Network Security Planning Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Network Security Planning - Assignment Example White (2001) defines Cisco SAFE as architecture in security that offers guidelines for modular networks design approach (Cisco, 2010). This approach makes its ease for network designers to understand relationships thus proceed to execute security based on one module after the other unlike the traditional approach of implementing one broad approach for the entire enterprise. Despite its advantage of maximizing control and visibility, Cisco SAFE has limitations and this paper explores these limitations in detail and their impacts on network security. With Cisco SAFE, denial of service attacks is a widespread threat especially for organizations that do not implement protocol analysis in network security design. With poor protocol analysis, the network lacks significant pattern matching with IDS guaranteeing that the rules of each protocol are followed and this results to sending of both protocol related and unrelated data streams. Consequently, traffic is not valid and is an attack that bypasses security systems or an attack crashing the system due to invalid data presence in the intended system. DoS is overcome by ensuring that IDS in Cisco SAFE has the right knowledge of ordinary system protocols like UDP, TCP, FTP, and HTTP. A second limitation is distributed denial-of-service (DDoS). Without proper configuration of Cisco’s firewall Intrusion Detection System (IDS), organizational networks are subject to DDoS attacks preventing networks from bandwidth access (World, 2002). DDoS attacks consume entire business network bandwidth by attackers while Cisco IDS offers distinctive protection against DDoS by detecting attacks proactively and mitigate them. However, Cisco IDS requires configuration after router configuration to enable it to identify and block attacks prior to the occurrence of intrusion or unauthorized transactions and this calls for effective configuration of Cisco IDS. For any

Speak Essay Example for Free

Speak Essay Speak is an inspirational story of a young girl struggling to manage her teenage life. Melinda, the protagonist of the book, transformed from a withdrawn girl to a outgoing one. Melinda changed dramatically from the beginning of the book to the end. Melinda started off the story as an outcast in her school of Merryweather High School. She was kneed in the back by a girl at the school pep rally and taunted by kids in the hallways. All of this happened because Melinda called the cops at a summer party. But she did this because she was raped by Andy Evans, a senior at the party, and everyone is unaware of this. Melinda rarely talks to people, and when she does, she never really opens up. She creates a safe place in a janitors closet where she goes to be alone, and when she goes home she just sleeps or keeps to herself. The most important turning point in Melindas change in attitude and behavior is when she talks to her art teacher, Mr. Freeman. Throughout the story, Melinda became close with Mr. Freeman, and admired him. Melindas art project was a tree so he gave her the advice to cut off all the trees dead parts, so the tree can grow and prosper again. This gives Melinda the courage to tell her ex-best friend Rachel, who was currently dating Andy Evans, about the rape. Once she told Rachel that, the truth was out. At the end of the story, Melinda had released her burden that had been eating away at her. She befriended her old friends again, and she felt like a whole new person. Melinda became a strong person who was not afraid to speak up anymore. She opened up to her parents and friends, improved her grades, and started a normal teenage life. Melindas story is one of overcoming fear and speaking up for herself. With the help of Mr. Freeman, she turned her situation around and stood up for what was right. Melinda freed herself by speaking. Melinda changed dramatically from the beginning of the book to the end.

