Big Data Analytics

This concept is up-growing one as the current data storage pattern utilized by the companies is not as productive as plotted. It is refers to following type of data 1) Traditional Enterprise Data: which includes customer related data ERP, CRM, web transaction 2) Machine Generated Data such as wobbles, Trading Systems etc 3) Social Data: I. E. Faceable, twitter, Google etc. Big Data can also be seen finance and businesses where large amounts of stock exchange, banking online and onsite purchasing data flows through computerized systems every day and are then taken and kept for inventory monitoring, customer behavior and market behavior.The capacity of data is increasing on a daily basis. Unfortunately many of industries are not able to manage it well. According to Computer Sciences Corporation by 2020, a total of 35 zeta-bytes of data will be produced as the average annual generation of information grows 43,000 percent. Although big data may be a relatively new phenomenon, its impact is already being felt throughout various industries. Organizations that are able to successfully store, manage and analyze such information will distinguish themselves apart from many of their opponents r make substantial advancements in their areas of expertise.Healthcare providers may improve patient care by studying big data. The greatest prospect available from big data is opportunity the resolve some of the most significant problems worldwide. Current and past medical data combined with genome mapping can help us find resolutions to diseases or genetic disorders. Environmental data can aid in the prediction of climate changes, and can be used to develop better farming methods. Organizations can use big data to help make healthier business decisions. Organizations may be blew to accurately forecast market conditions and how well a product is doing.Defects within their production line may be found faster. Big data may even help make better hiring decisions. Big data can also be u sed to help combat crime by gathering intelligence and evidence against criminal activity. The use Of big data can make a proactive approach towards security threats by recognizing trends that indicate illegal or terrorist activity. Big data along with crowd sourcing can help solve daily social problems. The primary threat, when it comes to big data, is privacy. A substantial amount of these data are personally identifiable information (PI).Although the data may not have your exact name, with proper analytics, you can create a profoundly accurate profile of someone with it. Target was one of the first companies to use big data and data analytics for marketing; more specifically, it used its data to determine if customers were pregnant and then proceeded to send those customers advertisements about baby products. Target and other retailers may have your data with your permission but what about instances where you have not clearly given permission?Passbook's tagging feature, which all ows a friend to either take a photo of you and tag you, or check in to a location, and tag you as being with them. Your image, and location data will be stored and mined. One of the major threats, is the threat of theft of data. Target, for instance, announced earlier this year that they were hacked, and that the accounts of more than 39 million customers were compromised. Although they focused on credit card information, there is a possibility that medical data could have been compromised as well. Big data alone is nothing Of Concern; its what We do with it.

Ethics and Values in My Life

Ethics and Values in my life There are many values that revolve around my life for a better life, but the 5 important ones are: 1. Integrity  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Do the right thing! This is the most import value and I consider it to be the foundation of achieving a better life. 2. Courage-  Face your fears accept and take on new challenges. The moral and mental strength that allows for the acceptance of new challenges without regards to the fear that may lie beneath. 3. Contentment  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ The pursuit of contentment is a state of mind established by fulfilling your basic needs. 4.Action- Do not wait until tomorrow when it can be accomplished today. 5. Respect  To treat people as you would like to be treated. I operate on two value systems in my professional life. This is not necessarily a negative approach since they don’t conflict with each other in fact, they go hand in hand. I believe that your personal values drive your professional values. You don’t just develop pro fessional relationships in a work environment but informal relationships too and sometimes they can be more important as it can drive people to take decisions for the benefit of the organization.For example, having good ties with your direct subordinates can help to retain employees. One can’t always put a price on a comfortable business environment and it maybe the reason workers remain loyal to the organization. In another instance, to achieve contentment one works hard to have access to basic needs and that means doing your job well which is in line with professional competence at work. Before I took admission in the MBA program, I worked as a business partner of a small clothing business in my country.My partner was a good friend and my decision to start a business with her was her commitment to providing unique designs of clothes that maximized customer satisfaction. I often thought of expanding the business but she decided to grow slow as fast expansion can often be unc ontrolled and it can cause compromise on quality. Although I agreed with her premise, I thought it could be done in a harmless way. I was approached by an acquaintance who offered to supply cloth for our business. I jumped to the idea as one part of expansion was to build a strong supply chain.I discussed the idea with my business partner who was interested but pointed out that we can’t just take this decision because I knew the potential supplier personally. We have to carry out research before we make a decision since we can’t risk our business and the money of our two investors. While we tried to establish an idea of the reputation of the supplier, I was offered generous gifts by her and was tempted to take her offer because I assumed her principles and commitment to perfection on the basis of what I knew of her past.She also offered to invest in our business which was a very attractive offer. A person who had a personal stake in the business would ensure best stand ards of operation. From what we got to know about her business was that it supplied cloth of not very good quality, which would affect the quality of our product and could bring disrepute to the business. This actually challenged one of my value ‘objectivity’.For the benefit of our business, I was required to be objective and not let her gifts to cloud my judgment. This was in line with maintaining integrity since we had a customer base that trusted us and we were required to deal fairly with them. It required courage on my part to reject her offer but it was what I needed to do for the benefit of the business and its stakeholders. I am actually very content that I was able to stand firm and did not throw away my beliefs just for some material gains.

Natural Disasters and the Ancient Sumerians Essay - 1

Natural Disasters and the Ancient Sumerians - Essay Example These different legends and myths also involved the data concerning the location and the duration the last great floods are perceived to occur as it is the one that caused the rise and development of these narratives. Even though there is no existing evidence concerning the enormous floods that is believed to have covered almost every mountain in the world, only many narratives from all over the world that is told concerning the great floods which was the major disaster that was faced by the people of Sumerian2. The floods are considered to have destroyed the human race in the unsociable past and which resulted in the map of the world to change in the process. As a result of the floods, the Sumerians were forced to migrate and as a result of this migration, the early Mesopotamia culture was passed to the people where the Sumerians settled3. In the year 5000 BC, the floods of the Caspian Sea and the black sea occurred. The effects of the floods were greatly faced on the northern shores of the sea as in causing the water level of the Mediterranean Sea to rise. This made the red sea to connect itself to the mar Mara Sea that is located next to the modern turkey. The developing pressure that was happening in the earths crust resulted in a region that is considered to be active and of high earthquake magnitude. This is believed to have triggered some of the major earthquakes and some of the volcanic eruptions4. This was also regarded as the great floods as it is explained by the Sumerian legends, which was later hired by the civilization of the ancient Mesopotamia and was eventually recorded down in the bible. The people who managed to escape the floods relocated from these fertile lands to the Western Europe region even though many of the Sumerians went to regions that were warm which is believed to be the southern Mesopotamia region. While in the southern Mesopotamia, the Sumerians found the first humankind civilization and where their

Article Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Article - Term Paper Example department, mainly lack of awareness of the information security concerns and the swiftly evolving complexity of the systems, the cumulative capacity and the reach information and communication technology and the transnational nature of communication networks. It is evident in the paper what the three authors are arguing about ethics, and security in information technology is the focal topic being argued in the global society (ASSON, 2012). Without ethics in this field with little or no progress will be witnessed; many nations are trying to apply ethics in the field of information technology to ensure they are rapid growth in the sector. I do agree with the authors statements this is because, without ethics there will be an extremely slow development in a nations economy. ICT is a key player in a countrys economy making the country’s economy flourish. Security is another key player proper surveillance should be done to make the participants do what is expected by following the laws governing any organization. ICT can be used as an actual tool which will be used to support democracy and freedom worldwide. ICT is a dual character, and there is an exceptionally high potential of ICT to be an effective and useful resource for autocracy or

Globalization impact on supply chain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Globalization impact on supply chain - Essay Example The supply chain has also seen the impact of globalization on its management, and the globalization practice can be seen in various companies that have global operations and market places (Monczka et al 2010). The essay analyses the globalization practice with discussion on its key elements related to the supply chain management. Furthermore, there is discussion of major benefits as well as risks associated with the globalization practice in the supply chain management so that the issues associated with the practice in the companies can be analyzed. This is analyzed with the help of the case study of a manufacturing organization with barriers on implementation of the globalization practice. Analysis of the globalization practice The forces and practice of globalization are changing the supply chain. The supply chains are becoming disintegrated. Product designers, marketers and manufacturers are widespread over various continents with organizations that have different languages, cultu res as well as different business objectives. The key elements of the globalization practice in supply chain management are integrated supply chain, maintenance of flexibility, balancing of risks and rewards, and clear understanding of the global marketplace and management of costs and complexities (Kersten 2011). It is necessary to understand the global landscape and companies should also have a proper plan in place for the recognition of how to capture the opportunities present in the new market. Maintenance of flexibility is another key element in the globalization practice and the supply chains that are global in nature have to remain flexible enough so that they can quickly shift to the new identified opportunities and grab them quickly (Creating the Optimal Supply Chain 2012). The principles of the supply chain are basic, but the execution of globalization practice in the supply chain is different and complex as under this practice, the company has to navigate through the comp lexities of the global supply chain in the areas such as sourcing, manufacturing and the process of delivering across different parts of the world (Mangan et al 2008). Managing component costs and logistics costs is another key element of the globalization practice in supply chain management. Component costs include costs related to raw material, energy, facility, labour, overhead, and productivity. Logistics costs include transportation, warehousing, administration, packaging and inventory (The Faculty of Thunderbird and The American Graduate School of International Management 2000). The impact of globalization on supply chain is vast. It has made supply chains to become more efficient and has helped the companies to create competitive advantage with creation of strong infrastructure. The impact of globalization practice is such that competitors from different areas around the world are competing against the established market leaders that have a depth of resources, deep customer l oyalty and known brands. This has happened because of the flexibility in the supply chai

