Scripture Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Scripture - Assignment Example The section ends with a detailed development of three topics from the Dei Verbum. How did the Church settle on the 27 books of the New Testament? The early Church was prompted to come up with the 27 books of the New Testament by a number of factors. These factors were of, religious, socio-political, or cultural nature. A combination of these factors compelled the early Church leaders, as it were, to come up with the list of authentic and authoritative books in the New Testament. These factors are: Gnosticism: This was a sect of heretical believers who posed a great challenge to the early Christians on the teachings of the church. The central view of the Gnostic scholars was that, the elect souls are divine sparks temporarily imprisoned in the physical bodies as a result of precosmic catastrophe, and as such, these souls have a natural knowledge (gnosis) of their origin and destiny, and this natural knowledge will lead them to salvation. As it can be deduced from this position, for th e Gnostics, there was absolutely no need of an authoritative body of knowledge or traditions that would serve as a condition for salvation. Some of the Gnostic scholars were, Basilides, Carpocrates, and Valentinus and Marcion. The early Christians, therefore, had to come up with an authoritative body of knowledge that contained the teachings of their founder, JesusChrist, and the apostles, that would serve as a guide for their followers and that would enlighten the Christians against the heresies and the fallacies of the Gnostics. Montanism was another heretical religious sect that prompted the formation of the New Testament in the early centuries of Christianity. This Christian movement was a charismatic movement that claimed to be a religion of the Holy Spirit, and it was marked by ecstatic outbursts. This sect claimed that this kind of ecstatic outbursts was the only true form of Christianity. To counter this heretical movement and its teachings, the early church came had to come up with correct teachings of the Church which would act as a guide for its adherents. This led to the formation of the 27 books in the New Testament. Apart from the heretical teachings that precipitated the need for the formulation of the authoritative teachings of the Church, another phenomenon in form of persecution of Christians, further, necessitated the need for the articulation of the authoritative teachings of the Church based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles. When the imperial police started persecuting the Christians and demanding from the the teachings of Christianity, it became necessary for the Christians of the early Church to determine the correct teachings of Christianity, from a myriad of other teachings that claimed to be the true teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles. This circumstance, therefore, led to the formation of the 27 books of the New Testament that constitute the authoritative teachings of the Church. Settling on the 27 books in th e New Testament Having been influenced by the above factors, the early Church set out to assemble the Christian books that contained the authentic teachings of Christianity. And to distinguish between the authentic and the inauthentic Christian books, the Church employed four guidelines (How the New Testament Canon was Formed, online). These guidelines

SWOT Analysis of Coca Cola and Pepsi Term Paper

SWOT Analysis of Coca Cola and Pepsi - Term Paper Example This paper seeks to compare and contrast the elements of business adapted by the two soft drinks giants, including PEST and SWOT analyses (Elsbach, 2006). Additionally, the paper analyzes the business culture, performance, and other organizational elements of the two giant organizations. Coca Cola and Pepsi share a similar history: an insignificant business from a simple idea that grows to a multi-billion dollar company after a century. Currently, Coca Cola sales in more than 160 countries to over 6 billion people speaking more than eighty different languages. Similarly, Pepsi is a recognized brand in the whole world, operating in numerous countries and actively competing with Coca Cola for market share. Both organization use mass-marketing strategies, focusing on the entire market rather than particular segments. Moreover, both companies offer similar product line to the same industry, thus propagating stiff competition. Both companies are very innovative as far as product packaging is concerned. Coca Cola introduced the airtight bottle concept, a major revolution of in the packaging and bottling industry. Similarly, Pepsi followed suit and introduced different sizes of returnable bottles (Fernando, 2006). The concept of non-returnable bottles, frosted bottles, and cans is attributable to both the giants. SWOT Analysis of Coca Cola and Pepsi Strengths Both Pepsi and Coke have long history of the world culture for quite some time. The products from the two companies represent over-romanticism and fun, an image that majority of people take deeply at heart. In addition, the brands are well recognized throughout the world, a major strong point. This enables them to operate on the global market while maintaining a local approach. Independent business people with authority to sell and distribute Coke and Pepsi products operate and own majority of the local bottling companies. Indeed, Pepsi and Coke have among the largest distribution networks in the world, which is among the strengths of the two companies (Fernando, 2006). Weaknesses Similar to any other businesses, Coke and Pepsi have their own weaknesses. For instance, the cola drinks from the two companies have experienced a significant saturation and subsequent decline in the past few years. This is attributable to the increasing awareness on the contents of the drinks. Nowadays, consumers are more attracted to healthy drinks than carbonated soft drinks, as addiction to cola drinks has an adverse effect on the human body (Czinkota, Ronkainen, and Moffett, 2009). Opportunities One of the factors affecting the competitive positions of Pepsi and Coke is brand recognition. About 94% of the world populations are aware of the two brands. Despite the saturation in North America, the two brands have enormous potential to expand and operate in non-North American market. For instance, per head consumption of Coke in India is only six bottles per head compared to 700 bottles in the United States. The refore, the two companies have potential for expansion (Oppong, 2011). Threats Being the industry leaders, the two companies face significant threats from emerging companies in the industry. Moreover, the companies are facing serious threats of substitute. Consumers are more attracted to healthier drinks, including coffee, tea, milk, hot chocolate, and milk. Nonetheless, the two giants control over 40% of the

CWE Annotated Bibliography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

