Outline the Operations Processes Relevant to Transformations

Outline the operations processes relevant to transformations. Describe and explain the impact of the 4? s on the transformation processes. Operations refers to those ongoing cyclic activities involved in the running of a business for the purpose of producing value for the stakeholders. Operations includes the conversion of inputs (resources) into outputs (goods and services). This conversion is known as transformation. Thus, operations processes are those processes involved directly with transformation. †¢ Operations processes entails different processes relevant to transformations.Sequencing and Scheduling are two essential aspects that assist with structuring and ordering the transformation processes. Sequencing refers to the order in which activities in the operations process occur. Scheduling refers to the length of time activities take within the operations process. The two main scheduling tools are Gantt charts and Critical Path Analysis (CPA). An understanding of both seq uencing and scheduling is necessary for operations managers. †¢ As well as operations, technology is another aspect of the operations process which is relevant to transformations.Business technology involves the use of machinery and systems that enable businesses to undertake the transformation process more effectively and ef? ciently. Business technology may include a computer, keyboard and mouse, mobile telephones, printers etc. Manufacturing technology includes robotics, computer-aided designs (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM). †¢ Task Design is relevant to transformations as it involves classifying job activities in ways that make it easy for an employee to successfully perform and complete a task. It overlaps the employment relations function of job analysis, job description and person speci? ation. †¢ A plant layout is the arrangement of equipment, machinery and staff within the facility (either a factory or of? ce). The plant layout have an impact on the ef? ciency of the operations function. Plant layouts ensure enough physical space for production, effective use of equipment, the use of appropriate technology, and a good work environment, to name a few. †¢ All operations processes should be monitored for their effectiveness. Monitoring is the process of measuring actual performance against planned performance. As well as monitoring, the main transformational process should be subject to control.Control occurs when KPIs are assessed against predetermined targets and corrective action is taken if required. This requires effective monitoring and focus on continuous improvement. Monitoring and control lead to improvements when there is a focus on quality and standards. Improvement refers to systematic reduction of inef? ciencies and wastage, poor work processes and the elimination of any bottlenecks. Monitoring, control and improv Transformation processes are in? uenced by volume, variety, variation and visibility. That is, the four V? – how much of a product is made, the range of products made, the amount of a product desired by consumers and the nature and amount of customer contact. The in? uence of volume has a strong impact on the transformation process. Volume refers to how much of a product is made. Volume ? exibility depends on the increase or decrease on the demand of a product. An example of a business which used volume as an in? uence for the transformation process is the manufacturers of Leapfrog Leapster Explorer. In 2010, the console became available for sale. However, there were more far more games than actual consoles.This meant that retailers had a shortage of consoles in comparison to games. This is a prime example of a situation caused by a supplier with an incorrect perception of volume. The in? uence of variety is the second ? V? that impacts strongly on the transformation process. Variety is the mix of products made, or services delivered through the transformation process. It is sometimes referred to as mix ? exibility. Mix ? exibility is known by customers as product range or variety of change. The in? uence of variety on transformation processes is the greater the variety made, the more the operations process needs to allow for variation.An example of a business that considers variety is Electrolux. Electrolux make Simpson, Chef, Dishlex and Westinghouse brands. These brands are attached to a range of whitegoods such as fridges, washing machines, ovens, dishwashers and dryers. In this way, the company can sell a variety of products made with largely similar production processes. A variation in demand can impact signi? cantly on transformation resources. Increases in demand will require increased inputs from suppliers, increased human resources, increased energy use and increased use of machinery and technology.The fourth and ? nal V that impacts the transformation process is the in? uence of visibility. Visibility is important in the transformation as it is the nature and amount of customer contact (feedback). Direct customer contact may include customer feedback given through surveys, interviews, letters, blogs and verbal contact. Indirect customer contact comes from a review of sales data that is an analysis of customer preferences. As businesses seek to maximize sales, customer contact is essential and ultimately shapes the transformation process.

Sainsbury Operations

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report provides a view on operations of SAINSBURY’S , the third largest supermarket chain across United Kingdom. SAINSBURY’S , in spite of being the longest standing retail chain has been facing stiff competition from rivals like TESCO , MORRISONS. The competitors seemed to have developed at a faster pace since SAINSBURY’S has been through a difficult time in recent years and TESCO is now twice the size in terms of turnover. Matter of analysis in terms of SAINSBURY’s supermarket is the operational strategies that have been implemented to cope up given the current downturn. The operations management concepts incorporated in SAINSBURY’s operational routine can play a vital role to achieve its main performance objectives like customer satisfaction, fast operations , achieving flexibility for the customers needs and retaining loyal customers. There is also a scope for SAINSBURY’S to meet its target growth and regain its position if it is ready to make a few changes in its operations in terms of a better inventory management , Robust technological advancements and creating a better customer base. The report discusses the various successful implementations and certain flaws that can be wiped in order to attain smoother operations at SAINSBURY’ OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT INTRODUCTION: An operation is a process transforming a set of resources into services and goods. The input resources may be raw materials, information, or even the customer. These resources are transformed into final goods or services by facilities and staff of the operation( Fig 1). Operations Management is very important in business operations since it forms the heart of the organisation by controlling the system of operation. Operations management plays a vital role because any operation requires a combination of merchandising, logistics, coordination and cost control skills to move products from production facilities to the consumer(2). [pic] Fig1 Input output transformation model for operations. [pic] Sainsbury's Supermarkets is the UK's longest standing and third largest major food retailing chain, having opened its first store in 1869. The Sainsbury's brand is built upon a heritage of providing customers with healthy, safe, fresh and tasty food. The stores serve over 18 million customers a week and offer around 30,000 products, having a market share of around 16 per cent(3). An internet-based home delivery shopping service is also available to 88 per cent of UK households. PROCESS LAYOUT: Fig. 2 Layout design of Sainsbury’s The supermarket is positioned as a process layout. Wherein the physical components are arranged or grouped according to the general function they perform (Fig. 2). It operates in a manner that is designed to move the customer through the store until they end up at the cash register. First thing that a customer encounters is the customer services in case of any initial enquiries by the customers. Along the first aisle are aligned the fresh food items for everyday requirements. The dry goods and breads are placed in the middle aisles. The frozen food section is placed near the checkouts to keep them from defrosting while the shopper is moving around the aisles. What makes the layout of the store so coherent is the fact that essentials are lined along the walls and corners and items that are appealing right in the eyesight. PROCESS FLOW OF THE OPERATION: [pic] Fig. 3 Process flow of Sainsbury’s operations. Sainsbury’s process flow illuminates various stages between stocking and delivering the product that a customer chooses to buy from the supermarket (Fig. 3). Initially the inventory stores the goods and materials that are held available in stock for the business. To manage the stock there is an effective solution in place named â€Å"Wesupply† which has been implemented at Sainsbury by IBM (5) . It allows monitoring the status of orders all across the Sainsbury’s network. It regulates the item supply at the shelves, and helps delivery system coordinate with the inventory replenishment. The manager regulates and changes the item price according to the demand . The customer has access to the price rates and various schemes and offers, this is the display stage, once the products are chosen the billing takes place at the cashier, leading to the packaging stage where the customer is handed over the product which was formerly stocked at the inventory. IMPORTANCE OF PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE TO THE OPERATION: THE QUALITY OBJECTIVE: Sainsbury’s customers give most credit to the company’s passion for healthy, safe, fresh and tasty food . Despite the present economic conditions the company stands by its quality related objectives. Good food at fair prices, providing a satisfying shopping experience, spreading and reaching out to customers by opening new stores at various locations. Hygiene anh heath and safety issues given utmost importance . THE SPEED OBJECTIVE: Sainsbury’s tries best to synchronize supply with demands. Goods are made immediately available to the customers. According to the industry speed checks a customer spends an average of eight minutes, from joining a queue to receiving the receipt. Sainsbury’s is recruiting an extra and of 10,000 all across the chains to cut down the checkout queues. The extra staff will mainly be the part-time positions (6). THE DEPENDABILITY OBJECTIVE: Specifying the supermarket timings , providing product related information and schemes in form of shelf toppers , discounts , posters ,makes the supermarket a reliable place to visit every time . There is a constant availability of parking ,and special slots are reserved for the disabled and ‘parent and child’ parking at all times . Making shopping at the supermarket a hassle free experience. THE FLEXIBILITY OBJECTIVE: Sainsbury’s creates brand ranges for various needs, inclusion of healthier and value dishes in addition to the irresistible and authentic dishes, incorporating organic ranges of food if one suffers from allergies and health related issues, defines the level of flexibility Sainsbury caters to for its customers. Extra tills are opened at peak hours and more staff is recruited to adjust to the number of customers that are served at Sainsbury’s. THE COST OBJECTIVE: The cost at the supermarket is incurred at maintaining the inventory, implementing various technologies and facility cost, staff cost. The facility cost can be reduced by getting rid of the aging equipment, and using renewable forms of energy. Sainsbury’s initiative to switch to Enercon E40 KW ( wind turbine) has lead to enormous cost saving. VOLUME VARIETY VARIATION AND VISIBILITY CHARACTERISTICS OF SAINSBURY’S: Volume and variety: A relationship between volume and variety are as shown: the general position of operations is along the diagonal, when the volume is high, variety is high and vice versa. [pic] Supermarkets offer a high variety of products and yet sell in high volume.. But in this case, the process is standardized for all the customers . All the customers receive similar kind of services, the process is not customised or tailored keeping each individuals needs in mind. Therefore, considering a supermarket process, the variety would still be considered low and the rule still stands. Hence in a supermarket scenario there are high levels of capital investments, systemizations, routinized workflow which leads to low unit costs. Variations: Sainsbury is in the high levels of demand variation and has changing capacity . The company has to stay in touch with the variations in customer demand constantly which would lead to high unit cost. With various sections at the supermarket ranging from electronics to household items the stacks have to be replenished on the regular bases. Visibility: A new solution named â€Å"Wesupply† has been implemented at Sainsbury by IBM which allows monitoring the status of orders all across the Sainsbury’s network, this leads to visibility within operations which amplifies stock availability for the customers. The supermarket uses various communication tools like discount vouchers, shelf toppers, posters at the entrance and various displays in the aisles to equip the customer with information on product availability and offers. A supermarket website displaying the product promo sections is also available. (11). INFERRED OPERATIONS STRATEGY OF THE ORGANISATION: The supermarket aims to meet the â€Å"Making Sainsbury great again â€Å"target, which would involve generating sales growth of ? 2. 5 billion putting it in a strong position during the latter months of the year(7). The supermarket wants to concentrate on sales-led recovery that makes availability of items its top priority. Introduction of 250 new ranges of products and retaining emphasis on healthier food in the new range â€Å"Taste the Difference† advertised by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has been paying off for the supermarkets growth. With the re-launch of non-food items Sainsbury’s offers to drive sales momentum (3). Sainsbury’s another operational strategy pertaining to its employees is to move the HR function to a more centralised, paperless system. It would be a gradual process to turn off the current labour intensive system. The new software system will free up personnel managers from their admin duties to focus more time on training and coaching staff and managers(10). SUGGESTIONS: SAINSBURY’S uses â€Å"Wesupply† solutions to monitor the status of orders across its entire network and manage the availability of products. This improves the visibility of supply chain performance of the supermarket(5) , but in recent times a new solution named Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is used for the further improvement of inventory accuracy (8). It allows a far more scope of cost cutting and flexibility via wireless mobility. Retail chains like ASDA, TESCO, MARKS n SPENCERS have already incorporated this system into their operations. CONCLUSION: Behind the largest companies to the minor stores, there needs to be a system that makes it run. Sainsbury’s being the third largest retail chain organisation too dwells on the operations management concepts to be able to manage all the goods and services that they distribute at a global level. The various performance objectives that are important to an organisation like maintaining speed in operations, bringing flexibility to the customers, maintaining the dependability from customers perspective, saving operational cost and enhancing profitability become realizable when operations management focuses on subtle routines and activities of the various processes. Seeing 1. 3 billion additional sales and a wide focus on quality values (Introduction of â€Å"Try something new today â€Å") which was branded incredibly successful and encouraged people to adapt better eating habits proves that Sainsbury is well on the path of achieving the target â€Å"Making Sainsbury’s great again† (9). REFERENCES [pic]1) Danny Samson and Mile Terziovski (1999), The relationship between total quality Management Practices and operational performance, Journal of Operations Management, Volume 17 Issue 4: 393-409. Department of [pic]Management,[pic] University of Melbourne, Australia b Department of Business [pic]Management,[pic] Monash University, Australia Received 11 September 1997; accepted 8 July 1998. Available online 10 May 1999. Abstract Total quality [pic]management[pic] (TQM) has been a widely applied process for improving competitiveness around the world, but with mixed success. A review of the literature revealed gaps in research in this area of quality/operations [pic]management,[pic] particularly in the area of empirical testing of the effectiveness of TQM implementation. The aim of this study was to examine the total quality [pic]management[pic] practices and [pic]operational[pic] performance of a large number of manufacturing companies in order to determine the relationships between these practices, individually and collectively, and firm performance. We used a large data base of 1200 Australian and New Zealand manufacturing organisations. The reliability and validity (construct, content, criterion) of the practice and performance measures were evaluated. Our study showed that the relationship between TQM practice and organisational performance is significant in a cross-sectional sense, in that TQM practice intensity explains a significant proportion of variance in performance. Some but not all of the categories of TQM practice were particularly strong predictors of performance. The categories of leadership, [pic]management[pic] of people and customer focus were the strongest significant predictors of [pic]operational[pic] performance. This is consistent with literature findings that behavioural factors such as executive commitment, employee empowerment and an open culture can produce competitive advantage more strongly than TQM tools and techniques such as process improvement, benchmarking, and information and analysis. Author Keywords: Quality; Operations [pic]management[pic]; Performance; Human resource/OM interface; Empirical research Article Outline A. Introduction 2. Literature review and research problem background 2. 1. Purpose of the literature review 2. 2. The development of TQM 3. Theoretical framework and research hypotheses 3. 1. TQM elements 3. 1. 1. Leadership 3. 1. 2. People management 3. 1. 3. Customer focus 3. 1. 4. Strategic planning 3. 1. 5. Information and analysis 3. 1. 6. Process management 3. 1. 7. Performance 3. 2. Research hypotheses 3. 2. 1. Hypothesis H1 3. 2. 2. Hypothesis H2 4. Methodology 4. 1. Background 4. 2. Sample 4. 3. Survey instrument 4. 4. Data preparation 4. 4. 1. Selection of questions 4. 4. 2. Screening of outliers 4. 4. 3. Treatment of incomplete responses 4. . Analysis procedures 5. Results 6. Discussion of results and findings 6. 1. Tests of hypothesis H1 6. 1. 1. Validity 6. 1. 1. 1. Content validity 6. 1. 1. 2. Construct validity 6. 1. 1. 3. Criterion validity 6. 1. 2. Reliability 6. 2. Test for hypothesis H2 6. 3. Findings 7. Conclusions, limitations and further research Appendix A. 1. Survey questions A. 1. 1. Leadership A. 1. 2. People management A. 1. 3. Customer focus A. 1. 4. Planning A. 1. 5. Process management A. 1. 6. Information and analysis A. 1. 7. Organisational performance References 2) Rodolfo Vazquez , Ignacio A. Rodriguez-Del Bosque, Ana Ma Diaz and Agustin V. Ruiz (2001), Service quality in supermarket retailing: identifying critical service experiences, Journal of retailing and customer services, Volume 8 Issue 1: 1-14. 3) http://www. sainsburys. co. uk 4) http://www. j- sainsbury. co. uk/index. asp? PageID=424==2000=130 5) http://www. wesupply. com/news/articles/news_090409 6) http://www. thisislondon. co. uk/news/article-4216114-sainsburys-10000-queue-cutters. do 7) http://www. kessays. com/essays/accounting/sainsburys-plc. php 8) http://fplreflib. findlay. co. uk/articles/4563/RFID%20barcodes. pdf 9. http://www. independent. co. uk/news/business/news/123-profit-rise-makes-sainsburys- great-again-424381. html 10). http://www. personneltoday. com/articles/2007/08/07/41820/jobs-in-firing-line-as-sainsburys-plans-to-centralise-its-hr. html 11) Chambers, S. , Slack, N. , Johnston, R. , & Betts, A. (2009). Operations And Process Management: Principle s and Practices for Strategic Impact. Prentice Hall. [pic]

