Swedish micro-businesses are encouraged by the government to internationalise and participate in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Yet research on how they should be supported while doing so is thin. Current research on entrepreneurial ecosystems shows that value co-creation breads sustainability, and increased attention is given to intermediary organisations. While scholars stress aligned expectations as key to value co-creation, intermediaries today are basing their actions on what they think businesses need and expect. This study challenges that logic. This study focused on the entrepreneurial ecosystem of New York, specifically looking at Swedish technology startups, intermediaries and investors. Trough semi-structured interviews the study sought to understand how congruent startups’ and intermediaries’ perceptions of challenges during business establishment in NYC are, and also, how they could be aligned. The study employed the framework of Gioia et al. (2012) when distilling challenges from the interviews. The results show congruence in some identified challenges, with a key difference in their temporal approaches. The intermediaries primarily focused on instrumental challenges and initial barriers-to-entry, while the startups (and investors) in higher regard focused on open-ended challenges related to relationships and legitimacy. This was considered proof of intermediaries employing an outdated theoretical perspective on their role as an instrumental broker. The study thus concluded by suggesting an alternative perspective, emphasizing dynamic and situation-based support. / Svenska mikro-företag uppmanas av regeringen att internationalisera tidigt och delta i entreprenöriella ekosystem. Mängden forskning på hur de bäst bör stödjas i detta är dock blygsam. Samtida studier på entrepreöriella ekosystem visar hur kollektivt värdeskapande (eng: value co-creation) föder långsiktig hållbarhet, och uppmärksamhet riktas allt mer åt intermediära organisationer. Även om forskare menar att kongruenta förväntningar är en nyckel till kollektivt värdeskapande baserar intermediärer idag ofta sina handlingar och stöd på vad de tror att företag behöver och förväntar sig. Denna studie utmanar den logiken. Studien fokuserade på New Yorks entreprenöriella ekosystem och undersökte svenska högteknologiska startupbolag, intermediärer och investerare. Genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer sökte studien lära hur kongruenta startups och intermediärer är i sina uppfattningar av utmaningar vid företagsetablering i New York, samt hur dessa kan göras mer samstämmiga för att föda långsiktigt hållbara stödfunktioner Studien nyttjade ett ramverk av Gioia et al. (2012) i destillationen av utmaningar från intervjuerna. Resultaten visar kongruens i vissa identifierade utmaningar, med en tongivande skillnad i dess tidsmässiga förhållningssätt. Intermedärerna fokuserade primärt på instrumentella utmaningar och initiala inträdesbarriärer, medan startups (och investerare) i högre utsträckning fokuserade på mindre tidsbegränsade utmaningar som t.ex. relationer och legitimitet. Detta ansågs vara bevis på hur intermediärer brukar ett daterat teoretiskt perspektiv på sin egen roll som instrumentella mäklare. Studien sammanfattade därför slutligen att ett nytt, mer dynamiskt och situationsbaserat perspektiv på intermediärer och stöd bör välkomnas.

Rural areas have experienced a decline in traditional livelihoods, leading to a decrease in population and economic challenges. However, tourism has emerged as a crucial source of income and a driving force in rural community development. This study explores the role of lifestyle entrepreneurs in creating sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems in rural tourism destinations. It investigates the motivations and management practices of lifestyle entrepreneurs and examines their perceptions of their own performance and contribution to sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems in their local communities. Six in-depth interviews were conducted with lifestyle entrepreneurs operating in different regions of rural Sweden to address the research questions.    The findings reveal that lifestyle entrepreneurs are primarily motivated by the quality of life, personal fulfilment, creativity, autonomy, and a strong connection to their community and local environment. These motivations influence their decision-making processes, leading to the application of sustainable business practices that align with their values. Networking and cooperation among lifestyle entrepreneurs are emphasized, with a focus on collaboration over competition, resulting in benefits such as sustainable practices, increased competitiveness, and opportunities for knowledge sharing and discussion. However, the extent of engagement in networking and cooperation may vary based on entrepreneurs' motivations and priorities.   The study concludes that promoting sustainable tourism practices and supporting the well-being of lifestyle entrepreneurs are crucial for local sustainable development. Policymakers and stakeholders should consider the unique needs of lifestyle entrepreneurs and foster a supportive environment that encourages cooperation, networking, and work-life balance.

