Enligt nuvarande internationell policy och lagstiftning i flertalet länder ska samhället vara tillgängligt för alla invånare. Trots detta finns ett stort antal studier där bristande fysisk tillgänglighet rapporterats i allmänna byggnader. Rullstolsburna stöter ofta på fysiska tillgänglighetsproblem då de färdas i samhället och står därför inför stora hinder. Syftet var att kartlägga den fysiska tillgängligheten för rullstolsburna i tre av Umeå kommuns sportanläggningar. Housing Enabler som kompletterades med Bygg Ikapp användes för att syste-matiskt undersöka miljöhinder i fysisk tillgänglighet. Resultatet i studien visar att det förekommer fysisk tillgänglighetsproblematik. Den mest omfattande problematik som rapporterades var i sektionen inomhusmiljö där hinder förekom i form av bl.a. höga trösklar och smala passager. Fysiska hinder rapporterades även frekvent inom sektionerna toalett och utomhusmiljö. Resultaten innebär att rullstols-burna har sämre aktivitets- och delaktighetsmöjligheter vid besök på dessa anläggningar. En god tillgänglighet inom offentliga byggnader och anläggningar utgör en grund för delaktighet och ökad livskvalitet. En bättre fysisk tillgänglighet i anläggningarna kan leda till att rullstolsburna deltar mer frekvent i sportevenemang. Författarna ser behov av vidare forskning gällande Housing Enabler för att optimera fysisk tillgänglighetskartläggning av allmänna miljöer, då instrumentet i första hand syftar till att kartlägga hemmiljöer.

Background: The current trend of a decrease in globalization has created a new scenario for SMEs, with increased protectionist measures and delivery issues, acting as an enabler or a disabler for growth. Therefore, understanding how SMEs are affected is vital, as 99.9% of all Swedish companies are SMEs, meaning that they are crucial for regional well-being. Researching the effect on the growth of SMEs could provide important insight into how SMEs could adapt and mitigate the effects of a decrease in globalization. This study investigates how a decrease in globalization affects the growth of SMEs, utilizing the literature on SME growth and the framework of external enablers. Purpose: This study aims to explore how a decrease in globalization affects the growth of SMEs. Method: The study follows an interpretivist approach through multiple case studies, by conducting semi-structured interviews. Further, the research uses an inductive approach. The empirical data was analyzed following the model by Gioia et al. (2013), where aggregated dimensions were identified. Conclusion: The empirical findings suggest that a decrease in globalization affected SMEs' growth directly through extrinsic events, value chain disruptions, and changes in internal strategies, and internal strategies were further affected by external events. The findings further suggest that the effects are dependent on the industry and the owners´ perception. Therefore, whether a decrease in globalization enables SME growth depends on the interactions between external events and the internal strategies of SMEs. This study contributes to the literature on SME growth and extends the external enabler framework to existing organizations.

Bakgrund: Samhället behöver vara tillgängligt för alla. Genom att samhället är tillgängligt för de med funktionsnedsättningar, ökar deras delaktighet. Vårdcentral är i regel den första vårdkontakten, vilket innebär att alla individer kommer i kontakt med en vårdcentral i sina liv. Arbetsterapi har fokus på aktivitetsförmågan, och att den kan påverkas av miljön som antingen kan ses som en resurs eller ett hinder.Syfte: Att undersöka och jämföra tillgängligheten för rullstolsburna personer på vårdcentraler i Örebro, Karlskoga och Lindesbergs kommun.Metod: En observationsstudie utifrån en checklista utfördes på 16 vårdcentraler. Checklistan omfattade 22 bedömningspunkter fördelade över “utomhus och parkering”, “entré”, “inomhusmiljön i anslutning till entré” och “handikapptoalett”. JA gav 1 poäng och NEJ gav 0 poäng, ju högre poäng desto bättre tillgänglighet.Resultat: Generellt hade vårdcentralerna måttligt god tillgänglighet. Det totala genomsnittliga medianvärdet var 73 %. Det område som hade lägst poäng var “handikapptoalett”, medan “inomhusmiljön i anslutning till entré” hade godkänt på varje punkt.Slutsats: Det finns brister i tillgängligheten för rullstolsburna personer på vårdcentralerna i Örebro, Lindesberg och Karlskoga kommun. Bristerna

