Grappling with the success of their business ventures and coping with the rise in number of new products FifeX was working on, operating out of their shared office in the St Andrews Technology Centre, the co-founders were feeling more ‘cramped’ than ever before. The decision was made to relocate. Although it was felt to be long overdue, much to their relief they finally moved to larger premises in Tayport in July, 2006. The activity of moving was a starting point for a number of place making activities. Using the case of FifeX, this thesis explores the process of place making. It seeks to understand place making from ‘inside’ the activity of place making itself. The guiding research question in this thesis is, what happens -during place making- when people move into ‘new’ business premises? More specifically, this thesis asks the following questions: (i) what are the comparative advantages / disadvantages of the alternative ways of explaining place making? and (ii) which theory or combination of theories, has greater explanatory value in analysing place making / moving? The study, which uses FifeX as an empirical setting is best described as an in-depth qualitative narrative exploration, and thus narrates the unfolding processes of deciding to relocate, relocating, moving and place making. Three different theoretical perspectives (control, engagement, polyphony) were applied, each in turn, to three separate (yet interrelated) instances of place making (a story about a wall, one about chairs, and one about a worktop) in order to cast fresh light on the constitutive talk-entwined-activities of place making. The study demonstrates that although efforts to control space may dominate the discourse and activities of place making, control only explains some of what happens during place making. The findings of the case suggest that place is the outcome of inhabitants’ ongoing experiences and understanding. This thesis argues that alternative theoretical perspectives (engagement and polyphony) are better at explaining what goes on. But because they do not operate ‘naturally’ within the dominant paradigm, it is noted that an alternative practice-based perspective is needed which combines the effectiveness of engagement and polyphony, with the attractiveness of control. A model is presented to help reflect on place making which provides an alternative route for thinking about relocating, moving, and place making that is expected to create engagement and polyphony in a decent way. The proposed model is centred on thinking directed toward: (i) individual place, (ii) inside space, and (iii) what story(s) the space tell outsiders. The focus is on balancing the tensions that emerge from dialoging on these three aspects of space and place.

The research was stimulated by involvement in leading elements of an Education Management programme. Developing part of the teaching material led to the realisation that while pupils' choice of school has been extensively researched it appeared that subject choice, particularly at A level had not. It also became apparent that ideas and models concerning decision making, extensively adopted within the Consumer Behaviour literature had not been applied in this context. Extensive reviews ofthe literature confirmed this position and indicated that the post sixteen school choice was also under researched and further that it was not possible to apply extant consumer behaviour models directly to the A level or School choice contexts. The research programme consisted of a mixture of qualitative and quantitative techniques. Building on elements of theory, from the literature, exploratory research employing focus groups was used to develop an initial model of adolescent pupil decision making. Early in the exploratory research it was found that the decision for adolescents choosing where to study their A levels was inextricably linked to choice of subjects. Choice of A level subjects was added to the research programme. Based on the exploratory results a quantitative study, using questionnaires, was developed to test the model on both single (choosing a school) and multiple (choosing A level subjects) choice situations. The study investigated differences between single-choice and multiple-choice decision making, an area neglected by consumer research, which provides at least a partial explanation of the process used by the pupils when they choose schools/colleges and A level subjects. Findings identify that although some aspects ofthe choice process are similar, there are important differences between the two types of decision. Evoked set are larger for multiple-choice decisions, and multi-choice decisions are likely to involve more stages in the decision making process than single-choice decisions. The results also identified that the parents' role has changed from 'decider', when their children were younger, to 'influencer', with the adolescent pupils becoming the decision makers. Concomitantly, choice criteria are shown to have evolved with 'discipline' decreasing markedly in importance and subject range increasing. The pre-eminence of personal sources of information is confinued but co-orientation emphasised.

