Purpose – The purpose of this thesis is to explore the capability of Swedish regional public transport authorities (RPTAs) to organize public transport so that it stimulates the intended value creation process needed to increase users’ positive experience. Design/methodology/approach – This thesis utilizes an interpretative research approach. Two empirical studies, resulting in two papers have been used in this thesis. Study I consists of a quantitative Kano questionnaire with 930 respondents. Study II comprises a qualitative study with 11 semi-structured interviews. Both studies have been equally necessary to the results of this thesis. Findings – Public transport is one of the few public services with a mandate to attract users, and therefore, this thesis suggests that Swedish public transport organizations must understand how various services in multiple dimensions affect users’ preferences for public transport. With this understanding, public transport organizations can effectively and efficiently allocate resources and increase the appeal of future public transport. Such a focus demands a deep organizational knowledge and understanding of customer needs and detailed awareness of how the achievement of various requirements affects customers. This thesis shows that organizational structures are based on political comprises rather then the needs to solve coordination challenges and facilitate customers’ value creation. It is further argued that the organizational structures and personal or impersonal information processing mechanisms in Swedish public transport influence the search for information and subsequent organizational learning influencing the RPTAs’ capabilities to include and understand public transport users’ needs. This thesis offers insight into how public organizations, such as Swedish public transport authorities, can make decisions in structural design to learn from customer perceptions and adapt organizational policy accordingly.  In addition, I argue that RPTAs must employ both exploitative and exploratory learning to improve their capabilities and increase their efficiency and effectiveness. This thesis also provides a model to describe these relationships. Originality/value – Unlike previous studies, this thesis shows how organizational structures are decided based on political compromises rather than the need for coordination. This thesis offers insight into how public organizations, such as Swedish public transport authorities, can make decisions in structural design to learn from customer perceptions and adapt organizational policy accordingly. / Public transport is one of the few public services with a mandate to attract users, and therefore, this thesis suggests that Swedish public transport organizations must understand how various services in multiple dimensions affect users’ preferences for public transport. With this understanding, public transport organizations can effectively and efficiently allocate resources and increase the appeal of future public transport. Such an approach requires not only a deep organizational knowledge of customer needs, but also a detailed knowledge of how the achievement of the various demands affects users and their value creation. This thesis further shows that organizational structures are based on political comprises rather then the needs to solve coordination challenges and facilitate customers’ value creation. It is here argued that the organizational structures and personal or impersonal information processing mechanisms in Swedish public transport influence the search for information and subsequent organizational learning influencing the RPTAs’ capabilities to include and understand public transport users’ needs. This thesis offers insight into how public organizations, such as Swedish public transport authorities, can make decisions in structural design to learn from customer perceptions and adapt organizational policy accordingly.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / Malnutrition is a big public health concern in Malawi. Almost 40% of under-five children in Malawi suffer from malnutrition. Children born to poor mothers with low education levels have higher chances of being malnourished. Great disparities are also seen between children born in rural areas and those born in cities and towns. This research examines the linkages between mothers’ education attainment and child malnutrition. The Capability Approach and the UNICEF Conceptual Framework on child malnutrition was used in ascertaining how education affects mother’s choices and practices on child’s health and nutrition. The Explanatory Sequential Mixed Method Design was used. Combining elements of Qualitative and Quantitative research methods to provide depth and breadth of how mother’s education affects child’s health and nutrition. Findings from the Quantitative analysis of the 2015-2016 Malawi Demographic and Health Surveys data on child malnutrition and women’s education, informed the qualitative approach. The results guided in purposively sampling participants for the Qualitative research. Stata 14 was used to analyse quantitative data. Themes were drawn from the qualitative data and an analysis of the recurring themes was done using Atlas.ti 8. The study found that there is an association between mother’s education and child health. Children born to mothers with secondary and higher education qualification have lower odds of malnutrition and poor health. Inadequate knowledge on nutrition, food and nutrition insecurity, poverty and low welfare status of mothers with low education levels are contributing factors to high incidences of malnutrition among their children. Malawi needs to invest in girl’s education; particularly in rural areas where many girls do not transition to secondary school.

