The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay Example for Free

The Adventures of huckabackleberry Finn EssayIn The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark braces develops criticism of smart differentiate by contrasting Huck and Jims life on the river to their dealings with people on land. Twain uses the adventures of Huck and Jim to expose the hypocrisy, racism, and injustices of cabaret.Throughout the book hypocrisy of fraternity is brought out by Hucks dealings with people. Miss Watson, the first character, is dis dramaed as a hypocrite by Huck Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. But she wouldnt. ?And she took snuff too of course that was all right, because she done it herself (Twain 8).Huck did not understand why she does not want him to smoke, That is just the counsel with some people. They get down on a thing when they dont know nothing close to it (Twain 8). When Huck encounters the Grangerfords and Shepardsons he describes Colonel Grangerford as, ? a human race, you chequer. He was a gentleman all over and so was his family(Twain 86). On Sunday when Huck goes to church he sees the hypocriticalism of the families, The men took their guns along, ? The Shepardsons done the same. I t was pretty ornery preaching-all about brotherly love, and such-like? (Twain 90). Huck with his anti- company attitude, you would presume that he would have no problem in helping Jim. Yet he fights within himself about turning over Jim to the authorities, by this action within Huck shows that he moldiness have feelings that slavery is correct so that the racial bigotry of the time may be seen. This decision for Huck is monumental even though he makes it on the spot. He has in a way decided to turn his back on everything that home stands for, this allows us to leave our thought of bigotry behind and begin to see Jim for what he really is a man.Hucks attitude for Jim is racist which is seen when he decides to play a trick on Jim during their voyage. After Huck plays his trick his attitude toward Jim beg ins to change, It was fifteen minutes before I could work myself up to go and pocket-sized myself to a nigger but I done it, and I warnt ever sorry for it afterward, neither (Twain 72). The dialogue throughout the book between Huck and Jim illustrates that Jim is to a greater extent than property and that he is a human being with feelings, and hopes for a better future. The river provides a place for Huck and Jim to escape the harsh society around them and develops into a god.The river provides a pathway for the action to progress, unlike other forms of travel it proceeds to guide the book in one direction down a set path. The god-likeness of the river controls the adventures, It is the River ? that will not let them land at Cairo, where Jim could have reached freedom it is the Rive that separates them ? the River that reunites them, ? (Eliot 333). Society has lost the moral meaning of the river, ? the river was forgotten, and just now by the dwellers in cities, by the worshipper s of the machine (Trilling 325).It is through the adventure of Huck and Jim that Twain tries to show the power that can only be displayed by the natural force of the river, ? the river was forgotten, and precisely by the dwellers in cities, by the worshippers of the machine (Trilling 325). Whenever Huck goes to shore he eventually seeks the refuge of the chain reactor and the river. The problems of society become apparent to Huck when he goes ashore, while watching the gun fight between the Grangerfords and Shepardsons he becomes ill with the violence between these two families, I wished I hadnt ever come ashore that night, to see such things (Twain 94).The river never deals with the insignificant matters of society, and allows Huck the freedom to be himself. The river is freedom, the land is oppression, and that oppression is most evident to Jim. In Hucks dealings with society he sees people for who they truly are, He sees the real world and he does not judge it-he allows it to j udge itself (Eliot 329). Huck is rejuvenated by the river, when he goes ashore he faces society and all the injustices that it carries. When he returned to the raft he felt free again, Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft dont.you feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft (Twain 96). The river becomes the place where freedom is felt for Huck and Jim on a luxe scale. The end of the novel may appear to distract from the maturing of Huck and seem to regress Huck back to the state he was at the beginning of the novel. When Twain really was just trying to fade Huck out, Huck Finn must come from nowhere and be bound nowhere (Eliot 335). The return of Tom, with his elaborate avoidance to free Jim is merely to set Huck into the background of the novel again.Tom returns to let the reader see the transformation of Huck, Mark Twain, ? Huck Finn whose fate it must always be to seek a freedom beyond the limits of any civilization, ended his novel by contrasting Toms and Hucks sense of the Territory. (Pearce 361). The ending simply shows the changes Huck has gone through during his voyage to the boyish attitude him and Tom shared at the beginning of the novel. Huck and Jims adventures allow us the chance to examine the society they live in.It also gives us an opportunity to examine society today along with ourselves. Freedom the one thing that both Huck and Jim are searching for they only find on the river. Twain is showing us in this story that sometime we must break away from society and what the world views as correct and just. He is showing us that we have the strength inside to stand on our own and make decisions for ourselves. Twain, through Huck, gives us the chance to see all the things in the world as they really are. Not so that we judge the world but so we can stand up for what is right.

The Major Factors That Led Rome and the Hellenistic Kingdom to Clash Essay Example for Free

The Major Factors That Led capital of Italy and the classic Kingdom to Clash Essay6. What were the major factors that led to clashes amidst capital of Italy and the classical kingdoms, down to 146 B.C.? Can one decide what proportion of the responsibility for these clashes belongs to capital of Italy, to the Hellenistic great powers (the Antigonids, Seleucids and Ptolemies) and to the minor players?This essay will what were the major factors that led to clashes between capital of Italy and the Hellenistic kingdom, down to 146 B.C. A brief history of capital of Italys increasing involvement in the Hellenistic area starting with its wars with Hannibal of Carthage and how the Hellenistic Kingdoms of Antigonids, the Seleucids and the Ptolemies and several other minor powers in the area came to be after the termination of horse parsley. The essay will focus on the factors that the writer believes contributed to the clashes. These being, Philips alliance with Hannibal and the perf idious empire, the results of ambassadors from Rhodes and Pergamum being received in capital of Italy and telling of an appending alliance between Philip of Macedon and Antiochus of the Seleucids Kingdom, the third factor is that Rome was simply coming to the aid of its friends, various little powers in the area with which it had formed alliances. The essay will then focus on to whom the responsibility for the clashes between Rome and the Hellenistic Kingdoms lies with and what proportion of responsibility bath apportioned to each party.This will focus on the major players of the Hellenistic Kingdoms, the Antigonids, Seleucids and Ptolemies and other smaller players. After the death of Alexander in 323B.C. the empire which he had created began to be broken up into distinguish adapted kingdoms and satraps amid bitter infighting by his generals, including Ptolemy, Cassander, Antigonus, Parmenion and Seleucus. the ultimate fragmentation of Alexanders empire was likelihood from the s tart, and the history of the following times was to see the emergence of several separate kingdoms and dynasties out of his once unified empire. Out of these generals three emerged to take control of large pieces of Alexanders empire, these were, Ptolemy, Antigonus and Seleucus. Ptolemy Soter had campaigned with Alexander from the beginning and had gained horse parsley trust, and had become one of his individualised bodyguards as well as one of Alexanders generals. After Alexanders death Ptolemy was habituated the satrapy of Egypt and soon used his new found authority to start claiming some of the surrounding areas, including, the region around Cyrene.His first challenge to the authority of the other satrapies and kingdoms was the claiming of Alexanders remains as his funeral procession toured through his empire. Ptolemy later won the lands of Palestine and Cyprus to further secure Egypts borders. The Ptolemy dynasty lasted many an(prenominal) centuries until it as well came un der roman type rule. Antigonus was another(prenominal) one of Alexanders successors and created the Antigonid dynasty which was to rule Macedonia and parts of Greece. Antigonus had ambitions to recreate Alexanders empire and this was recognized by the other successors who formed an alliance against him, that was fought oer many strife but reached no real conclusion, but prevented him from expanding his kingdom any further. Antigonus was constantly under attack from all sides and finally fell in battle and his kingdom now came under the control of his son. Seleucus was another of Alexanders general and after his death was devoted the satrapy of Babylonia and after first being ousted by Antigonus, he fled to Egypt to seek refuge with Ptolemy, after a number of years in Egypt, Seleucus returned to take over much of Persia.The lands that he had gained were ethnically diverse and used different parts of each culture to administer his lands. Seleucus managed to gain punt much of Alexan ders creator empire until he was assassinated and his son took over his leadership. These three successors of Alexander along with the more minor satrap of Lysimachus and Cassander inherited an empire but through almost constant warfare between themselves were not able to resurrect Alexanders empire either singularly or as an alliance. The three main successors forged dynasties that lasted a couple of centuries until they all were foiled or came under the sway of Rome. Rome fought three wars with Carthage called the Punic wars, these wars were fought