• Rural Digital Europe
• Bachelor thesis close

The issue that this study addresses is the public transportations difficulty to adapt and keep up with the continuously digitizing society. To address this problem, the purpose of this study will be to investigate what could be a contribution to the further improvements within public transportation systems. The study is established alongside with the recently started “Welcome onboard” project, where the purpose is to develop and extend the public transportation as we know it today. The aim is to through five different functional areas urge the utility, where crowdsourcing will play a central role. We are distinguishing three public transport authorities attitudes towards the different functions of the project. We will investigate the attitudes towards the Welcome onboardprojects functions and if they could be a contribution to the RKM-companies future development. Furthermore, this thesis will also investigate how the RKM-companies would grade the different advantages of different functional areas, and in a extend what would bevital for an future implementation. The empirical data collection consist of interviews of informants with a deep understanding ofthe development of the public transportations. First we interviewed two key persons of the Welcome onboard project, to get a deep understanding of the project. Later on we interviewed key persons at Värmlandstrafiken and Västtrafik, that are two different regional public transportation authorities. To strengthen our results we also chose to interview Samtrafiken, which task are to develop collaborations and offer services within information and ticket solutions for the public transport industry. This is made in order to benefit both traffic the RKM and the travelers. All the interviews were transcribed and analyzed, later the empirical data collection could be compared through different cases. These cases were categorized by information about the company that the interviewees where representing and the answers regarding the attitudes towards the “Welcome onboard”-project and its functions. The result from the thesis will give an understanding of Västtrafik, Värmlandstrafiken and Samtrafikens perspective of the functions and attitudes towards the further development of public transportation.

As the world becomes more digital, the demands on the accessibility of the materials published on the web also increase. A lack of accessibility on the websites risks limiting the opportunities for those with disabilities to access necessary information from authorities. This goes against Article 21 of the Declaration of Human Rights published in 1948 by the UN, which states the right of the individual to public service. The purpose of this thesis is to study the new Swedish law on accessibility for digital publicservice and how the WCAG 2.1 guidelines are applied in Swedish state museums. State museums, on behalf of the government, are responsible for making their content available to all citizens. In our research, we started from semi-structured interviews that were analysed by theme in order to find common denominators between the various museum authorities. We concluded that there were challenges that made working with accessibility more difficult. The biggest challenge at the present seems to be how the law should be interpreted in the best way as the interpretation can differ greatly depending on who’s doing the interpretation. Web accessibility for the authorities is also a question of resources, as the organizations previously haven’t had this as a priority in budget planning. With the new law, the employees responsible for the publication on the webpages hope that this will be something they can use in the future to justify why the organization needs to invest resources in web accessibility. 

Background and problem: The perception of luxury fashion has been shaped throughout history with well-known brands’ innovative strategies and designs. Along with its crafts and arts, exclusivity has been one of the main pillars of luxury fashion, creating the perception of luxury fashion products only being available to the ‘elite’; which has been feasible to maintain in an analog society. However, as luxury fashion brands have moved into the digital landscape; using digital channels such as e-commerce, social media, and disruptive technologies such as augmented reality, virtual clothing; distribution channels have opened up, contradicting traditional practises. It has been found that it is the consumers’ perception that determines luxury brands separation from the ordinary. Raising the question of how consumers may perceive luxury fashion brands when operating in the digital landscape; since the use of digital channels and disruptive technologies contradicts with the characteristics defining luxury fashion, in particular exclusivity. Purpose: In order to contribute to literature and create new understandings of the digitalisation of the luxury fashion industry; the purpose of this study is to explore how consumers perceive luxury fashion brands’ use of digital channels and disruptive technologies, specifically regarding the perception of exclusivity. Method: The study broadly followed an interpretivist research philosophy where qualitative data was collected by conducting eight semi-structured focus groups with Swedish luxury fashion consumers, born between the years of 1992-2000. The empirical findings were analysed through the general analytical approach, and thereafter discussed in relation to the frame of reference. Conclusion: The findings suggest that consumers perceive that luxury fashion brands’ use of digital channels and disruptive technologies are diluting the perception of exclusivity, as luxury fashion becomes more accessible and visible with an increased attainability. 

