Case Study Lois Quam Essay

1. How does Lois Quam use emotions and moods in her speeches to covey her viewpoint? Cite examples to support your statements. What is emotion and mood? Emotions are a strong set of positive or negative feelings directed towards someone or something. Moods depict positive or negative feelings; moreover, a state of mind. In Lois’s quest for green economy it is quite clear that she is a buoyed, by a positive approach as well as a passionate compulsion of finding solutions to the issues of green economy. This is inferred several times in her dialogue with her audience. The idea that she left her well buttressed, cushy job at a leading investment firm to assumed the leadership of a newly formed company that deals with global problems of green economy indicates she is not only passionate, but she is driven by positive responses and emotional influences. This can be inferred when she openly states â€Å"I am an optimist about our future †¦ which is why I stated Tysvar, the challenges we face from climate change are immense, but so are our capabilities and the rewards and benefits to humanity are even greater in the new green economy† 2. Based on what you have learned about Lois Quam, create hypotheses about the attitudes of her colleagues at Tysvar while using the three basic components of attitudes in your theories. Visionary, professional, informational these three components comprise attitude. Obviously to be a part of Ms. Quam’s team one must be a visionary, as indicated in her bio, Lois left Piper Jaffray to become the founder and CEO of Tysvar LLC in short she took a chance with her vison of stainable new green economy and diversified health care reform and made it all the way to becoming appointed  by President Barrak Obama as the executive director with emphasis on women, children, and new born for the entire country. Therefore, the attitudes of her college must be considered with her drive passion and attitude. Professionally being a CEO of a company she founded Lois; ensured that strict professional attitude was maintained in her Minnesota based company. This is evident when she gave a speech at the University of St. Thomas; on emerging opportunities within the NGE she said then â€Å"I enjoyed sharing how we all can use these key capabilities as platform for doing something you love. Imagine helping to build the NGE with a purposeful passion. It doesn’t it get much better than that.† Conversely one can derive that information is also a key component to attitudinal change and development with in a company that was diverse and being fast track into becoming a s successful fortune five hundred company. 3. Take a moment to research the Global Health Initiative. Why do you believe Lois Quam was chosen to lead this program? Louis Quam was named in 2006 by fortune magazine, one of America 50 most powerful women. Her portfolio indicated that she worked as the head of strategic investment, green economy and health at Pipper Jaffrey a leading international investment bank, including stints as president and CEO of the public, and senior market segment. As well as serving on the Minnesota health care commission taking on industry giants, and bringing insurance to tens of thousands of Minnesotan’s. If that is not an impeccable curriculum vitae then what is? Having come from Norwegian immigrants Lois story must be told and in so doing her vison, her perceptiveness, and passion can be combined to equalize her being chosen to lead this program. 4. Research question: Search news reports, Web sites, and blogs to find out more information on Tysvar. How is the company faring in its quest to make the world cleaner and safer for future generations? What implications might that have on Tysvar’s employees, their attitudes, and job satisfaction? Despite many challenges and unforeseen deterrence’s Tyvsar continues to be a formidable driving force in NGE. Ms. Quan’s vision continues to be the leading force; as well as, a collective positive influence from her entire  team of employees and management making Tysvar a global new green economy force to reckoned with. The company has adapted new measures and is now attached to the Norwegian global initiative. There have been expansion within the global new green economy since Ms,Quam’s recognition by President Obama. The operation at NGE continues to flourish. The company is using AquaFence, a Norwegian manufacturer of transportable flood protection barriers. Quam also announced she will be installing a new CEO of Tysvar early next year. Which brings us back home to our company, Tysvar, and our three areas of focus? †¢ Scaling the New Green Economy. †¢ Staffing the NGE with the best and brightest people anywhere. †¢ Contributing to a successful and on-going Norwegian-American NGE collaborative.

Human Condition Essay Essay

The human condition is a term which references our complicated existence by highlighting our ongoing ability to adapt and change both our perceptions and values. Through our mental capabilities of both creativity and imagination, humanity is able to achieve a sense of both self-actualisation and liberation, resulting in them acting as the core of our existence where, without them we would become susceptible to the overwhelming flaws of the human condition. Evidencing this are the three texts, ‘Dejection: an Ode’, ‘This Lime Tree Bower my Prison’ and ‘Focus’, which Samuel Coleridge’s â€Å"Dejection: an Ode,† is a poem describing a man’s torment as he attempts to overcome his dispirited state as a result of the loss of a romantic relationship. The poem highlights the importance of creativity within humanity through the persona’s struggle to maintain joyous after the loss of such ability, presenting the fact that without creativity, we would become susceptible to the negative aspects of the world. Beginning the poem using pathetic fallacy, Coleridge relates the persona’s reality to the growing storm, which through describing the â€Å"dull pain† received from his loss, highlights the duality present within our emotions, and hence the idea that we have the ability to experience both love as much as we do despair. The poet again reinforces our vulnerability to reality by using a metaphor to describe how it â€Å"coils around my mind,† presenting the fact that without hope and optimism, reality can hinder our creativity. Describing that he was born with a â€Å"shaping spirit of imagination,† the persona alludes to the idea that humanity maintains the ability to bring about their own happiness, which as a whole, demonstrates to the audience that life can only ever be worth living when we have found our own contentment and joy, as encountered only through our imaginative pursuits. As the poem concludes, the importance of maintaining happiness is reiterated as the persona wishes his lover to rejoice, asking for joy to become the â€Å"eddying of her living soul,† which again expresses the concept of inner contentment, which at times can only be found through creativity, as the core of the human existence. Coleridge’s ‘This Lime Tree Bower My Prison’, is a poem describing a man’s changing views as he contemplates the natural word which he has been prevented from seeing. Coleridge’s poem demonstrates the ability of individuals to modify their morals and values upon receiving a cathartic release from their relationship with nature, as predicated almost entirely on the imagination. Through allowing the persona to visualise the encounters his friends are making with nature along their journey, Coleridge first demonstrates the capabilities of the imagination in allowing us to picture things in certain detail, as shown through â€Å"now my friends emerge,† which in all exemplifies the presence of imagination in our relationship with nature. Furthermore, the description of their journey demonstrates the liberation received from engaging with nature, as shown where they â€Å"wander in gladness,† which relates to the cathartic release obtained from viewing nature that pushes us to reassess our ideas and perceptions. By showing his gradual change in tone, the influence of the persona’s imagination is shown, which when in conjunction with his exclamation of â€Å"yes!† reveals our emotional capabilities if becoming engulfed in our imaginations of nature. Also, by choosing to allow the persona to speak in a melodramatic tone, the poet is able to again explicitly demonstrate his overwhelming feelings from picturing various landscapes, as seen in the alliteration â€Å"silent with swimming sense,† which further reveals nature’s ability to liberate our senses. Similarly, Coleridge’s conclusion to the poem, which involves a reflection of the persona’s realisations as he contemplated the beauty around him, provides a retrospective view of experience and what he â€Å"henceforth shall know,† which ultimately reveals humanity’s capabilities to both adapt and change their morals and values through perceiving new ideas and perceptions. Ari Kruger’s ‘Focus,’ is a 2011 short film depicting the changing perceptions of a young man as he enters and loses a romantic relationship. The film portrays the inevitable presence of flaws within the human existence, while simultaneously recognising the natural beauties that are still present. The concept of being unable to decipher things beyond the obvious is first received by Kruger’s choice to film in black and white, which in conjunction to the man’s struggle to continue to see the positive traits of his partner, highlights humanity’s inability to, at times, see beyond the realm of ‘black and white’ and hence recognise the more ‘colourful’ aspects. The man’s growing blindness over the beauties of his relationship due to an unnamed flaw is successfully conveyed through the use of camera focus to gradually blur the young girl until she is ultimately unrecognisable, which mirrors the consequences of choosing to focus singularly on the imperfections of humanity and overlook the positive attributes. In the shot where the girl looks grumpily along as he uses his computer, the device is seen as a metaphor for the technological advancements or barriers which have hindered his appreciation of all things natural, namely the positive traits of his partner. Parallels with this exist within Coleridge’s ‘This Lime Tree Bower My Prison,’ where the persona is blinded from feeling the beauty of nature by his resentment, describing how it had ‘dimmed mine eyes. ’ The superiority of those who recognise both the beauties and flaws of humanity can be seen through the higher positioning of the girl on the bed as the man sits on the floor, further highlighting the importance for ourselves to similarly do so. Through creating a parallel between the beginning and end of their relationship, Kruger demonstrates that despite the melancholy tones of the last scenes, the man has now achieved liberation by realising his own flaw as the pinnacle of their conflict, which as shown through the repetition of non-diegetic music, allows us to realise the cathartic release we can only achieve from recognising the dichotomised attributes of humanity. Although it is complex, the human condition can be simplified into several key aspects that act as the core of our existence, as outlined in the above texts. It can be seen that through creativity and imagination, humanity is able to reach a sense of self-actualisation which allows them to realise the basic flaws of their existence without overlooking its natural beauty.

