Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Essay

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed in congress in 2002 is designed to protect investors from the potential of fraudulent corporate accounting activities. This act strictly mandates reform, aimed directly to prevent fraud and improve corporate financial disclosures (INVESTOPEDIA, 2012). As a result of several confidence shaking investor accounting scandals that occurred during the late 90s which involved high profile corporations such as Enron, WorldCom and Tyco, a much required overhaul regarding financial statements and regulatory standards laid the foundation for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This act is making the accounting world more accessible to others for auditors to come in and help in checking the books. It will hold the executives and directors accountable for the internal controls of the company especially with the threat of imprisonment if the internal controls are not maintained. The act ensures that a â€Å"checks and balance† internal auditing of the accounting cycle for the company and investors to keep their assets in check. The role of internal audits is to ensure that Institute of Internal Auditor’s Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing Standard 300 Scope of Work be followed. The scope of the internal audit should encompass the examination and evaluation of the adequacy and effectiveness of the organization’s system of internal control and the quality of performance in carrying out assigned responsibilities (M. Wood Company, 2012). The internal audit standards are to review the dependability and integrity of financial and operating information and the resource being used to identify measure and classify those reports. The standard requires the system be reviewed to ensure compliance with those policies, plans, procedure, laws and regulations which may have a huge impact on operations and reporting. The standard is used to review the methods in place to safeguarding assets and verify that the assets protected exist. The final purpose of the standard is to appraise the economy and the efficiency with the means that are employed by a corporation. It is important to note that policies and rules are also enforced to uphold the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Sections 302, 401, 404 and 805 in particular address key requirements as it pertains to effecting financial statements. Section 302 requires senior managers to certify the accuracy of the reports along with establishing internal controls are set in place for the purpose of increasing report accuracy, ensuring honesty and ultimately providing financial protection for the investors. Section 401 ensures that statements may not contain fraudulent information. Section 404 provides for the necessary rules for annual reporting as well as addresses management auditing structures. Lastly, section 805 provides the guidelines for federal sentencing relating to criminal fraud and obstruction of justice. (Hazels, Nov/Dec) A very important question that should be asked is how well main stream America understands the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and how it has effected them? Another pressing area to uncover is how it has affected the US economy over the past ten years? Lastly, it would be interesting to understand how US companies interface globally with countries not held to the same standards. References Hazels, B. (Nov/Dec 2010). Eight Years After The Fact Is SOX Working? A Look At The Brooke Corporation. Journal of Business Case Studies, 6(6.6), 19-29. Invesotopedia. (2012). Sarbanes-Oxley Act Of 2002 – SOX. Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sarbanesoxleyact.asp#axzz2BCoqABsQ M. Wood Company. (2012, November 1). The role of Internal Audit in Complying with Sarbanes- Oxley. Retrieved from http://www.mwoodco.com/value/Internal_Audit_7-03.pdf

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

George Orwell Essay

A comparison between Dickens’ â€Å"hard times† & Orwell’s â€Å"1984† I am writing about two novels that seem to come across as very different. Orwell’s novel portraying a nightmarish image of his opinionated future of Britain. Where as Dickens’ novel creates a vision to represent Victorian education over 150 years ago. Both of these storylines dehumanise and dictate a society, both of very different kinds. Charles Dickens and George Orwell’s novels differ in the recreation of the society and in the plot of the actual storyline. The innocence of the children and the bleak severity of the head teacher is what dickens’ focuses on to display his thoughts of Victorian schools. In which Orwell depicts a society where everything is bleak and distraught and dictated by a soulless party, â€Å"BIG BROTHER†. Further more both novels were written at totally different generations, Dickens being the Victorian times and Orwell’s being the mid nineteen hundreds. Despite all these issues that divide the novels apart they seem to come across as very similar. Within closer inspection of the novels they seem to both control and authorise their societies. Orwell has used an empowering character as his leader; he has created a party lead by â€Å"BIG BROTHER†. Where as in Dickens’ approach to create a leader he has used a less excessive and extreme character called â€Å"Mr Gradgrind†, the head teacher who only implicates facts. Although he may not be as demanding as Orwell’s approach, he uses satire to dissolve the pupil’s mentality. Both of these characters apply a very dominating attitude towards there audience and offer them no thought and identity. â€Å"Girl number 20† â€Å"6079 Smith† Both authors have produced an atmosphere where people who are commanded by them, are clarified as mindless objects; rather than individuals with an imagination. This strips them down to nothing but factorised minds in one case, and an imagination that hardly existed in Orwell’s novel. In an extract from ‘Hard times’, the author disembowels the imagination of the students and use the idea of ‘Morgiana & the 40 thieves’. â€Å"Not unlike Morgiana looking into all the vessels ranged before him†¦ † This gives an idea of ‘Mr Gradgrind’ pouring the facts from his factorised mind, into the students damaged imagination. This compares with Orwell’s approach, where â€Å"BIG BROTHER† brutally demolishes the entire imagination and thought, as they suffer in a decayed dystopia. An additional contrast linking the novels together is, the stern and domineering party in both societies. The â€Å"BIG BROTHER† party emphasises the issue of them surveying the society of the party members and this is persistently repeated in the novel. In which ‘Mr Gradgrind’ constantly stresses the importance of facts and crushes the children’s minds, until they grasp the significance of facts. â€Å"In this life, we want nothing but facts, sir; nothing but facts† † BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU† These two quotations illustrate the emphasis and constant repetition of the parties. The author uses these effects to not only get the picture imprinted in the mind of the characters, but also into the readers. Furthermore, the BIG BROTHER party in Orwell’s novel, links very well with Dickens’ criticizing character, ‘Mr Gradgrind’. These two characters both contrast and appear as very similar in personality and in appearance. They both are displayed with a face that jolts the reader, and creates in their imagination; a daunting and depressing figure. â€Å"The black-moustachioed face gazed down†¦ while the dark eyes looked into Winston’s own† â€Å"While his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, over shadowed by the wall† The first quotation is Orwell showing his opinion of BIG BROTHER gazing with fear, and this compares extremely well with dickens’ attempt to create the same sort of atmosphere. Dickens expresses more scarce by using a metaphor to show his view of a leader, he also goes into more detail about the bold figure of ‘Mr Gradgrind’. Not only do they link well in appearance, but also in attitude towards their society. Both seem to dictate, and show immense power on the regulations of their own society. In conclusion, I feel that both authors have created a society and atmosphere; that both link together and show many similarities. Although they may well both show differences, they don’t even compare with the shear amount of evidence that link the novels together. Each author has created authority, control and power to create an atmosphere that can dictate a whole society. In this case the societies are very alike and the tone of speech used by each author is much the same. In my opinion, these two novels equally portray a society that can create a vision for the reader to see a glimpse of the past or what may be a glimpse of the future.

