Οι επιχειρήσεις λειτουργούν και αναπτύσσονται σε ένα περιβάλλον που συνεχώς εξελίσσεται και αλλάζει και όπως είναι φυσικό οφείλουν να προσαρμόζονται στα νέα δεδομένα. Το προσωπικό των επιχειρήσεων αποτελεί ένα σημαντικό παράγοντα για την επιβίωση, την εξέλιξη και γενικά την καλή λειτουργία των επιχειρήσεων. Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία πραγματεύεται το πρόβλημα της επιλογής και αξιολόγησης του προσωπικού μιας επιχείρησης. Πρέπει να αναφέρουμε ότι είναι δύο ξεχωριστά προβλήματα που έχουμε να αντιμετωπίσουμε, η επιλογή και η αξιολόγηση, χωρίς αυτό να σημαίνει ότι δεν συνδέονται ή ότι δεν μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν παρόμοια εργαλεία επίλυσης. Έχουν προταθεί αρκετά μαθηματικά υποδείγματα για την επίλυση αυτού του προβλήματος. Τα μαθηματικά υποδείγματα που χρησιμοποιούνται για την επίλυση αυτών των προβλημάτων σκοπό έχουν να βοηθήσουν τους αποφασίζοντες να πάρουν ορθότερες αποφάσεις. Με τη χρήση μαθηματικών μεθοδολογιών για την επιλογή και αξιολόγηση του προσωπικού, επιτυγχάνεται μεγαλύτερη αντικειμενικότητα καθώς και η τυποποίηση της διαδικασίας. Μία τέτοια μεθοδολογία είναι και η TOPSIS, μια από τις πρώτες που παρουσιάστηκε στη βιβλιογραφία. Είναι μια εύκολα εφαρμόσιμη μέθοδος και με αξιόπιστα αποτελέσματα. / Organizations function and grow in an environment that is constantly developing and changing, so they have to adjust with the new data. The personnel has a crucial role for the survival, the evolution and generally the good function of every organization. This dissertation is about the problem of selection and evaluation an organization's personnel. Many mathematical patterns have been proposed for the solution of this problem. We will discuss some of them with details in this dissertation. At this point, we must mention that selection and evaluation process are two different problems that we have to face. This does not mean that they do not connect or that we can not solve both with the same tools. Certainly, the first step is the choice of an employee and the second is the evaluation. Choosing the right employee for the right job is a very difficult problem and that because is hard to judge objectively the candidates΄ personalities. Also, it is difficult to decide about the criteria, based on which the choice will be maid. For example, the experience or the knowledge is more important for a certain job, and how that’s can be represent with numbers or functions at a mathematical pattern. Organizations have to ensure that they made the right choice of a new employee and afterwards they have to measure the efficiency of the other employees. In the first step, we try to predict the future working behavior of a new employee, as well as in the second to describe the working behavior of the employees that already working in an organization.

There are a number of decision making problems in which Geographical Information System (GIS) has employed to organize and facilitate the procedure of analyzing the problem. These GIS-based decision problems which typically include a number of different criteria and alternatives are generally analyzed by Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA).Different locations within a geographical area represent the alternatives by which the overall goal of the project is achieved. The quality of achieving the goal is evaluated by a set of criteria which should be considered in the work. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) which is a powerful method of MCDA generally can organize spatial problems and decides which alternatives are most suitable for the defined problems. However due to some intrinsic uncertainty in the method, a number of authors suggest fuzzifying the method while others are against fuzzification of the AHP. The debate over fuzzifying AHP is going on and attempt for finding that was mostly in theory, and little, if any; practical comparison between the AHP and fuzzified AHP has done. This work presents a practical comparison of AHP and fuzzy AHP in a GIS-based problem, case study, for locating a dam in Costa Rica, considering different criteria. In order to perform the AHP and fuzzy AHP in the GIS-based problem and calculating weights of the criteria by the methods, some computer codes have written and developed in MATLAB. The comparisons between the AHP and fuzzy AHP methods are done on result weights and on the result final maps. The comparison between the weights is repeated on different levels of uncertainty in fuzzy AHP then all the results are compared with the result of AHP method. Also this study for checking the effect of fuzzification on results is suggested Chi-Square test as a suitable tool. Comparisons between the resulting weights of the AHP and fuzzy AHP methods show some differences between the methods. Furthermore, the Chi-Square test shows that the higher level of uncertainty in the fuzzy AHP, the greater the difference in results between the AHP and fuzzy AHP methods.

