Use the knowledge gleaned from this course to write an opinion piece( Assignment

Use the knowledge gleaned from this course to write an opinion piece( using microeconomic insights) on any topic of your choice - Assignment Example These units include separate households, microbusinesses, or persons (Morath). Education, health, infrastructure are all sectors that employ aggressively and so need the minimum wage for the overall peaceful and fair management of remuneration standards. The concept of minimum wage bears innumerable progressive and adverse impacts on industries, kinfolks, and individual employees. In the business world, it presents far reaching effects on the management and success of commercial entities. Organizations that employ a big number of employees who tend to be unskilled are normally greatly affected. The reason is that these companies occasionally face tremendous increases in their budget for wage coverage as a result of actualization of the minimum wage. A significant factor is that companies get no capability to negotiate what they feel is commensurate to pay their low cadre employees. Consequently, industries that employ untrained labor experience significant deterioration in their profit limits (Morath). On the other hand, their operating expenditure surges. A challenge to their inclusive economic growth becomes visible. A new dimension is then introduced to their economic methodology of crafting strategies and policies. On homegrown employment, several companies view the minimum wage as an extraordinary financial commitment to the untrained staff. Mitigating the aspect requires that the companies resort to introducing unfavorable conditions in the approaches they employ in hiring people. In some cases, the companies make a choice to cease employing unskilled labor totally. The resultant implication of this move to the overall performance of the economy is obvious. The employment opportunities that require the use of the minimum wage suit the young adults who probably are just leaving school. However, every increase of the minimum wage normally automatically leads to a lesser youth being absorbed

