Cette thèse de doctorat étudie la manière dont les évêques de Liège et les archevêques de Cologne encadrent l'accès de la population de leurs capitales aux biens de consommation entre les XIe et XVe siècles. / Doctorat en Histoire, histoire de l'art et archéologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

A global crisis struck the world in the shape of the COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of 2020. As a result, supermarkets have experienced panic buying behaviors, empty store shelves, out of stocks, and a large increase in online sales. Supermarkets, producers, marketers, and businesses have had to adapt to consumers' changed buying behavior in food consumption. In previous research, it has been found that price and quality are two of the most influential factors in the consumer decision- process, in particular, increased price sensitivity and perceived quality of food products concerns consumers in crisis situations. The aim of this study was to research beyond panic buying behaviors, by investigating if consumer buying behavior has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic regarding price sensitivity and perceived quality within two specific food categories, meat as well as fruits and vegetables. In addition, a moderating effect of residency in either Austria or Sweden was tested. A quantitative method has been used, in which consumers in Austria and Sweden were surveyed in an online questionnaire. 169 responses from consumers were analyzed. The result suggests that the buying behavior in regard to price sensitivity and perceived quality of meat, fruits, and vegetables has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. No moderating effect of residency was found. The findings in the study create a foundation in a unique crisis situation that has never been studied before and the exploratory nature of the study gives multiple indicators for future research.

A high return is a driving factor for most investors. The ways to reach success are many and different investment strategies on how to earn high returns have been discussed for decades. Value stocks (low P/E ratios) and growth stocks (high P/E ratios) are two strategies among the investment area with different and contrary results on which strategy can give the highest possible return. However, studies of the P/E effect have shown different results the last years compared to previous findings of a value premium for low P/E stocks, with trends of a higher return for growth stocks compared to value stocks. This led us to the research question “Does a portfolio of growth stocks present a higher return than a portfolio with value stocks on the Swedish and Norwegian stock markets?”. The problem that the study aims to answer is therefore if a portfolio of growth stocks provides a higher return than a portfolio of value stocks between the years 2001-2021. The long timespan will give us the opportunity to evaluate the stock markets during both booms and busts. Our study is made on historical data on the Swedish and the Norwegian stock markets since we found a lack of previous research in these countries within the research area. To fulfil the purpose of the study and to answer the research question, a quantitative method is used with historical data provided from Eikon (Thomson Reuters DataStream) where firms are sorted on the P/E ratios and after that growth and value portfolios are created. We will present both the actual return as well as a risk adjusted return for the stocks. The risk adjusted returns are conducted by using the financial measurements Sharpe ratio and Jensen’s alpha. The result of the study shows that on a 5 % significance level, growth stocks presented a higher actual return than value stocks for both Sweden and Norway. The same evidence was found for the returns for growth stocks compared to market index. Though, when testing the risk adjusted returns, the null hypothesis could not be rejected, which implies that a statistical difference between the portfolios could not be found.

