Hollywood History - 5698 Words

May 2010 [pic] [pic] Foreword 1. The beginning of Hollywood 2. The name †Hollywood† 3. The movie of S. Porter - â€Å"the father of the Story Film† 4. The Hollywood sign 5. The growing film industry 6. The new Hollywood 7. The beginning of the Academy Awards 8. The Golden Age of Hollywood 9. Hollywood during the War Years 10. Stars Conclusion Bibliography Foreword I have always been fascinated by the Hollywood’s world, a world of mixture between reality and glittering fantasy, of beauty, glamour, art, a world in which any dream can come to reality. The word Hollywood conjures the outstanding images of Sunset Strip, Hollywood Boulevard, Cahuenga Boulevard, La Brea Avenue, of nightclubs, movie†¦show more content†¦The name...†Hollywood†! The name „Hollywood has its origin in a Easter summer, home to a Cahuenga Valley ranch. In the middle of a sun-drenched nowhere, a sober, God-fearing man and woman settled in to create a like-minded community. Harvey Henderson Wilcox of Kansas, who made a fortune in real estate even though he had lost the use of his legs due to typhoid fever, and his wife, Daeida, moved to Los Angeles from Topeka in 1883. In 1886, Wilcox bought 160 acres (0.6 km ²) of land in the countryside to the west of the city at the foothills, in the Cahuenga Valley at, what is now, Hollywood Blvd. and Cahuenga Ave. He thought it would be a perfect site for a community that would reflect his conservative beliefs, and he built his house smack in the middle of a fig orchard. Accounts of the name, Hollywood, coming from imported English holly then growing in the area are incorrect. The name in fact was coined by Daeida Wilcox (1861–1914) who travelled by train to her old home in the east. On the tr ain, Mrs. Wilcox met a woman who described her summer home in Ohio named after a settlement of Dutch immigrants from Zwolle called Hollywood†. Daeida was so elated with the name that she borrowed it for her ranch in the Cahuenga Valley; when she returned home she prevailed on her husband to name their property Hollywood. With that simple exchange, one of the most famous towns in theShow MoreRelated Hollywood History Essay505 Words   |  3 Pagesto turn back the hands of time and change or rewrite history. However, the truth of the matter is that we simply cannot. Everything happens for a reason, and we should learn to accept it. Accept it for what it is, rather than what we would like it to be. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;However, to often in Hollywood the city of glamour and glitz, fortune and fame, movie producers have a tendency and even feel at liberty to rewrite American history. In my opinion this is all done out of greed. The movieRead MoreHistory Vs. Hollywood Essay528 Words   |  3 Pagesask why would directors and film makers leave out the facts of war and focus on the drama? After reading The Faces of Battle by John Keegan and reviewing war movies such as Saving Private Ryan, and Pearl Harbor, one can clearly see what makes the Hollywood version of war different from real life war. When you watch a movie about war you are given a plot to the movie, like in saving private Ryan the plot of the movie was to find a soldier named James Frances Ryan which takes place in Germany duringRead MoreHollywood vs History Essay942 Words   |  4 PagesHistory vs. Hollywood The Patriot The Revolutionary war, sparked by the colonists anger towards taxation without representation, was a conflict between the United States and its mother country Great Britain. This event had been considered the most significant event in the American history. It separated the thirteen colonies from the tyrannical ruling of King George. The revolutionary war was not a big war, The military conflict was, by the standards of later wars, a relatively modest one. BattleRead MoreHistory vs. Hollywood: Glory1633 Words   |  7 PagesGlory: Hollywood vs. History Glory is a movie about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the first official all black units in the United States during the Civil War. It’s an inspirational story of how a young Union soldier, Robert Gould Shaw, is offered the chance to lead an army unit that will change not only his life, but the lives of many other Americans. Glory does a great job of capturing many of the feelings towards the black soldiers during the Civil War. The film is based offRead More Hollywood vs. History: The Alamo Essay1557 Words   |  7 Pages Hollywood vs. History: The Alamo The Alamo was one of the most astounding and critical battles of our country. Its men were ruthless in their bravery and love of their country. Their mission for independence lives on in the hearts of all American’s today. Their legacy lives on forever and their courageous souls are still in the heart of the people of the lone star state. This is the story of bravery, love, tyranny, and liberty. This is the story of the Alamo The battle of the Alamo onlyRead MoreHow The Silver Screen Affects Women s Fashion Trends?1495 Words   |  6 PagesHow the Silver Screen Affects Women’s Fashion Trends? Today/Throughout History? Silver screen has the capacity to make not just a star of its leading women, but a fashion icon too. From Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly to Julia Roberts and Keira Knightley, via Mia Farrow and Catherine Deneuve, some of Hollywood s most successful stars owe a lot to their on-screen style. Moreover, during the 21st century, movies have been a powerful media in which to influence people’s style.   MoviesRead MoreHistory of the Hollywood Star System Essay1493 Words   |  6 PagesThe star system was a method of developing and advancing the popularity of Hollywood movie stars. The system, which began during the height of the Hollywood studio system era, emphasized the image of the actor instead on the actual acting. The movie studios profits were driven by the popularity of the stars that appeared in their films. According to Rocco, the stars had long term contracts with the movie studios that paid them a weekly salary, and the stars were identified with specifi c typesRead MoreWho Is Adam Levine?1403 Words   |  6 Pagesinducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a huge honor. Music legends such as, Bob Marley, Tupac Shakur, and The Beatles have been inducted( â€Å"Inductee Explorer† ). These people will forever be remembered for the impact that they have had on the history of music. Adam Levine should be inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame because he has won many awards, he has influenced many people in a variety of different ways, and also because he donates to many important causes. Adam Levine hasRead MoreGangs of New York History vs. Hollywood1164 Words   |  5 Pagesabout the gangs or the riots, furthering the idea of the pointlessness of it. Historically speaking, the movie relates the United States history poorly. It has many accuracies historically, but the problems far outweigh them. First though, the accuracies. The movie depicts the Five Points in New York as being poor, pestilent, and ugly. This is true to history. The district was doomed to slumhood from the beginning. It was erected on the filled-in Collect Pond, which was 60 feet deep and coveredRead More Gangs of New York History vs. Hollywood Essay1120 Words   |  5 Pagesidea of the pointlessness of it. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Historically speaking, the movie relates the United States history poorly. It has many accuracies historically, but the problems far outweigh them. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;First though, the accuracies. The movie depicts the Five Points in New York as being poor, pestilent, and ugly. This is true to history. The district was doomed to slumhood from the beginning. It was erected on the filled-in Collect Pond, which was 60 feet deep

Case study analysis of Ready Meals Free Essays

1. Before and After Status of Ready Meals Ready Meals (RM) are a freshly prepared meals supply company with a major grocery retailer Strutt within its customer base. Strutt had previously employed a central ordering system that disregarded uncertainty and volatility factors in customer demand, where uncertainty is critical when designing any operational model. We will write a custom essay sample on Case study analysis of Ready Meals or any similar topic only for you Order Now Koh (2004) defined it as the unpredictable event that has a disturbing impact on production and operations and causes model predictions to be different from reality. RM faced high demand, variability and uncertainty. On a weekly basis demand varied by 10 to 25% and, at times, exceeded 50%. The company had difficulty dealing with Strutt, which often charged them financial penalties in case of wastage or ill-timed supply. Variability and uncertainty has an impact on optimal safety stocks and lead times (Molinder, 1997). In the old system: Due to demand fluctuations orders were calculated sometimes two days prior to dispatch which extended supply lead time. A lot of sauce would go wasted due to demand variations. Trade-offs and buffering mechanisms were employed to solve volatility and uncertainty issues (Wazed, Ahmed and Yusoff, 2009). In the old system, a buffering mechanism changed working hours unannounced, which disappointed the employees and increased costs. Due to a central material requirement planning system (MRPS), impact of uncertainty was passed to suppliers. The orders were based on a provisional order because of required lead time. If the original/provisional order was low, the suppliers were pressurised for an urgent order. There was no mechanism to avoid wastage or stock from exceeding planned replenishment when the provisional order was higher. To increase availability of stock, the company had to either change the days in system or the planned coverage level. The former increased wastage risk, whilst the latter equated three times higher change in overall stock. The company needed a better designed system that addressed the weaknesses of the existing one. After implementing the new system: Because of the adjustment, it became possible for season and weekly schedules to be set and the uncertainty in demand was greatly reduced which lead to timely supplies and fewer penalties. The shelf –life of products for Strutt was increased by dispatching orders early and on production days. The quantities packaged were according to requirements of stores by specifying location of delivery depot two days prior to despatch. This further helped avoid delays in shipment. The wastage rate of the company was effectively reduced. This lead to an eradication of the requirement to use the annualised hours buffering mechanism. The suppliers were also able to deliver more efficiently according to demand. The overall impact was a 90% increase in the company’s products in stores. 2) Operation Management Laws and Theories and Cause Effect Relationships: The case of RM showed that in the old system, the company mostly followed the traditional operational management laws and theories. The old system was based on a trade-off model in which companies often compromise quality for cost minimisation. Ferdows and De Meyer (1990) theorised that in order to achieve cost efficiency, focus of management should first focus on quality, dependability and then flexibility of production. This cause and effect relationship can be seen within the new system employed by RM. In the new system, the focus of the company was not cost, but on quality, by increasing shelf life of products. Allowing for delivery order two days earlier, the company sanctioned dependability as well as flexibility. This meant that the penalties were effectively removed as well as the wastage. The new system can be said to be based on a just-in-time model (Ohno, 1998). According to the just-in-time concept, materials or parts are delivered when they are needed. This leads a reduc tion in wastage and no inventory. Regarding variability and use of trade off buffering, Hopp Spearman (1995) said that increases in variability decreases the performance of the system and it can only be buffered using capacity, time and inventory. This was a traditional concept and the old system worked according to it. To deal with variability, the company used a capacity buffer (annualised hours for labour). This helped in dealing with variability but resulted in low morale among employees, thus low performance and an increase in costs. Fisher (1997) suggested the modern theory of accepting the uncertainty. According to him, uncertainty and variability are natural in products and adjustments have to be made in the production system to deal with them. Uncertainty can be avoided or reduce by increasing flexibility of supply chain and by cutting lead time. For hedging excess capacity or inventory, buffers can be employed. The new system accepted the uncertainty as they made adjustments for seasonal variations. Furth ermore, dispatching on production day decreased lead time and such steps reduced the impact of uncertainty. The company, however, reduced the capacity buffer and was able to increase its availability by 90%. This is in accordance with the findings of Schmenner and Swink (1998) who gave a view that buffers should be avoided and when variations are reduced, the companies should avoid buffering for improved flow. This was found to be true in the case of RM. The company did have to use annualised hours or labour productivity buffers. This resulted in reduced costs and the performance of the company improved. 3) General Advice: On the basis of the RM case analysis, it is recommended that the company should accept uncertainty and volatility and make system adjustments accordingly. The buffer mechanisms, may appear effective at first, but the acquisition of an optimal level in trade off seems difficult therefore the company should try to find some other way to tackle this issue and rely less upon the trade-off buffering. For instance, fluctuations in demand can be dealt with by making the system more dependable and flexible. Bibliography Ferdows, K. and De Meyer, A. 1990. Lasting improvements in manufacturing performance: in search of a new theory, Journal of Operations Management, (9)2, pp.168-184. Fisher, M.L. 1997. What is the right supply chain for your productHarvard Business Review, March-April, pp.105-116. Hopp W.J., and Spearman, M.L. 1995. Factory Physics, Singapore: McGraw Hill. Koh, S.C.L. 2004. MRP-controlled batch-manufacturing environment under uncertainty, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 55, pp.219-232. Molinder, A., 1997. Joint optimization of lot-sizes, safety stocks and safety lead times in an MRP system, International Journal of Production Research, 35(4), pp. 983-994. Ohno, T. 1988. The Toyota Production System; Beyond Large-Scale Production, Portland: Productivity Press. Schmenner, R.W., and Swink, M.L. 1998. On theory in operations management, Journal of Operations Management, 17, pp. 97-113. Wazed, M. A., Ahmed, S. and Yusoff, N. 2009. Uncertainty Factors in Real Manufacturing Environment, Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 3(2), pp. 342-351. How to cite Case study analysis of Ready Meals, Free Case study samples

