Städte sehen sich in der Entwicklung ihres Einzelhandelsangebots zunehmend Konkurrenzsituationen zwischen traditionellen Innenstadt- und neu entstehenden Stadtrandlagen ausgesetzt, die einerseits die gestiegenen Flächen- und Produktivitätsansprüche der Unternehmen eher erfüllen, während andererseits Bürger, Politik und etablierter Handel ein Aussterben der Innenstädte befürchten. Die Konsequenzen planerischer Entscheidungen in dieser Hinsicht abzuschätzen, wird zunehmend komplexer. Dafür sind ebenso eine stärkere Individualisierung des Konsumverhaltens verantwortlich, wie eine gestiegene Sensibilität gegenüber Verkehrs- und Emissionsbelastungen. Modellierungen und Simulationen können einen Beitrag zu fundierter Entscheidungsfindung leisten, indem sie durch Prognosen von Szenarien mit unterschiedlichen Rahmenbedingungen solche Auswirkungen aufzeigen. In der Vergangenheit wurden Kaufkraftströme durch Modelle abgebildet, die auf aggregierten Ausgangsdaten und Analogieschlüssen zu Naturgesetzen oder nutzentheoretischen Annahmen beruhten. In dieser Arbeit wird dafür erstmals ein agentenbasierter Ansatz angewendet, da sich so individuelle Ausdifferenzierungen des Konsumentenhandelns wesentlich leichter integrieren und Ergebnisse anschaulicher präsentieren lassen. Dieses Konzept kann in den Sozialwissenschaften als Modellierungsparadigma genutzt werden, insofern als dass sie der Idee der Selbstorganisation von Gesellschaften recht nahe kommt. Insbesondere zeichnen sich Multiagentensysteme durch eine dezentrale Kontrolle und Datenvorhaltung aus, die es darüber hinaus ermöglichen, auch komplexe Systeme von Entscheidungsprozessen mit wenigen Spezifikationen darzustellen. Damit begegnet der Agentenansatz vielen Einwänden gegen Analogie- und Entscheidungsmodelle. Durch die konsequente Einnahme einer individuenbezogenen Sichtweise ist die individuelle Ausdifferenzierung von Entscheidungsprozessen viel eher abbildbar. Für das Forschungsprojekt konnten für einen Untersuchungsraum in Nordschweden (Funktionalregion Umea) individuenbezogene Einwohnerdaten verfügbar gemacht werden. Diese enthielten u.a. Lagekoordinaten des Wohn- und Arbeitsorts, Alter, Geschlecht, verfügbares Einkommen und Angaben zur Haushaltsstruktur. Verbunden mit Erkenntnissen aus empirischen Untersuchungen (Konsumentenbefragung, Geschäftskartierung) stellten sie die Eingabegrößen für ein agentenbasiertes Modell der Einkaufsstättenwahl bei der Lebensmittelversorgung dar. Die Konsumentenbefragung stellte regressionsanalytische Abhängigkeiten zwischen sozioökonomischen Daten und Konsumpräferenzen bezüglich einzelner Geschäftsattribute (Preisniveau, Produktqualität, Sortimentsbreite, Service etc.) her, die gleichen Attribute wurden für die Geschäfte erhoben. Somit können Kaufkraftströme zwischen Einzelelementen der Nachfrage (individuelle Konsumenten) und des Angebots (einzelne Geschäftsstandorte) als individuell variierende Bewertung der Geschäfte durch die Agenten dargestellt werden. Da auf der Angebotsseite die Umsätze der Geschäfte ebenso bekannt sind, können die Summen der von den Agenten dort allozierten Kaufkraftbeträge mit denselbigen verglichen werden. Dies erlaubt die Quantifizierung einer Schätzgüte für die Geschäftsumsätze mittels eines Gütemaßes. Für die Geschäfte der gesamten Region konnten Gütemaßwerte bis 0,7 erreicht werden, für einzelne Betriebsformate auch über 0,9. Dies zeigt, dass auch bei der Verwendung individuenbezogener Modelle, die mit einer deutlich höheren Anzahl Freiheitsgraden behaftet sind als ihre aggregierten Gegenstücke, hohe Prognosequalitäten für Umsatzschätzungen von Standorten erreicht werden können. Gleichzeitig bietet der Agentenansatz die Möglichkeit, einzelne Simulationsobjekte bei ihrer Entscheidungsfindung und ihren Aktivitäten zu verfolgen. Dabei konnten ebenfalls plausible Einkaufsmuster abgebildet werden. Da die Distanz vom Wohn- bzw. Arbeitsort zum Geschäft Bestandteil des Modells ist, können auch die von den Einwohnern zum Zweck der Grundversorgung zu leistenden Distanzaufwände in verschiedenen Angebotssituationen analysiert werden. An agentenbasierte Simulationen werden in den Sozialwissenschaften große Erwartungen geknüpft, da sie erstmals ermöglichen, gesellschaftliche Phänomene auf der Ebene ihres Zustandekommens, dem Individuum, zu erfassen, sowie komplexe mentale Vorgänge des Handelns, Lernens und Kommunizierens auf einfache Weise in ein Modell zu integrieren. Mit der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde im Bereich der Konsumentenforschung erstmals ein solcher Ansatz auf regionaler Ebene angewendet, um zu planungsrelevanten Aussagen zu gelangen. In Kombination mit anderen