Climate variability and change threaten human and physical systems in coastal zones. With more than 10% of the global population now living and working in low elevation coastal zones, successful adaptation to climate change is becoming a pressing issue, particularly for areas featuring critical, long-lived infrastructure. The aim of this research is to define the architecture and attributes contributing to successful adaptation to climate change. Here, success is measured in terms of the process rather than outcomes of adaptation initiatives. The research features two empirical phases: adaptation framework analysis and an evaluation of factors affecting the adaptive capacity of stakeholder organisations. Framework analysis involved the development of a criterion tool based on recurrent features of different adaptation frameworks as described in research literature. Six hallmarks emerged as discriminators of Scenario-Led (SL), Vulnerability-Led (VL) and Decision-Centric (DC) frameworks. The criterion tool was then tested using four UK coastal case study areas, drawing on evidence from public domain adaptation documents. The Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM) was used investigate factors enabling or inhibiting stakeholder adaptation efforts by designing and iteratively adjust semi-structured interviews with stakeholder organisations in the Sizewell nuclear neighbourhood, Suffolk, UK. The findings from the two phases were brought together to identify opportunities to improve the adaptation processes. Analysis of the adaptation architecture revealed that stakeholders rarely use one theoretical adaptation approach. A hybrid adaptation framework is adopted, with the DC/SL or DC/VL being utilised most frequently. Findings reveal a mismatch between theoretical frameworks and those implemented in practise. Semi-structured interviews exposed six key themes defining adaptation process. Stakeholder organisations reported 12 factors that affect their standpoints on each key theme. Standpoints were broadly consistent between similar stakeholder organisations. Stakeholder groups, key themes and influencing factors provide an evidence base for evaluating the complex social dynamics affecting successes of the adaptation process, offering a route to pragmatic adaptation guidance. By considering the architecture and attributes of adaptation coastal stakeholders in neighbourhoods with long-lived infrastructure could strengthen the adaptation process, thereby realising their shared vision(s) of integrated coastal management. There is scope for improving and advancing the research. It is acknowledged that the inventories of adaptation initiatives were uneven in size and scope, potentially limiting the evaluation of the criterion tool. This may be addressed by assessing other coastal neighbourhoods with long-lived infrastructure. When interviewing representatives from stakeholder organisations, it was difficult to differentiate between personal or professional views. Future research could investigate how the role of the individual influences adaptation efforts. Insights could further refine the architecture and attributes of adaptation.

The phenomena of stakeholder identification and involvement in the affairs of public entities has become of great importance in the recent years. Literature review reveals the extent of knowledge and discloses gaps that exist in the management of technical training institutions in Kenya. Therefore, key research questions aimed at achieving the objectives of this study were formulated. For empirical responses, a sample comprising three institutions was chosen, where respondents were selected purposively. Focus group and individual interviews were conducted for qualitative data collection from purposively selected respondents. The data analysis led to the conclusion that stakeholders are varied and their involvement in specific issues minimal. This implies lack of clarity of knowledge of the stakeholders and variation regarding the extent to which they need involvement and the effects. One recommendation is to carry out an analysis to establish legitimate stakeholders and their specific potential influences. / Educational Studies

With growing human pressures on the oceans and seas, the resulting decline of ecosystem health and biodiversity is increasingly limiting the ability of marine ecosystems to provide essential functions and resources for human wellbeing. To prevent further marine degradation, an ecosystem based approach to marine management is needed. An integral part of this is constructive stakeholder engagement. However, in a marine context, engagement is often difficult due to traditionally sectoral management and the complexity of marine issues. This thesis presents an interdisciplinary study that evaluates the potential of the ecosystem services approach to support and improve marine stakeholder engagement. First, opportunities and challenges of using the approach in participatory marine management processes were explored through interviews with 39 stakeholders who participated in the application of ecosystem service assessment to marine management in six French and UK case studies. The interviews revealed that the ecosystem services approach can facilitate participatory engagement by improving understanding of complex ecological-socioeconomic systems and fostering constructive dialogue. Second, the potential of the approach for communicating marine management decisions to marine users was tested with a scenario based survey. Responses to three versions of the survey, two with and one without ecosystem services content, were compared, showing that the ecosystem services information did not increase agreement with the management measures proposed in the scenario. An evaluation of the results in the context of environmental behaviour research suggests that the novelty and complexity of the ecosystem services approach might limit its usefulness for top down communication. In contrast, if the approach is integrated in participatory processes, it was concluded that this could have multiple benefits for ecosystem based marine management. From these findings, a conceptual model was developed that provides a normative framework for the effective use of the ecosystem services approach to support constructive participatory engagement in marine governance.

