The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) emerged more than one year ago but so far there has been no consensus on the nature and the main aspects of the cooperation. Whereas some observers underline pure economic incentives of the integration, others see the regional organization as a tool for increasing the power of the strongest members, and especially Russia. Strongly echoed in public discourse is a comparison to the former Soviet Union. To tackle the issue, the thesis asks: What are the main motives for participation in the project? Which main benefits are expected by the members to be gained? These questions are answered through a content analysis of verbal expressions of five presidents who hold the main decision-making powers in EEU's member states. Based on theoretically generated analytical categories, the thesis conducts a quantitative analysis of the discourse, which is then discussed in the context of the post-Soviet space. The findings reveal the motives which the presidents use to legitimize the membership and show the main cleavages that threaten to undermine the development of the organization.

Researchers have emphasized the importance of parental involvement in ensuring the educational success of children. Despite the recognized value, some stakeholders continue to struggle to leverage and sustain this partnership, which may encumber students' success. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the factors influencing parental involvement in Jamaican high schools. This qualitative case study sought to unearth the motivational factors influencing parental involvement within a climate of educational accountability in Jamaican high schools. Grounded in Epstein's school-family-community partnership model, this study unearthed some of the differences and similarities of parental involvement within high schools that were described as high and under performing schools and what informed those differences. Sixteen participants from 4 high schools were interviewed using a semistructured interview guide. The data were analyzed thematically and interpreted against Epstein's theory. The findings of this study indicated that all stakeholders in a child's education had mutual interests and influences and an expressed desired to increase their involvement. The motivational factors driving their involvement varied from policies, beliefs, benefits, and personal challenges; parental involvement also differed in quality and quantity across schools and requires creativity in design for greater involvement, accountability, and impact. The strategic utility of these findings can assist in the creation of the home support engagements needed to remove the constraints impeding students and wider school success, thereby guiding students into successful directions, which is the epitome of social change.

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In recent years, there has been an increased number of people that are engaged in gaming - a phenomenon connected to constantly developing internet infrastructure and a growing middleclass. The phenomenon of Cloud gaming has received increasing attention since it was introduced some years ago; in 2022 all Cloud gaming services combined had 31,7 million paying users. The number that is estimated to triple by 2025. Given this information, we proceeded to identify a gap in previous literature within the topic of Cloud gaming. Previous research within the topic of Cloud gaming has predominantly discussed Cloud gaming as a business model rather than focusing on consumers. We sought to seize the opportunity to fill this research gap by studying consumers' motivations to engage in this new technology and examine which factors can influence the customer's decision-making process in the path to purchase. We also wanted this study to contribute to marketing practice by examining important current research priorities within the field of marketing. In order to investigate our research purposes, we adopted an exploratory qualitative study where we, with the help of online focus groups, investigated the customers' perceptions of Cloud gaming as a service and their motivations to engage in it. Another purpose of this study was to find out how the gaming industry may be affected by the increased usage of cloud gaming, therefore we wanted to conduct a semi-structured interview with an industry representative. The most interesting result of this study indicates that a somewhat odd situation arises for the Cloud gaming companies where the respondents who spent the least amount of money and engage the least in traditional gaming, showed the greatest motivation to engage in Cloud gaming. Therefore we suggest that there are a number of different measures that must be kept in mind by marketers within the industry.

Power as a concept has a long history of being debated in regards to foreign policy, whereforeign aid as a tool can create asymmetrical power dynamics between donor and recipient.Traditional donors' own national interests have frequently been reduced to security oreconomic motives. China, an independent and emerging donor, is thought to be among themajor donors of foreign aid today. With the growing Belt and Road Initiative, China's globaleconomic ambition is increasing. The general theme of this study is power in relation toforeign aid. The aim is to examine donor motives and how foreign aid can transitioneconomic power to political influence in accordance with Joseph Nye’s theory of power. Inaddition, could China's aid-project be regarded as a “smart power”-strategy? This was doneby examining China’s whitebook on development cooperation through a motive analysis. Inaddition, a method of process-tracing on the case of Chinese aid to Cambodia wasimplemented to examine how China’s foreign aid can manifest as a means of power.Cambodia is a top receiver of Chinese aid, and therefore interesting to explore. The resultsshowed that China’s donor motives can be summarised as security, global development andambition, cooperation, commercial and diplomatic interests. Furthermore, evidence was foundthat Chinese foreign aid can be considered a means of power in Cambodia. Largely becauseof an asymmetrical bilateral relationship as well as Cambodia’s weak state capacity.

