Thesis (M. Hous. M.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-84).

Thesis (M.Hous.M.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-84). Also available in print.

The start point of this project is the research of single person household. According to a presentation from the Swedish government, in Sweden, the family structure is changing as time goes by. After 40 years, there will be more than 40% of household are single person households. In addition, The project aims to create a sharing furniture, which used in living room, for young single person households. By using this furniture, they can enjoy the time being alone at home and also enjoy the leisure time with others, for example, through the Swedish social phenomena - fika. The delineation of study and research of my project is furniture design towards single person households and fika. The theories I applied include sustainability, life cycle, human needs, and design methodologies. Sustainable design put sustainable development theory into the design process, let the ecological environment and economic development connected as an the reciprocal causation. It lead to the use of energy resources effectively, and reduce the environmental pollution to the lower degree. To achieve sustainable design theory, each steps within product life cycle need to be considered in a sustainable development way. Sustainable design principles not only refer to the design process, also stressed in engineering process, the production process, the sales process, the use process, the storage process, the maintenance/repair process and retirement process, to reduce resource consumption, to build a new production and consumption oriented concepts to achieve sustainable design. The main practical methodology within the entire project and process is participatory design. Participatory design encourages all the users to directly design by using the simple tools, then do creative jobs by themselves and make own improvements during the process of practice. Furthermore, the participatory design can promote the users to realize the true value of designers, and finally they can also enjoy the conveniences which are brought by these designs.

Problem En ensamföretagare måste ofta sitta på en mängd olika kunskaper, då det är vederbörande som i slutändan tar alla slutgiltiga beslut. Enligt Tomas Lindberg själv förekommer det en sviktande försäljning av produkten Wind-X Medium. Kan det då finnas kunskapsluckor hos Tomas Lindberg själv som har ett indirekt samband till dåliga försäljningssiffror? Vilken betydelse kan det ha för företagande och tillväxt om det finns skillnader mellan att vara en företagare eller entreprenör och uppfinnare eller innovatör?   Syfte Syftet med studien är att undersöka problematiken en ensamföretagare kan ha med att skapa större intresse och acceptans kring sina produkter.   Vision Med en vision att kunna komma med ett eller flera förslag på hur han kan gå vidare med sitt företag.   Metod Författarna har i denna studie använt sig av en kvalitativ metod, genom att intervjua ägaren till företaget. Författarna har genom att göra olika analyser fått fram information till studiens empiri. Genom att analysera och diskutera studiens teoretiska referensram har författarna kommit fram till olika förslag till hur ägaren skulle kunna göra för att gå vidare med sitt företag.   Slutsats Författarna har identifierat vissa kunskapsbrister hos ägaren Tomas Lindberg som kan påverka företaget på olika sätt. I studien har det framkommit att ägaren till företaget X-Innovations AB saknar kunskap om marknadsföring, vilket har gjort att försäljningen av företagets produkt inte går så bra som ägaren hade hoppats. / Problem In a single-person business the business man himself often must have a great deal of knowledge, because he/she is the one who must take all the final decisions. According to Tomas Lindberg there has been a failing sale of the product Wind-X Medium. Could it be that there is an indirect link between Tomas Lindbergs lack of knowledge and failing sales figures of Wind-X Medium? What can the consequence be for business enterprise and growth if there is a difference between being a businessman, entrepreneur or an innovator?   Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the problems a single-person business can have to create more interest and acceptance around his/her products.   Vision With a vision to be able to come up with one or more proposals on how Tomas Lindberg can move on with his business.   Method The authors in this study used a qualitative approach, by interviewing the owner of the company. The authors have by doing different tests, presented information to the study’s empirical work. The authors analyzed and discussed the study’s theoretical framework, and then come up with a various proposals on how the owner could do to move forward with his business.   Conclusions The authors have identified some knowledge gaps with Tomas Lindberg that may affect in different ways. The study has revealed that the owner of the company X-Innovations AB has some knowledge of marketing, which has allowed that the sale of its product are not going as well as the owner hoped.

