Problem: Family firms often comprise of a complex web of relationships between family and non-family managers that are active within the business. Family enterprises are also known for their closed communication and decision-making practices. It often occurs that families do not include non-family managers into important business-related discussions and do not consult their decisions with managers from outside of the family. At the same time, research in the area of family business defines that the relationships between family and non-family managers are highly linked to the success of a business. With these considerations in mind, this study investigates how family and non-family managers communicate in family businesses. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to create an understanding of the phenomenon of communication and information-sharing between family and non-family managers in small and medium-sized family firms in Sweden. In particular, we are investigating the distinctive characteristics of communication, the barriers to effective communication, and what business-related information that is not shared between family and non-family managers. Method: This study is conducted qualitatively, utilising multiple case studies. For the collection of empirical data, we conducted twelve semi-structured interviews with both family and non-family managers in three small and medium-sized family companies located in Sweden. Findings: Our findings show that there are multiple distinctive characteristics of communication in family firms. Additionally, we uncovered several groups of barriers that hinder effective communication between family and non-family managers in family companies. Additionally, we found out that there is numerous business-related information that is not shared between family and non-family managers. Contributions: Our findings contribute to the managerial and theoretical understanding of communication and information-sharing between family and non-family managers in family businesses. This thesis is of interest to any individual working in or with family companies, as well as, academics, who investigate the field of family business.

Information privacy concerns are one of the major causes behind a dramatic decline in the readiness of individuals to share their personal information on the Internet. The aim of this research is to explore the information privacy concerns from the users’ perspective. In the focal point of this qualitative study stands the kryast.se website. The healthcare promotion activities that this website carries out involve the sharing by its users of their personal information on the Internet. For this reason, this study takes recourse to the construct of Internet Users’ Information Privacy Concerns (IUIPC) developed by Malhotra, Kim and Agarwal (2004) as its interpretive framework. It was expected that by using both semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation among the users of the above mentioned website, the concerns of its users can be identified through the interpretative lens of the analytical framework that Malhotra et al. (2004) proposed for privacy concerns of Internet Users. The results of this study indicate that the selected conceptual lens has sufficiently accounted for the concerns that website users may have when sharing their personal information on the Internet, while indicating that internet users tend to be reluctant in sharing their sensitive information.

Book and paper conservation integrates several disciplines, including traditional handcrafts, hard sciences, and art and book history, each with distinct methodologies and epistemic cultures. In order to examine how book and paper conservators straddle these varied fields and methodologies, a large-scale survey was conducted to investigate information sharing within the field. This examination of both formal publication and informal, lateral communication was inspired by the work of sociologists of science such as Derek J. de Solla Price and Diana Crane, including their concept of invisible colleges. A sample of one hundred book and paper conservators was questioned on methods of information sharing and attitudes towards topics such as publication and peer review. The result shows a field with great respect for formal methods of publication but still largely centered around informal methods of information sharing. Based on the survey results, potential methods of information sharing that may be well suited to the singularities of the field are discussed. / text

BACKGROUND: Choosing the right communication strategy is essential for organizations in today’s business. Nowadays, all organizations are facing operational changes; therefore, internal communication is significant for all businesses. Internal communication focuses on information and knowledge sharing activities within organizations, which are led by leaders that have the responsibility to distribute information and knowledge to employees in the organization and across departments PURPOSE: The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between internal communication and its components and how it affects team performance. METHOD: The research was a quantitative case study where 42 out of 70 employees at Specma Seals AB answered the questionnaire. The survey was sent out by email, using surveygizmo.com in April 2014. The response rate was 60%. A meeting with Specma Seals was arranged to conduct a deeper understanding of the company situation. CONCLUSION: The conclusion of this study is that two of the hypotheses were supported and one rejected meaning that leadership and information and knowledge sharing has a positive relationship with team performance meanwhile cross-functionality didn’t.

The aim of this Bachelor’s thesis is to obtain understanding and knowledge about how literary scholars collaborate regarding information. Seven scholars have been studied in the aim to find out social and cultural elements which create particular prerequisites for their practice, with focus on information sharing. The method used has consisted of semi-structured interviews. The informants have been studied from a socio cultural and domain analysis starting point, which means that they are studied in the light of being members in their practice. The result of the study has shown that information sharing is not limited to any specific type of information. Different types of information are for example reviews and book tips. Collaboration regarding information considerable occurs in informal situations, for example at the time of lunch and in spontaneous conversations. Formal situations consist of conferences and seminars. Another situation of collaboration is supervision. The most useful communication resource is e-mail. To obtain this information my key questions are formulated about collaboration regarding information, such as types of information, situations and communication resources. The earlier studies which are used in this thesis were chosen by the author in an initial phase, and then the work went on with the interviews. The analysis and discussion led then to my conclusions I show in the summary and also in brevity in this section.

