Chinas Reform Essays - Supply Chain Management, Klaus Obermeyer

Chinas Reform Sport Obermeyer Sport Obermeyer is a high-end fashion skiwear design and merchandising company headquartered in Aspen, Colorado. Over the years, Sports Obermeyer has developed into a dominant competitor. Sports Obermeyer's estimated sales in 1992 were $32.8 million. The company holds 45% share of children's skiwear and 11% of adult Skiwear market. Sport Obermeyer produces merchandise ranging from: parkas, vests, ski suits, shells, ski pants, turtlenecks, and accessories. These products are sold throughout U.S. department stores in urban areas and ski shops. With increasing demands and rising competition, Sport Obermeyer needs to have and edge on the market. Starting in 1985 with a joint venture in Hong Kong called Obersport, the company began to increase productivity to meet their new demands. Recently, a number of contractual ventures were added and a new complex in Lo Village Guangdong China have enhance production but increase the level of difficulty on the planning and production stages. The Spo rt Obermeyer case describes the forecasting, planning and production processes of a global skiwear supply channel. The case provides an in-depth description of the planning and production processes Sport Obermeyer and its supply channel partners undergo each year to develop and deliver Obermeyer's product line. The case will emphasis on the nature of the information that flows among the members of the supply chain and the timing of key decisions and events in order to have a successful inventory line. Sport Obermeyer, was founded in 1947 by Klaus Obermeyer. Klaus Obermeyer, a German immigrant began teaching at the Aspen Ski School in 1947. During his time teaching, he observed his students being unprotected by impractical clothing during frigid weather. The clothing worn by his students were less stylish and provided little shielding than clothes made in his native Germany. These experiences led Klaus to introduce a variety of skiwear products. He is credited in making the first goose down vest out of an old down comforter. Klaus also introduced turtlenecks, wind shirts in the U.S. and in 1980 he popularized the ski brake. Klaus products are targeted for serious skiers. Eighty five percent of the Sport Obermeyer's market is a serious skier that utilizes the products for winter activities. Sport Obermeyer's produces manufactures for five different genders: men, women, boys, girls, and preschoolers. Each gender market offers an excellent price/value relationship, where value was def ined as both functionality and style. Sport Obermeyer's focuses on the middle to high-end ski-market. Functionality was critical to the serious skier-products, which had to be warm and waterproof, yet not constrain the skier's ability to move his or her arms and legs freely. Management believed that the effective implementation of its product strategy relied on several logistics-related activities, including delivering matching collections of products to retailers at the same time (to allow consumers to view and purchase coordinated items at the same time), and delivering products to retail stores early in the selling season (to maximize the number of square-footage days products were available at retail). Since the beginning Klaus has been actively involved in the company's management. Klaus management approach was described as, Free of tension. Klaus ultimate goal was to achieve harmony by emphasizing trust to the customers and providing quality and value to all consumers. Klaus's decision-making skills were based on intuition and his overall industry experience. The Obermeyer family was actively involved in making sure new innovating products; color and styles were being produced. Lately, Wally Obermeyer has become more actively involved with the management and production stages. Wally's approach relies heavily on formal data-gathering and analytical techniques. Wally's continues to believe that quality and value are high priorities but as of late Sport's Obermeyer's product lines have not been as successful. Wally decisions are centered on which styles to make in China and which styles to make in Hong Kong. Will production in China constrain Obermeyer's ability to manage production and inventory risks? Wally's decisions are based on the Obermeyer's overall order cycle, supply chain, strategy and structure. Sport Obermeyer's, structure is formulated through a two-year planning and production process. The design process for the 1993-1994-inventory line begins in February 1992. This task involves careful analysis, experience, intuition, and utter assumption. The market's key goal to is

French Gestures ~ Understanding Using French Gestures

French Gestures ~ Understanding Using French Gestures If youve ever been to France or watched French movies, youve undoubtedly seen French people performing some familiar gestures as well as a few unfamiliar ones. While some gestures are vulgar, others are as innocuous as shaking or nodding ones head. In any case, it is as essential to understand this French sign language as it is any vocabulary. These pages include photos, explanations, and register ratings for 45 gestures. Top 10 French Gestures Among the dozens of gestures and facial expressions in these lessons, there are ten that really stand out. French Gestures by Register  (what is register?) Note that some gestures have different names and are thus listed more than once. Normal Informal Familiar Use with anyone Use only with people you tutoie Use only with close friends A peu prs Alors, l Ae, ae Baiser la main Au poil Barrons-nous Cest fini Bises Bisque ! Chut Bof Camembert Jai du nez Bouche cousue a pue On a sommeil Cest nul Cest pas donn Parfait Comme-ci, comme-a Clapet Pardon Dlicieux Coup dans le nez Rptez Faire la bise / le bisou Du fric Se serrer la main Faire la moue Ferme-la ! Silence Gallic shrug Il est cingl Tlphone Je le jure Je men fous Se tourner les pouces Jen ai ras le bol Mon il ! Un, deux, trois Sen jeter un derrire la cravate On se tire Magnifique Pied de nez Motus et bouche cousue Que dalle ! La moue Quelle barbe ! Nul Verre dans le nez On boit Passer sous le nez Poil dans la main Quest-ce quil chante, l ? Vulgar - Offensive Ras-le-bol Use with extreme care Rien Le bras dhonneur Shrug Cocu Sous le nez Va te faire foutre Victoire Zro

