Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with distress in and dissolution of romantic relationships. BPD is a relational disorder. The complex interaction between BPD and romantic relationships continues to warrant further attention, as decreased BPD symptoms are associated with increased relational effectiveness. The current study was one of the first qualitative studies that used dyadic data to examine the experience and impact of BPD on couples' relationships. Semi-structured conjoint interviews were conducted with couples with a partner with BPD (N = 10) using interpretative phenomenology. This study provides a rich understanding of the experiences of couples with BPD by exploring not only how BPD impacts couples' romantic relationships, but how couples cope with BPD. Although BPD was experienced as a relational stressor, couples utilized resources to buffer against the impact of BPD in their relationship. Three superordinate themes emerged from the data that illustrate the couple experience of navigating BPD: (a) the individual lived experience of BPD, (b) the shared experience of BPD as a relational stressor, and (c) adaptive dyadic coping in the context of BPD. Dyadic coping and shared externalization emerged as key factors in adaptive couple functioning in the context of BPD. The lived experiences of these couples provide therapists and other couples with an increased understanding of the resources and skills that support successful dyadic coping with BPD. / Master of Science / Borderline personality disorder (BPD) imposes significant stress on romantic relationships. BPD is associated with increased distress in and dissolution of romantic relationships. However, individuals in recovery from BPD report high relationship satisfaction. Decreased BPD symptoms are associated with increased relational effectiveness, but it is less clear whether reducing BPD symptoms leads to greater relational effectiveness or if relational effectiveness reduces symptoms of BPD. To better understand the complex relationship between BPD and romantic relationships, conjoint interviews were conducted with couples who were navigating the management of BPD. Ten semi-structured conjoint interviews were analyzed using interpretative phenomenology. Three themes emerged from the data that illustrate the couple experience of navigating BPD: (a) the individual lived experience of BPD, (b) the shared experience of BPD as a relational stressor, and (c) adaptive dyadic coping in the context of BPD. Dyadic coping and shared externalization emerged as key factors in adaptive couple functioning in the context of BPD. Couples navigating BPD benefit from many of the same couple coping strategies that other couples utilize to manage common stressors in life.

Our economy is going global. Open borders and the internet have created endless possibilities for companies to source products and services internationally. This phenomenon, outsourcing, is widely studied among large companies, usually referring to them offshoring parts of their operations to increase business and cost efficiency. However, thanks to platforms like Fiverr and UpWork, outsourcing has become accessible to anyone and plays a significant role also in startups. Using semi- structured interviews to draw on the experiences of nine entrepreneurs, we find that startups use outsourcing with different motivations than larger companies. Rather than cost reductions, compensating for skills that startups lack internally is the main reason for entrepreneurs to outsource. Increasing flexibility to react to the dynamic environment startups navigate in and the possibility to grow and scale quickly are also frequently mentioned drivers for outsourcing. Opposing the potential of outsourcing, most entrepreneurs see little to no risk associated with the process. Aside from the potential lack of quality of the deliverables, startups primarily fear the loss of intellectual property that could harm their competitive advantage. As this thesis shows that outsourcing within startups is fundamentally different from the traditional outsourcing of established firms, it recognizes entrepreneurial outsourcing as an individual field of research and defines it as “the concept of flexibly adjusting a startup’s access tocompetence, resources, and capacity according to rapid internal or external changes by sourcing products or services from external providers”.

Abstract: This thesis is a critical examination of the European Union's border externalization strategies towards North African countries, with a focus on their discursive and practical implications from the year 2019 to 2024. Utilising Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Post-Colonial theory, this study explores how public discourses by EU leaders shape perceptions of migrants and international relations, highlighting the endurance of colonial legacies. By analyzing recent public speeches and interviews, the thesis investigates the complex interaction between language, power, and policy, disclosing how modern practices of border management perpetuate historical patterns of dominance and exclusion. Through a detailed examination of a selection of EU actors’ speeches, this study argues that in spite of claims of mutual benefit, externalization policies often reinforce unequal power dynamics, and discriminatory perceptions of migrants and North Africans and contribute to a securitized and exclusionary approach to migration. The findings challenge the effectiveness of border externalization, suggesting a reassessment of policies due to their detrimental social and political impacts.