Today many companies show a highly interest in adopting the e-business. However,companies need different information system strategy in the adoption of e-business in order tosupport information sharing. Information system strategy is concerned with aligning ofinformation system with business needs. Beside this, companies need to search after strategicadvantage from information technology, since information system strategy explains what todo with IT. The earlier experiences point to the fact that companies failed to develop theirbusinesses through Internet mainly because they did not developed an appropriate strategy.This study investigates how to implement information system strategy to support informationsharing in the context of e-business. Thus, the purpose of this study is to highlight differentperspectives in adaptation of information system strategy within e-business companies. Theempirical study is based on a qualitative method of data collection by using three interrelatedcase studies. The study conducted a number of interviews with three e-business companiesnamed Hööks, NetOnNet and Kwintet.The theoretical framework provided knowledge about e-business, information sharing, andinformation system strategies. The findings - by means of interview questions - were analyzedby theoretical ideas. The authors came to a number of conclusions:1. Perspectives in information system strategy are divided into different parts consist ofERP system, supporting system, and manual approach, depending on how the ebusinesscompanies uses the information system strategies.2. Information system strategies are embedded with ERP system and are interconnectivelyused companies that use the e-business as their core business system.3. The e-business provides information workflow to support information sharing.4. The final conclusion is that there are remaining perspectives, which are not connectedto ERP system, but they are vital for the implementation of information systemstrategies for information sharing. / Program: Masterutbildning i Informatik

Situational awareness is often understood as the perception of environmental elements and comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of future status. The advancements in cyberspace technology have fuelled new business and opportunities, but also brought an element of risk to valued assets. Today, the growing gap between different types of cyber-attacks threatens governments and organisations, from individuals to highly organized sponsored teams capable of breaching the most sophisticated systems and the inability to cope with these emerging threats. There is a strong case to be made for effective Collaborative Cyber-Security Situational Awareness (CCSA) that is designed to protect valuable assets, making them more resilient to cybersecurity threats. Cybersecurity experts today must rethink the nature of security, and shift from a conventional approach that stresses protecting vulnerable assets to a larger, more effective framework with the aim of strengthening cyber assets, making them more resilient and part of a cybersecurity process that delivers greater value against cyber threats. This study introduces a new approach to understanding situational awareness of information sharing and collaboration using knowledge from existing situational awareness models. However, current situational awareness models lack resilience in supporting information systems infrastructure, addressing various vulnerabilities, identifying high priority threats and selecting mitigation techniques for cyber threats. The use of exploratory and explanatory analysis techniques executed by Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) allowed the examination of CCSA, in this study. Data from 377 cyber security practitioners affiliated to cybersecurity expert groups including computer emergency response team (CERT) and computer security incident response team (CSIRT) was gathered in the form of an electronic survey and analysed to discover insights and understand the mental model of those cybersecurity experts. Also, a finding from the SEM was the CSSA model aligned perfectly with the second-order Cybernetics model to test the theory in practice, confirming the possibility of using the proposed model in a practical application for this research. Furthermore, the SEM informed the design of the CCSA Environment where an empirical study was employed to verify and validate the CCSA theory in practice. In addition, the SEM informed the design of a behavioural anchor rating scale to measure participant situational awareness performance. The experiment results proved that when using the CCSA model and replicating real-world cyber-attack scenarios that the outcome of situational awareness performance was 61% more than those who did not employ the use of the CCSA model and associated dashboard tool. Further, it was found that both timeliness and accuracy are important in influencing the outcome of information sharing and collaboration in enhancing cyber situational awareness and decision-making. This thesis for the first time presents a novel CCSA theory which has been confirmed in practice. Firstly, this research work improves the outcome of effectiveness in cyber SA by identifying important variables related with the CCSA model. Second, it provides a new technique to measure operators' cyber SA performance. Secondly, it provides the necessary steps to employ information sharing in order to improve cyber security incorporated in the CCSA model. Finally, cybersecurity experts should collaborate to identify and close the gap between cybersecurity threats and execution capacity. The novel CCSA model validated in this research can be considered an effective solution in fighting and preventing cyber-attacks. Attainment of cyber security is driven by how information is both secured and presented between members to encourage the use of information sharing and collaboration to resolve cyber security threats in a timely and accurate manner. This research helps researchers and practitioners alike gain an understanding of key aspects of information sharing and collaboration in CSSA which is informed by the CCSA theory and new capability that the implementation of this theory has shown to deliver in practice.

