Ballyhoo, Prosperity and the Crash

The Great Depression which came after the Crash of 1929 changed American attitudes from optimism, something that Americans had because of the increasing flow of consumer goods and because of this new better way of life to, despair. This economic despair was the lowest and bleakest time in American history. â€Å"Factories closed, machines fell silent, and millions upon millions of people walked the streets, looking for jobs that did not exist† (750). Lasting for ten years it took over every aspect of American life.Along with this came a change in government that would give way to a Democratic majority and removed Republican hold since the 1890’s. Immigrants who had came to America before WWI took a political stance that lasted through this difficult time on through to the next generation that resulted in the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt. One of the first things his office did was developing The New Deal. This would create programs of â€Å"relief, recovery, and re form that greatly increased the role of government in American life† (750) in an effort to ease suffering and begin the path for economic recovery.In order to understand what happened economically during this time a look at business and government attitudes during the 20’s should be examined. During the 20’s Republicans â€Å"used their return to power after WWI to halt further reform legislation and to establish a friendly relationship between government and business† (742). This relationship led to false beliefs in economic growth and stability. The automobile and appliance industries during this time caused a saturation of the market. This slowed sales steadily and in 1927 there was a mild recession.The owners of these industries could have raised wages or lowered prices in an effort to stimulate buying power and hold onto the â€Å"consumer-goods revolution† (750) but ignored the signs. The government could have helped by stopping installment-bu ying and slowing bank loans that could have made the depression not last as long, but didn’t. The only institution that saw a possible problem and tried to do something about it was The Federal Reserve Board. The Federal Reserve Board saw problems and tried to stimulate the economy by lowering the discount rate, and charging banks less for loans.This extra credit that was given was thought to be used for re-investment but instead went into the stock market that was â€Å"touching off a new wave of speculation that obscured the growing economic slowdown and ensured a far greater crash to come† (751). Everyone jumped on the bandwagon as the 1920’s became better known as the get-rich-quick era. Millions of individuals from all the way at the top to all the way at the bottom played the stocks. Anyone with extra cash was investing heavily in the stock markets. They were betting that the huge rise in security prices would make them huge profits.Savings were used to be t on the speculative stocks. â€Å"Corporations used their large cash reserves to supply money to brokers who in turn loaned it to investors on the margin. † (751). By 1929 the whole country was in love with stock speculation. Offices open in huge numbers in city after city across America and people flocked to them in hopes of riches. This national obsession with the bull market gave a false idea that the economy was healthy and this caused a blind eye towards the mistakes that were happening that would lead to disaster.It was in October of 1929 that put the stop to this obsession of speculation stock buying. Overnight corporations and financial institutions no longer would provide capital for stock market purchases and this also made investors and bankers stop giving consumer credit. This stopped consumer buying power and leading to a sharp slope downward of sales of consumer goods economic disaster that continued for 4 years. 1932 showed a time that â€Å"unemployment had swelled to 25 percent of the work force.Steel production was down to 12 percent of capacity and the vast assembly lines in Detroit produced only a trickle of cars each day. † (751) There were many contributing factors toward the path of the Great Depression, but the single most important was that factories produced more goods than they were consuming. Some others were unstable economic conditions in Europe, the agricultural decline since 1919, corporate mismanagement and of course over speculation. Americans didn’t have the money to buy anymore.Even though most Americans didn’t have a car or a refrigerator the money just wasn’t there anymore. Too much money had gone into profits, dividends and industrial expansion. Not enough went into the hands of the workers who would become the consumer. Wages vs. factory productivity did not equal out. â€Å"Factory productivity had increased 43 percent during the decade, but the wages of industrial workers had only g one up 11 percent† (752). If all the money that was used for speculation had gone to increase wages then consumer purchasing would have gone up.This would have created a balance in production and consumption. It was only after a good look at what happened would the consumer-goods economy of America be understood. Not only did this cause a huge hardship for the population it also showed a challenge for political leadership in America. When Roosevelt took office the nation was near an economic collapse with unemployment at thirteen million. His first step was to save the banks. He drafted new legislature for banking that would help the stronger banks to reopen with government help and force the weaker banks to close.Roosevelt launched New Deal programs that would help in industrial and agricultural recovery, two of the hardest economic fields hit. This New Deal helped with immediate problems that were around in the 1930’s with programs that addressed relief in unemploymen t and destitute citizens. But in 1935 reform took the place of recovery and relief. â€Å"Roosevelt was developing a ‘broker-state’ concept of government, responding to pressures from organized elements such as corporations, labor unions, and farm groups while ignoring the needs and wants of the dispossessed who had no clear political voice† (761).This caused a major pressure for change because it did not help the average guy and was meant more for internal government change. The New Deal did have an influence on the quality of life in America, but also had some downfall. Labor unions was one influenced that changed history along with the introduction of Social Security, but the New Deal seemed to only help the more vocal and organized groups and left minorities out. But still Roosevelt’s impact on U. S.politics lead to the uplifting of the American people at a time when it was desperately needed in order to survive during a very disturbing and hard time. I don’t want to believe it was greed that caused this problem, but rather a misguided dream of the want of something better. Isn’t that the American dream? Reference: Divine, R. A. , Breen, T. H. , Fredrickson, G. M. , & Williams, R. H. (1987). America Past and Present 2nd. Ed. Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company.

