Previous research has addressed the importance of IOC, where the outcome of a poor IOC between actors in a network will affect the information sharing and the inter-organizational relationship. The topic has been extensively researched, however researchers are still highlighting the need to further research.   A literature review on the topic area generated an overview of the existing literature within the field. The literature review identified a research gap that founded the purpose of this study. The purpose is to reveal the actors within the industry and how the IOC is structured among three cruise line destinations in Sweden and in the network Cruise Baltic.    The study was of a qualitative nature and was conducted through a multiple case study. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with three cruise line destinations and one cruise line industry network.   The interview data reveals the IOC of the chosen industry and that the destinations have some barriers to overcome when it comes to achieving an effective IOC. Based on the conclusions of this study recommendations for managerial implications were formed.   The findings of the research were able to support previous studies regarding IOC and its key variables. It was revealed that the destinations and the network execute an effective IOC to some extent. The destinations are considerable small in size, which has influenced the IOC to the other actors within the network.

Purpose - The purpose of the thesis is “To explore the Thai ICT market and identify differences with the leading market” Where the research questions are: 1. How are the main actors influencing the ICT market in Thailand? 2. How can the ICT market in Thailand be improved by identifying the gaps to the leading market? Method – For reaching the purpose a qualitative case study has been carried out, methods that are used are interviews, observations, document studies and literature study. Secondary data has been collected from document studies and was compiled in excel documents. Primary data has been collected from interviews, employees at Ericsson in Thailand has contributed when gather data about organizational culture. Interview with representatives from institutions in Thailand were made to achieve current data. Interviews were made to receive a primary source of information with high focus on the thesis subject and strengthen by secondary data. Findings – The most urgent problem to improve the ICT market in Thailand is to develop the infrastructure. The infrastructure needs to be developed in rural areas and urban areas. Institutions in ICT need to do active work on the market in order to expand and develop the market. Service operator’s needs to standardise and offer less price plans in order to minimize confusion among the consumers. The consumers need to increase their usage of ICT services in order to decrease the gap to the leading ICT market. One solution could be that the government push the development with all actors on the ICT market. Changing the foreign business act can lead to investments needed to expand the infrastructure. Further, creating a demand of higher technology from the consumer’s perspective will pressure the actors to develop robust network of high technology and benefit future development of technology. Implications – This study has been carried out on location in Thailand but communication has not been made in the national language in Thailand, which can contribute to misunderstandings of data. The study´s result is strengthened by being on location in Thailand, gathering primary data by interviews and do observations on place in the target environment. Delimitations – The delimitations have been made to look at the ICT market from Thailand’s perspective with learning’s from Sweden. Further, delimitations to explore the main actors that are influencing the market has been done. A market has many environmental forces and they needed to be restricted in this study.

In the spring of 2007, the Women’s Foundation of California and the California Endowment created what would become the Elder Women’s Initiative, (EWI) which focuses on building a social movement for elder women and their allies with specific attention to healthcare and economic security. This study is largely descriptive and focuses on how state and non-state actors participated in the Elder Women’s Initiative. I looked at ways in which their unique roles can shape the scope of the movement and in what capacity the notion of advocacy is defined. I used feminist and social movements theory to frame my study. The data collection was multi-phased: the first was interviews with state leaders at the policy and community-based level, and the second was “Speak-Outs” or community listening sessions in three geographic areas in California. During the Speak-Outs, which recruited elder women and their allies from low-income communities in California, the women were able to testify about their experiences with the aging process. They also spoke with policymakers about how to collaborate in building the movement. While the Elder Women’s Initiative raised more questions than it answered, participants identified several concrete recommendations were identified about how to build the movement. The current political landscape in California is fraught with tension over the recent budget crises. It is important for future researchers to examine the ways in which the EWI fits into the policy process and how women across California can experience dignified and healthy aging. / text

Leadership development trends - isomorphism or innovation? This study examines leadership development within organizations, including strategies, objectives and processes that help to shape the organizations leadership development. The study is based on nine in-depth interviews with planners/decision-makers in eight different organizations. A part of the study consists of a web based survey completed by managers/leaders, were the gathered results assist in providing further insight on the topic being studied. The interaction between different players and stakeholders, significant social changes as well as major challenges in the continued leadership development process are highlighted and analysed. The study's most important conclusion is that successful and innovative leadership development is based on constant curiosity, business intelligence, understanding of the individual employee’s needs, as well as and business goals whilst achieving this by constant interaction throughout the organization. The overall trend is that leadership development is being increasingly adapted and renewed. Knowledge, understanding, relationships and values are strengthened and that coaching, personal development and a capability for renewal are provided.

