This master thesis reports on potentially useful applications for “The social layer concept”, consisting of a combination of telephone-based health advice-giving and dynamic marking of shared web pages, with the aim to contribute to the online health counselling domain. An experimental user study was performed to test a web marking tool prototype. The experimental tool was shown to be useful in helping clients focus on relevant health information and dynamic web marking does provide a useful and complementary service to telephone-based advice-giving. It was considered most useful for complex health advice-giving issues.

Abstract This study investigated the giving of objects in relation to the child's incipient development of language. The theoretical frame of reference for the study comprised Vygotsky's cultural historical viewpoint of the social origins of development and of the division of development into stages. Development is also determined by the development of communicative activity and the child's stages of mental development alternating between need-motivation and technical skills. Cultural development is founded on the use of signs and on mediated relationships. The basis of the sign is social. It exists in those forms of social interaction in which the child participates before beginning to use language independently. In emotional interaction with another person the child develops social operational models with respect to his dealings with objects. The giving of objects is one such example of this. It is mediated action and one stage of the child's communicative development towards language. In giving objects the child is engaged in meaningful activity. It is action which involves feelings and is both initiated and managed by the child himself. The study consisted of a longitudinal observation of six mother-child pairs in the laboratory. At the beginning of the study the children were six months old and by the end had reached three years of age. The study investigated how the process of giving objects advances and how a developmental transition may be recognised. The relation between giving objects and pointing gestures and the beginning of speech was also a source of interest. Mother-child pairs visited the laboratory monthly and one visit lasted about one hour and half. The study focused on the adult-child pairs'mutual activity episodes and these were analysed micro-analytically. Episodes were classified in terms of mother-child activity, communication through gestures, interaction through speech and metacommunication. The results showed that it is the adult who is the active party in the early stages of the object giving development process. She interprets object giving as a social phenomenon. The child's own self-initiated giving of objects begins between the ages of nine and fifteen months. The giving of objects continues from this moment on throughout successive development stages and assumes a variety of forms of expression. To begin with the child's attention is directed towards the significance of the objects while later on attention shifts towards social relationships. Object giving reveals two developmental transition during the pre-verbal stage: the first of these begins as the child approaches one year of age and the second at the age of about eighteen months. During these transitions the child's relation to his environment, objects and other people become organised in a new way. Before each transition the child's independent movement and imitative behaviour becomes activated while symbolic activity begins after the transition has occurred. Words become to be associated with giving of objects from the age of about thirteen months though most commonly between seventeen and twenty-one months. Between twenty-seven and thirty months the giving of objects stops. By this stage the child has begun to communicate using whole sentences and speech has become an adequate means of communication. The study supported Vygotsky's theory by bringing forth the central importance of the adult in the turning points of child development. The study also revealed the overlapping of the development stages of the social sign with developmental transitions. The giving of objects may be said to describe the child's mental development in a more general way and may be called a social sign anticipating language. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimuksessa selvitettiin esineiden antamista suhteessa lapsen alkavaan kielelliseen kehitykseen. Tutkimuksen teoreettisen perustan muodosti Vygotskyn kulttuurihistoriallinen näkemys kehityksen sosiaalisesta alkuperästä ja kehityksen vaiheittaisuudesta. Kehitystä määrittävät myös kommunikatiivisen toiminnan kehitys ja lapsen kehityksen vaiheet tarve-motivationaalisten ja teknisten taitojen vuorotteluna. Kulttuurinen kehitys perustuu merkkien käyttöön ja välittyneisiin suhteisiin. Merkin perusta on sosiaalinen. Se on olemassa niissä sosiaalisen kanssakäymisen muodoissa, joihin lapsi osallistuu ennen kuin alkaa käyttää kieltä itsenäisesti. Emotionaalisessa vuorovaikutuksessa toiseen ihmiseen lapsi kehittää esineen käsittelyn sosiaalisia toimintamalleja. Esineiden antaminen on näistä yksi. Se on välittynyttä toimintaa ja yksi vaihe kehityksessä kohti kielen hallintaa. Esineitä antaessaan lapsi on mielekkäässä toiminnassa. Toiminta on tunneväritteistä, lapsen itsensä aloittamaa ja hallitsemaa. Tutkimuksen empiirinen vaihe toteutettiin kuuden äiti-lapsiparin pitkäaikaisseurantana laboratoriossa. Tutkimuksen alussa lapset olivat puolivuotiaita ja sen päättyessä kolmivuotiaita. äiti-lapsiparit kävivät laboratoriossa kuukausittain. Yksi käynti kesti noin puolitoista tuntia. Selvitettiin, miten esineiden antaminen etenee sekä miten tunnistaa kehitysmuutos. Myös esineiden antamisen suhde osoittavaan eleeseen ja alkavaan puheeseen oli kiinnostuksen kohteena. Huomion keskiössä olivat äiti-lapsiparin keskinäiset toimintaepisodit, joita analysoitiin mikroanalyyttisesti. Episodeista luokiteltiin äidin ja lapsen toiminta, elekommunikaatio, puhevuorovaikutus sekä metakommunikaatio. Tulosten mukaan esineiden antamisen kehityksessä aikuinen on aluksi aktiivinen osapuoli. Hän tulkitsee esineen antamisen sosiaaliseksi. Lapsen omaehtoinen esineiden antaminen alkaa ikävälillä 9 - 15 kuukautta. Esineiden antaminen käy tästä eteenpäin läpi kehitysvaiheita ja saa erilaisia ilmenemismuotoja. Aluksi lapsen huomio on esineiden merkityksissä, sitten huomion kohteena ovat sosiaaliset suhteet. Esineiden antaminen ilmentää kahta kehityksellistä muutosta esikielellisen vaiheen aikana: ensimmäinen vaihe on ensimmäisen elinvuoden lopulla, toinen lähellä puolentoista vuoden ikää. Tällöin lapsen suhteet ympäristöön, esineisiin ja toisiin ihmisiin järjestyvät uudella tavalla. Molemmissa vaiheissa ennen siirtymää aktivoituvat lapsen omaehtoinen liikkuminen ja jäljittelevä käyttäytyminen sekä sen jälkeen symbolinen toiminta. Sanat alkavat liittyä esineiden antamiseen 13 - 34 kuukauden iässä, tavallisimmin ikävaiheessa 17 - 21 kuukautta. Ikävaiheessa 27 - 30 kuukautta esineiden antamista ei juuri enää esiinny. Tällöin lapsi on alkanut kommunikoida kokonaisin lausein, ja puhekielestä on tullut riittävä kommunikoinnin väline. Tutkimus tukee Vygotskin teoriaa tuomalla esiin aikuisen keskeisen merkityksen lapsen kehityksen käännekohdissa. Tutkimus osoittaa sosiaalisen merkin kehitysvaiheet ja niiden limittymisen kehityksellisiin siirtymiin. Esineiden antaminen kuvastaa lapsen henkisen kehityksen kulkua yleisemmin ja sitä voi kutsua kieltä ennakoivaksi sosiaaliseksi merkiksi.