Customer Satisfaction with Self Service Checkout

Customer Satisfaction with Self Service Checkout Chapter 2 This chapter explains about the possible literature review about the self service checkout system and its operation in relation with customer satisfaction and retention. It will introduce you to some of the theories about the self service technology, customer satisfaction and retention. At the end, you will find the critical review of this literature review and possible arguments and recommendations. Literature Review As companies/supermarkets have race to introduced technology that enables the customers to get service on their own (Bitner, M. Amy, L. Ostrom and Matthew, L. 2002). Growing number of customers interacted with the technology to create service outcomes instead with a service firm employee (Matthew, L. Amy, L. Ostrom, Robert, I. And Bitner, M. July 2000). The overall affect model is based on the consumers feelings toward the use of technology (Pratibha A. and Dabholkar 1996). The Supermarkets which introduce self-service checkout systems wish to gain rapid acceptance and usage of these technologies by potential consumers. (Jungki, L. and Allaway, A. 2002) According to Merriam-Websters Dictionary (2008), Innovation is â€Å"a new idea, method or device, or the introduction of something new.†Drejer (2002) argues that innovation is more than just invention, that idea cannot be innovative as a pure, it must be put in practice and be commercialized; otherwise it is too earlier to speak of innovation. Blackmon (1996) provide us with the best summary for a context of this research: â€Å"†¦ technological change is used to describe changes in knowledge that increase the volume of output or allow a qualitatively superior output from a given amount of resources †¦ and thus in driving organizational evolution †¦Ã¢â‚¬  The sales profit is a simple conceptual framework chain to linking with the employee satisfaction as well as customer satisfaction and financial performance. This sales profit chain is the relationships between employee and customer satisfaction (Gary, W. and Loveman, 1998). The benefit of the customer reten tion and satisfaction has been characterized by using the repurchase intention or a factor score of quite a few measures repurchase goal, and price tolerance. So that the purpose to use the customers management strategy that is the based on managing both satisfaction and benefit of customer retention (Narayandas, D. 1998). Performance expectation and the actual performance have major significance in the Evaluation process, as we need to determine the dimension of product and service performance. Most customers do not switch from satisfied seller to their competitors, but, there are several factors that could affect customer behaviour to switch to different service provider such as mistake in core service failure, service encounter failures, variable prices, inconvenience, responsive to service failures, attraction by competitors, ethical behaviours and involuntary switching etc. (Hawkins, Best and Coney, 2004) Retailers need to analyze what makes a new product from the point of view by the customer if customers facing problems understanding the reason behind the introduction of new self-service checkout systems (SSC) they will not use the system. As we launch new self-service systems, we need to analyse the consumer behaviour as well. The consumer should be involved in some way or another at most stages in the introduction of self-service checkout system. Every retail or sales companies should take care of customer wants and needs (Wright, R. 2006). Consumers feel a sense of pleasure in understanding that they have found a unique store that they can, and do, frequent. This suggestion is suggested on the notion of value as a function of both worth (Oliver, 1999) and scarcity. People feel good when they find something of worth that is not easily available the feel good feeling from the ordinary and the mundane, is different from satisfaction in that it consists qualitative effects such as enjoyment and happiness. In contract, satisfaction is an evaluative judgment (Oliver, 1997) and more cognitive in nature (Howard and Sheth, 1969). Satisfaction can be defined as a cognitive evaluation resulting from the fulfilment expectations. Satisfaction is a judgment based on either a cognitive or emotional appraisal, made by the customer whether his or her expectations were met (Oliver, 1997). Positive affect is a pleasurable emotional response (Bogozzi, Gopinath, and Nyer, 1999). â€Å"If organizations want to consider total customer experience, satisfaction by itself is a weak measurement† (Barlow and Maul, 2000) As a result, when a consumer experiences more differentiation value in the store, consumer will be more likely to feel more positive responses toward the store (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982) The literature in retailing and customer behaviour has identified commitment as ones â€Å"motivation† to keep a relationship with the retailer (Bendapudi and Berry, 1997 and Fournier, 1998).The self-service checkout system (SSC) into the service come across necessitates research to improved understand customers attitudes toward overhaul providers and technologies, and their intentions to employ technology-based facility delivery systems. In this research, the authors build up and experiment three structural models that include a pecking instruct of consumer attitudes toward together the psychological and the technological factors of the come across to better appreciate their intentions to utilize Self Service Technologies. The result indicates that intentions to exercise self-service technologies options are ambitious by manifold, hierarchical attitudes. In calculation to the direct belongings of attitudes toward exact self-service technologies and individual employees, the findings corroborate that higher direct worldwide attitudes toward service technologies pressure intentions to use self-service technologies. fascinatingly, the findings indicate that heavy self-service technologies users rely more on attitudes toward specific self-service technologies than do light self-service technologies users, who rely more heavily on universal attitudes toward self-service technologies when formative intention to utilize an self-service technologies. (James, M. Matthew, L. Meuter and Carol, F. 2003) Kano Model Analysis: The customer satisfaction model from professor Kano is a marketing and quality management approach that can be used for assessing and establishing customer satisfaction and happiness. Kano model has six categories of customer quality characteristics, but, only the first three specially relate to customer satisfaction. (Kano, 2007) These factors are: a) Basic factors b) Excitement factors c) Performance factors Basic factors The prerequisite factors that will cause dissatisfaction if they are not met, but, do not establish customer satisfaction. If they are fulfilled or cross expectations customer regard this as essential and basic factors contribute to market entrance ‘threshold Excitement factors These requirements if they are met can increase customer level satisfaction, but, if they do not meet the requirements, do not cause customer dissatisfaction. These factors come to customers as surprise and create satisfaction. A company can come out from crowd from competitors in a positive way using these factors. Performance factors These factors are concerned with the performance level. So, we can conclude that customer satisfaction is directly related to the performance level, if the performance level is high, then, customer satisfaction will be met, but, if the performance level is low, cause dissatisfaction. These factors are directly related to customer desires, wants and needs etc. So, company should try to be competitive in a market. Illustration of features or needs vs satisfaction (Adapted from Prof. Kano, 1994) Customer point of view in relation to Self Service Checkout System (SSC) Researcher forecasting about the adaptation of the self service checkout system have been gone against the past recommendation, instead, customers are using this technology more and embrace this technology with open arms. Reasons for Supermarket to adopt this technology: Customers do prefer to use their bank cards in privacy and anonymity. Queue awaiting time reduction; Need for self-service; Quick payment; Shoppers feel empowered; Retail market is shifting towards radio frequency identification which will replace the bar code. However this might be a foundation for increasing working hours, as supermarkets not depending on a cashier. Due it is not many research have been done in the UK practise might be relevant for this research and will be in future referred as a compare base. Theoretical Framework Porters competitive advantage theory is a classical and one of the foundational in business literature, however lately it was criticized by some authors (Day and Wensley, 1988 and Hunt and Morgan, 1995). Therefore some complementary concepts have been suggested. In order to reinforce research the Porters value-chain theory was complemented with the more current Value-Network model of Stabell and Fjeldstad (Stabell and Fjeldstad, 1998). Value-chain theory and the value network model are presenting the different activities of a company where value can be cond and added through SSC systems. This model allows the researchers to investigate the different activities of companies on which the implementation of technology-based self-service as an innovation can have an effect. Theoretical Framework Implication In order to fully understand the impact of introducing Self Service Checkout system (SSC) in ASDA supermarkets it is necessary to look into: role and importance of innovation in a business context, product life cycle connected to SSC; competitive advantage theory and complementary concepts, value chain theory, and finally the importance of customer relationship management in the ‘new self-service economy. Innovation Before we are going to analyze stage it is important to understand what innovation in business context is. The full understanding can be obtained through definition of the term. According to Merriam-Websters Dictionary (2008), Innovation is â€Å"a new idea, method or device, or the introduction of something new.† Drejer (2002) argues that â€Å"innovation is more than just invention, that idea cannot be innovative as a pure, it must be put in practice and be commercialized; otherwise it is too earlier to speak of innovation†. Blackmon (1996) provide us with the best summary for a context of this research: â€Å"†¦ technological change is used to describe changes in knowledge that increase the volume of output or allow a qualitatively superior output from a given amount of resources †¦ and thus in driving organizational evolution †¦Ã¢â‚¬  In the following relation, the innovation in a business context is a product, device, service, programme, service provider, or methods of services delivery that are new, unusual, or in other ways different from those previously used and positively reflects in overall output of the organization in form of added value directly to the organization or its customers. In the case of this research, innovation in form of SSC brings changes into service delivery. In order to understand the impact of the innovation it is necessary to understand to which area of service delivery it related. Dabholkar (2003) made a classification of technology in service delivery with three dimensions. †¢ â€Å"By whom the service is delivered and who operates the technology†. †¢ â€Å"Where the service is delivered (at the shop or in customers home); and how the service is delivered†. Depending on which category the service belongs to different factors will affect the customers evaluation of the service quality. This classification can be useful in guiding companies in the development of their marketing strategies when implementing SSC systems. Table At service site At customers place Direct contact Customer goes to service site and performs service using technology at service site. E.g. ATM, self-service at retail checkouts. Customer uses technology from home/office to perform service. E.g. internet shopping. Indirect contact Customer goes to service site and uses automated telephone system to perform service. E.g. automated wake-up calls at Hotels. Customer calls automated telephone service from home/office to perform service. E.g. automated ticket-ordering over telephone. Source: Dabholkar, 1994 in Anselmsson, 2001, page 13. Shadowed cell is the relevant technology for this research. Using this type of SSC, the customer goes to the service site and performs the service by using the technology provided at the service site. This implies a greater importance and wider range of quality issues in the interactive marketing function of the organisation. Product/service life Cycle In a business context everything is going through different level, stages of performance. It is similar to the any life development. From the cell of life to the maturity and death, the products are repeating same way from idea to implementation and ultimately death. Particularly in our case the service as well as product must be planned and introduce to employees, customers and eventually be accepted by them. It is crucial for the managers to adjust and control its performance while it goes through different stages. The effect respectively will be also different on different stages. Therefore, considering the life cycle of SSC systems is important when investigating the effects on company competitiveness. The product life cycle tend to go through the five stages of products: †¢ Service/product development; †¢ Market introduction; †¢ Growth stage; †¢ Mature stage; †¢ Stage of decline. Each stage is different in effectiveness of the product, expenses, revenue, etc. The first stage usually money intensive as there is no sales revenue and all expenses are covered by different organizations activities, in our case no effectiveness gain from reducing cost of operation. Stage two is quite expensive in our case as technological cost is very high. The purchase of the machineries and shops infrastructure adjustments to accommodate it are required. Moreover the staff and customers trainings and special promotions materials must be prepared. The third stage is continuous use of SSC by customers and therefore operational cost reduction becomes positive revenue, which might cover the marketing expenses. The fourth stage is characterised by very low costs of operation as number of customers who is using it increased. The final stage might come as soon as more efficient and productive technology will arrive and current become outdated. (Day, 1981) The progression of a product through these stages is not certain however. Some products may stay in the mature stage forever, for example commodities such as milk, others might not even rich stage of maturity. These products go through their life cycle as marketers â€Å"marketing mix† strategies change. For example, advertising is informative stage of the introduction, maturity stages, winning in the growth and in the decline stage reminder-oriented. In the early stages the promotional budget tends to be highest, and as the product gradually taper off matures and decline. Product characteristics, pricing, distribution also tend to change. (Day, 1981) The concept of product life cycle, applied to Self Service Checkout System (SSC) innovations, has also been introduced as an important