In the recent decades there have been tremendous technological and innovative advances that have shaped the business. Technology Laws like Moore’s, Gates law, Gilder’s Law, Metcalfe’s Law and Less’s Law shows the rate at which technological development has taken place. This has impacted how society as a whole functions and thus had changed the whole business environment and the rate at which new trend and ideas are adopted. It has become important for organisations to develop dynamic capabilities to be able to adopt in these environments where they could easily become redundant in a very short time. The aim of this study was to assess the use of foresight as a managerial skill to manage business decisions in academic institutions. For this study the primary focus was on higher academic institutions in South Africa. These higher academic institutions have been operating in a business environment that is highly competitive considering they focus on delivering quality products and services to the communities they serve. These products and services have to be competitive with the rest of the international market and thus they have to ensure they deliver products and services that are relevant to the latest industry trends and technologies. Foresight as a skill is very useful in the early detection of new trends, technologies and assist in the improving the innovation of these organisations. Exploratory research found that within these organisations there is a strong representation of Flexist’s which are hesitant to adopt new technologies, where they would rather wait till it is tried and tested before adopting the technology. The results also depicted a relationship between the ways these organisations adopted technologies to that of the technology adoption life cycle model. The exact same way new technologies have to cross the chasm in the market was found within the organisations where there were some staff members being early adopter of new technology and the rest pragmatists. Finally a foresight skill measurement formula had been developed which can be adopted to various industries. It can indicate areas where the organisations need to improve and plot them on an exponential curve showing their rate of effectiveness. The curve also indicates how effective they are at the implementation of foresight. Recommendation for further research in this field can be aimed at getting a better understanding of the relationship between the biographical information such as qualifications, age and years of experience impact the ability of foresight as a skill. / MBA (Business Administration), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

In the recent decades there have been tremendous technological and innovative advances that have shaped the business. Technology Laws like Moore’s, Gates law, Gilder’s Law, Metcalfe’s Law and Less’s Law shows the rate at which technological development has taken place. This has impacted how society as a whole functions and thus had changed the whole business environment and the rate at which new trend and ideas are adopted. It has become important for organisations to develop dynamic capabilities to be able to adopt in these environments where they could easily become redundant in a very short time. The aim of this study was to assess the use of foresight as a managerial skill to manage business decisions in academic institutions. For this study the primary focus was on higher academic institutions in South Africa. These higher academic institutions have been operating in a business environment that is highly competitive considering they focus on delivering quality products and services to the communities they serve. These products and services have to be competitive with the rest of the international market and thus they have to ensure they deliver products and services that are relevant to the latest industry trends and technologies. Foresight as a skill is very useful in the early detection of new trends, technologies and assist in the improving the innovation of these organisations. Exploratory research found that within these organisations there is a strong representation of Flexist’s which are hesitant to adopt new technologies, where they would rather wait till it is tried and tested before adopting the technology. The results also depicted a relationship between the ways these organisations adopted technologies to that of the technology adoption life cycle model. The exact same way new technologies have to cross the chasm in the market was found within the organisations where there were some staff members being early adopter of new technology and the rest pragmatists. Finally a foresight skill measurement formula had been developed which can be adopted to various industries. It can indicate areas where the organisations need to improve and plot them on an exponential curve showing their rate of effectiveness. The curve also indicates how effective they are at the implementation of foresight. Recommendation for further research in this field can be aimed at getting a better understanding of the relationship between the biographical information such as qualifications, age and years of experience impact the ability of foresight as a skill. / MBA (Business Administration), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

abstract: In this dissertation, organizational whistleblowing is guided by the methods for writing Creative Nonfiction. That is to say, a true story is told in a compelling and creative, easy to read manner, so that a broader audience, both academic and non-academic alike, can understand the stories told. For this project, analytic concepts such as antecedents, organizational culture, resistance and dissidence, social support, and ethics are embedded in the narrative text. In this piece, the author tells the story of a whistleblowing process, from beginning to end. Using the techniques advised by Gutkind (2012) questions and directions for research and analytic insight are integrated with the actual scenes of the whistleblowing account. The consequences of whistleblowing are explored, including loss of status, social isolation, and a variety of negative ramifications. In order to increase confidentiality in the dissertation, pseudonyms and adapted names and locations have been used to focus on the nature of the whistleblowing experience rather than the specific story. The author ends the dissertation with reflection on whistleblowing through the insight gathered from his firsthand account, suggesting advice for future whistleblowers and directions for future organizational research on whistleblowing. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Communication 2015

