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Our research proposes a new, multi-attribute, parameterisation of Tversky’s Elimination- By-Aspects (EBA) model. The EBA model conceptualises choice as a covert sequential elimination process with choice probabilities formulated over all consideration sets of the choice set. This specification attempts to capture the effect of context on choice behaviour. However, the EBA model has seen limited usage due to the large number of required parameters given the set of items under study. For a set of items T, it has 2|T| - 3 free parameters, which is infeasible for all but the simplest of contexts. To provide a practical operationalisation, we impose a set of a priori constraints on the parameter space. We define a generic multi-attribute structure to the set of aspects. This restricts the cardinality of the set of unknown scale values while retaining the functional (recursive) form of the model. The EBA hypothesis of a population of lexicographic decision-makers can therefore be tested in more market-realistic contexts, and inferences made over a large universal set of items described by the complete factorial. We call this model the Multi-attribute Elimination-By-Aspects (MEBA) model. The MEBA model reduces the set of unknown free parameters to a maximum of |T|-1. We develop a general algebraic expression for the MEBA choice probabilities as a function of the attributes of the options in the choice set. This enables the derivation of a likelihood function, and consequently maximum likelihood estimation. We also consider the form of optimal MEBA paired comparison designs. Using Monte Carlo simulation and a discrete choice experiment with consumers, we conduct an initial empirical test of the model against the special case of the MNL model (that assumes no context effects) and find the MEBA model to be a better approximation of observed choice behaviour. This is achieved on a common set of parameters, and so it is due solely to the difference in functional form of the two models. We conclude with a discussion on future research directions, in particular the introduction of heterogeneity into the model, and the description of optimal choice experiments for larger choice set sizes.

This chapter has two key themes: (1) a list of customer needs is interesting, but insufficient for many development decisions, (2) establishing a quantified, dollar value for each requirement is more helpful. To that end, we present an approach and method to establishing the quantitative monetary value for new product features and performance. This approach is targeted to product development managers and engineers engaged at the “front-end” of the product development process when the decisions about selection and trade-off of product functions and features are made. This approach examines the customer’s business operations and essentially establishing their business case for your product down to the feature and performance levels. This provides for much better trade-off decisions in new product development. This approach also helps to identify whitespace opportunities, those new product and/or service opportunities that are not being served by any current product. Moreover, because the methodology is fine grained, the whitespace opportunities are resolved into clear and actionable product development projects. / Center for Innovation in Product Development

New conceptual work in the judgment and decision-making research arena has suggested a nonconsequentialist perspective to decision-making. From this perspective, an emphasis is placed on emotions during the decision-making process, specifically positing that concurrent emotions may lead to decisions that are nonconsequentialist in nature. In the current study I develop the Nonconsequentialist Decision-Making Model (NDMM) and include indecisiveness as a vital construct in the model. In tune with much new research on emotions during the decision-making process, I examine how being indecisive is a product of negative concurrent emotions, and how indecisiveness affects the decision-making process. Using a natural decision-making setting, the current study had participants discuss the "biggest" decision they are currently facing in their lives. Data was collected regarding indecisiveness, nonconsequentialist dysfunctional decisional coping behavior, and decision difficulty. The findings show strong support for the NDMM and the nonconsequentialist perspective. Furthermore, the indecisiveness construct was measured successfully and showed to be a critical part of the decision-making process when dealing with difficult decisions.

This study deals with long distance migration together with the importance of social networks and geographical preferences for the choice of destination when moving. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to analyze and specify the importance of the mover's social contacts when choosing a new place-of residence. In this connection, the social contents of the destination are chiefly focused. It has also been of interest to estimate in what degree these social contents have influenced this choice of destination by the individual. The differences in quality, intensity, dispersion and direction of social contacts is essential for explaining destination decisions. The basic hypothesis claims that the existence of social networks influences the individual's inclination to move and the choice ofplace-of-residence. In this study, empirical material is used, and its base is 2500 "movers" and a group of "stayers" of equal size. Data from public registers as well as data from inquiries have been used as empirical material. Far away moving is defined as moving across the communal boundaries. The examination of the empirical facts provides input paramétrés for a model, where a number of factors might explain the destination. The model work is implemented in three stages. In the multiple regression model, the impact of a number of variables is estimated. In the logistical regression model the probability of moving into a 'network commune' is estimated, i.e., moving to a commune where there are social contacts. In a third stage, the same variables are tested in a multi-nominal model. Strictly empirically, this study reveals, that there is evidence that the social networks influence the choice of destination when moving. Equally important, perhaps is to find out how strong an impact these networks have. Moving to a geographically and socially recognizable place is possibly regarded as having a more positive impact than the structure of the labour market. It can be stated that, in spite of the widespread migration within post-war Sweden, most people maintain some sort of social and geographical relation to the place where they grew up. The increased mobility per se has also implied that the individual, spatial and social contacts have become more widely spread. The place where one grew up is central and could be said to represent the place where there are many social contacts and the place you always refer to. Social contacts connected to relatives constitute one of the most important single factors. Previous place-of-residence is undoubtedly the most important single factor. Migration to a place of previous residence also implies that there already exists a social network. The access to a holiday cottage and the location of this cottage proves to have a great impact on destination- decisions. Many people simply move to the commune, where they own, or have access to, a holiday cottage. Of several plausible explanations two seem to be relevant. One concerns moving into former cottages, for year round residence, the other implies that the cottage could be regarded as the tangible link to the former home area. If there is no possibility of staying on in one's home area, the cottage represents a link to the past. / digitalisering@umu