Sensitivity Analysis

Linear Programming Notes VII Sensitivity Analysis 1 Introduction When you use a mathematical model to describe reality you must make approximations. The world is more complicated than the kinds of optimization problems that we are able to solve. Linearity assumptions usually are signi? cant approximations. Another important approximation comes because you cannot be sure of the data that you put into the model. Your knowledge of the relevant technology may be imprecise, forcing you to approximate values in A, b, or c. Moreover, information may change.Sensitivity analysis is a systematic study of how sensitive (duh) solutions are to (small) changes in the data. The basic idea is to be able to give answers to questions of the form: 1. If the objective function changes, how does the solution change? 2. If resources available change, how does the solution change? 3. If a constraint is added to the problem, how does the solution change? One approach to these questions is to solve lots of l inear programming problems. For example, if you think that the price of your primary output will be between $100 and $120 per unit, you can solve twenty di? rent problems (one for each whole number between $100 and $120). 1 This method would work, but it is inelegant and (for large problems) would involve a large amount of computation time. (In fact, the computation time is cheap, and computing solutions to similar problems is a standard technique for studying sensitivity in practice. ) The approach that I will describe in these notes takes full advantage of the structure of LP programming problems and their solution. It turns out that you can often ? gure out what happens in â€Å"nearby† linear programming problems just by thinking and by examining the information provided by the simplex algorithm.In this section, I will describe the sensitivity analysis information provided in Excel computations. I will also try to give an intuition for the results. 2 Intuition and Overvie w Throughout these notes you should imagine that you must solve a linear programming problem, but then you want to see how the answer changes if the problem is changed. In every case, the results assume that only one thing about the problem changes. That is, in sensitivity analysis you evaluate what happens when only one parameter of the problem changes. 1 OK, there are really 21 problems, but who is counting? 1To ? x ideas, you may think about a particular LP, say the familiar example: max 2Ãâ€"1 subject to 3Ãâ€"1 x1 2x 1 + + + 4Ãâ€"2 x2 3Ãâ€"2 x2 + + + + 3x 3 x3 2x 3 3x 3 + + + x4 4x 4 3x 4 x4 x ? ? ? 12 7 10 0 We know that the solution to this problem is x0 = 42, x1 = 0; x2 = 10. 4; x3 = 0; x4 = . 4. 2. 1 Changing Objective Function Suppose that you solve an LP and then wish to solve another problem with the same constraints but a slightly di? erent objective function. (I will always make only one change in the problem at a time. So if I change the objective function, not onl y will I hold the constraints ? ed, but I will change only one coe cient in the objective function. ) When you change the objective function it turns out that there are two cases to consider. The ? rst case is the change in a non-basic variable (a variable that takes on the value zero in the solution). In the example, the relevant non-basic variables are x1 and x3 . What happens to your solution if the coe cient of a non-basic variable decreases? For example, suppose that the coe cient of x1 in the objective function above was reduced from 2 to 1 (so that the objective function is: max x1 + 4Ãâ€"2 + 3Ãâ€"3 + x4 ).What has happened is this: You have taken a variable that you didn’t want to use in the ? rst place (you set x1 = 0) and then made it less pro? table (lowered its coe cient in the objective function). You are still not going to use it. The solution does not change. Observation If you lower the objective function coe cient of a non-basic variable, then the solution does not change. What if you raise the coe cient? Intuitively, raising it just a little bit should not matter, but raising the coe cient a lot might induce you to change the value of x in a way that makes x1 > 0.So, for a non-basic variable, you should expect a solution to continue to be valid for a range of values for coe cients of nonbasic variables. The range should include all lower values for the coe cient and some higher values. If the coe cient increases enough (and putting the variable into the basis is feasible), then the solution changes. What happens to your solution if the coe cient of a basic variable (like x2 or x4 in the example) decreases? This situation di? ers from the previous one in that you are using the basis variable in the ? rst place. The change makes the variable contribute less to pro? . You should expect that a su ciently large reduction makes you want to change your solution (and lower the value the associated variable). For example, if the coe cient of x2 in the objective function in the example were 2 instead of 4 (so that the objective was max 2Ãâ€"1 +2Ãâ€"2 +3Ãâ€"3 + x4 ), 2 maybe you would want to set x2 = 0 instead of x2 = 10. 4. On the other hand, a small reduction in x2 ’s objective function coe cient would typically not cause you to change your solution. In contrast to the case of the non-basic variable, such a change will change the value of your objective function.You compute the value by plugging in x into the objective function, if x2 = 10. 4 and the coe cient of x2 goes down from 4 to 2, then the contribution of the x2 term to the value goes down from 41. 6 to 20. 8 (assuming that the solution remains the same). If the coe cient of a basic variable goes up, then your value goes up and you still want to use the variable, but if it goes up enough, you may want to adjust x so that it x2 is even possible. In many cases, this is possible by ? nding another basis (and therefore another solution).So, intuitively, t here should be a range of values of the coe cient of the objective function (a range that includes the original value) in which the solution of the problem does not change. Outside of this range, the solution will change (to lower the value of the basic variable for reductions and increase its value of increases in its objective function coe cient). The value of the problem always changes when you change the coe cient of a basic variable. 2. 2 Changing a Right-Hand Side Constant We discussed this topic when we talked about duality. I argued that dual prices capture the e? ct of a change in the amounts of available resources. When you changed the amount of resource in a non-binding constraint, then increases never changed your solution. Small decreases also did not change anything, but if you decreased the amount of resource enough to make the constraint binding, your solution could change. (Note the similarity between this analysis and the case of changing the coe cient of a non-bas ic variable in the objective function. Changes in the right-hand side of binding constraints always change the solution (the value of x must adjust to the new constraints).We saw earlier that the dual variable associated with the constraint measures how much the objective function will be in? uenced by the change. 2. 3 Adding a Constraint If you add a constraint to a problem, two things can happen. Your original solution satis? es the constraint or it doesn’t. If it does, then you are ? nished. If you had a solution before and the solution is still feasible for the new problem, then you must still have a solution. If the original solution does not satisfy the new constraint, then possibly the new problem is infeasible. If not, then there is another solution.The value must go down. (Adding a constraint makes the problem harder to satisfy, so you cannot possibly do better than before). If your original solution satis? es your new constraint, then you can do as well as before. I f not, then you will do worse. 2 2 There is a rare case in which originally your problem has multiple solutions, but only some of them satisfy the added constraint. In this case, which you need not worry about, 3 2. 4 Relationship to the Dual The objective function coe cients correspond to the right-hand side constants of resource constraints in the dual.The primal’s right-hand side constants correspond to objective function coe cients in the dual. Hence the exercise of changing the objective function’s coe cients is really the same as changing the resource constraints in the dual. It is extremely useful to become comfortable switching back and forth between primal and dual relationships. 3 Understanding Sensitivity Information Provided by Excel Excel permits you to create a sensitivity report with any solved LP. The report contains two tables, one associated with the variables and the other associated with the constraints.In reading these notes, keep the information i n the sensitivity tables associated with the ? rst simplex algorithm example nearby. 3. 1 Sensitivity Information on Changing (or Adjustable) Cells The top table in the sensitivity report refers to the variables in the problem. The ? rst column (Cell) tells you the location of the variable in your spreadsheet; the second column tells you its name (if you named the variable); the third column tells you the ? nal value; the fourth column is called the reduced cost; the ? fth column tells you the coe cient in the problem; the ? al two columns are labeled â€Å"allowable increase† and â€Å"allowable decrease. † Reduced cost, allowable increase, and allowable decrease are new terms. They need de? nitions. The allowable increases and decreases are easier. I will discuss them ? rst. The allowable increase is the amount by which you can increase the coe cient of the objective function without causing the optimal basis to change. The allowable decrease is the amount by which y ou can decrease the coe cient of the objective function without causing the optimal basis to change. Take the ? rst row of the table for the example. This row describes the variable x1 .The coe cient of x1 in the objective function is 2. The allowable increase is 9, the allowable decrease is â€Å"1. 00E+30,† which means 1030 , which really means 1. This means that provided that the coe cient of x1 in the objective function is less than 11 = 2 + 9 = original value + allowable increase, the basis does not change. Moreover, since x1 is a non-basic variable, when the basis stays the same, the value of the problem stays the same too. The information in this line con? rms the intuition provided earlier and adds something new. What is con? rmed is that if you lower the objective coe cient of a non-basic ariable, then your solution does not change. (This means that the allowable decrease will always be in? nite for a non-basic variable. ) The example also demonstrates your value wil l stay the same. 4 that increasing the coe cient of a non-basic variable may lead to a change in basis. In the example, if you increase the coe cient of x1 from 2 to anything greater than 9 (that is, if you add more than the allowable increase of 7 to the coe cient), then you change the solution. The sensitivity table does not tell you how the solution changes, but common sense suggests that x1 will take on a positive value.Notice that the line associated with the other non-basic variable of the example, x3 , is remarkably similar. The objective function coe cient is di? erent (3 rather than 2), but the allowable increase and decrease are the same as in the row for x1 . It is a coincidence that the allowable increases are the same. It is no coincidence that the allowable decrease is the same. We can conclude that the solution of the problem does not change as long as the coe cient of x3 in the objective function is less than or equal to 10. Consider now the basic variables. For x2 t he allowable increase is in? ite 9 while the allowable decrease is 2. 69 (it is 2 13 to be exact). This means that if the solution won’t change if you increase the coe cient of x2 , but it will change if you decrease the coe cient enough (that is, by more than 2. 7). The fact that your solution does not change no matter how much you increase x2 ’s coe cient means that there is no way to make x2 > 10. 4 and still satisfy the constraints of the problem. The fact that your solution does change when you increase x2 ’s coe cient by enough means that there is a feasible basis in which x2 takes on a value lower than 10. 4. You knew that. Examine the original basis for the problem. ) The range for x4 is di? erent. Line four of the sensitivity table says that the solution of the problem does not change provided that the coe cient of x4 in the objective function stays between 16 (allowable increase 15 plus objective function coe cient 1) and -4 (objective function coe cie nt minus allowable decrease). That is, if you make x4 su ciently more attractive, then your solution will change to permit you to use more x4 . If you make x4 su ciently less attractive the solution will also change. This time to use less x4 .Even when the solution of the problem does not change, when you change the coe cient of a basic variable the value of the problem will change. It will change in a predictable way. Speci? cally, you can use the table to tell you the solution of the LP when you take the original constraints and replace the original objective function by max 2Ãâ€"1 + 6Ãâ€"2 + 3Ãâ€"3 + x4 (that is, you change the coe cient of x2 from 4 to 6), then the solution to the problem remains the same. The value of the solution changes because now you multiply the 10. 