between 264B.C. and 146B.C. (First 264-241B.C., Second 218-202B.C., Third 149-146B.C.)The first two Punic wars were fundamentally defensive wars for Rome especially the second where Hannibal in command of the Carthaginian forces crossed the Alps and attacked mainland Italy, the Romans were able to repel Hannibal and his army, Hannibal was eventually defeated by the famous General Publius Cornelius Scipio and pushed back to North Afric a and Carthage. The second war reduced Carthage to nothing but a city state, but Rome still feared that Carthage could rise once again to its former military might and with the third Punic war Rome razed Carthage to the ground, slaughtering or enslaving its inhabitants.At the sight of the city utterly perishing amidst the flames Scipio burst into tears, and stood long reflecting on the inevitable change which awaits cities, nations, and dynasties. Rome and the Hellenistic kingdoms fought four wars called the Macedonian wars between 215B.C. and 146B.C. and wars signalled the first clashes between Rome and the Hellenistic kingdoms. The first Macedonian war was fought between Rome and Philip V of Macedon of the Antigonid kingdom and was brought about as a cause of revenge. In 216B.C. Philip V thought that with Hannibals continuous victories over the Roman forces that the Italian peninsula would fall and that the time was right to form an alliance with Hannibal, with the ambition of exp anding his own domains. This was a war that Rome did not want to be involved in as they were already stretched militarily in their fight against Carthage, and sent only a small force to swap with Philip V and the Macedon kingdom.According to Livy, Rome do an alliance with the Aetolians to fight against Philip V and sent a larger force to wage war, but on arriving found the Aetolians had made peace with Philip V and it was easier for Rome to seek peace with Philip V than fight alone, and thus the first Macedonian war ended. The Second Macedonian was fought between 200-196B.C. and was started after an apparent secret deal between Philip V of Macedon and Antiochus III of the Seleucid kingdom to attack and divide up the Egyptian kingdom under Ptolemy rule. Ambassadors from Rhodes and Pergamum had sent diplomatic missions to Rome with these reports with the intent of gaining Roman support against Philip V and the threats he posed to their kingdoms. Philips aggression towards the class ical city states, some who had alliances with Rome, caused Rome to issue an ultimatum to Philip, to remove his forces back into Macedon, Philip refused and on the ruse of helping its friends Rome started t move its forces against Macedon.It is possible that Rome also feared if Philip and Antiochus gained further footholds in the Eastern Mediterranean, they could at some point threaten Italy, also of note is the ambition of Roman commanders to gain personal advancement and public prestige through the triumphs of winning wars. Philip was defeated in the battle of Cynoscephalae in 196B.C. and was forced to give up all territories outside of Macedonia and become an ally of Rome. At this point Rome proclaimed that all Greek was free and essentially Greece came under Romes political and military sway. The Senate of the Romans and Titus Quibctius the proconsul having defeated king Philip and the Macedonians in war, allow (Greece) to be free, ungarrisoned, not subject to tribute and using their hereditary laws. In 192B.C. Antiochus III invaded Greece seemingly at the request of some Greek states to liberate Greece from the Romans, Antiochus found little support in Greece for his endeavours, for many of the Greek states had regained independence after the Roman occupation and had no desire to be ruled over by another king.Rome retaliated and Antiochus was defeated in battles at Thermopylae, Myonnesos and Magnesia-by-Sipylos, these were crushing defeats and forced Antiochus back to Syria and what was left of the Seleucid kingdom and thrust Rome deeper into the affairs of the region. The third Macedonian war fought between 172-167B.C. and was caused by accusation by King Eumenes of Pergamum of Macedonian violations of its territory and an assassination attempt on Eumenes that were both attributed to king Perseus, who had now taken the throne after the death of his father. Perseus tried diplomatic negotiations with Rome who had an alliance with Pergamum, but these only served to give Rome more time to prepare an invasion force. Perseus managed to win a hardly a(prenominal) minor battles, but was crushed in the battle Pydna in 168B.C. and this signalled the ended of the Antigonid kingdom as it was split up into four republics by Rome. In the item between 168-146B.C. Rome consolidated its power in the region with calling on Antiochus to withdraw his troops from Egypt and further decimated the Seleucid kingdom by burning its ships and hamstringing its elephants which in effect brought an end to any resistance.The so-called forth Macedonian war consisted of local anti-Roman uprisings and invasion from Thrace in 149B.C. by Andriscus who managed to defeats the Macedonian resistance crowned himself Philip VI, but his sway was short-lived and after being handed over to the Romans in 146B.C., Macedon was made a Roman province, thus signalling the end of the Antigonid kingdom. To attribute a proportion of responsibility for the clashes between Rome and t he Hellenistic kingdoms cannot be clearly defined as both parties during this era had ideas of expansion and each conflict could potentially be diabolical on the other party. An example of this is the second Macedonian war where the responsibility could be split because Philip had been moving forward in taking land get rid of the Greek city states, while Rhodes and Pergamum had been trying to entice the Romans to attack Philip through sending ambassadors to Rome with their grievances and it could be argued that the senators and commanders in Rome wanted to attack Philip for reasons of personal advancement and prestige.Whilst in many of the other wars Rome could be seen as the aggressor as their seemed to very little provocation or reasoning in some of their attacks, shown by the third Macedonian war. In conclusion this essay has given a history of Roman military movements up until their entry into the Hellenistic realms, along with histories of the major Hellenistic kingdoms and h ow they ended up clashing with Rome. The major factors which led to these clashes have been identified along with what proportion of responsibility should be given to each party for the clashes. It is possible that the downfall of the Hellenistic kingdoms was inevitable and it was only a matter of time before Rome conquered them all. the Romans in less than liii years have succeeded in subjecting nearly the whole inhabit ted world to their sole governmenta unique thing in history?Bibliographycapital of Texas M.M. The Hellenistic man From Alexander to the Roman Conquest. 2nd Ed Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 2006 Balsdon, J. P. V. D. Rome and Macedon, 205-200 B.C. Journal of Roman Studies , 44 , 1954 Billows. R.A.. Antigonos the One-Eyed and the Creation of the Hellenistic State. University of California Press, Berkley. 1990 Dorey T.A. Rome Against Carthage. Seeker and contendburg, London, 1971. Great Lives from memoir The Ancient World, Salem Press, 2004 Gruen. E.S. Rome and the Seleucids in the aftermath of Pydna Chiron, 6, 1976 Livy The History of Rome trans. Rev. C. Roberts, EP Dutton and Co. New York. 1912 McDonald A.H. Rome and Greece 196-146 B.C. Auckland University Press. 1970 Polybius The Histories of Polybius, trans. Evelyn S. Shuckburgh, Macmillan, London, 1889 Shipley. G The Greek World After Alexander 323-30B.C. Routledge, London 2000 Walbank F.W. The causes of the Third Macedonian War recent views The in Ancient Macedonia II Papers Read at the Second international Symposium Held in Thessaloniki, 1973 , Metsakes, K. , 1977 1 . M.M. Austin The Hellenistic World From Alexander to the RomanConquest 2nd Ed Cambridge University Press Cambridge. 2006 pp. 63 2 . Great Lives from History The Ancient World, Salem Press, 2004 pp 25-28 3 . Billows. R.A. Antigonos the One-Eyed and the Creation of the Hellenistic State. University of California Press, Berkley. 1990 4 . G. Shipley The Greek World After Alexander 323-30B.C. Routledge, London 2000 p p. 286-287 5 . T.A. Dorey Rome Against Carthage Seeker and Warburg, London, 1971. Pp.37-51 6 . Polybius 39.51The Histories of Polybius, trans. Evelyn S. Shuckburgh, London Macmillan, 1889 7 . J.P.V.D. Balsdon Rome and Macedon, 205-200 B.C. Journal of Roman Studies , 44 , 1954 pp31-33 8 . Livy 31.1-31.4 The History of Rome trans. Rev. C. Roberts, EP Dutton and Co. New York. 1912 9 . Livy 31.2 The History of Rome 10 . G. Shipley The Greek World After Alexander 323-30B.C. pp374-375 11 . A.H. McDonald. Rome and Greece 196-146 B.C. Auckland University Press. 1970, 113-114 12 . Polybius 18.46 The Histories of Polybius 13 . Livy 37.41-37.45 The History of Rome 14 . F.W. Walbank The causes of the Third Macedonian War recent views The in Ancient Macedonia II Papers Read at the Second International Symposium Held in Thessaloniki, 1973 , Metsakes, K. , 1977 pp. 84-86 15 . E.S. Gruen. Rome and the Seleucids in the aftermath of Pydna Chiron, 6, 1976 pp. 74 16 . Polybius 1.1 The Historie s of Polybius

Developing a Challenging Environment for Children

