Business Intelligence (BI) system facilitates informed and timely decision making incompetitive business environment. However, decision making can turn out to be highlychallenging if information delivered by BI system does not meet certain level of quality.Organization can benefit from provided information if they are correct, comprehensive,current, and accessible. The organizational members who use BI application to make decisionare best informants to verify the quality of delivered information. Additionally,the implementers of BI system are the one who must be aware of delivering high qualityof information and can explain the reason of failures if any. It is critical to inquire bothimplementers and users. Therefore, the factors that can affect the quality of informationwere studied through comprehensive literature review. Low quality of information maymake customers/ suppliers’ relationship worse, shrink the efficiency of the business performance,decrease the level of trust on BI, and eventually cause to lose the competitivenessin market place. This thesis is intended at investigating fundamental dimensionsthat hinder effective utilization of information in BI system and realizing how these dimensionscan affect the quality and outcome of decisions. Study with an exploratorypurpose was designed and conducted at a chain retail stores in Iran to gather empiricaldata from both group of BI users and implementers through focus group interview. Theresult of investigation shows the main BI system utilized to facilitate customer/ supplierrelationship management and store operation management. Business areas and activitiesinfluenced by the quality of information include, inventory management, customer loyalty,competitiveness, and supplier management. The information quality issues are encounteredmainly due to technical failures, lack of competent system developers, changesin business environment, inappropriate documentation during the system developmentlifecycle, and logical error in programming and designing algorithms. The time, effort,and resources spent on exploring and resolving problems regarding to the quality of informationhad a great influence on efficiency and effectiveness. Documentation duringsystem development life cycle is emphasized as a crucial factor that necessitates furtherstudy in documentation subject. The preliminary findings signify the importance of study to consider information quality in BI practice.

Gamification, that is the use of game mechanics and experience design to engage and motivate people to achieve their goals, has seen an increase in the rate of adoption in several fields including health, marketing, education, crowd-sourcing and others. It is undeniable that the widespread use of new technologies, such as mobile phones, internet, digital applications and social networks added new ways for learning and gaining knowledge. Although the educational field is one of the growingly interesting topics about gamification, there are not enough existing researches on adopting gamification in digital learning apps which are considered nowadays as a convenient tool for many people which aims to enhance the learning process. Digital learning applications are designed for many different purposes to improve many kinds of skills such as music, scientific materials, languages and others. Although increasing technological advancements over the last few years especially in the software world and various forms have been introduced to increase student’s engagement using gamification such as digital learning apps, there is still criticism of how to apply it and there is a need to investigate that in depth. The main purpose of this research is to serve as infrastructure to identify and investigate the core game mechanics / gamification elements which are used in digital learning apps and make it more effective for knowledge acquisition. With a view to examining game mechanics, its impact and consequences, the following research questions have been formed: RQ1: What gamification mechanics are more central to improving the learning process using digital apps? RQ2: What evidence do we have for 1? Do these gamification mechanics also improve the user experience? In order to attempt answering the research questions a list over gamification elements was created by analyzing two chosen games which became later the base for field trial sessions. Data from field trial session was collected with several participants and analyzed before being used in a discussion with the previous theoretical works. The conclusion of the research suggests a group of game elements which have positively affected the learning outcomes when applied in digital apps for learning purpose. Moreover, those elements revolve around achieving at least one of the three core aims, (1) increase level of entertainment and fun, (2) motivate students, and (3) enhance skills to gain learning content. However, further research is required to test more game mechanics and investigate its role and effectiveness when applied in learning apps with a larger number of participants.

eHealth has been adopted by many countries across the globe in response to cut down cost and improve the quality of life. Sweden has been engaged in providing web-based health care services for its citizens for the past decade and county councils have the responsibility to develop them. The main aim of this thesis is to present answers to the following research questions:What strategies (formal and informal) guide the development of web-based health care services provided by the Swedish county councils?What barriers exist in relation to the development and usage of web-based health care services provided by the county councils from the viewpoint of their IT leaders?From the perspective of IT leaders in the county councils and in their capacity to develop, manage and monitor their organizations‘ website content, which web-based health care services are mostly accessed by users and what age group utilize the services most?The thesis is an exploratory research conducted through a survey based on a mail questionnaire that was posted to all 21 county councils in Sweden with 18 councils responding. The results show that all county councils have formally adopted the National eHealth Strategy to guide the development of web-based health care services and some have other informal strategies as well. Technological barriers, resistance to use the web-based services and changing business process to integrate ICTs have been identified by IT leaders as major challenges that impede the development of web-based health care services in Swedish county councils. Swedish citizens more frequently access prescription renewal and booking and cancellation of appointments than other available web-based health care services which depicts a trend towards the use of advanced interactive services than basic information seeking, and people in the ages of 46 to 55 have been identified as the frequent users of web-based health care services according to IT leaders from the county councils.

Telemedicine has been acknowledged to improve the quality of healthcare. However, many telemedicine services fail beyond the pilot phase. A literature review on business model components for telemedicine services was conducted. Based on specified inclusion criteria, 22 publications were included in the review. To facilitate the analysis of literature, a business model framework with value as its central focus was proposed. Improvement in quality, efficiency and accessibility of care were identified to be the outcomes of telemedicine, with patients and healthcare personnel being the main users of the services, which are delivered through home, institutional and community-based care. Patients, health providers, vendors, payers and government agencies are actors involved in the delivery of telemedicine services, which require investments in resources like videoconferencing technologies, home monitoring devices and other IT infrastructure. Subscriptions, reimbursements and pay-per-use revenue streams were identified as feasible for commercializing telemedicine services.

Information technology has been suggested to improve patient health outcomes and reduce the burden of care. In this study, we explored the effects of collaborative innovation between caregivers and patients on healthcare delivery as a consequence of the use of an IT-based device by patients with atrial fibrillation. Two cardiologists and two nurses were interviewed while questionnaires were mailed to 75 patients querying them about the use of a home-based ECG for remote monitoring. Findings indicated that the caregivers considered the device to enhance the quality of clinical decision-making. Patients found the device to be useful and felt more involved in their own care. However, the introduction of the device presented work overload for the caregivers. Thus, the facilitation of timely diagnostics and decision-making were not realized. IT is an enabler through which innovation in healthcare delivery can be realized, but it must be integrated into work practices to realize potential benefits.

Information technology has been suggested to improve patient health outcomes and reduce healthcare cost. This study explored the business model and effects of collaborative innovation between caregivers and patients on healthcare delivery through remote patient monitoring by interviewing caregivers and surveying atrial fibrillation patients. Findings indicate that remote monitoring enhanced early detection of potential risks and quality of clinical decision-making with patients feeling more empowered and involved in their own care. The remote monitoring system which consisted of a home-based ECG and a web-based service and was offered free to patients, brought together caregivers, patients, service provider and the government as actors. The introduction of remote monitoring increased the workload of caregivers and facilitation of timely diagnostics and decision-making were not realized. IT is an enabler of innovation in healthcare, but it must be integrated into work processes with a viable business model to realize potential benefits and sustain it. 

Purpose – The aim of this study is to determine if adopting cloud-based knowledge management is a viable way forward for small enterprises and to investigate what are the main factors that might facilitate or inhibit these companies to adopt such solutions.Design/Methodology/Approach - In order to understand the main factors that could influence the adoption of a cloud-based knowledge management solution in small enterprises, I used a qualitative research approach, based on four semi-structured interviews with four small companies from Romania.Findings – The results of the study suggest that implementing knowledge management in the cloud is particularly beneficial for small enterprises, as a lower investment in IT infra-structure can create a competitive advantage and help them implement knowledge man-agement activities as a strategic resource. Moreover, the study suggests that relative ad-vantage, compatibility and technology readiness will influence companies in moving their knowledge to the cloud. Also, the study reveals that companies which did not adopt such a solution had already established systems for managing knowledge and failed to realize its benefits, it was not perceived as needed, they had a low level of awareness or cited security and uncertainty reasons.

