros saugos reikalavimais. Kadangi rinkoje gausybė prekių, kurias gali įsigyti visi rinkos dalyviai yra būtina įdiegti bendrus saugos reikalavimus. Gamintojai privalo laikytis šių reikalavimų ir prisiimti visą atsakomybę už savo gaminių padarytą žalą vartotojui. Tam, kad apsaugoti vartotojus, Europos Sąjunga įteisino specialią bendrosios rinkos sistemą. Ši sistema palaiko rinkoje saugius gaminius ir neatitinkančius saugos reikalavimų – šalina. Taip rinkoje dalyvauja tik tokie gaminiai, kurie pagaminti taip, jog nepažeidžia jokių iki šiol nustatytų saugos, sveikatos bei aplinkos apsaugos reikalavimų. Tačiau vartotojas neturėtų aklai pasitikėti šia sistema, kadangi atsiranda gamintojų, piktnaudžiaujančių šiais saugos reikalavimais. Tokie gamintojai rizikuodami pardavinėja nesaugius gaminius manydami, jog nieko blogo neatsitiks. Iš kitos pusės, kai kurie gamintojai nepakankamai išmanydami šiuos reikalavimus netyčiomis pardavinėja nesaugius produktus. Rinką prižiūrinčios institucijos gali nespėti laiku aptikti ir uždrausti gaminius. / We are using devices and tools to facilitate our lives every single day. An improperly designed device can pose a risk to consumers or the environment. There are many items in the market that can be purchased by any user, so it is necessary to implement common safety requirements. In order to protect consumers, the European Union enacted a special single market framework. This system holds safe products on the market and eliminates the ones that do not conform safety requirements.

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