Companies are always trying to increase their sales and revenue, but nowadays due to technology advancement, competence and the fast moving economy this task becomes more difficult as time goes by. This is where innovation walks in, to find new ways to add value to customers, increasing profit and even find new potential markets. As part of implementing innovative practices, many companies have added corporate entrepreneurship to their structure, to look for new business models that reach diverse customers within the same industry. Getting in the mind of customers, trying to decipher unspoken needs and matching problems to new solutions is part of the insighting process that has to be done when attempting idea incubation. This research seeks to provide a methodology to make the insighting process for early idea validation, in a corporate environment, less manual and more mechanical. For this purpose the Stockholm division of Telia Company was used as study case and main source of data recollection, which brings the research results to a practical use and analysis.

Since the inception of special education laws in the 1970’s, special education teachers have been given the responsibility of educating children with exceptional needs. Those needs range from children with mild to moderate disabilities to children with moderate to severe disabilities. There are 13 categories that a child can qualify for special education services through an Individual Education Program (IEP). The majority of children with exceptional needs are educated on general education campuses. With high stakes testing and the push for academic excellence, one may wonder how a child with exceptional needs fits into a general education campus. The Education of Handicapped Act (EHA) was passed in 1970 and guaranteed that every child was entitled to a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) at any public-school facility. Since that time, more laws have been updated and renamed giving a child with a disability more access and rights to a FAPE. Special education can be very complex, and teachers must work with students who have a varying degree of disabilities. Special education teachers are responsible for creating lessons to address the academic and behavioral needs of each of their students on their caseloads. They must also collaborate with the general education teachers to make sure they are aware of the needs and goals of the students in their classes. They are responsible for writing the IEP for each student on their caseload. They must evaluate their students throughout the school year on their goals and update their progress. Another role that the special education teacher has is to train the instructional assistance to work with the students and their unique needs (Capper & Frattura, 2009; Prather-Jones, 2011). Research shows that the main reasons special education teachers gave for leaving was lack of administrative support, huge caseloads, the demands of the IEP (Individual Education Program) paperwork, followed by isolation, too much diversity of student needs and the lack of appreciation by co-workers and administrators for all their hard work (Billingsley & Cross, 1991, 2007; Crocket, 2007; Prather-Jones, 2011). This study looked at the role of the site administrator and why it is important to support their special education teachers. Seven site elementary principals were interviewed to see what their perception was in helping their special education teachers with the special needs’ students on their respective school campuses. After conducting two interviews with each participant for a total of 14 interviews these are the themes that emerged: communication, mental health issues, lack of support/or delay in receiving help, culture between special education and general education teachers, support for special education programs and teachers, curriculum, funding and on the job training. This study used the lens of transformational leadership to see how principals perceived their role in helping their special education teachers.

