The past decades New Public Management (NPM) reforms in the public sector have changed how the mechanisms of accountability work. One type of reform is the privatization of public service provision. These services are today often procured with extensive regulations involved. Many academics argue, under the concept of juridification, that legal institutions have a bigger impact than policies in these activities today (Magnussen & Nilssen, 2013; Blichner & Molander, 2008; Laughlin & Broadbent, 1993) and that the legal contract plays an important role in governing them (Camén, 2011; Brown & Potoski, 2005). In this study we explore how the actors involved in provision of public services perceive accountability. We do this by investigating how politicians, civil servants and service providers involved in the provision of public bus services in Sweden perceive their roles, the procurement regulations’ roles and the legal contracts’ roles. We conclude that, in the case where the service provider is a private company, the legal contract plays an important role in how the accountability is perceived by the actors involved. Further research is needed to see if our results also apply to the contexts of other provisions of public services.

<p>&nbsp / </p> <p>The Internet is now facilitating the provision of an increasing number of services. Thus, technology has become a more integrated part of people‟s daily routine. Some of these technologies include electronic communication, online banking, and shopping as well as electronic learning - to name but a few. However, for various reasons, such as limited formal education (which is a key promoter of reading and writing skills), access and skills, not everyone has an equal opportunity to benefit from the use of these technologies. The unequal distribution of opportunities of such nature is often broadly referred to as the <i><font size="3" face="Arial,Arial"><font size="3" face="Arial,Arial">digital divide</font></font><font size="3">. That is the gap between those who have access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and those who do not. One noted challenge that influences the use of ICT consists of socio-economic conditions, which together elicit high levels of poverty. An identified strategy for uplifting these areas was (and still is) entrepreneurship, notably small businesses. These small businesses however, generally have very short and mostly unsuccessful lives. As a result the government at all levels (national, provincial and local) has endeavoured to provide support to these businesses. Some of this support is provided through mediums, such as the Internet (here named &quot / electronic support&quot / ) to assist these small businesses. This support, which comes from government, is however, not being fully utilised by the intended beneficiaries. Thus, the small businesses are not benefiting from the support provided. Consequently, many are still experiencing a short and unsuccessful existence. This research thus analyses the small businesses in areas of the greater Cape Town, which are characterised by high levels of poverty and unemployment. <font size="3">Previous studies in these areas have reported the lack of ICT related skills, also known as electronic skills (e-skills), as one of the reasons for the low uptake of electronic support (e-support). This e-support is provided by various levels of government through selected agencies (service providers). In essence, this study is aimed at investigating the influence of e-skills in the access and use of the provided e-support by owners of small businesses. Considering that the lack of adequate e-skills has been identified as influencing the use of e-support, the study also aims to identify the e-skills needed to fully utilise the provided e-support. The approach to this investigation included a review of pertinent literature and devising a conceptual model. This model was then tested in the empirical setting of this study. This setting included: (i) Providers of e-support (various specialised government agencies) and (ii) the intended beneficiaries of this e-support, i.e. small businesses in the previously disadvantaged areas (PDAs) of the greater Cape Town. Through the use of case study methodology and face to face interviews, it was found that many small business owners were not able to appropriately use the provided e-support. This was due to their lack of e-skills, which resulted in their inability to use ICT. Additionally, some were unaware of the existence of the e-support or the service providers. During the review of pertinent literature done as part of the study, an e-skills framework was designed. The framework identified the e-skills considered necessary in order for small business owners to effectively utilise the provided e-support and other technologies. The e-skills framework suggested by this study could be used as a tool to assist: (i) The providers of e-support to understand the usage of their services and enable (ii) a more informed understanding of the need for appropriate e-skills among small business owners, in relation to their use of the provided e-support. Additionally, (iii) small business owners should be in a better position to recognise the benefits of using technology, especially the Internet. <font size="3">The contribution of this study is seen as twofold. Firstly, it should assist the providers and users of e-support. This is done by addressing the practical side of the provision and usage of these services. Secondly, the study contributes an informative e-skills framework related to the effective use of e-support. This study also furthers academic knowledge in the area of the investigation, and suggests further directions for research. Considering, the limited small business sample (only participants from three PDAs), the generalisation of this study is limited. This limitation does not however, influence the validity of this research, or the credibility of the findings. </font></font></font></i></p>

