This thesis explores eating habits among seven second-generation immigrants born, raised and living in Scania, southern Sweden. It does so by using a thematic analysis of data gathered through semi-structured interviews. The theoretical framework combines Douglas’ symbolism, Bandura’s social learning theory and acculturation models. The results show that interviewees maintain memories from childhood and emotions attached to eating habits; parents play an important role in shaping the individuals’ habits as well as their successful assimilation of the majority traditions. Moreover, there is a general preference for social eating rather than eating alone, and a strong connection between traditional food and cultural belonging. Differences in eating habits were recognized as reasons of discrimination and feelings of alienation. However, thanks to their parent’s influence, interviewees negotiate the different cultural realities they live in. The findings contribute to research in the sociology of food and eating and can be employed in policy development.

This study sought to update the literature on gender and negotiations, generate new information on settlements in negotiations, and provide information on gender and competitive negotiations. The negotiation section of the CAMCO competition was used to determine the influence of gender on negotiated settlement. Settlements did not differ based on the gender of the negotiators, except in scenario two in which it was found that male/male dyads negotiate a less distributive outcome than female/female or mixedsex dyads. In all scenarios, male/male dyads did not settle with an impasse more often than women, and male negotiators in a mixedsex dyad did not negotiate a more winning settlement than women negotiators. The results of the study imply that businesses can feel free to hire men and women negotiators based on their individual qualifications instead of based on their gender. The results also raise some concerns about the perception of differences between men and women based on outdated stereotypes.

This work deals with communication in multiagent systems. The protocols for negotiation and argumentation are shown, and model example of their usage is described. We describe hierarchical model of trust in contexts, that is used for representation of agent's believes. The argumentation protocol for those agents is designed, and is used for solving conflicts.

The concept of “family” has rapidly changed over the past few years. The prevalence of more and more children raised in same-gendered families has brought to mind the question of disclosure. This qualitative case study explored the disclosure practices of adolescents raised in same-gendered families in an attempt to understand how adolescents negotiate their unique family structure throughout their daily lives. The data in this study was analysed using thematic content analysis. It was found that both positive and negative experiences influence the adolescents raised in samegendered families decision to disclose and that disclosure of family structure usually takes place after careful negotiation based on the grounds of either a close relationship, common ground or a perceived urgency. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

Magister Legum - LLM / In the history of labour relations, trade unions have played a major role in protecting the rights of employees and improving their working conditions. They have defended their members against exploitation by employers. They have promoted the establishment of labour legislation, which in some countries is quite comprehensive. They represent the interests of employees in the collective bargaining process. Albertyn describes trade unions as"institutions which advance democracy, co-operation, peaceful resolution of disputes and nonviolent negotiation (and which) are intrinsically worth preserving and protecting".' It is selfevident that a trade union needs strength to achieve these purposes. However, trade unions areweakened by the fact that it is not only union members who enjoy the benefits of their achievements, since non-members do the same and some employees thus try to avoid the burdens of trade union membership. It is therefore understandable that trade unions attempt to decrease the numbers of these so-called "free riders". Besides the pressure that can be brought to bear by fellow employees in the workplace, union security arrangements, such as the closed shop or the agency shop, represent another traditional method of strengthening trade unions. The free rider problem, however, is only one of many arguments used in the debate by those who support the establishment of closed shops.

The complexity of spoilers in the conflict resolution and the breakdown of the peace process through violence or other method have made spoiling an interesting topic. The discussion and the research on the spoiler has contributed to understanding the nature of the issue of spoilers. However, the discussion is rolling over the perception of spoiler and the obstacle of spoiling behavior. Some researchers are focusing on spoiling behavior of internal and external spoiler who are within the country of the conflict, while some of the recent researches concentrate on the spoiling actions of states or actors who are geographically external to the conflict which can derail the peace processes. Obviously the role of external states actors especially the US  was not covered by the research with the only exceptions in which the United State has been highlighted as the external state spoiler in Colombia.  In the case of the Afghanistan there are several states involved in Afghan conflict but there is no research has been done on democratic countries, such as the US as having potential spoiling behavior in the Afghan peace process. Therefore this study is trying to see if the US has a spoiling behavior in the context of Afghanistan. The analytical framework developed in this study outline some condition to spoiling behavior and activities which is applied to case of study US in Afghanistan to find out if the US acting as potential spoiler in Afghan peace process. The role of US in Afghanistan is one of the reason that encourage looking into the US impact on the country and its long pursuit of peace. In this study, the US opinion, role, and activities towards Afghan peace process and conflict are discussed throughout this study.  The analytical framework which has been developed in this study suggests that the US has the potential to spoiling behavior.

