The concern about disinformation in the digital space has increased since the U.S Presidential Election and the British ‘Brexit’ Referendum in 2016. Many have argued for stricter regulatory frameworks for the Internet to uphold the public’s trust in democratic institutions. In December 2020, the European Commission officially published the proposal of the Digital Services Act (DSA), a new regulation partly designed to approach the dissemination of disinformation in the digital space. Considering the political significance of the DSA, this critical study is interested in the discursive role of media in the public’s meaning making of the legislation in particular and, to some extent, Internet regulations in general. Specifically, the study focuses on linguistic aspects in a selection of 14 Swedish news media texts from December 2020 to systematically draw out the ideological implications behind the related discourses, and ultimately whose interests are represented in the in the conception of the DSA in Sweden. Focus is also paid on how and to what extent disinformation is included or excluded in the media discourses. The analysis is conducted with critical discourse analysis as both methodology and theoretical framework, with a complementary ideological and sociopolitical perspective. The results reveal a widespread support for the DSA specifically or Internet regulations in general, advocating for stricter governance in the digital space to a certain degree. Additionally, the DSA is constructed as a means to tackle the dominating role of large digital service providers in the digital market, establishing an economic outlook of the DSA. Consequently, disinformation is neglected in the media discourses and its political significance is therefore diminished.

Объект исследования – реализация концепции «Умный город». Предмет – особенности цифровизации городской среды в рамках концепции «Умный город» и ее внедрения на территории Свердловской области. Цель – осуществление анализа особенностей цифровизации городской среды в рамках концепции «Умный город» и ее внедрения на территории Свердловской области и разработка рекомендаций по совершенствованию этого процесса. Решение поставленных в работе задач осуществлялось на основе применения таких методов исследования, как анализ теоретических и нормативно-правовых документов, анализ статистических данных. Проведено социологическое исследование с использованием метода вторичного анализа данных и анализа документов. В ходе исследования были рассмотрены теоретические и нормативно-правовые вопросы цифровизации городской среды, особенности концепции «Умный город»; проведен территориальный анализ особенностей цифровизации городской среды на территории Свердловской области, выявлены основные проблемы внедрения проекта «Умный город» в городах. Результатом работы стала разработка рекомендаций по совершенствованию цифровизации городской среды и внедрению элементов «Умного города» в муниципальных образованиях Свердловской области. / The object of the research is the implementation of the “Smart City” concept. The subject is the features of digitalization of the urban environment within the framework of the “Smart City” concept and its implementation in the Sverdlovsk region. The goal is to analyze the features of the digitalization of the urban environment within the framework of the “Smart City” concept and its implementation in the Sverdlovsk region and develop recommendations for improving this process. The solution of the tasks set in the work was carried out on the basis of the application of such research methods as the analysis of theoretical and regulatory documents, analysis of statistical data. A sociological study was carried out using the method of secondary data analysis and document analysis. In the course of the research, theoretical and regulatory issues of digitalization of the urban environment, features of the concept of "Smart City" were considered; a territorial analysis of the features of digitalization of the urban environment in the territory of the Sverdlovsk region was carried out, the main problems of the implementation of the "Smart City" project in cities were identified. The result of the work was the development of recommendations to improve the digitalization of the urban environment and the introduction of elements of the "Smart City" in the municipalities of the Sverdlovsk region.

With the proliferation of digital services and technologies, industries, including thebanking sector, are looking for innovative ways to improve customer experience. The criticalaspect of improving customer experience is increased customer satisfaction, which helps toattract new customers and to retain existing ones. Chatbots have emerged as a promisingsolution, offering a convenient and personalized way for customers to interact with banks andother financial institutions. This thesis analyses the impact of chatbots on customer satisfactionthrough a comparative study of customer satisfaction between Sweden and India. By providinginsights into the similarities and differences in customer perceptions between the two countries,this thesis aims to contribute to the existing literature on the effectiveness of chatbots. This studytakes a socio-technical perspective to explore how customers perceive satisfaction when usingchatbots in their financial services. The findings shed light on the impact of chatbots on customersatisfaction in different markets and contribute to the understanding of the adoption of chatbots inroutine banking assistance, especially in a cross-cultural context. In designing effective strategiesfor using chatbot technology to improve customer experience in the digital age, the findings arevaluable for banking institutions and policymakers.