This study aims to explore the perspectives of the metropolitan regions’ social and/respective labor market administrations within organizational theoretical issues throughout a Scandinavian institutional analysis.  The study has been conducted with a triangulation method, which combines both qualitative and quantitative methods to increase the study's validity. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with three administrative directors and three department heads from the regions Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. In addition, a questionnaire has been distributed to 60 respondents working within the social and/respective labor market administrations in the regions of Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö to obtain a broader understanding of the organizational theoretical thoughts circulating within the administration. Of these respondents, 23 responded to the questionnaire. The study is based on a theoretical framework grounded in Scandinavian institutional theory. By analyzing the study´s empiricism through a discourse analysis and Scandinavian institutional theory, this research contributes to a broader understanding of organizational theoretical issues in a Swedish context within the social and/respective labor market administration.  The results of the study through the triangulation show that Stockholm’s and Gothenburg’s social respective labor market administrations have preserved stronger isomorphic traits compared to Malmö’s social and labor market administration, which has stronger traits of Scandinavian institutional theory. The tendencies from Scandinavian institutional theory in Malmö’s social and labor market administration point to the centralized reform that has been made there, which has meant that by merging the social and labor market administration, they have become such a large administration that the rigid way of governing (which to some extent led to decoupling, but also the spread of ideas and organizational change) has taken over too much, which has led the pendulum to swing back to a more trust-based governance as compensation for its size.  The differences between the regions suggest that they have different organizational structures, which affect their way of organizing and thus their scope of action. The study contributes to an increased understanding of how organizational theoretical issues are reflected within the social and/respective labor market administrations in the metropolitan regions of Sweden. / Denna studie syftar till att utforska storstadsregionernas social och/respektivearbetsmarknadsförvaltningars perspektiv på organisationsteoretiska frågor ur en skandinaviskinstitutionell analys. Studien har genomförts med en trianguleringsmetod, som kombinerar både kvalitativa ochkvantitativa metoder för att höja studiens validitet. Semistrukturerade intervjuer hargenomförts med tre förvaltningsdirektörer och tre avdelningschefer från regionernaStockholm, Göteborg och Malmö. Dessutom har en enkät distribuerats till 60 respondentersom arbetar inom social och/respektive arbetsmarknadsförvaltningarna i regionernaStockholm, Göteborg och Malmö för att erhålla en bredare förståelse för deorganisationsteoretiska tankarna som cirkulerar inom förvaltningen. Av dessa respondentersvarade 23 på enkäten. Studien baseras på ett teoretiskt ramverk som är grundat i skandinavisk institutionell teori.Genom att analysera studiens empiri genom en diskursanalys och skandinavisk institutionellteori, bidrar denna forskning till en bredare förståelse för organisationsteoretiska frågor i ensvensk kontext inom social och/respektive arbetsmarknadsförvaltningen. Studiens resultat genom trianguleringen påvisar att Stockholms och Göteborgs socialrespektive arbetsmarknadsförvaltningar bevarat starkare isoforma drag till skillnad frånMalmös social- och arbetsmarknadsförvaltning som har starkare drag av skandinaviskinstitutionell teori. Tendenserna från skandinavisk institutionell teori i Malmös social- ocharbetsmarknadsförvaltning pekar på den centraliserade reform som gjorts där som inneburitatt genom att social och arbetsmarknadsförvaltningen slagits samman har de blivit en så passstor förvaltning att det rigida sättet att styra (som till viss mån lett till löskopplingar, men ävenidéspridning och organisationsförändring) tagit över för mycket vilket lett pendeln att svängatillbaka till en mer tillitsbaserad styrning som kompensation för dess storlek. Skillnaderna mellan regionerna talar för att de har olika organisationsstrukturer, vilketpåverkar deras sätt att organisera sig och därmed deras handlingsutrymme. Studien bidrar tillen ökad förståelse för hur organisationsteoretiska frågor återspeglas inom socialoch/respektive arbetsmarknadsförvaltningarna i storstadsregionerna i Sverige.

Innovation has proven to be an important way for companies to be competitive and relevant in a dynamic market. The construction industry has tended to focus on incremental innovations and is not as familiar with methods for developing radical innovations. Scenario-based portfolio management is a way of structuring radical innovation projects according to possible future scenarios. Within these portfolios, it is necessary to assign the different areas a priority order where the most prioritized areas require a sufficiently high inflow of ideas. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate how the innovation hub of a large Swedish company in the construction industry can steer the idea generation of radical innovations towards specific areas of development. By conducting internal and external semi-structured interviews, difficulties and opportunities in the company's idea generation could be identified. The results showed that the case company is missing specific methods to increase the number of generated ideas and that there is a lack of communication of the priority domains that exist in the innovation portfolio. It was also shown that there are some organizational difficulties for innovation in the construction industry. An analysis based on the results and a detailed literature study resulted in a number of recommendations. These recommendations demonstrate how open innovation as well as communication and changes in organizational structure should be implemented to achieve an increased number of ideas for the priority areas in a company's innovation portfolio. The recommendations from this study apply to large companies in the construction industry that work actively with innovation. / Innovation har visat sig vara ett viktigt sätt för företag att vara konkurrenskraftiga och relevanta på en dynamisk marknad. Byggindustrin har haft en tendens att fokusera på inkrementella innovationer och saknar i många fall utarbetade metoder för utveckling av radikala innovationer. Scenariobaserad portföljhantering är ett sätt att strukturera radikala innovationsprojekt efter möjliga framtidsscenarion. Inom dessa portföljer är det nödvändigt att tilldela de olika områdena en prioriteringsordning där de mest prioriterade områdena kräver ett tillräckligt högt inflöde av idéer. Syftet med denna studie var därför att undersöka hur innovationshubben på stort svenskt företag inom byggbranschen kan styra idégenerering av radikala innovationer mot ett specifikt utvecklingsområde. Genom att utföra interna samt externa semistrukturerade intervjuer kunde svårigheter och möjligheter i företagets idégenerering identifieras. Resultatet visade att det saknas specifika metoder för att öka mängden idéer som genereras, samt att det finns en brist på kommunikation av de prioriterade domäner som existerar i företagets innovationsportfölj. Det påvisades även att det finns vissa organisatoriska svårigheter för innovation kopplade till byggbranschen. En analys baserad på resultatet samt en utförlig litteraturstudie resulterade i ett antal rekommendationer. Dessa rekommendationer påvisar hur öppen innovation samt kommunikation och förändringar i organisationsstruktur bör implementeras för att uppnå en ökad mängd idéer till de prioriterade områdena i ett företags innovationsportfölj. Rekommendationerna från denna studie är applicerbara på stora företag inom byggbranschen som arbetar aktivt med innovation.

