Product Summary Essay

The commercialization of the internet proves to be a major opportunity of for business organizations in the global arena. It should be noted that this technology has allowed the creation of new business model where companies can become more efficient and generate more revenue by establishing online presence. The internet has become a venue where sellers and buyers meet for purchases. Some business organizations have opted to augment their brick and mortar strategies by having online outlets while still others have opted to solely operate online. Perhaps three of the most successful business organizations which utilized the advancement of internet technology are retailers like eBay, Amazon, and Walmart. All these industry players have gained the reputation of being the top in internet retailing both in the number of visitors and the amount of sales generated.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   If I am given the chance to be a competitor of these giant retailers, I will utilize the individual strengths which they display while staying away from their weaknesses. In order to avoid direct competition from these already established players, I will specialize catering to a small segment instead of going after the whole market. This will help me in building the right image for the company and establishing public awareness for the product and service that I would offer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   eBay represents one of the purest market in the world today where buyers and sellers can directly transact with each other. The website is a very good place to buy products because buyers and sellers can negotiate on the price, payment, and other service. However, I believe that an online retailer should have a fixed price and rules when dealing with its customers. Before entering a transaction, the customer should be adequately informed on the price which is most acceptable in the exchange of product and service. The establishment of a fixed system of payment, delivery, and price will eliminate the necessity of having to answer queries for each customer when they find details to be unclear. However, I will consider the user-friendly and frequently upgraded website of the company in order to attract buyers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Amazon is remarkable because of its being purely an online entity. What I will adopt with this company is its system of recording customers’ details which they can use in their future purchases. I believe that this is a very much essential value-added feature because it really makes customer more convenient as they don’t need to type information again and again. Amazon should also be applauded for its customers’ reviews which aids prospective buyers in making their purchase decisions. I will integrate this when putting up an online retailing entity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Walmart is known as the market leader when it comes to price and quality. The company also extends this in its website which showcases all its affordable products. The website of the company is very extensive almost comprising its entire product line which it has in store. What I like about Walmart is the warmth of experience even in online shopping. Customer service is still very remarkable and consistent both in its outlet and its online store. This consistency makes shopping very relaxing in an online marketspace where customer emotions are not often considered. References Kotler, P 2002, Marketing Management, Prentice Hall: New Jersey

Be Your Best Self

Being your best self can mean a lot of things to different people, but what does it mean to me? To me it means being your own Superman. It means to be everything you can possibly be; to be confident in yourself, in not only looks but knowing you can do anything. It means to help everyone; to be kind, caring, and sweet. Being your best self means to be happy and live your life. Confidence means having faith in yourself in many ways.It means to know you are beautiful in every way. Having confidence means knowing you can do anything and everything you set your mind to. To be your best self means to help everyone. You need to be kind, sweet, and compassionate. Help them in school subject areas or running errands. Help them when they need it, whether its getting them help or helping them yourself.. Plain and simple be a good friend. God has given you one life to live before you go up to Heaven with him, and you need to live it up.No I’m not saying go crazy and get twenty tattoos th at cover your body, unless that’s what you want, but be happy. Life is too short to go through it being upset and depressed. So go find love in your best friend, keep faith in the Lord, and go get a little too crazy with your friends. Just make sure you are happy with everything you do. Superman lives in a town in Kansas, were later on in life he finds love in Lois Lane. If Superman was not his best self, his whole town would submit to complete destruction.His love would not be with him anymore, for he helps her and saves her life all the time. Superman is the best role model for being your best self. The Distinguished Young Women Association, or Jr. Miss, helps young women be their best self. Maybe not all of the characteristics, but from experience it does make you happier and a more confident individual. I know this because while participating in this program, I have been happier and I have never been more confident in myself.

Effect of Power and Politics in an Organization Essay

There are many aspects of an organization that can greatly affect their success and moral. Some of the areas that can play a key role in the organization are; power, politics, code of conduct, business intentions, objectivity, personal agendas, and organizational goals. Power and politics can have both a positive and negative affect on an organization. Businesses must make objective decisions and insure their intentions remain in line with the organization’s goals. Organizations must not allow personal agendas to interfere with their business decisions and must make sound ethical decisions. Organizational politics can have a detrimental affect on employee’s, moral, loyalty, and trust. Power and PoliticsPower can be motivators in both a positive and negative manner. Wideman, 2003, states that power is the ability to persuade others to do the following; get them to do what you want them to do, when to do it, and in the manner you want them to do it. Wideman also maintains that influence is the exercise of authority or leadership, to persuade others, and organize them to follow. The struggle of power and influence by competing groups creates politics. Some believe that the practice of politics can be cunning and deceitful, while others believe it can be a motivator with positive results. The reality is that office politics does exist in most organizations. Some issues in an organization that may create competing groups; departmental budgets, space allocations, project responsibilities, and salary adjustment (Robbins, 2001). Limited resources in an organization will also form competing groups because the gained resource of a group is always at the expense of another group or department. Competing groups require more than convincing facts in order to get management to make a decision; the group that can influence and pollute the facts of other groups will be more successful (Robbins, 2001). Office politics or effective management; some of these terminologies are used when office politics are obvious and things go wrong; â€Å"kissing up†, apple polishing, passing the buck, covering your rear, creating conflict, forming coalitions, cunning, arrogant and scheming. These are a some terminologies associated with obvious office politics with positive results; developing working relationships, encouraging change and  innovation, improving efficiency, facilitating teamwork, planning ahead, astute, and practical-minded. (Robbins 2001). Robbins, 2001, states that there are two different forms of office politics legitimate and illegitimate politics. The normal everyday politics such as â€Å"complaining to your supervisor, bypassing the chain of command, forming coalitions, obstructing organization policies or†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Robbins 2001). Illegitimate politics are acts of sabotage, whistle-blowing, different types of protest such as group coming in to work late or not coming in at all. The negative impacts can be described by past scandals resulting in the crash of corporations, non-accountability in the accounting industry, and lack of ethical direction from boards of directors and have cost thousands of people their jobs and taken millions of peoples’ retirement funds to zero. 401k plans that held the stocks for retirement were all depleted from the unethical practices of Enron. How, with all the checks and balances that are supposedly in place within the government, did Enron happen? The answer could very possibly be greed, fear, or just following the crowd. This can be related to the politics played upon by power. On a positive side of power and politics organizations have also been found to be responsible and able to promote trust. Take Johnson & Johnson for example, when Tylenol was tampered with leaving several people ill, they did not listen to their lawyers who were trying to prevent lawsuits, they admitted there was a problem and pulled all products from off the shelves. They did not hide behind the organization shirttails’ of attorneys’, they faced up and proved to society to be trust worthy. Which in turn, they gained respect from the general public. Scandals grow larger and more intensive day-by-day for organizations. In part certain government laws have provided guidelines to follow as a check and balance for the unethical behavior amongst large organizations. Sarbanes-Oxley being one to keep company’s honest in bookkeeping and allowing documentation to be proof that the organization is doing what is ethical. This will also be a source of insurance that individuals will not loose everything like those thousands of people did in the demise of Enron. Code of Conduct, Intentions, and ObjectivityIf the employees accept gifts, the company or organization wants to make sure the employees are in compliance with the policy or law. Which is also called â€Å"Code of Conduct† and this is to ensure that employee’s decisions will not create a conflict of interest. The code strengthens standards and includes measures to protect employees from outside pressure, such a solicitation for personal affairs and the offering of gifts. Most companies have a strict code of business ethics and conduct. The code discourages employees from accepting gifts that could be seen as an attempt to manipulate business decisions. Some companies forbid their employees to accept any gifts of any value. If gifts are received or if employees are undecided about whether they can accept the gift, the incident must be reported to the manager or supervisor. â€Å"All managers should establish a written policy limiting the acceptance of gifts and entertainment to items of small value. Managers should consider creating limits, for example-an amount per time period, per vendor for accepting gifts and prohibit the acceptance of any cash gifts† (Unswerving Loyalty, 2006). Employees should be required to document or disclose to the manager, the acceptance of any gift or entertainment. However, this is not meant to stop managers from maintaining multiple business relationships with a client, as long as possible conflicts of interest are managed and disclosed. Violating the code of conduct, regarding gifts if not reported can result in punishment. The employee can be penalized and there will also be an investigation. Providing clients with a code of ethics, sets a framework for how the manager conducts their business is an important step in developing the trust and confidence necessary for a successful investment management relationship. Organizations must make sound business decisions and have good intentions. They must have processes in place in order to insure upper management remains objective. Organizations can be easily influenced by outside forces when having to hire employees, contractors, or expansion. Executives and upper management must be able to decide, when making business decisions, on whether to decision will benefit the organization as a whole or suit their  personal or future needs. Organizations of today have to deal with a high amount of turnover in their executive positions. After these positions are vacated and new individuals are appointed is when an organization may finally find information on whether their executives were making sound organization decisions or decision that benefited them and assisted with their future gains or employment. Personal Agenda and Organizational GoalsAs a society and within organizations we stand behind the shared belief in the concept of structure, the openness of our management, and building trust. Within many organizations there is an underlying search for power. People seek power within an organization through many means. Power can be based on the influences of certain groups or individuals within an organization that might be another step closer to the desired position, goal, or outcome. People have become wary of organizations. An example that surfaced this year is the scandal involving the huge insurance company named AIG. According to (Scherer, 2005), the scandal links two of the world’s richest men. According to Forbes Magazine, Buffet is the world’s second-richest person with assets of $41 billion. Greenberg is ranked 132nd in the world and 59th in the US with assets of $3.1 billion. Using a position or influence within an organization can be considered a conflict of interest. In other words, conflict of interest exists when a board member or officer personally benefits, or is perceived to personally benefit, from an activity of the organization (Colbert, 1999). Personal power is used within an organization for personal gain as well as to benefit the organization. Expertise, rational persuasion, and reference are forms of personal power used by management to control the behavior of subordinates. Possessing the knowledge and experience needed uses expertise power. Expert power is increased when subordinates are denied access to critical information or to key contact persons. Rational persuasion can be effective by gaining the trust of the subordinates. Through reverent power, subordinates are controlled because they respect, admire and want to please their managers. Organizational politics are the processes used in which individuals work  together, conflict, compete in to make decisions, evaluate information, and structure or restructure an organization. They can have both good and bad effects. Organizational politics can cause loyalty to decrease and one’s own interest to increase. Individuals may be impacted by feelings of unfairness, discontent, anxiety, and stress. They may also be less willing to share information and be more competitive. Organizational politics can also lead to productive changes and enhance the achievement of organizational goals in an organization. Legal vs. Ethical It is human nature to want to succeed and achieve. Some individuals have been fortunate to work for an organization that is respected by the community from an external perspective and feel treated and respected as a part of the organization from within. Credibility can be an important part of an organization. There are often choices that might have to be made, for many different reasons, as we have seen that can lead to the most well respected individuals and organizations to fall. Deciding on what might be in the best interest and not necessarily ethical can be a difficult decision made by one or a few. What is legal and what is ethical affect nearly every aspect of today’s life. A few examples are the use of the internet, ethics in medicine, and ethics within an organization. Putting a legal box around what is ethical conduct is a challenge that many companies face today. The processes by which the organization is operated should be ethically based. The behavior of all employees from the highest to lowest should be ethical. Their behavior should result in the most favorable outcome for all involved. All involved should be treated fairly and their rights respected. Conclusion There are many aspects of an organization, both internal and external, that will affect their success. Some of these are out of their control, but quite a few can be controlled within the organization. Organizations must insure decisions are not based on personal agendas or outside influences offering certain perks for contracts. Power and organization politics can have both a negative or positive affect on an organization. Through all the decisions an organization will make, they must  insure they do not compromise their code of conduct, code of ethics, or decrease employee moral. References Colbert, S. (1999). Conflict of interest: what it is and how to avoid it. OCD Technote. Retrieved January 28, 2007, from http://ocdweb.sc.egov.usda.gov/technotes/tn15.pdfRobbins, Stephen (2001). Organizational behavior. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice HallScherer, R. (2005). A top insurance company as the new enron? Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved January 28, 2007, from http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/crisis/corporate/2005/0401aig.htmUnswerving Loyalty-Global Investor, (2006) http: web.ebscohost.comWideman, Max (2003, August). Power, influence & politics. Retrieved January 26, 2007, from Max’s Issacons Web site: http://www.maxwideman.com/issacons3/iac1365/index.htm

