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- Lundberg, Christine, 1972-
(författare)
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Challenges in Delivering Services: The Front-Line Hospitality and Tourism Employee Perspective
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Significant challenges are faced by front-line hospitality and tourism employees interacting with customers on a daily basis. These challenges and the ways they are dealt with form the focus of this thesis. As they interact, a range of incidents may arise from highly satisfactory encounters to service failures. It has been argued that in order to achieve satisfactory service encounters, employees need to feel in control, satisfied and motivated as well as being given appropriate assistance, information and training. Front-line employees in hospitality and tourism are focused on here due to the complex nature of the industry. It is commonly agreed that it is characterised by poor working conditions such as anti-social working hours, part-time and/or seasonal work, minimal on-the-job training and low levels of pay. These are all factors which may affect employee work satisfaction and motivation as well as recruitment and retention. The thesis is comprised of four studies. In Study I, hospitality and tourism employee work motivation is analysed. Study II examines front-line hotel restaurant employees’ experiences of service encounters. How the skills utilised by employees during these service encounters are acquired and developed is then explored in Study III. Study IV concludes by examining employee informal information sharing activities, which offer one way of developing these skills. The thesis’ findings paint a more positive picture of work and workers in hospitality and tourism than suggested in some of the earlier published research. This could be explained by the fact that the thesis utilises an employee perspective in its truest sense. The findings of the thesis show that employees are motivated (to large extent by factors that have been pointed out in earlier published work motivation research) and that they are active in the pursuit of developing skills necessary to create satisfactory service encounters. Another conclusion of the thesis’ findings is that the interaction between workers and guests in the service encounter provides an important opportunity for workers to feel satisfied at work.
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| 2. |
- Bergman, Joakim, 1989-
(författare)
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Studies of the Biology of Intrathecal Treatment in Progressive MS
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory, autoimmune disease, affecting the central nervous system (CNS). About 85% of afflicted present with a relapsing-remitting form of the disease (RRMS), for which a breakthrough in treatment was made in 2008 with rituximab, an antibody directed towards CD20, a surface antigen on B-cells. These findings also contributed to cementing the importance of the B-cell’s role in MS pathophysiology. However, MS also exist as a progressive phenotype, affecting most MS patients either from onset or after a transition from RRMS, and for progressive MS the same treatment effect of anti-CD20 has not been observed. Still, studies have found follicle-like structures containing B-cells in meninges and subarachnoid space of the cortex in progressive MS brains, supporting the involvement of B-cells. Evidence also support the existence of a chronic, low-grade inflammatory process compartmentalised within the CNS that correlates with the progressive phase of MS, which may present a treatment barrier towards anti-CD20. Peripherally administrated therapeutic antibodies cross the intact blood-brain barrier with low efficiency with only 0.1-0.5% of the plasma concentration occurring in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Intrathecal (IT) administration circumvents the blood-brain barrier, presenting an opportunity to better target the CNS B-cells.Aims: To evaluate the safety and feasibility of intrathecal anti-CD20 therapy with rituximab in progressive MS, its effect on disease progression through clinical parameters, and impact on biomarkers in CSF. Furthermore, this thesis aimed to evaluate the effect on biomarkers representative of cell injury related to insertion of a ventricular catheter for drug administration and to examine the interstitial milieu in the brain through microdialysis (MD).Methods: The thesis is based on the open-label, phase IIb, multicentre clinical trial Intrathecal Treatment Trial in Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (ITT-PMS; EudraCT 2008-002626-11), in which 23 participants received IT treatment with rituximab, and the extended follow-up study, ITT-PMS extension (EudraCT 2012-000721-53). All participants received a ventricular catheter and an Ommaya reservoir for drug administration through a neurosurgical procedure, and 10 participants received a MD catheter in parallel to the ventricular catheter for 10 days. The treatment effect was evaluated by regular clinical evaluations and analyses of CSF. The clinical outcome was evaluated through walking and upper-limb function tests, and by clinical evaluation scales. Levels of selected CSF biomarkers were analysed from the same time-points as the clinical evaluations.Results: After the completion of the extension trial, one clinical parameter (cognitive performance) showed improvement but could most likely be explained by a learning effect. Worsening of walking speed was observed, while the remaining clinical parameters showed no change. Two severe adverse events occurred in the form of low-virulent bacterial meningitis caused by Propionibacterium, but both were treated effectively with antibiotics without residual symptoms. A ‘spike’ was noticed in the level of lumbar CSF neurofilament light (NFL) following surgery but returned to pre-surgery baseline within 6-12 months. No change was observed for any of the other lumbar CSF biomarkers. No meaningful correlation of protein levels was observed when comparing MD samples, ventricular CSF, and lumbar CSF.Conclusions: Intrathecal treatment through intraventricular administration was well tolerated but not without risks. A continued progression was observed in gait impairment. The insertion of the ventricular catheter caused white matter injury, measured through an increase in NFL in lumbar CSF, in direct association with the surgical procedure. No impact was observed on other CSF biomarkers. There was a poor correlation between different CNS compartments regarding protein levels, arguing for caution in drawing conclusions about brain pathophysiology from lumbar CSF samples.
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| 3. |
- Osmonalieva, Zarina, 1982-
(författare)
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Determinants of exploitation of innovative venture ideas : A study of nascent entrepreneurs in an advisory system
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study contributes to nascent entrepreneurship research by investigating factors on the individual and opportunity levels of analysis that determine the exploitation of innovative venture ideas. As a result of the literature review three theoretical perspectives were chosen to organize the factors: human and social capital, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and domain definition strategy. The analysis of the chosen factors is based on hypotheses formulated on the basis of the literature review concerning the impact of the factors on the performance of nascent entrepreneurs during the discovery process. Empirical data were collected from the survey of 409 nascent entrepreneurs who addressed a public advisory agency in Stockholm area.Research findings show that among all factors, statistically significant predictors of exploitation of venture ideas are social capital in terms of the contact with counselors and number of ties with different actors, planning and marshaling self-efficacy, initial investment, tangibility and innovativeness of the future offerings. As for the direction of relationships, too many ties with different networks and higher planning self-efficacy influence exploitation in a negative way. Among variables related to domain definition strategy, entrepreneurs with innovative venture ideas based on services have higher probability of exploiting their ideas. Those who have made initial investment into the development of venture ideas and have a frequent contact with counselors are more likely to continue exploitation efforts. Of five dimensions of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, higher marshaling self-efficacy was shown to positively contribute to the exploitation process.It is especially difficult during the early stages of entrepreneurial process to predict which venture ideas will survive, thus, nascent entrepreneurship assistance should encourage experimentation. Although it is difficult to make generalizations from the study about nascent entrepreneurs in the Stockholm area, it can be advised to encourage the development of new services and enhance the entrepreneurial potential of nascent entrepreneurs by developing their entrepreneurial self-efficacy, especially marshaling self-efficacy.
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