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Scholars and industry stakeholders have exhibited an interest in identifying the underlying dimensions of viral memes. However, the recipe for creating a viral meme remains obscure. This study makes a phenomenological contribution by examining viral memes, exploring the antecedents (i.e., content-related factors, customer-related factors, and media-related factors), consequences, and moderating factors using a mixed-method approach. The study presents a holistic framework for creating viral memes based on the perceptions of customers and industry stakeholders. Four quantitative studies (i.e., a lab experiment, an online quasi-experiment, an event study, and a brand recall study) validate the theoretical model identified in the qualitative study. The research underlines the potential of viral memes in marketing communications as they enhance brand recall and brand engagement. The study found that viral memes are topical and highly relatable and are thus well received by the target groups, which increases customer engagement and brand recall. Marketers can adopt the findings of this study to design content for memes that consumers find relevant, iconic, humorous, and spreadable. Furthermore, marketers can use customer-related factors suggested in the theoretical framework for enhancing escapism, social gratification, and content gratification for their target customers which in turn shall organically increase their reach within their target segments and enhance brand performance in terms of brand recall and brand engagement.

A rapidly growing literature investigates how the recent Covid-19 pandemic has affected international seafood trade along multiple dimensions, creating opportunities as well as challenges. This suggests that many of the impacts of the Covid measures are subtle and require disaggregated data to allow the impacts in different supply chains to be teased out. In aggregate, Norwegian salmon exports have not been significantly impacted by Covid-related measures. Using firm-level data to all export destinations to examine the effects of lockdowns in different destination countries in 2020, we show that the Covid-related lockdown measures significantly impacted trade patterns for four product forms of salmon. The results also illustrate how the Covid measures create opportunities, as increased stringency of the measures increased trade for two of the product forms. We also find significant differences among firms' responses, with large firms with larger trade networks reacting more strongly to the Covid measures. The limited overall impacts and the significant dynamics at the firm level clearly show the resiliency of the salmon supply chains. publishedVersion

Positioned within the project management field and literature, this thesis focuses on value creation process in organizational change programs by analyzing the perceptions and actions of program management actors, particularly, program managers. Organizational change programs are both of theoretical interest and practical importance. For the latter, organizations in different sectors and industries are increasingly urged to initiate and implement various transformational change processes, in order to survive and prosper. Thus, the organizational actors, specifically the managers are progressively encountered with the hurdle of realizing complex changes. For the former, choosing programs as temporary vehicles to provide a certain organizing and management framework to plan and realize such complex processes has created a significant, yet growing debate in the project management literature that elevates the issue of how change programs can be managed to create value. Communicating with this debate, taking an actor-centric view, this thesis attempts to answer how can program managers lead value creation in change programs? In order to answer the posed question, the thesis raises three issues and develops a theoretical framework concerning (1) the process of value creation, (2) the importance of organizational context for managing change programs, and (3) the understanding of the change program manager’s role and their way of handling their role when leading value creation processes. Further, it follows and draws on seven Norwegian municipality merger, change programs that were planned and implemented between 2016 and 2020 in Trøndelag county. The longitudinal data collection allowed for registering program managers’ experiences throughout different phases of programs, projecting a unique and rich pool of empirical data. The thesis is built upon three research papers, each highlighting and addressing a specific issue related to the value creation and management of change programs by program managers. Employing new theoretical approaches and grounded in program managers’ experiences, this thesis suggests novel theoretical insights to project management literature and presents related practical impacts. Digital fulltext is not available

Summary of the thesis Performance measurement and management (PMM) systems are a central element in how organisations are managed. In manufacturing, researchers predict that “Industry 4.0” and associated digital technologies – e.g. cyber-physical systems, big data, and artificial intelligence – will radically change how work is performed and managed. However, the PMM literature does not agree on what effect the deployment of digital technologies will have on PMM systems. On one hand, the increased access to data can be used as augmented intelligence and be an enabler for empowerment. On the other hand, extensive automatisation and use of artificial intelligence can lead to a more command-and-control management style. Following this discussion, this thesis asks how performance measurement systems and performance management practices interact with digital technologies. The results are based on three cases from Norwegian manufacturing organisations, and described in four articles. The data analysis is based on a combination of Smith and Bititci’s (2017) framework for PMM, Bourne et al.’s (2018a) system of systems perspective, and Orlikowski’s (1992) idea of duality of technology. By combining the three theoretical components with the empirical findings, this thesis identifies how interaction between PMM and digital technologies occurs in sub-systems, and how the digital technologies are influenced by and reinforce existing management practice. By viewing the PMM system as a collection of sub-systems that together maintain the balance between command-and-control and empowerment, this study identifies how digital technologies can be implemented and make changes to a sub-system without disturbing the overall balance of the PMM system. One limitation of the thesis is that it is based on cases that all promote an empowering management style. Additional cases oriented toward a command-and-control setting are necessary to confirm the proposition that digital technology can reinforce any sub-systems. To extend our knowledge on how PMM evolves, this thesis argues that future PMM research should stop viewing technology as an external or contingency factor and start asking who is using digital solutions and for what purpose, and how they create changes to the PMM system and practices. Sammendrag av avhandlingen Organisasjonens virksomhetsstyringssystem er et sentralt for hvordan organisasjoner ledelse og styres. I vareproduserende industri, antar enkelte at industri 4.0, og relaterte digitale teknologier som «cyber-physical systems», «big data» og kunstig intelligens, vil radikalt endre både hvordan vi jobber og hvordan vi utfører ledelse. Men innenfor litteraturen som diskuterer virksomhetsstyring er det usikkerhet om hvordan digitale teknologier vil påvirke virksomhetsstyringssystemet. På den ene siden kan økt tilgang på data bli brukt som utvidet intelligens (augmented intelligence), det vil si å tilgjengeliggjøring av data for å gi innsikt, understøtte og forenkle oppgaver som problemløsning og beslutningstaking, og dermed muliggjøre økt selvstyring eller myndiggjøring (empowerment). På den andre siden, kan økt automatisering og bruk av kunstig intelligens føre til mer sentralisering av beslutninger, regelstyrte systemer og en ledelsespraksis som beskrives som "command-and-control". Denne doktorgradsavhandlingen bidrar til i denne diskusjonen, og stiller spørsmål om hvordan organisasjonen virksomhetsstyringssystem og digitale teknologier samhandler. Resultatene i avhandlingen er basert på tre case-studier fra Norsk vareproduserende industri, som er beskrevet i fire artikler. Analysen kombinere Smith and Bititci´s (2017) teoretiske rammeverk for virksomhetsstyring, med Bourne et al. (2018a) sitt perspektiv på virksomhetsstyringssystemet som et system av systemer, og Orlikowski´s (1992) ide om "teknologiens dualitet". Analysen av de tre casene i lys av de tre teoretiske komponentene viser hvordan samhandlingen mellom virksomhetsstyringssystemet og digitale teknologier skjer i sub-systemer, og hvorpå implementeringen av digitale teknologier er påvirket av og forsterker eksisterende ledelsespraksis. Studien identifiserer også hvordan digitale teknologier kan bli implementert i et sub-system uten at det påvirker den overordnet balansen i virksomhetsstyringssystemet. En begrensning i denne studien er at alle casene promoterer høy grad av selvstyring og "empowerment". Det er derfor behov for andre case-studier av organisasjoner som er sentralstyrt og kjennetegnet av "command-and-control" for å kunne bekrefte påstanden om at digitale teknologier vil forsterke eksisterende praksis i sub-systemer. For å kunne videreutvikle forståelsen av hvordan virksomhetsstyringssystemer utvikler seg, argumenterer denne doktorgradsavhandlingen for at vi må endre hvordan vi studerer teknologiens påvirkning. Fra å se på teknologier som en ekstern eller betingende faktor, til å stille spørsmål om hvem som tar digitale løsninger i bruk, til hvilket formål, og hvordan det endrer virksomhetsstyringssystemet og ledelsespraksisen.

Summary of the thesis In the research for this thesis, operations research techniques are applied in power markets and systems to investigate the usage of flexibility under conditions of uncertainty. Economic dispatch models and optimal power flow models are used for designing and analyzing power markets and systems. In the economic dispatch models, economic factors and their relations with power markets are analyzed, while in optimal power flow models, answers to power grid operations for voltage and network congestion are searched. During the research, the first research question addressed was how to determine the flexibility concept, products, and services about various power and energy markets. This led to the development of a theoretical and empirical taxonomy for flexibility trading and related market structures. The second question addressed during the research considered how to use flexibility according to two separate systemic approaches, different tariff designs to exploit flexibility usage for reducing peak pricing, and a stochastic optimal scheduling methodology for end user’s flexibility assets to solve grid problems. The third and final question addressed during the research concerned how it is possible to have a cost-efficient and productive local flexibility market design for grid operations under uncertainty. Answers to the research questions are provided in the four papers that form the basis of this thesis. Paper I explains the taxonomy and provides an overview of flexibility and its products along four dimensions—time, spatiality, resource, and risk profile—according to the market design. Paper II shows how to activate and use flexibility with a dynamic tariff design for peak shaving. Paper III provides solutions to grid problems under uncertainty (i.e., voltage and congestion) by using flexibility from the demand side, storage side, and supply side. Lastly, Paper IV proposes a stochastic local flexibility market design, bidding, and dispatch methodology to contribute grid operations on a local scale. Sammendrag av avhandlingen I forskningen for denne avhandlingen brukes operasjonsforskningsteknikker i kraftmarkeder og systemer for å undersøke bruken av fleksibilitet under forhold med usikkerhet. Økonomiske forsendelsesmodeller og optimale strømflytmodeller brukes til å designe og analysere kraftmarkeder og systemer. I de økonomiske forsendelsesmodellene analyseres økonomiske faktorer og deres relasjoner til kraftmarkeder, mens det i optimale kraftstrømmodeller søkes etter svar på kraftnettdrift for spenning og overbelastning av nett. Under undersøkelsen var det første forskningsspørsmålet som ble tatt opp, hvordan man kan bestemme fleksibilitetskonseptet, produktene og tjenestene om ulike kraft- og energimarkeder. Dette førte til utviklingen av en teoretisk og empirisk taksonomi for fleksibilitetshandel og relaterte markedsstrukturer. Det andre spørsmålet som ble adressert under forskningen vurderte hvordan man kan bruke fleksibilitet i henhold til to separate systemiske tilnærminger, ulike tariffdesign for å utnytte fleksibilitetsbruken for å redusere topprising, og en stokastisk optimal planleggingsmetodikk for sluttbrukerens fleksibilitetsressurser for å løse nettproblemer. Det tredje og siste spørsmålet som ble tatt opp under forskningen handlet om hvordan det er mulig å ha et kostnadseffektivt og produktivt lokalt fleksibilitetsmarkedsdesign for nettdrift under usikkerhet. Svar på forskningsspørsmålene er gitt i de fire paperne som ligger til grunn for denne avhandlingen. Paper I forklarer taksonomien og gir en oversikt over fleksibilitet og dens produkter langs fire dimensjoner – tid, romlighet, ressurs og risikoprofil – i henhold til markedsdesignet. Paper II viser hvordan du aktiverer og bruker fleksibilitet med en dynamisk tariffdesign for toppbarbering. Paper III gir løsninger på nettproblemer under usikkerhet (dvs. spenning og overbelastning) ved å bruke fleksibilitet fra etterspørselssiden, lagringssiden og tilbudssiden. Til slutt foreslår Paper IV en stokastisk lokal fleksibilitetsmarkedsdesign, budgivnings- og utsendelsesmetodikk for å bidra med nettdrift i lokal skala.

