The purpose of the study was to investigate a modification of a managerial accounting technique, Activity-Based Costing (ABC), as a tool for addressing Information Resource Management (IRM) concerns within business processes. To indicate that ABC has been adapted for the IRM context, this study called the tool "Activity-Based Analysis" (ABA). ABA includes ABC's costing methodology as well as additional methods to address broader issues. The research method was a single-site case study at a property and casualty insurance company. The unit of analysis was a business process consisting of activities needed to provide claims handling services for workers' compensation insurance. Four questions guided the study: 1. Did ABA identify management information required to monitor process effectiveness and efficiency? 2. Did ABA support outsourcing decision making by identifying IRM cost components within business processes? 3. Did ABA identify information resources; that are sharable? 4. Did ABA identify differences between Company organizational characteristics andIRM department organizational characteristics?

The value of cost allocation comes from its initial purpose; decision support. In other words, cost allocation is considered a vital part of management, as it generates valuable information concerning efficiency and profitability. By applying Time Driven Activity Based Costing (TDABC) in a financial service company, this pilot study aims to learn from the consequences of the application, and discuss the lessons learned. The application resulted in a two-step allocation using Traditional Cost Allocation in the first step and TDABC in the final step, wherethe overhead cost of four support departments were allocated down to products. To build the model, interviews were conducted with personnel and internal documents were used. The application's most important lessons are thedifficultyofidentifying and measuring activities, the model’s requirement of high-quality data and the complexity of the capacity measures.

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Individuals who use wheelchairs or who have other mobility challenges often are unable to access modern mobility systems "“ including application-based ride hailing and on-demand microtransit. Even designing a system targeted at these users is challenging, given the limited prior analysis of their travel behavior and activity patterns. Simulation tools are used by cities around the world to understand novel and complex transportation systems, yet few are including the needs of users with disabilities in these simulation studies. This thesis examines the travel patterns of wheelchair users from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey and presents a model of daily activity pattern choice of respondents who self-identify as using a wheelchair. This thesis discusses the application of a wheelchair status variable in the activity-based travel demand model ActivitySim and measures its effect on individual and household daily activity pattern choice. Wheelchair use is estimated to reduce the utility of a work daily activity pattern by 1.9 points relative to a home pattern for full time workers and 3.4 for part time workers. Including the effect of wheelchair use in a regional daily activity pattern model resulted in 21.9 percent of wheelchair users changing to a home activity pattern relative to a base scenario not including wheelchair use. Lastly, the thesis evaluates the performance of an on-demand, accessible mode for users with wheelchairs in the agent-based microsimulation BEAM. This simulation showed that demand for such a service increases linearly with fleet size and wait time remains constant, though further scenario refinement and research is necessary.

Ett aktivitetsbaserat kontorslandskap är en kontorslösning som erbjuder olika zoner, därmedarbetare fritt får välja vilken zon de vill arbeta i utifrån sina arbetsmoment. Arbetsplatsen ses mer som en mötesplats där medarbetare lätt kan interagera med varandra. Vasakronan är ett av de första fastighetsbolagen i Sverige som har implementerat ABW och digitaliserat sina fastighetstjänster. Syftet med denna fallstudie är att dels undersöka Vasakronans interna erfarenheter av implementering av sitt aktivitetsbaserade kontor, dels erfarenheter kring marknadsföring av sitt ABW gentemot sina befintliga och kommande hyresgäster.Studiens metod består av materialinsamling från Vasakronans hemsida och tidigarevetenskapliga artiklar och teorier, videointervjuer med fem respondenter från Vasakronansamt ett studiebesök hos Vasakronans Malmökontor. Utifrån respondenternas svar på våra frågor och koppling till teoriavsnittet ser vi ett samband mellan ABW och öppna ytor, där medarbetare känner sig gladare och effektivare genom att sitta och arbeta tillsammans. Dock finns det även nackdelar som exempelvis ljudstörningar, inga fasta platser och försämrad koncentrationsförmåga som vissa medarbetare kan uppleva. Hos Vasakronan har man, i tidigt skede, arbetat med kommunikation för att informera sina medarbetare om pågående förändringar på sitt kontor, samt erbjudit dem utbildningskurser om ledarskap och självständighet, workshops och föreläsningar för att minimera risker för missnöjdhet.Vasakronan förmedlar sitt budskap om ABW till externa intressenter genom att bjuda in tillstudiebesök och ge kunderna möjligheten att själv observera och uppleva hur en sådankontorslösning ser ut i verkligheten. Genom att inkludera intressenten imarknadsföringsprocessen och erbjuda rådgivning, snarare än försäljning, har Vasakronan åstadkommit en kundrelation som bygger på förtroende och trovärdighet. Enligt respondenterna sprider intressenter som har varit hos Vasakronan budskapet via word of mouth. Dessutom signaleras Vasakronan som en modern arbetsplats som lederfastighetsbranschen i digitalisering och hållbarhet. / An activity-based workplace is an office solution that uses different zones, where employees are free to choose in which zone they want to work at based on their work. The workplace is seen more as a meeting place where employees can easily interact with each other. Vasakronan is one of the first real estate companies in Sweden to implement ABW and digitize its real estate services. The purpose of this case study is to investigate Vasakronan's internal experience of implementing its activity-based office, also their experience of marketing their ABW to potential stakeholders.The study method consists of material collection from Vasakronan's website and previousscientific articles and theories, video interviews with five respondents from Vasakronan and a study visit at Vasakronan's Malmö office. Based on the answers to our questions and the connection to the theory section, we see a connection between ABW and open spaces, where employees feel happier and more efficient by sitting and working together. However, there are also disadvantages such as noise disturbances, no fixed places and impaired concentration ability that some employees may experience. Vasakronan has, at an early stage, worked with communication to inform their employees about ongoing changes in the workplace, and to promote education courses on leadership and independence, workshops and lectures to minimize the risks of dissatisfaction.Vasakronan conveys its message about ABW to external stakeholders by inviting throughstudy visits and giving customers the opportunity to experience how such an office solution looks like in reality. By including the stakeholder in the marketing process and offering advice, rather than sales, Vasakronan has established a customer relationship based on trust and credibility. According to the respondents, stakeholders who have been at Vasakronan spread the concept through word of mouth. In addition, Vasakronan is signaled as a modern workplace that leads the real estate industry in digitization and sustainability.