CWE Annotated Bibliography - Essay Example This sets the wheel in motion for others to follow. I have no bias towards Robert F. Kennedy but the quote itself is a great one stressing on thinking differently and taking risks. It tells how once can achieve great feats by thinking out of the box. Most people tend to stick to the routine or bound by conventional thinking. They are afraid to take risks and believe in new possibilities. It is only when we move away from the laid out path that we can find new lands. So it only by thinking out of the traditional mould and embracing new thinking and possibilities that we can achieve great things. Again, you cant connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. – Steve Jobs This is one of the famous quotes from Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Speech. In this quote, Steve Jobs asks his audience to follow their heart and do what they enjoy the most. Most people fail to understand their true talents because they are too afraid to follow their instincts or guts. What you instincts say might not make much of logical sense at the moment but years down the line everything will seem to be perfect. It is only when you believe in your instincts that you will be able to live a life to your full

Libertarian Use of Punishment to Show Free Will Essay

Libertarian Use of Punishment to Show Free Will - Essay Example Libertarianism is the view that we have free will. Free will is an act based on a reason that an agent takes to choose an action from a range of alternatives (O’Connor, 2011). How choices transpire made at times of differing motives might agree with the increase of quantum indeterminism in individuals’ brains. Following my first premise, libertarians deem that we may hold individuals morally accountable only if they exercise free will, a person can freely choose to take an action, making them responsible, morally. This makes that person free and ethically responsible because they have taken a choice that is undetermined. Regardless of the undetermined choices they put forward, few libertarians will assert to offer an episteme justification that persons did take that kind of choices.   Libertarians decide the degree of harshness that is assigned to a individual whose moral responsibility has been established to the acceptable standards of the society. However, they to agree that assigning those difficult characteristic of moral responsibility to individuals who does not believe in libertarian free will is to take action wrongly. Hence justifying my premise that punishment bestowed by free willed libertarian can only be done to a believer of the same, in order to be deemed right. The second premise argues that that majority of libertarians deem that we should hold individuals morally responsible. Holding an individual morally responsible take account of a range of behaviours; that may be either positive or negative. Examples include: verbal accusation, praise and blame and retributive penalty. Libertarians differ among themselves over deciding how much of that assortment moral responsibility comprise. However, due to the fact that even the smallest of undesirable behaviour harms people, libertarians use the obligation of moral responsibility as a justification to turns otherwise immoral behaviour into punishable action (Double).  Some libertaria ns however have more to their thoughts on punishment. Mark Balaguer (1999) argues that there is enough grounds for believing alternative are undetermined as we do for supposing they are determined. He argues that nobody knows exactly how the human brain works. But his argument fails to give reason to establish that brains make undermined choices gives room to believe we do make choices based our free will. Robert Kane (1996, 1999) takes an alternative view other libertarians stating that Kanian free choosers may only have partial control over their choices. His implies that they are only, to some degree, morally responsible for their deeds. Because Kane’s theory makes indeterministic choices rely upon a indeterminate quantum actions, he concede that Kanian free individuals lack control over what they choose. Kane’s view would not be shared by traditional libertarians precisely because his argument of having less control over actions taken fails to support the responsib ility that libertarians wish to assign. Doing this would make it difficult to give emphasize on the importance to libertarians of mitigating the practices of making a person responsible morally for his deeds.   The strongest argument raised against libertarian argument to use punishment to show free will is the proportionality rule. The proportionality rule gives us how much penalty a claimant may exact to a wrong doer, and no more;

Organizational Impact Essay Example for Free

Organizational Impact Essay Innovation, design, and creativity are important parts of any organization that strives to be a market leader within a given industry. Organizations typically belong to one sector of industry, either service or manufacturer. A company from each sector, Nissan Motors for manufacturing and Verizon Wireless for service are the organizations chosen for evaluation. Nissan Nissan Motors has proven to be a leader in the automobile industry in innovation. When the price of gas increased significantly in 2006, Nissan changed their strategy to include the electric car. With the Toyota Prius already available, Nissan wanted to be the first with a 100% electric car. Recognizing a new market never comes easy for any organization and the impact to the organization can be significant, Nissan took a big risk. Although Nissan began developing an electric car in 1997, the uses for this type of car were not for the public. Initially government agencies and businesses used these cars as fleet cars. With need for alternative fuel sources and public interest, Nissan refocused energy back into the electric car it had originally developed, the Nissan Versa in 2009, renaming the car Nissan Leaf in 2010 (Nissan Motor Company,† n. d. ). Nissan showed its innovation and creativity with the introduction of the first environmentally friendly car that requires no gasoline. The designers for Nissan gave the vehicle a look that is attractive to the buyer and will set the stage for how electric cars will look in coming years as these types of vehicles continue to be the new trend (Nissan Motor Company,† n. d. ). For the first two years after launching the first affordable, mass market electric car, the Nissan Leaf struggled in sales. Nissan began an aggressive marketing strategy and creating strategic partnerships the Nissan Leaf finally reached growth stage. With the organization’s aggressive marketing push, advertisements gave consumers clear messages on how environmentally friendly this new type of vehicle is, how it saves money on the purchase of gas, and that the price tag makes it affordable to most car buyers. In the end, the impact on the strategy of Nissan was minimal other than overcoming the American car buyers’ love for the gas powered engine. Nissan believes in turning what ifs into what is, and with the Nissan Leaf they have brought the innovation of the electric car to reality. Verizon Wireless Verizon wireless formed in 2000 with the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE (Verizon Corporate History,† 2013). Once complete, the merger created the nation’s largest