The Volcker Rule and its Consequences for the Financial and Banking Essay

The Volcker Rule and its Consequences for the Financial and Banking System - Essay Example Federal Reserve has publicly announced that the banking system of US does not need to accept and operate according to the rule before the month of July of 2014 but the banks will have to conduct the process of â€Å"good faith planning efforts† to get ready to accept the rule in the future and during the temporary phase. As banks and the financial system is still not aware of the bans that will be levied, there will be a cloud of uncertainty that these systems will experience for two years (Ciro 2012). These systems are experiencing ambiguity in understanding what does the Federal Reserve means by good faith planning efforts. The ambiguities are making condition worse thus decision makers should make the scenario clear and present the effects of the rule on US and other nations. The cloudy situation was made clear when a draft of the regulation was prepared and this draft consisted of details regarding the services offered by financial system and the way these services are use d by the common public. The situation is still quite unclear for financial institutions as even the draft wasn’t clear enough to identify the effects that the rule will have on financial sector. The European Union and other countries have even showed concerns as they expect that the rule will decrease the liquidity in world financial markets, thus it is quite clear that the rule will impact the financial systems negatively. Body The delay in implementing and clearing the effect of the rule may not help the banks and make situation worse as banks do not have the correct idea of when the rule will be implemented and banks will have to accept the rule legally regardless of whether they understand its effect or not. Legally it is stated that those banks that have operated in good faith effort during the temporary implementation phase will experience less problems in complying with the actual rule. The policy makers should make the scenario clearer instead of making the financial system of US and overseas operate according to their own guess work. The delay is making the financial system take decisions under ambiguous situation which is already hurting the system. Volcker Permitted Bank Activities According to the rule there are certain permitted activities that can be performed by the banks, these activities comprise of banks acting as market maker, underwriter, hedger, deals of government securities and other activities that are stated under the act as permitted activities. These activities have been permitted to ensure that banks continue to provide liquidity to the markets and help companies in raising capital. But these activities have been restricted to ensure that banks do not cross the line and the funds with the bank do not become unsafe. If the permitted activities cannot be conducted in a safe environment and without risky conditions, then the federal system has the right to barge banks from conducting such activities or increase charges and fines on these activities so these activities become unfavourable to the banks. The activities that have been stated as acceptable in the rule are done on the basis that the bank conducts these activities for the customer and only to meet the short term demands of the customers. Rule Effect The Volcker Rule has received its name from the Paul Volcker who was the Federal Reserve Chairman during the period of the financial crises of 2008. The

Designing a Diversity Workshop for University Faculty Incorporating Research Paper

Designing a Diversity Workshop for University Faculty Incorporating Multicultural and International Objectives - Research Paper Example Diversity, in years gone by, was not embraced. In fact, it was often shunned to the point where the country saw many colleges and universities rise to the level one race, one religion, and one culture. To continue with this practice would not only be an injustice to students around the world who have come to cherish our individual freedoms and liberties, but it would service to deny faculty and the student body alike the privilege of learning in a multi-cultural environment. Understanding and accepting people of other cultures and beliefs do not have to be a daunting task. It simply requires compassion and a desire learn from and embrace others. Our university might be small in number, but we have the capacity to develop a cultural awareness that rivals institutions much larger than our own. Our own faculty is diverse, yet we have failed to tap into this reality. We should be making use of our broad range of professional and military experience in order to better understand the diver sity existent around us and to use the knowledge to impact our student body as well. This training program has been developed with our faculty in mind. It will focus on the instructional methodologies inherent in multicultural education, and it will create a sense of global awareness amongst us all that we must be conversant with the latest educational issues, diversity, and multicultural theory. It is in so doing that we will truly become a global institution who can make a positive impact in the field of education, while embracing multicultural diversity and becoming more accepting of each student and staff member who passes through our illustrious halls. Purpose There is no mistaking that the world is becoming increasingly diverse, yet this same diversity has not been reflected in the field of higher education. According to Hill, et. al (2011), only 10% of earned Doctorates in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are represented by minority groups (p. 2 0). This not only leaves a great gap in these critical fields, but it indicates a troubling trend. If universities cannot embrace multicultural education, then society will be losing out on valuable learning opportunities moving forward. This purpose of this training workshop is to reverse this trend by providing faculty members with the tools necessary to incorporate multicultural education into the classroom, thereby encouraging diversity and an exchanging of scholarly and academic ideas across cultures. Embracing the diversity amongst us, a further purpose of this workshop will be to share various pedagogical techniques with one another that will serve to enhance our own multicultural understanding. Our students are increasingly coming from a diverse background and we must work together with all students to foster an atmosphere of understanding and respect. This begins with the faculty, each of who has valuable experience to draw from in the field of diversity education. Embracin g all people does require, to some extent, a shift in our way of thinking and the methods that we employ in our disciplines. It has been noted by some faculty members at other institutions that, â€Å"Fundamental and sustainable change is possible, given the right combination of vision, compromise, and commitment† (Grogan & Vaz, 2003, p. 35). It is this primary need for change that forms the basis for this

