Publikationer från Södertörns Högskola
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AI in Banking : Understanding Barriers to a Potential Adoption of AI in Decision-Making Processes
No full textI en tid då Artificiell Intelligens (AI) utvecklas och blir alltmer integrerad i olika branscher, undersöker denna studie specifika barriärer som påverkar banksektorns förmåga att framgångsrikt integrera AI i sina beslutsprocesser. Undersökningens primära inriktning är AI ur förstärkningssyfte, som innebär att förstärka och komplettera mänskliga beslutsprocesser. I centrum för denna undersökning står den svenska banksektorns potential och förmåga att integrera AI i sina beslutsprocesser, vilket är vägande för att navigera i den digitala omvandlingen. Undersökningen är av kvalitativ karaktär där en fallstudie har genomförts på en svensk storbank. Djupintervjuer har genomförts på banken för att skapa en djupgående förståelse för respondenternas erfarenheter kring ämnet. För att stärka validiteten i undersökningen genomfördes även två intervjuer på en annan bank. Slutligen resulterar undersökningen i barriärer utifrån tre kategorier: kulturella, tekniska och organisatoriska. Den kulturella barriären består av en distinktion baserad på anställningstid, där de med längre anställningstid i högre grad motsätter sig teknologiska förändringar. De tekniska barriärerna består i stället av en oro kring att AI-verktyget inte kommer kunna garantera säkerhet, tillförlitlighet och transparens. De organisatoriska barriärerna grundar sig i den undersökta bankens värderingar kring decentraliserat beslutsfattande och den strategiska värderingen att prioritera säkerhet framför att ligga i teknologisk framkant. Däremot påvisar den andra banken för att jämföra med att de upptäckta barriärerna i den primärt undersökta banken inte är desamma. Detta tyder i sin tur på att genomförd undersökning har uppnått en låg extern validitet då datainsamlingen från de båda bankerna skilde sig markant. Undersökningen leder därmed till slutsatsen att banksektorn är heterogen och inskränkt. Detta antyder att de upptäckta barriärerna främst är tillämpbara inom banker med liknande värderingar och förutsättningar som fallstudien. In a time when the development and usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are evolving and becoming increasingly integrated across various industries, this study investigates specific barriers affecting the banking sector's ability to successfully integrate AI into its decision-making processes. The primary focus of the investigation is on AI for augmentation purposes, which means enhancing and complementing human decision-making processes. At the heart of this investigation is the Swedish banking sector's potential and capability to integrate AI into its decision-making processes, which, among multiple factors, might be crucial for navigating an ongoing digital transformation. The investigation employs a qualitative method where a case study has been conducted on a major Swedish bank. In-depth interviews were carried out at the bank to create a deep understanding of the respondents' experiences with the subject. To ensure validity in the investigation, two interviews were also conducted at a competing bank. Ultimately, the investigation identifies barriers from three categories: cultural, technical, and organizational. The cultural barrier consists of a distinction based on employment duration, where those with longer tenure are more resistant to technological changes. The technical barriers involve concerns that the AI tool will not be able to guarantee safety, reliability, and transparency. The organizational barriers are based on the examined bank's values around decentralized decision-making and the strategic valuation of prioritizing security over being at the technological forefront. However, the second studied bank for comparison shows that the discovered barriers in the first bank are not the same, indicating that the conducted investigation may need to be regarded as having low external validity as the data collection from both banks differed significantly. The investigation thus concludes that the banking sector is heterogeneous and non-generalizable. This suggests that the discovered barriers are primarily applicable within banks with similar values and conditions as the case study
Greenwashing och varumärkeslojalitet : En studie kring hur miljömedvetna konsumenters varumärkeslojalitet påverkas av greenwashing
No full textThis thesis investigates the impact of greenwashing on brand loyalty among environmentally conscious consumers. The primary aim of the study is to gain a clearer understanding of how environmentally conscious consumers perceive the influence of greenwashing on their brand loyalty. The research question guiding this study is: How do environmentally conscious consumers perceive the impact of greenwashing on their brand loyalty? To address this question, the study utilizes a theoretical framework that includes Signaling Theory, Authenticity Theory, and Commitment-Trust Theory, which together provide a comprehensive understanding of how corporate sustainability messages are communicated and perceived by consumers. Through a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative surveys with qualitative interviews, the study explores consumer reactions and attitudes toward greenwashing. The findings reveal that greenwashing has a direct and profound negative effect on consumer trust, which significantly reduces their brand loyalty. The study identifies that a substantial proportion of environmentally conscious consumers respond to greenwashing by altering their purchasing behavior, often switching to brands they perceive as more authentic and transparent. A key conclusion is that