Anwendungen im Bereich der Bevölkerungsprognose, des Verkehrs und der innerstädtischen Migration haben Agentensimulationen alle Voraussetzungen zu einem zukunftsweisenden Paradigma für die Raum- und Fachplanung. / Concerning the development of their retail location structures, urban areas are increasingly faced with situations of competition between traditional inner-city and spontaneously emerging suburban forms of outlets, which can on one hand rather satisfy augmented demands on sales areas and productivity of retailers, while on the other hand citizens, politicians and established retailers fear the "death of the centre". To evaluate the consequences of planning decisions in that respect is gaining in complexity; this can be ascribed to a strong individualisation of consumption habits as well as an enhanced sensitivity towards exposure to emissions from traffic and land consumption. Social simulations can contribute to such decisions as they are able to demonstrate the implications thereof by undertaking prognoses in different planning frameworks and scenarios. In the past, estimations of buying power flows between elements of demand and supply have been modelled from aggregate input data utilising approaches characterized by analogies to laws from physical sciences or utility maximizing assumptions. This contribution is the first to use an agent-based approach, since it is capable of integrating individually differentiated variations of consumer behaviour and results can be depicted more effectively. This concept can be used as a modelling paradigm in the social sciences in so far as it reflects the idea of self-organization of human societies. Multi agent simulations are characterized by a distributed control and organisation of data enabling the representation of complex decision processes with a small number of specifications. With these features, agent-based approaches address many of the objections against analogy and choice models. The strictly individual viewpoint allows for a much better representation of individually variations of decision processes. For this research project, individual population data for a study area in Northern Sweden (functional region of Umea) were obtained. They included figures on age, sex, disposable income, coordinates of dwelling and workplace, and household structure for every individual in the region. Combined with empirical results from consumer and store surveys they constituted the data base for an agent-based model of store choice in grocery retailing. The consumer survey contributed regression analyses for individual preferences for store attributes such as price, size of assortment, quality of products, service, etc., dependant on socio-demographic characteristics of the sample. The same attributes were observed for the stores. Hence, the buying power flows between single elements of the demand side (individual consumers) and single elements of the supply side (individual stores) can be specified as individually varying evaluations of choice alternatives, by which the agents will distribute their buying power among the stores. By comparing the sums of buying power collected at the stores with their turnovers, a measure for the quality of the turnover estimation can be given. For all shops in the region, values of 0.7 for R(2) were achieved, for some store formats even up to 0.9. This demonstrates how individual decision based models of buying power allocation despite their fairly large number of degrees of freedom are suitable for turnover estimation and forecasts of individual stores. Simultaneously, the simulation objects, i.e. the individual agents can be observed on performing their shopping trips to ensure plausible results on the micro level as well. Since the distance between the places of dwelling and work and the location of the shop is part of the model, changes in transportation demand in different spatial structures of retail outlets can be analysed. Agent-based simulations are raising high expectations in the social sciences, as they are the first to allow to capture social phenomena on the level of their emergence, the individual, as well as to integrate complex cognitive processes such as motivations, learning and com-munication into such models. This study is the first to apply an agent-based approach in con-sumption research on a regional level in order to support planning decisions in a regional and urban context. Combined with further applications in the areas of population prognosis, transportation and intra-regional migration, social simulations are a promising tool for future challenges in regional and urban planning.

