Global Issues. Land Reclamation. What are the alternatives to Research Paper - 1

Global Issues. Land Reclamation. What are the alternatives to expanding a nation's economy rather than land reclamation - Research Paper Example ts in four categories which comprise of Draining of wetlands, Building of artificial islands, Floating platforms built out above the water, and Housing built on poles over water. The draining of flooded wetlands is frequently used to reclaim land for agricultural use, port expansions or industrial use. As the world develops, the population increases and the demand for infrastructures of business, commercial, and housing are on the rise. Countries like Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, used this method as a way of solving the land problems in their states. In the United States, all techniques of land reclamation have been applied, but the primary one is by irrigation. Under the 1902 reclamation act, the Bureau of Reclamation provides water that has been sponsored by taxpayers to agriculturalists in dry areas in seventeen western states. The aims of reclamation include flood control, recreation, and hydroelectric power generation. Moreover, Land reclamation is not the only way a nation can improve its economy. There exist numerous ways a nation can improve its economy rather than destroying the coastline. A country can decide to major in fish production to improve its revenues, or the rare species that exist in the oceans can be a tourist attraction that will improve a countrys econo my through tourism, among others. The purpose of this study is to find out why land refilling is a concern and its historical and global context. Also, we are going to look at the reasons we should act on the landfilling issue as soon as possible and the possible solutions. Lastly, we will relate this issue as it is with Bahrain. The paper will seek to answer the question of alternatives to expanding a nation’s economy instead of land reclamation (Zeballos and Yamaguchi, 690). Reclamation is not just a local issue, but also a worldwide issue. Due to this, it has an immense significance in the current days. The landfill has been shown to produce more wealth globally, through altering

Significant Advances in Nursing Science and Resarch Research Paper

Significant Advances in Nursing Science and Resarch - Research Paper Example Today, with the developments of technology among others, the field of nursing is increasingly being confronted to respond to the changing time by engaging in different aspects and field in order to effectively contribute to the entire health care system. Nursing research therefore, has developed deeper understanding into key areas such as the practice itself, education, informatics and on administration. Currently, lot of nursing researches center on how assessment of healthcare technologies should be done; examples would be providing a wider scope of clinical researches, service organization and nursing interventions. Despite the acknowledgement of nursing research in several aspects resulting to noteworthy improvements in their knowledge, still there is much work yet to be done, most especially in the area of research-based knowledge (Polit and Beck). Figure 1. A nurse and nursing research. (ill. by Nursing Jobs LLC, 2007 & Bernadette Lau, 2007) Importance of research science in nu rsing With the type of work nursing is involved, there is a rising need for nursing to embrace a practice that is evidence based or is referred to as evidence-based practice (EBP). ... be considered as best evidence are those that result from rigorous researches and studies; hence the compelling need for nurses and those in the nursing fled to continually engage in researches using effective and sound research methods (Polit and Beck). At the economic standpoint, the gripping needs to engage in continuous research and development in the area is also a reaction to the pressing need of making healthcare not only cost efficient and sustainable, but most importantly, it should be available to the broadest possible number of people. Healthcare is becoming more and more of a social concept nowadays as manifested in the health care planning schemes of many modern countries. The nursing profession, which constitutes a major bulk of the healthcare industry must see this relevance and should start restructuring how it caters to the consumers, to insurance agencies, to government agencies and other parties involved. The goal of continued research would undoubtedly identify an d eliminate any unnecessary practice that do not promote cost-efficient healthcare – in short, best evidence practices. For example, in Europe health care concerns centers on the ageing population, the need to have patients to be discharged earlier in hospitals, the commonness of chronic disease, and highlighting the rise of the need of informal health caregivers – these factors spelled the need for a multi-disciplinary nature of nursing. Since nurses remained to have a significant chunk of the group providing health care, they are largely accountable for quality care giving condition – however, it is admitted (in the case of Europe) that research culture in the area of both nursing and care giving. There are only a number of countries in Europe that have made efforts in enhancing

Mauritius - The Scope of Ict Essay Example for Free

Mauritius The Scope of Ict Essay 1. INTRODUCTION Mauritius is a small beautiful island in the Indian Ocean, which locates 800 kilometers east of Madagascar and some 2000 kilometers off the southeast African coast. Mauritius had been served as a colony of Dutch, French and British for long. The Dutch rule started in the late sixteenth century. They named the island Mauritius after prince Maurice Van Nassau, Governor of Holland and introduced sugar cane and domestic animals in the country. The Dutch abandoned the island in 1710, and France took possession. Renamed Isle de France, Mauritius was a strategically important location in the colonial drive for dominance and used as a base for the French to attack British ships. The British captured the island in 1810 and gave it back its name Mauritius. After slavery was abolished under the British rule in 1835, Indian immigrants began arriving to work in the sugar cane fields. A small group of Chinese traders followed later. Mauritius obtained independence on 12 March 1968 and became a republic in 1992. The Republic of Mauritius consists of four islands namely Mauritius (the largest at 1’865 square kilometers), Rodrigues (104 square kilometers), the Agalega Islands (70 square kilometers), and the Cargados Carajos Shoals (1.3 square kilometers). The country is divided into municipalities and villages. It has five municipal councils in the urban areas and 126 village councils in the rural areas. The economy of Mauritius was mainly dependent on sugar and textiles. Sugarcane is grown on about 90% of the cultivated land area and accounts for 25% of export earnings. In the last few decades, Mauritius had undergone through massive developments in both its economical and social arena. From a monocrop economy, depending mainly on sugar, it diversified its economic activities into, textile and apparel industry, tourism and financial services during this period. But the island-nations new vision is to become a regional IT or dotcom hub and kick start its flagging economy, hit hard by fierce international competition and the removal of preferential access to European markets for sugar and textiles. The government has identified the potential and scope of their country in the IT outsourcing business and has set frontline priority for this sector in the economy of the nation. 2. Environmental appraisal analysis and evaluation of IT Outsourcing for Mauritius. Mauritius as a new entrant in the IT outsourcing industry, has to ensure that its micro and macro-environments are supporting to its optimum for the development of industry in the country. The PLEEST and SWOT analysis will help to understand the country’s potential to become an active player in the world IT outsourcing industry by 2010. 