This study aims to investigate the organizational and interorganizational challenges of an SME in achieving climate objectives in medium-sized tenant adaptation projects. In order to answer this research question, the study has used three qualitative methods: documentation analysis, direct observation and nine semi-structured interviews. Furthermore, the framework used for guiding this research utilizes the concepts of institutional logic, stakeholder theory and boundary object. This study identifies seven challenges: 1) different views on value creation, 2) balancing short-and long-term objectives, 3) the company’s strategy, 4) client demands, 5) stakeholder cooperation, 6) initial construction meeting, and 7) implementation of a new boundary object. In addition, this study also identifies five institutional logics (sustainability/customer/regulation/risk/business) within the SME which aids in interpreting the aforementioned challenges.

During the last decades the real estate and construction industry has experienced a major development regarding sustainability aspects. However, something that is often neglected when discussing sustainability within the real estate sector is the process of adapting office spaces for new tenants, in which current practice implies that perfectly fine materials are demolished and thrown out due to aesthetic demands from tenants. The purpose of this study was therefore to examine how interventions should be constructed, by the application of the theory of nudge, to influence office tenants to favor reuse instead of new materials within the process of tenant improvements. By identifying the four most crucial factors of decision-making regarding reuse from semi-structured interviews with business professionals within the real estate sector, statements were constructed and rated by individual tenants according to the seven grade Likert scale in a self-administrated questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed to tenants within a property portfolio twice, before and after the tenants took part in a printed intervention in a digital format. The intervention was constructed as an information sheet concerning reuse and included four chosen tools of nudge with the purpose of positively affecting the respondent’s attitude towards reuse. By distributing the same questionnaire, the change in rating between the two questionnaires could be observed, presenting the effect of the intervention. The ratings were analyzed by a conceptual analysis of an independent-sample T test in SPSS comparing the mean values as well as additional analyses of rating distribution in Microsoft Excel. The results showed a minor, but not significant change in mean values but a noticeable change in rating distribution, especially regarding the neutral rating of 4. The intervention was able to affect the respondents both in a positive and negative manner, which indicates that there is a major knowledge gap which can be reduced by the implementation of the nudge theory. The study concludes that there are many challenges regarding the practice of reuse where landlords and tenants need to cooperate to create a practice aiming towards a more sustainable process of tenant improvements. / Under de senaste årtiondena har det skett en stor utveckling i bygg- och fastighetsbranschen gällande hållbarhetsarbete. Något som däremot inte tas i beaktning när hållbarhet diskuteras inom branschen är processen vid hyresgästanpassningar där nuvarande arbetsmetod innebär att fullt fungerande material rivs ut och slängs på grund av de estetiska krav som hyresgäster ställer. Syftet med denna studie var därför att undersöka hur interventioner kan konstrueras genom att applicera nudge-teorin för att positivt påverka hyresgästers attityd kring återbruk vid hyresgästanpassningar. Genom att identifiera de fyra mest avgörande faktorerna vid beslutsfattandet kring återbruk med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer med yrkesverksamma respondenter inom fastighetsbranschen, kunde frågor i form av påståenden skapas och mätas av individuella hyresgäster i enlighet med en sjugradig Likertskala i en självadministrerad enkät. Enkäten distribuerades till hyresgäster i en fastighetsportfölj vid två tillfällen, en gång innan och en gång efter det att respondenterna tagit del av en tryckt intervention i digitalt format. Interventionen konstruerades som ett informationsblad om återbruk och innehöll fyra utvalda nudge-verktyg vars syfte var att positivt påverka respondentens attityd till återbruk. Genom att distribuera samma enkät två gånger kunde skillnaden i rankning mellan de två enkäterna utläsas för att mäta effekten av interventionen. Utfallet av enkätstudien analyserades med en konceptuell analys genom ett t-test i SPSS där medelvärdet av de olika faktorerna jämfördes. Förutom detta gjordes kompletterande analyser avseende svars-distributionen i Microsoft Excel. Resultatet påvisade endast en liten, men inte statistisk signifikant, skillnad i medelvärde medan en observerbar skillnad kunde utläsas i svars-distribution, speciellt gällande den neutrala graderingen 4. Interventionen lyckades påverka respondenter både positivt och negativt, vilket påvisar ett stort kunskapsglapp som kan minskas med hjälp av nudge-teorin. Studien påvisar att det finns många utmaningar avseende återbruk där hyresvärdar och hyresgäster måste samarbeta för att skapa ett arbetssätt som främjar utvecklingen kring hållbarhet vid hyresgästanpassningar.

