The U.S. Toy industry

Nature of the Toy Industry in America The THE U.S. Toy industry encompasses the world largest producer and manufacturer of children entertainment products. According to 2011 financial reports, the global toy Industry generated revenue of $ 78 billion. The U.S toy industry contributed $21.18 billion to this amount, which marks a 2% decline from $21.68 generated in 2010 (The NPD Group, 2011).Advertising We will write a custom report sample on The U.S. Toy industry specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This industry can be divided into the two categories of traditional toys and video games (Bryson, Rusten, 2011). According to the NPD tallies for 2011, video games accounted for $ 5,046,000 of the 21.18 billion generated by the toy industry. The major video games products manufactured by the Toy industry include PS2, Xbox, GC, Xbox360, Wii, PS3, DC, N64, PSI and Satum. The traditional toys manufacturing companies generate the largest perc entage of the revenue generated by the Toy industry because it offers a variety of products (Bryson, Rusten, 2011). These products encompass building sets, action figures /accessories, dolls, games and puzzles, infants and preschools toys, outdoor and sports toys, plush, vehicles, youth electronics, arts and craft, pretend play, trading cards and other different toys. 75% of the toy industry revenue in THE U.S. is generated by the top 50 toy companies. The United States Toys Industry Market Segmentation in terms of % share in 2011Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The estimated toy sales trends ascertain the fact that toy sales have been increasing and decreasing depending on the seasonality of the industry. In 2006, the toy industry generated $22.3 billion, which declined to $22.2 billion in 2007. In 2008, the revenue increased to $21.65. This culminated into $21. 47 in 20 09 that marked a decline from the revenue generated in 2008 (The NPD Group, 2011). In 2010 the revenue increased to $21.87, but later decline to $21.18 in 2011. The expected compound annual growth rate of revenues in the toy industry for the next five years encompasses 0.1 % from 2011 to 2016. In this case, the revenue generated by 2016 is estimated as 22.095.8 (The NPD Group, 2011).From this sales trend, it can be ascertained that the sales trends keep increasing and decreasing depending on the seasonal nature of the toy industry. The United States Toys Market Value in $billions from 2007 to 2011 The current operational/ management trends in the toy industry encompass diversity in the types of toy products manufactured, reduction in the need for free-form play toys due to the reduction of time for role-play which calls for increased production of video games, acquisition of small toy companies by the large companies, radical changes in the number of diversified retail and independ ent chains, impacts of changes in technology that culminate into the innovation of newer toy products as well as changes in the business matters, sales, legal, ethical and trade imbalances in the toy industry (Auerbach, 2004). The major marketing avenues utilized by companies in the Toy industry encompass television, magazines, Radio, newspapers, in-store displays, sweepstakes, use of brand name toys, trade show that used in forecasting industry sales, and acquisition of feedback by manufacturers from the retailers as well as the combined effort between the toy producing company and other companies that offer complementary products (Little $ King Company, LLC, 2010).Advertising We will write a custom report sample on The U.S. Toy industry specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Other marketing strategies utilized by toy producing companies encompass company websites, post-launch reviews, print reviews, pre-launch reviews, special-in sto re promotions, as well as advertising in genre-specific toy magazines (Little $ King Company, LLC, 2010). Essentially, large toy companies utilize licensing as a major marketing strategy, because it accords them with leverage in the competitive toy industry. As an addition to the above marketing strategies, many companies have ventured into the Internet-based retail services that enhance the purchase of toys by customers from the manufacturers rather that going through retailers (Little $ King Company, LLC, 2010). The toy industry is identified as a seasonal industry. This is because major toy sales are done in the late third and fourth quarters of a year, due to the increase in demand for toys during the winter season. This seasonality definitely affects sales greatly. Early-buy programs are offered by large toy companies to reduce the number of products over demand (Little $ King Company, LLC, 2010). During the period that spans over the quarters in which limited revenue is genera ted, such large companies capitalize on the promotion and sale of such non-holiday toys as sports and educational related toys. To some extent the toy industry is sensitive to economic fluctuations. This is because as personal income increases, the retail sales for toys increase (Little $ King Company, LLC, 2010). A 1.6% increase in personal income in 2009 culminated into a 3.8% increase in retail toy sales in the same year. Essentially, the toy retail sector is usually more resilient as compared to other companies during a recession, but it encompasses the first industry to recover after a recession. Industry Developments The competition that the Toy Industry has been undergoing from such electronic gadgets as iPods in the ever changing entertainment world has culminated to the development of the industry through various innovations. Green innovations span through the various green initiatives exhibited during the JAR Toy Fair.Advertising Looking for report on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Such green initiatives as the Erath Friendly Product Zone encompass the major contributions to the green initiatives (Bryson, Rusten, 2011). A good example of this encompasses the Design4Planet program introduced by LEGO, aimed at establishing sustainable product designs that are environment friendly. Various electronic items and video games have been introduced as innovations that can compete with the various electronic gadgets introduced through technological development in the modern world. This is a move that should stir traditional toy industries to think of how they can keep with the competition. Such products of the toy Industry can compete effectively as compared to the traditional toys. Under product innovation, theme based toys and embedded technology has been introduced into the developing toy industry. Under embedded technology, such toys as programmable cars and robotic dog have been introduced. Some companies have ventured into the production of toys based on children stories to increase their sales. Essentially, the toy industry has developed continually by embracing on-line sales of various toy products. The International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI) has always been committed to the promotion of toy safety as one of the major government regulation governing the THE U.S. toy industry while working with standard bodies to improve the safety requirements when producing toys. (International Council of Toy Industries, 2010). In this case, they ensure that toys are produced for particular children categories and they do not pose any risks or accidents to such particular categories. New toys should also be fitted with safety devices that can withstand tear and wear as they enhance the safety of the users. Essentially, as part of the government regulations, the toys producing companies possess the social responsibility of ensuring that all employees engaged in the production of toys, are accorded with favorable working conditions (International Co uncil of Toy Industries, 2011). ICTI organizes annual trade shows in which qualifying companies from all over the world are allowed to exhibit new products. These exhibits are however subjected to various government regulations in terms of exhibit regulations as well as attendance qualifications (International Council of Toy Industries, 2011). Traffic and non-tariff trade barriers exist in the international trade industry. Such are however regulated through various government regulations that ensure unfair trade practices are eliminated from the developing international toy industry. In terms of the consumer market data, 28.2% of the Global market value can be accounted to THE U.S., while 27.8% can be accounted to Europe Global Consumer market value segmentation In terms of consumer market distribution, the leading distributers of toys in the consumer market encompass specialist stores, Hypermarkets, Supermarkets, discounters, department’s stores, general retails as well as other distributors (Bryson Rusten, 2011). 30.7% of the distribution can be attributed to the Hypermarkets, Supermarkets and discounters. Specialist stores account for 52.8%, general retailers account for 6.8%, department stores account for 5.25 while other distributors account for 4.6% as shown by the pie chart below Segmentation of the Toy Distributors in the Consumer Market Competitor Information The modern Toy Industry in THE U.S. is dominated by such leaders as Mattel, Hasbro and JAKKS Pacific. Mattel encompasses the largest toy producing company In America in terms of revenue. Essentially, it encompasses the largest toy manufacturer in the world. In 2010, the company generated $6 billion in net sales and $ 700 million in net income. Mattel produces Barbie dolls, master of the universe, board games, Fisher Price, Hot Wheels, American Girl Dolls and Matchbox toys. Its headquarters are situated in El Segundo, California (Bryson Rusten, 2011). 49% of its Gross sales is accounted for by the company’s international revenue that originates from Europe, Asia and Latin America (Bryson Rusten, 2011). The company was established in 1945, but begun its first Barbie product line in 1959. It gained its fame in the 1960s through its talking dolls production. In 2002, the company closed shop in Africa and transferred its business through outsourcing to China. Hasbro encompasses the second leading toy company In THE U.S. that is engaged in the manufacture of card games, educations games, boards games and other family games. It recorded $4 billion in net sales and $ 400 million net income in 2010. Its headquarters are situated in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, but the major percentage of its products is produced in East Asia (Bryson Rusten, 2011). Its first toy was produced in 1940’s inform of nurse and doctor kits, the company’s first toy that gained popularity in the toy market encompasses Mr. Potato Head that was produced in 1952. Their first action figure, G.I Joe was produced in 1964 and the company’s name was shorted from Hassenfeld Brothers to Hasbro industries in 1968. Currently it encompasses a parent company to various subsidiaries. Apart from the manufacturing facilities owned and operated in Asia, the company operates two manufacturing facilities in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts and Waterford, Ireland. JAKKS Pacific encompasses the third largest toy manufacturing company in THE U.S. whose revenue is generated from the production of toy cars, video games, dolls and action figures (Bryson Rusten, 2011). In 2010, it recorded $ 750 million in net sales and $50 million net income. It was established in 1995 in Malibu California and started to acquire small toy companies up to 2008. It has managed to acquire the third position in the toy market through licensing agreements, strategic acquisitions as well as product development. Competition in the Toy Industry cannot only be limited to the large businesses in the ind ustry; it also spans the competition from other toy producing companies in the world. THE U.S. imports most of its toys from China (Bryson Rusten, 2011). In this case, the American Toy producing companies encounter considerable competition from the Chinese Toy Producing companies. This competition is something to awaken the traditional toy companies, especially the THE U.S. based companies which are facing still competition in the current market. In 2008, the U.S consumption of toys amounted to $24 billion. 85% of this consumption was met by the Chinese toy producing companies. This consumption reduced to $22 billion in 2010, but the percentage met by the Chinese toy companies did not reduce. From the two exhibits below, it can be concluded that though China encompasses the major competitor of the United States toy industry, the Topy Producing companies in U.S still encounter surmountable competition from Toy manufacturing companies in Japan, Mexico, Taiwan, Indonesia, Denmark, Can ada, Hong Kong, Thailand and Germany. U.S Toy Imports vs. Apparent Consumption and Toy Imports from China Top US Import Sources Summary of the Analysis The comprehensive industry analysis of the THE U.S. toy industry has been divided into nature of the industry, industry development and competitor information. Under the nature of the industry, the estimate size of the industry encompasses $78 billion revenue generation by the international Toy industry of which $21.18 can be attributed to the U.S toy industry. In terms of sales trends, sales have been on the decrease from 2007 to 2011 but an estimated 0.1% increase is expected to be attained by 2016. Such operational/management trends as the acquisition of small toy companies can be attributed to the nature of the toy industry. Various marketing strategies that include Internet-based retail services can be attributed to the nature of the industry. The toy Industry in American encompasses a seasonal industry that is affected by var ious economic fluctuations. In terms of industry development, the industry has undergone various innovations and government regulations ion its development course. Essentially, the consumer market data provided ascertains that U.S accounts the highest consumer market value in the international toy industry. Inherently, specialized stores encompass the highest toy distributors in the consumer market. Competitor information ascertains the major businesses in the U.S toy industries include Mattel, Hasbro and JAKKS Pacific. Though Mattel is identified as the largest toy producer in U.S, it is also identified as the largest toy manufacturer in the world. Though these companies pose considerable competition to other toy [producing companies in U.S, toy producing companies from china, Japan, Mexico, Taiwan, Indonesia, Denmark, Canada, Hong Kong, Thailand and Germany also pose surmountable competition. References Auerbach, S. (2004). Toy industry: Past, present and future. The Big Game Hunt er. Web. Bryson, J., R. Rusten, G. (2011). Design economies and the changing world economy: innovation, production and competitiveness. New York, NY: Taylor Francis. International Council of Toy Industries. (2011). Industry information. Web. Little $ King Company, LLC. (2010). The transformational toy manufacturing industry. Web. The NPD Group. (2011). THE U.S. toy industry retail sales generated $21.18 billion in 2011. Web. This report on The U.S. Toy industry was written and submitted by user Juan S. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Essay on Life Without Colours Essays