2.1 PLEEST analysis This analysis takes into consideration the political, economical, legal, socio-cultural, technological and environmental factors that affect the operation of the industry in the country. To create a better market for the IT out sourcing activities, these factors should be supportive to the industry and encouraging for future developments. Political: Mauritius is a republic where elections are held on a democratic style. The present MLP (Mauritian Labour Party) government led by Prime Minister Navin Chandra Ramgoolam has strong majority in the parliament. The Ramgoolam government is taking keen attention in continuing the efforts of their predecessors to make their country an outsourcing hub. The previous government has initiated strong commitment to develop the ICT industry. Three Ministerial task forces have been set up to look into the establishment of a Cyber City, the implementation of the e-Education and the e-Government projects. The government had already secured a line of credit of US$100 million from the Government of India for the implementation of these projects. Setting up of Ebene Cyber City fits in with this strong Government commitment. Economical: Mauritius has a strong economy with no foreign direct investment (FDI) control; double taxation avoidance and treaties with many other countries. Mauritius enjoys the status of a developed country in many aspects of development, which will encourage the growth of ICT industry. The Mauritian economy is dominated by five or six families, most of whose business have major operations in the IT sector. And the importance of computer in the day-to-day business operations has increased spontaneously. A 2001 survey by the National Computer Board (NCB) showed that over 80% of businesses posses at least one computer. Socio-cultural: The use of computer and Internet among the Mauritian society is steadily increasing. According to the results of a survey by NCB both home computer ownership and Internet connection of Mauritian households having telephone connectivity increased to attain 29.4% and 23.8% respectively. Today around 80% of population have telephone connection. But only 13% have own PC. All primary and secondary schools have computers. Several hundred teachers have taken computer training, which they are now applying in the classroom. There are plans to use ICT as a pedagogical tool across the curriculum from 2006, by when all teachers will have received necessary ICT training. But computerization in the tertiary level of education is less than adequate. Mauritius has a vast pool of English and French speaking population. Technological: Mauritius has very good telecom infrastructure especially with the SAFE project that places the country on the super highway. It has widespread access to both landline and mobile telephony. Preferential and highly competitive rates are proposed: the tariff for a 512 Kbps downstream / 128 Kbps upstream ADSL link is only Rs.5,500 per month. Furthermore, good redundancy is assured through both cable and satellite. Legal: The Data Protection Act was introduced in June 2004.Its main objective is to protect the individual’s rights to privacy while ensuring that personal information is lawfully and fairly obtained, processed, protected and disclosed. It also provides a framework to govern the use of customer data, hence preventing any misuse. It will give greater confidence to investors and foreign companies to invest in Mauritius. Mauritius is a signatory of the WIPO convention and it has introduced The Computer Misuse and Cyber crime Act recently. Previous laws enacted in this field were: Information and Communication Technologies Act 2001 (December 2001), Electronic Transactions Act (July 2000) and Copyright Act (September 1997). Environmental: Mauritius has a modern banking system, courier services, major brands representation and easy acquisition of equipment. Regular air and sea transport facilities are available to and from major destinations. An Incubator Centre is already operational for start-ups to encourage entrepreneurship. The NCB Incubator Centre provides facilities such as furnished office space, telecommunication facilities, etc to start-ups in the ICT sector. The country provides high quality of infrastructure with relatively lower cost than many of its competitors. 2.2 SWOT analysis Strengths: Mauritius locates in a strategic place with a unique time zone (GMT +4), so that they can work with Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa conveniently on a single day. A Bi-lingual population that speaks English and French is an advantage in doing business with countries that speaks the same language. As far as the political willingness and infrastructure is concerned Mauritius has a well defined national vision and strategy to develop the ICT industry and enhance a high quality infrastructure with relatively low cost of operation. The other features of Mauritius in favour of IT outsourcing are: †¢IT penetration †¢Special incentive packages †¢Business-friendly environment †¢Telecommunication †¢Availability of modern office space †¢Labour–related issues †¢Quality of labour †¢Low labour turnover †¢Training †¢Appropriate legal framework †¢Strong support services †¢Incubator Centre †¢Close relationship with India Weaknesses: Low scalability is the major weakness of the country. As a small Island with only1.2 million populations it lags far behind of the industry giants like India, China and Philippines in the number of skilled manpower. Training in this regard is also poor. Poor marketing skill and absence of adequate recruitment agencies are another area of weakness. Without getting proper career guidance the right candidates are seeking other shelters than IT. High cost of financing and telecommunication create hindrance for new ventures to come and existing one to survive. Labour related issues are another problem to be rectified. Opportunities: Connection to the South Africa-Far East (SAFE) fibre optic submarine cable, which connects 40 countries, provides Mauritius a great opportunity to link with the global digital economy. Having a population with expertise in English and French, they have opportunity in the UK and France. Low labour turnover in Mauritius is another attraction. Decision of leading global financial institutions to outsource their activities gives abundant opportunity to Mauritius. As Mauritius follows the same accounting standards as UK, it can benefit from this opportunity by outsourcing financial activities to this country. Proper training to its accountants should be given in French accounting standards also to target French market. Many outsourcer countries, when they seek offshore outsourcing, rely on quality rather than cost. This will be an opportunity for Mauritius. Threats: There are severe threats to Mauritius from new potential competitors like Czech Republic and Hungary for both English and French segment. Legislations against offshore outsourcing causes another threat to its goal of becoming a frontline outsourcing destination. 2.3. The world Out Sourcing market The worldwide IT Outsourcing market is rapidly growing, which is estimated to grow around $400bn in 2010. The US remains the leader in the outsourcers list with around 60% of the world market while India stood first in the recipients list. But the picture is changing rapidly. The outsourcing countries are increasing both in terms of number and revenue stream. Europe has now been turned as a potential outsourcer. Studies shows that outsourcing spending of Europe is growing faster than the US. In which UK register a dramatic rise in growth with a amazing 45% growth in 2002 and the trend is continuing. Another trend in the market is that the increasing number of countries which strives to become potential outsourcing destinations and achieving success in this field. For instance Maghreb countries like Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria are emerging as strong outsourcing destinations and Czech Republic and Hungary proved potential from Europe. 2.4 Market segmentation: French and English speaking countries As a nation which strives to become an IT outsourcing destination for other countries, Mauritius should adopt macro- segmentation i.e. segment their markets on the basis of geographical location, industry and organisational size. Being a bilingual society that can speak both English and French and with close cultural tie up with these two societies, Mauritius should concentrate on French speaking countries as well as countries which use English. In the case of Mauritius, it is difficult for them to concentrate on large organisation as they are a novice in the field of outsourcing and has been treated as less experienced and expertise in relation to the outsourcing giants like India, Philippines and China etc. Another common macro-segmentation variable is industry sector. Different industries may have unique requirements from products. In the context of IT outsourcing, Mauritius can provide outsourcing service to various industries like banking, manufacturing, healthcare, education an d so on. By understanding each industries needs in depth, a more effective marketing mix can be designed. In the case of IT outsourcing, it is very common that countries adopt geographical segmentation because the geographical location of the outsourcer country vis-à  -vis that of the outsourcing country plays a vital role in getting order. For example, India has a unique geographical location with US. Both these countries locate in the opposites on the globe. By outsourcing business to India, the US companies can do business 24 hours without any interruption. Mauritius has got a convenient geographical location with a favourable time zone (+4 GMT), which helps them to provide service to Europe, Asia and Americas. As the US and Europe contributes the lions share of outsourcing activities, there is harsh competition prevails between the major outsourcing recipient countries. Most of the American MNC giants prefer outsourcing their activities in India because of its high skilled and low cost characteristics and unique time gap it has with India. The trend in the US is that, majority of their outsourcers prefer leaders like India, China, Philippines, Russia and Malayasia. So, it will be difficult for Mauritius to succeed in this market. 