Firm internationalisation has been a broadly examined subject, which has generated various established theories. Previous business activities are described as structured, incremental and predictable, which has enabled the development of frameworks that describe how the business internationalisation is conducted. Today’s technological advances, globalisation and changes in demographics are contemporary environmental forces of change, and the Swedish tech industry is growing in a steady phase. The tech start-ups internationalise rapidly and from an early age but in various ways, and therefore, reflecting diverse internationalisation theories to different extents. The wave of tech start-up is increasing and are seemingly operating in an unconventional manner and contradicts well-known theories, leaving scholars in the search for profound understanding about this phenomenon. Consequently, lack of previous research based on tech start-ups internationalisation processes has provided motivation for this study, with the intention to provide knowledge to companies and contribute with new theory angles to the existing literature. The purpose with this study was to fill the research gap on tech start-up internationalisation by investigating and analyse how the Stockholm-based tech start-ups internationalise, what barriers and drivers they have encountered while pursuing the expansion as well as, how these have affected the internationalisation. The literature review emphasises on internationalisation theories as well as, barriers and drivers of the internationalisation process and is summarised with a conceptual framework. The study was conducted through a qualitative case study including four companies of, which all four had established international operations and therefore, generated insightful information about the subject. Moreover, interviews with founders and CEOs of the companies were conducted through semi-structured approach, which including questions related to their internationalisation process and the barriers and drivers. The empirical data was thereafter organised and paralleled with previous theories as well as, with the authors' considerations. Finally, the conclusion highlight answers to the research questions and provide theoretical and practical implications, as well as suggestions for further research.

Researchers and practitioners have both acknowledged the importance of attracting the right employees. The study aims to explore and analyze how Swedish gaming start-ups attract talent. The authors investigated eight gaming companies based in Sweden, conducting semi-structured interviews with founding team or management team that were responsible for talent attraction in their respective companies. Study draws on theory of employer brand and examines how game development start-ups overcome their challenges in employee attraction context. Results of the research show that most gaming companies offer variety of employment benefits described in employment brand theory, but for them to have a competitive advantage, they should incorporate innovative new ideas in talent attraction. We propose an ‘employer innovation matrix model’ that can be a strategic talent attraction planning tool for companies.

