This study presents a conceptual model, based on absorptive capacity and affordance theory, for investigating the e-Top facilitation and knowledge representation required by the e-Top platform and the impact of such functions in enhancing knowledge assimilation and then knowledge exploitation. A scale that measures above constructs is developed and validated. Survey data from e-Top platform members is tested. The partial least squares (PLS) method is empirically used to test the conceptual model and hypotheses using the collected survey data. The empirical results support the proposed model. The analysis provides evidence that the e-Top facilitation and knowledge representation positively effect on knowledge assimilation; the knowledge assimilation has a positive effect on knowledge exploitation. This study provides initial insights into factors that are likely to be significant antecedents of knowledge exploitation for the e-Top platform. Besides, the consultant support positively amplified the effect of e-Top facilitation on knowledge assimilation. The findings are particularly valuable to the e-Top platform development team and administrators. The e-Top platform development team can develop the e-Top platform in accordance with these findings to ensure better knowledge assimilation and exploitation through the exploitation of e-Top platform. Thereby, with this platform the effectiveness of industry-university collaboration will be enhanced.

Syftet med denna studie var att förstå hur barn på ett ur- och skur fritids förhåller sig till sin utemiljö. Mer specifikt ville vi ta reda på vilka platser som upplevdes roliga, tråkiga, lugna, vilda, vackra respektive fula. Samtalspromenader med fotografering användes för att utforska platser av särskild betydelse ur barnens perspektiv. Dessa metoder innebär en spännande möjlighet att närma sig barns livsvärldar på ett konkret vis. Empiriskt material av detta slag kan ha ett egenvärde, till exempel vid nybyggnad eller ombyggnad av den pedagogiska utemiljön. Samtidigt var ambitionen att identifiera hur platserna fylldes med specifika meningserbjudanden, vilket bara kan förstås inom den sociala kontexten. Vårt teoretiska ramverk affordance theory placerar upplevd funktionalitet hos platser och objekt i fokus. Eftersom pedagogiska miljöer designas och regleras med varierande grad av förutbestämda funktioner i åtanke kan teorin hjälpa oss förstå hur barn iscensätter eller omförhandlar dessa genom lekar och andra aktiviteter.  Det empiriska materialet tolkades med tematisk analys, genom vilken sex teman konstruerades. Bland slutsatserna kan nämnas att barn föredrar platser med ett stort urval av meningserbjudande. Dessa är dock både subjektiva och i ständig förändring. Vi visar hur barnens meningserbjudande påverkas av vuxnas normer och gränser men att dessa samtidigt kan värderas och överträdas medvetet. Våra resultat och slutsatser indikerar behov av fortsatt forskning. De tyder också på ett behov av och utökade förklaringsmodeller för att förstå barns tolkningar samt värderingar av sin utemiljö, även faktorerna som påverkar dessa.

While the shape and nature of platforms varies across different instances, they pursue common ambitions such as reduction of risk, complexity, or transaction costs. Although initially theorised in industrial contexts, subsequent theorising regarding platform development, platform ecosystems, and platform strategy has drawn upon studies of high-tech industries in general and IT-based platforms in particular. While the inherent malleability of digitised data and digital technology offers possibilities, they also make it difficult to pin down the locus of a low-variety platform core. As such, one of the fundamental properties of digital platforms is rather mundane: to provide stability. With that in mind, this thesis pursues the following research question: How can a digital platform maintain stability for its stakeholders in the face of constant technical change? This thesis utilises affordance theory as a means to operationalise a relational view of digital platform, where stability is assessed in relation to stakeholders rather than technical persistence. This dissertation is based on an interpretive case study, primarily using qualitative data in the form of interviews gathered as part of two separate projects that varied both in scope and orientation. The thesis offers two main contributions. First, the idea of platform stability as derived from low-variety components that are persistent over time is difficult to apply in relation to digital platforms. Rather, we need to approach stability as a composite property, based on the ability of the platform to satisfy technical-, informational-, and social expectations. Hence, stability should not be considered as a fixed or absolute property, but rather a moving target. Second, this thesis suggests that the existing notion of (technical) coring needs to be complemented with information coring and social coring when applied to digital platforms. The proposed concept of information coring expresses the ability to hide complexity and present bottom-line results to the user in a comprehensible manner. Social coring refers to the idea of aligning technical integration and social integration in a platform. A relational perspective applied to digital platforms offers a possible avenue for theorising digital platforms as information systems artefacts rather than the dichotomous relationship between platform-as-architecture and platform-as-marketplace found in extant literature.

