International Movie Revenues: Determinants and Impact of the Financial Crisis

Institute of Economic Studies Faculty of Social Sciences Charles University in Prague Empirical Project Assignment — Econometrics II Due on Friday, 13 January 2012, 11. 00 International movie revenues: determinants and impact of the financial crisis Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Table of Contents Abstract Keywords Introduction Literature survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Data analysis variables used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . model 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . model 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Results model 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . model 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusion References primary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . secondary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . data sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Appendix Descriptive statistics for the dependent variables model 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Residuals versus ? tted values plot . . . . . Breusch-Pagan test for heteroskedasticity . model 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Residuals versus ? tted values plot . . . . . . Breusch-Pagan test for heteroskedasticity . The correlation matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 4 6 6 6 7 8 8 8 8 9 9 10 11 11 12 13 13 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 1 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Abstract This empirical project examines the determinants of international box o? ce revenues for movies produced in United States during 2006 – 2010. Our sample consists of 424 ? lms released in this period. We also test the hypothesis if the world ? nancial crisis had any signi? can t impact on the international box o? ce revenues. Keywords the ? ancial crisis, movie international box o? ce revenue, movies produced in the United States, budget, rating, Academy Awards, Introduction When choosing a topic of our empirical paper we were considering di? erent suggestions. As we both are pretty much interested in movies we ? nally decided to exit a viewer seat for a while and perform an empirical study on the movie industry. While being newcommers in sophisticated movie data analysis, we needed ? rst to get acquainted with important theoretical concepts and empirical papers concerning this topic. Literature survey When going down the history, [Litman, 1983] was the ? st who has attempted to predict the ? nancial success of ? lms. He has performed a multiple regression and found a clear evidence that various independent variables have a signi? cant and serious in? uence on the ? nal success of a movie. Litemans work has been gradually getting developed, [Faber & Oâ₠¬â„¢Guinn, 1984] tested the in? uence of ? lm advertising. They proved, that movie critics and word-of-mouth are less important then movie previews and excerpts when explaininng movie succes after going on public. [Eliashberg & Shugan, 1997] explored the impact of restricted-rating labeled movies on their box o? e performance. [Terry, Butler & De’Armond, 2004] analysed the determinants of movie video rental revenue, ? nding Academy Award nominations as the dominant factor. [King, 2007] followed their research and used U. S. movie data to ? nd the connection between the criticism and box o? ce earnings†¦ Many other authors has extended the initial work of [Litman, 1983], but none of them has focused on the key factors of the international box o? ce revenues as we planned to. So we ? nally decided to use [Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010] as our primary source. Their object of interest is very much similar to our resarch.Therefore we studied their metodology the most and we u se their results in the analytical part as a primary resource of comparison. Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 2 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Data We got quickly stucked realising that the strong majority of movie data on the internet are not free available. It was quite a surprise because there are many movie-oriented sites with seemingly endless data access. But when there is a need of more profound, well structured and complete set of random data everything gets little bit tricky.After hours of searching, we luckily got to a 30 days free access to this kind of databases [opusdata. com] and got the core data for our analysis. Then we wanted to add some interesting or usefull variables just as the movie rating or the number of AcademyAwards to complete our dataset. It has been done using well known and free accessed databases [imdb. com], [numbers. com] and [boxo? cemojo. com]. Thanks to our literature survey we discovered a model which we have thought would be interesting to test on di? erent or new data. The most interesting would be to test it on our domestic data but these are quite di? ult to obtain (as explained before). Anyway, it would be possible to get data for the highest grossing ? lms but that would violate the assumption of random sample. Therefore we decided to use data from U. S. and Canada which we considered the most likely to obtain. We also wanted to test whether the ? nancial crisis have had an impact on movie box o? ce revenues and whether the world ? nancial crisis made people less likely to go to the cinema. Model We considered several models and in the end we used two models. The ? rst one is just the same as the one used in paper [Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010], but it is slightly modi? d by using di? erent data plus setting the crisis variable. We considered it as a dummy variable, which was 1 if the movie was released during crisis (2008-2009), otherwise it is equal to zer o. As it was proposed before, this model has been used as a comparison to the original model [Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010] wihle we wanted to test whether their inference holds up with slightly di? erent and newer data. In the second model we tried to use a slightly di? erent approach. We used a time series model with year dummies and we also used all the variables which we obtained and were statistically signi? ant. Our ? rst model is basic linear regression with cross-sectional data. Our data are a random sample thanks to [opusdata. com] query which was capable of selecting a random sample of movies. We have tested all the variables for multicollinearity with the correlation matrix and there is no proof for multicollinearity in our used variables. The only high collinearity is between domestic and budget variables, which is about 0. 75. After running the regressions we have used the Breusch-Pagan test for heteroscedasticity and the chi squared was really high therefore showing s igns of strong heteroscedasticity.Even after looking at the graph of residuals against ? tted values it was clear that the heteroscedasticity is present. Therefore we had to run the regressions with the heteroscedasticity robust errors. We therefore tested in both models for presence of these: †¢ the variables which have an impact on movie international box revenues †¢ any signi? cant impact of ? nancial crisis on these revenues Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 3 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Data analysis Here we list all the used variables in both models and their a description. ariables used academy awards . . . . . . . . . number of Academy Awards a ? lm earned action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies in action genre animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies in animation production method budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the estimated pr oduction and promotion cost of a movie comedy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies in comedy genre crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . dummy variable for movies released during crisis domestic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . omestic box o? ce earnings horror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies in horror genre international . . . . . . . . . . . . international box o? ce earnings kids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies for children rating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . average user rating from the [imdb. com] source ratingR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . is a categorical variable for movies with a restricted rating romantic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies in romantic genre sequel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies derived from a previously released ? lm y06 ? y10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . dummy vari able for movies released in a year The list of variables is followed by both model equations and reggression table comparism, while model 1 and model 2 mean the original [Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010] model and our new model respectivelly. model 1 international = ? 0 + ? 1 domestic + ? 2 action + ? 3 kids + ? 4 ratingR+ + ? 5 sequel + ? 6 rating + ? 7 academy awards + ? 8 budget + ? 9 crisis model 2 international = + + ? 0 + ? 1 academy awards + ? 2 budget + ? 3 domestic + ? 4 sequel + ? horror + ? 6 romantic + ? 7 comedy + ? 8 action + ? 9 ratingR + ? 10 animation + ? 11 y06 + ? 12 y07 + ? 13 y08 + ? 14 y09 Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 4 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Table 1: Model comparison model 1 domestic action kids rating R sequel rating academy awards budget crisis horror romantic comedy animation y 06 y 07 y 08 y 09 Constant Observations t statistics in parentheses ? model 2 1. 025 (13. 31) -18. 56? (-2. 29) 1 . 028 (12. 70) -13. 43 (-1. 79) 48. 33? (2. 10) 5. 922 (1. 52) 26. 91? (2. 06) 0. 309 (1. 42) 6. 978? (2. 33) 0. 68 (5. 48) -5. 320 (-1. 01) 9. 259? (2. 36) 28. 74? (2. 16) 7. 097 (2. 59) 0. 508 (4. 73) -9. 867? (-2. 23) 13. 41 (1. 79) -17. 77 (-3. 31) 52. 02 (2. 87) -7. 962 (-1. 24) 1. 182 (0. 17) -6. 748 (-1. 01) -11. 79 (-1. 30) -43. 25 (-3. 05) 424 -15. 11? (-2. 41) 424 p < 0. 05, p < 0. 01, p < 0. 001 Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 5 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Results model 1 After running the ? rst regression we get quite similar results as [Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010], so their inference holds up even under our data.The similar results we get are that one dollar in revenues in US makes $1. 02 in international revenues, therefore succesful movie in US is likely to be similarly succesful in international theatres, if movie is a sequel it adds to revenues about $26 mil. , every academy award adds about $7 mil. and every additional dollar spent on budget adds about $0. 57 so there is about 57% return on budget. We also have similarly insigni? cant variables which are whether is movie rated as restricted and how great or poorly is movie rated by critics or other people.That means that international audience is not in? uenced by age restrictions and critical movie ratings. When we look at our and theirs results regarding the genres then we get quite di? erent results. They say that when a movie is of an action genre then it adds about $26 mil. whereas we obtained results that revenues for an action movie should be lower about $13 mil. and our result for children movies is two times larger and it says that a children movie should make about $48 mil. more. It could be explained that movie genre preferences shifted in the last two years.But more likely explanation is the di? erence in our data in labeling the movies. In our data we have had more detailed labeling and movies which they had labe led as action movies, we had labeled adventure movies etc. Therefore the strictly action movie genre is not so probable to make money as it would seem. Action movies are usually of low quality and many of them could be labeled as B-movies which usually are not very likely to have high revenues. The children movies could be getting more popular and taking children to the movies could be getting more usual thing.Our last and new variable is the crisis dummy which is not signi? cant and therefore we have no proof that the ? nancial crisis had any e? ect on movie revenues. Our model has quite high R2 which is about 0. 