Individual Management Enhancement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Individual Management Enhancement - Essay Example trying to figure out how this environment changes at my work place and realised that technological rapid change leads to frustrations and affects worker’s productivity. Recently, all the data in my bank was digitized and therefore, staff had to be moved and shifted to departments which could accommodate better their skills. Others had to be sent for retraining and refreshment on the way they could work in a digitized environment. Aware that change management requires thoughtful planning and sensitive implementation, I sought to consult and involve colleagues who were affected. I therefore, embarked on finding out their challenges and what the change in environment could mean for their future career. I interviewed five colleagues at work and also reviewed some empirical evidence of past rapid and massive changes. I also revisited handouts that gave me insight into the area of environmental and process change management at work. I received an interesting feedback from my respondents regarding their experiences with change in environment and process at work. They specifically pointed at the worrying trends in IT department where I belong and saw it as forced, though inevitable environmental change in all departments in a company. They also reported that even if technological environmental change from technological shift is inevitable, it comes with problems. These observations are applicable in any company regardless of the business. The following are best practices when it comes to environment and process at work place: It was important to get feedback from top management concerning the issue of being realistic. Khalid Roshan reported that although this is not noticed by many workers, he is actually the most affected by the digitization process in our company and that this is the first point of being realistic. In this case, Khalid Roshan was quick to give a professional advice that when effecting change, one has to be â€Å"realistic and set measurable and

Assessment and Learner Essay Example for Free

Assessment and Learner Essay * It is important to understand and identify any particular needs the learner may have so they are able to learn to the best of their ability and get the most out of the qualification. Ensuring they receive the best quality learning can help them achieve their best. * Keeping track of what the learner has learnt is important so there is no repetition and they are learning new topics all the time. This will also contribute to how well the learner takes on new information and what they get from that. * Summative assessment is important to make sure the learner understands what is being taught and they understand any learning outcomes. 1. 2 * Assessments used as a process of making judgements are very important as they help us measure where the learner is at in a number of different ways. These can help us as assessors ensure out learners are learning at the right stage and to the right criteria. * Validity – the state or quality of being valid. To question the validity of the argument. (dictionary. com) it can also mean Validity in assessment refers to measuring what it says it is measuring, be it knowledge, understanding, subject content, skills, information, behaviours, etc. see more:identify ways of supporting an individual to make informed choices (http://www. saqa.org. za/docs/critguide/assessment/ch03. pdf) * Reliability – the ability to be relied on or depended on as for accuracy, honesty or achievement. (dictionary. com) it can also mean Reliability in assessment is about consistency. Consistency refers to the same judgements being made in the same, or similar contexts each time a particular assessment for specified stated intentions is administered. (http://www. saqa. org. za/docs/critguide/assessment/ch03. pdf) * Having the learner gather evidence can help in the decision making for the assessor in many different ways. One of which is to ensure the learner is doing the work and is kept up to date. * Evidence being authentic, current and sufficient is important for the learner to get the best from the course and to ensure they are completing their own work and it is up to date with the relevant qualification. * It is important for everyone to get an equal chance of getting an objective and accurate assessment. This can help both the assessor and learner as they can be sure to promote fairness and objectiveness. * The importance of transparency for the learner. 1. 3. * Understanding and applying the standards and requirements is important as these are in place for the assessor and learner to gain the most from the qualification and to give them piece of mind that they are receiving the best education. * Planning ahead is important as understanding what stage the learner is at can help to prepare for the next meeting. This can also help the learner prepare too. * Communication of every aspect of the qualification is important as it can help the assessor and learner keeps track of progress and where they need to go next. * Carrying out assessments is important to keep track of the learner’s progress and to keep on track of how they are performing. This can also identify any needs/requirements the learner may have. * Comparing evidence can help to ensure the learner is meeting the set standards and also to ensure the set standards are of the best quality. * Making assessment decisions can help the learner move onto the next task or meet any needs the learner may have. * Recording assessments is important as it can help other verifiers check that the assessor is delivering the correct standards to the learner. * Providing feedback can help the learner understand what worked, what didn’t, where can they do better and how can they do that. 1. 4 * The general requirements for assessment’s need to be identified and acknowledged. This can be done by simple research and reading. * Understanding which documents and where to find them is important as these must be adhered to. This is also important for the assessor as they need to know how and what to asses. 2. 1 * Understanding different types of assessment methods is highly important. These assessment methods give you a wide range of results when looking at students and their work. Comparing these and discussing their pro’s and cons is also important to find out what is best for your particular student and what they are particularly studying. 3. 1 * Understanding how to plan an assessment can be easily done with the right amount of preparation. Ensuring you have all the right resources and equipment beforehand will help you and your student feel at ease. You must summarise key factors when planning to make sure you get the correct outcome. Some of the factors to include are which standards and criteria to look at, type and volume of evidence, choice of particular assessment method amongst others. Using this simple planning and preparation technique will give you and your student the best outcome. 3. 2 * Using a holistic approach can help you and your student get the most efficient and effective collection of evidence. This evidence may also be used in other units or work. Identifying how the learner integrates their knowledge and understanding is important as it helps you see how they put their research into practice and what they learn from it. All of the above can help your student get the most out of their particular qualification. 3. 3. * Applying holistic assessment is important as you need a variety of required evidence to ensure your outcomes are met. This is important when you are planning an assessment so you can get the correct information to make sure the student is learning and practicing the right knowledge and understanding. Holistic assessment is used to judge the overall picture in the assessment practice. Historically NVQ assessments where carried out unit by unit . An Holistic assessment is more efficient because an assessor can capture multiple criteria outcomes and not just focus on one element . 3. 4 * There are many risks involved when thinking about doing an assessment. These must be looked at to ensure the assessment runs smoothly. Some of these risks include; Health and Safety, unnecessary stress on the learner and potential for unfairness to the learner amongst others. These must be avoided to ensure the learner gets a fair assessment and the assessor gets the right results. If these are not adhered to the learner may feel uncomfortable and the assessment will not be accurate. 3. 5 * Minimizing risks must be thought about while planning the assessment. How to do this can be done by visiting where the assessment will take place, speaking to the learner and the employer. 4. 1 * Involving others in assessments can help both the learner and the assessor. This can help in a number of ways including; putting knowledge into practice; the learner can show how their reading and research can be used in practice. The learner can also show how they understand what they are being assessed on and how they understand the criteria is marked. 4. 2 * Any information and resources should be available to the learner to help them understand what is of expected of them and how the assessor should behave. This will also help the learner understand the criteria that will be looked at, any arrangements that need to be made, how feedback will be given and the use of any assessment outcomes and records. These being available to the learner can help them prepare for the assessment and perform to the best of their ability. 4. 3 * Peer and self-assessment can be used to help the learner look at what they have done, what worked, what didn’t, what can they do to improve and how they can improve it. This is a very useful tool as learners are most critical of themselves. Learners can also learn from each other and what they do. 4. 4 * Meeting needs is highly important to ensure learners are all treated fairly. Any arrangements can be made easily by contacting the employer or speaking with the learner beforehand. 5. 1 * Making assessment decisions is very important. Understanding them is even more important as there are factors about the learners work that need to be assessed and the assessor needs to make sure the work is true. Making sure the learners work is valid, current, authentic and sufficient can be done by ensuring you follow guidelines given, by carrying out assessments and by having witness statements of the work carried out. 5. 2 * making sure any assessment decisions made are fair, reliable, valid and in accordance with specified criteria is important so the assessor and learner understands what is expected of them and that they are doing the right things. 6. 1 * Standardisation meeting Ensure consistency and fair assessment. To maintain quality of assessment procedure To ensure assessors are consistent To gain up to date knowledge of quality and what is new in assessment Unit 302 6. 3. * If a learner has a dispute with your assessment decision, they have a right to appeal against that decision and you need to let your learner know the name of the Centre Co-Coordinator Stacey Prendergrast 7. 1 * Assessment Data will be stored on NLA data base and learner assessment plans will be on going throughout the qualification 7. 2 * Assessment plans with each learner, praise and feedback when a learner has achieved a unit and it gives your learner motivation 8. 1 * This is related to data protection and securing learners details which are all in place at NLA, like data of birth , national insurance numbers etc 8. 2 * Include how current technology benefits the assessment process ie carrying out a professional discussion and recording it on mp3 validates the assessment or video evidence captures live observations 8. 3 * How can you manage equality in assessment and what barriers might you come across with race, culture religion 8. 4 * It is best practice to reflect on your own assessment process, what have you learned so far through your research, what you would like to introduce, tell me about your appraisal and your professional development.

My Goal - A Career in the Computer Industry :: Personal Narrative Writing

My Goal - A Career in the Computer Industry To have a goal, you must first find one to pursue. Then, you must decide on the steps necessary to reach that goal and proceed to complete those steps. Ultimately, after all your steps are finish, you will achieve your goal. The goal I pursue is that of becoming a self-employed web designer, and I have decided on, and implemented, many steps needed to reach that goal. Having started college, I have begun an important step towards my goal. However, I decided on many of the steps years before I started college. Growing up, I strongly desired a career in the computer industry. I enjoyed working with almost anything related to the computer field, but I was not sure specifically which area of this broad field I would enjoy most. Though my interests were so extensive, I found myself strongly leaning towards computer graphics. I decided to pursue a career in web design, an area with a great demand for imaging skills, as well as a diversity and abundance of job opportunities. After deciding on my goal, I started to research what my next steps should be. The first step was to choose a degree pertaining to web design and to find a college that offered this degree. I decided to obtain a Computer Science (CS) degree, as it covered a broad area of computer study. I researched colleges within the state of Montana, in order to avoid the costs of out-of-state tuition, and found two colleges that looked promising: Montana Tech in Butte, and Montana State University (MSU) in Bozeman. Before deciding which to attend, I took nine credits at Carroll College in Helena and three credits at the Helena College of Technology to get a head start in my CS program. I tried to take classes that would transfer into both Montana Tech and MSU, but in the end, MSU would not accept all of my classes. This fact, combined with scholarship incentives, aided my decision to attend Montana Tech in pursuit of a CS degree. Having started college, I have begun the next step towards achieving my goal, but not without complications. Although I remained in the CS program for much of the first semester, I switched degrees about two-thirds of the way through. I found that I would be learning mostly computer programming in the CS degree and would not learn many useful skills pertaining to my goal.

