Taking a ook at Teen Pregnancy - 744 Words

The social problem I have chosen to write about is teen pregnancy. My family has experienced teen pregnancy with my cousins as well as myself. With all my cousins who became teenage mothers they all failed to either graduate from high school or once they did graduate or earn their GED’s they failed to go to college. Every single one them was also on welfare. In my particular situation I was not on welfare and did complete high school on time, although I did attend college for only one semester, I did not complete obtaining a degree. I am currently trying to complete my degree however it has taken me to the age of 33 to successfully go back. Having a child at the age of 16 was extremely tough for me. I had attended private school up until the end of my sophomore year as that is when I became pregnant. I had hoped to attend college out of state and had a steady grade point average of about 3.5. I lost contact with all my friends as I was either working or staying home with my son. I had to work two jobs in order to avoid being on welfare and yet still continue to go to high school as I was determined to finish. I can proudly say that my son is now graduating from high school and he has grown up to be a very respectful young man. I had seen my cousins’ struggle with their teen pregnancies as well but no one had actually ever sat me down to talk to me about it. Although teen pregnancy has since been on the decline about 3 in 10 teen girls will still get pregnant in the United

Symbolism in William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’ Free Essays

Symbolism in William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’ Definition: A symbol is something that is itself as well as something else. In literature it means literal or objective sense coupled with abstract meaning. Symbolism refers to serious and extensive use of symbols in a work of literature. We will write a custom essay sample on Symbolism in William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’ or any similar topic only for you Order Now Symbolism in Lord of the Flies: The novel is rich in symbolism. A host of different interpretations of the novel’s symbolism – political, psychological and religious – exists. We will look at some of the prominent symbols employed by Golding and try harmonizing the different interpretations. Since symbolism is an evocative device to communicate the theme of a literary piece, we must first agree on the theme of Lord of the Flies. Theme: Evil inherent in man seems to be the central idea of the novel. It may recall the Christian notion of the ‘original sin’ or the idea of the failure of civilization as seen during the Nazi Holocaust or a general pessimistic view of human nature. It may be all the three combined. A group of boys aged 6 to 12 find themselves alone on an island, without adult supervision. At first they try to organize themselves on the pattern of the civilized world they have known. The attempt fails and most of them regress into savagery and animal existence. The novel was deliberately patterned on the children’s classic ‘The Coral Island’ by R. M. Ballantyne. Only, it turns Ballantyne’s theme on its head. Whereas Ballantyne made the children’s isolation on the island a pleasant interlude in a continued life of civilized existence, Golding shows how thin the veneer of civilization really is and how the animal nature of man breaks through in just a few weeks. It is not so much moral judgment as recognition of the essential tragedy of mankind – its intellectual and spiritual nature losing out to its animal nature again and again. Important Symbols: 1. The Scar: The novel starts with the mention of a scar in the jungle. We learn (or rather, surmise) later that it is a swath cut by the falling ‘passenger tube’ in which the children were travelling. The word scar appears in the text without this preliminary information and serves to create atmosphere. The metaphor prepares us for the horrible things to come. In itself it is also the symbol of man’s disruptive influence on his world. 2. The Conch: It makes its appearance as an accidental find of Ralph and Piggy on the beach. It soon assumes importance as Ralph, on Piggy’s advice, blows it to gather the survivors. Ralph is elected leader of the group mainly because he was the one in possession of the conch. From here onwards the conch becomes a symbol of law and order. At meetings the speaker has to hold it in his hands. It gives him the privilege of being heard uninterrupted. Order starts breaking down in the fifth chapter when Jack speaks without holding it. Later, breakdown of order is signalled by Jack snatching it from Ralph in the eighth chapter. In the tenth chapter Jack raids the shelter occupied by Ralph and Piggy to rob Piggy of his glasses. But he does not bother to take the conch away. It is no longer important. In the eleventh chapter the conch is destroyed, symbolizing the complete rout of order at the hands of chaos. 3. The Man with the Megaphone (Grown-ups): When Piggy meets Ralph, his first question is, â€Å"Where is the man with the megaphone? A few pages later the question is repeated by Jack, â€Å"Where is the man with the trumpet? † This, we can assume, was the man in charge of the boys in the aeroplane He stands for authority and control which has suddenly been removed by the crash. A grown-up appears again only at the end in the form of the naval officer who saves the life of Ralph without realizing the fact and brings an e nd to the chaos. But conversely, the adult is the cause of the boys being there in the first place. The war raging outside is nothing but the conflict on the island on a much grander scale. The appearance of the naval officer at close suggests that civilization has been given another chance, despite the bleak outlook. 4. Beast from Air: In the sixth chapter another adult appears on the scene – a dead parachutist. He has apparently evacuated himself from a warplane that has been hit. The man crashes to his death at the top of the hill on the island. He, with his parachute, is taken to be a mysterious supernatural beast by the boys among whom the talk of a snake-like beast of the jungle is already rampant. The dead parachutist is not, however, just an extension of the ghost metaphor. He also represents the historical past intruding on the scene and influencing it in a profound manner. For the boys the historical past is the war they left behind. For humanity it would be the past of man as an insidious influence in his present. 5. The Beast – Lord of the Flies: The title of the novel is itself symbolic. The phrase is a literal translation of the Hebrew ‘Beelzebub’, one of the demons named after a philistine god. Later the term was often used in Christianity as a name for the Devil. The metaphor is one of regression (in its original sense of paganism) and evil (in its later meaning of the Devil). In the novel one of the younger boys, who is referred to as ‘the boy with the birthmark on his face’, tells the others about having seen a snake-like beast on the trees. Though Ralph tries to allay their fears as unfounded, the belief in the beast persists. It is strengthened by the unexplained disappearance of the boy with the birthmark. It is reinforced by the ‘beast from air’ mentioned above, so mush so that even Ralph and Piggy start entertaining the possibility of a beast. Jack, half believing himself, uses the fear cleverly to keep his followers under control. He makes the ritual sacrifice of a wild sow to the beast and lets the head of the animal hang on a stick, ostensibly to appease the beast. Only Simon does not believe in the existence of a beast. In his wanderings in the forest he comes across the head of the sow and the entrails of the animal which have attracted a lot of flies by now. He has a hallucination in which the head appears to him as lord of the flies and speaks to him. The symbolism of the beast is also stated in this imaginary conversation in so many words, as follows: â€Å"You knew, didn’t you? I am part of you?†¦ I am the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are? † The beast is within man, not without. It is the darkness in men’s hearts. It is their primitive nature, hidden behind a thin layer of civilization. 6. The Signal Fire and the Shelters on the Beach: The signal fire and the shelters symbolize ordered society, civilization and hope. They are contrasted with the barbaric and blood-thirsty hunts. The signal fire is Ralph’s idea. He believes that the children will be rescued soon and therefore there should be a smoke signal going all the time for a passing ship to spot. Piggy, who is more of a realist, realizes that those who were expected to know about the children are all dead and it may be a long time before rescue comes. So he suggests the building of shelters. Though both symbols together stand for civilization against barbarism, there is this subtle difference between them, arising as they do from their originators’ differing perceptions of the situation. 7. The Hunts and Mock Hunts: Together with painted faces and long hair the hunts and mock hunts symbolize regression into primitive savagery. The hunters not only seem to have lost all hope of returning to civilization, but they seem to actually enjoy the prospect and neglect to keep the signal fire burning. The hunts can be interpreted as symbolizing the boys’ primal urges or even anarchy. Soon after the hunts start, they cease to be a necessary activity aimed at gathering food. The lust for blood becomes more important. Ceremonies and chants invented by the hunters similarly denote regression. The mock hunts of Chapters 4 and 7 are manifestations of regression too. The mock hunts serve another purpose. In Chapter 4 the mock hunt is a mild affair, performed largely for fun. In the seventh chapter it turns into a violent affair in which the boy playing the hunted animal suffers injuries. Thus the mock hunts define the regression of the hunters as civilized humans. The scene in Chapter 7 also shows the good and sensible Ralph feeling the excitement of the mock hunt, thus showing how evil can take hold of any human, unless resisted. 8. Painted Faces and Long Hair: This is the heading of Chapter 4. The degeneration of the boys’ way of life is symbolized by clay-and- charcoal masks and long hair. When concealed by masks, the hunters, especially Ralph, seem to have new personalities as they forget the taboos of society that once restrained them from giving in to their natural urges. When Jack first paints his face to his satisfaction, he suddenly becomes a new, savage person. â€Å"He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling. He capered toward Bill, and the mask was a thing of its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness†. The feeling of liberation that results from wearing the masks allows many of the boys to participate in the barbaric pig hunts, the savage ceremonies and the mock hunts. 9. The Island: Those who incline towards a religious interpretation of the novel’s symbolism maintain that the island is the symbol for the Garden of Eden, which is touched by original sin on contact with the human race. This interpretation may have some merit. But the symbolism can be equally validly interpreted as the state of nature to which the civilized children have been returned. It provides the setting for the opening up of their fundamental urges. 10. The Characters: The principal characters – Ralph, Piggy, Simon, Jack and Roger – symbolize certain attitudes and qualities. Ralph and Piggy are on the side pf law and order. Jack and Roger represent primitive urges and tyranny. Simon is a mystic who has clearer view of reality than the intellectual Piggy, the sensible Jack or the manipulative Jack. But we have to be careful not to over-emphasize the point. Otherwise the realistic and believable quality of the characters will be compromised. The symbolism lies more in how the characters grow or regress rather than in their basic make-up. Jack’s character is the most significant from this point of view. From the leader of a choir group he regresses into the leader of a violent and primitive group which calls itself a ‘tribe’. The above list of symbols is by no means exhaustive. The novel is replete with metaphors and symbols. Lord of the Flies is called a twentieth century allegory. It is also one of the most carefully crafted novels of the century. In consequence the careful reader can find a symbol on almost every page. s How to cite Symbolism in William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’, Papers

