Coca Cola Organization

The Coca Cola Company, founded in 1886 in Atlanta, the United States, is the world’s largest nonalcoholic beverage company. Coca Cola currently owns and markets more than 500 beverage brands (Anonymous, 2010), including waters, sports and energy drinks, juices, tea and coffee, which are distributed in over 200 countries throughout the world.Along with Coca Cola, the company also owns Sprite, Fanta and Diet Coke, which are four of the world’s top five nonalcoholic beverage brands (Anonymous, 2010). As a company with a history of over 120 years, the Coca Cola Company now has an operating structure with seven operating segments and approximately 139,600 worldwide employees (Anonymous, 2010). Today, Coca Cola has subsidiaries around the world and has developed its own management and distribution system.The relative data and evidences shown in the following analysis will illustrate the effectiveness of the current structure model of Coca Cola and how managers of Coca Cola ap plied the hybrid structure to manage the subsidiaries in different regions efficiently and the strategy of decentralization to reduce the management cost and improve autonomy of these different departments. Furthermore, Coca Cola values its unique organizational culture and has set different mission, vision and values to guide the organization, the segments, and its teams.These invisible forces have been serving as the â€Å"Roadmap† for the company to achieve the long-term goals. In the second part of the report of the company culture, facts and stories mentioned would give examples and interpret how the â€Å"liability of a strong culture† could impact Coca Cola’s competitiveness and why it is so important for Coca Cola to understand customers’ needs in order to introduce more customer-orientated organizational culture rather than outcome-oriented culture. Organizational StructureCoca Cola is a typical complex organization by having seven operative unit s in geographic areas around the world, six functional departments being responsible for different tasks and a diversified labor force from different nations. Additionally, a combined characteristic of Mechanism and Organism is also one of most representative features of complexity. Under this structure, employees can not only improve their performance to the maximum level, but they also help the company expand global market and adapt the changing environment.The Coca Cola Company currently employs approximately 139,600 employees (Anonymous, 2010). According to a general organizational chart stemmed from the company’s website, the division of labor is based on diverse job designs which exist specific rules and regulations to direct employees and managers. There are at least 5 hierarchical levels in the corporate. At each level, for instance, one regional director supervises about 10 subordinates on average; therefore, the span of control is fairly wide.And based on the inform ation of its website, the geographic regions are broken down into the diverse units that are located round the world, which are mainly North America, Middle East, Asia, Europe, Eurasia, Latin America and finally Africa. And then, each subunit has its own organizational structure based on functional departmentalization. For example, in North America, its major departments are marketing, finance, and packaging, sales, and research and development administration.In addition to that, in terms of the division of the authority, originally, the company has a more centralized structure, which the decision is mainly made by a high-level management, and the communication is restricted due to the hierarchy of the authority. However, as Coca Cola encounters uncertain environments when it expands of its business, the organization realizes that it must meet the changing demands of its customers to win their business.Thus, Coca Cola began to push towards decentralization in the nineties and even m ore recently (Fox, 2007), which means that decisions are made on a more local level and communication can spread freely to quickly react to conspicuous market demands. Simultaneously, higher-level management can have the authority to take control of the overall strategies and concentrate on the company’s distal goal. The Coca Coca’s big success is not only due to its continuing effort on producing different beverage, but also its moderate organizational structure plays a salient role.Firstly, because the Coca Cola Company, based on the annual report, has over 400 products, the product structure seems to be too costly and unrealistic to implement. Therefore, the multidivisional structure is an appropriate structure and brings benefit for the company. A significant strength of this structure can allow the company to react to changing and uncertain environments while also maintaining a level of stability. Moreover, the specific decision and strategy can be made by regiona l managers to suit particular situation of one area without triggering some conflicts.For example, when one region wants to conduct a specific marketing promotional strategy which is not be appropriate for another region due to the diverse marketing environment, so decisions about specific marketing tactics are made closer to that region. And thirdly, within each region, the structure is mainly divided based on the functional departmentalization, and undoubtedly, communication among each functional unit’s members is free and efficient because of the same knowledge and expertise. Thus, the work and decision can be done more efficiently.Another big beauty of its structure is the mix of both centralization and decentralization to run the business. According to an article â€Å"Changes in the Organization of Work: An Empirical Assessment† stemmed from a journal of International Conference Proceedings, it concludes that a more decentralized hierarchy improves coordination a nd reduce monitoring costs. And eventually, since employees are guaranteed more flexibility from the workplaces, more job satisfaction can be acquired through more tasks autonomy and responsibilities.As a result, it will lead to complementarily effects, which productivity gains can arise. From this perspective, Coca Cola seems to get benefits from this structure change. On one hand, a centralized structure remained at top level is to help senior managers take control of power and provide a distal goal for the whole organization. On the other hand, pushing decentralization also works well in the local units. Because employees can perform tasks from beginning to the end, they can figure out problems and have opinions through the working process.And, additionally, under the decentralized structure, the communication is freely flowing. Employees are more encouraged to express opinions and provide recommendations for company’s operation at the weekly me eting, and gradually, a par ticipative and communicative environment is formed which leads to employees’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment. An article appeared in Business Europe (Bogomolny, 2004) had the following information: â€Å"According to Jon Chandler, director of communications for Europe, the responsibility for getting it right – and for profit – is firmly at the local level (p. ). † Obviously, productivity increased and company gets the profit in return via this structure. To sum up, it appears that the Coca Cola Company is pursuing for a hybrid structure, which take advantages of both mechanistic and organic structures, while trying to minimize negative effects of each. According to the research above, it seems that the organization works well after all the changes implemented. However, after the in-depth analysis of the organizational structure, one subtle recommendation can be addressed.According to â€Å"Committee on Management and Productivity†, i t is beneficial for all levels of company to put various customers’ needs into consideration when designing organizational structure So although the Coca-Cola possesses a hybrid structure, its structure does not adequately focus on the customer side. In order to delivering the best value to customers, a part of structure needs to serve the customers in terms of dividing them into different generations. The reason for this suggestion is that customers are picky and are facing abundant choices of beverage currently, and they also more care about their health. Jones, 2007) Thus, a more cautious decision will be made by customers while purchasing the beverage. Reasonably, if the Coca-Cola Company should focus more on customers to analyze their preference based on different segments, and provides adequate relevant training which guided the employees to deliver satisfied good and service to customers. Consequently, the company can produce the ideal beverage to reach the expectation of different generation, and may acquire a profitable benefit in return. Organizational CultureOne of the most important building blocks for the high success of the Coca Cola Company is its organizational culture. The culture of the Coca Cola Company is mission-driven: focused on refreshing the mind, inspiring optimism, and making a difference (thecoca-colacompany. com). This durable mission facilitates Coca Cola in creating innovation, people orientation, diversity and an aggressive culture since John Pemberton founded it in 1886. The Coca Cola Company has reached its current strong culture through decades’ effort.Employees share the common values that the company provides leadership, collaboration, integrity, accountability, passion, diversity, and quality (thecoca-colacompany. com). In 2004, the Coca Cola Company came to a reinvigorating stage. E. Neville Isdell was nominated as the new chairman of the board and CEO of the Coca Cola Company. Due to the health and wellness trend, increasing competition in the beverage industry and a series of top leadership changes, Coca Cola had been experiencing hugely decreasing soft drink sales.By engaging in an open dialogue about the company’s values and future development among 150 managers from worldwide divisions, a â€Å"new vision for the sustainable growth† has emerged (Andrew Martin, 2007). This new vision achieved an aggressive marketing strategy by refreshing the coke brand and laid particular stress on advertisement and product development (Andrew Martin, 2007). From the perspective of the dimensions of the culture, Coca Cola wants to be innovative while they are risk-averse. The company becomes more open and flexible since it gives its employees more rights.It remains aggressive at sales. Lastly, after the 2004 change, the company has become stable and gotten rid of its previous dysfunctional status (Andrew Martin, 2007). Ultimately, the company is measured by its stock value, which saw great increases through the rest of 2005 (see graph 1 in Appendix). In general, the current culture of Coca Cola Company is very effective. Based on the theory of organizational culture and effectiveness, a practical organizational culture has four fundamental traits: involvement, consistency, adaptability, and mission (Denision and Mishra, 1995).Two of these traits, involvement and consistency, are indicators of openness, flexibility and responsiveness, and are strong predictors of growth. After the changes in 2004, Coca Cola Company favors increasing face-to-face