Medical law and ethics Essay

According to Fremgen (2012), every state has a statue or regulation that necessitates that all health care professionals and physicians report all cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) to the department of health local or state level. This would allow Dr. K to meet his obligation in reporting the communicable disease. In some states it is also legal to inform a spouse, needle sharing partner, or other party that may be at risk of contracting the disease (Fremgen, 2012). In this case Dr. K could reach out to Brian’s partners without him depending on the state they are currently located. Dr. K could also use this as leverage to get Brian to come back in and speak about his current medical condition. This could help get Brian back into the office to talk about a treatment plan, plan to inform his sexual partner’s, and how Brian plans to cope with this new development in his life. Brian will need information on support groups and coping. If this strategy doesn’t work then maybe Dr. K can continue to reach out through email, mail, and weekly phone calls. He could also send information on local support groups in hopes that Brian would seek out help and support from a local support chapter and eventually come back and speak to me when the initial shock has worn off.

Issues in cloud computing

The purpose of assignments Is be able to understand the various advantages and Issues of cloud computing. Research and analyses whether or not cloud computing Is the way forward for the chosen organization. Company of choice The type of company selected here is Higher Educationalists. The Higher Educationlnstituteprovides its services in different location through its branches. It may have thousands of students and staff and has lot of sensitive data e. G. Student staffs information, lectures notes and books, student's private and personal details.Higher Education Institutions financial status, its own business Lana and strategy and so on. While moving to the cloud, Higher Education Institute may face lot of issues like legal issues, ethical issues environmental issues, security issues and so on. This assignment triesprovldingprofesslonal solution to address these mentioned Issues. Introduction Cloud computing Is a style of computing where scalable and elastic IT-enabled capableness are provided ‘ as a services' to multiple external customers using internet technologies[l].In simple terms , cloud computing enables business of all sizes to quickly procure and use a wide range of enterprise-class IT systems on a pay per-use basis from anywhere at any time. Cloud computing services are divided into three classes, according to the abstraction level of the capability provided and the service model of providers. Namely (1) infrastructure as a service, (2) platform as a service, (3) Software as a Service and there are different types of cloud depending upon the network it cover they are (1) Public clouds, (2) Private Clouds (3) community clouds and (4) hybrid cloud.Each types of cloud and services provision has own characteristics, benefits and challenges and suits deferent business models and purposes however, all have similar legal Issues to consider. L] Benefits If Higher Education Institutes anticipating a huge upswing in computing need (or evening Education Institute surprised bay sudden demand), cloud computing can help institute to manage. Rather than having to buy,install, and configure new equipment,eliminates can buy additional CPU cycles or storage from third party.Since Institutions are based on consumption. Indians does not have to deal with unneeded equipment. Institute simply add or subtract based on its need. [ 1] Again, not having to buy and configure new equipment allows Institute and IT staff to eyesight to business. The cloud solution makes it possible to get application stereotypically, and It costs a fraction of what It would cost to implement an on- site solution. [ 3] The managerial and strategic level employer no needs to physically attend the Institute's site to get information.They can get Information from anywhere, which help to Increase the productivity of Institute [ 2] Legal issues: As moving tighter Distastefulness's data to the cloud, Outshoot need to comply with Data Protection act 1988. The eight principl e of Data Protection act are (1) Data should be fearfully and carefully processed. 2) Data should be processed for the specified purpose(3) The data collected should be adequate, relevant and not excessive. (4)The data should be up to date. (5) The data cannot be kept no longer than necessary. (6)The data should be processed in accordance with the individual rights. (7)The data should be kept Securely. 8)The data cannot be transferred and stored outside the European Economic Area (EYE)without adequate protection. [6] The Higher Educationlnstituteshould ensure that Cloud Service Provider has kept the data securely in order to preventatives unlawful processing, stolen, against accidental cost and damage. So while choosing the overnighter Educationlnstituteshould know how the cloud companies handles the personal and sensitive data. Higher Educationalists should need to consider whether or not the level of security which would be provided by Cloud Company will meet the both requirement of Higher Declassification's Data Protection Act. 6] The Data Protection Act clearly mentioned that personality should not be moved or transferred outside the European Economic Area unless there is an adequate leveler protection. Cloud provider might not always store the data in European Economic Arabesques to establish and maintain the data centre outside the European Economic Area might be cheap. Storing data outside the European Economic Area breaches the Data Protection Act. Compliance may beached busing EX. approved contract terms with cloud provider. [3] All the public authorities in the I-J have legal responsibilities to comply with Freedom of Information Act 2000.If Higher Educationlnstituteholds the information and if any request is made to the Higher Educationalists fortification then,Higher Educationalists should provide thrusters information to the requester within the 20 days. If suppose, by some reasons cloud computing server is failed and Higher Educationlnstitutecann ot able to access its stored information from the cloud then Higher Educationlnstitutewill face the problem. So while choosing the cloud computing service provider, it is necessary to assess their failure history of server, reputation, backup strategy and so on. 2] Intellectual property right are the right which is granted to owners of that intellectual creativity. Copyright, Patents,Database and Trademark are considered as Intellectual property. Generally, copyright protects and prevents the owner's work from copying ND reproducing. Copyright can be obtained on for example computer software program, textbook, film,teaching and research material and so on. [6] Higher Education Institute has also lot of intellectual property which need to be protected.The Higher Education Institute has the right to control its intellectual properties copyright, design and patents act (1988) necessarily in migration to the cloud. [6] Similarly, database right is another right which falls under intelle ctual property. It prevents the database from extraction, reuse of all or substantial part of the database without impressionists. 6]Higher Education Institute should prevent its own database example pay roll database, steadfastness and the database which is created by teacher or students for the learning purpose.Patent is the right to the owner which prevents others from making, using, manufacturing and selling the invented products and process without owner permission. Patents are only effective in the country where the right is granted. If the patents have been registered in the European Patents Office then it is protected in the whole Europe. [6] while moving to the cloud computing , It raises particular intellectual property right issue for Higher Education Institute to include before to confirming the conditions of their cloud computing provision. The issue may arise are 🙠 1) they may have access to information belonging to Institute. 2) The location of information whe re they kept is not fixed. This issue makes tighter Education Institute difficult for its intellectual property right compliance. [3] Annexation regarding above issue: software license may be location specific . Minored to safe guard to the resources, the Institute might have done the agreement with publisher through educational resource licenses and his agreement may only allow to access electronic resources or storage of digital material by registered users( staff and students ) through particular local server only.So while moving to the cloud, problem would be, the cloud provider mischance's threescore and they are not location specific. So agreements with resource supplier regarding access and location should be addressed Institute's contract with cloud provider and the cloud provider also need to prevents to get access and need to prevent any unwanted and unlawful usage of licensed resources[4] As moving to the cloud adequately act 2010 places legal obligation to he Institute. Utilities need to make sure that all the students with disability have equal access of information.As moving the cloud Institute should check that the means of service provision will not adversely impact accessibility. [4] Environmental issue As moving to the cloud the Institute can contributes to lower the carbon foot prints. According to the [7]by adopting the cloud computing, the consumption of energy by data centre could be reduced by thirty eight percentage by the year 2020. And such reduction on energy will reduces twenty eight percentages greenhouse gas emissions. Research also found that the smaller organization will contribute largeness's ninety percentages to reduce the carbon foot print.Whereas, bacteriologists reduces carbon foot print by thirty percentages. [7] Decanter are designed on echo friendly nature which use low suffer fuels to reduce emission from backup generators. These energetically lighting technology. Most of the staff in the cloud service provider is Depo sitional and they concern on designing and building an echo friendly product where as Higher Education Institute whose primary focus is to provide quality education and earning profit by increasing the number of detent. Decanter provides the infrastructure only when it is needed . T maximize the efficiency and utilization of server by sharing same server for different cloud. [7] Ethics and ProfessionalResponsibility: All the informational infrastructure that used to be stored locally stored to the third party animadversion cannot be directly control its data. Lost of direct control sometime gives the problem. If something happen on the data at the cloud. For example unauthorized access of data or failure in Infrastructure,eliminates cannot do anything because it is difficult to know who caused the problem. Dud service provider usually make the infrastructure by aggregating the systems and each system may owned by other company and if something goes wrong in such complex system then it is difficult to decide who has caused the problem. The data which is stored in the cloud some time used for some other purpose. For example biometric data of student which is collected for student attendance purpose, that data might be used for the criminal investigation purpose.Keeping identification to the cloud, it can feel that cloudscape provider would seem to be responsible for the data and have control over it. There might be issue of trust potentialities and cloud computing service provider[4] There is loot of IT practitioners work in the cloud service provider. They are associates with some professional body example British Computer Society,Association for Computing Machinery, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and so on. There's day to day practice and responsibilities has been defined by associated professional body.Professional people like Database administrator of the cloud service provider has the access to the client's personal and sensitive data He is not allowed to disclose the client's data to the third party. Professional body may take the disciplinary action fortress who breach the code of conduct. BCC broadly defined its code of conduct in four categories they are (1) duty to the public (2) duty to the relevant authority, (3) duty to the profession and (4) professional competence and integrity[5 ]similarly, IEEE and ACM has also code of conduct for its member which is almost similar to Thebes code of conduct.Recommendation and conclusion: It is institute responsibilities to compliance with the legal act. So, it is recommended to check the position of cloud provider's security, data transfer and compliance tit EX. law. Penthouse applying the best efforts there may arises the dispute with cloud provider. It is recommended to choose the established cloud provider, find out theirs server location, asses suitability and agree which law applies. Identify the confidential material and find whether cloud is suitable for that data or not.Institutions should ensure that the contract terms with cloud providers reflect their legal obligations, responsibilities and the level of risk they are prepared to handle Penthouse there are lot of benefits in cloud computing, it is compulsory to aware of he ethical and legal issues and careful most be taken before agreeing any contract with cloud service provider.

