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Throughout the last years, we have been able to experience one of the most significant economic disruptions in history: The Digital Revolution. In a world that becomes more and more digitalized, companies must get an understanding of the fundamental rules of doing business in the digitalized business world in order to be able to innovate effectively and succeed with their business. The purpose of this paper is to get an in-depth understanding on how the digitalization affected the dynamics of doing business, and what the necessary key components are according to the literature and interviewees to succeed as a business in the digital era. Our contribution to the theory is achieved by conducting a multiple-case study in which eight case companies were selected and interviewed via semi-structured interviews. Subsequently, a grounded analysis was conducted to identify the subjective success factors of the interviewees which resulted in five major themes which contribute significantly to a firm’s success. We came to the conclusion that the main success factors for Start-Ups in the digital transformation are: 1. Lean Approach to Customer Orientation, 2. Entrepreneurial Goals & Culture, 3. Participation in the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, 4. Integration & Utilization of Third-Party Technologies, and 5. Acquisition of Capital for Business Growth.

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-05-27T17:15:58Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Rosana Vieira de Souza.pdf: 10043069 bytes, checksum: 6a54f6c82f32e484efaa1ed37e7a5541 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-27T17:15:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rosana Vieira de Souza.pdf: 10043069 bytes, checksum: 6a54f6c82f32e484efaa1ed37e7a5541 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-12-16 / FORD - Programa Internacional de Bolsas de Pós-Graduação da Fundação Ford / O objetivo geral deste estudo é compreender de que forma vêm sendo articuladas táticas de resistência cotidiana dos usuários do ecossistema iOS/Apple. De forma específica, buscamos (1) identificar em que medida os usuários destes sistemas percebem limitações na sua apropriação; (2) compreender como são manifestadas táticas de resistência cotidiana entre diferentes grupos de usuários do ecossistema iOS; (3) discutir possíveis fatores moderadores da percepção de limitações e das táticas de resistência; e (4) compreender de que forma o iOS atua em conjunto com estratégias corporativas de controle da experiência de consumo. Ao longo da trajetória da computação pessoal e da internet, a noção de “abertura” constituiu um valor central na experiência do usuário. O PC conectado e aberto a softwares criados por terceiros se consolidou como artefato generativo em essência (ZITTRAIN, 2006). Sua arquitetura flexível permitia ao usuário alterar os propósitos de usos ao longo da apropriação, para além das configurações imaginadas pelas empresas que os comercializavam. Propomos, assim, uma reflexão acerca do crescente protagonismo de ambientes menos generativos, como é o caso do ecossistema iOS, da Apple. Em conjunto, tecnologia e estratégia promovem o discurso de prover experiências mais personalizadas, otimizadas, estáveis e seguras, pois a generatividade deixa de ser espaço de criação do usuário para ser sinônimo de vulnerabilidade. A partir da Teoria Fundamentada (STRAUSS e CORBIN, 1990) com o auxílio de entrevistas em profundidade, investigamos quatro grupos de usuários: Fanboys, Usuário Padrão, Jailbreakers e Desertores. Os resultados oferecem indícios de que as manifestações e a intensidade da resistência são moderadas pelo envolvimento com a Apple e pela presença do ecossistema de produtos. / The aim of this study is to understand how the users articulate tactics of everyday resistance to iOS/Apple ecosystem. Specifically, we sought to (1) identify the extent to which the users of those systems are aware of its restrictions; (2) understand how tactics of everyday resistance are manifested among different groups of iOS ecosystem users; (3) discuss possible moderating factors of the perceived limitations and resistance tactics; and (4) understand how the iOS interacts with corporate strategies as a way to control the consumer experience. Along the history of personal computing and the Internet, the idea of "openness" has been a core value in the user experience. The connected PC was opened to softwares created by third parties and constituted a generative device in essence (Zittrain, 2006). Its flexible architecture allowed the user to change the purposes of use beyond the scripts defined by companies. Thus, we propose a discussion on the growing importance of less generative environments such as the Apple's iOS ecosystem. Together, technology and strategy promote the discourse of providing more personalized, optimized, stable, and secured experiences, since generativity is no longer a space for creativity to become synonymous with vulnerability. The study is based on the Grounded Theory (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) through in-depth interviews with four user groups: Fanboys, Standard User, Jailbreakers and Deserters. The present results provide evidence for a moderator role of the involvement with Apple and the ecosystem presence in the manifestation and intensity of resistance.