Trickster Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Trickster - Research Paper Example Events in the world are not so simple to distinguish and thus, the divisions of the oppressor and the oppressed, the victimiser and the victimised, are porous and these two categories often overlap. The coexistence of both categories within the same society often makes this porosity of categories inevitable and this shall be analysed while looking at the characters who seek to escape social boundaries and social restrictions through trickery, and usually earn a living through exploiting others. It is thus, not surprising that in many of these stories, the trickster belongs to non-white races and may often be women or belong to ambiguous sexual identities and orientations. Literature becomes a medium whereby writers seek to show the society how trickery becomes the only option that is available for a class of people who are unable to launch any open form of protest. The character of the trickster may in some cases, not even be human. It may be the society that plays tricks upon the co nsciousnesses of human beings and may also lead to the distortion of memories. Toni Morrison’s story, Recitatif, exemplifies this idea. It talks of the life of a child named Twylla. Twylla is raised for a while in a shelter home where she meets Roberta Fisk. She enters into a friendship with Roberta and sees how a deaf woman named Maggie is abused by the older girls of the shelter. The story of Maggie is told often through memories and often, the narrator of the story can be suspected of being an unreliable narrator. This feature of the story makes it impossible for the reader to identify what happened to the character of Maggie and the question remains whether she was victimized as a result of her being black. This ambiguity in the story points to the unseen character of the trickster in the story, memory. The memory of both Roberta and Twylla are shown to be unreliable and they serve the function of the traditional trickster (Morrison). The trickster, in a manner that is si milar, can also be the collective consciousness of a community. The clean environment of Harlem on Sundays makes the people believe that they are better off in life than they actually are, in the Langston Hughes’s poem, â€Å"Passing†. The real lack of economic resources and squalid manner of living makes these areas want to be like people of other areas that were economically better off. This is possible, according to Hughes, only by converting the collective imagination of the people into metaphoric tricksters (Hughes). In another work by Hughes â€Å"Who’s Passing for Who?† he describes his experience with a couple which seemed to be white. They later reveal that they are colored. While leaving Hughes, they say that they were white people trying to pass off as colored. In this story, the trickster couple serve to bring to the fore the racist assumptions that are made by both white and colored people. Both sets of people harbored prejudices that were de ep-rooted. The young black writers who are a part of the group that Hughes is with try to make themselves appear very knowledgeable. This is a consciously put on act that is aimed at impressing the white people. When they are told that the couple is colored, they end up being very friendly with them and they let their guard down. They then become more

Medication Errors, Safety, Prevention And Reporting Research Paper

Medication Errors, Safety, Prevention And Reporting - Research Paper Example Secondly, it is indicated that majority of hospitals suffer from shortage of medical practitioners. This puts a lot of pressure on the few who are employed to work in a given institution. There has been found a positive correlation between understaffing and medical errors. This therefore means medical errors can also be made by qualified and competent medical practitioners. Due to increased pressure in the working environment, doctors face mental and physical fatigue. This may interfere with their judgment when making prescriptions. Others face psychological and emotional instabilities due to this type of condition. Such health providers are not motivated to work. Mathematical proficiency is said to be play a big role when making medical prescriptions. Certain calculations need to be done by those given this responsibility. A study carried on 749 students in the United States indicated that most of them did not have these skills. Over 38% of them could not pass the elements of mathem atical proficiency (McCann 2011). This therefore demonstrates that some institutions of higher learning are to blame for admission of students who are not competent enough. Lack of these basic skills in mathematical proficiency culminates in gross errors while making prescriptions. Lack of exposure and quality education in most institutions has also been linked to medical errors. Medical students need to be guided by experienced medical practitioners before they can be allowed to carry out serious procedures. However, due to shortage of such supervisors, the students do not have time to learn and put theory to practice. Several institutions have also been blamed for providing substandard medical education. As a result,... As indicated above, most of the medical errors are committed due to the reduction in the number of doctors. It is imperative that the staff is increased to reduce pressure on those who are already employed. Shortage of doctors is a major problem not only in the developing nations but also in the developed ones such as the United States. The main aim of this will be to ensure that the workload of such medical practitioners reduces. This will make them more competent and motivated to work. In addition to that, it is imperative to offer more incentives to nurses. These are the lowly paid members in many countries despite the fact that they offer important services. Salaries for such people should be increased for the purpose of motivating them. Secondly, the government through the ministry of higher learning should embark on vetting institutions that offer medical causes. With most of those institutions offering poor education and experience for students, the government needs to step in and close such institutions. This is especially if such institutions are short on equipment necessary to facilitate medical education. Secondly, such medical students need to receive the best experiences during their internships. This is for the purpose of exposing them to the best medical practices that will make them more competent. Finally, medical students and newly employed medical practitioners should be taught on the importance of following the stipulated procedures and policies when carrying out their services.