The IT artifact is at the core of the information systems (IS) discipline and yet most IS research does not directly theorize the IT artifact or its nomological network (Benbasat and Zmud 2003; Orlikowski and Iacono 2001). This research seeks to answer a repeated call for more direct engagement with the IT artifact and its nomological net with affordance theory adopted as the basis for this theoretical work. An exploratory case study was conducted to answer the research question, how do the material properties of health information systems enable and constrain the work practices of clinicians? The study was conducted at a large urban acute care hospital in the Midwestern United States with registered nurses working on inpatient care units as the clinicians of interest. Through interviews with nurses and other clinical stakeholders and the observation of nurse’s work practices on three patient care units in the hospital, theoretical insights were developed on the nature of affordances for information systems research. IS affordances are defined in this study as relationships between abilities of an individual and features of an information systems within the context of the environment in which they function. The concepts of an affordance range and an affordance threshold are proposed as theoretical constructs in the nomological network of affordances that help to explain the use of information systems as a function of the difficulty of acting on IS affordances. The relationship between affordances and constraints is theorized and linked to the affordance range and threshold with the assertion that constraints are closely associated with the difficulties experienced by users in acting on IS affordances. The challenge of studying IS affordances in all their complexity is discussed with the suggestion that researchers take the user’s perspective of affordances to alleviate the need for repeated decomposition. Finally, the role of information systems in facilitating social interaction is emphasized through the concept of affordances for sociality. The contribution of this research to the IS field is a more nuanced understanding of the nature of the IT artifact and its relationship to the users of that technology.

Personal space is a spatial privacy layer that regulates access to the self, without it our ability to function properly is impaired. An attack on the personal space is an attack on the person itself. Thus, personal space can be seen as a part of the self. The environment can be a part of personal space and therefore also seen as part of the self. Personal space, as the direct space surrounding the body, is framing the conscious experience of self. Due to its abstract nature, it is more appropriate to impact that experience by framing personal space through the environment. How to bridge something that fleeting with something so concreate is not obvious. This thesis tries to find a useful methodology for this through available research, own experiments, and discussion. Theories about stimulation, affordance theory, and prospect refuge theory, seems to together capture the whole quite well into something more tangible. The experience of personal space is concluded to be too ambiguous to properly design around and letting the user regulate it themselves by moving through a dynamic environment seems more fruitful. Ambient factors impact the need of personal space but the thresholds between spaces are where dynamics of the larger environment is concentrated. Therefore, they are more decisive in framing personal space and the architect’s attention should arguably be directed towards these.

Drawing on theoretical concepts of affordance and affect, and by conducting a digital ethnographic research on African Pentecostal communities in Northern Italy, the research analyses how offline liturgical practice are translated in online platforms such as Zoom and Free Conference Call during the Covid-19 global pandemic. It is argued that online affordances such as the chat box and emojis are used by believers to communicate affective moments during worship services, while the mute button is used as a tool by leaders to wield their power to restore order and surveillance. Thus, some of the traditional power dynamics between worshippers, as well as performative aspects of Christianity are brought into the digital space. We also find that digital platforms can in fact, constraint religious practices, however believers use creative ways to circumvent some of the obstacles by re-appropriating the digital tools available to express spirituality and to intimately connect with fellow worshippers.