4 units of x2 by 6 instead of 4. The objective function therefore goes up by 20. . The reduced cost of a variable is the smallest change in the objective function coe cient needed to arrive at a solution in which the variable takes on a positive value when you solve the problem. This is a mouthful. Fortunately, reduced costs are redundant information. The reduced cost is the negative of the allowable increase for non-basic variables (that is, if you change the coe cient of x1 by 7, then you arrive at a problem in which x1 takes on a positive 5 value in the solution). This is the same as saying that the allowable increase in the coe cient is 7.The reduced cost of a basic variable is always zero (because you need not change the objective function at all to make the variable positive). Neglecting rare cases in which a basis variable takes on the value 0 in a solution, you can ? gure out reduced costs from the other information in the table: If the ? nal value is positive, then the reduced cost is zero. If the ? nal value is zero, then the reduced cost is negative one times the allowable increase. Remarkably, the reduced cost of a variable is also the amount of slack in the dual constraint associated with the variable.With this interpretation, complementary slackness implies that if a variable that takes on a positive value in the solution, then its reduced cost is zero. 3. 2 Sensitivity Information on Constraints The second sensitivity table discusses the constraints. The cell column identi? es the location of the left-hand side of a constraint; the name column gives its name (if any); the ? nal value is the value of the left-hand side when you plug in the ? nal values for the variables; the shadow price is the dual variable associated with the constraint; the constraint R. H. ide is the right hand side of the constraint; allowable increase tells you by how much you can increase the right-hand side of the constraint without changing the basis; the allowable decrease tells you by how much you can decrease the right-hand side of the constraint without changing the basis. Complementary Slackness guarantees a relationship between the columns in the constraint table. The di? erence between the â€Å"Constraint Right-Hand Side† column and the â€Å"Final Value† column is the slack. (So, from the table, the slack for the three constraints is 0 (= 12 12), 37 (= 7 ( 30)), and 0 (= 10 10), respectively.We know from Complementary Slackness that if there is slack in the constraint then the associated dual variable is zero. Hence CS tells us that the second dual variable must be zero. Like the case of changes in the variables, you can ? gure out information on allowable changes from other information in the table. The allowable increase and decrease of non-binding variables can be computed knowing ? nal value and right-hand side constant. If a constraint is not binding, then adding more of the resource is not going to change your solution. Hence the allowable increase of a resource is in? ite for a non-binding constraint. (A nearly equivalent, and also true, statement is that the allowable increase of a resource is in? nite for a constraint w ith slack. ) In the example, this explains why the allowable increase of the second constraint is in? nite. One other quantity is also no surprise. The allowable decrease of a non-binding constraint is equal to the slack in the constraint. Hence the allowable decrease in the second constraint is 37. This means that if you decrease the right-hand side of the second constraint from its original value (7) to nything greater than 30 you do not change the optimal basis. In fact, the only part of the solution that changes when you do this is that the value of the slack variable for this constraint changes. In this paragraph, the point is only this: If you solve an LP and ? nd that a constraint is not binding, 6 then you can remove all of the unused (slack) portion of the resource associated with this constraint and not change the solution to the problem. The allowable increases and decreases for constraints that have no slack are more complicated. Consider the ? rst constraint.The informa tion in the table says that if the right-hand side of the ? rst constraint is between 10 (original value 12 minus allowable decrease 2) and in? nity, then the basis of the problem does not change. What these columns do not say is that the solution of the problem does change. Saying that the basis does not change means that the variables that were zero in the original solution continue to be zero in the new problem (with the right-hand side of the constraint changed). However, when the amount of available resource changes, necessarily the values of the other variables change. You can think about this in many ways. Go back to a standard example like the diet problem. If your diet provides exactly the right amount of Vitamin C, but then for some reason you learn that you need more Vitamin C. You will certainly change what you eat and (if you aren’t getting your Vitamin C through pills supplying pure Vitamin C) in order to do so you probably will need to change the composition of your diet – a little more of some foods and perhaps less of others. I am saying that (within the allowable range) you will not change the foods that you eat in positive amounts.That is, if you ate only spinach and oranges and bagels before, then you will only eat these things (but in di? erent quantities) after the change. Another thing that you can do is simply re-solve the LP with a di? erent right-hand side constant and compare the result. To ? nish the discussion, consider the third constraint in the example. The values for the allowable increase and allowable decrease guarantee that the basis that is optimal for the original problem (when the right-hand side of the third constraint is equal to 10) remains obtain provided that the right-hand side constant in this constraint is between -2. 333 and 12. Here is a way to think about this range. Suppose that your LP involves four production processes and uses three basic ingredients. Call the ingredients land, labor, and capi tal. The outputs vary use di? erent combinations of the ingredients. Maybe they are growing fruit (using lots of land and labor), cleaning bathrooms (using lots of labor), making cars (using lots of labor and and a bit of capital), and making computers (using lots of capital). For the initial speci? cation of available resources, you ? nd that your want to grow fruit and make cars.If you get an increase in the amount of capital, you may wish to shift into building computers instead of cars. If you experience a decrease in the amount of capital, you may wish to shift away from building cars and into cleaning bathrooms instead. As always when dealing with duality relationships, the the â€Å"Adjustable Cells† table and the â€Å"Constraints† table really provide the same information. Dual variables correspond to primal constraints. Primal variables correspond to dual constraints. Hence, the â€Å"Adjustable Cells† table tells you how sensitive primal variables and dual constraints are to changes in the primal objective function.The â€Å"Constraints† table tells you how sensitive dual variables and primal constraints are to changes in the dual objective function (right-hand side constants in the primal). 7 4 Example In this section I will present another formulation example and discuss the solution and sensitivity results. Imagine a furniture company that makes tables and chairs. A table requires 40 board feet of wood and a chair requires 30 board feet of wood. Wood costs $1 per board foot and 40,000 board feet of wood are available. It takes 2 hours of skilled labor to make an un? nished table or an un? ished chair. Three more hours of labor will turn an un? nished table into a ? nished table; two more hours of skilled labor will turn an un? nished chair into a ? nished chair. There are 6000 hours of skilled labor available. (Assume that you do not need to pay for this labor. ) The prices of output are given in the table below: Produ ct Un? nished Table Finished Table Un? nished Chair Finished Chair Price $70 $140 $60 $110 We want to formulate an LP that describes the production plans that the ? rm can use to maximize its pro? ts. The relevant variables are the number of ? nished and un? ished tables, I will call them TF and TU , and the number of ? nished and un? nished chairs, CF and CU . The revenue is (using the table): 70TU + 140TF + 60CU + 110CF , , while the cost is 40TU + 40TF + 30CU + 30CF (because lumber costs $1 per board foot). The constraints are: 1. 40TU + 40TF + 30CU + 30CF ? 40000. 2. 2TU + 5TF + 2CU + 4CF ? 6000. The ? rst constraint says that the amount of lumber used is no more than what is available. The second constraint states that the amount of labor used is no more than what is available. Excel ? nds the answer to the problem to be to construct only ? nished chairs (1333. 33 – I’m not sure what it means to make a sell 1 chair, but let’s assume 3 that this is possible) . The pro? t is $106,666. 67. Here are some sensitivity questions. 1. What would happen if the price of un? nished chairs went up? Currently they sell for $60. Because the allowable increase in the coe cient is $50, it would not be pro? table to produce them even if they sold for the same amount as ? nished chairs. If the price of un? nished chairs went down, then certainly you wouldn’t change your solution. 8 2. What would happen if the price of un? nished tables went up? Here something apparently absurd happens.The allowable increase is greater than 70. That is, even if you could sell un? nished tables for more than ? nished tables, you would not want to sell them. How could this be? The answer is that at current prices you don’t want to sell ? nished tables. Hence it is not enough to make un? nished tables more pro? table than ? nished tables, you must make them more pro? table than ? nished chairs. Doing so requires an even greater increase in the price. 3. What if the price of ? nished chairs fell to $100? This change would alter your production plan, since this would involve a $10 decrease in the price of ? ished chairs and the allowable decrease is only $5. In order to ? gure out what happens, you need to re-solve the problem. It turns out that the best thing to do is specialize in ? nished tables, producing 1000 and earning $100,000. Notice that if you continued with the old production plan your pro? t would be 70 ? 1333 1 = 93, 333 1 , so the change in production plan 3 3 was worth more than $6,000. 4. How would pro? t change if lumber supplies changed? The shadow price of the lumber constraint is $2. 67. The range of values for which the basis remains unchanged is 0 to 45,000.This means that if the lumber supply went up by 5000, then you would continue to specialize in ? nished chairs, and your pro? t would go up by $2. 67 ? 5000 = $10, 333. At this point you presumably run out of labor and want to reoptimize. If lumber supply decreased , then your pro? t would decrease, but you would still specialize in ? nished chairs. 5. How much would you be willing to pay an additional carpenter? Skilled labor is not worth anything to you. You are not using the labor than you have. Hence, you would pay nothing for additional workers. 6. Suppose that industrial regulations complicate the ? ishing process, so that it takes one extra hour per chair or table to turn an un? nished product into a ? nished one. How would this change your plans? You cannot read your answer o? the sensitivity table, but a bit of common sense tells you something. The change cannot make you better o?. On the other hand, to produce 1,333. 33 ? nished chairs you’ll need 1,333. 33 extra hours of labor. You do not have that available. So the change will change your pro? t. Using Excel, it turns out that it becomes optimal to specialize in ? nished tables, producing 1000 of them and earning $100,000. This problem di? ers from the original one because t he amount of labor to create a ? nished product increases by one unit. ) 7. The owner of the ? rm comes up with a design for a beautiful hand-crafted cabinet. Each cabinet requires 250 hours of labor (this is 6 weeks of full time work) and uses 50 board feet of lumber. Suppose that the company can sell a cabinet for $200, would it be worthwhile? You could solve this 9 problem by changing the problem and adding an additional variable and an additional constraint. Note that the coe cient of cabinets in the objective function is 150, which re? cts the sale price minus the cost of lumber. I did the computation. The ? nal value increased to 106,802. 7211. The solution involved reducing the output of un? nished chairs to 1319. 727891 and increasing the output of cabinets to 8. 163265306. (Again, please tolerate the fractions. ) You could not have guessed these ? gures in advance, but you could ? gure out that making cabinets was a good idea. The way to do this is to value the inputs to th e production of cabinets. Cabinets require labor, but labor has a shadow price of zero. They also require lumber. The shadow price of lumber is $2. 7, which means that each unit of lumber adds $2. 67 to pro? t. Hence 50 board feet of lumber would reduce pro? t by $133. 50. Since this is less than the price at which you can sell cabinets (minus the cost of lumber), you are better o? using your resources to build cabinets. (You can check that the increase in pro? t associated with making cabinets is $16. 50, the added pro? t per unit, times the number of cabinets that you actually produce. ) I attached a sheet where I did the same computation assuming that the price of cabinets was $150. In this case, the additional option does not lead to cabinet production. 10

