Accounting Theory- Stakeholders - 1220 Words

Question: Taking into account Figure 3.4 on page 45 of your textbook (Stakeholder Typology: One, Two, or Three Attributes Present) discuss the ‘Ethics in Practice case’ on page 46 (Are Plants and Flowers Stakeholders? Do they have rights?) Freeman (1984, P. 46) popularized the definition of a stakeholder as ‘. . . ANY group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s objectives’. This is a very broad definition meaning that in today’s global business environment any individuals and groups may be business’s stakeholders (Davey, 2015). This sparks the debate about whether or not the natural environment can be identifiable as a stakeholder. In the ethics in practice case ‘Are Plants and Flowers†¦show more content†¦Legitimacy- This perceives appropriateness or a shareholder’s claim to a stake. Stakeholder legitimacy is defined as a ‘desirable social good’, and legitimate stakeholders are those that ‘really count’ (Mitchell et al., 1997). Stakeholders with an obvious, formal and direct relationship to the company such as owners, customers, and employees have a high degree of legitimacy. Authors excluding the natural environment from being a stakeholder say the natural environment does not have a degree of legitimacy because of it lack of human characteristics and a lack of perceived obligation between it and organizations (Phillips and Reichart, 2000). However Haigh and Griffiths (2009) argue that the natural environment is a legitimate stakeholder because managers address environmental issues to maintain their ‘right to operate’. Urgency- Urgency is the degree to which an issue requires immediate action (Mitchell et al., 1997). Extreme weather, as a result of climate change fits this description because it can have devastating impacts. For example, major environmental disasters (e.g. storms and tsunamis) demand urgency and power as they often result in life threatening situations. This results in legitimacy as they require immediate reaction due to the nature of destruction and the effects on the economic, physical and social environment (Davey, 2015). Power- Power is the ability to influence others toShow MoreRelatedTess666 Words   |  3 PagesUtility of Stakeholder Theory for Sustainable Business Introduction Strategies employed by international companies to gain competitive advantage over their rivals differ from one company to another. One way of doing this is ensuring that they are environmentally conscious in how they partake their activities. In this modern age, they should not only focus on profit making but also consider how their activities affect the stakeholders of the business; hence the stakeholder model. The Stakeholder ModelRead MoreCorporate Governance : Good Business Management1658 Words   |  7 Pagesefficient, effective, honest, transparent and democratic. A company with high quality management will have access to financing (public or private) in better conditions and terms. This implies appropriate business decisions to reach a higher level of accounting transparency, more efficiently managing business problems, and giving people, who are not involved in decision making, the guarantee that their interests are well protected (Monks 2011, p.10). But the most important, perhaps, is that a good implementationRead MoreStakeholder Theory Of The Firm1423 Words   |  6 PagesEven though the stakeholder theory of the firm served as a comprehensive fundamentally solid concept for corporate social responsibility to branch out of; without the stakeholder theory of the firm there is no corporate social responsibility and vice versa, because business cannot exist without society and soci ety is not sustainable without business, due to advancements in the modern world, business and society have evolved, and traditional business theories have a narrow business scope, while contemporaryRead MoreStakeholders Theory5106 Words   |  21 PagesThe stakeholder theory is a theory of organizational management and business ethics that addresses morals and values in managing an organization.[1] It was originally detailed by R. Edward Freeman in the book Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, and identifies and models the groups which are stakeholders of a corporation, and both describes and recommends methods by which management can give due regard to the interests of those groups. In short, it attempts to address the Principle of WhoRead MoreManagerial Stakeholder Theory - Essay2991 Words   |  12 PagesManagerial Stakeholder Theory To predict real-life phenomena we need theories. Similarly, stakeholder theory is a theory which is used to explain the phenomena of motivation for corporate social disclosures. This research work is based on the concept of stakeholder theory and its practical applications in predicting the phenomena of corporate social disclosures (van der Laan 2009). Further there will be explanation of Managerial stakeholder theory. The concept of stakeholder theory has got popularityRead MoreEssay on Financial Accounting Theory1727 Words   |  7 Pagesï » ¿QUESTION 1 a. Outline the objective and the principles of a theory that prescribes fair value accounting. Fair value accounting is to measure selected assets at fair value. Fair value is the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants. The objective of fair value accounting is linked with the objective of ‘decision usefulness’ of general purpose financial reporting. That is, to provide relevant information thatRead MoreEthical Concerns in Corporate Finance: A Closer Look at Earnings Management1640 Words   |  7 Pagesconcern in the corporate world. With the flexible accounting standards under the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Accounting Standards (IAS), there are many grey areas of what is, and is not, ethical. Earnings management falls in this grey area. Earnings management is the term used to describe the process of manipulating earnings of the firm to achieve a target predetermined by management. The flexibility of accounting standards may cause some variability in earningsRead MoreBusiness Law and Ethics Case Study1141 Words   |  5 PagesPart A Utilitarianism Upon applying utilitarianism theory to Tom’s current situation, Tom would maximise the greatest good and increase the happiness of more people and parties by exaggerating his work experience. The first party that would benefit from this is his parents. As was said in the case study (2014), Tom’s mother had lost her job a few years ago and has remained unemployed since. Tom’s father has also not been doing well financially, as his business has not been doing well as of latelyRead MoreThe Theory Provided By Magarey1617 Words   |  7 PagesThe theory provided by Magarey (2012) indicates that there are several elements in this article associated with this research question: a. The revolution is that integrated reporting provides assistance for the company to prepare the financial and non-financial reporting together for the stakeholders, which makes the company to consider the long term goal of the company (i.e., Hillman Keim 2001). b. The IR enhances the involvement of stakeholders, it creates the most effective and transparentRead MoreAdvanced Accounting Theory Project Essay1596 Words   |  7 Pagesï » ¿Do corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports provide shareholders and stakeholders with useful information on corporate social and environmental performance or are they merely a public relations vehicle? Answer this question by reference to a variety of accounting theories. There are many definitions to Corporate Social responsibility(CSR). One most common definition is that CSR is the consideration and response of the firm to issues that are beyond the regular technical, legal, and environmental

Causal Argument Paper On The Human Organ Black Market

Causal Argument Paper on the Human Organ Black Market â€Å"The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation.† (Corrie Ten Boom) As living creatures our organs are a very vital detail into who, what we are and how we work. We would not be able survive well and live our lives to the fullest that we possibly can, if we did not have them. Organ donation is a very important thing, whether it is just a kidney to be a live donor. Or giving it all when life is over and a new chapter begins. Even though people do attribute to organ donation there are just not enough people doing it, and now people are getting rich off of this misfortunes of others. â€Å"I think you should automatically donate your organs because that would turn the balance of organ donation in a huge way. I would donate whatever anybody would take, and I d probably do the cremation bit.† (George Clooney) Even though people do attribute to organ donation there are just not enough people doing it. When someone chooses to register to donate organs, that person is considered a modern day hero. By means of donation every person who registers to become an organ donor can save the lives of up to 8 other people. As of April 2015 there were 123,193 patients waiting for an organ transplant. Over 100,000 of the patients that are on that list just due to needing a kidney. Every month around 3,000 new patients are added to the waiting list, that comes out to about a new patient every 10 to 14 minutes (OrganShow MoreRelatedRace, Education and Health Essay3962 Words   |  16 PagesUS suffer from poor health, but not because they have worse genetics, rather from wors e educational opportunities. This is a problem of all those in poverty, but since a disproportionate amount of those in poverty are minorities; I am focusing my paper on how to alleviate the educational disparities within the minority population. Studies have shown that education is the ticket out of poverty and into a higher Socio–Economic Status. Therefore, by bettering educational opportunities to those who needRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pagesstructure of arguments. David M. Adams, California State Polytechnic University These examples work quite well. Their diversity, literacy, ethnic sensitivity, and relevancy should attract readers. Stanley Baronett. Jr., University of Nevada Las Vegas Far too many authors of contemporary texts in informal logic – keeping an eye on the sorts of arguments found in books on formal logic – forget, or underplay, how much of our daily reasoning is concerned not with arguments leading to truth-valued Read MoreThe Effects of Ownership Structure, Board Effectiveness and Managerial Discretion on Performance of Listed Companies in Kenya27922 Words   |  112 Pagesmeans, or stored in a database or retrieval system without prior written permission of the author or the University of Nairobi, except in the case of brief quotations or references universally acceptable for purposes of reviews, articles or research papers. Making copies of this thesis for any purpose other than personal use is a violation of the Kenyan and International copyright laws. For further information, please contact Ongore Vincent Okoth on the following addresses: P.O. Box 18132, GPORead MoreLas 432 Research Paper: Gmos20901 Words   |  84 Pagesorganisms that live within it. The thesis of this report is that Genetically Modified Organisms have distinct benefits with the potential to help starving nations, combat disease and create economic growth; however the research and true benefits to humans in general is underdeveloped and under-regulated. This uncertainty leads to controversy, possible environmental impacts and health concerns. An idea good in concept, Genetically Modified Organisms creates a topic of discussion and the necessityRead MoreRastafarian79520 Words   |  319 Pagesintentionally left blank Foreword One of the most useful things about Ennis Edmondss Rastafari: From Outcasts to Culture Bearers is that it correctly traces the connection between the emergence of Rastafarianism and the history of resistance and black consciousness that has been part of the Jamaican experience for years. The truth is that there has always been a committed Jamaican counter- culture that celebrates and sees redemption in Africa and rejects the European values that have oppressedRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 PagesMeyerowitz, ed., History and September 11th John McMillian and Paul Buhle, eds., The New Left Revisited David M. Scobey, Empire City: The Making and Meaning of the New York City Landscape Gerda Lerner, Fireweed: A Political Autobiography Allida M. 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The third chapter will build on this empirical understanding of regional trends, as well as the previously discussed literature, by presenting a comprehensive argument capable of explaining Dubais particular development outcome. Above all, it will emphasize that the willingness of Dubais rulers to pursue greater integration with the international economy, thereby taking advantage of structural changes that haveRead MoreMarketing Mistakes and Successes175322 Words   |  702 PagesDeCandia Alana Filipovich Jeof Vita Arthur Medina Allison Morris This book was set in 10/12 New Caledonia by Aptara ®, Inc. and printed and bound by Courier/Westford. The cover was printed by Courier/Westford. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Copyright  © 2009, 2006, 2004, 2001, 1998, 1995, 1992, 1989, 1986, 1981, 1976 John Wiley Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronicRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 Pagesmymanagementlab is an online assessment and preparation solution for courses in Principles of Management, Human Resources, Strategy, and Organizational Behavior that helps you actively study and prepare material for class. Chapter-by-chapter activities, including built-in pretests and posttests, focus on what you need to learn and to review in order to succeed. Visit www.mymanagementlab.com to learn more. DEVELOPING MANAGEMENT SKILLS EIGHTH EDITION David A. Whetten BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

