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Business model is a concept that has gained increasing attention in recent years. It is seen as a firm’s ticket to success and has been studied by researchers and managers alike to find the ultimate template for prosperity. Little research has, however, been conducted on the necessary adjustments of a business model in the case of new market entry. Globalization has inspired companies to grow internationally, and firms increasingly look for new markets to capture, and China has become one of the most attractive markets for western firms. Existing theory claims that business model adjustment is necessary when expanding globally. Hence, our aim is to research how a firm’s business model adjusts when entering a new market. We also aim to further develop existing theory on the interrelation between business model elements, and see how change in one element influences other connected elements. We have conducted a qualitative exploratory case study using the business model of a European e-commerce company on the verge of entering China. To reach the purpose of the thesis we have conducted interviews with employees of the studied company to understand their current business model, previous changes when entering new markets and the expectations on China’s influence on the business model. We have also collected information on the Chinese market through interviews and secondary sources. The gathered data has been analyzed in accordance with theories concerning culture, consumer behavior and business model features. The results of the data gave us a foundation for researching the influences of culture on the business model. Through increased knowledge in the area of business models, information on the Chinese culture and market, and theoretical findings regarding e.g. culture and consumer behavior, we have been able to analyze how cultural aspects influence business model elements. We found potential links between cultural traits of the Chinese market and the market’s consumer behavior and preferences. The conclusion of the thesis states that the elements primarily affected by new market entry are target customer, relationships, partnerships and capabilities. The two first are influenced by the changing consumer preferences (culture) whereas the final two are operational and affected by the organizational changes necessary when entering a new market. We also found change in value configuration, distribution channel and cost structure as a result of the adjustments made in the previously mentioned elements. Due to the lack of information on other markets, apart from the European, it has, however, been difficult to draw generally applicable conclusions on cultural influence on the business model.

Os objetivos desta pesquisa constituíram-se em identificar, na perspectiva da mulher-nutriz, o que é apoio à amamentação e rituais da assistência em amamentação nos serviços de saúde, especificamente hospitais amigo da criança e equipes da saúde da família, que não são considerados apoio. Sob as lentes da integralidade, partimos dos pressupostos que uma prática se constitui em apoio à mulher que amamenta, a partir da identificação da necessidade expressa pela mulher; que práticas normativas, pré-estabelecidas podem não atender às necessidades da mulher na amamentação e que as formulações políticas acerca do aleitamento materno (AM) têm reforçado o paradigma hegemônico. Fizeram parte deste estudo todas as puérperas assistidas exclusivamente por equipes de saúde da família do Distrito Oeste no pré-natal e/ou puerpério e tiveram seus partos em instituições credenciadas como Hospital Amigo da Criança (HAC) do município de Ribeirão Preto. Para este estudo descritivo de abordagem qualitativa utilizamos o questionário e a entrevista semi-estruturada como estratégias de investigação. A partir do questionário obtivemos o seguinte perfil dos sujeitos investigados: Quanto aos dados pessoais, 10% eram menores de 18 anos, 10% estavam entre 18 e 21 anos, 10% entre 27 e 31 anos e 70% tinham entre 22 e 26 anos de idade. Quanto à escolaridade, 50% cursaram o ensino médio completo, 30% o ensino fundamental completo, 10% ensino médio incompleto e 10% ensino superior incompleto. Sobre o estado civil obtivemos, 40% casadas, 40% mantenedora de união estável, 10% solteiras e 10% divorciadas. Nos dados obstétricos, 50% eram primigestas, 40% secundigestas e 10% tercigestas, 70% tiveram parto normal e 30% parto cesária, 100% fizeram pré-natal, com média de 9,6 consultas. Sobre a internação, 80% das mães não tiveram contato pele a pele com seu bebê após o parto e 20% das mães tiveram o contato pele a pele, 100% dos bebês não mamaram na sala de parto. Quanto ao conhecimento das mulheres sobre a maternidade ser HAC, 60% sabiam e 40% desconheciam, 100% não souberam dizer o que é HAC, 80% das puérperas não procuraram o hospital após a alta hospitalar, 20% procuraram, por motivos relativos a dores nos pontos e choro/fome do recém nascido. Para os dados qualitativos utilizamos o método da Análise de Conteúdo, cuja organização dos dados permitiu eleger uma Unidade Temática - o Acesso, que foi sub dividida em outras duas sub unidades: Acesso a Estrutura Física e Acesso a Escuta. Por gerar ruídos, convergentes e divergentes, o Acesso a Escuta foi subdividido em: Escuta Ampliada, Escuta Formatada e Escuta Virtual. Ressaltamos o processo de transformação do modelo de atenção ao AM em movimento, no entanto o apoio à amamentação ainda é incipiente. Na perspectiva da integralidade no AM, a demanda complexa e singular da nutriz precisa ser escutada, valorizada, traduzida e atendida nos serviços de saúde, como fruto do trabalho solidário das equipes de saúde na sua produção de cuidado, o que remete a uma dimensão da integralidade a ser apreendida e incorporada. / The aims of the research are to identify, under the perspective of the nursing mother, what is to support breast feeding and the rituals of