| 1. |
- Godtman Kling, Kristin
(författare)
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Paths to collaboration? A Study on Multifunctional Mountain Trails
- 2019
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Trails in natural areas constitute an essential resource in tourism as they provide infrastructure for both tourists and tourism companies. Trails allow access to nature and increase safety for visitors by guiding them to the appropriate route, where places of danger are avoided and the risk of damaging ecologically sensitive areas minimized. Even so, touristic activities in natural settings are today increasing and are more diversified as there are many ‘new’ activities becoming accessible for more people, for example mountain biking, trail-running and mountaineering. These trends and changes in tourism and outdoor recreation have resulted in an increase of trail-use, which in turn entails more trail-based conflicts. Conflicts occur between different recreational activities that use the same trail, but also between trail-based recreationists and other land-use interests. Thus, planners and managers of natural areas increasingly have to handle conflicts related to trail-use. Although conflicts relating to trails are becoming more common, research on trails as a conflict management tool is limited. Research has mainly focused on conflicts between trail-based recreation activities, and not on how the trail itself can be used to handle conflicts between land-use interests. As a number of land-use interests use the trail for various purposes, it can be argued that the multi-faceted features and flexible characteristics that constitute a trail can be helpful in handling such conflicts. The point of departure for this licentiate thesis is the assumption that trails in the natural landscape can function as a conflict management tool. Through the recreational trail, dialogue and discussions are made possible among stakeholders. Trails can therefore function as facilitators for communication, and thus enhance the possibilities of building trust and promoting collaboration between actors.The results of this thesis derive from a case study of the southern Jämtland mountains in Sweden, an area where conflicts of interests exist. There are several different interests and perspectives on how the mountain landscape should be used, perspectives including those of tourism companies, reindeer herding, nature conservation interests and local population. The trails in the area are, however, important to all stakeholder groups, and collaboration around the trails is therefore examined in this thesis as an applied example where stakeholders communicate and negotiate.Data for this thesis was collected by working closely with stakeholders in the area and by organizing workshops where different interests could meet and discuss issues relating to trails. Results show that creating platforms for collaboration and dialogue are important for increasing the understanding between different interests represented within stakeholder groups. Such platforms can therefore be highly valuable in handling conflicts regarding land-use.This licentiate thesis contributes to increased knowledge on the multi-faceted roles of trails intended for tourism and outdoor recreation. This is achieved by the examination of international trail research to identify research gaps, together with the analysis of trails as a tool for collaboration and communication to handle land-use conflicts. The thesis contributes to the existing literature on handling multiple land-use interests, and adds to previous knowledge by taking on a rather new approach; that of the recreational trail as a facilitator for communication.
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| 2. |
- Kronenberg, Kai
(författare)
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A quantity-quality framework for measuring the regional socio-economic impact of tourism : The case of Jämtland Härjedalen
- 2019
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Measuring the economic effects of tourism has always been a high priority for private and public actors in the regional economy (Stabler et al 2009). These estimates provide insights about the generation of sales, jobs, and income associated with tourism, but also support industry officials in the regional development agenda. Measuring tourism’s economic impact in a region typically involves economic impact models that capture both primary and secondary effects (Comerio and Strozzi 2019). However, results gained from these models are limited in regards to highly aggregated and growth-oriented indicators on the macro-level.These economic impact models ‘fulfil’ their purpose in incorporating the assumptions of mainstream economics and in focusing on macro-level indicators related to economic growth (Elsner 2017). That involves the risk that important socio-economic aspects, such as the distribution of income, are less considered in regional tourism development agendas. Even so-called ‘advanced’ models neglect distributional dimensions in estimating the impact of tourism (Lee 2009). Accordingly, a growing body of literature starts criticizing mainstream economics’ modelling assumptions and its narrow view on economic growth (Söderbaum 2017). Instead, economic analyses should put more focus multi-dimensional perspectives, including the institutional (i.e. meso-level) perspective in addition to the traditional macro- and micro view (Dopfer et al. 2004). Furthermore, various forms of inequalities are identified to typically hamper regional development from a socio-economic point of view (Moulaert and Nussbaumer 2005a).Against this background, the aim of this thesis is to propose a framework that extends traditional economic impact approaches and allows the measurement of tourism impact from a broader socio-economic