Date:   2023-05-31 Level:   Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr Institution:  School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors:  Erica Kim Stenström   Isabelle Örnbratt                            (96/11/06)    (01/03/31) Title:   The Evolution of Technology and its Effect on Consumption Supervisor:  Edward Gillmore Keywords:  Consumer behavior, consumption, technology, media, marketing, source credibility theory, dual-process theory Research Question: How has the evolution of technology and media affected consumption within the fashion industry? Purpose: Due to the great shift in both online and physical consumption, the purpose of this research is to provide significant insights to already existing scientific literature on how the development of technology and media has affected consumers’ purchasing behavior. Method: A qualitative research paper with two semi-structured interviews and a random sample survey containing eleven open-ended questions. For secondary data, scientific articles and non-scientific, informational articles and websites were used.  Conclusion: The evolution of technology and media has heavily affected marketing strategies and consumer behavior. Along with this, there is a greater incentive to engage in consumerism, despite the world’s growing awareness regarding the consequences of overconsumption. Due to this, it is of great importance for businesses to assess how their decisions will make an impact on the world.

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The sunk-cost fallacy (SCF) occurs when an individual makes an investment with a low probability of a payoff because an earlier investment has already been made. It is considered an error because a rational decision should not factor in now-irretrievable investments, as they do not affect current outcome likelihoods. Previous research has measured the tendency to commit the SCF by using hypothetical scenarios in which participants must choose to make a future investment or not after making an initial investment. There are many theories as to why people commit the SCF. Loss aversion, which is the preference for uncertain over certain losses, may be related to the SCF. Dual-process theory, which views decision-making in terms of a fast, automatic process called system 1 and a slow, deliberate process called system 2, may also help to explain the SCF. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to complete a sunk-cost questionnaire in which the initial-investment types and amounts varied. They also completed an endowment-effect task as a measure of loss aversion. The SCF was committed most often when the initial investment was large compared to small and most often with money, less with time, and least with effort. There was an interaction effect in which small differences were seen in the SCF between time, effort, and money when the initial investment was small, and differences grew larger as the initial investment increased. Loss aversion displayed a non-significant negative relation with the SCF. In Experiment 2, participants completed a sunk-cost questionnaire in which they were asked to respond as they normally would and then from the perspective of a fictional person described as a logical decision maker. In cases in which they committed the SCF, they were asked to indicate why they continued to invest. They also completed a risky-lottery loss-aversion task. As seen in Experiment 1, the SCF was more likely when initial investments were greater and occurred most when the initial investment was money, less when it was time, and least when it was effort. Loss aversion had a significant but small negative relation with SCF scores. There was no effect of perspective taking. It may be that the SCF is simply due to the over-application of the personal rule “don't waste”, as not wanting to be wasteful was the most-common reason participants gave for why they committed the SCF.

A fundamental process in many important research foci in information systems is the appropriation of IT artifacts in creative ways by users. The objective of this thesis is to develop a theoretical explanation of that process. An embedded multiple-case study of incidents in which users, in a variety of field settings, developed creative ways to apply IT artifacts, was conducted. Employing theoretical lenses drawn from cognitive science (dual-process theory, distributed cognition), and Markus and Silver’s (2008) variant of adaptive structuration theory, a novel theoretical framework was developed to analyze the data. This framework – Affordance Field Theory – was used to abstract away the context-specific details of each case, so that the events in each could be compared and analyzed using a common conceptual vocabulary. Applying critical realist assumptions, the initial retroductive analysis was done with narrative networks, then the cases were re-analyzed using framework matrices. The complementary logical forms (processual and thematic, respectively) of the analytic tools helped to provide empirical corroboration of the findings. A set of cognitive mechanisms was identified that describe the information-processing operations involved in creative user appropriation. Using assumptions from distributed cognition, it was demonstrated that these mechanisms can describe those operations at the individual and collective levels. An integrative model which shows how the mechanisms explain user creativity at the individual level was then developed. It is called the Information Cycle Model of creativity. This thesis makes several contributions to knowledge. It develops a theoretical framework for analyzing interactions between users and systems that is designed to represent the cycles of ideation and enactment through which creative appropriation moves are developed. It also presents a model of the cognitive mechanisms involved in the discovery of novel appropriation moves. The thesis also contributes to current debates within IS about representational metaphors for user interaction with IT.

