Lone-parent families were in the news in 1993 as never before. The Child Support Agency, and the question of lone-parent families' entitlement to state support were the feature of many news reports. This study examines this media coverage and, using concepts from agenda-setting and issue definition literature, examines the roles that political actors have played in the construction of these media reports. A content analysis of a complete sample of 77ie Times and 7he Sunday Times comprises the primary analytical method, with a policy process framework organising the analysis. It has been found that government ministers played the greatest part in setting the media agendas for these and other issues. It seems that other actors can be successful in shaping coverage, however, if they make use of certain tactics, particularly if they provide 'ready-packaged' stories to journalists that combine a human interest element (involving 'real' people) with a political slant. By mobilising on a mass level absent fathers were able to provide such stories and were thus able to take control of press coverage of the Child Support Agency. The lone parents' groups Gingerbread and the National Council for One Parent Families, on the other hand, found mobilisation and particularisation more difficult due to the social and economic situation of their client group - nine out of ten lone parents are women, and around eight out of ten claim income support benefits - and for this reason were less successful in shaping either coverage of the Child Support Agency, or of lone-parent families and their right to state support.

With the entrepreneurial milieu in Linnaeus University (Växjö), students are encouraged to get involved in entrepreneurial activities. The number of student entrepreneurs has been increasing recent years. However, there is a blank in the study of student entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial education system and the features of student entrepreneurs are the focus of the research about student entrepreneurs. At the same time, no sufficient study has been done about student entrepreneurs’ usage of the business support that could be offered to them. By studying student entrepreneurs’ situation, their relationship with support agencies, their selection of business support and the way they use the support, the research question ”how do student entrepreneurs use support agencies” will be answered by the end of this thesis.

We see an increasing need for more entrepreneurs to match the changing nature of the globe in this dynamic world. In 2012, the Swedish government considered entrepreneurship to be a theme running throughout the entire educational system. The university is one place to develop the entrepreneurial spirit, especially among students. Universities play a very important role in enhancing national development because of their central role in the production of high-level manpower and research that are necessary for achieving national goals. Through research, universities generate new knowledge and understanding that are instrumental for developing new technology and promoting information transfer. Most international students experience three levels of shock: culture shock, language shock and academic shock. Sohrabpour et al. (2013) defined these shocks as a disease suffered by those who enter a new cultural environment. In this paper, we discussed the role that the university plays in supporting international students to develop entrepreneurial ideas and become established at Linnea University in Växjö. We believed that if being an international student poses challenges, launching an entrepreneurial venture is sure to have even more complex constraints that will potentially kill their entrepreneurial spirit. Thus, we examined the support facilities that are available to help international students start their entrepreneurial ventures and how they are experiencing these facilities at universities. We took Linnea University in Växjö as a case study.

p. 1 - 143 / Submitted by Santiago Fabio (fabio.ssantiago@hotmail.com) on 2013-01-22T18:12:43Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2222.pdf: 498588 bytes, checksum: 40bfaa1147c9bf9c2071db504ecd1c61 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-01-22T18:12:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2222.pdf: 498588 bytes, checksum: 40bfaa1147c9bf9c2071db504ecd1c61 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / As universidades, além do seu papel na formação de pessoas e na geração e disseminação do conhecimento, têm sido entendidas como importantes atores no processo de geração de inovações tecnológicas e, consequentemente, no desenvolvimento econômico. Diante deste contexto, emerge a discussão sobre um aspecto fundamental nas relações entre organizações acadêmicas e empresas: a proteção e exploração comercial da propriedade intelectual no âmbito universitário. Modelos atuais de Sistemas