This research addresses the decision making process for ESG procurement investments within organizations. Since the decision making process for ESG procurement investments, particularly the consideration of environmental, social, and governance, is not clearly understood or documented, this research aims to investigate the roles, activities, and stakeholders involved in each stage of the decision making process, while exploring the challenges and opportunities associated with using ESG considerations for ESG procurement investments. The research design employs qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews with sustainability managers and a comprehensive analysis of findings. The key findings indicate that the decision making process follows Herbert Simon's three steps, involving the intelligence, design, and choice stage. Throughout this process, various stakeholders, including management teams, finance teams, and sustainability departments, assume specific roles. Furthermore, the involvement of additional stakeholders can vary from stage to stage, with their roles adapting accordingly. In the intelligence stage, the activities encompassed identifying the situation and problems at hand, as well as collecting data through collaborative efforts. Moving into the design stage, activities involved developing business cases and exploring potential alternatives. Finally, in the choice stage of the decision making process, the activities involved evaluating the best alternative, presenting it to the management team, and making the final decision. Challenges identified using ESG in procurement investments include among others aligning costs and sustainability, limited awareness and competences, and data availability, while opportunities lie in risk reduction, enhanced sustainability, collaboration, and cost reductions. The research contributes to existing literature by providing empirical evidence, development of an analytical framework, and shedding light on the decision making process. In practical terms, this research provides valuable insights for sustainability managers, procurement professionals, and organizational leaders. It highlights the importance of understanding the decision making process and the roles of different stakeholders, which can lead to improved collaboration and coordination among departments involved.

I denna studie undersöks hur intern Business Intelligence påverkar beslutsprocessen i stora svenska bolag. Business Intelligence används mer och mer i beslutsprocessen och anses nu vara essentiellt för organisationer som vill vara konkurrenskraftiga. Organisationer vill också bli alltmer datadrivna i sin beslutsprocess och då basera beslut på data och inte intuition. Genom en kvalitativ undersökning visar studien att BI-analytiker och beslutsfattare som använder sig av Business Intelligence är överens om att ett BI-system påverkar beslutsfattandeprocessen främst positivt. Den största nackdelen som tas upp i studien är kostanden som en implementering av ett BI-system medför, men att de positiva följderna av implementeringen väger tyngre. De främsta positiva följderna som tas upp i studien är att beslutsfattandeprocessen går fortare samt att beslutskvalitén ökar då ett BI-system tillhandahåller beslutsfattarna relevant, smart och riktad information snabbare än det tidigare var möjligt. / This study examines how internal Business Intelligence effects the decision-making process in large Swedish companies. Business Intelligence is used more and more in the decision-making process and is now considered essential for organizations if they want to be competitive. Organizations strive to become more data-driven in their decision-making and thus wants their decision-makers to primarily base their decisions on data and not intuition. Through a qualitative study, it highlights that both BI-analysts and decision-makers who use Business Intelligence agrees that a BI system affects the decision-making process mainly positively. The biggest disadvantage that is addressed in the study is the cost that the implementation of a BI system entails, but that the positive consequences of the implementation of a BI system are bigger. The main positive consequences that are addressed in the study are that the decision-making process becomes faster and that the quality of decisions increases. This is because a BI system provides the decision-makers with relevant, smart and targeted information faster than was previously possible.

This study investigates the impact of bounded rationality on information security decisions in public Swedish authorities. The research addresses how cognitive limitations and organizational dynamics shape decisions in this area. Utilizing qualitative research methods, in-depth interviews and document analysis, the study provides nuanced insights into decision-making processes. A thematic analysis identifies six recurring themes influencing decision-making: Awareness & Knowledge, Individual Characteristics, Organizational Culture & Behavioral Patterns, Organization & Execution, Regulatory Frameworks & Management, Responsibility & Obligation.  The findings reveal significant influences and barriers in implementing effective security strategies, making a theoretical contribution to information security management in public sectors. This research highlights the importance of understanding human behavior in information security, offering insights to shape strategic directions for policy and practical implementation to enhance organizational and national cybersecurity resilience.