interaction, providing more constructive feedbacks and generating an ideas sharing atmosphere. All of those improvements and changes allow Coca Cola getting open and flexible. Additionally, due to organization focuses more on the opinions and thoughts from lower level of employees, and grants them power to make their own choices under certain level.The communication and awareness in Coca Cola increase from 65% to 76% (Di anne, 2008). Openness and flexibility contribute significantly to the vision of driving long-term sustainable growth by accelerating innovation and employee’s engagement and satisfaction. The other two traits, consistency and mission, are not only indicators of integration, direction and vision, but also are better predictors of profitability (Denision and Mishra, 1995). The culture of Coca Cola is guided by its enduring mission, which is to be the largest beverage company in the world since it was founded in 1886.This clear objective directs both employers and employees to create values and make differences for organization. Besides, the vision of Coca Cola, which is people, portfolio, profit, partners, planet, profit and productivity, declares that the employees need to achieve sustainable growth and great profits. Overall, the culture in Coca Cola Company properly reflects four traits, and fosters the effectiveness in the whole organization. What is more, both before and a fter the change, the company has been emphasized the aggressiveness on sales for a long time.It is easy to arouse some immoral competitions between the companies and the employees. But after the implementation of the â€Å"manifesto for change† policy (Gordon, 2008), which is aimed to improve environment responsibilities, self-discipline at corporate level and social responsibilities. Therefore, the ethic of the organization has been improved significantly, which makes the Coca Cola Company a better and more stable workplace. However, there are two shortcomings in the current culture. First, the Coca Cola Company has hesitated to reinvest and take risks.In 2005, the Coca Cola Company introduced 2 new products, the Coke Zero and the Diet Coke. Luckily, the Diet Coke took the Pepsi cola’s place and became the No. 2 soda in the US. Unfortunately, the company only improved its product based on its original products. Although Coca Cola has raised the new missions of carryin g out health and fitness, due to its resistance to change and one step slower than Pepsi, it has merely no effect. This is exactly the liability of strong culture—resistance to change. Considering the long run sustainable growth, the company should encourage innovation and all employees’ participation.At first, reduce barriers of information flows within the organization. Managers must make sure that people can access resources whenever they need. Secondly, reward employees for practical ideas. Management should not only provide premium to creativity ideas, but try to find out and stratify employees’ internal needs. Thirdly, participation can always help to overcome resistance to innovation. When employees actually involve into the organization, they would realize some flaws of existing products. And this will stimulate them to get fascinating thoughts and ideas.Lastly, it is necessary to get supports and encouragements from managers. Moreover, company can intro duce new members to speed up the change because new blood can always bring fresh visions into organization. Second, currently, the Coca Cola Company is outcome orientation and aggressive on sales. In order to match with its new culture, the company should better move towards the strong establishment of basic values and assumption. Therefore, the company can turn to other direction and explode a new dimension of culture for a better fit.First of all, pay more attention to the customers and employees by fulfilling the healthy ideas and assumptions penetrated to them level by level and gradually, they can harbor those views to establish a norm which is to chase a healthy lifestyle. Secondly, since the brand has already been highly recognizable, what the company needs to do next is to animate the brand. By taking actions of inventing some rituals and create more stories, it can also set up some employee orientations to share the work experiences and internalize the organization basic as sumptions.Moreover, the company needs to bring in more new members in order to better change the aggressive culture to a friendlier one. In conclusion, it is always difficult for companies to change their business culture, especially for Coca Cola, a large and stable organization with a hundred years of history. In order to keep growing and thriving, Coca Cola should try to look ahead and make internal changes to adapt to the outer environment. In fact, whether introducing new cultures or changing the current culture, managers should first let these values or beliefs infiltrate the organizational members’ minds.Only when these values and beliefs are commonly accepted by the organizational members, can they form a new culture. However, people’s values are hard to change. By increasing communication with employees, rewarding desirable behaviors, encouraging participation and offering necessary support, Coca Cola’s managers can avoid unnecessary losses. Moreover, p roper structure design can benefit large multinational corporations like Coca Cola by allocating resources and assigning personnel more efficiently and effectively.Decentralization of the organization’s structure offers more flexibility to Coca Cola’s local subsidiaries in different regions and can also reduce conflicts between departments. A hybrid structure requires Coca Cola to develop more understanding of customers’ needs, which is the most important force to push the organization forward. Overall, the analysis mentioned above illustrates that a strong business culture should always remain responsive to change, and a well-designed corporate structure is important for the organizational effectiveness. Reference Bogomolny, L. (2004). â€Å"Thirst for change. Canadian Business, Vol. 77 Culhane, D. (2008, February). Blog logs a culture change: Coca-Cola's short-term Blog Blast takes the pulse of employees on key company values. Communication world. Retrieved f rom http://www. entrepreneur. com/tradejournals/article/173021690. html Denison, R. D. , ; Mishra, K. A. (1995). Toward a Theory of Organizational Culture Effectiveness. DOI: 10. 1287/orsc. 6. 2. 204 Fox, A. (2007, November). Refreshing a beverage company’s culture. HR Magazine, Vol. 52, No. 11. Retrieved from http://www. shrm. org/Publications/hrmagazine/PastIssues/2007/Pages/200711. spx Foust, D. (2006, August 7). Queen of pop. BusinessWeek, Retrieved from http://www. businessweek. com/magazine/content/06_32/b3996401. htm Gordon, D. (2010). Manifesto For Change. Retrieved from http://www. scribd. com/doc/24111308/Manifesto-for-Change Macarthur, K. (2004, May 10). Hiring of Isdell is classic Coca-Cola. Advertising Age. 75, 3-68. Martin, A. (May 27, 2007). Coke Struggles to Keep Up With Nimble Rivals. Retrieved from http://www. nytimes. com/2007/05/27/business/yourmoney/27coke. html? pagewanted=1;sq;st=nyt;scp=87 Martin, B. Wilcox, S. ; Harris, R. 2000). Committee on Manageme nt and Productivity. Transportation Research Board, NW: Washington, DC. McKay, B. , ; Terhune, C. (2004). Bottled up — behind Coke's CEO travails: A long struggle over strategy; although profits are strong, rivals are gaining cachet; all-star board calls shots; search for a red bull fighter. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), A1. Radic. D. (2004). An Enterprise Odyssey. International Conference Proceedings. p. I. 27. Solar site index. (2007). Retrieved from http://www. solarnavigator. net/sponsorship/coca_cola_chairman_neville_isdell. tm The Coca Cola Company. (2011). Retrieved from http://www. 123HelpMe. com/view. asp? id=148943. The Coca Cola Company. (2010). Retrieved from: http://www. thecoca-colacompany. com/careers/unique_culture. html http://www. thecoca-colacompany. com/ourcompany/mission_vision_values. html The Coca Cola Company. (2010). Forward Looking Statements. Retrieved from http://www. thecoca-colacompany. com/investors/pdfs/10-K_2010/03_Coca-Cola_Item1. pd f Appendix Chart 1 Quarterly Stock Price Chart (2001-2010) Retrieved from http://www. thecoca-colacompany. com/

Shopping Behaviour: Bangladesh

2006 EABR & ETLC Siena, Italy Determinants Of Grocery Store Loyalty Of Consumers In Bangladesh Plato Ranjan Datta, London College of Management Studies, United Kingdom Bonya Rani Chakraborty, London College of Management Studies, United Kingdom Abstract Due to the belief that customer retention is a much cost-effective strategy than attracting new customers, the customer loyalty subject has become of increased interest to most businesses over the last few years. Loyal customers always bring more profit for the organisation as they are more likely to recommend their friends and family, ready to pay premium prices and have increased repurchase intention. This study sets out to examine the degree of consumer’s loyalty in Bangladesh among consumers who shop from various superstores. The main objective is to empirically investigate the strength of loyalty of Bangladeshi food consumers on the basis of their shopping behaviour and store-level service provision, and thus provide evidence which demonstrates a model of consumer loyalty based on these factors. In order to understand consumer loyalty in Bangladesh Oliver’s four stage of loyalty model were adopted. A total sample of 150 food shopping consumers from three leading stores in Bangladesh were selected randomly and interviewed in March by trained interviewers. The survey results indicate that Bangladeshi food consumers are conscious of the cost and benefit (Cognitive loyalty), are conscious with satisfaction (Affective loyalty), satisfied consumers are likely to recommend their primary super store to their family and friends (Co-native Loyalty) and also they have frequencies of visit (Action Loyalty). The findings of research can be used to offer a sound basis for retailers to improve their operations in all the areas, so increasing their profits and to provide the first such survey in this particular (and extremely important) field in the Bangladeshi context and thus offer a foundation and direction for future research. INTRODUCTION The retail industry is dynamic, huge and change is a constant phenomenon. Over the last few decades in both Europe and North America one as seen the emergence of supermarkets as the dominant retail form. This is due to the fact that consumers’ behaviour has changed and shifted towards convenience, high quality produce, provision for customer care, flexible payment methods and sophisticated channels of distribution. To cope with consumer demands retailers are constantly shaping their business strategies and striving to offer the right products and services. Determinants of store choice, customer loyalty and patronage behaviour have been widely studied across the globe. Therefore, a sheer volume of literature exists regarding food retailing. However, there is still vast scope for research in this field as the environment of retailing is in a constant phase of change and the emergence of new store formats in USA and Europe have led to