Essay on Life Without Colours Essays Essay on Life Without Colours Paper Essay on Life Without Colours Paper Imagine the World without Colours Once upon a time in the kingdom of Jubilee, King Davis was one of the kindest rulers in a thousand years. One day, his family received a letter from their uncle John inviting them to a fun day. With much joy, the family packed their personal belongings and headed for Baskalin, the border between Kingdom Jubilee and Kingdom Wisdom. On the way to Baskalin, the family saw some of the most amazing scenery in all the land. The beautiful turquoise Lake Prince was sparkling in the warm, golden sunlight of the April morning. The sweet smell of the freshly cut yellow grass mixed with dirt met their noses as the carriage moved down the muddy road. Above Lake Prince the sky was crisp and clear with cotton ball clouds painted with sky blue edgings. The fields were a patchwork of colors. Lavender, strawberries and sunflowers beamed at the sun and danced with the lazy breeze. Juicy apples mixed with orange citrus, curly bananas mixed with green papaya. Plump blueberries were ripe for the picking. From miles away, the smell of the rich fruits reached the Kings carriage and stimulated the appetite of the royal family. What a beautiful world! Jubilee Kingdom got its name because the people were always happy and enjoyed their gorgeous environment. The colorful surroundings and the pleasant smell of nature with sweet fruits bought joy to everybody. It was at the very moment that King Davis closed his eyes to enjoy the rhythm of the carriage, that something strange suddenly happened. The melody of birds stopped, the sky turned black and the wind became wild.  What, what is going on! cried the King as he opened his eyes to check on his family.  A thunderstorm is coming Your Highness, please do not worry reassured the carriage driver. It was then that the rain poured down from the sky and everything became covered by fog. The King and his family waited, and waited, and waited until the rain stopped. Finally the sun was back, but everything was changed. The colors were washed away with the rain leaving the world black, white and dull shades of grey. The light of the sun became brighter but the king could not feel the heat. No longer did the sun have a warm yellow glow, instead it turned to blinding white. The King was frightened by the change. He couldnt understand what was happening. All of Kings expectations of the surroundings had altered. He couldnt believe the images that he was seeing. He thought he was seeing an optical illusion created by a change in the light waves, but his family reminded him that this is the reality of Jubilee Kingdom. It is the realm of being that happens in Jubilee Kingdom once every hundred years. The colors were stolen by the evil witch living in Misery Cave. For the next twelve months, citizens of Jubilee Kingdom have to live without color until the evil curse was broken. Everyone including the King found it difficult to adjust. They were no longer able to see after sunset. Everything turned black. During the daytime, people become more dependent on communication and their sense of hearing. Their knowledge source was changed due to the loss of colors. Since people lost their visual perception, they had to double check everything through sound and touch. Never did it occur to the King that Jubilee Kingdom would suffer so much, even the melody of birds turned disturbing, and the sweet smell of juicy fruits turned sour. People no long enjoy living in Jubilee Kingdom. The change in blindness caused a rapid increase in depression and affected peoples emotions. People were used to a beautiful Jubilee Kingdom instead of being locked up in a world without colors. Losing the visual sense and reality made it difficult for people to stay rational thus the organic (human nature) changed from blind trust. As days went by, people had to learn to adapt the environment without colors. Although it was difficult and depressing, they had no other choice. Tourists stopped coming to visit Jubilee Kingdom and farmers could not work properly as all they could see was black and white. Life continued without happiness. Every day people were expecting change and experimented with new methods to make their new life better. Under the new environment, fashion designers redesigned the patterns of clothing with black and white to create new fashions. The lifestyle of people changed little by little, making progress to adapt to the environment without colors. It is true that the quality of living went down but at some point, people had to accept it and ignore the inconvenience. The King and his family were left in the middle of the land with nowhere to go because without colors, the carriage driver couldnt be sure which way to go. They were lost in the middle of their journey. Like everyone else, the King and his family eventually learned a new way of living. Twelve months sounded a long time but when people began to get used to their new routine, the time flew by. On the dawn of the 366th day after the thunderstorm, the evil curse was broken by magical fairy. After a few simple flicks of her wand, the colors were returned to Jubilee Kingdom. Men on the street were busy celebrating the return of color, while woman were busy cleaning up the huge mess that was left over. At first, people were slow to adapt back to a world with colors. They were now used to seeing the days filled with only black and white colors. Things began to return to normal, people with depression were cured without medical treatment. The visual perception became the most dependent and reliable perception that people were using, and auditory perception became less important. Most of all, peoples lives returned to normal. The King realized that it was possible for one to adjust to another environment, the secret is that time is of the essence. After twelve months of delay, the King and his family decided to move on with their journey. Within a few days, they reached Uncle John and had the biggest fun day in the history of Jubilee Kingdom. From that day forward, the King and the people of Jubilee Kingdom enjoyed their colorful surroundings every day and lived happily ever after.  The End.  Knowledge issues:  When the king and everyone lost their sense to colors, they have to adjust to their new life through experience and time. They found it difficult to change the way they lived because it turned out that the people were heavily depended on their sense to colors. There are other factors needed to be taken into account, such as the way the humans brain is not designed to see without colors so this might have mixed up the way our brain functions. I think that youll be able to train you brain to only see black and white, because thats how the ancient people lived inside caves, but it would take time for the transition. That is why when the colors returned, people had to spend some time adjusting from black and white back to colors. The color transition also varies between people because just like the optical illusions, some people were able to see it straight away and some people just could not get it. However, in this case, just because those people could not see the optical illusion, they could still train their brain to become sensitive in seeing black and white. I wonder if this happened to me, what are the ways that I would conquer this disability because loosing the sense to colors isnt the same as loosing the eyesight, and although youre able to see, you cant really see. It would be difficult to distinguish shapes, distance and finding the subjects that youre looking for. I think that it will be a wonderful experience if I could experience it myself for a short period of time.