Residential buildings have served as homes for the humankind throughout the years and the energy focus is relatively new in comparison. The interest of the energy perspective has increased alongside with the stricter laws and goals in the European Union and the Swedish Building Board. In multiple cases, the calculated energy usage of the buildings are usually lower than the real time measured energy consumption, showing the importance of performing energy follow-ups of the buildings. The goal of this thesis is revolving around the understanding of the the problems, performance and importance of energy follow-ups in the building process. This study will only focus on the energy focus of residential buildings in the building process, while only taking the Swedish laws into consideration. A literature study was performed as an intention to understand the subject and its problems more thoroughly. The literature study contains the Swedish laws regarding the subject, the structure of the building process and possible failure points, while also looking at multiple studies regarding the difference between the calculated and the measured values. Furthermore, inquiries were sent out to multiple municipalities and companies with questions related to the subject. In the answers from the different respondents, the result showed that both municipalities and companies stores energy statistics in web-based programs and requires real measurements to perform energy follow-ups. One municipality describes that there was a vague understanding of the consequences or penalties of not performing an energy follow-up according to the time-plan. Furthermore, the company A described that there was a lack of knowledge of how or where measurements should be performed in detail and where responsibility should be placed if not everything is fulfilled according to the contract. The companies set up their own local goals that surpasses the rules of the BBR and the companies very rarely breaks the energy limits. Company B has only failed to meet the energy limits once and that project was sold off to another actor. Company B also describes that they have never failed to perform an energy follow-up according to the time-plan and doesn’t know what to do if it would happen. Another municipality refers multiple times to their goals regarding the climate and energy limits, however, the methodology on how to achieve these goals aren’t described. Lastly, the there’s no form of cooperation between the municipalities or the companies. Differences in energy performance, between the calculated and the real, is often a result of many different factors, which is not always easy to define. Throughout the building process, it is of high importance to keep focus on the energy question in every step. Good and correct knowledge has to be present the whole process to give the best prerequisites for a good performing building. Bad energy performance leads to higher cost for the habitants. Loose terms in laws and regulations can lead to bad energy calculations and leave room for influencing the calculation to show wanted results. Good energy declarations require proper measurements and as the standard equipment today provides somewhat lacking data with monthly values, which makes it difficult to study the reasons to higher energy consumption. For better understanding abnormal energy consumption, more detailed values are often necessary. In terms of applicability, this study can contribute to the awareness to the different issues that has occurred from the study, for example the required education and the responsibility in more detail. A few conclusions can be made from this study, the lack of knowledge in terms of responsibility, consequences or penalties and how measurements should be made in detail. Another conclusion are that web-based programs are used for energy follow-ups and require real values and there’s no cooperation between different actors related to this subject. / Bostäder har använts som hem för människor genom tiderna och energiperspektivet i dessa bostäder är relativt nytt i jämförelse. Energiperspektivets intresse har blivit större samtidigt som hårdare krav och mål har formulerats i EU och i lagboken BBR. I flertal fall är den beräknande energin för en byggnad lägre än den uppmätta mängden under användning, vilket visar vikten av att utföra en så kallad energiuppföljning för respektive byggnad. Målet med detta exjobb handlar om att få en förståelse kring problemen, utförandet och vikten i energiuppföljningar som existerar i flertal fall inom byggprocessen. Den här studien kommer bara fokusera på bostäder i byggprocessen och bara ta hänsyn av de svenska lagarna kring området. En litteraturstudie utfördes för att kunna fördjupa sig inom ämnet och dess problem. Denna litteraturstudie innehåller relevanta svenska lagar för ämnet, strukturen av byggnadsprocessen och möjliga felkällor, men även studera flertal rapporter angående skillnaden mellan den beräknande och den uppmätta energianvändningen. Slutligen skickades flera enkäter till energiexperter i kommuner och företag med relevanta frågor till ämnet. I svaren från respektive respondent visade resultatet att både kommuner och företagen använder dataprogram angående energianvändningen. Dessa dataprogram kräver en verklig uppmätning av energin i hushållen för att kunna utföra en energiuppföljning. Kommun A beskriver att det finns en dålig uppfattning angående de konsekvenser och straffen som förekommer om en energiuppföljning inte utförs i tid enligt tidsplanen. Fortsättningsvist beskriver företag A att det är en begränsad förståelse angående hur och var uppmätningar ska utföras i detalj, men även också vem som ska ta ansvar om någonting går fel enligt byggkontraktet. Företagen sätter upp lokala mål som är lägre än BBRs krav vilket har lett till att fel uppstår väldigt sällan. Företag B beskriver också att de aldrig har misslyckats med att utföra en energiuppföljning enligt tidsplanen men vet inte vad som ska göras om det skulle hända. Kommun B refererar flertal gånger till deras energi- och klimatmål men metodiken av att uppfylla dessa mål är inte beskrivet. Slutligen finns det ingen form av samarbete kring energiuppföljningar mellan de kommuner och företag som har svarat på enkäten. Skillnaden mellan den beräknande- och den uppmätta energiprestandan beror ofta av flertal olika faktorer som är svårt att definiera. Det är viktigt att ha någon form av energifokus genom hela byggnadsprocessen och inte bara i ett fåtal steg. Detta fokus måste vara bra och ha rätt kunskap för att kunna ge de bästa förutsättningarna till en bra bostad från ett energiperspektiv. Byggnader med en dålig energiprestanda leder till en hög kostnad genom förvaltningsfasen. Obestämda termer i lagboken som ”bör” leder till dåliga beräkningar som inte har en liknande struktur och kan vara gjord för att visa ett lägre värde. Energideklarationer som är bra kräver riktiga mätningar och bättre mätningsverktyg som inte ger otillräcklig information i till exempel månadsvärden, vilket leder till en dålig förståelse till vad som händer angående energianvändningen i huset. Användbarheten av studien består till mesta av att upplysa om de problemen som existerar idag som till exempel den behövda utbildningen och kompetensen kring ansvar, straffen och var mätningar ska sättas i detalj. Några slutsatser som studien har kommit fram till är den otillräckliga kunskapen i ansvar, konsekvenser och straff samt mätningar ska sättas beskrivas mer i detalj. Slutligen används dataprogram för att utföra energiuppföljningar som kräver verkliga mätningar och det finns ingen form av samarbetet mellan olika aktörer angående energiuppföljningar.