East of Eden Biblical Allusions Free Essays

Parker Hoshizaki Tully English 2 (H) 10; 1 10/5/2003 Cain and Abel: The Symbolic Trio of Pairs â€Å"Why are you so angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? † so flows verse 7, genesis 4. In John Steinbecks novel, East of Eden several allusions are made to the biblical story of Cain and Abel, the most significant of which revolves around the idea of â€Å"timshel:† which is embodied within this quotation. Repeated through the two generations the novel spans are three examples of this, patterned first by Charles and his brother Adam, then through Adam and his troubled wife Cathy, and finally through the aforementioned couples offspring Aron and the controversial character Caleb (Cal). We will write a custom essay sample on East of Eden Biblical Allusions or any similar topic only for you Order Now The vicious cycle of Cain against Abel, Brother against Brother, in the Trask family destroys these generations and yet a glimmer of hope remains through the idea of â€Å"Timshel†. Moving chronologically, Adam and Charles are the first Cain and Abel pairing in the novel. Logically, they show the closest parallelism to the original story; this parallelism can be drawn down to three main events in the storyline. The first of these events is the acceptance and denial, respectively, of gifts presented by Adam and Charles to their father, the god figure in their version of the story. This event is followed by the attempted murder of Adam by his own brother Charles, as a direct result of the previous incident. The third event is much later in the story, as Charles is trying to move a large boulder with a crowbar he slips and cuts his forehead, an injury that will leave a large scar symbolic of the mark the Lord put upon Cain after Abels murder. The second pairing in the symbolic Cain and Abel trio is that of Cathy and Adam. Cathy and Adam are an unusual Cain and Able pairing in East of Eden but are important nonetheless. The pairing of Cathy and Adam does not express its symbolisms through key events like the other two do; instead they are expressed more through their personalities then their actions. Cathy symbolizes all the most evil parts of the biblical Cain, all the evil and malice that he possessed is expressed through Cathys malicious personality. Meanwhile the innocent and happily-in-love Adam is symbolic of the purity and contentment of the Abel; that is, up until the climactic shooting of Adam by Cathy marking the end of this Cain and Abel pairing. Before introducing the third pairing there is an important character that must be analyzed. Known simply as Lee, Adams highly educated Chinese manservant is a key character in the symbolic Cain and Able cycle. After being assaulted by his wife, Adam is bedridden and empty; at this point Lee begins to act as a caretaker for his employer, looking after him and caring for his twin sons Cal and Aron. Thus it is fitting that Lee should be the one to counsel Cal in his most vulnerable moment, and plant the seed of hope in his mind. In respect to the novel, Lee serves primarily as a physical embodiment of the idea of individual ability and freedom, he preaches this to Cal through the idea of â€Å"Timshel†, a Hebrew word meaning â€Å"thou mayest†. Lee believes that Cal is not inherently evil, is not destined to follow the same path as his ancestors, and has a choice as to how he will lead his life. The third Cain and Abel pairing and perhaps the most important one is, ironically, that of Adams twin boys, Caleb and Aron. The biblical symbolism of Cal and Arons generation is simultaneously the most unusual and the most significant to the novel. With this third example returns three symbols of the original story. First is the two gifts, and once again the symbolic Abels gift is accepted while the symbolic Cains is denied, a repetition of Adams fathers favoritism. Following this event Caleb is so enraged he tells the emotionally fragile Aron of their mothers’ true identity, a whore employed in a brothel. So emotionally affected by this is Aron that he runs away and joins the army the following day. Aron is later killed in the war thus fulfilling the second symbolic Cain and Abel event. The final and most significant event in the novel is the next step in the Cain and Abel story, the marking of Cain. Cal is horribly disturbed by what he has caused his brother to do, and he is convinced that he has inherited his mothers’ evil blood and is destined for a life of evil. However through the timely and wise council of Lee, he is made to ask his father, his god, for a blessing. To which Adam responds with a single word, Timshel, symbolically breaking the families’ vicious cycle of Cain and Abel pairings. If you do not do what is right, sin is crouched at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it. † (Genesis 4, Verse 7). Thus ends the cruel cycle of blood and malcontent that plagued the Trask family. Armed with the belief of Timshel given to Cal by Lee one may see that there is hope for the final Cain character in the book, that he may not be bound by blood and by history to be evil and that he may gain the freedom to blaze his own path i nto a future unmarred by his past. How to cite East of Eden Biblical Allusions, Papers

Cathay Pacific Management Problems free essay sample

In the following parts, we look deep into two major people management problems about the customer services officers in this company. The first one is about the protest of the reduced size and facilities of new rest room. Another one is about the increasing overtime work. ANALYSIS OF PROBLEMS Problem 1 Causes Over a hundred of Customer services officers refused to work overtime for three consecutive days in order to protest the reduction of the size and facilities of their new rest room. Because of the reduction of hygiene factors, ground crews are more dissatisfied with their job and they are likely to have unionization attempts. People Management Problems First of all, the ground crews considered that they were not treated fairly as they perceived that the procedures decided by Cathay are unfair. Although the staffs are directly affected by the changing position of the new rest room, they have not been involved in this process of decision-making. Hence, due to the lack of procedural justice, it is considered to be unfair by the crews. Moreover, the reduction of the sizes and facilities of rest room caused an increase in dissatisfaction of the ground staff. In accordance with Herzberg’s Two-Factor theory, satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not opposites but separate constructs. Although Cathay is planning to provide sofa and television in the new rest room, this can only help the staff changes their dissatisfaction to natural. Consequences: Impacts to organizational performance Because of the reduction of hygiene factors, such as a smaller rest room and fewer facilities, job dissatisfaction was created. Dissatisfied employees are more likely to miss work and reject to work overtime. In this case, the crews refused to work overtime for three consecutive days. And, the normal operation of the company would be affected without enough ground staff to serve customers. Thus, absenteeism will influence Cathay greatly. Finally, the changes made by Cathay Pacific, such as reducing the sizes of the rest room, caused a resistance to change of the staff. For instance, the crews refused to work. Those actions could be treated as an overt and immediate form of resistance to changes. This shows that crews did not accept their change in their condition. Hence, the employees have voiced out their comments to express their dissatisfaction. For example, the staff have gathered over 100 employees to refuse working overtime for three days and planned to continue this act at the peak period, like Christmas, if the management level ignore and do not respond to their action. Problem 2 Causes Many ground crews of Cathay Pacific claimed that their workloads are unacceptable. The problem is becoming more serious since the company is now stopping to hire new crews and requiring them to work on day-offs. Therefore, the staff thought their benefits were reduced compare with the past. People Management Problems Firstly, according to Adam’s Equity Theory, employees compare their rations of outcomes-to-inputs of relevant others. In this case, the employees compared themselves with a self-inside situation, which is comparing their current situation with it was before. They found their ration decreased because of income (effort paid) increase and outcome (salary received) decrease. Since they regarded themselves as under-rewarded, they took actions to reduce tension and want to bring the situation back to normal. For example, symbolic protest was emerged. They started to â€Å"work according to the rules† and refused an overtime work. Thus, this is one kind of illegitimate political behavior under power in action. Another problem faced by Cathay is the conflict between its management and employees. As mentioned above, the ground crews perceived that the company has negatively affected their concerned working conditions. This conflict may be resulted from poor communication between both parties, lack of openness of the company, and failure to respond to employees needs. It is obvious that Cathay failed to respond to its crews needs. Many ground staff complaint there is an increasing amount of work and overtime works. Cathay, however, did not notice the heavy workload among the staff. Thus, there is felt conflict appears among the affected employees, who have negative emotions, may create hostility, mistrust, and negative interpretation to the company. Consequences: Impacts to organizational performance Due to the negative emotions among the employees, they have a deviant workplace behavior. For example, they grouped together against the company’s policy on requiring them to work on holiday. This may affect the goodwill of Cathay. Therefore, frequent deviant workplace behavior influence the overall performance of Cathay is reduced. Moreover, they voiced out their concern by working-to-rule and refused to work overtime. They actively and constructively attempt to worsen the conditions as they realized that giving pressure to the management level could attract their attention to the situation. For example, protest against overtime work to voice out their dissatisfactions to the management level for improvement. This act would directly affect the company and the passengers as the boarding procedure is slowed down. Firstly, as the ground staff perceives that the decision process is unfair, the company should carry out participatory management, which can invite the ground staff representatives to participate in the decision making process. For example, the executive of Cathy Pacific can hold a meeting with the employees to discuss the problems and solutions together before taking any actions. Through process control, the staff will accept the final decision easier even though the result is not what they expected. Also, to give explanations for the outcomes, Cathay can provide evidence on how the company determines employees’ workload. If the crews find that the company is using the same method on determining their workload, it would reduce their feeling of being unfairly treated. As a result, it can increase the employee engagement. Secondly, in order to move the staff from natural to satisfaction, managers of Cathay Pacific should provide subordinates with motivators. Motivators include something intrinsic like sense of achievement and responsibilities. By providing them with motivators, managers can make staff feeling like the organization is treasuring their effort. It helps to increase the sense of belonging of the staff. Therefore, staff would work harder and increase their satisfaction if they perceived the organizational support. Thirdly, to reduce the absenteeism Cathay can make the staff emotionally attach to the company. By increasing the affective commitment of the ground staff, it can also raise their organizational commitment to the company. For example, Cathay can set up a department to collect the opinion and complains from the ground crews. By adopting this policy, employees will feel that Cathay is care about their needs and wants. Therefore, the perceived organizational support of the ground staff would increase, which follow by a better performance of the staff. Finally, to turn the resistance to change to be functional and help the company becoming more effective and efficient, Cathay Pacific should let the crews to have debate. Through debate, which is some kind of communication, management of Cathay could understand more about the front line staff. Also, management can share the situation of the company with the staff and try to come up an agreement that is best for all parties with the staff. Alternative solution for problem 2 Firstly, Cathay Pacific should review their employees’ outcomes-to-inputs rations. The company should restore the ration so that employees would feel they are being treated fairly. Moreover, if the O/I ratio comparing to other company of the industry is indifferent, the company can explain the reasons of reducing the room size and making frequent arrangement of overtime work to the staff. With enough communication, employees would increase the perceived organizational support. Hence, the employees believe the company values their contribution and their well being, thereby enhance the job satisfaction of the employees. Secondly, to solve the conflict problem, the intentions of the company should be decided first. It depends on the cooperativeness and assertiveness that Cathay wants to attempt. However, the best way to handle the conflict is collaborating, which is both parties desire to satisfy the concerns of one another. This means the ground crews need to understand the difficulty their company faced when many of them did not go to work simultaneously. Meanwhile, Cathay should recognize that heavy workloads arise among its employees, and certain conflict management techniques have to be used. For instance, expanding human resources can help to solve the problem. Adding more ground crews to serve customers can divide the amount of work of the present customer service officers. Consequently, customer’s satisfaction and loyalty will be increased if the frontline employees are enthusiasm for their job. The satisfied grew will be more friendly, upbeat and responsive which the customers appreciate. Also, it gives positive customer outcomes that may increase the profit of the company too. In the future, it has a positive effect towards the company.

