Sustainability and eco-innovation trends in business are increasingly diffused globally. The quest for sustainable materials to overcome the alarming global tendency of plastic ubiquity is one of the main reasons for such trends. It draws the attention of international actors in the business ranging from a big incumbent multinational company to a small but international firm. The phenomenon of a small firm that quickly becomes global is pervasive and contributes crucially to the global economy. Due to the born global (BG) novelty, internationalization in BG firms has been elaborated primarily in a general context, excluding the firms and industry-particular characteristics. The study aims to understand the internationalization process of a BG firm equipped with an eco-innovation context at the early stage in the biocomposite industry, using an effectual approach as conceptual lenses. The conceptual lens creates interplay among the combined international business area,  international entrepreneurship, and emerging eco-innovation field through the embedded effectuation principles. The study embraces an inductive case study approach which involves 12 participants from international actors and members of BG firms in semi-structured interviews. Furthermore, the industrial context of the study revolves around the biocomposite industry and its network to view eco-innovation nuance. The research found that Eco-innovation technology competence becomes the available means to internationalize for BG firm. Moreover, it is concluded that the effectuation theory is reliable both to be used by researchers in analyzing the phenomenon and dominantly used by the entrepreneur in internationalizing their business in uncertain time such as the early stage of internationalization. BG firm utilizes the contingencies through a learning process iteratively but at a quick pace due to their alliance with the network, but the business form is more effectually transformed instead of incrementally changing and well-planned.  The use of a formal causation approach was present yet limited during the process. The findings of this study add to the existing literature of internationalization by incorporating eco-innovation, as well as bridging the gap between eco-innovation, international business, and entrepreneurship literature.

Flera studier pekar på att många vuxna utrikes födda har ett lägre socialt kapital och saknar värdefulla kontakter, vilket påverkar deras möjligheter att träda in på arbetsmarknaden och etablera sig i samhället. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur utrikes födda som har kommit till Sverige i vuxen ålder fått sina första arbeten i Sverige, och på vilka sätt deras sociala kapital haft betydelse för att träda in på arbetsmarknaden. Studiens frågeställningar är: 1) Hur har informanterna gått tillväga för att få sina första arbeten i den svenska arbetsmarknaden? 2) Vilken betydelse har socialt kapital haft för informanternas väg in på den svenska arbetsmarknaden? För att undersöka detta användes en kvalitativ metod där åtta informanter intervjuades. Studien utgick efter en social nätverksanalys som analysmetod, vilket är en metod för att studera sociala relationer. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt är Pierre Bourdieus socialt kapital och Robert Putnams anknytande samt överbryggande socialt kapital.Resultatet visar att informanterna hade olika möjligheter samt begränsningar till att komma in i arbetslivet och skaffa sitt första jobb. En del informanter hade bättre förutsättningar än andra tack vare sina kontaktnät som de kunde dra nytta av vilket resulterade till att de fick ett arbete. Andra informanter hade sämre förutsättningar och hamnade utanför arbetsmarknaden flera år i följd. Några andra informanter fick sina första arbeten i Sverige genom Arbetsförmedlingen eller på egen hand, vilket tyder på att deras socialt kapital var mindre betydelsefullt i förhållande till deras första arbete i Sverige. / Several studies indicate that many foreign-born adults had low social capital and lacked valuable contacts, which affected their opportunities to enter the labor market and establish themselves in society. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the foreign-born interviewees got their first jobs in Sweden, and in what ways their social capital was vital for their entry into the Swedish labor market. The study's questions are: 1) How did the informants go about getting their first jobs in the Swedish labor market 2) What significance did social capital have for the informants' way into the Swedish labor market? To investigate this, a qualitative method was used where eight informants were interviewed. The study was based on a social network analysis as the analysis method, which is a method for studying social relations. The theoretical starting point of the study is Pierre Bourdieu's social capital and Robert Putnam's bonding and bridging social capital.The results of this study show that the informants had different opportunities and limitations to enter working life and get their first job. Some informants had better opportunities than others thanks to their contact networks that they took advantage of, which resulted in their employment. Other informants had worse conditions and ended up outside the labor market for several years. Other informants got their first jobs in Sweden through the Swedish Public Employment Service or on their own, which indicates that their social capital was less important.