Boeing corporation crisis Essay

Attached is a report of the biggest crisis that the Boeing Corporation has ever faced in its existence. First it will describe the events leading up to the problem before it became a public issue. Then we will discuss in extensive detail exactly what the problem is that Boeing is facing and how they can overcome it. The team of xxx completed the research and the written report of the crisis. Boeing is an international supplier of commercial airline planes, military defense aircraft, and surveillance. Partially due to the September 11th attacks on the United States, the Boeing Corporation will be laying off 30,000 employees from their nationwide facilities. The layoffs will affect cities such as Los Angeles, Seattle, Houston, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and will affect employees from entry level to executive offices. The announcements of these issues have caused Boeing’s stock to fall to a surprising low and production levels to drop dramatically. XXX would like to thank XXX for giving us the opportunity to complete this research assignment. The research helped us learn how to more efficiently utilize the different databases available to us and put it into a format so it can be presented to a public organization or the media. The skills learned in the duration of completing this report will be able to be utilized when presenting to upper management a detailed issue and solutions to a specific problem. Boeing Corporation Crisis Cal State Fullerton Jean Fuller May 28, 2002 Executive Summary Today the Boeing Corporation is facing one of the largest crises in the history of the company. They are in the process of laying off a total of 30,000 employees from their facilities nationwide. The layoffs will take place in cities such as Los Angeles, Seattle, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. Most of the layoffs affect the commercial airline division, but the military defense and aerospace divisions will also be affected. The plan for the reduction in employee size began in July 2001, but the attacks on the United States on September 11th left the company having to lay off more employees. At the present time, Boeing is mainly focusing on reducing the amount of mandatory layoffs. This is going to be hard to accomplish because of the reduced demand for the company’s goods and services. In the future, Boeing’s focus will be on returning to a high level of production and profitability. They will be focusing on competing with the competition by increasing product innovation and reducing expenses that the company incurs during production in an effort to keep prices low. Due to economic slowdown and reduced spending by consumers, the Boeing Corporation was beginning to experience loss in revenues and a decline in production. Not more than three months later, the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York impacted the demand for commercial aircraft because of fear to travel by airplane. Also, heavy competition with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, Boeing is not being awarded as many contracts with the United States military, which is causing a decline in revenues for the aerospace and military defense divisions. There are not many ways to overcome the entire problem, but there are some alternatives that the company can consider in order to reduce them. The alternatives are to distribute hours equally among the employees, reallocate employees into different divisions, offer severance pay, and to continue to layoff employees. Boeing has to be careful in the way that this particular situation is handled. If employees feel as though they are being treated unfair, they will not have job satisfaction and production may decrease. The best possible solution for the Boeing’s problem is to equally distribute the hours among the employees. By doing this employees will maintain their jobs. This will result in higher job satisfaction than other alternatives, and Boeing will not have to go through an extensive process to rehire when they return back to a stage of profitability. Boeing Problem Statement As Boeing faces one of the greatest financial crises in the history of the airline industry, Boeing plans to cut production workers, engineers and support staff by mid-2002 (Nyhan, September 2001). Because of a declining economy as well as terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11th, Boeing is laying off a total of 30,000 employees in all divisions of the corporation: aerospace, commercial aviation, and military defense. The layoffs will happen in Los Angeles, St. Louis, Seattle, Oklahoma, and the Puget Sound area, and will affect everyone from salaried executives to the hourly paid maintenance employees. Layoffs are a sign of company turmoil and should be avoided to maintain the company stockholders. Short and Long-Term Goals Boeing’s primary short-term objective is to maintain a reasonable level of profitability given the recent occurrences. It will attempt to accomplish this by reducing the amount of dollars that are paid to the current employees by either reducing their hours, or completely terminating their employment with the company. Because of current supply and demand of the company, profits will be reduced if the current level of employees is maintained. Boeing’s long-term objective is to be the number one supplier of commercial, aerospace, and military aircraft and technology. They aim to accomplish this by maintaining a level of profitability that satisfies the stockholders and corporate executives. They also want to maintain a high level of competition with the current competition: Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. If Boeing loses government aerospace and military defense contracts to the competition, there is a high probability that the company will become insolvent and declare bankruptcy. Details of the Problem Prior to September 11th, Boeing was going through trying times. Their satellite manufacturing operations were in a recession. This was due to the bursting of the internet and telecom bubbles (Laing, 2002). The Commercial Airline Industry was also facing a slowdown. This was a result of high fuel prices, labor cost increases, a softening of the national economy and low passenger traffic (Smith, 2001). Also, improvements in production efficiency for Boeing led to a plan to decrease up to 15% of its employees in the commercial-aircraft business. This efficiency in production was due to the industry’s first ever-moving assembly line for the final phase of the production process, which cuts unneeded steps (Holmes, 2001). Likewise, by the end of 2001, Boeing lost out on the largest military contract ever when the Pentagon picked rival Lockheed Martin to build the Joint Strike Fighter for shared use by the Air Force, Navy and Marines. This next generation manned fighter is expected to flow more than $200 billion in revenues over the next 20 years (Laing, 2002). But most traumatic for Boeing were the terrorist attacks on September 11th. They transformed what had been shaping up as a mild downturn in commercial jet orders into a veritable collapse in demand (Laing, 2002). After the attacks, the need to fly drastically declined due to fear and security issues that made flying a nuisance. This left the US Airline Industry in a serious crisis. Companies such as Continental, US Airways, American, and Delta cut up to 20% of their capacity (Smith, 2001). Source: www.bloomber.com The terrorist attacks resulted in Boeing’s stock to plummet. Prior to September 11th, Boeing’s stock was falling because of the downturn in the economy. From the graph above, we can see that the attacks made the stock price to fall from $50 a share to $30. This was a sign that investors knew the impact the terrorist attacks had on Boeing’s industry. After September 11th, Boeing planned to respond to these problems by cutting production rates by 50 percent (Nyhan, November 2001). On September 18th, one week after the attacks, Boeing announced at a press conference that it would layoff up to 30,000 employees by the middle of 2002 (Smith, 2001). On that day, Boeing reduced the level of employees by 12,000: 3,000 through retirement and attrition, and 9,000 through layoffs (Farley, 2001). Boeing also stated that their jetliner orders would decrease drastically. In the next three years 80% of their 2001 orders would be delivered (Smith, 2002). They also planned to cut their monthly production of aircraft by half, from 48 to 24. The director of people at Boeing’s commercial airplane unit said, â€Å"In order to match our reduced production rate, we will need to accomplish the majority of the 20,000 to 30,000 reductions in 2002 employment by midyear†. Members of the Associated Press and Kiro 7 Eyewitness News stated, â€Å"Last week Boeing officials announced plans to layoff as many as 30,000 employees, mostly in the Puget Sound area, by the end of next year because of plummeting demand for new planes and postponed deliveries since the terrorist attacks.† Boeing’s commercial airplane division is not the only division that the layoffs will effect. Surprisingly 5,000 of the 30,000 layoffs are predicted to come from the military division. The military division cutbacks are also due to the September 11th attacks, but they are mainly due to global economic slowdown (Klein, 2001). This comes as a surprise because the military division is expected to grow in a time of war or terrorist attacks. Stockholders may assume that the government will request an increased level of production of fighter jets and military bombers so that the United States can dominate in the war against terrorism. In addition, the layoffs will not only affect the Boeing employees, but also people outside the company. As many as 20,000 of the Boeing layoffs may occur in the Seattle area alone, resulting in an additional 34,000 jobs lost by Boeing suppliers, subcontractors, and others (Klein, 2001). Alternatives Before Boeing implements any solutions they must maintain a good level of communication with their employees. The employees must know the reasons for a particular action taken by Boeing in order to avoid any mistrust and confusion (Hoffman, 2001). For example, an employee will wonder why layoffs are taking place when Phil Condit, Boeing’s CEO, is making an annual bonus of $1.13 million (Webber, 2002). Boeing must carefully explain their plans and what they are hoping to accomplish through their actions. Boeing can reduce the amount of layoffs by implementing any of the following solutions: Distribute Hours Among Employees The first solution for Boeing is to spread the hours among the employees for each department. Every department is given so many hours it can use for each week at the beginning of the quarter, depending on the amount of business Boeing has. If those hours taken and spread among the employees for each department, not as many layoffs will occur. The hours will be spread out by reducing the workweek from five days to four. By cutting one day out of an employee’s schedule Boeing is able to give those hours to another employee, which under the circumstances would be laid off. Once four employees each receive a deduction in their workweek one employee will be able to maintain their job and not be laid off. The advantage to this solution is that fewer employees will have to be laid-off. Employees will have their hours cut according to seniority. Some employees that have been with the company for a number of years will not be affected by the action. By holding onto the employees and not laying them off Boeing will be prepared to handle new contracts as they arise. Boeing is predicting that the recent decline in contracts is only short-term and business will soon return to their previous levels. The disadvantage to the solution is that some employees will not be able to afford a reduction in hours. In this scenario employees will not be satisfied and hold each other responsible for less hours. If employees are not satisfied then their production will decrease due to their dissatisfaction. Re-Allocate Employees The second solution for Boeing is to train employees in other departments within the company. This will allow Boeing to reallocate employees in different departments rather than laying them off. With the commercial airline department being hit the hardest by the recent terrorist events, employees in that department could transfer to other departments if they possessed the knowledge. The advantage in training employees outside their departments is the value it will add to the employee. If an employee has the knowledge and know how to be productive and efficient in other departments, not just his own, they become an instant asset to the company. Due to their flexibility Boeing can move the employee around in accordance with demand. A disadvantage to this solution is that Boeing will incur high costs for training employees to do other jobs. A slowdown in production will also result due to the time spent on training. The transition for an employee to move from one department to another is difficult because the employee will not be as efficient. Severance Pay Early retirement packages will be available to qualified employees. The retirement packages to be offered will vary depending on the number of years an employee has with the company. For each full year of service an employees has with the company, up to twenty-six years, they will receive one week of pay (Hoffman, 2001). The employee can take the severance pay in either a lump sum or as an income continuation. The single lump sum plan pays the severance pay to the person in one check within one month of leaving the company. The income continuation plan will pay the severance pay on the regular paydays every two weeks (Boeing, 2000). The advantage to this solution is each individual makes their own decision and they have total control of what they want to do. Also high salaries will be eliminated as management personnel take the package. Once management leaves, the ones that find early retirement appealing, Boeing will be able to promote employees into those positions without having to pay the large salaries. The disadvantage to this solution is that not many jobs will be saved because not many employees will go for the early retirement package. Boeing will also lose experienced managers if they decide to take the early retirement package. If this solution is implemented Boeing will continue to layoff employees because not enough jobs will be cut. Continue Layoffs The last solution is to continue to layoff employees as necessary. This will allow Boeing to keep revenues high because the layoffs will occur according to the market. If Boeing does not get as many contracts as they expected for a particular quarter, the layoffs will help the company’s finances. The disadvantage to this alternative is the potential of business picking backup. The market for commercial jetliners is expected to boom in two years and Boeing needs to be able to handle the new contracts. If Boeing has to constantly train new employees as business increases, in an effort compensate for the ones that were laid-off, they will not be operating at full efficiency. Solution Boeing realizes that layoffs can’t be completely eliminated, however they want to reduce layoffs to the lowest possible amount. Boeing will accomplish that by distributing the hours in each department among the employees. This solution will allow Boeing to save jobs by reducing the employee’s workweek from forty hours to thirty-two hours. The management of each department will determine the hours to be cut and the number of employees that are affected. This will be implemented on June 1, 2002 throughout all departments. Most employees will be affected by the reduction in hours, and management must be prepared to cope with the initial negative reaction. In order to measure the results of the solution, Boeing must evaluate the impact on its bottom line along with the toll it’s taking on their employees. An evaluation will occur every six months and will be lead by top executives and the department managers. Once evaluated, a decision will be made by the board of directors on whether or not to continue with the reduction of hours or to incorporate a different action. The thirty-two hour workweek is expected to be temporary as analysts are predicting a turn around in demand for planes (Holmes, 2001). As production returns to capacity, hours will be returned back to employees according to seniority.    Reference List Airlines slash workforces. (n.d.) retrieved April 10, 2002, from www.proquest.com . Airwise News. (2001, September 22). Majority of Boeing layoffs in aircraft sector. Retrieved April 10, 2002, from www.dowjonesinteractive.com Associated Press Newswires. (2002, March). More Boeing layoff notices. Retrieved April 10, 2002, from www.dowjonesinteractive.com. Article No. A71327300 Associated Press Newswires. (2001, September). First Boeing layoffs set to take effect Dec. 14. Retrieved May 7, 2002, from www.seattleinsider.com/news/boeing.html Boeing Company. (2002). A Brief History. Retrieved April 8, 2002, from www.boeing.com/companyoffices/history/boeing/html. Boeing Company. (2002). Layoffs Benefits Plan. Retrieved May 7, 2002, from www.boeing.com/companyoffices/benefits/boeing/html. Carlton, D.R. (2002, January) Boeing bleak outlook. The Economist, 362 (8257), 58. Corliss, B. (2002, April). Boeing deliveries drop 10%. Retrieved May 7, 2002, from www.msnbc.com Farley, G. (2001, December). Union leaders file grievances. The Associated Press. Retrieved April 15, 2002, from www.king5.com/cgi-bin/gold.cgi Genna, C.A. (2002, April 19). More layoff notices to be issued at Boeing. Retrieved May 8, 2002, from www.latimes.com Gillie, J.F. (2001, November). Lost jobs in Puget Sound area. The News Tribune, Tacoma. Retrieved April 10, 2002, from www.dowjonesinteractive.com Gillie, J.F. (2001, December). 1,700 new layoff notices today. The News Tribune, Tacoma. Retrieved April 10, 2002, from www.dowjonesinteractive.com. Article No. TCMA0135500 Global general aviation industry delivery breakdowns for jets. (n.d.). Retrieved April 10, 2002, from http://rdswebl.rdsinc.com/texis/rds/suite.html. Hoffman, R. (2001, June 29). The Dynamics of Downsizing. Retrieved May 18, 2002, form www.hradvice.com Holmes, S.C. (2001, November 26). Aerospace industry downsizing. Business Week, (3759), 108-109 Klein, A. (2001, October 13). Boeing faces massive layoffs. The Washington Post. Retrieved April 15, 2002, from http://detnews.com/2001/business.html. Laing, J.R. (2002, April). Gaining Altitude: Corporate profiles. Barron’s, 82 (17), 21-25. Lloyd, M.K. (2001, December). Losing Altitude; Aviation. The Economist, 361 (8253), 81-83. More Boeing layoff notices going out. (n.d.) Retrieved April 26, 2002, from www.seattleinsider.com Nyhan, P.J. (2001, September). Boeing expects to layoff up to 10 percent in commercial division. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved April 10, 2002 from www.dowjonesinteractive.com. Article No. SEPI012700. Nyhan, P.J. (2002, February). Boeing lays off 1,000 local workers. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved April 10, 2002, from www.dowjonesinteractive.com. Nyhan, P.J. (2001, November). Majority of Boeing layoffs to hit by June. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved April 10, 2002, from http://seattlepi.nwsource.com Schneider, R. (2001, December). Losing Altitude: aftershocks from September 11th. The Economist. Retrieved April 10, 2002, from www.infotrac.com. Article No. A81118376. Smith, B.A. (2002, January 21). Boeing continues its production cost focus. Aviation Week & Space Technology, 156 (3), 43-44. Smith, B.A. (2001, September 24). Boeing cuts delivery estimates, prepares for major layoffs. Aviation Week & Space Technology, 155 (13), 29-32. Song, K.M. (2001, December). Boeing layoff face challenge. The Seattle Times. Retrieved April 10, 2002, from www.dowjonesinteractive.com. Article No. SETL0135600. Song, K.M. (2002, April). Effects from Boeing cutbacks felt. The Seattle Times. Retrieved May 18, 2002, from www.dowjonesinteractive.com. Article No. SETL0211100. Standaert, J. (2002, January). Boeing trims 2,300 more jobs. The News Tribune, Tacoma. Retrieved April 10, 2002, from www.dowjonesinteractive.com. Article No. TCMA0201900. Thomas, G.D. (2002, April). Tough times ahead. Air Transport World, 39, (4), 31-33. Webber, J.P. (2002, April 19). Boeing hurt by slowdown. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 8, 2002, from www.latimes.com

