DESIGN OF AN INTER-FIRM ELECTRONIC COLLABORATION PLAT-FORM FOR SMES BASED ON AXIOMATIC DESIGN THEORY

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) account for 99% of all Businesses in Europe (OECD, 2017). Although having limited resources, they need to compete with bigger institutions. The pressure on the international market force them to find competitive and flexible business solutions. Additionally, due to the digitization of business processes, they need innovative solutions in handling cooperation and networking inside their own company and with their external partners. A notable solution is to seek for opportunities to cooperate with other organizations and to become part of a business network (Casals, 2011: 118–124). This thesis, which is part of EU funded Pisku project, explores the underlying needs that SMEs face when they strive to engage in inter-firm collaboration. It also aims at design-ing a prototype of an electronic inter-firm collaboration platform to support their busi-ness processes. A mixed strategy research method that includes qualitative and axiomatic design theory is used. The theoretical framework analyses the SMEs collaboration in a digital area and how it affects their performance and growth. It also highlights internal and external rea-sons to collaborate and the collaboration process framework as well. The empirical part consists of questionnaire designed for the SMEs participating in the project. The aim of the questionnaire is to identify their challenges in general and their needs regarding an inter-firm collaboration platform by using mainly the axiomatic de-sign theory. The finding of this research is divided into two parts. The first part is to identifies and list the needs and challenges faced by SMEs when collaborating. The second part con-sists of mapping these needs into requirements and parameters to design an inter-firm e-collaboration platform.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

A process evaluation of the scale up of a youth-friendly health services initiative in northern Tanzania

BACKGROUND: While there are a number of examples of successful small-scale, youth-friendly services interventions aimed at improving reproductive health service provision for young people, these projects are often short term and have low coverage. In order to have a significant, long-term impact, these initiatives must be implemented over a sustained period and on a large scale. We conducted a process evaluation of the 10-fold scale up of an evaluated youth-friendly services intervention in Mwanza Region, Tanzania, in order to identify key facilitating and inhibitory factors from both user and provider perspectives. METHODS: The intervention was scaled up in two training rounds lasting six and 10 months. This process was evaluated through the triangulation of multiple methods: (i) a simulated patient study; (ii) focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews with health workers and trainers; (iii) training observations; and (iv) pre- and post-training questionnaires. These methods were used to compare pre- and post-intervention groups and assess differences between the two training rounds. RESULTS: Between 2004 and 2007, local government officials trained 429 health workers. The training was well implemented and over time, trainers' confidence and ability to lead sessions improved. The district-led training significantly improved knowledge relating to HIV/AIDS and puberty (RR ranged from 1.06 to 2.0), attitudes towards condoms, confidentiality and young people's right to treatment (RR range: 1.23-1.36). Intervention health units scored higher in the family planning and condom request simulated patient scenarios, but lower in the sexually transmitted infection scenario than the control health units. The scale up faced challenges in the selection and retention of trained health workers and was limited by various contextual factors and structural constraints. CONCLUSIONS: Youth-friendly services interventions can remain well delivered, even after expansion through existing systems. The scaling-up process did affect some aspects of intervention quality, and our research supports others in emphasizing the need to train more staff (both clinical and non-clinical) per facility in order to ensure youth-friendly services delivery. Further research is needed to identify effective strategies to address structural constraints and broader social norms that hampered the scale up

A hybrid digital parenting programme to prevent abuse of adolescents in Tanzania: study protocol for a pragmatic cluster-randomised controlled trial

Background: Evidence-based parenting programmes have strong evidence in preventing and mitigating violence, but in-person programmes are challenging to deliver at scale. ParentApp is an open-source, offline-first app-based adaptation of the Parenting for Lifelong Health for Parents and Teens programme to promote playful and positive parenting, reduce risks for sexual violence victimisation, and prevent violence against adolescents. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of ParentApp compared to an attention-control group. Methods: This study is a two-arm pragmatic cluster-randomised controlled trial to test whether ParentApp reduces adolescent physical abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual violence risks and victimisation at 1 month and 12 months post-intervention. Caregivers of adolescents aged 10–17 years and their adolescent children (N = 2400 caregiver-adolescent dyads) will be recruited in urban and peri-urban communities in the Mwanza region of Tanzania. A total of 80 study clusters will be stratified and randomised (1:1) to the intervention group, who will receive ParentApp with support through a WhatsApp group, or to an attention-control group, who will receive a water, sanitation, and hygiene app. Quantitative data will be collected through outcomes questionnaires with caregivers and adolescents, administered at baseline, 4 months post-baseline, and 16 months post-baseline, as well as through routine implementation data and ParentApp engagement data. Qualitative data will be collected through individual interviews and focus groups with caregivers, adolescents, and implementing partner staff. Discussion: App-based interventions have the potential to expand access to evidence-based parenting support, but currently lack rigorous evidence in low- and middle-income countries. This is the first known randomised control trial of a hybrid digital parenting programme to prevent the abuse of adolescents in low- and middle-income settings. Trial registration: The trial was registered on the Open Science Framework on 14 March 2023, registration: OSF.IO/T9FXZ