Dutch Disease

(1. What is meant by the term? ) Introduction Over 50 years ago on 1960, when a sprawl bed of liquid gas was discovered in North Sea, Netherland overjoyed exploiting the natural resource and became a net exporter of gas. The demand for Dutch guilder in order to purchasing gas, rose and made it extremely strong. It left a lot of currency to a level the manufacturing export was no longer competitive. Later on 1970, when oil price soured by 4 times; UK was tempted to invest in North Sea oil industry in Scotland.Soon after exporting the oil, UK encountered with a serious recession following labor strike. Firm workers demanded for higher wage because their disposal income has decreased which stemmed from the fall in expensive commodity demand. UK has become a net export of oil and Pound got appreciated. The rest of the industry left the market and firms started cutting their cost of human resources. Since then the term of â€Å"Dutch Disease† assign to those with heavy reliance on their supply of natural resources that downturn the non-resource aspect of economy.The Export–oriented manufacturing system is divided to two parts; More competitive sector-normally energy sector- grow faster and further while the less competitive step back and the related employment fall substantially and in more serious crisis concludes to deindustrialization. Both mentioned event are correlated with exchange rate development. The term of â€Å"Dutch disease† for the first time came in an article in The Economist -1977 that described the case as a natural resource curse.The name of Dutch Disease generally associated with a natural resource discovery, but it can be seen in any trade or investment activity that results in a large inflow of foreign currency, including a rise in natural resource prices, foreign aid, and foreign direct investment. The inflow of American treasures into Spain in 16th and gold discoveries in Australia in the 1850s are other two example of Du tch Disease diagnosis. By 1978, this story repeated in Iran. The oil price jumped and other local roduct like hand crafts, carpets, agricultural product, minerals, precious stones, Zofran, Pistachio became expensive and was not affordable for the neighbors and other importers to import. Such small industries never sustained in the market and some of them wiped out. Iran became the importer of rice, wheat, carpets. That took many jobs and money out of economy. Russia is likely to be another victim of this disease. Nearly 40% of GDP, 60% of export revenue and 60% of government revenue depends on oil and gas production. General perception of Russian economics, like other resource-rich countries, expects the symptom of disease.Russia as one of the main oil producer can easily impact on oil price by reducing or increasing the amount of production. In both situations, their intake of money from oil exportation is huge. It strengthens the Ruble and impact the export revenue as a whole. Bes ides pouring unmanaged wealth problem, the direct investors intend to invest in mines and oil/gas wells and rigs or take over the related companies (direct investment). Moreover the related industry attracts the indirect investors to stock market to buy their shares.These all concludes to CAD appreciation which is not what a commercial sector of an economy try to reach at. Since we are on another side of history, revolution against energy consumption and climate change got more serious, the countries that are too dependent on natural resource are being questioned more than before. Except for short-run effect of asymmetric growth on resource allocation and income distribution, we are better to think about long-run issue of not renewable resource depletion rate and future plan for rich-resource countries. 2. Detail and outline the channels that could cause such an effect) Dutch Disease Mechanism The underlying mechanism of the Dutch disease is that the real exchange rate of the resour ce- rich economy tends to appreciate strongly with the rise of the export revenues from the resource sector. In turn, the appreciation harms the economy’s exports from the manufacturing sector leading, over time, to de-industrialization . Regarding the pattern of history, the resource-rich countries manifest a short term prosper while others fallen behind due to: . Natural Resource discovery and exploitation 2. Increase in foreign currency 3. Foreign direct investment 4. Foreign aid 5. Natural resource price growth While at the mid-term they would experience: 1. Resource price artificially inflate the currency 2. Run up in commodity price 3. Losing price competition in market 4. Become weak in manufacturing sector 5. Become a net import of manufactured goods 6. Losing export power in goods other than natural resources 7. Leading to uneven economyThis is the mechanism in which non-resource industries get hurt by resource industry which proudly increases the wealth and spread t he benefit unevenly across the country that accounts for hidden economy turmoil, which make manufacturing jobs, move to lower cost countries. Canada and Oil Sand Fever (3. Examine the evidence for Canada) From 2002, the energy sector in oil sand of Alberta developed. The total rise of world oil price covered all extra cost of oil sand refinery process and made it profitable to that level which triggered exploration, expansion, extraction and export of oil.Obviously the nominal GDP per capita jumped and the Canadian exchange rate appreciated and the manufacturing sector has contracted. While the rise of the energy and commodity prices brings obvious benefits for Canada as a whole, it has raised also a lot of concerns of policy makers and economists. Tom Mulcair, the NDP leader, who is being accused of dividing the country against each other, named the oil sand of Canada the dirty oil. He said that the booming of oil industry in Saskatchewan province would hollow out other provincesâ €™ economy.He believes the oil exportation drive up the value of dollar and hurt manufacturing sector. The studies show that the appreciation of Canadian dollars relative to USD is driven by three factors. One of them is the strength of the CAD due to export oil, secondly the weakness of the USD, increase the appreciation of CAD, and the last factor is the booming of world energy price. Between 2002 to mid-2008 the price of oil and the other commodities got back to very low levels, however the manufacturing sector remained at the same weak status.The Dutch phenomenon becomes a disease if the manufacturing sector does not come back when the resource boom is over. (4. Arguments for and against the preposition) Investigating the proposition that the country has experienced a period of Dutch disease, two conditions may need to be fulfilled. First, see if currency appreciation has driven up by the export oriented commodity prices. Second, see to what extend unemployment has been affe cted in the manufacturing sector. According to Krugman (1987), it becomes a disease when the manufacturing sector does not come back after the resource boom.There are some contra verse arguments which claim that natural resource industries create jobs. Strong currency brings significant growth. While the food and energy security is so important in today’s world, there is no reason to blame these sectors for bad economy. Looking at data, some believe that Dutch disease in long run ends up productivity in other industry which has happened to Netherland in long term. (5. Government role to reduce the incident or mitigate the effect- foreign exchange intervention) â€Å"The gratification of wealth is not found in mere possession or in lavish expenditure, but in its wise application. – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra Under transparently and wisely management, if government can diversify the manufacturing and export sectors to reduce dependency on the booming sector and make t hem less vulnerable to external shocks, such as a sudden drop in commodity prices and at the same time avoid dumping all export revenue in the economy and devote fund of energy revenue to enforce other part of the industry through privatization and restructuring, the economy would be more resilience and integrated.In countries with temporary resource discovery, policymakers may want to protect the non-trade sectors through foreign exchange intervention that is, building up foreign exchange reserve through the sale of domestic currency to keep the foreign exchange value of the domestic currency lower to insulate the economy in condition the extra wealth spend wisely and to lead to inflation.Nobody expect government to call for a slowing down of resource development, but it is expected that policymakers help to boost the innovation, investment in human resource and spend more on research and development which leads to higher productivity of skilled worker via retraining which should b enefit the vulnerable sector. Developing the new energy infrastructural -pipe and rigs- intelligently and sustainably help peaking natural gas prices not being blamed for driving up inflation and driving down exports of manufacturing goods. In Russian, a few think that the national population must meets the domestic supply.They claim that they are not that much depends on export revenue. Moreover they firmly believe that their non-oil industry is not that much big to get hurt from global competition and they would continue to develop the oil sector which is more competitive and they are good at. In Chad, after oil discovery on 2004, the Chadian government invested the income on developing crop production and feeding poor people at the same time. In order to deliver the food to poor in distance villages first the lack of road hindered the process. So the next object was to improve transportation infrastructural.That was the example of successful policies for avoiding Dutch disease. U sing the country’s huge income of oil and gas for public and rural household welfare and investing particularly in, for example, development of road and irrigation infrastructure and improving water access would adverse the affection of Dutch disease. â€Å"If revenue can create a serious opportunity for development and poverty reduction, it certainly is a good opportunity for corruption as well, feeding political claims and increasing the risk of conflict† (page 47) Exchange rate and Spending effect (6. ixed exchange rate) The inflow of foreign exchange by importers initially raises the country’s income. There are two policies how to spend the money. If the foreign currency is traded with foreign commodity and spend on import, the domestically product goods are remained unharmed. But suppose it is converted to local currency, this time the local productions get affected. If the central bank decided for a fixed nominal exchange rate, after conversion the currenc y, the money supply increases, the local demand increase and local production price rise which leads to higher real exchange rate.If the exchange rate is flexible, the value of the domestic currency increases due to the increased supply of foreign currency, which again leads to higher real exchange rate, in this case through a rise in the nominal exchange rate rather than in domestic prices. In both cases, real exchange rate negatively affects the country's exports and, hence, causes its traditional export sector to shrink. This entire process is called the â€Å"spending effect. † †¢Corden, W. M. and J. P. Neary. 1982. Booming Sector and De-Industrialisation in a Small Open Economy.The Economic Journal, 92 (368) pp. 825-848. †¢Coulombe, S. , R. Lamy and S. Rogers (2007). Adjustment in High Trade Exposed Manufacturing Employement in Canada, Industry Canada, Mimeo. †¢http://www. imf. org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2003/03/ebra. htm †¢Ebrahim-zadeh, Christine (M arch 2003, Volume 40, Number 1). â€Å"Back to Basics – Dutch Disease: Too much wealth managed unwisely†. Finance and Development, A quarterly magazine of the IMF. IMF. †¢Corden and Neary . 1982. and Corden . 1984. †¢Stephanie Levy. 2001. â€Å"PUBLIC INVESTMENT TO REVERSE DUTCH DISEASE: THE CASE OF CHAD† †¢