83, that is even higher then [Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010] have. But the main reason behind this high R2 is that most of the variation in data is explained by US revenues. If we regress international revenues on domestic alone we still get high R2 which is about 0. 59. model 2 In our time series model we get quite similar results as in the ? rst one. We have there ? e ne w variables which are genres comedy, romantic and horror, animation dummy, which tells us whether the movie is animated or not and year dummies. Our model implies that when a movie is a comedy it will make about $17 mil. less in revenues, when horror about $10 mil. less, when romantic about $13 mil. more and when animated it will add about $52 mil to its revenues. The restricted rating is now also statistically signi? cant and it should add to the revenues about $9 mil. which is quite unexpected. Y ear dummies are statistically non-signi? cant and even when we test them for joint signi? ance they are jointly non-signi? cant. Therefore even in this model there appears no reason to believe that the ? nancial crisis or even year makes di? erence in the movie revenues. Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 6 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Conclusion The inferences from our models are quite like we expected. We expected that people ar e more likely to go to cinema to see movies that had won academy awards, that were succesful in U. S. theatres and that are some kind of sequel to previous succesful movies. The resulting e? cts of di? erent movie genres could be quite puzzling but these e? ects depend highly on quality of the movies released these years and on the mood and taste of current society. If we had had larger sample with data from many years then it is possible that we would have seen trends in the di? erent movie genres. The insigni? cance of the ? nancial crisis on movie revenues was also likely because the severity of the crisis and impact on regular citizen has not been so large that it would in? uence his attendence of movie theatres. Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 7 of 14International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Reference primary [Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010] Terry, Neil, John W. Cooley, & Miles Zachary (2010). The Determinants of Foreign Box O? ce Reven ue for English Language Movies. Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies, 2 (1), 117-127. secondary [Eliashberg & Shugan, 1997] Eliashberg, Jehoshua & Steven M. Shugan (1997). Film Critics: In? uencers or Predictors? Journal of Marketing, 61, 68-78. [Faber & O’Guinn, 1984] Faber, Ronald & Thomas O’Guinn (1984). E? ect of Media Advertising and Other Sources on Movie Selection.Journalism Quarterly, 61 (summer), 371-377. [King, 2007] King, Timothy (2007). Does ? lm criticism a? ect box o? ce earnings? Evidence from movies released in the U. S. in 2003. Journal of Cultural Economics, 31, 171-186. [Litman, 1983] Litman, Barry R. (1983). Predicting Success of Theatrical Movies: An Empirical Study. Journal of Popular Culture, 16 (spring), 159-175. [Ravid, 1999] Ravid, S. Abraham (1999). Information, Blockbusters, and Stars: A Study of the Film Industry. Journal of Business, 72 (4), 463-492. [Terry, Butler & De’Armond, 2004] Terry, Neil, Michael Butler & D e’Arno De’Armond (2004).The Economic Impact of Movie Critics on Box O? ce Performance. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 8 (1), page 61-73. data sources [opusdata. com] Opus data – movie data through a query interface. 30-days free trial. http://www. opusdata. com/ [imdb. com] The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). The biggest, best, most award-winning movie site on the planet. http://www. imdb. com [numbers. com] The numbers. Box o? ce data, movies stars, idle speculation. http://www. the-numbers. com [boxo? cemojo. com] Box o? ce mojo. Movie web site with the most comprehensive box o? ce database on the Internet. ttp://www. boxofficemojo. com Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 8 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Appendix Descriptive statistics for the dependent variables Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 9 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis model 1 Regr ession of the original model published in [Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010] Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 10 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Residuals versus ? tted values plotBreusch-Pagan test for heteroskedasticity Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 11 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis model 2 Regression of our model Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 12 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Residuals versus ? tted values plot Breusch-Pagan test for heteroskedasticity Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 13 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis The correlation matrix Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 14 of 14 International Movie Revenues: Determinants and Impact of the Financial Crisis Institute of Economic Studies Faculty of Social Sciences Charles University in Prague Empirical Project Assignment — Econometrics II Due on Friday, 13 January 2012, 11. 00 International movie revenues: determinants and impact of the financial crisis Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Table of Contents Abstract Keywords Introduction Literature survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Data analysis variables used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . model 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . model 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Results model 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . model 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusion References primary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . secondary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . data sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Appendix Descriptive statistics for the dependent variables model 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Residuals versus ? tted values plot . . . . . Breusch-Pagan test for heteroskedasticity . model 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Residuals versus ? tted values plot . . . . . . Breusch-Pagan test for heteroskedasticity . The correlation matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 4 6 6 6 7 8 8 8 8 9 9 10 11 11 12 13 13 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 1 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Abstract This empirical project examines the determinants of international box o? ce revenues for movies produced in United States during 2006 – 2010. Our sample consists of 424 ? lms released in this period. We also test the hypothesis if the world ? nancial crisis had any signi? can t impact on the international box o? ce revenues. Keywords the ? ancial crisis, movie international box o? ce revenue, movies produced in the United States, budget, rating, Academy Awards, Introduction When choosing a topic of our empirical paper we were considering di? erent suggestions. As we both are pretty much interested in movies we ? nally decided to exit a viewer seat for a while and perform an empirical study on the movie industry. While being newcommers in sophisticated movie data analysis, we needed ? rst to get acquainted with important theoretical concepts and empirical papers concerning this topic. Literature survey When going down the history, [Litman, 1983] was the ? st who has attempted to predict the ? nancial success of ? lms. He has performed a multiple regression and found a clear evidence that various independent variables have a signi? cant and serious in? uence on the ? nal success of a movie. Litemans work has been gradually getting developed, [Faber & Oâ₠¬â„¢Guinn, 1984] tested the in? uence of ? lm advertising. They proved, that movie critics and word-of-mouth are less important then movie previews and excerpts when explaininng movie succes after going on public. [Eliashberg & Shugan, 1997] explored the impact of restricted-rating labeled movies on their box o? e performance. [Terry, Butler & De’Armond, 2004] analysed the determinants of movie video rental revenue, ? nding Academy Award nominations as the dominant factor. [King, 2007] followed their research and used U. S. movie data to ? nd the connection between the criticism and box o? ce earnings†¦ Many other authors has extended the initial work of [Litman, 1983], but none of them has focused on the key factors of the international box o? ce revenues as we planned to. So we ? nally decided to use [Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010] as our primary source. Their object of interest is very much similar to our resarch.Therefore we studied their metodology the most and we u se their results in the analytical part as a primary resource of comparison. Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 2 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Data We got quickly stucked realising that the strong majority of movie data on the internet are not free available. It was quite a surprise because there are many movie-oriented sites with seemingly endless data access. But when there is a need of more profound, well structured and complete set of random data everything gets little bit tricky.After hours of searching, we luckily got to a 30 days free access to this kind of databases [opusdata. com] and got the core data for our analysis. Then we wanted to add some interesting or usefull variables just as the movie rating or the number of AcademyAwards to complete our dataset. It has been done using well known and free accessed databases [imdb. com], [numbers. com] and [boxo? cemojo. com]. Thanks to our literature survey we discovered a model which we have thought would be interesting to test on di? erent or new data. The most interesting would be to test it on our domestic data but these are quite di? ult to obtain (as explained before). Anyway, it would be possible to get data for the highest grossing ? lms but that would violate the assumption of random sample. Therefore we decided to use data from U. S. and Canada which we considered the most likely to obtain. We also wanted to test whether the ? nancial crisis have had an impact on movie box o? ce revenues and whether the world ? nancial crisis made people less likely to go to the cinema. Model We considered several models and in the end we used two models. The ? rst one is just the same as the one used in paper [Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010], but it is slightly modi? d by using di? erent data plus setting the crisis variable. We considered it as a dummy variable, which was 1 if the movie was released during crisis (2008-2009), otherwise it is equal to zer o. As it was proposed before, this model has been used as a comparison to the original model [Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010] wihle we wanted to test whether their inference holds up with slightly di? erent and newer data. In the second model we tried to use a slightly di? erent approach. We used a time series model with year dummies and we also used all the variables which we obtained and were statistically signi? ant. Our ? rst model is basic linear regression with cross-sectional data. Our data are a random sample thanks to [opusdata. com] query which was capable of selecting a random sample of movies. We have tested all the variables for multicollinearity with the correlation matrix and there is no proof for multicollinearity in our used variables. The only high collinearity is between domestic and budget variables, which is about 0. 