In recent years the industry has been exhorted to increase its use of offsite technologies, or 'Modem Methods of Construction', in order to address the under-supply and poor build quality of housing. Despite the well-rehearsed benefits of such technologies, the take-up within the industry has been slow. Many studies have attempted to scrutinise the barriers and seek solutions, but the perspectives and practices of housebuilders of using offsite remain unclear. This is significant given that housebuilders contribute nearly 90% to the housing unit completions by the industry overall. This thesis aims to provide a strategy for optimising the use of offsite in housebuilding by investigating UK housebuilders' views on, and utilisations of, such technologies. This has been achieved through a combination of a survey of the top 100 firms, a one and-half-year case study of a large housebuilding organisation, and a series of validation interviews and group exercises, within the existing theoretical framework. The thesis reveals that the current low level of offsite usage in large housebuilders was likely to increase given the pressures to improve quality, time, cost, productivity and health & safety. However, a wider take-up was inhibited by perceived higher capital costs, interfacing problems, long lead-in time, delayed planning process and current manufacturing capacity. For addressing this a framework of strategies is presented, surrounding changing the industry's perceptions, improving procurement, providing better cost data, tackling planning and regulations, encouraging political levers, and providing guidance on decision-making and offsite integration. The thesis then contextualises these findings into the organisational and project contexts, examining the historical and current offsite practices within the general housebuilding business. It reveals that housebuilders primarily aspired to improve business efficiency and mitigate financial risks through the use of offsite despite a complicated agenda for such usage. For using offsite housebuilders developed strategies centred on process, procurement, learning & benchmarking, and training. However, the current heuristic approach to decision-making, coupled with the lack of knowledge of build system selection (BSS) for housebuilding, prevents the benefits from offsite being fully realised. A robust, structured and transparent decision support tool for BSS is developed, transferring knowledge in operational and construction management research to the housebuilding context. It provides an improved decision-making process and databases for system selection. Both the process and data were validated within the wider industry and academic domain, by which the tool was claimed as an effective mechanism for optimising the use of offsite and enhancing organisational learning. The thesis contributes to a better theoretical understanding of offsite and provides strategies for its increased take-up in housebuilding. This helps housebuilding organisations to achieve long-term profitability, but also contributes to addressing the current under-supply of housing. The thesis also contributes to knowledge of decisionmaking and construction management research. This has an implication for wider organisational and decision theory.

Thesis (M. Div.)--Emmanuel School of Religion, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-72).

Social media are increasingly becoming platforms of choice for communication among individuals and groups of the public, and hence organisations are interested in engaging with communities and the public through this form of media to gain intelligence from such engagements to support their decision making processes. Yet, organisations are missing on realising the potential value from using social media for this type of interaction and engagement, while paucity in research addressing practical ways to use social media communication in supporting decision making still persists. This research investigates and proposes a practical framework for using social media – specifically Twitter – as a communications instrument to support the decision making process in police organisations. The research design is based on developing and evaluating a proof of concept representing engagements between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) police as a case study of police organisations with communities and members of the public in the UAE. The proof of concept is designed based on comparing and contrasting current practices by the UAE police with models, trends, and practices discussed in related literature. The research uses the Grounded Theory methodology to guide sampling, data collection, and analysis. The contribution of the research is to both theory and practice. The research addresses a gap in the body of knowledge for a framework that guides the development of models, policies, and practices for the use of social media as a communication instrument to support decision making in governmental organisations, specifically the police. In addition, the framework offers practical insights to policy makers into using different social media to engage with the public in communication, interactions, and knowledge sharing, with the aim of supporting decision making.