Hamptonshire Express Case Essay

1. a. The simulation indicates that 584 is the optimum stocking quantity. Daily profit at this stocking quantity is $331.4346. b. Using the newsvendor model, Cu = 1 – 0.2 = 0.8 and Co = .2. Cu /(Cu + Co) = .8. Using the spreadsheet, we found Q* = NORM.INV(.8,500,100) = 584.16. The simulation and newsvendor model give the same optimal stocking quantity. 2. a. According to the simulation spreadsheet, 4 hours of investment in creation maximizes daily profit at $371.33. b. Sheen would choose an effort level where the marginal benefit gained by the effort is equal to her marginal cost of expending the effort. To calculate the effort level, h, we equalize marginal cost and marginal benefit. Here (.8 * 50) / (2√h) = 10. Solving gives h = 4, or the same as the simulation. c. The optimal profit derived in this scenario is $371.33 per day, which is a $40 increase from the profit derived in problem #1, of $331.43. 3. a. Using the spreadsheet, Ralph’s optimal stocking quantity to maximize his profit is 516. b. The optimal stocking quantity differs from problem #2 because Ralph is incurring the cost of overstocking, which changes the critical ratio from .8 in problem #2 to .2. Because of the critical ratio change, Anna’s profit decreases as Ralph’s increases. This is consistent with the Newsvendor Model, which gives Cu=.2, Co=.8, for a critical ratio of .2. Using the formula in the spreadsheet, Q*=NORM.INV(.2,600,100)=515.837, gives the optimal stocking quantity of 516. c. Assuming that we only use whole numbers for her amount of time, Anna’s optimal effort is 2 hours with a profit of $261.93, a decrease from problem #2 of 4 hours. This is because Anna is now sharing her profit. d. If you decrease the transfer price, Anna’s effort level also decreases, and Ralph will increase his stocking quantity, adding to his profit. Anna’s effort level decreases because her profit decreases when Ralph buys the newspapers for less than $0.80. When the transfer price increases, the opposite occurs; Anna’s effort level increases and there is a decrease in Ralph’s stocking quantity and profit. 4. a. The optimal stocking quantity is 409 according to the spreadsheet in the simulation, which is a decrease from 516 in problem #3 because in the event that the Express stocks out, Ralph still makes a profit from 40% of  customers who will buy the Private. Therefore, because he makes more profit off of the Private, his risk decreases because of cost of understocking of the Express. b. For problems #1 and #2 there were no profitable alternatives to understocking, whereas in problem #3, Ralph has a profitable alternative for understocking since 40% of customers will buy the Private. The different critical ratios from each problem produce a different optimal stocking quantity. c. This decreases his optimal stocking quantity because Ralph is allocating $0.03 to the cost of each newspaper, making his cost of understocking now 1-.83-40%*.4=.01. Co=.83 Critical ratio 0.01/.83= 0.012 According to the data, the optimal stocking quantity is Q*=NORMINV(.012,500,100). 5. a. A lower buy-back price means a lower stocking quantity, because it affects the cost of overstocking. Ralph wants to stock a lower quantity in order to lower his risk of overstocking. The optimal buy-back price is $0.75, which gives a stocking quantity of 659 and channel profits of $369.80. b. The optimal transfer price is $0.99, giving a buy-back price of $0.988, and channel profits of $372.62. However, this is an unrealistic scenario because Ralph’s profits are negative at -$24 and Anna is making almost the full $1 price on each sale. The channel profit is very close to the $371.33 profit from problem #2. This is because the transfer price is almost the same as the selling price to customers of $1, eliminating Anna’s cost of under or overstocking. c. If Ralph had to pay a franchise fee, he would no longer have an incentive to understock. Anna’s effort would remain the same because the marginal benefit of her effort would not change given the additional fixed profit from Ralph’s fee.