wireless cell phone service company. In 1992 there was the introduction of the first smart phone. This phone called Simon was capable of much more than making phone calls but there was no network available that was capable of handling the data it could send. This innovation laid the ground work for Verizon’s 4G LTE network. Over the next two decades, mobile network technology grew and in 2010 Verizon Wireless revolutionized lives throughout the United States with LTE technology. Today, Verizon is the largest, most reliable 4G LTE network (Verizon Corporate History,† 2013). The organization delivers the most advanced wireless technology available. Through innovation, Verizon Wireless 4G LTE can provide services in the fields of transportation, health care, small businesses, and education. With the advanced technology Verizon Wireless provides its customers, street vendors can make payment transactions and EMS personnel can improve on response times and patient care. Verizon Wireless is no longer just a cell phone provider. However, the innovation of this technology over the years has forced Verizon to change its strategy several times to remain the best in the industry. The impact on Verizon’s strategy was a $66 billion dollar investment in their technology and infrastructure (Verizon Corporate History,† 2013). Although the policies of Verizon did not change, the marketing of what services they could provide had to. Conclusion Innovation, design, and creativity impact organizations in different ways. For the Nissan Company the impact was minimal because the organization already had a design, prototype, and the infrastructure to make the product. This product affected the marketing strategy the most because the vehicle needed aggressive measures to get the car selling. As technology continues to evolve rapidly there will still be some changes made to the electric car in the years to come. The impact on Verizon was more significant because the organization’s technology needed further development to accommodate manufacturers of cell phones such as the Apple I-phone and the Android. Verizon needed innovation, design, and creativity to develop not only the technology but also the service plans as well. In today’s business environment, organizations, whether they are manufacturers or service-based must be ready to change strategies and evaluate the impact on the organization’s business constantly.

Satisfaction level of retailers and the visual merchandising

Satisfaction level of retailers and the visual merchandising This chapter is a review of the central theoretical literature of satisfaction level of retailers and the visual merchandising and its impact on consumers buying behaviour which ultimately leads to increase in the margin of the retailers. The first part of this chapter deals with the most popular brand of PepsiCo and the satisfaction level of retailers with respect to per product margin. The second chapter examine the planogram norms of the company and it tries to find out whether or not the retailers follow it properly. The third and last part of the chapter examines the effectiveness of Visual Merchandising and its effectiveness on consumers buying behaviour. All these objectives/problems have been examined in the light of academic literature and some of the facts have been supported by the data taken form the company i.e., Pepsico. To find out the most popular brand of PepsiCo the satisfaction level of its retailers Most of the manufacturers of consumer goods including PepsiCofrequently use intermediaries to sell their products to the final consumer. Intermediaries such as big and small retailers have substantialstimulus over the marketing of these goods and hence over the ultimate consumer choice (Laland Narasimhan, 1996). Even PepsiCo is one of the largest networks of retailers in India (PepsiCo, 2010). The consumer goods retail market is characterized by intensivecompetitionamong retailers competing for a share of the consumers money (Albion and Farris, 1982). Retailers, generally, carry so many products, and on any given purchase occasion a typical consumer buys a subset of the vast number of items a retailer has on its shelf. Generally consumers are ignorant or uninformed about the prices of all the products they want to buy and subsequently select a retailer to shop at based on the advertised prices of a subset of the products they desire to buy. Given this, retailers tend to compete more aggressively based on the prices of a selected set of items by advertising these prices to consumers (Agustin Singh, 2005). It means that these retailers will sell more products of only those company which tries to make them happy through more or heavy margin.The items that the retailers select to compete on are those that most consumers de-sire and value highly. Since the profit from any cust omer is the sum of profits from advertised and un-advertised items, the intensity of retail competition, as evident from the prices of these items, increases with the amount the consumer will expend on the unadvertised items once at the store. This aggressiveness therefore translates into lower retail mar-gins on these selected items since the retailers expect that consumers, once inside a store, will buy non-advertised products as well on which the retailers make money. Thus manufacturers, who are more adept at using pull strategies to enhance the popularity of their product, obtain a significant competitive advantage vis-a-vis others. The positioning of the product and the image conveyed through advertising act as drivers in creating this advantage which results in higher wholesale prices that these manufacturers can charge the retailers (Lal and Narasimhan, 1996). The cost of acquiring new customers usually far exceeds the cost of retaining an existing customer. As a result, customer retention has become a managerial strategy that has spurred interest in understanding and implementing store-loyalty programs (Agustin Singh, 2005; Carter, 2008; Pan Zinkhan, 2006; Reichheld, 1996; Reichheld Sasser, 1990; Sheth Parvatiyar, 1995). That is why retailers are the most important link between the company and the customers.Manufacturer advertising also affects prices and margins at both the retail and wholesale levels. The relationship between prices as well as margins at the retail and wholesale levels can be found in the economics literature (see, e.g., Ferguson 1982 or Pindyck and Rubinfeld 1989), where it has been argued, based on the theory of derived demand, that the movements of prices and margins at the retail and wholesale level are necessarily perfectly correlated. In other words, if advertising leads to increased market power through produ ct differentiation, both wholesale and retail prices in-crease, leaving both manufacturers and retailers with higher margins; or if advertising leads to increased price sensitivity through reduced perceived product differentiation, both wholesale and retail prices decrease, leaving both manufacturers and retailers with lower margins. In contrast, Steiner (1973, 1978, 1984) has argued that it is possible that a manufacturers advertising can have opposite effects on wholesale price elasticity and retail