This DPhil thesis is a collection of three empirical papers that study the role of firms in the UK labour market. Each chapter focuses on firms at different points in their lifecycle. Young firms are an engine of job creation but little is known about the quality of the jobs that they offer. In Chapter 1, I use a matched employer-employee dataset to study how starting wages and lifecycle earnings of employees differ between young and mature firms. I find that young firms pay a small premium to new hires, but subsequent wage growth is better at mature firms, both within continuing job matches and when individuals change jobs. Crucially, highly-paid and stable jobs at young firms have become increasingly rare over time, as young firms themselves have become less likely to survive and attain high productivity levels - both in absolute terms and relative to mature firms over the same period. Policies that aim to stimulate job growth by encouraging the formation of new firms should therefore pay close attention to the types of firms that form. Chapter 2 asks what determines the proportion of a firm's income that workers receive as compensation. I use longitudinal firm data from a period of substantial labour share variation to understand the firm-level determinants of the labor share of income - a question that has typically only been addressed with country- and sector-level data. Estimating a dynamic model using GMM, I find that firms with greater market power and a higher ratio of capital to labour allocate a smaller proportion of their value added to workers. Testing the impact of tangible and intangible capital on low- and high-wage firms leads to conclusions consistent with the hypothesis of capital-skill complementarity. Overall, the results suggest that firm-level drivers play a key role in the evolution of the aggregate labour share, which has declined significantly since the 1970s. Chapter 3 co-authored with Brian Bell, focuses on mature firms and asks how wages at such firms respond to idiosyncratic firm-level cost shocks. We create a unique dataset that links longitudinal data on workers' compensation to the unexpected costs related to firms' legacy defined benefit pension plans. We show that firms are able to share the burden of such costs when a significant share of their workers are current or former members of the plan. We also find that firms that respond to deficits by closing down the pension plans effectively reduce the total compensation of plan members. These results point to significant frictions in the labour market, which we show are a direct result of the pension arrangement that workers have. Yet closing schemes has an implicit cost for firms, since it reduces the frictions that workers face, and increases mobility.

The purpose of this study was to determine which type of bevel in a class IV dental composite restoration is the most esthetic and has the best blend to natural tooth structure via clinical and spectrophotometric evaluations. The null hypotheses were as follows: (1) there is no difference in visual evaluation rank scores among five groups of evaluators for each type of bevel; (2) there is no agreement in the visual evaluation rank scores of the seven groups of bevels among all evaluators or within each group of evaluators; (3) there is no difference in the lightness values among seven types of bevels at each of eight measurement points or for the whole tooth as measured by a spectrophotometer; and (4) there is no correlation between the visual evaluation and the spectrophotometric evaluation. The class IV samples were made via CAD/CAM milling for standardization. There were seven groups: negative control (no bevel); short (1mm) and straight bevel; short (1mm) and scalloped bevel; long (2mm) and straight bevel; long (2mm) and scalloped bevel; infinite (3+mm) and straight bevel; and infinite (3+mm) and scalloped bevel. The fractures were restored with the same type of dental composite via a digitally designed mold fabricated with a 3D printer. Once completed, the samples were randomized and evaluated visually by 91 people in five groups (faculty, graduate residents, pre-doctoral dental students, assistants/hygienists, and auxiliary staff). Evaluators placed the samples in the order they deemed least to most esthetic within a lightbox set to CIE Standard Illumination D65. After the visual evaluation, the lightness (L*) values were measured optically with a reflectance spectrophotometer at eight points on each of the seven bevel groups, as well as on an un-prepared typodont tooth used for reference. One-way ANOVA on ranked data with the post-hoc Bonferroni test was conducted to detect a significant difference in median rating score among five groups of evaluators, and Kendall’s W was used to evaluate an agreement among multiple raters. One-way ANOVA with the post-hoc Tukey’s HSD was used to find a significant difference in mean lightness values among seven types of bevels. Dunnett’s test was used to compare the reference group with each of the seven bevel groups when evaluating the lightness values. Pearson Correlation test along with the simple linear regression analysis were used to determine whether a significant relationship existed between visual evaluation scores and lightness values. The groups were ranked from least to most esthetic as follows: no bevel, short and straight bevel, short and scalloped bevel, long and straight bevel, long and scalloped bevel, infinite and straight bevel, and infinite and scalloped bevel by the 91 evaluators and Kendall’s W was 0.80 (strong agreement). Moreover, no significant difference in rating scores was found among the five groups of evaluators regarding each type of bevel (p>0.05). The overall mean lightness values observed in groups 1-3 were significantly higher than those in groups 6 and 7 (P< 0.05), but no significant difference was noted among groups 1-5 or among groups 4-7. As the lightness values measured by the spectrophotometer decreased, the overall visual evaluation score increased. The Pearson Correlation Coefficient of -0.89 indicated there was a strong negative correlation between the two variables (p=0.0066). Linear regression analysis revealed that the predictor of lightness was significant (strong negative correlation, R-square 0.99, p< 0.0001). The first null hypothesis was accepted and the second, third, and fourth were rejected. There was no difference in median visual evaluation rank scores among five groups of evaluators for each type of bevel, however, there was agreement in the ranked order as the findings of this study indicated that infinite and scalloped bevel was the most preferred and no bevel was the least preferred via a strong agreement the evaluators. There was a significant difference in lightness values among the seven bevel groups; the shorter bevels had higher L* values that were closer to the L* values of the reference tooth while the longer bevels had lower L* values. The correlation data showed that placing a longer bevel (3+mm) allowed for a more gradual transition and better blending capabilities between the tooth structure and dental composite. The overall conclusion from this study was the longer the bevel, the more gradual the change in Lightness (L*), which correlated to the more esthetic restoration, as determined by the evaluators.