Systems Analysis and Design Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Systems Analysis and Design - Case Study Example To identify if the migration succeeded, the primary step is evaluating database values between new and old systems, a test called a parallel type of test. The finishing success is the acceptance test, performing business operations, as well as processes effectively (Satzinger, Jackson & Burd, 2012). The system will develop in every iteration. Integration testing shall be done as part of every iteration. The first system testing will be done in each iteration as a part of the build and smoke testing that is done. Nevertheless, a complete system testing will be conducted as part of a separate system as well as acceptance test activity. Now that integration testing along with build and smoke testing is conducted in each iteration, at the project end, there shall be the definition of a testing iteration to finalize system testing. In this final iteration, the following will take place. System testing, acceptance testing and stress and performance testing (Satzinger, Jackson & Burd, 2012). Q1. Based on Figure 14-6—the XP methodology— divide your use cases into releases and iterations within each release. Develop a project iteration plan that includes the necessary activities at each level (system, release, iteration) for integration testing and acceptance testing. Compare your answer to this question to the project iteration plan you developed for Chapter 9. This system is used by contemplative media agents who rarely are in their offices and the media managers who work frequently in their offices. Therefore, the use cases that mostly apply to media managers will work well on larger computers with screens and keyboards. Some use cases, especially those for view the contemplative practices, will work well for notepads and laptops as well as for smartphone devices (Satzinger, Jackson & Burd, 2012). The entire use cases as well as pages that view practices would be improved if map and location information are provided. This will facilitate both customers and

Case-Small business management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Case-Small business management - Essay Example Miller was very smart because he instituted employee policies to keep his workers motivated. The fringe benefits the company offers its employees are above the industry average. The workers are given production incentives that allow them to earn a maximum of 135% of base pay. Miller is a people’s person that keeps the lines of communication open at all times with his employees. Since Miller took over the operation the firm has lowered its employee turnover rate to 3%. â€Å"Recent research shows that small business owners estimate the cost of replacing an employee at close to $6,000† (Robertson). Jim Miller did a great job at changing the organizational culture of Intermatic Inc. He empowered and trusted his employees which help improved their motivation. The communication and people skills of Mr. Miller created a great work environment for the employees of the company. He also cared about the personal problems of each of his staff members. The employees responded well and they increased their productivity. When the company downsized the firm and made changes to its structure the firm was at risk of losing the confidence of the employees, but instead Miller took advantage of the opportunity to implement a brand new corporate culture. The human resource department did a great job of creating a benefits package that attracted many workers. I believe one of the main reasons that the employee churn rate of the company is so low is due to the exceptional fringe benefit package the company offers. Another one of the reasons that the company has been successful under Miller is due to his great leadership abilities. Employees follow and listen to leaders they respect. The company had to consider various alternative solutions to improve the situation of the company. One alternative solution was to hire temporary employees that receive limited fringe benefits. A second alternative solution was to shut down its operations in the United States and

The Effects of Over-processed Foods in the United States Essay

The Effects of Over-processed Foods in the United States - Essay Example Since invention of processed foods, people directed their time towards microwavable dinners and tasty preserved artificial snacks instead of home cooked meals from local ingredients. As soldiers needed fast, travel-safe foods, the introduction of these processed foods came as a real blessing to them. During the war many women went to work, creating little time to cook at home. Continuing into the 1970’s, soy, corn and cattle became the staple food products when the age of canned, frozen and boxed foods became easily accessible. Most of these products turned into low fat and low-carb foods, which allow large food industries to sell unhealthy foods masked as healthy foods. Red meat consumption in the United States has then continued to rise with 58% of citizens consuming it. In 2003-2004, the consumption of processed red meat was averaged at 128 grams per day, with variations in race, gender, education and age. The nutritional value of a granola bar in another case more closely resembles a candy bar than granola. These foods are easily accessible and marketed to make people believe they are getting a sufficient amount of nutrition while on-the-go. Unfortunately, the public is not aware of the true ingredients that are used to make these foods.

Business Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Business - Article Example Similarly, their analysis that their customers generally liked driving a Skoda indicated that they needed to actually make no changes to the actual car. The most interesting element was that Skoda realized that other manufacturers focused on the car, despite nominal changes in performance, and that they should instead focus on the experience of the brand and intangible assets. Microsoft Hafner and Hibbert performed a SWOT analysis of Microsoft in 2001. Some of the conclusions were obvious: Linux and Macintosh were potential threats, Microsoft had been slow in coming to the Internet and had been beaten out by companies like Google, etc. But others were more interesting. For example: â€Å"Currency exchange rates affect demand for application/operation software and hardware, and fluctuating currencies can negatively impact revenues in the global marketplace†. Hafner and Hibbert point out that Microsoft had not done the management to protect against that kind of volatility. Concl usion SWOT in practice, then, can help companies do two things: 1) Catalog for the obvious that has thus far escaped attention or has simply been assumed and not been critically analyzed; 2) Perceive past the obvious to the non-trivial. Works Cited Skoda Autos. â€Å"SWOT Analysis in Action†. Times 100. 2008. Web. Retrieved from: http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/downloads/skoda/skoda_13_full.pdf . Accessed 1/9/2011.