Essay on Human Rights

Essay on Human Rights Essay on Human Rights Essay on HUMAN RIGHTS: THE RIGHT TO LIFE Alexander, Klint. (2003). The implications of the USA Patriot Act and US counter- terrorism on international human rights law, Journal of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies. Amicus Curiae, 2003 (49) With the patriot act as the foundation for his argument, Dr. Alexander Lint looks at different facets of human rights. Basing her arguments further on development studies, human rights, politics and even law subjects, Lint explores the general field of international law in regards to how it applies to human right to life. National as well as international security has been explored as one area where human rights are always under threat. The voice in this peer-review article is that of an authority figure considering that Alexander is a renowned lecturer and scholar. Dr. Lint has worked at the department of political science in Vanderbilt University and is hence highly experienced in the issues of international law and its applications. Alexander provides various accounts including legislations to look at when focusing on abuse of human right to life. He says it is also important to note that in regards to ‘right to life’ there are several legislations that while protecting individual’s right to life, gives exceptions under which someone can lose the right to life. The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms’ (ECHR) article number two holds that â€Å"Everyone rights to life shall be protected by law† (Brian 2002). This means that the article provision is not an absolute law in itself but a right that is subject to several other exceptions. If a person commits a capital offence and is sentenced to death, they definitely lose their right to life. The same article 2 holds that when it becomes necessary to deprive one of his/her right to life to protect another person from an eminent unlawful violence targeted at them, it is legal. This also appl ies when the deprivation to the right of life is executed to prevent a person from escaping lawful custody or even in some cases, preventing insurrections that are being mounted against lawful authorities in a state (Mark 2009). In the event that all these deprivations are done, in a manner that more than necessary force was used then the executed persons stand wronged (Jack 2003). This means that the law enforcement agencies and authorities like the police or the armed forces have a responsibility to prove that they did not use undue force in depriving persons of their right to life. It should be known that several countries across the world today have changed their minds against executing persons, even death raw convicts. It is nowadays common to find persons sentenced for life imprisonment instead of death even for capital offenders. This has been informed by the argument that death sentences are morally bad. The right to life comes in several situations. It is for instance expected that if a person’s right to life is threatened by known persons or factors, the state have a responsibility through its law enforcement agencies to keep the individuals at risk in safety zones all the time. This is regardless of whether such dangers emanate from previous capital offences committed by the endangered persons. The other instance is where a patient seeks medical attention for life threatening condition. The medical personal have a professional responsibility to take care of emergencies and ensure that life is not lost. Finally, the right to life can also be invoked where a person who comes into the country illegally has to be deported (Brian 2002). The deporting state has a legal responsibility to ensure that the country they are deporting the person to do not pose any serious dangers to their lives. The most common form of human right abuses that have been seen in the world today in regards to right to life are in the form of genocides that result from political instability and civil unrest. The International Criminal Court at the Hague have in the past sought to hold political leaders accountable for the mass murders that take place under their watch or as they try to put in place their dictatorial regimes(Brian 2002). The most notable ones include the Rwanda genocide, the mass murders in Liberia and Slovakia. In all these cases, the figures brought before the court for prosecution have been accused of executing people in great numbers for political expediency hence among other charges abusing their rights to life. There are several generations of human rights as documented by human rights organizations such as the United Nations. The first generation rights include among others the right to life. The second generation includes among others the right to health. The third generation includes among others the right to clean water. Human rights in general provide a way in which societies and individuals all over the way shape their behavior towards others. Many countries all over the world use human rights to shape the constitutions and laws of the country. Brasch, W. M. (2005) Americas’ unpatriotic acts: the federal government’s violation of constitutional and civil rights, New York: Peter Lang This book by Brasch was adopted only 6 weeks after the September 11. It stands out as a piece on international human rights especially in the US but also highlights several issues of human rights abuses in other countries across the world. He has brought to the fore matters relating to the human rights abuses in terrorism, the detainees in Guantanamo Bay as well as other human rights to life violations executed in Afghanistan. Professor Brasch Walter has won several awards especially in his area of Journalism. He also has several experiences in the field of human rights and has authored several other books with similar story lines. Brasch brings out the issue of war as perpetuated in America, as a significant are where the right to life is seriously violated. Self-defense has been associated with debates regarding the right to life. Self-defense occurs on the point of attack. During an attack, an individual may choose to defend himself or his property. This may lead to the death of the individual or the attacker. The death of the attacker occurs in light of self-defense. The attacked kills the attacker because of defending oneself. Ethical issues arise out of such killing in such a way that the life of the attacker is also considered sacred and could have been avoided. The life of the attacked is also sacred and many at times, his death occurs in the scuffle. The fact that both lives are sacred brings out a problem in deciding such cases. Whether any of those lives is more important, is of great concern. Such an issue could otherwise be solved using dialogue without involving violence. Since many attackers come in prepared for war, such issues arise and lead to death of one or both of the individuals. War has also brought in an ethical dilemma. Countries go after one another every so often. Examples of major wars that have rocked the world include the world war one and two as well as the cold war. Countries have been taken to court in the present as well as the past over such decisions to attack other countries over security and such other issues they may consider appropriate. Wars usually have casualties in them. Many people killed in wars do not necessarily pose a threat to the security of countries. Wars have led to the death of many civilians. The decision to kill people brings out an ethical concern in that in the first place life is a basic human right. Killing people for whatever reason presents a defying of this immediate right to life. Superpower countries usually retaliate against security threats by going to war with other countries. This leads to the deaths of individuals hence contravening this right. The decision to let go of the desire to go to war is a tough one es pecially when the security of the country matters. Terror gangs kill people using such things as bombs and grenade attacks. Such killings include the organized terror attacks on the twin towers and abduction of personnel in high seas. Retaliating is a good thing since it would be protecting the country against future attacks. The only problem is that it would lead to the death of civilians in such countries involved. Brasch also looks at other perspectives including abortion as areas where basic human right to life has been sacrificed. The right to life is a paramount right. It implies that one has the right to live (Arthur 1955). It implies that the lives of human beings are sacred. The right to life phrase is a belief that all human beings are entitled to being alive. This concept has been associated with many debates on abortion, war, euthanasia, self-defense and capital punishment. The right to life is among other inalienable rights inherent to human beings. The other inalienabl e human rights include the right to liberty and happiness. Several councils and conventions adopted this as a paramount right to humanity linking it to the fact that without life, there would be no one to whom these rights would apply. All other rights come after this. They come after human life. Laws in countries stipulate the importance of human life. Ethical associations of this right are attributed to such aspects as euthanasia, capital punishment, lawful killing of persons, abortion and self-defense among others (Norman 1964). Abortion has been associated with pro life and pro-choice issues. Pro-life issues indicate the importance of the fetus in development of human beings. They are already human. They campaign for keeping of pregnancy to full term. Pro-choice campaigners believe that the right to choose whether to keep the baby or not lies entirely on the mother. Abortion in many developing countries is illegal. Many developing countries on the other hand, have legalized abortion. Abortion covered under such topics as medical issues is acceptable to the society (Malcolm 1977). Mothers under the risk of dying together with their children covered under medical laws allow abortion. This protects the life of the mother. The question arises out of the need to keep the child, as well. Questions that arise include the need to maintain the pregnancy hoping that the child or the mother will not die in the process. Of contention also is the need to keep the child at the expense of the mother (John 2010). The paramount question lies in the importance of the mother over the life of the child. Such debates focus on the mother and the child in such a way that they try to distinguish which of the two lives is better than the other. Pro choice campaigners believe that fetuses are not human beings until they are born. They do not share the same rights as a human being (Rita 1998). Pro choice campaigners thus believe that a mother does not harm the fetus when she expels it from her body. She is not defying any rule of law. Pro-life campaigners believe that conception brings about a human being. This means that during the fetal stage, it is human, and expelling it would be expelling it. Lauren, P. G. (2011) The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania. This book is widely acclaimed and the author, Lauren P.G., holds that the issue of human rights abuses throughout the world is not a new thing since it has continued to happen unabated for a long time. Lauren highlights several factors that led to the formation of UPR and HRC. He also looks at various materials that highlight the basis for the formation of the international criminal court and how it functions. Every scholar and learners with focus on international law and human rights would definitely find this reading a compelling piece. Lauren incorporates the works of various human rights figures, NGOs and even activists to reinforce her points and hence perfectly handles the issue of bias. Lauren gives her approach a global take. Finally, there is a general theme of discussions relating to â€Å"The Patriotic act† and how it influences human right to life among others. Lauren is loud on how human right to life has been abused in all areas. He vividly gives an account of euthanasia and how it has violated patient’s right to life. Euthanasia refers to mercy killing. It is the killing of individuals that are already on the verge of death and have no chances of survival. An example of this is in hospital situations where patients are on life support machines (Seamus et al 2000). Parents and kin may decide to have the doctors pull the plug on the life of the patient. This brings criticism from doctors on the hope that the patient will live. This may also happen on the other way where doctors request the parents and kin to pull the pin on the life of their relative. This may be because the doctors find no hope in the recovery of the patient at all. This presents a problem for some people want this to happen, and the others are against it. This is also critical in the debate on human rights in that the right to life is essential to human life. Pull ing out the machines on such an individual contravenes the very reason for protecting life. On the other hand, not pulling out the machines means that the family will suffer the consequences of high medical bills, family and social destruction. The patient will also continue suffering when in the medical equipment. The patient is on the brink of death. This also brings an issue of ethical dilemma where both allowing the death of the patient and not allowing it present two good and justifiable solutions to a problem. The right to life has been looked at from all corners one of which is the medical issue of euthanasia. There is a school of thought that has held that euthanasia, whether looked at from a religious standpoint, legally, morally and even philosophically, betrays the spirit and the letter of human right to life (Mark 2009). This has been centered on two forces pulling in different directions namely an individual’s right to choose to end his/her life with dignity and the other factor, which seeks to uphold the person’s right to life, which remains inherent under any circumstances. This debate has seen the introduction of various legislations like the ‘Rights of the terminally ill act 1995 (NT)† (Brian 2002). This act allowed the terminally ill to request the medical personnel to end their lives. This act did not work for long because after several reviews, the federal parliament amended several legislations that rendered it inoperative. According to the â€Å"Covenant on Civil and Political Rights† (ICCPR) Article 6(1), â€Å"Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life† (Jack 2003). It has however raised serious concerns about the scope and even the arbitrary ending of life. Utilitarian ethicists like Peter Singer, a philosopher, have argued that the right to life goes beyond just being members of the human species. Peter holds that the right to life is grounded on one’s ability to anticipate and therefore plan the future. Article 3 of â€Å"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights† holds that â€Å"Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person† (Jack, 2003). Mathew, P. (2008) Implications of US PATRIOT Act on Human Rights: Analysis Munich: GRIN Verlag. The US â€Å"Patriotic Act’ is the center of discussion in this piece by Mathew Phillip. He holds that because of the highly unconsultative nature of the way the draft was brought to being, it has seriously influenced negatively on freedoms and violations of pertinent human rights of citizens. In the entire piece, the reader gets the impression that Phillip is the right person to talk about human right abuses because of the manner he articulates his ideas. Mathew’s publication comes out as a strong voice against the hanging/murder of death raw convicts on grounds that it violates peoples’ right to life. Legal killing and capital punishment by hanging have been an issue for debate in many quotas (Austin 2002). Death has been the ultimate punishment for such mistakes as treason and killing of people. People stand trial and a jury decides punishment for such individuals. Many countries ascribe to the death penalty. Since time immemorial, many countries have used this method to discipline individuals. The question of whether to give the death penalty has been of concern. Everybody has a right to life. Giving such a punishment contravenes this rule. Not giving this ruling for individuals caught to have killed their fellow human beings brings in a problem as punishment is in an equal manner to his deeds. The question of who judges whom also is of concern. This presents an ethical dilemma to the world of human rights. Conclusion The issues outlined in the quest for the right to life such as abortion, euthanasia, legal killing and others present an ethical dilemma. An ethical dilemma refers to a situation where both options to solving a problem present solutions that are neither bad nor good. Both of them apply although they present certain inclinations that are undesirable. Such issues are hard to deal with. The right to life is paramount in that human beings have only one life to live. Campaigners for this right face problems when dealing with issues pertaining to ethical dilemmas. The application of the right to life is in line with the historical basis, the philosophies surrounding it, the nature and features related to human rights and the implementation of these rights. The right to life organization based in Australia addresses such issues as euthanasia, abortion, adoption and others that relate to the right to life. The campaign it has done about helping individuals realize the importance of children to society and providing options such as adoption of children and counseling qualify it to receive funding. Feel free to buy custom essays on Human Rights topics at professional essay writing company which provides students with custom essays, term papers and research papers written from scratch!