Hopi Indians Lived In The Western Part Of America (Arizona). Their Civ

Hopi Indians lived in the western part of America (Arizona). Their civilization is about 3000 years old and they usually farmed for living. The Hopi reservation is a remote area, comprising approximately 650,000 acres, and is surrounded on all sides by the Navajo Reservation. The Hopi people have lived in this area for over a thousand years, with one of its native villages on Old Oraibi, having the distinction of being the oldest continuously inhabited village in the United States. Hopi brought a lot of influences to many people. Hopi people were famous for their pots they make. Hopi pottery is assumed to have been made by women, there are few early historic references to men making pottery. Pottery varied from village to village so all the neighboring villages showed different blending of style. Hopi pottery are made very similar today as the olden days just that now days, it is much expensive. Modern Hopi potters make their pottery in the traditional manner. The clay is hand dug on the Hopi mesas and hand processed. The pots are carefully hand constructed using the coil and scrape techniques their ancestors taught them. The paints used are from naturally occurring materials. For example, boiling Beeweed for a long time until it becomes very dark and thick makes black paint. Before making a pottery, they found clay near the ocean or by inland streams and pond. They would wedge the clay to help remove air bubbles from the clay. If air is not removed from the clay pottery may break or crack when dried and fired. They tasted the clay to choose which clay is better. They picked sweet clay because it would be smoother than the bitter clay. After choosing which clay they were going to use, they started to make the pot, known as the coil pot method. They would roll a piece of clay into a thin line. After, they would add the thin line and built it up step by step placing the rolled up clay on top of each other. The inside of the pinch pot was smothered and joined. They would use a shell or a broken pot to smooth the pot and to make it in shape to compress cracks and to smooth the pot for decoration. They would also put white powder on it and rub it with sandstone to smoothen it. At the end, they would fire the pot. Before firing, they warmed the pot and also dry it. After drying slowly for several days, they pottery would be ready to be baked in a fire. They used sheep dong and broken pots to put on top of the made pots. The pots would stand on rocks and sheep dong (pots would be up side down). The temperature would rise 1500 degrees or more and they would avoid any rapid temperature changes. Decorations were also important for the Hopi potteries. They would draw the decoration with a yacca (a brush-chewed on the end). The colorings were made up of tanzy and compounds. The designs and symbols vary from one artist to the other. Designs were usually animals and shape. The symbols on the pots came from mythological and religious ideas, especially of the psychological elements of sympathetic magic. Symbols were also often used to influence supernatural beings, which often explains artistic motifs. The pots there designed and buried, containing food and other materials. This showed us that the Hopis thought about their after life.

The Great Train Robbery essays

The Great Train Robbery essays The setting for The Great Train Robbery was Victorian England during the middle of the nineteenth century. It was very similar to the setting of The Count of Monte Cristo, except for not taking place in France. Michael Crichton researched the time period very well. He makes the reader feel like they are living in England during that time. The main characters name is Edward Pierce. He is a mysterious gentleman. No one knows anything about his past. Most people assume that he has just inherited a large fortune. No one would assume that he is a master cracksman about to attempt an unthinkable crime. The crime is stealing gold bullion from a train. Once a month a large bank in London transfers 12,000 of gold to a branch in France. The gold goes by train and steamboat. The gold is transferred from the bank to the railway station by an armed coach. Then it is put into top of the line safes. There are two on the train and each of them needs two keys to open. After the train the bullion is placed on a boat that takes it the rest of the way. It took about one years time from when Pierce started planning until he had the gold. First, he found a screws man named Agar. Agar was a master with keys and locks. Pierce was very cautious and didnt tell Agar the plan. Then they copied the keys. The four keys were in different locations. Two were at the railway office at the train station. One was in the control of Edgar Trent, the senior partner of the bank. The fourth key belonged to Henry Fowler, a friend of Pierce and a manager for the bank. Pierce planned to make replicas of the keys, but he had to have access to them to do so. He started dating Mr. Trents daughter to find out where the first key was. She let enough information slip for Pierce to know the general vicinity of it. He snuck into the Trent residence with Agar. They found the key and copied it. Fowler kept his key on ...

The Effects Of Modern Technology on Our Lives Essay

The Effects Of Modern Technology on Our Lives - Essay Example development of technologies another kinds of production are also growing up while labor force is becoming cheaper and that allows satisfying all consuming needs of constantly increasing world’s population. But which is the most important, technologies made possible the appearance of new opportunities for communication and quick access to any information we need. But there are certain disadvantages of technology development as well. It became almost impossible to control the amount and quality of produced information, though it is a powerful tool for mind control. The fast rates of production catastrophically reduce a quantity of resources in the world, and at the same time â€Å"overproduction† takes place. So consumers’ needs constantly grow, resources are depleting, but massive production keeps increasing, rising people’s needs. The development of military technologies funded by governments raises a general level of military conflict possibility. It is impossible to imagine our modern world without technologies; we don’t even notice how we aren’t able to live without them anymore. To estimate the effect of modern technology on our lives and definitely say that they are either something good or bad is absolutely unreal. The point is that technologies may controversially effect on our life they constantly do both cause harm and make our lives easier. It is hard to argue that the contribution that modern technologies have brought in our lives’ progress is almost unevaluated, because the opportunities we have now through the technological invasion are much wider than even ten years ago. The first aspect of the contribution we have to consider is definitely a fast development of modern science. At the very beginning of huge rise of technologies scientists were scared that technologies may destroy classical science, because the matter of science is to look for the essence of nature, it deals mostly with philosophical problems of â€Å"why?† and â€Å"how?†.

Personal experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Personal experience - Essay Example Disagreements may be inevitable at times, but being a good listener will avoid unnecessary clash of ideas and lead the group to think together, look at one another’s views logically and proceed from a crude set of ideas to the natural progression of significant and pragmatic solutions that carries the weight of experience and good will from the part of all. Maintaining eye contact and connecting with people, no matter whether you are in the work place or in other public spaces, will make others feel comfortable in your company. One can make clear with facial expressions that others are welcome to occupy their spaces next to oneself. A smiling countenance will lift up the spirits of others in most cases whereas an indifferent mouthing of greetings may just create space for the same from others. Words are very much important in a community but the facial expressions that convince others of one’s genuineness are more important. People usually like to be acknowledged for their contributions in public life. Recognizing even the smallest forms of contributions, even through their little acts or thoughts of kindness may thus be significant. Being a good listener and observer makes you a kind, perceptive person in the group. Neglecting those who do not follow your thought processes or acts may have a negative impact. It is necessary to draw others’ attention to one’s opinions and views with the help of proper presentation. Persuasive and convincing arguments that do not discount the possibilities of others ways of looking at it usually brings people closer to one and the willingness to listen to the ideas of everyone else will drive people together to valuable, proactive resolutions. When one witnesses a heated argument between people, it may be helpful and relaxing to make use of some sense humor. But one has to remember that no reference should be made that hurts the feelings of anyone who is involved in the argument. It

Chateau St. Michelle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Chateau St. Michelle - Essay Example The above information is probably the only information known to wide audience about Chateau Ste. Michelle, however, under the closer examination some of the competitive strategies become obvious. Chateau Ste. Michelle has a specific effort to please customers, makes offensive and defensive moves to counter rival's actions and responses to market conditions, thus strengthening its market position. The goal of the competitive strategy is to do the better job in providing what buyers are looking for. It is possible to say that Chateau Ste. Michelle has the edge over rivals in attracting buyers and coping with competitive forces - being among the top preferred brands is an evidence of this. One of the distinct features of the Chateau Ste. Michelle is that the top management pays close attention to performing value chain activities differently than rivals - for example, growing the grape on its own rather than buying it from suppliers. It creates additional value in the eyes of the consumers. Out of the five competitive strategy approaches the broad differentiation strategy is the most applied in this specific company. For example, Chateau Ste. Michelle does not apply low cost provider or focused market niche strategy because its products are of higher price compared to the competitors. In return, the customers get more differentiated products at the cost that corresponds to the high quality.