Language is the most precious and the most dangerous human gift Essay

Language is the most precious and the most dangerous human gift Friedrich Hlderlin - Essay Example Language is one of the most precious human gifts as it allows human beings to exchange thoughts and share information. Language is founded in the human need to make sense of the world and our place in it. What distinguishes it from mere personal opinion and credulity is its rejection of passionate convictions as sufficient grounds for belief and action, and its commitment to careful analysis and systematic reasoning. Name of essay Language is the most precious and the most dangerous human gift perfectly reflect communative tool between people. Rather than a uniform body of doctrine, philosophy manifests itself in an ongoing process of critically examining and refining the grounds for our beliefs and actions, the ideas we recognize as true, as deserving our loyalty and commitment. Thesis Friedrich Hlderlin states that language is the most precious and the most dangerous human gift". Language is among the signs and symbols by which humans order their worlds and construct their conceptions of reality. Researchers explore symbolic and semiotic accounts of language as an instrument by which people conceive reality or construct their representations of it: the ways in which experience mediates interpretation of the world. Since symbolism requires a relation between two different kinds of thing, one that symbolizes or signifies and another that is symbolized or signified, the dualistic tensions between the linguistic intrinsic and extrinsic figure prominently in symbolic theories, as do questions about interpretive latitude. Suspending 'logical' belief in the opposition of subject and object, inside and outside, mind and body, phenomenologists explore language from the perspective of the lived, bodily experience-from the interpreter's point of view, one might say. By attempting to set aside the binary oppositions that fuel debates between autonomists and heteronomists , phenomenology offers a perspective that is strikingly fresh and richly resonant with language as a lived, human process (Bennett et al 43). The idea that language structure is in some sense symbolic has philosophical roots that probably extend at least as far back in history as the ancient doctrines of mimesis and ethos-the belief that language imitates and shapes attributes of human character. The influence of idealism is also quite often evident in symbolic theories, since its quest to secure a place for language in the realm of cognitively significant activity yielded so many inspiring descriptions of language's distinctive felt and rational attributes. Also, since symbolic accounts generally entail the conviction that language's significance is a function of its capacity to signify, point to, or represent something other than itself, familiar tensions between expression and autonomy (between referential capacity and presentational immediacy) often lie very near the surface. Thus, symbolic accounts of language occasionally resonate deeply with idealistic philosophical orientations of formalistic or expressionistic per suasions, orientations to which they are in certain respects related. At the heart of her theory lies a very distinctive definition of 'symbol': a vehicle for the conception of reality (Searle 82). Anthropology of language suggests that language is the main criterion that distinguishes humans from other animals. What language does, in this view, is enable conception. This act of coherence making is, furthermore, the common foundation of thought and language; this achievement of coherence, not the logical operations by which it is subsequently manipulated and ordered, is the root of humankind's distinctive mental power. In other words, thought and language are each ways albeit contrasting ways -- of 'transforming

Lessons 17-20 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Lessons 17-20 - Essay Example The best solution involves building of more lanes to cater for the high demand of use in the highway. The five creeks are Wood Canyon Creek, Sulphur Creek, English Canyon Creek, Diary fork, and Alison creek. The major contaminants of the creeks include bacterial pollution as well as chlorine. Most of the creeks empty their water at mouth of Laguna Beach basins. Translation refers to the process by which protein is synthesized from the messenger RNA through the reading of the mRNA sequence by a genetic code. Transcription on its part refers to the transfer of genetic information from a DNA to an RNA, which is then used to form proteins. The theory of how life began in the RNA world describes that self-replicating ribonucleic acid molecules (RNA) are the originators of the life lived today. The theory bases RNA in terms of DNA, RNA, and proteins. Despite the fact that the current life originates from RNA, it is evident that the theory has it that RNA world was never the first life to come into existence. Question 1: If you were to scuba dive in Jamaica, 50 feet under the surface of the water, how would the temperature, pressure, light and salinity change when you are 50 feet deep? What kinds of animals would you see at that depth? About 50 feet into the ocean in Jamaica, the temperatures are slightly warm at about 25Â °-28Â °C. The area is also highly saline being an area with high levels of coral reefs. The watercolor at this point is blue-green to green, thereby allowing fair light to penetrate and high pressure. Some of the animals found in this area are the green sea turtles and manatee. Chinook salmon life cycle involves the laying of eggs by the females, who then guard the eggs for between four to twenty-five days before their death. The eggs then hatch approximately 90-150 days after deposition depending on water temperatures from which fry emerge. The fry then stay in fresh water for 12 to 18 months before travelling downstream into

Analysis of an ethical dilemma Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Analysis of an ethical dilemma - Essay Example Instead, they pursued suspension pending the court’s ruling. While ethical and moral standards should be held important, a system of order reflected in the justice system should be adhered to before implementing a course of action. In establishing the importance of due process, it is not in anyway disregarding the rights of the animals which were cruelly disregarded in the case. This is primarily the ethical dilemma of weighing the importance between the rights of the animals and the right of the person accused of the crime. The position stated in this paper is not about choosing sides and is not about disregarding the nature of the crime. It is the upholding of the value of the equality of rights afforded to everyone who is considered innocent, unless proven guilty. In the end, the cause is better championed if the legal process was followed. Respect for life is a top agenda for human beings. The right to live with dignity has been afforded to an individual the moment he is born. A person should determine his purpose in life while growing up and not the other way around. No individual has the right to define or determine a purpose for another person before he is even born. It is the individual himself who has to right to decide on the direction he plans to take. The integrity of being human lies in the power of the person to direct himself and decide on his own. An individual is therefore accountable to himself for whatever harm or insult is inflicted upon him. This will only hold water if no outside force is involved in the infliction of harm. This outside force refers to other people with their own selfish, ulterior and deliberate motives. Having said all of these, are these concepts now applicable to animals? Are we not at the same level, being all products of creation? Animals like humans deserve the right to live and partake of the benefits of creation. Humans may be superior to animals in terms of intellect but

Various Perspectives and Opinions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Various Perspectives and Opinions - Essay Example Biometrics technology has been widely employed in governments and corporations worldwide for security, particularly since the terrorist attacks of 9 September, 2001. Travel documents have security features which use biometrics to identify and verify. Airports and government agencies alike have used these technologies to screen passengers so as to ensure security of all passengers and verify their passes. It has also been used in forensics by the police to verify signatures used when signing credit receipts. This technology has been extended to elections, where voters would be barred from voting more than once, a similar application as for those being verified to access welfare benefits (Cole, 2005). Biometrics technology systems have been largely accredited for assuring citizens of their security. With screening at airports and borders of various countries, only persons that do not pose a security threat would be travelling and get to a particular destination as required. Corporation s have also appreciated the importance of this technology in keeping data safe and allowing authorized access only. The citizens who have been susceptible to fraud would better appreciate the importance of fingerprint biometrics technology. ... The FBI later retracted the case and admitted that the results were erroneous despite having been confirmed by about five senior latent fingerprint officers. More so, Opinion Research Foundation (2002) found out in his research that adults were skeptical that information stored in biometrics systems would have been used in ways to threaten their privacy. Since the technology involves use of radiations, health practitioners have had reservations on the eventual implications on the health of the public. For instance, iris biometrics uses near infrared radiation which would be illuminated to the iris so as to obtain the right data. The fear has been that retinal scanning could damage tissues in the eye. This argument has persisted despite the assurance from technologists and radiologists that the radiation is too weak to cause considerable damage to body tissues. Contact sensors have also been widely viewed as being contaminated. Since these sensors would be used by various persons, the risk of contamination by various microbes could be probable. But most organizations regularly irradiate UV light on these sensors so as to sterilize them. There are technologists who have however argued the lack of sense in this argument as the same persons who raise these fears use door knobs and rails on a daily basis which present a similar risk. Workers also feel that these systems have inhibited their movement at work places as their employers monitor their movements in corporations where they have to log in and out of work areas using biometric systems. Albeit the public has its reservations on the use of biometrics technology, it has still been widely utilized with Opinion Research Foundation (2002) finding that 82% of adults in America have at least one ID

The major problem or issue currently facing natural resource managers Assignment

The major problem or issue currently facing natural resource managers in agriculture - Assignment Example The resource based activities in which the rural poor are engaged in include petite extent farming, animal production, fishing, hunting, mining and logging. They therefore rely on returns from these activities as their most important sources of earnings. They therefore plummet back to innate wherewithal when these sources fail. For them the natural resources foster consistency and reinforce the net security of the entire community. Bell and Park (2006) explain that the above does not however mean that the rich live their lives independent of natural resources. They derive more ecological proceeds from natural resources because they are proficient to exercise stronger control over the resources due to their greater administrative influence they have as compared to the underprivileged. One of the major problems facing environmental managers is scheming and preventing environmental degradation. Its impact spread to all aspects of the economy and not just the surroundings. Environmental slump leads to loss of species that impact negatively on the environment and abridged agricultural productivity that lead to poor economic growth. Bates (2003) explained that those who rely on the environment should do so with resilience and little or no vulnerability. Therefore, the problem faced by natural resource managers is how to ensure that the resources are used with pliability or less susceptibility while at the same instance deriving benefits. The strain in the natural resources is caused by uninhibited increase in population growth, this increases dependency on grain imports, loss of biodiversity and neglect of conventional farming techniques. This is caused by the migration of people to the urban areas to look for employment (Bellamy, Meppem, Gorddard and Dawson 2005). The establishment, testing and continuation of adaptive capability of natural and societal systems is becoming of huge concern to the managers in agricultural sector because of unfavorable climate change, poor water use and management in Australia. The actions of human beings are of great concern because they impact on natural resources with greater implications on social and economic development, sustainable livelihoods and environmental management. Land use and greater pressure on social systems are caused by increase in bucolic non farm money-making activities and increased urban population. Emergence of the problem of environmental conservation is of great complexity due to the multiple causes, problem perspectives and solution approaches. The solution approaches are also faced with poor institutional settings. Part of the solution approaches to curb the problem of conservation therefore requires a shift from federalism to proper ascendancy. This leads to interrelations of processes, structures and tasks. Australia represents countries with accelerating levels of environmental degradation and the complexity of natural resource ascendancy. There are however frameworks within the A ustralian Federal System to address the accelerating periodic challenges of sustainable natural resource and social systems. Sustainable formation, testing and maintenance of opportunities therefore refer to the goal of nurturing capabilities and creating viable opportunities. New-fangled cohort of authority in Australia is experimented to deal with issues relating to vitality of varying