Force control is introduced to robots to solve the problem in machining applications due to the fact that the robot compliance might cause deviation between actual and desired robot path. Also large tolerances in the casting process as well as positioning errors from the clamping create deviations for which the force control technology can adept. Force control has also shown successful in automatic learning of paths along non linear surfaces. This study investigates the possibility of introducing robots equipped with force control at Volvo Aero Corporation in order to robotize polishing and deburring processes. These are today performed by manual labor. This study investigates more specifically the ABB Force Control machining application package. The polishing process has shown to be very complex and today’s version of the ABB force control package cannot give sufficiently robust results to be recommended for implementation. The major issue is the non-existing compliance of tool orientation needed to adapt to casting and positioning deviations due to varying work piece dimensions. The deburring process has however shown to be easier to handle, and a robot cell and methodology is proposed in this report.

För ungefär två år sedan fick hela världen och därmed vi i Sverige förändra våra livsstilar markant från vad vi var vana vid. Coronapandemin och sjukdomen covid-19 spred sig snabbt och allt för många omkom till följd av smittan. För att bromsa och försöka stoppa smittan ställde vi om, där det var möjligt, till distansarbete. Skolor fick på rekordkort tid ställa om till distans och lärare fick hålla undervisningen genom digitala program som Zoom och Microsoft teams. Övergången från undervisning samt arbete på distans påverkade, och påverkar fortfarande, både barn och vuxna runtom i världen. Att studera hemifrån för barn innebär en markant ökning av eget ansvar vilket kan vara påfrestande. Att studera hemifrån innebär vidare att den miljön många barn är vana att arbeta i förändrats. Alla barn blir på ett eller annat sätt påverkade av att arbetsmiljön rör sig från skolan till hemmet. Det kan vara både i positiv och negativ riktning. Det som dock händer är att barn som lever i osäkra och olämpliga hemmamiljöer blir påverkade i större utsträckning av digitaliseringen än andra barn med trygga hemmiljöer. Det är därför viktigt att ta hänsyn i dessa tider till principen om barnets bästa. Med hänsyn till den snabba digitaliseringen som skett är det viktigt att hänsyn tas till SoL, LVU och principen om barnets bästa. Till följd av digitaliseringen förlorar barn skolan som sin fristad och hälsan hos utsatta barn riskerar därmed att påverkas i negativ riktning. Till följd av en ökande psykisk och fysisk ohälsa är det viktigt att bland annat socialtjänsten vet i vilken utsträckning de kan använda sig utav digitala medel för att intervjua barn. Detta då både SoL, LVU och barnkonventionen är omfattande regleringar. Det är, som en lärare på universitet påpekade under en föreläsning, att vi måste se utöver lagen. Med detta menade han att det är riktiga personer bakom besluten och inte enbart något teoretiskt i text. I praktiken har det visat sig att det föreligger osäkerheter när barn blir intervjuade eller samtalar med vuxna på distans. I ett fall använde sig mamman av en radiointervju för att samtala med ett barn. I ett annat fall försökte mamman vid samtal över telefon övertala sitt barn att det inte trivdes i familjehemmet och att det ville komma hem till mamman. Det finns därmed osäkerheter när socialtjänsten inte fysiskt på plats kan samtala med barnet. Det är därför viktigt att veta när och om det överhuvudtaget är lämpligt att intervjua barn på distans. Det finns idag inget som hindrar socialarbetare från att intervjua och samtala med barn på distans. Det är därmed viktigt att reda ut hur dessa former av samtal med barn borde ske. Vid e-mailkonversationer med kommuner framkom det att de varken hade riktlinjer eller handböcker. När jag mejlade Socialstyrelsen fick jag till en början inget svar. Efter att ha vidarebefordrat samma mejl till dem fick jag som svar att jag skulle vända mig till landets kommuner för riktlinjer. För att sammanfatta det hela behöver en utarbetning av riktlinjer och handböcker ske så att myndigheter och kommuner har samma utgångspunkt i frågan. Barn ska inte få olika möjligheter på grund av digitaliseringen och att olika aktörer arbetar på olika sätt. About two years ago the whole world and therefore Sweden had to change it’s lifestyles remarkably from what we were used to. The corona pandemic and the disease covid-19 was spreading at a rapid pace and too many people died because of the virus. Countries had to change to remote work where it was possible. This also applied to schools which had to, at a record speed, change to distance learning through digital programs like Zoom and Microsoft teams. The transition to remote work and distance learning affected, and still does, both children and adults around the world. For a child to study from home means a significant increase of self responsibility which for some can be stressful. To study from home also means that their usual work enviroment for studying changes. Every child is affected in one way or another when the work enviroment changes from school to home. This can be in both a negative and positive direction. The digitlisation and corona pandemic affected children with worse home enviroments to a greater extent than those with safe ones. Therefore it is important that we take the principle of the best interests of the child into consideration. In light of the rapid digitalisation that has happened it is important to take the Social Services Act (SoL), the Care of Young Person (Special Provisions) act (LVU) and the principle of the best interests of the child into consideration. Children lose the school as their sanctuary due to the digitalisation and corona pandemic which risks to impact on them negatively. Due to an increased psychological and physical ill health, it is important that the social services know to which extend they can use digital means to interview children. A teacher at the university once told me that we have to look beyond the law. He meant that there are actual people behind the decisions we make and not just something theoretical. It has shown in practice that there are uncertainties revolving around remote interviews between children and adults. There is one case where the mother used radiointerviews to interview her child. In another case the mother tried, over the phone, to convince her child that it wanted to come back home to her instead of staying in its current family home. Therefore, uncertainties exist when the social services can’t interview children in person. It is for these reasons important to know when and if it is appropriate to conduct remote interviews with children. There is nothing today that restrains social workers from conducting remote interviews with children. For this reason it is important that we sort out how these forms of interviews should take place. When I emailed different municipalties it turned out that they did not have guidelines or handbooks on how to conduct remote interviews with children. When I emailed the National Board of Health and Welfare they told me to reach out to the municipalties in Sweden for guidelines. To summarise, we need to formulate guidelines and handbooks for the authorities and municipalties so they have the same starting point. Children should not get different opportunites because of the digitalisation or that the authorities have different work procedures. 