We can but should we The purpose of this assignment is to investigate Article

We can but should we The purpose of this assignment is to investigate safeguards and apply ethical principles to the use health care technology - Article Example With such deliberations, it would be necessary to assess and articulate issues arising as a result of EHR introduction. The Chip is argued to contain no medical records, but it is the code in it that is revealed – and only in doctor’s office or hospital. The code is argued to be unlocked by healthcare providers in order to access that person’s medical information (Mollar, 2009). However, there is much to think about other than the safety of EHR. For example, with the announcement of intentions to introduce EHR, different companies have shown interest in venturing into the business of making the gadget. This is evidenced by the way these companies are making partnerships with various healthcare institutions. For example, â€Å"Emdat announced a partnership with IBJI, MediRew announced a new client with Bon Secours Charity Health System, and Philips announced the implementation of it enterprise-wide clinical informatics technology at Baptist Health South Florida (BHSF) among many others† (Miliard, 2012, Para 2, 3 and4). In this regard, it can be argued that the issue of EHR is endorsed by certain forces which among them include entrepreneurial urge. Proponents of EHR argue that EHR could help reduce errors in medical records (Mollar, 2009). To some extent, this can be argued to be true because no doubt that hand written records are subject to errors and omissions. It is also argued that, with written records, the likelihood of losing records is high. Cases of lost or missing files or files being misplaced have been reported in the past. Additionally, catastrophes like fire and floods have in the past destroyed physical records. In light with this, digital record is argued to store records for a long time (Mollar, 2009). It can also help keep health information that patients tends to forget with time. EHRs are also argued to

Hobbes, Augustine, Aristotle and Lockes thoughts on the idea that a Essay

Hobbes, Augustine, Aristotle and Lockes thoughts on the idea that a political state is created to make people in it happy and virtuous - Essay Example By design, then, Aristotle saw the city-state as a body intended to help create laws and standards that would further help individuals living in this city-state to live happy and virtuous lives. According to Hobbes, society is founded upon the principles of natural law, in which it is clear that the guiding principle remains to allow each individual the right to exist and to obtain what is fair and necessary for their continued survival. Because he felt that individuals were, by nature, in a constant state of ‘war’ with other individuals, it was undeniably up to the political state to ensure that all people adhered to the written laws that were themselves based upon natural law. Natural law, in turn, indicated that all people had the right to exist and to acquire the necessary materials to sustain themselves while respecting these rights of others. Since natural man was in a constant state of war and political states were established as a means of ensuring that natural man adhered to natural law rather than war, it follows that a political state, in Hobbes’ view, was essentially created simply as a means of coercing people into living in tentatively agre eable, mutually beneficial states that often verged on the edge of competitive detriment. This is in keeping with the views held by Augustine, who seemed to feel that the laws of the state were more or less attempts by human leaders to coerce power from the hands of the people for their own individual benefit. While he recognized that government was essential to the thriving of a particular state, and therefore the health and well-being of its inhabitants, Augustine never lost sight of the concept that the government was formed more for the welfare of the rulers than the ruled. Thus, while it was necessary for the survival of the state and the welfare of the people, it was also, in Augustine’s thoughts, a necessary evil, a part of the retribution

Televised Presidential Debate (10-3-12) Assignment

Televised Presidential Debate (10-3-12) - Assignment Example (2) About how many people attended the meeting? Describe the audience demographics. This event drew an immense number of audience members. Unlike a private event, this debate was aired live, on multiple networks, allowing for, easily, millions of viewers. The demographics of the audience of this event are as diverse as the country we live in. Americans of all genders, races, political parties, and ideologies were tuned in to view this debate. (3) What was the main topic of the meeting? The topic of the debate was announced as domestic policy. Lehrer explained that there would be, ideally, six segments of 15 minutes in length, with 2 minute responses from each candidate. Three segments would focus on the economy; one segment would be dedicated to healthcare, role of government, and the last on the meaning of â€Å"governing.† I choice this event, particularly, because of it is so very important. There are issues being discussed that are so incredibly relevant to the future of t his country that it is an event deserving of critical attention. This is, also, again, the first debate where these two candidates would be debating these issues face-to-face in an open forum. There are a lot of important questions that need asking, issues that need addressing, and answers that the voters deserve to hear. (4) Why did you choose this meeting, and what did you know about the topic before you attended? There is nothing more politically important in the United States of America than when we choose the leadership that we have. Where to cast your vote should never be a small issue and tends to involve many specific variables. Individuals must assess their political concerns; review the prospective candidates, their personal beliefs and views, and ever so much more, before they make their choice. It is all the harder today with the cut throat nature of the campaign tactics, being overused in this election, for Americans to make that choice clearly. The smear campaigns, ult imately, begin to feel like childhood name-calling. With the state that American is currently in, struggling through a continuing the unemployment crisis and continuing and increasing debt, this is hardly the time for games. Choosing the right candidate is extremely important, regardless of your political party. These are the reasons that I chose this particular event. (5) What were the four most interesting things you learned from the meeting? This debate was, in fact, quite interesting. However, the issue that I was most eager to hear addressed was concerning the unemployment crisis. Although, both, candidates have plans for the issue, Obama reiterated the same approaches that he has proposed throughout his Presidency. While Romney offered some fresh perspectives that, definitely different from Obama’s, had a lot of merit. The next topic of importance to me is the controversial healthcare reform, often called, â€Å"Obamacare.† Romney was able to communicate how, not only is â€Å"Obamacare† not the best solution for healthcare reform, as it takes the power from the patient and physician and places it into the hands of medical councils, but, also, how â€Å"Obamacare† directly contributes to the, aforementioned, unemployment crisis.("YouTube") There are many businesses, particularly small businesses, that are less likely to hire new staff members because of the insurance requirements that â€Å"

Diabetes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Diabetes - Essay Example On the other hand, Type-2 diabetes, formerly called adult onset diabetes, occurs when the body does not make enough insulin or cannot use the insulin it makes effectively (ndep.nih.gov). Cases of diabetes have been reported with an ever increasing magnitude within the last two decade. This is in fact the single reason why many researchers have focussed their studies on probable causes of this deadly condition and how it can be minimized. According to the National Diabetes Statistics report, 2014, 29.1 million people or 9.3% of the U.S population have diabetes (cdc.gov). Fast facts of 2012 on Diabetes reports that of all ages, 21.0 million people are diagnosed and 8.1 million or 27.8% are undiagnosed (cdc.gov). However, the Epidemiologic estimation methods reports from various data systems of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention use surveys, fasting glucose or haemoglobin A1C levels, and self-report among survey respondents and by diagnostic codes were used to diagnosis diabetes vary in who they identified as having diabetes or pre-diabetes (cdc.gov). Generally, increased public awareness of the conditions through campaigns as well as enhanced screening hav e all contributed to making diabetes appear as though it is an epidemic. There are several descriptive epidemiological factors that can be considered when it comes to accounting for the differences in diabetes occurrence. One of these factors relates to lifestyle and brings together aspects such as eating habits and physical activities. Essentially, diabetes is linked with consumption of food products with high sugar contents. This has the effect of overpowering the gland responsible for the production of insulin which regulates blood sugar. The case is further worsened when the concerned individual hardly engages in physical activities. It may be argued that white collar jobs that leave people with little time for exercise is increasingly becoming a factor for the high cases of

Mutual Funds Essay Example for Free

Mutual Funds Essay A mutual is a kind of investment-company that combines money from many investors and backers and invests the money in bonds, money-market instruments, stocks, other securities and sometimes even cash. A mutual fund in basic terms is a large group of people who lump their money together for management companies to invest. And, like most things in the world, there are fees and commissions involved. Mutual funds are managed by money managers, who capitalize the fund’s capital and try to produce capital gains and revenue for the fund’s investors. A mutual fund’s portfolio is organized and maintained to mimic the investment objectives defined in its catalogue. A mutual fund has many characteristics, which are listed below. Investors and backers purchase shares in the mutual fund from within the fund, or through a broker or fund agent, and cannot buy the shares from other backers on a secondary market such as the NASDAQ stock market or New York Stock Exchange. The amount that investors purchase their mutual funds shares for is the estimated net asset value or NAV per share in addition to any fees that the fund may charge at the time of purpose, such as sales charges, also known as sales loads. Mutual fund shares are convertible, meaning when an investor wants to sale their shares, they sell them back to the mutual fund or to a broker working for the fund at the net asset value less any fees the mutual fund may charge, such as deferred sales loads or reclamation fees. Mutual funds commonly sell their shares on a continuous basis, although some funds will stop selling when, for instance, they reach a certain level of assets under management. The investment portfolio of a mutual fund is typically managed by separate entities known as investment advisors that are registered with the SEC. Furthermore mutual funds themselves are registered with the SEC and subject to SEC regulation. There are many forms of mutual funds, which include index funds, stock funds, bond funds, and money market funds. Each type of mutual fund has a different investment objective, strategy and investment portfolio. Different mutual funds are also subject to different risks, volatility, and fees and expenses. Fees related to a mutual fund reduce returns on fund investments and are an important feature that investors should consider when buying mutual fund shares. Mutual funds come in two main types, categorized by how the fees are charged. The types are load mutual funds and no-load mutual funds. A load mutual fund charges for the shares/units purchased plus an initial transactions fee. The initial transaction fee is typically no more than 9% of the investment fund amount or can also be a standard fee contingent on the mutual fund provider. This fee is added to your purchase as a sales fee. There are a couple different types of load funds out there. Back-end loads mean the fee is charged when you redeem the mutual fund. A front-end load is the opposite of a back-end load and means the fee is charged up front. A no-load fund means investors and backers can buy and redeem the mutual fund units/shares whenever without a commission or sales charge. Some companies such as banks and broker-dealers may charge fees and commissions for the transaction and exchange of mutual funds. Many no-load funds charge a fee if you redeem them early. Most people endorse avoiding load funds altogether and studies have shown that load mutual funds and no load mutual funds offer the same return, however, one charges a commission fee. A 12B-1 fee is the yearly marketing or sharing fee on a mutual fund. The 12B-1 fee is treated as an operational expense and is incorporated in the fund’s expense ratio. The 12B-1 is usually between .25% 1% of a fund’s net assets. The name of the fee comes from a segment of the Investment Company Act of 1940. An electronically traded fund or ETF is a security that follows an index, group of assets or commodity, but trades them like a stock on an exchange. Prices for ETFs change throughout the day when they are bought and sold. Because ETFs are traded like stock, they do not have NAVs calculated everyday. References 1. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Information on Mutual Funds. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Retrieved 2011-04-06. 2. Fink, Matthew P. (2008). The Rise of Mutual Funds. Oxford University Press. p. 9.