L’objectif de cette thèse est de développer des modèles quantitatifs utilisant les options réelles pour une évaluation financière des choix stratégiques entrepreneuriaux. Cependant, il ne s’agit pas seulement de développer des aspects techniques (ou manipulations mathématiques). Les modèles proposés dans la thèse visent également à fournir des informations pratiques utiles à la fois aux entrepreneurs et aux investisseurs, afin de faciliter la prise de décision dans les négociations contractuelles pour le financement et l'investissement dans les start-ups et les firmes entrepreneuriales.Cette thèse se compose de deux parties. La première partie définit les concepts utilisés afférents à la question de recherche. L’adoption de la perspective proposée par la finance entrepreneuriale nous permet de centrer notre approche sur la négociation et une relation d'égalité entre les participants dans le processus de prise de décision, alors que la finance d’entreprise traditionnelle s’intéresse à la relation principal-agent. En effet, les méthodes généralement utilisées comme les cash-flows actualisés (DCF) ou le Taux de Rendement Interne (TRI) ne sont pas adéquates pour effectuer une évaluation financière dans un contexte entrepreneurial. Ainsi, la problématique de cette thèse peut être formulée de la manière suivante : Comment les choix stratégiques des start-ups et firmes entrepreneuriales devraient-ils être évalués dans le cadre des négociations contractuelles ?Afin de traiter cette problématique, trois problèmes particuliers seront exposés dans la deuxième partie. Nous proposerons de les étudier à partir de l’approche par les options réelles qui convient parfaitement à l'analyse des choix stratégiques dans un contexte de finance entrepreneuriale.Le premier article analyse l’évaluation d’un contrat de licence dans le secteur biopharmaceutique. En résumé, lors de la conclusion d’un contrat de licence, les dirigeants et les responsables de la négociation doivent prendre en compte de nombreux facteurs tels que la phase de développement, la prévision des coûts d'investissement et la volatilité des marchés. De plus, la prise en compte des interactions comportementales des deux parties lors de la négociation du contrat de licence est essentielle pour la construction d'un modèle de simulation, notamment en ce qui concerne l’interaction dynamique entre le donneur de licence et le preneur de licence.Le deuxième article s’intéresse à la question de la dilution pour les nouveaux actionnaires lors du deuxième tour de financement en présence de détenteurs d’obligations convertibles. Selon les résultats de la simulation, il est possible de vérifier que le taux de « discount » et le « valuation cap » ont un impact important sur le coût de la prise de décision en matière d’investissement en actions. Les résultats montrent également que plus le taux de discount est élevé et moins le valuation cap est important, plus les coûts sont élevés, et la probabilité de succès de la négociation devient donc faible. Par conséquent, l’entrepreneur doit en tenir compte lorsqu’il entre en négociation lors du deuxième tour de financement.Le troisième article aborde le choix d’une stratégie de sortie pour un entrepreneur (acquisition ou introduction en bourse) notamment « The IPO valuation premium puzzle » proposé par Bayar et Chemmanur (2011). Bien qu'il soit normal que l’entrepreneur et les investisseurs en capital-risque envisagent l’introduction en bourse, il est également possible qu'ils choisissent l'acquisition comme stratégie de sortie. En utilisant la théorie des jeux, ce phénomène contradictoire peut être expliqué par l’existence de deux équilibres de Nash. En complément de la gestion des risques afférents au marché, l’entrepreneur doit prêter attention à la relation avec le capital-risqueur lorsqu’il choisit la stratégie de sortie. / The objective of this dissertation is to develop the quantitative models that adopt the real options analysis for financially evaluating the entrepreneurial strategic choices. However, it does not only focus on the technical aspects (or its mathematical methodologies). The models proposed in the dissertation aim to provide the practically useful information in order for both entrepreneurs and investors to make decisions in the contractual negotiation of financing and investing in the start-ups and ventures.This dissertation consists of two parts. The first part gives the definitions of the essential concepts that shall be incorporated into the research question. Adopting the perspectives that are provided in entrepreneurial finance leads us to focus on the fair negotiations among participants in the process of decision-making, while the traditional corporate finance emphasises the principal-agent problem. Actually, the common methods, such as Discounted Cash-Flows and Internal Rate of Return, are not always suitable for implementing financial valuations in the context of entrepreneurial finance. Therefore, the research question of this dissertation can be set as follows: How should strategic choices in contract negotiation be financially evaluated?In order to deal with this problem, three particular issues are introduced in the second part. The real options analysis is utilised in all of the three issues, which is quite suitable for analysing them.The first article deals with the issue of licensing contract with bio-pharma venture. In summary, when closing a licensing contract negotiation, those in charge of the negotiation must consider many factors, such as the phases of R&D, the investment costs and the market volatility. In addition to those, the interaction of the participants of the contractual negotiation should be taken into account. For modelling this relationship, the assumption of dynamic interaction between licensor and licensee is introduced.The second article focuses on the dilution problem in the second financing round under the existence of convertible note holders. According to the simulation results, “discount” and “valuation cap” have a great impact on the equity decision-making cost. The results also show that the costs increase when the degree of discount becomes greater and the valuation cap becomes smaller. This may jeopardize the success of negotiation. Entrepreneurs should take these factors into consideration in the second financing round.The third article analyses the exit choice (acquisition or IPO), especially the “IPO valuation premium puzzle” proposed by Bayar et Chemmanur (2011). While entrepreneurs and venture capitalists prefer an IPO, acquisition can be chosen. Utilising the game theory, this contradictory phenomenon can be explained as the two Nash equilibria. In addition to financial market risks, entrepreneurs should pay attention to the relationship with venture capitalists, when they choose the exit strategy.

