Thursday, October 31, 2019

(1)Explain and evaluate Platos epistemological position or Essay

(1)Explain and evaluate Platos epistemological position or - Essay Example Many philosophers regard experience and reason as the basis of knowledge. Reason and experience as ways of identifying knowledge commonly referred as rationalism and empiricism. A rational philosopher deems that, knowledges basis is on self-evidence and principles. Knowledge that does not rely on sense of experience is priori while knowledge that relies on experience posteriori. Plato is an example of a rationalist because he believes that sense experience does not provide people with certainty whether what they experience is true. He deems that, the information people receive by relying on sense is unreliable because it changes constantly. The unchanging forms or principles are what Plato believes to be thinking or reasoning (Bobonich 15). When an individual has an opinion founded on undoubted principles, then he has a strong foundation of the opinion. This foundation helps individuals to take a belief to be more than an opinion and makes people identify a belief to be true. When individuals believe something is true, then this is knowledge. For individuals to gain the knowledge they ought to surpass the changing flux of the physical world and hold a rational permanent order behind the world. The grasping of a rational permanent order is an intellectual functioning of the mind, and in its purest form there is formal (Brandwood 25). The intellectual act can only take place when there are innate ideas that have a foundation. Knowing normally assumes the definition as the process of making the observable world intelligible through relating it to the external order of the truth. Plato defines the changing world and materials as the realm of forms. He argues that physical objects are real if only they are intelligible, but they can only be intelligent in unchanging terms. What makes something to be intelligible cannot be constantly changing; hence, it being unrecognizable to be that thing. It is therefore; correct to say that a

Monday, October 28, 2019

Barack Obama and his Political Propaganda Essay Example for Free

Barack Obama and his Political Propaganda Essay The process of running for the United States presidency is no easy task. Like in almost any relationship, attraction is the key to provide the foundation for anticipation and expectations. In the beginning, one will always place his best foot forward, and contemplating on addressing issues which would appeal dramatically to other people. Running for the presidency is no less than different with pursuing a girl to have a relationship with you. It all starts with making her pay attention to what you have to say and to what you can offer despite many competitors.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Barack Obama came across the attraction stage with flying colors because he seemed to have captured the attention of most population in the American community, across varying groups and minorities (Martin, 2008, p.1). For one, he appeared to come prepared for what is known as a great battle to get Democratic nomination against Senator Hillary Clinton who is one tough competitor. Obama lacks the experience, and can be said as less popular than Clinton who has established her prominence during the presidency of her husband. However, the appeal in Obama’s candidacy defers the idea that he was only elected as Senator in 2005, and a very young player in the realm of politics.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This paper aims to explore the political propaganda used by Obama to ensure his future in the White House. For the purpose of the paper, we shall examine the different types of media used by Obama to gain votes and preferences, the manner by which he delivers his agendas, his target audience and supporters, and how this greatly affects his stance in the race to get the democratic nomination. It is certain that the race between Obama and Clinton’s nomination is very tight, but we shall take the time to assess how Obama’s political propaganda has delivered expected results in his leads on major polls and surveys worldwide as Democrats most preferred candidate. â€Å"Change we can believe in† It is a fact that most Americans are demanding change from future politicians in running the country. Many circumstances and events has led Americans hopeful for change and has been the pivotal driving force behind many political agendas. Obama is no exception. By using the ideology of â€Å"change† as a campaign slogan, he ignites the hope among idealistic men and women around the country to believe in what he regards as change (Obama 2008: Change we Believe In, 2008). Obama has a great advantage in speaking with eloquence and sensitivity, with emotions that has words fulfilled with hope and change, gives many people the self-identity they want to see change in the future administration, or in this case, in a democratic candidate for the presidency. This is a note worthy to be taken beforehand, so as to provide a basis on how we can assess Obama’s political propaganda.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Even before the decisive voting held on February 5, 2008, there has been a pronounced shift in favor for Obama of Illinois from opinion polls, surveys, campaign contributions and political and media endorsements (Martin, 2008, p.1). Obama, being a new player in the realm of politics used significant intervention from different political representatives to endorse his candidacy. For example, when Senator Edward Kennedy expressed his fervent support for Obama, it has generated significant contribution in uplifting Obama’s candidacy. As many critics saw it, Kennedy’s endorsement has become a signal of the Democratic Party’s consensus on his candidacy. Following this influential event led to many mass media endorsements of the event including newspapers published in California, Los Angeles Times and La Opinion, which the most widely-read Spanish-language daily.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   After Kennedy’s endorsement, opinion polls showed Obama in strict ties with Senator Clinton for the democratic nomination (Associated Press, 2008). The strategy used governs many political advisers view to gain majority of delegates from key states to secure victory, and Obama did it with just one major political and highly-publicized endorsement.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The appeal of Obama’s political propaganda can be deemed into two significant standpoints. First, the on-going deep desire for social and political change is strongly used by the Obama campaign to hub an illusion, and to foster great support from the idealist (martin, 2008, p. 1). This s highlighted by the mass media by emphasizing that this change will come from someone from the African American community, a fundamentally groundbreaking event in American history if and when Obama wins as the first black President. However, Obama is not a clear product of any acts against racial oppression and civil rights struggles. He is a politician groomed to be of appeal to massive voters in the coming elections.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Obama’s political propaganda seeks to disengage and disassociate itself from the struggle of the elite and ruling class in running the country. More so, the critiques on Obama has seemingly less impacts because of a well-organized activities from the media who supports his candidacy and owes their respective professions to corporate bosses and financial institutions which have their own candidate as preferences. Even Obama’s appeal has penetrated the right-wing group with endorsements from Rupert Murdoch for example.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Also significant of the character of Obama’s political propaganda is the shift in campaign contributions from major business firms. More money means more capability in a candidate’s political machinery. Obama has been endorsed by different military institutions, then national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Warren Buffett, the second richest man in the United States. Other known mass media executives and corporate executives have also pledged significant amounts for Obama to continue his aspiration on the America presidency. Through continuous efforts from the Obama campaign wagon to instill their dedication towards real change, the Los Angeles Times broke their tradition of not endorsing any candidate with the promotion of Obama’s candidacy in their editorial (Martin, 2008, p.1 ).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     As an observation, although generally the political propaganda of Obama is sufficient for him to gather and maintain support, it is also clear with biases to achieve voters support. For one, it sometimes resorts to Ad Hominem or the attack to his primary opposition and her arguments. In many cases, through debates and news reports, Obama responds to what Clinton offers on a negative tone. Although at times he emphasized their differences, he also had made several points of their similarities obvious to other people. By using change as a promotional concept and advocacy of his candidacy, he often appeals to authority which uses an ideal which is popular amongst people and grant their support for the ideology he used. He also often uses the appeal to prejudice on many public conventions and speaking engagements to evoke the sense of emotional value and goodness to benefit his character. Conclusion The Obama campaign has utilized effective marketing campaign strategies which efficiently used their connections and endorsements form media outlets and institutions. For the most part, Obama is following a political propaganda which is embedded to deny political differences and social classes but with emphasis on the economic differences between individuals in the society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Obama political propaganda strongly used news reports, radio, television and posters. It specifically and strategically used these media to indoctrinate various groups of audiences he wished to communicate with and to. Usually through this media, Obama used a directional method on how people can learn about more of his strategies, goals and principles. Through these methods, he intends to initiate individuals as information seekers, to recipients, to reinforcement and opinion leader in favor of his own. Works Cited: Associated Press (2008). â€Å"Obama comes up short on union support.† Hemscott Group Limited. Retrieved on March 24, 2008, from http://www.hemscott.com/news/latest-news/item.do?newsId=56416543358904 Martin, Patrick (2008). â€Å"US political establishment lines up behind Barack Obama.† International Committee on the Fourth International (ICFI). Retrieved on March 24, 2008, from http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/feb2008/obam-f04.shtml Obama for America (2008). â€Å"Obama 2008: Change we Believe In†. The Official Site of Obama’s Campaign. Retrieved on March 24, 2008, from http://www.barackobama.com/

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Consumer impulsive buying behavior

