Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Total Stockholders Equity

Week One Discussion Questions †¢ How would you describe the entries to record the disposition of accounts receivables? What is their function? †¢ How are bad debts accounted for under the direct write-off method? What are the disadvantages of this method? †¢ Pendergrass Company hires an accounting intern who says that intangible assets should always be amortized over their legal lives. Is the intern correct? Explain. †¢ What are the basic issues related to accounting for intangible assets? †¢ Why would you select the percentage of sales method for calculating doubtful accounts instead of the percentage of receivables method? Is it appropriate to use a hybrid of the percentage of sales and the percentage of receivables methods of calculating the allowance for doubtful accounts? Do the generally accepted accounting principles allow for using both methods at the same time? Why? †¢ What is the difference between revenue expenditures and capital expenditures during a useful life? Are there similarities? DQ: †¢ What are the differences between revenue expenditures and capital expenditures? Explain the entries of each. Week Two Discussion Questions What are the differences among valuation, depreciation, amortization, and depletion? Is it appropriate to calculate depreciation using two different methods? Why? †¢ Which depreciation method provides you with the highest depreciation expense in the first year? Why? †¢ What types of industries have unearned revenue? Why is unearned revenue considered a liability? When is the unearned revenue recognized in the financial statements? †¢ Why do companies issue bonds? Would you rather buy a bond at a discount or a premium rate? Why?What is the determining factor of whether a bond is sold at a discount, face value, or premium? †¢ What is the straight-line method of amortizing discount and premium on bonds payable? Provide an explanation of the process. †¢ How would you d escribe the accounting procedures for notes payable and accounts payable? Week Three Discussion Questions †¢ Why does a company choose to form as a corporation? What are the steps required to become a corporation? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the corporate form of doing business? †¢ Why is preferred stock referred to as preferred?What are some of the features added to preferred stock that make it more attractive to investors? Would you select preferred stock or common stock as an investment? Why? †¢ What are the different types of dividends corporations may issue? When should a corporation pay dividends? Do you prefer a stock dividend or a cash dividend? Why? †¢ Why do corporations buy back their own stock? What does it tell you about the corporation? What effect does the purchase have on the price of a company’s stock? †¢ Chen, Inc. purchases 1,000 shares of its own previously issued $5 per common stock for $12,000.Assuming the shares are held in the treasury, what effect does this transaction have on (a) net income, (b) total assets, (c) total paid-in capital, and (d) total stockholders’ equity? Chen, Inc’s treasure stock is resold for $15,000. What effect does this transaction have on (a) net income, (b) total assets, (c) total paid-in capital, and (d) total stockholders’ equity? Week Four Discussion Questions †¢ Why are companies required to prepare a statement of cash flows? Why is the statement of cash flows divided into three sections? What does each section tell you about a company’s operations? What are some common ratios used to analyze financial information? Which are the most important? What are some examples of how ratios are used in the decision-making process? †¢ Two popular methods of financial statement analysis are horizontal analysis and vertical analysis. What are the differences between these two methods? †¢ What are the differences between the direc t and indirect presentation of cash flows? Why does the Financial Accounting Standards Board allow both methods? Which do you prefer? Why? †¢ Why must preferred stock dividends be subtracted from net income in computing earnings per share?Why is common stock usually not issued at a price that is less than par value? †¢ What three conditions must exist before a cash dividend is paid? Contrast the effects of a cash dividend and a stock dividend on a corporation’s balance sheet. Week Five Discussion Questions †¢ What is an example of a potentially unethical accounting situation? Why is the situation unethical? How do ethics affect a company’s financial results? †¢ Do you think the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has made a difference in the ethical behavior of companies regarding their financial accounting? Why or why not?

Broken Windows and Victimology

The spinsterhood where you do not want to get out of the car. Are people more likely to be a victim of crime in these neighborhoods? The spatial syntax theory supports the idea that you are more likely to be a victim of a crime in certain areas (Nubian, 2006), and the broken window theory of crime volitionally supports the Idea that people are more likely to commit crimes If they think no one cares. Small crimes can lead to bigger crimes in areas where people are used to disorder and a lack of consequences for the smaller crimes (Keeling & Wilson, 1982).The broken window theory was introduced in a 1982 article titled broken windows by James Q. Wilson and George L. Keeling. In the article they discuss psychologist Philip Sombrero's experiment with an abandoned car. The experiment was done to show how even good people that usually do not commit crimes will commit a crime under certain circumstances (Keeling & Wilson, 1982). Zanzibar did many experiments that involved elements of good p eople doing evil things. He may be best known for his Stanford prison experiment, where he wanted to explore situational variables on human behavior.The prison experiment remains one of the most well-known psychological experiments (Rubberiest, 2013). Zanzibar served as the president of the American Psychiatric Association in 2002. My great respect for Summarizes work got me Interested In the broken window theory. The broken window experiment showed how even in a nice neighborhood where people would not usually commit crimes they did vandalize and damage the abandoned car after Zanzibar broke the window on the car. The experiment set the stage for the broken window theory.According to the broken window theory crime will be more prevalent in areas that are run down and uncared for. If a building has one broken window that has not been fixed it gives the impression that no one cares enough to fix the window. When people think that no one cares they will break more windows in the build ing Just for fun. As the neighborhood deteriorates and gets more vandalism the more crimes will be committed in that area. According to Keeling and Winslow community deterioration and crime are inextricably linked (Keeling & Wilson, 1982).New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was motivated by the broken window theory to clean up New York. Together with the chief of police Willie Britton they took a very strict stance on graffiti, pan handling, prostitution, and other petty crimes. They proved that by cleaning up the neighborhoods and taking care of the petty crimes it had a big effect on the bigger crimes as well. There were 2,801 murders were committed 1994 the year that Giuliani took office and by 2003 the murder rate was down to 537, the lowest murder rate since 1963 (Adams, 2006).Another study done by a college student on the broken window theory in 2011 also produced positive results (US Fed News Service, Including US State News, 2011). The student cleaned up neighborhoods near campus t o decrease the crime rate and to test out the validity of he broken window theory. The work that she did had a positive impact on the residents of the areas that she cleaned up. Opposition to the broken window theory state that there is no real evidence to prove that this theory is valid.A main point that they make is that the lack of crime in the areas that have been cleaned up and have been policed more regularly may be due to other things and not Just the policing and upkeep of the neighborhood. While the opposing people do recognize there is a 4 correlation between the areas that have had increased policing and more upkeep ND the reduction in crime, they are quick to point out that correlation does not indicate causation (Miller, 2001). The main weakness in the broken window theory is that it is very difficult to prove the theory.I think that the opposing side of the broken window theory is not very strong. Much of the criticism takes the theory too literally expecting that Just fixing the windows and graffiti will stop murder. However, the theory is more about how once an area starts to deteriorate with petty crimes it can quickly turn into an area where more serious crimes are committed. Once law abiding citizens' start feeling unsafe in an area they leave the area and while the area is becoming less populated by law abiding citizens it will gradually become more populated by criminals.Anyone can be a victim of crime however, there are things that people can sometimes do that can increase the chances that they will be unable to fix it and leave it parked in the parking lot with the broken window it could increase the chances of someone trying to steal the radio out of the car. I experienced factorization of property crime on two occasions in my life and looking ace on it after learning about the broken window theory I now see that there were things I could have done to decrease my chances of being a victim.The first time I was a victim of property crime I had left my car parked in my work parking lot for two weeks while I was waiting to get the car repaired. It had engine trouble and I thought it would be k to leave it in the parking lot. The car sat there for weeks before someone broke the window and tried to steal the radio. The second time I was a victim of property crime I had moved into an apartment complex in a city I had lived n for years. I Just moved a few blocks over from where I had been living so I thought that it was obviously a good neighborhood and I did not even look for any signs of trouble.I was 5 used to living in the surrounding neighborhoods with homeowners who took good care of their property however, the apartment complex was different people did not take care of their property left broken down cars in the parking lot many of the cars were damaged with busted windows and accident damage to them. I did not pay attention to the cars or the parking lot when I decided to move in. Within weeks of moving into the a partment my car was vandalized and my daughter's bike was stolen off of the back patio.I believe that the broken window theory does explain the amount of property damage and vandalism of that apartment complex that I lived in. To remain safe and not continue to be a victim of crime I moved out of that neighborhood. People in general want to be safe and not become victims of crime if I had understood the theory of spatial syntax and the broken window theory at the time I moved into that neighborhood I would probably paid more attention to certain details and avoided the situation by choosing a different apartment complex.I am not different in the way that I moved to get away from crime many people alter their lifestyle as a result of fear of crime. Many people now live in gated communities (Nubian, 2006). People often feel safer in gated communities and in areas where they feel that people care more about their property. When people feel safer they are more present in the streets and therefore criminals would be less likely to be active in these areas. There are areas that are not kept up where the sense of community is rower that crime is more prevalent in.I can see the broken window theory active in society because of this. People who live or spend a lot of time in these areas are more likely to be victims of crime. I support the broken window theory and believe that communities should be more involved in the condition of their neighborhoods and that would reduce the crime rate. When people do not take care of their property they are more likely to become a victim of crime. In that same manner of thinking 6 overlooked or go unpunished that can lead to bigger more violent crimes.