Path Planning Strategy For Line Follower Computer Science Essay

Path Planning Strategy For Line Follower Computer Science Essay This paper presents the development of a line follower wheeled mobile robot. In this project, ARM cortex-3 based microcontroller is chosen as the main controller to react towards the data received from infrared line sensors to give fast, smooth, accurate and safe movement in partially structured environment. A dynamic PID control algorithm has been proposed to improve the navigation reliability of the wheeled mobile robot which uses differential drive locomotion system. The experimental results show that the dynamic PID algorithm can be performed under the system real-time requirements. Keywords embedded system, wheeled mobile robot, PID control algorithm. Introduction Embedded system includes many areas of knowledge, microcontroller hardware and software, interfacing technologies, automatic control theory, and sensor technologies etc. To speed up the learning process and motivate students to learn actively, the project-based learning approach may be applied in the embedded system design laboratory [1-4]. The low-cost wheeled mobile robot building, which is proposed in this paper, serves as a good example on which students can learn embedded system design skills. It covers not only common embedded system peripherals, but also energy control and real-time control firmware implementation. The process of the construction of wheeled mobile robot can give students the idea that hardware circuits and software algorithms are both mandatory for a successful embedded system design. The competition between student groups in the racing contest can also encourage them to explore in depth the skills acquired in this laboratory as well as give them lots of fun [ 5-7]. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: The line follower robot structure and architecture issues and challenges along with their technical issues and problems are discussed in section 2. Programming details will be explained in section 3. Section 4 describes the integration of the complete system. LÄ ±ne follower wheeled MobÄ ±le Robot structure Generally, the line follower robot is one of the self-acting wheeled mobile mechanisms that follow a line drawn on the floor. The route can be a visible black line on a white surface or vice versa. The simple operations of the wheeled mobile line follower robot are shown below. Taking the line position data with optical sensors attached at the front end of the mobile robot. Most are using more than a few numbers of IR photo-reflectors. Therefore, the line sensing procedure needs high resolution and high robustness. Steering the wheeled mobile robot to track the line with any direction-finding mechanism. This is just a servo maneuver; actually, any phase recompense will be required to become stable following motion by applying digital PID filter or any similar servo algorithm. Monitoring the speed according to the path complaint. The speed is restricted during passing a turn due to the friction of the tire with the floor. From actually building the robot platform, to setting up, programming, and hardware or software fine tuning, everything needs to be taken into account when building a differential wheeled mobile robot. A mobile robot can be considered fundamentally as a combination of five main portions and subsystems. Chassis and body. Sensors and signal processing circuits. Microcontroller and interface circuits. Motor drivers Actuators (Motors and wheels) The Chassis and Body The Chassis would be the first part of a robots body. It is designed to handle all of the other components, transmission mechanisms, electronics and battery. It needs to be sufficiently large and provide adequate fixtures to furnish all necessary parts, as well as sturdy enough to cope with the weight of the parts along with additional loads which can appear in dynamic conditions such as vibrations, shocks or chassis torsion and actuators torque. There are some good materials for designing robots such as plastic, aluminum and carbon-composites. We must pay attention to the resistance, weight and mechanical ability for choosing one of them. In the designed robot, printed circuit board (PCB) has been used for chassis because of its lightweight and being strong enough for robot project. All components can be installed on the PCB to minimize the weight. It is noted that the performance is much more valuable than other issues. Sensors and Signal Processing Circuit Line follower robot uses Infrared Ray (IR) sensors to find the path and direction. IR sensors include an infrared transmitter and infrared receiver pair. IR sensors are often used to identify white and black surfaces. White surfaces effectively reflect well, but black surfaces reflect poorly. Hence, the distance between sensors and ground surface is important, and it is more valuable that how we put sensors near to each other. The distance between sensors and ground surface must be 2 to 10 mm, and the distance between each sensor is dependent on the line width. In the designed robot, we have used eight sensors, and they have a suitable distance between each other. If the line width is narrow, the distance between sensors must be reduced; otherwise, while curving the line, the robot will not be turned on time. Generally, the received signals from the sensors are analog and must be converted to the digital form. Therefore, the designed signal processing circuit can send the sensors signals to the microcontroller directly. Microcontroller We have used the TI Stellaris microcontroller LM3S811 in robot project. The LM3S811 microcontroller has a Reduced Instruction Set Coding (RISC) core. Internal oscillators, timers, UART, USB, SPI, pull-up resistors, pulse width modulation, ADC, analog comparator and watch-dog timers are some of the features [8]. With on-chip in-system programmable Flash and SRAM, the LM3S811 is a perfect choice in order to optimize cost. Motor Drivers A well-known and suitable motor driver is IC L298 which can be used to control two motors. It is a high voltage, high-current dual full-bridge driver designed to accept standard TTL logic levels and drive inductive loads such as DC and stepping motors [9]. Two enable inputs are provided to enable or disable the device independently of the input signals. L298 has 2 amperes per channel current capacity and it can support up to 45 volts for outputting. Moreover, L298 works well up to 16 volts without any heat sink. The Actuators (Motors and Wheels) There are many kinds of motors and wheels. Our choice depends on the robot function, power, speed, and precision. Actually, it is better to use gearbox motors instead of common DC motors because it has gears and an axle and its speed does not change towards the top of a hill or downhill. Motors are rated to operate at 1700 rpm at 7 volt nominal voltage. It is better to use wheels for line follower robots, instead of a tank system. We can use three wheels. Two of them are joined to the motors and installed at the rear of the robot and the other wheel is free and installed in front of the robot as a passive caster. To get better maneuver, robot uses two motors and two wheels on the rear and a free wheel on the front. The power supply is 7.6 V with a regulator. The designed robot has eight infrared sensors on the front bottom for detecting the line. Arm based microcontroller Stellaris and driver L298 were used to control direction and speed of motors. General view of the line follower robot that we built is shown in Fig. 1. The robot is controlled by the microcontroller. It performs the change in the motor direction by sending an appropriate signal to the driver IC according to the received signals from the sensors. Real Time Task Scheduling We built a light-weighted and high-speed robot because points are awarded based upon the distance covered and the speed of the overall robot. Therefore, we used two high speed motors and a highly sensitive signal conditioning circuit. The body weight and wheels radius have effects on the speed, too. The weight of the designed robot is around 300 gr. and it could be lighter. The photograph of the top and bottom views of the designed robot is shown in Fig. 1. The microcontroller sends instructions to the driver after processing the data received from sensors. The driver powers the motors according to the inputs. Actually the driver supplies positive voltage to one of the motor pins and negative voltage to the other. There are five states of movement: To move forward; both of the motors are turned on and rotate forward simultaneously. To move left; the right motor is turned on and the left motor is turned off. To move right; the left motor is turned on and the right motor is turned off. To move left fast; the right motor rotates forward and the left motor rotates backward. To move right fast; the left motor rotates forward and the right motor rotates backward. Most embedded system applications need to react to the inputs or environment changes in real time, which means that the accuracy of computations is as important as their timelines. Furthermore, digital control algorithms need a fixed sampling time interval for measuring inputs and delivering output commands. Therefore, the idea of applying interrupts for task scheduling is introduced in this work. IMAG0388 (a) IMAG0392 (b) Figure 1 Images show (a) top, (b) bottom views of the built line follower robot. The Quadratic Line-Detection Algorithm A better way of detecting the line position, compared to the other simple line-following robots, by using a quadratic interpolation technique is introduced. Eight reflective optical sensors were used, and the coordinate of the leftmost sensor was 0. To find out the correct position of the black line, we had to locate three consecutive sensors with higher output readings than the other five sensors as shown in Fig. 2. Assume that the coordinates of these 3 sensors are x1, x1+1, and x1+2, and the true shape of the sensor output values are in the range of [x1, x1+2] which can be approximated by a quadratic curve. One can then find the following relationships between the coordinates of the sensors and the output values: (1) (2) (3) The coordinate value, at which the output value of the quadratic curve is the maximum, is considered as the true position of the line. By using the basic calculus, one would know that the coordinate value is: (4) (5) (6) It is assumed that the coordinate for the center position of the line-following robot is 0. Therefore, the error e between the line position and the center position of the robot is e â‚ ¬Ã‚ ½Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  0â‚ ¬Ã‚ ­Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  x â‚ ¬Ã‚ ½Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ­x (7) Figure 2 The line detection algorithm via quadratic interpolation. PID Tracking Control Algorithm The popular proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller was introduced in this project to make the robot follow the racing track. The error between the center of the sensors and the track to be followed was then processed by the PID controller to generate velocity commands for the right and left wheels. First, the controller calculates the current position and then calculates the error established on the current situation. It will then send commands the motors to give a rigid turn, if the error is extraordinary or a minor turn, if the error is small. Basically, the amount of the turn given will be proportional to the error. Of course this is a consequence of the proportional control. Even after this, if the error does not decline approximately to zero, the controller will then growth the degree of the turn further and further over time till the robot centers over the line. This is the result of the integral control. In the process of centering over the line, the robot may overshoot the target position and move to the other side of the line where the above process is followed again. Thus, the robot may keep oscillating about the line in order to center over the line. To reduce the oscillating effect over time, the derivative control is used. The proportional term is only a gain ampli fier, and the derivative term is applied in order to improve the response to disturbance, and also to compensate for phase lag at the controlled object. Pseudo Code for the PID Controller; Kp = 10 Ki = 1 Kd = 100 offset = 45 ! Initialize the variables Tp = 50 integral = 0 ! the place where integral value will be stored lastError = 0 ! place where last error value will be stored derivative = 0 ! place where derivative value will be stored Loop forever LightValue = read sensors ! read sensors. error = -x ! calculate the error using equation (7). integral = integral + error ! calculate the integral derivative = error lastError ! calculate the derivative Turn = Kp*error + Ki*integral + Kd*derivative powerA = Tp + Turn ! power level for motor A powerB = Tp Turn ! power level for motor B MOTOR A direction=forward power=PowerA MOTOR B direction=forward power=PowerB lastError = error ! save the current error end loop forever ! do it again. PID controller requires the Kp, Ki and Kd factors to be set to match wheeled line follower robots characteristics and these values depends on robot structures, actuators, sensors and other electronic components characteristics. There is no equation given in the literature to calculate Kp, Ki and Kd factors. It requires experimental trial and error technique until you get the favorite behavior. We defined these factors according to following guidelines; Start with low speed and setting values of Kp, Ki and Kd to 0. Then, try setting Kp to a value of 1 and observe the robot. The goal is to get the robot to follow the line even if it is extremely wobbly. If the robot overshoots and misses the line, decrease the value of Kp. If the robot cannot navigate a turn or seems listless, increment the Kp value with small steps. Once the mobile robot is able to follow the path, set Kd value to 1 and then try growing this value until you see less shake. Once the robot is fairly stable at following the line, assign a value of .5 to 1.0 to Ki. If the Ki value is extraordinary, the robot will shake left and right rapidly. If it is too low, you wont see any perceivable alteration. Since integral is increasing, the Ki value has a substantial impact. You may continue to retuning process with adjusting Ki by .01 increments. Once the mobile robot is tracking the line with reasonable accuracy, you can increase the speed and see if it is still able to track the line. Speed disturbs the PID controller and will require rearranging as the speed fluctuations. Results And Discusion A line following robot is programed with simple (on/off) control as a comparison purpose in evaluating the performance of the dynamic algorithm controlled robot. The results of the experiment are summarized in Table-1. From the data in the table, it can be observed that dynamic PID algorithm controlled robot has better performance in every criteria listed in the table compared to simple (on/off) control robot. The dynamic algorithm controlled robot has higher velocity, consumes less time to complete one whole circuit, tracks the line smoother and has lower tendency to astray from line compared to uncontrolled robot. Therefore this system can be used in training undergraduate students on dynamic PID algorithm control system, its application and implementation in the real world and the advantages that it offers. Fig. 3 shows the designed robot during race pits test. Figure 3 The designed robot on the race pits. Table 1- Experimental result for Line Following Robot. Criteria Dynamic PID algorithm Simple (on/off) Time to complete one whole circuit 47.6s 71.4s Line tracking Smooth Not so smooth Velocity 0.2m/s 0.14m/s Tendency to astray from line Low High Conclusion The designed wheeled line follower mobile robot has eight infrared sensors on the bottom for detecting the line. The controller board includes Stellaris LM3S811 micro-controller and the motor driver L298 which were used to control the direction and the speed of motors. The proposed dynamic PID algorithm derives the line follower locomotion by adequately combining the information from sensor module. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can successfully achieve target following in various scenarios, including straight line and circular motion, sharp-turn motion and S-shape line tracking. We are working currently to develop a more sophisticated algorithm which can perform faster line tracking with less energy consumption.

