Business Commons^™

Price Prediction: Determining Changes In Stock Pricing Through Sentiment Analysis Of Online Consumer Reviews, Daryl F. Boykin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The rapid growth of technology has changed the dynamics in which consumers socialize and make their purchasing decisions. The volume of online reviews has grown rapidly over the past decade, leading the peer groups of consumer to carry a disproportionate weight in the purchasing decision process. The sheer volume of reviews can be a daunting task for an operator to attempt to incorporate the reviews in their analysis. Sentiment analysis allows for large volumes of consumer reviews to be processed in a relatively easy, and time sensitive manner. The information contained in these reviews, the sentiment score, is the same …

Examining The High-End Gaming Segment: Toward A Shift In Market Focus, Jiaqi Wu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Las Vegas gaming and hospitality industry has seen many changes over the last two decades. For the longest time, casinos were illegal everywhere except in Nevada, and gambling was viewed as a vice. It was not until the 1970s when attitudes started to shift. The Nevada Gaming Control Board was established to oversee and govern many aspects of the business, in order to promote the industry and reduce the perceived negative social impacts. LVCVA (Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority) also strategically promotes the city as the ideal tourist destination. Las Vegas has now become a highly competitive tourist …

A Case Study On The Emergence Of Boutique And Lifestyle Hotels, Tiffany M. Braun

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Lifestyle and boutique hotels entered hospitality landscape twenty years ago. When they arrived, they were competing with the larger brands and chains and at first struggled to stay competitive (Sears, 2016). However, these hotels were eventually able to survive, and then compete, and then excel in the hospitality industry. Over the last five years, the supply of lifestyle hotel rooms has now increased at a double-digit annual rate (Skinner, 2016). And in 2015, both segments of hotels generated room revenues of over $13.7 billion (Skinner, 2016).

Lifestyle and boutique hotels have brought back the elements of architecture, design, and authenticity …

The Lived Experiences Of Women In The Information Technology Field As They Transition From One Leadership Level To The Next: A Phenomenological Study, Marilyn Delmont

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

There is an increasing disparity of women in the IT field, when compared to men, specifically within IT executive leadership roles. The number of women in IT executive leadership lags drastically behind men IT executives and has gone down by five percent since 2008. Despite significant growth in the IT field women are not growing with it. IT jobs are expected to increase by 1.5 million in the next decade. The purpose and central question of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of women and how they develop as IT leaders. Beginning with 19 broad questions, …

The Effects Of Source And Content On Types Of Social Influence In Online Traveler Reviews, Laura A. Book

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Today’s highly connected purchasing environment is unique in that consumers are confronted with a vast quantity of information from a variety of sources. Using the theoretical underpinnings of social influence and judgmental heuristics, this dissertation examines source and content characteristics to understand their influence on consumers’ perceptions and decisions. This dissertation utilized two experiments to examine how source and content attributes lead to different types information processing and types of social influence in online reviews. The first study utilized a 2 (expertise) x 2 (group membership) experimental design that manipulated source characteristics. The second study utilized a 2 (recommendation percentage) …

Connection Or Competence: Emotional Labor Versus Service Quality As Antecedents To Customer Loyalty, Andrew Moreo

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Service delivery has become increasingly important in service heavy industries and particularly within restaurants. Within this segment, the employee’s ability to display the appropriate emotions is of great concern. The axiom “service with a smile”, has been a mainstay for many years. However, a frown has the opposite effect. The question has been raised, how do frontline employees manage their emotions so as to provide the service with the appropriate emotion and the feeling of a genuine connection? This form of labor has been coined, emotional labor, and has a research stream dedicated to its understanding.

