Sex tech entrepreneurship navigates shifting societal norms, rapid technological innovation, and complex regulatory frameworks, presenting unique ethical and outsidership challenges. Despite valuable insights from the broader sex and tech industries on overcoming these barriers to mainstream markets, research specific to sex tech remains scarce. The initial aim is to qualitatively explore the experiences of sex tech entrepreneurs and their stakeholders, focusing on the ethical challenges and mainstream outsidership. The second aim is to discover the strategies used by sex tech startups and their stakeholders to overcome ethical and outsidership barriers to access mainstream markets. Drawing upon recorded video data from the Sx Tech Eu Conference 2023 of 15 sex tech entrepreneurs and their stakeholders, this qualitative phenomenological research explored and analysed the raw data with an inductive thematic analysis using NVivo. Three core themes emerged, including being pushed to the margins by misguided policies that censor broad swathes, overcoming barriers to the mainstream with common ground and startup common sense, and cultivating a safe haven that fortifies the sex tech ecosystem. While further research is needed on sex tech startups facing stigma and censorship, effective strategies for mainstream success are already in play.

A public-private partnership (PPP) is a collaborative partnership between the publicsector and a private entity. The adoption of PPPs has risen throughout the years, utilizedfor developing cultural infrastructure. With the increase in opting for PPPs, the numberof failed PPPs has shown to be due to inefficient risk management procedures. This thesisdelves into the realm of public-private partnerships (PPPs) and examines the integrationof stakeholder management in the risk identification process, aiming to answer thefollowing research question: How do the public sector and private sector in a public-private partnership respectivelyconsider stakeholder management when identifying risks? Through a qualitative single case study of a PPP project in Sweden, the research aims toprovide insights into how key actors in PPPs consider stakeholders when identifyingrisks. The study emphasizes the importance of stakeholder theory in enhancing riskidentification practices within the context of collaborative ventures. By exploring thecomplexities of PPPs and the dynamics of stakeholder engagement, this researchcontributes to the existing literature on effective partnership arrangements and riskmanagement in public-private partnerships (PPPs). The findings highlight thesignificance of incorporating stakeholder perspectives in risk identification strategies tofoster successful outcomes in PPP projects. To answer the research question, semi-structured interviews were conducted with thepublic and private entity involved in the PPP chosen for the case study. This study notonly offers theoretical implications for understanding the interplay between stakeholdertheory and risk management but also provides practical insights for organizations seekingto establish and maintain successful PPPs. The research underscores the critical role ofclear project objectives, defined partnership responsibilities, communication, andcollaboration in sustaining long-term partnerships. By bridging the gap betweenstakeholder theory and risk management, the study offers a theoretical contribution forunderstanding how stakeholder engagement can enhance risk identification strategies in PPP projects. Overall, this thesis contributes to advancing knowledge on stakeholder considerations inPPPs and offers recommendations for enhancing risk identification measures incollaborative ventures.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis has been to investigate how companies report non-financial information and specifically volatile subjects such as technology. There are several different new technologies that all have different maturities which can affect how they are reported in annual reports. This thesis aims to understand how reporting of technology is affected by innovation, investments and stakeholder expectations. Theoretical perspectives: Stakeholder theory has been used as a primary theoretical background and framework, in conjunction with agency theory to gain a deeper theoretical understanding of non-financial reporting. Methodology: 30 annual reports from five years (2018-2022) and six tech-companies listed on the Swedish stock market have been content analysed with the use of a variation of keyword frequency analysis. The sample companies represent different segments within the tech-industry to provide the thesis with a wider perspective. Furthermore, the method of this thesis has been a mixture between a positivist ontology with constructivist epistemology and the chosen theories has been used in an abductive manner where findings are reflected against the theories. Additionally, the method of data collection has been a mixture between quantitative and qualitative methods, where qualitative data has been quantified and analysed graphically. Findings: The findings indicate that the sample companies seem to be aware of their stakeholders' perception of them as tech-companies, which affect how they report on technology. It is likely that tech-companies increasingly report on new technologies to maintain their perception as tech-companies. Furthermore, the findings suggest that companies report more heavily on technologies when investments into the given technology have been made. The findings are in line with concepts from both agency theory and stakeholder theory.