<p>&nbsp / </p> <p>The Internet is now facilitating the provision of an increasing number of services. Thus, technology has become a more integrated part of people‟s daily routine. Some of these technologies include electronic communication, online banking, and shopping as well as electronic learning - to name but a few. However, for various reasons, such as limited formal education (which is a key promoter of reading and writing skills), access and skills, not everyone has an equal opportunity to benefit from the use of these technologies. The unequal distribution of opportunities of such nature is often broadly referred to as the <i><font size="3" face="Arial,Arial"><font size="3" face="Arial,Arial">digital divide</font></font><font size="3">. That is the gap between those who have access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and those who do not. One noted challenge that influences the use of ICT consists of socio-economic conditions, which together elicit high levels of poverty. An identified strategy for uplifting these areas was (and still is) entrepreneurship, notably small businesses. These small businesses however, generally have very short and mostly unsuccessful lives. As a result the government at all levels (national, provincial and local) has endeavoured to provide support to these businesses. Some of this support is provided through mediums, such as the Internet (here named &quot / electronic support&quot / ) to assist these small businesses. This support, which comes from government, is however, not being fully utilised by the intended beneficiaries. Thus, the small businesses are not benefiting from the support provided. Consequently, many are still experiencing a short and unsuccessful existence. This research thus analyses the small businesses in areas of the greater Cape Town, which are characterised by high levels of poverty and unemployment. <font size="3">Previous studies in these areas have reported the lack of ICT related skills, also known as electronic skills (e-skills), as one of the reasons for the low uptake of electronic support (e-support). This e-support is provided by various levels of government through selected agencies (service providers). In essence, this study is aimed at investigating the influence of e-skills in the access and use of the provided e-support by owners of small businesses. Considering that the lack of adequate e-skills has been identified as influencing the use of e-support, the study also aims to identify the e-skills needed to fully utilise the provided e-support. The approach to this investigation included a review of pertinent literature and devising a conceptual model. This model was then tested in the empirical setting of this study. This setting included: (i) Providers of e-support (various specialised government agencies) and (ii) the intended beneficiaries of this e-support, i.e. small businesses in the previously disadvantaged areas (PDAs) of the greater Cape Town. Through the use of case study methodology and face to face interviews, it was found that many small business owners were not able to appropriately use the provided e-support. This was due to their lack of e-skills, which resulted in their inability to use ICT. Additionally, some were unaware of the existence of the e-support or the service providers. During the review of pertinent literature done as part of the study, an e-skills framework was designed. The framework identified the e-skills considered necessary in order for small business owners to effectively utilise the provided e-support and other technologies. The e-skills framework suggested by this study could be used as a tool to assist: (i) The providers of e-support to understand the usage of their services and enable (ii) a more informed understanding of the need for appropriate e-skills among small business owners, in relation to their use of the provided e-support. Additionally, (iii) small business owners should be in a better position to recognise the benefits of using technology, especially the Internet. <font size="3">The contribution of this study is seen as twofold. Firstly, it should assist the providers and users of e-support. This is done by addressing the practical side of the provision and usage of these services. Secondly, the study contributes an informative e-skills framework related to the effective use of e-support. This study also furthers academic knowledge in the area of the investigation, and suggests further directions for research. Considering, the limited small business sample (only participants from three PDAs), the generalisation of this study is limited. This limitation does not however, influence the validity of this research, or the credibility of the findings. </font></font></font></i></p>

The world has experienced multiple disasters in recent years that have highlighted the importance of effective disaster preparedness and response initiatives. One prominent example is the January 12, 2010, 7.0 magnitude earthquake that shook Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The massive disaster made it difficult for local Haitian community officials to respond immediately, leaving the country reliant on foreign aid and international and non-governmental relief organizations. Within days, hundreds of organizations and volunteers mobilized to send physicians and medical specialists, nurses, physiotherapists, psychologists and social workers to the affected area. However, the political and financial instability of Haiti, in conjunction with limited resources and severe destruction from the earthquake, made it difficult to coordinate response efforts between hundreds of responding organizations. The literature indicates that when health professionals are disorganized and unprepared, they are at risk physically, emotionally and mentally which could hinder their effectiveness as first responders. While these risks have been made known, there is little literature that explores the effectiveness of the supports, as perceived by Canadian health and social service providers in Haiti. In order to address this gap, this qualitative study explores various supports that were available to health and social service providers in Haiti by focusing on their lived experiences pre-deployment, on-site and post-deployment. These findings provide evidence to inform policy development regarding future disaster relief and the supports available to health and social service workers assisting with international disaster response.