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:12:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2358.pdf: 1012731 bytes, checksum: a3f92fc9198336c4c2a785db51dfac2c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-07-14 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / One of the most interesting questions in the study of the language is its original character. Any philosophy or science that tries to explain language must account for this peculiar characteristic. Radical Behaviorism of B. F. Skinner and the theory of Generative-Transformational Grammar of N. Chomsky were very important sources of explanation of language phenomena during the 20th Century. Chomsky was one of the most famous critics of Skinnerian behaviorism. His review of Skinner s Verbal Behavior was probably more known around the world than Skinner s original book. In this review, Chomsky asserts that the operant model can not explain the original character of language. However, recent works have shown that Skinner tries to consider this characteristic when he talks about language. Within this context, the present dissertation intended to investigate Skinner s treatment of the creative processes of verbal behavior, set against Chomsky's theory. This work also tried to search the conceptual categories used by Chomsky to criticize Skinner and use this conceptual categories to improve the analysis of Skinner s text. In addition, this dissertation also attempted an internal analysis of Skinnerian concepts involved in the explanation of verbal behavior, as well as an assessment of the truth or falseness of Chomsky s critical work. We found three conceptual categories used by Chomsky in his Review of Skinner s Verbal Behavior. The survey of such categories allowed a fruitful analysis of Skinnerian account of the generative character of verbal behavior. It is argued that Chomsky committed many conceptual mistakes in his Review and because of these mistakes his work cannot prove that Skinnerian analysis of verbal generativity is impracticable. It is also argued that Skinnerian theory about verbal (and not verbal) generativity does not seem to be in any contradiction to the philosophy of science that Skinner adopts. We then conclude that, from the theoretical standpoint, the behaviorist explanation of verbal behavior and its generativity can configure an useful model. / Uma das questões mais intrigantes no estudo da linguagem é o seu caráter gerativo, ou seja, seu caráter de criatividade e originalidade. Qualquer filosofia ou ciência que tente lidar com a linguagem deve abordar, em algum momento, esta característica peculiar. Duas importantes vertentes de explicação dos fenômenos da linguagem do século XX foram o Behaviorismo Radical de B. F. Skinner e a teoria da Gramática Gerativa- Transformacional de N. Chomsky. Chomsky foi um dos críticos mais famosos do behaviorismo skinneriano. Uma de suas publicações, uma crítica contundente ao modelo explicativo behaviorista, ficou tão ou mais conhecida que a obra de Skinner denominada Comportamento Verbal. Nesta crítica Chomsky argumentou que o modelo operante inviabilizava qualquer possibilidade, por parte de Skinner, de explicar a geratividade da linguagem. Contudo, trabalhos recentes vêm mostrando que Skinner tenta contemplar as questões referentes à originalidade da linguagem. Dentro deste contexto este trabalho teve como objetivo investigar os processos gerativos do comportamento verbal apresentados por Skinner em contraposição às críticas de Chomsky, buscando categorias conceituais utilizadas por Chomsky em sua crítica para, por meio delas, aprofundarmos as análises que vêm sendo realizadas sobre os textos de Skinner. Também foi objetivo deste trabalho uma análise interna dos conceitos skinnerianos envolvidos em sua explicação da geratividade do comportamento verbal, bem como a verificação da verdade ou falsidade das críticas de Chomsky a essa explicação. Para tal empreendimento utilizou-se dos métodos de análise conceitual e epistemológico-hermenêutico. Como resultados, levantou-se três categorias conceituais utilizadas por Chomsky na Revisão, a saber, categoria metodológica, categoria conceitual e categoria epistemológica. O levantamento de tais categorias permitiu uma análise fecunda da teoria skinneriana de explicação da geratividade verbal. Verificou-se que Chomsky cometeu muitos equívocos conceituais em sua Revisão e que, sendo assim, esta não inviabiliza a análise skinneriana da geratividade verbal. Verificou-se também, que do ponto de vista interno da teoria skinneriana não parece haver qualquer contradição em relação ao seu modelo explicativo da geratividade verbal (e não verbal) e aos pressupostos filosóficos nos quais essa teoria se filia. Conclui-se, então, que a explicação behaviorista do comportamento verbal e de sua geratividade pode configurar como um modelo útil do ponto de vista teórico.