Developing a Challenging Environment for ChildrenNoshaba JadoonQ1 Explain how to organise a safe solely challenging surround for sisterren?The environment vivifys a major role in backuping childrens learning and makement. While organizing a safe and challenging environment for children following factor should be considerHealth and safetyFirst and most important factor while fit environment to be considered is the health and safety of the environment, for health and safety the EY statutory project work provides regulation. These regulations essential be following while setting the environment.Curriculum and lay issue of the roomIt includes role play atomic number 18a, a PC area, literacy and numeracy area, get winding area, messy play area.Material animal(prenominal) objectsMaterial objects consist of all toys and resources that are used for children.Material objects that are used for children essential be suitable for their age and stage of development. Toys and resour ces should be organized according to the height of the children to access and look for, by always providing a choice of toys, rather than event children to play with a particular toy of practiti hotshotr choice, especially for babies and younger children who are less mobile. The EY. Emphases children independence and get ons child-initiated play and active learning.Early years setting provides separate setting according to the age of the children i-e from birth to year three and three to five etc.Birth to three Babies learn through their senses and they have sex taking toys to their mouths, also they enjoy reaching out for toys and grasping them, therefore interesting toys or objects should be placed with in their access to explore. Practitioners should ensure that materials object and toys for this age group are appropriate. Furniture is secured to prevent it from falling onto the children as their movement and body run across develop, they become very mobile.Three to five Ch ildrens imaginations and bodies control develop in this age group, and role-play areas can help children to take on different roles. For example, an area of the room can be transformed into a scenario for the children to play and explore, like post office ,fruits and ve winable shops, kitchen ,car park area etc.The outdoor environment provides equal opportunities for learning and development. Advantages of outdoor playing conclusion into promotion of healthy lifestyles, as they get the chance to exercise, run around, climb on and off equipment, jumping, balance, learn about their body and exert energy, also develop socially, intellectually, physically, emotionally by making friends, sharing with them and taking care of them. Children begin to learn how to take care of other children. Therefore resources and toys that are used for children essential be suitable for their age and stage of development.According to EY, Outdoor play opportunities also depend on children age0-12 months Outdoor environment provides fresh air, more(prenominal) exploring and practising physical skills. Due to limited mobility in this age group practitioner can take soft play mats and resources.12-24 monthsAs this age group children are more mobile so equipment such as slides, climbing frames and ride on toys will help children to develop their physical skills. Practitioner should encourage children to get responsibility of environment around them, for example plants and flowers. Children can take part in planting fruit and vegetable seeds and get responsibility to take of them.24-36monthsChildren should confront to be given responsibility about their environment, growing their own seeds of fruit and vegetables and taking care of them by watering plants and seeds.As physical skills and body control increase therefore toys that enquire balance of the body should introduce to help them to refine their skills, like scoters or colossalr frames. Children should be encourage to investig ate objects that how they are work.36-60 monthsChildren in this age group have good body control and refine skills, so opportunities for climbing, running, jumping and balancing of their body should be continue. As physical skills and body control increase there for toys that involve balance of the body should introduce to help them to refine their skills, like scoters or larger frames. Children should be encourage to investigate objects that how they are work.Social and emotional environmentThe emotional environment extends to the feelings and emotions of the children. When children are able to express their feeling they are more confident to explore and investigate. Practitioners should give them chance to talk and express their feelings.Children belong to wider social network like ethnicity, religions and family history or back ground skins colour, practitioner should recognise the immenseness of the values and give them watch. It is responsibility of practitioner to help child ren to understand about different cultures and religions. Therefore social and emotional environment mean value and respect for everyone, regardless of their ethnicity, religion, skin colure, family back ground etc.Q2 Explain the practitioners role within the wider, multi-agency environment.If practitioner has any concern about any area of childs development, or it is believed that child invites additional support then other professional can be involved as a source of advice for public assistance of children and their families. Providing early help is more effective in promoting the welfare of children. Early help means providing support as soon as problems arise or identified, therefore key worker will help to identified children and their families who can get benefit from early help.Following professionals can be involved with in early years setting1 General practitioner, when child is ill2 Health visitor. They support children and their families from birth to five. They provide health and lifestyle support to parents.3 Paediatiatrician. They support children and their families from 24 weeks of pregnancy to18 years, especially when a child is diagnosed with disability or illness.4 Social worker provides help, support and safe guarding of the children.5 Dentist provide care for children teeth6 Physiotherapist support children motor skills and mobility. They provide specialised care for children with disabilities etc.7 Speech and actors line therapist provide information for effective communication.8 Emergency services it include police officer, fire fighters ,paramedics may visit school judgment of conviction to time to help children understand about these services.The practitioner will play an important role within this team to support and following care plans set out by other professionals and attending regular meeting to discuss the progress of child.Q3 Describe the regulatory requirements that must be followed when organising an environment.Laws and l egislationThe health and safety at work Act 1974 provides snuff itlines that protect everyone within the workplace. However health and safety implementation is over all responsibility of employer. Practitioners are also responsible for ensuring health and safety with in the workplace is observed. For health and safety the EY statutory frame work provides regulation these regulation must be follow while organizing the environment. provide ratios and qualificationsThe EY Sets out the minimum requirement for staff ratios and qualifications. Failure to meet this requirement could cause an accidents or injuries because it is difficult for staff subdivisions to care for and supervise a large number of the group. Well trained and qualified staff that work well as a team is required for best possible care of the children.sizing of the roomThe EY also sets out minimum requirement for space depending on the age of children that is how many children can be present in any one room at one time and number of the staff to ensure the safety of the children.Children under twoChildren from birth to two years require 3.5 hearty meter per child.For every three children, there must be at to the lowest degree one member of staff.At least one practitioner must be qualified to a recognised level three childcare qualification and be experienced in working with babies and children under two.At least half(prenominal) of the rest staff members must be qualified to at least a recognised, level two childcare qualification.At least half of the staff members must have training specifically for working with babies and young children below the age of two.Children under two to threeChildren of this age group require 2.3 square meter space per childrenOne member of staff for 8 childrenOne practitioner must be qualified to level three.Half of remaining staff members must be qualified to level two.Children aged three to fiveThey required 2.3 square meter space per childOne member of staff fo r 8 childrenOne practitioner must be qualified to level three.Half of remaining staff members must be qualified to level two.Q4 Evaluate how effective the environment is in meeting childrens needsPlaying is one of the effective ways of teaching. Children learn through play and exploring their environment. effectual environment plays vital role in meeting individual age group children needs.According to (EY Development Matters document) children learn and develop well in modify environment, in which their experiences respond to their individual needs and is a strong partnership between practitioner and parents and carers. The early years foundation stage (EYFS) requires early years practitioner to review children progress and share a summary with parents or career. It also can be used as a guide about whether a child is shewing typical development for their age or any delay or ahead for their age.According to statutory frame work for the early years foundation stage (EYFS) childre n develop and learn in different ways and at different rates.Practitioner must consider the individual needs, interest, and stage of development of each child. There are seven areas of learning and developmentCommunication and language emphases to speak and listen in a range of situation and express themselves with confidence and skill. Children follow instructions. They can use past, present, future forms accurately when talking about events that have happened or handout to be happened in future.Physical development involves moving and handling. Children should show good control and co-ordination in large and small movements. They can handle equipments and tools in effect including pencil for writing.Personal, social and emotional development helps children to develop a positive sense of themselves and others. They learn how to develop social skills, they play co-operatively taking turns with each other, they show sensitivity to others needs and felling, form positive relationship with adults and other children. They learn how to manage their own feelings. The can manage their own introductory hygiene and personal needs including dressing and going to toilets independently and to have self-confidence and self-awareness.Literacy, they are able to link sound and letters and to begin read and write.Mathematics, they improve their skills in counting, they can count up to twenty, they can do simple addition and subtraction, and able to recognized shapes.Understanding the world,Arts and design should involve providing opportunities to share their thought, concepts and feeling through a variety of ways in art music dance role-play.