The growing need for reducing the negative impacts of climate change and ensuring a constant and environmentally friendly energy supply, led the way to the exploitation of renewable energy sources. Canada has already acknowledged this trend by incorporating more power from renewables on its energy mix. Similarly, Nova Scotia has started an ambitious energy program in which the substitution of most of the fossil fuels by wind energy, will play a significant factor. The purpose of this research is to investigate all suitable locations for wind energy development in the province of Nova Scotia, under the scope of minimizing environmental impacts, increasing social acceptance and maximizing energy production. This spatial analysis is performed through the combination of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and a Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). The analysis of the province was based on the preferences of wind experts and administration authorities, which formed the weights assigned on eight (8) evaluation criteria. The extract of the relative weights was succeeded by using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), while their spatial dimensions were expressed by GIS software. The above procedure was possible through the application of a methodology where exclusion areas were found on the first place and the remaining areas were assessed on their level of suitability. The implementation of the GIS-MCDA methodological framework indicates that, despite the exclusion of a significant part of the province, there is still enough space to develop wind energy. The applied methodology and relevant results could be used as a Decision-Making tool by planning authorities, wind developers, and stakeholders.

Submitted by Fernanda Cristina Da Silveira (fernanda.silveira8@unisul.br) on 2018-09-19T23:02:56Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) Dissertação com ficha.pdf: 5654628 bytes, checksum: aa035fb21456b1143342e483da8a2a14 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Raquel Janir Antunes (raquel.antunes@unisul.br) on 2018-09-20T17:48:37Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) Dissertação com ficha.pdf: 5654628 bytes, checksum: aa035fb21456b1143342e483da8a2a14 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-20T17:48:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) Dissertação com ficha.pdf: 5654628 bytes, checksum: aa035fb21456b1143342e483da8a2a14 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018 / O acirramento da disputa entre os bancos tem gerado crescente aumento pela busca de formas que possam melhorar a competitividade, e o gerenciamento do relacionamento com os clientes tem sido uma área de atuação neste sentido. Preocupada com este cenário de competitividade acirrada e sabendo da importância da qualidade do atendimento para o atingimento dos seus objetivos e dos acionistas, a superintendência de uma instituição bancária em Santa Catarina reconheceu a necessidade de elaborar um modelo de avaliação do atendimento prestado aos clientes. Este estudo tem por objetivo construir um modelo de avaliação da qualidade do atendimento prestado aos clientes de uma rede de agências bancárias de varejo de Santa Catarina, fundamentado na Metodologia Multicritério de Apoio à Decisão Construtivista (MCDA-C). Para a seleção dos artigos componentes do portfólio bibliográfico (PB) que embasam o referencial teórico da pesquisa, foi utilizado o Knowledge Development Process-Constructivist (ProKnow-C). A partir do ProKnow-C, chegou-se a um portfólio de 20 artigos, para os quais foi realizada a análise bibliométrica e sistêmica. Como resultados da presente pesquisa, destacam-se: (i) a análise bibliométrica evidenciou 374 aspectos brutos que se caracterizam como potenciais indicadores de desempenho; (ii) a análise sistêmica demonstrou que todos os artigos empíricos do PB adotam a abordagem realista; (iii) o modelo construído é composto por cinco Pontos de Vista Fundamentais (PVFs) e 74 descritores, destes 11 mostraram desempenho de excelência por parte da empresa, 39 desempenho competitivo (normalidade) e 24 desempenho comprometedor (foi utilizado status quo hipotético); (iv) foram propostas ações de recomendações para todos os descritores do PFV Ambiência que demonstraram desempenho comprometedor da instituição. Desta forma, o modelo atendeu à necessidade apresentada pela instituição bancária por ser capaz de subsidiar o gerente a avaliar, controlar, gerir o orçamento, motivar, promover a instituição junto aos demais stakeholders, comemorar resultados, aprender e aperfeiçoar o desempenho.