John edwards case Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

John edwards case - Research Paper Example onspired to violate campaign finance laws by accepting and not disclosing hundreds of dollars in an attempt to cover Edwards’ extramarital affair and mistress’ pregnancy with his child. John Edwards was convicted on criminal charges that he broke campaign finance laws with the intention of covering up his extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter. This affair and the violation of the campaign finance law had the ability to ruin his chances of winning the 2008 presidential campaign. Edwards had an obligation to the public to be present and conduct himself like a respectable public official. He, however, engaged in activities that were unethical for the public office and his title as a lawyer. According to Rule 8.4 of the lawyer’s code of ethics, it is unethical and wrong for a lawyer to engage in misconduct as dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation. It is not required that a lawyer should be practicing law during the time they engage in such conduct, since they represent the legal profession in everything they do, whether private or public (Ethics Alarms, 2010). Ethics Alarms further state that Edward repeatedly lied to the public and the media, even saying that he would willingly take a lie detector test to reveal that he is not the parent of Hunter’s child. Data that was later proved to be true that he did father Hunter’s child. Edwards unethical behavior continued to shock the public as He attempted to avoid his responsibilities as a representative of the legal profession, candidate, father, leader, husband, and placing his Party at risk and convincing others to practice in bribery and fraud on his behalf. His unethical behavior led to his deceiving his supporters and the Democratic Party with false pretenses. According to (Cooper, 2012), ethics is critical for public officials as they have multiple roles to play and obligations and they need discretion. Ethics helps them in the useful use of this discretion. Cooper continues to say that

Case Study Regarding Asthma Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Case Study Regarding Asthma - Essay Example Asthma affects 300 million people worldwide with increasing prevalence among children. According to World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 15 million disability-adjusted life-years are lost and 250,000 asthma deaths are reported worldwide with 500, 000 annual hospitalizations in individuals 18 years old and younger (Harver& Kotses, 2010, 19). In order to understand the pathophysiology of asthma, one must first understand the normal physiological process of a normal airway, particularly air exchange in the lungs. Lungs primary function is to deliver oxygen into the bloodstream and remove carbon dioxide from the blood. In the lungs are small air sacs called alveoli where an exchange of gases occur (Harver& Kotses, 2010, 19)? The bronchioles, which are classified as smaller tubes are very fragile compared to the larger tubes of the respiratory system such as the trachea as these smaller tubes lack cartilaginous rings and only have a layer of smooth muscle. As the muscle contracts, airways are extremely narrowed due to the lack of cartilaginous support. Thus, contraction of the smooth muscles in the lungs may increase airway resistance and diminish airflow (Harver& Kotses, 2010, 19). In addition, there are cells that line the respiratory tract called the respiratory epithelium which varies from hair-like structure cilia and mucus-producing cells, and small blood vessels lying beneath the airway that supplies nutrients to the respiratory epithelium and smooth muscle cells. Asthma is generally categorized as an inflammatory disease in response to triggering stimuli such as allergens, irritants, colds, exercise, and respiratory infections (Harver&Kotses, 2010, 20). Based on Jason’s history, possible triggering stimuli of asthma exacerbation are the history of a recurrent cough when he was 6 months old, family history of hay fever and eczema.

Banksy in 'Exit ThroughThe Gift Shop 'Film Essay

Banksy in 'Exit ThroughThe Gift Shop 'Film - Essay Example Maybe Thierry became a bit arrogant when his hero Banksy suggests to him to focus on his own art and leave the film for him to finish. I think Banksy said that to gain control over the documentary as he wanted to make it into a real film, and not just a picture collage like Thierry’s effort Life Remote Control was. But Banksy didn’t foresee that Thierry would get crazy with his own ambitions and organised a massive exhibition with work he didn’t produce himself, but making a lot of money with it nevertheless. It’s ironic how this fateful event gave the documentary itself a new direction, or story to tell. But documentaries are about real life and life is unpredictable. This means a documentary can turn out differently than the filmmaker initially imagined it to be. I think this is what happened to Banksy. He seemed to be annoyed of Thierry making money, and pretending to be an artist, which is understandable, especially as Banksy is a great and innovative artist himself, who worked hard for his success and therefore deserves it. However, he also shows sympathy for Thierry (by explaining that his compulsive filming relates to him losing his mother as a child). I believe that Banksy didn’t mean to ‘destroy’ Thierry’s reputation, but to show that our society accepts art too easily as art, without questioning the artist and his real motivation. By doing this, Banksy also introduced a new style to documentary filmmaking-the object becoming directly involved in the filmmaking process. It will be interesting to see if other artists (including musicians, actors, filmmakers etc) who are subjects of documentary films will take a more active part in the filmmaking processes in the future. Banksy's Exit Through The Gift Shop – The Director's Role in a Participatory Documentary Film Exit Through The Gift Shop is a story full of irony and role reversals between amateur documentary filmmaker Thierry Guetta and accl aimed street artist Banksy who during the filmmaking process discloses Guetta to be an obsessive copycat artist. The film's narrative starts with portraying street artists and Banksy at work. The focus shifts onto Thierry's mission to become a successful artist himself when Banksy consciously initiates a role reversal from being the subject of the documentary to becoming its director. Film theorist Bill Nichols explores the influence documentary films can have: â€Å"Documentaries of social representation†¦are intended to have an impact on the historical world itself and to do so must persuade or convince us that one point of view or approach is preferable to others† (3). Banksy's move to take the camera from Thierry and turn it on him is therefore clever and calculated. By taking control over the filmmaking process, Banksy could fulfil his own agendas regarding the messages he wanted to convey to an audience. To achieve this, Banksy successfully combined several documen tary filmmaking techniques as defined by film theorist Bill Nichols (33): the ‘participatory mode’ (director being part of the action), the ‘expository mode’ (using so-called 'voice-of-God' narration) and the ‘reflexive mode’ (revealing and reflecting on documentary film-making practises that are usually hidden from an audience).1 I identified Banksy's four main agendas / messages he aimed to convey

Book Review Literature Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Book - Literature review Example In doing this, he arranges the book into sixteen chapters all of which offer progressive analysis to the two main policing approach: the â€Å"soft cop† policing technique as introduced by the 1990’s New York mayor and the soft cop policing technique counterpart. He analyses the two assessing their effectiveness in combatting the modern day crimes, which are equally dynamic. The different chapters discuss the efficacy of each of the policing techniques in curbing such modern crimes as stalking, financial crimes and theft crimes. Additionally, the author provides places his arguments in contemporary developed societies which best typify both modernism and the nature of the crimes thereby achieving great effectiveness in comparing the two policing techniques and their ability to combat crimes. Author’s key theoretical argument â€Å"Hard† policing refers to a policing technique that portrays zero tolerance to criminals. The approach to community policing pro pagates for scathing handling of criminals with the implementation of extremely punitive sentences to the convicted criminals as a means of curbing the spread of criminals. Soft policing on the other hand approaches policing as a means of restoring behaviors. The two have relative advantages and therefore applicable in different contexts, the modern society is dynamic and presents numerous security challenges. The author of the book thus alludes to the relative application of each of the two policing mechanisms. The effectiveness and preference of any of the two policing techniques is not readily evident, he however provides perfect examples, which would invoke the application of hard policing and further provides other perfect examples that would require soft policing. Scope of phenomena covered Just as explained earlier, the modern society has diverse security requirements. The dynamic lifestyles coerce unique security needs thereby the governments to formulate and implement diver se policing techniques. The most readily available and comply applicable policing techniques include the zero tolerance technique and the soft policing technique. The two are divergent approaches and therefore view policing differently. However, the author finds each relative relevance in the contemporary society since he considers specific attributes of the society and the modern types and natures of criminal activities. The development and the subsequent spread of the use of the internet have resulted in the proliferation of cybercrimes in the modern society. The internet for example provides users with specific anonymity features, which enables the successful execution of the crimes. In addressing such modern society crimes, the author uses developed societies in the west including the United Kingdom, Germany, and other examples of police systems in the United States of America. The developed countries exemplify contemporary societies. They have unique security requirements as th ey present their citizens with diverse possibilities that thereby necessitate the execution of crimes. The choice to use developed countries thus provide the author with the ability to observe the developing trends in crimes thereby the different security requirements most of which necessitate the type of policing technique considered effective

Service Contracting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Service Contracting - Essay Example There is a need to create methods that allow tools to rationalize about service contracts concerning their value. Feasibility analyzes help to unravel mainly and reasonably the merits and demerits of an up and running business or prospective business project, opportunities and risks existing in the setting. According to Kelly (2010), feasibility analysis helps present a chronological data of a business venture, brief account of the product or service, account statements, data of the activities and managerial aspects. Also, it helps present legal obligations including economic and tax information. Over and above, the efficacy of feasibility analyzes entails measuring the businesss prospective success. In this regard, an objective report gives the potential investors a chance to make correct decisions. The contractor selection process, which results in the awarding of construction contracts, is a significant factor in the building and construction industry. Many legal guidelines require that contractor selection process begin with a public advertisement where all the candidates submit their bids (Savas, 2005). These contracts can be granted via direct selection of informal competitive bidding process or negotiated contracting. The best practice techniques for administering a service contract entails adopting methods that institutions can use in establishing mistakes in the purchasing, managing and administering service contracts (Kelly, 2010). The best practices are actual approaches that institutions can use to boost the procurement process. Above all, best practice techniques entail to specific institutional procedures, standard, budget and time limits. In order to have a service contract objective, the public must be protected. This is because of the probability of acquiring poor quality service, elements of underperformance or failure concerns that can easily put the members of the public in