Consumer Attitudes and Purchase Intentions in Relation to Organic Foods

Research Proposal Consumer Attitudes and Purchase Intentions in Relation to Organic Foods in Peninsula Malaysia Abstract The aim of this study is to find out the three (3) significant variables forming the positive attitude towards the buying the organic food in Peninsula Malaysia, which eventually lead to the ultimate intention in buying the organically-produced food. The different variables are focused on demographic characteristics on household income, product attributes and lastly the perceived value to the customers. This study shows that the household income is seemingly appeared to be an important predictor among the targeted segmentation in consuming organic food. Organic food attributes such as pricing, availability and environmentally friendliness of such organic food may influence consumer buying decision. Lastly, the perceived value from the customers towards organic food on its health effects, sensory appeal, nutrition-worth and belief of perceived benefits, often play an important role in cultivating the intention towards buying organic food. Introduction and Background of the Study Over the last two decades, there has been a remarkable increase in demand for organic-produced food or products. Organic food is often seen and marketed as health-conscious food which contains fewer contaminants, more nutrients and most importantly having a positive effect on the environment. It is known that some of these attributes are difficult to quantify, with the contrary that some of researcher has proved that they may cause such potential harm during the organic production. The organic market back in 80’s, while remaining a niche sector, has grown to be able to grab a share from the total spending on food in some countries in the recent years. Organic fruit and vegetables are amongst the products which have been expanding in the rapid production. The demand for organically-produced meat and dairy products has undergone the same rapid progress, with a corresponding increase in the need for organically grown forage and feed crops. This has led to a fast growth in consumer demand whereby the organic food sales have managed to gain a significant market share in the conventional food industry. The market for organically produced crops and commodities has become more structured, looking at the increased number of countries which have adopted uniform standards for organic food production. The standardization has also applied in the organic certification and labelling. While both the production and the marketing of the organic cultivation of temperate crops have developed, there is a trend to be seen whereby the developing country’s farmers are actively involved in the organic farming. Problem Statement and Importance of the Research Organic agriculture industry, no doubt, has offers most of the developing countries a wide range of economic, environment, social and cultural benefits. Certifies organic products have now been growing fast and in the mist of entering the global market. Malaysia, on the other hand, is still in the starting spark-point in adapting the organic-food consumption while the developed countries such as North America and Europe have already gained the biggest market share in this newest industry. Due to expanding markets and attractive price premiums, Malaysia should invent and invest in organically-produced food, taking into consideration of various significant variables which may form the consumer behaviour towards organic food. We would like to highlight that the ultimate goal of this study is to understand consumer’s motivations behind organic food products purchases in order to enable organic producers to develop a more effective strategic marketing plan. The results could be used for the marketing planning of organic food products to enable proper marketing strategies, a proper sales channel and promotion to be targeted to these groups of consumers. Research Questions The present study aims to answer the following questions: †¢ What are demographic characteristics of organic food buyers? †¢ How do demographic characteristics affect consumer attitudes towards organic foods? †¢ How product attributes effect consumer attitudes towards organic foods? †¢ How consumer perceived values influence consumer attitudes towards organic foods? What is the relationship between consumers’ attitudes towards organic foods and their intentions to purchase? †¢ How can results of the study be applied by managers and marketers? Research Objectives Regarding to the significance of the growing market of organic foods in the world, and to the previous studies on consumer attitudes towards organic foods and its effects on purch ase intentions in several countries (e. g. Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States and Denmark) we intend to carry out such similar studies in Peninsula Malaysia with objectives as the following: To report the descriptive analysis on the organic buyers’ demographic characteristics †¢ To identify the effects of demographic characteristics (specifically level of households income) on consumer attitudes towards organic foods †¢ To determine effects of product attributes on consumer attitudes towards organic foods †¢ To investigate the relation of consumer perceived values to consumer attitudes towards organic foods †¢ To determine the relationship between consumers’ attitudes towards organic foods and their intentions to purchase †¢ To clarify implications for managers and marketers Literature Review Demographics Based on findings from previous research, demographic characteristics were evaluated as one of the major predictors in gaining intention to purchase the organic food in Peninsula Malaysia. According to Robinson R. and Smith C. (2002), the demographic of consumers consist of various characteristics namely the gender, age, household income and education level. Each element has been contributed in forming the valued attitudes towards buying the organic products. Hence, the demographic characteristics, especially on household income is seemingly significant and being the focus in this research. This will eventually lead to the desired intention in buying such products for daily consumption. Level of Household Income Whilst referring to the studies done in the US, it is seemingly apparent that the demographic variables which herby refer as the income distribution, is significant predictors (Bartels & Reinders, 2009). The research on this particular subject has proven that income positively influenced buying behaviour which in turn may cause the perceived buying behaviour towards the organic food. A same result has shown in Germany as well (Bartels & Reinders, 2009). In Germany, demographic variables such as household income distribution have played an important role in developing significant effect on organic buying behaviour. However, the overall inevitability of the demographic characteristics was relatively different, taking into consideration of research carried in various Western countries. These findings verify the results of earlier studies by Clark & Goldsmith (2006) and Im et al. (2003) proven that the intellectual practice on using the demographic characteristics such as household income distribution and domain specific innovativeness will be seen as strategic tools for market segmentation. In the Western countries, research has identified that the demand and willingness in expenditure on organic goods often affiliated closely with various socioeconomic and demographic variables (Wier et al. , 2008). In addition, Menghi (1997) found that the majority households with middle and higher income levels showed a greater tendency in purchase and consuming organic foods. However, it is shown that almost all of these studies are based upon hypothesized future behaviour rather than observed behaviour in both Denmark and UK. Hence, studies have been carried out by researchers to further invent on the influences of demographic characteristics especially in household income in guiding the intention of buying the organic goods. Through the research it is revealed that higher disposable household income (approximated by total food expenditure) will lead to higher positive intention in purchasing the organic food. Consumers with a lower household income alongside with lower level of education are found to be least likely to have heard of organic agriculture (Roitner-Schobesberger et al. , 2008). On a contrary, those who have a higher income and hold an academic degree are more likely to be the target segmentation in purchasing organic products (Roitner-Schobesberger et al. , 2008). It is also mentioned that the correlation between the household income level is very much linked to the level of education as well. As mentioned by Robinson R. and Smith C. (2002), intended purchases of sustainably produced foods did not differ for demographic characteristics such as household annual income educational attainment. Through the research carried out by Ross NJ. et al. 2000), they have suggested that consumers with a higher earning incomes were more likely to have purchased locally produced food, mainly focus on the organic consumption by various segmentations. Their research and findings were supported earlier by Govindasamy R. and Italia J. (1998) whereby the same results applied. Groups with a higher household income tend to have purchased foods produced with reduced pesticides. In UK particularly, social group is employed as an indicator of income brackets (Wier et al. , 2008). Research has revealed that the tendency in urchase the organic goods seem to increase in accordance to the given social status. However, the highest organic budget shares are observed for middle class households whilst shares in the upper middle class being in fact lower. Quite captivatingly, a similar phenomenon is observed to be happened in Denmark as well. Organic Food Attributes Organic food attributes influence consumer buying decision. Several empirical studies have been performed on customer perceptions of organic food attributes and how they formed the consumer attitudes towards food. In the present research, among different product attributes, we have selected: price of organic food, environmentally friendliness of organic food and organic food availability. Price of Organic Food Organic foods are often of a price premium above conventional products. According to Roitner-Schobesberger et. al (2008) in Thailand the price difference between organic and non-labeled conventional vegetables in Bangkok varied between 50 percent and 170 percent and in some cases even 400 percent. However, in some countries such as Finland there were not significant premium prices for organic foods (Tarkiainen and Sundqvist, 2005). As Roitner-Schobesberger et. al (2008) pointed out that despite the price difference of organic and non-organic food, nearly 60% of the ‘organic buyers’ said that the price of organic products was not a problem. In addition, ‘non-organic buyers’ ranked some other items as a reason of not purchasing organic food rather than higher prices. Chryssohoidis & Krystallis (2005) claimed that while 100 percent of people would prefer organic to conventional products with the assumption of similar price, this percentages dropped by only 20 percent when the same question was posed regardless the higher price of organic food. In other words, higher price is an important obstacle for a limited percentage of consumers. Roitner-Schobesberger et. al (2008) found out that in Bangkok men were more likely to purchase organic foods than women and concluded that it might be due to the reason of men being willing to pay a higher price premium for organic products than women. Similarly, a study in Klang Valey, Malaysia showed that women werre more likely than men to agree that they would purchase more organic foods if they were less expensive (Ahmed, 2010). Additionally, heavy users were on average stage whereby they are willing to pay higher price premiums than medium and light users (Wier et. al, 2008). Environmentally friendliness of organic food Consumers are getting more conscious and concerned with the consumption of chemical substance used in farming and preserving environment is becoming a strong attitude among consumers. According to Tarkiainen and Sundqvist (2005), subjective norms’ effect on attitudes has been mainly found in behaviors, that involved some kind of ethical decision, and also buying organic food can be seen as ethical decision reflecting environmental concern. In addition, perceived quality is associated with environmentally friendly practices (Ness et. al, 2009). The perception of organic food products as environmentally friendly was a common intuition and has been examined in several studies (Ahmed, 2010; Honkanen et. al, 2006). It is believed that when the consumers have more concern about their health and environmental protection, they will be more likely to have a positive attitude to organic foods (Ness et. al, 2010). Honkanen et. al (2006) found that ecologically oriented consumers were more likely to form intentions to purchase and consume organic food. In other words, the more people are concerned about environment, the more positive attitude they have towards organic food. Organic Food Availability Lack of organic food availability and variety in store is considered as one of the barriers to consumer purchase. Fresh vegetables (which include fresh herbs) were considered the most widely available organic product group rather than other organic foods (Roitner-Schobesberger et. al, 2008). Chryssohoidis & Krystallis (2005) stated that limited availability was the main factor that hinders organic purchasing. Although according to Roitner-Schobesberger et. al (2008), in Thailand, majority of organic buyers were satisfied with availability of organic products. Most of them reported that they would like to buy more organic products, especially a wider range of vegetables. Value to the Customer In every product that consumer purchased and used, they in turn are expecting value from it. Value can be defined as a benefit that consumer is receiving by using a product. Benefits here mean sensory appeal of the product, taste, fun, freshness, quality and healthiness of the products. These are some main reasons that encouraged consumer to purchase the organic food. The value may vary from one consumer to another; however there will definitely be one value that effect the buying attitude which motivate the buying intention of consumers. Health Effect of Organic Food Several perceptions contributed to health attribute include the reason of being good for health, good for children, not containing pesticides, high in fiber, natural and nutritious and safer to eat (Roitner-Schobesberger, et. al, 2008; Saher et. al 2006; Lockie et. al, 2002; Ness et. al, 2009). The perceived potential hazards of modern agricultural practices such as the use of pesticides and their residues in food were perceived to be associated with long term and unknown effects on health (Miles and Frewer, 2001;Wilkins & Hillers, 1994; Williams & Hammit, 2001). Saher et. al (2006) revealed that there is very little scientific support for the common beliefs that organic food would be more healthy or nutritious than regular foods, but the belief that they have these properties remains quite strong in consumer’s mindset. The claim is debatable whether marketers can use the health claim for marketing purposes because most of the research concluded that there was no evidence that organic food was healthier or more nutritious than conventional food (Honkanen et. al, 2006). However, most studies in this area suggested that consumer’s perception of organic food as a healthy nutrition is one the most significant motives for buyers. Lockie et al. (2002) pointed out that health was the one aspect consumers are least willing to compromise. Roitner-Schobesberger et. al (2008) in Bangkok, Thailand, examined the motives behind organic food purchase and pointed out that the most important motive was the expected positive health effects. Similarly in Malaysia, organic buyers believed that organic food was healthier compared to conventional grown food (Ahmed, 2010). In Thailand, the health aspect was closely associated with the residues from synthetic chemicals used in agriculture (Roitner-Schobesberger et. al, 2008). In fact, organic products often have a lower level of pesticide residues (Baker et al. , 2002). Lockie et. al (2002) revealed that although price was an important factor, organic consumers consider health has appeared as a more significant factor for purchasing organic food in Australia. These organic food consumers also believed that industrial methods of food processing constitute a threat to customer’s health. Another research by Schifferstein & Oude Ophuis (1997) illustrated that well-being was rated among all other motives by organic food buyers. On the other hand, Tarkiainen and Sundqvist (2005) by examining specific organic products (bread and flour) claimed that health consciousness did not explained the general attitudes towards organic food, although they believed this results might be different by examining different organic products. Sensory Appeals Sensory appeals of organic food are part of the factors that provides value to customer. Sensory appeals include the taste, odor and also the texture of the organic product (Prescott et. al, 2002). Sometimes sensory appeals of the organic food need to be combined with the non-sensory factors such as organic food related expectations to create a value to customer which will affect their attitude towards buying organic food (Prescott et. al, 2002). Sensory factors are also influenced by cultures and background of consumers. For example, consumers from Western countries eat less spicy food compared to those from Asia. Spicy organic food might produce high value to consumers in Asian countries compared to Western. Intrinsic cues or sensory appeal that are associated with physical characteristics of the product such as taste, size, color, appearance, smell, feel and flavor were commonly used as indicators of quality on the organic food (Schifferstein et. al,1997). Quality is also value that consumers experiencing by consuming an organic food. Better sensory appeal of organic food will portray a better quality which will influence the attitude of purchasing an organic food and later increase the intention of buying the organic food. One of the most prominent sensory appeals that yield more value to consumer is taste. According to Roitner-Schobesbergeris et. al (2008), taste was the third important motives that consumers purchase organic food (Roitner-Schobesbergeris et. al, 2008). Others studies also emphasized that many organic food buyers believed that organic food products taste better than conventional food even if sensory evaluations have yielded inconsistent results (Fillion and Arazi,2002; McEachern and McClean,2002; Zhao et al. ,2007). Perceived Value One of the studies conducted in eight countries concluded that individual attitudes towards buying organic food are primarily based on the belief about the benefits (Thogersen, 2000). Benefits or value to consumers such as healthy, taste better and environment friendly supersede all the other factors such as belief about the cost. The same proven in one of the study conducted in Klang Valley. Most of the respondents reported that they choose to buy organic food products because they perceived organic food as very healthy, fresher and natural (Bayaah Ahmad et. ll, 2010). As such, value of organic food towards customers’ effect their attitudes towards buying which will motivates their intention of purchasing the organic product. Consumers also value organic food as nutritional food since it is produced using traditional method whereby the original nutrition from the food is preserved. Nutrition belief was one of the reasons that made people appeared to have different food styles and often express themselves as having food adventurousness or pickiness (Chen, 2007). Organic food adds value to consumers who has such belief and it will influence their intention of consuming it by affecting the buying behavior. Besides, Chen (2007) points out that an individual’s personal interests or traits act a part in establishing personal food choice criteria through the values held by the individual. These values comprise nutrition beliefs, weight control concerns, and so on. For instance, people seem to have different food-styles and often express themselves as having food adventurousness or pickiness. Another important motive to purchase organic food as reported by Roitner-Schobesbergeris et. al (2008) is the consumer’s search for new, trendy and attractive food products. Attitudes towards Organic food and Intention to purchase Basically, consumer attitudes are found to be the most important predictor of intention to buy (Honkanen et. al, 2006). Several studies have found that higher perceived product quality leads to more positive re-purchase intentions (Bou-Llusar et. al, 2001; Hult, & Kandemir 2004; Tarkiainen & Sundqvist, 2005). Chen (7007) highlighted that if the consumer’s attitude towards organic foods is positive, the consumer’s attitude to purchase organic food will be more likely to be positive. This is also consistent with another study performed by Honkanen et. al (2006) indicating that relation between attitude and intention is positive and quite strong, indicating that consumers with positive attitudes towards consumption of organic food are more likely to form intentions to consume such food, therefore converting positive attitudes to intentions. Methodology Theoretical Research Framework [pic] Figure1. Theoretical Research Framework Hypothesis Development: Hypothesis 1: There is a relationship between demographic characteristics of consumers and their attitudes towards organic foods. Hypothesis 2: There is a relationship between organic food attributes and consumer’s attitudes towards the organic food. Hypothesis 3: There is a positive relationship between values of organic food to customer with attitudes towards buying organic foods. Hypothesis 4: When the consumer’s attitude towards organic foods is positive, the consumer’s intentions to purchase organic foods will be more likely to be positive. Research Design The questionnaires are only designed in English; since the respondents are assumed to be relatively high educated they will be able to answer the questions without any difficulties. Furthermore it will help to keep the original meaning and understanding that respondents perceived to have towards the questions. Types of questions in questionnaires are mostly closed ended question and only two open ended question. This will only consume little time for the respondent to complete the questionnaire which will encourage them to participate in this study. There are three main categories in the prepared questionnaires. The questions in the first category are more towards understanding demographic details of the respondent such as on the age, income level, ethnicity, religion and educational level. This is useful to confirm the background of the organic food consumers. There are also questions on the product attributes which the respondents are asked to identify what are the main attributes that attract the purchase and also to determine whether this factor have a positive effect towards consumer attitude on organic food. Last part in the questionnaires is designed to understand the value of organic food to customers. All these questions are to test four hypotheses of this study. Data Collection The target population consists of organic food buyers in Peninsula Malaysia. In order to carry out the sampling Peninsula Malaysia is divided in to 3 major regions namely Northern, Central and Southern region. Northern region will be represented by Penang, Central region will be Klang Valley and Southern region of Peninsula Malaysia is represented by Johor Bahru. These three areas are chosen based on the economic development and availability of the organic products. From each region shopping complexes and supermarkets that provide organic products are identified. By using random sampling, three shopping complexes and supermarkets in urban areas are selected. Since target respondent with higher educational level and purchasing power are scattered around these urban areas, these will be perfect places to conduct this research. Those three supermarkets and shopping complexes are ensured to be far from each other so that the collected samples will be more accurate in representing the population in each region. Total sample size comprises of 540 individual respondents is collected using convenience sampling and respondents will be approached randomly. Since this study is conducted in large scale, convenient sampling will be more cost effective compared to other types of sampling. Furthermore conducting other types of sampling will be time consuming and the accuracy of the collected samples to represent the actual population will be questionable. In order to collect the data, 60 self-administered consumer questionnaire surveys are distributed in each shopping complexes which will result in 180 uestionnaires from each region. Considering the validity of the data, we are expecting a total of about 500 questionnaires to be usable in the later part of data analysis. Although there is no way of knowing if those included are representative of the overall population, the survey is still expected to give a first overview of relevant issues and to allow to derive insights into the perception of organ ic food buyers in Peninsula Malaysia. Data Analysis After data is collected, data will be edited and coded. Editing data is very essential part of data analysis especially when researches involve open ended questions. Editing is done immediately after data is collected so that the respondent can be contacted if any clarification needed. The edited data are identified through usage of different fond and colors. Coding is done before data processing is conducted. Since most of the data collected involve ordinal scale, coding becomes prudent. By doing this data accurately keyed in and avoid wrong interpretation of data. Base on the three sections in the questionnaire, data is also coded in three main groups. Data processing is done using a software program called SPSS version 17. First of all the edited and coded data is checked and scanned through. Wrongly entered and coded data will be identified using the software through methods like identification of the maximum value. Values like variance, standard deviation, mean and range are used to understand the effectiveness of the questions asked in the questionnaire and how respondents reacted to the questions. The reliability and validity test is done to check the credibility of the data. The reliability test also conducted to test the relationship of the variables through the reliability coefficient. Validity test is done to assess all three factorial validity, convergent validity and also discriminant validity. References Ahmed, S. N. B. , 2010, Organic Food: A Study on Demographic Characteristics and Factors Influencing Purchase Intentions among Consumers in Klang Valley, Malaysia, International Journal of Business and Management 5, No. 2, Baker, B. , Benbrook, C. , Groth, E. , Benbrook, K. , 2002, Pesticide residues in conventional, integrated pest management (IPM)-grown and organic foods: insights from three US data sets. Food Additives and Contaminants 19, 427–446. Bartels J. and Reinders M. J. (2009). Social identification, social representations, and consumer innovativeness in an organic food context: A cross-national comparison, Food and Quality Preferences,1-6, Elsevier Ltd. Bou-Llusar, J. C. , Camison-Zornoza, C. , Escrig-Tena, A. B. , 2001, Measuring the relationship between firm perceived quality and customer satisfaction and its influence on purchase intentions, Total Quality Management, 12, 719–734. Chen, M. F, 2007, Consumer attitudes and purchase intentions in relation to organic foods in Taiwan: Moderating effects of food-related personality traits, Food Quality and Preference 18, 1008–1021. Chryssohoidis, G. M. , Krystallis, A. , 2005, Organic consumers_ personal values research: Testing and validating the list of values (LOV) scale and implementing a value-based segmentation task, Food Quality and Preference 16, 585–599. Clark, R. A. , & Goldsmith, R. E. (2006). Interpersonal influence and consumer innovativeness. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 30(1), 34–43. Govindasamy R, Italia J. (1998). A willingness to purchase comparison of integrated pest management and conventional produce. Agribusiness. 14:403-414. Honkanen, P. , Verplanken, B. & Olsen, S. 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A Separate Peace Analysis