abstract: Firms have increasingly taken on the commitment to sustainability due to environmental and social concerns. Environmental and social sustainability can create firm value and social welfare through cost reduction and revenue growth. While indicating a desire to do more, firms face challenges while engaging with stakeholders in their supply chains – suppliers and consumers. Suppliers are key partners to achieve cost reduction while customers can be the driver for revenue growth. If firms do not overcome the challenges properly, such a win-win situation of both firms and their supply chain stakeholders may not exist. This dissertation aims to understand and suggest ways to overcome the challenges which firms and their supply chain stakeholders face while collaboratively pursuing sustainability. In the first essay, I investigate the financial impact of a buyer-initiated supplier-focused sustainability improvement program on suppliers’ profitability. The results indicate that a supplier sustainability program may lead to short-term financial loss but long-term financial gain for suppliers, and this effect is contingent on supplier slack resources. The second essay of this dissertation focuses on the consumers and investigates their reactions to two types of firm environmental sustainability claims – sustainable production versus sustainable consumption. The results indicate that firm sustainable consumption claims increase consumers’ purchase, thus leads to larger firm sales, whereas firm sustainable production claims decrease consumers’ buying intention, then result in smaller firm sales. Therefore, I show that, contrary to extant belief, firm environmental sustainability can decrease consumers’ intention to buy. Finally, a firm may be impacted when some of its upstream or downstream stakeholders, or its own operations, are impacted by a natural disaster, which are becoming more frequent due to climate change. In the third essay I study the joint effect of market attention and donation timing on firm stock returns based on the experiences of firms who donated to the 2017 Hurricane Harvey. I conclude that neither the first donors nor the followers can mitigate the negative stock returns due to disasters. However, firms who match their donation timing with market attention experience less negative stock market returns compared to other counterparts. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2020

Previous research has found that family socialization influences financial giving behaviors and that financial giving predicts personal wellbeing. However, little research since the early 1980s has explored this phenomenon, and virtually none of the research has been qualitative in nature. As part of the Whats and Hows of Family Financial $ocialization project, this study employs a diverse, multi-site, multigenerational sample (N = 115) to qualitatively explore the following research question: how do children learn about financial giving from their parents? In other words, how is financial giving transmitted across generations? From interviews of emerging adults and their parents and grandparents, three core themes emerged: "Charitable Donations," "Acts of Kindness," and "Investments in Family." Various topics, processes, methods, and meanings involved in this socialization are presented, along with implications and potential directions for future research.