Consumer impulsive buying behavior Abstract In this study, we investigate the relationship between sales promotion and consumer impulsive buying behavior in Retail Industry of Pakistan. More specifically, we investigate whether there is a positive relationship between sales promotion and consumer impulsive buying behavior or not? For this purpose we have conducted 80 Questionnaire from Metro, Macro and Hyper Star Located in Lahore, Pakistan for our research project. We have measured sales promotion by three dimensions that are (1) length of offer period, (2) incentives and (3) return policy while customer impulsive buying behavior by three dimensions that are (1) income level, (2) worth of product and (3) tendency to spend. We have used Questionnaire as a tool for the collection of data in order to prove our hypothesis. Afterwards we have applied the regression and correlation technique, which have given us the result that there is a positive relation between Sales Promotion and Impulsive Buying Behavior. In the end we discuss ed that our research goes in support of our literature review that we have conducted before starting our project. Keywords: Sales Promotion, Consumer Impulsive Buying Behavior INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW In this era of globalization, competition has become more intense than ever. Every marketing campaign tries to win the support of the consumers that the product of the organization is entailed to suffice them and is the best to meet their expectations. If the purpose is successfully attained the consumers acknowledge the product of the organization and colligates specific benefits to the product (Murphy Enis, 1985). Consumer routinely faces the decision problem of what product to purchase, from where to purchase and in what quantity to purchase. Moreover, the decision is complicated by consumer characteristics ( e.g., income, age, gender, purchase frequency etc) and by temporary price reductions for various products and by the fact that the size of the price reductions varies across deals. These price reduction (sales promotion) techniques can affect the decisions of different consumers differently. For example, price reduction might cause brands switching to one segment without any effect on purchase timing and quantity, while heartening another segment of brand-loyal consumers to buy quick and more of the product. Common sense and formal economic analysis suggests that a consumers decision on product and purchase quantity may depend on the size of the price reduction and the time until the next price reduction (Blatberget, 1978). Interest in the study of sales promotion is increasing due to the acceleration of promotional expenditures. Three-fourth of the marketing budget in most of the consumer product companies is for sales promotions. Sales promotions are a potential tool because it works on behavioral level and most of the sales promotion techniques directly impact the decision making process and thus purchase decision. Sales promotion is capable of shift in behavior because it transforms the price-value relationship that a product or service offers a buyer (Schultz, Petrison Robinson). pp 1- 6 Manufacturers are spending more money on sales promotion as compared to advertisement due to the quick and direct impact of sales promotions on sales volume (Blattberg, Briesch and Fox 1995). There are several reasons why advertising has become less effective. The growing diversity of the population of consumers makes it more difficult to reach a mass audience with a single message. Moreover, the cost of advertising media has grown faster than the rate of inflation, but its effectiveness has fallen as television channels, magazines, radio stations, and websites proliferate, and as consumers take control of their exposure to ads with remote control devices. It has become increasingly expensive and difficult to build brand awareness and brand loyalty. According to Kahn and McAllister (1997), it has almost become impossible to build brand awareness and brand loyalty by advertising. Furthermore, a result of the overwhelming product proliferation is that the distinctions between brands have become blurred. These (and other) developments have driven manufacturers and retailers marketing mix expenditures towards sales promotions. (e.g., Lal and Rao 1997, Bell and Lattin 1998) In vestigating the exact results from sales promotion expenditures on individual consumers buying behavior is the mainspring of our study. 1.2 Sales Promotions Sales promotions are action-focused marketing events whose purpose is to have a direct impact on the behavior of the firms customers. There are three major types of sales promotions: consumer promotions, retailer promotions, and trade promotions. Consumer promotions are promotions offered by manufacturers directly to consumers. Retailer promotions are promotions offered by retailers to consumers. Trade promotions are promotions offered by manufacturers to retailers or other trade entities (Blattberg and Neslin 1990). This thesis is focused on promotions offered to the consumer, therefore a combination of consumer and retailer promotions. Throughout the world, sales promotions offered to consumers are an integral part of the marketing mix for many consumer products. Marketing managers use price-oriented promotions, such as coupons, rebates, and price discounts to increase sales and market share, entice consumers to trial, and encourage them to switch brands or stores. Non-price promot ions such as sweepstakes, 7frequent user clubs, and premiums add excitement and value to brands and may increase. brand attractiveness. In addition, consumers like promotions. They provide utilitarian benefits such as monetary savings, increased quality (higher quality products become attainable), and convenience, as well as hedonistic benefits such as entertainment, exploration, and self-expression (Huff and Alden 1998, Chandon et al. 2000). Blattberg and Neslin (1990) stated that the influence of sales promotions could be exerted in many ways. The consumer can be influenced to change purchase timing or purchase quantity, switch brands, increase consumption of the product category, switch stores, or search for promotions. However, not all consumers are influenced in the same way. For example, some consumers might be influenced to switch brands but not change their purchase timing, while others might be influenced to change timing but not brands. Still others might be influenced in both ways. Blattberg and Neslin (1990) concluded that promotion response is therefore a multidimensional concept. Identification of the degree to which a certain consumer is influenced by a promotion? Figuring out, whether there are some consumers who respond to every sales promotion? Are there differences between households in the way they react to promotions, does one household show consistent brand switch behavior, whereas a second household shows consistent purchase acceleration behavior? These are questions we want to answer with this study. Retailers also want to know how planned decisions such as the product range is to be offered in their stores and how these planned decisions such as price promotions and special displays affect the likelihood of consumers adding impulse behavior to their sales. Research Questions With respect to the effects of sales promotions we have formulated one central research question. Under which conditions and in what way do sales promotions influence household purchase behavior? We have investigated the impact of sales promotions on purchase behavior at the individual household level. We agree with Blattberg and Neslin (1990) in the sense that promotion response can be exerted in many ways. There are so many factors that can influence a consumer promotion purchase behavior. 1.4 Scientific Contribution A considerable amount of research has been undertaken in an attempt to identify and understand consumer promotion response. Different operationalizations and measures of promotion response have been developed and applied. This abundance hampers comparison and makes the prospect of building a cumulative tradition for promotion response elusive. Furthermore, a large part of the empirical work is not grounded on consumer behavior theory. We provide an integrated framework that describes the effects of sales promotion on household purchase behavior applying insights from consumer behavior theories. Furthermore, measures are developed for household sales promotion response. We investigate whether the observed magnitudes of the promotion response variables can be explained by observable household characteristics (such as social class, available time, size and composition), product category characteristics (such as average price level, number of brands), and promotion environment variables (which promotion types were present). Furthermore, we will present an intertemporal decomposition of household promotion response to find out to what degree the different sales promotion reaction mechanisms are exhibited in household purchase behavior within and across categories. The intertemporal aspect means that besides effects during the promotion itself, also pre-and post-promotional effects are taken into account. The microscopic level of research offers the opportunity to study (in)consistencies in household purchase behavior within and across different product categories to make a statement about the concept of deal proneness. 1.5 Managerial Relevance The results and insights obtained concerning the promotion response will be used to infer conclusions about the effects of sales promotions. Do specific sales promotion types mainly lead to stockpiling behavior, therefore not really rewarding, or do some consumers really consume more (category expansion). What household characteristics and product category characteristics are important in explaining the effects of sales promotions? Are some categories more attractive to promote than others? The results on category expansion effects form an important indicator of retailer and manufacturer profitability. They could be used as a starting point for deriving estimates of these profitabilities, though that is outside the scope of this dissertation. Currently, everyday low pricing (EDLP) is appearing in managerial circles. The change from a promotion-intensive environment (the so-called high-low pricing) to an environment characterized by lower average prices and fewer promotions has interesting short- and long-run implications for brand choice, store choice, purchase acceleration, category expansion, and repeat purchasing. It is therefore interesting to know the percentage of households whose purchase behavior is influenced by promotions. Promotion shoppers could abandon EDLP stores and EDLP brands. Furthermore, incorporating demographic variables in household purchase behavior models is conceptually appealing and has numerous managerial benefits. Retailers and brand managers can assess demographic variations in demand and marketing mix response in order to implement micromarketing strategies (Neslin et al. 1994, Kalyanam and Putler 1997). For example, a retailer planning to locate a new outlet can get some sense of the differences in demand patters and price and promotion sensitivities in the new trading area in order to make initial stocking, inventory, pricing, and promotion decisions. SIGNIFICANCE RATIONALE Researches and techniques are continuously being added in the field of sales promotion (Lancaster Massingham). Many of the sales promotion researches described the impact of demographics on deal-prone consumers and explained the impact of their income, gender and ownership on their purchase patern (Bawa and Shoemaker 1987; Blattberg et al. 1978) and other researches explored personal traits such as coupon-proneness, value-consciousness or market mavenism (Feickand Price 1987; Inman, McAlister and Hoyer 1990; Lichtenstein, Netemeyer and Burton 1990, 1995; Mittal 1994). Influences of personal (self-image) and social characteristics on impulsive buying behavior has been explored (Dittmar, Beatie and Friese 1996) We acknowledge that consumer characteristics also influence impulse purchase decisions but our research is directed at factors over which retailers have control. Based on previous impulse research, we obtained measures of consumer characteristics that have been shown to influence impulsive buying behavior and included these variables in our research so potential space of relationship between the sales promotions and consumer impulse buying behavior exist. Keeping this gap in mind, our research contributes to defining the relationship between these two concepts. OBJECTIVES Our study has three general objectives. The first is to develop a conceptual model to describe the relationship between sales promotion and consumer impulse buying behavior. It also indicates how retailers can influence promotional activity and use information on consumer purchasing decision. The second objective is to conduct an empirical analysis of the model. These findings are expected to improve our understanding of how consumers react to price promotions. The third objective is to test hypothesis. These findings could be used to segment the market, for mailing coupons, for designing specific promotions. LITERATURE REVIEW A lot of research work have been done in the area of consumer behavior in which, its relationship is associated with the different aspects of marketing for example advertisement, quality of the product or services, pricing acceptability of the product, bundling and promotional frames were influencing the perceived value of the product, variety seeking and reinforcement behavior that resulted in purchase intention (Munger Dhruv, 2003; Joseph, 1999; Barbara Jagmohan, 1991; Joseph, Carl Terence, 1999; Aridhan, Imarn Robert, 1991; Donald, Nancy Richard, 1993; Charles Michael, 1982; Manohar Chi, 1992; Carl, kamel Douglas, 1998 ). Many a researches examining impulsive buying have used the terms Impulsive buying and Unplanned buying interchangeably (Kollat Wallet, 1969; Stern, 1962). Consumer statement that they had purchased those items, which they had, no intention of purchasing, prior to entering the store were generally conceptualized as impulsive buying. This definition of impulsive buying was one of the reasons for the researchers to investigate the issues related to shelving displays that facilitate purchasing. Impulsive buying behavior is a sudden compelling hedonically complex purchasing behavior in which the rapidity of the impulse purchase decision process predicts thoughtful deliberate consideration of information and choice alternative (Kacen Xu, 2001). Furthermore Charles and Michael (1982) examined marketing and financial implications of offering a discount to retail customers to encourage cash payment rather than credit card payment to increase buying behavior. Also in research study published by American Marketing Association of Aradhna, Imran and Robert (1991) explained the relationship of promotional activity with consumer perception comprehensively. The use of different sales promotion techniques varies substantially from one country to another. Promotions provoke two reactions in people .The first is an increase in consumption, i.e. more quantity of a product is acquired. The second is storage of the product for the future, i.e. the consumer acts anticipating his