The International Trade Administration reported that 70% of worldwide revenue for American businesses comes from consumers in emergent markets such as India, the Middle East, and Northern Africa. However, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a country that many American small business owners are not operating in and capitalizing on the financial opportunities that are available. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies American small business owners use in successful international entrepreneurship for increased revenue and operational longevity. The study population consisted of 5 American small business entrepreneurs who had succeeded operating in the UAE for at least 5 years. The resource-based view theory was the conceptual framework that grounded this study. Data collection included semistructured interviews and a review of company documents and government records. Data analysis involved coding, word clustering, and the use of qualitative data analytical software to identify patterns. Member checking of interview responses helped to strengthen the integrity of the findings. The use of methodical triangulation enabled a rich analysis and an enhanced trustworthiness of the results. The 4 key themes that emerged from the data analysis were strategic planning, understanding local culture, building relationships, and using digital platforms. Small business owners could use the key themes for the development of international entrepreneurial strategies. The findings from this study and the knowledge generated may influence positive social change by increasing local employment, improving economic conditions, and promoting the development of international business operations for American entrepreneurs.

Unemployment is a major problem from a socio-economic perspective and affects the longterm growth in a country as a consequence of reduced tax revenues and reduced production.There are clear differences in unemployment between foreign-born and domestic-born. The focus of the study will be on cultural differences and the municipalities' industrial structure. Factors that we have selected based on theories and statistical analysis to examine unemployment among foreign-born in Sweden's municipalities are the following: small businesses, Sverigedemokraterna, post-secondary education of at least 2 years, population density and foreign-born people born in Europe expressed as a proportion of the total number of foreign-born people in municipalities. A cross-sectional study for all variables for Sweden's 290 municipalities during the year 2018 constitutes regression models that are presented and analyzed. Our hypotheses based on theories and statistical analysis are then compared with the results of the regressions. According to our regression models, the conclusion shows that there is a negative correlation between the variable foreign-born in Europe and the dependent variable unemployment among foreign-born, the variables small business and education also have a negative impact on unemployment among foreign-born. Should there be an increase inany of these factors, unemployment among foreign-born would decrease. The amount of votes on Sverigedemokraterna, on the other hand, has the opposite effect on unemployment among foreign-born. Should the proportion of votes for Sverigedemokraterna change in the municipality, the unemployment level among foreign-born would change in the same direction. Regarding the variable population density, we have in our study obtained different results depending on whether all variables have been estimated in the regression or whether only the variables that estimate the relationships that explain industrial structure are estimated.The study's delimitation to these five factors is linked to human capital theory, discrimination theories, segregation models and matching theory. To counteract the fact that unemployment continues to increase among foreign-born, studies of a similar nature to ours are required to beable to distinguish whether municipalities' industrial structures have an impact on unemployment among foreign-born and how to work to integrate individuals whose cultural norms and values differ from those. and values that prevail in Sweden. This is to create security and trust in each other as cooperation benefits from common norms and values. / Arbetslöshet är ett stort problem utifrån ett samhällsekonomiskt perspektiv och påverkar den långsiktiga tillväxten i ett land som en konsekvens av minskade skatteintäkter och minskadproduktion. Det finns tydliga skillnader i arbetslöshet mellan utrikesfödda och inrikesfödda. Fokus i studien kommer att ligga på kulturella skillnader och kommunernas industristruktur. Faktorer som vi utifrån teorier och statistisk analys valt ut för att undersöka arbetslösheten bland utrikesfödda i Sveriges kommuner är följande: småföretag, Sverigedemokraterna, eftergymnasial utbildning på minst 2 år, befolkningstäthet och utrikesfödda personer födda inom Europa uttryckt som andel av det totala antalet utrikesfödda personer i kommunerna. En tvärsnittsstudie för samtliga variabler för Sveriges 290 kommuner under året 2018 utgör regressionsmodeller som presenteras och analyseras. Våra hypoteser som baseras på teorier och statistisk analys jämförs sedan med resultatet av regressionerna. Slutsatsen visar enligt våra regressionsmodeller att ett negativt samband finns mellan variabeln utrikesfödda inom Europa och beroendevariabeln arbetslöshet bland utrikesfödda, även variablerna småföretag och utbildning har en negativ påverkan på arbetslösheten bland utrikesfödda. Skulle en ökning ske i någon av dessa faktorer så skulle arbetslösheten bland utrikesfödda att minska. Andelen röster på Sverigedemokraterna har å andra sidan motsatt effekt på arbetslösheten bland utrikesfödda. Skulle andelen röster på Sverigedemokraterna förändras i kommunen så skulle arbetslöshetsnivån bland utrikesfödda ändras i samma riktning. Gällande variabeln befolkningstäthet så har vi i vår studie fått olika resultat beroende på om samtliga variabler skattats i regressionen eller om endast de variabler som skattar sambanden som förklarar industristruktur skattas. Studiens avgränsning till dessa fem faktorer är kopplade till humankapitalteori, diskrimineringsteorier, segregationsmodeller och matchningsteori. För att motverka att arbetslösheten fortsätter att öka bland utrikesfödda krävs studier av liknande karaktär som vår för att kunna urskilja om kommuners industristrukturer har en påverkan på arbetslösheten bland utrikesfödda samt hur man kan arbeta för att integrera individer vars kulturella normer och värderingar skiljer sig från de normer och värderingar som råder i Sverige. Detta för att skapa trygghet och tillit till varandra då samarbete gynnas av gemensamma normer och värderingar.