History Of Pragmatic Transfer English Language Essay

History Of Pragmatic Transfer English Language Essay Abstract The purpose of this study is to find out whether pragmatic transfer takes place in Saudis compliment responses (particularly males). It also touches the part of language proficiency and its effects on pragmatic competence. Additionally, it shows the differences and the similarities between natives compliments, compliment responses and Saudi males compliments and compliment responses. The subjects were three groups: natives and non-native English teachers and non-native and non-English teachers. I used the discourse completion test to come up with valid various results. It has been found that there are no differences in compliments between Saudi males and native speakers of English. Secondly, when responses to compliments are to be said, differences arise. From the study, it was discovered that Saudi males do not produce target-like compliment responses. Moreover, language proficiency does not play a major role in pragmatic competence. As the I noticed from the responses to compliments that Saudi males whether majoring in English or not, they produce the same responses except that the English teachers group translate the responses literally into English. What does pragmatic transfer mean? And does it have to do with proficiency of language? Is it a fundamental issue in second language acquisition? What do we mean by a compliment? How does compliment responses cause communication breakdown? Pragmatic transfer is defined as the influence of learners pragmatic knowledge of language and culture other than the target language on their comprehension, production, and acquisition of L2 pragmatic information (Rizk 2003, p. 404). Pragmatic competence is absolutely essential in face-to-face interactions in a foreign language. Children acquire pragmatic competence in their native language through interaction with their parents or older children, in other words, engagement in contextualized communicative activities. They receive continuous feedback from parents and peers who form appropriate routines, establish rules, and correct childrens inappropriate behavior. This feedback contributes to the acquisition of the pragmatic skills required to function in their community. In contrast, most adult foreign language learners lack that type of input. Consequently, the classroom becomes the most important, and maybe the only, source of relevant input for the enhancing of their pragmatic competence. Compliments are a kind of speech acts that is said in everyday conversations. In fact, paying different compliments and responding differently is dependent on cultures and situational conversations. Some cultures use a lot of compliments and praises whereas others may find it as a kind of insincerity. Therefore, cross-cultural communications occur and sometimes may cause a kind of insulting to the other partner involved in a conversation. Al-khatib 2 I have never come across any study on the Saudi community in terms of compliment responses which encourages me to conduct such a study. However, many studies were done on several societies that reflect the significance of carrying out such studies. The importance of the present study arises where People think that ESL Learners must learn just grammar rules and writing styles in classrooms whereas other aspects of the language can be acquired through experience or watching T.V. Actually, it can be done this way, however, we do not know how much time will be allocated for it and how well learners would acquire semantic meanings without any guidance to make the situations clearer and more intelligible. Having done this, ESL learners will lack the appropriate ways of communication with native speakers of a particular language or even non-natives in everyday dialogues. In my opinion, linguistic mistakes can be corrected and the person would be considered that he is not grammatically competent. However, semantic or pragmatic mistakes may cause offence to the other person. Additionally, it might lead to miscommunication and misunderstanding which results in communicative breakdown. Basically, communicative breakdown is communicative failure in which conversations halt at this point. When misunderstanding takes place, none of the partners know what to say or how to reply to such expressions. Unawareness of the others culture is the major cause of this problem. Therefore, teaching pragmatics is fundamental in ESL classes to enable the students speak the target language confidently and appropriately. Pragmatic competence is as essential and important as linguistic competence. Being linguistically competent does not necessarily means that you are pragmatically competent. In fact, being able to construct grammatically correct sentences does not mean that theses sentences are pragmatically appropriate or even acceptable. I am going to shed a light on all these early mentioned topics, finding out from the result how pragmatic competence is important for SL learners. Literature review: Intercultural miscommunications often occur when ESL Learners fall back on their L1 in realizing any kind of speech act in L2. In fact, the lacking of the target language expressions and culture forces students to do Al-khatib 3 that. That what is meant by pragmatic transfer according to Rizk(2005). There are two kinds of pragmatic transfer: positive which is considered to be a proof of pragmatic universality among languages, and negative transfer which is being not able to understand the target language which always results in pragmatic failure. Negative pragmatic transfer, as Rizk (2003) explains, takes the form of translating some formulaic expressions/ phrases functioning to express different speech acts in (L1) to express the equivalent speech act in L2. (p.405). El Samaty (2005) mentions one factor that may influence pragmatic transfer and that is learners awareness of what constitutes a language specific or a universal issue (p.342). Learners would not transfer an L1 pragmatic feature to L2 if they know that it is language specific. In fact, language specific refers to the features or expressions of a language which cannot be used in other languages. Pragmatic studies which deal with different speech acts have not been conducted till recently. These studies focused on L1 in most cases, however later, L2 and cross-cultural communications have been introduced. The L2 pragmatic transfer researches have shown that in spite of being linguistically competent in a second language, learners are likely to transfer L1 pragmatic rules in their L2 production (El Samaty, 2005). Takahashi and Beebe (1998) theorized that there is a positive relation between L2 proficiency and pragmatic transfer. They argued that more proficient learners tend to transfer L1 socio-cultural norms more than less proficient learners because they have enough control over L2 to express L1 sentiments at a high pragmatic level. Eslami-Rasekh (2004) backs this claim stating that linguistically competent learners do not necessarily possess comparable pragmatic competence. Even grammatically advanced learners may use language inappropriately and show differences from targe t-language pragmatic norms.   Ã‚   In 1986, Blum-kulka and Olshtain used discourse completion tests to analyze the utterance length of requesting strategies in Hebrew. They collected the data from non-native speakers of Hebrew at three proficiency levels, and they found out that high-intermediate learners produced utterances longer than the utterances of low-intermediate and advanced learners, which was considered by the researchers as pragmatic failure ( Ghawi 2002, p.39). Compliments in both Arabic (Saudi culture) and American cultures: Compliments have been defined by a lot of linguists. Compliments in short are praise that are said to people Al-khatib 4 to make them happy or to encourage and congratulate them on their success they achieve. Every culture has different types of compliments. Moreover, every culture uses various compliments according to variable situations. Therefore, cultures get distinguished from each other. Many people think that they can pay any kind of compliments to people coming from different cultures claiming that we are giving praise, so it is fine. In fact, it is not for several reasons. Firstly, compliments might be rarely used in a particular culture which people might think that it is a kind of being in love or trying to get the other partner to your side. Secondly, some compliments in a specific culture might be considered insults in other cultures. For instance, we cannot compliment on a girl saying you are fat in Arabic or even Malaysian or European cultures whereas the same clause can be understood as a compliment in the African culture. Saudi culture is a part of the Arabic culture except for very few differences in terms of politeness and some other speech acts. In fact, Saudis usually pay compliments on several things such as appearance, traits, and personal skills. It is not something strange that Saudis frequently give complements; Arabs in general like to pay much praise to each other. It seems that it is purposeful in a way that it keeps the relations among friends and relatives more intimate and it can be a tool sometimes to please somebody whom you feel that you upset her/him. English in Saudi Arabia is considered a foreign language. The medium of instruction at school, colleges and universities is Arabic except in English departments where English is applied as the medium of instruction. Culture is carried and delivered through language, however, since the language is still not completely there, so the culture would not be understood. Therefore, very few people speak English fluently and clearly. In fact, e ven the ones who speak fluently, they still have some problems with the western (English) culture. Consequently, pragmatic errors will appear in their speech. Compliments form. Compliment form refers to the kind of language used to express the compliment. The compliments differed in their length, use of metaphor and comparatives, and to some extent, syntactic structure. They were also similar in that both Saudi and American compliments were primarily adjectival in that an adjective was responsible for their positive meaning. The American compliments are short, as in (1) through (3). Al-khatib 5 (1) You look great. (2) Your car is nice. (3) Good job. If we compare the American compliments to the Arabic compliments (Saudi in particular) we will find out that Saudi compliments are longer than the American ones. Consider this example: Eeh alhalawa dee ya wad, 3l3amar doobu tele2, 3rhamna ya sheek ya heelou. What is all this smartness man? The moon has just appeared! We cannot take it! The length of the Saudi compliments appears to be related to two features of Arabic discourse: 1) Repetition of almost the same idea with a change in words and. 2) The use of several adjectives in a series. The use of metaphor in Arabic culture varies from the American culture. In Arabic culture, the moon is the symbol of beauty because it appears at night where the world is full of dark, however, the moon shines up there lighting the landscape. Therefore, Arabs compare good-looking people with the moon. However, as we noticed from the previous examples of compliments by Americans and Saudis, both are using adjectives in their compliments. All these words (in English: great, nice, good) and ( in Arabic: helou, sheek= sweet, gentle) are adjectives. 2 Attributes praised. There is no difference between the American and the Saudi culture when it comes to the kinds of attributes that people tend to compliment upon. Most of the situations where compliments are appropriate to be said and responded to are similar. Basically, Saudis and Americans usually pay compliments on appearance, skills, and traits. Appearance refers to ones look and included haircuts, eyes, and clothing. Skills refers to the quality of something produced or done. Traits refer to personality characteristics such as kindness, politeness and intelligence. Compliment responses Responses to requests or apology can be easy and limited. These two kinds of speech acts might not differ much in most languages. Additionally, the responses can be shortened by saying either yes or no. However, when it comes to compliment responses a lot of things must be considered such as the kind of the Al-khatib 6 said compliment, the relationship between the speaker and the recipient and the culture. Both Americans and Saudis respond totally, differently to compliments. In fact, cultures play a major role in the responses. Usually, Arabs respond to compliments by returning another compliment which is quite strange to people from different cultures especially Americans. One of the compliment responses by Saudis was you are more handsome. Such a response may be problematic to people from another culture. Research questions As I mentioned earlier, the purpose of this study is to examine pragmatic transfer in compliment responses by Arabic learners of English(Saudis in particular). Three related research questions emerged: What are the similarities and differences in compliments and compliments responses between male NSs and Saudi male NNSs of English? When speaking in English, will Saudis males compliment responses be closer to Arabic or English? To what extent language proficiency plays a role in their use of compliment responses? To answer these types of questions we should first collect the data of the study which was done on the subjects. Methodology For more valid and practical results I have chosen 3 groups to conduct my study upon. The subjects are all males and they are in 30s. In fact, the reason behind not choosing females is that the study was done in Saudi Arabia where it is so difficult to approach any woman. Additionally, all academic institutions are separate meaning that each gender (female, male) is in totally separate place and men are not allowed to enter ladies sections. Therefore, it was easier to choose just males. Group1: 10 Americans (native speakers of English) English teachers. Group 2: 10 Saudis (non-natives+ advanced learners, they are level 7) Group 3: 10 Saudis (non-native+ low intermediate, they are level 2) Al-khatib 7 Actually, these learners are students at Direct English institute in Saudi Arabia. In this institute, there are 8 levels starting from 1 till 8. They take 7 classes in English weekly; five classes with bilinguals and two classes with native speakers. In each level students take the same amount of classes and each level lasts for six weeks. The level of proficiency was taken according to this classification. Tool: Discourse Completion Test. The tool consists of 5 scenarios created by the researcher. The subjects are expected to respond to the compliments given in the scenarios. Additionally, observation also has been used to come up with more valid results. First scenario: You are wearing new blue jeans. Your friend complimented you you look handsome, blue is great on you You sayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. Americans responded to the compliment with acceptance saying thanks or you really made my day. Those who responded in Arabic said but you are more handsome/this is because you have a good taste/ really? Swear to God. The third group who responded in English said your eyes are beautiful and they see everything beautiful others responded: I bought it in the sales, it is so cheap. Just one person said: thanks, I like it too Second scenario You have just ended a computer game scoring a very high score that many of your friends could not reach this point. One paid you a compliment you are so skillful and professional in this game You sayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Some Americans respond to the compliment with comment history saying thanks, I played this game hundreds of time. Others said do you want me to help you? Al-khatib 8 The second group who responded in Arabic said: stop making fun of me The third group who responded in English said: are you serious? I do not think so. You are just complimenting me. Third scenario You always come by time whenever there is a meeting or a party; one gave you a compliment you are very punctual You say à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Americans responded to the compliment with comment acceptance saying thanks, it is my favorite habit The first group who responded in Arabic said thanks, so are you . Those who responded in English said but you are more punctual/ I think you are the symbol of punctuality. Forth scenario: Your friends are in your house. And then you served them tea. One of your friends complimented on it saying the tea is very sweet and delicious you sayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Americans responded to compliments with acceptance saying thank you some responded with acceptance offering the recipe: would you like the recipe? Those who responded in Arabic said:that is because your taste is sweet and you taste everything sweet/ your taste is distinct in that you know which is delicious and which is nasty., Those who responded in English said: I dipped my sweet finger in it that is why it is sweet. others responded: but you are much sweeter than the tea. Fifth scenario: You solved a very tough equation in the class that no one could do it. Your professor was impressed with you. When you left, your friend paid you a compliment you are excellent, man Al-khatib 9 You sayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Americans responded with comment acceptance: thanks, but I was studying hard last night and others offered their help do you want me to help you? Those who responded in Arabic said do you really think so? I know you are just complimenting me. Those who responded in English translate literally from Arabic saying but you are better Sixth scenario: You redecorated your house in a very eye-catching way. Some visitors came over and paid you a very wonderful compliment saying: what a beautiful decoration!! You are very tasteful. You sayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. Americans simply responded with comment acceptance saying: thanks a lot, you really made my day others responded this way: actually it took me too long The second group who responded in Arabic said: thanks, you are very tasteful as well. The third group who simply translated from Arabic into English responded I do not think so. Do you really mean it or just complimenting? others said please no compliments, speak the truth; is it beautiful or not? Results and findings Based on the data collected from all the subjects and from observation, I have found out the following results: There are similarities in compliments between American and Saudi males in that both compliment on the same attributes which are: traits, appearance, skills. Moreover, from my observation I found out that several other cultures such as Malaysian and Indians compliment on the same attributes which refer to positive pragmatic transfer shared by several cultures. There are many differences when it comes to compliment responses between American and Saudi Al-khatib 10 males in which Saudi males do not produce target-like compliment responses. Alternatively, they bring about some expressions from their L1, which is Arabic, into English. In fact, this is exactly what negative pragmatic transfer means. People from different cultures will not understand what is meant by such responses; so they tend to translate it literally. Consequently, they find it very insulting because they do not understand the speakers cultural purpose behind it. Eventually, this will lead them to communicative breakdown. Being linguistically competent does not mean you are pragmatically competent. In fact, proficiency in L2 does not necessarily lead to pragmatic competence in the target language as we noticed this from the responses. Advanced learners and low intermediate learners responded identically except that the advance learners translated the expressions from Arabic into English whereas the low intermediate learners responded in Arabic because they still have not got the ability to make grammatically correct sentences. Al-khatib 11 Conclusion Pragmatic competence is very crucial in learning any language. In my opinion, it is as important as linguistic competence. EFL/ESL teachers and curriculum designers should equally focus on enriching learners with cultural aspects of the language as well as the linguistic aspects. Learners have to be aware of the target language culture in order to comprehend the language better and to be able to produce pragmatically correct sentences. Consequently, communicative breakdown will gradually disappear in their speech. Culture is a fundamental factor in learning languages because it is responsible for the different speech acts produced by its native speakers. Basically, it is the bottom line for those who want to master the target language. Additionally, EFL teachers should expose their students and encourage them to expose themselves as much as possible to the target language through TV programs, shows, movies, and news. It enhances the ability of mastering the target language. Limitations of the study The study aimed to find out whether Saudis produce target-like compliment responses or not. In fact, it asserts that there is a problem in terms of responding to compliments. However, it did not state some solutions to such a problematic issue. Therefore, I would suggest a research area for the future to find out some practical solutions to this problem. Moreover, there is another area of research as well which is can we teach pragmatic competence to SL learners as well as we are teaching linguistic competence? Is it possible? How would it be successful to the level of learners? What are the good methods that can be applied to teach pragmatic competence? Al-khatib 12

