SAMMANFATTNING Inledning: Trots gällande rekommendationer om minst 30 minuters fysisk aktivitet per dag är många människor inte tillräckligt fysiskt aktiva. Endast 30 procent av kvinnorna och 23 procent av männen motionerar två gånger per vecka. Tidigare studier visar på vilka hinder som finns för regelbunden motion, även möjliggörande faktorer har studerats men inte i samma utsträckning.                               Syfte:   Att beskriva faktorer som möjliggör motion hos vuxna på en hälsofrämjande nivå. Metod:   Studien genomfördes som semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex personer. Intervjuerna analyserades med manifest innehållsanalys. Resultat:   Fem subkategorier växte fram genom analys av det manifesta innehållet: "Har tidigare motionsvana", "Tillgång till socialt stöd", "Viktigt med tillgänglighet", "Önskan om självförbättring" och "Förmåga att prioritera träning". Dessa bildade sedan tre huvudkategorier "Tidigare motionsvana", "Yttre betingelser" samt "Inre betingelser". Konklusion:   Att ha varit fysiskt aktiv som barn eller tonåring är av stor betydelse när det gäller förmågan att motionera regelbundet i vuxen ålder. Socialt stöd, framför allt i form av en förstående familj, och egen vilja är två andra viktiga faktorer som framkom i studien. Studiens resultat tyder på att en stor del av det hälsofrämjande arbetet bör läggas på barn och tonåringar i skola och på fritiden.                                 SAMMANFATTNING Inledning:   Trots gällande rekommendationer om minst 30 minuters fysisk aktivitet per dag är många människor inte tillräckligt fysiskt aktiva. Endast 30 procent av kvinnorna och 23 procent av männen motionerar två gånger per vecka. Tidigare studier visar på vilka hinder som finns för regelbunden motion, även möjliggörande faktorer har studerats men inte i samma utsträckning. Syfte:   Att beskriva faktorer som möjliggör motion hos vuxna på en hälsofrämjande nivå. Metod:   Studien genomfördes som semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex personer. Intervjuerna analyserades med manifest innehållsanalys. Resultat:   Fem subkategorier växte fram genom analys av det manifesta innehållet: "Har tidigare motionsvana", "Tillgång till socialt stöd", "Viktigt med tillgänglighet", "Önskan om självförbättring" och "Förmåga att prioritera träning". Dessa bildade sedan tre huvudkategorier "Tidigare motionsvana", "Yttre betingelser" samt "Inre betingelser". Konklusion:   Att ha varit fysiskt aktiv som barn eller tonåring är av stor betydelse när det gäller förmågan att motionera regelbundet i vuxen ålder. Socialt stöd, framför allt i form av en förstående familj, och egen vilja är två andra viktiga faktorer som framkom i studien. Studiens resultat tyder på att en stor del av det hälsofrämjande arbetet bör läggas på barn och tonåringar i skola och på fritiden. / ABSTRACT Introduction:   Despite current recommendations of 30 minutes of daily physical activity many people are not physical active enough. Merely 30 percent of the women and 23 percent of the men exercise twice a week. Previous studies indicate barriers to exercise on a regular basis, facilitators have not been studied to the same extent. Aim:   To describe factors that enable regular exercise for adults on a health promoting level. Method:   The study was carried out as semi-structured interviews with six persons. The interviews were analysed recording to manifest content analysis research approach. Results:   Five subcategories evolved through analysis of the manifest content: "Previously habit of exercise", "Asset of social support", "Importance of accessibility", "Desire of self-improvement" and "Ability to prioritise exercise". These subcategories formed three categories; "Previously habit of exercise", "External stipulations" and "Internal stipulations". Conclusion:   To have been physical active as a child or teenager is of great importance when it comes to ability to exercise on a regular basis as an adult. Social support, especially when it comes to an understanding family, and one’s own will are two other important factors that emerged in this study. The results of the study indicate that a great part of health promoting activities ought to be put on children and teenagers in school and at their leisure time.