companies caught engaging in greenwashing face significant challenges in regaining lost trust, a phenomenon described as "trust recovery barriers." Additionally, the study shows that consumer expectations for honesty and transparency in sustainability communications have increased, meaning that companies failing to meet these expectations risk long-term damage to their brand equity. To mitigate the negative effects of greenwashing and strengthen brand loyalty, the study recommends that companies integrate genuine sustainability initiatives and communicate these efforts clearly and transparently. This bachelor thesis knowledge about how companies can maintain and enhance their relationships with consumers in an era where sustainability is increasingly central to consumer decision-making.Denna kandidatuppsats undersöker hur greenwashing påverkar varumärkeslojaliteten bland miljömedvetna konsumenter. Studiens syfte är att fördjupa förståelsen av hur dessa konsumenter upplever och reagerar på greenwashing, med särskilt fokus på dess inverkan på deras lojalitet gentemot varumärken. Den centrala forskningsfrågan är: Hur upplever miljömedvetna konsumenter att greenwashing påverkar deras varumärkeslojalitet? För att besvara denna fråga har studien använt en teoretisk ram som inkluderar Signaling Theory, Authenticity Theory och Commitment-Trust Theory, vilka tillsammans ger en djupare förståelse för hur företagens hållbarhetskommunikation uppfattas av konsumenterna. Genom en kombination av kvantitativa enkäter och kvalitativa intervjuer har studien undersökt konsumenternas reaktioner och attityder till greenwashing. Resultaten visar att greenwashing har en direkt och djupgående negativ effekt på konsumenternas förtroende, vilket i sin tur leder till en betydande minskning av deras varumärkeslojalitet. Studien identifierar att en stor andel av de miljömedvetna konsumenterna reagerar på greenwashing genom att ändra sina köpvanor, ofta genom att byta till andra varumärken som de uppfattar som mer autentiska och transparenta. En central slutsats är att företag som ertappas med greenwashing möter betydande utmaningar i att återvinna förlorat förtroende, ett fenomen som beskrivs som "tillitsåterhämtningsbarriärer". Vidare visar studien att konsumenternas förväntningar på ärlighet och öppenhet i hållbarhetskommunikation har ökat, vilket innebär att företag som inte lyckas uppfylla dessa förväntningar riskerar långsiktiga skador på sitt varumärkesvärde. För att motverka de negativa effekterna av greenwashing och stärka varumärkeslojaliteten rekommenderas att företag integrerar genuina hållbarhetsinitiativ och kommunicerar dessa på ett tydligt och transparent sätt. Denna uppsats bidrar med kunskap kring hur företag kan upprätthålla och stärka relationerna med sina kunder i en tid där hållbarhet blir alltmer kritiskt för konsumenternas beslutsfattande
Translanguaging as scaffolding in Teaching : An intervention study focusing on newly arrived students' language usage and language comprehension as well as participation in Swedish
No full textThis study investigates the impact of translanguaging as scaffolding in teaching to support language acquisition and participation among newly arrived students in Swedish classrooms. Through thematic and linguistic analysis of collected data, the study explores if translanguaging fosters language understanding and usage among students with varying levels of proficiency in Swedish. The findings demonstrate that translanguaging helps students draw on their entire linguistic repertoire, enhancing their ability to comprehend and use the Swedish language. Additionally, the study highlights the role of peer and teacher support in encouraging active participation and the use of multiple languages as learning resources. The results suggest that translanguaging not only aids language development but also promotes inclusive and equitable classroom environments
Leading the way to sustainability : How leadership for sustainability emerges and is practiced in a complex collaboration project including several organizations
No full textClimate change is undoubtedly caused by human activity. One of the largest contributors is the construction industry. Yet there is a need for development of infrastructure globally. To fundamentally change the construction industry there is a need for collaborations between several actors from both public and private sector. Such collaborations are often challenged by different organizational cultures, leading to issues of trust and communication. This is a study of relational leadership in the context of sustainability and complex collaboration projects. Situated in the design phase of a state funded road building project in Sweden. The study contributes with new knowledge on how leadership for sustainability is practiced and where it emerges. In line with relational leadership studies, it also discusses how the surrounding context influences the leadership. Applying this relational, social constructivist perspective on leadership the study concludes that leadership for sustainability is a relational process where direction is found through sustainability focused dialogues where problems are constructed and made sense of. The study however also acknowledges the importance of creating a space for action to further develop such solutions. For this action space to be enabling, dialogues are needed where existing preconditions are re-evaluated in relation to collected learnings about problems. Otherwise, there is a risk for the action space to be formed by previous decisions, project boundaries and personal interpretations that hinder a sustainable change. Finally, the dynamic between teams in the collaboration is believed to be an important contextual factor that influences leadership for sustainability. For teams to engage in discussions needed, trust is needed in the collaboration, which is challenging when teams come from different local-cultural historical contexts. Hence, a focus on improving trust in collaboration and build a common context is an equally important part of leadership for sustainability
