Individer har olika grad av Preference for consistency (PFC) och är en bidragande orsak till hur man uppfattar och agerar i konsumentsammanhang. Studien undersökte om höga PFC- individer var mer positiva till ”ett erbjudande” med hög konsekvenskänsla. Tre betingelser med varierande manipulationsgrad användes och data samlades in från 74 studenter. Ett frågeformulär med tillhörande erbjudande presenterades för deltagarna som fyllde i ett antal frågor och en PFC-B skala. Studien lyckades inte ge stöd åt hypotesen. Däremot förekom en illusion av osårbarhet och en tredjepersoneffekt. Studien lyckades troligtvis inte konstruera ett tillräckligt bra instrument som skapade rätt konsekventkänsla vilket bidrog till att deltagarna inte blev påverkade av erbjudandet i den grad som var förväntat.

Competition in the logistics service industry has constantly increased over the last decades which has lead to the traditional services offered by third-party logistics (TPL) providers becoming commodities and no longer offering attractive profit margins. When the company’s core product becomes a commodity, the company’s performance of supplementary services becomes vital for competitive advantage. The term “value-added service” is defined as a service adding extra feature, form or functions to the basic service and stands for all types of activities which are not directly based on services traditionally offered by TPL providers, i.e., transportation and warehousing. The term value-added service is mainly used in the logistics literature while supplementary service is used in the service management literature. Although value-added services can offer obvious advantages in form of customer lock-in and improved competitive advantage, such services are still offered at a low level and there is much space for development. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how TPL firms develop value-added services and to investigate what the driving forces and barriers for developing and providing such services are. In the frame of reference, literature within service management, outsourcing, third-party logistics, value-added services, innovation and learning have been used. In the thesis, an inductive research approach is used and qualitative study has been carried out by applying multiple case studies as a research strategy. The empirical material is gathered from three TPL providers: Bring Logistics Solutions, Aditro Logistics and Schenker Logistics. Data was collected through several interviews conducted at the three target companies and the findings have been analysed using the existing theory stated in the frame of reference. The main conclusions from analysing the development process of value-added services are that this process in most cases is initiated by customer request and that development of value-added service can occur both in the beginning or during an ongoing relationship, though a lack of information about a customer’s business in the beginning of the relationship can hinder the TPL provider to develop value-added services. Apart from the TPL provider and the customer, firms such as IT companies, transport suppliers and other companies can be involved in the development process. No formal innovation process is applied for developing value-added services. The main driving force behind value-added services is meeting customer demands. Lack of proactiveness from the TPL provider’s side can be a barrier for developing value-added services, as well as problems with achieving successful organizational learning. The difficulty for the TPL firm to coordinate offering so many different services can be also seen as a barrier.

This thesis is an analysis of how international policies on HIV prevention can be understood through a postcolonial perspective and how these prevention strategies are reflected nationally and locally in Babati, Tanzania. To gain knowledge of these aims I have focused on UNAIDS and the US’ government policies to get an idea of where the international discourse about HIV prevention stands. My empirical data in Babati is collected by semi-structural interviews with people who work with HIV prevention. I have used Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s understanding of Third World women, together with Jenny Kitzinger theory about women in HIV discourses and Karen M Booth’s view of how international policies are trying to empower women to reduce their risk of HIV infection. To assist my analysis I have focused on three notions, which are recurring in the HIV prevention discourse, these are: empowerment of women, condom use and sexual behaviour. These notions help to establish the HIV discourse and later I have compared the results with my theoretical framework and empirical findings. My final conclusion is that international policies on HIV prevention can be seen as imperialistic as they are promoting a certain change in sexual behaviour, such as reduction of partners and abstinence until marriage.

Studien undersökte om de personer som anser sig vara minst sårbara för att bli manipulerade är de som främst manipuleras av reklam. En experimentell design användes där 204 studenter bedömde sitt intryck av en reklam, vars manipulationsgrad varierade. Ett frågeformulär som mätte upplevd osårbarhet mot manipulation fylldes även i. Deltagarna ansåg att de var relativt osårbara mot att manipuleras samt att andra påverkades mer av reklam än de själva. Hypotesen att de personer som anser sig vara minst sårbara för att bli manipulerade är de som främst manipuleras bekräftades inte. Studien lyckades dock inte manipulera reklamernas manipulationsgrad på ett tillfredsställande sätt, därav bör framtida forskning utveckla ett reliabelt mätinstrument innan de undersöker sambandet mellan illusionen av osårbarhet och att manipuleras.

This MA thesis examines the decision-making capacity of young women married during adolescence within the context of their sexual and reproductive health in an urban ghetto in the city of Ahmedabad, India. Specifically, the development literature on married female adolescents (MFAs) is characterized by negative health indicators such as higher rates of unwanted pregnancies, reproductive tract infections, sexually transmitted diseases, high infant and maternal mortality and morbidity coupled with the phenomenon of early marriage, poverty and an overall lower social status. The result is a disempowering discourse that constructs and presents them as powerless victims who lack any decision-making capacity and are perpetually oppressed. This research is an effort to move the discussions of “Other third world women” outside the realm of victimization by challenging and destabilizing this disempowering, hegemonic discourse. We must ask what does decision making look like for these women, as exercised within the context of their sexual and reproductive health. This qualitative analysis is informed by primary research through focus groups and semi-structured interviews with young married women, and was conducted with the help of a local NGO, Mahila Patchwork Co-operative Society. The study provides insights on the young married women’s participation and role in determining their own health outcomes (negative and positive) to better inform programs and services offered by the community NGOs.

