Dans le cadre de nos études doctorales, nous avons travaillé au sein d'une école d'ingénierie de renom qui a développé un partenariat avec l'entreprise Ecoway, en vue du développement de l'innovation de service Movin'out. Adressée aux particuliers (BtoC), aux entreprises, aux opérateurs et aux collectivités (BtoB), cette innovation se présente sous la forme d'une plateforme comunautaire d'écomobilité, visant à inciter les individus à adopter des modes de déplacement vertueux, et donc alternatifs à l'utilisation individuelle de la voiture. Malencontreusement, l'innovation de service responsable Movin'out n'a pas rencontrer le succès attendu pendant notre présence sur le terrain de recherche, et a été rejetée par les adopteurs potentiels sans générer l'effet communautaire.Malgré la richesse de la littérature sur la diffusion et l'adoption des innovations, celle-ci reste fragmentée. En effet, différentes approches ont vu le jour à la croisée de plusieurs disciplines. Ainsi, pour répondre à la question centrale de cette thèse et pour inscrire nos travaux dans le champ théorique du marketing de l'innovation, nous nous sommes premièrement concentrés sur l'approche linéaire développée par Rogers (2003) pour une analyse au niveau des individus, ainsi que sur les travaux sur les communautés virtuelles (Rheingold, 1993; Kozinets, 1999, 2002, 2010), pour une analyse au niveau collectif de l'innovation. Toutefois, ces approches, ne tenant pas compte de l'environnement social de l'individu et des interactions qu'il peut avoir avec l'objet (l'innovation) et les autres individus (les réseaux), nous les complétons avec les travaux en sociologie de l'innovation pour souligner l'importance des interactions dans les réseaux pour la construction réussie d'une innovation.Nous constatons que chaque approche théorique prise séparément en se focalisant sur un niveau d'analyse, que ce soit l'acteur individuel ou collectif, ne peut offrir une vision d'ensemble de la diffusion et de l'adoption des innovations. Aussi, notre objectif est de proposer une approche intégratrice à la croisée du marketing et de la sociologie de l'innovation afin d'analyser la construction échouée d'une innovation de service responsable en train de se faire, sur un marché en émergence, celui de l'écomobilité. L'approche intégratrice se situe ainsi à différents niveaux d'observation : l'individu, la communauté, le réseau. Le parti pris de cette thèse est d'articuler ces niveaux afin d'identifier et d'analyser les comportements de résistance aux innovations de services responsables. Notre contribution se situe dans la mobilisation de cette approche intégratrice pour étudier un sujet peu traité dans la littérature : l'échec d'une innovation. / As part of our doctoral studies, we worked in an engineering school that has developed a partnership with the company Ecoway , for the development of Movin'out service innovation. Addressed to individuals ( BtoC ) , enterprises , service providers and communities ( BtoB) , this innovation comes in the form of a Community eco-mobility platform , to encourage individuals to adopt virtuous modes of transport , and therefore alternative to individual car use . Unfortunately, Movin'out responsible for innovation does not meet the expected success for our presence in the search field and was rejected by potential adopters without generating the communautary effect.Despite the wealth of literature on the diffusion and adoption of innovations, it remains fragmented. Indeed, different approaches have emerged at the crossroads of several disciplines (economics, sociology, management, psychology, etc.) (Masson, Weil and Hatchuel, 2006). So, to answer the central question of this thesis and to register our work in the theoretical field of marketing innovation, we primarily focused on the linear approach developed by Rogers (2003) for an analysis at the individual level as well as work on virtual communities (Rheingold, 1993; Kozinets, 1999, 2002, 2010) for a discussion at the collective level of innovation. However, these approaches, disregarding the social environment of the individual and the interactions it may have with the object (innovation) and other individuals (networks), we complete the work sociology of innovation to emphasize the importance of interaction in networks for the successful construction of innovation.We find that every theoretical approach taken separately by focusing on a level of analysis, whether individual or collective actor, can provide an overall view of the diffusion and adoption of innovations. Also, our goal is to provide an integrative approach at the crossroads of marketing and sociology of innovation to analyze the failed construction of a responsible service innovation in the making, on an emerging market, the ecomobility. The integrative approach is thus situated at different levels of observation: the individual, the community, the network. The bias of this thesis is to articulate these in order to identify and analyze the behavior of resistance to innovations. Our contribution lies in the mobilization of this inclusive approach to study a little treated in the literature about: the failure of an innovation.