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Essay Example for Free

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Essay Imagine staying away from everybody, isolating yourself form someone you love, a family member or colleague because they seem to be sick. Imagine not being able to shake hand, kiss, or hug anybody because you are concerned that you might get some bacteria form them. Imagine not being able to open a door or pressing a button in the elevator with your hand because so many people have touched it before you. Imagine if you repeatedly check if the door of your apartment is locked even though you know for sure that you have locked it and you have checked several times. These are some symptoms of an anxiety disorder known as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) which is characterized by uncontrollable, unwanted thoughts and repetitive, ritualized behaviors you feel compelled to perform. I have read about this disorder a long time ago because I noticed it with the Canadian comedian Howie Mandel. I noticed that Howie has mysophobia, so he does not shake hands with anybody. But I didn’t think about it as a mental illness, I thought it was just a fear that developed in his mind because of an incident that happened to him and I thought it would go away easily by facing that fear. But after watching the movie Back Form Madness, I realized that it is more complicated than what I thought it was. Glen, the photographer, was the person who got most of my attention, mainly because I am a photographer and I have done wedding photography for a while. So I know how hard it is for a photographer to take a perfect picture and the different aspects that should be focused on while taking a picture. Having OCD would defiantly make it much harder because you will be checking so many things in the camera and will take a long time to take a picture which will cause you anxiety because the customers will be mad. In this case, I will stop shooting and I will do the cingulotomy surgery even though, as Glen said, it is very dangerous and very painful. After the surgery, Glen was hopeless because he thought that he would die without getting cured. I cannot really talk about how I would feel because I believe that we cannot feel the whole pain of others unless we are in their shoe. But all I can say is, hope is in the horizon as the sun keeps rising every day with new opportunities to everybody.

Intracellular Bacteria Survival Strategies

Intracellular Bacteria Survival Strategies Survival strategies of intracellular bacteria to amoeba grazing Free living amoebae are unicellular protozoan that are ubiquitous in various environments. They mainly feed on bacteria through phagocytosis, and kill them in phagosome, which is a harsh acidic environment that contains different antimicrobial weapons. Amoebae grazing has been suggested to be one of the major forces that shaping bacterial abundance and diversity. However, some bacteria have developed strategies to survive phagocytosis by free-living amoebae and are able to exploit host cell resources. Below we try to summarize our current knowledge on the diverse mechanisms that are used by intracellular pathogens to overcome amoebae defenses. The most obvious strategy is to escape from the phagosome so that intracellular pathogens can avoid amoebae killing. Because phagosome is generally viewed as a harsh environment where ingested bacteria are confronted with acidification, oxidative burst, nutrient deprivation, and various antimicrobial small molecules. For instance, some members of the genus Mycobacterium, such as Mycobacterium marinum and M. tuberculosis, have evolved the ability to escape from phagosome into the host cytosol. This process requires the mycobaterial type VII secretion system ESX-1. In addition, both M. marinum and M. tuberculosis can be ejected from the cell through an F-actin structure ejectosome to spread cell to cell [1,2]. In general, cytosol is considered as permissive for bacterial growth, as it provides nutrients and is protected from host immune killing [3]. Therefore it is an ideal place for bacteria to thrive after escaping from phagosome. However, some intracellular pathogens can invade more unusual intracellular niches such as the eukaryotic nucleus. This includes in the free living amoebae Naegleria clarki [4] and more recently in another amoeba strain Hartmannella sp. [5]. These so called intranuclear bacteria are relatively rare and current studies suggest an independent evolutionary origin of an intranuclear life style. Taken together, after escaping intracellular bacteria can live in either cytosol or nucleus. The second strategy is to stay within the phagosomal vacuole, but subvert its antimicrobial mechanisms. These include preventing phagosome-lysosome fusion, modulating phagosomal pH, damaging phagosomal membranes, and/or quenching oxidative bursts [6]. Intracellular pathogens can utilize a combination of these approaches. For instance, Legionella pneumophila has evolved a complex system which allows the bacteria to hijack the phagocytic vacuole [7]. It can evade the endocytic pathway and the subsequent phagosome-lysosome fusion, delays its acidification and establishes a safe intracellular niche called Legionella containing vacuole (LCV), which allows intracellular replication [7,8]. Further studies suggest that L. pneumophila uses the Icm/Dot type IV secretion system (T4SS) and the Lsp type II secretion system (T2SS) to avoid killing and exploit host resources [7,9]. There are plenty of other bacteria using similar strategies [10]. However, a very special case is that some intracellu lar pathogens can exploit the complex cycle of the social amoeba. In the amoeba farming symbiosis, our lab group has found that some wild Dictyostelium discoideum clones stably associate with different bacterial partners and use them as food and weapons [11-14]. These clones are called farmers because they can seed and harvest their crops in new environments [14]. In addition, two clades of inedible Burkholderia bacteria have been found to induce farming, causing the amoeba host to carry them, along with edible crop bacteria [11]. Another recent case shows that Bordetella bronchiseptica can also exploit the complex life cycle of D. discoideum. Interestingly, B. bronchiseptica resides outside the D. discoideum spores, while the carried Burkholderia localize both inside and outside of spores, indicating these two bacteria have different exit strategies. Overall, the majority of intracellular pathogens occupy phagosomal vacuole, while only some are able to escape the phagosome [6]. This is possibly due to the fact that specialized mechanisms are needed to escape from phagosome [3,6]. There is no clear relationship between the type of survival strategies and whether the microbe is an obligate or facultative intracellular pathogen [6]. References 1. Hagedorn M, Rohde KH, Russell DG, Soldati T (2009) Infection by Tubercular Mycobacteria Is Spread by Nonlytic Ejection from Their Amoeba Hosts. Science 323: 1729-1733. 2. Gerstenmaier L, Pilla R, Herrmann L, Herrmann H, Prado M, et al. (2015) The autophagic machinery ensures nonlytic transmission of mycobacteria. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112: E687-E692. 3. Ray K, Marteyn B, Sansonetti PJ, Tang CM (2009) Life on the inside: the intracellular lifestyle of cytosolic bacteria. Nature Reviews Microbiology 7: 333-340. 4. Schulz F, Horn M (2015) Intranuclear bacteria: inside the cellular control center of eukaryotes. Trends in Cell Biology 25: 339-346. 5. Schulz F, Lagkouvardos I, Wascher F, Aistleitner K, Kostanjsek R, et al. (2014) Life in an unusual intracellular niche: a bacterial symbiont infecting the nucleus of amoebae. ISME Journal 8: 1634-1644. 6. Casadevall A (2008) Evolution of Intracellular Pathogens. Annual Review of Microbiology 62: 19-33. 7. Hoffmann C, Harrison CF, Hilbi H (2014) The natural alternative: protozoa as cellular models for Legionella infection. Cellular Microbiology 16: 15-26. 8. Escoll P, Rolando M, Gomez-Valero L, Buchrieser C (2013) From amoeba to macrophages: exploring the molecular mechanisms of Legionella pneumophila infection in both hosts. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol 376: 1-34. 9. Hubber A, Kubori T, Nagai H (2014) Modulation of the Ubiquitination Machinery by Legionella. Molecular Mechanisms in Legionella Pathogenesis 376: 227-247. 10. Steinert M (2011) Pathogen-host interactions in Dictyostelium, Legionella, Mycobacterium and other pathogens. Seminars in Cell Developmental Biology 22: 70-76. 11. DiSalvo S, Haselkorn TS, Bashir U, Jimenez D, Brock DA, et al. (2015) Burkholderia bacteria infectiously induce the proto-farming symbiosis of Dictyostelium amoebae and food bacteria. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112: E5029-E5037. 12. Stallforth P, Brock DA, Cantley AM, Tian XJ, Queller DC, et al. (2013) A bacterial symbiont is converted from an inedible producer of beneficial molecules into food by a single mutation in the gacA gene. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110: 14528-14533. 13. Brock DA, Read S, Bozhchenko A, Queller DC, Strassmann JE (2013) Social amoeba farmers carry defensive symbionts to protect and privatize their crops. Nature Communications 4. 14. Brock DA, Douglas TE, Queller DC, Strassmann JE (2011) Primitive agriculture in a social amoeba. Nature 469: 393-396.