The area of Business Intelligence (BI) is both broad and multifaceted and is becoming an increasingly pervasive tool utilized within organizations allowing them to gain greater insight into their business operations as well as well as the way in which their customers interact with them. By enabling businesses to perform powerful, effective analytics and reporting, BI tools allow them to maximize use of their data and facilitate better planning, forecasting and the ability to have a more targeted and efficient value chain. Usage of BI tools allow organizations to not only achieve but leverage their competitive advantage. SMEs are no different in their pursuit for competitive advantage and market share but often is the case that they lack the resources in order to make the substantial investments into the software and infrastructure required to host a solution on-premise. The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model of allowing users to have access to powerful tools and services without having to purchase the solutions or the infrastructure needed to host it on-premise allows SMEs an ideal opportunity to perform many or all of the functionalities that on-premise BI provides. SaaS BI is a relatively new concept only a few years old, but improvements in functionality and features, reliability of service levels and lower costs are allowing it to gain traction and it is projected to increase its momentum in the next few years. The aim of this paper is to investigate the factors that lead to adoption/non-adoption, assigned importance and perceived business value of SaaS BI within SMEs. These issues will be addressed through identification of the key decision criteria that influence SMEs to adopt SaaS BI solutions over an on-premise solution and vice versa. Greater insight into the decision making process, usage and value will be investigated with the cooperation of two vendors within the BI field. A two pronged approach targeting both SaaS and on-premise BI vendors and the users is adopted in order to find out the perspective on either end and whether or not they are incongruent. Semi-structured interviews were targeted at both an on-premise vendor and a SaaS vendor and their customers. A questionnaire was deployed to clients of both these vendors. Analysis was then conducted on the findings using an integrated selection model encompassing BI and SaaS theories and concepts outlined in the paper.



The term “Internet of Things” (IoT) was first introduced by a technology pioneer Kevin Ashton in 1999.Although the term is relatively new, the idea of making networks and computers communicate in order totrack and manage devices has been around for many years. As of now IoT is a rising topic in technicalcommunity. Some specialists are anticipating that by 2025 there will be around 100 billion connected IoTdevices with a worldwide economic impact of more than $11 trillion. On the other hand, Internet of Thingsemerges significant challenges. Currently the organization around world use two main approaches whenentering the IoT market. First one is an open platform and is represented by interoperability andcollaboration with devices from different vendors. Second one is a closed platform, or a “walled garden”approach. A “walled garden” approach is characterized by building “fences” around the user. In other words,the service provider has control over applications, content and media and also restricts the non-approvedcontent to reach the customer. Therefore, the research set out to explore these approaches and show thebenefits and limits they can have on an organization. The research was conducted in collaboration with aSwedish manufacturer of outdoor power products called Husqvarna Group. In order to fully acknowledgethe organization’s approach, 4 interviews were conducted with managers, back end developers andconsultants hired by Husqvarna Group. From the findings, some things should be taken in consideration.First, IoT involves big data being collected, therefore security and privacy are crucial when developingdevices and systems. Second, it is essential for an organization to have the same views when taking a newdirection. Third, when discussing Internet of Things, it means that things connect, devices to sensors,sensor to gateways and gateways to system. And there shouldn’t be a delimitation from a vendor to another.Therefore, open platform approach is seen as the way to diversity and innovation.

Peer interaction and collaborative learning through the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is used to an increasing extent in higher education. Universities attempt to motivate learners (students) to support their peers to enhance the quality of learning outcomes. This study monitors how an ICTSS (ICT-based Support System) facilitates peer interaction in the Bachelor’s and Master’s thesis process. The aim of the study was to investigate learners’ perception of usefulness of an ICTSS for peer interaction and the influencing factors on the quality of the peer interaction. The ICTSS was developed at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV), at Stockholm University. The system facilitates peer interaction in three ways: peer reviews, active participation, and final opposition. The study employed a mixed-method approach, which included an online survey followed by in-depth interviews. The target groups were learners at the Bachelor’s and Master’s level in computer science and information systems. The findings showed that learners perceived the peer interaction useful to enhance the quality of the thesis outcomes. However, there are influencing factors affecting the quality of peer interaction, in different phases of the thesis process. Examples of these factors are the quality of thesis manuscripts, supervisors’ control and grading of the process, clear instructions and guidelines, learners’ understanding of the peer interaction and why it takes place, previous training and learners’ motivation to perform peer reviews. Following these factors, the study developed a set of strategic suggestions from both pedagogical and technical aspects to enhance the peer interaction in the thesis process. Considering these suggestions makes the use of the ICTSS more effective to enhance the quality of thesis learning outcomes.

The purpose of the study was to explore the strategies and reasons for Swedish municipalities to migrate from proprietary office applications, such as Microsoft Office, to the use of the open source software OpenOffice. We performed a comparative case study of three Swedish municipalities in the region of Västra Götaland currently implementing or planning to implement OpenOffice; Alingsås, Falköping and Kungälv. The methods of data collection used in the study were semi-structured interviews with IT managers, such as IT strategists and Chief Information Officers (CIOs), in each municipality, and document analysis.

The findings of the study indicated that one of the municipalities had an IT strategy including strategies for use of open source software. The second municipality planned implementation of OpenOffice but were “between IT strategies”, as the current IT strategy hadn’t been updated for some years. The third municipality had abolished IT strategies, as the difficulties of anchoring strategies on all levels of the organisations were too large. Instead, operative guidelines concerning i.e. the use of open source software were used in IT management. The main driver of implementing OpenOffice was to lower IT costs. The IT managers were well aware of the fact that open source software is not entirely free of cost, but estimated the total cost of ownership of OpenOffice to be less than for Microsoft Office. Perceived barriers of implementation and use of OpenOffice were lack of standardisation with current administrative and enterprise systems used in the municipalities as well as a general lack of knowledge and familiarity with open source software among staff. There were also a genuine concern over the possibility of the community of OpenOffice developers leaving the program and its users to embark on new open source software project. The traditional relationship between systems suppliers and customers was perceived to disappear and be replaced with a much more uncertain business relationship. Further research in a larger number of Swedish municipalities is needed in order to increase the understanding of the circumstances of migration to open source software in municipalities.

The IT consultancy industry is characterized by knowledge intensive implementationprojects related to varying levels of standardized information system software. When faced with a large implementation project at a previously unknown customer various assessmentsis usually conducted to identify the level of fit between the software and organizationin order to plan and structure the implementation process. However, there are several aspects of the customer organization that potentially can affect the end result as well as the implementation process that is unrelated to the fit between the software and the implementation organization as well as the potency of the implementation method. By conducting measurements of these maturity factors within the customer organization the implementing procedure can be modified based on the customer maturity level in order to become more aligned with the capabilities present in the customer organization.

Research question: Which aspects need to be covered by a Customer Maturity Analysis Tool (CMAT) in order to evaluate the pre implementation maturity for potential customersof our case company and how should these aspects be organized and measured? The first task of the research process was to create an underlying model of maturity perspectives and aspects to structure the literature review as well as the empirical data collection. It was decided to adhere to a deductive approach where the theoretical model would be validated and if necessary modified in accordance to feedback from potential users of the CMAT within the case company. This procedure was repeated in the creation of measurements and maturity levels for the aspects to be used in the tool. The research process would therefore transition from a general model based on literature review, through a iterative feedback loop to a final model tailored to the specific requirementsof the case company. The final CMAT ended up containing four main perspectives of customer maturity; ITi nfrastructure, Culture, Process and Business Governance. These four perspectives were in turn divided into subgroups in order to be able to aggregate and compare differentaspects of the perspectives with each other.

With many research available on IT governance, this research differs from most of them due to its delimitation. The focus of this research lies in the two domains of value creation and performance measurement. Furthermore, the area of research has been small and medium Enterprises located in the area of Småland, Sweden.