price elasticity, implying that margins can move in opposite directions. However, he does not offer a formal model of manufacturers and retailers to support his arguments. Source: (Lal and Narshimhan, 1996) There is scant empirical literature on the effects of advertising on margins. In Table 1, Lal and Narasimhan (1996) summarised the evidence presented in the literature on the negative association between manufacturer advertising and retail margins. Reekie (1979) shows that manufacturers advertising and retail margins are inversely related in a cross-sectional study of many categories. Farris and Albion (1987) find that in many nondurable consumer good categories, higher brand advertising is associated with lower retail margins, though there were a few categories where the opposite is true. They also find that the negative relationship between manufacturer advertising and retail margins is strongest in categories with high penetration, non-food, and large category advertising budgets. Steiner (1973) uses data from the toy industry to conclude that the more popular toys (i.e., the more heavily advertised) yield lower retail margins. Finally, using data at the four-digit SIC level, Nels on (1978) finds that there is a negative association between manufacturer advertising and retail margins. The reader is also referred to Steiner (1993) for some anecdotal evidence from different industries on the inverse association between manufacturers advertising and re-tail margins. Support for positive association between manufacturer advertising and wholesale margins is provided in Quelch et al. (1984) and Narasimhan (1989a). Note that all these studies are cross-sectional and all these studies have focused on either the whole-sale margin or the retail margin. The one exception is Steiner (1991), who documents, using data from the toy industry, that higher levels of manufacturer advertising are associated with higher wholesale margins while leading to lower retail margins. Taken as a whole, these studies demonstrate that in general, higher manufacturer advertising leads to higher wholesale margins and lower retail margins, though the effect at the retail level is less systemat ic. Thus we see that in contrast to the standard economic arguments, there is empirical evidence to suggest the possibility of an inverse relation-ship between wholesale and retail margins. The objective in this chapter is to revisit thisproblem and offer a formal model to explain how the margins at the retail and wholesale level can be negatively related. It shows that if a manufacturer can affect the intensity of retail competition, it can increase its wholesale price while at the same time exert downward pressure on retail margins. Furthermore, It demonstrates that if manufacturer advertising can enhance the attractive-ness of the brand as shown in Boulding et al. (1994) (resulting in a higher willingness to pay or increasing aggregate demand for its product), manufacturers brand advertising can increase the intensity of competition at the retail level. Finally, it is shown that even if there is competition at the wholesale level, a manufacturer with a more popular or well-positi oned brand can use advertising to increase profits. The intuition behind our result is the following. First, it should be noted that retailers selling a large assortment of goods cannot advertise the prices of all goods. Moreover, retailers need to advertise the prices of some goods in order to make it worthwhile for consumers to shop at the store. Hence consumers make store choice on the basis of advertised prices and expected prices for goods bought on a shopping trip. Given the fact that retailers charge and consumers expect to pay a higher price for the unadvertised goods, and consumers prefer one-stop shopping due to transportation costs, any effort by the manufacturer that affects the proportion of consumers who decide to shop at a retail store for any given difference in the retail price of the advertised good would lead to an increase in the intensity of retail competition. Such actions by the manufacturer would lead to lower retail margins. At the same time such actions can also increase the wholesale price and manufacturers margins since these actions allow the manufacturers to recover some of the rents derived by the retailer on the unadvertised good. In other words, since the retailers make a higher margin on the unadvertised good, any action by the manufacturer that affects the size of these profits to the retailers allows the manufacturer to wield more power and set higher wholesale prices. We show that if manufacturer advertising leads to lower price sensitivity or increase in aggregate demand, an increase in such advertising would result in lower margins for the retailers and higher margins for the manufacturers. It should also be noted that while our work is silent on the exact role of manufacturer advertising, Kaul and Wittink (1995) report that one empirical generalization from past studies is that an in-crease in non-price advertising leads to lower price sensitivity among consumers. Finally, it is important to recognize that our result is shown to exist in a context where retail advertising has no impact on the demand of the advertised brand, and that our result would not exist in the absence of the composite good. Moreover, the inverse relationship be-tween wholesale and retail margins can exist only for goods/brands where the retailer reveals price via advertising(Lal and Narasimhan, 1996). Previous research in the area of store loyalty focuses on customer satisfaction as a major predictor of loyalty (Bloemer Kasper, 1995; Brown, 2004; Cronin Taylor, 1992; Garbarino Johnson, 1999; Reichheld, 1996; Sawmong Omar, 2004; Taylor Baker, 1994). However, many companies rated high on customer satisfaction indexes showed poor financial performance (Buttle, 1999; Passikoff, 1997). There is evidence supporting high rates of defection among satisfied customers across many industries (Buttle, 1999; Jones Sasser, 1995). Thus, the ability of customer satisfaction reliably and accurately to predict loyalty has not been unambiguously established (Higgins, 1997). Clearly, the development and implementation of successful store-loyalty programs would benefit from a better understanding of loyalty, its antecedents and its consequences (Ray and Chiagouris, 2009). It is evident from the above discussion that satisfied and happy retailers would ultimately lead to increased sales. Higher m argin per product or total income of retailers from a particular product would to happy retailers. From the above discussion it is clearly evident that If the company spends heavily on advertisement of on its product, it will increase total sales, which means it will ultimately more margin on total sales and in this way the company can make happy its retailers.The PepsiCo spends heavily in India for its Pepsi Soft Drink, much more than its nearest rival Coca-Cola (PepsiCo, Annual Report,2010).These heavy advertisements have a significant positive impact on the total sale of its soft drink over last year. It is a clear sign of happy retailers who are gaining low margin per bottle of Pepsi but in total higher