75. After running the regressions we have used the Breusch-Pagan test for heteroscedasticity and the chi squared was really high therefore showing s igns of strong heteroscedasticity.Even after looking at the graph of residuals against ? tted values it was clear that the heteroscedasticity is present. Therefore we had to run the regressions with the heteroscedasticity robust errors. We therefore tested in both models for presence of these: †¢ the variables which have an impact on movie international box revenues †¢ any signi? cant impact of ? nancial crisis on these revenues Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 3 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Data analysis Here we list all the used variables in both models and their a description. ariables used academy awards . . . . . . . . . number of Academy Awards a ? lm earned action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies in action genre animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies in animation production method budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the estimated pr oduction and promotion cost of a movie comedy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies in comedy genre crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . dummy variable for movies released during crisis domestic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . omestic box o? ce earnings horror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies in horror genre international . . . . . . . . . . . . international box o? ce earnings kids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies for children rating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . average user rating from the [imdb. com] source ratingR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . is a categorical variable for movies with a restricted rating romantic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies in romantic genre sequel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . categorical variable for movies derived from a previously released ? lm y06 ? y10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . dummy vari able for movies released in a year The list of variables is followed by both model equations and reggression table comparism, while model 1 and model 2 mean the original [Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010] model and our new model respectivelly. model 1 international = ? 0 + ? 1 domestic + ? 2 action + ? 3 kids + ? 4 ratingR+ + ? 5 sequel + ? 6 rating + ? 7 academy awards + ? 8 budget + ? 9 crisis model 2 international = + + ? 0 + ? 1 academy awards + ? 2 budget + ? 3 domestic + ? 4 sequel + ? horror + ? 6 romantic + ? 7 comedy + ? 8 action + ? 9 ratingR + ? 10 animation + ? 11 y06 + ? 12 y07 + ? 13 y08 + ? 14 y09 Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 4 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Table 1: Model comparison model 1 domestic action kids rating R sequel rating academy awards budget crisis horror romantic comedy animation y 06 y 07 y 08 y 09 Constant Observations t statistics in parentheses ? model 2 1. 025 (13. 31) -18. 56? (-2. 29) 1 . 028 (12. 70) -13. 43 (-1. 79) 48. 33? (2. 10) 5. 922 (1. 52) 26. 91? (2. 06) 0. 309 (1. 42) 6. 978? (2. 33) 0. 68 (5. 48) -5. 320 (-1. 01) 9. 259? (2. 36) 28. 74? (2. 16) 7. 097 (2. 59) 0. 508 (4. 73) -9. 867? (-2. 23) 13. 41 (1. 79) -17. 77 (-3. 31) 52. 02 (2. 87) -7. 962 (-1. 24) 1. 182 (0. 17) -6. 748 (-1. 01) -11. 79 (-1. 30) -43. 25 (-3. 05) 424 -15. 11? (-2. 41) 424 p < 0. 05, p < 0. 01, p < 0. 001 Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 5 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Results model 1 After running the ? rst regression we get quite similar results as [Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010], so their inference holds up even under our data.The similar results we get are that one dollar in revenues in US makes $1. 02 in international revenues, therefore succesful movie in US is likely to be similarly succesful in international theatres, if movie is a sequel it adds to revenues about $26 mil. , every academy award adds about $7 mil. and every additional dollar spent on budget adds about $0. 57 so there is about 57% return on budget. We also have similarly insigni? cant variables which are whether is movie rated as restricted and how great or poorly is movie rated by critics or other people.That means that international audience is not in? uenced by age restrictions and critical movie ratings. When we look at our and theirs results regarding the genres then we get quite di? erent results. They say that when a movie is of an action genre then it adds about $26 mil. whereas we obtained results that revenues for an action movie should be lower about $13 mil. and our result for children movies is two times larger and it says that a children movie should make about $48 mil. more. It could be explained that movie genre preferences shifted in the last two years.But more likely explanation is the di? erence in our data in labeling the movies. In our data we have had more detailed labeling and movies which they had labe led as action movies, we had labeled adventure movies etc. Therefore the strictly action movie genre is not so probable to make money as it would seem. Action movies are usually of low quality and many of them could be labeled as B-movies which usually are not very likely to have high revenues. The children movies could be getting more popular and taking children to the movies could be getting more usual thing.Our last and new variable is the crisis dummy which is not signi? cant and therefore we have no proof that the ? nancial crisis had any e? ect on movie revenues. Our model has quite high R2 which is about 0. 83, that is even higher then [Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010] have. But the main reason behind this high R2 is that most of the variation in data is explained by US revenues. If we regress international revenues on domestic alone we still get high R2 which is about 0. 59. model 2 In our time series model we get quite similar results as in the ? rst one. We have there ? e ne w variables which are genres comedy, romantic and horror, animation dummy, which tells us whether the movie is animated or not and year dummies. Our model implies that when a movie is a comedy it will make about $17 mil. less in revenues, when horror about $10 mil. less, when romantic about $13 mil. more and when animated it will add about $52 mil to its revenues. The restricted rating is now also statistically signi? cant and it should add to the revenues about $9 mil. which is quite unexpected. Y ear dummies are statistically non-signi? cant and even when we test them for joint signi? ance they are jointly non-signi? cant. Therefore even in this model there appears no reason to believe that the ? nancial crisis or even year makes di? erence in the movie revenues. Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 6 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Conclusion The inferences from our models are quite like we expected. We expected that people ar e more likely to go to cinema to see movies that had won academy awards, that were succesful in U. S. theatres and that are some kind of sequel to previous succesful movies. The resulting e? cts of di? erent movie genres could be quite puzzling but these e? ects depend highly on quality of the movies released these years and on the mood and taste of current society. If we had had larger sample with data from many years then it is possible that we would have seen trends in the di? erent movie genres. The insigni? cance of the ? nancial crisis on movie revenues was also likely because the severity of the crisis and impact on regular citizen has not been so large that it would in? uence his attendence of movie theatres. Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 7 of 14International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Reference primary [Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010] Terry, Neil, John W. Cooley, & Miles Zachary (2010). The Determinants of Foreign Box O? ce Reven ue for English Language Movies. Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies, 2 (1), 117-127. secondary [Eliashberg & Shugan, 1997] Eliashberg, Jehoshua & Steven M. Shugan (1997). Film Critics: In? uencers or Predictors? Journal of Marketing, 61, 68-78. [Faber & O’Guinn, 1984] Faber, Ronald & Thomas O’Guinn (1984). E? ect of Media Advertising and Other Sources on Movie Selection.Journalism Quarterly, 61 (summer), 371-377. [King, 2007] King, Timothy (2007). Does ? lm criticism a? ect box o? ce earnings? Evidence from movies released in the U. S. in 2003. Journal of Cultural Economics, 31, 171-186. [Litman, 1983] Litman, Barry R. (1983). Predicting Success of Theatrical Movies: An Empirical Study. Journal of Popular Culture, 16 (spring), 159-175. [Ravid, 1999] Ravid, S. Abraham (1999). Information, Blockbusters, and Stars: A Study of the Film Industry. Journal of Business, 72 (4), 463-492. [Terry, Butler & De’Armond, 2004] Terry, Neil, Michael Butler & D e’Arno De’Armond (2004).The Economic Impact of Movie Critics on Box O? ce Performance. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 8 (1), page 61-73. data sources [opusdata. com] Opus data – movie data through a query interface. 30-days free trial. http://www. opusdata. com/ [imdb. com] The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). The biggest, best, most award-winning movie site on the planet. http://www. imdb. com [numbers. com] The numbers. Box o? ce data, movies stars, idle speculation. http://www. the-numbers. com [boxo? cemojo. com] Box o? ce mojo. Movie web site with the most comprehensive box o? ce database on the Internet. ttp://www. boxofficemojo. com Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 8 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Appendix Descriptive statistics for the dependent variables Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 9 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis model 1 Regr ession of the original model published in [Terry, Cooley & Zachary, 2010] Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 10 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Residuals versus ? tted values plotBreusch-Pagan test for heteroskedasticity Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 11 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis model 2 Regression of our model Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 12 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis Residuals versus ? tted values plot Breusch-Pagan test for heteroskedasticity Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 13 of 14 International movie revenues : Determinants and impact of the ? nancial crisis The correlation matrix Marek Kre? mer, Jan Mati? ka c c Page 14 of 14