Brisebois, Boyd & Shadid (2001) gave us the following definition of IT governance: “How those persons entrusted with governance of an entity will consider IT in their supervision, monitoring, control, and direction of the entity. How IT is applied will have an immense impact on whether the entity will attain its vision, mission, or strategic goal.”

An objective of IT governance is to align the IT resources of an enterprise in a way that it fast-tracks the business priorities of the enterprise and assures that the investments in IT generates business value and that the IT is performing to its expectations.

The research questions and the outcome of this research paper sheds light on the challenges of both value creation and performance measurement within the SMEs, but it also showcases what the driving forces of IT value creation are and which benefits arise from measuring the IT performance within the SMEs.

Through semi-structured interviews with four SMEs, based in the region of Småland, numerous amounts of challenges and driving forces for IT value creation and challenges and benefits to measuring IT performance have been extracted.

Based on the extracted information from the interviews, an analysis and a conclusion have been formed by the authors. In the end, the authors provide their thoughts for suggestions for further work and how all of this contributes to the field of Informatics.

Over the decades, as organizations begin to move globally there has been a sporadic flow of information in their supply chain. Competition today is forcing companies to integrate tightly with their suppliers and customers, in order to reduce the time available to flex the supply chain (SC) (Koh S.C, Saad S, Arunachalam S, 2006). The integration of firms and departments and information is getting more and more complicated. Regardless of enterprise system solutions being introduced as “integrated suites” they have failed to accomplish application and supply chain integration (Themistocleous, M. Irani, Z. O‟Keefe, and R. 2001). Therefore, this thesis aims to explore, gain better understanding and to explain the balance that may occur between the challenges and benefits gained from integrating enterprise resource planning and supply chain management.Our topic of interest could be view from both developers and user perspective. Developer/consultant‟s perspective is based on the viewpoint of those involved in and responsible for developing enterprise solutions. User‟s perspective, this perspective gives insight to how the integration process is perceived by organisations actually using the solutions. We chose the User perspective because we consider the user to be the direct beneficiary of whatever outcome is gotten from both the business solutions and its integration.In order to achieve a purposeful thesis. We decided to use an interpretive perspective which focus on exploring and gaining insight into issues of integrating enterprise system solution. We used both the inductive and the deductive approaches in our research. This would be advantageous due to the nature of our research topic, as there is little existing knowledge about the integration of enterprise systems solution within supply chain and there are lots of literatures related to the enterprise system solutions (ERP and SCM) been observed. The inductive approach would guide us to choose one or a few specific interactions to explore in-depth, while the deductive approach would aid us when making an hypothesis, since we would be collecting ideas about previous research and theories in order to guide us and make comparison.Conclusively, we found that the balance between challenges and benefits of ERP and SCM are unequivocal, as the benefits surpass the challenges and the effect of challenges on organisation‟s benefit is that it prolongs the short term benefit.

Purpose: The main purpose of this study/thesis is to, through an interview with researchers in medical field in Jönköping,  provide an empirical analysis of the link or relationship between medical researcher and patient through social networking sites specifically for collaboration in order to improve relationships, dissemination of information and knowledge sharing.

Background: The importance of social networking websites as a means of interaction between groups of individuals cannot be underestimated. Their impact on daily life activities and activities cannot be underestimated. Because  millions of individuals are making use of Social Network Sites (SNSs) to build or reinforce relationships, connect, disseminate and share information as well as sharing of knowledge whether personal or non-personal experiences with people they already know offline or new people online. Therefore, the authors are interested basically in how social networking web sites are being utilized in terms of collaborations, information and knowledge sharing and particularly in what benefits and challenge are connected to improving inter-groups collaboration in research study between researchers and ordinary citizens.

Method: A review of literature gives us insight about the subject terms, critical and sensitive issues in regards to collaboration through social networking sites designed for research purpose. We apply in general networking theories such as social capital and two of its components couple with Putman´s theory of bonding and bridging social capital as a theoretical framework to synthesize the concept of  ties (strong or weak) . Our analysis based on the empirical data gathered through surveys, interviews and observation provide us with interesting preliminary results and with blueprints to guide the analysis of the thesis.

Conclusion: Social networking platforms are valuable and useful in our generation being part of daily life and activity to keep up with people within our networks. However, the authors discovered that the advantages of involving ordinary citizens to participate in improving researcher-patient collaboration through dynamic social networking actually outweigh the disadvantages despite all odds and sensitive issues such as trust, privacy issues and sceptics of some researchers. In others words, some of the researchers were enthusiastic to collaborate in terms of disseminating useful information and sharing valuable knowledge with ordinary citizens. Overall, the study revealed positive result that despite weak ties relationships, the willingness to collaborate is far more than the obstacles perceived in the course of establishing such collaboration.

Background: In the past few decades, organizations has shifted towards digitalization. Making it necessary for employees within an organization to acquire the necessary digital skills to cope with digitalization. These skills are necessary for employees to carry out their daily activities without setback. It is therefore important for an organization to provide a channel or an avenue for employees to acquire these skills without stress or difficulty.  

Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to explore an innovative strategy for digital skills development for employees, which can foster communication and collaboration and improve employees work performance within the organization.

Method: A qualitative study was used to conduct the research. The authors used semi-structured interviews to collect data from employees of the municipalities being studied. The interviewees were employees from Nässjö, Jönköping and Habo municipalities. From the interview findings an analysis was performed comparing the findings between the three municipalities.

Conclusion: The results outline some of the benefits of using innovative learning systems for digital skills development of employees and how these leaning systems can improve employees’ performance. Organizations should make it a priority to continually reinvest in developing employees’ digital skills in the public sector and need to be aware about the barriers to adopt innovative learning methods. Some of these barriers are lack of training programs, lack of managerial support among others. A coherent strategy is needed to address these barriers and facilitate skills development process. Further research regarding other alternative methods to improve employees’ digital skills that were not discussed in this research can be explored by other researchers using larger samples, different theories and data collection methods.

Vad ska en kursguide eller kurs-PM innehålla? Hur bör ett sådant dokument struktureras? Kursguider har som instruktionsdokument kommit att bli allt mer viktiga som dokument i undervisning på universitet och högskolor och utvecklats till att bli ett semiofficiellt dokument mellan kursplanernas formella nivå och undervisningens mer informella nivå (jfr Robinson 2011, Rowan & Correnti 2009). Ett exempel på detta är att betygskriterier tenderar att flyttas från kursplaner till kursguider. Som område ligger kursguidepraktiker nära den utveckling som sker inom kursplaneområdet och har i likhet med denna ett tydligt fokus på Constructive Alignment eftersom mål i kursplanen förklaras och konkretiseras i studieguiden (Martone & Sireci 2009). Utvecklingen av kursguider måste därför ha ett tydligt kvalitetsperspektiv med goda möjligheter till transparens och granskning (Porter 2002). En annan central aspekt av kursguidepraktiker är de sätt på vilket IKT kommit att påverka utvecklingen av kursguider. På vilka sätt kan lärplattformar och digitala medier användas? Digitala tekniker ger idag möjlighet att gå bortom ett papperstänk vad gäller instruktioner med ett enkelriktat budskap till att istället utgöra grund för interaktivitet och medskapande mellan lärare och student. Kursens gång kan därmed påverka utformningen av kursguiden som alltså blir både kommunikation, instruktion och dokumentation kring kursens mål och genomförande. Kursguider som forskningsområde är ett område med omfattande forskning vad gäller kursplanekonstruktion och instruktionsdesign (för en forskningsöversikt, se Roher & Pashler 2010), men med i stort sett obefintlig forskning om dess praktiker.

Rundabordssamtalet kommer att ske i form av ett samtal mellan högskolepedagoger från västsvenska högre lärosäten. Målgruppen för rundabordssamtalet är dels pedagogiska ledare och dels undervisande lärare. Rundabordssamtalet är ett led i projektet Bättre Studieguider på Enheten för pedagogisk utveckling och interaktivt lärande (PIL) vid Göteborg universitet och det utbyte som påbörjats mellan västsvenska universitet och högskolor kring erfarenheter och idéer om kursguidepraktiker.

