With technologies changing faster than ever the need to change business models is getting more and more important. However, it is not as easy as one might think for a company to change their business model. A lot of companies believe they need to change their business models but very few has been able to do so. In order to find out why companies have such a problem this master thesis attempts to answer the question of how consulting companies understand their own business models and business model innovation. By combining a literature review with interviewing both employees at a consulting company and their customers the author presents existing business models with the help of business model canvas as a framework in order to show what parts of a business model that a consulting company focuses on. Other than presenting the findings on the consulting company’s existing business model a totally new business model is also created. The insurance model is a new way for consulting companies to raise their value proposition in order to gain more revenue streams. This master thesis also finds out that one of the main problems for a consulting company when it comes to understanding its own business model is the fact that the company hierarchy creates a diversion between the cognitive aspectsand the material aspects in the business model and a lot of innovative ideas goes missing. The thesis also finds that the main focus is on value proposition and revenue streams and that the other parts of the business model is ending up in the shadow.

The current study aims to investigate the way Greek immigrant couples who live in the United Kingdom and are going to have children, plan to maintain and transmit their language and culture to their future children. Furthermore, the study mainly includes the perceptions of participants about bilingualism and biculturalism. The present study investigates the importance of language and cultural maintenance since many peole migrate to a new country because of globalization. The study highlights the way participants picture themselves as parents and the practices they want to adopt in order to familiarize their children with both the native language and the societal language. The influence of culture on childrearing perspectives and plans is also discussed. Five different interviews via Skype were conducted and analyzed qualitatively with the aid of thematic analysis. The study confirms that cultural and language maintenance is essential to the participants and that they want their future children to be familiar with their country of origin. Participants are conscious about thei decision and there are also some negative aspects of their culture which they want to avoid. Traditions seem to play a major role in Greek culture; therefore maintaining most of them would enhance children's familiarization with Greece. Participants want to combine both their own culture and the host culture as well and they are planning practices to maintain the Greek language. On the whole, this study shows that bilingualism and biculturalism afeect parental practices but they could also have a positive impact on children's development.

Forskningsområdet hur myndigheter utövar ledarskap i relation till deras #metoo-inspirerade upprop är mycket begränsat. Studiens syfte har varit att undersöka hur två av Sveriges största myndigheter, Försvarsmakten och Polismyndigheten, har utövat ledarskap i samband med upprop sprungna ur egen organisation och anställda kvinnors uppfattning härom.   Denna induktiva studies teoretiska utgångspunkter utgörs av ledarskapsteorier utvecklade vid Försvarshögskolan, däribland ledarskapsmodellen, indirekt ledarskap samt studier om militära chefers containerfunktion och ”smittostudien”. Givet analys av empiriskt utfall har teoretiska utgångspunkter kompletterats med ytterligare perspektiv som tidigare studier om etiskt ledarskap och test av en ”trickle down modell” och Försvarsmaktens ledningsfilosofi. Inom ramen för studien har sjutton (17) personer deltagit från Försvarsmakten och åtta (8) från Polismyndigheten.   Studiens resultat visar att respektive myndighet har utövat ett indirekt ledarskap. I fallet Försvarsmakten erhåller myndighetsledningen fortsatt högt förtroende för ledarskapet och dess hantering i samband med upprop. Inom Polisen hyses lågt förtroende för sin myndighets ledarskap och hantering av upprop. Inom båda myndigheter är trenden att förtroendet sjunker på lägre organisatorisk nivå. I relation till teoretiska utgångspunkter visar studiens resultat på att chefers bristande förmåga till containering dvs meningskapande och meningsgivande leder till negativ smitta med följden att anställda kvinnor alltjämt hyser lågt förtroende för sin arbetsgivare att åstadkomma varaktig förändring.     Studiens bidrag till samhällsvetenskapen innefattar ny empiri, ett vidgat perspektiv för studier om ledarskap, indirekt ledarskap och identifiering av vilka krafter som inverkar vid chefers förmedling av budskap. Process, begrepp och relaterade krafter redovisas i genererad modell; budskapsmodellen.