The essentiality of IT for organizations associated with increased competitiveness and dynamic changes that take place in an increasingly short cycle brings with it a demand for alternatives that enable efficient management. In this context, IT outsourcing, for present as predominant among the alternatives adopted by IT managers today, was the subject of this research. This paper therefore proposes to structure a decision support model, seeking to demonstrate the scientific contribution of the Performance Evaluation applied to IT services to support the decision-making process for IT outsourcing. Therefore, this study used two instruments: Proknow-C (Knowledge Development Process-Constructivist), applied to the bibliographic portfolio selection and systemic analysis of the literature, which identified gaps in knowledge and scientific contribution opportunities; and MCDA-C (Multicriteria Methodology Decision Support - Constructivist) applied in the case study development at the Federation of Industries of the State of SC (FIESC). The study results indicate the contribution of the Performance Evaluation of the principles in the decision-making process for IT outsourcing FIESC, listing the aspects related to an IT service as to their level of suitability and potential for outsourcing. The contributions were evidenced by the formation of a bibliographic portfolio, bibliometric analysis of the portfolio and systemic analysis to identify gaps. Complementing a model consisting of 108 indicators for identification of IT outsourcing potential was presented, and, consequently, made the measurement of an IT service as an example, and proposed improvements to 11 indicators that were critical level. The model enabled the identification of the status quo of an IT service and establishment of the its desired status. With its desired status quo stablished, the information was used to propose actions to improve the IT service, making the IT service more suitable for outsourcing. Final considerations are did make to highlight the model's contribution, and especially the knowledge generated from the construction process. / Submitted by Tatyane Barbosa Philippi (tatyane.barbosa@unisul.br) on 2017-10-23T18:26:39Z No. of bitstreams: 2 20161205 - Dissertação - Sandro Natalino Demetrio (Matrícula 339753) - FINAL.pdf: 11542997 bytes, checksum: 73d776e3b07a2c4cbc2148585946617d (MD5) Sandro Demetrio.jpg: 1340528 bytes, checksum: 7282868922fdc7a069b9f0dd294f5662 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Barreiros (ana.barreiros@unisul.br) on 2017-10-23T19:15:26Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 20161205 - Dissertação - Sandro Natalino Demetrio (Matrícula 339753) - FINAL.pdf: 11542997 bytes, checksum: 73d776e3b07a2c4cbc2148585946617d (MD5) Sandro Demetrio.jpg: 1340528 bytes, checksum: 7282868922fdc7a069b9f0dd294f5662 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-23T19:15:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 20161205 - Dissertação - Sandro Natalino Demetrio (Matrícula 339753) - FINAL.pdf: 11542997 bytes, checksum: 73d776e3b07a2c4cbc2148585946617d (MD5) Sandro Demetrio.jpg: 1340528 bytes, checksum: 7282868922fdc7a069b9f0dd294f5662 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-07-28 / A essencialidade da TI para as organizações, associada ao aumento da competitividade e à dinâmica de mudanças que se processam num ciclo cada vez mais breve, traz consigo uma demanda por alternativas que viabilizem a gestão eficiente. Nesse contexto, a terceirização de TI, por se apresentar como preponderante entre as alternativas adotadas pelos gestores atualmente, constituiu o tema da presente pesquisa. Este trabalho, portanto, propõe o desenvolvimento de um modelo de apoio à decisão, buscando evidenciar a contribuição científica da Avaliação de Desempenho aplicada aos serviços de TI, de forma a sustentar o processo de tomada de decisão para a terceirização de TI. Para tanto, este estudo recorreu a dois instrumentos: Proknow-C (Knowledge Development Process-Constructivist), aplicado na seleção do portfólio bibliográfico e análise sistêmica da literatura, que permitiu identificar lacunas de conhecimento e oportunidades de contribuição científica sobre o tema; e MCDA-C (Metodologia Multicritério de Apoio à Decisão – Construtivista), aplicada no desenvolvimento de estudo de caso na Federação das Indústrias do Estado de Santa Catarina (FIESC). Os resultados apresentados evidenciam a contribuição dos princípios da Avaliação de Desempenho no processo de tomada de decisão para a terceirização de TI da FIESC, elencando os aspectos relacionados a um serviço de TI quanto, ao seu nível de adequação e potencial para a terceirização. Um modelo composto de 108 indicadores para identificação do potencial de terceirização de TI foi apresentado, consequentemente efetuada a mensuração de um serviço de TI como exemplo, bem como realizadas proposições de melhorias para 11 indicadores que estavam em nível crítico. O modelo desenvolvido permitiu identificação do status quo de um serviço de TI, o estabelecimento do status desejado, de forma a dar subsídio à identificação de ações a serem desenvolvidas, no intuito de preparar este serviço para o processo de terceirização em direção ao status desejado, que é a meta. Considerações finais são feitas com destaque para a contribuição do modelo e, principalmente, do conhecimento gerado a partir do processo de seu desenvolvimento.