Parents with learning disabilities and child protection Literature review

Parents with learning disabilities and child protection - Literature review Example This survey also revealed the fact that 48 per cent of these parents did not look after their children themselves. According to Booth (2000), there is a sizeable population of parents with special needs that the health and social services have not adequately addressed so far. In as many as 50 per cent of the total cases, children of such parents are taken away from them generally because of the concerns for the well-being of the children and lack of the care and attention that they need as they live with their parents (Tarleton, Ward, and Howarth, 2006, p. v). This imparts the need to study the tendency of parents with learning disabilities to be good parents and to provide their children with the protection they need with adequate support from the numerous agencies, entities, and organizations that render such services for these parents. The negative coverage by press and reports discussing the concerns for children’s welfare and the inadequacies in techniques of parenting ex acerbate this (Kroese et al, 2002). Consequently, parents with learning disabilities might need to prove to the concerned authorities that they have all the necessary qualities and skills to be a perfect parent. Nevertheless, even the definition of good parenting is inherently debatable especially in a society in which views and standards change frequently. Most of the research conducted to date focuses upon inability of parents with learning disabilities to parent their children and the risks assumed by their children while the research on their capabilities to be a perfect parent is limited (Wade et al, 2008). The non-specification of the learning disability level, lack of common standards of parental competence, and small sizes of sample induce flaws in many studies. This topic relates to the social work because it addresses the concerns and well-being

CHURCH VISIT - WESTMINSTER ABBEY IN LONDON Essay

CHURCH VISIT - WESTMINSTER ABBEY IN LONDON - Essay Example There are four large statues of Moses, St. peter, St Paul and another of king David on either side of the alter which give the whole building a serene feeling of holiness. The pulpit where the sermon is conducted is made of gilded wood and from where the sermon is conducted on Sundays. As I walked the length of the abbey, I reached an entrance on the end where the evensong is conducted. There is where I met vergers, who looked as though they were on guard duty at the door, but when I asked them about the evensong, they let me in pleasantly and gave me a program which explains the service; they also added my name to the list of people to sit in the quire. From their on, I just watched what other people were doing and copied them. We were then later issued with pamphlets with the week’s services and music along with the evensong service sheet; which basically tells one when to stand and sit or when to respond. The service then soon began when the whole congregation was signaled to arise in the singing of the poem Tallis in manus tuas, Domine (after Thomas Tallis). The poem was also in the pamphlet issued to the rest of the congregation and soon, I was in rhythm with the rest of the congregation in the recitation of the Tallis in manus tuas, Domine (Tallis, pg 89). Soon after, we completed reciting the Tallis in manus tuas, Domine the preacher who had been seated at the alter came in to the pulpit and gave a brief reading from the Bible only and excluded a sermon. After the reading, the choir which mainly consisted of around thirty boys who were seated at the quire and wore red robes, arose and what followed left me speechless. The boys’ singing of Purcell Lord, how long wilt thou be angry was really the most wonderful thing I have ever heard (Tallis, pg 112). Just like me the rest of the congregation was left also wanting for more. I guess its one of the major reasons why the

Analysis of Class, Status and Power Essay Example for Free

Analysis of Class, Status and Power Essay Karl Marx and Max Weber are among the famous theorist who formed the pillar of the study of society. This come about in their contradict theories the conflict and protestant ethic respectively. It is understood that these two people lived in different eras, Marx being exposed to conditions and perspectives of the eighteen century whilst Weber dwells in the nineteen century where noticeable changes on the fast emergence of innovative technology, and a path where modernity take its toll (the industrial revolution) (Tui, 2014). The theories of Marx and Weber were applicable in their times with regards to the type, functions and interactions existing within society. As follows is the discussion of their main arguments on the contrary of their perspectives on the basis of society. According to Karl Marx, society of all hitherto is the result of social stratification and conflict. The organized economic activities and mode of production, determined the division of labor which causes the formation of two classes, the bourgeoisies and the proletariat (the rich and the poor) showing opposition (antagonistic interaction). The proletariat (working class) controlled the modes of production while the bourgeois owned the means of production (Brym Lie, 2007). The conflict theory by Marx, argued that a position in a productive system is the basis of peoples conflict. The rich attained privilege of accessing revenue and surplus whilst the poor did not resist, but remained subordinate. The bourgeois also maintained their interest by suppressing and maintaining the subordination of the proletariat (Worsley, et al., 1970). A revolution originated on the fact that men realized how capitalism deprives them of self-independence and freedom. Capitalism also increased inequality within society and enhanced further subordination of the working class. Marx believed that in the future there will be classless societies ( (Worsley, et al., 1970)). Therefore modern society is the result of the breakdown of the feudal system; the proletariats were being absorbed by the bourgeois to work in their factory, hence bringing so ciety to the end of communism (Tui, 2014). But also a classless society still experienced antagonistic, a trend of dependency between these two class, that is the bourgeois depend on the manual labor and productivity of the proletariat and vice versa, for their stability and co-existence. In contrast, Weber, in his theory, the protestant ethics, believed in hard work, personal achievement and motivations. It focuses on  individual actions and most importantly an individual’s knowledge and skills to bring about transformation of new society. In other words people consciously making decision at important times or junctures (Tui, 2014). People whom abided to protestant ethics and maintain the spirit of capitalism succeeded economically. He emphasized the importance of the growth of the service sector of the economy, with its many non-manual workers and professionals. He also articulated that capitalist development was not just caused by favorable economic conditions but religious beliefs also plays an important role (aw areness to the society of values and virtues: right and wrong) of facilitating great capitalist growth. He argued that Marx, fails to see that people in society can improve their condition in terms of education, technology to attain a better standard of living. Weber, also showed the flaws of the Conflict theory whereby he said that a revolution is not necessarily the solution to dissatisfaction and grievances. There are medium of resolving matters peacefully whereby the government is required to improve such conditions (Weber, 2005). In light of the above arguments, there is also controversy and contradiction in their discussion of class (created by eligibility and accessing to product of economy), status (social honor or professional position) and power (the ability and opportunity to control) (Worsley, et al., 1970). According to Marx, in society, there are two distinct classes: the bourgeois and the proletariat. These classes were inherited and there is nothing that can be done apart from revolution that can make the differences. The revolution would result in a classless society w here the state come to own the means of production. According to Marx, whoever has a class will have a complimentary standard of status and power. For him class is the originator of all kinds of status in society and source of power. He also stated that traditional status ascribed was used to acquire power such as the members of the noble family were born and entitled to rule. This class of nobles subsequently has high social status (Brym Lie, 2007). Weber strongly argued that class, status and power were three totally different categories. Status and power were achieved through ones commitment and successes. It favored the concept of meritocracy which allows people to rise or fall to a position that matches their talent and efforts ( (Brym Lie, 2007)). All of these were independent of each other. It is not necessary of an individual  or group of people in high class to have a corresponding level(s) of status and power. In general, class is directly related to how people have access to part of the society’s resources. Class should be related to your ability to buy power or your market position (Tui, 2014). Such as a proletariat can become a very important figure in government just because of his/her qualification, oratory skills and achievement. For example a Chief Executive Officer (CEO), commissioner of police, captain. These people worked their way like every proletariat from scratch and because of their ambition and hard work they are able to become successful, even though they do not have a royal or ruling background After having compared the two theories of Karl Marx and Max Weber, the latter theory of protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism by Max Weber is considered the best and useful theory to understand and explain the dynamics of my local society. Kiribati society is an example of an egalitarian society whereby people are equal and have the same rights and opportunities. The decision making process and access to government’s resources and all opportunities are carried out following established processes and procedures. Everyone is given a chance to talk for themselves or by a representative (Teitiniman, 1993). As mentioned earlier, access to opportunities are open to everyone such as position in government and non-government organization through advertisement. Eligible candidates announced and a screening test is conducted to screen out best candidates. It takes one’s effort, hardship and commitment towards professional development in order to improve life conditioning, status and attainment of power for example people acquiring scholarship for higher qualification and to qualify a higher post with high salary in the government institution (Itaia, 1979). According to Koae (1993) and agreed by Macdonald (2001) there are existing mediums of solving any grievance and dissatisfaction. These are put up in writing to the concerned department and or are taken up to court. Communities’ views and perspectives are considered as a means of improvement to policing strategies such as that adopted by the Kiribati Police Services. Elections of leaders are conducted on the basis of the public vote towards candidates (Brechtefeld, 1993). As Weber highlighted, class, status and power are achieved which is correspondingly true of my Kiribati society.  Peoples’ hard work irrespective of religious beliefs and traditional social cl ass and status, have equal and equitable access to opportunities which determine social and economic standings in my society. Bibliography Brechtefeld, N., 1993. The Electoral System. In: H. V. Trease, ed. Atoll Politics. Christchurch: Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, pp. 43, 44, 45. Brym, R. J. Lie, J., 2007. Sociology Your Compass for a New World. third ed. California: Thomson Wadsworth. Itaia, M., 1979. Rebirth Te Mauri, Te Raoi, ao Te Tabomoa. In: KIRIBATI Aspects of History. Suva: Institutes of Pacific Studies, The University of the South Pacific, pp. 123,124. Koae, T., 1993. Corrupt and Illegal Electoral Practices. In: H. V. Trease, ed. Atoll Politics. Christchurch: Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, pp. 105-110. Macdonald, B., 2001. Cinderellas of the Empire. Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, The University of the South Pacific. Teitiniman, T., 1993. Serving the People. In: H. V. Trease, ed. Atoll Politics. Christchurch: Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, pp. 343, 344, 345. Tui, R., 2014. Social Structures in Modern/Contemporary Societies. Suva: s.n. Weber, M., 2005. The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism. New York: Taylor Francis e-Library,. Worsley, P. et al., 1970. INTRODUCING SOCIOLOGY. 1 ed. Victoria: Penguin Education.

