Impact of Green Marketing

A Study on the Impact of Green Marketing on Purchasing Decision as Perceived by Young Professionals on Makati City A Research Paper Presented to Ms. Lydia A. Basaysay In Partial Fulfillment for the Requirements of the Course in Communication Arts II Presented by: Angel Joy Mandigal Far Eastern University-Makati October 4, 2012 I. INTRODUCTION In the late 1980’s there are various environmental disasters that exist which makes the environmentalism in the spotlight.Among these were the Exon Valdez Oil Spill in Alaska, devastation of Germany’s Black Forest by acid rain, release of toxic chemicals in the Rhine River and the volcanic eruption o`f Mount Pinatubo in Philippines according to Ottman (1998 as cited in Suplico 2009). Those environmental issues that mentioned are antecedent by the world’s growing population that leads to scarcity of goods. As a result, â€Å"green† were introduced in the market that helps to make less damaging to the environment. In a study of Nandini & Deshpande (2011) stated that the green concept are seen in the United States and has been gaining steadily ever ince. In detailed, business firms realized that this environmental issue serves as a marketing opportunity for them. They believed that it will help them to increase their business profit thus; they started to adopt the concept of green marketing by implementing green consuming in measures to save earth’s resources in production. Tan &Yeap (2012) On the other hand, Suplico (2009) cited that marketing fulfils business and human purpose by providing benefits to customers through products such as the food people eat, the clothes they wear, the house where they live and the cars they drive.Hence, the decisions on what products to make and how to offer them are the responsibility of marketing functions. Additionally, Fuller (2009) stated that the decisions on what products to make are relate to what to take and both the making and taking processes. Eve ntually the wasting process that takes into ecological costs in the form of waste, pollution and damage of ecosystems that determines the attributes of products and the specific systems though which they are made available to the markets.And to determine resource use and waste generation patterns, which the antecedents of pollution and ecosystems degradation. Due of that, the market has a challenge to reinvent product systems to achieve â€Å"zero waste, zero discharger† outcomes while giving the same benefits to consumers that meets their customer expectations on product. Research studies about green consuming of a product or service have increased exponentially over the last decades that conducted until now, conformed by Leonidou, Leonidou and Kvasova (2011).People get interested on consuming eco-friendly products or services due of the environmental issues problem that lead market segment to produce a so called â€Å"green marketing†. This research is followed of su cceeding major streams, which are explained below. In a study that Nandini &Deshapande (2011) conducted, it mentioned that green marketing is an activity that designed to generate and facilitate any exchange intended in order to satisfy human needs or wants such as that satisfying that needs and wants to occur with minimal detrimental input on the national environment.Furthermore, according to Zsolnai (2002:656) as cited in Smith & Perks (2010) appended that green business is a business that has adopted the concept of being environmentalism across the various functions of the business. Together with the study of Yazdanifard & Mercy (2011) affirmed that green marketing serves as a tool for protection of the environment for the future generation which has a positive impact on environmental safety. In other words, green marketing was made in business functions due to the reason to prevent variety range of environmental issues that consumers experienced.Specifically, in the book Europea n Communities (2004:5) defined green purchasing as a giving an example and influence the market place by promoting it’s the green products or services with the authority of the public which can provide the industry with incentives for developing green technologies. As a matter of fact, green marketing campaign highlighted the superior of environmental protection characteristics of a company’s products and services whether those benefits take the form of reduce waste of packaging, increased energy efficiency in product used or decrease release of toxic emissions and other pollutants in production.Encyclopedia of Business (2nded. ). Meanwhile, Tan &Yeap (2012) study asserted that the green movement are not only focused on the environmental protection purpose but let firms globally compete to the corporate world since mostly firms applied these green movement. In addition, Smith & Perks (2010) probe about the impact of green marketing on business functions founded out tha t those human resource, management and finance department of firms which has a least impact b the green business practice.On the other hand in the further analysis of Smith & Perks revealed that the operation, marketing and distribution functions of business are the most impact of green practice of firms. Wherefore, business must know their intentions o goals since mostly of its functions impacted of green practice. Bukhari (2012) discussed in his study that companies developed more new and improved products and services with environment inputs in mind. As a result, it enables firms to gain competitive, improve ecological performance, educe operation costs, enhance corporate image of firms and increase the profit sustainability.On the other side, Ottman (2011) explained that through green consuming will served as a new source for innovation of global market because market segment believe that being green means doing things differently. However, consumers are one that witnessed the e xistence of green practice to market. To agree on that, in the book of National Consumer Council (2002:7) postulated a fact that consumers are at the centre of environmental issues, everything that consumers do in their lives impacts on the environment.In that condition, the people will start to practice the green purchasing with a belief that it will help to prevent the environmental issues that they undergo. That fact that cited was supported by Suplico (2009) in her study that consumers are really aware of the green consuming such as buying environmentally friendly products. It showed in her study that the respondents or consumers agreed that they will buy products that are non-toxic, recyclable/reasonable/refillable, degradable, non-polluting, and free from animal testing, ozone friendly, energy efficient and cause minimal household waste.In short, people are willing to bought products that are harmonious to the environment. Although, green practice of business function and cons umers help to prevent globally environmental issues and give firms an opportunity to boost up their profit, still it has another side impact in market and consumers. To prove it, Lin &Ho (2010) claimed on their study that the environmental uncertainty and green practice complexity have a significant negative influence on green adoption.Additionally, in a report of Romero (2008) posted in news the statement of Von Hernandez, Green Peace Executive Director for Southeast Asia that going green of the businesses is a great thing but it would be misleading to the consumers. Identically, on the blog of Hicks (2009) exposed that the use of eco labelling about the environmental credentials of firms are only made consumers more confusing about the product or service. Similarly, according to Lipp (2010) that articulated in his blog that in the reality the green products that offered are come in a higher price tag, in which can face market obstacles.And also, Tantawi, Shaughnessy, Gad and Raghe b (2009) conceded that going green has contradicts in result. They confirmed in their study that those environmental concern products and services is a little luxurious that only afforded by wealthy and only shed a light upon the possibility of going green. In the same matter, based on the blog of Makower (2011) explicated that green marketing are not changing consumer’s mind but is ignored by the biggest marketers, are not changing things, instead mislead consumers and does not give companies where its due.The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of green marketing on the decision making of consumers in Makati City. Precisely, this study will response and explicate the following the questions: 1) Are consumers cognizant on the concepts of green consuming? 2) Is there a significant effect of green marketing on brand loyalty? Obviously, this paper wants to address if the concept helps the firms to increase the brand loyalty on products or services. Thus, this will ex posed if the effects of the concepts to brand loyalty whether it has an advantage or disadvantage to the business functions and consumers.And for the last question, 3) Is there a significant implication of influence of green consuming that executed on the consumers and business functions? The significance of this research paper that will conduct is important because it will distinguish more information about green consuming to the consumers. As a matter of fact, this will make consumers more aware to the practice of green consuming that implemented the conservation of environment. For additional reasons, this paper will analogize the impact of green marketing to its relations to the brand loyalty of consumers on products.Hence, its main reason that related on green marketing is to contribute benefits on business functions, environment and mostly consumers. II. METHODOLOGY This paper determines to analyse the influence of the green practice movement of businesses functions on the off ered products and services in market that consumed by the different consumes. 2. 1 Participants Thirty people from selected areas of Makati will be chosen as the participants of this research. The thirty will divided into three groups of ten students, workers and non-workers from different places.Every each group of participants contains of five males and five females. 2. 2 Instruments This research surveys will confirms the impact of adoption of green practice of different firms in country. The data for this study will come from one source compartmentalized in one survey questionnaire form. First, is the demographic part of the questionnaire that will be used of personal profile information from therespondent. It includes of the respondents age, gender and profession whether they are students, workers or employees and non-workers.Second was the self-rating reading. This part is used to collect data information about their opinions that based on a given statement. The research quest ionnaire that used is the Likert Scale Type. This Likert are answerable by five scales: (SA) Strongly Agree, (A) Agree, (AD) Agree/ Dis Agree, (D) Dis Agree and (SD) Strongly Dis Agree. The scale has different criteria that concentrate on the effectiveness of the impact of green marketing on the buying pattern of consumers. 2. 3 ProcedureAll the data from respondents’ demographic and self-rating reading information will be gathered. The questionnaire will administer to the respondents before end of September 2012. The respondents are taught to fill in the survey questionnaire, consulting that there were no right or wrong answer. The respondents can took five minutes to finish the questionnaire that given. To see if there are significant impacts of green marketing on the buying pattern behaviour of consumer, whether it has effectiveness. III.DISCUSSION This research study tries to determine the impact of green marketing on the decision making in purchasing of consumers. With r egard to a) the significant information of awareness of consumes on green practice of three groups, b) the effectiveness of the green practice of business on products and service that offered in the consume satisfaction of consumers and c) certain insights that can be establish concerning on the influence of green consuming that applied of consumers and business functions.As regard to the first research problem, on many that study conducted it all agreed that consumers are highly aware on the movement of green consuming of product and service on market. To support that statement, Leonidou, Leonidou and Kvasova (2011) reiterated that consumer are started to be cognizant on green practice of market because of the immediate exist of products or services that are harmonious on environment that leads to severe environment issues. Table 1 Awareness about and the importance of green product Awareness about green Product |Frequency (N) |Percentage (%) | |Have never heard |14 |13 | |A lot |7 7 |71. 3 | |A little |17 |15. | |The Importance of green product | | | |YES |97 |89. 8 | |NO |11 |10. 2 |As for the awareness of the consumers on purchasing green products, Yaacob and Zakaria (2010) study result overwhelmingly more than 70 per cent of respondents claimed that they were highly aware on green products. Only small proportions of respondents had a little awareness about products-15. 