revenue from its total sales. To check the planogram (POG) norms, whether the retailers followed it properly or not There are many factors which are generally used to stimulate consumers purchases, including advertisement, product variety, layout of stores, merchandise appraising, services offered, and other marketing programs (Levy and Weitz, 1992) but space planning and store layout are one of the prime consideration (Yang, 2001). The layout of stores and proper space planning highlight the importance of improvement of the visual effect on the customers for shopping and the space productivity of retail stores (Yang, 2001). Planograms, typically,are used to display exactly where and how many items are physically placed onto which store shelves. Because of limited shelf space, planograms plays a vital role for the improvement of financial performance of the company in general and for retailer in particular (Yang, 2001; Yang and Chen, 1999). There are two ways for retailers to increase margin (Profit). They will have either increase sales or by reducing costs. Cost reduction is basically operational in nature. It heavily depends on technology, management of personnel and efficient inventory management. Generally increase in sales is market driven and can be categorised in to two different segments i.e., (i) in-store -tactics and; (ii) out-of-store tactics. Out of store tactics is used to attract more and more customers into the store while in-store tactics used to compel customers psychologically to buy as much as they can, when they enter into the stores (Dreze, Hoch and Purk, 1994). Previous Space Management Research In the field of Space Management, the impact on sales of space management is very limited because of high implementation cost. The existing work methods can be categorised into three different models- (i) Commercial Applications, (ii) Experimental Tests, and (iii) Optimization Model. In business literature, applications oriented approaches are preferred because of its simplicity and the easy operation. For example, PROGALY Model ((Dreze, Hoch and Purk, 1994). ) is generally preferred. In this model, space is allotted to a product in proportion of total sales. Cifrino (1963) and McKinsey (1963) argued for space with respect to Direct Product Profit (DPP). Rest of the models have concentrated on lowering the operating cost and minimising inventory and handling costs (Cifrino, 1963). Planogram Integrity: A serious Issue There are many retailers who have recognised the importance of proficiently exploit their customer services in times of intense competition. Confronted by the amplified pressure of fee discounters and the rise of a price war between supermarkets organisation on the one hand and the companies on the other hand since 2003, Indian Retailers want quality in their operations to endure large collection at reduced profit margins (PepsiCo 2009). Thus, balancing inventory and renewal costs, given a collection of wide range of products and the corresponding shelf space at the retail stores is rally an important task. Retailers aim at exploiting availability of the products in the collection at a marginal cost of operations. These objectives have to be attained on the shelves, where a particular product meets its customers. The amount of shelf space allocated to a product is thus primarily a consequence of marketing decisions: i.e., the merchandising category to which the product is assigned an d the allocated number of facings, which are the number of slots on the front of the retail shelf. This planogram on its turn govern the available shelf space for the operations. From both an operations as a marketing point of view, it is thought-provoking to scrutinise whether local managers are contrary from the planogram, to determine the grounds and to analyse the consequences (Woensel et al, 2008). Planogram integrity is the degree to which the planograms and its norms are followed in practice(Woensel et al, 2008). High planogram integrity stands for small/very little difference between planogram and the authentic situation in a store (Woensel et al, 2008). A planogram encompasses significant information for the accomplishment of operations. Generally, when creating planograms the retailers decides the collection composition, the location of products in the store and the amount of space apportioned to each product (Levy and Weitz, 1992). Figure of Planogram Woensel et al, (2008) have completed empirical research on the planogram and data collected for ten stores in India. During this collection period, the stores were not allowed to change their mode/style operations. Moreover, the days were carefully selected such that the period of measurement did not include any periods of expected demand peaks/drops (e.g. no holidays). The data were gathered for Pepsi soft drink only. Woensel et al, (2008) observed that collection in the stores seems to be reasonably different from the one identified in the planograms. The main driver for this was identified to be the possibility to locally add or drop items from the collection. Also, categories with a larger collection seem to be more prone for abnormalities than one with smaller collections. This designates the drawbacks of managing these huge collections with composite swap relationships. On the locational level, it seemed that the abnormality is small (for the common collection in both actual situations versus planogram). The common of abnormalities could be linked back to facing differences. The foremost cause is due to the different shelving in practice than the one used in the planogram. Finally, also considerable differences between the stores exist; some store managers follow the norms provided by the company for the planograms very closely; other store managers do not take it seriously. The Root causes for erroneousness were typically associated to the local store management. Another vital issue is the acceptance time required for updating the shelves following the changes in the planograms(Woensel et al, 2008). Over and above these is no proper processes for controlling these messages was available to all stores, leading thus to a serious issue with planogram integrity. Furthermore high levels of inaccuracy in the real realizations are also ascribed to the lack of incentives from the headquarters for enforcing the planograms. Generally, it is witnessed that the inaccuracy of the planograms is correlated to the regularity, the timing and/or the type of changes in the planograms. Of course, one should not overlook the strain in the following the planogram closely. Because of repeated introductions or de-listing of products and changes in style and pack size or the turnover of a product, frequent changes in the planograms are needed(Woensel et al, 2008). Without a detailed plan to implement the changes in the planograms, they might be postponed, not implemented in full or the local management already anticipated the changes before the company conversed with them(Woensel et al, 2008). It can be concluded that planogram integrity is a vital issue that requires a retailers management consideration. Woensel et al, (2008) shown clearly that common of differences relate back to