Problem: Environmental awareness was rated as the most current trend in 2006 by the readers of Swedish newspaper DN (Olausson, 2007), and in 2005 97 per cent of the Swed-ish population thought that environmental issues will have or already have had an influence on Sweden (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, 2005). Higher awareness about environmental issues leads to more environmental friendly products and new processes by companies for lower consumption of energy and harmful materials. However, the impor-tance of the contribution of households and electronics on the environment seems to be underestimated. Therefore, it is of importance to understand how consumers consider the environmental friendliness of electronic products, and computers in specific for this thesis. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how consumers value environmental friendliness when buying computers and how this influences their purchase decision. Method: In order to achieve the purpose stated, a conjoint analysis was first made through an experiment in order to see how the consumer make trade-offs between certain attributes of computers. After the experiment, respondents were asked to answer a questionnaire which has been used to connect computer purchasing and environmental values to con-sumer behaviour theories. Conclusions: The assumption on environmental friendliness being the least valued attrib-ute by consumers has not been supported by the results of the conjoint analysis done; in fact it has instead portrayed environmental friendliness as the second most important, be-fore price and performance, only after accessories. The results have also shown that envi-ronmental friendliness was appreciated in a computer, and that its existence in a computer affects the purchase decision positively. The results of the post-experiment questionnaire have illustrated that environmental friendliness of computers has a strong effect on the purchase decision when combined with other attributes, although it may not be regarded of high value by itself. While a computer by it self are likely to satisfy needs as low as social need, the environmental friendliness of computers appears to satisfy esteem needs. It has also been demonstrated that social factors could have strong effects on purchasing of green computers if more and better information were available. Further, moral obligations and at-titude to behaviour factors concerning green computers seem to be strong, while perceived control and subjective norms appear to be low in today’s society.

Crop Biotechnology could help achieve a more food-secure world. However, the strong opposition to GM food, particularly in Europe, will undoubtedly affect the diffusion of GM crops worldwide, delaying or preventing the world from realizing the potential benefits of GM crops in terms of food security. This braking effect could deprive the world of a potential tool to increase or stabilize the future worldwide availability of food under a changing or more volatile climate. It is therefore essential to understand how the opposition to GM food has and will affect the diffusion of biotechnological innovations worldwide in order to estimate the effect of this opposition on global food security. <p> The main objective of the thesis is to estimate the loss in global food security if the EU does not relax their opposition to GM food. To meet this objective a market model is combined with a GM diffusion model to create a global food security (GFS) model. The focus of the model is GM wheat, due to the vital importance of conventional wheat to global food security. This approach allows us to evaluate dynamic economic responses to food production shocks, such as climate change. The GFS model is calibrated using production, consumption and price data for wheat. A number of scenarios are analyzed to consider the range of potential effects of the EU opposition on global food security. The results of the analyses will better inform the ongoing GM policy debates, which often ignore food security impacts.