Impact of Store Layout on Customers

Impact of Store Lay start on CustomersChapter 1 IntroductionIn todays world market, dynamic new era come with tough competition. In each and every sector competition is make up. To cope up with the competition, it is necessary for every angiotensin-converting enzyme to make strategy for their positioning and differentiation. In business to business market, it is abstemious to retain earnings. But in retail sector it is very difficult because retailers excite n-number of customers and to satisfy all of them is not possible, just totally customer rapture post retain the customer and so the cyberspace.Individuals, having different need and essentials may not satisfy with one solution. Purchasing behavior is changing with time. People dont have much time to spend on shopping. In that case one stop shopping can be c areful to them. And because of that reason retailers have to be c beful in choosing the ingathering, place, layout of the wareho utilize.Store layout is a signif icant factor driving consumer retort in retailing. Store layout has its own way to influence customers shopping. It is characterized by increasing competition and more sophisticated, customers have gigantic expectations related to their consumption experiences (Griffith, 2005).Atmosphere in retail market changing drastically. Competition increased and which lead to a sophisticated and demanding consumer segment that are well educated and with high expectations for their each and every purchase. They are expecting retail shopping experience with non retail works. Now days, consumers want everything customized e.g. Product line of battle, provides involvement, easy accessibility of the break in, all these factors influence the procureing finality of the customers (Dabholkar et al., 1996)This chapter go forth provide a brief background about bloodline layout and its splay on on purchasing behavior at gadget lay ins in London, UK. It will discuss the re see problem of the force field, the goals and objective lensives of the study, precept of the study, query methodology, limitations and all overview of the study.1.1 OverviewCore concepts and terminologies answer in to better misgiving of the problems. so it is necessary to define them. All the readers may not aware about the specific terminology. Essence of the research lies there lone(prenominal) where every normal person can understand it without the help of passe-partout. Store layout, consumer purchasing behavior and gubbins stores are defined within the context of selling and retailing.Store layout is ease of user movement through the store to provide maximum exposure of goods and attractive display (Marketing Glossary, 2007). This includes doors, merchandise placement, shelf orientation, music, check-out counters, interior decorating, staff attitude, lighting and location of the loading facilities (Levy et al., 1995).Consumer purchasing behavior is the mental process by which indiv iduals search for, select, purchase, use, and dispose of goods and services to satisfy their needs and wants. This process is influenced by the cordial and cultural environment (Consumer buying behavior, 2007).Convenience store is a small retail self-service store selling a restrict line of fast-flying moving food and non-food items, usually with extended hours of operation (Glencoe Online, 2004).1.2 Backgrounds to the StudyHistory of the convenience store state that, root of this indus campaign found from early in 20th century. It came out form the many types of retail establishments in existence at that time. Convenience stores grew rapidly after the Second World War on board the idea of the American dream. More families had more cars and lived in more suburbs, further away from shopping centers and large grocery stores. So, more convenience stores came into existence (The gunstock of the convenience store, 2007).ACNielsen (2006) reports that in todays time squashd world, con venience becomes increasingly significant to consumers of Great Britain. Shopper habits are constantly evolving, along with explainments in retail offerings. In recent years, the convenience store industry stands as an economic powerhouse, a vibrant channel of retail trade, and an anchor business for the neighborhoods.Many factors meet the store patron long time decision, e.g. location, service levels, pricing policies, merchandise assortment, store environment and store image. However, very little research has been conducted on the real(a) determinants of a good store layout (Todays Convenience Stores, 2001).The increase in dual income families and longer working hours are making general shopping a more stressful activity for many families because of time pressure and lack of response by retailers (Avlott and Mitchell, 1999).Therefore, this exploratory research hopes to investigate if more consumers in small convenience stores are experiencing problems with different merchandis e displays, narrow fly the coop space, absence of price tags on proceedss and absence of direction arrows and signs showing where the merchandise is being displayed.1.3. Research ProblemIn spite of many commercial and educational researches there are much confusion about the purchasing behavior and perceptions of the consumers. Todays customers are more sensitive and demanding than ever. They want fast, friendly service on their scathe every time they come to a store (Andersen, 1997). If they do not get fast and friendly service, they will abandon that establishment in search of another one which offers fast, convenient and better services.Based on the views of Shaffer and Greenwald (1996), a well defined, attractive and friendly store layout will attract potential customers to the store and, at the same time, discourage those who are not interested in the merchandise from entering the store.As a result, the study investigates the impact of store layout on consumer purchasing beh avior and intends to present suggestions to improve the quality of service delivery in London, UK.1.4. Research ObjectivesMain objective of the study is to examine the impact of store layout on customers and variables that impinge on the purchasing pattern of the customers. Once a topic has been identified and narrowed to the right size, the research question can be hypothesise to meet the objectives of the research (Saunders et al, 2007). The present research plan and its finding will answer the following questions.The following objectives are drawn from the overall aim of the studyTo establish the fundamental uniqueness of layout of convenience storesTo ascertain problems arise by customers during the shopping at the convenience stores.To examine customers satisfaction and level of service they are getting from convenience stores in London, UK.To make recommendations to improve store layout in independent convenience stores in London, UK..1.5. Rationale of the ResearchThis stud y will help in to the development of the convenience stores in London, UK by providing detail knowledge of the of the need and wants of the customers. The study is also intended to measure and assess the harvest-times display and meetion in stores, customer handling capacity, service levels, pricing policies, store environment and store image, staff attitude and training, impulse purchasing pressure, and the impact of store layout and problems associated with products display.The sure value of this study, however, lies in the hope that the retailers commitment to providing efficient and improved customer service will eventually allow both the retailers and consumers to successfully uncover the mechanism of good store layout. The consumers of convenience stores in London will benefit by providing the required information on store layout to the police detective.1.6. Research LimitationsThe study was limited to a review of literature pertaining to store appearance, products display and other attri notwithstandinges of a good store layout. Due to time and cost constraints, the study was confined to only convenience stores in London, UK. The research was done in London sports stadium and, therefore, the results of the study cannot be generalized to all convenience stores in UK.1.7 Outlines of ChaptersThe report on this study is made up of five chapters. These chapters cover the following areas and details of the chapters are as followsChapter 1 Introduction This chapter introduces the study and provides an overview of the research problem, the research objectives, the rationale behind the study and the research methodology and limitations thereof.Chapter 2 Literature Review -The literature review gives an overview of store layout theory. It also discusses consumer buying behaviors and perceptions and what retailers can do to help their customers to better overcome this phenomenon. The chapter will examine various concepts or characteristics relating to store layout which include crowd slow-wittedness, staff attitude and training, store layout, impulse purchasing pressure, location, product assortment, music, and lighting.Chapter 3 Research Methodology The research methodology chapter shows how the information has been collected and gathered. It provides insight into the sampling methods used, the questionnaire, and various other techniques used to analyze the results. It also contains a review of the validity and reliability of the research investigation, indicating areas where errors power have occurred.Chapter 4 Analysis and Results The purpose of this chapter is to present the statistical analysis of the data obtained through the questionnaires. The data has been processed into meaningful results that the reader is able to interpret and understand.Chapter 5 Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations This terminal chapter of the dissertation contains the conclusions that are drawn from the findings in chapter four and also from ch apter two. Recommendations and suggestions for further research in the field are made.Brief background of the store layout and its impact on purchasing behavior at convenience stores in London is discussed in this chapter. Research methodology, research, problem of the study, the goals and objectives of the study, rationale of the study, limitations and overview of the study is also discussed. The next chapter will review the literature in more detail and cover the theme of the important aspects pertaining to this study.Chapter 2 Theory Frame work Literature Review2.1 Theory Framework2.1.1 OverviewThis chapter looks at the dynamics of consumer behavior and the consumer