Context:- Software companies have changed their strategies from “innovating for customers” and “innovating with customers” to innovating “by customers” which is also known as customer-driven innovation. Actually, companies move toward customer-driven innovation programs because they need to collect as many ideas as possible from suitable customers to ensure their global competitiveness and set the stage for profitable growth. As customer-driven innovation is comparatively a new trend, the objective of our research is to explore its status in the new era of software development. Objectives:- The main aim of our study is to investigate customer-driven innovation in the modern era of software development. It also explores the motives, benefits, communication channels and barriers between customers and software companies to cooperate with each other. Methods:- Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and industrial interviews are two basic types of data collection methods which are utilized to accomplish the objectives of our study. Then qualitative data analysis software is used to perform thematic analysis (Grounded Theory) in order to draw conclusions and highlight useful information from the collected data. Results:- Based on the SLR and interviews result the conclusion was made that there are different types of motives and benefits for company and customer to cooperate with each other during idea generation stage of product and service innovations. We identified various types of activities and communication channels in the context of customer-driven innovation. In addition, we identified different types of barriers that can limit the cooperation between company and customers. Conclusions:- The comparison between theory and practice explored most important motive and benefit for company and customers to cooperate with each other during ideation process of product and service innovation. It also identified most significant activities and communication channels for idea generation in the context of customer-driven innovation. In addition, we identified most common barriers which prevent company and customers to cooperate with each other during ideation process. / In this thesis different aspects of customer-driven innovation were investigated. In this type of innovation customers feedbacks are considered as a driving force for products and services improvement. Therefore, companies let their customers to drive idea generation stage for products and services in order to be become marketplace leader. In this case, customers’ are considered to be primary sources of ideas and suggestions. While the role of company is to listen carefully, analyze, filter and implement the retrieved customers feedbacks into new products and services, then deliver to the customers and receives once again feedbacks from them. In this competitive era, customer is a ‘king’ because he will buy only the products that satisfy their needs and wants therefore company need to actively involve customers in innovation. This study evidences show that customers could be involved in idea generation process for products and service which is beneficial to the company sustainable competence. In addition, we have provided different examples of the companies i.e., Sony Ericsson, Telenor, Sun and Hallmark that have developed products and service with customer cooperation. They claim that the innovative idea should not be only provided by internally but by externally via customers because customer-driven innovation had a better chance of succeeding than company-driven innovation. One of the main issue is aimed to be discussed in this paper was to understand that how company can receive customers feedbacks (ideas, suggestions, complaints) about their products and services. The results of our study indicates that company are using different types of communication channels to retrieve customers feedbacks about their products and services i.e., website, blogs, twitter, facebook, call center, live chat, email, focal point software, share point software, CRM software, software toolkits, video conference, linkedIn and suggestion box. Another main issue that we were aimed to be presented in this paper was to understand different activities organized by companies in order to identify customers’ needs and demands. These different types of activities for idea generation in customer-driven innovation are facebook survey, website popup survey, client survey, market survey, closed feedback loop (call center survey), workshop with customers, brainstorming together with customers, idea contests, focus group, user cases, run a 360, following up meeting with customers, user stories and customers interviews. Based on the SLR and interviews results the conclusion was made that there are different types of motives and benefits for company and customer to cooperate with each other during idea generation process for products and services. The company motives and benefits behind a cooperation are increase customer satisfactions, achieve competitive advantages, collecting new ideas, reduction of market uncertainties, financial benefits and etc. On the other hands, customers achieved various types of benefits to cooperate with company i.e., cognitive or learning benefits, social integrative benefits, personal integrative benefits, monetary rewards, non-monetary rewards and etc. Potential barriers that can limit the cooperation between customers and company were identified. Based on theoretical material and interviews results the conclusion was made hat each side have their own barriers which prevent them to cooperate. The company side barriers are lack of secrecy, lack of expertise, lack of communication channels, hard to implement customers’ ideas and etc. While there are various customer side barriers that can limit cooperation with company during ideation process i.e., customers’ incapability to express, they don’t know whom they may contact, they afraid that the company will raise the cost of the products by identifying their demands and etc. Ultimately, it is not the ability of company to only innovate but their ability to innovate continuously and consistently that is very important. Company can no longer assumes that they have all the knowledge and abilities for innovating for customers nor it is enough to innovate with customers but company need to let their customers’ to drive innovation. In future, successful companies will be those that take benefit from customer-driven innovation in order to increase their growth, enter to new market and be competitors in their market. / Email: dirdard@yahoo.com Phone # +46 723255451