Capital Budgeting for Equator Ltd

Equator Ltd. is looking at expanding its operations into manufacturing tablet computers. The company has two options to consider from, one being Plant A which is highly automated and the other being Plant B which is more labour intensive. The cash inflow and outflow for both the options have been analysed using capital budgeting techniques, the results of which are presented below: Both the options have favourable results where the NPV is positive, IRR is more than the cost of capital and the payback period is within the project period. However, the company should go ahead with Plant A as it has higher NPV and IRR. Even though Plant B has lower payback period, but for mutually exclusive projects, the project with highest NPV followed by IRR is selected. Hence the company should go for Plant A. The cost of capital considered here is 13.35% as this the WACC used by the Computer tablet industry and hence is a better discounting factor as it takes into account all the risks associated with this project. The fixed allocation cost has not been considered in the analysis as it is not an incremental cost. The increased working capital is assumed to be recovered at the end of the project life for both the projects. There is risk inherent in a project because no one can accurately predict the future outcomes. It is due to the variability of the future cash flows of the project. Market risk – the economic growth rate is assumed to 5.5% for the project and the sales have been projected on the economic growth rate basis. However, if the economic growth rate does not take as projected, the analysis of the investment may go wrong i.e. if the growth rate decreases, the sales will decrease and the NPV will reduce (Drake, NA) Also there is a risk of a change in the inflation rate. An increase in the inflation rate may increase the operating costs, thus making the project less profitable. Project specific risk – The management may predict wrong cash flows for the project. If the prediction goes wrong, then the whole investment may go for a toss. Industry specific risk – an abrupt change in the industry specific regulations may increase the industry specific risk. Also technological advancement in the industry may increase risks. Like if a better product comes in the market than tablet computers, the market for tablets will decrease, thus causing loss to the company (Dontigney, NA) Company specific risk – this risk may arise due to company specific factors like change in the management of the company, any strikes or lock outs by the employees which may disrupt the operations of the company and thus the revenue might be affected. Efficient Market Hypothesis is a proposition that the stock prices in the market perfectly reflect the true value of the firm from the available information. The theory believes that no investor can gain from identifying undervalued stocks using technical and fundamental analysis. Any new information available in the market about the stock is immediately adjusted in the stock price and hence the stocks become accurately priced. Therefore all investors whether uninformed or experts will obtain the same rate of return (Malkiel, 2003). Also the theory believes that if any trader identifies a undervalued or overvalued stock, this will motivate the trader to undertake trading in order to make abnormal profits and in the process the prices of the stock will move towards the its intrinsic value, making the stock price efficient which reflects its fundamental value. Intrinsic value of a share is the present value of cash flows in the form of dividends and the cash flow from the sale of stock . There are three forms of capital market efficiency i.e. weak efficiency, semi strong efficiency, strong form efficiency. Under the weak form efficiency, it is believed the stock prices fully reflect all the past information of the security. Thus an analyst cannot make gains using technical analysis as it is based on past prices. Under semi strong form efficiency, the stock prices fully reflect all public information about the stock. Hence, traders with access to non public information can make abnormal profits. Under strong form of efficiency, the markets are very efficient and quickly react to the new information to adjust stock prices thus making it impossible for any investor to make excess profits. Capital markets are channels through which the idle funds of a potential investor are put into effective use. A company can raise funds through equity or bonds in a capital market. A company generally raises funds in a capital market for long term projects. It is very convenient for the companies to raise funds if the capital markets are efficient because efficient capital markets ensure the funds flow to the highest valued projects. The stock prices at which the stocks would be issued is determined by the market and the market ensures that the stock prices fully reflect the fundamental value of future cash flows. Thus, if the project of Equator Limited promises to maximise the shareholder value, the future value of all cash flows would be incorporated into the stock prices at which the company would raise the new capital. Also efficient markets enable the company to focus on long term projects instead of short term because the funds are easily available from potential investors for high value long term projects (Jones, Netter, NA) We see that tablet computer is a growing industry and hence the outlook for this industry is good. This will help the company in attracting capital easily as the investors would be willing to invest in an industry which has high growth prospects (Dudley, Hubbard, 2004). And moreover since the company is already an established player in the computer market, these will double the ease with which it can raise the funds. Drake, P., (NA), Capital Budgeting and Risk, accessed online on 22 nd January, 2017, available at https://educ.jmu.edu/~drakepp/principles/module6/cbrisk Dontigney, E., (NA), What Factors Increase the Riskiness of a Capital Budgeting Project? accessed online on 22 nd January, 2017, available at https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/factors-increase-riskiness-capital-budgeting-project-26421.html Malkiel, B.G., (2003), The Efficient Market Hypothesis and Its Critics, CEPS Working Paper No.91 Jones, S.L, Netter, J.M., (NA), Efficient Capital Markets, accessed online on 23 rd January, 2017, available at, https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/EfficientCapitalMarkets.html Dudley, W.C., Hubbard, R.G., (2004), How Capital Markets Enhance Economic Performance and Facilitate Job Creation, Global Market Institute, Goldman Sachs

Role of Rapid Economic Growth in Resolution of Social and Political Essay

Role of Rapid Economic Growth in Resolution of Social and Political Tensions Between China and India - Essay Example The existing social and political tensions have been addressed in cases where both China and India have shared the same level of interest in their economic relations (Mitter, 2008, p. 56). In cases where the two countries have differed in their social and political objectives which could be funded by their economic growths, the tension in the political and social sphere between China and India has aggravated. The two countries India and China have close cultural, social and political linkages for long time in the history. The review of the political and the social tensions between China and India have come at a time when these two countries have started to undergo a period of socio-economic transformation and have been eager to modify their political linkages in the best interest of their economic progress. Arguments and facts In this piece of work, I would argue rationally that the rapid economic growth rates of China and India have offered a new source of political and social tensi on and have also been able to address the existing tensions in the social and political relationship domain between the two countries. In order to understand the underlying reasons of the impacts of relative economic growth of China and India on the social and political tensions between the two countries, a review of the political and socio-economic structural differences between these two countries need to be explained as follows. India is the largest multi-party democracy which has pulled the demands of democracy and has been able to achieve modest growth in its economy. China on the other hand is the largest single party ruled economy. Due to the existence of a single party... This paper outlines the importance of strengthening economic cooperation between China and India in respect to resolution of their historical political and social tensions. Historically, the countries have enough linkages in the social and cultural domain and hence, the rapid economic growth of the two countries largely impacted the social and political tensions between the two countries. The rapid growth of economy of China has seen the country to dominate the Asian economy and take on the US to challenge its economic dominance. This has resulted in the growth of China and attained a commanding position in the Sino-Indian relationships. India made rapid progress to develop as a regional superpower in Asia and was looking to expand its strategic relationship with the East in order to be able to influence the social and political tensions with China. The social and political relations between China and India and the underlying social and political tensions is explained with the help of framework of international relations. Functionalism theory of international relations explain the fact as a result of the rise of the countries, China and India have been fighting for dominance while maintaining relations between them and this also took form of militarization. After the rapid growth of economy of the two countries, the society of both China and India have developed an increasing nationalist sentiment due to which the expectations from the government and the social demands from the economic policies are even higher.

Structural Configurations for Organizations Assignment

Structural Configurations for Organizations - Assignment Example From the management point of view, this approach is credible. For instance, it is not possible for an organization to achieve optimum flexibility and specialization without continuous evolution of its structure. Web inclusion as a concept initiates new connections and link people thus exposing them to new organization methods. Consequently, continuous improvements on the existing organization structures can be initiated (Helgesen, 2005). Additional approach to structural configurations remained formulated by four authors including Veld, Schaap, Termeer and Twist in their book, â€Å"Autopoiesis and Configuration Theory†. Based on their approach, organizations operate within diverse environments and each has its individual way of integrating into the surrounding in terms of technological and structural configuration (Veld et al, 1991). The key point in this case is the fact that managers should view organizations as structural entities and avoid unnecessary fragmentation that would otherwise jeopardize the effectiveness of organizational activities. The pros of Helgesens’s approach over Mintzberg are the initiation of continuous improvement in organization structure, improved flexibility and specialization. However, process of continuously transiting into a new organizational structure may be complex and consequently disadvantageous. Similarly, advantage of the second approach is that the effectiveness of the organization is improved by centralization of its activities because they are viewed as a whole entity and not irrelevantly fragmented. Csaszar, Felipe A. 2012. "Organizational structure as a determinant of performance: Evidence from mutual funds." Strategic Management Journal 33, no. 6: 611-632. Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed July 2,

Auditing. The series of scandals caused a general crisis of confidence Essay

Auditing. The series of scandals caused a general crisis of confidence in the integrity of the entire system of corporate accoun - Essay Example Thereafter the author described financial scandals as those corporate scandals that involve misappropriation and misuse of money or economic resources. The chronicles of business history are filled with errors related to accounting, judgements, financial management and financial skulduggery. Over the last few decades unscrupulous entrepreneurs have been heavily involved in financial scandals where they allegedly diverted funds from one stated use to another, paid dividends out of borrowed money or capital, traded stocks on the basis of insider information as well as concealed vital information regarding those stocks, practiced creative account thereby altering the company’s records so on and so forth. Auditing failure has been a major concern over the last two decades with case of Enron and WorldCom coming into the limelight. According to Tackett, Wolf and Claypool (2004), a severe distortion in the financial statements that has not been reported in the audit report can be ter med as audit failure. Thus the auditor has committed a serious mistake while conducting the auditing process (Arens, 2002). Normally, auditing failure would not happen if an auditor is abide by the Generally Accepted Auditing Standards despite the fact whether the financial statement is accurate or fair. ... Thirdly, auditing failure occurs when the auditor is lured into committing such frauds by the company. Lastly, auditing failure might occur if the audit officer may commit fraud intentionally because of having some private relationship with the client beyond a certain level which is normally not expected in normal audit between independent parties. The following sections will highlight the integrity in the System of Corporate Accountability thereby commenting on the role of auditors and their effectiveness in the auditing process. The issues which undermine the credibility of audit reports will also be discussed. Thereafter, the changes that have been made in the auditing regulation will be explained followed by an explanation of the corporate governance framework that exists in Parmalat. Henceforth, the issues of audit reporting will be discussed and appropriate conclusions will be drawn. Integrity in the System of Corporate Accountability Corporate accountability is of utmost impor tance in debates around social issues, ethics and businesses (Brenkert, 2004). Accountability generally refers to the reliability and authenticity in the financial accounts reporting related to the financial status of any corporation. Integrity in the corporate accountability system should be maintained in order to reduce fraudulent activity within the financial reporting system. In the latter half of the twentieth century, the social and environmental issues were also brought under the financial accountability making them responsible for the environmental and social records. Linkage between the accountability and the integration of the Corporate Social Responsibility within the businesses helped to take the Business for Social responsibility to greater heights. It