Youth sex offenders are not a homogenous population. They differ in terms of race, social class, victim preferences (both in terms of age and in terms of whether the victim is known to the offender or not), their modus operandi to gain compliance, levels of aggression and physical violence, the types (“hands on” or “hands off”) and levels (level 1, 2, or 3) of offences and lastly their motivations for committing a sex offence. The motivations are linked to the risk factors to which an individual is exposed, for example, a youth that was previously sexually victimised could sexually act out his experiences. A qualitative approach was used in this study. The researcher aimed to gain a holistic comprehension of the risk factors that youth attribute to their sex offending behaviour and thus this was the most appropriate approach to use. A semi-structured interview schedule was used as the data collection method as this allowed the researcher the freedom to change the sequence and forms of the questions in order to follow up on responses. The function of this interview schedule was to direct the researcher to ensure that she covered all the themes needed to obtain the necessary data. The interview schedule was made up of nine categories, namely: biographic characteristics, academic performance, extramural activities, substance use, family substance use problems, family and community violence, emotional status, caring and attachment to family and peers, sexual abuse and knowledge about sex. After the interviews were conducted, the data was transcribed, analysed and interpreted. The researcher made use of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to determine the emergent themes. The researcher eliminated the emergent themes that were impossible to label, or those deemed to be irrelevant to the study. Thereafter, the researcher clustered the emergent themes into sub-ordinate themes and validated these main and sub-ordinate themes. The researcher then provided a textural description to depict the experience and a structural description to depict the possible explanation of the experience of the respondents. Finally, a composite description provided the structure for the interpretation of the data. The researcher interpreted the main and sub-ordinate themes with relation to the literature review and the theories deemed useful in explaining the risk factors associated with youth sex offending, namely: Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory of personality development, Albert Bandura’s social cognition theory, William Marshall and Howard Barbaree’s integrated theory, and Neil Malamuth’s confluence model of sexual aggression. The analysis and interpretation of the data revealed certain possible risk factors that could contribute to the phenomenon of youth sex offending in South Africa. The researcher provided possible methods of addressing these risk factors. The dearth of knowledge regarding the phenomenon of youth sex offending highlights the need for further research and the researcher made several recommendations regarding future research prospects in order to address this social problem and to give youth sex offenders the best chance of adopting pro-social behaviour. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

This thesis tries to identify what's at stake of normalized relations between the United States and Iran since the Iranian revolution in 1979. The thesis tries to find out what are the key issues behind the failed relations between these two countries from the American point of view in order to determine whether normalized relations between these two countries can ever be achieved. It elaborates on four key characteristics of individual level analysis of foreign policy decision making applied on three key Presidents involved in foreign policy making towards Iran since 1979.

In today’s fast paced, ever-changing world, one cannot help hearing the terms Big Data and analytics. The Internet holds vast amounts of data and this data, for example in retail, is being used to predict shopping habits, current needs, trends, and more. Why should this be limited to the retail side of an organization? Today, there is a more significant push for Human Resource (HR) professionals to be strategic business partners, and, therefore, HR professionals need to work on leading, not lagging, in the area of measurements and analytics. Some organizations that have adopted the use of analytics in their HR departments have been extremely successful. If this is the case, why are not more HR professionals adopting the use of human resource analytics (HRA)? The purpose of this study is to gain insight as to the reasons why more HR professionals are not using HRA to improve organizational performance and to gain and maintain a competitive advantage. An exploration of prior research was performed and resulted in the development of a model representing factors that impact the adoption of HRA. The model was then tested for content validity and reliability using Partial Least Squares of Path Modeling. Results of the study of 302 HR professionals, currently working in the field of HR, suggest the hypotheses testing social influence, tool availability, effort expectancy, performance expectancy, and quantitative self-efficacy as factors impacting the adoption of HRA were all significant. Conversely, the factors data availability, fear appeals, and general self-efficacy were not significant. Findings indicate that the factors impacting the adoption of HRA are not only in the hands of the HR professional but, to some extent, the organization as well. If organizations truly want to adopt HRA, they must make available to the HR professionals the tools, data, resources, and support necessary. This study contributes to the literature on individual-level adoption, specifically of HRA. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, as well as further research.