Purpose of this paper: The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the factors that enable or aggravate the implementation of a GSCM strategy for textile and fashion companies. Moreover, it shall be investigated how textile and fashion companies perceive their incentives of implementing GSCM and what their organizational responses regarding the perceived barriers and enablers look like. Design/methodology/approach: The report combines a literature study on previous research in the field of supply chain management, Green Supply Chain Management and the drivers and barriers of implementing a GSCM strategy, with an empirical study consisting of an online survey, a semi-structured interview and two case studies that are based on literature review. In order to analyze the survey results, a method to calculate a company’s GSCM incentive score has been developed. Findings: The factors that have been identified as the strongest or most important ones by many companies of the survey, as well as the interviewee and the case studies are supplier collaboration, the lack of supplier commitment, customer demand for more sustainability, customer desire for lower prices and top management commitment. Some companies also perceived the alignment of their company’s strategy as strong GSCM enabler. However, the calculation shows that the overall incentive score of most participants is in the neutral level; meaning that they in total perceive neither significant incentives nor barriers to implement GSCM. With mostly internal enablers and external barriers, more than half of the survey participants can be categorized as Agenda Setters. Research limitations: Due to the low response rate, the sample size of this study is very small. Moreover, the results strongly depend on the personal opinion and experiences of the interviewee and the individual situations of the companies. This means that the results of this study give an indication, but are not generalizable. Therefore, another study with a different sampling method and a larger sample size is needed. Practical implications: The outcomes of this study show that GSCM concerns every aspect of a supply chain. A company that wants to engage in GSCM needs to have good relationships with and control over its suppliers in order to ensure that they fulfill the sustainability requirements, and deal with pressure from NGOs. Additionally, the company needs to balance customer demands for low prices and sustainability, expect some (one-time) investments and sacrifice short-term profit in order to ensure sustainable production. Originality/value: This report identifies the most important GSCM barriers and enablers for textile companies. By evaluating how companies within the textile and fashion sector perceive their incentives of implementing GSCM and investigating their organizational behavior towards barriers and enablers of GSCM, this study indicates what the current situation in the textile industry looks like; shows where improvements are necessary and gives insight for companies that aim to engage in green practices. The development of the so called GSCM incentive score; a method to calculate a company’s perceived incentives to implement a GSCM strategy, can be useful for future studies within this field.

The aim of this research is to develop an understanding of factors that enable innovation teams to conduct agile innovation work in an industrial context. The background and reason for this research are not only that innovation is necessary for companies that want to stay in business, but also that these companies need to increase the speed of their innovation work to stay competitive. Research has demonstrated that cross-functional (X-functional) innovation teams are fast and agile, and are therefore assumed to be suitable for these activities. Still, there is much knowledge to be gained. Prior research has identified factors that are seen as important from an organizational, team, and individual perspective to enable teams to work with potentially innovative outcomes. However, in cases where teams have been created with the purpose of conducting innovation work, i.e. innovation teams, problems related to e.g. performance and learning have occurred, and the innovation work has stopped shortly after conducted research projects due to the high level of complexity. The research question (RQ) that this thesis explores is the following: “Which innovation enablers are important for innovation teams when conducting agile innovation work in an industrial context?” Based on the RQ, two sub-questions are formulated and operationalized to answer the RQ. Qualitative data have been collected from five innovation teams in two phases. Two innovation teams in two small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were studied in the first phase to clarify the situation for innovation teams before innovation work is begun. In the second phase, which built on the first one, three innovation teams in a large industrial company were studied as they conducted three separate innovation projects. This research revealed five main findings: first, knowledge about important innovation enablers (Enablers) revealed from a literature study; second, the Innovation Team Model (ITM), demonstrating innovation teams before innovation work is begun in relation to the individuals and organization in a holistic way; third, the innovation team creation process (CIT-process), a stepwise process in how to create an innovation team; fourth, the innovation facilitator, who supports and facilitates the innovation team throughout the CIT-process and the innovation projects; and fifth, the Extended Innovation Process (EIP), an extension of the traditional innovation process by a pre-phase, i.e. a Preparation-phase, to gather and prepare the innovation teams for forthcoming work. The findings regarding the importance of the CIT-process, the EIP, and the innovation facilitator were unexpected. The findings formed the Innovation Team Framework (ITF), which represents all of the findings in relation to each other. The EIP is used as the basis for which the other innovation enablers are provided to the innovation teams through an innovation facilitator’s competence throughout the innovation project. The ITF is multidimensional: it could serve as a tool to describe both the simplicity and the complexity when creating an innovation team and forthcoming work and activities. All separate findings within this research contribute to prior research in individual ways, however, the ITF is the main scientific contribution of this study to Innovation management. Practitioners can use the ITF as a complement to already established methodologies for product development or similar; however one should be aware of the limited nature of the data set that served as the basis for analysis and development of the ITF. Further studies regarding the ITF and its detailed models and processes are suggested.