Plagiarism and its Prevention for Writings †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about thePlagiarism and its Prevention for Writings. Answer: Introduction: Plagiarism initially refers to the materials duplicated from others or stealing from another persons work and naming it own work. Plagiarism has a specific definition, that is; plagiarism is literally a committed theft of existing ideas, denying the source and not disclosing the truth about the source. Plagiarism is infringement of the copyright law. The copyright law states that every person has a copyright on the activities, writings, blogs, songs, films or any other expressions for a certain span and copying or stealing it within that time without the permission of the owner is infringing the law (Lea Street, 2014). There is also a clause of the law, which states that if the owner complains about the stolen material then the person will have to suffer imprisonment along with ransom. Plagiarism in education is a growing issue that decreases the level of integrity in education. To avoid plagiarism, training the students to render their own ideas is referred. This report discusses the use of plagiarism in education and recommends methods of how to prevent plagiarism. Discussion: There are some values in the academic way of integrity. Those values include honesty, own ideas, trust, responsibility to provide own thesis using own words. The students of the present generation have forgotten to write anything using their words. Studies say that a post-graduate student writes an essay with a large amount of plagiarism in it. The plagiarism in the students work in every form is present in the research part of the assignments (Newton, 2016). The students doing plagiarism are suffering from a lack of confidence of disclosing their own ideas because they have the fear of being insulted. The breaching of the academic uprightness includes plagiarism at a great extent and some includes collusion and cheating in assignment and downloading the full assignments from the internet. Among all these issues, plagiarism is the most strongly mocked violation of the academic morality as it sabotages the proposition of the contribution of knowledge. Inscribing Plagiarism: The role of knowledge and research always has the focus of neglecting academic uprightness and having research on plagiarism on the undergraduate elevation. This includes targeted initiation, assistance and instruction on all commended students particularly from the background of an accord to tradition. Plagiarism is a manifestation of academic honesty that possibly places substantial rewards to the students for the value of their work or assignment. There are many strategies to dissuade plagiarism includes instructions regarding the development of the assessment, modules of the designs and educational skills (Gmez-Espinosa, Francisco Moreno-Ger, 2016). Plagiarism by Orthodox Inquisitor: The rates of the plagiarism by students indicate that there is a problem of receiving appropriate information and knowledge both at the undergraduate and postgraduate level of education. The disaffection of integrity by the investigators is common. Plagiarism has negative results such as cancellation of the project, decrease in the credibility of the author and losing reputation. It is a very deep problem in academic uprightness. The researchers need to increase their perception about the plagiarism issues. The researchers need to have the ability to keep against plagiarism. The digital age is at a juncture where plagiarism is increasing daily with the increase of the pressure of studies on the students. The researchers need to deal with the students ideas and encourage them to complete the task themselves and not copying it from others (Glendinning, 2014). The Complications of Plagiarism: Many students are seen having problem regarding paraphrasing of texts and providing the exact citations as required. The students struggle to achieve the goal of good academic writing and fulfil the integrity of academic education. There are three aspects where plagiarism is the most determining; firstly, when the student has an intention to cheat with the thought of presenting work taken from some other sources and marks it as their own. Secondly, downloading the assignment and paraphrasing it by themselves causes the expansion of plagiarism. Thirdly, the possibility for the response regarding plagiarism requires the consideration of both the first and second aspects, which takes a disciplinary approach (Sutherland-Smith, 2014). Self-plagiarism is an issue that rotates around the apparent acceptance. Self-plagiarism is mainly submitting the previous work in a reprocessing way without assigning the resource of the original work and without consent of the teachers. The plagiarism crea tes many problems in submission of the assignment and at times, the students need to do rework on the topic, which can harm their studies (Foltnek Glendinning, 2015). Impact of Plagiarism in Education: Students of the present generation intend to gain the qualification through assignments and dissertations. Fulfilling the qualification needs submitting of different specific topic with broad discussions and they either have an intention to assign a third party in doing the work or plagiarises the work themselves and submits to the teachers. These results in lowering the value of education and the third party involvement and the plagiarised assignments are discourage-able for the students performing well. The institutions are taking severe actions to stop plagiarism as is treated as a serious offence in most of the countries. The institutions lack in consistency of removing plagiarism. The growing amount of plagiarism is because of the increase in access of the internet, which helps the students to gather information and modify those to present them to the teachers. The students are very familiar in taking the work of another person and marking it as their own without even acknowledg ing the owner of the task (Eret Ok, 2014). Preventive Measures: The work assigned to the student is need to be done by themselves with the help of references from others work. There is always a secret war in the inner mind of assorting where the ideas of the references end and where the ideas of the student begin. For maintaining the academic honesty, few measures are applicable. The students have to increase the level of the interaction with the teachers and ask for their guidelines for an answer and check citations for references regarding their answer (Heckler Forde, 2015). The first thing done before asking for guidelines is to plan the paper in a definite way to avoid plagiarism. The other sources required for the research paper is in need of planning. There should be a balance between the planned work and the references. Having an outline of the idea on the concerned topic helps the planning to get better (Lannelongue, Matas-Pereda Gonzlez-Benito, 2016). Another way to avoid plagiarism is to keep notes of the topic and records of the sour ces in a large number so that it helps the person to write more on their own and avoid using the access of the internet. The person can also avoid plagiarism by citing their own ideas with the help of the references can bring more authentications to the assignment and prevent the teachers from thinking that the information is a duplicate of the original. The names of the sites or the owners will give the assignment more reality than lying about the resource. One must have a clear thought of what to say through the assignment and in what way to say. The message or the discussion the assignment covers must be clear in every aspect because without a clear view of their own works they need to adapt plagiarism to explain the related issues and complete the assignments (Imrie, Cox Miller, 2014). Paraphrasing is not the direct way of putting others ideas as own but it also needs references at the end. While paraphrasing, changing the words is not acceptable (Howard, 2016). The meaning of the sentence should remain the same after paraphrasing the sentence. The analysing and evaluation of the resources in the assignment will result in reality and authentication. One needs to mention the sources according to the help they got from it. The credibility of the source will make the teachers feel the participation of the student, support the works and appreciate the quality of writing. Conclusion: Plagiarism is a serious infringement of academic probity. Plagiarism diminishes the value of the honest work. The detonation of plagiarism focuses mainly on the undergraduate students as records say that those students rely a lot on the plagiarism. Plagiarism is a issue with lots of complications in it. To avoid plagiarism more interaction, involvement and training will ensure the improvement in skills and responsibilities of the students. The educational institute needs to acknowledge that the plagiarism requires focus a usual approach that promotes an academic community that adheres on the capability and performance of the academic honesty. The plagiarism issue diminishes the creative power of the student and this puts a negative impact on the students by limiting their thoughts. The students also determinate the name of their pursuing institution and develop less original relations with the instructors. The main consequence of the plagiarism is that they violate the school policie s. The students may flank penalties due to plagiarism if they duplicate a major part of the work. Plagiarism affects a lot on the well-being of the student and the institution taking into considerations the violation of the copyright law. Plagiarism can help the students complete their project but due to plagiarism, the students can face many problems. References: Eret, E., Ok, A. (2014). Internet plagiarism in higher education: tendencies, triggering factors and reasons among teacher candidates.Assessment Evaluation in Higher Education,39(8), 1002-1016. Foltnek, T., Glendinning, I. (2015). Impact of Policies for Plagiarism in Higher Education Across Europe: Results of the Project.Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis,63(1), 207-216. Glendinning, I. (2014). Responses to student plagiarism in higher education across Europe.International Journal for Educational Integrity,10(1). Gmez-Espinosa, M., Francisco, V., Moreno-Ger, P. (2016). The Impact of Activity Design in Internet Plagiarism in Higher Education.Comunicar, (48), 39-47. Heckler, N. C., Forde, D. R. (2015). The role of cultural values in plagiarism in higher education.Journal of Academic Ethics,13(1), 61-75. Howard, R. M. (2016). Plagiarism in Higher Education: An Academic Literacies Issue?Introduction. InHandbook of Academic Integrity(pp. 499-501). Springer Singapore. Imrie, B. W., Cox, K., Miller, A. (2014).Student assessment in higher education: a handbook for assessing performance. Routledge. Lannelongue, G., Matas-Pereda, J., Gonzlez-Benito, J. (2016). The Antecedents of Plagiarism in Higher Education: Support Tools for Teaching Staff.Arabian J Bus Manag Review,6(227), 2. Lea, M. R., Street, B. (2014). understanding textual practices in higher education.Writing: Texts, processes and practices, 62. Newton, P. (2016). Academic integrity: a quantitative study of confidence and understanding in students at the start of their higher education.Assessment Evaluation in Higher Education,41(3), 482-497. Ocholla, D. N., Ocholla, L. (2016). Does Open Access Prevent Plagiarism in Higher Education?.AFRICAN JOURNAL OF LIBRARY ARCHIVES AND INFORMATION SCIENCE,26(2), 187-200. Sutherland-Smith, W. (2014). Legality, quality assurance and learning: competing discourses of plagiarism management in higher education.Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management,36(1), 29-42.