A Separate Peace Analysis Essay In Knowles novel, A Separate Peace, Gene is portrayed as an intelligent student who is motivated by academics. He is also a thinker that considers a situation from all sides before making a decision. Gene is also a person who follows all the rules and regulations. He always obeys his teachers, studies hard, never misses a class, and makes excellent grades. He does not really enjoy sports, for he is not a good athlete. While in school he lets many distractions such as his friend Finny take part in his life. This leads to his internal wars. Finny is Genes roommate and best friend, who has a completely opposite personality from Gene. He always acts on blind impulse, never thinking about the rules or the consequences. He is also a poor student, for he does not devote himself to his studies. He would rather be playing sports, since he is the best athlete on campus. He lets sports motivate him and wants to participate in the 1944 Olympics. During their days at Devon, Gene is motivated by Finnys perfect grace and coordination. Gene begins to adore and worship Finny as a super hero. He feels his roommate can handle any situation and charm the teachers and classmates. As a result, Gene tries to imitate him and also lets himself be controlled by him. Gradually, Gene grows jealous of his friend. He begins to hope that Finny will get caught and punished for one of his many wild stunts. For instance, when Pinny wore an outrageous pink shirt, he escaped punishment by giving a satisfying reason saying that it was his emblem. Gene wants Finny to be forced down to his level so that he can compete with him and not just lose to him.Gene tries to please Finny. Although he knows that by doing so, he is acting against every instinct of his behavior. In order to keep up with Finny, he jumps from the tree into the river, a daring feat, even though he is scared to death. He also allows Finny to take him away from his studies, which are very important to Gene. When Finny saves Genes life by preventing him from falling from the tree, Gene knows that he should be grateful, instead he accuses him by saying he would not have been up in the tree if werent for Finny. He concludes that he should not feel any gratitude towards his roommate. Since everything seems to come so easily and naturally to Finny, especially his athletic abilities, Gene grows insanely jealous of him. The jealousy is carefully hidden inside until he can stand it no more. He causes Finny to fall out of the tree, crippling him for life. By hurting him, Gene could bring him down to his level. After the accident, Gene even sees himself as Finny. He dresses in his roommates clothes and says, I was Phineas, Phineas to the life. He also becomes the crippled Finny, refusing to participate in sports, since Finny cannot do it. After the accident, Gene is riddled with guilt and shame. During summer vacation, he decides he must confess that he has caused the accident to Finny. He goes to his home, where he is recovering, and tries to tell Finny that he has bounced him out of the tree. Finny refuses to believe the story, for he trusts Gene as his best friend in life. When Finny returns to Devon, he tells Gene that he is going prepare him for the next Olympics. The agreement is that Finny will coach Gene in sports, and Gene will coach Finny in his studies. During the winter, Gene participates in a winter carnival that Finny has organized. He easily wins all of the sporting events, proving that Finnys efforts have paid off. READ: Serial killer Essay But Gene is still not at peace with himself. The war that is raging in Europe, and his internal war, driven by guilt and shame. When the friendship between Pinny and Gene strengthens, Gene gets motivated by Lepers telegram to join the Navy. Gene lets go of Pinny and goes off to find Leper. Gene sees that Leper has gone crazy from the internal conflict. When Leper describes himself as a psycho, Gene is has a fear because he is afraid that this will also happen to him. When Leper suggests that Gene has caused Finny to fall from the tree, Genes fear turn into actions. He reacts violently, kicking the chair from underneath causing Leper to fall. Gene obviously feels threatened that somebody else knows the truth about what he has done to Finny. Returning from Lepers house, Gene joins in a student snowball fight organized by Finny. As they playfully wage a war, far removed from the real world war that haunts them, Gene tries to kid himself into believing that he is at peace with himself. He genuinely believes that there is no longer a conflict between him and Finny because Finny has been brought down to his level. Additionally, Finny has confessed his absolute faith and trust in Gene. Brinker, one of the students, senses that Gene is living a lie. Suspecting that he is responsible for Finnys accident, he then organizes a student trial in the First Building. Finny and Gene are both brought in for questioning. Finny, still unable to face the truth of what has really happened in the accident, tells Brinkerthat he lost his balance and fell out of the tree. Gene, afraid to tell the truth in front of his peers, says he has been on the ground during the accident. Leper, however, is called in to testify. He states that on the night of the accident he saw two figures in the tree, one out on a limb and one near the trunk. When the lowermoved, the figure on the branch fell. Forced to face the truth, Finny is shocked and crushed. With tears flowing from his eyes, he runs from the room trips on the steps. Gene is so ashamed at what he has done and what he has caused that he cannot even help to carry Finny to the infirmary. When Gene is finally courageous enough to enter Finnys room, his friend turns on him. With anger, Finny asks if Gene has come to break another part of his body. Gene reminds him that he had tried to tell Finny the truth about the accident, but was always silenced. Realizing that his presence causes pain so Gene leaves. The next morning he returns with Finnys clothes and toiletries, as the doctor has requested. Finny has regained his composure and tells his friend about the hurt he feels about not being able to help in the war effort. Gene tries to cheer him by making a joke. When Gene leaves feels better about the relationship he has with Finny. The doctor tells Gene that he can return at five oclock in the evening to see his friend after his leg has been set. When Gene comes to the infirmary after his classes, he learns that Finny has passed away. Gene is too shocked to even shed tears. He feels indirectly responsible for causing Finnys death. He also feels like a part of himself has died with the death of his friend. Gene joins the Navy and fights in the war, but his heart is not in it. He cannot even think about killing a person, even the enemy. He has fought one war, his own personal battle and that war ended with a horrible death. READ: Dangerous Mind Essay Gene proves that he has great difficulty getting over the loss of Finny. Even after fifteen years, he has come back to Devon to come visit the two frightening places the First Building and the tree that hangs over the river.