This thesis investigates novel market designs and production planning. Its overarching goal is to improve the economic efficiency of electricity markets and support the integration of renewable electricity production. Hence, the thesis considers problems faced by multiple stakeholders, from regulators to individual producers, using a variety of methods, where equilibrium models and stochastic optimization are most prominent. Paper I proposes “flexible electricity bidding zones," an innovative market design that changes zonal configuration according to congestion patterns in the power system. This results in cost savings and a design that is more robust to largescale integration of renewables. Paper II examines oligopolistic wholesale electricity markets. It investigates inverse equilibrium models as a method to investigate market conditions. Paper III demonstrates how complete markets for risk, which allows market participants to hedge both locational and energy price risk, promote efficient investments. Specifically, it shows that extending the contract duration of financial transmission rights lower costs of capital for geographically remote projects, which large-scale renewables usually are. Finally, paper IV considers the cost of neglecting the co-movement between prices and inflows when establishing operational policies in hydro-dominated systems. It demonstrates modest cost savings and provides general insights on behaviors, like how a policy that considers co-movement values future water more.

The thesis consists of four papers investigating the effects of personality traits and food values on food-related choices and behavior. The analysis uses data from the Norwegian Monitor Survey (NMS) and an online survey (OS) conducted in Norway and the US. Both data sets include a twenty-item version of the Big Five personality traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The OS include a bestworst choice experiment with twelve food values: naturalness, safety, environmental impact, origin, fairness, nutrition, taste, appearance, convenience, price, animal welfare, and novelty. In the NMS, a simplified version of the method is used. The overall findings of the thesis can be summarized in four points: (1) Personality traits influence the preference structure for food values. Openness to experience and agreeableness are associated with more altruistic preferences. (2) The effects of personality traits on attitudes towards GM food are neither large nor consistent across products and samples. Food values are more important in determining the attitudes towards GM food. A large part of the resistance towards GM food seems to be based on perceptions that these products are less natural, less fair to stakeholders in the supply chain, more harmful to the environment, and bad for the welfare of animals. (3) Respondents’ food consumption patterns reflect their differences in personalities and food values. More open and agreeable respondents adopt the dietary patterns that they perceive to have lower environmental impacts, fairer towards farmers, processors, and retailers, and protect local production. (4) Food values have larger and more consistent effects on food behavior than personality traits. Avhandlingen omhandler effekter av personlighetsfaktorer og matverdier på matrelatert atferd. Det blir brukt tverrsnittsdata fra Norsk Monitor (NM) i 2015 og fra en internettbasert spørreundersøkelse (IS) som ble gjennomført i 2015 i Norge og USA. En norsk versjon av Femfaktormodellen, som er basert på 20 spørsmål, blir brukt for å måle de fem personlighetsfaktorene åpenhet, planmessighet, ekstroversjon, omgjengelighet og nevrotisisme. De tolv matverdiene som måles er naturlighet, trygghet, miljøpåvirkning, opprinnelse, rettferdighet, ernæring, smak, utseende, enkelhet, pris, dyrevelferd og nyhet. IS kartlegger hvilke matverdier forbrukerne har ut fra «best-worst scaling»-metoden. NM bruker en forenklet utgave av metoden. Det er fire hovedfunn i avhandlingen. (1) Personlighetsfaktorene påvirker preferansestrukturen for matverdier. Åpenhet og omgjengelighet er assosiert med mer altruistiske preferanser. (2) Effektene av personlighetsfaktorene på holdningene til genmodifisert mat er verken store eller konsistente over produkter eller datasett. Matverdiene er viktigere for holdningene til genmodifisert mat. En stor del av motstanden mot genmodifisert mat er tilsynelatende basert på oppfatninger om at disse produktene er mindre naturlige, mindre rettferdige overfor deltakerne i matforsyningskjeden, farligere for miljøet og negative for dyrevelferden. (3) Kostholdsmønstre reflekterer forskjeller i personlighetsfaktorer og matverdier. Åpne og mer omgjengelige respondenter velger kostholdsmønstre som de tror har lavere miljøpåvirkning, er mer rettferdig overfor bønder, matindustri og dagligvarehandel og beskytter lokal matproduksjon. (4) Matverdiene har større og mer konsistente effekter på matrelatert atferd enn personlighetsfaktorene.

Personnel rostering is challenging in multiple ways. Firstly, creating rosters is an inherently complex task from a combinatorial perspective. Secondly, as rosters reflect operations at a ward and affect the lives of staff, many different versions of real-life rostering problems exist. This means modelling, analyzing and implementation of decision-support are also very complicated tasks. This thesis attempts to answer relevant questions related to all these challenges. In the first article a comprehensive framework for robust personnel planning is developed at the Department of Neonatal Intensive Care at St. Olav's Hospital. We firstly perform nurse rostering in a detailed way. When a roster is established, uncertainty is realized through simulation using extensive historical data obtained at the department. We perform daily simulations of the supply of staff and the demand for health care, and perform rerostering to take into account any disruptions from the uncertainty realization. This enables analyses of robust rostering strategies such as strategic overstaffing, implementing shadow shifts to cover absent nurses and trading extra weekend work for time off. The second article deals with physician rostering at the Clinic of Surgery at St. Olav's Hospital. Here, surgeons must work emergency shifts in a cyclic structure, while also ensuring an even and robust staffing level at the sections. The mathematical structure of this problem is novel and difficult to solve, and we develop a matheuristic to produce robust rosters of high quality. The third article presents a generic ward with 24 hour staff demand, where we minimize nurse fatigue. We incorporate a model of human sleep in the Nurse Rostering Problem, and define biological profiles to analyze how rosters should be individualized to minimize fatigue. The approach is theoretical, but insights and a large potential for future research and implementation exists. The fourth article presented is a formalization of the experiences from performing pilot projects of implementing an optimization-based rostering tool. Creating the tool entailed development of a detailed model customized to Maternity Ward West at St. Olav's Hospital in Trondheim. We discuss visions for how the implementation of decision support systems for rostering will affect future work life.

Summary This thesis contributes to data-driven financial studies by arguing for two potential improvements of financial data science over pure financial econometrics. First, this thesis argues for letting a data-driven process guide the selection of model variables in cases of data sets with many observations or many competing variables available. This is addressed in Articles 2 and 3 in this thesis, in applications to corporate finance with focus on company bankruptcy prediction. Second, this thesis argues for evaluating models not solely based on goodness of fit criteria and standard statistical metrics, but also on the real economic implications of their predictions and the stability of their estimated parameter values when these have an economic interpretation. Articles 1 and 3 of this thesis address this in applications to yield curve modeling and company bankruptcy prediction, respectively. For central banks, this thesis makes recommendations on relevant modeling and data choices when fitting parsimonious yield curve models for monetary policy decisions. The recommendations have a particular emphasis on the stability of parameter estimates over time, as these have an intrinsic economic meaning. Further, this thesis shows that feature selection methods improve bankruptcy prediction models commonly used by banks and financial regulators. Moreover, it proposes an improved bankruptcy prediction model for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) compared to the benchmark model employed by the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway. Finally, this thesis documents evidence concerning the benefits of aligning national accounting standards towards IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards). Sammendrag Denne avhandlingen gir et bidrag til datadrevne økonomiske studier ved å argumentere for to mulige forbedringer ved bruk av finansiell datavitenskap fremfor ren finansiell økonometri. For det første argumenterer denne avhandlingen for å benytte en datadrevet prosess ved valg av modellvariabler i tilfeller med mange observasjoner eller mange konkurrerende tilgjengelige variabler. Dette behandles i artikkel 2 og 3 av avhandlingen ved hjelp av praktiske anvendelser av modeller for predikering av selskapers konkurs. For det andre argumenterer denne avhandlingen for å evaluere modeller basert på de virkelige økonomiske implikasjonene av deres prediksjoner og basert på stabiliteten til deres estimerte parameterverdier når disse har en økonomisk tolkning. Dette er et bidrag til eksisterende litteratur siden denne vanligvis evaluerer modeller kun basert på hvor godt de passer data eller basert på standardiserte statistiske målekriterier. Artikkel 1 og 3 i denne avhandlingen behandler dette ved hjelp av praktiske anvendelser innenfor henholdsvis modellering av avkastningskurver og predikering av selskapers konkurs. For sentralbanker gir denne avhandlingen anbefalinger om relevante modelleringsvalg og datavalg ved tilpassing av modeller for avkastningskurver til bruk ved pengepolitiske beslutninger. Anbefalingene har særlig vekt på stabiliteten til estimater av modellers parametere over tid, ettersom disse har en økonomisk tolkning. Videre viser denne avhandlingen at datadrevne metoder for valg av variabler forbedrer modeller som benyttes av banker og finanstilsyn for predikering av selskapers konkurs. I tillegg foreslår avhandlingen en forbedret modell for predikering av konkurs hos små og mellomstore bedrifter (SMB) sammenlignet med den som benyttes av Norges Bank og Finanstilsynet. Til slutt dokumenterer denne avhandlingen fordelene ved å tilpasse nasjonale regnskapsstandarder til IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards).

Financial data science has experienced rapid developments in recent years with the expansion of ever-growing data at an exponential rate. The proponents of data science argue that data science techniques will dominate and improve many domains of science in the next decades. However, several critics and concerns remain about its widespread adoption in the financial field due to the absence of transparency and explainability in the current generation of data science techniques. For instance, researchers’ limited access to valuable data restrict the scientific developments and their benefits to both the academic community and industries. Additionally, while some state-of-the-art data science techniques, such as deep neural networks, have high prediction accuracy, they have been criticized for being black box methods that allow limited transparency into the decision process. This thesis contributes to increasing transparency and explainability in financial data science by solving three types of research problems in energy and financial credit markets. First, my results shed more transparency on the intraday electricity trading by showing the impact of renewable energies on trader’s strategies. In particular, I focus on the impact of wind and photovoltaic infeed on intraday electricity pricing. This study is particularly relevant to increasing transparency in intraday trading, since updates in weather forecasting errors are typically unavailable to researchers. Second, I employ state-of-the-art deep neural networks to price day-ahead electricity related to market coupling and use a post-hoc explainability technique to interpret prediction results. Third, I propose a data-driven explainable case-based reasoning method to predict financial credit risk, and show the relevance of its explainability in prediction results. For intraday market traders, this thesis sheds light on how updated forecasts of renewable energies influence traders‘ behavior in the intraday trading. Moreover, it benefits intraday traders by proposing ways to model renewable energies forecasts that will further enhance existing econometric models for intraday electricity prices. Further, this thesis provides an efficient hybrid deep neural networks framework to predict day-ahead electricity prices under the consideration of market coupling for day-ahead electricity market participants. A post-hoc explainability technique is used to interpret the importance of the feature inputs, demand/supply variables, which offers more information and knowledge for cross-border market regulators and traders to move towards an integrated electricity market in Europe. Last, this thesis shows that financial institutions can benefit from the explainable case-based reasoning system to better serve their customers and reduce financial risk, in line with regulatory requirements. Compared with other machine learning methods, the proposed method provides superior prediction results of financial risk and has a major relevance to the decision-making. This allows banks and other financial institutions to not only correctly map the probability of default for any borrower, but also to explain the underlying reason for default. In addition, results are highly relevant to borrowers, as it provides suggestions on how to improve their financial status to obtain new credit.

