The purpose of this research is to explore the relationship between city branding and community sport focusing on the role of citizens. Community sport means more than just organized sport events, covering all of physical activities, recreation, and leisure that are based on the region. Therefore, Community-based Sport and Recreational Physical Activity (CSRPA) is closely related to urban experience and quality of life of local residents. Specifically, the objectives of this research are to: (1) evaluate the perceptions of internal stakeholders of city branding through CSRPA; and (2) examine the possibility of considering CSRPA as branding opportunities. Participatory city branding theory provided the most relevant theoretical frameworks to shed light on co-creative image building process by leveraging citizens’ participation to CSRPA. The methodology used in the study was case study with the city of Ottawa, Canada. City representatives (n=17) took part in semi-structure interviews to elucidate their perceptions and lived experiences associated with Ottawa city branding. Citizens (n=127) participated in an online survey to express their voices surrounding city brands and sport participation. The findings of the study suggest that CSRPA constitutes an interesting opportunity to contribute to co-creative city branding by incorporating citizens’ voices and promoting collaborative public governance.

For those interested in studying the effects of stakeholder theory on organizational performance, the establishment of measures that represent both explicit and implicit claims on the firm’s outputs is vital. While net organizational capital (NOC) has been shown to represent the value of the firm after honouring implicit claims of stakeholder groups, practical application requires the use of surrogates such as net intangible assets (NIA). Attempts to extend research in this area by establishing additional surrogates, segment sales (SS) and research and development intensity (RD), which can be easily calculated and reflect operating characteristics of the organization being observed. Concludes that RD is a reasonable indicator of the firm’s NIA for both bond upgrade and downgrade situations, but that SS can be viewed as a surrogate for NIA during upgrade situations. Both, however, can provide great insights to the researcher and can be used to assist in classifying firms with respect to stakeholder group influence.

Firms which adapt new manufacturing technologies, such as flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) or computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) and concepts such as just-in-time (JIT), can expect to exert a significant influence on various stakeholder groups. Additionally, innovative accounting systems which are currently being developed to monitor and evaluate the performance of manufacturing systems will have a direct impact on certain stakeholder constituencies. Uses stakeholder theory as a basis for explaining the complex relationships among the firm and various constituencies or stakeholders. Major stakeholder groups include educators, auditors, trainers, line managers, human resource managers, suppliers, customers, stockholders, labour unions, the financial community, government, local community organizations, environmentalists, employees, directors, management and bondholders. The needs of the various groups are placed in the context of the new global competitive environment.

This study was conducted to theoretically develop and empirically test a structural equation model of tourism destination competitiveness from the tourism stakeholders'perspective. The proposed hypotheses that attempted to identify the structural relationships among the five constructs in the model were examined through a series of analyses in LISREL: 1) perceived tourism development impacts, 2) environmental attitudes, 3) place attachment, 4) development preferences about destination attractions/resources, and 5) support for destination competitive strategies The principle guideline of this study was that the support of tourism stakeholders for tourism planning and development is a key element for the successful operation, management, and long-term sustainability of tourism destinations. Tourism stakeholders' solid knowledge and experiences in tourism management and industry, professional involvement and participation in tourism planning and development, and long-term community observation and interactions have played an important role in tourism destination management. A total of 646 usable questionnaires were collected from randomly selected tourism stakeholders in the state of Virginia. From the results of hypotheses tests, tourism stakeholders' preferences about tourism attractions/ resources development are a function of perceived tourism development impacts as well as place attachment. The more stakeholders' preference for developing tourism attractions/resources, the more likely they were to support destination competitive strategies such as marketing efforts and activities, and destination management organizations' role. An additional finding that was not hypothesized indicated that tourism stakeholders, who have perceived benefits from tourism development, particularly in its economic and cultural aspects, are likely to support enhancement strategies for destination competitiveness. The implications of these findings can be applied to the enhancement of tourism destination competitiveness. / Ph. D.