<p>Service recovery is about problems. What happens when customers experience problems? Well, sometimes customers complain to the one responsible for the service. Sometimes customers do not complain but instead tell somebody else about the problem, possibly leading to a bad reputation for the one responsible for the service. Sometimes it happens that customers never return to the same provider because of the problem experienced. To avoid the customer leaving, service recovery can be used. Service recovery is a set of actions a service pro-vider can take in order to repair a failure (Tax and Brown, 1998; Zemke, 1995; Scheuing and Christopher, 1993; Levesque and McDougall, 2000).</p><p>In addition, many services today are Internet-based, meaning that services are self-services enabled by information technology (IT). Self-services enabled by IT, referred to as self-service technology (SST), are characterized by an interac-tion between a user and a machine rather than between two humans. Conse-quently, service recovery is no longer between two people interacting in a face-to-face manner when solving problems, but between a user and a machine when taking place in an SST context.</p><p>This change of context has resulted in difficulties but also opportunities in the work of service recovery. Instead of turning to the one responsible for the service when problems occur, it is now possible to turn to other customers and users to receive help. SST has opened up new opportunities to learn with and from other individuals through the sharing of knowledge. The sharing of knowledge for the purpose of turning problems into solutions and improve-ments depends on the ability to create value for people involved.</p><p>Service recovery in a self-service technology context, i.e. self-service recovery (SSR) is defined as the capability, enabled by self-service technology, of turning user prob-lems into solutions and improvements by means of sharing knowledge between users in order to create value.</p><p>The aim of this doctoral thesis is to answer the question, “Why self-service recovery works?” The question is addressed by seven research studies and by evolving a framework for understanding why self-service recovery works.</p><p>The contributions of this dissertation reside from the framework, which en-hances our understanding of self-service recovery as a value creation activity through not only recovery, but also improvement of the service in question.</p>

Service recovery is about problems. What happens when customers experience problems? Well, sometimes customers complain to the one responsible for the service. Sometimes customers do not complain but instead tell somebody else about the problem, possibly leading to a bad reputation for the one responsible for the service. Sometimes it happens that customers never return to the same provider because of the problem experienced. To avoid the customer leaving, service recovery can be used. Service recovery is a set of actions a service pro-vider can take in order to repair a failure (Tax and Brown, 1998; Zemke, 1995; Scheuing and Christopher, 1993; Levesque and McDougall, 2000). In addition, many services today are Internet-based, meaning that services are self-services enabled by information technology (IT). Self-services enabled by IT, referred to as self-service technology (SST), are characterized by an interac-tion between a user and a machine rather than between two humans. Conse-quently, service recovery is no longer between two people interacting in a face-to-face manner when solving problems, but between a user and a machine when taking place in an SST context. This change of context has resulted in difficulties but also opportunities in the work of service recovery. Instead of turning to the one responsible for the service when problems occur, it is now possible to turn to other customers and users to receive help. SST has opened up new opportunities to learn with and from other individuals through the sharing of knowledge. The sharing of knowledge for the purpose of turning problems into solutions and improve-ments depends on the ability to create value for people involved. Service recovery in a self-service technology context, i.e. self-service recovery (SSR) is defined as the capability, enabled by self-service technology, of turning user prob-lems into solutions and improvements by means of sharing knowledge between users in order to create value. The aim of this doctoral thesis is to answer the question, “Why self-service recovery works?” The question is addressed by seven research studies and by evolving a framework for understanding why self-service recovery works. The contributions of this dissertation reside from the framework, which en-hances our understanding of self-service recovery as a value creation activity through not only recovery, but also improvement of the service in question.