7 per cent. On the other hand, 13 per cent of them admitted that they never heard about the practice of green consuming. It is also the same scenario that observed when the question of green products was raised. Close to 90 per cent of respondents were positive about it, and only 10 per cent claimed green products were of no importance.Table 2: Respondents' Source of Awareness to Green Marketing |How did you become aware in green marketing? |Frequency (N) |Percentage (%) | |TV |105 |48. 61 | |Radio |14 |6. 48 | |Newspaper |50 |23. 5 | |Magazine |80 |37. 04 | |Books |11 |5. 09 | |Seminar |19 |8. 80 | |Class Lecture |77 |35. 5 | |Others | |Internet |13 |6. 02 | |Parents |2 |0. 93 | |Friends |3 |1. 9 | |Product Bought |1 |0. 46 | As shown in the Table 2 consumers get interested or aware on green consuming through the following result of stud of Suplico(2009): television (48. 61%), magazines (37. 04%), class lectures (35. 65%) and newspapers (23. 15%). Obviously speaking television although has a little expensive but still the important source of information for consumers.Because television reaches extremely large audience as it communicates with sight, sound and motion. Additionally, according to Yaacob and Zakaria (2010) that the green consumerism implies the consumer that is willing to buy products or service with a premium price. In detail, consumers agree that are willing to acquire products or services that are nontoxic, recyclable/reusable/refillable, ozone friendly, energy efficient and causes minimal household waste which implies businesses can use green marketing to promote their products.With regard to the second question, Mercy & Yazdanifad (2011) study explicated that consumer on acquiring green products or services believe that the green life is a better and healthier for present and future generation. It was shown that consumers spending pattern illustrate that they have desire for brands that â€Å"go green†. Thus, in the paper of Raksha & Majidazar (2011) concluded that green practice has significant effect on the brand loyalty of consumers on firms’ products and services.It was mentioned that the perceptual evaluative and psychological process that contributes the satisfaction of consumers which it shows the product satisfaction and purchase decision experience of consumers. For further detail, businesses that incorporated green ideas in their products or services not only can satisfy the environmental needs of consumers, but also the consumer expectations on the products or services which results to increase of consumer loyalty on product or service.And for the last question, here are some significant implications of the influence of green consuming that is implemented on the consumers and business functions. Nandini & Deshpande (2011) stated in their study that green marketing helps to improve the usage of raw materials of company in manufacturing products which results a much better product quality of firms because of the green program that attached in the products. And together with the green contents that exist in the products or services that clearly gives interest to the consumers to acquire the product. Hence, it ncreased the satisfaction of costumers on the product or services of firms that leads into brand loyalty on firms. Similarly, Nandini & Deshpandi explicated being green of market increased and enhances the social responsibility of consumers to protect the environment. People get more get interested on their social responsibility if they see that the global market also c oncerned on the environment. Obviously, that implicate to reducing of the risk exposure of environment. With the help of market and also the responds of the consumers, it may slowly prevent some environmental issues.As for another firm’s implication, Bukhari (2011) elucidated that doing green of firms give them chance to access the new market, increase their profit sustainability, and enjoy a competitive advantage over the companies which are not totally concerned on the environment. Therefore, after finding the implications of doing green it can be said that its main consequence is the sustainable development clearly in the environment and to the market that highlighted the green concept and absolutely to the consumers itself. Figure 1. Implications of Green MarketingRetrieved from Nandini and Deshpande (2011) IV. CONCLUSION Green marketing is a tool for protecting the environment for the future generation, it has an impact on consumer decision making on buying products. As what Mercy & Yazdanifad (2011) concluded in their study that consumers want to identify themselves with companies that are green compliant and are willing to pay a premium for a greener life style. Hence, clearly can say it has positive on consumer. However, marketers must find an opportunity to enhance their product's performance and strengthen customer's loyalty and command a higher price.Bukhari (2011) On the other hand, (Ottman, 1998), said that most consumers are sprouts. They buy green products from time to time but are not involved in any environmental activities. Additionally, the use of firms of labelling the green welfare of products are only make consumers more confused about the product or service. Thus, marketers should encourage consumers with appeals to get involved in environmental activities and must have enough knowledge about the use of green products that offered in market.As such, thus green marketing is not just an environmental protection tool but also, a mark eting strategy of firms for sustainable development. REFERENCES Bukhari, S. S. (2011). Green Marketing and its impact on consumer behaviour. European Journal of Business , 3(4), 375-383 Chang, N, J. , , C, M. (2010). Green product quality, green corporate image, green customer satisfaction, and green customer loyalty. African Journal of Business Management, 4(13), 2836-2844 European Commission. (2004). Buying green! A handbook on environmental public procurement.Belgium: Luxembourg Publication. Encyclopedia of Business (2007). Green Marketing (2nded. ). Washington DC. Fuller, Donald A. (1998). Sustainable Marketing: Managerial-Ecological Issues. USA. SagePublications. Hicks, C. (2009). It’s Not Easy Buying Green. Retrieved August 6, 2012 from http://blog. lohas. com/blog/green-marketing-strategy Horne, R. E (2009). Limits to labels: The role of eco labels in the assessment of product sustainability and routes to sustainable consumption. International Journal of Consumer Studi es [serial online]. March 2009; 33(2):175-182. doi:10. 111/j. 1470-6431. 2009. 00752. x Leonidou, L. C. ,Leonidou, C. N. , , O. (2010). Antecedents and outcomes of consumer environmentally friendly attitudes and behaviour. Journal of Marketing Management,26(13/14), 1319–1344. doi: 10. 1080/0267257X. 2010. 523710 Lin, C. , & Ho, Y. (2011). Determinants of Green Practice Adoption for Logistics Companies in China. Journal of Business Ethics, 98(1):67–83. doi: 10. 1007/s10551-010-0535-9 Lipp, B. (2010). Impact of B2B Green Marketing in an Increasingly Environmentally ConsciousWorld. Recovered August 8, 2012 from http://www. nvironmentalleader. com/2010/06/14/impact-of-b2b-green-marketing-in-an-increasingly-environmentally-conscious-world/. Makower, J. (2011). Green Marketing Is Over. Let’s Move On. Retrieved August 8, 2012 from http://www. greenbiz. com/blog/2011/05/16/green-marketing-over-lets-move? page=full Nandini, P, M. , , M. (2011). A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ON GREEN MARKETING- A TOOL FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. International Journal Of Sales And Marketing Management, 1(1), 1-16 National Consumer Council (2002). Green consuming. London Ottman, J. (2011).The New Rules of Green Marketing: Strategies, Tools, and Inspiration for Sustainable Branding. United Kingdom: Greenleaf Publishing. Ottman, Jacquelyn A. (1998). Green Marketing: Challenges and Opportunities for the New Marketing Age. USA. NTC Business Books. ROMERO, P. (2008). Beware of green marketing, warns Greenpeace exec. Retrieved August 6, 2012 from http://www. abs-cbnnews. com/special-report/09/16/08/beware-green-marketing-warns-greenpeace-exec Suplico, L. T (2009). IMPACT OF GREEN MARKETING ON THE STUDENTS PURCHASE DECISION. Journal Of International Business Research, 871-88.Tan, B. C, & Y, P. F. (2012). What Drives Green Restaurant Patronage Intention? International Journal of Business , 7(2), 215-223. doi:10. 5539/ijbm. v7n2p215 Smith, E. E. , & Perks, S. (2010). A perceptual st udy of the impact of green practice implementation on the business functions. Southern African Business Review, 14(3) Tantawi, P. , Shaughnessy, N. , Gad, K. , , M, A, S. (2009). Green Consciousness of Consumers in a Developing Country: A Study of Egyptian Consumers. Contemporary Management Research, 5 (1), 29-50 Yazdanifard, R. , , I. E. (2011).The impact of Green Marketing on Customer satisfaction and Environmental safety. International Conference on Computer Communication and Management, 5, 637-641 Yaacob, M. R. , , A. (2010). CUSTOMERS’ AWARENESS, PERCEPTION AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF GREEN PRODUCTS IN PAHANG, MALAYSIA. The Journal of Commerce, 3(2), Rakhsha, R. , , M. (2011). Evaluation of Effectiveness Of green Marketing Mix on Consumer Satisfaction and Loyalty: (Case Study: The East AzarbaijanPegah Dairy Company in Tabriz, Iran). Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research, 10 (6): 755-763APPENDIX A (Date) Dear Respondents, Good day! I am student from Feu Makati taking up Bachelor of Science Administration major in Marketing Management. As a business student, I am equied to write an academic research in our Communication Arts II. Thus, I am now conducting a research about â€Å"A Study on the Impact of Green Marketing on Purchasing Decision as Perceived by Young Professionals on Makati City† The goal of this study is to examine and analyse the impact of the effectiveness of green marketing on the decision making of purchasing of consumers.This survey will concentrate to the awareness of the consumers on Makati City on the eco-friendly practice of business functions. Likewise, this will also analyse the behaviour of consumers on the responds to the green practice of businesses. The responses will be a big help to further examine and re inform the impact of green practice on the customer satisfaction and businesses functions. In that matter, I would like to request to you to fill out the following survey questionnaire and I would be grateful if you could return the absolute questionnaire as soon as possible.Thank you for your kindly cooperation, time and understanding. Sincerely, Ms. Angel Joy S. Mandigal APPENDIX B Survey Questionnaire Name (optional)________________Age__________ Gender: ____Male ____FemaleProfession_______________ Direction: Kindly put a check mark (? ) in each statement that reflects if you are SA- Strongly AgreeAD- Agree/DisagreeSD- Strongly Disagree A- Agree D- Disagree | |SA |A |AD |D |SD | |1.I am aware of green marketing practice. | | | | | | |2. I choose/ purchase products that are eco-friendly. | | | | | | |3. My friends, the media and the marketers influenced me of consuming green products. | | | | | | |4. I buy or consumed green products or services because of the env ironment issues. | | | | | | |5.Everytime I purchase products or services, I always consider its benefit to | | | | | | |environment. | | | | | | |6. I believe that green products or services have a high quality. | | | | | | |7. E ven though I consumed green products or services in market, it still meets my | | | | | | |expectations and satisfactions as consumer on product. | | | | | | |8.I am still willing to buy green products or services despite of its higher or | | | | | | |expensive price. | | | | | | |9. I believe that purchasing green products or services is a right thing to do. | | | | | | |10. Everytime I purchased green products or services I feel that I contribute to the | | | | | | |environmental protection and sustainable development. | | | | | | |11.I prefer buying or consuming eco-friendly products or services than non-green. | | | | | | |12. I am willing to recommend to the people around me the practice of purchasing green | | | | | | |products or services. | | | | | | |13. I believe that business functions should adapt the concept of green marketing. | | | | | | |14. Consumers should practice the green consuming of products or services. | | | | | |15. I do believe that green marketing really affects my purchasing decision on consuming| | | | | | |products or services. | | | | | | |16. Green practice or consuming eco-friendly products or services of consumers are the | | | | | | |best way to prevent environmental issue problem concerned. | | | | | | |17.Government should lead promoting the usage and producing of eco-friendly products or| | | | | | |services among consumers and business functions. | | | | | | ———————– Sustainable Development Customer Brand Loyalty Satisfaction Reduce risk of exposure of environment Improved Product Quality [? ]uw—?  °Ã‚ ±iiIKLTU[j? oaOA? A? A? A? A? A?  ¤Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ~kXH9h  ahâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬ uCJOJQJaJhKhâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬ u5? CJOJQJaJ$hRwihC]CJOJQJaJmHsH$hRwihnxiCJOJQJaJmHsH$hRwihRwiCJOJQJaJmHsH$hRwihu-CJOJQJaJmHsHhRwihnxiCJOJQJaJSocial Responsibility Improved Raw Material Usage

