Submitted by Adriana Alves Rodrigues (aalves@espm.br) on 2018-08-08T12:42:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 pmdgi - rafaela almeida cordeiro.pdf: 1520532 bytes, checksum: 72a2bae766617270bf203d87a282c79f (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Alves Rodrigues (aalves@espm.br) on 2018-08-08T12:42:44Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 pmdgi - rafaela almeida cordeiro.pdf: 1520532 bytes, checksum: 72a2bae766617270bf203d87a282c79f (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Debora Cristina Bonfim Aquarone (deborabonfim@espm.br) on 2018-08-08T13:13:47Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 pmdgi - rafaela almeida cordeiro.pdf: 1520532 bytes, checksum: 72a2bae766617270bf203d87a282c79f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-08T13:15:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 pmdgi - rafaela almeida cordeiro.pdf: 1520532 bytes, checksum: 72a2bae766617270bf203d87a282c79f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-28 / Consumer financial decision-making is an important issue around the world. The current study investigated this matter using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Building on the concept of social capital, the qualitative study explores the financial vulnerability phenomenon in Brazil from the perspective of jeitinho—a way of getting things done by means of personal relationships. Analysis of 21 in-depth interviews provides a unique context for showing how this indigenous construct shapes marketplace and consumer practices, thus creating a mutually reinforcing cycle of financial dependency and vulnerability. A socioecological framework highlights how the interactions between personal characteristics (microsystem) and marketplace practices and social structures (meso- and macrosystems) may lead individuals to experience or avoid financial vulnerability. Values that are typical of Brazilians were also used to explain financial management behaviors, consumer resistance, and responsibility in the marketplace. Findings provide new insights for understanding financial vulnerability from a cultural perspective. It shows that consumers become indebted in order to support their relationships—sometimes using them as an excuse to justify hedonic consumption—and companies take advantage of this social reciprocity in their lending and retail practices perpetuating the cycle of dependency and vulnerability. The borrowinglending dynamic between relatives and friends is then explored in the quantitative study. The theoretical background includes discussion on materialism, consumer spending self-control, and the use of credit. A survey of 997 Brazilian adults was conducted to test two hypotheses. The evidences support that: more materialistic individuals are more likely to borrow from relatives and friends (H1) and individuals with a high level of consumer spending self-control are less likely to borrow from relatives and friends (H2). Results support the argument that both materialism and consumer spending self-control predicts borrowing behavior. Implications for public policy and suggestions for future research are then presented. / A tomada de decisão financeira do consumidor é uma questão importante em todo o mundo. Nesta pesquisa, esse tema é investigado por meio das abordagens qualitativa e quantitativa. Com base no conceito de capital social, o estudo qualitativo explora o fenômeno da vulnerabilidade financeira no Brasil sob a perspectiva do jeitinho—sob a forma de resolver situações por meio de relacionamentos pessoais. A análise de 21 entrevistas em profundidade fornece um contexto único para mostrar como o jeitinho molda o mercado e as práticas de consumo, criando um ciclo de dependência e vulnerabilidade financeira que se reforça mutuamente. A abordagem socioecológica destaca como as interações entre características pessoais (micro sistema) e práticas de mercado e estruturas sociais (meso e macro sistemas) podem levar os indivíduos a experimentar ou evitar a vulnerabilidade financeira. Os valores típicos dos brasileiros também foram utilizados para explicar comportamentos de gestão financeira, resistência e responsabilidade do consumidor no mercado. Os resultados fornecem insights para entender a vulnerabilidade financeira a partir de uma perspectiva cultural: mostrando que os consumidores se endividam para sustentar seus relacionamentos—às vezes até os usando como uma desculpa para justificar o consumo hedônico—e que as empresas aproveitam essa reciprocidade social em suas práticas de mercado, perpetuando o ciclo de dependência e vulnerabilidade. A dinâmica de empréstimos entre parentes e amigos é, então, explorada no estudo quantitativo. O quadro teórico inclui literatura sobre materialismo, autocontrole e o uso de crédito. Uma pesquisa do tipo survey com 997 brasileiros foi realizada para testar duas hipóteses. As evidências sustentam que: indivíduos mais materialistas são mais propensos a pegar dinheiro emprestado de parentes e amigos (H1) e indivíduos com alto nível de autocontrole dos gastos são menos propensos a pegar dinheiro emprestado de parentes e amigos (H2). Os resultados sugerem que tanto o materialismo quanto o autocontrole dos gastos predizem o comportamento dos empréstimos. Implicações para políticas públicas e sugestões para pesquisas futuras são apresentadas.

Byggindustrin förknippas ibland med bristande kvalitet. Genom att använda kvalitetsstyrningsverktyg i produktionen ska rätt kvalitet på slutprodukten ges. I rapporten studeras kvalitetsarbetet på ett entreprenadföretag för att undersöka om något kan göras annorlunda för att höja kvaliteten på slutprodukten. Genom att genomföra en kvalitativ intervjustudie med nio produktionschefer på ett och samma företag analyseras vad i arbetssättet som fungerar bra och vad som kan förbättras. Resultatet visar att mycket i det nuvarande kvalitetsarbetet fungerar bra, men att det är flera faktorer som spelar en väsentlig roll för hur kvaliteten på slutprodukten blir. Att använda besiktningsmän i ett tidigt skede underlättar arbetet med att verifiera kravställningen och nå en slutprodukt med hög kvalitet. Det framkommer att kontrollerna av det utförda arbetet kan utförs av yrkesarbetarna, vilket kan höja motivationen till att utföra ett arbete med hög kvalitet. / Construction industry has in some cases been associated with lack of fulfilling the quality requirements. By application of quality control tools in production, quality targets should be more achievable. This report is a study of the quality management system of a construction company, in order to investigate the possibilities of improving the quality of the delivered product. By conducting a qualitative interview study consisting of nine production managers from the same company, an analysis was made on the work process to determine what was working and what could be improved. The result shows that a lot in the current work process is working well. Even so, the study shows that many factors affect the final quality result. The use of inspectors at an early stage makes verification of customer specifications easier and increases the final product quality. Moreover, the controls can be done by the construction workers which in turn increases motivation for quality performance in daily activities.

Background. Individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) are often thought to show heightened selfcontrol and increased ability to inhibit desires. In addition to inhibitory self-control, antecedentfocused strategies (e.g., cognitive reconstrual—the re-evaluation of tempting situations) might contribute to disorder maintenance and enable disorder-typical, maladaptive behaviors. - Methods. Over a period of 14 days, 40 acutely underweight young female patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and 40 healthy control (HC) participants reported their affect and behavior in selfcontrol situations via ecological momentary assessment during inpatient treatment (AN) and everyday life (HC). Data were analyzed via hierarchical analyses (linear and logistic modeling). - Results. Conflict strength had a significantly lower impact on self-control success in AN compared to HC. While AN and HC did not generally differ in the number or strength of self-control conflicts or in the percentage of self-control success, AN reported self-controlled behavior to be less dependent on conflict strength. - Conclusions. While patients with AN were not generally more successful at self-control, they appeared to resolve self-control conflicts more effectively. These findings suggest that the magnitude of self-control conflicts has comparatively little impact on individuals with AN, possibly due to the use of antecedent-focused strategies. If confirmed, cognitive-behavioral therapy might focus on and help patients to exploit these alternative self-control strategies in the battle against their illness.