Identify and discuss the key factors that influence the logistical Essay

Identify and discuss the key factors that influence the logistical processes at Tate and Lyle - Essay Example Moreover, the group has diversified portfolio business operations throughout the globe, thus making it one of the leading players in renewable food and industrial ingredient industry. The subject of this report is the determination of the key factors that influence the logistical processes at Tate & Lyle Plc. This study is significant because Tate & Lyle has a strong global presence. Moreover, understanding the logistical processes of the group will help not only in clarifying and in addressing the issues encountered by the group in its logistical processes, but it will also provide clearer grounds in apprehending the theoretical and practical application of logistics. As such, the purpose of the report is the identification and discussion of the key factors that affect the logistical processes at Tate & Lyle Plc. In order to achieve this purpose, several academic literatures pertinent to the subject matter have been gathered. The electronic databases EConlit, Academic Source Premier , Business Source Premier, GoogleScholar and Jstor have been searched, and the following key terms have been used Tate & Lyle Plc, logistical processes, logistics, sugarcane industry, globalisation, and supply-chain management in the search. The report is divided into six parts. The first part is the introduction wherein the subject, both the purpose and structure of the report are presented. In the second part, a brief company profile is provided while in the third part pertains to the supply chain in Tate & Lyle. The fourth part of the report deals with the transportation arrangements adopted by the group, while in the fifth section the inventory costs of Tate & Lyle will be discussed. Finally, the last part of the report is the conclusion. Company View: Tate & Lyle Plc Tate & Lyle Plc manufactures a wide range of products. The group’s ingredients are produced from renewable raw materials primarily corn, sugarcane, wheat, and molasses (Datamonitor, 2008; 2010). These raw ma terials are transformed into ethanol, citric acid, sweeteners and starches, and through the help of technology, it becomes a valuable ingredient for food, beverages and other industrial commodities. The end-users of the Tate & Lyle’s products are wide and varied. It ranges from branded food manufacturers, beverages, pharmaceutical products, household products, building products, paper and board to consumer brands and animal feeds (Datamonitor, 2010). Tate & Lyle creates its portfolio of renewable ingredients using three main processes: milling, fermentation and sugar refining. The group's other essential raw material processes include its patented sucralose processing of sugar. Tate & Lyle maintains more than 45 production facilities throughout Europe, the Americas and South East Asia (Datamonitor, 2010, p. 20). The company is considered as one of the leading manufacturers in renewable food and industrial ingredients. It is one of the largest producers of white and raw sugar in the world including leading brands such as Tate & Lyle (UK), and Alcantara (Portugal) (Datamonitor, 2010, p. 21). In the United States, the group is the second largest sugar refining company holding 36% of the market share. Likewise, Tate & Lyle is also second largest company in sugar beet processing in the U.S (Brewster & Boland, 2009). In order to bolster their current position in the global market, Tate & Lyle continues to come up with products and programmes that are responsive to the demands of the

Alison Nieves Will Analyses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Alison Nieves Will Analyses - Essay Example The essay "Alison Nieve’s Will Analyses" presents the analyses of Alison Nieve’s Will. The first clause in Alison Nieve’s Will is a standard provision pursuant to Section 20 of the Wills Act 1837 as amended. Section 20 provides for the revocation of an existing will by the execution of another Will. The second clause of the Will provides for the appointment of Simon Landsford and Asif Khan as co-trustees and co-executors of the Neive’s Will and with those appointments, there are responsibilities and obligations which as explained in greater detail below.The gift to Sarah of 50,000 pounds doesn't impose upon Simon Landsford and Asif Khan the role of trustees. The power to transfer the sum of 50,000 pounds is founded on their respective capacities as executors of Nieve’s Will. It is clear that Neive does not intend that Sarah take the funds as an absolute gift. Neive’s sole intention was the creation of a purpose trust with Sarah acting as trus tee. In order for a trust to be fully constituted and capable of enforcement it must contain three certainties. Three certainties are certainty of intention, objects and subject matters. The trust property is commonly referred to as the subject, intention refers to the words and conduct that is capable of identifying the donor’s intention to create a trust and the objects refer to the intended beneficiaries. The difficulty with this trust is that Samuel, the object of the trust is not a human beneficiary.

Critical Pedagogy Perspective of Education Essay

Critical Pedagogy Perspective of Education - Essay Example â€Å"Habits of thought, reading, writing, and speaking which go beneath surface meaning, first impressions, dominant myths, official pronouncements, traditional cliches, received wisdom, and mere opinions, to understand the deep meaning, root causes, social context, ideology, and personal consequences of any action, event, object, process, organization, experience, text, subject matter, policy, mass media, or discourse"(Wink 2011, p. 128). This is an implication that in critical pedagogy approach of schooling the learner is not mandated to conform to the conventional schooling system. The paper access the appropriateness of critical pedagogy of schooling and its key elements. Paulo Freire was the first person to describe critical pedagogy approach of schooling. His initial interest was to address adult literacy, â€Å"†¦Paulo Freire, writing originally within the specific context of promoting adult literacy within Latin American peasant communities, but whose work has taken o n an increasingly international interest and appeal in the past three decades†(Macrine 2009, p. 67). ... (1984, 1988) critical pedagogy approach of schooling is concerned with the relationship that should exist between, school and the socio- political aspects of living. In his explanation, Stanley (1992) indicates that Freire’s critical pedagogy is based on critical consciousness. Stanley (1992, p. 56) continues to deduce that according to Freire, â€Å"Freedom, for Freire, begins with the recognition of a system of oppressive relations, and one’s own place in that system. The task of Critical Pedagogy is to bring members of an oppressed group to a critical consciousness of their situation as a beginning point of their liberatory praxis.† This is an implication that the learner should be the centre of schooling not schooling being the centre of learning. Purmensky (2009, p. 96) states that, â€Å"Freire goes further than arguing that educators must constantly discover and rediscover ways to help the learner view knowledge as problematic.† Arguably, an implica tion that teachers should employ a learning approach that enables the learner to learn and unlearn. The idea behind critical pedagogy approach of education is attributed to neo-Marxian literature concerning Critical Theory. Critical theorist argued that the Frankfurt school, whose founder was Marxism, had underrated the significant role played by media and cultural influences in addressing issues pertaining capitalism (Malott 2010; Sleeter 1995). critical pedagogy generally refers to the effort that is need to work in an educational institution as well in other aspects of life such as the media and have the audacity to question any form of power inequality that results to groups as well as individuals abandoning what is meaningful and will value to their lives. To install such crucial virtues, learners’ in school