Monday, July 29, 2019

Final Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Final Project - Essay Example The reason for taking up the diversity consciousness course was to acquire more knowledge about diverse cultures. The topic diversity attracts me or influences me a lot as I belong to the East African originating from Ethiopia and reside in the United States. The cultural differences, the approach and the differences in value helped me to understand and focus on personal growth by staying in between the people of diverse culture (Azcentral, 2013). The diversity course has influenced my mindset and my behavior towards the people of different cultures. I have now started to identify and respect the people of different cultures. The course is helping me in understanding the values of the diverse culture, religion and the behavior. Moreover, the awareness regarding diversity has helped me in understanding the fact that people are different and their attitudes and ideas should be respected. The awareness assists me in appreciating the fact that individuals of different places are â€Å"not like us† and hence have learnt to respect the differences instead of complaining. The diversity awareness has helped me in understanding my peers better, improve my communication and avoid the level of confusion. The prominent reason for the conflicts is differences hence the awareness regarding diversity helps in avoiding the conflicts faced, usually when we are new to the country (McLauren, 2009; The Pennsylvania State University.). The understanding of the diversity in the culture and communication has affected my thought process to a great extent. The differences of cultures have made me more tolerant and allowed me to respect the diverse cultures and their differences in opinion. The understanding of the differences has helped me in understanding the uniqueness of the person. Before identifying the importance of diversity, I thought the USA to be a

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Analysis Of Pete Thamels Writing Style Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Analysis Of Pete Thamels Writing Style - Essay Example Thamel makes use of the proper grammar and syntax to make his writings more logical and comprehensible. The general ethos evident in Thamel’s writings points out that he is knowledgeable about his field and knows what he is talking about. He tends to use an informal sentence structure to reach out to a maximum number of people which shows his consideration towards his audience. He does not mess with fancy words and difficult sentences, rather he writes in a way to get his message through to his audience. The sentence structure he chooses to display in his column is the loose sentence form mainly. Thamel uses a relaxed and casual tone in his writings mixed with a playful but serious take on the issues he is addressing. Thamel’s writing style does not demonstrate much of pathos. He has however often shown distress over the issues he discusses in an offhanded way.  He has made use of informal diction in all of his columns. Thamel’s literary techniques include fram ing, imagery, irony, and a narrative hook. Students can and do share their writings, projects, and assignments through such medium. Another Californian high school teacher states that the students are more willing to share with each other rather than with their teachers which are yet another step towards learning and sharing. If organizations such as the CTA have their way and get the school boards to lift the ban from social networking, this may yet be the greatest revolution the world would ever see. It would change the meaning of education.

Saturday, July 27, 2019

A rose for emily Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A rose for emily - Essay Example Instead, he chooses to simply narrate the facts as told by the people of Jefferson. This narration slowly unravels before us Emily’s personality through the affairs that take place and ‘Emily’ as perceived by the people of her town. From the short story, one can figure out that Emily had been the only daughter of a wealthy and overprotective father. The line ‘We remembered all the young men her father had driven away’ tells us how her father had prevented her from being in any relationship. The overprotective father did not realize then that this would make his daughter reticent. She refrained from socializing even after her father’s death. People of Jefferson did not make an effort to befriend her. Emily and her family were looked at as â€Å"tableau† by the citizens of Jefferson. They visited Emily only to offer condolences after her father’s death. They never tried to know her personally. Perhaps, they were intimidated by her ‘august’ origins. That is why, when Homer Barron came into her life, Emily, finally, found a friend. Emily may have become possessive of Homer since he was the only friend she had. Later, in the story, the author hints that Homer might have been gay. Emily was obstinate. She liked everything to be as she wished. Hence, when she realized that she could lose Homer to a guy, she killed Homer. She had his dead body put in her room so that she could have him for the rest of her life. That Emily was stubborn and obstinate was revealed by a number of other events. Firstly, she refused to pay taxes because she believed that the people of Jefferson owed her father some amount of money. Secondly, she bought arsenic to kill Homer. On being questioned by the pharmacist, she refused to answer him and gave him a cold stare. One incident that makes the reader think profoundly of her mental state is the death of her father. Emily, initially, refused to believe that her father was

Friday, July 26, 2019

The Republic of Honduras Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

The Republic of Honduras - Essay Example Spread over approximately 1, 12,090 square kilometers of land, the country's population presents a solid picture of unity in diversity. As per the census of July 2002, Honduras population stood at 65, 60,508 and in terms of ethnic composition, its population consists of Mestozos, Amerindians, Black Africansand Whites representing 90%, 7%, 2% and 1% respectively. In terms of religious composition, Roman Catholics are in majority with 97% of the population hailing from this group. The Whites mostly live in the areas of northern coast and are proud of preserving their culture which they have inherited from their ancestors. It must be noted that Honduras was initially part of the British Empire and later on came under the Spanish rule gradually. Garifuna people, belonging to a minority community, also live along the northern coast in harmony with many Afro-Latin Americans. There are also some people of Asian descent in Honduras and most of them are Japanese and Chinese origins. Hundreds of families can still find their origins in the with the Jewish minorities constitute the highest income groups in Honduras and are in control of politics and economy. Some sections of people have relations with families in Spain as Spain also ruled the country for a long time. But the beauty and greatness of the country is that the indigenous natives of Honduras are spread all over the country and all people live in perfect harmony. Tribal people like Chortis (Mayan descent), Payas, Pech, Tolupanes or Xicaques/Jicaques, Lencas, Sumos or Tawahkas, and Olmecas live in utter poverty as they live in far off and remote places. It seems that the Government is unable to do anything for their upliftment because of lack of budgetary funds and poor funding by the developed countries. Following is the map which shows Honduras and its neighbours.(Map source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Honduras_sm04.png) 3 Historical figures Honduras has a great historical figure. He is Florencio Xatruch who had led the country's armed forces and fought successfully against an attempted invasion by North American filibuster William Walker in 1857. A Honduran can be proudly called by the nickname of Catrocha or Catrocho which is inspiringly derived from the last name of

Thursday, July 25, 2019

American History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 5

American History - Essay Example Reformation, which is generally considered to have begun in 1517, came about after well over a century of growing problems within the Roman Catholic Church. As early as the fourteenth century, religious and civic leaders were calling for church reform, and humanists of the early Renaissance as well and the general public were criticizing corruption in the church3. In England, ever since the late thirteenth century, there had been rivalry between the crown and the church over matters such as taxes, the judicial authority of the Roman Catholic Church, and clerical property rights. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the rise of humanism further heightened the conflict4. Certain events such as the Popish Plot in 1678, the 1679-81 Exclusion Crisis, and the 1685 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes exacerbated anti-Catholic sentiment in England. Anti-popery convinced the Carolina proprietors to to support the Protestant cause. Their aim was to recruit settlers to produce semi-tropical products whose sale would enrich England. Not wishing to weaken England by draining away its population, the proprietors under English private sponsorship encouraged a significant emigration of the Huguenots, Calvinist martyrs in Catholic absolutist France who were in search of a refuge. Economically, the 1660s and 1670s were a period of growth due to commercial expansion, but politically these years were full of instability and crises fuelled by an acute and sometimes hysterical fear of Catholicism, which was referred to as Popery. This proved to be an essential element in the making of Protestant England, serving the purpose of the â€Å"evil God† in the creation m yth. Popery was everyone’s worst nightmare, and was a catalyst for real as well as imagined menaces to the English nation. The Marian persecutions of the 1550s, the 1588 Great Armada, the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, and the Irish Rebellion of 1641 were collectively perceived as instances of how demoniac Catholic forces could

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Competitive pushy parents Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Competitive pushy parents - Essay Example However, some children do not feel pleasant when their parents ask them to do anything against their will. In such cases, tensions between children and parents increase which upsets the overall environment of a family. In this paper, we will discuss how American competitive parents affect the wishes of children and how children and teachers can deal with the competitive parents in order to find a middle way between the wishes of the children and the parents. How Competitive (Pushy) Parents Deal with Children Competitive parents jam their children’s social lives with unusual activities, such as, play dates, baby yoga, and teaching foreign languages (Woolcock). Competitive parents deal with their children in an influencing way. Such parents care less about the personal wishes and aims of the children and try to impose their will on the children. They are very curious about the activities of the children and keep a constant eye on all activities of the children. Competitive paren ts also want their children to be competitive in all fields of life. Children of competitive parents are generally more likely to be obsessive about their interests (Macrae). In America, most of the parents start advising their children from the very early stages of their lives to work hard for achieving success in the future. For that, they guide their children to the way, which they think to be the most appropriate ones for the children. â€Å"Parents are so anxious for their children to do well, partly because their children are a reflection on them – but also they are all too aware of the economic realities† (Landesman). In some cases, the will of the parents go against the will of the children and the clash occurs. For example, a child wants to become a teacher in future but his parents want him to become a doctor or a surgeon in order to become a good earner in the future. Now, here the clash begins between the parents and the child because of separate viewpoints regarding selection of the most appropriate profession. The result is not favorable for both parents and children every time. Sometimes, plan of the parents becomes successful when the child becomes what the parents want whereas sometimes the child is not competent enough to meet the expectations of the parents, which results in the educational and professional failure of the child. â€Å"The parent who is proud when an offspring achieves what is deemed to be of value and ashamed when they fail is an age-old predicament† (Meakins). The dilemma is that, in case of failure, parents start blaming the children for not studying hard for success in the selected field of study. However, in reality, failure is not a fault of the children because every child has a separate mindset and he or she selects the field of study based on the personal interest. â€Å"Parents are frequently encouraged to play a full role in their children's education† (Young). However, when parents try to force the children to study what the parents want, it becomes difficult for the children to get along with the wish of the parents properly because they are not always competent enough for that. Competitive or pushy parents not just force the children in the field of studies but they also try to influence the extra curricular activities, interests, and hobbies of the children. Pushy parents want to make their children competitive in every field of life. For that, they try to

