The paper describes the effect of forming business networks and collaborations for the purpose of developing an Integrated Product-Service Offering (IPSO) using the Product/Service Systems (PSS). The research method is an in-depth case study of a joint venture formed by four companies developing a new technology for chemical extraction from water sludge waste within the pulp and paper industry.Combining literature from PSS, network theories and collaborative product development, this paper puts forward the benefits for SMEs to collaborate in business networks and produce IPSOs when introducing a new technology in an emerging market. The case study shows that working towards the new market would not have been possible if each party acted individually or maintained their traditional buyer-supplieroperator roles, and that IPSOs can reduce the business risk.

This report is about preventing pressure ulcers (bedsores). The master thesis was carried outby an Industrial Design Engineering master student at Luleå University of Technology, in thespring of 2021. Pressure ulcers are a difficult and troublesome problem that exists everywherein healthcare. They occur on people who lie or sit in the same position for a long time, wherethe weight of the body creates pressure on the surface. That contributes to reduced bloodflow in the skin and subcutaneous tissues, which leads to pressure ulcers.

Interest in the work came after getting in touch with Per Söderberg, he described the projecthe used to work on and could not let go of, after retiring. The project was about healing andpreventing pressure ulcers through a bed cradle, CUNIDORM, that Per created. Per gotstuck with his idea due to a design flaw and continued to look for someone who could seethe assignment from a new perspective. The purpose of the project was to find a solution thatprevents pressure ulcers from occurring.

To solve the problem, an iterative design process PCDIO (Planning, Conceive, Design,Implement & Operate) was used, which was performed with HCD (Human-Centered design)as the way of thinking, because the solution is intended for humans. At the beginning of theprocess, the context phase was carried out. There, the needs were determined throughinterviews and research about the current state. The greatest need identified was the need toreduce patient turnarounds and examinations. Examination is the main method of preventingpressure ulcers. The need for good materials was identified as well, due to moisture and heatbeing a cause of pressure ulcers. After the user needs were established, different methods wereused within the industrial design engineering framework to create ideas and concepts.

It resulted in three concepts, the air mattress, the foam mattress with mechanical arms andthe mattress with sensors. The concepts were evaluated on the basis of a design specificationwhere they were scored. The concept that met the criteria best with the highest score becamethe winning concept.

The result was SENSAI, the mattress that senses the patient's weight over a period of time,using sensors. It detects where the pressure is immense and how harmful it is. By detectingpressure and weight, potential pressure ulcers can be detected earlier. The product has notbeen tested using prototypes or similarly, due to the pandemic and lack of access to materials.The conclusion of this project is therefore to perform more tests and investigations.Hopefully, this will happen as continued work after the master thesis is done

Vinnova

Ett forskningsprojekt som bland annat innebar arbete tillsammans med ett designteam bestående av kvinnor (yrkesaktiva inom industrin) för att utforma modeller för framtidens industriarbete – både organisation och arbetsplatser. Projektet pågick 2008-2011 med finansiering från AFA (2,7 milj. kr), FAS (2,4 milj. kr) samt EUs regionala utvecklingsfond. I projektet medverkade även Jan Johansson, Bo Johansson och Kjell Rask. Doktorander: Åsa Wikberg-Nilsson (Industriell design) och Stina Johansson (IPM).

En studie av företagande, ledarskap och genus i hästbranschen. Projektet pågick 2009-2011 med finansiering från Stiftelsen Lantbruksforskning (2,5 milj kr). I projektet medverkade Lena Abrahamsson, Mats Westerberg och doktorand Lena Forsberg.

The expected quality on manufactured components in the automotive industry is high, often with an accuracy of tenths of a millimeter. The conventional methods used to ensure the manufactured components are very accurate, but they are both time consuming and insufficient and only a small part of the produced series are analyzed today. The measurement is performed manually in so-called measurement fixtures. Where each component is fixed and predetermined points of investigation are controlled with a dial indicator. These fixtures are very expensive to manufacture and they are only compatible with one specific kind of component. Nowadays, great volumes of material are scrapped from these procedures in the automotive industry. Hence, there is a great need to increase the amount of controlled components without affecting the production rate negatively. This project was carried out for the relatively new company Viospatia, which is a spin-off company based on research from Luleå University of Technology. They have developed a system that automatically measures each component directly at the production line with the use of photogrammetry technology. This makes it possible to discover erroneous components almost immediately and the manufacturer gets a more distinct view of their production and its capability. The aim of this thesis has been to investigate how a user interface should be developed to be as user-friendly as possible without limiting the system’s functions. The objective has been to design a proposal of a user interface adapted for the intended user, creating value and is easy to use. The progression has been structured around a human-centered approach expedient for interaction design, where the developing phase, containing analyze, design and validate, is performed through iterations with continuous feedback from users and the project’s employer. The context, where the intended solution is supposed to be used, was investigated through interviews and observations at the involved companies. In the project there were three factories involved, Gestamp Hardtech and Scania Ferruform in Luleå and Volvo Cars in Olofström. These factories are using similar production methods, sheet metal stamping, so their prerequisites and needs are similar for this type of quality control system. Creative methods have been applied throughout the project to generate as much ideas as possible while trying to satisfy all the important aspects. Initially analog prototypes were created but they were soon developed to digital interactive prototypes. A larger usability-test was conducted with seven participants by using a weblink to the digital prototype. With support from the feedback these tests generated some adjustments were made and the final user interface was designed, separated in two levels - Supervisor and Operator. Through extensive literature study and user-testing it became clear that the operator needs to get an unmistakable message from the user interface. There should not be any doubts whatsoever and the operator should react immediately. This message is delivered with the use of colors that have an established meaning. By identifying what needs the different actors have, the system’s functions can be separated and made accessible only for the intended user. The functions can then be more specifically developed for the intended user instead of modifying them trying to make a compromise that fits everybody. This separation of functions is not anything the user has to actively do but it is performed automatically by the user interface when the user is signing in.

Nowadays, new economic models advocating agility and innovation are emerging in the space sector, this is the “New Space”. New nanosatellites, micro-launchers and other new technologies make it easier to access and use space. For this reason, in December 2019, HEMERIA launched in partnership with CNES its first nanosatellite named Argos Neo on a Generic Economical and Light Satellite (ANGELS), currently in orbit and operational. ANGELS aims to validate the concept of a nanosatellite demonstrator of the platform's equipment and to validate the payload allowing satellite coverage for Argos beacons. Retrieving and analysing satellite telemetry is therefore essential. After studying ANGELS architecture, I developed new and more accurate Python scripts to analyse telemetry (including daily averages instead of monthly averages). Then, I validated and verified Python scripts results thanks to a comparison with current ANGELS activities reports. Finally, I compared Telemetry with the results of electrical and thermal prelaunch analyses (PDR and CDR reviews). Thus, the analysis between the pre-launch studies and Telemetry allowed to identify areas of improvements providing useful feedback for the new KINEIS constellation development.

