The topic of the diploma thesis is cost optimization in the company. The concept of optimization hides the effort to modify costs in order to achieve the best economic result of the company. In order to properly analyze and subsequently design the necessary measures, it is necessary to obtain a theoretical knowledge of the costs. The first part of the thesis contains theoretical knowledge. The second part deals with cost analysis and concrete areas that are most suitable for potential savings. The last part contains suggestions that should lead to savings.

This master's thesis analyses the problems concerning system of payments especially clearing credit transfers, bank statement of accounts and interconnection with the company’s information system. It proposes suitable ways of optimalization which in the upshot lead to a better exploitation of information technologies and simplification for the human operator.

The overarching question that this thesis sheds some light on is whether making PES more equitable increases the likelihood that they will be successful. The findings of the three empirical chapters suggest that policy-makers would do well to keep equity consideration in mind when designing PES. The first of these chapters is based on the results of a survey of dozens of PES in Latin America. The second and third chapters use a deliberative choice experiments approach to measure participant preferences towards different equity design characteristics of PES in an indigenous community in Colombia, where one of these programs is likely to be implemented in the near future.

Federal revenue sharing programs aim to make up lost tax revenue to counties that contain federal land, as counties do not receive any property tax revenue from publicly owned lands. This may have a significant impact on rural school districts with a limited tax base, as most funding for public education comes from property tax revenue. My analysis seeks to determine the full impact of certain federal revenue sharing payments (paid out by the U.S. Forest Service) on school districts in counties that contain U.S. Forest Service land. My analysis shows that the payments have little impact on school district budgets, indicating that states likely smooth for variations in the U.S. Forest Service payments.

As globalization and interconnection between countries increase, the need for efficient cross-border payments becomes more critical. The Nordics, consisting of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, share many economic and technological advancement similarities. However, cross-border mobile payment is yet to be seen despite having the solutions to do the process locally. This study then aims to answer the current state, challenges, opportunities, and ways to move forward with the innovation of cross-border mobile payments in the Nordics. A literature review and interviews with experts in the industry were performed to gain more insights into the phenomenon. It is found that currently, the interoperability is none. However, despite the absence of interoperability, efforts are being made to place this agenda at the forefront. Furthermore, there are some challenges, including balancing cooperation and competition among actors in the mobile payment space, addressing pricing issues, establishing a solid business case, managing competition between local perspectives and global technology players, mitigating fraud risks, prioritizing national-scale initiatives, and ensuring standardization and information clarity. On the other hand, opportunities were identified in the availability of use cases, the collaborative culture in the Nordics, the gateway to the point-of-sale feature, the international push towards the feature, and the potential of technology bridges to enhance interoperability. Lastly, to move forward with the innovation, it is suggested to create the use-cases and critical mass, focus on the technological hub, put the cross-border payment on regulatory focus, and compare the use-cases and lessons learned from other regions that do similar work. / I takt med att globaliseringen och sammankopplingen mellan länder ökar, blir behovet av effektiva gränsöverskridande betalningar mer kritiskt. Norden, som består av Danmark, Finland, Norge och Sverige, delar många ekonomiska och tekniska framstegslikheter. Men gränsöverskridande mobilbetalning är ännu inte att se trots att man har lösningarna för att göra processen lokalt. Denna studie syftar sedan till att svara på det aktuella läget, utmaningar, möjligheter och sätt att gå vidare med innovationen av gränsöverskridande mobilbetalningar i Norden. En litteraturgenomgång och intervjuer med experter inom branschen gjordes för att få mer insikter om fenomenet. Det har visat sig att interoperabiliteten för närvarande inte är någon. Men trots avsaknaden av interoperabilitet görs ansträngningar för att placera denna agenda i framkant. Vidare finns det vissa utmaningar, inklusive att balansera samarbete och konkurrens mellan aktörer inom det mobila betalningsområdet, ta itu med prissättningsfrågor, etablera ett solidt affärscase, hantera konkurrensen mellan lokala perspektiv och globala teknikaktörer, mildra bedrägerierisker, prioritera initiativ i nationell skala, och säkerställa standardisering och informationstydlighet. Å andra sidan identifierades möjligheter i tillgängligheten av användningsfall, samarbetskulturen i Norden, porten till funktionen för försäljningsställen, den internationella pushen mot funktionen och potentialen hos teknikbryggor för att förbättra interoperabiliteten. Slutligen, för att gå vidare med innovationen, föreslås det att skapa användningsfall och kritisk massa, fokusera på det tekniska navet, sätta gränsöverskridande betalning på regleringsfokus och jämföra användningsfall och lärdomar från andra regioner som gör liknande arbete.