No description available.

Members of the legal system (e.g., experts, jurors, investigators) are often skeptical of the information provided by intoxicated witnesses given the negative stigma surrounding alcohol and memory. However, studies examining the relationship between alcohol and witness memory often find that alcohol has no effect on peoples’ recall or their ability to identify a previously seen face. While insightful, the validity of these findings has been questioned given the low-moderate blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels tested in these predominantly laboratory-based studies, which may not be high enough to consistently expose the cognitive deficits alcohol is expected to create. The present study examined how elevated BAC levels affect witnesses’ recall. In addition, it examined how identification format (i.e., showup versus lineup) impacts witnesses’ identification decisions at elevated BAC levels. Bar patrons (N = 132) were asked to participate in a study examining the effects of alcohol on cognitive and motor functioning. Consenting patrons’ BAC levels were recorded and they were given instructions for their first motor task. Midway through this task a confederate intruder entered the room and caused a disturbance. Participants were then asked to recall the intrusion via a mock interview and identify the intruder from a lineup or showup in which she was pictured (target-present) or was not pictured (target-absent). This procedure yielded participants with BAC levels as high as .24%. Linear regressions showed that elevated BAC levels reduced both the quantity and quality of information provided by participants. Logistic regressions showed that alcohol had no effect on identification decisions, regardless of identification format or target presence. These data highlight the importance of testing witnesses’ memory across a broad BAC spectrum and suggest that the legal system may benefit from expert information on alcohol’s lack of effect on memory for faces, despite what jurors may believe.

<p>Previous entrepreneurship research has shown that networks are of great importance when discovering and exploiting business opportunities, i.e. in the start up process of new venture (e.g. Davidsson and Honig 2003; Evald, Klyver, and Svendsen 2006; Klyver, Hindle, and Meyer forthcoming). The value of a network is referred to as social capital, which refers to the amount of resources, both tangible and intangible, that an entrepreneur or entrepreneuse might have access to through the members of their network (Nahapiet and Ghoshal 1998). Social capital is the product of social interactions (Anderson et al. 2007), implying that a person’s social abilities, i.e. social competence, can influence the creation of social capital (Baron and Markman 2000, 2003). Social capital the factor that helps the entrepreneur “get through the door”, while the entrepreneur’s social abilities determine the outcome of that interaction (Baron and Markman 2000:107). The focus of this study is, thus, to explore whether entrepreneurs and entrepreneuses utilize different types of the social capital in the process of starting a new venture and whether they perceive social competence to have an influential role in this process.</p><p>The theoretical framework consist of three main theoretical areas; social capital, social competence, and psychological gender. The first part is based on Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998) model of social capital and describes theories explaining factors influence social capital embedded within a person’s network relationships. The second part covers social competence and the abilities that constitute this concept. Further, five dimensions are identified as comprising social competence, i.e. social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking ability, apparent sincerity, and social manipulation (Baron and Markman 2000, 2003; Hoehn-Weiss et al. 2004; Ferris et al. 2005, 2007; Riggio 1986). The last part discusses whether there might exist differences between entrepreneurs and entrepreneuses regarding their behaviours and their psychological gender (Bem 1974, 1975, 1977; Spence et al. 1975).</p><p>The research design show similarities with both an inductive and a deductive approach, with a focus on the induction since little research within the entrepreneurship field has combined the different topics comprising the scope of this study. Further, this implies qualitative research methods and the empirical data was collect through conducting 14 semi structured interviews with entrepreneurs and entrepreneuses as well as through a questionnaire aiming at determine the respondents’ psychological gender.</p><p>The results of the present study indicate that entrepreneurs and entrepreneuses utilize different the types of social capital in the stages of the start up phase. Further, the study show that social competence plays and important role in the start up process and that there is a circular relation between social capital and social competence. Moreover, the results of the study indicate that male and female entrepreneurs behave differently in the start up phase and that their perceptions about and usage of their social competence might differ.</p>