The diploma thesis deals with the demonstration of the influence of the allocation method of common costs on the own production evaluation in an industrial company; which means the assessment of traditional allocation methods of common costs and alternative application (modern) method of cost allocation methods for using Activity-Based Costing in the metalworking industry. The literature review introduces concepts of cost, traditional calculation methods, modern cost alloca-tion methods and their comparison. Literature review is followed by the survey, on the basis of which has been found a representative group to which the comparison of traditional and modern methods will be implemented in practice. Finally, the conclusion states it is appropriate to use the modern method for companies in the metalworking industry and what impact has the allocation method of common costs for the economic activities.

In the aviation industry, purchasing departments spend approximately 80% of revenues on procurement. Additionally, 62% of companies experience unforeseen expenses or hidden costs in the procurement process. Grounded in a conceptual framework of activity-based costing, the purpose of this case study was to explore strategies used by 5 upper-level supply chain management leaders at a maintenance repair and overhaul company in the aviation industry in the Southeastern United States to accurately forecast procurement costs. Data collection included 5 semistructured interviews, company documents, and annual reports. Through thematic analysis, the major themes that emerged from the data analysis were accuracy, competitive advantage, improved corporate performance, and improved total cost analysis. The findings may contribute to social change in the Southeastern region of the United States. The aviation industry is experiencing competition from low-cost countries and the economy of the region and hundreds of families and educational institutions depend on the success of the companies in the region for sustainability.

Denna studie beskriver hur en kommunal grundskola i sydvästra Indien undervisar matematik.Vår frågeställning var: Hur fungerar en indisk statlig grundskola arbetar med matematik? Vilka är lärarnas uppfattningar om skolans sätt att undervisa? För att ha möjlighet att fördjupa oss i frågorna undersökte vi även Hur lärarnas föreställningar om matematik påverkar normerna i klassrummet utifrån ramen av Yack och Cobbs normteori. Det är en kvalitativ studie där vi utförde observationer av undervisningen och intervjuer med lärare och rektorn på skolan om deras syn på matematikundervisningen, under tre veckor. Vi samlade också information om och dokumenterade deras matematikverkstad.Utifrån våra intervjuer och observationer kunde vi dra slutsatsen att samtliga på skolan arbetade med en aktivitetsbaserad undervisning där matematik lärs med hjälp av manipulativt, laborativt material. De arbetade tillsammans i ett arbetslag med en strävan att uppfylla läroplanens mål och med en gemensam arbetsmetod. Vi fann också att lärarnas värderingar och föreställningar om hur matematik ska läras ut, påverkar de normer som verkar i klassrummet.Denna studie kan inte generaliserbar eftersom detta är en fallstudie på denna skola. Dock förespråkar den indiska läroplanen att undervisningen ska ske utifrån elevnära aktiviteter, men matematikverkstaden på denna skola var speciell och utvecklad på denna skola. / For our study, we visited a Government Lower Primary School in India to inquiry about how a school in another schooling context teaches mathematics. Our research questions were: How does an Indian Government Lower Primary School work with mathematics? What are the teachers' perceptions of the school’s teaching approach? In addition to these questions and to inquire deeper into this subject, we also investigated How do the teachers’ perceptions and method of teaching connect to Yackel and Cobb’s framework of the different kinds of norms operating in the classroom?We did a qualitative study, staying at the school for three weeks to interview teachers about their method of teaching mathematics as well as observing how they were teaching mathematics and the norms that operated in the classroom. We also gathered information about their mathematics laboratory. During our interviews and observations we came to the conclusion that the school worked with activity-based learning by using manipulative materials. All teachers as well as the principal cooperatively strived to meet the curricula objectives, with the same teaching approach. We also found that the teachers’ values and beliefs about how mathematics should be taught, affect the norms operating in the classroom.This study cannot be generalised for all schools in India or even in this area. This study is a minor study which only considered one particular school which used an interesting teaching method, activity-based learning with manipulatives.