3. Target Markets A target market consists of a set of buyers who share common needs or characteristics that the company decides to serve Kotler,P. et. al (1996).Having man power strength that is expertise in both English and French, Mauritius can set France and UK as their target markets. The details of each target markets are given below: Most of the existing outsourcing companies in Mauritius have as origin France and UK. In 2003, out of 20 outsourcing companies in Mauritius, 3 were UK based company and 7 were French. There were another 5 companies with capital of Mauritius and France/ UK. Mauritius has then already a good relationship with these two countries. Mauritius has got a strategic advantage over their competitors in terms of linguistic skill when working with these two countries. As Mauritius had been a colony of both Britain and France for long, they have inherited from these countries many aspects of their culture including language. A bi-lingual population who can speak both English and French is an asset if they work with these countries. Mauritius’s unique time zone with these two countries, the existing good relationship with those industries and the growing outsourcing market in UK and France are extending huge opportunity to Mauritius to operate in those markets. 3.1 UK 3.1.1 Profile UK is a rapidly growing market of IT outsourcing. Studies have proved that the number of companies in UK that outsourcing its operations are increasing. Both the private and public sector industries in the country are now giving preference to outsource their activities to offshore. It is the UK which stood second after the US in the worlds largest outsourcers list and this trend will continue because of the more liberal employment and labour laws (McKinsey, 2004).As a result of which competition is becoming aggressive in the UK market. A study conducted by kable Market Intelligence Services reveals that the IT and business processing outsourcing market is to grow by a staggering 78% by 2007 with annual spend reaching  £6bn. According to this study report, It is the public sector like local government, criminal justice and education, which will grow faster during this period. There is a rapidly increasing trend among the businesses in the UK for outsourcing their activities offshore. The management of many companies believe outsourcing their business will add their corporate value. The report conducted by the Centre for Economic and Business Research shows that companies that outsource business will outperform their peers and could create additional shareholder value. As a result, new and new companies join the group of outsourcers each day. One economic forecast shows that outsourcing has the potential to be worth $648 billion by 2010up 52 per cent on 2004.It shows that UK will be one of the biggest outsourcer countries in the next decade also. 3.1.2Financial and Public sector services Recent Studies show that there would be an amazing hike in the outsourcing activities of UK’s public sector and financial service industry in the coming years. According to them these two industries are planning invest millions of pounds for outsourcing activities by 2010. Financial service sector: Financial services sector is the second largest outsourcer in the UK after the manufacturing industry. With the expansion of globalisation and aggressive competition followed by it, the leading banking and investment companies plans to outsource their primary activities in order to reduce cost and concentrate on their core activities (Logica CMG report, 2004). Most of the companies think outsourcing is an essential tool of their success and without it they may ultimately loose in the industry. Mauritius has a good pool of skilled chartered accountants, who have experience and expertise in UK accounting standards. India’s patronage to Mauritius is an advantage to them to enter in to this segment. Mauritius should use its connection with India for getting training to its workforce and get entry to the UK market. Public sector services: A study conducted by Kable, an organisation that provides technology research and analysis on the UK government and public services sector, suggests that almost one fifth of public sector services ( £60bn) could be delivered through outsourcing to private and voluntary bodies. Principle sectors targeted for this treatment appear to be the health and education sectors, which are subject to frequent reforms with very uncertain success to date. Here, quality is more concerned than cost Mauritius can make use of this situation by extending highly accurate and good quality service at an industry competent price. 3.1.3 PESTLE analysis of UK Political: Government and political parties have high concern for liberalisation process. They encourage the outsourcing activities because they believe it will bring prosperity to their nation. Economical: The economy of UK is the most liberalised on in Europe. High competition existing in the market demands more and more ways of cost reduction from the part of businesses. As a result, outsourcing jobs to other countries continues its growth. Social: British society is highly concerned about profit and better performance. They are not much worried about job security and protection. This gives confidence to companies to go ahead with outsourcing activities. Technological: Almost 100% of businesses in the UK use computers and Internet. They are very fond of new technologies. As a result more and more companies come to the list of outsourcers. Legal: UK enjoys a liberal employment and labour laws, which in turn result in the high performance of businesses. They have more freedom to choose their strategy of operation and so, companies are exempted from legal barriers to offshore business. 3.1.4 Competitor analysis Potential new entrants: Threat from new entrants will be very high in the UK market, because unlike France UK deals with industry giants like India, china, Philippines and other European countries. It is not very tough for a potential new entrant to enter into British market, as the language skill is not a barrier for these countries. But surviving in the market is very tough because of the presence of India and China; they can provide high quality of services with amazingly low cost. Bargaining power of buyer: UK has high bargaining power over Mauritius because they have so many suppliers to provide excellent services with low cost. But in the case of Mauritius they have not many suppliers, so that they will force to take stringent measures to improve the quality of service in each time. Industry competitors: Competition in the UK industry is tough with the presence of almost all the leading out sourcing countries in the world. Still the opportunity there is increasing for potential new countries as a result of increased liberalisation and competition followed by it. Out sourcing recipients are competing in reducing cost While maintaining the high quality of their service. But studies in this regard reveals that they can’t go beyond a certain level because the bargaining power of their suppliers (Skilled labour) increasing. Competitive differentiation: Mauritius can use their high skilled accountants to give services to financial sector companies in the UK. As the country uses the UK accounting standard, it will be an advantage to them. Studies have proved that the global financial giants are going to offshore their activities by 2007. 3.1.5 Positioning: Cost is a concern for many outsourcers in the UK. As cutting operational cost is one of the prominent aim behind outsourcing, companies that go for outsourcing their activities will turn to clients who provides quality services with low cost. In the present situation Mauritius is far behind other competitors in the industry in terms of cost and size. It cannot compete with leaders in the industry on cost in the near future. In this context, Mauritius has to provide high quality service in order to attain business from UK. Leading companies in UK is following a multi-country strategy for outsourcing their operations after the terrorist attack on Sept.2001. In such a circumstance they are avoiding the cost concept and giving much attention to quality and safety. This gives opportunity to Mauritius to position themselves in UK by offering high quality service.

