In 2014, Lazard levelized cost of energy analysis model priced diesel powered systems at $0.225 – $0.404/KWh and a range of $0.165 – $0.242/KWh for gas-powered systems. The model gave a range of $0.28 – $0.33/kWh for diesel and a range of $0.14/kWh – $0.16/kW for gas fired. Nigeria has an abundance of gas reserves, but heavy gas flaring by oil companies perpetuates power failure across Nigeria. What has resulted is an unreliable electricity infrastructure and a high cost of alternative energy. The Electricity Power Sector Reform Act of 2005 started the reform process. Guided by decision theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to understand the perceptions of business leaders at the steel manufacturing businesses on how the use of multiple supply sources of electricity might lead to survival, growth, and profitability. The study’s population consisted of 10 steel manufacturing companies in the Southwest region of Nigeria. The data were collected via semistructured interviews with the leaders who source energy, a review of archival records, and observations of company officials placing orders from multiple sources. The van Kaam method of data analysis generated 5 themes: cost of generating electricity and the investment in alternative sources of energy, erratic power supply and its impact on the steel production industry, quality of power supply relative to the capacity and its impact on profits, electricity factor in the steel production process, and use of multiple sources. These findings may contribute to social change by increasing employment opportunities for members of the local community, who will have an enhanced understanding about steel and seize entrepreneurial opportunities.

Scholars of the Late Pleistocene in Southern Africa have recently sought to develop models explaining long-term variation between Middle Stone Age and Late Stone Age assemblages in terms of variability between “macrolithic” vs. “microlithic” toolmaking systems associated with shifts in hunter-gatherer ecology and land use patterns. While it has often proven extremely difficult to actually test many models, recently developed methods allow us to do so in novel ways. In this dissertation, I use new archaeological data from excavations of two sites in the Namib Desert, as well as new approaches to sourcing lithic artifacts to examine the hypothesis that contrasts between terminal Pleistocene (ca. 15-20 ka BP) and early Holocene (ca. 6-12 ka BP) occupation phases at the two sites represent adaptive responses primarily driven by changes in fluvial regimes and the resource productivity of riparian corridors. Analyzing the lithic assemblage compositions and locating probable source areas for raw materials suggests that terminal Pleistocene groups likely centered land use strategies more toward upland areas east of the study sites and periodically followed broad riparian corridors into the desert itself. Early Holocene groups expanded their ranges and more intensively targeted resources on the open desert plains, dunes, and beaches of the coastal lowlands. My results suggest environmental change may be partially responsible for driving this shift, but new data and methodological tools are needed to address factors like fluctuations in regional population size that may have been driving shifts in the late Pleistocene record of this unique region of Southern Africa.

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to study the establishment process of Swedish companies with sales in China, but who did not begun their establishment with sales. This thesis has examined H&M, Nordic Light and Fagerhult; three Swedish companies that recently started selling on the Chinese market, to see how their establishment chain differs from those suggested by the dominant internationalisation theories, Uppsala Internationalisation Model and the Export Behaviour Model. To study this alternative establishment chain, this thesis has interviewed representatives from each company. The results show that the firms have entered China primarily for sourcing reasons and then at a later stage set up a sales organisation thereby differing from the Uppsala Internationalisation Model’s Establishment Chain. This thesis’s establishment chain of the researched companies in China show that they have started with purchasing, then moved on to production for export, and then finally to sales.</p>

Background: What initially caught our attention was the fact that many Swedish manufacturing firms establish production abroad and consequently many jobs are lost. However we decided to go behind the alarming reports of lost jobs, and instead study the subject from the companies’ perspective. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to study why Swedish companies establish production in China and Eastern Europe, how the production in these regions works, and what effects it has had on the company. Method: A qualitative study was conducted where interviews were performed with six Swedish manufacturing firms. The answers from each interview were then analyzed in order to match the empirical findings to the theoretical framework. A joint analysis was conducted where the answers from the six interviews were compared and analyzed. Finally conclusions were drawn as answer to our purpose. Conclusions: Our studies show that there are two main reasons for Swedish manufacturing firms to establish production in China and Eastern Europe respectively. These reasons are reduced costs and possibility to produce closer to the market. Keeping the product development in Sweden when producing abroad does not imply any problems as long as regular visits are paid to the plant. These visits are also important in order to maintain the relationships, which seems to be especially important in China. Cultural differences affecting the production exist to a varying extent both in China and Eastern Europe compared to Sweden. Establishing production abroad seems to be successful for most companies.

Background:Scholars tend to view global sourcing as a one-way street, whereby multinational manufacturers from developed countries purchase low-cost materials and products from developing countries. Undoubtedly, one of the purchasing bases for them is China because of its abundant resources and cheap labor. That is why China is aptly called the “Global Factory.” Conversely, few Chinese manufactures currently adopt a global sourcing strategy. However, the higher demand for technical quality and an increase in manufacturing cost is driving more Chinese manufacturers to adopt a global sourcing strategy in order to improve their competitive advantage. This would help them to optimize the use of global resources. Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to analyze what problems and challenges Chinese manufacturing companies face in the implementation of a global sourcing strategy. Research Method: Our study shall analyze the situation and problems encountered when Chinese manufacturers implement a global sourcing strategy. To achieve this deep understanding we need to perform a qualitative investigation of some Chinese manufacturers. Hence, we chose qualitative research as our methodology of this thesis. Conclusion:Pursuing global sourcing is a process which takes a long time and involves many obstacles to be overcome. In this complicated situation, there is not a universal compass to pursue global sourcing. Inexperienced Chinese manufacturers have to deal with each problem in order to develop an advanced level of global sourcing and to face the challenges from logistics capabilities, selecting foreign sources, protectionism, regulations, and so on.