En omfattande transformering av marknadsmiljön har bidragit till funderingar och frågor gällande om kundrelationshantering är tillräckligt utvecklat för att hänga med i digitaliseringens framfart och lever upp till dagens konsumentförväntningar. Den litteratur som finns påvisar trots allt en hög grad av misslyckande relaterat till implementering av kundrelationshantering. Teori kring varför misslyckanden uppstår är dock bristfällig, men befintlig litteratur pekar på att bristfällig förståelse gällande framväxande teknologi kan vara en bidragande orsak. Syftet med studien är att förstå hur digitaliseringen påverkar kundens informationssökning och vad detta kan få för konsekvenser på relationen till säljaren. För att kunna besvara syftet genomfördes en empirisk undersökning baserad på en kvalitativ design där fem köpare och fem säljare inom bilbranschen intervjuades. Resultatet påvisar att det digitala informationsflödet bidrar till att det för kunden har blivit bekvämare att söka och hitta information. En aspekt som till följd av digitaliseringen visat sig vara den avgörande faktorn gällande utformningen av kundens externa informationssökning. Resultatet påvisar dock att kunden i större utsträckning uppfattar osäkerhet och risk om information hämtas från internet, detta på grund av svårigheten att avgöra vad för information som är korrekt. Studien bidrar till ett förtydligande gällande kundrelationshanteringens utformning för att bekräfta dagens konsumentförväntningar i och med en digitalisering av marknadsmiljön. Hanteringen av säljarens relation till kunden bör utformas som konsulterande med fokus på informationsbekräftelse och rådgivning. Relationen till säljaren är viktig för kunden, men ur ett kognitivt anseende snarare än ett affektivt. An extensive transformation of the market environment has contributed to reflections and questions regarding whether customer relationship management is sufficiently developed to keep up with the progress of digitization and live up to today’s consumer expectations. Nevertheless, the existing literature demonstrates a high degree of failure related to the implementation of customer relationship management. However, theory around why failures occur is lacking, but existing literature points to a lack of understanding regarding emerging technology as a contributing cause. The purpose of the study is to understand how digitization affects the customer’s search for information and what consequences this may have on the relationship with the seller. In order to answer the purpose, an empirical investigation based on a qualitative design was carried out where five buyers and five sellers from the car dealer industry were interviewed. Results demonstrate that the digital information flow contributes to the fact that it has become more convenient for the customer to search and find information. An aspect which, as a result of digitization, has proven to be the decisive factor regarding the design of the customer’s external information search. The results show, however, that the customer perceives uncertainty and risk to a greater extent if information is obtained from the internet, this due to the difficulty in determining what information is correct. The study contributes to a clarification regarding the design of customer relationship management in order to confirm today’s consumer expectations with a digitization of the market environment. The handling of the seller’s relationship with the customer should be designed as consulting with a focus on information confirmation and guidance. The relationship with the seller is important to the customer, but from a cognitive rather than an affective perspective.