Yes / Sustainable operations management (SOM) can be defined as the operations strategies, tactics and techniques, and operational policies to support both economic and environmental objectives and goals. The subject of sustainability has gained much attention from both researchers and practitioners in the past 6–8 years. Most of the articles deal with sustainability from environmental perspectives, but a limited number of them integrate both economic and environmental implications or focus on trading-off between profitability, competitiveness and environmental dimensions. Moreover, there is a limited focus on modelling and analysis (MA) of SOM integrating and balancing the interests of both economic and environmental interests. Therefore, an attempt has been made in this paper to review the extant literature on SOM. The objective is to understand the definition of SOM and present the current status of research in MA, as well as future research directions in the field. Considering the recent focus of the subject, we review the literature on MA of SOM beginning in 2000 in order to make our study current and more relevant for both researchers and practitioners. Finally, a summary of findings and conclusions is reported.

No / Outsourcing, an operations strategy that influences the performance of a supply chain, has become an important component of global operations management. An effective global sourcing strategy helps companies to manage the flow of parts and finished products in meeting the needs of overseas and domestic markets. Outsourcing reduces the cost of assets, facilitates core competencies to reduce production costs, leads to strategic flexibility and reduces administrative and overhead costs. Some of the reasons why companies are against outsourcing include integration challenges, sacrificing their competitive base, opportunistic behaviour, rising transaction and coordination costs, limited innovation, and higher procurement costs. Despite these shortcomings, outsourcing will continue to play an important role in enhancing organizational competitiveness. Therefore, an attempt has been made to review the literature on outsourcing with particular reference to Performance Measures and Metrics (PMMs) used in arriving at outsourcing decisions. The main objective of this paper is to present a taxonomy (classification) of PMMs in outsourcing decisions at the pre-outsourcing, during-outsourcing, and post-outsourcing stages. Also, based on the literature review and analysis, an attempt is made to determine a list of specific tools and techniques for PMMs in outsourcing. Finally, the limitations of the paper and future research directions are presented.

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User Research ist eine wichtige und in vielen Ansätzen die erste Phase eines iterativen Designprozesses. Aber wie kann eine valide User Research für eine in die weite Zukunft gerichtete Produktgestaltung durchgeführt werden? User Research erfordert die Einbindung zukünftiger NutzerInnen oder potentieller KundInnen. Diese können aber überwiegend keine plausible Auskunft über die eigenen Bedürfnisse der (fernen) Zukunft geben. Auch können sie ausgehend vom individuellen Ist-Zustand nicht zwischen realisierbaren und utopischen Produktkonzepten unterscheiden. In diesem Beitrag diskutieren wir die Herausforderungen von User Research speziell für mittel- und langfristige Zielsetzungen und stellen einen Lösungsansatz vor: Wir empfehlen daher den Designprozess mit einem Szenarioverfahren zu initiieren, welcher eine Trendanalyse und eine Expertenbefragung beinhaltet. Aufbauend auf den Ergebnissen aus der Szenarioarbeit werden die NutzerInnen in einer späteren Phase des Designprozesses zur Evaluierung von Nutzungsszenarien eingebunden. Anhand von zwei aktuellen transdisziplinären Projekten „Elektrifizierung von landwirtschaftlichen Betrieben“ und „Sustainable Energy-Efficient Aviation“, in denen der angenommene Status zukünftiger sozialer, wirtschaftlicher und politischer Trends die Perspektive und das Konsumverhalten fiktiver NutzerInnen kontinuierlich prägen wird, zeigen wir, wie wir Nutzerforschung in strategischen Designprozessen mit hoher Vorhersagegüte einsetzen.