Pakistan Monetary policy effectiveness in controlling inflation

Pakistan Monetary policy effectiveness in controlling inflation Inflation adversely affects the overall growth, the financial sector development and the vulnerable poor segment of the population. There is clear consensus that even moderate levels of inflation damage real growth Inflation decreases the real income and also induces uncertainty. Considering such adverse impacts of inflation on the economy, there is a consensus among the worlds leading central banks that the price stability is the prime objective of monetary policy and the central banks are committed to the low inflation. Hence the central banks have adopted inflation as the main focus of monetary policy, targeting inflation explicitly or implicitly as and when required. Motive The objective of the thesis is to investigate the linkage between the excess money supply growth and inflation in Pakistan and to test the validity of the monetarist stance that inflation is a monetary phenomenon. The thesis will examine that whether the monetary policy adopted has been effective to control the rate of inflation. In my thesis I would like to analyze the money supply and inflation rates in Pakistan in order to prove the hypothesis. Hypothesis Hypothesis 1 Null Hypothesis: Monetary policy is effective in controlling inflation in Pakistan. Alternative Hypothesis: Monetary policy is not effective in controlling inflation in Pakistan. Hypothesis 2 Null Hypothesis: Inflation is a monetary phenomenon. Alternate Hypothesis: Inflation is not a monetary phenomenon. Introduction This paper examines the role played by the monetary policy in controlling prices. Whether the policy makers have been successful in predicting the behavior of prices effectively or not. For this purpose the model is considered having monetary variables like monetary assets and monetary expansion and inflation as a dependent variable. The model is estimated for the period of 1950-2005. It tries to measure the effective of monetary policy during different regimes. The results indicate that correlation between monetary assets and inflation is not that strong for Pakistan which means that the monetary policy has not been that effective in predicting the price movements in Pakistan. There is a strong need for adjustments by the policy makers. Another result that I got from the study is that monetary expansion and inflation are related significantly and they tend to determine the direction of one another at times but inflation is also related to other factors. These days economies of all countries whether underdeveloped, developing as well developed suffers from inflation. Inflation or persistent rising prices are major problem today in world. Because of many reasons, first, the rate of inflation these years are much high than experienced earlier periods. Second, Inflation in these years coexists with high rate of unemployment, which is a new phenomenon and made it difficult to control inflation. Economic policies tend to increase the general public welfare and monetary policy supports this broad objective by focusing its efforts to promote price stability. The objective of monetary policy in Pakistan, as laid down in the SBP Act of 1956, is to achieve the targets of inflation and growth set annually by the Government. In recent years money supply increased rapidly and some researchers thought this increase in money supply was going to translate quickly into inflation. But inflation did not grow much and empirical evidence shows that shocks to the petrol and meat supply mainly affected inflation. In the long-run the relationship between money supply and price is very strong and their correlation is almost one. Lucas (1995) emphasized the long-term relationship between money and prices in his Nobel Prize lecture by mentioning McCandless and Weber (1995). For the short-term relationship, empirical evidence of relationship between money growth and inflation is weak and unclear. A variety of studies on money demand yield very dissimilar results. As result, it is difficult to establish a straight relationship between these two variables in the short-term. This paper tries to measure the relationship between money growth and inflation for Pakistan. The paper consists of following sections: Introduction, The need to control inflation and the monetary policy in Pakistan, Literature Review, Empirical results, conclusion and recommendations. The need to control inflation Price stability is key to long run growth prospects. Effective management and prediction inflation expectations is required to ensure that the prices are stable. With stable prices, economic decisions can be made with less uncertainty and therefore markets can function without concern about unpredictable fluctuations in the purchasing power of money. On the other hand, high and unanticipated inflation lowers the quality of the signals coming from the price system as producers and consumers find it difficult to distinguish price changes arising from changes in the supply and demand for products from changes arising from the high level of general inflation. High inflation lowers the effectiveness of the market system. High and unanticipated inflation makes it impossible to plan for relatively longer outlook, creating incentives for households and firms to shorten their decision horizons and to spend resources in managing inflation risks rather than focusing on the most productive activities. The competing goals of growth and price stability, which may seem to be at odds with each other, in fact boils down to a single objective i.e. price stability. In this backdrop, there is no surprise that most of the central banks aim at maintaining low and stable inflation. Central banks place more weight and demonstrate increased willingness on controlling inflation relative to output growth, and financial and exchange rate stability. Effectiveness of monetary policy in Pakistan Generally, historical evidence does reflect that Pakistan has been a high inflation and high interest economy given its inherent structural weaknesses. The role and effectiveness of monetary policy appears more visible in the 2000s when financial sector reforms started bearing fruits in terms of a more market based money and foreign exchange markets. Entering the 21st century, the loose monetary policy stance in the face of low inflation, low growth and low twin deficits, along with structural measures to open up the economy and alleviate some first round constraints, triggered the economy on a long term growth trajectory of above 7 percent. Monetary policy stance was however altered as the inflationary pressures started to build up in 2005. At the end of the fiscal year, the economy, which had been showing sustained steady growth since FY01, registered a historically high level of growth (9 percent), average inflation rose sharply (9.3 percent) and the external current account balance turned into deficit (-1.4 percent of GDP). Coinciding with these developments, the fiscal module started to show signs of stress as the fiscal balance was converted into a deficit and the stock of external debt and liabilities, which had been declining since FY00 after the Paris Club rescheduling, began increasing. These indicators largely capture the high and growing aggregate demand in the economy on account of sustained increase in peoples income. With the emerging domestic and global price pressures, SBP tightened its monetary policy after a prolonged gap of a few years. The efforts to rein-in inflation, however, proved less effective due to a rebound in international commodity prices and a rise in domestic food bearing fruits in terms of a more market based money and foreign exchange markets. Entering the 21st century, the loose monetary policy stance in the face of low inflation, low growth and low twin deficits, along with structural measures to open up the economy and alleviate some first round constraints, triggered the economy on a long term growth trajectory of above 7 percent. Realizing the complications of monetary management and adverse global and domestic economic developments, the implementation of SBP monetary policy during FY06 varied significantly from the preceding fiscal years. In addition to the rise in the policy rate, the central bank focused on the short-end of the yield curve, draining excess liquidity from the inter-bank money market and pushing up short-tenor rates. Consequently, not only did the overnight rates remain close to the discount rate through most of the year, the volatility in these rates also declined. These tight monetary conditions along with the Governments administrative measures to control food inflation helped in scaling down average inflation from 9.3 percent in FY05 to 7.9 percent in FY06, within the 8.0 percent annual target. For FY07, the government set an inflation target of 6.5 percent. To achieve this, a further moderation in aggregate demand during FY07 was required as the core inflation witnessed a relatively smaller decline in FY06, indicating that demand-side inflationary pressures were strong. In this perspective, SBP further tightened its monetary policy in July 2006 raising the CRR and SLR for the scheduled banks; and its policy rate by 50 basis points (bps) to 9.5 percent. Moreover, proactive liquidity management helped in transmitting the monetary tightening signals to key interest rates in the economy. For instance, the Karachi Inter Bank Offer Rate (KIBOR) of 6 month tenor increased from 9.6 percent in June 2006 to 10.02 percent at end-June 2007 and the banks weighted average lending and deposits rates (on outstanding amount) increased by 0.93 percentage points and 1.1 percentage points, respectively, during FY07. In retrospect, it appears evident that monetary tightening in FY07 did not put any adverse impact on economic growth, as not only was the real GDP growth target of 7.0 percent for FY07 was met; the growth was quite broad based. At the same time, the impact of the monetary tightening was most evident in the continued deceleration in core inflation during FY07. One measure of core inflation, the non-food non-energy CPI, continued its downtrend from YoY high of 7.8 percent in October 2005, to 6.3 percent at end-FY06, and to 5.1 percent by the end of FY07. However, much of the gains from the tight monetary policy on overall CPI inflation were offset by the unexpected rise in food inflation. On the downside, however, broad money supply (M2) grew by 19.3 percent during FY07, exceeding the annual target by 5.8 percentage points. Slippages in money supply growth largely stemmed from an expansion in NFA due to the higher than expected foreign exchange inflows. The pressure from the fiscal account was due to mismatch in its external budgetary inflows and expenditures. With the privatization inflows and the receipts from a sovereign debt offering at end-FY07, the Government managed to end the year with retirement of central bank borrowings, on the margin. By end-FY07, SBP holdings of government papers were still around Rs 452 billion, despite a net retirement of Rs 56.0 billion during the year. Another major aberration in FY07 emanated from the high level of SBP refinancing extended, for both working capital and long-term investment, to exporters. Aside from monetary management complexities, these schemes have been distorting the incentive structure in the economy. FY08 was an exceptionally difficult year. The domestic macroeconomic and political vulnerabilities coupled with a very challenging global environment caused slippages in macroeconomic targets by a wide margin. After a relatively long period of macroeconomic stability and prosperity, the global economy faced multifarious challenges: (i) hit by the sub prime mortgage crisis in U.S in 2007, the international financial markets had been in turmoil, the impact of which was felt across markets and continents; (ii) rising global commodity prices, with crude oil and food staples prices skyrocketing; and (iii) a gradual slide in the U.S dollar against major currencies. Combination of these events induced a degree of recessionary tendencies and inflationary pressures across developed and developing countries. Policy-makers were gripped with the dual challenge of slowdown in growth and unprecedented rising inflationary pressures. The external current account deficit and fiscal deficit widened considerably to unsustainable level (8.4 and 7.4 percent of GDP). The subsidy payments worth Rs 407 billion by Government, which account for almost half of the fiscal deficit, shielded domestic consumers from high international POL and commodity prices and distorted the natural demand adjustment mechanism. While the government passed on price increase to consumers, the rising international oil and other importable prices continued to take a toll on the economy. Rising demand has cost the country dearly in terms of foreign exchange spent on importing large volumes of these commodities. Rising fiscal deficit and lower than required financing flows resulted in exceptional recourse of the Government to the highly inflationary central bank borrowing for financing deficit. At the same time the surge in imports persisted. As a result, inflation accelerated and its expectations strengthened due to pass through of international oil prices to the domestic market, increases in the electricity tariff and the general sales tax, and rising exchange rate depreciation. These developments resulted in a further rise in headline as well as core inflation (20 percent weighted trimmed measure) to 25 percent and 21.7 percent respectively in October 2008. Considering the size of macroeconomic imbalances and the emerging inflationary pressures, SBP remained committed to achieve price stability over the medium term and thus had to launch steeper monetary tightening to tame the demand pressures and restore macroeconomic stability in FY09. SBP thus increased the policy rate from 13.5 to 15 percent. Literature Review If inflation is considered as a monetary phenomenon then it is the responsibility of the central bank and the fiscal authorities to achieve price stability. If inflation is caused primarily by food price increases, it would appear that the Ministry of Agriculture should play a key role in containing inflation. Analysis of Money, Inflation and growth in Pakistan (Abdul Qayyum) shows that excess money supply growth has been an important contributor to the rise in inflation in Pakistan during the study period, the study used Correlation analysis with the Country of study being Pakistan. In my research I will try to find the correlation between the monetary assets and inflation, and determine whether the policy makers have been successful to use monetary assets as a measure to predict interest rates. Economic Growth, Inflation, and Monetary Policy in Pakistan: Preliminary Empirical Estimates AHMED M. KHALID*states the State Bank of Pakistanis also under pressure to discuss and design a policy that could provide a stable and sustainable economic growth as well as address the necessary conditions to be part of the global economy. Is Inflation in Pakistan a Monetary Phenomenon (M. ALI KEMAL) finds that an increase in money supply over the long-run results in higher rate of inflation and thus provides support for the quantity theory of money. It establishes that inflation is essentially a monetary phenomenon. However, the money supply does not instantly influence the price levels; the impact of money supply on inflation has a considerable lag of about 9 months. While the study shows that the money supply works through the system in less than a year, it also points out that the system takes rather long to converge to equilibrium if shocks appear in any of the three variables, viz., GDP, money supply, and prices. Primary objective of this research is to check the long-run relationship and short-run dynamics between the money and inflation. In the long run money supply impacts the inflation rates. QTM holds in the long Run, which implies that inflation is a monetary phenomenon. In the short run, the impact of money on inflation is not instant; it affects inflation with lags of about 3 quarters. In the long-run the relationship between money supply and price is very strong and their correlation is almost one. Lucas (1995) emphasized the long-term relationship between money and prices in his Nobel Prize lecture by mentioning McCandless and Weber (1995). Certainly in the long run, inflation is considered to be-as Friedman (1963) stated-always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon. However, other authors have pointed to supply-side developments in explaining inflation. This structuralist school of thought holds that supply constraints that drive up prices of specific goods can have wider repercussions on the overall price level. In Pakistan, increases in the wheat support price have been blamed for inflation. As such, the question money or wheat is not merely academic, but has profound implications for economic policy. If inflation is a monetary phenomenon, it is the responsibility of the central bank and the fiscal authorities to achieve price stability. If inflation is caused primarily by wheat support price increases, it would appear that the Ministry of Agriculture should play a key role in containing inflation. In this paper, I would study the relationship between inflation and monetary expansion, to prove that it is not entirely a monetary phenomenon but it is affected by other factors as well. Data Sources and limitations The data covers the period 1950-2005 on a yearly basis. The choice of sample enables us to study the long run relationship between money supply and inflation and short run effects. The period covers the whole monetary policy stance under different rules, and then we also analyze it in periods of different economic growth. We use annual data from 1949-50 to 2004-2005 to investigate the relations between money and prices in Pakistan. The principal data source is 50 Years of Pakistan in Statistics; prepared by the Federal Bureau of Statistics. The other data sources include the regular issues of Economic Survey by Finance Division and Monthly Bulletin by State Bank. Before proceeding further, i would like to point out that the analysis is based on fifty years of Pakistan during which the country has undergone a series of economic and political changes. In particular, there have been significant improvements in the monetary sector as well as its impact on economy in the 1990s. Methodology The tests used will be Correlation Regression Graphical Analysis Model The model used would analyze the inflation against two variables of money supply monetary expansion and monetary assets. Money supply is considered as independent variable. Inflation is considered as dependent variable. Empirical Results Correlation test The correlation between monetary assets and inflation during entire 50 year periods has been as such For a perfect correlation the correlation coefficient should have been + 1 but in this case the correlation coefficient is coming out to be 0.034 which is very near to 0 which shows that the monetary policy is not being effective in predicting the rates of inflation. In the long run money supply is able to determine inflation but in short term it is determined much by the other factors of economy. The linear relationship between monetary assets and inflation is not that strong. There is small correlation which means in the long run it is effective but not in the short run. For effective monetary policy the correlation between money supply and inflation should be one but here the correlation is much less and is nearer to O. Regression Test between monetary assets and inflation This table displays R, R squared, adjusted R squared, and the standard error. R is the correlation between the observed and predicted values of the dependent variable. The values of R range from -1 to 1. The sign of R indicates the direction of the relationship (positive or negative). The absolute value of R indicates the strength, with larger absolute values indicating stronger relationships. R squared is the proportion of variation in the dependent variable explained by the regression model. The values of R squared range from 0 to 1. Small values indicate that the model does not fit the data well. Here the model doesnt fit the data well the R square is very small. The larger the F The larger the F (the smaller the p-value) the more of ys variation the line explained so the less likely H0 is true. We reject when the p-value The F statistic is the regression mean square (MSR) divided by the residual mean square (MSE). If the significance value of the F statistic is small (smaller than say 0.05) then the independent variables do a good job explaining the variation in the dependent variable. If the significance value of F is larger than 0.05 then the independent variables do not explain the variation in the dependent variable. Here the F value is greater that 0.05 which means it is not explaining the dependent variable. Inflation= 6.504 + 0.00* monetary assets The beta coefficient tells how strongly independent variable is related with dependent variable. R2 is a statistic that will give some information about the goodness of fit of a model. In regression, the R2 coefficient of determination is a statistical measure of how well the regression line approximates the real data points. An R2 of 1.0 indicates that the regression line perfectly fits the data. The variation explained by monetary assets in inflation is not much which tells us that the policy has not been that effective. The correlation between the monetary assets and the inflation has not been much significant. Monetary expansion and inflation has significant relationship and at times one determine the other this means that we have to accept hypothesis that it is a monetary phenomenon but add that it is affected by other factors as well like oil and food prices. Why Inflation is alarming and needs to be controlled High and persistent inflation is a regressive tax adversely impacting the poor and economic prospects. The poor hold few real assets or equity, and their savings are typically in the form of cash or low-interest bearing deposits; this group is most vulnerable to inflation as it erodes savings. Moreover, high and volatile inflation has been found to be detrimental to growth and financial sector development. High inflation obscures the role of relative price changes thus inhibiting optimal resource allocation. Inflation hurts growth once it exceeds a certain threshold. A number of empirical studies have established that the relationship between inflation and growth is nonlinear. At low levels of inflation, inflation has either no impact or a positive impact on growth. However, once inflation exceeds a certain threshold, it has an adverse impact on long-run growth. High inflation also inhibits financial development. Financial market institutions are intermediaries that reduce frictions between savers and investors (including adverse selection, moral hazard, or conflicting time preferences). Inflation makes this intermediation more costly because inflation tax lowers long-run real returns. As a result, credit is rationed and financial depth is reduced. As in the case of growth, there appears to be a threshold beyond which inflation adversely affects financial sector developments, while there are no negative effects at low levels of inflation. The adverse effect of inflation on financial development is one mechanism by which inflation can hurt growth. For example, Loayza and Ranciere (2005) find a positive long-run relationship between financial development and growth in a sample of 75 countries. In Pakistan, periods of low inflation are associated with high growth rates and vice versa. Between 1978 and 1991, inflation was 8 percent on average and real per capita growth averaged 3 percent. Between 1992 and 1997, inflation increased on average to 11 percent, while real per capita growth fell substantially and averaged only 1 percent. Finally, between 1998, inflation was reduced again to an average of 5 percent, and real per capita growth displayed a dramatic recovery. Of course, there are other factors that determine growth in the short-run and in the long-run [e.g. van Rooden (2005)]. Nonetheless, Pakistans growth performance has been best when inflation was contained to 8 percent or lower. Conclusion Hypothesis 1 Null Hypothesis: Monetary policy is effective in controlling inflation in Pakistan. Alternative Hypothesis: Monetary policy is not effective in controlling inflation in Pakistan. Result: Reject Null Hypothesis and Accept Alternate Hypothesis. Hypothesis 2 Null Hypothesis: Inflation is a monetary phenomenon. Alternate Hypothesis: Inflation is not a monetary phenomenon. Result: We accept our hypothesis but add here that inflation in Pakistan is not entirely a monetary phenomenon, it is a monetary phenomenon in long run, but in short run it is affected by other factors as well like food and oil prices. The rejection of first hypothesis shows that there need to be steps taken by policy makers to combat the inflation rates. The empirical results presented in this paper show that monetary factors determine inflation in Pakistan. Broad money growth and private sector credit growth are the key variables that explain inflation developments with a lag of around 12 months. A long-run relationship exists between the CPI and private sector credit. The food price affects inflation in the short run, but not in the long run. Recommendations The following areas need attention and are key for effective monetary management. Effectiveness of monetary and fiscal coordination would be helpful. For effective analysis of developments and policy making, timely and quality information is extremely important. Information is not available with desired frequency and timeliness. Also there are concerns over the quality of data. Unlike many developed and developing countries, data on quarterly GDP, employment and wages, etc. is not available in case of Pakistan. Moreover, the data on key macroeconomic variables is usually available with substantial lags. This constrains an in-depth analysis of the current economic situation and evolving trends, and hinders the ability of the SBP to develop a forward-looking policy stance. Unlike many countries, both developed and developing, there is no prescribed limit on government borrowing from SBP. Borrowing from the central bank injects liquidity in the system through increased currency in circulation and deposits of the government with the banks. In both cases, the impact of tight monetary stance is diluted as this automatic creation of money increases money supply without any prior notice. Improve the effectiveness of monetary policy is to prohibit the practice of government borrowings from the SBP. Another issue is to make a clear distinction between exchange rate management and monetary management. It is impossible to pursue an independent monetary and exchange rate policy as well as allowing capital to move freely across the border. Since the SBP endeavors to achieve price stability through achieving monetary targets by changes in the policy rate, it is not possible to maintain exchange rates at some level with free capital mobility. This can only be achieved by putting complete restrictions on capital movements, which is not possible. SBPs responsibility is to ensure an environment where foreign exchange flows are driven by economic fundamental and are not mis-guided by rent seeking speculation. In conclusion, it is imperative that above steps be taken urgently. Over the period, however, this needs to be complemented with much deeper structural reforms to synchronize and reform the medium term planning for the budget and monetary policy formulation process. Several studies and technical assistance have provided extensive guidance in this area, but the lack of capacities and short term compulsions have often withheld such reforms. What is important is to recognize that a medium term development strategy, independently worked out, would help minimize one agency interest which has often been a source of coordination difficulties. It would also help the budget making process more rule based than the incrementally driven process to satisfy conflicting demands.