A Rose for Emily vs. a Long Wintry Death Leads free essay sample

A Woman’s Wintry Death Leads to a Long-Dead Friend† Losing a loved one is never easy to accept. It is important to be reassured by the reality that the best way to honor him or her is to retain their memory in ones heart. Miss Emily Grierson in â€Å"A Rose for Emily† and Frances Dawson Hamilton, in â€Å"A Woman’s Wintry Death Leads to a Long-Dead Friend† both handle the situation of their loved partner quite differently than one usually would.Both stories â€Å"A Rose for Emily† and â€Å"A Woman’s Wintry Death Leads to a Long-Dead Friend† lead to nearly the same resolution, but they have many differences and similarities throughout to make them unique and interesting. The number of differences in between the two stories divides each into its unique and interesting tales. One of those differences is communication. While Emily Grierson scarcely communicates with anyone in her town, Frances Dawson Hamilton is somewhat open with others. We will write a custom essay sample on A Rose for Emily vs. a Long Wintry Death Leads or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Man-servant, who is also a combined gardener/cook, is the only one who is being seen at Grierson’s house within the past 10 or so years.Hamilton, on the other side, has a friend by the name of James Phillips. James Philips visits Hamilton, takes her shopping, and does shopping for her. Another difference between the two stories is the in climax points. Grierson is seen buying arsenic at the drugstore, which she uses to drug her partner Homer Barron. After she drugs him, Homer Barron disappears and she never mentions him. Bernard J. Kelly, Hamilton’s partner, dies from sickness. Hamilton discusses with her friend that Bernard is sick, but she states that she’s taking good care of him and he doesn’t need to see a doctor.While both women keep their partner’s dead body in the upstairs bedroom, their signs are different; this brings us to a third difference among the two stories. Grierson gives absolutely no sign that her partner’s body is on the second floor; Hamilton however, mentions to her friend that there is a man up there. In that event in Grierson’s house, Homer Barron’s dead body is placed in a single bed. Two twin beds are pushed together in Hamilton’s house where Bernard’s body lies so that she can sleep beside him every night. Grierson’s house has started to smell bad due to the dead body, while Hamilton’s house shows no sign of bad smell. A last, but not least difference, is signs of this previously occurring. When Grierson’s father had died, Grierson did not want to admit to the town the death of her father for three days; instead she kept his dead body in the house for three days. Hamilton shows no signs of keeping another’s dead body in the past. Grierson keeps Homer Barron’s dead body in the closed room for about 40 years. Hamilton keeps Bernard’s dead body closed in the room for about two years.The unique and interesting tales in each story shows the differences in between the two. Even though the two short stories share many differences, they also share a few similarities. Both Grierson and Hamilton have their loved partner living with them for a long time. When Grierson’s partner, Homer Barron, and Hamilton’s partner, Bernard died, both ladies secretly keep the dead body of their partner hidden in the upstairs bedroom. Both Grierson and Hamilton refuse to let people into their house, as they might find the hidden dead body.In both stories the room with the hidden dead body has symptoms of amour in them showing the ladies affection toward their partner. The similarities in the two stories connect them together. â€Å"A Rose for Emily† and â€Å"A Woman’s Wintry Death Leads to a Long-Dead Friend† both lead to nearly the same resolution. Grierson and Hamilton both keep the dead body of their partner hidden in the upstairs bedroom. Grierson dies from a sickness and Hamilton dies of freezing during a cold winter. Both Grierson and Hamilton handle the situation of their loved partner quite differently than one usually would.

Leonardo Da Vinci Research Paper Essay Example Essay Example

Leonardo Da Vinci Research Paper Essay Example Paper Leonardo Da Vinci Research Essay Introduction Famous figures are usually discussed in terms of perfection and flawlessness. That is how people first view Leonardo da Vinci. He was born in 1452, in the town of Vinci, Italy, and admittedly he was an extraordinary child, always fascinated with the scenery and objects around him. When he was around the age of twelve, his biological father sent da Vinci’s drawings to a famous Florentine painter and sculptor, Andrea del Verrocchio. He thought da Vinci’s drawings were very impressive and soon it was arranged for Leonardo da Vinci to become an apprentice. Under the care and teachings of Andrea del Verrocchio, da Vinci learned how to prepare wooden panels for painting, how to grind color by hand, how to make varnish for protecting finished paintings, and much more. As the years went by, da Vinci showed increasing mastery in the fields of science, engineering, and art. He thought up some of the greatest ideas that are still used today such as cars, submarines, helicopters, f lying machines, which would not even have been invented for many more years. People wonder why da Vinci was not recognized as a great artist while he was alive. Unfortunately, Leonardo da Vinci had flaws, just like any other human being. He procrastinated on many of his assigned projects and was very disorganized. He died unhappy because he did not think anything was ever accomplished. He was given many opportunities to prove his genius, but he failed to complete most of his projects which kept him from being acknowledged as a mastermind while he was still alive. Leonardo Da Vinci Research Essay Body Paragraphs Even though Leonardo da Vinci portrayed many characteristics of a modern high school student such as disorganization, procrastination, and incompletion of many projects, the projects that were finished are looked upon as masterpieces of the Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci was a messy and disorganized child and a secretive young adult. Unfortunately, he did not change this habit as he grew older. When he was young, da Vinci collected things that interested him and kept them in his room. Consequently, his room was a messy jungle of animals and objects which he never allowed people to see, being afraid that they might disband his collections. As he grew older, da Vinci kept his notebooks close and continuously filled them with incredible and innovative ideas and drawings. Some of his entries were short jottings and improvements of his inventions but others were â€Å"lengthy and elaborate† entries that went into detail about his numerous projects (Pannapacker 4). Leonardo da Vinci had so many remarkable ideas and he was so â€Å"ahead of his time† it is almost impossible to believe he came up with those inventions (Pannapacker 1). Leonardo da Vinci returned to his notebooks intermittently, revising his thoughts and â€Å"adding drawings and textual elaborations† throughout his life (Pannapacker 4). Most of the additions he made were scribbles on the margins of his notebook. He was paranoid that someone would steal his ideas so da Vinci wrote his notebooks in code. One could only decipher his writings if he held the notebook upside down in front of a mirror. Being left handed, he also wrote from right to left. Even cryptographers have had a hard time trying to decode his notebooks seeing as they are so messy and crammed with information. Da Vinci kept his notebooks for at least thirty-five years and more than five thousand of his manuscripts have been recovered. Da Vinci’s intelligence and artistic skills were publicized only after his de ath when historians discovered his notebooks. Historians describe Leonardo da Vinci as an inveterate procrastinator because he never started or finished projects on time. He seemed â€Å"endlessly distracted† by his notebooks and experiments because he understood the â€Å"fleeting quality of imagination† (Pannapacker 3). Leonardo da Vinci believed that if one did not get an insight down on paper and later develop it while the â€Å"excitement lasts† one is â€Å"squandering the rarest† and â€Å"most unpredictable† of his human capabilities which feels like the moments are â€Å"touched by the hand of God† (Pannapacker 3). One of the biggest examples of da Vinci’s procrastinations were his notebooks. He kept them for a long time, away from people’s eyes and never thought of ever publishing them, stating that they were â€Å"never quite finished† (Williams 45). He left his notebooks a mess and never published â€Å"the treatises† that could have modernized science during his lifetime. Furthermore, Leonardo da Vinci was more interested by his inventions and solving the glitches of those inventions rather than actually trying to build them. His procrastination caused him much grief in later years and despite his contributions he felt he could have achieved much more. As a result of his procrastination, da Vinci did not receive very good pay therefore he was never able to live in lavish homes or have any luxurious possessions. Doodling while the hours passed by, the genius who changed the world wasn’t an expert at getting things done. When Leonardo da Vinci learned about a new topic, he was usually very enthusiastic. Unfortunately, he dropped each subject he was learning after he had â€Å"mastered its rudiments† and continued on to study new subjects, which he would eventually get tired of and forget about (Williams 12). Da Vinci was also â€Å"afraid of success† and never gave his best effort because there was â€Å"no chance of failure that way† (Pannapacker 1-2). Many scientists, historians, and artists could consider Leonardo da Vinci foolish because he â€Å"could never really finish† the projects that he started and he â€Å"never realized most of his inventions in real terms†. He didn’t even begin to think about building these â€Å"marvelous inventions† (Hines 1). Da Vinci’s notebooks were full of illustrations and descriptions about things that were not even going to be invented for many years later. Throughout his lifetime, Renaissance leaders such as Lorenzo the Magnificent and the de Predis family gave Leonardo da Vinci many painting and sculptures to complete. In January of 1478, da Vinci received his first commission as an independent artist. It was an altarpiece for the Chapel of San Bernardo, but he never finished and no one knows what the reason was behind leaving it incomplete, but many peop le believe he could have been lost in his research and notebooks that he forgot what the original purpose of his research was. Leonardo da Vinci never thought small, it was always the bigger the better. At one point in his life, da Vinci wanted to make sculpture of a horse out of 160,000 pounds of metal. He started the project with great enthusiasm, but soon ran into a problem. He had no idea how to bring the horse to life. In order to continue his project, da Vinci drew sketches and studied horses that could have been used as models. He became so lost in his studies of horses that he forgot what his original plan was. Along with these two projects, Leonardo da Vinci left many more unfinished, such as another altarpiece for Monk’s high altar and a painting for the Predis family. Leonardo da Vinci died unhappy, thinking that he hadn’t accomplished in his lifetime. Leonardo da Vinci was the best representation of the idea of a Renaissance man, one who mastered everything from human and animal anatomy to sculptures and paintings. He accomplished wonders such as opening up a new world of beauty, devoted himself to science, and went from a humble village to palaces of princes, popes, and kings. It is debated whether he was a greater engineer, anatomist, or naturalist. Da Vinci’s contributions to art are shown not only in his early works and masterpieces, but also in his many writings. His first major work was â€Å"The Baptism of Christ† in which he co-worked with his mentor, Verrocchio. After seeing what da Vinci had painted, Verrocchio â€Å"threw down his brush† and never painted again (Williams 22). His style of art closely paralleled that of Verrocchio, but he gradually moved away from his teacher’s â€Å"stiff, tight, and somewhat rigid treatment of figures† to develop a more â€Å"evocative and atmospheric handling of composition† which led him to complete some of the world’s most famous and asto unding painting of all time (Hooker 5). His first individual work was â€Å"The Annunciation† which shows when the angel Gabriel informed Mary she would bare the child of God. This painting showed his increased mastery in the field of art. Da Vinci created many works of art that are considered masterpieces. The most famous of these are his portraits of â€Å"Lisa del Giocondo,† also known as â€Å"Mona Lisa,† and â€Å"The Last Supper. † The â€Å"Mona Lisa† is one of the most famous works of art in the world today. Many people wonder who she is and why she is smiling. â€Å"The Last Supper† is famous for two main reasons, Judas, the traitor of Jesus Christ, is positioned behind the table, unlike any other portrayal of this painting. The other reason is how much John, one of the twelve disciples, who is sitting next to Jesus Christ â€Å"looks like a woman† (Hooker 3). This painting has been considered â€Å"one of the most profound works of man† by artist of all generations (Williams 59). The painting is not entirely visible because the wall on which it is painted on was damp and da Vinci used oil and tempera paints. Soon after it was finished it started to peel off the walls. It has been repainted and restored many times. These paintings are not just important because of the aspects of them but also how da Vinci makes them look so life like. Their facial expressions show his deep knowledge of human anatomy and his artistic skills. Leonardo da Vinci also decorated the courtyard and palace where Lodavico’s nephew was getting married. The sight was breathtaking. It looked more like a painting rather than the real thing. The guests were amazed by it. Da Vinci’s reputation grew along with his confidence. Soon, he left Verrocchio and set up his own studio. Leonardo da Vinci is considered one of our world’s most significant and influential people in the world. His notebooks are full of dra wings and notes of ideas and inventions that no one of that time had ever thought of. Living in the Renaissance time period, da Vinci came up with some of the most astounding masterpieces. He portrayed many characteristics of a high school student such as disorganization, procrastination, and incompletion of many projects. When Leonardo da Vinci died, he appealed to God, â€Å"Tell me if anything ever was done. Tell me if anything ever was done† (Pannapacker 1). But one must look past the superficial things that a person might have in order to realize their true genius. It is arguable whether da Vinci’s working habits are dire or not but one thing is for sure, Leonardo da Vinci was truly a genius that is looked upon with great admiration by many scientists and artists. We will write a custom essay sample on Leonardo Da Vinci Research Paper Essay Example specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Leonardo Da Vinci Research Paper Essay Example specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Leonardo Da Vinci Research Paper Essay Example specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer

Free Marketing Mix Economics Esay

Free Marketing Mix Economics Esay Marketing Mix Marketing mix is a set of variables that can be run and put in place by marketing managers to effectively satisfy the needs of every target customer in a particular selected niche. A typical marketing mix constitutes a product, offered at a specific pre-determined price, with some promotion to let the target customers know information about the product, and a mode in which the product will be able to reach the customers place (Perreault McCarthy 2009). This paper delves deeper into description of the four elements that make up the marketing mix; product, place, promotion, and price, normally referred to as the 4Ps in the marketing world. Into the bargain, the four major elements of the marketing mix will be conversed with the intention of making a clearer understanding of its functions. There are different variables in the market that play part solely for the purpose of making a single sale. The customers themselves cannot be manipulated in the making of the sales, but the sales are affected by setting the right prices for the products. It makes them available to the customers whenever they need the products, advertisement or the product attributes. If these variables are well interpreted and used effectively, the result will be successful. It means that very efficient marketing mixes in a company will improve its sales margins. Scientifically, the variables are interdependent tools that can be used to solve any marketing problem. 2. Elements of Marketing Mix As I have explained in the introductory phrases of this paper, marketing mix is the terminology commonly used to depict the combination of the four inputs: the product, the price structure, the promotional activities that include advertisement, and the distribution system that a company uses to hunt the necessary level of desired amount of sales in the target market. 2.1 Product The products aspects of marketing are concerned with the specifications of the actual goods or services, and how best it relates to the end-user's wants and needs, normally referred to as the consumer or better still the customer. The scope of a product generally entails supporting elements, such as guarantees, warranties and support. The product mix entails many variables, which include the product line and range. This depends on the companies ability to produce a wide range of products for its target customers. This is what ultimately leads to product differentiation since many products will be designed to suit all the customers needs. Hence, a wide range of products will be subsequently produced. The style, design, colour, shape, quality and other physical features of a product are also paramount. This will affect the way the consumers will welcome the product in the market and affect its volume of sales. Packaging and labelling of a product are also factors to be considered when it comes to the individual goods. They have to be made in an attractive way as not to compromise the efforts made to boost the sale of that particular commodity. Another factor that is usually never overlooked is the branding attributed to a particular product. Branding affects the target market in a major way, showing how it will rela te to the product. A product with a huge and widely acknowledged brand name has a higher sales volume when compared to that with no distinct brand name. The other most important things in the promotion of the products are the production servicing and innovation. A product can be categorized in any of the following levels: The actual product, which has attributes and features exclusively to satisfy the customers needs and wants (e.g. iPhone from Apple). The core product, which satisfies customers needs while providing a benefit in addition to the primary intention for which it was created for (e.g. efficient technology). The augmented product offers supplementary services that aid to generate multiple revenues, e.g. accessories for iPhone. This is the non-physical attribute of the product, which adds certain value to the main product. A very good example of an augmented product is an extension of a warranty on a purchased iPhone. This is also a major study area for this paper and I will delve into this issue after I have efficiently exhausted on the four Ps of marketing. The product element is factored into companies marketing mix by answering certain questions that include actual customers demands from the particular product or service. What qualities will the product have to meet the consumers requirements? How and where will the product be used? What does the product look like and how will it be experienced? What should the name of the product be and how will it be branded? How will the product be differentiated from items of consumption created by competitors (Mind Tools 2011)? 2.2 Promotion Promotion is the second element of the marketing mix, and could be viewed as the most imperative as it relates to the communication process of marketing a product. What, when and where the consumer hears, knows, or gains knowledge about a product will greatly impact the buying decisions made by the target customers. There are certain aspects of promotional communication that can be put in place and integrated as required for maximum marketing results: Personal Selling. A well-trained sales representative acts as an agent of the company and develops personal customer relationships. Sales Promotion. This could include coupons, introductory offers, free accessories, or anything outside of personal selling, public relations and public selling. Public Relations. This is the predetermined, deliberate, and maintained effort of a company to institute mutual understanding with the general public and its customers. Direct Mail. This promotional aspect typically makes use of an informational database to the target customers, and the organizations take time to carefully monitor the responses and effectively act on them in order to ensure almost perfect satisfaction of the customers needs and wants. Trade Fairs and Exhibitions. Undertaking these activities provide good networking and exposure opportunities, where the company can lay out all its products and highlight on the features that will mostly attract the customers. Advertising. Product awareness is effectively achieved through purchased communication avenues, such as newspapers and televisions, as well as magazines. This is very important platform for letting the public in on the products provided by a company. Most, if not all, of the households in every state have access to either a television or radio or daily newspapers, hence these sources are clearly acknowledged as very effective advertising and marketing tools. Sponsorship. An organization pays for its name to be associated with a specific event, image or cause. Whenever a sales manager sits down to draft a promotion plan for a company, there are certain questions that he or she will have in mind before creating the final promotion plan for a certain product. Such questions include, when and where can the message be communicated to the target market? Will radio, TV, or billboard advertisements reach the target audience? Will public relations, direct mailings, or the Internet be effective in communicating to potential customers? When should the promotion campaign begin? Are there seasonal or environmental factors to consider? How will promotion choices be reacted to by competitors, if there is any at all (Mind Tools 2011)? Appropriate selection of the right time, target audience, and venue for promotions is indispensable to marketing triumph. Preferring an integrated combination of internet, TV and radio advertisements, sales promotion and direct mail, Verizon has again proven its strategic marketing intelligence by becoming the first of its competitors to promote nation-wide broadband network, successfully establishing the Verizon brand (Verizon 2011). 2.3 Price Price is the third and definitely defining element of the marketing mix. There are various ways to apply pricing strategies to make a product scintillating to the consumers; however, there are the four main pricing strategies that I will describe in depth; Premium pricing. This strategy makes use of an elevated price on the basis of the uniqueness of the product or when there is a significant competitive advantage for the seller of that particular commodity. Penetration pricing. This is the type of low-balling strategy that is often used to gain a certain niche of the whole market share. Subject to product success, the product price increases to improve profitability margins for the seller. Economy pricing. The seller keeps the manufacturing and marketing costs at a regulated minimal level and offers a no-frills low price for the product. The seller is not bent on making a large amount of profit, but just enough as to recover the inputs put in the production of the goods or services. Price skimming. When a seller has a substantial competitive advantage, the introductive price is high; however, as the product draws more competitors, pricing decreases due to increased product availability (Semenik Bamossy 1995). In estimating price of a product or service, an organizational manager develops a pricing strategy that attempts to answer crucial questions that include the value of the product or service to the customer. Have prices already been established for the product or service in the area of business? Is the set price competitive with other sellers in the same business line? Is the set price sensitive to suit the economic needs of the consumers in a particular market niche? How can the selling cost be best managed to make the product reasonably priced to customers and at the same time guarantee profitability for the company (Mind Tools 2011)? Other strategic approaches to pricing include psychological pricing, which elicits an emotional consumers response versus a rational one. Verizons can you hear me now? campaign was triumphant in tackling cell phone customers dissatisfaction with dropped calls. Product line pricing is yet another effective approach that emphasizes the benefits of a range of related products or services. Pricing is of prime importance since it gives the consumer a clear mindset on the quantifiable value of the product in question. Thus, if it is underpriced, the consumer may discard the product as being of little or absolutely no value. 2.4 Place The fourth and certainly defining element in the marketing mix is place or placement. This is the mechanism and modes put in place to move products or services from the producer to the customer. It can also be referred to as the distribution channel, or intermediary. The products can get to the customers through various channels. Nevertheless, there are six basic channel decisions that include selling directly to customers or indirectly through a distributor or wholesaler or both. The producers can also sell through single or multiple channels of distributions depending on the target market. The producer should consider the number of intermediaries that he or she is willing to work with in order to put multiple channels into effect. There are certain distribution considerations that should be made in response to the placement of a product. Such queries include where exactly are targeted consumers looking for the product or service? What type of venue would be best to avail the produc ts; in what kind of store, shop, online, or as representations in a catalogue? Is the consideration of whether a sales force is direly needed of prime importance? Should samples be distributed in order to try to direct the clients attention to the target market? Would the attendance of trade fairs and exhibitions be beneficial to the company? These are some of the very crucial questions that a marketing manager should have looming in their thoughts while coming up with an effective product placement (Armstrong Kottler 2005). With help of the augmented product model, I will use examples of two companies to illustrate the importance of the segmented product model. The core product of Lipton Peach Ice Tea is a soft drink with a benefit to quench thirst. It also has a fundamental benefit of social acceptance as there may be a national perception that those who drink Lipton Peach Ice Tea are cool and awesome. Also, the ice tea is very convenient as it is easily bought and managed. The augmented product of Lipton Peach Ice Tea provides a number of additional services. The most obvious is the Lipton website that contains nutritional details and the health benefits of the product. There is also Liptons tea and health club where club members can have a newsletter sent to their home addresses or even emails detailing information about tea and health (Kottler et al. 2007). In addition to this, there is also the E-store which organizes specific Lipton Peach Ice Teas to be home delivered for extra convenience. Lastly , there are deals at supermarkets with special discounts, such as 2 for 1 or savings on the purchase. These are some of the benefits that the Lipton Ice Tea tags along with its consumption. The other company I will closely analyze is the corporation known as American Express Platinum Credit Card, which involves many additional services. With the use of its credit cards, the customer is in a position to use travellers cheques, which makes international travels more convenient as it allows the customer to avoid the tiresome and overwhelming hassle of exchanging money in each country. Another additional service is travel insurance as there is increased financial security for the customer with regards to property safety, accommodation, etc. Lastly, the American Express Platinum Credit Card is able to be personalized with different images for gift cards. Conclusion In conclusion, it is quite clear that when developing marketing strategies, all decisions affecting the four Ps should be made subsequently since they are all interdependent. The four elements are the most important. This is because the products, places, prices, and promotions of an organization surround the most significant element: target consumers (Perreault McCarthy 2009). Apparently, every marketing manager should put all the four Ps into consideration in order to coin the best marketing mix that can be used effectively as a tool to penetrate different target market niches. This is the secret weapon behind the success of each company.