International trade and specialisation

International trade and specialisation The nations economic structures was formed by the pervasive power of internationalisation which is a substantial phenomenon improved rapidly especially in the last decades. International business, one of the constituents of globalisation and liberalization in todays world, International business from Toynes perspective is the process that involves the exchange of goods and /or services across or within national boundaries between two or more social actions in different countries for commercial reasons (Vaghefi et al., 1991). A broad definition provided by Aswathppa those business transactions that involve the crossing of national boundaries which include, product presence in different markets of the world, production bases across the globe, human resource to contain high diversity, investment in international services, transactions involving intellectual properties ( Aswathppa, 2008) , these definitions embraces the immense global companies with high scale operations and coalition ar ound the world, and the small companies which run low scale operations and may be only with one country. International business is the major key drive behind the raising for a lot of economies like China, India and Brazil, also the backbone for thousands of the multinational organisations. Increasingly, world business was shaped by the flow of goods, services and investments among countries under globalization perspectives. The dynamicity of the international business is accessible in two major ways; the international trade and the equities or investments, this paper will discuss in a critically approach these two major categories of international business in favour of free trade, with clarifying the costs and benefits of International trade and specialisation. 1-International trade The first pace to international trade is the Mercantilism that promote to posses more gold and silver by enlarge exporting and shrink importing by tariffs and quotas. But this approach pours the benefits only to one side of the trade neglecting the other side of the trade (Piggott, 2006). However, Mercantilism from Heckschers point of view is a system provides a confederation to the country (Haley, 1936) but, mercantilism does not show the ideal paradigm for free trade it advocated barriers for the foreign investments and does not encourage the competition which can lead to monopolism (Tuldar, 1987). The actual step towards international free trade was the absolute advantage by Smith and it substantiates that trade is a positive-sum game, there are gains for both dealers, opposing the mercantilism that see the trade is zero-sum game. The basic concept of smiths theory is specialisation should be given to the goods which produced efficiently, and certainly not turn out commodities that can purchase it in a lower cost. For example, Saudi Arabia has an absolute advantage in oil, according to Smith Saudi Arabia will specialise on producing oil and within trade Saudi Arabia will export oil and import goods that she can not produce it effectively. Smiths theory is oversimplified because he assumed that the labor is the only factor of production and labor is uniform, nevertheless labor is skilled and unskilled, and labor is not only the comparative factor of production (Piggott and Cook, 2006). Not only absolute advantage in one good can be profitable but also for all good, Ricardo stated in the comparative advantage theory that the trade is also profitable for the state by specialise in the most efficient production and import the goods are less resourceful in production, therefore, the international trade streams is determined by a countrys product that comparative to another country. By an empirical study by Neven to find out the comparative advantage between the European countries using the production factors, he concluded that labor presented the dominated advantage and human capital offered the solidest disadvantage (Neven, 1990:27). Some criticism faced the Ricardian model, for example, the assumption of transferring factors of production and this has limited possibility, the transportation cost and economies of scale were ignored by Ricardo and Smith (Chacholiades, 1990) Alternatively, Heckscher and Ohlin argue that the trade is based on the endowments or the factors of production (land, capital, labour). However, they agree with Ricardo about the lucrativeness of international trade. Consequently, the countries which have abundant of labour should be specialised in products like textile and shoes, and the countries which have abundant of land should produce land intensive goods such as corns and wheat. Therefore, these countries will export those goods because they have a comparative advantage in it, and rare factors dependant goods should be imported. H-O theory was tested by Leontief on the US exports and imports and regarding to H-O theory US is capital rich country it will export capital rich products and import for example labor intensive goods. But, as a result for his test in 1947 and 1951, he found that US imports were more capital intensive goods. However, this result varied with the same test in the 1970s (Piggott, 2006:40). Baldwin claimed that Leontiefs result, in that time was directed by the American tariffs and non-tariffs, like quotas and safety and health regulations and if it was against labor consummate goods so, the capital-consummate goods was the only way to trade with US moreover, he confirmed that the economists