Ever since the Swedish government declared their long-term goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, the importance of life-cycle assessments (LCA) in the building sector has increased. In 2018 the building sector in Sweden was responsible for 21% of all emissions. The first step of reducing carbon emissions is done by declaring its origins, which is where LCAs are helpful. An LCA include all CO2 emissions emitted within a products lifespan, all the way from raw material acquisition to the end of life. It is divided into different phases according to the European standard EN 15978 and the purpose of an LCA is to determine how much emissions each individual phase accounts for and then determine where the biggest improvements can be made. In this thesis an LCA of a new building is compared to an LCA of a renovated building in order to determine whether or not it is more environmentally friendly to renovate a building. The LCAs in this thesis was done using the web-based software One Click LCA and the life-cycle phases A-B were analysed. A case study was made on the multifamily buildings in Umeå, Sweden with the help of detailed drawings. The major interests of this report has been to get more knowledge in how to perform LCAs and to see whether a renovation of a building results in lower emissions as compared to a new building. The results showed that the new building had about 23% more CO2e emissions per m2 than the renovated building for a lifespan of 60 years when using a Swedish energy mix, where the renovated building's emissions was 345kg CO2e/m2 and the new building's emissions was 425.4kg CO2e/m2. The embodied carbon was about 2.5 times higher for the new building compared to the renovated building and the energy use B6 for the new building accounted for 33.2% of the total CO2 emissions while it was 72.3% of the renovated building's total emissions. When the lifespan was increased the new building became a more and more attractive alternative and it would've surpassed the renovated building soon after 100 years as the more environmental friendly choice.