Gender, Consumption and the Media

Gender, Consumption and the Media Consumption is a social practice which subconsciously communicates ideas about gender. In turn, gender intersects with the realm of consumer behaviour as a cognitive, cultural and political construct (Ross, 2010, pp.13-39). In this instance, the media provides an important sphere to observe the social constructions of gender that, through routine, substantiates certain performances of gender (Hirschman Stern, 1994, pp. 576-81). Within the context of Home Box Office’s television series, Sex and the City (1998-2004, hereafter ‘SATC’), this paper will analyse contemporary depictions of femininity and demonstrate how these interpretations coincide with consumption. It will further discuss how gender fluidity allow the characters of SATC the liberty to transpire and transition between the essentialist attributes of feminine versus masculine, distorting the conventional boundaries and constructions of femininity when they consume homes, engage in consumption related to sex, and struggle with true love and marriage in their search for authenticity. Each character discovers approaches to simultaneously reconstruct and reinforce their gendered identities as they construct contemporary roles with the assistance of consumption. However, it is this consumption that can generate new tensions. The home is often associated with the gendered notions of the domestic sphere. Within the home, production and consumption are conventionally defined, with men buying the home and women buying for the home. This shapes the home as a site of patriarchal oppression and control (Schroeder Borgerson, 1998, pp. 105-231). However, Caldwell and Kleppe (2006, pp. 22-40) argue that household members can subvert, conform to, or negotiate ideas about gender. While discourses on home ownership are traditionally related to the marriage of a man and woman, SATC represents home ownership as allowing the female characters freedom to explore the expectations that are associated with conventional gender roles in the home and their personal desire to demarcate new gender roles as single women, without children, consuming living spaces. For Miranda, gender fluidity is communicated to encompass the power roles of men and women as professionals, lovers and homeowners. In light of this, Miranda experiences tensions when she confronts the vestiges of conventional gender roles when buying her home. Initially, Miranda had visualised that her acquirement of a home would satisfy her identity as an independent yet professionally accomplished single woman. However, the possession of a home for Miranda is shown to become imbued with sexism. This reflects the cultural assumption that a woman without children or a husband would simply not possess sufficient financial funds or knowledge to invest in real estate and would not consider purchasing her home ‘alone’. In effect, the challenge a woman’s achievement in the conventionally masculine, public sphere of work as a corporate lawyer poses leaves Miranda’s character insecure about her performance of femininity. Here, SATC communicates how the subversion of traditional feminine ideals will inevitably involve a negotiation of the gains of feminism. By purchasing a house without a man, Miranda is portrayed to challenge the norm which results in a self-reflective debate regarding her performance of femininity. Miranda’s experiences of tension demonstrate that changes to gender norms come slowly. The consumption related to domesticity and the home is therefore denoted in SATC as simultaneously liberating yet replete with tensions of the gender norms in everyday life. Another theme of gender that SATC communicates is how gender and consumption discourses are interlinked with the confines of sexuality. Gender is argued to be interlinked with sexuality as an individual’s gender guides their sexuality while at the same time an individual’s sexuality validates their gender (Fracher Kimmel 1995, p. 367). Schroeder and Zwick (2004, p. 34) argue that consumer behaviour regarding everyday products reflects on the messages of ‘sexuality, lifestyle and identity’. In SATC, themes of sexuality are intently interlinked with gender and consumption discourses although the cultural messages imbued in the consumption choices are neither essentialist nor direct. The women of SATC represent a contemporary adaptation of the single girl. This new standard for contemporary women is less fixed on chasing marriage as a fundamental end, but more focused on career and relationships. While stereotypical media representations of women primarily ex hibit traits of femininity as that of passivity and helplessness (Stole 2003, pp. 65-80), the narrative of single girls in SATC mirror the changes in the norms of femininity over time. For Samantha, her gender status as a single female and being the eldest of the four women, welcomes her attempts to control and preserve her youth through the performance of aesthetic labour (Pettinger, 2004, pp. 165-84). However, this narrative of Samantha struggling and worrying about her changing sexuality because of aging is brought to a halt when she realises the power her gender status provides her over the notions of beauty and youth. Samantha is characterised as empowering when she withstands the influence of the stereotypical images of female sexuality she is enveloped by as an exuberant consumer of fashion and executive-owner of a public relations firm. Through the characterisation of Samantha, the performance of female sexuality is suggested to involve an aesthetic that changes as a woman physically and emotionally matures. The aesthetic of femininity links female sexuality and power as SATC frames the aesthetic and its associated power to be about Samantha’s power to create and use it. In essence, Samantha embodies the tensions that emerge when a female must let go of youth and acknowledge her own power to determine her own beauty with age. In turn, the performance of female sexuality is highlighted to relate to consuming pleasure which may or may not involve sharing that pleasure with a man, either because men cannot provide it, or women prefer to experience the pleasure alone. Nonetheless, views of masculine power and predatory sexuality, the correlation sexual performance has with marriage and dating that will eventually result in marriage remain evident notions in SATC. This stresses gender as a social construct and how consumers will require time before being able to perform a more fluid notion of gender, without the anxiety, despite the idea of gender equality. SATC therefore communicates the tensions experienced by females that relate to these norms during their consumption of goods (for Samantha, the consideration of plastic surgery) which, in turn, affect the females’ performance of their sexuality and creating their desired gender identity. The final theme of gender communicated in SATC is the tension between an ongoing ambivalence for an authentic gender identity and the stereotyped female longing for true love and marriage. Potter (2010, p. 4) holds that authenticity and the consumption of true love and marriage is about individualism and a movement way from the masses to seek an individual gender status. However, consumption can never lead to an authentic gender identity because of what is consumed is considered to be inauthentic. As gender is a ‘natural and pre-cultural’ social construct (McCracken, 2008, p.186), the pursuit of an authentic gender identity and the performance of gender fluidity that may offer self-transformation and opportunities by being enacted through consumption may require the shelving of the authentic gender along the way. In SATC, the real self and the real love are framed as the female authenticity. By consuming to pursue authenticity, the female characters alter the power struc ture traditional gender roles have established through femininity’s contemporary self-sufficiency as the women of SATC discern between the fakes and real of love and self-knowledge. In Season 3, Charlotte escapes from the authenticity of New York City to experience the superficiality of Los Angeles. The change in setting allows Charlotte to reconsider the authenticity of the conservative gender messages she embodied in New York City. In effect, Charlotte is shown to become frustrated by her pursuits of authentic love and marriage as following the conventions of how to get married and pursue her views of true love and marriage to establish an authentic gender identity have been unsuccessful. Through the characterisation of Charlotte, SATC communicates the view of a conservative, gender identity where unmarried women should not have sex with their unmarried partner until after marriage. In effect, work, sexuality and consumption are conveyed as gender roles to be performed for the goal of true love, marriage and a gender identity. However, Charlotte’s later frustrations over her marriage with an impotent husband indicate that her pursuit of true love and ma rriage through following conventions may have, in itself, been inauthentic. This expresses the contemporary idea that gender identities in relationships are unstable and unscripted. Tensions between the conventional and contemporary norms are conveyed in SATC to be part of new gender performances yet the ending of fixed models or frames of references for true love, marriage and gender identity inherently creates anxiety. Constructions of gender in the media influence the understandings of gender in reality. These constructions provide points of analysis as they legitimise certain performances of gender and reflect broader discourses in society. The themes of gender in SATC focus on questions of the freedom of femininity and the changing notions of female sexuality in a dynamic social landscape. By examining SATC, insight is provided into the contemporary performativity of femininity in relation to consumption in public and traditionally masculine spheres. With the notions of family and work having changed in society, it has brought simultaneous changes in the understanding of gender roles. SATC provides a new independent woman, who despite subverts their traditional gender role, still struggles with similar issues prevalent in traditional notions of gender. The gender fluidity of post-feminism gives the characters of SATC the freedom to be multifaceted in their performances regarding consuming the ho me, experiencing sexuality and maintain and projecting an authentic self. However, this fluidity is often fraught with tensions between traditional models of gender and the gendered performances of the characters. The characters in SATC find ways to simultaneously re-establish and reinforce their gendered identities as they create and occupy new roles (with the aid of consumption) in a world of competing discourses of gender which are grounded in prior notions of femininity. Yet this consumption can lead to a sense of anxiety as well from the complex negotiations of gender expectations. References Caldwell, M. Kleppe, I. A. 2006, ‘Gender identity and perceptions of femininity in everyday life: A multi country study of contemporary young female achievers’, Gender and Consumer Behaviour, vol. 8, pp. 22–40. Fracher, J. Kimmel, M. 1995, ‘Hard issues and soft spots: Counselling men about sexuality’, Men’s Lives, pp. 365–74. Hirschman, E. C. Stern B. B. 1994, ‘Women as commodities: Prostitution as depicted in The Blue Angel, Pretty Baby and Pretty Woman’, Advances in Consumer Research, vol. 21, pp. 576–81. McCracken, G. 2008, Transformations: Identity construction in contemporary culture, Indiana University Press, Bloomington. Pettinger, L. 2004, ‘Brand culture and branded workers: Service work and aesthetic labour in fashion retail’, Consumption Markets Culture, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 165–84. Potter, A. 2010, The authenticity hoax: How we get lost finding ourselves, HarperCollins Publishers, New York. Ross, K. 2010, Gendered media: Women, men and identity politics, Rowman and Littlefield, Plymouth, pp. 13-39. Schroeder, J. E. Borgerson, J. L. 1998, ‘Marketing images of gender: A visual analysis’, Consumption Markets Culture, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 105–231. Schroeder, J. E. Zwick, D. 2004, ‘Mirrors of masculinity: Representation and identity in advertising images’, Consumption Markets Culture, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 21–52. Sex and the City 1998 – 2004, television series, HBO Original Programming, New York. Stole, I. L. 2003, ‘Televised consumption: Women, advertisers and the early daytime television industry’, Consumption Markets Culture, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 65–80.

Gambling on the Internet Essay -- online casinos

Coming to Terms You roll the dice, you look at the cards, you pick a team then you pray. The whole idea is that you feel you have an edge over others, and that you are lucky. You think that you can beat the house, and in this new age of technology you can bring it all into the comfort of your home. This is how online gambling was created. In recent years online gambling has become more and more popular; a report released last year by a stock analyst said that online gambling revenues will nearly triple $3 billion by this year. To the many sports fan out there, how many times have you said, "Anyone could have predicted the outcome of that game." The truth is that gambling isn't easy. That is why it's called gambling, you are taking a calculated risk which you believe gives you a good chance of coming out on top. Often the people who decide that they want to start an online gambling account do not understand what they are getting into. There are two types of online gamblers. There are those who should be going to gamblers anonymous and those who think that online gambling is a quick fix to financial problems. To get started the user must give out an assortment of personal information including contact numbers and credit card numbers. For certain accounts they attract you with the promise free money. For example you may receive 10% free of your initial deposit. The entire idea of a deposit is to put a certain amount of money into an account and then you use this to gamble. After you have electronically signed away your credit cards and personal information you can start to have fun. Now you get to lose some money, maybe you will get lucky and break even. When sitting at a card table, in front of a slot machine or preparing ... ... million of dollars owed to investors. In the end you must realize that all forms of gambling incur a certain amount of chance. Work Cited Gilmour, Kim. â€Å"Viva Las Vegas.† Expanded Academic ASAP. March 2009. Internet Magazine. 31 May 2009 http://web5.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/431/916/34512188w5/purl=rc1_EAIM_0_A96304982&dyn=5!xrn_1_0_A96304982?sw_aep=viva_jmu Janower, Cynthia. â€Å"Gambling on the Internet†, Familiar Territory or Lawless Frontiers, September 1996. 28 May 2009 http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol2/issue2/janower.html#footnotes McDonald, Marci. â€Å"Betting the House.† Expanded Academic ASAP. 16 October 2000. U.S. News & World Report. 31 May 2009 http://web5.infotrac.galegroup.com/itw/infomark/431/916/34512188w5/purl=rc1_EAIM_0_A65913404&dyn=3!xrn_3_0_A65913404?sw_aep=viva_jmu McGrath, James. Personal Interview. 2 April 2009