People organize in society because of the advantages of the collective. Organizations come from the congregation of plural interests. It is from this point of view that the concept of Public Administration emerges. The evolution of information and communication technologies has increasingly allowed the transformation of public management. The efficiency in the public sector, besides the managerial aspect, is a principle of constitutional stature. The use of computerized systems by the government has enabled, above all, changes in labor relations. A new policy that allows working outside the conventional environment innovates in the way responsibilities are organized in the public sector. Teleworking allows public servants to make better use of their potential, better manage their time, while remaining in alignment with the strategies, values and objectives of the organization to which they relate. The evaluation of performance in the public sector went through different phases and stood out from the studies on the New Public Management, which suggests the adoption of private sector practices in the public sphere. A tangential point between public and private administration is the adoption of performance appraisal systems as a management practice. The question that guided this research was: What criteria should be considered in the construction of a model of evaluation of the performance of the remote labor systematics of the Federal Attorney's Office in Santa Catarina? The aim of this study - which was to build a performance evaluation model to support the management of remote work adopted at the Federal Attorney's Office in Santa Catarina, based on the Multicriteria Decision Aid – Constructivist Methodology (MCDA-C) - was reached from the each of the specific goals proposed. The methodological approach is quanti-qualitative; inductive and constructivist (regarding its philosophy). Regarding the nature of the objectives, the research is exploratory and descriptive. It was also cross-sectional. The investigative strategies were case study, bibliographical, documentary and participant research. As for the data collected, they were primary and secondary. This study made it possible to explain that management models in Brazil were not replaced over the years, observing the coexistence of aspects, above all, of bureaucracy and managerialism. The Proknow-C intervention tool made it possible to organize a fragment of the literature representative of the Performance Evaluation of the Public Sector and to broaden the researcher's knowledge about the subject. The construction of the model from the MCDA-C enabled the contemplation of several aspects considered relevant by the actors involved in the decision process, in the decision maker's perception, so that the potential actions could be evaluated according to a set of criteria. From this performance evaluation model, with 38 performance indicators, the decision maker was able to expand his knowledge about the context, looking for deficiencies and potentialities in management. It goes on to a mechanism for monitoring and improving telecommuting, reflecting its concerns in a comprehensive and detailed manner. It is noted that the completion of the entire MCDA-C evaluation phase was not the subject of the study, according to the delimitation. / Submitted by Gabriela Almeida Marcon (marcon.gabriela@unisul.br) on 2017-09-16T02:33:10Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) 150552861734597.pdf: 6970910 bytes, checksum: a64509eca469d116c6c9e5c4d4763514 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Raquel Janir Antunes (raquel.antunes@unisul.br) on 2017-09-18T18:18:28Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) 150552861734597.pdf: 6970910 bytes, checksum: a64509eca469d116c6c9e5c4d4763514 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-18T18:18:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) 150552861734597.pdf: 6970910 bytes, checksum: a64509eca469d116c6c9e5c4d4763514 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-30 / As pessoas organizam-se em sociedade ante as vantagens advindas do coletivo. As organizações surgem da congregação de interesses plurais. É dentro desta visão que emerge o conceito de Administração Pública. A evolução das tecnologias de informação e comunicação vêm permitindo, cada vez mais, transformar a gestão pública. A busca pela eficiência, além de objetivo da gestão, é um princípio de estatura constitucional. O uso de sistemas informatizados no âmbito público tem viabilizado, sobretudo, mudanças nas relações de trabalho. Uma nova política que permita trabalhar fora do ambiente convencional inova no modo como responsabilidades são organizadas no setor público. O teletrabalho permite que os servidores públicos aproveitem melhor seu potencial, gerenciem melhor seu tempo mantendo-se alinhados às estratégias, valores e objetivos da organização a que se vinculem. A avaliação de desempenho no setor público passou por distintas fases e destacou-se a partir dos estudos sobre a Nova Gestão Pública, que sugere a adoção de práticas do setor privado no âmbito público, sendo um ponto tangencial a adoção de sistemas de avaliação de desempenho organizacional, enquanto prática de gestão. A pergunta que orientou esta pesquisa foi: Quais critérios devem ser considerados na construção de um modelo de avaliação do desempenho da sistemática de trabalho remoto da Procuradoria Federal em Santa Catarina? O objetivo geral deste estudo – qual seja construir um modelo de avaliação do desempenho para apoiar a gestão do trabalho remoto adotado na Procuradoria Federal em Santa Catarina, fundamentado na Metodologia Multicritério de Apoio à Decisão Construtivista (MCDA-C) – foi alcançado a partir da consecução de cada um dos objetivos específicos propostos. A abordagem metodológica é quanti-qualitativa; indutiva e construtivista, no tocante à filosofia de pesquisa. Quanto à natureza dos objetivos, a pesquisa é exploratória e descritiva. No tocante ao horizonte temporal, classifica-se como transversal. As estratégias investigativas foram estudo de caso, pesquisa bibliográfica, documental e participante. Quanto aos dados coletados, são primários e