dramatic changes in consumer behaviour. This is particularly true and has significant effect on middleclass consumers in Bangladesh with the newly introduced ‘so-called’ supermarkets which are providing a completely new experience for those consumers offering sophisticated customer service, a wide and assorted variety of goods, pleasant ambience, spacious layout, quality imported and branded products and provision for other western life style facilities. Although there is some research on retailing in other Asian counterparts, there has been very little research in Bangladesh. The retailing industry in Bangladesh is very fragmented and underdeveloped. The so called European 1 2006 EABR & ETLC Siena, Italy style new superstore format has emerged in this sector only in the last few years so this sector of retailing is in an early phase. Therefore, it is of paramount importance for retailers in Bangladesh to know the attributes that appeal to their customers in order to satisfy them. Thus, this study sets out to examine the degree of consumer’s loyalty in Bangladesh among consumers. RETAILING IN BANGLADESH Bangladesh is predominantly a traditional, poor society, where about 90% of the population is Muslim; other groups represented are Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, and other minorities. Per-capita income is about US$ 380 (Gain Report, 2004). The population has grown from 42 million in 1941 to133 million in 2002 (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2003) making it the 9th most populous country in the world (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Dec. 2002). Retailing industry in Bangladesh is fragmented and undeveloped. Even compared to its South Asian counterparts, Bangladesh is behind in terms of development, structure and organisation. However, the last several years has witnessed dramatic changes, especially in food retailing industry. This is due to the effects of globalisation, economic and trade liberalisation, changing patterns of consumers’ shopping behaviour, substantial increase of middle class consumers and the government’s liberal attitude towards foreign imported food products and growth of organised superstores. Bangladeshi food retail sector is dominated by traditional shops, and this traditional food distribution system is through so called `wet markets` which sell fruits, vegetables, meat and fish together with small food stores which sell dry foods. The traditional retailing has been established for some centuries. But its expansion is keeping pace with rapid growth of economy, intense competition, population growth and changing consumption patterns. All these changes led to dramatic changes in the structure of the food retailing sector. Thus modern superstores, supermarkets, convenient stores, one stop stores and multi-store complexes developed to service the growing middle class with their demand for more sophisticated food stores and greater varieties of products, many of which were imported, especially in major cities. Thus organised retail sectors are facing competition from traditional unorganised huge retail outlets. This is due to their distinctive characteristics which are not quality related but rather price related. Most of the traditional shops are unorganised, do not have proper employee structure (normally â€Å"mom and popâ€Å" shops run by family members), have negligible real estate, no external or underpaid labour costs and no or little taxes to pay. Consumer’s familiarities run from generation to generation and thus they have a strong relationship with most of the customers who are normally local. Therefore customers may have the opportunity to buy any products on credit and pay every month or every week. Thus prices are always less, although quality is not guaranteed and no or few imported products are available. This is again due to the socio-economic group of the middle and lower class which is more sensitive to price rather than quality. On the other hand the organised retail sector is incurring higher costs due to various cost pressures. A substantial proportion of their products are imported and good quality, they employ high calibre employees with consequently high labour costs, have bigger premises and so offer more comfort and value for the customer. However, this growth and expansion was not structurally organised due to lack of attention from government and public. The retail industry in Bangladesh was never before perceived positively as a sector until recently. Therefore there is no or very limited market data available on this sector, but various secondary sources indicate that the turnover of the food retail sector in Bangladesh could be US $ 12-14 billion and the number of retail grocery shops could be around 1 million (Gain Report, 2004). According to the same report, Retail is one of the biggest sources of employment (12%) and it contributed 13% to Bangladesh’s GDP in 2001 / 2002. The organised retail sector (i. e. arge supermarkets) is new in Bangladesh and started to appear less than 5 years ago. Within this short time period it has attracted investors, developed positive perceptions among the public and created government attention. Now it is growing dramatically. The share in terms of volume and value in the organised retail sector of Bangladesh is 49. 60% and 18. 5% in 2003 (post market survey, 2003). To date there are 2 2006 EABR & ETLC Siena, Italy about 30 stores of this kind operating in the country, the majority of which are located in Dhaka and this sector makes up 1% of the total retail sector in Bangladesh. Ownership of all major superstores is private and limited, owned by local retailers except one which is a joint venture and another in Australian ownership. However, the concept of international retailing is at a very early stage in Bangladesh. According to Alexander (1997) â€Å"international retailing is commonly assumed to concern retail operations, owned by a single company in more than one countryâ€Å". There is no evidence of the physical presence of international large retailers in Bangladesh except one or two of medium size. Traditional shops like small roadside shops accounted for 75% of the retail sector and these shops are visible throughout the country (Gain Report, 2004). They are very small and no foreign or imported products are available except in some shops located in urban or suburban areas where consumers can buy relatively high quality products from neighbouring countries (i. e. India and Burma). These products are imported through mainly unauthorised channels. As these types of small shops are mainly family owned and run, they do not incur huge costs and also are not high quality. Shop sizes are normally 30-100 sq. feet. They open for long hours and consumers can bargain with the sellers in order to lower the price. Other types are typified as Municipal Corporation Mini-Market and mainly found in semi-urban or urban areas and these are under Municipal Corporation ownership. Shops are generally arranged by product or service categories such as fish market, meat market, vegetable market, groceries etc. This category represents 20% of the retail market (Gain Report, 2004). Most of the shops sell imported and quality products although their appeal is limited to only the middle-class or high class consumer market due to the cost factor. Products are acquired by wholesalers and importers. The third category of shops is convenience or departmental stores. These stores are relatively large and offer good quality domestic and imported products. Normally visible in urban areas they represent 5% of the retail sector (Gain report, 2004). Due to their quality and brand name these stores are always expensive and a large proportion of the population cannot afford their products. They are therefore strictly limited to upper-middle or upper class Bangladeshis and foreigners residing in major cities, especially Dhaka. Their products are acquired from importers and distributors with adequate storage facilities and sometimes topped-up by local suppliers. Finally, over the last few years another sophisticated retail format has appeared in the retail sector in Bangladesh; these are organised, developed and more structured which are supermarkets or the organised retail sector which at the moment represent less than 1% (Gain report, 2004). This sector is very young and is in its early stage of development, mainly visible in major cities (i. e. Dhaka, Chittogong). These are large retailers and sell very high quality products, mainly imported goods. Less than 5% of total food consumption comes from this outlet. There are at the moment around 30 superstores and most of them have only 1 outlet except AGORA and PQS with 2 outlets. GROCERY STORE LOYALTY: A LITERATURE REVIEW In today’s competitive environment to compete with competitors and sustain in business all organisations are investing resources to create loyal customers by offering superior products, superior services to increase customers repurchase intentions, their commitment towards the organisations and satisfy customers needs and wants. A satisfied customer has positive post-purchase behaviour which leads to him/her positive attitude and commitment towards the organisation. A committed customer is always remaining with the company for longer term. An unsatisfied, non-committed customer defect from the company. This is more paramount case in retailing scenario where organisations are making paper thin profit. As Huddleston et al (2003) pointed out that â€Å"to survive in today’s competitive markets food retailers must create and maintain a loyal customer base. Omar (1999) has emphasised that store loyalty is the single most important factor in retail marketing success and store longevity. A review of literature by Jacoby & Chestnut (1978) indicates that much of the initial research emphasizes the behavioural aspect of loyalty, after a period when the majority of researchers measured loyalty as a pattern of repeat purchasing (Oliver, 1997). However, Cunningham (1956) in early stage of behavioural aspect of loyalty stated that store loyalty concept derived from brand loyalty with respect to tangible 3 006 EABR & ETLC Siena, Italy goods. Current loyalty literature indicates that there are two dimension of store loyalty: Attitudinal and behavioural dimension. Behavioural dimension is measured by proportion of purchase of a specific brand, while attitudinal loyalty dimension is measured by psychological commitment to the target object (Caruana, 2002). There are various advantages for retailers to have loyal customers. As stated by Huddleston et al (2003) customers loyalty can yield favourable operating cost advantage for retailers. Further they have stressed that obtaining new customer costs five to six times as much as retaining current customers. Loyal customer can increase their purchase spending, low costs for retailers for obtaining new customers, price premiums and customer longevity. Dick and Basu (1994) proposed that brand plays a special role in generating repeat purchase. Food Business News defined customer loyalty more concisely as `creating the strongest possible relationship between the retailer and customer, so that people feel they will miss something if they go to another store. However, Sivadas and Baker-Prwewitt defined loyalty as