We compare market returns associated with firms' creation of new units focused on e-business. Two aspects of organization design - governance and leadership - are considered with regard to exploitation - and exploration-oriented organization learning. We find that exploitation in governance (high centralization) is associated with a lower mean and variance in returns; that exploitation in leadership (appointment of outsiders) is associated with the same mean yet higher variance; and, among units exhibiting both modes of learning, the variance of returns are not equal.

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This master’s research investigates how Nordic cleantech firms exploit opportunities in emerging markets. Emerging markets showcase significant opportunities for provision of sustainable cleantech solutions, which can be exploited by cleantech firms to enhance their commercial viability. Opportunity exploitation studies in emerging market contexts have been largely understudied in international entrepreneurship. This qualitative research utilized semi-structured interviews, a multi case study design involving three Nordic cleantech firms, and thematic data analysis to collect detailed information on Nordic cleantech opportunity exploitation activities and stages. Analyzing the findings using a conceptual framework based on the opportunity exploitation theory, we discover that Nordic cleantech firms exploit opportunities in emerging markets in three phases namely, exploitation pre-operationalization phase, exploitation operationalization phase and exploitation post-operationalization phase. Exploitation pre-operationalization stages involve making evaluation of the opportunity, assessing stakeholders, and developing a project management plan for the exploitation operationalization; the exploitation operationalization phase covers the market entry modes, and describes activities and strategies deployed by cleantech firms to commence commercial activities within the market; and the exploitation post-operationalization phase describe steps taken to increase the firms’ knowledge and leverage such experiential knowledge for further opportunity exploitation. The research findings showed a variance from the theoretical opportunity exploitation propositions for new technology intensive firms including cleantech firms. The insights generated from this research have implications for the decision making of managers of Nordic cleantech firms looking to exploit international opportunities within emerging markets and theoretical implications for making further opportunity exploration studies considering the emerging market context.

This text demonstrates that my work on young people who are exploited through prostitution and young people involved in problematic drug use in Britain at the end ofthe twentieth and beginning ofthe twenty-first century constitutes a significant contribution to advancing our knowledge ofthese inter-related issues. The text demonstrates that, in Britain, at the end of the twentieth and beginning ofthe twenty-first century, young people exploited through prostitution and young people involved in problematic drug use share in common lived experiences in poverty at the margins of society. The common theme demonstrated here is that, as a result ofthe poverty generated by social and economic policies adopted in Britain in response to gIobalisation, 'street cultures' play an important role in the development and maintenance of survival strategies adopted by socially marginalised and economically disadvantaged young people. The discussion argues that these cultures perform important functions in time and space for socially and economically marginal young people. They do so in different ways for different young people. At the same time, however, they serve to further entrench their social and economic exclusion and disadvantage.

À l'heure actuelle, il existe de nombreuses machines de la vie quotidienne instrumentées avec des capteurs responsables de récolter des données. Plusieurs de ces capteurs sont installés dans le but d'exploiter les données à des fins de diagnostic. Dans la plupart des cas, les données abondantes et complexes ne peuvent être analysées facilement par un être humain. Ces données ne sont souvent que très partiellement exploitées. Ceci est également le cas dans le domaine de l'aéronautique. Le fonctionnement moderne des avions commerciaux génère de vastes quantités de données issues non seulement des capteurs à bord de l'avion, mais aussi des données obtenues à partir des procédures de maintenance. Comme pour des machines de la vie quotidienne, ces données ne sont pas exploitées de manière suffisamment efficace. Le pronostic par exploitation de données, basé sur des algorithmes d'apprentissage, est depuis peu envisagé dans le traitement des données. Ce projet présente son application dans le domaine de l'aéronautique pour la prédiction de la durée de vie résiduelle des structures en composite faisant partie d'un avion suite à un endommagement par impact. Ce mémoire par articles est divisé en cinq parties. Les principaux sujets traités concernent les matériaux composites, la propagation d'ondes, la surveillance embarquée des structures ainsi que la méthode de pronostic. La première partie expose l'état de l'art. La seconde partie présente une étude de la propagation des ondes guidées dans une structure transparente et isotrope contenant un ou plusieurs défauts. Cette étude est menée à l'aide d'un système de surveillance piézocéramique qui peut lui aussi être affecté d'un défaut. Les résultats obtenus démontrent que la couche adhésive sous les capteurs piézocéramiques se dégrade avec la présence d'impact. Des courbes de calibration expérimentales peuvent être construites pour compenser la dégradation de la couche adhésive suite à un impact. En détectant et en compensant une dégradation du système de surveillance piezocéramique ceci permet une amélioration de la robustesse du pronostic. Le troisième chapitre présente une étude des ondes guidées dans une structure isotrope et opaque. Plutôt que d'utiliser des courbes de calibration expérimentales, un modèle numérique est développé. Ce modèle rend possible la compensation de défauts dans les systèmes de surveillance piézocéramiques installés sur des métaux et sur des matériaux composites. Les quatrième et cinquième parties dérivent l'étape de pronostic. Dans un premier temps le traitement des données d'un système de surveillance piézocéramique monté sur des échantillons en composite est présenté. Suit la transformation des informations brutes mesurées par les transducteurs en paramètres permettant d'identifier des tendances lors d'un dommage important sur l'échantillon. Ces paramètres sont alors entrés dans les modèles basés sur des algorithmes d'apprentissage génériques. La cinquième partie détaille la méthode de compensation d'une dégradation du système de surveillance piézocéramique en exploitant les données récoltées identifiées dans les deux premières études (chapitre deux et trois).