Perceptions and attitudes can have a major impact on the motivations for countryside people to visit city destinations as tourists. The findings from this study present the two major motivations; extraordinary experiences and travelling for specific events, along with several further aspects, which motivate people in the countryside to visit cities. However, the motivations can change over time and are not necessarily the same for each visit, thus, the motivations are essential for the decision-making process, travel intentions, as well as meeting the personal wants and needs when travelling. But still, to research the motivations for countryside people to visit city destinations as tourists, it is important to learn their travel behaviour and understand their perceptions and attitudes toward cities, as these aspects have a major impact on the decision-making process, frequency of travel, and choice of destinations. Although, other perspectives impact the decision-making process as well, such as destination image, travel distance, transport, accessibility, economy, and time availability. This indicates that people who live in the countryside tend to travel to cities only for a shorter amount of time, such as weekends or long-weekends, to experience something they cannot in their everyday life, which in turn can feel luxurious. Therefore, the majority of the countryside people associate cities with positive experiences, but the general associations with cities are negative, due to the fact that they would not choose to stay here for longer than their travel intentions.    The purpose of this research is to investigate the motivations of people who live in the countryside to visit city destinations as tourists, study their perceptions and attitudes toward cities and how this impacts their decision-making process and general perspectives of cities. Interviews with 30 people who currently live in the countryside will support the research and answer the research questions, to provide results and connect this back to previous research, which have helped to support the results of this study as well. Suggestions are made for further research on this topic or similar aspects, which can help to improve the understanding of the countryside people’s travel behaviour. As a major theme in the tourism industry is to learn and understand the tourist and the travel behaviours, it is important to do so from all aspects, which could benefit both the traveller, suppliers and further research. The perspectives that have been investigated in this study, have not been researched before, and therefore, it may provide for new opportunities and knowledge about the topic that could benefit future research. Furthermore, future research can help to support the results and knowledge contribution from this research, providing similar results, and improve knowledge about city tourism in the future.

Au tournant des années 1990, des données démographiques probantes annonçait la pénurie de main-d’œuvre vécue présentement au Québec. L’actualité fait état du vieillissement de la population active, et de pratiques pour attirer et retenir la main-d’œuvre, notamment les travailleurs dit « âgés ». Entre 2006 et 2016, des statistiques québécoises révèlent une augmentation du taux de chômage chez les travailleurs âgés de plus de 55 ans, et suggère une forme d’âgisme latent. Alors que la pénurie de main-d’œuvre annoncée s’intensifiera d’ici 2030, peu d’études se sont intéressées aux motivations des travailleuses et travailleurs âgés. Dans cette perspective, notre étude vise une meilleure compréhension des motivations des femmes et des hommes à retrouver un emploi à la suite d’une perte d’emploi involontaire en mi et fin de carrière. En ce qui a trait aux motivations intrinsèques, inspirées du modèle kaléidoscopique de Mainiero et Sullivan (2005), nous examinons les dimensions du Défi, de l’Équilibre, et de l’Authenticité. Compte tenu du contexte de la perte d’emploi, les motivations extrinsèques relatives à la Sécurité d’emploi et la Sécurité financière ont été retenues. Dans le cadre d’une recherche qualitative, des entrevues semi-dirigées ont été effectuées auprès de dix-neuf participants comprenant dix femmes et neuf hommes dans deux catégories d’âge : 45-54 ans, et 55 ans et plus. L’analyse des résultats permet de conclure que les motivations à retrouver un emploi sont différentes pour les femmes et les hommes selon la catégorie d’âge. L’interprétation des résultats montre l’effet combiné du sexe et de l’âge, et révèle que les motivations chez les hommes entre 45-54 ans sont davantage extrinsèques, et chez les femmes de 55 ans et plus, intrinsèques. Les résultats sont applicables auprès des organisations, des professionnels en transition de carrière, et des instances gouvernementales. Nous proposons des pratiques RH concrètes et favorables au mieux-être au travail, et à l’inclusion des travailleuses et travailleurs plus âgés pour contrer les effets néfastes de la pénurie de main-d’œuvre. / At the turn of the 1990s, convincing demographic data announced the labor shortage currently experienced in Quebec. News reports on the aging of the working population, and practices to attract and retain labor, especially so-called "older" workers. Between 2006 and 2016, Quebec statistics reveal an increase in the unemployment rate among workers over the age of 55 and suggest a latent form of ageism. While the predicted labor shortage will intensify by 2030, few studies have looked at the motivations of older workers. From this perspective, our study aims at a better understanding of the motivations of women and men to find a job following an involuntary job loss in the middle and end of their career. Inspired by the Kaleidoscopic Model of Mainiero and Sullivan (2005), with regard to intrinsic motivations, we examine the dimensions of Challenge, Balance, and Authenticity. Given the context of the job loss, the extrinsic motivations of Job Security and Financial Security were retained. Within the framework of qualitative research, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nineteen participants including ten women and nine men in two age categories: 45-54 years, and 55 years and over. Analysis of the results leads to the conclusion that the motivations to find a job are different for women and men depending on the age category. The interpretation of the results shows the combined effect of gender and age and reveal that motivations in men aged 45-54 are more extrinsic, and in women aged 55 and over, intrinsic. The results are applicable to organizations, professionals in career transition, and government authorities. We offer concrete HR practices that promote well-being at work, and the inclusion of older workers to counter the negative effects of the labor shortage.

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