The advent of on-demand transport modes such as ride-hailing and microtransit has challenged forecasters to develop new methods of forecasting the use and impacts of such modes. In particular, there is some professional disagreement about the relative role of activity-based transportation behavior models -- which have detailed understanding of the person making a trip and its purpose -- and multi-agent demand simulations which may have a better understanding of the availability and service characteristics of on-demand services. A particular question surrounds how the relative strengths of these two approaches might be successfully paired in practice. Using daily plans generated by the activity-based model ActivitySim as inputs to the BEAM multi-agent simulation, we construct nine different methodological combinations by allowing the choice to use a pooled ride-hail service in ActivitySim, in BEAM with different utility functions, or in both. Within each combination, we estimate ride-hailing ridership and level of service measures. The results suggest that mode choice model structure drastically affects ride-hailing ridership and level of service. In addition, we see that multi-agent simulation overstates the demand interest relative to an activity-based model, but there may be opportunities in future research to implement feedback loops to balance the ridership and level of service forecasts between the two models.

The world is increasingly becoming urban. In fact, 80 percent of the US population is already living in cities. With the influx of a huge population in urban areas, the urban infrastructures are bound to be stressed. Furthermore, people from every walk of life live in urban areas in search of better economic opportunities. These diverse people have diverse needs. To make matters worse, governments have a limited budget. And, they are faced with the challenge of providing infrastructure and public services fair to everyone. This thesis attempts to respond to these challenges through two manuscripts. The first manuscript proposes a decision-support tool that responds to these challenges along with the flooding vulnerability due to sea-level-rise. As flooding events are getting more frequent and intense, coastal road network is vulnerable and can significantly affect daily mobility. Therefore, the paper proposes an optimization framework that minimizes the cost of mitigation measures for flooding while also considering social equity. As a result, the results of this optimization function is not only financially optimum but also equitable to all. The second manuscript proposes a novel framework for analyzing equity in terms of access to opportunity, rather than equity of outcomes. We showcase the use of a large-scale, high-fidelity agent-based, activity-based travel demand model to produce travel times to employment centers. This travel time is used as a proxy to access to opportunities. The results are visualized in a GIS heatmap. The model is applied to the Metropolitan Washington DC area. This manuscript contributes to the literature by analyzing the equity of opportunities without considering an individual’s socioeconomic characteristics. / Master of Science / The world is increasingly becoming urban. In fact, 80 percent of the US population is already living in cities. With the influx of a huge population in urban areas, the urban infrastructures are bound to be stressed. Furthermore, people from every walk of life live in urban areas in search of better economic opportunities. These diverse people have diverse needs. To make matters worse, governments have a limited budget. And, they are faced with the challenge of providing infrastructure and public services fair to everyone. This thesis attempts to respond to these challenges through two manuscripts. As flooding events are getting more frequent and of more intensity, coastal road network is vulnerable and can significantly affect day-to-day movements. Decision makers face the challenge of mitigating the flood risk under budget constraints and they need to make their decision fair to everyone. The first manuscript proposes a decision-support tool that not only optimizes the use of a limited budget but also ensures the decision is fair to everyone. The idea of what is fair to everyone is a contentious issue. Recently some people have argued against using socioeconomic characteristics of people in making investment decisions. Therefore, the second manuscript proposes a novel framework that analyzes access to employment centers using a higher fidelity advanced travel demand model without the explicit use of socioeconomic characteristics of individuals.