Life after college Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Life after college - Term Paper Example Additionally, high numbers of job seekers with similar qualification have flooded the job market creating another significant challenge among the fresh graduate of proving their uniqueness before the recruitment panel (Carol, para10). This study therefore, will investigate the challenges that college students undergo through immediately after graduation. In above connection, the study will focus on unemployment and high debts among college graduates. Challenges student come across after college graduation, including unemployment and high debts Higher education has greatly been attributed to numerous benefits such as; improved standard of living, higher income, increased productivity and reduction in production cost among other benefits. Additionally, numerous states provide higher income to those with higher level of education as compared to those with lower education levels (Roksa, Josipa and Richard, para2-25). For instance, high school graduates were anticipated to receive lower i ncome as compared to diploma and degree holders. However, there have been some variations in respect education to level of education and income. ... Connectively, most college graduate faced the challenges of securing a job because most of the courses they took at their respective universities could not correlate with the market demand. This forced many employers to recruit college graduates from other foreign countries (Coy, paras1-6). In above connection, lack of adequate academic engagement such as working while still in college, especially during vacation has contributed greatly to unemployment among the college graduates. This is because through academic engagements students not only acquire new experience but also experience tremendous growth in their career life. This provides them competitive edge of securing a job after completing their college education (Roksa, Josipa and Richard, para17). Additionally, some college students may found that employers are not hiring on their geographical areas and therefore, some may find it quite challenging to move into new areas to look for a job due to housing and income problems (Car ol, paras1-5). On the other hand, most college graduates do not make to the interview room despite sending their application. This is because of improper writing of their resumes which denies them a chance to be invited for an interview despite being qualified for a job. However, some who make to an interview room fails to get a job due to failure of expressing themselves properly such that an employer can become convinced that they are the best candidates for a job. Connectively, majority of the college graduate tend to be confused on what to do after completing their college. This is because some do not know where to start (Carol, para5). Research report indicates that most students after graduation lacks financial freedom and tend to rely heavily on their parents

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Auditory Hallucination in Schizophrenic Illness Essay - 1

Auditory Hallucination in Schizophrenic Illness - Essay Example Paranoid thinking or psychotic symptoms which are symptoms of schizophrenia could also be experienced with high levels of dopamine in the brain. When the brain recognizes that there is excessive dopamine, symptoms which are schizophrenic appear. Schizophrenic patients also have more dopamine receptors than people without it (Barkus et al., 2007). Glutamate is also associated with schizophrenia. It has a major role in the forming and encoding of memory. It is also thought to have a function in learning. When glutamate receptors are blocked for instance when one takes PCP, there is reported paranoia that is also a symptom of schizophrenia. Schizophrenic patients have been found to possess lower levels of glutamate compared to normal people. The two neurotransmitters interaction is said to be at the core of schizophrenia since the production of many dopamine receptors affects the glutamate receptors by blocking them and thus reducing their action (Spencer et al., 2009). The dopamine hypothesis is generally the best explanation for the cause of schizophrenia at the neurotransmitter level. It is the most etiologic theory in psychotherapy. Its proposal that certain pathways of dopamine are overactive in schizophrenia could be true because when one takes drugs that increase dopamine, they induce positive symptoms but when the drugs that block its receptors are taken they reduce the positive symptoms. In other words, the experiences and behaviors associated with schizophrenia could be fully made clear by the transformations of dopamine function in the brain (Ven, 2006). Auditory hallucinations could be said to be a false perception of sound or experiencing internal voices and noises that do not originate from the external world and are seen to be separate from the normal brain processes.  