purchases. On the other hand, it is possible that consumers who do not buy the brand will want to acquire it because they are attracted by the sales promotion (Gupta, 1993). However, Brandweek (1994) found that some people who change brand due to a promotion change back to their favorite brand when buying that category of product later. It is necessary to highlight that the use of sales promotions to encourage brand and product purchase and consumption has to be sufficient. However it is necessary to stay alert, as the opposite effect could be provoked on certain occasions. This occurs when the consumer perceives that he is paying for unnecessary activities to enhance and position the product: this then provokes the opposite effect to the desired effect, i.e. the consumer will stop buying the promoted brand (Simonson, 1989). It is also possible that the consumer avoids buying the promoted brands so as not to have to justify his behavior to his peer group. There is also another reason why promotion may not obtain the expected results: the consumer may feel he is being manipulated and will punish the retailer by not purchasing the promoted brand or product (Simonson, 1989). Customer perceived value is thus the difference between the prospective customers evaluation of all benefits and all the costs of an offering and perceived alternatives. Total customers value is the perceived monetary value of the bundle of economic, functional and psychological benefits customers expect from a given market offering. (Marketing management 12 e, page no 141, Philip Kotler and Kelvine Lane Keller, 2005) Marketing analysts have shown that consumers can be characterized based on their brand purchasing patterns within a product class (Morrison, 1966). For example, some consumers purchase behavior can be characterized as reinforcing, i.e., a tendency to repurchase the last brand bought (Morrison, 1966; Jeuland, 1979), while other consumers purchase behavior can be characterized as variety-seeking, i.e., a tendency to shift away from the last brand purchased (Givon, 1984; Kalwani, 1992; Morrison, 1966). Several models of consumer response to promotions suggest that a current decision on brand and purchase quantity depends on the expected time until the next price reduction and the expected size of future reduction. Blattberg, Peacock, Robert and Sen (1978) define a purchase strategy as a general buying pattern which incorporates several dimensions of buying behavior such as brand loyalty, private brand proneness and deal proneness. Researchers studying the brand choice decision for example, Gupta (1988), Schneider and imran (1990) have found promotions to be associated with brand switching. It was found that all the individuals have built-in impulsive spending mechanisms: (1) Desire to buy, and (2) Ability to control urge of buying. When the former overtakes later then it results in impulsive spending (Hoch Lowenstein, 1991; Mischel Ayduk, 2004; Mischel Ebessen, 1970). Research findings suggest that emotions and feelings play a decisive role in purchasing, triggered by seeing the product or upon exposure to a well crafted promotional message. Such purchases ranges from small (chocolate, clothing, magazines) to substantially large (jewelry, vehicle, work of art) and usually (about 80 percent of the time) lead to problems such as financial difficulties, family disapproval, or feeling of guilt or disappointment. Moods also influence the impulsive buying behavior. Researchers found that that the respondents were of the opinion that the most frequently mentioned mood state for stimulating impulse purchase was pleasure followed by mood states care free and excited. Consumer believes that, impulsive buying helps in extending these feelings. Most of researchers findings are that positive moods facilitate impulsive buying, but a few researchers also found that negative moods also facilitate impulsive buying (Gardner Rook, 1987) Negative moods adversely aff ect self control, therefore, the individual fell prey to impulsive buying (Herman Polivy, 2004). Consumer in negative mood turns to purchasing with the hope that this would alleviate their unpleasant mood (Mick Demoss, 1990). Rook (1987) defined impulse buying as when a consumer experiences a sudden, often powerful and persistent urge to buy something immediately. We extend this definition slightly. Impulse buying is sudden and immediate purchase with no pre-shopping intentions either to buy the specific product category or to fulfill a specific buying task. The behavior occurs after experiencing an urge to buy and it tends to be spontaneous and without a lot of reflection (i.e., it is impulsive). It does not include the purchase of a simple reminder item, which is an item that is simply out-of-stock at home. Dramatic increases in personal disposable incomes and credit availability have made impulse buying in retail environments a prevalent consumer behavior (Dittmar, Beattie Friese 1996; Ferrell 1998). Impulse buying behavior is sudden and compelling (Bayley Nancarrow, 1998). Several researchers have reported that consumers do not view impulse purchasing as wrong; rather, consumers retrospectively convey a favorable evaluation of their behavior (Dittmar, Beattie Friese, 1996; Hausman, 2000; Rook, 1987). Other researchers have treated impulse buying as an individual difference variable with the expectation that it is likely to influence decision making across situations (Beatty Ferrell, 1998). Our research project is going to be investigating the impact of sales promotion on consumer impulse buying behavior because we have not found work done on this topic. Theoretical Frame work The two major concepts examined in this research are sales promotions and consumer impulsive buying behavior. The brief introduction to these concepts is as below: Consumer Buying Behavior. Buying behavior of people who purchase products for personal or household use and not for business purposes. Impulse buying An unplanned buying behavior resulting from a powerful urge to buy something immediately. 179 Routinized Response Behavior. A type of consumer problem solving process used when buying frequently purchased, low cost ietems that require very little search and decision effort. 178 Limited Problem Solving. A type of consumer problem solving process that buyers use when purchasing products occasionally or when they need information aboutan unfamiliar brand in a familiar product category.178 Extended Problem Solving. Type of consumer problem solving process employed when purchasing unfamiliar, expensive or infrequently bought products.178 Foundations of Marketing (2nd ed) 2007 Page 177 By William M. Pride, O. C. Ferrell Chapter 8: Consumer Buying Behavior, Publisher:Cengage Learning HYPOTHESIS H1: There is positive relationship between Sales promotions and consumer impulse buying behavior. H2: Female consumers are attracted more by sales promotions as compared to male consumers H3: Responsiveness to sales promotions is more in young consumers as compared to old consumers H4: Low income consumers are attracted more by sales promotions as compared to high income consumers Dependent Variable In our analysis, consumer impulse buying behavior is our dependent variable. Independent Variable Independent variable is Sales promotion. Relationship between Dependent and Independent Variable Consumer Impulse Buying Behavior Sales Promotion Independent Variable Dependent Variable Operational Definitions Sales Promotion- Short term incentives to encourage purchase or sales of a product or service (Kotler, Armstrong 1999). Dimensions of Sales Promotions Incentives- These are benefits given by retailer such as coupons, cash rebates, advertisement specialty; price packs (e.g. 50% off) to consumers. Offer Period- It is the lengths of time for which the consumer can avail the incentives given by retailers e.g. 3 month spring season offer, Eid offer, Ramzan offer etc. Return Policies- It is the money back guarantee or replacement of the products given by the retailer to increase the confidence of the consumer. Consumer Impulse Buying Behavior Impulse buying as when a consumer experiences a sudden, often powerful and persistent urge to buy something immediately. (Rook, Dennis and Stephen, 1985) Dimensions of Consumer Impulse Buying Behavior Income Level It plays an important role while determining the consumer impulse buying behavior as it helps the consumer to decide about the purchase of the product. Worth of the Product- It is the value of the product for consumer e.g. consumer impulse buying behavior is affected by the price packs given of those products which have worth for consumers. Tendency to Spend- It is the potency and likelihood in one self that he or she spends money irrationally. Research Design A research design according to Zikmund (1997), a master plan by which we specify the techniques and operations for collection and examination of the required information (p. 199). Choice of research The choice of research will be Causal Research which describes data and characteristics about the population or event being studied. It allows us to have greater understanding (Zikmund, 1997). Descriptive research tends to be very structured and strict for the collection of data (Stevens, Wrenn, Ruddick, Sherwood, 2000). The purpose of using this research is that it will help understanding the attitudes and behavior of customers, who are likely to respond towards the organizations undertaking a societal marketing campaign and hence, the degree to which societal marketing and corporate image are connected will be determined (Kinnear Taylor, 1996). Hence, this design is most suitable to examine the impact of societal marketing on customer behavior towards corporate image. Sampling Sampling is the process of selecting a sufficient number of elements from the population, so that a study of the sample and understanding of its properties would make it possible for us to generalize such properties to the population element. Population. The population relevant to a study is described as a complete group of entities that share some common set of characteristics (Zikmund, 1997, p. 414). Target population is considered for this study was adult consumers with age 20-45+ years whose income range Rs.15000-55000+ available in the retail markets of Pakistan. The departmental stores and superstores offers a good place to find this kind of population. Sampling frame. The sampling frame in this study will be the customers visiting Makro, Metro and Hyperstar located in Lahore. Each customer in the store is a single member of the population and is defined as a sample unit (Zikmund, 1997). Sampling method. To understand how sales promotion affects the consumer impulse buying behavior a self administered survey was conducted at major super stores METRO, Makro and Hyperstar at Lahore. A probability sampling method has been used for analysis as all the customers Sample size. Data from 80 respondents was collected due to budget and times constraints. Instruments Sales promotion- A five-point Likert scale (Strongly Agree/Strongly Disagree) was adopted in the questionnaire. It contained 12 statements. Consumer impulse buying behavior- A five-point Likert scale (Strongly Agree/Strongly Disagree) was adopted in the questionnaire. It contained 13 statements. Statement 9 is more psychological in nature and statement i4 is a repeated statement, so it was dropped while analyzing data. REsults and Analysis 5.1 Reliability Analysis All questionnaires were valid for analysis as missing values were converted 3 (neither agree nor disagree). For a reliability check, the Cronbachs Alpha of each scale above 0.60 found, as shown in the following table. 6 Discussion From table 1 it can be interpret that measurement scale of sales promotion is 66.5% reliable and consumer impulse buying behavior is 69.5% reliable. Form table 2 it can be interpreted that the hypothesis is true and the two variables are positively correlated and level of significance is .005 for to tailed and confidence interval is 99%. Table 4 represents that while calculating regression Enter Method is used . From table 5 it is interpreted that Value of adjusted R2 (.099) shows the effect independent variable on dependent variable, remaining effect will be caused by other variables which are not the part of this study. Table 5 represents ANOVA summary also from this analysis significance is found .005.from table 6 the coefficient of independent variable sales promotion ÃŽÂ ²=0.334 have appositive effect on dependent variable consumer impulse buying behavior. Fig1 shows the regression line and variation can be seen through scattered points which are almost near the line.Fig2 show the pattern of data represented by histogram and the curve shows normal distribution pattern. 7 Conclusions Our study focused on understanding the relationship sales promotion to consumer impulse buying behavior. Charles and Michael (1982) proved in their research that cash discount can increase the customer buying behavior. Similarly Givon(1984) and kalwani (1992) proved their research of increasing sales through variety seeking behaviors , Morrison (1966) developed the relationship of buying behavior with consumer status ,and Blattberg (1978) same devlope relationship with buying behavior but with brand loyality ,Schneider and imran (1990) have found promotions to be associated with brand switching. So we got area to find significance relationship between sales promotion and consumer impulse bung behavior The answer to our research study concerning the relative strength of the retail environment in impulse purchases is deep this is not to say that if a retailer puts items on special display they will not generate impulsive purchases, they will. Our study makes a useful contribution to retailers understanding of impulsive buying behavior among consumers. 8 Limitations First, the data comes from a small panel and from a very small area whereas researchers gather data in forms of thousands. Second, while we have included the major gap that exists between variables to influence impulse buying behavior, there is the possibility that other unmeasured factors (e.g. time of day) also influence purchase decisions. Third Shortage of time was another limitation in this study. Due to which data collected was limited to very small area. Last but not least the respondents were very non-serious many questioners were found on which pattern of filling questionnaires found. 9 Future Implication The results of this study can be helpful for retailers. One of the major implications of this research is that retailers can increase sales by offering the right promotional tools to encourage product sale. So decision should carefully be planned. Promotions that emphasize in-store display, cash rebates, and price packs are likely to be more effective than coupons. Another fruitful area that a retailer must keep in mind that the promotion pattern should be regular or long lasting so that consumer perception can be improved .Giving short term incentives for temporary periods can cause low quality perception in consumer s which can effect impulse purchase To increase impulse purchase at store a wide range of competitors products can be helpful to encourage impulse purchase since consumer compare price level and a deep discount is attractive to them. Our research project is comprised to pilot study there is a great potential