Exploring the Allegorical Nature of the Faerie Queen Essay Example for Free

Exploring the Allegorical Nature of the Faerie Queen Essay An allegory – a form of extended metaphor in which objects, persons and actions in a narrative, in this case, The Faerie Queen, are equated with meanings lying outside the narrative itself – represent an abstraction in the guise of a concrete image, with characters often personifying abstract qualities. One way of looking at The Faerie Queen is that it is allegorical in a complex manner. As a mode of writing in a still largely religious society (15th century England), viewing The Faerie Queen as an allegory allows the reader to perceive nature and history as in possession of hidden divine meanings capable of being revealed to the diligent, worthy seeker. Similar to the concept of a â€Å"sugar-coated pill† The Faerie Queen’s allegorical nature allows the author (Edmund Spenser) to conceal (largely moral) ideas from his readers and reveals them only to a deserving few who are able to go beyond appearances and recognize the truth for what it is. One needs to work hard in unlocking the hidden meanings for comprehension brought about by diligence would be valued more by the human mind than one that is easily understood, i. e. Una had veiled herself until the Red Cross Knight had proven himself worthy of seeing her face at their betrothal. In the case of Duessa, the name itself seems to represent duality, duplicity in contrast to the one (Una) truth, as her role varies from one book to another. In Book I she embodies religious falsehood while in Book V it is political falsehood, appearing in the guise of fair creatures until the facts of her foulness are uncovered much like literature’s Circe the witch and her cup of poison capable of altering her shape in her aim to entice and imprison her lovers. Spenser’s Duessa is distinctly English as she appears to be the fusion of the enchantress Circe with the biblical Whore of Babylon, i. e. Catholicism in the eyes of Protestant (Elizabethan) England. Her role is largely limited to deceiving appearances and seducing the Red Cross Knight, supposedly representing the â€Å"false† religion of the Roman Catholic Church. As for Una, her identity is clarified with vices parodying â€Å"true† religion as she appears to represent the one, noble truth among the wilderness, a ‘woman clothed with the sun’ and whose beauty is a manifestation of Christ’s alluring grace. As the personification of the â€Å"true† Church (the Church of England), she travels with the Red Cross Knight (supposedly representing England as its patron Saint George was said to have been a dragon slayer) in order to save her parents from a dragon. In keeping with the work’s religious tone, Una’s wanderings in the wilderness could be viewed in the biblical tradition as the Church fleeing the antichrist. Upon meeting her, the character of Abessa flees in terror of Una and her lion, which likely represents the justice wielded by Christ through the earthly executors of His will. Una plays the role of the romantic heroine in need of a brave knight to rescue her from a moral and fickle fortune. She is the â€Å"truth† to the Red Cross Knight’s â€Å"nobility† yet they are separated, until such a time when they overcome their respective obstacles and prove themselves worthy of a blessed union. Her character is made to wander, and in Cantos 3 and 6 it is made clear that her progress through the natural world is upward. Her encounter with Arthur helps her better understand her plight and what needs to be done for her to be able to transcend her suffering and misery. In a way, one could argue that Arthur represents divine intervention or simply providence lending a hand to strengthen our moral resolve at the time of darkest human frailty. Whereas Una represents the one truth, Duessa is the living, breathing duplicity in Faerie Queen. The Red Cross Knight as he descends the world of society (Cantos 4 and 5) in the company of Duessa is capable of seeing only surfaces. She is deceptive, but does that make her necessarily evil? There is no doubt that Una personifies the good yet though Duessa might be her antithesis, it is harder to ascertain whether she is out rightly evil or merely duplicitous. After all, human beings certainly err from time to time, we are both deceived and deceivers in our own way, yet we are not condemned so easily as evil personified or offspring of Satan. But since we are talking of allegories in The Faerie Queen written to glorify the reign of Elizabeth I of England, one has to note the seeming need to vilify Catholicism, symbolized by Duessa, as the deceptive enemy to England’s Anglican Church symbolized by Una. Representing truth, Una remains veiled for most of the poem, uncovering herself only when the Red Cross Knight is finally betrothed to her (Canto 12) and when she is all by herself ‘farre from all mens sight’ (3:4). In the same way as that of the House of Holiness, her ‘gates’ remain closed for fear of being raped for her beauty. The rationale for this is that truth as a prize of great worth remains vulnerable to exploitation, epitomized in the image of Una’s virginity, ‘that stubborn forte’ (6:3) which needs to be safeguarded until such time when she is ready to relinquish it to someone worthy of her. When she is finally unveiled, her beauty is described as blinding – ‘The blazing brightness of her beauties beame’ (12:23) – to lend credence that truth is not for the faint-hearted, and in the occasion that it appears to the common people is needs to wear a veil as truth cannot be conveyed directly for it tends to blind its audience. Finally, for all its power truth is clothed in simplicity and naturalness. In contrast to Duessa’s garb of garments ‘gilt and gorgeous gold arayd’ (5: 26), Una enters ‘under a vele, that wimpled was full low. ’ Duplicity is fond of shows and of parading itself – Duessa is set upon a seven-headed beast – yet truth does not need fancy outer garments to conceal its natural splendor. She is able to tame the lion, which recognizes Una’s beauty and goodness and responds to her overtures accordingly, while it seems to be able to discern Duessa’s true nature despite her lovely appearance. 15th century Elizabethan England placed great value on a woman’s virtues, e. g. chastity, fidelity, etc. and this is appropriately manifested by Una who steadfastly safeguards her virginity, in contrast to Duessa who takes great pleasure in seducing men with her feminine wiles. Una represents chaste love which waits for the right time, that is, in the context of marriage, before engaging in sexual liaisons. Duessa is an entirely different matter she takes pleasure in her power over men through her sexuality. Of course for the conservative sexual mores of the time this was despicable in a woman – she would easily be labeled as a whore. A woman during those times was viewed slightly better than property, first as belonging to her father, then to her husband, and her worth in the marriage market was often viewed in relation to her maidenhood, aside from the size of her dowry. Nowadays though, society has a more liberal view on the roles of women, their functions in society and how they are expected to act, and it would be harder to categorically generalize women as simply being the marriageable kind or those whom men should only dally with. Also, the influence of religion has significantly waned – it no longer plays such a central role in the lives of most people. Thus, modern-day interpretations of The Faerie Queen would not necessarily take a kind view of Spencer’s illustration of women, particularly if one utilizes the feminist perspective in critically analyzing the said work. Work Cited: Spencer, Edmund. The Faerie Queen. London: Penguin Classics, 1979.