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-01-25Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:33:55Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 palhares_lfs_me_bauru.pdf: 1428410 bytes, checksum: 63a4f0227103653b11c1fdd063b50106 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Os condomínios residenciais horizontais desperatam grande interesse no mercado imobiliário e o correto planejamento de produto a ser lançado é preponderante para o sucesso do empreendimento. Visando o estudo da estrutura de preferência de compra do consumidor de imóvel residencial, foram determinados seis atributos relevantes para o estudo: área da unidade, tipologia (isolado ou geminado), equipamentos de lazer, localização, preço e área verde, obtendo-se a importância relativa desses atributos (fatores), definidos com base em discussões com especialistas do setor imobiliário e operadores do mercado. O trabalho utilizou a técnica estatística da análise conjunta para estimular a função utilidade desses fatores. Para tanto foi pesquisada uma amostra não aleatória composta de 27 profissionais especialistas da área imobiliária da cidade de Bauru, os quais ordenaram 19 perfis completos compostos por níveis de cada fator e elaborados por meio de delineamento fatorial fracionário. Conclui-se que as principais variáveis (fatores) da função de utilidade, como medida de preferência do consumidor, na aquisição da unidade habitacional, são: área da unidade com 51,85% de importância e o preço do imóvel, com 20,30% de importância. Verifica-se ainda que quanto ao fator tipologia, no qual está sendo medida a preferência por unidades isoladas ou geminadas, conforme o pressuposto inicial, hpa rejeição do mercado à unidades geminadas, porém os resultados levam a conclusão que no conjunto das variáveis medidas, este atributo não tem grande relevância, apresentando 9,89% de importância relativa. A existência de ampla área verde, com bosque e trilha para caminhada, ao contrário do pressuposto inicial, demonstrou pequena relevância na preferência do consumidor. / The horizontal residential condominiuns arouse big interest in the real estate market and the correct product's planning to be launched is predominant for the enterprise's success. Aspiring the study consumer's purchase preference structure of residential property, it was determined six relevant atributes for the study: unity area, typology (isolate or geminate), leisure's equipments, localization, price and green area, achiving the relative importance of these attributes (factors), defined based on discussions with real estate sector's expersts and market's operators. The paper utilized the statistical technique of conjoint analysis to estimate the utility function of these attributes. It was inquired a non-aleatory sample composed of 27 real estate sector's professional experts from the city of Bauru, which ordered (disposed) 19 complete profiles composed by levels from each factor and elaborated through fractional factorial delineation. It is concluded that the main variables (factors) from the utility function, as a measure of consumer's preference, at the act of acquiring the habitacional unity, are: unity area with 51,85% of importance and the property price, with 20,20% of importance. It can be still verified that for the typology factor, in which it's measured the preference for isolate or geminate unities, the initial purpose, there is a market's rejection to the geminate unities, however the results conclude that in the measured variables group, tis attribute doesn't have a big relevance, introducing a relative importance of 9,89%. The existence of a wide green area, with forest and walk footpath, in despite of the initial purpose, has demonstrated a small relevance on the consumer's preference.