This study sets out to address the question of whether the costs and the benefits of measuring intellectual capital assets differ depending on the driver for that measure. Although pressure is growing on firms to measure and report on their intellectual capital assets no research has yet been published that questions the costs associated with such actions. And although academic research has purported to show links between the management of intellectual capital assets and real business benefits the research carried out thus far'has not focussed specifically on the benefits of measuring intellectual capital assets. Although there are now a variety of intellectual capital asset measurement frameworks there has been no cross comparison as to which intellectual capital asset measures provide the most business insight or where the outcome of that measurement is most effective. Using a multi method approach the thesis is tested in three phases; an extensive literature review covering intellectual capital, performance measurement and organisational effectiveness; a survey and content analysis to explore what and why companies measure; and structured interviewing of six companies to investigate the costs and the benefits of measurement. The thesis is tested through the investigation of thirteen propositions which show that: firstly, there is a difference in the relative cost of measuring intellectual capital assets given the measurement driver, which is explained by the frequency of measurement, the mode of data collection and analysis, and whether the use of the measure is a by product of some other driver, secondly, that the insight provided by an intellectual capital asset measure differs given the measurement driver, thirdly, that the measurement of intellectual capital assets is most effective for planning the future; and lastly, that particular measurement drivers are effective, to differing degrees, in financial, customer, operational, people and future organisational performance domains.

The purpose of this dissertation was to understand how radical organizational change impacts the effectiveness of national-level sport organizations, during the process of change, through the perceptions and experiences of internal and external stakeholders. Four research questions were addressed: (1) What success factors and challenges do national-level sport organizations face while undergoing radical change? (2) How does radical change impact the goals, internal processes, resources, and multiple constituents of the focal organization? (3) How does radical change impact external stakeholders? (4) How does radical change impact the effectiveness of external stakeholders’ own organizations? A single case study was built using 32 semi-structured interviews and 61 documents, and data were thematically analyzed. Results showed an initial decline in overall organizational effectiveness in the early stages of the change process followed by an increase. Findings highlight similarities and differences between internal and external stakeholder perspectives, demonstrating the importance of obtaining both perspectives when studying organizational effectiveness during radical change.

I dagens samhälle finns det ett stort behov av att arbeta hållbart på flera olika samhällsnivåer, inte minst på lokal nivå. Vid stadsutveckling är det viktigt att kommunerna arbetar utifrån den ekonomiska-, miljömässiga- och sociala dimensionen för att åstadkomma en hållbar stadsutveckling. Eftersom stadsutveckling syftar till att skapa en god levnadsstandard för samtliga kommuninvånare är det viktigt att invånarna är delaktiga i hållbarhetsarbetet. En viktig del i hållbarhetsarbetet är att skapa ett effektivt samspel mellan kommunens intressenter som skapar förutsättningar för kunskapsutbyte och integration, vilket i sin tur leder till utvecklingen av ett bättre samhälle. Dessutom bör kommuner vara kapabla till att integrera människor med varierande etiska, religiösa och socioekonomiska bakgrunder i den hållbara staden. Syftet med studien är att undersöka den inbyggda komplexiteten med att engagera intressenter i det kommunala hållbarhetsarbetet vid stadsutveckling. Eftersom studien syftar till att ge en ingående beskrivning av studiens problemområde har en deskriptiv forskningsstrategi valts. Studien bygger på en abduktiv ansats och forskningsmetoden är av kvalitativ karaktär. Empirisk data har insamlats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem respondenter från två kommuner samt genom innehållsanalyser av information på kommunernas hemsidor och årsrapporter. Studiens slutsatser är att samverkan mellan kommuner och deras intressenter är nödvändig för att utveckla en hållbar stad. Dessutom pekar resultatet på att utvärdering av den sociala aspekten inom hållbarhetsarbetet är en viktig komponent som behöver utvecklas och anpassas för att underlätta uppföljningsarbetet. Härutöver är slutsatsen att kommuners kommunikation med invånarna behöver anpassas och utvecklas utifrån invånarnas behov för att underlätta informationsutbyte mellan parterna. / To work sustainably today is of great need at various levels of society, especially at local level. Municipalities work with the economic-, environmental- and social dimensions of sustainability in order to achieve sustainable urban development. Since urban development aims at creating good living standards for city residents, it is important that residents are involved in the sustainability work executed by municipalities. An important part of sustainability is to create effective interactions among the municipality’s stakeholders that create the conditions for knowledge sharing and integration, leading to a better society. Furthermore, municipalities need to integrate people with varying ethical, religious and socio-economic backgrounds in the sustainable city. The purpose of the study is to investigate the complexity of engaging stakeholders in the municipal sustainability work with urban development. Since the study aims at giving a detailed description of the study problem area, a descriptive research strategy was chosen. The study is based on an abductive approach and the research method is qualitative. Empirical data has been gathered through semi-structured interviews with five respondents from two municipalities and through content analysis of information disclosed in municipal websites and annual reports. The study’s conclusions are that cooperation between municipalities and their stakeholders is necessary to develop a sustainable city. The results also indicate that the evaluation of the social aspect of sustainability is an important component that still needs to be developed. Measuring social sustainability is a condition to achieve impactful results with sustainability work. Lastly, the study clearly shows that municipalities’ communication with residents needs to be constantly developed based on the needs of residents to facilitate an effective information exchange.