who was highly confidences of H-O theory was diminished by Leontief empirical result (Baldwin, 1971). Like H-O theory Leontief ignored the Human capital that considered as one of the factors of production. It displays the knowledge and skills for the labour therefore; human capital intensive goods fo r example computer software and aerospace could be one of the determinants of the trade. (Hill, 2006 global business today) While H-O and Leontief ignored technology, Product life cycle theory takes in the account the technology as a comparative advantage. In the high-tech countries this model put forward that any product starts to be new product to become standardised, in the last stage, where the dispersion and the adoption of innovations form other organisations, the product will be produced massively, and the necessity of shifting production to get a low cost location arise and steadily the production in the host country will start to export the same product to the Home country for the product. Similarly, because the rapid growth of the multinational organisations around the world, it might be favourable for the organisation to produce the new product from the host or the foreign country (Ajami et al., 2006) Focusing on the economic of scale is the main concept of the new trade theory. By adopting this theory the country can specialise in a limited rang of goods with a high scale of production to gain the low-cost production, and then the free trade will expand the market size beyond national boundaries. So the availability for producing a variety of goods and conducting low cost will attain reciprocally beneficial. However, for the industries that conduct a substantial share in the world demand by accomplish the economies of scale the trade will support a few of the organisation or the first entrants to this industries like aerospace industry. Since the fast growing of international business and according to the trade liberalization , the need for some standards was raised, Criterions for international trade was established to control and arrange the international trade therefore, the idea of World Trade Organisation (WTO) had raisin with a structure designed to offer the coordinated polices and support liberalization in the global market besides the free flow for goods and services (Hornsby, 2010).In addition General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to insure about the reduction of tariffs and quotas. Moreover, trade blocs were a significant movement towards free trade for example: EU, G20, APEC, NAFTA and CARENS GROUP. (BBC, 2005) Advantages and disadvantages for international trade and specialisation One of the main benefits of international trade is economic growth and this concept was proved by Edwards (1992), the study defined that international trade have a significant influence on growth, how can the developing countries as poor nations attract and adopt the technological progress from the industrial economies the study was based on 30 developing countries and appeared that the more opened and non restrictive trade policies the faster growth. In the same vein specialisation support the economic growth, the economic development can conduct by an efficient specialisation (Enright, 1996). Growth could happen in a long-standing by specialisation as a result of Page study on small mining centres in Canada (Page, 2002). International trade can improve the environment, Bhagwati stated that the economic growth will consequence an expansion in production therefore, the countrys revenue will increase as such the state can spend for improving the environment (Bhagwati, 1993).however, (Mullen et al., 2009) argued that developing countries turn over from agriculture to industrial activities and they may produce for example chemical products which cause absolute pollution. From another side, the more production and the more exporting the more revenues that can spend to improve the environment. For example Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) that signifies in the first phases of the growth it is obvious the dilapidation for the environment and this degradation will decrease by the rising in the income (Gryz, 2008).Hence this could be a benefit and a cost in the same time for international trade. The increases of international trade and in turn the economic growth will raise the gross national product as a result it will recuperating the individual freedom (Mullen et al., 2009) furthermore, higher levels of educations will be an outcome also new initiatives and individual freedom(Mullen et al., 1996 cited in Mullen, 2009) Advance physical quality of life correlated to International trade, according to a study run by (Mullen et al., 2009) importing enhance PQOL since the importing process will increase the supply then decrease the prices so the individuals can satisfy easily they essential needs therefore importing enhance PQOL . But increasing exporting will increase the demand in the country and then will rise the prices consequently it will be difficult for the individuals to satisfy their vital requirements will increasing exports will lessen PQOL. Source: (Mullen et al., 2009) From the environmentalists shore there is a significant drawback for international trade, they see that the more international trade the more pollution, and the more progress of technology the more utilization of the natural resources and deforestation this confirmed by Gryz in a study focusing on the developing countries that international trade contribute in air pollution by enlarge the emissions of CO2 and SO2 (Gryz, 2008). Specialisation as the key driver for the international trade, it can enlarge production of products and services and consequently high quality with lower cost. Specialisation will increase the size of the market resemble international trade which make the option for conducting the economic of scale clear. Consequently, the competition will be a vital element which result low prices for individuals. From the other side, specialisation could bring risks. Using specialisation very excessively is able to bring inflation (Watkins, 1963 cited in Clower and beer 2009). Moreover, specialisation can affect inadequately on the stability of the economy (Barkly et al., 1999). 