Boethius Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Boethius - Essay Example In this case, the infallible providence of God is privy to all future events and whatever actions a rational creature sets out to do have actually been predetermined. However, this is going against the concept of freedom of choice, this is because the premise for legitimate free will would comprise of a non-predetermined course of things since freedom can be loosely defined as a the will by a rational creature to determine its own life and destiny independently. Thus, concisely if God is all knowing, cannot be wrong, and he knows of the human destiny and future action, then it translates that man’s future is predetermined in Gods knowledge of its occurrence and in these premise the concept of free will is fallacious. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius is one of the sages who have had significant impact on this debate; he posited a solution for this problem which he claims was shown to him in a vision by lady philosophy while he was locked up in prison. On free will he says the fact that humans are capable of reasoning means they possess free will, reason enables them to make logical judgments which translate to decisions (Flew, 175). Therefore, they have the ability and capacity to decide what should be included or excluded from their lives. He further classifies freedom thus; humans are freest when contemplating philosophically and least free when engaged in addictive behavior and bound in earthly fetters. However lady philosophy tells him that, God can foresee our future and puts everyone in the situations that are best fitted for their present needs in his infinite and infallible wisdom. However, this begs the question which had been earlier discussed before that, if the infallible God knows our actions and it is impossible that he is wrong, how then can we claim to have free will, this is because to justify perfect foresight, either what is going to happen must be foresees by him or what he sees must invariably come to pass, nevertheless in either ca se, human freedom is nullified. The solution offered by lady philosophy and which Boethius proposes is that God does not â€Å"know† or see things in the same way as man, he is eternal and the past present and future are simultaneous to him. He does not exist in the same temporal dimensions as humans thus despite the fact that tomorrow is yet to be, he sees it as we do the present, therefore he knows what will happen without directing it to happen (Flew 176).   Therefore, the knowledge of God transcends all that is in the temporal and spatial realms as perceived by man and it exists in the simplicity of a simple present, thus Gods knowledge is not future knowledge but awareness of a consistent present. In other words, one should not think of providence as the causative agent in the cause of things, they happen independently and providence only foresees them because they will happen not to make them happen. In my opinion, Boethius’ reasoning is not tenable, his argume nts go round in circles and coming back to the same point, because he wants to justify two diametrically opposed ideas and makes it appear that both are logical. At the end of the day, if we agree God all knows, his transcendence of time will not change the fact that humans are immersed in it, thus events in his continuous present are occur to humans in different times. Thus, the fact that thing happen as they do, and God presumably is aware of them means free will remains and illusion. However, to borrow from a biblical reasoning, God knows an individual even when they are in

Impact on others Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Impact on others - Essay Example The point is that the individual action must translate to some effect in the society from any perspective (Kamm 460). The question has always been what qualifies to be termed as harm. It is worth to note that harm does not necessarily occur when it is directed to another person. Although individual action may not inflict immediate physical or emotional harm to other people, the consequences on the actor will eventually be reflected in societal structure. Self-harm in itself should not be tolerated because the victim will eventually be a liability to members of the community (Kamm 460). The society has moral responsibility to ensure that actions of individuals are within the confines of the accepted norms and this includes prohibition of self-harm. It is therefore imperative that individual actions must be scrutinized in terms of the effect irrespective of the victims. This explains why attempts to commit suicide among other actions attract serious punishment although it involves taking out one’s life voluntarily. It is therefore not acceptable for to justify a given action on the reason that it does not harm another

Crisis Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Crisis Management - Essay Example It consists of techniques of how to prepare for and respond to a negative events and it includes actions well-coordinated which will control the damage and preserve or restore public confidence to the organization. a) first, the leader should set with the help of his/her top management team, a crisis management plan which should be in accordance with the values and the philosophy of the organization and which identifies different levels of crisis in the organization. b) Create a crisis management team which will identify possible crises and develop plans, roles and responsibility for preparing and mitigating each of the crises. The leader should help this team in analyzing crisis by various attributes such as industry, location, process etc. From 1990 - 2007 , according to ICM, the white collar crime is still number one in the list of most common crises, followed by mismanagement, workplace violence, labor disputes and class action suits. The top executives are the ones that made the news in 2007 for mismanagement and white collar crime. Workplace violence recorded the biggest increase of any of the 16 crisis types ICM tracks. The types of crises that ICM tracks are the following: catastrophes, casualty accidents, environmental, class action lawsuits consumer activism, defects& recalls, discrimination, executive dismissal, financial damages, hostile takeover, labor disputes, mismanagement, sexual harassment, whistle blowers, white collar crime and workplace violence. It is impressive that product defects and recalls rise up to 44% over the year before. The most crisis prone industries in 2007 were: software makers, pharmaceutical companies, petroleum refining, natural gas companies, security brokers/dealers, banking,

Siop ELL Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Siop ELL - Research Paper Example Developing Connections Waterman and Harry (2008) present ten recommendations to guide school staff on how to implement this connection, where we emphasize on: (1) school principals providing explicit support for parent involvement work, (2) offering open-ended meetings involving teachers and parents, and (3) offering parents an English as a second language class or a family literacy program (9-13). The school principal promotes parent-school collaboration through policy, staff decisions, and behaviors (Waterman & Harry, 2008, p. 9). These can be exemplified by being highly concerned with the parents’ questions in meetings, and hiring staff that could work and communicate well with ELL families. In addition, initiating open-ended meetings for parents and select school staff is an avenue for both parties to discuss questions and concerns, and for parents to familiarize the school system, and for practitioners to be aware of the ELLs experiences (10). These assemblies would event ually create a trusting relationship between the school and families, increasing parental involvement.

The Selling Process and Selling Tools Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Selling Process and Selling Tools - Essay Example Determining and estimating the competition strength is also important in sales and marketing. What qualifies a service or a product to particular market segmentation and what hinders maximum profits should be determined. Knowledge of the segment that will need a company’s product or services will save time and resources, and this can be done by determining dimensions of sales. The demand for a product should be well estimated for accurate production. Demand estimation will reduce wastages of resources or loss of customers because the products were not enough. Trade area analysis is very important in sales, as a company will know which part of the country needs their goods or services. Trade areas differ with geography, political stability, and economic advantage and a company that has all these details will have a competitive advantage. Market potential and sales forecast should also be checked before a company engages are sales in an area. The product that a company is sellin g is the most important aspect is sales and marketing. What the product entails is something that matters to the customers and should be what a company takes it into account before manufacturing it. Why the product, who will it benefit more, where will it be sold, how much will it go for, and what profits margin is expected to bring. A good product should not stay on the shelf for long instead every production should be increased because demand has also increased. Pricing for personal selling has been considered the strongest promotion tool as it personalizes the message to the customer. The sales tend to be higher when personal selling is conducted, ensuring that all the profits go to the company instead of having to divide them among the sales agents. Personal selling also uses various technologies and helps overcome geographic limitations because the companies are able to draw budgets for the sales. This kind of selling also promotes good relationships between the customers, mana gement, and employees. This creates loyalty in the company a very important aspect of a business. Promotion strategy is an element very important in the marketing mix that involves advertising of a product for customers to be familiar with it before purchasing. Advertising to be done before the product is in the market to get people responses and ensure that the customers do not forget its value. Personal selling is the other component of promotion strategy where the producer promotes their product personally. This creates brand loyalty from the customers ensuring that they do not stop using the product.