perspective. The approach in this thesis comprises a macro as well as a meso level analysis and utilizes a mixed-method approach (Dopfer et al. 2004; Khoo-Lattimore et al. 2017). More concretely, the traditional economic impact methodology is further developed in order to estimate disaggregated employment and income effects for specific occupations, and to estimate the income distribution across occupations in major tourism sectors.This analysis is conducted for the county of Jämtland and comprises the period + time (Daniels et al. 2004). A series of interviews with major regional industry- and policy representatives complements the impact analysis from the meso-level perspective. By doing so, the institutional perspectives helped identifying potential reasons for variations in occupation and income developments in tourism.Findings show that the traditional way of analysing tourism’s impacts does not only provide the full picture of the impacts, but also even gives potentially misleading information. While, in general, the tourism industry benefits from annually growing arrival numbers in terms of sales, the income level of the tourism workforce remains among the lowest in the entire regional economy. In addition, the income inequality across occupations in the main tourism sector accommodation & food is increasing, indicating a negative trend in the industry. This can be partly attributed to decreasing union membership rates, short-term career perspectives, and increasing shares of occupations without requirements for higher education. Like in other branches, the role of education in the tourism industry is particularly important to overcome these trends.This study shows that extending traditional ways of analysing the economic impact of tourism by incorporating additional socio-economic dimensions contributes to a better understanding the socio-economic sustainability of the regional tourism industry. By putting the focus away from pure growth-driven indicators, this approach proposes an alternative way for measuring tourism’s impacts, which can, hopefully, be implemented and institutionalized in the future.
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| 3. |
- Palm, Klas, 1964-
(författare)
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Understanding Innovation as an Approach to Increasing Customer Value in the Context of the Public Sector
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- We live in a society that is constantly developing. New challenges and new opportunities emerge all the time. Fortunately, human beings have a fantastic ability to adapt and find new solutions in new situations, i.e. to be innovative. Not just individuals but also organizations need to make room for innovative development. Organizations need to work on how to develop new products, services and processes. At the same time, each organization needs to work on improving the quality of existing activities. Previous research has shown that high value for the customer, i.e. that which often constitutes the goal of quality work, is achieved by the organization working in parallel on developing existing products, services and processes while at the same time driving innovative development forward. How organizations cope with the balance between these two perspectives has been researched and written about considerably when it comes to manufacturing companies. On the other hand, however, there is a lack of documented knowledge regarding how best to balance these two perspectives in the service sector in general and the public sector in particular. This thesis has been written with a view to contributing to existing knowledge about how innovation can be understood as a possible way of increasing customer value within the public sector. It seeks to create insight into how innovation is perceived as a phenomenon in order to increase value for the customer and into how innovation work relates to other aspects of current quality practices within the Swedish public sector. It has also been written with a view to contributing greater understanding to how some of the quality movement’s tools can increase innovation capacity in the public sector. To fulfil this aim, a literature study and case studies have been performed. The case studies have been performed in Sweden at Lantmäteriet (Swedish Land Survey) and The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, (Sida). One of the case studies also included the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish Government. Three research reports have been written between 2012 and 2014, and these form the basis of the thesis. The research findings give examples of organizations whose quality work focuses closely on systematic measurement and control of the work process and much less on innovatively developing new ways of increase customer value. The findings also show that there are a number of obstacles which the public administrations studied face to combine quality work with a greater ability to work innovatively. Given that innovative development is an important strategy for increasing customer value, the study indicates that some of the existing quality work is an obstacle to achieving greater customer value in the public sector. At the same time, there are tools and values in the quality movement that can improve the organization’s ability to innovate. The quality movement’s core values and tools, such as systematic cyclical learning, can constitute important tools with which to create favourable conditions to improve innovative ability. This underlines the need for identifying where quality work strengthens and hinders innovation processes respectively. The research findings also stress the need to radically improve the work on innovative processes in the public sector in order to achieve the overarching goals of public administration more effectively.