Open letter Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Open letter - Assignment Example The article is opposed to the opinion expressed in an AlterNet article: GMO might cause horrible diseases to the cattle, including defects in the newly born like limb deformities (Paul). However, use of genetically engineered food has already became a usual thing for our society with most American crops being modified (Kantor). At the same time, the researchers conducted in a great sample of cattle allowed the scientists to conclude that use of GMO in cattle feeding causes no unnatural or disturbing effects both in cattle and on people who consume meat of a GMO-fed animal. Though the topic is debatable and there is no decisive position in the world, Entine appeals to the authority of researchers and simple logical arguments: if the unnatural harmful effect caused by GMO use in feeding of livestock was so widespread and disturbing, farmers and scientists would have already noticed that (Entine). Moreover, sick animals are not used for producing meat, and if there were a lot of those, there would have been problems with meat supplies already. Generally, GMO is often considered to be the salvation of the future that is able to save humanity from famine. At the same time, GMO is economically beneficial as it acts as a catalyst for the production process and makes crops resistant to diseases. Entine, Jon. â€Å"The Debate About GMO Safety Is Over, Thanks To A New Trillion-Meal Study†, Forbes, from:

Memo Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 14

Memo - Assignment Example This is known as sand box testing or file emulation (Malik). Another technique of doing a heuristic test is decompiling the suspected software’s source code and comparing it to known malware source code. If it marches the known malware source code, the user is also notified. This is known as file analysis. Keeping track of known viruses should also be done and investigations done to detect any possible new variants of the same (tools). This is referred to as generic detection. The basic detection functionality of heuristic detection involves finding false positives and false negatives. A threat to heuristic detection is the constant change of viruses which then may easily infiltrate into the computer system. To curb this, the number of false positives need to be limited and this leads to identification and quarantine of files which are not threats. Heuristic detection can also be bypassed through code injection. Code injection is when the virus software code is split into two parts. The core code which performs the malicious activities and the interface code which provides a mechanism for injecting the core code into the memory and executing it. Heuristic antiviruses cannot detect this. Metasploit framework is also used to bypass heuristic antiviruses. A stronger form of virus protection software is the use of antiviruses that implement a real time port monitor. This monitor actively identifies any malware that may have bypassed the antivirus

A High School Teacher Proffesion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

A High School Teacher Proffesion - Essay Example Basically, a high school teacher works school hours (commonly spanning from 8 am to 5 pm) which varies depending on the school regulations or state laws. However, some high school teachers can, at their own leisure, work in the evenings, or weekends, to grade (mark) papers and prepare lessons (Maloy and Irving, 24). Most high school teachers do not, however, teach during summer, on public holidays and when schools close on April, August, and December. Judging from the nature of work of a high school teacher, and the amount of free time in a year compared to other demanding, all year round professions such as those of doctors, I think their median annual wage of USD 55,050 is fair. However, there is still room for improvement on this figure and more motivation because teachers are responsible for the important task of shaping the destiny of a nation by modeling students into better citizens, relatives, friends, leaders and employees/ employers (professionals) in all fields (Maloy and Irving, 43). High school teaching can come with its own fair share of challenges and stress. Teachers can often be at the end of unfair criticism from both their superiors, supervisors and students’ parents because of the students’ poor performances while they could have actually tried their best, or while the problem lies elsewhere (either in the school, at home or in the communities in which the students live). Moreover, teachers have too high school teachers have to accept that they will occasionally encounter utter disrespect and lack of motivation from students. Furthermore, high school teachers can find work difficult in schools with very large classes and an absence of critical learning/ teaching tools such as updated textbooks and computers (Haugen, 78).     

Usability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Usability - Essay Example This will test whether the audience really comprehends the key steps of limestone cave formations in this national park. Also, experts in display designing can view the display and make an audit as to whether the display complies with the market demand. In this case, the display is intended to attract tourists to the said caves. It should therefore be intriguing, interesting and detailed. The perfect usability test of designing and utilizing a patio, the leads or (instructions) should be precise, brief and straightforward so that the homeowners can comprehend and handle the tasks themselves with ease. The instructions should expound on how concrete slabs or tiles are blended to come up with a smooth courtyard. It should also incorporate aesthetic beauty which will encourage the users to construct more patios. The instructions should be captivating and legible. In this case, manuals containing the instructions can be submitted to the owners then after they read through, they can be assessed as to whether they understood them by having them describe the steps they can as well be asked to design the patio without referring to the

A3 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

A3 - Assignment Example The project managers are highly experienced in building and construction as the project highly involves much of construction. The internal workers are also critical in coordinating the construction. Most of the internal workers are highly experienced in finance management and their input to the projects is critical due to financial reasons. Planning consultants, Architect, surveyors are very critical as the project is certainly a sensitive one. Without the approval of the surveyors, the project can barely move on since road construction involves many designs, which can only be carried out, by a surveyor and Architect (Sears & Sears, 2010). The project success will depend on how well the stakeholders will communicate. A good communication plan will ensure that every stakeholder is actively involved in the road construction project. The success of the project is a matter of effective communication. In the course of the road construction project, communication is done in various ways. The most form of communication includes written, oral and non-verbal communication. Table 1 represents different tasks that will be carried out by the projects and the responsible stakeholders. The architect undertakes the planning task. As noted in Table 1, the architect is required to plan for the project in four days. The success of the project depends on how professional the manager regards time management. In some cases, the participant may lack enthusiasm as they continue with the project. In such a situation, it is the responsibility of the project manager to ensure that the project does not derail due to time management problems. This can be done by assigning durations to the WBS. As indicated in Table 1, the projects there are various items that are involved in the projects. Nevertheless, during the project, it is important to pay attention to some of the items. Time management is one of the most