Ethical and Legal Issues of Phone Tapping :: Privacy Telephones Communication Essays

One of the hottest topics in privacy is regarding our phone conversation with others. It doesn't take a whole lot these days to be in someone's business, in their conversation, breaking the law of privacy with out spending that much time and money. "†¦Compared to an average monthly phone bill of seventy dollars, the option to wiretap the average phone line is probably worth less than twelve cents a month to police and spy agencies."1 These days, when information is transferred from one person to another, or from point A to point B, there are more people who are interested in know what they are talking about, not just to know but to benefit something out of it. This is illegal if it is done without the knowledge of the individuals involved. Since people are not giving communication privacy enough attention, it is getting to the point that it is out of control of anybody. Anybody can just get up and get in to others conversation with out their knowledge. This is having a big effec t in out community these days. There are a lot of scenarios were people are involved in this situation. If we take an example, people are more concerned about paying their bills over the phone by their credit card, knowing that there might be someone in the middle intercepting all this information to harm the person. This action has a lot of side effect in the development of new technology. Paying over the phone using a credit card was never there years ago; it used to be only paper bills. Now, not only can we pay though phone call but also we can pay using the computer. All this is new technology that was never there. But if someone is always doing something illegal to affect the direct communication of customer and sellers, there won't be a trust with will be a great bondage between them, which can help the market, and the technology to go to another lever, which is better. We can also have a different approach, which will make phone tapping a good thing for the community. The government uses phone tapping to investigate some people in order to keep the safety of the people or the community in a good condition. For example, if the government knew before the incident on 9/11 though the conversation of the terrorist, they would have saved a lot more people who died not knowing that they were targeted.

American Indian Hist

The question of what motivates people more when they act – cultural priorities, such as religion or tradition, or the so-called â€Å"rational† motivations, such as economics and politics – has been one long debated on. This debate has been quite fierce, members of both sides providing valid and powerful arguments to support their claims. One of the focal points for this discussion are the people known under the blanket term â€Å"Native Americans†. Where did their motivations stem from? Was it merely pragmatism, a wish to get the most out of any outsiders? Or was culture and tradition vital to decision making?It is doubtless that both of these factors were present, however, the question is, which was the initial factor of influence, dominating thought and action. Scholars have attempted to prove points both ways. I support the side which claims that culture was the primary factor. I shall first provide counter-arguments to the opposing side, then provide supporting arguments for my own claim. First, however, it must be noted that Native Americans is a very catchall term, which is used for lack of a better one. As the website of the Native American research center states, â€Å"It must be emphasized that no one person speaks for Indian People.There are nearly three hundred distinct American Indian Nations in the present United States. Each has its own language and history, its own sacred places and rituals. Each is rooted in and part of the land out of which it grew. â€Å" There are dozens of tribes, including some that are officially considered extinct now, that had quite different customs. If we say that there were Native Americans and they had one kind of culture and, as a consequence, had the same customs, we may just as well say that there are Europeans and they have one culture, completely losing the obvious distinctions between different nations.The cultures of different tribes of Native Americans are very different  œ to deny this would be to unjustly diminish their cultural value – and yet there are cultural tendencies, and there are exceptions. I will attempt to prove that the tendency is to use tradition as a guideline, and the occasions where â€Å"pragmatical† reasons have been primary are the exceptions verifying the rule. First I shall examine the political argument. It seems very difficult to think that â€Å"politics† in the sense that we understand them now had an influence on the Native Americans.When we think of â€Å"politics† we think of diplomatic traditions, of treaties that are made to be broken, of backstabbing. This, however, was not the dominant case with Native Americans. As Dee Brown wrote in his book â€Å"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee†, â€Å"So tractable, so peaceable, are these people,’ Columbus wrote to the King and Queen of Spain [referring to the Tainos on the island of San Salvador, so was named by Columbus], ‘that I swear to your Majesties there is not in the world a better nation.They love their neighbors as themselves, and their discourse is ever sweet and gentle, and accompanied with a smile; and though it is true that they are naked, yet their manners are decorous and praiseworthy. † This was verified a number of times by other observations, Columbus’s report being merely the most famous occasion. Time after time, the settlers used the same tactic. While officially recognizing the natives as owners of the land, they used any tactic possible to get them to sell the land, up to getting the chief of the tribe drunk.Then, once the treaty – which usually went along the lines of â€Å"There are white men on your lands now anyway, but give us a part of your land, and we will not go on your land without your permission. † – was signed, in a few years the expansion continued in the same manner, and new treaties were signed. Despite these circumstances, there have b een virtually no instances of the treaties between the Indians and the Europeans being broken by the Indians – however, Europeans were breaking these treaties constantly, in 99% of the cases!One would think that if politics were the defining factor in the Native American’s way of dealing they would have changed their tactic after the first few times these treaties were broken – they were not fools, and hundreds of years of such tactics would have destroyed even the most saintly naivete. So the conclusion must be that there was something more than mere hope that the white men would see reason standing behind these promises that forced the Native Americans to keep them. The next common choice for primary motivation is economics.However, despite the fact that the Indians had private property and were no strangers to trade, this could hardly be the dominating motivation. First of all, the Indians were completely self-supporting. Even if they did require something es sential they could not produce themselves – which was fairly rare – other Native American tribes generally proved much better business partners, generally being more honest than the Europeans. Consequentially, all the Europeans could offer them were luxuries. This, naturally, should not be underestimated as a lure in any way.However, a trade which truly entails only luxuries is always small by necessity. In any case, trade relationships were not nearly so large-scale as in the Old World. They could not have been the driving motivation Also, we have numerous documents that detail the interaction between Native Americans and European settlers. The initial reply to the abovementioned land-selling treaties was nearly always quite similar. For instance, an excerpt from the 1752 Abenaki Conference between Captain Phineas Stevens and the St.Francis Indians shows the Indian’s attitude to these treaties: â€Å"4 – But we will not cede one single inch of the lands we inhabit beyond what has been decided formerly by our fathers. 5 – You have the sea for your share from the place where you reside; you can trade there; but we expressly forbid you to kill a single Beaver, or to take a single stick of timber on the lands we inhabit; if you want timber we'll sell you some, but you shall not take it without our permission. † And there exists a number of other documents revealing a similar attitude.Could this, in truth, only be showing that the Indians merely wanted a better deal? One could naturally gain a leeway in trade by keeping the land and selling its resources. However, it is a basic law of economics that one wishing to trade must meet the demand. Had this trade in itself been a factor of dire importance to the Indians, they would have put forth an effort to convince the Europeans that trading would prove profitable. However, the attitude that prevails in documents is one of indifference. It seems like the Indians did not care f or the presence of Europeans.If the white men wished a trade, then they would get a trade. If they did not, the Indians seemed perfectly content to let them live without making any more contact than absolutely necessary. Trade was not of importance – it influenced the relationship between the natives and settlers when it was present, but it was by no means the most important factor. On the other hand, tradition and culture was of extreme importance, influencing entire tribe’s behaviors – especially such a part of culture as religion. For Native Americans religion was of utmost importance.Even the Canadian Jesuit missionaries remarked that the Native Americans were highly religious – and not in the â€Å"Sunday Christian† sense, either, but with deep roots and a great influence of every aspect of their lives. This is a characteristic feature of most tribal societies, where little distinction is made between the sacral and the mundane. However, for I ndians religion had special relevance, as it was one of the things that allowed them to cling on to their cultural identity, saving them from assimilation. Yet even before this was a relevant factor, religion permeated nearly every aspect of Native American life.Their religion was (and remains) one of pure personal experience, not leaving any room for dogma. The Native American worldview is mythological. For all practical purposes, this means that religious factors such as hunting rituals and their theoretical results are the perceived as being absolutely as physically real as an arrow fired into an animal, having the same kind of cause-and-effect that a physical event might. A deal with a spirit, for instance, is treated as seriously as a treaty with a human. A spirit’s warning was heeded as much as a human’s would, with absolutely the same kind of discretion.And magical means of solving problems were taken as absolutely valid. One of the most well known incidents was in 1876, before the battle at Little-Big-Horn when the famed Sitting Bull performed a three-day shamanic ritual to decide what to do with the white men, staring at the sun and wounding himself until he fell unconscious. After he came to, he announced that the white men were there for the Indians to take, because he saw white men fall into the Indian’s camp headfirst, losing their hats, meaning they would be the killed by the Indians.Also he announced that â€Å"They had no ears†, i. e. they were deaf to reason, giving the Indians a moral right to attack. This is not the only incidence of religion influencing political activity. The Ghost Dance religion can be cited as another famous example, showing how Native American religion changed with the times, how it adapted to the flow of time and adopted alien cultural notions and yet survived without losing all of its cultural value, keeping the spirit, though changing the form.One might say that this lack of dissemination between regular life and religious life simply brings more factors into the political games. Religious leaders are used as figure heads for power play, and spirits are dealt with in the same manner humans are dealt with – if, indeed, the shamans who contact the spirits even believe in them and not use them as a means of their own power and control! This is, however, hardly the case, as there are numerous arguments against this position in the study of tribal societies as a whole.Firstly, their religion was always very personal. Every single Indian had their own religious experience and, as with any religion that requires its neophytes to work out their own niche – clergy being needed only in extreme cases – it is always very strong. The strength of this experience makes it difficult to give anything that is lower than it is a higher priority. The Native Americans did not believe in their gods watching over them – they knew the gods were there as much as t hey knew that their teepee was still standing.And while white men were considered a temporary nuisance, guests or invaders at best, and were treated that way, the gods were almost like family, and treated with necessary respect and given due priority. Second, as the phenomenon of the Ghost Dance shows, the acts done out of religion were not necessarily the wisest politically – such as the sending out of search parties to look for the Messiah said to be an incarnation of Jesus, and this at the time when men were crucial to survival – so faking divine inspiration for political power is ruled out.So, if the leaders genuinely believed in what they saw, the fate of hundreds and thousands rested within religion – more than enough to define it as one of the crucial influencing factors. It can be seen that politics and trade simply not as much of an influence on life, while religious and cultural activity was always extremely important, guiding the life of every Indian to a certain extent. This was the source of much misunderstanding, since for Europeans politics often took the leading role when religion failed to provide the necessary support and guidance.This made both sides misinterpret the others’ actions, resulting in a long and bloody war that spanned generations. The Native Americans also had also led wars between each other in the past; they were no strangers to military tactics. However, their wars had rules – ones that the settlers naturally broke, thus spelling defeat for the natives. This also shows just how big a role does tradition play in Native American society – had they adapted to the way of war which the Europeans brought to them, they would have survived losing less than they did.In conclusion, it can be said that, as we have seen, purely empirical evidence proves that the Native Americans did not use either politics or economics as the prime guideline for building the relationships either among themselves or between them and Europeans. These factors were not considered firsthand in any crisis situation, and even 370 years of war against the Europeans did not put them very high on the list of priorities. However, ethics and religion made quite an impact on the decisions made by the Native American people, and remain influential factors in their thinking to this day.This was the true motivation of most Native Americans, and remains so up to modern times. Works cited. 1. American Indian Culture Research Center: http://www. bluecloud. org/dakota. html 2. Dee Brown, â€Å"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West†, Henry Holt & Company; Reprint edition (February 1, 1991) 3. Terry L. Anderson, â€Å"Dances with myths – truths about American Indians' environmental ethics†, Reason, February 1997. 4. Ghost Dance Religion: http://www. bgsu. edu/departments/acs/1890s/woundedknee/WKghost. html 5.Cultures of North America: http://www. mnsu. edu/emu seum/cultural/northamerica/index. shtml 6. Cultures of North America: http://www. mnsu. edu/emuseum/cultural/northamerica/index. shtml 7. David Stannard, â€Å"The American Holocaust†, Oxford University Press, 1992. 8. The Massacre at Wounded Knee: http://www. hanksville. org/daniel/lakota/Wounded_Knee. html 9. The Wampum Chronicles: Mohawk Territory on the Internet: http://www. wampumchronicles. com/index. html 10. George E. Tinker, â€Å"Religion†: http://college. hmco. com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_032600_religion.htm 11. NativeWeb: http://www. nativeweb. org/ 12. Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler: http://digital. library. okstate. edu/kappler/Vol1/HTML_files/toc. html 13. Abenaki Conference with Phineas Stevens. Documents Related to the Colonial History of the State of New York Vol. X. pg. 252-254. Donated by Jeffery Miller – Administrator of Fort #4. http://www. avcnet. org/ne-do-ba/doc_1752. html 14. The M anataka Oath, Creed and Code of Conduct: http://www. manataka. org/page182. html

