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Den här uppsatsen är skriven för att ge en bra insyn över hur Las Vegas drygt hundraåriga historia har sett ut genom ett Experience Economy perspektiv med inriktning THEME:ing. Uppsatsen kommer granska vilka viktiga historiska händelser staden varit med om och undersöka dem via ett THEME:ing perspektiv. Information som har samlats in till denna uppsats kommer från litteratur och filmdokumentärer om Las Vegas historia och The Experience Economy. Vad bidrog till att den lilla ökenstaden kom att bli en av USA:s mest besökta städer och idag har en population på över två miljoner? Hur har staden agerat när det dykt upp möjligheter för tillväxt? Resultatet av denna uppsats visar att Las Vegas har haft flera stora händelser att jobba med genom åren och anpassat sig och sett dessa som möjligheter till tillväxt istället för hinder. De visar även att Las Vegas varit duktiga på att applicera delar av THEME:ing sedan tidiga dagar.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

As computers absorb an ever-increasing proportion of corporate resources, and spread into every sphere of business activity, the issue of achieving benefits from investments in information technology (IT) is assuming major importance. Research evidence to hand suggests that IT investments are failing by orders of magnitude to provide appropriate levels of payback. A major part of the difficulty lies in the fact that management appears to lack a framework or even a language for addressing the issues, and are bewildered by the speed and impact of the changes that are taking place. This is particularly apparent in smaller and medium-sized organisations. This thesis examines the causes of the problem, and suggests that it stems mainly from an undue emphasis being placed by management on finance-based techniques, a legacy from an earlier and much different environment. It seeks to establish that such techniques are not only inadequate, but potentially counter-productive. Using established research methodologies, a framework is developed which seeks to address the key issues involved in achieving business benefits from IT, yet which is understandable to, and applicable by, managers in medium-sized organisations. Uniquely among IT investment frameworks, the concept of business reengineering or business process redesign is introduced as a formal evaluation criterion, reflecting the degree of business transformation currently being experienced, and the central role of IT in that transformation. The framework is then validated and refined through being applied in actual investment decision making processes undertaken by five organisations covering a range of business arenas.

The role of information and communications technology, which has been mostly limited to use within business and government organisations, is now moving through society and touching all sections, groups and individuals therein. Information and communications technology is now pervading physical, or real, communities, as opposed to communities created through information technology, virtual communities. For the purposes of this research study, a traditional view of community is taken and defined as people sharing experiences and interrelations with others living in a physical locality, comprising all residents, workforce, official bodies and authorities that exist or have business within a defined physical area. There is potential for positive change within physical communities through the use of such technology to change the way people work, interact with local government, and the way people access information. There are also potential dangers that cannot be ignored. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the technology and the speed of advances in the technology, some dangers may be overlooked. Much of the research work concerning these issues tends to be focused on the technological aspects of the phenomenon, or takes a utopian view of the implementation of technological advances within communities. This research study takes a more critical view of the issues involved and is based upon an exploration of the issues associated with the introduction of information and communication technologies within the physical community. The study uses an ethics-based framework to explore these issues, together with a unified conceptual framework covering all aspects of the research study. An ethics-based approach was chosen because of its applicability to issues that have potentially harmful social effects, and was closely related to prior research work. An action case research method was employed to engage with a selected research subject. This allowed the researcher to conduct the study while acting close to the main participants within a community. Research uncovered a number of research findings or lessons, including, but not limited to, the finding that: the introduction of ICT into physical communities has divergent issues that stem from a broad spectrum of domains; arguments portraying aspects of projects as being amoral must be countered, that ethics is not just about big questions; that ethical analysis is important, both to the subject area of this research and others; the contingent nature of IS research in context means IS research cannot follow the waterfall model. Research also led to the formation of two important ideas, the notion engagement and in-situ ethical analysis.

