The future of stakeholder management theory: a temporal perspective

We propose adding a temporal dimension to stakeholder management theory, and assess the implications thereof for firm-level competitive advantage. We argue that a firm’s competitive advantage fundamentally depends on its capacity for stakeholder management related, transformational adaptation over time. Our new temporal stakeholder management approach builds upon insights from both the resource-based view (RBV) in strategic management and institutional theory. Stakeholder agendas and their relative salience to the firm evolve over time, a phenomenon well understood in the literature, and requiring what we call level 1 adaptation. However, the dominant direction of stakeholder pressures can also change, namely, from supporting resource heterogeneity at the firm level to fostering industry homogeneity, and vice versa. When dominant stakeholder pressures shift from supporting heterogeneity towards stimulating homogeneity in industry, the firm must engage in level 2 or transformational adaptation. Stakeholders typically provide valuable resources to the firm in an early stage. Without these resources, which foster heterogeneity (in line with RBV thinking), the firm would not exist. At a later stage, stakeholders also contribute to inter-firm homogeneity via isomorphism pressures (in line with institutional theory thinking). Adding a temporal dimension to stakeholder management theory has far reaching implications for this theory’s practical relevance to senior level management in business.

Papal power and protection in the Shebet Yehudah

The sixteenth-century Shebet Yehudah is an account of the persecutions of Jews in various countries and epochs, including their expulsion from Spain in the fifteenth century. It is not a medieval text and was written long after many of the events it describes. Yet although it cannot give us a contemporary medieval standpoint, it provides important insights into how later Jewish writers perceived Jewish–papal relations in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. Although the extent to which Jewish communities came into contact either with the papacy as an institution or the actions of individual popes varied immensely, it is through analysis of Hebrew works such as the Shebet Yehudah that we are able to piece together a certain understanding of Jewish ideas about the medieval papacy as an institution and the policies of individual popes. This article argues that Jews knew only too well that papal protection was not unlimited, but always carefully circumscribed in accordance with Christian theology. It is hoped that it will be a scholarly contribution to our growing understanding of Jewish ideas about the papacy's spiritual and temporal power and authority in the Later Middle Ages and how this impacted on Jewish communities throughout medieval Europe.

HiPP: A Novel Hierarchical Point Placement Strategy and its Application to the Exploration of Document Collections

Point placement strategies aim at mapping data points represented in higher dimensions to bi-dimensional spaces and are frequently used to visualize relationships amongst data instances. They have been valuable tools for analysis and exploration of data sets of various kinds. Many conventional techniques, however, do not behave well when the number of dimensions is high, such as in the case of documents collections. Later approaches handle that shortcoming, but may cause too much clutter to allow flexible exploration to take place. In this work we present a novel hierarchical point placement technique that is capable of dealing with these problems. While good grouping and separation of data with high similarity is maintained without increasing computation cost, its hierarchical structure lends itself both to exploration in various levels of detail and to handling data in subsets, improving analysis capability and also allowing manipulation of larger data sets.

A new scale-invariant ratio and finite-size scaling for the stochastic susceptible-infected-recovered model

The critical behavior of the stochastic susceptible-infected-recovered model on a square lattice is obtained by numerical simulations and finite-size scaling. The order parameter as well as the distribution in the number of recovered individuals is determined as a function of the infection rate for several values of the system size. The analysis around criticality is obtained by exploring the close relationship between the present model and standard percolation theory. The quantity UP, equal to the ratio U between the second moment and the squared first moment of the size distribution multiplied by the order parameter P, is shown to have, for a square system, a universal value 1.0167(1) that is the same for site and bond percolation, confirming further that the SIR model is also in the percolation class.

On the Derived Categories and Quasitilted Algebras

In this paper, we present some results on the bounded derived category of Artin algebras, and in particular on the indecomposable objects in these categories, using homological properties. Given a complex X*, we consider the set J(X*) = {i is an element of Z vertical bar H(i)(X*) not equal 0} and we define the application l(X*) = maxJ(X*) - minJ(X*) + 1. We give relationships between some homological properties of an algebra and the respective application l. On the other hand, using homological properties again, we determine two subcategories of the bounded derived category of an algebra, which turn out to be the bounded derived categories of quasi-tilted algebras. As a consequence of these results we obtain new characterizations of quasi-tilted and quasi-tilted gentle algebras.