This study explored the feasibility of developing community-based homestay tourism in Nigeria. Stakeholder theory was used to develop a strategy to ideally develop homestay tourism in the local communities, using Old Oyo National Park in Oyo State as a case study context. The approach entails assessing practicability and acceptability, the operational feasibility, and the potential outcome of developing community-based homestay tourism. A qualitative research design was deployed to capture credible results for this study, which entailed engaging tourism stakeholders through a focus group discussion data collection method conducted via Zoom. The participants were purposefully selected based on their experience in the tourism industry and their willingness to participate in the study. The various groups of stakeholders who provided data during the focus group discussion were academia, tour operators, NGOs, and local community stakeholder groups, respectively. The results showed that Nigeria's tourism state is at its lowest level due to a lack of funding, government attention, and insecurity. It was confirmed that the development of community-based homestay tourism would be practicable in Nigeria provided all stakeholders collaborated to formulate enabling tourism policies, agreed to co-manage, put into consideration the plight of the locals, and ensured the locals held a relevant position within the homestay management committee, were funded, and created effective strategies to market and promote the destination. For homestay tourism to be accepted in the local communities, the benefits must be communicated to the potential operators, the local culture must be respected, and economic benefits must be shared with equity.

Master of Science / Department of Communications and Agricultural Education / Jason D. Ellis / Agricultural sustainability is a growing concern for the general public because of agriculture’s considerable use of land, water, and other natural resources. In response to this growing concern, companies have started to publish sustainability reports to highlight sustainable practices. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of sustainability reporting from companies in the agri-food supply chain. The research objectives of this study were (1) determine the prevalence of sustainability reporting among food system companies, (2) identify, to what extent, the three components of the triple bottom line model are represented in sustainability reports, (3) determine if/how sustainability reporting differs among sectors of the agriculture supply chain, (4) assess how companies describe stakeholder engagement in sustainability reports, and (5) explore which aspects of reputation are included in sustainability reports. In total, 66 agribusinesses were included in this study of which 16 had published sustainability reports. Data for the quantitative content analysis were collected using a scorecard based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. Results indicated that sustainability reporting is limited among companies involved in the agriculture and food supply chain. Though better than sectors studied in previous research, agribusinesses also struggle to explain stakeholder engagement and need to focus sustainability report content to align more closely with the three components of the triple bottom line model – environment, economic, and social.

This study focused on Corporate Community Involvement Disclosures (CCID), a theme usually disclosed under Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures (CSRD) in annual reports. The primary aim of the research is to investigate the genuineness and raison d'être of CCID in annual reports. To do this the researcher adopted a holistic approach employing an extensive theoretical framework, which integrates Legitimacy, Stakeholder, Agency, Signalling and Semiotics theories and asking three main research questions. Firstly, what are the motivations for CCID in annual reports? Secondly, what is the information content of CCID in annual reports? And lastly, how real is CCID in annual reports? That is can CCID be read and construed as a real measure of corporate community development (CCD)? Using content analysis and a quality score index the study examined a panel dataset covering the period from 1999 to 2009. The data was collected from a sample of 803 annual reports of 73 UK companies taken from the FTSE 350 companies and cutting across all ten industries of the Industrial Classification Benchmark (ICB) Index. Generally the study is more of a quantitative study with hypotheses developed and tested with panel data regression models in order to provide answers to the three research questions. However, due to the sensitivity of the third research question, in addition to panel regression, the researcher performed a qualitative analysis of question three using semiotics. The study provided evidence to show that CCID as disclosed in annual reports have an undertone of reputation/impression management like other CSR disclosures (CSRD). The community activities reported do not seem to address the expectations of the local communities per se; rather the disclosures seemed to be targeted at a wider stakeholder group that is likely to offer immediate reward for such disclosures. Similarly result from semiotic analysis revealed that signification of reality is either doubtful or unreal for most companies sampled. The study is unique as it is the first to explore the reality of CCID as it appears in annual reports using a combination of a panel study approach and semiotics. In addition a major contribution of the study is that it explored the ways in which multiple theoretical underpinnings can inform research by developing a CCID Meta-theory model and thus provided a robust and enriched analysis and unique insights into the CCID phenomenon.