Purpose – This study explores how Earth Observation (EO) start-ups with digital services can utilize business model innovation (BMI) to create, deliver, and capture value in the mining industry. Method – The study adopted a qualitative approach with the unit of analysis being two EO service start-ups and the unit of observation being mining companies complemented with other relevant actors. 22 interviews were conducted with mining companies; 2 with mining consultancy companies; 2 with academia; and 2 with the EO case companies. Findings – EO service start-ups can create value in the mining industry by leveraging an artificial intelligence technology value proposition unlocking new values, as well as engaging in trust and relationship building-activities with customers; deliver value by developing customizable delivery plans in line with the heterogenous customer needs, acquiring a specific understanding of customer operations to deliver expected service quality, and addressing customers' different digital maturity; and capture value by developing a flexible revenue model and enable internal and external scaling of service. Theoretical Implications – This study contributes to existing research by examining how digital technologies shape industry-specific phenomena and related BMs, specifically within the novel EO industry by being one of the pioneering studies in this space. It also fills a gap in the literature by examining start-up BMI in general as well as in the EO industry, the intersection of start-ups and digital services, as well as contributing to the broader service innovation literature. It also makes contributions to the specific mechanisms of the BM. Managerial Implications – This study contributes with insights for managers of digital service start-ups, both in general and in the novel EO industry, outlining how these can create, deliver, and capture value in the mining industry as well as other industrial contexts. These can utilize the findings of this study to either redesign their existing BMs or create completely new ones. Limitations and Future Research – One limitation is that the study only collects data from the mining industry which decreases the generalizability of the findings to other industries. Future research could benefit from investigating EO services from an ecosystem or platform perspective including other actors than provider-customer. Finally, future research could also be conducted utilizing a multiple case study including EO service start-ups focusing on multiple industries. / Syfte – Denna studie undersöker hur Earth Observation (EO)-startups med digitala tjänster kan använda affärsmodellsinnovation för att skapa, leverera och fånga värde inom gruvindustrin. Metod – Studien använde en kvalitativ metod med två EO-startups med digitala tjänster som analysenehet. Gruvföretag kompletterat med andra relevanta aktörer intervjuades för att besvara studiens syfte. Totalt genomfördes 22 intervjuer med gruvföretag; 2 med konsultföretag inom gruvindustrin; 2 inom akademin; samt 2 med EO-startupsen. Resultat – EO-startups med digitala tjänster kan skapa värde i gruvindustrin genom att nyttja artificiell intelligens i sitt värdeerbjudande för att tillhandahålla nya värden, samt genom att genomföra aktiviteter riktat mot kunder med syfte att stärka förtroende och relationer; leverera värde genom att utveckla anpassningsbara leveransalternativ i linje med de heterogena kundbehoven, anförskaffa en specifik förståelse för kundernas verksamhet för att leverera tjänsten i linje med vad dessa förväntar sig samt genom att adressera kundernas olika digitala mognadsnivåer; och fånga värde genom att utveckla en flexibel intäktsmodell och möjliggöra intern och extern skalning av tjänsten. Teoretiska implikationer – Denna studie bidrar till befintlig forskning genom att undersöka hur digitala teknologier formar branschspecifika fenomen och relaterade affärsmodeller, specifikt inom EO-industrin genom att vara en av de första studierna inom detta område. Studien fyller också ett gap i litteraturen genom att undersöka affärsmodellsinnovation relaterat till startups generellt samt inom EO-industrin, skärningspunkten mellan startups och digitala tjänster, samt genom att bidra till den generella litteraturen för tjänsteinnovation. Den bidrar också till de specifika mekanismerna i affärsmodeller. Praktiska implikationer – Denna studie bidrar med insikter för chefer och ledare inom digitala tjänste-startups, både generellt samt inom EO-industrin, och beskriver hur dessa kan skapa, leverera och fånga värde inom gruvindustrin såväl som i andra industriella sammanhang. Dessa kan använda studiens resultat för att antingen förändra sina befintliga affärsmodeller eller skapa helt nya. Begränsningar och framtida forskning – En begränsning är att studien endast samlar data från gruvindustrin, vilket minskar generaliserbarheten av resultaten till andra industrier. Framtida forskning kan dra nytta av att undersöka EO-tjänster ur ett ekosystem- eller plattformsperspektiv som inkluderar andra aktörer än leverantör-kund. Slutligen skulle framtida forskning även kunna genomföras med en flerfallstudie som inkluderar EO-tjänste-startups verksamma inom fler industrier.