Applying Cue Utilization Theory

Applying Cue Utilization Theory Evaluating Website Quality: Applying Cue Utilization Theory to WebQual Abstract   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cue Utilization Theory is applied to examine the relative importance of each of the WebQual dimensions (Informational Fit-to-Task, Tailored Information, Trust, Response Time, Ease of Understanding, Intuitive Operations, Visual Appeal, Innovativeness, Emotional Appeal, Consistent Image, On-line Completeness, and Relative Advantage) in determining consumers evaluation of website quality. Two studies have been designed for this task. Study 1 qualifies how subjects rate the predictive value (PV) and confidence value (CV) of each dimension. An analysis of these results provides an ability to fit the WebQual dimensions to a 22 model showing the relative magnitude that each dimension has on consumers evaluation of website quality. Study 2 is designed to test the viability of the model via a set of proposed hypotheses. The results from this research will contribute to the field by providing a model that developers can utilize to focus on those characteristics most determi nistic of overall website quality. 1. Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the last ten years, online shopping has become a prevalent part of the average consumers shopping experience. The consumer now has the ability to purchase virtually anything online; ranging from small-ticket items such as a rubber-band ball to bigticket items like vacation homes. With this increase in the online consumers purchasing power and propensity to purchase online, retailers have become increasingly willing to develop their e-commerce presence. Moreover, this explosion of Internet activity has prompted businesses to demand that website developers understand the qualities of a website that serve to facilitate the shopping experience for e-commerce consumers. At the same time, this growth of e-commerce has provided a virtual plethora of new options for crimes of opportunity such as identity theft. The online shopper has to worry not only about finding the perfect product, but they also have to evaluate the website to determine if they are willing to make a purchase from this site.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Valacich, Parboteeah and Wells [1] developed the Online Consumers Hierarchy of Needs to delineate the needs of the online consumer. Their model showed that certain fundamental needs exist that the online consumer must have met before they are willing to utilize a website. These fundamental needs are then further broken down into the specific website characteristic categories of Functional Convenience, Representational Delight and Structural Firmness. Functional Convenience is the category allowing the consumer to accomplish the task-athand easily and includes attributes, such as ease of ordering and tracking. Representational Delight is characterized by those dimensions that make the site visually appealing, such as graphics and sizing. Structural Firmness consists of fundamental qualities such as response time and security. Using this Hierarchy of Needs, a consumer interested in online banking would need to have their basic need for each of these characteristics met before they would be willing to use the website.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This Hierarchy of Needs model shows those characteristics that are necessary for a consumer to utilize a website, and further elaborates by showing which characteristics are most important depending on if the consumer is visiting the website for business, pleasure or a combination of the two [1]. Knowing these characteristics is important for development of the website, but also implies that the consumers level of confidence in evaluating these characteristics of a website is of particular importance to their overall assessment of a given websites quality. Traditional marketing literature suggests that when people make assessments of quality, they tend to use informational cues that are not only predictive, but also easy to assess. This is known as the Cue Utilization Theory [2], and has been paramount in evaluating consumers perceptions of product quality.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This research project elaborates on consumers inability to evaluate all relevant cues during the online shopping experience. A model is developed using Cue Utilization Theory [2] and WebQual [3] to show the attributes of a website that are the most determinant of how a consumer will react to the website. This model will provide a deeper understanding of the evaluation of existing and proposed websites with respect to consumers confidence in evaluating the cues communicated by the website. 2. Cue Utilization Theory   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Richardson, Dick and Jain [2] employed Cue Utilization Theory in their research to determine how consumers viewed store brand quality vs. nationally branded merchandise. According to this theory, â€Å" products consist of an array of cues that serve as surrogate indicators of quality to shoppers† [2]. This theory purports that cues are evoked by the two separate dimensions of predictive and confidence values. The predictive value (PV) is â€Å" the degree to which consumers associate a given cue with product quality† [2]. Confidence value (CV) is â€Å" the degree to which consumers have confidence in their ability to use and judge that cue accurately† [2].   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Further, based on relative differences in PV and CV, cues can be broken down into the distinct areas of extrinsic and intrinsic. The American Heritage dictionary describes intrinsic as, â€Å"Of or relating to the essential nature of a thing; inherent† [4] and extrinsic as, â€Å"not forming an essential or inherent part of a thing; extraneous.† [5] From this definition, an intrinsic attribute would be one that would fundamentally alter the focal object (e.g., product) if it was changed or absent and, per Cue Utilization Theory, would possess an inherently high degree of PV. Alternatively, an extrinsic attribute would be one that would not alter the fundamental nature of the focal object in its absence but might alter a consumers reaction or perceptions of the object. Per Cue Utilization theory, an extrinsic cue would typically have higher degrees of CV compared to PV.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For example, when looking at a video card on an e-commerce website it could be said that the product price is an example of an extrinsic attribute of the video card. While the video cards dimensions and material composition of the video card serve as intrinsic indicators. Further, you could postulate that the average consumer has a higher CV in their ability to judge the quality of the card based on the price rather than the material composition. Though the consumer knows that the dimensions and material composition of the card are important, they will tend to rely on price as an informational cue, as that is the cue that they feel the most comfortable evaluating.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When considering the quality of a website there are a myriad of dimensions that the consumer mustevaluate to determine if they intend to perform a transaction on this website. From the Valacich et al [1] article the consumers basic needs in terms of Structural Firmness, Functional Convenience and Representational Delight must all be met before the consumer will consider doing business. To determine if these needs are being met the consumer will evaluate the cues they perceive as being exhibited from the website. These cues can be further broken down into components by utilizing the WebQual model [3]. 3. WebQual   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  WebQual consists of 12 dimensions: Informational Fit-to-Task, Tailored Information, Trust, Response Time, Ease of Understanding, Intuitive Operations, Visual Appeal, Innovativeness, Emotional Appeal, Consistent Image, On-line Completeness, and Relative Advantage. Each of these dimensions is shown to have strong measurement validity in regards to the consumers evaluation of overall website quality [3].   