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| 4. |
- Brännström, Lotta, 1973-
(författare)
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"Alltså det finns ju ingen respekt!” : Tjejers perspektiv på (o)trygghet och genusrelaterat våld i vardagen– en photovoicestudie
- 2021
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Genusrelaterat våld, och då specifikt killar och mäns våld mot tjejer och kvinnor är ett allvarligt globalt folkhälsoproblem, en kränkning av mänskligarättigheter och ett hot mot ett demokratiskt samhälle. De flesta studierna gällande genusrelaterat våld är genomförda i städer eller stadsnära områden och vi saknar tillräcklig kunskap om våld mot tjejer och unga kvinnor på landsbygd. Därför är det övergripande syftet med licentiatavhandlingen att öka kunskapen om genusrelaterat våld mot tjejer på landsbygd genom den participatoriska metoden photovoice.Licentiatavhandlingen består av en kappa och två publicerade delstudier [I‐II] som syftar till att skapa en djupare förståelse för genusrelaterat våld mot tjejer på landsbygd i Sverige, utifrån tjejers egna perspektiv. I studie [II] utökades syftet till att också diskutera metodens potential att nå nyckelpersoner inom policyfältet och leda till social förändring, utöver dess förmåga att informera och engagera. Det är genomgående kvalitativa studier. Det empiriska materialet består av insamlat data genom photovoice samt workshops och gruppintervjuer [I‐II]. Materialet består även av intervjuer med beslutsfattare (tjänstepersoner och politiker) och material från en inspelad podcast [II]. Insamlat data analyserades med hjälp av induktiv och deduktiv tematisk analys [I], en beskrivande aktionsorienterad analys samt innehållsanalys [II].Analysen i studie [I] utmynnade i två primära teman: det första temat konstant rädsla har två sub‐teman som förklarar en rädsla som är integrerad i tjejernas vardag, och som förminskar deras handlingsutrymmen. Det andra temat fokuserar på de strategier som tjejerna använder för att hantera denna konstanta rädsla, och detta bryts sedan ner i två sub‐teman som visar hur genusnormer till stor del påverkar beteende och förväntningar. Även resultatet i studie [II] visar att tjejernas känsla av kontroll var begränsad och att olika situationer i vardagslivet präglades av känslor av minskat handlingsutrymme och agens. Studien visar också att photovoice är en lämplig metod för att visuellt förmedla deltagarnas perspektiv samt att engagera och informera beslutsfattare, men att enbart metoden i sig inte kan garantera social förändring.Normativa föreställningar om genus påverkar i hög grad både språk och beteende bland ungdomar, och trots att Sverige ofta omtalas och framställs som ett jämställt samhälle finns det flera indikationer på det motsatta. Tjejers handlingsutrymme är betydligt mindre jämfört med killars, och tjejer marginaliseras i en mängd situationer och sociala interaktioner. Deltagarna i studien såg också ett tydligt samband mellan genusrelaterat våld och allvarliga hälsokonsekvenser, och studien hjälper oss förstå hur och på vilket sätt tonårstjejer i Sverige påverkas negativt av genusrelaterat våld. Den alarmerande höga förekomsten av genusrelaterat våld bland unga visar betydelsen av att adressera problemet redan från tidig ålder.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Abikari, Masoome
(författare)
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Young consumers’ emotions towards emerging e-banking technology : A multi-perspective approach
- 2024
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Banks appear to be interested in enhancing their effectiveness and efficiency by developing e-banking technology, i.e., the provision of banking products and services through electronic channels. However, the successful implementation of e-banking technology depends on how consumers perceive such technology and how they are probably provoked to adopt it. Considering emerging e-banking technologies, knowledge of the salient influential factors affecting consumer adoption is crucial for banks. Studies have analysed these factors from different perspectives, such as attribute- and barrier-based perspectives. Attribute-based factors pertain to the perceived or expected characteristics of e-banking technology, whereas barrier-based factors refer to factors that can hinder or delay the adoption of e-banking technology. Despite the absence of consensus on these factors, there is a predominant focus on the functional aspects of this technology, often neglecting the emotional experience of consumers. Consumers’ emotions in the e-banking context mainly refer to hedonic motivation, defined as positive emotions such as fun, pleasure, and enjoyment arising from the usage of e-banking technology. While examining hedonic motivation has provided valuable insights into the adoption of such technology, further studies are required to examine the relationship among consumers’ emotions, particularly negative ones arising from different kinds of appraisals. Accordingly, this thesis aims to examine the influence of consumers’ emotions towards emerging e-banking technology on their intention to adopt such technology, with a specific emphasis on negative emotions from attribute and barrier-based perspectives. Applying Structural equation modelling (SEM), the empirical results draw attention to the influential role of different types of negative emotions in the adoption of emerging e-banking technology. From the attribute-based perspective, the empirical results demonstrate an association between loss emotions and consumers’ behavioural intention to adopt emerging e-banking technology, through effort expectancy and performance expectancy. From a barrier-based perspective, the results indicate that deterrence emotions can be positively associated with consumers’ perceived risk. This, in turn, influences their behavioural intention to adopt emerging e-banking technology. The results also reveal the influence of deterrence emotions on consumers’ perceived risk, even in the presence of positive emotions. These results suggest the importance of considering various categories of negative emotions when examining consumers’ intention to adopt emerging e-banking technology.
