I am 44 year old HUSBAND, FATHER, AND PROFESSONIAL and I need an essay for my degree plan for Empire State College. This degree plan is for my BA business administration degree. I just finished my degree plan for my AS Business degree.

The essay needs to have the following guidelines:
*Explain in 2 paragraphs why I WENT BACK TO COLLEGE
*5 year and 10 year goals. 5Year goal was to receive my AS degree in business and 10 year goal is to receive my BA degree in business, also to finish before my children graduate from college. I also went back to college to set the example to my two children that education is important.
?h Explain why I chose Empire State College. Use 3 example of different colleges with a grid. Comparison with the 3 colleges. My concentration is business studies. Such as accounting, management principles, marketing principles, legal environment. Use courses alike (study guidelines) in each college with a grid. The 3 college for comparison is Albany State College, Pace College, and Siena College.Explain that Empire State college is appealing with on line studies. I work 60 hours per week.
Explain that I chose Empire State because of the Credit by Evaluation.Years of professional experience. Here are my credits that I am requesting Leadership, Business Communications, Interpersonal and Small Groups Communication, Marketing, Sales, Diversity in the work place, Public speaking, safety. I have 25 years in the super market industry (Retail).
* Explain my 25 years in the retail business: leadership skills, sales, staffing, and expense control, income, gross profit, human resource.
* I will fax my degree plan essay that was approved for my AS degree. Use has a reference.



There are faxes for this order.

Creating, financing, and marketing a hair/nail salon business

1. Identify the pros and cons of the patnership as a form of ownership.
2. Discuss funding options for small businesses.
3. Determine and discuss how managerial accounting can help managers with product costing, incremental analysis, and budgeting.
4. Discuss the basic components of the marketing process using a product or service of your choice as an example.
5. Discuss the roles of social responsibility and technology in the marketing function.
* MUST BE APA 6TH format
* Must be types, double-spaced, using Times New Roman font ( size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA 6th format.
* Include a cover page containing the title of assignment,. Which is My HAIR/NAIL SALON

Request for Writrgl!

Hello my name is Laurent (Maurice) Gaertner. It?s my second time I asking you something. The first time you gave me a good
writer (Writer?s

I want to apply for a company called "General Electric?. But I have some problems answering 4 questions. Below you can see what I already wrote.
I would like you to organize, to structure, to correct and to put eventually some of your ideas (if you think it is needed) in my answers. It?s important that the answers are well structured, professional, no mistakes. Try please not to use the same word in one paragraph. But please don?t change the main ideas of my answers, you can change the stucture, the language, add things,? Sometimes I write my grades of exams in a european way (for example: 82%), please change that in american grades. (Maybe it?s ?high distinction? ?) I gave you also my CV, you don?t have to correct it, it?s just information for you. Please do the best you can, it is very important for me, thanks.

This is the job I am applying for, you can use it for the answers (if you think it is needed):

(http://www.gecareers.com/GECAREERS/jsp/europe/careers_in_finance.jsp )


Maintaining high levels of global success depends on hiring and developing exceptional finance professionals.
The Financial Management Programme (FMP) is GE's entry-level training programme for high potential individuals seeking a Finance career. As an FMP your various job assignments, course work, and interactive seminars will equip you with the exceptional technical, financial and business skills needed to succeed. Throughout your training you will gain hands on experience in financial planning, accounting, operations analysis, auditing, forecasting, treasury/cash management, commercial finance and Six Sigma quality.
We are looking for enthusiastic, energetic, intelligent, driven people with a high level of integrity, who enjoy working towards common goals in a team environment. We consider an inquisitive approach to be constructive and invite our finance professionals to take a risk by challenging standard thinking. We are results orientated, performance focused and passionate about winning and we expect the same qualities in the people we hire.



? An intensive 23 month programme of 4 rotational assignments.
? Hands on experience may include:
financial planning, accounting, operations analysis, auditing, forecasting, treasury/cash management, commercial finance and Six-Sigma quality.
? Combines coursework, job assignments and interactive seminars to equip you with exceptional technical, financial and business skills.
? Lead by senior GE professionals/mentors.



? Superior academic achievement and leadership roles on and off campus.
? Demonstrated analytical approach to problem solving, strong team and communications skills.
? Fluent English plus fluency in at least one other European language.
? Must be geographically mobile within Europe.

A person who did this FMP training said, (you can also use it for the answers):
?
My best memories of FMP come from my training seminars. Every couple of months, you meet FMP's from other businesses for classes, tests and presentations. The seminars gave me the opportunity to visit many European cities plus make friends all over Europe.
During the FMP, you experience different management styles and acquire strong accounting and finance skills. Living and working in different countries also gives you the multi-cultural experience you need to become a finance leader within GE.
Once I graduated the FMP, I decided to take a finance job, becoming a balance sheet and cash flow analyst for Medical Systems in France. Now I have moved to the UK, where I am a Six Sigma Black Belt (internal quality consultant) working to improve finance processes in Europe.
I have been off program for 2 years now and I get to teach finance classes for FMP's which is very rewarding and a great way of keeping in touch with the FMP community. ?


CV(resume): Laurent (Maurice) Gaertner

A motivated team player who would enjoy the challenge of working for a renowned institution. Well travelled and with a working knowledge in five languages, suited to a multi cultural environment.
Education

1997-2002 V.U.B. (Free University of Brussels)
Licensee in Civil Electronic Engineering, specialising in Telecommunications (Graduated with Distinction)
Thesis: ?Simulation of an ADSL-modem with MATLAB-Simulink? (Grade obtained: High Distinction)
Experience

2003 (4 months) Estudio Sampere & ISLA (Madrid & Barcelona, Spain)
Spanish intensive courses
2002-2003 (6 months) CET, The University of Sydney (Sydney, Australia)
Business English courses
2002 (7 months) Eleven 11 (Antwerp, Belgium)
Belgian Diamonds company
? Wrote a specific program to facilitate the company?s accounting
2000-2002 (2 years) The Millenium Prophets (Brussels, Belgium)
Private Investment Club
? Key role in portfolio performance tracking as well as organising monthly investment meetings for the members
2001 (1 months) Telindus (Leuven, Belgium)
International telecommunications company
? Wrote a program to use a sampler as an oscilloscope enabling the company to test modems.
1995-1997 Hanoar Hatzioni (Antwerp, Belgium)
International Youth Organisation
? Responsible for organising youth camps
? Overseeing weekly activities for approximately 250 youngsters
Languages

Dutch bilingual mother tongue
French bilingual mother tongue
English Fluent
Spanish Fluent
Hebrew Fluent


Computer skills

Visual basic, Java, C++, Pascal, MATLAB-Simulink, Excel, Powerpoint and Microsoft Office.





Those are the 4 questions I ask you to correct, structure, add things if you think is needed,?

1) Why are you applying for a role in your chosen area? (Demonstrate your suitability for the position(s) sought.)

I am hereby applying for a entry-level position for the Financial Management Programme. There are several reasons why I?m applying for this training programme.
The first one is that I would like to start my career in the finance sector. In September 2002, I graduated with honours in Civil Electronic Engineering from the Free University of Brussels (V.U.B). Although I really enjoyed my studies, I feel that my personality is more suited for the finance sector. During my studies I was often confronted with highly complex mathematical and IT problems which I enjoyed resolving. I see the FMP as an opportunity to combine my strong analytical skills with interaction and communication with people which I see lacking in a job in the engineering world.

The second important reason why I really would like to participate in the FMP is the unique opportunity offered of travelling in different parts of the world and hence to be exposed to different cultures and working environments. I have been fortunate enough to be able to travel to different places including spending 6 months in Australia, where I took Business English classes at the University of Sydney and 4 months in Madrid to learn Spanish. Moreover French being my mother tongue and having studies Dutch and Hebrew at School gives me the advantage of speaking five languages.

The third reason for my application is because I really like the idea of working and learning at the same time. I have a friend that graduated from the FMP in 2002 and told me about the intensity and leadership oriented program that the FMP is. I have hence a very realistic view of what to expect as an FMP. I realize there is a lot of work involved and I would be excited to join such a fast pace environment.

**(you can add something about the good trainings they are offering
in the third paragraph, ?As an FMP your various job assignments, course work, and interactive seminars will equip you with the exceptional technical, financial and business skills needed to succeed. Throughout your training you will gain hands on experience in financial planning,?? ) or something that the person said about this program: ?My best memories of FMP come from my training seminars. Every couple of months, you meet FMP's from other businesses for classes, tests and presentations. The seminars gave me the opportunity to visit many European cities plus make friends all over Europe.... ?)



2) GE's working environment is very dynamic and requires individuals to strive to achieve their stretch objectives. Describe a challenging occasion, which required your persuasive skills and ability to organize people in order to reach a successful outcome.

During my childhood I was an active member of an international youth mouvement in Antwerp. When I became older, I was elected in my first year to manage a group of 40 children and after a very successful year I was elected to become the leader of the whole movement (around 250 people). Activities occurred on a weekly basis as well as a winter and summer camp of around 3 weeks each. Weekly activities consisted of both sports as well as educational meetings. My role consisted of guiding the respective leaders in the activities they were transmitting to the youth and ensure that the children (aged 7 - 16) were both getting enjoyment as well as educational activities. Moreover I was responsible for the accounting within the movement including ensuring that proper allocation of funds for the various activities was done. My role consisted as well of being the intermediary between the leaders and the parents and ensure that parents knew they were leaving their children in good hands. Operationally I had to put a lot of time as well for the bi-yearly camps that took place including finding the place, organize a good timetable and take care of the security issues.

Part of the tradition is for the oldest group to go for a 6 week trip to Israel. It is a very old and important tradition of the movement. It is an opportunity for the children to visit Israel, to meet members of the movement from different countries and to receive a leadership training in order to become leaders the following year.
The year when I was responsible for the movement strong opposition existed from the parents to let their children go due to security problems in the country. I was confronted with a huge dilemma because on the one hand I wanted to keep the extremely important tradition on the other hand I could understand the parents concerns. The way I approached it was to have several meetings with a private security in Israel. We put a comprehensive plan together on how we would avoid the dangerous areas and why we thought it would still make sense for the children to go. We consequently organized a meeting with the children, the parents, the Security Company as well as people that know the country very well and laid all the facts to the parents. After long discussions we managed to convince the parent for the trip to take place, which resulted in a big success.


3) 'Every person, every idea counts' is one of GE's corporate values. Give an example of when you worked as part of a team to overcome a difficult situation. What was your contribution to the team and what was the final outcome?


In February 2000 I created with some friends of mine an Investment club. We all put the same amount and together decided on shares we would buy and sell. We organized for a professional to come to speak to us on a monthly basis to teach us about the stock market and basic economical principles.
On one occasion we had a big dilemma. Half of the group wanted to buy shares of ?Lernhout and Hauspie? with the other half being opposed to it. I was part of the people who absolutely didn?t want to buy those shares.
But I had a problem to convince the other half of the group. My arguments were not strong enough. One of our group members had done economical studies and knew a lot about stockmarkets. Unfortunately he was very shy and didn?t had a strong charisme, so he didn?t give his opinions often. And when he gave them, people didn?t listen to him. I thought it was a pitty because he was the one in the group that knew the most about this subject.
I spoke with him about this problem and finally I could convince him to prepare a presentation with me, where we explained why it wasn?t a good idea to buy those shares. We gave this presentation together. Fortunately we could convinced the majority of the group, not to buy the ?Lernhout and Hauspie? shares. A few months later this company went bankrupt.


4) Please include any awards, achievements, representative honours, certificates, courses, and skills relevant to your application

1)
One of the achievements of which I?m the most proud of it, is my final work (thesis) at Free University of Brussels (VUB). My task consisted of making a ?Simulation of an ADSL-modem with MATLAB-Simulink?. It was a really hard task that consisted of two parts; first I had to understand perfectly the internal working of an ADSL-modem, and secondly to know how to use in the best way, the programming languages MATLAB and Simulink.
As a first step I red a lot of books and articles about the ADSL-modem, met some important specialist to ask questions, among others a professor in the Catholic University of Louvain that wrote a lot of articles about the subject.
As a second step I went to Holland in order to meet people of ?The Mathworks?. It is the actual company that created the programming language ?MATLAB-Simulink?, they organised some training and consulting about their products. They helped me a lot for the understanding of their programming language.
Afterwards I worked a lot on my own and got finaly the best result of the class, 82.5%.

**(I don?t know how to change 82.5% in American grades?)

2)
An other important achievement for me is when I succeeded to get to the second round of the ?Flamish Mathematics Olympics?.
I was only 17 years old and was passionated by the Mathematics, I insisted greatly with my teacher to participate in the Mathematics Olympics although I was only 17. He agreed and helped me with the application. I studied a lot for it and finally succeeded to be the first of my school, so I could participate in the second round of the tournament with the best students of Mathematics in Flanders.



