Surveys Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Surveys - Essay Example es, Behaviour, and Preferences of E-Customers; Allworth Press 17 Introduction This present paper is a research paper that seeks to investigate how the internet has revolutionised how business is done and what influences the internet has on the performance of business organisation. The paper will mainly answer this research question using data collected from questionnaires that were distributed to a target population of fifteen people that comprised of five managers and ten friends and relatives. ... The second part of the paper will analyse that data that was collected in the first part while the third and final part of the paper will discuss research findings , draw out a conclusion and then spell out a few recommendation that address the research question. Part 1 1.1 Impact of the internet on businesses Jarvenpaa and Todd (2010) described the Internet as a global network that interconnects all computers in the world thereby enabling different computers in different corners of the world to communicate with each other. Bridges et al. (2010) further added that the internet is decentralised by design meaning that it is independent and not a property of any individual thou it relies on other physical infrastructures that taps into other networks. Through the interconnectivity provided by the Internet, the world has become a global village and it is no longer necessary to move physically from one location to another in order to inquire or acquire a good or service since this can be done through the internet and payment as well as delivery can be organised through the same platform. According to Bigne (2005), the internet has had a revolutionary impact mostly in the 21st century on the way people carry on various tasks. For example, it is no longer mandatory to go to work to simply submit or write a report, since the employee can do this at the comfort of his or her own home and then send the report to the manager via the internet. This mode of operating is largely classified under the concept of virtual office, which does not necessarily require workers to work under one physical location. Secondly, Close (2012) noted that it is no longer necessary to visit a physical store in order to inquire about a certain product or service before

A Strategic Plan for Personal Development Assignment

A Strategic Plan for Personal Development - Assignment Example Conclusion Abstract Leadership can be defined as the various processes that people of authority practice to influence their peers or subordinates to agree and understand how to improve performance and interpersonal communication to achieve collective objectives (Jones & Goffee, 2007).Leadership in the contemporary society has various definitions that relate to good communication and achieving set objectives (Daft, 2011). Some leaders incorporate the use of psychological techniques such as emotional intelligence to impact good leadership abilities among employees. I desire to be a leader can influence other people towards goal attainment and shares the same objective with peers. Introduction I believe such leadership will help me motivate my subordinates towards attainment of common objectives and enhance interpersonal communications (Daft, 2011). Leadership process is either interactive or linear. An interactive process is a two-way communication where leaders and their peers or foll owers communicate by raising concerns and receiving a direct feedback. A linear leadership process is an authoritative form of leadership where leaders make decisions and implement changes without consulting their followers (Daft, 2011). Leaders influence their peers, subordinates and other stakeholders. ... Trait in leaders implies that some people have the right personality, values, motives and skills to be good leaders. Literature Review a. Process versus trait Process in leadership implies that skills and abilities are acquired through education, coaching and mentoring (Jago, 2006). Leadership process is available to all hardworking and reformed entrepreneurs willing to change their cognitive and behavioral aspect of life. Leaders can learn from other famous and successful leaders how to become the best in their organization. Emotional intelligence is also essential while learning how to become an influential and effective leader. Most business leaders shape their skills with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and changing their behavior to accommodate diverse culture and behavior exhibited by other people in an organization (Daft, 2011). Coaching and mentoring in a leadership process is very important because successful leaders shape the minds and behavior of young and aspiring leaders to become influential. Mentoring is a process where decisions are affected by the experienced leaders before any action is implemented. The mentor acts as counselor to an aspiring leader by listening and giving sound advice that is needed to achieve set objectives of becoming a good leader (Sindell & Hoang, 2001). Trait in leadership is an added value, which is innate in nature (Goffee & Jones, 2006). Some people are born with leadership personalities, values and physical characteristics. There are leaders that speak fluently and influence people with both spoken and written word. Some leaders are extroverts, which imply that they socialize with all employees, stakeholders and customers to acquire new views and concerns from

