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- Jonasson, Karl, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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Environmental Assessment of Emerging Technologies: The Case of Alternative Transport Fuels
- 2005
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- There are several methods to evaluate the environmental performance of new technologies. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the methodological development of environmental assessments, with contributions from life-cycle assessment (LCA), theories on technical change and socio-technical scenarios.LCA, or well-to-wheel studies, is a widely used tool for evaluating the environmental performance of alternative transport fuels. However, the methodology is usually not adapted to answer questions regarding strategic technology choice. Suggestions are presented that could increase the usefulness of LCA in this respect. A net output approach is used, where fuels are used for their own production and distribution. Background system changes and the size of byproduct markets are studied, and it is shown that these factors can have a large influence on the results. Studies of LCA type can be used to give information on which fuels that have a low environmental impact today, and which are promising in the long run. However, it is suggested that also dynamic processes of technical changed need to be taken into account in the selection of technologies.In a study of the history of alternative transport fuels in Sweden, we show that also short-term options can contribute to the development towards more promising long-term options. Investments in alternative fuels during the years have not only resulted in physical artefacts and new explicit knowledge, but have also created dedicated actors and changed tacit knowledge and normative rules. Positive feedback loops related to actors, knowledge and rules have created more actors and changed regulation, and an ability of alternatives to survive. At the same time, the growth of some alternatives has favoured others, due to overlaps in socio-technical systems.However, the growth of alternatives is still very much dependent on exogenous factors and policy. The balance between short-term and long-term options in the transition of the transport system is illustrated through the use of socio-technical scenarios. These show that there is a risk that any policy could result in a negative development for renewable alternatives, but they also suggest that there are opportunities for growth. Policy could balance the development in different parts of the system, and make use of short-term options to contribute to more radical changes in the transport system.
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- Boustedt, Jonas
(författare)
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Students working with a large software system : experiences and understandings
- 2007
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This monograph describes an empirical study with the overall aim of producing insights about how students experience the subject Computer Science and its learning environments, particularly programming and software engineering.The research takes a start in the students' world, from their perspective, using their stories, and hence, we have chosen a phenomenographic approach for our research. By interpreting the students' descriptions and experiences of various phenomena and situations, it is possible to gain knowledge about which different conceptions students can have and how teaching and the learning environment affect their understanding. In this study, we focus specifically on students' conceptions of aspects of object-oriented programming and their experiences of problem solving situations in connection with object-oriented system development.The questions posed enlighten and focus on the students' conceptions of both tangible and abstract concepts; the study investigates how students experienced a task concerning development in a specific software system, how they conceived the system itself, and how the students describe the system's plugin modules. Academic education in programming deals with abstract concepts, such as interfaces in the programming language Java. Hence, one of the questions in this study is how students describe that specific abstract concept, in a context where they are conducting a realistic software engineering task.The results show that there is a distinct variation of descriptions, spanning from a concrete to-do list, to a more advanced description where the interface plays a crucial role in order to produce dynamic and adaptive systems. The discussion interprets the results and suggests how we can use them in teaching to provide an extended and varied understanding, where the educational goal is to provide for and strengthen the conditions for students to be able to learn how to develop and understand advanced software.
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| 6. |
- von Haartman, Robin
(författare)
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Externa integration and the need for manufacturing competence
- 2007
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- For a number of years, manufacturers have increasingly focused on their perceived core competencies and outsourced activities not seen as such. In doing so there are an increasing number of competencies that fall outside the ‘core’ domain but are nonetheless required for effective product and process development. The proposed solution to this problem has been external integration with an emphasis on collaborative product or process development and also the wider concept of supply chain management. It is, however, not always easy to substitute internal competencies with customers’ and suppliers’ capabilities. Many authors have focused on finding the prerequisites for effective external integration and particularly on areas such as trust and power. This thesis contributes to the literature by extending the concept of absorptive capacity into the manufacturing domain and in the context of external integration. A conceptual framework is developed, where different streams of the literature have been merged into one coherent model. Integral parts of this framework are the concept of absorptive capacity as well as a model of competitive priorities. Competitive priorities have been taken into account as firms differ; what contributes to competitive advantage for one firm may be irrelevant for another. Three papers are included in the thesis. The first one uses survey data, from a representative sample of the Swedish manufacturing industry, in order to validate the concept of absorptive capacity in the manufacturing sector. The second paper also uses survey data but aims to shed some light on competitive priorities’ impact on both the extent and the outcome of internal and external integration. The third paper describes a case study of a first-tier supplier and aims to illustrate how absorptive capacity in a manufacturing firm may look in practice. The thesis concludes that the conceptual framework is indeed useful for understanding the challenges of effective external integration. Internal manufacturing competencies may allow a firm to integrate more effectively external sources, but the required competencies may vary from firm to firm. This implies a need for a fit between companies’ competitive priorities, external integration and absorptive capacity. It also implies that companies may struggle to achieve competitive advantage by utilising their customers and suppliers if they do not simultaneously develop appropriate competencies in-house.
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