<p>The purpose is to gain an understanding of the marketing knowledge and tools single person businesses have and use within the service sector in southern Sweden.</p><p>Previous research on single person businesses in Sweden and their marketing knowledge and usage of marketing tools is very scarce. Many small firms suffer from resource poverty and this is often a reason for why they market their firms in certain ways. By asking single person business owners why, how and what they do to market their firms the authors will find a general pattern and a deeper understanding. During a pre-study conducted to capture the essence of the issue before starting the research, it was found that there existed several marketing knowledge gaps. It is therefore of interest to study the marketing knowledge among single person business owners in Sweden.</p><p>To meet the purpose a qualitative research approach was chosen. The qualitative data was collected through six in-depth interviews with single person business owners. The answers from the interviews generated a picture of the usage of marketing knowledge and tools among single person business owners in Sweden.</p><p>The result of this study showed that all of the single person business owners thought that since their firms were small businesses, well developed marketing strategies was more of a luxury than a necessity. It was clear that they instead used effectual reasoning when marketing their firms. Concerning knowledge, the results showed that a mixture of education and work experience is the optimal combination. It was also clear that service firms usually find difficulties with intangibility and all of the interviewees knew that they have to use a special approach when marketing services. Through the authors’ findings, it is hard to tell if there is an optimal marketing strategy since most of the interviewees do not perform any follow-ups and therefore do not know what works and what does not.</p>

The purpose is to gain an understanding of the marketing knowledge and tools single person businesses have and use within the service sector in southern Sweden. Previous research on single person businesses in Sweden and their marketing knowledge and usage of marketing tools is very scarce. Many small firms suffer from resource poverty and this is often a reason for why they market their firms in certain ways. By asking single person business owners why, how and what they do to market their firms the authors will find a general pattern and a deeper understanding. During a pre-study conducted to capture the essence of the issue before starting the research, it was found that there existed several marketing knowledge gaps. It is therefore of interest to study the marketing knowledge among single person business owners in Sweden. To meet the purpose a qualitative research approach was chosen. The qualitative data was collected through six in-depth interviews with single person business owners. The answers from the interviews generated a picture of the usage of marketing knowledge and tools among single person business owners in Sweden. The result of this study showed that all of the single person business owners thought that since their firms were small businesses, well developed marketing strategies was more of a luxury than a necessity. It was clear that they instead used effectual reasoning when marketing their firms. Concerning knowledge, the results showed that a mixture of education and work experience is the optimal combination. It was also clear that service firms usually find difficulties with intangibility and all of the interviewees knew that they have to use a special approach when marketing services. Through the authors’ findings, it is hard to tell if there is an optimal marketing strategy since most of the interviewees do not perform any follow-ups and therefore do not know what works and what does not.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第18618号 / 情博第542号 / 新制||情||96(附属図書館) / 31518 / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科社会情報学専攻 / (主査)教授 矢守 克也, 教授 多々納 裕一, 准教授 永田 素彦 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DFAM

My thesis project, Better Alone focuses on single person households from a perspective of loneliness. The objective has been to find an architectural solution to decrease experienced loneliness. In this project I intend to address the issue and design a way of living that can relieve the experience of involuntary loneliness. I have used two main strategies: the first is to provide space for social interaction in connection to the home and to create reasons to enter and linger in these spaces. The second main strategy is to blur or stretch the border that separates the home into privacy through visibility. The project's site is  in southern Stockholm, in between the neighborhoods Hammarbyhöjden and Hammarby sjöstad, a fairly central location. The site's most prominent characteristic is the fact that it is a steep slope. At the bottom of the slope runs Hammarbyvägen, which is a fairly busy road. Together these two aspects create a barrier between the neighborhoods of Hammarby sjöstad and Hammarbyhöjden, these are challenges that I have addressed in the project.

The benefits of converting single-person drivers to alternative transit options are well-established. One option to accomplish this is for employers to provide alternative commute incentive programs. However, the research on the implementation of such programs is lacking. To provide a test, this research analyzes data obtained from a field experiment on daily alternative transit commute choices for a seven-month period. Participants are divided into four treatment groups in a two-by-two design for the first three-month period: incentives with either loss or gain framing, and messaging nudges with either the private or public benefits of alternative transit commute choices. The participants then continue in the field experiment for the remaining four-month period with all groups receiving only gain framing incentives and messaging nudges are discontinued. The results from the two time periods are compared. Loss framing and private messaging have the most significant effect on participants’ decisions to revert back to single-person driving when nudges are discontinued, and thus nudges are not persistent. The incentive program did not provide enduring conversion to alternative transit options, but the results suggest employers who want to optimize their alternative transit incentive programs should utilize loss framing incentives and combine both private and public messaging into continuous nudges.

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management