Context: The explosive growth of renowned software ecosystems such as the cloud-based accounting platform Xero, and the communication hub Slack has largely occurred because of an app marketplace they have built. To a large extent, in-app marketplaces are becoming mandatory for SaaS companies. Looking at the 15 largest SaaS companies, all of them have an app marketplace with a median number of 347 applications integrated to the marketplace [1]. It is challenging for any organization to orchestrate a platform independently. The more other participants contribute to that platform, greater resources are applied to create richer offerings for the platform’s end-users. Looking at the initial stages of when an organization transitions from a product to platform development, there is an underlying challenge of how that organization attracts third-party developers to partner and enrich the ecosystem. Objective: This thesis aims to identify what can be used to attract third-party developers or organizations to develop and integrate onto an emerging platform or- ganization. It also examines problem areas faced by emerging software ecosystems when trying to attract third-party developers onto their platform. Method: I performed a case study to investigate the needs of third-party devel- opers looking to develop on a platform organization. I also used mixed data collection to obtain different sources of information, including internal and external interviews, virtual events, an internal developer workshop, and an investigation of competitors and other software ecosystems. Results: The thesis highlights that emerging software ecosystems often do not have the resources or capacity to build an initial robust platform experience as some of the more established software ecosystems like HubSpot and Shopify. With the lack of research completed to date on emerging software ecosystems, I was motivated to investigate the best practices that are crucial to attract third-party developers onto the platform. Conclusion: Through thematic analysis, the study revealed eight emerging con- cepts. When transitioning to a software ecosystem, organizations have struggled with six common issues. Additionally, six recommendations were gathered to help guide emerging software ecosystems towards best practices to attract third-party developers onto their platform. / Graduate

Coastal ecosystems continue to face numerous negative impacts from human activities ranging from local nutrient enrichment to global warming. These threats have complex effects on coastal biogeochemistry, which in turn alters ecosystem ecology and climate. While sediments have long been recognized as cornerstones of marine ecosystem functioning, the impacts of anthropogenic change on benthic biogeochemical cycling remain challenging to constrain. This knowledge gap stems from technological issues as measuring marine sediment processes under natural conditions is a formidable challenge. To help move the field of sediment biogeochemistry forward, I developed a novel mass spectrometer-based system and used it to quantify dissolved gas fluxes from marine sediments. In Chapter One, I survey the field of underwater mass spectrometry from its inception three decades ago to the present. Through comprehensive descriptions of the current status of the technology, field applications to date, and future trends, I provided guidance for how to leverage this powerful new tool to measure gaseous compounds in the under sampled ocean. In Chapter Two, I review the role of permeable shelf sediments in marine nitrogen cycling. My synthesis of the small but growing body of work on nitrogen cycling in shelf sands exposed conflicting evidence surrounding the nitrogen removal capacity of permeable sediments, and I proposed targeted approaches, such as the development of noninvasive in situ technologies, to resolve these controversies. In Chapter Three, I present a newly developed flow-injection sampling system that can be coupled to a mass spectrometer to measure a range of dissolved gas species in the pore water of highly permeable sandy sediments. Rigorous calibration and validation experiments demonstrate that this novel system can quantify dissolved gas depth profiles, as well as fluxes across the sediment-water interface, in permeable sediments. Furthermore, with my prescribed design improvements, this tool promises to provide in situ data in dynamic sandy environments. In Chapter Four, I used the flow-injection mass spectrometer system to measure benthic fluxes of gaseous nitrogen and methane from cohesive sediments subjected to low oxygen conditions and varying organic matter loads. The unprecedented high temporal resolution of the gas flux data revealed the complex and dynamic effects of changing environmental conditions on the capacity of sediments to remove reactive nitrogen and regulate methane emissions. / 2024-11-08T00:00:00Z