This study investigate a Collaboration between municipalities that cooperate to develop e-services. One larger municipality helps the smaller municipalities by providing them with fully developed e-services, help maintain a technical platform, support and materials in order for them to be able to drive their own process of change. The object of this study is to contribute knowledge that can form the basis for potential improvements of the Collaboration of e-services. The aim of the study is to find out what the reason is that some participating municipalities have launched several e-services while others none? How they experience the development of e-services that are conducted in Collaboration, and what challenges they experience in the development work? To collect empirical data we did qualitative interviews with both participating municipalities and with informants central in this Collaboration. We have had access to documents, their contract, and their planning tool that includes videos, manuals, and templates. The result of this study identifies a number of crucial points that need to be taken into account in continued Collaboration. These are: You cannot measure success with number of launched e-services: There are lack of “change management”: How homogeneity can help in the long run: and that Process mapping is the next step to take for the smaller municipalities. The study's result also show the challenges that may appear along the way towards more efficient, attractive and competitive county. For the participating municipalities these are time constraints, difficulty in prioritizing among other tasks, resistance from administrations and administrators, how they organize themselves internally on their own. The results also show that all participants wants this, and that several of them are working in a way that may pay off in the long run.

O estudo identifica as mídias digitais disponibilizadas atualmente pelas bibliotecas universitárias da área de exatas do Brasil e do exterior. Para tanto, verificou-se na literatura de que forma a utilização de ferramentas de tecnologia da informação e comunicação (TIC) atende às demandas de fontes de informação dos usuários. Nesse enfoque, foram elencadas as principais iniciativas de bibliotecas universitárias brasileiras e do exterior com melhor avaliação nos rankings universitários. Elaborou-se, ainda, um estudo comparativo entre a literatura e a aplicação de produtos e serviços disponíveis nos ambientes digitais das bibliotecas. Também foram levantadas as direções contemporâneas em serviços de bibliotecas, como forma de caracterizar a atuação presente e as principais propensões tecnológicas. O objetivo da pesquisa é avaliar as tendências e verificar a adaptação das bibliotecas universitárias aos novos recursos tecnológicos de informação, por meio da identificação do que se encontra disponível para os usuários em seus websites. Utilizou-se como amostra de pesquisa bibliotecas da área de matemática, estatística e computação, em seguida, foram apresentadas propostas de aplicação dos recursos identificados para a Biblioteca Carlos Benjamin de Lyra, do Instituto de Matemática e Estatística (IME) da Universidade de São Paulo (USP). A partir do resultado desta pesquisa, considera-se que as bibliotecas do exterior estão mais avançadas quanto ao uso de ferramentas da Web 2.0 e também 3.0 nos recursos oferecidos aos usuários e em seus serviços. As bibliotecas do Brasil ainda são tímidas em sua atuação na Era Digital, no entanto, mostram consideráveis avanços no desenvolvimento de portais de periódicos e de repositórios em acesso aberto, além de utilizarem os sistemas de descoberta para a pesquisa integrada de recursos informacionais / The study identifies the digital media currently available from university libraries in the area of exact sciences in Brazil and abroad. For this, it was verified in the literature how the use of information and communication technology (ICT) tools meets the demands of users\' information sources. In this approach, the main initiatives of Brazilian and foreign university libraries with better evaluation in university rankings were listed. A comparative study between the literature and the application of products and services available in the digital environments of the libraries was also elaborated. In addition, contemporary directions in library services have also been raised as a way of characterizing the present performance and the main technological propensities. The objective of the research is to evaluate the trends and verify the adaptation of the university libraries to the new technological resources of information, through the identification of what is available to the users in its websites. We used as research sample libraries in the area of mathematics, statistics and computation, then proposals were presented for the application of the resources identified for the Library Carlos Benjamin de Lyra, Institute of Mathematics and Statistics (IME) of the University of São Paulo (USP). From the results of this research, foreign libraries are considered to be more advanced in the use of Web 2.0 tools and also 3.0 in the resources offered to users and their services. Brazilian libraries are still timid in their work in the Digital Age, however, they show considerable advances in the development of journal portals and open access repositories, as well as using discovery systems for the integrated search of information resources.