The high prevalence of back and neck pain results in enormous social, psychological, and economic burden. Most seeking help for back or neck pain consult general practitioners or chiropractors. Chiropractic is a regulated health profession (serving approximately 10 – 15% of the population) that has contributed to the health and well-being of North Americans for over a century. Despite available evidence for optimal management of back and neck pain, poor adherences to guidelines and wide variations in services have been noted. For instance, overuse and misuse of imaging services have been reported in the chiropractic literature. Inappropriate use of spine imaging has a number of potential adverse outcomes, including inefficient and potentially inappropriate invasive diagnosis and subsequent treatment, and unnecessary patient exposure to ionizing radiation. Although evidence-based diagnostic imaging guidelines for spinal disorders are available, chiropractors are divided on whether these guidelines apply to them. While guidelines can encourage practitioners to conform to best practices and lead to improvements in care, reviews have demonstrated that dissemination of guidelines alone is rarely sufficient to optimise care. Evidence regarding effective methods to promote the uptake of guidelines is still lacking. There is growing acceptance that problem analysis and development of interventions to change practice should be guided by relevant theories and tailored to the target audience. To date, very little knowledge translation research has addressed research-practice gaps in chiropractic. This thesis reports rigorous methods to: (1) assess practice and providers’ characteristics, (2) determine baseline rates and variations in spine x-ray ordering, (3) evaluate the impact of disseminating guidelines to optimise spine x-ray ordering, and (4) assess determinants of spine x-ray ordering and potential targets for change prior to the design of a tailored intervention. A mixed method using two disciplinary perspectives (epidemiology and psychology) was undertaken. A cross-sectional analysis of administrative claims data was carried out on a sample of chiropractors enlisted in a large American provider network. Despite available clinical practice guidelines, wide geographical variations in x-ray use persist. Higher x-ray ordering rates were associated with practice location (Midwest and South US census regions), setting (urban, suburban), chiropractic school attended, male provider, employment, and years in practice. The impact of web-based guideline dissemination was evaluated over a five year period using interrupted time series and demonstrated a stepwise relative reduction of 5.3% in the use of x-rays. Passive guidelines dissemination appeared to be a simple, cost effective strategy in this setting to improve but not optimise x-ray ordering rates. Focus groups using the theoretical domains framework were conducted among Canadian and US chiropractors to explore their beliefs about managing back pain without x-rays. Findings were used to develop a theory-based survey to identify theoretical constructs predicting spine x-ray ordering practice. Psychological theories and theoretical constructs explained a significant portion of the variance in both behavioural simulation and intention. Results from this thesis provide an empirically-supported, theoretical basis to design quality improvement strategies to increase guidelines adherence and promote behaviour change in chiropractic. Other researchers interested in improving uptake of evidenced-based information could use this method in their own setting to investigate determinants of behaviour among other professional groups. Future research may use knowledge gained to inform the development and evaluation of a theory-based tailored intervention to improve guideline adherence and reduce the use of spine x-rays among targeted providers.

Background: Today’s business environment is characterized by fast-changing technologies and shorter product life-cycles, well-educated customers and fierce competition. Within this context, agile manufacturing is praised in the literature as one of the solutions for achieving and maintaining a competitive advantage in turbulent times. Aim: The purpose of this master thesis is to fill in the identified theoretical and empirical gaps by exploring and scrutinizing the relevancy of the agile manufacturing concept in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the computer, electronic and optical manufacturing industry in Sweden. Furthermore, a model illustrating the agile manufacturing enablers applied in the selected industry will be developed. Definition: Agile manufacturing can be defined as a new production concept integrating employees, suppliers and customers, as well as units of production by using the support of software and communication systems. Methodology: Eight interviews with managers have been conducted in order to capture the big picture of how the SMEs in the chosen industry enable responsiveness to changes. A survey answered by 50 SMEs within the same industry was carried out in order to test the interview findings on a larger scale and to provide the basis for a further comparison with the existing agile manufacturing body of knowledge Results: Agile manufacturing is indeed relevant in the studied industry as it is driven by agility drivers and thus characterized by fast-changing technologies and well-educated customers. However, the agile manufacturing enablers partly differ from the ones praised in the literature and are more adjusted to the size and characteristics of SMEs. Nevertheless, a conscious awareness of the agile manufacturing concept itself was not found and the enablers identified were rather described as logical business thinking.

Purpose The aim of this study is to explore, describe and analyze how service firms overcome barriers of internationalization at an early stage. Thus, this study is aiming to increase a better understanding of what kind of preconditions these firms have in the very early stages of internationalization. Methodology This research has been based on qualitative case study and abductive approach. We wanted to pursue this research strategy since we were aiming to receive an in-depth understanding of service firms’ early internationalization process. A delimitation we further have applied in this study is a focus only on early entry to Norwegian market and on Swedish consulting firms. These delimitations have been based mainly on the fact that it would be easier to compare the results from the empirical data. We have furthermore conducting a total of 5 interviews with 6 interviewees. Three of these have been with our chosen case companies and the other two have been with two external actors with profound knowledge about the Norwegian market.   Conclusions In our conclusions, we have identified the main characteristics of barriers in an early internationalization stage for service firms and enablers to overcome these barriers. The three key enablers are networks and relationships, international entrepreneurship and presence at the foreign market.