This master thesis concerns industrial workers’motivation and if it can be influenced by informationdissemination through an interactive interface. Focus hasbeen to research human motivators in theory to seehow these can be applied in an industrial environmentwith the hope of giving the workers a deeperknowledge of the company’s product and / or processand thus increasing her motivation. The project is basedon the assumption that an increased understanding intomore than what is limited by the worker’s tasks canhave a positive effect and strengthen his or her sense oftheir role in a wider context.The master thesis shows how a design process can beapplied to an organizational problem in industries,where the different phases of the process includeconcerned people repetitively to seek knowledge, ideasand solutions together with those who may be affectedby the results of the work.In industries today, the workload is usually distributedacross departments where staff are divided into teams.There is some circulation within the department but lesscommonly across departmental boundaries. This canlimit the worker’s perception of the entire process andresult in a detailed understanding of only a limited partof the process.Industry 4.0 is expected to be the solution for retrievingand retaining companies in Europe by building smartfactories with technology that allows the machines tocommunicate. Industry 4.0 is also expected to reduce thenumber who have work in industries, human interactionsand responsibilities. Which may have the negative effect offurther reinforcing one of today’s problems, the workerbeing further isolated from the process. Which are factorsthat, in theory, contribute to a reduced level of motivationand will therefore have a negative impact on their workaspirations.The work has been carried out with RISE Interactive inPiteå as client. RISE is part of our Swedish researchinstitute and works with user-centered technologicaldevelopment in many different industries.The degree project resulted in a large amount of ideas forhow work in industries could benefit from an interactiveinterface for disseminating information and knowledge.The final solution is presented in a stop motion movieshowing the solution that was chosen by industrialworkers. The solution shows how coloured lamps can beused to visualize progress-related information during thecourse of the work at the same time as it enables easycommunication between employees.

Realistic interactions with sound objects in video games are a contributing factor to the overall immersion. Car engine sound design is an area where the auditory feedback from driving would have an impact on that immersion. For this study, three methods for designing car engine sounds are evaluated. A traditional method in the game sound industry is to use several sampled audio recordings for the reproduction of engine sounds, which is in this study represented as a sample-based model. The sample-based model is evaluated together with a model using granular synthesis in an in-game scenario. A less common method is to use physical modeling, which is in this study evaluated together with the other two models in a listening test. Results show the granular synthesis model to be the most realistic, and the physical model to be the least preferred.

A game could have thousands of sound assets, to fit all of those files to a manageable storage space it is often necessary to reduce the size of the files to a more manageable size so they have to be compressed. One type of sound that often takes up a lot of disc space (because there is so much of it) is dialogue. In the popular game engine Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) the the audio is compressed to Ogg Vorbis and has as default the bit rate is set to 104 kbit/s. The goal of this paper is to see if untrained listeners find dialogue compressed in Ogg Vorbis 104 kbit/s good enough for dialogue or if they prefer higher bit rates. A game was made in UE4 that would act as a listening test. Dialogue audio was recorded with a male and a female voice-actor and was compressed in UE4 in six different bit rates. 24 untrained subjects was asked to play the game and identify the two out of six robots with the dialogue audio they thought sound the best. The results show that the subjects prefer the higher bit rates that was tested. The results was analyzed with a chi-squared test which showed that the null-hypothesis can be rejected. Only 21% of the answers were towards UE4s default bit rate of 104 kbit/s or lower. The result suggest that the subjects prefer dialogue in higher bit rates and UE4 should raise the default bit rate.

Noise pollution is widespread in today’s society, from traffic to industrial sources, and many people are confined to unhealthy acoustic environments through their employment. When noise cannot be eliminated at the sound source, the protective measure is usually to equip the employee with hearing protection devices (HPDs), e.g. earmuffs, that attenuates the noise. Applying excessive attenuation can render the wearer disconnected from her acoustic environment and present risks and social isolation. HPDs using level-dependent function (LDF) uses ambient microphones together with a signal processing unit and internal loudspeakers to achieve attenuation flexibility – if ambient noise is low, the loudspeakers can amplify the sound to combat an excessive passive attenuation of the HPD, and if ambient noise is high this amplification is decreased to maintain healthy sound levels.

Appropriate levels of attenuation allows the user to detect ambient sounds which contributes to the their situational awareness. Besides attenuating the sounds however, HPDs does change the spectral content of the sound which may complicate the ability to identify them. This thesis has focused on exploring the human ability to identify sounds, design a method for measuring this ability, implement it and evaluate its result and the method itself. The thesis has been conducted in collaboration with 3M^TM Peltor^TM and was intended to evaluate the effect of earmuffs with LDF on the ability to identify sounds in a process industry soundscape.

The progression of the thesis was structured within the Double Diamond process, where literature reviews, benchmarking and workshops informed the research and resulted in a method design that was analyzed using a repeated measures ANOVA based on empirical data from 16 participants. Surprisingly, the results showed no statistically significant advantage from wearing a HPD using LDF, as opposed to no LDF, in the user accuracy or certainty in sound identification. The reasons for this are discussed with a focus on evaluating the usefulness of the designed method in future efforts to develop HPDs that afford reliable sound identification.