Key Factors Affecting Customer Retention Marketing Essay

Key Factors Affecting Customer Retention Marketing Essay The objectives of this thesis are to examine the influence of the interaction between overall satisfaction with service quality, product quality, pricing, and switching barriers on customer retention at Apollo Education and Training Organization. The study started with an assumption which all above elements have direct impacts on customer retention and crucial to retain students in foreign owned education firms. It can be seen from the results that there is a positive relationship between product quality, service quality, price, customer satisfaction and switching barriers with customer retention. The sample size of this quantitative research included 104 current adult students at Apollo Hanoi. Building on the quantitative aspects questionnaire was designed to examine the customer retention, service quality, product quality, price, customer satisfaction and switching barriers and to generalize the finding to the large population. There are also limitations as well as future research implications at the end of this research study. Furthermore, the descriptive analysis is used to analyze the extent to which the factors affect customer retention. Customer retention is an important element of a foreign owned education firm in todays increasingly competitive environment. Management must identify and improve upon factors that can limit customer defection. These include switching barriers and customer satisfaction with service quality, product quality, pricing. Clearly, there are compelling arguments for management to carefully consider the factors that might increase customer retention rates. A lot of studies have emphasized the significance of customer retention in the industry like banking or hospitalism such as Dawkins and Reichheld, 1990; Marple and Zimmerman, 1999; Page et al., 1996; Fisher, 2001. However, there has been little effort to investigate factors that might lead to customer retention in education firm. Most of the studies have focused on the impact of individual constructs, without attempting to link them in a model to further explore or explain retention. If retention criteria are not well managed, customers might still leave their suppliers, no matter how hard bankers try to retain them. Keywords: Customer retention, Service Quality, Product Quality, Customer Satisfaction, Switching Barrier. Chapter 1: Overview of the research Background of Research Despite of the existing difficulties of the economy, in 2011 and 2012, education remains one of the few positive growth areas. According to experts; it is due to the stable development of education. Peoples learning needs are increasing; their level of investment in learning is increasing too. This investment is not interrupted by fear, worried about funding; on the contrary, students can save many other expenses to spend on their studies or their children. In the field of education, it can be said that in 2012 a lot of new English language centers are opened. The main reason is that English is more and more important, becoming obligatory recruitment requirements of many enterprises. According to the survey, using English proficiently helps graduate students quickly get a job and receive two times higher wages compared to non-English speaking candidate. Therefore, parents will not hesitate to invest in their children English learning at the prestigious center from an early age. More blue and white collared workers will enroll with the purpose of increasing salary, income. Apollo Vietnam, which was founded in 1994, is the first fully foreign owned English language training company in Vietnam and an affiliate of  International House   a well established and trusted name in English teaching. With the slogan Where the best become better, Apollo continues to strive to maintain the high standard English teaching organization in Vietnam. Apollo has made and continues to make a lot of contributions to Vietnamese society such as scholarships for students, fun learn English and teachers training for local schools and several well-known and well-loved television shows, for example, The Golden Bell, The Road to Olympia and Connect Youths. Apollo has seven moder centers based in Ho Chi Minh, Ha Noi, Da Nang, Hai Phong and offers a variety of educational programs and services, such as Public courses ( including English for Young Learners, Teens, Adults, IELTS TOEFL iBT), Corporate English, School Partnership Program and Overseas Study Services. Apollos has a lot of achievements in education and training, recognized by the Vietnamese Government and the United Kingdom: First foreign organization that has received two campaign medals for the Cause of Education from the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training In  2008, Apollos Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr. Khalid Muhmood, was also awarded the MBE (Member of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II for providing international-standard English training in Vietnam. Apollo is collaborating with leading endorsers, such as Cambridge University, DOET,Nokia, Fahasa, Nestle, Prudential and many more. Apollo is also the English content provider for popular game shows in Vietnam like Peak to Olympia, Golden Bell, Hot VTeen, and Doremi. Apollo has different courses designed for public students at Apollo at different ages, especially for adult. Please have look at Appendix 6 for more details. Problem Statement and Research Questions In recent years, a lot of English language centers with huge capital and investment are opened putting Apollo in the fiercer competition with strong existing competitors like British Council, Language Link, ILA, ACET, RMIT,Clever Learn, Oxford English UK,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ as well as new entrants such as Alphabest, AMA,etc. As a result, fewer new customers are being pursued by an increasing number of service providers. Under those circumstances, a large share of a firms resources must be devoted to the present customer base in order to make them satisfied and retain them. One significance of customer retention is its close relationship to the companys continued survival, and to strong future growth. Hence, for a company, to maintain a stable profit level when competition is fierce, a defensive strategy which strives to retain existing customers is more important than an aggressive one, which expands the size of the overall market by inducing potential customers (Fornell, 1992). Apollo currently has a good student retention rate of young learner segment, about 80%, whereas for adult segment in recent years, its only around 50% (Figure 2). As it can be seen from Figure 1, Apollo had from 640 to 700 adult student turns from 2009 until present and one forth of companys public revenue comes from those adult students which means that each month a lot of revenue shouldnt have lost if more careful measurements and priorities are drawn to adult segment. As a service company, no one likes the fact that 50% of adult students leave after enrolling one course at Apollo. Therefore, Apollo should try to find out the reasons why they leave and solutions to retain more current adult students. Figure 1: Apollos Average Number of Adult Students from 2009 to 2012 (source: internal document) Figure 2: Apollo Adult Studentss Retention Rate from 2009 to 2012 (source: internal document) There is a large number of literature about customer loyalty, customer satisfaction but not many studies are concentrated on the specific topic of customer retention. Moreover, there are many different characters in the context of English training service by foreign company compared to the regular service. Part of my job relates to retaining existing adult students at Apollo. Gaining better understanding of how to retain adult students at Apollo will not only help me to work more efficiently but also make small contribution to companys development. The research questions that are discussed in this thesis are as below: What are the main determinants and influencers of customer retention at Apollo Hanoi? How can these factors and determinants be developed and evaluated at Apollo Hanoi? Hence, the primary purpose of this study is to investigate the strategies at Apollo Hanoi to increase customer retention. After reading the related literature, as discussed above, it was found out that it would be more appropriate to answer these questions by designing a model to determine customer retention. Thesis Objectives This study explores the impacts that improvements in switching barriers and overall customer satisfaction by improving product or English course quality, service quality, price could have on customer retention at Apollo Hanoi, as it is a key indicator of customer retention, which in turn affects profit. On one hand, this thesis would be an opening to the further researches according to the related area, and on the other hand, this study may have some limitations. There are other factors influencing customer retention, apart from factors suggested in this thesis such as, the demographic characteristics of customers, their life cycles, and their usage pattern of English courses, that would be studied in future researches. The general objective of the research was to examine the extent to which key indicators affecting customer retention are having an impact on Apollo Hanoi and identify steps that Apollo Hanoi should take, if proven necessary. The research is more specifically aimed to: Find out the reasons why left students ended the relationship with Apollo Discover what factors are most important to encourage students study the next level at Apollo according to customers perspectives Indicate the level of satisfaction of adult students with such factors at Apollo Hanoi Find out whether switching barriers has strong effect on students decision to stay Present recommendations to Apollo Hanoi on how to enhance its customer retention Thesis scope and limitations Scope This research was limited to Apollo Hanoi due to the limited reach of the researcher who will be conducting his research and equaled desire for control over the research process apart from these limitations. Limitations Time The researcher faced time constraints in the process of collecting data. As a result, many aspects of the research had to be