Impact of Culture on International Business Essay - 5

Impact of Culture on International Business - Essay Example In fact, Apple is known for its ability to change the traditional organizational hierarchy that ended up being emulated, especially on not adapting to official business dress code (O’Grady, 2008, p.34). This is a strong indication of a culture with high value for freedom of creativity, expression, and innovation. For many years now, Apple is highly differentiated from other international businesses, especially in the same industry, by having a strong horizontal hierarchy, where hardware engineers, for instance, worked together with interface designers, marketing, and documentation personnel in creating a new innovative and complete product offering (O’Grady, 2008, p.29). Due to its horizontal hierarchy, the social network at Apple is, therefore, predictable, less complex, but at some point, with strong cultural impact. For instance, the high value for freedom of expression allows employees to disseminate substantial information to others. This would be a remarkable source of cultural conflict. In addition, any form of dissatisfaction on the part of the human resource would probably create a fast-pace domino effect due to culture that is strongly adhering to horizontal hierarchy that has a great depth of flexibility, and value for freedom of expression. This, at some point, raises significant concern on increasing individuality even if there is ongoing consensus effort for working as a team. To compensate this risk, it is, therefore, important on the part of the CEOs to maintain their high level of leadership. In this view, there is a strong level of impact on coping with change that would complement with the prevailing complexity that has strong ass ociation with managing organizational culture. The recent culture at Apple Incorporated would be a significant challenge to the next-in-line leaders. If leaders would not be properly acquainted with this kind of culture, just as how Jobs created and made use of it to the fullest,

Television in Australia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Television in Australia - Essay Example Notably, the difference comes in where the television has to involve a camera to capture images that are to be displayed on the screen. A television camera converts the images into electronic waves and as well as the microphone. These signals are then converted back to images by an electron gun at the back of the television set (Herd, 2006:119). Television was first introduced in Australia on 1929. It was however, launched officially twenty-five years later because the Australian government wanted to observe the reaction of countries which had introduced themselves to the system. The official launch was on September 1956 with a studio called the communication network (TCN) being the only TV station in the country. Bruce Gyngell was the first presenter of the television station and his first words are still documented up-to-date (Hartley, 2007:44). The incision of the television in Australia drew the attention of many. Debates in the various cultural bodies and public interest groups struggled to define the impact the television would have to the country. The debates that came about were whether Australia was to have a television service at all and whether it should have a public or private owned television system (Byes, 2006:160). There were also controversies on whether any privately owned system would be in scrutiny by the government agencies. The people also wanted to know whether there would be control on ownership in order to prevent the influence of foreign companies in the ownership or overconcentration by local companies bringing unhealthy competition (Spigel, 2001:385). The country also had debates on whether there was to have protection of the Australia-made television materials against the imported material. Generally, the debates in the country revolved around ownership, control and the regulation of the materials that had come up due to the introduction of the television. The many controversies surrounding the television industry posed numerous que stions on the cultural aspect. The people were concerned on the role of the audience in response to determining the nature of the TV programming. There was also a desire to know the role of the government in the real matter considering that Australia was a liberal democratic country (Arrow, 2009:91). There was also a question on whether the models adopted by the United States were appropriate for Australia. There was a major contradiction between the politics and culture of the country. These debates and controversies overrode in the context of the cold war era and the great depression of the world super powers a global confrontation, which had powerful repercussions in the world countries and certainly within Australia (Hazelhurst, 1982:112). The Australian government showed much consideration on the matters concerning the establishment of the television in the country. It thus appointed an interim committee to look into the matter (Hartley, 2007:46). The report of the committee wa s to be significant, as it would lay regulations on the radio, which in turn would lay the basis for the television industry. The committee established a policy where all radio stations were to have operation licenses. It also determined the roles of ABC radio, which was the national broadcasting station (ABC). The general finding of the committee was that the government officials were optimistic about the introduction