3)
After my Engineering studies in September 2002, I had a dilemma as I had several options in terms of studies and work opportunities.
It was a difficult decision to make, but I finally decided to save money and to travel alone around the world in order explore other cultures and meet different people. Moreover I saw in that as well a great opportunity to improve my English and Spanish.
I studied at the University of Sydney where I met people from all over the world with whom I travelled around Australia afterwards. I consequently decided to study Spanish in Madrid in the ?Estudio Sampere? school. It wasn?t easy in the beginning because my Spanish was really basic. The first week when I arrived in Madrid I put a lot of announcements in the University Complutense to find Spanish people that wanted to improve their French, English or Dutch in order to be able to make an exchange of languages. We spoke 1h French and then 1h Spanish. Thanks to that I met a lot of interessant Spanish people that became friends afterwards and improved very fast my Spanish without incurring great cost.

Write a 3 page (350 words per page) paper that would identify the business requirements definition in the form of business topics, such as:
? Inventory tracking
? Accounting
? Marketing communication
? Marketing research
? Sales ? projection, actual
? Salesperson production
? Manufacturing production
? Service tracking

Besides a listing of requirements, you may want to use process flow charts, procedures, or policy statements to articulate the business requirements in terms of specific process or business development needs.

E-book version "Introduction to Management Accounting" (15ed), on the website http://www.coursesmart.com/login

Login information:

Email: [email protected]



Practice Calculations:

1) Chapter 11 Problem 11-A2 NPV for Investment Decision pg 452

2) Chapter 11 Problem 11-30 Exercise in Compound Interest pg 455

3) Chapter 11 Problem 11-39 NPV and IRR pg 457

4) Chapter 12 Problem 12-31 Sales-Based Allocation pg 513

5) Chapter 12 Problem 12-34 Customer Profitability; Strategy pg 514

6) Chapter 12 Problem 12-35 Joint Costs pg 515

7) Chapter 13 Problem 13-38 Discovery of Unknowns pg 559


Please, be detailed as possible in showing steps. Thank you.
Customer is requesting that (bolavens) completes this order.

The assignment concerns the problems on Ethical and Corporate Governance issues of companies within a certain country, Vietnam, in this case. We should be able to find out different scandals that reflect the need forCorporate Governance and companies to act ethically (environment, human rights, etc.). Vinashin (A big corporation in Vietnam) is a perfect example of bad Corporate Governance, NIKE could be an example of ethical issues.

Topic:

The governments across the globe have been stunned by the increasing number of financial, environmental and ethical scandals involving major international companies. These range from major fraud perpetrated by directors involving the financial collapse of companies, the excess risks taken within the financial sector, illegal payments to Government officials in Third world countries, abuse of human rights within the supply chain, and a total disregard in complying with general environmental management issues. Each new day brings a new scandal so this list can only be indicative.

The UK Government has responded by asking the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (DBIS) to review the legal and self regulatory framework within which companies operate when trading from and within the UK. Industry commentators fear that the general principle of comply or explain enshrined within the UK Corporate Governance Code 2010, is under threat and may be replaced by a new wide ranging Companies Act backed by severe penalties for companys and individuals who are in breach of the act.

As a prelude to amending the Companies Act the DBIS has called a conference which will be attended by country representatives from all sectors of business, pressure groups, charities, regulatory bodies and professional groups of which the Accountancy profession is represented by members from the International Accounting Standards Board, and a representative from each of the major Accountancy firms.


You are one of a group of junior civil servants at the DBIS who have been tasked to research a particular country you have previously been involved with and to produce a paper to prepare the Minister for the conference. Your paper should include the following:

a) Demonstrate to the Minister the particular problems faced by your country by the use of recent news items which have brought to light a particular example of bad practice which society no longer wishes to tolerate. Propose how the country could, via the application of ethical principles and ethical decision, avoid similar issues in the future and still be able to balance the competing demands of meeting the narrow needs of shareholders and the broader needs of society.

(50%)

b) A critical analysis and evaluation of the current position each of the relevant participant groups mentioned above, have taken towards the current practice of Corporate Governance and the broader issues of Accountability to society.
(20%)



c) Using your answers from (a) and (b) give possible scenarios that the Minister can put to the government to satisfy all stakeholders regarding Corporate Governance and Accountability.
(30%)

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This is the begining work I have accomplished so far, which gives a general idea of what I'm attempting to do for my dissertations; although, the problem statement, research questions, hypothosis and etcetera need a lot of work!





The power of the crowd: A study of applying crowdsourcing techniques in developing co-value between call center customers, call center employees and the overall organization.

04/21/10)



Problem Statement



Call centers are critically important as they are a vibrant parts of the American business culture (Dawson, 20006). The importance stems from the fact that they are at the center of an organization’s relationship with its customers. Case and point, call centers are the front door to a business; further, according to Dawson (2006) the call center’s front line position is even more important in today’s global economy. However, the link between how well call center’s perform their mission and translating that into actionable plans for improving other business areas has not been fully capitalized on. This threatens an organization’s competitive advantage and decreases efficiencies in both the call centers and the businesses functional areas.

Purpose Statement

A very promising phenomenon that lends itself to call centers’ ability to improve their own and their other business units’ efficiency is the employment of crowdsourcing. However, there has been limited research on the most effective ways to apply crowdsourcing techniques to foster a collaborative environment between call center employees and customers. The main purpose of the study is to assess the effect that crowdsourcing techniques can have on the development of call center business strategies and functional area operational practices alignment that allows for the identification, socialization and alignment of customer-focused business strategies that create value for both the customer and the organization.

Significance of the study

Crowdsourcing provides a key framework for organizations to capitalize on the wisdom of the crowd, that is, the average of diverse, independent, and decentralized crowds (Surowiecki, 2004). The groundswell is a social development in which people use modern technologies to get the things they need from one another (Li & Bernoff, 2008). Specifically, the impact of the well-informed crowds on an organization’s attempt to develop business strategies and operational efficiencies that allow the organization and its customers to co-develop and co-create value is very promising in the business area of call centers. That said; it is not known to what extent crowdsourcing techniques can be effectively applied in call centers to increase call center performance as measured by established key performance indicators, ultimately resulting in operating efficiencies that fosters an environment where the organization and its customers co-develop value.

Research Questions

The intention of this study is to illuminate and explain the aspects that enable call centers to more effectively assist their organizations main business units in increasing operational efficiencies through the use of crowdsourcing techniques. With this goal in mind, the following research question will be addresseda.

What is the relationship between the application of crowdsourcing techniques and call center performance as measured by normal call center key performance indicators and an organization’s functional business areas operational efficiencies?

Hypothesis

1. The affective application of crowdsourcing techniques leads to increased call center performance.

a. Crowdsourcing techniques are related to an increase in first call resolution in call centers.

b. Crowdsourcing techniques are related to decreased average call handle time in call centers.

c. Crowdsourcing techniques are related to decreased cost per call in call centers.

d. Crowdsourcing techniques are related to decreased abandonment rates in call centers.

e. Crowdsourcing techniques help to optimize call center agent utilization.

2. The increased performance of call centers, which results from the application of crowdsourcing techniques, are associated with increased operational efficiencies in an organization’s major business functional areas.

3. Operational efficiencies, which are the results of increase call center performance due to the affective application crowdsourcing techniques, help foster a business environment where both the organization and its customer co-develop

Methodological Approach

Participants

The participants to be analyzed involves managers of call centers in specifying what they fill is important in effectively running their call centers. Additionally, customers’ value inputs will be analyzed.

Design

The study will employ survey research through the application of questionnaires to the population to analyze the participants with a between-participants approach; that is, the variation needed for the study comes from changes in the participants for a specific period of time. To accomplish this, the researcher will employ a quasi-experimental research design in an attempt to determine a correlation between the application of crowdsourcing techniques and increased efficiencies in call centers and their supported major business functional areas.

The variables, according to Swanson & Holton (2005), are the phenomena , which vary depending on the circumstances affecting them.

The dependent variables in this study are effective application of specific crowdsourcing techniques to the independent variables , which are call center key performance indicators and customer value inputs.

Procedures

Following development of the questionnaires, they will be pilot tested by a small sample of experienced call center managers to assess the validity and reliability of the survey questions as a whole. Additionally, the validity and reliability of the surveys will be accessed qualitatively through conducting interviews of a small number of the samples respondents to provide additional insight into the questionnaire answers.

I will send an introductory letter to the sample frame explaining the purpose of the survey. I will use a mail survey as the tool to employ my questionnaire to the managers and customers. Fowler (2009) suggests that anything that can be done to make a mail questionnaire appear more professional, personalized and/or attractive to the potential respondents usually has a positive effect on response rates. Therefore, work will be done to make the questionnaire as attractive to the participants as possible. For example: the survey’s layout will be clear, easy to read and to follow. Additionally, Fowler (2009) suggests the instrument be easy to complete. The questionnaire will use closed ended questions with check box or similar answers. My questionnaire will be self administeredâ€"mailed to the sample frame .

The returned survey questionnaires will be converted into data files so they can be analyzed on a computer. Each respondent will receive a serial identifier to allow for organization and tracking. Data will be coded in the order it is present in the questionnaire to allow for ease of coding, data entry and programming tasks (Fowler, 2009). The data will be coded with numeric codes by answer; additionally, I will provide a missing answer code to allow for questions that are not answered. I do not have in mind to provide any monetary or other tangible form of motivation to respondents; however, I will provide them the results of the survey if they desire to see them. Again, any results provided will be sanitized to ensure confidentiality of all respondent’s identifiable information.

The research will be theory testing and will be conducted as a quantitative methodology which will test hypothesis quantitatively and thoroughly investigated an assessed in accordance with traditional research practices and procedures. Examining this topic through an interpretative lens would add to the body of knowledge in this area in a productive manner by helping in understanding the meaning of the situations. Examining call centers through observation and communicating face-to-face would bring understanding of the meaning apparatus that individuals bring to and develop from, a dynamic stream of events (Swanson & Holton, 2005).

Analysis of Data

The statistical procedure that will be used for this study is a regression analysis. The response or dependent variable (organizations productivity) will be analyzed through regression testing to see the affect that the independent variables of (1) key performance indicators and (2) customer value input have on the dependent variables. The initial step in the procedure will be to develop a scatter plot of the variables to see if there is any easy to see relationship between them. According to Albright, Winston, & Zappe (2006), a scatterplot graph is an excellent way to determine if there is a relationship between variables. If a relationship is observed between manager’s productivity and both independent variables, a multiple regression analysis will need to be performed to determine if a correlation exist. If a relationship is seen between only one of the variables, a simple regression will be performed between manager’s productivity and the independent variable that shows a relationship.

Ethical Considerations

Research ethics are governed by the National Research Act of July 1974 (Swanson & Holton, 2005). The Act created a commission, which was chartered to protect the interest of humans and subjects in research. The commission produced The Belmont Report, which defined practices and research so the boundaries of the two could be established (Swanson & Holton, 2005). According to Swanson & Holton (2005), the commission defined practice as interventions intended to improve the well-being of a patient or client, and research as activity designed to evaluate hypothesis and add to generalized body of knowledge concerning a topic. In Swanson and Holton (2005), they also noted that The Belmont Report identified three principles that should guide research: (1) Respect for personsâ€"where persons is identified as autonomous individuals that are able to make independent decisions. (2) Beneficenceâ€"has to do with the researcher’s obligation to protect human subjects. (3) Justiceâ€"requires that parity be at hand in determining who will bear the burden of human subject research.

Creswell (2003) notes that the identification of the problem to be researched is one of the initial decisions that require ethical consideration; that is, the problem studied should benefit the individuals being studied. According to Creswell (2003), a pilot test is an excellent way to gain trust and respect from participants because the pilot test allows for the discovery of marginalization before the study is developed and conducted. Additionally, Creswell (2003) identifies ethical considerations in data collection during research. First, research plans for school projects must be reviewed by the schools institutional review board (IRB). The IRB is chartered with upholding the established research standards. Secondly, an informed consent form (ICF) must be signed by both the researcher and the participants. The ICF should contain the following elements per Creswell (2003):

1. The right of the participants to participate voluntarily and withdraw any time desired.

2. The purpose of the study should be clearly identified.

3. The procedures to be used in the study should be clearly identified.

4. The right of the participants to ask questions and to get a copy of the results of the study.

5. Signatures of both the researcher and participants; signifying that both agree to the terms of the research.

Creswell also wrote about ethical issue in data analysis and interpretations; specifically, they noted that researchers should consider how their study will protect the anonymity of the individuals in the study. Finally, Creswell explained that date should be kept for 5 to 10 years, who owns the data should be clearly outlined, and the proven accuracy of the information extracted from the data should be considered (2003).



Literature Review

Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies is a very well written book written by Charlene Li and Josh Bernhoff; in which, they expand on the Forrester Report (2006). They describe how the business environment has been changed by the emergence of powerful social media technologies. However, they note that the relationships that spring from the new technologies are more important than the actual technology. Li and Bernoff (2008) define these relationships as the Groundswell. The book very effectively defines and explains the implications of the groundswell technologies; that is, blogs, social networks, wikis, forums, really simple syndication (RSS), and widgets are characterized and details are provided on how to best employ them. Furthermore, the authors delve into how the technologies threaten institutional power and what organizations can do about the threat. Several strategies are discussed in the book on how to leverage the groundswell. These strategies are illuminated through the use of case studies. The final section of the book enumerates on how connecting with the groundswell transforms an organization.

This book is a must read for any organization wanting to learn how to position itself in a way to be able to exploit the new social technologies that are already or coming available.