concept that also contributes to affecting competitiveness. The Value-Chain Porters value chain framework today still is the ‘accepted language for representing and analyzing the logic of firm-level value creation, and is also a framework for analyzing firm-level competitive strengths and weaknesses. In value chain analysis â€Å"competitive advantage is understood by these discrete activities of the value creation process that contribute to the firms relation cost place and produce a basis for segregation. These activities are the ‘building blocks from which a product or process is created that is valuable to the firms customers. The different activities have different economics and thus contribute differently to the valuable characteristics of the product or process†. The value creating activities in Porters model are divided in two levels. â€Å"Primary activities consist of directly interact to create and bring value to the customer, while support activities facilitate and develop the performance of the primary activities†. The primary activity level consists of five actions: inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, promotion and sales and service. The maintain actions are procurement, technology growth, human supply management, and firm infrastructure. It is important to note that the different activity categories are not the same as organizational functions. Using the value chain for analysis, â€Å"costs and assets are assigned to the value activities as a first step, and are further analyzed as â€Å"structural drivers† related to the scale and scope of the firm, linkages across activities, and environmental factors. Cost and value drivers are usually analyzed separately. Moreover, drivers are partly related to internal relationships, partly to external factors, and partly to relationships between internal and external factors as well. The main drivers of value are policy decisions made by product and segment choices when the firm is established or repositioned†. (Stabell and Fjeldstad, 1998) According to Porter, â€Å"the value-creating logic of his value chain with its generic activity categories is valid for firms in all industries. However, he further states that the specific activities that are vital to a firms competitive advantage depend on which industry the firm operates†. (Porter, 1985, 1990) Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) however have investigated the application of the value chain model to a variety of industries and have experienced problems in applying the value chain frame work to more than two-dozen firms. They have found that the value chain is suitable for describing and understanding the value creation logic of manufacturing firms, but that it proves problematic when analyzing activities in service industry firms. They argue that â€Å"problems arise from difficulty to assign and analyze activities in terms of the five generic primary value chain categories proposed by Porter, leading to unclear explanations of value creation†. Therefore, Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) suggest that â€Å"the value chain can be considered as one of three generic value configurations to facilitate the understanding and analysis of firm-level value-creation logic for a broad range of industries and firms†. The additional two value models besides the value-chain are the value network and the value shop. The importance shop model applies to firms where price is created by â€Å"mobilizing income and performance to resolve an exacting customer difficulty†, for example professional service firms dealing with medicine, law, architecture and engineering. The value network model refers to firms that generate cost by â€Å"facilitating an organization relationship among their customers using a mediator technology†. Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) also propose alternative presentation formats for both models that represent their unique value creation logic. For the purpose of this research both Porters value chain and Stabell and Fjeldstads value network is of importance. Although Stabell and Fjeldstad state that according to their findings the value chain is mostly useful for manufacturing firms, for our investigation of supermarkets ‘traditional operations, the value chain is most fitting, with one small alteration. However, in also considering the introduction of a new type of service offering through technology-based self-service checkouts, it is found necessary to complement the value chain model with the value network model in order to be able to capture the value adding activities of SSC. The combination of the different value-creating logics, as suggested for this research, has also been proposed by Norman and Ramirez (1993). Since the main purpose of the research is to investigate the effects of SSC in supermarkets, the value network is of central importance, which is discussed in further detail below. The Value Network â€Å"Value networks use a ‘mediating technology to link clients and customers who wish to be interdependent.† According to Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998), â€Å"the firm provides a networking service through the mediating technology and thus facilitates exchange relationships among customers distributed in space and time†. For the consideration of SSC, the value network idea is modified to mean that the firm is the network itself, linking its customers not to each other but to the firm itself, facilitating a more interdependent exchange relationship between the firm and its customers. Customer Satisfaction â€Å"To measure the customer satisfaction of how your organisation`s `total product` performs in relation to a set of customer requirements.† (Gower, 1999) If you like to measure the customer satisfaction of the customers and you need direction exactly what you are measuring. Understanding the concept of customer satisfaction is very easy and can be done by assuming yourself as a customer in a supermarket. Satisfaction is simple. If you get what you wanted and your requirements are met, you are satisfied. The starting point of a customer satisfaction management is to set the objectives. There are different customer satisfaction objectives that can be set. * Customers` requirements (important ratings) * Customer satisfaction (Satisfaction ratings) * Comparison with other organizations * PFIs (priorities for improvement) * Customer satisfaction index * A track able measure of satisfaction * The internal perspective Firstly, you should identify customers` requirements and there are many things customers want and need but we need to identify most relative of customer requirements. Secondly, you must measure customer satisfaction. Organisational performance is directly related to customer satisfaction and list of customers` requirements. Thirdly, if you could go a bit further to analyse the customers` requirements as compared to other same organisations. (In our example `supermarket`) This will give you the opportunity to get the benchmarking. By using benchmarking, you could analyse the requirements of your supermarket customers` as satisfied or not satisfied. Fourthly, after getting the customers` satisfaction measures, you can use these measures to produce some survey outcomes and the first of that step is to identify the PFIs (Priorities for improvement) Fifth, you will need to measure the overall customers` satisfaction. We call it a satisfaction index and it will indicate us to monitor progress from the one year to the next for the overall customers` satisfaction. Finally, customers` satisfaction survey has to be done inside the supermarket to know about the understanding of employees about their customers` requirements. It will help any supermarket to indentify that if their employees know about their customers` requirements and can indentify gaps. An internal survey can also be used to help the management to make the decision making process and strategic management. (Gower, 1999) Achieving Customer Satisfaction: â€Å"Customer satisfaction is measured frequently. Sampling is extensive. Surveys are quantitative as well as qualitative. The measures are taken very seriously. They are reviewed unfailingly by Top management: the development of such measures is taken very seriously as the development of budgetary measures or product reliability measures. Evaluation of people in all functions at all levels is significantly affected by the satisfaction measures†. (Tom Peter, a Passion for Excellence) Customer delight seems very credible people say things like: In today`s competitive markets customer satisfaction is no longer enough; you have to delight the customers, give them something they did not expect to keep their business. In customer satisfaction, the link between customer loyalty, customer retention and profitability can make get better customer satisfaction. It has been shown that customer retention can boost profit of the supermarket as it is very easy to keep the existing customers than getting new customers. After getting the trend data and established the satisfaction- loyalty ratio in your market for your organisation, you make some models. Some companies now have `business performance models` based on their customer satisfaction management survey results that have quantified the exact links between customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, sales and profit. They know that how much one percent improvement in customer satisfaction will improve loyalty how much that contributes to profits. Precisely, this is a very powerful forecasting tool. Customer Satisfaction and the Performance: Customer satisfaction can be defined as more loyal customer and it involves emotional and complicated process. Every customer has certain level of product or service expectation and desire. If customer expectation level increased as a result of using that product or service, then, customer experiences satisfaction. (Simon Homburg 1998, Page 44) However, â€Å"Satisfaction has also recently been described as the emotional reaction to this cognitively defined process of comparison†. (Homburg and Rudolph 1995, page 31) In this context, customer experiences that the outcome of the process of comparison will not always give the correct result about the expected satisfaction outcome and actual level of satisfaction outcome. Instead, direct effect of these outcomes or satisfaction levels also interacts with satisfaction. (Bolton et al. 1991 page 376) The customer satisfaction has been in research for long time, mostly research and investigation has been done on the customer satisfaction, but, not on the customer retention. It is the experience and attitude of the employee in closest contact with customers that customers are satisfied, loyal and customer retention has been achieved. The Satisfaction is an â€Å"a overall attitude of customer towards the service provider† (Levesque and McDougall, 1996) The companies are more successful, later research has showed if they adopt customer retention rather than customer satisfaction. (Knox, 1998) Customer satisfaction brings many benefits. Satisfied customers are fewer prices sensitive; they purchase more items, not go to competitors and stay longer. (Zineldin, 2000) Customer satisfaction is directly related with the customer complaint process management. If customer complains more, then, it increases more customer satisfaction. Customer complains about the product or service he/she receives, then, supermarket can achieve more customer satisfaction (Johnston, 2001) â€Å"The product innovations, staff service, price, convenience and business profile are all determinants of customer satisfaction†. (Athanassopoulos, 2000) Later, Bejou et al. (1998) propose that â€Å"customer satisfaction can be enhanced through relationships, provided they are developed and managed to the customer`s satisfaction† Customer retention is not directly related with the customer satisfaction. Sometime customer do not change service provider because of the alternative circumstances, but, customer satisfaction level remain the same. Sometime customers do not have any choice to change their service provider, so, they stick with their existing provider. Hallowell (1996) argues that customer satisfaction cannot produce life time customer loyalty even though customer satisfaction has been increased, but, retention can be related with customer satisfaction. Retention can be understandable as â€Å"to do business or exchange a commitment to continue with a particular company on an ongoing basis†. (Zineldin, 2000) Retaining old customers are easy and cheap to keep as compared to the new customers because they are more loyal and less price sensitive. They keep their loyalty to their existing service provider and do not change their loyalty to the new service provider. It increases customer retention, satisfaction, lower price sensitivity, higher market share, higher productivity and higher efficiencies. (Reichheld, 1995) The authors suggest that in order to retain customers, companies should always change and developing their product and services to meet the ever changing needs of customers. â€Å"The concept of acquiring, developing and retaining customers from a cognitive and affective perspective†, they provide examples of how cognitive and affects are used to increase retention. (Desai and Mahajan, 1998) â€Å"Customer satisfaction is a direct determining factor in customer loyalty, which, in turn, is a main presentation of customer retention†. (Gerpott et al., 2001) Customer satisfaction can be achieved by customer retention. Customer complaint process can boost the stage of customer satisfaction that result in customer retention. Employee perspective is also very important with relation of the customers. Individual relationship with the customer can boost the level of customer satisfaction. It is direct related with the mental theories of customer and employee perspectives. Managers should be aware of customer wants and needs as well as employee mental perspective. Different employees keep different level of relationship with the customers that could affect the customer satisfaction and retention level. Therefore, Managers must keep eye into employee/customer relationship and set realistic goals to achieve. (Spreng et al, 1995) Customer Retention Customer retention is directly linked with the customer satisfaction. The framework guide managers to decide which part of customer satisfaction has more collision, which part of customer satisfaction needs to be improve and make strategies to retain existing customers. An individual level model of loyalty and customer retention has been developed, that can be used to predict effects of service level improvement at supermarket. â€Å"Customer satisfaction has been changed recently from transactional marketing to relationship marketing†. (Grà ¶nroos, Sheth and Parvatiyar, 1994) â€Å"To all marketing activities directed toward establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relational exchanges† (Morgan and Hunt, 1994) â€Å"Customer satisfaction has been treated as essential instrument for the customer retention has gained significant importance in relational marketing approaches†. (Rust and Zahorik, 1993) Kotler sums this up when he states: â€Å"The key to customer retention is customer satisfaction† (Kotler, 1994) â€Å"The assumption that satisfaction/dissatisfaction meaningfully influences repurchase behaviour underlies most of the research in this area of inquiry†. (Bloemer and Poiesz, 1989) It is the continued repeat shopping with the supermarket, when c

