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Senast publicerade

Waste-to-Energy in a Destruction Oriented System
(2026) Gullberg, Alexandra; Sjöstrand, Lukas
Energy recovery from waste is often discussed as a way to address environmental pressure, resource inefficiency, and electricity insecurity at the same time. In South Africa, however, the possibility of developing waste to energy, WtE, from healthcare risk waste, HCRW, incineration raises a more complex question. Existing incinerators already perform a necessary treatment function, but they were designed to destroy hazardous waste safely, not to recover energy. This thesis therefore examines whether the surrounding system can support a shift from destruction-oriented incineration toward WtE. The study applies a Technological Innovation Systems, TIS, framework and is based on a qualitative embedded single case study of Averda’s South African HCRW treatment activities. The analysis draws on interviews, site visits, field observations, and secondary documents, including material from the case company, regulators, experts, technology suppliers, and other relevant industry actors. The empirical material was analysed through iterative thematic analysis and subsequently interpreted through TIS structures, functions, and inducement and blocking mechanisms, with attention to the justice implications of the pathway. The findings show that the system contains some conditions that could support WtE development, including existing incineration infrastructure, operational experience, technical knowledge, and policy attention to waste and energy challenges. However, these inducements remain weak. The system is primarily organised around safe destruction, compliance, and treatment continuity rather than energy recovery. WtE development is constrained by weak market formation, unclear electricity offtake conditions, limited experimentation, ageing and manual plant infrastructure, restricted resource mobilisation, and continued dependence on established waste management practices. The thesis concludes that WtE from HCRW incineration in South Africa is technically conceivable but systemically constrained. Under current conditions, it should not be understood as an imminent or scalable electricity generation pathway, but rather as a conditional and site specific energy recovery option within a destruction oriented system.
What Makes a Leader Stand Out?
(2026) Alnahi, Mirna; Staaf, Rasmus
This study examines how leadership is interpreted, evaluated, and justified in an evaluative context by analyzing student assessments of award-winning leaders. The study is based on 232 student reports produced between 2017 and 2025 within a master- level leadership and communication course at Chalmers University of Technology. In the reports, students analyzed four leadership nominees using theoretical frameworks and justified which leader they considered most deserving of a leadership award. Using a qualitative, interpretive, and abductive research design inspired by Gioia methodology, the study identifies recurring leadership dimensions through open coding, thematic categorization, and frequency analysis. The findings are further compared to the Full Range Leadership Theory (FRLT), widely regarded as one of the most influential and widely applied frameworks in leadership research, in order to examine the extent to which the empirical findings align with or extend beyond these established frameworks. The findings show that leadership evaluations consistently emphasize dimensions related to vision and inspiration, relational leadership, empowerment and development, communication, authenticity and values, team and culture building, and leadership balance. While many of the recurring leadership dimensions aligned with FRLT, several important aspects extended beyond the traditional framework and some leadership aspects were found to be more dominating than others. In particular, students repeatedly emphasized coaching, delegation, societal purpose, psychological safety, availability, relational closeness, and developmental support, regardless of whether they explicitly used FRLT-related frameworks or alternative leadership theories. The findings also demonstrate that leadership dimensions were used both as positive and negative justifications, highlighting tensions between empowering and controlling leadership practices. The study contributes to leadership research by showing that while FRLT captures several leadership behaviors broadly associated with effective leadership, important relational and developmental dimensions as well as the dominance and tensions between dimensions remain underrepresented within the traditional framework. The findings therefore support previous critiques questioning whether FRLT can truly be considered a “full-range” theory of leadership and suggest that leadership evaluations in practice involve a broader set of dimensions than those explicitly represented in the model.