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Information fit-to-task is an amalgamation of information quality and functional fit-to-task [3]. In component form, information quality refers to the datas appropriateness for use or ability to meet the users needs [6]. Functional Fit-to-Task can be represented as the degree the technology assists the user at a given task [7]. Drawing these two components back together as a whole and relating them to cyberspace lends credence to the definition that information fit-to-task is assisting the user in their desired task by presenting relevant/appropriate information. Loiacono, Chen, and Goodhue [8] define this as â€Å"The information provided meets task needs and improves performance†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The ability for consumers to tailor the information displayed on a website to meet their needs is the basic form of Tailored Information. Tailored Information is further characterized by Ghose and Dou [9] as the interactivity of the website, and represents the consumers ability to modify information presented on the website. Recent research suggests that website interactivity will lead consumers to be more positive in their evaluation of websites [9]. This concept has also been operationalized as the ability to personalize information between the consumer and the website [8,10]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Trust, in relation to websites, is defined in an extremely simple form as consumers confidence that any information entered into the website will remain confidential and that said information will be transmitted and stored in a secure fashion [8]. Furthermore, trust is having faith that the information presented on the website is true and accurate [11,12]. Lack of Trust has been cited as one of the main hindrances to completion of e-commerce transactions [14,11,15]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Response Time (aka. download time or download delay) is defined by Rose and Straub [16] as â€Å" the time it takes for a web client to fully receive, process, and display files† (p. 56), and is ranked as one of the largest impediments to electronic commerce in their research. Additional research has reinforced that Response Time can be an impediment to e-Commerce, and that is it also strongly associated with web site success [17,18]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The consumers ease in comprehending the website is the Ease of Understanding. Loiacono et al. [8] describe this in terms of a websites ease of reading and the understandability of said website. This would include things like presenting the information in a manner which is easy for the consumer to assimilate, and in a fashion such that the consumer can quickly navigate to the desired information.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Intuitive Operations deals with the usability of a website, and includes items such as navigability, link placement, operation, and changing the color of visited links [19]. Intuitive Operations could be thought of as making the webpage easy to navigate, and providing intuitive options for available tasks [8]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Visual Appeal is how aesthetically pleasing the website is to the consumer. Determining what is aesthetically pleasing is complicated though; it ranges from the overall complexity of the website [20] and the layout of the interface [21] to how many ads and graphics are appropriate on a given page[22]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Innovativeness is â€Å"The creativity and uniqueness of a site design† [8]. This could include concepts such as a website having a new way of presenting its merchandise (e.g. Woot.com) or a website attempting to tailor the information to consumer preferences (e.g. Amazon.com)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Emotional Appeal can be elicited in many forms and can be thought of as the consumers intensity of involvement given the emotions that the website elicits [8]. This is often seen in the form of testimonials presented on the website, but can also be observed by simple things such as a consumers reaction to a Valentines Day card.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Loiacono et al. [8] articulate Consistent Image as the websites ability to project a company image that is compatible with the company image shown in other forms of media channels. For instance, a traditional brick-and-mortal store would want to ensure that their website was displaying a compatible image so that they could capitalize on synergies created by marketing in multiple channels such as cost savings, market extension and improved Trus [23].   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Presenting all the information required for the tasks that the website is designed for would be considered On-line Completeness. This would include tasks such as the ability to complete an online transaction on e-commerce sites. A bank for instance would want ubiquitous account access using all available channels, and the information presented in each of these channels has to be on the same update cycle as to present the customer the same information regardless of channel [6].   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Relative Advantage is gaining a competitive advantage by being able to do something better than the competition. This could come in the form of providing better interaction with the customer through the website [8], being able to provide more accurate and timely data through your website than the competition [6] or being able to price products lower than the competition because of reduced prices in your supply chain. Each of these dimensions is then tied back into the consumers intention to use/reuse the site. Trust and Response Time, being key indicators, are directly linked to the consumers intention to use the site. Common sense would tell us that consumers are not going to shop on a site that does not respond rapidly to requests. Likewise, if users dont trust the site to keep their information secure, they are not likely to supply the information in the first place. The remaining dimensions are all fully mediated by Usefulness, Ease of Use and Entertainment. Usefulness mediates Informational Fit-to-Task, Tailored Information, Online Completeness and Relative Advantage. Additionally, Ease of Use is partially mediated by Usefulness. Ease of Use mediates Ease of Understanding and Intuitive Operations. Finally, Entertainment mediates Visual Appeal, Innovativeness, Emotional Appeal and Consistent Image (See WebQual model in Figure 1).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Consumers do not just browse a site and evaluate each of these individual traits though. Consumers instead tend to examine a website using those cues that they feel confident in their ability to evaluate successfully. To understand this issue further, WebQual needs to be combined with Cue Utilization Theory to explain the extrinsic/intrinsic nature of each of these dimensions. 4. Cue Utilization/WebQual Conceptual Model   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As Valacich et al [1] point out; consumers must have their basic level of needs met before any of the other elements of the website can become relevant to the consumers experience. To validate that these basic needs have been met, the consumer will evaluate those features that they believe to be highly predictive of the quality of the website. This evaluation will then be indicative of their willingness to continue to use the website.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Both extrinsic and intrinsic cues serve a function in the consumers overall evaluation of the quality of a website, which means that such cues possess varying degrees of PV and CV. Literature has shown that consumers tend to use a combination of both extrinsic and intrinsic cues when evaluating the quality of a product [2]. An argument can be made about the extrinsic versus intrinsic nature of each of the dimensions in the WebQual model.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Intrinsic cues are those cues that are inherent to a website. Conceptually they are the cues that when changed fundamentally alter a characteristic of the website (e.g. Visual Appeal). Consumers tend to see these cues as being highly predictive of quality [2]. At the same time, consumers may or may not have a high degree of confidence in their ability to evaluate these intrinsic cues because these cues are often difficult to differentiate. Thus, assuming a Cue Utilization Theory perspective, a website characteristic that is perceived to be an intrinsic cue would have an inherently high degree of PV. Yet, the power of an intrinsic cue for assessments of quality will depend on the CV of the cue, with higher levels of CV being optimal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Extrinsic cues are those cues that are used to evaluate a website but are not an inherent part of the website (e.g. Response Time). Consumers tend to have a lot of confidence in their ability to evaluate these cues in regards to assessment of quality [2]. On [the other hand, consumers typically do not rate these cues as being highly predictive (as compared to intrinsic cues) of the overall quality of the website. Considering extrinsic cues from a Cue Utilization Theory perspective, a website characteristic that is perceived to be an extrinsic cue would have an inherently high degree of CV.