facing differences. The second important issue is collection and display of products and third issue locational differences. From the above discussion, one can find four main drives for these differences, (i) Local Store Management, (ii) a substantial acceptance time for changes, (iii) diverse local situations that presumed in the planogram and (iv) lack of incentive from the company. The foremost consequence of a lack of planogram integrity proved to be a significant loss of effectiveness both in marketing strategy as in the operational executions, as such indicating that planogram integrity is a serious issue The Impact of Visual Merchandising on the Consumer Decision Process Introduction McGolddrick (1990, 2002) argued that Visual Stimulation and communication are very important facets of retailing. This interest in the visual has combined to form the exercise of visual merchandising. This is demarcated as the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ activity which coordinates effective merchandise selection with effective merchandise display (Walters and White, 1987, p. 238). Consequently, Visual merchandising is apprehensive with both how the product and/or brand is visually communicated to the customer and also whether this message is decoded appropriately in this context affecting a positive psychological or behavioural outcome, ultimately leading to purchase (Kerfoot, Davies and Ward, 2003). The significance of accomplishing such a consequence has meant that within the retail environment, various procedures have been used to exhibit, merchandise and communicate products. This diversity in visual merchandising procedures has conceivably also stemmed from the vast collection of goods and services that are sold by retailers. The progress of merchandising procedures and the proliferation of these methodologies among retailers have been well-established history. Baum (1987) accepted the significance of window display long back in 1897. Baum who was the founding editor of  The Show Window  ,where he offered strategies for effective window displays where he provided an early mechanism for the dissemination of visual merchandising best practice. This early publication evolved to examine display across the store and continued to offer advice for some considerable time (Law and Yip, 2004). The potential of display and visual merchandising is so strong that a publication solely addicted for visual merchandising and display stated in 1922 with the title Visual Merchandise and Store Display.   Nevertheless, the prominence of visual merchandising has been not acknowledgedmuch consideration in the academic world and in literature (Lea-Greenwood, 1998). The most notable exception has been within the US fashion-based literature, where a number of texts have been devoted to the subject. These though are primarily practitioner-based, highlighting again a deficiency of attention from retail academics. This study represents a small step towards addressing this lack. It investigates the influence of visual merchandising stimuli within the retail store environment on customer perceptions and responses. In doing this, the research is focused on the potential psychological and behaviour outcomes that result from customer interaction with visual merchandising, rather than directly trying to establish what constitutes best practice  per se  or manipulating visual merchandising techniques themselves. This soft drink and FMCG retail sector has been chosen as it has recently elevated visual merchandising to an issue of board level concern (Lea-Greenwood, 1998). The sector offers an ideal background in which examination of the impact of product display and visual merchandising can be conducted on customers, as the degree of retailer complexity in this area is likely to be higher than that demonstrated by companies in other sectors. Sproles (1979) has focused on the procedure, such as the effects of communication channels in current society, the characteristics and the functional purpose of soft drinks. However, Hart and Dewsnap (2001) also established a decision-making model to explain the behaviour of consumers through visual merchandising and store display. It was revealed form their study that there were interweaved a complicated set of interlinked aspects to affect decision making on intimate soft drink, and amount the factors, brand loyalty tended to be the repeatedly adopted factor to curtail the decision-making process and the degree of apparent risk while shopping intimate soft drink. Speaking from the View-points of marketing and consumer behaviour, the two models are adequate to explain the corresponding phenomenon (Kerfoot, Davies and Ward, 2003). However, viewing from the retailing aspect, the environment of stores can increase consumers response (it may be positive of may be negative) to a brand of the product being sold in the store. To achieve a positive store environment, visual merchandising has been widely adopted by retailers (Kerfoot, Davies and Ward, 2003). Likewise, intimate soft drink has been going through a series of Soft drink treatments in recent years. Examples can be found in contemporary intimate soft drink brands, such as Coca Cola and Pepsi, Sprite and so on. Instead of targeting different customer segments by adding advanced functions to products, intimate soft drink brands try to establish a distinctive image in consumers mind. In this study, focus is put on the influence of visual merchandising on store atmosphere and its corresponding impact on consumer decision making process for intimate soft drink (Law and Yip, 2002). Dimensions of visual merchandising and display Omar (1999) advocates that there are three types of interior display- (i) architectural display (ii) merchandise display and (iii) point-of-sale display. This study efforts on merchandise display; the choice of a singular store to deliver the stimulus photographs minimises the architectural elements; additionally, point-of-sale areas were omitted from the photographs to guarantee only merchandise display was considered(Kerfoot, Davies and Ward, 2003). The most important aspects within merchandise display have been acknowledged within the academic literature as: packaging (Bruce and Cooper, 1997; Da Costa, 1995), layout, (Levy and Weitz, 1996; Berman and Evans, 1995), colour (e.g. Koelemeijer and Oppewal, 1999), fixturing (Levy and Weitz, 1996; Donnellan, 1996), merchandise (Davies and Ward, 2002), presentation techniques (Buchanan  et al., 1999), and so on. These areas have received varying degrees of attention as separate elements. Nevertheless, in fact, there is tiny work has been done that makes these aspects composed as merchandise display(Kerfoot, Davies and Ward, 2003). The examination of Influences, that such display creates on consumers, especially in term of brand communication and purchase intention, are lacking in terms of literature. Though, several of the elements of merchandise display have been scrutinised from an environmental psychology approach, as well as from a service environment perspective. These two relat ed literatures provide potential starting points as each considers the physicality of the in-store environment and its