Ellen is 29 and disillusioned with her advertising job in New York when she receives an email from a woman named Isa, for whom Ellen's mother Lacey abandoned her family fifteen years prior. In the email, Isa attempts to explain her affair with Lacey, who was almost two decades older than her at the time, and what happened in the years following the affair's discovery that led to Lacey's eventual mental and physical collapse. As Ellen travels back to coastal North Carolina to discover what happened to Lacey after she disappeared and face the one woman she has long blamed for it, she must confront the responsibility she, her father and brothers share in pushing her mother towards Isa, and reconcile with the abuse her family has inflicted on Isa in the years since. Gardenia is told in three intertwined novellas. In "Dig", Lacey begins a string of reckless acts in an attempt to assert herself amidst her lonely motherhood, including an affair with the young, black Isa. In "Sow", Isa recounts the story of her relationship with Lacey to her now husband, detailing her attempts to save the woman she loved from addiction while coping with her own increasing isolation from friends and family. Finally, in "Reap", Ellen contemplates her mother's decisions amidst the rapidly changing landscape of women's rights post-#MeToo, while battling her own demons and justifying to her younger brother her decision to find Isa. In each novella, the main character makes a different choice on what to do with her trauma, when faced with the opportunity to leave it behind. A reflection on the unbridgeable distance between the sexes, culminating in a meeting between the two women most haunted by Lacey's absence, Gardenia explores victimhood, women's sexuality, how we leave each other and—as each woman discovers—how we never really do.

Master of Education (Research) / Using arts-informed/narrative inquiry as its methodology, this thesis examines the creation of a performance text using verbatim theatre techniques. The play, Remembering One Day in December, evolved from the interweaving of personal narratives taken from volunteer participants, who were impacted by the 1999 Glenbrook Rail Disaster, when a crowded commuter train collided with the almost stationary Indian Pacific. It also includes documentary extracts from the first of three Public Inquiries into the event. From multiple perspectives, yet with shared motifs, the play tells the story of the day, the disillusionment with anticipated trauma support and concludes with the participants’ slow but inspiring journeys towards healing. The thesis also explores the increasing interest in performance as a research tool, because of its capacity to comprehensively present a multiplicity of complex truths. Also at this time of centralized media ownership and homogenized, reductionist media content, this thesis also suggests that the verbatim theatre form, so particularly dependent on complex cultural narratives, could be evolving as a bridge between mainstream stages and community concerns, where community can be either global or regional and some of its concerns are no longer the province of news and current affairs. Lastly this thesis offers the researcher an opportunity to reflexively examine the editing process in the construction of the play text. It describes the researcher’s journey from interviewer to story custodian and analyses how this shift in relationship affected the text’s content and structure, where the intention to deliver an authentic and compelling piece of verbatim theatre remained paramount.

Many developing countries lack the financial resources to fulfill their basic educational needs. Consequently, individuals are unable to move out of poverty. The challenge lies in undertaking innovative and effective actions towards a substantial change while stimulating the Creating Shared Value (CSV) “which involves creating economic value in a way that also creates value for society” (Porter & Kramer, 2011, p. 4). Mexico is one of the affected countries by unequal educational opportunities. Additionally, the country experiences difficulty in coming up with improvements that can boost the investments that the government and private initiative have made in the education system.   This thesis aims to contribute to the development of the Creating Shared Value theory. This will be achieved by investigating two firms in the Mexican Educational sector through social impact organizations. Three objectives were proposed and categorized into: economic impact of the firm, social impact of the firm, educational development and firm strategy. This helps to answer the main research question: “How can Creating Shared Value contribute to the Educational sector in a developing country through social impact organizations?”. The purpose of this thesis was attained through a multiple-holistic case study strategy with two participant organizations (FINAE and EDUCAFIN) and data was collected by conducting semi-structured expert interviews. The thesis studies the different practices and strategies performed by the two organizations, and proves the benefits of applying the theories of Creating Shared Value. Moreover, it demonstrates that Creating Shared Value is strongly applicable within the Educational field in Mexico. Furthermore, the findings highlight a remarkable distinction between the organizations due to innovative business strategies and an extensive adaptability to the market. Moreover, both firms welcome win-win relationships between each one of them and the society. This leads to numerous benefits for both parties such as increasing revenues in the case of the organizations, and education development in the case of the Mexican community. In addition, our results suggest that Creating Shared Value is a novel topic because the investigated organizations were unable to identify the Creating Shared Value concepts in the activities they are currently performing.