accommodative of other activities going on at Apollo Hanoi, which included a survey the company had issued forcing the issuing of the questionnaire for this research to be delayed to avoid over questioning of adult students. Finance The researcher was constrained financially. This primarily attributed to the fact that the research was primarily self-sponsored. As a result, certain value adding aspects of the research could not be administered effectively. Data Collection Apollo management was not in a position to disclose all the information requested due to lack of availability of the information as requested and the inability of the company to disclose all documents as they are. The researcher also experienced problems with adult students, as many were reluctant to fill in the survey and answer the questions in interviews. Thesis Structure My thesis will be divided into six chapters Introduction Literature Review Methodology Empirical Findings Recommendations and conclusions In the introduction chapter, the background information such as brief information of foreign education in general and English training in particular in Vietnam, objectives of my research, hypotheses will be presented. In literature review chapter, the related theories will be introduced. Methodology chapter will explain the research techniques and methods. Empirical Findings, data analysis, recommendations and conclusions will show the actual and gathered data and results of this research. Conceptual framework Product Quality Overall Customer Satisfaction Price Customer retention Service Quality Switching barriers CHAPTER 2: Literature Review Customer retention Customer retention plays a very important role in organizations economic portfolio. It is the act of keeping customers resulting from service quality and customer satisfaction (Ross 1995). Companies should be interested in retaining customers, though, for the following reasons (Reichheld 1996): Getting new customers can cost five times more than the cost involved in satisfying and retaining current customers. It needs a lot of effort to induce satisfied customers to switch from their current suppliers to others. The average company loses ten percent of its customers per year. A five percent decrease in the customer defection rate can increase profits by 25 percent to 85 percent, depending on the industry. The customer profit rate tends to increase over the life of the retained customer. According to Werner and Kunar 2000, retention may lead to increased profit over time if there is a forced ongoing relationship or an inertia driven relationship; if costs of maintenance decrease over time at a faster rate than revenues. It is further argued that focus on customer loyalty can provide general commercial advantages due to the following reasons: Customers cost less to retain than to acquire. A loyal customer will commit more to its chosen supplier. About half the new customers come from referrals from existing customers/ clients The concept of customer retention comes from the concept of customer orientation or customer focused marketing, which calls for organizing the company towards the satisfaction of the customer needs. Ideally this requires that the offering should focus on the customer and his needs and/or expectations. Weinstein Johnson (1999) recommended that at least 75% of an organizations marketing budget should be spent on customer retention strategies and strengthening these relationships. Besides this realization, there is a general lack of focus on customers; profitability is still king (Ross 1995). Most firms focus a significant amount of resources to attract and acquire new customers, instead of keeping the existing ones. It is generally thought that once a customer is acquired, keeping the customer is simple through superior products and services (Payne 2006, 2). Ross (1995) continued to claim that a focus on cash flow and short-term profits is not something wrong, but long-term profit and market share both require a base of satisfied customers which are retained by a focus on satisfaction with product quality, service quality, pricing and creating high switching barriers. We notice that customer retention is a concept that requires management to focus on customers by analyzing the indicators that reflect their satisfaction with services. Key factors affecting customer retention Retention depends on how it is measured and presented, but even more on the expectations and targets set for the activity. Therefore, the need for having a model which determines the customer retention influencers so as to evaluate them is essential for such a firm to be successful in the competitive markets . As mentioned before, a model will be developed based on the previous researches for evaluating different factors which influence customer retention and this model will be applied for Apollo Hanoi. Earlier studies of factors affecting customer retention usually concentrate on customer satisfaction and the switching barriers (e.g., Dick Basu, 1994; Gerpott, Rams, Schindler, 2001; Lee Cunningham, 2001). It is studied that customers experiencing a high level of satisfaction are likely to remain with their existing providers and maintain their relationship with the firm. However, according to some research, customer satisfaction, while positively influencing customer retention, is not always a sufficient condition, and, in some cases, fails to produce the expected effects. Hence, these researchers suggest that it is necessary to analyze other potentially influential factors. It is in this context that the concept of the switching barrier was proposed (Jones, Mothersbaugh, Betty, 2002) . Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that the switching barrier plays the role of an adjustment variable in the interrelationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention. In other words, when the level of customer satisfaction is identical, the level of customer retention can change depending on the magnitude of the switching barrier. Hence, many studies have been done on the subject of customer retention and loyalty. They developed models so as to determine different factors influencing customer loyalty and retention. The main model that was developed in these studies is a result of an empirical causal model is as below. It will also be used in this research: Customer Retention Overall Customer Satisfaction Switching Barriers Figure 1: Determinants of customer retention, model by Kim, et. al., 2003 Each factor contains some variables like switching barriers which include switching cost, interpersonal relationship, attractiveness of alternatives, service recovery The education firms must maximize customer satisfaction and the switching barrier in order to enhance customer retention. In particular, they must focus on service quality, product quality, pricing policy and offer customer-oriented services to improve customer satisfaction. At the same time, efforts to raise the switching barrier must be built for a long-term relationship. Customer satisfaction Customer satisfaction roots from a comparison between customers expectations and experiences. It means positive reaction to a service experience. If the customers perceived experience matches the expectations, customers are assumed to be satisfied. If the preceding expectations were higher than the gain of the service, the customers are considered to be disappointed and or dissatisfied. (Ylikoski 2000, 109). Stock (2005, 59) argued that customer satisfaction is an important driver of organizational performance and a key component of competitive strategies and sustainable advantage .Therefore, in market driven economy, measuring customer satisfaction is very important and customer satisfaction is essensial to the firms survival, growth and success (Guo et al., 2004, 141). According to the marketing concept, customer needs are essentially satisfied by integrated marketing, with the intention to satisfy customers while earning profit; the basic idea is that satisfied customers will be more likely to repurchase, leading to increased sales and market share for the company (Innis and La Londe, 1994, 2). Hence, to achieve long-term business success, it is vital to keep customers happy (Stank et al., 1997, 2). Customer satisfaction has been considered as the main element for customer retention in a lot of researches, and has consequently moved to the forefront of relational marketing approaches (Rust and Zahorik 1993). According to Anderson and Sullivan (1993), the more satisfied customers are, the higer is their retention. On the other hand, there are studies and publications where the relationship between satisfaction and retention has been noted not to be so straightforward (Hennig-Thurau and Klee 1997). In some industries, customer satisfaction scores tend to correlate with retention whereas in other industries, there is little or no correlation (Lowenstein 1995, 11-12). Kotler (2003, 73) stated that firms should measure satisfaction frequently, because customer satisfaction is the key to customer retetion. The highly satisfied customer stays loyal longer, buys more from the firm, talks favorably, pays less attention to competing brands, is less sensitive to price, offers ideas to the company, and costs less to serve than new customers, because transactions are routine. Customers will defect if they are very dissatisfied, dissatisfied, or even indifferent. Hence, firms have to frequently survey their customers level of satisfaction and target to create very satisfied customers, because they are most likely to stay loyal to the firm. According to Bolton (1998), the level of satisfaction explains a significant portion of explained difference in the duration of service provider -customer relationship, comparable to the effect of price. Besides, Bolton stated that it was a common misconception that organizations which focus on satisfaction are failing to manage customer retention. Furthermore, managers and researchers might have underestimated the importance between customer satisfaction and retention due to the complexity of the relationship between these factors. In a research by Ranaweera and Prabhu (2003), it was argued that while satisfaction may be an important driver for retention, it only does not ensure service loyalty; trust, switching barriers, and emotional response such as inertia and indifference