â€Å"to get customers to recommend a store to othersâ€Å". Odekerken-Schroder et el (2001) defined store loyalty as â€Å" the conscious buying behaviour of a consumer expressed over time with respect to one store out of a set of stores and which is driven by commitment to this store. Huddleston et el (2003) have conducted a study in mid-western US city with six focus group in order to define store loyalty by respondents and also they have investigated respondents likes and dislikes of a preferred food store. Respondent’s likes and dislikes relate to identify factors associated with repeat and loyal purchase behaviour. The conceptual framework of this study was based on Dick and Basu (1994) which conceptualises loyalty as the relationship between relative attitude towards a brand and patronage behaviour. The study identified preferred convenience attributes such as store location, familiarity with store layout, one-stop shopping and being able to get in and out in a hurry. Product related attributes are: product variety, good store brand, fresh produce and meats, making bulk item available and carrying general merchandise. The study also identified environmental attributes such as cleanliness, aisle width, layout and friendly clientele. Noise from announcements and music, small or narrow aisles, too hot or too cold temperatures, bad odours from bottle returns, big size of store, too busy and crowded and layout changes been selected by respondents as negative attributes. Huddleston et al (2003) pointed out that store commitment as a necessary condition for a store loyalty. Without commitment customers are spuriously loyal. Another study conducted by Koo (2003) among Korea Discount retail patrons to examine the interrelationships among store Images, Satisfaction and Store loyalty. How store images can influence consumers satisfaction and how consumers satisfaction can influence store loyalty. The conceptual model developed by Koo (2003) indicates that various discount retail characteristics have positive influences on attitude towards a discount retail store which leads to store satisfaction and this leads to store loyalty. Also it stresses that Discount retail store (DRS) attributes have a positive impact on store satisfaction. Thus create store loyalty. He developed six hypothesis based on his conceptual model. The research identified four store images such as Store atmosphere, employee service, merchandising and after sales service have significant impact on attitude, while location, convenient facilities and value have no impact on attitude. The research findings support Bloemer & Ruyter (1998), but it is contradictory to You et al (1998) who in their study showed that only location has a significant effect on attitude. Findings also partially support that store images (i. e. tore atmosphere and value) have a positive impact on store satisfaction, while location, convenient, after sales service and merchandising have not significant impact on store satisfaction. This support Bloemer & Ruyeter (1998), Kumar & Karande (2000), Thang & Tan (2003). Study further have identified Location, after sales service and merchandising have significant impact on store loyalty which contradict Bloemer & Ruyeter (1998) wh o identified that there is no direct relationship between store image and store loyalty, but an indirect impact on store loyalty through satisfaction. Koo 92003) concluded that the overall attitude towards discount retail has the greatest impact on store loyalty, followed by location, after sales service and merchandising. In Korean discount retail store environment his study indicates that store image and location are important factors in attracting patrons to the store. Furthermore, it indicates that satisfaction has an insignificant positive effect on store loyalty. 4 2006 EABR & ETLC Siena, Italy Jacoby and Chestnut (1978) defined store loyalty as â€Å"the biased (I. e. non random) behavioural response (I. . revisit) expressed overtime, by some decision making unit with respect to one store out of a set of store, which is a function of psychological (decision making and evaluation) processes resulting in brand commitment. However critical part of store loyalty is seen by Bloemer et al (1998) is store commitment which is a necessary condition for store loyalty to occur. They further stresses that a loyal customer is committed and that commitment arises from sharing explicit and extensive decision making as well as evaluative processes. Limited and non explicit decision making and evaluation process can leads to consumers not become committed to the store. Therefore they are not loyal. Based on store commitment they have defined a degree of store loyalty as true store loyalty and spurious store loyalty. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION TO CUSTOMER LOYALTY Customer satisfaction can be defined in many ways, one of which is â€Å" a person’s feeling of pleasure or disappointment from comparing a product’s perceived performance (or outcome) in relation to his or her expectations (Kotler, 2000). Bloemer et al (1998) also support this definition which states that satisfaction is occur through a matching pf expectation and perceived performance. Bloemer et al (1998) have identified two different types of satisfaction: manifest and latent satisfaction. Manifest satisfaction is the result of an evaluation which is well elaborated on where as latent satisfaction is the result of an implicit evaluation which is not elaborated on (Bloemer et al, 1998). Customer satisfaction positively influences customer retention, and increasing repeat sales (Anderson, Claes & Lehman, 1958). Moreover, `satisfaction level is a function of the difference between perceived performance and expectations` (Kotler, 1994). If the performance falls short of expectations the customer is dissatisfied. If the performance is exceeds expectations, the customer is highly satisfied. `High satisfaction may create an emotional affinity with the brand, not just a rational preference and this creates high brand loyalty (Kotler, 1994). Even if the customer is not highly satisfied, still from behavioural aspect of brand loyalty, the customer can be brand loyal. This can occur if no other alternative is available or may be alternatives are of a higher price which the consumers can not afford or if the customer’s purchase power is limited. Bloemer et al (1998) were conducted an empirical study in major Swiss city in the German-speaking part of Switzerland to establish relationship between Image, satisfaction and loyalty by developing three hypothesis. Hypothesis 1 examine whether positive relationship between manifest satisfaction and store loyalty is stronger than the positive relationship between latent satisfaction and store loyalty. Hypothesis 2: store image has a direct positive effect on store loyalty and hypothesis 3 examines the indirect positive effect of store image on store loyalty through store satisfaction. Their findings indicated that the relationship between store satisfaction and store loyalty depend on the type of satisfaction and tested all three hypotheses positively. However, the study conducted by Huddleston et al (2003) indicates that satisfaction does not imply commitment to a store either; many respondents stated that they could be persuaded to shop elsewhere. However, Heskett (2002) suggests that customer satisfaction is the lowest level from the five levelhierarchies of customer behaviours. Others customer behaviours are: mere loyalty (repeat purchase), commitment (willingness to refer others to a product or service), apostle-like behaviour (willingness to convince others to use a product or service) and ownership. Nevertheless, Sivdas and Baker-Prewitt (2000) pointed out that satisfaction influences relative attitude, repurchase and recommendation but has no direct effect on store loyalty. According to Sivdas and Baker-Prewitt (2000), service quality directly affects both relative attitude and satisfaction and that satisfaction affects relative attitude. Both relative attitude and satisfaction influence the likelihood of recommending but only satisfaction plays a part in influencing repurchase. Study further indicates that there is no direct relationship between relative attitude and repurchase and both relative attitude and satisfaction have no direct impact on royalty. Thus, it appears that relative attitude and satisfaction which is influenced by service quality can influence customer recommendation which leads to both customers repurchase and loyalty. Sivadas and baker-Prewitt (2000) study support Oliver’s model of loyalty in a store loyalty context. 5 2006 EABR & ETLC STORE IMAGE AND CUSTOMER LOYALTY Siena, Italy Existing literature indicates that store images have critical impact on store loyalty (Bloemer & Ruyter, 1998). Theoretical foundations of store images are found in theories of brand images (Koo, 2003). Store image or store attributes have significant influence on satisfaction. Store image is defined as the complex of a consumer’s perceptions of a store on different (salient) attributes (Bloemer and Ruyter, 1998), or a given consumer’s or target market’s perception of all of the attributes associated with a retail outlet to create and maintain a level of storeservice provision or quality for the store loyalty (Keaveny and Hunt, 1992; Lascu and Giese, 1995). The competition and increasing customer expectations have created a climate where â€Å"quality is concerned to be a major strategic variable for improving customer satisfaction (Smith, 1990). Lucas, Bush and Gresham (1994) said that decision to visit a particular store can be influenced by many factors, understanding such factors and building them into store operations can increase the profitability of gaining customer loyalty. They had identified the nine basic motives for the store selection includes: general store characteristics, physical characteristics of the store, convenience, merchandise, prices, store personnel, in-store effects, customer service and advertising. They had also identified the five motives for patronising ervices which include: quality of service provided, appointments, reasonable fees, waiting areas, attitude of service provider. Early studies of store images are closely related to the multiattribute model. Lindquist (1974) defines store images as a â€Å"structure of some sort that is tying together the dimensions that are at workâ€Å" and conceptualises store images as nine key attribute categories: merchandise, service, clientele, physical facilities, transaction satisfaction, promotion, store ambience, institutional factors and post transaction satisfaction. By combining retail marketing mix elements Ghosh (1990) identified eight elements of store image. These are location, merchandise, store atmosphere, customer service, price, advertising, personal selling and sales incentives programs. Customers may have different perception for different stores and different store may apply different attributes to attract different types of customers in different times and in different locations. Store images may differ between smaller and larger stores. A study conducted by Mitchell and Kiral (1998) found that there are differences between primary store loyal customers perception of their store and secondary store loyal customer perception