Hälso- och sjukvården är en av flera aktörer som är involverade i patienters sjukskrivning. År 2006 infördes den så kallade sjukskrivningsmiljarden för att stimulera landstingen i att förbättra kvaliteten i sjukskrivningshanteringen och att ge den ökad prioritet. Olika områden har betonats i sjukskrivningsmiljarderna, såsom kompetens, samverkan och jämställd sjukskrivning – samtliga har haft ett starkt fokus på att utveckla ledning och styrning av sjukskrivningsfrågan. 

Syftet med den här studien var att få ökad kunskap om hur chefer på olika nivåer inom hälso- och sjukvården leder och styr arbetet med patienters sjukskrivning och om detta förändrats sedan 2007, då en motsvarande studie gjordes. 

Metod: Kvalitativ och kvantitativ innehållsanalys har genomförts av semistrukturerade intervjuer med 72 chefer på tre nivåer inom hälso- och sjukvården; landstings- och regiondirektörer (nivå 1), chefer direkt underställda dessa och med övergripande ansvar för sjukhusvård respektive primärvård (nivå 2), samt strategiskt valda verksamhetschefer inom primärvård och sjukhusvård (nivå 3). Resultaten har jämförts med dem från 2007. 

Resultat: Cheferna på samtliga tre nivåer såg nu ledning och styrning av sjukskrivningshantering som ett ansvar för cheferna i linjeorganisationen, vilket var en stor skillnad mot 2007. Det var stora variationer i hur ansvaret utövas, men analysen pekar på att frågan i högre utsträckning nu ägs och hanteras av cheferna, ofta med stöd av resurser utanför linjen. Frågan fanns också på agendan i högre utsträckning än tidigare på samtliga chefsnivåer – särskilt stor var förändringen på verksamhetsnivå. Många chefer beskrev att de nu leder och styr sjukskrivningsområdet på samma sätt som andra områden och att sjukskrivningsfrågan är införlivad med verksamhetens ordinarie ledningssystem. Chefernas kompetens i att leda och styra sjukskrivningsfrågan bedöms ha ökat sedan 2007. 

Samverkan med Försäkringskassan har utvecklats. Etablerade former för samverkan finns på flera strukturella nivåer, och omfattar främst kompetensutveckling och hantering av specifika patientärenden och ibland projekt. Samverkan beskrevs generellt som positiv och ansågs ha lett till ökad förståelse för varandras uppdrag och roller. Samverkan med Arbetsförmedlingen och kommuner nämndes ibland; däremot nämndes samverkan med arbetsgivare eller företagshälsovård ytterst sällan. 

Intern samverkan mellan kliniska verksamheter i sjukskrivningshanteringen har utvecklats men behöver förbättras ytterligare. I många verksamheter ingår flerprofessionellt samarbete i det patientnära arbetet med sjukskrivningar, som en del av överenskomna rutiner. Chefer beskriver att intern och extern samverkan underlättas av koordinatorer som organiserar och stöttar hanteringen av sjukskrivning och rehabilitering. 

Kompetens och kompetensutveckling inom försäkringsmedicin framstod nu som ett relativt prioriterat område för cheferna, på samtliga nivåer och i betydligt högre utsträckning än 2007. Utbildningsinsatser har gjorts i samtliga landsting, dels som begränsad fortbildning,främst för läkare, dels som utbildning av expertresurser. Man lyfte behovet av kontinuerlig kompetensutveckling. Utbildningsinsatser uppfattas som nödvändiga men tidskrävande och att det är en utmaning att leda och styra detta då frågan sällan har hög prioritet bland läkare.

Jämfört med 2007 har en tydlig förändring skett vad avser chefernas förhållningssätt till sjukskrivningsfrågan som blivit mer positiv. Sjukskrivning beskrevs nu som en del av vård och behandling. 

Jämställd sjukskrivning är ett prioriterat område i sjukskrivningsmiljarden och finns nu på agendan i högre grad än 2007; få har dock vidtagit konkreta åtgärder. Ibland nämndes planer på åtgärder, och många hade tagit fram - eller planerade att ta fram - könsuppdelad sjukskrivningsstatistik. Området upplevdes som svårt och komplicerat att leda och styra, bland annat på grund av bristande kunskap inom området. 

År 2007 framkom att kvalitetssäkring av arbetet med sjukskrivningar i princip inte förekom. Här har en utveckling skett. Uttalanden om kvalitet i och kvalitetssäkring av arbetet med sjukskrivningar handlade framför allt om uppföljning. Uppföljning begränsades i flera uttalanden till mätning av villkor som anges i sjukskrivningsmiljarden, så som andel läkarintyg som godkänts av Försäkringskassan. Mer sällan inbegrep uppföljning förbättringsarbete baserat på återkoppling eller analys av sjukskrivningsprocessen eller andra kvalitetsindikatorer. 

Chefens ansvar för att skapa goda administrativa förutsättningar för arbetet med sjukskrivningar framhölls nu på samtliga tre nivåer; detta diskuterades endast i begränsad omfattning 2007. Administrativa förutsättningar som nämndes var riktlinjer och rutiner, tid för såväl patientarbete som för kompetensutveckling, tillgång till kompetensstöd från experter, lättillgänglig och korrekt information samt olika ”verktyg”. Resultatet pekar på att man i hög grad har infört rutiner för olika aspekter av sjukskrivningsarbetet, men det fanns fortsatt behov av effektivisering och kvalitetsförbättring, inte minst vad gäller IT- stöd. 

Sjukskrivningsmiljarden bedöms ha haft mycket stor betydelse för att fokus har satts på sjukskrivningsfrågorna i landstingen. Många ansåg att sjukskrivningsmiljarden behövs ytterligare några år, även om det framkom en ambivalens till denna form av statlig styrning. Kortsiktigheten i överenskommelserna, att de kommer sent och att det nu finns fler miljardsatsningar ansågs göra verksamheten svårare att styra. 

Slutsatser: Ledning och styrning av sjukskrivningshantering har i större utsträckning blivit en del av den ordinarie verksamheten inom sjukvården, och chefens roll i relation till sjukskrivningshanteringen har blivit tydligare jämfört med 2007. Sjukskrivningsmiljarden tycks ha haft en stor betydelse för att sätta sjukskrivningsfrågan på agendan på samtliga nivåer i hälso- och sjukvården. Sjukskrivning ses nu i stor utsträckning som en del av vård och behandling som skall ledas och styras på motsvarande sätt som annan verksamhet, till exempel vad gäller riktlinjer, rutiner och kvalitetssäkring. Sjukskrivningsfrågan är dock en fråga bland många andra, och det finns behov av särskilt stöd till linjen i att hantera den. Vi fann en stor förändring i chefernas syn på det egna ansvaret i sjukskrivningsfrågan, särskilt på verksamhetschefsnivå. Hälso- och sjukvården har med andra ord kommit en bra bit på väg i sjukskrivningsfrågan. 

Mycket återstår dock att göra för att säkra ledningssystem, rutiner, och tillräckliga administrativa förutsättningar för ett optimalt arbete med hantering av patienters sjukskrivning. Särskilt gäller detta kvalitetssäkring, jämställd sjukskrivning, administrativa förutsättningar och den interna samverkan mellan olika kliniker.

E-learning has been increasingly adopted by Higher Education Institutes (HEI) in various countries all over the world. A number of research studies have indicated the effectiveness of E-learning in terms of its innovativeness. However, there are only few studies dealing with the contribution of E-learning in developing countries like Pakistan. Hence, this study aims to investigate the role of E-learning in improving the performance of Pakistan’s educational system. The present study investigates the current level of ICT penetration in Pakistani Higher Education with specific reference to E-learning. In addition, the study investigated teacher’s perceptive regarding the awareness level and various factors that affect E-learning implementation in Pakistan. The study employed a mixed methodology using semi-structured interview (n=10) and a survey (n=51) among teachers in Pakistan. The study results indicated that flexibility, low cost, easy accessibility and ease of teaching are the major advantages of e-learning. In addition, the major challenges in implementing e-learning in Pakistan’s educational system are in-effective user learning, inadequate power supply, technical support, lack of user participation and English language. From the study, it is clearly evident that teachers possess a positive attitude towards E-learning implementation in education system of Pakistan. Finally, the study concludes by providing strategies and recommendations to improve the adoption rate of ICT in Pakistan’s higher educational system.