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| 7. |
- Ahlin, Karin
(författare)
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Approaching the intangible benefits of a boundary object
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Today´s information society is constantly increasing the quantity of digital information that organisations have access to and depend on. Despite this dependency, few descriptions exist of the benefits which this digital information can provide the organisation with. Examples of what the organisation can use the information for include business intelligence or in a business process. The absence of such benefit descriptions results in missed opportunities in organisational management and a failure to cultivate the artefact. In terms of a practical operational work role, this means that the artefact just exists and that there are no decisions, communication and discussions connected to it. Earlier research about benefits in the Information Systems field is focused on describing the process of finding benefit factors from different IT investments and how these investments can be measured financially. The result of this was that it was only the measurable benefits that were taken into consideration. Later benefit management research has shown interest in the intangible benefit factors as well and added this as an activity in the evaluation process. Today´s view is that the benefit consists both of tangible and intangible benefit factors. This thesis emphasises benefit factors found by means of qualitative research in organisations producing Technical Information (TI). TI isinformation connected to goods and services and is a part of a product. The intangible benefit factors found which are connected to TI are semantic interoperability and knowledge. Semantic interoperability is beneficial both for the organisation and the individuals – in the first case exemplified by a uniform working process and in the second as efficiency in the internal communication. Knowledge also provides benefit both to the organisation and the individuals – the organisation can operate without depending on certain individuals and information gives the individuals mobility in their profession.The next part in the thesis discusses information management´simpact on benefit factors. In the case of an autocratic approach, it is the organisation that benefits most, whereas a decentralised management style provides the individual co-workers with a greater number of benefit factors. This proves that information management is an important and decisive ingredient, and that it affects benefit factors.One step in the direction of converting the intangible benefit factors into tangible ones is to visualise them. In this work the theoreticallens provided by a boundary object has been used. This lens adds a qualitative view on cross-boundary information and has efficiency approaches. These approaches are the syntactical, semantic andpragmatic. Via interpretations from the thesis´s two empirical cases, those approaches are "measured" by interpretations and visualised by the three leaves of a clover. This gives the opportunity to describewhat information efficiency, in this case connected to a positiveexpectation, can contribute to the organisation or the individuals. By this procedure, different cases or time aspects can be compared,thereby providing a basis for decision-making, communication and discussion. Future research in this area can be made in different directions – one is to investigate whether the intangible benefit factors can be turned into measurable ones. In this way, the internal organisation can be provided with better knowledge of the digital information's impact. Another research direction is to investigate how the passage of time affects the benefit factors that digital information gives the organisation.
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| 8. |
- Ankre, Rosemarie
(författare)
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Understanding the visitor : A prerequisite for coastal zone planning
- 2007
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Planning for tourism and outdoor recreation in coastal areas could be improved with knowledge of visitors´ attitudes, experiences, activities and geographical dispersion. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the knowledge of visitors in planning for tourism and outdoor recreation. The Luleå archipelago in Northern Sweden was used as a case study.