Mining equipment are becoming very sophisticated and complex. At the same time, mining companies modernise its operation by increased mechanisation and automation (Dhillon, 2008). That requires well-developed and planned maintenance strategy. A proper maintenance strategy and appropriate maintenance actions, are essential to keep equipment safe & reliable, decrease the overall costs, and it helps to eliminate workplace hazards. Maintenance strategies and maintenance actions, in turn, are changed and developed more than any technology (Moubray, 1997). Changing and developing of the maintenance can be due to many factors, perhaps due to the complexity of the systems or due to the development of the technology. One of the best research (developed technology) that has been done in this area is the research by Nowlan and Heap about Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) in 1978. RCM is defined as, “a zero-based, structured process used to identify the failure management strategies required to ensure an asset meets its mission requirements in its operational environment in the safest and cost – effective manner” (Regan, 2012). The RCM is one of the best powerful asset management strategies. RCM can be applied to any asset, nuclear power plant, aeroplane, or truck ship. According to (Nowlan & Heap, 1978), the main goal of implementation an RCM process is to provide the stated function of the facility with required reliability and availability at the lowest cost. In this master thesis, an RCM analysis process has been described in details. Moreover, two types of implementation approaches of an RCM analysis process have also been described. The intention of describing these two approaches is to see what the differences between them are and which one can be recommended for using in mining. The first approach is according to (Hinchcliffe & Smith, 2004) and the second approach is according to (Regan, 2012). Moreover, in this master thesis, there are also two case studies that have been analysed. The intention of analysing these two case-studies is to see how the RCM has been implemented. As a result of the research carried out in this master thesis, some basic streamline RCM analysis process has been recommended for using in mining. This recommended RCM analysis process could be applicable to be used in every industry section. The result of this work can be summarised that RCM is an applicable tool which can be used in mining for selecting the right maintenance approach for different equipment, systems or subsystem. RCM analysis process is discussed from different perspective. In the discussion, the misconceptions about the implementation of an RCM analysis process have been discussed. Altogether, Reliability Centered Maintenance is one of the most powerful asset management strategies that can be used in every industry section. If the RCM is applied by right people and by the right way, the result can be profitable for the mining companies.

The maintenance of railway infrastructure has in several instances been changed from government-based to being based on public procurement, with varying degrees of flexibility for the contractor to design their maintenance work. The purpose of-giving contractors a larger freedom of choice of how to perform maintenance is to stimulate them to innovate and develop their maintenance processes. Since the contracts differ in between and there are changes in government policies over time that affects both existing and new contracts, a comparison between different contracts becomes challenging. A literature review has been conducted to understand the change in procurement strategy and how to encourage contractors to innovate. The research questions include: What procurement strategies are there? How is maintenance evaluated? How does procurement affect the innovation opportunities for entrepreneurs?

The literature review focuses on railway maintenance and contract design between client and contractor. In total, 17 articles matched the search criteria and were selected for the review. To have successful maintenance service, five articles suggested partnering as a strategy with common goals in combination with good communication during the entirety of the contract. When selecting incentive plan, four articles mentions that a focus on performance-based incentives in combination with riskmanagement is better rather than actual payment schemes. The reason being that payment is often themain cause of conflicts between client and contractor. The scientific literature suggests that improvement in incentives improves quality of maintenance, decreases delays and technical failures. The conclusion from the literature review is that partnering in railway maintenance is considered successful. With accurate knowledge about railway assets the incentive plan becomes accurate which reduces costs.

The literature review is a part of a research project with an overall goal to develop a model to guide the selection of appropriate type of procurement strategy, contract and control of maintenance for a moresustainable railway system.

En tecknad film skapad av Pennfilm med Per Åhlin, Alicja Björk och Lasse Persson som regissörer. Filmen består av tre historier av Astrid Lindgren med karaktärerna Emil och Ida i Lönneberga. Astrids egen röst används. 

Filmen är producerad av Filmlance International AB och fick 8 miljoner i produktionsstöd från Svenska Filminstitutet. Den distribueras av SF Film och finns tillgänglig på flera plattformar. Första gången var biopremiär 25 december 2013. Den senaste plattformen var visning i SVT med påföljande tid tillgänglig i SVT Play under hösten 2016. Både tecknandet och inspelningen av musiken gjordes på ett äldre traditionellt sätt. D.v.s. alla bildrutor har tecknats för hand. Musiken har spelats in i akustisk studio under Georg Riedels ledning med hjälp musiker och musiktekniker. Till den större delen har musikernas insatser skett tillsammans och utan pålägg. Därefter har musiktekniker och Georg Riedel mixat materialet för filmmediet. 

Georg Riedel - musik

Jon Allan - ljudproducent/ljudtekniker

Filmlance International AB - producent

Pennfilm - teckning av film

SF film - distributör

Discrepancies in loudness (i.e. sensation of audio intensity) has been of great concern within the broadcast community. For television broadcast, disparities in audio levels have been rated the number one cause to annoyance by the audience. Another problem area within the broadcast and music industry is the loudness war. The phenomenon is about the strive to produce audio content to be at least as loud or louder to any other audio content that it can easily be compared with. This mindset, when deciding for audio level treatment, inevitably leads to an increase in loudness over time, and also, as a technical consequence, a decrease of utilized dynamics. The effects of the loudness war is present in both terrestrial radio transmissions as well as in music production and in music distribution platforms.

The two problems, discrepancies in loudness and the loudness war, both emanate from the same source; regulations of audio levels and the design of measurement gear have not been amended to cope with modern production techniques. At the time when the work on this thesis started, the ruling technical recommendations for audio level alignment were based on peak measurement. This measured entity has poor correspondence to loudness. To counter the above described problems, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has developed new recommendations for audio alignment, EBU R 128 and ITU-R BS.1770. The new definitions for loudness measurement constitutes simplified models on the human perception of audio intensity. When using the new recommendations in production, the problems have been shown to diminish.

For an engineer in a live broadcast scenario, measurement equipment also need to be updated in real-time to illustrate a time-variant loudness of the signal. EBU and ITU also has regulated how this type of measurement gear should behave. EBU Tech 3341 and ITU-R BS.1771 define properties for live loudness meters. These recommendations has since the time of publication been implemented in measurement equipment from manufacturers and become available in production facilities.

This thesis investigates the conceptions that have led up to the present recommendations for live loudness meters. It maps out the (at the time) present ways to evaluate the same. Emanating from this knowledge, a new methodology to evaluate loudness meters is proposed that combines qualities from former methods to achieve an alternative balance between ecological validity and control in the experiment design. The methodology includes a procedure to capture data from engineers’ actions and the resulting audio levels from simulated broadcast scenarios. The methodology also incorporates a way to process this type of data into different parameters to be more accessible for interpretation. It presents an approach to model the data, by the use of linear mixed models, to describe different effects in the parameters as the result of the meters’ characteristics. In addition, a review on publications that examine the engineers’ own requests for beneficial qualities in a loudness meter has been condensed and revised into a set of meter criteria that specifically is designed to be applied on the outcome of the mixed models. The outcome of the complete evaluation yields statements on meter quality that are different and complementary to formerly proposed methods for meter evaluation.