Another book that is very insightful in detailing the phenomena of crowdsourcing is “The Wisdom of Crowds�. In the book, Surowiecki puts forth that informed group judgments can be more valuable in reaching business and investment decisions than even the most brilliant individuals conclusion. The key, according to Surowiecki (2004), is the group (crowd) must be diverse, have independence, and be decentralized. Surowiecki briefly describes the seminal research in group dynamics when he touches on Hazel Knight’s (Sociologist) initial group experiments conducted in the 1920; additionally, he mentions several other sociologists’ research on the crowd’s wisdom. However, he does caveat that the majority of the early research for the larger the group the better the decision dynamic remained relatively within the academic world.

Surowiecki uses multiple examples to illustrate his ideas. For instance, he writes about the popular TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. In the show, the contestant is given three life-lines to use if they are unable to answer a questions: (1) They can ask a single smart friend or family member, (2) They can use 50/50â€"elliminate two incorrect answers, and (3) They can ask the audience (crowd). According to Surowiecki, the audience picked the correct answer 91% of the time as opposed to the smart friend choosing the correct answer only 65% of the time. This, as noted by Surowiecki, is not scientific proof of the possibilities of group intelligence; however, is does provide a very powerful unproven illustration of the crowds potential.

The principal message of the book’s author is that the average of independent, well-informed decisions on a particular subject matter can be more useful than the determination of one individual, regardless of that one individual’s qualifications. This theory has wide applicability for market research, business and investment decisions.

Redesigning computer call center work: A longitudinal field experiment (Workman,& Bommer, 2004). The problem statement for this study outlines the issue of simultaneous demand for technical and customer service skills that places strain on call center employees and which frequently leads to employee poor job attitudes. This article is a quantitative experimental study that utilized a field study with a randomly assigned pretest-post-test and control group designed to compare three interventions’ effectiveness on employee job attitudes in a computer technology call center. The following hypothesis were clearly stated in the article:

1. Alignment job design will increase employee job satisfaction.

2. Alignment job design will increase employee commitment.

3. High involvement work process will increase employee job satisfaction.

4. High involvement work process will increase employee commitment.

5. Autonomous work team will increase employee job satisfaction.

6. Autonomous work team will increase employee commitment.

The purpose statement and hypothesis fit the experimental research design very nicely. The researcher used randomly assigned subjects for both the experimental and the control group and administered the pretest and posttest to each, while only administering the intervention to one of the groups. This design of study does align with the positivist tradition; that is, it is obvious the author viewed technology call centers as independent and measurable when developing the above listed hypothesis and author identified purpose statement.

The author identified that there may have been some cross group contamination, which was a threat to validity and that due to the short interval (six months) between pre and post test there may not have been enough time to fully group and novelty effects . In the area of external validity, the author raised the question for further research as to whether the study could be generalized to call centers other than computer technology centers .

Another article dealing with this topic, “The application of knowledge management (KM) in call centres� (Koh & Gunasekaran, 2005). The purpose of this article is to evaluate the need for knowledge management in a help desk, for improving the level of customer services through addressing the issues dealing with information KM. The following research questions were depicted from the article:

1. Is it useful to know whether a formal KM effort would improve the quality of customer service in a call centre, and at what price?

2. Can KM be achieved by effectively managing the five roles of knowledge; that is, knowledge acquisition, utilization, adaptation, distribution, and generation?

Evidenceâ€"based management is the practice of using research to acquired evidence (facts) concerning a business situation or problem for the purpose of making the best decision on how to resolve the concern or develop the soundest principles for the issue. Evidence-base research is almost always used to gather the facts surrounding the problem. That is exactly what Biggs and Swailes did in their study .

The role of knowledge repositories in technical support environments: Speed versus learning in user performance (Gray & Durcikova, 2006). This is an article that details a quantitative investigation concerning why technical support analyst prefer specific sources of information over others. Particularly, technical support analyst chose between their colleagues, official company document, and solutions available in technical support knowledge repositories. The authors of the article theorize that technical analyst with stronger learning orientation would engage in higher levels of knowledge sourcing by seeking knowledge directly from their colleagues, official company documents, and technical knowledge repositories. Additionally, the authors presume that technical analyst that face higher perceived intellectual demands, higher levels of work-related time pressure demands, and analyst that are risk adverse would all engage in more knowledge sourcing behavior; consequently, they too would source more knowledge from all three knowledge sources identified earlier. The authors developed a cross-sectional survey to measure how the subjects learning orientation, intellectual demands, risk aversion, and time pressure reaction would affect their preference for sourcing specific information. The results were mostly in line with what knowledge sourcing theory would predict when it came to sourcing knowledge from their colleagues. One notable exception for sourcing knowledge from colleagues occurred when time pressure was introduced into the equation. When analysts were under time pressure, they did not consult their colleagues for information. However, there were some noted exceptions when it came to sourcing knowledge from company documents and repositories. For example, neither time pressure nor risk aversion predicted sourcing from company manuals. On the other hand, risk aversion and intellectual demand (as theorized) both significantly predicted sourcing from repositories, one positively and one negatively.

These are the types of books and articles that provide the relative information that provides seminal information and broad views of the development of the crowdsourcing phenomenon, and its applicability to multiple business situations. In the study, these forms of literature will be thoroughly examined to provide strong foundation for further research on the subject.



References

Albright, S.C., Winston W.L., & Zappe, C. (2006). Data Analysis and Decision Making with Microsoft Excel, 3rd Ed. Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western.

Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2008). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Boston: Harvard Business Press.

Biggs, D., & Swailes, S. (2006). Relations, commitment and satisfaction in agency workers and permanent workers. Employee Relations, 28, ½, 130-143.

Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (2nd ed.). Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Dawson, K. (2006). ACCE/Special preview: The State of the call center industry. Retrieved February 11, 2009 from http://www.callcentermagazine.com/shared/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=192202464.

Gray, P. H., & Durcikova, A. (2006). The role of knowledge repositories in technical support environment: Speed versus learning in user performance. Journal of Management Information Systems, 22, 3. 159-190.

Fowler, F. J. (2009). Survey research methods (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Koh, S. C. L., Gunasekaran, A., Thomas, A., & Arunachalam, S. (2005). The application of knowledge management in call centres. Journal of Knowledge Management, 9, 4, 56-69

Swanson, R. A., & Holton, E. F., III. (Eds.). (2005). Research in organizations: Foundations and methods of inquiry. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Workman, M., & Bommer, W. (2004). Redesigning computer call center work: A longitudinal field experiment. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25, 3, 317- 337





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As quoted from the requirements page for the Independent Learning Plan or Literature Review paper.

You are expected to select a topic of relevance to Management and of importance to your professional development. After identifying a topic, you will work with your faculty advisor to determine the type of ILP most conducive to enhancing your learning about this topic.

The Independent Learning Project (ILP) is a comprehensive project that students are required to complete as part of their masters degree program at the College. It enables students to demonstrate that they can think critically, undertake research, apply theory to a practical situation, and present their findings and recommendations in writing.


Requirements for your ILP:


Relates to current issues in Management Is original work of which i can include mine .

Has personal and practical relevance to the student in the workplace or the community.

Demonstrates that the student has gained a thorough understanding of the subject area through research, analysis of current management literature, and critical thinking.

Research using appropriate techniques and sufficient depth to give meaningful outcomes.

Provides evidence of the students management skills, including project planning, meeting deadlines, overcoming hurdles, and responding to feedback.

Present in American Psychological Association (APA) format and the main body is at least 50 pages in length. Page numbering begins with the title page and each page should include the title as a running head.

Must have a reference page with the information cited clearly within paper.

Include my business plan for my actually company as reference within the paper and within specific areas.

Would like to write a masters level literature research paper (include peer reviews) on:

Small Business Management Challenges (include my company information B & B Custom Woodworks, Inc)

Possible "an analysis of issues impacting.... or how to turn the current challenges to opportunities.

Possible focus areas: Marketing & Advertising Strategies

E-commerce-website-social media

Financial-Start up money, accounting, money for supplies, employee salary, Benefits and costs in todays economic climate (recession, post 9-11), etc

Legal - types of corp, how to decide which are right, legal issues to consider when safeguarding company and assets, insurance, and safety issues

Human Resources - employee benefits, right person for right job, health insurance

Competition - know them

IT Services- latest computer and software $$, employee training on software, network security, customer personal information financial matters security.

Any additional information you may think of would be greatly appreciated.

I have additional resources which could be included.

Need references to reflect the sources of the material which was used and properly citate.

Needs to be guaranteed as my original work since this is a special requested item and never produced prior to me asking for this information.

Need to present the findings and recommendations. This may be how we tackled the challenge within the company or what our future plan would be to meet the challenge.

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ASSIGNMENT
TOPIC: Executive compensation.... do these guys deserve such big paydays when they have driven their companies into the bankruptcy?

STEP 1
You are the Editor-in-Chief of a Business Forecast, a prestigious magazine read religiously by Fortune 500 executives. In every months issue of Business Forecast, you write a lengthy editorial in the form of a memo to your readers on a subject of your choice that affects business or society. As is true of any editorial, you are arguing a position. Your primary objectives are to convince your readers that your argument has merit and that your editorial explores the subject in sufficient depth. Your editorial should be well-supported and strong enough that it withstands an opponents counterattack.

STEP 2
Research the topic you have selected. You want to make sure that your argument has depth and the only way to do this is to perform sufficient research to give you a suitable amount of knowledge on the subject.

STEP 3
Analyze, evaluate and then present your arguments. Keep in mind the principles of good writing. Present your findings persuasively, in a way thats appropriate for the audience. And, rememberas I read your editorial, I will be keeping Browne & Keeleys Asking the Right Questions in mind and will be looking for the following:
? Are the issue and the conclusion clear?
? Are the reasons sound?
? Have you used any ambiguous words or phrases?
? Do you fall into the trap of making value or descriptive assumptions?
? Have you made any fallacies in your reasoning?
? Is your evidence strong?
? Have you caught all rival causes?
? Are your statistics strong or deceptive?
? Have you omitted any significant information?
? Have you discussed all reasonable conclusions?

SPECIFICS:
Length: Your critique should be in memo format (generically addressed to your readers), 6 pages, double-spaced

My Opinion: Please make sure the editorial is really well-supported and strong enough that it withstands an opponents counterattack. My Professor is very picky. Once he caught the weaknesses, he will keep attacking them.

Corporate Compliance Plan

Create a Corporate Compliance Plan for a general commercial construction company. The plan must synthesize your learning throughout the course and apply the legal principles of business management to the construction company. Focus your plan on managing the legal liability of officers and directors of the construction company. Your plan should address the following: ADR, enterprise liability, product liability, international law, tangible and intellectual property, legal forms of business, and governance.

Create your Corporate Compliance Plan as if you were going to distribute this to the CEO of the construction company. Outline the prevention and management guidelines of the legal aspects listed above. Use your individual assignments throughout the course to bring insight into this project. Implement enterprise risk management based on the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) recommendations. COSO can be used to structure your plan. Be sure to incorporate key concepts from your readings where appropriate.

Address specific laws or aspects of the law that must be adhered to by the construction company and outline steps for employees to adhere to these laws. The plan must also address how to handle situations when laws are violated or in question (such as when to call in legal counsel, what rights the employees have, or who to turn to when actions are taken against the construction company).

Use APA format to create your Corporate Compliance Plan.
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using terms, concepts and models learned throughout the accounting and finance for managers course:

1) critically consider and evaluate the role and value of organisational performance assessment
(20%)

2) Incorporating available information ,investigate the recent performance of an organisation of your choice -private or public sector,profit seeking or not for profit and cleaely state and justify
(from your choosen evaluation standpoint eg shareholder , analyst,employee or manager)
the likely consequences of its assessed performance on your future actions (80%)



THE REPORT SHOULD BE WORD PROCESSED IN TIMES ROMAN 12 FONT AND IN DOUBLE SPACED FORMAT.

RELEVANT BACK UP DATA SHOULD BE CONTAINED IN AN APPENDIX SECTION.

I HAVE DONE ALL THE RESEARCH JUST NEEDS TO BE PUT IN A FLOWING STYLE OF 2500 WORDS.
Part A
Discuss mammalian thermoregulatory processes that occur in response to heat.
Part B
Applying the concepts from Part A discuss: The physiological and or anatomical thermoregulatory responses that allow sustained exercise in horses.