Online Web Services

A web service is a software application on a network that has an interface through which other programs can gain access. Web services can be as simple as a mortgage calculator program or as complex as a Fortune 500 software application built from components from y all over the world. They are currently being used to help large and small businesses get the most from their Information Technology resources by allowing the integration of diverse software applications, from desktop programs to large enterprise-wide systems. Not only are web services useful for day-to-day operations of a company, but they are especially helpful for post- merger or post-acquisition system merger. (Geerts,Paretta & White, 2004). XML, the root markup language and key ingredient for creating web services, is gaining in popularity, according to IDC, which has seen the growth in XML-based servers go up by 160% over the last year. Forrester Research, Cambridge, Mass. , notes that $500 million has already been spent on early projects in the financial services sector, while Gartner-Group, Stamford, Conn. suggests that the web services software market will reach $1. 7 billion in the U. S. by next year and balloon up from there. ( Ismail, Ayman, Samir Patil, and Suneel Saigal, 2002)/ This paper will give an overview of web services technology, and talk about XML, WSDL, SOAP and UDDI and how they fit into the process. It will also briefly explain how Microsoft. NET fits into the Web Services architecture. The key to making web services work is data, process, and communication standards. The communication protocol standard is the same as the Internet, TCP/IP. All computers can understand TCP/IP. Web services implement the client-server model over the World Wide Web). On the client side, for example, they manage the different creen shapes and sizes and the different connection speeds of desktop computers, mobile telephones, and PDAs. On the server side, the various programming languages and middleware technologies at work behind each application or data source become transparent to programmers, so it is a lot easier for them to develop applications. The data standard for TCP/IP is XML, a set of syntax rules for adding meaning to data and for building other XML standards. The process standards are actually a set of evolving XML standards: SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), for packaging messages from one software application to another, A set of rules that facilitate XML exchange between applications. Along with WSDL, SOAP performs message transport functions. (â€Å"Putting Web Services in a â€Å"No Spin Zone†, 2004) WSDL (Web Services Description Language)A common framework for describing tasks performed by a Web service. Suppliers, for example, could discover what kinds of information a company's inventory system offered them-nothing more than a bare indication that inventory was approaching zero, for example, or possible due dates as well. UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and IntegrationA set of specifications for creating XML-based directories of Web services offerings. Much as callers consult the Yellow Pages for the telephone numbers of businesses, users of and applications for Web services may find them through these directories. Message transport The actual workings of web services can be described from a provider's and a user's perspective. From a provider's perspective, a web service is created by using the data, process, and communication standards identified above to create a web interface to one or more software applications. Most of the web services described above provide data from a database in response to specific request parameters. In essence, a web service responds to a â€Å"get data† command by reading the data from a database and sending it back to a software application on the Internet. To actually create such a web service, the provider uses WSDL to define the allowable read access â€Å"get data† commands that the database management software can understand. The web service also knows how to put the results in a SOAP envelope addressed to the requesting software application and how to send it via the Internet. From a user's perspective, a software application must be able to issue the appropriate commands, put them in a SOAP envelope, and send them to the web service interface for processing. This usually requires downloading the WSDL and plugging it into a software application. For example, to use the Xmethods delayed stock quote web service, users employ a web browser to access the WSDL, plug it into an Excel spreadsheet, click the â€Å"insert stock quotes† icon that gets added to the Excel tool bar, and fill in the necessary information in the po-pup window. Because the Excel spreadsheet knows how to process XML, it packages the commands in a SOAP envelope addressed to the web service and sends it. When the return SOAP envelope arrives from the web service, Excel knows how to process it and insert the requested data in the appropriate cells. All current software packages, including Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, and Quicken, can understand and process XML and can therefore interface with web services. General ledger and other accounting packages should soon become XML-enabled. A further objective is to fully automate the process of finding and using web services. Web service providers will publish the availability of their applications, using UDDI to describe their location and available services and WSDL to define how to use them. When a user logs on to the Internet and launches a software application, it will be able to identify available web services by reading the UDDI. The software application will then know how to use the web services by accessing their WSDL definitions. When the desired web service is found, the user will simply tell the software application to access it by downloading its WSDL interface instructions. All of the complexity is hidden behind the interface. A competiitor to the XML standard is The Microsoft NET Framework. The Microsoft . NET Framework– first announced in July 2000–represents a new and in many ways radically different development foundation for Windows and Web-based servicess. It will overshadow and functionally replace previous Microsoft technologies, including COM and Win32, and will become the focus of all future development efforts across the company's many operating systems Users, in fact, cannot utilize Windows Messenger without signing up for â€Å"Passport,† a universal Internet log-in and identification card, that serves as the gateway to all of Microsoft's Internet services. Passport stores users' credit card and password information for a host of new consumer services that Microsoft has named â€Å"Hailstorm. † Combining instant messaging, digital music, and video, those services, for a monthly subscription fee, will allow users to purchase products online, receive e-mail at remote cellphones or other mobile devices, and make copies of digital music. The forecast for the future is that both XML and Microsoft Passport will pave the way for the implementation of every more sophisticated and complext web services, combining audio, visual, multimedia, and text applications.