This thesis investigates the factors that affect the take-up of statutory digital reporting of statutory accounts and returns to the tax authority (HM Revenue and Customs) and voluntary digital reporting to the company registry (Companies House) by small private companies in the UK. In doing so, it identifies the costs and benefits of this innovation from the perspectives of the filers and those using the digital information. The first stage of the study comprised 16 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders: HMRC, Companies House, the external iXBRL consultant at HMRC, filing software suppliers, and accountants in business and practice. The interview data was analysed thematically, aided by NVivo. The second stage involved an online survey of 343 ACCA members working in small companies or in practices with small company clients. The survey data were analysed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method. As hypothesised, the results show a significant positive association between digital reporting and the company having the technological competence and between digital reporting and support for this from top management. As predicted, there is evidence of a significant negative association between digital reporting and the complexity of the process, and between digital reporting and the cost of technology. However, the study finds no evidence of a significant association between digital reporting and compatibility of digital reporting with the company’s accounting system, statutory requirements with government, or network effects. The results provide evidence of a significant positive association between digital reporting and benefits to filers, and between digital reporting and benefits to those using the digital corporate data. The latter association is mediated by the digital search and data services provided by Companies House. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to investigate digital reporting to HMRC after it became mandatory for small companies in the UK. The study contributes to the emerging literature by extending our knowledge of the costs and benefits of digital reporting by small companies. It contributes to theory by developing and validating a theoretical model of the factors affecting the take-up of digital reporting and by extending the model to provide further understanding of this technology. The results should be of interest to the directors of small companies and their accountants. They will also be of interest to policy makers seeking to reduce the administrative burdens on smaller entities in the UK and to regulators in other jurisdictions planning for digital reporting initiatives.

The power of digital technology serves developers of new services as an access funnel to the vast amount of customer behavioural information. The utilization of this information is forecasted to differentiate the winners from the losers in the market and benefit the new service development process. This study explores the phenomenon of customer information in new service development empirically by looking at the industry at the forefront, the gaming industry. By conducting three case studies with leading Swedish game developers, it challenges the previous research assumptions that acquired and disseminated customer information is implicitly used. This study has made significant contributions by investigating the broader context of customer information use and differentiating among three types of use. The findings show that behavioural information is used to backup own decisions or to enhance the developers understanding, but is not directly applied to the decision task. Despite the great potential, this advanced type of customer information is only used in the post-launch stages of new service development, for service iterations. To further validate the findings and explore information use in new service development more in-depth, future research generating contextual detailed realtime data is needed.

The survey has been conducted about how older adults use digital services on the Internet, what their thoughts are about them and the problems that can arise during use. The purpose of the survey is to treat the qualitative data to see what factors affect older adults to use various digital services to operate in society. This purpose has arisen from the problem which older adults are the smallest but fastest growing user group to take advantage of digital opportunities, today's society more or less requires that you have some sort of digital knowledge to be able to benefit from its services. Based on the objective, we have formulated our research question "Older adults are the fastest growing group of digital users, but in total still the lowest represented user group. What contributes to the rapid rise and what can we learn from the users of today on how to develop digital services for this age group in the future?" We chose to write about this project because we think that the subject is relevant and interesting to explore. Since one can see the obvious problems regarding this in everyday life, we chose to more deeply explore the area to give us a broader view. We have used qualitative methods like observations and semistructured interviews, these have been applied from prior knowledge of how to perform these methods to enable a good data collection. We have also created our own modified model based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) used to measure technology acceptance. The modified model is applied to the information we developed from them qualitative methods. The results from four informants indicate that there are critical factors that influence the use of digital services such as experience and needs, but these factors are individual and varies from person to person resulting in that there is not a single answer to the question but must be answered for each individual service.

The world business has been changed tremendously during last thirteen year. This is all due to the revolutionary dot com digital business. The dot com digital business has given big swing to world business. No one now can deny the power and capabilities of the internet technology. However, from 2001 onwards the growth of internet business has declined. Our paper investigates the major reasons behinds this. The focus of our paper is south Asian market because we believe this region has more potential of growth within internet business as compare to any other part of the world. The focal point of our paper is to identify obstacles which are hindering the growth of service based internet commerce in south Asian market. We have also come up with the possible solutions which when applied can create a room for big growth of internet business.