Municipalities play an important role in society’s transition towards sustainability. However, as they are subject to forces from both top-down (legislation etc.) and bottom-up (stakeholders’ needs and interests etc.), as well as internal dynamics within the municipal organisation, their planning approaches are usually not strategic. This implies that there is often a gap between long-term plans and short-term actions. This thesis explores enablers and barriers for strategic sustainability planning in municipalities. Focussing in particular on the översiktsplan Swedish municipalities are required to create for their spatial planning, we develop a proposal how the planning process defined by Swedish law can be made more strategic and incorporate sustainability. We suggest to integrate elements of the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) into the planning process, and to engage experts and the general public from early on. Moreover, we provide a toolkit containing various instruments that facilitate using the strategic planning process proposed. Finally, this thesis shows ways to deal with forces from top-down, bottom-up and within the municipality. The suggestions build on insights from literature as well as interviews conducted in municipalities and with further experts, but have not yet been tested in a real-life context.

The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), with its potential to be either highly beneficial or detrimental to humanity, is driving the rapid evolution of digital technologies, significantly impacting the business world and fostering new entrepreneurial opportunities. AI, characterized by its ability to learn, adapt, and make decisions, optimizes crucial elements such as time and resources, which are essential for entrepreneurial success. Generative AI (GenAI), a subset of AI, has gained unprecedented traction, exemplified by the rapid adoption of tools like ChatGPT, which democratize access to advanced technology previously limited to large corporations. The proliferation of GenAI across various business functions is ushering in a new era of entrepreneurship, where leveraging AI's efficiencies can determine a venture's success and longevity. This thesis examines GenAI's role in entrepreneurship by addressing the lack of empirical evidence through an explorative approach using interview data. It develops a framework to understand GenAI's role in different stages of the venture creation process (VCP) and offers a practical guide for entrepreneurs to leverage GenAI technologies effectively. Focusing on German tech entrepreneurs, the research uses the External Enabler (EE) framework to provide empirical evidence of GenAI's benefits in the VCP. This thesis employs an exploratory research design with semi-structured interviews to gather qualitative data. A purposive and snowball sampling strategy was used to select 5 experts and 9 entrepreneurs of the software industry with relevant experience, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of GenAI's application in the VCP. Data was analyzed using qualitative content analysis, combining deductive and inductive methods to develop a robust category system. Triangulation of data sources enhanced the credibility of the findings, validating insights through referencing and consistency checks. This thesis identifies key enabling mechanisms of GenAI in the VCP. Additionally, it highlights inhibiting factors such as technical knowledge, trust, data security, and ethics of GenAI. The findings bridge the gap between theoretical models and practical applications, offering valuable insights for entrepreneurs, policymakers, and other stakeholders. The research underscores the importance of empirical evidence and the transformative potential of GenAI in enhancing operational efficiencies and achieving competitive advantages.