Response to Stuart Keisman’s Reflection Essay Example for Free

Response to Stuart Keisman’s Reflection Essay I agree with what Stuart wrote about people using unique methods when they speak. Everybody does have their own, individual way of speaking, and this results from people’s personal character, combined with the environment that they were raised in. I have noticed this myself, but it also seems that people speak in different manners when they are around various people. The same person can sound like, or give others the impression of, a completely different person depending on how they speak in different environments. This particularly affects shy people. Around people that a shy person does not know very well, he or she may be reserved, but when in comfortable settings, he or she may be much more outgoing and talkative. This is also when people, such as myself, choose to use slang words or speak in familiar ways, but around strangers, people generally tend to speak in more formal manners. Stuart did a great job summarizing how most people operate when speaking. I do the same things that he described. In my own experience, I have basic ways of talking, but they are different when I am around different people. I find myself able to joke around with friends, where it would be hard for me, and make me uncomfortable to do the same with strangers or new acquaintances. In my life I have also noticed that people seem to form opinions about my character base on my word choice, just like people do about Stuart has when he refrains from using bad words. Also, when I joke around with people who do not have a good sense of humor, I find it harder to communicate or connect with them. If I were going to apply Stuart’s ideas to my teaching, I would emphasize the different word choices that people use when they are in particular settings. I think it is amazing that people may seem like different people when they are in school, or church, but they are their usual, relaxed self when in they are in familiar company. Identifying how people verbally react to particular settings is a great way to understand how individuals think and it provides insight to their character. Response to Jodi Arbus’ Reflection I agree with Jodi that particular regions of various countries have individual dialects. People in the Midwestern states speak very differently from people in the south, or northeast. Sometimes the accents are so strong that it is hard to understand what people from other parts of the country are even saying. But dialect, or accent, seems to result not at all from the personal character or word choice of someone, but from the environment he or she was raised in. People are able to adapt, and accents or dialects are examples of our adaptation, because we blend in with them. When we move to a new place, eventually most of us will lose our own accents and adopt the one of our new home. I do not know whether or not Jodi is right about male and female speech, as people of both sexes seem to have unrestricted speech characteristics based on their gender. In my own experience, I have noticed that my own accent separates me from certain people, and gives me something in common with other Mexican Americans. As English is my second language, I have a noticeable accent, and it lets people identify certain things about me. This accent also allows people to know things about how, and what community, I was raised in. Jodi also talked about the difference between male and female speech. I am not sure if I have noticed any differences other than that males usually use more slang and a more relaxed form of speech when in comfortable settings. I have also noticed the differences in formality that people use in certain areas. In the areas where I grew up, people often address each other in familiar tones, but when speaking to people from other areas, we are more formal. In the south, Jodi notices a key feature that people use when speaking: they are often very formal and courteous, even to people who are somewhat familiar. This is interesting, because in my experience, I have noticed that many people do not even address strangers in ways that are very formal or customary. But I have noticed that this is different in other areas. I would use what Jodi wrote in my teachings by emphasizing accents or dialects that people use. These are important ways of understanding the characters of individuals, and determining what is a result of people’s character, instead of a result of the environment they were raised in. Also, it would be important to teach the differences in language from certain regions. Not only are the accents different, but the formality may be different as well. In the south, where people address one another in more formal ways, and say ‘ma’am’ and â€Å"sir† more often , it is important to know the ways that people speak to know how to be inoffensive. So I would teach the differences in speech of certain regions, as that would help outsiders to seem friendly and polite when visiting. Understanding lingual characteristics in certain areas, and the differences from place to place will help people to communicate in friendly manners with people who are unfamiliar.

Leukemia :: essays research papers

Leukemia   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Leukemia strikes all ages and both sexes. In 1995 approximately 20,400 people died from Leukemia. The all time five year survival rate is 38%. This rate has gone to 52% in the mid 1980’s. Approximately 25,700 cases were reported in 1995 alone(American Cancer Society-leukemia, 1995).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Leukemia is a form of cancer in the blood cells. Most forms of Leukemia occur in the white blood cells. These abnormal cells reproduce in large quantities and look and perform differently than normal cells(MedicineNet- leukemia, 1997). Right now the causes of Leukemia are unknown. Some studies have shown that exposure to high-energy radiation increases chances of contracting leukemia. Such radiation was produced in the atomic bombing of Japan during World War II. There is also enough energy in nuclear plants so strict safety precautions are taken. Some research shows that exposure to electric magnetic fields, such as power lines and electric appliances, is a possible risk factor. More studies are needed to prove this link. Some genetic conditions, such as Down’s syndrome, are also believed to increase the risk factor. Exposure to some chemicals is also suspected to be a risk factor. By learning the causes of leukemia treatment options will become available(MedicineNet-leukemia, 1997). There are many symptoms of leukemia. The symptoms of leukemia are the same for all the different types of leukemia. The acute types of leukemia, ALL and AML, symptoms are seen more quickly than in the chronic types of leukemia, CLL and CML, where symptoms do not necessarily appear right away. The symptoms are flu symptom, weakness, fatigue, constant infections, easily bleed and bruise, loss of weight and appetite, swollen lymph nodes, liver or spleen, paleness, bone or joint pain, excess sweating, swollen or bleeding gums, nosebleeds and other hemorrhages, and red spots called petechiae located underneath the skin. In acute Leukemia the cancerous cells may collect around the central nervous system. The results can include headaches, vomiting, confusion, loss of muscle control, or seizures. These clumps of cancer cells can collect in other various parts of the body(MedicineNet-leukemia, 1997 and American Cancer Society- leukemia, 1995).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Leukemia can be diagnosed in a number of ways. Blood work is commonly done in the laboratory. Different forms of blood work include checking the hemoglobin count, platelet count, or white blood cell count. X-rays are routinely done for treatment follow-up. Ultrasound is also used as a treatment follow-up. CT Scan is a special type of x-ray used as a detailed cross section of a specific area of the body. Bone marrow is routinely tested to examine progress of the disease. Spinal taps are also used in certain types of cancers.

Elementary School and Middle School Essay

Transitioning from elementary school to middle school is something we all have or had to do! Most kids cringe at the thought of making this huge step in life. For many students this transition can be a time of mixed emotions. Having been through this experience, I will compare and contrast the two, hoping that this will give you a clear picture of elementary and middle school. Elementary and middle school have distinguishable characteristics. In elementary schools, you basically have your homeroom teacher and one other teacher. The movement of students is very limited and you are mostly escorted by a teacher. Teachers are more understanding and are not as demanding because of the student’s age. Fun days are set aside as an award for students that have done what is expected of them. Most of the children are placed in classroom with the same students each year. Elementary school is very important in our young student’s lives; this is where it all starts. However, middle school students are expected to execute their daily tasks without assistance. Teachers are there to direct the students in right direction; everything else is left up to the student. Middle school students have several different classes, in each class it is usually a different teacher. Students have lockers to store their books and other supplies. In middle school students are required to be more independent and serious about school. Elementary school set the pace for all other levels of schooling. Students enter elementary school learning all the basic aspects of school system and the learning process. At this stage in life most students are eager to learn and get excited to learn new things. Elementary is the main point of delivery, it introduces social skills, behavioral adjustments, and basic academic learning. Middle school prepares students for higher education. Ultimately, middle school bridges the gap between elementary and high school. It is definitely a different experience than elementary, but it prepares students for their future and encourages them to be more independent. Elementary schools and middle schools also have common qualities. They are both open Monday through Friday on the same days. Each day students eat lunch at a designated time. All students are expected to sit in desks in an appropriate manner. Teachers require students to be respectful and display good behavior at all times. Homework is given on a daily basis and class discussions are routine also. School is essentially school with minor differences. Each school level has its own pro’s and con’s, they are also very similar. They each have their own benefiting factors and they are used to their advantage. School systems up this way because it is initially what works in our culture. Elementary and middle schools are stepping stones that that help us get from one place to another in our academic life. Each level is an important standpoint for academic excellence and they should be taken seriously so that you can be an effective student/learner.