Chicana Feminist Writer Gloria Anzaldua

Chicana Feminist Writer Gloria Anzaldua Feminist Gloria Anzaldua was a guiding force in the  Chicano and Chicana movement  and  lesbian/queer theory.  She was a poet, activist, theorist, and teacher who lived from September 26, 1942, to May 15, 2004. Her writings blend styles, cultures, and languages, weaving together poetry, prose, theory, autobiography, and experimental narratives. Life in the Borderlands Gloria Anzaldua was born in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas in 1942. She described herself as a Chicana/Tejana/lesbian/dyke/feminist/writer/poet/cultural theorist, and these identities were just the beginning of the ideas she explored in her work. Gloria Anzaldua was the daughter of a Spanish American and an American Indian. Her parents were farm workers; during her youth, she lived on a ranch, worked in the fields and became intimately aware of the Southwest and South Texas landscapes. She also discovered that Spanish speakers existed on the margins in the United States. She began to experiment with writing and gain awareness of social justice issues. Gloria Anzaldua’s book Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, published in 1987, is the story of existence in several cultures near the Mexico/Texas border. It is also the story of Mexican-Indian history, mythology, and cultural philosophy. The book examines physical and emotional borders, and its ideas range from Aztec religion to the role of women in Hispanic culture to how lesbians find a sense of belonging in a straight world. The hallmark of Gloria Anzaldua’s work is the interweaving of poetry with prose narrative. The essays interspersed with poetry in Borderlands/La Frontera reflect her years of feminist thought and her non-linear, experimental manner of expression. Feminist Chicana Consciousness Gloria Anzaldua received her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Texas-Pan American in 1969 and a master’s in English and Education from the University of Texas at Austin in 1972. Later in the 1970s, she taught a course at UT-Austin called â€Å"La Mujer Chicana.† She said that teaching the class was a turning point for her, connecting her to the queer community, writing and feminism. Gloria Anzaldua moved to California in 1977, where she devoted herself to writing. She continued to participate in political activism, consciousness-raising, and groups such as the Feminist Writers Guild. She also looked for ways to build a multicultural, inclusive feminist movement. Much to her dissatisfaction, she discovered there were very few writings either by or about women of color.   Some readers have struggled with the multiple languages in her writings – English and Spanish, but also variations of those languages. According to Gloria Anzaldua, when the reader does the work of piecing together fragments of language and narrative, it mirrors the way feminists must struggle to have their ideas heard in a patriarchal society. The Prolific 1980s Gloria Anzaldua continued to write, teach, and travel to workshops and speaking engagements throughout the 1980s. She edited two anthologies that collected the voices of feminists of many races and cultures. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color was published in 1983 and won the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award. Making Face Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color was published in 1990. It included writings by famous feminists such as Audre Lorde and Joy Harjo, again in fragmented sections with titles such as â€Å"Still Trembles our Rage in the Face of Racism† and â€Å"(De)Colonized Selves. Other Life Work Gloria Anzaldua was an avid observer of art and spirituality and brought these influences to her writings as well. She taught throughout her life and worked on a doctoral dissertation, which she was unable to finish due to health complications and professional demands. UC Santa Cruz later awarded her a posthumous Ph.D. in literature. Gloria Anzaldua won many awards, including the National Endowment for the Arts Fiction Award and the Lambda Lesbian Small Press Book Award. She died in 2004 from complications related to diabetes. Edited by Jone Johnson Lewis

Calls To Action

Calls To Action Calls To Action Calls To Action By Maeve Maddox A reader wonders about the plural for a marketing term: Recently the CEO of a company wrote an email to me saying that his software would automatically generate call-to-actions. I am pretty sure he should have written calls-to-action. Am I right? The reader is correct. When pluralizing a compound word that contains more than one noun, the general rule is to make the principal noun plural. In this case, call is the principal noun. The plural is â€Å"calls to action.† The term â€Å"call to action† refers to the part of an advertisement that prompts a consumer to act. In texts intended for readers in the marketing industry, the term is usually written CTA. â€Å"Buy now!† and â€Å"Order now!† are typical CTAs. As â€Å"call to action† does not have an entry in the OED, Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Collins, or the AP Stylebook, I can’t cite one of my usual authorities as to whether the noun form should be hyphenated. My instinct is that it should not. The view expressed in The AP Stylebook reflects the common attitude among publishers: â€Å"The fewer hyphens the better; use them only when not using them causes confusion.† A Web search isn’t much help in discovering which form–hyphenated or non-hyphenated–is more common with â€Å"call to action.† I did find a business blog that plumps for the hyphens: call-to-action, calls-to-action, CTA, CTAs:  Always hyphenate when used as a noun (as in â€Å"call-to-action† or â€Å"calls-to-action†) or an adjective (as in â€Å"call-to-action button† or â€Å"call-to-action manager†). Whenever possible, try to use  CTA  or  CTAs  instead of the hyphenated version (it’s a mouthful!). However, the unhyphenated phrase seems to be the preferred choice in reputable British, Australian, American, and Canadian publications and on government sites. â€Å"Call for action† can be understood without hyphens as a noun, but it does require them when the phrase is used as a modifier. Here are examples of both noun and adjective use: Every website should have a call to action, a response you want users to complete. Does Your White Paper Have a Call to Action? Design and generate  call-to-action buttons  in minutes.   Go plant those call-to-action phrases in your copy and watch your business grow. With or without hyphens, add the -s to call to make the phrase plural. Related post: Compound Plurals Video Recap Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:How Many Tenses in English?Ten Yiddish Expressions You Should KnowI wish I were...