Vest, H. (2012).Möjligheter och hinder för samverkan inom offentlig sektor. Uppsats i pedagogik på kandidatnivå. Högskolan i Gävle, Akademin för utbildning och ekonomi. Denna undersökning syftar till att belysa upplevda möjligheter och hinder för samverkan, i arbetet med ungdomar rörande alkohol, narkotika, doping och tobak (ANDT). Studiesubjekten utgörs av 14 anställda på en kommun i södra Norrland. Metoden som använts i undersökningen är semi-strukturerad enkät med ett fåtal öppna frågor som ger utrymme för respondenterna att uttrycka sina upplevelser. Respondenternas svar har kategoriserats utifrån en analysmodell som belyser inre och yttre möjligheter och hinder för samverkan. Tidigare forskning rörande studieobjektet visar att samverkan har blivit en nödvändighet inom offentlig sektor idag i takt med att verksamheter renodlats och organisatoriskt gått från en centraliserad styrmodell till en decentraliserad. Samtidigt saknas en helhetssyn inom offentlig sektor som gör att individer i behov av hjälp ofta slussas mellan olika myndigheter i takt med att de utfört sitt eget specifika uppdrag. En fungerande samverkan är beroende av en mängd möjligheter och hinder kopplade dels till individer och dels till organisationen och dess struktur. Undersökningen visar att en majoritet av respondenterna besitter inre möjligheter för samverkan, i form av en vilja att samverka och en upplevelse av att samverkan är något positivt som främjar arbetet och gynnar resultatet. En majoritet av respondenterna upplever att de begränsas av yttre hinder kopplade till organisationen, främst faktorer som tid, ledarskap, förankring och strukturer för samverkan.

Since 1996 ¡§the Knowledge-Based Economy¡¨ was published by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), knowledge is going to change the growth of global economy and becomes the important Factor of Production. With the development of the Internet and information technology, researchers have the opportunities to implement Knowledge Management. Knowledge Management Enablers are not brand new research issues. Many researchers have mentioned KM Enablers affect KM, but how KM Enablers affect KM processes hasn¡¦t been deeply discussed. In addition, KM has been developed so many years; we still can¡¦t evaluate performance of KM. There are many researchers develop performance indexes of Knowledge Management, but those indexes are not refined. This study attempts to develop an integrated model for KM Enablers, KM processes and organizational performance because KM Enablers affect organizational performance through knowledge processes. For the purpose of supplying a method for enterprises to realize the performance of KM through KMPI (Knowledge Management Performance Index) and feedbacks from performance, we attempt to understand the efforts of the strategies that have been executed, and decide the direction of the strategies is correct or not. This study uses questionnaire investigation. The samples are the employees who adopt and use knowledge management systems in the north and south of Taiwan. In the analysis, this study use multi regression and Partial Least Squares (PLS) to test all hypotheses. In tools, this study used SPSS12.0 for Windows and Visual PLS 1.04b1. Based on statistical analysis, we obtain the conclusions of this study as follows: we find that collaboration, trust, learning, innovation and expertise in organizational culture have positive impacts on Knowledge Circulation Processes (KCP). The formalization of organizational structure also has a positive impact on KCP. Additionally, KCP has a positive impact on task performance and contextual performance.

Global urbanization trends and climate changes result in a significant pressure for a future development of urban areas. The construction industry can play a primary role in addressing some of the challenges, but in order to make it happen, the phases of design, construction, use and deconstructio of a building should meet the criteria of sustainability. The closed loop approach can help the construction industry to move in the right direction.  This thesis analysis the closed loop approach to identify its potential contribution in solving the sustainability challenges in urban areas, as well as explores the key aspects helping or hindering the implementation of the approach. The methods used for the research include the framework for strategic sustainable development, case study analysis and interviews with experts in the field. The research exposed several gaps in the use of the approach moving towards sustainability, mainly due to the fact that the unique and shared definition of it is missing and neither actions nor tools are suggested for a successful implementation of the approach. Main barriers are related to the material choice, flexibility of the design, communication and legislation aspects, work with supply chain and interaction with stakeholders. Nonetheless most of them are also seen as potential enablers. Recommendations are provided to help overcoming the existing barriers and valorizing the key enablers, but the clear definition of the approach is necessary to exploit potentialitie of the closed loop approach.