What was the short term significance of the successful testing of the Coursework

What was the short term significance of the successful testing of the atomic bomb - Coursework Example Ever since the World War I, the world had been on the brink of a similar conflict and these fears manifested themselves in the form of the second Great War. The United States were involved in both conflicts indirectly, but the Pearl Harbour incident instantly brought them to forefront of the war. OVERVIEW The successful testing of nuclear bomb in the desert of New Mexico later culminated with the US finally dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Before the bombing, Truman described his predicament as he could not decide whether to ‘invade Japan proper or shall we Bomb and blockade’ (Truman, 1945). The stance on Japan had been very precarious from the start as they continued with their ruthless land grabbing behaviour; Truman was already in the process of considering all the options at hand to tackling with them. In his memoirs, Truman recalls that he had discussed the possibility of a full-scale invasion with his associates, but the United States wished to make a h eavy blow to Japanese, which would completely rule out the possibility of a fierce counterattack from them. Hence, it was decided that atomic bomb would be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were considered to be the main military equipment manufacturing centre for the Japanese forces. CONSEQUENCES The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ‘incinerated’ nearly 20,000 Japanese people. The casualties largely consisted of unarmed civilians, but the bombing was more strategic because most the arms factories were located in this district. Within a couple of hours, the cities were turned into ‘smelting hot furnace’ as described by a survivor of the atomic bomb, Hiroshi Morishita; a high school student at the time the bomb was dropped. The repercussions of the bomb were unspeakable as the people walked with their skin hanging and burnt; people died after vomiting blood or a black foam (Morishita, 2006). Therefore, the United States had achieved its goal of makin g a heavy blow on the Japanese as both cities were literally razed to the ground. The scale of disaster inflicted upon by the atomic was truly unprecedented that left thousands dead and millions injured. Survivors and Red Cross officials saw the break out of an epidemic as a result of the radiation; many of the illnesses and symptoms exhibited by the people seemed like the effects of X-ray overdose. The repercussions affected the following generations along with the reproductive cycle as men suffered from impotency and women began to have miscarriages (Hersey, 1994). However, on the United States’ part it was just a blatant ‘display of power’. Sherwin (1973) believed that the United States simply wanted to have a more intimidating facade on an international level and the destruction caused by the nuclear weapon was sufficient to underscore their point. The general masses feared the use of such weapons on a larger scale and other countries began a fierce nuclear a rms race in order to match up to the United States. It was the biggest gamble taken by the United States, for the experiment posed a major threat to the lives of the scientists. The country had invested nearly $2 Billion on this project and required manpower of 130,000 people; the success in the project Manhattan proved to be a milestone for the country (CBTO, 2010). The bombings marked the first time in history that a weapon of mass destruction was used that shook everyone and caused them to fear future conflicts that would involve the use of such weapons. It made everyone realize the need to regulate modern warfare; opening up new method of war that was not only restricted to the

Anatomy of a Family Law Case Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Anatomy of a Family Law Case - Research Paper Example The status of each member chances when the couple enters into the marriage agreement (Folberg, & Milne, 2000). For instance, the man becomes a husband and the woman becomes a wife. It gives the husband new responsibilities and rights as well as the woman. Legally, a marriage is greatly honored since it is perceived to be the basis of the family. Traditionalists view a marriage as the as the starting point of preserving moral status in the community. It is in the view of traditional ethics that in a marriage, the husband provides support of the family by providing the necessary requirements like food, clothing, and shelter among other essentials. On the other hand, the wife has the obligation of serving her husband and the family at large. She has the duty to take care of the children, maintaining the house, living in the home and engaging in sexual activities with her husband. The current law has tried to modify traditional functions of the married people since many women have joined the working forces in large numbers. Husbands on the other hand engage in taking care of children and taking care of their homes while their wives are at work. Any individual who may require making alterations in the marriage agreement must do it in accordance with the law. ... The laws protect all marriages whether the couple may be interested or not. Legal rights and benefits of a married couple There are several benefits and rights that one gets when they are married. The society treats the couple as a grown up and one can get priorities while making medical resolutions and receive assistance on behalf of the other family member. It includes rights that may need attorney and other related legal requirements. Social security, medical and disability benefits can be paid to a spouse as well as military and veteran benefits. All employers usually include spouses of their employees to insurance plans, a service that unmarried people cannot receive. The employers also provide bereavement leave for married people to attend funeral programs of their members and allow a spouse to care for the other during illness. Marriage gives a partner the right to visit a spouse in jail or in hospital and sue somebody on behalf of him or her (Ahrons, 2004). Spouses that divor ce are entitled to sharing of the property of the community according to legal requirement of most of the nations. In case of death of one spouse, the other spouse is entitled to organize funeral preparations without intimidation of any form. The married couple is allowed to file a joint tax return and get the ability to organize for partnership to raise capital for business operations (Bohannan, 2005). Ending a Marriage According to the Law of California any individual who wish to file a divorce or separation must reside from a different residence from his or her partner for one full year before the process begins. It gives the spouses an opportunity to reconsider their stands before annulment. The annulment determines that the marriage did not

Marketing and Converse Question Essay Example for Free

Marketing and Converse Question Essay Need: Protection for the feet Wants: Cheap shoes which are comfortable and customizable. Demands: Emerging artists, designers and musicians wearing Chucks because of their affordability, simplicity and classic look. Now, anti-establishment rock fans beg Converse to feature a shoe by their favourite artist. Question 3 Production concept: The idea that consumers will favour the products those are available and highly affordable, and the idea that the company focus on improving production and distribution efficiency. Product Concept: Costumers will favour the products that offer the most quality, performance and features. Therefore the company should focus on making constant product improvements Selling Concept: The idea that consumers will not buy enough of the products unless it undertakes a large-scale selling and promotion effort. Marketing concept: The marketing philosophy that holds that achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and wants of target markets and delivering that desired satisfaction better than competitors does. Almost every red Chuck converse sold goes to Global Fund. Question 4 Converse sees its role as one of making great products that its costumers want to wear. Beyond that it participates in consumers discussions rather that dictating them. Drawbacks: Converse rides a fine line: How many limited editions and upscale design can the brand produce without losing its image as a non marketing marketer. How popular can the brand become without losing the core costumers who love the precisely because it isn’t popular Question 5 Converse has been very careful in all that it does to remember on very important things for a brand like Converse, where authenticity is the most important trait, the costumer experience should be driven by the costumer.

The History Of Wizard Of Oz Film Studies Essay

The History Of Wizard Of Oz Film Studies Essay This essay is based on a mass media product from the past. The media product is a film titled The Wizard of Oz (1939). I have researched my media product and I will be critically analysing it in the essay; When wa it made? Where was it made? Why was it made, (what was its function)? Who made it (artists, producers, media companies and institutions)? Who was it made for (who was the commissioner/client/intended audience)? How was it made (what materials, processes and technologies were used in its production and distribution)? How was it received (how did contemporary critics, com+mentators or audiences respond to the product) Research the historical context in which the media product was produced. Research how the media product is remembered or regarded today. describe how it was read when it was produced and examine how those readings are different today. The Wizard of Oz (1939) is based on a novel by Lyman Frank Baum called The wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). It is a musical that tells the story of a young girl from Kansas who enters a magical fantasy world called Oz, where she meets a group of friends and experiences a variety of exciting adventures. L. Frank Baum was an American author of childrens books, well recognized for writing The Wonderful Wizard of OZ. Before the creation of The Wizard of Oz (1939), earlier series and films and were constructed; The Wizard of Oz (1908), The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1910), Scarecrow in Oz (1910), and The Land of Oz (1910), The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914), The Magic Cloak of Oz (1914), His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914/15), The Wizard of Oz (1921), The Wizard of Oz (1925). The Wizard of Oz (1939) was influenced by the success of Disneys Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was filmed using Technicolor and showed that films adapted from popular childrens stories and fairytale legends could be successful, this inspired (MGM Studios) Metro Goldwyn Mayer to produce its own fictional movie. The Wizard of Oz was a box office success and a major hit with audience and critics. It was the second biggest grossing film in year 1939, after Gone with the Wind (which was first), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (third), Jesse James (fourth), and Mr Smith Goes to Washington (placed at fifth). The film was MGMs most expensive production up to that time; but its initial release failed to recoup the studios investment and the film did not make a profit. However, subsequent re-releases made up for that as the popularity of the movie increased in intensity. Additionally, the popularity and acceptance of the film also increased after it was on-screen for the first time in year 1956 on the CBS Network. An estimate of 45 Million viewers watched the airing of the first television broadcast and since then The Wizard of Oz has aired on television numerously wining an even larger audience. At present, a number of the films famous lines, including and Toto, Ive a feeling were not in Kansas anymore and Theres no place like home are familiar to todays generation. The Wizard of Oz (1939) was made and filmed in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Culver City, California, United States of America. It was released on the 12th of August 1939. The film was produced by Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM Studios), and directed by Mervyn LeRoy, Victor Fleming and King Vidor. Screenplay was written by Edgar Allan Woolf, Noel Langley and Florence Ryerson. Main characters in the film include; Dorothy (Judy Garland), Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), Tzeke/Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr) and the tin man (Jack Haley). All of the featured actors and actresses that starred in the film had a prosperous and successful career. This is the film that they have become best known for and in some cases the only film they are remembered for. In year 1989, The Wizard of Oz was selected by the United States of America Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry. The Wizard of Oz was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture but lost to the civil war epic Gone with the Wind (1939). It was undoubtedly the most amazingly productive and dynamic year in Hollywood history. The Wizard of Oz won two Academy Awards. One for best musical scoring with Herbert Arlen (having been responsible for the background music) and the other award was for best song with Harold Arlen (music) and Edgar Yipsel Harburg (lyrics) for the song Over the Rainbow which became one of Judy Garlands signature hits. Judy Garlands profession was taken to the limelight after featuring in The Wizard of Oz. She received an Honorary Academy Award for her outstanding performance as a screen juvenile. Judy had just finished the successful hit films Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) and Babes in Arms (1939). The Wizard Of Oz (1939) is amongst early colour films. The film was recorded in black and white and in colour. The black and white scenes in the film were actually filmed on a sepia tone and the colour scenes were filmed using vivid Technicolor, a relatively new film process at the time. The process of using Technicolor to created coloured vivid images, involves the merging of two or more single strips of exposed film tinted with special dyes. Technicolor is the technology behind the classic colour films like  Gone With the Wind  (1939),  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), An American in Paris  (1951) etc. In the film, scenes that require different colour sequence had to be created practically. Created shots involved matte paintings for backgrounds and painting items or things to create a different colour sequence e.g. four separate horses were tinted for the horse of a different colour sequence. Furthermore, the cost of making the film was placed above $2, 000,000 (whic h is approximately and roughly $47,000,000  at present) almost three times the cost of an average film at the time.   MGM Studios initially placed the cost of the film at over $500,000 below the cost of the movie. (And they anticipated the cost to be around 1, 300,000 (below the cost of the movies The Wizard of Oz (1939) was released just as the Second World War commenced (began in 1939 and ended in 1945). At that time, the world had fell into chaos as Germany had taken over Czechoslovakia and invaded Poland. As a result of the actions of Germany, commotion and confusion was around the world. At the same time, Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios released a film that embraces kindness, charity, friendship and love. The wizard of Oz was dedicated to the young, and the young in heart and is aimed at audiences of all ages all over the world. In Rotten Tomatoes, The Wizard of Oz has an average rating of 9.2/10. An absolute masterpiece whose ground breaking visuals and deft storytelling are still every bit as resonant, The Wizard of Oz is a must-see film for young and old. Today, the wizard of Oz is remembered as one of Hollywood timeless movie classics. Its popularity has only continued to grow, inspiring an overabundance of songs and artwork. CONCLUSION The Wizard of Oz (1939) has become a true cinema classic, one that resonates with hope and love every time and today it remains one of the most beloved works of cinema, embraced by audiences of all ages throughout the world. actor