Homeless Essay -- essays research papers

â€Å"The weather seems to be getting a bit chillier around here lately† Charlie Houser proclaims. â€Å" Living homeless is not so bad as long as you understand that you are homeless and make it your every day life.† implies Charlie. Charlie is a man that goes around thinking of things to do from day to day. On Vine Street in Coryville, a thin, short, black man stands between two buildings fighting off another Cincinnati winter. He is unshaven with a scraggly beard. His skin is rugged looking and tough. His outfit consists of a tannish-brown jacket, which clashes with his turquoise pants that are short in length. Charlie wears a pair of black, puppy dog chewed up shoes. It is winter and he is shuffling back and fourth to keep warm. His steps are as timid as that of a mouse trying to sneak something to eat. The aroma of his alcoholic breath pollutes the frosty breath coming from his lips. Along with his breath, his eyes are glazed over, watery, and red. It is clear he has had been drinking. His hygiene is deteriorated to the point of him smelling like a dirty pair of socks, which had not been washed for quite some time. The teeth he had left are bright yellow and caked with plaque. His mouth is a nightmare for a dentist. It is a disturbing sight to see, but many passes by take no notice o f him. Charlie says, â€Å" I tried to find employment, but was unable to afford a haircut and employers would not even talk to me because of my looks.† Charlie lives his days by just getting through e...

Activity-Based Costing ( ABC ) Essay -- GCSE Business Marketing Course

Activity Based Costing ACTIVITY BASED COSTING AND MANAGEMENT : AN OVERVIEW Activity Based Costing (ABC) is more relevant than traditional costing in companies, where product mix is diverse in; batch sizes, physical sizes, degree or complexity, and raw material characteristics. ABC will also provide more decision useful information for the service industry, characterized by diversity in range of services provided. If the products in a plant or services provided posses similar characteristics, wither volume based or an activity based cost driver will provide reasonably accurate costs. The strategic goal of ABC is to provide decision useful cost and profitability information for optimal pricing decisions, appropriate product mix, and operational improvements by focusing on activities and cost drivers. (Burch 1994) ABC provides a closer approximation of the cost of product, than that provided by the traditional volume based costing method. The use of ABC in itself will not lead to better profitability management uses information provided by ABCs to decide the optimal product-mix. The action of the management will lead to improved results. What is ABC ? There are several elements worthy of note. First is that activities happen because an input has triggered them, e.g., an activity such as "purchase supplies" is caused or triggered by a requisition, secondly, we see that resources are consumed by an activity. Resources are the things that an organisation pays for, such as people, machines and equipment and facilities. We can measure the consumption of resources by activity for example, the activity "purchase supplies" consumes one hour of an employees time per requisition. Activities can be associated with the outputs or cost objects of the organisation examples of a few of the cost objects for service organisations that we have worked with include such things as mortgages, chequing accounts, railcar movement from point A to point B, or B to C. Cost objects consume activities in much the same way that activities consume resources consequently, we can measure how much of an activity such as "purchase supplies is required by an organisations service output such as "engineering training course". The measurement of consumption is called an activity- cost driver. Of significant note here is that different cost objects do consume activities " in diffe... ...self rather than using the cost of the final products only. The cost drivers that trigger the activity are also identified and monitored. These cost drivers may be different from the resource or activity drivers. In addition performance measures are developed and monitored to judge the efficiency at which the activity is being performed. These measures may be financial or non-financial variables such as cost per units of activity driver, defects per million items produced or time taken per unit of item produced. These measures then provide a sound basis to the control the performance of the activity with accurate information about the costs involved. ABM has number of benefits to offer. Here, the focus of attention is an activity rather than a department. A department may have a number of activities which if not segregated may diffuse the vision of the managers while making a particular decision. The areas where specific benefits have been derived from ABM are following A. Determination of product/service costs B. Improvements in performance and activities C. Cost cutting and downsizing D. Other applications. Number of benefits are high and harmful effects are less.

A Study on the Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty of Furniture Purchaser in on-Line Shop