Orientador: Manoel Henrique Salgado / Banca: Jair Wagner de Souza Manfrinato / Banca: Rogério Andrade Flauzino / Resumo: Os condomínios residenciais horizontais desperatam grande interesse no mercado imobiliário e o correto planejamento de produto a ser lançado é preponderante para o sucesso do empreendimento. Visando o estudo da estrutura de preferência de compra do consumidor de imóvel residencial, foram determinados seis atributos relevantes para o estudo: área da unidade, tipologia (isolado ou geminado), equipamentos de lazer, localização, preço e área verde, obtendo-se a importância relativa desses atributos (fatores), definidos com base em discussões com especialistas do setor imobiliário e operadores do mercado. O trabalho utilizou a técnica estatística da análise conjunta para estimular a função utilidade desses fatores. Para tanto foi pesquisada uma amostra não aleatória composta de 27 profissionais especialistas da área imobiliária da cidade de Bauru, os quais ordenaram 19 perfis completos compostos por níveis de cada fator e elaborados por meio de delineamento fatorial fracionário. Conclui-se que as principais variáveis (fatores) da função de utilidade, como medida de preferência do consumidor, na aquisição da unidade habitacional, são: área da unidade com 51,85% de importância e o preço do imóvel, com 20,30% de importância. Verifica-se ainda que quanto ao fator tipologia, no qual está sendo medida a preferência por unidades isoladas ou geminadas, conforme o pressuposto inicial, hpa rejeição do mercado à unidades geminadas, porém os resultados levam a conclusão que no conjunto das variáveis medidas, este atributo não tem grande relevância, apresentando 9,89% de importância relativa. A existência de ampla área verde, com bosque e trilha para caminhada, ao contrário do pressuposto inicial, demonstrou pequena relevância na preferência do consumidor. / Abstract: The horizontal residential condominiuns arouse big interest in the real estate market and the correct product's planning to be launched is predominant for the enterprise's success. Aspiring the study consumer's purchase preference structure of residential property, it was determined six relevant atributes for the study: unity area, typology (isolate or geminate), leisure's equipments, localization, price and green area, achiving the relative importance of these attributes (factors), defined based on discussions with real estate sector's expersts and market's operators. The paper utilized the statistical technique of conjoint analysis to estimate the utility function of these attributes. It was inquired a non-aleatory sample composed of 27 real estate sector's professional experts from the city of Bauru, which ordered (disposed) 19 complete profiles composed by levels from each factor and elaborated through fractional factorial delineation. It is concluded that the main variables (factors) from the utility function, as a measure of consumer's preference, at the act of acquiring the habitacional unity, are: unity area with 51,85% of importance and the property price, with 20,20% of importance. It can be still verified that for the typology factor, in which it's measured the preference for isolate or geminate unities, the initial purpose, there is a market's rejection to the geminate unities, however the results conclude that in the measured variables group, tis attribute doesn't have a big relevance, introducing a relative importance of 9,89%. The existence of a wide green area, with forest and walk footpath, in despite of the initial purpose, has demonstrated a small relevance on the consumer's preference. / Mestre

本文共壹冊，分柒章，約四萬言，章節目錄如下： 第一章：導論 一、前言，二、研究動機，三、研究目的，四、研究架構，五、研究限制。 第二章：緊急事故本質探討 一、名詞解釋，二、緊急事故性質，三、緊急事故影響與後果，四、面臨緊急事故時 之個人與組織行為，五、災變之防治。 第三章：緊急事故的管理 一、管理架構，二、管理之規劃與控制活動。 第四章：決策支援系統理論基礎 一、決策支援系統定義與特性，二、傳統EDP,MIS 與DSS 之比較，三、系統建立方法 。 第五章：緊急事故管理之決策支援系統設計 一、緊急事故下之決策程序，二、決策特徵，三、功能架構，四、系統建立。 第六章：個案實例 一、個案背景介紹，二、核能電廠緊急應變措施，三、系統需求，四、建立與實施。 第七章：結論與建議 一、結論，二、建議。 環繞人類四周環境中，常有許多不確定的災變隨時可能降臨。且發生災變時，如果資 訊缺乏或運用不當，常造成不必要的損失與傷亡。本研究係研究有關決策支援系統在 緊急事故管理上之應用，籍資訊的提供與利用，以支援緊急事故防治。 決策支援系統具有（一）易於使用，（二）模式庫與資料庫整合，（三）適於解決非 結構性問題，（四）具有良好彈性等特性，而緊急事故管理更明顯涉及決策者的價值 判斷，及對不確定環境的偏好，因此面臨這種結構程度低的問題，一個考慮完整的決 策支援系統將能提供管理人員更有效的支援。 本文之研究共分四部份，第一部份探討緊急事故的特性與本質，及面臨災變時人與群 體的行為與反應，第二部份探討緊急事故管理之決策程序與決策特性，第三部份則以 文獻分析方式探討決策支援系統相關文獻，以作為建造系統時指引，第四部份則以個 案研究法，針對核能電廠緊急事故之疏散掩蔽決策，提出應建立之決策支援系統。

Dans un contexte économique mondialisé, les prises de position d’achat et/ou de vente sur les marchés financiers obéissent à des logiques qui échappent parfois à la rationalité (bulle spéculative…). Les prévisionnistes et les analystes financiers mobilisent une boite à outil statistique pour connaître les tendances futures à partir de l’étude des tendances passées. Cette boite à outils repose sur l’hypothèse de normalité des lois statistiques sous jacentes ce qui autorise des logiques d’inférence statistique, de test, de corrélation... On a pu observer par le passé que les résultats de ces projections ont souvent été miss à défaut : la crise financière que nous traversons correspond par exemple à un choc difficilement prévisible même s’il fait l’objet d’une rationalisation a posteriori. Notre objectif, partant de ce constat, est de renouveler les approches traditionnelles des prévisionnistes et analystes financiers en mobilisant deux approches complémentaires : l’intelligence économique appliquée au domaine financier et l’utilisation de techniques modernes de gestion de l’imprévisible. Dans ce travail interdisciplinaire, notre approche s’inspire tout d’abord du concept d’image, de réputation d'une entreprise cible et de la démarche du cycle de renseignement issue de l’approche de l’intelligence économique. De plus, nous pouvons compléter notre démarche à travers les travaux de Nassim Nicolas Taleb. Nous mobilisons enfin le concept de force de situation (François Julien) pour renforcer la décision des investisseurs institutionnels en situation d’incertitude. Pour valider notre contribution théorique, nous avons choisi le Vietnam comme terrain de recherche. A partir d’une approche qualitative conduite auprès de gérants de portefeuilles Vietnamiens, nous avons pu connaître mieux leurs pratiques de prises de décisions, les critères d’évaluation d’investissement différents issus des analyses de matrices stratégiques, leur perception de la réputation et le rôle de l’intelligence financière dans leur processus d’investissement. Nous proposons alors une méthode qualitative reposant sur la réputation pour caractériser le degré de robustesse d’une organisation à des chocs et élaborons en outre un système de renseignement financier en prenant en compte la hiérarchie des critères d’évaluation d’investissement des gérants de portefeuilles Vietnamiens. Notre démarche est illustrée par l’étude de cas d'une entreprise aquacole Vietnamienne. / In the context of economic globalization, the stand point of purchase and/or sale on the financial market obeys logics which escape sometimes rationality (speculative bubbles…).The forecasters and the financial analysts mobilize one statistical toolbox in order to know the future trends based on the study of the last trends.This toolbox builds on the assumption of normality of the statistical laws underlying which authorizes logics of statistical inference, test, correlation… We could observe in the past which the results of these projections were often failed:the financial crisis which we pass correspondent to a not easily foreseeable shock even if it is the object of a rationalization a posteriori. Our objective,on the basis of thisreport,is to renew the traditional approaches of the forecasters and financial analysts by mobilizing two complementary approaches: business intelligence applied to the financial field and the utilization of modern technologies of management of the unforeseeable risks.In this interdisciplinary work,our approaches are inspired,first of all concept oftheimage or of the reputation of a target company and approach of the intelligence cycle resulting from the approach of the business intelligence.Moreover,we can complete our approach through the principle of bounded rationality,that of the speculative bubble and that of the logic uncertain suggested by Nassim Nicolas Taleb. Finally, we mobilize the concept of force of situation(François Julien) in order to reinforce the decision of the institutional investors in uncertain situation.To validate our theoretical contribution,we chose Viet Nam as our ground of research.From a qualitative approach and based on experimentation ahead 5 Vietnamese portfolio managers, we could better know their practice of making decision, their different investment evaluation criteria, their perception of reputation and the role of the financial intelligence in their process of investment. Thus, we propose a qualitative method based on the reputation in order to characterize the degree of robustness of an organization faced to shocks and elaborate moreover a system of financial information by taking into account the hierarchy of the investment evaluation criteria of the Vietnamese portfolio managers. Our approach is illustrated through a case study of a Vietnamese aquaculture company.

Att det idag finns flera metoder och modeller för att fatta beslut är inte konstigt då beslutsfattande sker varje dag och i vissa sammanhang kan ge ödesdigra konsekvenser om det blir fel. Denna kandidatuppsats kan ses som en förstudie för hur naturligt beslutsfattande skulle kunna stödjas genom en förbättrad utbildning till beslutsfattare. Uppsatsen ämnar behandla naturligt beslutsfattande och intuition hos experter inom räddningstjänsten, närmare bestämt om de använder intuition och i så fall vad som ligger till grund för denna intuition. Intervjuer utfördes på räddningstjänsten i Motala efter critical decision method som är framtagen för cognitive task analysis. Inom räddningstjänsten använder sig befälen av intuition när de tar det flesta av sina beslut i fält. Resultaten av intervjuerna pekar på att intuition verkar ske undermedvetet vilket ger stöd för recognition primed decision model, i kombination med negativa ledtrådar och hävstångspunkter.