MREmpanada Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

MREmpanada - Research Paper Example I. Fragmentation and/or Concentration As a player in the United States restaurant industry, Mr. Empanada is a fast casual industry and not a fast food company as most people take it. The U.S restaurant industry is characterized by countless actors. The industry has already entered the mature stage of the industry life cycle, as growth of the industry slows own. The united states restaurant industry is fragmented into various subsets, the most popular being the fast food, full service restaurants and the fast casual segments. In a fast food setting, food is prepared before being ordered while in a casual setting, food is prepared after the customer has ordered it. There are hundreds of fast food and fast casual joints in United States that offer products that are intractably similar in almost all aspects. Panera Bread Company is the renowned leader in the casual food subset while McDonald’s is the overall industry leader operating in the fast food segment. The yearly anticipate d growth for the restaurant industry is 1.9% from 2013 through 2018 (The University of Tampa, 2). The slow growth rate is attributable to reduction in consumer disposable income due to prolonged recession period in United States. Consumers opt to consume home cooked means or consumer lower priced items when eating out. This is hurting the growth in the various fragments of the restaurant industry. United States restaurant industry sales ($ billions) (Source: The University of Tampa, 1) II. Switching costs Switching costs are the negative costs that buyers incur due to changing products, brands or suppliers. Switching costs are mostly evaluated in terms of money value, but they may also be time-based, effort based and psychological switching costs. Switching costs may be associated to learning, finding alternatives, ambiguity costs, contractual costs and transaction costs. Switching costs is a control mechanism that exists in most markets (Sundelin, para 1). In the case of Mr. Empana da, there are little or no switching costs as substitutes are readily available. Providers of casual foods are such as the chipotle Mexican grill, Panera bread, Skyline Chili, Donatos Pizza, Freebirds among others, which are easy to locate. Customers who wish to change from Mr. Empanada products and consumer rival products do not incur significant costs. For illustration, learning and compatibility cost is almost zero since the Mr. Empanada and its rival’s products are undifferentiated. Therefore, customers do not have to look and learn new information with regard to rival products. As such, consumers easily change from one Mr. Empanada products to its rivals due to insignificant switching costs or no cost at all. III. Buyer inclination to substitute In the United States restaurant industry, competition is so rife and fierce. As stated earlier, most of the industry’s products are undifferentiated. Customers hardly notice the difference between competitors’ produ cts and this extremely heightens buyers’ inclination to substitute (Porter, 28). In regard to Mr. Empanada, buyer inclination to substitutes is indispensably high. The reason is that Mr. Empanada is not known to many people outside its headquarters in Tampa, Florida. In addition to limited popularity, Mr. Empanada offers few types of salads, beverages, sandwiches that

Should all federal welfare programs be abolished Research Paper

Should all federal welfare programs be abolished - Research Paper Example ain welfare programs associated with the federal government include: the Food Stamp Program, Temporary Assistance for the Needy Families, Medicaid, and Supplementary Security Income, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and Housing assistance. Other small government welfare programs include Infant and Children Welfare, Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Low Income Home Energy Assistance, and School Based Food Assistance. In 1996, welfare reforms by President Bill Clinton brought about the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children Act (AFCDA). Through this Act, President Clinton aimed at reducing welfare assistance to the needy families. These programs should therefore not be abolished because they impact positively on the lives of a majority of the American citizenry. For instance, the federal welfare programs have reduced poverty levels and provided for medical welfare of the low income earning citizens. These programs should not be abolished though far reaching reforms need to be put in place to reduce the number of people in these programs. According to the United States Code, 2000 (279), the main aim of federal welfare programs is to provide assistance to the unemployed and needy citizens. Assistance includes unemployment and reemployment assistance, and emergency grants to assist seasonal farm workers and migrants. Before any reforms are made the benefits of federal welfare programs need to be evaluated. The first question we need to evaluate is why many people are running to welfare programs. If welfare programs did not help the poor, no legislation or Congress would have approved the welfare programs. The Medicaid program introduced in 1965 was to be funded by both the federal and the state governments to help improve the medical needs of the low incoming Americans who cannot afford medical cover (Northrup, 181). The federal and state Medicaid covers pregnant

Provide an argument for the claim that (some) mental states are not Essay

Provide an argument for the claim that (some) mental states are not identical to any brain state. Explain why the argument is va - Essay Example It also provides reason why that argument is valid and explains the resources the monist has at her disposal to undermine our confidence in the soundness of this argument. It also evaluates the response of a monist to the dualist argument that has been provided. The argument for the claim that some mental states are not identical to any brain state is supported by various premises. First, phenomenal properties can only reside in mental substances and not physical objects such as the brain. Second, physical bodies like the brain have spatial properties while minds do not have spatial properties. Third, a mind thinks while physical bodies such as the brain do not think. Fourth, a mind is known to exist with certainty while physical bodies like the brain lack that property. Therefore, in conclusion, some mental states are not identical to any brain state, and a mind is distinct from every physical state. This argument is valid because thinking about things involves intentionality, which is a property of nonphysical things (Mandik). For instance, a brain, which is purely physical, cannot think about things that do not exist in time and space. However, a mind can think about things that do not exist in time and space. Secondly, the brain cannot have intentionality because intentionality is very strange. People also think about things in the far future and distant past via their minds (Mandik). Therefore, a mind is distinct from every physical body, including the brain. Secondly, physical bodies are known via senses, but this senses ca be deceived (Mandik). Something that seems to exist may not exist, in real terms. One cannot be wrong about existence of his or her own mind. Minds are known to exist in certainty while physical objects may not be known to exist with certainty. Therefore, a mental state is known to exist with certainty while physical bodies such as the brain lack that property, and as such, a mind must be very distinct from every physical body, the bra in include (Mandik). However, this dualist argument is subject to rejection by proponents of alternatives to dualism such as monism. To undermine our confidence in the soundness of this argument, the monist has various resources at her disposal. First, monism rejects the premise of this dualist argument that the mind is immaterial. Therefore, the question goes, how can a mind, which is considered to be immaterial influence the physical brain (Seybold 89)? Also, how can a non-physical soul or mind affect a physical body, such as the brain (Seybold 90)? Secondly, neuroscience states that the brain is clearly necessary for mental states to occur, but a particular mental state is not identical to a particular brain state. Consequently, some brain state must exist for the mental event to take place, but no particular brain state can be mapped onto the specific mental event in a one to one manner. Monists argue that mental activities emerge from the brain (Seybold 90). Monism agrees with dualism that the mind can, and does affect the brain or the body, but monists reject this argument because it is not explained how the mind can affect the body, if the body and mind are of two different substances, as required in dualism (Seybold 90). Therefore, it is impossible for the physical body to be moved by a mind, which is not part of the physical world, according to monism. It should also be noted that body processes such as thinking require energy and the mind,

Wireless and the new Technology Annotated Bibliography

Wireless and the new Technology - Annotated Bibliography Example Results were determined comparatively through pre- and post-tests. Based on the gathered data, the results of the examinations with the ARS is similar to the conventional form of learning but based on surveys that explored the students’ opinions, ARS is more stimulating to learning. In the study, Islam and Doyle focused on the advantages brought about by the use of wireless technology specifically the mobile SMS in the communication among the developing countries, specifically one of the poorest countries which is Bangladesh. The said advantages include health services, e-commerce, data gathering for different studies and distance education. The results of the article contributed in the determination that the applications of wireless technology are not limited in the urban areas and in developed nations. Barnes, L. J. (2008). Lecture-Free High School Biology Using an Audience Response System. American Biology Teacher, 70(9), 531-536. Retrieved September 15, 2009, from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.ulib.iupui.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=35840820&site=ehost-live Blackbourn, J. M., Fillingim, J. G., McCelland, S., Elrod, G. F., Medley, M. B., Kritsonis, M. A., Ray, J. (2008). The Use of Wireless Technology to Augment Problem-Based Learning in Special Education Preservice Teacher Training. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 35(2), 169-176. Retrieved September 15, 2009, from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.ulib.iupui.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=33405330&site=ehost-live Islam, Y. M. and Doyle, K. O. (2008). Distance Education via SMS Technology in Rural Bangladesh. American Behavioral Scientist, 52(1), 87-96. Retrieved September 15, 2009, from

No child left behind Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

No child left behind - Essay Example Until 2008, all students who are in elementary through high school will be required to take a science exam. Second, based on test results, there are many students who didnt receive good grades on their tests. As such, the school must do everything in their power to improve these grades. If the students dont do well, the school must reduce the number of teachers, which would make class sizes larger. Also, the government will reduce the number of supplies that the school gets. Third, if a teacher cannot improve the students’ grades three years in a row, then the government can fire the teacher. The educational process should be evaluated because it has become a big problem. Children with disabilities are excluded from schools, and therefore proper education, and teachers can also conduct problems, which affects the way that students learn. Furthermore, assessments for children with disabilities need specific adjustments that modify the line of achievement goals, regardless of a child’s disability, that can be applied to all students. There greatest problem with this is that many disabled children are unable to learn at the same pace as other students, and they may not have the same capacity for retaining knowledge. It would be unfair to judge disabled kids with abled kids, and vice versa. However, some people agree with this policy. Even those who made the education policy mandates on assessments by the execution of educational research and policy, as well as the annual math and reading tests to follow the students learning progress, believe that there is a lot to b e argued about No Child Left Behind. Most schools do not want want to accept this law and many people, including experts, feel that the entire legislation should be