Web develop report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Web develop report - Essay Example First, the website lacks the repetition of visual elements, which is important for the interactivity of a website. In terms of contrast, there are very few blocks of text that contract with the website’s background. Several texts are almost illegible and one would struggle to understand the words put across by the website. ‘Barry Tebb’s Mental Health Blog Website’ link and the whole of ‘Feature Articles’ section give such examples. This is shown below. In terms of proximity, related items are near each other as they should be. The issue arising here is that nearly everything is at this same proximity. While ‘Review’ and ‘E Magazine’ are two separate sections, they have been spaced the same distance as the line breaks in the paragraphs! The fourth item I need to criticize is the alignment of elements to create visual unity. Sixties Press has tried to inculcate this within the main part of their website. However, they have not done it so well. While the paragraphs and sections are aligned in vertical columns, the text is centered. While this may make sense in the case of a poem, this is a website and therefore does not apply at all. The navigation menu has ignored alignments totally. The content displayed by Sixties Press seems to go hand in hand with its relevance as a poetry website. The audience, who are mainly the poetry fans, can get informative and relevant information from this website. Therefore with over 8 years of operation, they have developed confidence in the website’s knowledge and competence. The content seem to be short and organized, labeled and broken down into short paragraphs. Sixties Press seems to update its content regularly, something that is likely to endear it to its visitors. Flashy graphics and animation, which may distract someone from getting to the meat of the website has been hugely avoided. While a banner or a catchy video would keep visitors for much longer on the

The drug war is not working Essay Example for Free

The drug war is not working Essay That is certainly true if we assume, as he does, that the purpose of the drug war is to induce Americans to consume only approved drugs. But as the war wears on, we have to wonder what its purposes really are. If its purpose is to make criminals out of one in three African-American males, it has succeeded. If its purpose is to create one of the highest crime rates in the world and thus to provide permanent fodder for demagogues who decry crime and promise to do something about it it is achieving that end. If its purpose is de facto repeal of the Bill of Rights, victory is well in sight. If its purpose is to transfer individual freedom to the central government, it is carrying that off as well as any of our real wars did. If its purpose is to destroy our inner cities by making them war zones, triumph is near. Most of the results of the drug war, of which the essayists here complain, were widely observed during alcohol prohibition. Everyone should have known that the same fate would follow if the Prohibition approach were merely transferred to different drugs. It has been clear for over a decade that Milton Friedmans warnings about Prohibition redux have been borne out (see his Prohibition and Drugs, Newsweek, May 1, 1972). At some point, the consequences of a social policy become so palpable that deliberate continuation of the policy incorporates those consequences into the policy. We are near if not past that point with drug prohibition. For forty years following the repeal of alcohol prohibition, we treated drug prohibition as we did other laws against vice: we didnt take it very seriously. As we were extricating ourselves from the Vietnam War, however, Richard Nixon declared all-out global war on the drug menace, and the militarization of the problem began. After Ronald Reagan redeclared that war, and George Bush did the same, we had a drug-war budget that was 1,000 times what it was when Nixon first discovered the new enemy. The objectives of the drug war are obscured in order to prevent evaluation. A common claim, for example, is that prohibition is part of the nations effort to prevent serious crime. Bill Clintons drug czar, Dr. Lee Brown, testified before Congress: Drugs especially addictive, hard-core drug use are behind much of the crime we see on our streets today, both those crimes committed by users to finance their lifestyles and those committed by traffickers and dealers fighting for territory and turf. . . . Moreover, there is a level of fear in our communities that is, I believe, unprecedented in our history . . . If these remarks had been preceded by two words, Prohibition of, the statement would have been correct, and the political reverberations would have been deafening. Instead, Dr.Brown implied that drug consumption is by itself responsible for turf wars and the other enumerated evils, an implication which he and every other drug warrior know is false. The only possibility more daunting than that our leaders are dissembling is that they might actually believe the nonsense they purvey. I have little to add to the catalogue of drug-war casualties in the other essays assembled here. I do, however, see another angle of entry for Mr. Buckleys efforts at quantification. I have argued elsewhere that the drug war is responsible for at least half of our serious crime. A panel of experts consulted by U. S. News World Report put the annual dollar cost of Americas crime at $674 billion. Half of that, $337 billion, was the total federal budget as recently as 1975. The crime costs of drug prohibition alone may equal 150 per cent of the entire federal welfare budget for 1995. I also think Mr. Buckley understates the nonquantifiable loss of what he quaintly refers to as amenities. Not only is it nearly suicidal to walk alone in Central Park at night, it is impossible in sections of some cities safely to leave ones home, or to remain there. Some Americans sleep in their bathtubs hoping they are bullet-proof. Prohibition-generated violence is destroying large sections of American cities. We can have our drug war or we can have healthy cities; we cannot have both. In this collection of essays, we critics have focused on the costs of the drug war. The warriors could justly complain if we failed to mention the benefits. So lets take a look at the benefit side of the equation. Were it not for the drug war, the prohibitionists say, we might be a nation of zombies. The DEA pulled the figure of 60 million from the sky: thats how many cocaine users they say we would have if it werent for prohibition. Joseph Califanos colleague at the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Dr. Herbert Kleber, a former assistant to William Bennett, puts the number of cocaine users after repeal at a more modest 20 to 25 million. In contrast, government surveys suggest that only about 3 million Americans currently use cocaine even occasionally and fewer than 500,000 use it weekly. The prohibitionists scenarios have no basis either in our history or in other cultures. In many countries, heroin and cocaine are cheap and at least de facto legal. Mexico is awash in cheap drugs, yet our own State Department says that Mexico does not have a serious drug problem. Neither cocaine nor heroin is habitually consumed by more than a small fraction of the residents of any country in the world. There is no reason to suppose that Americans would be the single exception. Lee Brown used to rely on alcohol prohibition as proof that legalization would addict the nation, asserting that alcohol consumption shot straight up when Prohibition was repealed. He no longer claims that, it having been pointed out to him that alcohol consumption increased only about 25 per cent in the years following repeal. Yet even assuming, contrary to that experience, that ingestion of currently illegal drugs would double or triple following repeal, preventing such increased consumption still cannot be counted a true benefit of drug prohibition. After repeal, the drugs would be regulated; their purity and potency would be disclosed on the package, as Mr. Buckley points out, together with appropriate warnings. Deaths from overdoses and toxic reactions would be reduced, not increased. Moreover, as Richard Cowan has explained (NR, How the Narcs Created Crack, Dec. 5, 1986), the drugs consumed after repeal would be less potent than those ingested under prohibition. Before alcohol prohibition, we were a nation of beer drinkers. Prohibition pushed us toward hard liquor, a habit from which we are still recovering. Before the Harrison Act, many Americans took their cocaine in highly diluted forms, such as Coca-Cola. We would also end the cruel practices described by Ethan Nadelmann wherein we deny pain medication to those who need it, preclude the medical use of marijuana, and compel drug users to share needles and thus to spread deadly diseases. The proportion of users who would consume the drugs without substantial health or other problems would be greatly increased. In comparison to any plausible post-repeal scenario, therefore, there simply are no health benefits achieved by prohibition.