2-Equities The second category of the international business is equities which composing of: foreign direct investments (FDI) and foreign portfolio investments (FPI) 2-1 foreign portfolio investment (FPI) The investments by individual, firms or public bodies in foreign financial instrument like bonds and stocks or other financial assets and the portfolio proportion in the total foreign equity is less than 10% (Hill, 2006) without managing or controlling these investments. Although most of the barriers were fallen in favor of international business, the foreign portfolio investment is tremendously limited; Kang and Stulz justify this phenomenon that most of the investment was held by the domestic investors raising the home-bias issue as a determinant of FPI. (Kang and Stulz, 1995) Two main obstacles facing the FPI: First, political threat in the foreign market and the caution from impound the shares or the potentialities to return the investments so that, we find the majority investors in FPI are home residents. However, the risk in the short-term money market is less than the FPI equity because is more liquidity with low cost. Second, information asymmetric, Kang and Stulz stated the positive relationship between information and investments if the foreign investor has less information he will invest fewer. FPI could be a good source for foreign investors if they familiar with these investments abroad like the weighty exporters, and they concluded that the more organisations export the more shares possessed by foreign investors (Metro, 1987). In addition, Razin and Goldstein see the information problem arises when the investors need to sell the shares in advance, therefore the investors will go through the FPI if their probability to get liquidity shock fewer and invest in the FDI if they are less expected to get liquidity shock (Goldstein and Razin, 2006), liquidity shock could be considered a determinant for FPI. 2-2 foreign direct investment (FDI) FDI is the investment that happen directly in production or other facilities in a foreign country over Which it has effective control. (Shenkar and Luo, 2004) The main important feature that differentiates between FDI and FPI is control over the assets in the foreign countries by the affiliates, supporting these affiliates with management team locating near the selected market, therefore the decisions that related to this market will be effective. There are three types for FDI: First, Greenfield investment, and this form occurs when the company decides to start a new business in a foreign country. Second, mergers and acquisitions by merging with the local companies in the host countries or acquiring companies in the host market this, this is the widespread element to FDI, M As share in FDI raised from 80% in 1997 (UNCTAD, 2007).However, it is argued that MA will diminish the competition because there is no add to the capital, but the supporter for this pattern argued that MA is mainstay to stand in the global competition by insert new technologies and new management strategies (Shenkar and Luo, 2004:78) Third, reinvestment by using the profits in the foreign markets to make further investments. FDI theories Product life cycle theory, the same theory of international trade. Internalization theory, the way that the diffused operations in the foreign countries internalized by unified governance structure, it argues that because the deficiency of the intermediate products the internalization will create contracting. However, Shenkar and Luo see that the internalization a way to gain from intra-organizational system. (Shenkar and Luo, 2004:62) The Eclectic paradigm, this theory show the joint of microeconomic of the firm and macroeconomic of international trade by perceiving three interdependent factors: ownership specific factors like tangible assets and intangible assets, location specific factor like endowments and countries policies and internalization. It argued that this theory is broad-spectrum and does not propose a macro clarification for FDI and its factors is not reliant. Dunning the founder of the theory replied that he presented a general framework with interdependence level, and from a perspective of the country level he provides a macro-analysis of FDI. (Piggott and Cook, 2006) Reasons for FDI Penetrating the foreign market could be with exporting, licensing or FDI. Companies adopting FDI rather than exporting to keep away from the tariffs and quotas that imposed by host markets, and avoid the high transportation cost especially with the low value-to- weight ratio goods for example, cement products. Also firms choose FDI than licensing (allow certain foreign firms to produce home firms product and gain fees on each product) because the licensing does not give the stiff control over the production or marketing also, licensing could be a way to present a significant technological idea to a likely foreign rivals. (Hill, 2006) Increase sales and profits in the foreign markets is main reason for FDI most of the firms to fulfill considerable profits in the foreign markets especially if the local firms are not able to gratify the demand of goods and services, for example, Intel corporation, Coca Cola, Wal-mart, Carrefour, Pepsi Cola, CEMEX, Aflac and a lot of them. But there is a criticism on most of these opportunities seized in the same area for example Wal-mart has 72.36% (Wal-mart, annual report 2010) of his stores only in North America. Tesco has 73% (Tesco annual report 2009) of his Stores in Europe. Reducing costs is another motive for FDI, seeking for the low-cost production is crucial aspects for gaining profits so, firms decide to go through the foreign markets to accomplish low labor cost especially in the developing countries Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America. Moreover, low material cost, low power cost and low transportation cost. Acquiring a place in the powerful economic community like EU in Europe, NAFTA In North America and ASEAN in Asia, could be very profitable to a firm to gain alliance in one those blocs without any restrictions besides the entrants firms can acquire new technological and managerial concepts by observing and analysis the top competitors in the market. (Rugman and Collinson, 2006) Mostly the FPI located in the developed countries than developing countries because: first, the unambiguousness in the developed economics makes the FPI efficient. Second, FDI