SUMMARY Transport choices represent a classic example of individual decisions being made without fully accounting for wider effects on society. This disparity between the costs carried by individuals and by society, namely negative externalities, represents a welfare loss for society as a whole. A common approach to internalising these externalities is through taxes and regulations. In this thesis, which consists of three independent essays, I aim to empirically identify the causal effects of different policies on transport related outcomes. In the first essay, I investigate how the national policy of electric vehicles exemption from urban toll charges effects the prices in local urban toll rings. Using panel data of Norwegian cities with toll rings, I exploit regional variation in an instrument variable approach and demonstrate that toll charges increase as the share of electric vehicles increase. The result implies that owners of conventional cars pay more per passing because of the national electric vehicle policy. The second essay, co-authored with Colin Green, studies the relationship between bar closing hours and night-time traffic accidents over a ten year period in Norway. Municipalities are free to choose bar closing hours between midnight and 3am. We utilise this variation and find that, on average, the effects of closing hour on traffic accidents is zero. However, this result masks large variations in effects that depend on population density and direction of change in closing hours. Our results demonstrate that closing hours can generate large effects on traffic accidents. In the third essay, I investigate how the annual studded tyre ban in Norway affects both traffic accidents and particulate matter pollution levels. The objective is to assess overall the societal costs of reducing the use of studded. I find that, although there is evidence that studded tyres increase traffic safety, the costs of increased pollution are substantially greater. This suggests a role for policy aimed at decreasing the use of studded tires or increased charges related to their use. SAMMENDRAG Individers transportavgjørelser er klassiske eksempler på at valg tas uten å ta fullt hensyn til effektene det kan ha på samfunnet. Denne forskjellen mellom kostnader for individet og samfunnet, betegnet som negative eksternaliteter, representerer et velferdstap for samfunnet som helhet. En vanlig fremgangsmåte for å internalisere disse eksternalitetene er å innføre beskatning og reguleringer. I denne avhandlingen, som består av tre uavhengige artikler, søker jeg å empirisk identifisere kausale effekter av politiske tiltak på transportrelaterte utfall. I den første artikkelen undersøker jeg hvordan den nasjonale elbilpolitikken, hvor elbiler er unntatt bompenger, påvirker prisene i bomringer. Ved å benytte meg av paneldata over norske byer med bomringer, utnytter jeg regional variasjon i en instrumentvariabel-analyse og demonstrerer at prisene i bomringer øker i takt med andelen elbiler. Resultatene impliserer at eiere av konvensjonelle biler betaler mer for hver passering på grunn av den nasjonale elbilpolitikken. I den andre artikkelen, som er skrevet sammen med Colin Green, studerer vi forholdet mellom utsteders åpningstid og trafikkulykker på nattestid over en tiårsperiode i Norge. Kommuner kan selv bestemme skjenketider mellom midnatt og klokken tre på natta. Ved å utnytte denne variasjonen finner vi at i effekten av skjenketider på trafikkulykker i gjennomsnitt er null, men bak dette resultatet ligger det store variasjoner. Vi finner at effekten av skjenketid på trafikkulykker kan være stor, men at den avhenger av blant annet kommunens befolkningstetthet og om skjenketiden utvides eller innskrenkes. I den tredje artikkelen undersøker jeg hvordan det årlige piggdekkforbudet påvirker både trafikkulykker og partikkelforurensning. Målet er å vurdere den samlede samfunnskostnaden ved redusert bruk av piggdekk. Jeg finner antydninger til at piggdekk øker trafikksikkerheten, men kostnaden i form av økt forurensning er langt høyere. Dette åpner for en politikkendring med sikte på å øke brukerkostnaden eller innskrenke perioden piggdekk er tillatt.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, unusual consumer behavior, such as hoarding toilet paper, was reported globally. We investigated this behavior when fears of consumer market disruptions started circulating, to capture human behavior in this unique situation. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework, we propose a structural model connecting exposure to online information sources (environmental stimuli) to two behavioral responses: unusual purchases and voluntary self-isolation. To test the proposed model, we collected data from 211 Finnish respondents via an online survey, and carried out analysis using PLS-SEM. We found a strong link between self-intention to self-isolate and intention to make unusual purchases, providing empirical evidence that the reported consumer behavior was directly linked to anticipated time spent in self-isolation. The results further revealed exposure to online information sources led to increased information overload and cyberchondria. Information overload was also a strong predictor of cyberchondria. Perceived severity of the situation and cyberchondria had significant impacts on people's intention to make unusual purchases and voluntarily self-isolate. Future research is needed to confirm the long-term effects of the pandemic on consumer and retail services., Highlights • We investigate people's purchase and isolation behavior during the COVID19 pandemic. • Information source exposure leads to information overload (IO) and cyberchondria. • IO had a negative effect on perceived severity, whereas cyberchondria had a positive impact. • Perceived severity (PS) positively affected intentions to self-isolate and unusual purchases. • Purchase self-efficacy reinforces the influence of PS on unusual purchases.

Peripheral regions, like others, require a sustained flow of global knowledge to stimulate innovation and economic growth. Unfortunately, the dearth of innovative firms in these regions hampers foreign knowledge attraction. Nevertheless, academics are recognized as potential agents to perform such a role considering their embeddedness in diverse collaboration ties. As feasible as this may seem, prior research has not thoroughly examined this proposition. This paper, therefore, investigates how the collaboration activities of bridging academics facilitate the flow of knowledge to peripheral regions. Employing a case study of academics in a peripheral region in the Netherlands, it also identifies the mechanisms enhancing knowledge flows. The findings indicate academics tend to have more collaborations with partners in academia and industry than other sectors. Additionally, they use various pathways to establish cooperation relations. Lastly, the mobility of researchers and collaborative projects constitute the widely used channels for knowledge transfer. The implications of these findings for universities and policy-makers include the need to devote particular attention to cooperation ties of faculty; and the assessment of the knowledge needs of organizations in a region and connecting them with academics with the right expertise.

© American Marketing Association 2018. The article studies interfirm governance in the context of supplier–reseller relationships. Using a longitudinal study, the authors examine the roles of supplier selection efforts and mutual specific investments with respect to (1) motivating a supplier to make incremental investments and (2) safeguarding these investments from supplier ex post transaction costs. The authors also examine the joint effects of selection efforts and mutual investments on supplier ex post transaction costs. From a practical standpoint, the findings suggest guidelines for channel strategy. Theoretically, they provide new insights into relationship dynamics, including evidence regarding the effects of a firm’s governance choices over time.

In several countries, maintaining the population of fisheries dependent communities are of major importance in the fisheries governance system. However, most studies investigating the relationship between fisheries and communities have a qualitative focus on the impact of fisheries policies on the communities. We have access to data on population and key employment indicators of every Norwegian municipality in addition to fisheries catch, landings and employment. These data allow us to study the effect of fisheries on population growth in fisheries dependent municipalities relative to all other municipalities. The data are analyzed using a multi-level approach integrating micro- and macrodata. The results indicate that general trends have a stronger influence on population growth than fisheries activities, implying that measures for increased fisheries landings are poor tools to support population growth.

There are many aspects of organizational life that have the potential to influence the development paths of small international firms. This dissertation aims to provide insight into what role general managers play in such firms. Managers can be considered important, not because they are superhuman, but precisely because they are not. Due to their exposure to the same limitations as you and I, they make mistakes – sometimes fatal ones for their firms, but together with their organizations, they also develop wonderfully creative and meaningful solutions to pressing problems. The objective of this thesis is to attempt to answer the question: What is the role of managers in international small business? Small- and medium-sized firms are venturing abroad to a greater extent than ever, and the added uncertainty of the foreign context increases the strain on managers’ already pressed decision frames. This pressure opens up for more of managers’ idiosyncratic selves to enter the decision making process. As such, general managers can be said to be important in small- and medium-sized firms – for good and bad, due to their relatively strong influence in strategic decision-making. In attempting to answer the main research question, this dissertation consists of four studies. In the first paper, I perform a literature review investigating over two decades of research in order to answer the question: What is the current state of knowledge on the role of managers in international small business? With the objective of structuring the findings in the literature, I develop a conceptual framework, which I build on further in this cover essay. To summarize the known effects of managers in the internationalization processes of small firms, I explain how findings from the literature reveal that studies of managerial cognition and behavior are lacking. I propose an agenda for future research to fill the identified gaps. In the second paper, we sought to answer the research question: How do top management team-composition (size, diversity and experience) co-vary with other characteristics of SMEs, specifically their strategic orientations (international, learning and growth) and international performance? By performing a cluster analysis based on key managerial characteristics, we identified three firm groupings with distinct levels of strategic orientations and international performance. We called them: Born and Stuck Nordics, Agile Exporters, and Established Internationals. We outlined three propositions for future research to explore in order to obtain richer knowledge about the relationships between managerial characteristics and firm outcomes. The third paper’s objective was to uncover: How are managerial aspirations aimed at either growth or international expansion, and managers’ perceived change effectiveness, connected to positive and negative organizational consequences? And are management teams’ experience and diversity related to the aspirations initially developed? In this study, we built a complex research model to investigate several aspects of the growth processes in firms. Results showed that the differentiation of aspirations according to the level of organizational change they demanded made sense, and that managers could be both the cause and cure of employee frustration. The latter signals an important implication for practitioners in real-life business. In essence, our findings strongly confirmed that managers’ experience, aspirations and perceptions mattered when examining firm-level growth processes. The fourth paper aimed at identifying: How do managers influence firms’ strategic sustainability efforts, and to which degree are firms’ sustainability strategies associated with performance? Based on a unique research opportunity, we took a more operational approach by investigating specific managerial measures in a particular setting. Using strategy as a bridge, we linked individual-level motivation and leadership behavior to firm-level outcomes relating to sustainability. Our study provides a unique picture of some of the ways leaders can contribute to their firms’ sustainability strategies and, ultimately, to the performance of their firms. In analyzing these four contributions collectively, I utilized the conceptual framework developed in this cover essay. My central scientific contribution in this dissertation is that managers matter in international small business due to their: 1) managerial human capital – what they know, 2) managerial cognition – who they are, 3) managerial behavior – how they act, 4) managerial history and context – what they can do, and 5) managerial discretion – what they are willing to do. Further, based on the theoretical groundwork that forms the foundation for this treatise, recent literature within the field of small international business, and my own findings, I have developed a theoretical contribution that I identify as a movement toward a behavioral theory of the growth of small international firms. Finally, I place these findings in a practical context by highlighting the implications for managers and policy makers. SAMMENDRAG Det er flere aspekter ved organisasjonslivet som kan påvirke utviklingen av små og mellomstore, internasjonale bedrifter. Denne doktorgradsavhandlingens formål er å gi innsikt i hvilken rolle daglig ledere spiller i slike bedrifters utvikling. Ledere kan anses som viktige, ikke fordi de er supermennesker, men nettopp fordi de ikke er det. På grunn av at ledere står overfor de samme kognitive begrensningene som du og jeg – gjør de feil, noen ganger fatale feil for sine bedrifter. Men sammen med sine organisasjoner utvikler de også vidunderlig kreative, og meningsfylte løsninger på viktige problemer. Med denne avhandlingen forsøkes det å gi et svar på det overordnede forskningsspørsmålet: Hva er lederes rolle i internasjonale små bedrifter? Små og mellomstore bedrifter går internasjonalt i større grad enn noen gang tidligere, og den økte usikkerheten som følge av en fremmed og ukjent kontekst øker også presset på lederes beslutningsrammer. Dette presset åpner opp for at mer av lederens unike selv inkluderes i beslutningsprosessen. På grunn av at deres påvirkning i strategiske beslutningsprosesser kan ledere sies å være viktige for små og mellomstore bedrifter – på godt og vondt. For å kunne svare på det overordnede forskningsspørsmålet består denne avhandlingen av fire studier. I den første artikkelen gjennomfører jeg en litteraturanalyse som tar for seg over to tiår med forskning for å kunne besvare spørsmålet: Hva er nåværende status knyttet til vår kunnskap om lederes rolle i internasjonale små bedrifter? Med mål om å strukturere funnene i litteraturen utvikler jeg en konseptuell modell, som jeg bygger videre på i avhandlingens kappe. Litteraturanalysen peker på at empiriske studier knyttet til lederes kognisjon og atferd mangler, og jeg foreslår en agenda for hvordan fremtidig forskning kan forsøke å fylle disse kunnskapshullene. I artikkel nummer to søker vi å besvare forskningsspørsmålet: Hvordan varierer toppledelsens team-sammensetning (størrelse, mangfold og erfaring) med små og mellomstore bedrifters andre karaktertrekk, spesifikt deres strategiske orientering (internasjonal, vekst og læring), samt deres internasjonale resultat? Ved å gjennomføre en klyngeanalyse basert på nøkkelkarakteristikker ved ledelsen identifiserte vi tre grupperinger med særegne nivå av strategisk orientering og internasjonale resultater. Vi kalte disse gruppene: De fastlåste Nordiske, De fleksible eksportørene og De etablerte internasjonale aktørene. Vi skisserte tre proposisjoner for hvordan fremtidig forskning kan tilegne seg rikere kunnskap knyttet til forholdene mellom karakteristikker ved ledelsen og bedriftsprestasjoner. Vår tredje artikkels formål var å studere: Hvordan er lederes ambisjoner knyttet til enten vekst eller internasjonal ekspansjon, og lederes opplevde endringseffektivitet, relatert til positive og negative organisatoriske konsekvenser? Og kan lederes erfaring og mangfold knyttes til ambisjonene i utgangspunktet? I denne studien bygde vi en kompleks forskningsmodell for å undersøke flere aspekter ved bedrifters vekstprosesser. Resultatene viste at differensiering av ambisjoner i henhold til nivået på organisasjonsendring de krevde, var fornuftig, og at ledere kunne være både årsaken til og kuren for ansattes frustrasjon. Sistnevnte signaliserer viktige implikasjoner for det praktiske arbeidsliv. I hovedsak bekreftet funnene våre at ledernes opplevde effektivitet, deres ambisjoner og erfaring var viktig for vekstprosesser på firmanivå. Med den fjerde artikkelen ønsket vi å identifisere: Hvordan påvirker ledere sine selskapers strategiske bærekraftige satsninger, og i hvilken grad er bedrifters bærekraftige strategier forbundet med bedriftsresultater? Basert på en unik forskningsmulighet tok vi en mer operasjonell tilnærming som brobygger, knyttet vi sammen motivasjon og ledelsesstil på individ-nivå med bærekraftige resultater på bedriftsnivå. Vår studie gir et unikt bilde av noen av måtene ledere kan bidra til sine selskapers bærekraftige satsninger, og til syvende og sist, til bedriftenes resultater. For å analysere mine fire artikkelbidrag samlet, benyttet jeg med av det konseptuelle rammeverket skissert i den første artikkelen, og videreutviklet dette i kappa. Mitt sentrale vitenskapelige bidrag er at ledere er viktige for små og mellomstore bedrifter på grunn av: 1) lederes humankapital – hva de vet, 2) lederes kognisjon – hvem de er, 3) lederes adferd – hvordan de handler, 4) ledelsens historie og kontekst – hva de kan gjøre, og 5) lederes handlekraft – hva de vil gjøre. Videre, basert på det teoretiske grunnarbeidet som danner utgangspunktet for denne avhandlingen, litteratur innen forskningsfeltet på små og mellomstore internasjonale bedrifter, samt egne funn, utvikler jeg et teoretisk bidrag jeg kaller: mot en atferdsteori knyttet til vekst i små internasjonale bedrifter. Avslutningsvis plasserer jeg mine funn i en praktisk kontekst ved å fremheve spesifikke virkninger for ledelse og myndigheter.

