In the United States, microenterprises, critical segment of the small business population, accounts for 110 million small businesses that source new jobs. Despite the increase in the number of created businesses in the U.S., more than 70% of microenterprise business owners are unsuccessful after 2 years. The multiple case study included 6 participants living in Houston, Texas, and intended to explore business strategies microenterprise event management owners used to succeed in business beyond 2 years. The conceptual framework that grounded the study was the 5-stage small business growth model and the 5-stage of the evolution of entrepreneurship theory. The data collection process consisted of interviews resulting in transcripts, review of company documents, and interview observations notes. The data analysis process while triangulating the data consisted of creating thematic codes, and clustering keywords, and ideas from the data. Development of visual aids assisted with organizing information, synthesizing, and generating new ideas. Text, word, and matrix coding queries were conducted and summarized for a cross-case analysis as relating to the interview questions. Thematic analysis and cross-case analysis revealed 3 major themes: customer relationship management, education/work experience, and promotional activities. Implications for social change include encouraging entrepreneurial and small business development programs to develop innovative curriculums that microenterprise business owners may benefit from to increase more business opportunities. An increase in microenterprises may help provide more employment opportunities that meet the needs of local communities, and improve socioeconomic conditions.

The main aim of this thesis was to evaluate the effect of prednisolone and valaciclovir in a large number of Bell's palsy patients. The incidence and intensity of pain around the ear, in the face or in the neck during the first two months of palsy, and its prognostic value, was also assessed. We also investigated how study design and choice of analysis method affect the rate of facial recovery. Furthermore, the agreement between the Sunnybrook, House-Brackmann and Yanagihara facial grading systems was evaluated. From May 2001 to September 2007, a prospective, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre trial with 12-month follow-up was performed in patients with Bell's palsy. Of 839 randomised patients, 829 were included in the intention-to-treat analysis; 206 received placebo plus placebo, 210 prednisolone plus placebo, 207 valaciclovir plus placebo, and 206 prednisolone plus valaciclovir. Time to recovery was significantly shorter in the 416 patients who received prednisolone compared with the 413 who did not (p<0.0001). At 12 months, 300 of 416 patients (72%) in the prednisolone group had recovered compared with 237 of 413 patients (57%) in the no prednisolone group (p<0.0001). Valaciclovir was not found to affect time to facial recovery or outcome at 12 months. Prednisolone and/or valaciclovir did not affect the incidence or intensity of pain. Presence of pain at day 11 to 17 indicated a worse prognosis for facial recovery at 12 months. We also found that recovery rates in a Bell's palsy trial are substantially affected by the choice of analysis method and definition of facial recovery. We used weighted Kappa statistics in 100 examinations of patients with facial palsy to assess the agreement between the Sunnybrook, House-Brackmann and Yanagihara scales. The highest agreement was found between the regional Sunnybrook and Yanagihara scales. An evaluative difference between the Sunnybrook and House-Brackmann systems was observed.

<p>Diss. Umeå : Umeå universitet, 1999, Härtill 7 uppsatser.</p> / digitalisering@umu

The high cost of chip testing makes testability an important aspect of any chip design. Two important testability considerations are addressed namely, the power consumption and test quality. The power consumption during shift is reduced by efficiently adding control logic to the design. Test quality is studied by determining the sensitization characteristics of a path to be tested. The path delay fault models have been used for the purpose of studying this problem. Another important aspect in chip design is performance validation, which is increasingly perceived as the major bottleneck in integrated circuit design. Given the synthesizable HDL code, the proposed technique will efficiently identify infeasible paths, subsequently, it determines the worst case execution time (WCET) in the HDL code.

In January of 2014, GED Testing Services launched the GED 21st Century Initiative, which was comprised of 2 achievement levels: a high school equivalency standard and a college and career readiness standard. One of the most important goals of this initiative and the redesign of the 2014 GED test was to demonstrate that GED test takers are college and career ready. Using a qualitative case study cross analysis research approach focused on two Adult Basic Education (ABE) GED test preparation sites, this study focused on developing a holistic view of the GED 21st Century Initiative by addressing 5 research questions. Emphasis for the 5 research questions focused on the implementation and the impact of the GED 21st Century Initiative, preparation of the students for college and career readiness, technology integration for ABE/GED programs, and professional development for the staff of the ABE/GED programs. Study findings suggested a great need for ABE/GED programs to be restructured to include curriculum development that incorporates Common Core State Standards, Career and College Readiness Standards, computer literacy, and pathways for preparing students to enter into college or into the workforce. Providing pathways that are comprised of a comprehensive approach which includes incorporating several strategies for ABE/GED programs have proved to be a more successful approach to helping students transition to the next level. Another important finding of this study was that the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) assessment provided inaccurate scores of the students’ higher order thinking skills when compared to the 2014 GED test, which caused students to be misplaced in their GED classrooms. One other important finding this study indicated was a continuous need for professional development. Overall, participants thought that the redesign of the 2014 GED test was necessary and they remain hopeful about the benefits of the new test and the possibilities that lie ahead for their ABE/GED programs.