The Fascinating Town of San Rafael Essay -- Descriptive Essay About A

The Fascinating Town of San Rafael As a young child, I would visit my grandparents in Marin County often. My parents would pack my sister and me up in the car, and we would head north from San Francisco to the small town of Novato. The road to Novato took us through San Rafael, where I would always marvel at the one mile stretch of shopping mall that Highway 101 traversed. However, once we were into the hills of wine country and the shopping mall was a distant memory, so too became San Rafael. It wasn’t until I met Paul, my partner, that I learned the full story behind this fascinating town. San Rafael is located on the wedge of land that divides the San Francisco Bay and the mighty Pacific Ocean. Lying just 10 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Rafael serves as a major shopping destination and is the gateway to Wine Country. Despite its apparent peacefulness, closer examination reveals some interesting contrasts in this suburb of San Francisco, both in the surrounding environment and in the actual inhabitants themselves. Hills dominate much of San Rafael’s geographical profile. Partially located on a large rock quarry, San Rafael’s jagged edges provide stark contrast with its smooth, rolling hills and the nearby China Camp State Park, an almost unknown escape filled with lush greenery and forests. 10 years ago, both the state park and the surrounding hills were covered with oak trees. Recently however, the disease Sudden Oak Death has posed a serious threat to every oak tree in the area. Forestry officials have been forced to burn out any trees that have been infected with the disease, leaving the skeletons of these once mighty trees to dot the landscape. These reminders of nature’s tr... ..., many use drugs as an escape from the expectations of their parents and the intense atmosphere at San Rafael’s several private college preparatory high schools. These schools have a long expectation of both academic and sporting excellence, and those unable to cope with these expectations sometimes see drugs as their only way out. As illustrated here, San Rafael can be seen as a study in contrasts, within its environment, the political beliefs of its citizens, and in the racial and economic breakdown of these citizens. I learned from Paul that San Rafael was much more than I had originally thought. I quickly discovered that it was not, in fact, the pretty little town that existed solely to feed the two large malls it contained, but in fact has its own charms and dirty little secrets. Just like every town across America, it is not exactly what it seems. The Fascinating Town of San Rafael Essay -- Descriptive Essay About A The Fascinating Town of San Rafael As a young child, I would visit my grandparents in Marin County often. My parents would pack my sister and me up in the car, and we would head north from San Francisco to the small town of Novato. The road to Novato took us through San Rafael, where I would always marvel at the one mile stretch of shopping mall that Highway 101 traversed. However, once we were into the hills of wine country and the shopping mall was a distant memory, so too became San Rafael. It wasn’t until I met Paul, my partner, that I learned the full story behind this fascinating town. San Rafael is located on the wedge of land that divides the San Francisco Bay and the mighty Pacific Ocean. Lying just 10 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Rafael serves as a major shopping destination and is the gateway to Wine Country. Despite its apparent peacefulness, closer examination reveals some interesting contrasts in this suburb of San Francisco, both in the surrounding environment and in the actual inhabitants themselves. Hills dominate much of San Rafael’s geographical profile. Partially located on a large rock quarry, San Rafael’s jagged edges provide stark contrast with its smooth, rolling hills and the nearby China Camp State Park, an almost unknown escape filled with lush greenery and forests. 10 years ago, both the state park and the surrounding hills were covered with oak trees. Recently however, the disease Sudden Oak Death has posed a serious threat to every oak tree in the area. Forestry officials have been forced to burn out any trees that have been infected with the disease, leaving the skeletons of these once mighty trees to dot the landscape. These reminders of nature’s tr... ..., many use drugs as an escape from the expectations of their parents and the intense atmosphere at San Rafael’s several private college preparatory high schools. These schools have a long expectation of both academic and sporting excellence, and those unable to cope with these expectations sometimes see drugs as their only way out. As illustrated here, San Rafael can be seen as a study in contrasts, within its environment, the political beliefs of its citizens, and in the racial and economic breakdown of these citizens. I learned from Paul that San Rafael was much more than I had originally thought. I quickly discovered that it was not, in fact, the pretty little town that existed solely to feed the two large malls it contained, but in fact has its own charms and dirty little secrets. Just like every town across America, it is not exactly what it seems.