of that store. This view is support to Hansen and Deutscher (1978) proposition that store attributes vary by store types. Mitchell and Kiral (1998) in their study they have asked 30 shoppers to identify which store attributes they use in Manchester at two grocery stores (e. g. Tesco and Kwick-save). They have identified three factors associated with customer perception and these are: Quality, Time and convenience, value. Tesco customer perceived quality, convenience and value factors in that order of importance while kwick-save customer perceived quality, value and convenience when considering Tesco. Theoretical base for modelling the grocery store loyalty After behavioural perspective on loyalty majority researchers measured loyalty as a pattern of repeat purchasing. The most relevant of the models for measurement the grocery store loyalty is Oliver’s four-stage loyalty model (Oliver, 1997). Oliver’s four-stag loyalty model produced in 1997 in a simplified form and suggests that customer loyalty progresses in four phases, with each phase representing a greater degree of loyalty. Four stages are: cognitive loyalty, affective loyalty, conative loyalty and action loyalty. Figure: The Oliver’s four stages of loyalty model COGNITIVE Cost and benefits AFFECTIVE CONATIVE ACTION *Frequency of shopping Relative attitude *Recommendation *satisfaction *Repurchase intentions Cognitive Loyalty: At this stage consumers are more concerned about quality and prices of the products and services and this is why they patronise the store rather than other stores. However, at this stage loyalty may not be that strong because consumers can defect from that store and move to another store if they perceive it as a better 6 2006 EABR & ETLC Siena, Ita ly option. So, service quality evaluation can be taken as a good indicator of their cognitive loyalty. To understand Bangladeshi consumers’ cognitive loyalty three questions were selected to measure this category of loyalty. Affective Loyalty: At this stage consumers’ loyalty is based on relative attitude towards the store and satisfaction gained. The relative attitude is the result of their previous loyalty based on cognitive loyalty. Therefore relative attitude and satisfaction were used as independent variables to measures consumers’ affective loyalty towards the store. There are 26 question in nine categories selected to measure affective loyalty. Categories are: convenience of store location, convenience of service provisions, congestion, cleanliness and store atmosphere, variety of ranges, shopping difficulties, travel difficulties, unfamiliarity and degree of customer service from sales personnel. Co-native Loyalty: Having a relative attitude towards the store and being satisfied with the store a consumer will hold a commitment to buy there, so repurchase intentions will be increased and consumers are willing to recommend to others. Two questions were selected to measure a consumer’s co-native loyalty towards the store. Action loyalty: This is the final stage of a consumer’s loyalty. With this loyalty a consumer will be retained with the store thus leading to frequency of shopping there. Therefore, one simple question was asked to consumer to measure this loyalty. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The research was based on selecting three (3) leading grocery retailers from Bangladesh. Stores were selected based on market share and length of operation. In order to understand consumer loyalty in Bangladesh Oliver’s four stage of loyalty model (Cognitive loyalty: consumers consciousness with cost and benefits; Affective loyalty: Consumer conscious with satisfaction; Co-native loyalty: consumers recommendation to other people and repurchase behaviour and Action loyalty: consumers’ frequencies of store visits) were adopted. Data were colleted using a random sample of consumers. The data and information were collected from selected grocery stores in Bangladesh. Consumers who have significant knowledge of the topic were identified and selected at random for questioning. Interviews were conducted face to face on exit from three selected superstores to capture the attitude and experience of consumers who had just purchased grocery items. The choice of face to face interview was in order to get high response rate and reduce the response bias. A low response rate is a common problem with self-completion questionnaires and can be subject to response bias, especially in that people with reading and writing difficulties are less likely to respond (Robson, 2002). Furthermore, the refusal rate for face to face interviews is very lower than the non-response rate for postal questionnaires. A sample of 50 consumers in each store (3*50) making a total of 150 food shopping consumers from the three (3) selected stores in Bangladesh were selected. However, 10 subjects were not included due to incomplete answers. It is logical that the larger the size of the sample, the greater is the precision or reliability when research is replicated (Saunders et al, 1997). But constraints on time, manpower and costs influenced decisions on sample size in this study. The sample size was found to be representative for the store population. A study conducted by Bloemer and Ruyter (1998) in a major Swiss city in the German-speaking part of Switzerland used only 153. The current market leaders in grocery retailing in Bangladesh include-Agora, Nandan, and Value Plus were selected as samples for investigation. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Data were collected in early March 2005 by trained interviewers throughout the week. In order to reduce possible shopping patterns biases all interviewers used stratifying interviews across the time of the day (morning, early afternoon, and late afternoon) (Odekerken-Schroder et al, 2001) and weekend (Thursday and Friday). As a Muslim populated country Friday is the official holiday and Thursday normally half-day off. But special consideration were placed on weekend and evening when most of the people are going for shopping and this time always busy. All interviews were last for maximum of 12 minutes. 7 2006 EABR & ETLC Siena, Italy After collecting data from the field data were coded and analysed by using SPSS version 11 software programmes. Quantitative analysis was used to understand the degree of store loyalty. RESULTS The main findings were: Cognitive Loyalty Cognitive loyalty factors are associated with cost and benefits and three statements were asked to consumers concerning cost and benefits. The mean average of consumers was 3. 94 and SD was 0. 929. These refer to the grocery consumers in Bangladesh conscious with cost and benefit when they were shopping (on a scale rating from one to five). In this category, the first question was ‘If a store provides a better price, I am going to buy from the store’, the mean averages and SD of the consumers replies was 3. 77 and 0. 876. The second question was `If any store provides better quality, I am going to buy from that store`. The mean average and SD was 3. 92 and . 953. The third question to understand the degree of consciousness towards cost and benefits was `I am always concerned about price and quality`, the mean and SD for this was: 4. 13 and 0. 958. Table: Cognitive loyalty Cognitive loyalty factors If a store provides a better price, I am going to buy If any store provides better quality, I am going to buy I am always concerned about price and quality Total Mean 3. 77 3. 92 4. 13 3. 94 Std. Deviation . 876 . 953 . 958 0. 929 Affective loyalty The mean average was 3. 98 and SD was 0. 892 . These results indicate that consumers in Bangladesh conscious with satisfaction when they did shopping. In this category total 25 statements were asked to consumers with nine specific factors. These factors were: convenience of store location, convenience of service provisions, congestion, cleanness and store atmosphere, variety of ranges, shopping difficulty, travel difficulty, unfamiliarity and customer service by sales personnel. These factors were chosen to understand consumer’s relative attitudes the store and satisfaction 8 2006 EABR & ETLC Table: Affective loyalty Affective loyalty factors Parking facilities Convenient location Inside the store temperature Good place for shopping with children Credit card payment Opening and closing times Visually appealing interior Good customer service Duration of checking out time Convenient to move around Atmosphere of the store is good Cleanliness of the store Pleasantness of the place Variety of items Variety of branded items Quality & variety of imported products Overcrowded in the store Long waiting time at the checkout Transportation is inconvenient Much time & effort for parking a car I am familiar with store layout Familiar with the store since I used to shop here Has presentable sales personnel Has sales personnel who show a sincere interest Has sales personnel who are willing to help Total Mean 3. 89 4. 06 4. 21 3. 86 3. 66 3. 86 4. 02 4. 46 3. 46 3. 89 4. 46 4. 60 4. 59 4. 51 4. 49 4. 37 3. 12 3. 8 3. 21 3. 29 3. 32 3. 49 4. 37 4. 37 4. 37 3. 98 Std. Deviation . 874 1. 09 8 . 747 . 878 . 845 . 878 . 809 . 723 . 932 . 972 . 661 . 644 . 710 . 735 . 791 . 924 1. 042 . 916 . 956 . 834 . 984 1. 083 . 733 . 743 . 752 0. 892 Siena, Italy Co-native loyalty Two questions were selected to measure consumers’ co-native loyalty towards the store. At this stage consumers must have a positive attitude and commitment towards the store and thus create repurchase intention. Based on customer’s satisfaction they tend to recommend their friends and relatives. Findings indicate that satisfied consumers are likely to recommend their friends and repurchase. The first question was `how likely would you be to recommend`, where the mean average and SD were: 4. 35 and 0. 709. The second question was `how likely would you be to purchase at this store`, giving a mean average and SD of: 4. 17 and . 831 respectively. Table: Co-native loyalty Co native Loyalty factors How likely would you be to recommend How likely would you be to purchase at this store Total Mean 4. 35 4. 17 4. 26 Std. Deviation . 709 . 831 . 776 Action loyalty This is the final criteria of Oliver’s loyalty model which indicates that having fulfilled all previous stages at this stage consumers tend to retain their connection with the store so leading to continued frequencies of shopping. Only one simple question was asked to measure consumers retention and that was `how often do you purchase at this store`. The mean average and SD were 3. 47 and 1. 305 9 2006 EABR & ETLC Table: Action loyalty Action Loyalty factor How often do you purchase at this store Total Mean 3. 47 Std. Deviation 1. 