Thermoregulation is the control of body temperature within certain limits even when temperature surrounding is very different. This enables the body to function effectively and is known as maintaing homeostasis. Homeostasis is a dynamic state of stability between an animal's internal environment and its external environment.
A relatively constant body temperature is necessary for the efficient functioning of the complicated brain of higher animals. Extreme temperatures alter biological molecules and disrupt body functions resulting in illness such as hyperthermia or hypothermia and if not treated death can occur. Mechanisms have subsequently evolved in mammals to enable body temperatures to stay within certain limits. All mammals are endothermic meaning they maintain and regulate their own body temperature. Mammals and birds maintain a constant body temperature and are described as homeothermic, Body temperatures of homeotherms are usually above the environmental temperature. Living in widespread environments around the world, mammals face daily and seasonal fluctuations in temperatures and some, for example those living in harsh arctic or tropical habitats, face extreme cold or heat. To maintain their correct body temperature, mammals must be able to produce and conserve body heat in colder temperatures as well as dissipate excess body heat in warmer temperatures.
Some mammals have adapted to their environment by increasing their surface area in the extremities such as large ears on the Zebou cattle.
Organs are heavier in animals exposed to cold.
Skin colour
Dependent on the amount of radiation
Fat
Provides insulation under the skin but Zebra cattle deposit fat deep in the body to aid greater heat tolerance. Camels deposit fat in the hump.
Dissipating Heat
In warmer climates, excess body heat can accumulate and cause life-threatening problems for a mammal. Circulation near the skin's surface releases heat into the environment. Moisture from sweat glands or respiratory surfaces evaporates and cools the animal. Unfortunately, evaporative cooling is less effective in dry climates where water loss is also costly for mammals. In such situations, mammals often seek cover during the hotter daylight hours and resume active at night.
Body Temperature Results from a Balance Between Production and Loss of Heat
? Heat is constantly produced and lost
? In a balanced state production and loss of heat will be equal and the temperature will be constant
Temperature is Controlled from Sites in the Hypothalamus
? Temperature control requires sensors, a control center, effectors
? Temperature sensor are found throughout the body: skin, body core, brain
o Two types- respond to hot and cold
? Control center is in the hypothalamus of the brain
o Hypothalamus acts as a thermostat- has a temperature set point
? Efffectors:
o Produce more heat (increased metabolic rate, shivering, brown fat metabolism)
o Change heat loss (blood vessel dilation or constriction, erection of hair, curling up, sweating)
Skin is the Primary Organ for Removal of Metabolic Heat
Skin acts to cool the body, sudoriferous (sweat glands). Two types are apocrine which secrete pheromones and eccrine which secrete sweat respectively.
Eccrine glands are tubular and found over the entire body of most farm animals.
? About 90% of body heat is lost through the skin
? If body temperature is too high the skin can dilate blood vessels and increase blood flow by 150 times to loose excess heat
o In cold weather skin will constrict blood vessels and release heat loss
? Heat loss is by radiation, conduction, convection and sweating
? Sweating can be used to lose enormous amounts of heat
o Sweat glands originate in the dermis- ducts penetrate epidermis, releasing secretion on skin surface
o Heat of vaporization of water is about 580 Calories/liter
o If the ambient temperature is higher than the body temperature, sweating is the only way we can lose heat
o Sweat glands are activated by nerves from the sympathetic nervous system-
? Skin also contains muscles (arrector pili) that erect hair shafts (piloerection), increasing insulation.
Body
List these mech. Discuss effectiveness and include examples.eg. some animals can use this but it is not effective in others because?And contrast/explain. Under what conditions could those mechanisms be reduced in effectiveness? Explain why.
Physiological mechanisms
Dry heat loss(dependent on the temperature gradient between the animal and the environment) and total boy insulation(core to skin-only area with ability to make rapid adjustments, heat loss through control of pheripheral blood flow, skin to fur, fur tip to environment))-radiation(gain-uv, lost when outside temp is lower than body temp.), conduction(heat gain/loss from a hotter surface), convection(from air currentsgained). Lost also by evaporation from respiratory passages, excretion of faces/urine. Radiation and convection depend on temp. gradient. With high humidity and hot air temp. sweating doesn?t work and the animal absorbs heat respectively.
Blood flow
Sensory nerves in the pheripheral nervous system detect heat and send messages to the anterior hypothalamus, which directs the blood vessels to dilate when hot, or constrict if cold.
Evaporative heat loss (dependent on the latent heat of vaporization-licking, sweating, panting.
Panting is a very effective heat loss mechanism.
Licking is less so and results in a high loss of electrolytes.
Behavioural mechanisms.
Heat gains and losses in animals
Heat is gained by metabolic processes and conduction - heat escapes or enters your body when you sit on a cold or hot rock.
1. convection - cooler air currents remove heat from the surface of your skin.
2. evaporation - evaporative cooling occurs when water (often from perspiration) leaves the skin surface as a gas, lowering the body temperature by cooling blood vessels in the dermis.
3. radiation - e.g. acquisition of heat from solar radiation (e.g. snakes "sunning" on a cold day).
Types of thermoregulation
There are two types of thermoregulation that are used by animals:
1. physiological regulation: This is when an organism changes its physiology to regulate body temperature. For example, our body tends to sweat inorder to cool our body down. Another example is when our bodies get cold, it likes to shiver so that the body can create some heat.
2. behavorial regulation: This is when an organism changes its behavior to changes it body temperature. For example, when your body starts to get hot because of the sun, you may want to find a shade to cool yourself down.
Behavioral temperature regulation-feeding, activty and specific(nest building/burrowing, growing coat by shortening day length
In warm environments, birds and mammals avoid overheating by:
1. behavioral adaptations like living in burrows during the day and being nocturnal
2. evaporative cooling by perspiration and panting
3. storing fat reserves in one place (e.g. camel's hump) to avoid its insulating effect
4. elongate, often vascularized extremities to conduct body heat to the air. , ears-cows,rabbits mice-tail, low resting metabolism to reduce heat
Many desert mammals are nocturnal to avoid the heat of the day. Others store the heat from the hot days and dissipate it at night when the temperature has dropped. Desert animals are unable to use evaporative cooling because of the absence of large amounts of available water.
Control of hair/feather growth depends on day length and temperature. When daylight hours become longer a winter coat is shed and replaced by a summer coat.
Effect of size, configuration and composition.
Body size
-in heat small animal has advantage over large because of the larger surface area to volume ratio allows for greater heat loss as long as the environmental temperature is lower than the internal animal temp.
In cold therefore a large animal has the advantage of exposing less skin to the elements.
Failure of Temperature Regulation on Hot Days Can Cause Heat Exhaustion and Heatstroke
? Animals can lose as much as 1.5 liters of water per hour as sweat
? If this water is not replaced blood pressure will fall and heat regulation will fail and body temperature will rise
? This is heat exhaustion- skin will be wet and cool from sweating- treat by replacing water and salt that has been lost
? Heat stroke is a failure of the sweating mechanism- skin will be dry and hot- very dangerous, treat by rapid cooling.
Heat cramps:
Heat cramps are muscular pains and spasms due to heavy exertion. Although heat cramps are the least severe, they are an early signal that the body is having trouble with the heat
Heat exhaustion:
Heat exhaustion typically occurs when people exercise heavily or work in a hot, humid place where body fluids are lost through heavy sweating. Blood flow to the skin increases, causing blood flow to decrease to the vital organs. This results in a form of mild shock. If not treated, the victim may suffer heat stroke
Heat stroke:
Heat stroke is life-threatening. The victim's temperature control system, which produces sweating to cool the body, stops working. The body temperature can rise so high that brain damage and death may result if the body is not cooled quickly
Part B
Applying the concepts from Part A discuss: The physiological and or anatomical thermoregulatory responses that allow sustained exercise in horses.
During the 1992 Barcelona Olympics several horses suffered from heat exhaustion. Climatic conditions in the 1996 Atlanta games were even more severe and there had been talk of the equestrian events having to be modified or even cancelled. The Animal Health Trust in Newmarket, England set up a project in order to make recommendations on transport, acclimatization periods and modifications to the competition required to ensure that horses were not placed under unnecessary stress.
Temperatures were expected to have a daytime peak of 30-35?C, with high humidity, little wind and strong sun in Georgia in July and August, and in shadow of Barcelona, it was always known that the eventing competition would present a challenge, especially with the intense media focus.
The conclusion of the research that had been undertaken was to translate the acquired knowledge into practical recommendations for the teams and officials. Prior to departure, all countries competing were circulated with detailed recommendations relating to preparation (including diet, training, cooling and pre-acclimatisation), transport and subsequent acclimatisation in the USA. There was also additional advice on management of horses and riders before, during and after competition (e.g. rehydration, cooling, etc).
The effectiveness of these measures was to a large extent dependent on acceptance, interpretation and implementation by individual teams and was therefore essentially optional. In addition to these recommendations, a large number of other measures out with the control of individual teams were introduced on account of the climate. These included air-conditioning of the quarantine station at Atlanta airport to assist rapid post-transport recovery, provision of large, high roof, well ventilated (but not air-conditioned) stables, portable shade in the form of mesh screens, fans and a large covered warm-up area. Whilst the format of the Dressage and Showjumping competitions was not changed (the duration of actual competition being relatively short in both cases), a number of changes were made to the format of the Three-Day Event Speed & Endurance test. In addition, environmental conditions were monitored in the main arena and on the speed & endurance course using the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) Index instead of the comfort index that had been used at previous competitions, including at the Barcelona Olympics.
The Three-Day Event Speed & Endurance test commenced at first light, was reduced in distance, included cooling stops on the second roads and tracks and had an extended '10 min box' to allow more time for cooling and monitoring of horses.
There were only minor, non-heat related problems with horses competing in the Dressage and Show jumping competitions. There was only one case of tying-up and no cases of anhidrosis (loss of sweating). In the Three-Day Event Speed & Endurance test, two-thirds of the horses starting the cross-country finished in both team and individual competitions. This is what would normally be expected for an International Three-Day Event competition and injuries were nearly all minor.
It was generally considered that one of the best teams (Australia) and one of the best individual riders (Blyth Tait) won the Gold medals and there was no charge that it had been an 'easy' competition. Examination of the body temperatures of horses throughout the day showed that horses that started early, finished with very similar temperatures to those that went late. This was good evidence that the effects of the climate on the horses had been greatly reduced.
Cold water-cooling is a method that, if it is applied correctly, can cool down hot horses rapidly after competing, speeding recovery and reducing the chances of heat stress.
Horses that are hot (above 40 degrees C) and competing in hot environments (above 26 degree C) and are cooled quickly during or after competition are less likely to suffer heat stress, will recover more quickly, will not become as dehydrated and are almost certain to perform better.
The cold water cooling technique cools horses using two of the three ways they normally lose heat - convection and evaporation. You need the following equipment:
1. Large buckets to hold 40 - 50 litres of water and large blocks of ice.
2. Supply of more water close by - hose or tanks
3. Small buckets (5-10 litre) - supplement tubs are ideal!
4. Assistants - three is ideal - one to hold the horse and one person to cool each side.
5. A shady spot to carry out the cooling.
Start to cool the horse immediately it finishes exercising, while taking the rectal temperature. Liberally apply cold water to all parts of the body including the quarters (this is where most of the large muscles used for movement are located and so is an area that gets particularly hot).
Do not scrape of excess water after each application, it is more important to continue to apply cold water. Carry on cooling the horse, alternating 20 - 30 second cooling periods with 20 - 30 second walks in a circle. The walking and cooling sequence is important.
The walking promotes blood flow to the skin and cooling by convection; the movement of air aids cooling by evaporation.
Check the horse's rectal temperature at intervals. The temperature should fall by around 1 degree C in 10 minutes. Allow your horse to drink small amounts of water (half a bucket) during competition (eg, during the 10 minute box in Three Day Eventing), between rounds (eg, Showjumping), during long warm-up periods (eg, Dressage) and immediately after exercise - it will help to cool the horse down and reduce the effects of dehydration.
Stop cooling if the rectal temperature is less than 38 - 39 degree C, the skin over the quarters is cool to touch after a walking period, if the respiratory rate is less than 30 breaths per minute and if the horse shivers continuously.
concentrate on cooling as much of the body surface as possible with cold water.
Excessive application of grease prior to cross country limits sweating. The grease acts as insulation, prevents sweating and limits sweat evaporation.
Do not let horses stand still for prolonged periods.
Do not prevent the horse from drinking small amounts of water (eg half a bucket) during competition. Water should be left in the stable until 15 - 30 minutes before exercise. Water is emptied very rapidly from the stomach.
Muscles work more effectively when they are warm, so horses should be warmed up before exercise, and a moderate increase in body temperature will do no harm. Remember however that when the weather is hot the horse will warm up faster.
For the first time in Olympic history, distances in the three-day cross-country equestrian event will be shortened, and cooling stops will be added to guard the health of horses in the hot Georgia climate. In addition:
? equestrian events will be run before 11:15 a.m.;
? veterinary checks will be required after the third phase of the event; and
? horses will spend three weeks in Georgia before the Olympics to recover from travel and to adapt to the heat.
If intense heat prevails, further reductions to the course can be made.
These recently announced changes were based on recommendations from the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), the co-ordinating body for international research projects on equine exercise physiology, in conjunction with the 1996 Olympic Games.
The two projects that contributed to the recommendations found that horses have a marked reduction in exercise capacity in extreme heat and that the optimum acclimatization period is 10 to 14 days. The research team - Prof. Mike Lindinger, Human Biology and Nutritional Sciences; Gayle Ecker of the Equine Research Centre; and Profs. Jill McCutcheon and Ray Geor, Clinical Studies - exposed thoroughbred horses to high heat and humidity and measured various physiological responses.
To determine if and how much acclimatization could occur over a three-week period, horses were exposed to four hours per day of high heat and humidity, and exercised for the entire second hour of that monitored period. Prior to starting the study, the horses were exercise-trained on a treadmill for eight to 10 weeks. Detailed physiological measurements were taken at rest, during a standardized exercise test and during recovery on days 3, 7, 14 and 21 of the three-week period to determine acclimatization responses. The horses exercised until their core temperature reached 41.5 C.
"Our main criterion was how fast did the body temperature increase," says Geor. "If it was slower at the end of three weeks, it would indicate better heat dissipation."
The researchers were also interested to see if horses have acclimatization responses similar to those of humans. After 20 days of acclimatization, humans have an increased exercise capability through an integrated series of physiological responses. Horses and humans are the only mammals that primarily use sweating as a cooling mechanism. Horses sweat at two to three times the human rate, but they have less surface area over which to lose it.
The recommendation that horses spend three weeks in Georgia prior to the Olympics was based on acclimatization needs as well as recovery time from transport. The average temperature in Atlanta in July and August is 30 C with humidity levels of 65 to 70 per cent.
Use of grain and fat in the diet, which have a lower heat increment than fibrous feeds such as hays, may benefit horses in hot climates.
Heat Stress occurs when heat production exceeds evaporative capacity of the environment or evaporative mechanisms become impaired due to great loss of body fluid and reduced blood volume. Whole body cooling must be undertaken.
Heat stress-distressed, tired unwilling to continue exercising, lethargy, blowing hard continuously, standing without showing interest in surroundings, or interest in grazing.
Heat Stress can lead to a life-threatening condition called "Heat Stroke". The best prevention for equine owners, is to know how to identify heat stress in a horse before it progresses to heat stroke. If a horse is being exercised on hot days, extra care and attention must be given because there is a significant increase in the amount of heat produced by working muscles. Heat production can increase as much as 50% during intense exercise as compared with heat production when the horse is at rest. A horse increases its sweating rate to move more blood to the capillaries under the skin and breaths much harder in an effort to release this build-up of heat. The most commonly observed signs of "Heat Stress" are profuse sweating, rapid breathing, and a rapid heart rate. Some horses have a condition leaving them little or no ability to produce sweat, these horses are called "Anhydrotic". Since heat loss is mainly dependent on sweating and its evaporation, anhydrotic horses are prime candidates for heat stress. It's important to know if your horse falls at risk due to this condition, and take proper precautions to protect it from overheating. When you work or exercise your horse in hot weather, watch carefully for the signs of "Heat Stroke" which can include; skin that is dry and hot, a pulse and respiratory rates much higher than normal and unusually high rectal temperatures. While you are waiting for your vet, move the horse to a shady area with fans or wind to provide cool ventilation. Spray cool water on the horses legs and body to help lower the internal temperature. In critical situations, ice packs or cold water soaked towels should be placed on legs and other areas that exhibit large veins surfaced on the horse. (if cold towels are used, make sure to change them often because the horses extreme heat will quickly turn the cold water hot) Normally, a horse's rectal temperature is around 101 degrees Fahrenheit, if the rectal temperature is around 104 degrees for any length of time, it is characteristic of a life-threatening situation. When a horse is suffering from heat stress, stop working the horse and begin cooling the animal's body with fans and shade to help stop the onset of heat stroke. Also, pay careful attention to make sure that the horse doesn't become dehydrated during long bouts of exercise, large amounts of fluid can be lost through sweat. In most cases, horses should be allowed to drink as often as they desire, even during exercise, unless they are showing signs of heat stress. A "hot" horse has the chance to colic if given lots of water while they are hot. Small amounts of water should be offered to the horse in frequent intervals before, during and after exercise. A simple test that can be used to determine marginal water loss in a horse is the pinch test. When a section of skin on the neck or shoulder is pinched, the skin recoil will be immediate in normally hydrated horses. Dehydration will delay skin recoil. It is important to make sure the horse is properly cooled-down following exercise work-outs. The built up heat must be released from the horse's body through respiration and sweat. Heat loss through sweat requires moving air and evaporation. Walking a hot horse allows the air movement to continue to help evaporate heat, if left standing still, the lack of air movement could force the internal temperature to rise even higher. Air flow is vital to remove heat off the horse's body. The length of cool-down will depend on the amount of work, the environmental conditions and the individual horse. Horse owners who know the signs of heat stress in horses can help prevent heat stroke in their animals, so becoming aware, can reduce the chance of injury, or even worse, death. If you use common sense and good judgement, this all can be avoided, so watch for the signs!
This is the time of the year that severe heat-related stress occurs in equine athletes. Symptoms such as reduced skin elasticity and capillary refill time, anhidrosis (failure of the sweat glands), colic due to decreased water content of digesta, and hyperthermia may all be due to heat-induced disruption of the horse's normal water and electrolyte balance. Many horse owners don't realize that only about 25% of the energy used in the performance horse's working muscles is converted to actual muscle movement. The remaining 75% loss of efficiency is represented by waste heat that becomes very difficult for the horse to dissipate in hot and humid weather.
The immediate need for performance horses to rid themselves of highly detrimental waste heat is accomplished through four main routes. These include evaporation, convection, conduction, and radiation.
By far, the most important mechanism for heat dissipation in horses is evaporation. Conversion of the water in sweat (or other sources of water placed on the horse's hot skin) into gas consumes heat and cools the horse's skin. During and after exercise, the horse's skin is laden with dilated capillaries carrying overheated blood from the body core. The blood in these capillaries is cooled to help maintain a reasonable body temperature that will allow the horse's nervous and muscular systems to function normally.
horses working under hot and humid conditions were better able to maintain core body temperature within an acceptable range or even reduce it during rest periods after intense phases when ice water baths were used. Liberal application of icy cold water to overheated horses helps to dissipate heat not only by providing more water to evaporate from the skin, but also by direct conduction of the horse's body heat into the water which runs off the horse, carrying away excess heat in the process. cold water baths were used with significant decreases in core temperatures and heart rates.
During the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, 85 misting fans were placed at shaded recovery areas throughout various phases of the equestrian courses to allow these elite athletes to stabilize and lower their body temperatures. Regular dry fans work to both increase evaporation, and also dissipate heat by the cooling process known as convection. Misting fans take advantage of the additional cooling property of blowing water onto the horse that is in the process of changing from liquid to gas. The shaded areas guard against additional heat load through solar radiation. Although radiation of heat from the horse's body into the atmosphere is a potential mode of heat dissipation, it most often works in the opposite direction during sunny days, with horses (especially dark ones) gaining radiant heat from the environment.
horses are adequately hydrated before exercising in hot and humid conditions and providing as much water as possible between bouts of exercise is an important strategy for maintaining the critical sweating mechanism. Realistically, only a portion of the fluid losses incurred during long term exercise in hot and humid conditions can be replaced immediately. However, providing plenty of electrolyte-rich, high quality hay and fortified grain along with free-choice trace mineralized salt and water in the days after intense exercise should fully replace both the fluid and electrolyte losses. Additionally, taking advantage of conductive heat loss through cold water baths, convective heat loss through fans and natural air movements and avoiding radiant heat gain through the use of shade are effective methods to minimize the chances of excessive heat stress in performance horses during hot and humid conditions
The single most important means the horse has for getting rid of the enormous heat load generated during exercise is evaporation, accounting for about 65% of the heat dissipation. Sweat is evaporated off of the skin surface and cools the horse. The lungs account for about another 25%. This capacity of the respiratory tract in dissipating heat from the body becomes very important under conditions of high humidity and high temperature when evaporation conditions are not favourable.
Sweating can only occur at a significant level when the horse is not dehydrated and has plenty of fluids in its body with which to produce sweat. When the horse is dehydrated, the lungs play an even more important role. Even so, the dehydrated horse is severely handicapped in ability to rid the body of any excess heat.
Let's complicate this process one more step and take a look at what is happening to the circulation. The blood that the horse has available to circulate is what gets the nutrients and oxygen to the individual cells and takes away the waste products of that cellular metabolism, i.e. the wastes, toxins, and heat. It gets rid of much of the waste through the kidneys. In order to get rid of the heat, the circulation to the skin is greatly increased and brought closer to the surface. The surface veins dilate so they can bring even more of the hot blood to the surface for cooling. This is all well and good up to a point; but suddenly we have a strong and literally heated competition going on for who gets the blood - the skin for cooling or the muscles and organs for metabolism and work required to uphold the requested level of performance.
Add dehydration to the picture and there is even less circulating fluid volume available to accomplish the demands for both metabolism and heat dispersion. At this point, the skin loses out and sweating rapidly diminishes, even though the need for heat dissipation remains critical. If work continues, the animal experiences heat exhaustion, or heat stroke and the likelihood of death.
Electrolytes
Fluid lost in sweat is not just water - it contains a lot of salt. These salts, when they are broken down into their chemical components, are referred to as electrolytes. These are typically groups of different salts that contain such electrolytes as sodium, potassium, chloride, magnesium and calcium. Each one of these individual components or electrolytes carries an electrical charge (when they are considered or discussed in terms of charged particles, they are referred to as ions). By means of these electrical charges, electrolytes govern the transfer of water through cell membranes into or out of the cells. Thus, they function in getting the nutrients in and the waste products out. They are responsible for getting nerves to fire and muscles to contract. Essentially all of the physiological actions in the body require electrolytes. And importantly, they need to be present in the fluids in the appropriate amounts for these biochemical reactions to proceed in an orderly manner.
If the horse sweated out these electrolytes in the same percentages in its sweat as in its circulating fluids, the body's concentrations of these electrolytes would remain in balance even though there would exist a depletion of both total fluids and electrolytes. However, this balance is not maintained. The horse's sweat is more concentrated in electrolytes than the electrolytes in its circulating fluids. This is referred to as being hypertonic. Human sweat, in contrast, is hypotonic, i.e. containing a lesser percentage or concentration of electrolytes than in the circulating fluids. This difference between the two species is a compensating mechanism for the poorer ratio of body surface to mass in the horse.
If we don't provide at least a minimum electrolyte replacement, horses show up with such medical conditions as metabolic alkalosis, inefficient transport of oxygen and energy substrates, poor tissue perfusion, thumps, muscle spasms, exertional rhabdomyolysis, cardiac arrhythmias, gastrointestinal stasis, anhydrosis, kidney impairment, and poor recoveries. (Actually, poor heart and respiratory recovery is one of the key signs that can lead you to recognize the problems associated with the task of accomplishing thermoregulation.) The point is, most of these problems mentioned stem from the resulting dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. It is nothing short of amazing how much loss and imbalance the horse can endure not only without dying, but often they even continue at a credible performance level. The real question becomes, how much better could the horse do if it were in a state of ideal electrolyte and fluid balance? How many of the horses who fade in the last third, or have prolonged recoveries after the event, could be winners if their electrolytes and fluids were balanced and at appropriate levels?
1. ?Despite having a sweating capacity that is almost twice that reported for humans, the low surface area-to-mass ratio of this species imposes great demands on the thermoregulatory system during moderately intense exercise.?

