The diploma thesis Cooperation of Teams and Joint Leisure Time of Employees deals with relation between frequency of involvement of individuals in cooperation of teams and their evaluation of the cooperation, information sharing and spending leisure time with colleagues. In the theoretical part, the theme is put into the broader framework of culture. The main areas affecting the problem are defined further. Emphasis is put on corporate culture, organizational climate and social relations between individuals in a company. In the empirical part of the text, the research question is described, the main hypothesis is set, the operational hypotheses are derived, the operationalization is performed, and the company and its teams that are subject of the research are presented. Subsequently, all processes and their relation being subject of the research are theoretically anchored and described based on the data analysis. In the concluding part of the text, there is an overview of mutual sympathy, ties and antipathy of members of the studied teams as well as it is found out to what extent the data analysis confirms the hypotheses determined. Information about mutual sympathy, ties and antipathy of individuals was obtained using the first questionnaire at the beginning of the research. The analyses of...

This qualitative study investigates people's media use and engagement on social media. By combining prompts material and qualitative interviews with theories such as the social mediated crisis communication model (Austin et al., 2012) and uses and gratifications theory (Katz et al., 1973; McQuail, 1984), it is delimited to drawing insights into how people themselves seek information in crisis situations but also how they prefer to get information about different crises mainly to national and local levels. These perspectives enhance the study and cover perspectives in people's behaviour regarding crisis information through different perspectives on people's media usage and behavior concerning information seeking about crises in different environments such as social media but also traditional media. Moreover, this study is centred around social media use, information seeking, information vetting, and information sharing. Further, misinformation, information sharing by influential people and organisations on digital platforms are also brought up and discussed in this study, which gives background to tendencies of motivation to people’s behaviour concerning perceiving and seeking information in a digital landscape versus traditional media.  In addition, the current state of digitalisation has provided new ways of extending mass communication than more traditional communication methods such as television, radio, and newspapers (McQuail, 2010; Lindgren, 2017). In crisis, the digital landscape therefore presents an opportunity to spread and receive information, including crisis information, through means such as the Internet and social media platforms (Eriksson, 2018; Lindgren, 2017). This makes it a useful tool for organisations when it comes to crisis communication, providing more timely and punctual communication to a wider audience and stakeholders. Thus, it is important for authorities, organisations and society to understand how civilians receive and interpret the meaning of crisis information, recognising that digitalisation has evolved ways in which people receive and interpret information (Castells et al., 2007; Lindgren, 2017; McQuail, 2010). By understanding how crisis information is perceived and interpreted by individuals in the digital landscape, it enables development of effective crisis communication strategies to emerge, making it an important aspect within crisis communication research (Austin et al., 2012; Jin & Pang, 2010; Vigsø, 2016). / Denna kvalitativa studie undersöker människors medieanvändning och engagemang på sociala medier. Genom att kombinera stimulimaterial och kvalitativa intervjuer med teorier som social mediated crisis communication model (Austin et al., 2012) och uses and gratifications theory (Katz et al.,1973; McQuail, 1984) avgränsas den till insikter om hur människor själva söker information i krissituationer men också hur de föredrar att få information om olika kriser på nationell och lokal nivå. Dessa perspektiv förstärker studien och täcker in perspektiv i människors beteende kring krisinformation genom olika perspektiv på människors medieanvändning och beteende kring informationssökning om kriser i olika miljöer såsom sociala medier men även traditionella medier. Denna studie är centrerad kring användning av sociala medier, informationssökning, informationskontroll och informationsdelning. Misinformation,  informationsdelning av inflytelserika personer och organisationer på digitala plattformar tas också upp och diskuteras i denna studie vilket ger bakgrund till underliggande tendenser av motivation till människors beteende när det gäller att uppfatta och söka information i ett digitalt landskap kontra traditionella medier i kontext av kris. Dessutom har digitaliseringens nuvarande tillstånd gett nya sätt att utvidga masskommunikation än mer traditionella kommunikationsmetoder som TV, radio och tidningar (McQuail, 2010; Lindgren, 2017). I kris ger det digitala landskapet därför en möjlighet att sprida och ta emot information, inklusive krisinformation, genom medel som Internet och sociala medieplattformar (Eriksson, 2018; Lindgren, 2017). Detta gör det till ett användbart verktyg för organisationer när det kommer till kriskommunikation, vilket ger mer läglig och punktlig kommunikation till en bredare publik och intressenter. Därför är det viktigt för myndigheter, organisationer men även samhället  att förstå hur människor tar emot och tolkar innebörden av krisinformation, med insikt om att digitaliseringen har utvecklat ett nytt sätt för människor i  hur de tar emot och tolkar information (Castells et al., 2007; Lindgren, 2017; McQuail , 2010). Genom att förstå hur krisinformation uppfattas och tolkas av individen i det digitala landskapet, möjliggör den därför utveckling av effektiva kommunikationsstrategier i kris, vilket gör den till en viktig aspekt inom kriskommunikationsforskning (Austin et al., 2012; Jin & Pang, 2010; Vigsø, 2016).