Background: Knowledge within organizations can play a vital role for organizational development. The role of sharing knowledge in public organizations by means of the use of information systems have not been studied to a larger extent. During 2016 the thirteen municipalities within Region Jönköping’s län adhered to a so-called digital agenda to develop the municipal organizations and service delivery. One of the goals of the digital agenda was to increase knowledge sharing by digital means between municipalities. 

Purpose: The purpose of the thesis was to investigate how knowledge sharing practices taking place between municipalities in region Jönköping’s län. The authors performed a pilot case study in the educational department within three municipalities. 

Method: This study based on qualitative research and data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and analyzed according to the conventional content analysis. Semi-structured interviews were performed based on the theoretical frameworks of Nonaka’s Model of Knowledge Management, which resulted in an interview guide with open-ended questions. Conventional content was used for qualitative data analysis. 

Conclusion: According to our analysis we have found that knowledge sharing in public organization is generally seen as one of the most important elements that should be wisely managed. Collaboration in public sector basically depend on the so many things and it starts with the government initiative but ends with public awareness. It is also very important that organizations can manage knowledge resources more successfully if employees are willingly to share their knowledge with colleagues. People of organizations are quite comfortable with collaborative technologies because the advance of the internet and related technologies. In the public sector worker or employees should motivated, get more encouragement and support by the leaders. 

In this paper we examine some pragmatic concepts that we believe have a potential in relation to three core activities of the IS-field; 1) description and understanding, 2) evaluation, and 3) design. The concepts that we will examine are “social activity”, “communicative act”, “sequences of communicative acts” or “exchange types”, “communicative feedback” and “turn management”. We describe the concepts and then exemplify how they can be used to analyze web services by examining e-mail and Wikipedia as two activities currently on the web. Our analysis leads to a  partly new description of both phenomena. It also leads to a number of open questions concerning the functionalities of both phenomena. 

Att säkerställa kvalitet i den service som en kommun erbjuder sina medborgare är en komplicerad uppgift. Olika analysinstrument och arbetsformer behöver tillämpas för att säkerställa tillräckligt tydligt medborgarfokus. I detta arbete har en metod utvecklats för att analysera kvalitet i det elektroniska servicemötet. Denna metod bygger på att betrakta organisationens ambitioner och de instrument som tillhandahålls för medborgarna i kontrast till den livssituation som medborgaren befinner sig i. Olika analysinstrument har tillämpats där resultaten pekar på att de tjänster som Marks kommun idag tillhandahåller för elektronisk kontakt inte i tillräckligt grad motsvarar medborgarnas förväntningar. I och med att arbetet i detta inledningsskede bara fokuserat på den elektroniska kontakten så är nästa steg att 1) bredda analysen till att också innefatta övriga sätt att ha kontakt med medborgaren och 2) studera samspelet mellan olika kontaktsätt samt 3) analysera processer och intern koordination hos Marks kommun för att säkerställa kvalitet i kontaktverksamheten.

Companies are always trying to enhance their functioning to achieve a competitive advantage in a given market. Some of the tools that are used to improve organizational functioning include ERP systems. In fact, ERP systems are becoming very popular among firms, to the point where they are considered by some as an ailing business savior. Nevertheless, despite the attractive functions that an ERP system may display to an interested company, implementing such a system successfully is a task that is far from being easy. Several problems may arise in the implementation phase, and a failure to address them correctly can have terrible consequences on the general functioning of a firm. Two of the main factors that contribute to a failed ERP system implementation are training and resistance to change. A tool that may actually help with the ERP system implementation failure is ERP simulation.

The main purpose of this thesis is to study the potential effect that ERP simulations can have on a potential ERP system user skills and knowledge, and thereafter find the potential impact that they may have while being used during an ERP implementation to facilitate training and reduce resistance to change.

The tools that were used to successfully accomplish this research were a personal interview with an ERP simulation expert, a detailed survey with ERP simulation participants, and various information that were collected from books, articles, reports and websites.

This thesis main results show that ERP simulations can enable ERP users to improve their knowledge of ERP systems effectively, and also have potential to contribute during the implementation phase by reducing the possible problems that may arise from the training and the resistance to    change perspectives.

With Cloud Computing becoming a popular term on the Information Technology (IT) market, security and accountability has become important issues to highlight. In our research we review these concepts by focusing on security risks with Cloud Computing and the associated services; Software, Platform and Infrastructure (SPI) and connecting them with a social study of trust.

The method that was conducted during our research was reviewing secondary literature, interviewing different experts regarding Cloud Computing and relating standards already established by ENISA, NIST, and CSA to the interviews.

The result of this study shows connections between the specific SPIs, both how they compare, but also how they differ. In the end we were also able to rank the top security risks from interviews with experts and see which SPI could be the most insecure one and  what countermeasures could be applied.

This was further related to trust and Service Level Agreement (SLA) in Cloud Computing to show how the security risks we discuss are related to these two specific areas. By highlighting this we wanted to present useable information for both clients and providers in how to create a better Cloud Computing environment.

Abstract

In order to stay competitive in today’s changing business world, companies need to manage

the increased complexity as they evolve. To be able to handle this complexity, many companies

chose to implement an ERP system. Investing in an ERP system is not something that

is made in a trice but is a large investment which together with today’s low-profit margins in

companies makes it essential to keep the costs as low as possible. More than half of the total

cost for an ERP investment is said to be related to costs for the system’s maintenance and

support. Documentation is one of the factors which affect this cost, and if it is not made satisfactorily

it is said to result in a considerable increase of the system’s total cost. This is why

it is important not to overlook the documentation as a part of ERP system development

project.

The purpose with this thesis is to investigate the existing documentation routines in ERP

system development projects at AB Volvo’s subsidiary Volvo IT, in order to find suggestions

of improvement for future projects. In order to fulfill the purpose of the study, we formed a

research question with three sub-questions and through a deep analysis of the empirical material

we presented the answers to these questions as the conclusions of this thesis.

Our study is based on an inductive research approach using a case study to gain deeper and

more helpful qualitative knowledge and data. The empirical data was analyzed using the

template analysis method where we divided the collected data into appropriate categories.

The knowledge created through this study is of exploratory, normative, predictive and categorical

nature.

After having analyzed the results from our case study we found several suggestions of improvements

for Volvo IT to use in future projects. For other companies involved in ERP

system development projects of their own, the conclusions of this thesis will work as valuable

issues to take into consideration for upcoming projects. We have concluded that the

main reason behind lacking quality of documentation in the development projects is not the

unawareness of its importance, but the absence of concrete evidence of high quality documentation’s

positive effects on a system’s total cost. We believe that in order to achieve documentation

of high quality, there needs to be a change of attitude to documentation as a

work task and the task itself must be higher prioritized in the projects. Another important

suggestion is that a control of the conducted documentation’s quality must be done, not only

a control of the existence of the right kind of documents. We are of the opinion that a company

should not allocate resources to create a method of documentation before the importance

of high quality documentation is clarified. Ultimately, we believe that the system development

process should be focused around the customer, because of the more frequent use

of custom made solutions and to help the people in the project to set the right level of abstraction

on the documentation.

Technological advancements in mobile computing and wireless networks open up to new applications and new user-groups in the mobile workforce. However, a considerable part of the mobile workforce, such as e.g. drivers or healthcare staff, is chiefly performing other tasks than interacting with their computers. As a result, they are not able to pay attention to computer interaction, making them mainly off computer tasks. The aim of the paper is to develop a design theory to manage off-task situations in mobile computing. Interviews were performed with developers of an information system comprising mobile devices for drivers. From the interviews, a design of an artifact and a design theory based on a strategy to automate routine administration task using place awareness is presented. The eight components of IS design theory by Gregor and Jones is applied as a theoretical framework.