The growing adoption of virtual reality (VR) technologies has sparked interest in exploring their impact on creativity and remote collaboration within design processes. This study investigates the influence of different virtual environments on creative outputs and collaborative dynamics among designers. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, quantitative analysis examines fluency and originality in idea generation, while qualitative analysis delves into participants’ experiences and perceptions during VR-based brainstorming sessions. The results from the quantitative analysis, while not statistically significant, indicate higher mean values for fluency and originality in the forest environment compared to an office environment, aligning with prior research. The qualitative analysis reveals a thematic pattern of "Immersion and Creativity," suggesting that the forest environment’s calming and immersive nature enhances participants’ focus, engagement, and creativity. Notably, participants engage in playful interactions beyond conventional brainstorming, further emphasizing VR’s potential to augment collaborative processes. Challenges associated with technical aspects and discomfort from prolonged headset use are acknowledged. Overall, this study contributes to the understanding of how VR environments may positively impact creativity and remote collaboration in design contexts, while highlighting areas for improvement and further exploration. / Den ökande användningen av virtuell verklighet (VR) har väckt intresse för att utforska deras påverkan på kreativitet och samarbete inom designprocesser. Denna studie undersöker inflytandet av olika virtuella miljöer på kreativa resultat och samarbetsdynamik bland designers. Genom att använda en mixed-methods approach undersöker kvantitativ analys flöde och originalitet i idgenerering, medan kvalitativ analys går djupare in i deltagarnas upplevelser och uppfattningar under VR-baserade hjärnstormningssessioner. Resultaten från den kvantitativa analysen, även om de inte är statistiskt signifikanta, indikerar högre medelvärden för flöde och originalitet i skogsmiljön jämfört med en kontorsmiljö, vilket överensstämmer med tidigare forskning. Den kvalitativa analysen avslöjar ett tematiskt mönster av "Immersions och Kreativitet," vilket antyder att skogsmiljöns lugnande och immersiva karaktär förstärker deltagarnas fokus, engagemang och kreativitet. Intressant nog deltar deltagare i lekfulla interaktioner bortom konventionell hjärnstormning, vilket ytterligare betonar VR: s potential att förstärka samarbetsprocesser. Utmaningar som är förknippade med tekniska aspekter och obehag från långvarig användning av headset erkänns. Sammantaget bidrar denna studie till förståelsen av hur VR-miljöer kan påverka kreativitet och samarbete positivt inom designsammanhang, samtidigt som områden för förbättring och ytterligare utforskning lyfts fram.