Denna uppsats syftar att undersöka hur yrkesprogrammen på gymnasieskolan förhåller sig till olika könsnormer på individnivå. En kvalitativ intervjustudie används för att ge en personlig inblick hur individer reflekterar över sin gymnasietid utifrån könsnormer, valprocessen och studie- och karriärvägledares påverkan. Genom att tillämpa teorier från Linda Gottfredson och Erving Goffman kopplas dessa till individers begränsningar, kompromisser och självuppfattning samt de olika rollerna en tar i en grupp eller i en klass. Vi har sett hur könsnormer ser ut och hur dessa påverkar en individ. Resultaten visar att alla har lagt märke till könsnormer på de olika yrkesprogrammen. Könsnormer finns i gymnasieskolan och visar sig på olika sätt. Studien ger insikt i hur olika teorier kan användas för att analysera och problematisera olika normer i gymnasieskolan. / This essay aims to investigate how the vocational programs in upper secondary school relate to different gender norms at the individual level. A qualitative interview study is used to provide a personal insight into how individuals reflect on their upper secondary school years based on gender norms, the selection process and the influence of a study and career counselor. By applying theories from Linda Gottfredson and Erving Goffman, these are linked to individuals' limitations, compromises, and self-perception as well as the different roles in a group or in a class. We have seen what gender norms look like and how those affect individuals. The results show that everyone has noticed gender norms in the various vocational programs. Gender norms exist in upper secondary school and manifest themselves in different ways. The study provides insight into how different theories can be used to analyze and problematize different norms in upper secondary school.

Background. Digital maturity is an important topic for the public sector to respond the higher demands on digital solutions. Only 46 percent of the public sectors has a clear digitization strategy. Different organizations have different levels of digital maturity fulfillment. There are several reasons why organizations are interested in increasing the digital maturity. In order to increase efficiency, degree of innovation, customer value, improve decision making through digital transformations. Employees are the most important resource for an organization’s digital transformation. That is the reason why the organization should ensure their employees’ level of digital maturity addition to organizational development. By studying the municipality’s digital maturity, it will contribute to a research on the digital maturity on an individual level form the employees’ perspective. Purpose. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute with knowledge about how municipal employee’s digital maturity appears and to access the factors that are important to consider while implementing new technology in the organization. The factors will contribute to practical applications that encourage a higher level of employees’ digital maturity. Method. Based on the purpose, a qualitative study has been conducted. Twelve municipal employees with different background, position, and gender were interviewed to collect empirical data for a larger perspective on the whole municipality and IoT, Internet of Things, has been used as an investigation tool for this study. The analysis of the empirical data was based on our own definition of digital maturity at an individual level, which was based on previous research. By using the definition and other theoretical sources, the empirical material has been analyzed. Analysis and conclusion. The result of the thesis unveiled that there is a huge variation of the digital maturity level on municipal employees regarding to IoT. The main categories that the digital maturity is based on are individual's attitude, knowledge and use of the technology. The study unveiled that there is an interplay between these three categories. The factors that affect thesis categories also have an impact on the digital maturity on an individual level as well. The factors with an impact on municipal employees’ digital maturity are: individual interest, work tasks, experience, manager or leader, digitization strategy and technical education. / Bakgrund. Offentliga sektorn behöver bli mer digitalt mogna för att bemöta högre krav på digitala lösningar, men det är endast 46 procent av offentliga sektorn som har en klar digitaliseringsstrategi för sin verksamhet. Olika organisationer har olika uppfyllandegrad av digital mognad, vissa organisationer är mer digitalt mogna än andra. Det finns flera motiv till varför organisationer är intresserade av att höja den digitala mognadsgraden i organisationen. Det är främst för att öka effektiviteten, innovationsgraden och kundvärdet samt för att förbättra beslutfattande inom organisationen och utveckla organisationen genom digital förändring. Eftersom människor är den viktigaste komponenten för en organisations digitala transformation ska ledningen se till att utveckla sina anställdas digitala mognad i takt med sin organisationsutveckling. Genom att studera digital mognad hos en kommunal verksamhet skall vår studie bidra till forskningen kring digital mognad med fokus på de anställdas