Flower Festival in Vietnam

Da L? t Flower Festival Da Lat Flower Festival is a famous annual event not only in Vietnam but also in Asian region. It is frequently held in the spring to celebrate the charming nature beauty of the city. Every year, a large number of tourists, especially nature lovers, are fascinated by contemplating works of arts made of flowers. On the occasion of this festival, there is a compelling chain of events that you can not take your eyes off.In preparation for the festival, the local people have to complete a lot of things. The first fundamental step is to set up essential infrastructure systems, such as lighting, sound equipment and background iron frames. These tools are used to help artists decorate and honor the beauty of thousands of flower species. Next, many craftsmen put floral decoration into right orders, according to the planned picture. Therefore, along the city, tourists can easily remark a consistently meaningful message.Throughout the festival, we can see many special ac tivities taken place on this event. All of activities are organized in six days on the theme of flowers. Initially, there is an International Gallery and Exhibition of Flower and Ornaments performed at Da Lat garden. After that, along Xuan Huong Lakeshore, everyone can enjoy flower exhibition and lively street parade. Finally, the Ceremony of DaLat Flower Festival is officially held at DaLat square.Although almost celebrating activities take place before the official ceremony, people look forward to this important event which gives splendid performances. Besides, everyone participating in this event has the opportunity to watch and take part in various categories of extra activities, such as Festival for Street Dances, Wine Festival, Street Festival â€Å"Flower and Light†, Flower Market†¦ These activities are held in order to serve Da Lat people in particular as well as tourists in general.Especially, people will have a chance to enjoy the fabulous fireworks displayed o n Xuan Huong Lake. It would be an unforgetable experience that you should try. During the festival, tourists seems to be lost in an exciting world of colour and fragrance because flowers are everywhere. Therefore, this is a good potential chance for developing tourism, advertising image of the country that brings a lot of benefits to not only local people but also the Vietnamese. It would be wise for our government to make more investment in such an event. Y? n Hoa

Communities of practice and their contribution to organisational Essay

Communities of practice and their contribution to organisational learning - Essay Example According to Jeanand Etienne (1991, p21), learning is not dependent on whether the learner and the teacher has a common code and in most cases only requires a congruent participation of both the one seeking knowledge and the source in the same activities. Once different professionals within an organization come together, whether in a formal alliance (team) or informally, they are able to collaborate on projects and this increases productivity. For instance, if one professional has something they want to do, like if instance a project, they can bring together their resources, that is, knowledge and skills, to work on that project. Most of the collaborations within an organization are actually informal and the members are usually in the group because they enjoy working together and sharing ideas. In fact, according to Hasanali et al (2002, p.59), most organizations don not assess the usefulness of communities of practice until after the communities have set themselves and manifested th emselves in a good way. When employees within an organization come together to collaborate on projects, they are better able to share knowledge, skills and ideas. Apart from being able to deliver better work efficiently, collaboration in a firm is one of the most effective methods to manage an organization’s knowledge base. As the employees within the same domain of practice share information and pass on skills, they are more able to guarantee that the knowledge of the organization will remain in the organization. This can happen across all the departments of an organization as long as the collaboration is within one domain of profession. As Etienne (1998, p.4), says, such participation in collaborative teams defines what people do as well who we become and how we interact with what we do.? this is why communities of practice are so crucial within the organization as a tool to manage the organizational knowledge. At the same time, as Etienne et al, (2002, p.17), argued, commu nities of sharing are remarkably efficient implementing corporate strategy in the organization by bringing their ideas together. Experience sharing Within an organization, sharing experience is one of the ways in which communities of practice pass on their benefits to each other. This is probably one of the best forms of informal apprenticeship within an organization. One employee who is carrying out a project will be able to seek experience from others who have in the past achieved it. Again, this can also happen in any of the organization’s department and employees will benefit from the experience of others. For instance, if an employee is supposed to carry out some tasks such as advising a client on the best product to meet his needs, the employee can seek, among his or her community of practice in the organization, an individual who has done this in the past and then enlist their help. As the employee gets help from the other individual they will also be able to learn a l ot about the project they are carrying out. Reusing assets This refers to the fact that the individuals within a community of practice can and do use intellectual and knowledge assets that have already been made by members of the community of practice within the organization. For instance, if one accountant within an organiz

Advertising on the Internet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Advertising on the Internet - Essay Example The world of advertising was not always the cut-throat competitive field it is today.Ads in television and newspapers were the norm a decade ago, and internet was just one of the new things on the horizon.Internet advertising actually began in 1994 when HotWired contracted 14 advertisers for its entry in the online market. In the next two years, the internet gained in popularity as a possible advertising medium, and by 1997, websites were already being advertised in the traditional media. As Kaye puts it:"The growth of Internet advertising since its 1994 birth has been truly phenomenal. What started out with banners as bland and common as roadside billboards has exploded into a rich-media interactive environment that may soon rival the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland. (Kaye et al, 2001)."But the internet was not always popular as an advertising medium. At the end of the millennium, there was some serious soul-searching done by commercial enterprises on whether the internet really had the possibilities in advertising that had been earlier claimed. This was closely associated with the bursting of the dot.com bubble. As Schumann and Thorson point out in their book written in 1999:"Yet, many companies are growing disillusioned with the commercial possibilities of online advertising, and some have suggested that the Internet is better suited for interpersonal communication and personal sites rather than commercial sites.. Executives are questioning whether the potential of the Internet is real or just hype, and some companies are considering decreasing or removing their investment in online advertising".(Schumann et al, 1999) This changed down the years and the internet is now an established advertising medium due to a few specific reasons. The very first was the decreasing price of software and hardware. What used to be expensive software and hardware ten years ago has today become open source software and nearly free hardware. This has led to the increased possibility of setting up websites, and publishing content at low or negligible cost. This means more advertising space can be created at low cost. The second was wider accessibility and higher speed of the internet with the arrival of the broadband: bandwidth prices have gone down from $1000/mbps to less than $20/mbps. This has meant a larger audience, who are able to browse a large number of pages, and hence advertisements, in a short space of time. Moreover, the audience stays online longer because of the sheer speed and convenience of the medium. The internet has truly become a mass medium with two out of three people in the US surfing the internet, and a whole lot of the population, especially the youth, spending longer on the internet than on watching television. Thirdly, advertising strategies have matured in that the internet is no longer considered only a space which would provide for click-through purchases, but also opportunities for long-term brand-building. In the words of Greg Stuart, president of Interactive Advertising Bureau: "Internet advertising is without question taking share from the other media at this time and for good reason-marketers have figured out that online advertising is often the most cost-effective medium for influencing both branding and sales results." (Olsen, 2004) This brings us to our fourth reason for the establishment of the internet as an advertising medium: cost effectiveness. It is cheaper to place an ad on the internet than it is to run it in on the television or print media. One obvious example is the election campaigns run by the presidential candidates: while there are ads on TV and print, a whole host of candidates have chosen to go the internet advertising route, and possibly none has ignored the internet altogether. Right now, the internet as an advertising medium is competing with the traditional media not only because of its cost-effectiveness and an increased reach, but also because it has a potential that the television and print media do not.

Brave Software Companys Main Rivals Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Brave Software Companys Main Rivals - Assignment Example Also, most of these firms were founded long before Brave Software Company came into being. Therefore, their brands are better positioned in the market than Brave Software Company’s brands. Also, most of the Brave Software Company’s competitors have a bigger workforce than that of the Brave Software Company. Nevertheless, Brave Software Company’s competitors have weaknesses too. Most of these firms have been perceived as being less ‘technologically conscious’. Also, these competitors charge a relatively higher price on the software-based products and rely more on the traditional methods of advertising to reach out to their customers in the market. This is a plan aimed at reaching out to a particular segment of the market by developing a unique product that is more appealing to the customers (Simons, 2000). Different firms may, therefore, produce a similar item but they cannot sell exactly the same product in the market. Each of these firms has to package, price and even quantify the product in such a way that it looks different from the similar products on the market. In this case, Brave Software Company has embarked on a low-price strategy. Following the fact that most of the other companies in the industry charge a relatively high price on the software-based products, Brave Software Company has embarked on producing similar products at relatively lower prices. Further, these products have been developed in a way that they target a specific market and not the entire market. The company has also capitalized on specific advertising mechanisms to reach out to the specific group of customers in the market. Further, the company ha s a strong brand positioning statement. Having been established in the year 2010, Brave Software Company has worked towards providing the best software solutions to its respective customers. The company also aspires to grow beyond the geographical borders of the international market.

Business strategic management report of Ford Company Assignment

Business strategic management report of Ford Company - Assignment Example It has the legacy of providing cost effective cars along with the rapid technological change, proving to be the smartest among its competitors in the industry. Recent developments by Ford include the invasion of electrical cars in enormous amount in to the U.S consumer market. (Gomes, Donnelley & Collis, 2010) reports that the great recession of 2008 affected the automobile sector badly as the sales dropped down tremendously. The big guns in the industry were financially disturbed by the recession as loss reached new paramounts. Till the June of 2009, Ford was the only company left of Detroit’s â€Å"Big Three† which didn’t faced bankruptcy. General Motor and Chrysler were bankrupt and their borrowings from the financial sector increased. Ford was able to survive due to some active decisions made by the financial officer and the operational management team. However Ford faced a loss of $14.7 billion in 2008. The major cause of this downfall was the elimination of stockholders which pushed the company to this tragic fall. This report has examined all the chief causes of the catastrophic scenario prevailed in the automobile sector. What sort of political, economic, social and technological barriers were there in the industry and how companies indulged those? Determining the industry as a whole, what are the opportunities, threats and most important competitors of Ford; how they have challenged company’s repute and what steps should have taken by Ford. Also discussing the core competencies of the company, how do they actively utilize their resources, capabilities and what are its core competencies. Exploratron of the business level strategy; with the corporate level strategy plus making strategic plan of the company for the next five years are the major parts of this research work. PEST Analysis PEST Analysis is a vital tool for analyzing the market position of a firm. Political, economic, societal and technological factors are discusse d for understanding the standing of a company. Applying this tool to Ford presents the following picture: Political Factors: Ford along with other automobile companies was in turmoil due to the bad economic scenario of the country. After the Presidential elections of 2008, Obama Government started operating on January 1st, 2009 and encouraged people to purchase new cars and old ones were scrapped. The enforcement of this order was a beginning of a new sun for the automobile sector as people had to purchase new cars. The old cars were scrapped and this political decision thus really helped Ford too. The first quarter of 2009 brought good news for the company as Ford only had $1.4 billion loss in that tenure. These were promising figures because last year Ford faced mammoth loss of $14.7 billion. Hence the political decision of newly established government was appreciated among the automobile industry (Gomes, Donnelley & Collis, 2010). Economic Factors: Ford was the survivors of bankr uptcy so they had to utilize their finances very carefully. The economic factors suggested that now revival of the economy will start very soon. The Chief Financial officer of Ford estimated that breakeven would be achieved in 2011. The economic and