The global business environment is rapidly changing, and with the emergence of a new landscape comes new challenges. Traditional supply chains have been reshaped in an attempt to better adjust to the ever-increasing globalization process. This has increased the complexity of logistics as supply chains now are global, multi-tiered and encompass a variety of activities and stakeholders. As a result, many organizations are struggling to fully monitor their supply chains due to the lack of visibility within the supply chain. This concerns not only commercial corporations but also humanitarian organizations in their quest to improve the situation for people in need. The purpose of this study was to explore the concept of Supply Chain Visibility and determine which factors that affect the level of visibility in a supply chain, and to investigate how humanitarian organizations can increase the level of Supply Chain Visibility during the last mile of delivery. The research was conducted by means of an extensive literature review and a case study in Zimbabwe. The case study included a mapping of the national supply chain and an assessment of the current level of visibility. Subsequently, the underlying issues that affect the current level of visibility were identified and analysed. The findings from the study show that the underlying activity and the antecedent of Supply Chain Visibility is information sharing between trading partners in the supply chain. The activity of information sharing is in turn determined by the level of connectivity and willingness. Connectivity measures the maturity of the technological means that an organisation possesses for the use of information sharing and willingness is a measurement of an organization’s attitude toward the act of information sharing. The attribute of the shared information, in terms of quality and quantity, is what finally determines the level of visibilityin a supply chain. For humanitarian organizations to increase the level of visibility during the last mile of delivery, the findings show that organizations must improve the attributes of the shared information. As information collection is often directly tied to the physical distribution of commodities, organizations must improve their transportation operations in order to increase the level of quality of the shared information. In the long run it is imperative that humanitarian organizations detach the information flows from the physical flows so that information is transmitted electronically from health facilities to the central information repository, rather than being collected by vehicle. Implementing a Logistics Management Information System based on the GS1 standards is therefore a necessity as it would allow for automatic information capture and dissemination among supply chain stakeholders. / Den globala marknaden förändras snabbt och i takt med att det affärsmässiga landskapet förändras kommer nya utmaning. Traditionella leverantörskedjor har oformaterats i ett försök att bättre anpassa sig till den ständigt ökande globaliseringen. Detta har lett till att komplexiteten inom logistikområdet ökat och leverantörskedjor är idag globala, flerskiktade och innefattar en mängd aktiviteter och aktörer. Som ett resultat av detta har många organisationer idag svårt att fullt ut övervaka sina leveranskedjor på grund av bristande insyn. Detta rör inte endast kommersiella företag utan även humanitära organisationer i deras strävan att förbättra levnadssituationen för människor i nöd. Syftet med den här studien var att utforska begreppet ”Supply Chain Visibility” och slå fast vilka faktorer som påverkar graden av insyn i leverantörskedjan, samt att undersöka hur humanitära organisationer kan öka graden av insyn i sina leveranskedjor under ”the last mileof delivery”. Studien genomfördes med hjälp en grundlig litteraturstudie och en fallstudie i Zimbabwe. Fallstudien inkluderade en kartläggning av den nationella leveranskedjan och en bedömning av den nuvarande nivån av insyn i denna. De underliggande problemen som påverkar den nuvarande nivån av insyn i leveranskedjan identifierades och analyserades slutligen. Resultaten från studien visar att den underliggande aktiviteten som föregår ”Supply Chain Visibility” är informationsdelning mellan aktörer inom leveranskedjan. Graden av informationsdelning beror i sin tur på konnektiviteten i leveranskedjan och på viljan hos enskilda aktörer att dela information med andra parter. Konnektivitet är ett mått på hur lämpade och sammankopplade de tekniska medel, som en organisation använder sig av, är för att dela information. Det som slutligen avgör vilken insyn, i leveranskedjan, som en aktör kan realisera är egenskaperna hos den delade informationen i termer av kvalitet och kvantitet. Studien visar att humanitära organisationer måste förbättra egenskaperna hos den