This thesis explores an understudied area in political communication research by examining populist communication on the social media platform TikTok. Specifically, the study focuses on content related to the Sweden Democrat party during the 2022 election. This thesis also proposes an integrated methodological and quantitative empirical framework for analyzing the multi-dimensional relationships present in political communication on digital social media. By identifying key hashtags used by followers of the party during the time of the 2022 election, including the campaigning leading up to it and the government formation following the election, new empirical data consisting of 250 TikTok videos and their accompanying information was collected. Firstly, the data was used to map SD tagged content on TikTok. Secondly, while difficult to measure, a framework was created to code and operationalize populist characteristics within the TikTok posts. Through quantitative content analysis and linear regression, the study examines the relationship between TikTok affordances and populist communication. Affordances are used to describe what an object, or in this case, a technology, can be used for and let a user do. Finally, the data collected was used to determine potential relationships supporting that populist style communication is favored by social media affordances. The results show that videos on the topic of immigration and videos from accounts with many followers were significantly related to virality. However, limitations in studying content on TikTok, due to the platform’s API were highlighted, as well as the difficulty of handling and coding video data from the platform. Overall, this study contributes to the field of political communication by demonstrating the multi-faceted relationship between media logic, social media affordances, and populist communication.

The Circular Economy is a growing research field and policy agenda. Yet, integrating the social dimensions of sustainability into the Circular Economy remains a challenge. The significance of reactions to an implemented Circular Economy is poorly understood.  Contrary to the narrative that consumer demand shapes supply, affordance theory stresses the significance of considering the exogenous physical context that shapes user decisions. Building on affordance theory and insights from the social sciences, this study develops an agent-based model, TransportTransform, to analyse the interactions of the individual-, meso-, and system-levels. The agent-based model connects individual mobility choices with network decision-making mechanisms. Looking at user decision-making on transportation modes, the model yields insights into the interaction of mode occupancy and social norms to assess system patterns of user behaviour. The model design was informed by eleven interviews with researchers in the field and is initialized with data from an empirical survey conducted in Germany. The TransportTransform agent-based model confirms the importance of affordances as an important factor in modal choice. Model results show the relevance of including habitual behaviour when modelling transport mode choice, with the car being the most popular mode, followed by biking and public transport. Incorporating mode occupancy significantly reduces car usage, offering potential policy avenues for redirecting mode capacities towards desired modes. The impact of social norms on mode choice was less pronounced, highlighting the need to further explore norm internalisation and the indirect effects of social norms in future model iterations. The study emphasizes the need for further model expansions to better understand the impact of Circular Economy policies on user decision-making. Overall, the study highlights the importance of considering the social dimensions of sustainability in the Circular Economy and provides a valuable framework and implemented agent-based model for analysing user behaviour in this context.

Till följd av coronapandemin tvingades många organisationer göra en hastig och ofrivillig övergång till distansarbete. Detta skifte i arbetssätt för med sig nya krav, inte minst på ledare som tvingas kommunicera och leda via digitala verktyg. Följaktligen ämnade denna studie undersöka ledares upplevelser under denna tidsperiod och hur ledarskapet medierats med hjälp av informations- och kommunikationsteknik (IKT). För att besvara forskningsfrågan genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuer med tolv ledare. Empirin analyserades sedan huvudsakligen utifrån en affordance-lins, i kombination med ett leader-member exchange-perspektiv vilket belyser den dyadiska relationen mellan ledare och medarbetare. Resultatet visar på att IKT är oumbärligt för ledarskap på distans, men att en stor problematik ligger i att ledare tidigare utvecklat en ledarskapsstil som till stor del förlitar sig på informell kommunikation och uppföljning som sker fysiskt. Även om individuella egenskaper har en avgörande betydelse för hur väl och i vilken omfattning digitala affordances aktualiseras, påvisas att IKT inte lyckas skapa och förmedla sociala affordances i samma utsträckning som den fysiska miljön. Emellertid har en utveckling skett sedan distansarbetets början och användandet av teknik har alltmer integrerats i ledarskapet. För att uppnå e-ledarskap behöver dock nya e-kompetenser utvecklas, där IKT används effektivt, medvetet och ändamålsenligt. / Due to the covid-19 pandemic, organisations were forced to make a rapid and involuntary transition to teleworking. This shift in labour entails new demands, especially on leaders who are forced to rely on digital tools for communication and leadership. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to investigate experiences of leaders during this period of time, and how leadership is mediated through information and communication technology (ICT). To answer the research question, semi structured interviews were conducted with twelve leaders. The results were primarily analyzed through an affordance lens, combined with a leader-member exchange perspective, which emphasizes the dyadic relationship between leader and follower. The results imply that ICT is essential for remote leadership. However, a major issue arises as leaders previously has developed a leadership style that primarily relies on informal communication and following up with employees face-to-face. Although individual characteristics matter in regards to how well and to what extent digital affordances are actualized, digital tools do not manage to create and transmit social affordances to the same extent as the physical environment. Yet, a progress has been made since the start of the pandemic-induced telework, and the use of ICT has increasingly been integrated in the leadership. To fully reach so-called e-leadership, new e-competencies are nevertheless required, where ICT is applied effectively, deliberately and appropriately.