Oomycetes (Stramenopiles, protists) are among the most severe plant pathogens, comprising species with a high economic and ecologic impact on forest ecosystems. Their diversity and community structures are well studied in terrestrial habitats, but tree canopies as huge and diverse habitats have been widely neglected. A recent study highlighted distinct oomycete communities in the canopy stratum compared to the ground region of three temperate deciduous trees (Quercus robur, Tilia cordata, Fraxinus excelsior). While the communities from the two strata were distinct when taking oomycete abundances into account, they were rather similar when only OTU presence/absence was considered. It remains, however, unknown if this homogeneity in the OTU presence also leads to a functional homogenisation among microhabitats within the two strata ground and canopy. In this study, we supplemented functional traits to oomycete communities in the tree microhabitats, which were determined over a time period of 2 years with a metabarcoding approach. Our results showed that even though most oomycetes occurred in all microhabitats, a strong discrepancy between the strata and correspondingly the distribution of oomycete lifestyles could be observed. This pattern was constant over several seasons. Obligate biotrophic species, exclusively feeding on living host tissue, dominated the canopy region, implying tree canopies to be a hitherto neglected reservoir for parasitic protists. OTUs assigned to the genus Hyaloperonospora—parasites highly specialised on hosts that were not sampled—could be determined in high abundances in the canopy and the surrounding air, challenging the strict host dependencies ruled for some oomycetes. Our findings further contribute to the understanding of oomycete ecosystem functioning in forest ecosystems

In the pursuit of attracting more tourists in a market where competition is growing on a global scale, place branding has become increasingly more common. An underexplored alternative within the place branding literature is place brand ecosystems, and how they can create value for both the place brand itself as well as the tourists that travel there. This thesis aimed to research how a place brand ecosystem can be conceptualised as well as how tourists derive value from viewing a place brand as a place brand ecosystem. The conceptualisation of the place brand ecosystem was conducted through a literature review, leading up to the construction of a conceptual framework. The constructed framework showed that a place brand ecosystem could be conceptualised through interactions between stakeholders, place brand perception, and value co-creation. This framework also set the basis for an interview guide to understand tourist value perception of place brand ecosystems. The data collection was conducted through a set of semi-structured interviews consisting of 11 respondents holding a degree of interest of Arjeplog as a tourist destination.  The results of the data collection showed that tourists saw value in functional attributes being more easily accessible to each other, meaning a place brand ecosystem where stakeholders co-operate will be able to construct their functional attributes more easily. The attributes themselves will differ between places, and the place brand ecosystem must identify their strengths and weaknesses among the stakeholders and adjust accordingly. Furthermore, the place brand ecosystem must manage the brand positioning in relation to the brand image, meaning they must meet the expectations they have set out to market, or the tourists would leave discontent as opposed to if they had travelled there without expectations.

In tropical seascapes, coral reefs often exist in proximity to marine vegetated habitats such as seagrass, mangroves, and macroalgae. This habitat mosaic offers the possibility for connection and exchange of both organisms and nutrition between habitats, mediated by biological and physical processes. This dissertation examines flows of organisms and nutrition between coral reefs and tropical vegetated habitats in the central Red Sea through 3 different mechanisms: 1) Use of multiple habitat types by tropical marine fishes, 2) Transport of algal material to coral reefs via the foraging behavior and movements of herbivorous fishes, and 3) Physical flow of water between coastal habitats. The results of this thesis suggest that coastal tropical habitats maintain a variety of ecological links at different spatial and temporal scales. A large fraction (36%) of fish species found on coral reefs are also found in at least one marine vegetated habitat in the central Red Sea, with many species mainly living in vegetated habitats as juveniles. This demonstrates the value of mangrove, seagrass, and macroalgae habitats to coral reef fishes, and suggests that many species make ontogenetic migrations between reef and non-reef habitats through their lives. Two species of herbivorous reef fishes (Naso elegans and N. unicornis) were found on coral reefs with algae in their guts which likely originated from nearby Sargassum-dominated macroalgae canopies, representing a fish-mediated, cross-habitat flux of nutrition from macroalgae habitats to coral reefs. Finally, we used a combination of remote sensing, a dye tracer study, and in-water measurements to observe water movement from shallow seagrass and mangrove habitats to nearby lagoon and coral reef habitats. Water exiting seagrass and mangrove habitats had altered concentrations of various nutrients (such as increased particulate organic carbon or decreased dissolved nutrients), suggesting that Red Sea mangroves and seagrasses change nutrient concentrations in water and the movement of water from these habitats to coral reefs could supply reefs with an allochthonous source of nutrition. These various linkages, controlled by a range of physical and biological processes, highlight the interconnected nature of tropical coastal ecosystems, and thereby the need to conserve whole habitat mosaics in the pursuit to protect coral reefs and maintain healthy and functioning coastal ecosystems.

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