Amazon.com is a multinational ecommerce company

Amazon.com is a multinational ecommerce company Amazon.com is a multinational Ecommerce company, which was founded by Jeff Bezos who is considered to be one of the worlds top innovative executives. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore and expanded with time to sell almost everything. The role of information system in this company is a leading role, because the company is an online retailer. The company started as an online store for books to rapidly expand to sell everything such us beauty items, auto parts, apparel, electronics and groceries. Amazon has started as an online book retailer and later on has grown to sell products such as VHS, DVD, Computer software, furniture, food, music CDs and toys. The company has also been able to launch websites in different countries such as United Kingdom, Canada, France, Japan and Germany. By 2001 the market place of Amazon has been launched to enable Amazons customers to sell used books, DVDs and CDs Amazons logo shows an arrow that stretches from A to Z, which also forms a smile to indicate Amazons care for customers satisfaction. eBay on the other hand is one of Amazons rival online companies. Amazon.com has been an innovative company in its domain; therefore it attracted lots of competition from different companies. eBay as an example is a very strong competitor. It is the number one online auction website. It recruited more than 15000 employees. Just like Amazon, eBay provides customers with comprehensive web services such as: Search via keyword or phrase. Submit new items. Re-list items. Provides information about certain seller or bidder. eBay is considered to be the largest online trading company in the world. It was founded in 1995 to become one of the most popular online shopping sites in the world. It has over 100 million registered users internationally. It allows buyers and sellers from the around the word to facilitate sales of services and products and form a diverse international community. In order for users to be able to transfer money to sellers, eBay started up Pay Pal, which became the worlds largest online bank. Until 2005, eBay has enjoyed a decade of online auction monopoly. Right now it is challenged by google and it is no longer the worlds only online auction community. Information system: Amazon uses an information system (MIS) that focuses on the customer supplier relationship. It focuses on increasing intimacy between customers and suppliers. Amazon uses a sophisticated Information system and sophisticated techniques that allow Amazon to standardize the processes it uses in order to give customers high satisfying experiences. The website opens up with a search bar where customers can type down their desired item and then be able to sift through the data base where the item and similar items can be found. The customer once finding the desired item can give the option of ordering the item and buy it through credit card or gift vouchers that can be purchased through cashu. Once the item is shipped, the customer can receive it within few days up to few weeks depending on the destination required. Unlike its competitors, amazon.com does not ship items through warehouses owned by the company. Books for example are shipped directly from publishers; therefore, warehouses ar e not needed. These systems are managed by different technological applicants in order to help Amazons employees work with efficiency. Once a customer places an order, the management system would start working on reserving the item, schedule the shipment, make invoices and update the customers account and record. Amazon uses TPS (Transaction Processing Systems) in the process of the transaction done, as in once picking up the number of items needed the website calculates the total amount. It can also be seen in the preparation of invoices. DSS (Decision Support System) in Amazon can be seen in how Amazon presents its customers with the chance to choose items from a best selling list added to the home page. It is also implemented in a service provided by the website called â€Å"Look inside the book†. Customers are left with the choice to make a decision in buying a specific book or not by taking a look at random pages of the content of the book. It can also be seen in the typ e of shipment that is considered appropriate for the customer. ESS (Executive support system) is seen in the executives handling of queries and answering questions of customers. Amazon uses its own customized database called Amazon S3 (Amazon Simple Storage Service). It is predicted that with time, this system will take the place of Oracle databases because it is simple and less expensive. On the other hand, eBay uses Business 2 Business (B2B) information system. eBay works through a person 2 person process. Customers can search for items via eBay and then directly contact the seller by negotiating the price with other buyers. B2B can be seen through the way processes are made. Customers are in direct contact with buyers and the transaction and money transfer occurs through PayPal, which is an individual website by itself-though it is fully owned by eBay-. eBay has a massive oracle database that includes over 200 million registered users, two petabytes of data, ECRM: Amazon takes the privacy of its customers very seriously. It is true that it keeps a profile about its customers according to what they buy and what items they are interested in, but it does not sell information about its customers to other companies. It also verifies the price of the item ordered to ensure items are not mispriced. This is done to ensure the satisfaction of the customers. Amazon manages knowledge through allowing customers to be able to see pages of the books desired for purchase. On the other hand, customers cannot review a whole book nor can they print the pages. Customers are only allowed to review pictures of the reviewed pages and not the actual page. This method has been used by Amazon to prevent violation of copyrights as well as manage knowledge. E-CRM (E-Customer Relationship Management) can be easily seen on Amazon.coms webpage. Amazon uses E-CRM by suggesting items to the customers based on previous purchases. As an example, previously I have bought the Kindle reading device through Amazon.com. This picture shows recommended items other customers with similar purchases have bought. The second part also shows books that I might be interested in. Amazon.com. 2010. Todays Recommendations For You. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.amazon.com/gp/yourstore?ie=UTF8ref_=pd_irl_gwsignIn=1. [Accessed 05 May 10]. Amazon has also provided its customers with special features. They are: Products and pricing information retrieval. Customer reviews. Wish lists retrieval. Performing simple and advanced searches. Updating Shopping carts. eBays reputation of being the biggest online auction house in the world has attracted hackers and fraudsters who find it easier to access illegal information about customers and their accounts. This led criminals to sell fraud and sell knock-off and fake items. eBay works hard on detecting fraud activities on its website and considers this as its core activity of its business in order to provide its customers with safety and security. eBay uses whois domain in order to provide its customers with the highest security system. wikipedia. 2010. WHOIS. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whois. [Accessed 23 May 10] eBay uses whois to fight scam and phishing issues because of an epidemic scam that occurred few years back. The scammers used phishing emails that seemed to come from a trustworthy companies asking for customers financial information. With whois system, eBay was able to detect thousands of phishing attacks (1125 in 2005). Management challenges: Amazon has a competitive edge that shows its concern with its customers. This can be seen through making the shopping experience fun and easy for Amazons customers. Most of the online shopping standards were innovated by Amazon. One of the most obvious examples is the 1 click system, which allows returning customers to shop using one click instead of being forced to re-enter their information and payment method. Amazon.com has thought of a very intelligent idea to increase sales on the website. This has been done through inventing Kindle. Customers can purchase books for their kindle only through the website, and this can increase the sales of books sold on Amazon.com. eBay has a famous issue with â€Å"glitches† on its website. Many customers have been complaining about this issue for years. In 2009, the website had a whole day glitch and sellers suffered from losses. What these glitches do is that they disable search for items for a period of time. At some point, a glitch was responsible to delete an 11 years old account of a reliable user. Dan Goodin. 2007. The Register. [online] Available at: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/12ebay_glitches/. [Accessed May 25th 10] Online/offline communication: It seems that Amazon.com takes it customers needs and satisfaction very seriously. Amazon controls all operations between customers and vendors. Customers order the required products through Amazon, while Amazon contacts the specific vendor for the product, the customer does not have a direct connection with the vendor. This type of communication is an online communication, because the customers whole transaction occurs through Amazon.com. Customers are not transferred to the vendors homepage. The transaction does not occur through the vendors homepage as well. The whole process is done fully via Amazon.com, even the final payments and delivery systems. Even though shipments are done through vendors, Amazon.com has given instructions that all packaging happens in a specific way. Hence, the Amazon.com packages and boxes. Shipments can also be tracked through Amazon instead of communicating with the vendor directly. This proves that Amazon.com uses in online communication service with its customers, because it controls all the transaction starting from giving the customer choices for a product and ending with the products delivery, exchange and refunding. eBay works as a broker between sellers and buyers. Buyers and bidders can place their orders via eBay. Sellers ship items to the highest bidder, which means that eBay does not control the process of shipment or money transaction. Money is transferred directly to the seller through PayPal. This means that eBay is not involved in the process, because sellers control the process starting from deciding the price of the product and ending with the shipping of the product. Knowledge Management: There are two types of knowledge management, the usual knowledge management and Customers knowledge management. Amazon uses Customers knowledge management, because it is more efficient and innovative. Managers in Amazon.com are aware of the fact that customers are more knowledgeable than the company can realize. Knowledge is a key to competitiveness. Knowledge is managed through Amazon by motivating customers to share their knowledge by providing products reviews, customers order histories, suggestions based on customers prior orders. Amazon allows knowledge to be exchanged through its customers rather than keeping it within the company. The knowledge does not get lost this way because the more customers the company has, the more knowledge it gains. eBay manages knowledge through providing managers with the playbook concept and providing eBay customers with Whois. Playbook concept is about knowing the steps needed for success. It allows managers to take the necessary steps that would allow eBay to grow as fast as the managers want. Playbook works in setting the suitable conditions of electronic trading in order to allow certain areas to flourish and grow. Playbook consists of hundreds of web pages that include information that are considered to be a collective of wisdom for all eBay managers worldwide. It consists of updated topics about online marketing and management categories. eBay has also provided its customers with free available Whois data base so they can check the legitimacy of websites that are forwarded to them that may be part of a phishing scam. This database provides them with information about websites, if the information is incorrect, then it means that this website is part of a phishing scam. This comes under both eCRM and knowledge management, because it is a service presented to the customers that allow them to identify scammers while at the same time it provides them with the knowledge about which website is secure and which website is a fraud. References: Junnarkar, Sandeep, (2010) eBay taps business-to-business boom, [Online] Available: http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-238000.html [March 15th 2010] Keith Regan. 2003. ecommerce times. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/20603.html?wlc=1275082118. [Accessed 29 January 03] Schoenfeld, E, 2005. The World According to Ebay. Enterprise Information System, [online]. 13, 2-4. Available at: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2005/01/01/8250238/index.htm [accessed 17th May 2010] wikipedia. 2010. WHOIS. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whois. [Accessed 23 May 10] Dan Goodin. 2007. The Register. [online] Available at: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/12ebay_glitches/. [Accessed May 25th 10] Gosnell, Denise. (2005) Professional Web APIs: Google ®, eBay ®, Amazon.com ®, MapPoint ®, FedEx ®, Indianapolis, Indiana:Wiley publication, inc. Shanahan, Francis. (2007) Amazon.com ® Mashups, Indianapolis, Indiana: Wiley Publication, inc.

Communication and Culture Essay -- Philosophy, Taoism

Scholars from the indigenous psychology and philosophy field noted that explanations of the differences between the East and West, such as individualism/collectivism, have relied most exclusively on theoretical constructs generated in Western cultural contexts (Cheng, 1987; Cushman & Kincaid, 1987; Peng, Spencer-Rodgers, & Nian, 2006). Peng and his colleagues argued that indigenous concepts need to be introduced into the mainstream study, and the cultural differences between Western and Eastern people in the domains of thinking and reasoning can be attributed to differences between Western and Eastern folk epistemologies (Peng et al., 2006). Moreover, communication theory can be explored from both Western and Eastern perspectives by bringing in philosophical thoughts (Cushman & Kincaid, 1987). With its rich background and insights into human nature and human understanding, philosophy can make contributions to contemporary communication theory by recognizing the crucial nece ssity of the human context for communication (Cushman & Kincaid, 1987). Cheng (1987) noted that by bringing in philosophical perspective, the way of communication can be understood in a much broader sense. For instance, when comparing the differences between the West and China, scholars pointed out that while Chinese thinking and reasoning are mainly guided by folk version of Taoism and Ch’an Buddhism, Western thinking and reasoning are mostly Aristotelian in spirit (Cheng, 1987; Peng et al., 2006). The theoretical foundation of Taoism belief is the idea that two opposites are mutually dependent on each other (Peng et al., 2006). This mutual dependence can be found between form and substance, between knowledge and action, and between symbol and e... ...ive emphasizes selflessness and submission to central authority as the institutional means for achieving unity and harmony between man, and nature and this is the principle goal for communication. In contrast, the Western perspective emphasizes self-cultivation and the subjugation of human and natural resources to individual control as the central means for achieving individual and group goal attainment. According to the Eastern perspective, an individual's participation in a collective institutional structure motivates human action and human communication, therefore, serves for the need of participation (Cushman & Kincaid, 2006). According the Western perspective, an individual's desire for political, social, and economic self-realization actuates human action and human communication, therefore, serves for the need of self-realization (Cushman & Kincaid, 2006).

A Review Of The Scarlet Letter :: Free Essay Writer

A Review of the Scarlet Letter   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The novel opens with an explanation of how the romance of The Scarlet Letter came to be presented as a story in its existing form. Having always wanted to be a “literary man';, Nathaniel Hawthorne talks about his three-year stint as a Surveyor in the Salem Custom House. Mostly filled with older gentlemen, the workplace was a very political, Whig-influenced environment and charged with Puritan history. After brief character sketches of the personalities in the Custom House, Hawthorne then explains how he came upon a special package among the piles of papers. It contained a red cloth with the letter “A'; embroidered in gold thread and a manuscript by Jonathan Pue (the man who once held Hawthorne’s job). Finding the story extremely interesting, the author thus retells the story of Hester Prynne from Massachusetts’s Puritan history.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first chapter begins with Hester being led to the scaffold where she is to be publicly shamed for having committed adultery. Hester is forced to wear the letter “A'; on her gown at all times as punishment for her crime. She has stitched a large scarlet “A'; onto her dress with gold thread, giving the letter an air of elegance. Hester carries Pearl, her daughter, with her. On the scaffold she is asked to reveal the name of Pearl’s father, but she refuses. In the crowd, Hester recognizes her husband from Amsterdam, Roger Chillingworth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chillingworth visits Hester after she is returned to the prison. He tells her that he will find out who the man was, and that he will read the truth on the man’s heart. He then forces her to promise never to reveal his own identity to anyone else.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hester moves into a cottage bordering the woods. She and Pearl live there in relative solitude. Hester earns her money by doing stitchwork for local dignitaries, but often spends her time helping the poor and sick. Pearl grows up to be wild, in the sense that she refuses to obey her mother.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Roger Chillingworth earns a reputation as being a good physician. He uses his reputation to get transferred into the same home as Arthur Dimmesdale, an ailing minister. Chillingworth eventually discovers that Dimmesdale is the true father of Pearl, at which point he spends every moment trying to torment the minister.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One night Dimmesdale is so overcome with shame about hiding his secret that he walks to the scaffold where Hester was publicly humiliated.