Monday, July 22, 2019

Quasi Turbine Essay Example for Free

Quasi Turbine Essay 1.INTRODUCTION Quasi turbine is a zero vibration continuous combustion rotary engine having four faces articulated rotor with a free and accessible centre rotating without vibration nor dead time and producing a strong torque at low rpm under a variety of modes and fuels. The quasi turbine is also an optimization theory for extremely compact efficient engine concept. It is a new engine concept from Canada which offers a design similar to that of rotary engines but with the advantages of a gas turbine-all within the confines of a chamber based on the shape of a Saint Hilaire skating rink profile. Each Quasi turbine device is at the cross road of three modern engines: inspired by the turbines: it perfects the piston, and improves on the Wankel. The Quasi turbine results from a research initiated in 1993 aimed at unifying the compression and power turbine into one entity. This invention is a new hybrid engine concept, midway between the piston and the turbine engine which requires relatively few components such as stator with covers, rotating blades, rocking carriages, wheels, and joints. Quasi turbine is also an environmental friendly engine, which provides an engine concept free from atmospheric gas pollution, noise pollution, thermal pollution etc. In this engine efficiency stays constant and optimum no matter the power of the unit. Inventors: – Francoise, Gilles, Roxan 2.OBJECTIVES Objective of this invention is to provide a new engine concept unifying the compressor and power turbine into one entity that is a conventional gas turbine engine. Another object of this invention is to provide a low noise, perfectly balanced, zero vibration, low r.p.m engine, giving less time to compression and expansion stroke and allowing more time and volume to the intake combustion stroke. A further objective of this invention is to provide a fast accelerating, zero dead time and to provide an engine almost universal to energy sources, which can run efficiently on pneumatic, steam, hydraulic, liquid and gas fuel internal combustion. Another objective is to provide an engine, which has a short pressure peak, cold intake area characteristics, so that it is suitable for photo detonation mode pure hydrogen fuel combustion. Another objective is to provide a high weight and volume density engine, without need of any valve, check valve or obstruction and within neither a crankshaft nor a flywheel. 3. CONSTRUCTIONAL DETAILS [pic] The invention is an assembly of four carriages supporting the pivots of a four element, variable shape rotor, which is confined within a chamber (internal housing counter wall-stator) based on the shape of a Saint Hilaire skating rink profile. This profile offers the rotary components of the engine a bigger, more uniform radial path, enabling maximum torque to be reached more efficiently than a normal combustion. Two lateral plane covers close the engine end. The rotor is composed of four pivoting blades playing a similar role as the piston or turbine blades. Each pivots sit into one of the four rocking carriages. Each carriage is free to rotate around the same pivot in such a way as to be continuously and precisely in contact with housing counter. A central shaft is not needed for the engine to operate. It can be driven through a set of coupling arms attached to the blades by means of traction slots and through a set of arm braces, the ends of which are linked to central shaft . The central shaft unit can be easily removed through the back cover central hold with out dismantling the engine. Pivoting blades are shaped with the filler tip to allow the control of residual volume in the upper and lower chambers at maximum pressure configuration. Carriage wheels should be wide to reduce contact pressure with the counter wall. For smoother operation, roller bearings are inserted in the blade’s hook pivots. Intake, spark plug and exhaust ports are made either radially in the housing, or axial in the side covers, or both. In order to pass along the flame make a continuous combustion engine, a small channel(ignition flame transfer slot) located along the internal housing counter wall next to spark plug allows a voluntary flow back of hot gases into the next ready-to-fire combustion chamber. Screwing or unscrewing the spark plug can control the amount of flow. This channel is called ignition transfer cavity. An ignition-timing advance can be built-in by slightly shifting the effective position of spark plug and / or the channel. To help cooling and reduce lubrication, at least one of the lateral side covers has a large central hole exposing the pivoting blades to central area of the rotor such that all parts of engine are external, except for the carriage and wheels which are always in good thermal contact with the housing contour. Since the seals are the only friction surfaces, the need of lubrication is minimized by an optimal choice of anti-friction materials. The housing, the pivoting blades and the carriages can be made of metal, glass, ceramic or plastic, the later mostly for compressor, pump or water-hydraulic engine application. In a photo-detonation engine because it employs a homogenous charge and compression ignition, it is often described as a HCCI engine . HCCI (Homogeneous charge Compression Ignition) combustion results in Virtually no emissions and superior fuel efficiency. This is because photo detonating engines completely combust the fuel, leaving behind no hydrocarbons to be treated by a catalytic converter or simply expelled into the air. The higher pressure required for Photo-detonation puts a significant amount of stress on the engine itself. Piston engines can’t withstand the violent force of the detonation. And traditional rotary engines such as the Wankel, which have longer combustion chambers that limit the amount of compression they can achieve, are incapable of producing the high- pressure environment necessary for Photo detonation to occur. The Quasi turbine with carriages is strong enough and compact enough to with stand the force of Photo-detonation and allow for the higher compression ratio necessary for pressure heated self-ignition [pic] QUASI TURBINE SPECIFICATION |SHAFT POWER |ROTOR DIAMETER |ROTOR THICK | | 70 HP | 10cm | 5cm | | 530 HP | 25cm | 10cm | | 4000 HP | 53cm | 20cm | | 33000 HP | 1m | 16inch | | 260000 HP | 2m | 82cm | 4. THE WORKING OF A SIMPLE QUASI TURBINE [pic] The simpler Quasi turbine model looks very much like a traditional rotary engine: A rotor turns inside a nearly oval-shaped housing, Notice, however that the Quasi turbine rotor has four elements instead of three. The sides of the rotor seal against the sides of the housing, and the corners of the rotor seal against the inner periphery, dividing it into four chambers. In a piston engine, one complete four-stroke cycle produces two complete revolutions of the cranks shaft. That means the power output of a piston engine is half a power stroke per one piston revolution. A Quasi turbine engine, on the other hand, doesn’t need pistons. Instead, the four strokes of a typical piston engine are arranged sequentially round the oval housing. There’s no need for the cranks shaft to perform the rotary conversion a in basic model, it’s very easy to see the four cycles of internal combustion. †¢ Intake , which draws in a mixture of fuel and air †¢ Compression, which squeezes the fuel air mixture into a smaller volume. †¢ Combustion , which uses a spark from a spark plug to ignite the fuel. †¢ Exhaust, which expels waste gases (the by-products) from the engine. 5. WORKING OF QUASI TURBINE WITH CARRIAGES. [pic] In a Quasi turbine, as the rotor blade turn the volume of the chambers change. First the volume increases, which allows the fuel air-mixture to expand. Then the volume increases, which allows the fuel air-mixture to expand. Then the volume decreases, which compresses the mixture into a smaller space. It is also found that when one combustion stroke is ends then the next combustion stroke is ready to fire. By making a small channel along the internal housing wall next to the spark plug, a small amount of hot gas is allowed to flow back to the next ready to for combustion chamber when each of the carriage seals passes over the channel. The result is continuous combustion, just like in the airplane gas turbine. What all this amounts to the Quasi turbine engine is increased efficiency and performance. The four chambers produce two consecutive circuits. The first circuit is used to compress and expand during combustion . The second is used to expel exhaust and intake air, kin one revolution of the rotor, for power strokes are created. That’s eight times more than a typical piston engine! Even a Wankel engine, which produces three power strokes per rotor revolution, can’t match the performance of a Quasi turbine . 6. COMPARISON BETWEEN QUASI TURBINE AND WANKEL ENGINE 1. The Wankel engine uses a rigid three-face rotor with a crankshaft. The quasi turbine uses a deformable four faces rotor without a Crankshaft. 2. The Wankel engine shaft turns at three times the rotor RPM. The quasi Turbine rotor and main shaft turns at same RPM Speed. 3. The Wankel engine fires only once per revolution The quasi turbine fires 4 times per main shaft revolution, producing Exceptional torque continuity. 4. When the Wankel engine rotor goes from one T.D.C to next, the Torque increases to a maximum value and starts decreasing right Away (progressive). The torque generated by the quasi turbine gets rapidly to a plateau, and hold this maximum for a long arc before decreasing, giving a better overall mechanical energy conversion rate. 5. The Wankel engine has a dead time. The quasi turbine strokes are consecutive with no dead time. 6. The Wankel engine can not be operated in diesel mode due to the excess expansion volume which adiabatically cools down the combustion. Quasi turbine has no excessive volume and can run in diesel Mode. 7. Due to its one single fire per shaft revolution and the dead time, the Wankel engine needs a flywheel. Quasi turbine does not need a flywheel, and consequently has faster acceleration. 8. Since the Wankel engine’s shaft rotates at three times its rotor speed, it is not suitable for low rpm compressor or pumps. But quasi turbine is suitable for this. 7.COMPARISON BETWEEN QUASI TURBINE AND CONVENTIONAL TURBINE CONVENTIONAL TURBINE The conventional turbine is a continuous flow engine at intake and exhaust. As the conventional turbine do not convert the pressure forces but rather kinetic energy of rapid flows, it is then necessary to convert the pressure forces in high speed flows by a channeling or by oriental expansion. This intermediatory conversion is particularly complex. And in this case some of energy will be lost mainly due to viscosity, turbulence, and some of thermal conduction of hot gases. The conventional turbine is generally located where the flow is fastest. Also a complete conversion of kinetic energy into mechanical energy is not occurred in a conventional turbine. In many applications one has flow velocity near the sound speed where any instability, impurity or condensate may damage the turbine. QUASI TURBINE As the conventional turbine, the quasi turbine is a continuously flow engine at intake. And exhaust Quasi Turbine, which turns under the effect of static forces and does not make use of hydro or aerodynamic flow properties. Consequently Quasi Turbine converts the potential forces directly into mechanical energy. Because the Quasi Turbine operates under the effect of static forces, it cannot be damaged by saturated steam, by small impurities in the fluid flow. 8. COMPARISON OF QUASI TURBINE AND I.C ENGINE 1. In I.C engine piston makes positive torque only 17% of the time and drag 83% of the time. This is not the case in Quasi turbine. 2. In I.C engine gas flow is not unidirectional, but changes directions with the piston direction. But in Quasi turbine it is unidirectional. 3. In I.C engine valve inertia being a serious limitation to the engine revolution. In Quasi turbine there are no valves. 4. The duration of the piston rest time at top and bottom are without necessarily too long in I.C engines. But it is not the case for Quasi turbine. 5. In I.C engine there is quite important noise level and vibration. But it is not the case for Quasi turbine. 6. In I.C engines accessories like cam shaft uses a substantial power , but in Quasi turbine there is no need of cams 7. In I.C engine lubricant is to be used as heat coolant, which require a Cumbersome oil pan. But Quasi turbine requires no lubrication. | | |Number of expansions In every two | | |Volume of each |revolutions | | |Chamber | | |Piston4 strokes |50cc |1 | |(Gasoline) | | | |Piston 2strokes |50cc |2 | |(Gasoline) | | | |Wankel 4 strokes |50cc |6 | |Qurbine 4strokes |50cc |8 | |(Gasoline) | | | | (Gasoline) Qurbine2strokes |50cc |16 | |Qurbine (steam/pneumatic) |50cc |16 | 9. QUASITURBINE FEATURES 1. Zero vibration In quasi turbine, rotor rotates with a fixed centre of gravity and the Engine is perfectly balanced so there is no chance of vibration. 2. Less noisy For comparable power, the quasi turbine is much quieter than the piston engines, since it splits each expansion into four per turn and evacuates the gases more gradually and on a greater angular displacement 3. Less pollution As the quasi turbine expansion starts quicker than in the other engines, there will be less time for the NOx formation, and less transfer of heat to the engine block. 4. Continuous Combustion with lower temperature Due to an earlier expansion than in he piston engines, initial energy is immediately transferred in to mechanical energy without awaiting the middle of the stroke as in the piston engines. This initial expansion cools immediately the combustion gases, which have less time to transfer their heat to the engine block. So continuous combustion is possible with lower temperature. 5. Better torque continuity and Acceleration The Quasi turbine has jointed torque impulses without the assistance of a flywheel. This gives a better torque continuity for quasi turbine. Flywheel is the main obstacle to engine acceleration. Since Quasi turbine has no fly wheel it gives fast acceleration. 6. More effective conversion into Mechanical energy For a better mechanical energy extraction, compression impulses should be as short as possible. The Quasi turbine has this assymmetry by compressing the mixture in a smaller angular zone and by using a greater angular displacement for the expansion. 7. Not sensitive to detonation Due to the earlier expansion process, quasi turbine reacts better to photo detonation. 8. Compatible with Hydrogen The Quasi turbine meets the fundamental criteria imposed by the Hydrogen engine of the future (that is cold intake area, low sensibility to detonation, less pollutant, robust and energy efficiency). 10. APPLICATIONS 1. Quasi turbine aviation In a propeller airplane, weight reduction allows a larger payload, space saving allows to reduce the aerodynamic drag, absence of vibration increases instruments reliability and flight comfort, the noise reduction increases the discretion level, the high torque allows the use of multi-blades propeller and the better intake characteristic of the Quasi turbine allows higher flight altitude. In a helicopter, a large diameter Quasi turbine could generate enough torque to directly drive of the rotor blades without any gearbox, while making much less noise. So Considering the high power density, the low cross section area and the exceptional intake characteristics of the Quasiturbine, it is reasonable to expect to conceive an airplane engine 2. Quasi turbine Stirling engine In the Quasi turbine Stirling, all the engine shell is pressurized with helium, so that the inter-chambers leaks are automatically recycled by the central region, and required only sealing of a turning shaft (comparatively to the sealing of the back and forth piston connecting rods, unless sealed machines, which the Quasi turbine also can be). The Stirling engines are also known to be large and heavy, which the Quasi turbine-Stirling concept should solve. 3. Quasi turbine pneumatic engine Since the Quasi turbine is a pure expansion engine (which the Wankel is not, neither most of other rotary engines), it is well suitable as compressed fluid engine Air engine or air motor. The pneumatic engine does not show any vibration on the shaft. It does run in heavy smoke or under water as well. 4. Quasi turbine racing car Formula Quasi turbine is a proposal to develop and built of a racing car using the new Quasi turbine. rotary engine. Because the Quasi turbine has a much higher specific power density than the piston engine. A single Quasi turbine. rotor of about 50cm in diameter and 20cm thickness could develop 1000 H.P. at only 3000 rpm. Absence of flywheel would allow much higher acceleration. It is proposed to have the racing car with a differential clutch coupling (no gear box at all). This would much improve the racing cars endurance. 5. Quasi turbine hydrogen engine model A good way to store Hydrogen is to link it with carbon atom. Quasi turbine prefers Hydrogen storage in Carbon molecules. This Hydrogen Carbon molecule storage technique is safe and simple and has been appreciated by humans for centuries under the name of Hydrocarbon fuels. 6. Quasi turbine pumps Quasi turbine is a very compact and light device without Power shaft, which allows to pump large volume. In the pump mode the Quasi turbine has two intakes and two exits. 11.CONCLUSION For over 50 years, researches have been dreaming about the Perfect engine, having uniform combustion, with a small combustion chamber (high compression ratio). This is what the Quasi turbine does by producing much shorter pressure pulses, and further more accepting photo-detonation. Quasi turbine eliminates all the energy wastes occurring in piston and Wankel engine and also it can satisfy modern engine criteria. The research is going on to further improve and develop this highly innovative concept and for creating commercially viable prototypes of Quasi turbine. In future we can see more developments happening in the field of quasi turbine. 12.REFERENCE 1. www.quasiturbine.com 2. www.me.berkeley.edu/cal/QT. 3. http://quasiturbine.promci.qc.ca 4. http//kairos.dsa.uqam.ca/tycoon/Quasiturbine 5. Quasiturbine: Article by Lawrence Tse.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