The methodology has been applied in two different studies, which also are accounted for in the thesis. The conclusions from these studies has led to an increased understanding of how to design live loudness meters to be satisfactory tools to the engineer. Examples of findings are: the effect of the speed of the meter, as being controlled by one or several time constants, on the readability of the meter and the dispersion in output levels – some tested candidates, with higher speed than the present recommended ones, has been shown to be adequate as tools; the three-second integration time has been shown to generate a smaller dispersion in output levels than the 400 ms integration time; the effect of the gate in BS.1771 on the resulting output levels– the gate generally leading to an increase in output levels. The acquired knowledge may be used to improve the present recommendations for audio level alignment, from EBU and ITU.

Although a majority of the listening is done on headphones today, most, if not all, televised arena sports is still mixed for loudspeakers. By providing binaural audio for headphones listening, the qualities of surround sound could potentially be experienced on headphones. To find out if this holds true, 13 subjects with experience of critical listening agreed to perform a listening test where they were asked to rate four attributes of which preference is one. To the rating of preference, they also had to argue for their thinking. Lastly, further attributes and qualities was collected to find what attributes seem to be of greatest importance for rating of arena sports in binaural. The results show no statistical significance when comparing the ratings of the binaural and stereo mix for each attribute, and the sample group is clearly disagreeing what stimuli to rate the highest. The collection of qualitative data gave better results and could be summarized to seven attributes of which four appeared in the data from more than half of the test subject. With this result it is clear that more research is needed to find what the most important aspects of binaural mixing are, and how binaural audio best can be used for televised arena sports.

Purpose – The purpose of this master thesis is to gain a better understanding of how value creation can be achieved with digital solutions in the energy industry. More specifically, this research aims to increase the understanding of factors that affect customer value in form of exploring the customers’ digital wants and needs.

Method – This master thesis uses a combination of exploratory and descriptive approach which is based on qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews with area experts and focus groups with customers. In this study three area experts and four focus groups were included. The gathered data were analyzed through an abductive analysis approach and a thematic coding.

Findings – The research found three main findings that energy company’s need to take into consideration. The first is that the energy industry needs to simplify the energy concept since customers’ state that the industry is too complex at the moment. Second is that value creation can be achieved in form of a superior mobile application where customers’ have the ability to follow their consumption and can gain improved customer care. The last main finding from this study show that there may be a lot of changes in the energy industry in the future, which entails many possibilities for energy companies to improve customer value.

Recommendations – The recommendations from this study is that energy companies need to address that the driving force to buy in the energy industry is that customers want to like their energy company. The energy industry must change their focus and provide marketing strategies that are appealing to the customers’ emotions. Companies in the energy industry also need to deal with the increasing digitalization that is affecting society everywhere. The development of a great mobile application will improve a lot of things for the customers such as making their consumption controllable and easier to grasp, which will make them more satisfied. It is also recommended that energy companies in Sweden unite and together make a proposition to the EU to drop the regulations on electricity charges in order to unlock energy companies’ ability to make energy subscription customer friendly.

Research contribution – This master thesis contributes to the three dimensions that customer value derived from, in the energy industry digital solutions affect functional and emotional value but has low impact on social value. It also occurred that simplicity, control, better information and customers’ buy with their heart are key factors that contributes to customer value in the industry, which contributes to both theoretical and practical. Digitalization are also moving fast in the energy industry which companies need to embrace right away and take action to not fall behind.

Paper type – Master thesis

Purpose – The research purpose is to add insights to the project management literature by studying a global project encompassing Chinese and Western project participants, to possibly increase the understanding of how project alignment can be achieved.

Method – The analytical approach for this abductive and explorative study was anchored in a six-phase thematic analysis (Clarke & Braun, 2014). A single-case study approach was used encompassing 17 interviews and 61 days of observations at a multinational manufacturing firm in China. 

Results - Both Chinese and Western project managers consider project effectiveness and efficiency when evaluating project success. However, there are several key nuances that separate the two groups, as Western project managers focus on customer satisfaction through efficient methods when evaluating project performance, whereas Chinese project managers focus on internal satisfaction through effective methods. The different viewpoints although similar affect the ability of manufacturing organizations to achieve alignment within global projects. To achieve alignment within global projects manufacturing organisations need to focus on three types of alignment while accounting for the nuanced view on project success; objective alignment, role alignment and internal alignment.

Theoretical implications – Our study proposes an emergent model reducing the complexity of achieving alignment in global projects. The model contains three new types of alignment (objective, role and internal) that are actionable and direct compared to previous alignment types. The alignment types aids in the unification of Chinese and Western project managers view on project success.

Practical implications – We expand the understanding of the Chinese and Western view on project success and provide insight into how alignment can be achieved in global projects. Our findings suggest that project managers should first achieve objective alignment before addressing role and later internal alignment in efforts to increase project performance. 

Alla är sig själv närmast. Och vi gör oftast som vi är vana att göra. Vi styrs av de normer och värderingar som har format oss - även om vi tror att vi är innovativa. Resultatet riskerar att bli lösningar som diskriminerar och begränsar. En stor utmaning är att förstå andra människors behov. Om vi kan använda ett normkritiskt perspektiv och se bortom våra egna ramar kan vi nå en större potential inom innovation. Men att förverkliga den potentialen är lättare sagt än gjort. Det krävs vad vi kallar normkreativitet. Normkreativitet bygger på en medvetenhet om att normer och värderingar kan begränsa och diskriminera. Men den kräver också ett analytiskt arbete att undersöka människors verkliga situation och djupliggande behov - och samtidigt ett kreativt arbete att omsätta kritik och kunskap i nya lösningar. NOVA innehåller konkreta verktyg och handfasta metoder för alla som vill skapa sådana normkreativa lösningar. Materialet är baserat på praktiskt erfarenhet och forskning från en mängd olika projekt och studier. Formatet är valt för att gynna kreativitet och samverkan. Fokus är på normer som diskriminerar, men egentligen är innehållet användbart i alla innovationssammanhang. All innovation handlar ju om att utmana normer.

Mixing audio is not only an aural activity, but also, becoming increasingly more visual, and connections between the engineer’s action and interface are not yet fully understood. This study aimed to investigate how different amounts and types of data displayed in parametric equalizers impact mix decisions and workflow. A usability test with audio engineer students were conducted. The test consisted of three different interfaces with variable information displayed and subjects were to perform six common equalization tasks. Two categories of stimuli were used, surgical and aesthetic. The parameters that were measured was effectiveness, efficiency, workflow, and preference. A post session questionnaire was also conducted. Each interface and category were compared and a t-test for each comparison were conducted. Task completion and time for task completion were determined and calculated. Eight t-tests were also conducted between interfaces. Parameters adjusted, order of adjustment, and most used parameter were determined. Preference ratings were categorized and analyzed. The results show that the EQ with graphic display performed better for the surgical category. Significant differences were also found for the surgical category between interfaces with most dissimilarities. The workflow tended to alternate between interface designs. The preference rating showed a clear preference for the interface with graphic display.