The issue of energy access remains a concern in most countries, especially developing ones. This study aims to contribute to the demand dynamics of energy access by determining the willingness to pay and the factors affecting the willingness to pay for solar home systems (SHSs) among households living in off-grid areas in Kilifi County, Coastal Kenya. In the study I undertake a contingent valuation study that sees me collect data from 200 households. The study evaluates the willingness to pay for three different sizes of solar home systems by use of a payment card. The mean WTP is estimated using the payment card values, the interval midpoints and the unconditional interval regression. The mean WTP for system one, the smallest system, is KSh 793, Ksh 1155 and Ksh 1153 using the PC values, interval midpoint and unconditional interval regression, respectively. The mean WTP for system two, the medium system, is KSh 1228, Ksh 1658 and Ksh 1643 using the PC values, interval midpoint and unconditional interval regression, respectively. Finally, for system three, the largest system, the mean WTP is, KSh 1283, Ksh 1708 and Ksh 1706 using the PC values, interval midpoint and unconditional interval regression, respectively. Notably, households were willing to pay 7.84% of their income to pay for system 1, 11.25% for system 2 and 11.6% for system 3. I also estimate different regression models, namely, OLS, interval regression, tobit and logit models from the data. The income elasticity of WTP is observed to be increasing from the smallest and cheapest system to the more expensive systems, system two and three. When analysing the determinants of WTP levels, sex, income, and happiness are statistically significant for system one. Female headed households have a higher WTP for system one. Happiness shows a negative relationship with the WTP levels for system one. Income is the only statistically significant variable for system two whereas income and number of children are statistically significant for system three. There is a negative relationship between the number of children and WTP levels for system three. In all models, income has a positive significant relationship with WTP for system two and system three, and in most models for the smallest and cheapest system, system one. This conforms to economic theory. This study has itself captured the private benefits of SHSs in terms of the WTP levels of households, based on their income levels and income distribution. However, to determine if the government should offer subsidies to support the uptake of SHS in Kilifi County, a Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) would need to be performed to compare the social benefits of SHSs, including external benefits, to the costs of SHSs. M-ECON

This thesis consists of three papers that aim to increase our understanding of how divergent changes to organizational structures and management systems in hospitals may be handled by leaders and employees in order to achieve outcomes that contribute towards organizational goals of service quality improvement. Reforms, new policies and the continuous large- and/or small-scale changes aiming for service quality improvement that they manifest in within hospital organizations have been identified as a move away from professional dominance and autonomy, and a move towards a health care system where managerial and market logics are influential. These changes have challenged the organizing principles of professional power in decisions regarding hospital organizational structures and management systems, and professional services are increasingly subject to organizational reform, budgetary control and managerial supervision. Organizational changes that break with existing institutions in a field of activity are defined as divergent. Despite decades of managerial logic initiatives, health care organizations are still heavily influenced by the professional logic. Introducing changes that are based in a managerial or market logic into the work of health service professionals could therefore be considered as divergent, and potentially conflictual, organizational change which would be met with resistance rather than readiness for change and willing participation. We know from previous research that quality improvement initiatives in hospitals very often fail to produce the intended results. We also know that involving health care professionals in processes aimed at improving hospital services is widely considered as a critical factor for achieving goals of quality improvement. However, the most widely documented reaction to divergent change from clinical staff is resistance or active opposition to new arrangements, and this is often identified as the reason for failure in achieving the improvements that change projects aim for. There are few studies of successful outcomes of divergent changes in health care organizations. There are also few empirical studies of professional engagement in such organizational change efforts. This means that there is an identified need for studies that shed light on how successful outcomes occur in a variety of contexts and related to a variety of different types of changes, as well as for more in-depth research on how divergent changes may be handled by hospital leaders and employees in order to achieve outcomes that contribute towards organizational goals of service quality improvement. This thesis raises the two following research questions: How are frequent organizational changes in hospitals and middle manager change-oriented leadership related to organizational and employee outcomes relevant to hospital service quality? How can hospital leaders and employees contribute to processes of implementing divergent changes to organizational structures and management systems in order to achieve outcomes that contribute towards organizational goals of service quality improvement? The first question is answered by Paper 1, titled “Changing to improve? Organizational change and change oriented leadership in hospitals.” The second question is answered by Papers 2 and 3, and an overall discussion of the findings from all three papers.

Norway has approximately 900 public, private, and leisure swimming facilities used for swimming education, recreation, and sports. Chlorine is the most common disinfectant used in swimming pool water to prevent the growth of microorganisms. However, while maintaining the chlorine concentration in a pool, continuous reactions between chlorine and organic and inorganic materials take place, which leads to the formation of inorganic chloramines and other disinfection by-products (DBPs) such as trihalomethanes (THM). The only group of DBPs which is controlled in Norwegian swimming pool waters is inorganic chloramines, often referred to as combined chlorine. To mitigate the water concentration of combined chlorine, UV treatment is often used as a secondary disinfectant in addition to chlorine. However, the results of some studies suggest that UV treatment increases chlorine reactivity and the formation of chlorinated DBPs in pool water. An increased prevalence of asthma and other respiratory irritations has been found among users who visit swimming pools on a regular basis. These health effects are most often linked to long-term exposure to a volatile inorganic chloramine, trichloramine (NCl3). In 2019, the Nordic Expert Group proposed an occupational health-based limit value for air exposure to NCl3 of 0.2 mg/m3 (stationary air samples). Another important group of DBPs is the trihalomethanes (THM), as represented by the four components chloroform (CHCl3), bromoform (CHBr3), bromodichloromethane (CHBrCl2), and dibromochloromethane (CHBr2Cl). The four components are referred to together as total THM (tTHM), and all are formed in the pool water when chlorine reacts with natural organic matter. The tTHM are volatile and can penetrate the skin easily, making both inhalation and dermal absorption important pathways of exposure. Long-term health effects, such as adverse reproductive outcomes, cancer, and stillbirth, have been associated with exposure to tTHM. As of today, no limit value for exposure to these compounds exists in Norway, and the determinants causing the exposure concentrations to vary over time have not received much attention. The main purpose of this Ph.D. thesis is to identify strategies to assess and manage air exposure in indoor swimming pool facilities and to estimate the prevalence of health effects amongst the most exposed swimmers in Norway. The method of repeated measures was used to quantify the within and between variability of different predictor variables on air concentrations of tTHM and identify the most important determinants for exposure assessment. The method of repeated measures was also used to assess how strategies for air and water quality determine the variability observed in the air concentration of CHCl3. An exploratory study was conducted to study how the use of UV treatment in pool water affects the overall air concentrations of tTHM and NCl3 and the covariation between these two exposure variables. Monitoring components in the air, such as tTHM and NCl3 is time-consuming, expensive, and requires skilled personnel. While carbon dioxide (CO2) sensors are used for controlling air quality in different buildings and can be installed in ventilation systems for continuous monitoring purposes, such sensors are not used in indoor swimming facilities. Also, the strategies for air and water treatment are more or less static and do not correspond to the dynamic bather load observed in swimming pools. The concentration of CO2 was measured to evaluate whether this component could be used to predict the number of occupants as well as the concentrations of tTHM and NCl3 in the air. In addition, the prevalence of health effects was studied amongst the most exposed swimmers in Norway. For normally distributed data for which information was collected repeatedly over time, a mixed effect model was applied to analyse the results. This tool enables the within and between variance components in air concentrations to be estimated while adjusting for fixed and random effects. As a result, we can identify which determinants are affecting the variance components. Multiple logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) for health effects. The statistical analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 25 and Statistics and Data (STATA) MP 15. One main conclusion of this thesis is that the air concentrations vary extensively, both in terms of different times of the day and days of the week. To collect representative samples, it was necessary to monitor concentrations during different exposure scenarios; otherwise, our exposure estimates could have been no more valid than random guesses. In cases where repeated samples were collected, methods accounting for the dependency between the repeated observations were used, as a correlation between the repeated samples collected of tTHM and NCl3 was found. Even when the water quality is within the required limit values, the air concentration of NCl3 and tTHM may vary extensively, with the concentration of NCl3 possibly exceeding the concentrations proposed by the Nordic Expert Group (0.2 mg/m3). The results also showed that when the water concentration of combined chlorine increases, the air concentration of tTHM also increases. Furthermore, when the concentration of free chlorine decreases, the air concentration of NCl3 decreases. Therefore, a recommendation is that the concentrations of free and combined chlorine should be kept well below their upper acceptable limit values. The results suggest that the use of any UV treatment should be carefully evaluated, as using such a treatment may increase the overall air exposure to tTHM. Rather, other methods for reducing the concentration of combined chlorine in the water should be implemented. As the air quality is highly dependent on the water quality, air and water quality should be treated as one system in which the air supply is controlled based on bather load and water concentrations of combined chlorine. Both tTHM and NCl3 should be monitored regularly in the air, and limit values for these components should be implemented. Considering that the concentration of CO2 significantly correlates with occupancy and NCl3, CO2 sensors can be used to create a more dynamic air supply, on that corresponds to the need of the users in the poolroom and, at the same time, reduces the variability observed in the air concentrations of NCl3 and tTHM. The prevalence of health problems is greatest amongst the most exposed swimmers in poolrooms. Facilities hosting swimmers spending more than 16 hours in the water every week should have stricter requirements for pool water management and air quality than other facilities. Through this thesis work, six research questions have been answered and new knowledge was created.