Motivating an Athletic Performer Essay -- Motivation Motiational Theor

This essay will include the different types of motivational theories. It will illustrate the different types of motivation and how each affects the performers in various ways. Positive and negative issues of the types of motivation will be discussed to determine which is the best method of motivation and why. It will also illustrate how these motivational theories are used to motivate a performer. This essay will be concluded by stating the best motivation method, and how a coach or teacher could use it in motivating a performer. Motivation can be described in various ways: (English Oxford Shorter Addition 1993) described motivation as being, "à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦The action or an act of motivating something or someone. The stimulus, incentive, motives for action towards a goal, resulting from psychological or social factors; the factors giving purpose or direction to behaviourà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦." (Kent 1994) described motivation as being, "à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the internal state which tends to direct a person's behaviour towards a goalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦." (Woods, 1998) described motivation as, "à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦motivation has been seen as having two aspects: it is what drives us to do thingsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and it makes us do particular thingsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦." These various descriptions of motivation are putting across all of the same points. All three statements involve an inner drive to a specific goal. These goals are achieved through arousal and the direction of the athlete's behavior. There are various types of motivation such as intrinsic, extrinsic, primary, secondary, positive and negative motivation. Intrinsic motivation is a term used to describe the internal drives that allows the athlete to perform. Intr... ...rises the athletes to perform, creating a job like situation for the players. I believe that there is no best method of motivation a coach or teacher can use on a performer. This is because when you start a particular sport, you do it for fun, but gradually as you get better rewards begin to be offered. Thus resulting in the performers motivation coming more from extrinsic than intrinsic motivation. If the performer wins a competition it will have a positive affect on them intrinsically as well as extrinsically, as the performer will fell good about the reward as much as he feels good about how much effort was concerned in obtaining the reward. There has to be a balance, as if it is to extrinsically motivated their will be no enjoyment competing in the sport, therefore the performer will get bored and quit.

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Profit Margin Percentage

Place your name and the date at the top of the page, and answer the following questions making sure you SHOW YOUR WORK. 1. A hardware store bought a gross (12 dozen) of hammers, paying $602. 40 for the total order. The retailer estimated operating expenses for this product to be 35% of sales, and wanted a net profit of 5% of sales. The retailer expected no markdowns. What retail selling price should be set for each hammer? [Hint: The way to handle this problem is to say that the Gross Profit Margin has to cover the 35% of expenses applicable to the product plus the 5% of net profit wanted. And once you know the GPM%, you know the Cost percentage of the Selling Price. ] 2. Competition in a line of sporting goods limits the selling price on a certain item to $25. If the store owner feels a margin of 35% is needed to cover expenses and return a reasonable profit, what is the most the owner can pay for this item? [Hint: Remember, if you know the margin percentage, then you know the cost percentage. ] 3. A retailer with annual net sales of $2 million maintains a markup of 66. 67% based on cost. Operating expenses average 35%. What are the retailer's gross margin and net profit in dollars? [Hint: A Markup on Cost is equivalent to what Gross Profit Margin percentage? ] 4. The cost to a manufacturer of flat panel displays for producing its newly designed TV Display 1000 is $250. 00. The cost for Research and Development of their new product being sold to OEMs as a component product has been one million dollars. The sales and promotional budget is $600,000, and all other fixed costs amount to $200,000. The Marketing Director and his staff have estimated demand for the new display to be between 50,000 and 75,000 units over the next year. They also have decided to price the new Display 1000 at $450 to their OEM customers. (a) How many Display 1000s does the manufacturer have to sell in order to breakeven? (b) What is the manufacturer’s unit contribution to profit in percentage? (c) What is the manufacturer’s markup on cost in percentage?