Teenagers sometimes complain Essay Example for Free

Teenagers sometimes complain Essay Teenagers first come into this world as a bundle of joy, but some object. As children grow and become teenagers, the problems start. Problems such as relationships, school and even monetary are rampant. So what do children do when they run into trouble? They go to their parents; so do teenagers. Teenagers in Singapore go through lots of education. From young in primary school till university for many. Education can therefore be said to be very formal and very fast paced and competitive. Teachers and parents already at this stage have their students or childrens lives planned out, but teenagers may think differently. Our elders think that teenagers need help and are always wrong. Certainly there are numerous occasions when we simply cannot do without our parents. But for the many others, we need to take a stand and speak out for whats right. Let me give you this example. There is a boy. He goes to school. Then he goes to secondary school. He is now a teenager. The O level examination is approaching, and all he does is try to study. That is good. Then the adult steps in. A responsible one would say this: How are you doing? Do you need help? Just ask me. Dont be shy. Then on the other hand an adult with fish mongering experience would say this: Aiyah! Whole day study study. You know last time My parents worked day and night, and I started working when I was your age! Now all you can do is sit here and read your book. So this is the main reason behind teenagers being treated like children. Sometimes its not the teenagers fault but instead it is the adults fault. You have just seen how family backgrounds affect how people view children. Now I shall let you see what happens when it is the teenagers fault. A good teenager would do what he or she is supposed to do to become a good person. Like so: Teacher, can I ask you a question? What topics are coming out for the tests? Then the bad one would say: Aiyah! Tests are always coming, but they never come, study wastes time, study for what? You see the good teenager has a sort of worry for his future, whereas the bad one does not. It is this mere worry that sets us about our lives. Without it, our lives would be as meaningless as the aimless punks. Adults also think about our future. Because we dont. They care incessantly about the smallest things in life, probably because when they were young, they faced the same demands of society. So it is because of this care and concern for responsibility that motivates us to behave like children, so the adults can guide us toward the right path. Now I know, what you qualify determines whether you are a child or an adult.