This dissertation utilized a …

Analyzing The Relationship Between Job Demands, Job Resources, And Personal Resources On Employee Engagement And Exhaustion Of Juvenile Probation/Parole Officers, Danilo Estuardo Chavarria

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Organizations should constantly strive to improve their levels of employee engagement, because improving employee engagement influences the well-being of both employees and organizations (Bakker, 2011, p. 268). In today’s workplaces, organizations need employees who are psychologically connected to their work, who are willing and able to invest themselves in their roles, and who are proactive and committed to high quality standards.” (Bakker, Albrecht, & Leiter, 2011, pp. 4-5). This is important; not only for private organizations but for public organizations as well, especially organizations in the criminal justice system who continuously strive to keep the peace, have constant contact with …

Servant Leadership And Related Issues In Chinese Hotel Industry, Yiqing Wang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Because of the economy growth and the Open Door Policy, Chinese hotel industry was under a huge expansion. Since more and more western customers are visiting and Chinese customers are having more hotel experience abroad, the service Chinese hotels used to provide dose not meet the standard anymore. So the managers and leaders need to find an appropriate approach to encourage their employees to improve the service to their customers. This research went through over 40 articles about Chinese hotel industry and Chinese culture and found out that servant leadership style should be the best approach to engage the employees.

Understanding Employee Work Attitudes: An Integration Of Psychological Contract Theory And Organizational Support Theory, Wen Chang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Employee motivation and retention are critical concerns for the hospitality industry. The purpose of this study was to understand employees’ work attitudes and emotional affect through a social exchange perspective by integrating employee psychological contract theory and organizational support theory. Affective event theory provided the theoretical foundation for this study. Data was analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and path analysis. The results showed that employees’ psychological contract fulfillment was a strong predictor of their perceived organizational support. In addition, psychological contract fulfillment and perceived organizational support together explained employee affect at work as well as other work attitudes. Affect at …

Transformational Leadership Increases Self-Determination And Positively Impacts Hospitality Frontline Employees, Xiao Zhang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This professional paper presents literature by exploring the role of self-determination theory between the relationship of transformational leadership and hospitality employees’ well-being. It integrates the present research on leadership style, needs theory and well-being and provides useful and meaningful information for executives and organizations who are dedicated to improve employees’ well-being.

Six Feet From Fame: Exploring Dark Tourism Motivation At Marilyn Monroe's Grave, Surjeet Baidwan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation presents an empirical phenomenological study of celebrity grave tourists at the site of Marilyn Monroe's grave in Los Angeles, CA. The purpose of this study was to fill a gap in the literature regarding the lived experience of celebrity grave tourists and their underlying motivations. This project was significant because it better explained an under-represented aspect of dark tourism by addressing the behaviors and motivations behind celebrity grave tourism. A qualitative empirical phenomenological method was employed. This approach relied upon the use of multiple in depth e-mail interviews and theme analysis. The results of the study suggested that …

The Financial, Social, And Environmental Impacts Of Sustainable Practices On The Las Vegas Hospitality Market, John Brady

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Sustainability is important to Las Vegas hospitality organizations because they operate in an environment with constrained resources. Water supply is one such constrained resource and Lake Mead is and has been far below its normal level. This lake provides the potable water supply for Southern Nevada. Southern Nevada, which is anchored by Las Vegas, worked to reduce their water consumption by 32 billion gallons between 2002 & 2014 (Southern Nevada Water Authority, 2015). This pattern tells me that Las Vegas is aware of the footprint they leave on the environment and look for ways to reduce said footprint. This is …

Considerations For Implementing A Hotel Revenue Management System, Akram Mahesh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

To fully understand and implement a revenue management system, hotel managers will need to research all aspects of a system, its requirements, and the hotel’s requirements to ensure that they are implementing a system that will work best for their property. This kind of research requires finding information in literature that is scattered in many locations. An owner or manager of a small to midsize hotel would need to invest a lot of time and energy into this process. Unlike giant companies like Marriott or Hilton, small to midsize independent hotels do not have the manpower to research and implement …

A Study On Employee Engagement Program In Full Service Hotel, You Han

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Relationship Between Revenue Management And Hotel Loyalty Programs, Melissa Elizabeth Buckley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Loyalty programs are a staple of the hospitality industry. As time progressed, there has been a shift among the structure of loyalty programs to not only reward the large spend of casino players, but also to compensate other frequent travelers of the hotel. As hotels continue to offer increasing benefits and compensation while reevaluating the tier structure of loyalty programs, research was necessary to discover if these loyalty programs are extracting the maximum revenue per guest and creating overall revenue for the hotel.