The Impact Of Deregulation Of Tourism Tourism Essay

The Impact Of Deregulation Of Tourism Tourism Essay National security has always been an issue dating back to as early as when man started organizing himself in society. Tourism has become a major pillar of modern-day economies and cultures. This research examines the impact of tourism deregulation or the simplification of government rules and requirements on tourism to national security. The study will also cover areas on importation of terrorism through tourism; compare tourism crime and other types of crime and finally investigate the changes in crime rate in countries that deregulate tourism. The resident attitudes towards the impacts of deregulation of tourism on national economy will be explored. Questionnaires and simple random sampling can be methods of data collection from the respondents. The data collected will be analyzed using the statistical package for the social sciences. The findings of the study will be presented using pie charts and graphs. Tourism and security are interrelated and inseparable. The security of the tourists is the primary concern of every host government because of it only where they feel safe that they will spend and visit again. The current economic state of most countries has presented a problem because governments have to come up with ways of raising foreign earnings to raise money to service the national debt and keep the economy afloat. One of the solutions has been to simplify government regulations for the tourism industry to attract more traffic. While this has been successful in most countries, recent evidence has raised questions of what effects lower standards for tourists have on the national security of the host country. Tourism is a delicate and dynamic industry. Although tourists have specific countries they want to tour based on experience, recommendation or the spirit of adventure, it is worth noting that some tourists have other agendas. It is impossible to know legitimate tourists from people with hidden agendas such as terrorists without the proper legislation. At the same time tourists are usually free to travel to destinations of their choice avoiding destinations associated with risk. It has been observed that the consequences of disastrous events on tourist destinations are spontaneous and adverse. Some of the insecurity concerns include terrorism of any kind where governments issue travel advisories to their citizens to not visit the affected country. A problem presents itself when the tourism has been imported in the guise of tourism, such that terrorists disguise themselves as normal tourists to enter countries. If stringent laws for immigration were to be put in place as they were befo re, it would be possible to pick the wheat from the chaff. According to (Zurick, 2006) the concept of security has changed through the decades from one of collective security and common defense to embrace notions of common and cooperative security. Despite the damage done to the concept of collective security because of the United States led invasion of Iraq, the development of common security structures through collective as well as multilateral frameworks such as the United Nations is still an important aspect for the expansion of security concerns to cover a nations environment, health and economic security threats. This research also considers that tourism organizations have little influence on peace and security agendas despite the fact that they are important for tourism. This is particularly at the micro-level whereby appropriate tourism development initiatives may serve as a means to prevent potential future conflict over resource and environmental security challenges. 1.2 Safety, security and destination image The world has become a global village and the global relationships have become turbulent, this has therefore called for destination marketing organizations which focus their attention in demonstrating that there is safety for tourists. A tourist perception about a particular destination which may be caused by negative publicity is mostly a question of security and safety. Often, this negative publicity may be unrelated to the reality on the ground but it has more than significant effects on the tourism sector and the economy as a unit. Tourism deregulation impacts on national security can be categorized into positive and negative category based upon economic, socio-cultural, and environmental impacts. According to (Hall, Dallen Duval 2003), tourism is greatly affected by and affects security. The destination a tourist chooses is determined by how safe he or she knows it be, or has been advised is. Changes in the global security affect tourism greatly. The security concerns affect both tourists and the host country that has to face the fact that not all individuals visiting the country have good intentions. Responsible tourists take time to investigate the security situation in the countries they intend to visit. Such responsible tourists should be aware of security risks and take precautions to mitigate such effects or avoid them completely. The September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Towers in the United States of America are an epitome of events that can affect the tourist traffic of any country. Terrorist attacks have an impact on travel, leisure industries and tourist destinations. As a consequence more focus and attention has been directed towards tourism safety and security issues than ever before. The impact of deregulation on tourism laws on national security is a matter that cannot be ignored. Recent research is being focused further on the analysis of not only how travel safety can be promoted but also how security concerns may be incorporated in terms of tourism marketing. The management is also being enhanced to enable the industry become more responsive to chal lenges of security both internal and imported. Countries with unstable security history tend to be paranoid about security but stable and relatively safe countries have been continuously passing regulation that simplifies the process of obtaining tourist visas. The movement of the tourists is also not restricted or monitored. While this markets the country as place where the privacy of visitors is guaranteed and protected, it also attracts people of questionable character. These individuals might commit crime and abscond, or some might use the stability and anonymity to plan attacks on other countries. The latter situation can create a diplomatic spat which, unchecked, could escalate to war. Tourism activities can be affected by either external or internal forces; such forces may include war, terrorism activities, economic recessions, disaster, and financial crisis among others. Nations and cities which have experienced terrorist attacks for example New York and Washington faced profound impact on global travel (Blackford, 2004). The area of security is broad and sensitive and is affected by many things. The relationship between deregulation of tourism and national security can be explored in different perspectives. For example, in examining this relationship the research will look at whether the deregulation of air transport has influenced national security and the tourist destination countries in different nations. Terrorism will also be examined to investigate whether it can be imported in the guise of tourism. It will further examine the impact of deregulation on capacity as well as fares. The study also attempts to determine the impact deregulation has caused on marketing of tourist destinations and attractions. Finally, the research will investigate the impacts of tourism deregulation on transport at the destination areas. The research will also compare tourism crime and other types of crime (Hall, Dallen Duval 2003). 1.3 Statement of the problem The tourism industry has grown tremendously and thus every country is trying to gain a competitive advantage in order to market tourism adequately. This has lead to deregulation of tourism to assist raise tourist traffic. This research will seek to identify these impacts in a wider perspective with respect to crimes related to tourism and also seek to explore the rate of crime in countries that deregulate tourism. With globalization becoming embraced internationally the need for national security has been an issue of concern not only in tourism but in other areas as well. This concern is fundamental if nations are to enjoy and promote tourism while protecting the national security by preventing tourism crime, terrorism and other threats to a nations security that could be as a result of tourism deregulation. Research and experience have evidenced that tourism is a crucial factor that can contribute greatly to the development of a nations economy. It is therefore worth noting that tourism is directly associated and related with the cultural, economic as well as the intellectual potential of any nation. Currently available statistical data indicates that tourism is a leading profit earner in most developing industries in the world and thus the need to protect and uplift it as while not compromising as the national security of a country. It is expected that in the early 21st century the number of tourists will increase dramatically and consequently the revenues from tourism will increase considerably. The evident threats to national security are not something any country passing legislation to deregulate the market can ignore. The purpose of this research is to identify this threats and the correlation it has with deregulating the tourism sector. 1.4 Research objectives This study will be focus on achieving the following objectives: 1. To investigate whether terrorism can be imported in the guise of tourism. 2. To investigate whether countries that deregulate tourism experience high crime rate. 3. To investigate the relationship and compare tourism crime and other types of crime. 4. To identify the impacts of airlines deregulation in international areas with respect to tourism. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), tourism is one of the top five foreign exchange earners in approximately 83% of countries and the main foreign exchange earner for at least 38% of countries globally. In most of these countries foreign exchange earnings are usually used to purchase imports and augment reserves. They generate income in the particular country and can stimulate consumer spending and investment in other sectors of the economy. Tourism provides an ideal situation where there is little need to compensate from outside because it grows the local industries and resources. It has ripple effect on the rest of the economy and any country that realizes this need to come up with innovative ways to encourage tourists to visit the country. Some tourists are turned away by stringent laws of immigration or stay and it has become the norm for most countries to deregulate the market. Tourism is an exciting and fascinating industry. The industrys contribution to the national economy is significant. The major threats to this lucrative industry are socioeconomic problems related to increased level of crime rates and the depletion of resources or sites and events that attract tourists. Similarly, due to the current rise in terrorist activity, it has become a major concern for the natives of the countries being toured. According to Williams (1997) crime is a common social issue which threatens the safety of the people, property, their sense of well being, and also causes entropy to the social order. Crime also reduces peoples quality of life because they are not psychologically at peace and are therefore not able to work as well or as much as they potentially can.(Cracraft, 2000). In all countries of the world associated with popular destinations, crime has been a major threat to the stability of the economy. In a Newsweek research conducted by Zakaria (2002) tourism safety and security matters raised by allowing tourists in is a major headache for any government. It is evident that crime against tourists or associated with tourism is considerably high in tourist destinations. This research therefore investigates the extent to which crime has an impact in a nations security. It is of importance to analyze the impact of passing legislation that lowers the bar for tourists and whether it has become an avenue for crme and threats to national security. 2.1 Impacts of airline deregulation According to (Fallon, 2002), nations globally have realized that liberal aviation agreements have significant impact tourism amongst signatory parties. Recently, there has been deregulation of airlines leading to the growth of low-cost carriers and overcapacity in airline industry to bolster tourist numbers. Further deregulation of international air travel has seen the tourism industry grow significantly as simplified requirements to visit countries are major attraction for potential tourists. In addition, governments are encouraging movements towards agreements with country blocks or many nations rather than individual nations to create open skies in different geographic regions. The result of this is that people are able to move across borders with minimal or no paperwork. For nations to ensure the sustained growth and success of the international airline industry it has become important to adopt aviation policies which are conducive to open skies agreements. This has liberalized air travel beyond existing restraining bilateral among nations. This has a significant impact on tourism as well as other industries, as this facilitates the movement of people around the world. For example the signing of the open skies agreement between the United States and the Philippines deregulated tourism rules. While this is a way of growing the economy, its potential effects on national security are far-reaching. The wanton and indiscriminate hosting of people without adequate paperwork carries with it the risk of encouraging criminal activates. 