305 Siena, Italy DISCUSSIONS The survey results indicate that Bangladeshi food consumers are conscious of the cost and benefit (Cognitive loyalty), are conscious with satisfaction (Affective loyalty), satisfied consumers are likely to recommend their primary super store to their family and friends (Co-native Loyalty) and also they have frequencies of visit (Action Loyalty). Table: Level of food consumer loyalty in Bangladesh Stages of loyalty Cognitive Affective Co-native Action Store loyalty Conscious with cost and benefits Conscious with satisfaction Likely to recommend to their family and friends Have frequencies of visit Consumers respond differently in every country (Child, Heywood and Kliger, 2002), as international retailing has become an important feature of global distribution systems. This has been brought about through changing socio economic patterns, favourable political and cultural environments and a shift from manufacturing to service based economies (Quinn and Alexander, 2002). Although in Bangladesh the retailing environment is totally different from its counterparts the results indicate that Oliver’s four stages of consumer store loyalty model is still applicable. Consumers’ loyalty can be measured through cognitive, affective, co-native and action behavioural patterns. From the findings it is clear that consumers are very conscious with cost and benefits (cognitive loyalty). This is the basis to create a favourable attitude towards the store and through the process of providing store and service attributes consumers will be satisfied, thus indicating that consumers are conscious with satisfaction (affective loyalty). A satisfied consumer will tend to recommend to their friends and family the product and service they tend to buy from (Co-native loyalty) and at the same time their repurchase intention tends to increase (Action loyalty). CONCLUSIONS Store loyalty is a very important phenomenon for retailers to understand the underlying principles and antecedents in order to retain and acquire more customers. Loyal customers spend more money and at the same time recommend the store to their family and friends, thus bringing more customers and profit for the retailers. It is of paramount important for managers to identify the specific characteristics which can influence consumers to shop from their store. As characteristics of retailing environments are changing, along with consumer’s behaviour, patterns of choice and mode of shopping, retailers must respond quickly to those changes in order to sustain and achieve competitive advantage. The study looked at the degree of store loyalty by applying Oliver’s four stages of store loyalty model. The implications for management and retailers are that they must look closely at the kind of price and quality they are offering, as customers are more conscious with cost and benefits. Although this cognitive stage of consumers’ loyalty will not create a strong association with their commitment or favourable attitude, it does have positive impact on their next stage of loyalty behaviour which is the affective stage. To create a favourable attitude amongst consumers’ towards the store retailers must use specific service or product attributes. The research indicates that convenient location, good customer service, atmosphere of the store, 10 2006 EABR & ETLC Siena, Italy cleanliness, quality and variety of imported products and good sales personnel are the major attributes to satisfy customers. Thus, to create consumers relative attitude and satisfaction which leads to co-native loyalty of consumers, where consumers tend to recommend to their family and friend and increase repurchase intention. If these three previous stages can be implemented appropriately, consumer’s frequency of shopping will increase. Organised retailing in Bangladesh is in the introductory phase of development. Competition is virtually non-existent. However, growing health awareness is making consumers more quality conscious and imported food items are considered good quality, also a growing number of middle class consumers, due to their high income capacity can afford to purchase good quality imported products. Therefore, our results thus provide strategic justification for major retailers for continued investment in store image and targeting specific consumer groups with the right demographic variables. REFERENCES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Alexander N (1997), International Retailing, London: Blackwell Anderson, E. W. , Fornell, C. , and Lehmann, D. R (1994), â€Å"Customer satisfaction, market Share and profitability: Findings from Sweedenâ€Å", Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58, July, pp. 53-66. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2002 Bangladesh Bureau of statistics, 2003 Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2003). Post market survey Bangladesh Retail food sector report (2004), USDA, Foreign Agriculture Service, Gain Report, Report number BG4001 Bloemer, J. nd Ruyter, K (1998), â€Å"On the Relationship between Store Image, Store Satisfaction and Store Loyaltyâ€Å", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 32, No. 5/6, pp. 499-513 Caruana, A. (2002), â€Å"Service Loyalty: The Effects of Service Quality and the Mediating Role of Customer Satisfactionâ€Å", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 36-37, No. 7, pp. 811-828 Child, P. N. , Heywood, S. , and Kliger, M. 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Answers - Essay Example Places which were previously cold have now diseases of warmer climates due to movement of carriers of such diseases into these new regions because of suitable weather conditions. Toxicity diseases with unusual symptoms will start to emerge mainly eco-toxic disease in Canada due to long term exposure to chemical such as DDT and PCB’s. Apart from that diversity in population will increase as immigrants will continue to move into Canada. Effect of this has both positive and negative impacts. There will be healthier immigrants shifting into new environments but at the same time there will be some who’ll bring diseases of their native environments hence requiring extra precautionary measures to be taken. By 2020 the population dominance of Canada will be belonging to seniors and children and the major rises will be felt in three major states of Canada hence increasing inter state competition for getting highest health budget allocated. Hence we can infer from this that disea ses related to old age will spike up requiring additional efforts for curing diseases. However the efforts being put in today for better health and curing illnesses will resolve occurrences of diseases related to certain type habits. ... Apart from the mentioned trends the authorities have to b e proactive and react to the predicted scenarios by taking strong steps. People all around Canada in schools, offices, on the streets should be made well aware of importance of staying fit and healthy. A prototype of a system should be created which shall integrate the medical records of people. The system of health care that we know today will be quite different in 2020 which will look into all factors including diversity, taking extra care of patients and use of new technology. Explain how health psychology can make a contribution to health promotion. Where appropriate, use eating behavior which leads to obesity as an example. Ans: Health is something which everyone desires and staying healthy throughout is a dream for everyone. Yet normally no one makes significant efforts on daily basis to live this dream. Health like other things you want comes with effort. There are many things in our daily routine which if we ignore can make significant improvement in our health and on the contrary there are things which will only take little time of our day but by doing that we can stay healthy. For knowing these things awareness is needed. Either people can be made aware directly or we can influx awareness in their minds which will subconsciously make them put in effort to stay healthy or avoid unhealthy habits . Health psychology can help us achieve this task. The purpose of Health Psychology is to create awareness among groups of population regarding health. By creating this awareness segments of population previously involved in bad health habits can take a positive step towards moving towards a healthier lifestyle which will help them have a better and secure life ahead free from

Super Heterodyne Receiver Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Super Heterodyne Receiver - Essay Example All modern television and radio receivers virtually use the principle of super heterodyne. The super heterodyne receiver reduces to the same intermediate frequency value. In order to accomplish this, it requires that the super heterodyne receiver be able to vary incessantly the frequency that is being mixed into the signal in order to keep the same difference (Jerry 1172). This paper will discuss Super Heterodyne Receiver and its various aspects. History The history of Super Heterodyne Receiver can be traced back to 1905 when Reginald Fessenden, a Canadian inventor, described proposed method to produce an audible signal from an Alexanderson transmitter. However, Edwin Armstrong, a United States Major, devised the principle of super heterodyne receiver in 1918 during the First World War in France. Armstrong invented this device as a way to overcome the deficiencies of early vacuum tube triodes that were being used as high-frequency amplifiers particularly in radio (Drentea 38). These amplifiers were used in equipment for radio direction finding and Armstrong realized that if these receivers could be operated at a much higher frequency, they would be better and more effective. At that time, however, there were no practical short wave amplifiers because of the existing limitations of triodes. Before Armstrong’s invention, it had been noticed that if regenerative receivers were allowed to move into oscillation, it would be possible for other nearby receivers to start picking up stations on frequencies that were different from those that were actually being transmitted on by stations. Several years later, Armstrong deduced that this was as a result of a supersonic heterodyne that was between oscillator frequency and the carrier frequency of the station (Jerry 1173). Therefore, Armstrong realized that that super heterodyne was a potential solution to the amplification problem of short wave. For example, he realized that to monitor 1500 kHz frequency could requ ire setting up an oscillator at 1560 kHz, therefore producing a heterodyne difference of 60 kHz; such a frequency could then be amplified more conveniently by the day’s triodes (Tsui 79). Eventually, Armstrong sold his patent for super heterodyne to Westinghouse, who in turn sold to RCA. RCA later monopolized the super heterodyne receivers market until 1930. Super heterodyne receivers gained more prominence in the 1930s with vacuum tube technology improvements. This situation could also be attributed to the rapid increase in the number of broadcasting stations that created demand for higher-performance and cheaper receivers. Introduction of tubes particularly designed for operation of super heterodyne receivers, notably the pentagrid converter, significantly reduced the advantage that preceding receiver designs had. Commercial production of super heterodyne receivers by the mid-1930s largely replaced the production and use of preceding receivers designs specifically tuned rad io frequency receivers. Eventually, the principle of super heterodyne was virtually taken up for all commercial TV and radio designs (Drentea 102). Design and Operation Principle of Super Heterodyne Receiver The operation principle of super heterodyne receiver mainly relies on the use of frequency mixing or heterodyning. The signal from an antenna is adequately filtered to reject the image frequency (Tsui 90).