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Shown in Table 1 is a 22 matrix representing how each of the combinations of CV and PV will influence consumers willingness to perform tasks on a given website. As shown, characteristics with high CV and high PV are believed to have the largest effect on consumers perceptions of website quality. Those with low CV and PV would have a small to none existent effect, and those high on one dimension but low on the other would have a moderate effect. Next, we will posit about how varying degrees of cue PVs and CVs, respectively, will affect consumer perceptions of overall website quality.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Relative Advantage is often considered an important aspect of websites as discussed previously. However, from a Cue Utilization Theory perspective the consumer may experience, at most, only a vague feeling about the Relative Advantage of the website. As such they would not place much value in their confidence in assessing this characteristic, which would result in a low CV. Along the same lines the average consumer would also not really take Relative Advantage into consideration when they were performing tasks, implying a relatively low level of PV. Thus, website characteristics that fall into the quadrant in the model with low levels of both PV and CV would have a small impact on consumers willingness to perform tasks on a website. H1: A website characteristic with low CV low PV will produce a small to none existent effect on the consumers perception of website quality.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A characteristic such as Trust is highly predictive of consumers willingness to use a website, but the average consumer may not have much confidence in their ability to evaluate this characteristic. Trust in an online medium has been shown to be an attribute that is hard for the consumer to evaluate and in some cases to even define. Cue Utilization Theory suggests that though this characteristic is highly predictive of website quality, consumers lack of confidence in evaluating the characteristic may inhibit their ability to use the characteristic to assess the quality of the website. Moreover, dimensions in this quadrant, high PV/Low CV, have been shown to be relatively intrinsic to the website [2], and will have a moderate effect on the consumers evaluation of the websites quality. H2a: A website characteristic with low CV high PV will produce a moderate effect on consumers perception of website quality.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One could reason that Response Time is a good example of an extrinsic attribute because it is not part of the inherent composition of the website. Rather, Response Time could be considered extrinsic because it can vary without changing anything about the content of the website. Rose and Straub [16] have shown in their research that consumers tend to attribute lack of responsiveness to extrinsic factors such as the overall speed of the internet, their own internet connection being slow, or other factors. In general, consumers seem to be willing to give the website the benefit of the doubt when slow response times are encountered, and as such, Response Time could be considered extrinsic to the website because it doesnt fundamental change the consumers perception of the website when it is altered. Based on Cue Utilization theory attributes with a low PV and high CV (such as Response Time) will only have a moderate influence on the consumers evaluations of website qua lity, and those dimensions belonging to this quadrant would be extrinsic to the website [2]. H2b: A website characteristic with high CV low PV will produce a moderate effect on consumers perception of website quality.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cue Utilization Theory suggests that those characteristics with High CV and PV are the most highly predictive of consumers perception of website quality. Visual Appeal could be considered an intrinsic attribute because it is a characteristic inherent to the website that consumers are confident in using to evaluate website quality. One could further speculate that Visual Appeal is intrinsic to the website because if the Visual Appeal of the website was changed it would alter the inherent nature of the website. Lindgaard, Fernandes, Dudek, and Browà ± [24] have shown in their research that consumers form opinions about websites within the first 50 milliseconds (ms) of exposure. Furthermore, this initial perception of websites is almost entirely based on Visual Appeal; this was shown by correlating the ratings between 50 ms and 500 ms. However, though this attribute is intrinsic it shows an optimally high level of CV and PV thus placing it firmly into the high impac t quadrant. Dimensions in this quadrant would exhibit the optimal balance between PV and CV (i.e., an optimal intrinsic cue), and as such this quadrant of the table is hypothesized to have the largest impact on the consumers evaluation of the websites quality. H3: A website characteristic with high CV high PV will produce the largest effect on consumers perception of website quality. 5. Research Method   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To test these hypotheses two empirical studies will be administered. Study 1 is designed to determine where each of the WebQual dimensions fit into the 22 model shown in Table 1. Furthermore, this study is designed to determine if a significant difference can be perceived to exist between each of the dimensions when rank ordered by PV and CV. Study 2 will test the hypotheses by collecting data on each of these dimensions using a sample website, and comparing actual results to those found in the first study. 5.1 Study 1   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This study will focus on determining the CV and PV for each of the 12 dimensions of website quality, and determining if there is a significant difference between adjacent dimensions when rank ordered. 5.1.1 Subjects. Approximately 500 subjects will be recruited from an introductory Information Systems class held on campus at a large Northwestern University. Additionally, approximately 125 subjects will also be recruited from a distance education class offered by the same university. Subjects physically present on campus will complete the survey during their regular lecture times, and the distance education participants will have one week to complete the survey on their own personal computer. All data for Study 1 will be collected during the fall of 2009. Subjects will be given course credit for completing the survey, and no other incentives will be provided. 5.1.2 Survey Procedure. The survey is broken into two sections, one for CV and one for PV. In the CV section subjects are presented with a scenario about shopping on the Internet and asked about their confidence in assessing each of the 12 WebQual dimensions when shopping on the Internet for a product (e.g. Amazon.com) or Service (e.g. Bank of America). For this series of questions, the subjects will be required to rate each of the 12 WebQual dimensions on a 10-point likert-type scale with Confident/Not Confident being the top and bottom end of the scale. Finally, the subjects are asked to rank order the dimensions from the ones they have the highest confidence in assessing to the ones they have the least confidence in assessing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second section is designed to measure the PV of each of the 12 dimensions. Subjects are put in a hypothetical situation where they are in charge of designing a website for their employer. The first step towards designing the website is to decide the relative importance of each of the twelve dimensions in regards to consumers evaluation of the overall website quality. For this series of questions, the subjects will be required to rate each of the 12 dimensions on a 10-point likert-type scale with Important/Not Important being the top and bottom end of the scale. The subjects are then asked to rank order each of the 12 dimensions with respect to how predictive of website quality the subject believes each dimension to be. 5.1.3 Data Analysis. Aggregating the results of this data collection will allow each of the dimensions to be mapped to a CV and PV scale. Based on the relative PV and CV scores, each of the dimensions will be integrated into the 22 matrix shown in Table 1. Furthermore, the relative magnitude of each dimension will indicate the relative effect each dimension will have on the overall rating of website quality. 