The Thesis And Statement Of The Problem Finance Essay

The Thesis And Statement Of The Problem Finance Essay INTRODUCTION OF THE THESIS STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Introduction: This thesis consists of a collection of self-contained research papers within the part of credit risk and securitization. Still if they differ in focus and faculty, they have in universal that I have designed at writing thesis which has important in real-world with a helpful and relevant participation in my thesis of credit risk and securitization. These contributions are either participation to strategy discussions, new opinions and new angles to a continuing debate, accepted practices with the help of study or cleanly development of fresh models. My thesis will be helpful for those companies which really face credit risk and do not have any model to control it. In the beginning of the writing thesis I faced a lot of problems in managing of data, but with the passage of time activities of research provided great knowledge about credit risk and securitization. This thesis will be helpful for me in future time, and it has a great importance for financial organizations. I was thinking, on basis of research on this topic, it is helpful for my job in these good organizations. I can give better performance on this job because it is my favorite area and I am specialist in it. A brief zoology of risks I view the risks faced by financial organizations as falling mainly into the following maximum collections: Market risk-the risk of sudden changes in prices or rates. Credit risk-the risk of changes in value related with sudden changes in credit quality. Liquidity risk-the risk that the costs of adjusting financial positions will boost significantly or that a firm will lose access to financing. Operational risk-the risk of fraud, systems failures, trading errors, and many other inside managerial risks. Systemic risk-the risk of stop working in open market or series of result default. Definitions of Credit risk Credit risk is a possibility that counterparty cannot perform the fixed obligation, including a possibility that the counterpartys credit risk will be reduced, which affect earnings and capital may support of financial organizations. Credit risk is very important as it involve credit department, which is a most important operation of financial organizations, both credits that are assets and contingent liabilities of the financial organizations. Credit risk is the risk of loss due to a counterparty defaulting on contract, or furthers normally the risk of loss suitable to some credit event. By tradition this applied to bonds where debt holders were worried that the counterparty to whom theyve made a loan might fail to pay on a payment (interest or original amount). Credit risk start from the possible that an obligor is either unwilling to achieve on a commitment or its capability to achieve such obligation is damaged resulting in financial loss to the bank. Credit risk is the up to date or future risk to earnings and capital happening from an obligors breakdown to meet up the conditions of any deal with the organizations or if an obligor otherwise not succeed to perform as contracted. The biggest source of credit risk is loans. However, credit risk exists all over the additional activities of the organizations equally on and off the balance sheet. In short, all the credit risks definitions provide same level of conclusion that if credit risk is greater than inspective so organizations will be suffering financial loss in balance sheet. Credit Risk: Financial organizations and financiers face several types of risk. One of the major risks is credit risk. Over the past decade, credit risk was a most important problem existing in the financial organizations. Credit risk has been one of the most active areas of recent financial research. Credit risk consists of two components: default risk and spread risk. Default risk defines as any non-compliance with the exact arrangement of a deal and spread risk defines as decline in market value of the deal/ tool due to change in the credit quality of the debtor/ counterparty. Credit Risk Models have assumed valuable because they give the judgment creator with on the way or awareness that would not otherwise be with pleasure available or that could be marshaled at too expensive cost. In business, almost all organizations carry some credit risk, because most organizations do not demand up-front cash payment for all products delivered and services rendered. Instead, most organizations distribute the product or service, and then bill the customer, often specifying net 30 days payment, in which payment is supposed to be complete on the 30th day after distribute. Credit risk is carried for the period of that time. In a market where margins are fast failing and the demands to lower pricing are implacable, models give their clients a competitive edge. The credit risk models are planned to aid banks in measuring, aggregating and managing risk across environmental and product lines. The results of these models also play more and more significant roles in banks risk administration and outcome measurement methods, client profitability analysis, risk-based pricing, active collection management and capital makeup decisions. Credit risk modeling may outcome in improved internal risk management and may have the possible to be used in the decision-making oversight of financial organizations. Credit risk analysis (finance risk analysis, loan default risk analysis) and credit risk management is essential to financial organizations which give credit to businesses and individuals. Credit can arise for different reasons: motor vehicle purchase finances bank mortgages (or home loans), credit card purchases, installment purchases, and so on. Credit loans and finances have risk of being defaulted. To understand risk levels of credit users, credit contributors normally collect huge amount of information on borrowers. Statistical predictive analytic techniques can be used to analyze or to determine risk levels involved in credits, finances, and loans, i.e., default risk levels. (Internal) credit score is a numerical rating of credit loans. It measures the level of risk of being defaulted. The level of default risk can be best predicted with analytical modeling. Credit scores can be measured in term of default probability or comparative geometric ratings. Managing credit risk is valuable for any organizations, and important resources are faithful to the task by large financial organizations with many customers. For large financial organizations, there may even be a credit risk department whose job it is to assess the financial health of their customers, and expand credit (or not) accordingly. For example, a distributor selling its products to a concerned vendor may challenge to minimize credit risk by reduction payment terms to net 15 days, or by actually selling less product on credit to the vendor, or even cutting off credit totally, and difficult payment in advance. These policies will possibly impact the distributors would-be sales, and basis smooth relationship with the vendor, but the distributor will end up better off if the vendor is delayed paying its bills, or, especially, if it failure to pay and say publicly bankruptcy. Definitions of Securitization Securitization a process whereby any Special Purpose Vehicle raises finances by issue of Term Finance Certificates or any other tools with the authorization of the relative authority of the country, for example, Pakistan commission (SECP) is authorization of the process for such purpose and uses such finances by making payment to the Originator and through such process obtains the title, property or right in the receivables or other assets in the form of actionable claims. There are lots of ways to explain securitization but in core, it is the financing or re-financing of earnings yielding assets by packaging them into a trade able form through an issue of government securities or further securities. There are three major kinds of securitization: true sale, synthetic and whole business (the final largely used in the England and, to a smaller size, continental Europe). In a true sale securitization, a organization sells assets to a special purpose vehicle which finances the purchase by issuing government securities to the capital markets. In a synthetic securitization, the organization does not sell any assets, but removes the risk of loss linked with certain of its assets to a Special purpose vehicle or a bank organization against payment by such of a premium or fee to the Special purpose vehicle. Whole business securitization is basically a secured loan granted by a Special purpose vehicle to the relevant organization. To contribution the loan, the Special purpose vehicle uses profits of government securities issued into the capital markets whereby the organization grants security over most of its assets in favor of the government securities holders. Since it is important for the whole work out to be a case of transfer of receivables by the originator, not a borrowing on the security of the receivables, there is a legal transfer of the receivables to a separate entity. In legal parlance, transfer of receivables is called assignment of receivables. It is also necessary to ensure that the transfer of receivables is respected by the legal system as a genuine transfer, and not as mere eyewash where the reality is only a mode of borrowing. In other words, the transfer of receivables has to be a true sale of the receivables, and not merely a financing against the security of the receivables. Securitization: Securitization is the procedure of financing the cost of originating or carrying economic assets. Those economic assets include responsibilities of clients originated by financial organizations or such as mortgage loans credit card receivables, student loans and student loans, trade receivables, and corporate bonds and loans. Financing arises during the issuance of asset-backed securities. In an asset-backed securities securitization, financial assets which are naturally illiquid, but exchange into cash in accordance with their conditions within a definite time. Financial assets are pooled and converted into asset-backed securities (which are then typically offered and sold in the capital markets). Mortgage backed securitizations and asset backed securitizations, or more usually, the securitization of economic assets, securitization is a form of structured finance firstly developed in the early 1970s in mortgage backed securitization format. It full-grown in the late 1970s in both mo rtgage backed securitizations and asset-backed securitizations formats. In current years, it has reach to Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia (mainly Japan, India). In Pakistan market of securitization growing in recent year because international body of securitization improved the regulations according to Islamic structure for Muslim countries and these regulations match with international securitization transaction. Pakistan play lead role in Islamic securitization all over the Muslim countries. The local controllers have usually encouraged searching and introducing multiple asset-backed financing formations at large. While the whole banking and non-banking financial areas are now facing troubling due to worldwide financial disorder, pointed increase can be seen on the heel of Islamic securitization during contribution by private and commercial sectors. In its simplest form a Securitization require (1) the sale of a huge pool of Receivables by an person (Originator) that makes such Receivable in the line of its business to a bankruptcy-remote, special purpose entity in a way that meet the requirements as a true sale and is planned to reach definite results for accounting purposes, as well as caring the Receivables from the claims of creditors of the person (Originator), and (2) the issuance and sale by the special purpose entity, in either a private assignment or public offering, of obligation securities that are afterward fulfilled from the proceeds of and protected by the Receivables. When the Securitization is stopped up, finances run from the buyers of the Securities to the Issuer and from the Issuer to the inventor (Originator). Statement of the problem This research aim is to take action and analyze the following questions and interviews have been performing from the companies officer to receive information accordingly. What is method for control the credit risk in organizations? The purpose of Securitization in the Corporate Sector? The features of Securities to make its attractiveness? Why the investors are interested to invest in Asset-Backed Securities? Why Islamic securitization important in Muslim world? Does securitization reduce credit risk for the financial organizations? How the Asset-backed Securities have minimized credit risk for the financial organizations? To understand the role of banks and credit rating agencies in the Securitization. Determine the working of factoring for reduce the credit risk and define the benefit of factoring? What are the future prospects of Asset Backed Securitization in Pakistan and all over world? Define securitization costs and expense? How credit  scoring individual customer? How can minimize credit risk through securitization? What is the method of managing the credit risk and how to improve credit risk management? importance of the study The information technology and artificial results have been powerful the businesses of the worldwide economies. To deal with the different risks linked with the businesses, the businessmen have to come up with modern solutions and separate credit risk department and securitizations are one of them. All over the world companies face different type of risk in businesses including marketing risk, operational risk and credit risk. To deal with these risks and improved the financial position of the organization and increase the annual profit of the share holders (owners), they have to pick the positive modern solutions. If mangers of the organizations want to minimize the credit risk so securitization is one of the techniques picked by the organization. In the way, organizations achieved target profits and financial position without any loss of the operating, financial and market of the organization. Study of the credit risk and securitization is allows development new models and techniqu es in the capital market which ultimately create new and more investment chance in the capital market which provide large number of profit to the financial organizations. Study of the credit risk shows, at liberty Asia appeasing Credit Risk Management: 2006-2011 spend estimate and Analysis, local investments in credit risk functions for three purposeful systems, defaults chance judgment, credit collection management systems, and worldwide limits management systems are estimated to compound at a collection percentage of 16.6 per cent annually to US$1.74 billion by 2011. If organizations want to reduce credit risk so growth for successful performance of credit risk, financial organizations need to improve their IT functions for information collection and the interior rating process, categorize proper greatest practices and building ability. Study of credit risk and securitization have very important for any organizations because credit risk accounting for at least two-thirds of their on the whole risk, the financial organizations have the leading holder for credit