Movies Realism Literature Review

INTRODUCTION Cinemas are the central spot of people’s visual entertainment, acting as the medium between the art of movie directors and the audiences seeking the getaway from real world reality. It is at the cinema where people enjoy themselves by watching movies that they may find interesting initially regardless of the language, locality or storyline, as long as that one particular movie is intriguing enough to make them go to the cinema to get their movie-o-meter filled with appealing crafts from many directors. The cinemas as they are today are far significantly different from what they used to be decades ago, as this highly profiting business has been going on since the 1850’s, particularly originated in England to be the first in public screening, although the first use of movie projection is unknown. However, putting aside the revolutionary cinema technology, one good movie is mostly contributed by the production team dedication and hard works. It should not matter if a movie is less use in impressive CGI since a ‘plain’ movie but with proper cast and content, it could match with a movie rich in the technology. This kind of good content or storyline is another factor that has been influencing both the production to create such movie which is poor in fake yet astounding visual appearance but to pursue more on the content largely. It has also been observed that a good movie needs good script or dialogue other than the casts, for instance _V for Vendetta_ (2005), it did have a few scenes in CGI but the real strength behind the success of this movie was the dialogue, its great casts and the political theme. The mentality of the locals towards Malaysian made movies has always been criticized by Malaysians ourselves; however the irony is despite the constant claim of Malaysians that they could tolerate Malaysian movies, this phenomenon still exists, where people especially the research subject, Malaysian audiences, stand on this issue of the reasons they ditch local most local movies as unrealistic in contrast to its crux of escaping reality. Often in newspapers and mass media people could be seen writing to editors on how disappointed they were in local movies direction but praised the realism aspect on foreign movies, especially of Hollywood. The reason movies or any other forms of visual entertainment were created was to add some unrealistic factor based on the ‘reality’ of the world outside the movie, since the movie production cannot make money if they just simply show what the audiences have gone through every day in their lives, nothing of new and fresh that could catch the attention of the audiences. This research is anticipated to know why such paradox exists among the local viewers particularly, or something about the mentality of Malaysian audiences. When this peculiarity is triggered, there are parties affected definitely. The obvious impact would be on production companies, with very narrow focus on local market itself, these production companies would not be able to sustain longer given that this ‘sentiment’ goes on. It is obvious enough since when there is lack of support and interest, plus the unfair discernment by the Malaysians, the companies have no other way than to close down production, or face far worse condition of bankruptcy. It is not just the companies that would have to shut down, but indirectly the actors and actresses would have to start over something new to accommodate their lives, the fortunate enough to have backup form of income could still survive, but the bigger impact is the industry will be crumbled, as the industry has never been given a chance to prove that Malaysian movies could evolve and change the mindset of Malaysians in the first place. Secondly, local TV companies would also face difficulties and humongous expense to procure foreign TV contents more to cater the hankering of viewers, as well as to fill in the absence or the sheer lack of local movie content. The negativity cycle continues to Malaysian government policy of foreign content, with this much impact slowly influencing the mindset of people, government will require thorough amendment of its policy to curb the foreign content while preserving the local one, as although this phenomenon is still not chronic, however it is best to fear and prepare for the worst. Although the process of obtaining past researches on similar phenomenon yields nothing, hence this research is believed to be pioneer in digging deeper into this peculiarity. However, it is mostly understood that some variables, or the causing factors are such like age, education, place of living, influence of significant others, different subcultures, and as well as level of exposure to foreign movies and online reviews. Initial observation (pre research) shows that people living in cities are more susceptible to this phenomenon, most possibly due to the flooding of foreign movies that are relatively better than local movies in general, may be reinforced by the pressure of others into forming a typical mentality. The Phenomenon Exactly like previously mentioned, the peculiarity that triggered the research in the first place was what causes the incongruity of denying local movies as realistic while at the same time concurring how realistic foreign movies are on the same basis that movies are not supposed to be real. There is no problem with the ticket sales or revenues of local movies, since local movies do receive high gross profit in local market, for instance Cicakman,, a hero-fantasy movie scored RM6. 7 million while still in the same movie theme, Spiderman scored USD 2. 1 million in Malaysian market, of course it is not fair to compare the fan base but this proved that there is no problem with the behavior of Malaysian viewers, but the perception of the people. In simpler meaning, they do watch local movies but constantly undervalue every factor available in regards to foreign movies, and this research is meant to discover the plausible sources. Depende*nt Variable In determining what dependent variables of this research are going to be, firstly it is important to identify what kind of approach the research is going to be conducted, and since the topic is planning to digging up the mind or stigma of people, hence perception approach is the correct channel to analyze the Malaysians mentality on whether they find local movies are not realistic compared to foreign movies. Therefore it is obvious that the perception or mindset of the local Malaysians is the subject issue, which is ultimately the dependent variables that would be affected at the end of the cycle of factors. A perception is the result of many surrounding elements or influencing factors, whereby it is like a blank canvas ready to be painted with the colors of perceived reality affecting the mindset. Hence, it is ironic that for a movie watcher to have biased insight against the local movies escaping reality nature, but what is wryer than that is through initial observation of this phenomenon; some people do not have this stigma and because of that it further strengthens our decision of making the perception of audience as the dependent variable where it will see changes when any independent variable is put as a trigger or cause. The perception of audience is also identified to be the dependent variable due to the fact that they live in Malaysia, which are supposedly giving them the familiarity of the culture that is incorporated into the local movies, and since it is a psychology phenomenon we cannot directly measure one’s mind but we can measure up the extent or the spread of this particular perception of movie audience. With all the rationale it is then decidedly that we are going to use the perception of audience as the dependent variable that changes accordingly to the identified independent variables to get us closer to the ‘reality’ of the research topic. Independent Variables As mentioned earlier, there are forces that act behind the shadow of the dependent variable which was the perception of unrealistic local movies among audience. There is not only one but many credible elements that manipulate the outcome in various ways when these independent variables are put in motion to exploit the results in diversified changes. The factors below are notified to be of the most significant variables that could show momentous variety outcome on the dependent variable. ?Flooding of Foreign Movies Undeniably the ratio of foreign movies in Malaysia has significantly overshadowed the locally made movies. There is no restriction only to Hollywood movies, but lately many more movies from all over the world such as Middle Eastern, Bollywood, European, Hong Kong and Japan gets the attention of movie distributors in dispersing the foreign movies here in Malaysia. Judging from the overall movie titles per month basis, locally made movies, be it Malay, Tamil or Chinese movies are still on the minority scale compared to the available foreign titles which make up most of the showing list. With this much flooding of foreign movies that does not halt its presence here in Malaysia throughout the whole year, Malaysians are served with these foreign movies especially of Hollywood (being the most popular), therefore it is definitely a crucial factor to count in the ‘excess’ of the foreign movies may contribute to the perception of Malaysians that local movies are nowhere as realistic to foreign movies. ?Influence of Friends There is no single person on earth can stand loneliness hence the very reason why they need company. Friends do indeed play the most significant role of shaping the not only attitude but also the large percentage of perception pattern. Studies show that the influence of friends often surpassed the influence expressed by family members particularly during the age of adolescent; afterwards it would be a mixture of many factors. People also shares more secrets with their friends, so in this case people will be frequently affected by their friends’ mindsets to envision and share common view on a particular movie, as the one that people go and watch movies together are with friends. It is important to keep one’s insight perhaps on any significant issue in line; therefore resulting in strong and impenetrable wall of perception on whatever issue that they agree on, and it could be unintentionally in the beginning but the effect of the ‘friendship’ especially brotherhood-like bond will be concreting their perception on local movies realism. ?Pre-nurtured Stigma of Superior Others As citizens of a country that has gone through many colonial rules since half a millennium ago starting with Portuguese in Malacca in 1511, Malaysians (Malayans before independence) had always been conquered both physically and internally. These conquerors proved that they were not only superior in military and firepower technology, but also they left the impression that we the natives of our land could never stand on par with them in everything including culture, deeply tainted within our ancestors’ perception. Unfortunately this stigma has been ancestrally passed down from one generation to another and even now some Malaysians do still consider the grass of the other side to be greener. Although it sounds general but this perception is strong enough to be identified as one of the factors that could cause dissimilarities in the dependent variable as they watch and analyze a movie through a programmed way of thinking although it is full of preconception. ?Technology Used in Movies Realistic is commonly defined as â€Å"aware or expressing awareness of things as they really are†, and if we are to follow this version of realistic then the technological aspect in a movie plays extremely important role to influence the perception of viewers. The technology of CGI and lately the assimilationof three dimensional perspectives have caught the wows and awes of audience. The main point in taking the technological aspect of movies is since foreign movies magically make something that was not there to appear, in other word, fake but are considered as realistic, then do the ‘low’ technological local movies that do not go through this process of faking things out awkwardly being regarded as unrealistic? As weird as it may sound, this is what makes the technology used in movies as an altering factor that could shift the mentality of viewers that local movies are not realistic out of the stable axis. The burden of a movie success is not just lying on the shoulders of the actor and actresses alone but a movie is the child of a director therefore it is the responsibility of a director to make sure the overall quality of the movie is intact. A movie direction is the result shown by the combined talent, skills and hard works of the production team including the casts, crews and producers. Bad leadership and directing by a director will ultimately summon dissatisfaction from the viewers and critics, for example. With this principle it is not surprising that it gets to be one of the factors that influence our dependent variable. Research Objective Who is not attracted to the animating pictures projected on a huge, wide silver screen and watch our imagination gets flashed on the screen? The world nowadays has changed drastically that entertainment is not only limited to the words written on paper, also not the television series nor movies, but it has expanded close to once before science fiction. Entertainment can be defined as a diverting activity that holds the attention of the people. Entertainment by itself holds wide definition so it is wise to peg down to a smaller scale of business aspect, since movies or films is a shell containing motion pictures to be viewed purely as a medium of art in the bigger entertainment industry. Mankind has studied many things that are intriguing enough to them, either just for entertainment or educational purpose, and throughout the times academicians have regarded movie industry as a legit study field that provides the opportunity to examine the elements of movies or films. The ever expanding cinema or Cineplex has turned motion pictures as one of the most profitable entertainment industry especially in Hollywood, which is the pioneer in almost any new film technology. Digital format has taken the place of analogue film technology and the changes can be immediately seen, hardly nowadays a cinema used roll-film and viewers had to experience the visual scratch anymore since cinema projectors had switched to a digital video projection as well as cleverly stimulated surround sound. Every moment passes the scenes of movie industry is changing, one second next will be different than one second before, as the entertainment industry especially in the movies form will keep on evolving to cater people needs. Research Questions _Is the flooding of foreign movies causing a person to have biased perception on local movies? _ Through this question we could get a more in-depth idea on the relationship between the foreign movies invasion on Malaysian shores and its impact on the perception of Malaysians. This question is remarkable since there are people who think of local movies are more realistic than foreign movies, despite the fact that Malaysian cinemas are constantly showing foreign titles more than local movies. It is important to relate the over exposure of foreign movies inclusive of the reviews and other promotional attempts with the impact on the viewers so we could assess the depth or extent of these two variables. Does influence of friends affect the mindset of Malaysians to underestimate realism of local movies? Friendship ‘forces’ a person in that circle to behave, think and perceive things on the same line with very minimal deviation. It is no wonder what friend factor could influence one’s perception, and this is why it is beneficial to know how far do friends play their parts to mold each other by ‘imposing’ a general idea that is to be shared by the circle, or in the process there is a possibility that the impact is backed up by other hidden factors, unseen until they strike. We will be able to find out whether the question will bring us closer to yes or no by analyzing the answers from the samples during the research. Does the stigma of ‘superior others’ instilled prematurely impose biased perception on local movies? As mentioned previously under independent variables, it is widely known that even though through words Malaysians may deny that they do not think outsiders are always ahead of us, but their behaviors may tell otherwise and perhaps describe the true perception. Therefore, we would measure how far this one particular stigma is affecting the phenomenon we are trying to study. The caustic remark is too great to be cast aside since realistic factor in local movies can never be as close as o those of foreign movies according to the phenomenon, but by obtruding our definition of the nature of movie which is as an escape to real world, is not it supposed to be otherwise? Is the perception of realistic factor of local movies shaped by the technology used in movies? The evolution in cinema technology has always started outside of Malaysia, thus one of the reasons why there is not m uch newer technology used in local movies. However, is there any basis in theorizing a movie is not realistic when it does not use sophisticated technology? If there is, will it be affecting whether people like the movie or otherwise? This question should be tackled since most viewers; in particular the Malaysian viewers do not have the ability to analyze movies from education and artistic aspect, but often lay opinion based on what they see with naked eyes, which should conform its nature of entertainment. Does director’s proficiency have any impact on what people think of realism factor of local movies? Just like the casts, directors do have their own fans and followers who support them in their career, and just like the actor and actresses also, the industry appreciate and recognize directors’ contribution as the most important aspect of movie success. Their skills differ thus the reputation they have been building is identified as one of the question on whether they do take tolls on people perception of local movies to be deemed as not realistic enough, satirically going against escapism core purpose of watching movies. Reference Perception. In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 22nd, 2010 from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Perception Dictionary. com (2010, February 22nd). Perception – Define Perception at Dictionary. com Retrieved from http://dictionary. reference. com/browse/perception Internet. om (2010, February 26th) What is Movie Mode? Retrieved from http://www. webopedia. com/TERM/m/moviemode. html_ BoxOffice Mojo, (2010, February 26th). Species (1995). Retrieved from http://www. boxofficemojo. com/movies/? id=species. htm BoxOffice Mojo (2010, February 26th). Species II Retrieved from http://www. boxofficemojo. com/movies/? id=species2. htm BoxOffice Mojo (2010, February 28th). Spider-Man (2002) International Box Office Results Retrieved from http://www. boxofficemojo. com/movies/? page=intl&id=spiderman. tm Intro2u Blog (2010, February 28th). Cicakman 2 Retrieved from http://www. intro2u. net/new/2008/08/cicakman-2/ Syed Ali, Syed Azwan, (2010, March 3rd). Local Film Industry Moving Ahead Retrieved March 4th, 2010 from Bernama website http://www. bernama. com/bernama/v5/newsfeatures. php? id=479303 M. Varkevisser, Corlien; Pathmanathan, Indra; and Brownlee, Ann (2003). Formulation of Research Objectives, Designing and Conducting Health System Research Projects, (Module 6) Retrieved from http://www. idrc. ca/en/ev-33011-201-1-DOTOPIC. html_

The Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

The Regents of the University of California v. Bakke The Regents of the University of California v. Allan Bakke (1978), was a landmark case decided by the United States Supreme Court. The decision had historical and legal significance because it upheld affirmative action, declaring that race could be one of several determining factors in college admission policies, but rejected the use of racial quotas. Fast Facts: Regents of the University of California v. Bakke Case Argued: Oct. 12, 1977Decision Issued: June 26, 1978Petitioner: Regents of the University of CaliforniaRespondent: Allan Bakke, a 35-year-old white man who had applied twice for admission to the University of California Medical School at Davis and was rejected both timesKey Question: Did the University of California violate the 14th Amendments Equal Protection Clause, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, by practicing an affirmative action policy that resulted in the repeated rejection of Bakkes application for admission to its medical school?Majority Decision: Justices Burger, Brennan, Stewart, Marshall, Blackman, Powell, Rehnquist, StevensDissenting: Justice WhiteRuling: The Supreme Court upheld affirmative action, ruling that race could be one of several determining factors in college admission policies, but it rejected the use of racial quotas as unconstitutional. Case History In the early 1970s, many colleges and universities across America were in the beginning stages of making major changes to their admissions programs in an effort to diversify the student body by increasing the number of minority students on campus. This effort was particularly challenging due to the 1970s massive increase of students applying to medical and law schools. It increased the competition and negatively impacted the efforts to create campus environments that promoted equality and diversity. Admission policies that relied predominantly on candidates grades and test scores was an unrealistic approach for the schools that wanted to increase the minority population on campus.   Dual Admission Programs In 1970, the University of California Davis School of Medicine (UCD) was receiving 3,700 applicants for a mere 100 openings. At the same time, UCD administrators were committed to working with an affirmative action plan often referred to as a quota or set-aside program. It was set up with two admissions programs in order to increase the number of disadvantaged students admitted to the school.  There was the regular admissions program and the special admissions program.Each year 16 out of 100 places were reserved for disadvantaged students and minorities including (as stated by the university), blacks, Chicanos, Asians, and American Indians. Regular Admissions Program Candidates who quailed for the regular admissions program had to have an undergraduate grade point average (GPA) above 2.5. Some of the qualifying candidates were then interviewed. Those who passed were given a score based on their performance on the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), science grades, extracurricular activities, recommendations, awards and other criteria that made up their benchmark scores. An admissions committee would then make a decision on which candidates would be accepted into the school. Special Admissions Program Candidates accepted into the special admissions programs were minorities or those who were economically or educationally disadvantaged. The special admissions candidates did not have to have a grade point average above 2.5 and they did not compete with the benchmark scores of the regular admission applicants.   From the time that the dual admissions program was implemented the 16 reserved spots were filled by minorities, despite the fact that many white applicants applied for the special disadvantaged program. Allan Bakke In 1972, Allan Bakke was a 32-year-old white male working as an engineer at NASA, when he decided to pursue his interest in medicine. Ten years earlier, Bakke had graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in mechanical engineering and a grade-point average of 3.51 out of 4.0 and was asked to join the national mechanical engineering honor society. He then joined the U.S. Marine Corps for four years which included a seven-month combat tour of duty in Vietnam. In 1967, he became a captain and was given an honorable discharge. After leaving the Marines he went to work for National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) as a research engineer.   Bakke continued going to school and in June 1970, he earned his masters degree in mechanical engineering, but despite this, his interest in medicine continued to grow. He was missing some of chemistry and biology courses required for admission into medical school so he attended night classes at San Jose State University and Stanford University. He completed all the prerequisites and had an overall GPA of 3.46. During this time he worked part-time as a volunteer in the emergency room at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, California. He scored an overall 72 on the MCAT, which was three points higher than the average applicant to UCD and 39 points higher than the average special program applicant. In 1972, Bakke applied to UCD. His biggest concern was being rejected due to his age. He had surveyed 11 medical schools; all who said that he was over their their age limit. Age discrimination was not an issue in the 1970s. In March he was invited to interview with Dr. Theodore West who described Bakke as a very desirable applicant who he recommended.  Two months later, Bakke received his rejection letter. Angered by how the special admissions program was being managed, Bakke contacted his lawyer, Reynold H. Colvin, who prepared a letter for Bakke to give to the medical schools chairman of the admissions committee, Dr. George Lowrey. The letter, which was sent in late May, included a request that Bakke was placed on the wait-list and that he could register during the fall of 1973 and take courses until an opening became available. When Lowrey failed to reply, Covin prepared a second letter in which he asked the chairman if the special admissions program was an illegal racial quota. Bakke was then invited to meet with Lowreys assistant, 34-year-old Peter Storandt so that the two could discuss why he was rejected from the program and to advise him to apply again. He suggested that if he was rejected again he may want to take UCD to court; Storandt had a few names of lawyers that could possibly help him if he decided to go in that direction. Storandt was later disciplined and demoted for displaying unprofessional behavior when meeting with Bakke. In August 1973, Bakke applied for early admission into UCD. During the interview process, Lowery was the second interviewer. He gave Bakke an 86 which was the lowest score Lowery had given out that year. Bakke received his second rejection letter from UCD at the end of September 1973. The following month, Colvin filed a complaint on Bakkes behalf with HEWs Office of Civil Rights, but when HEW failed to send a timely response, Bakke decided to move forward. On June 20, 1974, Colvin brought suit on behalf of Bakke in Yolo County Superior Court. The complaint included a request that UCD admit Bakke into its program because the special admissions program rejected him because of his race. Bakke alleged that the special admissions process violated the U.S. Constitutions Fourteenth Amendment, the California Constitutions article I, section 21, and Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.   UCDs counsel filed a cross-declaration and asked the judge to find that the special program was constitutional and legal. They argued that Bakke would not have been admitted even if there had been no seats set aside for minorities.   On November 20, 1974, Judge Manker found the program unconstitutional and in violation of Title VI, no race or ethnic group should ever be granted privileges or immunities not given to every other race. Manker did not order to admit Bakke to UCD, but rather that the school reconsiders his application under a system that did not make determinations based on race. Both Bakke and the university appealed the judges ruling. Bakke because it was not ordered that he be admitted to UCD and the university because the special admissions program was ruled unconstitutional.   Supreme Court of California Due to the seriousness of the case, the Supreme Court of California ordered that the appeals be transferred to it. Having gained a reputation as being one of the most liberal appellate courts, it was assumed by many that it would rule on the side of the university. Surprisingly, the court upheld the lower-court ruling in a six to one vote. Justice Stanley Mosk wrote, No applicant may be rejected because of his race, in favor of another who is less qualified, as measured by standards applied without regard to race.   The lone dissenter, Justice Matthew O. Tobriner wrote, It is anomalous that the Fourteenth Amendment that served as the basis for the requirement that elementary and secondary schools be compelled to integrate should now be turned around to forbid graduate schools from voluntarily seeking that very objective. The court ruled that the university could no longer use race in the admissions process. It ordered that the university provide proof that Bakkes application would have been rejected under a program that was not based on race. When the university admitted that it would be unable to provide the proof, the ruling was amended to order Bakkes admission into the medical school.   That order, however, was stayed by U.S. Supreme Court in November 1976, pending the outcome of the petition for a writ of certiorari to be filed by the Regents of the University of California to the U.S. Supreme Court. The university filed a petition for writ of certiorari the following month.

CIS206 U4 Research Assignment Example

CIS206 U4 Research Assignment Example CIS206 U4 Research Assignment – Coursework Example Controlling active processes in UNIX Insert Insert UNIX is a multiprocessing operating system. The process can either be suspended, running in the foreground or running in the background at any given time. UNIX also provides the option to set processes to run when you have logged off or run when you are not using it. To control the processes running in UNIX, you need to identify the jobs running in the background and to be able to view your processes. Further, it involves killing the processes. Every job that is or running in the background has a number that identifies them. The command jobs shows the commands started from a particular controlling terminal (Service, June 2006). When more than one terminal is running in the window, each of them will have a separate list of background jobs. The latter command will calculate the status of a job according to rules. First, the job that is most recently becomes the most current. Second, all jobs that have been stopped are more present than those that are running. Finally, for the jobs running, the most current is the one that is first. You can also use the jobs –I option to show the identification number of that job. The ps command is used to view information concerning the processes that are by all the users on the same system. It includes the various processes making up a particular job. In addition, it shows the how far a particular job has made progress. Ps has a variety of options custom made to display different information about the processes running on the system. The command man ps show those options.The command control / C enable the user to kill running processes in the foreground. Those running in the background can be terminated by using the kill command. The order is to use the ps command to show you the command you want to kill, and it’s PID. To kill the processes you have chosen use the command, kill –HUP PID. HUP sends a signal to the job for hung up thus allowing it to exit and to close the open files. Essentially, killing a process is a necessary precaution in some circumstances when other processes need to be more processing power. ReferencesService, U. o. (June 2006). Managing your UNIX processes. Durham: University of Durham Information Technology Service.

Note Taking Tips

Note Taking Tips Note Taking Tips Note Taking Tips By Sharon Writers may all have digital recorders but there are still some times when we need to take notes the old fashioned way. You know, with a pen and paper. If youre interviewing someone before writing an article, its good to take notes just in case the technology fails. However, interviews meander all over the place so it can be difficult to read your notes afterwards. Luckily, theres a simple trick you can use to make sure your interview notes are always readable. Its this: When writing notes in a notebook or notepad, write on alternate lines. Writing on every other line means that your writing doesnt get jumbled up. It also means you have room to go back and write additional information or clarification. At the end of the interview you will still be able to read all your notes clearly, even if your handwriting is terrible. And it will also make it easier to write additional notes before you start writing. Here are some other note taking tips from around the web: Use a three-ring binder instead of a spiral or bound book. Pages can be easily removed for reviewing. Practice management advisor, Joyce Brafford says â€Å"there’s no shame in drawing charts or shapes if it aids your understanding.† Write out your notes in your own words (not verbatim from a teacher or colleague). One exception to this is when you hear a good turn of phrase that helps you remember the the note, or if youre writing out a direct quote. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:4 Types of Gerunds and Gerund PhrasesWhenever vs. When Ever5 Keys to Better Sentence Flow

Radio 1 report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Radio 1 report - Essay Example BBC has many local stations in different cities of the UK. Around 40 local radio stations are working in England and Channel Islands under the name of BBC. BBC Radio 1 was established in 1967 with an intention to broadcast popular music and other entertainment activities. The popularity and the rating of Radio 1 were extremely high until recent times. However, the popularity of radio 1 seems to be declining in recent times. â€Å"Radio 1 had 10.87 million listeners in the third quarter of 2008, up from 10.58 million in the third period of 2007. However, listeners tuned in for less time, with a fall in its audience share to 9.8% from a seven-year high of 10.6% the same period last year† (Plunkett, 2008). This paper explains the station policy, play lists, and specific programs that are broadcasted by radio 1. Also, this paper analyses how fully and completely does radio 1 provides access to culture, music and public service inspired ideas specified in its service remit Unlike many other radio stations in the UK, radio 1 works on some unique policies. For example, radio 1 usually conducts roadshows with the DJs and pop stars in order to reach out even distant audience. The direct experiences received from the audiences will be broadcasted from 16:00-19:00 every weekday, with a 15-minute break at 17:45(BBC Radio 1, 2014) There are hundreds of programs broadcasted by Radio 1. A unique program of radio 1 is the breakfast show. It is broadcasting between 6:30 am and 10:00 am, Monday to Friday and is hosted by Nick Grimshaw at present. Dance Anthems, Xtra’s stories, Essential mix, Xtra live, chart shows such as UK singles chart (aired on Sunday afternoons) etc are some of the other popular shows on radio 1 (BBC Radio 1, 2014). Apart from regular shows, radio 1 airs many special shows and events time to time. For example, radio 1 has celebrated its 40