The formation of sovereign states in regional blocks has become an essential feature in the world system. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate which motives and driving forces that affect the creation of projects of regional integration outside Europe and the Western World. By choosing the Latin American project of integration ALBA (the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas) as a case of regional integration outside Europe and the Western World, the study investigates the motives expressed by the most prominent actors of the project, Venezuela and Cuba. ALBA is chosen as a representative and a unique case and through the consumption of the gramscian and the realist approaches, the essay defines two motives that affect the creation of projects of regional integration. As a way of investigating the actors’ motives, the paper studies political statements, especially those of the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, and official positions expressed in central documents and declarations. The result shows that the motives behind ALBA are to promote a regionalism that gives priority to social welfare issues and to use this regional organization to create a multipolar world system. The essay concludes, with ALBA as a case, that the fundamental motives that could govern the regional integration process outside Europe and the Western World are, firstly, the will to resist a hegemonic world order that doesn’t give priority to social welfare issues and, secondly, to resist a unipolar world system and work as a “balancer”. While this applies to Venezuela, there are in the case of Cuba certain self-interests that could serve as motives. However, the study can’t rule out that also other motives can exist, but there is no evidence that can be used to prove that in this paper.

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

International Joint Ventures are important for international Business. In recent years, firms started to convert their International Joint Ventures into Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprises. However, there is only a limited understanding for the conversion of International Joint Ventures into Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprises. The purpose of this study is to offer reasoning for this phenomenon. The theoretical framework that was developed for this thesis is based on the FDI Motive theory and the OLI framework. From a methodological perspective, a deductive approach is followed. The qualitative research was using a multiple case study design to collect primary data to answer the research questions. The results of this study suggest, that two aspects of the FDI Motive theory have an effect on the International Joint Venture conversion into a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise. For the market seeking motive, firms believe to be able to better maximize their market share by taking full control over the subsidiary. Also, the resource seeking motive is in this thesis identified as an important reason for the conversions, as companies see especially advantages in taking full control over labour in those markets. However, the Strategic Asset Seeking and Efficiency Seeking motives are not included in the study. Also, several changes of OLI factors were identified as impactful for the conversion. The decrease of cultural difference between home and foreign market, the increase of perception of market size, gaining of international experience as well as the decrease of risk in the foreign market are all factors which are important for the reasoning of converting an International Joint Venture into a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise. In addition, no correlation between the conversion and the enforcing of contracts or the size of the company were observed in this study. Furthermore, this thesis suggests that there are also other factors that were not identified by the theoretical frameworks. Lack of trust in the partner, liberalisation of governmental regulations, bad financial performances of the International Joint Ventures and economic crises are aspects that have an influence on conversions as well. The findings of this thesis will help Swedish based firms to understand the phenomenon of firms converting their International Joint Ventures into Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprises in India and the People’s Republic of China.

AN ABSTRACT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE This diploma thesis regards poems of Bohuslav Reynek and Pierre Jean Jouve with a prism of fire and blood motives. The analysis is focused on their early works, i.e. on Bohuslav Reynek's Thirsts and Pierre Jean Jouve's Les Noces. The diploma thesis is divided into two parts, the theoretical and the practical ones. The theoretical part gives the view into problematics of blood and fire motives. It is encouraged with several theories, such as literary (Bachelard), psychoanalytic (Jung) and theological (Spidlik). The second chapter of theoretical part sums up already existing perception of the analysed texts, with the main focal point on the motives. This aim fulfils either Med's and Putna's interpretations of Reynek or Pic's and Kelly's interpretations of Jouve. The main part of the diploma thesis is then seen in the analysis of motives itself. The author of the diploma thesis searches for different representations of these motives, e.g. flaming tongues of fire (the symbol of the Holy Spirit), a pierced heart of Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary equally as their mixing, such as flaming heart, bloody sun etc. In the results of this diploma thesis there is summarised the analysis of these topoi - fire and blood and their different realisations in each work of the poets. Their attitude...