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Free Narrative Essays - Speeding Is A Dead End :: Example Personal Narratives

Speeding Is A Dead End Part of being a human being is learning from our mistakes. It is a natural process that we all experience at various periods of our lives. For instance, throughout the process of learning how to solve mathematics problems, the only method is to practice solving the problems. During this process of solving the problems, it is only natural to make mistakes. By comparison, in life in general, the only way to learn to become a better person is by correcting the mistakes that were previously experienced. During the past eighteen years, I have learned many lessons as a result of primarily making mistakes. My mother always told me to obey the speed limit because one day I will unexpectedly have to pay the price. Not only could I kill myself by speeding, I could kill other innocent people that could have been involved. Moreover, not only did I not comply with the speed limit, I did not obey my mother. Unfortunately, I learned my lesson one gloomy day when I got caught for speeding on a city street by a police officer. It was the typical setting to be accused for a driving offense. The clouds were gray, the roads were slick due to a recent rainfall and there was not many cars on the road encouraging me to drive faster. I had just gone through a yellow light at a major intersection and when I looked straight ahead, there was not a car in sight. Due to the fact that the road was "all mine", I was encouraged to travel twenty-five kilometers over the speed limit. Admittedly, I almost heard my mother telling me to slow down. After my increase in velocity, I noticed I was approaching a downhill. Since I was driving downhill, I was forced to pick up speed and I reached approximately 100 km/h. When I reached the level road again, I was able to see the road ahead. To my surprise, I noticed an old, rotten car parked on the shoulder of the road and a person wearing a hat getting out of it. As I drew nearer, I noticed that it was a police officer directing me to stop the car and park on the shoulder of the

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Blue Cross Essay

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is a  well established family  of health benefits companies providing health services for 100 million Americans. Blue Cross insured approximately 12,300 active groups as of October 1, 2005. The groups had a total of 47,000 enrolled subscribers and 92,000 members. This contrasts with 13,800 groups as of January 1, 2003, with 58,000 subscribers and 115,000 total members. Nationwide, more than 96% of hospitals and 91% of professional providers contract with Blue Cross company — more than any other insurer.Blue Cross offers a variety of insurance products to all segments of the population, including large employer groups, small business and individuals. The Blues currently serve 85% of Fortune 100 companies and 76% of Fortune 500 companies. Moreover, the Blues have enrolled more than half of all U. S. federal workers, retirees and their families, making the Federal Employee Program the largest single health plan group in the world. Th e Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies enroll in the Federal Employee Program (FEP) — the largest privately underwritten health insurance contract in the world — more than 5. million federal government employees, dependents and retirees. Blue Cross company established the appropriate operating mode according to the special needs of the local community, brings high-quality, affordable health care services to the American public, including low-income people, the elderly and urban residents. The applications will involve patients, doctors, businesses, medical education and research institutions and government decision-making bodies, and many departments.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

French Impersonal Expressions

French Impersonal Expressions Impersonal expressions are those which do not have a specific subject. In grammatical terms, impersonal does not mean cold, but rather invariable by grammatical person. There are a few things you need to know about French impersonal expressions: The French impersonal subject is either il or ce, whereas the English impersonal subject is it.All of the French impersonal expressions can begin with il est or cest with no difference in meaning; however, cest is less formal than il est. Therefore, cest is more common in spoken French, while il est is more common in written French. (Note: this applies to il  est and cest only in impersonal expressions; in other constructions, there is a difference: cest vs il est) There are essentially two different types of constructions with impersonal expressions - either they are followed by que and a subordinate clause, or they are followed by a preposition and infinitive. With Que When using il est or cest adjective followed by que, the verb in the subordinate clause may need to be in the indicative or subjunctive, depending on the meaning of the impersonal expression:Il est probable que David le fait / Cest probable que David le fait.Its probable that David is doing it.Il est possible que David le fasse / Cest possible que David le fasse.Its possible that David is doing it. Without Que In expressions with il est or cest adjective followed by a preposition and infinitive, the choice of preposition depends on the type of subject:a) When the impersonal subject is a dummy subject, you need the preposition de, and there are two possible constructions:impersonal expression de intransitive infinitiveIl est difficile de parler / Cest difficile de parler.Its hard to speak. (Speaking is hard)orimpersonal expression de transitive infinitive direct objectIl est important de dire la và ©rità © / Cest important de dire la và ©rità ©.Its important to tell the truth.b) When the impersonal subject is a real subject and the infinitive is used intransitively as a passive infinitive, you must use the preposition :Il est bon savoir / Cest bon savoir.Thats good to know.Il est difficile faire / Cest difficile faire.Thats hard to do. Learn the Most Common French Impersonal Expressions Many impersonal expressions require the subjunctive. To find out which ones, check  The Subjunctivator!Il est bizarre / Cest bizarreIts oddIl est  bon  / Cest  bonIts goodIl est certain / Cest certainIts certainIl est clair / Cest clairIts clear/obviousIl est convenable / Cest convenableIts proper/fittingIl est difficile / Cest difficileIts difficultIl est  dommage  / Cest  dommageIts too badIl est douteux / Cest douteuxIts doubtfulIl est essentiel / Cest essentielIts essentialIl est à ©tonnant / Cest à ©tonnantIts amazingIl est à ©trange / Cest à ©trangeIts strangeIl est à ©vident  / Cest à ©videntIts obviousIl est facile / Cest facileIts easyIl est faux / Cest fauxIts falseIl est heureux / Cest heureuxIts fortunateIl est honteux / Cest honteuxIts shamefulIl est important / Cest importantIts importantIl est impossible / Cest impossibleIts impossibleIl est improbable / Cest improbableIts improbableIl est indispensable  / Cest indispensableIts essentialIl est i njuste / Cest injusteIts unfairIl est inutile / Cest inutileIts uselessIl est  juste  / Cest  justeIts right/fairIl est naturel / Cest naturelIts naturalIl est nà ©cessaire / Cest nà ©cessaireIts necessaryIl est normal / Cest normalIts normalIl est obligatoire / Cest obligatoireIts necessaryIl est  peu  probable / Cest  peu  probableIts not likelyIl est possible / Cest possibleIts possibleIl est probable / Cest probableIts probableIl est rare / Cest rareIts rareIl est regrettable / Cest regrettableIts regrettableIl est sà »r / Cest sà »rIts sure/certainIl est surprenant / Cest surprenantIts surprisingIl est temps / Cest tempsIts timeIl est triste / Cest tristeIts sadIl est urgent / Cest urgentIts urgentIl est utile / Cest utileIts usefulIl est  vrai  / Cest  vraiIts true