Francis Marion, The Swamp Fox

Francis Marion, The Swamp Fox A prominent American officer during the American Revolution, Brigadier General Francis Marion played a key role in the wars southern campaigns and earned the moniker The Swamp Fox for his exploits as a guerilla leader. His military career began with the militia in the French and Indian War during which he fought the Cherokees on the frontier. When the war with Britain began, Marion received a commission in the Continental Army and helped defend Charleston, SC. With the citys loss in 1780, he commenced a career as a highly effective guerilla leader that saw him employ hit and run tactics to win numerous victories over the British. Early Life and Career Francis Marion was born around 1732 on his family plantation in Berkeley County, South Carolina. The youngest son of Gabriel and Esther Marion, he was a small and restless child. At age six, his family moved to a plantation in St. George so that the children could attend school in Georgetown, SC. At the age of fifteen, Marion embarked on a career as a sailor. Joining the crew of a schooner bound for the Caribbean, the voyage ended when the ship sank, reportedly due to being struck by a whale. Adrift in a small boat for a week, Marion and the other surviving crew finally reached the shore. French and Indian War Electing to remain on land, Marion began working on his familys plantations. With the French and Indian War raging, Marion joined a militia company in 1757 and marched to defend the frontier. Serving as a lieutenant under Captain William Moultrie, Marion took part in a brutal campaign against the Cherokees. In the course of the fighting, he took note of Cherokee tactics which emphasized concealment, ambush, and utilization of terrain to gain an advantage. Returning home in 1761, he began saving money to purchase his own plantation. American Revolution In 1773, Marion achieved his goal when he bought a plantation on the Santee River about four miles north of Eutaw Springs which he dubbed Pond Bluff. Two years later, he was elected to the South Carolina Provincial Congress which advocated for colonial self-determination. With the outbreak of the American Revolution, this body moved to create three regiments. As these formed, Marion received a commission as a captain in the 2nd South Carolina Regiment. Commanded by Moultrie, the regiment was assigned to the Charleston defenses and worked to build Fort Sullivan. With the completion of the fort, Marion and his men took part in the defense of the city during the Battle of Sullivans Island on June 28, 1776. In the fighting, a British invasion fleet led by Admiral Sir Peter Parker and Major General Henry Clinton attempted to enter the harbor and was repulsed by Fort Sullivans guns. For his part in the fighting, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army. Remaining at the fort for the next three years, Marion worked to train his men before joining the failed Siege of Savannah in the fall of 1779. Going Guerilla Returning to Charleston, he fortuitously broke his ankle in March 1780 after jumping from a second-story window in an effort to escape a bad dinner party. Directed by his doctor to recuperate at his plantation, Marion was not in the city when it fell to the British in May. Following subsequent American defeats at Moncks Corner and Waxhaws, Marion formed a small unit of between 20-70 men to harass the British. Joining Major General Horatio Gates army, Marion and his men were effectively dismissed and ordered scout the Pee Dee area. As a result, he missed Gates stunning defeat at the Battle of Camden on August 16. Operating independently, Marions men scored their first major success shortly after Camden when they ambushed a British camp and liberated 150 American prisoners at Great Savannah. Striking elements of the 63rd Regiment of Foot at dawn, Marion routed the enemy on August 20. Employing hit-and-run tactics and ambushes, Marion quickly became a master of guerilla warfare using Snow Island as a base. As the British moved to occupy South Carolina, Marion relentlessly attacked their supply lines and isolated outposts before escaping back into the regions swamps. Responding to this new threat, the British commander, Lieutenant General Lord Charles Cornwallis, directed Loyalist militia to pursue Marion but to no avail. Routing the Enemy Additionally, Cornwallis ordered Major James Wemyss of the 63rd to pursue Marions band. This effort failed and the brutal nature of Wemyss campaign led many in the area to join the Marion. Moving sixty miles east to Ports Ferry on the Peedee River in early September, Marion soundly defeated a superior force of Loyalists at Blue Savannah on September 4. Later that month, he engaged Loyalists led by Colonel John Coming Ball at Black Mingo Creek. Though an attempt at a surprise attack failed, Marion pressed his men forward and in the resulting battle were able to force the Loyalists from the field. In the course of the fighting, he captured Balls horse which he would ride for the rest of the war. Continuing his guerilla operations in October, Marion rode from Ports Ferry with the goal of defeating a body of Loyalist militia led by Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Tynes. Finding the enemy at Tearcoat Swamp, he advanced at midnight on October 25/26 after learning that the enemy defenses were lax.  Using similar tactics to Black Mingo Creek, Marion split his command into three forces with one each attacking from the left and right while he led a detachment in the center. Signaling the advance with his pistol, Marion led his men forward and swept the Loyalists from the field. The battle saw the Loyalists suffer six killed, fourteen wounded, and 23 captured. The Swamp Fox With the defeat of Major Patrick Fergusons force at the Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, Cornwallis became increasingly concerned about Marion. As a result, he dispatched the feared Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton to destroy Marions command. Known for laying waste to the landscape, Tarleton received intelligence regarding Marions location. Closing on Marions camp, Tarleton pursued the American leader for seven hours and across 26 miles before breaking off the pursuit in the swampy territory and stating, As for this damned old fox, the Devil himself could not catch him. Final Campaigns Tarletons moniker quickly stuck and soon Marion was known widely as the Swamp Fox. Promoted to brigadier general in the South Carolina militia, he began working with the new Continental commander in the region, Major General Nathanael Greene. Building a mixed brigade of cavalry and infantry he conducted a failed attack on Georgetown, SC in conjunction with Lieutenant Colonel Henry Light Horse Harry Lee in January 1781. Continuing to defeat the Loyalist and British forces sent after him, Marion won victories at Forts Watson and Motte that spring. The latter was captured in conjunction with Lee after a four-day siege. As 1781 progressed, Marions brigade fell under the command of Brigadier General Thomas Sumter. Working with Sumter, Marion took part in a fight against the British at Quinbys Bridge in July. Forced to withdraw, Marion split from Sumter and won a skirmish at Parkers Ferry the following month. Moving to unite with Greene, Marion commanded the combined North and South Carolina militia at the Battle of Eutaw Springs on September 8. Elected to the state senate, Marion left his brigade later that year to take his seat at Jacksonboro. Poor performance from his subordinates required him to return to command in January 1782. Later Life Marion was re-elected to the state senate in 1782 and 1784. In the years after the war, he generally supported a lenient policy toward the remaining Loyalists and opposed laws intended to strip them of their property. As a gesture of recognition for his services during the conflict, the state of South Carolina appointed him to command Fort Johnson. Largely a ceremonial post, it brought with it an annual stipend of $500 which aided Marion in rebuilding his plantation. Retiring to Pond Bluff, Marion married his cousin, Mary Esther Videau, and later served at the 1790 South Carolina constitutional convention. A supporter of the federal union, he died at Pond Bluff on February 27, 1795.

Economic Forecast for Lowes (the home improvement store) Research Proposal

Economic Forecast for Lowes (the home improvement store) - Research Proposal Example Unusual from the responsibility of the company to make the energy profitable and more transparent, it needs other big companies to publish yearly report that shows their revenue profits and costs also the separated figures should be presented for the purposes of supply. The future consumers of electricity should be given great attention as part of the objective that it is aiming in order to improve the transparency and the profitability of the electricity company. This would instill confidence to the new firms that are willing to venture into the electricity using market business as well as any other business that uses energy in its production. Lowe’s data also assists the business people to asses and monitor their business on how much capital it spends on the electricity bills. The company will always lower the price of the products that it produces if only the price of the electricity is lowered by the company that produces it, this will lead to increased profits on its part as they will lower the prices of their products hence attract many customers hence higher sales that will lead to increased profit.

Interview Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Interview Project - Essay Example For that reason, the servant leader shares his power with the people and puts the needs of the people first and helps his subordinates to fully develop their potentials. The servant leader therefore views himself/herself as a servant of the people mandated by the people to lead them and to help them to exploit their potentials and be able to achieve their goals in life. This paper is an Interview project synthesis. The paper is composed of two parts. The first part is the summary of the interview on servant leadership that was carried out on Moses Charlton, chairman of a Catholic parish council based in Dallas Texas, while the second part is an evaluation of what has been learnt in the interview, and a synthesis of this information into a personal philosophy of leadership. Professional Background of the interviewee The interviewee said that he is a trained human resource manager. He said that he has a master’s degree in human resource management. He also said that he has atten ded various courses on leadership in the Catholic church and he is therefore well versed with leadership in the church. On his experience in leadership, the interviewee said that he has served as a human resource manager in various companies for a period of thirty years, before his retirement. Mr Charlton therefore said that he has extensive knowledge of leadership both in the cooperate world and also in the church. Charlton’s responsibilities as the chairman of Catholic Parish council in Dallas Texas As the chairman of parish council, Mr. Charlton is first and foremost, the head of the parish council and he is the one who chairs all the meetings of the parish council in the parish. Charlton also is in charge of all development projects in the parish; he oversees all the development projects in the parish. Mr Charlton also is the coordinator of all the activities in the parish, and he is therefore mandated to ensure that all the activities in the parish run smoothly in accord ance with the program of the parish. Charlton’s Philosophy of Leadership On his philosophy of leadership, Charlton said that he is a servant leader. And when I asked him what he understands the servant leadership to be, he said that, servant leadership is a style of leadership whereby the leader views himself not as the master or as the boss of the people, but rather as the servant, the steward, or the shepherd of the people. Charlton went on to say that the guiding principle of servant leadership is to treat people not merely as means to achieve some objective, but rather to see the people as the very objective or the goal of leadership. He went on to explain that, although in leadership making profits for the organisation is of course one of the goals of leadership, monetary profits however should not be made at the expense of the lives of the people/ workers. He said that for him, the primary objective of leadership is to empower his subordinates and to ensure that they ar e contented and to ensure that he has given them conducive environment and means to fully exploit their potentials. He went on to argue that, although at fast glance servant leadership may seen as a leadership style that will lead to massive losses in the organisation, servant leadership actually leads to making an organisation successful

David cole interviews dr franciszek piper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

David cole interviews dr franciszek piper - Essay Example During the interview with the tour guide, Alisha, it was clear that some amount of deception was being practiced on the part of the tour guides on all the tours. It turns out they were trained and instructed to educate tourists in a manipulative manner with the use of inaccurate information. It was further observed that the buildings at the museum such as the so called ‘homicidal’ gas chambers have been reconstructed and yet are being passed off as originals by officials. During the interview with a rather reluctant Dr. Piper, the same questions were directed to him as the tour guide and the information he presented was totally different and rather convincing. However, he too provided some information surrounded with some amount of ambiguity. One of the main contributors of the holocaust theory was the gas chambers, which was said to homicidally end the lives of many, except its victims were clothes and mattresses to combat the lice infestation. (They don’t tell tourists this on the tour) David Cole’s analysis proved that the evidence to support the holocaust theory is extremely limited. Reason for this is the piles of shoes and clothes put on as exhibits passed off as properties of the victims of the holocaust have a perfectly logical explanation. The closest they have for evidence for this theory are eye witnesses and post war confessions. The video further denotes that holocaust experts have claimed that the amount of people said to have perished at Auschwitz Prison was over 4 million, a number which was refuted during the interview with Piper. Piper then concluded that the number was in fact closer to 1.1

21st-century Organizations Face Different Challenges From Those of The Essay

21st-century Organizations Face Different Challenges From Those of The Past - Essay Example Environmental catastrophism is a result of changes in climate. Weather patterns keep changing and sea level keeps rising whenever there are changes in climate. It is estimated that gradual changes in weather could cause 40% of world population to fall into the risk of falling victims of limited natural resources like water, pasture, energy and cultivatable land (Easterling et al, 2000, p. 2070). The poor and the less influential people will have little or no control over resources thus likely to suffer due to lack. To be able to establish their position in the society, there is a high likelihood of eruptions of violence as more people fight for a share of the limited resources. To resolve the conflicts, governments will need to have negotiation traits if peaceful coexistence will be achieved once again. South America has already started facing the negative impact of globalization and climate change since there has been an increased threat to livelihoods of the poor. For instance, during the 2008 global recession, there was a significant increase in the use of food items in exchange for crude oils (Nazlioglu & Soytas, 2011, p. 490). That together with other global related issues led poor people in the south to suffer since most households could not afford the basics like food due to the high prices at the time. The blame was placed on the Northern governments who had failed to invest in alternative drivers of the economy like agriculture. This led to malnutrition among the poor hence causing a critical humanitarian crisis at least for the next few years. It is estimated that there are more than expected countries that have been exposed to political and economic conflicts that end up affecting accessibility to basic resources (Iqbal, 2006, p. 641). Developed countries have also imposed wars aimed at victimizing the poor countries hence leading to more devastation that influences the quality of life in poor countries.  