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Studies of Ghanaians who have immigrated to the United States indicate that both economic and emotional support continue to be provided to non-migrant families in Ghana. However support to “family relatives” has been studied generally, without specifying age. Thus, relationships between immigrants and their elderly relatives, particularly those who may be frail and vulnerable, have not been the focus of previous research. In addition, it is necessary to examine the dynamics that shape attitudes towards elderly people, and which in turn influence eldercare patterns among Ghanaian immigrants. Based on the literature, the researcher identified four factors relevant to international long-distance eldercare: (1) support caregivers receive (or previously received) from elderly relatives, (2) filial obligation towards elderly relatives, (3) perceived vulnerability of the elderly people in Ghana, and (4) vulnerabilities that make immigrants unable to provide eldercare. The main objective of this study was to examine the extent to which these four factors shape the provision of eldercare by Ghanaian immigrants in the United States to their elderly relatives in Ghana. To achieve this objective, a convenience sample of 124 Ghanaian immigrants who resided in a large metropolitan area in the southern United States was surveyed. Study results reveal that the dominant type of eldercare provided was emotional care, but special circumstances in elderly people’s lives, such as serious financial problems may significantly increase their chances of receiving financial support. For caregivers, their levels of income significantly determined the level of financial support provided to their elderly relatives and how often they visited them. It was also found that there are always some siblings left in Ghana to take care of the physical needs of elderly parents in the absence of those who have migrated. Elderly people having multiple migrant adult children or relatives were more likely to receive financial support from multiple sources. Factors contributing to immigrants supporting elders in Ghana included feelings of high obligation toward elderly relatives, readiness to show love and appreciation for elderly relatives, and acceptance of eldercare as a moral obligation for all adult children. Overall, there was evidence to conclude that most immigrants provided care to their elderly relatives and that most were influenced by the social and cultural tenets that underlie elder caregiving in Ghanaian society. Implications of the study for social work research include the importance of further exploration of factors that might result in reduction in the care immigrants provide to their non-migrant elderly relatives, and replication of the current study with the view of explaining the inability of both elderly relatives’ and immigrants’ vulnerabilities to predict level of care. Given the possible psychological distress associated with caregiving and its effect on immigrants’ time and financial resources, social work practitioners need to be sensitive to the financial and emotional aspects of long distance caregiving by providing services to caregivers who may need them. Policy implications include maximizing remittances by reducing transaction cost and using remittance as leverage for financial grants for family investments.