assisting the suckling in the health services system, especially in child friend hospitals and family health teams, which are not considered supporters. Under the perspective of integrality, it can be presupposed that the task is to aid the breast feeding mother, starting from the necessity expressed by the woman, and normative, pre-established activities may not attend the necessities of the woman on breast feeding and political principals about breast feeding (BF) back up the hegemonic paradigm. The research studied all post parturition women exclusively assisted by family health teams of West District on ante-natal check-up and/or post parturition and gave birth in credentialed institutions such as Child Friend Hospital (CFH) in the municipality of Ribeirão Preto. To this qualitative descriptive research it was used the questionnaire and the semi-structured interview as investigating strategies. From the questionnaire it was found out this profile: About personal data, 10% are younger than 18, 10% are between 18 and 21, 10% are between 27 and 31 and 70% are between 22 and 26 years old. About scholarly, 50% complete high school, 30% complete primary school, 10% have incomplete high school and 10% have incomplete superior education. About marital status, 40% are married, 40% have a stable relationship, 10% are single and 10% are divorced. About obstetric data, 50% are primigravida, 40% were secundigravida and 10% were tertigravida, 70% had normal delivery and 30% did caesarian, 100% did ante-natal check-up, with approximately 9,6 appointments. About admissions, 80% of the mothers did not have skin contact with their babies after birth and 20% of the mothers had skin contact with their babies, 100% of the babies did not suckle their mothers in the delivery room. About the women knowing the maternity hospital to be a CFH, 60% knew it and 40% did not know it, 100% could not tell what CFH means, 80% of the women who gave birth did not go to the hospital after it, 20% went to the hospital because of pain in the caesarian cut and crying/hunger of the baby. To the qualitative data it was used the method of Content Analysis, and the data organization permitted to choose a Thematic Unity - the Access, which was sub divided in two sub units: Physical Structure Access and Hearing Access. Because it can generate convergent and divergent lacks of communication, Hearing Access was subdivided in: Enlargement Hearing, Formatted Hearing and Virtual Hearing. It is important to highlight the process of model change on assisting the BF, however the support on breast feeding is just starting. Under the perspective of integrality in BF, the singular and complex demanding of the nursing mother needs to be heard, to be valued, to be understood and to be seen in the health service system as a result of the health team supportive work, referring to a dimension of integrality that needs to be understand and utilized.

The main contribution of this thesis is to derive the properties and present a closed from solution of the exotic options under some specific types of Levy processes, such as American put options, American call options, British put options, British call options and American knock-out put options under either double exponential jump-diffusion processes or one-sided exponential jump-diffusion processes. Compared to the geometric Brownian motion, exponential jump-diffusion processes can better incorporate the asymmetric leptokurtic features and the volatility smile observed from the market. Pricing the option with early exercise feature is the optimal stopping problem to determine the optimal stopping time to maximize the expected options payoff. Due to the Markovian structure of the underlying process, the optimal stopping problem is related to the free-boundary problem consisting of an integral differential equation and suitable boundary conditions. By the local time-space formula for semi-martingales, the closed form solution for the options value can be derived from the free-boundary problem and we characterize the optimal stopping boundary as the unique solution to a nonlinear integral equation arising from the early exercise premium (EEP) representation. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 discuss American put options and American call options respectively. When pricing options with early exercise feature under the double exponential jump-diffusion processes, a non-local integral term will be found in the infinitesimal generator of the underlying process. By the local time-space formula for semi-martingales, we show that the value function and the optimal stopping boundary are the unique solution pair to the system of two integral equations. The significant contributions of these two chapters are to prove the uniqueness of the value function and the optimal stopping boundary under less restrictive assumptions compared to previous literatures. In the degenerate case with only one-sided jumps, we find that the results are in line with the geometric Brownian motion models, which extends the analytical tractability of the Black-Scholes analysis to alternative models with jumps. In Chapter 4 and Chapter 5, we examine the British payoff mechanism under one-sided exponential jump-diffusion processes, which is the first analysis of British options for process with jumps. We show that the optimal stopping boundaries of British put options with only negative jumps or British call options with only positive jumps can also be characterized as the unique solution to a nonlinear integral equation arising from the early exercise premium representation. Chapter 6 provides the study of American knock-out put options under negative exponential jump-diffusion processes. The conditional memoryless property of the exponential distribution enables us to obtain an analytical form of the arbitrage-free price for American knock-out put options, which is usually more difficult for many other jump-diffusion models.