Factors to Consider in New Product Launch

Factors to Consider in New Product Launch Marketing is the process by which customer needs are anticipated and identified. Ways are found of meeting those needs at a price that consumers are prepared to pay and which allows the business to make a profit For launching a new product we use PESTLE or SWOT strategies and let us Consider that we are launching a new chocolate product . Factors that should be consider while launching a new product i.e Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal and Environmental and the questions we should take under consideration What are the key political factors likely to affect the chocolat industry? What are the important economic factors of chocolat industry? What are the cultural aspect of chocolat industry? What are the technological innovations ? What current and impending legislation may affect the industry? What are the environmental considerations? Situational Analysis of chocolate industry and market tactics To launch a new chocolate product we must analyze the role of the marketing function in a business, we are going to follow through what might have happened in the marketing of a major new chocolate bar and the major economical , political and technological factors that affects the chocolate industries. 1. Assessing the market The market for chocolate bars is highly competitive. There are a small number of large firms in the industry Mars, Cadbury, Nestlà © and Suchard being the most well known. Many of the brands in the market have been in existence for a long time and have a high amount of brand loyalty. Openings for new products therefore, are limited. There are many examples of products that have been launched and have been withdrawn because they could not sustain long-term sales success. Can you remember the Prize Bar, Aztec and Junglies? The market for certain types of chocolate bar has changed in recent years. The growth of the so called count-line bar (shaped like Mars bars) became popular as people ate chocolate on the go as opposed to sitting down in a room with a traditional bar of chocolate. Companies had to respond to these changes. Row tree (now owned by Nestlà ©) changed the shape of their Aero bar and Cadbury brought out a rival bar called Wispa. Both of these were designed to exploit this growing market. The market is still changing but using chocolate as a snack as opposed to sharing a bar amongst a family. Giving a chocolate bar as a gift is still a growing part of that market. The UK chocolate market is the biggest in all European market. People in the United Kingdom consume more chocolate than any other Country in Europe. Mintel said the UK consumed 3.5 billion pounds ($5.6 billion) worth of chocolate in 2008, more than any other European country, with only Germany, which has more than 20 million more people, coming close at 3.4 billion pounds Some of the famous brands are: Mars (http://www.mars.com/) Cadbury Schweppes (http://www.cadburyschweppes.com/EN/Brands/) Nestlà © (http://www.nestle.co.uk/) Suchard (http://www.kraftafh.co.uk/Cultures/en-GB/Brands/Suchard/) Amul Chocolate Boost Club Mint In December 2009,the market research company, showed Cadburys chunk of the chocolate market by value slipped 1.7 per cent to 29.8 per cent last month, the first time that it has fallen below 30 per cent all year. Market share of Mars, its biggest rival, slipped 0.6 per cent in the period. Kraft, which makes Milka and Toblerone, increased its market share by 0.7 per cent to 5 per cent, while Nestlà © raised its share 1.2 per cent to 20.4 per cent of the market.. The market research firm estimated the British chocolate market would be worth 4.4 billion pounds by 2013 2. Identifying a gap in the market Once the market has been analyzed, it might become clear that there is a gap in the market. What this means is that, there is an identifiable customer need that is not currently being met by an existing product. It could also be where a rival might have a presence and where the company concerned believes it could offer a competitive alternative. Market research, which in many cases is on-going, will have given the business some idea of the nature of the market and the extent of the possible market. It may be that further research is used to target particular market segments that the business feels will be the ones most likely to purchase this product and what it is they want out of the product. Much of this will be used to inform the marketing mix. 3. Developing the product Quite often businesses in this particular industry want to develop a brand personality. What this means is that they will want consumers to associate something specific with the product. KitKat for example, is associated with a break, making it the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea or coffee. The personality of the product will be in line with the market research and analysis carried out. The ingredients, the look of the product, its texture when eaten, its name and packaging, and how it will be promoted will all be key factors that will be informed by the development of the brand personality. A very good example of this process is the development of Yorkie. Yorkie was developed as a contribution to the count-line bar market. It aimed to use the concept of a chunky chocolate bar but in a different format to allow it to be eaten on the go. The key thing to emphasise was the chunky nature of the chocolate,and to do that Rowntree developed its early marketing around the length of time it would last and it being an ideal accompaniment for long journeys. The trucker image stuck and gave the bar a masculine personality. In recent years, this has been exploited with a deliberate campaign suggesting that it is so chunky it is not for girls for! 4. Product testing Once these stages are gone through, the product is likely to have to be tested. People may be given choices of different names or different packaging prototypes to see what consumer reaction are. It may be that this type of problem has been resolved at an earlier stage, in which case more substantial user testing may be used by virtue of a test-market. This may be a selected region of the country where there is a profile of users that is representative of the country as a whole. Using test markets gives relatively accurate feedback but is also much cheaper than a national launch, which might not see the product doing as well as anticipated. Remember that to feed a market, the capital investment has to be there to back it up. If the test market showed that the product was going to be very popular, the business would have to ensure that sufficient capacity was available prior to a national launch. You would certainly not want to have a product launched and people not be able to get hold of it! Image: User testing is an important aspect of marketing strategy it gives a good idea of the likely market reaction without incurring the costs of a national launch. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Media and marketing implementation Most often than not but, It is very difficult to convince a customer to buy a certain product if they do not understand the product. We need to make a strategy for marketing new product in the market so that we can achieve our target. Without a bullet proof plan to attract customers, your efforts will most likely be inefficient. we should ensure that Businesses should focus what a customer needs and what he is looking in the product .so that we can make a long term profitable customer relationship . This means that you need a plane to know customer more closely in a flexible way so that whenever need we can change our product according to our customers perceptions and demand. On the other hand, your marketing scheme should be focused on identifying and communicating the benefits of your business is offering to its target market. You will then need to monitor and maintain its effectiveness. Advertising new products Market part is an essential factor for a successful marketing strategy and if we are able to recognized the different market areas that allows a business to make fruitful and more efficient decisions in regard to advertising new quality products. This is the lock pick to understanding the different kind of needs of different types of customers. Once you have divide your market in different categorizes, you will then be able to formulate marketing activities that will ensure your targeted audience to know about the products or services you are offering and why they need them in their lives. We can achieved this through the various kind of advertising, since customer knowns what they want exactly want and motivate them,. You must have to hit your targeted audience to feel like that they must need to purchase whatever it is you are offering is the best product in the market. So that they buy our product and increase our sales How to launch new product and there strategies Gigantic changes are going on in the world and marketing strategies are no exemptions to that. Businesses should think outside the box. Observe who is doing better and try to imitate them or better yet, outwit them. It will greatly benefit your company to do market research in order to determine your potential market and make changes to your current marketing strategy. This is mainly done to draw uninterested customers to at least give your business a try. Your new product launch should make enough noise to ensure that it will remain in customers memories and entice them to really try it. With the various media available today, you can maximize your visibility by not limiting your business to one media. You can turn your company around by doing a major brand makeover. If there are not a lot of people who are buying your product or service, then perhaps its because they literally do not see you. This is not a time when businesses are allowed to sober down on marketing techniques, just because the economy is going down. Once the economy gets back on track chances are, people will no longer remember those that were not visible in the market during this time. You have to make your business a household name so people will remember you long after this global recession is over. We can use Marketing mix (4ps)strategy to launch our final product Marketing Mix (4ps ) Introduction The marketing mix principles are controllable variables which have to be carefully managed and must meet the need of the defined target group. All elements of the mix are linked and must support each other Marketing Mix Price Products Promotion Place Target Market Pricing mix Strategy It is one of the most important part of the marketing mix strategies. Pricing is a mix which generates a revenue for an organization. The remaining 3ps strategies are the output for the organization . We know that it costs to produce and design a product, promote a product and also to distribute it. Pricing is very difficult and must reflect supply, demand relationship. Pricing a product too high or too low, could mean loss of sales for the organization. The following factors should be taken into account: Objectives of the Company Fixed and variable costs of the product Target the group and their willingness to pay Competition with leading organization Proposed Positioning strategies An organization can adopt different types of pricing strategies. The pricing strategies are based on what g the goal the organization has set itself to archive Penetration Pricing We can set a low price to our product to increase the market shares and sales of the products is called penetrating pricing

Relationship Between Inflation and Unemployment :: Economics

Inflation and unemployment are two key elements when evaluating a whole economy and it is also easy to get those figures from National Bureau of Statistics when you want to evaluate it. However, the relationship between them is a controversial topic, which has been debated by economists for decades. From some famous economists such as Paul Samuelson, Milton Freidman etc to some infamous economists, this topic received a lot of attention. However, it is this debate that makes the thinking about it evolve. In this essay, the controversial topic will be discussed by viewing different economists’ opinions on that according to time sequencing. But before started, it is worthy getting a better understanding of the terms, inflation and unemployment. Inflation refers to an increase in overall level of prices within an economy. In simple words, it means you have to pay more money to get the same amount of goods or services as you acquired before. By contrast, the term unemployment is easier to understand. Generally, it refers to those people who are available for work but do not find a work. And unemployment rate, which is the percentage of the labour force that is unemployed, is usually used to measure unemployment (Mankiw 1992). The debate of the relationship between inflation and unemployment is mainly based on the famous â€Å"Phillips Curve†. This curve was first discovered by a New Zealand born economist called Allan William Phillips. In 1958, A. W. Phillips published an article â€Å"The relationship between unemployment and the rate of change of money wages in the United Kingdom, 1861-1957†, in which he showed a negative correlation between inflation and unemployment (Phillips 1958). As shown in figure 1, when unemployment rate is low, the inflation rate tends to be high, and when unemployment is high, the inflation rate tends to be low, even to be negative. Figure 1 Phillips Curve Two years later, economists Paul Samuelson and Robert Solow, who are the most infusive representatives of Keynesian School, also published an article, showing the same negative correlation between inflation and unemployment, based on the United States’ economic data (Samuelson and Solow 1960).