The primary purpose of this thesis was to explore the extent of the relationship between employee motivation and performance in a medium size organization, which produce parts for forestry machines. Empirical data was collected through the process of conducting qualitative interviews with production workers and an HR manager whom are currently employed by the studied organization. The qualitative approach was selected as a result of its ability to generate descriptive in-depth information of the studied phenomenon. Thus, the aim of the conducted interviews was to generate in-depth data regarding the interviewee’ perception and personal experience of work related motivation. The interviewees’ were asked to rank ten different factors according to their perceived importance and influence of the motivational level. The interpretation and analysis of the empirical data revealed that the interviewed production workers are primarily motivated by factors that are related to work conditions, such as the relationships with coworkers. In addition, the results indicate that the managers’ perception of employee motivation is highly inaccurate, which is congruent with previous surveys conducted by Kovach (1987). Furthermore, as the research process progressed it became evident that the production workers within the studied are predominantly motivated by extrinsic factors, which means that their motivational orientations are dominated by extrinsic factors. Thus, the findings indicate that the motivational strategy that is currently applied within the studied medium size organization is insufficient in terms of its ability to improve the production workers level of motivation and therefore the quality of the performance. Hence, the following research has generated descriptive data although further studies are required in order to fully comprehend the phenomenon of motivation.

Umeå is one of the few growing cities in the north of Sweden. Due to the cities geographical location its economy is in large part dependent on its connection to larger cities in Sweden such as Stockholm and Gothenburg. As a result of this dependency fast traveling options are a must for Umeå to continue growing. Today aviation is the only traveling option available which provides the speed needed for travel between Umeå and larger economies in the south.This paper analyses how the process of centralization has caused this large dependency on the economies of Sweden’s larger cities. The conclusion drawn from this analysis is that for Umeå and the northern reaches of Sweden to become less aviation dependent the region needs to become more independent. A stronger northern economy would lessen the need for traveling to for example Stockholm.The purpose of the study is to pinpoint some measures which would lead Umeå and its surrounding areas towards this independency. To this end several measures of change are explored from new laws and regulations promoting the countryside to investments in internet connection, public service and infrastructure. These strategies need be looked into and implemented simultaneously for Umeå and the north to have a more independent and environmentally friendly future.The research continues by focusing on of these parameters more specifically train and bus infrastructure. The study concludes that there are many investments that could be made in order to strengthen both passenger and freight infrastructure in the north of Sweden. These investments include restoring the inland train line and extending the bus network to include a larger part of the countryside. For this to be possible several changes need to be made including building a new train and bus station in Umeå to support the increase in passengers and traffic. Such a station would act as a hub for the passenger traffic of Norrland as well as become a new public space for the city of Umeå.

Tourist destinations have been under a significantly growing interest of academia from the second half of the 20th century. The underlying patterns that are shared by destinations’ past, and shapes their future constitute a good share for the context of this interest. This study applies Butler’s Tourist Area Life-Cycle model to an urban tourism destination, Umeå. The model puts the life of a tourism area (destination) on an s-curve and defines several stages on the curve with designated features. Application of the model to the case of Umeå is limited to accommodation branch of the hospitality industry to apply a comprehensive approach and it shows that the city is in the development stage for in this particular branch. However, there are some divergences in the case compared to the model. The capacity edge that causes pressure to the tourist destinations growth does not appear where the model expects, and some stage features appear to take place in a different sequence than the original model. Consequently, the study connects these divergences to the fact that Umeå is an urban destination and also offers a modified version of the model that might be a good alternative for applications on other urban tourist destinations.

The Umea university Faculty of humanities offers programs, courses, cross-disciplinary educations and post graduate studies. The university mentions on their website that newly graduated students rapidly establish themself in the labour market. Meanwhile a survey made by statistics Sweden (Statistiska centralbyrån) shows that graduates in humanities i general and graduates in journalism and media particularly experiences the longest gap between graduation and permanent employment. The labor market of media and communications branches off in a variety of businesses and the ever so fast development of technologies has created an evenly fast developing anticipation in the employees. The purpose of this study is to use the program of media- och communication in Umea university as case, and study the graduates entrance in the labour market. Furthermore the purpose is to build understandings for how the graduates value the expertise they have acquired and how this is to be understood in relation to the development of the industry. The study is based on an online survey in which 11 years of graduates answers 11 questions. In total 104 respondents answered the survey and the main conclusions interrelates to theories of the implications of competences, and how the information society has restructured the circumstances of the labour market. The main conclusions summarizes that the graduates rapidly establishes themself in the labour market, an that even though 50% of the graduates has chosen to complement their studies they generally experience satisfaction with the choice of subject. Furthermore the results shows that the workers assignments has changed over time, however only in some areas.

