This article presents the results from a video-based evaluation study of a social robotic telepresence solution for elderly. The evaluated system is a mobile teleoperated robot called Giraff that allows caregivers to virtually enter a home and conduct a natural visit just as if they were physically there. The evaluation focuses on the perspectives from primary healthcare organizations and collects the feedback from different categories of health professionals. The evaluation included 150 participants and yielded unexpected results with respect to the acceptance of the Giraff system. In particular, greater exposure to technology did not necessarily increase acceptance and large variances occurred between the categories of health professionals. In addition to outlining the results, this study provides a number of indications with respect to increasing acceptance for technology for elderly. / <p>The final version of this article can be read at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15228835.2011.639509</p>

The organizational facets of JIT are investigated for 130 US manufacturing firms. Five research hypotheses are formulated and tested. The results of this research are presented in the context of a conceptual framework which attempts to shed some light on the organizational facets relevant to successful JIT implementation.

This case study aims to explore how the stated guidelines, regarding direct immersed newly arrived students and their subsequent education, are complied with in practice in a school in Sweden. To examine this relation between theory and practice, we have chosen a qualitative approach which consists of semi-structured interviews and participatory observations. The interviews with the school’s headmaster and SSL-teacher (Swedish as Second Language) intend to inform the analysis from an organizational perspective, while the interviews with two teachers as well as the observations of one newly arrived student intend to provide the empirical basis of the classroom perspective. Our results have been analyzed within the frames of Thomas and Collier’s (1997) Prism model which is grounded in their theories concerning language minority students’ education. The conclusion drawn based on this case study is that there is a discrepancy between the formulated guidelines and the studied educational practice. The headmaster and the SSL-teacher convey clear intentions regarding how the education for the newly arrived students should be organized. However, the teachers’ statements and our observations indicate that these guidelines are not complied with to the extent that is being sought. In order to optimize the education for newly arrived students, it is insufficient to merely create theoretical guidelines without ensuring that they are fully implemented in practice.

Yes / Organizations adopt blockchain technologies to provide solutions that deliver transparency, traceability, trust, and security to their stakeholders. In a novel contribution to the literature, this study adopts the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework to examine the technological, organizational, and environmental dimensions for adopting blockchain technology in supply chains. This represents a departure from prior studies which have adopted the technology acceptance model (TAM), technology readiness index (TRI), theory of planned behavior (TPB), united theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) models. Data was collected through a survey of 525 supply chain management professionals in India. The research model was tested using structural equation modeling. The results show that all the eleven TOE constructs, including relative advantage, trust, compatibility, security, firm’s IT resources, higher authority support, firm size, monetary resources, rivalry pressure, business partner pressure, and regulatory pressure, had a significant influence on the decision of blockchain technology adoption in Indian supply chains. The findings of this study reveal that the role of blockchain technology adoption in supply chains may significantly improve firm performance improving transparency, trust and security for stakeholders within the supply chain. Further, this research framework contributes to the theoretical advancement of the existing body of knowledge in blockchain technology adoption studies.

The first condition required for an Information Technology (IT) system to produce value is that it be used by its designated target group of users. Despite the prevalence of “system use” in IS literature, it has been often limited to the individual level. The organizational perspective is rarely considered. This dissertation focuses on system usage in the GIS domain through an organizational lens. GIS is a technology with the potential to transform government by enhancing business processes and providing a platform to manage spatial and non-spatial data, which is expected to result in better decision-making. However, little is known about how this technology is actually implemented organization-wide and the environment surrounding its use. Current GIS maturity models have not examined this usage broadly or in depth. These models lack empirical validation and measurement tools to diagnose maturity are not readily available. Based on GIS, maturity models, and system usage literature, this dissertation presents a more comprehensive maturity model for evaluating local government usage of GIS along with a measurement tool. This work followed De Bruin et al., (2005) guidelines for developing maturity models. This new model was discussed with practitioners and academics, was pilot-tested, and then widely tested by Southern California local governments through an online questionnaire. Results show support for the validity of the proposed maturity model and demonstrate its utility. This dissertation revealed that system, task, user, organization and GIS department are viable dimensions of GIS usage from an organizational perspective. Results suggest that increasing actual GIS usage leads to an increase in GIS value. Results further show that the efficiency and effectiveness benefits of GIS are mostly realized; however, the societal benefits of GIS are small.