My Diet Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

My Diet Analysis - Essay Example Finally, I realized my energy expenditure was significantly more than my calorie intake. This gave me room to enhance my diet to incorporate more food groups. II. Based on my original 5 day food log actual vs. recommended report there were a number of nutrients in my diet that I consumed less than or equal to 75% of the recommended daily intake. Among these nutrients in the calories category included overall calorie consumption (38%), calories from fat (23%), and calories from saturated fat (15%). Other nutrients that fell within this designated range included carbohydrates, sugar, and dietary fiber. In terms of fats there were a number that fell below this recommended range. These included saturated fat, mono fat, and poly fat. Other nutrients included cholesterol, water, vitamin A, vitamin B1, vitamin B6, vitamin D, and vitamin E. In addition to these nutrients below the recommended daily intake, there was one nutrient – sodium – of which I consumed over 125% of my re commended daily intake. There are a number of ways that the foods in which I don’t meet the recommended intake, as well my overconsumption of sodium can adversely affect my health. In terms of my sodium consumption I am at risk of hypertension and heart disease (Farfan). In terms of the foods I am deficient in there are a number of diseases and risks I face. ... In terms of carbohydrates I risk experiencing low energy levels. In terms of fiber deficiency I face digestion problems. Finally, in terms of my fat deficiencies I face the risk of skin, fingernail, and even menstrual problems. III. There were a great many foods in which my recommended daily intake was below. In thinking of three foods that are aimed at fulfilling these needs, I attempted to find foods rich in many of nutrients I was deficient in. As I was deficient in many of the vitamin B categories, I realize that I should add bananas and legumes to my diet as they would improve both vitamin B1 and B6 consumption (Daniellson). In meeting my monosaturated fat intake I could consume more olive oil with my main meals. As the only nutrient that I consumed over the recommended daily intake of was sodium, three foods that I could remove from my diet to lower my sodium intake include crackers, tuna, and hamburgers; in addition I could limit my general use of salt (Iannelli, 2010). IV. Wh en comparing my original food log with my made up menus there were a number of elements I noticed that differed between the two food logs. One of the most pervasive differences I noticed between the two foods logs was that in the made up menu the calorie count was consistently higher in the made up menus. It’s clear this is an element of not being able to maintain a balanced diet because of a variety of factors related to daily commitments. In terms of specific improvements I believe that some of the major improvements noted were the consistency in meals. In these regards, the made up menus more consistently contained foods from the recommended food categories. For instance, these menus consistently contained a

Civil Rights Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Civil Rights Paper - Essay Example First-hand accounts of the Civil Rights Movement are common. They provide a superb window into the United States of the time. One of the things that make America such a strange country is that it was founded as a beacon of liberty, and was indeed the freest country in the world for much of the 18th and 19th centuries—if you were white. The flip side was that millions of Americans were slaves—treated like objects or animals. How could this dichotomy exist during this time in American history? The answer is that it could not continue to exist—it would be destroyed by the Civil War. While many Americans lament the loss of life during the Civil War and the destruction wrought by the dispute, the truth is that there was a glorious side to the War. It set millions of people free. One of the great predictors of this was John Quincy Adams. He was a president in the 1820s and died before the war began. Nevertheless, his first-hand account of what slavery meant to the Unit ed States is a very important aspect of our understanding of the United States at this time. In his memoirs he wrote: If slavery be the destined sword of the hand of the destroying angel which is to sever the ties of this Union, the same sword will cut in sunder the bonds of slavery itself. A dissolution of the Union for the cause of slavery would be followed by a servile war in the slave-holding States, combined with a war between the two severed portions of the Union. It seems to me that its result might be the extirpation of slavery from this whole continent; and, calamitous and desolating as this course of events in its progress must be, so glorious would be its final issue, that, as God shall judge me, I dare not say that it is not to be desired (Haysville). An account such as this one really breathes new life into our understanding of the precursor to Civil Rights Movement. In his memoir, Adams shows us just what America should be and what a cancer slavery and racism truly are . Without this kind of language it would be hard to grasp the full dimensions of the conflict that would come—both the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. Flash forward to the 1960s. A hundred years have passed since the slaves were emancipated and yet little has truly changed. African Americans cannot vote and have few rights. Something must be done about this situation. And so the Civil Rights movement was born. This was a gathering of millions of Americans who believed that the promise of American has not yet been fulfilled. They came from all backgrounds and races and they all believed in the worth of their country and themselves. They believed that America should truly be a beacon for freedom. Their leader was Martin Luther King Jr., a man whose speeches and writings provide an excellent view of this incredible historical movement. Few men left us much of a mark on the movement as Martin Luther King Jr. King Jr. is famously known today as a great speaker, but his wo rds are more than great rhetoric, they are a depiction of a whole era and the soul of the movement. We understand from just a few sentences what the Movement means to the country, when in a Birmingham jail, King says: You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But

Customer Relationship Management in Bahrain Investment Banking Arena Essay Example for Free

Customer Relationship Management in Bahrain Investment Banking Arena Essay The banking industry has undergone widespread changes within the operating environment and this involves globalization of markets and technological improvements. These two factors have influenced and encouraged innovative practices within the banking industry that has served to enhance its operational efficiency. The introduction of ATMs and e-banking facilities are some of the major milestones in the banking industry that have revolutionized business operations. The global markets have intensified the competitive environment of the banking industry that has created the need for increased efficiency in operations and increasing customer satisfaction. Customers are the lifeblood of any organization and the banking business too depends on the acquisition and retention of consumers for its profitability. Customer relationship management forms a vital aspect of business strategy driving the company’s market shares and market leadership position. Customer relationship management (CRM) has been defined as a business strategy that â€Å"is a fusion of a series of functions, skills, processes, and technologies which together allow companies to more profitably manage (acquire and retain) customers as tangible assets† (Shanmugasundaram, 2008:98). It is viewed as an interactive process that creates a balance between corporate objectives and customer satisfaction to increase the profitability of the business. Acquisition and retention of customers is one of the vital requirements of business and the effectiveness of strategies driven towards this goal determines the success of business enterprises. The past few years have witnessed growing application of CRM in retail banking and investment banking sectors. The key objective behind such initiatives is to ensure the delivery of superior customer service and to fulfil the needs of consumers. Such practices are effective in enabling organizations to meet the needs of the consumers and provide improved services in comparison to other players in the industry. Competitive advantage and business gains are driven by a proactive approach that focuses on consumer needs and expectations, provision of consistently high quality service, looking into consumer convenience and an effective follow up service to ensure consumer loyalty. A vital aspect of investment banking and any other financial services is the changing consumer mindsets. Owing to the abundance of information easily accessible over the Internet the consumers today are more knowledgeable of the wide range of choices and alternatives available to them. The consumers are equipped with more knowledge related to the banking options available and hence their banking decisions are guided by their well-researched study. This fact holds true for all economic sectors and business operations but forms a critical aspect of banking industries since it caters to a diverse segment of consumers. In nearly all business to business markets in which clients are as large as, or as in this case, often much larger than their suppliers, the latter must respond quickly to pressures from their clients to improve client management processes and systems† (Foss Stone, 2002: 211). CRM in Investment banking sector The short term objective of the marketing department is to acquire customers while the long term objective translates to retaining the old customers through effective customer relationship management (CRM) strategies. Reaching and acquiring a new customer is one thing, keeping the relationship healthy and strong over a long period of time is the mark of the true marketing professional concerned with long term health of the organization† (Dolak, 2009). The increasing competitive market makes it difficult to retain customers over a longer period of time owing to the constant influx of new and substitute alternatives invading the shelf spaces at the local retail shop. This makes the task of CRM increasingly challenging and organizations adopt various strategies to attract old customers back. Retention strategies often employ measures such as consumer behaviour research and product surveys that enable the organizations to assess the needs and expectations of the consumer and enable them to serve better. Customers always appreciate the personal touch that results in building strong relationships. The net today provides numerous effective communication channels that are being used to keep the customer happy. Web based customer relationship management has effectively integrated all modes of communication – web, email, chat, video, voice to serve and support the customers to enhance the total customer experience. Investment banking differs from other forms of banking in the role a few major clients play on the bank’s performance and productivity (Foss Stone, 2002). This form of banking targets a fixed client segment that drives the sales of investment products and services. The efficiency of the banking sector is determined by the types of products and services sold to customers in response to their investment needs and expectations. Customization of products and services are the key to deriving client satisfaction. Identification of the client segment is a vital factor in targeting and reaching out to the desired client population and this process is driven by market research. The changing demographics and intense competitive pressures from global industry players have however made a significant impact on the business strategies of investment banks worldwide. The challenges faced by investment bankers lie in reaching out to target consumers and providing them with increased ease of banking services that serve to retain clients over a longer period of time. Moreover, the increasing demands of consumers and growing expectations have driven the banking sector to adopt technology based innovative applications for meeting consumer needs and expectations. Online banking services and mobile banking applications are some of the innovative means that are being used by investment bankers to reach out to their target consumers. Such applications have served to improve banking services and efficiencies in resolving customer queries and needs promptly through the click of the mouse button. The anytime and anywhere access to banking services have defined new trends in serving consumers. â€Å"Online customization is one useful customer relationship management strategy adopted by e-business to add value and improve sales of their products and services using the Internet† (Khosla et al. , 2003). Investment banking in Bahrain The banking sector in Bahrain is one of the key sectors influencing economic growth and development in the region. The contribution of the financial services and banking sector is second only to the oil and natural gas industry in the country. The country has experienced an economic boom and an upward trend in economic growth and development over the past few decades on account of globalisation influences and opening of trade channels. The banking sector has also opened to multinational corporations establishing their operations in the country to tap the growing number of high net worth individuals in the country. Despite the globalisation of banking operations and increased de-regulation of the financial services sector in the area the country continues to have a significant control and supervision over the regulatory environment. The Central Bank of Bahrain continues to be monitor and control the banking environment in the country. The modernisation of banking services and strategic approaches made by investment bankers in other parts of the globe have not produced much impact in this region owing to the constraints applied by the existing cultural influence. The retail banking scenario in Bahrain is to a considerable extent driven by the culture of the country. The cultural impacts are realised in the conservative approach of consumers towards banking and investment. Various research studies have concluded that while the region is an emerging market for technology applications and innovative practices, user attitudes have limited the scope of technology based business models in the banking sector. The conservative market environment and user attitudes towards the CRM strategies adopted by investment bankers in Bahrain forms the focal point of the research study. The research study will analyse the various perspectives involved in CRM approach by investment bankers through the study of Unicorn Investment Bank in Bahrain. The bank was founded in the year 2004 and has its headquarters in Bahrain. It is an Islamic financial services group that has an international presence in various locations such as Malaysia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and United States. The bank currently has six distinctive business service categories that include asset management and real estate, capital markets, corporate finance, private equity, strategic mergers and acquisitions and treasury. Among the various services offered by the bank the key approach is to deliver the customers with a comprehensive range of investment solutions that are customised to meet client needs and expectations. Unicorn’s integrated product offering and financial engineering skills are closely intertwined with a strong capacity to distribute the Bank’s products and services to a broad client base across the GCC region, the wider Middle East region, Southeast Asia, the USA and the Europe† (Unicorn, 2010). The target customers of the bank include high net worth individuals, business enterprises, financial institutions, corporations, and government agencies and departments. The products offered by the bank are Shari’ah compliant and conforms to the international financial practices (Unicorn, 2010). Issues and challenges â€Å"All major banks have invested heavily in technology and infrastructure over the last 5 and 10 years in this area, but hardly any of them have been successful in actually getting it effective† (Infosys, 2009). The failure of CRM initiatives within the investment banking sector have provided a new ground for research into increasing the effectiveness of CRM applications. There are many strategic implications related to the application of CRM within investment banking sector. This involves the adaptation of normal banking processes and systems to integrate with innovative use of technology based applications and automated query processing systems that require efficient management and handling of issues. Such issues pertain to the efficient use of CRM systems to meet operational goals and integrating the different banking functions to provide a structured application that can be used easily by consumers. Ease of use and convenience are some of the key parameters involved in the development of CRM based banking system. A key challenge facing these areas involves the security and privacy issues that form a major source of concern for consumers using the technology based applications. Technology based business models and CRM strategies enable investment bankers to provide the customers with efficiency in delivery of services, access to relevant information, product details and ease of transactions. Mobile banking and e-banking facilitates the customers of investment banking to a host of facilities that range from product enquiry; access updated rates of interest and market values of the investment products chosen and conducts investment transactions online. Investment portfolios can also be accessed and manipulated according to user convenience from the comforts of their home or office. However, widespread usage of such systems has been restricted on account of user reservations related to security issues and privacy of vital user data and information. Mobile banking and online transactions raise security and privacy concerns among most of the consumers (Barati Mohammadi, 2009). The transfer of sensitive financial and personal information across mobile networks is found to be the prime reason behind the psychological barriers created among potential mobile banking customers (Laukkanen, 2007).