E-handel är ett problem för miljön som ständigt ökar samtidigt som det öppnar upp för nya svårigheter. Det störst växande problemet är hur enkelt det är att handla online. Detta leder till andra konsekvenser, såsom underpackning. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka framtida lösningar för att minska E-handel genom att försvåra processen och minska mängden underpackning som sker.   E-handeln är ett ständigt ökande problem för miljön som bidrar med flera problemområden. De största problemen är den låga fyllnadsgrad som sker men framför allt hur man kan motverka enkelheten att handla online (Hellström & Olsson, 2017).  Studien undersöker dessa problem för att komma fram till en spekulativ lösning som är framtidsanpassad.   Projektet har förhållit sig till Ceschin & Gaziulusoy (2016) teori kring design för hållbart beteende för att bygga en förståelse hur man kan påverka individen till en förändring inom hållbar utveckling. Detta arbetades med i en spekulativ designprocess som tog utgångspunkt i en djup litteraturstudie för att hitta designöppningar.    Litteraturstudien togs sedan vidare och utvecklades till fyra scenarion som sattes mot varandra i en polarity mapping för att belysa varje scenarios problem och kunna väga dessa mot varandra (Futures Design Toolkit, 2021).   Dessa scenarion användes i en generativ idégenereringsworkshop för att se hur användare hanterar de olika framtidsscenarierna. Resultatet av detta blev ett intressant utfall där återanvändning av emballage sågs som mest intressant och passande för framtiden då det motverkar nyproduktion. Dessa idéer arbetades sedan vidare med i en skissprocess där det togs fram ett koncept som även blev en del av kunskapsbidraget.   Kunskapsbidraget till designbranschen är en ny approach som belyser dagens problem som även visar upp vägen för att kunna påbörja en positiv förändring på området som börjar i att minska E-handeln. / Online shopping is a problem for the environment that continuously gets worse and opens up for other areas of problems. The largest growing problem is the simple process in order to shop online. This leads to other problems, such as underpacking. The purpose of this study is to explore future solutions in order to reduce online shopping by making it more difficult to order and reduce the underpacking that occurs.    The project has revolved around Ceschin and Gaziulusoy´s (2016) study regarding design for sustainable behavior in order to build an understanding how to make an impact on the individual to make a change regarding online shopping. This was then used in a speculative design process that started in a deep literature study that was used to find design openings.   This study was then developed further into four scenarios that were put up against each other in a polarity mapping in order to find the problems within each scenario. The scenarios were then used in a generative idea generation workshop in order to see how different users would act in order to find a solution for each scenario.    The result of this was an interesting case where the most interesting scenario was reusable packaging. This was seen as the most interesting and best suited for the future due to it minimizing production of new packaging. The ideas were continued in a sketching process that resulted in a concept of a new packaging.

Corporations spend a great deal of time and money trying to facilitate innovation in their employees. The act of introducing something new, a product or a service that is viable and innovative is often increased by enhancing or nurturing creativity.This experimental study investigated the effect of group verbally interactive brainstorming (social interaction) on creativity, not by comparing the number of ideas generated on a simple task in a brainstorming session, but by assessing creativity in the final product of a complex heuristic task. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of group interactive brainstorming to individual brainstorming on individual creativity assessed in the final product.The hypothesis which was tested in this study was that participation in group verbally interactive brainstorming prior to developing a design solution would not facilitate creativity in the final product more than individual brainstorming. Indeed, it was hypothesized that individuals brainstorming in teams.Participants were 36 interior design students in a FIDER accredited program at Virginia Tech. The Multidimensional Stimulus Fluency Measure (MSFM) was administered before beginning the experiment in order to determine individual differences in creativity. Subjects were randomly assigned to either a treatment group than participated in group verbally interactive brainstorming prior to developing a product individually, or a control group that participated in an individual brainstorming session. All subjects then created a design project individually that was assessed for creativity by judges who were recruited from professional interior design organizations. Creativity was measures using the Consensual Assessment for Interior Design Creativity (Barnard, 1992). A post session questionnaire also was used to measure attitudes and perceptions of the subjects about the creative process.Analysis of variance revealed no significant differences when creativity scores were compared between two brainstorming groups. That is, projects developed by interior design students did not differ significantly in creativity systematically between the two brainstorming techniques. When scores on the two dependent variables of secondary interest (novelty and appropriateness) were compared between groups they also did not differ significantly.Responses to post-session questionnaires indicated that although students found it more difficult to generate ideas in a group, they still believed they would generate more ideas and preferred to generate ideas in a group rather than alone. However, when developing a project students preferred to work independently.This study supports past research which suggests that group verbally interactive brainstorming does not enhance creativity. In this study, interactive brainstorming neither enhanced nor constrained creativity in the final product. The creativity scores were higher for those in the individual brainstorming condition, although not significantly so. This study also supports findings which indicate that people still believe they will generate more ideas in a group and that they prefer to generate ideas as a group. / Ph. D.