informationsom delas, för att öka graden av insyn i leveranskedjan. Eftersom insamlandet av information ofta sker i samband med den fysiska distributionen av produkter måste humanitära organisationer fokusera på att förbättra och effektivisera dessa transportprocesser för att öka kvaliteten på informationen. På sikt är det därför helt centralt att informationsflödena skiljs från de fysiska flödena så att information kan överföras elektroniskt från kliniker till den centrala datalagringsenheten, istället för att samlas in med hjälp av distribueringsfordonen. Att implementera ett ”Logistics Management Information System” baserat på GS1 standarden är därför nödvändigt då det skulle tillåta automatisk informationsinsamling och informationsspridning mellan intressenter inom leverantörskedjan.

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This dissertation empirically studies the interplay of government policies, finance, and economic development. More specifically, it considers the impact of corporate taxes on employment, of bank regulation on financial information sharing on banking stability and of banking crises on democracy. Two of the chapters focus on Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. The third one takes a more global perspective. Chapter 1 evaluates the impact of corporate income tax rates (CIT) on employment at the firm level for a sample of SSA countries. It finds that on average, firms employ more workers in countries with higher CIT rates. This is consistent with the fact that corporate tax revenues allow governments to provide public goods and infrastructure which are crucial to firm activities. We report estimation results to support this assumption. More specifically, while the marginal effect of CIT decreases with income level or with government expenditures, it increases with the level of democracy. Furthermore, we also find that the effect of CIT rates on employment works partially through improvements in the business environment in which firms operate. Chapter 2 assesses the effects of government policies setting the extent to which credit information on the credit history of borrowers is shared among lenders. It shows that credit information sharing stabilizes banks. Moreover, despite foreign banks having an informational disadvantage over domestic banks due to information frictions and would hence benefit more from credit information sharing, the results indicate that both types of banks are affected in the same way. This suggests that foreign banks rely on alternative strategies to compensate for their informational disadvantage in local markets. Lastly, Chapter 3 documents the impact of banking crises on the level of democracy. It provides evidence that democracy improves in the 10-year window following the occurrence of a banking crisis. The results also highlight the presence of several non-linearities. First, severe banking crises have larger effects on democracy than moderate ones. Second, the positive effect of banking crises on democracy is mostly driven by non-democratic countries. Finally, the bulk of the effect materializes from the third year after the crisis occurred. / Cette thèse étudie empiriquement l'interaction des politiques gouvernementales, de la finance, et du développement économique. Plus précisément, il examine l'impact de la fiscalité des entreprises sur l'emploi, de la réglementation bancaire relative au partage d'informations sur le crédit sur la stabilité bancaire, et des crises bancaires sur la démocratie. Les deux premiers chapitres se focalisent sur les pays d'Afrique subsaharienne. Le troisième adopte une perspective plus globale pour couvrir. Le premier chapitre évalue l'impact des taux d'imposition des sociétés (IS) sur l'emploi au niveau de l'entreprise pour un échantillon de pays d'Afrique subsaharienne. Ses résultats montrent qu'en moyenne, les entreprises emploient plus de travailleurs dans les pays où les taux de taxation des entreprises sont plus élevés. Cela s’explique par le fait que les recettes de l'impôt sur les sociétés permettent aux gouvernements de financer des biens publics et des infrastructures qui sont essentiels aux activités des entreprises. Nous présentons des résultats d'estimation pour soutenir cette hypothèse. Plus précisément, alors que l'effet marginal de l'IS diminue avec le niveau de revenu ou avec les dépenses publiques, il augmente avec le niveau de démocratie. En outre, nous constatons également que l'effet des taux d'IS sur l'emploi s'explique en partie par l'amélioration de l'environnement des affaires dans lequel opèrent les entreprises. Le second chapitre évalue les effets des politiques gouvernementales fixant la mesure dans laquelle les informations sur les antécédents de crédit des emprunteurs sont partagées entre les prêteurs. Il montre que le partage d'informations sur le crédit