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciência Política, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência Política, 2018. / Submitted by Fabiana Santos (fabianacamargo@bce.unb.br) on 2018-08-21T21:16:24Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2018_BentoRodrigoPereiraMonteiro.pdf: 1876140 bytes, checksum: 2166180d8b1f7acb616c6b4cf5695bc0 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Raquel Viana (raquelviana@bce.unb.br) on 2018-08-27T18:52:19Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2018_BentoRodrigoPereiraMonteiro.pdf: 1876140 bytes, checksum: 2166180d8b1f7acb616c6b4cf5695bc0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-27T18:52:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2018_BentoRodrigoPereiraMonteiro.pdf: 1876140 bytes, checksum: 2166180d8b1f7acb616c6b4cf5695bc0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-21 / A presente pesquisa procurou responder ao questionamento central sobre se a teoria de fire‐alarms e police‐patrol é suficiente para explicar o comportamento do Parlamento na realização de atividades de controle e fiscalização. De modo a comprovar essa hipótese empiricamente, foi necessário investigar o mecanismo causal pelo qual o exercício da delegação concedida pelo Parlamento ocasiona uma ação de controle e fiscalização. Para isso, foi utilizado o Process Tracing para construir testes de hipóteses que permitissem responder à pergunta de pesquisa. A coleta de dados foi realizada por meio de pesquisa documental e entrevistas com deputados, burocratas e representantes de grupos de interesse. A unidade de análise foi a Câmara dos Deputados do Brasil, tendo sido escolhido como escopo a área de meio ambiente, especificamente o processo de concessão de licença ambiental. O período delimitado para a coleta de dados foi o primeiro biênio da 55ª legislatura. A metodologia aplicada permitiu validar empiricamente a teoria de fire‐alarm e police‐patrol, sendo necessários ajustes ao modelo teórico para incluir o stakeholder na modelagem, visto que há interações deles com os demais atores que influenciam no caminho percorrido durante o processo. / This research sought to answer the question as to whether the fire‐alarms and police‐patrol theory is sufficient to explain the behavior of Parliament in carrying out oversight activities. In order to empirically prove this hypothesis, it was necessary to investigate the causal mechanism by which a violation to the Parliamentary delegation causes an oversight action. Therefore, Process Tracing was put into practice in order to construct hypothesis tests designed to help to answer the research question. Data collection was done through document research and interviews with congressmen, bureaucrats and interest groups leaders. The unit of analysis of choice to do that is the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies and the scope is the oversight actions that taken place in 2015 and 2016 to oversee the environmental licensing process. After the analysis process, the fire‐alarm and police‐patrol theory was validated empirically, although adjustments had to be made to the theoretical model in order to include the stakeholder, since there are interactions with other actors that influence the causal mechanism.

abstract: Urban areas face a host of sustainability problems ranging from air and water quality, to housing affordability, and sprawl reducing returns on infrastructure investments, among many others. To address such challenges, cities have begun to envision generational sustainability transitions, and coalesce transition arenas in context to manage those transitions. Transition arenas coordinate the efforts of diverse stakeholders in a setting conducive to making evidence-based decisions that guide a transition forward. Though espoused and studied in the literature, transition arenas still require further research on the specifics of agent selection, arena setting, and decision-making facilitation. This dissertation has three related contributions related to transition arenas. First, it describes a process that took place within Phoenix that focused on identifying, recruiting, and building the capacity of potential transition agents for a transition arena. As part of this, a first draft suggestion of plausible steps to take for identifying, recruiting, and building a team of transition agents is proposed followed by a brief discussion on how this step-by-step process could be evaluated in subsequent work. Second, building on such engagement, this dissertation then offers criteria for transition agent selection based on a review of the literature that includes the setting in which a transition arena occurs, and strategies to support successful facilitation of decision-making in that setting. Third, those criteria are operationalized to evaluate the facilitation of a specific decision (draft of a new transportation plan) in a specific transition arena: the Citizens Committee for the future of Phoenix Transportation. The goal of this dissertation is to articulate a first-draft framework for guiding the development and scientific evaluation of transition arenas. Future work is required to empirically validate the framework in other real-world transition arenas. A feasible research agenda is provides to support this work. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Sustainability 2015