International Joint Ventures are important for international Business. In recent years, firms started to convert their International Joint Ventures into Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprises. However, there is only a limited understanding for the conversion of International Joint Ventures into Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprises. The purpose of this study is to offer reasoning for this phenomenon. The theoretical framework that was developed for this thesis is based on the FDI Motive theory and the OLI framework. The results of this study suggest, that two aspects of the FDI Motive theory have an effect on the International Joint Venture conversion into a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise. For the market seeking motive, firms believe to be able to better maximize their market share by taking full control over the subsidiary. Also, the resource seeking motive is in this thesis identified as an important reason for the conversions, as companies see especially advantages in taking full control over labour in those markets. However, the Strategic Asset Seeking and Efficiency Seeking motives are not included in the study. Also, several changes of OLI factors were identified as impactful for the conversion. The decrease of cultural difference between home and foreign market, the increase of perception of market size, gaining of international experience as well as the decrease of risk in the foreign market are all factors which are important for the reasoning of converting an International Joint Venture into a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise. In addition, no correlation between the conversion and the enforcing of contracts or the size of the company were observed in this study. Furthermore, this thesis suggests that there are also other factors that were not identified by the theoretical framework. Lack of trust in the partner, liberalisation of governmental regulations, bad financial performances of the International Joint Ventures and economic crises are aspects that have an influence on conversions. The findings of this thesis will help Swedish based firms to understand the phenomenon of firms converting their International Joint Ventures into Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprises in India and the People’s Republic of China.

M.A. / During the second half of the fifth-century B.C. there was a sudden proliferation of Attic vases depicting adornment scenes. These scenes showed groups of women making themselves desirable and for the first time women were eroticised within the context of marriage. Some scholars have argued that this sudden abundance reflected a change in the Attic attitude towards women, reflecting their increased social standing. These scholars proposed various hypotheses. It is conjectured that Perikles' Citizenship Law of 451/450 increased the social standing of Athenian daughters. The Peloponnesian War that raged from 431 to 404 BCE might also have forced women to take on more public responsibilities; to fill the gaps left by the military men's absence. This would explain why private activities of women became the subject matter of vase paintings at that time. According to this viewpoint women became the new customers of the potters. There are even scholars who maintain that these scenes contain hints of sexual liaisons between women. A competing hypothesis is that these scenes were used to impose a patriarchal ideal of femininity onto girls preparing themselves for marriage. Both these approaches imply that women were the primary viewers of these scenes. The aim of this study is to evaluate these hypotheses and to explore whether there may be other explanations. In order to investigate these issues a visual semiotic analysis was performed of thirteen painted vases representative of a variety of painters and vase shapes. This analysis was done in two parts: a structural analysis and a pragmatic analysis. The structural analysis consisted of a syntactic and semantic analysis, and helped to identify the pertinent signs and what they refer to. Artistic principles and the theory of Gestalt played an important role in identifying key signs. The pragmatic analysis delved deeper and was used to establish what message Athenian men and women might have read into these painted vases. This brought to light the master narrative prescribed by the patriarchy as well as women's acceptance thereof and how women used it to condition their daughters. A new hypothesis is proposed to explain the increase in this type of subject matter on painted vases. It is concluded that the buyers of the vases were mostly men but that the consumers of these artistic scenes were both male and female. It is also probable that after the Peloponnesian War these vases depicted a return to basic patriarchal values that may have degenerated during the war. It was also found that Perikles' Citizenship Law would have contributed more to the social standing of the male guardian, than to that of a girl of marriageable age. The eroticisation of women within the confines of marriage would thus have propagated the message of procreation within the patriarchal family structure, rather than referring to erotic encounters between women. These scenes, instead of showing the increased social standing of women, reflect a reinforcement of patriarchal values.