The focus of this research is the learning of host families participating in the curricula of student exchange programs. The role of the host family is central to the exchange event, but hosting is often a problematic experience during which the host family faces may dilemmas. The research substantiates the relevance of family systems theory in relation to the host family and positions the host family in an intercultural context. Phenomenographic techniques are used to describe the different ways of experiencing a hosting event and to account for how these ways occur. The phenomenon of Hosting is described by the conception of Synergy. A Spectrum of Experience, rather than a hierarchy, is defined by the four components of :fit, responsibility, investment and learning. Host family dilemmas and discernment are related to prior experience of hosting and the Synergy between expectations and learning outcomes. Intercultural learning in a hosting event is identified as participants' understanding of themselves, the process of hosting, communication skills and an appreciation of cultural heritage. Host family expectations have an impact before, during and after the hosting event while realistic expectations recognise the potential for learning moments as well as the contribution that conflicts, confrontations and challenges make to learning and growth in an intercultural context. Best preparation and best practice for host family participation involves an understanding of experiential learning, training program design and strategies for ongoing support systems / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In this doctorate, I provide a balanced and collaborative approach to knowledge/value change between the contesting worldviews of indigenous knowledge and western science, termed 'synergistic'. My search for synergy is comparative and reconciliatory. This endeavours to overcome the popular pre-occupation with conflict and opposition. Rather, both difference and similarity are recognised. Through the comparison of such synergy, I argue that Māori development requires for its further advancement a focus not only on difference and conflict, but also on affinity and convergence. My primary concern is to establish a better understanding of the synergistic, adaptive strategies or indigenous innovation of Māori kaitiaki, environmental stewards. I investigate conflicting and converging Māori and western scientific conservation and use values in Aotearoa/New Zealand environmental governance and management regimes under the Resource Management Act 1991, with specific regard to indicator development. The balance of values were compared in ecological environmental governance, from five Aotearoa governmental authorities and three Māori river communities, utilising Māori and western social science methods. My focus on indicators pinpoints contesting knowledge/value change between the marginalisation of indigenous knowledge and dominance of western science. This seeks to highlight the potential viability of Māori kaitiakitanga, stewardship in global and national terms of sustainability. However, potential synergy is held back by a prevailing viewpoint of the indigenous worldview as backward, past-oriented and non-synergistic. An oppositional dogma predominates, which is a key problem to overcome. It spans world and national literature, resulting in considerable gaps in knowledge on synergy, conceptually, methodologically, empirically and analytically. This is addressed by an authoritative Māori synergistic standpoint from my own cultural lens and decolonised theorising, termed 'nuanced problem solving'. I articulate both worldviews in knowledge/value change through comparative, evolutionary, multi-dimensional, cross-cultural and inter-disciplinary research on synergy. My nuanced problem solving encapsulates the two main parts of the doctorate, whereby synergy is correlated between theory and social practice. Part one deals with value comparison in theory utilising high abstracted concepts and methods at the global level of environmental governance. Part two deals with value balance in social practice utilising medium abstracted and concrete empirical and analytical research at global, national, regional, district and cross-tribal levels of environmental governance. Potential synergy cross-cuts each part from high abstracted thought down and from the practical flax roots up. I argue that Māori advancement fluctuates between them. Drawing on cultural and theoretical leanings of the Māori synergistic standpoint, both a strong correlation with existing theory and expanded synergistic theorising was found. Due to the expansiveness of the research, these correlated findings only provide an embryonic understanding of potential synergy. A postscript describes my other work on synergy with five external agencies concerning foreshore, lakeside, wastewater, land disposal and carbon marketing kaitiakitanga. I argue that additional research on synergy is needed in order to further advance Māori.