Background:             Internationalisation for businesses has been researched for decades and has been well understood. However, new types of organisations have emerged in the digital age, disrupting the organisational landscape. One of these disruptive organisations is born digitals (BD), which have become more prominent in recent years. Some of the biggest companies today are BDs, including Google and Spotify. However, how they internationalise and their processes look is not well understood. Because of this, it is of interest to understand how these organisations internationalise as they have been such a disruptive force in the international market.  Purpose:                       The purpose of the study is to investigate the internationalisation process of a BD firm, to recognise what internal and external factors influence their decision-making and whether specific strategies are being used. It aims to utilise prior internationalisation theories to provide a further understanding of these organisations and the way they work. The goal of the study is also to provide a framework that BDs can use to internationalise successfully.  Method:                         This study implemented a qualitative research design with an inductive approach and a single case study for the research design. The case company works with search engine optimisation (SEO) within the online service providers (OSP) industry. It included interviews with six employees from the company, with a total of nine interviews. The interviews were conducted in a semi-structured manner to create flexibility in the interview design.   Conclusion:                  The key points of the study results were the following: (i) several internal and external factors and how they influenced BDs' internationalisation were identified, and which factors had a more significant impact on their processes. (ii) It was identified that they do not plan for specific internationalisation strategies, however, it was seen that they do develop strategies, although done unconsciously. (iii) This resulted in the development of a new framework that aims to provide insights into the process BDs undergo when internationalising.