'The Company' had introduced 'Being Responsible' a program for the embedding of responsibility-sustainability. Corporate responsibility-sustainability here describes efforts to address entangled cares of responsibility and sustainability. The program showed potential to change the business model, which led to the research problem: 'How can responsibility-sustainability programs change business models?'In this thesis, business models are understood as three dynamically interlinked states: Logics, devices and actor networks. Business model change may happen through the embedding of responsibility-sustainability into any of these states, and through the dynamics between them. Main conceptual lenses are organizational institutionalism and actor-network theory, which are connected through a social constructionist philosophy. Qualitative methods used include an in-depth case study of The Company (104 interviews with 72 interviewees) and thematic analyses of business model descriptions (devices) of FTSE corporations (100 documents).Seven papers study distinct aspects of the research problem: Papers 1 and 2 provide a conceptual basis. Papers 3 and 4 study how the embedding of responsibility-sustainability into the FTSE100s' business model devices changed the logics they described. Papers 5-7 study embedding into The Company's business model actor network. I found how embedding of responsibility-sustainability into the three states of commercial business models happened through three processes: Blending of logics, combination of device elements and translation between actors. Such embedding of responsibility-sustainability led to misalignment and tensions between responsibility-sustainability and the dominant commercial logic. This misalignment in turn fueled the dynamics of change between logics, devices and actor networks. First, this thesis contributes to an emerging literature on the dynamics of business model logics, devices and actor networks. It makes explicit the distinction between these states and illustrates how their dynamics provide novel insight into business model change. Secondly, I showcase how actor-network theory may complement the activity systems study of business models as well as stakeholder thinking in responsibility-sustainability research. Insights into how to use devices to change business models and to embed responsibility-sustainability appear relevant for practitioners.

Os objetivos desta pesquisa constituíram-se em identificar, na perspectiva da mulher-nutriz, o que é apoio à amamentação e rituais da assistência em amamentação nos serviços de saúde, especificamente hospitais amigo da criança e equipes da saúde da família, que não são considerados apoio. Sob as lentes da integralidade, partimos dos pressupostos que uma prática se constitui em apoio à mulher que amamenta, a partir da identificação da necessidade expressa pela mulher; que práticas normativas, pré-estabelecidas podem não atender às necessidades da mulher na amamentação e que as formulações políticas acerca do aleitamento materno (AM) têm reforçado o paradigma hegemônico. Fizeram parte deste estudo todas as puérperas assistidas exclusivamente por equipes de saúde da família do Distrito Oeste no pré-natal e/ou puerpério e tiveram seus partos em instituições credenciadas como Hospital Amigo da Criança (HAC) do município de Ribeirão Preto. Para este estudo descritivo de abordagem qualitativa utilizamos o questionário e a entrevista semi-estruturada como estratégias de investigação. A partir do questionário obtivemos o seguinte perfil dos sujeitos investigados: Quanto aos dados pessoais, 10% eram menores de 18 anos, 10% estavam entre 18 e 21 anos, 10% entre 27 e 31 anos e 70% tinham entre 22 e 26 anos de idade. Quanto à escolaridade, 50% cursaram o ensino médio completo, 30% o ensino fundamental completo, 10% ensino médio incompleto e 10% ensino superior incompleto. Sobre o estado civil obtivemos, 40% casadas, 40% mantenedora de união estável, 10% solteiras e 10% divorciadas. Nos dados obstétricos, 50% eram primigestas, 40% secundigestas e 10% tercigestas, 70% tiveram parto normal e 30% parto cesária, 100% fizeram pré-natal, com média de 9,6 consultas. Sobre a internação, 80% das mães não tiveram contato pele a pele com seu bebê após o