Monday, October 21, 2019

American Beauty analysis essays

American Beauty analysis essays This film, written by Alan Ball and directed by Sam Mendes, was released in 1999. It won many awards, including the Academy award for best picture, although it was and still is very controversial. The movie portrays the American suburbanite family in a bleak and dismal light and dares to discuss off-limit, intense topics dealing with the American life. This film requires insightful reflection and analysis in order to understand its profound significance and multifaceted layers. While many topics are explored and uncovered in the film, several dominant themes occur in American Beauty which are of great consequence. The first is the idea of looking closer. This recurring aspect of the film urges the audience to see that things are not as they appear on the surface. Examples include the seemingly perfect but actually dysfunctional family, the suggestion that someone else killed Lester, the fact that Angela turned out to be a virgin though she acted quite unvirginal, and the discovery that the homophobic Colonel is gay. The director and screenwriter purposefully made occurrences have an incredibly different outcome than perceived. The truth or beauty itself may be found in a place where a person never expected to find it, like in a plastic bag floating the filmmaker tries to rid the audience of its preconceived notions about truth and beauty, which is crucial in understanding the next theme about beauty. Beauty is, of course, another omnipresent, significant theme in American Beauty. The filmmmaker uses the film to ask questions about beauty to the American public, such as, what is beauty, where can it be found, how is it achieved, and so on. Each character has a dissimilar viewpoint regarding these questions about beauty. They each have their own idea or image of what is beautiful. The way each character defines beauty ultimately defines the characters themselves in the film. For example, Ri ...

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Learn more about Babson College MBA Essays

Learn more about Babson College MBA Essays Learn more about Babson College MBA Essay Learn more about Babson College MBA Essay Essay Topic: College application The first thing you need to know about Babson College is that it was established way back in 1919. It offers bachelor or master degrees in various fields in business. There are few other executive educational programs for many organizations to find proper education. According to the latest US News World Report, Babson College has been ranked among the best in Online MBA. This kind of recognition depends on the quality of its offered educational programs. As you can see, this college has an educational system that is highly respected. Starting from 1950, Babson College has been awarded with NEASC accreditation. This college has received accreditation reaffirmation of its MBA degree programs. This means accrediting its business programs with AACSB accreditation. The accreditation is another proof of the educational quality that is offered by this school. Receiving a degree from Babson College means many opportunities in the future. Just by holding it in your hands, you are getting the feeling that you succeeded to get a degree at one of the best business schools located in the Northeast. This college offers: Online MBA in Finance Online MBA in International Business Both of these programs enable the students to get proper knowledge and develop many leadership abilities. Through the courses of Finance and Financial Statement, Managerial Assessment, Leadership and Human Behavior, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Delivery Systems and few others, you will get everything you need to be prepared for the real world challenges. Babson College Online MBA program offers a really big opportunity for the students. They can get their education without the need for putting their professional careers aside. Babson College Online program represents a combination of e-learning and face-to-face instruction. The students need to spend up to 22 hours per week doing course work which is delivered through online learning. The students will be required to attend few sessions at least once every 6 weeks. You are able to choose whether you will attend to Wellesley, Mass. or San Francisco. Those students who are interested into enrolling to this Online MBA program are required to fill an online application. The programs are scheduled to start twice a year. You can choose to sign up in January or September. All students need to make sure they will send the application in advance in order to enroll to their desired semester. Babson College has a really strict selection process as it is accepting 300 students out of 650 applicants. If you want more information about its financial aid and tuition please visit the official website of Babson College.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Select one topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Select one topic - Essay Example Hence the term â€Å"ethnicity†. This paper looks behind the deep issues involved in the rise of the term â€Å"ethnicity† and why social scientists now prefer to use the term â€Å"ethnicity† over â€Å"race†. Various data and irrefutable information will be presented coming from peer-reviewed journals, books, and appropriate websites in order to explain how the change from â€Å"race† to â€Å"ethnicity† took place over the course of time. A look into the history of the study of human race and its evolution will show that the concept of â€Å"race† is something that can trace its early roots to the European slave trade. The concept itself is the result of a scientific revolution that emerged during the time of European imperialism and colonization. Due to the influence of people from various parts of the world upon European culture and social conduct, Europeans began to suspect that there were marked differences in the physical, social, and cultural awareness of human groups. It became their opinion that some human beings from particular parts of the world were of a higher physical, social, and cultural background than the rest. Therefore, a division between the people must exist. This division was meant to connote the higher group of people from those deemed more inferior. The term â€Å"race† was then coined in order to create a semblance of control over the African slaves using a type of mind conditio ning related to the term used to describe them or their â€Å"race†. With the widespread use of the term â€Å"race† across the globe, it became clear to social scientists that the term was used to define the real or imagined physical differences between people. The differences could be based upon visible and obvious differences such as skin color and physical appearance. Once a person is defined by his â€Å"race†, it then becomes his social identity which tends to influence social

Friday, October 18, 2019

A Conceptual Model of E-Business Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 22500 words

A Conceptual Model of E-Business - Coursework Example Considerable confusion exists in the literature concerning the various terminologies used to describe E-Business. Terms abound with vague descriptions having loose connections to existing management literature and even more cryptic relationships to evolving technology. Despite this, however, there is the relative consensus that the core components of E-Business are Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and e-commerce. It is important to note that a business may not deploy every component or even attempt to link the three components. Some texts use the term 'enterprise Resource Management" or ERM as a comprehensive term meant to include all E-Business systems in one conceptual entity. It may, thus, be argued that these systems are distinctly different, serve specific functions and may or may not "add up" to a comprehensive organizational capability. Some texts use the term 'enterprise Resource Management" or ERM as a comprehensive term meant to include all E-Business systems in one conceptual entity. It may, thus, be argued that these systems are distinctly different, serve specific functions and may or may not "add up" to a comprehensive organizational capability. The objective of this research is to distinguish and develop a conceptual model of E-Business, on the one hand, and determine, or try to evaluate the potential social impact of e-business in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Within the context of the stated, it need be noted that legal strictures have inhibited the development of e-business in KSA but, these restrictions are gradually being lifted. It remains, however, important to emphasize that lack of an e-business presence in Saudi Arabia implies that, rather than evaluate the actual effect within the country of focus, the study will look towards theoretical and empirical studies on the social impact of e-business for the determination of potential, and probable, effect. The Internet has emerged as a key business medium for both large and small firms. Firms are increasingly using the Internet, the World Wide Web (WWW), and other web technologies1 to expand their markets, to conduct business transactions with customers and suppliers, and to enhance their competitive position.

Cruise line research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cruise line - Research Paper Example The Victoria Tourism is an enormous industry in the tourism of British Columbia, and it is worth to survey people who have chosen to come to Victoria. The research company will communicate with ten different Internet travel agencies in Europe and America who are willing to facilitate the research by allowing the company to access the contact information of the customers. These customers will be asked to participate by completing the survey via Skype or email. The questions on the survey will uncover the relevant reasons for their cruise ship vacation cancelation. This research survey will be conducted to bring a solution to the issue of the decreasing number of tourists who are cruising to Victoria, BC. According to Victoria News, there was a decrease in number of visitors from 481,733 passengers in 2013, to 465,065 in 2014 (Stewart,  2014). For this reason, the research will study the cruise ship industry and try to come up with the best ways to increase the number of visitors and implement a marketing strategy that would help the Victoria BC to regain and enlarge its customer base. The research will help to correct the problem of reduced numbers of tourists by surveying the real reasons behind the decline. In this way, the cruise ship companies will be able to correct their marketing efforts and planning immediately. The recommended methodology to conduct an effective survey is to have one-on-one Skype interviews with the 30 to 40 customers across European and American regions. Skype is a web conferencing tool that enables individuals to participate in a one-on-one interview; it facilitates an instant audio-video communication regardless of geographical location (Bembenutty, 2014). Good (Morning or afternoon), my name is Saud Bin Aqeel from Victoria Tourism. Your recent travel Agent gave us your contact information. Thank you for taking this time to participate