This thesis explores the experiences of foreign-born women entering the Swedish labor market. A lot of the existing research clusters foreign-born women as a homogeneous group, missing various factors that impact their ability to access the labor market. Current initiatives and strategies therefore risk overlooking the importance of personalized support, which can result in inadequate responses to the unique needs and challenges each woman faces.  The study aims to explore foreign-born women’s experiences to better understand the obstacles the women face when trying to enter the Swedish labor market. The thesis investigates previous research that raises the significance of networks, language proficiency, and support and guidance and five interviews are conducted to understand the women’s experiences better.  The findings of this study show that discrimination, the discourse surrounding foreign-born women and, lack of adequate individualized support hinder women from establishing themselves on the labor market. Hence, the results highlight the need for more tailored support and new ways to learn the language. To achieve this, an intersectional approach is important to grasp the complex challenges that foreign-born women face in entering the Swedish labor market.  Overall, the thesis underscores the need for individualized support initiatives that consider the unique challenges and experiences of foreign-born women. By centering the women’s experiences, this study provides a valuable contribution to the ongoing efforts to improve the support for foreign-born women in the Swedish labor market.

The emergence of digitalization and its prevalence is constantly changing the environment inwhich business operates, and consequently the firm’s way of conducting business. Having theability to work with digital maturity is thus a prerequisite for a firm that wants to survive thecompetitive market that prevails today. Despite Sweden's strong infrastructure and greataccess to digitalization skills, Swedish manufacturing SMEs demonstrate an alarmingly lowdegree of digital maturity in their international work. Through a qualitative interview studywith an abductive research approach, this research has explored and unpacked existingtheories on digital maturity, to recommend a proposal for further development of existingframeworks and how Swedish SMEs can work with digital maturity to utilize digitalization intheir internationalization process through export. Furthermore, this study has throughsemi-structured interviews from eight companies, explored Swedish manufacturing SMEs’digital maturity to understand how they use digitalization in their export process.The findings of this study indicates that Swedish SMEs need to stay up to date with the latestdigitalization strategies for internationalizing through export and that the most critical keyfactor is to have human resources with the right competence and capabilities to managedigital change management and work with digital maturity. Hence, to enable Swedishmanufacturing SMEs to utilize digitalization in its export processes and consequently, gaincompetitive advantages necessary to survive in the fast-changing digitalized internationalenvironment.

Utrikes föddas möjlighet till ett etablerat karriärliv i Sverige är ett återkommande ämne i olika kartläggande rapporter, statistiska analyser och forskningsartiklar. Forskning visar att tidigare kunskaper som individen tillägnat sig i ett annat land kan möjligen erkännas i Sverige om individen investerar i nya former av kapital. Dessa studier lyfter mest positiva berättelser och betonar betydelse av att tolka karriärutveckling inte bara i termer av etnicitet,migration och kulturella skillnader utan som en del av individernas större narrativ om deras framgång i det nya svenska sammanhanget. Syftet med denna studie är att se hur utrikesfödda som kommer från samma land och således från samma kulturella kontext och som flyttar till Sverige som vuxna ser på sin karriärutveckling i det nya landet. Metoden som valts för denna studie är semistrukturerade intervjuer som också har inslag av livsberättelser. Intervjuerna analyserades med hjälp av Hodkinson och Sparkes Careership-teori och olika teoretiska begrepp kring kapitalets betydelse som tidigare forskning har funnit stöd i. Tematisk analys valdes för att redogöra och analysera studiens resultat. Resultaten visade att intervjupersonernas resa i Sverige möts både av hinder och möjligheter. Analysen tyder påatt det som däremot leder till hållbara karriärer och som egentligen kan omvandla möjliga hinder till möjligheter är människornas investering i nya kunskaper. För att gå igenom de olika brytpunkterna och hantera dem på bästa möjliga sätt intar individen ett pragmatiskt rationellt förhållningssätt. Undersökningen belyser betydelsen av att se utrikes föddaskarriärutveckling inte i termer av enstaka faktorer utan som ett kontinuerligt samspel mellan individens ständiga försök och det nya landets samhälleliga kontext. / The opportunity for foreign born people to have an established career in Sweden is a recurring topic in various survey reports, statistical analyses and research articles. Research shows that knowledge previously acquired in another country can be valued in Sweden if the individual invests in social and cultural capital. These studies also highlight mostly positive stories and emphasize on the importance of interpreting career development not only interms of ethnicity, migration and cultural differences but as part of the individuals' broader narratives of their success in the new swedish context. The purpose of this study is to see how foreign born people coming from the same country, and thus from the same cultural context, and who moved to Sweden as adults regard their career development in the new country. The method chosen for this study is one of semi-structured interviews that also have elements of life stories. The interviews were analyzed with the help of Hodkinson and Sparkes Careership theory and various concepts around capital theories that previous research has been based on. Thematic analysis was used in order to present and analyze the results of the study. The results showed that the interviewees' journey in Sweden came with both obstacles and opportunities. Analysis suggests that what leads to sustainable careers and can finally turn possible obstacles into opportunity is people's investment in new knowledge. Moreover, it finds that in order to go through the various turning points and deal with them in the best possible way, individuals adopt a pragmatically rational approach. The study highlights the importance of seeing career development not in terms of individual factors but as a continuous interplay between the individual's efforts and the new country's social context.

