We investigate the effects of various types of word-of-mouth (WOM) messages on consumer bahavior. The message is varied along two dimensions where one is valence and the other is whether or not it contains an explicit call for certain behavior or attitude change. We use an experiment in the form of a web-based survey. Five different scenarios were designed to represent neutral, positive, and negative WOM. The latter two came in two different versions - one with a recommendation and one without.

I organisationer idag bo?rjar det bli mer och mer centralt att fokusera pa? medarbetarnas innovationsmo?jligheter och kunskap. Organisationer bo?r numera fokusera mer pa? den tysta kunskapen och go?ra denna explicit fo?r att utnyttja den fulla potentialen till innovation. I dagens organisationer kra?vs det a?ven att medarbetarna va?gar arbeta o?ver gra?nserna och att ledningen tydliggo?r att allas input inom organisationen va?rderas likva?rdigt.

This thesis looks at two sides of the same coin: how to support the production and future development at a specialist medical technology department at Danderyd Hospital. The two sides are; a pilot study of a product management system (PDM) and an interview based study on the characteristics of the silent knowledge of the technicians. The department (National respiratory centre, NRC) is facing retirement of several key employees.The technical study shows that the success of an implementation is largely dependent on the users? prior knowledge and use of a 3D Computer aided design system (CAD).The system itself is shown to fulfill the Lifecycle requirement of tracking the products (mostly tracheostomy tubes) but without a CAD centered workflow, some substantial education and preferably some new recruits, an implementation of the PDM system will fail. The author recommends development of the current ?low-tech? system of MS Excel and Access rather than redistribute the dependency from technician towards a complex, commercial software and its vendor.The analysis of the technicians? silent knowledge with the newly developed method, epithet for silent knowledge (ETK), shows that the longer employment time:the more differentiated technicians become in describing their work,practical knowledge are regarded higher andthe social and collective problem solving factors of the work becomes more important.Typically, it is shown that a new employee should preferably enjoy problem solving, being pragmatic and social as well as having some prior education or work experience in a CAD and/or a PDM system..

Studien är baserad på lärares erfarenheter av läsförståelseundervisning.Utgångspunkten i studien är sviktande resultat i läsförståelse i internationella undersökningar för svenska elever. Det är en kvalitativ studie som syftar till att undersöka och beskriva lärares erfarenheter av medveten explicit läsförståelseundervisning i klassrumsmiljö. Metoden som används är öppna intervjuer. Respondenterna undervisar alla i svenska i skilda åldersgrupper, en från varje stadium på grundskolan samt gymnasiet. Framträdande i studiens resultat är att lärare är mycket intresserade av att ge elever god läsförståelse.

Purpose: The purpose is to present a greater understanding of the progression of innovation capital in a technology transfer and biotech start-up context. The findings offer technology transfer professionals, entrepreneurs and academia an overall perception and mental framework of the technology transfer practice and the embracement of a promising invention, building upon its hidden value. Methodology: The thesis was conducted using a qualitative case study, executed with the help of interviews, in order to answer the research question: How is an embryo of innovation capital continuously cultivated in a technology transfer and biomedical start-up process? Conclusions: A technology transfer entity provides the means to establish a platform where an entrepreneur can build its own human capital, structural capital, and relationship capital. The forms of capital interact and thus create value, herein considered as innovation capital.

Communication is an important part of any multi-agent system. There are different ways of communicating and they have different effects on a multi-agent system. This project describes and evaluates two different ways of communication, implicit and explicit. To compare the two methods, two experiments have been executed. The result of the experiments have been compared and discussed.

Individers specifika, inneboende kunskap har kommit att bli ett allt viktigare redskap för att generera konkurrensfördelar i dagens föränderliga samhälle. Det ställer därmed krav på ledningen att kunna hantera organisationens komplexa tillgång och främja kunskapsöverföring mellan organisationsmedlemmarna genom tillämpliga processer. Lyckas detta, bevaras kunskapen inom organisationen.Syftet med studien är att skapa en ökad förståelse för ledningsdrivna processer och aktiviteter som avser att omvandla individbaserad kunskap till organisatorisk kunskap. Studien belyser ett antal olika kunskapsöverföringsprocesser som nyttjas av organisationer i praktiken. Face-to-face metoder har visat sig föredras vid överföring av kunskap särskilt den tysta kunskapen, medan de tekniska/virtuella verktygen anses vara till fördel vid informationsspridning. En central slutsats för studien är att en verbal tvåvägskommunikation, såsom fysiska möten och telefonkommunikation, är mest tillämplig vid förmedling av den tysta kunskapen.