Bad Effect of Pro-Wrestling on on Teens and Adolscents Essay -- essays

The news that an eight-year-old boy had battered a school mate to death while re-enacting the US World Wrestling Federation TV series, came as a shock to all the parents. The tragedy consequently galvanized the people into reviewing their relations with the television set and set some limits on viewing of T.V. on their children. Four eight-year-old boys - Tom, Eric, William and James -did not come to school after lunch and dashed into a secluded place. Then they divided into two groups. While two of them , one from each side stood aside the other two got into a fight with blows and kicks on whatever parts of the body, Eric and James pounced on each other. Within seconds, James fell on the ground bleeding profusely through mouth and nose. But undeterred, Eric leaped on him again and counted till five-finally defeating his opponent. It was the last blow that James lay dead on the ground while the winning group laughing with pride. In the meantime Tom yelled to James to get up and fight but no avail. It then dawned to him that something amiss had happened. James was dead. Wrestling had caused blameless and innocent James to be dead. Watching professional wrestling on T.V. encourages aggressive behavior in adolescents. The teens search or look up to the mass media to see what makes a real man or a woman. The frequency of watching wrestling is directly linked to the behavior of teens. Also, the language and the violence used in it influences the teen males and females. Firstly, the teens look up to the mass media (the celebrities) to find the idol characteristics of a man or a woman and try to copy them. One common thing that I have noticed among my peers ,which many of you I am sure must have noticed too, that when asked in... ...hem to a dangerous path. By reading till the end of my thoughts, you must be convinced by now that watching professional wrestling on T.V. encourages aggressive behavior in teens. We all know that teenagers are easily influenced and molded into any shape, but if this tender mind is exposed to violence like wrestling, it starts to adopt and enact it. The more wrestling they watch, the more they are engaged in unacceptable behavior. Though, the debate over the influence of pro wrestling programming on teens is far from ending, we must guard what goes into our heart by way of our eyes, ears and brain, and review what we see on the TV. Bibliography DuRant, Robert H., PhD Department of Pediatrics, Brenner Children's Hospital, Winston-Salem, North Carolina- AUGUSTA FREE PRESS Wake forest University (research) Health Day News, Monday, August 7, 2006

The Bell Jar :: essays research papers

Sylvia Plath’s autobiography, The Bell Jar, tells the story of Plath’s own mental breakdown and suicide attempt, as well as her recovery and eventual reentrance into the outside world. The Bell Jar shows the transition of Plath as a young, hopeful girl into a cynical, suicidal woman. The main character whom represents Plath, Esther Greenwood, is first shown as an aspiring writer who is full of dreams and whose life is brimming with opportunities. As Esther becomes more and more depressed, Plath then shows a very different picture of a woman who has lost hope and no longer wishes to live. Plath conveys this deterioration through effective use of rhetorical devices such as imagery, alliteration, and point of view.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  From the very beginning, Plath lets the reader know that all is not as well as it seems. Esther has won a fashion magazine contest. As her prize, she was given a job and accommodations in New York City. While this seems like a dream come true, Esther says, â€Å"I guess I should have been excited the way most of the other girls were, but I couldn’t get myself to react. I felt very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo.† This use of metaphor helps the reader to better understand how Esther felt. Right from the start, there is something different about Esther, and her unhappiness continues to grow throughout the story. Esther takes to hanging out with another one of the girls, Doreen. Doreen has a habit of blowing off deadlines in favor of men and alcohol. Esther follows her around one night, and upon returning to her room comments, â€Å"The silence depressed me. I t wasn’t the silence of silence. It was my own silence.† This statement, made more effective by the first person point of view, conveys Esther’s growing sense of unhappiness.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As Esther descends further into madness, a very vivid picture is painted. The once healthy young woman can no longer sleep, eat, or read. Stunning imagery is used when describing Esther’s inability to sleep. â€Å"†¦even my eyelids didn’t shut out the light. They hung the raw, red screen of their tiny vessels in front of me like a wound.† This description emphasizes the pain that Esther’s mental illness is inflicting upon her, through use of such words as â€Å"raw†, â€Å"red†, and â€Å"wound†.

My Broter my executioner Essay

When Luis returned to Sipnget for vacation after being unable to visit for years because of studying and then now because of work he visited his grandfather and his mother, but originally he decided to go back to visit his ailing father, Don Vicente. He planned to stay for weeks even for a month but then he suddenly changed his mind when he realized that the place had already changed a lot, his brother is not there and more over his mother and grand father has gone believing that his father and all the rich people should give up their wealth to the poor. He couldn’t take it. And, also there was the Hukbalahap which is against the Japanese and the elite’s— he couldn’t take it anymore. Before leaving first thing in the morning the next day he heard his father shout in surprise and when he ran to look after him he saw the window glass of his father’s room was broken and a stone wrapped in paper was on the floor, when his father picked it up and then read the message it says that â€Å"he should give all he has to those who deserves it better— the poor.† Luis, stunned by what he saw was also wondering who did it. He kept thinking but only one suspect is fitted with the situation. It’s his brother Victor who is very best at using sling—sling was the best thing to use to throw a stone trough the mansion’s security. After that, Luis fled off back to manila and then there was a time that Victor came to him and asks for his support—just the same as to the message his father got, back to Sipnget. What is the conflict of the story? Thus, the brothers had different personalities, beliefs, views and status in life. They met again as both friends and foes. These are their misunderstandings as brothers. Luis considers himself liberal. He is against the goals of his brother which is to put down his status as a wealthy landowner for the benefit of the poor. What is the climax of the story? He returned to Rosales. He came home together with Trining, his female cousin, who studies in the convent. In order for the Asperris to preserve their wealth, Luis married Trining. After sometime, she got pregnant. But in manila, Luis also had an affair with his manager’s daughter – Ester – which is also Trining’s best friend. But because they quarreled one night, Ester disappeared and was found out to be dead. He then found out from his mother that his half-brother Victor became the commander of Hukbalahap (hukbong bayan laban sa mga hapon) which is against rich people and feudal landowners. What is the resolution? At the end of the story, Vic warned them about the Huks. He told him to leave the place. But they didn’t listen. Trining got shot and died. Luis then revenged and fought for his status and for the death of his wife. VI.REACTION TO THE NOVEL This story is a must read for everyone for it elaborates on the political structures and some aspects of the Philippine history. It is also somewhat similar to Jose Rizal’s Noli me Tangere and el Filibusterismo. Reading it really requires full attention for them to be able to grasp the meaning of the story. Although the theme tackles more on political life of the rural people, readers can still be caught by romance in some chapters, particularly to Luis, and his affection for 2 women, Trining and Ester. When Trining died I felt sorry for both the main character and her. As said Luis took revenge for his status and his wife so that settles it because I definitely like to have my revenge if it was me. Good for Luis he is elite so he didn’t feel so down and he had the power to do so. I was surprised to read the incest situation in the novel I couldn’t bring myself to believe but the writer simply made it as if it was real. I fell thinking, are there many incest here in our country just to preserve their pure elite blood? I felt being more understanding to respect everyone’s choices for they have their own motives. My understanding of people’s motives has now been clear to me that everything has a cause and that cause might be good or bad but still we follow what we believe because we are humans we can decide for our own. While reading I found some Filipino values depicted in the novel and they we’re: the true love and respect of family members. Patience, dignity, disciplines and being responsible—they were all shown with great passion. From what I now observe in our system as Filipinos we must keep deep understanding between the poor and the rich. Now we have this border that keeps our world apart that sparks a revolution against each other. We must learn to understand, listen and share. VII.BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR F. Sionil Josà © or in full Francisco Sionil Josà © (born December 3, 1924) is one of the most widely-read Filipino writers in the English language. His novels and short stories depict the social underpinnings of class struggles and colonialism in Filipino society. Josà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s works – written in English – have been translated into 22 languages, including Korean, Indonesian, Russian, Latvaian, Ukrainian, Dutch. Childhood Josà © was born in Rosales, Pangasinan, the setting of many of his stories. He spent his childhood in Barrio Cabugawan, Rosales, where he first began to write. Jose was of Ilocano descent whose family had migrated to Pangasinan before his birth. Fleeing poverty, his forefathers traveled from Ilocos towards Cagayan Valley through the Santa Fe Trail. Like many migrant families, they brought their lifetime possessions with them, including uprooted molave posts of their old houses and their alsong, a stone mortar for pounding rice. Life as a writer Josà © attended the University of Santo Tomas after World War II, but dropped out and plunged into writing and journalism in Manila. In subsequent years, he edited various literary and journalistic publications, started a publishing house, and founded the Philippine branch of PEN, an international organization for writers. Josà © received numerous awards for his work. The Pretenders is his most popular novel, which is the story of one man’s alienation from his poor background and the decadence of his wife’s wealthy family. Throughout his career, Josà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s writings espouse social justice and change to better the lives of average Filipino families. He is one of the most critically acclaimed Filipino authors internationally, although much underrated in his own country because of his authentic Filipino English and his anti-elite views. Sionil Josà © also owns Solidaridad Bookshop, which is on Padre Faura Street in Ermita, Manila. The bookshop offers mostly hard-to-find books and Filipiniana reading materials. It is said to be one of the favorite haunts of many local writers. Works Rosales Saga novels A five-novel series that spans three centuries of Philippine history, widely read around the world and translated into 22 languages * Po-on (Dusk) (English, 1984) * The Pretenders (1962) * My Brother, My Executioner (1973) * Mass (December 31, 1974) * Tree (1978) Original novels containing the Rosales Saga * Dusk (Po-on) (1993) * Don Vicente (1980) – Tree and My Brother, My Executioner combined in one book * The Samsons Other novels * Gagamba (The Spider Man) (1991) * Viajero (1993) * Sin (1994) * Ben Singkol (2001) * Ermita * Vibora! (2007) * Sherds (2008) Short story collection * The God Stealer and Other Short Stories (2001) * Puppy Love and Other Short Stories (March 15, 1998) * Olvidon and Other Stories (1988) * Platinum: Ten Filipino Stories (1983) (now out of print, its stories are added to the new version of Olvidon and Other Stories) * Waywaya: Eleven Filipino Short Stories (1980) * Asian PEN Anthology (as editor) (1966) * Short Story International (SSI): Tales by the World’s Great Contemporary Writers (Unabridged, Volume 13, Number 75) (co-author, 1989) Children’s books †¢ The Molave and The Orchid (November 2004) Verses * Questions (1988) Essays and non-fiction * In Search of the Word (De La Salle University Press, March 15, 1998) * We Filipinos: Our Moral Malaise, Our Heroic Heritage * Soba, Senbei and Shibuya: A Memoir of Post-War Japan * Heroes in the Attic, Termites in the Sala: Why We are Poor (2005) * This I Believe: Gleanings from a Life in Literature (2006) * Literature and Liberation (co-author) (1988) In translation * Po-on (Tagalog language, De La Salle University Press, 1998) * Anochecer (Littera) (Spanish language, Maeva, October 2003) In anthologies * Tong (a short story from Brown River, White Ocean: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Philippine Literature in English by Luis Francia, Rutgers University Press, August 1993 In film documentaries * Francisco Sionil Josà © – A Filipino Odyssey by Art Makosinski, 1996 Awards * Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Awards for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts (1980) * National Artist Award for Literature (2001)[8] * Pablo Neruda Centennial Award (2004) * Palanca Awards