This thesis examines narrative articulations in the films Bend It Like Beckham, Bhaji on the Beach, and American Chai as a complicated conversation in relation to bicultural-identity construction in the Indian diaspora. Unpacking the way desi identities are managed in/as a quantum (third) space – one that is continuously shifting and deferred – the films exemplify how "desi" is a heterogeneous cultural "group" without a homeland from which to speak or to return. The narratives of these films are considered cultural translations that expose inter-generational culture-clashes in the spaces between Indian and Western cultures. Screenplay pedagogy was used as a methodology to (re)read analysis of the films, revealing the ways that different movies employ and reinscribe themes of the multicultural pastoral, the carnivalesque, and melodrama, respectively. This thesis concludes by opening up some of the places from which individuals enunciate their desi identities, including the possibilities for (self)reflection.

Nunavut Inuit youths exhibit cultural resilience and leadership. However, researchers frequently neglect such assets and instead emphasize these youths’ challenges or perceived inadequacies. I conducted an intrinsic case study regarding Nunavut Inuit youths’ experiences with an experiential learning program, Northern Youth Abroad (NYA), in order to investigate participants’ growth in cross-cultural awareness, individual career goals, leadership, and global citizenship. Drawing on post-colonial theory, semi-structured interviews, archival research, and participant observation, I argue that NYA’s Nunavut Inuit participants reported significant personal growth in these four objectives. I also provide an in-depth analysis of how NYA’s Nunavut Inuit participants described and developed distinct and rich leadership styles that draw on Inuit and Euro-Canadian influences.

Several methods are presented for the design of satellite formations for science missions in high-eccentricity reference orbits with quantifiable performance criteria specified throughout only a portion the orbit, called the Region of Interest (RoI). A modified form of the traditional average along-track drift minimization condition is introduced to account for the fact that performance criteria are only specified within the RoI, and a robust formation design algorithm (FDA) is defined to improve performance in the presence of formation initialization errors. Initial differential mean orbital elements are taken as the design variables and the Gim-Alfriend state transition matrix (G-A STM) is used for relative motion propagation. Using mean elements and the G-A STM allows for explicit inclusion of J2 perturbation effects in the design process. The methods are applied to the complete formation design problem of the NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission and results are verified using the NASA General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT). Since satellite formations in high-eccentricity orbits will spend long times at high altitude, third-body perturbations are an important design consideration as well. A detailed analytical analysis of third-body perturbation effects on satellite formations is also performed and averaged dynamics are derived for the particular case of the lunar perturbation. Numerical results of the lunar perturbation analysis are obtained for the example application of the MMS mission and verified in GMAT.

This MA thesis examines the decision-making capacity of young women married during adolescence within the context of their sexual and reproductive health in an urban ghetto in the city of Ahmedabad, India. Specifically, the development literature on married female adolescents (MFAs) is characterized by negative health indicators such as higher rates of unwanted pregnancies, reproductive tract infections, sexually transmitted diseases, high infant and maternal mortality and morbidity coupled with the phenomenon of early marriage, poverty and an overall lower social status. The result is a disempowering discourse that constructs and presents them as powerless victims who lack any decision-making capacity and are perpetually oppressed. This research is an effort to move the discussions of “Other third world women” outside the realm of victimization by challenging and destabilizing this disempowering, hegemonic discourse. We must ask what does decision making look like for these women, as exercised within the context of their sexual and reproductive health. This qualitative analysis is informed by primary research through focus groups and semi-structured interviews with young married women, and was conducted with the help of a local NGO, Mahila Patchwork Co-operative Society. The study provides insights on the young married women’s participation and role in determining their own health outcomes (negative and positive) to better inform programs and services offered by the community NGOs.

GlobalGAP (previously EurepGAP) is a voluntary business-to-business standard for food audit that has recently achieved the greatest acceptance worldwide (Campbell, Lawrence & Smith 2006) boasting implementation numbers of over 80,000 farms in 80 countries. Compliance with the standard is verified by means of the third party certification (TPC) audit, and is designed to (GlobalGAP 2008) assure European retailers that exporting producers have met their criteria for safe and sustainable agriculture (GlobalGAP 2007b). In 2004, cherry growers in the Southern Interior of British Columbia became the first GlobalGAP certified producers in Canada. This novelty afforded a unique opportunity to observe the introduction of the standard in an industrialized country with well-established regulations and where the capacity of producers to undertake the process was relatively high. A qualitative methodology was used in case studies of two communities to inductively study the implementation of ‘safe and sustainable agriculture’ certification and generate relevant research questions for deeper examination. Sensitizing concepts emerging from observations of the TPC audits (n = 20) evolved into two primary research objectives; 1) to understand the practical application and diffusion of a TPC standard and 2) to explore the efficacy of the TPC standard as a mechanism to promote sustainable agriculture within certain pre-existing contexts. Forty-four follow up interviews were conducted with growers that chose to certify (n = 24), those that did not (n = 14), and other key actors (n = 3). This thesis examines the research objectives over three chapters. The introduction provides the local and global context along with a review of GlobalGAP, agri-food governance and the role of private certification and retailer power. Chapter two presents the technological and sociological factors that influenced the stages of the diffusion of GlobalGAP TPC and compares these factors and outcomes to the technological and sociological components of sustainable agriculture. In the conclusion, policy strategies are offered to maximize the potential for this tool to promote sustainable agriculture along with suggestions for future research on the topic.