| 1. |
- Blomkvist, Marita, 1959-
(författare)
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Entreprenörer som redovisare : bokslutsprocessen i Gasellföretag
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Entrepreneurs seem to be highly valuable for the firms in which they are involved. However, the knowledge of the role of accounting in a context of entrepreneurship is limited. In fact, some literature on entrepreneurship indicates that the role of accounting is only about the past and therefore not of interest for entrepreneurs in the entrepreneurial process.This dissertation reports the results of two empirical studies. The first study is a qualitative pilot study of five entrepreneurs in fast growing firms and their participation in the year-end procedure. The respondents were presented the adjustments in the final step of the recording process and the annual report in order to assess their participation and to focus on how the entrepreneurs as producers of accounting reflect and act in relation to other actors and to the process of reporting. The pilot study found that the entrepreneurs were certainly involved in use and produce of certain accounting in the year-end procedures. The second study is based on the result from the pilot study and on agency theory the study aimed to describe and explain how and why entrepreneurs in successful fast growing firms, i.e. Gazelle firms, compared with a control group of managers in not growing firms, are participating in the year-end procedures. Also, the study aimed to analyse differences between entrepreneurs´ participation and other managers´ participation in this process. The study focused on the activities in the year-end procedures concerned with the values of R&D, stock and work-in-progress and accounts receivables. In order to find entrepreneurs the survey was sent to a sample of 257 managers of Gazelle firms and to a sample of 227 managers in not growing firms. Also, the annual report from the firms where the respondents where involved were collected. This data was also included in the study. The responding rate was 50% from both groups. The most notable finding is, in contradiction to literature on entrepreneurship, that entrepreneurs in Gazelle firms use and produce formal financial accounting information. Entrepreneurs in Gazelle firms spend more time and they are also involved in discussions with more actors compared with managers in not growing firms. Further, the results indicate that entrepreneurs in Gazelle firms will participate to a larger extent when the profitability in the firm decreases compared to managers in not growing firms. Finally, the dissertation gives insight in the role of formal financial accounting in the context of entrepreneurship, a research area we know little about.
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| 2. |
- Brorsson, Sofia
(författare)
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Biomechanical studies of finger extension function. Analysis with a new force measuring device and ultrasound examination in rheumatoid arthritis and healhty muscles
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Aims: The overall aim of this thesis was to further our understanding of extensor muscles and their role for hand function. The aims of the studies were: To develop and evaluate a new device for finger extensor force measurements. To evaluate ultrasound as a tool for assessment of muscle architecture. To determine the correlation between extensor muscle force and hand function. To evaluate the degree of impaired finger extensor force in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the correlation to impaired hand function. To analyse the effect of hand exercise in RA patients and healthy subjects with ultrasound and finger extension force measurements. Method: A new finger extension force measuring device was developed and an ultrasound based method was used to be able to objectively measure the finger extension force and analyze the static and dynamic extensor muscle architectures. Measurements were made of healthy volunteers (n=127) and RA patients (n=77) during uninfluenced and experimental conditions. A hand exercise program was performed and evaluated with hand force measurements, hand function test, patient relevant questionnaires (DASH and SF-36) and ultrasound measurements. Results: The new finger extension force measurement device was developed and then validated with measurements of accuracy as well as test-retest reliability. The coefficient of variation was 1.8 % of the applied load, and the test-retest reliability showed a coefficient of variation no more than 7.1% for healthy subjects. Ultrasound examination on m. extensor digitorum communis (EDC) showed significant differences between healthy men and healthy women as well as between healthy women and RA patients. The extension and flexion force improved in both groups after six weeks of hand exercise (p<0.01). Hand function improved in both groups (p<0.01). The RA group showed improvement in the results of the DASH questionnaire (p<0.05). The cross-sectional area of the EDC increased significantly in both groups. Conclusions: A new finger extension force measuring device has been developed which provides objective and reliable data on the extension force capacity of normal and dysfunctional hands and is sufficiently sensitive to evaluate the effects of hand exercise. US provide useful information about muscle architecture. A significant improvement of hand strength and hand function in RA patients was seen after six weeks of hand training, the improvement was even more pronounced after 12 weeks. Hand exercise is thus an effective intervention for RA patients, providing better strength and function.