Psycholinguistics: Linguistics and Language Production Essay

Psycholinguistics studies the relationship between language and mind. It studies how are language and speech acquired, produced, comprehended, and lost. Language acquisition and language dissolution happen over time or diachronically. While language production and comprehension happen at a certain point of time or synchronically. Firstly, this paper will talk about language acquisition. Children are a focus of attention and affection in all societies. They go through many stages in language acquisition such as crying, cooing, babbling, first word, birth of grammar and childish creativity. During the very first few weeks of a child’s life, crying is his only way to show what he needs. Crying is unaffected by intentional control from the nervous system, which is responsible for human behavior. At the very beginning, baby’s crying is completely iconic. For example, when the child is hungry, his or her crying becomes louder and louder, it also increases in pitch. During the first two months of the child’s life, his or her crying becomes more symbolic. At these early stages, babies cannot depend on themselves. They depend completely on their caretakers for several years. This creates on enormous degree of early bonding and socialization. As a result of the extensive interaction between the children and their caretakers, children start to coo, making soft gurgling sounds, to express satisfaction. The cooing stage emerges at two months. When the child is about six months old, he or she starts to babble. This babbling stage refers to the natural tendency of children to create strings of consonant-vowel syllable clusters as a kind of vocalic play. Psycholinguists distinguished between marginal babbling and canonical babbling. Marginal babbling is an early stage similar to cooing where the child produce few and random consonants. While canonical babbling emerges at eight months when the child’s vocalization narrow down to syllables that similar of caretaker’s language. Then, the child enters the first-word stage. It starts after crying, cooing, and babbling. It emerges at about one year old. Children use idiomorphs. They are words which children invent when they first catch on to the magical notion that certainly sounds have a unique reference. For example, when the child sounds†milk†, he or she says â€Å"kaka†. By using these idiomorphs, children transform from an iconic creature to a symbolic one. During this stage, children use egocentric speech. They want to talk about the objects which surround them. After this previous stage, the child starts to use grammatical forms. Children start to use one word as a sentence, request or an exclamation. It is referred to as the holophrastic stage. Psycholinguists believe that the intentional, gestural and contextual clues which accompany holophrases make it clear those children are using single word sentence, exactly as adults do in conversations. The child starts to make sentences by a grammatical form. They can develop they use of grammar by imitating their caretakers. For example, when the father says â€Å"backwards†, his daughter imitated him by saying â€Å"rightwards†. They start to create sentences after the holophrastic stage, first with two words and subsequently with more. Childish creativity is an important stage during the child’s life. Children’s language is determined for their mother tongue. For example, children who rose up in china, they speak Chinese. Children are creative. They come up with new words and expressions which are not in their native language or not heard in their bilingual environments. Children are a bit more like well-programmed computers, who make creative, but often inaccurate guesses about the rulers and patterns of the language they are acquiring. They create to construct or reconstruct their mother tongue. Secondly, this paper will talk about language production. We fail sometimes to appreciate our gifts underlying so many of our everyday activities, such as writers and artists. We realize how much we take our actions for granted only through loss of injury. Language production is very important for us. Psycholinguists divided language production into four stages, conceptualization, formulation, articulation and self-monitoring. Conceptualization is the first step in language production. It means how to conceptualize the speech in our mind. The theory of the American psycholinguist, David McNeill , says that primitive linguistic concepts are formed as two modes of thought. These are syntactic thinking, which creates the sequence of words which we typically think of when we talk about how language is initiated, and imagistic thinking, which creates a visual mode of communication. Syntactic thinking and imagistic thinking collaborate together to conceptualize conversation. Formulation is the second step in language production. It is the eventual output of the process. It is easier to formulate than to conceptualize. The psycholinguist , Karl lashely, published an essay focused on the psychology of language. It concentrated on how speakers produce words, sound, sentences and phrases together so rapidly and accurately. He talked about how common it is to commit spelling errors when one is typing. These slips of the tongue or the pen are not linguistic loss during brain damage. They are normal mistakes occurs in everyday speaking and writing. We can make back-track and correct it. Slips of the tongue happen between two constants or two vowels. It has a certain pattern. There is the planning of higher level of speech. It is to analyze the steps we have to take and the decisions we have in order to produce an intended utterance. For example, there is a conversation between you and your friend about a certain situation. You decided that something is not important. You can choose to formulate it by some factors as politeness. It could be stated in an affirmative of negative response such as, â€Å"it is nothing† or † it is trivial†. Articulation is the third step in language production. What happens in our mind is very similar to what happens in the computer when I want to print some information. The conceptualization stage perceive itself as the primary and ultimate composer of communication, and the formulation stage pride itself as the conductor of speech sounds, but without the instrument of articulation, the music of our voices remain unheard and unappreciated. Like the operation of the printer which connected with the computer to produce what I wrote. Human larynx’s position plays an important role in speaking. It gives the human the ability to articulate speech. Its lower position gives humans the ability to articulate speech sounds. Self- monitoring if the final step in language production. All speakers and writers of any language, regardless of their degree of native fluency, commit linguistic blunders. Here, we have errors and mistakes. For native speakers, they do not commit errors, but they commit mistakes. They can self-correct immediately. While for non-native speakers, they commit errors and they are not able to notice it or correct it. Thirdly, this paper will talk about language comprehension. Understanding language is an automatic task which happens very quickly. Sounds or letters strike our ears or eyes creating words which form phrases, clauses and sentences. Understanding language was divided into four stages, comprehension of sounds, comprehension of words, comprehension of sentences and comprehension of texts. In the comprehension of sounds, psycholinguists did an experiment on a group of people. They gave them four sentences and each sentence has a missing word. They gave them the last syllable of each missing word and asked them to write down each word. For example, (1) it was found that the †¦eel was on the axle, (2) it was found that the †¦eel was on the shoe , (3) it was found that the †¦eel was on the orange, (3) it was found that the †¦eel was on the table. This insertion of different missing sounds to create a separate and appropriate word in each sentence is called the phoneme restoration effect. From the comprehension of the other words in the sentence, they can expect the missing word. Comprehension of words is more complex than the comprehension of sounds. Each word has many sounds. Even in short and one syllable words, we can find that they composed of many sounds. Each language has thousands of words where we can find some similar words which make us confuse in the meaning. One model that psycholinguists have adopted to account for this complexity is Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP). Its perspective argues that we use several separate and parallel processes when we understand spoken or written language. When someone hear or see a word, he or she can stimulate an individual logogen (verve cells) or lexical detection device for that word. These logogens link to individual neurons in neuronal network. Then, they activate themselves and work in parallel with many other logogens to create comprehension. There are comprehension of high frequency words and comprehensions of low frequency words. High frequency words are rapidly and frequently comprehended like â€Å"boy† and â€Å"orange†. While low frequency words take a long time to be comprehended like â€Å"exotic† and â€Å"logogen†. Psycholinguists divided the comprehension of words into several ways, in term of their spelling, on the basis of their pronunciation, and in terms of grammatical functions. In term of their spelling, like the homophones, the words pronounced alike but spelled differently, for example ; â€Å"threw† and â€Å"through†. On the basis of their pronunciation, like homographs, words spelled alike but pronounced differently, for example; â€Å"lead†noun and â€Å"lead† verb. In terms of grammatical functions, the word may be function as a verb and a noun or either of them only. There is another example of the uselessness of (PDP) approach to the comprehension of words most of us encounter during our daily life. It is what psycholinguists named as the Tip of the Tongue (TOT) phenomenon. This phenomenon occurs when we know a word but we cannot remember it to pronounce it. It is on the tip of the tongue. The word is not completely forgotten, but we can remember usually the first syllable of this word. This means that our long term memory storage is better for recognition than for recall. Comprehension of sentences is more complex than comprehension of sounds and words. Psycholinguists based their researches to examine the comprehension of sentences on the model of sentence grammar which proposed by Chomsky in 1950s. Chomsky model claimed that all sentences were generated from a phrase structure skeleton has a series of transformational rules which is named as (Transformational Generative Grammar). These transformations are very powerful. They could create many verities of sentences by rearranging, adding, deleting or substituting words in the original sentence. Psycholinguists examine these transformations on a group of native listeners to notice their level of comprehension. Example number one is : the dog is chasing the cat. While example number two is : Is not the cat chased by