Aim: This study aims to increase the understanding of the influence of digitalization in the development of the innovation strategy of SMEs. Method: The method used is a multi-case qualitative study using the inductive approach. Nine organizations were examined from three different countries, Sweden, India, and Nigeria, to give the study international comparison. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted on managers and employees of the selected organizations for the study. Result & Conclusions: The study revealed that digitalization is an opportunity and a tool for developing innovation, which is crucial for the survival of SMEs. The study also showed that most SMEs do not have a clear innovation strategy, and are constrained by several factors such as; time, resources, competence, regulations, prioritizing tasks, managing the human capital and numerous others. However, SMEs can overcome their challenges by developing their dynamic capabilities and utilizing their resources with support from cluster organizations. Such support includes creating the awareness of digitalization, emphasizing the need and importance of crafting an innovation strategy, training, mentoring and funding. Suggestions for future research: While the study examined SMEs in general, SMEs and clusters within a specific industry or sector are suggested for further study. Also, other factors that can influence the innovation strategy of SMEs should be examined. Furthermore, more research is needed to focus on the implementation of public policies to boost SME development in the area of innovation and the application of digital technologies, as SMEs are crucial to the growth of any economy, and the study revealed different levels and means of implementation of these policies. Contribution of the thesis: This study adds new insights to the literature on international business by conducting a multiple case study on SMEs and organizations supporting SMEs from three different countries with different economies and levels of advancement. A theoretical model was developed and has been to shown support existing studies illustrating that SMEs can adopt digitalization to develop an innovation strategy, through support from cluster organizations. The study provides new perspectives, some of which are ways for SMEs to manage digital transformation and some questions which are suggested for future research.