Selective brain cooling occurs in the nasal cavity of the horse and serves to cool venous blood. The potential for SBC in the horse is up to 2C during exercise. Sympathetic control of selective brain cooling
2. During heat stress, several mammals, including cats, sheep, oxen and antelope, lower the temperature of their brain below that of their body core.
3. Sweating decreases temp in horses by 2.5C and dissipates 60% of total heat produced. ( McConaghy 1994)

Part B
Discuss mechanisms used by horses. How effective? What can be done to enhance the effect. Tying up, heat stroke, hyperthermia, dehydration
Horses exercising in hot and humid environments produce large amounts of heat from skeletal muscle work-80%.
Latest research shows?, arguments for and aginast, your viewpoint from your experience. Revolutionary ideas-footballers ice blanket.
1
2
3
4
Tell reader what you said you tell them

Conclu.
Specific
Broad
Tell the reader what you have told them
It could be concluded that ?thermoregulation is an effective means of maintaining homeostasis. In horses sweating is the main mechanisms whereby heat is dissipated. This is effective in Then summarise important parts of part B with your conclusions as to the effectiveness of such mechanisms.

Bibliography

Andersson BE 1984, ?Temperature regulation and environmental physiology? in Dukes? physiology of domestic animals, Dukes, HH (ed.), Comstock Pub. Associates, Ithaca, N.Y.

Austin, H & Sillence, M 2004, Animal physiology: study guide, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW.

Causey, G & Whittow(eds) Vol.1-3, 1973, Comparative Physiology of thermoregulation, Academic Press, New York.

Clayton, H. 1991, Thermoregulation, pp. 61-70 In Conditioning sport horses. Sport Horse, Saskatoon.

Cunningham, JG (ed.) 2002, ?Thermoregulation? in Textbook of veterinary physiology 3rd ed, Saunders, Philadelphia, PA.

Geor RJ, McCutcheon LJ 1996, Thermoregulation and clinical disorders associated with exercise and heat stress,
Compendium on continuing education for the practicing Veterinarian 18 (4): 436& APR

1.Hodgson, DR, McCuteon, LJ, Byrd, SK, et al.
Dissipation of metabolic heat in the horse during exercise,
Journal of Applied Physiology 74 (3): 1161-1170 MAR 1993

2. McConaghy FF, Hales JRS, Rose RJ, et al.
Selective brain cooling in the horse during exercise and environmental heat stress
Journal of Applied Physiology 79 (6): 1849-1854 DEC 1995

McConaghy, F. 1994, Thermoregulation, pp. 181-204 In The Athletic horse: principles and practice of equine sports medicine, ed. DR Hodgson. WB Saunders, Philadelphia.

