The starting point for this thesis project is the increasing intense demands of using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to improve the environmental performance of projects, i.e. theFive-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope project(FAST project) inChina. As a prevailing systematic and strategic assessment tool, LCA is used to evaluate and assess all environmental impacts of products, services and industrial processes from cradle to grave. It is also well recognized and practiced to achieve the goal of sustainability.   Following the increasing trend of sustainable development, the idea of conducting LCA technique is gaining more support from the governments, local authorities and institutes inChina. Still, recent researches have only focused on the technical issues of this tool as such, rather than the context it is involved in. To give a broader perspective instead, this thesis focuses on how to make the rankings and quantitative eco-files generated from LCAs be understood more effectively and easily by the decision makers. An effective and comprehensive map of life cycle assessment building on the results of life cycle assessment is presented.This map in this thesis is named as CLCA. Through ranking and mapping the complicated and recondite environmental performance information from the LCAs, a holistic and systematic view can be provided to the decision makers. Thus, to some extent, this CLCA approach can lend support to strategic decisions making and sustainable development.   For this purpose, literature on LCA and literature from relevant disciplines are reviewed. The empirical analysis of FAST project sheds light on that it is necessary to develop a new method that can contribute to convertingcomplicated and reconditedata into a comprehensive and visualized one. Therefore, a survey paper based on the literature review and empirical analysis is designed, distributed and collected. Some influential and necessary essentials of the LCA reports for the decision makers are picked out and summarized in accordance with the results of survey papers. This thesis concludes by presenting a new map of LCA reports and suggestions for further research.

BACKGROUND: When it comes to corporate decision making, the traditional rational model suggests that deliberative analysis yields good results. Thus, when contemplating strategic moves, executives are “required” to conduct deliberative analyses. As today’s business environment is becoming increasingly complex and fast-paced, however, executives often face the dilemma of having to make carefully considered strategic decisions on the one hand and not having enough time on the other hand. Intuition offers an efficient solution in this situation. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to investigate how corporate executives employ both rationality and intuition in making strategic decisions under uncertain, complex and time-pressured circumstances. RESEARCH METHOD: We conducted three face-to-face interviews with executives from three companies in Sweden. Each interview lasted around one hour.    RESULTS: Drawing on previous psychological and managerial research, we argue that rationality and intuition are better viewed as being complementary rather than separate. Findings from the study suggest that intuition could serve as an effective and efficient means for managers to make strategic decisions; and that intuition indeed plays a role in strategic decision making under complex, uncertain and time limited contexts.

Many business schools teach the importance of using strategy tools when engaging in strategizing activities. Despite this fact there is an ongoing debate concerning what is taught in business schools and what is actually used in practice. In spite of this debate there has been little research done regarding how these strategy tools are used in practice. This study seeks to address this through the adoption of a strategy as practice perspective which helped to identify what is actually practiced by managers while engaging in strategizing activities. Managers use strategy to respond to complex forces (social, political, economic) in their business environments. However to develop and implement strategy encompasses a full range of strategizing activities such as strategic thinking, strategic analysis, strategic decision making and implementation. Many business schools teach strategy tools are techniques which managers use to structure and influence strategizing activities. Previous research on strategy tools played emphasis on the benefits that can be derived if tools are used in different context. Others have highlighted the frequency of tool usage. Nevertheless, there is a need to make a review what is taught and how strategy tools are used in practice. A qualitative study was conducted in two universities through the use of semi structured interviews to gather data. The use of an inductive and interpretivism perspective through a case study helped the researcher identify the context in which events were taking place. The choice of a small yet deliberate sample size was done to focus in on the various levels of management within these universities and to review how strategy tools were used at these levels. After each interview the interviewees were given a list of 15 strategy tools (all of which were taught in the researcher’s masters programme) to identify whether they used any of the strategy tools on the list and if they did how did they use them. It was noted from the empirical data acquired that quite often strategy tools were not always being used for the purpose for which they were taught nevertheless managers were altering components of various tools to meet their individual business needs. Strategy tools were often used to assist in strategic thinking and strategic decision making. Managers’ perception of strategy tools affected the extent to which tools were used and the frequency of usage. While strategy tools were often used for growth and development, communication and persuasion and best practices it was its use in sense-making and evaluation which indicated that there is a need for a greater understanding into how managers make sense of strategy tools. The study answers how strategy tools are used in practice in a university context by giving illustrations and quotations from the various interviewees regarding strategy tools.