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The aim of this thesis is to analyze the usability phenomena of sport arenas and what values it brings to different stakeholders. The thesis is a multiple case study of Olympia and Helsingborg Arena in Helsingborg city. Both arenas are built and owned by the municipality and are used for sports and entertainment purposes of various themes. The main stakeholders that have been part of the thesis are the Helsingborg municipality administration of School and Leisure administration (responsible of green surfaces at the arenas), HASAB (a municipally owned corporation that manages Helsingborg Arena), HISO (organization of local sport clubs in Helsingborg) and FC Helsingborg (an elite floorball club playing and training at Helsingborg Arena). For this study, a stakeholder model has been applied together with theoretical concepts of utilization, localization and efficiency & productivity to create a theoretical framework. This case study is a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews with key informants. Moreover, secondary data in reports and on websites connected to the different stakeholders have been analyzed and presented. Representatives have been interviewed from each organization and stakeholder in order to understand their view and perspective on usability with regard to Helsingborg Arena and Olympia. The results of this study presents an understanding that modern and new arenas create opportunities for more clubs to use advanced and better equipped venues for their activities and offers usability for other purposes than just sport-related activities. However, the results in this study shows us also that building new, modern sport arenas does not necessarily result in satisfactory usability for all actors. According to the results, the local clubs and schools tend to look for other sport venues due to the fact that they have to reschedule and change the venue for their activities when larger events occupy the arena. This leads to lower attractiveness for some stakeholders, which affects the usability of the arena. However, arenas of a high level increase attractiveness for producers and organizations to use the arenas for their products and competitions. Localization plays a decisive role for the accessibility of the sport arenas and creates a large sports oasis in the central of Helsingborg offering more than five sport halls at the same area. Keywords: usability, sport arenas, stakeholders, activity, accessibility, priority

Studien besvarar vilka typer av kommunikationsstrategier som är mest relevanta för att företag ska kunna påverka och förmedla kunskap om hållbar konsumtion. Studien utgår från signalteori och informationsasymmetri för att tydligt visa vilka strategier som är bäst för företag att använda sig av för att kommunicera externt. De strategier som studien tar upp är certifieringar, standarder & miljörevision, hållbarhetsredovisning & GRI, samarbete & FN:s globala hållbarhetsmål och slutligen miljömärkningar. Studien visar att samtliga strategier är en förutsättning för att företag ska kunna påverka och kommunicera ut kunskap om hållbar konsumtion samt att framhålla ett mer trovärdigt hållbarhetsarbete. Det framkom att de fyra undersökta företagen använde sig mer eller mindre av samtliga strategier men att inget av företagen använde sig av extern revision vilket skulle kunna hjälpa dem att öka trovärdigheten i sin kommunikation. / The study investigates which kind of communication strategies companies use to affect and to convey knowledge about a sustainable consumption. The study is based on signal theory and information asymmetry to clearly show which strategies are best for companies to use to communicate externally. The strategies included in the study are certifications, standards & environmental audit, sustainability report & GRI, cooperation & UN sustainable development goals and finally ecolabelling. The study shows that all strategies are a prerequisite for companies to influence and communicate knowledge about sustainable consumption; Furthermore, give more credible sustainability work. It turned out all four companies used more or less of all strategies, but none of the companies used external auditing, which could help them achieve more trustworthy communication.