Large language model displays emergent ability to interpret novel literary metaphors
No full textDespite the exceptional performance of large language models (LLMs) on a wide range of tasks involving natural language processing and reasoning, there has been sharp disagreement as to whether their abilities extend to more creative human abilities. A core example is the interpretation of novel metaphors. Here we assessed the ability of GPT-4, a state-of-the-art large language model, to provide natural-language interpretations of a recent AI benchmark (Fig-QA dataset), novel literary metaphors drawn from Serbian poetry and translated into English, and entire novel English poems. GPT-4 outperformed previous AI models on the Fig-QA dataset. For metaphors drawn from Serbian poetry, human judges – blind to the fact that an AI model was involved – rated metaphor interpretations generated by GPT-4 as superior to those provided by a group of college students. In interpreting reversed metaphors, GPT-4, as well as humans, exhibited signs of sensitivity to the Gricean cooperative principle. In addition, for several novel English poems GPT-4 produced interpretations that were rated as excellent or good by a human literary critic. These results indicate that LLMs such as GPT-4 have acquired an emergent ability to interpret literary metaphors, including those embedded in novel poems
Kliché, modersmål, metafor : Relationen mellan språk, tänkande och ondska enligt Hannah Arendt
No full textThe aim of this essay is to reconstruct a philosophy of language within the late thought of Hannah Arendt, with a focus on the relationship between language and thinking. The analysis takes three main concepts as its starting point: the banality of evil, the mother tongue, and the metaphor. Beginning with a discussion on Arendt’s analysis of the language of Nazi offender Adolf Eichmann, I trace the danger she identifies with a cliché-ridden language to her understanding of the consequences of the lack of access to a pluralistic public sphere, within totalitarian regimes and elsewhere. Secondly, in discussing Arendt’s view on the importance of the mother tongue, I engage with Jacques Derrida, and his criticism of her claims about the safety of this language. Leaning on the secondary literature on the subject, I argue that the mother tongue for Arendt finds its importance partly in its function as resistance against totalitarian claims. Finally, in discussing Arendt’s view of metaphor, I highlight that the significance of a metaphorical language, for her, lies within the binding together of our outer experiences of the world with our inner thoughts, which reveals a sense of meaning that otherwise wouldn’t appear. This discussion proves to bear relevance for the analysis of Eichmann’s language – and the totalitarian language, generally – as one deprived of meaning.
Managing multi-functional peri-urban landscapes : Impacts of horse-keeping on water quality
No full textEutrophication assessments in water management to quantify nutrient loads and identify mitigating measures seldom include the contribution from horse facilities. This may be due to lack of appropriate methods, limited resources, or the belief that the impact from horses is insignificant. However, the recreational horse sector is growing, predominantly in multi-functional peri-urban landscapes. We applied an ecosystem management approach to quantify nutrient loads from horse facilities in the Stockholm Region, Sweden. We found that horses increased the total loads with 30-40% P and 20-45% N, with average area-specific loads of 1.2 kg P and 7.6 kg N ha-1 year-1. Identified local risk factors included manure management practices, trampling severity, soil condition and closeness to water. Comparisons of assessment methods showed that literature standard values of area-specific loads and water runoff may be sufficient at the catchment level, but in small and more complex catchments, measurements and local knowledge are needed.This study was enabled by the financial support from the foundation Thureus Forskarhem och Naturminne, BalticSea2020, BalticWaters and Formas.</p
"I am here" : the collective experience, impacts and sense-making from a shared Summer School experience
No full textThis paper aims to offer a practice-inspired contribution to participatory research by describing and analyzing a particular experience lived in Porto – FPCEUP – at the EERA Summer School. Being a group of two tutors and six doctoral students, we depict some of the impacts the week had on all participants while sharing and reflecting on the place of participatory research in both the individual projects and the collective learning experience. The specificity of this group was the mobilization of ABR methodologies to start a reflexive dialogue on the transitioning process from doctoral student to researcher. Inspired by Photovoice (Wang & Burris, 1997) and Image Theatre (Boal, 2002) to attend to the multiplicity of visions, voices, and experiences in the room, we tried to foster a safe and creative space of collaboration where thoughts and feelings could be collectively experienced and reflected on. The use of Arts-Based Research, the rapid growth of trust within the group, and the agency that was felt and taken by the group’s participants are the main themes targeted in our analysis, which were at the heart of the unexpected and surprising way the week unfolded