Of the territorial intra-state conflicts around the world, there are some that live in the ‘no war, no peace’ environment. The so-called frozen conflicts have attracted significant scholarly and policy attention to explain their durability over time, and sustainability of the de facto regimes that live within such environment. This study shifts the focus from looking at the frozen state of the conflict to improving the understanding of how they become frozen in the first place. My question: ‘why do some territorial conflicts become frozen while others do not?’ sheds light on consistent-patron action during wartime to explain how, through the establishment of trade, territorial conflicts become frozen. Additional novel contributions are provided by conceptualizing patron-state support and focusing on trade as part of state-building mechanisms. A structured, focused comparison with a most-similar case design compares Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Republika Srpska Krajina conflicts. My findings show partial support to the tested hypotheses that indicate a consistent patron-state’s trade establishment with de facto regime leads to frozen conflict. Empirical limitations within the cases limit the ability to draw stronger conclusions. Of the territorial intra-state conflicts around the world, there are some that live in the ‘no war, no peace’ environment. The so-called frozen conflicts have attracted significant scholarly and policy attention to explain their durability over time, and sustainability of the de facto regimes that live within such environment. This study shifts the focus from looking at the frozen state of the conflict to improving the understanding of how they become frozen in the first place. My question: ‘why do some territorial conflicts become frozen while others do not?’ sheds light on consistent-patron action during wartime to explain how, through the establishment of trade, territorial conflicts become frozen. Additional novel contributions are provided by conceptualizing patron-state support and focusing on trade as part of state-building mechanisms. A structured, focused comparison with a most-similar case design compares Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Republika Srpska Krajina conflicts. My findings show partial support to the tested hypotheses that indicate a consistent patron-state’s trade establishment with de facto regime leads to frozen conflict. Empirical limitations within the cases limit the ability to draw stronger conclusions.

A government’s choice to kill civilians on a massive scale in civil wars has long been a puzzling phenomenon. Although the scholarly discussion on the motives behind such actions has been growing in the last decades, the understanding of the impact of mass killings is still limited. This thesis aspires to contribute to the understanding of the consequences of civilian victimization by asking “How does government mass killing of civilians affect military power-sharing in peace agreements?”. The hypothesis predicts that governments can use mass killing of civilians to indirectly pressure rebels to concede on their war aims and sign a peace agreement in order to stop the civilian victimization. The focus is on rebels’ war aims concerning military power-sharing, and to what degree the mass killing can lower the rebels’ demands on this aspect. Eight peace agreements have been selected, where four of them had government mass killing and the other four did not. This is to ensure variation on the independent variable. This thesis uses a structured focus comparison of the eight civil war peace agreements to test the hypothesis. The empirical results do not confirm the hypothesis, as no correlation is seen between the relationship of interest, rather, it contradicts it slightly.

This thesis investigates the progress of corporate implementations of Artificial Intelligence and discusses the effects that this might have on the corporate sector as well as some implications on a societal level. The analysis is based on data from surveys conducted by Accenture, Bain & Company, Capgemini Digital Transformation Institute, Deloitte, Gartner Inc., McKinsey Global Institute and MIT Sloan Management Review & Boston Consulting Group. Over the last 3 years the adoptions of Artificial Intelligence have increased 2-3 times and the trend is expected to continue in the coming years as well, since 40-55 % of the surveyed companies are in the initial stages of AI adoption. Further, the growth rate in AI investments has been even more radical and increased 15-20 times over the last 7 years. Companies who have implemented AI report significant benefits and companies with a proactive strategy for Artificial Intelligence report higher profit margins than their industry competitors. Further the data indicates that companies that are successful in implementing AI have better general organizational capabilities, higher data & skills readiness and more AI focus in leadership and strategic planning. Another result in the study is that most managers in companies implementing AI expect that the technology will enable them to enter new markets and also that new competitors will enter their market. This will probably lead to increased competition and the results from other technology transitions indicate that this might force more companies to adopt AI to stay competitive. Regarding competence strategy some theorists have argued that companies without AI experience should compensate by acquiring a high tech start-up with the needed technology and competence. However, the data indicates that the most limiting factors for companies without AI experience are related to leadership and technical capabilities, not access to competence. It is only in later stages of the adoption process that access to competence becomes the primary limiting factor. The data gives mixed indications on AI consequences on employment. Half of the companies implementing AI expect job losses in the organization in the coming 3 years, while almost a third expects AI to lead to new jobs. However, the data also suggests that existing employees will need to change their skill sets. Therefor both the public and private sector will need to adapt and find ways to support employees that need to re-educate themselves.