Titel: Finansiella målsättningar inom årsredovisningar – En kvantitativ studie av svenska börsbolag Nivå: C-uppsats i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Andreas Hamrén och Nils Ryngmark Handledare: Arne Fagerström Datum: 2016 – januari Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva och jämföra skillnader angående finansiella målsättningar i årsredovisningar samt hur förutbestämda faktorer påverkar dessa skillnader.   Metod: Studien har en kvantitativ metod som utgår från en deduktiv ansats. Insamlingen av data har skett från årsredovisningar, som sedan ställts mot tidigare forskning och teorier. Dokumenten har granskats med en innehållsanalys för att sedan undersökas genom korrelationsanalyser som presenteras tillsammans med resultatet. De oberoende variablerna som studien utgått ifrån är bransch, storlek, antal styrelseledamöter, lönsamhet och skuldsättningsgrad. Resultat och slutsats: Studiens resultat tydliggör flertalet skillnader och likheter gällande finansiella målsättningar. De slutsatser som dras utifrån de statistiska testerna är att storlek och skuldsättningsgrad hade signifikanta samband med antalet finansiella målsättningar. Styrelseledamöter visade ett svagare samband, medan lönsamhet inte hade någon korrelation. Den deskriptiva variabeln bransch åskådliggjorde stora skillnader mellan segmenten och gav en bild av tillhörighetens betydelse för differensen. Uppsatsen bidrag: Det praktiska bidraget ger en bild över förekomsten av finansiella målsättningar på Stockholmsbörsen samt vilka typer av mål som är vanligast förekommande. Bidraget kan ge ett förslag till nynoterade bolag i uppbyggnadsfasen angående i vilken utsträckning marknaden presenterar målsättningar. Det teoretiska bidraget kan stärka intressent- och signaleringsteorins betydelse gällande frekvensen av målsättningar. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Förslag till vidare forskning är att komplimentera studien med intervjuer, detta för att få en uppfattning av de bakomliggande faktorerna till utformandet av målsättningarna. Ett ytterligare förslag är att inkludera exempelvis den danska börsen som är liknande den svenska för att finna avvikelser mellan företagskulturerna. Nyckelord: Finansiella målsättningar, frivillig information, framåtblickande information, årsredovisningar, asymmetrisk information, intressentteorin, signaleringsteorin / Title: Financial targets in annual reports – a quantitative study of swedish listed companies Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Author: Andreas Hamrén and Nils Ryngmark Supervisor: Arne Fagerström Date: 2016 - January Aim: The purpose of this study is to describe and compare differences regarding the financial objectives in the annual reports and how predetermined factors influence the differences. Method: This study has a quantitative method based on a deductive approach. Data have been collected from annual reports, which are then set against previous research and theories. The documents were reviewed by a content analysis then examined by correlation analysis and presented along with the results. The independent variables of the study were industry, company size, number of board members, profitability and debt ratio. Result and conclusion: The result of the study make clear majority of the differences and similarities regarding financial objectives. The conclusions drawn on the basis of the statistical tests are that the size and debt ratio have a significant correlation with the number of financial objectives. Board members showed a weaker correlation, while profitability had no correlation at all. The descriptive variable industry illustrated the large differences between the segments and gave a picture of the importance of industry affiliation. Contribution of the thesis: The practical contribution illustrates the occurrence of financial targets on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and the types of goals that are most common. The contribution may give proposals to new listed companies in the construction phase regarding the extent to which the market presents the objectives. The theoretical contribution can give strength to the importance of stakeholder and signaling theory regarding the frequency of objectives. Suggestions for future research: Suggestions for further research is to implement studies with interviews, in order to gain an understanding of the underlying incentives of the financial objectives. A further proposal is to include, for example, the Danish stock exchange that is similar to the Swedish in order to find similarities and differences between corporate cultures. Key words: Financial objectives, goals, voluntary information, forward-looking information, annual reports, asymmetric information, stakeholder theory, signaling theory