The Debate About Abortion

Table of Contents The Subject of Abortion Epidemiological Results of Abortion Political and Religious Views on Abortion Abortion Viewed Positively Challenging Situations in Abortion My Opinion Reference List The Subject of Abortion Abortion is the expulsion, forcible, or induced removal of a fetus from the uterus before its maturity time. It happens due to different reasons, which include medical, ethical, as well as personal reasons that a woman might have. At the same time, there are two types of abortion: induced and spontaneous abortion. Induced abortion happens when a pregnancy is intentionally terminated for some reasons while spontaneous abortion happens when a pregnancy is terminated based on reasons that are beyond the control of the woman.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Debate About Abortion specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In the case of induced abortion, a pregnancy might be terminated due to medical reasons when the doctors find that keeping the pregnancy might endanger the life of both the mother and the child thus having the only option of ending it (Sedgh, 2012, p. 4). An example of this case is the ectopic pregnancy. At the same time, induced abortion can happen when a woman carrying a pregnancy decides not to keep it for her own reasons. Some women may terminate pregnancies to pursue their studies, careers, and or when they deem the pregnancy unwanted, for instance, if it resulted from rape or due to denial from the men responsible for the respective pregnancies in a bid to keep their moral image in society. Spontaneous abortion, also referred as miscarriage, happens when a pregnancy is terminated due to factors such as shock, accidents, or other biological reasons that might induce the abortion without the knowledge of the mother. As a topic, abortion has elicited a never-ending debate over the world due to the different interests it elicits among different group s, for instance, political and religious people who may be for and or against it. Epidemiological Results of Abortion Findings indicate that 42 million abortions occur annually in the world with the biggest number of them happening in the less developed countries. In fact, 83% of these abortions is recorded in the developing world while 17% of them happens in developed countries. About 35 out of every 1000 women of childbearing age have an abortion annually with this rate varying from country to country, region to region, and continent to continent. Several cases of abortions that happen worldwide are unsafe with 97% of these abortions happening in the developing countries. Out of the many instances of unsafe abortions, developing nations record the highest number with Asia leading in the number of cases (Grimes, 2006, p.2). The problem leading to high numbers of unsafe abortion cases in most countries is because it is illegal to perform them. However, about 77 countries allow it. T herefore, people in these countries have resorted to unsafe abortions that are mostly performed secretly by unqualified personnel.Advertising Looking for essay on ethics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Unsafe abortion is dangerous to the life and health of the mother. In fact, 68000 women die from the procedure every year with millions more getting injured permanently in the process. A good number of women who have an abortion always end up in hospital with different morbid conditions that are treatable remaining as permanent damages. Research also indicates that the rate of abortion varies with marital status of a woman. While 64.4% of abortions happen to women who have never been married before, 18.4% happen to married women while 9.4% of abortions happen to divorced women. Availability of statistics on abortion also tends to follow legal status of practice with countries, which legalize it providing much more reliable stat istics than those, which have it as an illegal process. Political and Religious Views on Abortion Abortion is an issue in the society because it touches largely not only on life but also on the right to life of people including the born and the unborn. The society protects life as a way of preserving humanity from the dangers of extinction. This case reveals why most countries in the world and pro-life campaigners have made it their business to discourage and illegalize abortion as much as possible. Religious people uphold this view. Due to the widespread incidents of abortion worldwide and the effects it has on individuals as well as the society, abortion has become a topic for discussion in medical, religious, and ethical forums. Abortion is also a political issue especially in the United States of America (Barbara, 2005, p. 295). In the US, abortion is one of the main topics during campaigns between Democrats and Republicans with the Democrats supporting it, as opposed to Republi cans who are against it. The Democrats’ point of view is that aborting is ones decision and right. It is a liberal way of doing things. The Republicans’ point of view borrows from religion to which the Republican party subscribes as part of its founding tenets. From this point, the party is opposed to abortion. Therefore, this trend has been replicated everywhere with different groups taking opposite positions besides investing much resources to propagate their views in a bid to give credence to their positions. Therefore, the positions taken by the society on the issue of abortion are not necessarily intuitive as such. In most cases, persons with religious inclinations and affiliations will tend to fall for the antiabortion crusades while persons with liberal minds and views will tend to advocate for it or rather take a neutral position by neither accenting to it nor opposing it.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Debate About Abortion specific ally for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Abortion Viewed Positively Though debate on abortion has always leaned on a prolife axis, there are so many reasons to allow abortion to happen. This case rests on the reasons given for induced abortion. When a child is born, it is the responsibility of the mother and community to take care of its welfare by bringing it up until it is of age to take care of itself as an adult. Therefore, when a woman is pregnant, the first thought should always be on how the born baby will be catered in terms of care and other needs. As such, the foreseen inability of the mother to take care of the child is a reason enough for the mother not to allow the child to come into the world to suffer in her presence. In the United States, the difficulty of mothers getting child support enforcement has been cited as one of the reasons that lead women to take abortions. According to Crowley (2012), â€Å"†¦child support enforcemen t effectiveness decreases the incidence of abortion as measured by abortion rate† (153). On the other hand, some pregnancies happen when not planned. Mothers carrying the pregnancies take the option of an abortion. For instance, when a woman conceives at the time of war when there is too much movement and turmoil, abortion can be used as an option as a way of alleviating further suffering of the mother as well as the child. It is viewed as fair due to the fact, although the law might allow abortion, the law universally protects the rights of all living human beings including any child born alive. It would be exceedingly difficult for the mother if she allowed the child to be born without her will. Challenging Situations in Abortion The debate about abortion has so far been on for a while without conclusion. It might never reach a conclusion. In the present day, the society has abundant information on abortion. There are structures in place to guide it on how it conducts its ac tivities and how it should conclude them with positive effects. Countries in the world that have legalized abortion have gone ahead to put in place a law that regulates the way an abortion should be conducted specifying the most convenient time of the pregnancy. In most cases, when abortion has been legally allowed to happen, it has been done at the age of 22 gestational week’s maximum, which is the safest period for the mother. Meta (2011) confirms, â€Å"The viability of the fetus is decisive in determining whether or not a termination can be performed†¦thus, it is 22 weeks in Sweden† (p. 542). The legislation put in place here allows only qualified medical personnel to conduct it. It goes further to recommend other services like counseling to the mother due to the trauma that comes with the decision to abort. The most compelling issue about abortion whether legal or illegal is that most women who have procured one are never proud to openly talk about it due to the view that society gives it.Advertising Looking for essay on ethics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Though liberal, there is a sense of instilled guilt that women have whenever they have had an abortion. They can only talk about freely it in forums where they feel comfortable and safe to say it with guaranteed confidentiality. The situation is much worse in societies where abortion is illegal. In these societies, abortion is always done in secrecy and without much consideration to medical counsel, safety of the procedure, and or the law thus leading to negative effects on the mother. My Opinion In my opinion, the abortion debate should be approached from the middle ground in that the extreme views and positions of the pro-abortion and the anti-abortion groups should not be used as points of argument. In fact, viewing abortion from the pro-life point of view will lead to a widespread abortion, which on the other hand will be because of careless sexual behavior. Actually, any type of abortion is dangerous to the mother because it does not guarantee a 100% safety. Some abortions that happen are not entirely the decisions of the mothers carrying the pregnancy but external pressures from the family or society. Examining the role of the society in pregnancy decision-making, Tatum (2012) finds that most abortion decisions are directly or indirectly because of external pressures (p. 47). In my view, the abortion issue should be tackled based on individual cases with individual decisions. Therefore, when abortion is viewed from the extremes, it will either perpetuate the practice or deny some valid cases a safe way to terminate the pregnancy. Therefore, the abortion case should be addressed devoid of any forms of passion. Reference List Barbara, H. (2005). Abortion and American Politics. Columbia Law Review, 94(293), 294-326. Crowley, J. (2012). The Effect of Child Support Enforcement on Abortion in the United States. Social Science Quarterly, 93(1), 152-172. Grimes, D. (2006). Unsafe Abortion: The Preventable Pandemic. The Lancet Sexual Reproductive Health Series, 6 5(2), 1-4. Meta, L. (2011). Experiences of Working With Induced Abortion. Scandinavian Journal  of Caring Sciences, 25(1), 542-548. Sedgh, G. (2012). Legal Abortion Levels and Trends. International Family Planning Perspective, 25(1), 2-7. Tatum, C. (2012). Decision Making Regarding Unwanted Pregnancy Among Adolescents in Mexico City. Studies in Family Planning, 43(1), 43-56. This essay on The Debate About Abortion was written and submitted by user Esteban Zamora to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Great Recession How It Can Be Avoided

Great Recession How It Can Be Avoided The great economic recession is a period marked by persistent decline in the economic growth of different countries across the globe with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracting within a period that is not less than six months. The 2008-2010 great recession affected the global economy and it arose from the developed economies in the world.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Great Recession: How It Can Be Avoided specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This period is marked by high levels of unemployment, decline in retail sales, real income, GDP, slow growth for businesses, and stagnant wages (Altig Fitzgerald and Rupert 66). When there is high unemployment rate, housing prices decline because of the inability of consumers to meet their obligations. A normal recession does not last longer than a year but the great recession does, and it is milder than an economic depression. Due to its effects, it is necessary to avoid th e great recession at all costs through various measures as discussed in this paper. An economic recession can be avoided through various measures undertaken by the government given the causes of the recession. To begin with, the central bank or the Federal Reserve should increase the level of liquidity in the economy by pursuing expansionary monetary policies. This involves increased supply of cash in the economy through overnight market operations and reduced interest rates. A recession is caused by reduced level of consumption in the economy. Therefore, an increase in the supply of liquidity will increase the purchasing power of consumers thereby stimulating the level of production in the economy. This will reduce unemployment while increasing output and economic growth. The recession can also be avoided by pursuing an expansionary fiscal policy such as increased government expenditures in various sectors of the economy. Such type of a policy would see the government reduce the le vel of unemployment while increasing the purchasing power of the public. This will stimulate the level of productivity while leading to economic growth and ending the recession. In addition to increased spending, the government can end the recession through bailout of bankrupt institutions especially the financial institutions that do not have enough credit for lending out to borrowers.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The economy can avoid the great recession through adjusting the bank interest rates according to the projected economic situation. High bank interest rates discourage investors from borrowing and hence the money circulation in the economy decreases. By reducing interest rates, banks will increase the rate of borrowing and investments since more investors will borrow more funds. This will also encourage payment of bank loans. The government should set an interest ceiling and floor to be applied by commercial banks. This will bring an end to the recession experienced within an economy gradually. An economy should maintain equilibrium in the balance of payment (BOP), which is the graph showing the trade between a country and the other countries across the globe. To avoid the recession, exports should balance with the imports or even exceed the imports. When imports are in excess, it means that imports are cheaper than the domestic products hence there is excess demand and flow of foreign currency causing economic imbalance in the country. This leads to unemployment because the products produced by the domestic companies face a low local demand as compared to imports (Tcherneva 120). Therefore, increased imports could end the recession since the high level of exports increases production, reduces unemployment and promotes economic growth. Altig, David, Terry, Fitzgerald and Rupert, Peter. Okun’s law revisited: should we worr y about low unemployment? Economic Commentary. Cleveland: Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, 1997. Print. Lee, Jim. The Robustness of Okun’s Law: Evidence from OECD Countries. Journal of Macroeconomics 22.2 (2000): 331–356. Print. Tcherneva, Pavlina. Permanent on-the-spot job creation- the missing Keynes Plan for full employment and economic transformation. Review of Social Economics, forthcoming 2.1 (2011): 112-127. Print.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Great Recession: How It Can Be Avoided specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More

7 Interview Questions That Will Make You Stand Out

7 Interview Questions That Will Make You Stand Out So after submitting hundreds of resumes to various job boards, you finally got an interview scheduled. You are doing your research on the company and the position, learning everything about the interviewers, and rehearsing your answers to potential interview questions. Don’t forget to prepare some questions for the interviewers. A huge turn off for interviewers is when the candidate doesn’t ask any question. Don’t worry, here are 7 questions that will make you stand out  and land you the job.â€Å"What is the top priority for the person in this position over the next three months?†When you ask this question, you are showing initiative and preparing for success right away. This is also a strong opening question that will normally make a great impression because it catches an interviewer off guard.â€Å"What is the single largest problem facing your team right now and would I be in a position to solve it?†This question might seem a little quirky at first but it encourages the interviewer to envision you already working in the job. It also set you up as someone whom can be counted on.â€Å"Does the company offer additional training or continuing education?†When you ask this question, you are showing that you are interested in expanding your knowledge and grow with the company.â€Å"Can you walk me through a typical day at (company name)?†This question shows that you are already planning your first day on the job. It also shows that you want to learn as much about the job as possible, which usually separate you from other candidates.â€Å"What would make someone successful in this position?†Some might think this as being an â€Å"over achiever†, but it  shows that you are willing to raise the bar and exceed expectations. You are ready to succeed on this job.â€Å"Where do you see the company heading in the next 5 – 10 years?†Remember the interview question when you are asked, â€Å"wh ere do you see yourself in the next x years?† You are asking the same question about the company, it shows that you are looking for a long term career with the company.â€Å"What is the next step in the hiring process?†Always ask this question even if you know the process already. It shows your eagerness to prepare and it’s the best way to finish the interview.Remember, always have confidence in yourself and put forth your best possible effort. Good luck.

