There have been extensive debates on the factors that influence local policy decisions. Although many researchers have contributed to uncovering various influences such as political, economic, institutional, and demographic factors on local policy decisions, however, the concept of QoL rarely has used in extant literature. Local government spending is likely to be affected by citizen demands for achieving community well-being. Additionally, given that different policy functions variably affect local circumstances, the impact of QoL on local policy decisions will depend on the policy area. Hence, this study examined the relationship between QoL and local budgetary decisions based on Peterson's (1981) policy scheme of, three distinct policy arenas (developmental, allocational, and redistributive policy). In examining the relationship of QoL and city spending across policy functions, I also considered economic, political, institutional, and demographic factors, derived from various theoretical perspectives on local policy decisions. The relative influences of community QoL as well as other factors on local policy decisions were estimated by two-stage least squares regression analysis (2SLS) for developmental spending and by ordinary least squares (OLS) for allocational and redistributive spending. To measure community QoL, this study used 89,066 completed surveys from 167 communities in the United States for 2002-2008 are used. QoL appeared as a critical factor influencing local government expenditures in the three policy areas. The impact of QoL on local spending in the three areas differed depending on city income levels; city income levels then moderated local policy decisions. These findings suggest that local policy priorities adjusted in accordance with economic growth. Allocational policy functions also should be thought to be functions of cities geared toward giving them a competitive edge over other cities by meeting evolved citizen preferences for city amenities. These findings also point to distinct patterns of political activities in each policy arena. Given that community QoL reflects adjusted citizens' demands, I contend that community QoL can contribute to performance management by providing additional public information and a complementary performance indicator. / Ph. D.

This dissertation explores curriculum and instruction in the world history classroom through two manuscripts. These manuscripts describe the effects of educational policy and environmental contexts on the work of world history teachers. The first study analyzes the world history curriculum, and the second study looks at how curriculum was enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, these studies make visible trends of continuity and change in the world history curriculum and teacher decision-making. The first manuscript is a qualitative analysis of the representation of women and gender in Virginia's world history curriculum. This study examines the representation of women and gender in the curriculum by analyzing curricular choices and discourse within the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs) and the Curriculum Frameworks. Through content analysis and critical discourse analysis, the study identifies a lack of inclusivity in the world history curriculum and addresses how language reproduces gender stereotypes and negates the contributions of women in comparison to their male counterparts. This study is important for two reasons. First, it adds to the literature on teaching world history which is a lesser researched content area in social studies. Second, it examines how curriculum can influence inclusivity and representation in the historical narrative. This study was recently published in the Iowa Journal for the Social Studies. The second manuscript is a qualitative case study that explores the educational and environmental contexts created by the COVID-19 pandemic and how these contexts affected the curricular-instructional decisions and pedagogical practices of four world history teachers. Initially, I planned to study the effects of teacher knowledge, specifically content knowledge, on the teacher-curriculum relationship. However, the focus shifted to teacher-decision making during the pandemic. This research is vital and useful because it addresses how teachers tried to continue as normal during uncertain times. Data collection included classroom observations, participant interviews, and analysis of instructional materials. Findings reveal that teachers relied on the continuity of the curriculum while changing methods of instructional delivery, adapting classroom assessment practices, and modifying existing assignments. The most promising finding of the study reveals that teachers employed formative assessments to check for understanding and the presence of remote students. Teacher decisions show evidence of pedagogical content knowledge, knowledge of students, and knowledge of contexts. The research shows that teachers made curricular-instructional decisions in reaction to pandemic educational contexts, but these choices often aligned with the research on effective and wise practice in areas like classroom assessment. / Doctor of Philosophy / As a former world history teacher and current teacher educator, I am interested in making the work of classroom teachers visible. In Virginia, world history educators are expected to teach the standardized world history curriculum. I recognized that the world history curriculum was dominated by men but did little to address the issue until I had the opportunity to develop and teach a women's studies course at Christiansburg High School. My knowledge of different types of curricula and curriculum as educational policy grew during my doctoral program. The first study grew out of a class assignment for feminist research methods. I found that men vastly outnumber women, but more importantly, that the wording of the curriculum reproduces gender stereotypes by describing the achievements of women as inferior to those of men. This study shows that the Virginia world history curriculum remained relatively consistent from 2008 to 2015 and the most significant changes reduced inclusivity instead of expanding the curriculum. This study is important because it addresses how women continue to be marginalized and underrepresented in the world history curriculum. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced students and teachers to a series of new and shifting educational and environmental contexts. I originally planned to study how world history teachers navigated the teacher-curriculum relationship, designed their planned curriculum, and then analyze the enacted curriculum or what occurred in the actual classroom. However, it was impossible to escape the educational contexts resulting from the pandemic when conducting my study. Therefore, the second study evolved to focus on the effects of pandemic educational and environmental contexts on the instructional decisions and classroom practices of world history teachers. I discovered that despite their lack of experience with remote instruction, teachers made curricular-instructional decisions that were illustrative of effective and wise practice.

