Contesting Nordicness

What makes the Nordic countries Nordic? The terms ‘Nordic’ and ‘Scandinavian’ are increasingly used in wide range of political and cultural contexts. Historically they have been associated with political projects and institutions, while also functioning as categories of analysis in academic research. Often associated with positive meanings, the term ‘Nordic’ has also become a resource for commercial and cultural branding

Contesting Nordicness

What makes the Nordic countries Nordic? The terms ‘Nordic’ and ‘Scandinavian’ are increasingly used in wide range of political and cultural contexts. Historically they have been associated with political projects and institutions, while also functioning as categories of analysis in academic research. Often associated with positive meanings, the term ‘Nordic’ has also become a resource for commercial and cultural branding

What is Beyond Budgeting in Ukraine: idea, fashion or innovation? Empirical study about Beyond Budgeting model in Ukrainian academic and professional environments

Masteroppgave i bedriftsøkonomi - Universitetet i Nordland, 201

The Unprecedented Assimilation of Mobile Telephony in Ireland: a Phenomenon of the Celtic Tiger Era or a Result of Cultural Traits?

Following the universal acceptance of mobile telephony the once elitist gadget has become an indispensable democratic tool of everyday communications over the last three decades. Controversially, this thesis illustrates that its level of both adoption and usage did not develop in a similar homogenous pattern in selected OECD countries. In particular, the Irish performance is rather astonishing given the speed of adoption as well as the exceptional high revenue figures achieved by the wireless operators. Consequently, this work determines a selection of factors that drive and encourage both the adoption and usage of cellular telephony in Ireland. The Irish experience is examined in the light of Rogers‘ theory of adoption and diffusion of innovation and demonstrates that domestic socio-economic factors such as the traditional Irish family structure helped the adoption process as did its young demography following the launch of prepaid services. Similarly, historic events such as emigration and the policy of attracting overseas companies to settle in Ireland created traits of a cosmopolite and open economy society whereas the civil war and governmental policies hindered the adequate rollout of the PSTN which resulted in a migration towards cellular telephony. Significantly, by deploying a linear regression model this thesis showed that Hofstede‘s cultural dimension of uncertainty avoidance correlates the most with mobile telephony adoption. Controversially, while this dimension is generally link with protestant cultures this finding is rather contradictive when recalling Ireland‘s tradition of Catholicism and puts a long-cherished stereotype associated with Ireland into question. It was further demonstrated that the Irish benefited from their selection of the global TACS standard that promised economies of scale and subsequently reasonable-priced equipment. Due to this selection the incumbent establish some form of international roaming, which was a novelty outside the NMT system sphere at the time. With regard to the exceptional revenue figures which were seen as a result of a ‗rip-off‘ policy by the wireless carriers this thesis found proof that they were in fact a consequence of the Irish‘s enthusiastic mobile phone usage rather than a product of over-charging. It was further demonstrated that the stereotype of the talkative Irish is profound in their legacy of story-telling as well as a consequence of the British suppression when the mother tongue was used to both conserve and keep their culture alive. Following the independence from their occupiers this regained freedom can easily be observed by the extensive rate of speech and ‗pirate‘ radio broadcastings. Altogether, it was shown that the Irish society resonate most fortune with the adoption of an innovation such as mobile telephony. Therewith, underpinning the relevance of cultural and social factors in addition to traditional solely economic and marked-orientated models

National identity and "Muslim immigrant" representation in the British and Danish press, 2005-2015.

This thesis examines, through a diachronic analysis, how the British and Danish press utilise national identity when constructing a representation of Muslims. Key cluster events are examined to identify media discourses over a ten-year time period between 2005 and 2015. Textual analysis in the form of qualitative content analysis and critical discourse analysis of selected texts is performed on 101 newspaper articles. The research uses Fairclough's three-dimensional framework, and links the analysis and discussion to wider theories of power, media use of Muslim voices and national identity. The use of a research diary is utilised to highlight the researcher's engagement with the analysis. The findings reveal an increasing focus on freedom of speech and national identity 'values' of each country with more left-leaning newspapers shifting to the right of the political spectrum and increasingly employing right-wing populist discourses. This coincides with the changing contextual environment evident throughout Europe of the rise of right-wing populism and far-right groups. Muslims are consistently represented as 'Muslim immigrants' in the press for both countries, despite in many cases being native 'Brits' or 'Danes'. Furthermore, the findings reveal and build on Marianne Gullestad's existing theory of the Star System, focusing on how the media utilise Muslim voices critical of 'the Muslim community' to legitimise negative representations and discourses on Muslims. The study contributes to existing literature on mediation of Muslim representation and offers areas of consideration for future research design, in the form of a research diary, when conduction media representation theory. Additional recommendations include the implementation of the developed Star System theory to analyse how select 'Muslim voices' are used in the media to normalise negative discourses of Muslims. Furthermore, following image analysis of selected texts, the thesis recommends that further research should be conducted, focusing on the use of images in the press when representing Muslims

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Riding the techwave in an era of change

Learn how innovation is finding its way within the healthcare sector and get a grip on the latest technological developments. Based on insights from 77 stakeholders within the Dutch healthcare system, including healthcare professionals, entrepreneurs, researchers, consultants, policy makers, and input from 80 healthcare consumers this book helps you to understand: • the technologies with the highest implementation potential in the healthcare