secundários. O estudo permitiu explicitar que os modelos gerenciais no Brasil não foram se substituindo ao longo dos anos, observando-se a convivência de aspectos, sobretudo, da burocracia e do gerencialismo. O instrumento de intervenção Proknow-C possibilitou organizar um fragmento da literatura representativa da Avaliação de Desempenho do Setor Público e ampliar o conhecimento da pesquisadora acerca da temática. A construção do modelo a partir da MCDA-C, por sua vez, viabilizou a contemplação de diversos aspectos considerados relevantes pelos atores envolvidos no processo decisório, na percepção do decisor, de sorte que as ações potenciais poderão ser avaliadas segundo um conjunto de critérios. A partir da construção deste modelo de avaliação de desempenho na instituição de estudo, com 38 descritores, o decisor pôde expandir seu conhecimento acerca do contexto, atentando para deficiências e potencialidades na gestão. Passa a ter um mecanismo de monitoramento e aperfeiçoamento do trabalho remoto – um instrumento de gestão –, refletindo suas preocupações de forma ampla e detalhada. Registra-se que a conclusão da integralidade da fase de avaliação da MCDA-C não foi objeto do estudo, conforme delimitação.

The purpose of this paper is to study how ICA construct ecologically through their organic food packaging. Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) is used to analyze the semiotic resources existing on food packaging, as well as identify underlying power and ideological conditions. As our analysis is based on our own interpretations, and that multimodal critical discourse analysis is a social constructionist theory, our study includes social constructionism. One conclusion of our study is that all organic products, whether design, convey some kind of discourse about purity, and that it can be expressed in different ways. ICA show this through a white and modern design which is a new thinking when it comes to organic food packaging. There is no traditional, authentic or Swedish about the products like the other organic products in the study.

Na literatura vários estudos discutem uma previsão de aumento da demanda por soja no mercado mundial, como também enfatizam o aumento da safra brasileira para os próximos anos. Apesar destas previsões otimistas, insuficientes ou inadequadas, condições de infraestrutura em capacidade de armazenagem, de transportes e de portos no Brasil têm sido levadas em consideração na elaboração do Planejamento de Longo Prazo pelas empresas que comercializam soja. Esta pesquisa faz um levantamento dos principais atributos que compõem a decisão de armazenagem de soja a granel com o objetivo de construir um modelo que auxilie o processo de tomada de decisão sobre investimento em projeto de armazenagem de soja em grão, sob a visão de uma trading. A abordagem multicritério se faz necessária devido à complexidade envolvida na cadeia de soja e na escolha de um projeto propriamente dito. A seleção do método de análise multicritério foi fundamentada e direcionada através de uma análise bibliométrica sobre o assunto. O método utilizado é baseado na Teoria de Valor Multi-Atributo e foi construído no software V.I.S.A. para eleger um projeto dentre as alternativas disponíveis. Os pesos dos critérios representam as preferências de um grupo coletadas a partir da aplicação de questionários a dez profissionais do setor. Os valores dos pesos resultaram da comparação paritária proposta pelo método Processo Analítica Hierárquico (AHP) e agregados pelo método de Agregação Individual de Prioridades. A árvore da decisão obtida foi composta pelos critérios: localização e transporte, estudo de mercado, infraestruturas e aspectos regionais, aspectos de engenharia, análise de viabilidade econômica e capacidade e eficiência operacional. Os resultados foram complementados por um exemplo hipotético elaborado para validar o modelo construído através de análises de sensibilidade e robustez. Conclui-se que o modelo se mostra coerente em relação ao perfil das alternativas criadas e recomenda-se sua utilização por tomadores de decisão de uma trading como referência para compor a sua própria árvore de decisão, e as preferências obtidas podem auxiliar processos de tomadas de decisão reais. / Several studies in literature discuss an increasing demand for soybean worldwide and increasing supply of Brazilian grain harvest for the next few years. Despite these optimistic forecasts, insufficient or inadequate infrastructure in terms of storage capacity, transportation system and ports elevation in Brazil have been taken into account in Long Term Planning of agribusiness companies. This research is a survey of the main attributes in decision-making process of bulk warehouse for soybeans in order to build a model of this specific process under the vision of a trading company. A multicriteria approach is necessary due to the complexity involved in the soy supply chain and project selection itself. The multicriteria decision method (MCDM) selection was based and directed through a bibliometric analysis about the MCDM topic. The method used is based on the Theory of Multi-Attribute Value and was built in software VISA to choose a project among the available alternatives. The weights of each criteria were compound of a group decision that was obtained from the questionnaires of eleven professionals. The responses of the weights were based on pair-wise comparison proposed by the Analytic Hierarchy Process method, known as AHP and aggregated by Aggregation of Individual Priorities method. The decision tree of this study was composed by the criteria: \"location and transportation\", \"market research\", \"infrastructure and regional aspects\", \"engineering aspects\", \"economic viability analysis\" and \"capacity and operational efficiency.\" Besides a hypothetical example were designed to validate the model using sensitivity and robustness analysis. It is concluded that the model is consistent over the profile among created alternatives and this study is recommended as reference for decision makers of a trading company to build its own tree decision. And preferences used in this study may help in real world of decision-making processes.