Genom tiderna och främst under det senaste århundradet har det uppstått bank-, finans- och fastighetskriser, ofta relaterade till varandra. I dagens globala värld med sammanlänkade ekonomier är risken stor att en kris som uppstår i ett land fortplantar sig och drabbar andra länder, dock så kan samma kris påverka olika länder olika mycket. En intressant frågeställning är vilka faktorer som påverkar fastighetspriserna under dessa kriser, samt hur och vad som gör att priserna återhämtar sig efter en kris. Denna uppsats studerar fastighets- och finanskriser med fokus på Sverige och Spanien. Sverige genomgick en stor kris på 90-talet där fastighetspriserna rasade. Under samma tidsperiod ökade bestånd, samt priser av fastigheter i Spanien. Den senaste stora fastighets- och finanskrisen som började i USA år 2007 spred sig snabbt till andra länder, vilket resulterade i en global ekonomisk kris. Krisen drabbade både Sverige och Spanien, men Spanien drabbades extra hårt. Sverige kom ut ur krisen på ett par år medan Spanien fortfarande, sex år senare befinner sig i svår kris. Orsakerna till varför allvarliga fastighets- och finanskriser uppstår är många. En kombination av flera mer eller mindre sammanflätade händelser, i både det finansiella systemet och bygg- och fastighetssektorn, kan till olika grader förklara några kriser som Sverige och Spanien har drabbats av. Fastighetssektorn, med både hushåll och kommersiella företag som fastighetsinvesterare, har traditionellt varit mycket beroende av bankers kreditgivning. Efter de senaste kriserna har regleringen av bankerna blivit strängare med bland annat nya kapitaltäcknings- och likviditetskrav (BASEL III), vilket i sin tur kan leda till mindre incitament eller möjligheter för banker att låna ut till fastighetsinvesterare. Detta skapar nya förutsättningar på fastighetsmarknaden, hur den styrs och utvecklas. De nya förutsättningarna skapar nya potentiella grunder för framtida kriser. Den konstanta utvecklingen försvårar att förutspå och kontrollera marknaden och eventuella kriser. / Throughout the times, mainly in the last century, there has been banking , finance, and real estate crises, often related to each other. A crisis often faces more than one country, but the same crisis may affect different countries in different ways. The question is what effects the real estate prices during these crises, and how it differs between countries in Europe, mainly between Sweden and Spain. Sweden had a big crisis in the 90`s, where the real estate prices plummeted in Sweden, and during the same period of time, the real estate prices in Spain were rising. The last crisis that became a world crisis in 2008, effected both Sweden and Spain (among many other countries), where Sweden came out of the crisis in only a couple of years, while Spain still is deeply in the crisis today, - six years later. The reasons for this crisis are the banking system, and the individuals’ bank behaviors that act as financiers for private as well as commercial real estate, a market that the real estate side depends of. After the crises, the banks have a stricter approach to the financing of real estate, for instance due to modified bank regulations (Basel III). This creates new and more developed conditions on the real estate market and will potentially cause new and different types of causes for future crises regarding properties. The constantly developing market makes it more difficult to control and know when a new potential crisis is entered.

The Covid19-pandemic may have impacted the environmental strategies of firms as it has had a major impact on the world economy and businesses. In particular Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) as during prolonged economic downturns they suffer disproportionately which could be due to lack of key resources which bigger firms naturally have more of, such as access to bank loans, technological, managerial, and human resources. Nevertheless, the Covid19-pandemic does not make the current environmental crises any less important therefore it is imperative to explore how firms’ environmental strategies have adapted during this time. The purpose of this study was to examine what happens to environmental strategies when firms experience harsher financial conditions. This have led us to construct the following research question:“How do SMEs adjust their environmental strategies during crises?”In this paper we answer the research question by analyzing the effect Covid19 has had on the environmental strategies of Swedish SMEs’ environmental strategies during Covid19. In order to achieve the purpose of this study we performed a qualitative study with an exploratory approach by interviewing seven different Swedish SMEs within the construction industry. The key findings this our study produced was that the firms’ environmental strategies remained resilient as no firm decreased their focus on environmental strategy nor did they view this aspect less important. Rather some firms intensified their environmental strategies suggesting that this might be a viable strategy to survive a crisis.

As the risk society has evolved, crisis management has become significant in order to survive a crisis. Crisis consultants have an important role in the risk society and organizations expects a whole lot from the profession. There is a gap in the research about the perceptions of crisis consultant’s role and expectancies in the risk society. Additionally, there is no research connected to the impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic on the profession of crisis consulting. The study aims to explore the crisis consultants view of and their role in the risk society. It also seeks to investigate how the crisis consultants have adapted to the Covid-19 pandemic. The study has been conducted through a qualitative case study consisting of various crisis consultants from diverse consultancies. The primary data consisted of eight semi-structured in- depth interviews. Crises in the risk society has become more complex due to the developing technology which has had an effect on the dispersion of information and personal exposures. Crisis consultants are expected to act as change agents who provides an outside perspective and pushes the client forward during crises. The Covid-19 pandemic has had no effect on the types of crisis and neither on the processes used by the crisis consultants. The shift lies within tools and certain procedures where social distancing and digitalization has become the new standard. Although the alterations have been challenging in some situations, the crisis consultants have still managed to fulfill their tasks and increase their workload.