Multinational Corporations (MNCs) currently face not only a dynamic business environment and challenging profit target, but also increased expectations from the public to take responsibility for addressing social, economic, and environmental issues. There is a tendency that the leading companies in the global market, especially MNCs, put more effort to the Social Innovation (SI). This study is to investigate what drives the MNCs to be involved in social innovation. In order to find out the reasons, we make use of the literature related to social innovation and social entrepreneurship to develop a framework of the motivation of MNCs towards social innovation. The framework combines three different perspectives (Individualistic Perspective, Organizational Perspective, and Institutional Perspective) to describe the motivation of MNCs. It includes ten main factors: philanthropy, ethics, self-awareness, new business opportunities, interfuntional collaboration, corporate culture, laws and regulations, market demands, strategic collaboration and territorial development. The study is also built on rich data collected through semi-structured interviews together with secondary sources from four MNCs in the different industries: KPMG, Coca-Cola, Porsche, and Philips. However, the empirical evidence indicates a revised framework of motivations of the social innovation in MNCs, including six main factors: self-awareness, new business opportunities, interfuntional collaboration, corporate culture, market demands, and strategic collaboration. Our research made a step into unexplored field of motivation of the MNC being involved in SI and hopefully will go further to investigate the rationale for such involvement.

Syfte: Företag har idag en skyldighet att verka för ett hållbart samhälle utifrån enskilda organisatoriska förutsättningar. Utifrån det har vi studerat hur små och medelstora företag i Gävleborg arbetar med socialt ansvarstagande utifrån förutsättningar de har. Studien är genomförd i syfte att utöka den befintliga forskningen för vad små och medelstora företag kan bidra med till socialt ansvarstagande.         Syftet med studien är att skapa förståelse för hur små och medelstora företag arbetar med socialt ansvarstagande utifrån ett internt och externt organisatoriskt perspektiv.  Metod: Vi har använt en kvalitativ forskningsmetod. För att samla in data har vi utfört semi-strukturerade intervjuer som sedan bearbetades i analysverktyget Nvivo. Empirimaterialet presenteras i ett enskilt kapitel. Analys &amp; slutsats: Analysen i studien tyder på att arbetet med socialt ansvarstagande är viktigt oavsett vilken storlek, bransch eller ekonomisk möjlighet företaget har. Skillnader i resultatet uppstod mellan det interna och externa sociala ansvarstagandet då det externa upplevdes som svårare av intervjupersonerna.  Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Vi föreslår att studien bör ligga till grund för forskning i större omfattning, förslagsvis med fler små och medelstora företag. Vidare forskning kan även genomföras med fler intervjupersoner samt i andra positioner än intervjupersonerna som deltagit denna studie vilket vi tror kan bidra till andra insikter. Uppsatsens bidrag: Det teoretiska bidraget utgör ett kvalitativt perspektiv i syfte att öka förståelsen för hur små och medelstora företag arbetar med socialt ansvarstagande. Det praktiska bidraget är en översikt på hur små och medelstora företag kan arbeta med socialt ansvarstagande utifrån organisatoriska förutsättningar. / Aim: Today companies are required to work for a sustainable society based on individual organizational conditions. Based on that, we have studied how small and medium-sized enterprises in Gavleborg are working with social responsibility on the basis of the conditions they possess. The study was conducted in order to expand the existing research for what small and medium-sized enterprises can contribute to social responsibility. The purpose of the study is to create an understanding of how small and mediumsized companies work with social responsibility from an internal and external organizational perspective. Method: We have used a qualitative research method. To collect data, we conducted semi-structured interviews and then processed them in the analysis tool Nvivo. The empirical material is presented in a private chapter. Analysis &amp; Conclusions: The analysis of the study suggest that the work of social responsibility is important regardless of the size, industry and economic possibilities the company possesses. Differences in the results arose between the internal and external social responsibility as the external was perceived as more difficult in the interviews. Suggestions for future research: We suggest that the study should be the basis for research on a larger scale, preferably with more small and medium-sized enterprises. Further research may be conducted with more respondents and in other positions than those who were interviewed in this study, which we believe can contribute to other insights. Contribution of the thesis: The theoretical contribution represents a qualitative perspective to increase the understanding of how small and medium-sized companies work with social responsibility. The practical contribution is an overview of how small and medium-sized enterprises can work with social responsibility on the basis of organizational conditions.