Today, the humanitarian sector is faced with the interplay of several challenges: The world is increasingly becoming urbanized and cities are rapidly expanding into megacities and metacities. At the same time it is confronted with a heightened disaster risk that affects the urban realm in particular. This is due to rising exposure of the urban to natural hazards, which are exacerbated by climate change, coupled with vulnerabilities inherent in urban realms. Nonetheless, the humanitarian sector has been exhibiting difficulties in dealing with the complexities of urban realms. Therefore, the theoretical framework of this thesis discusses the added value of adopting a system theoretical approach to the study of urban systems for identifying what factors render an urban system resilient and which ones render it vulnerable. At which critical point can an urban system fail, resulting in a humanitarian disaster? In order to analyse what role humanitarian action can then play as system preserver, a case study was conducted on the specific case of Jakarta and its vulnerability to flooding. For this purpose ten interviews were undertaken: Seven interviews with representatives of humanitarian organisations that had notable involvement in past flood responses, one interview with the Head of Department of Disaster Prevention and Preparedness at the Jakarta Regional Disaster Management Agency and two further informal discussions with former staff. The main conclusions were that, in order to be resilient cities should exhibit properties of complex adaptive systems. The role that humanitarian organisations play in strengthening these properties in the specific case of Jakarta is, within their limitations, of crucial importance for the overall functioning of Jakarta’s flood preparedness system.

This thesis is based on the implementation of a bilateral rural development program in Burkina Faso. The main purpose of this study was to put the actual implementation process of a bilateral development program in view. This was done by investigating how two dominant perspectives in the implementation literature can explain what in fact happens during the realization of an aid program. A further aim of the thesis was to explore the limitations of these two dominant theories, in order to get a full understanding of the complexity of the realization of an aid program. Based on the implementation theory, this study shows that the realization of an aid program can be understood from three different angles. Firstly, through a top-down perspective, we can understand the process as an implementation problem, where the organisation fails to put policy into effect. Secondly, from the bottom-up perspective, the importance of the formal decision is questioned. Consequently the implementation process can be explained by the interaction among those involved in an implementation structure where the implementation takes place. Thirdly, also from the bottom-up perspective, the implementation process can be seen as a negotiation process between those who seeks to put policy into effect and those upon whom policy outcome depends. The result of this study shows that the top-down, as well as the bottom-up perspective, can be useful to explain the implementation process of a bilateral program. Yet they cannot alone give us the full picture. The analysis from a bottom-up view plays an important role as it explores the complexity both within and between organisations, in which the complexity outside the control of the formal organisation is also discovered. Nevertheless, this perspective has its limitations. As it does not consider an explicit theory, it overlooks the factors that are affecting the behavior on the ground. The top-down analysis is interesting in the context of development cooperation as it analyzes whether an organisation has the capacity to put policy into effect. Yet the top-down approach has a rational way of examining the implementation process and does not reflect on different reasons for various behaviors. As this perspective is restricted to the formal decision, it fails to analyse what side effects the realization process can bring. Neither implementation theories take into account how institutional factors, in a global context, are influencing the local situation where the implementation takes place. This thesis argues that institutional factors (in terms of norms) could give complementary explanations to the implementation theories, in order to develop our understanding for the realization of a program. By regarding the implementation process as a part of a greater process of development cooperation, complementary explanations could be given about why actors behave like they do. Particularly within the actual context of strong changing trends among donors concerning how sustainable development can be achieved. This study claims that we could learn more about development programs as a whole by illuminating the implementation process itself. Considering the changes in development cooperation, in which the processes and ownership-based programs are gaining importance, the implementation theory is fruitful as it highlights the process.