Som en effekt av COVID-19 pandemin har preferenserna kring arbetssättet förändrats. Det finns ett ökat behov hos medarbetare att arbeta flexibelt och för att bemöta detta har organisationer infört hybridarbete inom verksamheten. För att hybridarbete ska fungera är digitala plattformar väsentliga då de kan användas för kommunikation och erbjuda funktioner för att upprätthålla engagemang och välmående. Medarbetare som använder digitala plattformar kan interagera med dem på olika vis då de kan ha skilda mål att uppnå. Detta kan i sin tur leda till att anställda uppfattar olika möjligheter med samma tekniska objekt. Syftet med denna studie är att få en ökad förståelse kring digitala plattformar och dess roll vid ett hybridarbetssätt, samt hur verktygen påverkar arbetssättet hos medarbetare från olika avdelningar. För att besvara syftet har följande frågeställningar tagits fram: 1. Vilka möjligheter och begränsningar upplever medarbetare med digitala plattformar i förhållande till deras hybridarbetssätt? 2. Vilka likheter eller skillnader finns mellan avdelningar i relation till upplevda möjligheter och begränsningar? För att försöka besvara frågeställningarna genomfördes en litteraturgenomgång och en kvalitativ ansats applicerades med semistrukturerade intervjuer. Intervjuerna genomfördes med fyra respondenter från olika avdelningar inom ett mjukvarubolag, som visades använda Microsoft Teams som digital plattform. Studien tillämpade affordance theory för att belysa möjligheter och begränsningar som medarbetare från olika avdelningar uppfattar med Microsoft Teams. Studien resulterade i att tre möjligheter och fem begränsningar kunde identifieras med Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams erbjuder möjligheter i form av interaktiva möten, delning och mottagning av information och kunskap samt att visa tillgänglighet. Begränsningarna som identifierades baseras på prestanda, att hitta information, brist på funktionalitet, uppkoppling och inlärningskurva. Studien kunde även identifiera likheter och skillnader mellan medarbetarna, däremot kan de baseras på andra faktorer än att personerna arbetar inom olika avdelningar. / As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, preferences regarding work methods have changed. There is an increased demand among employees to work flexibly, and to address this, organizations have implemented a hybrid work approach within their enterprise. For hybrid work to be beneficial, digital platforms are essential as they can be used for communication and provide features to maintain engagement and wellbeing. Employees who use digital platforms can interact with them in different ways as they may have different goals to achieve. This, in turn, can lead to employees perceiving different possibilities with the same technological object. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of digital platforms and their role in a hybrid work environment, as well as how these tools impact the work methods of employees from different departments. To answer the purpose, the following research questions have been formulated: 1. What opportunities and limitations do employees experience with digital platforms in relation to their hybrid work approach? 2. What similarities or differences exist between departments regarding perceived opportunities and limitations? To address these research questions, a literature review was performed, and a qualitative approach was applied using semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted with four respondents from different departments within a software company, and it was established that the company uses Microsoft Teams as a digital platform. The study applied the affordance theory to display the opportunities and limitations perceived by employees from different departments, when using Microsoft Teams. The study resulted in the identification of three opportunities and five limitations with Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams offers opportunities in the form of interactive meetings, sharing and receiving information and knowledge, as well as displaying availability. The identified limitations were based on performance, finding information, lack of functionality, connectivity, and learning curve. The study also identified similarities and differences among the employees, however these may be based on other aspects than the fact that the individuals are working in different departments.