The use of Zen - advertent or inadvertent - in the practice of artistic creation is not new. From Japanese Haiku poetry, the early poetry of Wordsworth and even aspects of Shakespeare's Hamlet, to the paintings of Cezanne and Dali, to the novels of Ben Okri and the work of Samuel Becket and Peter Brooke, we see differing efforts to transcend the dominant mode of understanding ourselves and the world around us: namely that of the duality of thought, of the kind our conscious, logical intellect can comprehend. One could even point to contemporary physics - and in particular the physics emerging out of quantum mechanics' - to see that efforts to transcend the limitations of our own intellect in the quest to understand the phenomena of life are not confined to artists. One could describe this quest as spiritual, in that it is concerned with understanding life predominantly through feeling. As a relatively young art form, first conceived and developed within a mechanistic paradigm, the film medium does not have a tradition that both filmmakers and audience alike can relate to in terms of transcending modes of dualistic thought and exploring our spiritual nature. With some notable exceptions who remain on the whole on the fringes of popular film culture - Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer and Tarkovsky being the most prominent of these - filmmakers have been confined to working predominantly within the idiom of cause and effect, conflict and resolution, and the logic of psychologically explicable character motivation and consequent plot development. With relatively few reference points, the process of examining and exploring the film form beyond this psychological realism is difficult, not least because of the economic restraints that have traditionally hampered innovation within filmmaking. While our conscious thoughts and emotional lives are amply studied within the bounds of largely Freudian and humanistic psychology, there remain aspects of human experience - feelings connected to our transcendental natures - which film does not adequately explore or express. Here, I shall seek to illustrate and evaluate the efforts I have made as a practicing filmmaker through three films - One Day Tafo, Reunion and Signs of Life - to explore and develop a film form which seeks to reveal a truth about myself and the world in which I live: a truth which goes beyond what may be psychologically and intellectually explicable, a truth which is essentially experiential and devoid of traditional concepts of meaning. I am tempted to refer to this as `Zen and the art of filmmaking'? For me, this work is only the beginning of a life-long process, the outcomes of which I hope others may be able to use for further research and exploration.

The processes of globalisation have led to a world which is more closely connected and interdependent than ever before. The use of information technology has been instrumental in facilitating these interconnections and as the processes of globalisation have unfolded, whole industries have developed which are not dependent upon location to trade with their customers across the globe. There is no industry more seemingly suited to the notion of time and place independence than software development and the relative labour costs have meant that some developing countries have become popular locations for the outsourcing of information systems development. There is no country more involved in the outsourcing of software than India which has rapidly emerged as a world leader in the provision of outsourced software development. There have been few studies which have holistically and longitudinally examined this form of software development as a process. This thesis is the result of such a study. The aim of this research is to investigate the process of information systems development across time and space involving teams located in different countries. The research is undertaken with an interpretivist approach and methodology derived from Context Process analysis. The analysis of data is informed by the sociologist Anthony Giddens's later writings on globalisation as well as theory derived from the study of culture and power in organisations. The data collection was undertaken using a range of qualitative techniques. The outcomes of the research include an improved understanding of the implications for information systems development involving teams located in different countries collaborating with information technology across time and space, with relevance to the context of Indian outsourcing. Theoretical outcomes include an improved understanding of the methodological, social and political dimensions of information systems development using teams separated by time and space. The implications for management include an exposition of the issues involved in undertaking projects where teams are separated by time and space and guidance for moves to global software outsourcing.

During the last two decades the bank marketing literature has been characterised by a concern for service quality and information technology (IT) within the industry. IT and customer service are relatively new `strategic weapons' for banks, both being concerned with the deployment of information. The two concepts relate to the building and maintenance of long-term profitable relationships between the customer and the bank. With increasing competition it has become necessary for banks to keep ahead of rivals by differentiating themselves and IT is seen as an opportunity to achieve a sustainable `competitive advantage', especially in terms of improving service quality. In the light of this, the aim of this study is to investigate the influence of IT on the quality of service in the Jordanian banking sector. To accomplish the study objectives a questionnaire survey was conducted with two independent samples (bank customers and branch managers). The empirical work involved the development of questionnaires which were used for data collection and the study sample consisted of 550 bank customers and 67 branch managers. Initially, the data in the questionnaires were analysed to provide a general description of the respondents' characteristics and their perceptions of individual variables of service quality, IT-based service, customer satisfaction / loyalty and bank selection criteria. The research hypotheses were tested using Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney, Spearman Correlation Coefficient and t-tests. The main results of the study show a significant and positive relationship between IT and customer service. The more IT is used, the better the perception of service quality be. The results also give another strong indication that IT is playing a crucial role, with regard to bank selection criteria. Additionally, the findings revealed that the least important factor in influencing customers' choice of their banks is higher interest on savings and deposits, which is strongly related to religion and cultural background. On the other hand, it has been found that the most important factors in motivating the adoption of electronic channels by customers are time-saving, followed by the convenience of these channels. The study suggests several recommendations in order to increase the effectiveness of IT in Jordanian banks and improve their strategic and `competitive positions'. Finally the thesis ends by setting out an agenda for further work.