The purpose of the study was to uncover the relationship between revenue management and hotel loyalty programs. …

The Role Of The Integration-Responsiveness Framework In An International Branch Campus: A Case Study, Tammy Joy Silver

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Similar to multinational corporations, international branch campuses have the challenge of maintaining legitimacy in different cultural and regulatory environments across national borders. It is common for organizations to modify business practices when expanding operations abroad to respond to local demands and preferences based upon cultural expectations and regulatory requirements.

National culture is comprised of the underlying values, beliefs, and attitudes of a society that drives behavior and expectations (Hofstede, 1980). Differences in national culture determine the amount of local adaptation necessary to conduct business in a foreign country (Kostova & Roth, 2002). International branch campuses must also maintain quality assurance …

Impact Of Menu Designs And Personal Dietary Behaviors On Young Millennials' Restaurant Menu Choices, Yuan Tian

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The global prevalence of obesity has more than doubled since 1980. In response to this health crisis, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finalized the Menu Calorie Labeling Rule in 2014. It requires that food service chains post Calorie information next to all food items on menus. Young Millennials aged 18-24 reportedly have poor dietary habits, which contributes to obesity rates. This on-line study surveyed 505 young Millennials to evaluate the relationship between young Millennials’ Calorie choices on restaurant menus and various factors, including menu design, personal dietary behaviors, and demographic characteristics. The survey data was analyzed using logistic regression. …

Customer Delight: How Do We Achieve It? Customer Service And Exceeding Expectations, Katherine Landahl

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Customer loyalty is one of the greatest marketing goals of any organization. Traditionally, the key to loyalty has been satisfaction. More recently, consumer delight has been linked as having a stronger connection to loyalty. This paper explores through a literature review, the connections between customer service, loyalty, satisfaction, and delight through the lens of the experience economy. Then, recommendations are provided for academics and hospitality professionals alike on how to delight customers through future research and front-line employee policies and procedures.

Evaluating E-Relationship Marketing Features On Hotel Mobile Apps, Xiaolin Lu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The advent of technology has changed the course of marketing in both the academic and the business field. Given the increasing number of mobile transactions, hotel companies have launched mobile applications (apps) as an alternative e-relationship marketing (e-RM) channel. This study modified a progressive five-level e-relationship building model. The model was employed to evaluate e-RM features of the top 10 hotel companies’ mobile apps. The results indicated that these hotel companies maintained e-RM feature sophistication at the lower levels (Basic and Reactive), but relatively speaking, they did not utilize e-RM features extensively at the higher levels (Accountable, Proactive and Partnership). …

An Importance-Performance Analysis Of Multigenerational Preferences In Guestroom Technology, Sidian Lan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study focuses on generational preferences in terms of guestroom technology. The hospitality technology industry has indicated guestroom technology as their highest priority in terms of hospitality technology investment. Previous studies have investigated in-room technology amenities and ranked them in order of importance and performance. However, it is uncertain which guestroom specific technologies should they invest in when it comes to different generations. Each generation is fundamentally different from the others because each generation was born in different eras with different societal changes. These generations have different values, ideas, needs, and communication skills. Hoteliers are investing time and money into …

The Influence Of National Culture On Tipping Behavior, Zina Abraham

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this professional paper is to explore the various factors that contribute to cultural differences in tipping behavior. This meta-analysis of the current research can be applied to understand the tipping habits of international tourists in Las Vegas, a relatively unexplored topic.