Experimental observations have shown that economic agents behave in ways different from the maximization of any utility function. Herbert Simon sought to deal with this by positing that individuals do not maximize, but rather "satisfice." This was a radical departure from the traditional economic framework, and one that still has not been adequately formalized. But Simon's suggestion is only the smallest part of what is needed for a theory that reflects the actual behavior. For instance, Simon's framework cannot deal with the observation that the act of choice changes the chooser. This dissertation is further developing Simon's original ideas through embracing John Dewey's transactional thinking to attain an adequate theory of economic choice that accounts for boundedly rational agents. I clarify that substantive rationality and bounded (procedural) rationality share the same basic utilitarian assumption of predetermined goals. In terms of a Deweyan (transactional) analysis, the idea of utilitarian "optimization" ultimately guides and constrains both theories. But empirical study of choice behavior and the behavior of subjects in experimental laboratories, both indicate that neither substantive nor procedural rationality can effectively account for actual economic choices. I emphasize the importance of treating bounded rationality without reference to the rational framework. To me, bounded rationality implies a realistic picture of behavior, which is associated with emerging goals and not ones that exist prior to the making of a choice. I consider uncertainty as a normal characteristic of the situation, which in turn allows consideration of acting based on inconsistent information, just as people actually do. The basis of a systematic approach to behavior that can capture inconsistency is developed by Tom Burke. He mathematizes Dewey's logic. He allows for impossible worlds in the set of states. Thus, not only can the initial state space hold inconsistent states, the information set can include mutually inconsistent elements. So the current neoclassical paradigm resembles the representative realism, but is there any good reason why we should accept this methodology as economists? Whatever one's ultimate metaphysics and epistemology, I want to show that an alternative approach to economic decision-making may prove highly useful in theory and practice. / Ph. D.

Darknet markets have emerged due to technological advancements, decreasing the likelihood of violence by facilitating remote purchasing interactions. However, the absence of traditional legal frameworks makes maintaining order in these illegal online markets challenging. Without a legitimate state to enforce property rights or quality standards, sustaining order becomes increasingly complex. Despite its illicit nature and the absence of a legitimate state to protect market transactions, the darknet market has proven to be a resilient environment where user satisfaction rivals that of traditional e-commerce platforms such as eBay. How is this possible? Howcan social order emerge in such a context? Existing studies have primarily approached the issue from neo-institutionalist and social network perspectives, examining the emergence of social order through informal institutions and repeated interactions. A notable gap remains in understanding the cognitive aspects shaping decision-making processes in these illicit markets. This dissertation aims to fill this gap by examining the role of social influence in establishing the social order of the market in the absence of legal safeguards from a socio-cognitive lean.

This dissertation collects four papers on common knowledge and one on introspection principles in epistemic game theory. The first two papers offer a sustained argument against the importance of common knowledge and belief in explaining social behavior. Chapters 3 and 4 study the role of common knowledge of tautologies in standard models in epistemic logic and game theory. The first considers the problem as it relates to Robert Aumann’s Agreement Theorem; the second (joint work with Peter Fritz) studies it in models of awareness. The fifth paper corrects a claimed Agreement Theorem of Geanakoplos (1989), and exploits the corrected theorem to provide epistemic conditions for correlated equilibrium and Nash equilibrium.

The master thesis The concept of libertarian paternalism in the recodification of Czech private law introduces a concept that works as an efficient synthesis of two different approaches to the relationship between the individual and the state: liberalism and paternalism. Libertarian paternalism deals mainly with the default system setting and setting of the recommendations and mechanism that are helpful in the decision making process of an individual as well as the whole society. The master thesis defines this concept, its main attributes and its tradition in the behavioral economics as well as its means and limits. The thesis shows how the use of this concept provides cheap and effective tools for nudging human decisions and behavior. The libertarian paternalistic approach in the law regulation is demonstrated in the new civil recodification, especially Civil Code 2012 as the fundamental act of civil law. The master thesis uses interdisciplinary approach to the topic, applying the perspectives of philosophy of law, economy, psychology and sociology.

Cette thèse consiste en trois chapitres distincts. Dans le premier chapitre, je teste l'hypothèse selon laquelle le format d'affichage de l'information financière affecte les décisions des investisseurs individuels. Je montre qu'un affichage plus efficace permet aux individus de mieux gérer leurs ordres à cours limité en minimisant le risque de sélection adverse encouru en utilisant ces ordres. Cela suggère que les investisseurs individuels ont une rationalité limitée. Dans le second chapitre, je teste si les stratégies de trading apporteuses de liquidité peuvent générer des profits, après coûts de transactions, pour les traders actifs qui les implémentent. Je montre que seuls les individus situés dans le plus haut décile de performance peuvent battre le marché de façon persistante en utilisant des stratégies hautement contrariantes qui nécessitent l'utilisation massive d'ordres à cours limité. Les limites-à-l'arbitrage semblent expliquer ce phénomène. Dans le troisième chapitre, j'étudie les stratégies des individus autour des annonces de résultats. Je montre que les allers-retours qui sont implémentés un jour avant une annonce génèrent en moyenne des profits plus élevés et sont plus courts en durée que ceux implémentés en temps normal. Les individus clôturent leurs positions gagnantes le jour de l'annonce, ce qui peut ralentir l'ajustement des prix suite à l'annonce. / This thesis is made of three distinct chapters. In the first chapter, I test whether the display format of financial information matters for the individual investor. I find that a more efficient information display allows investors to increase returns on their limit orders, because it becomes easier for them to mitigate the risk of adverse selection when trading with those orders. My findings suggest that retail investors have bounded rationality. In the second chapter I test whether liquidity provision to the market can be a profitable strategy, after fees, for active retail investors. I find that only individuals ranked in the top decile of performance can persistently beat the market using highly contrarian limit order strategies. Limits-to-arbitrage seem to explain why these top retail investors exploit trading opportunities before other more sophisticated arbitrageurs. In the third chapter, I study the retail trading strategies around stock earnings announcements. I find that round-trips started one day before an announcement are more profitable and much shorter in duration than those started during the non-announcement period. Retails reverse their winning trades on the event date, which can slow down the adjustment of prices to new information.