Research report (M.Com. (Information Systems))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2013. / Using the resource based view of the firm theory, a research model is proposed that explains how IT governance capability results in improved firm performance by improving a firm’s IT Infrastructure capabilities and business processes. The research model is explored by means of case study where a survey is undertaken with the key stakeholders of a global Corporate and Investment Bank. Data was collected and analysed from 140 respondents using an online survey. The model hypotheses were not tested. The respondents’ characteristics (role, region, business area and length of experience) were explored providing greater insight and confirmation of the general relationship between the variables. The case study confirmed the general relationships of the model except the training capability - firm performance relationship. The IT governance process formality moderator provided results that were in contradiction to expectations. The IT intensity moderator confirmed the general relationship. The strength or weaknesses of the relationships when analysing the respondent characteristics are insightful and would not normally have been available if a multi-site survey had been performed.

L'une des principales préoccupations des chercheurs et des praticiens dans le domaine de la stratégie durant la dernière décennie a été de comprendre comment les entreprises développent et maintiennent leur avantage concurrentiel. Bien qu'il existe de nombreux travaux théorisant le renouvellement des ressources et compétences des entreprises à la fois dans le champs de la stratégie et des organisations, les études empiriques sont rares et la plupart du temps aboutissent à des conclusions ambiguës. Notre objectif est de mieux comprendre le rôle de l'internationalisation des entreprises dans leur capacité à renouvellement leurs ressources et compétences. A cette fin, nous théorisons à la fois le renouvellement et l'internationalisation en tant que processus pour capturer, développer, partager et optimiser les connaissances propices à l'internationalisation et au maintien d’une performance supérieure (Cavusgil & Knight, 2015: 10). Le processus de renouvellement des ressources et compétences se fonde sur les pratiques de détection et de saisie des opportunités stratégiques et de renouvellement de l'entreprise (Teece, 2007). Le processus d'internationalisation, d'autre part, est étudié à travers trois dimensions: la dynamique d’expansion géographique, celle d’expansion « en profondeur » (que l’on appellera le chemin d’internationalisation), et la vitesse (ou rythme) d’internationalisation / One of the main preoccupations of scholars and practitioners in the strategy field in the last decade has been to understand how firms achieve and maintain competitive advantage. Although academic support exists for theorizing renewal capability in both strategy and organizational research, empirical studies are scarce and mostly non-homogeneous, making advancing a common understanding difficult. This thesis is dedicated to filling this gap. We are keen to advance our understanding of the role of internationalization in the renewal capability of the firm. With this aim, we theorize both renewal and internationalization as processes and managerial orchestrations (strategies) “to capture, develop, share and optimize knowledge conducive to internationalization and superior performance” (Cavusgil & Knight, 2015: 10). The renewal process draws on practices of sensing and seizing strategic opportunities and renewing the business (Teece, 2007). The internationalization process, on the other hand, is studied across three dimensions: through dynamics in breadth and in depth (the path), and by the speed (the pace) of foreign expansion

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (SA) set out its Vision 2030 of itself as a significant Knowledge Economy to position itself competitively in the world and in the Gulf region. The Government charged the education sector to prepare young people and build the creativity, innovation and technical skills for the country’s future. The Ministry of Education (MOE) selected TQM and has made strategic investments to achieve this strategic transformation in education. Despite this substantial investment in the infrastructure, teaching skills, information technology and advancement programmes for women to enter the workplace, the implementation of TQM has not so far delivered the outcomes expected in secondary schools (Bank, 2008; Chapman and Miric, 2009; TIMSS, 2011). This research proposes that a programme that primarily focuses on the hard aspects of change, without participatory leadership and without integrating the people concerned (as a soft programme would), cannot achieve sustainable transformation. An empirical study was designed to investigate staff perception of TQM implementation in girls’ secondary schools in the Kingdom. The 525 respondents from 61 schools in five districts of Riyadh suggest that the most pivotal critical success factors (CSFs) limiting the development of TQM culture were Top Management Commitment; Training; Tools and Techniques; and Reward and Recognition. The perception results were then used as the baseline to design a model that integrates the hard and soft CSFs of TQM in five stages of maturity. This assessment model could be used to support the schools and the MOE in objectively assessing the readiness of schools to implement TQM and identify the next major obstacles to reaching the next stage. The design approach of a maturity model is innovative in using context perception