Construction machines use quick couplers to rapidly change the attached tool. The gear lets the machine operator control the hooking and unhooking of the tool from inside of the cabin. This saves time and makes construction work much easier for the workers. The quick coupler is most commonly used on excavators, placed at the outer end of the excavator arm. The tool which the quick coupler connects to needs to have an adapter welded on it for the coupling process to work. Both quick coupler and adapter are equipped with hydraulic quick couplings, the female halves in the quick coupler and the male halves in the adapter. They connect the distribution of hydraulic fluid from the machine to the tool. This master thesis, in industrial design engineering, is focusing on developing a test equipment that can ensure the quality of hydraulic quick couplings. The project is done in collaboration with the company Steelwrist, which requests that the equipment can detect if the couplings are leaking, in both connected and unconnected state, as well as, measuring the internal friction and spring forces that occur during the connection and disconnection. 

The project was carried out through a design process with four phases, inspired by ‘the double diamond process’. The used process consists of three sessions of diverging and converging in the form of first widely exploring followed by taking focused actions. The focus in the first phase was to discover information about safety, quality, measurements and instruments, along with conducting interviews and observations in order to understand the current state at the company. In the second phase was the specification and workflow of the new test equipment defined. In the following phase the development of the test equipment started. First by generating hundreds of potential solutions to partial functions, which could be divided into five concepts that were parallely developed and evaluated. In the last phase was the best of the five concepts finalized and constructed in CAD, in order to deliver models and drawings on the final design. 

The main focus in the developing and evaluating process has been to create a as safe product as possible. The positions needed to be performed by the operator were extensively investigated and the ergonomics were highly prioritized. Another important factor was the simplicity of the machine components of the test equipment.

The project resulted in a complete solution for a new testing station, consisting of storage for adapters, spare parts and documents, along with the test equipment in the shape of a floor standing machine. The test equipment seals the hydraulic quick coupling half, which is meant to be tested, towards an adapter with a pneumatic cylinder. A servo motor then moves the opposite quick coupling half in order to enable the connection and disconnection. The last mentioned coupling half is attached to a load cell which measures the force. The existing leak detection instrument is connected to the test equipment in order to fill the test object with air in the different states.

Purpose

In Sweden, gender mainstreaming policies have a long political history. As part of the national gender equality strategy of the Swedish forest industry, the ten largest forestry companies committed themselves to gender mainstream their policies. Limiting the impact of policies and the agency of change, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the varied and conflicting meanings and constitution of the concepts, the problem and, in extent, the organisational realities of gender mainstreaming.

Design/methodology/approach

In both, implementation and practice, gender mainstreaming posse challenges on various levels and by analysing these documents as practical texts from the WPR-approach. This paper explores constructions of gender and gender equality and their implications on the practice and the political of gender mainstreaming in a male-dominated primary industry.

Findings

The results show that the organisations themselves were not constituted as the subject of the policy but instead some of the individuals (women). The subject position of women represented in company policy was one of lacking skills and competences and in the need of help. Not only men and the masculine norms but organisational processes and structures were also generally invisible in the material. Power and conflict were mainly absent from the understanding of gender equality. Instead, consenting ideas of gender equality were the focus. Such conceptualisations of gender equality are beneficial for all risk concealing power structures and thereby limit the political space for change.

Originality/value

By highlighting the scale of policy and the significance of organisational contexts, the results indicate how gender and gender equality are constitutive through the governing technologies of neoliberal and market-oriented ideologies in policy – emphasising the further limiting of space for structural change and politicalization within the male-dominated organisations of Swedish forest industry.

I debatten om Sveriges prestationer när det gäller innovation och entreprenörskap blandas lovord med domedagsprofetior. Det pratas bland annat om svenska paradoxer och entreprenöriella klimatförändringar, men utifrån en rad olika källor och definitioner. I denna rapport reder nio forskare, från de tre ledande innovationsforskningscentrumen CESIS, CiiR och CIRCLE, ut begreppen. De levererar en nyanserad bild av Sverige som innovations- och kunskapsnation.• Hur står sig ”det nya Sverige” i en internationell jämförelse?• Existerar den svenska paradoxen?• I vilket land får en investerad FoU-krona störst effekt?• Och är sambandet mellan nyföretagande och innovation alltid positivt?Detta är några av de frågor som får svar. Rapporten har produceratsi samarbete mellan VINNOVA och ESBRI.

For a long time, the function of the musical score has been to support activity in video games, largely by reinforcing the drama and excitement. Rather than leave the score in the background, this project explores the interaction possibilities of an adaptive video game score using real-time modulation of granular synthesis. This study evaluates a vertically re-orchestrated musical score with elements of the score being played back with granular synthesis. A game level was created where parts of the musical score utilized one granular synthesis stem, the parameters of which were controlled by the player. A user experience study was conducted to evaluate the granular synthesis interaction. The results show a wide array of user responses, opinions, impression and recommendations about how the granular synthesis interaction was musically experienced. Some results show that the granular synthesis stem is regarded as an interactive feature and have a direct relationship to the background music. Other results show that interaction went unnoticed. In most cases, the granular synthesis score was experienced as comparable to a more conventional game score and so, granular synthesis can be seen a new interactive tool for the sounddesigner. The study shows that there is more to be explored regarding musical interactions within games.

Effektivitetsparadoxen, där flödeseffektivitet vägs mot resurseffektivitet, är en utmaning sominnebär en balansgång mellan resursers värdeadderande tid och flödesenhetersvärdemottagande tid. Viking Malt, ett av Europas största mälterier, är ett företag som tampasmed detta ställningstagande. Examensarbetet är genomfört vid deras produktionsanläggning iHalmstad där effektivitetsproblem uppdagats som en konsekvens av långa och varierandecykeltider i lastningsprocesser. Implikationerna blir försvårad planering och nekande avtilläggsbeställningar, varpå ytterligare kundsamarbeten uteblir. Dessutom finns ett missnöjebland de anställda som berör icke-ergonomiska arbetsmoment, vilket kan hämma effektivitetoch arbetssäkerhet.