Outsourcing Jobs to Foreign Countries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Outsourcing Jobs to Foreign Countries - Essay Example Noted scholar and business visionary, James Brian Quinn of Dartmouth College, has described outsourcing "one of the greatest organizational and industry structure moves of the century." (Quinn, 1994) Several largest and most successful organizations OF United States are also the world's top providers of outsourcing services. Organizations like ARAMARK, Delphi, EDS, General Electric, IBM, IKON, Unisys, UPS, Xerox, and many others have millions of human resources in their outsourcing businesses. As management expert Peter Drucker articulates, "If you ask me what is the fastest growing industry in United States- it's outsourcing." (Bahli, 2003, p-214) Far from being bad for businesses or their workers, outsourcing is one of the most important and powerful forces available for building successful organizations, creating economic growth, and generating and enhancing jobs. Outsourcing first came to prominence in the early 1990s at a time when the U. S. economy faced a severe recession and the very competitiveness of its businesses was in question. Organizations used outsourcing then to help streamline their operations and to regain their competitive strength. The result was an unprecedented period of economic growth during the latter half of the 1990s. As one enters the mid-2000s, today's challenges may be even more pressing than those of a decade ago. It's hard to think our jobs are moving to other countries and there is nothing we can do. While outsourcing is a big profit for business owners, American workers and their families are the ones who suffer. The most common definition of outsourcing includes turning over a firm or business operations, network operations, software development and maintenance or other IT functions to a provider for a specified time, or generally a few years; sometimes profit can become a major factor and outsourcing becomes permanent. Outsourcing can be between two or more companies in the United States or it can be between the United States and other countries. Another term we use is off shoring, in the U.S. we use this term to specifically refer to outsourcing to other country (Ramanugan and Sandhya, 2003). These terms are used interchangeably and continue to be throughout this research study. Companies in America offshore outsourcing to many countries such as: China India Korea Mexico Philippines Malaysia Russia According to Ramanujan and Sandhya (2006, p.2) "China and India are the two major recipients of outsource work and these countries turn out millions of high-end, college-educated workers, who are well motivated and who make much lower salaries for doing those jobs than their counterparts in the west". So can you "imagine" these people have all the right tools to take our jobs and keep them; not saying we don't need our jobs but Americans just cannot accept any salary, the cost of living is too high. They also states "if you are a secretary or file clerk, if you work in the mail room, or as a middle manager, bank teller, librarian, if you are in any sectors of the retail or whole sale, chances are your jobs will not be here five years from now". What is driving the IT and other jobs offshore Well the labor cost is the primary

Extreme Importance of Alternative Energy Sources Research Paper

Extreme Importance of Alternative Energy Sources - Research Paper Example Forecasts show that coal, gas and oil supplies will last only for a few more centuries. Secondly, the use of fossil fuels poses a serious danger to the environment. The combustion of fossil fuels leads to the emission of chlorofluorocarbons, mainly carbon dioxide. This causes the ‘greenhouse effect’ which traps heat in the earth’s atmosphere, leading to global warming. The combustion of fossil fuels also causes atmospheric pollution and acidification of the environment. The environmental damage caused by oil spills in the wake of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is fresh in minds. Likewise, nuclear power is associated with the risk of nuclear accidents, such as Chernobyl and Fukushima, and the problem of disposal of hazardous radioactive waste. As there is no sign of energy use declining in the conceivable future, the environmental impacts of energy consumption, and the depletion of energy sources, assumes grave implications. It is clear that the need for al ternative, renewable sources of energy is the need of the hour. Energy consumption shows tremendous global variation, and â€Å"about a quarter of the world's population consumes three-quarters of the world's primary energy† (UN Document). About 20% of global energy consumption is in the USA. Again, it is estimated that the U.S. is responsible for about one-fifth of all human-produced greenhouse-gas emissions. Renewable sources of energy account for only 9.3% of the total US energy consumption (EIA). In this scenario, it is evident that the need for alternative energy sources should be a high priority for the government of the United States. It is heartening to note that President Obama has declared that â€Å"I know the country that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the global economy in the 21st century† (qtd. in Scientific American).

John Locke vs. Thomas Hobbes Essay Example for Free

John Locke vs. Thomas Hobbes Essay During the seventeenth century, Great Britain produced Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, two of the greatest political philosophers of all times. Both men are known for their great philosophical ideas that help to explain the role of government in man’s life. Their explanations are based on the description of their understanding of man’s state of nature. While both men do have opposite views on many of their political arguments, the fact that they are able to structure the essence of their conflicting ideologies in to the shell of what they define as the state of man in nature, is the link that relates them to each other. Both man share there desire in an establishment that provides order to ensure not only the protection of the individual, but also the security of the state. In Hobbes philosophy, the state of nature is a very unwelcoming, dull place. His theory is that individuals in their true nature are guided by their innate primal, animalistic instincts, rather then reason. Hobbes’ concept of the state of nature is based on his believe that morality such as the ideas of good and evil do not exist in tis state. He claims that with out guidance, man will use any power at his deposal, to defend his life and positions. In his book Leviathan, Hobbes describes this condition as war, in other words, it is every one against every one. (Hobbes) In addition, he depicted the state of nature as a state in which individuals are without any of the benefits that are taken for granted in modern society. Hobbes describes the lack of these benefits as: â€Å"No commerce, no agriculture, no account of time, no arts, no letters, and no society. (Hobbes)† Hobbes believes that without proper structure, man is in constant state of war. A state where an overbearing sense of fear and grief, triggers men to be on a constant defense in order to protect themselves, and their belongings. Hobbes relates man’s desire to escape from the state of nature and war by seeking peace, which allows man to end his unremitting feeling of fear. In order to obtain peace, Hobbes claims that it is the use of reason that enables man to respond the laws of nature. It is through reason, that man transfers all rights to a higher power, according to Hobbes, which in turn allows man to receive man’s natural right to all things, providing that others will do the same. Hobbes labeled this mutual transferring of rights contract. Hobbes knew, however, that there has to be some collective authority in place to enforce the laws. He believed that human’s appetite for power would be a constant threat to the contract. To prevent this threat, Hobbes saw a necessity for government. He concluded that there aught to be some sovereign authority that could enforce laws and would be authorized to punish anyone who broke the rules; an authority that is endowed with the responsibility to uphold the rights of every individual, as a part of the social contract. Hobbes believed that the best form of government to fulfill this role is in form of an absolute monarch as ruler over the people. He named the role of the absolute sovereign Leviathan. The role of the monarchic ruler was to be successful because it helped to create a endless circle that reinforced the social contract. The sovereign was to control the masses through fear, as he had the power of the threat of punishment bestowed upon him. This power helped to reinforce the mandates that the laws of nature provided, thereby ensuring the continued operation of the social contract that was in place. In turn for turning the responsibility to protect and serve over to the ruler, the people essentially gave up all of their own personal rights to govern themselves to the sovereign. The concept was that people are able to maintain their right to self-preservation by granting the sovereign all of their other rights. Hobbes titled this idea of a system of sovereignty the Commonwealth. It is through this social contract that is upheld between the people and the sovereign in the commonwealth, Hobbes states, that â€Å"man is able to get out of the state of nature and into society. (Hobbes)† Being a philosopher of political theory in the seventeenth century, John Locke understood and believed in the social contract and the state of nature as much as Hobbes. The positions he took on them, however, were most of the time on the polar opposites of the spectrum. Locks interpretation of the state of nature becomes evident in his publication Two Treaties of Government, where he states, â€Å"while there were no civil societies yet formed, people basically were able to live in peace, because the natural laws that governed them were an innate quality which everyone had. (Locke)† In other words, is Locke’s believe that in the state of nature, all people are equal, and have executive power of the natural laws. One of the major clashes between Locke’s and Hobbes’ theories was the interpretation of the state of nature. Hobbes was a firm believer in the state of â€Å"war† as a natural part of the state of nature. Locke on the other hand, alleged himself with the thought that the two states were not the same. Locke’s philosophy states that the human nature is characterized by reason and tolerance. He believed that in the state of nature all men where equal and independent. Further more Locke believed that it is every ons right to protect his rights of life liberty and property. He states that people govern to govern their lives by using reason, and do not need a common superior, or leader. The state of war occurs when people try to force things on others, and it was Locke’s belief that when this occurs, people have the right to wage war because force without right is an adequate basis for the state of war. In order to transition from the state of nature into a civil society, Locke believed that people would innately want to give up their natural freedom in order to assure protection for their lives, liberties, and property. Locke claimed that the most efficient form of government for a civil society would be one that is run by the majority of people with common views, and that the individual, when entering into this society would submit to the will of the majority and follow the rules set forth by it. In transitioning from the state of nature to a civil society, Locke stated that the state of nature differed from a civil society because it lacked â€Å"an established, settled, known law; a known, and different judge; and power to back and support the sentence†. In order to complete this transition into a civilized society, the individual has to relinquish certain natural rights. These rights include the right to do what they wanted within the bounds of the laws of nature, and the power to punish the crimes committed against natural law. Both rights are given up in order to put oneself under the protection of the executive power of the civil society. According to Locke, it is a transfer of these rights to the civil society. Lock states that there will be â€Å"a law, a judge, and [an] executive working to no other end, but the peace, safety, and public good of the people. † Locke’s ideals were considered to be very progressive at the time of their creation and based on the principles of equality and government working to the advantages of the people. After entering into a civil society, Locke stated that the government of the commonwealth, using the element of a majority, should have a single legislative body that was used for the creation of laws. Locke suggests many types of governments such as Democracy, or Oligarchy, but he never states that one is better then the other. This again is another difference in the views between Locke and Hobbes. While Hobbes favored one single person to have the divine power to rule, Locke stated that the power to create law should rest within a majority legislative body and that the law created by it should be absolute. No other body could create laws of its own, and every member of society and the commonwealth must abide by the laws that were created by the legislative majority. While the legislation is an absolute governing body, it does in fact have limits as well. Locke states that the legislative body must govern by fixed laws that apply equally to everyone, and that the laws that are designed are to be done solely for the good of the people; lastly, the legislative body cannot increase taxes on property owners with out the people’s consent. John Locke and Thomas Hobbes ideas about common law governments help to explain, at least from a philosophical ideal, the evolution of man from the animal age to the enlightened seventeenth century in which they resided in. While I believe the critical difference between their views is the amount of power they each placed in the idea of a sovereign power, they also shared many other different ideals, such as the state of nature in which people resided, and their ideas of how people living in the commonwealth should relinquish their rights. However, one crucial element of commonality should be noted that existed between Locke and Hobbes. Even though many of their ideals differed their end result was the same; the common good of the people. Though they both may differ on how this plan works, they are able to base at the crux of each of their arguments, the essential need for reason in man’s life, and how we as a race are able to better ourselves through the tools of reason and government. Work cited: Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. first edition . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909. Print. Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government . 22/04/2003: n. pag. Web. 18 May 2011. http://epublish. biz/pdf/Two_Treatises_of_Government. pdf.