perspektiv. Syfte. Syftet med studien är att bidra med kunskapsbildning kring hur kommunalanställdas digitala mognad ser ut samt vilka faktorer som är väsentliga att beakta hos de anställda i en kommunal verksamhet vid införandet av ny teknik. Faktorerna ska bidra till praktiska tillämpningar som främjar en högre nivå på de anställdas digitala mognad. Metod. Baserat på syftet har en kvalitativ studie genomförts. Tolv kommunanställda med olika bakgrund, position, befattning och kön intervjuades för att samla in empiriska data med ett större perspektiv över den kommunala verksamheten där IoT, Internet of Things, har använts som ett undersökningsverktyg. Analys av det empiriska materialet utgicks från författarnas egna definition av digital mognad på en individnivå som är baserad på tidigare forskningar. Med hjälp av definitionen samt andra teoretiska källor har det empiriska materialet analyserats. Resultat. Resultatet från studien visar att det finns en stor spridning på den digitala mognaden hos kommunanställda gällande IoT. Huvudkategorierna som utgör den digitala mognaden är individens inställning, kunskap och användning av tekniken. Studien visar att det finns ett tydligt samband mellan dessa tre kategorier. De faktorerna som i sin tur påverkar dessa kategorier, det vill säga påverkar den digitala mognaden hos de anställda i en kommunal verksamhet gällande IoT är individens personliga intresse, arbetsuppgifter, erfarenhet, chef eller ledare, strategi och teknisk utbildning.

Background. By defining what is “normal,” appropriate, expected, and unacceptable, social norms shape human behavior. However, the individual-level mechanisms through which social norms impact population-level trends in health-relevant behaviors are not well understood. Aims. To test the ability of social norms mechanisms to predict changes in population-level drinking patterns. Method. An individual-level model was developed to simulate dynamic normative mechanisms and behavioral rules underlying drinking behavior over time. The model encompassed descriptive and injunctive drinking norms and their impact on frequency and quantity of alcohol use. A microsynthesis initialized in 1979 was used as a demographically representative synthetic U.S. population. Three experiments were performed in order to test the modelled normative mechanisms. Results. Overall, the experiments showed limited influence of normative interventions on population-level alcohol use. An increase in the desire to drink led to the most meaningful changes in the population’s drinking behavior. The findings of the experiments underline the importance of autonomy, that is, the degree to which an individual is susceptible to normative influence. Conclusion. The model was able to predict theoretically plausible changes in drinking patterns at the population level through the impact of social mechanisms. Future applications of the model could be used to plan norms interventions pertaining to alcohol use as well as other health behaviors.

La création des normes au sein des organisations est un phénomène assujetti aux influences sociales, aux interactions entre les individus, aux négociations entre acteurs et à la diffusion des innovations. L’individu a une place centrale dans ce phénomène, que ce soit par l’initiation d’une nouvelle norme, son acceptation ou sa diffusion. La contribution des individus à la création normative est pourtant peu étudiée par la littérature. Notre recherche propose d’isoler des cas d’implications individuelles envers la création de normes spécifiques. L’objectif étant de saisir la richesse des apports des individus à cette création et de mieux comprendre les raisons derrière leurs actions en faveur d’une nouvelle norme. La recherche présente la formation de l’implication sous la forme d’un processus comportant trois phases : la remise en cause du statu quo, l’évaluation positive de l’implication et la manifestation de l’implication par des actions et des comportements en faveur de la nouvelle norme. Ce processus est traversé par des déterminants affectifs et cognitifs chez les individus et est favorisé par des facteurs d’ordre personnel, interpersonnel, sociétal et organisationnel. / The creation of norms within organizations is a phenomenon that is subject to social influences, interactions between individuals, negotiations between actors and the diffusion of innovations. The individual has a key role in this phenomenon through the initiation of a new norm, its acceptance or its diffusion. However, the contribution of individuals to normative creation is not fully exploited by the literature. The objective of the current research was to bridge this gap by isolating cases of individual commitments for the creation of specific norms. The purpose is to capture the richness of individuals' contributions to this creation and to better understand the reasons behind their actions in favour of a new norm. The research presents the formation of commitment in the form of a three-phase process : questioning the status quo, evaluating commitment positively and manifesting commitment through actions and behaviours. This process is driven by emotional and cognitive determinants within individuals and is enabled by personal, interpersonal, societal and organizational factors.

