Background: With the Open Innovation paradigm come new hopes for innovating companies. The ability to tap a global network of experts can, at least in theory, have a significant impact on an organization’s competitive strength. Before such a ‘network of experts’ can be used to its full potential however, a number of challenges related to knowledge markets seem to need solutions. About 10 years ago however, we could witness the entry of a new breed of company – calling themselves innovation intermediaries. These companies are built to profit from delivering the usefulness of knowledge networks to client (Seeker) companies. Though the use of such networks and markets have so far been uncommon outside of high-tech fields they are now starting to be seen used by companies in more mature environments.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the collaboration between SCA (a large Swedish corporation) and the innovation intermediary InnoCentive in order to create a better understanding of what kind of benefits can be derived from the use of an innovation intermediary, and how these benefits are best utilized. We also set out to identify relevant limitations of innomediary use and to seek to better understand how using an innomediary can fit a client company’s higher-order activities such as exploration and exploitation.Completion and Results: Our findings include that SCA are using InnoCentive mainly as a tool to solve highly specific problems and/or problems with a low degree of complexity that they encounter in their everyday activities. The challenges related to knowledge markets, we find, are avoided by keeping problem complexity low and problem modularity high for the problems sent out to the network. In addition, InnoCentive’s business model seems to eliminate costly negotiations between Seekers and Solvers. Using this kind of ‘market solution’ however, we argue, will put bounds on the usefulness of the network and makes it mainly suited as a tool for improving an organization’s exploitation capacity.

This thesis aims to explore and describe the images of China in the Western tourist material. There is much literature talking about images of China; however, among the existing scholarship so far few have investigated from the angle as we do. We use social constructivism and representation as main theories and combined with central concepts of the tourist gaze, stereotypes and the other, and post-colonialism and orientalism. Moreover, we conduct a case study by applying qualitative discourse analysis in order to find out the stereotypes and orientalist ideas of China depicted in the tourist material. The findings show that in the perspective of western tourist material, China is representative of the Orient. The analysis also concludes that China is seen as a country with 5,000-year civilization whose people have lots of virtues; a developing economic power; a not so democratic socialist country; a potential threat and a global actor with increasing influences. Our thesis contributes to the existing literature on China research and tourism research—marketing and political implications for its national image improvement and tourism development.

What are the causes and consequences of judicial empowerment? What motivates the political decision to delegate authority to independent judiciaries, and what explains the subsequent behavior of these institutions? Going against current trends in comparative judicial politics, this dissertation answers these questions by taking ideas seriously. Dominant accounts of judicial empowerment and behavior associate the emergence of rights protecting judiciaries with the actions of powerful political actors concerned with the protection and promotion of their political self-interests. In contrast, my analysis of Brazil and Colombia links the emergence of such institutions to the actions of groups and individuals who subscribe to the principled belief that courts should focus their efforts on the protection and promotion of constitutional guarantees. These ideational carriers use their resources to convince institutional designers of the suitability of their proposals, and exert powerful influence over the institutional outcome of constitutional transitions. These actors also influence the actions of newly empowered courts to the extent that they are able to entrench their ideational allies on the bench during the uncertainty of the transition. These findings contradict the arguments that judicial empowerment is designed to weaken electoral opponents or to insulate the political process from popular pressures, and that judges are rational-strategic actors whose main concern is to protect their institutional integrity. / text

Denna uppsats handlar om två opinionsbildare, Torgny Segerstedt och Torsten Fogelqvist och deras religiösa och politiska åsikter. Genom att göra en komprativ undersökning  försökte uppsatsen ge en så täckande bild som möjligt om vilken utstäckning Segerstedt och Fogelqvist tolkade facismen och nazismen som religiösa fenomen. Syftet med uppsatsen, förutom att försöka ge en täckande bild av deras tolkning av fascismen och nazismen som religilös fenomen, är att framlägga är hur deras religiösa bakgrund påverkade deras politiska uppfattning. Avgränsningen i uppsatsen har gjorts med hänsyn till tidsperiod och källmaterial. Tidsperioden är i stort från deras barndom till andra världskrigets slut. Och källmaterialet består av artikelsamlingar som har utgivits i bokform, sedan biografier och egna skrivna verk som används till uppsatsen. Metoden som används i uppsatsen är en komparativ undersökning mellan Segerstedt och Fogelqvist. Uppsatsen avser att analysera och få fram deras uppfattning särskilt när det gäller deras kristna perspektiv. Resultatet över undersökningsperioden var både Segerstedt och Fogelqvist med sina liknande bakgrunder och uppväxter påverkade av sina religiösa bakgrunder i sina texter och skrifter, fast på två olika sätt. Segerstedt skrev med och om bibliska uttryck samtidigt som han hämtade inspiration från sin religion, medan den andra opinionsbildaren Fogelqvist valde ett tema att skriva och det blev om religionen eller kulturer som han fick observera med tanke på sin religiösa bakgrund.