Byggbranschen växer i en otrolig fart och på grund av byggbranschens stora framgång växer även konkurrensen mellan företagen vilket leder till att dessa strävar efter en ökad produktivitet. Tidigare undersökningar visar att det finns stor potential till att effektivisera informationsflödet under projekteringsfasen eftersom all information inte passerar genom projektportalen då det fortfarande används mejl och muntliga avtal. Därför är syftet med fallstudien att kartlägga informationsflödet mellan discipliner under bygghandlingsfasen för att analysera och identifiera de problem som finns. Till problemen presenteras verifierade lösningsförslag. För att utföra arbetet besvarades frågorna på hur ser informationsflödet ut i bygghandlingsfasen för sjukhusprojekt, vilka filformat med tillhörande program krävs samt hur kan informationsflödet förbättras? För att samla in informationen till arbetet användes fallstudie, intervjuer och litteraturstudie. Litteraturstudie har använts för att komplettera fallstudien och informationen som gavs av intervjuerna. Intervjuerna genomfördes med discipliner som är aktiva under bygghandlingsfasen. Fallstudien genomfördes genom analysering av en loggbok från en projektportal för sjukhusprojekt.Genom att ta fram och analysera ett generaliserat informationsflöde av sjukhusprojekt har man kommit fram till att discipliner är väldigt beroende av varandras arbete. Vidare orsakar konverteringar till IFC i många fall förluster av information i form av geometrier och areor. Genom att studera informationsflödet mer grundligt kom man fram till att projektportalen används i stor utsträckning till alla filer i sjukhusprojekt. Dock är antalet filer som hanteras väldigt många till antalet vilket gör det svårt för disciplinerna att hantera. Vidare såg man också att BIM-manualen är ett styrande dokument i sjukhusprojekt men läses och följs ändå inte i vissa fall.Sammanfattningsvis kom man fram till att den absolut största orsaken till problem i informationsflödet är människan eftersom många av problemen uppstår när en aktör av misstag gör något fel. / With the construction industry's great success lately, competition between the companies is also growing, which means that these aim at increased productivity. Therefore, one of the most important decisions to make in a construction project is how the information will flow between all involved parties. The purpose of this case study was to analyse and map information flow between disciplines during the design phase. Identified problems were verified and suggestions for improvements were made. A case study was used to understand which files were used in hospital projects. Interviews were performed to get information from individual discipline’s perspectives regarding information flow. In order to use relevant facts in the work, a literature study was carried out. The study concluded that converting a file can result in information losses of geometries, drawing layers and intelligent connections between objects. Most used file formats were IFC, RVT and DWG. Also, the information flow and dependencies between disciplines has been illustrated. This can cause faults with usage of different coordinates. Furthermore, many files are being uploaded to the project portal which in many cases results in difficulties with file management.

Leaders focus on the attainment of personal and organizational goals without consideration for the needs of stakeholders, especially those of followers. Ethical leadership (EL) studies' focus on leaders' perspectives represented a research gap that necessitated this study. Followers are the least researched among stakeholders; thus, this study explored EL from their viewpoints. Stakeholder theory, social learning theory, eudaimonia, and utilitarianism were the conceptual frameworks that guided this study. Twenty participants drawn from followers in a public organization in New Jersey were questioned about their experiences and expectations of EL using open-ended interview questions. Participants with shared experiences were selected based on convenience, snowball, and criterion sampling strategies. With the use of the transcendental phenomenological design, the data collected were analyzed with the Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen method and the two-cycle analysis. Knowledge, exemplarity, and democratic decision making were themes of EL that are relevant to followers. Other themes found in this study, including communication, stakeholders' wellbeing, impartiality, honesty, relationship building, responsibility, and humility, concur with extant literature and suggest consistency in the phenomenon. The potential social change implications of this study are an innovative and cooperative work environment, organizational success, and enhanced corporate social responsibility. Organizations and societies may benefit from the inculcation and development of EL in the family, society, tertiary institutions, and organizations through training, mentoring, and the development of an ethical culture.

Mining operations often cause environmental and social problems for communities. Efforts by major stakeholders in most developing countries to create and enforce an ethical framework for mining industry operations have been inconsistent. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study, which was based on stakeholder theory, was to explore stakeholders' perspectives on the implementation of environmental policies and mining operations in Zambia. Data collection involved semistructured interviews with a purposeful sample of 24 research participants from a copper mining company operating in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia, the government ministry for mining, energy, and water development, the environmental protection agency, an environmental nongovernmental organization, local media, and the residents of the mining town. Data analysis included compiling, examining, classifying, and searching the data for patterns. The findings indicate that unsustainable practices; enforcement and technological problems; and the lack of corporate social responsibility were the principal cause of environmental problems. The recommendations include increased community involvement, awareness, and government support; enforcement of environmental laws; adoption of corporate responsibility practices; and investment in new technology. Collaboration by stakeholder groups to adequately address environmental issues and enhance environmental sustainability is also imperative. The potential implications for positive social change include providing guidance for the environmental protection agency, mining organizational leaders, and the government to alleviate environmental problems associated with mining and improve the well-being of the people.