The purpose of this paper is to enhance our understanding of how salespeople in B2B organizations perceive the usefulness of digital solutions in their work. The use of digital solutions continues to increase in business-to-business (B2B)-selling. Yet limited research has so far focused on how salespeople in B2B organizations perceive the usage of digital solutions. Previous studies have found that perceived usefulness is effective for understanding user attitudes and intentions, and at large their acceptance and usage of digital solutions. Concurrently, previous studies have found that organizations struggle with ensuring that digital solutions are used according to management’s intentions. Perceived usefulness therefore becomes a door into understanding salespeoples’ perceptions of digital solutions, and ultimately their usage of them. In order to achieve the purpose of this paper, a single case study is used, conducted through semi-structured interviews with a sales unit of a chemical company. Four main conclusions were made based on the findings: there is a need for the salespeople to understand why the digital solutions are relevant for their work, digital solutions can contribute to a higher workload for the salespeople, comprehensive training is important for how digital solutions gets used, and there can exist support for managing problems in the form of expert colleagues. These findings contribute to existing literature by highlighting conditions that influence salespeople’s acceptance and usage of digital solutions, and provide nuanced insights into the way salespeople end up using digital solutions in a certain way.

In society today, there is a great focus on sustainability and that companies should contribute to sustainable development. One way to do this is through transparency between the company and its stakeholders regarding how they work on these important issues. This is done through sustainability reports that can be designed in different ways, but this study focuses on those that follow the Global Reporting Initiative, which is the dominant framework globally.   Prior research has shown mixed conclusions regarding GRI and its usefulness. In these, both positive and negative aspects of the framework have been highlighted. This study examines what and how high and low ranked businesses based on SBI report to study the usefulness of GRI. In addition, various theories will be used to examine what may be the reasons for the similarities and differences between the groups. This result is also related to prior research that studied sustainability reporting in connection with the selected theories.   The study was conducted as a method where qualitative data was quantified through a quantitative content analysis. The sustainability reports of 32 companies were reviewed based on their GRI-index and data was then statistically tested using Chi-square-tests and a Fisher's exact test. The study shows that there is no significant difference in what the high and low ranked businesses report. This difference applies to the total number of indicators as well as within the different series, economic, environmental and social. Regarding how the companies report, the study shows that the low ranked businesses are more likely to report indicators for which they do not meet the requirements, this result is also statistically significant. The reasons for the similarities and differences that were identified can be discussed in relations to institutional theory, legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory.

For this project I sought to find a more effective means of evaluating academic listening comprehension. This involved doing an in-depth investigation of academic listening, the constructs involved in listening comprehension, and of methods of assessing listening comprehension. It also included a study of the concept of test usefulness (Bachman and Palmer, 1996), which consists of reliability, construct validity, authenticity, interactiveness, impact, and practicality, and is used to help select the most effective methods of assessing language abilities. Based on my review of listening comprehension testing methods, I created a method of assessing academic listening comprehension, Aural Gapped Listening Summaries (AGLS), produced a short version of the AGLS for piloting through BYU's English Language Center and credit exam for matriculated students, and then analyzed the results of this piloting to determine whether future investigation was merited. This project write-up includes a description of the development of the AGLS, the methods of administration, and students' cursory perceptions of the AGLS, as well as the results of the pilot test. The AGLS involved students listening to an excerpt of a lecture followed by an aural summary of that lecture with every 8th word replaced by low-volume static. Then they were asked to type a word or phrase in a box on their computer screens that would best fill in the gap where the static was. Ranks on the AGLS were correlated with a standard listening test, which is administered every semester at Brigham Young University, and with students' individual perceptions of their listening abilities. Results showed that AGLS correlates moderately well with traditional measures of academic listening (r=0.7731) while giving testers interesting information about student interlanguage in very little time. Results further showed that AGLS has a much higher reliability coefficient (r=0.9223) in comparison to the other listening test. Therefore, although traditionally testers have had to write lengthy tests in order to get an adequate representation of students' listening abilities, it may be possible to obtain the necessary information about students' abilities with this more time-efficient measurement tool.