parto e 20% das mães tiveram o contato pele a pele, 100% dos bebês não mamaram na sala de parto. Quanto ao conhecimento das mulheres sobre a maternidade ser HAC, 60% sabiam e 40% desconheciam, 100% não souberam dizer o que é HAC, 80% das puérperas não procuraram o hospital após a alta hospitalar, 20% procuraram, por motivos relativos a dores nos pontos e choro/fome do recém nascido. Para os dados qualitativos utilizamos o método da Análise de Conteúdo, cuja organização dos dados permitiu eleger uma Unidade Temática - o Acesso, que foi sub dividida em outras duas sub unidades: Acesso a Estrutura Física e Acesso a Escuta. Por gerar ruídos, convergentes e divergentes, o Acesso a Escuta foi subdividido em: Escuta Ampliada, Escuta Formatada e Escuta Virtual. Ressaltamos o processo de transformação do modelo de atenção ao AM em movimento, no entanto o apoio à amamentação ainda é incipiente. Na perspectiva da integralidade no AM, a demanda complexa e singular da nutriz precisa ser escutada, valorizada, traduzida e atendida nos serviços de saúde, como fruto do trabalho solidário das equipes de saúde na sua produção de cuidado, o que remete a uma dimensão da integralidade a ser apreendida e incorporada. / The aims of the research are to identify, under the perspective of the nursing mother, what is to support breast feeding and the rituals of assisting the suckling in the health services system, especially in child friend hospitals and family health teams, which are not considered supporters. Under the perspective of integrality, it can be presupposed that the task is to aid the breast feeding mother, starting from the necessity expressed by the woman, and normative, pre-established activities may not attend the necessities of the woman on breast feeding and political principals about breast feeding (BF) back up the hegemonic paradigm. The research studied all post parturition women exclusively assisted by family health teams of West District on ante-natal check-up and/or post parturition and gave birth in credentialed institutions such as Child Friend Hospital (CFH) in the municipality of Ribeirão Preto. To this qualitative descriptive research it was used the questionnaire and the semi-structured interview as investigating strategies. From the questionnaire it was found out this profile: About personal data, 10% are younger than 18, 10% are between 18 and 21, 10% are between 27 and 31 and 70% are between 22 and 26 years old. About scholarly, 50% complete high school, 30% complete primary school, 10% have incomplete high school and 10% have incomplete superior education. About marital status, 40% are married, 40% have a stable relationship, 10% are single and 10% are divorced. About obstetric data, 50% are primigravida, 40% were secundigravida and 10% were tertigravida, 70% had normal delivery and 30% did caesarian, 100% did ante-natal check-up, with approximately 9,6 appointments. About admissions, 80% of the mothers did not have skin contact with their babies after birth and 20% of the mothers had skin contact with their babies, 100% of the babies did not suckle their mothers in the delivery room. About the women knowing the maternity hospital to be a CFH, 60% knew it and 40% did not know it, 100% could not tell what CFH means, 80% of the women who gave birth did not go to the hospital after it, 20% went to the hospital because of pain in the caesarian cut and crying/hunger of the baby. To the qualitative data it was used the method of Content Analysis, and the data organization permitted to choose a Thematic Unity - the Access, which was sub divided in two sub units: Physical Structure Access and Hearing Access. Because it can generate convergent and divergent lacks of communication, Hearing Access was subdivided in: Enlargement Hearing, Formatted Hearing and Virtual Hearing. It is important to highlight the process of model change on assisting the BF, however the support on breast feeding is just starting. Under the perspective of integrality in BF, the singular and complex demanding of the nursing mother needs to be heard, to be valued, to be understood and to be seen in the health service system as a result of the health team supportive work, referring to a dimension of integrality that needs to be understand and utilized.