The World Is Flat Flattener Information Technology Essay

The World Is Flat Flattener Information Technology Essay The World Is Flat is an international bestselling book by Thomas Friedman that analyzes globalization, primarily in the early 21st century. The title is a metaphor for viewing the world as a level playing field in terms of commerce, where all competitors have an equal opportunity. Globalization became more prominent during the last decades. Friedman argues that globalization made the world smaller and flatter, allowing all countries to take chance of the available opportunities equally. As Friedman describes in The World is Flat there are three eras of globalization and ten flatteners which made the world smaller, making it easier to communicate and share our knowledge. This paper deals with the flattener number 2 i.e.; When the NetScape went Public and associated developments after 2003 till date. Background Thomas Lauren Friedman is an American journalist, columnist and author and has won the Pulitzer Prize three times. In his famous book The World is Flat he identifies three eras of globalization. The first era, called Globalization 1.0,between the years 1492, when Columbus set out to discover a new trade route to the New World, and 1800, made the world fall in size from large to medium. During this period, the strength of a country was based on the number of horsepower or the number of steam engines owned, compared with other countries. The second period Globalization 2.0, between the years 1800 and 2000, decreased the size of the world, from medium to low. Multinational companies were the integration force, and the power was given to a company by the level of innovation in the field of machinery and equipment. Last era Globalization 3.0 began around the year 2000. If the first two periods led to globalization at the country level and, later, at the company level, this new period favorized reduction to a very small world, flattening the playing field and putting the individual in the centre(Friedman, 2007, pp 25-26). Globalization has been maintained by the action of some flattening factors that favoured the levelling of the World and the emergence of some opportunities that could increase welfare if successfully exploited. One of these factors is the event on 09/08/1995, the Netscape Company was to give life the Internet by creating the first commercially and well known web browser, facilitating web browsing culture definition to general public. Objectives The main objective of this paper is to investigate the contribution and after effects of flattener number 2 in make the world flatten during the period 2003 to 2012. Methodology Data for this report were gathered from 3rd December 2012 to 18th January 2013. The data was collected by research online and in college library. Procedure The procedure involved in analysis of the facts and authentication of information given in each report and article available in online and in college library. The main agenda is to capture all the contribution and after effects of Netscape internet explorer in making the world flatten from 2003 to till date. Findings Flattener #2 is shifting us from a PC-based platform to an Internet-based platform. The concept of World Wide Web was developed by British computer scientist Berners-Lee. Berners-Lee is someone who certainly helped to flatten the world. Berners-Lee explains that the web is an imaginary space of information. On the Net, we will find computers and the connections are cables between computers. On the Web, we will find documents, videos, sounds etc like information and the connections are hypertext links. The Web exists because of programs which communicate between computers on the Net. People are really interested in information; they dont really want to have to know about computers and cables. In the early 1990s, Berners-Lee created the programming language for writing WebPages called HTML. The 1st website by Berners-Lee was at http://info.cern.ch and was 1st put up on August 6, 1991. It was the 1st website ever. It explained how the WWW worked, how one could own a browser, and how setting up a Web server. 1st widely popular commercial browser was created by a tiny start-up company in Mountain View, California, called Netscape. Netscape went public on August 9, 1995 at the price of $28. Netscape and the Web broadened the audience for the Internet from its roots as a communications medium used primarily by early adopters and geeks to something that made the Internet accessible to everyone from five-year-olds to ninety-five-year-olds. The digitization that took place meant that everyday occurrences such as words, files, films, music, and pictures could be accessed and manipulated on a computer screen by all people across the world. The more alive the Internet became, the more different people wanted to do different things on the Web. So people demanded computers, s/w and telecommunications networks. This demand was satisfied by the rollout of Windows 95. Windows 95 become the operating system used by most people worldwide. Friedman recognizes the publication of Netscape and Windows 95 as a huge flattening force. What Netscape did was bring a new killer app -the browser to this installed base of PCs, making the computer and its connectivity inherently more useful for millions of people. This in turn set off an explosion in demand for all things digital and sparked the Internet boom. This development, in turn, wired the whole world together, and without, anyone really planning it, made Bangalore a suburb of Boston. Now Netscape is known as Firefox. The second flattener gave people a way to cheaply distribute and retrieve content digitally. Basically, the second flattener consisted of 3 events: (1) The Internet emerged (low-cost connectivity among PC users); (2) The World Wide Web emerged (PC users can post their digital content for anyone to access); and (3) The commercial Web Browser emerged (PC users can retrieve documents or Web pages stored in Web sites). Everyone could use the Internet, thus consumers wanted more to do on the Internet. One of the benefits of Netscape was it was available to everyone and people didnt have to continually pay for it (after they bought the browser). The Internet boom leads to over-investments. For instance, the fiber-optic cable companies invested in making mass amounts of fiber-optic systems. The companies didnt realize that almost everyone was using the Internet and they didnt need to make anymore fiber-optic systems. Netscape was the first highly successful browser, and it could work on an IBM PC, an Apple MacIntosh, or a Unix computer, insuring that people could communicate with each other no matter what computer they were on. Netscapes browser made millions of existing computers and connectivity much more useful, and reinforced the free flow of information. Freidman concludes that browser technology was one of the most important inventions in modern history. Together with the Internet and Web, Netscape allowed more people to communicate and interact with each other than had ever happened in the world before. There is an interesting quote when you give people a new way to connect with other people, they will punch through any technical barrierà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦people are wired to want to connect with other people and they find it objectionable not to be able to. (Marc Andreessen : The World is Flat : 65) Lets look at each one of these developments. Marc Andreessen, a brilliant young computer scientist, developed the 1st really effective, easy-to-use Web browser, called Mosaic. His company called Mosaic Communications later renamed to Netscape communications. Marc Andreessen did not invent the Internet or the World Wide Web, but he certainly played a historic role in helping to bring them alive. Netscapes 1st commercial browser was released in December 1994, and within a year it completely dominated the market. People were downloading it for 3-month trials. Thus Netscape played important flattening role. In addition to the Netscape browser, other standardizations further simplified communications among computers. Berners Lee and other scientists had developed a series of open protocols mainly FTP, HTTP,HTML,SSL,SMTP,POP, and TCP/IP. Together they form a system for transporting data around the Internet and World Wide Web in a relatively secure manner, no matter what network your company or household has or what computer or cell phone or handheld device you are using. Each protocol had a different function. TCP/IP was the basic plumbing of the Internet, or the basic railroad tracks, on which everything else above it was built and moved around. FTP moved files. SMTP and POP moved e-mail messages, so that they could be written and read on different e-mail systems. HTML allowed ordinary people to author Web pages. HTTP enabled people to connect to HTML documents on Web. SSL provide security for Web-based transactions. By the late 1990s the Internet computing platform became integrated. Soon anyone was able to connect with anyone else anywhere on any machine. This integration was a huge flattener. Generally, people take long time to change their habits and learn new technology. But in the case of Internet, they did it quickly and ten years later there were 800 million people on the internet, because people always want to connect with other people. People will change their habits quickly when they have a strong reason to do so, and people have an innate urge to connect with other people. (Marc Andreessen : The World is Flat : 65) Flattener 2 is responsible for the birth of AOL (Netscape was sold to AOL), newer versions of PC-Windows, Google, Yahoo and dot.com boom. Netscape going public stimulated a lot of things. one is, degree of overinvestment. Every sillier and sillier idea got funded. Digitization made investors to believe that demand for internet usage and internet-related products would be infinite. Digitization is a magic process by which words, music, data, films, files and pictures are turn into bits and bytes- combinations of 1s and 0s- that can be manipulated on a computer screen, stored on a microprocessor, or transmitted over satellites and fiber-optic lines. Thus mail digitized as e-mail, camera to digital camera, buy and browse books digitally on amazon.com, digital library, digitized music.. In a news conference at 1999 World Economic Forum, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates told that these Internet stocks