Digital technologies have increased the influence of technology in business, even changing busi- ness models and strategies of organisations. This influence, called Digital Transformation of Business (DT), happens when there is an increase of the number of digital connections, infor- mation and interactions. This phenomena has been defined as Digital Density (DD) and aims to provide an assessment of the digitalization status of an organization. With the concept of DD we propose the DD Framework, that has two parts: qualitative and quantitative. In order to support both parts we simulate the effect that a platform for smartphones called Waze has on the traffic flow of a city. For the qualitative side, we redefine the concept of DD and with Business Model CANVAS we compare the changes introduced by Waze in the business model. The quantitative part of the simulation is performed with MATLAB and its goal is to under- stand how an agent chooses the path to drive from point A to point B. As expected, we prove that with more information agents can estimate better the costs of the different paths. Despite, even if our simulation seems to prove that the more information the agents have the better the system works, we introduce an analogy with the Braess Paradox to find potential problems and provide solutions for them. We conclude with a proposal of future work. Las tecnologías digitales han aumentado la influencia de la tecnología en el mundo del negocio, llegando incluso a cambiar los modelos de negocio y las estrategias de las organizaciones. Esta influencia, llamada Transformación Digital del Negocio (Digital Transformation - DT), sucede cuando aumentan el número de conexiones, información e interacciones digitales. Este fenómeno ha sido definido como Densidad Digital (Digital Density - DD) y tiene como objetivo proporcionar un análisis del estado de digitalización de las organizaciones. Con el concepto DD se propone el Modelo DD (DD Framework), que está formado por dos partes: una cualitativa y otra cuantitativa. Con el fin de dar soporte a estas dos partes se simula el efecto que una plataforma para smartphones llamada Waze tiene en el tráfico de las ciudades. Por lo que respecta a la parte cualitativa, se ha redefinido el concepto DD y con el Modelo CANVAS comparamos los cambios que ha introducido Waze en modelos de negocio previos. La parte cuantitativa de la simulación se ha realizado con MATLAB cuyo máximo objetivo es entender cómo un agente (conductor) elige uno u otro camino para ir de A a B. Como esperábamos, hemos comprobado que los agentes pueden realizar mejores decisiones respecto al camino a elegir a medida que tienen más información. A pesar de estos resultados, se introduce una analogía con la Paradoja de Braess para encontrar problemas potenciales y proporcionar soluciones. Se finaliza con una propuesta de futuro trabajo. Les tecnologies digitals han augmentat la influència de la tecnologia en el món del negoci, inclús canviant els models de negoci i estratègies de les organitzacions. Aquesta influència, que anomenam Transformació Digital del Negoci (Digital Transformation - DT), esdevé quan augmenta el nombre de connexions, informació i interaccions digitals. Aquest fenomen es defineix com Densitat Digital (Digital Density - DD) i té com a objectiu proporcionar un anàlisi de l'estat de digitalització de les organitzacions. Amb el concepte DD proposam el Model DD (DD Framework), que està format per dues parts: una qualitativa i una altra quantitativa. Amb la finalitat de donar suport a aquestes dues parts s'ha simulat l'efecte que una plataforma per smartphones anomenada Waze té sobre el trànsit de les ciutats. Pel que fa a la part qualitativa, s'ha redefinit el concepte DD i amb el Model CANVAS comprovam els canvis que Waze ha introduït als models de negoci previs a la seva aparició. La part quantitativa de la simulació s'ha realitzat amb MATLAB amb el màxim objectiu d'entendre com un agent (conductor) escull entre un camí o un altre per anar des d'A fins a B. Tal i com s'esperava, s'ha comprovat que els agents poden realitzar millors decisions pel que fa a la tria del camí a mesura que tenen més informació. Contràriament, introduïm una analogia amb la Paradoxa de Braess per a trobar problemes potencials i proporcionar solucions. Es finalitza amb una proposta de treball futur.

The record industry has been around for just over 100 years and it’s an industry that mostly has been growing and growing ever since its inception. New technology has always pushed the industry forwards and helped it grow bigger and bigger with almost each year. But when the internet came in the early 2000’s it changed everything. It caused a stir in the industry when the music consumers now had the possibility to rip CD's, download music files illegally and share them with the world for free. In desperate actions to try to save the record labels from going bankrupt they did all in their power to fight the change. What eventually happened was that other actors came in and saved the business with services that embraced the change from a physical way of consuming music, to a new digital one. This is a study of how that change has been perceived and affected the record labels and their ways of working. By using Paul Hirschs modell charting the organization of the pop music industry and the four processes that Tschmuck describes as the core activities of a record label, we’ve interviewed six record labels in the Stockholm area in an attempt to describe the new core activities and organization of the industry now that the digitization has changed the way the customers consume music. Our findings show that the value added chain that Hirsch modelled has changed drastically, with several actors losing importance in it, while others actors has traded places. The core activities that Tschmuck described remains the same, but the ways they are executed has become more effective thanks to the new technology.