will not be profitable in the atmosphere of the high production cost of developed countries. So, FDI located in the low-cost environments apparently the developing countries. From an empirical study by Razin and Goldstein they stated that FPI is more volatility and more withdrawal rates that FDI. (Goldstein and Razin, 2006) Conclusion International business with its both significant categories: international trade and equities created an evolution in the global business. While the mercantilism established the theory on base of the restrictions to gain economic-political power, the follow theories stated that international trade is beneficial game and the key driver is specialisation with awareness of the control of inflows and outflows of goods and services (Warburton, 2010) through WTO, GATT or trade blocs. Equities was shaped with FPI and FDI, FPI is limited, less controlled and provides the investors with fast liquidity investments and FDI has the big share of equities and depend on control and management. The significance of these topics rises in its consequences. In other words the economic growth and quality of life for some of the developing countries attributed to international business. Vaghefi M., Paulson S. and Tomlinson W. (1991) International business theory and practice. New York: Taylor and Francis New York Inc. Piggott J. and Cook M. (2006) International Business Economics, a European Perspectives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Haley, B. (1936) Heckscher, Mercantilism. The Quarterly Journal of Economics.50 (2) pp. 347-354 Tuldar R. (1987)subsidy polices for production automation mercantilism and liberalism revisited. Comparative Political Studies.20 (2) pp. 192-228 Baldwin R. (1971)Determinants of The Commodity structure of US Trade. The American Economic Review.61 (1) March pp.126-146 BBC (2005) BBC News: Business. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4510792.stm [Accessed 28th Oct 2010] Hornsby D. (2010)WTO effectiveness in resolving transatlantic trade-environment conflict. Journal of international trade law and policy. 9 (3), pp. 297-309 Warburton C. (2010)International trade law and trade theory. Journal of international trade law and policy.9(1) pp.64-82 Edwards S. (1992) Trade orientation, distortion and growth in developing countries, journal of development economics.39 (1) pp.31-57 Beer A. and Clower T. (2009) Specialisation and Growth: Evidence from Australias Regional Cities. Urban studies. 46(2) pp.369-389 Mullen et al., (2009) Effects of International Trade and Economic Development on Quality of Life. Journal of Macromarketing. (29)3 pp.244-258 Gryz A. (2008) Economic growth, international trade and air pollution: A decomposition analysis. Ecological Economics.68 (5) pp.1329-1339 Riley G. (2006) Economics: As markets and market system. Available at http://tutor2u.net/economics/revision-notes/as-markets-specialisation-trade.html. [Accessed 29th Oct 2010]. Kang J. and Stulz R. (1997) Why is there a home bias? An analysis of foreign portfolio equity ownership in Japan. Journal of Financial Economics.46 (1) pp.3-28 Merton, R.C., 1987. A simple model of capital market equilibrium with incomplete information. Journal of Finance 42(1) pp. 483 510 Goldstein I. and Razin A. (2006) An information-based trade off between foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investment. Journal of international economics.70 (1) pp.271-295 Chacholiades, M. (1990) international economics. New York: McGraw Hill Neven D. (1990) EEC integration towards 1992: some distributional aspects. Economic policy. 5(1) pp.13-62 UNCTAD (2007) World investment report 2007.transnational corporations, extractive Industries and development. United Nations. Ajami R. et al. (2006) International Business: trade and theory. New York: M.E. Sharp Inc. Aswathappa K. (2008) International Business (3ed). 3rd ed. Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill publishing Company Limited.

International marketing management Essay

‘Self- Reference Criterion’ 1. Define problem or goals in terms of home-country cultural traits, habits and norms 2. Define problem or goals in terms of foreign cultural traits, habits and norms 3. Isolate the SRC influence in the problem and examine it carefully to see how complicates the problem 4. Redefine the problem without the SRC influence and solve for the foreign market Self-reference criterion (SRC) as an unconscious reference to ones own cultural values, experiences and knowledge as a basis for decisions. The SRC impedes the ability to assess a foreign market in its true light. For example, Americans may perceive more traditional societies to be â€Å"backward† and â€Å"unmotivated† because they fail to adopt new technologies or social customs, seeking instead to preserve traditional values. In the 1960s, a supposedly well read American psychology professor referred to India’s culture of â€Å"sick† because, despite severe food shortages, the Hindu religion did not allow the eating of cows. The psychologist expressed disgust that the cows were allowed to roam free in villages, although it turns out that they provided valuable functions by offering milk and fertilizing fields. Ethnocentrism is the tendency to view one’s culture to be superior to others. The important thing here is to consider how these biases may come in the way in dealing with members of other cultures. Self-reference criterion importance to a marketing firm planning to enter international markets for the first time. Importance of Self-reference criterion as a topic of research Self-reference is a topic whose theoretical foundations have so far primarily been studied in the context of logic, the philosophy of language, systems theory, and post-modern culture. In computer science it has been a topic in the context of the recursively of Turing machines. In semiotics, there have been only few studies which have dealt explicitly with this topic, although marginal reflections on self reference can occasionally be found in the context of the theory of reference. Levels and degrees of self-reference criterion: Examples from advertising Just as signs may self-referentially refer to the world of signs, the media may refer to the world of the media in a self-referential manner. Citations, intertextuality, intermediality, met textual references, repetitions, recursions, and