Peer-to-peer (p2p) technology provides an excellent platform for the delivery of rich content and media that scales with the rapid growth of the Internet. This work presents a lookup service design and implementation that provides provable fault tolerance and operates in a cost-conscious manner over the Internet. <br><br> Using a distributed hash table (DHT) as a foundation, we propose a replica placement that improves object availability and reachability to implement a robust lookup service. We present a framework that describes tree-based routing DHTs and formally prove several properties for DHTs of this type. Specifically, we prove that our replica placement, which we call MaxDisjoint, creates a provable number of disjoint routes from any source node to a replica set. We evaluate this technique through simulation and demonstrate that it creates disjoint routes more effectively than existing replica placements. Furthermore, we show that disjoint routes have a marked impact on routing robustness, which we measure as the probability of lookup success. <br><br> To mitigate the costs incurred by multi-hop DHT routing, we develop an organization-based id assignment scheme that bounds the transit costs of prefix-matching routes. To further reduce costs, we use MaxDisjoint placement to create multiple routes of varying costs. This technique helps reduce cost in two ways: (1) replication may create local copies of an object that can be accessed at zero transit cost and (2) MaxDisjoint replication creates multiple, bounded cost, disjoint routes of which the minimal cost route can be used to resolve the lookup. We model the trade-off between the storage cost and routing cost benefit of replication to find the optimal degree to which an object should be replicated. We evaluate our approach using a lookup service implementation and show that it dramatically reduces cost over existing DHT implementations. Furthermore, we show that our technique can be used to manage objects of varying popularity in a manner that is more cost effective than caching. <br><br> By improving its robustness and cost effectiveness, we aim to increase the pervasiveness of p2p in practice and unlock the potential of this powerful technology.

The growth of eCommerce is being hampered by a lack of trust between providers and consumers of Web-based services. While Web trust issues have been addressed by researchers in many disciplines, a comprehensive approach has yet to be established. This thesis proposes a conceptual trust-profiling framework???W3TF???which addresses issues of trust and user confidence through a range of new user-centred trust measures???trust categories, trust domains, transitivity of trust, fading factor analysis, standalone assessment, hyperlinked assessment and relevance assessment. While others now use the concept of transitivity of trust, it was first introduced by this research in 1998. The thesis also illustrates how W3TF can narrow the gap/disconnection between the hierarchical PKI trust environment and the horizontal Web referral environment. The framework incorporates existing measures of trust (such as Public Key Infrastructure), takes account of consumer perceptions by identifying trust attributes, and utilises Web technology (in the form of metadata), to create a practical, flexible and comprehensive approach to trust assessment. The versatility of the W3TF is demonstrated by applying it to a variety of cases from trust literature and to the hypothetical case study that provided the initial stimulus for this research. It is shown that the framework can be expanded to accommodate new trust attributes, categories and domains, and that trust can be ???weighed??? (and therefore evaluated) by using various mathematical formulae based on different theories and policies. The W3TF addresses identified needs, narrows the gaps in existing approaches and provides a mechanism to embrace current and future efforts in trust management. The framework is a generic form of trust assessment that can help build user confidence in an eCommerce environment. For service providers, it offers an incentive to create websites with a high number of desired trust attributes. For consumers, it enables more reliable judgments to be made. Hence, Web trust can be enhanced.