influence on customers (Kerfoot, Davies and Ward, 2003).. Literature Review Visual Merchandising is one of the most significant constituents in atmospheric management(Kerfoot, Davies and Ward, 2003). It embraces the interior of stores as well as the exterior of stores.The exterior of store comprises retail premises, window display, and facade while the interior of store embraces fixtures and fittings, store layout, and store highlights as well as wall display(Kerfoot, Davies and Ward, 2003).There are many constituents who governtogether store exterior and interior and it embraceslighting design, colour co-ordination, selection of mannequin and the application of design principles(Park et.al., 1986). A good assortment of visual merchandising with comprehensive consideration of proper cooperative expressions is very important, if retailers really want to project the best side of their company/store (Kerfoot, Davies and Ward, 2003). Consequently, customers could receive the envisioned message of stores or retailers through several different types of themes sty les designed especially from suitable visual merchandising strategy and for influencing buying decisions and behaviours in a positive sense. Conclusively, visual merchandising helps to establish the complete image of a retail store in the mind of consumers(Park et.al., 1986). Kerfoot, Davies and Ward (2003) acknowledged that visual merchandising has many objectives, (i) Retail Identity Building in the mind of customers, (ii) influencing customers final decision to buy as many products as he/she can afford inside a store (iii) last but not the least, to increase overall sales. Visual merchandising pays its attention on numerous facets of customers, which include affective pleasure, sensory pleasure and cognitive pleasure (Fiore, Yah and Yoh, 2000). Sensory part contains personal feeling of customers, such as response to temperature and noise, feeling crowded in a store (Ko Rhee, 1994; Hornik, 1992 and Grossbart et. al 1990). Store-related and product associated information can also be assimilated from storeenvironment (Baker et. al 1994), for example, searching a product that enhances ones self-concept (Kleine III et al., 1993). Also, window display plays a critical role in affecting store entry decisions as it is a very important information cue for consumers (Bettman et. al, 1998) There are many schools of thoughts regarding consumer decision process. The process of diffusion can affect consumptions response to different product attributes (Mitchell and Creatorex, 1990). The selection of promotional channels and the format of transition are the best examples. Similarly, there were other thoughts regarding general consumers decision making process. For Rogers model (1962), decision making was not longitudinal but rather cross-sectional. Following Rogers thought, Robertson (1971) developed a conceptual model with eight procedures (awareness, comprehension,problem perception, attitude, trail, adoption, legitimation, and dissonance). Nevertheless, Sproles (1979) established a specific framework for visual merchandising with ten procedures. The key focus of Sproles model was the relationship between the influences of communication channels in current society and the functional purpose of soft drink objects. Hart and Dewsnap (2001) conducted a specific study on deci sion process of purchasing intimate soft drink. His findings revealed that consumers had to go through a set of interlinked factors or relied on brand loyalty. In the light of the criteria, self-concept, perceived risk and consumer involvement were also critical in shaping the final decision (Law and Yip, 2004). While reviewing the current trend of intimate soft drink brands, being functional is the fundamental requirement of consumers, adding extra value to products is regarding as the selling point. In terms of functional aspect, mint flavour or Diet Pepsi using consumer care can be found in triumph brand. In times of readymade food and soft drink, almost every brand is using the same stuff. For example Pepsi introduced the Diet Pepsi, in the same year Coca cola introduced the diet version (PepsiCo, 2010). They introduced in the name of consumer health and family sentiments. Though, there is very few research about the inter- relationship between the importance of store aesthetics and consumer decision process, as a result, the purpose of this study is to look into this precise affiliation (Law and Yip, 2004). The study is beneficial to retailers who are newly established or re-position in the intimate soft drink market. As mentioned, for consumers who have a high degree of brand loyalty, external factors such as store atmosphere, may not has a great impact on decision process. But, if consumers rely on peer influence, advertising or have no idea about a brand, visiting the store is the first contact with the brand. Having attractive human-like mannequins of film starts or popular sportsman/woman and matching with style and appeal can break the decision process (Law Yip, 2004). Customers attention can be provoked at the stage of responsiveness but in a negative way due to the social and cultural constraint. Therefore, it is difficult to continue the decision process from awareness to interest. Hart and Dewsnaps (2001) study on consumer decision process for visual merchandising delivers a critical direction for pre-purchase evaluation. Paying a close attention to the interaction of cultural or societal difference and visual merchandising elements causes a great impact on final purchase decision. To find out the influence made by Pr

Quantitative Research in Health, Safety, and Environment

Quantitative Research in Health, Safety, and Environment Casey Bird Abstract In this article, quantitative research in the health, safety, and environmental (HSE) field will be discussed. The primary quantitative tool utilized is the safety committee. With the safety committee, direct communication lines with management on issues in the field can be achieved. Quantitative research provides the ability to understand other peoples safety needs or perceptions (Austin Sutton, 2014). It allows an organization to become a safety-first culture. In order to achieve this type of culture the organization needs to be aware of needed enhancements. This is why quantitative safety research is vital to an organization. This paper will discuss the methods utilized for quantitative research, and how the effectiveness is measured in that research. MGs safety committee will be utilized to reflect other quantitative tools. This includes Stop Work Authority (SWA), Core Values policy, and regular HSE meetings. This paper will also inform the reader on the importance of quantitati ve research to enhance any organizational programs. Quantitative Research in Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) A vital primary tool utilized in the health, safety, and environmental (HSE) field is the safety committee. The committee is required to provide input on incidents, recommendations, and better practices to enhance the overall organization (Kellerman, 2012). A safety committee is one way that management and frontline employees can disseminate share