Applying Cue Utilization Theory

Applying Cue Utilization Theory Evaluating Website Quality: Applying Cue Utilization Theory to WebQual Abstract   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cue Utilization Theory is applied to examine the relative importance of each of the WebQual dimensions (Informational Fit-to-Task, Tailored Information, Trust, Response Time, Ease of Understanding, Intuitive Operations, Visual Appeal, Innovativeness, Emotional Appeal, Consistent Image, On-line Completeness, and Relative Advantage) in determining consumers evaluation of website quality. Two studies have been designed for this task. Study 1 qualifies how subjects rate the predictive value (PV) and confidence value (CV) of each dimension. An analysis of these results provides an ability to fit the WebQual dimensions to a 22 model showing the relative magnitude that each dimension has on consumers evaluation of website quality. Study 2 is designed to test the viability of the model via a set of proposed hypotheses. The results from this research will contribute to the field by providing a model that developers can utilize to focus on those characteristics most determi nistic of overall website quality. 1. Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the last ten years, online shopping has become a prevalent part of the average consumers shopping experience. The consumer now has the ability to purchase virtually anything online; ranging from small-ticket items such as a rubber-band ball to bigticket items like vacation homes. With this increase in the online consumers purchasing power and propensity to purchase online, retailers have become increasingly willing to develop their e-commerce presence. Moreover, this explosion of Internet activity has prompted businesses to demand that website developers understand the qualities of a website that serve to facilitate the shopping experience for e-commerce consumers. At the same time, this growth of e-commerce has provided a virtual plethora of new options for crimes of opportunity such as identity theft. The online shopper has to worry not only about finding the perfect product, but they also have to evaluate the website to determine if they are willing to make a purchase from this site.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Valacich, Parboteeah and Wells [1] developed the Online Consumers Hierarchy of Needs to delineate the needs of the online consumer. Their model showed that certain fundamental needs exist that the online consumer must have met before they are willing to utilize a website. These fundamental needs are then further broken down into the specific website characteristic categories of Functional Convenience, Representational Delight and Structural Firmness. Functional Convenience is the category allowing the consumer to accomplish the task-athand easily and includes attributes, such as ease of ordering and tracking. Representational Delight is characterized by those dimensions that make the site visually appealing, such as graphics and sizing. Structural Firmness consists of fundamental qualities such as response time and security. Using this Hierarchy of Needs, a consumer interested in online banking would need to have their basic need for each of these characteristics met before they would be willing to use the website.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This Hierarchy of Needs model shows those characteristics that are necessary for a consumer to utilize a website, and further elaborates by showing which characteristics are most important depending on if the consumer is visiting the website for business, pleasure or a combination of the two [1]. Knowing these characteristics is important for development of the website, but also implies that the consumers level of confidence in evaluating these characteristics of a website is of particular importance to their overall assessment of a given websites quality. Traditional marketing literature suggests that when people make assessments of quality, they tend to use informational cues that are not only predictive, but also easy to assess. This is known as the Cue Utilization Theory [2], and has been paramount in evaluating consumers perceptions of product quality.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This research project elaborates on consumers inability to evaluate all relevant cues during the online shopping experience. A model is developed using Cue Utilization Theory [2] and WebQual [3] to show the attributes of a website that are the most determinant of how a consumer will react to the website. This model will provide a deeper understanding of the evaluation of existing and proposed websites with respect to consumers confidence in evaluating the cues communicated by the website. 2. Cue Utilization Theory   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Richardson, Dick and Jain [2] employed Cue Utilization Theory in their research to determine how consumers viewed store brand quality vs. nationally branded merchandise. According to this theory, â€Å" products consist of an array of cues that serve as surrogate indicators of quality to shoppers† [2]. This theory purports that cues are evoked by the two separate dimensions of predictive and confidence values. The predictive value (PV) is â€Å" the degree to which consumers associate a given cue with product quality† [2]. Confidence value (CV) is â€Å" the degree to which consumers have confidence in their ability to use and judge that cue accurately† [2].   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Further, based on relative differences in PV and CV, cues can be broken down into the distinct areas of extrinsic and intrinsic. The American Heritage dictionary describes intrinsic as, â€Å"Of or relating to the essential nature of a thing; inherent† [4] and extrinsic as, â€Å"not forming an essential or inherent part of a thing; extraneous.† [5] From this definition, an intrinsic attribute would be one that would fundamentally alter the focal object (e.g., product) if it was changed or absent and, per Cue Utilization Theory, would possess an inherently high degree of PV. Alternatively, an extrinsic attribute would be one that would not alter the fundamental nature of the focal object in its absence but might alter a consumers reaction or perceptions of the object. Per Cue Utilization theory, an extrinsic cue would typically have higher degrees of CV compared to PV.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For example, when looking at a video card on an e-commerce website it could be said that the product price is an example of an extrinsic attribute of the video card. While the video cards dimensions and material composition of the video card serve as intrinsic indicators. Further, you could postulate that the average consumer has a higher CV in their ability to judge the quality of the card based on the price rather than the material composition. Though the consumer knows that the dimensions and material composition of the card are important, they will tend to rely on price as an informational cue, as that is the cue that they feel the most comfortable evaluating.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When considering the quality of a website there are a myriad of dimensions that the consumer mustevaluate to determine if they intend to perform a transaction on this website. From the Valacich et al [1] article the consumers basic needs in terms of Structural Firmness, Functional Convenience and Representational Delight must all be met before the consumer will consider doing business. To determine if these needs are being met the consumer will evaluate the cues they perceive as being exhibited from the website. These cues can be further broken down into components by utilizing the WebQual model [3]. 3. WebQual   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  WebQual consists of 12 dimensions: Informational Fit-to-Task, Tailored Information, Trust, Response Time, Ease of Understanding, Intuitive Operations, Visual Appeal, Innovativeness, Emotional Appeal, Consistent Image, On-line Completeness, and Relative Advantage. Each of these dimensions is shown to have strong measurement validity in regards to the consumers evaluation of overall website quality [3].   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Information fit-to-task is an amalgamation of information quality and functional fit-to-task [3]. In component form, information quality refers to the datas appropriateness for use or ability to meet the users needs [6]. Functional Fit-to-Task can be represented as the degree the technology assists the user at a given task [7]. Drawing these two components back together as a whole and relating them to cyberspace lends credence to the definition that information fit-to-task is assisting the user in their desired task by presenting relevant/appropriate information. Loiacono, Chen, and Goodhue [8] define this as â€Å"The information provided meets task needs and improves performance†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The ability for consumers to tailor the information displayed on a website to meet their needs is the basic form of Tailored Information. Tailored Information is further characterized by Ghose and Dou [9] as the interactivity of the website, and represents the consumers ability to modify information presented on the website. Recent research suggests that website interactivity will lead consumers to be more positive in their evaluation of websites [9]. This concept has also been operationalized as the ability to personalize information between the consumer and the website [8,10]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Trust, in relation to websites, is defined in an extremely simple form as consumers confidence that any information entered into the website will remain confidential and that said information will be transmitted and stored in a secure fashion [8]. Furthermore, trust is having faith that the information presented on the website is true and accurate [11,12]. Lack of Trust has been cited as one of the main hindrances to completion of e-commerce transactions [14,11,15]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Response Time (aka. download time or download delay) is defined by Rose and Straub [16] as â€Å" the time it takes for a web client to fully receive, process, and display files† (p. 56), and is ranked as one of the largest impediments to electronic commerce in their research. Additional research has reinforced that Response Time can be an impediment to e-Commerce, and that is it also strongly associated with web site success [17,18]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The consumers ease in comprehending the website is the Ease of Understanding. Loiacono et al. [8] describe this in terms of a websites ease of reading and the understandability of said website. This would include things like presenting the information in a manner which is easy for the consumer to assimilate, and in a fashion such that the consumer can quickly navigate to the desired information.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Intuitive Operations deals with the usability of a website, and includes items such as navigability, link placement, operation, and changing the color of visited links [19]. Intuitive Operations could be thought of as making the webpage easy to navigate, and providing intuitive options for available tasks [8]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Visual Appeal is how aesthetically pleasing the website is to the consumer. Determining what is aesthetically pleasing is complicated though; it ranges from the overall complexity of the website [20] and the layout of the interface [21] to how many ads and graphics are appropriate on a given page[22]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Innovativeness is â€Å"The creativity and uniqueness of a site design† [8]. This could include concepts such as a website having a new way of presenting its merchandise (e.g. Woot.com) or a website attempting to tailor the information to consumer preferences (e.g. Amazon.com)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Emotional Appeal can be elicited in many forms and can be thought of as the consumers intensity of involvement given the emotions that the website elicits [8]. This is often seen in the form of testimonials presented on the website, but can also be observed by simple things such as a consumers reaction to a Valentines Day card.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Loiacono et al. [8] articulate Consistent Image as the websites ability to project a company image that is compatible with the company image shown in other forms of media channels. For instance, a traditional brick-and-mortal store would want to ensure that their website was displaying a compatible image so that they could capitalize on synergies created by marketing in multiple channels such as cost savings, market extension and improved Trus [23].   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Presenting all the information required for the tasks that the website is designed for would be considered On-line Completeness. This would include tasks such as the ability to complete an online transaction on e-commerce sites. A bank for instance would want ubiquitous account access using all available channels, and the information presented in each of these channels has to be on the same update cycle as to present the customer the same information regardless of channel [6].   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Relative Advantage is gaining a competitive advantage by being able to do something better than the competition. This could come in the form of providing better interaction with the customer through the website [8], being able to provide more accurate and timely data through your website than the competition [6] or being able to price products lower than the competition because of reduced prices in your supply chain. Each of these dimensions is then tied back into the consumers intention to use/reuse the site. Trust and Response Time, being key indicators, are directly linked to the consumers intention to use the site. Common sense would tell us that consumers are not going to shop on a site that does not respond rapidly to requests. Likewise, if users dont trust the site to keep their information secure, they are not likely to supply the information in the first place. The remaining dimensions are all fully mediated by Usefulness, Ease of Use and Entertainment. Usefulness mediates Informational Fit-to-Task, Tailored Information, Online Completeness and Relative Advantage. Additionally, Ease of Use is partially mediated by Usefulness. Ease of Use mediates Ease of Understanding and Intuitive Operations. Finally, Entertainment mediates Visual Appeal, Innovativeness, Emotional Appeal and Consistent Image (See WebQual model in Figure 1).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Consumers do not just browse a site and evaluate each of these individual traits though. Consumers instead tend to examine a website using those cues that they feel confident in their ability to evaluate successfully. To understand this issue further, WebQual needs to be combined with Cue Utilization Theory to explain the extrinsic/intrinsic nature of each of these dimensions. 4. Cue Utilization/WebQual Conceptual Model   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As Valacich et al [1] point out; consumers must have their basic level of needs met before any of the other elements of the website can become relevant to the consumers experience. To validate that these basic needs have been met, the consumer will evaluate those features that they believe to be highly predictive of the quality of the website. This evaluation will then be indicative of their willingness to continue to use the website.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Both extrinsic and intrinsic cues serve a function in the consumers overall evaluation of the quality of a website, which means that such cues possess varying degrees of PV and CV. Literature has shown that consumers tend to use a combination of both extrinsic and intrinsic cues when evaluating the quality of a product [2]. An argument can be made about the extrinsic versus intrinsic nature of each of the dimensions in the WebQual model.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Intrinsic cues are those cues that are inherent to a website. Conceptually they are the cues that when changed fundamentally alter a characteristic of the website (e.g. Visual Appeal). Consumers tend to see these cues as being highly predictive of quality [2]. At the same time, consumers may or may not have a high degree of confidence in their ability to evaluate these intrinsic cues because these cues are often difficult to differentiate. Thus, assuming a Cue Utilization Theory perspective, a website characteristic that is perceived to be an intrinsic cue would have an inherently high degree of PV. Yet, the power of an intrinsic cue for assessments of quality will depend on the CV of the cue, with higher levels of CV being optimal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Extrinsic cues are those cues that are used to evaluate a website but are not an inherent part of the website (e.g. Response Time). Consumers tend to have a lot of confidence in their ability to evaluate these cues in regards to assessment of quality [2]. On [the other hand, consumers typically do not rate these cues as being highly predictive (as compared to intrinsic cues) of the overall quality of the website. Considering extrinsic cues from a Cue Utilization Theory perspective, a website characteristic that is perceived to be an extrinsic cue would have an inherently high degree of CV.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Shown in Table 1 is a 22 matrix representing how each of the combinations of CV and PV will influence consumers willingness to perform tasks on a given website. As shown, characteristics with high CV and high PV are believed to have the largest effect on consumers perceptions of website quality. Those with low CV and PV would have a small to none existent effect, and those high on one dimension but low on the other would have a moderate effect. Next, we will posit about how varying degrees of cue PVs and CVs, respectively, will affect consumer perceptions of overall website quality.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Relative Advantage is often considered an important aspect of websites as discussed previously. However, from a Cue Utilization Theory perspective the consumer may experience, at most, only a vague feeling about the Relative Advantage of the website. As such they would not place much value in their confidence in assessing this characteristic, which would result in a low CV. Along the same lines the average consumer would also not really take Relative Advantage into consideration when they were performing tasks, implying a relatively low level of PV. Thus, website characteristics that fall into the quadrant in the model with low levels of both PV and CV would have a small impact on consumers willingness to perform tasks on a website. H1: A website characteristic with low CV low PV will produce a small to none existent effect on the consumers perception of website quality.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A characteristic such as Trust is highly predictive of consumers willingness to use a website, but the average consumer may not have much confidence in their ability to evaluate this characteristic. Trust in an online medium has been shown to be an attribute that is hard for the consumer to evaluate and in some cases to even define. Cue Utilization Theory suggests that though this characteristic is highly predictive of website quality, consumers lack of confidence in evaluating the characteristic may inhibit their ability to use the characteristic to assess the quality of the website. Moreover, dimensions in this quadrant, high PV/Low CV, have been shown to be relatively intrinsic to the website [2], and will have a moderate effect on the consumers evaluation of the websites quality. H2a: A website characteristic with low CV high PV will produce a moderate effect on consumers perception of website quality.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One could reason that Response Time is a good example of an extrinsic attribute because it is not part of the inherent composition of the website. Rather, Response Time could be considered extrinsic because it can vary without changing anything about the content of the website. Rose and Straub [16] have shown in their research that consumers tend to attribute lack of responsiveness to extrinsic factors such as the overall speed of the internet, their own internet connection being slow, or other factors. In general, consumers seem to be willing to give the website the benefit of the doubt when slow response times are encountered, and as such, Response Time could be considered extrinsic to the website because it doesnt fundamental change the consumers perception of the website when it is altered. Based on Cue Utilization theory attributes with a low PV and high CV (such as Response Time) will only have a moderate influence on the consumers evaluations of website qua lity, and those dimensions belonging to this quadrant would be extrinsic to the website [2]. H2b: A website characteristic with high CV low PV will produce a moderate effect on consumers perception of website quality.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cue Utilization Theory suggests that those characteristics with High CV and PV are the most highly predictive of consumers perception of website quality. Visual Appeal could be considered an intrinsic attribute because it is a characteristic inherent to the website that consumers are confident in using to evaluate website quality. One could further speculate that Visual Appeal is intrinsic to the website because if the Visual Appeal of the website was changed it would alter the inherent nature of the website. Lindgaard, Fernandes, Dudek, and Browà ± [24] have shown in their research that consumers form opinions about websites within the first 50 milliseconds (ms) of exposure. Furthermore, this initial perception of websites is almost entirely based on Visual Appeal; this was shown by correlating the ratings between 50 ms and 500 ms. However, though this attribute is intrinsic it shows an optimally high level of CV and PV thus placing it firmly into the high impac t quadrant. Dimensions in this quadrant would exhibit the optimal balance between PV and CV (i.e., an optimal intrinsic cue), and as such this quadrant of the table is hypothesized to have the largest impact on the consumers evaluation of the websites quality. H3: A website characteristic with high CV high PV will produce the largest effect on consumers perception of website quality. 5. Research Method   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To test these hypotheses two empirical studies will be administered. Study 1 is designed to determine where each of the WebQual dimensions fit into the 22 model shown in Table 1. Furthermore, this study is designed to determine if a significant difference can be perceived to exist between each of the dimensions when rank ordered by PV and CV. Study 2 will test the hypotheses by collecting data on each of these dimensions using a sample website, and comparing actual results to those found in the first study. 5.1 Study 1   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This study will focus on determining the CV and PV for each of the 12 dimensions of website quality, and determining if there is a significant difference between adjacent dimensions when rank ordered. 5.1.1 Subjects. Approximately 500 subjects will be recruited from an introductory Information Systems class held on campus at a large Northwestern University. Additionally, approximately 125 subjects will also be recruited from a distance education class offered by the same university. Subjects physically present on campus will complete the survey during their regular lecture times, and the distance education participants will have one week to complete the survey on their own personal computer. All data for Study 1 will be collected during the fall of 2009. Subjects will be given course credit for completing the survey, and no other incentives will be provided. 5.1.2 Survey Procedure. The survey is broken into two sections, one for CV and one for PV. In the CV section subjects are presented with a scenario about shopping on the Internet and asked about their confidence in assessing each of the 12 WebQual dimensions when shopping on the Internet for a product (e.g. Amazon.com) or Service (e.g. Bank of America). For this series of questions, the subjects will be required to rate each of the 12 WebQual dimensions on a 10-point likert-type scale with Confident/Not Confident being the top and bottom end of the scale. Finally, the subjects are asked to rank order the dimensions from the ones they have the highest confidence in assessing to the ones they have the least confidence in assessing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second section is designed to measure the PV of each of the 12 dimensions. Subjects are put in a hypothetical situation where they are in charge of designing a website for their employer. The first step towards designing the website is to decide the relative importance of each of the twelve dimensions in regards to consumers evaluation of the overall website quality. For this series of questions, the subjects will be required to rate each of the 12 dimensions on a 10-point likert-type scale with Important/Not Important being the top and bottom end of the scale. The subjects are then asked to rank order each of the 12 dimensions with respect to how predictive of website quality the subject believes each dimension to be. 5.1.3 Data Analysis. Aggregating the results of this data collection will allow each of the dimensions to be mapped to a CV and PV scale. Based on the relative PV and CV scores, each of the dimensions will be integrated into the 22 matrix shown in Table 1. Furthermore, the relative magnitude of each dimension will indicate the relative effect each dimension will have on the overall rating of website quality. 5.2 Study 2   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This study will utilize subjects from an introductory Information Systems class taught in the fall of 2009. Approximately 500 students will participate. This study will focus on first determining the overall quality attributed to a website by the subjects, and secondly how the subjects rate each of the twelve WebQual dimensions for each website. Using regression analysis, we should then be able to show that the model accurately predicts the website quality based on the rating of each of the 12 dimensions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Furthermore, the pattern of results from this study will examine how well the WebQual dimensions fit to the quadrant they were assigned in Study 1, and that the model developed in Study 1 is predictive of the responses received in Study 2. Those dimensions that serve as the highest-level indicators of website quality should be rated the highest by the subjects, and those that are the lowest should be rated likewise. Ideally, this study should provide significant support for each of the proposed hypotheses, and indicate which of the dimensions should be of highest consideration when constructing a high quality website. Initial data for both of these studies should be ready to share at the conference, should the paper be accepted. 6. Discussion and Potential Contribution   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As shown in the model, the most important considerations when developing a website are those attributes that reside in the high CV and high PV quadrant. Online businesses should pay particular attention to the characteristics in this quadrant, as the consumer will tend to utilize these dimensions the most when determining the overall quality of the website. All businesses seeking to perform transactions within the e-commerce channel should pay heed to these recommendations, but online retailers need to pay particular attention, as this is the primary channel through which they produce revenue.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Of secondary importance to consumers are the Low CV/High PV and High CV/Low PV quadrants. If an online business seeks to capitalize on one of the dimensions within these quadrants, they need to pay particular attention to how they will nudge the consumer into using these dimensions for evaluation of website quality. This could potentially be accomplished through educational campaigns or marketing literature. Finally, the low CV/Low PV quadrant is of limited value to the online retailer, and should be removed from consideration when developing a website. This article seeks to contribute to the field by providing a model that can be used to enable web developers to effectively predict the overall quality of a website based on its design. In following this model, the developer will need to pay particular attention to those attributes that are highly predictive, from the consumers viewpoint, of overall website quality, and as such, the website should be designed in a fashion that encourages the consumer to conduct transactions. Additionally, the consumer will be motivated to perform future transactions from this website because they are familiar with the layout and possess a high confidence in the overall quality of the website. 7. Limitations and Future Research   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The primary limitation of this model is that it is an untested conceptual model. The assumptions contained herein are as of yet ungrounded in solid empirical evidence; furthermore, this model was designed around e-commerce websites designed to sell products to end consumers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Future research could delve into decomposing those elements that are the most highly predictive of website quality. This research could take each dimension and decompose them to their base elements to discover what it is about the dimension that makes it highly predictive of website quality. Additionally, the extrinsic/intrinsic nature of each of the dimensions could be explored to determine how a company can best capitalize on these dimensions when trying to sell the consumer on the quality of their website. Either of these approaches could prove invaluable to the field, as they will begin to give the developer a specific set of principles to follow when developing a high quality website. 8. Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cue Utilization Theory is a concept that has been used in marketing for years to determine why consumers react differently to a given product. The author of this article has overlaid Cue Utilization theory upon WebQual to design a model that is predictive of the dimensions serving to form the consumers overall feel for the quality of a website. Using this model, website designers will be able to build a website that consumers will be more confident in assessing the quality of, and as such, the consumer will gain confidence in performing transactions on this website. 9. References J.S. Valacich, D.V. Parboteeah, and J.D. Wells, â€Å"The online consumers hierarchy of needs,† Commun. ACM, Vol. 50, No. 9, pp. 84-90, 2007. P.S. Richardson, A.S. Dick, and A.K. Jain, â€Å"Extrinsic and intrinsic cue effects on perceptions of store brand quality.,† Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58, No. 4, p. 28, Oct. 1994. E.T. Loiacono, R.T. Watson, and D.L. Goodhue, â€Å"WebQual: An Instrument for Consumer Evaluation of Web Sites.,† International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 51-87, Spring. 2007. â€Å"intrinsic,† The American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. â€Å"extrinsic,† The American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. C. Cappiello, C. Francalanci, and B. Pernici, â€Å"Time-Related Factors of Data Quality in Multichannel Information Systems.,† Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 71-91, Winter. 2003. D.L. Goodhue and R.L. Thompson, â€Å"Task-Technology Fit and Individual Performance.,† MIS Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 213-236, Jun. 1995. E.T. Loiacono, D. Chen, and D.L. Goodhue, â€Å"WebQual TM Revisited: Predicting the Intent to Reuse a Web Site,† AMCIS 2002 Proceedings, p. Paper 46, 2002. S. Ghose and W. Dou, â€Å"Interactive Functions and Their Impacts on the Appeal of Internet Presence Sites.,† Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. 29-43, Mar. 1998. R.T. Rust and K.N. Lemon, â€Å"E-Service and the Consumer.,† International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 85-101, Spring. 2001. D.H. McKnight, V. Choudhury, and C. Kacmar, â€Å"Developing and Validating Trust Measures for e-Commerce: An Integrative Typology.,† Information Systems Research, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 334-359, 2002. R. Pennington, H.D. Wilcox, and V. Grover, â€Å"The Role of System Trust in Business-to-Consumer Transactions.,† Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 197-226, Winter. 2003. J. Kim, J