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) is a financial service whereby customers defer payment on a purchase against a short-term debt. While BNPL services have a long history, digital invoice services are now the largest market for BNPL. For the study, two of the largest providers in Sweden, and their checkout interfaces were reviewed for dark patterns. Dark patterns are instances where designers exploit the knowledge of human behaviour (e.g., behavioural psychology) and cognition (e.g., cognitive psychology) in order to coerce the customers into performing target actions. For digital invoice services, the target actions are for the customers to select the credit instalments which profits their business model, as a large percentage of their income are from postponed payments. This study employs three research methods to answer the research questions “What existing dark patterns are identified in digital invoice services, and what are the impacts of dark patterns in the context of digital invoice services?”. First, existing dark patterns were identified through a systematic literature review. Second, the resulting dark patterns were applied to an analysis of the two digital invoice services, where ten dark patterns were identified. Finally, an interface of a digital invoice service was designed, prototyped, and evaluated to test the impact of the identified dark patterns in the context of digital invoice services. Analysis suggests that the users are being coerced through design into the target actions, which were selecting the credit instalments (X2 = 5.84, df=1). The results is being further discussed in means of the potential debt users face from dark patterns in financial interfaces. / Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) är en finansiell tjänst där användarna skjuter upp betalningar mot en kortfristig skuld. BNPL-tjänster har en lång historia, men digitala faktureringstjänster är nu den största inom marknaden för BNPL. För studien granskades Sveriges två av de största faktureringstjänster och deras användargränssnitt för “Dark Patterns”. Dark Patterns är designmönster som utnyttjar kunskapen om mänskligt beteende (t.ex. beteendepsykologi) och kognition (t.ex. kognitiv psykologi) för att uppmana kunderna att utföra riktade åtgärder. För digitala faktureringstjänster är de riktade åtgärderna att användarna väljer kreditbetalningar vilket uppfyller deras affärsmodell, eftersom en av deras huvudsakliga inkomstkällor är från användare som skjuter upp sina betalningar. Denna studie använder tre forskningsmetoder för att svara på forskningsfrågan ”Vilka befintliga “Dark Patterns” kan identifieras i digitala faktureringstjänster, och vad är påverkan av “Dark Patterns” i samband med digitala faktureringstjänster?”. Först identifierades befintliga “Dark Patterns” genom en systematisk litteraturstudie. Sen tillämpades de identifierade “Dark Patterns” i en analys av digitala faktureringstjänster, där tio “Dark Patterns” identifierades. Slutligen skapades en prototyp vars gränssnitt utvärderas för att testa påverkan av de identifierade “Dark Patterns” i samband med digitala faktureringstjänster. Analys tyder på att användarna uppmanas genom design till riktade åtgärder för de digitala faktureringsstjänsterna som valde kreditbetalningarna (X2 = 5,84, df = 1).

E-payment paradigm in the context of fighting corruption and increasing transparency at the public-sector authority’s level is becoming more important than ever especially for Eastern Europe. The present research will address how an electronic payment system is affecting the diffusion of innovation among online public services, settling the challenges at the government level, providing solutions for diminishing the money laundering in the country and all other associated problems. Diffusion of innovations theory had been investigated by many scholars in different industries and countries. The research implication is to generate general knowledge by fulfilling the literature gap related to electronic payment systems in the public sector and diffusion of innovations. The research aim is to provide (1) an extensive literature review to gain familiarity principally on the diffusion of innovation theory, secondary on government electronic payment systems and cashless societies; (2) collect, explore and analyze empirical evidence related to the perceived attributes of diffusion of innovations theory and the rate of adoption of e-payment system designed for public services from the perspective of consumers, public service providers, and payment operators; (3) answer the research questions by the aid of the diffusion of innovation theory, and measure the rates of adoption of public e-payment systems by using an case study approach, the researchers analyzed the case of Moldova and the Governmental Payment Gateway MPay, one of the initiatives launched by the Public Institution e-Government Center.  The interpretivism research paradigm was adopted for the research, and an exploratory case study methodology is implemented to gain insights, familiarity with the subject, and acquire more knowledge in the concepts and theoretical frameworks that are related to the research problem and question.