The Factors that Affect Online Buying Decisions Essay

The Factors that Affect Online Buying Decisions - Essay Example It is generally expected that with the Internet, national and geographical boundaries should become irrelevant when engaging in business exchanges; consequently, global expansion on the Internet could promise greater customer reach and profits. However, although the adoption rate of Internet shopping is relatively high in the West, it is still generally unpopular in the East (Lee et al., 2004, 545). The above assumptions which present the current conditions regarding the use and the evaluation of an Internet site from a consumers’ perspective, although completed regarding the issues targeted they can, however, be been criticised as limited to the geographical aspect of the Internet usage. The current paper examines the online activity from the aspect of the transactions made, mostly the online shopping. Under these terms, the factors that affect the relevant decision are being examined in order to provide a specific and complete view on the issue. The use of research tools, su ch as questionnaires, has been evaluated as necessary in order to gather empirical information regarding the specific subject. Moreover, the data revealed are being analyzed and compared between them but also with the views of the literature, so that the formulation of a integrate result to be achieved at the highest possible level. According to a British Computer Society research (Kavanagh, 2005), online shoppers are starting to desert the High Street; however, the same survey also shows that many people are being excluded from electronic services. According to the above survey (which was conducted by interviewing a representative sample of 2,113 people aged over 15) about 35% of the people surveyed shop online — and nearly one-fifth of these now choose to shop online rather than visit the High Street; in addition, although 46% still prefer the High Street, 36% have no preference, again suggesting wide acceptance of online shopping.  

21st-century Organizations Face Different Challenges From Those of The Essay

21st-century Organizations Face Different Challenges From Those of The Past - Essay Example Environmental catastrophism is a result of changes in climate. Weather patterns keep changing and sea level keeps rising whenever there are changes in climate. It is estimated that gradual changes in weather could cause 40% of world population to fall into the risk of falling victims of limited natural resources like water, pasture, energy and cultivatable land (Easterling et al, 2000, p. 2070). The poor and the less influential people will have little or no control over resources thus likely to suffer due to lack. To be able to establish their position in the society, there is a high likelihood of eruptions of violence as more people fight for a share of the limited resources. To resolve the conflicts, governments will need to have negotiation traits if peaceful coexistence will be achieved once again. South America has already started facing the negative impact of globalization and climate change since there has been an increased threat to livelihoods of the poor. For instance, during the 2008 global recession, there was a significant increase in the use of food items in exchange for crude oils (Nazlioglu & Soytas, 2011, p. 490). That together with other global related issues led poor people in the south to suffer since most households could not afford the basics like food due to the high prices at the time. The blame was placed on the Northern governments who had failed to invest in alternative drivers of the economy like agriculture. This led to malnutrition among the poor hence causing a critical humanitarian crisis at least for the next few years. It is estimated that there are more than expected countries that have been exposed to political and economic conflicts that end up affecting accessibility to basic resources (Iqbal, 2006, p. 641). Developed countries have also imposed wars aimed at victimizing the poor countries hence leading to more devastation that influences the quality of life in poor countries.  

This assignment focuses on Hong Kongs special role in the 1997-1998 Essay

This assignment focuses on Hong Kongs special role in the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis - Essay Example Neither scenario was ever really on the cards. Always more likely was what has actually happened since: Hong Kong has continued to evolve socially, politically and economically as it steers its way through the uncharted waters ÃŽ ¿f the "one country, two systems" formula enshrined in our constitution, the Basic Law. We have had no shortage ÃŽ ¿f problems since the transition, but interference by Beijing has certainly not been one ÃŽ ¿f them. Beijings "hands off" policy, other than in its remit over foreign affairs and defence, has been a mainstay ÃŽ ¿f our efforts in dealing with the fall-out from the Asian financial crisis. China has kept her promise. We certainly dont expect Beijing to be boosting our claims over any other mainland city. We are happy to compete on our own terms with any rival, anywhere, armed with the autonomy we enjoy under "one country, two systems". It gives us all the freedom we need to do so. Challengers will have to overcome our "location, location, location"; a hinterland bursting with promise; and the sophisticated software ÃŽ ¿f the worlds freest economy. That includes a trusted and deeply-rooted legal system, the freest press in Asia and a transparent government accountable to a lively and probing legislature. We are the first to acknowledge that the Asian financial crisis came as a rude shock. Like many others, we, frankly, underestimated its impact. In exposing the problems in some ÃŽ ¿f our neighbouring economies it served as a wake-up call for the entire region. Hong Kong has smelled the coffee. We have embraced further privatisation ÃŽ ¿f public assets, including our profit-making mass-transit railway and even some ÃŽ ¿f our welfare services. We have embarked on a series ÃŽ ¿f ambitious initiatives in the financial-services sector: the merging ÃŽ ¿f the stock and futures markets; further reforms ÃŽ ¿f the banking system; enhanced but