A General Model of Publication :: Publication Process Media SGML Essays

A General Model of Publication Although the medium and the material may differ vastly, essentially the same common process is always involved in publication (Fig. 1). For on-line publications this model makes it possible to automate many of the steps involved (see module on Automated document processing). Figure 1. A model for the publication process. The same general pattern of steps occurs whatever the publication and whatever the type of material involved. This model encompasses all the stages described earlier, but in a somewhat more formalized form. We can summarize the steps as follows: Submission The author submits material to the editor. Acquisition The publisher acquires material. Here we take this to include permissions. Details of the submission are recorded and an acknowledgment is sent to the author. Quality assurance The material is checked. Errors are referred back to the author for correction. Production The material is prepared for publication. This stage includes copy-editing, design, typesetting, printing and binding. Proofs are checked both by the author and editor and any typesetting errors are corrected. For books, an ISBN number is obtained. Distribution The publication is shipped to stores etc for sale. It is publicized so that people know that it is available. The Internet offers advantages for publications of all-kinds. These include:  ¡P  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  instant world-wide availability;  ¡P  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  publication features of the World-Wide Web;  ¡P  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  eliminating distribution costs;  ¡P  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  reducing production costs - no need to print "hard copy";  ¡P  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  potential world-wide audience; and  ¡P  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  "niche"/special interest publishing becomes viable. The World Wide Web expands the traditional notion of a publication in several ways:  ¡P  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  it is possible to include multimedia elements;  ¡P  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  it is possible to include hyperlinks to information anywhere;  ¡P  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  it is possible to draw together information from many different sources;  ¡P  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  hypermedia books are not limited to the traditional "linear" structure of printed books. They can, for instance, provide several alternative paths through a set of documents, or allow readers to pursue material to whatever depth they wish; and  ¡P  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  it diminishes the distinction between tradtitional text-oriented publications and other products, such as databases and on-line software. Legal issues Legal issues abound in the publishing business. Although legal issues are not dealt with in detail here the editor should make every effort to keep up to date with issues and changes. Each publication should be carefully checked to ensure that legal risks are minimized. Some of the legal matters involved in publishing include:  ¡P  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Contracts Publishers always need to ensure the legal status of material that they publish.

Financial Markets Test with Multiple Choice Questions Essay

Class Test 1 (Sample Items) Choose the most correct response. Record your answer on the mark sense sheet provided. Each answer is worth  ½ mark. QUESTION 1 All else equal, a binding price floor will cause less of a surplus if: (a)both supply and demand are inelastic (b)both supply and demand are elastic (c)supply is elastic, but demand is inelastic (d)supply is inelastic, but demand is elastic QUESTION 2 The figure shows the market for books before and after an excise tax is introduced. The tax on books is ________, buyers pay ______ of tax per book, and the governments tax revenue is ________ a week. (a) $0.40 a book; $0.40; $4 (b) $1.20 a book; $0.80; $128 (c) $0.80 a book; $1.20; $12 (d) $1.20 a book; $0.80; $12 QUESTION 3 If the minimum wage is set below the equilibrium wage rate, (a) a labour shortage occurs. (b) there is no change in the quantity of labour employed. (c) the short-run labour supply curve becomes more elastic. (d) a labour surplus occurs. QUESTION 4 If honey is measured on the vertical axis, and jam on the horizontal axis, the marginal rate of substitution: (a) is the rate at which the consumer has to give up honey if more jam is to be bought, given their relative prices. (b) is the rate at which the consumer has to give up jam if more honey is to be bought, given their relative prices. (c) is the rate at which the consumer is willing to give up honey in order to get more jam, and be as satisfied as he or she was before. (d) is the rate at which the consumer is willing to give up honey in order to get more jam and be better off than he or she was before. QUESTION 5 At the best affordable point: (a) the budget line intersects an indifference curve. (b) the marginal rate substitution of x for y is exactly equal to 1. (c) the marginal rate of substitution of x for y is equal to the relative price of x in terms of y (that is, ) (d) the difference between the marginal rate of substitution of x for y and the relative price of x is at a maximum. QUESTION 6 Stuart, who loves seafood, says, ‘I can’t really tell the difference between Sydney rock oysters and Pacific oysters. They taste equally delicious to me; I just buy a dozen of whichever is cheaper every week.’ In terms of marginal utility theory, Stuart thinks: (a) the marginal utility per dollar spent on Sydney rock oysters is equal to the marginal utility per dollar spent on Pacific oysters. (b) the marginal utility he gets from Sydney rock oysters is greater than that from Pacific oysters, but Pacific oysters are cheaper. (c) the marginal utility he gets from Pacific oysters is greater than that from Sydney rock oysters, but  Sydney rock oysters are cheaper. (d) the marginal utility he gets from Sydney rock oysters is equal to that from Pacific oysters, and so whichever oyster has a lower price gives him a higher marginal utility per dollar spent. QUESTION 7 According to the marginal utility theory of consumer choice, rational consumers will spend their money with the aim of: (a) maximizing the total utility they get from their limited income. (b) maximizing the marginal utility they get from each good. (c) equalizing the marginal utility they get from different goods. (d) maximizing the amount they save out of their limited income. QUESTION 8 A firm’s production function refers to: (a) the maximum quantity of output that it can produce within a given period. (b) the maximum revenue it can earn from various levels of output. (c) the maximum output that can be produced from various quantities of inputs. (d) the minimum cost of producing various levels of output. QUESTION 9 When marginal cost is rising, average total cost: (a) will necessarily be rising. (b) will necessarily be falling. (c) may be rising or falling, depending on whether marginal cost is greater or less than average total cost. (d) may be rising or falling, depending on whether marginal cost is greater or less than average variable cost. QUESTION 10 Which of the following reflects the law of diminishing marginal rate of substitution? As we continually increase labour one unit at a time, (a) the addition to output will become larger, if capital is held constant. (b) the addition to output will become smaller, if capital is held constant. (c) larger reductions in capital will be required to keep output constant. (d) smaller reductions in capital will be required to keep output constant. (e) larger increases in labour will be required to keep output constant. QUESTION 11 The least cost technique of producing a given output occurs where the marginal rate of substitution of labour for capital equals the (a) ratio of the quantity of labour used relative to the quantity of capital used. (b) ratio of the price of labour to the price of capital. (c) minimum point on the isoquant line. (d) marginal cost of capital (e) ratio of the marginal cost of capital to the marginal cost of labour. QUESTION 12 A perfectly competitive firm’s supply curve is the upward-sloping part of its (a) average product curve, at all points above the point of minimum average variable cost. (b) marginal cost curve, at all points above the point of minimum average fixed cost. (c) marginal revenue curve, at all points above the point of minimum average revenue. (d) marginal revenue curve, at all points above the point of minimum average total cost. (e) marginal cost curve, at all points above the point of minimum average variable cost. QUESTION 13 For the monopolist facing a downward sloping demand, the marginal revenue  never exceeds the price because (a) the producers of substitutes keep the price low. (b) the monopolist must lower the price in order to sell more during any given period of time. (c) the monopoly will be a large corporation with high fixed costs. (d) the monopoly must accept the marginal revenue set by the market as a whole. (e) the monopoly has low marginal cost relative to a competitive firm. QUESTION 14 The table gives the demand schedule for water bottled by Wanda’s Healthy Waters, a single-price monopoly. If the marginal cost is a constant $4 a bottle, Wanda’s will produce _______ a day and charge ____ a bottle. (a) 3 bottles; $7 (b) 4 bottles; $6 (c) 5 bottles; $5 (d) 1 bottle; $9 QUESTION 15 The table below gives the demand and supply schedule for biscuits. The government now levies a $3 tax on biscuit. As a result, the price of a packet of biscuits will increase to ____ and the tax revenue collected is ____. (a) $12; $160 a week (b) $12; $300 a week (c) $13; $160 a week (d) $13; $240 a week Price ($ per packet) Quantity demanded (packets / week) Quantity supplied (packets / week) QUESTION 16 Excess capacity in monopolistically competitive firms is described by the fact that (a) each firm faces a demand that is perfectly elastic. (b) each firms builds a huge plant. (c) the existence of slightly differentiated products serving almost the same purpose causes a waste of precious natural resources. (d) firms produce at an output that is less than the output associated with their minimum average total cost. (e) marginal cost is too high. QUESTION 17 When the economic profit is negative in an industry that is monopolistically competitive, then (a) firms will enter the industry and produce better products. (b) firms will exit the industry, and the demand will increase for the products of the firms that remain. (c) firms will exit the industry, and the demand will decrease for those firms that remain in the industry. (d) firms will enter the industry and the demand will become more elastic for those firms that were originally in the industry. (e) the industry will eventually disappear. QUESTION 18 If the electricity commission in Queensland practises perfect price discrimination: (a) its marginal cost curve and its demand curve are identical. (b) its marginal revenue curve and its demand curve are identical. (c) its marginal revenue curve lies below its demand curve. (d) its marginal revenue curve lies above its demand curve. (e) none of the above.