Organizations have realized that they need to develop and strategically utilize their patent portfolios in order to maintain sustainable competitive advantage. This requires a change in the organization design and practice. Prior studies have addressed this in context of increasing patent productivity, i.e., process of filing patents (Shapiro, 1990; Berkowitz, 1993; Ransley and Gaffney, 1997; Chattopadhyay, 2003). But there have been lacunae in addressing issues in organization design and practice for ensuring patent utilization, which forms the focus of this thesis. Patent externalization is defined the process of translating embedded intellectual value of a patent into “externalized” knowledge and financial benefits. The objectives of the thesis have been to conceptualize a model and measure high and low variances in organizational patent externalization potential, to understand significant organization-level practices that differentiates between organizations having high and low patent externalization potential, to understand differences in organizational perceptions about knowledge and financial orientation of the patent externalization practices in organizations having high and low patent externalization potential and to suggest changes in practices that would enhance organizational patent externalization potential. Towards this purpose, prior literature related to patent productivity and organization change were studied and a conceptual model was developed. The conceptual model outlines that the organizational design components – organizational practices supporting patenting outcomes, competitive intelligence gathering practices and patent commercialization practices alongwith organization and individual moderating variables determine the organizational patent externalization potential. This model was initially verified through exploratory case studies across seven R&D intensive organizations. Variables identified from literature review and initial case studies, were operationally defined and measurement models for the thesis were developed. A questionnaire comprising of 160 items (validated items measuring the aforementioned variables) was designed for conducting the survey research. The measurement scale used was a 5-point Likert-type interval scale. . A Cronbach alpha of 0.82 was obtained for the questionnaire. The sample comprised of professionals from four sectors – pharmaceutical, IT, manufacturing and academia. The sample size was 56 organizations representing 208 professionals. To accommodate the influence of the moderating variables, data was collected from professionals having commercialized patents, whose patents were yet to be commercialized and those having no patent commercialization experience. The statistical techniques used for data analysis were: principal component analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, F-test, t-test and chi-square tests. This thesis provides insights into various practices and perceptions that are essential design components in enhancing organizational patent externalization potential. These findings have implications for OD managers. The thesis contributes both to the theory of patent management and change management literature. Additionally, the questionnaire designed for this study has potential for being used as a diagnostic tool to assess potential for organizational change. Limitations and future areas of study are also addressed.

The scope of this study is to analyse the phenomenon climate migration through the theories Securitization, Externalization of Border and World Systems Analysis. The study seeks answers to how factors and structures have limited the rights of climate refugees in the modern world system by analysing what obstacles and opportunities exist on the issue. The World System Analysis explains the underlying structures of the current world system and how it has generated climate migration as well as states' desire to preserve their sovereignty. The World System Analysis can also provide an explanation how these structures have led to a securitization of migration, which manifests itself through the implementation of several mechanisms such as Externalization of Border to stop the imaginary threat that climate refugees are viewed as. The study was conducted via qualitative text analysis of carefully selected articles and books to bring several relevant perspectives to the study. The study formulates conclusions based on both historical- and contemporary events to bring clarity to the issue on what space climate refugees have in the modern world system.

