Mathias Petter Gustafsson

An absorptive capacity model for green innovation and performance in the construction industry

Applying the model of absorptive capacity (ACAP), antecedents, predictors and moderators for green innovation and performance in the construction industry are investigated. The aim is to identify mechanisms that influence green innovation and environmental performance in a construction company. Data come from a questionnaire survey assessing environmental attitudes, management and performance within the Swedish construction industry. For data analysis, linear regression analysis was used. From testing the ACAP theory and model, it was concluded that it has a promising potential in explaining mechanisms behind green innovation and performance. The application of ACAP has resulted in a revised ACAP model, green ACAP. Findings indicate that organizations can affect their capacity to absorb green innovations and improve their business performance by focusing on three predictors of green business advantage: acquisition, assimilation and transformation. As such, the green ACAP can serve as a framework for focused efforts within the construction industry.

New Issues and Paradigms in Research on Social Dilemmas

1. Introduction. Part I - Individual Level: 2. Effects of Information Structure in a Step-Level, Public-Good Dilemma under a Real-Time Protocol 3. Towards an Analysis of Cooperation and Fairness that Excludes Concepts of Cooperative Game Theory. 4. How do We React to Feedback in Social Dilemmas? 5. A New Look at the Theory of Social Value Orientations: Prosocials neither Maximize Joint Outcomes nor Minimize Outcome Differences but Prefer Equal Outcomes Part II - Group Level 6. A Classification of Games by Player Type 7. A Recursive Model for Changing Justice Concerns in Social Dilemmas 8. Group-Based Trust and Cooperation in a Sequential Dilemma 9. Effects of Uncertainty in the Give- or Take Some (GOTS) Game Part III - Societal Level 10. Will Lessons from Small-Scale Social Dilemmas Scale Up? 11. The Emergence of Generalized Exchange via Indirect Reciprocity 12. Effectiveness of Coercive and Voluntary Institutional Solutions 13. Sheep, Mouton or Kivsa? Does Culture Influence Cooperation in Social Dilemmas? 14. Resurrecting the Leviathan in Social Dilemma Research 15. Towards a Comprehensive Model of Social Dilemmas 16. Promoting Cooperation in Social Dilemmas via Fairness Norms and Group Goals 17. Using Genetic Algorithms for the Study of Social Dilemmas

The short-EMBU in East-Germany and Sweden: A cross-national factorial validity extension

The factorial stability and reliability of the 23-item s(hort)-EMBU previously demonstrated to be satisfactory in samples of students from Greece, Guatemala, Hungary and Italy, were extended with 791 students from East-Germany and Sweden. Previous findings on factorial validity, internal reliability and correlations among scales were replicated. The 23-item form thus continues to be recommended as a reliable functional equivalent to the early 81-item EMBU, when the clinical and/or research context does not adequately permit application of time-consuming test batteries.

Research production in the arts and humanities

This study explored the main factors influencing the research production in the arts and humanities. A questionnaire was constructed to identify and assess the effects of various factors important for the productivity of the individual researcher as reflected in the number of papers and Ph.D.s produced. First, respondents were given the opportunity to list in their own words a number of important factors influencing research productivity. Secondly, they evaluated on rating scales the importance of a number of pre-selected factors (e.g. individual characteristics, organisational features, external factors) assumed to be important for research productivity. 50% of a sample of 256 researchers in the humanities responded. Ratings were grouped to produce a number of indices and these were subject to multiple regression analyses. The main results showed that the production of papers was predicted by the number of Ph.D.s produced and inversely related to the importance of organisational factors. The production of Ph.D.s was dependent on the year of the Ph.D. and the position of the respondent as well as on the number of papers s/he produced. A number of conclusions were drawn: a) there was support for the academic social position effect also in the humanities; b) organisational factors apparently played a minor role in comparison to individual characteristics in the humanities than in the sciences and; c) the differences in productivity of papers were also related to gender, but not to size, area or language of publications. Implications for further studies were suggested.