Chivalry among men in the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

The element of chivalry overshadows everything else in Alexandre Dumas's historical romance, The Three Musketeers. The work was set against the background of King Louis VIII's France. It was a time of intrigue, treachery and machinations in high places, an atmosphere in which you could hardly distinguish friend from foe. It was at this juncture that D'Artagnan, the principal character arrives in Paris.When he sets out to seek his fortune in the famed city, as any young man did in those times and still does to some extent, he was armed with only the three things that were given to him by his aging father:They were, a horse as aging as his progenitor, fifteen crowns and a letter of introduction to Monsieur de Treville, captain of the musketeers, the personal guards of the French king. And there follows a story so packed with events that it leaves the readers spellbound.To many, the idea of chivalry seem frivolous, naà ¯ve and very much in vain. It is like taking romanticism to an illo gical conclusion. You have only got to read Don Quixote to remind yourself of this fact. But one comes to the conclusion that there is a flip side to it after all, after reading the swashbuckling heroics of the protagonist and his bosom pals.Although some of their exploits seem somewhat comic and incredulous, the way they were committed endears them to our hearts with the sheer buoyancy, exuberance and spontaneity of those acts. It takes one right back to childhood, when one indulged in the fantasies peculiar to the period, thereby filling us with nostalgia and even dà ©jà   vu.Here, the protagonist also â€Å"Seeks great stature of character by holding to the virtues and duties of a knight, realizing that though the ideals cannot be reached, the quality of striving towards them ennobles the spirit, growing the character from dust towards the heavens.Nobility also has the tendency to influence others, offering a compelling example of what can be done in the service of rightness.à ¢â‚¬  (Price, Brian R. 1997).So the aforementioned negative qualities of chivalry do not in any way detract from the story in the least as we find the protagonist move forward in his onward momentum, in the most chivalrous manner, â€Å"packed with events and exciting dramatic encounters.† (Dumas, Alexandre).For this, indeed, is a story packed with events with the spirit of chivalry leading it ever forward. And watching D’Artagnan move from adventure to mayhem, one is filled with an overwhelming sense of admiration for the perpetrator of all those hair-raising episodes.And before long one is convinced of the fact that the idea of chivalry is not so frivolous and foolish after all, as seemed at first. Although at times it sounds childishly romantic, it has its high points of idealism, even if it is romantic in nature and so not everybody’s cup of tea.For D’Artagnan does follow the kind of chivalry in its original connotations. At every step, he is ‘ guided by the ideals of chivalry, a moral code that has its origins in medieval knighthood.’ (Dumas, Alexandre).And we sit glued to our seats as if are watching an action packed movie. He exhibits almost all the qualities considered necessary by a typical chivalrous person. First and foremost he is guided by the quality of prowess.In every action ‘he seeks excellence in all endeavors he goes through, martial or otherwise. Like a true knight he does not use his strength for personal glory but uses to serve the cause of justice.' (Price, Brian R. 1997).He is also fiercely loyal to the cause and the people whom he seeks to serve. In the novel, he is loyal to his friends, his country and his amour Madame Bonacieux. And like a true knight he fights the forces of evil with all his strength. Thus he battles the villain Cardinal Richelieu and his guards. Yet he has the time to answer the calls of love from the beautiful and enigmatic Madame Bonacieux.His cronies were Athos, Por thos and Aramis. They were with him in all his adventures and escapades throughout the narrative. Strangely enough, they became friends by fighting duels with D’Artagnan on the one hand and the others one after another, on the other.These encounters came to an end when they were confronted by the arch villain Cardinal Richelieu’s guards who, at that juncture and then onwards, became their common enemy. And their common exploits under the leadership of D’Artagnan also became tinted with the codes of chivalry then prevalent throughout the length and breadth of Europe.Another chivalric code of conduct is to fight for justice ‘unencumbered by bias or personal interest.’ ((Price, Brian R. 1997). Accordingly, the four friends wielded the sword in cause of justice while at the same time practicing the fine qualities of mercy and humanity. They fought against the evil Cardinal whose machinations had filled the French court with intrigue, treachery and viole nce.The chivalric code of defense, demands that D’Artagnan and company also should defend their liege lord, in this case the king of France. But here there is a deviation and object the D’Artagnan’s fealty falls on the queen instead of the king by a quirk of circumstance. ‘The Musketeers join forces to protect the honor of the Queen, to help her conceal her affair with Buckingham, and to help her to arrange meetings with him.This may seem like a relatively trivial matter to most modern readers when compared to the urgencies of the political situation of the time, but according to the code of chivalry and honor that the Musketeers believe in, fostering true love is of the highest importance.’In this work the hero achieves his goals through pride honor and determination. A true gallant always defends his honor whatever be the cost of doing so. For this he is ready to die if necessary.