permet de stabiliser les banques. De plus, bien que les banques étrangères aient un désavantage informationnel par rapport aux banques nationales en raison de frictions d'information et bénéficieraient donc davantage du partage d'informations sur le crédit, les résultats indiquent que les deux types de banques sont affectées de la même manière. Cela suggère que les banques étrangères s'appuient sur des stratégies alternatives pour compenser leur désavantage informationnel sur les marchés locaux. Enfin, le chapitre 3 documente l'impact des crises bancaires sur le niveau de démocratie. Il fournit la preuve que la démocratie s'améliore dans la fenêtre de 10 ans suivant l’occurrence d'une crise bancaire. Les résultats mettent également en évidence la présence de plusieurs non-linéarités. Premièrement, les crises bancaires graves ont des effets plus importants sur la démocratie que les crises modérées. Deuxièmement, l'effet positif des crises bancaires sur la démocratie est principalement attribuable aux pays non démocratiques. Pour finir, l'essentiel de l'effet se matérialise à partir de la troisième année après la survenance de la crise. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The current terrorist threat that Sweden and other countries are facing is far more complex than before. In 2005, the National Centre for Terrorist Threat Assessment (NCT) was established to conduct strategic terrorism threat assessments. Three years later, NCT became a permanent working group staffed with designated employees from three different government authorities; the Swedish Security Service (Säpo), National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA) and the Swedish Armed Forces’ Military Intelligence and Security Directorate (Must).  This study aims at understanding how co-operation is conducted between the designated government authorities within the NCT, when developing strategic threat assessments. The study also examines if today’s cooperation and information exchange is working satisfactorily or if it should be developed, and in that case what obstacles and which success it could have.    The used methodology is based on a qualitative approach, consisting of information collection from both official documents and semi-structured interviews with past and present employees directly and indirectly affiliated with NCT. The information is then analyzed based on the perspectives of co-operation and governance.  The study concludes that the participating authorities, apart from the designated employees, lack full knowledge and understanding of NCTs task, as national coordinating function for strategic terrorism threat assessments. The lack of knowledge and understanding of different government´s tasks lead to work being conducted in silos, which could lead to information is not disseminated to the appropriate recipient.  Due to the complex nature of the current threat, there is a need for involvement of more authorities and organization in NCTs work, in order to enhance the knowledge of the threat and minimize the risk of valuable information loss. The study also displays that NCTs capability to produce long-term assessment and hamper the risk of an “information bubble” can be reduced by decentralized command structure. Finally, this study shows that information exchange between authorities and NCT can be facilitated by common IT-systems, continuous staffing, and co-localization. / Sverige och världen står inför en alltmer komplex hotbild när det kommer till terrorism. För att göra strategiska terrorhotbedömningar, som tillsammans med övriga bedömningar, ligger till grund för den hotnivå som beslutas av Säkerhetspolischefen, så bildas 2005 - Nationellt Centrum för Terrorhotbedömning (NCT). NCT blev en permanent grupp 2009 och består av representanter från tre olika myndigheter – Säkerhetspolisen (Säpo), Försvarsmakten (FM) med Militära underrättelse- och säkerhetstjänsten (Must) och Försvarets Radioanstalt (FRA). Syftet med denna studie har varit att få förståelse för hur samverkan mellan myndigheterna inom NCT fungerar vid framtagning av strategiska terrorhotbedömningar. Denna studie har också sökt svar på om samverkan och informationsdelning fungerar fullt ut idag vid NCT eller om samverkan skulle kunna utvecklas framöver, vilka framgångsfaktorer och hinder det finns för en sådan utveckling. Studien har utgått från en kvalitativ metod där officiella dokument och skrivelser har granskats för att ta reda på hur myndighetssamverkan och myndighetsstyrning regleras i dessa, och hur ansvarsfördelningen ser ut mellan respektive myndighet. Vidare har det genomförts semistrukturerade intervjuer med personer som har en direkt eller indirekt koppling till NCT. Det empiriska underlag som fåtts fram har sedan analyserats tillsammans med utvalda referenser som har koppling till myndighetsstyrning och