Background: Mergers and acquisitions (hereinafter referred to as M&As) are increasing in their importance and they have become a commonly applied strategic option for organizations. A major reason for an acquisition is often the objective of gaining new knowledge from the acquired company and then transferring that knowledge among other parts within the acquiring organization. Furthermore, the explicit and tacit nature of knowledge is essential for the transfer of knowledge during M&As. Also, the process of knowledge transfer is dynamic and complex and thus, numerous challenges can arise along the way. As proved by the literature individuals are the key factors, which constrain the transfer of knowledge in M&As. Aim: Despite the extensive existing literature in the area of knowledge transfer, it provides a rather static view and thus, less is known about the dynamic process nature of knowledge transfer in M&As. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative research is to gain deeper understanding of how the process of knowledge transfer evolves over time and how employees constrain it within the acquiring organization during the post-acquisition phase in a merger and acquisition (hereinafter referred to as M&A). In addition, the redefined models in this thesis provide a foundation for future research. Methodology: This thesis is based on a qualitative single-case study method, which builds upon empirical data of an anonymous Swedish international organization (hereinafter referred to as Globex) operating in the manufacturing sector. Theoretical constructs are applied in order to form a generalization. First-hand information is primarily used for this thesis, which was collected in the form of in-depth interviews with the employees of Globex. In order to present the analysed data in a more understandable and visible manner, tables and graphs were applied. Furthermore, our research method is based on the iterative grounded theory, which deals with organizational process research. Thus, we were able to analyse the dynamics in the knowledge transfer process despite its high level of complexity. Due to this complicated essence of the knowledge transfer process, we were unable to explore it entirely and could not acquire all necessary information. However, we still contribute with novelty to the academic society, as previous research explores the static view of knowledge transfer and our research relies on its dynamics. Results: The process of knowledge transfer and how it evolves is illustrated with the necessary phases for its accomplishment. The first model, which demonstrates the dynamic nature of the knowledge transfer process during M&As, is presented. In order to positively influence the transfer of knowledge, enablers should be applied. The second model highlights the importance of planning the process of knowledge transfer within the post-acquisition phase during M&As. Lastly, constraints from the employees’ side can influence the transfer of knowledge. The importance to consider enablers and constraints during the knowledge transfer is also emphasised. Theoretical implications: We urge that more research should accentuate on the process nature of the knowledge transfer and should further explore its dynamics and complexity especially in the context of organizational changes, such as M&As. Managerial implications: Managers should understand the evolving nature of the knowledge transfer process and strengthen their focus on the planning phase of knowledge transfer in order to minimize the issues during the post-acquisition phase.

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The construction industry is characterised by a number of problems in crucial fields such as health, safety and logistics. Since these problems affect the progress of construction projects, the construction industry has attempted to introduce the use of innovative information and communication technologies on the construction site. Specific technologies which find applicability on the construction site are wireless sensors, and especially radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. RFID tagging is a technology capable of tracking items. The technology has been applied on the construction site for various applications, such as asset tracking. There are many problems related to health, safety and logistics on the construction site which could be resolved using RFID technology. In the health and safety field, the problems which exist are the monitoring of dangerous areas on the construction site, such as large excavation areas, the collisions between workers and vehicles, between vehicles and equipment and between vehicles, the detection of hazardous substances on the construction site when the construction work has been completed and the collection of hazard notifications from specific areas of the construction site as feedback for the prevention of future accidents. In the logistics field, the tracking of a material during its delivery on the construction site, its transportation to specific subcontractors and its future utilisation as well as the monitoring of the rate of use of materials on the construction site, the checking of the sequence of steel members and the monitoring of the temperature of porous materials are issues which can be realised using RFID technology. In order to facilitate the use of RFID technology for the specific health, safety and logistics problems, a system has been developed. The operation of this system is based on the combined use of hardware and software elements. The hardware elements of the developed system are a wireless local area network, RFID readers and tags. Its software elements are a software development kit based on which, a number of graphical user interfaces have been created for the interaction of the users with the REID tags, and Notepad files which store data collected from REID tags through the graphical user interfaces. Each of the graphical user interfaces is designed in such a way so that it corresponds to the requirements of the health, safety or logistics situation in which it is used. The proposed system has been tested on a simulated construction site by a group of experts and a number of findings have been produced. Specifically, the testing of the proposed system showed that RFID technology can connect the different stages which characterise the construction supply chain. In addition, it showed the capability of the technology to be integrated with construction processes. The testing of the system also revealed the barriers and the enablers to the use of RFID technology in the construction industry. An example of such a barrier is the unwillingness of the people of the construction industry to quit traditional techniques in favour of a new technology. Enablers which enhance the use of RFID technology in the construction industry are the lack of complexity which characterises the operation of RFID tagging and the relatively low cost of RFID tags. In general, RFID technology is an innovative sensor technology which can help the construction industry through its asset tracking ability. However, further research should be done on the improvement of RFID technology on specific characteristics, such as its inability to provide location coordinates and the resilience of the electromagnetic signal emitted by the RFID reader when there are metallic objects around the reader.