risk functions. According to research of credit risk controller that if organizations want to reduce credit risk so buildup credit risk departments in the organizations for control the credit risk independence and working of credit risk department that manage the securitization procedures and improved the internal rating process and fairing collection the data about customer and country political issue. Political issue plays a lead role for unsystematic credit risk. In addition, these studies evaluate the opportunity where this idea of securitization can be effectively applied. The study not only points the current companies who have already accepted the securitization but also useful for the potential companies. Delimitation of the study This research was performed within the following limitations: Only financial organizations in the first market level of the Lahore and Karachi Stock Exchange was included in this research. Joint finances were also excluded. All the steps involved in this research process were completed within a two month period (December to February 2010-2011). This place a limit on the overall level of the study. The Lahore and Karachi Stock Exchange is relatively new in the field of credit risk and securitization. This impacts the amount of information available for me. CHAPTER TWO REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND STUDIES Background Credit risk and securitization is not new team for any businessman in the capital market. A lot of the articles, books, research papers and regulations are available in internet and library. I get help from a lot of articles and books for writing a thesis of credit risk and securitization. My work is distribution into two elements: selecting articles and summarizing results. I have read 135 plus articles, books, and research papers of different authors of all over the world for clear understanding of credit risk and securitizations. My literature search starts with electronic full-text databases and Economic Papers, using searching term credit risk and securitization in the title or keywords. Literature Credit risk occurs from the option that the issuer of an asset back securitization, generally a special purpose vehicle, may default on its liabilities. Since the special purpose vehicle is usually controlled to have no assets or business other than holding the securitized assets, the main focal point is on the cash flow from the assets themselves. The most significant option to be considered is default by the underlying borrowers, such as the car owners in the case of automobile loan securitization. While a small but expected loan loss ratio is controllable, the rating agencies must deeply analyze the difference in default and crimes rates and calculates any factors that might activate a growth in defaults. The growth of a possible control of credit risk and securitization market is very dependent upon the authorized and regulatory framework that is position provides sufficient security for investors. The financial organizations, investors, banks and development companies were attractive to perform the securitization for control credit risk. It is therefore, different agreement concerning the current and future receivables of the development companies have been performed through asset backed securitization in different business sectors of the country i.e. leasing sector, oil sector, construction areas, telecom sector, and public sector. Credit risk identification Valuable credit risk identification starts with individual credit measurement. Financial organizations should rate credit value of individual customer commonly. Some financial organizations may concern relative rating. Some rate by kind of credits or transactions. Some apply both relative rating and rating by kind of credits or transactions. Risk rating should also be practical to off-balance sheet transactions. The rating process should be transmission commonly so that adjusts in credit quality will be agreed in time. Such will help the management in revising the policy as well as closely monitor the non-performing loans within a suitable time period. In addition to risk rating, there should be a assessment and analysis of every section and the overall selection to ensure the accepted risk rating. Development analysis, change in risk level and weighted average risk level should be incorporated with other information such as past due trend, credit growth, and the extent of policy exception to help in the analysis of asset quality and credit risk. The principle of valuable risk management is identifying all possible credit risks in the products and transactions through a detailed review of credit risk element in the products and transactions. New products that can incur risk should be given much interest in the new product planning process. Close and careful monitoring should be carried out to ensure that the risks are identified and appropriately managed. Adequate guidelines and control procedures should be specified before the new products and transactions are projected or introduced. Moreover, the new products and transactions should be approved by the board of directors or other suitable committee. Credit risk measurement Financial organizations should have a correct and dependable system to measure credit risk of individual customer in accord with the quality, refund ability and kind of credits or businesses, equally on- and off-balance sheet credit transactions and bank account transactions. This is so that level of risk can be correctly measured, monitored and controlled. To have valuable risk measurement, financial organization should carry on as follows: Formulate a policy and strategy in risk measurement and the impact on financial organizations. Formulate risk measurement processess which is working in high level management which is relative to measuring credit risk. Clear customer segmentation and regular assessment of credit application. Assess the current level of loan loss provisioning against credit risk. That is, even when financial organizations have high level of risk; sufficient amount of provisioning can help reduce against the overall credit risk. Financial organizations should use suitable ratios to test whether the level of loan loss provisioning is practical. Ratio analysis will make known the trend of relationship between loan loss provision with different factors such as non-performing assets and normal loans pass due loans, and stop increased debts, credits and contingent liabilities. Credit risk Monitoring and controlling For reducing credit risk on account of such off balance sheet contacts, financial organizations may accept a multiplicity of measures some of which are showed below: Financial organization must make sure that the security, which is obtainable to the funded lines, also covers the latter of credit lines and the guarantee facilities. On some events, it will be suitable to take a charge over the fixed assets as well, particularly in the case of long-term guarantees. In the case of guarantees covering agreement, financial organization must make sure that the regulars have the necessary technical skills and experience to perform the agreements. The value of the agreements must be definite on a case-by-case basis, and break up limits should be set up for every one agreement. The growth about physical and economic displays should be monitored on a regular basis, and any slippages should be highlighted in the credit review. The policy to authorize non-finance facilities with an observation to increase earnings should be suitably balanced about the risk concerned and comprehensive only after a careful assessment of credit risk is undertaken. Feature of Securitization A securitized tool, as compared to a direct maintain on the issuer, will normally have the following features: Marketability The very important principle of securitization is to make sure marketability to economic claims. Hence, the tool is prepared so as to be marketable. This is one of the most important features of a securitized device, and the others that follow are mostly significant only to make sure this one. The conception of marketability involves two hypothesizes: (a) The authorized and general option of marketing the instrument; (b) The reality of a market for the instrument. Securitization is a misleading notion unless the securitized product is marketable. The very reason of securitization will be defeated if the device is full on to a few expert investors without any chance of having a liquid market therein. Liquidity to a securitized device is given either by launching it into an organized market or by one or more agencies acting as market makers in it, that is, approving to buy and sell the tool at either fixed or market-determined prices. Merchantable Quality To be market-tolerable, a securitized product has to have a merchantable quality in capital market. The idea of merchantable quality in case of physical produce is something which is suitable to merchants in regular trade. When applied to economic products, it would mean the economic obligations embodied in the tools are secured to the investors approval. To the investors approval is a qualified term, and therefore, the originator of the securitized device secures the device based on the needs of the investors. The universal rule is: the broader the base of the investors, the less is the investors ability to attract the risk, and hence, the more the need to securities. For generally distributed securitized tools, estimation of the quality, and its qualifications by an independent expert. The rating provides for the advantage of the position investor, who is otherwise not projected to be in a position to review the degree of risk involved. In securitization of receivables, the idea of quality experience drastic change making rating is a general requirement for securitizations. Hence, the quality of the maintain of the debtors believes significance, which at times enables to investors to rely simply on the credit-rating of debtors and so, create the device totally independent of the originators personal rating. Wide distribution The necessary principle of securitization is to distribute the product. The level of distribution which the originator would like to realize is based on a relative analysis of the costs and the benefits achieved thereby. Wider distribution guides to a cost-benefit in the common sense that the issuer is able to market the product with minor return, and hence, minor financial cost to him. But wide investor base involves costs of distribution and servicing. In observe, securitization issues are still hard for retail investors to recognize. Hence, most securitizations have been secretly placed with expert investors. However, it is possible that in to come, retail investors could be involved into securitized products. Special purpose vehicle In case the securitization needs any asset or claim which needs to be included and separate, that is, unless it is a shortest and unsecured claim on the issuer, the issuer will want an agent agency to act as a storage area of the asset or claim which is being securitized. Let us take the easiest example of a secured debenture, in concentrate, a secured loan from some investors. Here, security charge over the issuers some assets needs to be incorporated, and later broken down into marketable lots. For this purpose, the issuer will bring in an agent agency whose necessary job is to hold the security charge on behalf of the investors, and then issue documentations to the investors of valuable interest in the charge held by the intermediary. So, whereas the charge continues to be held by the intermediary, valuable interest therein becomes a marketable security. The same process is concerned in securitization of receivables, where the special purpose agent holds the receivables with it, and issues valuable interest documentation to the investors. Assets that can be securitized In essence, all assets which produce a cash flow can be securitized e.g. housing loans mortgage loans, credit card receivables, automobile loans, consumer loans, trade receivables, lease finance, etc. a perfectly and usual financial asset is usually securitized. A difference is generally made between asset securitization and mortgage securitization. Asset securitization is sheltered from a pool of loans and receivables though the mortgage backed securities are sheltered by residential or commercial mortgage loans however mortgage backed securities is a particular kind of asset backed securities. Process of securitization The process of creating asset backed securities is talk about in the following points: The Company sells its products and services on credit and this becomes the trade receivables or account receivables in the balance sheet of the company. Out of these receivables, the originator pools definite receivables jointly on the base of maturity and risk structures and sells these to a securitization company identified as Special Purpose Vehicle or Special Purpose Entity. The securitization company makes payment to the originator for the receivables purchased. These receivables are improved into a pool of securities by the securitization company for the reason of issuing Pass Through or Pay through Certificates. These Pay Through or Pass through Certificates are then charged by Credit Rating Agencies e.g. Pakistan Credit Rating Agencies (PACRA). The Pay Through or Pass through Certificates are sold to individual investors or Qualified Institutional Buyers. The gathering of receivables from debtors is obtained by Company itself in case of Pass through Certificates and by Securitization Company in case of Pay through Certificates. If gathering is made by the Company then it is under commitment to pass on the money to the securitization company. The securitization company after that makes payment to the investors. Why do issuers need securitization? These explanations the investors favor to invest in asset-backed securities: Securitization makes tools with reverse maturities, risks, vouchers, which is attractive to investors. Securitization is a prepared financial device i.e. customized to the risk-return and maturity needs of investors, rather than a trouble-free claim against an entity or asset. Asset-Backed Securitization offers and defer higher than devices with similar risk. This is appropriate to the credit value of the tools (generally AAA rated) and the credit development features. Asset-Backed Securitization offers a expected cash-flow. Investors purchase Asset-Backed Securities with self-belief that payments will take place at particular dates in the future. Asset-Backed Securities are protected by the fundamental assets; therefore they offer important security against lower by rating agencies to the issuer. It gives a chance to the investors to spread their investment collection by investing in these asset backed securities. Impact of securitization on the capital market The impact of securitization on capital market can be analyzed in the following points: Securitization decreases transaction costs in the capital market by generating a market for financial claims, which otherwise, would have continued illiquid, i.e. limited trading. Securitization saves intermediation costs, since the particular intermediary costs are service associated and usually lower. Securitization supports saving since it offers a security to investors with guaranteed interest or payments and an assertion of credit quality and security nets in the variety of trustee