ITM all case study summary

Those purchasing online have their orders delivered to their coal LOCO store so that the LOCO can maintain its role in ensuring social responsibility and not shipping to minors. LOCO contracted with Robot Systems International to maintain a real-time inventory of products that directly interfaces with the company's warehouse management system. LOCO Senior vice-president Hugh Kelly planned to revamp LOCO. Com to better engage and target its customers through social media.Kelly also planned to bring flat screen kiosks designed to better inform customers about their purchases and get instant feedback. Supply Chain Customers see Vintages and LOCO. Mom first hand; they do not see behind the scenes where technology also plays a key role in the new LOCO. Systems such as the warehouse management system allow them to distribute products in less than a full case, know when a bottle in a case been broken, and accurately reflect the inventory levels so that when a customer orders a bottle of win e they can ensure timely delivery.Other systems allow the LOCO to forecast and replenish stock in a timely manner based on over-the-counter sales information that is fed back to head office. LOCO 2. 0 Internally, the company manages its communications with an extensive intranet that reduces the financial and environmental burdens of paper- based memos and forms. The intranet is used to send internal bulletins, memos, and expense reports, or to lessen the burden on employees when distributing LOCO media reports. It is the primary communication vehicle for the company.APS LOCO on the Go is an app that LOCO provides which allows its customers to browse products from their smart phones. Chapter 2 Information Systems Improve Business Processes at Grocery' Gateway Grocery Gateway is Canada's leader in the online retailing of home and office deliver groceries. Founded by a group of entrepreneurs with the idea that people had better thing to do in life than grocery shop. In 2004, Grocery Ga teway was acquired by Long Brothers Fruit Market Inc, a family owned independent grocery business that has operated physical grocery stores since 1956.Grocery Gateway sells groceries over the internet and deliver them directly to your door. They are open 24 hours, 7 days a week. People who have trouble or cannot have the time to buy groceries such as the elderly find Grocery Gateway to be beneficial. Information Systems Are at the Heart of the Comma/s Business Processes Grocery Gateways has built several key features in its Web site to attract and retain its customers, such as offering an online shopping demo, a getting-started tutorial, and email customer support.Grocery Gateway's Web sites offers a full suite of electronic commerce functionality that allows consumers to browse or find grocery items, see pictures and descriptions of product items (including their price), and to select items in a shopping basket and check out those items for delivery. Grocery Gateway's website must be tightly integrated and coordinate for the Web site to function as a cohesive hole. Using Information Systems to Manage Logistics Business Processes Grocery Gateways focuses on the logistics of quick delivery.Therefore the company has turned to the Descartes Systems Group, an on-demand logistics management solutions provider, to optimize Grocery Gateways selection of delivery routes. The technology allows Grocery Gateway to guarantee its customer a specific 90-minute window of delivery of groceries to their doors, a much narrower window than other retail delivery operations. The software that Grocery Gateway uses must take into account unpredictable delays, such s traffic jams and road accidents, as well as last-minute customer requests or cancellations.GAPS enabled mobile phones allow the logistics software to know the exact position and location of Grocery Gateway drivers to make the best decisions on routes for drivers to follow. The Descartes' software has improve the bottom l ine. Since deploying the On-demand Fleet Management Solution, Grocery Gateway has improved its on-time delivery performance by 14 percent and is exceeding its yearly stops per paid hour by 12. 4 percent. Routes are continually optimized for maximum efficiency. Access to historical ATA ensures that business processes are optimized and customer service needs are responded to more proactively.Chapter 3 Social Media and Gaston Catcher Where celebrities go, fans follow. David Kara noticed after famous artists began using his blobbing service Tumble. Therefore encouraging celebrities to set up accounts on the site has become â€Å"absolutely part of our road map and our business plan,† Kara says. Like Tumble, social sites are going out of their ay to keep the celebrities happy and coming back. Obama on Namespace, Faceable, and Twitter The Obama administration created profile pages on Namespace, Faceable, and Twitter.Namespace has agreed to build ad-free pages and equipped the profi le to get automatic updates from the white House's official blob. Faceable has worked with the handlers of select celebrity members, including CBS news anchor Katie Court and French President Nicolas Karakas, to get feedback on the new design of the site before it was opened to the public. Twitter co- founder Biz Stone credits high-profile users like actor Gaston Catcher and basketball professional Aquiline O'Neal for bringing attention to the site of 140;character messages but says the company doesn't reserve any â€Å"special resources† for them.John Legend Taps Tumble In addition to their promotional value, social networking celebrities represent a potential revenue source for these young startups. Tumble recently helped musician John Legend design a professional-looking blob that matches the look of his promotional site, created by Song Music Entertainment. Inning a website to allow its users to build their own social network. Inning charges its users but many of whom are celebrities $2. 99 a month for their social networks, but charges as much as $59. 9 a month to users who prefer to keep their pages clear of ads or who want to collect revenue generated by ads n their pages. Although Innings services is not exclusive to stars, many of the most successful networks on Inning draw on the fame of their operators, including hip-hop artist 50 cent and Q-tip, rock band Good Charlotte, and Ultimate Fighting Championship titleholder BC Penn. Many big names in business, including Dell CEO Michael Dell, use the professional networking site, Linked more as a business tool than to amass legions of followers.Whatever their reasons for being on the site, Linked uses the fact executives from all 500 biggest companies are among its member to encourage other businesspeople to join the site. Chapter 4 Shell Canada Fuels Productivity with ERP Shell Canada is one of the nation's largest integrated petroleum companies and is a leading manufacturer, distributor, and mark eter of refined petroleum products. The company, headquartered in Calgary, produces natural gas, natural gas liquids and bitumen. Shell Canada is also the country's largest producer of sulfur.There is a Canada-wide network of about 1 ,800 Shell- branded retail gasoline stations and convenience food stores from coast to coast. Mission Critical ERP To run such a complex and vast business operation successfully, the company lies heavily on a mission-critical ERP system. Using such a system is a necessity to help the company integrate and manage its daily operations – operations that span from wells and mines, to processing plants, to oil trucks and gas pumps. The ERP system has helped the company in reducing and streamlining the highly manual process of third-party contractors submitting repair information and invoices.On average, there are between 2,500 and 4,000 service orders handled by these contractors per month on a nationwide basis. Life at Shell Before ERP Before the ERP system, contractors had to send Shell monthly summarized invoices that listed maintenance calls the contractors made at various Shell gasoline stations. Each one of these invoices took a contractor between eight and 20 hours to prepare. Collectively, the contractors submitted somewhere between 50 and 100 invoices every month to Shell. This involved each invoice being reviewed by the appropriate territory manager and then forwarded to head office for payment processing.This alone consumed another 16-30 hours of labor per month. At the head office, another 200 hours of work was performed by data entry clerks who had to manually enter batch invoice data into the payment system. More hours of labor were required to decipher and correct errors if any mistakes were introduced from all the manual invoice generation and data re-entry involved. Detailed information about the service repairs that contractors did was often not entered into the payment system – it was often weeks or eve n months old by the time it made it into the payment processing system.As a result, Shell was not collecting sufficient information about what repairs were being done, what had caused the problem, and how it had been resolved. ERP is Solving Issues ERP solved these issues by providing an integrated Web-based service order, invoice, and payment submission system. With this tool third-party contractors can enter service orders directly into Shell's ERP system via the web. With the ERP system it takes only a few minutes for a contractor to enter details about a service order.Contractors' monthly, summarized invoices can now be generated automatically and fed directly into the ERP system's accounts payable application for processing. The ERP system's benefit is its ease-of-use. Shell offered its personnel both formal and informal ERP training. These proved to be invaluable in teaching end-users the mechanics of the system, gassing awareness of the system benefits, and the efficiencies t hat the ERP system could offer Shell. This not only helped promote end-user acceptance of the ERP system, but also greatly increased employees' intentions to use the system in their daily work.With this new system, employees across the company have gained fast and easy access to the tools and information they need to conduct their daily operations. Chapter 5 Supply Chain Management Inc. Helping Canadians Shop Supply Chain Management Supply Chain Management Inc. (SCM Inc. ) operates several large, state-of-the- art distribution centers for Walter Canada. SCM Inc. Is there to support Walter Canada's operations and commitment to its customers. â€Å"We strive to identify efficiencies that contribute to Walters bottom line, so it can continue to serve millions of Canadians and grow its business. Said Dan Gabbed, president of SCM Inc. SCM Inc. ‘s business is logistics, or in other words get the right products to the right place in the right quantity at the right time to satisfy cu stomer demand. SCM Inc. Was founded in 1 994 by the Tibet & Britton Group. SCM and Logistics at SCM Inc. The conveyors and the technology work together with merchandise flow landing, and highly trained and engaged employees, to provide a â€Å"gold standard† service level in logistics and supply chain management for their customers. SCM Inc. Arks closely with Walter's buying and replenishment teams to ensure best-in-class Store in-stock, quality, and supply chain cost levels for general merchandise and groceries, which includes both non- perishable and perishable goods. How It Works How does SCM Inc. Manage the supply chain so that the right product arrives in the right store at the right time for the retail customer to buy? This is accomplished with a combination of technology and processes. Staple Stock Receiving Staple stock items are carried for stores throughout the year.Data on each store?s sales made before 1 8:00 each day are collected and transmitted to Walter's info rmation processing centre in Bonneville, Arkansas. The information for each of the stores supplied by the Calgary distribution centre is sent back to the distribution centre that same evening. The data is used to generate labels for the product picks the next morning and these labels are then picked and placed on the conveyor and sent to the appropriate shipping lanes. Distribution Assembly Receiving Dock The distribution assembly dock has 43 docks for receiving truck shipments.As the trailers are unloaded, with the aid of the Receiving Dock System (REDS), team members scan the bar codes on the vendor cases and enter the quantity for each item in the system; REDS will then print the required number of labels. The team member labels the freight and places it on the conveyor, which moves the freight to the shipping area after about a 12-minute ride on a conveyor Icepack Modules At each of the seven icepack modules, freight is picked from the slots, labeled, and placed on the conveyor to travel to the shipping lanes.The icepack modules work with all of the full case freight created from the previous night's production (label) run with freight that has been ordered in full-case quantities. Put to Light Department This department handles freight that is less than full-case quantities and that has pre-determined distribution to the stores. The department has three modules and each module is set up I sections. When the operator scans the label bar code created by the receiving department, which is placed on the outside of the carton, a light flashes, indicating what quantities to â€Å"put† into the container designated for a store.In this department the team member moves the stock to a stationary box. Pick to Light Also handles freight that is less than full-case quantities. This department on the other hand deals with staple stock items already in the building, based on the previous day sales of the stores that are not in full-case quantities. It uses the sa me technology as the â€Å"Put to Light† department in the order filling process but in this department the store box moves to the stationary vendor freight. Voice Voice is a process created by Walter that enables the distribution of non- conveyable stock.Product is picked directly from the vendor pallet and striation is given through voice commands to the pickers. The system tells each operator where and how many cases to put to each pallet. Each pallet represents a store. Merge Area at the top of the conveyor system where all the cases from all input lines come together. The cartons pass through tow scanners. The first scanner reads the label and sorts the box to either the north or south side of the shipping building depending on its final destination.The second scanner scans the bar code for billing information and then places the freight into the proper window to be diverted into its respective shipping lane. Shipping Lanes Shipping is the largest department in the distr ibution centre and the final destination in the building for the cartons before they are moved into the trailers for shipping. This department is set up so that each door represents one store in Western Canada. In this area, team members cover multiple lanes, using an overhead lighting system to determine lane priority. Trailer Loading Freight arrives at the shipping lanes from many input lines, in no particular Order.This puts pressure on the team members that are loading the trailers as they build secure loads. Team members must build secure walls of freight n the trailers to ensure safe off-loading and minimal in-transit damage to the stock when it arrives at store level. Loading safe trailers and filling them to capacity is a key initiative for SCM Inc. And Walter alike. The Billing Department Even though the freight has made it to the trailer, the processing is not finished. The Billing department takes over and creates the shipping packets from the paperwork that comes to them from the Data Processing department.Once the shipping packets are created, the Billing department also prepares the bills of lading so that the carriers can deliver the freight. In edition, the Billing department processes claims, credits, additional billing and reprinting of invoices. The Dispatch Department Once the dispatch team receives the shipping packets from the Billing department, they schedule the trailers using the dispatch program. When the trailers are scheduled, the dispatchers forward the information to the carriers to confirm delivery.Dispatch also emails the delivery information to the stores and processes all paperwork prior to each trailer leaving. Drivers pick up paperwork prior to each trailer leaving. Drivers pick up paperwork at the dispatch window prior to hooking up to their trailers. Chapter 6 Harnessing Customer Relationships at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Richards Story Richard was impressed on his stay at Fairmont Vancouver Airport. His credit card was go ing to expire in less than 30 days so an employee asked Richard to leave his new business card at the desk so that his personal information could be updated in his records after he was checked in.Richard was pleased for receiving this care and attention and he wished other businesses could offer the same level of good service. Guest recognition program Fairmont realizes that information systems are critical to the success of a customer loyalty program like President's Club or any other customer relationship initiative. Consolidating Guest Information Fairmont built one centralized database that gathered information from all its various property management systems. The result was the ability to have one, centralized, and consistent view of each guest, regardless of which hotel a guest stayed in.The guest database provided a way to know and talk to guests, to service their preferences and interests, regardless of whether they are repeat customers or if they were checking in the hotel for the very first time. Enhancing Guest experiences Supersonic Networks provided 24/7 customer support to its guest using high- speed internet services at various Fairmont hotel and resort locations worldwide. Use of Information systems to improve guest relations and customer experience is its consideration of self-service check-in kiosks.Chapter 7 The Case for Business Intelligence at Nettling Companies such as Amazon, Nettling, Best Buy, and RIB financial use databases or data warehouses to collect your search data, purchase data, or track your activities, and then by using data mining tools and business intelligence they turn this data into information that can potentially boost heir bottom lines. Reed Hastings and a $40 Late Fee Reed hasting co-founder and CEO of Nettling was hit with a $40 fee for Apollo 13 at Blockbuster Video which got him thinking about the video rental business model.Why did video stores not work like health clubs where you could use the service as much or a little as you wanted for a flat monthly fee? So armed with IIS$750 million from the sale of a former venture, Hastings co- founded Nettling in 1997. The science and the Art of Nineties The box office success of a movie is only a proxy for awareness of a movie's existence; it does not necessarily translate into demand for the movie in the mental market, and box office success or failure does not mean success or failure of the movie in the rental market.Due to these two facts, distribution managers use their experience to formulate a hypothesis of a movie's possible success in the rental market. They then follow this up with the science of analytics to help them make the final decision as to what movies to distribute. The Analytics Cinematic does the following: It defines clusters of movies, connects customer movie rankings to the clusters, and then uses this connection to recommend movies to a particular customer. In addition, Cinematic also insiders Nineteen's inventory condition in its recommendations.Nettling will often recommend movies that fit the customers profile but that are not in high demand in order to take advantage of â€Å"the long tail. † What does this mean? Business intelligence is important to Nettling as it is a part of it secret of success. By collecting customer data in their database and then analyzing the data, Entail is able to have its Web site adapt to the personal tastes of each of its over 25 million customers in North America, and will do so even more with its plans to expand into Latin American markets in 2012.Chapter 8 Leveraging Knowledge at Bell Canada Bell Canada Canada's largest telephone and telecommunications company is constantly threatened by new competitors and innovative technologies. To stay ahead of the pack, Bell recognizes the importance of providing its employees with easy access to the most current information. Bell built the Market Knowledge Centre (MOCK) portal. The MOCK portal provides employees with e asy access to high quality, relevant information in a forum where this information Can be personalized, pushed, pulled, shared, discussed, summarized and integrated with other pieces of information.Bell believes hat such a tool increases the chance of employees making new discoveries, learning new insights, and strengthening their know-how. Objectives of the MOCK portal are: Enable Bell to meet competitive challenges in the marketplace Enrich the company's hiring and training employees Increase technological literacy among employees Provide resources to employees that can help them develop their knowledge and competencies. The MOCK provides information access from each employee's desktop.Employees are not constrained by physical geography, unavailable copies, or hours of operation. The portal facilitates both search and browse functions. Employees can locate documents of interest through a keyword search. The MOCK portal helps employees do their jobs better. The portal provides key strategic and tactical information needed by employee to support their projects. There are also savings for the company in delivering the MOCK portal.The portal eliminates duplicate spending on consultant reports, trade magazines, and industry documents across the enterprise by centralizing subscriptions to online databases and electronic journals and negotiating corporate-wide distribution licenses with suppliers. Features have been added to the portal in recent years include: 1 . Incorporating Google's Mini Search Appliance 2. Integrating news feeds 3. Creating subject pages MOCK staff also provides end-user customer support to employees.This involves fielding more demanding in-depth research questions from employees, rather than answering quick reference questions that employees can easily address themselves. TO ensure the MOCK portal is responsive to company needs, performance measures of client satisfaction are conducted regularly. Moreover, MOCK portal tool helps turn informat ion into knowledge by giving workers easy access to high quality and relevant information, and he ability to work with, share, and discuss this information with others, leading to gains in understanding and the ability to put this understanding into action.Chapter 9 Embracing Privacy at the City of Hamilton Privacy Concerns Recognizing the real concerns of Canadians over how well governments handle and protect the personal information they collect, the City of Hamilton has taken the lead in ensuring that any risks to the inadvertent release and misuse of personal information are minimized. Protecting Citizens A citizen, attempting to renew a dog license using the new online service, exposed a serious unknown technology vulnerability in the application.By entering an incorrect file number, the user was able to return personal information (name and address) for a different dog owner in the community. Municipal staff reacted swiftly in removing the problem functionality. In the followi ng months, staff from both the municipal Freedom of Information (OFF) Office and the City's information Technology Services (ITS) division worked with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPAC) to make the breach public and to redesign and ultimately reinstate, new functionality with upgrades to prevent unauthorized access of personal information.Learning from Lessons Technology is just a tool. If is human behavior (Hacking, purposeful misuse, an inability to take proper measures, or mistakes in design and implementation) that ultimately results in privacy breaches. Privacy Impact Assessment The City of Hamilton commissioned its first ever Privacy Impact Assessment (PIP) to identify any potential privacy risks, before proceeding with a User Adoption and Uptake research project conducted by Master University researchers.The project investigated end-user adoption of the millionth. A portal, collecting data from Web tracking information and personal demographic information from Hamiltonians who agreed to participate in the study. Chapter 10 Project Management and E-Learning The Project Marie Wesley was sitting at her office one day and thought to herself â€Å"l wish more Of our stakeholders understood what went into creating these documents and how time-consuming it is for the company to ensure the accuracy and readability of the information. She put together a proposal and sent it to university Learning Publishers and received $25,000 to develop her e-learning concept. Putting the Parts Together While Marie was at the fitness centre she thought of the concept of a stationary bike, the bike could not function without the other parts. This was similar to her project where she then jotted down capabilities that she needed to complete her project; management information systems expertise; securities commission experts; knowledge about writing for the internet; instructional designers; and educational experts.Putting Advisors in Place Marie had much wo rk to do. She needed to form her advisory Committee, determine her target audience, get quotes for various phases of development f the e-learning tool (and identify those phases), hire someone who manage the project while she wrote the content, determine the timeline for software development and implementation, and the how to assess the quality of the software throughout the development and implementation phases.Marie searched for companies that were interested in completing the part of the project that she wanted to outsource. She then found one, Star Communications. However it was difficult to judge the quality Of Star's work and the capabilities of the designers, as Star provided no work samples to help determine what the possibilities were for the final product. Adding Project Management After much consideration of the risks associated with partial outsourcing versus full service, Marie decided to let Star create the first module.