The energy performance of the buildings is important for economic and environmental aspect. The building energy use is gradually increasing. This is due to economical growth and increase in population. There are various energy efficiency measures that can be implemented provided they are economically feasible. Several Studies show that the implementation of energy saving measures such as thermal insulation results in more energy saving. However, most of the outlined measures are not economically viable. The paper outlines the energy efficiency measures through the use of the computer IDA ICE software. The evaluation of energy performance of two multifamily houses was conducted and possible suggestions such as thermal insulation, change of the windows, installing new air handling unit, installing heat exchange in the showers, improving the thermal bridges and change of schedules were presented. The economic feasibility of the suggestions is analysed using the life cycle cost to determine the economic viability of the energy measures. This involved determine the investment cost and life cycle saving cost to decide the best option. The most important factor in determining life-cycle saving is the modified uniform net present factor.  The addition of attic insulation, replacement of lighting bulbs, installing heat exchange in the showers and change of schedules, meet the economical requirement within the required time frame. The total energy saving from the measures that meet the economical requirement was approximately 71 MWh/year for Centralgatan 14 and 54 MWh/year of Tebogatan 5 corresponding to 24 % for Centralgatan 14 and 20.4 % of Tebogatan 5 reduction in heating demand. Replacement of lighting bulbs results in 5 MWh/year and 7.51 MWh/year  electricity energy saving for Tebogatan 5 and Centralgatan 14 respectively. The integration of energy measures has less impact on thermal comfort. The energy measures implementaed are within the acceptable limit of < 15 % PPD for thermal comfort apart from the combined effect of adding 200 mm external insulation plus lowering indoor temperature. Key word: energy audit, economical anaylysis, life cycle savings, investment cost, energy efficiency, IDA ICE

Uppsatsen har som avsikt att skapa en förståelse för vilka egenskaper som förknippas med lokalproducerad mat i Västerbotten. Arbetets relevans grundar sig i att intresset för lokal och regional mat ökar bland konsumenter i Sverige samtidigt som restauranger ser nya marknadsmöjligheter i denna trend. Genom kvalitativa intervjuer med kökschefer från restauranger som använder lokala råvaror och fokusgrupper med restaurangbesökare har deras attityder om lokal mat studerats och tolkats. En kvalitativ innehållsanalys användes för att tolka den data som samlats in. Resultatet visar på att både kökschefer och konsumenters är motiverade till att köpa lokal mat. De förknippar lokal mat med nya upplevelser, högre produktkvalitet och med etiska värderingar gällande djurhållning och miljöpåverkan, främst genom kortare transporter. Samtidigt som de anser att lokal mat kan vara otillgänglig, dyr och inte så varierad. / The intention of this study is to provide an understanding of the characteristics associated with locally produced food in Västerbotten, Sweden. The relevance of the work is based on increasing consumer interest regarding local and regional food. While restaurants are seeing new market opportunities and are trying to capitalize this trend. We have used qualitative interviews with chefs from restaurants using local produce and focus groups with restaurant guests. Their attitudes to local food have been studied and interpreted. A qualitative content analysis was used to interpret the collected data. The result shows that both chefs and consumers are motivated to buy local food. They associate local food with new experiences, higher quality and with ethical values ​​regarding environmental impact and animal husbandry. While they also consider that local food are not readily available, expensive and not so varied.

Denna fallstudie syftar till att undersöka vilka dimensioner av ett arbetsgivarvarumärke ett IT-konsultföretag som arbetar i geografiskt utspridda arbetsgrupper kan använda för att minska sin personalomsättning. Ett arbetsgivarvarumärke kan användas både externt, i syfte att attrahera nya talanger, och internt, i syfte att behålla befintliga talanger och se till att tidigare anställda agerar goda ambassadörer för ett företag. Ett arbetsgivarvarumärke används för att förmedla vad det är som kännetecknar ett företag som arbetsgivare och vad det är som gör företaget unikt. Det interna arbetsgivarvarumärket kan användas för att minska personalomsättningen på ett företag, vilket är ekonomiskt fördelaktigt för företaget. Ett arbetsgivarvarumärke består av olika dimensioner, till exempel organisationskultur, arbetsmiljö och kompensation som beskriver företaget, dess roll och agerande som arbetsgivare. Kopplingen mellan arbetsgivarvarumärkets olika dimensioner och ett företags personalomsättning har undersökts inom olika branscher, bland annat banksektorn, men inte inom IT-konsultbranschen. Vidare har tidigare undersökningar som genomförts inte heller tagit hänsyn till arbete som genomförs i geografiskt utspridda arbetsgrupper. Denna studie genomfördes via en fallstudie inom IT-konsultbranschen på ett företag som arbetar i geografiskt utspridda arbetsgrupper. Denna fallstudie har genom kvalitativa intervjuer med tidigare anställda hos företaget undersökt kopplingen mellan nio olika dimensioner av ett arbetsgivarvarumärke och dess eventuella inverkan på företagets personalomsättning. De dimensioner som undersöktes var flexibla arbetstider, arbetsmiljö, kompensationsnivå, utbildning och avancemang, varumärkets anseende, självbestämmande vid utförandet av arbetsuppgifter, trygghet i anställningen, organisationskultur samt socialt ansvarstagande. Resultatet visar att de dimensioner som främst påverkar personalomsättningen positivt är flexibla arbetstider, arbetsmiljö, kompensationsnivå, Utbildning och avancemang, självbestämmande vid utförandet av arbetsuppgifter samt organisationskultur. Samtidigt påverkas både organisationskulturen, arbetsmiljön och gemenskapen på arbetsplatsen av arbetet i geografiskt utspridda arbetsgrupper.