Animal cell project

The Nucleus is found in both the animal cell and the plant cell. The Nucleus function is to direct all functions within the cell. 5. Nucleolus The Nucleolus is found in the nucleus in both plants and animal cells. The nucleolus function is to assemble ribosomes which move out of the nucleus and take positions on the rough ER (Endoplasmic Reticulum) where they are critical in protein synthesis. 6. Chromatin The Chromatin is located in both plant cells and animal cells. The function of the hromatin is to package DNA into a smaller volume to fit in the cell, to strengthen the DNA to allow mitosis and prevent DNA damage. 7. Centrioles Centrioles are found only in the animal cell. The function of Centrioles is to produce the cells cytoskeleton which is made up of microtubules and microfilaments. Chloroplast The chloroplast is located only in the plant cell. Chloroplast Job is responsible for making glucose in the process known as photosynthesis. The Chloroplast is green due to chlorophyll a pigment that captures sunlight. The chloroplasts live in the mesophyll cells. 8. Ribosomes Ribosomes are found in both plant and animal cells. The function is to synthesize and make proteins. Ribosomes can be found free floating in the cytoplasm or attached to the ER (Endoplasmic Reticulum). 9. Vacuoles Vacuoles are found in both plant cells and animal cells. The vacuoles function is to store food, water, or wastes. The vacuole that is only found in plant cells is the central vacuole. The vacuoles store water, food, and waste. Vacuoles purpose is to serve rimarily as storage units but versatile to perform more than one function. Cell Wall Cell walls are located only in the plant cell. The function of the cell wall is to support and give structure. The cell wall is made up of cellulose. 10. Cell Membrane Cell membranes are located in both plant and animal cells. The Job of the cell membrane is to control what foes into and out of the cell. 11 . Cytoplasm Cytoplasm is found in both plants and animal cells. The Job of the cytoplasm is to keep the organelles safe and in place. 12. Nuclear Envelope The Nuclear Envelope is located in both the plant cell and the animal cell. The nuclear envelopes function is to send a stream of RNA and other info-carrying molecules to the rest of the cell through nuclear pores. These organelles I have listed are in animals and in plant cells or both. The lists of organelles are very unique and if you have never heard of these organelles and cells. I hope you will learn something from my project. In conclusion, my project is to show the similarities and differences between each organelle in a plant cell or animal cell.

Will the Oil Crisis happen Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Will the Oil Crisis happen - Essay Example As Daniel Yergen concisely states, "We're not running out of oil. Not yet." He qualifies this statement by stating, "Right now the oil market is tight, even tighter than it was on the eve of the 1973 oil crisis." He even states that, "in this high-risk market, 'surprises' ranging from political instability to hurricanes could send oil prices spiking higher," but he - like many other scholars - does not foresee an actual supply shortage in the near future. He notes that the public at large has heard the rumor that rising gas prices are an indication "that the world is going to begin running out of oil in five or 10 years," and many people believe this falsehood to be true. However, the reality of the situation is just not that simple. The ever-changing prices of fuel might be an indicator of a fluctuation in the market, but many experts agree that price instability is not a reflection of a dwindling oil supply. Yergen states that new field research conducted by Peter Jackson and Robert Esser actually indicates quite the opposite is true. He states that Jackson and Esser have actually forecast "a large, unprecedented buildup of oil supply in the next few years." Their figures estimate that "between 2004 and 2010, capacity to produce oil could grow by 16 million barrels a day -- from 85 million barrels per day to 101 million barrels a day -- a 20 percent increase." Although fuel consumption is a never-ending fact of our society, modern technology is making it possible for the world's oil suppliers to use much more efficient techniques for finding new reserves and exploiting the ones we already have. As Deming states, "With every passing year it becomes possible to exploit oil resources that could not have been recovered with old technologies." Much of the optimism in Leonardo Maugeri's The Age of Oil is founded in such technological hope. He writes, "It is probably true that our planet does not hide many more gigantic, yet-to-be-discovered deposits of conventional oil. But the discovery trends we are witnessing today can make this irrelevant" (220). He believes that "unconventional sources such as gas liquids, ultra-deep offshore deposits, ultra-heavy oils, shale oils, and tar sands" hold some hope for future development. Scientists are currently researching ways to put these resources to use. Since high gas prices allow companies to have more capital for scientific advancement and research, his hope of nontraditional fuel sources may likely become a reality. He also states that the Persian Gulf and Russian Federation "have huge potential for new reserves additions" if they can overcome "outmoded technologies and poor management" (221). Ultimately, when fuel companies need this oil, the market will likely force them to find a way to make the right technologies available to these regions. For example, the largest oilfield in Kuwait is still using equipment from the 1940's and 1950's to extract its oil (224). Surely, modern technology will be able to help this field and many others as the quest for oil intensifies. Yergin predicts that "the share of 'unconventional oil' - Canadian oil sands, ultra-deep-water developments, 'natural gas liquids' - will rise from 10 percent of total capacity in 1990 to 30 percent by

The Case Involving Garner against Tennessee Research Paper

The Case Involving Garner against Tennessee - Research Paper Example Garner’s father sued the police officers, the mayor of the city Memphis and the specific police against breach of Garners right provided for under the Fourteenth, fourth and eight Amendments (Levy, Karst, and Winkler, 2000). He alleged that Hymon violated the rights of Garner when he shot and killed him. He sued the mayor of Memphis, and the police department because of their failure to effectively train Hymon and supervise him. He denotes that this contributed to the behavior of Hymon that made him kill Garner. He specifically used the 1871 civil rights act, section 42 which protected citizens against anyone who breached their rights in accordance with the United States Constitution (Pollock and Klotter, 2009). The district court ruled in favor of the mayor, the police department and Hymon. The district court ruled that the Tennessee deadly force statute was constitutional, and Hymon did not deprive Garner of his constitutional rights. On appeal, the court repealed the Tennes see deadly force statute, denoting that the law was unconstitutional, violating the fourteenth and the fourth amendment. The appeal court was particularly interested in the fact that fleeing suspect did not pose any danger to the police officers, or other people within the surrounding. The appeal court ruled that by killing a suspect who is unarmed, by officer violates the rights of such a person in regard to seizure outlined in the Fourth Amendment of the American constitution (Levy, Karst, and Winkler, 2000). The court, in the 1978 case involving department of Social services against Monell, denoted that it is possible to charge Municipal councils against liability. This was a case challenging the constitutionality of the maternity policies of the Education Board of New York.  