Introduction Of Decision Making And Creativity Business Essay

Introduction Of Decision Making And Creativity Business Essay Decisions are the options made from two or more alternatives. McShane and Von Glinow (2010) defined that Decision making is a process of making choices among one or more alternatives with the intention of moving toward some desired state of affairs. Effective decision making involves identifying, selecting and applying the best alternatives. People need to use all available resources to predict the outcome of each option and based on the outcome to choose the best alternatives for the particular situation. In the real world, people usually do not follow the rational model to make decision because there are many undefined problem and ambiguous alternatives. For example, people usually simply find an acceptable solution to solve the problem rather than find the most suitable one. Hence, some decision makers probably make decision based on bounded rationality, emotion and intuition. Framing and heuristics are the judgments shortcuts that people used to simplify the decisions. Anchoring and adjustment, availability and representative are the three types of heuristics. People can make choices more effectively by systematically assessing alternatives. Scenario planning is a method that used to forecast possible future. Scenario planning can helps to make the best future decisions before they occur. Furthermore, people can evaluate decisions in an effective way such as find systematic sources, establish a present level to abandon the project, minimize escalation of commitment and involve several people in the decision evaluation process. In addition, some leaders or company also involve their employees in decision making. Leaders and company have limited ideas or knowledge to make the best decision. Thus, they need to rely on employees to solve the problem in a more effective way as employees may have more innovative and multiple alternatives. Improvements on decision quality, defining problem more quickly, better solutions generated are the benefits of employee involvement. McShane and Von Glinow (2010) defined that Creativity is the development of original ideas that make a socially recognized contribution. Creativity also is the process of creating unique ideas or products that are useful to the organizations. Creativity allows and encourages people to think out of the box, which produce innovative and unique ideas for a particular task. Preparation, incubation, insight and verification are the phases of the creative process. Preparation means studying the information and skills that related to the problem. Incubation assists divergent thinking which means reframing the problem in a distinctive way and creates different approaches to the problem. Insight refers to the ideas in a vague form. The idea is worked into a realistic form in the verification phases. Organizational factors such as freedom, resources, learning orientation, organizational support and more will affect the creativity ideas. It is also means that a comfortable and supportive work environment will helps the employees to improve and produce creative and unique ideas. Besides, redefine problem, associative play and cross pollination are the activities that use to encourage creativity. Lastly, creativity in decision making can be said that looking for the novel and unique ideas which the elements in the ideas are previously unseen. Background of NIKE, Inc. NIKE, Inc. is the world leader in athletic apparel, footwear, equipment and accessories. To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world is the mission of Nike. Converse, Inc., Nike Golf, Hurley International, LLC and Cole Haan are Nikes wholly owned subsidiaries. (NIKE, Inc., 2011) Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight have met each other in 1957. In 1962, both of them have become partner and form Blue Ribbon Sports. They pledged $1000 and place order of 300 pairs of shoes in 1964. The first Blue Ribbon Sports retail store opened in Santa Monica, California in 1966. Bowerman and Knight have design and manufacture their own brands of athletic shoes. In 1972, the new Nike line of footwear was introduced and Field Trials were held in Eugene, Oregon. Blue Ribbon Sports was later changed to NIKE, Inc. in 1978. Nike Air Technology in Tailwind running shoes was born in 1979. In 1980, Nike becomes a publicly traded company. Nike had lost their position as industry leader in the middle of 1980. In 1987, Nike designed to regain the industry leader by using marketing and advertising campaign and differentiate Nike from its competitors. Nike build reputation by create inspiring ads with Just Do It as slogan in 1988. In 1990 to 1999, Nike had signed several individual players and national teams around the world and began to design footwear and apparel for golf and soccer. Now, Nike has continued to expand its business to China and become the official sponsor of the National Football League (NFL). 2.0 Content Decision making is a process of selecting from one or more alternatives with the purpose of moving toward some desired state of affairs. Moreover, decision making is a process that decision maker need to make choice from the available option or alternatives in order to achieve the organization goal or to arrive at a solution for a given problem. Decision plays an important role in the organization. If the decision maker does the wrong decision, it will influence the company productivity and profit. Therefore, the decision maker needs to do the rational choice decision. And decision maker can follow the rational choice decision process and do the right decision. First step is identifying the problem or opportunity. Decision maker needs to identify the problem or opportunity before do any decision. Problem is the gap between what is and what have to be. For example, there is a labor