Aunque el arte chino del siglo XX había sufrido unas revoluciones en la materia, el tema, la técnica, la estética y etc, se produjo la creación artística que tenía la característica del retrato, la representación de un sujeto, nunca estaba ausente. Completamente se modifica el fenómeno del arte chino antiguo, en el que el artista principalmente estima el tema de la pintura de letrado, Paisaje (Shan shui) y Pájaros y flores (Hua niao). También cambian la posición y la estética original del retrato en la historia del arte chino. En esta tesis, lo que va a discutir la cuestión primordial, es la modificación estética que el arte occidental influyó en el retrato chino tradicional, y sus situaciones del desarrollo en el arte chino del el siglo XX. / Huang, CC. (2013). ¿Del individuo o de la esencia?: Acerca del retrato chino, su evolución y relación con el retrato occidental desde la tradición al siglo XX [Tesis doctoral]. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/34669

The diplom a thesis deals with home and its concepts in philosophical works. The aim was to grasp and describe home as a philosophical category, using the ideas and theories that we found in the Czech philosophical texts that came out during the 20th and 21st centuries. Through these available information, we have attempted to unify and create a more coherent, interconnected theory, in which we divided home intoseveral basic chapters that are absolutely decisive and decisive for the concept and understanding of home, both past and present.

Thèse de doctorat effectuée en cotutelle avec la Faculté de droit de l'Université Jean Moulin Lyon III / Depuis le projet d’origine, l’Union européenne a étendu ses frontières, intégré de nouveaux territoires, de nouvelles traditions politiques et pris une nouvelle forme géographique. Ses frontières « non définies » se sont déplacées, le territoire cédant la place à un espace ouvert. Mais cette évolution n’a pas modifié la nature des interrogations sur son identité, sur l’existence d’une société européenne, sur l’identification des « peuples » européens à leur nouvelle communauté politique et sur l’émergence d’un espace public européen. La problématique de l'identité européenne est que malgré tous les moyens déployés par les institutions supranationales (processus d’harmonisation, d’homogénéisation et de convergence), celle-ci demeure un concept abstrait dont l’expression et l’enracinement dans le tissu social sont encore superficiels. L’Union européenne est une communauté de citoyens, les droits sont codifiés par les traités successifs, mais elle reste une communauté dont l’identité est encore incertaine. Bien que l’identité européenne concerne toute une série de questions qui doivent être saisies concurremment - élargissement, questions des frontières, hybridité politico-institutionnelle, nous l'analyserons notamment à travers le prisme de la citoyenneté européenne et de la Charte des droits fondamentaux de l'Union européenne. La question suivante sera ainsi posée : la citoyenneté européenne et la Charte européenne contribuent-elles à faire émerger, voire à consolider, une identité européenne? / Since the original project, the European Union has extended its borders, integrated new territories, new political traditions and has taken a new geographic form. Its borders "undefined" moved, the area giving way to an open space. But this evolution did not alter the nature of questions relating to its identity, the existence of a European society, the identification of "peoples" to their new European political Community and the emergence of a european public space. The issue of the European identity is that despite all measures deployed by supranational institutions (harmonization process, homogenization and convergence), it remains an abstract concept whose expression and rooting in the social sphere are still superficial. The European Union is indeed a community of citizens, the rights are codified by successive treaties, but it remains a community whose identity is still uncertain. Although the European identity concerns a range of questions that must be considered concurrently - enlargement, border issues, political-institutional hybridity, we will analyze it mainly through the prism of European citizenship and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The following question will therefore be asked : European citizenship and the Charter of Fundamental Rights will they contribute to emerge or even consolidate a European identity?