might also affect retention. In their research, Ranaweera and Prabhu adopted a holistic approach to examine the combined effects of satisfaction, trust, and switching barriers in a continuous purchasing setting. The findings denoted that customer satisfaction and trust have strong and positive effects on customer retention, although the effects of trust on retention are weaker than that of satisfaction. The results also proved that switching barriers have a significant effect on customer retention. According to the research, it is proved that satisfaction is the main driver of customer retention buy if trust is absent, satisfaction will have less impact on retention. The correlation between satisfaction and customer retention is not usually as simple and straightforward as stated before. Reichheld et al. (2000) argued that a concept called the satisfaction trap is represented: while it may seem nonrational that increasing customer satisfaction will push retention and therefore profits, the facts are opposite as 60 percent and 80 percent of customers who defect say they were satisfied or very satisfied with their former supplier. According to Storbacka et al. (1994), customer satisfaction is only one dimension in increasing relationship strength; strong relationships can be dependent or perceived of contextual bonds that function as exit barriers. It is vital to understand that contextual barriers can generate latent dissatisfaction which emerges as the importance of the contextual bonds reduces. The article ends arguing that the relationships are remarkably different between different individual consumers. Some may be very committed to the relati onship and for them the perceived satisfaction with the relationship is very important. Others may find the relationship unimportant, and for those customers, the satisfaction component is so much significant. Extensive evidence suggests the positive influence of customer satisfaction on loyalty (Bolton, 1998; Fornell et al., 1996; Musa, 2004). In fact, many researchers pointed out that in order to improve business performance; firms should measure and manage customer satisfaction and its importance has led marketing scholars to recommend firms to improve their customers satisfaction judgments as satisfaction is a key to customer loyalty and retention (Fornell et al.). Customer satisfaction with a companys products or services is often viewed as the key to a companys success and long-term competitiveness. Product quality A prominent reason why customers do not retain with company is that their products are not fulfilling its functions properly. When products fail to perform their functions completely and properly, then products are useless for customers, when customers are not satisfied with products and do not use it, they will reduce its retention and relationship with company (Buzzell and Gale 1987). Product quality plays a vital role in customer retention and has positive relationship with customer retention. Customers compare the perceived performance of a product or service with some performance standard. Customers are satisfied when the perceived performance is greater than the standard, while dissatisfaction occurs when there is lack of standard for performance falls. Product quality is the strategic benefits of quality in contributing to market share and return on investment (Anderson and Zeithaml 1984). Searching for quality is credibly the most important consumer trend of the 1980s (Rabin 1983) as customers are now demanding higher quality in products than ever before (Leonard and Sasser 1982). A company could use a number of strategies to retain its customers. Of great importance, product quality for customer retention to such strategies is the wider concepts of customer service, customer retention, and relationship marketing. Companies can build loyalty and retention through using of number of techniques, including database marketing, customized products in limited editions, redeemable against a variety of goods or service, issuing loyalty cards, preferential discounts, free gifts, special promotions, newsletters, of magazines, members clubs, or it has been argued that customer retention is linked to employee loyalty, since employees are the ones that build up long-term relationship with customers. Service quality Service quality is a critical issue in the service industry (Stafford, Stafford and Wells, 1998) and of particular importance for English training providers who characteristically offer English courses which are homogeneous in nature. Moreover, service quality is both directly and indirectly related to loyalty through satisfaction (Bloemer, De Ruyter and Peters, 1998). Therefore, those companies which deliver quality of services better than their competitors would surely have greater possibilities of success. In order to understand the level of service quality of an education firm, a measurement should be established. However, quantifying service quality is not simple and too subjective. Nowadays, education firms provide the same types of English courses, but they do not provide the same quality of services. Besides, customers today are more aware of alternatives and their expectations of service have increased. Service quality can, hence, be used as a strategic tool to build a distinctive advantage over competitors. Although quality cannot be improved unless it is measured, it can be defined from several perspectives duh as the ability to satisfy the needs and expectations of customers (Bergman and Klefsjo (1990), or the overall features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy given needs. A reason for customers to switch is that companies fail to provide the better and effective customer service to them. These services include pre-sale service and post- sale service (Lewis Mitchell, 1990). If customers are not satisfied with customer service of the company, it will force them to change the supplier. Service quality is very important for the retention of the customers and have positive relationship as if firms provide service according to the customer requirement than it will also retain the customer as well as lowering manufacturing costs and improving productivity. Service quality is consumers judgment about the overall excellence or superiority of products (Zeithaml 1988). The design and implementation of service delivery processes plays a very important role in the overall competitiveness of modern organizations. Roth and Jackson (1995) provided clear evidence that process capability and execution are major drivers of performance due to their impacts on customer s atisfaction and service quality in education firm. Bearden and Teel (1983) found a positive relationship existing between service quality and customer satisfaction. The positive relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction creates true customers, increase efficiency, market shares, and profits, heavy sales volume, higher revenue, and reduces cost by economies of scales, and retain customer.(Anderson and Sullivan 1993) Satisfied customer do not often switch their service providers and therefore, the cost of retaining existing customers is significantly lower than attracting new ones. These customers my also spread their satisfaction by positive word of mouth which influences non-existent customers desire to engage with the organization and work as free promotional agents (Gronroos 2007, Zeithmal and Bitner, 2000) The positive effects by practising service quality models are a competitive differentiation that favors the enterprise, chances of potential growth, better employee morale, customer loyalty and retention, customer satisfaction, economic growth and profits, employee motivation and vision, favorable advertising, greater productivity and minimization of loss for the customers. The evidence that customer loyalty makes an organization more profitable makes it imperative that complaints and other unfavorable behavioral intentions should be handled effectively and timely to ensure the stability of these relationships. It is important for organizations to also acknowledge that customers may also switch because of the attraction of competitors that are providing better service, more personable service or higher quality. In this case, customers are not switching because of unsatisfactory service. Managers of service firms should know that some customers would still switch services even when they are satisfied with a former provider (Keaveney, 1995). Price Price is another factor for customers to be retained or not to retain with companies. Due to competition, companies are playing with prices of products and services. Clients always required products on most cheap price. Previous researches show that there is positive relationship between price and customer retention and the stability would increase the potential for customer retention. Company should lower customers price sensitivity, reduce the costs of failed marketing and of new customer creation, reduce operating costs due to customer number increases, improve the effectiveness of advertising, and enhance business reputation (Fornell, 1992). Customers often switch mainly due to some pricing issues, for example high price perceived, unfair or deceptive pricing practices (Peng and Wang, 2006). Therefore, so as to increase customer satisfaction, it is essential for service firms to actively manage their customers price perceptions, for example carrying out attractive pricing, offering reasonable prices mix, lower prices without decreasing quality, etc. Price might be one of the most important determinants of customer decisions (Srivastava and Lurie, 2001). Managers could make use of price matching to stimulate repeat purchase behavior (reducing price defection), because price matching may indicate a commitment to protect customers , the objective of it is to keep customers happy so that they would come back and buy again. (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990) suggest that repeated existing customers focus less on price savings than new customers do. Understanding long-term price matching effects on customers is important so as to determine whether price matching has a lasting impact on customer behavior that is evaluating the effectiveness of these policies in stimulating customer retention, in addition to customer acquisition (Kukar-Kinney, 2006). Ol