data as the baseline for designing the stages of maturity and the success factors the progress of change, making its use appropriate for the girls’ schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Os sistemas de medição são projetados para obter uma capabilidade de acordo com as exigências do cliente final ou especificações de engenharia. Esta capabilidade deve ser mantida através de manutenções preventivas e calibrações. Este estudo apresenta um procedimento, onde se determina a capabilidade do sistema de medição utilizando o MSA (Measurement System Analisys). Obtendo a capabilidade, a confiabilidade das medições obtidas do sistema de medição é estimada, considerando como falha a perda da capabilidade obtida. Os tempos estimados de falha são obtidos em testes de vida acelerados utilizando como sobrecarga o aumento da temperatura e extrapolando os tempos de falha para condição de uso através dos modelos de Arrhenius-exponencial, Arrenius-Weibull e Arrhenius-lognormal. O MTTF é calculado para estimação dos tempos de manutenção e calibração do sistema de medição. Uma aplicação do procedimento proposto é realizada em um equipamento protótipo de medição do número de Swirl desenvolvido com uma nova tecnologia de medição mais rápida e precisa em relação aos existentes no mercado. O estudo avalia a capabilidade do equipamento de medição de Swril e posteriormente estima tempos de falha para obter a confiabilidade das medições obtidas e o tempo necessário para sua manutenção. / The measuring systems are designed to achieve a capability according to the requirements from the end customer or engineering specifications. This capability must be maintained through preventive maintenance and calibration. This study presents a procedure, where the measurement system capability is determined using the MSA (Measurement System Analyzes). Obtaining the capability, the reliability of the measurements obtained from the measurement system is estimated, considering as failure the loss of the capability obtained. An estimated failure times are obtained in accelerated life tests using the temperature increase as an overloading and extrapolating the failure times to condition of use through the Arrhenius-exponential, Arrenius-Weibull and Arrhenius-lognormal models. The MTTF is calculated to estimate the maintenance and calibration times for the measurement system. An application of the proposed procedure is carried out on a prototype equipment to measure the Swirl number developed with a new measurement technology faster and more accurate than others available on the market. The study evaluates the capability of equipment to measure the Swirl number and then estimates failure times to obtain the reliability of measurements obtained and the time required for their maintenance.

Muitas práticas organizacionais antes inexistentes estão sendo implementadas e, ainda, construídas pelas empresas a fim de garantir uma atuação marcada pela geração de resultados positivos para o meio ambiente, a sociedade e viáveis financeiramente. A sustentabilidade tem que estar integrada na estratégia de negócio da empresa e, por isso, há a necessidade de adotar práticas que visem o desenvolvimento de capacidades e competências sustentáveis de modo contínuo. Neste contexto, usa-se o conceito de resiliência que significa a capacidade de uma empresa em lidar com um ambiente complexo e dinâmico. A resiliência é uma capacidade dinâmica e sua principal característica é a geração de competências. Desse modo, a perspectiva da resiliência pode ajudar no desenvolvimento de práticas sustentáveis capazes de gerar novas capacidades para lidar com as demandas da sustentabilidade num ambiente de alta complexidade para sistemas dinâmicos. O presente estudo teve como questão de pesquisa: \"como a resiliência contribui para a sustentabilidade das organizações?\". Dois métodos de coleta foram utilizados para responder a esta pergunta: entrevistas semiestruturadas com gestores de empresas da área de meio ambiente ou sustentabilidade e grupo focal com especialistas das áreas de resiliência e sustentabilidade. Após a análise dos dados, encontrou-se os procedimentos para desenvolver a resiliência na sustentabilidade organizacional tanto na teoria como na prática - planos de longo prazo, reuniões periódicas, benchmarking, comunicação entre áreas e hierarquias distintas, parcerias e ações eco eficientes - e práticas de valorização dos aspectos humanos como o comportamento dos líderes e a cultura compartilhada entre os membros da organização. Os especialistas compreendem a resiliência como um conjunto de práticas que consideram os aspectos procedimentais e humanos para o alcance da sustentabilidade validando, assim, a teoria e os achados do primeiro método - entrevistas com gestores de empresas do setor industrial. / Many organizational practices did not exist before are being implemented, and also built by companies in order to ensure a performance marked by generating positive results for the environment, society and financially viable. Sustainability has to be integrated in the company\'s business strategy and therefore there is a need to adopt practices aimed at capacity building and sustainable skills continuously. In this context, we use the concept of resilience which means the ability of a company to deal with a complex and dynamic environment. Resilience is a dynamic capability and its main feature is the generation of skills. Thus, the perspective of resilience can help in the development of sustainable practices that generate new capabilities to cope with the demands of sustainability in a highly complex environment for dynamic systems. This study was the research question: \"how resilience contributes to the sustainability of organizations?