Along this dissertation I propose to walk the reader through several macroeconomic implications of information asymmetries, with a special focus on financial issues. This exercise is mainly theoretical: I develop stylized models that aim at capturing macroeconomic phenomena such as self-fulfilling liquidity dry-ups, the rise and the fall of securitization markets, and the creation of systemic risk. The dissertation consists of three chapters. The first one proposes an explanation to self-fulfilling liquidity dry-ups. The second chapters proposes a formalization of the concept of market discipline and an application to securitization markets as risk-sharing mechanisms. The third one offers a complementary analysis to the second as the rise of securitization is presented as banker optimal response to strict capital constraints. Two concepts that do not have unique acceptations in economics play a central role in these models: liquidity and market discipline. The liquidity of an asset refers to the ability for his owner to transform it into current consumption goods. Secondary markets for long-term assets play thus an important role with that respect. However, such markets might be illiquid due to adverse selection. In the first chapter, I show that: (1) when agents expect a liquidity dry-up on such markets, they optimally choose to self-insure through the hoarding of non-productive but liquid assets; (2) this hoarding behavior worsens adverse selection and dries up market liquidity; (3) such liquidity dry-ups are Pareto inefficient equilibria; (4) the government can rule them out. Additionally, I show that idiosyncratic liquidity shocks à la Diamond and Dybvig have stabilizing effects, which is at odds with the banking literature. The main contribution of the chapter is to show that market breakdowns due to adverse selection are highly endogenous to past balance-sheet decisions. I consider that agents are under market discipline when their current behavior is influenced by future market outcomes. A key ingredient for market discipline to be at play is that the market outcome depends on information that is observable but not verifiable (that is, information that cannot be proved in court, and consequently, upon which enforceable contracts cannot be based). In the second chapter, after introducing this novel formalization of market discipline, I ask whether securitization really contributes to better risk-sharing: I compare it with other mechanisms that differ on the timing of risk-transfer. I find that for securitization to be an efficient risk-sharing mechanism, it requires market discipline to be strong and adverse selection not to be severe. This seems to seriously restrict the set of assets that should be securitized for risk-sharing motive. Additionally, I show how ex-ante leverage may mitigate interim adverse selection in securitization markets and therefore enhance ex-post risk-sharing. This is interesting because high leverage is usually associated with “excessive” risktaking. In the third chapter, I consider risk-neutral bankers facing strict capital constraints; their capital is indeed required to cover the worst-case-scenario losses. In such a set-up, I find that: 1) banker optimal autarky response is to diversify lower-tail risk and maximize leverage; 2) securitization helps to free up capital and to increase leverage, but distorts incentives to screen loan applicants properly; 3) market discipline mitigates this problem, but if it is overestimated by the supervisor, it leads to excess leverage, which creates systemic risk. Finally, I consider opaque securitization and I show that the supervisor: 4) faces uncertainty about the trade-off between the size of the economy and the probability and the severity of a systemic crisis; 5) can generally not set capital constraints at the socially efficient level.

This thesis is designed to explore consumer attitudes and behaviors toward corporations that engage in socially responsible practices. The goal of this project was to determine if there was a relationship between a company’s perceived reputation for social responsibility and attitudes and behaviors that would favorably impact the company. Specifically, the project uses a case study of UPS and its support of Zoo Atlanta to further test these relationships in a true-to-life scenario. The findings reveal implications for corporate communication efforts in two ways: first, by serving as a framework to evaluate future corporate giving programs and to better understand company reputation; and second, by understanding the importance of strategically positioning one’s company as a good corporate citizen.