Trade secrets are secrets with commercial value that are delimited and managed. They may concern technology, business strategy, customer data and any information of value to a business that is intentionally concealed. Recently the EU, Norway and the USA amended the legal framework for trade secrets. The changes concern how trade secrets can be objects for licencing and knowledge-sharing, as parts of collaborations and open innovation. Trade secrets need management from their creation to their end. The management needs are different from those for other intellectual property that can be published. When trade secrets are part of the knowledge flow in collaborations and open innovation, there is a need for managers to balance openness and secrecy. This thesis, with five papers, research that balance and how trade secrets are managed. The first three papers discuss openness and access to research results from collaborative projects between universities and industry. The studies build on the analysis of the contractual agreements in 483 research projects. The results comprise a framework that can help unravel the complicated contractual provisions and their interrelationships, as well as new perspectives on lead time advantages. The fourth paper investigates how SMEs use trade secrets to create competitive advantages from knowledge exchange and open innovation. This paper builds on survey data from 3871 Norwegian SMEs with a novel set of questions that include differentiation between establishing and using trade secrets. The paper also proposes how to set a baseline for future studies on the effect of the new legislation. The fifth paper concerns teaching and learning trade secret management. The threshold concepts framework is an educational lens well suited for teaching subjects that are transformative and troublesome, as trade secret management is. Trade secrets are part of the broader concept of appropriation mechanism. For researchers, it is crucial to understand better the shift from trade secrets for keeping knowledge secluded, to trade secrets used for knowledge transfer in open innovation. There is then no dichotomy of openness and secrecy. There is a process of knowledge appropriation where trade secrets blend with other mechanisms for the management of innovation.

This thesis applies operations research methods to planning problems related to the plugging and abandoning of offshore oil and gas wells. We consider two problem settings, for which we develop new models and solution approaches. The first problem is on a tactical planning level and considers the optimal planning of a plugging campaign. The problem is defined as a variant of an uncapacitated vehicle routing problem with time-windows and is being treated in the first three papers in this thesis. We focus on different aspects, ranging from the application of different model formulations and solution methods, to obtaining more economically oriented insights. A main finding is that significant cost-savings can be made by using the developed methodology for planning plugging campaigns, as opposed to conventional methods. In addition, we contribute to the vehicle routing literature by developing a methodology that allows for incorporating a learning effect. That is, the time it takes to perform a particular operation reduces as similar operations have been performed before. The second problem considers the strategic problem of developing a mature offshore oil field, and is treated in the fourth paper. We develop a multistage stochastic integer program and solve it using the stochastic dual dynamic integer programming algorithm (SDDiP). The problem can be considered to represent a portfolio of real options, incorporating both shutdown and expansion options. We show that the SDDiP algorithm is very suitable for solving complex real options problem. This enables us to perform an extensive analysis on factors affecting the abandonment decision. We show that traditional real options findings for single options might behave differently when considered in portfolios.

The dispute settlement mechanism (DSM) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) can best be described as a referee in a boxing match between two opponents from two different countries. Each has his own tricks and strategies, but without a referee the match would be unfair and unregulated. While this undeniably reflects its performance, the program is far from flawless and has received scrutiny from inside and outside the ranks of its users. This paper presents an analysis of more than 20 years of the WTO DSM, with emphasis on issues if developing counties can use the DSM as indicator for their continuous participation in the WTO. The questions analysed include: Who are the Member States that use the WTO DSS? Is it used equally by developed, developing and least-developed countries? Are developing countries more likely to resolve disputes than wealthy ones? Is there a correlation between the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or GDP per capita of WTO members and the extent to which they are using the system? What is the extent to which Member States comply with the DSB 's binding recommendations? Who are the members who do, and who are the ones who do not? How long do the DSM procedures take on average, from the consultation request to the adoption of recommendations? M-ECON

This Ph.D. thesis discusses the real investment in the manufacturing industry in Norway and the firms’ decision-making-process from three different perspectives. I show, using a novel approach, that firms, and particularly small firms, in the manufacturing industry do, to a lesser degree, use standard methods to shed light on their investment decision. Analyzing a business survey with panel data methods, I find that it is access to credit and demand expectations that are the most critical factors in explaining changes in investment plans. Lastly, the last chapter of this thesis suggests a model for aggregate investments in the manufacturing industry can. Based on the findings of the first chapters of this thesis, I suggest a way to expand the classic investment Euler equation such that it includes financial conditions and the cost of external financing. The investment Euler equation is estimated empirically using standard time series methods, and the estimated equation can forecast the decline in investments during the financial crisis. digital fulltext is not avialable

Universities are increasingly expected to provide contributions to regional innovation and economic development processes. Despite much work on how universities can contribute to regional growth processes, there is much less consideration about why universities might choose to engage in regional development. Even though they may receive public funding, universities have no specific duty to engage, and together with recent pressures to internationalize, university regional engagement activities face tensions from these delocalization pressures. This special issue explores four ways in which universities negotiate these tensions in ensuring that their globally focused knowledge creation activities supports local innovation. First, universities can contribute to labour market upskilling, but where there are substantive problems associated with the absorption of those graduates on both the supply and demand sides, there be mismatch and even graduate underemployment. Second, world-class academics may contribute to host regions’ innovation networks, but this depends on local industries’ research and development geography, on individual academics’ motivations as well as highly skilled researchers’ willingness to stay in one region. Third, universities can steer and support academics towards regional engagement, but they risk engagement activities being exclusively oriented towards what high-level strategic actors believe to be important. Finally, universities can raise the quality of regional innovation strategy processes and create collective innovation assets, but are reliant upon grass-roots-change agents that might not necessarily be visible to strategic managers. A better understanding of these four tensions is necessary to deliver practical improvements to university contributions to smart, social and sustainable regional development.

The 2019 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research has been awarded to Professor Boyan Jovanovic at New York University in the USA. Boyan Jovanovic has developed pioneering research that advances our understanding of the competitive dynamics between incumbent firms and new entrants, entrepreneurial learning and selection processes, and the importance of entrepreneurship for the economy. Key perspectives in his research are that the entrepreneur makes employment choices based on the comparative advantage of his or her skills and that entrepreneurial firms are vehicles of technological change and knowledge diffusion that influence industry dynamics and, in turn, economic growth. Funding Agencies|Blekinge Institute of Technology

Master's thesis in Industrial economics Bygg- og anleggsbransjen har lenge vært preget av et redusert digitaliseringsfokus sammenlignet med andre bransjer. Likevel har flere aktører fått øynene opp for de potensielle positive konsekvensene en kan oppleve av å innføre digitale styringssystemer, herunder løsninger, metodikker og teknologier. Med et stort potensial og få aktører med et bevisst fokus på digitalisering kan organisasjoner innen bygg og anlegg som gjør nettopp dette oppleve økt konkurransekraft. Oppgaven har som hensikt å evaluere hvordan konkurransekraften til Norconsult kan styrkes gjennom overgang til digitale styringssystemer. Den vil analysere og diskutere betydningen av følgende tre sentrale elementer når det kommer til en digital overgang og omstilling: organisasjonskultur, topp- og mellomledelse samt eksternt samarbeid. På bakgrunn av syv semistrukturerte intervjuer viser resultatene viktigheten og betydningen av de tre elementene. Intervjuobjektene er samstemte om at samtlige er avgjørende for å legge til rette for omstilling i organisasjonen. Videre uttrykker informantene et delt syn på hvor godt Norconsult fokuserer på de tre elementene den dag i dag, og det avdekkes dermed et forbedringspotensial for virksomheten. I diskusjonen kommer det frem at det er særlig kommunikasjon som står sentralt i arbeidet for å lykkes på de nevnte tre elementer. Med god kommunikasjon kan topp- og mellomledelsen utspille sin rolle som tilretteleggere for omstilling. Dette innebærer å etablere en egnet organisasjonskultur og å få mest mulig ut av eksternt samarbeid. Forskningen avdekker dermed at topp- og mellomledelsen, sammen med god og effektiv kommunikasjon, er avgjørende for at Norconsult skal øke sin konkurransekraft gjennom overgang til digitale styringssystemer.

Master's thesis in Industrial economics In today's accelerating environment, many industries have effectively used digitalization to attain control. However, digital best-practices and digital maturity vary within and across industries. After a period of financial turmoil, it has become evident that the oil and gas industry needs to undertake transformations. Utilizing digitalization, the industry has the opportunity to reshape and continue to provide value to its stakeholders. The objective of this thesis is to investigate the current state of digitalization in the O\&G sector, through a case study of Equinor, a grand Norwegian O\&G company, to ultimately suggest efforts of improvements. The thesis identifies nine guidelines for effective digitalization implementation. The guidelines are presented with relevant theory, analysis, and recommendations, respectively. The thesis builds on the assumption that Equinor, and the industry at large, has great opportunities to unlock large values by improving their current digitalization strategy. To answer the objective of this thesis, two fundamental research questions were formulated: RQ1: What is Equinor's current digitalization strategy? RQ2: What efforts can be made to improve Equinor's current digitalization strategy? This qualitative study answers the research questions by utilizing a semi-structured interview framework, measuring the state of the nine guidelines identified in the literature study. The findings are relatively unambiguous and indicate that Equinor is doing well compared to a lagging industry, but have growth opportunities both strategically and when it comes to administrative digitalization. Efforts to improve the current digitalization strategy were derived by analyzing the interview transcripts in relation to relevant literature. The analysis highlighted multiple root causes to Equinor’s digitalization problems. Four, out of five, root causes originates from the current digitalization strategy and the analysis suggested these respective improvements: Firstly, to tackle the current digitalization ambiguity, the meaning and impact of digitalization should be clearly stated. Secondly, insufficient collaboration can be solved by breaking up silos and creating circular collaborative ecosystems, with a focus on continuous and transparent data sharing. Thirdly, the developing digitalization governance can be accelerated by focusing on competencies like exploitativeness, project continuity, and transparency -- to spread best-practice throughout the company. Finally, a clear and sustainable overarching digitalization strategy needs to be implemented, in coherence with Equinor's future digitalization objectives, combined with an emphasis to continuously manage it.

Master's thesis in Industrial economics Det er snart 20 år siden prosjektstyringskonflikten mellom tradisjonell og agil tilnærming ble omtalt for første gang. I disharmoni og mangel på uoverensstemmelse har ulikheter og tomrommet mellom tilnærmingene medført en del utfordringer. Prosjektmiljøer er i stadig endring og utvikling (Cooper & Sommer, 2016). Dette fører til at tradisjonell og agil tilnærming betraktes som to konkurrerende og bipolare valg, hvor ingen fungerer optimalt (Batra et al., 2010). Tradisjonell tilnærming er utdatert, og agil tilnærming er for vanskelig å håndtere. Behovet for en hybrid tilnærming er dermed større enn aldri før. I et forsøk på å løse konflikten, blir derfor hybrid tilnærming presentert som en mulig løsning som kan balansere disiplinen fra tradisjonell tilnærming og fleksibiliteten fra agil (Boehm & Turner, 2004). Oppgaven har som målsetning å bruke forskningslitteratur og forskningsintervjuer til å utforske hvordan hybrid tilnærming kan fungere som løsning på konflikten mellom tradisjonell og agil tilnærming. Ved hjelp av forskningsspørsmål studeres det hvordan prosjektstyringskonflikten og fenomenet hybrid tilnærming beskrives og håndteres i teori og i praksis. Målet er å legge frem et forslag til løsning på konflikten i form av en hybrid modell. Case-studien baserer seg på en kvalitativ forskningsmetode hvor fire senior prosjektledere fra ulike organisasjoner intervjues. Det er identifisert 12 sentrale funn som deles inn i følgende fire kategorier: tradisjonell tilnærming, agil tilnærming, prosjektstyringskonflikten og hybrid tilnærming. 6 av 12 funn er utfordringer som påvirker tradisjonelle og agile prosjekter negativt på flere områder, og som gjør at tilnærmingene ikke fungerer optimalt. Resterende funn bekrefter at det eksisterer en prosjektstyringskonflikt og et behov for en hybrid tilnærming som i dag ikke har noen formell praksis. Videre kan studien vise til årsaker som kan forklare hvorfor organisasjonene ikke får hybrid tilnærming til å fungere, og hvorfor oppgaven ikke har lykkes med å legge frem et forslag til løsning på konflikten i form av en hybrid modell. Til slutt har studien utarbeidet tre fokusområder som det anbefales å vurdere til videre forskning.