5.2 Study 2   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This study will utilize subjects from an introductory Information Systems class taught in the fall of 2009. Approximately 500 students will participate. This study will focus on first determining the overall quality attributed to a website by the subjects, and secondly how the subjects rate each of the twelve WebQual dimensions for each website. Using regression analysis, we should then be able to show that the model accurately predicts the website quality based on the rating of each of the 12 dimensions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Furthermore, the pattern of results from this study will examine how well the WebQual dimensions fit to the quadrant they were assigned in Study 1, and that the model developed in Study 1 is predictive of the responses received in Study 2. Those dimensions that serve as the highest-level indicators of website quality should be rated the highest by the subjects, and those that are the lowest should be rated likewise. Ideally, this study should provide significant support for each of the proposed hypotheses, and indicate which of the dimensions should be of highest consideration when constructing a high quality website. Initial data for both of these studies should be ready to share at the conference, should the paper be accepted. 6. Discussion and Potential Contribution   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As shown in the model, the most important considerations when developing a website are those attributes that reside in the high CV and high PV quadrant. Online businesses should pay particular attention to the characteristics in this quadrant, as the consumer will tend to utilize these dimensions the most when determining the overall quality of the website. All businesses seeking to perform transactions within the e-commerce channel should pay heed to these recommendations, but online retailers need to pay particular attention, as this is the primary channel through which they produce revenue.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Of secondary importance to consumers are the Low CV/High PV and High CV/Low PV quadrants. If an online business seeks to capitalize on one of the dimensions within these quadrants, they need to pay particular attention to how they will nudge the consumer into using these dimensions for evaluation of website quality. This could potentially be accomplished through educational campaigns or marketing literature. Finally, the low CV/Low PV quadrant is of limited value to the online retailer, and should be removed from consideration when developing a website. This article seeks to contribute to the field by providing a model that can be used to enable web developers to effectively predict the overall quality of a website based on its design. In following this model, the developer will need to pay particular attention to those attributes that are highly predictive, from the consumers viewpoint, of overall website quality, and as such, the website should be designed in a fashion that encourages the consumer to conduct transactions. Additionally, the consumer will be motivated to perform future transactions from this website because they are familiar with the layout and possess a high confidence in the overall quality of the website. 7. Limitations and Future Research   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The primary limitation of this model is that it is an untested conceptual model. The assumptions contained herein are as of yet ungrounded in solid empirical evidence; furthermore, this model was designed around e-commerce websites designed to sell products to end consumers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Future research could delve into decomposing those elements that are the most highly predictive of website quality. This research could take each dimension and decompose them to their base elements to discover what it is about the dimension that makes it highly predictive of website quality. Additionally, the extrinsic/intrinsic nature of each of the dimensions could be explored to determine how a company can best capitalize on these dimensions when trying to sell the consumer on the quality of their website. Either of these approaches could prove invaluable to the field, as they will begin to give the developer a specific set of principles to follow when developing a high quality website. 8. Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cue Utilization Theory is a concept that has been used in marketing for years to determine why consumers react differently to a given product. The author of this article has overlaid Cue Utilization theory upon WebQual to design a model that is predictive of the dimensions serving to form the consumers overall feel for the quality of a website. Using this model, website designers will be able to build a website that consumers will be more confident in assessing the quality of, and as such, the consumer will gain confidence in performing transactions on this website. 9. References J.S. Valacich, D.V. Parboteeah, and J.D. Wells, â€Å"The online consumers hierarchy of needs,† Commun. ACM, Vol. 50, No. 9, pp. 84-90, 2007. P.S. Richardson, A.S. Dick, and A.K. Jain, â€Å"Extrinsic and intrinsic cue effects on perceptions of store brand quality.,† Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58, No. 4, p. 28, Oct. 1994. E.T. Loiacono, R.T. Watson, and D.L. Goodhue, â€Å"WebQual: An Instrument for Consumer Evaluation of Web Sites.,† International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 51-87, Spring. 2007. â€Å"intrinsic,† The American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. â€Å"extrinsic,† The American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. C. Cappiello, C. Francalanci, and B. Pernici, â€Å"Time-Related Factors of Data Quality in Multichannel Information Systems.,† Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 71-91, Winter. 2003. D.L. Goodhue and R.L. Thompson, â€Å"Task-Technology Fit and Individual Performance.,† MIS Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 213-236, Jun. 1995. E.T. Loiacono, D. Chen, and D.L. Goodhue, â€Å"WebQual TM Revisited: Predicting the Intent to Reuse a Web Site,† AMCIS 2002 Proceedings, p. Paper 46, 2002. S. Ghose and W. Dou, â€Å"Interactive Functions and Their Impacts on the Appeal of Internet Presence Sites.,† Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 38, No. 2, pp. 29-43, Mar. 1998. R.T. Rust and K.N. Lemon, â€Å"E-Service and the Consumer.,† International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 85-101, Spring. 2001. D.H. McKnight, V. Choudhury, and C. Kacmar, â€Å"Developing and Validating Trust Measures for e-Commerce: An Integrative Typology.,† Information Systems Research, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 334-359, 2002. R. Pennington, H.D. Wilcox, and V. Grover, â€Å"The Role of System Trust in Business-to-Consumer Transactions.,† Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 197-226, Winter. 2003. J. Kim, J

Distinguishing the Difference in News Coverage among International and

Distinguishing the Difference in News Coverage among International and Domestic Images Not Included Identifying a Variance in News Coverage It became evident throughout our investigation that separating domestic news source sites from international news source sites would be beneficial in addressing our question of the variance in coverage among these news sources when identifying natural disasters throughout the world. With the objective of properly addressing this inquiry, we decided upon a proposition in order to accurately identify whether a difference in news source coverage truly exists. Therefore, we propose that world reports provide more specifications about international involvement in natural disasters rather than reports from the United States alone. This as a result insinuates that U.S. reports will have present information about U.S. aid and involvement. In turn, to properly address this proposal, we have further dissected the topic of discussion into five segments that will equally address the above mentioned proposal and discuss how the global culture manifests as it comes into being. Consequently, the di scussion of domestic rebuilding; foreign aid; poverty stricken areas; displaced families and populations; and, environmental cause and effect will be the five subtopics identifying the variance among news sources in alignment with our proposal. Before diverging into subtopics regarding natural disasters, it will be important to discuss more technical aspects of the research in order to visualize the research we were presented with. First, a total of 26 stories were tagged throughout the two month span for our group to further research. Once tagging articles was completed, it became clear that there were not ... ...h 2007 . â€Å"Queensland to Drink Waste Water.† BBC UK 29 January 2007. 29 January 2007 . â€Å"Rains Worsen Indonesia’s Flooding.† CNN World 09 February 2007. 09 February 2007 . â€Å"Rescue Efforts Intensify After Quake.† CNN 07 March 2007. 07 March 2007 . â€Å"Rescue Efforts Intensify After Quake.† CNN World 07 March 2007. 07 March 2007 . â€Å"Thousands Ill, as Jakarta Cleans up After Flood† CNN 12 February 2007. 12 February 2007 .