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Bakgrund: På senare år har bilden av hälsa förändrats och fått ett större genomslag för individer och på arbetsplatser. Det blir vanligare att hälsa uppfattas som en del av företagets sociala ansvar då arbetsplatsen har stor möjlighet att påverka individens hälsa. Samtidigt ställs det idag höga krav på att anställda ska prestera och det läggs större vikt i att ha en hälsosam livsstil för att i arbetet kunna prestera till sin fulla kapacitet. Ett hälsofokus på arbetsplatsen har visat ge effekter utöver de direkta hälsofördelarna, där tidigare forskning fokuserat på effekterna utifrån bland annat fysiologiskt/psykologiskt-, socialt- och organisatoriskt styrningsperspektiv. Många organisationer väljer att investera i hälsa på arbetsplatsen då det antas vara gynnsamt för organisationen, men det uppfattas vara få studier som undersöker och belyser komplexiteten i detta på individnivå.  Syfte och forskningsfrågor: Syftet med denna studie är att få en ökad förståelse för hur hälsofrämjande aktiviteter upplevs av individer. Syftet besvaras utifrån följande forskningsfrågor; Hur upplever individerna fysiologiska/psykologiska effekter till följd av hälsofrämjande aktiviteter inom organisationen? Hur upplever individerna sociala effekter till följd av hälsofrämjande aktiviteter inom organisationen? Hur upplever individerna styrningseffekter till följd av hälsofrämjande aktiviteter inom organisationen?  Metod: Studien har utförts med en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi, en iterativ forskningsansats och utgår ifrån ett hermeneutisk-fenomenologiskt perspektiv. En fallstudie har genomförts med semistrukturerade intervjuer och i viss mån observationer, för att samla in studiens empiriska data.  Slutsats och kunskapsbidrag: Studien resulterar i att hur individer upplever organisatoriska hälsofrämjande aktiviteter är komplext och kan inte simpelt klassificeras som exempelvis positivt eller negativt, utan beror på olika villkor och viljor. Individers upplevelser i studien stämmer delvis överens med tidigare forskning, men med vissa motsägande resultat. Studien visar även att de huvudsakliga perspektiven inom tidigare forskning; fysiologiskt/psykologiskt, socialt samt organisatoriskt styrningsperspektiv samspelar och är alla viktiga för att få en uppfattning för hur individer i sin helhet upplever organisatoriska hälsofrämjande aktiviteter. För att förstå hälsofrämjandets betydelse för organisationer, är det således avgörande att kritiskt undersöka fenomenet och djupgående studera individerna, vilka är de som exponeras för fenomenet. / Background: In recent years, the perception of health has changed and plays a more significant role for individuals and in the workplace. It has become more common to perceive health as a corporate social responsibility as the workplace is one of many places where an individual’s health can be influenced. Simultaneously, there are today high demands on employees’ performance at work, where it becomes more important to live a healthy lifestyle to deliver at full capacity. A healthy focus at the workplace has shown to be effective beyond the immediate health benefits, where previous research has focused on the effects from physiological/psychological-, social- and managerial perspectives, among others. Numerous organizations choose to invest in workplace health since it is perceived to be beneficial for the organization, but few studies examine and highlight the complexity of it at the individual level.  Aim and research questions: The study’s aim is to gain a greater knowledge of how health promotion activities are perceived by individuals. The aim will be answered through the following research questions; How do individuals experience physiological/psychological effects from health promoting activities in the organization? How do individuals experience social effects from health promoting activities in the organization? How do individuals experience managerial effects of health promoting activities in the organization?  Methodology: The study has a qualitative research strategy, an iterative research approach and is based on a hermeneutic-phenomenological perspective. Through semi- structured interviews and to some extent observations, a case study has been performed to gather the study’s empirical data. Conclusion: The study shows that the way in which individuals experience organizational health promotion is complex and cannot be classified as positive or negative, since it depends on different circumstances and wills. The experiences of the individuals studied are partly aligned with previous research, but with some contradictory results. Additionally, the study shows that the main perspectives within previous research; physiological/psychological effects, social and managerial effects interact and are all important for the comprehension of how individuals as a whole experience health promotion at the workplace. To understand the impact of health promotion for an organization, it is essential to critically examine the phenomenon and deeply study the individuals exposed to it.