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The financial markets have been started to get decentralized and even distributed. Consumers can now purchase stocks from their home computers without the use of a traditional broker. The dynamism and unpredictability of this domain which is continuously growing in complexity and also the giant volume of information which can affect this market, makes it one of the best potential domains to take advantage of agents. This thesis considers the main concerns of securities e-trading area in order to highlight advantages and disadvantages of multi-agent negotiating systems for online trading of securities comparing to single-agent systems. And then presents a multi-agent system design named MASTNA which considers both decision making and negotiating. The design seeks to improve the main concerns of securities e-trading such as speed, accuracy and handling complexities. MASTNA works over a distributed market and engages different types of agents in order to perform different tasks. For handling the negotiations MASTNA takes advantage of mobile negotiator agents with the purpose of handling parallel negotiations over an unreliable network (Internet).

This study explores to what extent frequent language-related episodes aid language acquisition through collaborative writing tasks for L2 learners. Recent research drawingupon established theories such as Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, including the concepts of the zone of proximal development, the more knowledgeable other, and negotiation of meaning indicates that collaborative writing is beneficial for L2 learners (Watanabe & Swain, 2007; Storch, 2011; Swain & Watanabe, 2012). According to The Swedish National Agency of Education, Skolverket (2018), the teacher is responsible for developing the students’ all- round communicative competence in English. Collaborative writing is one approach that may help the students acquire that competence. However, there is some degree of debate regarding the pairing together of interlocutors who are at varying proficiency levels. That is, some scholars argue that a more knowledgeable other may scaffold the less proficient peer, while others argue that the teacher should not pair together learners who are at different proficiency levels. Furthermore, there are a limited number of studies that focus particularly on secondary school L2 learners. As a result, we investigate what implications the results of L2 learners in control and experimental groups in higher education have for secondary school learners as well.