practices problem occurred in Nike as stated in Nike first Corporate Responsibility Report, after Nike identify and evaluate its problem and then they came up with ways to resolve the problem. Nike decided to increase training for both managers and employees in order to improve the productivity, reduce labor turnover and less sick leave. The decision made involved all level of the organization where the top management make the decision and the subo rdinates need to collaborate to achieve the companys goal. However the possible disadvantage of Nike to increase training for their current employees is that it can become very stressful to their employee. When an employee is stressed, their job performance goes down. Over-training in the workplace can be a waste of valuable resources such as training materials, hire or promote individuals to train their employees, and also need to pay for both the trainers and the trainees. During the extensive training sessions, employees may become bored and lose interest in what they are learning. Once an employee loses interest, much of the information being taught will not be retained and this will waste the employee time (Robertson). According to NIKE, Inc. (2011), Poor conceived overtime and sick leave policies can reduce employees work performance. If Nike does not regulate contracted overseas factories with overtime levels that are both required by local labor and health authorities, it can attract complaints from human rights organization as well as causing undue health problems to employees which can affect their work performance (Answers.com, 2012). Sick leave is a form of employment benefit in the form of paid time off for illness. However, Nike intends to increase productivity by initiating an Attendance incentives policy which encourage employees to attend for work but this may send the wrong message to the employees that attending to work even while they are sick would earn them credits. This can cause an employee to feel pressured to if they want to take sick leave even when they are seriously ill, which could result in significant health damage and increased health care costs for the company (Smith, 2013). Second step is choosing the best decision process. Decision process include programmed and non-programmed. Programmed is a decision that made in routine, repetitive, frequent decision and highly structured environment. In this decision making, they allow to set up a rule, policies and procedure to follow. In this decision making, they can follow standard operating procedures because of the highly structured environment. For example, to improve daily productivity, Nike has implemented lean manufacturing which is the foundation of how Nike enhances sustainable manufacturing. Lean manufacturing is a system and continuous enhancement that target to deliver the highest quality product while reducing waste. Lean manufacturing can empower workers and teams. A significant increase in satisfaction of workers in factories is found after lean manufacturing is implemented. The problem facing by Nike when implemented lean manufacturing is hard to get support from their employees to follow and take orders. This can sometimes be difficult to attain as some employees who is resistive to changes. Lean manufacturing system requires a complete overhaul of manufacturing systems that may cause personality clashes, stress and refusal by employees who prefer old ways of doing things especially the older employees. Thus, it possibly will cause conflict among others in the work group. Lean manufacturing training is a constant ongoing process, and when first starting out it will takes a lot of time and effort on everyones part (Manufacturing Info, 2010). The time investment required to implement lean manufacturing system throughout Nike is one of the drawback. Successful implementation requires the participation and support from employees throughout the company to guarantee that the cells integrate well with one another (Deiterich, 2013). Due to lean manufacturing system are dependent on supplier efficiency, any interruption in the supply chain on production can be a problem that negatively affects customers. Delays in delivery can cause long-lasting marketing problems that hard to overcome and may cause problem of customer dissatisfaction (Wood, 2013). On the other hand, non-programmed decision is unique decision that requires a custom made solution. In this decision making, they mostly deal with unstructured environment and incomplete information. This decision making cannot set up a rule, policies and procedure to follow because this decision making is infrequent decision and unstructured environment. To solve the non-programmed situation, Nike have spent more than 15 years to deal with the contract factories on the issues of worker rights and protections, wages, living conditions for workers and the environmental impacts of manufacturing processes. Nike is setting high expectations for workers, providing training and tools to help factories to meet those expectations and accessing their performance. This approach able to create baseline standards, improved oversight and helped factories to move beyond compliance. In this case, certain issues continue to arise. Issues such as overtime, working hours and associated wages have made up the majority of violations found by audits of apparel, footwear and equipment factories. Nike spends a lot of time and resources to deal with these types of issues in the factories that are poor performing, while having less time to engage with the factories that are high performance. Therefore, Nike have evolved their approach to build relationships with contract factories and developed a new manufacturing vision (NIKE, Inc., 2011). Third step is developed and identify alternatives. After identify the problem or opportunity, they need to do the research. For example, they need to find the