Politics and The Death Penalty :: the anti-death penalty position

The question regarding whether the United States should implement the death penalty as a form of punishment is a heated issue in American politics. The topic is so divisive because it deals with death, which is permanent. Life is valued in every society, and when life is taken away, emotions rise. Most human beings maintain a strong underlying fear of dying, so they wish to prevent their own death, especially their murder, at any cost. Furthermore, since crime is a prevalent problem in the U.S., Americans yearn for a successful way to reduce the homicide rate. However, most Americans do not favor the use of the death penalty when other options, such as life in prison without parole plus restitution, are presented (Dieter). By comparing the empirical and moral claims of the arguments in favor and against the use of the death penalty, we suggest that the presidential candidate take a cautiously anti-death penalty stance. The key issues involve whether the U.S. should sustain the current death penalty system, abolish it in favor of life in prison without parole plus restitution, or only reform the system to make it less costly and free of class, racial, and mental illness discrepancies. Many people have a stake in the issue. Organizations such as Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union are against the death penalty because they claim it is a cruel and unusual form of punishment, while other groups such as the National Center for Policy Analysis support the death penalty because they believe that life sentences do not deter homicide. Furthermore, victims’ families have a stake in the issue because they deserve justice for their murdered loved ones, and convicted murders have a stake because their own lives are in jeopardy as they sit on death row. Most importantly, all the citizens of the United States are involved in the matter, since the way in which we punish crime af fects public safety. Death penalty supporters believe that capital punishment is the only sure way to deter murderers from committing murders again. â€Å"The argument that murderers are the least likely of all criminals to repeat their crimes is not only irrelevant, but also increasingly false. Six percent of young adults paroled in 1978 after having been convicted of murder were arrested for murder again with six years of release† (Death Penalty Paper).

Product Market Analysis Essay

In 1873, Adolph Coors and Jacob Schueler, both German immigrants established Golden, Colorado brewery. In 1880, Coors bought out his partner and became the sole owner of Coors Brewing Company. Today Molson Coors Brewing Company is the third largest brewing company in the United States (Molson Coors, 2013). In 1990, Coors Brewing introduced Coors Rocky Mountain Spring Water. The product was short lived and was taken off the market in 1992 after only two years. There are a few problems with the marketing and advertising of this product. To remarket this product I would start with the use of various types of media communication. Television, radio, magazine, and other social media outlets would be take advantage of. Television and radio commercials will be broadcast during sporting event on the major sports networks. The focus on the sports and outdoor community will be the main target. The Coors Company did not target these markets with their product. Magazines advertisements will be added to outdoor and sporting magazines. The product will be advertised on social Medias such as Facebook and Twitter. Facebook also gives the option of paying for more advertisement. This can triple the products reach more than 1000 different views a day. The advertisement for this product was limited to television and magazines. The problem with the television is that Coors was tried to target their beer drinking customer. The times the commercials were aired were during the same times that beer commercials. The customer base that they were reaching limited the exposure. That consumer base is not interested in the Rocky Mountain Spring Water unless is has the rest of the ingredients in it. The big issue that this product has is in the name. Coors Rocky Mountain Spring Water makes you think of the alcoholic beverages that they are known for. This alone discouraged those who do not drink or those too young to drink. In 1987, the average person would consume 4.5 gallons of bottled water per year. That grew in 1997 to 12.7 gallons per person. There an no reason why with that much increase in the consumption of bottled water this product did  not take off (Natural Resource Defense Council, 2013). This product has a simple fix. First, it is important that we change the name of the product. At the least drop the Coors of the name, Rocky Mountain Spring Water. This will still bring in the loyal customers to the Coors product. Any true fan on Coors will remember that Coors is made by Rocky Mountain Spring Water. This will also disassociate the product from the alcoholic beverages. The original product was bottled in glass bottles. This could also hinder the sales of the product. The glass bottles are heavy and harder to store. Change the glass bottles into plastic bottles. This will cut down on the price of the product and make it easier to carrier. The next step would be to us media to get the product out to the public. We need to bring more advertisements to television and radio during sporting events. Advertising online can be done in many different ways. There are ways to reach online customer by e-mail or online advertisements. Facebook, Netflix, and a podcasts offer advertisements during interaction with their services. Online magazines and newspapers also offer advertisements while on the websites. Facebook has more than one billion people who us its services monthly. People spend an average of six hours and 35 minutes a month. Because of the way Facebook works it has a 94% targeting accuracy. This is highly effective when trying to reach the target market (Facebook, 2013). Internet radio is a great way to reach people. Internet radio accounts for 23% of the average weekly listening time among consumer between the ages of 13 and 35. 49% of US consumers listen to Internet radio 30 minutes prior to going into a store and the average online listener will listen almost 12 hours a week (Factbrowser, 2013). All these things I have listed will help to increase the public awareness for the product. The more the public is aware of the product, the more attention it will receive. In 2012 9.67 billion gallons of bottled water was consumed in the U.S. That was up from the 9.1 billion gallons that was consumed in 2011. Despite the efforts of some activist people are still turning to bottled water, and it is showing in the marketplace. References Facebook. (2013, Summer). The Power of Facebook Advertising. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/business/power-of-advertising Factbrowser. (2013, Fall). Research discovery engine. Retrieved from http://www.factbrowser.com/tags/radio/?page=2 Molson Coors. (2013, November). MolsonCoors. Retrieved from http://www.molsoncoors.com/en/Index.aspx Natural Resource Defense Council. (2013, July 15). Bottled Water. Retrieved from http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/bw/chap2.asp

Economic Growth and Financial Development

There are three views about the relation between economic growth and financial development. First, financial development has impact on economic growth (i. e. Bagehot, 1873; Schumpeter, 1912; McKinnon, 1973; Shaw, 1973; Patrick, 1966; Goldsmith, 1969; Fry, 1973). Second, economic growth leads to financial development and that where there is economic growth financial development follows (i. e. Robinson, 1952). The third view, however, contends that both financial development and economic growth Granger cause one another.In the essay, our group focus on the first view which financial development will has passive influence on economic growth. During the year from 1955 to 1993, many scholars has study the relationship between financial development and economic growth. Along with the time goes, the theory that financial development will real promote economic growth has been more and more prefect. In the years between 1950s and 1960s, economists such as Gurley and Shaw began to stress the c redit markets and the importance of financial intermediaries, which they believed play an important role in economy. 5] They argued that tradition monetary transmission mechanism ignores the factor of financial structure and financial flow and only pays attention to the total amount of money and the connection of the output. In 1955, Gurley and Shaw bring up the development of financial institution is both a determined and determining variable in the growth process. (Gurley and Shaw, 1995, p. 532). Gurley and Shaw stressed that financial intermediaries exert influence on credit supply rather than money supply.In this way, financial intermediaries improve the efficiency of savings turning into investments and then affect the whole economic activities. They are the earliest scholars to study in-depth the relationship between financial and economic development in developing countries. Gurley and Shaw pointed out that the main access road of monetary policy transmission probably have di verted from money quantity, which is traditionally thought as the medium of exchange.Whereas, the â€Å"financial capability† of economy would has a closer relationship with the gross expenditure. They put forward financial development enhances the intermediation of loanable funds and therefore growth will be stimulated and they have a debt-intermediation view. The Debt-intermediation view establishes relations between finance and growth. First, economic growth would be associated with financial development, as external indirect finance provides surplus units with the capacity to spend beyond their earnings.Second, growth would stimulate and be stimulated by the â€Å"institutionalisation of saving and investment†; income grows, richer wealth-holders will increase their desire to diversify their asset portfolio. If financial innovation is such to accommodate this â€Å"diversification demand†, financial institutions can enhance their lending capacity and thus bo ost growth; the process becomes a cycle. Gurley and Shaw has earlier pointed that the growing importance of NBFI (non-bank financial intermediaries) when they discussed their activities about potentially serious problems for monetary management and monetary policy. 1] Subsequent analysis of the problems had to two results. [2] First, if the monetary authorities exerted control over the financial system through the operating of the financial markets, monetary management would not be undermined. [3] Second, which placed specific restrictions on banks, at that time the dominant financial entities, the growing role of NBFI was stimulated in part by the opportunities for intermediation created by monetary policy measures.These contributions stressed the relevance for financial â€Å"deepening† (mean financial development) of rising wealth and income, then attempts to control the activities of financial intermediaries. Wealth and income incent the demand for financial services. Res trictions and Controls on financial intermediaries create the stimulation for further financial intermediation by generatingâ€Å"quasi-rents† that risk among participants in financial and capital markets and reflect differences in information. 4] However, Gurley and Shaw do not address the issue of causality between financial development and economic growth. In 1966, Patrick make the causality issue is addressed, he posed theâ€Å"stage of development† hypothesis, where the direction of causality between financial development and economic growth changes over the course of development. [6] Two hypotheses are developed, one is Demand-following hypothesis: a causal relationship from real to finance and the other is Supply-leading hypothesis: a causal relationship from finance to growth.The supply-leading hypothesis supposes a causal relationship from financial development to economic growth, which means mature creation of financial institutions and markets increases the supply of financial services, and thus leads to real economic growth. Patrick suggests that initial development is spurred by supply-leading process, which gives way to demand-following process. He posed financial institutions and services emerge as demand for those services unfolds. The idea is that finance is passive in the growth process, but lack of financial institutions may prevent growth to occur.Financial institutions and their services precede the emergence of demand; government support is needed to finance and nascent modern sector, such as subsidized loans, information to small business and long loan durations. He points out the importance of finance in economic growth. The difficulty of establishing the link between financial development and economic growth was first identified by Patrick (1966), he argued that a higher rate of financial growth is positively correlated with successful real growth. [7] In his theory, commercial banks may issue banknotes and accept â€Å" easy† collaterals. Easy loan† can induce economic growth, for it can finance innovation-type investment, however, in fact it can also induce irresponsible borrowing. Since the important work of Patrick, that first postulated a bi-directional relationship between financial development and economic growth. A large empirical literature has emerged testing this hypothesis as the Patrick's (1966) problem remains unresolved: What is the cause and what is the effect? Is finance a leading sector in economic development, or does it simply follow growth in real output which is generated elsewhere. References: [1] de Oliviera Campos, R. 1964) â€Å"Economic Development and Inflation with Special Reference to Latin America† in Development Plans and Programmes Paris: Organisation for Cooperation and Development [2] Duesenberry, J. S. and M. F. McPherson (1991) â€Å"Monetary Management in Sub-Saharan Africa† HIID Development Discussion Papers no. 369, January [3] Friedm an, M. (1973) Money and Economic Development The Horowitz Lectures of 1972 New York: Praeger Publishers [4] Malcolm F. McPherson and Tzvetana Rakovski (1999) â€Å"Financial Deepening and Investment in Africa: Evidence from Botswana and Mauritius†, Copyright 1999 Malcolm F.McPherson, Tzvetana Rakovski, and President and Fellows of Harvard College [5] Liu Pan Xie Tao (2006) The Monetary Policy Transmission in China-â€Å"Credit Channel† And Its Limitations, Working Papers of the Business Institute Berlin at the Berlin School of Economics (FHW-Berlin) [6] Anthony P. Wood and Roland C. Craigwell Financial Development and Economic Growth: Testing Patrick’s Hypothesis for Three Caribbean Economies [7] Philip Arestis (2005) FINANCIAL LIBERALISATION AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FINANCE AND GROWTH, University of Cambridge