For this project i will be constructing Essay Example for Free

For this project i will be constructing Essay 1. 1 Statement of the problem 1. 1. 1 Introduction For this project I will be constructing an I. T. solution for Castle Couriers. Castle Couriers is a company, which provides a number of courier services, mainly for car showrooms. Their main service is the transportation of vehicle registrations to the V. R. O. (Vehicle Registration Office) and their return, and also the transportation of tax related forms to the tax office, also from car showrooms. It is currently a company with a small number of employees, approximately 4, and a very local customer base. However they plan to expand in the near future and do not believe their current system will be effective with much more data. The current system, Lotus SmartSuite, is not designed with their company in mind and is therefore complicated to operate and the addition of data is often laborious. I hope to improve their situation by creating an automated database, so that creating documents and modifying data is a very simple task. 1. 1. 2 User Requirements The owners of Castle Couriers have a number of requirements: -Reduce time spent on inputting data -This will aid the expansion process because an increase in data will not lead to a further increase in time spent processing. -Increase ease of finding data -Again a time saving requirement, useful during the complicated period of expansion. -Producing a sufficiently high quality document range -Now that the production of documents is virtually automatic, the end users are keen to see that the quality does not decline. -Must be user friendly due to lack of computer literacy of end user -There must be very few complicated procedures, as having to increase the end users I. T. skills will take time and possibly money. 1. 1. 3 Current system At the present moment Castle Couriers uses a generic program called Lotus Smartsuite. My knowledge of Smartsuite is minimal but the program has not been specifically designed for this company. I have been informed that it is similar to Microsoft office, which I have good experience in. It is very popular with many businesses because of the amount of very professional tools available. However, in the case of Castle Couriers, these tools are not linked together effectively, allowing for a minimal amount of automation. They store data in both spreadsheets and databases, with certain functions allowing a limited level of automation. 1. 1. 4 Data Flow diagram of current system The following diagram illustrates the current processes involved in dealing with an order 1. 1. 5 Problems with the current system Castle Couriers main problem with their current system is its complexity, which is leading to an increase in the amount of time they spend producing documents and organising orders. Adding new customers, as they are planning to do, should they decide to continue with expansion, is very difficult and is adding to the already complicated and overloaded system. Modifying data is also a time consuming problem as it takes time to navigate through the procedures necessary. 1. 1. 6 Objectives of the new system The new system should meet a series of criteria, firstly the time spent inputting data and the ease with which this is done should be improved. Making the system less complex than Lotus Smartsuite should solve both of these objectives. Secondly they would like to be able to search for details of customers and services easily. Very importantly, this program must maintain the high quality of documents such as invoices and memorandums. Finally none of the staff who will be using the system have very much experience in IT, so the system must be easy to operate and difficult to corrupt. 1. 1. 7 Performance indicators The following performance indicators will be used: It should take less than 1 minute to construct and print invoices Data entry should be made simple enough for all queries to be 100% accurate. The system must be able to cater for any number of staff/customers/services to be added without improvements as the company expands It must be impossible to erase any fields or tables The system should be simple enough for users with only a basic I. T. knowledge to operate 1. 1. 8 Volume of data The level of data that will be stored in the database is likely to be quite small at first, but this should increase as Castle Couriers continues expanding. Initially there are likely to be about 40 customers, with a choice of 3 services and 5 members of staff. Details of each customer will need to be stored and will cover name, address, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail, contacts within the firm and their history with Castle Couriers. 1. 1. 9 Hardware and Software The majority of the design will be carried out on my schools computer network with the equivalent to a 1. 6Ghz Pentium processor, 128MB of RAM and an easily sufficient sized hard drive. My home PC and the computers of Castle Couriers are of a similar specification. Therefore there should not be any problems in compatibility. However, at home, where some aspects of the design will be carried out, I have a newer version of Microsoft Office, and therefore a newer version of Access. This should not cause any problems, however should I wish to incorporate functions not available in the schools version, I will have to do this last. All of the designing will be done in Microsoft Access, with some links to Word, for better quality documents, and Excel, for data interpretation. This is available on all three of the concerned systems. 1. 1. 10 End user skill level None of the people who will be using the system have any formal I. T. qualifications. Their only previous I. T. experience is based around the use of Lotus SmartSuite. This will be a problem for me because the system I will be designing for them will be entirely based within three programs, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word. It will therefore be necessary to make the project very simple to use with automatic functions. 2 Design 2. 1 Consideration of solutions 2. 1. 1 Manual System This would be based around data being processed, stored and filed in the form of paperwork, with calculations being manual and documents handmade. -Easily the slowest -Higher risk of loss/damage to data -Complicated and tedious -Lower quality documents -High risk of mis-calculations We have therefore judged that this system would not be suitable for Castle Couriers, as it is far too slow and complicated and will not be better than the current system. 2. 1. 2 Spreadsheet System A spreadsheet system would be designed and operated in a program such as Microsoft Excel. -Easy to design -Little chance of damage/loss -Simple functions A spreadsheet system would not allow for the necessary functions and operations to improve on Lotus Smartsuite. 2. 1. 3 A specifically designed courier system A package, which has been specially designed for this type of business, could be obtained from certain software companies -Best program -Expensive -All necessary functions present This is probably the best option as it is designed only for use in this type of company, however due to the expense of this program Castle Couriers have allowed me to attempt a database before deciding. 2. 1. 4 Access database This is the option they have allowed me to attempt and this will be designed and implemented by me -Very cheap and easy to design -Inter-personal interaction during design. -Easier to train users Using this system has the advantage of allowing Castle Couriers to have an influence in the design of the system. 2. 2 Database Design 2. 2. 1 Entity-relationship diagram There are six entities, or tables, within this database. They are basically split into two separate functioning databases, however I will keep them in one for ease of use and because the services/tasks table will be used by both systems. The first system, outlined in red, will concern the receiving and payments of orders, whereas the second, outlined in blue, will allow allocation of tasks for employees. 2. 2. 2 Dataflow diagram of the proposed system 2. 2. 3 Table Design The six tables are defined as follows: tblCustomer Field name Data type Description/Validation Customer ID AutoNumber Key field, automatically incremented for each customer Company name Text Contact first name Text Contact second name Text Billing address Text Town. ServiceID AutoNumber Key field, automatically incremented for each service Service description Text Service price Currency tblorders Field name Data type Description/Validation OrderID AutoNumber Key field, automatically incremented for each order CustomerID Number ServiceID Number Date Time/Date tblpayments Field name Data type Description/Validation CustomerID Number Payment amount Currency Payment date Time/Date tblemployees Field name Data type Description/Validation EmployeeID First name Second name Other names Title National Insurance number e-mail address Address 1. Address 2 City County Post code Home phone Work phone Emergency contact number tblemployeesandtasks Field name Data type Description/Validation EmployeetaskID EmployeeID OrderID 2. 2. 4 Form Design There will be 4 forms for data entry: frmCustomerMain a form with a sub-form, used to input customer details and the services they require in the next week (Source: tblCustomer for the main form, tblOrders for the sub-form) frmservices a form to add and edit the details of each service (Source: tblservices) frmPayment a form to enter customer payments (Source: qryCustomerPayments). 2. 2. 5 Query Summary 2. 2. 6 Document Summary 2. 2. 7 Macro Summary 2. 3 Templates 2. 4 Data entry and Validation 2. 5 Macros 2. 6 Security and Disaster Recovery The computers that will hold the program will be kept at the Hopkins house, so security and procedures for disaster recovery will be necessary due to the alternative uses of the computer by other members of the family, e. g. leisure. The database itself will be password protected with a password chosen by Mr and Mrs Hopkins, therefore restricting access to the system to only staff that are allowed to. Castle Couriers currently operates its own method of disaster recovery; every night all company related files and folders are backed up onto a 100mb Zip Disk and stored in a fire proof safe within the house. So therefore any damage to the computer, such as theft or fire, will only mean a certain level of inconvenience and expense, not a loss of data. 2. 7 IT tasks 1/ Create new workbook 2/ Create tables (i) tblCustomer (ii) tblServices (iii) tblOrders (iv) tblPayments (v) tblEmployees (vi) tblEmployeesAndTasks -Create queries -Create macros -Create reports and link them to tables and queries. -Create attractive user interface 2. 8 Schedule of Activities Activity Schedule for I. T. Task Implementation IT task Time necessary for completion Week Completed at school or home 2. 9 2. 10 Test Strategy The functions and macros in the program will all be tested under varying circumstances so that I can see whether they will perform correctly under the conditions in which they will be used. This will hopefully allow me to iron out any defects within the program before it will be passed onto Mr and Mrs Hopkins to implement. Functional Testing Each menu will be thoroughly tested. Each button and item inside the menu will be tested to make sure that no problems have occurred. Each button must be checked to make sure that the command it is assigned to works. Logical Testing This type of test is used to test every aspect of each form, table, query or report as soon as it has been implemented. Data will be inserted that is valid, invalid and extreme. Sufficient data will be inserted so that each table has at least one row of information. This will test to see if the different masks that have been used are correct or the different data types are correct. Subsequent data will continue throughout the test to make sure that the data is correct. System Testing When the system is complete, the whole range of tests will be repeated. This will ensure that no further problems have arisen. Recovery Testing The computer will be rebooted during procedures to see if data becomes corrupt or lost. If problems are found they can be corrected Acceptance Testing The end-user will be involved at this stage, they must test every aspect of the system to see if it fulfils the requirements that were set in the analysis section. They will be asked to check if each menu is correctly headed, if the system functions correctly and if it is user friendly. Any faults found at this stage can be corrected before the final version is passed on.

Comparing Gilgamesh and Odysseus :: Compare Contrast Comparison

Gilgamesh and Odysseus are two heroes from two different time periods that were both in search of the meaning of life. The epics that the two characters are featured in Gilgamesh, was developed from early Mesopotamia and the Odyssey in early Greece. Gilgamesh was a very popular and it was very valuable to the historian of Mesopotamian culture because it reveals much about the religious world, such as their attitudes toward the gods, how a hero was defined and regarded, views about death and friendship. The Odyssey was also very popular in it’s time. It was set in ancient Greece where in its culture; mythology was the heart of everyday life. The Greek Culture turned to mythology to explain different phenomena for which they had no scientific explanation and this was prominent in the epic the Odyssey. While preparing to write this paper, I thought it would be great just to focus on the heroes of these two great epics many differences. Although during the course of my research I found that they also had just as many similarities. In this paper I will focus on the two characters by expressing their differences, as well as their similarities, and I will also give a bit of history about our two heroes. Gilgamesh, the hero from the epic Gilgamesh, was the historical king of Uruk in Babylonia, on the river Euphrates in modern Iraq: he lived about 2700B.C. Odysseus, the hero from the epic the Odysseus, was the ruler of the island kingdom of Ithaca. He was one of the most prominent Greek leaders of the Trojan War. Both of these men were granted certain strengths, Gilgamesh had physical, while Odysseus had mental strengths. Gilgamesh was a very self confident and at times that self confidence led to him to have little compassion for the people of Uruk at he beginning of the story. He was their king, but not their protector; he kills their sons and rapes their daughters. He felt like he was superior to others due to the fact that he was two-thirds god, his mother was a goddess Ninsun and one third human. This fact is the key to all of his actions. This is also what sets him apart from the hero Odysseus. While Gilgamesh was a hero thought to be more beautiful, more courageous, more terrifying than all of the people of Uruk. Even though his desires, attributes, and accomplishments were just as there’s, he was still mortal.