Oron över de miljömässiga effekterna av företags handlingar har ökat, och således även miljö­arbetet för en hållbar framtid. Företag kan arbeta med miljöfrågor på flera olika sätt och miljö­arbete blir vanligare inom små och medelstora företag. Fastighetsbranschen har stor energiförbrukning, många farliga kemiska produkter och hög generering av fast avfall, vilket resulterar i miljöpåverkningar. Fastighetsbranschens miljöpåverkan resulterar i att miljöfrågor borde vara viktiga för företag i branschen.   Syftet med studien är att identifiera och beskriva vilka av de proaktiva motivationskällorna: personliga värderingar, intressenternas påtryckningar, legitimitetsskapande och konkurrensfördelar, som är anledningen till att miljöarbete initierades, pågår och redovisas i fyra kommunala små och medelstora fastighetsföretag i Skaraborg. För att uppfylla studiens syfte samlades empiriskt material in från fyra kommunala fastighetsföretag: Tidaholms Bostads AB, AB Karlsborgsbostäder, AB Bostäder Lidköping och AB Skövdebostäder. Det empiriska materialet samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med informanter med olika befattningar, samt granskning av årsredovisningar från 2014. Studiens resultat och slutsats är att motivationen till varför miljöarbete initierades och pågår till viss del har förändrats. Motivationskällan till att det initierades hos alla företagen är personliga värderingar hos personal. Motivationskällorna till det pågående miljöarbetet är hos alla företag personliga värderingar hos personal och intressenternas påtryckningar från personal. I ett av företagen är dessutom motivationskällan konkurrensfördelar motivation till det pågående arbetet. Motivationskällan intressenternas påtryckningar från ägare är också till grund för det pågående miljöarbetet i ett av företagen. Vår slutsats är också att motivationskällan till att kommunala fastighetsföretag redovisar miljöarbete är legitimitetsskapande, vilket innebär att motivationskällan till redovisning och miljöarbete är olika. / The concerns over how activities of enterprises have affected the environment have increased, and therefore enterprises environmental activities have increased to reach a sustainable future. Enterprises can work with environmental issues in several ways, and environmental work is becoming more common in SMEs. The business of real estate has large energy consumption, several hazardous chemicals and a high generation of solid waste, resulting in affecting the environment. Environmental issues should be important for enterprises in the business of real estate, because of the environmental impact the business have.  The purpose of this study is to identify and describe which of the proactive motivations: personal values, stakeholder pressure, legitimation and competitive advantages, that is the reason to why environmental activities were initiated, occurs and reports in four municipal   real estate SMEs in Skaraborg. Empirical material was collected from four municipal real estate companies: Tidaholms Bostads AB, AB Karlsborgsbostäder, AB Bostäder Lidköping and AB Skövdebostäder to fulfil the purpose. The empirical material was collected through semi-structured interviews with informants with different positions, and examination of annual reports from 2014. The result and conclusion of the study is that the motivations of why environmental activities were initiated and occurs have, to some extent, changed. The proactive motivation for the initiation of the activities in all companies is staffs’ personal values. The motivations of why environmental activities occur in all companies is staffs’ personal values and stakeholder pressure from the staff. The motivation, competitive advantages, is in one of the companies a motivation to the occurring environmental activities. Stakeholder pressure from owners is in one of the companies a motivation to the occurring environmental activities. Our conclusion is also that the motivation to the reporting of environmental activities in municipal real estate businesses is legitimation, resulting in the motivations to report and environmental activities differ.