Enterprise Architecture as Strategy Essay

Technology is shifting at a faster rate resulting in development of new methods that assist in completion of certain technological demand. This has given birth to different enterprise architecture frameworks that fulfill the requirements of day-to-day activities. Architecture is a framework of guidelines, principles, models, standards and strategies that directs, construction and development of business process, design and information and resources through enterprise. Hence, enterprise architecture is a blueprint, which defines the structure and operation of a given organization (Fowler & Rice 2003). Thus, a foundation in which an organization can determine how to achieve current and future aims. There are many types of EA frameworks with specified capabilities. Some of these frameworks include ToGAF, Zachman, FEAF, DoDAF and EAP. The aim of this paper is to analyze ToGAF, and analyze how it compares with other EA frameworks. The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) is an enterprise architecture framework, which approaches the development of enterprise information architecture through design, planning, governance and implementation. This EA framework employs four pillars to achieve its goals: Application, Business, Technology and Data. Before the architect plans for current and future aims of the organization, they are provided with foundation architectures that form the basis that they will use for the new development. The four pillars play a crucial role in ensuring that the process is successful. Business architecture allows the definition of governance, business strategy, the organization and any other important processes of the given organization. Applications architecture allows the provision of the blueprint for the specific application to enable the interaction, deployment and create relationships between the important business processes of a given organization. Data architecture describes the structure of the given organization and defines physical and logical data assets that are in the given organization. Technical architecture defines the software, hardware and network infrastructure that is in place and the required technical resources to accomplish the mission in question. The original aim of the TOGAF was to design and develop technology architecture for a given business entity. However, the framework has evolved becoming a methodology that is used to analyze overall business architecture. This resulted into splitting of the enterprise methodology into two parts: Architecture Development Method (ADM) and Enterprise continuum. The ADM ensures that the enterprise architecture meets the requirements of the organization in terms of business needs and information technology needs. Its ability to be tailored ensures that organizational needs are factored in each of the different execution steps of the architecture planning process. The process is usually cyclic and iterative because the entire process is split into phases. The ADM supports nine phases; the first is the preliminary and the second to the ninth ranges from Phase A to Phase H. Each phase requirements are checked and ensured that it fulfills its basic needs. For example, Phase C combines Application and Data architecture and phase B and C ensure that the clarity of the information architecture is achieved (Lankhorst 2005). For the ADM to be successful, Enterprise Continuum comes handy. Generally, the Enterprise Continuum can be seen as a ‘virtual repository’ of all the assets of the architecture that is in an organization. These assets may include architectural patterns, architectural models, architecture descriptions and other important artifacts. Enterprise Continuum brings together Solutions and Architecture Continuum. The Architecture Continuum structures the re-usable architecture assets, which brings together representations, rules, relationships of information systems that are available to the enterprise. The Solutions Continuum defines the blocks that are used by the Architecture Continuum. This then allows the architectural building models and blocks that assists building the architecture design and eliminates ambiguity during analysis and implementation of the process. Usually there is a relationship between the different EA frameworks in terms of how it operates and ways that enables it to accomplish its duties. Zachman Framework and TOGAF ADM part share some common features. ADM mapping in relation to the Zachman Framework supports a correlation. The Zachman Framework has a well established and comprehensive taxonomy that supports various models, viewpoints and other important artifacts, which an enterprise may consider developing as a phase of the EA (White 2007). The Zachman Framework covers the 30 cells, but the TOGAF does not cover all the cells. However, it is possible for the TOGAF to develop viewpoints to accomplish aspects of Zachman Framework. Nevertheless, there are some viewpoints that are supported by TOGAF, which are not included in the Zachman Framework. For example, the missing viewpoints include manageability and security. The purpose of the architecture is to define viewpoints, an aspect that is supported by the TOGAF ADM but lacks in Zachman Framework. Zachman Framework vertical axis provides a source of potential viewpoints while the horizontal may provide generic taxonomy concerns. Thus, the Zachman Framework does not have means for processes for conformant views or developing viewpoints. Hence, it does not employ a perspective that is shown by TOGAF’s ADM. FEAF structure resembles with TOGAF because it is portioned into Data, Business, Technology and Applications Architectures. Thus, it contains guidance that is analogous to TOGAF architecture and its architectural viewpoints and perspectives. However, the rows that are in the FEAF matrix do not directly map to TOGAF structure. However, the mapping of ADM to Zachman Framework has some correlation between TOGAF and FEAF. Hence, the columns that are in the FEAF matrix correspond to the three architecture domains that are supported by TOGAF; the fourth TOGAF domain covers business architecture that lacks in the FEAF structure. Enterprise Architecture Planning (EAP) is a framework that brings together Applications, Information and Technology Architectures in fulfilling the requirements of architecture. Thus, it shares many concepts with TOGAF because the aim of EAP is to form blueprints for architectures to solve business problems. Moreover, EAP supports the nine phases that are supported by the TOGAF (White 2007). The first three phases in the EAP (Business Architecture) maps to the Phase B of TOGAF ADM. Baseline Description, which is the step 4 in EAP maps to Phases C and D of TOGAF ADM. These are some of the basic features that both frameworks share. However, EAP does not support taxonomy of various views and viewpoints when compared to the TOGAF architecture. Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) defines the architecture systems into consistent and complementary views. It defines a structure and mechanisms that help in understanding, visualizing and assimilating the complexities and broad scope of a given architecture design through tabular, graphic and textual means. Thus, it shares minimal aspect with TOGAF. In fact, TOGAF focus on the methodology of architecture in terms of â€Å"how to† without bringing into consideration architecture description constructs. This perspective is different when it comes to the DODAF architecture. DoDAF main functionality focus on the architecture through a given set of views without any specified methodology, a perspective that is different from TOGAF, which has a specific methodology (Bernus & Fox 2005). ADM guides the way that TOGAF operates, an aspect that is less exhibited in the DoDAF. This is because the purpose of architecture determines description of use and supports a well tailored process to fulfill the requirements of the EA (McGovern & Ambler 2003). DODAF requires that all information, analysis and products to build should be put forefront before building the architecture. However, TOGAF specify certain requirements that should be in place and grouped into the four pillars. DoDAF supports three â€Å"views† System, Operational and Technical while the TOGAF support four views. However, â€Å"views† in DoDAF differs from the view that is seen in the TOGAF. Deliverables and artifacts that are defined in the DoDAF have no corresponding parts in the TOGAF ADM. This is because DoDAF goes deeper in determining details of the specific architecture. Thus, DoDAF are at the system design level rather than in TOGAF, which is in the architecture level. Nevertheless, the level of detail can be included in the ADM especially at Phase B, C and D of the TOGAF. Enterprise Architecture plays an important role in ensuring that the business strategy and the requirements of a certain process are achieved. TOGAF approach is useful in achieving a business-oriented process through a well defined methodology. TOGAF have common features and minor differences with other EA such as the Zachman, FEAF, DoDAF and EAP. The view and viewpoint that is incorporated by the TOGAF ensures that the requirements of the organization are achieved. Thus, TOGAF plays an important role, which is envisaged by other Enterprise Architecture Framework. It fulfills the requirements that it is assigned, however, fulfills it different from the other EA frameworks. References Bernus, P. & Fox, M. (2005). Knowledge Sharing in the Integrated Enterprise: Interoperability Strategies for the Enterprise Architect. London: Birkhauser. The book addresses Enterprise Architectures and Enterprise Integration in a way that makes it easy to utilize Enterprise Models and other Modeling Tools. It brings together the different models and forms of a framework into fulfilling a requirement. Thus, it develops interchange models between the given modeling tools, maintain its interdependencies and knowledge on the re-use of enterprise models. The authors also provide means towards the achievement of the ISO9001:2000. The book brings into consideration Design of Information Infrastructure Systems for Manufacturing (DIISM’04) and International Conference on Enterprise Integration and Modeling Technology (ICEIMT’04). Fowler, M. & Rice, D. (2003). Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishers. The book provides proven solutions to the problems that are experienced by information system developers. The book utilizes code example in terms of C+ and Java. The book turns the problems that are associated with enterprise applications developers into a new strategy that eliminates these problems and ensures that the developers are in an environment that they can easily embrace. The authors’ helps professionals to understand complex issues associated with architecture. The book shows that architecture is crucial in completion of application development and multi-user environment. In addition, the book provides patterns and context in EA that enables the reader to have proper means to make the right decisions. Lankhorst, M. (2005). Enterprise Architecture at Work: Modeling, Communication, and Analysis. New York: Springer. The authors bring clearly the complexities that are associated with architectural domains. It brings into consideration description of the enterprise architecture and fulfillment into an organization in terms of processes, structure, systems, applications and techniques. The book brings into consideration description of components and unambiguous specification to allow for a logical modeling language. They utilize their skills in ensuring that the architects have concrete skills that fulfill the architectural practice. It also gives means that allows communication between stakeholders that are involved in these architectures. The authors also provide means to assess both qualitative impact and quantitative aspects of the given architectures. Modeling language that is utilized has been used in real-life cases. McGovern, J. & Ambler, S. (2003). A practical Guide to Enterprise Architecture. New York: Prentice Hall PTR. The authors of the book have hands-on experience in solving real-world problems for major corporations. The book contains guidelines that assist the architects to make sense of the systems, data, services, software, methodologies, and product lines. The book also provides explanation of the theory and its application to the real world business needs. Perks, C. & Beveridge, T. (2003). Guide to Enterprise IT Architecture. New York: Springer Publishers. The book brings into consideration different Enterprise Architecture frameworks. The authors’ clearly explains development of a modeling concept through various technical architecture, e-business and gap analysis. Moreover, the book brings into consideration operating systems and software engineering principles. Moreover, the book relates EA with service instances, distributed computing, application software and enterprise application integration. Ross, J. & Weill, P. (2006). Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution. Chicago: Harvard Business Press. The aim of EA is to define the requirements of an organization in terms of job roles, standardized tasks, infrastructure, system and data. Moreover, the book also gives guidelines in the way that organizations will compete in a digitalized world providing managers with means to make decisions and realize visions that they had planned. Thus, the book explains EA vital role in fulfilling the execution of a given business strategy. The book provides thoughtful case examples, clear frameworks, and a proven and effective way of achieving EA. Scheer, A. & Kruppke, H. (2006). Agility by ARIS Business Process Management. New York: Springer Publishers. The authors’ brings into consideration the benefits that are associated with utilizing of varies EA frameworks. It brings into consideration the various differences that are seen in each EA framework. Moreover, the authors explores the benefits that will result if a given framework is utilized in a given business strategy. Thus, the book is business oriented with EA playing an important role. Schekkerman, J. (2003). How to Survive in the Jungle of Enterprise Architecture Frameworks, 2nd Ed. New York: Trafford Publishers. This book defines the role that is played by enterprise Architecture Frameworks bringing clearly the main difference between the common Enterprise Architecture Frameworks. This book provides the right procedures and means that can allow selection of the right Enterprise Architecture Framework. The book further gives the history and overview of various Enterprise Architecture Frameworks and the capabilities that the specified Enterprise Architecture. Some common features of EA that the book explores are principles, purpose, scope, structure, and compliance and guidance to ensure that the right EA is chosen. Wagter, R. & Steenbergen, M. (2005). Dynamic Enterprise Architecture: How to Make it work. New York: John Wiley and Sons Publications. The authors of the book present a way towards EA that enables organizations to achieve the objectives of their business. The book focuses on governance of the IT organization, advice and strategies provide tangible tools that assist in the achievement of the goals of the organization. If all the directives are followed the organization will achieve its goals at a faster speed. White, J. (2007). Managing Information in the Public Sector. New York: M. E. Sharpe. The book covers the basis of information technology, political and managerial issues that revolve the EA. This book is specifically written for the public and it covers all problems that are related to IT and the public.

Future of Mobile Global Business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Future of Mobile Global Business - Assignment Example This study evaluates some of these case studies to provide some valuable insight about the contribution of mobile use, and application in commerce and what the prospects for the future are in the mobile industry. It will critically analyse the potential futures in different perspectives such as the competition, role of stakeholders, political, technical, and social issues, and collaboration of mobile in m-business. To get an accurate insight into the contribution of the mobile industry in business, this study will focus on evaluating mobile systems such as MPS (Mobile Payment System), Mobile Ticketing System, and Mobile Learning Systems (M-Learning). In addition, the paper aims to investigate the drivers of mobile applications, their various applications and some the projections in future business world. Through evaluation and analysis of the past researches it also analyses the the past statistics and compares the present trend in the mobile industry. Apart from analysing the contri bution of mobile technology in the business world, this paper will look at how mobile applications such as M-Learning, M-ticketing, and M-Payment systems influence the future development of mobile commerce. It also evaluates the various scenarios of how mobile devices can be used in mobile commerce, their disadvantages, advantages, and the challenges posed in terms of acceptance by people, and the implementation of the technology itself. Key words Mobile mobility; mobile technology; mobile payment system; M-Learning; mobile ticketing system; Short Message Service (SMS); mobile application Introduction One of the most powerful and famous portable technology is mobile technology. It comprises of mobiles phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistances), and laptop computers. Mobile services have the capacity to enable and provide services of spatial and temporal constraints. As opposed to other interpersonal services such as online services, which are delivered on the spot, mobile services allow users access to information and services when on the move without being bound to a one spot. In addition, it offers accessibility, ease of use, and flexibility. For instance, through the Mobile Ticketing Service (M-Ticketing), users are able to make bookings and purchase tickets for games, transport, and theatres (Alfawaer, 2011, p848). The advent of mobile phone technology has allowed consumers access to services and content anywhere, anytime. For instance, through wireless devices, mobile phone technology users are able to carry out sell or buy transactions, pay bills, track stock quotes, access bank accounts, make orders, or receive promotions anytime, anywhere. This has been through electronic commerce (E-commerce), which is carrying out business over the internet. This definition is so general and says nothing about the devices used. Normally, a person can access the internet via a wired LAN (connected to a desktop pc) or through a wireless network (phones, PDAs, Laptops, etc.). When we access e-commerce via wireless networks such as through a mobile phone, we refer to it as mobile commerce (M-Commerce). Through mobile devices such as PDAs and mobile phones, mobile business services have a promising future. Applications functions such as news, ticketing, can be optimized for business functionality (Abdelkarim & Nasereddin, 2004, p52). In the business world, information is considered the most valuable aspect of business than money. Given this importance, accuracy, volume, and the swiftness of available information is equally significant. Modern businesses today bases their future profits on the timeliness of information concerning the development of customers’