Rapporten beskriver examensarbetet Gamla idéer med nya lösningar utfört av Erik Björk, avgångsstudent från utbildningsprogrammet möbeldesign vid Carl Malmsten Centrum för Träteknik & Design vid Linköpings universitet. Examensarbetet är genomfört i samarbete med IKEA of Sweden. Syftet med det designuppdrag som jag har genomfört i samband med examensarbetet har varit att ta fram fyra möbler utifrån givna förutsättningar i 7 olika möbelfabriker, som alla arbetar med massivt trä som råvara. Utifrån dessa förutsättningar skulle jag dels skapa produkter som tillvaratar materialets unika egenskaper och därigenom ej är möjliga att imitera i andra material. Dels ge produkterna originalitet och personlighet genom att utforska den skandinaviska identiteten och mitt egna ursprung samt kommunicera detta genom produkterna. Var produkt skall ha en historia att berätta. Att ta fram fyra möbler parallellt under 10 veckor har varit en utmaning. Stundvis har det känts som att en produkt hade varit nog men i efterhand är jag glad att det var fyra. Detta har gjort att tankar och idéer har kunnat ligga och gro under en tid utan att projektet har stannat upp. Antalet produkter har i detta fall varit avgörande. I och med det har jag kunnat bearbeta vissa produkter under tiden som andra har legat i träda. Resultatet består av fyra prototyper som ska utvärderas och eventuellt utvecklas för produktion.

The Swedish food retail industry is one with fierce competition, small product differentiation and increasingly disloyal customers. Consequently in order to create and retain loyal customers many of the stores offer some kind of loyalty schemes. The effectiveness of loyalty programs have been questioned, but it is proposed that in order for a loyalty program to be successful it must offer benefits that are perceived as valuable by customers. Thus the purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate how customers value loyalty programs and how this might affect them in a context where many companies reward their loyal customers. Customer perception of loyalty programs are considered to be grounded in multiple factors such as the design of the loyalty program as well as the competition in the industry. The empirical data was collected through semi-structured interviews with twelve respondents that shopped in a suburban area of Stockholm. The process of the study was influenced by the Grounded theory of method and as coding was used as the method of analysis, three themes related to how customers perceive reward components of loyalty program emerged: Offset of what I give and what I gain, Plan to have control of one’s finances and My perception of value is grounded in me.The findings of the study propose that a customer’s perception of reward components are influenced by what they are offered and by the overall design of the loyalty program. The most significant factor is however the customer self and where she is in life. This is displayed as different customers stated to have different reasons to join a loyalty program, mentioned different reward components as the most valuable one, highlighted different disadvantages as well as perceived the same reward components very differently.

Securing the production of ecosystem services, essential for human well-being, is a challenging taskthat has both social and ecological dimension. Calls for more adaptive institutional managementarrangements that not only account for the complex and cross-scale nature of ecosystems, but alsothe corresponding social dynamics of actors and institutions that manage those ecosystems haveemerged. Social network analysis is a tool increasingly used to empirically map and analyze suchsocial/institutional dynamics. In this study, social network analysis is used to investigate the socialnetwork of actors engaged in nature conservation in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve “East VätternScarp Landscape”, Sweden. The results reveal a large network of 117 individuals representing 21organizations. The representatives in a collaborative project group perform both structural andfunctional bridging, why the group can be classified as a bridging organization. Members of thebridging organization are well-anchored among the people they represent. Hence, the objectives ofperipheral members are represented in the core, even though the network is highly centralized. Theinstitutional arrangements made visible in this study show many traits of adaptive co-management.Qualitative data on what type of information that flows through the network, and what effect thatthe network structure has on the production if ecosystem services is however lacking. This calls forfurther studies in the area.

Terrorism, regardless of motive, is a real threat against democracy and human rights, specifically in terms of this thesis – a threat against the right to life. But not all forms of terrorism are given the status which enables a prioritised and effective preventive strategy, and some domestic legislations show a tilt towards certain forms of terrorism – resulting in the neglect of other forms. This thesis uses a legal method combined with a theory deriving from critical security studies to examine Swedish legislation and official terrorism threat estimations in relation to international human rights law and the right to life. The review of the material reveals a tendency to highlight the threat from violent Islamic extremism and a reluctance to view white-supremacy groups as an equally grave potential threat. The conclusion that can be made from the analysis of the material is that the negligence of the white-supremacy movements does not result in a violation of the right to life. At the same time, the active inclusion of white-supremacy groups in legislation and threat-estimations could by effect result in a more effective protection of the right to life with regards to terror attacks.

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