With the rapid advancement of technologies, software is gaining its popularity in assisting our daily activities in the last decades. This circumstance causes a rising concerns about a software product with high quality which lead to a question about the justification whether a software product has high quality. Therefore, a numerous of researches and studies had spent a lot of effort in software product quality assessment in order to justify whether the software product(s) under study have satisfactory quality. One of the foremost approaches to assess software product quality is the application of the quality models. For example, quality model ISO 9126. However, the quality models do not provide an explicit way to aggregate the performance of different quality aspects nor handling the various interests raised from different perspective or stakeholders. Although many studies have been conducted to aggregate the different measures of quality attributes, they are still not capable to include the various interests raised by different software product stakeholders. Therefore, some studies have attempted to apply MCDA methods in order to aggregate the measure of quality attributes as the ultimate software product quality and handling the various quality interests. However, they do not provide any rational about their particular choice of MCDA methods. Most of them justify their choice by referring to high popularity of the selected MCDA method. Without studying the suitability of MCDA methods in the application domain of the software product, it is difficult to conclude whether the chosen MCDA methods fit in the intended software engineering discipline. Furthermore, there is no systematic approach available to help other software practitioners in selecting the MCDA method that will be suitable for their needs and constraints in software product quality assessment. This thesis aims to provide the key concepts for an effective selection of suitable MCDA method for the purpose of software product quality assessment. A foremost part of this thesis presents two systematic reviews. The first review illustrates the evaluation of the characteristics of MCDA methods. The second review identifies the major needs and constraints of the software quality assessment potential MCDA method has to consider in order to be used for assessing quality of software products. Based on the results from both systematic reviews, a selection framework named MCDA-SQA framework is formulated. This framework is intended to assist the software practitioners to systematically select and adapt appropriate MCDA method(s) in order to fulfil their quality assessment needs and the respective environmental concerns.

This research investigates the interaction between corporate branding and nation branding using the case of Swedish nation branding on Volvo’s international Instagram channel. It aims to find out which topics of the Swedish nation brand are addressed by Volvo and where and how frequently the references are placed. Furthermore, the goal is to understand how the Swedish nation brand is communicated multimodally and how it is perceived. This research draws upon the concept of nation branding in general and the Swedish nation brand particularly. Upon the following examination of the interaction between companies and nation branding, the advantages become clear. However, it is also apparent that there is currently a lack of research on the usage of the Swedish nation brand by companies. Based on Mayring (1994), a content analysis of 164 posts from a one-year period was conducted to examine with which topics, where and how frequently the Swedish nation brand is communicated by Volvo. Multimodal critical discourse analysis based on Machin (2016) of three different posts gives examples of how the communication is implemented multimodally and how users react on it with comments. The findings show a clear focus on safety, sustainability, countryside and design with interesting results for the usage of niche categories in the automobile industry. The Swedish nation brand is often indirectly communicated, not pointing out the country itself but instead representing its values, culture and geography. The examples of the multimodal critical discourse analysis show that the Swedish national culture and the nation’s values are presented as more important than Volvo’s brand, while Swedish geography serves to highlight the car’s qualities and its heritage. The analysis of the comments show that the categories of the Swedish nation brand are recognized, but the posts are not associated with Sweden unless it is very obviously represented.