Dating on the Internet Essay -- Research Cyberdating Internet Essays

Dating on the Internet It has become today's method of communication, the wave of the future. The necessity to leave the home to do such things as shop for clothes or to go to the bank is diminishing. Business is being conducted more frequently from the home. Students will soon be able to interact with their teachers and fellow students while sitting in their bedrooms. The Internet will overtake all forms of personal interaction, and it stands to reason that this includes dating. From foreign pen-pals to heated Cybersex, the number of people who log on each day is growing rapidly. Those who used to race home from school to run outside and play, now race home to meet their best friend in a chat room somewhere; they've never met and yet they're soul mates. There are people who take these relationships so seriously, they will travel almost anywhere to meet the person of their dreams. Cyberdating is here to stay. According to Betty in California, it is the "nineties way for busy professional people to connect." She emphasizes, "Bars are out; computers are in!" (Women's Wire News). A survey conducted through Women's Wire News of 375 people revealed that 61% of those responding would "consider turning a Cyber-affair into a real-life one." (Women's Wire News). This being the case, what does this mean for society? Is personal socialization and face-to-face communication a thing of the past? Increasing reliance on computers certainly draws society in that direction. But possibly this isn't as new as people might like to think. Perhaps this is the direction in which society has been moving since the invention of the telephone. Fran in New Jersey supports this: I wonder if people got this worked up about the telephone? Because tha... ...ditha in Florida, Women's Wire News). Work Cited: "Do Boys Just Wanna Have Fun? Male Gender-Switching in Cyberspace (and how to detect it)," http://www1.rider.edu/~suler/ psycyber/ genderswap.html (May 1996,4/7/97) Sara Pitman. "From Keyboards to Human Contact: Love Relationships Through Computer-Mediated Communications," http://edie. cprost.sfu.ca/~chiklink/ sarticle.html (undated, 3/24/97) John Suler, Ph.D."Communicative Subtlety in Multimedia Chat How Many Ways Can You Say "Hi" at the Palace?" http://ww1.rider.edu/ ~suler/psycyber/hilucy.html (March1997, 4/7/97) John Suler, Ph.D. "The Psychology of Avatars and Graphical Space in Visual Chat Environments," http://www1.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/ psyav.html (May 1996, 3/24/97) "Women's Wire News, Cyberdating: The Dirt," http://women.com/wwire/archives/html/backtalk/ 960221.ba.html (1997, 3/24/97)

gatdream F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby - Just Dream It! :: Great Gatsby Essays