Research dissertation proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Research dissertation proposal - Essay Example The modern day society in multi-racial countries is of people from different backgrounds. Some races are considered inferior in some countries. This notion extends into the workplace whereby managers are prone to make impaired judgments on their employees based on their race. Some countries in the world consider members of the female gender inferior and incapable of serving some functions. On accessions, women in these countries are discriminated from performing some duties strictly set apart for men. The primary aim of the research entails shedding light on cases of workplace discrimination and helps create information that will improve how employment law prevents the effects of job discrimination (Hagelskamp, and Hughes, 2014). This dissertation will be based on information derived from a literature review. Information compilation will be through examination of selected literature material. A consideration of the previous literature from human resource departments across the public and private sector will be carried out. Trade union reports will be examined for the public sector. Human resource department reports from selected organizations will be considered for the private sector. Hagelskamp, C., and Hughes, D. L. (2014). Workplace discrimination predicting racial/ethnic socialization across African American, Latino, and Chinese families.  Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology,  20(4),

Midterm Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words - 1

Midterm - Essay Example This means that people and business organizations are on a continuous journey that requires them to experience various processes and practices consciously or unconsciously. In this case, business organizations are expected to be abreast of the changing factors that can affect their profitability and other management aspects. This paper examines the concept of change and how it can be used by organizations to create and enhance their effective performance and success. It focuses on a Chinese Company, Alibaba Holdings, which has navigated its path to reach its current levels of excellence in business performance. The company has recently been listed on the New York Stock exchange in a bid to remain competitive and enhance its market position (Lianna, Jessica & Ryan, 2014). Currently, the pace by which globalization has been taking toll on businesses has quickened tremendously. Business executives and owners have been increasing their call for flexibility, agility and innovativeness from various business functions (Robertson, 2006). This development is aimed at positioning businesses strategically to tackle the rising challenges in competition and other factors in the external and internal environment. Amidst all these persistent calls, one thing has often been largely ignored, that is, organizations are creatively designed in order to search for competitive advantages that are sustainable. In addition, the fact that stability in business practices is just not desirable and effective, but attainable as well, has been an issue buried deeply in managerial psyche, but has been bolstered by periods of practice and theory (Christopher & Edward, 2006). It is important to understand that the popularity that is often associated with efforts for process improvement that range from overall quality management to various kinds of sigma provides are enough evidence for

Psychological Anthropology Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Psychological Anthropology - Research Proposal Example Dean attempts to persuade Cindy to give their relationship another chance but Cindy refuses and moves away with their daughter claiming that their daughter cannot stay in a broken home. The film ends where Dean walks away from the house and tells the daughter who runs after him to stay with her mother.The reason for choosing the Blue Valentine film is to explore the social life or cultural phenomena of people in the society. The research investigates or aims to determine social aspects of people in a given society. In anthropology, the study of social aspects is classified under social anthropology, which is the branch of anthropology that attempts to reveal the way human beings behaves in the social groups or in the society. The researchers of social anthropology often carry a long-term and intensive field studies including participant observations, customs, conflict resolution, family structure, childbearing and gender relations. Therefore, the film of the Blue Valentine attempts t o focus on the social life of two young couples, the underlying logic of Dean and Cindy, their social behaviors and contradictions of their social life. Therefore, using the narrative or the storyline from the film can enable one to explore the ambiguities, contradictions of social life in the contemporary society or the underlying aspects of social behaviors in a social group. This will enable the researcher to develop a clear picture on the way human beings in social groups behave in the contemporary society.... Section B The reason for choosing the Blue Valentine film is to explore the social life or cultural phenomena of people in the society. The research investigates or aims to determine social aspects of people in a given society. In anthropology, the study of social aspects are classified under social anthropology, which is the branch of anthropology that attempts to reveal the way human beings behaves in the social groups or in the society (Casey and Robert 37). The researchers of social anthropology often carries a long-term and intensive field studies including participant observations, customs, conflict resolution, family structure, childbearing and gender relations. Therefore, the film of the Blue Valentine attempts to focus on social life of two young couples, the underlying logic of Dean and Cindy, their social behaviors and contradictions of their social life. Therefore, using the narrative or the storyline from the film can enable one to explore the ambiguities, contradictions of social life in the contemporary society or the underlying aspects of social behaviors in a social group. This will enable the researcher to develop a clear picture on the way human beings in a society groups behaves in the contemporary society. Therefore, the researcher will focus on the issue by extending social phenomena beyond art, culture and cognition. Section C Social theory is an effective approach that the researcher can use in the significant data analysis. Social theory is analytical approach or paradigm employed by researchers in examining the social phenomena. This theory takes into considerations the way societies lives, develops or behaves; thus it is an approach attempts to explain the social behaviors of human beings in the

Beveridges Social Security Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Beveridges Social Security - Essay Example "There is world economy, but there is no world polity". (Altiero Spinelli and Brit Federa: Writings by Bevirdige, Robbins and Spinelli) The Beveridge Report is based on certain principles that put forth the cause of the lower strata of the society and social security. Firstly, the main principle underlines in the Report is that all the proposals for the establishment of a Welfare State and to promote the interests of the society, need to be unbiased and non-partisan. The proposals need to be commonly targeted and certainly not in the interest of a section of the society. Besides using past experience and knowledge in governance, proposals need to highlight the positive impact they would bring about, on the entire society, and not only the affluent strata. Secondly, the Report highlighted that social insurance must be incorporated into the process of bringing about social welfare.

Transportation Safety Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Transportation Safety - Research Paper Example Notably the numbers can reduce only if more people took the initiative to drive safely. The commitment towards this should not be a one-person affair, but all persons involved in the transport sector from the top. Human life is sacred, and employers should make sure that the precautions on transport safety that they take are geared towards its preservation. Transportation safety greatly reduces accidents that would lead to loss of human life. Another advantage is that transportation fatalities are costly to the employer. During an accident involving an employee, there are going to be medical expenses on the part of the employer. Another thing is that there will be a loss on the capital: your employees are part of your capital, and when they are not at work, there are going to be losses incurred. There are also legal requirements for worker’s compensation, disability insurance as well as social security costs that the employer will have to cater for. On average, the U.S employers incur about $60billion annually as a result of this (Dhillon, 2011). This money would instead have been invested elsewhere to grow the economy. It is the concern of the government too that transport fatalities that may be avoided do not happen. The American National Standards Institute has written down guidelines for use when it comes to motor vehicle use so as to preserve lives. These safety guidelines are voluntary, but every employer should acquire them so as to ensure the safety of those persons he or she has entitled his employees to. There is also the 10-step program by Network of Employers for Transport Safety. This program is meant to guide the employers in minimizing the crash risks. These guidelines help the employers in hiring only competent drivers. These ten guidelines are: Having written procedures and policies is important for documentation and reference purposes. These policies should be widely available and accessible to all. The

International Business and Cultural Diversity Case Study Essay

International Business and Cultural Diversity Case Study - Essay Example This paper seeks to establish whether there is any direct relation between cultural change and socio-economic-political changes in an organization or company, the variables present that are to be encountered and how these variables, if present, can be able to effectively mediate or moderate the effects of culture in today’s business environment. 2.0 Cultural Changes In the modern, contemporary society, one of the most overused terms is culture (Samovar, Porter and McDaniel 2012). According to Schein 2010, culture can be divided into four broad categories. These are macro cultures, subcultures, organizational cultures and micro cultures (Bosshardt 2006). Culture is a dynamic phenomenon and a basic background structure that has the effect of influencing us in a wide variety of ways. It is constantly changing and reenacted by our constant interactions with other people and is progressively shaped by our own behaviour. The main connection between culture and leadership can clearly be seen in micro cultures and organizational cultures where the culture in such systems is usually thought of as the end result of the embedding that an organization’s founder or leader within the group has imposed upon it and it with positive results (Schein, 2010). Culture can also be broadly defined as a set of shared values like beliefs, norms, behaviours, attitudes, material objects and symbolic resources. Basically speaking it can be thought of as the basic rules for functioning and living within a given society (Samovar, Porter and McDaniel 2012). 3.0 What are Variables? Variables can broadly be defined as items that we can control, measure or even manipulate while performing research. They are viewed as characteristics that have the potential of having more than one value or score. They can be viewed as being relatively straight forward for instance when we consider variables such as income or age while sometimes they can be viewed as being relatively abstract such a s when we are considering items such as degree of prejudice or even social class (Inglehart and Welzel 2007). Researchers constantly analyze variables in order to determine how they end up influencing each other. 3.1 What are Social Variables? Social variables can be viewed as logical sets of attributes. An attribute like a person being either male or female will have the main variable of gender or sex (Weinstein 2005). While a variable such as occupation will be attributed by items such as a truck driver, farmer or professor (Babbie 2010). 3.2 What are Economic Variables? Economic variables can be subdivided into endogenous variables, which are defined as economic variables which are dependent on the occurrences within a given economy such as inflation and employment rates, while exogenous variables are those variables, which are seen to be external to the economy of a given country and are mainly determined by the current global events and policies (Keillor 2011). Examples include