La présente thèse porte sur le rôle du prestataire de services logistiques en matière d'émergence de solutions de mutualisation logistique concertée. Nous avons cherché à identifier les rôles des prestataires et à lier ces rôles avec la vision stratégique du prestataire, ses ressources et compétences, et les logiques des acteurs de la supply chain. Au cours de cette recherche, nous avons été amenés à spécifier la mutualisation logistique concertée, en identifiant trois grands types : la mutualisation concertée de type gestion partagée des approvisionnements mutualisés, la mutualisation concertée de type gestion mutualisée des approvisionnements et la mutualisation concertée « par synergie ». Suite à la confrontation de notre modèle théorique au terrain, nous avons construit trois modèles. Ces trois modèles mettent en perspective trois scenarii, avec pour chacun des rôles pour les prestataires de services logistiques de plus en plus spécifiques à acquérir ou assumer. Nous avons alors confronté les quatre grands rôles identifiés par la littérature à la réalité du terrain. Nous en avons déduit que les prestataires de services logistiques ne remplissent pas totalement ces quatre rôles et au contraire, sont peu actifs pour devancer les besoins de leurs clients. Nos trois scenarii nous conduisent non seulement à identifier trois types de prestataire mais aussi à identifier les ressources et compétences spécifiques à chacun des scenarii. Notre conclusion est que les prestataires peuvent jouer un rôle majeur dans l'émergence des solutions de mutualisation logistique concertée mais qui n'en saisissent que rarement l'opportunité. / The current thesis concerns the role of the logistic service provider in the emergence of concerted logistic pooling solutions. We identified roles of services providers and linked them with their strategic intent, their resources and competencies, and the behavior of supply chain actors (suppliers, distributors, IT services companies, consultants). This thesis is structured around three literature reviews, each of them is developed in a chapter (resources and competences and strategic management; logistic pooling, logistic service and logistic service providers), a fourth chapter on our methodology (interpretativist and hypothetico-deductive) with cases study and a qualitative methodology. In the last chapter, we present the result of our empirical study, based on eight cases from the distribution sector.We had to specify the definition of logistic pooling and found three major types: concerted logistic pooling based on "gestion partagée des approvisionnements mutualisée", a second one based on "gestion mutualisée des approvisionnements", and a last one based on "synergy". Then we built three models each of them fitted three scenarios. These scenarios helped us discover for each of them the role of the logistic service providers and the specific resources and competencies they own in each case. We develop then a matrix with the different scenarios and the kind of resources and competencies to acquire to change of scenario and become more proactive in logistic pooling. Our conclusion is that logistic service providers can have a major role to play in the development of concerted logistic pooling solutions, but they rarely take the opportunity to do so.