Det finns ett genusmönster i ungdomars psykiska hälsa där unga tjejers situation är sämre än unga killars. Bakgrunden till denna studie är att det saknas kunskap om hur detta mönster är relaterat till ungdomars livsvillkor. Uppsatsens syfte är att, ur ett genusperspektiv, synliggöra och öka kunskapen om livsvillkorens betydelse för gymnasieungdomars psykiska hälsa. Genus utgör uppsatsens centrala analytiska begrepp. Studien bygger på fokusgruppsintervjuer med gymnasieungdomar om vilka faktorer som de anser vara betydelsefulla för psykisk hälsa. Materialet är analyserat enligt metoden för innehållsanalys. Resultatet visar att för ungdomarna betydelsefulla livsvillkor är: Krav i form av prestationer, utseende, ansvar, relationer och bemötande samt utsatthet för sexuella trakasserier och våld. Det finns könsskillnader i erfarenheterna av dessa livsvillkor. Den genusteoretiska analysen synliggör hur såväl materiella/reella levnadsförhållanden som diskursiva aspekter av genusordningen bidrar till genusmönstren i psykisk hälsa. Uppsatsens huvudsakliga slutsatser är: a) ungdomarna anser att livsvillkor som krav, relationer, sexuella trakasserier och våld har betydelse för psykisk hälsa; b) innebörden och erfarenheterna av dessa är genusrelaterade; samt c) framtida folkhälsovetenskapliga forskning inom fältet bör uppmärksamma de livsvillkor ungdomarna har betonat, anlägga ett genusperspektiv i studier av dem samt utveckla sina metoder. Detta i syfte att skapa kunskap utifrån vilken hälsofrämjande och förebyggande arbete kan utformas. / Title: ”The most important thing is how the environment surrounding me is, and how I am treated” – A gender perspective based interview study on the importance of the living conditions for the mental health of adolescentsThere is a consistent gender pattern in the mental health among adolescents, where young women report more of mental ill-health than young men do. The background to this study is the lack of knowledge about the relation between this pattern and the living conditions of adolescents. From a gender perspective, this study aims to shed light on, and increase the knowledge about, the relevance of living conditions for the mental health among adolescents. Gender is the main analytical concept. The study is based on focus group interviews with senior high school adolescents, discussing what factors determine mental health. The main factors are, according to the interviews: demands concerning achievements, physical appearance and responsibility, relations, social contact and exposure of sexual harassment and violence. The experiences of these living conditions among female and male adolescents differ. The gender-theoretical analysis shows how both factual and discursive aspects of the gender structure contribute to gender patterns in mental health. The main conclusions are: a) Adolescents believe that living conditions like demands, relations, sexual harassment and violence influence mental health; b) the meaning and experience from these conditions are gendered; and c) future public health research in this field should consider these living conditions, use a gender perspective when analysing them and refine the methods. The purpose for this should be an increase in knowledge, from where health-promoting and preventive measures could be taken.