The use of mobile and wireless Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in geographically distributed project organizations appears to be an appropriate application of new technical capabilities in an existing business environment. But to successfully introduce and adopt a suitable mobile ICT-based project communication platform in an existing operational setting involves a complex framework of socio-technical issues that have to be considered. This Licentiate thesis presents the results of an ongoing doctoral research project. The study explores the implementation process of mobile computing tools at Sweden’s largest construction company, with the aim of improving information management and project communication of production site operations in construction projects. The research project highlights the interdependencies between the creation of usefulness and its resulting benefits. It emphasizes user-oriented implementation as the enabling process for realizing technology fit and user acceptance of the mobile computing tools, as well as achieving long-term benefit and business value of the ICT investment. The studied case specifically addresses the neglected mobile and flexible information needs and communication demands of management staff at construction sites. The fundamental issue is to identify what the usefulness perspective of mobile computing for construction operations consists of relating to both technology and the different groups of people who are supposed to use it. Generic access, mobility of project data and individual adaptation of information and communication resources are technological aspects that are emphasized and discussed in the context of creating usefulness and benefit of mobile computing in construction projects. The often present political dimension of ICT implementation within an organization is also highlighted. The socio-technical introduction and adoption process of mobile computing involves balancing various perspectives and agendas inherent on different organizational levels in order to achieve an acceptable outcome for all the actors involved. Topics for further research are discussed and refined relating to the ongoing case study and the conceptual framework presented. / QC 20101119

In the last decades there has been an elevated interest in increasing process thinking in organisations, with the advantages of standardisation and efficiency connected to processes. A challenge with processes is how to document them in process models, and how to get employees to use these process models. At Clear Channel, an organisation providing surfaces for advertisement in urban environments, there is a need for a standardisation in process models to increase quality and cooperation between business units.The purpose of this degree project is to investigate how to increase the level of process maturity in an organisation by looking into process models and the platform where they are stored, with Clear Channel as an example, by answering the two questions: “What are some motivators that can increase the use of process models and what could decrease motivation to use process models?” and “What makes a process model be perceived as user friendly, accessible and useful?”. To answer these questions the Expectancy-Value Theory is used to operationalise motivation. Furthermore the Technology Acceptance Model and research about process model usability is used. The main study is performed with three focus groups with participants from Clear Channel Tech Europe, and the data is analysed using directed content analysis. Furthermore, a prototype of a process model was developed to use in the focus groups. Results showed that new employees could feel overwhelmed by the current process models by being too detailed. Participants argued that everyone wants to be seen and know that their work is contributing to something greater. Process models are one way to visualise this. Regarding perceived usefulness, participants believed a process model was useful when it was complete. Participants also believed the process model needs to be accessible to everyone. For process model usability, when viewing the process model prototype, the participants had a positive response to what was intuitive to use, for example the clickability and an easy indication of what objects were clickable. For platform usability two things were regarded as important, to have everything in one place, and that it is easy to find what you are looking for. If the process models, and the surrounding work practices, within the organisation follow the recommendations given in this degree project, they could help in increasing the process maturity in an organisation. / De senaste årtiondena har intresset för att höja processtänket i organisationer ökat, där fördelar som standardisering och effektivisering följer. En utmaning är dock hur processerna dokumenteras i processmodeller, och hur anställda kan engageras att använda de processmodeller som finns. På Clear Channel, ett företag som tillhandahåller ytor för reklam i stadsmiljöer, finns ett behov av standardisering av processmodeller för att förbättra kvalitet och samarbete mellan företagsdelar. Syftet med detta examensarbetet är att undersöka hur processmognaden i en organisation kan öka, genom att studera processmodeller och den plattform där de lagras. I arbetet används Clear Channel som exempel, och syftet uppfylls genom att söka svaret på dessa frågor: “Vad är några motiverande faktorer som kan öka användandet av processmodeller, och vad kan minska motivationen att använda processmodeller?” och “Vad gör att en processmodell uppfattas som användarvänlig, tillgänglig och användbar?”. För att besvara frågeställningarna används teorin om förväntningar och värde (Expectancy-Value Theory) för att operationalisera motivation. Vidare används en modell för teknisk acceptans (Technology Acceptance Model) och forskning om användarvänliga processmodeller. Huvudundersökningen genomförs med tre fokusgrupper med anställda på Clear Channel Tech Europe, och datan analyseras med riktad innehållsanalys. Dessutom utvecklades en prototyp av en processmodell för att användas i fokusgrupperna. Resultatet visade att nya anställda kan känna sig överväldigade av att de aktuella processmodellerna är för detaljerade. Vidare argumenterade deltagarna för att alla vill bli sedda och känna att ens arbete bidrar till något större, vilket kan synliggöras genom processmodeller. Angående uppfattad användbarhet ansåg deltagarna att processmodeller är användbara när de var fullständiga. Gällande process-användarvänlighet, vid användning av prototypen framtagen i rapporten, hade deltagarna en positiv respons till innehåll som var intuitivt att använda, till exempel klickbarhet och enkla indikatorer för vilka objekt som var klickbara. För plattformsanvändarvänlighet ansågs två saker vara viktiga, att ha allting på samma plats, och att det är lätt att hitta det som söks. Om processmodellerna, och de omgivande arbetssätten inom orginsationen följer rekommendationerna givna i detta examensarbete, kan processmognaden inom organisationen öka.