The Great Gatsby: Just Dream It! In Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, all the characters are, in one way or another, attempting to achieve a state of happiness in their lives. The main characters are divided into two groups: the rich upper class and the poorer lower class, which struggles to attain a higher position. Though the major players seek only to change their lives for the better, the American Dream is inevitably crushed beneath the harsh reality of life, leaving their lives without meaning or purpose. Tom and Daisy Buchanan, the rich socialite couple, seem to have everything they could possibly desire; however, though their lives are full of material possessions and worldly goods, they are unsatisfied and seek to change. Tom, the arrogant ex-football player, drifts on "forever seeking a little wistfully for the dramatic turbulence of some irrecoverable football game"(pg. 10) and reads "deep books with long words in them"(pg. 17) in order to have something to talk about. Though he appears happily married to Daisy, Tom has an affair with Myrtle Wilson and keeps an apartment with her in New York. Tom's basic nature of unrest prevents him from being satisfied with the life he leads, and so he creates another life for himself with Myrtle. Daisy Buchanan is an empty character, someone with hardly any convictions or desires. Even before her loyalty to either Tom or Gatsby is called into question, Daisy does nothing but sit around all day and wonder what to do with herself and her friend Jordan. She knows that Tom has a mistress on the side, yet she doesn't leave him even when she learns of Gatsby's love for her. Daisy makes her love to Gatsby apparent, yet cannot bring herself to tell Tom goodbye except when Gatsby forces her too. Even then, once Tom begs her to stay, even then Daisy ultimately leaves Gatsby for a life of comfort and security. The Buchanans are the ultimate examples of wealth and prosperity, and the American Dream. Yet their lives are empty, unfulfilled, and without purpose. Though Myrtle Wilson makes an attempt to escape her own class and pursue happiness with the richer set, her efforts ultimately produce no results and she dies. She is basically a victim of the group she wanted to join. Myrtle tries to join Tom's class by entering into an affair with him and taking on his way of living, but in doing so she becomes corrupt as if she were rich.

The Turning Point of World War II - The Battle of Midway Essay example

World War II, along with its numerous battles, brought great tension between two of the strongest countries during the 1940s: the United States and Japan. Conflict between these two countries started with Japan’s push past Chinese borders into Manchuria in search of the natural resources Japan lacks. At first, the United States avoided military action with Japan by waging economic warfare on them. This economic pressure included the passing of the Neutrality Act, which prohibited the sale of weapons to nations at war (Nash 513). Additionally, the United States placed oil embargoes on Japan hoping it would force Japan to shut down military operations in China. Japan, at a critical decision point, decided to bomb the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. On December 7th, 1941 at 6 a.m., Japan pilots bombed the naval base at Pearl Harbor, taking out the United States’ strongest battleships, killing thousands of people, and destroying hundreds of planes (Sherman). The day a fter Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan. Over the next few years, the United States and Japan fought fierce battles for dominance in the Pacific Ocean. One of the most important battles during the United States and Japanese war was the Battle of Midway. Japan was destroying the United States at sea, until the Battle of Midway gave the United States Pacific Fleet an edge on Japanese forces. The Battle of Midway was the most important naval engagement of World War II: it was a decisive battle that allowed the United States to be the dominant naval power in the Pacific and it marked a turning point in World War II for the United States. The motive for Japan’s plan to attack Midway Island was to claim dominant power over the Pacific Ocean and to... ...ary B. American Odyssey: The United States in the 20th Century. New York, 2002. 513. Print Newark, Timothy. Turning the Tide of War: 50 Battles That Changed the Course of Modern History. London: Hamlyn, 2001. 112-15. Print. Nicholas, Walter. Interviewed by Lewis G. Schmidt. Interview with Walter Nicholas. 10 October 1989. Web. 14 March 2014. â€Å"Now It’s the Japanese Who Will ‘Remember Pearl Harbor’.† Daily Boston Globe 7 June 1942: D1 ProQuest. Web. 13 March 2014. â€Å"Pacific Situation Declared Eased by Battle of Midway.† Los Angeles Times 10 June 1942: 2 ProQuest. Web. 13 March 2014. Sherman, Frederick â€Å"Sherman Tells Inside Story of Midway Battle.† Historical Newspaper. ProQuest Historical Newspaper. ICONN. Web. 17 March 2014. Symonds, Craig. â€Å"Mitscher and the Mystery of Midway.† June 2012: 46. History Reference Center. EBSCOhost. Web. 18 March 2014.

Introduction to Computer

The Plates of a charged capacitor are connected by a voltmeter. If the plates of the capacitor are moved further apart. What will be the effect on the reading of the voltmeter? [1] 2. 3. What is the function of dielectric in a capacitor? A steam of electrons travelling with speed ? m s at right angles to a uniform e v2 = ? m rE [1] [2] electric field E is deflected in a circular path of radius r. Prove that 4. The distance between the plates of a parallel plate capacitor is d.A metal plate of thickness (d/2) is placed between the plates. What will be the effect on the capacitance? [2] 5. Keeping the voltage of the charging source constant. What would be the percentage change in the energy stored in a parallel plate capacitor if the separation between its plates were to be decreased by 10%? [3] 6. Two identical plane metallic surfaces A and B are kept parallel to each other in air separated by a distance of 1. 0 cm as shown in the figure. Surface A is given a positive potential of 10V and the outer surface of B is earthed. a) What is the magnitude and direction of uniform electric field between point Y and Z? What is the work done in moving a change of 20 Â µ c from point X to Y? (b) Can we have non-zero electric potential in the space, where electric field strength is zero? [3]B A X Z Y Material downloaded from http://myCBSEguide. com and http://onlineteachers. co. in Portal for CBSE Notes, Test Papers, Sample Papers, Tips and Tricks 7. Figure (a) and (b) shows the field lines of a single positive and negative changes respectively [5] a) Give the signs of the potential difference : Vp ? Vq and VB — VA (b) Give the sign of the work done by the field in moving a small positive change from Q to P. (c) Give the sign of the work done by the field in external agency in moving a small negative change from B to A. 8. With the help of a labelled diagram, explain the principle, construction and working of a vandegraff generator. Mention its applications? [5] Mate rial downloaded from http://myCBSEguide. com and http://onlineteachers. co. in Portal for CBSE Notes, Test Papers, Sample Papers, Tips and Tricks

Education For Life Essay

Education For LifeThe basic purpose of a liberal arts education is to liberate the human being to exercise his or her potential to the fullest. Liberal arts plays an important role in developing individuals and the world. When students attend liberal art colleges, they will understand the essence of humanity and will learn to shape and develop personal values. For a person to develop, he needs to understand the essence of humanity. When you attend college, your view on the meaning of life changes. You live for your minds and spirits and not just for the security of material wealth (Urbanek). You start to do things related to your work as this is your interest. This will make you care less about material wealth and you will focus more on the benefit of the world than the benefit of yourself. Liberal arts means arts of freedom. People learn about things that interest them. This makes the experience of learning better. Students will recognize the value of material things for what they are (Urbanek). They will start challenging tasks of design where they would learn how to translate ideas into actions. They will get to know the depth, flexibility and openness of their thinking and will also be able to recognize the importance of their thinking. Taking these ideas into consideration, I can say that liberal arts teaches people global responsibility, social awareness and self development, which is the essence of humanity. Thus, when the essence of humanity is known, then only a person will be able to acquire personal values. The value of liberal arts was appreciated by the students in older times but contemporary students do not share the same sentiment. In 1900, 70 percent of college students in US attended liberal arts colleges but today fewer that 5 percent do. The idea has taken hold by educators that todays youth are more materialistic, less idealistic and more self interested than their predecessors (Richard). In 1997, Yankelovitch survey focused on high school students and their parents, found that 85 percent of the high school students and 74 percent of their parents stated that the goal of college is to get a practical education and to secure a job. Furthermore, only 14 percent of the students and 27percent of their parents were even familiar with what a liberal art education is. Todays students tend to be career oriented, impatient and focused in material rewards (Kahn). People do not know that liberal arts can offer a clearer understanding that work embodies the values of courage, honour and responsibility. Liberal art colleges expose you to a variety of academic disciplines and an excellent background for future work. The education gives you the ability to adapt to a changing environment, communicate effectively, think critically and solve complex problems, which can prove very useful in everyday lives. As you acquire personal values throughout your college years, it is important to learn how to shape these values. I believe that the central purpose of liberal arts education is to shape the values of people. The impact of liberal arts education on student value change is conclusive in determining whether higher education is effective in achieving this central purpose. According to a survey conducted at the University of California at Los Angeles, 8 out of 10 academics said they were spiritual, and 64 percent called themselves religious. More than half of the faculty members said that it was important to enhance undergraduates’ self-understanding and to develop their moral character and values. I think liberal arts is a great way to teach people their spiritual and moral responsibilities towards the community and world itself. Humanitarian values are defined by acceptance of value equivalency between ones own loyalties and those of all other individuals and groups, as well as respecting the rights of others to freely express similar claims and loyalties without infringement (Hollway). Values serve as guiding principles in the life of a person or other social entity and thus, it is important for people to learn how to shape these values. Values are described as serving the interests of some social entity, motivating action, giving direction, and having emotional intensity (Hollway). Therefore, these values are needed for the development of individuals. When individuals possess these values, they will be able to use them in their society. Employers around the world are looking for people who possess these values and have the ability to use them. Hence, liberal arts students will satisfy these employers. These students will also find opportunities to learn more as their primary goal is not material wealth. This will help countries to better their economy. These values will benefit the students themselves as well as the world. Once a person understands the essence of humanity and learns to shape and develop values, he will be able to make changes to the world. Liberal arts students have the skills to become valuable community members. They make decisions, solve problems and communicate the solutions to others. Liberal arts prepares these students to be successful throughout their life. WORKS CITEDUrbanek, Jennifer. The EBSCOhost. 28 Oct. 2007 Kahn, Beverly. Co-opting The Market Place. Journal of Higher Education: p. 19. EBSCOhost. 28 Oct. 2007 Richard, M. The Practical Path, Too, Can Be High-Minded. Chronicle of Higher Education: p. 11. EBSCOhost. 28 Oct. 2007 Hollway, Michael. A Comparison of the Impact of 2 Liberal Arts. Journal of General Education: p. 237. EBSCOhost. 28 Oct. 2007.

