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I svensk grundskola finns idag cirka 15 % elever med annat modersmål än svenska. Som blivande speciallärare anser vi att vi behöver öka vår förståelse för hur barn lär sig och tillägnar sig ett andraspråk. Syftet med studien var att ta reda på vilka hinder, svårigheter och möjligheter några klasslärare/speciallärare beskriver i arbetet med elever med annat modersmål utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv. Vi ville också ta reda på vilka anpassningar och stöd dessa klasslärare/speciallärare ger till dessa elever. Vi valde en kvalitativ metod eftersom det passade bäst utifrån det vi ville studera. Vi intervjuade nio klasslärare och två speciallärare. Med klasslärarna genomförde vi två fokusgruppsintervjuer och med speciallärarna enskilda intervjuer. Vårt resultat visade att de lärare vi intervjuade upplevde fler hinder och svårigheter än möjligheter. Resultatet visade också att elever med annat modersmål behöver tala mer svenska och utveckla sin bakgrundskunskap till svenska språket. Det räcker inte med att endast tala svenska under korta stunder i klassrummet och på raster för att uppnå en god språkutveckling. Vår studie visade att alla lärare behöver agera som språklärare och anpassa sin undervisning och sitt arbetssätt mer för att elever med annat modersmål ska uppnå samma resultat och skolframgång som elever med svenska som modersmål. I diskussionen beskrev vi några kunskapsdimensioner som visar vad skolan som organisation och lärare/speciallärare som yrkesgrupp behöver utveckla.

Der Vertrieb von Software in ausländischen Märkten kann grundsätzlich über verschiedene Kanäle erfolgen. Somit stellt die Wahl der Form des internationalen Markteintritts eine wesentliche Gestaltungsgröße mit Auswirkungen auf die Kosten des Auslandsengagements einerseits und auf Kontrollmöglichkeiten und Kundennähe im Auslandsmarkt andererseits dar. Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist es, Gestaltungsoptionen internationaler Markteintrittsstrategien insbesondere für mittelständische Softwareunternehmen aufzuzeigen und daraus Handlungsoptionen für die Unternehmen abzuleiten. Die Ergebnisse der Studie lassen Handlungsbedarf für noch nicht im Ausland tätige Softwareunternehmen erkennen. Die Analysen zeigen Differenzierungsmöglichkeiten in ausländischen Märkten auf und liefern konkrete Handlungsempfehlungen, wie ausländische Markteintritte in Abhängigkeit der Unternehmenssituation gestalten werden sollten. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass insbesondere die Eigenschaften der angebotenen Software und der komplementären Dienstleistungen Auswirkungen auf die internationale Markteintrittsstrategie haben. Zur Internationalisierung bedarf es interkulturell qualifizierte Mitarbeiter, um eine erfolgreiche Zusammenarbeit mit Kunden und Partnern in den Auslandsmärkten zu erreichen. Entsprechend sollten deutsche Softwareanbieter künftig in die interkulturelle Auswahl und Weiterbildung ihrer Mitarbeiter investieren.

In an environment of globalization of software and IT services, providing software solutions in international markets has become a strategic necessity for many software firms. When setting up international business operations, software firms need to make a fundamental choice on the distribution arrangements for software and related services in foreign markets. Particularly, such arrangements may either involve contracting with local partners to distribute products and services or extending the firm abroad by establishing wholly-owned subsidiaries or deploying employees. This study focuses on analyzing such boundary choices of software product firms in international markets. Taking a knowledge-based perspective, a research model is developed that outlines the influence of software product and service characteristics on software firms’ international entry mode choices. The research model is tested using PLS based on survey data from internationally operating software firms. The study findings support the knowledge-based reasoning that unique knowledge inherent in a software product that may be required during the sales process can be more easily transferred within firm boundaries. Particularly, the results point out the need for software firms to enter foreign markets through company-owned channels (i.e., wholly-owned subsidiaries or employee deployment) if the business processes and the functionality reflected in software product are highly specific. Likewise, company-owned channels are chosen if a high share of complementary services (e.g., implementation, consulting, training, maintenance, and support) is provided along with the introduction of a software product in a foreign market. In contrast, if significant country-specific adaptations of software products need to be performed, in particular language localization, the required knowledge is most effectively integrated through cooperation with local sales partners.

Die Internationalisierung ist für Softwareunternehmen im deutschen Mittelstand einerseits ein Muss, um den Anforderungen international ausgerichte-ter Kunden gerecht zu werden, anderseits eröffnet sie der Softwarebranche die Chance, aktiv neue Märkte zu erschließen. Anhand ausgewählter Beispiele deutscher Softwareunternehmen, die bereits international tätig sind, werden in die-ser Studie auf Basis von Experteninterviews Treiber, Strategien und Umsetzungs-ansätze der Internationalisierung vor dem Hintergrund der jeweiligen Eigenschaf-ten der Softwareprodukte dargestellt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen erste Zusammenhänge auf und bieten wichtige Ansatzpunkte für weitere Forschung im Bereich der Internationalisierung von Softwareunternehmen.