\". Two collection methods were used to answer this question: semi-structured interviews with the environmental area of company managers or sustainability and focus groups with experts in the areas of resilience and sustainability. After analyzing the data, the procedures met to develop resilience in organizational sustainability both in theory and in practice - long-term plans, regular meetings, benchmarking, communication between areas and distinct hierarchies, partnerships and eco-efficient actions - and practices valuation of human aspects such as the behavior of leaders and shared culture among members of the organization. Experts understand resilience as a set of practices that consider the procedural and human aspects for achieving sustainability validating thus the theory and the findings of the first method - interviews with managers of industrial companies.

This study investigates how the subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs) reconfigure their resource bases to respond to an altered strategic positioning. In particular, the focus is on the subsidiaries of multinational enterprises from emerging economies (EMNEs), which undertake transformation from export-orientation to host market-orientation in an emerging economy being host country. Two Taiwanese MNEs with subsidiaries in China extensively operated the host market are selected as case studies. This research is grounded in a preliminary conceptualisation covering three main areas: subsidiary organisations, external actors in the host country and headquarters’ functions. It provides insights into (1) how the subsidiaries align their historical resources with newly-developed capabilities; (2) how the subsidiaries govern inter-firm relations with external actors in the host environment; and (3) whether and how complementary resources are to a limited extent transferred from headquarters to subsidiaries so as to support the operations in the host market. With regards to the organisational initiatives undertaken by the case subsidiaries, it is found that the historical resources are leveraged to support the host market business, whilst at the same time developing required marketing capabilities. In addition, the concept of organisational ambidexterity is adopted to refer to way in which existing (export-oriented) and new (host market-oriented) businesses that are operating simultaneously. As to the inter-firm relations, the case subsidiaries have been mainly governing their relations with distributors by performance-based mechanisms aiming to secure stable profits. By contrast, the relation-based trust was not commonly observed among the cooperation ties. With growing brand strengths and increased direct contact with consumers, they held higher authority over the interfirm relations with distributors than during the initial stages of operating in the Chinese market. In addition, with regards to the cross-border resource transfers, two distinct modes of headquarters-subsidiary relationships emerged: a traditional one, in which headquarters allocate resources within MNEs and a novel one in which headquarters’ functions were gradually replaced by the powerful subsidiary, termed in this thesis as “migrating headquarters”. On the basis of these findings, we put forward a set of propositions that present the interrelations between the resource circumstances of case subsidiaries, the institutional environments and the organisational initiatives undertaken by the case subsidiaries. Theoretically, the contributions of this study are threefold. Firstly, it advances the research on subsidiary development by holistically exploring the: resource reconfiguration of subsidiaries, inter-firm relations with external actors and headquarters-subsidiary relationships. In particular, the resource deficiency which the EMNEs’ subsidiaries encountered and the characteristics of the required capabilities for the host market-oriented transformation, i.e. local marketing competences, were investigated. Secondly, through probing the governance mechanisms adopted regarding interfirm relations between the case subsidiaries and local distributors, this study not only addresses the question of how MNEs acquire this location-bound resource, but also advances the extant research by the aspect of network positions. That is, this study indicates that the first-tier distributors hold more relations-based interactions with the case subsidiaries than the lower-tier ones did. Moreover, unlike the reliance on informal relations suggested by extant literature on doing business in emerging economies, it is found that the economic governance mechanisms based on distributor performance have been predominantly adopted by the case subsidiaries. Thirdly, by investigating how the complementary resources are transferred to the subsidiaries, this work discovers EMNEs’ weakness at responding to the host market-oriented subsidiary transformation in terms of resource deployment within MNEs, in particular those resources that have been mostly controlled by headquarters. In addition, the term “migrating headquarters”, which represents an extreme outcome of subsidiary development, provides novel knowledge to the extant literature on the relocation of MNE headquarters by the perspective of resource circumstances. Moreover, the five components comprising dynamic capabilities in the context of subsidiary transformation are identified through the two case studies as being: capability upgrading, capability leverage, capability building, coordination capability and cooperative capability.