<p>  </p> <p>The role of trust and risk tolerance has received renewed attention in the field of environmental conservation and management as scholars are increasingly interested in integrating various social, economic, political, cultural, and psychological understandings, concepts, and theories into environmental conservation and natural resource management. This dissertation has two foci. The first focus is on examining the role of trust in the development and maintenance of collaborative environmental conservation programs and factors influencing trust (Chapters 2 and 3) and the second focus is on examining drivers of risk tolerance in the context of human-wildlife conflict (Chapter 4). Specifically, Chapter 2 focuses on the development and maintenance of NGO-municipal collaborations in an incentive-based environmental conservation program in Bolivia, where an NGO coordinated with four municipal governments in the initiation and implementation of the Watershared program. With a particular focus on the role of trust, I examined how municipal and NGO staff interact to negotiate, fund, and develop Watershared, their motivations to initiate such partnerships, factors that influence the maintenance of such partnerships, and how staff within these organizations envision their future collaborations. I collected and analyzed data from 15 semi-structured interviews with municipal decision makers and conservation practitioners in the implementing NGO and data from participant observation of several Watershared events and NGO meetings, utilizing an integrated Institutional Analysis Design (IAD) framework. My results suggest that trust and interpersonal relationships built upon shared values and goals and the program history in the region were important factors shaping NGO-municipal collaborations. At the same time, my results show that the NGO and municipal partners had different visions of the future of the program, particularly who would be responsible for program funding and implementation, and different organizational capacities that may influence their abilities to maintain their collaborations over time. Together, these results demonstrate the importance of understanding local dynamics in developing and maintaining NGO-municipal collaborations, particularly the role of adaptability and interpersonal relationships and the challenges related to goal misalignments over time. In Chapter 3, I investigated trust of Watershared participants and non-participants towards various organizations and the collaborating partners of Watershared, particularly the forms of trust present and the factors influencing their trust. By collecting and analyzing data from 1,030 household surveys of Watershared participants and non-participants in 72 communities in the Department of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, my results suggest that factors influencing trust in NGOs vs municipal governments differed even as the type of trust held in both entities was the same. Specifically, that community embeddedness and program participation significantly influenced trust in NGOs while perceived fairness and equality within communities and experience of political instability influence program participants’ trust in local municipalities. Overall, these results demonstrate the utility of a multi-level trust lens in developing informed understandings of trust across organizations while highlighting opportunities for natural resource professionals to enhance trust across organizations. Finally, Chapter 4 of my dissertation moved away from research in Bolivia to examine risk tolerance and trust in a different context due to my strong interest in human-wildlife conflict. Specifically, this chapter focuses on determining the factors that drive tolerance in livestock producer-black vulture conflicts in the midwestern United States. By collecting and analyzing data from 222 surveys of livestock producer in Indiana and Kentucky, I examined the economic, psychological, and social drivers of tolerance of black vultures. The results show that economic cost (e.g., livestock loss) was not a significant factor influencing risk tolerance; rather, wildlife value orientations such as utilitarian or mutualist beliefs, previous experience with black vultures, and intangible costs (i.e., emotions associated with wildlife) were significant drivers of tolerance. This chapter highlights the importance of incorporating non-economic factors in both understanding tolerance and developing policies and programs that reduce human-wildlife conflict. Overall, my dissertation examined trust, collaboration, and risk tolerance in two distinct contexts. Together, my results demonstrate the importance of integrating understandings of trust and risk tolerance with other economic, social, and psychological theories in developing a holistic approach to promoting collaborative natural resource management to address increasingly complex environmental conservation challenges.</p> <p>  </p>