Adolescence and Clothes Essay

Good afternoon, today I will try to express my opinion about this statement „You can tell a great deal about people from the clothes they wearâ€Å". And I will speak about which age group of people care most about their looks, how important is fashion for me and what is advantages and disadvantages of wearing a school unifrom. I agree with this statement , because you can get to know a lot of about people from they clothes. For example if man wear formal clothes I can make and overall opinion about him. He is formal, intelligent elegant and taking care of himself. If I would saw someone at work with dirty and tear clothes of course I would think about him not so good. I think teenager are the group of people who care most about their looks.Teenagers believe their looks are the key to a good relationship and it will help become popular at the scholl. But When they’re older, they’ll realize it doesn’t work like that. Fashion helps to express themselves and also provides teenagers a sense of identity by signaling which â€Å"grouping† they belong to (â€Å"emo† â€Å"punk,† â€Å"goth,† etc.) And in my opinion Celebrities perhaps are the greatest influences on teenagers in the modern world, and they can have a huge impact on a teen’s ideas about fashion and its importance. Fashion isn’t important to me at all. I don’t care about having the newest, the most trendy, or the best label for anything. To me, being trendy is not expressing yourself, it is merely following the crowd and trying to fit in. I just prefer to be myself.And I wear what I like. I study at gymnasium so we wear school unifrom. I think school uniform have advantages and disadvantages. Here are some advantages : 1. People automatically respect you – Whenever we’d go on fieldtrips, people comment on how professional and nice we looked 2. Everyone looks exactly the same – You don’t have to worry about not wearing the right thing. And some disadvantages : 1.It’s annoying wearing the same thing as everyone else 2. You wear it everyday, all day it‘s just become boring . And lack of Variety To sum up everyone should wear clothes which they like and feel good with.These clothes will show the real you. Because other people can tell a great deal about you from the clothes you wear.

Dickens ‘Great Expectations’ Essay

Pip’s account of the events that took place after visiting Miss Havisham My Uncle Pumblechook took me to the home of Miss Havisham. The initial image I had was of a dismal house made from old brick with the windows either bricked up or barred and with a disused brewery at the side of the property. Obviously once a luxurious house it was now beginning to crumble and decay. A very beautiful young girl called Estella met me. Although only my age she seemed to delight in calling me ‘boy’. She told me the Manor house also had the name ‘Satis House’ which in Greek, Latin or Hebrew means ‘Enough house’ and she claimed that whoever had this house would want for nothing, I found this a curious fact. I went in through the side door as the great entrance had two bars across it. I followed Estella who was holding a single candle along dark passages, where all daylight was excluded. Once Estella and I arrived at a door, she left me in pitch black telling me scornfully she didn’t want to go in. I was nervous and apprehensive, however given no other choice I knocked at the door. Once told to enter I found myself in a large dark room in which initially my eyes focused on a draped dressing table festooned with many objects. On further observations I spotted an armchair, sitting in which, I saw the strangest lady I had ever seen before and knew I ever would again. Dressed all in white the bridal dress she wore must have once been worn by a young woman, however now it was seen on an old women whose shrunken body was mere skin and bones. All I could conjure up was the comparison of Miss Havisham to a waxwork skeleton, now in ‘the ashes of a rich dress’. The bridal dresses luxurious ‘fabrics’ of satin, lace and silk were now yellow, faded and paper-thin, and added to this the flowers in her hair and veil gave me the uncomfortable feeling that the women was now dressed in her grave clothes. When Miss Havisham’s dark eyes turned to look at me I felt utter alarm and wanted to shout, but nothing came out. With my eyes still intently taking in the untidy room, with clothes and personal effects scattered around and with one shoe on her foot and the other on the table, I gave Miss Havisham my name and told her I had come to play. As I was told to come nearer I noted that both her watch and room clock had stopped at twenty minutes to nine, I wondered why this would be? Although afraid of her I felt the necessity to lie when she asked if I was afraid of her, the fact she hadn’t seen daylight since before I was born only accentuated my trepidation of her. As she touched her heart it reminded me of the young man and when she told me it was broken I saw her face fill with a weird boastful smile. I had come to play, to entertain Miss Havisham, but I didn’t know what to do, she thought that I was being very sullen and obstinate, however I told her that I was sorry for her and was finding everything new, strange and melancholy. I had to call Estella as Miss Havisham told us to play cards together. As I could only play ‘Beggar my Neighbour’ Estella’s’ contempt of me seemed to grow, I was merely a ‘labouring boy’ and one that called a ‘knave’ a ‘Jack’. Why did she think so little of me and make me feel conscience for the first time of my coarse hands and common boots? Miss Havisham appeared to watch us in a transfixed expression, like that of a corpse, as though her whole body and soul had dropped and mere daylight would turn her to dust. I had to whisper to Miss Havisham what I thought of Estella and realised that although she was very pretty I also found her very proud and insulting, although deep down I realised I would like to see her again. I did hear Miss Havisham earlier telling Estella she could break my heart if she desired, I wonder what she meant by this? I had a great wish to go home, but on Miss Havisham’s request I have agreed to return in six days. Being without natural light, I almost thought it must be dark outside so I was hit by the daylight when re-entering the courtyard. On orders from Miss Havisham, Estella brought me some food, however the look she gave me was one that I felt such humiliation and hurt that tears sprang to my eyes. Realising I was morally sensitive and timid seemed to bring pleasure to Estella and she enjoyed treating me as though I was a disgraced dog. Feeling better from the food I was again aware of the whole oppressive wilderness, a crooked pigeon house, with no pigeons, no animals, just a total emptiness. In the brewery building I saw Estella above in the gallery and hanging a figure of the old women in her faded white apparel, when I turned to look again enormous fear hit me, it had vanished! Desperate to go Estella unlocked the door for me, she appeared so superior to me and seeing me cry seemed to fuel her need to taunt me even more. I just felt my self-esteem was at an all time low, I obviously have despicable habits and I’m more ignorant than I had ever realised.

Merriam-Websters 2015 Word of the Year Isnt Even a Word

Merriam-Websters 2015 Word of the Year Isnt Even a Word Merriam-Webster’s 2015 Word of the Year Isn’t Even a Word Merriam-Webster’s 2015 Word of the Year Isn’t Even a Word By Mark Nichol The selection of -ism as Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year should be invalidated on a technicality- the dictionary publisher might choose, instead, to refer to the Morpheme of the Year- but the choice is an apt one, as multiple concepts whose names include that suffix have dominated recent public discourse. Merriam-Webster selects the Word of the Year and its competitors on the basis of the number of times visitors to its website search for a particular word and according to how strikingly that figure compares to the number of lookups from the previous year. Based on the results for 2015, the American public, apparently, is preoccupied with isms. Topmost among -ism words in the public consciousness, perhaps, is terrorism, a term referring to acts of violence perpetrated to intimidate people for political ends. Though terrorism has seemed to gain ubiquity only in the last couple of decades- in the United States, the terrorist attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center and on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, prompted the nation’s preoccupation with the concept- the word was first used in the late eighteenth century, and of course the strategy is as old as political organization. A tangentially related concept, racism- referring to bigotry on the basis of ethnic origin- was also a popular search item at Merriam-Webster.com last year. (The intersection occurs because radical Muslims have been responsible for some notable recent atrocities in the United States and abroad, and many people conflate followers of Islam with a specific ethnic identity. However, though Islam began in Arabia and many early followers of the religion were Arabs, like Christianity, it is a worldwide phenomenon whose practitioners come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds.) The term is also in the news because many people view some of 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump’s views and proposed policies as racist. In addition, because of a rash of incidents across the United States in which white police officers have appeared to use excessive force against black crime suspects, many observers say that racism remains one of the most significant problems in American society. Another ism that Merriam-Webster highlighted is socialism. The term, referring to a political system in which the government controls the means of production and distribution of goods, is newsworthy for two reasons: Since early in the first of President Obama’s two terms, he has championed what are widely perceived as socialistic policies such as nationalized health care, and 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed socialist, has received much publicity for discussing policies and programs associated with socialism. That term, thanks to political upheavals and international conflicts throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is fraught with negative connotation, so it’s no surprise that people have sought to investigate its meaning. (I’ll write about socialism and the related term communism in an upcoming post.) In my first paragraph, I suggested that -ism is ineligible for Word of the Year recognition because it’s not a word; it’s a morpheme, a unit of meaning (usually a prefix or a suffix) that is not an independent component of language. But later in the post, I twice wrote ism (once in plural form, and then in singular construction) as if it’s a word. Why? Because it is a word, used to refer collectively to a nebulous set of social concepts. But -ism, by virtue of that hyphen, is a mere morpheme with a different meaning: Unlike ism, it does not stand on its own to refer to a category of concepts; it is a suffix subordinate to the many nouns it serves, altering the noun’s meaning to denote a system of thought related to that noun. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Punctuating â€Å"So† at the Beginning of a SentenceCapitalization Rules for the Names of GamesDealing With A Character's Internal Thoughts

Research Method Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Research Method - Essay Example This has a posed a greater challenge especially with the fact that the new markets have different cultures. In order to penetrate these markets, some of which have barriers of entry which have been erected by the dominant firms, the companies are forced to use international media which are highly expensive. The costs are derailing the expansion strategy. However, with the entry of social media, more firms are opting to use these channels to reach the target market. This is because it’s cheap and more reliable. Nevertheless, questions have been raised concerning its effectiveness, especially putting into perspective that the users must have some ideas on how to use modern technology. Currently, the market has become very dynamic with new challenges arising each day. With the increasing levels of globalization resulting from liberalization of markets, efficient flow of information, and integration of economies, the level of competition in the local and international markets has increased tremendously. This is as a result of the entry of multinational companies that have a huge financial base to segment the market, attract the loyalty of the customers towards their products, and position their products strategically in the market. This aspect has made it very hard for the small and medium businesses to increase their customer base (Barefoot & Szabo 2010). Therefore, these businesses are using all means possible to minimize the costs of operations. One of the strategies they are using is reducing the costs of advertising which has been taking a huge chunk of the firms’ profits. However, in order to maintain their competitive advantage, the companies are forc ed to look for other alternatives. Social media has become a critical alternative which is cheap, effective, and reliable. With the changes in the technological sector, many people have internet enabled devices

Cost-Benefit Analysis for Foxy Originals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Cost-Benefit Analysis for Foxy Originals - Essay Example Foxy Originals is renowned jewelry company which is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. The company was established by Jen Kluger and Suzie Orol in the year 1998 (Foxy Originals, 2013). The company has established its presence in 250 boutiques in Canada. The product portfolio of the company is comprised of high end and stylish necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings, belts and other jewelry items. A business must have a competitive advantage in order to sustain in the marketplace (Porter, 1980, 1985 and 1991). Hence sustainability of Foxy Original is dependent its competitive advantage of selling stylish but low-cost jewelry to price-sensitive women in the age group of eighteen years to thirty years. Although the company is growing at an acceptable pace there is a risk for the Canadian jewelry market to get saturated due to the entry of new players in the future course of time. Over saturation and presence of many sellers in comparatively small Canadian jewelry market might decrease the profit margin for Foxy Originals in the near future. Hence, the company is thinking about entering USA jewelry market which is 10 times bigger than Canadian jewelry market by the month of January 2005. To enter USA jewelry market, Foxy Original must formulate a profitable distribution strategy which can give them a sustainable competitive advantage. Â  A brief discussion about the about target customers of Foxy Original will help the essay to develop a thematic background for the case.