Problem som återfanns inom den svenska bostadsmarknaden efter andra världskriget med undermåliga och omoderna bostäder skapade ett antagande om att tvister mellan hyresgäster och hyresvärdar förekommit på flera olika platser runt om i landet och därav även i Karlstad på grund av omständigheterna. Eftersom Hyresgästföreningen är en organisation som har handskats med olika tvister under sin långa historia bäddade detta även för att Karlstads Hyresgästförening historiskt har handskats med olika tvister. Uppsatsens syfte landade således i att undersöka om det fanns indikationer på undermåliga och omoderna bostäder vid olika tvister mellan hyresgäster och hyresvärdar som Karlstads Hyresgästförening handskades med mellan 1950–1959. Uppsatsen knöt även an till en konfliktteori för att främst få stöd i att belysa tänkbara underliggande förklaringar till varför olika tvister kan blåsa upp. Med utgångspunkt i uppsatsens syfte och tillhörande frågeställningar genomarbetades källmaterialet inhämtat från Karlstads Hyresgästförenings arkivmaterial utifrån en kvalitativ metod i form av en text- samt innehållsanalys. Detta resulterade i uppsatsens empiri som alltså bestod av fem olika tvister mellan hyresgäster och hyresvärdar i Karlstad under den aktuella tidsperioden. I den avslutande analysen och diskussionen kunde det följaktligen utifrån empirin avslöjas att det fanns tydliga indikationer på undermåliga och omoderna bostäder vid olika tvisterna mellan hyresgäster och hyresvärdar som Karlstads Hyresgästförening handskades med mellan 1950–1959. Ytterligare en intressant slutsats som kunde dras kring de olika tvisterna i relation till den teoretiska ansatsen var att tvisterna kan ha uppstått på grund av yttre omständigheter eller olika resurser som hyresgästerna och hyresvärdarna i sin tur antingen funnit i sitt egenintresse eller ej eftersom de olika parterna värderar om de yttre omständigheterna eller de olika resurserna ger tillfredsställelse eller otillfredsställelse. I den avslutande analysen och diskussionen framgick även att empirin gav indikationer på vissa delar som nämnts i bakgrundsbeskrivningen. Detta gav i sin tur förslag på vidare forskning kring hur många i Karlstad som drabbades av hemlöshet på grund av bostadsbristen samt stadens bristfälliga bostadsförmedling efter andra världskriget. / Problems with substandard and outdated housing was one of many problems that occurred in the Swedish housing market after World War II. Due to these circumstances an assumption was therefore that disputes between tenants and landlords historically might have occurred in several different places in Sweden and therefore in Karlstad. Since the Swedish tenant association also has dealt with various disputes during its long history it occurred that the Tenant association of Karlstad might also have dealt with various disputes historically. The purpose of this study was formed to search in whether there were indications of substandard and outdated housing in various disputes between tenants and landlords that the Tenant association of Karlstad dealt with during 1950–1959. To be able to also explain why various disputes can flare up a conflict theory was tied to the study. The study is based on a qualitative method. More specifically a text and content analysis were applied on the archive material collected from the Tenant association of Karlstad. The empirical work is based on this and consists of five different disputes between tenants and landlords in Karlstad during the historical period. Based on the empirical work the final analysis and discussions revealed that the various disputes between tenants and landlords showed clear indications of substandard and outdated housing. Interesting conclusions was also found in relation to the conflict theory. Disputes between tenants and landlords can emerge due to external circumstances and resources in which case the tenants or the landlords find these giving any satisfaction or dissatisfaction to their own interests. In the concluding analysis the empirical work also showed indications in relation to the background description. This led to a suggestion for further research and study’s on how many people in Karlstad who were affected by homelessness due to housing shortages in the city after World War II.