Deregulation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Deregulation - Research Paper Example A good example of deregulation is the airline and the telecommunications industries in most countries including Europe and United States. Deregulation often arise from economic agents who identify failures and problems in their regulatory framework, add pressure to the norms shaking the existing rules of game through institutionalized and legitimized logics change. As mentioned by Collier and European University Institute (1998, p. 3), two forces that have been key in driving pressure for change in industries that have embraced deregulation are the rising concern about negative impacts of economic regulation particularly on industries’ competitiveness, this has resulted in the drive for deregulation that focuses on the liberalization of the industrial sectors and privatization of some of the state-owned firms. Emphasis has particularly been on breaking monopoly powers and enhancing competition, while this has been critical, it has also been important for governments to identif y the environmental implications of deregulation in sectors like energy where free market forces and competition influences technology as well as fuel prices. The other factor that has been key in driving deregulation has been the command-and-control measures of environment and their effectiveness that have been highly scrutinized. Government intervention with policies and standard has been viewed as insufficient and too lax and this has driven the need for deregulation. Deregulation of the airline industry Airline market was one of the heavily regulated public utilities in the past few decades. Regulatory reform has been central in most countries’ economic policy trend since mid-1970s, airline deregulation rose from the failures of countries to arrive at multi-lateral settlement on pricing, traffic rights, and capacity mainly in Geneva in 1947, and in Chicago in 1944 that mirrored the protectionist policies and rules that hindered entrepreneurial and competition activities ( Winston 1263). Regulation of the mentioned aspects therefore became central in bilateral negotiations held by governments and airlines, these negotiations have seen dramatic changes whereby traffic rights are settled by states’ bilateral agreements, control of frequencies and capacity became subject to bilateral state agreements or to inter-airline agreements, tariffs setting came to be done by the International Airline Transport Association (the IATA). Airline industry in Europe is one of such cases in the economic policy reforms. Deregulation began as essential economic decisions concerning traffic rights (entry), capacities as well as pricing were ruled by either suppliers (representatives) or the governments. U.K and U.S signed the 1946 Bermuda agreement that opened for future agreements increasing freedom rights and ending the frequency and capacity controls (Collier and European University Institute 13). Bermuda agreement did not explicitly indicate that tariffs setting were to be done by IATA, in 1978, U.S. signed the act on domestic airline deregulation and this put pressure to the international airline regulatory system resulting in various bilateral negotia

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Valid Contracs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Valid Contracs - Essay Example In the given case, on Monday, Eddie asked Adele for a quote on the price of wild boar piglets. This is not an offer but a mere inquiry. Simple queries for information do not amount to offers. Adele replied that the piglets would cost ?13,350 including delivery charges. Eddie said that the price was acceptable. This means that Eddie did not accept the price. There is a huge difference between accepted and acceptable. He further asked if Adele could deliver the piglets on Wednesday. This is again not an offer but a statement made in negotiation. Such offers also do not amount to offers. In Harvey V Facey [1893] AC 552, the plaintiff was interested in buying some land from the defendant. He asked the defendant the minimum price that he would accept. The defendant replied with a price. The plaintiff attempted to accept that price but the defendant refused to sell. It was held that the defendant’s reply was just a step in negotiation and not an offer. Adele told Eddie that she woul d fax her answer on the next morning i.e. Tuesday. Adele faxed her answer as promised but Eddie was not his office. Adele had agreed to deliver the piglets on Wednesday at the same cost. Adele did not wait for Eddie’s response and sent her driver to deliver the piglets.... The defendant refused to pay for them. A suit was brought by the plaintiff for breach of contract. It was held that the mistake made by the defendant did not entitle him to breach the contract. It was because his conduct was such that a reasonable person could have easily believed that he wanted the same oats as he was shown as a sample. Also in Plate v. Durst (1896) 32 LRA 404, the defendant was promised ?1000 and a diamond ring if she would remain his domestic servant for 10 years. She fulfilled the promise. It turned out that the defendant intended his statement to be a joke. It was held that the parties had entered into a contract because the defendant’s statement was such that a reasonable person could have easily construed it as a promise. The above mentioned case helps in determination of the fact whether a contract has been made between Eddie and Adele. From the facts, it can be seen that Eddie never made an offer to Adele clearly. It can be seen that Eddie wanted the piglets to be delivered on Wednesday but there is no statement that can establish the fact that if Adele could deliver the piglets on time, Eddie was ready to purchase them from her. His statement is just a step in negotiation; an intimation of his intentions. Eddie’s contract with Peter is not a breach of contract with Adele because there was no contract formed with her. The relationship between Eddie and Adele is devoid of the essentials of a valid contract. Therefore, Eddie would not be held liable for damages and the additional ?400. Answer 2 According to the given facts, Adele was hit by a fork-lift truck at Bambi Stores. The truck was being driven by Reggie, an employee of the store. Bambi Stores claim to have no liability for loss caused to Adele because they had written

Identity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Identity - Essay Example In this variegated world the human beings simply could not avoid the unavoidable and intimate process of socialization that gives way to what is called the individual and collective identity. Thereby, the individual identity is not merely the product of one’s specific self concept, but is rather a concept that is shaped and formed by an array of forces that tend to be economic, legal, social and many a times historical in their ramifications, which scratch and etch the human consciousness and continue to shape, control and define the entity that is called identity. Identity is a notion that happens to be multi-faceted, open and perpetually evolving in its content and scope. As far as I could peek into my childhood days, I could distinctly notice the fact that during the nascent stages of the human life, the development of the individual identity is governed a lot by what an individual thinks about oneself. When I was an infant, my parents where the only outside force that to a large extent shaped my identity (Gielen & Roopnarine 213). The very helplessness and dependence of my child hood state saved me from an early exposure to the multifarious social forces that I had to deal with at a more mature stage. My home and family was the cocoon that not only allowed me to shape my identity in a relatively benign and loving environment, but also protected me from more potent and political outside influences. I was totally oblivious of the fact that in the times to come, forces like ethnicity and color will pervade my inner world and shape my identity in varied ways and forms. Hence, the only god that governed the shaping of my identity was I and my parents. Thereby, I am happy to say that I had quite a happy childhood and this allowed me to develop a positive self concept of myself that shaped an identity that was open, gregarious, happy and confident. The positive reinforcements from my family further ossified this sense of invulnerability and mirth. However, this identity related complacence was not to last forever. As I grew up and my sense of self evolved, I realized that my parents and my family were not only a source love and affection, but also happened to be social individuals who belonged to a specific class, race, ethnicity and culture. It is not that my parents predominantly tried to introduce me to these sometimes hard to acknowledge, but valid facts, but I gradually picked up these facts about my family and hence about myself through eavesdropping into their unsuspecting daily interactions. These socio-economic attributes assigned to my family gradually began to become a part of my identity. Hence, I got a very basic idea of the society and my place in it through this primary socialization with my family (Gielen & Roopnarine 63). Thereby, I could certainly say that my family circumstances largely selected my mother tongue, religion, social class and nationality. It will be true to say that I had a very basic idea about my ide ntity as I entered the mature world. Yet, I was curious to not only test the validity of these identity attributes I inherited, but to practically see as to where I stood in the outside world. In that context I could distinctly identify my young adulthood period

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Deregulation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Deregulation - Research Paper Example A good example of deregulation is the airline and the telecommunications industries in most countries including Europe and United States. Deregulation often arise from economic agents who identify failures and problems in their regulatory framework, add pressure to the norms shaking the existing rules of game through institutionalized and legitimized logics change. As mentioned by Collier and European University Institute (1998, p. 3), two forces that have been key in driving pressure for change in industries that have embraced deregulation are the rising concern about negative impacts of economic regulation particularly on industries’ competitiveness, this has resulted in the drive for deregulation that focuses on the liberalization of the industrial sectors and privatization of some of the state-owned firms. Emphasis has particularly been on breaking monopoly powers and enhancing competition, while this has been critical, it has also been important for governments to identif y the environmental implications of deregulation in sectors like energy where free market forces and competition influences technology as well as fuel prices. The other factor that has been key in driving deregulation has been the command-and-control measures of environment and their effectiveness that have been highly scrutinized. Government intervention with policies and standard has been viewed as insufficient and too lax and this has driven the need for deregulation. Deregulation of the airline industry Airline market was one of the heavily regulated public utilities in the past few decades. Regulatory reform has been central in most countries’ economic policy trend since mid-1970s, airline deregulation rose from the failures of countries to arrive at multi-lateral settlement on pricing, traffic rights, and capacity mainly in Geneva in 1947, and in Chicago in 1944 that mirrored the protectionist policies and rules that hindered entrepreneurial and competition activities ( Winston 1263). Regulation of the mentioned aspects therefore became central in bilateral negotiations held by governments and airlines, these negotiations have seen dramatic changes whereby traffic rights are settled by states’ bilateral agreements, control of frequencies and capacity became subject to bilateral state agreements or to inter-airline agreements, tariffs setting came to be done by the International Airline Transport Association (the IATA). Airline industry in Europe is one of such cases in the economic policy reforms. Deregulation began as essential economic decisions concerning traffic rights (entry), capacities as well as pricing were ruled by either suppliers (representatives) or the governments. U.K and U.S signed the 1946 Bermuda agreement that opened for future agreements increasing freedom rights and ending the frequency and capacity controls (Collier and European University Institute 13). Bermuda agreement did not explicitly indicate that tariffs setting were to be done by IATA, in 1978, U.S. signed the act on domestic airline deregulation and this put pressure to the international airline regulatory system resulting in various bilateral negotia