Uppsatsen tar sikte på svenska polisers beslutsfattning inom situationer där någon form av legitim våldsanvändning kan bli aktuell. I uppsatsen har sex poliser från polisområde södra Skåne (POSS) tillfrågats om deras beslutsfattande i tre fiktiva scenarion. Scenariona benämns som dynamiska situationer då de hela tiden skiftade beroende på vad den tillfrågade polisen svarat på föregående fråga. Scenariona var inte på något sätt tillspetsade utan var tre vanligt förekommande situationer som poliser hamnar i där legitimt våld kan vara det enda sättet att lösa tjänsteåtgärden som de har blivit beordrade till. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur det går till när poliser i yttre tjänst tar beslut om våldsanvändning för att verkställa sin tjänsteåtgärd.  Resultatet visade att intervjupersonerna ofta tänkte i mönster men var även analytiska när situationen utvecklade sig på ett sätt de inte var förberedda på. Detta ligger i linje med Kahnemans teori (2011) om att vi har två olika system, kallade implicita och explicita systemen, som konkurrerar och samverkar med varandra när vi ska ta beslut. Här ges även stöd för Kleins teori (1999 & 2011) att blåljuspersonal ofta tänker i mönster och mönsterigenkänning vid beslutsfattning. Intervjuerna visar att poliser ofta har en gräns när de övergår till våldsanvändning för att verkställa en tjänsteåtgärd och gör så för att inte riskera sin egen säkerhet, vilket tyder på ett högt säkerhetsmedvetande. De gånger poliser tar medvetna avsteg från sin egen säkerhet görs detta för att uppnå målet med tjänsteåtgärden snabbare då den dynamiska situationen inte tillåter den tidsfrist som egentligen behövs.

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This is a review of what the currently dominant theories of moral decision-making are and where they derive from. While the introduction serves as a common ground to explain what moral decision-making is, the earlier parts of the thesis describe older traditionalist theories within the field,  theories of emotional decision-making, in the form of the somatic marker hypothesis, as well as critique of the older traditionalist theories through the social intuitionist model. Both of these two theories are explained as the foundation of the current theories of moral decision-making and after establishing a clear basis on what the currently dominant theories of moral decision-making are built on, said theories are introduced in the form of the dual-processing theory and the event-feature-emotion complexes which are thoroughly reviewed, explained in detail and serves as the core of the text. This is afterward followed by criticism as well as arguments in favor of both theories as well as criticisms from other researchers who disagree with the methodology which the theories of moral decision-making are conducted on. The essay reviews the current state of the field of moral decision-making which has been split up into two different approaches, the locationist approach and the constructionist approach. The essay concludes that there are terms which needs to be clarified in order for the field to move forward and studies to be made regarding the social implications of gut reactions in moral decision-making.

El enfoque experimental es el corazón de algunos de los desarrollos más interesantes de la economía. Básicamente, los experimentos se utilizan para generar datos controlados. El término "datos controlados" se refiere al hecho de que la mayoría de los factores en los que influyen las conductas se mantienen constantes, y solo un factor de interés (el "tratamiento'') cambia a la vez. Este es el punto crítico para hacer una inferencia causal. A veces, este proceso de generación ocurre de forma natural (es decir, un "experimento natural''). Sin embargo, la mayoría de las veces, el investigador es el encargado de desarrollar y controlar el proceso de generación. Todas las áreas de la ciencia (incluida la economía) deben considerar todas las metodologías que se pueden aplicar. La teoría, los experimentos de laboratorio, los experimentos de campo, los experimentos online, la neuroeconomía, la investigación observacional y social, las encuestas y más, contribuyen a nuestra comprensión del mundo. En el primer capítulo de a tesis, se presentan resultados experimentales sobre subastas. Se consideran dos tratamientos experimentales: si el comprador prefiere más la calidad a la dimensión del precio, o si este último importa más que la calidad. Los participantes se asignan al azar a uno de estos dos tratamientos y se emparejan en grupos de cinco. Juegan una subasta de períodos múltiples, donde la calidad es exógena asignada en cada ronda y los sujetos presentan una rebaja al precio base anunciado. Las pujas se transforman en puntuaciones que combinan la calidad exógena y la rebaja. El vendedor con la puntuación más alta gana la subasta. Los resultados sugieren que, cuando el peso de la rebaja es mayor, los participantes pujan más cerca del equilibrio. Sin embargo, la probabilidad de obtener un resultado eficiente es mayor cuando se pone más peso en la calidad. En el segundo capítulo analizo los resultados de un experimento en línea en el que los sujetos juegan cuatro versiones del juego Stag-Hunt. Hay tres tratamientos: línea de base, retraso de tiempo y retraso motivado. En el segundo, los sujetos deben esperar 40 segundos antes de elegir una decisión. En el tercero, deben esperar 40 segundos y escribir un texto para motivar sus decisiones. Al final del juego, los participantes informan sobre creencias, preferencias de riesgo y una medida de confianza. El resultado principal es que los sujetos optan por colaborar menos cuando deliberan más. La explicación es que este tratamiento ayuda a los sujetos a comprender que esta es la opción más segura. En el tercer capítulo, los autores estiman el impacto de un programa educativo basado en juegos destinado a promover el uso sostenible del agua. Esto se hizo en la ciudad de Lucca, con miles de alumnos de 2º a 4º de primaria. Los hallazgos indican que los estudiantes del grupo de tratamiento (participantes del programa) mostraron una mayor conciencia sobre el consumo de agua respecto a aquellos estudiantes que no participaron en el programa. Además, encuentran que el efecto positivo aún se observa después de seis meses, lo que sugiere que los programas educativos basados en juegos pueden ser un instrumento eficaz para promover comportamientos prosociales en el consumo de agua.