Public housing provides affordable housing for low-income families. However, the physical and social conditions have deteriorated since its inception, resulting in housing environments that are isolated and disconnected from surrounding neighborhoods and often plagued by crime and violence. This study explores opportunities for enhancing residents' sense of ownership, control, and efficacy through the redesign of outdoor spaces at the Fulton public housing development in Richmond, VA. Residents participated in a design process that produced a Conceptual Landscape Master Plan based on their preferences, and a set of guidelines and recommendations for the implementation and maintenance of the proposed external spaces of the Master Plan. The study presents design objectives and criteria addressing public-private spatial delineations, public space, pedestrian and vehicular circulation, development image, and safety considerations. These objectives and criteria were used to evaluate design options and to generate two design concepts from which the residents selected appropriate design solutions for their housing development. The study concludes with the presentation of a preferred Conceptual Landscape Master Plan. The plan presents a hierarchy of public-to-private spaces, clear delineations of semi-public and semi-private spaces, and the location of active and passive public recreational spaces. It also addresses the legibility of pedestrian and vehicular access, circulation, and parking, as well as safety issues such as natural surveillance, access control, and territoriality. The participatory process guided the redesign of the Fulton public housing site, and also provided an understanding of the underlying social conditions that significantly impact the residents and their use of space. The preferred landscape design reflects the residents' needs, concerns, and wishes, and creates opportunities to foster interaction and involvement among the residents and the surrounding communities. / Master of Landscape Architecture

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the Masters Degree of Technology: Public Relations Management, Durban University of Technology, 2013. / In South Africa, the competition between shopping centres has increased significantly over the years due to the increase in the number of shopping centres and the changing shopping behaviour. The success of any shopping centre depends on the revenue generated by customers who frequent the mall to make purchases or use the services of the retail/entertainment outlets. To attract customers to shopping centres, management has to ensure that malls are effectively promoted to relevant stakeholders. Communication is important in any promotional, public relations or marketing activity and should be effective, persuasive and managed in a formal and structured way which fits into the overall goals of the mall. Shopping centre management may use a number of communication tools such as (and are not limited to) advertising, sales promotions, public relations, personal selling and sponsorship. However, do these strategies play a role in generating revenue to promote the overall success of a shopping centre? This dissertation, therefore, sets out to identify and examine the communication tools used by shopping centre managers within the greater Durban area in South Africa. It does so by interviewing marketing managers and the tenant mix of five competitive shopping centres within the greater Durban area in South Africa. Data will be collected from the respondents through questionnaires and an interview schedule. One of the significant results emerging from this study is that the function of tenant relations; promotions; publicity; and public relations plays an integral part in the effective functioning of a shopping centre.

Based on in-depth semi-structured interview data from 35 housing professionals, this study examines the question; why do social landlords evict their tenants. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu this study argues that by examining the relationship between objective and subjective positions, the false antinomy of structure/agency can be dissolved, providing a more heuristic understanding of eviction practices in the social rented housing sector. This relationship is captured in what Bourdieu (2000) calls ‘objectivity of the second order’, that is, the collective conventions, the shared norms and values, and the categories of perception which agents apply to the world. The argument put forward here is that, in order to understand evictions practices in their ‘totality’, it is necessary to move beyond social physics and social phenomenology by constructing, as the object of study, the relation between the two. Using Boltanski and Thevenot’s (1991) ‘economy of worth’ model, (itself a form of frame analysis), it is possible to capture an important aspect of this ‘objectivity of the second order’, via the frames through which housing professionals derive meaning from their work, providing access to an otherwise elusive aspect of qualitative enquiry. This research contributes new insights and analysis in the field of housing studies by adopting a comprehensively theoretical approach, which has not been applied to understanding evictions practices, thereby adding to existing knowledge. It also provides a detailed political sociology of why, despite the apparent contradictions, social landlords evict their tenants.

Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall were published more than forty years before the appearance of the feminist type that the Victorians called the “New Woman;” yet, both novels contain characteristics of New Woman fiction. By considering how Brontë's novels foreshadow New Woman fiction, the reader of these novels can re-enact the “gentlest” Brontë as an influential feminist whose ideology informed the construction of the radical New Woman. Brontë, like the New Woman writers, incorporated autobiographical dilemmas into her fiction. By using her own experiences as a governess, Brontë constructs Agnes Grey's incongruent social status and a morally corrupt gentry and aristocracy through her depiction of not only Agnes's second employers, the Murrays, but also the morally debauched world that Helen enters upon her marriage to Arthur Huntingdon in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Moreover, Brontë incorporates her observations of Branwell's alcoholism and her own religious beliefs into The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Although Brontë's novels contain autobiographical material, her heroines are fictional constructions that she uses to engage her readers with the woman question. Brontë accomplishes this engagement through her heroines' narrative re-enactments of fictional autobiographical dilemmas. Helen's diary and Agnes's diary-based narrative produce the pattern of development of the Bildungsroman and foreshadow the New Woman novelists' Kunstlerromans. Brontë's heroines anticipate the female artist as the protagonist of the New Woman Kunstlerromans. Agnes and Helen both invade the masculine domain of economic motive and are feminists who profess gender definitions that conflict with dominant Victorian ideology. Agnes questions her own femininity by internalizing the governess's status incongruence, and Helen's femininity is questioned by those around her. The paradoxical position of both heroines anticipates the debate about the nature and function of art in which the New Woman writers engaged. Through her reconciliation of the aesthetic and the political, Brontë, like the New Woman novelists who will follow, explores the contradiction between art and activism.

No description available.

Several studies and government reports have indicated that a large number of apartments in Sweden built during the 1960s and 1970s require extensive refurbishment and that there is concern that some companies in the rental housing sector and in the tenant-owner cooperative (TOC) sector may have difficulties carrying out the needed activities. The overall purpose of the thesis is to increase the understanding of the factors that influence the decisions made within the multi­ faceted property management of multifamily housing in Sweden which would mitigate some of the shortcomings. Econometric analysis and semi-structured interviews as well as questionnaires carried out within the TOC sector as well as the public and the private rental housing sectors provide the basis of the conclusions arrived at. The aim is to contribute to raising efficiency in maintenance and property management within the housing sector in Sweden. The major conclusions presented in the thesis are that: maintenance as a concept is unnecessary from a decision-making perspective as the concept of investment embraces all the relevant decisions; maintenance models in manufacturing industries could be applied within the housing sector but building maintenance is different and should be grounded on a strategy that allows for the continuous adjustment of maintenance plans based on a regularly up-to-date decision support system in the company or TOC; reported maintenance costs within the municipal (public) and the private rental sectors in Sweden continuously diverge mainly due to principal-agency issues of a socio-political character, in the form of political involvement in the operations of public housing companies, as well as the way companies define maintenance together with the timing of the maintenance measures; hidden incentives in the form of cooperative members, managers or service providers that seek short term gains together with the lack of a long-term perspective in the decision-making as well as a high turnover rate of committee members are major challenges to efficient property management within the Swedish TOC sector. Similarly, the information asymmetry between the professionals (constructors as well as service providers) and the amateur decision-makers in the managing committees, especially in cooperatives with newly constructed buildings, is a substantial source of losses in efficiency within the operations of the TOCs. Major contributions of the thesis are that: it promotes the view of maintenance as an investment and highlights the possibility of cost saving through the linking together of several measures as well as the challenges involved; it points to the need within the housing sector for better decision support tools as well as knowledge transfer and sharing; it calls for the government to promote policies that would reduce the degree of information asymmetry between the procurers of services within the TOC sector and the construction companies as well as other service providers. A requirement of formal competence and certification could be a step towards increasing the degree of qualified decision making and efficiency in property management within the housing sector. How this could be implemented nationwide in the different housing sectors is an issue worth further investigation. / Flera studier och statliga rapporter har visat att ett stort antal lägenheter i Sverige som byggdes under 1960- och 1970-talet kräver omfattande renovering och att det finns oro för att vissa företag i bostadshyressektorn och i bostadsrättssektorn kan ha svårigheter att utföra nödvändiga åtgärder. Det övergripande syftet med avhandlingen är att öka förståelsen av de faktorer som påverkar beslutfattning inom den mångfacetterad fastighetsförvaltning av flerfamiljshus i Sverige, vilket skulle mildra några av bristerna. Ekonometriska analyser och semistrukturerade intervjuer samt enkäter som genomföddes inom Brf sektorn samt den offentliga och den privata hyresbostadssektorn utgör grunden för de slutsatser som dragits. Syftet är att bidra till att höja effektiviteten i underhåll och fastighetsförvaltning inom bostadssektorn i Sverige. De viktigaste slutsatserna i avhandlingen är att: underhållet som begrepp är onödigt från ett beslutsperspektiv eftersom begreppet investering omfattar alla relevanta beslut; underhållsstrategier i tillverkningsindustrin skulle kunna tillämpas inom bostadssektorn men byggnadsunderhåll skiljer sig och bör grundas på en strategi som gör det möjligt för kontinuerlig anpassning av underhållsplaner baserat på ett reguljärt uppdaterad beslutsstödsystem i företaget eller TOC; redovisade underhållskostnader inom den kommunala och den privata hyresbostadssektorn i Sverige kontinuerligt avviker från varandra främst på grund av principal-agent frågor av sociopolitisk karaktär, i form av politisk inblandning i verksamheten inom de allmännyttiga bostadsföretag, och hur företag definierar underhåll samt tidpunkten för underhållsåtgärderna; effektiv fastighetsförvaltning inom den svenska Brf sektorn kompliceras av olika aktörer (kooperativets medlemmar, che fer eller tjänsteleverantörer) med dolda incitament, avsaknaden av ett långsiktigt perspektiv i beslutsfattandet, en hög omsättning av kommittémedlemmar samt informationsasymmetri mellan yrkesverksamma (konstruktörer samt tjänsteleverantörer) och amatör beslutsfattare inom Brfer, särskilt i kooperativ med nybyggda hus, vilket utgör en stor källa till effektivitetsförluster inom verksamheten i Brf sektorn. Avhandlingens viktiga bidrag är att: det främjar synen på underhåll som en investering och understryker möjligheten till kostnadsbesparingar genom att knyta ihop flera åtgärder samt de utmaningar som kan finnas; det pekar på behovet inom bostadssektorn för bättre beslutsunderlagsverktyg liksom kunskapsöverföring och delning samt uppmuntrar den regeringen att främja en politik som skulle minska graden av informationsasymmetri mellan beställare av tjänster inom Brf sektorn och byggföretag samt andra tjänsteleverantörer. Ett krav på formell kompetens och certifiering kan vara ett steg mot att öka graden av kvalificerad beslutsfattande och effektivitet inom fastighetsförvaltning i bostadssektorn. Hur detta skulle kunna genomföras i hela landet i de olika bostadssektorerna är en fråga som ytterligare skulle kunna undersökas. / <p>QC 20160223</p>