Durant la décennie 1990, de nouveaux défis s’imposent aux Etats européens dans le domaine de l’asile. La transformation des flux de migration forcée et la construction d’un espace de libre circulation conduisent à porter la question de l’asile au sein de l’arène européenne. La politique d’asile de l’Union européenne est élaborée afin de répondre à l’échelle européenne aux défis de la protection et des flux spontanés. Plus de 10 ans après son coup d’envoi, le bilan est mitigé. Certes, une réponse européenne a été apportée au moyen du développement du droit communautaire de l’asile, porteur de nouveaux droits subjectifs. Toutefois, l’espace européen de l’asile reste un espace hétérogène au sein duquel la répartition des charges de l’asile est particulièrement inéquitable. L’harmonisation des normes des systèmes d’asile nationaux est inachevée, le système Dublin est un échec, la solidarité financière entre les Etats est minimale. Au-delà du territoire des Etats membres, de nouvelles politiques sont élaborées dans le prolongement de celles mises en œuvre sur le territoire des Etats membres. Les politiques extraterritorialisées de contrôle des frontières extérieures de l’Union visent à limiter les charges de l’asile assumées par ces derniers. Elles conduisent à faire émerger un nouveau défi dans le domaine de la protection : celui de l’accès à l’espace européen. La dimension extérieure de la politique d’asile constitue une réponse partielle et inachevée à cette nouvelle problématique. Aussi, l’Union européenne porte désormais de manière systématique ses intérêts migratoires au sein de sa coopération avec les Etats non membres de l’Union européenne. La coopération qu’elle mène avec la Turquie dans le domaine de l’asile illustre la portée et les limites de telles politiques. Si l’influence de l’Union européenne sur le système d’asile turc est certaine, son impact sur la répartition des charges de l’asile entre la Turquie et les Etats membres est sujette à discussion. Tout en explorant la relation dialectique entre droit d’asile et politique migratoire, cette recherche sur l’espace européen de l’asile et ses frontières sonde les transformations de la territorialité de l’asile et en propose une approche renouvelée. / During the 1990s, European States face new challenges in the asylum area. The transformation of forced migration flows and the achievement of the common area of free movement bring the asylum issue in the European arena. The European Union asylum policy is built to answer at the European level to the protection and mixed migration flows challenges. More than 10 years after the policy has been launched, the picture is mixed. A European answer has certainly been elaborated through the development of the EU asylum law, guaranteeing new subjective rights for asylum seekers and refugees. However, the common European asylum area remains an heterogeneous area in which fair burden-sharing is not ensured. The harmonization of the legal norms of the domestic asylum system is unachieved, the Dublin system is a deadlock, and only minimum financial solidarity mechanisms between the Member States have been established. Beyond the Member States territories, new answers are being built as a continuation of those implemented within the European Union. The extraterritorialization of border control policies aims to limit the Member states’ asylum burden. Access to the asylum territory is the new protection challenge emerging as a result of those policies. The external dimension of the European Union asylum policy is a partial and unachieved attempt to address this issue. Also, the European Union now systematically integrates its migrations concerns within its cooperation policy with non-EU Member States. Its cooperation with Turkey in the asylum area illustrates the scope and the limits of this policy. The influence of the European Union on the Turkish asylum system is uncontested. However, whether the European Union has an impact on the asylum burden-sharing between Turkey and the Member States is subject to discussion. While exploring the dialectic relation between the right to asylum and migration policies, this research on the common European asylum area and its borders focuses on the transformation of asylum territoriality and seeks to propose a renewed approach of it.

Located 127 miles from the shores of Sicily and only 70 from Tunisia, the island of Lampedusa is home to a population of 6000. Residents are largely reliant on a centuries-old fishing economy, a booming tourism industry and, most recently, the sustainment of a complex apparatus of border enforcement. Since the early 2000s, with the hardening of the southern border of Italy and the European Union, a multitude of actors have converged to Lampedusa: from migrants, to agents of enforcement, to NGO personnel, along with journalists, researchers and tourists. In this thesis, I center the experiences of island residents to analyze the daily, lived dimensions of Lampedusa becoming a key site for the externalization of enforcement and the production of a border spectacle depicting “migration crisis.” Employing ethnographic methods and drawing from literature in feminist geopolitics, critical border studies and spatial theory, this approach looks beyond the nation state to discuss the everyday construction of borders and geopolitics. In doing so, I focus on the contested and relational nature of bordering on the island, highlighting some of the contradictions and inconsistencies of discourses and policies rooted in the premise of sudden emergency in the Mediterranean.