Analysis Of The Efficient Market Hypothesis

Analysis Of The Efficient Market Hypothesis The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), one of the most prominent conjectures in finance, emerged in the 1950s due to early application of computers in analysis of time-series behavior of economic variables. A vast body of research literature on this problem has been produced since the first studies attributed to Kendall (1953). The first articles dealing with market efficiency generally were supportive of the idea that securities are priced rationally and stock prices reflect all available at the moment information. However, with the development of advanced econometric techniques and powerful computers a new breed of literature emerged: researchers started to produce evidence debunking the EMH. Nevertheless, despite significant success in finding anomalies which clash with the EMH this great idea has remained to be a hypothesis since neither supporters nor opponents could produce reliable enough evidence to finally confirm or reject it. This essay elaborates on the question of validi ty of the EMH and shows that there is no simple answer which could end the debate about market efficiency. There are three forms of the EMH that are usually tested by researchers: weak form, semi-strong form and strong form. The main difference between them is contained in the information which can be used to predict future price movements of the stock. The weak form of market efficiency states that past prices do not have any influence on the current prices. In other words, it is impossible to use past price information to predict future prices since all this information is already reflected in the prices. The semi-strong form of market efficiency takes into account, besides past information about prices, publicly available information, i.e. financial reports, public announcements etc. And finally, the strong-form of market efficiency states that all available information, including that of insiders, is reflected in prices and, therefore, cannot be useful in price forecasting. Thus, usually researchers specify which type of market efficiency they test as the methods used are different. F ama (1991) presents a slightly different categorization of tests of market efficiency: tests for return predictability, event studies and tests for private information. However, all these tests have one purpose to find out if that is possible to develop profitable strategies based on the different kind of information which could produce significant abnormal returns. If the answer to this question is yes then opponents of the EMH obtain additional advantage in the debate about the EMH. On the other hand, the results testifying to validity of the EMH are generally regarded as common and do not get significant public attention. Before proceeding to critical evaluation of the particular anomalies which are supposed to refute the EMH it can be useful to consider general shortcomings of the tests employed in these procedures. First of all, all tests of market efficiency are based on a particular model which is used to predict normal returns. This leads to the joint-hypothesis problem, i.e. it is impossible to determine whether the obtained results are due to real market inefficiency or just reflect poorly specified model for normal returns. Second, the data-mining problem is especially pronounced in the tests of market efficiency. In other words, for every reported profitable strategy there can be dozens of unprofitable strategies which were not reported due to the fact that they did not produce any sensational result. And finally, all theoretical findings should be tested practically in order to determine the real income which can be generated on the basis of theoretical strategies. Otherwise, even very profi table strategy can be an artifact due to factors that remained unaccounted during the research. The strong form of market efficiency has become the weakest form in terms of the number of its supporters. It is generally believed that insiders can use their information to earn significant profits from trading. Jaffe (1974) finds that insiders have information that is not reflected in the stock prices. Moreover, he documents that outsiders can profit from the publicly available information on insiders trading up to 8 months after this information was released to the general public. However, Seyhun (1986), while confirming that insiders can use inside information to make significant profits, does not confirm that outsiders can earn significant abnormal returns using publicly available information on insiders trading. He argues that Jaffe used misspecified model for normal returns. Another type of studies of the strong form of market efficiency tests whether professional portfolio managers have access to private information. First evidence (Jensen 1969) testifies to the strong form of market efficiency and suggests that managers do not have access to private information as returns to investors in funds in 1945-1964 turn out to be 1% below the market line. On the other hand, Ippolito (1989) states that during 1965-1984 mutual funds outperformed the market line by 0.83% on average every year. This evidence, however, is not confirmed by the tests of the performance of pension funds and endowment funds. More recent evidence (Malkiel 2003) shows that for the twenty years ending December 31, 2001, the average actively managed large capitalization mutual fund performed worse than Standard Poors 500 large cap index by 2% annually. Therefore, it is not clear whether the EMH hypothesis can be refuted with respect to the strong form of market efficiency as various tests demonstrate different answers to this question. Tests of the semi-strong form of market efficiency are accomplished by means of event studies. This type of studies gives the cleanest picture of market efficiency since if the event date can be clearly specified and new information has a significant effect on prices, the models of normal returns do not influence the result to the extent observed in other forms of market efficiency studies. The opponents of the EMH believe that stock prices may underreact to new events. Therefore, purchasing (selling) stock when good (bad) information arrives at the market may produce significant abnormal returns (Gregory 1997). For instance, it is widely documented that companies accomplishing an IPO experience short-term overshooting and long-term negative performance. Another example is negative performance of bidding companies and positive performance of target companies during the process of mergers and acquisitions. These patterns, arguably, can be used to generate abnormal returns. However, as Fama (1998) demonstrates, the apparent underreaction to events is as common as overreaction and post-event continuation of abnormal returns is as frequent as post-event reversals. He also shows that the methods, long-term anomalies measured, play an important role since latter tend to disappear if reasonable changes are introduced in the test. Therefore, most of the anomalies discovered by researchers can be attributed to chance. It turns out that these anomalies do not allow investors to earn significant abnormal returns. The studies of the weak form of market efficiency generally test the Random Walk (RW) hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, stock prices exhibit unpredictable behavior and the best estimate of tomorrows price is todays price of the stock. Early studies in this area showed that prices indeed followed the RW and even if it were possible to find some predictability in price paths it would not be possible to exploit it in order to earn abnormal returns. Discovered patterns explained just up to 2% of the total variation of returns not enough taking into account bid-ask spreads. More recent studies started to use other variables (dividends, earnings per share, term-structure variables) to explain variation in returns. However, even these studies obtained positive first-order autocorrelations of weekly returns at the level of 0.3 (Lo and MacKinlay 1988). Apparently, such low predictability power could not be used to make significant profits. Nevertheless, further research led to revela tion of a number of anomalies. For instance, so-called January effect referred to the situation of abnormally generous returns on stocks of small companies during the first few days of January. Unfortunately, when transaction costs were taken into account (which are substantially higher for small companies than for large corporations) it turned out that this effect could not be exploitable by ordinary investors. Moreover, the January effect was not pronounced every year. A number of other effects were discovered during the course of research. They, however, also were non-dependable and disappeared when transaction costs were accounted for. Overall, it turns out that the idea of the EMH is still alive in spite of numerous facts that could refute it. The absence of the reliable theoretical model which could explain variation in normal returns does not allow one to be sure about discovered anomalies. Moreover, even anomalies which are strongly pronounced disappear as more and more market participants find out about them. This fact testifies to validity of the EMH. This means that even when information is not reflected in prices at the particular moment, as time passes arbitrageurs use the opportunity to earn risk-free profits and gradually correct market. This correction may take a long time (as, for instance, the Internet-bubble of the 2000s) but eventually all prices come to their fair level.

PEST Analysis on British Airways Essay -- Economics Business Air Essay

PEST Analysis on British Airways The four different environments are often referred to as PEST and allow a PESTanalysis to be conducted this allows the organisation to review and consider the environment in which it operates. The PEST factor that has contributed to the airlines industry for many years, but has brought a drastic change was from the disaster on September 11th 2001. Political environment concerns the role of the government and its affects in an organisation it also includes the extent to which the government intervenes in the economy. Due to the terrorist attack many airlines such as British Airways stopped flights to certain countries such as the middles east and the main countries involved with the fear of their planes being attacked. This is therefore caused up a political stir with the fact that Britain's fear them maybe the next victims of terrorist attacks. This has had a many negative effects on the airlines as they have lost out on a lot of money because of the stoppage of flights to certain destinations. The authorities have had to make sure that certain rules have been put into place to make sure that the airlines are safe and that they abide by the rules. British Airways have had to rely on the political and environment effects on the feedback that they get to decide on what course if action to take on the airline. Secondly the amount of economic activity in the economic environment is extremely important. Whilst assessi...