Douglas MacArthur Essay -- essays research papers

Douglas MacArthur was a US soldier, born in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. The son of a Union army hero during the Civil War (they are the only father and son to win the Congressional Medal of Honor) and a mother ambitious for his success, he trained at West Point (1903), rose steadily in the army, and demonstrated his bravado on a secret mission to Mexico (1914). In World War 1 he commanded a brigade in combat in France (1918), where he earned a reputation for bravery (wounded three times) as well as foppery - he carried a muffler and a riding crop into the line, but not a helmet or a gas mask. After serving as the superintendent of West Point (1919–22), he completed his second tour of duty in the Philippines. Appointed army chief-of-staff in 1930 (the youngest ever), he offended liberal-...

Parental Involvement in Adolescents Peer Relationships :: essays research papers

PARENTS' DIRECT INVOLVEMENT IN ADOLESCENTS' PEER RELATIONSHIPS One of the ways in which parents play a critical role in their sons' and daughters' social development is by encouraging their interactions with other youth; in this way parents provide opportunities for girls and boys to develop social cognitive and relationship formation skills (Ladd, Profilet, & Hart, 1992). According to the model of parenting processes proposed by Parke and colleagues, parental influences on girls' and boys' peer relationships operate through two pathways: indirect socialization and direct involvement (Parke & Buriel, 1998). Models of indirect socialization, such as attachment and social learning perspectives, suggest that parents influence their children's peer interactions indirectly, through the more general influence of parent-child relationship experiences on children's social development and peer competence (e.g., Elicker, Englund, & Sroufe, 1992; MacDonald & Parke, 1984). Parents who are characterized as warm and accepting parents, for example, tend to hav e children who are more socially competent with peers (MacDonald & Parke, 1984). The focus of recent research, and of this investigation, is the second pathway, parents' direct efforts to guide their offspring's peer relationships, such as when they supervise peer interactions, engineer opportunities for their children to spend time with peers, and generally manage children's social lives (Ladd et al., 1992; Parke & Buriel, 1998). Studies of young children's peer relationships indicate that children benefit from more frequent and more positive interactions with peers and higher levels of social acceptance when parents are involved in those relationships (Bhavnagri & Parke, 1991; Ladd & Goiter, 1988; Lollis, Ross, & Tate, 1992). Considerably less is known about parents' direct involvement in adolescents' peer relationships. The nature of parents' involvement in their children's social relationships may differ dramatically across developmental periods. For example, during early childhood parents directly intervene in and supervise children's peer interactions, whereas in middle childhood, parents may use a less intrusive approach such as encouraging friendships and monitoring social activities (Rubin & Sloman, 1984). With the exception of the literature on the connections between parental monitoring and deviant peer influences (e.g., Patterson, DeBaryshe, & Ramsey, 1989; Steinberg, 1986), we know little about parents' direct role in adolescents' friendship and peer relationships (for exceptions, see recent conference proceedings, McCoy, 1996; Mounts & McCoy, 1999). The first goal of this investigation was to describe and compare mothers' versus fathers' direct involvement in adolescents' peer relationships. Our choice of measures was guided by Parke and colleagues' model of parenting (Parke & Buriel, 1998), which describes parents' direct involvement as encompassing a variety of roles including instructional activities (e. Parental Involvement in Adolescents' Peer Relationships :: essays research papers PARENTS' DIRECT INVOLVEMENT IN ADOLESCENTS' PEER RELATIONSHIPS One of the ways in which parents play a critical role in their sons' and daughters' social development is by encouraging their interactions with other youth; in this way parents provide opportunities for girls and boys to develop social cognitive and relationship formation skills (Ladd, Profilet, & Hart, 1992). According to the model of parenting processes proposed by Parke and colleagues, parental influences on girls' and boys' peer relationships operate through two pathways: indirect socialization and direct involvement (Parke & Buriel, 1998). Models of indirect socialization, such as attachment and social learning perspectives, suggest that parents influence their children's peer interactions indirectly, through the more general influence of parent-child relationship experiences on children's social development and peer competence (e.g., Elicker, Englund, & Sroufe, 1992; MacDonald & Parke, 1984). Parents who are characterized as warm and accepting parents, for example, tend to hav e children who are more socially competent with peers (MacDonald & Parke, 1984). The focus of recent research, and of this investigation, is the second pathway, parents' direct efforts to guide their offspring's peer relationships, such as when they supervise peer interactions, engineer opportunities for their children to spend time with peers, and generally manage children's social lives (Ladd et al., 1992; Parke & Buriel, 1998). Studies of young children's peer relationships indicate that children benefit from more frequent and more positive interactions with peers and higher levels of social acceptance when parents are involved in those relationships (Bhavnagri & Parke, 1991; Ladd & Goiter, 1988; Lollis, Ross, & Tate, 1992). Considerably less is known about parents' direct involvement in adolescents' peer relationships. The nature of parents' involvement in their children's social relationships may differ dramatically across developmental periods. For example, during early childhood parents directly intervene in and supervise children's peer interactions, whereas in middle childhood, parents may use a less intrusive approach such as encouraging friendships and monitoring social activities (Rubin & Sloman, 1984). With the exception of the literature on the connections between parental monitoring and deviant peer influences (e.g., Patterson, DeBaryshe, & Ramsey, 1989; Steinberg, 1986), we know little about parents' direct role in adolescents' friendship and peer relationships (for exceptions, see recent conference proceedings, McCoy, 1996; Mounts & McCoy, 1999). The first goal of this investigation was to describe and compare mothers' versus fathers' direct involvement in adolescents' peer relationships. Our choice of measures was guided by Parke and colleagues' model of parenting (Parke & Buriel, 1998), which describes parents' direct involvement as encompassing a variety of roles including instructional activities (e.

Problems of Conducting Research Into the Causes of Stress Essay

One problem when conducting research into the causes of stress is the generalisation of the sample, if the sample is restricted; this has limitations in terms of generalising the results to the total population. In the study by Johansson, a sample of only 24 workers was used and from a specific job type. This sample is unreflective of all job types and is too small to be applicable to the general population. Conclusions made may only be relevant to this sample. However it could be argued that the factors that cause stress in jobs such as deadlines and the dependence of others on you are common in all types of jobs and therefore using a sample of the specific job type becomes less restricted and applicable to other people in jobs with common stressors. A second problem when conducting research into causes of stress is the validity of measurements. Validity refers to whether the results measure what they are supposed to measure and this is often affected by the research method. The self report method is often questioned in terms of validity as participants have the ability to give socially desirable answers and steer away from the truth. In the study by Kanner, questionnaires were posted out to participants and a Hassles and uplifts scale was asked to be completed every month for 9 months and the Berkman life events scale after 10 months. This study, due to the use of self report lacks in validity, as researches are unsure as to whether data obtained reflects the true opinions of participants, which is an issue when trying to apply to everyday life. However the self report method is useful, despite it lacking in validity. It gives participants the freedom to write about their own subjective feelings and due to stress being individually perceived differently, it is useful in tailoring treatment to individuals to meet their needs. A third problem is reductionism, studies often reduce many factors that cause an individual stress to one factor, such as in the case of Johansson study, it was concluded work was the source of stress. However individual factors such as personality could play a role, researchers do not know that stress prone individuals are more likely to be in a high risk job. By failing to take into account other factors, resources and time may be used in the wrong area. However reductionism is useful as it does pinpoint an area that causes stress and allows in-depth research to be carried out to help participants.

Teamwork

What does it mean to be a thriving team? over the past year, I watched my m new(prenominal) armed combat angiotensin-converting enzyme of the hardest battles in the world. My mother was diagnosed with summit cancer last year, and rase the stovepipe team of doctors could not cure her. The daylight she died, she went to my basketball game in the morning, and she died later that afternoon. The lesson I learned is that even if you confide it your all, sometimes you have ont ceaselessly carry out your goal and win. My mother endlessly wanted me to go to an NBA game. I gravel been a Wizards fan my whole vitality and have never been to a game.I am always observing how the best teams perform. I think the Wizards atomic number 18 a majuscule team that love the game and observe for each one other, and that is what you set somewhat to be a successful team. For example, the to a greater extent you trust your teammates, the to a greater extent likely it is the team will ach ieve its goal. A team must determine to jerk offher to achieve a goal, hardly sometimes even the best teams dont win. John Wall is one of my biggest idols. He trusts and respects his teammates, break aways with speed and precision, and even when he loses, he is always respectful.If I could see him play, it would be a fancy come true. Runner up Its about working together By Zoe Cachion, 11, Arlington Teamwork is processing people out when they rent it, and working together. You win as a team, and you lose as a team, You need to have empathy for other people on your team, Teams and teamwork are not just sports and other competitions. Teamwork is about . .?. trust, loyalty, confidence and perseverance. Success in your team is not really benignant every single game. Its more about working together with your teammates.Sure, it feels crazy to win, but it feels even better when you manage everybody in the team worked hard to get that win. Thats what success in teamwork substance to me. Runner up The ubuntu approach By Dan Huynh, 12, Falls Church Before each of their games, the successful Boston Celtics yell the African word ubuntu, which inspires the team to focus on the greater good rather than separate success. A successful teams players dont care about only their stats, All-star appearances, salary or pleasing championships.Positive teammates focus on the people they play with every day and how they can help their peers improve. An ubuntu-type player will pass on opportunities to others. For example, the Washington Wizards show that their team is counselling on the greater good because, as Kevin Seraphin said, we play like a team. nonexistence is selfish. Nobody wants to be the hero. Every night, you allow somebody else shine. This attitude makes their team successful. Ubuntu does not only apply to professional sports it pertains to incompetent sports also.For example, my aquatics coach told our team that during a water polo game, one of his playe rs had the opportunity to get a hat trick. However, instead of shot himself, he pump-faked and passed to his open teammate, who scored. This team was successful because its players shared opportunities rather than focused on themselves. When a team works together, teammates are able to help one other overcome obstacles and improve both as individuals and as a team. As the ubuntu doctrine states, I am what I am because of who we all are.