solution that can solve the problem they have already identified. After this step, they need to choose the best alternative among one or more alternatives. Next step is implement choice. They can implement the choice in the problem or opportunity. Evaluate choice is the last step, which they need to evaluate the choice or the decision outcomes. For example, whether the gap has narrowed or not or whether the problem have solved or not. Nike is doing well in identifying alternatives. To support the lean manufacturing system, Nike has provided resources to contract factories to support their transition such as training, coaching and technical assistance. This shows that Nike not only depends on the formal procedure like lean manufacturing but also finding other alternatives to improve the productivity. Although the contracted factory (owner and top level management personnel of factory) are being supported by Nike (monetary and other expertise resource), however, operational workers may not receive the fair amount of support from Nike and operational employees are sometimes not recognized as a valuable part of the business value chain. Some workers are unfairly compensated in return for their work and this can lead to a low self-esteem, lack of morale and reduced in productivity (Wilsey Lichtig). Problem identification challenges include perceptual defense, stakeholder framing, decisive leadership, mental models and solution-focused problems. Perceptual defense is ignoring information that threatens their self- concept. Stakeholder framing is stakeholder try to persuade decision maker that interest to problem or opportunity not important. Decisive leadership is decision maker do the decision making without enough analyzing the data. Mental model is an assumption and expectation that prevent people seeing unique problem or opportunity. Solution- focused problem is straight to the solution rather than do the investigation, analysis or identify the problem. Creativity is developing an original idea that makes a socially recognized contribution. Creativity in decision making can help the company solve the problem and get the new and useful alternatives. Creative work environment can motivating the work, encourage experimentation, tolerate mistakes, open communication and sufficient resources. Creative process model include four steps. First is preparation. They need to know the problem and do the preparation such as find the information or do the research or learn some skills that help in creative. Next is incubation. They put the problem aside but mind still working on the background. Third is insight. Suddenly they become aware of unique idea. They see or hear something and cause them suddenly to have a new idea. Last is verification. In this step, they need to evaluate their idea is good or not or benefit or costly for the company. Nike is playing well in creativity either in the shoes design or advertising. The shoes designer need to design the shoes to do three visual dialogues that are attract consumers with iconic design, clean and simple, engage them with craft that is holistic and catch them with the idea. The idea of barefoot shoes that designed by Nike is impressively creative. Nike concerns on the structure of the foot. They did pressure testing on the high-end athletes about what they are doing to make themselves better and also discover that they are usually training barefoot. That is the idea of barefoot shoes came from. Nevertheless, Nike also come out with interesting advertisement and won the Creativity Best 2012 as both the television and print categories is one of the years most innovative advertisers. Employee involvement is the degree to which employee influence how their work is organized and carried out. Different levels have different forms of involvement. In the lowest level, they do not know what problem is about in the company so they do not make the recommendation. In the middle level, they know what problem is happen in the company and they will provide the recommendation to do the decision making. In the highest level, they make the entire decision making process. They need to choose the best alternative among one or more alternatives and implement the choice and evaluate the choice. Higher employee involvement is better when the employees have relevant knowledge beyond leader and can help the leader solve the problem. Most employees would lack commitment if they do not involve. Company need encourage their employee involve in the situation because higher employee involvement means higher commitment of employee. Nike involved all levels of the organization in decision ma king. For instance, top managers determine their organizations goals, what products and services to provide. And middle and lower managers determine the production schedules, select new employees and other routine practices. The disadvantages of moderated employee involvement within an organizations decision making process are too many lines of communication and the potential for inconsistent decision making. When more employees have decision making ability, more communication is needed to make certain that decisions are consistent across the organization. This consistency is significantly important to brand recognition and consistency. Managers may need a long time to monitor decisions and activities with employee involvement to protect against negative consequences and to control the potential for chaos (Kokemuller). 