As economies develop, novel products are created and markets for these products arise. Genetically modified food (GMF) is an example of such a novel product and provides economists with the opportunity to investigate an infant market. Of particular interest with GMF is the impact of consumer reactions on the market. The response of consumers to GMF and their willingness to pay for it has emerged as an important factor in the development of this technology. This research investigates these consumer responses. Prior research suggests that two aspects of consumer behaviour may be relevant for the GMF market. First, consumers may react differently to different types of GMF, so that some products are potentially more economically viable. Secondly, some consumers appear to prefer not having GMF at all. Consumer behaviour is often framed according to neoclassical economic theory. Consumer preferences over goods and the attributes of those goods are generally held to have certain properties. The aspects of consumers' reactions to GMF noted above, however, may be in conflict with two properties of preferences in neoclassical theory. First, preferences over food attributes are not separable, but may interact with each other. Secondly, some consumers may have preferences regarding GMF that are not continuous. As a result, aggregate impacts of introducing GMF may be difficult to measure, which raises a third issue for investigation, aggregation. Finally, an alternative model of consumer behaviour is bounded rationality, which theorises that choices may be discontinuous as a result of specific protocols. It also suggests that consumers seek to make good-enough choices, rather than attempting to maximise their satisfaction. Thus, optimisation or maximisation is the fourth issue considered in this thesis. In order to investigate these properties of consumers' preferences, a choice experiment survey was developed. The strength of a choice experiment for examining these issues is its focus on the impact of each product attribute on a respondent's choices. Thus, it may be possible to identify potentially discontinuous choice patterns and to identify choices affected by interactions between GM technology and other food attributes. Results from a neoclassical analysis of the survey data suggest that some consumers consider the type of benefit created with GM technology in making their choices. In addition, one-quarter to one-half of respondents may have had discontinuous preferences with respect to GMF. Reactions to GMF appear related to respondents' attitudes, but not to socio-economic or demographic descriptors. As a result, aggregate measures of the impact of GMF may not fully account for consumers' responses. A boundedly rational model also has reasonable goodness of fit, and may provide a different perspective on consumer behaviour. It is hoped that the results of this research provide a better understanding of consumer behaviour regarding GMF and, by extension, of the process of consumer adoption of novel products. It is further hoped that this attempt to incorporate choice protocols into discrete choice analysis will provide a useful example for further research.

<p>Bounded rationality is the study of how human cognition with limited capacity is adapted to handle the complex information structures in the environment. This thesis argues that in order to understand the bounded rationality of decision processes, it is necessary to develop decision theories that are computational process models based upon basic cognitive and perceptual mechanisms. The main goal of this thesis is to show that models of perceptual categorization based on the storage of exemplars and retrieval of similar exemplars whenever a new object is encountered (D. L. Medin & M. M. Schaffer, 1978), can be an important contribution to theories of decision making. Study I proposed, PROBEX (PROBabilities from Exemplars), a model for inferences from generic knowledge. It is a “lazy” algorithm that presumes no pre-computed abstractions. In a computer simulation it was found to be a powerful decision strategy, and it was possible to fit the model to human data in a psychologically plausible way. Study II was a theoretical investigation that found that PROBEX was very robust in conditions where the decision maker has very little information, and that it worked well even under the worst circumstances. Study III empirically tested if humans can learn to use exemplar based or one reason decision making strategies (G. Gigerenzer, P. Todd, & the ABC Research Group, 1999) where it is appropriate in a two-alternative choice task. Experiment 1 used cue structure and presentation format as independent variables, and participants easily used one reason strategies if the decision task presented the information as normal text. The participants were only able to use exemplars if they were presented as short strings of letters. Experiment 2 failed to accelerate learning of exemplar use during the decision phase, by prior exposure to exemplars in a similar task. In conclusion, this thesis supports that there are at least two modes of decision making, which are boundedly rational if they are used in the appropriate context. Exemplar strategies may, contrary to study II, only be used late in learning, and the conditions for learning need to be investigated further.</p>