This essay aims to problematize the concepts of usefulness and lust in relation to reading and literature. My analysis is based in Sara Mannheimer’s novel Handlingen. The research questions seeks to interpret the character´s understanding of the two ideas usefulness and lust, and further try to analyze how the character's view on literature and abstract thinking is determined by the two concepts. With theories on cleaning, baking and the practical work as well as theories of reading, the discussions with the novel´s character evolved to think further about the concept of literature and what it really stands for in one’s life. The results from the analysis of the novel resulted in a dualistic view between the two concepts usefulness and lust where the entrance to the world of literature is conditioned by having genuine lust for reading. I further problematize this view with a discussion about what it means to be an authentic person and that it does not reject the union of the two concepts. Another central point in the analysis of the novel is how usefulness relates to organization and a clear system whereas lust speaks to the abstract thinking and chaos. My conclusion consists of the union of being open to abstraction and the fact that a person cannot know certain things that will always be out of reach for us, such as existential questions and so on. This could mean that the usefulness and lust are dependent of each other in one’s life, at least that they are not ruling out each other’s existence.

No / Prior research has shown that individual differences in users' cognitive style and gender can have a significant effect on their usage and perceived usefulness of management information systems. We argue that these differences may also extend to computer-mediated knowledge management systems (KMS), although previous research has not tested this empirically. Where employees are expected to use KMS for acquiring and sharing knowledge, we posit that some will gain more benefit than others, due to their innate personal characteristics, specifically gender and cognitive style. Based on a sample of 212 software developers in one large IS organization, we re-open these dormant debates about the effects of cognitive style and gender on technology usage. The paper contains four main findings. First, we present support for the proposition that cognitive style has an impact on KMS usage, although not for all components of the system. Second, that gender significantly affects KMS usage, with males being more likely to use such systems than females. Third, we find a small interaction effect between cognitive style and gender, but only for the use of data mining. Finally, the data suggest that there is a strong association between KMS usage levels and perceived usefulness. We conclude that if organizations do not recognize the inherent diversity of the workforce, and accommodate gender and cognitive style differences into their knowledge management strategies, they may be likely to propagate an intrinsic disadvantage, to the detriment of females and intuitive thinkers.