Retailing Characteristics of Fast Food Stores and Their Impact on Customer Sales and Satisfaction Essays

Retailing Characteristics of Fast Food Stores and Their Impact on Customer Sales and Satisfaction Essays Retailing Characteristics of Fast Food Stores and Their Impact on Customer Sales and Satisfaction Essay Retailing Characteristics of Fast Food Stores and Their Impact on Customer Sales and Satisfaction Essay a zero inventory concept, category management, use of Internet and computers for inventory control and supplier-retailer coordination) were revolutionized in the 1990s. This was led by global chains and is diffusing into developing regions of Asia through knowledge transfer and imitation and innovation by domestic supermarket chains. The development enabled chain stores to build their own distribution centers and to accommodate a high volume of direct shipments from producers under central inventory control. Importantly, stores should be able to forecast daily sales with a considerable degree of accuracy , thus reducing wastage levels. Low margins and high competition: Multinational chains arrived in Asia with many years of experience and development in the very competitive environments of their respective countries. Their extensive experience included modern technologies and know-how regarding supply chain management, procurement arrangements, stock optimization, quality standards control, cold storage maintenance, product handling, shelf-life preservation, and consumer services. Consumers enthusiastically received the unprecedented services and quality provided by these new chains. The competition forced local firms to enhance their services and efficiency, generating a chain reaction of improved services and modernization throughout the grocery sector. Competition among retailers is fierce. Asian agri-food distribution companies are aiming to lift competitive ness, and the phrase â€Å"drive costs out of the system† has been used widely in the retail industry. Supermarket chains are constantly seeking substantial savings through efficiency gains, economies of scale, and coordinated cost reductions. Furthermore, with the number of modern trade stores growing faster than total sales, as is the case in China, the share of trade for an individual retailer is actually in decline. At the same time, consumer loyalty to individual stores is low. Shoppers in China continue to switch between outlets, including the wet markets. As a result, all supermarkets appear to be extremely price conscious. Demographic, cultural and social changes:- The percentage of young people in the population of Asia is increasing. A westernization of lifestyles is also increasing, particularly among younger people. Changes in family structure in Asia are being witnessed, with a growing number of nuclear families and one-person households, as opposed to extended families. Finally, there has been an upward trend in the use of credit cards, which are rarely accepted by corner shops or traditional wet markets in developing countries. All of these factors have contributed to the attractiveness of supermarkets to consumers. Increased travel:- More travel has exposed people to modern retailing techniques in the United States and parts of Europe, to a wider range of products and, particularly for fresh fruits and vegetables, to the possibility of being able to consume many out-of-season products. 1. 4 RECOGNITION OF A PROBLEM Food retailers recognize that consumer satisfaction (CS) plays a key role in a successful business strategy. What is unclear is the exact nature of that role, how precisely satisfaction should be managed, and whether managerial efforts aimed at increasing satisfaction lead to higher store sales. Today, managers in the food retail sector undertake substantial efforts to conduct CS surveys. Yet it appears that in most cases the data are used to simply monitor specific store attributes, and especially overall satisfaction, over time. Unless the impact of consumer satisfaction on store revenues is assessed, managers have little basis for allocation of resources. In general, the linkages between drivers of consumer satisfaction and sales performance have not been firmly established in the food industry. For the estimation of these linkages, recent research indicates that several issues must be addressed We measure the links between attribute perceptions and consumer satisfaction, and between consumer satisfaction and sales performance, in the food retail sector. The study relies upon an extensive data set comprised of five waves of consumer satisfaction and sales information from approximately 180 consumers. We construct a hypothesis in first differences that addresses the inherent nonlinearities and asymmetries in these links. We also provide an example of how firms can use the estimated linkages to develop satisfaction policies that are predicted to increase store revenues. Our study makes three contributions to the literature, one methodological and two substantive. First, we examine nonlinearities and asymmetries in the satisfaction-sales performance links based on an empirical model expressed in first differences. Second, the study advances the measurement of behavioral links between consumer satisfaction and performance in the food retail sector with firm-specific data. Third, our study shows how firms can employ such results to develop appropriate consumer satisfaction policies. Many retailers suffer from a variety of problems and difficulties . These can be classified as : A) Inadequacies in the trading environment (e. g. economic and social change, competition from multiple retailers); B) Inadequacies in the retail form (e. g. operating costs, investment capital availability, supply problems); C) Inadequacies in management (e. g. management expertise and techniques). ther prominent problems with Indian Food retailers are:- 1)Retailers are facing high degree of competition these days as there are several retail outlet of the same food product in metropolitan cities, so retailers are not only facing competition from other food product outlet but they are facing a stiff competition from his own counterpart also.. 2)Due to increased literacy rate and widespread of media, customers are extra aware about the food products as well as the ingredients an d promotion schemes given by different retailers. )Many customers want to eat those food products which are of foreign origin but with Indian ingredients (According to their customs and traditions). 4)Young generation is a big consumer of fast food these days. They want to take fast food from those retail outlets where they can eat those products with their friends and can also get the Home delivery of the same, so to meet these requirements of young customers, retailers have to invest more in their retail outlets. 5)Rapidly changing tastes of customers due to increased marketing and advertising . 1. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY Objective 1:- To study the relationship between store attribute perceptions and consumer satisfaction. Objective 2:- To examine non – linearities and asymmetric affects in the satisfaction – sales performance links based on mathematical empirical study . Objective 3:- Measurement of behavioral links between customer satisfaction and performance in fo od retail sector. Objective 4:- How firms can employ such results to develop appropriate customer satisfaction policies. Chapter 2 Literature Review 2. 1Passage to India 2. 2Food Retailing in India 2. Useful Information regarding McDonald’s Corporation 2. 4Useful Information regarding Pizzahut Inc. 2. 5Useful Information regarding Domino’s Inc. LITERATURE REVIEW Our study focuses on the relations between attribute perceptions, overall customer satisfaction and store sales performance. Such links are part of a broader conceptual framework proposed by Heskett et al. (1994), namely the Service-Profit Chain. Anderson and Mittal (2000) strengthened this framework by accommodating nonlinearities and asymmetries in the links, and they renamed it the Satisfaction-Profit Chain. Hereafter we use the acronym CSSP, Customer Satisfaction-Sales Performance, to refer to the links of interest. To capture the relationship between attribute perceptions and overall customer satisfaction, we must identify how customers interpret and respond to the products and services they buy and experience. Here it is essential to distinguish between specific attributes of a product or a service and the satisfaction factor they represent. In food retailing, for instance, consumers may put high value on a factor that might be called â€Å"customer service† provided by the supermarket. This is an example of an abstract or subjective benefit. This abstract benefit depends on a set of related measurable attributes such as the disposition of the cashiers and sales associates, speed and accuracy of checkout, and availability of everyday grocery items and store cleanliness, among others. In addition to customer service, other relevant factors affecting overall customer satisfaction in grocery stores include the store ambiance, the perceived roduct quality of (growing) perishables departmentsnow 50 percent or more of store sales in some storessuch as fresh produce, deli/bakery, seafood, fresh meat and floral, as well as the perceived value of products relative to their price. These links have been the subject of intense scrutiny by marketing researchers. Since the seminal behavior-oriented research by Oliver (1981), several articles have focused on the antecedents of customer satisfaction in a wide variety of contexts, ranging from firm-specific studies to nation-wide as sessments. Although satisfaction factors vary according to the type of products, services and business sectors considered, empirical studies provide vast evidence of their impact on overall satisfaction (e. g. Szymansky and Henard 2001). Most studies on antecedents of customer satisfaction utilize models reviewed by Johnson (1998) and show significant correlation between various satisfaction factors and overall satisfaction (Szymansky and Henard 2001; Bernhardt, Donthu and Kennett 2000; Mittal, Ross and Baldasare 1998; Wittink and Bayer 1994). In general, these studies tend to collect information on consumer ratings of specific attributes. Often, multivariate statistical models are constructed to identify latent variables representing satisfaction factors (e. g. Johnson and Gustafsson 2000; Johnson 1998; Fornell et al. 1996; Bolton and Drew 1991). In the majority of past research, overall customer satisfaction is then modeled as a linear function of these latent variables. Much recent research, however, is critical of the incomplete treatment of the CSSP links, and researchers call for more elaborate analysis (e. g. , Anderson and Mittal 2000). Addressing the Consequences of Customer Satisfaction Unlike the antecedents of satisfied customers, the consequences of satisfied (or dissatisfied) customers have received little attention from researchers (Szymanski and Henard 2001). Perhaps the first study was the pioneering research conducted by Zahorik and Rust (1992) on the consequences of customer satisfaction. Their work included a mathematical framework to evaluate the financial value of satisfaction (Rust and Zahorik 1993) based on the effect of satisfaction on customer retention, and the subsequent impact on market share. Anderson and Sullivan (1993) addressed the simultaneous estimation of the antecedents to and consequences of customer satisfaction, with data from more than twenty thousand Swedish consumers patronizing a hundred or so Swedish companies. Their model identifies factors that determine customer satisfaction, which in turn have a positive association with financial performance. Perhaps the most important contribution of this work is the identification of asymmetries in the linkages between disconfirmation of expectations and customer satisfaction. After Anderson and Sullivan (1993) , several studies have examined the relationships in the Satisfaction-Profit (or Service- Profit) Chain with data from a variety of channels (c. f. , Kamakura et al. , 2002; Scharitzer and Kollarits 2000; Soteriou and Zenios, 1999; Johnson 1998; Loveman 1998; Anderson, Fornell and Lehmann 1994). Mittal, Ross and Baldasare (1998) and Anderson and Mittal (2000) point out that, for the most part, earlier research ignored nonlinearities and asymmetries in the links of the CSSP chain. They maintain that the relationships in the CSSP chain are far more complex than originally postulated and, specifically, that linear models are insufficient. To illustrate the asymmetry concept, consider the quality of the produce department and the friendliness of cashiers in a supermarket. Stronger consumer evaluations of the quality of the produce