This thesis investigates using an approach based on the Actors paradigm for implementing a discrete event simulation system and comparing the results with more traditional approaches. The goal of this work is to determine if using Actors for sequential programming is viable. If Actors are viable for this type of programming, then it follows that they would be usable for general programming. One potential advantage of using Actors instead of traditional paradigms for general programming would be the elimination of a distinction between designing for a sequential environment and a concurrent/distributed one. Using Actors for general programming may also allow for a single implementation that can be deployed on both single core and multiple core systems. Most of the existing discussions about the Actors model focus on its strengths in distributed environments and its ability to scale with the amount of available computing resources. The chosen system for implementation is intentionally sequential to allow for examination of the behaviour of existing Actors implementations where managing concurrency complexity is not the primary task. Multiple implementations of the simulation system were built using different languages (C++, Erlang, and Java) and different paradigms, including traditional ones and Actors. These different implementations were compared quantitatively, based on their execution time, memory usage, and code complexity. The analysis of these comparisons indicates that for certain existing development environments, Erlang/OTP, following the Actors paradigm, produces a comparable or better implementation than traditional paradigms. Further research is suggested to solidify the validity of the results presented in this research and to extend their applicability.

Identifying how policy proposals are selected by policy-makers is an important question for scholars. This thesis evaluates the use of discourse and the role of actors in the exchange of ideas to support interprofessional collaboration (IPC) among Ontario’s regulatory colleges. A variation of discourse analysis was developed, based on the seven areas of reality that are constructed by language, to evaluate the interactions between state and policy actors. I argue that actors did not appear to engage in meaningful discourse because the state established the parameters of the consultative processes, which suggests the expert consultative processes were tools to legitimize the policy process for Bill 179. The state appears to have increasingly greater control of both the content and context of policy- making in this field. Further evaluation of the interactions between health professional organizations and the state is needed to better understand the importance of discourse in the health policy process.

How could citizens trust a new regime after being oppressed by the previous one? How could citizens forgive their neighbors who yesterday were executioners, used by the previous government, to commit atrocities (Halpern and Weinstein, 2004)? How could people ever feel safe in their own country after being traumatized by civil wars and human rights violations? Is there a political process that could help countries transition from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one and consolidate that democracy? This thesis argues that reconciliation commissions are the answer to all these questions. It also argues that they could be the middle step between peace and democracy-building. However, there are some necessary and sufficient conditions that need to be satisfied.

L'envelliment de la població i la importància de les TIC a la societat actual han motivat la necessitat d'integrar més a les persones grans en la interacció persona-ordinador. La investigació actual es centra en factors individuals de l'envelliment i l'aproximació més generalitzada és dissenyar interfícies considerant les persones grans com a conjunt de factors. Aquesta tesi doctoral planteja un paradigma diferent: de factors a persones grans com a actors. En aquest paradigma, prestar atenció als canvis en capacitats funcionals no és l'únic que importa, cal que interacció i ús real estiguin més fortament relacionats. En aquest marc, aquesta tesi presenta els resultats d'un treball etnogràfic extens sobre el correu electrònic i la web. Mètodes quantitatius i mixtes s'han utilitzat en altres aspectes, que recolzen aquest estudi de camp. Altres capítols presenten contribucions metodològiques en avaluació en entorns reals. La tesi acaba proposant estratègies per a investigar amb persones grans com a actors socials, insistint en considerar l'experiència de vida de la gent gran i estudiar més l'ús i les interaccions en entorns reals combinant etnografia i treball més experimental. / El envejecimiento de la población y la importancia de las TIC en la sociedad actual han motivado la necesidad de integrar más a las personas mayores en la interacción persona-ordenador. La investigación actual se centra en factores individuales del envejecimiento y la aproximación más generalizada es diseñar interfaces considerando a las personas mayores como un conjunto de factores. Esta tesis doctoral plantea un paradigma diferente: de factores a personas mayores como actores. En este paradigma, prestar atención a los cambios en capacidades funcionales no es lo único que importa, sino que interacción y uso real deberían estar más fuertemente relacionados. En este marco, esta tesis presenta los resultados de un trabajo etnográfico extenso sobre el correo electrónico y la web. Métodos cuantitativos y mixtos se han utilizado en otros aspectos, que apoyan este estudio de campo. Otros capítulos presentan contribuciones metodológicas en evaluación en entornos reales. La tesis acaba proponiendo estrategias para investigar con personas mayores como actores sociales, insistiendo en considerar la experiencia de vida de la gente mayor y estudiar más el uso y las interacciones en entornos reales combinando etnografía y trabajo más experimental. / Population ageing and the role of computers in current society have created a need to strengthen HCI with older people. The current paradigm considers them as a set of factors and central to it is compensation for age-related changes in functional abilities. This dissertation proposes a different paradigm: from factors towards interaction based on older people as social actors. Within this paradigm, compensating for diminishing abilities is not the cornerstone of research. Instead, interaction and real-life use should be closely intertwined. Against this framework, the thesis presents the results of an extensive ethnographic work on e-mail and web use. Quantitative and mixed methods are employed in other aspects related to use and interaction which complement this major study. Other chapters include methodological contributions to real-life evaluation. The dissertation discusses strategies for approaching HCI with older people. Central to them is the concept of life experience and the need to turn to everyday interactions by combining classical ethnography with experimentations.

Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2007. / Document formatted into pages; contains v, 88 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2007. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-169). Also available via the World Wide Web.