A qualitative study was undertaken to develop an understanding of the social welfare services rendered to street children and to ascertain how these social welfare services can be enhanced from the perspective of service providers employed by NGOs in Pretoria. An explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was utilised. The researcher used purposive and non-probability sampling methods to draw the sample. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect information from nine service providers working with street children. Data were analysed according to the framework provided by Tesch (in Creswell, 2009). Data was verified using Guba‘s model (in Krefting, 1991).The study highlights challenges faced by NGOs in providing social welfare services to street children. The study provides a critical analysis of some of the key social welfare service challenges that need to be addressed to ensure effective and sustainable delivery of social welfare services. how these social welfare services can be enhanced from the perspective of service providers employed by NGOs in Pretoria. An explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was utilised. The researcher used purposive and non-probability sampling methods to draw the sample. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect information from nine service providers working with street children. Data were analysed according to the framework provided by Tesch (in Creswell, 2009). Data was verified using Guba‘s model (in Krefting, 1991).The study highlights challenges faced by NGOs in providing social welfare services to street children. The study provides a critical analysis of some of the key social welfare service challenges that need to be addressed to ensure effective and sustainable delivery of social welfare services. the social welfare services rendered to street children and to ascertain how these social welfare services can be enhanced from the perspective of service providers employed by NGOs in Pretoria. An explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was utilised. The researcher used purposive and non-probability sampling methods to draw the sample. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect information from nine service providers working with street children. Data were analysed according to the framework provided by Tesch (in Creswell, 2009). Data was verified using Guba‘s model (in Krefting, 1991).The study highlights challenges faced by NGOs in providing social welfare services to street children. The study provides a critical analysis of some of the key social welfare service challenges that need to be addressed to ensure effective and sustainable delivery of social welfare services. / Social Work / MA (Social Work)

A economia globalizada e os avanços tecnológicos propiciaram um novo modelo de Outsourcing de Tecnologia de Informação (TI): os provedores de serviços de aplicativos (ASP - Application Service Providers). As discussões a respeito de ASP intensificaram-se nos três últimos anos, com a proposta de comercialização do software como um serviço. Quanto maior a interdependência da área de TI com as metas de negócios das organizações, maior a ênfase dada à satisfação das expectativas do cliente quanto aos serviços prestados pelos provedores. No mercado, têm-se adotado os acordos dos níveis de serviços (SLA - Service Level Agreements) como mecanismo de controle das atividades de outsourcing. Porém, essa adoção é nova e imatura, e a literatura é escassa. Tanto os provedores quanto os cliente sentem a necessidade por estruturas de implantação semelhantes às de SLA. Essa carência é ressaltada no caso dos modelos ASP. Propondo-se a contribuir com a compressão do modelo ASP e de SLA para ASP, apresenta-se uma pesquisa exploratória das características desse modelo com SLA, de modelos de qualidade de serviços de outsourcing e finalmente de considerações que devem ser feitas para garantir a qualidade dos serviços ASP, empregando-se os SLA. / The global economy and technological advances propitiated a new model of Information Technology (IT) Outsourcing: the Application Service Providers - ASP. Discussions regarding ASP became more frequent in the last three years because of the new approach of selling software as a service. As the interdependency between the IT area and the business goals of organizations becomes greater, the emphasis on fulfilling the client\'s expectations regarding service rendered by providers becomes stronger. In the market, Service Level Agreements - SLA have been adopted as control mechanisms of outsourcing activities. However, this adoption is new and immature, and the literature on the matter is scarce. Providers and clients feel the need for implementation structures similar to SLA\'s. In lhe case of ASP models, this necessity is emphasized mainly due to the lack of conceptual information on the ASP model. In order to better comprehend lhe ASP and the SLA models for ASP, I am presenting an exploratory research about the characteristics of the new approach with SLA models, outsourcing models of service quality and considerations, which must be carried out to ensure quality of ASP services employing SLA.