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| 3. |
- Fåhraeus, Anna, 1963
(författare)
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Black males and white masculinity in four Renaissance tragedies of blood
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this study is to look at how the black North African man is repre-sented in relation to white men in four Renaissance tragedies of blood: Shake-speare?s Titus Andronicus, the multi-authored Lust?s Dominion, William Rowley?s All?s Lost by Lust, and Thomas Rawlins? The Rebellion. While previous studies have traced the most common racist tropes in 16th and 17th century lit-erature, such as the demonization trope and the animality trope (e.g. Hall), and the historical presence of modern stereotypes of the black man (Jones, Barthelemy, Tokson), they have not looked at Renaissance discourses of white masculinity and their relationship to the construction of the black man. There-fore, the present study focuses on the articulation of the black man as a gendered concept, and specifically its racialized difference in relation to localized white masculinity. I argue that black masculinity is not its own discourse that is separate from white masculinity, but rather is fashioned using the same strategies that enabled white masculine self-fashioning in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, i.e. through the manipulation of discourses to enhance the self and discredit male enemies or rivals. I specifically look at four discourses that were important to the social perception and thus construction of white masculinity in the Renais-sance: relationships to women and the feminine, honour, sociality (humour), and ambition. What emerges as an overall feature in all four tragedies of blood is that there is not a polar distinction between black and white masculinity. My approach builds on Michel Foucault and the idea that discourses structure society and relationships of power. It is also indebted to Reinhardt Koselleck?s theory that concepts have a history, i.e. a contemporary polemic edge in Renaissance even as other meanings looked to the past, and others to the future. I argue that the difference in English tragedies of blood between the black men and the white men in the relationship to honour is temporal; that the distinction in vice and humour is a matter of attitude; and that black men have a blurred rather than distinct relationship to femininity. Racialization oc-curs through the discourse on blackness but also through everyday Renaissance discourses in historically contingent ways.
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| 4. |
- Pedersen, Eja
(författare)
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Human response to wind turbine noise : perception, annoyance and moderating factors
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Aims: The aims of this thesis were to describe and gain an understanding of how people who live in the vicinity of wind turbines are affected by wind turbine noise, and how individual, situational and visual factors, as well as sound properties, moderate the response.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in a flat, mainly rural area in Sweden, with the objective to estimate the prevalence of noise annoyance and to examine the dose-response relationship between A-weighted sound pressure levels (SPLs) and perception of and annoyance with wind turbine noise. Subjective responses were obtained through a questionnaire (n = 513; response rate: 68%) and outdoor, A-weighted SPLs were calculated for each respondent. To gain a deeper understanding of the observed noise annoyance, 15 people living in an area were interviewed using open-ended questions. The interviews were analysed using the comparative method of Grounded Theory (GT). An additional cross-sectional study, mainly exploring the influence of individual and situational factors, was carried out in seven areas in Sweden that differed with regard to terrain (flat or complex) and degree of urbanization (n = 765; response rate: 58%). To further explore the impact of visual factors, data from the two cross-sectional studies were tested with structural equation modelling. A proposed model of the influence of visual attitude on noise annoyance, also comprising the influence of noise level and general attitude, was tested among respondents who could see wind turbines versus respondents who could not see wind turbines from their dwelling, and respondents living in flat versus complex terrain.Results: Dose-response relationships were found both for perception of noise and for noise annoyance in relation to A-weighted SPLs. The risk of annoyance was enhanced among respondents who could see at least one turbine from their dwelling and among those living in a rural in comparison with a suburban area. Noise from wind turbines was appraised as an intrusion of privacy among people who expected quiet and peace in their living environment. Negative experiences that led to feelings of inferiority added to the distress. Sound characteristics describing the amplitude modulated aerodynamic sound were appraised as the most annoying (swishing, whistling and pulsating/throbbing). Wind turbines were judged as environmentally friendly, efficient and necessary, but also as ugly and unnatural. Being negative towards the visual impact of the wind turbines on the landscape scenery, rather than towards wind turbines as such, was strongly associated with annoyance. Self-reported health impairment was not correlated to SPL, while decreased well-being was associated with noise annoyance. Indications of possible hindrance to psycho-physiological restoration were observed.Conclusions: Wind turbine noise is easily perceived and is annoying even at low A-weighted SPLs. This could be due to perceived incongruence between the characteristics of wind turbine noise and the background sound. Wind turbines are furthermore prominent objects whose rotational movement attracts the eye. Multimodal sensory effects or negative aesthetic response could enhance the risk of noise annoyance. Adverse reactions could possibly lead to stress-related symptoms due to prolonged physiological arousal and hindrance to psychophysiological restoration. The observed differences in prevalence of noise annoyance between living environments make it necessary to assess separate dose-response relationships for different types of landscapes.