History of Social Thought essays

History of Social Thought essays On October 27, 1994, Susan Smith watched her burgundy Mazda Protege roll into the watery depths of John D. Long Lake carrying her two sons, Michael, 3, and his 14-month-old brother, Alexander Henderson and Fields 1995). One can only wonder what could have caused a mother to intentionally murder her two beautiful baby boys. The motive seemed to be that Susan Smiths wealthy boyfriend did not want the children. She also stated in her handwritten confession that she knew he would never love her (Smith 1994). I can only speculate that she meant he would never love her as long as she had children. However, I believe that Susan must have been deeply disturbed to commit such a horrible In order to better understand this unthinkable act, I chose to use the psychoanalytic theory from the psychological perspective. I think this theory can describe Susans behavior better than the cognitive consistency theory because the id, ego, and super-ego seem to observe mental processes more than the cognitive consistency theory does. Using the cognitive consistency theory would make it more difficult to observe the mental processes of Susan Smith that I believe are necessary to understand this crime (Lecture notes, psychological perspective, cognitive consistency theory). I will also use the social learning theory under the behavioral perspective because I believe positive and negative reinforcement can make it more clear as to why Susan Smith killed her children. I chose not to use the social exchange theory because, in this case, Susan Smith is not negotiating anything as social exchange theory explains. It also tends to be a hedonistic view of the human (Lecture notes, behavioral perspective, social exchange theory, 2000). The last theory that will be discussed from the sociological perspective is the role theory. I believe that it is a most obvious concept that Susan S...

An Example Of Transition Economy Economics Essay

An Example Of Transition Economy Economics Essay Around 1.21 billion people currently living in India, which is about 17.4% of the global population or one, can say 2.4 per cent of world GDP in US dollar terms and 5.5 % in PPP terms. The universal wellbeing too is linked to progress in India as reflected in the eager global interest in India. But, India seems to instigate and disappoint at the same time. Where some countries raced ahead in the development process, India lagged behind. It took 40 long years for India’s real per capita GDP to double from 1950-1951 to 1990-91. But, for India 1991-92 was a significant moment in modern economic history because of a severe balance of payments catastrophe prompted far accomplishment economic reforms, unlocking its growth potential, and the result was that in only 15 years, India’s per capita income doubled again by 2006-07. If India will maintain its current growth rate then, India’s per capita income could definitely double by 2017-18 in next some years. The key pol icy reforms since 1991-92, reviewing the economic progress made so far Policy Reforms before 1991 Macroeconomic crisis of 1991 discernible a turning point in India’s economic history for two reasons. First, fiscal arrears driven external payment mishap with a dip in foreign exchange reserves to below US$ 1 billion in 1991. Second, concurrently efforts were made towards wide ranging structural reforms surrounding areas of trade, management of exchange rates and industry, public finance as well as financial sector. The main objective was to create a competitive environment to improve output and efficiency. New industrial policy fostered competition by Abolishing monopoly restrictions Terminating the phased manufacturing programmers 100% foreign direct investment Import of foreign technology De-reservation of sectors till then reserved for the public sector. Only five industries are under licensing presently, mainly on account of environmental, health, safety and strategic consi deration and two industries are reserved for the public sector and those industries are: ATOMIC ENERGY RAILWAY TRANSPORT Reservation of industrial products for the small scale sector is still an enduring issue. FDI i.e. Foreign Direct Investment up to 100% is allowed under the automatic route in most sectors, but with a few exceptions. The infrastructure sector is being in the hands of private sector. Because of the large requirements of funds for infrastructure, 100% FDI has been allowed in all infrastructure sectors. There are unmitigated tax holidays to encourage the business of development, operation, and maintenance of infrastructure facilities. The monetary policy framework and its operating procedures in India have evolved over time with the changes in the macroeconomic structure and financial markets development. After the deregulation of the financial sector, the stability of money demand became deduce. Because of that, Reserve Banks switched from monetary targeting framewo rk, to a multiple indicator approach. In this approach, many indicators available on a high frequency basis. The various indicators are: Rates of return in different markets Movements in currency, credit, fiscal position, inflation rate, exchange rate etc Refinancing and transactions in foreign exchange The objective for the financial sector was to provide operational litheness and functional self-sufficiency to all the financial institutions so that they could allocate resources more efficiently. Some of the important initiatives in the financial sector were:

No Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

No - Essay Example sis shall in addition provide a discussion on the suggestions of what are to be done in order to improve the profit performance of the industry in the future. The following analyses are the probable reasons for the reduction of the industry’s profit according to the London’s time and tide (2011) newspaper explanation. According to the Excellence Clothing Company journal of 2014, there is a general decrease in base of revenue for the company. The revenue of the industry declined from  £255063 to  £215623 from the years 2013 to 2014. Since profit is a direct related function of revenue, that is profit = revenue – cost (cost of sales). Such a reduction in revenue consequently leads to loss realization or profit decline. There can be quite a number of factors that may lead to such a reduction in revenues. The policies of London have been proved to be ignorant on the clothing industries. The policies have not allowed for any incentive offer to be given to the industry. There are also varieties of stringent restrictive actions imposed by the London policies that have subjected the industry to many operation ceilings (Clutterbuck, & Crainer, 2012). This means that the company cannot operate beyond a certain set level of production even if it has the capacity of doing so. Most of the policies especially those by the London government have imposed huge amount of taxation on the industry in the year 2014. The industry is being taxed hugely in cases where the clothing raw materials to be used are imported. The custom duty to be paid in such cases of raw materials importation have been cutting deep in to the amount of cost expenses that are to be paid by the industry. The company is as well expected to be paying excise duties monthly and submitting their returns for excise duty charges. The above mentioned costs of taxation are of a negative impact to the industries revenues. Since such costs have to be paid by the industry through making withdrawals and deductions

E-Business and its Rules Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

E-Business and its Rules - Essay Example Then PCs are assembled on customer demands and shipped-sufficed- in 5-10 days (Chopra and Meindl 2010 pp.108-111). Payments are also done online. This paper will seek to describe rules of e-commerce in light of Dell Inc and e-business current trends with their impacts on e-logistics. E-Business Rules Due to the need for companies to have wide, fast and flexible communications there has been the need to implement e-logistics. In the process of implementation of e-logistics, there are some rules of e-business that are to be followed. To illustrate these rules let us consider Dell Inc. In e-business technology is no longer just used to create and offer products but also as a means to make their business more effective in delivering services and products to their clients. Dell in its quest to implement e-logistics has redesigned its business model from the physical retail stores to the application of technology in an online supply channel. This enables it to conducts most of its transact ions with customers with the aid of their website platform where customers can order PCs (Kalakota and Robinson 2001 p.16); (Chopra and Meindl 2010 pp.108-111). ... This has been achieved after it streamlined its supply chains and started selling PCs directly to customers. This has enabled Dell to collect their customer’s preferences and needs information, thus enhancing better-personalized customer services (Kalakota and Robinson 2001 p.14); (Chopra and Meindl 2010 pp.108-111. Companies willing to implement e-logistics must create flexible grouping through integration. This will facilitate efficient customer service as well as reduce expenditures. Dell has benefited much through integrating its transactions on their website. This has led to the reduction of costs outlay in terms of inventory as through the online website they can aggregate their inventories by geographical locations. Since there are no physical retail stores the company reduced its facility and information costs (Kalakota and Robinson 2001 p.24); (Chopra and Meindl 2010 pp.108-111. Firms willing to engage in e-logistics must be willing to do away with ineffective traditi onal business models which are detrimental to their success. This calls for business managers to reorganize and plan their business models all over again to succeed in the e-business. Dell Inc. in order to successfully implement e-logistics it had to leave its old retail supply chain model where it used to assemble PCs and store them waiting to be sold. Currently, it receives orders online from customers and then assembles PCs and ship them (Kalakota and Robinson 2001 p.10); (Chopra and Meindl 2010 pp.108-111). Although Dell Inc. has succeeded in implementing e-logistics, it still experiences hindrances.This is because customers after placing their order they have to wait for 5 to 10 days to receive PCs. E-commerce Trends Change is inevitable, and

Globalization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 20

Globalization - Essay Example Modern infrastructure development has helped bring the dream of globalization closer home. Today, Countries no longer make decisions on their own but guided by international policy. The collaboration between nation states of the world means that we are all responsible for the future of this world together. Globalization has economic grounds. Without the financial gain, there is no globalization. However, economies did not create globalization but globalization largely depends on them. Because of technological advancement, globalization is achievable today. International business can be done all thanks to technological progress easily. Technology infrastructure has improved the way we do business and has positive effects on globalization. (Castells, 2006) Business outside the global perspective kills the business driving home the point each company aims at achieving international standards. The nation state is central to regulating the approach to globalization. The world of today is marred by lots of problem. Most of these problems are an identity-related crisis. Religion is as a platform for the war in the Middle East. Religion is but one of the avenues for globalization and cannot be used to advance national let alone international agendas. It is impossible for a nation to read from a confined script on matters nation and at the same time embrace globalization. The Middle East continued conflict is as a result of shutting off globalization and embracing religious backdrops in everything they do. Such restrictions and backgrounds breed resistance not towards religion alone but fundamentalism Europe and America appreciate the fact that slavery helped built the societies we see today in Europe. Slaves from West Africa worked on sugar plantations in the Caribbean Islands. While the slaves provide the labor, the French provided capital and the English machinery and industry. The three worked hand in hand and eventually saw the industrial revolution.