Research on Modern Grocery Market in Pakistan

â€Å"The Evolution of Modern Grocery Market in Pakistan. † A research project to study changing consumer buying patterns and opportunities for new entrants in the modern grocery sector. By Adavanced Research Methods MBA-Evening Program Section ‘E’ Submitted on November 19, 2012 Table of Contents Titles Page No. Prefatory Information Abstract Acknowledgements Executive Summary Introduction Methodology Research Findings Conclusion Recommendations Appendices References 02 03 04 05 06 08 09 13 14 15 22 Page | 1Prefatory Information Research Topic â€Å"The Evolution of Modern Grocery Market in Pakistan. † Research Background The traditional food retail sector (small neighborhood stores, street vendors, â€Å"general trade† stores, etc. ) comprise about 95% of all food retail stores in Pakistan while the modern retail sector (hypermarkets, supermarkets, discount stores, etc. ) make up the remaining 5%. Over the past few years international retailers have taken advantage of the growing opportunities in this market.Well-known European retail giants Makro, Metro, and Carrefour (Hyperstar) have opened stores in all major Pakistani metropolitan cities. The port city of Karachi alone has at least five large retail stores that serve more than 19 million people. With a growing middle-income class (estimated at about 25% of the total population), increasing urbanization, increasing popularity of international food products, and a growing number of international restaurants and fast food chains, Pakistan is emerging as an expanding market for U. S. high-value agricultural products.The overall food retail and wholesale business accounts for 17% of Pakistan? s GDP. These large retail stores have been able to tap into the changes in consumer lifestyles and higher disposable income. Emerging technologies have also contributed to the emergence of the large food retail superstores, which offer a wide range of value added products and services to p rice conscious middle income consumers. Convenience stores in Petrol/Gas stations are also providing an additional option for consumers and their popularity among Pakistani consumers is rising.To know precisely the driving forces that lead changes in the consumer buying behavior and furthermore to anticipate the future demand of modernized grocery stores and hypermarkets which would ultimately guide investors towards an opportunity and would let them know the critical market factors and consumer needs on the basis of which they should design their businesses to gain maximum market share in minimum amount of time and resources. Page | 2 Abstract â€Å"The Evolution of Modern Grocery Market in Pakistan. The core objectives of our research are comprehensively explained and backed by the results and interpretations, with graphical illustrations that clarify the main consumer tastes and preferences that are the agents of changing buying patterns being the reason behind the increased num ber of modern grocery stores in major cities of Pakistan which is linked to our second objective that is more towards the investment opportunity for local and foreign venture capitalists in the mentioned sector. Page | 3Acknowledgements First and foremost, we would like to thank Almighty Allah for enabling us to achieve the completion of our project report effectively, next we would like to thank to our course mentor of Advanced Research Methods-E, Mr. Salman Rabbani for the valuable guidance and advice. He inspired us greatly to work in this project. His willingness to motivate us contributed tremendously to our project. We also would like to thank him for showing us some examples that related to the topic of our project.Besides, we would like to thank all those participants, colleagues and class mates for providing us with their valuable insights and responses that enabled us to complete this project. Group Members Sandhya Talreja Talha Abid 1235220 1235182 Page | 4 Executive Summ ary The increasing number of modern grocery stores are rapidly increasing in Karachi and other cities of Pakistan which accounts for attracting majority of the customers and getting market share more than it was in the past few years.These larger stores make up 5% of all Pakistan? s retail food stores. There are two segments of modern food markets. One segment is dominated by the international groups and there are also domestic food retailers that are also utilizing new modern retail formats. For example, large food retail stores (Metro, Makro, and Hyperstar) comprise about 2% of all Pakistani food retail outlets with an estimated annual turnover of $176 million. The overall share of imported food products in the large retail stores is about 5. 6%.To analyze and figure out factors that have changed the buying patterns across the urban areas of Pakistan across all major population segments based on the demographical characteristics. The later part of the research well describes inves tment opportunity and growth indicators with rising purchasing power of people and increasing consumption patterns leading to impulse buying behavior. Appendices and annexes contain some useful facts that determine the future trends of retailing in Pakistan that how changes are anticipated in the years to come with respect to structure, marketing, supply chain management and customer servicesPage | 5 Introduction Consumer Food Purchasing Behavior The average Pakistani consumer spends 42% of his income on food. Consumption of imported processed and ready-to-eat food is greater in urban areas because of higher disposable incomes and access to modern style of food. A typical Pakistani household makes regular purchases of staple foods (i. e. , wheat flour, pulses, edible oils, fruits, vegetables, milk, meat, etc. ) several times per month from neighborhood stores due to convenience, perceived freshness, and limited storage space at home.A growing number of young Pakistani professionals (male/female) generally prefer making monthly food purchases from modern retail stores due to greater variety of products, satellite stores, and to enjoy food services all under one roof, thus providing the opportunity of combining „one stop shopping? with a family outing. Affluent Pakistani families are attracted towards modern retail stores due to their affordability, strategic locations, access to the imported processed food, and available choices for multiple product range.In comparison the rural consumer prefers homemade products, organic fruits & vegetables, and has limited access to processed food. The demand for imported food such as dates, cereals, beverages, chocolates, almonds, cakes, fruits and fruit juices reaches its peak during the festive season, especially at Eid and Ramadan. Moreover Pakistan has a large and growing middle-income class (estimated at about 25% of the total population).It also has a large and growing young population and over 55 percent Pakista ni? s are in the 10-40 years age bracket. The upper middle-income class is currently estimated at 17 million, with relatively high per capita income which favors consumer spending. Since 2000 demand for specialized products targeted at the middle-income consumers have increased significantly. The upcoming changes in the Pakistani consumer demographic will create opportunities and challenges for companies doing business in Pakistan.Keeping in view the above stated scenario and these facts the well described the consumer demographics in Pakistan, we decided to conduct a quantitative research to know the factors of changing buying patterns and also to gauge the magnitude of opportunity for the new entrants in the huge retail grocery market that estimates about US$ 42 billion per annum. Page | 6 Research Objectives ? ? To study the changes in buying patterns of consumers in metropolitan cities of Pakistan, after the advent of modern grocery stores.To what extent these retail chains have been successful and to analyze if there is an opportunity for new entrants in the current scenario. Research Question ? ? What factors are responsible for changing buying behavior of people belonging to urban areas of Pakistan? What is the size of opportunity that exists for new entrants in the current market? Page | 7 Methodology The research methodology comprised of an online survey and questionnaire that was conducted throughout the city of Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore and Islamabad. There were 10 option-based question that were designed to get the responses covering the two basic research objectives.Respondents were randomly selected and were asked to fill out a questionnaire which contained predetermined options and with other open-ended options as well, most of the participants were belonged to Karachi along with a significant number of online respondents from Hyderabad, Lahore and Islamabad adding a variety of responses from urban areas of Pakistan. Respondents were divided in to four main categories on the basis of their Gender, Age, Marital Status and Income to have a fair understanding of different types of needs and preferences of different consumer segments.Quantitative Research There was a need to quantify the number of consumer that opt or prefer a certain attribute, products or services at these different stores so in terms of percentages it was easy to present and interpret data that was collected as a result of survey- questionnaire. First of all there was a pre-test conducted to know the validity and effectiveness of the questionnaire and methodology and after that actual survey was launched online and respondents were asked to fill the survey.Online survey reduced the time and other costs associated to our research and proved to be a cost-effective tool to conduct our survey. Page | 8 Research Findings On the basis of two distinct objectives the research findings are included in this report, the initial objective to determine factors that infl uence consumer buying behavior are the overall services offered, quality and branded products, convenience of getting all items at a single point, no grocery items including fashion apparel, cosmetics, medicine, home decor and so on remained the key choices of the respondents.Regarding the second objective that was to know the size of opportunity for new entrants that was asked in a question to know precise demand of the modern grocery outlets in Karachi and other urban cities, the findings exhibit that a clear majority of the respondents want to have more modern grocery stores in their locality, exact figures are mentioned in the graphical representation section later in this report. Other quantitative results include the frequency of purchases, expenditure and preferred store type that are also useful to calculate the size of the opportunity in this sector.Moreover participants also provided very insightful responses in open-ended options that highlighted many other things that th ey prefer at these modern stores. Including improvement suggestions regarding, customer support and billing, loyalty and discount programs were dominant responses of the survey discussed in the detail in graphical representation section. Page | 9 Graphical Representation and Analysis 1. Grocery Store Type It? quite clear from the market share that supermarkets and hypermarkets have acquired during past couple of years is significantly improved up to 30% for each category. Grocery Store Type General stores 30% 30% 18% 22% Dept. Stores Super Markets Hypermarkets 2. Grocery Frequency Frequency as compared to past trend of weekly or daily grocery purchases has been shifted to monthly purchases leading towards impulse buying behavior after the advent of the modern hypermarkets and superstores 60% 40% 20% 0% Grocery Frequency Weekly Fortnightly Monthly others 3.Grocery Market Share Modernized supermarkets lead the market with 48% share of the grocery sector these markets are convenience t o people living in developed areas of Karachi catering their grocery needs effectively. Grocery Market Share Hyperstar 14% 18% 20% 48% Metro/Makro Naheed/Chaseup /Aghaz/Imtiaz others 4. Grocery Spending Most of the people that opted for modern grocery stores belong to higher income segment and majority spends more than Rs. 7000 on their grocery needs. This indicates a higher tendency of the people to consume in the society. 0% 30% 20% 10% 0% Grocery Spending (PKR) 26% 6% 32% 36% Page | 10 5. Appealing Factors The factors that were dominant among the responses were convenience of getting all items at a single stop and economical purchases thus lowering grocery budgets, this is the core reason that has changed buying patterns of consumers in the recent years. other factors Appealing Factors Economical Safe and†¦ Convenience Adequate†¦ Economical 0% 20% 40% Adequate Parking Convenience Safe and Secure other factors Non grocery items 6.Non-grocery items Out of the non-grocery items most people preferred cosmetics reason being the majority of female respondents in our sample. Rest of the people preferred medicines and ready to wear apparels. 0% 50% 46% 20% 16% 8% 10% 7. Additional Food Items Other than usual grocery items as food staples there was a significant rise in the demand and preference to ready-to-eat/ frozen-food, reason being the most of the married females are opting for careers and employments therefore frozen foods provides them convenience and quick food solutions. 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Additional Food Items 2% Fresh fruits and vegetables meat/chicken/p oultry Frozen food others 16% 16% 6% 8. Improvement Suggestions Discount cards were the most opted option by the respondents as people tend to buy in larger quantities they expect a significant amount off as a discount as well as the loyalty or privilege cards were also and added suggestion along with the speedy billing process due to the shortage of time in the busy schedule of peo ple living in the large cities. 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Improvement Suggestions 48% 28% 12% 12% Loyalty cards Discount cards Speedy billing process others Page | 11 9.More Grocery Stores So about 90% of the people responded in positive when they were asked about more grocery stores in their city mainly because the convenience these stores offer, while the remaining 10% who opted for No, further explained there are enough no of stores in their vicinity only need is to improve their service quality. 