An online algorithm must make decisions immediately and irrevocably based only on a part of the input without any knowledge of the future part of the input. We introduce the competitive analysis of online algorithms, a standard worst-case analysis, and present main results of this analysis on the problem of online Bin Packing and on some of its variants. In Bin Packing, a sequence of items of size up to 1 arrives to be packed into the minimal number of unit capacity bins. Mainly, we focus on Colored Bin Packing in which items have also a color and we cannot pack two items of the same color adjacently in a bin. For Colored Bin Packing, we improve some previous results on the problem with two colors and present the first results for arbitrarily many colors. Most notably, in the important case when all items have size zero, we give an optimal 1.5-competitive algorithm. For items of arbitrary size we present a lower bound of 2.5 and a 3.5-competitive algorithm. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

The supplier relationship manager is one of the eight business processes of Supply chain management. There have been many researches carried out about the supply chain processes integration. However, a lack of theory has been noticed on the integration of the supplier relationship management process and no research has coped with a case study of the integration of this process between the manufacturer and its first upstream tier. The lack is also consequent when studying the obstacles to the supplier relationship management integration in Swedish construction equipment companies.

Submitted by Nayara Passos (nayara.passos@ufpe.br) on 2015-03-11T18:03:12Z No. of bitstreams: 2 TESE Alberto César Cavalcanti França.pdf: 3788012 bytes, checksum: a84eaeee00c35211070eb3130be655f2 (MD5) license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-11T18:03:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 TESE Alberto César Cavalcanti França.pdf: 3788012 bytes, checksum: a84eaeee00c35211070eb3130be655f2 (MD5) license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / CNPq / Pesquisas na área de engenharia de software indicam que o gerenciamento apropriado da motivação e satisfação no trabalho são importantes para o sucesso de projetos de software. No entanto, rara tem sido a preocupação com o uso apropriado de teorias bem estabelecidas para fundamentar tais pesquisas, o que deixa em aberto várias questões práticas sobre motivação e satisfação no contexto do desenvolvimento de softwares. Evidências apontam que o conhecimento sobre a satisfação no trabalho, neste contexto, está relativamente consolidado, mas ainda há muito a se aprender sobre as características específicas que antecedem a motivação dos engenheiros de software. Objetivo: O ponto de partida compreende teorias de Satisfação no Trabalho e das Características do Trabalho, que defendem que motivação e satisfação no trabalho referem-se a fenômenos distintos. Esta tese objetiva então clarificar quais são as características do trabalho que influenciam a motivação de engenheiros de software. Método: Este quadro teórico inicial foi evoluído baseado nos aprendizados resultantes de um estudo de múltiplos casos, executado em quatro organisações de software em Recife-PE. Durante 11 meses, dados foram coletados nestas organizações, através de entrevistas semi-estruturadas, estudos diários, e análise documental. Resultados: Os resultados apontam que (1) engenheiros de software não estão conscientes sobre a distinção entre os dois fenômenos (motivação e satisfação no trabalho), (2) motivação é caracterizada pelo engajamento e concentração, (3) motivação é afetada por diversas características da tarefa do engenheiro de software, mas também pela percepção sobre o engajamento dos colegas de trabalho e pela auto-confiança técnica do trabalhador, (4) motivação contribui para a satisfação no trabalho, moderada pela informação provida sobre a performance individual dos engenheiros, e (5) o papel mediador das características pessoais do indivíduo é universal. Conclusão: Com base nestes dados, é proposta uma nova teoria de motivação e satisfação de engenheiros de software (TMS-SE) que une elementos de teorias bem estabelecidas, expandindo-as e adaptando-as à realidade específica de engenheiros de software. A TMS-SE representa um avanço em nossa compreensão do comportamento de engenheiros de software, bem como levanta novas questões e propõe um terreno organizado para futuras investigações nesta área. / Context: Previous research work in the Software Engineering field indicates that a proper management of motivation and job satisfaction at work can help software organisations to achieve higher levels of project success. However, the little concern with the adequate use of well-established theories to underpin these researches left unclear several theoretical and practical aspects of work motivation and job satisfaction in the software context. In fact, there is enough knowledge about job satisfaction factors, but not on specific characteristics of the work that motivate software engineers. Objective: The starting