Customer Engagement on Facebook

Individual Research â€Å"Customer engagement of commercial brand community on Facebook† Ms. Benchawan Phumphuengsri ID: 543-9374 iMBA Batch 3 Section 19 BP6993 Individual Research Submitted to Assistant Professor Dr. Kriengsin Prasongsukarn Graduate School of business Assumption University Submission date: 12 April 2013 Word count: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. words Abstract The rise of the Internet in worldwide there are opportunities and challenges have emerged for marketing brands and products.In its early days, the Internet was seen as an opportunity for marketers to communicate with consumers, and even to engage the customer in two-way communications. However, consumers are becoming overcome by marketers’ attempts to engage them in relationship marketing strategies. The marketing managers and planners should apply new ideas in order to make their brand community more effective because traditional web sites are no longer motivating customers to return and interact to the site. So it is important for the marketer to find out the strategy that involves the development of a virtual community around the brand by focusing on perceived benefits such as social benefits, entertainment benefits and economic benefits to the customer by using online media and social network which are more powerful marketing tools in the current day. In addition, interactions among members can influence the selection of brands, making effective communities very important for the company.In order to get a better understanding of the important factors of community engagement behaviour, this study will show which factor lead to successful online strategies for the marketing on Facebook fan page by using Product Moment Coefficient Pearson Correlation (Bivariate) to analyse the variables and explain that how social benefits, economic benefits and entertainment benefits have a relationship on customer community engagement behaviour. Acknowledgements To complete my individual research, I wo uld like to thank you my advisor Assistant Professor Dr.Kriengsin Prasongsukarn for all helpful advices and guidance since the beginning up to the individual research completion. Moreover I have learned many things from him during the consulting time and he motivated me to try harder to understand and apply his teaching to real practice. I would like to thank to all of my friends, iMBA section 19 for their advice and encouragement which supported me to finish this individual research. Thank you to respondents of my questionnaires.Lastly I would like to thank my family who always believe in me that I could do study and work at the same time. I hope this research will be benefits the business towards understanding ways to enhance customer engagement with their brands. Table of Contents CHATER 1†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 1 INTRODUCTION †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 1 1. 1 Background of the topic†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 1 1. 2 Statement of the problem†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3 1. Research Objectives†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3 1. 4 Scope of Research †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚ ¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 4 1. 5 Limitations of research †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 4 1. 6 Significant of study †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 5 1. 7 Definition of terms †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 5 CHATER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 5 2. 1 Theoretical Literature †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢ € ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 5 2. 2 Related Literature Review †¦. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 7 2. 3 Summary table of findings of previous researches†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 11 3. 1 Theoretical Framework †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 11 3. 2 Conceptual Framework†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 12 3. 3 Research hypothesis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦.. †¦13 3. 4 Operationalization of the variables †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 14 CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULT†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 15 4. 1 Method of Research †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 15 4. Source of Data †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 15 4. 3 Research instrument †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦. 15 4. 4 Data Analysis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 16 4. 5 Summary of Hypotheses Testing †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 22 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 23 5. 1 Conclusion †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 23 5. 2 Recommendation †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 24 5. 3 Future Study †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 25 REFERENCE†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. . 26 Appendix A Analysis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 28 Appendix B Questionnaire †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 2 Customer engagement in a Facebook commercial brand c ommunity CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. 1 Background of the topic The reason to select the studying community engagement behaviors in a Facebook brand community of customers is because nowadays Facebook is a very famous social-networking website that has impacts on daily life and it socially influences the people’s choices. The world is moving toward the cyber world is which internet connections are easily access and reachable for every households and businesses.This study will show how the customer community engagement behavior affects perceived benefits of the Facebook commercial brand, and user of its services and applications. We will focus on both male and female respondents who are Facebook users and fans of at last one brand on Facebook, because these people can respond to our questionnaire effectively as they already experience social-networking. The company is looking for ways to brand loyalty among customers as the brand community offers both companies and customers new ways to engage with each other.Whilst companies aim at engaging with influencing members’ perceptions, loyal customers about the brand, sharing information, and learning from and about customers (Algesheimer et al. , 2005), customers perceive value through the variety of practices that they execute offline and online (Schau et al. , 2009). Although originally, an online brand community referred to a community on the www, recently social media network has been added to companies’ marketing and brand building activities (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010).Attracted by the great number of users of Facebook so, the creative marketing activity in Facebook brand community will draw people to participate and make the brand succeed. This study will help the firm understand more about customer engagement in the Facebook brand community. 1. 1. 2 Social Network, Facebook Over the last years, the ways people search, share information and communicate with each other has changed dramaticall y (Hennig-Thurau et al. , 2010). Social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube are playing a major role and are more important in business communication.The changes force the company and brand to focus on online services in order to create relationships to customers. Facebook allows companies several services to contact and communicate with their customers. Fan pages are a very interesting tool for companies to use. Usual characteristics of fans are self-identification as a fan, cultural competence, emotional engagement, co-production and auxiliary consumption (Kozinets et al. , 2010). The Internet brought the possibility to overcome geographical restrictions and also help the company build fan communities world-wide.In practice, Facebook users can be fans of a fan page by pressing the â€Å"like-button,† then it identifies that they like this brand and will present their profiles on social network. The content and information of fan page is automatically posted to the customer is Facebook news feed, and the customer can post comments on the fan page, interact with the brand, forward offers from the page as well as the interact with other community members (Jahn and Kunz. ,2012). 1. 2 Statement of problem As a social network, Facebook has affected the social life and activity of people in several ways.With its availability on many mobile devices, Facebook allows users to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and other connections wherever they are in the world, as long as there is access to the Internet. It can also tie people with same interests or beliefs through groups and other pages. This study will help the company to understand more how community engagement behavior in Facebook is important to the company for implementing the technique to create company brand perception and gain market share via Facebook.In addition, engaging with the brand community in different behaviors, receive different relationship benefits, for e xample entertainment, may make customers more satisfied. This assumption is based on the reasoning that customers. This study will investigate how a customer engagement behavior affects consumers perceived benefits, and assume a positive relationship between the constructs. (Gummerus et al. , 2012) 1. 3 Research objectives The research objective is to study the affects of community engagement behaviour of Facebook commercial brand on perceived benefits.The company can know more insight of customer behaviour especially the company who focuses on social network marketing activities. This study will help the company create marketing and content to their page on Facebook effectively to increase perceived benefit of the brand. * To study community engagement behaviour has a positive relationship on social benefit * To study community engagement behaviour has s positive relationship on entertainment benefit * To study community engagement behaviour has a positive relationship on economic benefit 1. Scope of research The research studied the affects of community engagement behaviour on three factors of perceived benefits. The three independent variables of perceived benefits factors are social benefit, entertainment benefit and economic benefit. The respondents of this research are male and female Facebook user in Bangkok. This research result would be advantage to the marketing department of the company who has community page of their brand on Facebook they can apply more attractive activities for their members.This study will help them to monitor their Facebook fan page effectively after they understand the fact that the brand community will help a firm draws individual customers and to create relationships with those customers, and also establishing long-term relationships. 1. 5 Limitations of research There are some limitations to this study of customer community engagement behaviours of commercial brands on Facebook. The study is limited to the engagement behavi our in a Facebook commercial brand community, while customers also engage with the brand in other ways.The limitations that need to be considered are first, self-selection of respondents affects the results which may come from inactive community users. Second, the behavioural measures were reported by the respondents themselves, and do not know that the answers are from actual behaviour or not. Finally, because the findings are based on commercial brand on Facebook page and the respondent have to be both Facebook user and commercial brand community page so this will represent only some portion of target customer of the company not the whole market 1. Significant of the study The findings in this study have several implications for social media strategies, and help the company to understand why customers participate in the Facebook brand community which is important to increasing more numbers of Facebook users to become brand community members and towards develop marketing on Faceboo k, which is lower cost than other commercial media. Firms may want to encourage and reward consumers to become more active on the site to receive maximal perceived benefits from the community (Gummerus et al. 2012). 1. 7 Definitions of Terms Fan pages the important tool on Facebook for brand communication. The company can use to integrate and interact with the customers effectively (Dholakia et al. , 2004). Community engagement behaviour is the customer behaviour that is more value than purchasing the product or service, and can be defined as a customer’s behavioural manifestations that have a focus as motivational drivers rather than purchasing by the brand or firm (van Doorn et al. , 2010).Social benefits results from interaction among the company and consumer and mention to recognition and also friendship (Gweinner et al. , 1998). Entertainment benefits is the relaxation and fun which customer perceive and could encourage community participation (Dholakia et al. , 2004). E conomic benefits refer to people joining brand communities in order to get discounts and time savings, or to take part in marketing activity campaign and competitions (Gwinner et al. , 1998). CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2. Theoretical Literature Customer engagement in brand communities Customer engagement in brand communities causes the customer’s interactive experiences direct to the brand, is context-dependent, and develops consumers’ experience of brand value (Brodie et al. , 2011). Customer engagement is sometimes used to represent the highest form of loyalty (Bowden, 2009; Roberts and Alpert, 2010), but as behavioural indicator it comprises all kinds of behaviours, not only those that are characteristic of high degrees of loyalty (Libai, 2011; Narayandas, 1998).The customer engagement consists of five dimensions. First, customer engagement can be defined in a different ways depending on customer time, interest or preference this called customer’s resources. Second, it can generate in different of outcomes for the customer such as improvement in the service. Third, it can be different in scope and be momentary, for example on going behaviour or issuing a complaint. Fourth, it has various impact on the company both negative and positive impact. Fifth, customer can engage in the behaviours for specific purposes (van Doorn et al. , 2010).Consumers engage in a number of behaviours that tie their relationship with the brand. For example frequency of visit, buying behaviours, and intended behaviour which go beyond the traditional measure of the loyalty of the customer (Gummerus et al. , 2012). Perceived benefits of customer engagement in brand communities Before the existence of Web 2. 