Marlin, D. 2002, Thermoregulation, pp. 133-150 In Equine exercise physiology, Blackwell Science, Malden, Mass.

Vaughan, TA 1972, Mammalogy, WB Saunders, Philadelphia.

www.horsesports.org FEI F?d?ration Equestre Internationale, Lausanne

Entrepreneurial crime as a concept refers to punishable acts which are committed by individuals in controlling positions within corporations, using the resources and power deriving from the corporate form as a vehicle to achieve ends which benefit the entrepreneur personally.
Research an entrepreneurial crime that has taken place in the last year and write a five page paper in which you:

1. Briefly describe the entrepreneurial crime you researched.
2. Discuss how the psychological characteristics of individuals and accounting opportunities for omission(s) may have contributed to the commission of the entrepreneurial crime you researched.
3. Analyze the cost of Sarbanes-Oxley in regulating the white-collar crime you researched and evaluate its impact on the ?free market.?
4. Compare and contrast the adjudication of the white-collar crime you researched as a criminal action versus a civil action.
5. Determine whether agencies that are vested with statutory powers of investigation and imposition of penalties should choose a non-adversarial approach to regulation, as well as how your determination would have impacted the crime you researched.
6. Use at least three (3) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources.
Follow these formatting requirements:
? Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student?s name, the professor?s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with thisssignment are:
? Describe the sources of laws related to white-collar crime and explain the basic provisions of major laws addressing white-collar crime.
? Discuss the principle processes and government agencies involved in regulating / policing white- collar crime and the various self-regulation approaches used by organizations.
? Use technology and information resources to research issues in white-collar crime.
? Write clearly and concisely about white-collar crime using proper writing mechanics.

Based on an evaluation of the Glazers Inc. organization, the Life-Cycle Costing Method (contemporary management technique) is not currently being implemented in the organization/segment. Its implementation could aid the organization in achieving its critical success factors (CSFs) listed in Table 2 below.

Glazers website:

http://www.glazers.com/about_us/Pages/default.aspx

Life-Cycle Costing info from Blocher text (text attachments will be uploaded):

Costs should be monitored throughout a products life cycle ??" from research and development to sales and service (Glazers products are alcohol beverages akin to other distributors like Republic National Distributing Company: http://www.rndc-usa.com/about/history.asp).
Traditionally, only the costs incurred for manufacturing, inspecting, packaging, and warehousing were monitored

Utilizing the below SWOT analysis chart and balanced scorecard chart with a list of relevant critical success factors (CSFs), explain how implementing the Life-Cycle Costing Method can further move Glazers Inc. to achieve these critical success factors:

Write this paper in APA format.

This paper should be 17 double-spaced pages in length, with 1-inch margins, and APA pagination. The font must be 12??"point Times New Roman. The paper must include references from at least 11 different sources (Six will be included). Be sure to include a title page and a reference page in addition to the essay pages.

The paper should address the following, in order:
1. Rationale for the Life-Cycle Costing management technique being used at Glazers
2. In-depth analysis of the Life-Cycle Costing management technique in which you fully describe the technique, its implementation process, its application by other organizations (Republic National Distributing Company and any others that may be applicable), its applicability to the Glazers, Inc. organization, and a plan for implementation at Glazers, Inc.

Some additional guidelines are as follows:

1. The use of first and second person NOT be used (e.g. I, we, etc.).
2. Regarding sources/references: there should be a minimum 10 sources (textbook and 5 sources will be provided as uploaded attachments). Search for 5 additional journal articles in professional (peer reviewed) accounting and business journals that pertain to the contemporary management technique chosen. Wikipedia, Investopedia, and the like are NOT considered scholarly sources and should NOT be used.
3. Any personal communication should be cited appropriately within the text; however, it is not needed for the reference section.
4. An abstract and Table of Contents are NOT needed.

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Introduction to Project:

The Project builds on the learning outcomes of courses which you have already completed: Foundations of Scholarship and Research, Business Research Methods. There, you have selected a research area and a topic, conducted a preliminary literature review, reflected on issues of data and methodology. At the end you have submitted a Project Proposal & Plan, in which you must have outlined:
the rationale for the proposed research;
the research question / hypothesis;
the data for and methodology of the research;
the probable structure of the project; and
the time-table for your research work.
Your Foundations of Scholarship tutor is now your supervisor and will provide guidance to you in order for you to complete this work.
Remember, in particular:
Manage your time: keep to set deadlines and take into account family and work commitments, library closures, public holidays, etc.;
Meet with your supervisor regularly, and keep written track of meetings;
Save your work regularly and keep back-up copies;
Check your University of Greenwich email, and WebCT, frequently for project-related information;
Remember that it is your work and therefore ultimately it is your decision to decide when your project is ready.

2.1 Aims

The project aims to enable you to:
complete a substantial piece of written work (about 10,000 words, 10%), argued and verified on the basis of relevant theories and evidence;
study independently and take responsibility for going through the successive steps of the research process, with a view to meet a deadline;
apply theoretical perspectives to a real-world economic or business question;
gain in-depth knowledge of the economics and/or business literature in the area chosen, with awareness of the state of the art;
identify and use appropriate data and evidence;
follow a logical flow of thoughts to draw conclusions (and possibly, recommendations) from evidence.

2.2 Learning Outcomes

When the project has been successfully completed, you will be able to:
complete a substantial piece of written work of about 10,000 words;
perform a literature review;
apply appropriate economic and business/management principles to the selected topic;
know how to identify, locate and use appropriate data and evidence;
present conclusions based on evidence.

2.3 Learning and teaching activities

The project is essentially a student-centred piece of work. The learning and teaching activities will consist of:
supervision sessions with a supervisor (3 meetings at least, plus regular e-mail contacts);
independent research.


Submission guidance
As you already know from previous courses, your project should have the following format:
Project format

Your project must have the following layout ??" it should be:
Typed or word processed using double-spacing with margins of 1.5 inches;
Numbered on each page;
Spell-checked;
Submitted electronically - (make sure you keep a copy for yourself);
Submitted on time.


Note:
Business School will routinely check for plagiarism using Turn it in software system.
See: www.turnitin.com/static/product services/plagiarism prevention.html

The Project should have the following sections:
Header Sheet
Cover Sheet
Content / title page
Acknowledgements
Abstract
Table of contents
List of tables
List of figures
INDIVIDUAL CHAPTERS
Bibliography
Appendices

The cover sheet should contain:
Your first and last names, with your student ID;
The programme in which you are enrolled, and your starting date (MA International Business, University of Greenwich, Business School, January 2011 starter);
The course title and code (Project MA/MBA IB, BUSI1359);
The title of your project;
The name of your supervisor.

The abstract should not exceed 250 words. It serves to highlight the main ideas, findings and implications of the research. It might be organised according to the following template:
Purpose
Research design/methodology
Findings
Limitations
Recommendations
Value
Keywords.
See the following example:
Purpose ??" This study aims to examine the impact of selected corporate governance indicators on social and financial performance of Indian MFIs.
Research design/methodology ??" The study uses quantitative research approach based on only secondary data from 15 Indian MFIs ??" sampled using purposive sampling technique ??" where multiple regression analysis is adopted as basic analytical framework.
Findings ??" The study finds that board independence (in terms of proportion of non-executive board members on board) is positively correlated with both the performance measures; board size is negatively correlated with the same; board diversity (in terms of proportion of women on board) is found to be positively correlated with financial performance but negatively with social performance. Lastly, the study also evaluates the impact of MFI size (measured in terms of total assets) on performance and finds a strong positive correlation.
Limitations ??" It would definitely have been advantageous to include more MFIs and more governance indicators in the study, to get a clearer picture of link between corporate governance and performance of MFIs. The limitations however do not compromise on the accuracy and validity of the findings.
Recommendations ??" In order to fully achieve the multi-perspective and sometimes conflicting objectives of reaching the poor? and being financial self-sustainable?, good practice of corporate governance principles is recommended.
Value ??" Considering the scarcity of studies on link between governance and performance of microfinance sector, especially in India, this study has a value in figuring out the application of corporate governance in microfinance.
Keywords: Microfinance, corporate governance, social performance, financial performance, India.

The individual chapters might be organised in the following way:
Chapter 1 ??" Introduction, research questions and hypotheses
Chapter 2 - Literature review
Chapter 3 - Methodology
Chapter 4 - Data presentation, evidence , analysis and discussion
Chapter 5 - Summary and conclusions

? A best practice for writing each chapter is to make sure that each one has a short and concise introduction and conclusion. The introduction sets the scene, and the conclusion sums up and announces what comes next.

Chapter 1 ??" Introduction, research questions and hypotheses
It should be general in nature and present the background to the Project, the questions you plan to answer, the plan.
It serves two main purposes:
Contextualises the research within a larger disciplinary framework and signals how you intend your work to be considered;
Identifies the main focus or research problem with which you are concerned about.

Chapter 2 - Literature review
A description of what is already known on your topic, what policy or business implications out of this, a discussion of these results and finally some conclusions that can be drawn and suggestions for future work.
Make sure you give adequate consideration to the classics in your topic area, the landmarks, and the most recent developments.

Chapter 3 - Methodology
Be careful: this is NOT a broad overview of research methods in business and the social sciences. You need to be very specific about YOUR own choice of research methods. You need to outline the method you have actually used, and explain why you have used it.
As you know from your Advanced Professional Development and Research course, you can choose between use of primary and/or secondary data.
Do NOT confuse secondary data and literature: the former consist of raw information, not polished results. Secondary data are statistical tables (for example, socio-demographic data), time series (for example, GDP or prices over several years), financial information on companies (from their financial statements or credit rating reports for instnce).
If you do a primary data collection, you must explain:
How you defined and selected your sample (for example, employees of a particular company);
How you identified relevant subjects (how did you find the names of these employees);
How you approached them, when and where you did so (for example, someone in the company may have introduced you);
How many you approached, and how many actually responded (usually, many less respond than you would like);
Sample characteristics (gender, age, geographic location etc.);
Whether you used questionnaires or interviews or focus groups etc., and why (remember to include your questionnaire or interview guide as an annex);
How you developed your questions (how you built them based on your hypotheses);
Whether you sought informed consent from your participants;
Whether you surveyed/interviewed them face-to-face, or by phone, mail, email etc.;
How long it took to collect the data;
Whether any issues emerged (participants comments and feedback, your own feelings of what went right and what went wrong, lessons learned for any future research).

If you use secondary data, you must explain:

What database you selected (for example Orbis, Datastream, British National Statistics data from ESDS-UKDA, etc.): remember that databases need to be cited (similarly to the literature);
How you accessed it (for example, if through the University portal);
What are the main characteristics of the database (you can refer here to information provided by the database authors: remember to cite them);
Whether you extracted parts of the database (for example, financial information on just one particular company; or just one particular year);
Whether you modified any of the variables and/or added new variables based on existing ones (for example, indices or rates of growth).

Remember that primary data collection can be quite difficult and time-consuming as the response rate may be very low. Databases may instead provide you with good-quality information and save you time for analyses. You need to make sure you understand their content well, and cite them appropriately.

Chapter 4 - Data presentation, evidence , analysis and discussion
While the form in which you present your findings will be influenced by your methodological choices, a generally accepted good practice for quantitative data is to present them in tables and figures. Comment them in an effort to guide the reader through the significant and important points ??" you may wish to point out trends in the table, for example. As you move across categories of the independent variable, what happens to the dependent variables? You may wish to highlight the more theoretically or empirically interesting findings in the table. You must make sure that the table, as a whole, warrants inclusion in your paper and that you make reference to it in your text.
Remember to appropriately number and label tables and figures. If you re-use tables and figures from external sources, remember to acknowledge them.

Chapter 5 - Summary and conclusions
Give a brief explanation of why things appear as they are, state whether are not your initial hypotheses are confirmed or rejected, and provide possible reasons for that. Consider how aspects of the research process, the design of your investigation, the sample you constructed and the interview schedule you used, could be modified in order to generalize results to a broader variety of settings. Outline the implications of your research for public policy or company strategy, if any. Think about limitations of your work and directions for future improvements.


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Customer is requesting that (johnfitz44) completes this order.