samverkan. Studiens slutsatser visar att hemmamyndigheterna saknar full kunskap och förståelse för uppgiften som NCT har, att vara den strategiska samordningsfunktionen för terrorhotbedömningar. Avsaknad av kunskap och förståelse för olika myndigheters uppgifter leder till att arbete sker i stuprör, vilket kan leda till att information inte sprids till de som behöver den. För att kunna hantera den komplexa hotbild som Sverige står inför behöver fler myndigheter och organisationer stödja NCT:s arbete, detta för att bredda kunskapen och minska riskerna att information går förlorad. Vidare visar studien att förmågan vid NCT att göra strategiskt långsiktiga bedömningar och motverka att hamna i en ”informationsbubbla”, där man riskerar att göra för kortsiktiga och snäva bedömningar, sker med stöd av en decentraliserad ledningsstruktur. Slutligen visar studien att det som underlättar för informationsdelning mellan myndigheterna och NCT är gemensam sambands och IT-utrustning, kontinuitet på personal med rätt kunskap och att vara samlokaliserade.

Cette thèse s'inscrit dans l'amélioration de la gestion du trafic aérien. Le vent et la température sont deux paramètres omniprésents, subis, et à l'origine de nombreux biais de prédiction qui altèrent le suivi des trajectoires. Nous proposons une méthode pour limiter ces biais. Le concept "Wind and Température Networking" améliore la prédiction de trajectoire en utilisant le vent et la température mesurés par les avions voisins. Nous détaillons les effets de la température sur l'avion, permettant sa prise en compte. L'évaluation du concept est faite sur 8000 vols. Nous traitons du calcul de trajectoires optimales en présence de vent prédit, pour remplacer les actuelles routes de l'Atlantique Nord, et aboutir à des groupes de trajectoires optimisées et robustes. Dans la conclusion, nous présentons d'autres champs d'applications du partage de vents, et abordons les besoins en nouvelles infrastructures et protocoles de communication, nécessaires à la prise en compte de ce nouveau concept. / This thesis is related to air traffic management systems current changes. On the ground and in flight, trajectory calculation methods and available data differ. Wind and temperature are two ubiquitous parameters that are subject to and cause prediction bias. We propose a concept to limit this bias. Our "Wind and Temperature Networking" concept improves trajectory prediction, using wind and temperature information from neighboring aircraft. We detail the effects of temperature on the aircraft performances, allowing for temperature to be taken into account. The concept evaluation is done on 8000 flights. We discuss the calculation of optimal trajectories in the presence of predicted winds, to replace the current North Atlantic Tracks, and to provide optimized and robust groups of trajectories. The conclusion of this thesis presents other fields of wind sharing applications, and addresses the need for new telecommunications infrastructures and protocols.

Consumers have begun to take a more proactive approach to their healthcare by accessing pharmaceutical companies Websites to obtain health and drug information, support groups, rebates, coupons, as well as free drug trials. In exchange for these benefits, companies require consumers to voluntarily disclose information. However, research has shown that consumers continue to be concerned about how their information is managed, used, and distributed by companies, especially if accessed via the Web. To date, there has been limited empirical research to examine the actual online practices of companies when it comes to privacy, especially those of pharmaceutical companies. Using Delphi expert panel process, the components of a benchmarking index were identified to examine the documented and actual online practices of 100 Website registrations with pharmaceutical companies. The evolution for the development of an index to measure the personal information privacy violations of pharmaceutical companies is presented. Second, empirical evidence is provided regarding the magnitude of voluntary adherence to the Fair Information Practices (FIPs) by pharmaceutical companies based upon the personal information privacy violations. The results revealed that companies with headquarters in Europe had fewer personal information privacy violations than those in Asia, UK, and the US. Moreover, the results indicate that fewer personal information privacy violations occur for chronic conditions than for non-chronic conditions, as well as fewer violations occur with Website registrations for updates than for discounts. Finally, both Europe and UK demonstrated more overall adherence to FIPs than the US and Asia. This suggests that self-regulation may not be sufficient, while more enforcement may be necessary to decrease personal information privacy violations.