L'objectif principal de cette étude est de déterminer comment les individus impliqués dans le processus de vue comptable, regardent le rôle de l'information comptable dans un environnement économique où les marchés financiers sont dominants. L'étude tente également de déterminer si International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) parti dans l'accomplissement de ce rôle. À cette fin, on compare les perceptions des directeurs financiers, les analystes financiers et les auditeurs de deux environnements de marché très différents, l'Europe comme une variable pour un environnement de marché de capitaux très développés et le Brésil comme une variable pour un environnement de marché des capitaux moins développé. Par le biais d'une enquête, nous voulons déterminer si les producteurs de données comptables (directeurs financiers), les utilisateurs de ces données (analystes financiers) et les contrôleurs de l'information comptable (auditeurs) partagent les mêmes vues sur l'utilité et les objectifs du processus de la comptabilité financière. L'extension de l'étude à plusieurs pays est un des moyens possibles pour déterminer si et comment l'environnement économique affecte l'opinion des personnes interrogées sur des informations comptables. Notre instrument d'enquête a été validé en trois langues (anglais, français et portugais) et utilisé dans six groupes de pays (un pour le Brésil, quatre groupes différents pour les pays européens et un pour les autres participants volontaires). Nous avons utilisé des statistiques descriptives et l'analyse des correspondances multivariée (ACM) pour faire notre analyse et interprétation des résultats. Nos résultats suggèrent que l'activité de nos répondants ont moins d'impact sur leurs réponses que les pays ou ils sont placés. / The main objective of this study is to determine how individuals involved in the accounting process view the role of accounting information in an economic environment where capital markets are dominant. The study also attempts to determine whether International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) play a part in fulfilling this role. To this end, we compare the perceptions of financial officers, financial analysts and auditors from two distinctly different market environments, using Europe as a proxy for a highly developed capital market environment and Brazil as a proxy for a less developed capital market environment. By means of a survey, we want to identify whether producers of accounting data (financial officers), users of that data (financial analysts), and controllers of accounting information (auditors) share the same views on the usefulness and goals of the financial accounting process. Extending the study to several countries is a potential means for determining whether and how the economic environment affects the respondents' views of accounting information. Our survey instrument was validated in three languages (English, French and Portuguese) and applied in six groups of countries (one for Brazil, four distinct groups for European countries and one for other voluntary participants). We used descriptive statistics and multivariate correspondence analysis (MCA) to analyze and interpret the results. Our results suggest that the activity of our respondents has less influence on their answers than the country they work in.

Abstract Today's society is developing towards a more conscious and dedicated attitude concerning the need for sustainable businesses. To ensure that the construction business who is responsible for massive impacts to environment and the society, the legislation demanding sustainability reporting has been passed in the EU. The purpose of this legislation is to force companies to include the environmental and social aspects of their operations and not just the economic. The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate how the construction companies in Sweden has been affected due to the legislation on sustainability reporting. The aim of this study is, through a qualitative working method, to answer which governing instruments the construction companies use in order to implement sustainability in the entire organisation on a day to day basis. The study has investigated four construction companies largely based in and around the three biggest cities in Sweden, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. The interviewees in each company has a role in which they are involved in the strategic operations towards sustainability. The aim is here for the study to answer which governing instruments has been the most influential and successful. The results of the study reveals that beyond the legislation each company has a very different approach and layout concerning the sustainability reporting. The reason for this is because each company has different guidelines through frameworks and certification standards. Depending on what they consider to be vital elements to report, the reportings differ leading to different forms of governing throughout the companies. This also shows that the most successful governing instruments differ as well. Although the study concludes that the companies have mutual governing instruments in the form of education for the employees to enhance competence. It also shows that they all use instruments impacting employee values which leads to a comprehensible understanding of the company’s visions and guidelines.