the dog?. Example number one is easier than example number two, because it has three transformational changes; it has been transformed into a negative, passive and interrogative sentence. Psycholinguists called this process as Derivational Theory of Complexity (DTC), because difficulty in comprehension was derived from number of transformations that were added to the original and simple sentence. Psycholinguists made experiments to test (DTC). They gave a group of listeners a number of sentences and asked them to recall both the sentence they had just heard and a string of words. They found that when the sentence becomes more complicated than the previous sentence and the number of sentences becomes more than one or two, the listener remembers fewer and fewer words. They also confuse by additional transformations in each sentence. Comprehension of texts is more complex than the others. When someone read or hear a text, he or she can remember the content but not typically the grammar of each sentence. The presence or absence of our background information can affect dramatically the way we remember a piece of discourse. Grammatically, we can remember simple sentences not complicated ones, for example we can remember active sentences than passive ones. Finally, this paper will talk about language dissolution or language loss. Language dissolution can be caused by unhappy accident which violates the language area of the brain, a traumatic event in our personal life, or genetic disorders. Psycholinguists found that the dissolution of language whether due to accident or age, is a rich source of information about how the human mind controls our attempt to communicate. Neurolinguistics and language loss have two things which are the evidence from aphasia and the surgical evidence. Neurolinguistics is an offspring of psycholinguistics, investigates how the human brain creates and processes speech and language. Firstly, we will talk about the loss of language due to brain damage. To understand how this happens, we need to clear up some misunderstandings about the human brain and how it functions. Anatomically, the brain has two separate and virtually identical cerebral hemispheres. There are millions of associations’ pathways which connect the left and the right hemispheres together, so any information in either hemisphere is shared with the other. Our central interest is in language not in the anatomical mapping of human neurology, so we concerned with the location of the control of speech organs and the sensation of speech. If I take the left hand and cup it over the left ear so that the palm of the hand is clapped over the ear hole. I can find that the left hand covers most of the left side of the head. If I opened the skull, I will find under the first two fingers, two vertical strips of brain tissues running down from the top of the head. They have the same size of the two fingers. It is the area of the brain which is responsible for the production and comprehension of human language. Under the middle finger, there is the motor cortex which responsible for muscular movements. While under the index finger, there is the sensory cortex. The top of the motor cortex and sensory cortex take care of the movement and sensation of the feet. While the bottom of these two strips are responsible for the head, mouth and throat. We can find that the top of the brain controls the lower part of the body and the vice versa. The left side of the brain is responsible for the right side of the brain and the vice versa. The top parts of the motor and sensory cortexes are responsible for the movement and sensation of the feet. While the bottom parts of them are responsible for the head. Humans are susceptible to injury in the central nervous system. The damage could arise from a loss of blood supply to the location of the central nervous system due to stroke, or invasive injury like an automobile accident or gunshot wound. There are two consequences that make the central nervous system unique in relation to any part of your body. Firstly, there is no pain receptor in the brain that is why a stroke, unlike a heart attack, is not a painful experience. The second thing is that the central nervous system does not regenerate. Once it is damaged, it does not grow back. Now, let us speak about the surgical evidence. There are two kinds of surgical operation have a particular bearing on questions of language dissolution. The first operation is hemispherectomy and the second one is split-brain operation. In rare cases, when the neurosurgeons find that either the left or right hemisphere of a patient was hardly affected, he or she opens this affected side of the skull and remove the entire left or right hemisphere. This operation performs on adults or children under the age of ten. For an adult, this operation causes a dramatic effect on them. When an adult undergoes a left hemispherectomy, he or she becomes completely aphasic, except for a few words of automatic speech. While, if this operation performed on children, it does not lead to loss of speech. The factor here for these causes is the age of the brain. During the first decades of human life, the human brain is continuously evolving and growing. Linguistic functions have not yet localized to specific areas of the brain. This gives a neuroplasticity of the still maturing brain. When a young brain encounters traumatic injury, even to the extent of losing an entire cerebral hemisphere, because it is still maturing, and because the primary areas of cognitive and linguistic functioning have not established, a child does not suffer the functional loss that an adult does. Children aphasia exists and stem from neurological abnormalities such as autism. The second operation is the split-brain operation which was developed in 1970s to treat specific cases of severe epilepsy. This operation was developed to spare sufferers from the terrible trauma of major seizures, because there are certain severe and singular forms of epilepsy which remain unaffected by pharmacological treatment. Epilepsy is caused by discharges in the motor cortex in one hemisphere that are transmitted to the corresponding cortex of the other hemisphere via the corpus callosum. There are a few negative consequences to the operation, and this rests largely on the fact that our senses are bilaterally represented. After the corpus callosum is cut, in normal, everyday situations, information from either eye goes to both hemispheres. Speech and language disorders are divided into dissolution from non-damaged brains and language loss through aging. There are two examples of disorders which causes dissolution from non-damage brain. These two examples are stuttering and autism. Stuttering is one of the most common articulation problems. It occurs, most frequently on the initial word of a clause, the first syllable of a word, the initial consonant of a syllable, and on stop consonants. There is a theory represents the extreme behavioral view and claims that stuttering originates from traumatic events occurring in early childhood when sensitive parents and primary school teachers are too assiduous in attempting to ensure that the child speaks fluently. There is another theory states that stammering is caused by the absence of unambiguous lateralization of speech to the left hemisphere. There another disorder which is autism. The first signs of this disorder are apparent in infants, before speech has really developed. Autism is referred to as childhood schizophrenia. An autistic infant exhibits a disregard for human interaction and ignores eye and face contact. This condition creates a lack of social interaction. At the end, the reduction in physical and mental abilities does accompany the aging process. When we become older, the language may be lost quickly.

Host based Intrusion Prevention

Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) recognize the presence of malicious code within traffic that flows through the holes punched into the firewall, our first layer of defense. Though, the word â€Å"intrusion detection† is a bit of a misnomer.Richard Kemmerer and Giovanni Vigna of the University Of California, Santa Barbara, elucidate in an article in the IEEE Security and Privacy magazine: â€Å"Intrusion detection systems do not detect intrusions at all–they only identify evidence of intrusion, either while in progress or after the fact.† (Edwin E. Mier, David C. Mier, 2004)An IDS recognizes security threats by detecting scans, probes and attacks, however does not block these patterns; it only reports that they took place. Yet, IDS logged data is invaluable as proof for forensics and incident handling. IDSs as well detect internal attacks, which are not seen by the firewall, and they help in firewall audits.IDSs can be divided into 2 main categories, footed on t he IDS alarm triggering mechanism: anomaly detection-based IDS and misuse detection-based IDS.Anomaly detection based IDSs report deviations from â€Å"normal† or expected behavior. Behavior other than â€Å"normal† is measured an attack and is flagged and recorded. Anomaly detection is as well referred to as profile-based detection. The profile describes a baseline for normal user tasks, and the quality of these user profiles directly has an effect on the detection capability of the IDS. Techniques for constructing user profiles comprise: (Nong Ye, 2003).Rule-based approach–Normal user behavior is characterized by creating rules, however analyzing normal traffic is a complicated task. A related approach is protocol anomaly detection.Neural networks–These systems are trained by presenting them with a large amount of data, together with rules regarding data relationships. They then find out if traffic is normal or not; abnormal traffic raises an alarm.Stat istical approach–Activity profiles describe the behavior of system or user traffic. Any deviation from normal triggers an alarm.The advantage of anomaly detection is that it can identify previously unknown attacks and insider attacks, without the need for â€Å"signatures†Ã¢â‚¬â€œ that is., predefined attack profiles.One more benefit of anomaly detection is that it's impossible for the attacker to know what activity causes an alarm, thus they cannot assume that any particular action will go undetected.The disadvantage of anomaly detection is that it produces a large number of â€Å"false positives†Ã¢â‚¬â€œ that is., alerts that are produced by legitimate activity. In addition, besides being complicated as well as hard to understand, building and updating profiles as well need a lot of work.The other most important approach, misuse-detection based IDS (also called signature-based IDS), triggers an alarm when a match is found to a â€Å"fingerprint†-a signa ture contained in a signature database. These â€Å"fingerprints† are footed on a set of rules that match typical patterns of exploits used by attackers. As there is a known database of exploits, there are few false positives.The disadvantage is that misuse-detection IDSs can merely detect already-known attacks. Besides, the â€Å"fingerprints† database needs to be incessantly updated to keep up with new attacks. The majority IDS products in the market at present use misuse detection.