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| 5. |
- Ranagården, Lisbeth, 1947-
(författare)
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Lärares lärande om elever - en sociologisk studie om yrkespraktik
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This is a study of how professional teachers’ learning about students takes place in relation to changed requirements and new organisational preconditions. Based on an approach from the theory of professions with inspiration by Lipsky’s concept of street level bureaucrats, it examines which strategies or methods teachers develop in order to cope with the changes. Important points of departure for the study are theories of organisation, professions and knowledge. The three phases that are considered to distinguish professional work – diagnosis, inference, treatment – organise the disposition of the work. The study is empirically based on interviews with primary school teachers, recorded development conversations, and teachers’ written documentation for the latter. The teachers’ own accounts of their learning process, as well as how they interpret what is experienced, form an interpretive and analytical foundation together with analysis of the development conversations. Teachers’ meetings with students usually occur with the entire class as a collective, which makes the teaching profession special. Other professionals normally meet their clients individually. At the same time, teachers are expected to individualise the instruction. The study shows how the organisation creates obstacles by intensifying the teachers’ work. This diminishes the leeway for teachers to work professionally. A recurrent problem for the teachers’ teaching is therefore lack of time. They have to find standardised forms such as the categorising of students. The analyses demonstrate that there is great uncertainty about the measures’ effects, and that teachers do not have enough knowledge. One develops new knowledge by trial and error, and the study points to a need for the teachers’ teaching in and through its practice to be given room to develop. In this context the study discusses teachers’ professional language as a hindrance to professional development. As the study also shows, leeway for conversations is a prerequisite for learning about students. This in turn influences the possibilities of creating good relations. The study discusses teachers’ interest in relation-building from a power perspective and as an important tool for successful instruction. But teachers lack tools for handling certain students who challenge the teaching role, and the analysis reveals deficiencies in both the organisation in the profession. According to the study’s results, teachers do not have support for coping with the changes that were made in the schools. Especially the profession’s social dimensions prove to be a weakness for newly educated teachers, who need continued learning in professional practice, but more experienced teachers also lack tools for being able to individualise the instruction. While the causes are numerous, the bottom line is a scarcity of resources – in terms of time, institutional measures for solving problems, and knowledge about how the problems should be solved.