point of this research comprises the Job Satisfaction and the Job Characteristics theories, which argue that job satisfaction and work motivation are distinguishable phenomena, with distinct antecedents and different outcomes. Then, this thesis aims to clarify specifically what factors drive motivation of software engineers at work. Method: The initial theoretical framework was evaluated and enhanced based on findings from a multiple case study that comprised four different software organisations from Recife, Brazil. For 11 months, rich data was collected independently in those organisations, by means of semi-structured interviews, diary studies, and document analyses, and the synthesis followed a standard procedure of cross-case analysis. Results: The results point out that (1) practitioners are not aware of the distinction between work motivation and job satisfaction, (2) work motivation is characterized by engagement and concentration, (3) work motivation is affected by software engineering tasks characteristics and by the co-workers’ engagement, workload and technical confidence, (4) work motivation improves satisfaction moderated by feedback information provided about the individual’s performance, and (5) the mediating role of individual characteristics is pervasive. Conclusion: Based on these data, it was possible to draw up a new theory of motivation and satisfaction of software engineers (TMS-SE), which unites elements from well established theories, expands and adapts them to the software engineering specific context. The TMS-SE represents an advance on our understanding of software engineers’ behaviour as well as it raises new questions and provides an organised ground for future investigations in this area.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2017-02-23T12:19:21Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) A Theory of Power in Software Ecosystems formed by Small to Medium Enterprises _ GeorgeValença.pdf: 3429187 bytes, checksum: 8f170a2be6f42b4cf8f070f5f7ebd7b5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-23T12:19:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) A Theory of Power in Software Ecosystems formed by Small to Medium Enterprises _ GeorgeValença.pdf: 3429187 bytes, checksum: 8f170a2be6f42b4cf8f070f5f7ebd7b5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-26 / Context: the emergence of software ecosystems has changed the dynamics of software industry in the last decade. An ecosystem consists of a set of businesses functioning as a unit and interacting with a shared market for software and services, together with the relationships involving them. Software ecosystems originate in partnerships among software companies as a strategy to acquire complementary skills and features, obtain new customers, as well as divide R&D costs. In this setting, partner companies rely on each other for survival and effectiveness, which generates a network of dependent actors and a flow of power among them. Aims: the goal of this research is to develop a substantive theory to explain how power and dependence manifest in partnerships among small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) building a software ecosystem. This result enables us to describe the dynamics of partnerships in this environment, since power is a base atomic particle of relationships. Method: we performed two exploratory case studies of software ecosystems formed by SMEs. We collected rich qualitative data from eight software companies by means of twenty-seven semi-structured interviews. In addition, we considered companies’ internal documents, field notes and web-based data. Thematic analysis was adopted to organise and describe the data set. The results were interpreted in light of a theoretical framework underpinned by French and Raven’s power taxonomy and later refined in six confirmatory interviews with the companies. Finally, we performed a cross-case analysis to synthesise our findings and build the theory. Results: the resultant theory, called PRM-SECO, highlights the interactions among different power forms in addition to their correspondent source(s) in the software ecosystem. It reveals that (1) power is fluid in a software ecosystem formed by SMEs; (2) pool of customers and skill/knowledge are the most frequent power sources; (3) expert power is the fundamental power form that triggers most power capabilities held by SMEs; (4) reward power attaches the partner and is often exercised by SMEs; (5) coercive power disturbs the partnerships and is rarely exercised by SMEs; (6) referent power tends to supersede other power forms and is rarely held by SMEs; and (7) legitimate power is the most frequent power form exercised by SMEs. Conclusion: this theory provides a better understanding on how power and dependence influence the behaviour and coordination of companies within a software ecosystem. The particular focus on SMEs complements the state-of-art, since most research in the field concerns mature ecosystems governed by big players such as SAP and Apple. It is a useful lens for researchers to explore ecosystem partnerships. In