This study aims to investigate Saudi female academics' information behaviour (IB) within their work and everyday life contexts. A qualitative research approach was adopted to investigate the range of information behaviour that the research participants engaged in. The data for this study were collected via in-depth semi-structured interviews and diaries. Participants' accounts were then subject to a rigorous thematic data analysis process. The research findings indicated that female academics who participated in this study engaged in three main categories of information behaviour: information acquisition, information avoidance, and information sharing. The motivations and the strategies associated with each category have been depicted in a taxonomy of information behaviour. In addition, a detailed analysis of participants' IB as an action-oriented process has been presented visually, leading to the development of a model that depicts IB as a contextual process.

abstract: 现今的理论研究及实践表明，供应链上各个企业进行协调运作的基础是节点企业间有效信息进行高效传递。但供应链上下游企业在合作过程中通常存在信息不完全对称现象、牛鞭效应等问题，供应链中信息传递的实时性及真实性受到较大影响，这也是导致供应链管理整体效率不高的原因之一。因此，供应链伙伴间信息共享问题已是国内外学者普遍关注的焦点。本文旨在针对目前我国家居供应链企业间信息沟通不畅、信息共享不充分的问题及其理论研究的不足，来开展针对影响家居供应链企业间信息共享因素的实证研究。本文基于家居供应链这一特殊的行业供应链，建立基于家居供应链企业间信息共享关键影响因素理论模型，通过实证方法来寻找影响供应链企业间信息共享的关键因素及其具体影响程度。 在已有文献的基础上，本文提出信任、共同愿景、信息技术能力、渠道权力结构与信息共享间影响关系的概念模型，并对长三角及珠三角地区家居供应链经销商企业进行问卷调查研究。最后在回收的 164 份有效问卷基础上通过数据分析来验证假设。研究结果显示：(1)不论是家居工厂与经销商间还是家居卖场与经销商间，信任对共享信息的内容和质量都有显著正向影响。(2)家居工厂与经销商间的共同愿景对彼此间信息共享内容有显著正向影响作用，但对信息共享质量作用不明显。而家居卖场与经销商间的共同愿景对信息共享的内容和质量都有正向影响作用。(3)经销商的信息技术能力对双方间信息共享的内容和质量都有显著影响，同时，还能促进家居工厂与经销商之间的信任，间接影响双方的信息共享程度。(4) 家居卖场与经销商间的渠道权力对双方间的信任程度有显著影响，而对双方间的信息共享没有直接影响。 本研究主要研究贡献在于：发现影响家居供应链信息共享的关键因素，弥补了现有文献对中国供应链企业信息共享影响因素研究的不足，特别聚焦于家居供应链；从供应链上下游整体角度出发，探讨了中国情境下信任、共同愿景、信息技术能力和渠道权力结构与信息共享之间的作用机理。 / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2019

<p>Extranets as they have come to be termed are revolutionizing supply chains and their management. Companies and organizations with quite different internal information systems can now access data from other supply chain members. Information can be shared easily and at relatively low cost. A major benefit that flows from this greater</p><p>transparency is that internal operation of the business can become more efficient as a result.</p><p>This thesis studies extranet in development of supply chain from case company’s perspective. Finnsementti Oy was chosen as a case company because they had a desire to improve the operation of their supply chain by developing an extranet. Finnsementti Oy is a Finnish cement manufacturer since 1914. At the moment Finnsementti</p><p>produces 85% of the cement needed in Finland. Most of company’s business is B-to-B.Finnsementti actively develops its operation and this thesis also supports that goal by aiming to improve the efficiency of Finnsementti’s supply chain which again is assumed to have a positive impact on competitive advantage and profitability.</p><p>Based on a CRM study conducted in spring 2005 Finnsementti Oy decided to develop its existing rarely used customer forum into an efficient customer-oriented extranet. Finnsementti aims to improve its customer service, improve supply chain performance and make its order and delivery process more efficient. In advance extranet was</p><p>assumed to enable all this. Extranet project was initiated in early fall 2005 and this study was initiated simultaneously. The starting-point of this thesis was Finnsementti’s desire to implement a supply chain improving extranet, and in order to do that, the implementation had to be successful. Due to the fact that supply chains are currently evolving towards networked e-supply chains there is quite lot of existing literature about how a supply chain performance can be improved by using electronic tools. This study concentrates on these facts, related assumption and expectations. It was also evaluated from case company’s perspective how likely these expected improvements are going to realized; is there something unexpected and additional that Finnsementti has not been able to predict? In order to find this out extranet was studied at first from literature and then from case company’s and their employee’s perspective. One of the goals of this study was to determine what is the actual condition for completing this extranet project successfully because only that can enable the realization of supply chain improvements. How to make employees and customers adopt this new extranet and so that they will start to use it actively in their daily activities? The foundation for this part of the study was the comprehensive literature review conducted on supply chain improvements. Based on that, observations and interviews, an expectations theory was built. According to this theory user’s realistic and accurate expectations make a good foundation for accepting a new information system. If the user’s expectations are fulfilled, user will perceive the new system easy to use and useful which on the other hand leads to acceptance of the system. This</p><p>expectations theory can be used as a starting point for almost any information system implementation where user acceptance is considered critical.</p>