Has EU aviation policy failed to meet its overall objective of producing safe, affordable, convenient and efficient services for its customers?

Introduction I don’t agree the EU aviation policy has failed to meet its overall objective of producing safe, affordable, convenient and efficient service for its customer. Mega-policy, according to De (2011, p.22) is master policy that deals with overall goals, certain basic assumption policy instruments and implementation strategies with the aim of typically large scale investments, and is divided as internal and external policy. In the EU aviation industry context, internal policy is meant to govern EU registered airlines whereas External governs non-EU registered airlines. The main aim of EU is to achieve a safe, affordable, convenient and efficient service for consumers. To provide a safe, affordable, convenient and efficient services1. Internal Policyi.Safety: EU established the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) with the goal of ensuring civil aviation safety for its member countries (European Commission, 2009). The agency’s main task is to ensure air transport is safe as well as sustainable. To achieve this important goal, the agency has developed some of safety and environmental rules that must be adhered to by all stakeholders. In addition, it constantly monitors implementation of these standards through regular inspections of member states’ adherence to the rules, as well as offering technical support through training. Through EASA, EU regulates pilot and other crew member training as well as issuance of licences for European pilots. The establishment of single aviation market has been a huge success in enabling the EU agencies to collaborate in monitoring safety policy implementations. For example, European Commission, European Aviation Safety Agency and Eurocontrol have collaborated under the pillar of safe aviation services to the passengers through licensing regulations. Other agencies involved in safety regulation are national civil aviation authorities, and safety investigation authorities, who work to incorporate all stakeholders, including aircraft manufacturers and airline companies, in safety measures. The agencies operate under the common safety rules, which enable them to do random safety inspections at any European airport. Statistics show that, despite the rise in traffic over the last two decades, EU’s air safety initiatives have successfully maintained high standards in terms of aviation safety (EASA Annual Safety Review). It must, however, be noted that despite the raft of security measures, the notion of ‘zero risk’ in aviation does not exist, and occasional cases of accidents may occur. In such cases, EU advises that thorough investigations is the best approach, as studies show that accidents do not occur as a result of single event but a combination of multiple prior events (Ferroff et al., 2012). ii. Freedom to establish & provide services: EU’s establishment of a single European Aviation Market, from the initial 27 national air transport markets all over Europe, has created an atmosphere of success in terms of freedom to all markets. The initiatives were meant to: Increase market access top every European carrier, with no restriction on capacity; Ensure no discrimination in terms of license provision across Europe; Ensure freedom to provide services to the aviation industry Ensure operators’ freedom to pricing their product and services Ensure implement penalties on those who infringe on the procedures The increase in more choices has also seen the number of EU routes increase by 25 percent from 1992 to 2011. The increased competition has led to 420 percent rise in intra-EU routes with more than two carriers over the same period (Zamarreno, 2012). Finally, the EU initiative led to rise in new entrants, which facilitated competition thus the emergence of market for low-cost air services, which currently account for 40 percent of EU aviation market.2. External Policyi. Market Opening The external aviation policy has been an integral part of EU’s strategy in effort towards greater flexibility, consistency and transparency in matters international civil aviation. To achieve these goals, EU has been gradually and consistently making and ratifying bilateral and multilateral agreements with other international aviation bodies outside EU. As such, EU has been carrying out is horizontal mandate of bringing the existing bilateral and multilateral agreements into line with EU laws. They also identified the creation of a Common Aviation Area with neighbouring nations, including United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil and India among others as an important step towards realising sustainable growth. This realisation has led to: Over 117 non-EU states accepting EU designation; Close to 1000 bilateral aviation safety agreements have conformed to EU laws, which have translated into over 70 percent rise in EU air traffic; Some neighbouring countries willingly participate in a pan- European Common Aviation Area e.g. agreements with Morocco (signed in December 2006) and Israel (signed in July 2012) among many other nations; Comprehensive agreements with key partners such as United States, Canada and Brazil, which aims to open partners’ markets, removal of investment barriers, and converging regulations across borders; Increased level playing field through adoption of common rules and standards that ensures greater aviation safety, efficient infrastructure, consumer protection and lower prices due to competition (Zmarreno, 2012). ii. Affordability and Convenience An external policy has meant that EU citizens benefits from reduced prices and more travel offers resulting from competition between EU and international airlines. Moreover, every airline must up its game by offering better services in terms of quality and convenience to withstand competition. The European Union aviation industry employs more than five million people around the world and contributes ˆ365 billion to the European GDP (Sandbag, 2012). In spite of the current economic crisis, it is projected that global aviation industry will continue to experience an average annual growth of 5 percent till 2030. When EU emphasises its commitment to external partnerships through their external aviation policies, their goal is to ensure barriers to growth is eliminated through removal of any limiting factor of investment (e.g. airline ownership). It must be noted that initial ownership of airlines were highly regulated, with governments restricting foreign ownership in what was cited as national security measures. However, the discriminatory approach to ownership was removed, thanks to EU’s raft measures to increase fairness, allowing more openness in market access and competition. For example, EU has a general ownership rule that allows up to 49 percent foreign owne rship of a European aviation company (European Commission, 2009). This is much better than the United States’ 25 percent of voting stocks restrictions to foreign ownership. Arguably, this arrangement has made EU aviation industry more attractive to external investors, hence the region’s benefits from large economy of scale. iii. Environmental Safety Aviation industry is responsible for 2.5 percent of the total global carbon emission (Sandbag, 2012). This percentage rises to 4.9 percent of the total anthropogenic carbon effect if all the radiation components are included. Put to context, this would make aviation industry the seventh largest carbon emitting ‘country’ worldwide. The forecast from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) indicates that by 2036 carbon emissions from the industry alone will hit 300% compared to 2011 levels (Bows, et al., 2010). European Union’s decision to include aviation industry into its carbon market, with the introduction of Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), signalled their desire to protect the global climate. More importantly, EU member countries ensured EU law has primacy over national law, hence giving the union broader power to control any form of environmental destruction that may emerge from a single country’s non-compliance. In December 2012, EU’s court of Justice made a major landmark decision when it ruled out that the decision by the EU to include the international aviation in the ETS did not contravene international law as claimed by many international airline operators (Sandbag, 2012). This meant that the court gave EU authority to implement the carbon emission policy. Although there is still an ongoing row that has escalated into a number of non-EU members joining forces together to challenge EU and its emission policy, the steps towards safer environment is on course, with EU leading the park towards realising this important milestone It is important to note that major EU airlines are in the process of adopting ETS to set pace for their international peers. This is an important step considering that 25 percent of the total aviation emission comes from the region’s airlines (Braun, 2008). Conclusion EU aviation policy has been hailed around the world as one that has achieved success amid the biting economic challenges facing many airline industry players. EU aviation industry has seen tremendous growth and development for the last two decades. One of reasons for this astronomical growth has been attributed to the union’s efforts to provide safe, affordable, convenient and efficient service for its customers. Policy formulation, research and implementation are some of the most important operational aspects of aviation sector the union has embraced. Despite the numerous challenges, some of which are cross-border related, various reports show that EU’s efforts have resulted into some measurable success that is not comparable to any other regional union around the world. The union’s mega policy on aviation, which consists of internal and external, has seen substantial changes in safety, freedom to establish and provide more choices, opening of more markets, incr eased affordability & convenience and environmental safety. These initiatives have also led to affordable pricing by the airlines, convenience, and safer environment. It’s no doubt the reason why EU is considered the world’s largest and the most successful regional market integration with the most liberalised air transport. References Bows, A., Mander, S. Randles, S., and Anderson K. (2010). Aviation emission in the context of climate change: a consumption- production approach. Final Policy Report. June 2010. Braun, M. (2008). The evolution of emission trading in the European Union- The role of policy networks, knowledge and policy entrepreneurs. Accounting Organisations and Society doi:10.1016/j.aos.2008.06.002: 1-19. De, P.K. (2011). Public Policy and Systems. New Jersey, NJ: Pearson Education. EASA Annual Safety Review: http://easa.europa.eu/newsroom-and-events/general publications European Commission. (2009). FWC Sector Competitiveness Studies- Competitiveness of the EU Aerospace Industry with focus on: Aeronautics Industry. European Commission Final Report, 15 December 2009. Ferroff, C., Mavin, T.J., Bates P.R. and Murray, P.S. (2012). A case for social constructionism in aviation safety and human performance research. Aeronautica, Issue 3, p. 1-12. Sandbag (2012), Aviation and the EU ETS: What happened in 2012 during ‘Stop the Clock’December 2012. Last retrieved on 14 May 2012 from http://www.sandbag.org.uk/site_media/pdfs/reports/Sandbag_Aviation_and_the_EU_ETS_2012_171213_1.pdf Zmarreno, C.M. (2012). EU aviation policy in terms of access market. Presentation for Euromed Aviation II: initial workshop on Market Access, Brussels, 17 December 2012.