2.2 Socio-cultural impacts of tourism deregulation on national security According to (Blackford, 2002) it is a fact that tourism has a big impact on the economy of a nation, its cultures as well as the ecosystems. Despite this it is one of the least regulated industries in globally. This has opened up destination countries further to the influx of foreign earnings and capital. This trend of deregulation favors major international hotel chains and tour operators while at the same time providing the residents of the country to earn from the resources, whether man-made or natural. Tourism has long been viewed as the reason for the spread of the global mentality. Cultures and social practices are imported as locals learn from visitors. The lack of adequate background checks on tourists, while offering an ideal protection of the visitors privacy poses a problem. The host country is exposed to the risk of allowing individuals of questionable character into the country. Interaction of these individuals with the locals might do more harm than good. The possible causes of some of the security situations include crime related incidents, terrorism, war, and political unrest or instability. The crime related security incidents may be in different forms such as theft, robbery, rape, murder, piracy and kidnapping. Local residents may commit crimes against residents, tourists against locals, tourist against other tourists, or may take other forms such as organized crimes against tourism enterprises. A specific environmental issue relates to the increased number of planes traversing the skies has led to greenhouse warming. Airplane contrails generate cirrus clouds, which reflect the suns rays and warm the atmosphere (Zakaria, 2007). As this is mostly the result of new fuel-efficient aircraft, which produce less heat and a cooler mixture of exhaust air conducive to contrail formation, governments should consider the environmental impact of more commercial aircraft in the transatlantic market. This rise is directly proportional to tourist traffic because airlines will tend to increase flights to popular destinations so as to increase their turnover. 2.3 Deregulation of immigration and tourism laws. It is prudent to note that this research does not in any way imply that attempts to deregulate the market are inn-informed. On the contrary, liberalizing the industry is a crucial step toward achieving the vision of a global village vision and making the world a better place. However, to deregulate without adequately researching on the effects and impacts on national security is ill-advised. It is no secret that every country has enemies or people who would want to cause harm to it. While most of these groups or individuals might not make their intentions known, the methods they use to deliver the punch are criminal at the least. The template is to exploit the weaknesses in the countrys laws and find the opportune moment to strike and send the chilling message. Giving visas to all and sundry without first checking their backgrounds or requiring adequate and authentic proof of identification might be good for trade, but it is not the least conducive for the security of all affected. Tourists are not required to give detailed schedules of their stays in the countrys they visit and this is the perfect recipe for clandestine operations and activates. 2.4 Importation of terrorism through the guise of tourism According to Cracraft (1986) tourism is an activity that is sensitive and a nation will react rapidly to crime. Acts of terrorism are always a drawback to tourist destinations because it is followed by negative publicity and a host of travel advisories. This is because terrorism acts often indicate inadequacy of security and safety controls. Recent happenings have shown a disturbing trend where terrorists sneak into countries disguised as terrorists, leave among the locals as they plan their crimes. This worrying trend has created a situation of suspicion of people from certain places perceived to breed terrorists such as Middle East. This blanket stigmatization and the blanket security regulations that follow are saddening. The security concerns and weaknesses exposed can be pre-empted by having adequate laws that tend to pick the wheat from the chaff, instead of being left behind to sort the debris. 2.5The difference between tourism crime and other types of crime The growth of tourism has always been associated with increases in the level of certain types of crime (Goliath, 2004). The growth of tourism can also be associated with modernization and development which is a source of social instability which leads to criminal behavior. In addition, tourism crimes are often highly publicized, and the subsequent media publicity is a dent on the countrys image. Another consideration is the fact that tourism growth is mostly accompanied by growth in the resident population. It is important to distinguish between criminal acts directed towards the tourists and those committed by the tourists there are many factors that make tourists attractive as targets of crime which include. While crime is primarily an illegal attempt to earn a living, tourism crime is mostly premeditated and about more than just earning a days meal. It is about achieving a personal, social, religious or economic obligation either to oneself of to a group. As countries continue to pass laws that simplify the entry and stay of tourists without taking into account the dynamic nature of the human being, it becomes impossible to shield against crimes related to tourists. Most of the tourists may be usually highly noticeable because of their race, clothing, speech, and even the tendency to carry valuable items such as cameras, backpacks which attract therein criminals. It is often perceived that tourists are wealthy people and are more likely to be in possession of valuable items. Tourists are mostly accompanied by tour guides and at times they may be strangers. At times in the destination few people may be aware of their specific activity pattern. For example the murder of Meredith Kerche in Perugia, Italy has had huge media attention in the United Kingdom. In addition, issues such as drug and tourism, sex tourism as well as other related crime and social disorder among holidaymakers. The high rate of exposure of tourists as targets to criminal activity in some destinations is illustrated by the findings that have seen tourists being stolen of their belongings or property (Schollmeyer, 2003).This social wrongs impact negatively on the national security because negative social behavior such as drug use and sex trade are primary causes of crime. It has also been observed that criminal activities can as well be committed by the tourists themselves, either against the locals or other tourists. Where certain forms of tourism either foster or entail criminal activities, it is the tourist who is usually seen as the lead player in initiating or engaging in some kind of illegal activity-. The most, obvious example invokes forms of tourism, such as those involving certain types of related activity, which are defined as illegal by destination authorities. While tourism activity may be not completely illegal but a strong criminal association may exist. The best example of this indirect relationship is gambling, given the involvement of organized crime cartels in casino businesses. The influx in tourists to these places might raise the economic might of criminals, emboldening them and causing a general rise in the crime rate of the country. Finally, there are those tourist activities that can degenerate into criminal behavior because o f the presence of alcohol, drugs, arguments or stereotypes 2.6 Crime rate in countries that deregulate tourism It is evident that there is high crime rate in countries that deregulate tourism, for example sex tourism industry has increased all over South East of Asia and Burma (Kristiansen Trion, 2005) and the crime rates in South Africa during high tourism seasons is evident. In these regions tourists are highly involved in criminal activities and are often associated with several kinds of human rights abuses, and the spread of HIV/AIDS. For example women and juveniles are often coerced to engage in the sex trade against their will. While these crimes are abetted by locals, it is the presence of tourists with ill-intentions that causes the rise. As observed earlier the impacts of crime on the destination are diverse. Some cases involve crimes related to drug use, whereby the destinations image becomes blotted resulting in significant decline in tourist demand. On the other hand, theft may occur at tourist destinations where the tourists are at the wrong place at the wrong time. In addition, tourists may contribute to this by engaging in illegal activates or getting involved with criminals. (Magenta , 2009, pp56). CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction In order to achieve the research objectives a multi-method approach will be adopted, by use of both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. Quantitative methods will focus on providing a broad statistical measure of the nature, extent and impact of deregulation of tourism on national security using a reasonable sample size. In depth and comprehensive qualitative information will be collected on the impacts of deregulation of security on national security, importation of crime through tourism, comparison between tourism crime and other types of crime. The research will employ questionnaires to collect data from the respondents as one of the data collection tools. Interviews schedules will also be applied to interview the randomly selected sample population. This chapter presents a description of the procedures and methods that the researcher will use in order to obtain the required data needed for the study. It comprises of research design, data collection instruments, the target population, the sampling strategy, and data analysis methods. 3.2 Research design The researcher will employ quantitative research method. The quantitative research design to be used will be a causal comparative design. The causal comparative design will allow the researcher to collect one or more information from one participant. A casual comparative research allows researcher to investigate the possibility of a causal relationship among variables that cannot be manipulated. This research design will be used to establish the factors that influence employee training. 3.3 Target population The target population will involve the immigration departments, tourists and locals of the target country. 3.4 Sampling strategy Simple random sampling techniques will be the data collection methods from the various departments. The employees will be randomly selected from each department to yield the total sample population. Purposive sampling will be used to select employees who are trained. Purposive sampling is a sampling technique that allows a researcher to use cases that have the required information with respect to the objectives of the study. 3.5 Data collection tools and instruments. The researcher intends to use questionnaires in this study. This is to provide high accuracy and validity of the study. The questionnaire is a convenient tool especially where there are a large number of subjects to be handled. The questionnaire facilitates easy and quick derivation of information within a short time. The information obtained will enable to investigate the impacts of deregulation of tourism on the national security. 3.6.1. T-test T-test will be used to test whether there are significant differences between two mean derived from the samples of groups at a specified probability level. 3.6.2 Chi-square Chi-square is a statistical technique which attempts to establish the relationship between two variables both of which are categorical in nature. The technique compares the proportion observed in each category with what would be expected under the assumptions of independence between the two variables. CHAPTER FOUR DISSECTION 4.1 Data analysis The researcher will establish whether all questionnaires are all completed. Data collected from open ended and closed questions will be coded for analysis purpose. Descriptive and inferential statistics will be used in data analysis. The data will be analyzed using the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS). The descriptive statistics which will be used in analysis includes means, frequencies, percentages and standard deviation. The inferential statistics that will be used in data analysis will be chi-square and T-test for independent samples. 4.2 Expected results It is expected that this research will yield results that show an upsurge in crime levels in countries that have liberalized tourism industry. In some countries with more stringent practices and therefore less tourism traffic, it is obvious that the crimes related with tourism will be less. This is a wake-up call to all legislators to take necessary precaution when passing laws that deregulate the market and give the players a free-hand to do what they want. National security should take priority over economic gain.