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| 6. |
- Staland Nyman, Carin, 1963
(författare)
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Domestic Workload and Multiple Roles. Epidemiological findings on health and sickness absence in women
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Aim: The objective of this thesis was to analyse the importance of specific exposures in women?s lives to health and sickness absence; more precisely to study the association between domestic work, multiple roles and the experience of being sick-listed, and self-rated health, psychiatric disorders and sickness absence. Method: The thesis was based on two datasets. ?Women?s health and living conditions? (WHL) is a cross-sectional study on 1 417 employed women aged 17 to 64 years old. Data was collected with a questionnaire, and register and employee data on sickness absence. ?Women and alcohol in Göteborg? (WAG) is a prospective cohort study on 1 799 women in eight age cohorts born from 1925 to 1980. Data was collected with a screening questionnaire, interviews and register-based sickness absence. Several aspects of domestic work, multiple roles and experience of sickness absence were analysed in relation to self-rated health (SF-36), psychiatric disorders (DSM-III and IV) and sickness absence. The study on multiple roles emanated from the role strain and role enhancement hypotheses and roles were analysed as single roles and as combinations of roles. Changes in self-rated physical health were assessed in relation to experience of sickness absence over five year. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses were conducted using multivariate regressions analyses. Results: Domestic job strain and a lack of domestic work equity and marital satisfaction were associated with lower self-rated health particularly vitality and mental health. The former was not associated to sickness absence, but the latter was. Women with domestic workload due to children and adults with special needs had higher odds for medium-long sick-leave spells, while parental responsibility gave lower odds for any sick-leave spell. Occupation was related to lower odds for poor self-rated physical health and sickness absence, while the parental role was associated with higher odds for sickness absence. Compared with women who had all three roles women with occupation and partner role had lower odds for negative health outcomes. Support was found for the role strain hypothesis in the cross-sectional analyses of role combinations while neither of the hypotheses was supported in the five year follow up. A lower proportion of those who had experience of being sick-listed reported good health at both baseline and follow up. Women with psychiatric disorders had higher odds for a change from poor to good self-rated physical health over the five years if they had been sick-listed. Conclusion: Domestic workload was associated to health and sickness absence in women, but there were inconsistencies in the findings on children and being a parent and on multiple roles. From a public health perspective, deeper knowledge on the importance of women?s engagement domestic work and its different dimensions is important for promoting women?s health. A multidimensional assessment of domestic work is important and the content and complexity of domestic work and of different roles needs to be further explored in relation to health and sickness absence in women.
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| 7. |
- Thorell, Kristina, 1976-
(författare)
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Naturvårdsplanering med förankring i det lokala : Villkor för delaktighet och underifrånperspektiv i vården av värden i odlingslandskapet
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During recent decades, opinions about how nature should be protected by the public sector have changed. One result is a better awareness of the important role that local actors play in the preservation of valuable areas. The overall aim of the thesis is to increase the understanding of preconditions for bottom-up approaches within nature conservation planning of cultural landscape. The research issues touch upon: (1) the significance of strategies which are based upon the landscape perspective and the capacities of local actors, (2) the capability of participatory processes and (3) the abilities of decision makers to promote a planning system which is better adapted to the local level.The theoretical framework describes bottom-up approaches on the basis of research concerning participation, democracy, planning, rural development and landscape. It is concluded that local participation is complex within representative democracy, but is advocated in the interactive planning theory which deals with communicative rationality and social learning. It has also an important position in research of local mobilisation where the assumption is that planning processes should be carried out upon the initiative of those concerned.The research has made use of a diverse methodology. Interactive- and action-oriented research has complemented questionnaires and interviews. The investigations focused primarily on the municipalities of Orust and Munkedal in Western Sweden but other areas were also involved. Both local actors and managers within the public sectors took part.The results show that bottom-up approaches imply an emphasis upon the specific landscape which humans experience with all their senses and transform through daily actions. It also refers to efforts which are formulated on the basis of insights into the specific community and the context in which landscape values exist. The major driving forces are social capital, entrepreneurship, commitment and the capacity to represent public interests. Participatory processes may contribute to the preservation of aesthetic, heritage, biological and recreation values in the landscape on the bases of local conditions. The study further indicates that it is possible to incorporate bottom-up approaches into the planning system if the normative preconditions exist, i.e. societal support for a larger degree of decentralized work and participatory processes. Comprehensive structural changes, as well as practical efforts, are thus needed to expand social interaction between the authorities and local actors.