Psychology Chapter 6 Notes Essay Example

Psychology Chapter 6 Notes Essay Example Psychology Chapter 6 Notes Essay Psychology Chapter 6 Notes Essay Learning – long lasting change in behavior resulting from experience Classical Conditioning – a form of learning in which the first stimulus is the signal of the occurrence of the second stimulus Unconditioned stimulus (US/UCS) – the original stimulus that elicits a response Unconditioned response (UR/UCR) – the involuntary, reflexive response to unconditioned stimulus Conditioned stimulus – the stimulus associating with the original stimulus to elicit a response Conditioned response – salvation elicit from the bell (not getting there yet) Acquisition – learning is taken place once animals response to conditioned stimulus without the existence of unconditioned stimulus the animal has acquired a new behavior Delayed conditioning – the procedure in which conditioned stimulus is presented first and then the unconditioned stimulus is presented while the conditioned stimulus is still evident/continued Extinction – the process of unlearning a behavior Spontaneous Recovery – after a conditioned response has been extinguished with no further training, the response briefly reappears upon the presentation of the conditioned stimulus Generalization – the tendency in which animals response to certain stimuli that are similar the conditioned stimulus Discriminate – in which subjects can be trained to tell the difference between various stimuli Aversive conditioning – negative responses to CSs/USs Eg. Baby Albert experiment: loud noise(US), in which baby Albert fears (UR), is paired with white rat (originally US), so baby Albert then learned to be afraid of white fluffy stuff (generalization) white rat become CS; CR is the response to the white rat alone Second Order/Higher Order conditioning – when CS elicits a CR, the CS is then used as US to condition a response to a new stimulus Eg. Dog salivates when hearing bell rings. Pairing bells with flash lights or others will cause dog to salivate with flash light/ others alone. Learned taste aversion –developing aversion for a certain food/drink because you have experienced uncomfortable feelings after ingesting it. Salient – easily noticeable and therefore create a more powerful conditioned response Operant conditioning – is a sort of learning based on the association of consequences of one’s behavior Law of effect – if the consequence of a behavior is pleasant, the stimulus-response (S-R) connection will be strengthened, and the likelihood of the behavior will increase; if the consequence of a behavior is unpleasant, the stimulus-response (S-R) connection will be weakened, and the likelihood of the behavior will decrease Instrumental learning – consequence is the instrument shaping the future behaviors Skinner box – is a box that has a way/path to deliver food and a lever to press to peck in order to get food Reinforcer – for the sample above, it will be the food. It is something that reinforce/ motivate the subject to have a specific behavior Anything that makes a behavior likely to occur Reinforcement – the process of giving the reinforcer defined by its consequence Positive reinforcement: a behavior is strengthened for the addition of something pleasant Negative reinforcement: a behavior is strengthened for the removal of something unpleasant Escape learning – when one terminate an aversive stimulus Avoidance learning – enables one to avoid unpleasant stimulus altogether Punishment – unpleasant consequence that will a behavior, making a behavior less likely Shaping – a way to reinforce/speed up a behavior we desire to reach 1. Positive punishment: addition of something unpleasant to make a behavior less frequent 2. Negative punishment/ omission training: the removal of something pleasant to make a behavior less frequent Chaining – when subjects are taught to perform a number of responses successively in order to get a reward Discriminative stimulus – the stimulus that the subject is able to distinguish from Primary reinforcers – rewards such as food, water and rest; whose natural properties are reinforcing Secondary reinforcers – things we have learned to value Generalized reinforcer – money, traded for virtually anything Token economy – a system of behavior modification that can be rewarded with tokens/symbols which can be exchanged with variety of reinforcers Premack principle – a principle that states that the reinforcers are not always effective to all subjects depending on how desired and what is desired by the subject. OVERVIEW learning is different from behavior, yet changes in behavior best demonstrates learning learning must result from â€Å"experience† rather than â€Å"innate† or â€Å"biological change† CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Ivan Pavlov, Russian psychologist: discovered â€Å"a kind of† learning while studying digestion in dogs dogs pair the sounds in environment where they were fed with food, began to salivate upon hearing the sounds Pavlov deduce the â€Å"basic principles† of classical conditioning Eg. First stimulus: the sounds in the environment Second stimulus: began to salivate simply upon hearing the sounds People animals can learn to associate neutral stimuli (example: the sound) with stimuli that produce involuntary, reflexive responses (example: food) to respond to the new stimulus as they did to the old one (example: salivate) the unconditioned stimulus the food food elicits the natural and involuntary response salivate factors that affects acqu isition: 1. Repeated pairings of unconditioned stimulus with conditioned stimulus yield stronger conditioned responses 2. Order timing of conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus have impact on strength of conditioning most effective conditioning present conditioned stimulus first and then to introduce the unconditioned stimulus while conditioned stimulus is still evident Less effective methods of learning 1. Trace conditioning: the presentation of conditioned stimulus, followed by a short break, followed by unconditioned stimulus 2. Simultaneous condition: where both conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus are presented at the same time 3. Backward condition: Unconditioned stimulus is presented first, follow by conditioned stimulus. This method is particularly ineffective. CS no longer elicits CR classical conditioning for extinction repeatedly presenting CS without US will cause extinction people and animals will have the tendency to respond to similar conditioned stimulates, generalization~ Eg. Animals will salivate to different kinds of ringing bells to discriminate, for animals/people to tell the difference between the conditioned stimulates, the conditioned stimulates, present the specific CS with US while the other CSs with no US BIOLOGY AND CLASSICAL CONDITIONING learned taste aversions demonstrate not all US can be paired with any CSs animals humans are biologically prepared to associate strange taste with the feeling of sickness the food (CS) must be salient in order for us to avoid it sometimes taste aversions are acquired without good reason. Eg. If you are eating some mozzarella sticks a few hours before you fall ill with stomach flu, you might develop an aversion to that popular American appetizer even though it had nothing to do with your sickness OPERANT CONDITIONING Edward Thorndike: first person to research on operant conditioning Edward Thorndike states the law of effect about the pleasant consequence elicits pleasant behavior, unpleasant consequence elicits unpleasant behaviors Edward Thorndike claimed is experiment to be instrumental learning because he believes that consequence is instrumental in shaping future behaviors B. F. Skinner (another famous psychologist for this – behaviorism, area of studies) invented a contraption called Skinner box 2 kinds of reinforcement 1. Positive reinforcement: a behavior is strengthened for the addition of something pleasant 2. Negative reinforcement: a behavior is strengthened for the removal of something unpleasant B. F. Skinner eg. When the rat pushes the lever, the rat will receive its award(food) which cause the rat to push the lever more often – POSTIVE REINFORCEMENT B. F. Skinner eg. The rat hated loud noise but when the rat pushes the lever, the loud noise stops, hich cause the rat to push the lever more frequent to avoid the loud noise – NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT the example above is also a escape learning because the rat can avoid an aversive stimulus for pressing the lever more often an avoidance learning would be when the rat runs away from the loud noise (another behavior/response) to avoid what it hated 2 types of punishment 1. Positive punishment: addition of something unpleasant to make a behavior less frequent 2. Negative punishment/ omission training: the removal of something pleasant to make a behavior less frequent Punishment versus Reinforcement punishment is operant conditioning’s version of aversive conditioning shaping helps to speed up a specific behavior we desired for rat Barnabus is asked to go through a series of veritable obstacles in order to get food as reward chaining the goal of chaining is to link a series of separate behaviors into one complex activity