Impact of social media on political change in Egypt Term Paper

Impact of social media on political change in Egypt - Term Paper Example Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have become the most famous sites of social media. These sites bring people on a single platform and give them information all around the world. These are good at interacting people and to stay connected round the clock. It gives updates about what is happening around the people. Moreover, these give freedom of expression to every person residing in any part of the world, which is important to maintain peace in the region (â€Å"The New Arab Revolt†) The role of Social Media in Arab spring (Middle East) The events that took place a year ago in the Middle East made an intense debate on the role played by the social media. The Arab countries are facing two big challenges, which are economic growth and job creation. Hisham Matar considered revolution a boring thing (Albanyadmin). In such situations what was the role of social media? According to Matar, internet was an exaggeration, which represents that the internet was accessible to the elite in the Middle East also; they knew only how to use it who were the ones that brought revolution (Albanyadmin). The second view was that the social media spike an online revolutionary talk after the events that took place in the Middle East. ... The protestors made wide use of these platforms in order to keep united, which gave fanning to the flames. Moreover, it proved that the revolutionary power could not be controlled or stopped by the government authorities. The government had almost failed in their attempt to stop these protests, which were being aided by the social media. When the Egypt government shut off the internet and mobile networks for 5 days from January 28, 2011, it brought out more protesters on the roads, which became a real big problem for the Egyptian government. Social media provided a platform to the Egyptians to raise their voices. It became a source of news and courage to the protestors (Albanyadmin). Matar said that the internet has created a new language (Albanyadmin). The protestors became more violent by this support of social media. Secondly, the outside world has uprisings, which created Arab spring in the past. The protests, disturbances and revolutions were not new. In 1990s, the green mountai n of the Libya had uprisings in the east of the country. Also the same things happened in the 2011 revolution in Libya. The helicopters were sent by Gadaffi to limit the protestors, which also made bombardments on its own citizens (Albanyadmin). There was no as such news about it around the world as there was no proof of it. Especially in Egypt’s revolution, social media played a crucial role. Merely in 18 days, Egyptians succeeded in stepping down President Hosni Mubarak from the power, which reigned almost 30 years. In Tunisia’s revolution, it took 28 days but the result was less peaceful than in Egypt. In Libya, it took 9 months for a revolution to take place with poor peace results (Richards). Reports show

Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 25

Business - Essay Example On the other hand bring it with the organization structure of Hostess and this will depend on the Human Resource department exhibited by the firm, the teams owned by the firm verses the individual behavior of the individual members of the original company. This will go hand in hand with the communication models of the companies and the employee handling skills used by the employees. This may not be actually relevant for the firm since the firm will decide on whether to use distributorship, which operates through contracts. Therefore, the task that is left for this individual is to gunner all the information with regards to the form of distribution they would wish to use and land on the form that is appropriate for Worde white Bread name(See the attachments). A business mode to be employed by a company is quite a formal plan for earning a profit for the company, a business model is otherwise called a profit model and if the right procedure and channel were used in formulating and implementing it then the business would earn a profit out of it (Hoque). This is because the business model employed by for example by the Pepperidge Farm Bread Company would set the bread products and services to be offered to the customers and the way the company will offer such products and services. The distribution model implemented depending on how it is adopted will consider the cost structure and the manner to improve on the sales for the company to bring in more money to widen the gap for profitability while minimizing costs hence expanded profitability. The distribution model if enacted through a good model has always ensured that a wide range of costs as those on employees are negated hence they come in below the sales revenue widening the probability of increasing sales to improve on the profitability. For the distributor model to work as opposed to the employees’ model a series of steps as defined below must be followed in

Enviromental Problem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Enviromental Problem - Essay Example They have incorporated efforts that advocate for environmental conservation techniques (Egan, 2003). This paper will talk about Community Supported Agriculture and how it works to tackle environmental problems. Community Supported Agriculture, at times referred to as Community Shared Agriculture, (CSA) is an optional, locally-based socio-economic replica of food and agriculture distribution (Groh, 1998). The organization is based in North America. CSA also refers to an association or network of individuals who have vowed to support or aid one or more local farms, with farmers and their clients sharing the benefits and risks of food production. CSA subscribers or members settle their debts at the beginning of the planting season for a share of the estimated harvest (Cone & Myhre, 2000). Once harvesting starts, they get weekly shares of fruits and vegetables, in a vegetable box scheme, as well as herbs, honey, cut flowers, dairy products, eggs and meat. The environment’s benefit, according to the organization, is quite fair (Local Harvest, 2012). The minimal transportation needed to transport food, and agricultural material locally is a substantial reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. CSA transportation of foodstuff, therefore, reduces the emission of toxic fumes into the environment (Local Harvest, 2012). A majority of CSA farmers also produce their food with no organic fertilizers or pesticides. This is because the organization advocates for natural production of food with as little chemicals as possible, and this limits the effect that chemicals have on the environment (Local Harvest, 2012). The human created nitrogen used as fertilizer for crops caters for 75% of human created nitrogen, which brings about eutrophication, substantially harming aquatic ecosystems. Furthermore, the environment benefits indirectly through the exclusion of the farm’s need for financial support (Speth, 2008). Farm subsidies can encourage

Animation Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Animation Questions - Essay Example As the dance moves escalate, the overlap spaces out but the margin of the overlaps bridge closely as the dance moves slow down. The one year old baby is also consistent with the baby rapid moves owing to maintain balance. But in this case, the overlap I not as rapid as the one exemplified by the ballet dancer. The baby limbs are trying to acclimatize to movement while on the other hand, the dancer has developed stable gait. The drunkard has unstable and inconsistent gait. That explains the varying overlaps. In this case as he walks the overlaps bridge a bit but spaces out as he moves fast (perhaps almost falling but maintaining inertia). The overlap is medium, not as slow as the baby taking the first steps and not as rapid as for the dancer. On the second discussion, as I bounce the ball, I would incline and turn my head to underline the rapid moves I make owing to precisely hit my preferred target (the dining table in this case). I would also dangle my arms and jounce my head. As I lean forward to hit the ball I would walk forcefully and make strong gestures as I pick the stable ball. I would also lean forward as I pick the dropped cup and fallen books and tilt my head as I place the cup and the books back to the table. I would also dangle my arms rapidly to avoid being hurt by the chair as I bounce the

Strategies of Nokia and Nestle and their competitive advantage in the Essay

Strategies of Nokia and Nestle and their competitive advantage in the industry - Essay Example It is vital part of organizational success as it not only helps them to survive but also facilitates in maintaining competitive edge against their rivals in the industry. Business strategies are actions plans developed to achieve the vision, mission and objectives of the organizations over a long period of time. Porter (1996) says that competitive strategy is doing business differently to give value to the customers and maintain leverage. The strategic plans therefore, are vital ingredients that allow firms to be flexible and innovative so that they can absorb environmental changes and evolve to maintain one’s market position. The report is primarily an effort to analyze the business strategies of Nokia and Nestle which have made tremendous changes within their strategies to create niche market position in the domestic and global market. Outline of strategic issues of Nokia Nokia is a Finnish conglomerate that has incredible growth story. It has emerged as a flagship company mainly because it was able to anticipate and preempt environmental changes to evolve new strategies. The foresightedness of its managerial leadership was able to steer it to its present success. There were three major strategic issues with Nokia which needed to be creatively designed and developed to facilitate leadership position in the global market. The first one was to redefine its strategies towards its low performing business activities which did not offer long term sustainability of good profits or prospects. The second was to identify the business which had wide scope prospects vis-a-vis business opportunities across the globe. Third and the last one was to ensure that the products should be able to meet the changing demands of the global customers and should have futuristic scope to attract them. These were critical issues which needed to be addressed urgently by the compa ny so that its vision of becoming a successful global entity could be expedited and realized. 3.1.1 Situation analysis of Nokia Finland was a rich but small nation that was bogged down with geographical hardships that made it difficult to adopt traditional technology to improve its communication and other related development processes. It initially had diverse interests comprising of tire manufacturing, paper production, consumer electronics and telecommunication equipment. The disinvestment of many of its business activities helped it to focus on telecommunication. It was one of the companies that had pioneered wireless technology to overcome geographical constraints of near arctic conditions which made cable based telecommunication a difficult and expensive venture. Indeed, strategic planning is at the heart of business strategy. Bateman and Snell (2009:132) emphasize that planning is ‘the conscious, systematic process of making decisions about goals and activities that an i ndividual, group, work unit or organization will pursue in future’. Nokia had demonstrated its leadership initiative by disinvesting its low prospect business activities and correctly identifying potential in the telecommunication where wireless technology had offered huge scope for business expansion. It was focused on organization’s long term goals and objectives for its success and growth. It explicitly emphasized the unique activities and approaches of Nokia leadership for delivering its strategic goals and objectives. Kotler & Keller (2007) have stressed the need to be innovative and service oriented. Nokia was able to align its strategic action

Animation Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Animation Questions - Essay Example As the dance moves escalate, the overlap spaces out but the margin of the overlaps bridge closely as the dance moves slow down. The one year old baby is also consistent with the baby rapid moves owing to maintain balance. But in this case, the overlap I not as rapid as the one exemplified by the ballet dancer. The baby limbs are trying to acclimatize to movement while on the other hand, the dancer has developed stable gait. The drunkard has unstable and inconsistent gait. That explains the varying overlaps. In this case as he walks the overlaps bridge a bit but spaces out as he moves fast (perhaps almost falling but maintaining inertia). The overlap is medium, not as slow as the baby taking the first steps and not as rapid as for the dancer. On the second discussion, as I bounce the ball, I would incline and turn my head to underline the rapid moves I make owing to precisely hit my preferred target (the dining table in this case). I would also dangle my arms and jounce my head. As I lean forward to hit the ball I would walk forcefully and make strong gestures as I pick the stable ball. I would also lean forward as I pick the dropped cup and fallen books and tilt my head as I place the cup and the books back to the table. I would also dangle my arms rapidly to avoid being hurt by the chair as I bounce the

Culture of Dissent Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Culture of Dissent - Essay Example Muto Ichiyo is well known in Japan as a scholar of contemporary Japanese politics and society, and for his involvement in peace movements and people’s movements. He was a prominent member of the 1960s anti-Vietnam War movement.Ichigo begins his article, â€Å"Asian Peace Movements and Empire† with a summary of events beginning in Oct. 2001 and the establishment of the Asian Peace Alliance. As part of that network, it was hoped to create a response to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan that was representative of all Asian people. Ichigo goes into more detail about Asia’s own problems: the nuclear confrontation between Indian and Pakistan, fundamentalist fighting in India, and human rights violations among others. But in analyzing the conference on Asian Peace he acknowledges that 40% of the discussion revolved around â€Å"the American War†, with the majority of participants concluding that the ensuing violence against civilians had nothing to do with the wis hes of the American populace, but was rather the imperialists justifying a global pacification scheme. He uses the term neoliberal globalization and states the war was integral to that process, and as a result, it â€Å"wreaked havoc† on the world.One of the most forceful voices in clarifying what all of these writers are saying is that of Arundhati Roy in â€Å"The Algebra of Infinite Justice†. Infinite Justice was originally the name for Operation Enduring Freedom until complaints were made by Muslims, who stated only Allah could mete out infinite justice.