Woolworths Case Study Draft Essay Example for Free

Woolworths Case Study Draft Essay Part 1: Goodwill and Discontinued Operations a) Carrying value of goodwill 24 June 2012 The carrying value of goodwill in Woolworth’s consolidated financial statements was $3221.8 Million (M) at 24 June 2012. This figure is included within ‘intangible assets’ on the consolidated balance sheet and exact amount is disclosed in the Note 11 of Notes to consolidated financial statements (Woolworths 2012, p 126). b) Movements in carrying value of goodwill The carrying value of goodwill at the beginning of the period was $3227.7M (Woolworths 2012, p 126). An additional $42.1M was recognised throughout the year due to additional acquisition of businesses, with less . 5M for disposals and $0.7M for other expenses. Woolworths also recognised an impairment loss of $70.6M for the year. There was also an effect of movements in foreign exchange rates of $24.8M, which resulted in a carrying amount of $3221.8million at the end of the period (Woolworths 2012, p 126). c) Impairment loss on goodwill i) Impairment loss on Goodwill at 24 June 2012 was $70.6M. ii) Woolworth’s accounting policy with respect to impairment testing of goodwill is consistent with AASB 139 Intangible Assets. Note 11 (Woolworths 2012, p 126) specifically states that intangible assets (such as goodwill) with indefinite useful lives are tested for impairment annually and when there is indication that the asset may be impaired, the impairment loss is recognised when the carrying amount exceeds the recoverable amount. Recoverable amount is further defined to be the higher of fair value less cost to sell and value in use. iii) Impairment loss on goodwill was a result of Woolworth’s announcement to restructure and divest the Consumer Electronics Business. The amount is also disclosed as ‘discontinued operations’ in Note 33 (Woolworths 2012, p 96) for $366.2M. AASB 5.32 defined discontinued operations to be a part of an entity that represents a separate line, or part, of business or geographical area or subsidiary acquired exclusively for resale that had been disposed or classified as held for sale. A separate line item from continuing operations is required as a single figure disclosed in statement of comprehensive income or Notes. iv) The fair value less costs to sell figure of $420M (Woolworths 2012, p 174) includes impairment loss, restructuring provisions relating to goodwill, inventory, plant property and equipment, and lease exit costs. Since the impairment loss attributed to goodwill was $70.6M. Hence (420-70.6M) = $349.4M is attributable to fair value losses related to net  assets. Since held for sale assets disclosed in the Balance sheet (Woolworths 2012, p 99) is $376.7M, the net assets prior recognising the loss would have approximately been (349.4+376.7M) $726.1M, assuming that transaction costs and lease exit costs are negligible. v) The Dick Smith Electronics brand and stores were sold for $20M (Janda 2012). As the held for sale assets was recognised to be $376.7M, the net loss Woolworths would recognise is (376.7-20) $356.7M in the 2012-2013 financial period. Part 2: Investments in controlled entities a) Woolworths Limited group structure b) Non-controlling interest The carrying dollar value of the non-controlling interest (NCI) in Woolworths Limited as at 24 June 2012 was $258.1 million (Woolworths 2012, p 103). This NCI is the dollar amount of the combined equity interests in the parent companys subsidiaries not owned by the parent. When interviewed in 2013 Professor Chris Nobes confirmed that the figure also represented the profits made by NCI’s that have not yet been allocated to them. The respective NCI for the Woolworths Limited group applies to the external equity interests held in Woolworths Limiteds subsidiaries of ALH Group Pty Ltd, Australian Independent Retailers Pty Ltd, Bergam Pty Limited, Hydrox Holdings Pty Ltd and Statewide Independent Wholesalers Limited (Woolworths 2012, p 164-167). Woolworths Limiteds annual report is not useful for non-controlling shareholders. The reason for this is the information regarding NCI is aggregated as it combines all the information from separate subsidiaries with NCIs into combined figures which cannot be separated by a shareholder. It may then be argued that information regarding NCI should be more detailed however when interviewed in 2013 Professor Chris Nobes suggested that non-controlling shareholders should only be interested in the reports of their subsidiary as they are more detailed. Fortunately there are separate financial statements available for the subsidiaries with non-controlling interests. The reason for this is that the class action, ASIC Class Order 98/1418, exempting some subsidiaries from reporting requirements only pertains to wholly-owned subsidiaries (Woolworths 2012, p. 168). Therefore separate financial statements are available for subsidiaries of Woolworths Limited that have non-controlling interests. c) AASB 3.19 The Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) (2010, para 19) gives controlling entities a choice between measuring the non-controlling interest (NCI) using the 100% method or the proportionate method. The proportionate method does not assign goodwill to the NCI as it relates to the subsidiarys net identifiable assets. In comparison the 100% method requires the non-controlling interest to be measured at its fair value which includes goodwill. One reason an entity may prefer to use the proportionate method is that it does not require a calculation of fair value for the NCI. The calculation of fair value for the NCI may be difficult in circumstances where an active market does not exist. Using Woolworths Limiteds annual report we can gather information relating to which method they chose to use. Their significant accounting policies relating to goodwill state that goodwill represents the difference between the cost of the acquisition and the fair  value of the net identifiable assets acquired (Woolworths Limited 2012, p 108). Therefore this policy describes the same process for identifying goodwill as the process used in the proportionate method and it may be concluded that Woolworths is using the proportionate method. The issues regarding the choice between the two methods are interesting. The choice seems to be more beneficial for the parent entity rather than the NCI as a company such as Woolworths Limited may choose to consistently use the proportionate method. This may misrepresent the value of the NCI to be lower as this method does not have a goodwill component for the NCI which the 100% method often has. Therefore the disclosures under the proportionate method made by Woolworths Limited regarding the NCI values could be undervalued. When interviewed in 2013 Professor Chris Nobes suggested that the choice between the two methods may affect comparability of financial statements. This point is reiterated by the International Accounting Standards Board (2012, para BC210). A further issue according to the International Accounting Standards Board (2012, para BC213) is that the 100% method is more expensive to use which is one key reason for the inclusion of the proportionate method. Using all these arguments one can see that there are many perspectives about which method is better and whether a choice should have been included in the standard. Still we should not be too concerned as Professor Chris Nobes confirms in his 2013 interview that not many business acquisitions have NCI components or they have an insignificant NCI component and therefore the issue of choice under AASB 3.19 is small. Part 3: Segment note a) Reportable segments Woolworths (2012) has identified five reportable segments related to continuing operations according to AASB 8.13. Each reporting segment is managed separately due to the varying products and services they offer, as well as the requirement of ‘different technology and marketing strategies’ (Woolworths 2012, p 119) of each business unit. The reportable segments are split into two categories of Retail Operations and Hotels, with the former comprising of Australian Food Liquor, New Zealand Supermarkets, Petrol and Big W. As at 24 June 2012, the Australian Food Liquor segment comprised of 872 Australian supermarkets, totalling approximately 6.52% of total EBIT, and 160 Dan Murphy Liquor stores (Woolworths 2012). The Woolworths convenience liquor businesses; BWS and Woolworths Liquor are also included within the segment. This segment relies heavily on consumer confidence levels as the bulk of the sales stems from general groceries found at the supermarket as an alternative to fast food outlets that offer more affordable meal options. Similarly, the New Zealand Supermarkets segment specialises in the ‘procurement of Food and Liquor and products for resale to customers in New Zealand’ (Woolworths 2012, p 119). The ‘Countdown’ supermarkets operate in the same way as the Woolworths supermarkets in Australia, with a total of 161 supermarkets opened across the country as at June 24 2012. In the Petrol segment, the ‘procurement of Petroleum products for resale to customers in Australia’ (Woolworths 2012, p 119) is categorised through the Woolworths/Caltex alliance sites. This segment, coupled with the Big W segment, ; the ‘procurement of discount general merchandise products for resale to customers in Australia’ (Woolworths 2012, p 119) round off the reportable retail operations segments as the smallest, bearing not as big influence as the supermarket segments in relation to the group. Furthermore, the hotels segment is heavily affiliated with the liquor stores and supermarkets, as they provide leisure and hospitality services including alcohol and food, as well as gaming and accommodation. There are 294 hotel venues in operation as at June 24 2012, with Dan Murphy’s and BWS stores affiliated with over 500 hotels in total. b) Investment analysis When determining the ‘better’ investment between Woolworths Limited and Wesfarmers Limited amidst volatilities in the New Zealand economy and Australian groceries, liquor and petrol sectors, it is important not to make direct comparisons between the two companies encompassing different segment disclosure methods despite the compliance with AASB 8. Woolworths has identified New Zealand Supermarkets as a reportable segment, presenting comprehensive revenue data including other operating revenue and inter-segment revenue. Contrastingly, Wesfarmers does not comply with AASB 8.23 a) and b) by only disclosing the New Zealand revenue by geographical location. Nevertheless, assuming that the sales to customers was used by both companies, the following revenue calculations were calculated since the previous year: Comparability between the competing companies becomes increasingly difficult when analysing the investment in relation to the volatile groceries, liquor and petrol sectors. Whilst Woolworths identified the Australian Food Liquor and Petrol business units as different reportable segments, Wesfarmers grouped this financial information under ‘Coles’. The information regarding the allocation of revenues between operating units for Wesfarmers is not provided, hampering an ethical investing choice for external users. Despite the reporting issues, a revenue analysis was conducted in order to determine the most profitable company. Since the Coles segment was determined by a sum of undisclosed food, liquor, hotels, convenience and petrol data, the following analysis used Woolworths as a sum of its same divisions: Though abiding by AASB 8, Wesfarmers disclosed as little information as possible. It is clear that Wesfarmers possesses a fear of disclosure, and would rather present aggregated data in order to hide potential information  about risk, losses and debt levels for a particular Company 2012 $A revenue (millions) 2011 $A revenue (millions) $A change (millions) % change Woolworths 4301.8 4110.5 191.3 4.654% Wesfarmers 1283 1174 109 9.2845% Company Segment Revenue 2012 (millions) Segment Revenue 2011 (millions) Segment EBIT 2012 (millions) Segment EBIT 2011 (millions) % change in segment Revenue % change in segment EBIT Woolworths 45,815.6 43,478.4 3140 2980.2 5.34% 5.36% Coles 34,117 32,073 1356 1166 6.373% 16.3% segment. However, when removing segment reporting variability between the two companies, it is clear that greater growth opportunities exists for Wesfarmers, and is therefore the recommended investment. c) AASB 8 non-disclosures i) Despite clear disclosure of revenue for its reportable segments, Woolworths did not disclose its segment assets and segment liabilities. Therefore, it is assumed that the company did not comply with AASB 8.21 b), where information about segment assets and liabilities was not disclosed. However, AASB 8.23 states that ‘an entity shall report a measure of liabilities for each reportable segment if such an amount is regularly provided to the chief operating decision maker’ (AASB 2010, p 15). Similarly, this extends to the non-disclosure of segment assets according to AASB 25: ‘only those assets that are included in the measures of the segment’s assets that are used by the chief operating decision maker shall be reported for that segment’. Here it is agreed that the CODM of Woolworths does not believe the risk and opportunities of these items are important, thus the non-disclosure in the segment reports. ii) Whilst Woolworths was able to disaggregate the diverse aspects of their total business, Wesfarmers aggregated the majority of their core business operation within the ‘Coles’ segment. It is clear that Wesfarmers does not comply with AASB 8.20; by not enabling users to ‘evaluate the nature and financial effects of the business activities in which it engages’ (AASB 2010, p 14). However, AASB 8.22 b) states that an entity shall disclose ‘the types of products and services from which each reportable segment derives its revenues’ (AASB 2010, p 15). It is clear that Wesfarmers abide by this standard by disclosing the components of the Coles segment, instead of the revenue figures generated from each segment. d) ACCC investigation i) Acts of ‘unconscionable conduct’ such as high bargaining strength for Woolworths and Wesfarmers resulting in demands for extra payments, penalties and threat to suppliers that products will be removed from shelves (Rolfe 2013) would be highly financially beneficial to the two groups as they are significantly lowering the costs of supplies, and thus allowing opportunity to increase profit margins. This is further evidenced in Coles’ 15% increase in pre-tax earnings in 6 months (Rolfe 2013) and a 24% increase in pretax earnings for Wesfarmers despite the same level of stock. The two groups also demonstrate significant market power through ‘interesting’ competitive methods (Kidd 2013) of purchasing each  other’s profitable stores as the purchases show the ‘significant financial strength’ (ACCC 2013) of the business. ii) Coles and Woolworths can minimise disclosures as to hide ‘unconscionable conduct’ and ‘misuse of market power’ by not disclosing costs of supplies in their segment notes. AASB 8 requires a ‘management approach’ to be adopted where information used by the ‘chief operating decision maker’ internally for segment evaluation is disclosed (AASB 8.5b). This allows great  flexibility for management to aggregate figures into the disclosed segments which Woolworths had divided into geographical and operational segments. The aggregated figures disclosed are summarised and does not disclose any information about cost of supplies (Woolworths 2012, p 119). In fact, only revenues attributable to each segment is reported. Australian Food and Liquor segment reported $37,681.4M revenue, which depicts a substantially larger segment relative to New Zealand Supermarkets, Petrol, Big W and Hotels, which average at $5000M each. iii) Since Woolworths’ business in Australia is significantly larger than other segments, from the perspective of consumer groups, it would be beneficial to further divide the Australian Food and Liquor segment into State segments, for example. Currently, Australia has 872 stores, New Zealand has 161 stores and that NSW, QLD, VIC all have larger number of stores than New Zealand, it would be beneficial to further dissect the segments into regional groups.

prom :: essays research papers

Teenagers today are spending more and more money on the extravagance of prom. The article by Jeffery Shaffer claims that high school proms have become an â€Å"exercise in the celebration of extravagance and indulgence.† In this article negative ideas and, inappropriate messages are conveyed to teens. Many of the ideas proposed in this article are eccentric, turning school tradition into competition of unlimited spending. Although the price for prom according to Shaffer has reached â€Å"more than $1,200 per couple† and assumes â€Å"it’s the same or higher†, the price for prom in present years is beginning to near $2,000 a couple. Even with most high school students believing that it is worth it because of the great time they will have and the memories. From personal experience this year my friends as well as I are spending almost $700 on the entire prom event, for just our self’s. This includes everything from dress, shoes, to limo and post prom events. The average high school student does receive financial help from their parent, opposed to in 1925-26 when â€Å"girls were not allowed to borrow money from the office†. Showing the negative side of the expense for prom to teens could discourage them from going and have a great last high school experience. Causing them to later regret in life, such as three of my best friends who decided not to go to their prom last year but instead go to Six Flags. By reading this article teens might decide not to go to their prom thinking they won’t regret it, when most of them will after sitting home while everyone is out. Many people such as Jeffery as well as myself that have â€Å"never been very interested in the party scene† can still have a great time at something that would be filled with such great memories. If teens read something like this they might say to themselves ‘I fit into that category’ and intern miss out on a fun filled night. Prom to most high school students is just an all night event of hanging out with friends and dancing, with an expensive price tag. If teens that feel they fit into a category such as this they should look at it as a night of just hanging out with friends. If they do that such as I did they won’t miss out on their last high school experience, and won’t have any regrets.