L’objectif de cette thèse est double. Premièrement, il s’agira de comprendre l’impact que l’internet peut avoir sur la démocratie, c’est-à-dire de montrer ce que cette technologie change à la démocratie, en développant un cadre conceptuel précis et en m’appuyant sur un corpus empirique important. Il s’agira ensuite de développer un projet normatif, afin de montrer ce qu’il est nécessaire de faire afin de garantir que l’impact de l’internet sur la démocratie sera positif. Pour mener à bien ces objectifs, il me faudra d’abord disposer d’une conception claire de la démocratie. C’est pourquoi je proposerai dans une première partie de la comprendre à partir du concept d’autonomie politique dont je proposerai une analyse conceptuelle au premier chapitre. J’analyserai ensuite deux éléments centraux de ce concept, à savoir la vie privée et l’espace public. Je proposerai dans une deuxième partie une analyse à la fois précise et empiriquement fondée de l’impact de l’internet sur ces deux éléments, afin de présenter un argument qui ne sera pas simplement a priori ou spéculatif. Les conclusions que je présenterai ne vaudront, cependant, que pour l’internet tel qu’il est aujourd’hui, car il est certain qu’il peut évoluer. Il est alors tout à fait possible que ses propriétés cessent de permettre l’augmentation de l’autonomie politique que je décris au cours de ma deuxième partie. Il est donc important de mener à bien une réflexion normative afin d’identifier dans quelle mesure il pourrait être nécessaire de faire quelque chose afin de garantir l’impact positif de l’internet sur l’autonomie politique. Je montrerai donc dans une dernière partie qu’il est nécessaire d’assurer à l’internet une architecture non-discriminante, mais qu’il n’est pas nécessaire de protéger outre mesure la générativité de son écosystème. Je conclurai en montrant l’importance d’offrir à tous des éléments d’une littératie numérique, si l’on souhaite que tous puissent bénéficier des opportunités offertes par le réseau des réseaux. / My goal in this thesis is twofold. First I want to understand the impact the Internet can have on democracy, that is to say, I want to understand what this technology changes to democracy. In order to do this, it is necessary to possess a clear and precise conceptual framework of the meaning of democracy and to ground my analysis in empirical literature. Second, I want to give a normative account of what needs to be done to ensure that the impact of the Internet on democracy will stay positive. To accomplish these goals, one first needs to have a clear conception of democracy. That is why I will offer, in the first part of my thesis, an understanding of democracy as political autonomy. I will offer an analysis of this last concept in my first chapter. I will then analyze two of its central elements, namely privacy and public space. In the second part of my thesis, I will offer an analysis that is both precise and empirically grounded of the impact of the internet on these two elements, in order to present an argument that will not simply be a priori and speculative. It is important to notice that the conclusions that I reach are only of value if the Internet doesn't evolve. It is therefore quite possible that the internet ceases to allow for greater political autonomy as I explain in my second part. It is thus important to carry out the normative part of my project to identify to what extent it might be necessary to do something to ensure the positive impact of the Internet on political autonomy. So, in the last part of my thesis, I show that it is necessary to protect the non-discriminatory Internet architecture, but that it is not necessary to protect its generative ecosystem. I will conclude by showing the importance of providing all the elements of a digital literacy, if we want that all benefit from the opportunities offered by the Internet.

Ce travail de thèse cherchait à étudier les compétences verbales chez les individus atteints de Troubles du Spectre Autistique, en se concentrant en particulier sur l'impact du traitement sur le développement de ces compétences, ainsi que sur l‘explication comportementale de la grammaire générative. Notre première étude comparait l'effet du traitement comportemental et du traitement pluridisciplinaire sur les aptitudes verbales des enfants avec TSA en milieu naturel. Les effets du traitement ont été évalués par l'analyse de résultats à des tests standardisés évaluant le vocabulaire commun, le vocabulaire spatial, la syntaxe et le raisonnement non – verbal, et en comparant le nombre d'enfants qui avaient intégré dans le milieu ordinaire (sans aménagement particulier). Les participants avec les meilleurs scores aux tests standardisés et dont les vitesses d'apprentissage atteignent ou dépassent la norme appartenaient au groupe ayant bénéficié d‘un traitement comportemental intensif précoce. C'est aussi dans ce groupe que se trouvait le plus fort pourcentage de participants ayant intégré le milieu ordinaire sans soutien particulier. Nous avons également exploré la façon dont les caractéristiques des enfants pourraient influencer l‘effet du traitement. Nos résultats indiquent que l'âge de début de traitement avait un effet que sur les vitesses d'apprentissage des compétences verbales et cela uniquement pour les participants ayant bénéficié d‘un traitement