Author of the thesis: Audrius Černiauskas Topic of the thesis: Education of the students in Lithuanian University of Agriculture (LUA) and in Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education (LAPE) under the idea of the hounorable game. Volume of the thesis: 61 pages. The paper includes: 16 pictures, 2 appendix. Sources of literature: 20 Object of the research: Education of the students in LUA and LAPE under the method of hounorable game. Methods of the research: 1. Literature analysis. 2. Data analysis. 3. Test „FAIR PLAY“. The test was recommended by docent of the Department of Physical Education - E.Puišienė. 4. Analysis of the statistics applying software „PAULA“. Results of the research: It was established that exercising students strive for recognition and evaluation. The greatest attention is given to high results. Therefore, health criteria is at least estimation. It was determined that representatives of both genders in the strife of equal rights judge on the sence of responsibility.

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The history of architecture in Western countries and Lithuania is researched from various points of view. Such significant elements of architecture as light, color, sound, and water so far have been studied as far as their relation to the architecture of certain specific historical periods is concerned. However, up till now research of this kind was limited to deep, yet narrow, fragmented and specialized views of certain historical periods, or research projects were concerned with certain specific aspects of connections between works of architecture and metaphysical beliefs. Because of this, research of architectural history still lacks a thorough account of how metaphysical, religious, and philosophical worldviews affected the artistic expression of architecture of different periods. Without a sufficient amount of research of this kind, it is impossible to reconstruct a thoroughly consistent and more or less total view of the historical development of architecture. On the other hand, it strikes one as obvious that while the history and theory of architecture is being studied in Lithuania, we witness a lack of research work on the concepts of light, color, sound, and water that dominated during certain historic periods. Their impact upon the development of architecture needs to be analyzed and evaluated synthetically in a way that is consistent with a generalized approach, and with the help of research methods applied in the history of ideas and principles of analysis... [to full text] / Architektūros istorija Vakaruose ir Lietuvoje yra tyrinėjama įvairiais aspektais. Apie tokius reikšmingus architektūros elementus kaip šviesa, spalva, garsas ir vanduo yra buvę reikšmingų specializuotų studijų šių reiškinių sąveikos su vieno ar kito istorinio laikotarpio architektūros kūriniais aptarti. Tačiau iki šiol tokio pobūdžio tyrimai apsiribodavo siaurais, fragmentiškais, griežtai specializuotais žvilgsniais į atskirų kultūros istorijos tarpsnių architektūrą arba tokio buvo pabrėžiami tik tam tikri, labai specifiniai sąveikos tarp architektūros kūrinių ir to meto pasaulėžiūros aspektai. Todėl nėra pakankamai ištyrinėta atskirais istorijos tarpsniais vyravusių metafizinių, religinių ir filosofinių pažiūrų įtaka meninei architektūros raiškai. Nesant tokių tyrimų, neįmanoma adekvačiai rekonstruoti architektūros istorinės raidos vaizdo. Nagrinėjant architektūros istorijos ir teorijos problematiką Lietuvoje, akivaizdu, kad labiausiai trūksta darbų, kuriuose atskirais kultūros istorijos tarpsniais vyravusių šviesos, spalvos, garso ir vandens sampratų įtaka architektūros meno raidai būtų įvertinta sintetiškai, apibendrintai ir nuosekliai, pasitelkus idėjų istorijos tyrimo metodologiją bei tarpdisciplinių kultūrologinių tyrimų analizės principus. Tai paskatino gilintis į minėtų elementus santykius ir sąveikas su architektūra nuo seniausių iki moderniųjų laikų, pasitelkiant idėjų istorijos atveriamas tyrimo galimybes. Tokios problematikos ir tyrimo perspektyvos pasirinkimas... [to full text]