The Gelfand-Kirillov conjecture and Gelfand-Tsetlin modules for finite W-algebras

We address two problems with the structure and representation theory of finite W-algebras associated with general linear Lie algebras. Finite W-algebras can be defined using either Kostant`s Whittaker modules or a quantum Hamiltonian reduction. Our first main result is a proof of the Gelfand-Kirillov conjecture for the skew fields of fractions of finite W-algebras. The second main result is a parameterization of finite families of irreducible Gelfand-Tsetlin modules using Gelfand-Tsetlin subalgebra. As a corollary, we obtain a complete classification of generic irreducible Gelfand-Tsetlin modules for finite W-algebras. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

En vältränad och hälsosam kropp - eller bara en täckmantel för vad det egentligen handlar om? : En innehållsanalys av träningstidningarna Body och Fitness

The aim with this Essay is to examine the two most read magazines in Sweden covering the areas of exercising, fitness, bodybuilding, diets and “wellness” –Fitness and Body. Fitness’s target group is predominantly woman, while Body is almost exclusively read by men. The analysis is first done quantitatively, by systematically categorising the contents of the magazines. Then a qualitative analysis is made. Using two different theories, Anja Hirdman’s gender concept along with her constructivistic media perspective and the theory of Symbolic Interactionism, i try to answer the following questions; Does the two magazines term of address and language differ from one and other? And if that is the case, in what way? With point of departure from contents and subject areas, how are the two magazines compounded? How can the underlying message in the different articles be interpreted?The analysis shows that both magazines followed their purpose of writing about exercising in general, diet, fitness and bodybuilding. However, the magazine Fitness writes more often then Body about matters not following the given purpose, and the language in Body is more informative and general in comparison with the language used in Fitness. Still, the messages sent out by the different articles are in majority of the respects similar. Both magazines are portraying body ideals who can be understand as extreme. In Body the message feels fairly straight, “Build bigger muscles and burn more fat”, whereas Fitness willingly use the concept of “wellness” as a cover for what the message really is, namely “get your self a rock hard body through dieting and hard training”!

Elitidrottsproblem? : En kvalitativ studie om elitidrottares karriäravslutning

This paper used a qualitative technique from a social scientific perspective, a model based on Hewitt and his theory of the self-concept. The purpose of this study was to investigate why some elite athletes experience troublesome periods after their career ending. Interviews were performed with five elite athletes with varying experiences after career ending. The length of the elite athlete careers vary between 7 to 17 years. Two groups were made based upon experiences after career ending. Group 1 had experienced problems, for example suicide tendency, and group 2 had not. The result shows that a troublesome period can come up independently of career ending. The self-concept was investigated during the career and further different kind of variables which could affect the self as training and competition, social relations both before and after termination from sport. Result indicates that an individual in group 2 who has a high complexity in the self-concept based upon significant others outside the elite sport during the career copes with the new situation after career ending much better than group 1 who have not. To build up the self based only upon significant others in the elite sport seems to give expression in a strengthen self. Intensity in training and competition did not have a connection with a troublesome period after retirement from sport but it could prevent establishing contact with others outside the elite sport and reduce a high complexity in the self-concept. The result further shows that elite athletes who practise an individual sport trains in to a greater extent than elite athletes in a seasonal sport. Result also shows that practising a sport with one day off a week, contributes to better opportunities for developing a higher complexity in the self-concept. Suspicions has also rouse that practising an elite sport on the highest level can lead to extensive focusing that further leads to social isolation from individuals outside elite sport. To build up the self upon significant others outside elite sport during the career and keep in touch with significant others from elite sport after the career seems to be the key to avoid problems after the career ending. Suggestions about further investigations are made to see if medial exposure and status can affect the self.

From Pettson and Findus to Festus and Mercury...and Back Again: A Comparison of Four Translations of Sven Nordqvist's Picture Books

In order to examine how children's literature might be translated, two different English translations of two Swedish picture books have been analyzed. The original Swedish books are Rävjakten and Pannkakstårtan by Sven Nordqvist. Rävjakten was translated as The Fox Hunt in 1988 and as The Fox Hunt in 2000. Pannkakstårtan was translated as Pancake Pie in 1985 and as The Birthday Cake in 1999. Literary translation in general, specific translation issues for children's literature, and trends in international English style have been considered. Analysis of the four texts has been made, with consideration given to the following areas: changes in illustrations, layout, or format; text changes; lexical choices; and retention, deletion, or modification of names and culturally specific references. The analysis revealed that the following tendencies were true for the later translations: foreignization of the text, word-for-word translation of the text, and a neutral international English variety.

Bonusar : Mot ett långsiktigt tänkande

Background: The background explains different financial crises and the effect those crises had on the Swedish acquits regarding variable compensation. The resent discussion regarding variable compensation and the main problems with bonuses is also explained. Our theories for this essay is mainly based on the new directions from Finansinspektionen FFFS 2009:6,7 and stakeholder theory. Other theories used are agency theory, stewardship theory and economic man.Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to analyze the new directions for variable compensation and to investigate if these new directions can lead to a more long-term thinking for managers in banks. Method:We used semi-structured interviews with open questions for our survey. During the survey we conducted three personal interviews and one mail interview, respondents represented the stakeholder groups: stakeholder, stakewatcher and stakekeeper. Conclusion: During our survey we found that the directions from Finansinspektionen are still on an early stage and it has been hard to analyze their effects. But it has been shown that the banks experience some difficulty in identifying their risk takers. In our investigation we have found that the new directions can be a step towards a more long-term thinking but it requires the management to change the point of view regarding bonuses.