Interview with the vampire :: essays research papers

As you may know, while the film IWTV was in production with David Geffen, the author of the book had no legitimate contact with him or with the studio or with anyone connected with the film. When the announcement was made that Tom Cruise would star as Lestat, I had deep reservations and severe criticisms. So did many many of my readers. I talked openly about this. A curtain thereafter divided me from the entire production, and with reason. Nobody likes to be criticized, and that includes movie people, too. I understand and accept what happened. But to me, movies and books are not like sports. There is no immediate consensus on whether a player had scored a home run or a touch down. So it was okay to speak my mind on the casting, and I don't have any regrets. But to continue... I saw no rough cuts of IWTV; I saw no clips. I went to no screenings. It wasn't until David Geffen, himself took the unusual risk of sending me a VHS tape of the movie, that I saw it. And I approached this tape with a deep fear of being hurt, crushed, disappointed, destroyed by the finished work. When I saw the film on VHS, I came out at once in favor of it, declaring that I loved it. I bought two pages in VARIETY to talk about it in a frank and unedited announcement. No one controlled what I wrote, or had any opportunity to delete any part of it. I loved the film. I said so. I had no idea at the time that the film would be a huge success. I really hoped it would be, but I didn't know. It was so eccentric, so extreme, so weird. I came out in favor of it, fully prepared to sink with it if it failed, that is, to look stupid in my praise of it. I had no other moral and aesthetic choice. I went by the heart. What happened on opening weekend is now history as they say. The movie made about $35 million dollars, and broke all kinds of records to do with seasons and ratings, etc. I don't remember all the details, but it was a luscious American success. And I marveled then and I marvel now. Whatever, I have not up till this date discussed the film in detail publicly. I didn't want to program anyone's response to it.