The concept of National Innovation Systems (NIS) has been widely adopted in developing countries, particularly in Latin American countries, for the last two decades. The concept is used mainly as an ex-ante framework to organize and increase the dynamics of those institutions linked to science, technology and innovation, for catching-up processes of development. In the particular case of Bolivia, and after several decades of social and economic crisis, the promise of a national innovation system reconciles a framework for collaboration between the university, the government and the socio-productive sectors. Dynamics of collaboration generated within NIS can be a useful tool for the pursuit of inclusive development ambitions.   This thesis is focused on inclusive innovation processes and the generation of co-evolutionary processes between university, government and socio-productive sectors. This is the result of 8 years of participatory action research influenced by Mode 2 knowledge-production and Technoscientific approaches.   The study explores the policy paths the Bolivian government has followed in the last three decades in order to organize science, technology and innovation. It reveals that Bolivia has an emerging national innovation system, where its demand-pulled innovation model presents an inclusive approach. Innovation policy efforts in Bolivia are led by the Vice-Ministry of Science and Technology (VCyT). Moreover, NIS involves relational and collaborative approaches between institutions, which imply structural and organizational challenges, particularly for public universities, as they concentrate most of the research capabilities in the country. These universities are challenged to participate in NIS within contexts of weak demanding sectors.    This research focuses on the early empirical approaches and transformations at Universidad Mayor de San Simón (UMSS) in Cochabamba. The aim to strengthen internal innovation capabilities of the university and enhance the relevance of research activities in society by supporting socio-economic development in the framework of innovation systems is led by the Technology Transfer Unit (UTT) at UMSS. UTT has become a recognized innovation facilitator unit, inside and outside the university, by proposing pro-active initiatives to support emerging innovation systems. Because of its complexity, the study focuses particularly on cluster development promoted by UTT. Open clusters are based on linking mechanisms between the university research capabilities, the socio-productive actors and government. Cluster development has shown to be a practical mechanism for the university to meet the demanding sector (government and socio-productive actors) and to develop trust-based inclusive innovation processes. The experiences from cluster activities have inspired the development of new research policies at UMSS, with a strong orientation to foster research activities towards an increased focus on socio-economic development. The experiences gained at UMSS are discussed and presented as a “developmental university” approach.   Inclusive innovation processes with co-evolutionary approaches seem to constitute an alternative path supporting achievement of inclusive development ambitions in Bolivia.

As a special censorship system, China’s Internet firewall plays an important role in Chinese society.The Internet firewall is a controversial social action in China’s democratic development.The Internet firewall efficiently protects China’s economic environment. Similarly,Because of its rigorous censorship and guidance of information, it makes controversy about its role in the development of democracy in China. The Internet firewalls in China largely limit Chinese media freedom, information freedom and public opinion freedom, that through a regulatory and directional approach. At the same time, with the continuous emergence of new media, to some extent, new media also impacts the review of Internet firewalls.This study has studied the function of Internet firewalls that through the analysis of literatures, and hopes to draw the conclusion that the effects of the Internet firewall on the development of Chinese democracy. This study first analyzes the literature through discourse analysis and structured focused comparison analysis, and then analyzes the function of Internet firewall through function analysis theory. The results show that China's Internet firewall is closely related to China's special political and economic structure.It may lead China to a deliberative democracy, but under a special political and economic structure, it is accompanied by great uncertainty.According to this study, a means of deliberative democracy is being established by the Internet firewall, but because of its continued existence, the special political environment in China may persist for a long period. / Peace and devlopment

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