department might not imply strongly positive effects on customer satisfaction, while weaker quality might be quite damaging. Or, improvements in customer-oriented dispositions of cashiers and associates could have a large positive impact on customer satisfaction while reductions in cashier performance may be only mildly negative. Now consider the potential role of nonlinearity in the link between customer satisfaction and sales performance. A retail store with low current levels of customer satisfaction may require only small investments in satisfaction drivers to improve sales performance. In contrast, a store with high current levels of satisfaction is likely to need a much larger investment in drivers to produce impacts on performance of a similar magnitude. Ignoring relevant nonlinearities and asymmetries inevitably leads to incorrect estimates of the linkages in the CSSP chain. Furthermore, if the results of CSSP chain research are to be adopted by retail managers, incorrect measures are certain to lead to incorrect strategy formulation thus dooming further strategic use of satisfaction data. Bernhardt, Donthu and Kennett (2000) suggest that another pitfall of many satisfaction studies is the tendency to rely on cross sectional analysis for statistical inference (Anderson, Fornell and Lehmann 1994, provides an exception). Bernhardt, Donthu and Kennett argue that a proper analysis of the links between satisfaction and performance requires a dynamic approach. This argument echoes Rust and Zahorik’s (1993) contention that efforts to improve customer satisfaction must be financially accountable over time. Bernhardt, Donthu and Kennett (2000) study customer satisfaction in a fast-food chain based on monthly data. Although based on simple correlations, the study shows that a dynamic model outperforms a cross-sectional model in the examination of the CSSP links. Extant research has focused primarily on the CSSP links at the aggregate level and for selected sectors such as telecommunications, banking, healthcare, automobile and pharmaceuticals, among others (cf. , Anderson and Fornell 2000; Scharitzer and Kollarits 2000; Mittal, Ross and Baldasare 1998; Bryant and Cha 1996; Anderson, Fornell and Lehmann 1994). Conversely, only a few firms include fast-food restaurants (Bernhardt, Donthu and Kennett 2000) and department stores (Rucci, Kirn and Quinn 1998) . Anderson and Mittal (2000) discuss several examples where the incorporation of non-linearities and asymmetries added significant value to a firms understanding of the CSSP links. It is especially desirable to use firm-specific data so the linkages between satisfaction and performance are examined in the context of a firm’s strategy. We note that academic research on the CSSP linkages in the food retail sector is scarce. Practically all empirical investigations on food retailing, in the U. S. as well as internationally, address the drivers of customer satisfaction but do not address their ultimate impact on store revenues. Among the drivers often identified are: perceived value of products relative to their prices, staff friendliness and willingness to help, quality and freshness of products, store appearance, and the degree of customer service (cf. , Jin and Jai-Ok 2001; Hackl, Scharitzer and Zuba 2000 ; Gail and Scott 1995). However, while the drivers of satisfaction are known qualitatively, and managers believe that satisfaction affects performance, it is necessary to measure explicitly the impact of satisfaction on store sales in order to prioritize strategies to manage the drivers of atisfaction. This study advances the measurement of the behavioral links in the CSSP Chain in the food retail sector. We link attribute perceptions, overall satisfaction, and store sales, and we allow for nonlinear and asymmetric effects. We specify the model in first differences and we allow for time lags between changes in satisfaction and changes in store sales performance. We also provide an example to show how ma nagers can use the results to develop appropriate customer satisfaction policies. 2. FOOD RETAILING: FAST FOOD INDUSTRY IN INDIA The concept of fast food isnt new. Early in the 19th century, at the start of the Industrial Age when people had to work 12 to 14 hours a day, there was scarcely any time for long breaks for eating. The first snack bars and kiosks arose in front of factories. Today, quick meals outside the home have become an essential part of our lifestyle. The term fast food means just that. However, the boundary between fast foods and traditional dishes is fluid. In particular, its difficult to provide a qualitative distinction because fast foods can also include salads and fruit in addition to classic offerings such as hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, patties, French-fries, fish and chips, etc. The best way to distinguish fast foods is to use formal characteristics: Time required those who eat fast foods do not want to spend a lot of time selecting and eating, and if necessary will eat standing or walking, on the bus, park bench, or at work. The variety of foods and beverages is usually very limited Fast food frequently does not come with knives and forks, making it finger food. When silverware, cups and plates are necessary, they are disposable. The characteristics of fast food, therefore, are that they require little time, offer a limited selection, are finger food, and the silverware and plates are disposable. These characteristics readily illustrate the difference from traditional dining culture. Many people equate fast foods with conv enience foods. This is incorrect since convenience products are often eaten at home. They require active participation because they must be heated, stirred, baked, thawed, etc. , and are supplemented with other foods. There are three eneral categories of fast food businesses: Self-service restaurants with a fast-food palette like McDonalds, Wendys, Burger King, Pizza Hut, etc. Take-out (or take-away) businesses that sell ready-to-eat foods and beverages on the street corner Hot-dog stands and snack stands with counters or a pair of stand-up tables. FAST FOOD INDUSTRY OVERVIEW Fast food is a food prepared and served quickly at a fast food restaurant or a shop. It is served usually in a carton or bags in order to minimize cost. Fast food outlets often provide take away or take out foods in addition to sit down services. Fast food is a multi billion industry continuing to grow at a rapid pace in coming years. Fast food is often highly processed and prepared in an industrial fashion i. e. , with standard ingredient, methodical cooking and production methods. THE START OF FAST FOOD CULTURE The concept of fast food pops up during 1920s. The 1950s first witnessed their rapid proliferation. Several factors that contributed to this explosive growth in 50’s were: (1) America’s love affair with the automobiles. (2) The construction of a major new highway system. (3) The development of sub-urban communities. 4) The baby boom subsequent to world war second. â€Å"Fast-food chains initially catered to automobile owners in suburbia. The notion of fast food reflected American culture in which speed and efficiency are highly prized. † INDIA – EMERGING MARKET FOR GLOBAL PLAYERS The percentage share held by foodservice of total consumer expenditure on food has increased from a very low ba se to stand at 2. 6% in 2001. Eating at home remains very much ingrained in Indian culture and changes in eating habits are very slow moving with barriers to eating out entrenched in certain sectors of Indian society. Traditionally, eating out was looked down upon in Indian society. The growth in nuclear families, particularly in urban India, exposure to global media and Western cuisine and an increasing number of women joining the workforce have had an impact on eating out trends. Increasingly, eating out is becoming synonymous with entertainment. And very often, it is preferred as a time-saving option to cooking. Not surprisingly, takeaways are becoming increasingly popular India is among the top three countries globally having highest number of people in the spending capacities in the age group of 25-49 yrs. India is placed at the second rank in the 2004 global retail development index an annual ranking of retail investment attractiveness among 30 emerging markets. The lack of consolidation and model retail concepts in India presents better opportunity to global players. Over 400 shopping malls, multiplexes, fast food giants, restaurants etc. are in planning or construction stage across the country FACTS AND FIGURES Fast food is one of the worlds largest growing food type. India’s fast food industry is growing by 40% a year and is expected to generate a billion dollars in sales by 2005. The multinational segment of Indian fast food industry is up to Rs. 6 bn, a figure expected to zoom to Rs. 70 bn by 2005. By 2005, the value of Indian dairy products is expected to be Rs. 1, 00,000 million. In last 6 years, foreign investment in this sector stood at Rs. 3600 million which is about one-fourth of total investment made in this sector. Because of the availability of raw material for fast food, Global chains are flooding into the country. MARKET SIZE MAJOR PLAYERS ?Dominated by McDonalds having as many as 75 outlets. Domino’s pizza is present in around 100 locations. ?Pizza hut is also catching up and it has planned to establish 125 outlets at the end of 2005. ?Subways has established around 40 outlets ?Nirulas is established at Delhi and Noida only. However, it claims to cater 50,000 guests everyday. Major players in fast food are: ?MCDONALDS ?PIZZA HUT ?DOMINOS PIZZA Multinational fast-food companies have given domestic competition a run for its money. While McD onalds sells more than Nirulas, Pizza Hut and Dominos are doing more business than Pizza Corner. Within nine years of their existence in India since 1996, the multinationals have grown at a faster pace than their Indian counterparts. According to industry estimates, in 2001, while McDonalds clocked a turnover of about Rs 125 crore (Rs 1. 25 billion), the home-grown Nirulas, which has been present in the country since 1934, could only garner Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) turnover. Also, both Dominos Pizza Hut and Dominos clocked a turnover of about Rs 60 crore (Rs 600 million) but Pizza Corner lagged behind with a turnover of Rs 25-30 crore (Rs 250-300 million). The main reason behind the success of the multinational chains is their expertise in product development, sourcing practices, quality standards, service levels and standardized operating procedures in their restaurants, a strength that they have developed over years of experience around the world. The home grown chains have in the past few years of competition with the MNCs, learnt a few things but there is still a lot of scope for improvement. We have applied our learning experience from other countries in all the processes including consistency, marketing, distribution and training to the local market conditions. Its now that the domestic chains have realized the importance of such practices. Nirulas is thus beefing up its organizational structure. Another key reason behind the success of multinationals is the ability to attract youngsters. While McDonalds has been able to attract people below 30, Dominos is targeting the convenience-seeker. Nirulas, on the other hand, is known to appeal more to the 30-plus consumer. Small wonder, Nirulas has launched its 21 range if ice cream cafes to attract the younger lot. The challenge for the home grown chains is also to reinvent themselves to appeal to the younger consumer. However, the domestic chains are at an advantage since they understand the Indian consumer behaviour and eating habits and their product offerings have been tailored accordingly. Multinational chains like McDonalds and Pizza Hut are still on a learning curve trying to customize their menu to the Indian taste and food preferences. Pizza Hut, for example, launched its masala range of pizzas and also opened the worlds first 100 per cent vegetarian outlet in India. Domino, on the other hand, has launched its peppy paneer pizza keeping in mind the Indian taste buds. The food service market in India is estimated to be around Rs 36,000 crore (Rs 360 billion), of which the urban fast food quick service restaurants is around Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion). This segment is witnessing high growth of around 25-30 per cent per annum so the market has a lot of potential to grow. REASON FOR EMERGENCE GENDER ROLES: gender roles are now changing. Females have started working outside. So, they have no time for there home and cooking food. Fast food is an easy way out because these can be prepared easily. CONSUMER SOPHISTICATION AND CONFIDENCE: consumers are becoming more sophisticated now. They do not want to prepare food and spend there time and energy in house hold works. They are building there confidence more on ‘ready to eat and easy to serve’ kind of foods PAUCITY OF TIME: people have no time for cooking. Because of emergence of working women and also number of other entertainment items. Most of the time either people work or want to enjoy with their family. DOUBLE INCOME GROUP: emergence of double income group leads to increase in disposable income. Now people have more disposable income so they can spend easily in fast food and other activities. WORKING WOMEN: working women have no time for cooking, and if they have then also they don’t want to cook. Because they want to come out of the traditionally defined gender roles. They do not want to confine themselves to household work and upbringing of children’s. MACRO-ECONMIC FACTOR AFFECTING THE INDUSTRY ?Increase in per capita income: There is continuous increase in the per capita income of the Indian citizens. More income in hand results into more spending in comforts and entertainment and thus results into more and more spending on fast and ready to serve kind of foods. Economic growth: With economic liberalization of 1991, more foreign and private industries entered the Indian market that result into income generation of the Indian residents – more income results into ore savings more savings means more investment – more investment results into overall growth of the economy. ?Large population: India being a second largest country in terms of popul ation possesses large potential market for all the products/services. This results into entry of large number of fast food players in the country. Relaxation in rules and regulations: with the economic liberalization of 1991, most of the tariff and non tariff barriers from the Indian boundaries are either removed or minimized. This helped significantly the MNC’s to enter in the country. ?Growth in number of womens in the work force: there is increase in the number of women work force in the recent years because of the improvement in the literacy rate and also because of the large number of jobs are now available because of the entry of foreign and private players in the Indian market. Menu diversification– increase in consumption of pizzas, burgers and other type of fast foods. CHALLENGES FOR THE INDUSTRY ?Social and cultural implications of Indians switching to western breakfast food: Generally, Hindus avoid all foods that are believed to inhibit physical and spiritua l development. Eating meat is not explicitly prohibited, but many Hindus are vegetarian because they adhere to the concept of ahimsa. Those seeking spiritual unity may avoid garlic and onions. The concept of purity influences Hindu food practices. Products from cows (e. g. , milk, yogurt, ghee-clarified butter) are considered pure. Pure foods can improve the purity of impure foods when they are prepared together. Some foods, such as beef or alcohol, are innately polluted and can never be made pure. But now, Indians are switching to fast food that contain all those things that are considered impure or against there beliefs. Some traditional and fundamentalist are against this transformation of food habit and number of times they provoke their counterparts to revolt against such foods. And that is what happened when McDonald’s decided to enter the complexity of Indian business landscape, counting only on its â€Å"fast food global formula†, without any apparent previous cultural training. ?Emphasis on the usage of bio-degradable products: Glasses, silverware, plates and cloth napkins are never provided with fast food. Instead, paper plates and napkins, polyurethane containers, plastic cups and tableware, drinking cartons or PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles are used, and these are all disposable. Many of these items are tossed in the garbage instead of being recycled, or even worse, merely thrown on the ground. This burdens nature unnecessarily and squanders raw materials. In order to reduce soil and water pollution, government now emphasis more on the usage of bio-degradable products. ?Retrenchment of employees: Most of new industries will be capital intensive and may drive local competitors, which have more workers, out of business. ?Profit repatriation: Repatriation of profits is another area of concern for Indian economy. As when multinational enters the any countries, people and government hope that it will increase the employment rate and result in economic growth. However, with the multinational operation, host country experiences these benefits for a short time period. In long run neither employment increases (because of capital intensive nature of MNC’s) nor it increases the GDP or GNP because whatever MNC’s earn they repatriate that profit back to their home country. PROBLEMS OF INDUSTRY ?Environmental friendly products cost high: Government is legislating laws in order to keep check on the fast food industry and it is emphasizing more on the usage of bio-degradable and environment friendly products. But associated with this issue is the problem that fast food player faces the cost associated with the environment friendly product. They cost much higher then the normal products that companies uses for packaging or wrapping their products. ?Balance between societal expectation and companies economic objectives: To balance a society’s expectation regarding environment with the economic burden of protecting the environment. Thus, one can see that one side pushes for higher standards and other side tries to beat the standard back, thereby making it a arm wrestling and mind boggling exercise. ?Health related issues: obesity: Studies have shown that a typical fast food has very high density and food with high density causes people to eat more then they usually need. ?Low calories food: Emphasis is now more on low calorie food. In this line McDonald has a plan to introduce all white meat chicken Mcnuugget with les fat and fewer calories. TRENDS IN INDIAN MARKET ?Marketing to chil drens: Fast food outlets in India target children’s as their major customers. They introduce varieties of things that will attract the children’s attention and by targeting children’s they automatically target their parents because Children’s are always accompanied by their parents. Low level customer commitment: Because of the large number of food retail outlets and also because of the tendency of customer to switch from one product to other (as food is one areas where customer wants to try everything new that comes to the market), this industry faces low level customer commitment. ?Value added technology services: There is continuous improvement in the technology as far as fast food market in India is considered. The reason behind that is food is a perishable item and in order to ensure that it remain fresh for a longer period of time, there is a need for continuous upgradation in technology. Earlier, Indian people prefer eating at home but now with the change in trend there is also need for improvement and upgradation of technology in food sector. ?Attracting different segments of the market: Fast food outlets are introducing varieties of products in order to cater the demands of each and every segment of the market. They are introducing all categories of product so that people of all age, sex, class, income group etc can come and become a customer of their food line. INTERNATIONAL TRENDS USA: ?Fast food chains are under fire from legal action. ?A Fat tax is being considered for implementation. North America, Western Europe and Japan together account 86% of total fast food market. UK: ?Fast food has grown by 5% since 2001and reached to $10. 1 billion. ?Bakery sector dominates in fast food. ?Largest market is of sandwiches. ?Burger is one of the weaker performing sector‘ German: ?Grown by 2% since 2001. ?Primarily younger generation and single ones visit such outlet s. ?Burger is the largest sector. ?Government policy is towards the reduction of garbage. Japan: ?Grown by 1. 5% since 2001 ?Japan has tailored its fast food to its countries population without sacrificing nutritional value. China: Growth of 14. 6% since 2001. ?Western style fast food successful in china market. France: ?Growth of 5. 8% since 2001. ?McDonalds France –most profitable subsidiary in Europe The success of fast foods arose from the changes in our living conditions: ? Many women or both parents now work ?There are increased numbers of single-parent households ?Long distances to school and work are common ?Usually, lunch times are short ?Theres often not enough time or opportunity to shop carefully for groceries, or to cook and eat with ones family. Especially on weekdays, fast food outside the home is the only solution. Today, only 40% of young college-age people eat lunch at home. Chiefly, but not exclusively, teenagers and young adults use fast food facilities when they need to catch a bite on the go. According to studies, 66% of young men and 33% of women in Switzerland eat one to two hamburgers a week, and half the teenagers eat French-fries once a week. The large chains have pulled out all the stops of modern marketing, targeting primarily young consumers. They entice their potential customers with TV spots, childrens parties, gifts for small children, and an ambiance that is generally child- and teenager-friendly. Large distributors, bakers and butchers, snack bars, and so on, also exploit the fast food trend and offer more take-out products. Its obvious that these campaigns are at the expense of traditional home dining culture. Experts have coined the term McDonaldization to describe this phenomenon. Some noticeable facts about fast food industry are: Fast food had experienced fast growth in past decade. Changing lifestyles, breakdown of joint family system, increasing number of working womens and western influence in urban areas are fuelling the demand for fast food. India already has the entire requirement for a head start in food industry. Basic materials such as food, vegetables and meat can be sourced locally or easily imported if local availability is not adequate. Food outlets are just beginning to appear in Indias big cities and this is a time for international chains to set a foothold. Competition will increase only with time Food Service Sector The food service sector in India consists of approximately 22,000 registered restaurants with sales of over $15,000 per month. In addition, there are more than 100,000 roadside restaurants (dhabas) in small stalls in cities and on highways, and 1,700 registered restaurants in hotels. The institutional sector consists of hospitals, prisons, defense establishments, schools, company canteens, railways, and airlines. The opportunity for U. S. food companies in India’s food service market is small but growing. Sales by Indian food service companies totaled approximately $6 billion in fiscal year 1999 (latest available data). Restaurants account for approximately 56 percent of Indian food service sales and institutional sales, about 39 ercent. Indian consumers spent only 2. 4 percent of their food expenditures in hotels and restaurants in fiscal year 1996. American consumers, by comparison, spent 46 percent of their food expenditures on away from- home meals. Hotel Restaurants The hotel industry is growing, and major hotel companies are currently expanding in the premium segment. An increase in Indian budge t travelers is expected to drive the long-term growth in the mid-range hotel sector. India has some excellent hotel chains, including: Indian Hotels Ltd. (Taj Group); East India Hotels Company Ltd. Oberoi Group); ITC Ltd. (Welcome Group); Asian Hotels; and Leela Venture. Several international chains such as Radisson, Best Western, and Quality Inn have also established a presence through franchising. These chains import around $30 million of food products, mainly wine and alcoholic beverages, fruits and vegetables, meat, sauces, and cheese. Growing demand from Indian hotels and consumers is driving growth in liquor imports. Sales of imported alcoholic beverages are growing at more than 50 percent per year despite very high duties. India’s current imports of processed vegetables are low, but have grown at more than 250 percent per year from fiscal year 1994 to 1998. The Indian government has recently allowed the import of many semi-processed vegetable preparations (previously restricted) under a special import license. While leading hotels note the excellent reputation of U. S. food products, cost is often identified as the constraint. Nevertheless, the hotel and tourism sectors (which have great potential in India) provide opportunities for U. S. exporters to position themselves. Hotels procure imported products through several chann