Celebrity Endorser Influence Essay

Celebrity Endorser Influence on Attitude Toward Advertisements and Brands Bahram Ranjbarian Associate Professor of management, Department of Management The University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran E-mail: Bahram1 r@yahoo.com Zahra Shekarchizade Master Student of Business Management, Department of Management University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran E-mail: Shekarchi_2020@yahoo.com Zahra Momeni Master Student of Business Management, Department of Management University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran E-mail: za.momeni@yahoo.com Abstract Purpose- This study aims to analyze the celebrity endorser influence on attitude toward advertisements and brands. Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical model is developed and tested with a sample of 193 students in University of Isfahan in 2009. Structural equation modeling was used with LISREL 8.50 and the maximum likelihood (ML) method. Findings – The findings show that attitude toward celebrity endorser can influence on attitude toward brand directly or indirectly. In indirectly approach, attitude toward advertisement is as a mediator between attitude toward celebrity endorser and attitude toward brand. On the other hand, attitude toward celebrity endorser has not significant effect on purchase intention. Originality/value – This paper provides a model connecting attitude toward celebrity endorser, attitude toward advertisement and attitude toward brand that has been examined and validated using a sample of students in University of Isfahan. Paper type- Research paper Keywords: Endorsement, Celebrities, Brand, Attitude, Advertisement Introduction Today one of the most prevalent forms of retail advertising is through using of celebrity endorsement (White et al, 2007). In fact celebrity endorsers are being used in about 25 percent of all television advertisements in order to promote brands (Erdogan et al, 2001).These endorsers are being paid by about 10 percent of advertiser’s budgets (Agrawal and Kamakura, 1995). Marketers invest huge amounts of money in contracts with celebrity endorsers each year, since they believe that celebrities affect the process of selling of their brands or products (Katyal, 2007). A celebrity endorser is a wellknown person (e.g., actors, sports figures and artists) because of his successes in a special field other than the endorsed product class (James, 2004). Celebrity endorsers are used by firms who want to 399 European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 13, Number 3 (2010) support a product or service (Amos et al, 2008). Since presence of celebrity endorsers affects purchase decisions of consumers positively, producers and retailers have always preferred to use celebrity endorsements in order to sell their products (Stafford et al, 2003; Erdogan, 1999; Kamins, 1990). Kaikati (1987) believes that using of celebrities in advertisements could have many benefits and advantages including: 1) facilitating of brand identification 2) changing or impressing the negative attitude towards a brand 3) repositioning an existing brand 4) global marketing or positioning of a brand or product 5) affecting purchase intentions of consumers. Although using of celebrity endorsers as brand messengers is impressive, but it could have some risks. For instance, celebrities who are known to be guilty because of negative events (e.g., accident) may have harmful effects on the products that they endorse (Lou ie and Obermiller, 2002). Studies reveal that using of attractive celebrity causes to increase attitude towards advertisements. Such attitude towards advertisements is defined as â€Å"mental states which are used by individuals to organize the way they perceive their environment and control the way they respond to it† (Haghirian, 2004). There is a considerable correlation between desirable attitudes with regard to advertising and rating of certain advertisements by respondents as being likeable, irritating, delightful, etc (Bauer and Greyser, 1968). Celebrity endorsers enhance awareness of a company’s advertising, create positive feelings towards brands and are perceived by consumers as more amusing (Solomon, 2002). Thus using of a celebrity in advertising causes to influence brand attitude and purchase intentions of consumers in a positive way. Celebrity endorsement has a strong effect on consumers’ memory and learning approach too. Most consumers are not in a purchasing situation when they are encounter with message of the brand. Marketers use celebrity endorsement in order to help better storage of information in consumers’ minds which they can easily remember in purchasing situations (Schultz and Brens, 1995). However, there are many studies about celebrity endorser, but it seems that there are limited researches about the relationship between celebrity endorser and attitudes. The purpose of this study is to specify the impact of using celebrity endorsers in Iranian advertisements on attitudes of students in University of Isfahan toward those ads and brands. Literature Review Some properties such as likeability, expertise, trustworthiness and similarity cause a celebrity endorser to become a source of persuasive information and this creates a sense of certainty which has been revealed in many studies (Suranaa, 2008). Also physical attractiveness of the endorser is considerable in effectiveness of a message (Khatri, 2006). Acceptance of a message by a receiver could be influenced by celebrity endorsers as believable sources of information about a product or a firm (Amos et al, 2008). Using of celebrity endorsers to support products is explained by balance theory principles too. According to this theory, successful companies establish an emotional relation between the observer and endorser and a relation between endorser and brand too (Mowen, 2000). Before proceeding conceptual model, we describe the main constructs of this study. Celebrity Endorser McCracken (1998) has defined celebrity endorser as â€Å"any individual who enjoys public cognition and who uses this cognition on behalf of a consumer by appearing wit in an advertisement†. Moreover, celebrity is used as testimonial, endorsement, actor or spokesperson by the firm. Research has demonstrated that celebrity endorsement affects consumers’ feelings in general and it could affect the attitude of consumers towards the advertisement and brands too. This could result in enhancing of purchase intentions and as a result enhancing of sales. Some properties like credibility, physical attractiveness and likeability of celebrity endorser influence the ability of one person to impact other person (Amos et al, 2008). Source credibility is referred to identifying of communicator’s positive properties which influences acceptance of a message by the receiver (Ohanian, 1990). This consists of two main dimensions of expertise and 400 European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 13, Number 3 (2010) trustworthiness. Source expertise refers to the degree which a communicator is perceived to be a source of valid assertion (Roozen, 2008). Source trustworthiness refers to faithfulness and reliability of the spokesperson (Khatri, 2006). Source attractiveness is the personality, likeability and similarity of endorsers to the receiver, thus to the perceived social values of the source (Solomon, 2002). Physical attractiveness of the source include being attractive, beautiful, elegant and charming. According to the studies in this ground, expertise dimension is more significant than physical attractiveness for matching of a brand with a suitable endorser (Brian and Michael, 1998). Likeability is referred to the positive or negative feelings that consumers have towards a source of information. We can define likeability as affection for the source because of its physical appearance and behavior (Erdogan, 1999). Though some research results reveal effectiveness of celebrities as endorsers (Freiden, 1984), but other researches suggest that celebrity endorsement may have different degrees of effectiveness depending on other factors like the â€Å"fit† between the celebrity and the advertised product (Till and Shimp, 1998). Celebrity Endorsers’ Effect on Aad and Ao Marketers are especially interested in consumers’ attitudes towards advertisements and brands. Essentially, attitudes are our predispositions with regard to things. An attitude shows whether we like something or not. Attitudes have three basic components: affective, cognitive and behavioral. Affective is related to our liking or feelings about an object. Cognitive is referred to beliefs about an object and behavioral component regards actions we take about that object (Severin and Tankard, 2001). Attitude towards advertisement is defined as â€Å"a learned tendency to respond in a consistently desirable or undes irable approach toward advertising in general† (Haghirian, 2004). On the other side, attitude towards the advertisement (Aad) is whether the consumer likes an advertisement (Ad) or hates it. Determinants of Aad consist of attitude towards the advertiser, assessment of the Ad execution itself, the mood evoked by Ad, and the extent to which the Ad affect viewer’s encouragement. Assessment of brands could be influenced by attitudes towards Ads. Of course what causes an advertisement to be impressive will change noticeably cross-culturally (Arnold et al, 2004). In performed studies, Aad is focused on as a mediator of advertiser’s effects on brand attitudes and purchase intentions (Suhere and Ispir, 2009). In recent studies, this issue has been proved that using of celebrity endorsement has a positive impact on attitudes of the consumer towards products and brands with which they are associated brand (Seno and Lukas, 2005). Agarwal and Malhotra (2005) have defined brand attitude as consumers’ general evaluative judgment of a brand based on brand beliefs. Such beliefs concern product-related attributes, like practical and experimental benefits. A successful endorser is able to enhance intentions and preferences towards brands directly or indirectly. An endorser who has major source factors of credibility (like expertise, trustworthiness and effectiveness) is able to impress purchase intentions of the consumer considerably (Liu et al, 2007). Information from a credible source can impress ideas, attitudes and behavior through a process called internalization (Belch and Belch, 1993). Internalization occurs when the receiver is motivated to have an issue. The receiver learns and accepts the idea of the credible spokesperson, since he supposes that information of this person represents an accurate position on the issue. Therefore, if such spokesperson who is known to be an expert endorses a product, consumers will more probably have a desirable idea about that advertisement and brand and they will consider it in their shopping list the next time they go shopping. Researchers have used the identification process of social influence in order to explain the effectiveness of celebrity endorsers (Basil, 1996). This theory suggests that if an individual identifies with another individual, then he is more likely to accept an attitude or behavior of that individual or a group. The internalization process of social influence is occurred â€Å"when an individual accepts influence because the induced behavior is congruent with his value system†. An individual accepts the influence, since it provides a solution to a problem (Daneshvary and Schwer, 2000). In the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), individual’s level of motivation to process central message arguments is represented which is one of its key factors that affects the relative impact of 401 European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 13, Number 3 (2010) central and peripheral processing (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986). When applied to an adverting context, ELM suggests that consumers’ motivation to centrally process brand-relevant aspects of an advertisement is enhanced, the impact