In the era of Industry 4.0, the Internet-of-Things (IoT) plays the driving role comparable to steam power in the first industrial revolution. IoT provides the potential to combine machine-to-machine (M2M) interaction and real time data collection within the field of manufacturing. Therefore, the adoption of IoT in industry enhances dynamic optimization, control and data-driven decision making. However, the domain suffers due to interoperability issues, with massive numbers of IoT devices connecting to the internet despite the absence of communication standards upon. Heterogeneity is pervasive in IoT ranging from the low levels (device connectivity, network connectivity, communication protocols) to high levels (services, applications, and platforms). The project investigates the current state of industrial IoT (IIoT) ecosystem, to draw a comprehensive understanding on interoperability challenges and current solutions in supporting of IoT-based smart manufacturing. Based upon a literature review, IIoT interoperability issues were classified into four levels: technical, syntactical, semantic, and organizational level interoperability. Regarding each level of interoperability, the current solutions that addressing interoperability were grouped and analyzed. Nine reference architectures were compared in the context of supporting industrial interoperability. Based on the analysis, interoperability research trends and challenges were identified. FIWARE Generic Enablers (FIWARE GEs) were identified as a possible solution in supporting interoperability for manufacturing applications. FIWARE GEs were evaluated with a scenario-based Method for Evaluating Middleware Architectures (MEMS).  Nine key scenarios were identified in order to evaluate the interoperability attribute of FIWARE GEs. A smart manufacturing use case was prototyped and a test bed adopting FIWARE Orion Context Broker as its main component was designed. The evaluation shows that FIWARE GEs meet eight out of nine key scenarios’ requirements. These results show that FIWARE GEs have the ability to enhance industrial IoT interoperability for a smart manufacturing use case. The overall performance of FIWARE GEs was also evaluated from the perspectives of CPU usage, network traffic, and request execution time. Different request loads were simulated and tested in our testbed. The results show an acceptable performance in terms with a maximum CPU usage (on a Macbook Pro (2018) with a 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 processor) of less than 25% with a load of 1000 devices, and an average execution time of less than 5 seconds for 500 devices to publish their measurements under the prototyped implementation. / I en tid präglad av Industry 4.0, Internet-of-things (IoT) spelar drivande roll jämförbar med ångkraft i den första industriella revolutionen. IoT ger potentialen att kombinera maskin-till-maskin (M2M) -interaktion och realtidsdatainsamling inom tillverkningsområdet. Därför förbättrar antagandet av IoT i branschen dynamisk optimering, kontroll och datadriven beslutsfattande. Domänen lider dock på grund av interoperabilitetsproblem, med enorma antal IoT-enheter som ansluter till internet trots avsaknaden av kommunikationsstandarder på. Heterogenitet är genomgripande i IoT som sträcker sig från de låga nivåerna (enhetskonnektivitet, nätverksanslutning, kommunikationsprotokoll) till höga nivåer (tjänster, applikationer och plattformar). Projektet undersöker det nuvarande tillståndet för det industriella IoT (IIoT) ekosystemet, för att få en omfattande förståelse för interoperabilitetsutmaningar och aktuella lösningar för att stödja IoT-baserad smart tillverkning. Baserat på en litteraturöversikt klassificerades IIoT-interoperabilitetsfrågor i fyra nivåer: teknisk, syntaktisk, semantisk och organisatorisk nivå interoperabilitet. När det gäller varje nivå av driftskompatibilitet grupperades och analyserades de nuvarande lösningarna för adressering av interoperabilitet. Nio referensarkitekturer jämfördes i samband med att stödja industriell driftskompatibilitet. Baserat på analysen identifierades interoperabilitetstrender och utmaningar. FIWARE Generic Enablers (FIWARE GEs) identifierades som en möjlig lösning för att stödja interoperabilitet för tillverkningstillämpningar. FIWARE GEs utvärderades med en scenariebaserad metod för utvärdering av Middleware Architectures (MEMS). Nio nyckelscenarier identifierades för att utvärdera interoperabilitetsattributet för FIWARE GEs. Ett smart tillverkningsfodral tillverkades med prototyper och en testbädd som antog FIWARE Orion Context Broker som huvudkomponent designades. Utvärderingen visar att FIWARE GE uppfyller åtta av nio krav på nyckelscenarier. Dessa resultat visar att FIWARE GE har förmågan att förbättra industriell IoT-interoperabilitet för ett smart tillverkningsfodral. FIWARE GEs totala prestanda utvärderades också utifrån perspektivet för CPU-användning, nätverkstrafik och begär exekveringstid. Olika förfrågningsbelastningar simulerades och testades i vår testbädd. Resultaten visar en acceptabel prestanda i termer av en maximal CPU-användning (på en Macbook Pro (2018) med en 2,3 GHz Intel Core i5-processor) på mindre än 25% med en belastning på 1000 enheter och en genomsnittlig körningstid på mindre än 5 sekunder för 500 enheter att publicera sina mätningar under den prototyperna implementateringen.