How To Develop Pricing Strategy For A Product Marketing Essay

How To Develop Pricing Strategy For A Product Marketing Essay This Paper tries to link between the first two components of a marketing mix: product strategy and pricing strategy. In order to help decision makers to define the optimum pricing strategy for product mix. Marketers broadly define a product as a bundle of physical, service, and symbolic attributes designed to satisfy consumer wants. Therefore, product strategy involves considerably more than producing a physical good or service. It is a total product concept that includes decisions about package design, brand name, trademarks, warranties, guarantees, product image, and new-product development. The second element of the marketing mix is pricing strategy. Price is the exchange value of a good or service. An item is worth only what someone else is willing to pay for it. In a primitive society, the exchange value may be determined by trading a good for some other commodity. Pricing strategy deals with the multitude of factors that influence the setting of a price. Table of Contents Introduction This paper will review each of the variables that affect the optimum pricing strategies of a product, the researcher will start with defining The product and exploring how product classification can affect the product mix decision in the firm, then researcher will study the product life cycle and how it can affect the pricing and marketing strategies during the different stages of the cycle. Secondly the researcher will tackle the pricing as one of the marketing strategies and what can affect the pricing strategy either internally from inside the firm or externally from outside the firm, finally researcher will define the linkage between pricing strategy, marketing strategy and the product mix. Problem Statement How to define the optimum pricing strategy for product mix as part of the firm marketing strategy Research Questions What is a product and how product classification can affect the Product mix decision for a firm? What is the linkage between the product life cycle and marketing strategy? What are the different pricing objectives? What factors are affecting the pricing strategy for a product? What is the linkage between pricing strategy, product and marketing strategy? Marketing Strategies Marketing Planning begins with formulating an offering to meet target customers needs or wants, where the customer will judge this offering by mainly two elements; product features and quality, and price. (Kotler Keller, 2009) Before a new product launch, marketers create marketing programs to maximize the chance of success. This is often a challenging managerial decision because, to set the appropriate pricing levels, managers must have reliable estimates as to how sales would respond to different levels of a marketing-mix variable. (JACKIE LUAN SUDHIR, 2010). The long term performance of mature product will be affected by the integrated marketing strategy including pricing (BERK ATAMAN, VAN HEERDE, MELA, 2010). Product Product is no more a tangible offering, but it can be more than that, Product can be anything that is offered to a market to satisfy a want or a need, including physical goods, services, experiences, events, persons, places, properties, organizations, information, and ideas. (Kotler Keller, 2009) There are many aspects of product development to consider. A product or service has features: function, appearance, packing, and guarantees of performance that help people solve problems. When designing a product, marketers should address the issue of product classes. (Smith Strand, 2008) Product Classification Products are classified on the basis of; durability, tangibility and use (consumer or industrial), where each product type has its appropriate marketing strategy. (Kotler Keller, 2009) Durability and Tangibility: The products can be sub-classified into three categories according to the durability and tangibility; where goods can be either nondurable goods, durable goods or a service. Nondurable Goods will be tangible, normally consumed in one or a few uses and they are purchased frequently, such as soap. Durable Goods are tangible goods that survive many uses, such as refrigerators. Services are intangible, inseparable and perishable products. Consumer Goods Classification: According to the consumers shopping habits; products can be sub-classified into convenience, shopping, specialty, and unsought products. Consumer purchase Convenience Goods frequently and with minimum efforts such as soaps and soft drinks. When the consumer characteristically compare on bases of suitability, quality and price, this is a Shopping Goods such as furniture. Specialty Goods are goods with unique characteristics for which a sufficient numbers of consumers are willing to make a special purchasing effort such as sportive cars. There are another category of goods that consumer doesnt normally think of buying such as life insurance which is classified as Unsought Goods. Industrial Goods Classification: According to the goods relative cost and how they enter the production process; Industrial goods can be sub classified into Material and Parts, Capital Items, and Supplies and Business Services. Material and Parts are goods that enter the manufacturers product completely such as raw materials. Capital Items are long lasting goods that facilitate developing or managing the finished products, such as buildings and heavy equipment. Supplies and Business Services are short-term goods and services that facilitate developing or managing the finished goods, such as maintenance and repair. Product Mix The Product Mix is the totality of product lines offered by a company. Product mix decisions involve varying their width, depth and consistency. Mix width refers to the number of different product lines the company carries. Mix consistency includes assessing the relationship between product lines in terms of common end uses, prices, distribution outlets and markets served. (Clemente, 2002) Before a new product launch, marketers have to create marketing programs to maximize the chance of success. In other words, they must forecast the market responsiveness to various marketing-mix variables. Although there is substantial literature on new product sales forecasting, there has been scant research related to forecasting marketing-mix responsiveness before a new product launch. (JACKIE LUAN SUDHIR, 2010) Determining the product-mix is one of the most important decisions relating to planning. Such decision implies utilizing limited resources to maximize the net value of the output from the production facilities. The quantity produced from each product in a certain time period results in utilizing certain resources for that time, consuming certain amount of raw materials, using certain labor skills and various production centers, and so on. The objective of the product-mix decision in the overall production plan is to find the product mix and the production program that maximizes the total contribution to profit/throughput subject to constraints imposed by resource limitations, market demand, and sales forecast. (Al-Aomar, 2000) The product designer should take into account both marketing and engineering considerations concurrently in a product line design. (LUO, 2011) Linkage between Product Classification and Product Mix In offering a product line, companies should offer basic platform of products and modules that can be added to meet different customers requirements, this approach enables companies to offer variety of products and to lower their production cost, therefore; each product line manager has to know the sales and profits of each item in his product line in order to determine which product mix strategy to implement, and to know which items to build, maintain, harvest, or divest. (Kotler Keller, 2009) Product classification has implication on how companies will formulate their product mixtures and what marketing strategies will be applied per each product mix, knowing at what class is the product along with well orientation of the product mix will be positively beneficial for both to the producer as well as to the consumers. The followings are some relations between product classification and product mix. (ADEOTI, 2010) Durability and Tangibility Classification and Product Mix: For durable and non-durable goods, there is a reflection on the life expectancy of the product. These classifications have strategic implications to the producer. Durable products are purchased infrequently and require personal selling. Perishable products need speedy distribution and luxury goods can be priced highly. Consumer Goods Classification and Product Mix: Convenience goods could be staples like food items bought on regular basis often by habit. It could also be impulsive items which are purchased, not because of planning but because of strongly felt need. It could also be emergency products which are needed to solve an immediate crisis. Brand Name would be very important for staple products while impulse products require a captivating packaging signal that will attract the consumers. For emergency products the consumers are less sensitive to price, therefore it is a circumstantial product. The understanding, of the buying behavior of the consumers for each of these sub-categories of convenience goods and the product characteristics will inform the producer on the appropriate marketing strategy options to be taken for higher returns. Shopping goods are bought rather infrequently and are used up very slowly. For homogenous shopping goods the prices should be relatively in the same range with other products in the same homogenous shopping goods category. For heterogeneous shopping goods consumers should consider the tangible features of these products and the associated services on offer before making a buying decision. Consumers are not usually sensitive to prices of heterogeneous shopping goods provided the product has some demonstrable advantage over its competitors. Promotional activity for this category of shopping goods should focus on pointing out unique attributes of the product rather than low prices. Specialty goods are products that have no acceptable substitutes in the mind of the consumer, where the uniqueness and superiority of the Specialty product stems from unrivalled quality superiority or design exclusivity. Specialty brands are what should be created. Producer should be encouraged by this superiority complex of the buyers and should not demean the quality. Consumers of such products are insensitive to price. Hence the mark up could be high for the targeted market, for unsought products, the consumer has no felt need for it. Many new products fall into this category, until their usefulness is known the consumer is not disposed to buying them. Personal selling and wide advertisement is required for unsought goods. There may be a need to even launch the product officially in the market place. Industrial Goods Classification and Product Mix: Installations goods are long-lasting products that are not bought very often. The number of potential buyers at any given time is usually small. These consist of buildings and fixed equipment. The producer must design it to specification and to supply post sale services. Accessory equipment; these comprise of portable factory equipment and tools. This equipment does not become part of the finished product; they simply help in the production process. Quality features, price and services are major considerations in vendor selection. Raw materials; these are goods that have been produced only enough to make handling convenient and safe. They enter the manufacturing process basically in their natural state. They originate either from agriculture or from industries such as mining and lumbering. Examples are cotton, man cue, crude oil and most farm produce. Fabricating materials; these undergo some degree of initial processing before they enter the product manufacturing process. This may be a relatively basic step such as changing iron ore into pig iron or wheat into flour. In other cases an ingredient may be completely prefabricated, such as an automobile tire or an electric motor for home appliance. The more complicated a product is, the more likely it is to contain both raw and fabricating materials. Facilitating goods; these are operating supplies that are used up in the operation of the firm but do not become part of the product. They are usually budgeted as expenses and have short life. The purpose of such goods is to keep the foundation goods functioning properly and to help in the handling and supply of the entering goods. Examples are lubricating oil; saw blades, cider forms and labels. The Product Life Cycle Product life-cycle (PLC) like human beings, products also have an arc. From birth to death, human beings pass through various stages e.g. birth, growth, maturity, decline and death. A similar life-cycle is seen in the case of products. The product life cycle goes through multiple phases, involves many professional disciplines, and requires many skills, tools and processes. Product life cycle (PLC) has to do with the life of a product in the market with respect to business/commercial costs and sales measures. (Niemann, Tichkiewitch, Westkà ¤mper, 2008) Product value and life are usually expected to follow the product life cycle (PLC), wherein products are expected to move from an investment toward a profitable mature peak that ends when the product is phased out. However; Christiansen et al assume that the value of a product is relational and that relationships between products and consumers are created, broken, and recreated. Value creation is a never-ending process, in that the product should be considered to be a process by which value constructions are constantly negotiated in actor networks. (Christiansen, Varnes, Gasparin, Storm-Nielsen, Vinther, 2010) Christiansen et al (2010) have concluded some actors that make the product timeless: Flexibility and adaptability that make it possible for the product to travel to new places and participate in new qualification processes and attach to new actors and be part of new networks. The ability to connect to different networks simultaneously as part of a network that stresses the high-end market attaching to the need for having a distinctive product to some, being a classical piece of sculpture-furniture to others and being related to contemporary artistic expressions to yet others. A strong core that provides the product with a unique and significant identity or expression, allowing for temporal interpretations or additions and modifications. Framing devices that help to position the product in settings that continue to present the product as relevant and useful in changing networks in a context in which others are constantly trying to get customers to attach to other networks. Serendipity-as fortune and misfortune cannot be accurately predicted or calculated when the out- come is a product of multiple connections over long time spans among potentially numerous human and non-human actors. Linkage between Product Life Cycle and marketing Strategies The product life cycle concept provides important insights for the marketing planner in anticipating developments throughout the various stages of a products life. Knowledge that profits assume a predictable pattern through the stages and that promotional emphasis must shift from product information in the early stages to heavy promotion