Implementing medical devices in low- and middle-income countries
(2026) Quist, Maja; Andersson Pitkänen, Linn
Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability globally, with a particularly heavy burden falling on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Despite the existence of diagnostic innovations that could improve stroke care, a persistent implementa- tion gap prevents many evidence-based technologies from reaching routine clinical use. This study examines the enabling and hampering conditions for implement- ing medical devices in stroke diagnostic processes in LMICs, using the Strokefinder MD100 in the Western Cape, South Africa as the empirical case. The study is conducted prior to implementation and applies the Consolidated Frame- work for Implementation Research (CFIR) as its primary analytical lens, comple- mented by change management theory. Data is collected through a case study de- sign, combining three qualitative methods: interviews, observation, and document study. The findings show that the Western Cape healthcare system operates under sig- nificant structural strain, shaped by resource constraints, and a fragmented stroke pathway in which most patients fall outside the treatment window. Within this con- text, Strokefinder MD100 is identified as most applicable in the early stages of the pathway, where it could support faster triage and more targeted referral decisions. Twelve conditions are identified across CFIR’s five domains as influencing imple- mentation, each capable of functioning as either enabling or hampering depending on how it is managed. Based on the findings, the study proposes a framework that differentiates imple- mentation implications along two dimensions, enabling versus hampering, and static versus dynamic, where static conditions are fixed and must be designed around, while dynamic conditions can be actively influenced. This yields four categories, each car- rying different implications for action. Furthermore, sustainability is identified as a cross-cutting condition not adequately captured within CFIR’s existing domains, and is proposed as an additional construct of particular relevance in LMIC contexts.
From Information Delivery to Patient Understanding
(2026) Chung, Sally; Johansson, Elin
Patient information in fertility care is central to how patients understand, navigate and participate in their treatment. Despite this, information practices in IVF care remain understudied from a human-centered design perspective. This study investigates how patient information is currently created, communicated and experienced across the IVF care pathway at the Reproductive Medicine Division at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, and identifies challenges and breakdowns in the Current information flow. The study was conducted in parallel with an ongoing innovation initiative, and draws on design thinking as its methodological foundation. Data was collected through thirteen semi-structured interviews with patients and healthcare professionals, a micro-ethnographic orientation including a stimulated patient journey and clinical observations, a participatory session with staff, and complementary sources including quantitative patient satisfaction data, social media and website review. The findings show that patient information is distributed across a fragmented multichannel landscape without a shared structure for ensuring continuity across the care pathway. Information is often available in technical sense but not always accessible, timely or emotionally aligned with patient’s capacity to receive it. Breakdowns in the information flow emerge at the intersection of emotional overwhelm, structural misalignment and inequitable access. Further finding concerns the consistent exclusion of partners from the information process, despite the system formally recognizing the couple as a unit of care. The study concludes that meaningful improvement in patient information practices require not only clearer content or better communication, but a systematic commitment to designing the information environment around the patient journey. The findings contribute to an understanding of how information practices in IVF care are shaped by organizational and structural conditions, and lay groundwork for the next phase of the ongoing innovation initiative.
Understanding the relationship between cost reduction and customer satisfaction within a warranty context
(2026) Fredriksson, Linus; Alm, Ingrid
This study contributes to understanding observed patterns between cost efficiency initiatives and customer experience in after-sales service contexts. The aim was to examine whether customer satisfaction changed during the period in which cost reduction initiatives were implemented within the warranty department at Volvo Cars, and to identify factors associated with satisfaction and dissatisfaction in war- ranty handling by analysing customer pain points. A case study at Volvo Cars was conducted using a mixed-method approach with an exploratory sequential design, combining qualitative analysis of survey data with subsequent quantification. The findings indicate that the share of positive comments in the analysed sample showed a slight increase from 41% to 44% between 2024 and 2025. Since no statistical sig- nificance analysis was conducted, this change should be interpreted as an observed pattern rather than evidence of a statistically confirmed increase. Five pain points were identified, primarily related to compensation coverage, warranty process han- dling, and communication. Two of these were particularly prominent, one of which accounted for nearly 50% of all comments in both years, while another showed a decrease by 30 percentage points in negative sentiment. The study does not identify a short-term decline in customer satisfaction during the period in which cost reduc- tion initiatives were implemented. However, the results highlight the importance of continuously monitoring all identified pain points, as lagged effects may appear be- yond the timeframe of the study and new risks may emerge if further cost reduction initiatives are considered in the future.