Socialarbetares genusmedvetenhet i bedömningar av behov och insatser : En kvalitativ vinjettstudie

The aim of this essay was to study if social workers have a gender awareness in the social work they perform and if it appears in the assessment of needs and intervention. A qualitative vignette study with four social workers who handle adult- and addictive clients have been performed. Gender theory is used to interpret the empirical results. The results of the study show that social workers doesn´t see any differences in the clients situation, or make any different assessment of needs depending on if the client is a man or a woman. Social workers also propose the same interventions to men and women. The interviews was done in two parts, before and after the primary design of the study was unveiled. In the first part the social workers didn´t reflect about gender at all, when they assessed the introduced vignette. In the second part of the interviews, a certain attention appeared concerning gender when the social workers reflected about social interventions that is given to men and women with an addiction. Based on the definition of gender awareness, the empirical material, the analysis of the result, prior research and gender theory the conclusion is drawn that social workers have some gender awareness in the social work they perform.Keywords: Gender, sex, gender awareness, social worker, assessment, equality

Understanding Foreign Masters : the examples of Rabindranath Tagore and Fyodor Dostoyevskiy

The Indian author Rabindranath Tagore was received like royalty during his visits to the West after winning the Nobel Prize in 1913. Dreams of foreign cultures offered a retreat from a complicated age. In a time when the West appeared to be living under threat of disintegration and when industrialism seemed like a cul-de-sac, he appeared to offer the promise of a return to a lost paradise, a spiritual abode that is superior to the restless Western culture. However, Tagore’s popularity faded rapidly, most notably in England, the main target of his criticism. Soon after Tagore had won the Nobel Prize, the English became indignant at Tagore’s anti-colonial attitude.Tagore visited Sweden in 1921 and 1926 and was given a warm reception. His visits to Sweden can be seen as an episode in a longer chain of events. It brought to life old conceptions of India as the abode of spirituality on earth. Nevertheless, interest in him was a relatively short-lived phenomenon in Sweden. Only a few of his admirers in Sweden appreciated the complexity of Tagore’s achievements. His “anathema of mammonism”, as a Swedish newspaper called it, was not properly received. After a steady stream of translations his popularity flagged towards the end of the 1920s and then almost disappeared entirely. Tagores visits in Sweden gave an indication that India was on the way to liberate itself from its colonial legacy, which consequently contributed to the waning of his popularity in the West. In the long run, his criticism of the drawbacks in the western world became too obvious to maintain permanent interest. The Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevskiy’s Crime and Punishment (1866) has enticed numerous interpretations such as the purely biographical approach. In the nervous main character of the novel, the young student Raskolnikov, one easily recognizes Dostoyevskiy himself. The novel can also be seen as a masterpiece of realistic fiction. It gives a broad picture of Saint Petersburg, a metropolis in decay. Crime and Punishment can also be seen as one of the first examples of a modern psychological novel, since it is focused on the inner drama of its main character, the young student Raskolnikov. His actions seem to be governed by mere coincidences, dreams and the spur of the moment. it seems fruitful to study the novel from a psychoanalytical approach. In his book Raskolnikov: the way of the divided towards unity in Crime and Punishment (1982), a Swedish scholar, Owe Wikström, has followed this line of interpretation all the way to Freud’s disciple C G Jung. In addition to this, the novel functions as an exciting crime story. To a large extent it is Viktor Sjklovskij and other Russian formalists from the 1920s and onwards who have taught the western audience to understand the specific nature of the crime story. The novel could be seen as a story about religious conversion. Like Lasarus in the Bible (whose story attracts a lot of attention in the novel) Raskolnikov is awakened from the dead, and together with Sonja he starts a completely new life. The theme of conversion has a special meaning for Dostoyevskiy. For him the conversion meant an acknowledgement of the specific nature of Russia itself. Crime and punishment mirrors the conflict between traditional Russian values and western influences that has been obvious in Russia throughout the history of the country. The novel reflects a dialogue that still continues in Russian society. The Russian literary historian Mikhail Bakhtin, who is probably the most famous interpreter of the works of Dostoyevskiy, has become famous precisely by emphasizing the importance of dialogues in novels like Crime and Punishment. According to Bakhtin, this novel is characterized by its multitude of voices. Various ideas are confronted with each other, and each one of them is personified by one of the characters in the novel. The author has resigned from his position as the superior monitor of the text, and he leaves it to the reader to decide what interpretation is the correct one..The aim of the present study is thus to analyze the complex reactions in the west to Tagore’s visits in Sweden and to Fyodor Dostoyevskiys novel Crime and Punishment.. This leads to more general conclusions on communication between cultures.