Master's thesis in Industrial economics Rig contracts represent the leading expenses in a drilling operation. The high rates and rig shortage are factors that make it urgent to come up with ways to increase the efficiency of drilling operations. The objective of this thesis is to investigate through different literature sources how contract strategies can be used to increase the efficiency of drilling operations. Three contract strategies have been studied, which are contract types, incentives and KPIs. Contract types affect efficiency indirectly by improving teamworking quality, resulting in a performance improvement. Likewise, incentives affect performances indirectly, since it improves relational attitudes, leading to a better teamworking quality, which finally will result in improvement of performance. It was concluded that KPIs are the best tool to increase the efficiency of drilling operations. The natural competition between contractors, caused by comparing their KPIs, will result in efficiency improvement. KPIs will also lead to a reduction of nonproductive time by identifying and eliminating Invisible Lost Time (ILT).

Master's thesis in Industrial economics Norway is known for its oil and gas dominated industry and oil price dependency. Oil is also one of the most important commodities in the world and is often referred to as the lifeblood of the world economy. This has been a motivator for this thesis to investigate how the Norwegian stock market is affected by the world and the oil price movements. The method chosen to test this is a multiple regression analysis. OBX is used as the dependant variable and β1=Brent, β2=S&P 500 and β3=USD/NOK as independent variables. S&P 500 is added as a variable that to some degree accounts for the global stock market and USD/NOK was added to test for changes in NOK. The regression was done over the last 18 years. There was also divided into five periods to test for changes in the dependency in the different independent variables. Periods of low and high oil prices was tested to study the effect of different price environments. To test if non-oil related industries is affected by the oil price, several other industry indexes was tested. Currency can be an indicator of the strength of a nations economics and it made therefore sense to test if the USD/NOK is dependent on $/b. The results were tested with one- and two-week data points using a logarithmic return, it will be referred to two weeks datapoints if not pointed out. The results for the entire period showed a β1=0,20 and β2=0,87 and no significant results for USD/NOK. When each period was tested; period 1 (commodity boom), 3 (recovery from financial crisis) and 5 (shale revolution), they had about the same Brent sensitivity 0,17-0,2. The financial crisis was a more sensitive period, where one week data and two week data are very different with one week Brent β1=0,46 and for two weeks β1=0,18. The recovery period also had a higher Brent coefficient with β1=0,29. The last period was the only period with significant USD/NOK coefficient and it was positive β3=0,24. A positive USD/NOK coefficient means that OBX has some benefit from a weaker NOK. When testing the different industry indexes the energy sector had a Brent coefficient of β1=0,33 and the oil service had a Brent coefficient of β1=1,45. The fish sector showed no significant results for oil dependency but USD/NOK had a β3=0,36 indicating that the sector has great benefit of a weaker NOK. The material sector is unitary elastic with S&P 500 and a β1=0,12 for Brent. The finance sector is the most oil dependant among non-oil related sectors with β1=0,14 and an S&P 500 coefficient of 0,92. The finance sector has USD/NOK coefficient of -0,16 which means it benefits from a high valued NOK which most likely is dependent on a higher oil price. Shipping has a Brent coefficient of 0,11 and 0,64 for S&P 500. The USD/NOK ratio is dependent on the oil price however other factor are contributing. The first period seems affected by the dotcom bubble and low oil prices after this the oil price strengthens the NOK until very high oil price show some diminishing return on USD/NOK from Brent. The recovery period seems affected by expectations of higher oil prices. The las period the oil price doesn’t seem to affect the USD/NOK ratio much.

Master's thesis in Industrial economics How accurate financial analysts are in their earnings forecasts, and how share prices are affected by whether a company is able to outperform market expectations or not, has been researched extensively in the US. This thesis aims to analyze these questions as well, but by comparing firms with the highest market capitalizations from the US and Norway, as well as across the respective industries within the samples. The largest sample is of the Norwegian companies, which is the main focus, covering 22 large firms in many different industries. The US sample covers 8 large companies, and provides a meaningful comparison to the Norwegian sample, like a benchmark or control group. Historical data, for each company, stretches back at least 7 to 8 years, with a goal of 10 years, where the historical data covers daily share prices and quarterly earnings (EPS) estimates and reported values. The data show that US financial analysts are on average significantly more accurate in their earnings forecasts, than their Norwegian counterparts, where the comparison is made using the Mean Absolute Percentage Error statistical technique. The high accuracy of US analysts is shown to have a connection with the number of estimates per quarter. US sample firms were also significantly more consistent in beating earnings estimates, but although the hypothesis was that an earnings surprise would lead to an increase in share prices and vice versa, no strong correlation can be implied and the effect of an earnings surprise, or vice versa, on share prices is shown to be negligible. The rest of the paper poses views and explanations on why US sample companies outperform Norwegian sample companies so consistently, and how this extrapolates to the broader market.

Master's thesis in Automation and signal Processing Master's thesis in Industrial economics The methods created for this project aim to locate the salmon in the image and extract features from it. The aim of the features are to recognize individual salmon from each other. Individual identification, done by RFID today, is important in the Norwegian aquaculture industry, mostly for scientific purposes. If this could be implemented by machine vision instead, it could be expanded to commercial purposes and tracking of larger masses, which could be economically beneficial for the industry. Based on reasonable assumptions, some economic scenarios were computed to estimate potential savings that could be achieved by successful implementation of such a system. Based on the assumptions, it is reasonable to believe that this could save roughly 5,04 MNOK every year per offshore fish cage applied to. The potential costs are however somewhat uncertain. K-means clustering was used to extract the salmon from the image. This was successful for all images. It should be noted that the data-set was cleaned of images which did not meet certain requirements. A method was developed to detect the nose and tail tips of the salmon mainly to estimate its orientation. It worked on all images largely due to the successful cropping done by the k-means clustering. Another method was created to detect the pectoral fin on the salmon, using segmentation by thresholding, as well as structural measures and area-thresholds. It achieved a best success rate at 99.2% on 537 images from one data-set(main set) and at worst a success rate of 93.5% on 246 images from another data-set(second set). It was important to detect the gill-opening on the salmon, which would lead to extract a ROI around the head. The method for locating the gill-opening therefore had an important task in detecting the back of the gills, towards the body, such that the area of the head was not cropped too small. The method had an average of detecting 5.32 pixels away from the gill-opening towards the body, which served the purpose of capturing the head well. Salmon have spots on their heads, which could serve as matching points for individual specimen. Two methods were tested to detect these spots, one of them created specifically for this project. The methods were merged together and achieved a success rate of 49.02% correctly detected spot with 0.6% false detections on the main with strict parameters. With more tolerable parameters it got a success rate of 87.4% correctly detected. Of all possible detections, it also incorrectly detected 52.01% spots. The same method was tried on the second data-set with success rates at 45.67% correctly and 4.32% false detections with strict parameters and 97.58% correct detections with 50% false detections with tolerable parameters. An individual recognition method was created, which used feature vectors of each image to recognize if it was the same salmon in two images. The feature vectors contained up to 19 features. There were images of 178 salmon to recognize, and all but 16 had two images of the same specimen. Out of 178 salmon, it recognized 65 of them, a success rate of 36.47%, incorrectly classifying 28.8%. 34.7% of the salmon were not recognized. In other words, out of 340 possible correct classifications, 124 were correctly classified, 98 incorrectly classified and 118 salmon not classified at all.

Master's thesis in Industrial economics Value-at-Risk, in financial risk management, is a central method for estimating and controlling risk exposure for financial institutions. Challenges with current VaR methods is that its imprecise, especially under times of financial turmoil where precise estimations are most crucial and current methods su er from too optimistic VaR estimations. Addressing these challenges and improving current methods is what serves as motivation for this paper. There are several methods for estimating VaR, and two of the most used methods is historical simulation and Monte Carlo simulation. And a study on how macroeconomic factors can improve these two methods is conducted and investigated for different confidence levels. In this thesis, we investigate and develop methods for how historical VaR and Monte Carlo simulation can be improved by implementing macroeconomic variables, such as VIX, brent price, gold price, and US treasury note. The data analysis is performed on the American stock market index S&P 500 and the Norwegian Oslo Stock Exchange, and a selection of sectors for these two markets, with a span of two decades. With the intent to test how precise the VaR methods estimates are across well diversified and more specialized portfolios. An investigation on how well the VaR methods perform in financial stressing times was done by sectioning the time series into periods, to differentiate between where a market shock has occurred and when the market is in equilibrium. The new versions of historical VaR and Monte Carlo simulation are compared to a benchmark model, historical VaR with 250 days rolling window, to see the advantages of implementing macroeconomic factors to these highly used methods. The conclusion of this thesis yield interesting results regarding how macroeconomic factors a ect VaR estimation and give a contribution to and validate research and studies previously done on VaR. We find that implementing VIX, and the other macros studied, to current VaR methods can improve the estimates, especially concerning optimistic VaR estimates during financial turmoil.

Master's thesis in Cybernetics and signal Processing / Industrial economics The methods created for this project aim to locate the salmon in the image and extract features from it. The aim of the features are to recognize individual salmon from each other. Individual identification, done by RFID today, is important in the Norwegian aquaculture industry, mostly for scientific purposes. If this could be implemented by machine vision instead, it could be expanded to commercial purposes and tracking of larger masses, which could be economically beneficial for the industry. Based on reasonable assumptions, some economic scenarios were computed to estimate potential savings that could be achieved by successful implementation of such a system. Based on the assumptions, it is reasonable to believe that this could save roughly 5,04 MNOK every year per offshore fish cage applied to. The potential costs are however somewhat uncertain. K-means clustering was used to extract the salmon from the image. This was successful for all images. It should be noted that the data-set was cleaned of images which did not meet certain requirements. A method was developed to detect the nose and tail tips of the salmon mainly to estimate its orientation. It worked on all images largely due to the successful cropping done by the k-means clustering. Another method was created to detect the pectoral fin on the salmon, using segmentation by thresholding, as well as structural measures and area-thresholds. It achieved a best success rate at 99.2% on 537 images from one data-set(main set) and at worst a success rate of 93.5% on 246 images from another data-set(second set). It was important to detect the gill-opening on the salmon, which would lead to extract a ROI around the head. The method for locating the gill-opening therefore had an important task in detecting the back of the gills, towards the body, such that the area of the head was not cropped too small. The method had an average of detecting 5.32 pixels away from the gill-opening towards the body, which served the purpose of capturing the head well. Salmon have spots on their heads, which could serve as matching points for individual specimen. Two methods were tested to detect these spots, one of them created specifically for this project. The methods were merged together and achieved a success rate of 49.02% correctly detected spot with 0.6% false detections on the main with strict parameters. With more tolerable parameters it got a success rate of 87.4% correctly detected. Of all possible detections, it also incorrectly detected 52.01% spots. The same method was tried on the second data-set with success rates at 45.67% correctly and 4.32% false detections with strict parameters and 97.58% correct detections with 50% false detections with tolerable parameters. An individual recognition method was created, which used feature vectors of each image to recognize if it was the same salmon in two images. The feature vectors contained up to 19 features. There were images of 178 salmon to recognize, and all but 16 had two images of the same specimen. Out of 178 salmon, it recognized 65 of them, a success rate of 36.47%, incorrectly classifying 28.8%. 34.7% of the salmon were not recognized. In other words, out of 340 possible correct classifications, 124 were correctly classified, 98 incorrectly classified and 118 salmon not classified at all.

