<p>In this thesis I investigate the cultural differences between Norway and Russia and their impact on the business relationships that Norwegian companies establish with Russian counterparts. The emphasis is on how to take these differences into account in the company’s strategic management processes. The main source of data in this study is the interviews with the Norwegian managers who have the experience of business relationships with Russian counterparts. I have also relied on the various publications on the subject.</p><p>In the first chapter, I suggest that as soon as the company starts the operations in the other country’s market it faces the national culture different from the domestic one: people think, feel and act not the same way. These differences will affect everyday communication and work practices; one of the factors determining the company’s performance on the foreign market will be its ability to accommodate the particular characteristics of the national culture. My argument is that the internationally-operating company needs the knowledge about cultural characteristics of the host countries; this knowledge should be integrated into the company’s decision making and strategy development processes. As the increasing number of Norwegian companies is operating in the Russian market, there is a need for the studies that will provide an insight into the cultural characteristics and the social functioning, will point out the possible areas of the cultural clash and will suggest some way to avoid it. These reflections led me to formulate the initial research questions for the study:</p><p> What are the cultural challenges related to Norwegian-Russian cooperation?</p><p> How can this challenges be considered in the company’s strategy?</p>

In this thesis I investigate the cultural differences between Norway and Russia and their impact on the business relationships that Norwegian companies establish with Russian counterparts. The emphasis is on how to take these differences into account in the company’s strategic management processes. The main source of data in this study is the interviews with the Norwegian managers who have the experience of business relationships with Russian counterparts. I have also relied on the various publications on the subject. In the first chapter, I suggest that as soon as the company starts the operations in the other country’s market it faces the national culture different from the domestic one: people think, feel and act not the same way. These differences will affect everyday communication and work practices; one of the factors determining the company’s performance on the foreign market will be its ability to accommodate the particular characteristics of the national culture. My argument is that the internationally-operating company needs the knowledge about cultural characteristics of the host countries; this knowledge should be integrated into the company’s decision making and strategy development processes. As the increasing number of Norwegian companies is operating in the Russian market, there is a need for the studies that will provide an insight into the cultural characteristics and the social functioning, will point out the possible areas of the cultural clash and will suggest some way to avoid it. These reflections led me to formulate the initial research questions for the study:  What are the cultural challenges related to Norwegian-Russian cooperation?  How can this challenges be considered in the company’s strategy?

Univ., Diss.--Mannheim, 2003.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:13:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Vinicius Prates.pdf: 12297013 bytes, checksum: eae7c556deeaa642ffe61be2c840c5e5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-06 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This research inquires how the enunciators of the leading Brazilian magazines specialized in economy and business deal with the tension between the environmental discourses and the communication contract based on liberal-capitalism ideology. The corpus is composed by texts whose themes are related to the environmentalism, enounced by Exame, IstoÉ Dinheiro and Época Negócios magazines published in 2010, that modalize the executive-readers. The goal of this research is to understand how the enunciators semiotically act to plug the hole in the liberal-capitalist discourse, which was left exposed by the antagonists factions that struggle by hegemony on the environmentalist field. Our thesis points that this operation promotes a sintomal inversion and, thus, in the weaker point of the hegemonic discourse s symbolic equivalence net the environment declared in crisis the enunciators build as a nodal point the sustainability , this positivized reverse. The system of production and consumption is re-signified by this inversion: instead of the cause of the environmental crises in the present it becomes the propitiator of a green and clean world in the future. About the methodology of research, it is based on the post-structural discourse analysis of Laclau, Mouffe, i ek, Howarth and Stavrakakis; on the dialogue with the French current of discourse analysis (AD), from authors as Maingueneau, Pêcheux and Ducrot; and on the aggregation of contemporary political philosophy elements proposed by Rancière, Agamben and Latour, between others. For a reflexion about the ecologist movements, it is specially based on authors that prioritize the political and discursive point of view, like Alier, Leff and Dryzek. The expectation to this work is that it can contribute to deepen the debate about the environmentalist discursive field politics and about the sustainability discourse, propagated each day more by the media machine / Esta pesquisa investiga como os enunciadores das principais revistas brasileiras de economia e negócios operam com a tensão entre os discursos ambientalistas e os seus contratos de comunicação baseados no liberal-capitalismo. O corpus é composto por textos cujo tema é o meio ambiente, enunciados por Exame, IstoÉ Dinheiro e Época Negócios de 2010, publicações que atuam como modalizadoras do leitor-executivo. O objetivo da pesquisa é compreender como o enunciador atua semioticamente para tamponar o furo no discurso liberal-capitalista deixado exposto pelas correntes antagonistas que disputam a hegemonia no campo discursivo ambientalista. Nossa tese é a de que esta operação promove uma inversão sintomal e, assim, no lugar mais fraco das redes de equivalência simbólica do discurso hegemônico o meio ambiente declarado em crise os enunciadores erigem como ponto nodal a sustentabilidade, seu avesso positivado. O sistema de produção e consumo é ressignificado a partir dessa inversão: de causador da crise ambiental no presente torna-se propiciador de um mundo verde e limpo no futuro. Quanto à metodologia de pesquisa, ela se baseia na análise discursiva pós-estruturalista de Laclau, Mouffe, i ek, Howarth e Stavrakakis; no diálogo com a corrente francesa da Análise de Discurso (AD), em autores como Maingueneau, Pêcheux e Ducrot; e na incorporação de elementos da filosofia política contemporânea proposta por Rancière, Agamben e Latour, entre outros. Para uma reflexão sobre os movimentos ecologistas, a pesquisa se baseou prioritariamente em autores que priorizam o ponto de vista político e discursivo, como Alier, Leff e Dryzek. A expectativa é que este trabalho contribua para aprofundar o debate sobre as políticas do campo discursivo ambientalista e sobre o discurso da sustentabilidade, cada dia mais difundido pela máquina mediática