This thesis project explores how communication technology can foster the sense of togetherness to maintain the feeling of social connectedness during physical distancing. The current global pandemic COVID-19 is causing billions of people across the world to live in isolation or by physical distancing regulations. The elimination of almost all in-person interactions is affecting people’s mental health and has resulted in many people turning to communication technology to feel a sense of social connectedness.The project builds upon three main areas of theory: the social and mental effects of physical distancing, designing for crises and design theories about togetherness within communication technology. The design process is guided by a research through design methodological approach, with the aim find out how people who are living in isolation and by physical distancing regulations are using existing forms of communication technology to feel a sense of social connectedness with others and what they need from it. The project addresses two key problematic areas which were identified during the fieldwork and literature review and are explored through prototypes. The prototypes focus on how to create a hang out feeling within online group interactions and how to create the in-the- moment feeling during shared online live experiences.The outcome of this project includes in a problem framing, design process knowledge, research insights and prototypes that explore how to foster the sense of togetherness within communication technology. The findings from this project intend to contribute knowledge to the research and design community on how to design new or alternative forms of communication technology that foster social connectedness during physical distancing.

This essay conducts a Plausibility Probe Case Study focused on how the UN and the wider international community have approached the civil war in Ethiopia. Because the Ethiopian Government has been unable to protect its population, Ethiopia can be considered a typical case for the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). R2P was introduced in response to the genocides in Rwanda and Srebrenica and builds upon the idea of the international community having a responsibility to assist states to protect their populations. R2P’s normative status remains debated, however, due to criticism directed against R2P’s third pillar which prescribes the international community a responsibility to act when a state is unwilling or unable to protect its population. Therefore, scholars have started to analyse R2P’s status by the use of Finnemore & Sikkink’s Norm Life Cycle Theory, disagreeing about R2P’s normative strength and whether R2P will ever be able to enter the third stage of the Norm Life Cycle (NLC). This essay applies the same theory to the empirical findings from the Ethiopian case with the primary aim to contribute to the debate about R2P’s normative status. Findings show how R2P seems to be positioned at the second stage of the NLC. This does not necessarily mean that R2P should be considered a weak norm as the UN and the international community have indirectly complied with R2P when approaching the Ethiopian conflict. Yet, the fact that none of the relevant actors under study has mentioned R2P explicitly indicates how R2P still remains a controversial norm within international politics.

No description available.

Background: Research has shown that the risk of material misstatements increases during exogenous risk shocks. Simultaneously, auditors shall identify and assess the emergent risks. During the GFC, auditors' response was considered satisfactory by some but criticized byothers. Covid-19 presents a new exogenous risk shock which should entail a similar response by auditors. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the effect that exogenous risks during uncertain economic times have on the risk- and materiality assessments of auditors. Further, to determine if auditor independence and trait scepticism affect the relationship between exogenous risk and risk- and materiality assessments. Methodology: This study used a quantitative method by sending out questionnaires to Swedish authorized and approved auditors. The answers were analysed through Spearman correlation matrixes, Paired-samples T-tests, Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions and a binary logistics regression. This study is based on a positivistic perspective and a deductive approach was used. Conclusion: The findings indicated that auditors did make more conservative risk assessments in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, they did not adjust the materiality assessments nor performance materiality assessments significantly. Moreover, that the individually situated factors of auditors had impact on the assessments during the pandemic.