<p>The Theory of Applied Mind of Programming (TAMP) provides a new model for describing how programmers think and learn. Historically, many students have struggled when learning to program. Programming as a discipline lives in logic and reason, but theory and science tell us that people do not always think rationally. TAMP builds upon the groundbreaking work of dual process theory and classical educational theorists (Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner) to rethink our assumptions about cognition and learning. Theory guides educators and researchers to improve their practice, not just their work but also their thinking. TAMP provides new theoretical constructs for describing the mental activities of programming, the challenges in learning to program, as well as a guidebook for creating and recognizing the value of theory.</p> <p>This dissertation is highly nontraditional. It does not include a typical empirical study using a familiar research methodology to guide data collection and analysis. Instead, it leverages existing data, as accumulated over a half-century of computing education research and a century of research into cognition and learning. Since an applicable methodology of theory-building did not exist, this work also defines a new methodology for theory building. The methodology of this dissertation borrows notation from philosophy and methods from grounded theory to define a transparent and rigorous approach to creating applied theories. By revisiting past studies through the lens of new theoretical propositions, theorists can conceive, refine, and internally validate new constructs and propositions to revolutionize how we view technical education.</p> <p>The takeaway from this dissertation is a set of new theoretical constructs and promising research and pedagogical approaches. TAMP proposes an applied model of Jerome Bruner's mental representations that describe the knowledge and cognitive processes of an experienced programmer. TAMP highlights implicit learning and the role of intuition in decision making across many aspects of programming. This work includes numerous examples of how to apply TAMP and its supporting theories in re-imagining teaching and research to offer alternative explanations for previously puzzling findings on student learning. TAMP may challenge conventional beliefs about applied reasoning and the extent of traditional pedagogy, but it also offers insights on how to promote creative problem-solving in students. </p><br>

Antimicrobial resistance is a major global health challenge. It threatens the achievement of multiple SDGs with disproportionately negative consequences for LMICs. AMR is associated with the misuse of antibiotics, which is especially dominant in livestock farming. On-farm biosecurity has been identified as an effective way to prevent diseases. This requires a change in the daily behaviours of farmers. While the application of social-psychological models gained immense popularity in veterinary and agricultural research, these models lack predictive and explanatory character, leading to the so-called intention-action gap. The emerging field of behavioural sciences likely offers a better explanation of human behaviour, however, studies published often lack use of an explicit theoretical framework. Therefore, this exploratory study aims to address this gap by using Kahneman’s Dual-Process Theory as a theoretical framework for behaviour science studies. To this end, a qualitative study with 15 smallholder poultry farmers in rural Ghana was conducted. The findings suggested the presence of cognitive biases and heuristics that hinder farmers’ uptake of biosecurity measures, such as temporal discounting, social cues, cognitive overload, psychological inertia and habits. However, all factors must be considered, including knowledge gaps, as well as practical and economic constraints. It is clear from the study that farmers are not a homogenous group and that any promotion of biosecurity is destined to fail if they do not take farmers' psychological and contextual reality into consideration. Therefore, this thesis concludes that additional insights and hypotheses can be generated using behavioural science and that it offers a better and more holistic theoretical framework than currently used behavioural change models. Suggestions for further work include more empirical study in farmer decision-making related to on-farm biosecurity from a behavioural lens. Specifically, the use of quantitative and experimental methods to investigate and confirm the hypotheses that emerged from this study.