How Do I Build A Legacy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

How Do I Build A Legacy - Essay Example The first step of legacy-building is to understand your legacy and why it is important to leave it in the first place (Ottinger, 2008). You will need to know yourself, identify the value of your legacy, and your target group so as to create the vision and develop goals for achievement. Since legacies come in different forms and shapes with varying levels of commitment and effort, you will choose the legacy you want to live. After that, you focus on the legacy; design it to meet your dreams, values and ideas, and gather the required resources. It also involves identifying your strengths by talking to the friends, family, or colleagues for an insight. By having a plan of action, you can now live your legacy or actualize it. The implementation pulls together the plan, design and resources. Bringing a project to life may take various aspects such as character development, behavioral changes, or relationship building. Creating a legacy does not end at the actualization stage. You need to keep it alive by harvesting the rewards and building on the joy and inspiration it creates on the people. During this last stage, you will need to put in place the succession planning for transition to other generations (Ottinger,

In the Dream of the Man that was Dreaming, the Dreamt Man Woke Essay Example for Free

In the Dream of the Man that was Dreaming, the Dreamt Man Woke Essay By traditional definition, perception is anything that can be known through the five senses. However, this quote adds another dimension to the idea about perception. It implies that perception is not dictated by the five senses, but by the brain. If a man perceives something, he has either seen it, heard it, felt it, smelt it, tasted it, or any combination of those. A man knows that a car has crashed because he saw the collision and heard the loud noise. He knows that he likes steak through enjoying its pleasant smell and satisfying taste. In addition, he knows that fire is hot because the nervous system allows him to feel its warmth. However, one usually forgets that it is impossible to use these senses without the brain, which controls each of these perceptions. The quote serves as a supporting reminder of this idea. Arguably, the dreaming man is able to perceive a dreamt man waking up. Yet, he does not necessarily see the man with his own eyes, because his eyelids are shut. He does not hear the dreamt man with his ears; he does not feel the man with his hands, and he certainly doesnt taste or smell the man. So how is he able to perceive him? He is able to perceive him because his brain still functions, creating the image of the dreamt man waking. Now, the reason why the brain creates the image of the dreamt man is for another paper, about dream interpreting. The quote simply implies that we perceive only what our brain wants us to, and that our brain may even make us perceive what is not reality. It may be possible that we do not always know what is reality even if it is right in front of us. For example, today might feel like a cold day, yet it is still about 50-60 degrees F. However, in the winter months of January and February, a 60 degree day may not feel so cold. In fact, it would even feel warm compared to the usual freezing temperature. This is because the brain interprets what messages are sent through the nervous system, and it tells the body to feel warm because it is used to a colder temperature. Recently, due to the sniper shootings, Americas Most Wanted conducted a study which proved that the brain can affect what a witness may have seen with his or her own eyes. This is a major cause of the inconsistent eyewitness accounts of the shootings. These are just a few examples that prove that perception is under the complete control of the brain. Perception is much more than what the body is able to sense; it is how the brain interprets the information it receives through those senses. Even while the body is in slumber, the brain continues to interpret and create perceptions. Does the brain have a mind of its own?

