This research addresses the issue of how organisations can build capabilities to acquire, deploy, exploit and sustain computer-based information systems. With the application of information technology dramatically altering the strategies, structure, and processes of organisations, capabilities in acquiring and deploying computer-based information systems are considered critical to organisational success. It is often presumed that firms have similar capabilities to derive maximum value from deploying computer- based information systems. However, they have been shown to exhibit disparate capacities to successfully implement and exploit such systems. The concept information systems capability is introduced and refers to an organisation's capacity to effectively orchestrate the processes of acquiring, deploying, exploiting and sustaining computer-based information systems to support its strategic and functional objectives. Emphasising evolutionary and resource-based perspectives of the firm the research stresses the firm-specific, cumulative, and path-dependent nature of organisational IS capability. Three strategic dimensions of IS capability are identified. These are routines, resources, and contexts. Routines refer to the IS-related processes and practices of the organisation. Resources are its endowments. Contexts reflect the environmental factors influencing IS investment opportunities and decisions. Capabilities develop through a prescient understanding of the contexts, the strategic acquisition and deployment of IS resources and the establishment and enaction of effective organisational routines. Researchers are concerned about the persistence of ineffective information technology transfer and diffusion in developing countries. This research seeks to explicate the concept of information systems capability by drawing on examples from a developing country context. Through case studies and surveys done in Zimbabwe it explores organisational efforts to develop IS capability. The findings of the case studies confirm the significant impact of macro-contextual and organisational factors on capability building. A framework for IS capability building is proposed.

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Under de senaste 10 åren har kostnaderna inom hälso- och sjukvården i Sverige ökat med 20 procent. Förklaringen antas ligga i att medellivslängden bland befolkningen ständigt ökar, att vårdtillfällen gällande psykisk ohälsa i Sverige blir allt fler samt att sjukdomsfallen idag är allt mer komplexa. I och med att hälsocentraler är första instansen inom hälso- och sjukvården innebär dessa faktorer att antalet läkarbesök på hälsocentraler ökar. Dessa faktorer leder till ökade kostnader för hälsocentralerna och indikerar att det är viktigt för hälsocentraler att vara medvetna om sina kostnader. Activity Based Costing (ABC) anses vara en metod som kan göra organisationer inom hälso- och sjukvården mer kostnadsmedvetna i och med att ABC har visats vara ett pålitligt verktyg för att kartlägga verksamhetens kostnader. Samtidigt har det i litteraturen lyfts fram att utvecklandet av ABC-modellen kan vara både tids- och resurskrävande för dessa organisationer. Denna tvetydighet tyder på att forskningen inom hälso- och sjukvården behöver utvidgas. Dessutom har ABC främst använts på sjukhus, varvid lämpligheten att använda ABC på hälsocentraler förefaller outforskad. Mot bakgrund till detta forskningsgap och den kostnadsproblematik som råder på hälsocentraler formuleras följande forskningsfråga i studien: Hur kan en ABC-modell utvecklas till att kunna kartlägga kostnaderna vid en hälsocentral? Syftet med studien var att förstå verksamheten på hälsocentralerna, dels för att kunnautveckla en ABC-modell för beräkning av kostnader, dels för att identifiera implikationer somkan föreligga vid utvecklandet av ABC. För att utveckla ABC-modellen till hälsocentraler har studien utgått från olika metoder. Sju intervjuer har genomförts med respondenter vid fem landstingsdrivna hälsocentraler i Norrbottens Läns Landsting. Vidare har även åtta frågeformulär besvarats av personal från dessa hälsocentraler. Studien har dessutom kompletterats med årsbokslut och intern verksamhetsdata från de fem hälsocentralerna. Studien har sin utgångspunkt i en hermeneutisk kunskapssyn och ett induktivt angreppssätt. En slutsats i studien är att hälsocentraler utgör en komplex verksamhet och att arbetsprocesserna för att behandla en patient skiljer sig åt mellan yrkesgrupperna på hälsocentralerna. Det gör det svårt att utveckla en ABC-modell för hela hälsocentralen med enbart små resurser tillhands. Ytterligare en slutsats kom därmed att bli den utvecklade ABC-modellen för en del av hälsocentralernas verksamhet, nämligen ett planerat läkarbesök. Denna modell bidrar till forskningsgapet för ABC inom hälso- och sjukvården och är studiens mest framträdande teoretiska bidrag.