de Inovação consideram múltiplas relações recíprocas no processo de desenvolvimento de inovações, apresentando uma rede de comunicações e expectativas que reorganizam os arranjos institucionais entre universidades, empresas e governos. O objetivo desse estudo volta-se para as relações entre universidades e governos e consiste em analisar qual a contribuição das agências de fomento à ciência, tecnologia e inovação para as atividades de proteção e exploração econômica da propriedade intelectual no ambiente universitário. A partir desse objetivo, no desenvolvimento teórico dessa reflexão, o estudo realiza uma análise acerca do papel da universidade na geração da inovação tecnológica. Em seguida, reflete-se sobre a inserção relativamente recente da propriedade intelectual no ambiente acadêmico. Posteriormente, discute-se sobre os incentivos governamentais à geração de inovação tecnológica, enfatizando a análise da contribuição de agências governamentais para atividades de proteção e exploração econômica da propriedade intelectual decorrente de pesquisas universitárias. A etapa empírica consiste em estudo de caso sobre a Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia (FAPESB), agência governamental de fomento à ciência, tecnologia e inovação. Os resultados encontrados apresentam evidências sobre a influência que marcos legais, estrutura organizacional, políticas e ações de fomento dessa agência podem exercer sobre as atividades de propriedade intelectual das universidades. / Salvador

Contexte L'importance des stratégies nationales d'amélioration de la qualité est de plus en plus reconnue par les décideurs politiques des systèmes de santé et par les organisations internationales telles que l'OMS, l'OCDE et la Banque mondiale. À la suite de leur questionnement sur la manière de gérer l'amélioration systémique de la qualité, certains pays de l'OCDE, comme l'Allemagne, le Royaume-Uni, la France, le Canada, etc. ont stratégiquement adopté la stratégie systémique appelée « agence d'appui à l'amélioration de la qualité des soins et des services de santé ». Elle repose notamment sur des approches centrées sur le patient/usager et sur la collaboration des parties prenantes et encourage, entre autres, l'amélioration de la qualité à tous les niveaux de changement dans une juridiction : individuel, équipe, organisationnel et systémique, en assurant la cohérence de toutes les autres stratégies de la qualité. Cette thèse vise à examiner comment les stratégies nationales ont été façonnées dans certaines juridictions dans le monde et ensuite, en sélectionnant différentes juridictions ayant implanté une telle stratégie, elle en étudie deux cas en profondeur. Méthodes Dans un premier temps, une étude comparative en ligne des pratiques internationales de 13 juridictions de différentes régions du monde, sélectionnées selon un choix raisonné, a été réalisée. Cette étude s’est basée sur les sept principales fonctions de gestion de la qualité des soins et des services de santé dans une juridiction, proposées après avoir mobilisé plusieurs cadres dont le cadre d’action de l’OMS, et sur les indicateurs de qualité des soins, mis à disposition par l'OCDE sur son site Internet. Ensuite, deux agences de deux juridictions différentes, classées dans chacun des deux modèles proposés dans la première phase de la recherche, ont été sélectionnées afin de les étudier de manière approfondie en mobilisant un modèle d'analyse systémique. Il s'agit de la Haute autorité de santé (HAS) en France et de l'Institut national d'excellence en santé et services sociaux (INESSS) au Québec. Avec une approche déductive, dans le cadre d'une analyse d'implantation du type 2 et d’une approche inductive dans le cadre du type 3, plusieurs sources de données : une recherche documentaire approfondie, des entretiens semi-structurés, un groupe de discussion, et une observation ont été utilisées de manière itérative pour réaliser ce travail. Toutes les données ont été traitées et analysées de manière confidentielle à l'aide du logiciel QDA Miner 6.0.2 et validées par chaque agence étudiée. Résultats Les résultats du premier article ont révélé que les pays faisant partie du modèle 1 de notre taxonomie se classaient mieux pour la qualité des soins de santé avec, par exemple, 100 % (en Suède) à 21 % (en Allemagne) des principales fonctions de gestion de la qualité assurées par le "ministère de la Santé" et la plupart des fonctions modérément, voire pas du tout, concentrées dans une seule organisation. Parmi les deux agences contrastées étudiées, les résultats montrent que la HAS a un éventail d'activités plus large et que l'INESSS est plus concentré sur l’évaluation des médicaments, technologies et modes d’intervention en santé. Les résultats du second article ont, en effet, montré que ces deux agences d’appui à l’amélioration de la qualité disposent d'une autonomie relative et que chacune a eu un impact sur l'amélioration de la qualité des