comportemental intensif. Nous avons aussi exploré la possibilité d'une relation entre la sévérité des symptômes à l'âge de 4-5 ans et les vitesses d'apprentissage et la sévérité des symptômes après environ 4ans de traitement comportemental intensif. L'analyse des données révèle que la gravité des symptômes à l'âge de 4 à 5 ans seraient prédictifs de la sévérité des symptômes qui seraient observés quelques années plus tard. Enfin, nous avons effectué un suivi et comparé les vitesses d'apprentissage après en moyenne 2 ans et après en moyenne 4 ans de traitement comportemental intensif. Une variabilité importante a été observée dans l'évolution des taux d'apprentissage d'un participant à un autre. Enfin, afin de mieux appréhender cette hétérogénéité, nous avons étudié la vitesse d'acquisition des compétences d'enfants avec TSA ayant bénéficié d‘un traitement comportemental intensif pendant en moyenne 4 ans. L'analyse des courbes d'apprentissage indique qu'il y aurait deux types d'apprenants ; des apprenants rapides et des apprenants lents, et cela in dépendamment de l'âge de début de traitement. Notre étude comparative a montré que si le traitement comportemental intensif résultait en des gains plus importants au niveau des aptitudes verbales des enfants atteints de TSA que le traitement multidisciplinaire, toutes les compétences verbales n‘étaient pas affectés de la même manière . En effet, les améliorations au niveau du vocabulaire sont plus importantes que celles observées pour la grammaire. Nous nous sommes attachés dans la deuxième partie de cette thèse à tenter d‘appréhender ces compétences grammaticales dans le cadre comportemental au sein d‘une population avec et sans troubles autistiques. Pour ce faire, nous avons utilisé des consignes réduites au strict minimum, des procédures d‘apprentissage des séquences et de Matching to Sample afin d‘apprendre aux participants à répondre à des stimuli. Ces réponses à ces stimuli étaient considérés comme analogues à certaines de compétences verbales complexes, notamment les relations syntaxiques, et les classes de mots (par exemple, les noms, les adjectifs, les verbes). / The current thesis aimed at investigating verbal skills in individuals with ASD, focusing in particular on the impact of treatment on the development of these skills, as well as attempting to contribute to a more complete behavior analytic explanation of complex generative language.Our first study aimed at comparing the effect of behavioral treatment and multi disciplinary treatment on the verbal skills of children on the autism spectrum in natural settings. Treatment outcome was assessed by analyzing the results to standardized tests evaluating common vocabulary, spatial vocabulary, syntax and non-verbal reasoning and by comparing the number of children who had been mainstreamed into regular classrooms without the help of an aide. Participants with the best test scores on the standardized tests and whose learning rates reached or exceeded normal learning rates of language skills belonged to the group that received early intensive behavioral treatment. It is also in this group that we find the highest percentage of participants who were mainstreamed without special support. We also set to explore how child variables could influence treatment outcome. Our results indicated that age of intake had an effect only on the learning rates of verbal skills and that only for participants who received intensive behavioral treatment. In addition, we explored the possibility of a relation between the severity of symptoms at the age of 4-5 years and the learning rates and the severity of symptoms after approximately 4 years of intensive behavioral treatment. Data analysis revealed that severity of symptoms impairing the development and interfering communication at the age of 4 to 5 years were predictive of the severity of the symptoms that would be observed a few years later. We also conducted a follow up and compared the learning rates after on average of 2 years of intensive behavioral treatment and after on average 4 years of treatment. Significant variability was observed in the evolution in learning rates from one participant to another. Finally, in an attempt to better understand this heterogeneity, we studied the rate of skill acquisition over a 4-year period of children on the autism spectrum who received intensive behavioral treatment. The analysis of the learning curves indicated that there were two types of learners, fast learners and slow learners and that, regardless of age of onset of treatment.Our comparative study showed that whilst intensive behavioral treatment resulted in more important gains in the verbal skills of children with ASD than multi disciplinary treatment, all verbal skills were not affected in the same way. Indeed the gains in vocabulary were more important than the ones in grammar. We thus set in the second part of this thesis to conduct a behavioral analysis of the development of complex verbal skills in the typically developing population but also in the population on the autism spectrum. We used minimal verbal instructions, and matching to sample and sequence training procedures to develop responding to stimulus classes. These were considered analogous to complex verbal skills, namely syntactic relations and classes of verbs, nouns or adjectives.