Programas que contemplem a restauração florestal são importantes para conter o processo de degradação ambiental. A análise do processo de restauração florestal se faz necessária para verificar como estas ações vêm sendo realizado e quais suas características, bem como os principais atores do processo. Este estudo apresenta um diagnóstico do estado atual e das tendências que guiam o processo de restauração florestal no Estado de São Paulo realizado por prestadores de serviços e organizações do terceiro setor. No primeiro capitulo é apresentada uma revisão com aspectos conceituais e práticos da restauração florestal, com a descrição das partes interessadas da restauração. No segundo capítulo foi realizado um diagnóstico do processo de restauração florestal realizado por organizações do terceiro setor (organizações não governamentais) e empresas prestadoras de serviços da área. Para isto foram realizadas visitas a campo e entrevistas com organizações do terceiro setor e prestadores de serviços que desenvolvem projetos de restauração florestal. No capítulo três foi realizado um estudo de caso analisando a colheita de sementes para a restauração florestal por produtores familiares na região de Ribeirão Grande, SP. De acordo com os resultados obtidos no diagnóstico observa-se que a restauração florestal realizada por organizações do terceiro setor e prestadores de serviço do Estado de São Paulo está seguindo duas vertentes: a restauração para recuperação e conservação ambiental e, a restauração devido a exigências legais, para compensação de passivos ambientais ou licenciamento ambiental. Dentro destas vertentes têm surgido novos mercados de valorização da floresta, como o marketing ambiental e o mercado voluntário de compensação das emissões de carbono. As organizações do terceiro setor são também articuladoras do processo, tendo um trabalho importante na captação de recursos para a restauração e na formação de uma consciência ambiental pela sociedade. Para a maioria das organizações do terceiro setor e alguns prestadores de serviços, o processo de restauração florestal tem obtido melhores resultados quando envolvem atividades de educação ambiental e ações participativas com as comunidades envolvidas. A diversidade de espécies utilizadas nos projetos aumentou, bem como a preocupação com a qualidade das sementes utilizadas, apesar da dificuldade de rastreamento do processo. A atividade de colheita de sementes por pequenos produtores familiares tem se desenvolvido como um complemento à renda em regiões com fragmentos de mata nativa. A colheita de sementes também proporcionou uma maior valorização da floresta pelos produtores rurais. As dificuldades enfrentadas pelos produtores relacionam-se à falta de capacitação com a colheita, a identificação das espécies, a marcação de matrizes e também com o transporte das sementes. A colheita de sementes trouxe alguns benefícios econômicos para os produtores, porém aquém do esperado, em parte pela falta de estruturação na comercialização das sementes e de capacitação para a colheita. Os resultados encontrados poderão ser úteis na formulação de políticas públicas para regular e guiar o processo de restauração florestal e a melhoria da qualidade dos projetos resultantes. / Forest restoration programs are important to mitigate environmental degradation. The analysis of forest restoration process is needed in order to determine how these programs are being carried out, its mains characteristics, as well as who are the key stakeholders. This study provides an analysis of the current state and trends that drive the process of forest restoration in the São Paulo State conducted by NGOs and service providers. The first chapter presents a review addressing conceptual and empirical aspects of forest restoration. The descriptions of main stakeholders involved with restoration projects were also reported. Chapter two presents an analysis of forest restoration projects and their underlying process. Field visits and interviews were conducted with NGOs and service providers for forest restoration projects. In chapter three a case study was conducted based on seed collection practices for forest restoration by farmers in the region of Ribeirao Grande, SP, Brazil. The results of this thesis show that the restoration projects are being conducted for two main purposes: for recovery and conservation of environmental services and due the legal requirements to compensate or for compliance with environmental licensing. New markets and opportunities had emerged for forest restoration, such as green marketing and voluntary compensation of carbon emissions. NGOs are important players, raising funds for the restoration and environmental awareness. Forest restoration projects have shown better results when they involve environmental education and participatory activities with communities. The diversity of species used in these projects has increased, as well as awareness about seed quality, despite difficulties from collection, tracing and proper economic valuation. Seed collection by small farmers has generated income alternatives for areas with native forest fragments. Farmers are also giving proper value to forest areas. Seed producers main difficulties are associated with seed collection, species identification, seeds transportation and seed registration. Seed collection brought some economic benefits for collectors, but less than expected, partly due to the lack of seed market structure and of capacitation. These results may be useful for policy making and makers to regulate and guide the process of forest restoration, and improving quality of the resulting projects.