In an era of increasing globalization and rapid technological evolution, SMEs are leveraging innovations to navigate complexities and seize opportunities in global markets. Various firms have adopted innovative technologies in their operations, with FinTech breakthroughs being a particularly interesting area for companies to explore. This qualitative study aims to provide a deeper understanding of how FinTech is reshaping pathways for SMEs to expand internationally beyond their domestic markets and seeks to explore the specific FinTech solutions facilitating this expansion. Utilizing a combination of methodological tools, including semi-structured interviews with key business players, real-life case studies, analysis of previous scientific research, and thematic exploration, the study employs an abductive research approach to gather comprehensive data and contribute significantly to the topic in question. The findings reveal that FinTech products and services significantly influence European SMEs, facilitating cross-border operations, improving access to foreign markets, and managing the risks of international business. Essential FinTech services identified include digital payments, online lending, cash flow management tools, and online billing and invoicing tools. The research also highlights that for certain underserved regions in Europe, FinTech solutions often represent the only viable option for international operations. Tech-driven SMEs and younger entrepreneurs are the most frequent consumers of FinTech technologies. While the future of FinTech is uncertain, its current importance in the SME landscape is clear, influencing both its continued relevance and potential for further evolution. Through this in-depth investigation, the thesis emphasizes FinTech’s transformative role in helping SMEs thrive in the international arena, making it a key aspect of the international business plans of SMEs.

Esta investigación tuvo como objetivo conocer las razones de la resistencia a la adopción de pagos móviles de la generación X de la ciudad de Chiclayo, el cual, se cumplió utilizando la literatura sobre la resistencia a la innovación y aplicando un enfoque cualitativo descriptivo, se entrevistó a 12 adultos pertenecientes a la generación X, que, hasta el momento de la entrevista, no hayan hecho uso del pago móvil para pagar en una tienda física. Las razones de resistencia se clasificaron en 5 barreras: uso, valor, riesgo, tradición e imagen. Para la barrera de uso se mencionó la falta de adopción comercial de los pagos móviles por parte de las tiendas, desconocimiento de uso y la fragmentación de las aplicaciones de pago móvil. Respecto a la barrera de valor, hubo características resaltantes como la rapidez y el evitamiento de contacto con el dinero, adicional a esto se mencionaron motivadores de uso como el mejoramiento del servicio e incentivos promocionales. En la barrera de riesgo, la preocupación de ser asaltados, estafados y la falla en los aplicativos de pago móvil e incluso su propio dispositivo móvil, se mostraron como principales inquietudes. Los motivos de no adopción en la barrera de tradición están la comodidad y funcionalidad que les aporta su método de pago actual, tarjeta o efectivo, y el hábito y costumbre de usar métodos de pago tradicionales. Por último, en la barrera de imagen no se encontró razones de resistencia al uso de los pagos móviles. / The objective of this research was to know the reasons for the resistance to the adoption of mobile payments of generation X of the city of Chiclayo, which was fulfilled using the literature on resistance to innovation and applying a descriptive qualitative approach, interviewed to 12 adults belonging to generation X, who, until the moment of the interview, had not used mobile payment to pay in a physical store. The reasons for resistance were classified into 5 barriers: use, value, risk, tradition and image. For the use barrier, the lack of commercial adoption of mobile payments by stores, ignorance of use and the fragmentation of mobile payment applications were mentioned. Regarding the value barrier, there were outstanding characteristics such as speed and the avoidance of contact with money, in addition to this, motivators of use were mentioned, such as the improvement of the service and promotional incentives. In the risk barrier, the concern of being robbed, scammed and the failure of mobile payment applications and even their own mobile device, were shown as the main concerns. The reasons for not adopting the tradition barrier are the convenience and functionality provided by their current payment method, card or cash, and the habit and custom of using traditional payment methods. Finally, in the image barrier, no reasons for resistance to the use of mobile payments were found.