This thesis focuses on exploring the problems and difficulties that Taiwanese-owned enterprises confront when they enter China market. Past studies on Taiwan companies entering China market lays great emphasis on the discussion of successful experiences and models. However, many actual illustrations of Taiwanese-owned enterprises suffering a setback have cautioned the follow-up Taiwan companies that the potential uncertainty and risk of China market are major factors of many strategic failing. Moreover, many individual relative factors affect the strategic responses of decision maker that can accommodate the inside and outside organizational environment well or not. Accordingly, through the gathering of a large number of secondary information and personal interviews, this study expects to provide a clearer macro-framework of how previous Taiwan companies¡¦ make incorrect and failing decisions with a practical method and help clarify the relationship among the errors. Additionally, this study tends to draw a valuable and meaningful conclusion from the process of data collecting and analysis. In accordance with the first research objective ¡V attributing and categorizing the factors that caused many complicated illustrations of Taiwan companies¡¦ failing, this study uses the decision-making framework to clarify the context. The decision-making framework can be divided into three parts, including decision makers, decision-making context, and decision-making process. The major influential factors of error derive from the decision maker and decision-making context. The third part, the errors of the decision-making process, are engendered and influenced by the former two parts, and thus will not be discussed much here. After classifying and grouping the factors of decision-making errors, this study further combines two parts, the error classification and the different types of enterprises, illustrate with a two-axes frame to clearly explain how a Taiwan enterprise with different conditions can relative seriously to the possibility of making mistakes and obstacle in China market. Major types of Taiwan enterprises include four parts: the entry timing¡Bthe investment orientation t¡Bthe composition of ownership and the business scale. The research findings are summarized as following, 1. The entry timing: As the time changes, government¡¦s attitude, investment environment and tendency, all are the very important thing affect to the bargaining power of any enterprises. What Taiwan enterprises that entry China market in different timing have concerned are quite different, even the possibility of making serious errors. 2. Investment orientation¡GThe enterprises are classified into two types ¡V orientation of China market selling and orientation of manufacture for export. Apparently, the two types of decision makers are quite different in risk-taking and risk- evaluating. As to the whole, the enterprises that focus on China market selling are more likely to engender several problems, such as consuming culture accommodation, distribution, and employee management problems. Compared with the other type, problem in capital uncertainty are apt to occur. 3. Composition of ownership: Compared with decision makers in joint venture, decision makers in ventures exclusively with his own investment have more right to act on their own. Because many difficulties are such serious that enterprises should not make, most Taiwanese-owned enterprises are more likely to enter China market in 100% ownership. 4. Business scale¡GCompared with the large scale of Taiwanese enterprises¡¦ decision makers, the medium and small companies¡¦ decision makers are more likely to make decisions quickly, adapt themselves to the changes, and prefer risks. Relatively, with the support of more resources, the large Taiwanese enterprises¡¦ decision makers could draw up their strategic planning of China step by step with rational ways. Compared with the medium and small enterprises, large enterprises have more bargaining power, and are likely to establish long-term relationship with the government. However, the medium and small enterprises still have their advantage in local government relationship and much closer to local consumer preference. All enterprises with different scale may have their own advantages and disadvantages. Despite that they both are confronted with the problem of joint venture and competition, the actual problems occurred are not the same. In the issue of the capital uncertainty, most large enterprises face more serious problems because many strategic blueprint of large enterprises need the support of a large amount of capital. If the enterprise has inappropriate arrangement or incorrect estimation, some capital issue may emerge.

<p>The main purpose of this research is to use Hermeneutic research approach to find out how Decision Support System (DSS) is used in banks and financial services. The research started from one stance, from which the further process could be extended to reach more complete picture of Decision Support System’s usage in strategic decision makings in banks. The research is also trying to find out the drawbacks and benefits of the DSS which have been used nowadays in banks. Furthermore, the future improvements of using DSS to make better decisions related with moral and different environments are also being discussed in the research findings.</p><p>During the primary data collection, resources from different channels have been used to support the research. The primary data sources include lectures and discussion in three banks’ visiting opportunities in Stockholm, Sweden, one interview with IT Vice president from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, New York, two interviews with a professor and a director respectively from Lund University and Financial Services Innovation Centre in University College Cork, Ireland.</p><p>Experiences from both academic and practical have been shared to strength the research’s validity and trustworthiness. Hermeneutic research approach addresses through the whole research process which needs to be open-minded and flexible.</p><p>Unawareness of DSS for people who are working in banks is one of the issues today. Different embedded models regarding various functions are not so clear to bank staff; thus there is a gap between human decisions and system decisions. There is a variation of requirements between central banks, retail banks, commercial banks, investment banks. Hence there should be a differentiation when implementing a system. Banking systems are widespread systems which are influenced by environment factors, political, economic, socio-cultural and technological variables.</p>

Researchers have increasingly directed attention to the importance of emotions in decision making. Recent theories have focused on the interpersonal effects of emotions--the influence of the decision maker's expressed emotions on observers' decisions and judgments. In the current research, we examine people's expectations of how incidental, discrete emotions affect behavior. We also study how these expectations affect decisions in interactive settings, and contrast them with how emotions actually impact other people's behavior.These ideas were tested in four studies. In Study 1a, participants (N = 58) answered a questionnaire asking their perceptions of how different emotions affect behavior. In Study 1b, participants (N = 203) read a number of hypothetical scenarios in which different interactions between them and another person took place. Studies 2 (N = 98) and 3 (N = 132) were two economic games -- a Stag-Hunt game and a Trust Game -- involving decisions with non-trivial financial consequences.Across these four studies, I found that people do have strong beliefs about how incidental emotions affect behaviors. Because of these beliefs, when told about their counterparts' emotional state, people in interactive settings modify their behavior. The impact of people's beliefs on behavior, however, was more consistent for negative emotions such as anger and fear, than for positive emotions such as happiness and gratitude. These findings also indicate that people are sensitive to the different effects of different emotions: different negative emotions such as guilt and anger have different effects on their expectations. Finally, I found that people's expectations about how their counterparts' emotions affect behavior can be inaccurate in specific settings.