Strategic management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Strategic management - Essay Example Apart from these airlines, British Airways also supports varied other airlines as well such as Cambian Airways and Northeast Airways. Along with scheduled services, British Airways is also affianced in the functions of both international and domestic carrier of freight, ancillary services and mails. It is the largest airline of the UK, which includes a fleet size of 234. British Airways is also a constituent of the ‘FTSE 100 Index’ (British Airways, n.d.). British Airways is the ‘flag carrier’ airline of the United Kingdom and so it is also referred as a national carrier. It is a premium airline of the UK which flies to more than 300 destinations all over the globe comprising total number of customer base of 32 million in the year 2009-2010. Hence, it earned total revenue of ?8 billion in the year 2009-2010, which reveals that it is quite successful as compared to other apparent airways of the UK. Therefore, it is the market leader in this sector in the UK ( British Airways. 2010). Apart from this, via its varied types of functions and alliance partners such as Qantas of Australia, TAT European Airways of France and US Airways of the United states, British Airways encompasses to serve its customers outstanding services at every point. Thus, the underlining fact is to satisfy the customers and to enhance their loyalty and dependency over British Airways, which is extremely essential to retain its position in the market of the UK as well as the world in long run. Moreover, it also attempts to augment its operational performance and the quality of practices in order to fulfil customer needs and desires (British Airways, n. d.). This report mainly highlights the varied aspects and importance of British Airways in a brief way. Moreover, a detailed analysis explaining the success story of British Airways is also described with the help of various strategic tools such as PESTLE analysis, Porter’s five forces model and value chain analys is. Moreover, the business strategy of British Airways is also evaluated in an explicit way with the help of Porter’s generic strategies. Certain recommendations are also provided to the managers for further growth and development. Analysis of British Airways British Airways is a reputed airline of the UK and is operated under the parent organisation named International Airline Group (IAG). It is functioning with a common objective of offering an excellent experience of flying to the customers by serving eminent services. This facilitates British Airways to enhance its brand image and identity among other airline players in the market of the UK (British Airways. 2010). In the subsequent segment, the organisation i.e. British Airways is critically analysed in order to evaluate the underlining factors of its success. This can be possible by evaluating both the external and internal factors of British Airways with the help of PESTLE analysis. PESTLE Analysis PESTLE analysis is a vital marketing tool, which is utilised to judge the market conditions. It also helps to detect how various factors such as political, economic, technological, social and environmental factors prove

Critique of a text Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Critique of a text - Essay Example Unfortunately, this article does just that. ‘Inconvenient lives’ is an insight into the reasons why humans resort to abortion, supported by statistics and facts and the writer’s own vehement anti-abortion views. Bork, in this article, answers the questions whether abortion is always killing of a human being and is it done mostly for convenience? He takes the stand that abortion is akin to taking a human life by stating scientific research regarding how human life begins; drawing comparisons between a fetus and an elderly human being; discussing the various reasons through statistics as to why women opt for abortion and criticizing the views of some of the pro-abortion advocates. The writer draws the conclusion that abortion is an immoral act and the reasons behind committing it are irrational. He believes that women solicit it because it seems to be the most viable and convenient solution for their own multiple problems that might arise due to unwanted pregnancy. The writer opens the argument by giving the summary of how a fetus comes into being and develops into a full-fledged human being. According to him, killing the organism formed after the fusion of a male sperm and female egg is like killing a human being. It is quite evident that the writer cannot demarcate between a human tissue (the zygote) and a living person (the mother). By stating scientific and medical opinion he is just trying to impose that this human tissue is important enough to have rights of its own. It shall be most unfortunate however, to grant it rights equal to or superior than that of a woman which is a human being, all flesh and blood with thoughts and emotions. It is an absurd comparison that only diminishes the value to a woman. Much dramatic light has been thrown on the rights that the fetus should be granted but at the end the writer himself admits that â€Å"†¦the fetus cannot survive

Part 1- To what extent can laws adequately combat terrorism Part 2- Essay

Part 1- To what extent can laws adequately combat terrorism Part 2- With refernce to the case of A(FC) V The Secretary of state for the Home Department [2004] - Essay Example s: â€Å"the following offences†¦ which are intentionally committed by an individual or a group against one or more countries, their institutions or people with the aim of intimidating them and seriously altering or destroying the political, economic or social structures of those countries will be punishable as terrorist offences." http://www.una-uk.org/archive/terrorism/terrorismhr.html Terrorism is perhaps the greatest danger mankind is facing today and it has become an enemy of human rights. Refugees and asylum seekers somehow seem to be seething under a sense of ill use and some of the countries to which they belong are now considered to be the breeding grounds of terrorismi. Public protection, national security and individual rights are clashing in Acts made for facing terrorism. This might even result in detention or deportation of people who are rather remotely connected with terrorism, or their refugee status could be revoked on suspicion. But war against terrorism has attained an expansive nature and encompassed the entire universe. David Blunkett, previous Home Secretary of UK, with good reasons, wanted the anti terror measures to be linked with combating illegal immigration, traffickers and granting of asylum. Most of the Western Governments and some of the Eastern nations like India, Nepal, and Srilanka are preoccupied with tackling terrorist activities. Adequately combating terrorism is not perhaps a proper phrase to be used. Terrorism and terrorist activities can never be eradicated fully, whatever could be the laws or however strict could be the security arrangements. A clever criminal can always find a loophole or two in the strong fabricii. In United Kingdom, there are many laws in place that should be able to effectively discourage terrorism. EU laws too cover UK laws and these laws over impose each other, and they should be able to create sufficient barrier against terrorism. But as we can see from recent events like London bombings, even though

The First and Second Amendment Essay Example for Free

The First and Second Amendment Essay When the Constitution was written, it was not the intent of the authors to assure human rights to its citizenry, it was written in order to set up a federal government that would allow the United States to be a self-governing entity, and to put in place a system of government that would serve the citizens of the country in the way that they saw fit. After the ratification of the Constitution in 1787, â€Å"people soon began to notice that it did not list many of the personal liberties (individual rights) that they had come to believe were theirs. (Cullop, 1999) At the behest of some states the first ten amendments were added to the Constitution that protected the personal rights of the citizens called the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment prevents Congress from implementing an official religion, offers the free exercise of religion, and allows freedom of speech in the public and the press without fear of legal retribution for what is said. It also allows citizens to assemble peaceably to protest government or its decisions and to petition the government to change things that the people do not agree with. On the surface this amendment appears to settle some problems, but as time has gone by there have been many interpretations of the words and many arguments as to the intentions of the authors when the amendment was written. Most people agree that freedom of the press is necessary for the dissemination of accurate and reliable information whether it is good, bad or otherwise. People just basically want all of the facts. One conflict that has come from the general wording of the First Amendment is how the press will handle the confidentiality of their sources when reporting. The authenticity of what the press presents depends on the guarantee that sources can be protected. Many people would not otherwise give information for fear of implications that would arise from giving that information. The amendment protects a citizen from punishment for what they have said, but it offers no protection for the privacy of providing information without revealing the source. Recently there have been many bills introduced at both the House and Senate level asking for this protection to be guaranteed by law. In 2005 a bill was introduced into both the House and the Senate that would establish a Federal shield law that would in essence protect the source of information used by the media to report a story. The argument is whether or not the first amendment should preclude the security of the nation. The legislators think that this would prevent the government from protecting America from terror by allowing potential terrorist or informants to escape questioning or observation. So far the issue has not passed through the legal avenues due to the potential for compromising national security. Another controversial issue that has risen from the First Amendment is the freedom of religion and the right to exercise religion. Again this comes from years of twisting and turning of words and arguments as to the intent of the framers. The issue stems from the interpretation of the wording â€Å"Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion†. Some people say that this means that no laws will be made that respects any religion over another, while others argue that the intent of the framers was to prohibit the government from establishing laws that set up one religious point of view as the official religion such as they experienced in England. Regardless of what position people take, the Supreme Court has ruled that there shall be no law that respects one religion over another. This decision affirmed the idea of separation of church and state. In response to this ruling, it has become illegal to display the Ten Commandments in public buildings because this is considered the foundation on which Christianity and Judaism was founded. According to the Supreme Court this display violates the First Amendment rights of those citizens who are not Christians or Jews to have no official religion. Christians argue that while they believe that the Ten Commandments were given to the people by God as a way to self govern themselves according to His will, they also believe that these are good rules for anyone to follow regardless of their religious position and that by removing these laws of God from publicly owned property, it violates the Christians right to freedom of worship. The second amendment to the Constitution is commonly known as the right for citizens to keep and bear arms. Again the argument becomes what is written versus what was intended. The wording says that â€Å"the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed†. Taken literally this means that all American’s have the right to own and use firearms for whatever purpose they choose. When viewed from the intent of the authors, and inference from the context, it seems that this amendment was intended for the security of the land. This view aised many questions even among its supporters. It has been debated if this means that as long as you own a firearm for protection it is within the law, or does this mean that the government can not specify what kind of weapon and/or the uses of that weapon. This issue is at the forefront of the Assault Weapons Ban. Laws were passed to ban certain types of weapons that the government deemed as unnecessary or impractical for self defense. The opponents of this law argued that it was a violation of the literal interpretation of the amendment. The law passed into its â€Å"sunset† phase without being renewed making it legal to own weapons that were previously considered to be assault suited weapons. People who favor gun control believe that this has caused a serious risk to the security of the citizens, while people who are gun owners believe that it is their right by law to own these guns and that the ban was unconstitutional.