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| 8. |
- Wentz, Kerstin, 1958
(författare)
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Fibromyalgia and self-regulatory patterns : development, maintenance or recovery in women
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Aims: The overall aim of this thesis was to elucidate psychological processes and development, maintenance or recovery related to fibromyalgia based on in depth interviews. In a next step women with fibromyalgia, women without long-lasting pain and women with long-lasting pain were compared using psychometric instruments selected or developed based on qualitative results. Methods: Twenty-one women with fibromyalgia and 8 women recovered were interviewed. Their narrations were analysed using Grounded Theory. Tentative theory was built. The I Myself Scale (IMS) was constructed to mirror self-regulation prior to onset of symptoms and complemented with an instrument on current self-regulation: Structural Analysis of Social Behaviour (SASB) and SF-36 mirroring health related quality of life, regarding the two pain groups. The groups were compared using analysis of variance, principal components analysis paired with discriminant analysis and profile analysis. Results: Analyses of the interviews resulted in core concepts of an “unprotected self” (current fibromyalgia) or a “strong but not enough to be weak” self (recovery). Data patterns indicated that the women as children were unprotected in relation to stimuli and affects. Relationships with the parents were characterised by strain and low levels of support. The recovery group had as children simultaneously been able to develop obvious competence and capability to receive help. Psychological vulnerability was in adult life compensated for through pronounced helpfulness and dissociation/repression including intense activity. An increase in mental load such as localised pain or psychosocial crisis preceded onset of fibromyalgia accompanied by impaired cognitive functioning. The state of fibromyalgia meant maintained high levels of mental load such as difficulties of the selfstructures, impaired cognitive functioning and somatic symptoms. The recovery group experienced substantial social support and often used mastering strategies to ease symptoms. A decrease in strain as improved life conditions and cease of overexertion preceded recovery. Health was thereafter maintained through careful management as seeking low levels of strain and pacing of activity. Recovery ‘on parole’ also meant personal growth and use of efficacious defences. Psychometrical testing confirmed qualitative data patterns of self-regulation connected to fibromyalgia. Impaired selfreference/ understanding of health needs and others not being asked for help and advice was reported before onset of symptoms. Dissociation or repression including intense activity and self-loading were also employed. SASB and SF-36 indicated that women with fibromyalgia experienced higher levels of mental “load” than the other pain group. Conclusion: Qualitative data indicated that life prior to onset of fibromyalgia and current fibromyalgia held qualities of impaired self-regulation in relation to mental and physical load. The state of recovery relied on improved self-regulation allowed by conditions of life. Quantitative data patterns confirmed qualitative results on impaired self-protection before onset of fibromyalgia and a specifically high level of mental load during the state of fibromyalgia. Psychological disregulation is discussed and hypothesised to cause but also later in the process parallel alterations in somatic homeostatic functions. Recovery could mean that biological regulation regarding strain is replaced with more of “psycho-social” regulation as careful pacing of work. Implications for treatment are suggested.
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| 9. |
- Åkesson, Maria, 1963-
(författare)
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Digital Innovation in the Value Networks of Newspapers
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- After decades of digital developments, we are now entering a truly digital era. Digital information and communication technology has become a naturally embedded part ofthe designed environment we live in. Most parts of life are today pervaded by digital products and services. Evidence of such immersion can be noted in, for instance, media consumption. This development is gradually shaping and cultivating a media environment that is ubiquitous. Such ubiquity is manifested in media’s constant presence and thechanges in media consumption in the purview of digital innovation. Indeed, digital innovation is not only a shift in technology. It alters existing value networks and calls forrethinking existing value perceptions. While this disruptive change driven by digitizationcan be found in many industries, this thesis focuses on its impact on value networks in thenewspaper industry.The digitization of newspapers started with the introduction of the internet in the 90´sand soon emerged into new media innovations. While these new media innovations have not replaced existing media, they have been disruptive to newspaper value networks. Recently, the emergence of yet another digital innovation is specifically interesting whenstudying changes to value networks of the newspaper industry: the e-paper. This innovation (a screen technology very close to print on paper) exhibits inherent valuesthat make future replacement of print on paper a possibility. It is therefore regarded as avery promising technology in the newspaper industry. This thesis can be positioned at the intersection of the friction between forces to embarkon a new media trajectory and forces to hang on to the established structures andcontrol. The research question addressed in this thesis is: How are value networks of newspapers influenced by digital innovation? Addressing the research question, a multimethod approach was adopted to gain a broad understanding of how digital innovationinfluences value networks of newspapers. Drawing on digital innovation literature, the thesis presents a theoretical perspective with which to understand how digital innovation influences value networks. This perspective is instantiated as a model of value network configuration. The model emphasizes the multi-layered, dynamic, dialectic, and diametrical character of value networks in digital innovation. The model is offered as abasis and analytical tool to further explore value networks in digital innovation. This tool is useful for newspaper stakeholders when entering the digital era.
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