addition, it is a valuable tool for companies to analyse power distribution, have insights on how to evolve their participation in the network and define sustainable strategies for ecosystem governance. / Contexto: o surgimento de ecossistemas de software tem mudado a dinâmica da indústria de software na última década. Um ecossistema consiste em um conjunto de empresas que funcionam como uma unidade e interagem com um mercado compartilhado de software e serviços, junto com os relacionamentos que as envolvem. Ecossistemas de software têm origem nas parcerias entre empresas de software como uma estratégia para adquirir competências e funcionalidades complementares, obter novos clientes, bem como dividir custos de P&D. Neste cenário, as empresas parceiras dependem umas das outras para sobrevivência e efetividade, o que gera uma rede de atores dependentes e um fluxo de poder entre eles. Objetivos: o objetivo desta pesquisa é desenvolver uma teoria substantiva para explicar como poder e dependência se manifestam em parcerias entre pequenas e médias empresas (PMEs) construindo um ecossistema de software. Este resultado nos permite descrever a dinâmica das parcerias neste ambiente, uma vez que poder é uma partícula atômica de base dos relacionamentos. Método: nós realizamos dois estudos de caso exploratórios de ecossistemas de software formados por PMEs. Nós coletamos dados qualitativos ricos de oito empresas de software por meio de vinte e sete entrevistas semiestruturadas. Além disso, nós consideramos documentos internos das empresas, notas de campo e dados da web. Análise temática foi adotada para organizar e descrever o conjunto de dados. Os resultados foram interpretados à luz de um quadro teórico apoiado pela taxonomia de poder de French e Raven, e posteriormente refinados em seis entrevistas de confirmação com as empresas. Por fim, nós realizamos um processo de cruzamento de casos para sintetizar nossos resultados e construir a teoria. Resultados: a teoria resultante, denominada PRM-SECO, destaca as interações entre diferentes formas de poder, além da correspondente(s) fonte(s) no ecossistema de software. Ela revela que (1) o poder é fluido em um ecossistema de software formado por PMEs; (2) base de clientes e competências/conhecimento são as fontes de poder mais frequentemente usadas pelas PMEs; (3) poder do conhecimento é a forma de poder fundamental, que gera a maioria das capacidades de poder que as PMEs possuem; (4) poder de recompensa aproxima o parceiro e muitas vezes é exercido pelas PMEs; (5) poder coercitivo perturba as parcerias e raramente é exercido pelas PMEs; (6) poder de referência tende a suplantar outras formas de poder e raramente é detido pelas PMEs; e (7) poder legítimo é a forma de poder mais frequentemente exercida pelas PMEs. Conclusão: esta teoria oferece uma melhor compreensão sobre como poder e dependência influenciam o comportamento e coordenação de empresas em um ecossistema de software. O foco particular em PMEs complementa o estado-da-arte, uma vez que a maioria das pesquisas na área diz respeito a ecossistemas governados por grandes atores, tais como SAP e Apple. É uma lente útil para que pesquisadores explorem parcerias em ecossistemas. Além disso, é uma ferramenta valiosa para as empresas analisarem a distribuição de poder, terem ideias sobre como evoluir a sua participação na rede e definirem estratégias sustentáveis para a governança do ecossistema.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2017-02-23T13:43:15Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) A Theory of Power in Software Ecosystems formed by Small to Medium Enterprises _ GeorgeValença.pdf: 3429187 bytes, checksum: 8f170a2be6f42b4cf8f070f5f7ebd7b5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-23T13:43:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) A Theory of Power in Software Ecosystems formed by Small to Medium Enterprises _ GeorgeValença.pdf: 3429187 bytes, checksum: 8f170a2be6f42b4cf8f070f5f7ebd7b5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-26 / Contexto: o surgimento de ecossistemas de software tem mudado a dinâmica da indústria de software na última década. Um ecossistema consiste em um conjunto de empresas que funcionam como uma unidade e interagem com um mercado compartilhado de software e serviços, junto com os relacionamentos que as envolvem. Ecossistemas de software têm origem nas parcerias entre empresas de software como uma estratégia para adquirir competências e funcionalidades complementares, obter novos clientes, bem como dividir custos de P&D. Neste cenário, as empresas parceiras dependem umas das outras para sobrevivência e efetividade, o que gera uma rede de atores dependentes e um fluxo de poder entre eles. Objetivos: o objetivo desta pesquisa é desenvolver uma teoria substantiva para explicar como poder e dependência se manifestam em parcerias entre pequenas e médias empresas (PMEs) construindo um ecossistema de software. Este resultado nos permite descrever a dinâmica das parcerias neste ambiente, uma vez que poder é uma partícula atômica de base dos relacionamentos. Método: nós realizamos