Hi Sir/Madam,
Please make my personal essay more stronger and professional in order to be admitted to complete my graduate studies, the following is what I wrote as a personal essay, I don't know how it looks to you but I want to look more professional Plus my resume which has my work experience at the industry that I used to work with which I think it would help you to build strong personal essay :

***PERSONAL ESSAY I WROTE ABOUT MY SLEF:
I am writing this letter as a part of my application to your master of science in Finance program to explain the reasons for applying. My name is Ahmad Almazyad. I was born on February 05, 1987, and I am 24 years old. I have granted scholarship from the Ministry of Higher Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under King Abdullah Program to study for a graduate school and Ph.D. At this time, I am senior standing student majoring in Finance and I am graduating this semester in May 2011.
Throughout my bachelor academic life at California State University Northridge, researches and project development have been my interest and have forced me to look for the newest knowledge in the Finance field. I have always been fascinated with the Financial Service programs; they embolden me to continue studying for a master degree. The reasons for applying to your program are to gratify my desire and to both expand on my knowledge in this field and to qualify myself to be good in the field. Moreover, I have a hunch that I can do something new in this field and make improvements in Finance worldwide. My ambition is limitless, and I have become fascinated with the new trends of finance.
There is a plethora of reasons that the United States of America is the world's most advanced country for management and education. So, this fact summoned me to choose your country to get occupational modern experiences and the opportunity to work in the excellent job environment that I had experience from the situation of work experience in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for five years at The National Gas Company & Industrialization Company. I believe that by join your Master of Science in Finance at Texas A&M University-commerce will prepare me for a successful and challenging career in the Finance field and inspire enthusiasm inside me, to compete at my highest potential at local and international levels.
There are many reasons that have spurred me into choosing the master science program, most importantly; it possesses first class educational opportunities in some areas of Finance. I realized that after I asked my advisor and friends about your activities and programs to consider your institution. In addition, I read the curriculum, and liked it. Also, I was navigating throughout the university website, gathering an abundance of tips and information, and this further enticed me to apply to Master of Science in Finance program.
Name : Ahmad Almazyad
Mobile :(310) 699-2229
E-mail : [email protected]



***MY RESUME:

Ahmad M. Almazyad
19200 Nordhoff St.
Northridge, CA 91324
Home: (213) 255-5528 Mobile: (310) 699-2229 Email: [email protected]

OBJECTIVE
To obtain a financial planning position that would allow me to utilize my analytical, quantitative, interpersonal and budget management skills in order to help the organization achieve its financial goals and objectives while advancing my personal skill set

EDUCATION
California State University Northridge Fall 2006 ?" Present
Bachelor of Science in Finance
GPA: 2.8
Expected Graduation Date: May, 2011

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
The National Gas & Industrialization Company Saudi Arabia ?" Riyadh Region
Assistant Financial Specialist August 2003 ?" August 2008
Maintained accounts for real estate department
Dealt with government offices as a public relations officer
Effectively worked with cross-functional teams to complete large-scale manufacturing projects and satisfy customer requirement
Generated reports in financial statements and wrote recommendations
Managed accounting systems and monitored the clients cash flow

Memberships/Activities/Awards
Management Information System Association, CSUN Spring 2010?" Present
Saudi Student Association, CSUN Fall 2009?" Present
Student Finance Association Fall 2010?" Present

Key Skills
Excellent Communication Skills with a Strong Background in Financial Management
Highly capable of working in cross-functional teams
Experienced in providing exceptional Client Support

Technical Skills and Coursework
Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows XP, Mac OS; familiarity with Linux, and UNIX
Applications: Microsoft Office ?" Excel, Word, Access, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

Major Courses: Principle of Real State, Principle of Insurance, and Corporation Investment Analysis.

Bilingual: Arabic & English




If you have any question please contact me at any time.

Regards,
Ahmad

Topic: Strategy, Corporate Governance and Ethics for British Airways

Key concepts:
Agency theory and the agency problem
Corporate Governance: Principles and mechanisms
Shareholder vs. stakeholder perspectives
Ethics and strategy


Discuss British Airways policies regarding ethical behavior and ideas you have for improvement in such policies, and your companys policies and actions in compliance with Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004
Note: Please relate concepts and theories from the readings and multimedia. Links to this are in the attached file in the resources section of the control panel.

Format
APA 6th edition. (Please note: the above references are already in APA format).
Please do not use a reference if there is no corresponding in-text citation
Total pages: 2.

Note: no introduction or conclusion is required as this is a section of an entire paper. Please focus on this topic only, assuming that the reader has already been introduced to British Airways.

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This is a creative writing assignment, determined to be a hypothetical scenario of applying to an Biochemistry program. This is written as the view of a student to a board. The background information is as follows:
1. Bachelor of Science degree in Communications and minor in Psychology and Sociology.
2. Applying to Law school in Fall of 2015
3. Interested in Patent law (to be eligible to take patent bar, need science/technical background)
4.Therefore, purpose of Biochemistry pursuit is to broaden horizon and become applicable.
5. Also plan to take financial accounting as it will also expand opportunities in law field.

Focus mainly on interest in patent law connecting with biochemistry program. Feel free to add any relevant information pertaining to the course. This assignment is meant to be compelling and personal. It should address the purpose and interest in pursuing the program, how the program fits into the overall academic and/or professional goals, focusing in particular on the connection between the program and your academic and/or professional experience.

Hi,

I need a dissertation in the range 0f 9000 words covering the following topic:

Research aim "To investigate the relationship between firearms regulations and the levels of gun related violence in Europe"

The research objectives are to assess:

? To what extent do rates of gun violence vary in different jurisdictions/western countries/European countries? (it may be sensible to leave open which route you go down based on the literature available)

? What role do firearm regulations and other factors play in accounting for the different rates?

? What might an effective national strategy to reduce gun violence look like?

The paper should have the following format:

? Speaks to the question: ?how well does the existing literature address my research questions??
Abstract
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of figures and tables
Table of legislation and cases
List of abbreviations
Chapter 1: Introduction
? Background to topic and why it?s important
? Research aims
? Research objectives (3 or 4)
? Outline of chapters
Chapter 2: Methodology
? Introduction
? Search strategy
? Selection criteria
? Methodological considerations
? Conclusion (summarising the limitations and strengths of the chosen strategy)


Chapter 3: First thematic chapter related to 1st objective
? Introduction
? First theme (related to 1st lower level objective)
? Second theme (related to 2nd lower level objective)
? Third theme (related to 3rd lower level objective)
? Discussion
Chapter 4: Second thematic chapter related to 2nd objective
Chapter 5: Third thematic chapter related to 3rd objective
Chapter 6: Fourth thematic chapter related to 4th objective (if applicable)
Chapter 5: Conclusion (up to 10%)
? Summary of key findings
? Implications of findings
? Key recommendations
? Areas for future research
Appendices
References

Journal article reviews relating to labor economics topics

The journal article reviews consist of formal reviews of journal articles relating to labor economics topics.

The following is the list of Approved Journals

Approved Journals
Brookings papers on economic activity
Business Economics
Economic inquiry
Economic journal (London, England)
Industrial and Labor Relations Review
International economic review
Journal of economic issues
Journal of economic literature
Journal of Economics and Business
Labor Law Journal
Review of Financial Economics
Southern economic journal
The American Economic Review
The American economic review
The Journal of economic perspectives
The Journal of Industrial Economics
The Journal of Law and Economics
The Quarterly Journal of Economics
The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance
The Quartile Review of Economics and Business
The Review of Economics and Statistics
Western Economic Journal

Please choose one article about labor economics topics in those Approved Journals and write an article reviews. The reviews must include 4 parts.

1. Objective, purpose about that Journals article. What does that article says.

2. What theory, principles are including in that Journals article. Explain the article with labor economics theory or principles in textbook (McConnell, Brue, and Macpherson, Contemporary Labor Economics, Seventh Edition, Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 2006 ISBN: 0072978600).

3. Analyzing the data in that Journals article. Find out the source of the data. Explain the data, how the author used that data and relative theory or principles
4. Conclusion. Your opinion about this article. What you can study from this article.

please give me the URL address or copy of the origin Journal article

Subject: Marketing Communications
Level: MBA
An outline is provided and must be followed.

1. Assignment task:

Read Case Study 31 (Wispa) on pages 614??"618 of David Jobbers Principles and Practice of Marketing textbook (will be uploaded).
Then go to YouTube and view the Cadburys Wispa ad. (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyjzAQ1U2oM)

Follow this by viewing the short video provided by the Advertising Agency (Fallon) who created the campaign. (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLG5sti9YGA)


For the assignment, you should suggest a marketing communications plan to build on the success of the RE-LAUNCH of the Wispa bar, and what you would recommend as a strategy to ensure its continued growth as a successful product for Cadburys.

2. Instructions:

2.1 Literature and sources:

2.1.1. In the theoretical segments of the assignment, only ACADEMIC resources can be used. These are the most recent text books or the most recent academic journals' articles. I insist on using of the following popular books:

- Jobber, D - Principles and Practice of Marketing (this is the case study that will be uploaded)
- Fill, C - Marketing Communications Interactivity, Communities and Content (other files that will be uploaded as well)

If you are not able to find these books, I can easily and quickly scan and upload the necessary information apart from that is uploaded already. However, this assignment doesn't require a lot of theoretical consideration.

2.1.2. For the information regarding the product and industry (wispa/chocolate) various online resources can be used. These are:
- http://www.fortheloveofwispa.com/
- Statistical sites ( example: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/index.html)
- http://www.divinechocolate.com/about/resources/facts/chocolate_industry_today.aspx
- http://www.cadbury.co.uk/home/Pages/home.aspx
- www.wispa.co.uk
- Other producers' sites for competitors analysis.
etc.

References style: Harvard
Word count: 2000 (Tables are not included into word count and will be paid additionally if it's necessary)

AN OUTLINE IS PROVIDED IN THE OUTLINE.DOC FILE.


The task is relatively straightforward. However, I kindly ask a writer to follow the instructions and the outline precisely.

There are faxes for this order.

Assignment 2: White Collar Crime Theories, Laws, and Processes
Due Week 8 and worth 280 points

Write a 4-6 page paper in which you:

Explain white collar crime in terms of various theories related to criminology and crime.
Describe the sources of laws related to white collar crime and explain the basic provisions of major laws addressing white collar crime.
Explain the principle processes and government agencies involved in regulating/policing white collar crime and the various self-regulation approaches used by organizations.
Describe the nature of fraud, its impact on business organizations, and recent trends in fraud prevention.
Your assignment must:

Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
Include a cover page containing the tile of the assignment, the student?s name, the professor?s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

Explain white collar crime in terms of various theories related to criminology and crime.
Describe the sources of laws related to white collar crime and explain the basic provisions of major laws addressing white collar crime.
Explain the principle processes and government agencies involved in regulating/policing white collar crime and the various self-regulation approaches used by organizations.
Describe the nature of fraud, its impact on business organizations, and recent trends in fraud prevention.
Use technology and information resources to research issue in white collar crime.
Write clearly and concisely about white collar crime using proper writing mechanics.