While IT-enabled innovations continue to disrupt long-lasting industries, emerging concepts and theories seek to explain implications of digitalisation on its value, competition and organisation. Over the past two decades, the notions of digital capability and business model reconfiguration as antecedents of organisational performance have become increasingly influential in the Information Systems literature. Appreciation of the role of strategic agility, external resources and interorganisational collaborations on IT-enabled value propositions has shaped the core logic and fundamental assumptions of the two aforementioned concepts. Nevertheless, the relationship between digital capability and business model reconfiguration remains underinvested and largely elusive. In order to reconcile such fragmented literature, the aim of this study is to investigate the coevolutionary dynamics of digital capability and business model reconfigurations. Digital capability reflects on the organisational ability to identify IT-enabled opportunities and deploy IS/IT to mobilise resources and structures in order to exploit those opportunities. Business model reconfiguration encapsulates management agenda to elevate value propositions for customers, partners and other stakeholders in order to create and capture value. It entails altering organisational resources and processes to enable such value propositions. Empirical data that is used in this thesis is gathered from an insurance company and contains information about the internal and external contexts, decisions, actions and performance between 2008 and 2016. There are four major phases during this time period. As identified, during each, the company revised its strategic intentions, invested in new IS/IT and human resources and reconfigured its business model. Results of this study illustrate that organisational digital capability drives strategic intentions for co-exploration and co-exploitation of value with partners. Such emerging strategies shape the configuration of the firm’s business model, which in turn leads to investments for generating the required IS competencies. This process increases the organisational digital capability, which affects the future cycles. Development of each IS competency is a result of co- exploration strategies. It is likely that such IS competencies are leveraged for co-exploitation in the future phases. In addition, Business-to-Business (B2B) IS competencies are instrumental in operationalising business models: however, as the number of partners grow and configuration of business models change, dyadic connections are likely to be replaced by standard ones.          Strategies of co-exploration and co-exploitation could lead to innovative, adoptive or evolutionary business model reconfigurations. However, for incumbent organisations, business model innovation seems to follow several business model adaptations and evolutions. That is, a great deal of organisational learning and tinkering with business models, strategic intentions and technological backbone is needed to innovate business models. The final contribution of this research is the analytical model devised for exploring the essence of strategic decision making in dynamic environments. Based on the Appreciative Systems Model, the model illustrates how the perception of the constant flux of events and ideas leads to strategic intentions based on value and reality judgments, which in turn triggers action to operationalise those understandings. Both formulating the intentions and executing them will change future events, perceived ideas and emerging intentions based on evolving values and standards.

This study aimed to investigate the factors affecting faculty intention to use course management systems (CMS). The study was conducted in a private university with a mixed-method approach. First, 260 responses to a questionnaire was analysed by using structural equation modeling technique in order to examine the provided model. Second, interviews with selected 14 faculty members were conducted to understand the interrelationships. The findings indicated that, faculty intention to use CMS is mostly related with seeing value in using CMS including both personal and task/course related issues. In addition, the use of CMS should be perceived as easy which is directly influenced by the computer self-efficacy of the instructors. Discrimination of perceived personal benefits and task/course related usefulness is found to be important. Course/task related perceived usefulness is found to be weak without perceiving them personally beneficial. Availability of training and support is found to be weakly related to initial intention, however it appeared as an important variable for continuing to use CMS. &lsquo / Communicating the vision through leadership&rsquo / , &lsquo / promoting CMS&rsquo / , and &lsquo / sharing experiences and real life examples&rsquo / emerged as powerful approaches to facilitate use of CMS. Institutional policies regarding issues like &lsquo / academic freedom&rsquo / should be considered carefully while supporting the use of CMS. Moreover, to support institutional change it is important to be aware of the existence of different faculty profiles, which should be considered separately in relevant decisions.

This diploma thesis describes problem of change-points in volatility of the time-series and their impact on price of nancial assets. Those change-points are estimated by using statistical methods and tests. Change-point estimation was tested on simulated datas and real world driven datas. Simulation helped to discover signi cant characteristics of change-point test, those data were simulated with using stochastic calculus. Google share prices and prices of call options were chosen to analyse impact of volatility change on those prices. Also implied volatility and its impact to call option price was analysed.

The subject of thesis "Change management in selected company`` is analyse of internal and external environment on the basis of SWOT and STEP analysis. Furthermore, analyse of business processes in a particular company. The theoretical part is aimed at defining the basic concepts and methods descriptions of change management. In the practical part I am mapping the processes in the company and suggesting their reengineering. Based on the analysis I am suggesting the possibilities of further changes in the company.