Thousand One Nights

Thousand One Nights Do you see The Thousand and One Nights as essentially an entertainment? Antoine Galland was the man responsible for the introduction of ‘the thousand and one nights to the western world. This bizarre combination of magic, love, hate, evil and the uncanny did not begin its literary career based on its highly valued scholarly merit but rather on its ability to delight and entertain. This enormous collection of oriental tales whose origins range from Persia to Syria begin with the story of the wife of king Shahryar who in a bid for survival tells him stories in order to survive the night. This element of a tale within a tale runs throughout the whole of the Arabian night tales which at times creates confusion for the reader who finds himself struggling to keep up. Although eighteenth century readers merely saw the tales devoid of any substantial literary value one can see that from the very beginning of this massive volume of tales, certain allegories concerning life are depicted. Scheherazades way of talking herself through danger can be analysed in two different ways. The first being that Scheherazade, is merely depicting the most common and universal human trait when dealing with danger. This could be easily seen as ‘talking ones way out of trouble. The second would be that through Scheherazade, a certain statement is being made regarding the nature of a successful marriage. Communication, it is implied, is the key to the survival of a marriage. With such allegorical implementations regarding life conveyed in only the very beginning of ‘The Thousand and One Arabian Nights it is then only wise that the tales should be read keeping in mind that entertainment may not be their only contribution to the reader. One point that I believe should be made early on regarding ‘the thousand and one nights is that since the tales were introduced during the Victorian period they would have been ‘fumigated thus effectively removing any erotic and highly graphical offensive material from the text .The term ‘Lost in translation would not be out of place in this case, as not only would have offending material been dispersed but certain elements regarding life in the east would have easily become distorted or have lost their value during the process of translation. As in effect this would have created a loss of important material perhaps of high scholarly value. It is then perhaps not surprising that it wasnt till the beginning of the twentieth century that scholars and critics begun to recognise more than just mere entertainment within the pages of the ‘The thousand and one Arabian nights Stories if narrated well enough have always found ground to delight, yet rarely are they told with out the narrator implying a certain meaning. In that sense they become didactic. Scheherazade is not the only story teller within ‘the thousand and one tales. Many characters within the tales contribute towards this didactic theme. An example would be Scheherazades own father the Wazir who in an effort to warn his daughter against the foolishness of marrying the Sultan begins to tell the tale of ‘The bull and the ass. These extravagant tales that are a resort of wanting to deliver a certain kind of message are similar to those used in fairytales. One could suppose these to be the oriental fairytales equivalent and as heavy in social history as the western fairytales. Also by allowing different characters of different backgrounds to deliver these messages there is an underlying idea that all people, regardless of who they are have a contribution to make in this life. This is an example of how these Arabian tales are able to not only represent life and the experiences that surround life itself but to do so whilst at the same time managing to bypass any cultural and linguistic boundaries. These messages become universal, addressing all important aspects of human life such as love, death good and evil and the constant search for immortality. The repeative development of these values throughout the subsequent tales within the Arabian nights only helps to strengthen and highlight the weight they command on every aspect of human life. Other than parallel life the Arabian tales are rich in material regarding the life and beliefs of the Arabic world. The oppression of women is shown in the sultans ability to wed a virgin each day and then kill her in the morning. His actions are not judged nor to create any kind of opposition whatsoever showing both the immense power that was placed in the hands of the king whereas at the same time also portraying the notion that the fates and lives of women lay in the hands of their husbands. Even so characters like Scheherazade are crucial at conveying that a woman was not completely powerless .A womans power lay in her cunning and ability to successfully manoeuvre and shape instances so that to achieve her own goal. Scheherazades ability to remain alive night after night is a prime example of this. If we were to consider tales such as ‘The bull and the ass certain other motifs become apparent. There seems to be an ongoing repetition throughout the Arabian tales concerning the theme of wit. This would point to the belief that wit and cunning were valued highly as characteristic elements, able to allow survival in the cruelty people faced everyday in their lives. Such beliefs are shown through the advice the ass gives to the bull. The ass begins by advising the bull to feign madness in order to escape the harshness of the plough. Yet once the ass realises his actions have merely jeopardised his own happiness he reverts to wit in order to save his skin. Later on the words of the cockerel are crucial in saving the merchants own life as he realises his wifes stubbornness in wanting to know his secret will only lead to his demise. Other than the importance of cunning and wisdom there is also numerous religious references leading to the conclusion that religion was carried great value in the Arabic world. As the religious references are many and at times devised of lengthy quotations this would also point towards the notion that not only did religion feature daily in the Arabic world but that most people had an extensive knowledge of it, in fact so extensive that they were able to quote extracts on the spot. The ‘A thousand and one nights are written in a simple language, this leads me to believe that the religious proverbs must have been widely known and not restricted to ‘holy or ‘religious men. Such was then the hold of religion upon the eastern Arabic world. All the above themes as well as others can be seen through another tale within ‘A thousand and One nights this being ‘The Fisherman and the Jinni. Cunning and wisdom again are emphasised with the life of the fisherman relying on his abilities to outwit the Jinni. ‘This is a Jinni; and I am a man to whom Allah hath given a passably cunning wit, so I will now cast about to compass his destruction by my contrivance and by mine intelligence; even as he took counsel only of his malice and his forwardness Within the above quote the importance of intelligence is clearly seen as is also the theme of how brute force and malice are not always effective in overcoming another. Something else that can be perceived throughout the ‘Tale of the Fisherman and the Jinni is the same notion seen through Scheherazade, that good communication skills were regarded as vital within the Arabic world. So vital, that they could have secured your life. Communication and the at of language is a characteristic that sets us above the mere existence of beasts, for the ability to structure speech goes hand in hand with the ability to think. The themes of good and evil as also that of kindness and cruelty are seen clearly within his tale. There is the underlying message through the Jinnis harshness that cruelty breeds cruelty. The injustice and cruelty that the Jinni suffered in being imprisoned in a jar for thousands of years turns him cruel. This could be parallel to the belief that it is society in itself that breeds evil rather than a person being born evil. Something also seen in King Shahryar who is seen as a noble honest king at the beginning of the tales only to turn harsh and cruel once he experiences hurt and injustice. With such elements as the themes of justice, honour ,good and evil and the ability of the ‘A thousand and one Nights to parallel life in itself we cannot suppose them to be merely delightful entertainment for they provide much more than that. They are as mentioned before the equivalent of the western fairytales as they incorporate all the elements expected in a fairytale as is simple language, morality and magic they are also proof that the need for man to teach and relate morality and certain life values was not limited to what was supposed the western ‘civilised world but was a reoccurring phenomenon that stretched across the globe. Bibliography Primary Reading Sir Richard F. Burton, Tales from 1001 Arabian nights, Ed translated by F. Burton, Jaico Publishing house