In knowledge management research domain, there is lack of research to investigate what factors influence individuals¡¦ knowledge sourcing behaviors. Most literatures focus on supply end of knowledge flow, but few literatures focus on demand end of knowledge flow. Therefore, this study developed a conceptual model to explain individual¡¦ knowledge sourcing behaviors, and we categorized individuals¡¦ knowledge sourcing behaviors into People-to-People and People-to-Published. We also adopt three main categories of antecedents to individuals¡¦ knowledge sourcing behaviors including: group¡¦s factors, individual factors, task-related factors. We adopted the quantitative research method and focus on individuals from different organization in various Industries to collect research data. Then, Structural equations model analysis was conducted to test the research model. The results revealed that: (1)The factors influenced individuals performing People-to-People knowledge sourcing behaviors including: (a)Trust from group¡¦ factors, (b)Risk-aversion from individual factors, (c)Tacit knowledge demanded, and Variety from task-related factors. (2)The factors influenced individuals performing People-to-Published knowledge sourcing behaviors including: (a)Learning orientation from individual factors, (b)Explicit knowledge demanded, Standardization, and Time pressure from task-related factors. With the results of this study, we hope to present a further understanding of the demand for knowledge within organizations and offer a theoretical framework for researchers and managers to predict individuals¡¦ knowledge sourcing behaviors, then improving the management mechanism about these behaviors.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the establishment process of Swedish companies with sales in China, but who did not begun their establishment with sales. This thesis has examined H&amp;M, Nordic Light and Fagerhult; three Swedish companies that recently started selling on the Chinese market, to see how their establishment chain differs from those suggested by the dominant internationalisation theories, Uppsala Internationalisation Model and the Export Behaviour Model. To study this alternative establishment chain, this thesis has interviewed representatives from each company. The results show that the firms have entered China primarily for sourcing reasons and then at a later stage set up a sales organisation thereby differing from the Uppsala Internationalisation Model’s Establishment Chain. This thesis’s establishment chain of the researched companies in China show that they have started with purchasing, then moved on to production for export, and then finally to sales.

Global software development has been a phenomenon of growing interest for almost past decade or so; and its adoption trend continues to gain momentum. Globally distributed work istaken up as an alternative to single-site mainly because of the economic and strategic benefits itoffers. Software development at geographically distributed environment is not a straightforwardtask and entails numerous challenges which are unique to this form of development. Requirements change management is considered challenging even in the best of conditions andit becomes even harder when performed at geographically distributed development locations.There is no existing model for managing requirements change in globally distributed softwaredevelopment context. This study uses qualitative research method to explore requirements change managementprocess and investigates the underlying causes of requirements change in geographicallydistributed software development. The research work proposes a model for requirementschange management for global software development. This model tries to incorporate the roles,activities and artifacts identified in the change management models.

This research work as part of a Master thesis aims to analyse the potential influence of outsourced logistics function on supply chain management from a strategic perspective. To carry out this thesis work a survey is designed to collect all the necessary data, in order to investigate the influence of outsourced logistics activities. The survey targets professionals in the area of logistics from Sweden and France, a response rate of 10% and 36% has been respectively obtained. A statistical analysis has been realized by using the ANOVA method which allows us to evaluate statistically significant results. Hence the analysis carried out answersthe research questions formulated.Our findings have shown a similar trend in Sweden and France on the outsourced logistics activities; mainly transportation and custom brokerage respectively at 80% and 60% are outsourced. According to the responses obtained from the survey, these activities tend to influence supply chain management and its strategy.As for example in Sweden, outsourcing transportation tends to initiate a need of organizational collaboration for an effective supply chain. The following functions such as warehousing, inventory control, order processing, product assembly, reverse logistics and information technology are less outsourced. However we noticed an increase in their use and importance on supply chain management. This can be explained by the recent and significant developments in the field of Information Technology, as well as the growing importance of sustainability for firms. For example for Swedish organizations, outsourcing order processing seems to lead to a focus on responsive supply chain, to use of postponement strate gies and an importance in collaboration across the supply chain. Results are different for companies in France as the main influence of outsourcing logistics activities is more on seen the supply chain as a whole with a great importance in partnership and an interest in standardization of method and re-engineering the supply chain as well as in a sustainable way.For further research work, it will be immensely appealing to develop a framework that defines strategies and managerial issues within the supply chain, considering outsourced logistics functions. Moreover, this research work can be carried out by using different methodologies such as the use of interviews.

Globalized markets, resources and means of communication reshaped the modern world. Today global supply chains are more agile and vulnerable to any crises. There is a need to have appropriate measures and strategies to dismantle and mitigate effects of any small or major disasters in the supply chains. Today supply chains are both directly and indirectly under influence of crises. The purpose is to study how companies assess and avoids risk in their supply chains and how they mitigate risks. Two cases have been used to explore the subject. Primary face-to-face interviews have been conducted with representatives from the two companies. Further secondary documentation from the companies has been analyzed. Managers are well aware of the risks embedded in their supply chains. They have processes to forecast and handle disruptions. Redundant resources are used in various extents to prepare for unforeseen events. To ensure uninterrupted supply different techniques such as dual-sourcing is used. Even though they see themselves as prepared companies are having problems mitigating the impact of uncertain events and these disruptions can have a big negative impact on their supply chains.