English Should be Declared the Official Language Essay

In recent years, the America’s ability to resolve cultural diversity and political unity has been challenged at new level. The influx of immigrants from Asia, Africa and Latin America has brought changes in the character of many natives and accelerated demands for government services in their own languages. The aspect of linguistic diversity has in fact sparked insecurity about national unity and fostered a wave designed to make English the official language in the United States (Inhofe and Munoz  ¶1). Entrenched in the politics of language and especially making English the official language in United States is the deeper contest of American identity and means of preserving it. Ensuring a common official language create and establish the foundations of national unity, on top of enhancing ethnic harmony. Policymakers and some American citizens have responded to this issue in various ways. Court decisions, administrative regulations and federal laws have always favored the ultimate use of other languages in public offices, but most citizens have favored English language as a valued symbol of American nationhood worthy being established and defended for (Zehr 23). Pros of English as Official United States’ Language Although lawmakers in the United States have lingered on deciding on endowing English with a special legal status, it was assumed that a common language would develop in America. To affirm this hypothetical assumption, linguistic researchers consistently found out that the typical pattern of language usage among the immigrants to America shifted from non-English in the first generation of immigrants to use of the many languages in their surrounding neighbors in the second generation and the reverted to English in the third generation (Scholastic  ¶1). This was because speaking English was the only way to cope up for the new immigrants to adequately adapt to the society they found in America, increase their earning potential, for students to succeed in schools, and eventually enhance their future career options in the land of many opportunities. The immigrants and their descendants learned English not because the law forced them to due to the reason that learning English was a precursor to helping them get ahead in America. The debate of making English the United States’ official language is founded on the believe that the stability of the American institutions and values heavily depended on cultural homogeneity. The America’s citizens and courts have sent clear message that people should unite behind a common official language and especially English which has been grasped by the majority and help foster American values that appreciate one another in that cultural diversity. By helping the immigrants learn the official language would ensure that the services from government institutions are accessible to all and by extension would enable save taxpayers money initially used to cater for those services of an interpreter (Gillespie  ¶ 1). Looking at the bigger picture, bilingual systems like in education require special services which prove to need a lot of money and more so create segregation on ethnic groups against the values endeavored to be achieved in the American dream (Inhofe and Munoz  ¶1). Let’s look at the issue in this perspective; suppose an employer wanted to train employees of different native languages what would he or she do? Having that common language is a major boost as everyone would endeavor to just be literate in it and break the barriers of language (Cincinnati  ¶ 1). Training people in their native language narrows the perspective to ethnic level and would mean a lot of trainers-unnecessary expense of the company. On the issue of language rights, which are mostly demanded by ethnic minorities, they are symbolic affirmation of their continued attachment to their original cultures. In the context of international arena, people have started thinking globally; the revival of ethnic consciousness does not anchor well with postering that international standards and more specific the concern of national unity (Inhofe and Munoz  ¶1). Maintaining the ethnic lines brings about unrest and polarization as experienced in most parts of the world. United States is the greatest nation on earth and ensuring preservation of English as the official language would be a great feat of achievement for it would ease out discrimination in offices which occur because people cannot be understood or are discriminated simply because they cannot speak a certain language. Inhofe and Munoz ( ¶ 1) point out a Zogby International Poll established that eighty-five percent of the sampled expressed their support for making English as the language that should be used in all government operations. Surprisingly also, seventy-one percent of the Hispanics surveyed, were for the idea of making English as the official language in United States. This positivism has also been expressed in other polls and call for the implementation of bill that gives English the legal status as the official language and so there is no reason whatsoever to offer government services at extra costs in foreign languages. In cordial feat the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem through English show the patriotism in bringing the nation together in the spirit of sharing the American Dream. Cons of English as Official United States’ Language The demographic and political changes that began in America in the 1960s opened an era of clash over language. It was the blacks who emphasized the values of ethnic distinctiveness and solidarity in the use of their native languages and other groups followed. Alleviating English to the status of English has all along been perceived as a way of weakening the group’s ethnic heritage, where activists especially Hispanics have articulated that language rights are constitutional privileges that deserve to be observed in the law (Gillespie  ¶ 1). This in fact advocated that the United States government should move beyond toleration minority languages in the private arena to promoting bilingual languages in its institutions. This has always remained as the biggest threat to ensuring that English is made legally the official language in the United States. According to Inhofe and Munoz ( ¶1) another reason that has been a draw back in ensuring English is legal recognized as the official language in America is because there are other languages that are also spoken by a considerable number of people like the Spanish. Spanish is said to be spoken by over forty million Hispanics in the United States at work, at homes and in their daily lives. Inhofe and Munoz ( ¶1) argue that by virtue of making English as the official language and relieving the government role of assisting non-English speakers and this could spell doom to those who cannot quickly learn English. It is agreed that people can learn English and money can be devoted to helping non-English speakers learn but the trick comes in passing a law that would magically expect people learn promptly may proof to be hard (Cincinnati  ¶ 1). Minority activists have all along supported cultural maintenance programs that teach children subjects in English and their native language in their education. The concept celebrates the multicultural conception of identity in America and in the process celebrates ethnic consciousness. The symbolic importance considerably undervalues the English language on the specter of accepting the bicultural approach, where the culture of a group is embedded in their language (Zehr 23). Cincinnati ( ¶ 1) argues that the United States has never declared an official language because of the drawbacks that are faced in trying to do so and many people have tried without much success. In 1780, a congress man John Adams proposed to the congress for English to be made the official language, but he received much criticism where the proposal was deemed as threat to individual liberty and undemocratic. Over the years whenever the debate arose, there have been people on both sides (Scholastic  ¶1). Only twenty-seven states have officially made English their official language others remaining in the dark. Others people are opposed to the stand of making English official language simply because their business of translation would be affected as learning English for Spanish people they can understand and translate the manuscripts themselves (Cincinnati  ¶ 1). Scholastic ( ¶1) points out that the estimates according to a U. S. English Inc. , a group that is a proponent of declaring English as the United States official language, there are close to 322 languages spoken by the citizens in the country. Twenty-four of these languages are spoken almost in every state. Statistics has it that Wyoming has the fewest languages fifty-six in number while California State has the highest, two hundred and seven in total. Cincinnati ( ¶ 1) strongly argues that because the U. S is a nation of immigrants as rightly proved by the numbers, declaring English as the official language would be impeachment of the individual rights for those incapable of speaking English, who on the other hand pay taxes and should be served their languages notwithstanding. Gillespie  ¶ (1) reminds us that when the question of language comes up many argue that it is aimed at dividing as it has remained a hot button to touch. Many politicians argue that immigrants have been coming to America and have consequently contributed without holding back to the nation and eventually working to fulfill their dreams of better lives for their families and themselves. For this reason declaring English as an official language these immigrants would turn their backs on the American common dream. Conclusion The many reasons brought forth strongly propose that English should be made the official language of the United States. On the other hand, valid opposition on the issue also comes up, bearing weight which should be negated at policymakers’ peril. English as the official language has many benefits to offer to the American citizens and the national unity at large. Homogeneity in language would cut down unnecessary costs encountered in the education and in judicial courts not forgetting polarization of the ethnic groups overtly felt and seen around the world. Moreover, it would be a plus in enhancing stability of the American institutions. The pros override the cons and supporting English as official language in the U. S would bring more benefits than the demerits expressed.