Case study : Supply chain Whirl
While the 2001 global overhaul of whirlpool?s supply chain systems remains a work in progress today, managers say its success to date is encouraging the remaining system work.
The supply chain whirlpool in 2000 was broken. Indeed, a manger there at the time quipped that among the four major appliance makers in U.S. , Whirlpool ranked fifth in delivery performance.
??We had too much inventory, too little inventory, wrong inventory, right inventory/wrong place, any combination of those things, ??says J.B. Hoyt who was then the supply chain project director. He says a sales vice president approached him one day and said he?d accept even worse performance from supply systems if they would just be consistent rather then wildly bouncing back and forth between good and poor production and shipping plans.
So in 2001, whirlpool embarked on a multi project global overhaul of its supply chain system. The meta project remains a work in progress today, with a number of systems yet to be rolled out and some major technical issues to be resolved. But managers at whirlpool say its success to date including huge improvements in customer service and reduced supply chain costs is providing the psychological and financial impetus to drive the remaining systems work
Whirlpool CIO Esat Sezer says that by 2000, the company had grown by acquisition and geographic expansion to the point that old systems, stitched together by spread sheets and manual procedures, couldn?t cope with the exploding complexity.? Our supply chain was becoming a competitive disadvantage for us,?? he says. Availability ? the percentage of time a product is in the right place at the right time ? was an unacceptably low 83 percent, even as inventories remained too high overall.
The home grown supply systems were primitive and not well integrated with the company?s SAP ERP system, which had been installed in 1999, or with a legacy production scheduling system, Sezer says. And they weren?t integrated with the system major wholesale customers or suppliers of parts and materials. ??The plans we were creating weren?t linking back into reality,?? he says.
In particular, Sezer says, supply chain systems weren?t fine ?grained enough, nor were they very good at juggling priorities and constraints except through slow and cumbersome manual methods. Often, they would optimize locally ? a single product line at one location, for example ? but not for the supply chain as a whole.
Here?s what Whirlpool was using for its North American supply chain in 2000:
- A home grown production scheduling system, the Whirlpool manufacturing control system (WMCS),which was developed in the mid-1980s and extensively modified over the years.
- SAP?s R/3 ERP system, which was installed in 1999 and used for transaction-processing applications such as accounting and order processing.
- I2 technologies demand planner (now called demand manager), which was installed in 1997 and used for demand forecasting.
- A system for distribution planning that was custom-developed for Whirlpool in the 1980s that used optimization software from ILOG.
Then in 2001, Whirlpool began to implement an advanced planning and scheduling (APS) system. It included a suite of supply chain integration and optimization tools from i2 ? Supply chain planner for the master scheduling, Deployment planning and inventory planning. Those three modules, the heart of Whirlpool?s efforts to fix its supply chain, went live in three phases over 2001 and 2002.
In mid-2002, Whirlpool installed the i2 TradeMatrix collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPFR) system, a web-based collaboration tool for sharing and combining the sales forecasts of Whirlpool and its major trade partners-- Sears, Roebuck and Co., Lowe?s and best buy Co.
The rollout of the a component for Web-based collaboration with suppliers, based on SAP?s inventory collaboration Hub, is just getting under way. And Whirlpool continues to use the old WMCS for production scheduling but plans to replace that with SAP?s production planning module.
It?s available
By all accounts, the supply chain overhaul was a smashing success for the US$13 billion company. CPFR cut forecasting errors in half. APS boosted availability in North America from 83 percent to 93 percent (it?s at 97 percent today), reduced finished-goods inventories by more than 20 percent and trimmed 5 percent from freight and warehouse costs. Whirlpool declined to discuss the cost of the projects.
Managers at Whirlpool give much of the credit for the success of these projects to a close partnership between the IT department and the business units. Says Hoyt, ``it was one of the first times the IT community didn?t say, ?OK, here?s your tool. ?We said the tool had to do x, y and z. We did the requirements analysis together.??
Whirlpool considered standardizing completely on SAP for all ERP and supply chain systems in North America, but i2 ultimately got the nod for the APS system, the critical part needed to fix the company?s availability and inventory problems. ``There was a lot of back and forth, but after a long harangue and discussion of our business requirements, we settled on the i2 tool set in North America, ``Hoyt says.
But while i2 was seen as being more capable than SAP for handling the fine?grained optimization, constraint-based planning and prioritization that the business units wanted, it was far from ideal from an IT perspective. The APS system would cost IT, whose budget is about US$190 million, more than all-SAP supply chain because there would be less integration, more systems interfaces and more skills to maintain in-house. Plus, IT was worried about i2?s deteriorating financial condition.
Whirlpool had already standardized on IBM AIX application servers and zSeries mainframe database servers for supply chain systems and had put systems for all its global operations in a single data center in Benton harbor. Now it was time to standardize on software.
So in 2001, a mandate came from the CIO, via whirlpool?s executive committee, that supply chain modernizations henceforth would be based entirely on SAP. In particular, new systems planned for Europe for 2003 and Latin America would use SAP?s Advanced planner and Optimizer rather than the more capable but costly i2-based APS system used in North America. And they were to use SAP?s NetWeaver for Web collaboration with suppliers and trade partners rather than North America?s TradeMatrix CPFR.
Vivek Mehta, A lead supply chain analyst at Whirlpool, says SAP may catch up with i2 in its optimization capabilities, but in the meantime, i2?s financial condition is worrisome. ``There were 10 guys at i2 that we interacted with, and some of them are gone now, ``he says. ``There?s lack of continuity??.
``We have this challenge, where the IT organization is pushing for everything to be SAP, but the business, on the other hand, is going fro whatever brings them value, ``Mehta says. ``They are now used to the optimal plan, the high service levels, the lower inventories. So if we bring in something and say their availability will go down by couple of points, no way will they buy that.??
Sezer says Whirlpool will probably replace i2 with SAP ``eventually?? but is in no hurry. ``We?d like to get the return out of that investment before making any platform decisions, ``he says.
Sezer says that in the four years since Whirlpool standardized on IBM and SAP as ``strategic partners,?? revenue has increased on average US$1 billion per year and IT expenses have fallen 6 percent per year.He says there are several joint development projects under way involving all three companies.
But for the time being, the combination of SAP and i2 works well for Whirlpool, far better then the legacy tools of a few years ago. Sezer says the company?s supply chain is now a competitive advantage. ``On a global scale, to be able to manage all your operating platforms, I?m not aware that any of our competitors have that today, ``he says.
Think globally, act locally
When time came for Whirlpool Europe to overhaul its supply chain, the company decided not to go with i2 optimization products, as North America had done, but with SAP?s advanced planner and optimizer (APO) for demand and supply-network planning.
Vivek Mehta, a lead supply chain analyst involved in both projects, says Europe was starting from a more primitive systems base, with even more manual procedures and less-integrated systems than had been the case in North America. So for Europe, ``APO was a huge step forward, ``he says.
The integration of Whirlpool Europe?s supply chain systems around APO, though not quite complete, has already boosted inventory availability from less than 80 percent to more than 90 percent, says Walter Manfredi, supply chain director in Whirlpool?s Comerio, Italy, operations center.
``Today, our supply chain is integrated ? process and systems, ``he says. ``Now, demand from a trade partner or customer is integrated into production planning. We can look into production plans and see if this item for this date in this quantity is for this customer. So we can now give priority depending on the type of demand.??
For example, he says, priority is always given to production orders earmarked for specific customers ? for which availability is now 97 percent-- over orders to simply replenish stock.
Still, improvements need to be made, especially at the level of individual factories, Manfredi says. Some factory managers, in an attempt to tweak system rules and parameters to optimize their operations, make the systems so complex that they become maintenance nightmares. And, he adds, attempts by factories to optimize their own performance can be at odds with optimizing the European supply chain overall.
Finally, Manfredi say, while production can be varied daily by altering system rules and parameters, some production modifications require workforce changes or changes in line and equipment capacities, which can take weeks to accomplish. ``That?s very difficult, he notes.
Required : Write a report that answers the following areas:
1) Critically appraise the supply chain management system used by Whirlpool ? North America and evaluate how it contributed to Whirlpool?s business performance and in gaining competitive advantage.
2) Evaluate how Whirlpool?s production helped in making planning and sourcing decision. What set back did Whirlpool face in making delivery decisions that provoked them to move to an optimal platform of supply chain management.
3) Discuss on the future trends and challenges faced by global makers of home appliances in managing their supply chain.
This coursework aims to achieve the following learning outcomes of the module :
- Critically appraise how supply chain management and supplier development can contribute to business performance and competitive advantage
- Critically evaluate planning and sourcing decisions
- Critically evaluate making and delivery decisions
- Identify and discuss future trends and issues in global supply chain management
Resources
Supply chain case studies / Journals of supply chain management / Harvard business review
Supply chain management review / supply chain digest
1)Submission of the paper should follow the standard format , consisting of
- Table of contents
- Executive summary
- Content page
- Main report
- Conclusion
- References (Harvard)
2) Others points to take note
- Printed using Arial font , size 10 , 1-1/2 line spacing
- Do not use first person in your report (no ??I?? , ??me??, ??us??, ??we?? ) Used third person and passive voice
- Avoid making use of jargon. The report should be written in academic form
- Citation and references should be in Harvard referencing format
MARKS
10 marks ? Executive summary , conclusion and references
10 marks ? Presentation and appearance
80 marks ? Contents , Appraise the supply chain management system used by Whirlpool , evaluate
And discuss future trends and challenges faced by global makers of home applicances in managing their supply chain.

The assessment consists of two parts

Part A: Case study/Stimulus based question ( 2,00 word maximum), 40% of the total marks

Part B: Discussion questions (3,000 words maximum), 60% of the total marks

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

For all the elements of this assessment, particular credit will be given to well structured argument which, whenever appropriate are supported by diagrams, theories and examples in explaining the points you make.

Whilst the word limit must not be exceeded, it should be noted that not all words count towards that limit. The university Curriculum Regulations state that:

In determining what counts as text within the word limit... indented quotations, tables, figures, diagrams, footnotes and endnotes must be contained within reasonable limits and should be used for reference purposes and not to extend the text

remember to put your word limit total for Part A and Part B of the assessment on the assignment sheet.

PART A

Read carefully this extract from the United Nations food and Agricultural Organisations (FAO) Food outlook publication in 2007.

Food Outlook: Global Market Analysis
Agricultural commodity prices rose sharply in 2006 and, in some cases, are soaring at an even faster pace this year. The FAO food price index rose by 9 percent in 2006 compared to the previous year. In September 2007 it stood at 172 points, representing a year-on-year jump in value of roughly 37 percent. The surge in prices has been led primarily by dairy and grains, but prices of other commodities, with the exception of sugar, have also increased significantly.
High price events, like low price events, are not rare occurrences in agricultural markets although often high prices tend to be short lived compared to low prices, which persist for longer periods. What distinguishes the current state of agricultural markets is rather the concurrence of the hike in world prices of, not just a selected few, but of nearly all, major food and feed commodities. As has become evident in recent months, high international prices for food crops such as grains continue to ripple through the food value/supply chain, contributing to a rise in retail prices of such basic foods as bread or pasta, meat and milk. Rarely has the world felt such a widespread and commonly shared concern about food price inflation, a fear which is fuelling debates about the future direction of agricultural commodity prices in importing as well as exporting countries, be they rich or poor.
The price boom has also been accompanied by much higher price volatility than in the past, especially in the cereals and oilseeds sectors. Increased volatility highlights the prevalence of greater uncertainty in the market. Supply tightness in any commodity market often raises price volatility in that market. Yet, the current situation differs from the past in that the price volatility has lasted longer, a feature that is as much a result of supply tightness as it is a reflection of ever-stronger relationships between agricultural commodity markets and other markets.
United Nations: Food and agricultural organisation (FAO), Food Outlook, November 2007
Using the above text as a basic starting point, apply the ideas and concepts you have encountered in the module to answer each of the following three questions. Since each question carries equal marks it is suggested that you write approximately 600 to 700 words for each question. The best answer will be those which use relevant theory and practical information to answer the questions.

Question1.)
what have been the main demands and supply factors that have determined the general increase in global food prices over the last four years.

Question2.)
With references to ONE specific agricultural commodity of your choice, examine in more detail the specific forces which have determined its price in recent years.

Question3.)
What are the effects of rising food prices on individual consumers and nations ? Briefly suggest what government can do to limit the impact of soaring food prices on their economies.


PART B
Answer the THREE of the following Three questions, using no more than 3000 words.
1000 words per question is suggested.
Question 1.)
What are the main features of an oligopolistic market? With the aid of example, show how collusion between firms in such markets may be detrimental to consumers and explain briefly what governments can do to control the worst abuses of such a situation?

Question 2.)
Why might the objectives of the managers (agents) of large companies differ from those of shareholders (principles) ? Explain how the corporate scandal at Enron in 2001 showed clearly the problems of corporate governance within large firms.

Question 3.)
Using the W/J or E/Y approaches to circular flow of income in an economy, predict what would happen ( other things being equal) in the following situations:
A) A decrease in general taxation in the economy as a result of a windfall gain from oil discovery offshore.
B) An increase in the marginal propensity to save of consumers as a result of a fall in the value of their wealth.
C) A boom in exports as a result of a fall in the nations exchange rate in a relation to its main competitors.
D) An increase in the interest rate as a result of worries that the economy is heading towards high inflation.

It?s been 2 months since you took a position as an assistant financial analyst at Caledonia Products. Although your boss has been pleased with your work, he is still a bit hesitant about unleashing you without supervision. Your next assignment involves both the calculation of the cash flows associated with a new investment under consideration and the evaluation of several mutually exclusive projects. Given your lack of tenure at Caledonia, you have been asked not only to provide a recommendation but also to respond to a number of questions aimed at judging your understanding of the capital-budgeting process. The memorandum you received outlining your assignment follows:

To: The Assistant Financial Analyst

From: Mr. V. Morrison, CEO, Caledonia Products

Re: Cash Flow Analysis and Capital Rationing

We are considering the introduction of a new product. Currently we are in the 34 percent marginal tax bracket with a 15 percent required rate of return or cost of capital. This project is expected to last 5 years and then, because this is somewhat of a fad product, be terminated. The following information describes the new project:

Cost of new plant and equipment

$ 7,900,000

Shipping and installation costs

$ 100,000

Unit sales

?

YEAR

UNITS SOLD

?

?

1

??70,000

?

2

120,000

?

3

140,000

?

4

??80,000

?

5

??60,000

Sales price per unit

$300/unit in years 1 through 4, $260/unit in year 5

Variable cost per unit

$180/unit

Annual fixed costs

$200,000 per year in years 1?5

Working-capital requirements

There will be an initial working-capital requirement of $100,000 just to get production started. For each year, the total investment in net working capital will be equal to 10 percent of the dollar value of sales for that year. Thus, the investment in working capital will increase during years 1 through 3, then decrease in year 4. Finally, all working capital is liquidated at the termination of the project at the end of year 5.

The depreciation method

Use the simplified straight-line method over 5 years. Assume that the plant and equipment will have no salvage value after 5 years.

a. Should Caledonia focus on cash flows or accounting profits in making its capital-budgeting decisions? Should the company be interested in incremental cash flows, incremental profits, total free cash flows, or total profits?

b. How does depreciation affect free cash flows?

c. How do sunk costs affect the determination of cash flows?

d. What is the project?s initial outlay?

e. What are the differential cash flows over the project?s life?

f. What is the terminal cash flow?

g. Draw a cash flow diagram for this project.

h. What is its net present value?

i. What is its internal rate of return?

j. Should the project be accepted? Why or why not?

k. In capital budgeting, risk can be measured from three perspectives. What are those three measures of a project?s risk?

l. According to the CAPM, which measurement of a project?s risk is relevant? What complications does reality introduce into the CAPM view of risk, and what does that mean for our view of the relevant measure of a project?s risk?

m. Explain how simulation works. What is the value in using a simulation approach?

n. What is sensitivity analysis and what is its purpose?
(Foundations of Finance for Ashford University, 7th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions pp. 333 - 335).