3.0 Recommendation The rational choice paradigm can make several assumptions about the human capacity to process information. One of assumptions which are decision makers can process information about all alternatives and their consequence but normally this is not possible to happen in reality. They only evaluate a few alternatives and some of the main outcomes of those alternatives as well as the Nike. There are some recommendations on how those assumptions that being used by Nike can be applied more effectively in the coming future. Postdecisional justification gives people an excessively optimistic evaluation of their decisions but in reality it will bring the objective feedback to the company. There are four main reasons which are self-justification, prospect theory effect, perceptual blinders and closing costs explained that why people poorly evaluated their decision outcomes. These reasons make escalation of commitment look irrational. The first recommendation for Nike is to minimize postdecisional justification and escalation of commitment. This will ensure that the people who made the original decision and people who later evaluate that decision are different. The self-justification effect can be minimized by this separation of roles due to the person responsible for evaluating the decision is not connected to the original decision. In addition, the Nike can publicly establish a preset level at which the decision is abandoned or reevaluated. It is similar to a stop-loss order in the stock market, whereby the stock is sold if it falls below a certain price. The problem with this solution is that the situations are always so complex. This is because it is very difficult to identify an appropriate point to abandon a project. The next suggestion for Nike is to looking for a source of systematic and clear feedback. For an example, the phenomenally large cost overruns at Scotlands new parliament building might have been smaller if let say the Scottish government had received less ambiguous or less distorted information from civil servants about the true cost of the project during the first few years. The escalation of commitment happened in Scotland because of they do not see the problems soon enough. Lastly, the Nike can try to improve their decision evaluation process by involving of more people in their own evaluation. Besides that, co-workers of Nike can continuously monitor each other and they might notice the problems sooner than someone working alone on the project. Employee involvement offers these and other benefits to the decision making process. So that, Nike can identify their problems, choose the best alternative and implement their decision with the knowledge and multiple perspectives of employees of company. Other than that, we recommend Nike to use Theory Y by Douglas McGregor (1960) to help their employees improve their working performance and distress due to over training. Theory Y emphasize on participative management style. This theory assumes that employees effort in work is as natural as play and work. They are self-motivated, enjoy their work a lot, self-direction and always seek for responsibility. Nike should motivate their potential employees and helps them to develop their skills and capacities. Appraisal method such as provide promotion opportunities to employees with good performance. Motivated employees are more willing to help organizations to achieve goals. According to Comms study (Puvanasvaran, A. P.), there are five best practiced components can be used to solve the problem of lean manufacturing which are environment change, leadership, culture, employee empowerment and communication. Nike should help the older employees to understand how lean manufacturing system work, try to communicate and share clear information with them so that they can understand their company goal. Nike can assign some employees to guide those employees who are not familiar with the process. Moreover, we also recommend Nike applies values drive behavior to motivate and handle the problem of operational workers who did not get their return fairly. The component of justice and fair guidance are needed. Nike managerial leaders should practice ethical behavior by locating organization resources fairly. Resources such as people, capital assets, money should treated and distribute fairly. They treat the workers equally by giving them the amount they deserved to get. Another component is love and kindness. Workers should be treated kindly. When their effort on the job is recognized, they will put more effort and contribute more to the organization. In such way, the operational workers will increase productivity and self-esteem. To solve the problems of inconsistent decision making, Nike should use appropriate team decision making strategy. Normally ideas of high status people or people who should loudest will get attention by other members. Therefore, we recommend Nike to use nominal group technique to solve prioritizing issues such as which resources are the best for company project. It is a technique where all the members brainstorm their ideas without interacting with each other and discuss one by once at the final stage. It is useful in providing effective framework in choosing best option or ranking priorities. 4.0 Conclusion McShane and Von Glinow (2010) defined that Decision making is a process of making choices among one or more alternatives with the intention of moving toward some desired state of affairs. People usually do not follow the rational model to make decision in the real world because there are many undefined problem and ambiguous alternatives. McShane and Von Glinow (2010) defined that Creativity is the development of original ideas that make a socially recognized contribution. Creativity allows and encourages people to think out of the box, which produce innovative and unique ideas for a particular task. NIKE, Inc. is the world leader in athletic apparel, footwear, equipment and accessories. They assist every athlete in developing motivation and creativity throughout the world with using and promoting their products and brand name. Decision making style of the founders of Nike, Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight has reflects the participative method in the company. Nike involved all levels of the organization in decision making. The employees who have relevant knowledge beyond leader and can help the leader solve the problem effectively. Furthermore, Nike is playing an important role in creativity which generates unique ideas or products that are valuable to the organizations. Neither in the product design nor advertising, Nike also has tried their best to exert unlimited creativity on it. The creative products and interesting advertisement that created by Nike has help them to produce sustained superior performance. Last, the integration of Nikes design, customer and marketing creates a strategy, which is effective and difficult for their competitors to imitate. Nike has provides clear objective and an environment, which promotes the development and sharing of innovative ideas throughout the world. (Total written words: 3785)