Climate Change Cause and Effect Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Climate Change Cause and Effect - Essay Example â€Å"We have a false belief that we have to choose between a healthy economy and a healthy environment† (Schroeder, 2007). The earth’s natural abilities to filter out damaging elements such as CO2 and the less prevalent harmful gasses such as methane, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are being overwhelmed. The collective rainforests of the world act as a climatic sponge to store a great deal of the world’s rainwater. Trees in the rainforest recycle water drawn from the forest ground. This filtered water, combined with the moisture that evaporates from the leaves, is released back into the atmosphere to fall as rain elsewhere. If not for this enormous system, rivers, lakes and land masses would dry-up, thus loss of rainforest equals increasing droughts of increasing proportions. Disease, starvation and famine on a worldwide scale will be deforestation’s direct result. If immediate action is not taken to reverse the present trend of defore station, the immense Amazon rainforest will soon become a desert region not unlike the Sahara in Africa. Once this process is underway, the effects are irreversible. Studies have determined that the Amazon rainforest, even in its current state, could not withstand three years of drought conditions without beginning the irrevocable path to becoming the Amazon desert. This result, in and of itself, is tragic enough but the repercussions to the rest of the world would be as catastrophic. â€Å"Scientists say that this would spread drought into the northern hemisphere, including Britain, and could massively accelerate global warming with incalculable consequences, spinning out of control, a process that might end in the... This essay outlines the importance of coordinated global effort of the world countries towards solving the problem of climate change through adopting appropriate legislation. The economic consequence of doing nothing is far greater than solving the problem through legislation. New industries that supply solar, nuclear, wind and battery power will replace any jobs lost by the old pollution producing industries and likely produce more. The economy will be enhanced by pursuing alternate energy sources rather than destroyed. The earth’s natural abilities to filter out damaging elements such as CO2 and the less prevalent harmful gasses such as methane, chlorofluorocarbons and nitrous oxide are being overwhelmed. The collective rainforests of the world act as a climatic sponge to store a great deal of the world’s rainwater. Trees in the rainforest recycle water drawn from the forest ground. This filtered water, combined with the moisture that evaporates from the leaves, is released back into the atmosphere to fall as rain elsewhere. If not for this enormous system, rivers, lakes and land masses would dry-up, thus loss of rainforest equals increasing droughts of increasing proportions. Studies in the UK have found that warming could increase rainfall by more than 20 percent during winter by the 2080’s and decrease it by the same amount during summer months in the southern half of that country. This would cause severe droughts in some regions but areas such as East Anglia could very well be under water altogether.

Management Theory Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Management Theory - Assignment Example Management is of fundamental value to companies. Every organization is concerned with planning to get things done, organizing the business to ensure efficient and effective operations and motivate employees as well as develop a vision for everyone to work on (Williams, 2009). Finally, the need for having controls in place is high as the goals that have been set must be monitored and their fulfillment must be measured. Therefore, management is quintessential in making businesses successful as well as ensuring smooth sailing once that success has been achieved. The significance of management can be ascertained from the fact that businesses spend millions on hiring management consultants to guide them on effective management practices (Williams, 2009). These consultants offer insights as to how managers can lead people effectively, motivate them, deal with various people related issues and manage complex projects. Management, therefore, is the art of getting work accomplished through ot hers. Successful managers may often not be experts themselves but know how get work done through other experts. For instance, the manager of the car plant at General Motors narrated how he has never made a car part in his life and how this is not his job(Williams, 2009). He further explained how, as a manager, his role was to create an environment conducive for people to make these parts efficiently while at the same time staying motivated with their work. On the other hand, however, this conventional view has been contradicted by leaders such as Steve Jobs who not only got work done through people but was actively involved in the technical aspects of the work (Greengard, 2011). Furthermore, good managers and leaders have often been associated with organizational success. One such example is that of Apple which experienced transformational growth and recognition during the tenure of Steve Jobs. It is not surprising, therefore, that Apple’s stock took a leap from $10 to $400 ( CNN Money, n.d.) during his leadership and that all major innovations including iPod, iPhone and iPad were introduced during his tenure. Furthermore, leaders and managers influence the performance of organizations by â€Å"leading by example† (Caldwell, 2004). Taken a step further, managers are responsible for managing the intellectual capital of firms which is exactly what Steve Jobs did (Prasad, 2011). By putting in proper mechanisms in place to unleash employee creativity, Jobs was able to exploit the untapped innovative potential of human resources and use it for the transformation of the company. This demonstrates just how important management is in the contemporary age of turbulent market changes and volatile business environment. Dealing with today’s customer-centric world requires organizations to manage the talents of employees in order to meet these needs. Companies whose management fails to keep pace with the changing environment and nature of work tend to s uffer. For instance, Deloitte’s study suggests the private sector of America is getting only a fraction of the return on assets that it achieved decades ago (Denning, 2011). This is due to managers failing to adapt to the changing envi