Effects of Website Attributes on Customer Satisfaction

Effects of Website Attributes on Customer Satisfaction ABSTRACT This study investigates the important attributes of online web stores in e-commerce by examining the possible website elements that determine different aspects of the association between customers satisfaction and e-commerce website attributes. A questionnaire consisting of 24 items was completed by 60 respondents. The instrument for this study was developed on the basis of â€Å"SERVQUAL† using a 5 point Likert scale. There were five independent variables used in the study out of which two were included as a result of stepwise multiple regression model which are: websResponse (accounting for 26.3% of the total variance); and webCustomization (accounting for 5.1% of the total variance). Results of a stepwise regression indicated that two website attributes significantly predict customer satisfaction (31.4% of the combined explained variance). Within the five website attributes in E-commerce website dimension, â€Å"website response† correlated highly with customer satis faction (26.3% of the explained variance). The results of the study indicate that the two website attributes of e-commerce (website response and website customization) impact the customers satisfaction and other three do not have a significant influence. The study concludes with related implications and design guidelines to enhancing customer satisfaction of e-commerce. Effects of website attributes on customer satisfaction in E-commerce SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION The Internet is no longer a niche technology it is mass media and an utterly integral part of modern life. As our lives become more fractured and cluttered, it isnt surprising that consumers turn to the unrivalled convenience of the Internet when it comes to searching and buying product. 1.1 INTROduction to E-COMMERCE The rise of the WWW gives birth to new phenomena in our daily lives, one of which is e-commerce. The internet has played a vital and important part to encourage selling products and services online which makes life convenient for the audiences, which in an inter-connected world, is well, the whole world. E-Commerce is a subset of an overall e-business strategy consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet. E-commerce seeks to add revenue streams using the World Wide Web or the Internet to build and enhance relationships with clients and partners and to improve efficiency. E-commerce has given rise to the concept of completely online shops selling products and services, efficiently catalogued and available for the shoppers convenience. There are several websites that stock everything from lifestyle items, collectibles, books, electronic appliances etc. The level of e-commerce use can be measured by using an e-commerce capability indicator. E-commerce capability indicator by Molla Licker:  § No e-commerce indicates a company without e-mail or an Internet connection.  § Connected e-commerce represents a company that has an Internet connection and e-mail.  § Informational e-commerce indicates a company using a Web site to publish basic information about the company and its products/services in a static manner.  § Interactive e-commerce refers to the ability of users to search the companys product catalogue, make queries, and enter orders.  § Transactional e-commerce allows online selling and purchasing of products or services including online payment and customer service. E-business applications can be divided into three categories. First is an internal business system in which customer relationship management (CRM), Enterprise resource planning (ERP), and Human Resource management (HRM) type of systems are involved. Second is enterprise communication and collaboration such as content management system (CMS), business process management (BPM) and web conferencing etc. Third is e-commerce that includes Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce and Business-to-customer (B2C) e-commerce. Online shopping comes under this category on which this study is conducted. Several e-commerce service providers are available on web that provides professional customized web designing services that suit their clients needs. Some common applications related to electronic commerce are the following:  § Online Shopping (Web Shop)  § Online Banking  § Online Marketing  § CRM etc 1.1.1 Online Shopping Online shopping is the process consumers go through to purchase products or services over the services over the web. Online shopping is a type of business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions. The term web shop also refers to a place of business where web development, web hosting and other types of web related activities take place (Web refers to the World Wide Web and shop has a idiomatic meaning used to describe the place). 1.2 service quality The level of service received on a web site. Dependent on reliability, responsiveness and availability of staff and the web site service. Service quality is comprised of five dimensions. These are:  § Tangibles: appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and written materials (Zeithaml, Bitner Gremler, 2006).  § Reliability: ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.  § Assurance: employees knowledge and courtesy and their ability to inspire trust and confidence.  § Responsiveness: willingness to help customers and provide prompt service.  § Empathy: caring, individualized attention given to customers. 1.2.1 Service quality dimensions in e-commerce systems Lets examine how customers judge the five dimensions of service quality in perspective of e-commerce systems. Tangibles refer to the physical appearance of an e-commerce website, its structure, layout, theme etc and referred as â€Å"website structure†. Reliability represented as â€Å"website adequacy† which provides the relevant and needed information provided by an e-commerce system when customer clicked or requested for. Assurance termed as â€Å"website security† refers as the trustworthy service provider that could include a well reputable website, reliable payments methods etc. Responsiveness is the prompt and relevant response to the specific request of users described by â€Å"website response†. Empathy knows internal customers as individual; understanding individual needs and concerns such as by providing recommendations that matches the customers needs which is termed as â€Å"website customization† in world of web. 1.2.2 service quality framework (SERVQUAL) SERVQUAL was originally measured on 10 aspects of service quality: reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, understanding or knowing the customer and tangibles. By the early nineties the authors had refined the model to the useful acronym RATER.  § Reliability  § Assurance  § Tangibles  § Empathy, and  § Responsiveness SERVQUAL has its detractors and is considered overly complex, subjective and statistically unreliable. The simplified RATER model however is a simple and useful model for qualitatively exploring and assessing customers service experiences and has been used widely by service delivery organizations. 1.2.3 customer satisfaction Customer satisfaction refers to the extent to which customers are happy with the products and services provided by a business. Customer satisfaction levels can be measured using survey techniques and questionnaires. Gaining high levels of customer satisfaction is very important to a business because satisfied customers are most likely to be loyal and to make repeated orders and to use a wide range of services offered by a business. The basic definition of customer satisfaction says that Customer satisfaction is a term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. Customer satisfaction is an abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product or service. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can compare the organizations products or services. 1.3 Customer Satisfaction Based on Perceived service quality of e-commerce systems The overall satisfaction of e-commerce customers can be attained by providing the level of service quality that customers perceive in that system. The five dimensions of service quality are tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The website structure of an e-commerce websites is all about the tangibility dimension. The reliability dimension in this study is measured by the attribute called website adequacy. The website response variable indicates the responsiveness dimension. Website security as another attribute of an e-commerce system refers to the assurance dimension and the empathy dimension described by the website customization The overall customer satisfaction is based on the five service quality dimensions representing various service attributes: tangibility, reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy. The detailed model used in this study is presented in figure A. The website design elements are characterized into five different types which are supposed to influence the five service quality dimensions. This study hypothesizes that some website attributes that are based on service quality dimensions has an impact on an online customer satisfaction. In other words, customers satisfaction level will increase if the e-commerce system provides a higher level of service quality through different website attributes. 1.4 Increased trend of Online surfing and shopping in Pakistan The trend of an online surfing is increasing rapidly due to the increased benefits by the use of e-commerce business environment. People visit e-commerce web sites not only for buying but for several other reasons and the smart retailer just should not only focus on boosting online browse-to-buy conversion rates, but should also try to grab the attention of an online visitors who came in for review so as they could become a customer later. Many people feel it comfortable to review the products through an extensive knowledge provided over the internet before actually buying a particular product. For this purpose, e-commerce website provides an interface to the buyers to write their reviews and share their after-purchase experiences. Thus, the e-commerce systems reduce the time and efforts required for the first step of information search in consumer decision making process. That is, by just few clicks a consumer can have a concise analysis for what matches his/her needs. There are some factors emerged as a results of the changes in lifestyle and habits of consumer which has promoted the trend of online searching and shopping in Pakistan. Some of these factors are lack of time, need of convenience and easy access to the desired object. Moreover, e-commerce websites facilitates the visitor in many ways to boost up online browse-to-buy conversion rate. Whenever a new customer lands on an e-commerce website, he/she must be having many questions in their minds regarding the products and services. A well-framed ecommerce site has an enquiry page for their customers. This gives the chance to the visitor to post an enquiry with your site. Main aim of this page is to gather all relevant and necessary information from the customers so that they can be given response in an apt manner. Within the past decade, e-commerce has matured and grown exponentially. The result: now there are many types of e-commerce payment methods available online. If your credit is bad and you cannot afford a merchant account, there are alternative methods of payments on e-commerce websites which can help you. The e-commerce systems give customers controlled access to the data they need. In other words, not only are you managing your relationship with your customers, you are giving your customers the tools to manage their relationship with you. THESIS STRUCTURE This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the problem about which the research was carried out and in general about the trends of online shopping in Pakistan. Chapter 2 is about the literature review and the theoretical background is developed. In Chapter 3, researcher describes the methodology adopted including sources of information and data collection procedure is discussed. In chapter 4, the empirical data collected through questionnaire is analyzed and results are concluded on the basis of a survey. In Chapter 5, Conclusions are drawn and necessary recommendations are suggested. 1.5 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM â€Å"Effects of website attributes on customer satisfaction in e-commerce.† The main purpose of this research is to find out the different attributes which encourage consumers to visit, search and shop on a particular website. 1.6 OBJECTIVE The purposes of this study are as follows: To identify the most important website element of e-commerce with respect to the customer satisfaction. To examine what is important to the customer regarding website attributes in e-commerce with perspective of website builders. 1.6.1 Possible Research Findings The research will also provide the following significances.  § Help the organization to better understand what customers expect in e-commerce and how those expectations impact customer attitude.  § The study will examine what the customer views as major attributes of website in e-commerce.  § Able to investigate the major customer attitudes associated with website structure in e-commerce.  § The study will indicate the link between the website attributes and the customer attitudes. 1.7 HYPOTHESES H1: Website structure has a significant association with customer satisfaction. H2: Website adequacy has a significant association with customer satisfaction. H3: Website security has a significant association with customer satisfaction. H4: Website response has a significant association with customer satisfaction. H5: Website customization has a significant association with customer satisfaction. SECTION 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction to e-commerce: The propagation of WWW has originated few facts in our daily lives, one of which is e-commerce. A transaction between two or more participants through an electronic medium is defines as e-commerce (Kalacota and Whinston 1997). As an e-commerce is rapidly raising field, therefore for accomplishing success in this market, a top quality information system is necessary (Margherio et al. 1998). An e-commerce system is designed by selectively integrating many technical (e.g. search system) or managerial (e.g. the level of information related to product) design elements (Lohse and Spiller 1998). It is still very difficult, if not impossible; to make use of all the design factors presently available for the e-commerce system although many design factors have been suggested to improve the overall quality of e-commerce system (Selz and Schubert 1997, Lohse and Spiller 1998). This is because of the recent arrival of new design factors resulted by an increase in the interest of Internet (Selz and Schubert 1997). The main goal of this paper is to explore important design elements that have significant influence on the customer satisfaction regarding the performance of e-commerce systems. In this paper, the study presents a conceptual model of e-commerce websites that includes concrete design elements, perceived level of website quality and the customer satisfaction (JINWOO KIM and JUNGWON LEE 2002). There is remarkable potential for e-commerce in developing countries. Online shopping makes it easy to find things, merchants and best offerings and thus economical in terms of time and effort offerings (Balasubramanian, 1997). According to the Malone et al (1989) communicating a same piece of information through communication networks results in decreased cost and improved speed. There is tremendous potential for e-commerce in developing countries because the use of an e-commerce can potentially reduce transaction costs. As per Malone et al (1989) observation, the search costs such as cost of identifying a market (from where to buy a product) and /or a product or service are likely to reduce with the use of e-commerce systems and can be defined as potential e-commerce cost savings. From an organizations perspective, e-commerce systems provide the organization with the better market reach and an ability to provide their customer a customized service that suits their individual needs and preferences. For example the exchange between â€Å"richness† and â€Å"reach† can be minimized by e-commerce (Evans Wurster, 2000). Richness refers to the quality and quantity of information in terms of accuracy, relevance, customization, etc. and reach measures the number of people who can be got in touch with that information. 