In dieser Arbeit wird eine wettbewerbspolitische Beurteilung der Zusammenarbeit von Wettbewerbern in Form von Querlieferungen vorgenommen und der Einfluß von Information, Produktion und Kapazität auf Marktstruktur und Wettbewerb analysiert. In drei spieltheoretischen Modellen werden die Unternehmensstrategien und die wettbewerblichen Effekte von Informationsaustausch und Produktionsaustausch untersucht. Sie wurden motiviert und werden angewandt auf eine Entscheidung zum Europäischen Flachglasmarkt, um die restriktive Wettbewerbspolitik der Europäischen Kommission zu beurteilen. Die Modelle untersuchen die Auswirkungen von Querlieferungen und Austauschvereinbarungen auf Informationsaustausch, Kapazitätsentscheidungen und Produktionsentscheidungen. Dabei wird die Wohlfahrt mit und ohne Querlieferungen verglichen. In einem Modell mit horizontalen Querlieferungen werden erstens Signalling via Querlieferungen und zweitens die Auswirkungen auf Produktvielfalt und Kapazitätsentscheidungen analysiert. In einem Modell mit Austauschvereinbarungen wird die Kooperation zwischen unterschiedlich effizienten Wettbewerbern untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Technologie und Marktcharakteristika festlegen, ob Querlieferungen zwischen Wettbewerbern die Wohlfahrt erhöht oder reduziert. Der Markt ist in der Lage, Mechanismen wie z.B. Signalling via Querlieferungen zu entwickeln, um Ineffizienzen zu mildern. Die Wettbewerbspolitik sollte aufmerksam bleiben, aber eine rule-of-reason zulassen. / In this study we analyze the competitive effects of cooperation between competitors in the form of subcontracting and the influence of information, production and capacity on market structure and competition. Three game-theoretic models are developed to evaluate firms's strategies and the competitive effects of information sharing and production sharing. They are motivated by and applied to a case study of the flat glass market in order to evaluate the restrictive policy of the European Commission. The models analyze the effects of subcontracting and exchange agreements on information sharing, capacity decisions and production decisions. Welfare effects with and without subcontracting are then being compared. In a horizontal subcontracting model first signalling via subcontracting and secondly the effects on product variety and capacity decisions are being analyzed. In an exchange agreement model cooperation between competitors with different efficiency levels is being studied. The results show that technology and market characteristics determine whether subcontracting between competitors increases or decreases welfare. The market is able to develop mechanisms such as signalling via subcontracting to overcome inefficiencies but competition policy should stay attentive while allowing for a rule-of-reason.

The main aim of transport stakeholders has always been to transport freight efficiently, as this efficiency contributes to the growth and success of their business. A country like Namibia is no different as the efficiency of transport lies in the effective utilisation of carrier capacity in any direction. Due to the various types of freight, transport operators rarely have the capacity to cover all freight movement requests. This research put the empty runs experienced by most of the Namibian transporters at 33%. Empty runs could however be reduced through collaboration and sharing of capacity among transport stakeholders. Multi-agent systems (MAS) are various individual computer agents that are configured independently to interact with other agents to achieve one goal. These systems have been explored as an approach to achieve collaboration among transporter stakeholders. Taking into consideration the characteristics and requirements of MAS, this research was able to conduct a feasibility of its implementation within Namibia. Concluding with an evaluation of available Multi-agent based systems that could achieve collaboration and reduce empty runs in the Namibian transport environment. / Information Science / M. Tech. (Information Technology)