An ageing population is demanding more of healthcare services worldwide, particularly for long-term conditions. In the UK, the challenge of limited healthcare service resources and the influence of the Equality Act on services have increasingly led to the consideration of people's access to community rehabilitation services. These present a potential opportunity for Inclusive Design. The literature suggests that Inclusive Design and its associated tools have been widely applied to the accessibility of buildings and public transport, as well as consumer products and services, but there is little evidence of their application to healthcare services. A review of the literature highlights the importance of improving people's access to community-based rehabilitation by providing care at or closer to home which has become an increasingly prevalent option to meet the healthcare demand for long-term conditions in an ageing population. Therefore, this thesis investigates how Inclusive Design can be applied to healthcare delivery services to improve patients' experiences of accessing these services. It accomplished this through two case studies: community-based rehabilitation services of back pain and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The case studies involved online surveys and interviews with healthcare professionals and patients in understanding the patients' care journeys and challenges in accessing these services. The impact of services demands on patients' capability and their access to services was analysed using an Inclusive Design tool, the Exclusion Calculator. An inclusive approach integrating tools and procedures was summarised to facilitate the understanding of patients' capability-related needs both for the recipients of care and for the providers of care. This research provides a novel contribution by filling the gaps in the literature on the application of Inclusive Design to healthcare delivery services, i.e., community-based rehabilitation. It demonstrates that an Inclusive Design approach can be used to improve people's access to healthcare services and the tools applied can make a useful contribution to understanding service provision and hence service improvement. The Inclusive Design approach focuses on identifying the demands that healthcare services make of their users' capability and in estimating services' exclusion. The process of applying Inclusive Design in this research may be used to improve other healthcare services.

It is important that consumers are not only financially literate, but that they are also capable of making prudent financial decisions. Effective financial education programs should empower individuals to make wise financial decisions and avoid financial scams. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Investor Education Seminars taught by the Utah Division of Securities. The effectiveness of the educational program was measured by changes in financial knowledge, confidence, attitudes, and behavior compared to individuals who did not participate in the course. A logic model was used to outline program objectives and to determine the research questions. Data for this study were collected from participants through three online questionnaires. A comparison group, who had not yet attended the Investor Education Seminars, was asked to answer the same three surveys. Initially, there were 81 respondents in this study, 46 seminar participants, and 35 comparison group participants. Results from chi-square crosstabulations showed that age, ethnicity, and employment status were the only significant group differences between seminar participants and the comparison group. The results of this study suggest that the Investor Education Seminars were beneficial in helping participants increase their financial confidence and progress to a higher stage in the Transtheoretical Model of Change (TTM). Hierarchical regression analyses found a significant increase from pretest to posttest in financial confidence for seminar participants. Although there was no significant change in financial knowledge from pretest to posttest for the treatment group, the knowledge scores were high on the pretest. The average financial attitude score decreased for the treatment group. Results for the Transtheoretical Model for Change (TTM) showed that many participants in the treatment group moved from struggler to saver in the Stages of Change. The majority of participants reported being satisfied with the seminar and would recommend it to others.