Historically, decision support systems have been used in organizations to facilitate better decisions. Business Intelligence has become important in recent years because the business environment is more complex and changes faster than ever before. Organizations have started to realize the value of existing information in operational, managerial, and strategic decision making. By using analytical methods and data warehousing, decision support can now be used in a flexible way and assist decision makers in decision making processes. Increasing investments in Business Intelligence indicate that it can bring value to organizations. Benefits such as the ability to access relevant and timely decision support when it is needed can be of tremendous value when the use of existing information has become more a question of survival or bankruptcy for an organization, than profit or loss. Thus, it would be interesting to see how decision support and decision making have changed in organizations after implementing a Business Intelligence system. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if and how Business Intelligence has changed decision support and decision making processes.A deductive approach using a qualitative method has been used with semi-structured elite interviews. The thesis aims to investigate the manufacturing industry located in the Jönköping region in Sweden. The interviewed organizations are Husqvarna AB, Fläkt Woods AB, Myresjöhus AB, and Kinnarps AB. Our analysis shows positive effects of Business Intelligence in organizations with improvements of decision support due to timeliness, accessibility, quality, and better control of organizational information. As improvements in decision support has occurred, decision making has become better. Complicated problems are now easier to interpret by decision makers. Our research also concludes that intuition still has a major impact in decision making processes.

Gambling for money on the Internet is growing every day. Casino gaming, sportsbetting, lotteries and more games are available all over the Internet. All you need to gamble is a computer with Internetconnection and a credit card. Even the card game poker has estab-lished a base on the Internet today. This type of poker is today called “Netpoker” by the media and by common mouth. Netpoker has grown as an alternative to the more tradi-tional livepoker. Netpoker has during the last months become vastly popular and its popu-larity is growing every day in Sweden.

The purpose with this thesis is to show how Internet has affected the forms of the game of poker and what the consequences are of this effect.

We have conducted an explorative research to learn about gambling, addiction and poker. With this information as a base we formed two hypotheses and few additional questions that we wanted to investigate. Our hypotheses was as followed:

Hypothesis 1: Internet has made the card game poker to grow in Sweden.

Hypothesis 2: Netpoker leads to an increased addiction in gambling.

Our empirical research has been made through a questionnaire survey. Our study was con-centrated to the area of middle Sweden were we handed out 65 questionnaires and all of them were answered by people playing netpoker.

The results of our empirical study, clearly shows that Internet has had a big impact on that the card game poker has grown and increased in popularity in Sweden. 97 % of our re-spondents said that they would not have played poker if it was not available on the Inter-net. Netpoker leads to an increased availability and to the ease of finding opponents to play against. Netpoker also offers more cash limits, which in other terms leads to that different kinds of people play poker on the different pokersites. We can also see that netpoker is not contributing to increased gambling on other games but netpoker has led to an increased gambling addiction among our respondents. 30 % of the respondents in this survey consid-ered that they have a gambling addiction problem and 75 % of these respondents ment that netpoker has contributed much to their gambling addictions. The netpoker has also con-tributed to the fact that many netpoker players has finished recreational pursuits and other exercise activities.

This paper examines the front-end process of inter-organizational IT innovation. In particular, it focuses on the nature and role of architectural knowledge. Such knowledge is important for development of architectures capable of serving the goals of heterogeneous actors and associated technologies. Yet, surprisingly little research has been done on how architectural knowledge may be developed through collective achievements. This paper presents a theoretical model of architectural knowledge development in inter-organizational IT innovation. Applying this model throughout an action research project within the Swedish transport industry, the paper identifies four dimensions of architectural knowledge that proved important for facilitating an industry-wide ubiquitous computing environment. The four dimensions are technology capability awareness, use context sensitivity, business model understanding, and boundary-spanning competence. We conclude the paper by outlining the theoretical and strategy implications of the model and the four dimensions of architectural knowledge.

Climate change has become a widely discussed topic in many regions of the society. Green IT can be seen as part of the solution to this problem and can be defined as practices that work to improve the phases of design, production and usage of IT hardware, software and communication systems to effectively and efficiently use IT as a tool in the business, with minimal effect on the environment and promoting sustainability.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if the Balanced Scorecard model has to be adapted and can be used to find objectives that can aid the implementation of Green IT. This was done by using an inductive approach to find Green IT practices through secondary data and with semi-structured interviews with four Swedish companies. From the interviews, several Green IT practices and drivers were established. The drivers allowed the authors to determine that the Balanced Scorecard’s perspectives did not have to be adapted to fit a Green IT Strategy.

The Green IT practices were transformed into initiatives that formed the basis for several Green IT objectives. Each objective individually fit into the four original perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard. These objectives, including initiatives, were the building blocks for the final Green IT Balanced Scorecard.

Nationell Patientöversikt (NPÖ) är ett informationssystem som gör det möjligt för behörig vårdpersonal att med patientens samtycke ta del av journalinformation som har registrerats hos andra vårdgivare. Denna rapport behandlar mervärden och begränsningar i NPÖ och är ett resultat av en studie som på uppdrag av SKL genomförts i Jönköpings Län. Studien pågick från den 1 september 2012 till den 28 februari 2013 och var en av tre delar i projektet ”Gemensam informationsåtkomst mellan landsting och kommun genom NPÖ – en kunskapsöversikt i tre län”.

Studien genomfördes genom semistrukturerade intervjuer som analyserades kvalitativt. Studiens syfte var att besvara följande fyra frågor: 

1. Vilken journalinformation kommer att visas i NPÖ?
2. Ger informationen i NPÖ en tillräckligt fullständig bild av patientens tillstånd?
3. Vilket förtroende har personalen för NPÖ som stöd?
4. Hur kan journalinformationen i NPÖ kvalitetskontrolleras?

Svaret på de tre första är beroende av den producerande organisationens rutiner och arbetssätt. Om tekniken är stabil, om journalinformation snabbt kan speglas upp i NPÖ, om alla producenter lägger upp de informationsmängder som verkligen behövs och om de dokumenterar på ett standardiserat sätt i dessa informationsmängder samt om det finns möjlighet att inhämta samtycke från alla patientkategorier så tidigt i processen som det behövs är NPÖ en bra källa till information för kommunernas personal. Alla dessa förutsättningar är i nuläget inte uppfyllda. NPÖ löser inte heller behovet av tillförlitlig information om patienternas läkemedel.

I de olika verksamheterna finns en mångfald av redan etablerade informationssystem, såväl manuella som digitala, i vilken NPÖ ska hitta sin roll. När det gäller svaret på den sista frågan kan konstateras att ingen kvalitetsgranskning av den sammanlagda informationen i NPÖ kan ske. Patientdatalagen hindrar i nuläget detta.

Rapporten avslutas med följande frågor som behöver besvaras inför en fortsatt utveckling av NPÖ:

• Vem har det övergripande ansvaret för informationen i NPÖ och hur kan kvaliteten säkerställas?
• Ska NPÖ vara en primär källa till information för kommunernas legitimerade hälso- och sjukvårdspersonal behöver informationsöverföringen standardiseras. Vilka informationsmängder ska produceras av samtliga landsting? Vilka reservrutiner ska finnas?
• Vilka konsekvenser för kommunernas personal får sena diktat och sen signering av information i NPÖ?
• Hur kan integrering av olika informationssystem ske för att minska dubbeldokumentation och av/omskrivningar av information?
• Läkemedelsinformationen i NPÖ kan för närvarande utgöra en risk för patientsäkerheten. Hur kan läkemedelsinformationen hanteras på ett patientsäkert sätt?
• Hur skapas en stabil utbildningsmiljö och hur sprids goda exempel på användande av NPÖ?
• Hur sprids kunskaper om att loggning främst ska ses som trygghet för personal, snarare än som kontroll?
• Vilka riktlinjer för samtycke ska gälla så att de uppfattas som relevanta för patienter (mängden samtycken och samtycke innan möte med patient)?
• Hur skapas säkra kanaler för interaktion mellan olika vårdgivare (exempelvis för frågor och svar mellan sjuksköterska på kommunalt boende och läkare på sjukhusklinik)?
• Kan patienters planerade besök i landstingsvården på ett säkert sätt kommuniceras via NPÖ?
• Hur kan ansvarig personal i kommunen få en signal om att ny information om en patient producerats i NPÖ?
• Hur kan rapportering av fel uppmuntras så att en bevakning att NPÖ fungerar tekniskt kan ske? Hur kan support erbjudas även på icke kontorstid?