Master's thesis in Industrial Economics Salmon lice, Lepeophtheirus salmonis, is a parasitic copepod endemic to Atlantic salmon. In recent year salmon aquaculture has created large breeding grounds for this parasite, as well as acting as a vector for infection on wild salmon. This has caused serious problems for both salmon aquaculture and angling tourism. In this thesis we examine how global climate change will affect the salmon lice problem, with emphasis on the economic impact. In our thesis we use temperature projections combined with models of salmon lice infection pressure for quantitative data on the effects of climate change on the salmon lice problem. We tested several scenarios and variations to see if any of them had a disproportionate impact. This was followed by a qualitative analysis of the wider economic impact. Our study shows there will indeed be increased infection pressure from salmon lice. This will negatively affect salmon aquaculture, as well as both entrepreneurs and local communities that depend on salmon angling tourism. Knock-on effects may even include lower property prices on salmon rivers. We further argue this is could cause stricter regulation of salmon aquaculture, as well as increased conflict between aquaculture and angling tourism stakeholders. Additionally, we briefly discuss some proposed technological and regulatory solutions to the various problems arising from salmon lice infections.

Master's thesis in Industrial economics Bygg- og anleggssektoren blir ofte omtalt som en konservativ bransje med begrenset innovasjonskraft og nytenkingsevne, men nå åpnes muligheter for innovasjon og en grønnere bransje. I dag står denne bransjen for omtrent 15% av det totale CO2-utslippet i Norge, og utslippsbesparelser på byggeplassen er derfor et viktig fokusområde i målet mot et mer klimavennlig land. Akselerasjonen av det grønne skiftet påvirkes i stor grad av politiske føringer, men det er også behov for kunnskapsutvikling og holdningsendringer innad i bransjen. I januar inneværende år ble verdens første helelektriske 25 tonns gravemaskin overlevert, og det markerte startskuddet for et grønnere skifte i byggenæringen. Det ga inspirasjon til oppgavens problemstilling, som undersøker når det vil være bedriftsøkonomisk lønnsomt å investere i elektriske gravemaskiner, og hva som eventuelt skal til for å akselerere lønnsomhetsaspektet. For å besvare problemstillingen er det utført en investeringsanalyse, hvor en elektrisk gravemaskin sammenlignes med en tilsvarende dieselversjon. I hovedanalysen er det tatt utgangspunkt i en levetid på seks år for begge maskinene, og resultatet peker på at investeringen er lønnsom i 2025. Resultatet sammenlignes med elektrifisering av ferjer og biler, som viser at det er behov for flere tiltak for å overkomme eksisterende barrierer og kommersialisere elektriske gravemaskiner. Hovedanalysen suppleres med én analyse hvor den elektriske gravemaskinen har to års forlenget levetid, og én hvor det innføres krav til fossilfri byggeplass i løpet av de neste to årene. Analysenes funn fastslår lønnsomt investeringstidspunkt i henholdsvis 2023 og 2021. Videre er det utført en følsomhetsanalyse hvor dieselprisen trekkes fram som den mest følsomme parameteren. Dieselprisens påvirkning fremheves også i scenarioanalysen, hvor en 25% økning i dieselpris fra basis fremskynder ideelt investeringstidspunkt til 2020-2023. Tiltak som økt avgift for CO2 og/eller mineralolje, eller avvikling av anleggsdieselens avgiftsfritak, vil av den grunn akselerere ideelt investeringstidspunkt betydelig. Avslutningsvis er det tatt utgangspunkt i utslippene fra gravemaskinene på tre referanseprosjekt, hvor verdien av CO2-utslippene samlet utgjør rundt 58 000 kr. Dette tydeliggjør behovet for utslippsreduksjon, og vår anbefaling er at byggherre setter et minimumskrav til utslippskutt i prosjektkontrakten, istedenfor krav til fossilfri byggeplass. Dette vil i større grad motivere entreprenører til å investere i elektriske gravemaskiner.

Master's thesis in Industrial economics There exists a considerable body of research literature investigating the connectedness between crude oil markets and other financial markets. However, connectedness within the crude oil market has received little attention. With this in mind, the current thesis aims to highlight the research gap in literature regarding volatility spillover effects within the crude oil market. For this purpose, using daily spot prices from May 1996 to January 2019 for a set of 17 crude oils, we utilize the generalized spillover index developed in Diebold and Yilmaz (2009; 2012) to explore the connectedness within the crude oil market in terms of volatility spillovers. The generalized spillover index allows identifying the strength, as well as direction of the volatility spillovers across time. In general, our results suggest that the volatility spillover is time-varying, both in terms of strength and direction. The results further indicate that the Dubai benchmark is the most significant contributor to uncertainty in the global crude oil market, and this is especially the case after the initiation of the Arab Spring. In addition, our results suggest that the Brent benchmark behaves as a volatility buffer, reducing the uncertainty in the geographically closest regional crudes. The Dubai benchmark appears to be most affected by Middle Eastern crudes. However, our results suggest that after the Tokyo Commodity Exchange changed to Dubai as their sole underlying asset in their Crude futures contracts, the connectedness between Dubai and Asian/Australian crudes increased. As opposed to Brent, the WTI benchmark is less affected by its geographically closest crudes. These findings add important information to hedgers and speculators concerning the interdependence within the crude oil market. Further, we identify strength and direction of volatility spillover by utilizing the generalized spillover index developed in Diebold and Yilmaz (2009; 2012), and our findings are supported by market events which confirm that the methodology is well suited for this kind of analysis.

Master's thesis in Industrial economics The salmonid aquaculture industry is facing significant environmental and biological challenges, limiting the industry’s ability to grow. One of the most critical challenges is the prevalence of sea lice. Parasitic sea lice negatively affect the biological growth rate of farm biomass and, as such, contribute to loss of revenues and lowered fish welfare. As a result of this, the utilization of chemical and mechanical delousing are popular measures used to combat lice infestations. For some time, there has been a suspicion that such measures adversely impact the biological growth rate of farmed salmonids. This study is the first of its kind to investigate this suspicion in detail. The main objective of this study is to provide an updated estimation of the industry-wide costs related to lice, while simultaneously measuring the effect of lice treatment on biological growth rate. The analysis performed in this thesis is enabled through the utilization of a rich data set containing information on biophysical variables, lice counts, and treatment applications for all Norwegian farms in the period from 2012 to 2017. Using this data set, we empirically investigate the biological and economic impacts of observed levels of sea lice and their associated mitigation efforts. Our results suggest that lice treatments negatively affect biological growth rate and contribute to a higher loss of revenue compared to sea lice alone. From our marginal effects estimation, both bath and mechanical treatments reduce growth rate. Bath treatments reduce growth rate between 0.92% to 1.21%, while mechanical treatments reduce the growth rate between 1.73% to 2.14%, depending on geographical location. Additionally, our analysis shows that the total cost of lice is equivalent to 14.21% of revenues or 7.63 NOK per kg produced fish, which corresponds to an industry-wide cost of 11.2 billion NOK in 2017.

Master's thesis in Industrial economics The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate and analyze the company’s current project model, and further assist in the work of studying and identifying a suitable Project Management model for the maintenance method Selective Maintenance (SM). The company consider using the SM-method to optimize their current maintenance method and reduce operational costs. In regard to the number of companies that performs maintenance services in the oil and gas industry, it will be important for Oceaneering to remain competitive in this marked. By being innovative in relation to developing better methods, both in terms of using new strategies and analyze how these can be used in the project execution, can this contribute to increasing the demand of the company’s services. The report addresses Oceaneering as a business unit, the Asset Integrity department at Forus and maintenance projects that they execute. Furthermore, the report introduces relevant theory related to Project Management and the Selective Maintenance method. The methodology in this report is based on the theory examined by the group and quantitative and qualitative research methods have been used, a so-called Mixed Method research. The data collection methods in this report are mainly literature research, observations and interviews. Furthermore, these data are analyzed using a cross-case analysis, Gantt-chart, cost estimation and SM algorithm. In the group’s results, it was decided that the PMLC-model, Adaptive Project Framework (APF), was a suitable model to use in the execution of a Selective Maintenance pilot project. Various functionalities, activities and solutions for executing such a project have been evaluated, defined and elucidated in this report. Included in the group’s work, a technical evaluation of the SM-method performed by developing an algorithm with reliability calculations that Oceaneering can use in the execution of the pilot project. Furthermore, the group’s analysis has highlighted several factors that should be emphasized and focused on in the report and included them in the Project Management model. This master thesis provides a general basis for the execution of a pilot project with the SM method.

Master's thesis in Industrial economics The world’s portfolio of oil and gas wells are ageing. Plug and abandonment is the final and inevitable stage of every well. As a result, decommissioning is set to grow steadily in the coming years, as more and more wells are reaching the end of their life cycle. This forces the oil and gas industry stakeholders to increase their attention toward decommissioning activities. Well decommissioning is associated with high expenditure where taxpayers are on the hook for as much as 50% to 80% of these expenditures. Operators are looking for cost-efficient technology and equipment to plug and abandon their wells. Drill rigs’ daily rental rates are the highest cost associated with well decommissioning; therefore, an increasing number of operations have been moved to vessels with considerably lower day rates. Subsea wellhead terminator is an ongoing project in BHGE, which aims to transfer a field proven rig-based technology over to rigless. This thesis’s main contribution is to investigate the business potential for the subsea wellhead terminator. We have estimated demand on the number of subsea wellheads to be plugged and abandon on different continental shelves. The calculated cost of developing and testing the project is less than 1 MNOK. To evaluate the market, a competitor analysis of other large oilfield service companies and how they position towards future well decommissioning activity has been conducted.

Master's thesis in Industrial economics Norway has a strong maritime cluster and employs 90 000 people. The supply chain in the maritime industry consists of a complex and global network of logistics. The purpose is to collect information about the risk perspective and the way Norwegian companies evaluate risk in the maritime supply chain. Existing literature has been reviewed and compared to the findings from interviews with high standing personnel in the maritime industry in Norway. Personnel from three companies in one direct supply chain were interviewed to obtain information about the current risk perspective. The risk perspective is continuously changing with the change in market demand and macro environment in the industry. The companies in one direct supply chain agree that the most significant risk factor influencing their company will vary with time and the macro environment. The companies view of their most significant risk factors in the current conditions is access to raw material, access to human capital, IT security, environmental requirements, on-time delivery, and changes in the production line. Stricter environmental regulations in the maritime sector are influencing the supply chain to a large degree. The regulatory demands are more present for the companies closest to the end-customer in the supply chain. The risks from the increasing environmental focus are both technological and regulatory driven. A risk event occurring at one company in the supply chain can cause a ripple effect throughout the supply chain. Close communication upstream and downstream closes the gap between the actors in the supply chain and presents more solutions to reduce the overall impact of risk events.