references to the communicative situation are some of the symptoms of self-reference in the media. Various degrees of self-reference must be distinguished, from the sign that refers to nothing but itself to the sign that refers only partially to itself and partially still to something else. Furthermore, self reference occurs at different levels of the message in which it occurs. Beginning with the smallest elements of the message, the first three levels of self-reference are derived from Peirce’s trichotomy of the interpret ant: 34 rheumatic (equivalent to the unit of a word), dicentic (equivalent to a proposition), and argumentative self-reference. In extension of this Peircean triad, textual, intertextual, intermedial and communicative self-reference will be distinguished. Communicative self-reference criterion Communicative self-reference pertains to pragmatics, the situation of text production and reception. The roles of the readers or the spectators and the enunciative roles of the authors, the producers, the actors or the players become the topic of the message. Instead of presenting or representing ideas or events in the world beyond the message, the text deals with its own communicative context, its communicative function, and its presuppositions. The text has thus its own pragmatic dimension as its topic. For example, the audience of a film is reminded of the fact that it is participating in the film while sitting in the film theatre. 38 Peter Greeanway’s actors that step out of their role as actors and mingle with the audience, or Alfred Hitchcock, who steps out of the role of a film producer to become an actor are further examples of communicative self-reference. B) International marketer must have knowledge of sub cultural groups Introduction Culture is concerned with social behaviour and attitudes, and this paper aims to highlight its significance for entry into foreign markets. Culture has been defined as â€Å"the integrated sum total of learned behaviour traits that are manifest and shared by members of a society†. Cultural factors have been itemized in the existing literature, but clearly among the most important are: customer beliefs and attitudes; morality, ethics and religion; social and consumption values; language and literature; social systems and social behaviour (especially the family); historical background; arts and aesthetics. Two authoritative studies have identified concepts of culture both as barriers to entry and as dynamic movers (Herkovits, 1970, Clutterbuck 1980). Furthermore, insufficient research attention has focused on defining more conceptual approaches to the internationalization of retailing and there is an even greater paucity of research into strategies for retailer entry modes; this is the main justification for this paper. In researching their approach to overseas markets, retailers must consider that culture can have an impact on their merchandising and promotion. The culture in which a person lives affects his/her consumption patterns and also the meaning that is attached to specific products. When promoting merchandise in a new culture, it is easier initially to appeal to existing culture requirements or expectations than to try to change them. Merchandising and promotion must be sensitive to the basic values of the country and the differences in patterns of consumption. Case Example (1) Entry into the Swiss Market In Switzerland, foreign dishwasher manufacturers and retailers expected the same rapid sales they had first obtained in other West European markets; but sales in Switzerland were so slow that research had to be done to find out why (this research should, of course, should have been done before, not after, market entry). The research showed that the Swiss housewife had a different set of values to, for example, her French and English counterparts; she was very conscious of her role as strict and hardworking, and her responsibility for the health of her family. To the Swiss housewife dishwashers simply made life easy, and this conflicted with her Calvinistic work ethic. As a result of this research, dishwasher manufacturers had to change their advertising – promoting, instead of ease-and convenience, hygiene-and-health. They did this by emphasizing that because dishwashers used temperatures higher than hand hot the process was more hygienic than washing up by hand. Thereafter retailers had no problem selling automatic dishwashers in Switzerland. Source: Author Cultures across countries High context culture – the meaning of individual behaviour and speech changes depending on the situation – nonverbal messages are full of important meaning (Read between the lines) – e. g. Saudi Arabia and Japan, written contracts are not always enforceable as new people move into executive positions (Chile, Mexico) Low context culture – intentions are expressed verbally – the situation does not change the meaning of words – e. g. India, China, Australia, New Zealand Cultural Assessment International retailers need to communicate meaning through the transmission of messages to people of different cultures if they are to succeed in the promotion of their products to enter foreign markets. Misunderstandings caused by cultural differences can seriously damage the image of a firm or product; therefore, in order to ensure the message transmitted is received in its correct form, the retailer needs to be completely aware of the implications of all the elements of the message in the foreign culture. Failure on behalf of the retailer to adapt to the intricacies of national customs and develop a rapport will lead to inadequate market entry strategies. Accurate communications are so vital that any risk of cultural misunderstanding needs to be eliminated. Firms must identify key management positions and insist that they are held, whenever possible, by someone of the same culture. Many firms make the mistake of putting nationals from the parent companies in charge of key positions within their foreign subsidiaries, often on the basis that fluency in the language is sufficient. In attempting to understand the most significant elements of the foreign culture, companies have to be vigilant and ensure a balance is maintained. There is no one method to adopt in the evaluation of other cultures for retailing purposes as the nature of the goods