Dieser Beitrag zeigt auf der Basis von sechs Anwendungsentwicklung-sprojekten in Indien, welche kulturellen Einflussgrößen bei der Auslagerung von IT-Projekten einzubeziehen sind, wie diese Determinanten den Projekterfolg beeinflussen und durch welche Maßnahmen von Seiten des Managements kulturelle Herausforderungen zur Sicherung des Projekterfolgs gemeistert werden können: - Als kritische Kulturfaktoren haben sich Unterschiede in der Macht-distanz, dem Designverständnis und der aktiven versus passiven Arbeitseinstellung herauskristallisiert. - Diese Faktoren wirken direkt auf wichtige Stellgrößen der Beziehungs-qualität, wie dem Vertrauen, der Leistung des Anbieters, dem Grad der Kooperation und auftretenden Konflikten. Auf diese Weise wirken sie indirekt auf den Erfolg von Offshoring-Projekten. - Eine klare Definition von Rollen und Mechanismen, starke Mitarbeiterführung und ein aktives Kulturmanagement, das eine An- passung an die Kultur des Kunden oder an die des Anbieters beinhaltet, haben sich als effektive Managementmaßnahmen zur Bewältigung kultureller Herausforderungen herausgestellt

Gaining economic benefits from substantially lower labor costs has been reported as a major reason for offshoring labor-intensive information systems (IS) services to low-wage countries; however, if wage differences are so high, why is there such a high level of variation in the economic success between offshored IS projects? This study argues that offshore outsourcing involves a number of extra costs for the client organization that account for the economic failure of offshore projects. The objective is to disaggregate these extra costs into its constituent parts and to explain why they differ between offshored software projects. The focus is set on software development and maintenance projects that are offshored to Indian vendors. A theoretical framework is developed a priori based on transaction cost economics (TCE) and the knowledge-based view of the firm, complemented by factors that acknowledge the specific offshore context. The framework is empirically explored using a multiple case study design including six offshored software projects in a large German Financial Service institution. The results of our analysis indicate that the client incurs post contractual extra costs for four types of activities: (1) requirements specification and design, (2) knowledge transfer, (3) control, and (4) coordination. In projects that require a high level of client-specific knowledge about idiosyncratic business processes and software systems, these extra costs were found to be substantially higher than in projects were more general knowledge was needed. Notably, these costs most often arose independently from the threat of opportunistic behavior, challenging the predominant TCE logic of market failure. Rather, the client extra costs were particularly high in client-specific projects because the effort for managing the consequences of the knowledge asymmetries between client and vendor were particularly high in these projects. Prior experiences of the vendor with related client projects were found to reduce the level of extra costs but could not fully offset the increase in extra costs in highly client-specific projects. Moreover, cultural and geographic distance between client and vendor as well as personnel turnover were found to increase client extra costs. Slight evidence was found, however, that the cost increasing impact of these factors was also leveraged in projects with a high level of required client-specific knowledge (moderator effect).

Gaining economic benefits from substantially lower labor costs has been reported as a major reason for information systems (IS) offshoring. However, many offshoring projects have failed to achieve expected cost savings, indicating that labor cost savings are offset by additional costs that arise in offshoring projects in certain situations. While previous research on IS offshoring has mostly focused on management issues in offshoring, the focus of this paper is to improve our understanding why the realization of economic benefits varies substantially between offshored software projects. Based on a conceptual framework from transaction cost economics and empirical data from an in-depth case study involving six software development and maintenance projects that were offshored to software vendors in India by a major German financial services organization, two research questions are studied. First, what types of additional costs may arise in offshored software projects? Second, how and why do additional costs vary between projects, considering both task and offshore characteristics? The findings from our analysis indicate that offshoring can lead to increased effort on the client side, both in terms of production costs (requirements specification, knowledge transfer, conceptual development) and transaction costs (vendor coordination, and control). These additional costs are particularly high when the outsourced function is highly asset specific. Moreover, offshore country characteristics such as cultural differences, geographic distance as well as vendor characteristics such as the degree of personnel fluctuation and lack of absorptive capacity can lead to cost add-ons at the client side – in particular when a high degree of human asset specificity is involved in the offshored software projects.

Fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS) is a prebiotic that stimulates the colonic growth of bifidobacteria to promote intestinal health. This study assessed whether FOS can reduce intestinal damage associated with ulcerative colitis and accelerate recovery in a mouse model. C57BL/6 mice received 2% dextran sulphate sodium for 7 days (days 8-14). FOS (1.5 g/mL) treatment was administered twice daily (n=10/group): before and during colitis (days 1-14); during colitis (days 10-14); and during colitis and the recovery period (days 10-19). Disease activity was scored daily and colonic damage was assessed by histological analysis. FOS treatment significantly reduced disease activity and damage in the distal colon (P.05). Treatment with FOS (days 10-14) had increased crypt depth (116+/-6 microm) compared to water treatment (90+/-4 microm, P.05). FOS treatment (days 10-19) produced a faster recovery from damage with increased crypt depth and crypt area. These results demonstrate the protective effect of FOS treatment.