With the invention of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin in 2009, the world's first blockchain application was developed. While academic research gradually begins to investigate cryptocurrencies more closely and attempt to understand their functioning, technology is rapidly evolving and ecosystems grow exponentially. The research is still scattered and chaotic and has not produced common guidelines. Therefore, the question remains: how sustainable cryptocurrencies and their digital ecosystems are.Only a few models and frameworks take a holistic view on digital sustainability. Only two frameworks were identified that take distributed ledger technologies (blockchain) or cryptocurrencies into consideration: the three governance strategies for digital sustainability of Linkov et al. (2018) and 10 basic conditions of sustainable digital artifacts according to Stuermer, Abu-Tayeh and Myrach (2016). These two frameworks were combined into a new integrated sustainability framework for cryptocurrencies. The developed integrated sustainability framework consists of four dimensions and 12 categories.Existing secondary data, self-conducted social media interviews and practical insights gained through an ASIC mining experiment were used to fill the framework with sufficient data. It confirms Bitcoin's sustainability problems in energy consumption and scalability, highlights Ethereum's great potential as a blockchain platform and explains the higher scalability and faster payment of Ripple and IOTA.While 2017 marked the temporary peak of the cryptocurrency hype, 2018 was a transformative year in which the leading cryptocurrencies were increasingly occupying more specialised niches.

I will look at what impact big data have had on the managerial strategic decisions in the food and beverage industry. This in order to understand the complexity and theory of organizational strategic management, an effort to define the contemporary strategic theory into a holistic conceptual model is done through a literature review on organizational strategy. This literature explicitly proposes four distinctly different types of strategies that management need to consider in the organizational context. Namely, long-term strategy, internal business strategy, external corporate strategy, and competitive strategy.

The study analyzed the food and beverage industry over a decade (2005-2014), where the three of the largest actors in the industry were selected, Nestlé S.A, PepsiCo Inc, and Unilever. The choice of method was content analysis, where three structured categorization matrixes were developed which each analyzed parts of the annual reports.

The study propose the role of big data as a strategic tool for managerial decision from a theoretical standpoint. The content analysis show that hypothesis 1, could be confirmed, big data have an impact on all the proposed four managerial strategic decisions. Second hypothesis could not be confirmed, since decentralization does only occur for one of the organizations, but increased external environment turbulence could be concluded for the industry in general. The third hypothesis could be confirmed, which show that there is an increase in individualization due to increased customer involvement and demand.

The analysis discovered three distinct time periods during the last decade, namely pre- economic instability period (2005-2007), economic instability period (2008-2011) and finally the post-paradigm period (2012-2014). Where the year 2011 was the most turbulent in terms of economy and technology for the industry. The study clearly show that customers are now involved in the production process, customers are co-creators of the products. There is now a two-way communication and increased social responsibility awareness. This study shows that the old traditional approach of looking at markets in order to position yourself to stay competitive are obsolete as this study predicted. customers demand to be a part of the organizational culture. This conclude that big data is an important tool for all strategic managerial decisions. 

A recent trend in health care is patient-centred health, but are health care organizations ready to cope with that change? Changes at the patient level are one aspect but there is a need for reshaping the organization of health care. There is a need to focus much more on prevention care, helping patients to cope and become better self-managers, focusing on the patient process, working together and empowering patients. The aim of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the lack of sustainability over time in two patient-centred care (PCC) projects by using actor network theory (ANT) as an analytical framework. We use case studies from heart fibrillation and heart failure care organizations in a Swedish county council. The cases concern initiatives to achieve better interactions for these patients and organize care to become more patient-centred. Both initiatives have now been partly abandoned in the organization, although research and guidelines recommend such care organizations. The analysis of the different actors dominating the translation process towards a PCC network and of the way they get together in networks reveals that this is a time-consuming process, taking place long after the initial training and PCC implementation activities. We discuss the temporality of stability, the reversible process with chimerical enrolments, and how a complex and changing environment demands constant re-problematization of PCC.  We also include how the understanding of the translation and negotiation process can influence decisions on allocating sufficient time and resources to the process. We shed light on the importance of understanding and managing the organizational change in a PCC project and thus also of when to implement patient-centred e-health solutions.

Introduction

Information technology security or computing system security is one of the most impor-tant issues that businesses all over the world strive to deal with. However, the world has now changed and in essential ways. The desk-top computer and workstation have appeared and proliferated widely. The net effect of all this has been to expose the computer-based information system, i.e. its hardware, its software, its software processes, its databases, its communications to an environment over which no one—not end user, not network admin-istrator or system owner, not even government—has control.

Purpose

Since IT security has a very broad spectrum and encompasses a lot of issues, we want to focus our research by taking a critical look at how business organizations manage IT secu-rity with specific emphasis on administrative and physical controls.

Methods

When the authors of this paper approached the topic to be studied it soon became evident that the most relevant and interesting task was not merely to investigate how business and non business organizations manage their IT security, but in fact try to understand what lies behind them. The purpose of this paper demands a deeper insight of how organizations address the issue of computer security; the authors wanted to gain a deeper understanding of how security issues have been addressed or being tackled by the organizations. Thus, the qualitative method was most suitable for this study.

Conclusion

Based on the chosen approach, the result of this study has shown that both business and non-business organizations located in Jönköping recognize the importance of IT security, and are willing to protect their systems from threats such as unauthorized access, theft, fire, power outage and other threats to ensure the smooth running of their systems at all times.

Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is the most popular andthe influential framework for IT Service Management (ITSM). It is used for ITgovernance, management and control of IT services. It comprises of definedand best practices, developed in 1980’s by British Government Central ComputerTelecommunication Agency. The purpose of this thesis is to present theguidelines to implement ITIL. Available literature on ITIL discusses the importanceof ITIL, its benefits, facilitating and challenging factors associatedwith implementation. But the steps to implement ITIL have so far not beendiscussed. We take the opportunity to explore empirical data from industry andliterature to get to know different strategies and approaches used by IT professionalsfor implementing the ITIL framework.To fulfil the purpose, we stated three research questions: “What are facilitatingfactors for the ITIL Implementation?”, “What are the challenging factors forthe ITIL Implementation?”, and “Based on facilitating factors and barriers,what are the guidelines for a successful ITIL implementation?”. Literature wasreviewed to extract required factors and senior IT professionals from two organisationswere interviewed to get to know what factors had been facilitators and barriers for them. The extracted factors were compiled, grouped and analysedto develop implementation steps. The result of this thesis is a framework developed implementation steps, which any organisation can use as guidelineto adapt ITIL framework. These steps consist of four phases highlighting significantfactors needed for the successful implementation. Among the highlighted factors were top management support, ITIL skills of implementer, resistanceto change, financial support, staff training, process mapping, documentation,project management and governance are the most important factors which influence the implementation process.

ITIL - Information Technology Infrastructure Library is a widely acclaimed practice framework. It is a framework for Information technology service management (ITSM), which provides IT, business alignment, improved IT services and helps to resolve business issues. ITIL does not function to generate business strategies but to support them. ITIL as a framework describes a lifecycle that includes five stages, which are not technological specific or organization specific. It can be adopted by any organization to meet its goals. Five stages of ITIL lifecycle are; Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual service improvement.