The Swedish Initiative on Sustainable Palm Oil in food and cosmetic and detergent industries hasemerged in 2014 following other EU national initiatives. This thesis project aims to explore thecondition of the initiative by examining who the key important stakeholders are and how these palmoil key stakeholders in Swedish market develop and implement their Sustainable Palm OilInitiatives. A qualitative approach using case study technique is used to guide the study andsupported by a combination of several theoretical frameworks, such as stakeholders’ theory and thevalue chain concept to address the research questions. Rooted from six organizations as study cases,the study found that the key important stakeholders for these organizations in developing andimplementing the initiatives are retailers, suppliers, consumers, trade associations, and Non-Governmental Organizations. Furthermore, the study also found that these six organizations useethical sourcing tool based on Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certification scheme toimplement the Initiative in their respective member companies. As authorisers, the Swedish FoodFederation and the Swedish Cosmetics, Detergents and Toiletries Association developed Palm OilWorking Group and a simple platform for their member companies both in Swedish food andcosmetic and detergent industries in order to spread and manage the initiative. Världsnaturfonden,on the other hand serves as an external influencer that conducts lobbying and facilitations to supportSwedish companies to use certified segregated palm oil products to drive responsible palm oilproduction. The results show that Kicks, Croda, and Fazer facilitate the operationalization of ethicalsourcing initiative throughout their primary and supporting value chain activities. In addition,intertwined relationship between upstream and downstream parts of palm oil supply chain networksinfluences the outcome of the Swedish Initiative on Sustainable Palm Oil in spreading the initiativetoward market transformation in Sweden.

摘要 司馬庫斯村，一個位於新竹縣山區的偏僻村莊，在過去幾年來為自己建立了一 個口盃，不僅成為著名的觀光景點，也是台灣在地生態旅遊的榜樣。而在漫長 的觀光發展過程中，仍然能夠保有其主體性則是其獨有的特色。本研究旨在論 證司馬庫斯族人，如何在眾多利害關係方的糾葛下，依舊能維持其對生態旅遊 的堅持。本文將針對三個不同的，分別由總體層面(非政府組織 (NGOs)、政府 機關、觀光客、私人投資者，以及學者）與個體層面 (村落長老、家庭以及教 會)，闡述司馬庫斯與各個外部利害關係人間的互動及其影響。本文主要立基於 二手文獻，但也包含了部份原始資料，例如訪談記錄及報章文獻。本文透過個 體及總體層面闡明各個利害關係方間的衝擊、變化及發展。在研究過程中有數 個重大的發現，首先，社群的凝聚–包括在地教會的支持，以及一位深具個人魅 力的村落長老–對文化及傳統的關注、對自決的重視、許多不同面向上的賦權 (empowerment)及對觀光發展過程的掌控，是司馬庫斯村民們能夠維持其對生態 旅遊的堅持的主要原因。其次，本案體現了透過對挑戰的克服，及對信仰與傳 統的信心，成功實現了替代發展。 / Abstract Smangus Village, a remote community in the mountains of Hsinchu County, has made a name for itself in the last few years. It has become a famous tourist destination and role model for successful indigenous ecotourism business in Taiwan. The power to maintain subjectivity during a long process of tourism development is its trademark. This study will demonstrate how the people of Smangus could maintain their way of tourism business even though they had to tangle with various stakeholders. To illustrate the influence and interaction of various external stakeholders with the village, this thesis will investigate from the macro level (Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), government agencies, private investors, tourists, and scholars) and the micro level (the village leader, families and the church) across three different time periods. The research is mainly based on secondary literature however it also includes primary sources such as interviews and articles from Taiwanese newspapers. The thesis illuminates impact, change, and development in terms of each stakeholder at both micro and macro levels. This examination made important discoveries about the successful implementation of indigenous ecotourism. The research concludes, firstly, that (a.) coherence in the community which includes a supportive church and a charismatic village chief, (b.) the focus on culture and traditions, (c.) emphasis on self-determination, (d.) the empowerment in various dimensions, and (e.) the ability to exercise power over the tourism development process are the main reasons why the people of Smangus can maintain their way of tourism business. Secondly, it exemplifies a case which was able to achieve alternative development through overcoming challenges and faith in their beliefs and traditions.