knowledge opinions. This sharing of information can be vital as there are different levels of insight from the employees on this committee. By having different levels of insight, an organization is able to grow and expand. The safety committee is also utilized in workplace inspections to provide insight as well as to increase production levels. A supervisor is may be busy supervising employees and production levels which could compromise safety. With a designated committee performing safety inspections, it allows the supervisors to fully perform tasks safely. A safety committee is also paramount as another tool for quantitative research. Quantitative research is a systematic process that examines relationships and interactions (Burns Grove, 2005). In order to be more proactive towards accident prevention, an organization should work towards becoming a safety-first culture. In becoming a safety-first company, an organization should initially understand the needs of the employees. This can be accomplished by utilizing questionnaires. Every safety committee member is given a questionnaire at the beginning, middle, and end of the time served on the committee. It is required each member serve a tenue of one year on the committee. So each questionnaire provides a starting point to understand individual views and on-going needs for the organization. Questionnaire results could show other immediate needs of an organization, such as more support from management.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   It also reveals various best practices to utilize in specific opera tions that keep people safe, and increase profit margins. These best practices allow for a much higher successful implementation rate, due to employee buy-in. With safety committee providing quantitative research to the organization, it truly provides direct money-saving tasks to an organization (Kellerman, 2012). In addition to the safety committee, all employees are issued Stop Work Authority (SWA). A SWA gives any employee the right and obligation to stop any unsafe tasks or condition. As cited in Morrison (2015), if employees utilized SWA every time an issue arises, majority of incidents and fatalities would be eliminated. However, a gap commonly seen in SWA is employees do not utilize it as often due to fear of retribution from the employer (Morrison, 2015).   To overcome this issue, MG Resins has implemented a Core Value policy. MG Resins is a polymer production plant that is under construction. The Core Value policy defines employee roles and responsibilities, including the safety committee. It outlines that all employees have the right and obligation to utilize a SWA for any individual or group tasks without any retribution. If any retaliation occurs, it should be reported to management immediately. In order to effectively and efficiently close any gaps involving HSE issues, management holds regularly scheduled meetings with employees. These meetings include weekly, monthly, and quarterly held review meetings with employees. During these meeting with management top HSE issues are presented and discussed with employees. Employees are constantly encouraged to engage in the discussion. With employees feeling that their insight is needed and approved, the more proactive effects an organization will achieve. This increase in employee involvement also increases employees morale to work in a safe, healthy, and environmentally friendly workplace. MG Resins has greatly improved since implementation of these quantitative research tools. With these quantitative methods of the SWA, Core Value policy, and regular HSE meetings more employees are freely voicing opinions and reporting incidents. There were zero recordable injuries, zero environmental spills, and only two first-aid cases this year to date. Management has also fully supported and embraced proactive solutions to reduce and eliminate future incidents. With this quantitative involvement, management is now able to effectively document and understand HSE issues directly via employees. With more proactive employee involvement, the more likelihood the organizations goals and visions should be achieved. As a matter of fact, one employees quantitative feedback allowed MG to increase production rates by eliminating human involvement and establishing robotics. One production line required employees to physically bag and tie-off the final product. To complete only one order could take up to four hours. During an HSE meeting this topic was brought up not only for safety reasons, but for production as well. This proactive action of implementing robotics allowed employees to perform other critical tasks, while the robotics completed this one lengthy task. In my opinion, as a safety professional, quantitative research is a required necessity to improve any organization. The future use of quantitative research is solidified in the MG organization as well as in the HSE field. Without quantitative research employers and safety professionals would not be able to be as proactive in their programs. The future of quantitative research should include researching newer technologies. The newer generations are becoming more tech-savvy, and this may be an opportunity to get in-touch with a bigger audience. The more input an organization can receive, the greater the potential for the organization to succeed. Management needs to grasp this opportunity to support the employees and customers in order to enhance the organization. However, a roadblock with many safety professionals is the ability to convince upper management that quantitative research is vital in supporting production operations. It is my opinion, that at times, management disregards safety at employees detriment and well-being. It is only when a tragedy happens, that management will then seek out safety. A good safety professional must find common ground for proving to management that quantitative research and production go hand-in-hand. Before tragedies occur, it is my opinion, that implementing a quantitative safety program can be an asset for any organization. Any organization, including MG, would do well in finding a balance between implementing quantitative safety and production. When all levels of management and employees equally understand that no safety will be sacrificed for production, it is then that the companys goals will be achieved. References Austin Z. Sutton J. (2014). Qualitative research: getting started.Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4275140/ Burns N., Grove S.K. (2005). The practice of nursing research: conduct, critique, and utilization. Retrieved from http://www.health.herts.ac.uk/immunology/Web%20programme%20-%20Researchhealthprofessionals/definition_of_quantitative_resea.htm Kellerman M. (2012). Safety committees: Just hype or do they really benefit a company.Retrieved from http://www.usfsafetyflorida.com/Resources/Consultant-s-Corner/Safety-Committees-Just-Hype-or-Do-They-Really-Benefit-a-Company Morrison K. (2015). Stop-work authority: Empowering workers to halt a dangerous situation can help prevent injuries, experts say. Retrieved from http://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/12346-stop-work-authority