Syftet med examensarbetet har därför varit att utreda och ta fram rekommendationer för hurViking Malt kan arbeta för att effektivisera lastningsprocesserna. Dessutom förväntas arbetetbidra med ökad processkännedom samt förbättrad ergonomi och säkerhet. Syftet har uppnåttsgenom ett Sex Sigma projekt där problemlösningsmetodiken DMAIC tillämpats. Underexamensarbetets gång inriktades arbetet alltmer mot den lastningsprocess i vilken malten fyllsdirekt i en container, i rapporten benämnd loading (container).

Examensarbetet har genom analyser av observationer, intervjuer och sekundärdata kunnatidentifiera faktorer som orsakat ett ojämnt flöde och icke-ergonomiska arbetsmoment.Förbättringsförslag har därför utformats för att motverka problematiken. Förslagen som beröreffektivitetsförbättringar har simulerats i syfte att validera dess trovärdighet och bidra medrealistiska kalkyler.

En åtgärdsplan med lösningsförslag till icke-ergonomiska arbetsuppgifter och ineffektivalastningsprocesser har upprättats, vilket förutspås gagna fallorganisationens fortsattaförbättringsarbete. Konceptuellt framtogs ett ergonomiförbättrande verktyg som förväntasförbättra arbetsmiljö och ergonomi. De ekonomiskt kvantifierbara förslagen beräknas ökalastningskapaciteten med drygt 10,5 procent, vilket motsvarar en ökad bruttovinst med 1 047500 kronor årligen.

Today's manufacturing industry faces hard competition, both in the form of competitor's low cost outsourcing and to reduce labour cost. Increased public consciousness for environmental pollution and stricter government legislation are also drivers for a more efficient product development process and companies competing on the global market must continue to improve there methods and tools to gain an advantage. The company's intellectual properties and the ability to capitalize on experience from earlier projects becomes a key factor when competing on the global market. This thesis work explores the mechanisms for knowledge reuse and suggests methods and tools involved in the product development process to improve the use of manufacturing experience in order to prevent manufacturing flaws to reoccur in new product development programs. The research is carried out in a project funded by the Swedish research agency VINNOVA together with the industry, through the MERA program. The project aims to improve the Digitally Linked Process and has a focus on Experience reuse. An initial research question was formulated to address the problem and guide the research towards a better understanding; "How can experience from manufacturing processes be tied and reused to impact the definition of governing product and process definition?" A study was set up to investigate the current practices and to aid the research in formulating an approach to improve methods and tools for Reuse of Manufacturing Experience (RoME). The study was conducted at two companies, one in the aerospace industry and one in the automobile industry. The "How" and "Why" questions supported a case study approach The study provided a better understanding of the problem and pointed at a number of opportunities to increase the use of manufacturing experience. One of the findings pointed out in the survey was the lack of a working process for preventing recurrence of a bad design in manufacturing. Furthermore, the study revealed a potential improvement in the use of capability data and problem reports that are captured and stored in databases, today more or less solely used in manufacturing. A new research question was formulized as the improvement of the RoME process where set in focus; "How can the process of experience reuse from manufacturing phases be improved to better impact earlier phases in product development?" The current process for finding and accessing process capability data from a Design Engineering perspective were investigated and described as well as the process to retrieve problem report notifications regarding specific design features of a component. The process where found to be both time consuming and tedious, and as a result of that, seldom used by design engineers. Key enablers having a significant impact on the RoME process where identified. The ability to find and access experience captured in the manufacturing phase. The ability to provide data in a context familiar for the receiver in order to facilitate the learning process. An improved process for reuse of manufacturing experience is proposed and includes methods and techniques to target system integration for search and access. A service oriented product life cycle management (PLM) architecture is proposed as a mean to address the topic of finding and accessing manufacturing data. The standard for PLM Services 2.0 provided by the Object Management Group (OMG) and the increased maturity of web service technology provide the possibility to integrate knowledge rich engineering application in a dispersed heterogeneous system environment. The ability to provide data in a context that is familiar to the receiver is addressed by developing a web based graphical user interface (GUI). The web based GUI presents the manufacturing data in a design context where manufacturing process capability data and problem report notifications are presented in a component view. This supports the design engineer when searching for relevant experience from earlier projects by associating the process capability data and problem reports to a specific design feature, e.g. a flange, and how it relate to the manufacturing process. A web based application is developed to demonstrate the concept. The application presents the product assembly (bill of material) together with the manufacturing process activities and corresponding process capability data in the same view, providing a contextual environment that is tailored for the receiver.

Globalization, public environmental concern and government legislation are challenging the Swedish industry to be more efficient and increase its efforts in research and in the development of methods and tools for product development and production. Furthermore, the manufacturing industry is changing from producing solely hardware products towards the inclusion of services or soft offers to add more value for the customer. As a result, there are an increased number of stakeholders involved in the early phases of product development that has an interest in the products design and performance during its life cycle. This challenges the way we manage and share experience internally as well as between companies.The intellectual property of a company is a key asset when competing on the global market; hence, the ability to capitalize on experiences from a company’s development processes as well as products in use becomes increasingly important. Also, the European manufacturing industry and the EU commission conclude that the industry has to move from being "Resource-based" to "Knowledge based" to add more value and avoid competing solely on low-cost. It is recognized that an expensive manufacturing solution has a negative effect on a products total life cycle cost and the ability to earn profit. Hence, manufacturing processes is constantly a target for improvement efforts and experience gained in manufacturing has a potentially high impact on design decisions in new projects.The aim of the research presented here is to improve manufacturability and avoid reoccurrence of design flaws in ongoing or new projects. The research has provided a better understanding of the mechanisms for experience re-use and developed methods and tools for feedback of experience from the manufacturing phase back to the earlier phases in the products life cycle. The work has been carried out within two projects funded by the Swedish governmental agency for Innovation Systems and industry. The first project was DLP-E, Digitally Linked Processes with a focus on Experience re-use and the second project was Robust Machining, aiming for more robust machining processes within manufacturing.The research approach has been to combine the design research methodology and participatory action research. These methodologies together with an initial research question have guided the work:RQ: “How can experience from manufacturing processes be tied and reused to impact the governing product and process definition?”Branches within engineering research committed to his area are concurrent engineering and design for manufacturing although this has usually been limited to general rules of thumb and qualitative methods for designers. Recently however, statistical methods such as Design for Six Sigma and other methods for Robust Design are introduced to affect earlier phases of PD to achieve improved manufacturability.Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE), represents a technology that provide the means to capture and automatically re-use engineering knowledge in an engineering design environment. Methods and tools from this area have been used as an initial approach in this research. A functional product perspective puts a focus on the activity where the product is used rather than on the tangible product itself. From an experience feedback perspective, experience is gained during these activities and possibly re-used if there is a learning process.This thesis presents an initial descriptive case study at two manufacturing companies that provided a better understanding of current practices for experience re-use and identified factors that influenced the feedback of manufacturing experience in product development. Based on initial assumptions and the results from the first descriptive study, a theory on the mechanism for experience feedback and requirements on a manufacturing system was formulated in a prescriptive study. A second descriptive study utilized a prototype to identify if the theory was applicable in an industrial environment and if it addressed the factors it was supposed to address. The research has been an iterative process, whereas results from the descriptive studies have influenced new prescriptive studies, delivering methods and tools, which in turn have influenced the ongoing work at the company where the research was conducted.The main contribution from the research is a framework to support re-use of manufacturing experience. The framework decompose the multifaceted task of experience re-use by identifying typical activities involved in the feedback process and categorizing the “elements of experience” in terms of knowledge, information and data. Combined with an engineering process improvement approach, processes are streamlined and value is added to the product. KBE techniques are used to capture and re-use product and process knowledge in an integrated manner. The applicability of the result has been validated in descriptive studies as well as within company improvement efforts.The research supports a frontloading approach in product development by enabling manufacturing experience to have an impact on the design definition in the early phases of product development. As a consequence, the risk for costly re-design later on in a project is reduced.