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Identity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Identity - Essay Example In this variegated world the human beings simply could not avoid the unavoidable and intimate process of socialization that gives way to what is called the individual and collective identity. Thereby, the individual identity is not merely the product of one’s specific self concept, but is rather a concept that is shaped and formed by an array of forces that tend to be economic, legal, social and many a times historical in their ramifications, which scratch and etch the human consciousness and continue to shape, control and define the entity that is called identity. Identity is a notion that happens to be multi-faceted, open and perpetually evolving in its content and scope. As far as I could peek into my childhood days, I could distinctly notice the fact that during the nascent stages of the human life, the development of the individual identity is governed a lot by what an individual thinks about oneself. When I was an infant, my parents where the only outside force that to a large extent shaped my identity (Gielen & Roopnarine 213). The very helplessness and dependence of my child hood state saved me from an early exposure to the multifarious social forces that I had to deal with at a more mature stage. My home and family was the cocoon that not only allowed me to shape my identity in a relatively benign and loving environment, but also protected me from more potent and political outside influences. I was totally oblivious of the fact that in the times to come, forces like ethnicity and color will pervade my inner world and shape my identity in varied ways and forms. Hence, the only god that governed the shaping of my identity was I and my parents. Thereby, I am happy to say that I had quite a happy childhood and this allowed me to develop a positive self concept of myself that shaped an identity that was open, gregarious, happy and confident. The positive reinforcements from my family further ossified this sense of invulnerability and mirth. However, this identity related complacence was not to last forever. As I grew up and my sense of self evolved, I realized that my parents and my family were not only a source love and affection, but also happened to be social individuals who belonged to a specific class, race, ethnicity and culture. It is not that my parents predominantly tried to introduce me to these sometimes hard to acknowledge, but valid facts, but I gradually picked up these facts about my family and hence about myself through eavesdropping into their unsuspecting daily interactions. These socio-economic attributes assigned to my family gradually began to become a part of my identity. Hence, I got a very basic idea of the society and my place in it through this primary socialization with my family (Gielen & Roopnarine 63). Thereby, I could certainly say that my family circumstances largely selected my mother tongue, religion, social class and nationality. It will be true to say that I had a very basic idea about my ide ntity as I entered the mature world. Yet, I was curious to not only test the validity of these identity attributes I inherited, but to practically see as to where I stood in the outside world. In that context I could distinctly identify my young adulthood period

Cultural Practices that Influence Academic Performance Essay Example for Free

Cultural Practices that Influence Academic Performance Essay It is a basic or general rule and knowledge that the learning process and patterns differ for every student or learner. The concept of individual differences supports this idea as it builds on the theory that the structure or dimensions of the various faculties of individuals differ for each child, such as the physical, emotional, psychological, and cognitive faculties. From this point of view, we draw out the conclusion that individual differences must also mean that the pedagogical process should be designed to address them in order to facilitate learning in different kinds of situations. In other cases, not only are the various faculties considered, but also environmental factors such as social faculties, and more importantly, the cultural background from which an individual belongs to. With this in mind, the remainder of this text will look into the comparison and contrast of cultural factors that influence academic performance, particularly on a specific learning group – the Limited English Proficient or LEP students and the Fluent English Speakers or FES population. The primary difference between LEP and FES learners is the rate of standard of English language proficiency, either in listening, reading, writing and speaking. The implication of this particular inconsistency of English language proficiency when we talk about the learning situation is that learning becomes imbalanced or varied due to the different learning needs and demands of the aforementioned learning groups. Moreover, this also means that the teaching-learning process will cease to become effective if it lends itself to the traditional means of learning. For instance, since LEP learners lack the knowledge, skills, and competencies of displaying their proficiency on the English language, the curriculum as well as other learning aspects or situations are modified in order to make them less difficult and easier for the learners to understand at their own pace. On the other hand, the FES population has advanced and more developed proficiency in the English language. Therefore, the learning situation should be made challenging in order to increase or further learning and take it to the next level. The Interaction Model presented by Dr. Fred Tempes and Lilia Stapleton in their case study about bilingual education suggest that the academic performance of students when it comes to English language proficiency is dependent on the community background, the knowledge, skills, and competencies by the learner, the instructional method or techniques implemented, and the educational background. The condition of a learner’s community background constitutes the socio-economic status of families within the community and the academic performance of schools or academic institutions that provide learning opportunities for LEP students. These factors have something to do with the chance or capability of families to pay for bilingual educational programs for their children and the academic institution to provide effective and comprehensive bilingual educational programs. Another factor includes the primary language that families use at home and the kind of culture that exists within it. For instance, families that use Spanish as their primary language at home will expect their children to have difficulties in learning the English language in school. Moreover, a family that readily accepts the necessity to learn the English language would be more open to being involved, contributive, and supportive to the English learning process. (Tempes Stapleton, 1986) The student input factors that influence academic performance of LEP students include the obtained rate in English language proficiency, the academic performance rated and quantified for the English courses, and student mobility. In addition, the educational background that affects student academic performance for LEP students has something to do with the design, structure, learning objectives, and quality of educational programs implemented by academic institutions covering the institutional learning goals and objectives, the educational philosophies, the curriculum, the syllabus, instructional methods, strategies, techniques, and materials, and such. (Tempes Stapleton, 1986) On the other hand, the cultural factors that influence academic performance of the FES population differ from that of the LEP students. Culture, particularly language, is less likely to influence academic performance of the FES population since learning becomes easier and less challenging due to their increased proficiency of the English language which is the primary medium of instruction in academic institutions. For instance, instructions or directions are clearly understood leaving enough time for them to accomplish learning goals and objectives for English courses. However, academic institutions need to focus on the educational background or the ability of the academic institution to provide the highest standard of education for the FES population in order to increase the input of the students in terms of their academic performance and development of their English language skills and competencies. This particular difference is the primary reason why teachers express their difficulty in adjusting to the varying needs and demands of LEP students and the FES population. On the contrary, this particular situation is the reason why the government and academic institutions are continually raising the quality of education and educational programs since there is a pressing need to develop and implement bilingual education to address diverse needs of the student population. (Howard Loeb, 1998) The cultural factors that influence the academic performance of LEP students and the FES population has impacted how the government and academic institutions regard and acknowledge the importance of multicultural educational programs or curricula. Aside from the obvious need of LEP students to obtain an efficient, appropriate, and comprehensive language education, the rate of academic performance of the FES population when compared to that of the LEP students helped in establishing multicultural educational programs and curricula to address specific learning needs for both population. One example would be the No Child Left Behind or NCLB Act implemented by the U. S. government in 2001. Taking the context of the NCLB and applying it to the educational situation of American Indians in the country (Beaulieu, Sparks Alonzo, 2005), various discussions were conducted in order to reconcile the need to implement NCLB but at the same time preserve the culture of American Indians through culturally-sensitive educational programs (Campbell, 2000). While effective programs for FES students rely on the continuity of traditional education programs that does not incorporate special courses or directives for the learning of English as a second language, educational programs for LEP or ESL students incorporate the accomplishment of educational standards and guidelines for the learning of the English language while at the same time implementing the traditional programs for FES students which not only focuses on English courses but other subjects, courses, or programs as well. Therefore, the educational programs and curricula for LEP or ESL students are more specialized and particular to the learning of the English language in traditional educational settings, including the need to become integrated to society through the learning process and learn traditional concepts inclusive of regular educational programs, making it more challenging and difficult as compared to those provided for the FES population. (Thomas Collier, 1997) Aside from the implementation of multicultural curriculum as means to develop and improve education for LEP and ESL students, the knowledge, skills, and competencies of teachers in teaching the English language to second language learners should also be evaluated and assessed. TESOL discussed the need not only to improve multicultural curricula, but also to develop teaching capabilities and competencies through teacher education. This will be done by raising standards and guidelines in accrediting teacher education programs. (TESOL Task Force ESL Program Review Specialist, 2008) Considering teacher competencies is one way of addressing the needs of LEP and ESL students and acknowledging the fact that academic performance is not the concern of the students, their parents, and the community alone. One of the main contributors to the academic performance of LEP and ESL students also include the â€Å"teacher factor. † TESOL’s contribution to raising the standards of teacher education to improve the quality of multicultural educational programs has paved way to the rising quality of multicultural educational programs for the benefit of the LEP and ESL students. References Beaulieu, D. , Sparks, L. Alonzo, M. (2005). No Child Left Behind in Indian Country. NIEA Preliminary Report: National Indian Education Association. Campbell. (2000). Amending the Native American Languages Act to Provide for the Support of Native American Language Survival Schools, and for Other Purposes. The Committee on Indian Affairs, 106th Congress: The United States Senate. Howard, E. R. Loeb, M. I. (1998). In Their Own Words: Two-Way Immersion Teachers Talk About Their Professional Experiences. Center For Applied Linguistics: ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics. TESOL Task Force ESL Program Review Specialist. (2008). Standards for the Accreditation of Initial Programs in P-12 ESL Teacher Education. TESOL. Tempes, F. Stapleton, L. (1986). Case Studies in Bilingual Education. Federal Grant #G008303723 Thomas, W. P. Collier, V. (1997). School Effectiveness for Language Minority Students. Center for the Study of Language and Education. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Analysis And Usage Of Cams And Their Followers Engineering Essay