The National Innovation System Management Essay

The National Innovation System Management Essay Firms describe innovation an essential factor to increase sustainable profits and market share due to the rapid globalisation and commoditization in goods and services (Westland, 2008). Miozzo and Walsh (2006) also state that firms effectiveness in competitive international trade in goods and service depend on two factors, which are: The scale of RD and other technological activities. The way in which the available resources are managed and organised both at the level of enterprise and at the national level. Thus, National Innovation System (NIS) will enable a country with limited resources to make rapid progress through suitable combinations of imported technology and local adaption and development (Freeman, 1987). With these combinations, national firms will transform to a market leader and countrys economy to flourish. Hence, in my essay, I will define meaning of NIS, my understanding of systemic aspect of innovation and discuss the different institutions involved in NIS in section 2. Section 3 and 4 will discuss how interaction in NIS can affect the innovative performance of national firms with a case study of Taiwan innovation system in section 5. Lastly, section 6 will provide a conclusion of my findings, and the gaps identified for future research. National Innovation System Since the 1980s, various authors (Freeman, 1987; Lundvall, 1992; Nelson, 1993) studied the concept of national innovation system (NIS) which is used as a main conceptual framework for analysing technological change, and to lay the foundations to improve the economic development of a nation. NIS can be categorized under narrow and broad definitions. The narrow approach (Lundvall 1992) is further defined by both Nelson (1993) and Freeman (1987). Freeman (1987) defined NIS as The network of institutions in the public and private sector whose activities and interaction initiate, import, modify and diffuse new technologies and Nelson (1993) defined NIS as a set of institutions whose interactions determine the innovative performance of national firms. Lundvall (1992) defined the broach approach of NIS by saying that NIS includes all parts and aspects of the economic structure and the institutional set-up affecting learning as well as searching and exploring the production system, the marketing system and the system of finance present themselves as sub-systems in which learning takes place. To summerise all the definitions above, I will use the definition by Metcalfe (1995). Metcalfe (1995) defined NIS as That set of distinct institutions which jointly and individually contribute to the development and diffusion of new technologies and which provides the framework within which governments form and implement policies to influence the innovation process. As such it is a system of interconnected institutions to create, store and transfer the knowledge, skills and artefacts which define new technologies. This led me to understand that NIS is a system to manage innovation and the meaning of systemic aspect of innovation. The system consist of various actors and institutions which the main components of the system. The term systemic aspect of innovation refers to how all these actors and institutions interact with each other in order to implement NIS effectively. Innovation is based on learning by collaborating and interacting with organisations and not by innovating in isolation (Edquist 1997:7, p20-22). This is further supported by Fagerberg (2005) who emphasis the systemic aspect of innovation processes. Lundvall (1992) and Nelson (1993) also stress that for innovative performance to improve, it is necessary to understand the linkage among the institutions involved in the innovation process. Main Component of NIS Before we understand the interaction among institutions that is important in NIS, it is necessary to understand what are the different institutions involved. However, the term institution is very subjective as different authors themselves have their own definition. Nelson and Rosenberg (1993) defined institutions as organisations, whereas Lundvall (1992) defined institutions as the rules of the game. This makes the understanding of institutions confusing. Therefore, to make a clear distinction for institutions in the essay, I shall use the definitions made by Edquist and Johnson (1997). Organisation Organisations are the formal structure where the players or actors in NIS are created with a purpose and goals (Edquist and Johnson 1997: 47). They are a total of four players (Pavitt. K and P.Patel, 1994; Capron et al., 2000). Institutions of Industrial RD (Capron et al., 2000). They are the business firms who are the major investors on Research Development (RD) in each nation economy for technological change activities (Pavitt. K and P.Patel, 1994). Institution of education (Capron et al., 2000). They are the universities providing basic research for the business firms and related training to the undergraduates (Pavitt. K and P.Patel, 1994). Institutions of public/private research (Capron et al., 2000). They are the public/private institutions providing general education and vocational training for the workforce (Pavitt. K and P.Patel, 1994). Institutions of technology bridging (Capron et al., 2000). They facilitate the interaction of institution in the innovation process to resolve mismatch or exploit the result of research performed by public research institutions to enhance the absorption power of existing firms and promote the creation of new-venture firms and university spin-offs. Institution Institutions, on the other hand, are the rules of the game which consists sets of common habits, routines, established practices, rules, or laws that regulate the relation and interactions between individuals, groups and organisations (Edquist and Johnson 1997: 46) which shape the behaviour of firms and other organisations by creating constraints and/or incentives for innovation (North 1990) that affect learning, searching and exploring activities (Bozeman and Dietz, 2001). There are a total two institutions. Institution of policy formulation (Capron et al., 2000). They are the government bodies performing a variety of activities to promote and regulate technological change (Pavitt. K and P.Patel, 1994). Institution of promotions of entrepreneurship (OECD, 1999). It is the ethos, culture, and attitude towards entrepreneurship and risk taking that can have an important influence on the innovative performance of firms (Miozzo and Walsh, 2006). Interaction of organisations and institutions in NIS In the past, NIS takes the form of a linear model in knowledge flow (Stoke, 1993). However, there are limitations to the linear model. This is because, in practice, ideas innovation derives from various sources and can be from any point of stage in the linear model. Furthermore, OECD (1997) said that innovation occurs from complex interaction between institutions instead in a linear sequence enabling knowledge flows to other institutions. As economic activities are becoming more knowledge-intensive, the success of firms, regardless of size, depends on how effective it is in gathering and utilizing knowledge from various institutions. OECD (1997) identified four main interactions that occur within NIS. Chang and Shih (2004) made some changes to the main interactions identified in OECD (1997). They combined the concept of joint industry activities and public/private interactions and named it as RD collaboration, retained technology diffusion and personnel mobility, and added a new interaction called informal interaction. Lundvall (1985) also identified the user-producer interaction. Appendix 1 summarizes the main components of institutions and the interaction among institutions which are discussed below. RD Collaboration The benefits of joint activities and public/private interaction have provided the firms a competitive advantage and a positive effect on the firms innovative performance. This is proven by several empirical studies from Klomp and van Leeuwen (2001), Janz et al. (2003) van Leeuwen (2002), Loof and Heshmati, (2002), Criscuolo and Haskel (2003) and Faems et al. (2004). RD collaboration enables risk and cost sharing in times of uncertainty in technological developments (Das andTeng, 2000;Tyler and Steensma, 1995), shorter innovation cycles (Pisano, 1990), pooling of resources to achieve economies of scale and scope and gaining synergies from complementary human and technical assets (Kogut, 1988; Das and Teng, 2000; OECD, 1997) and increase firms competences and skills by monitoring technology and market developments (Hamel, 1991; Roberts and Berry, 1985; OECD, 1997). RD collaboration also enables firms to discover new markets or market segment (Tether, 2002; Monjon and Waelbroeck, 2003). Furthermore, public/private interaction in RD collaboration enables firms to internalise and manage knowledge spillovers and remove the negative effect of spillovers on RD (Amir, 2003; De Bondt, 1996; Kamien et al., 1992; Suzumura, 1992; Leahy and Neary, 1997). In addition, RD collaboration also enables knowledge to be transferred voluntarily to firms (Katsoulacos a nd Ulph, 1998). Informal Interaction Informal interaction normally occurs in personnel communicating with one another in order to gain tacit knowledge and information more efficiently for problem solving and learning which is beneficial for the firm (Chang and Shih, 2004). This is because individuals can elaborate or modify what was said to handle objections and misunderstandings effectively (Kraut et al., 1982). Furthermore, informal interaction can overcome different frames of reference or clarify ambiguous issues to change understanding in a timely manner (Daft and Lengel, 1986, p.560) and when coordination is need in times of uncertainty and equivocality (Daft and Lengal, 1986). This is proven by Argote (1982) literature as it shows that people are more successful in performing their work. Technology Diffusion Technology diffusion is the dissemination of technical information and know-how from products developed by customers, suppliers, competitors and public institutions and the sequence adoption of new techniques and technologies by users (OECD, 1997; Tassey, 1992). Despite technology diffusion is slow-moving process, it is still important because the innovative performance of firms, regardless whether it is from manufacturing or service industries, depends on technology diffusion (OECD, 1997). This is because the innovative performance of firms depends heavily on innovation and products developed elsewhere (OECD, 1997) to obtain the foundations for high-technology development in the firm (Hsu and Chen, 1998). Personnel Mobility As tacit knowledge and skills are important to a firm, the mobility of personnel has become increasing important (Gruenfeld et al., 2000; Kraatz and Moore, 2000; Rao and Drazin, 2002). Personnel mobility is the movement of people and tacit knowledge that moves within industries and between public and private institutions (OECD, 1997; Chang and Shih, 2004). This may cause knowledge and skills to overlap which might result a firm in either reinforcing the firms current way of organizing or questioning the efficacy of existing organizing patterns (Tammy et al., 2003). In addition, Research from Argote and Ingram (2000) has shown firms knowledge library is initially facilitated by individuals. Hence, this determines that personnel mobility is important to the firms innovative performance. User-Producer Interaction Producers and users both have strong incentives to interact with one another (Lundvall, 1985). This kind of interaction is commonly found where the products are specialized and expensive capital goods. Producers can monitor process innovation within user firms and if it is successful, producers can use it to present to other users as product innovation. At the same time, users can monitor the competence of producers to identify which producers are competent to assist them in developing new product innovation. Hence, this helps to improve the innovative performance of firms as it enables them to produce new process or product innovation. Systemic Failure in NIS Despite that NIS approach is successful in various countries, there are still instances whereby systemic imperfections can occur leading to slowing down the innovation as a whole. Literatures from Carlsson and Jacobsson (1997), Smith (1997), Malerba (1997), Johnson and Gregersen (1994) and Edquist et al. (1998) focused on systemic imperfections, leading to a summerised list of systemic imprefections: Infrastructural failure (Smith, 1997; Edquist et al., 1998) is the physical infrastructure that actors need to use and the science and technology infrastructure. Soft and hard institutional failure (Smith 1999; Edquist et al., 1998; Johnson and Gregersen 1994) that may regulate economic behavior and interaction which may hinder innovation. Interaction failure (Carlsson and Johnson, 1997) from both strong and weak network failure can hamper innovation. Capabilities failure (Smith 1997; Malerba 1997) due to the lack of capabilities to learn and absorb knowledge effectively resulting in lock-in with existing technologies and unable to use new technologies. Although there are four factors involved in systemic failure, I will only discuss on how interaction failure can affect the innovative performance of national firms of any sizes in relation to the essay topic. Interaction Failure The innovative performance of firms is dependent on the interaction between institutions to develop and design products (Smith 1999). In the next few sub-sections below, I will discuss how both strong and weak network failure can hamper innovation. Strong network failure Carlsson and jacobsson (1997) describe strong network failure happens when individual actors are guided by other network actors in the wrong direction and consequently fail to supply each other with the required knowledge. These could be caused by the following factors: Myopia due to internal orientation. When relationships established for a long period of time results in trust relationship and habituation, this causes a certain degree of closure (Bogenrieder and Nooteboom, 2002). The group will be unwilling to exit the group or permit new entrants in leading to myopia and inertia (Nooteboom, 2000). This results insufficient attention to the development outside causing a lock-in to existing products. Lack of weak ties. Weak ties are the bridges to industries, educational and cultural background outside their inner circle. Granovetter (1983) and Burt (1987) emphasis the importance of weak ties leading to new knowledge and impulses or provide the knowledge that the individual firm lacks. These linkages can keep them updated with new developments and keep track on new knowledge, skills and resources. Dependence on dominant partners. The dependence may be due to asset specificity, switching costs or due to a lack of alternative partners that results in difficulty to find new partners for new innovation products or process. Weak Network failure Weak network failure (Carlsson and Jacobsson, 1997) happens when connectivity between complementary technologies and actors are poor, causing the possibilities for interaction learning and innovation to be under-utilised and failure to adapt new technological development. In addition, this will hinder the coordination of research efforts and investment due to a lack of shared vision for future technology development. Taiwan Innovation System In 1970s, Taiwan was an island nation with limited natural resources and a scarce domestic market. The government, local and foreign scholars recognized this problem believed they should set up an export-orientated strategy to develop high-technology industry to ensure a sustainable economy in Taiwan (Hsu and Chen, 2003) Hence, there was a joint effort by institutions and organizations to stimulate the development of high-tech industry. ST policies were formulated to assist the framework of Taiwan NIS (Hsu and Chen, 2003) shown in Appendix 2. Interactions in Taiwan NIS: The Case Study of IC Industry To illustrate the interactions in Taiwan NIS, this essay will be how the interaction of institutions (Appendix 3) led the growth of the IC industry in Taiwan (Appendix 4) to become the fourth largest producer in the world. As Fig. 3 shows, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) is the main agency responsible for industrial technology development in Taiwan. Their role is to transfer the research results to the private institutions for product development and commercialization through technical assistance, information diffusion and manpower training. MOEA also works to strengthen the interaction between industry, government, universities and research institutions with the goal of optimizing the facilitation of industrial technology innovation. (Hsu and Chen, 2003) Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) was contracted by the government to act as the bridging institutions between industry firms and overseas public/private institutions. They interact with the private sector via technology transfer and collaboration to assist in technology development. National Science Council (NSC) also sponsored universities to collaborate with private sectors in joint research projects. By doing so, it provides technical assistance, technical information, and personnel training to the private sector. In addition, the introduction of new technologies, joint research, overseas investment and strategic alliance via the interactions between overseas corporations and research organizations also benefited the industry firms. (Hsu and Chen, 2003) Interaction Failure in Taiwan NIS: The Case Study of Biotechnology Industry Despite the successful implementation of NIS in the IC industry as mentioned earlier, the Taiwans innovation system in Taiwans biotechnology industry, consisting mainly SMEs, is still fragmented as the current status of industry is still insignificant in the world (Sun, 2005). In Sun (2005) survey for the biotechnology industry, he identified several systemic failures. However, according to the essay objectives, we will only focus the interaction failures that were identified. They are: Knowledge of public research made not available to public which prevented the transmission of the knowledge to the industries to develop (Porter, 1990). Insufficient supply of scientific research causing a lack of linkage between firms and research institutes (Sun, 2005). Lack of cross-border RD collaboration prevented local biotech firms to have access to foreign knowledge (Bartholomew, 1997). Hence, all of these points mentioned pointed that a weak network failure, one of the causes for interaction failure, was the cause that prevented innovative performance of Taiwans biotechnology firm. Conclusion This essay aims at discussing the interaction of institutions which will affect the innovation performance of national firms of any sizes. Based on the above discussion, I conclude that interaction of institutions can improve innovative performance of firms, but it can also hinder the innovative performance of firms as well. Strong interaction of institutions enables knowledge flows from one actor to another which is important to stimulate innovation. This enables firms to develop new technologies, products or processes to maintain its competitiveness for the firm or achieve cost savings which are crucial for its survival in the industry. At the same time, interaction of institutions can also hinder the innovation performance of firms. This is due to the factors mentioned above in interaction failure. Firms will not have access to new knowledge and technologies make them unable to innovate. Despite various literatures identifying the types of interaction among institutions, there is still room for improvement for future research in identifying the different types of interactions involved in institutions. Limited literature has been found to mention the types of interaction between government and the various organizations and institutions that helped to implement the preferred policies to enhance the innovative performance of firms. The interaction between them seems to be a one-way process. Hence, this calls for future research to identify what are the other interactions that can also help to improve the innovative performance of firms of any sizes.