The Leaching Requirement During Irrigation Essay -- Soil Reclamation A

The Leaching Requirement During Irrigation The leaching of soluble salts from the plant rooting zone is a pivotal concern when irrigating cropland. Irrigation water is used to maintain crop productivity, so drought conditions need not occur to induce irrigation measures. Irrigation simply provides supplemental precipitation that may not be achieved through natural processes, i.e. rainfall. Basically, leaching is described as passing additional water through a medium to remove unwanted materials. This is usually achieved through two types of ponding. Additional water is pumped onto the soil surface and allowed to accumulate until surface ponding occurs. There are two mechanisms that perform this duty, continuous or intermittent ponding. Intermittent ponding, applying the excess water in intervals, is more favorable for milder climates where evaporation rates are low (NATO, 1994). Continuous ponding, applying all the water at once, may not be appropriate given geographical, climatic, or user-related constraints. Salts accumulate in the soil profile over time, therefore, leaching may serve as a form of soil â€Å"reclamation†. Normally, leaching curves are developed to determine the amount of water that may be actually required to reduce the initial soil salinity by a certain percentage (NATO, 1994). Although rainfall and the present soil already have saline concentrations, additional salts are added to the soil via irrigation water. Moisture is then extracted by the processes of evaporation and transpiration, and the salts begin to precipitate. Now, the salt balance of the soil profile changes: excessive salt concentrations are introduced without having adequate outlets. If located it the plant’s root zone, ... ... Sustainability, Vimieo, Portugal. Rhoades, J.D., J. Loveday (1990) Salinity in Irrigated Agriculture: Irrigation of Agricultural Crops, Agronomy #30, pp. 1107-1103. Schwab, G.O., D.O. Fangmeier, W.J. Elliot, and R.K. Frevert (1993) Soil and Water Conservation Engineering. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New York pp 395 United States Salinity Laboratory Staff, Richards, L.A. (ed) (1954) Diagnosis and Improvement of Saline and Alkali Soils, Agriculture handbook No. 60, United States Department of Agriculture pp 37 & 38. Water Quality Technical Committee of the Irrigation & Drainage Division of American Society of Civil Engineers (1990) ASCE Manuals and Reports on Engineering Practice #71, Agricultural Salinity Assessment and Management, pp243-247. Woodard, Guy O. (1969) Sprinkler Irrigation, Sprinkler Irrigation Association Editor’s Press, Maryland pp 125.

Ordering system Essay

Online Ordering Bookshop system is commonly used by most of the establishment. The group dedicated to convert the manual system into automated system because most of the establishments are now using automated system. In the present generation there are many instant ways on how to buy stuff. Going directly to the store is sometimes a hassle thing to do. You would feel disappointed if the product that you want is already out of stock. In order to lessen the inconvenience, most businesses implement an ordering system through phone, and through innovations of technology, some businesses today are engaging in an online ordering system to help them monitor their products easily and give their customers better service. There are still many businesses today which are not aware of what online technology to apply to their business. 1.2 Problem Statement A purchasing system is an important tool for businesses that can be critical for a healthy business operation. It primarily helps vendors to offer their products online, thus, reaching more possible customers. Considering the advantages of having an online purchasing system for stores, still a lot of businesses are not able to enjoy its benefits mainly because of costs from the development and maintenance of such systems. With this reality, only those big businesses are able to profit from this system, widening the gap of the competition. 1.3 Objectives of the Study 1.3.1 General Objective The goal is to develop an online business platform for book vendors and book enthusiasts. 1.3.2 Specific Objective To comply with the general objective, the study must accomplish the following: 1. To create a system that will register different book vendors and their products that will be available for sale online. 2. To create a system that would allow customers to browse, search and buy offered products. 3 Design a system that could generate reports for reference of parties involved. 2 1.4 Conceptual/Theoretical Framework The concept used is the Input-Process-Output (IPO) by Kenneth E. Kendall and Julie E. Kendall (1997) in their book entitled â€Å"SAD 3rd Edition(1997)† referred to as an overview diagram. InputProcessOutput Figure 1.0 Conceptual Framework Figure 1.0 show the theoretical framework that was followed in the development of the system. The input phase shows where the data and information was gathered. The process phase includes the analysis of the acquired information’s as well as the development, design and testing of the system. The output phase will be the proposed study. 