Syftet med undersökningen är att studera och öka förståelsen för relationen mellan bemanningsföretagens konsultchefer och deras kontaktpersoner vid kundföretagen. Genom att beskriva och analysera hur kontakten mellan konsultchefer och kundföretag ser ut är målet att besvara följande frågor: vem som ansvarar för vad, hur ser konsultchefen respektive kundföretaget på sin och den andra partens roll samt hur de ser på den överlappning som uppstår i ansvar och ledning av konsulterna. Undersökningen är kvalitativ och intervjuer har används för att samla in empiri. Fem personer intervjuades: tre konsultchefer på bemanningsföretag och två kontaktpersoner på kundföretag som hyr in personal av bemanningsföretag. I intervjuerna framkom att faktorer som har betydelse för hur relationen mellan konsultchef och hans eller hennes kontakt vid kundföretaget utvecklas är tid och volym på antalet konsulter som hyrs in. I vilken utsträckning konsultchef och kontaktpersonen vid kundföretaget delar ledarskap tycks hänga samman med om relationen över tid förblir formell eller om det tillkommer mer informellt utbyte. Undersökningen visar att när kundföretagen hyr in konsulter från samma bemanningsföretag under längre tid eller hyr in många konsulter finns större möjlighet till ömsesidigt utbyte i betydelsen att de kan diskutera fram beslut, dela på arbetsuppgifterna och ansvaret gentemot konsulterna samt byta erfarenheter som ökar lärandet. / The purpose of this study is to analyze and increase the understanding of the relationship between consultant managers in temporary work agencies (TWA) and their contacts in the client companies. The study aims to describe and analyze how they stay in contact with each other, who is responsible for what, how they view their own and the other's role and how they see the overlap that occurs in the responsibility and guidance of the agency workers. The study is qualitative and interviews were used to collect empirical data. Five people were interviewed: three consultant managers in TWA and two contacts who work in the client companies that hire TWA. The interviews revealed that the factors that are relevant to how the relationship between the consultant manager and his or her contact at the client company is developing are time and volume of the number of agency workers. The extent to which the consultant manager and contact person at the client company share leadership appears to be related to if the relationship over time remains a formality, or if there will be more informal exchange. The study shows that when the client companies hire agency workers from the same TWA for a longer time or hire many consultants, there are greater opportunities for mutual exchange in the sense that they can discuss the decisions, share tasks and responsibilities with regard to consultants, and share experiences that increase learning.

Syftet med den aktuella studien är att undersöka socialarbetares attityder, erfarenheter och kompetens i arbetet med pojkar, flickor och icke-binära, under 18 år, som säljer sexuella tjänster. Studien ämnar också undersöka hur bekväma socialarbetarna är att arbeta med frågan. Studien har bedrivits genom en kvantitativ webbenkät där socialarbetare, vilka är medlemmar i en Facebook-grupp för socionomer, fått möjligheten att besvara frågor angående ämnet ungdomar som säljer sexuella tjänster.  Resultaten av enkäten har sedan testats statistiskt och analyserats mot tidigare forskning kring ungdomar som säljer sexuella tjänster samt ett strukturellt organisationsperspektiv. Ungdomar som säljer sexuella tjänster visas utsättas för stora risker och dåligt psykiskt mående både under- och efter erfarenheten av att sälja sexuella tjänster. Resultaten tyder på att bekvämlighet i samtal om ungas sexuella hälsa är det som i högst grad påverkar hur säkra socialarbetare känner sig på hur de ska agera när de möter unga som säljer sexuella tjänster. Samtidigt som konsensus råder om att socionomutbildningar över lag inte prioriterar ämnet under programmens gång. Resultaten visar att respondenterna har högre grad av misstankar kring flickor, än pojkar och icke-binära, som säljer sexuella tjänster, trots att tidigare undersökningar visar att procenten pojkar som säljer sexuella tjänster är något högre än gruppen flickor. Majoriteten av respondenterna anger även att de inte känner till att deras arbetsplats har några rutiner kring ungdomar som säljer sexuella tjänster, samt att det råder varians kring hur säkra respondenterna känner sig kring att arbeta med frågan. / The aim of this study is to examine the attitudes, experiences and competence of social workers regarding the work towards boys, girls and non-binary youth, below the age of 18, who are selling sexual services. The study also aims to examine how comfortable social workers are while working with this subject. The study was conducted with a quantitative web-based poll where social workers, who were members of the Facebook-group “Socionom” specifically for social workers, had the opportunity to answer questions regarding youths who sell sexual services. The results of the poll were later statistically tested and analyzed by using previously conducted research around youths who sell sexual services, and by using a structural organizational perspective. Youths who sell sexual services are exposed to high risks and poor mental health both during- and after the experience of selling sexual services. The results of the poll indicate that the most important aspect of working with this subject is depending on how comfortable the social worker feels having discussions with the youths regarding sexual health, while consensus show that social work-education, according to the respondents, does not prioritize or give lectures regarding youth who are selling sexual services or their sexual health. The results also show that the respondents to a higher degree suspect female clients are selling sexual services than boys or non-binary, even though previous research show that boys are selling sexual services to a higher degree. Most of the respondents also specify that they are not aware of any current guidelines at their current workplace regarding youths who are selling sexual services, and that there is variance in how comfortable the respondents feel working with this subject.

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