Microcredit has been considered one of the most significant innovations in the field of development in the last thirty years. It provides collateral free financial resources to the poor worldwide. It plays an important role in poverty eradication, socio-economic development, livelihood diversification and women empowerment especially in the developing and under-developed nations. It has contributed positively to the natural resources management by forming social capital, creating alternate income and diversifying livelihoods of the resource dependent rural people. Natural resource management, in general, and fisheries resources management in particular, are currently undergoing a major paradigm shift. In recent years, the notion of government as the only decision-making authority has been replaced by multi-scale, polycentric governance, which recognizes that a large number of stakeholders in different institutional settings contribute to overall management of resources. Improving the management of natural or common pool resources and empowering local communities, community-based management has become a common strategy in the last two decades. Community-Based Organizations are grassroots institutions that involve rural communities in co-management. Several factors influence the functioning and sustainability of these CBOs which contribute to the management of common-pool resources in Bangladesh. To address the complexities of socio-cultural systems and sustainable natural resource management, managers, practitioners, and theoreticians widely rely on social learning. The evidence of social learning is apparent in collaborative participation and group actions where individuals meet, interact, share ideas, learn collectively and take collective decisions. They adjust the management approaches and change their perceptions according to their social learning in natural resources management. The purpose of the research was to assess the role of microcredit in improving rural livelihoods (mainly fishing households), identify the challenges faced by microcredit institutions, and to explore the process of organizations and obstacles involved in the sustainability of Community-Based Organizations developed by CBFM-2 project in Hakaluki haor area. It was intended to explore the evidence of social learning and capacity building efforts related to microcredit and CBFM-2 project intervention in the study area. The main objective of this research was: to assess the roles of microcredit in improving rural livelihoods with a focus on fishing households and institutional capacity-building. The secondary objectives were: (i) to understand the processes of organization and the challenges that Community Based Organizations (CBOs) face, and (ii) to explore the evidence of social learning pertaining to microcredit and involving CBOs under CBFM-2 project, other local institutions, and fisher households. A qualitative research approach was followed in this case which was supplemented by quantitative data. Several Participatory Rural Appraisal tools, such as interviews (households) by administering semi-structured questionnaires, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, in-depth case studies, and mini-workshops were used at different stages of the research to attain the objective of the study. Together with local communities and other relevant stakeholders the research purposively selected three CBOs and three microcredit women groups in three different villages of Hakaluki haor. The research findings revealed that microcredit played a significant role in socio-economic development of Hakaluki haor, especially household income increment, livelihood diversification, creation of self-employment, poverty reduction and women empowerment though it entrapped few households in vicious cycle of poverty. The research established that CBOs are instrumental and essential for community-based natural resources management through empowering the local communities, and NGOs are important for mobilizing local people, capacity building and providing legal services to the community. It was evident that CBOs faced challenges towards its sustainability due to limited resources and wetland policy changes by the government. The study also revealed the evidence of social learning through microcredit operation and project intervention which changed their perceptions and fisheries management practices. Reforming operational mechanism of microcredit, national wetland leasing policy and legitimating CBOs can remove the challenges of microcredit and help the CBOs to be sustainable. Future research is encouraged to reveal the other issues of microcredit and community-based organizations sustainability.

This paper is the second of two parts exploring a study that was undertaken to investigate the role of the tutor in facilitating problem-based learning (PBL). The first part focussed on the methodological underpinnings of the study. This paper aims to focus on the findings of the study and their implications for the facilitation of PBL. Six essential themes emerged from the findings that described the facilitation role. The tutors believed that their facilitation role was essentially structured around the decision of when to intervene and how to intervene in the PBL process. Modelling and non-verbal communication were seen as essential strategies for the facilitator. Underpinning these decisions was the need to trust in the philosophy of PBL. However, within many of the themes, there was a divergence of opinion as to how the role should actually be undertaken. Despite this, these findings have implications for the future role of PBL facilitators in Health Professional Education.

This dissertation proposes different methodologies, with their associated models, to customize the architectural design of Application-Specific Networks-on-Chip (ASNoC). Specifically, system-level evaluation models are presented and architecture generation methodologies are built on them to allow the designer to generate the most efficient architecture for a given NoC-based application. Our system-level methodologies enable the designer to discover any flaws early during the design process and to quickly investigate the effect of various design choices on the resultant NoC cost and performance. In this dissertation, we have four main contributions. In our first contribution, we propose power and reliability evaluation models. The two models are proposed at the system-level to allow for a quick evaluation of different design decisions. The power model captures the power consumption in NoC routers and links, whereas the reliability one models the probability of the packets being affected by on-chip noise sources. In our second contribution, we propose a cost-efficient architecture generation methodology for NoC based on network partitioning techniques. Our methodology partially customizes the on-chip network architecture with respect to two cost metrics: power and area. The partitioning technique is formulated using NoC terminology based on the Fiduccia-Mattheyses graph partitioning algorithm. Our partitioning scheme is compared to other partitioning techniques and is found to be the most efficient one for NoC. We further analyze the effect of using network partitioning on NoC power, area, and delay. From this analysis, the area reduction is proved to be guaranteed using network partitioning. Moreover, power and delay efficiencies of using network partitioning with NoC are formulated mathematically. Experimental results show that the proposed methodology is an efficient way to reduce power and area costs of NoC with respect to both standard and previous custom architecture generation techniques. In our third contribution, we propose a multi-objective Genetic Algorithm (GA)-based optimization methodology for NoC full-custom architectures. For any application, the designer could control the optimization process through different optimization weight factors. Our methodology is evaluated by applying it to different NoC benchmark applications, as case studies. Results show that the architectures generated by our methodology outperform those generated by other techniques with respect to power, area, delay, reliability, and the combination of the four metrics. Finally, the running time of our methodology is an order of magnitude faster than that of previous architecture optimization techniques. In our fourth contribution, we propose a multi-objective GA-based methodology to optimize the use of standard architectures, which were previously presented in computer network, with NoC. Our methodology combines the best selection of NoC standard architecture and the optimum mapping of application cores onto that architecture. The methodology is further used to carry out an application-specific mapping-oriented evaluation of different NoC standard architectures. Experimental results show that the mapping achieved by our methodology outperforms those generated by previous mapping techniques with respect to power, area, delay, reliability, and the combination of the four metrics. This research work aims at quickly validating various design decisions by proposing system-level power and reliability evaluation models. Moreover, in this dissertation, we present three application-specific methodologies to customize the three main categories of architectures that are currently used in implementing on-chip networks; namely, semi-custom, full-custom, and standard architectures, respectively. Our methodologies consider different NoC metrics: power, area, delay, and reliability, simultaneously. We believe that our proposed methodologies bridge an open gap in NoC research by matching the on-chip network architecture to the characteristics and the rapidly growing requirements of modern NoC applications. / Graduate