Assessing Anonymized System Logs Usefulness for Behavioral Analysis in RNN Models Tom Richard Vargis1,∗, Siavash Ghiasvand1,2 1Technische Universität Dresden, Germany 2Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (ScaDS.AI) Dresden/Leipzig, Germany Abstract System logs are a common source of monitoring data for analyzing computing systems behavior. Due to the complexity of modern computing systems and the large size of collected monitoring data, automated analysis mechanisms are required. Numerous machine learning and deep learning methods are proposed to address this challenge. However, due to the existence of sensitive data in system logs their analysis and storage raise serious privacy concerns. Anonymization methods could be used to cleanse the monitoring data before analysis. However, anonymized system logs in general do not provide an adequate usefulness for majority of behavioral analysis. Content-aware anonymization mechanisms such as 𝑃𝛼𝑅𝑆 preserve the correlation of system logs even after anonymization. This work evaluates the usefulness of anonymized system logs of Taurus HPC cluster anonymized using 𝑃𝛼𝑅𝑆, for behavioural analysis via recurrent neural network models. To facilitate the reproducibility and further development of this work, the implemented prototype and monitoring data are publicly available [12].

This study investigated students' perceptions of autonomy support from an instructor in relation to students' motivational beliefs on an ePortfolio project. The motivational beliefs of interest included: Effort/Importance, felt Pressure/Tension, and Value/Usefulness. These relationships were further examined with particular focus on the potential moderating role of students' culturally based learning preferences as outlined in Parrish and Linder-VanBerschot's (2010) Cultural Dimensions of Learning Framework (CDLF). This study was quasi-experimental, survey-based research supported by self-reported data collected from a convenience sample of graduate and undergraduate students. Students enrolled in a variety of courses that assigned an ePortfolio assignment received an email invitation from their instructor and self-selected to participate. Based on the responses of 35 students, the findings from this research showed significant relationships between three culturally based learning preferences and the motivational belief of Value/Usefulness. A summary of findings, limitations, and implications for further research are discussed. / Ph. D. / This study investigated students’ perceptions of autonomy support from an instructor in relation to students’ motivational beliefs on an ePortfolio project. The motivational beliefs of interest included: Effort/Importance, felt Pressure/Tension, and Value/Usefulness. These relationships were further examined with particular focus on the potential moderating role of students’ culturally based learning preferences. This study was quasi-experimental, survey-based research supported by self-reported data collected from a convenience sample of graduate and undergraduate students. Students enrolled in a variety of courses that assigned an ePortfolio assignment received an email invitation from their instructor and self-selected to participate. Based on the responses of 35 students, the findings from this research showed significant relationships between three culturally based learning preferences and the motivational belief of Value/Usefulness. A summary of findings, limitations, and implications for further research are discussed.

Sedan 2005 är det obligatoriskt för noterade bolag att upprätta sin koncernredovisning enligt de internationella redovisningsstandarderna IFRS/IASB. Syftet är att uppnå likartade redovisningsprinciper inom EU. En viktig förändring till följd av denna reglering är att företag nu tillåts välja att värdera vissa tillgångar till verkligt värde. Det kan efter införandet uppfattas av många som att vi lever i en verkligt värde-värld. Tidigare studier i bland annat Storbritannien och Tyskland visar att så inte är fallet. Syftet med studien är att beskriva och analysera hur de svenska företagen på Large Cap har utnyttjat IAS-förordningen, som tillkom 2005 avseende värdering av icke-finansiella anläggningstillgångar, då de har möjligheten att välja mellan historiskt anskaffningsvärde och verkligt värde. Studien utgår från en kvantitativ metod där en totalundersökning av de börsnoterade företagen på Large Cap gjorts. Data gällande hur företagen värderar sina icke-finansiella anläggningstillgångar har samlats in genom en dokumentstudie, där årsredovisningar från år 2014 har studerats. Studien visar en begränsad användning av värdering till verkligt värde för icke-finansiella anläggningstillgångar i Sverige. När det används, handlar det uteslutande om värdering av Förvaltningsfastigheter, något som överensstämmer med studier som gjorts i andra länder.