<p>E-commerce is far more common in large firms than in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As a result SMEs risk competitive disadvantages. A growing body of research has attended to this problem but few studies examine the adoption of e-commerce from a broader contextual perspective. To be able to understand SMEs’ adoption of e-commerce it is desirable to study their contextual preconditions, approaches and effects.</p><p>The purpose of this study is to contribute to the theory building in the e-commerce area by forming a conceptual framework over SMEs’ adoption of e-commerce: the ECA (Electronic Commerce Adoption) framework. A central starting point for the study is Pettigrew’s (1985) contextual framework for strategic changes. The analysis dimensions in Pettigrew’s framework − content, context and process − are adapted to adoption of e-commerce. Thus, the ECA framework consists of analysis models that focus on a) the content, b) the context and c) the process of e-commerce adoption in SMEs. Further, the ECA framework includes an analysis model over the interplay between content, context and process and a typology over adoption situations. The SME in its role as a supplier is the unit of analysis. The study uses an abductive approach where results from previous studies in areas such as e-commerce, information systems and decision making are used as sources for forming the ECA framework. The ECA framework is then applied to the collection, interpretation and analyze of empirical data from the case studies of two small and one medium-sized enterprise. The case studies lead to the identification of additional elements that are added to the analysis models.</p><p>One contribution from the study is the typology over adoption situations. The typology, which builds on studies of Junghagen (1998) and Engsbo et al. (2001), divides the adoption of e-commerce in SMEs into five categories of adoption situations: proactive adoption situations, adaptive adoption situations, pragmatic adoption situations, forced adoption situations and enabled adoption situations. An adoption situation describes what is being adopted (content), why (context) and how (process).</p><p>Another contribution is the so called adoption guides. These are contextual conditions whose states indicate if a SME will adopt e-commerce or not and if so, which adoption situation they are likely to find themselves in. The adoption guides are: the relative dependence on individual customers, the degree of customer pressure, the strategic needs of e-commerce, the information complexity and, the CEO’s extent of aversion towards risk-taking. Consequently two major conclusions from this study are that SMEs’ e-commerce adoption can be divided into five different adoption situations and a small number of contextual conditions – here called adoption guides – determine which of them a SME tend to go through. The typology enables organizations that educate SMEs or support their development of e-commerce to design their efforts more efficiently and researchers to diversify the studied population. As the study is theory building the contributions and conclusions are propositions that need to be tested empirically in future studies.</p>

E-commerce is far more common in large firms than in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As a result SMEs risk competitive disadvantages. A growing body of research has attended to this problem but few studies examine the adoption of e-commerce from a broader contextual perspective. To be able to understand SMEs’ adoption of e-commerce it is desirable to study their contextual preconditions, approaches and effects. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the theory building in the e-commerce area by forming a conceptual framework over SMEs’ adoption of e-commerce: the ECA (Electronic Commerce Adoption) framework. A central starting point for the study is Pettigrew’s (1985) contextual framework for strategic changes. The analysis dimensions in Pettigrew’s framework − content, context and process − are adapted to adoption of e-commerce. Thus, the ECA framework consists of analysis models that focus on a) the content, b) the context and c) the process of e-commerce adoption in SMEs. Further, the ECA framework includes an analysis model over the interplay between content, context and process and a typology over adoption situations. The SME in its role as a supplier is the unit of analysis. The study uses an abductive approach where results from previous studies in areas such as e-commerce, information systems and decision making are used as sources for forming the ECA framework. The ECA framework is then applied to the collection, interpretation and analyze of empirical data from the case studies of two small and one medium-sized enterprise. The case studies lead to the identification of additional elements that are added to the analysis models. One contribution from the study is the typology over adoption situations. The typology, which builds on studies of Junghagen (1998) and Engsbo et al. (2001), divides the adoption of e-commerce in SMEs into five categories of adoption situations: proactive adoption situations, adaptive adoption situations, pragmatic adoption situations, forced adoption situations and enabled adoption situations. An adoption situation describes what is being adopted (content), why (context) and how (process). Another contribution is the so called adoption guides. These are contextual conditions whose states indicate if a SME will adopt e-commerce or not and if so, which adoption situation they are likely to find themselves in. The adoption guides are: the relative dependence on individual customers, the degree of customer pressure, the strategic needs of e-commerce, the information complexity and, the CEO’s extent of aversion towards risk-taking. Consequently two major conclusions from this study are that SMEs’ e-commerce adoption can be divided into five different adoption situations and a small number of contextual conditions – here called adoption guides – determine which of them a SME tend to go through. The typology enables organizations that educate SMEs or support their development of e-commerce to design their efforts more efficiently and researchers to diversify the studied population. As the study is theory building the contributions and conclusions are propositions that need to be tested empirically in future studies.

(in English) This Master's Thesis is interested in the support of adoptive families in the Czech Republic. The aim of the thesis is to define possibilities of this support and stress the need to help people in the process of arranging adoption in the 21st century. The thesis describes the possibilities of supporting adoptive families in the chosen regions of the Czech Republic. Suggestions of different ways of helping and supporting adoptive families from experts are researched. The thesis is divided into two parts. The theoretical part of the thesis consists of four chapters. In the first chapter the term adopting is defined and different forms of this type of foster parenthood are introduced. This chapter also brings an overview of the historical development of adoption. The second chapter is interested in the specifics of adoption in the first 21st century, analyzes the needs of adopting families and stresses the importance of supporting the people involved in the different stages of the adoption process. The third chapter identifies the support of adopting families, and specifies the content, aims and the target group of the thesis. The last chapter is interested in describing different ways of supporting adoptive families in the Czech Republic and refers to places where adoptive families can...

The family has always been a central narrative theme in cinema. Korean cinema has been no exception, where the family has proved to be a popular subject since its earliest days. Yet Western scholarship on Korean cinema has given little attention to this dominant theme, preferring to concentrate on the film industry's recent revival and its blockbusters. Scholarship in Korea and in the Korean language, on the hand, has continuously discussed some of the major cinematic works on the family. However, such literature has tended to be in the form of articles discussing one or two particular works. A comprehensive study of the family in contemporary Korean cinema therefore remains absent both in Korean and in English. This thesis is an attempt to provide such a work, bringing together films on the family and writings on them in both Western and Korean scholarships, as well as filling the gaps where certain trends and patterns have gone undetected. How are the changes in the understanding of the family or in the roles of individual family members reworked, imagined, or desired in films? Taking this question as the starting point of the research, each chapter explores a separate theme: transformations in the structure of the family; faltering patriarchy and fatherhood; motherhood and the extremity of maternal love; and certain children's experiences of the family. The first chapter detects a general move away from the traditional patriarchal nuclear family and an interest in depicting alternative families, exploring shifting family forms in contemporary society and the public discourses surrounding them. The second chapter highlights the contradictory ways that the father has been illustrated in films during and after the IMF crisis. The third chapter explores a branch of recent thrillers that depicts mothers as dark and dangerous characters, offering an interesting cultural framing to the multiple perceptions of the mother figure in contemporary society. Finally, the last chapter aims to extend representations of the 'Korean family' to include films by/about those currently living outside of Korea, namely Korean emigrants and adoptees.