Circular economy (CE) is seen as a strategy to achieve sustainable development, requiring commitment and support from multiple actors on all system levels; from companies and products to governments and nations. Circular business models (CBMs) are regarded as an important leverage to implement circularity at an organizational level, and business support is considered an important enabler of these. Communication between practitioners and policy-makers, as well as understanding the barriers of CE in the local context, can facilitate the development of efficient business support. This thesis has from a company perspective explored barriers to circular business model innovation (CBMI) and the impact of firm-specific business support activities on this innovation process. This was done through a multiple-case study of ten Swedish SMEs who had received direct business support for circularity, and thus had initiated a circular project. The study has identified seventeen different barriers across five categories, spanning over the entire innovation process from idea to full implementation. Overall, economic viability appears to be an important factor which relates to and depends on several other barriers, and the novelty of CE contributes to the occurrence of many identified challenges. While some barriers are more common across all ten cases, often challenges related to market demand, financing and knowledge, others are more specific for each case and circular strategy. Furthermore, this study has found that coaching, training, and funding are firm-specific activities that can help SMEs overcome mainly internal barriers in the early stages of the CBMI process, addressing several of the most common barriers identified in this study. This research has also included a company perspective on the costs and benefits of the activities, and pointed at important factors to consider in the development of future business support. / Cirkulär ekonomi ses som en strategi för att uppnå hållbar utveckling, och kräver engagemang och stöd från flertalet aktörer på samtliga systemnivåer; från företag och produkter till regeringar och nationer. Cirkulära affärsmodeller betraktas som en viktig hävstång för att implementera cirkularitet på en organisatorisk nivå, och företagsstöd anses vara en viktig möjliggörare av dessa. Kommunikation mellan utövare och beslutsfattare, samt förståelse för barriärer till cirkulär ekonomi i det lokala sammanhanget, kan underlätta utvecklandet av effektiva företagsstöd. Denna uppsats har ur ett företagsperspektiv utforskat barriärer till cirkulär affärsmodellsinnovation och den inverkan som företagsstöd har på denna innovationsprocess. Detta utfördes genom en fallstudie av tio svenska små och medelstora företag som mottagit stöd för cirkularitet, och som således initierat ett cirkulärt projekt. Studien har identifierat sjutton barriärer inom fem kategorier, vilka sträcker sig över hela innovationsprocessen från idé till full implementation. Generellt framträder ekonomisk livskraft som en viktig faktor, relaterad till samt beroende av flertalet andra barriärer, och nymodigheten i cirkulär ekonomi bidrar till förekommande av flera identifierade barriärer. Medan vissa barriärer är mer vanligt förekommande bland de tio fallen, ofta utmaningar relaterade till marknadens efterfrågan, finansiering och kunskap, är andra mer specifika för varje fall och cirkulär strategi. Vidare finner denna studie att rådgivning, träning och finansiering är företagsspecifika aktiviteter som kan hjälpa små och medelstora företag att överkomma huvudsakligen interna barriärer i de tidiga faserna av cirkulär affärsmodellsinnovation, och som bemöter flertalet av de vanligaste barriärerna som har identifierats i denna studie. Denna studie har även inkluderat ett företagsperspektiv på aktiviteternas nytta och kostnader, samt belyst viktiga faktorer att ta hänsyn till i utvecklingen av framtida företagsstöd.

The subject of this dissertation thesis is investigating the issue of the German ethnic group status in inter-war Czechoslovakia shown in the example of the Nejdek political district with the emphasis on the major and crucial aspects of social life - politics, economic and social issues while the assistance and support elements include: demographics, border issues, the presence of the Czech ethnic group, a preview of own (German) history and the development of churches and religion. The Nejdek political district is set within a framework of regional history with regard to the historical context of the development of Czechoslovakia, or even of the world in some cases. The regional history presented here in the form of a probe from the perspective of great historical events and partly through micro-history aim to build on the broad source base and capture the impacts and effects of national policies on shaping of the Nejdek region and its inhabitants. In some ways, when possible of course, research methods are applied. Overall, the work is to fill the so-called white gaps in the regional historiography, since the books or studies published so far have been focusing only on partial, closely regionally defined topics and only comprehensive work, which the author of this paper attempts, could therefore...