Master of Education (Research) / Using arts-informed/narrative inquiry as its methodology, this thesis examines the creation of a performance text using verbatim theatre techniques. The play, Remembering One Day in December, evolved from the interweaving of personal narratives taken from volunteer participants, who were impacted by the 1999 Glenbrook Rail Disaster, when a crowded commuter train collided with the almost stationary Indian Pacific. It also includes documentary extracts from the first of three Public Inquiries into the event. From multiple perspectives, yet with shared motifs, the play tells the story of the day, the disillusionment with anticipated trauma support and concludes with the participants’ slow but inspiring journeys towards healing. The thesis also explores the increasing interest in performance as a research tool, because of its capacity to comprehensively present a multiplicity of complex truths. Also at this time of centralized media ownership and homogenized, reductionist media content, this thesis also suggests that the verbatim theatre form, so particularly dependent on complex cultural narratives, could be evolving as a bridge between mainstream stages and community concerns, where community can be either global or regional and some of its concerns are no longer the province of news and current affairs. Lastly this thesis offers the researcher an opportunity to reflexively examine the editing process in the construction of the play text. It describes the researcher’s journey from interviewer to story custodian and analyses how this shift in relationship affected the text’s content and structure, where the intention to deliver an authentic and compelling piece of verbatim theatre remained paramount.

This study explores the details of knowledge creating process in an organization. Knowledge-creating theory and the data of our research reveal that leader and Ba play important role in the process of knowledge-creating. The purpose of this study is to discover the practice of leader of an educational enterprise and the very detail running in the ba. Organizing the story about development of BS cultural & educational enterprise, we use narrative inquiry as our method to illustrate the details of knowledge creating. Ikujiro Nonaka¡¦s knowledge creating theory is the main knowledge framework of this study. By analyzing the data and literatures, we sorted out the findings of this research¡G 1. Three types of knowledge in the educational enterprise (1) Knowledge about running an business. (2) Teaching¡¦s knowledge. (3) Knowledge about editing teaching materials and content. 2. The features of knowledge in the educational enterprise (1) There is no unified principle. (2) But there should have principles. (3) Knowledge comes from personal experiences, instead of teaching manuals or management guideline. 3. Leadership practice (1) Leader must communicate knowledge vision. (2) Answer is not necessary. (3) Leader has to share. (4) Leader has to ¡§jump in¡¨ in the right time 4. Ba (1) The ba where teachers sharing teaching knowledge. (2) The ba sharing knowledge about running an business. (3) The ba sharing knowledge about editing teaching materials and content.

The aim of this thesis is to introduce the reader to creating e-learning courses. Theoretical part explains the basic terms of e-learning, presents its technological forms and tools used. Thus creates the foundations for understanding its functionality and meaning. Also mentioned are the advantages and disadvantages of the courses. The main part of the thesis proposes a new way how to create e-learning courses, based on specifics of e-learning education. This new methodics is primarily addressed to an academical environment, where majority of the e-learing courses is created. Application of this methodics is consequently demonstrated on a section of the university course.

From a social constructivist perspective (SCP) we analyse TV-commercials’ success. We address the following questions: Does the customer co-create meaning, and, more specific, is a commercial more successful if a customer plays a co-creating role? If so, both the customer and her experience, as well as the commercial, play a significant part in explaining the commercial’s success. As independent constructs to explain commercials’ success we used storytelling, indicating the commercial’s part, and experiential conclusiveness, indicating the customer’s part. We found support that the customer and seller via the commercial co-create meaning and coordinate their activities.

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While capitalism can be held responsible for many of the numerous social and environmental issues that haunt us today, corporations hold great power and possibilities to compensate for the damage they cause. A solution can be the implementation of Creating Shared Value (CSV), which builds on identifying societal needs and approaching these as business opportunities. By doing so, value can be created for society whilst driving business results. The purpose of this thesis is to examine what factors influence the implementation of CSV in companies operating in Sweden. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with experts who have worked with CSV. Factors that influence the implementation of CSV policies and practices, as well as factors that influence whether these lead to the desired goal of shared value creation have been extracted. The findings suggest that the public’s prevailing distrust towards companies’ engagement in solving social issues is the most noteworthy barrier for implementation of CSV, while managerial buy-in and understanding of the concept represent the strongest enabler. Getting lost in rhetoric and belief in the concept as well as focusing too strongly on measuring procedures illustrate the two greatest risks for implemented CSV policies and practice to become decoupled from the end goal of shared value creation.

Sverige står liksom många andra länder inför stora samhällsutmaningar. I Sverige utgör tjänster mer än 70 procent av BNP och behovet av tjänsteinnovationer som möter dessa utmaningar ökar. Creating Shared Value (CSV) är ett relativt nytt koncept som handlar om att skapa en gemensam värdegrund där ägarnas och samhällets intressen möts och ses som ett sätt att driva innovation och tillväxt på ett hållbart sätt. Ett fåtal tjänsteföretag har under de senaste åren börjat erbjuda CSV-tjänster och det är intressant att undersöka framväxten av dessa tjänster samt vilka faktorer som bidragit till utvecklingen. Studien undersöker därför tjänsteinnovationen hos två av Sveriges ledande kommunikationsbyråer som erbjuder CSV-tjänster och fokuserar främst på kundens roll i innovationsprocessen. Undersökningsmaterialet samlades in genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer med anställda från byråernas hållbarhetsteam. Resultatet visar att vissa kunder, så kallade ledanvändare, har haft stor betydelse för tjänsteutvecklingen. Slutsatsen är att innovationen kring dessa tjänster skett i samskapande med kund.