This master thesis has been carried out at Scania R&D at the department for Powertrain Control System Development during the winter of 2010/2011. In the thesis the writer examine and evaluate the existing method for collecting information from the tests carried out during the development of the Powertrain Control Systems software. It also contains suggestions for how a new method that enhance the validation elements could look like.The master thesis uses Vicentes theories of the ecological approach and theories of how knowledge sharing of tacit and technical information works within an organization and between the organization and its customers. First a workplace analysis at Scania R&D is carried out to see how Powertrain Control Systems work and how they test their software. Second a control task analysis, where the aims decided on after the interviews, is compared to the existing method.

This thesis deals with information provision to the knowledge intense biotechnology businesses of Ideon Science Park in Lund, Sweden. Previous research concerning the information needs of Science Park companies has been conducted from the information provider s perspective. Instead, we apply a user perspective to find out what information needs these companies have, and how they prefer to acquire information. Central terms are: information, -needs, -acquisition, -consciousness, -strategy, small and medium sized enterprises, scientists and engineers, information (resources) management, networks, tacit knowledge, knowledge transfer and innovative milieux. The companies need scientific and business information; the latter is easily obtained within Ideon.

This thesis deals with questions about competences and qualities that librarians inpublic libraries find that they need to be qualified suppliers of literature (books andmagazines).Our aim is to problematize the competence of the profession in relation to promotingliterature, knowledge in literature and reading habits. We want to know what librariansthemselves think about their own competences when it comes to supplying andpromoting literature. Does it have to be a leisure interest or do they get the possibility toread during working hours?What do librarians think it means to be a qualified promotor of literature and how dothey acquire the right competence? Do they believe that their competence correspondswith the occupational requirements? How much of their knowledge about literature andpromoting literature comes from personal interest and commitment?We primarily used the theories about competence by Per-Erik Ellström. One of thetheories is the one of implicit and explicit knowledge.

This study is about conception in the evaluation of financial assistance within the social services. The aim of this study is to describe and understand how social workers reason about variation, conception and local norms and its significance in the evaluation process. To reach this purpose we have conducted semi-structured interviews with eight social workers in which different themes were discussed and reasoned about. In order to understand and analyze our results we have studied/used the knowledge about tacit knowledge and street-level bureaucracy. Our results showed, as previous research states, that social workers do have conceptions about clients.

Attitudes towards violence were assessed using both implicit (The Single Category Implicit Association Test; Karpinski & Steinman, 2006) and explicit measurements (a Feeling Thermometer). A group of criminals showed more positive explicit and implicit attitudes towards violence than a group of non-criminals. In addition, The Aggression Questionnaire (Buss & Perry, 1992) revealed significant differences in aggression between the groups; criminals' mean scores were higher on all four subscales (physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger and hostility). Furthermore, significant correlations were found between all the measures, including the implicit and explicit attitude measures. The findings support the validity of the SC-IAT as an implicit measure of violent attitudes.

This Master's thesis concerns the professional knowledge of the librarian. The image of this knowledge is regarded as constructed in a social context, which is why the discourse analytic approach is selected as method. The empirical material consists of two texts concerning the education of librarians. A theory of knowledge, emanating from Aristotle, is applied to the results to find examples of the forms of knowledge that are excluded from the discourse. A number of themes, or ways, in which it is possible to discuss the phenomenon of the librarian's knowledge, are identified in the texts.

This academic essay explores the possibilities to knowledge of God in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. The essay takes its departure from question 12 in the Summa Theologiae, specifically articles 12 and 13 that deal with natural knowledge of God and supernatural knowledge, respectively. It also presents objections made by modern philosophers against these ways of knowledge along with a rebuttal of these objections. Lastly, a conclusion is offered and ends with a reflection on how Aquinas' teaching on human knowledge of God in earthly existence compares with his teaching on the knowledge human beings will have in heaven and what consequences that has for our present knowledge..

Communication is an important part of any multi-agent system. There are different ways of communicating and they have different effects on a multi-agent system. This project describes and evaluates two different ways of communication, implicit and explicit. To compare the two methods, two experiments have been executed. The result of the experiments have been compared and discussed.