Our Economy Essay -- essays papers

Our economy Their season opened in Boston, against a young Celtics team that had listened to 80-year-old Red Auerbach. "David Stern's name is on the basketball," Auerbach had said. "Not Michael Jordan's." That evening, Celtics TV analyst Tom Heinsohn made sure his audience knew who Jordan is not. "He's not God," Heinsohn said. "Everybody treats him like a messiah or something. He isn't." If it seems odd, at this point, for so many to be confused about Michael Jordan's identity, it's only because Jordan makes it confusing. He does not own the Bulls, and he isn't general manager, but as sure as they lost their opener to the Celtics and as sure as they drifted through the first two months of the season, he is the guy who built this team, for better or worse. Shortly after the Bulls defeated the Jazz in the NBA Finals last spring, Jordan said, "We deserve a chance (to win a sixth title)." Much of what has followed is a consequence of Jordan's desire, ambition and power. Phil Jackson is coach, Scottie Pippen is still a part of the team, albeit disgruntled, and Dennis Rodman is back in Chicago, thanks to Jordan. The power to shape a basketball team, not just any team, but the defending NBA champions, winners of five titles in seven years, is impressive power, indeed. This is one reason Jordan, 34, is The Sporting News' Most Powerful Person in Sports for 1997. Here's another: Jim Jannard, chairman and president of Oakley, Inc., welcomed a new director, Bill Schmidt, onto his board this week. California-based Oakley manufactures high-tech sunglasses at a state-of-the-art Orange County factory. Schmidt is executive vice president of Quaker Oats-Gatorade, creator of the successful "Be Like Mike'' ad campaign in which Gatorade and the basketball superstar beckon thirsty consumers. Jannard and Schmidt were introduced by Jordan, an Oakley director who is developing an inside game-soaring high above boardrooms-to complement his outside shot as a marketing superstar. The cross-pollination of Oakley and Gatorade, Jannard and Schmidt, is a reflection of Jordan's power outside the game, just as his shaping of the Bulls reflects it within. He becomes the first No. 1 who started as an athlete before veering into business and media. Previous No. 1s-Laurence Tisch (1990), David Stern (1991), Phil Knight (1992), Ted ... ...se Jordan and Jackson valued his toughness. A key big man from the '97 playoffs, Brian Williams, was lost because of the cap. As the Bulls limp toward January, Pippen still is sidelined because of foot surgery, and he demands to be traded. Rodman plays lethargically. Jackson's zen is on the blink. Only Jordan, averaging a league-leading 26.8 points, stands between the club and humiliation. In business, as with the Bulls, he has the power to be who he is, to call his shots, to control his image. A bold display of Jordan's power occurred this year when two companies he represents, Nike and Oakley, collided over use of his image. Jordan has been with Nike since 1984; he earns $15 million to $20 million a year from the $9 billion behemoth. He has been with Oakley since 1995; he earns about $500,000 a year plus stock equity from the $220 million upstart. An Oakley print ad featured Jordan wearing Oakley sunglasses as well as an Oakley beret. Nike sued Oakley, claiming its contract with Jordan requires he wear Nike apparel in all of his ads. Jordan says he wore the Oakley beret because he believed at the time his deal with Nike encompassed only athletic equipment.