Master's thesis in Industrial economics The “Northern Giant”, Johan Sverdrup, is the biggest oil and gas field development on the Norwegian Continental Shelf in over 30 years. The field has an expected lifetime of 50 years, where it will provide value for asset owners and society. At maximum production, the field will produce 660,000 barrels of oil per day, which will be 25% of the entire oil and gas production in Norway. Equinor is the operator of the field, which has a planned production start in November 2019. When Johan Sverdrup is in operation, the production needs to be reliable, cost efficient and safe. To ensure a safe state for the facility, safety barriers like emergency and process shutdown systems are in place. These systems will shut down affected processes, areas or equipment should an unwanted incident occur. The shutdown can range from a single valve to a complete shutdown and evacuation of the facility. Some of the most critical equipment regarding safety systems is the emergency and process shutdown valves, which have strict requirements regarding performance and reliability. Function and leak testing are currently the preferred method of verifying the condition of the valves. These tests are typically performed every 12 months and reported to the Petroleum Safety Authority of Norway. The testing requires resources and production downtime to be performed. The purpose of this thesis is to illuminate the effectiveness and potential benefits by expanding the use of condition monitoring on emergency and process shutdown valves. This can increase the reliability of the valve and explore the possibility of utilizing condition monitoring to perform function and leak testing more efficiently. The thesis will also include an estimate of the potential cost saving related to a decrease in downtime due to condition monitoring. To illuminate this potential, an analysis has been developed to match the most likely valve degradations with relevant condition monitoring equipment’s ability of indicating the degradation. The analysis was used to determine which sensors has the highest coverage degree of failures and then how the use of sensors can be expanded on Johan Sverdrup. A result matrix was developed to assist in choosing which sensors should be installed on which valves, dependent on the valve requirements and function. A potential savings estimate has been performed to indicate the loss of revenue related to production downtime. By utilizing condition monitoring on emergency and process shutdown valves, the corrective maintenance and annual testing can be done more efficiently and therefore decrease the necessary production downtime. There is a major potential for cost savings due to the production downtime related to testing. The results of the analysis show that most failures on automated valves can be detected by condition monitoring technology. The sensors are effective for continuous surveillance of the valves, troubleshooting during maintenance and for streamlining testing. By using condition monitoring on emergency and process shutdown valves, failures can be detected before they become so severe, they will affect the reliability of the valve as a safety barrier. Additionally, the potential savings estimate shows a potential saving of 1.31 million USD per hour of maintenance saved. The thesis development and analysis are a case study at Equinor. Discussions and meetings with Equinor personnel and suppliers, combined with internal documentation and industry standards, forms the foundation of the thesis.

Master's thesis in Industrial economics Temaet i denne masteroppgaven er omstillinger som påvirker arbeidssituasjonen til en ansatt i en bransje som går gjennom en kraftig markedsendring. Jeg har tatt for meg den norske delen av oljebransjens håndtering av de relativt store omstillingene, i form av nedbemanning, permittering og endringsoppsigelse, som ble gjennomført som en følge av oljekrisen 2014-2016. For å gjøre dette må man først sette seg inn i det aktuelle markedet for å se hva det var som gjorde at denne hendelsen fikk såpass store konsekvenser for bransjen. Hvordan ledelsen i de ulike deler av bransjen har utførte omstillingene da med hovedfokus på de ansatte som ble direkte eller indirekte påvirket av dette. Oppgavens formål er å fremlegge arbeidstakernes opplevelse av håndteringen og deres forhold til selskap og bransje som følge av dette og vurdere hvorvidt utfallet av det kan få negative følger. Gjennom intervju med representanter fra tre ulike fagforeninger vil deres oppfatning av situasjonen bli analysert og videre brukt i utvikling av spørreundersøkelse. Undersøkelsen er rettet mot de som var ansatt da oljekrisen slo til i 2014 for å få en kvantitativ datainnsamling innen de temaene som kom frem fra intervjuene. Resultatene og analysene av dette vil så bli fremstilt opp mot problemstillingen.

This study develops a unique model capturing antecedents of place attractiveness in tourism hotspot crowding contexts. A structural equation model reveals three density dimensions: one destination image variable and two avoidance versus approach reactions that influence assessments of crowding attitude and destination appraisals. Perceived density dimensions affect destination appraisals with varying intensities and valences. Both positive and negative sentiments are present – the former as excitement, fun and conviviality resulting from peoplewatching and socialising, and the latter as discomfort and resentment resulting from personal space violations and reduced feelings of uniqueness. Many tourist types are included in this study in historic town centres and villages in iconic fjord landscapes in Norway. Cruise passengers are more crowding tolerant than self-organised travellers. Hotspot crowding and over-tourism: Antecedents of destination attractiveness

Two of the pillars in the field of behavioral economics which we are concerned with are motivation and rationality. In this thesis, which consists of three papers, I explore both these topics, and each of these papers are motivated by different aspects of money managers’ profession; specifically, when they invest, give advice, or their motivation to work. Studying and understanding these aspects is important because money managers and investment decisions can have huge impacts on people’s financial situations. In particular I am interested in investigating whether advice given to customers depends on the customer’s wealth level. One reason for investigating deception in this setting is that financial advisors often have incentives which are misaligned with those of the customers. In addition, financial advisors do meet many different customers with varying levels of wealth and opportunities. Thus, I find it interesting to investigate this and how different clients affect advice. When it comes to the amount of work that money managers put in, research shows that some are able to create additional value. However, effort is likely not the only cause of this additional value, and for the majority of money managers they are likely paid for luck. So why then do they put in so much effort? Possible explanations include signaling, or they believe it creates value. Lastly, costs can have a huge impact on compound returns. As a result, I find it important to understand how people take these costs into consideration. I use experiments as a means to identify the causal effects, because this empirical method allows for an unprecedented control over the environment and allows me to change one factor at a time. As a starting point I will present the concepts central to the three papers in this thesis in the following sections. First, I start with deception, then move on to social preferences, mental accounting, and lastly, luck and motivation.

PhD thesis in Hotel and tourism management In this thesis, I have aimed to make visible how small-scale festivals in rural areas, despite minimal direct economic impact, are important for the development of tourism as well as the benefit of local communities. Fifty-six festivals were mapped in Finnmark County, Norway. Knowledge of these 56 festivals created a platform for their further study using five case studies. Research was conducted in a cumulative way, where each study highlighted new questions. In the research, the need to understand festivals from two different research traditions was emphasized: one from the basis of identity and tradition, the other from an event management perspective. This dual perspective was necessary to be able to capture the complexity that festivals hold. At the same time, this two-fold approach, created new knowledge, pointing out some important insights related to the relationship between tourism and festivals. This thesis identifies `new` tourism roles represented by tourists participating as volunteers or participants in the core activities of festivals. The thesis also identifies the integrative role that festivals have locally, both as an important identity marker, and as a starting point for the development of new tourism products created by lifestyle entrepreneurs. The research that informs this thesis emphasizes the challenges faced in balancing how festivals in small rural places deal with such complex phenomena: the different and seemingly contradictory activities. The thesis examines the role of festival encounters, created in a rural area, where old identities are preserved and strengthened, and new identities are constructed during meetings between tourists and residents. The thesis focuses on how event start-ups may act as a catalyst, and enable the growth of new meeting-place(s) for those directly involved in events, other stakeholders, and for other events arranged during the same time period. Finally, the thesis emphasizes how events enable encounters between events and the tourism industry, leading to an increased product capacity for winter tourism in a rural destination. The findings in this thesis contribute to the development of knowledge related to the mutually beneficial relationships from which both festivals and tourism could continue to flourish.

High school graduates in rural counties often move to urban areas to study at higher education institutions (HEIs). Because graduates from HEIs often settle in regions in which they graduate, the result is a permanent out-migration of young talent from rural areas. This study adds to the body of literature on student choice by addressing measures that can make a university located in a rural region more attractive to local high school graduates. Empirical data are gathered from potential students at the University of Nordland, located in northern Norway. Importance-performance analysis and gap analysis are applied to study the factors that are most important for students. As a result, this study serves as a good starting point for small rural universities in understanding local students and devising methods to increase attractiveness for this group so that more young talent might choose to remain in rural areas.

In an economy with a sovereign wealth fund (SWF), the government may draw on the fund to supplement other government revenues. If the fund is invested in risky assets, this introduces a new stochastic element into the government’s budget. We analyze the interaction between the draw from and risk taking in the SWF. Using non-expected utility preferences, we distinguish between intended changes and stochastic changes in the SWF draws over time. We show that the desire for smoothness in taxes and public services translates into smoothing of SWF draws and lower risk taking. It can even lead to procyclical rebalancing of the SWF portfolio. Future interest rates are associated with interest-rate risk. We show that this risk may lead to a higher optimal equity share in the SWF portfolio. Policy makers can use the draws from the SWF to smooth over time variation in risk-free rates. © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Master's thesis in Industrial economics January 1st 2020 three municipalities will become one. Finnøy, Rennesøy and Stavanger municipality as they are known today will cease to exist, and a new municipality, New Stavanger, will emerge. The merger is an effort to increase robustness and improve municipal servitization of citizens. This thesis has focuses on how the new municipality will operate the bluegreen sector, and how smart city technology can contribute to the new municipal management of these. The thesis has collected information and discussed the municipal room for negotiation and analyzed the new municipality’s ability to achieve a well-functioning municipal structure for these industries. How can Smart City technology help improve the municipal management of Agriculture and Aquaculture in New Stavanger Municipality? As the societal challenges grow more complex, Stavanger municipality saw a need to develop a more collaborative method to operate. To accomplish this, they created a smart city office, which works on encouraging industrial entrepreneurship through collaboration, citizen involvement, and technology. The thesis shows that New Stavanger has great potential for achieving the expert committee’s criteria for a well-functioning municipal structure. The thesis also shows that the municipal room for negotiation is limited, especially concerning aquaculture. Within the municipal room for negotiation, their main room for improvement is within the optimization of processes, and through focused strategies and holistic planning. The agricultural sector benefits more from a close cooperation with the municipality, but are perceived as very adaptable. The findings of this thesis point to the agriculture industry benefitting from better information about possible opportunity for industrial entrepreneurship and actions. Aquaculture is not subsidized and the industry has a high degree of technology and development. It is also managed through the county and governmental agencies. The industry will still reap great dividend from increased transparency into planning processes, and that the management office for bluegreen sector will have greater capacity to utilize their competence in hearings and professional foundation towards political processes. New Stavanger can be subject to unintended and possibly harmful silo structuring, which in turn will lead to waste of competence and resources. The findings in this thesis show that technology can contribute to create overview and focus, which will help New Stavanger increase their degree of collaboration within and citizen involvement. This will strengthen the industry development for the sector, both in terms of increased profitability and concerning reducing emissions from the sector.

Master's thesis in Industrial economics This thesis will investigate whether Norway has a potential for a carbon capture and storage (CCS) industry. Norway has committed to the Paris agreement, and to reduce their non-ETS emissions by 40% from 2005 levels by 2030. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change revealed that if the climate goals in the Paris agreement shall be met, CCS will play an important role and represents a solution in three out of four possible pathways for reaching the desired target. Currently, CCS deployment is slow and only 18 CCS facilities are operating today worldwide. The Global CCS institute argues that we need to capture 3.75 Gtpa by year 2040 to achieve the climate targets in the Paris agreement. Norway has shown great interest for CCS, where it has been used at offshore platforms for decades. With the CCS test centre at Mongstad and the planned full-scale CCS facility from Norcem Brevik and Fortum Oslo, Norway can take a pioneering role and encourage global CCS deployment. This thesis will investigate how well suited the external framework around CCS is in Norway, and if the technology can offer a new important industry in Norway. The research was divided into two parts; a PESTEL analysis to highlight drivers and barriers for CCS deployment, and a mapping of CO2-emitting sources in Scandinavia to reveal if there is a market for CO2 storage in terms of access to industrial CO2 emissions and available storage capacity. The findings show that Norway is well positioned for large scale CCS deployment, particularly due to well-assessed storage capacity, sub-surface knowledge and experience, and public and private interest in investing in development of CCS projects. The mapping of CO2 sources indicates that there is a potential for a big market in Scandinavia, with large emitting sources accessible by ship. However, the research also revealed that there are many barriers. The EU Directive for CCS is currently creating financial and reliability barriers that discourage operators and investors from investing in CO2 storage. The technology has proven very costly, resulting in deficient political backing and incentives. Based on the above, it is concluded that Norway has great potential for CCS to become a new industry, but certain aspects would need to be solved before Norway can offer an environment in which CCS can thrive.