The success of the new product development (NPD) process is vital for the survival of projects. Especially for small entrepreneurial projects that try to survive in a very competitive environment, affected by constant market and technical changes. Previous literature emphasize the importance of the generation of new ideas, to improve the product concept during the pre-development stage, but it did not pay a lot of attention to the sources of ideas. For this reason, this study aims to develop the knowledge concerning the sources of ideas of small entrepreneurial projects, during the fuzzy front-end (FFE). The literature review of this study presents the previous researches that relate to the sources of ideas, during the idea generation stage of the FFE. The structure of the existing model, integrating the sources of ideas, is based on three categories: environmental scanning, innovative organizational culture and joint research. An inductive study and a research, based on the analysis of one small high-tech entrepreneurial project, were conducted to cover the literature gap. This choice of methodology reflects the experimental purpose of this research. The empirical data are only primary data, collected by analyzing the diaries of the two entrepreneurs involved in the project. Our findings reveal that contact with lead user, entrepreneur experience, customer involvement, brainstorming sessions, competitor analysis, resource constraints and prototype conception represent the main sources of ideas of small entrepreneurial projects in the FFE. The practical purpose of this study is to offer some advices to entrepreneurs of small entrepreneurial projects for accessing to sources of ideas, during the idea generation stage of the FFE, and manage their impact on the development of the product concept. The theoretical implications contribute to the identification of new sources of ideas and a proposition of framework of their impact.

This dissertation examines the aesthetics of Adam Smith. It argues that, despite appearances to the contrary, Smith not only articulated ideas on the subject and was engaged in the aesthetic debates of his time, but that he in many ways innovates on and challenges received opinion—he thus differs significantly from some of his better known contemporaries, including Edmund Burke and David Hume. For this reason, he is not merely a major thinker who happened to dabble in aesthetics; on the contrary, he considered the subject, which appears in nearly all his works, important, and often interrogates its issues in a more studied way. My project thus makes a case for Smith as a significant thinker in the history of aesthetics, one who merits renewed attention. This study does so by investigating the major aesthetic issues of the day, which Smith in fact discusses. It begins by examining Smith’s remarks on taste—the aesthetic issue of the century—which occur largely in Theory of Moral Sentiments. Though seemingly tangential, his discussion of taste is significant as it argues against the predominant eighteenth-century current that maintained the existence of a standard. He also challenges theorists such as Hume who made aesthetic experience classless and, especially via sympathy, disinterested. The study next investigates Smith’s aesthetic normativity and what are for him valid aesthetic judgments, which can be reconciled with his remarks problematizing taste. Here too, Smith appears to argue against the predominant impulse that sought to ground valid aesthetic experience in the immediate; in doing so, Smith demystifies and democratizes aesthetic experience. Finally, the dissertation investigates tragedy, by far the literary genre that most interested Smith, and which also drew attention from better known theorists. The paradox of tragedy—why readers and spectators are attracted to painful representations—was an aesthetic issue that vexed many thinkers of the century, and although Smith appears to ignore the issue, we have in his moral theory a solution to the paradox, one that is unique and more satisfying than those of his contemporaries. The project concludes by examining Smith’s relation to neoclassical dramatic theory. Though superficially appearing complacent in uncritically adopting neoclassical doctrine, Smith, even here, is being original.

M.Römeris is one of the most efficient and universal mid-war period authors of Lithuanian law scientific works. The series of them “The state and its constitutional law” is a fundamental work summarising all his life research and is named the classics of law theory, constitutionalism and politology. Despite the fact that many law works of today and textbook authors are based on M.Römeris and particularly on his work, the creative work of the prominent mid-war period state and society figure, is still not properly comprehended and evaluated. He promoted a comparatively new law state idea in Europe and paid much attention to its analysis, consistently researched European law tradition, the issues of sovereignty and constitutionalism which are still significant nowadays when Lithuania has become an independent state and member of the European Union and NATO. The scientist analysis not only theoretical aspects of these ideas in his works but also their practical application: law ideas, law creation ideas and social, reality in “The state and its constitutional law” rise on the level of intensive mutual interraction, the inheritance of world law idea is revealed. The author expands the original theory through his comprehension and understanding in which the synthesis of liberalism doctrines and the ideas of social solidarity are becoming distinct. While analysing M.Römeris ideas in the context of A.Esmein classical democratical doctrine, L.Petrazycki intuitive law, H.Kelsen... [to full text]