<p>Preservation of information is not a new issue but preservation of digital information has a relatively short history. Since the 60’s when computers began to be used within administration, digital information that has had to be preserved over time.The problem addressed in this research is how to preserve understandable information over time. Information is context dependent, which means that without context it is not possible to use the information. Process is one part of the context. And an important issue when preserving information is then to be able to trace an information</p><p>object to the process where in it has been created and managed. Associating information to a particular process creates the possibility of relating information objects to each other and also to the context in which the information has been created and used. The aim of this thesis is to identify and structure factors that can improve the traceability between information and processes over time. A set of factors based on case studies and a set of analytical methods are presented that can improve the traceability over time. These factors have been identified and structured by the use of the Synergy-4 model. They have been identified within four different spheres namely: competence, management, organization/procedure and technology. The factors have further been structured in three different time states namely: creation time, short and middle term and long-term. The research concludes that there are a lot of factors influencing ability to preserve information. Preservation issues include selection of metadata standards, organizational culture, lack of understanding from management and formalization of documents. The conclusion is that if an organization wants to succeed in preserving traceable information they have to build strategies that cover the issues from a range of different angles. This thesis suggests that crucial angles are competence, management, organization/procedure</p><p>and technology. Furthermore, the strategies must be in place at the stage of creationof the information objects.</p>

<p>Background: The most common reason to mergers and acquisitions is to generate synergies. Synergies emerge when two collaborating companies show a better result together than they would have done separately. Even though mergers and acquisitions have taken place since the beginning of the 17th century many of them still fail to succeed. There are many reasons why. Despite the fact that the reasons of failure have been known for a long time, new waves of mergers and acquisitions still appear. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to contribute with knowledge about what should be given priority, in the merger and acquisition process, to generate synergies and thereby create shareholder value. This is achieved by investigating mergers and acquisitions in Sweden during the period 1996-2001. </p><p>Method: The thesis includes both quantitative and qualitative research. The quantitative research is calculations made to decide each company’s performances compared to index and the qualitative research is interviews made with representatives from the companies. </p><p>Result: There are no superior methods that can guarantee success, however there are certain aspects that always should be given priority. According our research those are among others: thorough due diligence, creating a committee of integration in order to keep focus on core business.</p>

<p>Climate change is a complex and multidimensional issue that encompasses not only environmental problems but also political, socio-economic and cultural challenges as well. Moreover, major shifts in the weather patterns caused by the anthropogenically induced global warming may have significant impacts on the global economy and international trade in particular. However, the effects of climate change will be distributed unevenly around the world and the poorest nations will be affected the most due to their higher vulnerability. Additionally, the winners and losers nexus will probably differ between the time of mitigation efforts and reality of adaptation process. These issues will create more complications in the relations between developed countries (global North) and developing nations (global South). Therefore, if multilateral treaties and institutional arrangements regarding climate change are to be effective and acceptable to all parties, there is a need to deal with problematic of global warming as a whole, including the issues of development and international trade in particular. A concept of synergy is a strategy that could allow building a mutual cooperation between climate change and international trade regimes. It is important to emphasize that the synergy is understood here not as a simple cooperation of two separate parts, but as combined efforts which final effect is greater than a sum of individual parts working separately.</p><p>Thus, the aim of this study was to trace and analyze linkages between the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in order to determine potentials, obstacles and consequences of synergies between these two organizations. The linkages – that are prerequisites of synergies – between the two organizations were traced within the four key areas: institutional capacity, political dimension, conceptual basis and recommendations for actions. The research was conducted based on the case study that allowed investigation of synergies as a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context. A broader understanding and clearer conclusions regarding synergies were achieved through the method of interpretation called hermeneutic circle. The world-systems and dependency theory together with a historical background of the two respective institutions became a pre-understanding of examined issues during the analytical process.</p><p>The biggest potentials for establishing synergies between UNCTAD and UNFCCC were found within currently existing institutional linkages based on affiliation with the United Nations system of institutions, as well as on research and capacity building regarding the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Whereas obstacles were visible in: the North-South paradigm (or core-periphery in terms of the world-systems theory); the winner-loser division – particularly when it comes to CDM projects and adaptation to climate change impacts – visible not only on the North-South line of relations but also the South-South as well; and environmental aspects vs. economic benefits (what is the priority: climate protection or continuation of development). Conclusions of this study allowed envisaging three potential outcomes of synergies between UNCTAD and UNFCCC. Additionally, three alternative scenarios were suggested based on the aspiration to balance influences of the North and the South – a tactics that could make mitigation efforts and adaptation strategies successful for the benefits of all, rich as well as poor.</p>