La tesis se compone de dos partes. En la primera (capítulo dos) se presenta una extensión de un modelo de entrada "à la Dixit". Se considera un marco en el que las decisiones de entrada del líder pueden revelar información acerca de la rentabilidad de los mercados a un seguidor. En este contexto se caracteriza el comportamiento estratégico del líder. Asimismo, se demuestra que cuando la rentabilidad esperada de los mercados se situa a un nivel intermedio el líder opta por una estrategia de introducción secuencial con el fin de retrasar la entrada del competidor. Por el contrario, cuando la rentabilidad esperada de los mercados es menor, el líder tiende a introducirse en todos ellos al mismo tiempo, con el fin de evitar la entrada de la otra empresa. En la segunda parte de la tesis (capítulos 3 a 6) se estudia la manera en que las empresas organizan sus acuerdos de cooperación. En el capítulo 3 se proporciona una introducción al tema. En los capítulos 4 y 5 se presentan dos modelos teóricos. En el primero se utiliza un marco de contratos incompletos y se analiza el rol que el aprendizaje del know-how del partner juega en el desarrollo de dos modos de organización de alianzas estratégicas, esto es, Joint Ventures y acuerdos de contratos. Se demuestra que cuanto mayor es la asimetría en la capacidad de aprendizaje de las empresas, mejor es la Joint Venture. El modelo presentado en el capítulo 5 combina las herramientas y métodos de dos áreas de la literatura económica: inversión bajo incertidumbre y teoría de la búsqueda. El objetivo principal del modelo consiste en relacionar la forma de gobierno elegida por las empresas involucradas en la alianza con las características del sector en el que la alianza tiene lugar. Se demuestra que cuanto mayor es la incertidumbre a la que se enfrentan las empresas, mayor es la probabilidad de que elijan formas de gobierno más flexibles, como los acuerdos de contratos. El último capítulo se dedica a la investigación empírica del tema. Se contrastan algunas de las predicciones que pueden ser derivadas de los modelos presentados en los capítulos 4 y 5, así como aquellas que han sido destacadas en otros trabajos teóricos. / The thesis is composed of two distinct parts. In the first one (chapter 2), I present an extension of an entry model "à la Dixit". I consider a setting in which the entry decisions of the first mover might reveal information about the markets' profitability to a second entrant. In this context, I characterize the first mover's strategic behavior. I show that when priors about markets profitability are at an intermediate level, then the first mover enters them sequentially trying to delay the competitor's entry. On the contrary, when priors are lower, the first mover tends to enter all the markets at the same time trying to preempt the other firm. In the second part of the thesis (chapters 3,4,5,6), I consider the issue of the governance form of strategic alliances. That is, I study the way in which firms organize their cooperative arrangements. In chapter 3, there is a brief introduction to the topic. In chapters 4 and 5, I present two theoretical models. In the first one, I employ an incomplete contracts setting and I analyze the role of learning the partner's know-how on the performances of two typical modes of organizing strategic alliances, namely Joint Ventures and Contractual Agreements. I show that the more asymmetric firms' absorptive capacities are, the better a Joint Venture performs. The model of chapter 5 combines the tools and methods of two strands of economic literature: investment under uncertainty and search theory. The main objective of the model is that of relating the form of governance that partners choose for their alliance to the typology of the project undertaken and to the characteristics of the sector in which the alliance takes place. It is proved that the larger the uncertainty that partners face, the more likely that they choose more flexible forms of cooperation such as Contractual Agreements. The last chapter is devoted to an empirical assessment of the topic. I test some of the predictions that can be derived from the models of chapters 4 and 5 as well as those that have been put forward by other theoretical studies dealing with the same issue.

Crop Biotechnology could help achieve a more food-secure world. However, the strong opposition to GM food, particularly in Europe, will undoubtedly affect the diffusion of GM crops worldwide, delaying or preventing the world from realizing the potential benefits of GM crops in terms of food security. This braking effect could deprive the world of a potential tool to increase or stabilize the future worldwide availability of food under a changing or more volatile climate. It is therefore essential to understand how the opposition to GM food has and will affect the diffusion of biotechnological innovations worldwide in order to estimate the effect of this opposition on global food security. <p> The main objective of the thesis is to estimate the loss in global food security if the EU does not relax their opposition to GM food. To meet this objective a market model is combined with a GM diffusion model to create a global food security (GFS) model. The focus of the model is GM wheat, due to the vital importance of conventional wheat to global food security. This approach allows us to evaluate dynamic economic responses to food production shocks, such as climate change. The GFS model is calibrated using production, consumption and price data for wheat. A number of scenarios are analyzed to consider the range of potential effects of the EU opposition on global food security. The results of the analyses will better inform the ongoing GM policy debates, which often ignore food security impacts.

This paper focuses on identifying factors influencing the financing decisions of growth-oriented start-ups. A sample of 8 business incubator start-ups has been studied within a qualitative research so as to reach that goal. Their fundraising choices are analyzed using supporting financial and psychological theories. Also, the thesis examines the start-ups’ interaction with a business incubator and investors.It is found that growth oriented start-ups use internal funds in the first instance, the lack of financial capital representing the main reason behind this decision. Moreover, it is clear that bank loans are not a viable alternative for start-ups mainly because of the collaterals required. However, debt financing, coming from more accessible sources, is used despite the higher costs, this if it helps in achieving growth. Lastly, equity capital is regarded positively by growth oriented start-ups although it dilutes the control. The reasoning is that control is traded-off with the skills and experience the external investors bring in once with their investments.