Economic Growth and Financial Development

There are three views about the relation between economic growth and financial development. First, financial development has impact on economic growth (i. e. Bagehot, 1873; Schumpeter, 1912; McKinnon, 1973; Shaw, 1973; Patrick, 1966; Goldsmith, 1969; Fry, 1973). Second, economic growth leads to financial development and that where there is economic growth financial development follows (i. e. Robinson, 1952). The third view, however, contends that both financial development and economic growth Granger cause one another.In the essay, our group focus on the first view which financial development will has passive influence on economic growth. During the year from 1955 to 1993, many scholars has study the relationship between financial development and economic growth. Along with the time goes, the theory that financial development will real promote economic growth has been more and more prefect. In the years between 1950s and 1960s, economists such as Gurley and Shaw began to stress the c redit markets and the importance of financial intermediaries, which they believed play an important role in economy. 5] They argued that tradition monetary transmission mechanism ignores the factor of financial structure and financial flow and only pays attention to the total amount of money and the connection of the output. In 1955, Gurley and Shaw bring up the development of financial institution is both a determined and determining variable in the growth process. (Gurley and Shaw, 1995, p. 532). Gurley and Shaw stressed that financial intermediaries exert influence on credit supply rather than money supply.In this way, financial intermediaries improve the efficiency of savings turning into investments and then affect the whole economic activities. They are the earliest scholars to study in-depth the relationship between financial and economic development in developing countries. Gurley and Shaw pointed out that the main access road of monetary policy transmission probably have di verted from money quantity, which is traditionally thought as the medium of exchange.Whereas, the â€Å"financial capability† of economy would has a closer relationship with the gross expenditure. They put forward financial development enhances the intermediation of loanable funds and therefore growth will be stimulated and they have a debt-intermediation view. The Debt-intermediation view establishes relations between finance and growth. First, economic growth would be associated with financial development, as external indirect finance provides surplus units with the capacity to spend beyond their earnings.Second, growth would stimulate and be stimulated by the â€Å"institutionalisation of saving and investment†; income grows, richer wealth-holders will increase their desire to diversify their asset portfolio. If financial innovation is such to accommodate this â€Å"diversification demand†, financial institutions can enhance their lending capacity and thus bo ost growth; the process becomes a cycle. Gurley and Shaw has earlier pointed that the growing importance of NBFI (non-bank financial intermediaries) when they discussed their activities about potentially serious problems for monetary management and monetary policy. 1] Subsequent analysis of the problems had to two results. [2] First, if the monetary authorities exerted control over the financial system through the operating of the financial markets, monetary management would not be undermined. [3] Second, which placed specific restrictions on banks, at that time the dominant financial entities, the growing role of NBFI was stimulated in part by the opportunities for intermediation created by monetary policy measures.These contributions stressed the relevance for financial â€Å"deepening† (mean financial development) of rising wealth and income, then attempts to control the activities of financial intermediaries. Wealth and income incent the demand for financial services. Res trictions and Controls on financial intermediaries create the stimulation for further financial intermediation by generatingâ€Å"quasi-rents† that risk among participants in financial and capital markets and reflect differences in information. 4] However, Gurley and Shaw do not address the issue of causality between financial development and economic growth. In 1966, Patrick make the causality issue is addressed, he posed theâ€Å"stage of development† hypothesis, where the direction of causality between financial development and economic growth changes over the course of development. [6] Two hypotheses are developed, one is Demand-following hypothesis: a causal relationship from real to finance and the other is Supply-leading hypothesis: a causal relationship from finance to growth.The supply-leading hypothesis supposes a causal relationship from financial development to economic growth, which means mature creation of financial institutions and markets increases the supply of financial services, and thus leads to real economic growth. Patrick suggests that initial development is spurred by supply-leading process, which gives way to demand-following process. He posed financial institutions and services emerge as demand for those services unfolds. The idea is that finance is passive in the growth process, but lack of financial institutions may prevent growth to occur.Financial institutions and their services precede the emergence of demand; government support is needed to finance and nascent modern sector, such as subsidized loans, information to small business and long loan durations. He points out the importance of finance in economic growth. The difficulty of establishing the link between financial development and economic growth was first identified by Patrick (1966), he argued that a higher rate of financial growth is positively correlated with successful real growth. [7] In his theory, commercial banks may issue banknotes and accept â€Å" easy† collaterals. Easy loan† can induce economic growth, for it can finance innovation-type investment, however, in fact it can also induce irresponsible borrowing. Since the important work of Patrick, that first postulated a bi-directional relationship between financial development and economic growth. A large empirical literature has emerged testing this hypothesis as the Patrick's (1966) problem remains unresolved: What is the cause and what is the effect? Is finance a leading sector in economic development, or does it simply follow growth in real output which is generated elsewhere. References: [1] de Oliviera Campos, R. 1964) â€Å"Economic Development and Inflation with Special Reference to Latin America† in Development Plans and Programmes Paris: Organisation for Cooperation and Development [2] Duesenberry, J. S. and M. F. McPherson (1991) â€Å"Monetary Management in Sub-Saharan Africa† HIID Development Discussion Papers no. 369, January [3] Friedm an, M. (1973) Money and Economic Development The Horowitz Lectures of 1972 New York: Praeger Publishers [4] Malcolm F. McPherson and Tzvetana Rakovski (1999) â€Å"Financial Deepening and Investment in Africa: Evidence from Botswana and Mauritius†, Copyright 1999 Malcolm F.McPherson, Tzvetana Rakovski, and President and Fellows of Harvard College [5] Liu Pan Xie Tao (2006) The Monetary Policy Transmission in China-â€Å"Credit Channel† And Its Limitations, Working Papers of the Business Institute Berlin at the Berlin School of Economics (FHW-Berlin) [6] Anthony P. Wood and Roland C. Craigwell Financial Development and Economic Growth: Testing Patrick’s Hypothesis for Three Caribbean Economies [7] Philip Arestis (2005) FINANCIAL LIBERALISATION AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FINANCE AND GROWTH, University of Cambridge

Marks & Spencer and performance analysis Assignment

Marks & Spencer and performance analysis - Assignment Example The business operates in a highly competitive business environment, taking competitive market share losses from other stores such as NEXT, the Gap, House of Fraser, and BHS. Well-known domestic brand names continue to adjust their competitive strategies, thus forcing Marks & Spencer to continuously consider whether its current core philosophy should continue to be promoted in the pursuit of competitive edge or whether new branding/advertising/marketing strategies are required to achieve top performance. This report identifies the processes, strategies and systems that drive alignment toward meeting performance targets and analyses the environment in which Marks & Spencer operates today. The business environment Marks & Spencer continuously attempts to diverse its product offerings, launching new business opportunities in key test markets in order to create a business profile that is secure for a new generation of customers. The company has worked consistently to combat negative perce ptions about the core brand philosophy, attempting to emerge from a staunchy and proud brand that has been a trademark of traditionalist buyers in the UK for decades. Because of this, the company has shifted its focus away from its traditional home and personal fashion philosophy to extend into foods services in an effort to compete with major grocers and also in terms of how the company promotes itself to a new class of buyers. This new focus changes the internal dynamics of management and also the supply chain in an effort to support new business function and principles. For example, M&S has realised that there is a growing trend in a new generation of buyers to secure the interests of the natural environment and reduce the carbon footprint left by operations. The business identifies that 80 percent of its buyers are concerned with sustainability issues, thus the company has developed over 100 different eco-targets to eliminate landfill waste and become carbon neutral (Palmer, 201 0). Much of this is accomplished by establishing a new supply chain that consists of suppliers with sustainable raw materials (Palmer). In order to develop and maintain a sustainability programme, certain operational components must be altered and a new management focus developed. As part of this eco-focus, Marks & Spencer developed what it referred to as Plan A, a sustainability programme that involves waste reduction, the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, and using renewable power to supply 23 percent of the firm’s total electricity inputs (Nagappan, 2009). Why is this important for aligning the business when other competitors continue to develop similar sustainability programmes? M&S has recently been forced to lower prices on merchandise, especially in the clothing sales division (Bokaie, 2008). This has been in response to lowering sales as older customers who were once loyal to the business in the mid 20th Century have been replaced with younger buyers who have a h igher disposable income and a new preference for fashion and home merchandise. The difference between Marks & Spencer and other competition is that the business is using advertising and other marketing-based activities to sell eco-friendly sales in order to rebuild a damaged brand reputation. If 80 percent of customers have been identified through qualitative or quantitative research to have a significant concern over the environment when choosing a brand, M&S aligns the operational function of the company to meet this concern using a new positioning