Yes / Whilst many studies consider labelling as means of aggregated communication of environmental product features, the presentation of detailed product information seems a promising alternative. However, the mechanisms through which detailed product information takes effect on consumers requires better understanding. This study empirically develops a framework that focuses on consumers’ perceived usefulness of, and trust in, detailed product information, whilst also considering the role of environmental self-identity. This understanding will help businesses to further stimulate eco-friendly consumption. Structural equation modelling and conditional process analysis are utilised to test hypotheses based on a sample of 279 respondents to a German online survey. Findings: Results show that the perceived usefulness of product information has a positive effect on purchase intention, and this effect is intensified by an individual’s environmental self-identity. Furthermore, for consumers with high environmental self-identity, the effect of perceived usefulness of product information on purchase intention is mediated in turn by trust in detailed product information and resistance to negative information. This study contributes to the debate on the role of product information in ethical consumption by showing how detailed product information gives rise to favourable behavioural outcomes. When detailed information is perceived as being useful, it can affect purchase intention through greater trust and an increased resistance to negative information. Further, detailed product information appears beneficial for both, the mass market and specific segments with high environmental self-identity. Hence, this study empirically establishes the effects of detailed product information on consumer decision-making, thus informing sustainability-related marketing theory and practice.

Yes / This study uses the quality of coverage decisions as a new metric to evaluate the performance of star and non-star analysts. We find that the coverage decisions of star analysts are better predictors of returns than those of non-star analysts. The return predictability of star analysts’ coverage decisions is stronger for informationally opaque stocks. We further exploit the staggered short selling deregulations, Google’s withdrawal, and the anti-corruption campaign as three quasi-natural experiments that create plausibly exogenous variations in the quality of information environment. These experiments show that the predictive power of star analysts’ coverage decisions strengthens (weakens) following a sharp deterioration (improvement) in firms’ information environment, consistent with the notion that star analysts possess superior ability to identify mispriced stocks. Overall, star analysts make better coverage decisions and play a superior role as information intermediaries, especially in poor information environment.

Regret is a complex emotion that is associated with one’s decision-making. Since entrepreneurship entails a lot of decisions, it facilitates a great ground to explore regret. Meanwhile it is understood that regret can influence behaviour and entrepreneurial processes, such as decision-making - one important being exit decisions. This study positions itself between these two themes of regret and exit, where we aim to explore what entrepreneurs express regrets about and how those reflect on their exit decisions. For the data collection, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 entrepreneurs who had different exit decisions. Using a phenomenographic approach, we found that regrets are expressed on instances of career choice, firm performance and through challenges and motivations. However, it was rather difficult to find a clear correlation between entrepreneurs’ regrets and their exit decisions which is a limitation in this study. Rather, both regret and exit decisions can be based on the same factors, where regret can indirectly cause exit.

Yes / Population ageing and fiscal austerity are set to increase the reliance on family carers, who already provide much of the support for people with long term health conditions. Although most carers are willing, providing care can be hugely stressful, affecting mental and physical health1 and resulting in social isolation and financial hardship.2 When under strain, carers are less likely to be effective, increasing the risk that the care recipient is admitted to hospital or a care home.3 Health systems could reduce strain on family carers by routinely considering carers’ needs alongside patients’ needs in everyday healthcare decisions—a concept we term “carer proofing”. / none

No / Lecturers Fiona Meddings and Jan Porter of the division of midwifery and women’s health at the School of Health Studies at the University of Bradford detail the difficulties faced by UK Pakistani women in making informed choices on breastfeeding.

Venture Capital can play a key role for our future by placing their capital in sustainable investments. They have the capacity to fuel new ventures, sprung from ideas on how to solve the sustainability challenges we face today. In this paper we research the drivers and barriers for sustainable venture capital investment decisions. Our findings show that increased knowledge on sustainability issues is affecting the general public opinion, policies and governance and the way we choose to live, consume and do business. This in turn increases the market potential for sustainable businesses. Therefore, sustainable investments are more and more considered as a good investment, not only in regard to social and ecological aspects but also financial returns. A model with our findings showing the drivers and barriers for sustainable venture capital investment decisions will be presented aiming encourage and push toward a more sustainable future.