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| 9. |
- Appelberg, Jonas, 1985-
(författare)
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Gilla oss! : En studie av fyra svenska medieföretags arbete med sociala medier
- 2018
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation contains an exploratory study of how four Swedish media companies has decided to use social media in their daily work, and also how they in fact use them. What are the goals with implementing social media, how do they differ between different companies and do the goals transfer into the newsrooms?The four companies studied are Sveriges Radio, Aftonbladet, Dalarnas Tidningar and Gotlands Media. Media companies that differ from one another both in size, geographical coverage and economy. They range from small local newspapers to national public service radio and the biggest tabloid on the Swedish market. The methods used are qualitative research interviews and field studies as well as quantitative data analysis. The theoretical chapter helps define traditional journalism and journalistic practice. The concepts of boundaries, participatory cultures and normalizing of work methods are also discussed and helps build a context for the analysis of the empirical data.Some key findings from the study are that there are more similarities than differences between the various companies in both how they aim to use social media and how they in fact use them. That the digital development in the surrounding society are much faster than the implementation of new technologies in the newsrooms. Also, that there are differences between how the companies aim to use social media and the actual usage. For instance, all companies strive for a more active dialog with the audience in their visionary work, but has a hard time turning this into reality.There is also notable that social media in this study do not change the journalistic fundamental routines and traditions. The studied journalists are still in control of their own content and they aim to meet the same standard in journalistic quality when working in social media. It is also evident that Facebook is invaluable for all the studied companies, which gives Facebook an interesting indirect power over the journalistic work process and product. Finally, the study finds that it is hard to engage the audience in an active collaboration even when working with social media.
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| 10. |
- Bellman, Lina, 1971-
(författare)
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Auktoriserade fastighetsvärderares syn på värdering : tankemönster om kommersiella fastigheter
- 2012
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Värdering av kommersiella fastigheter handlar om att samla in, analysera och bedöma information. Förutom att fastigheternas marknadsvärden har betydelse för samhället i stort är de av vikt för dem som fattar beslut som grundas på värdeutlåtanden. Syftet med denna licentiatavhandling är a) att kartlägga hur svenska auktoriserade fastighetsvärderare ser på de faktorer som avgör värdet på kommersiella fastigheter när värderingen görs inför upprättandet av årsredovisning samt b) att jämföra och dra slutsatser om fastighetsvärderarnas tankemönster vad gäller innehåll, komplexitet och homogenitet samt i vilken omfattning tankemönstren skiljer sig åt mellan olika grupper av fastighetsvärderare.För att kartlägga fastighetsvärderarnas tankemönster använder jag mig av Kellys (1955) gridteknik och kompletterande semistrukturerade intervjuer. Jag har intervjuat nära hälften (67) av Sveriges auktoriserade fastighetsvärderare. Resultatet visar tre tolkningsbara dimensioner som kan anses centrala i fastighetsvärderarnas tankemönster. Den första dimensionen avser värderingens fokus. Den handlar om att fastighetsvärderare uppfattar att olika sorters information och bedömning har olika påverkan på fastighetsvärdering på mikro- respektive makronivå. Med mikronivå menas då fastigheter i relation till deras fastighetsägare och makronivå avser fastigheter i relation till marknaden i stort. Den andra dimensionen ger uttryck för att fastighetsvärderare uppfattar att viss information är mer eller mindre verifierbar utifrån informationens karaktär. Den tredje dimensionen avser bedömningens komplexitet. Fastighetsvärderare uppfattar att olika typer av information är komplexare respektive enklare att bedöma.Resultaten tyder på att fastighetsvärderare har ett flerdimentionellt tankemönster. När de auktoriserade fastighetsvärderarna delas upp i grupper utifrån olika bakgrundsvariabler återkommer de tre dimensionerna i samtliga gruppers tankemönster. Detta tyder även på att auktoriserade fastighetsvärderare har relativt homogena tankestrukturer. Vissa skillnader i komplexitet och homogenitet framkommer dock. Dessa skillnader visar sig främst utifrån de auktoriserade fastighetsvärderarnas verksamhetsorter och vid vilka lärosäten de studerat.
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