Macbeth Appearance Vs Reality Essay -- essays research papers

In real life, we should not judge people solely on their appearances. There are many people who appear to be trustworthy but in reality, are not. Appearance versus reality is an important theme in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The theme focuses on characters who are deceived by what appears to be real, and on the tragic consequences that follow this error in judgment. These characters include, Duncan, who trusts Macbeth too much; Lady Macbeth, who tricks by the witches and herself; Macbeth trickes by other people in the play.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  King Duncan trusts Macbeth too much. Macbeth appears as a super hero and faithful to King Duncan. He fights against the traitor Macdonwald, and he helps the king to solve a great problem that is won the war. Duncan trusts Macbeth very much because of Macbeth’s heroic efforts and he gives Macbeth a title Thane of Cawdor. Actually Macbeth is not that faithful to the king, he has the ambition to be the king when he hears the prophecies from the three witches. After Macbeth back to his castle, he plans to kill Duncan with Lady Macbeth, but Duncan doesn’t recognize this and goes to Macbeth’s castle to visit him. When he just gets in he says something very important: Duncan says, “This castle hath a peasant seat; the air/ Nimbly and sweetly reconnends itself/ Unto our gentle senses.'; (Act I, Scene 6, Lines 1-3) This quote shows that Duncan like Macbeth very much even he feels that Macbeth’s place is comfortable for him. Duncan never suspects the trustworthy of Macbeth and never does anything to guard himself. Macbeth kills Duncan easily. Therefore Duncan has deceived by Macbeth’s appearance.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lady Macbeth tricks by the three witches. When Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth the prophecies from the three witches. Lady Macbeth thinks that it will be terrific for her to be a queen when Macbeth becomes the king. Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to kill king Duncan, and this action causes Macbeth to start his first crime. Lady Macbeth becomes sleeplessness, nervous and she kills herself. The witches’ appearance lets Lady Macbeth to her death ending. Lady Macbeth also tricks by the appearance of herself. In the beginning she thinks that she should persuade Macbeth to kill Duncan. When Lady Macbeth knows about the proph... ...ese lines Lady Macbeth shames Macbeth’s manhood by saying that everything is ready, they have the chance to kill the king, Macbeth should give out weakness like her and if Macbeth is a man he should kill the king. Lady Macbeth seems to telling him the right thing he should do and Macbeth listens to her, and does his major crime that is killing the king. Therefore Macbeth judges people in their appearance and led him into a tragedy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  According to the examples of the three characters in the play Macbeth who are deceived by the appearances of other characters, therefore the theme Appearance versus Reality is an important theme in the play. This theme focus on characters having error in judgment with the appearances of other characters, and deceived by other. This error of judgment let them in to tragedies. This theme is also very important to us and other people in our daily life, and I have known some of my relatives and friends who had also tricked by other people. Base on my knowledge from the examples of characters in the play, we should never judge people by their appearances, and I believe that time can clearly show the reality of people.

Ethical Dilemma Essay

The situation at hand involves an ethical decision between two possible courses of action relating to the promotion of tobacco as a product in the market. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. is a corporation that earns huge amounts of money in selling tobacco and is concerned about keeping its profits despite the negative image now associated with tobacco. Therefore, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. hired Acme Global Advertising to again promote the product in the market. Being recommended by the company’s Director for Global Accounts as the new head of the R.  J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. account, I am constrained to decide whether to accept the position or not. There is no doubt that this is a once in a lifetime career opportunity, as the last manager to handle the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. account had already retired after receiving a huge sum of money after his successful campaign. Indeed, a successful promotional campaign would result in huge profit for both R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Acme Global Advertising, which would translate into big earnings for me. On the other hand, a simple refusal on my part would mean another eager person would immediately be taking my place and my big opportunity. The problem is not as simple as it looks, however. This is because the World Health Organization already declared tobacco as the second major cause of death in the world. Therefore, any effort on my side in promoting the consumption of tobacco would mean that I am personally exerting effort in favor of a product that causes death to millions of people arounf the world. It is clear, therefore, that the present situation presents an ethical dilemma that needs serious consideration. I have to make a decision between personal success and the health of innumerable people. In order to solve this dilemma, I turn to the philosophical writings of Aristotle in his work entitled Nicomachean Ethics, as well as utilitarian ethical philosophy as explained by well-known ethical philosophers John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham. Based on these ethical principles, I shall explain why it would be ethical for me to accept the challenge and exert my best effort in promoting the sales of tobacco products of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. this paper shall discuss the relevant principles characteristic of each theory, and then apply such principles to the facts of this particular scenario. In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, he expounded on the notion called virtue, which to him is that which determines the character or nature of anything, be it a person or a specific thing (Ross). Virtue is that thing which makes a knife a good knife, and it is also that which makes a man a good person (Ross). Aristotle makes a distinction between two kinds of virtue, namely natural virtue and moral virtue (Kilcullen). For him, the former relates to characteristics that humans possess from birth, such as a particular temperament (Kilcullen). On the other hand, the latter kind of virtue refers to the act of submitting one’s acts to reason (Kilcullen). It is in the latter kind of virtue that habit, an essential part of Aristotle’s ethical philosophy, enters the scene (Kilcullen). Aristotle posits that moral virtue is developed through habituation, whereby the exercise of reason results in a specific course of action (Kilcullen). Applying Aristotle’s ethical philosophy based on virtue and habit, I conclude that accepting the challenge would determine my character as a person in general, and as a leader in an advertising firm in particular. Accepting a project such as the one in the case would help me develop habits that would hone my leadership and creative skills, which would increase my competence as a leader. The other ethical philosophy that supports my decision is utilitarianism, which is a notion that belongs to the normative ethics tradition. Since the late 18th- and 19th-century, utilitarianism had been in existence to attempt to answer the question, â€Å"What ought a man to do? (West). † Utilitarian philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill were the foremost believers in the school of thought, and their main thesis was that an action would only be considered morally right if it tends to promote happiness for the greatest number of people. This has been popularly known as the â€Å"Greatest Happiness Principle. † John Stuart Mill explained said ethical principle in 1863, when his published work entitled Utilitarianism came out. He explained, thus: The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure (Mill). It appears therefore, that utilitarianism attaches moral value, not on the motive behind man’s actions, but on the effect that such action makes on people. Bentham and Mill assumed that pleasure and pain are the basic motivations of man, such that he avoids pain and seeks pleasure (West). Applying this principle to my ethical dilemma, I deduce that accepting the project would promote the happiness of many people, namely, myself and the executives of the two corporations that would derive monetary benefits from the success of the project. The people who could be consuming tobacco would likewise find happiness in the availability of a product that they enjoy having, albeit this happiness comes with the danger of disease or even death. Nevertheless, I leave such choice to the holders of the lives concerned, namely, the consumers. It is, after all, ultimately their choice whether to remain healthy or otherwise. In sum, two ethical principles, namely Aristotelian and utilitarian ethics, support the decision to accept the position as head of the project and promote tobacco products.