market. Consumer buying behavior- includes the buying behavior of final consumers individuals and households that buy goods and services for their own consumption. All of these final consumers mutually create the consumer market. The world consumer market consists of about 5.5 billion people, but the billion people alert in North America, Western Europe and Japan make up 70 per cent of the worlds spending power. Even within these rich customer markets, customers set out immensely in age, income, education level and admirations. They also buy an unbelievable variety of goods and services. How these varied customers make their alternatives among various products squeeze a charming collection of factors.The buying behavior of final consumers -individuals and households who buy goods and services for personal consumption.2.1.2 Stimulus response modelThe innermost question for venders is how do consumers respond to various merchandising stimuli that the company should use? The company that really identify with how customers will act in response to different product features, prices and advertising plead has a broad benefit to its competitors. Hence, companies and educational institutions have researched seriously the connection surrounded by market stimuli and consumer response.The starting point is the stimulus-response model shown in figure 1. It indicates that marketing and other stimuli goes in to consumers bootleg box and produce certain responses.4Ps create marketing stimuli 1-Product, 2- Price, 3-Place and 4-Promotion.Other stimuli comprise important forces and measures in the purchasers surroundings monetary, technological, political and cultural. All these stimuli go into the buyers black box, where they are curved into a set of visible buyer responses product choice, brand choice, dealer choice, purchase timing and purchase amount.To understand how the stimuli changed in to response of the consumers inside the consumers black box in two parts.1. The buyers distinctiveness influence how he or she perceives and reacts to the stimuli.2. The buyers decision process itself affects the buyers behavior.Lets look at buyers characteristics as they affect buying decision and then examines the buyer decision process.It is difficult to know what exactly is in the black box and exactly predict consumer behavior, but the preceding(prenominal) model can help us to understand consumer behavior and help the researchers in creating the right questionnaire for the influencing factor.2.1.3 Characteristics affecting consumer behaviorConsumer buying process is subjective potently by cultural, social, personal and psychological characteristics, as shown in design-2. Marketers can not control all the factors but they should have to take all of them in to consideration. cultural Factors-Cultural factors applythe broadest and deepest influence on consumer behavior. The marketer needs to understand the role played by the buyers finale, subculture and social carve up.CultureItis the mainly basic source of a persons wants and behavior. human race behavior is largely cultured, rising up in a society. A child learns fundamental values, sensitivity, wants and behaviors from the family and other important institutions health. Sometimes we take these values for granted, but they are noel cultural universals (Kotler, 2003).SubcultureA group of people with common value structure based on familiar life practice and situations. Each culture has smaller subcultures or groups of persons with officed value structure based on common life experiences and situations. Subcultures include nationalities, religions, racial groups and geographic regions. Many subcultures create prescribed significant market segments and marketers often aimed at products and marketing programs customized to their needs (Kotler, 2003).Social ClassRelatively permanent and ordered surgical incisions in a society whose members share similar values, interests and behaviors. Almost each and every society has some structure of social group formation. Social classes are societys relatively stable and prepared division whose members share similar values, interests and behaviors. The British scale with six social classes is widely used, although all big countries have their own system. In these social classes social class is not determined by a single factor, such as income, but is calculated as an amalgamation of occupation, income, education, wealth and other variables(Kotler, 2003).2.1.4 The buying decision processCompanies have to research on consumer buying process to understand the answers of the questions about what, where and how of the consumers. But to learn it is not easy task and the answers lies with customers only. To take it out these answerers is a work of great deal. We will examine the gunpoints that buyers passing play through to reach a buying decision. We will use the model in Fig 3, which indicates the customer as passing through five stages 1-need recognition, 2- information search, 3-evaluation of alternatives, 4-purchase decision and 5- perspective purchase behavior. It can be seen that the buying process starts long before actual purchase and continues long after (Kotler, 2003).This gives confidence the marketer to focus on the complete buying process rather than just the purchase decision. This model involves that customers pass through all five stages with all purchase. But in everyday purchases, customers often skip or reverse some of these stages. To illustrate this model, we return to Anna Flores and try to understand how she became interested in buying a camera and the stages she went through to make the final choice.Need Recognition This is the foremost stage of the buyer decision process in which the consumer recognizes a problem or need. The buying process starts with need recognition the buyer identify a problem or need. The buyer senses a difference between his or her actual state and some preferred condition. The need can be generate by internal stimuli when one of the persons usual needs hunger, thirst, and sex raises to a level high enough to become a drive. (Kotler, 2003).Information Search The stage of the buyer decision process in which the consumer is aroused to search for more inform ation the consumer may simply heightened attention or may go into active information search. A succuss consumer may or may not search for more information. If the consumers drive is strong and a satisfying product is near at hand, the consumer is likely to buy it then. If not, the customer may simply store the need in memory or take on an information search related to the need. (Kotler, 2003).Evaluation of Alternatives The stage of the buyer decision process in which the consumer uses information to evaluate alternative brands in the choice set is called alternatives evaluation. We have seen above that how the customer uses information to let at a set of final brand choices and how does the consumer choose among the alternative brands? It is necessary for marketers to know about alternative evaluation that is, how the consumer processes information to arrive at brand choices. Unluckily, customers do not use a simple and single assessment process in all buying features (Kotler, 2 003). obtain finding The stage of the buyer decision process in which the consumer actually buys the product is called purchase decision. In the previous, evaluation stage, the consumer position brands and forms purchase intentions. Generally, the consumers purchase decision will be to buy the most preferred brand, but two factors come between the purchase intension and the purchase decision. The first factor is the approach of others. And Purchase intention is also influenced by un judge situational factors. The consumer may form a purchase intention based on factors such as estimated family income, estimated price and estimated benefits from the product. The marketer must understand the factors that provoke approach of hazard in customers and must give information which support in buying decision and that will down the perceived risk. (Kotler, 2003).Post purchase Behavior This stage of the buyer decision, process in which customers take further action after purchase based on the ir satisfaction. The marketers work does not end when the product is purchased. After buying the product, the consumer will be satisfied or dissatisfied and will engage in post purchase behavior of interest to the marketer. What decide whether the purchaser is satisfied or dissatisfied with a purchase? The answer lies in the association of the consumers expectations and the products superficial performance. If the product falls dumpy of potential, the customer is disappointed, if it meets expectations, the consumer is satisfied if it exceeds expectations, and the consumer is delighted and consumer deligtness is the necessity of the success in todays competition. Understanding the customers desires and buying process is the basis of successful marketing. By understanding how buyers go throughout need recognition, information search, and evaluation of alternatives, the purchase decision and post purchase behavior, the marketer can choose many evidence as to how to meet the buyers need s. By understanding the various participants in the buying process and the strongest influence on their purchasing behavior, the marketer can develop an meative programmed to bear an eye-catching offer to the target market. (Kotler, 2003).2.2 Review of LiteratureThis chapter gives inclusive idea about the characteristics of store layout and its impact on consumers purchasing pattern at convenience store. As suggested by Paulins and Geistfeld (2003), most convenience stores are poorly perceived with respect to in-store displays and external appearance. The outside store appearance affects consumers choice of a store. Hence it is mandatory for stores to focus on their external appearance. It can influence the stores performance in terms of turnover.The objective of the literature review is not just stick to of the information available but it is for the better understanding of the research. It can influence the research on many stage of its development and it can help researcher in determining the key factor which has impact on store layout.Factors which are affecting the stores turnover can be summaries as follows.2. 