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The rise of cryptocurrencies has reshaped the financial landscape, with Bitcoin emerging as the flagship digital asset. The market dynamics of Bitcoin exhibit extreme volatility, heavy tails and asymmetrical returns. The increasing mainstream acceptance of Bitcoin has spurred the development of cryptocurrency derivatives. The rapid growth of this emerging market has not yet been matched by suffici

Problematic school absenteeism signals students’ need for support and is a growing social issue that challenges schools' efforts to promote attendance. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to explore school counselors’ understanding of problematic absenteeism, as well as the school's remedial and preventive work to promote attendance. The study employed a qualitative approach and cons

Growing environmental concerns have brought a focus to the impact of building materials. In response, biobased alternatives are being explored for their potential to reduce embodied carbon, support circularity, as well as improve indoor environmental quality. This is particularly important in Scandinavia, where moisture-related issues are common, there is a growing need for locally available mater

Although remote video communications are prevalent, they lack some natural aspects of usual human interactions. To an extent, these aspects can be reintroduced by immersive technologies and human digital representations, the avatars. A commonly occurring challenge faced by such Extended Reality applications is communication between dissimilar spaces, i.e. spaces with different layouts. In such la

Given the need to mitigate adverse impacts of fossil fuel phase-outs, this thesis investigates whetherjust energy transitions lead to inclusive and place-based outcomes, focusing on the Just EnergyTransition (JET) in South Africa. Using a political economy and procedural justice lens, and drawing oninterviews with key stakeholders, the study explores the inclusivity of decision-making processes in

Whereas Nordic education always has been freely accessible to its countries’ citizens, the commodification of education is no new phenomenon to the rest of the world. Nor is the idea of abroad studies, which Chinese students have pursued for decades. With Nordic educational offers available amongst many others within the global higher education market, it becomes of interest how this well-establis

What does it mean to have a virtual body and to use it in the virtual space? This thesis examines the daily activities of VRChat users in their virtual avatars, with a focus on the entanglement of the virtual nature of the avatars and the realities being brought into the avatars by the users. Based on my ethnography in VRChat, I have examined the mutual influence of virtuality and reality in terms

This study examines the everyday life and mobility patterns of shoe shiners in La Paz and focuses in particular on the perspective of female shoe shiners. Shoe shining is a stigmatized profession in La Paz. Based on Lefebvre’s theory of the right to the city, the study investigates the means through which shoe shiners are able to access and use public space—especially through the payment of patent

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between ESG performance and firm performance across the five tiger cub economies of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, and to see whether it is affected by institutional factors of regulatory quality and government effectiveness. Theoretical Perspective: The theoretical framework of this study is primarily

Based on a sample of 591 emerging market private equity funds from the Preqin database, this paper investigates the relationship between fund structural characteristics and relative performance. Benchmark-adjusted internal rate of return (BAIRR) is used to measure performance, and a cross-sectional regression model is constructed with fund size, GP experience, investment strategy, and investme

The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding regarding how craftspeople experience managing their craft identity when faced with the issues pertaining economic survival for their company. Specifically we hope to understand how they experience and manage liminality. The study expands the literature on liminality (Beech, 2011; Ibarra & Obodaru, 2016) by extending it to the area of c

As the climate crisis has intensified in the 21st century, the role of ESG has become increasingly important in the international community. As the largest developing country, China has also been actively promoting ESG development. In September 2020, at the United Nations Climate Summit, China announced its “dual carbon” targets—to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality

This study examines the impact of the European Green Bond Standard on the pricing of green bonds in the European bond market. The EU Green Bond Standard entered into force in December 2023 and its purpose is to enhance transparency and investor confidence by providing a clear framework for green bond issuance. Using a matched sample of 105 green and conventional bond pairs with weekly yield data,

This paper focuses on the detection of structural breaks in the second-order matrices of multivariate time series. A comprehensive simulation-based comparison is conducted to measure the performance of three widely cited nonparametric methods that allow for serial dependence in the data: the pure CUSUM procedure with binary segmentation in Aue et al., (2009), the CUSUM-based sparsified binary segm

In this paper, we examine 1437 merger and acquisition (M&A) events that took place between 2015 and 2019 in China, comparing the short-term stock return performance of domestic and cross-border M&A. After that, we further compare the long-term market performance of domestic versus cross-border M&A transactions and investigate the impact of firm-specific and market-related factors on on

This thesis investigates the institutional barriers that influence the adoption and sustainability of organic agriculture among smallholder farmers in Morogoro, Tanzania. Organic agriculture presents a promising pathway for achieving sustainable intensification and rural development, particularly in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa, where smallholders typically practice agriculture with limited s

Research on social capital has highlighted its significance for labor market integration, particularly regarding informal job search strategies. However, how do second-generation immigrants perceive and make use of social capital and its resources in Sweden's labor market? This thesis examines the relationship between the quality of social capital, measured by the occupational status of respon

This thesis investigates how the Ministry of Climate,- Energy,- and Utilities employs different environmental discourses in the Reports on Climate Effects between 2020 and 2024. Furthermore, it explores how these discourses change through the years and interrogates implications of the Ministry’s employment of specific environmental discourses. The study applies Critical Discourse Analysis grounded

This study investigates the financial effects of the European Union’s Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD), with a particular focus on whether firms’ greenhouse gas emissions influence the financial impact of these regulations. While previous research has examined the impact of ESG disclosures on financial performance, no studies have investigated whether a firm’s environmental risk, as measur

This thesis explores how the European Union (EU) constructs and adapts its identity as a normative power in light of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Historically viewed as a peace project founded on principles such as democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, the EU’s provision of military assistance and promotion of enhanced defence capabilities have raised concerns regarding