Research Methodology for Online Shopping Project

Research Methodology for Online Shopping Project 1. INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The project had two key questions to focus on and this acted as a guide to the research design and methodology. The two key research questions in my project were: What are the key consumer motivations for online shopping and how are these impacting the development of the online channel? This question is focused on the key drivers acting as make for consumers to pursue online shopping, and how these drivers were impacting the online channel as an alternative channel for making purchases. What are the emerging trends for online shopping, and how will the online shopping channel develop? As online shopping continues to increase, both organisations and consumers are expected to be better-placed with having a good understanding of where online shopping trends seem to be directed at. 1.1 Consumer motivations The project sought to understand the consumer motivations for choosing online shopping as an alternative channel or, for some consumers, their main channel for shopping particular items. This part of the project was based on determining what consumers have stated as their key motivation factors through secondary research. This was supported by primary research by surveying and interviewing consumers on their motivational factors. The objective was to list out the key motivational factors consumers have for online shopping. 1.2 Emerging trends for online shopping In addition to understanding consumer motivation, this project also sought, as an objective, to understand the emerging trends in online shopping, and establish a viewpoint on where the online channel was expected to move to. Similar for consumer motivations, this part of the project was based on a combination of primary and secondary research. 1.3 Foundation for research project There was a strong foundation for pursuing this project as it aimed to provide a greater understanding of the consumer and the motivations behind online shopping. As the importance of the online channel becomes increasingly greater for organisations, there is greater need for determining the consumers key drivers in choosing this as an alternative channel for shopping. The project results impact both consumers and organisations. For consumers, this gave them a venue for stating their preferences and key requirements to continue using the online channel which could lead to improvements on the online shopping experience. For organisations, this project provided an understanding of the current situation and also the emerging trends based on competitive dynamics, in order to be able to provide the consumers their requirements. This project was also important for me as the student as it gave me an opportunity to develop the knowledge and pursue the analysis of a critical management issue which was becoming a greater value add channel for a large number of organisations. The project, I believe, has led to new insights and a confirmation of consumers key motivations to online shopping. I believe this contributes to the growing knowledge on the online shopping experience of consumers. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW In this section, research works relating to consumer motivations for online shopping and related issues are critically evaluated. This research project was pursued with a qualitative research approach as the focus was on consumer motivations, which, while it could have been developed with quantitative metrics, seemed to translate better into a qualitative focus. The objective was more focused on going in greater depth across the key consumer motivations instead of tallying figures in terms of which factors consumers felt were their key motivations. The qualitative aspect of the research project was pursued through surveys and in-depth questionnaires. The primary data collected through the surveys and in-depth interviews were highly subjective as these were the results of consumers opinions and viewpoints. In this instance, it seemed best to pursue a rational approach to analysing the data results and the resulting interpretation. The interpretation of the research results was critical in this research project as there were no specific correct answers being pursued rather the collective view point and key motivating factors were being identified. Overall, the approach pursued for this research project was an interpretive qualitative research approached which seemed to fit best the requirements of the project. 2.1 Overview Even at the end of the last century, online shopping was already starting to catch peoples attention, and was slowly attracting consumers to use it as a channel, primarily because of its ease in completing purchases (i.e. not needing to step out of the home) and also in providing information as, even then, some sites already provided extensive information (Gay 1999, Gehrt et al 2007). But we are well into the first decade of the 21st century, and since then times have changed and certainly, consumers motivations, as evidenced in this literature review and the results of the research project, have changed. The use of the online channel for shopping varies greatly by country with the UK and the US ranking high up in the list with greatest ratio of online shoppers among Internet users, in addition to also having a large penetration of users for Internet access (Bhatti 2006). In the UK, Internet access among households has increased from 34% in 2000 to 54% in 2004, while Internet access for adults increased from 40% in 2000 to 64% in 2005 (Datamonitor 2006). 2.2 Consumer motivations In a research on consumer motivations for online retail shopping conducted a few years ago, some of the consumer motivations cited were interest in use of a new technology, ease of navigation and use, and convenience of online shopping (Childers et al 2001). While the research mentioned looked at consumer motivations, the research was only a subset of what could be learned from consumer behaviour as the study focused on only a few possible factors of online shopping activity. Also, the research is dated considering the advancements in technology over the past few years and the changes that have occurred in the online channel and the resulting consumer experience. A key thing to note was that the authors highlighted then the expectations that online retail shopping would continue to increase as consumers found greater reasons for shopping online. Linked to the increase of online shopping is the increase in access and usage of the Internet. For example, Rodgers and Sheldon (2002) researched the increasing use of the Internet and highlighted shopping as one of the key motivations for increased consumer use. In this instance, shopping was focused on as one of the factors resulting in the increased use of the Internet. In this work, the authors looked at shopping as a consumer motivation for increased consumer use but their work is interesting as the other factors they considered as increasing Internet use come into play, potentially, in increased motivation for online shopping. These include researching, communicating, and even Internet surfing. Despite the seemingly increasing growth of online shopping and also the increased interest in consumer motivations for online shopping, there has relatively not been much research in this area. This thought is supported as well by the research of Zhang et al (2007) which stated as a premise the online shopping environment s still representing a comparatively new, and largely unexplored, marketing channel. The premise of Zhang is hard-hitting as it exposes a large gap in the understanding of consumers motivations for online shopping. However, the research does have a major limitation in that the research focused only on college students as its respondents. The research was also very focused on impulse purchasing behaviours, and not consumer motivations for online shopping, as its key issue for analysis. Before going in detail in some of the consumer motivations discussed in research works, it should be noted that there has been considerable growth in Internet access and usage, and this has created a significant market in marketing and communications of organisations (Ko et al 2005, Tamimi et al 2005, Dadzie et al 2005). Online shopping has been growing and organisations have been focusing more on developing the online channel to capture a greater share of the wallet of the consumer. Online shopping Internet is the worlds largest network with high technology and greater controls, every day the standard of the internet is improving. In the past decades people and sales persons used to follow traditional methods for shopping and promotion of the business. Banks and thousands of businesses are using computers to share the data online and for transferring the funds using online banking. Internet is very flexible to view the information all over the world and for comparison of product prices from one to one organisation. A first step to understanding the growth happening in online shopping is to understand whats included in the term online shopping. It is generally accepted that it encompasses any product or service that is actually offered online, and hence does not relate only to the typical retail product that people buy but can also mean services that can be purchased online. A rather broad definition is given by Hult et al (2007) wherein online shopping can relate to any offering of service quality, product quality, or e-Business quality where the objective is the customer-based value creation for organisations. Based on this definition, we can see that the number of online shoppers has indeed increased significantly, at least in the UK, with the percentage of UK Internet users shopping online (including ordering tickets of buying goods and services) grew from 36% in 2000 to 61% in 2005 (Datamonitor 2006). For this research project, the broad definition is reasonable as the key focus of the research is in understanding consumer motivations for online shopping in general, with no specific product or service in mind. Undoubtedly, there are a large number of ways in which to cut the issue and there would be differences in the consumer motivations for specific products in specific markets, for example. The works cited in this section provided a good starting point in the consumer motivations to be considered. The research works also provided an indication of the increasing use of the Internet and online shopping as an activity. From the limitations cited in the research works, further research needs to be conducted on a general understanding of consumer motivations which are not limited to a few factors. The rest of this section discusses some motivating factors cited by consumers as driving their online shopping activity. 24-hour access One key factor mentioned as a motivation by consumers is the 24-hour access provided or allowed by most online shopping channels. Thus, the online channel is utilised by consumers as it provides them with 24-hour access for information, customer service, and purchase opportunity (Bramall et al 2004). This essentially gives the consumer the opportunity to browse products and purchase at the consumers own leisure. While the research of the authors states this factor as a motivation, the focus of the research work was actually on potential trust issues in online shopping. This specific motivating factor was not analysed in comparison to other motivating factors for consumers. Shopping convenience One oft-mentioned reason, and an early consumer motivating factor, for shopping online is the convenience of doing so as consumers wont need to go to the retail stores and experience the hassle of buying products in the stores (NBC News 2007). Another article does not only highlight the convenience of shopping online but also states that shopping only also helps decision-making as a large part of the information requirements a consumer may need to make the decision are found online (Furnham 2007). Clearly, shopping convenience is expected to rank high among the consumers in terms of their motivations for pursuing online shopping. Convenience can take many forms and includes all-hours access (i.e. the 24-hour access mentioned previous to this can be considered a subset of this motivating factor), own time and no pressure for decision-making, no requirement to dress up and go to the retail stores, and extensive available information, largely on demand, to support the product or service . Shopping convenience is a large factor for the US and UK consumers but this is not limited to the US or the UK markets only as even in Japan, online shopping has seen increasing growth rates, with shopping convenience as the greatest factor motivating consumers to do online shopping (Gehrt et al 2007). Another example where convenience plays a part in online shopping is in the office as a large number of offices are seeing their office employees turn to online shopping during their breaks or in between work in the office to do their shopping which, in some ways, actually results in more productive employees as they dont need to go to the retail stores for their shopping (Spillman 2006). As mentioned, online shopping allows unrestricted information search unlike in retail stores where comparisons are constrained largely by time and availability of sales staff to provide information (Chiang 2005). Thus, consumers tend to pursue online shopping if their information requirements are large and can be met online, or if consumers would like to make comparisons between products and services, and across a number of stores. The shopping convenience factor has been recognised across a number of research works, but these only tend to highlight that consumers have different meanings attached to the terminology, and may actually be referring to different sub-factors under the general term of convenience. In understanding this factor further, specific meanings were attached to and discussed in the surveys and interviews for the research. Greater bargains An increasingly cited motivating factor in online shopping is the existence of greater bargains for products and services. Consumers are increasingly interested in shopping online due to the greater bargains found in the Internet as organisations pass on savings resulting from using the online channel for sales (NBC News 2007, Lii Lee 2005). This poses a challenge for organisations though as some may not have fully understood the online channel business model, and may already be providing greater discounts to their products and services through online purchases of consumers. Another challenge for organisations is that consumers are expected to continue increasing their online purchases but only if they receive greater bargains from sellers in their online sites versus their retail stores (Craver 2006). Thus, consumers are already building the expectations that prices online will be less that prices in retail stores. This means that part of the value for organisations in establishing their online channels has already been transferred to consumers who are expecting more competitive prices online. If only to hammer the point of increasing consumer expectations, two factors mentioned by consumers in their increased interest in doing online shopping were free shipping of their products purchased and also everyday low pricing particularly relative to the retail stores of the sellers (Hajewski 2006). The key limitation in the citations for greater bargains is that these are from press articles and the approaches were not based on proper research conducted to determine the consumer motivations for online shopping. Nevertheless, this should still be accepted as a consumer motivation as this has been mentioned to be a factor based on the articles cited. Overall online shopping site experience This final factor discussed touches on the overall online shopping site experience which, in a way, relates to the overall customer experience in online shopping. This factor is quite specific to online shopping sites which consumers may visit but this nevertheless provides a motivation for some specific consumers and it relates to the overall online shopping site experience and having a positive satisfaction to the experience (Elliott Speck 2005). Specifically, the authors argued that the following factors impacted on the consumer motivation to complete their online shopping transactions: ease of use of online shopping site, product information available, trust in the brand and the online shopping site, customer support, and entertainment experienced while in the site. The focus of the research conducted by the authors was not on online shopping specifically but rather on the attitude towards retail web sites but using the online shopping experience as an example, with an analysis of the resulting impact on the consumers. Similar to some of the other published research cited in this section, the key limitation is the set of respondents considered for the research which, in this case, consisted of undergraduate marketing students. The results are interesting and provide a good preview of what the results could be if the research is expanded to capture a greater sample of the population. 