The ability to capitalize on company knowledge and experience earned in various projects is recognized as key assets in the competition on the growing global market. Methods and tools are constantly evolving, still there is a frustration over repeated design flaws and design engineers has a difficult task to find and use manufacturing experience from earlier projects. This paper outlines a process improvement approach where the engineering process is described andanalysed to find bottlenecks. Examples from other engineering processes are presented along with a prototype of a knowledge application to resolve identified issues with the manufacturing feedback process.Experience and knowledge are closely related, hence a knowledge life cycle explain the different stepswith a "capturing" and "deploying" side.The feedback processes for manufacturing experience is analysed where search & find together with contextualisation of experience data are recognised as key mechanisms. A knowledge application is presented that presents experience data from different repositories in a way that is logic for the receiver. This reduces the lead-time and increase the quality of the feedback process.

Life cycle responsibility for manufacturing companies increases the service content coupled to the product. One consequence is that transferring knowledge gained from all life cycle phases has an even more decisive impact on the definition of the product concept, here referred to as the functional product. The paper focuses on transferring experiences from the manufacturing phase and how to account for these in the design phase. Based on an empirical study at two companies, an automotive and one aeronautical company, current practices were identified. Manufacturing experiences are captured and managed in a manufacturing context whereas the use of experience in the design phase is discussed. Finally a generic approach to support the use life cycle experiences in earlier phases of product development is suggested, where the design and manufacturing case serves as an example.

The ability to learn from ongoing and previous projects is important for companies to become, and maintain, competitive. Hence efficient methods and tools for both capturing and reusing experience in all life cycle phases of the product is a key enabler to keep and gain an advantage in product development companies. By definition, PSS combines "features" applicable to different life cycle phases, e.g. reusability when disposed, serviceability in aftermarket, manufacturability in manufacturing, etc. The "total offer" must take into account all aspects and coherently map these into a receiver context to support the design engineer in his work. In particular - the design phase is important since both the products, its realization and accompanying services are to a large extent decided in the early phases. This paper presents an industrial case demonstrating the mapping and contextualization of manufacturing experience to provide engineers relevant context when defining and designing the PSS

A manufacturing company’s unique intellectual capital is to a largeextent built on experience from its own product development andmanufacturing processes. Thus, methods and tools to utilize and benefit fromthis experience in an efficient way have an impact on a company’s ability tostay competitive and advance on the global market. Knowledge BasedEngineering (KBE) is an engineering methodology to capture engineeringknowledge systematically into the design system. Hence, KBE tools areconsidered to support experience re-use and improve engineering activities.This paper presents the results from a study where the objective was toinvestigate the support for experience re-use in KBE applications in anaerospace company. A proposed framework is presented to analyze thecapturing and use of experience in a company’s processes identifying gaps andpropose improvements. The study revealed weaknesses in the process steps forexperience feedback which can be used to improve KBE applications further.

New generations of environmentally friendly and safe vehicles require manufacturing of light weight materials with higher strength and, as a consequence, tougher machining conditions and increased machining robustness. There is a lack of practical and reliable methods and tools to meet these challenges in the automotive industry. The very complex system of machine tool, fixture, cutting tools and the machined part is almost impossible to model without complementary measurements of the real system at the factory floor in full production. Using Virtual Engineering together with studies of machining processes the project team will assess these challenges.

When recording classical instruments, access to a physical space of acoustic properties associated with classical music might not always be available. This study seeks to investigate if classical music recorded in an environment with a short reverberation time can be treated with an impulse response from a concert hall and still maintain the same sense of naturalness. The study is broken down into three phases of analysis. Phase one seeks to analyze to what extent people can tell the difference between the two reverberation types: real recorded reverberation and convolution reverb. Phase two analyses if people perceive the amount of naturalness to be different between the two reverberation types. Phase three analyses the potential influence that certain spatial or timbral attributes might have on perceived amount of naturalness. Samples for the listening test were recorded in a studio, and in a classical concert hall where the impulse responses also were created. A two-part listening test (pre-study and main study) was conducted utilizing a 5.1 surround sound speaker system. The results showed that the convolution reverb could replace the real recorded reverbation to a small- to fair degree, and still maintain the same sense of naturalness. 

In this longitudinal case study, the authors integrate the theory on social movement with the entrepreneurship literature on opportunity discovery, evaluation, and exploitation. They construct a model on collaborative entrepreneurial processes in which multiple partners are involved in identifying, forming, and exploiting an opportunity. Three interdependent subprocesses are identified: (1) the opportunity conceptualization dialogue, (2) resource mobilization and, (3) legitimacy building, which significantly contribute to our understanding of how individuals across different organizations become engaged in collaborative entrepreneurial processes. The model of collaborative entrepreneurial processes complements traditional models of the entrepreneurial process, which place the individual entrepreneur at the center of the process and does not consider group mobilization processes in which the actors aim to be creative and innovative in collaborating with actors from other organizations or firms.