Competitive Advantage Through HR Outsourcing

Competitive Advantage Through HR Outsourcing Organizations getting their human resource function done out side the organization is known as HR outsourcing. With the help of HR outsourcing an organization hands over its human resource issues to be resolved by the third party and the third solves all issues related to human resource. Through outsourcing a company can avoid its internal cost to some extent and it will get better services at low cost because third party consultant holds highly competent HR professionals with them. If organization tries to hire those people it would be very costly for it. HR outsourcing gives access to those professionals at minimum cost and organizations get better solution. Now days, organization are trying to move towards HR outsourcing. Many of the organizations now adopt this concept and because of outsourcing, they are performing better. In my research I have tried to find out whether adopting HR outsourcing gives an edge to the organization or not. I set our initial hypothesis that organization gets competitive advantage if they go for HR outsourcing. In order to get results I have conducted a small scale research and on the basis of this research I concluded my findings. RESEARCH QUESTION Does an organization gain competitive advantage through HR outsourcing? RESEARCH OBJECTIVES HR outsourcing is gaining immense importance in the current era. Most of the organizations are now adopting HR outsourcing. It gives organizations double benefit, firstly they can avail services of key human resource professionals without hiring them and secondly organizations can get these benefits incurring very low cost. The basic objective of conducting this research is to find out the impact of HR outsourcing on organizational performance. In this research I have tried to find that organizations gain competitive advantage through HR outsourcing. What positive things they achieve through HR outsourcing. I have collected data from key HR personnel working in leading organizations. This research will assist almost every organization that is working at broader level. By analyzing the findings of this research organizations can get the idea whether they should adopt HR outsourcing or not. This research will also be helpful for those organizations that are considering HR outsourcing. I have also discovered that what benefits organizations achieve through HR outsourcing and what are other possibilities to gain other different benefits. LITERATURE REVIEW In the presence of theoretical model an organization identifies environmental and organizational characteristics that affect the performance of human resource in the organization. Particularly we address the issue according to the circumstance which contributes value for organization by the analysis of environmental and organizational characteristics that affect HR performance and relationship outsourcing mediates. We propose that supplier competition in HR is directly proportion to the HR depth performance. Uncertain situation of the environment like primary, competitive and supplier give the indications to develop the relationship between the performance of HR and amount of HR outsourcing and also between supplier competition and amount of outsourcing for asset specify the latest version of the paper was presented in Houston, Texas, March, 2003 at the Southwest Academy of Management meeting and received the paper award. It has been observed in different organizations that they are focusing on human resource outsourcing. This trend has been observed for last few years. In a research conducted by well reputed institutions of the world concluded in its findings the views of key HR personnel of different leading organizations that they outsource at least one function from the outside in order to increase productivity. P G signed an agreement to outsource HR service in 2004 for its operation spread all over the world. HR outsourcing is gaining rapid attention by different organizations, it is strongly recommended that organization should go through all aspects while outsourcing. In different surveys it has been found that it has declined the morale of employees and customer services are also not up to standards. It is still problem for the organizations that before going to outsourcing for the functions that previously did in the organization and decision solely based on cost and benefit analysis. (e.g.,AndersonWeitz, 1986;Belous, 1989; Greer, Youngblood, Gray, 1999; Gupta Gupta, 1992; Kakabadse Kakabadse, 2002; Lever, 1997), and Vining Globerman (1999) in a research conducted by government agencies that through HR outsourcing organization saved up to 30% in its operating costs. In spite of that difference other studies suggest that while making decision of outsourcing cost should not be only criteria few other factors should also be taken into consideration. In those considerations it must analyze that organizations are availing services of highly competent professionals and customer satisfaction has also increased. (Barthelemy, 2003; Greer, Youngblood Gray, 1999; Gupta Gupta, 1992), by few experts it is said that organizations lose long term advantage (Anderson Weitz, 1986; Greer, Y oungblood Gray, 1999, Gupta Gupta, 1992; Lever, 1997). Studies that have been conducted very recently, Adler (2003) pointed few factors that must be considered while making decision for out sourcing, one how dependent you will be, second is spillover risk, and third is reliability of that organization, capability of that organization, long term sustainability and flexibility. The factors that discussed at first, second, third and fourth position are short term and fifth and sixth positions are long term. Even though there is no accurate method that helps us whether outsourcing is most efficient and effective. Few practical examples are available whether to manufacture or purchase from out side for example Leiblein, Reuer, Dalsace, 2002) findings focus why organization outsource, what are the benefits of outsourcing. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Todays world of business is very dynamic; every business is striving to sustain its position in the market. HR outsourcing is an emerging concept and gaining an edge with the passage of time. Organizations are moving towards adaptation of this concept. It has been observed that HR outsourcing is beneficial for the organizations. Organizations performance increases with the help of HR outsourcing. Those organizations that have adopted HR outsourcing in their organization are performing better than those that have not focused on HR outsourcing. It shows trend towards HR outsourcing. It is utmost effort of every organization to perform at optimum level and give better result to its stakeholders. Though HR outsourcing organizations avail services of highly competent professionals who assist them to increase their productivity and ultimately this will positively affect the profits of the organizations. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY In this research, I have used survey methods because this is descriptive research and nature of the situation is uncertain, in which management partially is sure about the problem. Questionnaire was used as data collection tool in which structured and close end questions were asked. Total fourteen questions were designed to ask different opinion from the respondents. In all questions different options were given to the respondent to select his choice. Finally when all questionnaire were got filed then I summarized the result in order to finalize my research findings. Apart from questionnaire literature was reviewed thoroughly. By analyzing both primary data collected through questionnaire and secondary data analyzed in literature review, I have concluded my research findings. In this research, my sample size was thirty respondents and all were professionals working in different organizations. They participated in this research and on the basis of responses received from them I finally concluded about this research. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES In this research, 30 respondents were asked to participate. Out of which 27 questionnaires were received. 3 questionnaires were rejected due to fake or incomplete data, ultimately 24 questionnaires were analyzed. All participants were highly qualified HR professionals that were performing their duties in well reputed and leading organizations. Most of the respondents were in 41 to 50 years age bracket but few of them were 51 to 60 years age bracket. All respondents had been serving in the organization for more than five years. In the response to a question that HR department plays a vital role for the development of the organization, 83% responded strongly agree, 9% agreed, and only 8% disagrees with this statement. This shows the importance of the HR department in the organization especially in the light of these responses. Organizations which have highly competent HR professional are stronger than those that are lacking them. Majority of the responded agreed with this statement only a small percent of the responded denied this statement. HR outsourcing leads organization towards success, in the response to this question 95% agreed this statement and 5% were neutral, they did not respond anything. From the response to this question it can be inferred that it is key success factor of the organization if it adopts HR outsourcing. HR outsourcing doubles the performance of organization, response of this question was not completely positive. 56% respondents were neutral and did comment on it, 23% agreed this statement, 21% of respondents disagreed with this statement. It can be inferred from this statement that most of the HR personnel were not sure about it because no quantitative data was available in front of them, so they reserved their response. In the responses to this question, organizations are more competitive that are involved in HR outsourcing, 75% responded strongly agreed with this statement, 18% agreed and only 7% responded who disagreed with this statement. In regards to another question, HR outsourcing gives competitive advantage to the organizations, 88% agreed with this statement, 7% were neutral and only 5% responded disagreed with this statement. From the responses of these two questions it can easily be inferred how HR outsourcing contributes to the development of the organization. Organization attains competitive advantage due to HR outsourcing. Organizations which are involved in HR outsourcing get their HR function done more professionally, 89% of respondents agreed with this statement and only 11% disagreed. HR outsourcing plays vital role in the success of the organization, 53% of the respondents agreed with this statement, 29% were neutral and did choose either side only 8% disagreed with this statement. Though it is emerging concept, most of the HR professionals are not able to differentiate both scenarios. Most of the organizations are moving towards HR outsourcing, 83% respondents agreed it means they have realized the value of the HR outsourcing. Really it is beneficial for the organizations and this is the key success factor for the organizations. Data Validity and Reliability For the collection of data questionnaire was used which was designed according to hypothesis, and nature of information we wanted to ask. All questions were designed in such direction which gave us proper direction towards hypothesis. Secondly, this questionnaire was initially passed through pilot testing process in which any types of problems or errors and unnecessary things were removed that verified authenticity of that questionnaire. Thirdly, this questionnaire was filled by HR professional and they know very well about related field, they were experts and have extensive ideas regarding this field and they responded to the questions based on their deep knowledge and vast experience. As we discussed earlier in this research those respondents were asked to participate who had been working in the organizations for more than five years and they had captured a leading position in their particular department. They were also working in the world class organization,so scope of these peop le was very high their participation in this research gave me a clear picture to draw a better conclusion. Ethical Issues Apart from many issues it is also mandatory for the researcher to take care of ethical issues related with that particular research. As questionnaire that were received from the respondents having confidential data that was unethical to disclose because they provided some personal information and it seemed awkward to deliberately convey others and it also seemed unnecessary that it should be told to any one. All the facts and figures provided by the respondents especially most secrete things were kept as secrete only required thing that were mandatory to analyze has been discussed in this research. One more thing that what ever the result of this research, organizations which use the data for their betterment purpose must take care of one thing that they would not harm their employees. Recommendations In the view of above research it has been recommended to the organizations that HR outsourcing is very important aspect that must be focused. By implementing HR outsourcing most of the organizations availing the benefits of it and others are trying to implement. Few of the organization have not taken any effort to move in this direction. Though the world of business is very dynamic and it is changing rapidly, it has been hard for the most of the organizations to operate in this dynamic world. On each day new products have been introduced in the market and new ideas have been brought in the market. Competition is increasing day by day; every organization is trying to take over other. Businesses are facing very tough competition and it is very hard to respond these daily fluctuations. For the sake of survival, organizations must critically analyze the situation and plan to responds these changes accordingly. If any organization does not take care and it is not worry about what ever is happening in the business world, they may almost go out from the market they do not sustain their competitive positions. As we know HR is key asset of any organization, all physical assets are operated by human resource. Human resource does not have only capability to operate physical assets but it can also bring new ideas by using its analytical skills. If any organization has capable and competent human resource it has an edge to other organization because it can respond well. Capability is bestowed by nature; it does not mean if any one is highly qualified he is capable as well. Any organization that has hired talented human resource it can respond well to the changes occurring in the dynamic business world. HR outsourcing is an emerging concept; most of the organizations have adopted this concept in which organizations get their HR functions done externally. It the light of my research it is strongly recommended that organization must focus to bring changes because it assists them to attain competitive advantage. Those organizations which have not yet considered this fact must focus on it. It would not only save the cost of the organization but it also would help to render the services of highly competent HR professional. As we all know that business world is very dynamic, each day we find new changes in the market. Organizations are striving to introduce innovative and modified products. With the passage of time, necessities of the people have also changed. In order to produce products, offer service according to expectation of customers, organization must hire those people who must be committed and enthusiastic with the organization. So they must go for HR outsourcing for the betterment of their services and to respond the rapidly changes in the market. Conclusion Organization get their human resource function done out side the organization is known as HR outsourcing. With the help of HR outsourcing organization hand over its human resource issues to be resolved by the third party and that third solves all issues related to human resource. With detailed analysis of this research, I have come to this point that HR outsourcing is mandatory for the organizations and gives competitive advantage to the organizations. Finding of this research confirms that though HR outsourcing organizations attain competitive advantage. In this research, respondents who participated were all professional and performing their duties in the leading organizations. Most of the respondents uttered that human resource department plays a vital role in the development of the organizations and really this is the fact because they are the key assets of any organization. All those organization that captured leading positions in the world market, it was due to their expert human resource. In the regard of question whether HR outsourcing is important, many of the respondents positively uttered that it is mandatory and plays most important part in the development of any organization. Because now a days business people know the fact that it is hard to survive in the market until timely actions are not taken. So it can only be possible when they get their HR functions done in professional ways. There would be dual effect of this HR outsourcing, one organization would avail professional guidance at low cost and secondly due to professional capabilities they would try to motivate employees. HR outsourcing increases the work efficiently of the organizations. Productivity of the organizations increases, in view of few questions it was stated that due to competent HR organizations gives better results and perform at expected level. Most of the organizations are now moving to HR outsourcing, there can many reasons behind that. One reason among them can be the tough competition in the market due to that organization has to respond to rapidly changing market. Every day new and improved products or services have been introduced, it has become complex to run the businesses if proper attention is not paid, it has also become matter of survival for the organization thats why efforts are continuously made to bring organization at competition level. Organizations are striving to make changes on daily basis and respond to the external environment accordingly. It is their full effort to pave the way of success. Focus towards HR outsourcing is also one of the parts of this connection. In nut shell, I conclude that organizations attain competitive advantage due to HR outsourcing;they perform better than other organization, and they become successful to attain competitive advantage because they respond the environment quickly if any new change occurs out side the external environment. It increases the productivity of the organizations and they become more efficient. Most of the organizations are now moving towards HR outsourcing because they have realized the importance of HR outsourcing.

The Rich Diversity of Meanings of the Pardoners Tale Essay -- Pardone

The Rich Diversity of Meanings of the Pardoner's Tale Chaucer’s innovation in the Pardoner’s performance tests our concept of dramatic irony by suggesting information regarding the Pardoner’s sexuality, gender identity, and spirituality, major categories in the politics of identity, without confirming that information. Our presumed understanding of the Pardoner as a character lacks substantiation. As we learn about the Pardoner through the narrator’s eyes and ears, we look to fit the "noble ecclesiaste" (l. 708) into the figure shaped by our own prejudices and perceptions, as any active reader must do. But the Pardoner, ever aware of his audience, does not offer clear clues to his personality. This break between what the other characters say about the Pardoner and what the Pardoner says about himself has been a major source of tension for all readers of the Tales and especially critics who search for substantiation of their views beyond the Chaucer’s own language. The general tone of the Canterbury Tal es is comic. After all, the pilgrims are traveling to the shrine St. Thomas Beckett in a public act of holy reverence, but the Tales take a darker turn when the Pardoner is brought to the foreground. The whole Canterbury Tales is a collected set of performances, stories told about telling stories. As Joseph Ganim has written, theatricality, by which he means "a governing sense of performance, an interplay among the author’s voice, his fictional characters, and his immediate audience," is "a paradigm for the Chaucerian poetic" (5). This paper shall endeavor to show that the major effect of the Pardoner’s presence in the Tales is to focus the reader’s attention to questions of performance and performativity, literary perception, ... ...University of California Press, 1988. Lochrie, Karma; McCracken, Peggy; Schultz, James A. Editors. Constructing Medieval Sexuality. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. McAlpine, Monica E. â€Å"The Pardoner’s Homosexuality and How It Matters.† Geoffrey Chaucer’s The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Ed. by Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988. pp. 103-124. Nevo, Ruth. â€Å"Chaucer: Motive and Mask in the General Prologue.† Geoffrey Chaucer’s The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Ed. by Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988. pp. 9-20. Ross, Thomas W. Chaucer’s Bawdy. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1972. Sedgewick, G. G. â€Å"The Progress of Chaucer’s Pardoner, 1880-1940.† Chaucer: Modern Essays in Criticism. Ed. by Edward Wagnknecht. New York: Oxford University Press, 1959. pp. 126-158.