of central processing on brand attitudes should be enhanced, the effect of peripheral processing on brand attitudes should be reduced and the effect of brand attitudes on purchase intentions should be enhanced (Lafferty and Goldsmith, 1999). In this theoretical model, the endorser serves as cue just during peripheral processing. Therefore, the effect of the endorser should be reduced while central processing is enhanced. Mackenzie and Lutz (1989) have stated that advertiser credibility is a central processing cue more than any other thing. Credibility of the source is considered important in influence acceptance. A consumer will accept the accurate influence (information) and apply it if there the source is perceived to be credible. It is accepted because it is â€Å"demand† by ones own values. Therefore, a product’s endorsement by a credible source may impress purchase behavior (Danwshvary and Schwer, 2000). As a result, celebrity endorsement can increase the process of recalling and consume assessment of products (Khatri, 2006). On the other hand, celebrity endorsement has a severe effect on learning approach and memory. Researchers in the field of marketing and social psychology have studied the manner of impressing of purchase decision by celebrity endorsements. Various hypotheses have been proposed including having recall of the product by celebrity endorsement, celebrities have credibility on expertise that makes the product more desirable or increases perceptions of quality; the celebrity endorsers’ image is transferred to the product so that those who use the product are associated with the image. Experiments suggest that celebrity endorsement can increase recall and consume assessment of the products in certain situations (Clark and Horstman, 2003). Most of the times, making connection with the brand message is occurred when consumers are not in a purchasing situation. Marketers use celebrity endorsement so that information will be kept in consumers’ minds better and in the case of purchasing situation, they can easily retrieve it (Surana, 2008). A successful endorser strategy can enhance the level of consumers’ recalling towards product information, reinforces consumers’ recognition to endorsed brands, positively influences consumers’ attitude to low-involved products and even enhance consumers’ purchase intention and preference towards brands (Liu et al, 2007) Therefore, hypothesizes of the study are as follows. H1: Attitude toward ad is positively affected by attitude toward celebrity endorser. H2: Attitude toward brand is positively affected by attitude toward celebrity endorser H3: Attitude toward brand is positively affected by attitude toward advertisement. H4: Intention to buy is positively affected by attitude toward celebrity endorser Method Data Collection Information was obtained from randomly selected students from University of Isfahan through survey questionnaires during September- November 2009. University of Isfahan is one of the major universities in the fields of science, human science and engineering. A total sample of 193 participants was obtained. The sample was composed of 137 women (71 percent) and 56 men (21 percent). A cluster sampling procedure with age and degree as main control variables was applied. The age of the respondents ranged from 19 to 30 years, with a mean of 24. All questionnaires were self-administered by the participants without interference from researchers. Measures The study uses multi-item scales to measure the constructs in our model. All items in the questionnaire were measured on a five-point Likert-type scale anchored from â€Å"strongly disagree† (1) to â€Å"strongly agree† (5). Some of the measures were available in the literature, though most were adapted to suit this European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 13, Number 3 (2010) particular context. To measure attitude toward celebrity endorser we used ten items. Attitude toward advertisement and attitude toward brand were measured with six items and five items, respectively. In order to measure reliability of questions in the questionnaire, 30 questionnaires have been pre-tested through pilot studies. Then, amount of confidence coefficient has been calculated by method of Cronbach’s alpha for which 0.83 % is obtained. This number shows that the applied questionnaire enjoys confidentiality or in other words the necessary reliability. Results Measurement Model Measurement model Structural equation modeling with LISREL 8.54 and the maximum likelihood (ML) method was used to analyse the data.. LISREL is a structural equations modeling technique that traces structural relations in a set of data (Eriksson et al, 2004). Structural equation modelling was used because it allows to estimate multiple and interrelated dependence relationships and unobserved factors can be represented in these relationships. Additionally, measurement error in the estimation process is accounted for (Hair et al., 1998). The model is assessed with the comparative fit index (CFI), standardised root meanresidual (SRMR), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), and Akaike’s (1987) information criterion (AIC). The measurement model provided a good fit to the data: (CFI = 0:98, SRMR=0.058, RMSEA = 0.015 and AIC =396.22). All values of CFI, SRMR, and RMSEA meet the standards suggested by Hu and Bentler (1999): 0.95 for CFI, 0.08 for SRMR, and 0.06 for RMSEA.There are no Guidelines for the AIC but lower values indicate better fit. The fit of the structural model is good and is reported in Table I. In the following we will test our hypotheses and consequently report the standardised path coefficients. As shown in Table I, three of hypotheses are empirically supported and one of them is not confirmed. The effect of attitude toward celebrity endorser on attitude toward advertisement is significant (standardised path coefficient = 0:49). This shows that the higher the attitude toward endorser, the more the attitude toward advertisement. Attitude toward celebrity endorser also have significant effect on attitude toward brand (standardised path coefficient= 0.24), but this effect is comparatively weaker than its effect on attitude toward advertisement. On the other hand, the effect of attitude toward advertisement on attitude toward brand is significant (standardised path coefficient = 0:56). This clearly shows that attitude toward advertisement has the highest standardized path coefficient and therefore has the strongest influence on attitude toward brand. The results show that the effects of attitude celebrity endorser on Purchase intention is not significant (standardised path coefficient = 0.11). This means that attitud toward celebrities, does not necessarily always translates into purchase intentions. Discussion The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among attitude toward celebrity endorser and attitude toward advertisement and brand. Effects of a celebrity endorser on respondents’ assessments about advertisements and products endorsed by celebrities have been studied previously. There are some interesting findings for using of celebrity endorsers in Iranian advertisements. Attitude towards a celebrity endorser has a direct positive effect on attitude towards advertisement. Attitude towards advertisement has important effects on attitude towards brands, too and its effect is comparatively stronger than the effect of celebrity endorser. But the effect of attitude toward celebrity endorser on purchase intention is not considerable. Results of this study demonstrate that attitude towards celebrity endorser has an indirect effect on attitude towards brand. This result confirms outcomes of the previous research by Agarwal and Kamakura (1995), Till and Busler (1998), and W hite et al (2008). When there is a â€Å"fit† between the   European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 13, Number 3 (2010) endorser and the endorsed product, endorser’s image helps construct the image of the brand in consumers’ minds. In fact, using of an attractive endorser has a positive impact on consumer attitudes towards a brand, because attractive endorsers have a tendency to get more attention than less attractive ones. On the other hand, experience of celebrity’s negative information can have an undesirable effect on the endorsed product. Transfer of negative information between the celebrity endorser and the endorsed product could be facilitated through cognitive relational pathway. We have considered social position of artists because people have more positive attitude towards artists. So, they distribute attitude towards artists to attitude towards endorsed brand. The association between attitude towards celebrity endorser and attitude towards advertisement has been shown in numerous studies, as the relationship between sports celebrity endorsements and retail products’ adverting are reported (White et al, 2008) and sports celebrity endorsements are being used in advertisements to impress brand selection. It is recognized in one study that attitude towards advertisement is considered as an interagent that influences attitude towards brand (Suhere and Ispir, 2009). Results of our study reveal that attitude towards advertisement is as an interagent between attitude towards celebrity and attitude towards brand. In our opinion, Iranians are interested in artists and know them as credible sources. So, ads makers use artists as celebrity to impress viewers’ attitudes towards advertisement and thereupon attitude towards brand. According to previous studies about the effect of the celebrity endorser on purchase intentions, such as Kamins (1990), Ohanian (1991), Liu et al (2007), we expected that positive attitude towards celebrities impressed purchase intentions. But results of this study confirm research outcomes of O’Mahony and Meenaghan (1997). According to this study, attitude towards celebrities does not necessarily always interpret in to purchase intentions. It seems that Iranian’s consumer tendency for buying is influenced by other various items such as age, gender, income and education too. Limitation This study has some limitations. The primary limitation of the present research relates to generalizability. The sample was restricted to students in University of Isfahan and this limits our results to be generalized, too. Another relevant consideration is that numerous girl students in university of Isfahan are more than its boy students. Also, this study relied exclusively on questionnaires to assess influence attitude toward celebrity endorser on attitude toward advertisements and brands, whereas this relationships need to be more investigated. On the other hand, this paper could not estimate effect of attitude toward celebrity endorser on purchase intention. In addition, our results are relational and not causal; therefore, it can not be concluded from this study whether attitude toward advertisement and brand is only cause or result of attitude toward celebrity endorser. Conclusion In this study the goal was to indicate the influence of using celebrity endorsers in Iranian advertisements on attitudes of students in University of Isfahan toward those advertisements and brands. The result of this study showed that the positive and significant relationship between attitude toward celebrity endorser and attitude toward advertisements and brands. By analyzing the output resulting from testing hypotheses, it can be concluded that attitude toward celebrity endorser has directly or indirectly influence on attitude toward brand. Consequences suggested that attitude toward advertisement was as a mediator between attitude toward celebrity endorser and attitude toward brand. On the other hand, attitude toward celebrity endorser hadn’t significant influence on purchase intention. So, future researches should put more effort into making strong believable explanations for how celebrity endorsers are able to have significant influence on consumer intention for purchase. References [1] [2] Agrawal, J. and Kamakura, W.A. 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