The current efforts to address global sustainability issues are failing. To avoid the consequences of transgressing the planetary boundaries and simultaneously provide people with the basic needs for human prosperity, we have to overcome a profound challenge. We have to produce economic and social well-being while, at the same time, resolving long-standing environmental problems that threaten our very own existence. To overcome this challenge, new types of values-driven enterprises and innovations that aim to regenerate Earth have to guide global development and decision making.   Therefore, this study investigates a new approach to entrepreneurship called regenerative entrepreneurship, an approach that aims to reframe the meaning and purpose of sustainability by building flourishing socio-ecological systems through innovations and business practices that are regenerative by design. By conducting a multiple case study of regenerative organizations, we have delved into the personal stories of entrepreneurs who, on a daily basis, enact their values to regenerate Earth. Through this, we have answered the question of how regenerative entrepreneurs enact their values to build and maintain regenerative organizations.   The findings suggest that regenerative entrepreneurs enact their values in two ways, proactively and reactively, by constantly aligning and calibrating their values, personally, internally, and externally, making sure that they themselves and all their stakeholders work towards the same vision of regenerating Earth.

Detta är en kvalitativ observationsstudie som vittnar om att ritandet och tillägnandet av sina teckningar spelar roll för barnen på olika sätt. Syftet är därför att undersöka vilken betydelse tillägnandet av barns teckningar till någon nära person har, för barn i 3-5 års ålder under fri lek på en förskola, samt hur man kan se tillägnandet som en del av anknytningsprocessen och i förhållande till begreppen intermediärt område och övergångsobjekt. Studien försöker genom ett brett perspektiv förstå bakomliggande aspekter av vad barns skapande av teckningar och tillägnande av dem till en nära person har för betydelse för dem utifrån olika känslor barnen uttrycker i dessa sammanhang. Metoder som används är sex öppna observationer och en semistrukturerad intervju. Analysen har en abduktiv hermeneutisk tolkningsansats. Genom att låta två perspektiv, anknytningsteorins (Bowlby, 1988) och det intermediära områdets (Winnicott, 1971) begrepp samverka i analysen tillsammans med forskning om gåvogivande och barns bildskapande, framträder en komplex bild över vad barns skapade teckningar och tillägnande har för betydelse för dem. Resultatet visar att olika psykologiska verktyg blir synliga som barnen förhåller sig till: Utforska från en trygg bas, inre arbetsmodeller, att vara i det intermediära området där fantasi, lek, kreativitet och symbolisering av övergångsobjekt sker, samt internalisera objekt och känslor från vuxenvärlden till tankeverktyg och bidrag till ritningsaktiviteter. Med hjälp av dessa verktyg spelar det roll ifall och hur barnen tänker på den nära personen de vill ge sin teckning till, samt ifall och i hur stor omfattning anknytningssystemet gör sig påmint i samverkan med utforskarsystemet och det intermediära området. Barnen ger uttryck för olika känsloområden när de har en tanke bakom tillägnandet till en viss person med anledningar som: att glädja någon som är ledsen eller oroar sig för världen, att någon fyller år, att barnet oroar sig för en kompis eller känner empati för den eller en personal, att värna om en relation, att ge för att få något i utbyte; antingen gåvor eller känslor, att vara stolt över sina färdigheter, tänka om döden eller när hen är ledsen.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study investigates the philanthropic practices of same-sex couples, including their motivations for giving and how they make philanthropic decisions. Existing research has focused almost exclusively on heterosexual couples and assumes that all households are the same. Using the frameworks of the eight mechanisms of giving and social identification theory, this study investigates the role of identity in philanthropic behavior and how gender differences may be amplified among same-sex couples. Drawing on 19 semi-structured joint interviews with gay and lesbian couples in Indiana, the research uses a qualitative method to "give voice" to a marginalized population's philanthropic experiences that are little studied. The study finds participants are highly engaged in nonprofit organizations and participate in a diverse array of philanthropic behaviors. While many couples support at least one LGBT-affiliated nonprofit, giving to LGBT causes does not constitute the majority of most couples' philanthropy. Still, sexual orientation plays a significant role in motivating support for the LGBT community, for public policy changes and equal rights initiatives, and to HIV/AIDS-service organizations. Sexual orientation also determines which organizations many donors would not support. Same-sex couples also use their philanthropy as a way to support their communities at-large and be recognized by mainstream society. In terms of financial management, a majority of participant couples maintained independent financial accounts or partial pooling systems of household income, leading to more opportunities for charitable giving; at the same time, couples expressed low conflict over making giving decisions and supported one another's interests. This study provides scholars and practitioners insights into the complex interactions of motivations, identity, and financial arrangements that underscore charitable giving, and it offers implications for nonprofit organizations and fundraisers who work with diverse populations of donors.

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