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% More Grocery Stores 90% 10% Yes No Yes No 10. Most preferred attribute Quality is the most opted attribute and mostly the quality products and services available at modern grocery store provide an added benefit to the customers and delight them in many ways. 0% 60% 40% 20% 0% Most preferred attribute Quality Pricing Brand Other Page | 12 Conclusions After studying the brief results and graphical illustrations we hereby conclude that major causes of change in cons umer purchase patterns are superior quality of products and services offered to customers at economical prices, thus elevating the overall value for customers when it comes to convenience shopping, hassle-free parking, pleasant environment, serene ambiance, safety and security which previously was not offered by any of the conventional grocery stores of their localities.Now majority of the consumers prefer going to modern supermarkets and hypermarkets rather than the wholesale markets, to avoid the long tiring grocery shopping which included stressful parking, lack of security and safety. Moreover people on weekends go for grocery shopping with their families which allows them to spend quality time with their family as an outing or entertainment and enjoy shopping with all the modern state-of-the-art facilities offered by malls and shopping centers.Furthermore, along with the basic grocery items people tend to shop additional items including garments, cosmetics, fashion products, fr ozen foods, medicines and so on that is again an appealing factor that directed majority of the customers towards these modernized grocery store thus offering more and more benefits and ease to customers.As it has been witnessed that in the past few years the retail market dynamics have changed dramatically with modern grocery stores capturing the 40% share in the sector it is therefore a lucrative sector for foreign investors in the sectors and source of high FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) that would increase employment opportunities for our population and also would add up to fiscal revenues for the government. Page | 13 RecommendationsAfter the completion of this research that was in response to previous researches on Emergence of Modern Retail in Pakistan and Market Transformation Due To Current Economic Turmoil (USA and European Retail Sectors) we suggest a comprehensive and more sophisticated research should be carried out on a commercial level to have an in-depth knowledge a nd insights about the market. Many of the indicators suggest the modern society in Pakistan are moving towards mass consumption and retail sector particular has been the key performer accounts for an annual turnover of about US$ 42 billion(estimated).So in response to it another research should carried out on Factors of Impulse Buying Behavior of consumer segments in Pakistan with respect to the modern grocery markets rapidly increasing and expanding the retail sector in Pakistan. The scope of our research was limited to few major cities of Pakistan i. e. Karachi Lahore Islamabad and Hyderabad, so its scope should be increased for future research also incorporating the useful insights of the key industry players of the modern grocery markets. Page | 14 Appendices Appendix-1 (Survey Questionnaire) ARM-Questionnaire Demographics: Age: ? 7-28 ? 29-40 ? 41 & above Gender: ? M ? F Marital Status: ? Single ? Married Average Household Income (PKR): ? 10,000-20,000 ? 20,001-50,000 ? 50,001 & above Area of Residence: ________________________________________________________ 1. What type of grocery store do you prefer for your grocery shopping? ? General stores ? Departmental stores ? Super market ? Hyper-markets 2. 3. 4. 5. How often you go for grocery shopping? ?Weekly ? fortnightly (every 15 days) ? Monthly ? others please specify_____ Which store do you often prefer for your grocery needs? ?Hyperstar ? Metro/Makro ?Naheed/Chase-up/Imtiaz/Agha's ? Others___ On average how much amount you spend on your grocery? (PKR) ? 1000-3000 ? 4000-7000 ? 7000-10000 ? Above 10000 Based on the prior selected store which factor makes you buy from that store? ?Economical ? Adequate Parking ? Convenience (all items under one-roof) ? Safe and secure environment ? Others please specify___________________ What type of items do you prefer to shop along-with grocery? ?Cosmetics ? Garments ? Medicines ? Electronic Appliances ? Others_____ What additional foods items do you like to buy form t he grocery stores? Fresh Fruits and Vegetable ? Meat/Chicken/Fish ? Frozen Foods ? Others__________ What improvements you like see as far as services are concerned? ?Loyalty cards ? Discount coupons ? Speedy billing process ? Others _______ Would like to have more stores and hyper markets? ?Yes ? No What do you prefer the most for your grocery items? ?Quality ? Pricing ? Brand ? Others please specify___________ 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Thank you for your time and attention. Page | 15 Appendix-2 FMCG Companies Profit From Rural Consumption Boom in Pakistan By Riaz Haq Higher crop prices have increased farmers? ncomes in Pakistan by Rs. 342 billion in the 12 months through June, according to a government economic survey. That was higher than the gain of Rs. 329 billion in the preceding eight years, according to a report by Bloomberg News. Companies like Millat tractors, Honda Atlas Motorcycles, Pak Suzuki Motors, Engro Foods, Telnor, Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive, Proctor and Gamble and Unilever h ave been big beneficiaries of the current rural consumption boom. Nestle Pakistan's chief Ian Donald has summed up the rising demand for his company's products as follows: â€Å"It? a common perception that China and India are much bigger in terms of growth than Pakistan. But for Nestle, the per capita consumption of our products in Pakistan is twice as much as we have in China and India. † It should be noted that Nestle is the world's largest packaged food company, and Pakistanis' per capita consumption of milk and dairy products is about 2. 5 times higher than in India. According to the FAO, the average dairy consumption of the developing countries is still very low (45 kg of all dairy products in liquid milk equivalent), compared with the average of 220 kg in the industrial countries.Few developing countries have per capita consumption exceeding 150 kg (Argentina, Uruguay and some pastoral countries in the Sudano-Sahelian zone of Africa). Among the most populous countries, only Pakistan, at 153 kg per capita, has such a level. In South Asia, where milk and dairy products are preferred foods, India has only 64 kg and Bangladesh 14 kg. East Asia has only 10 kg. Here are a few key points excerpted from a recent Businessweek story on rise of the rural consumer in Pakistan: 1. Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive Co. re sending salespeople into rural areas of the world? s sixth most-populous nation, where demand for consumer goods such as Sunsilk shampoo, Pond? s moisturizers and Colgate toothpaste has boosted local units? revenue at least 15 percent. Page | 16 2. â€Å"The rural push is aimed at the boisterous youth in these areas, who have bountiful cash and resources to increase purchases,† Shazia Syed, vice president for customer development at Unilever Pakistan Ltd. , said in an interview. â€Å"Rural growth is more than double that of national sales. † 3.Consumer-goods companies forecast growth in Pakistan even as an increase in ethnic viole nce in Karachi has made 2011 the deadliest in 16 years for the country? s biggest city and financial center. 4. Nestle Pakistan Ltd. is spending 300 million Swiss francs ($326 million) to double dairy output in four years, boosted sales 29 percent to 33 billion rupees ($378 million) in the six months through June. â€Å"We have been focusing on rural areas very strongly,† Ian Donald, managing director of Nestle? s Pakistan unit, said in an interview in Lahore. â€Å"Our observation is that Pakistan? rural economy is doing better than urban areas. † 5. Haji Mirbar, who grows cotton on a 5-acre farm with his four brothers, said his family? s income grew fivefold in the year through June, allowing him to buy branded products. He uses Unilever? s Lifebuoy for his open-air baths under a hand pump, instead of the handmade soap he used before. â€Å"We had a great year because of cotton prices,† said Mirbar, 28, who lives in a village outside south Pakistan? s Matiari town. â€Å"As our income has risen, we want to buy nice things and live like kings. † 6.Sales for the Pakistan unit of Unilever rose 15 percent to 24. 8 billion rupees in the first half. Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan Ltd.? s sales increased 29 percent in the six months through June to 7. 6 billion rupees, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. â€Å"In a generally faltering economy, the double-digit growth in revenue for companies servicing the consumer sector has come almost entirely from the rural areas,† said Sakib Sherani, chief executive officer at Macroeconomic Insights Pvt. in Islamabad and a former economic adviser to Pakistan? s finance ministry. 7.Unilever is pushing beauty products in the countryside through a program called â€Å"Guddi Baji,† an Urdu phrase that literally means â€Å"doll sister. † It employs â€Å"beauty specialists who understand rural women,† providing them with vans filled with samples and equipment, Syed said. Wome n in villages are also employed as sales representatives, because â€Å"rural is the Page | 17 growth engine† for Unilever in Pakistan, she said in an interview in Karachi. While the bulk of spending for rural families goes to food, about 20 percent â€Å"is spent on looking beautiful and buying expensive clothes,† Syed said. . Colgate-Palmolive, the world? s largest toothpaste maker, aims to address a â€Å"huge gap† in sales outside Pakistan? s cities by more than tripling the number of villages where its products, such as Palmolive soap, are sold, from the current 5,000, said Syed Wasif Ali, rural operations manager at the local unit. 9. Its detergents Bonus Tristar and Brite are packed in sachets of 20 grams or less and priced as low as five rupees (6 cents), to boost sales among low-income consumers hurt by the fastest pace of inflation in Asia after Vietnam.Unilever plans to increase the number of villages where its products are sold to almost half of the total 34,000 within three years. Its merchandise, including Dove shampoo, Surf detergent and Brooke Bond Supreme tea, is available in about 11,000 villages now. 10. Pakistan, Asia? s third-largest wheat grower, in 2008 increased wheat prices by more than 50 percent as Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani sought to boost production of the staple. â€Å"The injection of purchasing power in the rural sector has been unprecedented,† said Sherani, who added that local prices for rice and sugarcane have also risen. 1. Telenor Pakistan Pvt. is also expanding in Pakistan? s rural areas, which already contribute 60 percent of sales, said Anjum Nida Rahman, corporate communications director for the local unit of the Nordic region? s largest phone company. While the presence of multinational consumer product giants like Nestle and Unilever receive more coverage in the western media, the Euromonitor report finds that Pakistani FMGC companies like Engro Foods, Haleeb Foods, Shezan, Tapal, Sh an and others dominate the packaged food business in Pakistan. Here's an excerpt from a recent Euromonitor report on Pakistan.Page | 18 Appendix- 3 Study of the International Retail Markets Drivers of Retail Change Internationally There are significant changes underway in the international retail sector. Some are already evident in the Irish retail market while others are now beginning to show an impact. The key drivers of change in the retail sector are: †¢ Consumer shopping habits and meal preparation habits are changing. This is driving the food retail structure to one of large stores for once-weekly shopping trips and smaller convenience stores for top-up purchases. Relatively low growth in retail spending across Europe, particularly in the food sector, which is generating substantial competition between retailers. †¢ A shift in the determinant of consumer demand from price consciousness to value for money. †¢ A stronger preference for service and convenience, bot h in retail service and also in product choice. †¢ The development of a more international outlook and a greater awareness of international brands. †¢ More focused marketing methods, referred to as „mass customization? and competition for consumer loyalty. †¢ The retail sector is still relatively highly regulated in many countries, specifically in the areas of planning regulations in respect of new store development and working hours. †¢ Developments in information and communications technologies (ICTs) are enabling improvements in market research and analysis, and supply chain management. This is driving significant change in international retail supply chains as retailers seek out increasing efficiencies and seek to reduce inventories. Page | 19 Appendix-4Future of Retail Sector in Pakistan The expected future trends in the retail sector in Pakistan are that: †¢ The retail sector can be expected to continue to grow in line with the overall growth of the economy, thereby providing further employment and an increasing contribution to economic activity. †¢ The level of concentration, i. e. , the market share held by major retailers, in both the food and clothing sectors, is expected to continue to increase. †¢ Further consolidation in the market can be expected through mergers and acquisitions of national retailers and foreign retailers in the current market.Acquisition is likely to be the mode of market entry for large scale foreign retailers into the future. Size & Structure The strucuture of the retail sector is changing as: †¢ Retailers are growing larger through mergers and acquisitions both in domestic and international markets; †¢ The number of large sized stores is increasing significantly; †¢ Levels of concentration in retail markets are increasing; †¢ Order sizes and deliveries from suppliers are growing; and †¢ Suppliers are increasing in scale. Customer Service Customer service is dev eloping rapidly through: †¢ Home hopping and delivery; †¢ Internet shopping; †¢ Longer opening hours; †¢ Loyalty card schemes; †¢ Better in-store service; †¢ Micro-marketing to individual customers; and †¢ Improved mail order. Page | 20 Diversification Retailers are pursuing growth through diversification into: †¢ New product areas, by food retailers into non-food goods, and into new markets such as apparel and music; †¢ New business sectors such as banking and insurance; and †¢ New geographic markets, nationally and internationally, mail order, teleshopping and ecommerce.Supply-Chain Management Retailers are increasing their control over the whole supply chain by implementing: †¢ Centralized distribution; †¢ Efficient consumer response (ECR) †¢ Increased traceability of goods †¢ Increased investment in Information Technology; †¢ Supplier rationalization programs †¢ Greater involvement in supplier operat ions. Page | 21 References Retail Sector Dynamics in Ireland-www. forfas. ie. European Journal of Scientific Research Euro Journals Publishing, Inc. 2009 http://www. eurojournals. com/ejsr. htm http://www. iazhaq. com/2011/10/fmcg-companies-profit-from-rural. html Retail markets planning guide-FAO Bulletin http://www. fao. org/docrep/v8390e/V8390E00. HTM New generation of retail markets By Ashfak Bokhari | From InpaperMagzine | 23rd July, 2012 http://dawn. com/2012/07/23/new-generation-of-retail-markets/ Retail’s Hottest Emerging Markets, 2012 http://www. cnbc. com/id/47782726/Retail_s_Hottest_Emerging_Markets_2012 Economic Impact of Retailing in Pakistan Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Business Management Page | 22