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www. emeraldinsight. com/1598-2688. htm AJQ 11,2 146 A study on the customer satisfaction and customer loyalty of furniture purchaser in on-line shop Yongju Jeong and Yongsung Lee Department of Business Administration, The University of Incheon, Incheon, South Korea Abstract Purpose – The paper intends to explore the in? uencing factors on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the internet shopping mall through service quality based on the data obtained from furniture purchaser. Design/methodology/approach – The research model and the relevant research hypothesis were set up through the data derived from the existing researches, and then the relevant hypothesis was tested through regression analysis. Findings – As result of analysis, the in? uencing factors on customer satisfaction of furniture purchaser in the internet shopping mall were proved to be product diversity of service quality, tangibles, responsiveness, interaction, stability, and customer satisfaction was found to be a signi? cant in? encing factor on customer loyalty in the internet shopping mall. Research limitations/implications – Although this study was carried out against actual furniture purchaser in selecting the samples, it reached the limit in considering the diversity of internet shopping mall, and sorting into on-line and off-line concurrent shopping mall and internet exclusive shopping mall. Originality/value – The study reviews the service quality measure suggested in the existing literature on service quality, newly applying it to on-line services environment, and then ? ding out the in? uence of service quality in internet shopping mall on customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and repurchase intention as well as in which dimension they are built up. Keywords Internet, Shopping, Customer satisfaction, Customer loyalty, Electronic commerce Paper type Research paper The Asian Journal on Quality Vol. 11 No. 2, 2010 pp. 146-156 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1598-2688 DOI 10. 1108/15982681011075952 1. Introduction Owing to rapid development of information communication, e-commerce through internet is picking up briskly throughout the world. According to the survey of Korea National Statistical Of? ce, the volume of transaction in domestic cyber shopping mall in Korea steadily grew starting from 2001 when it reached approximately 3,400,000,000,000 won, which is well over 20,000,000,000,000 won in 2009. Like this, internet market is growing in non-negligible scale, and even it is expected to grow more and more in future. Development of various information communication technology including computer has changed the consumption life of the consumers, and especially tons of changes take place in the consumers’ selection through their decision making. Such changes suggest a new environment characterized by global market, collapse of hierarchy, and economy of information era. Internet shopping mall is a business that can be operated at minimum expense with minimum labor force, which allows to ecure price competitiveness by minimizing distribution stages, and further provide better customer service than the existing off-line shopping by providing various information. These days, rapid growth of do-it-yourself furniture stimulates the tendency of purchasing furniture through internet shopping. On-line furniture sales system was attempted by a small-scale ? rm at the beginning, but large furniture suppliers soon after jumped on to the on-line market band wagon without hesitation (The Korea Economic Da ily, 2007, July 16). This study is intended to ? d out the factors of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty by exploring the characteristic of the users regarding customer satisfaction and customer loyalty of the furniture purchasers in the internet shopping mall, and then reviewing the literature on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, conducting empirical research through statistical data obtained from questionnaire survey by establishing model and hypothesis after reviewing the literature on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in order to discover the characteristic that appeared through the user’s purchase of furniture. . Theoretical backgrounds 2. 1 Internet shopping mall Internet shopping allows the purchaser to search and survey the information on service or product by accessing internet shopping site through internet in remote place instead of retail shop as a physical space, and then enables to select or order the goods, and ultimately pay the mone y using credit card to purchase the goods/services (Ruth, 2000). It is de? ed as the collective concept of on-line shops having the products in a variety of lines where advertisement and exhibition of the products for internet shopping is carried out through electronic shopping mall, server is equipped with data like prices, structures, characteristics of various products, webpage provides information on the product together with multi-media information (Hoffman and Novak, 1996). Internet shopping mall is characterized by connecting producer directly with ? al end-user while traditional off-line market comprises four steps from producer through ? nal consumer. In addition, it is rarely restricted by time/space, and easy to acquire information from customer. Traditional commercial transaction requires a large amount of investment to maintain ? xed assets and human resource, while e-commerce requires investment mainly for system installation only. Besides, in terms of advertisement, p romotion, etc. owing to conversion to two-way from the existing one-way, it is changed into the style of one-to-one connection with customer. . 2 Furniture industry The structure of Korea’s furniture industry is driven to domestic demand while Taiwan to export market. Therefore, the industry is very weak in its management foundation owing to extremely ? erce competition within the same industrial circle, generalized phenomenon of design being imitated and the subsequent deterioration of pro? tability, etc. In addition, because of insuf? cient timber source at home, the industry depends on import from Indonesia, etc. for 95 percent of major raw materials such as plywood for furniture production, etc. Domestic furniture industry has structural problems in both design and distribution sectors. Especially, in distribution sector, attacked by aggressive merchants who seek unlawful deals with low-price sale, general tax payers A study on customer satisfaction 147 AJQ 11,2 148 with sincerity tend to lose their competition foundation, and furthermore event companies or representatives hold their own discount sales ruthlessly, disturbing domestic distribution order, resulting in sharp drop of quality and subsequent damage to the consumers. Accordingly, it is necessary to develop our furniture business circle again in such a manner of reinforcing production foundation centered on own specialized product of each while expediting cooperative relationship with professional companies for the other non-specialized products, and thus it is needed to establish production and operation strategy under new system, and then reinforce the competitiveness in price and distribution. 2. 3 Service quality Service means an intangible activity or bene? provided by the services provider to customer, which can be tangible product and something that is added to intangible service, or in an independent form (Kotler, 1991). With regard to the nature of service, there exist some different opinions among the researchers, but service is known to have four properties; being intangible, inseparability of production and consumption, heterogeneity, and perishability (Parasuraman et al. , 1985). The concept of service quality can be represented in different way depending on aspect and approaching method. Especially, service quality has a aspect emphasized by subjective assessment recognized by each individual customer rather than that examined objectively being dif? cult to measure owing to its specialty. Generally, the de? nition of quality varies depending on the methods of approach driven to transcendental experience, product, manufacture, value, and user (Garvin, 1984). Parasuraman et al. 1985, hereinafter â€Å"PZB†) de? ned cognitive service quality, aside from objective quality, is a type of attitude â€Å"that is the comparison between consumer’s recognition of the result of service provided by the corporation and the expectation of consumer that should be provided by the corporation in their opinion†. Accordingly, cognitive service quality was observed through the degree and direction of the difference existing between consumer’s recognit ion and expectation (Woo-seong, 2006). According to PZB, although there exists the difference of relative importance that assess the service quality depending on service types, there exists basically similar assessment criteria, and therefore the service quality observation system developed by them is the decisive factor of service quality that may be generally applied to service industry. Since then, Parasuraman et al. (1988) discovered that there exist correlation among ten decisive factors of service quality that were examined from Parasuraman et al. 1985) conducted against the corporations such as machinery repair and maintenance, bank, long-distance telephone company, credit card company, and security broker. Finally, they named SERVQUAL for it by combining ? ve factors (tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy). SERVQUAL can be also measured by gap score between the score of consumer’s performance recognition and score of expectation. Five dimensions comprising SERVQUAL and the descripti on of each dimension is as shown in Table I. As a result of reviewing the precedent research on the service quality of on-line shopping mall, it was found that the study on the satisfaction with loyalty and consumer satisfaction as result of the service quality of on-line shopping mall was conducted in such a manner that the property of on-line shopping mall was re? ected in the existing service quality dimensions to develop the dimension of on-line shopping mall service quality. 2. 4 Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty 2. 4. 1 Customer satisfaction. In the study on customer’s satisfaction/dissatisfaction, there exists inconsistency concerning its concept among the researchers, and a variety of attempts are carried out in its measurement. The de? nition of customer satisfaction can be divided into two; de? nitions driven to outcome and driven to process (Lee, 1995). From the aspect driven to outcome, customer satisfaction is conceptualized as the result of consumption experience such as the recognition felt by customer that the price paid is rewarded in proper or improper manner, emotional reaction against the retail shop or purchasing behavior related with purchased speci? product or service, or emotional reaction against the behavior in wider meaning such as consumer’s behavior or the market on the whole, comprehensive mental state that occurs when the emotion due to inconsistent expectation is combined with the emotion prior to the customer’s experience of purchase. The aspect driven to process is useful i n that it generalizes the whole consumption experience, and it enables to examine an important process that reaches customer satisfaction through the measure of observing unique elements at each stage (Oliver, 1981). Internet shopping mall is a web site in virtual space in the name of internet. Chen and Wells (1999), in measuring the attitude to the web site, suggested three aspects; informativeness that shows the degree of usefulness of information provided by web site to the visitor, entertainment of web site that shows the degree on how it meets emotional necessity and desire of the visitor, and organization of web site that shows the degree on how it provides the visitor’s desired information and product/service in convenient and prompt way. 2. 4. 2 Customer loyalty. Typically, customer loyalty means the property of customer to repeatedly purchasing speci? c subject (brand, product, service, shop, etc. with affection regardless of the change in the circumstance (Jacoby and Chesnut, 1978; Oliver and Swan, 1989). There are the variables for measuring customer loyalty such as devotion into speci? c subject, repurchase intention, and intention to recommend to others, etc. (Reichheld, 1993). Especially, customer loyalty is known to arise from the result of customer sa tisfaction in general. Customer loyalty in on-line can be de? ned the tendency of customer to keep on using speci? c web site with affection (Anderson and Srinivasan, 2003). Customer with high loyalty is supposed to keep a speci? web site with him/her using bookmark function, frequently visit it, and show high site adhesion with high detention time. In addition, Dimension Tangibles Reliability Responsiveness Assurance Empathy De? nition Physical facility, equipment, outlook of employee Ability to perform the committed service in reliable and correct manner Will of assisting the customer and providing quick service to the customer Knowledge, courtesy, ability of the employees that give rise to reliability and assurance Careful concern and individual interest in the customer A study on customer satisfaction 149 Table I. Five types of SERVQUAL AJQ 11,2 they are very friendly with the site, and positively promote or recommend it to the others. The customers of high customer loyalty like this is very possible to purchase the goods from that site, and tends to consistently purchase again from that site in spite of positive marketing activity by other sites (Anderson and Srinivasan, 2003). 3. Design of research 3. 1 Research model and establishment of research hypothesis This study aims for reviewing service quality measure suggested in the existing literature on service quality, newly applying it to on-line services environment, and then ? nding out the in? ence of service quality in internet shopping mall on customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and repurchase intention as well as in which dimension they are built up. Therefore, research model for empirical analysis was established as Figure 1 based on the result of precedent research. As research model, based on the results of previous studies; Lee and Lin (2005), Lee (2 006), Jeon (2006), etc. the dimension of on-line service quality were suggested to ? nd out its in? uences on customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and repurchase intention: H1. Product diversity of service quality in on-line shopping mall will have positive (? in? uence. H2. Tangibles of service quality in on-line shopping mall will have positive (? ) in? uence. H3. Responsiveness of service quality in on-line shopping mall will have positive (? ) in? uence. H4. Interaction of service quality in on-line shopping mall will have positive (? ) in? uence. H5. Stable service quality in on-line shopping mall will have positive (? ) in? uence. H6. Customer satisfaction with service quality in on-line shopping mall will have positive (? ) in? uence on customer loyalty. Service quality Product driversity H1 Tangibles H2 H3 H4 Interaction H5 Customer satisfaction H6 Customer loyalty 50 Responsiveness Figure 1. Research model Stability 3. 2 Method of research In this study, the questionnai re survey was targeted against the customers aged from 20s to 50s who had experience of purchasing furniture from on-line shopping mall. To accomplish the purpose of research, questionnaire survey was carried out for approximately ten days from August 6, 2009 to August 15, 2009. Total 140 questionnaire sheets were collected out of 150 distributed to the subject. Among 140 sheets collected, 131 were adopted except nine returned deemed to be answered with insincerity. In this study, survey was targeted to the persons who purchased the products in furniture category 1 made of steel or wood available in on-line shopping mall. 4. Empirical analysis 4. 1 Reliability analysis In this study, in order to measure reliability, Cronbach’s a coef? cient – internal consistency analysis – was used. The reason of adopting Cronbach’s a coef? cient was to enhance variable reliability by sorting out the items affecting reliability and then ruling out those variables when several items were used to measure the same concept. Normally, it proves to be suf? cient when Cronbach’s a coef? cient appears at least 0. 6, and therefore reliability coef? cient on each variable was suggested in Table II to show reliability for each item. 4. 2 Validity analysis In this study, the result of exploratory factor analysis on service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in deriving the factors that in? uences on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty of furniture purchaser in the case of on-line shopping mall as shown in Table III. As result of factor analysis, product diversity of service quality, tangibles of service quality, responsiveness of service quality, interaction of service quality, stable service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty were classi? ed to be the factors, and the variable to be excluded being less than 0. 5 in factor loading did not appear. 4. 3 Testing of hypothesis To test the hypothesis, analysis of correlation among variables and multiple regression analysis between antecedent and dependent variables were carried out. Multiple regression analysis normally aims for estimating one dependent variable from the knowledge of several variables. Accordingly, this would enable to ? nd out the In? uencing variable acting on the use of internet shopping mall Product diversity of service quality Tangibles of service quality Responsiveness of service quality Interaction of service quality Stable service quality Customer satisfaction Customer loyalty Cronbach’s a coef? cient 0. 827 0. 773 0. 829 0. 843 0. 758 0. 739 0. 917 A study on customer satisfaction 151 Table II. Result of reliability analysis AJQ 11,2 Factor Product diversity Component Variable Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4 Factor 5 Factor 6 Factor 7 sv1 sv2 sv3 st1 st2 st3 st4 sr1 sr2 sr3 sr4 sc1 sc2 sc3 sc4 ss1 ss2 ss3 cs1 cs2 cs3 cr1 cr2 cr3 0. 840 0. 770 0. 791 0. 129 0. 087 0. 028 0. 419 0. 145 0. 161 0. 113 0. 071 0. 264 2 0. 011 0. 189 0. 104 0. 329 0. 170 0. 187 0. 466 0. 363 0. 269 0. 180 0. 180 2 0. 027 0. 066 0. 238 0. 123 0. 820 0. 851 0. 772 0. 667 0. 231 0. 160 0. 104 0. 048 0. 175 0. 166 0. 162 0. 304 0. 019 0. 139 0. 069 0. 111 0. 109 0. 141 0. 019 20. 006 0. 006 0. 138 0. 146 0. 114 0. 113 0. 135 0. 195 0. 045 0. 707 0. 712 0. 801 0. 810 0. 075 0. 157 20. 040 0. 321 0. 299 0. 83 0. 134 20. 001 0. 141 0. 221 0. 213 0. 203 20. 024 0. 103 20. 056 0. 181 0. 052 0. 192 0. 112 0. 153 0. 263 0. 359 0. 086 0. 041 0. 682 0. 780 0. 807 0. 649 0. 315 0. 172 0. 125 0. 197 0. 089 0. 042 0. 035 0. 065 20. 023 0. 011 0. 129 0. 219 0. 225 0. 133 0. 205 0. 026 2 0. 095 2 0. 105 0. 221 0. 198 0. 167 0. 111 0. 168 0. 255 0. 573 0. 838 0. 854 2 0. 042 2 0. 219 2 0. 106 2 0. 154 2 0. 138 2 0. 263 0. 003 0. 172 0. 202 0. 227 0. 134 0. 190 0. 041 20. 059 20. 072 0. 208 0. 172 0. 221 0. 199 0. 261 0. 303 0. 279 0. 169 0. 099 0. 634 0. 751 0. 844 0. 091 0. 120 0. 004 0. 065 0. 109 0. 090 20. 097 0. 068 20. 015 0. 163 0. 05 0. 102 20. 079 20. 288 0. 254 0. 269 0. 233 0. 253 0. 233 20. 031 20. 014 20. 050 20. 024 20. 091 0. 808 0. 834 0. 545 152 Tangibles Responsiveness Interaction Stability Customer satisfaction Customer loyalty Table III. Result of factor analysis Notes: Extraction method: principal component analysis; rotation method: varimax with Kaiser normalization; rotation converged in six iterations strategy of enhancing customer satisfaction and customer loyalty by grasping which factors in? uence on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty of furniture purchaser in on-line shopping mall, and to which degree it has in? uence if so. In carrying out regression analysis, it may produce wrong interpretation if independent variables are not mutually independent or regression coef? cients are estimated incorrectly. In other words, there could exist the problem of multi-collinearity. In order to conduct the test for equal variance and normality that are the premise of multiple regression analysis, testing of multi-collinearity was carried out. Pearson’s correlation was used in the analysis of correlation, which shows there exist no problem of multi-collinearity (Table IV). 4. 3. 1 Testing of hypothesis between customer satisfaction and antecedent variable. As the antecedent factor of customer satisfaction, diversity of service quality, tangibles of service quality, responsiveness of service quality, interaction of service quality, and stable service quality were set up, and then multiple regression analysis was conducted to test the in? uence on customer satisfaction (Table V). Table VI is the result of analysis on the signi? cance for individual variables. Each b coef? cient appeared 0. 361 for diversity of service quality, 0. 526 for tangibles of service quality, 0. 364 for responsiveness of service quality, 0. 486 for interaction of service quality, and 0. 32 for stable service quality. Standardized regression coef? cient (b) that represents Constructive concept Diversity Tangibles Responsiveness Interaction Stability Customer satisfaction Customer loyalty Customer Customer Diversity Tangibles Responsiveness Interaction Stability satisfaction loyally 1 0. 201 * * 0. 125 * 0. 256 * * 0. 534 * * 0. 361 * * 0. 431 * * 1 0. 075 0. 601 * * 0. 512 * * 0. 526 * * 0. 367 * * A study on customer satisfaction 153 1 0. 219 * * 0. 438 * * 0. 364 * * 0. 547 * * 1 0. 608 * * 0. 486 * * 0. 249 * * 1 0. 332 * * 0. 341 * * 1 0. 236 * * 1 Notes: Correlation coef? cient is signi? cance at *0. 05 and * *0. 1 levels, respectiviely, at both sides; n ? 131 Table IV. Correlation matrix of constructive concepts R2 0. 487 Adjusted R 2 0. 476 F-value 50. 647 F-signi? cance 0. 000 Durbin-Watson 2. 016 Table V. ANOVA Independent variable (Constant) Diversity Tangibles Responsiveness Interaction Stability Unstandardized coef? cients b SE 2 0. 005 0. 361 0. 526 0. 364 0. 486 0. 332 0. 041 0. 061 0. 098 0. 057 0. 060 0. 054 Standardized coef? cients b 0. 360 0. 518 0. 375 0. 497 0. 356 T 20. 073 8. 053 12. 438 8. 215 10. 573 7. 663 Signi? cance probability 0. 292 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 0. 000 Note: Dependent variable: customer satisfaction Table VI. Multiple regression analysis between customer satisfaction and antecedent variable importance of regression coef? cient appeared 0. 360 for diversity of service quality, 0. 518 for tangibles of service quality, 0. 375 for responsiveness of service quality, 0. 497 for interaction of service quality, and 0. 356 for stable service quality. In the result of analysis, absolute value of beta coef? cient for tangibles of service quality appeared large and therefore, it is deemed to be the variable of best explanation of all. F-value of regression model was 50. 647 (? 0. 000) proved to be of signi? cance, and Durbin-Watson value was 2. 16 (close to 2) deemed to satisfy the assumption of independence. As result of testing, the coef? cient of determination (R 2) – one of the measures that show the adequacy of regression estimated from sample data to the observed value appeared 0. 476. Therefore, 47. 6 percent of variation on customer satisfaction that was the dependent variabl e as result of regression analysis was well explained by antecedent variables. AJQ 11,2 154 Thus, ? ve factors such as diversity of service quality, tangibles of service quality, responsiveness of service quality, interaction of service quality, and stable service quality were found to directly in? ence on customer satisfaction at a signi? cant level. 4. 3. 2 Testing of hypothesis between customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. F-value of regression model was 38. 763 (? 0. 000) proved to be signi? cant, and Durbin-Watson value was 1. 912 (close to 2). Therefore, it is deemed to satisfy the assumption of independence (Table VII). The coef? cient of determination ( ) was 0. 212, and therefore 21. 2 percent of variation on customer satisfaction that was a dependent variable as a result of regression analysis. That is, customer loyalty is explained by customer satisfaction, and it was found to directly in? ence on customer loyalty at a signi? cant level (Table VIII). 5. Conclusion T his study aimed for analyzing the in? uence on customer loyalty exerted by product diversity, tangibles, responsiveness, interaction, stability, and customer satisfaction that are suggested as service quality factor felt by furniture purchaser in internet shopping mall. The result is as follows. First, as result of exploring the factors in internet shopping mall service quality which in? uence customer satisfaction, it was proved product diversity, tangibles, responsiveness, interaction, and stability have positive in? ence on internet shopping mall customer satisfaction. As on-line shopping mall market reaches maturity, it is thought time-saving is the main reason for the customer to prefer internet shopping, and the shopping malls focus on their service on such needs. Second, as for the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty concerning internet shopping mall service quality, more satisfaction with internet shopping mall appeared to have more positive in? u ence on customer loyalty. In result, it seems that the consumer satis? ed with internet shopping mall can keep consistent relation with internet shopping mall in future. As aforementioned, the result of this study shows that excellent service quality of internet shopping mall operator becomes the factors that can improve the competitiveness of shopping mall, and furthermore the internet shopping mall could R Table VII. ANOVA 0. 216 Adjusted 0. 212 F-value 38. 763 F-signi? cance 0. 000 Durbin-Watson 1. 912 Independent variable Table VIII. Multiple regression analysis on customer loyalty (Constant) Customer loyalty Unstandardized coef? cients b SE 2 0. 002 0. 236 0. 052 0. 051 Standardized coef? cients b 0. 238 T 20. 036 5. 603 Signi? ance probability 0. 962 0. 000 Note: Dependent variable: customer loyalty raise customer loyalty if they would improve service quality consistently to get satisfaction from the customers. Although this study was carried out against actual furniture purchaser in selecting the samples, it reached the limit in considering the diversity of internet shopping mall, and sorting into on-line and off-line concurrent shopping mall and internet exclusive shopping mall. Thus, a further study needs to be done to ? nd the aforementioned area. References Anderson, R. E. and Srinivasan, S. S. (2003), â€Å"E-satisfaction and e-loyalty: a contingency framework†, Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 20. Chen, Q. and Wells, W. D. (1999), â€Å"Attitude toward the site†, Journal of Advertising Research, September-October. Garvin, D. A. (1984), â€Å"What does product quality really mean? †, SLoan Management Review, Vol. 26, Fall. Hoffman, D. L. and Novak, T. P. (1996), â€Å"Marketing in hypermedia computer-mediated environments: conceptual foundations†, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 60. Jacoby, J. and Chesnut, R. W. (1978), Brand Loyalty Measurement Management, Wiley, New York, NY. Jeon, H. -B. 2006), â€Å"Research about quality of service of cybermall†, Industry Management Research, Vol. 29. (The) Korea Economic Daily (2007), The Korea Economic Daily, July 16. Kotler, P. (1991), Marketing Management, 5th ed. , Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Lee, G. -G. and Lin, H. -F. (2005), â€Å"Customer perceptions of e-service quality in online shop ping†, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 33. Lee, J. -S. (2006), â€Å"Effect research that quality of service factor importance by service type gets in customer satisfaction†, Is Service Management Learned Society, Vol. No. 1. Lee, Y. -J. (1995), â€Å"Research on justice and measurement of customer satisfaction†, Management Symposium, Vol. 29. Oliver, R. L. (1981), â€Å"Measurement and evaluation of satisfaction processes in retail settings†, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 57. Oliver, R. L. and Swan, J. E. (1989), â€Å"Customer perception of interpersonal equity and satisfaction in transactions: a ? eld survey approach†, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 53, April. Parasuraman, A. , Zeithaml, V. A. and Berry, L. L. (1985), â€Å"A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research†, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 9, pp. 41-50. Parasuraman, A. , Zeithaml, V. A. and Berry, L. L. (1988), â€Å"SERVQU AL: a multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality†, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 64. Reichheld, F. F. (1993), â€Å"Loyalty-based management†, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 71. Ruth, C. (2000), â€Å"Applying a modi? ed technology acceptance model to determine factors affecting behavior intention to adopt electronic shopping on the world wide web: a structural equation modeling approach†, doctoral thesis, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. Woo-seong, L. 2006), â€Å"The effects of service quality on customer loyalty in online shopping mall†, Master’s thesis, Sejong University, Seoul. A study on customer satisfaction 155 AJQ 11,2 Further reading Gefen, D. and Straub, D. W. (2000), â€Å"The relative importance of perceived ease of use in IS adoption: a study of e-commerce adoption†, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Vol. 1. About the authors Yongju Jeong is graduated from Korea National Open Univ ersity. He is also graduated in MA from University of Incheon and doing PhD in University of Incheon. Yongju Jeong is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email  protected] net Yongsung Lee is graduated from the Department of Administration, University of Incheon. He is also graduated in Information and Communication Engineering, University of Incheon. He received his Master of Business Administration from University of Incheon Admission. 156 To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: [email  protected] com Or visit our web site for further details: www. emeraldinsight. com/reprints