2.1 Store bearing and ImageHalf of the work can be done by just positive attitude which is true not for the human being but for the all the business. Same is applicable for the stores. It gives sustainable competitive advantage over the competitors. It gives idea about the positioning of the store. And for the positioning what strategy should be adopt by the retailers. It also helps in to differentiating the store (Birtwistle and Shearer, 2001).A desirable retail mix can influence the consumers and store appearance has played major role in retailing. The inspiring store image is desirable for the consumers (Devlin et al., 2003).Estelami and Bergstein (2006) are also of the same opinion that consumers typically form an overall impression of a retail store through various information processing mechanisms, such as advertising, viral marketing, or personal experience. The determinants of a good store layout are rare.There are six major dimensions that should be considered when determining a good store appearance, are as followPersonal confabulationGuiding principle fleshly manifestationLocationProblem solving andThe convenience of a storeThe physical appearance of a store has the greatest impact on the overall service quality, high customer retention and higher future consumption, respectively (Siu and Cheung, 2001).Thang and Tan (2003) further state that characteristic of store image and exterior affect consumers inclination for the stores. The motivations that pertain to store attributes include products, store ambiance, in-store service, convenience, status, endorsement, amenities and post-sales service. Consumers preference is based on their post-visit ranking of the stores. Hence, the quality of in-store services is likely to have a strong impact on consumers purchasing pattern and, if not liked or unsuited with the st andards or the attitude required by the target consumers, might restrain appeal. Below is a diagram with mechanism of a good store appearance.As shown in Fig 4, the stimuli that pertain to store attributes include products, store atmosphere, in-store service, accessibility, reputation, promotion, facilities and transaction service. The A S-O-R Model of consumer retail purchase pattern emphases on the most important factors to succeed with store appearance and image. In becoming a customer oriented business, management needs to be well-known with all the elements of the model (Thang and Tan, 2003). Memery et al. (2005) Note that store appearance is obtained through practice only.2.2.2 Store calling Flow and Crowd DensityThe store layout is the basis for procedure. Therefore, conducting a dealings flow analysis is a vital action to take when the object is to develop store performance. This instrument is helpful when development of a reorganization of the current collection. The analy sis is also useful when the motive is to fine tune after a remodel.By ascertaining customers shopping behavior, a retailer can inspect the strengths and weaknesses of the layout. The analysis is simple to do out and can be done on a huge or little scale, surrounding of the whole store or one department. The results will be clear and make decisions simple to arrive.The main goals of carry out a traffic flow analysis is to decide traditions to make shopping and managing the store in a simple way by using layout and merchandising techniques to develop sales, improve the stores exterior and make shopping more pleasurable (Quinn and Stewart, 2007).Shopping is one of the most exciting activities in life. As the taste and the preference of shoppers change constantly, retail facilities have evolved in response. It is universally accepted that in-store traffic flow plays an important role in the success of a retail facility (Hui et al., 2007).Dion (2004 250) states that crowding is not sim ply a matter of density in a given space. Crowding appears to arise through the juxtaposition of density with certain social and personal circumstances which sensitize the individual to the potential constraints of limited space. The sensitivity of such limitation leads to a familiar inequality between the total of space required, or measured to be sufficient, by the person, and the total of space accessible to them.Emberson et al. (2006) are of the opinion that recent projects, such as professional consumer reaction, have raised the profile of in-store merchandising as a possible solution. Store group collection policies, stock organize staffing levels and the amount of customer traffic were identified by merchandisers as affecting their activities.Cottet et al. (2006) strongly suggest that practical importance of shopping is basically obtained through simple admission to products or information. The useful value depends on the way of utilization and need, primary to the shopping b ehavior.2.2.3 Products DisplayMerchandise display, according to Zentes et al. (2007), is a term repeatedly used in the circumstance of in-house marketing. It refers to the way products are accessible in a retail outlet. While this appearance has been used with a focus on merchandise display (e.g. the choice of fixtures to be used and the method of product presentation), it communicate on the whole store design, store layout and other aspect of the store environment.Two basic objectives of in-store marketing are1. To design the store for simple in-house direction and2. To construct a positive store ambiance.Attractive displays by retailers can lead consumer to let go the time and attempt required to go further to more distant stores. This technique advises that consumers shop at the stores where they can get maximum satisfaction, considering both retail characteristics and shopping expenses. Pleasant shopping atmosphere positively affects the shopping time and the money that customer s spend in a store as well as the emotion of shopping (Kim and Jin, 2001).Sinha and Banerjee (2004) contend that convenient stores consumer append more significance to merchandise display. These shoppers prefer to visit those stores that have depth and width of products. The importance of alliance/comfort level with the retailer is stressed with regard to grocery stores.Fig 5 Framework for examining store preferences in an evolving market. Source Sinha and Banerjee (2004).The above framework is tried and it demonstrates that the basic drivers of the store loyalty can be deriving in 3 groups.Risk ReducersChoice EnhancersShopping Experience Enhancer.Products displays have significant effect on retailing where self service is applicable. The displaying strategy helps to the consumers and most of the time it result in to increase in the sales. And higher sales mean higher the profit.Merchandising consists of the following elementsCorrect strategic placement in the storeEye-catching an d appealing displayAppropriate point of sale support media (e.g. labels, signs) and jural requirements satisfied.The purpose of the best product display collection requires information about feature such as1. Market value of the place available for extra product and2. Market assessment for sustainability of the available products.2.2.4 Product AssortmentEfficient merchandising approach can collect large plunder in todays marketplace. hard-hitting category management is essential for retailing. It is difficult that stores improve their service by enabling consumers with the products they demanded. Adopting a more strategic approach to merchandising can collect big rewards by increasing sales, increasing step and ultimately increasing turnover (Clark, 2003).Halepete et al. (2005) recognized that, in the past, when competitors were not much strong, a store could object a broad range of consumers. But retailing trends indicate that it is becoming significant to make happy consumers ne eds. Assortment management is one of the significant factors in merchandising.For a business to attain consumer loyalty, the steps in the below diagram need to be followed.This model can be utilized by retail outlets managers to get an idea about different factors that should be considered while merchandising. Importance on the each factor should be given based on area of the store. Information received from this model can help in to increasing the sales.Normally customer doesnt like to go home with empty hand if their first choice product is not available or out of stock, consumers go for the substitution with in the same product category, but for different size, color or brand.In spite of enormous hard work of suppliers and retailers in the fast-moving-consumer-goods (FMCG) channel to adopt the efficient consumer response practices, lots of have not realized expected benefits. Traditional retailers are not able to give price benefits, collection verity to the consumers and it is d ifficult for them to fulfill the each and every customers need. Because of that customers normally switch over to the other retailers where they can get the satisfaction. Whereas convenience stores have advantage of the consumer centric assortment which improve their performance. Some loyal customers can make store profit making unit. It is possible that not all the categories they have are profit making but out of that one or two may be cover the profit of all the categories. Category management will boost consumer loyalty to the retailer and to the brand, since the plan consumer will be able to without any fuss find their preferred brands at a fair price in one outlet during each shopping experience (Dupre and Gruen, 2004).2.2.5 Store Floor officeFloor space should be utilized in such a way that it make easier shopping experience and make possible easy communication between staff, staff and consumers. The core requirements are enough space to move around the store, ease of access from outside the store and clear navigation and displays. Stores can make their branding by this way and make it memorable window displays etc. utilizing better point of sale, personal touches to encourage customer loyalty, graphics, highlighting prices and age ranges in busy areas (Cowles, 2002).In the above figure it is shows a number of huddle have appeared on consumers psychological associations. Major, four leading motivational ensample emerged which include fr

Analysis of the E-brokerage Industry