The primary purpose of this thesis is to elaborate upon the ITIL problem management process with particular regard to challenges that hinder its application and to further supplement this analysis with insights of ITIL professionals about overcoming these challenges. As this research’s data collection is based on semi-structured interviews with IT professionals, gathering their views on ITIL implementation challenges, so expected data to be collected from these interviews is to be non-numerical, therefore; this thesis will follow qualitative research. This thesis will employ deductive approach. As the researcher of this thesis will gather in-depth knowledge of ITIL framework and challenges in implementing ITIL problem management by extensive literature review. As a result, a list of twenty-six challenges, categorized into six categories, was the first outcome of this study by extensive literature review. The literature review didn’t only help to generate a list of challenges but also helped this study to recognize the importance of ITIL framework in the organizations, by contributing to IT governance. To fulfil the purpose of this thesis a detailed guideline for the ITIL implementation was gathered by interviewing the IT professionals.

Problem

There is a lack of knowledge about how Swedish SMEs make decisions on IT service selection. There is also lack of information about the attributes of IT service providers that are most important to Swedish SMEs. By discovering these attributes, IT service providers could focus on improving their services in those dimensions and become more attractive for Swedish small and medium enterprises.

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to investigate the decision making process over selection of IT services for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Sweden. Additionally, this research intends to discover the most important features (attributes) of an IT service provider in its selection.

What are the steps involved in decision-making process? What decision-making methods can be used to help explain the process that goes on in the minds of the decision makers? What aspects influence their behaviour when decision makers prefer one service provider to another?

IT service comprises of internet-based services such as web hosting, email services, online backup services and cloud apps or locally offered IT services such as IT helpdesk. The candidates who were interviewed were employees or entrepreneurs who work and live in Sweden.

Method

This research was conducted with an inductive approach using mono method for semi-structured interviews for primary data collection. Secondary data collection was multiple-source through literature reviews in order to learn about different attributes and current knowledge about this subject. The research method was qualitative with exploratory strategy in order to get insights into managers’ decision-making processes. Sampling was non-probability purposive method with sample size as saturation method. The focus was illustrative and method chosen as typical case.

Conclusion

The conclusions of this thesis illustrates that the important attributes (features) of IT services required by Swedish SMEs are the requirement that the service is being offered from Sweden, due to tax conformity laws and security matters. Moreover, SAT, WADD, FRQ and EBA are decision-making heuristics in use by the companies in selection of suitable IT services.

Education and exchange of experience within franchise is a key factor for a successful business and are also legally regulated. Therefore franchisors try to improve their educa-tion and exchange of experience. The question is if education and the exchange if information can be improved by the use of e-learning. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the possibility to complement education and exchange of experience with e-learning. Further to present an recommendation of the most suitable e-learningplatform. To fulfil the purpose we have chosen to investigate and describe how education and exchange of experience occur today and what type of knowledge that is transferred and if there is any interest of implementing e-learning to complement these activities. By conducting qualitative interviews with six franchisors within the retail trade business we will answer those questions. To analyze the interviews we have used the Addiemodell which is a proved model to investigate which type of knowledge that are teached and which e-learning platform that are most suitable.

Based on the interviews all franchisors have an interest in complementing their education of new franchisees by e-learning. The education do not differ that much from company to company, their way of conducting education are quite similar. The most suitable solution is Web Based Training (WBT) with a focus on cognitive skills that are memorisable. It is very evident that e-learning just can be a complement since it is very important to meet and to interact directly and it is for that reason some knowledge can not be transferred electronically.

All franchisors are interested in complementing their exchange of experience by using e-learning. The ways experience is exchanged are quite the same if you compare the compa-nies and all franchisors communicate knowledge that is suitable for e-learning purposes. The most suitable solution is Web Asynchronous Classroom (WAC) that focuses on com-municating cognitive skills which is evaluating and analyzing activities. A WAC solution supports a chat room or forum which is suitable for exchange of experience. All franchi-sors mentioned the importance of meeting face to face when exchanging knowledge and experience, but they also mentioned that e-learning will improve these activities as a complement.

Our recommendation is to implement a WBT solution combined with WAC functions such as chat rooms and forum. There is a need and interest among franchisors to use e-learning.

The smartphone is omnipresent and is cherished and held close by people. It allows for constant connection within a digitally connected society, as well as for many other purposes such as leisure activity or informational purpose. Within the Information Systems studies deeper investigation is required as to what impact this “taken – for – granted” mobile access to information and mobile apps has for individuals and society and if a “technological addiction”can be developed when using the smartphone for everything during the day on such a constant basis.

The aim of this study was to understand the role of the smartphone in society and to shed light on this unclear relationship between the constant use of a smartphone and its development towards an addictive quality. To reach a conclusion, in depth – interviews were conducted with participants about their relationship to the smartphone and their smartphone use based on questions derived from literature on mobile communication technologies and the types of digital addictions existing.

The results are that the smartphone is a device that seamlessly integrates into our daily lives in that we unconsciously use it as a tool to make our daily tasks more manageable, and enjoyable. It also supports us in getting better organized, to be in constant touch with family and friends remotely, and to be more mobile which is a useful ability in today’s mobility driven society.

Smartphones have been found to inhabit a relatively low potential to addiction. Traits of voluntary behaviour, habitual behaviour, and mandatory behaviour of smartphone use have been found. All of these behaviours are not considered a true addiction. In the end, it seems that the increase of smartphone use is mainly due to the way we communicate nowadays digitally,and the shift in how we relate to our social peers using digital means.

Abstract

Swedish universities have always received greater attention from international students thanks to their well-quality and tuition-free programs. However, due to the introduction of tuition fee for non-EU/EEA students from fall 2011, it is predictable that by raising the threat of losing a rather large portion of international students, Swedish universities may experience a critical period over the early years after this change. This is occurring in an environment in which universities attempt to leverage their tangible and intangible resources for maintaining their competitive niche in the worldwide market. Besides, many universities have moved towards establishing student-centric strategies as a means to achieve a high level of students’ satisfaction and long-lasting relationships. The issue has become so substantial in the recent years that, as Pausits (2007) has also suggested, universities need to transform into “relation-based organizations”.

To solve this possible problem and in order to help Swedish universities to pass this critical situation safely, this study has conducted a qualitative research on the basis of analysis of the empirical data gathered from a series of semi-structured phone and personal interviews with five Swedish universities that have the most number of international students (Lund, Uppsala, Linköping, Jönköping and Blekinge Universities) with the intense support of previous literature and the theoretical body of the study under investigation which has lead to the creation of a knowledge-based CRM model.

The main aim of this conceptual CRM model is to systematically organize the operations of building, managing and retaining relationships between Swedish universities and international students. This model has been formed by combination of two theories of CRM, as a business strategy which has been proved to be one the most efficient customer-oriented business approaches within the past decades, and Knowledge Management (KM) as the pivot for effective operation of the proposed CRM framework by providing a constant learning environment.

Organizations that have come to depend on legacy systems face quite a paradoxical problem. Maintaining the system might prove ineffective in accommodating necessary changes, but a system migration project is expensive and incurs a high amount of risk. Organizations are therefore hesitant to respond to the legacy system problem by undertaking action. Legacy system are often not causing their organization any problems at present, but a focus on the future with regard to the legacy system problem is lacking. This results in IT systems reaching an end-of-life state. The research therefore set out to explore a future-oriented perspective on legacy systems by means of observation, a literature review and a survey. The researcher found the key concept of a future-oriented perspective to be that any system that is limiting an organization to grow and innovate can be regarded as a legacy system. A framework to designate legacy status to IT systems is proposed in order to guide practitioners to acknowledge a problematic IT system to facilitate appropriate response at the right time. In relation to a future-oriented perspective, when to designate legacy status is best determined according to the system’s flexibility towards change and the alignment of the system with the business. In that regard, IT systems are end-of-life systems when they are too inflexible to change, and as a result become unaligned with either current operations or a future business opportunity or need.