going to drive innovation faster and faster. Gates compared Internet to the gold rush. The Internet stock boom causes overinvestment in fiber-optic cable companies. They laid massive amounts of fiber-optic cable on land and under the oceans, which reduced cost of making a phone call or transmitting data anywhere in the world. The 1st installation of a fiber-optic system was in 1977.Optcal cables can carry digitized packets of information over long distances. Fiber-optic cable is used for secure communications, because it is very difficult to tap. The capacity of all the already installed fiber cables just keeps growing, making it cheaper and easier to transmit voices and data to any part of the world. The first transoceanic fiber-optic cables were laid between the United States, United Kingdom and France in 1988. The first transpacific cables were laid down in 1989 and connected the U.S., Hawaii, Guam and Japan. Fiber optic cables made it possible for Web users to connect and communicate with people at long distances. The installation of under-water cables was the first step to uniting all corners of the world. The perception of distance became much smaller. Now anyone could get on the Internet and communicate with someone half way around the world in less than seconds. Not only could you just talk to oth er countries, but with advancements in computer capabilities, you could also have a face to face conversation with them. The world became much smaller and flatter. *Smith, D. R. (2004). Digital Transmission Systems. Norwell, Ma: Kluwer Academic Publishing. The dot-com bubble was created by over-estimated values of Internet companies. Everyone jumped on the band wagon when the expected profits seemed to just keep growing. People were investing with the faith that one day those companies would reach their quota and so much more. In 2000 to 2001, the bubble burst, which resulted in a drop in investments and economic growth (Becker, 2008).* One of the biggest fall-outs was in the business of fiber optic cables. Everyone underestimated the efficiency and capabilities of fiber optic cables. When they turned out to have a much larger capacity than companies needed it became practically free to use them. This created opportunities for countries who couldnt afford to buy the cables outright. India was one such country that used the access of the Internet to globalize very fast in order to catch up with the rest of the world, and catch up they did. *Becker, A. (2008). Electronic commerce: concepts, methodologies, tools and applications (Vol. I). Hershey, Pa: Information Science Reference. It also allowed the telecommunications giants such as the Baby Bells and ATT to provide both phone service and infrastructure for internet. Global crossing was founded in 1977 by Gary Winnick and went public the next year. The telecom deregulation of 1996 allowed local exchange carriers to build their own data transmission capacities. The Internet-e-mail-browser phase flattened the earth a little bit more. In short, the Apple-PC-Windows phase and Netscape browsing-e-mail phase together enabled communication and interaction with people anywhere on the planet. Now thanks to the internet, we dont have to travel distances to meet face to face since we are interconnected with everyone everywhere. The day Netscape went public opened up the World Wide Web so that almost anyone could navigate the Internet without problems. This user-friendly browser made accessing the plethora of information on the Internet open to everyone. There existed browsers for searching the web prior to Netscape, but they were not as simple and easy to use. Now anyone who could read had access to the internet. Knowledge is power, and people got addicted to this easy learning tool. It gave individuals the power to take their lives into their own hands. The dot-com boom created a new and very different world. A world runs more by innovative individuals than by corporations. The birth of Mozilla On February 23, 1998, Netscape Communications Corporation created a project called Mozilla to co-ordinate the development of the Mozilla Application Suite, the open source version of Netscapes internet software, Netscape Communicator. Mozilla is a free software community best known for producing the Firefox web browser. The Mozilla community uses, develops, spreads and supports Mozilla products and works to advance the goals of the Open Web described in the Mozilla Manifesto. In addition to the Firefox browser, Mozilla also produces Firefox Mobile, the Firefox OS mobile operating system, the bug tracking system Bugzilla and a number of other projects. Originally, Mozilla aimed to be a technology provider for companies, such as Netscape, who would commercialize their open source code. When Netscapes parent company AOL drastically scaled back its involvement with Mozilla in July 2003, the Mozilla Foundation was launched as the legal steward of the project. Soon after, Mozilla deprecated the Mozilla Suite in favour of creating independent applications for each function, primarily the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird email client, and moved to supply them direct to the public. Recently, Mozillas activities have expanded to include Firefox on mobile platforms, primarily Android, a mobile OS called Firefox OS, a web-based identity system called Mozilla Persona and a marketplace for HTML5 applications. In a report released in November of 2012, Mozilla reported that their total revenue for 2011 was $163 million, which was up 33% from $123 million in 2010. Mozilla noted that roughly 85% of their revenue comes from their contract with Google. Introduction of new free web browser Firefox Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser developed for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux and Android coordinated by Mozilla Corporation and Mozilla Foundation. Firefox uses the Gecko layout engine to render web pages, which implements current and anticipated web standards. Gecko is a free and open source layout engine used in many applications developed by Mozilla. It is designed to support open Internet standards, and is used by different applications to display web pages and, in some cases, an applications user interface itself. Gecko offers a rich programming API that makes it suitable for a wide variety of roles in Internet-enabled applications, such as web browsers, content presentation, and client/server. Gecko is written in C++ and is cross-platform, and runs on various operating systems including BSDs, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, OS/2, AIX, OpenVMS, and Microsoft Windows. Its development is now overseen by the Mozilla Foundation and is licensed under version 2 of the Mozilla Public License. Gecko is the third most-common layout engine on the World Wide Web, As of October 2012, Firefox has approximately 20% to 24% of worldwide usage share of web browsers, making it the second or third most widely used web browser, according to different sources. According to Mozilla, Firefox counts with over 450 million users around the world. The browser has had particular success in Indonesia, Germany, and Poland, where it is the most popular browser with 65%, 47% and 47% of the market share, respectively. The Firefox project began as an experimental branch of the Mozilla project by Dave Hyatt, Joe Hewitt and Blake Ross. They believed the commercial requirements of Netscapes sponsorship and developer-driven feature creep compromised the utility of the Mozilla browser. To combat what they saw as the Mozilla Suites software bloat, they created a stand-alone browser, with which they intended to replace the Mozilla Suite. On April 3, 2003, the Mozilla Organization announced that they planned to change their focus from the Mozilla Suite to Firefox and Thunderbird. The Firefox project has undergone several name changes. Originally titled Phoenix, it was renamed because of trademark problems with Phoenix Technologies. The replacement name, Firebird, provoked an intense response from the Firebird free database software project. In response, the Mozilla Foundation stated that the browser should always bear the name Mozilla Firebird to avoid confusion with the database software. After further pressure from the database servers development community, on February 9, 2004, Mozilla Firebird became Mozilla Firefox, often referred to as simply Firefox. Mozilla prefers that Firefox be abbreviated as Fx or fx, though it is often abbreviated as FF. The Firefox project went through many versions before version 1.0 was released on November 9, 2004.On October 5, 2012, Mozilla released the Metro interface version of Firefox, included in the Nightly 18 build, to be used in Windows 8. In a flat world, the importance of comparative advantage disappears. Bhagwati (2010) argued that, although global capital markets led to decreasing interest rate differences between different countries and even multinational companies have facilitated technology transfer between countries, the differences remain due to culture and politics. An example is the political regime from China, which has undermined software development. PC (Communist Party) in China is irreconcilable with the PC (personal computer) of U.S. origin. But unlike China, which occupies a leading position in hardware production, India is better at programming and not at the hardware, thanks to the recently opened Indian autarchic regime following the 1991 reforms (Guha and Ray 2004, pp 301-302). The other obstacle in the flattening process, but an obstacle which can both accelerate or decelerate the global integration, is the national culture. The more resistant to globalization the local culture is, the higher the chances of isolation are and the probability that the community will crush because of the internal conflicts. Rà ©gis Debray (in Matthew, 2007) lists two reasons behind the crisis of the world culture: rapid population growth and the local retreat which the technological globalization is fuelling as the world begins to resemble more, the people are trying to distinguish between them more through local cultures, leading to an increased nationalistic feeling. The fierce criticism of the flattening earth theory is related to increased income disparities, both in developing and developed countries. For example, the poor countries, where the financial markets restrict access to capital for people with low incomes, the investments are extremely low and growth is inhibited. Thus, globalization tends to favour