Analysis of the E- securities firm firm IndustryExecutive SummaryThe monetary brokerage industry has lowgone dramatic changes worldwide in the last decade, collectible to the rise of the meshwork. E-brokerage brought huge opportunity to the industry as it introduces enormous amount of on-line mongers but at the same time stick on serious threat as it open up the market to sunrise(prenominal) competitors. In this thesis, we investigate historic and current ch allenges the brokerage industry faced. From our literature review, we sternvas the imp strike of online work to the brokerage industry and the online traders, and proposed solutions pinpointed to the facts we found. We studied the scrap the brokerage industry faced from the perspectives of st valuegy, marketing and technology and carried out strategic analysis victimisation value chain and modelling of five forces by Michael E. Porter. A small scale survey was conducted to collect topical anaesthetic people attitud e towards online/mobile work and we used the data collected to justify the information we found during our literature review. Finally, we proposed a basket of suggestions for the brokerage industry in various aspects including fruit enhancement, guest education, stir upnership, divergentiation, customer segmentation and more. An in-depth interview with a local broker firm was organized to value our suggestions, their feedback atomic number 18 positive.IntroductionThe tough challenge among e-brokerage industry is hushed going on and in fact, it is getting even more furious. The blank space was more rigorous during bearish market by and by the burst of IT foams, SAR outbreak and the modern financial tsunami. The outline the brokerage firms take to handle the challenges they faced determine who will survive the competition and stay in the market. Losers will short be squeezed out of the market. This is especially true for small to median size local brokerage firms who argon now facing stark naked competitors like direct banks and oversea online trade provider like E-Trade. Confronted with growing competition, old-guard brokers are being forced to restructure and re- tension their market offerings. Various strategies were adopted, some brokerage firms seek to maintain their genius in value-added improvements through a focus on knowledge/advise more financial planning and investment advice rather than transactions -processing trades. different firms attempted to comprehend how to offer on-line services without alienating their brokers, to minimize channel conflict.The purpose of this article is to analysis the current e-brokerage practices and device new service directions and enhancement to existing products to increase competence of our local brokerage industry. We will first present the evolution of credential trading in Hong Kong and characteristic of different types of brokerage firms and customers. From our literature review, we found that online trading exerted great impact on both brokerage industry and online traders. For brokerage firms, they faced vigorous competition due to new competitors, reduced customer loyalty and market fragmentation due to natural depression entry rampart. charm illusion of knowledge and surmount, lack of individualized advice and overwhelmed by information were the hurdle online traders faced. We contain presented the strategic challenge faced by the brokerage industry and analysis their strategy using value chain and shapework of five forces algorithm. We have devised a basket of suggestions and discussed with a brokerage firm the feasibility to comprehend our research.Financial Broker Industry In Hong KongEvolution of security trading in Hong KongThe ultimate goal of a well-functioning mental strain market is to bring together all possible buyers and sellers, so that the market price reflects the unite preferences of all participants. The history of securities trading in Hong Kong can be traced back to 1866. The present Sock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEx) was established as a result of the conglutination of four exchanges during the big market boom in 1986, while the first stock exchange began its operation in 1891.Exchange System ArchitectureComputerized trading constitution was first introduced on 2 April 1986 and in 1993 the exchange launched the Automatic Order Matching and Execution System (AMS), which was replaced by the third generation system (AMS/3) in October 2000. AMS/3 is the core system used to serve securities trading which has significant enhancements in central market functions, open connectivity and system capacity as comparabilityd with AMS/2. AMS/3 supports quintuple trading facilities for market access. Most of the participants developed their own Broker Supplied System (BSS) which interfacing with AMS/3 via the Open Gateway (OG) facility for greater control to the front-end solutions instead of the Multi-workstation System (M WS) by HKEx. The open connectivity of OG has made possible the gargantuan-scale automation of Participants operations, enabling Participants to offer new investor services and experience efficiency gains. In 2002, a new generation of the system, CCASS/3, was launched for clearing and settlement. MDS (Market Data Feed System) is the key system used for delivery of securities price data to about 60 local and international information vendors. HKATS (Hong Kong Futures Automated Trading System) is the electronic order matching system operated for the derivatives market.Advancement in information technology, especially the meshwork, is revolutionizing conventional commerce. Obviously the securities industry, and in particular the on-line brokerage, is at the forefront of this revolution. Here in Hong Kong, sell online trading as a proportion of total retail investor trading go along to grow in 2008/09, travel bying 43 per cent from 39 per cent in 2007/08. Its contribution to total market turnover was 10 per cent, up from 7 per cent in 2007/08. For stock options, retail online trading contributed 23 per cent of total retail investor trading (up significantly from 15 per cent in 2007/08) and 2 per cent of product turnover (1 per cent in 2007/08). For different derivatives, retail online trading contributed 49 per cent of total retail investor trading and 18 per cent of total product turnover (up from 44 per cent and 15 per cent respectively in 2007/08).Types of Brokerage FirmThe basic function of a brokerage firm is to go through buy and sell orders for nodes. Traditionally these firms have offered the investigation of the quality and the possibilities of investing in a variety of investment products. It is still disposed for brokerage firms to offer information about possible investments free of charge. This activity of bringing free of charge stock investment reports is one of the main alikels that are utilized by brokerage houses to compete against othe r firms. To investors, it continues to be an important service. However, with the bloom of communication technology, especially the Internet, more and more investors rated that investment reports as less(prenominal) important service. Instead, those investors preferred other types of services that charged less commission and service fee, by forfeiting those investment reports. In order to capture this vast diverse clientele, the brokerage industry segmented itself. After the restrictions in commissions were eliminated, several brokerages began to open up their doors as discount brokerage firms. At that time, brokerage firms were classified into dickens types fully service brokers and discount brokers. Full service brokerage firms continued to offer informative stock reports and a level of service untold steeper(prenominal) than other brokerage houses. They looked for purchasing and selling opportunities for clients and offering more customer and portfolio advisory service than was available from discount brokers. Discount brokerage houses, on the other hand, provided dedicated themselves to execute orders for clients with minimal services. These differences in services and philosophies led to great differences in commission costs. It was evident that these differences were an important factor in the egress of an investment.Type of customers in brokerage industryIn Hong Kong customers of brokerage firm can be divided into three typical categoriesl Prestige base These are customers with large amount of capital put in to the brokerage firm for investment. They have granted total authority to the brokerage firm to execute trading decision on behalf of them. Although they are minority in terms of the customer base of brokerage firm, they contribute a great portion of receipts to the brokerage firm.l Middle Group Customer of this group usually trade through account agent of the brokerage firm. They utilities financial information, report and analyzing tools provided by the brokerage firm to prepare trading decision. Account agent will also actively contact these customers whenever they see an investment opportunity fit for them.l Basic Group Customer mostly uses service of brokerage firm to maintain account equilibrate and execute trading order on the own. Although multiple channels are supplied to them, they mostly adopt on-line trading as their first choice of trading media.Although the first two groups of customers contribute quite a large portion of the revenue of brokerage firm, we will concentrate our research on the third group for two reasons. First, there is a clear manner that this group of customer is increasing in a fast pace. Second, by investing and improving the on-line system, the other group will also be benefited.Literature ReviewOnline-BrokerageSimply put, On-line brokerage can be defined as selling of securities which encompasses equity like stocks and warrants and derivatives like bonds, mutual currency etc, o n the Internet. Although traditional banks and brokers also provided online trading after year 2000, new entrants like direct banks and new brokers offered a genuine e-commerce business model. Direct banks are internet-only banks or virtual banks. These banks were designed without a traditional banking infrastructure with physical branches. This cost-saving advantage changed many of them to offer savings accounts with higher arouse rates, loans with lower interest rates and minimal management fee and commissions than most traditional banks. More and more customer joined in as online trade and a dot was hit on year 2000. At the same time, new competitors like traditional brokers and virtual banks joined in proactively by acquiring existing brokerage firm or using their own business model. At that time, then customer base and knowledge of the traditional institutions was still advantages for online trading enhancement.The strategy online brokers adopted was customers segmentation a nd directed their offer to the most preferred customer group, the active private investors, which allowed them to swiftly catch up the market. Compared with banks, absence of physical branches thus low overhead costs gave these internet brokers an advantageous in cost structure. They competed with each