If It's Legal, It's Ethical; and Besides, Everyone Does It Essay

If It's Legal, It's Ethical; and Besides, Everyone Does It - Essay Example Group hedge-fund, Raj Rajaratnam obtained inside information through supporting the graduation parties of several young executives in major companies such as Intel. Arthur Anderson and Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation (CSFB) shredded documents that would be crucial in pending Enron investigations. The outcomes of such behaviours were costly legal suits by the SEC, loss of investor confidence in the industry (Jennings, 2012). Other executives were sentenced for long terms in jail. There are no disadvantages competitively if companies do not engage in the same behaviours as those of the industry. Companies that behave ethically will attain higher reputation and trust from clients thus gaining a competitive edge in the market. If firms do not follow the unethical industry behaviours, they will avoid costly suits by the SEC and gain market reputation (Jennings, 2012). Some of the negative consequences for companies that adopted industry practices include costly suits by the SEC, loss of investor confidence and bankruptcy. Such companies distorted the market prices and led to decline in the market capitalization since some investors sold their stocks below the issue prices in order to avoid further losses. If everyone in the industry is behaving unethically, it will not be difficult for one to be caught. The Securities and Exchange Commission constantly monitors the transactions of each financial identity after complaints of insider trading thus facilitating the identification of criminal and unethical behaviours. On the other hand, the SEC requires the suspected individuals to voluntarily assist in the investigation in order to qualify for leniency in the exchange of the insider trading and market manipulation testimony (Jennings,

Accounting project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Accounting project - Essay Example The strategy shifted sales from the future periods to the current quarter. In addition, the approach assumed a gross profit on the future sales, which resulted in the inflation of the earnings in 1997. Therefore based on the company-adopted strategy, Dunlap accelerated the company’s revenues by 18 percent. The management had adopted this plan to improve the stock prices, which would have resulted from good earnings reports presented by the company (Sondhi, & Taub, 2008). The increase in stock prices would assist in the acquisition of debt financing for the merging process. The bill and hold strategy adopted by the company provided incentives to the customers to make purchases whose delivery and billing was to happen in the future. The customers were not expected to pay for the goods until when the goods were delivered. Actual payments of the current period sales occurred in the preceding quarters. Therefore, the sales were recorded in the books of accounts as accounts receivables resulting in the increase of the accounts receivables expected by the company. The company avoided a significant shortfall in revenues, therefore, the continued using the bill and hold strategy in the preceding quarters. In this case income was not recognised at the point of sale rather it was recognised immediately the customer accepted the bill and hold conditions. Revenue may be earned during a period, but it is usually recognised at a point to fulfil the revenue recognition criteria, which is satisfied at the point of product delivery. Based on this revenue is recorded when there is certainty of the cash being received. Based on sunbeam’s case record of 1998 quarter first revenues were recorded in 1997 due to the fraudulent bill and hold strategy that they had adopted (Sondhi, & Taub, 2008). The sales revenue acquired in the first quarter of 1998 was used to offset futures that the company had borrowed to satisfy the bill and hold

Procedures or Methods Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Procedures or Methods - Research Paper Example The researcher requires a platform for explaining reasons behind the collected data. The researcher has to develop guidelines that help collect the reasons behind the results during the research process. This involves the formulation of causal explanations that justify the collected information. Beneficial ways of identifying and carrying out a research depend on the researcher’s intimate understanding of the issue to be studied. This is enhanced during the design process where the researcher gets some background information on the issue. The NCLB law was enacted to give children with disabilities equal education opportunities with their counterparts without disabilities (Baker, 2010). The research design process begins with identifying the aim of the research. In this case, the researcher would be interested in finding out the benefits of NCLB and how the children have benefited so far. Some scholars consider NCLB law to contradict with the initial IDEA law that protects indi viduals with disabilities (Baker, 2010). The researcher may include the effects of the two laws in protecting people with disabilities. The teachers and state education heads have developed educational interventions in order to comply with NCLB requirements and meet the required student performance. The results and failures of the strategies can be included in the aims of the research. The second step is to formulate the research questions that completely address the aims of the research (Bynner and Stribley, 2010). These questions shed light on the benefits of NCLB and the effects it has created in the education system. The research questions are: Where would Special Needs children be educationally without No Child Left Behind? What impact has NCLB created among children with disabilities? What strategies have been formulated by the education board and what effects have they introduced in the curriculum? What issues make the implementation of NCLB difficult and what are the resourc es involved in the implementation process? The third step is to design the research paradigm or theoretical framework. The framework provides a guiding structure and range of tool that will help the researcher answer the research questions. This research would require a positivistic method of collecting data like interviewing students with disabilities, parents, teachers, and curriculum developers (Mitchell and Jolley, 2012). Questionnaires would also be helpful in collecting quantitative data on the subject. The questionnaires would be distributed to various schools within the state. They would have sections to be filled by students, teachers and their parents. These would increase the sampling area by minimizing the effort used when conducting interviews. The students would provide data on the effects of NCLB on their education process. The teachers would provide information regarding the effects of the law on the curriculum and the cumulative effects on the education process for students. Parents would also provide information regarding student performance and perceived benefits introduced by the law. The curriculum developers or education officials in the state offices would provide information regarding the effects of the law on curriculum development and the challenges faced when implementing the guidelines. The questionnaires would also involve questions dealing with the benefits of NCLB on the students, the impact in the education

Heroes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Heroes - Essay Example Martin Luther and Nelson Mandela are some of the world’s best heroes because they changed the world around them in a significant way. A hero can be defined as a person who contributes significantly and positively towards social, political, or economic discourse in a society. Heroes are identified by a strong sense of discipline in all aspects of life as well as a strong stand to their beliefs. One overarching characteristic of a hero is the ability to sacrifice personal comfort, interests, and even life for the sake of the community. Most of the world’s recognized heroes have indeed gone through a lot of painful experiences, jail terms, and even tortured as they sought to fight for the community. For instance, Nelson Mandela was jailed for 27 years as he fought against apartheid in South Africa. Martin Luther is globally recognized for his fight for civil rights for African Americans in U.S. However, Luther chose to use nonviolent means to achieve his objectives of securing equal rights for all people in America. Luther was at the forefront leading protests against workers mistreatment at Memphis Sanitation. The blacks working for Memphis sanitation were poorly paid and their merge salaries delayed and at times not even paid. Luther was able to organize a non violent protest lasting more than two months (â€Å"Martin Luther King,† 2014). On a different light, Luther led a successful non-violent protest against Montgomery bus company for segregating against blacks from sitting in front seats. However, Luther’s epitome moments are perhaps tied to his maiden speech dubbed â€Å"I Have a Dream.† (â€Å"BBC†, 2015). With over 200, 000 followers, Luther unleashed this maiden speech pushing the congress to pass the laws regarding civil rights for the bl acks in America. The swearing in of Barrack Obama as the first Black president in America indeed marked a significant milestone for Martin Luther as a hero in U.S and the rest of the world. However, on the

Crucible Analyzing John Proctor Essay Example for Free

Crucible Analyzing John Proctor Essay Analyzing John Proctor as a Tragic Hero In the Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, John Proctor is the tragic hero. A tragic hero is defined as someone who has great courage that ends up dying at the end of the story. The reason John Proctor is the tragic hero of this play is because he has so much to lose. John Proctor fulfills my requirements of a tragic hero throughout the play. He decides to go to court and expose the girls. The girls turn on him and he gets accused. He is only trying to do well, but gets falsely accused. John Proctor is also a very intelligent man who can detect others as being fraudulent, however he questions his own moral. He questions himself because of his affair with Abigail which was his only flaw throughout the play. In spite of this I still consider him an honorable man. Another thing he did was save his wife from being put to death, and also refusing to confess practicing witchcraft. He proves he is a tragic hero when he explains to the judge that since he gave his soul to leave his name. With this plea, Proctor has eliminated all hopes of living and has established himself as the tragic hero. John Proctor is a man of sufficient stature in that he is given the choice to save himself at the end of the play, but does not. He does keep his affair secretive, but that is only thing that made him seem like the villain. He did not deserve to die at the end of the play, but that is one of the requirements to make him considered a tragic hero. Proctor serves as the voice of justice in the play. He came out and told everyone about Abigail falsely accusing others of being witches. He also came out and ripped the warrant and told the men to leave. In the end, he comes close to confessing being a witch but realizes it disgraces his good name, which is all his children will know him by. The issues leading to John Proctors death are not universal. I believe that he should not have been the one getting the punishment in the end, but that is why he is the tragic hero. Throughout the play he was a man of integrity and nobleness. He confessed to practicing witchcraft, in which he really  didnt. This is why he died; saving his wife from death.