increased income disparities, since the main beneficiaries of globalization are those that have already wealthy capital and higher education or, at the country level, citizens of developed countries, where are healthy and stable institutions. Birdsall (2005, p. 33-36) proposes reforming global institutions like the World Bank or International Monetary Fund, so they can truly represent the interests of poor countries. They are the ones that have mechanisms to manage the implementation of a social contract model to increase access to educational opportunities for the poor and creating sound and stable institutions in developing countries. F or now, the votes are non-democratically allocated in these institutions. Europeans always choose the IMF president and Americans the WB president. In addition, most of the time, people in their management have no experience in solving the problems they face, since the holding of such functions are not related to previous work experience (Stiglitz, 2006, September 10). The Birdsalls second recommendation proposes the creation of global rules that correct market failures, environmental protection (eg Kyoto Protocol), support markets from poor countries to overcome financial risks (IMF) and deter corruption and other anticompetitive practices. The same argument the disparities of income growth was brought by Stiglitz (2006, September 10) to contradict Friedmans vision. He said that globalization can be felt only in terms of transport and communications costs decrease. Regarding economic development, he gave the example of the Republic of Moldova that although it experiences a transition period from communist regime, its GDP has decreased by 70% in 2005 and has spent about three quarters of GDP for foreign debt. Internet Abuse The internet has become a fundamental part of many peoples day-to-day working lives. As with the introduction of other mass communication technologies, issues surrounding use, abuse and addiction in the workplace have surfaced (Griffiths, 2002; Weatherbee, 2009). It is not uncommon for office workers to spend workplace time on various non-work activities (e.g. booking holidays, shopping online, bidding in online auctions, e-mailing friends/romantic partners, etc.). According to a survey by the International Data Corporation (Snapshot Spy, 2008), up to 40 per cent of internet access in the workplace is spent on non-work related browsing, and 60 per cent of all online purchases are made during working hours. The same survey also reported that 90 per cent of employees felt the internet can be addictive, and 41 per cent admitted to personal internet surfing at work for more than three hours per week. Internet abuse at work can lead to a decrease in productivity, network clogging, and an increase in the incidents of security breaches at an organization (Pee et al., 2008; Clayburgh and Nazareth, 2009; Weatherbee, 2009). Activities and consequences such as these highlight that internet abuse is a potentially serious cause of concern for employers. It has been claimed that excessive internet use can be pathological and addictive (Widyanto and Griffiths, 2006) and that such behaviour comes under the more generic label of technological addiction (Griffiths, 1995, 1998). It has been argued that behavioural addictions are no different from chemical addictions (e.g. alcoholism, and heroin addiction) in terms of the core components of addiction such as salience, tolerance, withdrawal, mood modification, conflict, and relapse. Research into internet addiction suggests that it does indeed exist but that it affects only a very small minority of users (Widyanto and Griffiths, 2006, 2009). These are usually people who use internet chat rooms or play fantasy role playing games activities that they would not engage in except on the internet itself. To some extent, these internet users are engaged in text-based virtual realities and take on other social personas and social identities as a way of making them feel good about themselves. In such cases, the medium of the internet may provide an alternative reality to the user and allow them feelings of immersion and anonymity, feelings that may lead to an altered state of consciousness for the user. This in itself may be highly psychologically and/or physiologically rewarding. There appear to be many people who use the internet excessively but are not addicted as measured by addiction criteria. Most people researching in the field have failed to use stringent criter ia for measuring addiction (Widyanto and Griffiths, 2006). Internet as an advertising medium Internet penetration rate in the U.S. reached 67.8% in 2005 (Internet World Stats, 2005), which translated to $133.3 billion in e-commerce revenues (Kumar Shah, 2004). In April 2006 the penetration rate hit new high and reached 73% (Madden, 2006). Broadband penetration in the U.S. rose to 63.8% in October 2005 and is expected to reach 70% in 2006 (U.S. Passes Singapore to 15th, 2005). The growing availability and usage of Internet, particularly broadband Internet, has created a large audience for Internet advertising. More people are spending more time online. The Internet has reached well beyond the critical mass to be considered a medium economically viable for advertisers. The uncertainty that once hung over online commerce has given way to steady, or even robust, growth (Hyland, 2004). Internet companies, as well as traditional firms selling online, are making real revenue. A research study in 2004 showed that 79% of online retailers were making money, with a 21% average margin (Ramsey, 2004). It is expected total online sales in 2006 will increase 20% to $211 billion (Online sales expected to rise, 2006). With the rise of Internet audiences and online e-commerce activities, the Internet is prospering as an advertising medium. Internet advertising revenues in the United States totaled more than $1.5 billion in 2005, a 30% increase over 2004 (Interactive Advertising Bureau [IAB], 2006). Internet advertising accounted for about 5% of total U.S. advertising revenues in 2005 and nearly matched total consumer magazine advertising. Web Accessibility Few people are aware of the term web accessibility. In the short-life time of the web visual aesthetics has been the design goal, rather than equal access. Web accessibility is the practice of making web sites accessible to people who require more than just traditional web browsers to access the internet. For example, a visually impaired user can use a screen reader to translate text and graphics on the computer screen to an audio format so the user hears the screen content via a speech synthesizer or sound card. An accessible web site is designed to accommodate a wider set of ways users can access the site. However, designing a web site with accessibility not only serves people with disabilities, but also results in a wider set of benefits for everyone. Twitter New media for information sharing Twitter is a micro blogging service commands more than 41 million users as of July 2009 and is growing fast. Twitter users tweet about any topic within the 140-character limit and follow others to receive their tweets. Twitter has emerged as a new medium in spotlight through recent happenings, such as an American student jailed in Egypt and the US Airways plane crash on the Hudson river. Twitter users follow others or are followed. Unlike on most online social networking sites, such as Facebook or MySpace, the relationship of following and being followed requires no reciprocation. A user can follow any other user, and the user being followed need not follow back. Being a follower on Twitter means that the user receives all the messages (called tweets) from those the user follows. Common practice of responding to a tweet has evolved into well-defined mark-up culture: RT stands for retweet, @ followed by a user identifier address the user, and # followed by a word represents a hashtag. This well-defined mark-up vocabulary combined with a strict limit of 140 characters per posting conveniences users with brevity in expression. The retweet mechanism empowers users to spread information of their choice beyond the reach of the original tweets followers. Social Network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of actors such as individuals or organizations and the dyadic ties between these actors. The social network perspective provides a clear way of analyzing the structure of whole social entities. The study of these structures uses social network analysis to identify local and global patterns, locate influential entities, and examine network dynamics. In 2002, social networking hit really its stride with the launch of Friendster. Friendster used a degree of separation concept similar to that of the now-defunct SixDegrees.com, refined it into a routine dubbed the Circle of Friends wherein the pathways connecting two people are displayed, and promoted the idea that a rich online community can exist only between people who truly have common bonds. And it ensured there were plenty of ways to discover those bonds. An interface that shared many of the same traits one would find at an online dating site certainly didnt seem to hurt. (CEO Jonathan Abrams actually refers to his creation as a dating site that isnt about dating.) And, just a year after its launch, Friendster boasted more than three million registered users and a ton of investment interest. Though the service has since seen more than its fair share of technical difficulties, questionable management decisions, and a resulting drop in its North American fortunes, it remains a force in Asia and, curiously, a near-necessity in the Philippines. Introduced just a year later in 2003, LinkedIn took a decidedly more serious, sober approach to the social networking phenomenon. Rather than being a mere playground for former classmates, teenagers, and cyberspace Don Juans, LinkedIn was, and still is, a networking resource for businesspeople who want to connect with other professionals. In fact, LinkedIn contacts are referred to as connections. Today, LinkedIn boasts more than 175 million members. More than tripling that number, according to recent estimates, is MySpace, also launched in 2003. Though it no longer resides upon the social networking throne in many English-speaking countries that honour now belongs to Facebook just about everywhere MySpace remains the perennial favourite in the USA. It does so by tempting the key young adult demographic with music, music videos, and a funky, feature-filled enviro