2.3 Emerging trends for online shopping In reviewing the related literature touching on online shopping and also consumer motivations, a number of emerging trends were clearly seen. These include the following: Increased efforts in improving online security Potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businesses Usability of an online site as an increasing differentiator Management of Internet product returns Increasingly demanding consumers Increasing opportunity for organisations to develop consumer relationships Increasingly older market Greater share of ad market Each of these trends is discussed in greater detail in this section. Increased efforts in improving online security Across most metrics, online shopping has shown strong growth and yet the belief is that online shopping growth rates could actually be much higher if not for security-related concerns by some consumers (Bramall et al 2004, Arnold et al 2007, OConnell 2005, Cullen 2005). Increasing trust in e-retailing was one of the factors cited that could significantly drive much greater online shopping activity. Organisations are thus investing in ensuring greater security for their online shopping sites. ConsumerReports.org even recently developed a tool to provide consumers with a safe and enjoyable online shopping experience (Ascribe News 2005). There are two trends to be noted in relation to the security concerns of consumers. The first, as mentioned, is that there are greater efforts placed by organisations in improving online security as breaches to their security could have considerable consequences. Online security is the ability to protect the information of the customers from unauthorised access and destruction. Most of the online business websites using the technologies to secure their online transactions which gains more customers faith and trust to shop online. The use of firewalls, data encryption/ decryption techniques, secure socket layer (SSL), digital certificates, electronic signatures is making online transactions secure. Many governments over the world implemented regulations and law to support the people who want to make transactions online. The European Union adopted the directive on data protection in 1998, which limits any dissemination of personal data. Security and privacy are the most important facto rs in peoples decisions to purchase online, so the sophisticated technology to secure online transactions is the main factor of customers motivations to shop online. The second trend is that a complementary approach to improving reputation for managing online security risks is paramount. In support of this, where there are great concerns for risk, it has been established that utilising expert endorsers, as opposed to celebrity endorsers or even non-celebrity non-expert endorsers, can actually help in bringing consumers over their risk concerns (Biswas et al 2006). Potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businesses Another trend is that organisations are increasingly seeing potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businesses. For example, in recent months, Kohls, a US department store chain, has offered products online which were not normally found in their department stores and these included higher-priced items such as leather chairs, high-end home entertainment centres, and flat screen televisions (Hajewski 2007). This trend is not without its implications for organisation. In the Kohls example, one problem with the expanded product range as done by Kohls was that Kohls did not offer everything they had online in their retail stores. This is a concern as some consumers utilise the online site for their window shopping before moving to the retail stores to try on and purchase the items (Dodes 2006). The article states that more than 80% of online shoppers research products online first before sometimes going to the stores to see the products firsthand. Given that not all products are available in the stores, it would be prudent for online sites to be clear about which products are available in the stores and which products are not. In terms of ancillary businesses, the increase in online usage and online shopping has even spawned related business such as businesses which monitor traffic into organisations websites with the objective of increasing an organisations online sales (Newman 2007). Another ancillary business opportunity is from online shopping sites is as a social shopping space, such as Jellyfish.com which was recently acquired by Microsoft as it saw the growing opportunity in the business (Gallagher 2007). However, these new business are still untested as these are fairly new and would need some time before potentially growing into profitable businesses. As online shopping continues to grow, organisations will continue to seek out other opportunities that could help build the rationale for investments in establishing a highly competitive online shopping site. Usability of online site is an increasing differentiator While the extent of technological readiness of the consumer plays a part in determining the level of comfort in navigating through an online shopping site, the general usability of an online shopping site is an increasing differentiator and distinguishes between the different sites that consumers will utilise in online shopping (Massey et al 2007). There is a significant effect of the online marketing or advertisements on the customers to shop online and this pushing medium of marketing makes the people to shop online. The online marketing websites are designed with the facility of keyword search which brings more flexibility to online customers. Online stores are offering with much amount of choices and more information than atmosphere, so pure play sites attracting people with higher interactivity. The goal with these sites is to have it easily navigated through by consumers such that any potential barriers to keep consumers from purchasing products and services are effectively tak en out of the equation. Online promotions are very important to investigate the future trends of the online shopping. Customer relationship management is the most important function in any organization to promote their marketing strategies and to maintain good customer relationship. It is very important to consider the attitudes, behaviour and experiences of the customers to make the online promotions. An example of an initiative moving into the direction of overall ease of usability is the recent transaction involving Abazias.com and Google wherein Abzias.com partnered with Google for their shopping checkout process which is considered fast and very convenient (M2 Presswire 2007). The challenge for organisations is to continue making their online shopping sites easier to use. And to support the point, some online shopping sites now provide potential live help from customer service if particular requirements are needed in order to limit the number of lost purchases resulting from consumers abandoning their purchases (Prince 2005). Overall, the design of the website and the ease of use have a large impact on the online shopping sites performance (Auger 2005). Management of Internet product returns Another emerging trend is the establishment of clear guidelines in the management of Internet product returns, which then addresses a key concern or questions by some consumers. Internet product returns has been one of the key factors limiting part of the online shopping growth as the uncertainty surrounding how returns of defective or unwanted products impacted on the overall cost and inconvenience for the consumer. Organisations which are able to state clearly their policies on Internet product returns, and which provide a seamless process for allowing consumers to make returns for products bought online are at an advantage versus other organisations which have a perception of being difficult to coordinate with in processing Internet product returns (Mollenkopf et al 2007). Increasingly demanding consumers As the development of the online shopping channel continues, we are now seeing increasingly demanding consumers. This is shown in an example using the UK supermarket sector. In this sector, online shopping is still considered a poor offering by the UK supermarkets as none of the top five supermarket chains passed a service test conducted by a consumer affairs staff of a newspaper (Prunn 2006). Their failures were from their product offering to the product substitutes provided. The key good news for the UK and supermarkets thought was that the websites were generally easy to use for online shopping. Also, the delivery drivers were helpful and friendly. In contrast, in the US, online shopping offering for the supermarkets is a competitive offering with various supermarkets increasingly providing greater online shopping offerings for their consumers including chef-prepared, fresh-food delivery service (Food Institute Report 2006). Thus, the US supermarkets are able to provide the US consumers with their demands from US supermarkets. UK supermarkets will need to focus on improving their offering in order to capture the consumer wallet for shopping deliveries. Finally, an approach to cater to the demanding consumers is to provide channels for consumers to give their reviews, and to act on the comments of consumers which have been seen to provide a good way of increasing the online sites business (Spors 2006). Increasing opportunity for organisations to develop consumer relationships The online shopping channel provides organisations with an additional channel to develop consumer relationships. Organisations which are able to effectively capture value from their online shopping offering are the organisations which are able to collect and analyse data on consumer patterns, interpret customer behaviour, respond with timely and effective customised communications, and deliver product and service value to consumers (Kennedy 2006). The game is not new to most organisations. The only difference is that there is a new channel to consider for the consumer relationships. In order to be competitive, organisations should be able to learn from their interactions with the consumers, and develop the channel into one that consumers will find value from. With the growth of the online shopping channel, more organisations will invest in ensuring that consumer information is managed properly to be leveraged by the organisation in capturing value from the interactions. Increasingly older market At least in the US, the trend is that the older internet users market comprises the fastest-growing demographic group in the US Internet market and are, aside from large and growing, generally financially secure (Iyer Eastman 2006). While a research has not been found to state a similar point for the UK, it is possible that this is the case as well given the increasingly older society with a lower proportion of younger people in the country. What does this mean for the online shopping channel? If this is truly the trend, then the investments that organisations will place in developing their online shopping channels will be geared towards an older generation, from site design to products and services to site technology used. This potential trend has large implications on various organisations that can benefit from this research work. Thus, a greater understanding of the key trends is important in order to allow the organisations to plan and invest properly in their online shopping channels. Greater share of ad market Finally, another trend worth noting is the increasing share of the ad market by the online channel. With the growth of the online shopping consumer market, the ad share of this channel (the Internet) is expected to grow as well from about 5-8% to up to one-fifth of total ad budgets over the next three years (Ong 2005). As examples, US auto firms spent ~14% of their total advertising budget for online advertising in 2005 while Procter Gamble was planning to shift ~5% of its television advertising budget for online advertising and marketing programs (Datamonitor 2006). The greater share of the ad market by the online channel has implications for organisations across two key points. First is that there needs to be a decision on the amount of the ad budget that will be allotted to the online channel. After deciding on the first point, the second key point is that it is imperative for organisations to understand the business model of the online channel, and that the organisations have a plan in ensuring their investments will eventually generate good returns, if not doing so already. 2.4 Framework of Analysis As mentioned, this literature review was used for building a preliminary understanding of the key motivations of consumers in online shopping activity and also in determining the emerging trends in the online channel. From the literature review in this section, the following framework of analysis was utilised in the surveys and interviews. Consumer Motivations The consumer motivating factors mentioned in the literature review was utilised in both the surveys and interviews to prompt respondents and to test the factors. The structure of the factors in the for prompt section of the surveys and the interviews followed this listing: 24-hour access Respondents were asked if this was one of the factors they considered as a key motivation for online shopping. Shopping convenience While this was included as a factor in the for prompt section of the surveys and interviews, greater depth was pursued in understanding what the consumer may consider as shopping convenience in relation to online shopping. Greater bargains This was tested to determine if consumers truly saw this factor as an expectation already, and if not having this factor would impact on their use of the online channel for shopping. Overall online shopping site experience This factor was analysed in the context of the overall consumer experience, and was assessed of the importance versus the other factors mentioned by consumers as their key motivating factors for online shopping. Emerging Trends For emerging trends, not all the possible trends were included in th