Developing Product Development – that’s what it’s about, developing our capability to do what we need to do. Ericsson Executive Product development in times of brutal change requires capabilities beyond normal product development capabilities. In order to meet the challenges of brutal change, an ability to change and improve how products are developed, and how product development is organized and managed is required. This thesis looks inside an industrial firm subjected to brutal market changes, forcing it to respond promptly and strongly, to reduce cost yet retain and improve the ability to develop, market, sell, deliver and support its products and services. The firm uses externalization of product development to cut fixed costs and reduce headcount quickly. To cut operating costs, it uses offshoring. Transformational structural changes destroy both capabilities and rigidities. The increasingly competitive situation calls for even higher efficiency. Product development capabilities have to be recreated to support even higher efficiency while retaining and improving innovativeness. Participative organizational development is performed to rebuild and improve product development capabilities at the workgroup level. Software developers use self-assessment and group reflection to augment their conceptions of efficiency and concurrently improve their efficiency. This thesis provides a typology of modes of organizing, and of transitions between different modes of organizing. It highlights the role of capabilities in supporting efficiency in the transfer of product development from one mode of organizing to another. In doing so, it aims to contribute to a dynamic perspective of product development organizing, and at the same time provide actionable advice to product development managers in times of brutal change. This thesis also illustrates the potential in group self-improvement, building on collective knowledge creation and use, with direct coupling to action. It argues that augmentation of conceptions through concept elaboration and reflection may be more efficient and effective than traditional training programs. Developing Product Development is both about improving the practice of product development and about improving the understanding of- and knowledge about product development. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2006

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the external dimension of the European Union&rsquo / s (EU) immigration policy and its implications for transit countries through a comparative study of Turkey and Morocco. The thesis examines the development and institutionalization of the EU&rsquo / s externalization of its immigration policy within a chronological and theoretical context. Applying the theoretical debate concerning &ldquo / Europeanization beyond EU borders&rdquo / , it investigates to what extent the EU has successfully externalised its immigration policy to non-EU members, and what kind of intended and unintended impacts this has had on these countries. The thesis tries to explore both the successes and limits of the Europeanization of Turkey&rsquo / s and Morocco&rsquo / s domestic immigration policies by benchmarking progress in the harmonization of legal contexts, border management, visa policies, readmission agreements and asylum policies in each case. This study reaches similar conclusions concerning Turkey, as a candidate country within the EU&rsquo / s enlargement policy, and Morocco, as a country without membership prospect within the European Neighbourhood Policy, not only in terms of conceptualizing the EU&rsquo / s externalization of its immigration policy, but also for understanding the negative externalities it creates for transit countries which also limit further policy expansion.

Children of alcoholics (COAs) are those who grow up in a home where one or more parent is an alcoholic; once adulthood is achieved, they are referred to as adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs). Several risk factors have been identified as a potential result from exposure to an alcoholic environment; however there is a dearth of literature exploring resilience in this population. Descriptive Narrative Inquiry was used to explore the question, Describe the qualities, processes, or internal motivational factors which have facilitated resilience for adult children of alcoholic parents. Two ninety-minute life history interviews were conducted with four participants, including the researcher. The participants were female, middle class, university students who considered themselves to be adult children of alcoholics who are resilient. A composite narrative was used to depict the results of this study, combining the data from each participants life story. The narrative was written in the first-person through the character of Sophie, and the data included is the result of a narrative analysis from the transcripts of the participants data. The narrative depicts the developmental stages of the participants lives, including childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and the present. Their experiences of growing up in an alcoholic home were documented at each stage. A thematic analysis was conducted, extracting the common themes, meaning made, and personal characteristics that were generated within and across participants that contributed to their development of resilience. The results are discussed in four major themes: Being in Relation: Others Create a Difference; Belief Systems: Spirituality, Religion, and Values; The Self: An Evolving Being; and Alcoholism: Meaning in Itself. It is through the dialogue of the participants experiences of resilience that awareness creates opportunity for advocacy for children and adult children of alcoholics. The implications of this research in relation to the experiences of resilience are discussed for children and adult children of alcoholics, educators, and counsellors. Directions for future research are addressed.