of competing brands in the later ones should improve product planning decisions. Since marketing programs will be modified at each stage in the life cycle, an understanding of the characteristics of all four product life cycle stages is critical in formulating successful strategies. (Skidmore, 2005) Skidmore (2005) has divided the product life cycle into mainly four stages; Introduction Stage In the early stages of the product life cycle, the firm attempts to promote demand for its new market offering. Because neither consumers nor distributors may be aware of the product, marketers must use promotional programs to inform the market of the items availability and explain its features, uses, and benefits. New-product development and introductory promotional campaigns are expensive and commonly lead to losses in the first stage of the product life cycle. Yet these expenditures are necessary if the firm is to profit later. Growth Sales climb quickly during the products growth stage as new customers join the early users who are now repurchasing the item. Person-to-person referrals and continued advertising by the firm induce others to make trial purchases. The company also begins to earn profits on the new product. But this encourages competitors to enter the field with similar offerings. Price competition appears in the growth stage, and total industry profits peak in the later part of this stage. To gain a larger share of a growing market, firms may develop different versions of a product to target specific segments. Maturity Industry sales at first increase in the maturity stage, but eventually reach a saturation level at which further expansion is difficult. Competition also intensifies, increasing the availability of the product. Firms concentrate on capturing competitors customers, often dropping prices to further their appeal. Sales volume fades late in the maturity stage, and some of the weaker competitors leave the market. Firms spend heavily on promoting mature products to protect their market share and to distinguish their products from those of competitors. Decline Sales continue to fall in the decline stage of the product life cycle. Profits also decline and may become losses as further price cutting occurs in the reduced market for the item. The decline stage is usually caused by a product innovation or a shift in consumer preferences. The decline stage of an old product can also be the growth stage for a new product. Pricing The meaning of the price is broader than the traditional definition The price of a product or service is the number of monetary units a customer has to pay to receive one unit of that product or service. (Blois, Gijsbrechts, Campo, Oxford Textbook of Marketing, 2000) Blois et al (2000) have believed more in Hurt and Speh definition of the pricing where they believe that the cost of an industrial good includes much more than the sellers price, where they have concluded that implications of pricing is crucial to managers facing the pricing decision, therefore decision-makers have to consider the multidimensional view on prices. Additionally they have to recognize that complex pricing schemes may be needed, including a system of prices for different types of customers, product packages, and time periods. This observation is the essence of strategic pricing. Pricing strategy STRATEGY is the means by which an organization seeks to achieve its objectives (Adrian., 2000) Adrian (2000) explained how Strategic decisions about pricing cannot be made in isolation from other strategic marketing decisions, so, for example, a strategy that seeks a premium price position must be matched by product development strategy that creates a superior product and a promotional strategy that establishes in buyers minds the value that the product offers. Adrian (2000) then explained the relation between pricing strategy and the concept of positioning, where a strategy that combined high price with low quality may be regarded by customers as poor value and they are likely to desert such companies where they have a choice of suppliers. For most companies, such a strategy is not sustainable. A high quality/low price strategic position may appear very attractive to buyers, but it too may not be sustainable. Back to Blois et al (2000) where they highlighted how the price is also a component of the marketing mix and therefore impacts on overall sales via its contribution to the consumers perception of the products image. Pricing Objectives Marketing attempts to accomplish certain objectives through its pricing decisions. Research has shown that pricing objectives vary from firm to firm. Some companies try to maximize their profits by pricing their offerings very high. Others use low prices to attract new business. (Palmer, 2000) As per Palmer (2000); the three basic categories of pricing objectives are: Profitability Objectives Profit maximization is the basis of much of economic theory. However, it is often difficult to apply in practice, and many firms have turned to a simpler profitability objective-the target return goal. For example, a firm might specify the goal of a 9 percent return on sales or a 20 percent return on investment. Most target return pricing goals state the desired profitability in terms of a return on either sales or investment. Volume Objectives Another example of pricing strategy is sales maximization, under which management sets an acceptable minimum level of profitability and then tries to maximize sales. Sales expansion is viewed as being more important than short run profits to the firms long-term competitive position. A second volume objective is market share; the percentage of a market controlled by a certain company, product, or service. One firm may seek to achieve a 25 percent market share in a certain industry. Another may want to maintain or expand its market share for particular products or product lines. Social Objectives Objectives not related to profitability or sales volume; can be either of social and/or ethical considerations, status quo objectives, and image goals are often used in pricing decisions. Social and ethical considerations play an important role in some pricing situations. For example, the price of some goods and services is based on the intended consumers ability to pay. For example, some union dues are related to the income of the members. Internal factors affecting pricing Company objectives and strategies An essential ingredient of effective prices is their consistency with company objectives and overall marketing strategy. The realization of company objectives necessitates the development of an overall marketing strategy. To be effective and efficient, the companys pricing decisions must fit into this strategy, and be in line with decisions on other marketing-mix elements. Also, prices should not be set as an afterthought. Reflections on appropriate prices should occur at the time the product, communication, and distribution are conceived, because the different instruments of the mix have a synergetic influence on the market. There is ample evidence that the impact of pricing strategies and structures depends on the companies communication and distribution approach and on the products characteristics. (Blois, Gijsbrechts, Campo, Oxford Textbook of Marketing, 2000) Costs Costs have traditionally played a major role in pricing decisions. They constitute a basic ingredient for setting a price floor or lower boundary on acceptable prices. Cost Classification Costs can be classified along different dimensions. (Blois, Gijsbrechts, Campo, Oxford Textbook of Marketing, 2000) First Dimension First dimension concerns the degree to which costs can be directly attributed to specific products; where costs can be either direct traceable, indirect traceable or general costs. Direct traceable costs can be immediately associated with individual products, such as the cost of raw materials. Indirect traceable costs are not directly linked to, but can with some effort be traced back to, individual products, such as the cost of filling shelves is illustrative of this type. General costs, finally, cannot be linked to specific products, such as administrative overhead costs. Assessing direct traceable costs, and attributing indirect traceable costs, are important for pricing. Second Dimension Equally crucial is the distinction between variable and fixed costs. Which of these components should enter the pricing decision depends on the companys objective. For profit-maximizing companies, fixed cost may not affect optimal prices. Yet, for not-for-profit companies maximizing sales or participation subject to a deficit constraint, fixed cost may have a major effect on feasible outcomes. The companys time horizon also has a fundamental impact on the costs to be considered. Whether costs are fixed or variable depends on the time frame adopted by the company. Third Dimension Cost dynamics; where Short-term costs may differ from long-term cost levels as a result of changes in the scale of company operations. Economies of scale arise if the cost per unit decreases with the output level in a given period. This could be the result of the facility to share corporate resources across products, the use of more efficient (large-scale) production facilities, long production runs, access to volume discounts in purchases, or shipment in full carload or truckload lots. Experience effects are a second major source of declining production costs. Linkage between cost and pricing strategy As argued above, costs are related to price floors: they typically set a lower bound on prices. The contribution margin for a product equals its price minus its unit variable cost: if negative, selling the product at that price leads to a loss; if positive, at least part of the fixed cost can be recovered. While this principle seems utterly simple, the foregoing discussion illustrates that the determination and quantification of all relevant costs may be far from evident. The notion of costs as a price floor is blurred by product inter-dependencies, cost dynamics, cost allocation over channel members and company subsidiaries, and the pursuit of multiple company objectives. Yet, knowledge of basic cost components remains a crucial input to the pricing decision, and companies should strive for a complete picture of various cost issues. (Blois, Gijsbrechts, Campo, Oxford Textbook of Marketing, 2000) External factors affecting pricing AS well as there are internal factors that affect the firm, there are also many external factors that affect the firm that must be taken into account when prices are set. It is useful to consider these in four groups; first the characteristics of the customers themselves and then three aspects of the environment within which the firm operates. (Blois, Gijsbrechts, Campo, Oxford Textbook of Marketing, 2000) Customer characteristics Price-volume relationship (price sensitivity) The customers price sensitivity is usually measured by the price elasticity; the price elasticity is the relative change in demand (sales) resulting from a relative change in the unit price of the product. The price elasticity is affected by four factors; firstly, measured price sensitivities depend on how demand is quantified: market-share changes in response to price are typically larger than sales changes. Secondly, the nature of the price change affects elasticity outcomes. Market reactions to a regular price change may be different from response to temporary promotional price cuts. Thirdly, the level of price elasticity depends on distribution and communication, but especially on product characteristics. Products or services with a unique brand value are said to be less sensitive to price changes. Finally, price elasticity changes over the product life cycle (PLC). The traditional view is that price sensitivity increases as the product evolves over the life cycle, price sensitiv ity first declines as the product moves from the introduction to the growth and maturity stage, and then increases in the decline phase of the PLC. Individual consumers The traditional microeconomic picture of a consumer who correctly registers all prices and price changes, and acts rationally upon them so as to maximize his utility, has been falsified for quite some time. Consumers are heterogeneous in their levels of price search, knowledge, and recall accuracy. Consumers also differ in the location of their acceptable price range: they have different upper and lower price limits, different reference price levels, and different latitudes of acceptance around the reference price. A wide range of factors may explain these differences. Economic factors, such as perceived price differences, budget restrictions, and income levels, are a first source of heterogeneity. Search and transaction costs stemming from time constraints, mobility restrictions, age, household composition, and location, also affect consumer price processing and evaluation. Thirdly, human-capital characteristics such as time-management skills and basic knowledge may come into play. Fourthly, the level of price processing depends on the expected psychosocial returns from price information collection and product adoption, which are often related to culture and peer group. Finally, consumer traits like variety-seeking versus loyalty cause consumers to react differently to prices. As will be argued in subsequent sections, recognition of consumer heterogeneity is crucial for effective pricing: managers should exploit these differences in the development of pricing strategies and tactics. Industrial customers Industrial decision is believed to be more rational and based on more complete information. Price would, for example, be less often used as a quality signal in industrial settings. Other factors such as the importance in the total cost of the end product and the importance in the functioning of the end product are deemed more important determinants of the price sensitivity of industrial buyers than of individual consumers. Competitive environment In determining prices, the competitive environment should explicitly be accounted for. The level of demand associated with a given company price strongly depends on prevailing competitive prices. Moreover, in a dynamic setting, not only must current prices of competitors be taken into account, but so should competitive reactions. Competitive retaliation may attenuate pricing effects. It could even provoke price wars where prices of all market players are systematically reduced, possibly to unprofitable levels. Careful analysis of competition is, therefore, a prerequisite for effective pricing. Channel environment Most companies operate within a marketing channel: they obtain products, components, and/or materials from suppliers; and many pass their products onto intermediaries before they reach the end-users. The characteristics of the channel, and the (associated) reactions of channel members, strongly affect the nature of the pricing problem as well as the effectiveness of alternative pricing strategies, structures, and instruments. Legal environment In setting prices, managers must be aware of legal constraints that restrict their decision freedom such as: Consumer pricing regulations Governments can influence final consumer prices indirectly by means of VAT rates. They can also control prices directly by imposing price ceilings or price floors for specific product categories. Besides imposing restrictions on absolute price levels, governments can limit the freedom of co