Thailands Political and Legal External Macroenvironmental Forces essays

Thailand's Political and Legal External Macroenvironmental Forces essays To reach the highest level of success, a firm must be able to adapt to the external macroenvironmental forces and combine it with the internal forces most efficiently. Because the organization is not able to control the external forces, it is very vital to be informed of all the necessary information available on the topic. One of the very important factors would have to be the Political and Legal Forces. Within the Political and Legal Forces of the macroenvironmental forces are four categories: 1. Monetary and fiscal policies. (level of government spending, the money supply, and tax legislation) 2. Social legislation and regulations. (environmental laws) 3. Governmental relationships with industries. 4. Legislation related specifically to marketing (laws regulating competition and to protect consumers). Thailand is a mixed economy where government has some but little involvement with the market. However, it regulates it through business laws and policies. Due to the past few years of Thailand's financial crisis, the government was in debt to the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and is now paying the loan. This, therefore, led to lower level of government spending, privatization of over 60 state-owned enterprises, and a strive to increase revenues. The taxation of doing business in Thailand includes corporate income tax, value added tax (VAT), and personal income tax. For corporate income tax, incorporate firms operating in Thailand are taxed thirty percent from the net profit. Foundations and associations pay income tax at two to ten percent of gross business income, depending upon the nature of their business activity. All companies that registered under Thai law will have to follow the taxation described above. However, for foreign companies that have not registered will only ha ve to pay income tax for the revenue deriving from the sources in Thailand. Normal business expenses can be deducted from gross income when fili...

The Rise and Fall of Weimar and the Rise of Hitler

The Rise and Fall of Weimar and the Rise of Hitler Between World War One and Two, Germany experienced several changes in government: from an emperor to democracy to the rise of a new dictator, a FÃ ¼hrer. Indeed, it’s this last leader, Adolf Hitler, who directly began the second of the twentieth century’s two great wars. The German Revolution of 1918-19 Faced with defeat in the First World War, the military leaders of Imperial Germany convinced themselves that a new civilian government would do two things: take the blame for the loss, and persuade the soon to be winners of the war to demand only a moderate punishment. The socialist SDP was invited to form a government and they pursued a moderate course, but as Germany began to fracture under pressure so calls for a full-fledged revolution were demanded by the extreme left. Whether Germany really did experience a revolution in 1918-19, or whether that was defeated is debated. The Creation and Struggle of the Weimar Republic The SDP was running Germany, and they resolved to create a new constitution and republic. This was duly created, based at Weimar because the conditions in Berlin were unsafe, but problems with the allies’ demands in the Treaty of Versailles produced a rocky path, which only got worse in the early 1920s as reparations helped hyperinflation and impending economic collapse. Yet Weimar, with a political system that produced coalition after coalition, survived, and experienced a cultural Golden Age. The Origins of Hitler and the Nazi Party In the chaos following the end of World War One, many fringe parties emerged in Germany. One was investigated by an army man called Hitler. He joined, displayed a talent for demagoguery, and soon took over the Nazi Party and expanded its membership. He might have moved too early believing his Beer Hall Putsch would work, even with Ludendorff on the side, but managed to turn a trial and time in prison into a triumph. By the mid-twenties, he’d resolved to at least start his rise to power semi-legally. The Fall of Weimar and Hitler’s Rise to Power The Golden Age of Weimar was cultural; the economy was still dangerously dependent on American money, and the political system was unstable. When the Great Depression removed the US loans the German economy was crippled, and dissatisfaction with the center parties led to extremists like the Nazis growing in votes. Now the top level of German politics slipped towards the authoritarian government, and democracy failed, all before Hitler managed to exploit violence, despair, fear and political leaders who underestimated him to become Chancellor. Treaty of Versailles and Hitler The Treaty of Versailles was long blamed for leading directly to the Second World War, but this is now considered an overstatement. Nevertheless, it’s possible to argue several aspects of the Treaty did contribute to Hitler’s rise to power. The Creation of the Nazi Dictatorship By 1933 Hitler was Chancellor of Germany, but was far from secure; in theory, President Hindenburg could sack him whenever he wanted. Within months he had wrecked the constitution and established a powerful, gripping dictatorship thanks to violence and the final act of political suicide from the opposition parties. Hindenburg then died, and Hitler combined his job with the presidency to create a FÃ ¼hrer. Hitler would now reshape all areas of German life.

Modern Chinese Fashion Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Modern Chinese Fashion - Research Paper Example The paper "Modern Chinese Fashion" focuses on modern Chinese fashion and is basically meant to discuss the changing fashion patterns seen at festivals and traditions, how traditional and festive Chinese clothing differ from each other, mainstream Chinese fashion designers, popular dress trends, and how wealth produces influence on the type of clothes worn by the Chinese people. Integrating the creative and priceless knowledge gained from places which are considered to be centers of fashion like New York, Paris, and Milan in the native system to create modern clothes sensitively customized to the culture of China is not an easy challenge to fulfill. Chinese fashion designers are astute and sensitive enough to acknowledge the changing economical trends in the country and design their clothes while keeping the national economical state of the country in their minds so that everyone would be able to wear stylish clothes irrespective of class difference. Basic Chinese fashion elements der ive from the Tang and Song dynasties and Shiatzy Chen is one such fashion label in China run by Wang Chen which relies heavily on materials such as silk and satin. In words of Chen, â€Å"I wanted to create something that reflects Chinese culture, yet manages to achieve global recognition; a brand that would make China proud†. Class difference, though not as pronounced now as it was previously in Chinese clothing, also presents challenges for Chinese fashion designers on some levels. In the past, these elements of class difference.... Distinction made by clothes between rich and poor was undeniably so obvious in the ancient China as compared to the modern China that no one could possibly remain oblivious to it. The wealthy members of the society were identified by the richness reflecting from their royal clothes which were almost always made out of silk, while the middle class and poor people relied on wearing very simple clothes made out of cotton. But irrespective of past and modern times, silk has throughout served as a resolute status symbol in the Chinese society and has always remained the material of choice to be worn for the rich and elite Chinese people in traditional terms. It is also the general consensus among the Chinese people, fashion designers, and critics that silk has a wide range of application in both festive and ordinary clothing. From being integrated in women’s blouses and scarves to men’s dress shirts and ties, silk is recognized as the material of choice for the fashion desig ners too who design clothes in accordance with common public’s demands and tastes. The modern Chinese fashion wear largely refines the more conventional clothing approach as seen in old Chinese pictures and present day popular trends can also be considered as a major reflection of orthodox dressing trends. In the ancient days during the Tang and Song dynasties, fabrics popular in China were gauze, damask, crepe, and brocade (Csanyi). Women wore loose robes with long sleeves and used decorative cloth on the lower hems (Hua 16). Incorporation of classic Chinese symbols in the clothing is vividly apparent in the ancient Chinese clothing culture. To the present day clothing culture, symbolism still serves as one of the primarily important elements considered by the fashion designers while designing