Background: The most common reason to mergers and acquisitions is to generate synergies. Synergies emerge when two collaborating companies show a better result together than they would have done separately. Even though mergers and acquisitions have taken place since the beginning of the 17th century many of them still fail to succeed. There are many reasons why. Despite the fact that the reasons of failure have been known for a long time, new waves of mergers and acquisitions still appear. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to contribute with knowledge about what should be given priority, in the merger and acquisition process, to generate synergies and thereby create shareholder value. This is achieved by investigating mergers and acquisitions in Sweden during the period 1996-2001. Method: The thesis includes both quantitative and qualitative research. The quantitative research is calculations made to decide each company’s performances compared to index and the qualitative research is interviews made with representatives from the companies. Result: There are no superior methods that can guarantee success, however there are certain aspects that always should be given priority. According our research those are among others: thorough due diligence, creating a committee of integration in order to keep focus on core business.

Businesses carrying out related diversification moves with the objective to gain synergy effects have been a frequently occurring phenomenon since the midst of the past century. Plenty of models have been constructed, mainly using external data, in order to predict the outcome of these moves, but a high degree of contradictory results in empiric testing shows that current models are insufficient. Our objective is to present a model which also takes into account the internal data presented by the line of research called horizontal strategies, with the aim of moving towards a more accurate explanatory model for related diversification. This is a study of literature which resulted in a model which may be used for approximations as a strategic planning device. Our main conclusions are that further empirical testing, mainly regarding the behaviour of costs for implementing interrelationships, is necessary in order to create an accurate, explanatory model for predicting the outcome of related diversification.

Empirical research findings on the consequences of post-M&amp;A performance have generated several result, although most of which are inconsistent. The relation of such post-M&amp;A performances to non-listed and listed companies can be relative especially when considering the companies economic and financial structure and other prevailing factors associated to the host country. However, most of these have been attributed to the choice of performance measurement indicators. This paper analyses and evaluates existing performance indicators that have been employed in the literature. It is argued that to overcome the limitations found in financial indicators of performance, a need to pursue multiple measures of performance in post-M&amp;A research is needed. It also argues that the motives for the transaction should also be included as performance indicators. This hybrid approach will allow researchers and practitioners to measure the overall success of merger and acquisitions.

A substantial literature has evolved focusing on the synergies generated by the strategic alliances (SAs). In this dissertation, the author chooses Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide as the focal firm, and analyze the cases of SAs formed by its brands, including St.Regis, Westin, W Hotel and Element from year 2008 to 2010. First of all, this dissertation will discuss the development and the general condition of the hotel industry in the United States of America. And then present Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide by analyzing its position in its brands. Also, this dissertation introduces the partner firms and then infers the reasons of the SAs and the synergies created by them. At last, gives the readers suggestions from those cases. According to the overall analysis, there are 5 kinds synergies generated by SAs are shown as follow. (1) synergies generated by brand alliance (2) synergies generated by CSR (3) synergies generated by social relation network (4) synergies generated by market (5) synergies generated by complementary abilities The managers can employ the 5 categories of synergies constructed by this literature when deciding partners, scopes and types of SAs. The categories and the practical cases presented will provide more directions and aspects for reference.

Taiwan's Uni-President Enterprise Corp. started its business from flour. In order to save costs, Uni-President proceeded with a vertical industrial integration at the initial stage, opened additional businesses at the middle stage, and diversified until recently. He has been playing a pivotal role as a pioneer for marketing, product development, and even diversification strategies in this industry. With the expansion of overseas investments, Uni-President Enterprise Corp. received significant benefits from economies of scale. South Korea has been a formidable competitor to Taiwan. Our market is not only flooded with various Korean electronic equipment, household appliances and audio-visual entertainment, but also the foods. For example, the koala-shape biscuits and chocopie, which are rather popular, are from Lotte, the food industry leader of South Korea. These two enterprises are both leaders in the food industry, and take integration and diversification as parts of their development process. Diversification of product and business is the main method to facilitate growth. M&A (Merger & Acquisition) is the fastest and safest way to enter a new business field. Taiwan's Uni-President Enterprise Corp. and Korea's Lotte Group are the main cases for this study. Here we analyzed their strategies and motivations to understand the synergy and business performance these groups have as well as their differences.