being offered should govern the method of assessment. The retailer must be sufficiently perceptive and guard against the over-exaggeration of the differences or the similarities between the foreign culture and its own. For example, in analyzing the United States market, a UK retailer may overemphasize a perceived common culture stemming from the common language and close political and economic relations. â€Å"A common language cannot indefinitely set the seal on a common culture when the geographical, political and economic determinants of the culture are no longer the same throughout its area. † The withdrawal of Marks and Spencer from the Canadian market in 1999 is a case in point; their precept was that the aforementioned â€Å"perceived† cultural affinity would facilitate acceptance of the St Michael brand name; in short the common language or heritage does not guarantee a common culture. A further complication in determining the important facets of a country’s culture is the existence of more than one culture or sub-culture within many nations world-wide. Table 1 lists a few states with cultural differences based along linguistic groupings and the problems these present to the international retailer. A cultural assessment will reveal a modal pattern, but a truly useful evaluation will also expose considerable variations within a group or a subset group. In fact, for some cultural characteristics, there may be a wider range within a given society than between societies. For example, young professional 25-30 year olds in Spain, France and Italy may have more in common, in terms of values, tastes and aspirations, than with their non-professional compatriots of the same age group. A cultural evaluation can be either static or dynamic. A static assessment serves only to identify the differences in variables between cultures, whereas a dynamic appraisal seeks to indicate which variables will change in the future, in what order and with what speed. For the international retailer, the identification of which changes would be readily accepted or rejected can mean the difference between success or failure. The analysis of a culture to ascertain the peculiarities of the population can be extremely expensive, time-consuming and unwieldy. Therefore, having conducted a rapid survey of key cultural elements of a nation, the international retailer with limited resources may choose to carry out a Partial Cultural Assessment which focuses on key elements fundamental to the success of its operations in any country. Table 2 shows several cultural factors, which could frustrate the progress of the operations in the event of a retailer failing to obtain accurate data from the assessment of the foreign markets; if a single element is incorrectly assessed, the effectiveness of the strategies will be diminished.

The Meaning of Aristotle Essay Topics

The Meaning of Aristotle Essay Topics Matter and form are parts of substances, but they aren't parts that you're able to divide at any technology. Since something cannot exist at all if it doesn't have any properties or activities whatsoever, prime matter doesn't exist. Aristotle stated that man proved to be a political animal by nature and therefore couldn't avoid the challenges of politics. The surprising thing about philosophy is it is remarkably user-friendly if you take it in smallish doses. It is truly a good tragedy of an excellent tragic hero. It is essential for the poet to visualize every one of the scenes when creating the plot. No superb soul is exempt from a combination of madness. Hamlet commits a string of errors which become the reason for his tragedy. Courage is among those virtues necessary to living a superior life. If you're contemplating taking some form of risk, courage may need you to find out more about the issue before acting recklessly. In result, it is clear that Hamlet isn't a fiery individual. Hamlet does not look light tempered, but it's very fit for Othello. Happiness can be attained if an individual leads a superior life. Simply, what makes one person happy does not absolutely make another individual happy. A person could acquire bad, in addition to good habits. He is not born virtuous, although at the time of birth, a person is born with the senses. Most Noticeable Aristotle Essay Topics According to Kant, the only thing which is good without qualification is a great will. It'll be self-evident once you are confronted with a decision that demands courage. For Aristotle it's very important to know the objective of something so as to comprehend how to live ethically particularly human beings. Inside my opinion such banishment wasn't in his favour. Friendship is basically a partnership. Happiness isn't good without qualification. If it is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence. The main objective of Aristotle's philosophy was supposed to find a universal reasoning approach. Aristotle's financial doctrine was based on the grounds that slavery was a pure phenomenon and have to always be the basis of production. There's another point in Aristotle's argument which can be faulty. Let's start with a couple of thoughts from Aristotle. Absolutely free Aristotle essay samples are offered on FreeEssayHelp with no payment or registration. The essay isn't the simplest task to master. With FreeEssayHelp you'll find hundreds of Aristotle essay topics in a matter of many seconds. Totally free Aristotle Poetics essay samples can be found FreeEssayHelp with no payment or registration. Aristotle's objective was supposed to think of a universal procedure for reasoning that would enable man to learn every conceivable thing about reality. Aristotle mentioned that Efficient cause is the most important supply of change. The philosopher is always open to new ideas and is unlikely to use conventional procedures that do not suit the circumstance. Rather it was the endeavor of politics to make order on the planet. Just take a peek at how you're including learning in your everyday life. Some individuals argue that the world is a completely random location, and there's no real evidence of purpose or order within it. There are a number of ways to approach this situation. Speech isn't fulfilling its function unless it's clear. The aim of debate is a practical one, to discover the result of an issue or suggestion to boost quality of life.