Abstract Sharing is emerging as one of the megatrends influencing future business opportunities, and wireless communications is no exception to this development. Future mobile broadband networks will operate on different types of spectrum bands including shared spectrum, which calls for changes in the operation and management of the networks. The creation and capture of value by the different players in the mobile broadband ecosystem is expected to change due to regulation, technology, and business landscape related drivers that concern not only spectrum sharing, but also sharing of other resources such as infrastructure, technologies, or data. This thesis examines the key business and technology enablers needed to exploit spectrum sharing in mobile broadband networks, and presents the business model characteristics and strategic choices that spectrum sharing concepts support. Action research and integral scenarios methodologies were applied for strategic and business analysis utilizing the capacity and expertise of the policy, business and technology research communities. The thesis introduces a new approach to analyze the scalability of the spectrum sharing concepts and their business model elements utilizing sharing economy antecedent factors. The results indicate that all analyzed sharing concepts meet basic requirements to scale. The Licensed Shared Access (LSA) leverages existing assets and capabilities of the mobile network operator domain, the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) extends the business model dynamics from connectivity to content, context and commerce, and the hybrid usage of Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band by Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) and downlink Long Term Evolution (LTE) (HUHF) enables new collaborative opportunities between converging communication, Internet and media domains. The thesis validates the feasibility of spectrum sharing between mobile broadband networks and other types of incumbent spectrum users utilizing Finnish cognitive radio field trial environment (CORE), and expands the notion of spectrum sharing beyond the mobile broadband domain to be applied to other wireless systems including the media and broadcasting. The presented results can be used in developing the future mobile broadband systems enhanced with innovative spectrum sharing enabled business models to cope with the growing demand for capacity and new services by humans and machines. / Tiivistelmä Jakamistalous on yksi suurista tulevaisuuden liiketoimintamahdollisuuksiin vaikuttavista trendeistä, eikä langaton tietoliikenne ole tässä poikkeus. Tulevaisuuden laajakaistaiset matkapuhelinverkot tulevat hyödyntämään erityyppisiä radiotaajuuksia, kuten jaettuja taajuuskaistoja, mikä vaatii muutoksia verkkojen toimintoihin ja hallintaan. Eri toimijoiden arvonluonti- ja ansaintamahdollisuuksien odotetaan muuttuvan näissä liikkuvan laajakaistan ekosysteemeissä regulaation, teknologian ja liiketoimintaympäristön kehittyessä, ei vain taajuuksien jakamisessa, vaan myös kun kyseessä on muiden resurssien kuten infrastruktuurin, teknologioiden tai tiedon jakaminen. Väitöskirja tutkii teknologia- ja liiketoimintaedellytyksiä taajuusjakomenetelmille matkapuhelinverkoissa, sekä esittelee ja analysoi menetelmien mahdollistamia liiketoimintamalleja ja strategisia valintoja. Strategia- ja liiketoiminta-analyyseissä käytettiin toimintatutkimus- ja skenaariomenetelmiä poikkitieteellisissä tutkimusprojekteissa yhteistyössä reguloinnin, liiketoiminnan ja tekniikan tutkimusyhteisöjen kanssa. Tutkimus esittelee uuden lähestymistavan taajuusjakotekniikoiden liiketoimintamallien skaalautuvuuden analysointiin jakamistalouden määritelmiä hyödyntäen. Tulokset osoittavat, että kaikki tutkitut tekniikat täyttävät perusedellytykset skaalautuvuudelle; Licensed Shared Access (LSA) hyödyntäen matkapuhelinoperaattorin olemassa olevia resursseja ja kyvykkyyksiä, Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) laajentaen liiketoimintamalleja tietoliikenteestä sisältöön, kontekstiin ja kaupankäyntialustoihin, sekä digitaalitelevision ja langattoman LTE-tekniikan hybridikäyttö UHF-taajuuskaistalla (HUHF) mahdollistaen uusia liiketoimintamahdollisuuksia lähentyvien tietoliikenne-, Internet- ja mediaekosysteemien välillä. Väitöskirja tulokset vahvistivat taajuuden jakamisen soveltuvuuden liikkuvan laajakaistaverkon ja saman taajuusalueen eri teollisuudenalan haltijan välillä suomalaisessa CORE kenttätestausympäristössä, ja laajensivat taajuusjakotekniikan sovellettavuutta myös muihin langattomiin järjestelmiin sisältö- ja mediajakelussa. Esitettyjä tuloksia voidaan hyödyntää tulevaisuuden langattomien laajakaistaverkkojen kehitystyössä vastaamaan ihmisten ja koneiden kasvaviin tietoliikennepalveluiden ja -kapasiteetin tarpeisiin hyödyntäen tehokkaita taajuusjakotekniikoita ja niiden mahdollistamia innovatiivisia liiketoimintamalleja.

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