Current optical flow-based neural networks for particle image velocimetry (PIV) are largely trained on synthetic datasets emulating real-world scenarios. While synthetic datasets provide greater control and variation than what can be achieved using experimental datasets for supervised learning, it requires a deeper understanding of how or what factors dictate the learning behaviors of deep neural networks for PIV. In this study, we investigate the performance of the recurrent all-pairs field transforms-PIV (RAFTs-PIV) network, the current state-of-the-art deep learning architecture for PIV, by testing it on unseen experimentally generated datasets. The results from RAFT-PIV are compared with a conventional cross-correlation-based method, Adaptive PIV. The experimental PIV datasets were generated for a typical scenario of flow past a circular cylinder in a rectangular channel. These test datasets encompassed variations in particle diameters, particle seeding densities, and flow speeds, all falling within the parameter range used for training RAFT-PIV. We also explore how different image pre-processing techniques can impact and potentially enhance the performance of RAFT-PIV on real-world datasets. Thorough testing with real-world experimental PIV datasets reveals the resilience of the optical flow-based method's variations to PIV hyperparameters, in contrast to the conventional PIV technique. The ensemble-averaged root mean squared errors between the RAFT-PIV and Adaptive PIV estimations generally range between 0.5–2 (px) and show a slight reduction as particle densities increase or Reynolds numbers decrease. Furthermore, findings indicate that employing image pre-processing techniques to enhance input particle image quality does not improve RAFT-PIV predictions; instead, it incurs higher computational costs and impacts estimations of small-scale structures.

Many incumbent corporations make equity investments in young technological start-ups to enhance their innovation effectiveness, and the great majority syndicate at least some of their investments with other incumbents. While syndication is generally held to benefit incumbent corporations, this study demonstrates that it may also be detrimental to corporate innovation, by elaborating the notion of an information exchange paradox - essentially, that information exchanges within CVC networks must, somehow, be both open and closed at the same time. Corporations must try to appropriate the knowledge championed by their investees and fellow-investors, but also protect their own know-how from leaking to competitors. Unlike prior CVC research, we demonstrate that knowledge sharing in open innovation forums may be counterproductive. Using a unique data set of the investment decisions made by 163 corporations over four years we show that, for some, participating in syndicate networks may involve losses that outweigh their gains. Our analysis establishes two key findings. First, corporations need to consider the trade-off between the number of ventures they support and the position they take in their syndication networks. The best strategies appear to be maximizing isolationist (supporting many ventures but staying away from the network centre) or minimizing centralist (supporting few ventures, but occupying a central network position) - the other two options (maximizing centralist and minimizing isolationist strategies) are far less effective in converting CVC investments into corporate innovation. Second, this picture is particularly applicable to highly concentrated industries dominated by several powerful incumbents: in fragmented industries these strategy differences are far less pronounced, so the choice of CVC syndication strategy will depend on other considerations. This supports a contingency view of syndication, implying that ensuring incumbent corporations really benefit from equity investments in start-ups is a not a trivial task for their managers

Contrary to the conventional wisdom, this study demonstrates that technological laggards and not industry front-runners are most likely to experience high rates of technological advancement in strategic alliances. We further suggest that imitation and not innovation is the primary source of such advancement based on the fact that technological progress by laggards is most visible in industries that lack strong appropriability regimes. Finally, we present empirical evidence suggesting that lagging established corporations prefer to imitate from startups and not from fellow-incumbents. These results are derived from a careful analysis of a longitudinal sample of over 150 incumbents with varying degree of technological prowess who engage in partnerships with both startups and fellow-incumbents across a wide representation of industries. Our paper contributes to technological innovation, strategic alliance, entrepreneurship, and imitation literatures and provides non-trivial implications for startups.

Research on corporate venture capital (CVC) has consistently proven its importance for innovation and other strategic goals, yet information on the antecedents of CVC activity is scarce. This study provides theoretical arguments for the role of governance factors including board, CEO, and institutional ownership characteristics. Empirical evidence from an international sample of global CVC investments shows that factors such as having a board with multiple board mandates and institutional ownership are important factors for CVC activity. The conclusion is that the role of governance factors is important, and that subsequent research should not ignore this group of factors.

Entrepreneurs respond to opportunities that come in two basic forms: innovation and arbitrage. This article presents a technique called the minimum performance inefficiency (MPI) estimation method that could be used to estimate arbitrage opportunities. The technique has several advantages over the conceptually similar data envelopment analysis (DEA) and other techniques. The authors validate the technique with a well-known data set and illustrate its use based on secondary data from the publishing industry.

Despite the widespread assumptions of the positive relationship between start-up rates and innovation, the empirical support for this conjecture in the crosscountry context is largely lacking. We draw upon recent advances in the entrepreneurship literature to propose that the relationship between start-up rates and innovation is not uniformly positive, as expected by the early scholars of entrepreneurship, but instead depends on the country's stage of development. The relationship is positive in the developed countries, but negative in countries in early development stages. On balance, there is a weak negative association between start-up rates and innovation. We test our hypotheses on a multi-source dataset that covers 35 countries over the period from 1996 to 2002. The relationships are robust to the choice of three moderators and two dependent variables, as well as a number of post-hoc tests. Our findings indicate that broad-strokes policy efforts that aim at promotion of entrepreneurship as a means to boost country innovativeness may be misguided, and instead suggest a contingency approach.

In this study we investigate the relationship between technological arbitrage opportunities and entry rates in twenty-six industries over the course of five years. Arbitrage opportunities are shown to be a positive and significant predictor of business entry rates. Such positive effect is weakened in industries with strong appropriability regime including effective patents, secrecy, and lead time. Adding arbitrage opportunities to the typical determinants of entrepreneurship such as innovative opportunities significantly increases predictive power of the regression models.

Despite the impressive development of substantive theories in entrepreneurship, without the development of measurement theories, further advancement of the field is problematic. In particular, the notion of opportunities, central to entrepreneurship research, requires adequate macro-level operationalization. We demonstrate how to employ data envelopment analysis (DEA) to operationalize not only innovative opportunities, but also technological arbitrage opportunities. We provide an illustrative example based on a sample of 66 countries during the period of 1993-2002. We include estimates of innovative and arbitrage opportunities for possible use by other scholars, discuss the promise and limitations of such estimates, demonstrate how both innovative and arbitrage opportunities correlate with the rates of entrepreneurial activity, and suggest several possible directions for future research.