A hybrid digital parenting programme to prevent abuse of adolescents in Tanzania: study protocol for a pragmatic cluster-randomised controlled trial

Background: Evidence-based parenting programmes have strong evidence in preventing and mitigating violence, but in-person programmes are challenging to deliver at scale. ParentApp is an open-source, offline-first app-based adaptation of the Parenting for Lifelong Health for Parents and Teens programme to promote playful and positive parenting, reduce risks for sexual violence victimisation, and prevent violence against adolescents. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of ParentApp compared to an attention-control group.// Methods: This study is a two-arm pragmatic cluster-randomised controlled trial to test whether ParentApp reduces adolescent physical abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual violence risks and victimisation at 1 month and 12 months post-intervention. Caregivers of adolescents aged 10–17 years and their adolescent children (N = 2400 caregiver-adolescent dyads) will be recruited in urban and peri-urban communities in the Mwanza region of Tanzania. A total of 80 study clusters will be stratified and randomised (1:1) to the intervention group, who will receive ParentApp with support through a WhatsApp group, or to an attention-control group, who will receive a water, sanitation, and hygiene app. Quantitative data will be collected through outcomes questionnaires with caregivers and adolescents, administered at baseline, 4 months post-baseline, and 16 months post-baseline, as well as through routine implementation data and ParentApp engagement data. Qualitative data will be collected through individual interviews and focus groups with caregivers, adolescents, and implementing partner staff.// Discussion: App-based interventions have the potential to expand access to evidence-based parenting support, but currently lack rigorous evidence in low- and middle-income countries. This is the first known randomised control trial of a hybrid digital parenting programme to prevent the abuse of adolescents in low- and middle-income settings.// Trial registration: The trial was registered on the Open Science Framework on 14 March 2023, registration: OSF.IO/T9FXZ

Developing Methods to Study Parent-Child Relationships in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa: An Exploratory Project in Mwanza, Northern Tanzania

To further develop methods for researching parent-child relationships, a small exploratory study was conducted over six weeks in a fishing village in northern Tanzania. The aims were to: a) assess the feasibility of different forms of participant observation, observation and informal interviews; b) assess the amount and kind of data collected by each method; and c) inform the development of questionnaire items. The study showed that it is feasible to collect rich data on household activities and parent-child relationships through informal interviews and observations in households by a professional researcher. Starting observations with focused informal interviews was probably unhelpful in establishing rapport. The data collected by the graduate researcher proved far more useful than that collected by local field assistants. The disadvantages of working with locally recruited field assistants (distorting sampling; overlooking important interactions; inhibited from acting as researchers) outweighed the benefits (familiarity with the local community, working outwith conventional hours, cheap to employ). Observations generally yielded more information than informal conversations, but their value depended on time of day and presence of children. Spending at least 24 consecutive hours in a household yielded a large amount of data of high validity. Even after three days living in a household, the graduate researcher was still unclear as to how much her presence influenced the host’s behaviour. The findings suggest there will be strong social desirability biases in questionnaires with parents about their relationships with their children. The relative validity of parent and child reports needs to be verified through observation. The five dimensions of positive parenting identified in the WHO review (WHO, 2007) can be observed in rural Mwanza. However, the dimensions are probably most usefully understood as each representing a continuum running from positive to negative interactions

Aborting and suspending pregnancy in rural Tanzania: an ethnography of young people's beliefs and practices.

The World Health Organization estimates that 3.1 percent of East African women aged 15-44 have undergone unsafe abortions. This study presents findings regarding abortion practices and beliefs among adolescents and young adults in Tanzania, where abortion is illegal. From 1999 to 2002, six researchers carried out participant observation in nine villages and conducted group discussions and interviews in three others. Most informants opposed abortion as illegal, immoral, dangerous, or unacceptable without the man's consent, and many reported that ancestral spirits killed women who aborted clan descendants. Nonetheless, abortion was widely, if infrequently, attempted, by ingestion of laundry detergent, chloroquine, ashes, and specific herbs. Most women who attempted abortion were young, single, and desperate. Some succeeded, but they experienced opposition from sexual partners, sexual exploitation by practitioners, serious health problems, social ostracism, and quasi-legal sanctions. Many informants reported the belief that inopportune pregnancies could be suspended for months or years using traditional medicine. We conclude that improved reproductive health education and services are urgently needed in rural Tanzania