Étude des méthodes d'enseignement utilisées dans la classe de Français Langue Étrangère en Suède

Ce mémoire traite des méthodologies générales et systématisées de la didactique des langues étrangères développées à différentes périodes, ainsi que des méthodes d’enseignement (techniques, outils, matériels, exercices, activités et tâches etc.) et des théories autour de celles-ci. En utilisant une enquête, remplie par des professeurs travaillant dans certaines écoles suédoises, cette étude lie les méthodologies, les méthodes d’enseignement et les théories avec les pratiques de classe. L’étude montre quelles méthodes d’enseignement sont utilisées et la fréquence de leur utilisation, ainsi que les liens avec les méthodologies. Elle montre aussi que l’enseignement des professeurs de l’étude est principalement représentatif d’une seule méthodologie (la méthodologie cognitiviste – l’approche communicative).

Independent Domain of Symmetric Encryption using Least SignificantBit : Computer Vision, Steganography and Cryptography Techniques

The rapid development of data transfer through internet made it easier to send the data accurate and faster to the destination. There are many transmission media to transfer the data to destination like e-mails; at the same time it is may be easier to modify and misuse the valuable information through hacking. So, in order to transfer the data securely to the destination without any modifications, there are many approaches like cryptography and steganography. This paper deals with the image steganography as well as with the different security issues, general overview of cryptography, steganography and digital watermarking approaches.  The problem of copyright violation of multimedia data has increased due to the enormous growth of computer networks that provides fast and error free transmission of any unauthorized duplicate and possibly manipulated copy of multimedia information. In order to be effective for copyright protection, digital watermark must be robust which are difficult to remove from the object in which they are embedded despite a variety of possible attacks. The message to be send safe and secure, we use watermarking. We use invisible watermarking to embed the message using LSB (Least Significant Bit) steganographic technique. The standard LSB technique embed the message in every pixel, but my contribution for this proposed watermarking, works with the hint for embedding the message only on the image edges alone. If the hacker knows that the system uses LSB technique also, it cannot decrypt correct message. To make my system robust and secure, we added cryptography algorithm as Vigenere square. Whereas the message is transmitted in cipher text and its added advantage to the proposed system. The standard Vigenere square algorithm works with either lower case or upper case. The proposed cryptography algorithm is Vigenere square with extension of numbers also. We can keep the crypto key with combination of characters and numbers. So by using these modifications and updating in this existing algorithm and combination of cryptography and steganography method we develop a secure and strong watermarking method. Performance of this watermarking scheme has been analyzed by evaluating the robustness of the algorithm with PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio) and MSE (Mean Square Error) against the quality of the image for large amount of data. While coming to see results of the proposed encryption, higher value of 89dB of PSNR with small value of MSE is 0.0017. Then it seems the proposed watermarking system is secure and robust for hiding secure information in any digital system, because this system collect the properties of both steganography and cryptography sciences.

Detaljhandelns användande av frontlinjepersonalen, som betydelsefull faktor för kundrelationer och skapande av intäkt

Syftet med denna studie var att komma fram till om kedjeföretag inom detaljhandeln intagit ett serviceperspektiv, där fokus ligger på relationer. Detta genom att undersöka hur aktörerna använder sin frontlinjepersonal. En kvalitativ flerfallstudie har genomförts där tre kedjeföretag bidragit med information rörande transaktions- eller relationsorienterad försäljning, medarbetarskap och betraktande av frontlinjepersonalen. Utgångspunkten för analys av fallstudierna har varit två intervjuer per företag. Dels med butikens högste chef samt med en medarbetare. Det teoretiska ramverket i denna studie rörande medarbetarskap, skapande av värde/nytta för kund samt intern marknadsföring som möjliggör att kund upplever hög tjänstekvalité, signalerar ett tankesätt inom ett serviceperspektiv och används för att svara på syftet. Huruvida kedjeföretagen intagit ett serviceperspektiv fullt ut, är inte möjligt att konkludera i denna småskaliga forskningsuppsats. Vidare forskning är nödvändig. Resultatet från de undersökta företagen i denna studie visar på tendenser till att utveckla ett serviceperspektiv med fokus på goda kundrelationer, vilket är det som skall ge framgång. De undersökta kedjeföretagen skiljer sig dock åt vad gäller intagandet av ett serviceperspektiv. Exempelvis förlitar sig ett företag alltjämt till lågt pris och produktens egenskaper som primära faktorer för intäktsskapande, medan andra premierar det personliga mötet.