Continuous Development Of Modern Media Technology Media Essay

Continuous Development Of Modern Media Technology Media Essay With the continuous development of modern media technology, constantly updated means of communication and increasingly rich forms of communication, mass media almost always affects people in all aspects of life. In current society, a variety of communications activities has become indispensable in our lives. As an example, the radio program Mars on Earth reported in 1938, which led to huge panic in the United States adequately illustrated this point. TV, newspapers, online news, and radio stations and other news media access to information are now the most important source of information for people to understand the social. Media as an integral part of life, its coverage means often affects the publics mood, and the report of peoples point of view often leads the trend of public opinion. While the continuous spread of important information for the audience, the media is also instilling the relevant concept to audience in a subtle way, in order to affects our attitude, and thus to some extent, to change our view of the world. Just as C. Wright Mills stated that Media not only give us information, they guide our very experiences. This paper will make a detailed analysis of the social function of the media, first introduced the media function in the information dissemination, and discusses the media as information channel for people to provide services. Then this paper will analyze in which way the media influence peoples attitudes, behaviors and experiences. 2.0 The social function of the media The news media is part of the whole social system, which is responsible for reporting the development of the whole society and change, recording the process of the functioning of society bit by bit, with has social information dissemination, public opinion, social supervision and cultural heritage features. In all above, information dissemination is the most basic function of the media, and it has been undertaking to pass true and accurate social information, as well as the task of passing the first-hand information to the audience. Through continually providing a large number of reports of the social events, media transfers flow of information about the surrounding environment, transportation, culture, news, financial market to the public, and also a variety of impending disaster has occurred or, threats and other information to meet their needs. (Bryant Oliver, 2009) In addition to the basic functions of information dissemination, media also has social supervision, education and guidance functions. This paper focuses on the social function of how media guides peoples behavior. 3.0 Means by which media guide peoples experience 3.1 Media decides the content and intensity of information dissemination by news selection There are many large and small event happen every day in the world, reporters choose what to report and what not to have set the window limits for the mass audience, and the scope of the subject of discussion. (Deephouse, 2000) The media measures whether the incident should be reported and how they are reported by a certain news value, in which the fresh of news and timeliness are the key criteria. The fierce ratings competition between media makes the journalists must be ready to face tight time pressure; they all hope to make exclusive reports and starting the news. (Lengel Trevino, 1987) When a hot topic in the head, the media will rush to chase stories, all television, newspaper layout with large, a lot of time around the same topic, it is important to create the atmosphere. But soon, when the subject lost its news value, it will completely disappear in the media. The chase of timely news brings urgent pressure of time, so that media workers have difficulties to do in-depth coverage of events. The media led the public to focus a particular issue, it will also lead us quickly forget the subject. 3.2 To guide the public emotions through different ways of media coverage Press report is easy to influence the publics perception of news events, and lead us to a particular point of view to understand the event. The news media report implied social customs, ethics, philosophy, personality temperament and other news elements of influence and control human emotions more and more apparent. (Scannell, 1992) For example, media report to specific geographical coverage and the spread of video content, due to re-process or phenomenon and not only focus on its nature, to live lives of such people would deepen the misunderstanding of people and things, the tendency of these people and events to be rendering, and thus have a negative impact on the public: not only will affect the groups feelings, but also affects the positioning. Medias role is to help us to transcend personal experience of life constraints, let us know what is happening in other corners. News reporting should be objective and fair. But each persons perception of the world derived from the individuals life experience, according to different backgrounds, social status, gender, ethnic group, different people present for the same facts, is bound to see a different face, resulting in different interpretations, no one can remove the view or values . Of course, media are no exception. The integration of these differences in the news becomes emotional and cognitive impact of a factor to people. 3.3 The development of new technologies creates more possibilities for the media influence on people Television reports which allow people to the text provided in the newspaper and sound provided by broadcast, itll also see a real vivid picture. TV news focuses on visual effects, even if not shooting pictures, television stations often use computer graphics showing the incident, manufacturing, and shot in the visual. These impressive images are easy to be trusted by people, so television has more social control force than other media. In addition, the way to receive information from television is mostly passive, television is relatively weak selective information, which more seriously confined the scope of access to information sources of the audience. In todays information society, media pluralism has been formed. In the press, radio, television and other media followed by a fourth media Internet. (Edwards, 1998) The rapid development of new media provides more extensive information on the public. (Couldry Curran, 2003) 3.4 advertising leadS tendency of the media coverage Advertising is the greatest sense aggressors of modern society and the strongest message implants. As an advertising vehicle of the release of advertising, the tremendous impact on the news media brought by the advertising is inevitable. As we all know, at present, the news media advertising is still the most important publishing platform. News and advertising co-exist on one platform, to contradictions and problems inevitably arise. (Schewe, 2004)As social and economic development, the role of advertising is growing. It passes the information to promote economic development in goods but also to both the media and advertisers to create huge economic interests. In the interests of the stimulation, the media coverage will inevitably have a certain bias. Media on corporate image, product performance, marketing activities and other information for publicity, this practice is called soft ads by some media, and is called hidden advertising by advertisers. For ordinary consumers, these practices are very deceptive in nature. This appears to news is actually a style advertising openly in the news section, so unknown to the audience and may mislead them to believe. 4. How peoples experience be guided by media 4.1 Reconstruction of social values through public opinion Opinion is the most controversial social life events have a certain tendency to published comments, opinions and views. As a common psychological tendency of public opinion, it is hidden in the depths of peoples thinking, through the social assessment with value judgments, such as a specific values or behavior of the praise and admiration or criticism and condemnation, resulting in a social atmosphere, to have an impact on the values and behavior of the community Members. With members of the broad impact on society, public opinion has become an important means of cultural control, and the control system in modern society has an important position. Through the role of public opinion, on the one hand, the mass media will be the legislative branch and public administration institutions to develop, promulgate laws, decrees made public, called on people to adhere to the existing social norms, while the mass media to spread the people values, beliefs and life behavior in order to guide public choice to establish a correct outlook on life and behavior; on the other hand, public opinion and mass media will call through the network, television, radio, newspapers and other channels back to the social ruling, prompting the legislature and public regulatory bodies to consider the public demand, the existing legal and institutional system to adjust and improve, and continuously improve its administrative capacity to maintain social stability and social order. Thus, there is the formation of mainstream social values, although it is not mandatory like the law, it generally widespread impact on peoples thinking and behavior as an invisible constraint. 4.2 To change the publics lifestyle and spending habits Mass media treats guide as a starting point, using its powerful propaganda to make people happy in leisure reading among accepted the new consumption patterns and lifestyles, (Morris Ogan, 1996) which gave birth to consumer culture. The shopping information published in the Newspaper also makes people change their attitudes in consumer. Which stores have recently engaged in activities, what brand, price number, price information, etc. Which pharmacies, we reported on the exchange received from these messages, and compare, go consumption. Difference with the elderly is that, young people read newspapers are concerned about the strong style of entertainment news and employment information. Some people also go through the information reported on the drivers, waiters, security and other jobs. From that point on, the mass media, consumer culture and consumption in the formation of lifestyle play a conspiracy role. 4.3 News reports of crime and violence have a tremendous impact on people With the development of society, media attention on political related events has gone from a single broadened to a variety of criminal phenomena, showing a trend of diversification. With the strengthening of public opinion functions, the number of news reports of crime and weight has been significantly improved, which strongly shocked criminals, and demonstrate the power of the rule of law. (Thoman, 2010) Media is keen to report crime and the main reason is that crime news concerns the audience easily and access to them more attractive. Crime news reports often have twists and turns of the plot, as well as the color of violence, it has more stimulating and entertaining elements than the other news stories. The authenticity of news reports also makes it depicts the victims of crime, especially violent crime, to bring serious consequences, more than the literary fiction film and television has more power to shock. Driven by the economic interests, news reports of crime is inevitably some distortion of the real social phenomenon: excessive rendering of malignant cases, highlighting the cruel circumstances, the disclosure of personal privacy and other related personnel cases. Violation of implied theory believes that exposure to aggressive stimuli may increase a persons motivation level of physical and emotional. In other words, the content of news violence can increase aggressive behavior stimulation occur. In some cases, aggressive characters in the news will give them a role model. Which can be seen, the mass media violence and the proliferation of pornography are often imperceptible to the audiences behavior and way of life tend to have a negative impact on these effects if left unchecked, it is possible to induce the production of deviant behavior. Elizabeth (2010) said that, Many blame media for the rise in violence, but of course thats not the whole storyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Some of the details of this connection might be questioned But the fact that a connection exists is hard to dispute. Which leads us to an inescapable conclusion: Something must be done. The media should adopt accurate news reports of crime, so the audience can keep abreast of the latest social facts of the crime, ease because it caused an unknown number of tension, suspicion, rumors and other negative emotions have to create a good environment for punishing evil and promote good. 5. Summary Since the 20th century, mass media has had a profound impact on peoples lives. The newspapers, books, radio, television, communications satellites and the Internet all represented the modern media space, which makes the whole world a small village. In the aspect of time, the whole community culture and communication network system stay in the same structure, which enables human to enjoy the same important information at the same time, so that all ethnic and cultural exchanges and interaction between real world. The news media with modern sense has become the dominant mode of existence of a culture in modern society the news media culture. Media culture on the psychological characteristics, behavioral structure, attitudes toward other aspects have had a significant effect on the contemporary human life form, content and even ways of thinking have changed dramatically along. With the in-depth of news media era, mass media plays in contemporary society, not only to transmit information, provide entertainment and other social functions, but also changing peoples values and way of life, shaping the social and public life. It continually to provide a series of community-oriented public values and colors to create a highly popular media discourse system, the media text is also increasingly becoming an important form of the modern spirit of the consumer. As a result, the news media become a pervasive cultural existence for its coverage of the large community and huge influence on people in modern society. The news media refers to mass media culture as a carrier; to the media of expression is the basic characteristic of modern society, a cultural phenomenon unique. Either as channels for the dissemination of information, or acts to guide the public, news media should be fully aware of their responsibility, (Curran Seaton, 2003) and try to make it fair and make contribute to sound development for the community. (2109 words)