For robotic systems to continue to move towards ubiquity, robots need to be more autonomous. More autonomy dictates that robots need to be able to make better decisions. Control theory and machine learning are fields of robotics that focus on the decision making process. However, each of these fields implements decision making at different levels of abstraction and at different time scales. Control theory defines low-level decisions at high rates, while machine learning defines high-level decision at low rates. The objective of this research is to integrate tools from both machine leaning and control theory to solve higher dimensional, complex problems, and to optimize the decision making process. Throughout this research, multiple algorithms were created that use concepts from both control theory and machine learning, which provide new tools for robots to make better decisions. One algorithm enables a robot to learn how to optimally explore an unknown space, and autonomously decide when to explore for new information or exploit its current information. Another algorithm enables a robot to learn how to locomote with complex dynamics. These algorithms are evaluated both in simulation and on real robots. The results and analysis of these experiments are presented, which demonstrate the utility of the algorithms introduced in this work. Additionally, a new notion of “learnability” is introduced to define and determine when a given dynamical system has the ability to gain knowledge to optimize a given objective function.

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Background: Exploring the ambidexterity literature in the context of agile software development organizations from the perspective of how the organizational characteristics that result from the application of agile methods affect the achievement of ambidexterity Aim: To gain insight into how agile software development organizations achieve ambidexterity. Methodology: How agile software development organizations achieve ambidexterity was studied through a multiple case study where the total of four case projects in two different organizations were examined. Findings: This study indicated how the characteristics of agile software development organizations have an essential role in how ambidexterity is achieved in these organizations.

Digital disruptions are changing the healthcare ecosystem, requiring organizations to rethink IT strategies and develop new IT competencies. This study focuses on the exploitation and exploration tension that managers face within an IT organization of a global pharmaceutical company, and their response to the related environmental exigencies in healthcare. Dynamic capability theory (DC) provides the overall framing, while ambidexterity provides an understanding of top management’s response to the exploit–explore tensions that arise. This engaged scholarship longitudinal case study takes a shifting stories methodological approach to elicit participants’ reflections and interpretations of significant events, including their own role in evolving the ambidextrous posture of the IT organization. Through rich description stories, process related decisions have been revealed, and have provided an understanding into organizational reconfiguration of IT resources. Subsequently, this resulted in a situated grounded model for understanding DC and OA for this case. Practical insights are offered on how dynamic capability theory could be applied for IT management to be smarter at becoming more ambidextrous.

The aim of the study is to explore the trafficking situation in Kosovo, where the focus is on the shelter workers but also other professional’s experiences of working with trafficked women. The study is particularly focusing on the process of entering and leaving trafficking and how professionals support the women in the shelters. The study is carried out through an ethnographic approach, based on interviews inspired by semi-structured and open interviews with shelter workers coming from three different shelters in Kosovo, completed with shelter observations. That also includes aspects of psychologist and victims’ advocates working with trafficking in Kosovo. The findings presented four overlooking themes: Trafficking as created from the outside, Entering and leaving trafficking, In the shelter: The Household concept and lastly Re-integration: “re-trafficked”. The themes proclaimed a retrospective process of entering and leaving trafficking in Kosovo. In conclusion the process showed upon the difficulties the professionals experienced while supporting the women into the society that was related to the collectivistic way of living in Kosovo. Whereas the professionals support the women inspired by the individualistic concept, as they strive to support the women to be autonomous agents of their own lives. When the women leave the shelters and enter the community life, the professionals experience that the women are often stigmatized. This also showed upon the challenge the professional’s work of supporting women’s re-integration, as they experience that the women often end up in the streets.