A Model For Meeting And Event Venues To Implement Green Practices, Justine Clewer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In 2007 green meetings were ranked as the third most anticipated trend by Event Solutions magazine’s survey of 1,350 event professionals, however by 2011 it was an emerging trend (Goldblatt, 2012). Today, meeting and event planners are increasingly including clauses in their contracts with venues pertaining to green practices, and are willing to look elsewhere if a venue does not agree to partake in the green initiatives. For venues the failure to “go green” can mean a substantial loss of revenue. Nonetheless, many businesses are hesitant to engage in green (sustainable) practices, because they are not properly educated on the …

A Study Of Airbnb As A Potential Competitor Of The Hotel Industry, Quynh Nguyen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of the study is to examine Airbnb as a possible competitor of the hotel industry using Peteraf and Bergen’s broad-based competitor identification tool. Unlike existing empirical research on the subject, the study takes a qualitative approach to answer the research question. The results of the study assist hotel operators in determining the competitiveness of Airbnb and the need for a business response to the service.

Revenue Management In A Multi-Channel Environment: The Effect Of Pricing Strategies On Perceived Fairness, Lan Jiang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The rapid development of technology has made the hotel booking process become easier and more convenient, but it has also made hotel revenue management practices become more complex. Researchers have noticed the issues caused by perceived fairness. Yet, only a few studies have examined the impact of the pricing strategies over perceived fairness. Furthermore, no previous research study has examined Best rate guarantee (BRG), rate disparity, and rate frame together and investigated the interaction effects among these strategies on perceived fairness.

This study aims to examine the potential effects of three revenue management pricing strategies (BRG, rate (dis)parity, and rate …

Integrating Start-Up Companies Organizational Structure In A Business Intelligence Team Environment, Patrik Balint

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Examining The Effects Of Casino Lottery Promotions, Maria Colin Magaña

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Casinos employ marketing and promotional activities to attract and retain customers within the competitive industry. Promotions awarding players thousands of dollars are not uncommon. To capitalize on this investment, the success of these promotional activities is crucial. The effectiveness of casino promotions has been scarcely examined within research. Only a few studies have directly examined the impact of casino lottery promotions (Lucas & Bowen, 2002; Lucas et al., 2006; Suh et al., 2014). Literature on promotional games can be used to fill the gap in knowledge regarding casino lottery promotions and to provide a starting point for future research. This …

Table Games Revenue Management: A Bayesian Approach, Daryl F. Boykin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With growing competition for casino floor space, the Table Games department is under increased pressure to improve revenues. Current systems in the department rely upon a supervisor's intuitive knowledge about business trends hourly to respond to business levels. By using Bayesian analysis, it is possible to develop a functional revenue management system for making optimal business decisions in the Table Game Departments.

Bureaus And Beer: Promoting Brewery Tourism In Colorado, Shane Howlett

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Beer, wine and spirits are three little words that make lots of people excited. Alcohol can be thought of as a necessity for tourists. In recent years, consumers are becoming more interested in the development and processes behind their favorite libations. This has spurred a new type of tourist; those that are interested in brewery tours, vineyard hopping, or enjoying a day out at their favorite distillery.

The beer industry has seen rapid growth expansion in the U.S. In 1980, there were roughly 100 breweries in the nation and today there are over 2500 (Brewers Association, 2013a). With the rapid …

Implementation Of Integrated Project Delivery On Department Of Navy Military Construction Projects, Christopher S. Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The concept of the project delivery system refers to the overall processes by which a project is designed, constructed, and/or maintained. There are many different types of project delivery systems to fit particular situations involving the owner and his intended project. The project delivery system is what establishes the framework that enables a construction project to be developed and ultimately executed.

The construction industry has observed that projects (both private and public) frequently suffer from factors such as adversarial relationships, low roductivity, high inefficiency and rework, frequent contractual disputes concerning who was at fault, and lack of innovation. Not only …

Evaluating Shared Governance For Nursing Excellence, Evette Michelle Wilson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The national challenges of nursing shortages, decreased staffing levels, and increased patient acuities have contributed to nurse's increased workload and job dissatisfaction. Nurses have become frustrated with the professional practice environment. The inability to make decisions about issues that affect their nursing practice and the care provided to their patients results in nurses leaving the work environment in search of higher job satisfaction. Employers are becoming more creative in their strategies to improve the work environment and retain nurses within their organizations. Healthcare leaders have implemented management strategies such as shared governance models. These models focus on providing a satisfying …