dois estudos de caso exploratórios de ecossistemas de software formados por PMEs. Nós coletamos dados qualitativos ricos de oito empresas de software por meio de vinte e sete entrevistas semiestruturadas. Além disso, nós consideramos documentos internos das empresas, notas de campo e dados da web. Análise temática foi adotada para organizar e descrever o conjunto de dados. Os resultados foram interpretados à luz de um quadro teórico apoiado pela taxonomia de poder de French e Raven, e posteriormente refinados em seis entrevistas de confirmação com as empresas. Por fim, nós realizamos um processo de cruzamento de casos para sintetizar nossos resultados e construir a teoria. Resultados: a teoria resultante, denominada PRM-SECO, destaca as interações entre diferentes formas de poder, além da correspondente(s) fonte(s) no ecossistema de software. Ela revela que (1) o poder é fluido em um ecossistema de software formado por PMEs; (2) base de clientes e competências/conhecimento são as fontes de poder mais frequentemente usadas pelas PMEs; (3) poder do conhecimento é a forma de poder fundamental, que gera a maioria das capacidades de poder que as PMEs possuem; (4) poder de recompensa aproxima o parceiro e muitas vezes é exercido pelas PMEs; (5) poder coercitivo perturba as parcerias e raramente é exercido pelas PMEs; (6) poder de referência tende a suplantar outras formas de poder e raramente é detido pelas PMEs; e (7) poder legítimo é a forma de poder mais frequentemente exercida pelas PMEs. Conclusão: esta teoria oferece uma melhor compreensão sobre como poder e dependência influenciam o comportamento e coordenação de empresas em um ecossistema de software. O foco particular em PMEs complementa o estado-da-arte, uma vez que a maioria das pesquisas na área diz respeito a ecossistemas governados por grandes atores, tais como SAP e Apple. É uma lente útil para que pesquisadores explorem parcerias em ecossistemas. Além disso, é uma ferramenta valiosa para as empresas analisarem a distribuição de poder, terem ideias sobre como evoluir a sua participação na rede e definirem estratégias sustentáveis para a governança do ecossistema. / Context: the emergence of software ecosystems has changed the dynamics of software industry in the last decade. An ecosystem consists of a set of businesses functioning as a unit and interacting with a shared market for software and services, together with the relationships involving them. Software ecosystems originate in partnerships among software companies as a strategy to acquire complementary skills and features, obtain new customers, as well as divide R&D costs. In this setting, partner companies rely on each other for survival and effectiveness, which generates a network of dependent actors and a flow of power among them. Aims: the goal of this research is to develop a substantive theory to explain how power and dependence manifest in partnerships among small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) building a software ecosystem. This result enables us to describe the dynamics of partnerships in this environment, since power is a base atomic particle of relationships. Method: we performed two exploratory case studies of software ecosystems formed by SMEs. We collected rich qualitative data from eight software companies by means of twenty-seven semi-structured interviews. In addition, we considered companies’ internal documents, field notes and web-based data. Thematic analysis was adopted to organise and describe the data set. The results were interpreted in light of a theoretical framework underpinned by French and Raven’s power taxonomy and later refined in six confirmatory interviews with the companies. Finally, we performed a cross-case analysis to synthesise our findings and build the theory. Results: the resultant theory, called PRM-SECO, highlights the interactions among different power forms in addition to their correspondent source(s) in the software ecosystem. It reveals that (1) power is fluid in a software ecosystem formed by SMEs; (2) pool of customers and skill/knowledge are the most frequent power sources; (3) expert power is the fundamental power form that triggers most power capabilities held by SMEs; (4) reward power attaches the partner and is often exercised by SMEs; (5) coercive power disturbs the partnerships and is rarely exercised by SMEs; (6) referent power tends to supersede other power forms and is rarely held by SMEs; and (7) legitimate power is the most frequent power form exercised by SMEs. Conclusion: this theory provides a better understanding on how power and dependence influence the behaviour and coordination of companies within a software ecosystem. The particular focus on SMEs complements the state-of-art, since most research in the field concerns mature ecosystems governed by big players such as SAP and Apple. It is a useful lens for researchers to explore ecosystem partnerships. In addition, it is a valuable tool for companies to analyse power distribution, have insights on how to evolve their participation in the network and define sustainable strategies for ecosystem governance.