3 1.5 Significance of the Study The proposed system will be beneficial to Book traders that can’t afford the cost of developing and maintaining their own purchasing system and for book shoppers who wanted a one-stop shop for their favorite/needed reading materials. 1.6 Scope and Limitation The scope of the proposed system resides on the ability to cater purchases online and generate reports of registered users/vendors, added products and the transactions occurred. This study mainly focuses on the concept of online purchasing, thus, delimits the actual inventory of the products per see. 4 1.7 Definition of Terms Application – A computer program with a user interface. Develop – To bring from latency to or toward fulfillment Diagram – A plan, sketch, drawing, or outline designed to demonstrate or explain how something works Figure – A written or printed symbol representing something other than a letter, especially a number. Framework – A fundamental structure, as for a written work. Generate – To produce as a result of a chemical or physical process Information – Knowledge derived from study, experience, or instruction. Input – Something put into a system or expended in its operation to achieve output or a result Inventory – A detailed, itemized list, report, or record of things in one’s possession, especially a periodic survey of all goods and materials in stock. Internet – An interconnected system of networks that connects computers around the world via the TCP/IP protocol. Online – Connected to a computer or computer network. Output – The information produced by a program or process from a specific input. Phase – A distinct stage of development Process – A running software program or other computing operation. Scope – The area covered by a given activity or subject. System – An organized and coordinated method; a procedure Transaction – A record of business conducted at a meeting; proceedings. 5

Outline the Timing Issues for Market Entry in E-Business. Essay

There is no single method for timing market entry into any type of business, whether it is e-business or traditional business. Timing is more important in e-business since technologies change fast. Even a few weeks’ delay can cost the company dearly. The method used for timing market entry depends on factors such as the type of product, the particular market, the amount of competition and the budget available. The method used may also involve a single strategy or a mixture of different strategies. A successful product launch or market entry depends also on good timing and takes the characteristics of the target groups into account. In the case of timing as a strategic dimension, three basic possibilities can be differentiated: ââ€" Be the first to launch as a ‘first mover’; ââ€" Launch in parallel; ââ€" Launch with delay Pioneer In an article published by Wright State University, Gurumurthy Kalyanaram, Director of Master’s Programs in the School of Management at the University of Texas, Dallas and Ragu Gurumurthy, principal at consulting firm Booz-Allen and Hamilton, suggest that the best general entry timing strategy is to be first into the market. Although expensive, they point out that this approach has been shown to give the product a significant advantage in market share. They suggest this strategy works best in industries where product life is short, such as the high-tech industry. Late Arrival Kalyanaram and Gurumurthy point out that entering a market late can have certain advantages as well, particularly if the pioneers have grown complacent or can no longer cater to a growing market, and also, if the late arrival has an innovative way to market their product. Late entry may also pay off if the product offers technological improvement over those already available, is significantly cheaper or offers better customer service. Markets that are already cluttered with products offer some opportunity for a late arrival that is of better quality or uses new delivery channels. Dynamic Timing A new method for timing market entry was suggested by Sechan Oh and Ozalp Ozer, from the University of Texas at Dallas School of Management, in a paper delivered to the 2010 Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Conference. Oh and Ozer suggest that, as a business goes through the design process for a new product, they should constantly update their own knowledge about both the efficiency of the production process and the potential market. The product should continue to be improved until the optimal time to enter the market. At that point, the design process should stop and the product should enter the market. Time of Year The time of year can have a big effect on chances of success. Some industries are busier at certain times of the year. For example, accountants are not likely to take up new tax software in the run-up to April 15th, as they won’t have time to learn how to use it while they are busy. Similarly, a product designed for sale at Christmas should be released early enough in the year to gain momentum by the time the peak shopping season arrives. Wave, Sprinkler, Waterfall These types of timing strategy, developed by management consultant Christoph Lymbersky, are usually applied to timing entry to international markets. In the wave strategy, a new product is introduced all at once into countries that have similar cultures and characteristics. For example, a product like smartphone or Tablet might be launched into Germany, Austria and Switzerland, China, and India at the same time. In the Sprinkler strategy, the product is launched into all suitable countries at the same time. In the Waterfall strategy, a product is launched in one country at a time, and new markets are entered only after sales are established in the previous market.