Context: Pre-project Requirements Engineering (RE) decisions are considered as very complex in Market Driven Requirements Engineering (MDRE). The complexity and economical impact of RE decisions motivates the need to support and understand RE decisions in MDRE. The purpose of Pre-project activities is to gather, analyze, select, and plan requirements for future releases of the software product in MDRE environment. Correct and timely pre-project decisions (for example initial requirements selection) are dependent on the quality and the availability of the provided decision material (for example requirements, business cases etc) for RE decisions. A Requirements Engineering framework called NORM (Needs Oriented Framework for Producing Requirements Decision Material) in collaboration with Ericsson AB is previously created with the intention of facilitating and speeding up the RE processes by ensuring that the right and sufficient decision material is available at the right time for pre-project RE decisions. NORM needs to be validated in software companies practicing MDRE in order to make it generally applicable in industry. Objectives: NORM framework was partially validated with informal interviews at one business unit within Ericsson AB but needed to be tested or validated in different environments (Telecom, e-commerce etc) in software industry to make sure that it becomes generally applicable in industry. The scope of this master's thesis is to investigate how to tailor NORM to improve a company's requirements engineering processes with the help of value stream mapping (VSM), and to evaluate the effort required and impact of this tailored process. Two MDRE based companies are chosen in this thesis work in order to validate NORM framework in software industry. Methods: There are two main research methods in this research work; Interviews and Document Analysis. In two MDRE based companies, we conducted interviews of employees involved in pre-project RE decision activities in a product, and accessed the requirements documents for the same product in order to initiate the NORM framework. Finally, an email was sent to the interviewees in both companies involved in RE with less than 10 questions in order to confirm our findings for validation of NORM framework. Results: With the information of initiation of NORM framework and using VSM we are able to chart the current decision points (DP) or decisions in the company’s RE process and the decision material that is used for each DP. We then have investigated what decision material is just enough, and when do a company need to produce it so that it is ready when the decision should be taken. We have looked at things such as waiting times, utilization and usefulness of produced decision material, and finally it is suggested to companies how their RE decision process in MDRE environment can be improved. Conclusions: Interviewees provided us the positive feedback on NORM, and they liked our novel research work in the form of NORM framework. Interviewees felt that the provided NORM structure of presenting pre-project decisions and its steps of identifying Appropriate Decision Material (ADM) is useful and usable, scalable and is according to industry relevance. It is concluded that the validation of NORM framework achieved positive feedback and results. / Blekinge Institute of Technology SE-371 79 Karlskrona Sweden Ph.: +46 455 38 50 00

Bakgrund: Att ta beslut om ej HLR började redan på 50-talet och har visat sig vara ett svårt etiskt beslut. Ofta missförstås begreppet ej HLR och behandlingsbegränsningar av vårdpersonalen, vilket i förlängningen kan leda till olika vård av olika patienter beroende på hur den personal som är i tjänst tolkar begreppet. Sjuksköterskor ställs ofta inför etiska dilemman vid beslut kring behandling i livets slutskede, dels gentemot läkare och undersköterskor men även gentemot patient och anhöriga. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att beskriva sjuksköterskors upplevelser och erfarenheter av behandlingsbegränsningsbeslut gällande ej HLR. Metod: Semistrukturerad intervjustudie av åtta sjuksköterskor på en akutvårdsklinik, analys med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Analysen resulterade i tre kategorier utifrån sjuksköterskornas upplevelser och erfarenheter av behandlingsbegränsningsbeslut om ej HLR: Sjuksköterskors kunskap & erfarenhet, sjuksköterskors känsla av frustration och sjuksköterskors upplevelse av etiska dilemman. Sjuksköterskorna hade erfarit skillnader i kunskapsläget gällande behandlingsbegränsningar och ej HLR inom alla personalkategorier. Där fanns också en upplevelse av frustration bland annat när det saknades beslut om ej HLR och när de inte delade åsikt med beslutade läkare. Detta resulterade också i att de ställdes inför etiska dilemman när de var tvungna att påbörja HLR på grund av avsaknad av behandlingsbegränsnings beslut om ej HLR. Slutsats: Sjuksköterskorna hade upplevelse och erfarenhet av brister i kommunikationen mellan vårdpersonal inom alla personalkategorier. Önskemål om mer utbildning och diskussion i ämnet utrycktes för att förbättra beslutsfattandet och vården av de patienter som har eller bör ha beslut om ej HLR. / Background: DNR-decisions started in the 50´s and it has been proven as a difficult ethical decision. Often there is a misunderstanding of the concept of DNR and end-of-life decisions among the hospital staff, which can lead to differences in care of patients. Nurses´ often experience ethical dilemmas when decisions regarding treatment must be taken in the final stages of life, both against doctors and other nurses, but also to patients and their relatives. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe nurses' experiences of DNR decisions. Method: A semi-structured interview study of eight nurses in an acute care unit, analysis with qualitative content analysis. Results: The analysis resulted in three categories based on nurses´ experiences of end-of-life decisions and DNR; Nurses knowledge and experience, nurse´ sense of frustration and nurses´ experience of ethical dilemmas. The nurses´ had experienced differences in the knowledge regarding end-of-life decisions and DNR in all categories of staff. There was also an experience of frustration in when there was no decision on DNR and when they did not share the view with the doctor. This also resulted in that they were faced with ethical dilemmas when they had to begin CPR because of the absence of DNR-decision. Conclusion: The nurses had sensed and experienced lack of communication between health professionals in all categories of staff. Desire for more education and discussion on the subject was expressed in order to improve decision making and care of patients who have or should have the decision of DNR.