2.2 Service quality dimensions: The overall customer satisfaction can be measured by the level of service quality of an e-commerce system that customer perceives. Some researchers (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry 1988) stated that consumer satisfaction or dissatisfaction is as an ancestor of service quality. Conversely, modern evidence recommends that it is an outcome of service quality (Woodside, Frey and Daly 1989; Cronin and Taylor 1992). Service quality attributes are the most important factors for the success of an e-commerce systems For example Liu and Arnett (2000) found that organizations that involve in e-commerce can only ensure the success of their system by keenly looking for the ways to improve their service quality. The customers decision whether to continue using a particular e-commerce system is based on the perceived quality of service (Bhattacherjee 2001) as the service quality impacts the overall satisfaction of a customer. Tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy are the five dimensions of service quality. (Parasuraman et al. 1985, 1991, Pit et al. 1995). The tool that is being used in this study to measure the dimensions of service quality is SERVQUAL According to Brown et al. this instrument has been proved valid and reliable and hence used in various domains. (Brown et al.1993, Fisk et al. 1993, Parasuraman et al. 1985, 1993). On the basis of previous researches, service quality despite being a main interesting field in services marketing for the past two decades (Zeithaml et al., 2000); electronic service quality is still in its early stages in research area. Reil el al in 2001concluded that there has been no theoretical conceptualization emerged for customer evaluation of electronic services that could have been accepted generally. Cox and Dale (2001) has supported this conception by the fact that most out of the dominant research on service quality cannot even be valid to e-business environment. By the year 2002, the existing studies on the determinants of electronic service quality were based on measuring B2C interactions (Gilbert, 2000; Barnes and Vidgens 2000, 2001 and 2002) and few exploratory researches on website quality and e-service quality by Zeithaml et al. In early stages of service quality research, researcher were required to find out what is service quality from customers perspective (Sasser et al.,1979; Lehtinen and Lehtinen,1982; Gronroos,1982). It was normally approved that the judgment of service quality came from comparisons between what customers feel a service provider should offer (expectations) and the actual service performance of the company (perceptions) (Zeithaml et al., 2000). This view was reinforced by Parasuraman Zeithaml (2000) and Berry (1985) in their study of service quality in different service industries with which they discussed the concept of service quality as a function of expectations-perception gap. Parasuraman et als, identified the 10 dimensions that customer uses in their assessment of service quality. These 10 service quality dimensions then shaped the source for the development of a scale (SERVQUAL) to measure service quality in direct service interactions. Research extended in other context and as a result refined the scale and reduced it to 5 dimensions (reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles) Since the SERVQUAL scale has been widely used to measure service quality in many studies across a range of settings (IS Departments; Airlines; Universities; Ocean Freight Shipping; Professional Services; Health Providers; International Markets; Purchasing; Advertising; Banking; E-commerce). Initially the concept of services were created to capture the nature of service encounters (Meuter et al., 2000) which may not be sufficient to capture the characteristics of customer interactions with self-service technologies such as e-services (Dabholkar et al.,1996). Later on, many approaches have been proposed to study online service. (Gilbert, 2000; Gronroos et al., 2000; Parasuraman and Grewel, 2000; Kaynama and Black, 2000; Zeithaml, et al., 2000; ONeill, et al., 2001) proposed the use of existing service theory as a first type. The second type utilizes generated new categories for self-service technologies such as e-services (Szymanski and Hise, 2000; van Riel, et al., 2001; Wang and Tang, 2001; Ruyter et al., 2001). Third type develops information systems and web quality theory (Barnes and Vidgen, 2000; 2001; 2002; Aladwani and Palvia, 2001). These researches have centered on customer interactions with a variety of self-service technologies such as automated call centre technology, ATMs and Web sites and touch screen technologies. A redefined SERVQUAL instrument to measure the service expectations and perceptions of customers of Internet businesses was used by Gilbert in 2000 in which he concluded that to measure online service quality, the altered SERVQUAL scale was a practical instrument. The features that are useful, accurate, relevant and comprehensive information reflect the reliability of quality information (Bailey and Pearson 1983). Bailey and Pearson (1983) also identified that website reliability depends on to what level the information provided on the website about the product or service is true, precise and also depend to what level a customer can rely on a particular website that it provides enough amount of information available regarding each product. (Luedi 1997) stated that website personalization based on the ability of website to deliver individualized interface for a specific user which generated dynamically as per users needs. This may involve making purchase recommendations and /or providing the list of other relevant products that matchs the customer needs. This can be extracted through the previous data available regarding an individual user such as buying behavior, cart items and the current session contents. Providing customized services is the best way to create a loyal customer and make repeat visits on a website Luedi (1997). The concern over security continues to plague the online world. Variables like perceived security, reputation were included in this study to examine the customer attitude towards buying process. Even though the understanding of credit card transactions perceived secure like a waiters and waitresses, still security is the top concern of people who shop online (Salisbury et at. 2001, Luo 2002. Wilson and Abel 2002). Likewise security is the reason why people do not shop online (Luo 2002). The research variable of Security reflects trust in the online system and the variable reputation reflects trust in the specific vendor. Discovering whether vendors receive repeat business reflects the overall buying attitude of consumers. Overall customer satisfaction at online shopping measures which attributes helps the website meets expectations. 2.3 Website elements: The first phase of consumer decision making process that is the information search starts the minute customers look at the interface of e-commerce website and ends until they decide whether to place the purchase order or not (Schmid 1995). The role of website structure remains important during the phase of information search process such as site maps, navigation, content settings and layout of website etc. The content, structure and website elements should be portrayed explicitly on the e-commerce interface. Website structure that includes the presentation of design elements determines how the information is actually displayed on the screen to acquire the customer attention (Morris and Hinrich 1996). Convenient website structure defined as to what extent a customer feels that the e-commerce website is user friendly, simple and instinctive. (Ki-Han and Shin, 2008) Website adequacy describes the quality and quantity of the information provided in the e-commerce system. Content based on usefulness and comprehensiveness involves the type and scope of information to be included in the system (Morris and Hinrich 1996, Kim et al 1997). After the collection of appropriate information regarding the identified products or services, the contents must be placed in a well organized manner so that the customer can understand the interface easily (Gronroos 1982, Rosenfeld and Morville 1998). A well-defined and properly placed content is a feature of website which indicates the ability to made information easily available to visitors (Ki-Han and Shin, 2008). When adequate and reliable information has been properly dispersed across different web pages within the structure of the e-commerce website, an efficient interaction system must be provided to enable the customer to switch between different pages easily (Kim and Yoo 2000, Park and Kim 2000). Ballantine (2005) has found the impact of interactivity and product related information on customer satisfaction in an online trade setting. He argued in his study that the amount of product-related information affected consumer satisfaction of online shopping. An important design element that relates to the interaction system includes the involvement of website response and website customization ability. Website Customization is referred as the extent to which an e-commerce website can identify a customer and then modify the choice of products and shopping experience for that customer (Srinivasan et al., 2002). Cook and Coupey (2001) in their research argued that the improved accessibility of information on internet is likely to result in informed customers. And educated customers are able to make better quality decisions and will then experience more satisfaction with the visits and purchases they make. The connection between all of the five individual variables describes the basic architecture of web pages (Steinmetz and Nahrsted, 1995). The overall satisfaction of e-commerce customers can be attained by providing the level of service quality that customers perceive in that system. Satisfied customers have more potential to spread positive word-of-mouth (Gremler and Brown, 1999), and they avail further services (Zeithaml et al., 1996). The five dimensions of service quality are tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy (Parasuraman et al. 1985, 1991, Pit et al. 1995). Attributes related to the website structure such as physical appearance of e-commerce websites are represented by tangibility dimension. For example, the tangibility measures the appeal of the website design of e-commerce system presents to their customers. The ability of the website to provide the dependable, accurate service is represented by reliability dimension. (Pit et al. 1995). For example, the reliability dimension measures how often an e-commerce system provides useful and comprehensive information regarding the relevant products or services. The responsiveness dimension indicates how prepared the website is to promptly response the customer with the clicked option. (Parasuraman et al. 1991). For example, the responsiveness dimension measures how often an ecommerce system voluntarily provides services that are important to its customers such as less loading time. Or it can be measured by how often a website provides accurate and rich information after a user clicked a particular product. The trust and confidence encouraged in the customer by the information provided on e-commerce system refers to the assurance dimension (Parasuraman et al. 1991). For example, the assurance dimension can be measured by extent to which a website is able to give a secure feeling to an online buyer. The empathy dimension described as the individual attention to the customer that is being provided by the dynamic e-commerce website (Pit et al. 1995). For example this dimension measures how often an ecommerce system voluntarily offers recommendations that match to its customers needs in order to provide the individual customers benefit. In summary, the overall quality of an e-commerce system can be measured by the service quality level perceived by its customers and ultimately leads to the customer satisfaction (JINWOO KIM and JUNGWON LEE, 2002). Parasuraman, Zeithaml et al. (1988, 1991) in study on SERVQUAL found that the interactive elements of e-commerce systems are e-business features that help in building relationships with customer and are fall into five main sets that are tangibles, reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy. Due to the consistency of research findings stated in literature, it become easy to propose that the five main determinants of e-commerce include website structure, website adequacy, website security, website response and website customization (D. HORN, R. FEINBERG and G. SALVENDY, 2005). In an e-business structure, the customer interaction with the business is through the e-commerce website. Therefore, several original SERVQUAL items were modified to focus on e-commerce website. The definition of an empathy dimension was extended to include personalization or customization, which is the concept of web gurus as they believe the emotional connection between customer and web business (Peppers et al. 1999). The overall appearance and structure of e-commerce website shows its tangibility. The performance of promised services and adequacy of information explains the reliability of an e-commerce website. Responsiveness is the ability of e-commerce system to help and provide prompt response to the website user. The individualized attention and customized service provided by the e-commerce system to an individual customer is described as empathy. Security is the trust on an e-commerce system in protecting personal and financial information (D. HORN, R. FEINBERG and G. SALVENDY, 2005). The major factors that impact the customer attitude are the five main attributes of e-commerce system. The model in Figure 1 describes how these attributes of e-commerce system work together to achieve customer satisfaction. The satisfaction/dissatisfaction of customer is defined as an emotional response to a specific consumption experience (Swan and Oliver 1989). It is determined by to what extent a consumer perceives that the service fulfills his/her needs, wants or desires. Satisfaction is a â€Å"state† inconsistent in that a consumer can be â€Å"very dissatisfi