Discuss the invasions of the barbarians and the influence of St Essay

Discuss the invasions of the barbarians and the influence of St. Augustine and the Celts as well as the rise of monasticism and - Essay Example The paper explores the rise of monasticism and Islam, the invasions of the barbarians and the influence of St. Augustine and the Celts. Discussion Celtic Christianity represents features of Christianity that were prominent across Celtic world in the Early Middle Ages. A spotlight on monasticism centering on the sequestered life of monks and nun provides an example of Celtic Christian practice. True ecclesiastical power within the Celtic world lay in the hands of monasteries instead of bishops of dioceses, and the ideal of monasticism collectively esteemed within Celtic Christianity (Noble 192). St. Benedict established his Monastic Rule, which established a system of regulations for the basis and running of monasteries. Monasticism gained prominence throughout Europe and gave rise to numerous early center of learning. The way of addressing monastic varies between the diverse Christian traditions based on their rank and monastic tradition. As early as the 3rd century, the ascetical li fe had attained a noteworthy expansion within the church in North Africa witnessed by the presence of existence of number monasteries at Carthage by the year 400. The structure in which monasticism spread from North Africa to all of the Western Christianity emanates partly from St. Augustine influence. Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo was both a theologian and philosopher, and can be regarded as one of the most prominent figures within the development of Western Christianity (Noble 193). When the Roman Empire fell, and the faith of numerous Christians was at stake, Augustine established the concept of Church as a spiritual City of God separate from the material city of Man. The Roman’s utilized the term â€Å"barbarians† to refer to individuals who lived outside the boundaries of the Empire. The middle Ages period can be connected to the fall of the Western Roman Empire within the fifth century to the start of the Renaissance in the fifth century. The collapse of the R oman government accompanied a decline in trade, learning, infrastructure, and security. The Early Middle Ages witnessed the emergence of monasticism in the west. The form of European monasticism derived from the traditional ideas that emanated from within the deserts and Syria. The presence of Christianity within Africa started within the middle of 1st century in Egypt, and by the end of 2nd century within the region around Carthage. The later rise of Islam within North Africa reduced the size and numbers of Christian congregations sparing the Coptic Church in Egypt, the Nubian Church within Sudan, and Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The decline and total desertion of this flourishing Church can be regarded as a sad fact of history. The Arab Muslim incursion of North Africa that started around 643 was completed by the fall of Carthage (698) and Ceuta (709). The Muslim heralded the extinction of Christianity, minimizing the number of bishoprics by the time of Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085). The disappearance of the Church in North Africa can be explained by: the presence of Donatism within the Church in North Africa, which significantly minimized the Church’s interior strength; despite, the Catholic victory over the Donatists at a meeting held in 411 (Carthage), Donatism did not entirely disappear and was still evident in North Africa

International Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 5

International Relations - Essay Example Similarly IGOs strive to enhance international relations and cooperation while NGOs try to deliver developmental aids to their beneficiaries. The ultimate goal of an NGO is to enhance sustainable development whereas an IGO’s mission is to promote human rights and to support socio-economic development. The fundamental point of distinction is that IGOs may include governments when NGOs may not2. 2. ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’ is an economic theory developed by Garrett Hardin. The theory states that individuals who act independently according to their self interests normally behave contrary to the long term interests of the whole group by depleting common resources whose demand is overwhelming the supply3. More simply, ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’ can be simply referred to an economic problem where every individual tries to best exploit a given resource. When the demand for this particular resource overwhelms the supply, individuals who consume an extra unit directly act against the interests of other people who have no longer access to the benefits. This economic problem occurs when individuals ignore the wellbeing of the whole society in an attempt to entertain their personal interests. This economic theory is often linked to sustainable development and global warming as they are related to the exploitation of resources by humans in pursuit of th eir personal gains. Oceans, atmosphere, national parks, and fish stocks are some of the examples of ‘commons’. 3. According to some experts, human rights represent moral principles that define specific standards of human behavior despite cultural or national differences4. Human rights are considered as legal rights across the globe and particularly protected under national and international law. These rights belong to all people simply because they are humans. It is possible to

Water shortage in place of Abundance Assignment

Water shortage in place of Abundance - Assignment Example Water has been always scarce in the Middle East from the earliest recorded human civilizations in this region. However, over the past few decades, the problem of water shortage has escalated to great levels in the region Despite the fact that the Middle Eastern region represents almost 6 percent of the total world’s population, the region only owns less than 1 percent of the world’s overall water resources. In fact, statistics reveal that the demand for desalinated water is growing at an average annual rate of over 7 percent in the Middle Eastern countries which almost the double of the global average (Earle, Jagerskog & Ojendal, pp. 103-104, 2010). Poverty, mass unemployment, political suppression, injustice, inflation and others were cited as the major reasons behind the recent revolutions and revolts in the Middle East, however, a less cited but extremely important reasons behind the turmoil in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Algeria, Syria and others countries, is the rising food prices caused by the water shortage. Many studies by other NGOs, political and international organisations have repeatedly identified that the region would be suffering with severe water crisis in the coming decades.Growing population (World Bank predicts that the population would be more than 600 million in the next couple of decades), rising temperatures and political instability is like a dynamite in the region which will burst will only a little spark (Shuval & Dwiek, pp. 147-149, 2007). Many of the autocratic rulers of oil-rich Middle Eastern countries have been able to put a lid on this turmoil by using their wealth from oil to subsidized food prices and import grains and sell them for cheap prices in the country, however, it appears that this pattern will not last for long (Holst-Warhaft & Steenhuis, pp. 238-239, 2010). Quite understandably, one obvious reason for water shortage in the Middle Eastern countries is the recent increase in demand in these countries. Lately, these countries have shown almost impeccable economic growth that has stunned its critics. State of the art buildings, skyscrapers, modern infrastructure, facilities with the latest technologies and abundant job opportunities are attracting many people from different Asian countries to try their luck in these Middle Eastern countries (Shuval & Dwiek, pp. 147-149, 2007). Algeria, Morocco, Iran, Iraq, Tunisia, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Yemen, Jordan, Israel and Libya are all running in water deficits and according to the recent Water Stress Index, all of these countries have been identified with â€Å"extreme risk†. Turkey is the only country that has water surplus in the region but up until this point is not willing to share its resources. Libya is spending 20 billion US dollars every year to use its deep-water reserves. UAE has expressed his tensions as all of his water reserves being derived from ancient fossils fuels will run out in less than four decades (Raouf, pp. 5-10, 2010). Statement of the problem Therefore, the statement of problem or the research question for this particular study would be as follows: - â€Å"To explore short term and long term solutions for the problem of water shortage in various Middle Eastern countries† Research Goals Following are the research goals of this particular research. To shed light on the causes and reasons behind water shortage and scarcity in the Middle Eastern region To explore and evaluate the possible

Article summary Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Article summary - Assignment Example The solution to this problem was found in the adoption of Jive software to provide the stakeholders with a virtual community where they can share ideas, information, and data and discuss other business opportunities. This community was not only helpful for the discussions but was also proved to be a successful marketing tool. Information about new products and offers could easily be shared to the community members and other interested people. This step by NetApp owners helped in developing a stronger brand image and increased the participation of its members. NetApp has acquired the benefit of improving its services and satisfying its customers by receiving feedbacks on the site. It has also become possible for the administration of NetApp to gain knowledge about it’s stakeholders desires and expectations via discussion boards, blogs and wikis. In conclusion, we can say that this article illustrates the increased opportunity for NetApp’s business expansion and also prov es the efficiency of Jive’s software. This case study involves much information about the use of Jive’s software and its success as experienced by NetApp. However, this case study fails to explain the background information about NetApp and hence does not provide full information about the activities and services of NetApp. For a reader who is not aware of Netapp’s services, this case study provides insufficient information to understand how Jive Software helped NetApp. The case study is written in a direct manner. It does not involve too much explanation but instead provides information that is necessary to prove the success of jive software in NetApp’s business. The bullet points, headings and structure of the paper is quite useful and easily comprehensible. The sub-headings and bulleted points make it easier for the reader to grasp and memorize the key points. However,

DIGITAL AND INTERACTIVE MARKETING Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

DIGITAL AND INTERACTIVE MARKETING - Essay Example Company profile and concept Aviva plc is one of the world’s largest insurance companies. It has about 46000 employees and 28 countries. In UK the company’s strategy is to establish itself as a single global organization that is relatively quicker at fulfilling customer needs. And to support this strategy of theirs they needed a modern human capital management system. Later in 2010 Aviva introduced workday as a global solution to this concern. (Stobbart) Aviva has been a market leader in UK and was best known with its older name which was Norwich union. The company’s main spheres of operations are in Europe and although it offers general insurance and other financial services, it generates most of its revenues from pensions and life insurance. The marketing team of aviva takes care of its marketing and retention strategies, member benefit development for the health insurance business and product strategy. Aviva’s sales team looks after the development and d elivery of sales of aviva in its markets Issues with online presence When Aviva started to venture online it met different degrees of success. However some issues faced by the company with its online presence was because of the conservative nature of the insurance industry. There are quite a lot of technical issues that are becoming a problem. Also the complexity of all the technology involved in internet marketing has been very challenging for the company. Much of the technology used by Aviva is used to automate instead of changing already existing business processes. (Ward) The basic problem with the use of websites in internet marketing is that most of the times websites don’t appear in internet results for search words related to your business as a result of which your customers end up never having an access to your website. (Ashmore) In Aviva’s case Aviva has found online solutions for increasing its efficiency and to cut down on some paper work. These online solu tions mainly focus on the needs of financial advisers. This was launched by Aviva in the UK. (Staff) Developing online strategy using new tools understanding and definitions This solution is for advisors e-commerce platform that was launched in June 2009 and now provides to around 40 000 investors tax, product and technical support related information. (Mail) One of the new features added to the company now make the advisors capable of monitoring and switching funds online on more than about 1.6 million investment bonds, group, stakeholder and individual personal pensions New feature is e-documents which provide the advisors an access to electronic version of client correspondence. (Stobbart) The online funds switch solution also has some other features like now customer signatures are not required as the online services get hold of the entire customer’s information and removes the need for their signature every time a switch is needed. Moreover, the policy fund research tool lets the advisors know which funds are available to switch and an online compliance record of each switch is available. Lastly, a client confirmation letter is automatically issued for each client after every fund switch is done. (Publications) (Berthon) Now talking about the e- documents system, it gives to the advisors access