soins et des services dans les milieux de pratique de sa juridiction. Enfin, les résultats du troisième article ont fait ressortir deux grands groupes de facteurs contextuels : ceux liés au contexte interne des agences et ceux liés à leur environnement externe pouvant influencer les effets perçus de cette stratégie. Conclusion Cette recherche empirique internationale sur les stratégies systémiques d'amélioration de la qualité est l'une des premières. Elle vient enrichir la compréhension des différentes stratégies systémiques dans les juridictions et produit des connaissances aussi bien pour la pratique que pour la recherche. Nos conclusions peuvent être utilisées, non seulement, pour optimiser cette stratégie dans les juridictions que nous avons étudiées (France et Québec), mais aussi dans d'autres juridictions qui les ont également implantées. En outre, elles peuvent être utiles et inspirantes, à la fois, pour des pays développés, émergents et en développement qui n'ont pas encore implanté ce type de stratégie systémique. / Background The importance of national quality improvement strategies is increasingly recognized by policymakers in health systems and by international organizations such as the WHO, the OECD, and the World Bank. Following their questioning of how to manage the systemic quality improvement, some OECD countries, such as Germany, England, France, and Canada, etc. have strategically adopted the systemic strategy referred as the “Quality Improvement Support Agency for Health Care and Services (QISA)”. It is based on patient/user-centered approaches and stakeholder collaboration and promotes, among other things, quality improvement at all levels of change within a jurisdiction: individual, team, organizational and systemic by ensuring consistency across all quality strategies. This thesis aims to examine how national strategies have been shaped in some jurisdictions around the world and then, by selecting different jurisdictions that have implemented such a strategy, it studies two cases in depth. Methods First, an online comparative study of international practices in 13 jurisdictions in different regions of the world, selected according to a reasoned choice, was conducted. The study was based on the seven key health care and services quality management functions in a jurisdiction, proposed after mobilizing several frameworks, including the WHO's framework for action, and on the quality-of-care indicators made available by the OECD on its website. Next, two QISAs from different jurisdictions, classified in each of the two models proposed in the first phase of the research, were selected for in depth study with the mobilization of a systemic analysis model. These were the Haute autorité de santé (HAS) in France and the Institut national d'excellence en santé et services sociaux (INESSS) in Québec. Using a deductive approach in a type 2 implementation analysis and an inductive approach in the context of type 3, several sources of data: an extensive documentary research, semi-structured interviews, a focus group, and an observation were used in an iterative manner to complete this work. All data were processed and confidentially analyzed using QDA Miner 6.0.2 software. Finally, in a historical approach, a narrative was produced for each of the QISAs studied and validated by each studied. Results The results of the first article revealed that countries that are part of model 1 of our taxonomy ranked better for quality of care with, for example, 100% (in Sweden) to 21% (in Germany) of the key health care and services quality management functions performed by the "Ministry of Health" and most of the functions moderately, or not at all, concentrated in a single organization. Of the two contrasting QISAs studied, the results showed that the HAS has a broader range of activities and the INESSS is more focused on the assessment of drugs, technologies, and health interventions. The results of the second article showed that both have relative autonomy, and that each had an impact on improving the quality of care and services in the practice settings in its jurisdiction. Finally, the results of the third article highlight two main groups of contextual factors: those related to the internal context of the QISAs and those related to their external environment that can influence the perceived effects of this systemic strategy. Conclusion This international empirical research on systemic quality improvement strategies is one of the first. It adds to the understanding of different systemic strategies across jurisdictions and generates knowledge for both practice and research. Our conclusions can be used to optimize this strategy in the jurisdictions we studied (France and Québec), but also in other jurisdictions that have implemented them. Moreover, they can be useful and inspiring for developed, emerging, and developing countries that have not yet implemented this type of systemic strategy.