近年來雲端運算蓬勃發展，為資訊系統的建置與服務帶來巨大的改變，其中一個重要趨勢為軟體即服務，並透過多租戶共享資源達到降低成本的優勢。因此如何讓服務可以共享資源，又能兼顧各租戶的客製化需求，這將會是軟體即服務關鍵成功因素。 為了讓租戶客製化自己的綱要，在多租戶的相關研究中，發展出各種綱要映射技術，各適用不同的狀況，但在開發應用程式時候往往無法預估租戶適合使用何種綱要映射技術。本研究提出可以讓多租戶軟體框架具有綱要映射技術的可調性，應用程式開發時候毋需考慮使用何種綱要映射技術，等租用時候再依據應用程式及租戶的特性決定。本研究將以小量租戶效能最佳的Private Table Layout與適合用於大量租戶的Universal Table Layout為例，提出的可調性多租戶實體模式來建構具有可調性的多租戶軟體框架。此外本研究提出的軟體框架經過技術的封裝，開發者不需要了解多租戶的相關技術，就能完成多租戶應用程式的開發。 / Software as a service (SaaS) is an emerging service model of cloud computing. It’s central defining characteristic is the ability for clients to use a software application on a pay-as-you-go subscription basis. However, to be economically sustainable, a SaaS application must leverage resource sharing to a large degree by accommodating different clients of the application while making it appear to each that they have the application all to themselves. In other words, a SaaS application must be a multi-tenant application. An important multi-tenant research topic is the various kinds of schema mapping technology have been developed in order for our tenants to customize their schema. However, it is hard to determine tenants’ need for particular schema mapping technology in different circumstances. This thesis proposes an adaptable schema mapping technology for a multi-tenant application (MTA) framework. The application and tenants’ characteristics do not need to be considered while applications developers are developing their schema mapping technology. This approach will take examples from the Private Table Layout mapping and the Universal Table Layout mapping to illustrate the features of this adaptable multi-tenant software framework. Furthermore, this thesis argues that, with the approach packaged as a software framework, developers are able to complete the development of a multi-tenant application without full understanding of the underlying technologies.