0, the customers did not consider social benefits important in an online context. They sought to experience trust benefit and special treatment benefit such as saving time and receiving special service rather than experience social benefit (Yen and Gwinner, 20 03).The previous research studied on practical benefits which included informational and instrumental benefits (Dholakia et al. , 2004) which are often achievable through a Facebook fan page set up by the company. This study is focused on social, entertainment and economic benefits which we called perceived benefits. The reasons that people use social networking site are social connections such as keeping in touch with their friends and exchanging information such as events or gossip, (Raacke and Bonds-Raacke, 2008). In similar interest, Foster et al. 2010) found the important motivation of people to participate the social network is the perceived information value from the community and the connection to their friends. The experiential value that derives the satisfaction of the customer of using online services is entertainment (Mathwick et al. , 2001; Nambisan and Baron, 2009; Nonnecke et al. , 2006). Entertainment benefit can be expected as an important more than e-commerce in a brand community context. The Facebook fan pages spend their time with the community page such as game applications (Gummerus at al. 2012). Many previous researches also show that entertainment plays an important role as shared and consumed content on social networking sites (Sheldon, 2008; LaRose et al. , 2001). Economic benefits (Gwinner et al. , 1998) mention to people connecting brand communities because they want to get discounts and time savings, or to be a part in awards and competitions. 2. 2 Related Literature Review Brand Community The companies aim to engage with the loyal customers, influencing the member to have good perception toward the brand, distributing information and earning form and about customers (Algesheimer et al. , 2005), customer perceive value from the variety of practice that they perform online and offline (Schau et al. , 2009). An online brand community referred to a community on the World Wide Web, recently social media has been added to companies†™ marketing and brand building activities (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). In this study, brand community is defined as a group of people who possess a particular brand or who have a strong interest in a brand, and who are active both online and offline (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2001; Jeppesen and Frederiksen, 2006).Research on brand communities found several different dimensions, including geographic concentration, social context, size, and temporality (Dholakia et al. , 2004; McAlexander et al. , 2002). Regarding the size, Dholakia et al. , (2004) found the differences between small group-based communities and big communities in terms of motivation to join the communities. Another dimension is their temporality in communities, some are unchanging and others are short-term.The temporal stability of community members can be benefit to marketers as well as longevity associates with a long-term, stable market. Finally, geographically concentrated or scattered are considered as a dimens ion of communities (Hur at el. , 2011) The keys of brand community participation are hedonic and functional. Functional goals mention to information sharing among community members, while hedonic goals lead customer to have a positive experience over the interactions among the member (Holland and Baker, 2001).Regardless of which aim is established before a participation, the effect of brand community on private lives has been growing, for example over actual product consumption and purchasing, or the formation of opinions toward products or brands (Hagel and Armstrong, 1997), since they have been changing the role performed by existing reference groups (Constant et al. , 1996). The firms have begun to use brand communities for the strategic purpose of getting closer to a specific target market segment.Members of a brand community define the outline and particular community activities by the inter-relationships between members who like the same brand, and as they share information ab out the brand (Muniz and Schau, 2005), they set up brand-centered sub-culture (Schouten and McAlexander, 1995), which could be applied for companies’ brand-building strategies. Then, the interaction between brand communities and companies is helpful for the firms to analyse customers’ characteristics and needs more accurately, so that firms can achieve long-term customer relationships at a lower cost. . 3 Summary table of findings of previous researches. There are many researchers who studied about the customer engagement, brand community, social networking, social benefit, entertainment benefit and economic benefit. The researcher name, objective and result are as follow: Table 2. 1 Previous empirical studies CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 3. 1 Theoretical Framework From previous research two engagement behavioural factors were found, one being community behaviour and one being transactional behaviours as independent variables (Gummerus et al. , 2012).The var iable measuring how often customers visit the page and react to the brand on Facebook. Therefore, the three constructs were social benefits, economic and entertainment benefits as mediator. The dependent variables were relationship outcome, one is satisfaction and one is loyalty. Figure 3. 1 Model of study on relationship benefits mediate the effect on customer engagement on relationship outcomes Source: Johanna Gummerus, Veronica Liljander, Emil Weman, Minna Pihlstrom, (2012),†Customer engagement in a Facebook brand community†, Management Research Review 35 (9), 857 – 877 . 2 Conceptual Framework The theoretical framework of relationship benefits mediate the effect on customer engagement on relationship outcomes (Gummerus et al. , 2012). The researcher adjusted the conceptual framework to study the relationship on customer engagement behaviour and perceived benefits as follows Figure 3. 2 Conceptual Framework There are three independent variables which are social benefit, entertainment benefit and economic benefit. The dependent variable of this conceptual framework is community engagement behaviour. . 3 Research hypothesis The hypotheses studies the relationship between customer engagement behaviour which is community engagement behaviour about the brand community on Facebook and perceived benefit which are social benefit, economic benefit and entertainment benefit and demonstrate that there is positive relationship of customer community engagement behaviour on perceived benefit for Facebook users in Thailand. Customer engagement in brand communitiesFrom previous studies, the researcher examined the customer behavioural engagement in a brand community relationship on perceived relationship benefits of Game Club in Facebook. For this study we will study a customer community engagement behaviour relationship on perceived relationship benefits of Facebook user in Thailand who are members of the commercial brand’s fan page. Perceived be nefits of customer engagement in brand communities From previous studies, the researcher examined the relationship benefits mediation of customer engagement on satisfaction and loyalty of Game Club in Facebook.For this study we will research the relationship of customer community engagement behaviour and perceived benefits which are social benefit, entertainment benefit and economic benefit of Facebook user in Thailand who is fan page of the commercial brand. Hence, the hypothesized model can be summarized as shown below: H1: Community engagement behaviour has a positive relationship on social benefits. H2: Community engagement behaviour has a positive relationship on entertainment benefits. H3: Community engagement behaviour has positive relationship on economic enefits. 3. 4 Operationalization of the variables CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULT 4. 1 Method of Research The Facebook user who is a member of the fan page of the brand on Facebook is defined as a target group to distrib ute the questionnaire in order to test the hypothesis. The questionnaires are available into two methods; one is online questionnaire and second is questionnaire paper. The respondent who answered the questionnaire of this study is all Thai Facebook users and also being a fan page of commercial brand on Facebook.The questionnaire combined 4 constructs which are customer community engagement behaviour construct, social benefit construct, entertainment benefit construct and economic benefit construct and consists of 23 questions which this research applied the question from the previous study base on this research objectives. 4. 2 Source of Data This research was applied from the previous study of customer engagement on Facebook. The information was collected from 208 respondents who are Facebook users and members of a commercial brand fan page and were tested to prove the hypotheses.The researcher collected data by distributed 58 questionnaires in Siam Square, Assumption University a nd Thai Summit Tower building in Bangkok, and posted a questionnaire online for Thai Facebook users and there is 150 respondents from online questionnaire. The date duration to collect the data is 24th February 2013 to 12th March 2013. 4. 3 Research instrument The instruments for gathering the data for the research are online questionnaire and paper questionnaire.To test the hypothesis the question paper consists of varies specific questions to measure the relationship of community engagement behaviours on three perceived benefit, social benefit, economic benefit and entertainment benefit. The questionnaires consist of four constructs. The Community engagement behaviours the perceived benefit statement was measured on a Five-point Likert scale with the anchors â€Å"Strongly agree† – â€Å"Strongly disagree†. Table 4. 1 Measurement Scale 4. 4 Data Analysis In this research, there are three types of data analysis.First, this study uses descriptive analysis to ana lyse the frequency and percentage of the data in screening question and demographic information. Second, this research use reliability analysis to test the reliability of each question for dependent and independent variables. Finally, this research use inferential analysis to analyse the correlation between variables by using Pearson correlation (Bivariate). Descriptive Analysis After screening question of the questionnaire from 208 respondents there are 200 respondents who are Facebook users and be a member of brand fan page and 8 respondents who are not Facebook user.The following table shows the frequency and percentage of demographic by using descriptive analysis. Table 4. 2 Screening question Facebook user From table 4. 2 of 208 respondents, we found 200 respondents are Facebook users 96. 2% (200) and 3. 8% (8) are not Facebook user. Brand fan page on Facebook From table 4. 2, after the first screening question we got 200 respondents who are members of a brand fan page on Faceb ook. Frequency of visit fan page From the table 4. 2, the highest percentage of visits to brand fan page on Facebook of the respondents is 1-3 times per week and the lowest percentage is once a month or seldom.There are 37. 5% (75) of respondents who visit 1-3 times per week, 29. 5% (59) of visit daily, 20% (40) of 4-6 times per week, 7% (14) of 2-3 times per month and 6% (12) of once a month or seldom. Table 4. 3 Demographic information Factor of Gender From the table 4. 2, the highest percentage of respondents was female. There are 56. 5% (113) of female respondents and 43. 5% (87) of male respondents. Factor of Age From the table 4. 2, the highest percentage of respondents was age 25-29 years old and the lowest percentage is age below 20 years old.There are 69% (138) of age 25 to 29 years old, 16% (32) of age 21 to 24 years old, 12. 5% (25) of age 30 and above and 2. 5% (5) of age below 20 years old. Factor of education level From the table 4. 2, the highest percentage of respond ents was college/university level and the lowest percentage is high school level. There are 66. 5% (133) of college/university level, 31. 5% (63) of advance degree level and 2% (4) of high school level. Table 4. 4 The Analysis of Descriptive statistics of constructs by using Average Mean and Standard Deviation Reliability AnalysisThe purpose of testing the reliability is to measure the question of each variable by using Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha test. The results of each variable are as follows: Table 4. 5 The reliability Analysis of Research Instrument From table 4. 5, the results show that the reliability of all variables is greater than . 6 so all questions are reliable to use for this study. Inferential Analysis There are 3 independent variables which are social benefit, entertainment benefit and social benefit to analyse the relationship with community engagement behaviour by using Coefficient Pearson Correlation (Bivariate).Each independent variable has a positive re lationship to community engagement behaviour and significant value is less than 0. 01 which means all hypotheses are fail to reject (supported). Hypothesis 1: Community engagement behaviour has a positive relationship on social benefits. Table 4. 6 The Analysis of relationship between Community engagement behaviour and Social benefit As the result in table 4. 6, the sig. is equal to . 000 which is less than . 01 (. 000