TransCanada Corporation has proposed the Keystone XL pipeline project to transfer crude bitumen from the oil sand fields in northern Alberta, Canada, to oil refineries located in the southern part of the United States. This project has created controversy at the national level in the US and Canada and at the international level. The existence of various stakeholders with differing wants and needs has embroiled the Keystone XL in a complicated strategic dispute. This dispute was initially ignited by the potential project’s negative environmental impacts. However, economic and political issues have also played a critical role in further complicating the decision process. The objective of this study is to design a strategic decision-making system for use in assessing the Keystone XL conflict with standard and perceptual graph model methods. Standard graph model analysis consists of various steps. After identifying the decision makers (DMs) subjectively, their options and preferences are determined. Then, possible scenarios or combinations of options for these DMs are evaluated. In the next step, based on rules called solution concepts, a standard stability analysis is conducted. The perceptual graph model technique, on the other hand, considers the emotions and perceptions of DMs in a conflict to assess the existing dynamics among them. Although this technique takes its basic structure from the standard graph model technique, it presents unique insights into each DM’s perspectives toward the conflict and other DMs. This technique has been used in this study to understand how the awareness of one DM regarding other DMs’ perceptions can change reactions and strategies under different conditions regarding the Keystone XL conflict.

The demand for forensic social work as a specialist field is increasing rapidly, due to the increasing moral decline of the community and consequent higher demands set to generic social workers. Amendments to existing acts as well as the development of new legislation, lead to more opportunity for the prosecution of the perpetrator, and therefore a higher utilization of the forensic social worker. A need was experienced to do research regarding the gaps experienced by social workers or any other workers who are currently executing forensic assessments with the sexually traumatised child. The aim of the investigation was to determine which gaps social workers experience in the field when assessing a child forensically. A recording procedure was used to obtain qualitative as well as quantitative data. A purposive sampling was used were interviews were held with five participants to obtain the data. A selfdeveloped questionnaire was used as measuring instrument. It is clear from the findings that there are definite gaps within the field of forensic social work and the need of further research within the field of forensic social work in South Africa is highlighted. / Thesis (MIng (Mechanical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

The demand for forensic social work as a specialist field is increasing rapidly, due to the increasing moral decline of the community and consequent higher demands set to generic social workers. Amendments to existing acts as well as the development of new legislation, lead to more opportunity for the prosecution of the perpetrator, and therefore a higher utilization of the forensic social worker. A need was experienced to do research regarding the gaps experienced by social workers or any other workers who are currently executing forensic assessments with the sexually traumatised child. The aim of the investigation was to determine which gaps social workers experience in the field when assessing a child forensically. A recording procedure was used to obtain qualitative as well as quantitative data. A purposive sampling was used were interviews were held with five participants to obtain the data. A selfdeveloped questionnaire was used as measuring instrument. It is clear from the findings that there are definite gaps within the field of forensic social work and the need of further research within the field of forensic social work in South Africa is highlighted. / Thesis (MIng (Mechanical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Although there has been rich research conducted into the interrelated issues and factors among change management (ChM), knowledge management (KM) and project management (PM), most existing studies attempt to understand the role of KM in ChM and PM in general. Given the fundamental role played by KM in supporting IT project-oriented change management, the topics of knowledge networks and mobilisation across knowledge boundaries are relatively unexplored. Recent developments in KM have heightened the need for more understanding on four main issues: 1) insufficient knowledge traceability based on the relationships between knowledge elements and key factors; 2) most decision issues in PM are related to uncertainty, complexity and implicit ambiguity, particularly with regard to systematics and interrelatedness within project decisions; 3) lack of procedural knowledge to provide strategic direction for managing multiple IT projects; 4) lack of ‘lessons learnt’ documentation in knowledge bases. To address these issues, this research attempts to analyse KM, ChM and IT project management from a more integrated perspective, and investigates the development of a change management knowledge network model (CMKNM) in IT projects to facilitate knowledge mobilisation across organizational boundaries. The study employs a practice-based perspective by adopting both deductive and inductive approaches using an exploratory case study strategy. Empirical data were collected from semistructured interviews and company documents. A combination of thematic analysis and comparative analysis has been employed to analyse the data collected across seven public organisations, private organisations, and international companies. Results are obtained from the empirical study on the key factors influencing knowledge mobilisation in IT projectoriented change management, knowledge networks and connections. The results identified organisational factors and their influence on knowledge channels and knowledge networks. The CMKNM allows key knowledge mobilisation factors to be aligned with each other. Connections between knowledge networks allow knowledge to be mobilised by tracing knowledge channels to support ChM decisions. The study contributes to organisational and KM theories regarding organizational strategy, organisational culture, organizational capacity, knowledge network externalities, knowledge network intermediaries, and knowledge network infrastructure.