Explore The Relative Advantages Of Both Market Driven Marketing Essay

Explore The Relative Advantages Of Both Market Driven Marketing Essay In marketing research and literature, debate has been surrounding two approaches of market orientation that firms could adopt: market-driven and market-driving. Some argue that market-driving behavior is superior to market-driven behavior in creating customer values that contribute to growth and profitability, such as IKEA, Dell and Southwest Airlines, to name a few. (eg. Kotler et al., 2000) On the other hand, majority of authors stresses that these two behaviors are complementary. (e.g. Jaworski et al., 2000; Sheth and Sisodia, 1999) Such controversy leaves open questions to practitioners: Which is the winning approach for the firms to adopt? Should these two the competing approaches or complement each other? This essay begins with an introduction of market orientation, along with the market-driven and market-driving behavior. The next section will explore the relative advantages of these two behaviors from the marketing perspective and then to draw a conclusion to suggest that these two behaviors are complementing each other of which both play important roles in generating sustainable competitive advantage in todays dynamics business environment. Overview of Market Orientation Since late 1980s, significant amount of research in marketing suggesting that market orientation is the most effective strategy of achieving and maintaining long term competitive advantage and continue to stress its importance to the firms superior profitability. (e.g., Day, 1994b; Jaworski et al., 2000; Kohli Jaworski, 1990; Kotler et al., 2000; Narver and Slater 1990) Jaworski and Kohli (1996) defined market orientation as the organization wide generation of market intelligence pertaining to current and future customer needs, dissemination of the intelligence across departments, and organization-wide responsiveness to it. (see figure 1) On the other hand, Narver and Slater (1990) defined market orientation as an organization culture committed to the continuous creation of superior value for the customers and thus, continuous superior performance for the business. Narver and Slater (1990) classified the market orientation into responsive and proactive. The responsive approach, a typical response of a firm that exhibits a market driven behavior, is customer led, considering the market structure and customer preferences as given and focusing on the satisfaction of expressed customer needs. In contrast, the proactive market orientation, a typical response of market-driving firm, aims towards the satisfaction of latent needs, reshaping the customer preferences and market structure to enhance the competitive position of the company. (see figure 1) Figure Market Orientation Process (Neuenburg, 2010, p.49) Figure 2 below provides a framework adopted from Neuenburg (2010), which shows the whole spectrum of market-oriented behaviors that summarizes the discussion above. Figure 2 Marketing driven behavior vs market driving behavior (Neuenburg, 2010, p.46) In a nutshell, although there are differences in the precise definition, the market orientation is a fundamental approach for a firm to understand its markets, which represent an additional strategic dimension (Narver and Slater, 1998) and the implementation of the marketing concept (Jaworski and Kohli, 1990) that focuses the firms efforts on the needs of the market, learn about market developments, share this information within the organization and adapt the offering to the market. (Jaworski and Kohli, 1990) The Market Driven and Its Advantages Figure Conceptual Framework: Two Forms of Market Orientation (Jaworski et al., 2000, p.130) According to Jaworski et al. (2000), the term market-driven refers to learning, understanding, and responding to stakeholder perceptions and behaviors within a given market structure. (see figure 3) Specifically, the focus of a market-driven approach is to keep the status quo on existing customer preferences and behavior within an existing market structure. (Day, 1999a; Day, 1999b; Jaworski et al., 2000) The key element of market-driven behavior is to monitor customer satisfaction and analyzing customer needs, finding competitive advantage and strategic targeting. (Cravens and Shipp, 1991) Monitoring customer satisfaction allows firms to get an early indication about changing customer needs and preferences and the identification of future customer needs. Analyzing these needs helps the firms to prevent bad decisions or overlooking important parts of the customer value proposition as well as identifying its current or potential competitive advantage. (Cravens and Shipp, 1991) Firms gain advantage by matching the requirements of market segments with its capabilities to identify the best opportunities to serve its customers. (Cravens and Shipp, 1991) As markets become more fragmented the decision about which segments to target becomes increasingly important because each segment represents its own specific needs. (Neuenburg, 2010) Understanding of Markets, Customers, and Competitors Successful companies like Nestle, Procter Gamble, and Unilever are market-driven which reflects the conventional wisdom of marketing philosophy wherein they establish a clear understanding of markets, customers, and competitors. (Day, 1994b) Market-driven firms gain advantage to have good understanding of the market and how it is likely to change in the future. Furthermore, they hear the voice of the customers and develop differentiated products or services for a well-defined segment and then create combinations of marketing mix to adapt its offerings to satisfy customer needs. (Hills and Sarin, 2003; Kotler et al., 2000) As Day (1994b) argues, market-driven organizations are superior in their market-sensing and customer-linking capabilities, which enable them to understand, attract, and keep valuable customers. (Day, 1999a) When these two capabilities are deeply embedded within the organization, all functional activities and organizational processes will be better directed toward a nticipating and responding to changing market requirements ahead of competitors. (Day, 1994b) Therefore, market-driven firms are well equipped to achieve high levels of performance (Day, 1994b) and are expected to be more adaptable and perform better than less market-driven competitors because they stay in touch with existing and potential customer needs and competitor moves better than more internally focused firms. (Day, 1990) They are also predicted to be better and more successful at introducing new products to the market than their competitors. (Narver and Slater ,1990) They may not be the most innovative firm in their industry but, they will excel at adapting technologies to meet current and future customer needs. Thus, they often exhibit the adaptive characteristics of the Analyzer organization. (Miles and Snow 1978) Home Depot and Cisco Systems represent two examples of firm successfully adopting market-driven strategy of which their business focuses on putting customers first and sees themselves engage in the relationship business, not the transaction business. They strive to provide superior customer value through unprecedented customer service to increase customer satisfaction. This is how Home Deport leads with home improvement mega-stores by offering low prices and low frills but excellent services. IBM, on the other hand, failed to recognize market changes and customer preferences for personal computers which had resulted with a record loss for the fourth quarter of 1992 of $5 billion. IBM set a record for the largest annual loss in an American corporation in 1992 with a loss of $4.97 billion. Brand Portfolios as Assets In term of brand, companies with strong brands have more loyal customers, get greater return on marketing investments and are rewarded with attractive price premiums. As such, market-driven firms view their brand portfolios as assets to be leveraged and market development activities as investments rather than expenses. (Day, 1998) According to Day (1998), to manage a brand as an asset requires the deep market insights, organizational commitment and reasoned investment decisions that come naturally to market-driven firms. Moreover, the focus on long-run return from marketing investments enables market-driven firms to understand which customers are profitable to pursue, and knowing how to encourage loyalty by reducing customer acquisition costs. (Day, 1998) Creation of Permanent Value of the Existing Products or Services As quoted from Stoclhorst and Van Raaij (2004), customers do not always strive towards new and technologically superior products or services, but towards permanent value of the existing products or services so that the competition would find it hard to imitate. Hence, it is possible for market-driven firms to become irreplaceable for customers if the firms put serious focus on customers attempts constantly to offer something that are better and faster than the competitors and make the accessibility to the products and services easier. Importantly, there is support from research findings (Stull et al., 2007) validating that market-driven companies are 31% more profitable, twice as fast to bring products to market, twice as likely to lead, and enjoy 20% higher customer satisfaction rates. Furthermore, empirical results of another study (Vorhies et al., 1999) demonstrated that, the 43 market-driven firms outperformed the 44 less market-driven firms across adaptability, customer satisfaction, growth, and profitability dimensions. This finding supports the marketing literature about the capabilities of market-driven firms (Day, 1994; Day and Wensley 1988) and extends the findings on empirical research of market orientation. (e.g Jaworski et al.,1993; Narver Slater 1994) The Market Driving and Its Advantages Figure Conceptual Framework: Two Forms of Market Orientation (Jaworski, Kohli, and Sahay 2000, p.46) The term market-driving refers to changing the structure or composition of a market and/or the behavior(s) of players in the market. (Jaworski, et al., 2000) (see figure 4) It matches a proactive business logic that enhances the competitive position of the business (Tuominen et al., 2004) of which it involves the shaping of the market structure via deconstruction (eliminating competitors in the value chain), construction (adding players into the industry value chain) or a functional modification (shifting the functions performed by players in a market), and the shaping of market behavior by creating or reversing new customers or competitors preferences. (Carrillat et al., 2004; Jaworski, et al., 2000) Schindehutte et al. (2008) presented a different view of market-driving construct clarifying that it is an entrepreneurial phenomenon. They argue that the interface between the entrepreneurship and marketing offers a unique perspective on the market related decisions of firms and the observed impact of these decisions in achieving sustainable competitive advantage. Schindehutte et al. (2008) further argued that the market-driving behavior reflects a strong entrepreneurial orientation (EO). It has both the dynamic advantage that creates capability and a disruptive advantage that destroys the performance outcome. (Schindehutte et al., 2008) Despite the many different views on the notion of market-driving behavior, it has appeared as an alternative to market-driven strategy which has been recognized as a successful strategy for a number of established firms such as Amazon.com, BodyShop, CNN, IKEA and Dell, all of which has a clear brand image, a strong market position, and exhibit sustainable international business growth whereby success is based on radical business innovation, ventured into new markets, revolutionized existing industries by changing rules of the game. (Kotler et al., 2000) Kotler et al. (2000) indicate that the success of market-driving firms is based on two dimensions of radical innovation a discontinuous leap in the value proposition and the implementation of a unique business system (see Figure 5 and 6). Kotler et al. (2000) define value proposition as the combination of benefits, acquisition efforts/costs, and price offered to customers. While, unique business system refers to the configuration of the various activities required to create, produce, and deliver the value proposition to the customer. Figure Types of Strategic Innovation (Kumar et al., 2000, p.130) Figure Leap in Customer Value (Kumar et al., 2000, p.130) Therefore, the market-driving advocates argued that the market-driving firms gain more viable competitive advantage with greater performance and reap vast rewards than those that are not in a number of ways. Delivering Superior Value Kotler et al., (2000) suggested that the leap in customer value involve either breakthrough technology or breakthrough marketing enables firms to create a product and service experience that overwhelms customer expectations and existing alternatives. (Kotler et al., 2000) For example, FedEx constantly led its customers to ever higher expectations for quick delivery times, leaving competitors struggling to meet the spiraling demands. (Kotler et al., 2000) According to Carrillat et al. (2004), successful market-driving firms deliver superior value that best matches with their capabilities and by exploiting the competitors weaknesses. It also allows firms to exploit opportunities that competitors cannot (Hamel and Prahalad, 1994) and that includes addressing the deep-seated, latent or emerging customer needs. (Kotler et al., 2000) The study results in the paper of Market-driving in retail banking (Martà ­n-Consuegra et al., 2008) revealed that the two characteristics of market-driving: driving the market structure and shaping the market behavior if combined together contribute positively to overall performance of retail banks, particularly in terms of enabling them to satisfy their customers latent and expressed needs better. (Martà ­n-Consuegra et al., 2008) This study further suggested that bank-marketing managers should emphasize customer understanding in pursuing proactive market orientation, which will lead to improved performance. Market-driving behavior also enables firms to benefit from free advertising via buzz network through strong brand attachment. Customers are delighted by the leap in customer value of the offerings and are excited to share their customer experience with friends and public. Traditional printed media and online social media are often publicizing the review on radical new innovation. While early adopters and opinion leaders who are enthusiastic and committed to new innovation products and services has the influential power to generate excitement and emotional attachment among their followers. Consequently, The advertising-to-sales ratio is often less than that of their established competitors. (Kotler et al., 2000). Nike is one of the examples provided by Kotler et al. (2000) Nike didnt run a single national television ad until they had 1 billion dollars in sales. Phil Knight observes they instead used word-of-foot advertising by getting the best athletes to wear their products. Further more, study of Tuominen et al. (2004) revealed that market-driving behavior contribute to higher customer intimacy and is associated with generative (explorative) learning. On top of that, market-driving firms gain the advantage to establish new industry price points for the quality or service levels they deliver, either towards higher performance at lower price points or to charge a price premium that is higher than typical in an industry. Firms like Swatch and Southwest Airlines set the prices much lower than their competitors for similar products and services. (Kotler et al., 2000) For example, Southwest Airlines charged $15.00 for a trip from Dallas to San Antonio when Braniff, the next most inexpensive competitor, was charging $62.00. (Kotler et al., 2000) Such significant price gap and low price policy has successfully attracted many of the ground transportation users to choose Southwest Airlines. Their focus to compete on the ground transportation enable them to create new business opportunities in a market segment that has been ignored by their competitors. (Kotler et al., 2000). On the other hand, CNN, Starbucks, and FedEx are those market-driv ing firms that have a value proposition that is significantly more compelling than the existing alternatives, which enables them to set prices considerably higher than the standard in the industry. (Kotler et al., 2000) Implementation of Unique Business System According to Kotler et al. (2000), the success of IKEA and Dell is not only by just delivering discontinuous leap in customer value but also is attributed to the implementation of unique and radical business system which is hard to imitate by their competitors. Kotler et al. (2000) argued that such business system creates a more sustainable advantage, as it takes time for a would-be competitor to assemble the intra-organizational and inter-organizational players needed to replicate that unique system architecture. In term of distribution and channel management, market-driving firms focus a wide range of innovative practices within their industries. For example, Southwest Airlines handles its own ticketing instead of make seats available through the standard industry computerized reservation systems such as Sabre and Apollo. As a result, only 55 per cent of its tickets are sold through travel agents compared to 90 per cent for the industry, adding up to substantial savings on travel agents commissions. (Kotler et al., 2000) Reshaping the Customer Preferences and Market Structure Market-driving firm could lead customer value opportunities in new directions to achieve superior business performance by destroying the existing market segmentation and replacing it with a new set of segments reflecting the new altered landscape. (Kotler et al., 2000) For example, Southwest Airlines destroyed the market segmentation between ground transportation and airlines, attracting many ground transportation user who would not otherwise traveled by air. Jaworski, et al. (2000) suggested that firms could shape the market behavior directly or indirectly. One of the indirect options is by changing the existing preferences of customers or other stakeholders from a positive (negative) to a negative (positive) evaluation (Jaworski, et al., 2000). Examples of products that were formerly negative but are now positive are Skoda in automotive industry and Adidas in fashion and accessory industry. (Jaworski, et al., 2000) The proactive behavior of market-driving firms would also contribute to more innovative products and services, and more new product success (Narver et al., 2004) that enable firms to pioneer new markets, which would eventually lead to market ownership. In the case study about De Beers in China, Harris and Cai (2002) explored the advantage of market-driving behavior in practice and incurred, as cited from Neuenburg, (2010), firms gain significant market control in environments where markets are immature and product preferences are not yet formed. Conclusion Clearly, each of the market-driven and market-driving behavior has its own advantages and the notion of these two is highly relevant for business marketers (Tuominen et al., 2004). It is suggested that firms should well aware of the business logic they are applying (e.g. proactive or reactive) then it should be a match with the type of market orientation they emphasized. That is, according to Tuominen et al. (2004), the implementation of the specific strategic logic presumes matching marketing capabilities and learning capability. However, to sustain success in the long run, Sheth and Sisodia (1999) provided a more convincing argument, that firms need to be market-driven and market-driving simultaneously. Jaworski et al. (2000) echo such argument and proposed that truly market-oriented firms combine both behaviors of which these two are complementary. In other words, firms should devote effort in market-driven activities, such as incremental innovation and traditional market research. Nevertheless, firms should also continue to search for their next radical business innovation to drive them into new competitive position or the market leader risks being leap-frogged and deposed by upstart market drivers. (Neuenburg, 2010)