Marriage is still considered a universal institution in many countries worldwide. Marriage provides benefits for wives, husbands, children, families, and communities. Why Marriage Matters (Wilcox et al., 2005), outlined the benefits of marriage, including improved physical and mental health, biological and social benefits for husbands, wives, children and families in America. In sub-Saharan Africa benefits emanating from marriage included increased survival rates for young children (Omariba & Boyle, 2007); reduced maternal morbidity and mortality rates for women due to reduced risks from self-inflicted abortions (Garenne, Tollman, Kahn, Collins, & Ngwenya, 2001); and improved economic management in homes due to exchanging gender-specific tasks within households (Gezon, 2002). Despite these benefits, approximately half the marriages in the United States end in divorce (Raley & Bumpass, 2003; Smith, 2007). Reduced marital satisfaction leads to dissolution of marriages in the U. S. Marital expectations were associated with marital satisfaction (Juvva & Bhatti, 2006). The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between marital expectations and marital satisfaction between African immigrant and United States born married couples. The independent variable was marital expectations, measured with the Marital Expectations Questionnaire (MEQ, Ngazimbi & Daire, 2008). The dependent variables were marital satisfaction, measured by the Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS, Hendrick, 1988), and the Relationship Pleasure Scale (RPS, PAIRS Foundation, 1993). The participants were recruited from nine sites in six states located in three geographical regions. The regions were the Midwest, the West and the Pacific Northwest. They were recruited through faith-based leaders. Participants consisted of 87 couples and 35 individuals who participated without their spouses. This was a mixed methods design. In the quantitative section, three instruments were used to collect data: the MEQ, the RAS, and the RPS. The first section of the MEQ contained four open-ended questions which were used to collect qualitative data. Significant differences were found in the relationships between marital expectations and marital satisfaction between African immigrants and non-immigrants. Qualitative differences and similarities were found between African immigrant and U. S. born married couples. Implications of the findings are discussed for research, counselor education and clinical practice.

The archive and the historian are symbiotically dependent on one another. The archive relies on the historian to make use of the records it houses, and the historian looks to the archive to reconstruct history. But can a historian responsibly reconstruct history when the archive is fraught with relativity and bias? This thesis serves two purposes; one, pulling from seminal archival science and collections management texts, it chronicles the monumental, intellectual changes to American archival sciences, theories, and institutions, and two, it shows how these early conversations pertaining to archival theories are both not far removed from digital preservation efforts and at times incompatible with the unique non-analogous problems created by web-born sources. But as this thesis argues, theoretical offerings are not always the most implementable for archives; the crux of archival science has historically and contemporarily been responsibility versus practicality, particularly in regard to appraisal theory. These problems exacerbate in the digital realm where the sheer amount of records and material produced by the second warrants extremely narrow but careful collecting. To not add to the overwhelming problem of digital appraisal theory, this thesis offers tangible solutions to help mitigate irresponsible collecting practices.