Egoism Bias in Social Dilemmas with Resource Uncertainty

In Experiment 1 we investigated size estimates and requests from an uncertain resource in a common-pool resource dilemma. In Experiment 2, we examined contributions in a public-good dilemma with an uncertain provision threshold when participants were informed about others’ pessimistically biased estimates of the resource size or provision threshold. Supporting an individual outcome-desirability bias, but refuting a perceptual bias and an egoism bias, participants in Experiment 1 did not estimate size differently, and they cooperated more, rather than less, when they were informed about others’ estimates. Likewise, participants contributed more in Experiment 2 when they were informed about others’ estimates. These results were replicated in Experiment 3, where the outcome did not depend on others’ requests or contributions.

Goal conflicts in political decisionmaking: a survey of municipality politicians' views of road pricing

An ongoing discussion concerns road-pricing schemes as measures to abate traffic congestion and air pollution in metropolitan areas. If such measures are to be effective, road-pricing fees must be set sufficiently high However, municipalities are likely to have other goals besides reducing car use, such as upholding fairness among citizens and financial goals such as creating revenues. If conflicts prove to exist between different goals, road-pricing schemes are not likely to achieve the environmental goal. To investigate the degree to which these goal conflicts exist, members of the local governments in the three major metropolitan areas of Sweden responded to a survey questionnaire. In the questionnaire they rated a number of principles guiding the setting of road-pricing fees hypothesized to correspond to the three goals. The results showed that, for the political majority, the hypothesized goal conflicts existed in that no single goal was optimized. It is concluded that in particular fairness may prevent road pricing achieving the environmental goal.

Outcome-Desirability Bias in Resource Management Problems

Sequences of numbers representing prior resource size were presented to participants in a common-pool resource dilemma. The numbers were sampled from uniform probability distributions with either a low variance (low resource uncertainty) or a high variance (high resource uncertainty). Presentations were both sequential and simultaneous. Three groups of 16 undergraduates either estimated the size of the resource when it did not represent value to them; requested an amount from the resource, identified with a sum of money, when the outcome of the requests only depended on resource size; or requested from the resource (sum of money) when the outcome of the requests depended on both resource size and how much others in a group requested. In support of an individual outcome-desirability bias due to selective recall of the number sequences, after sequential presentation larger requests were observed when resource uncertainty was high than when it was low. No effects of resource uncertainty or presentation were ...

The Role of VDC Professionals in the Construction Industry

The increasing use of Virtual Design and Construction, VDC, is changing the way of working in the construction industry. With the introduction of VDC follows the creation of new roles and new ways of communicating within construction projects. The overall aim of the present paper is to map industry practitioners’ view on VDC professionals’ role. This includes mapping their perceptions on what characteristics a VDC professional should possess, what roles they play today and what role they should play in the future, and also to what extent they are perceived to contribute to project success. In order to shed light on these questions a questionnaire was sent to respondents working in varying degrees with VDC, in one of Sweden’s largest construction companies. The results show that there is little agreement concerning the goals of VDC within the company. Furthermore, opinions also vary considerably with regards to what responsibilities a VDC professional ought to take within projects, and at the same time expectations of the characteristics of a VDC professional are high. Finally, the results show that there is demand for higher involvement of VDC professionals as compared to their current involvement.

Political Acceptance of Road Pricing: Goal Conflicts in Municipality Decision Making

The general aim of the research reported in this chapter is to investigate the nature of conflicts between the self-interest of municipality politicians and the governmental goals with road pricing. In structured interviews, high-ranking municipality politicians were asked to express their preferences for a number of principles, reflecting the different goals which are supposed to guide their decisions about the level of road pricing fees. Results from these interviews are presented and discussed.

Acceptance and Use of LCC as a Decision Support Tool for Renovation Investments

This paper seek to explain why LCC is used or not for renovation projects. The study is based on a theoretical explanation model called the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The model assumes that a number of factors determine whether and when individuals will use a particular technology. Two main components of the model are (1) Perceived usefulness, and (2) Perceived ease of use. The response rate was 32,3%. The results show that the climate in terms of the extent to which LCC is advocated and used by colleagues affects how the individual experience both usefulness and ease of use. Our study also demonstrates that the perceived usefulness, i.e. how well you feel that LCC can be used in your daily work, lays the foundation for if it is perceived as positive to use, and thus also a prerequisite for creating an intention to use and subsequently applying LCC in actual renovation projects. The study shows that the ease of use does not have the same effect.