<p><!--[if gte mso 10]> <mce:style><! /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tableau Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; text-align:justify; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} > <! [endif] ></p><p>The way of consumption has changed. Now, consumers are not only rational when purchasing. They do not buy just for the functionality of the good or service they are looking for. The consumption is more affective and consumers are considered now as poly-sensorial entities that are looking for more emotional and sensorial stimulation during their purchase process. This evolution of consumption is part of the trend that is called "retailtainnment", a mixed of "Retail" and "Entertainment". It is a concept of distribution that combines both of those two activities. Earlier studies have shown the success of using the Sensory Marketing, a concept based on stimulating the five senses in a strategy view. But, if certain senses are heavily used by companies/brands, as the sight and hearing, some are still underused, as the touch, the taste and particularly the smell. Wherefore a study on scent marketing is considered relevant to measure the potential of it. Even if several studies have already explained the important role of smell in a company's strategy, only few of them are using it. Our paper aims to go further on this subject by understanding the scent marketing in stores through the aims, the obstacles, the techniques used, in Umeå, Sweden.</p><p> </p><p>For our research, we first had to collect knowledge from scientific articles and previous studies on odours, on smells or perfumes and on scent marketing. Then, we constructed three hypothesises that helped us to conduct our research and made conclusions. Those hypotheses will be discussed by conducting a mixed-method, that is to say by combining two types of researches: a quantitative one, mainly to measure how many stores are using smell as a marketing tool, and then a qualitative one to go deeper into the reasons and how those stores are applying it. The quantitative research, based on a deductive approach, was conducted by using questionnaires. The qualitative research, based on an inductive approach was conducted by making semi-constructed interview. Both types of data collected and analyzed enable us to draw conclusions about scent marketing in Umeå. In this paper we identify the stores in Umeå that have odours or perfumes, those that are using smell as a marketing tool and their reasons to use it or not.</p><p><--></p>

The way of consumption has changed. Now, consumers are not only rational when purchasing. They do not buy just for the functionality of the good or service they are looking for. The consumption is more affective and consumers are considered now as poly-sensorial entities that are looking for more emotional and sensorial stimulation during their purchase process. This evolution of consumption is part of the trend that is called “retailtainnment”, a mixed of “Retail” and “Entertainment”. It is a concept of distribution that combines both of those two activities. Earlier studies have shown the success of using the Sensory Marketing, a concept based on stimulating the five senses in a strategy view. But, if certain senses are heavily used by companies/brands, as the sight and hearing, some are still underused, as the touch, the taste and particularly the smell. Wherefore a study on scent marketing is considered relevant to measure the potential of it. Even if several studies have already explained the important role of smell in a company’s strategy, only few of them are using it. Our paper aims to go further on this subject by understanding the scent marketing in stores through the aims, the obstacles, the techniques used, in Umeå, Sweden. For our research, we first had to collect knowledge from scientific articles and previous studies on odours, on smells or perfumes and on scent marketing. Then, we constructed three hypothesises that helped us to conduct our research and made conclusions. Those hypotheses will be discussed by conducting a mixed-method, that is to say by combining two types of researches: a quantitative one, mainly to measure how many stores are using smell as a marketing tool, and then a qualitative one to go deeper into the reasons and how those stores are applying it. The quantitative research, based on a deductive approach, was conducted by using questionnaires. The qualitative research, based on an inductive approach was conducted by making semi-constructed interview. Both types of data collected and analyzed enable us to draw conclusions about scent marketing in Umeå. In this paper we identify the stores in Umeå that have odours or perfumes, those that are using smell as a marketing tool and their reasons to use it or not.

This research investigates the integration and effectiveness of two monitoring frameworks, the Four Golden Signals and the RED Method, with Argo Rollouts for automated deployments. The study aims to identify which framework integrates better with Argo Rollouts, compare their effectiveness in automating deployment procedures, and assess the impact of automated deployments on application performance. Experiments involve fault injections, such as HTTP 500 errors and delays, to evaluate the frameworks ability to detect unhealthy deployments and trigger rollbacks. Both frameworks were successfully integrated using Prometheus for metric collection and custom analysis templates for health assessment. The Four Golden Signals provided more comprehensive insights due to its additional metrics (saturation and latency), whereas the RED Method was simpler to configure and interpret. The findings highlight the importance of carefully calibrating metric thresholds to accurately identify unhealthy deployments. Future work suggests exploring Blue-Green deployments, investigating the robustness of systems under security breaches, and assessing cost savings from using Argo Rollouts over time.

No description available.