Environment Human Health

A few solutions that has already been implemented is recycling (the reduce and reuse affect), use sees chemicals such as coal, or gasoline, and to educate more people about what is going on with our planet. When did our planet create recycling? Recycling dates back to BBC to current day. Over the centuries we have grown and matured in how to recycle. This includes how we collect rainwater to how we dispose of our bowels. During and after the World War II, the United States became more involved in recycling.Instead of constantly dumping waste into landfills or into our water source we started to make our oils and gasoline more economically safe. In our gasoline and oils we took out chemical that killed most children and that chemical was lead. Lead was very common in homes dated before the late ass's. It was used in paint. Most children are attracted to color and are prone to putting things into their mouths. In older homes when paint started to chip and children saw it they would pul l it and put it into their mouths.This caused a lot of deaths and poisonings. The United States helped to reduce this by banning the use of lead paint in the early ass's late ass's (Wendy Koch LISA, Today 5/18/2012). In order to inform our nation of what was happening to young children, we had o educate them. The United States communities have provided education programs that are active in the community to help establish problems such as the lead poisonings and air pollution.Problems such as this will only be addressed to areas where resources such as television, Internet or newspapers are available. If a country lacks these supplies they will not know what can harm them or what is harming our planet. This video The Link between Air Pollution, Lead Poisoning and Aggressive Behaviors stood out to me the most because this is something that concerns me the most. The fact that a lot of people around the globe are not educated about what happens in our environment can become detrimental to our planet.