Quotes by Ahmed Skou Tour

Quotes by Ahmed Skou Tour Without being Communists, we believe that the analytical qualities of Marxism and the organization of the people are methods especially well-suited for our country.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, first president of Guinea, as quoted in Rolf Italiaanders The New Leaders of Africa, New Jersey, 1961 People are not born with racial prejudices. For example, children have none. Racial questions are questions of education. Africans learned racism form the European. Is it any wonder that they now think in terms of race after all theyve gone through under colonialism?Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, first president of Guinea, as quoted in Rolf Italiaanders The New Leaders of Africa, New Jersey, 1961 An African statesman is not a naked boy begging from rich capitalists.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, first president of Guinea, as quoted in Guinea: Trouble in Erewhon, Time, Friday 13 December 1963. The private trader has a greater sense of responsibility than civil servants, who get paid at the end of each month and only once in a while think of the nation or their own responsibility.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, first president of Guinea, as quoted in Guinea: Trouble in Erewhon, Time, Friday 13 December 1963. We ask you therefore, not to judge us or think of us in terms of what we were or even of what we are but rather to think of us in terms of history and what we will be tomorrow.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, first president of Guinea, as quoted in Rolf Italiaanders The New Leaders of Africa, New Jersey, 1961 We should go down to the grassroots of our culture, not to remain there, not to be isolated there, but to draw strength and substance there from, and with whatever additional sources of strength and material we acquire, proceed to set up a new form of society raised to the level of human progress.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, as quoted in Osei Amoahs A Political Dictionary of Black Quotations, published in London, 1989. To take part in the African revolution it is not enough to write a revolutionary song: you must fashion the revolution with the people. And if you fashion it with the people, the songs will come by themselves.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, as quoted in Osei Amoahs A Political Dictionary of Black Quotations, published in London, 1989. At sunset when you pray to God, say over and over that each man is a brother and that all men are equal.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, as quoted in Robin Halletts, Africa Since 1875, University of Michigan Press, 1974. We have told you bluntly, Mr President, what the demands of the people are ... We have one prime and essential need: our dignity. But there is no dignity without freedom ... We prefer freedom in poverty to opulence in slavery.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©s statement to General De Gaulle during the French leaders visit to Guinea in August 1958, as quoted in Robin Halletts, Africa Since 1875, University of Michigan Press, 1974. For the first twenty years, we in Guinea have concentrated on developing the mentality of our people. Now we are ready to move on to other business.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©. as quoted in David Lambs The Africans, New York 1985. I dont know what people mean when they call me the bad child of Africa. Is it that they consider us unbending in the fight against imperialism, against colonialism? If so, we can be proud to be called headstrong. Our wish is to remain a child of Africa unto our death..Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, as quoted in David Lambs The Africans, New York 1985. People of Africa, from now on you are reborn in history, because you mobilize yourself in the struggle and because the struggle before you restores to your own eyes and renders to you, justice in the eyes of the world.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, as quoted in The Permanent Struggle, The Black Scholar, Vol 2 No 7, March 1971. [T]he political leader is, by virtue of his communion of idea and action with his people, the representative of his people, the representative of a culture.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, as quoted in Molefi Kete Asante and Kariamu Welsh Asantes African Culture the Rhythms of Unity: The Rhythms of Unity Africa, World Press, October 1989. In the history of this new Africa which has just come into the world, Liberia has a preeminent place because she has been for each of our peoples the living proof that our liberty was possible. And nobody can ignore the fact that the star which marks the Liberian national emblem has been hanging for more than a century the sole star that illuminated our night of dominated peoples.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, from his Liberian Independence Day Address of 26 July 1960, as quoted in Charles Morrow Wilsons Liberia: Black Africans in Microcosm, Harper and Row, 1971.

An Analysis of Recruitment and Selection in IBM

An Analysis of Recruitment and Selection in IBM Chapter 1. Introduction Today the success of every organization or business company lies just not in the mission or the goals set by the management, but a lot depends even on the employees of the organization. Employees are an integral part of any organization and they are the biggest assets that any company can have. The entire image of the organization depends on the performance of the employees, their code of conduct, and how they take their job responsibility. Every company looks out for employees who have the required capability and the qualifications that just not suits the job requirements but also can add to the value of organization. Recruitment and selection of the employees thus becomes an integral part of human resources. In simple terms getting the right person or a deserving candidate is much easier when compares to getting the right candidate for the right position. Through recruitment and selection, an employer will be able to find and select the appropriate and the most deserving candidate for the job vacancy. Recruitment and selection process has been considered as the most important part of hiring a new employee and also for the organization. 1.1 About the company In this research we will be focusing on IBM (Internal Business Machines) located in India to analyze the recruitment and selection. Now lets see some information pertaining to Internal Business Machines (IBM). Even though IBM was present in India earlier to 1970s, they re-entered the business sector in the year 1992. IBM has it headquarter based on Bangalore and operates in 14 other cities throughout India. IBM is considered as the leaders in terms of industry based on Information technology. IBM has been offering various customer solutions which includes both hardware and software. IBM India is considered one of the important market for IBM and they ensure that there has been enough investments in this industry. 1.2 Aim of the research Through this research we are trying to focus on the recruitment and the selection process, taking example organization as IBM. Now in order to ensure that the research is progressing towards achieving this aim, we will need to set an aim for our research. Hence the aim of the research is as follows: â€Å"To investigate, describe and produce a research report which shows how the recruitment and selection process of International Business Machines (IBM) is different from other companies recruitment and selection process.† Before we can into the details of the recruitment and selection at IBM, we will highlight the main reasons why employees get attracted and enthusiastic about working at IBM: Employees who are working and also would be joining would always prefer to be known as the innovators. IBM is known as the best company and employees can always expect to have a very bright future ahead while working at IBM. IBM has been known for providing competitive environment for their employees which can help them develop on l ong term professional basis. Every employee gets to learn new skills and facts at IBM daily. IBM encourages their employees to deploy their unique learning style at work.

Case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 126

Case Study Example focus on developing athletics activities and equipment that attract people below the age of 19 years and single women between the ages of 30-39 years. These two groups of the population constitute the highest number of non-peak period visitors. The management should provide a discount for the unmarried people, especially the women. Single ladies are likely to have fewer responsibilities compared to the married couples. In this regard, single ladies are likely to have sufficient time to visit the club regularly. Essentially, offering discounts would increase the frequency of attendance and attract new customers’ thereby increasing revenue for the club (Fields, 1999). The management should introduce awards and gifts for frequent and royal customers. This will encourage them to visit the club more frequently since they are assured of a gift. In addition, special gifts should be given to customers who bring new customers during the low seasons. This will encourage the existing customers to invite their friends to join the club. During the low seasons, the management should offer aerobic and yoga classes to both the silver and gold membership holders. Such strategies will aid in expanding the membership base and increasing revenues for the