Analysis And Usage Of Cams And Their Followers Engineering Essay A cam follower, also known as a track follower,[1] is a specialized type of roller or needle bearing designed to follow cams. Cam followers come in a vast array of different configurations, however the most defining characteristic is how the cam follower mounts to its mating part; stud style cam followers use a stud while the yoke style has a hole through the middle.[2] The first cam follower was invented and patented in 1937 by Thomas L. Robinson of the McGill Manufacturing Company.[3] It replaced using just a standard bearing and bolt. The new cam followers were easier to use because the stud was already included and they could also handle higher loads.[ / CAM AND MECHANISMS A cam mechanism consists of three elements: the cam, the follower (or follower system), and the frame. The follower is in direct contact with the cam. The cam may be of various shapes. The follower system includes all of the elements to which motion is imparted by the cam. This may be connected directly to the follower, or connected through linkages and gearing. The frame of the machine supports the bearing surfaces for the cam and for the follower. A CAM changes the input motion, which is usually rotary motion (a rotating motion), to a reciprocating motion of the follower. They are found in many machines and toys WHAT IS THE CONCEPT BEHIND CAM? A CAM is a rotating machine element which gives reciprocating or oscillating motion to another element known as follower. The cam and follower has a point or line contact constitute a higher pair or you can say that it is the mechanicl component of a machine that is used to transmit the motion to the another component of the machine called the follower, through a prescribed program by direct contact.The contact between them is maintained by an external force which is generally provided by the spring or sometimes by the weight of the follower itself ,when it is sufficient. Cam is the driver member and the follower is the driven member. The follower is in direct contact with the cam. CAM MECHANISM CONSIST OF THREE MECHANISMS CAM:It may be of many shapes FOLLOWER: It includes all the elements to which motion is imparted by the cam.This may be connected directly by the cam.This may be connected directly to the follower, or connected through linkages and gearing. FRAME: The frame of the machine supports the bearing surfaces for the cam and for the follower. APPLICATIONS OF CAM AND FOLLOWERS Cam and follower are widely used for operating inlet and exhaust valve of I C engine. These are used in wall clock. These are used in feed mechanism of automatic lathe Machine. These are used in paper cutting machine. Used in weaving textile machineries. The cam mechanism is a versatile one. It can be designed to produce almost unlimited types of motioning the follower. It is used to transform a rotary motion into a translating or oscillating motion. On certain occasions, it is also used to transform one translating or oscillating motion into a different translating or oscillating motion. Cams are used in a wide variety of automatic machines and instruments. The certain usuages of cam and followers that includes textile machineries, computers, printing presses, food processing machines, internal combustion engines, and countless other automatic machines, control systems and devices. The cam mechanism is indeed a very important component in modern mechanization. CLASSIFICATION OF CAMS Based on the physical shape Disk or plate cams Working of the disc cam with reciprocating follower. Working of the disc cam with oscillating follower. Cylindrical cam Translating cam CLASSIFICATION OF FOLLOWES (i) Based on surface in contact (a) Knife edge follower (b) Roller follower (c) Flat faced follower (d) Spherical follower (ii) Based on type of motion Oscillating followe Translating follower (iii) Based on line of action Radial (in line) follower (b) Off-set follower Cams can be conveniently classified into two main groups Group a: Cams that impart motion to the follower in a plane in line with the axis of rotation of the cam (as does a cylindrical cam). Group b: Cams that impart motion to the follower in a plane at 90 degrees to the axis of rotation, as with face or edge cams.Most cams fall into this category. TYPES OF CAMS Eccentric cam: A circular cam is often called an eccentric cam because the axis of rotation of the cam is offset from the geometric center of the circular disc. Concentric disc: A concentric disc attached to a rotating shaft would have its axis of rotation coinciding with its geometric center. PROFILE SHAPES OF SOME CAMS: PEAR-SHAPED CAMS: These type cams are often used for controlling valves. For example, they are used on motor car camshafts to operate the engine valves. A follower controlled by a pear-shaped cam remains motionless for about half a revolution of the cam. During the time that the follower is stationary, the cam is in a dwell period. During the other half revolution of the cam, the follower rises and then falls. As the pearshaped cam is symmetrical, the rise motion is the same as the fall motion. Edge cams It must be appreciated that this type of cam, where the follower is in contact with the edge of the cam disc, is only capable of imparting positive motion to its follower in one direction, that is, during the rise portion of the cam movement. During the fall portion of the cam movement the follower must be maintained in contact with the cam either by the mass of the follower and its mechanism or, more usually, by a spring. Both methods have their advantages. Box cams A groove can be milled in the face of cam discs. As the cam rotates, a follower located in the groove has its motion guided by the groove. This type of cam is called a box cam. Cylindrical cams: Cylindrical cams are used when motion has to be transmitted parallel to the axis of rotation of the cam. The cylindrical or barrel cam consists of a rotating cylinder with a helical (screw shaped) groove in its curvedsurface. A follower with a tapered roller end is located in the groove. As the cylinder turns, the follower moves in a straight line parallel to the axis of the rotation barrel cam. This type of cam is often used to guide thread on sewing machines, looms and fabric making machines. CIRCULAR CAMS: These cams are sometimes called eccentric cams. The cam profile is a circle. The center of rotation of the cam is often from the geometric center of the circle. The circular cam produces a smooth form of motion called a simple harmonic motion. These cams are often used to produce motion in pumps. Circular cams are often used to operate steam engine valves. As the cam is symmetrical, the rise and fall motions are the same. HEART SHAPED CAMS: This cam causes the follower to move with a uniform velocity. Heart-shaped cams are essential when the follower motion needs to be uniform or steady as, for example, in the mechanism that winds thread evenly on the bobbin of a sewing machine. A heart-shaped cam can be used for winding wire evenly on the former of a solenoid. UNIFORM ACCELERATION AND RETARDATION CAMS: A cam shaped as shown controls the motion of the follower so that it moves with uniform acceleration and retardation. The follower gains and looses velocity at a constant rate. Uniform acceleration and retardation cams are used to controls the motion of linkages in complex machinery. Types of Cam Followers There are three types of cam followers, and since the type of follower influences the profile of the cam it is worthwhile considering the advantages and disadvantages of each type. The three types are the knife-edge, the roller follower and the flatfoot or mushroom follower. The Knife Edge Follower: This is the simplest type, is not often used due to the rapid rate of wear. When it is adopted, it is usually for reciprocating motion, running in slides and there is considerable side thrust, this being a component of the thrust from the cam. The Roller Follower: This eliminates the problem of rapid wear since the sliding effect is largely replaced by a roller action. Some sliding will still take place due to the varying peripheral speed of the cam profile, due to the changing radius of the point of contact. Note also that the radial position of the contact between the cam and the roller, relative to the follower center, will change according to whether a rise or fall motion is taken place: this fact has to be considered when constructing the cam profile. Again,with the roller follower, considerable side thrusts are present, a disadvantage when dealing with reciprocating motions. This side thrust will be increased when using small rollers. The Flat Foot or Mushroom Follower: This has the advantage that the only side thrust present is that due to the friction between the follower and the cam. The problem of wear is not so great as with the knife-edge follower, since the point of contact between the cam and follower will move across the face of the follower according to the change of shape of the cam. A trick to lessen further the effect of wear is to design the follower to be capable of axial rotation and arrange the axis of the follower to lie to one side of the cam. Thus the contact with the cam will tend to cause rotation of the follower. The cam profile, to work with a flatfoot follower, must be convex at all parts, in order to prevent the corners of the follower digging into the cam profile. The minimum cam radius should be as small as possible to minimize sliding velocity and friction. All three types of cam followers can be mounted in the following ways: 1) In-line with the cam center line, 2) Offset from the cam center line, or 3) Mounted on a swinging radial arm. CAM-VALVE CAM TERMINOLOGY Trace point: A theoretical point on the follower, corresponding to the point of a fictitious knife-edge follower. It is used to generate the pitch curve. In the case of a roller follower, the trace point is at the center of the roller. 2.Pitch curve: The path generated by the trace point at the follower is rotated about a stationary cam. 3. Working curve: The working surface of a cam in contact with the follower. For the knife-edge follower of the plate cam, the pitch curve and the working curves coincide. In a close or grooved cam there is an inner profile and an outer working curve. 4. Pitch circle: A circle from the cam center through the pitch point. The pitch circle radius is used to calculate a cam of minimum size for a given pressure angle. 5. Prime circle (reference circle): The smallest circle from the cam center through the pitch curve. 6. Base circle: The smallest circle from the cam center through the cam profile curve. 7. Stroke or throw: The greatest distance or angle through which the follower moves or rotates. 8. Follower displacement: The position of the follower from a specific zero or rest position (usually its the position when the follower contacts with the base circle of the cam) in relation to time or the rotary angle of the cam. 9. Pressure angle: The angle at any point between the normal to the pitch curve and the instantaneous direction of the follower motion. This angle is important in cam design because it represents the steepness of the cam profile. Some question arises regarding cam and followers: When is a flat faced follower preferred as compared to roller followers and why? Flat faced followers are preferred to roller followers where space is limited for eg: cams with flat followers are used to operate valves of an automobile engine but in case of stationary and oil engines, roller followers are preferred because more space is available. What data is plotted on displacement diagram of cam and follower motion? Ans:Plot of linear displacement i.e. lift or stroke (s) of follower (on Y axis direction) versus angular displacement (ÃŽÂ ¸) of the cam for one rotation (on X axis direction)