Coopers Business Case Essay

1. Introduction Coopers Brewery has had a successful journey from its humble beginnings to it third tier position in duopolistic competing market. Coopers has not existed without its share of disturbances and risk of been taken over by a larger global player, however Coopers managed to defend itself. Coopers has positioned itself in a highly competitive market with a differentiated brand and product that has captured a niche market. Coopers has also successfully integrated a high value chain which in turn captures the essence of Coopers at the same time delivering value at multiple stages. In order for Coopers to stay competitive in the future, Cooper’s differentiation strategy can translate into new emerging markets and changing customer tastes for beer and deliver beer to new niche market segment. 2. Company Background Established in 1862 by Thomas Cooper, Coopers is a 5th generation family owned business that manufactures and sells beer, home brew and malt extract. In 1997, the business purchased a $40 million state of the art manufacturing, bottling and distribution plant in Regency Park South Australia. With advanced robotics and a commitment to an eco friendly plant and processes to reduce their carbon footprint, Coopers has never lost sight of their mission. Mission Statement: Coopers mission statement for its beer as stated in the case study was â€Å"to  provide natural beverages and food ingredients which satisfy tastes and nutritional needs, and create enjoyment† (Hubbard 2008, pg7) 3. Company Analysis – Porters five Forces To assess the competitive landscape and to understand where Coopers Brewery is positioned a number of assessment models or framework can be used. To assess Coopers Brewery current competitive position Porters five forces model (see Appendix 2) can be used to analyse its current state. a) Threat of the new entrants is Low. There are two types of operations i. one is the craft-brewing , also known as miro-brewing, market and the other ii. Large scale production. Entry in the Craft-brewing is somewhat increasing, however larger scale production requires large capital outlay and continuous investment whilst been maintained by significant cash flow (Kaczanowska 2010). In addition incumbent beer producers are known to the consumers due the history and the accumulated advertising of the brand. This high cost for brand awareness creates a barrier for new players (Kaczanowska 2010). Imported products are present although the threat to the Australian market appears low. b) Threat of substitute products: This can be described as medium for the beer industry. There are always beer substitutes such as wine, ready to drink mixers and soft drinks to name a few. Increasingly health-conscious and knowledgeable consumers are looking at higher quality products (Kaczanowska 2010). This can be reflected in the trend toward craft and premium beers. c) Bargaining power of buyers is Medium: Brand loyalty is strong among beer consumers as appose to wine consumers (Richardson 2012). Richardson (2012, pg 24) summed this up as â€Å"Wine consumers are driven by choice rather than loyalty and wine brands are easily substituted, but beer is a branded product and consumers drink the label.† However consumers are price sensitive and may switch to another brand if the situation is presented. d) Bargaining power of the suppliers Medium: Raw Material is the largest cost to breweries. IBISWorld estimate approximately 58.3% of industry revenue (Kaczanowska 2010), these raw materials include, cardboard boxes, glass, aluminium, packaging. Other Raw materials would include sugar, malt, hops, wheat, rice, water, barley all of which are critical ingredients for brewing. All of which have a supply risk, which in turn can have a direct impact on the cost of the supplies good. Coopers have initiated some efforts to reduce some of these risks such as: i. Water supply to the operations is from a deep aquifer, ii. Power supplied by a Gas co-generated turbine iii. Chemical and Preservative Free iv. Waste minimisation e) Rivalry among existing organisation is medium but increasing. There are three main players in the Australian beer market, Foster’s and Lion Nathan with Coopers being in third place, by market share (see Appendix 1). Foster’s and Lion Nathan are both Global conglomerates with Coopers being the Family owned Australian brewer. It could be said that Coopers is the David to the two goliaths being Foster’s and Lion Nathan (Byrom and Lehman 2009). i. Price-based rivalry: Pricing does have a part to play in rivalry, however price wars in not evident in this segment. ii. Non-priced based rivalry: The beer industry sits primarily in this space, where each company focus’s efforts in branding, packaging and quality to target their demographic. iii. Product differentiation: Cooper has a unique or niche market segment (Byrom and Lehman 2009) based on a Family owned and distinctive â€Å"cloudy† beer. In addition to the beer portfolio Coopers also has major interests in Home Brew kits and Malt extraction and has about 80% of the kit market (Byrom and Lehman 2009). Porter (1985) suggests that having a differentiated product strategy does not necessarily equate to high market share, this can been seen in the competitive market share analysis as seen in the appendix figure 1. However a point of differentiation can be replaced or replicated by a competing company and may reduce the competitive advantage Coopers currently has in the market. Continuous competitive analysis is needed to keep this a differentiated strategy. 4.Coopers Value Chain The value chain model as described by Porter (1985) indicates that gaining a competitive advantage, an organisation focuses efforts to the internal activities of the value chain and attempt to strength these activities to  add to the competitiveness of the firm. Coopers Brewery value chain could be reflected in the below diagram; Source: ISO case study 2013 Coopers have made improvements in some of the value chain as seen in the case study, malt extraction for resale, Machinery and new processing operations to brew beer in the bottle or the keg rather than the tank without preservatives and chemicals. Water supply from deep aquifers with sale extract and then reuse of salt in the brewing process. Energy, having their own power generation system that feeds non-used emery back into the grid. Coopers use energy efficient lighting to reduce consumption. These improvements form part of the value chain activities that add to Coopers achieving a competitive advantage in the market. There are many parts to the value chain as reflected in Appendix 4 (Porters Value Chain model) and efforts to manage and maintain each element is ideal. However a strategic view and focus may harness high results, it is suggested that aligning value chain efforts with the core direction of the business. In Cooper’s case by having a differentiation strategy efforts should be aligned with this strategy including product innovation, R&D and quality. 4. Current position Positioning in this paper refers to the Porters model of â€Å"Three Generic Strategies† (1985). Cooper’s can be recognised as Differentiation in the Porters model, seen in Appendix 5. In this cluster Coopers can easily differentiate itself from its competitors. Cooper’s has an Australian History with a family heritage that still exists today, additionally having a product that has a distinctive cloudy appearance separates itself from the globalised conglomerates in the Australian beer industry. Coopers leverages this differentiator and applies this to marketing campaigns. 5. Future direction for Coopers To suggest and recommend future options to Coopers, a reflection of Cooper’s mission statement â€Å"to provide natural beverages and food ingredients which satisfy tastes and nutritional needs, and create enjoyment† (Hubbard 2008, pg7). This mission statement can be used for the future direction of the  business, as marketed as a family owned business and continue to capture the premium niche market it is positioned in. The future has a changing landscape with regards to consumer’s tastes, Cooper’s also captures taste in the mission statement. With the changing taste and desire of Generation Y consumers, Coopers competitive edge could be erode by imported premium beers and or the emergence of micro breweries that specialise in premium craft beers. Options can be summarised as follows: Continue to leverage the Family owned business brand. Exporting the unique beer overseas Continually improving the value chain and seek further opportunities to capture value. Continually focusing on changing consumer tastes and reviewing whether or not to compete in those markets. This will create new product life cycles, in a declining market (Nwabueze 2001). The future challenge for Coopers would be identifying new market opportunities, both on product and geographic level, whilst still achieving the family ownership which has been seen as an advantage since Coopers started. 6. APPENDI XES Appendix 1: Competitive Market Share Australia and South Australia. Appendix 2: Porters Five Forces Model Source:Harvard Business Review(Porter 2008) Appendix 3: Beer production Value Chain: Source: (ISO 2013) Appendix 4: Appendix 5: Source: (Porter 2008) 7. Refeneces Byrom, John, and Kim Lehman. 2009. â€Å"Coopers Brewery: Heritage and Innovation within a Family Firm.† Marketing Intelligence & Planning 27 (4): 516-523. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02634500910964074. Hubbard, Graham. 2008. â€Å"Coopers Brewery.† IVEY. Business. The University of Western Ontario. The University of Western Ontario. ISO. 2013. â€Å"Baltika Breweries-Economic Benefits of Standards -Case Study.† ISO ORG. http://eng.baltika.ru/. Kaczanowska, Agata. 2010. Beer Production in the Us. IBISWorld Industry Report 31212, http://www.ibisworld.com.au/. Nwabueze, Uche. 2001. â€Å"The Journey for Survival: The Case of New Product Development in the Brewery Industry.† JOURNAL OF PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGEMENT 10 (6): 382-397. http://www.mcbup.com/research_registers. Porter, M. E. 1985. Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. New York: Free Press, https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Competitive+advantage%3A+Creating+and+sustai ning+superior+performance&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb&gfe_rd=cr&ei=eAyoU5j-Gs3C8ge9v4DACA. Porter, Michael. 2008. The Five Forces That Shape Strategy. Harvard Business Review. http://hbr.org/2008/01/the-five-competitive-forces-that-shape-strategy/ar/1. Richardson, David. 2012. The Liquor Industry. 14,