other rigorously to achieve the biggest market share in the curtlyest time frame to reach the break even point. The strategy to conquer and develop loyalty of new customers was invested massively in marketing. They also adopted a cut-throat commission rate to attract private individuals who were more sensitive to this cost of investment. The position of banks and traditional brokers in the brokerage business was deeply undermined by the pressure caused by these new entrants.Bloom of on-line tradingFor the first time ever, investors could, from the comfort of their own homes, accessed a wealth of financial information including breaking news developments and market data on the same te rms as market professionals did. In addition, on-line brokerage provided investors with tools to analyze this information, such as research reports, calculators, and portfolio analyzers. Finally, on-line brokerage enables investors to act apace on this information. The technological and regulatory barriers that gave traditional brokerage and securities companies edges were rapidly becoming extinct. First, new provider quickly gained access to the market by leveraged on the use of Internet technology. Without expensive branch networks and labor-intensive advisory services, new competitor like direct banks and new online brokerage firms were able to process retail clients orders in relatively low cost. Second, the bull markets in year 2000 attracted large number of new online customers. For example, lot of local residents became online investors and started to hold security when frequent and colossal scale IPO activity were taking place during 2006. These new customers welcomed the new internet investment style that encompassed vast amount of free of charge authoritative time information, enhanced market transparency, public toilet and low commission. Together with the rising share prices in bull market atmosphere, these new customer, in particular, heavy traders quickly got accustomed to doing online trade.The Internet also made other comparisons easier. For example, it change magnitude price competition for products for which price comparison was previously more intemperate. New information applications enabled investors to compare the quality of trade execution provided by different brokerages and thus extend the trading costs that investors consider beyond commissions.Companies scrambled to create viable strategies that balance many priorities. Typical considerations includedShould they defend their existing customer base or enter into new customer segments?Grow their existing business or expand into new products?Acquire, partner or go entirely?Basica lly, companies were competing not only to offer different and better products and services, but to design robust, lucrative business models that took advantage of emerging forms of electronic commerce. Electronic commerce the facilitation of exchange of value over computer networks fundamentally changed the brokerage business in part by increasing the velocity of financial services 1. Impact of on-line brokerageHurdle on brokerage firmRigorous competitionWith the advancing Internet technology, investors had became less reliant on stockbrokers for trade execution or obtaining research information as such services were readily available on the Internet. In addition, the Internet was a convenient and efficient channel for doing stock trade transactions and for providing information support to investors. Indeed, the trend of self-investing led to the proliferation of Internet brokerages around 2000, offering trading services on the Internet at very low commission rates compared to us ing traditional brokerages.Reduced customer loyalty glower transaction costs online led many investors to e-brokerages and away from traditional brokers to place their trades Another concern was that since investors feel that they can distinguish mingled with the good and poisonous advice that they find on the Internet, they therefore were not be willing to continue to pay a financial planner solely for their expert opinion. This was in part due to the information illusion discussed in next section illusion of knowledge and control, where investors feel that since they have access to so much information that they had no need to pay for such service and can do it better on their own.Reduced customer-broker cohesivenessBefore on-line trading is prevalent, a one stock trade typically involves multiple telephone conversations between a customer and a broker. The broker may take the opportunity to reinforce the individual(prenominal) relationship with the customer by discussing pros and cons of the trade or offer tailor-made investment package. On the contrary, on-line traders are more on their own. Together with the convenience to switch broker, the loyalty of the customer to the brokerage firm is largely weakened. Although transactions are the bread and butter of brokerage companies, brokerage firms were also strived to developing client relationships in order to provide total solution to their customers. The income by providing strategic planning, advisory services, financial advices, margin loan and other client services are also vital to brokerage companies..Market fragmentationMarket fragmentation occurs when too many competitive suppliers enter an active or new market. It happened starting time from 1998 and peaked around 2001, when online trading started to take off and attracted many different competitors. They all aimed attract on-line investors and to achieve the largest possible market shares by all means, for example, by giving them some extra bon uses. However, the sudden downturn of the market quickly turned a lot of these new investors to passive customers, if not completely retired, due to lack of knowledge and experience. This phenomenon was even more obvious after market started to plunge beginning at 2001.As a matter of fact, it is too risky for e-brokers to over-rely on commission as the main source of revenue. After all, the study for brokerage services highly depends on investment atmosphere of stock market. The number of on-line executed orders during bullish and bearish market varies significantly. These large variation experts high risk for those who base their income on commission. In order to care possession of active traders during both bullish and bearish market, it is very important to educate them and foster a correct investment culture.Lower entry barrierThe Internet changed how information is delivered to investors and the ways in which investors can act on that information. On-line brokerage provide a effective and convenient access media between customers and the brokerage firm, the unit cost of operations is much reduced. It had lowered both the fixed and marginal costs of producing financial services, thus enabling newer, smaller companies to challenge established providers of these services. On-line brokerage firms, such as E*Trade, are among the most vivid and successful financial service firms to provide on-line financial advice, research tools, and financial information that emerged in the last decade. These e-commerce firms transformed the way traditional services were delivered and offered a vast assortment of new services.Hurdle on customerInvestors in general and on-line investors in particular now make decisions in a very different environment than investors in the past. They have access to far more data. They often act without personal intermediaries. They can conduct extensive searches and comparisons on a wide variety of criteria. Although the quantity they can pr oduce may be large, it is the quality that matter. As a consequence, they trade more actively, more speculatively but less profitably than before. On-line trader stress heavily on commission and management cost when choosing broker firm to use. However, there are other unobservable costs that are asleep by them information-processing costs, information illusion, illusion of control, frequent trading behavior, and the lack of personal advice.Information-processing costsInformation-processing costs are the costs that online investors sustain before they actually make a transaction and it is defined by the time and energy that the investor expands trying to reach an investment decision. Because of the huge volume of information found on the Internet that it can take investors a lot of extra time to find, sort, and analyze all of the relevant information. This in turn can out-weigh the benefits of online trading for some investors because they powerfulness not be able to afford the op portunity. In fact, the overwhelmingly huge amount of information available on the Internet scales many investors away, let alone their validity or intentional hoax.Illusion of knowledgeThe proposition that more information leads to better decision-making is intuitively appealing. But the truth of the proposition depends on the relevancy of the information to the decision and on how well-equipped the decision maker is to use the information .The vast amount of on-line investment data available will enable investors to confirm their prior beliefs and may lead them to become positively charged in their ability to pick stocks and other securities. Faster feedback may focus investors attention on recent performance. Psychology shows that when people who initially disagree on a topic are given arguments on any side of the issue, they become advertize polarized in their beliefs. They are impressed by the arguments with which they already agree and they discount opposing views. Not only are people more impressed by arguments they favor, but they actively seek out confirming evidence. For this reason, investors are more likely to visit chatrooms or forum of like-minded investors. If controversies ensue, they are likely to be convinced by those with whom they already agree. Investors who believe that additional information makes them better investors are unlikely to seek out or attend to evidence that indicates otherwise. Thus, on-line investors are likely to become overconfident. They may believe that they have more ability to perform tasks such as stock-picking than they actually do. In theoretical models, overconfident individual investors trade more actively and more speculatively than they otherwise would, hold under diversified portfolios, have lower expected utilities, and contribute to increased market volatility. In an empirical study of investors at a large discount brokerage who switched from phone-based to personal computer-based trading by Barber and Od ean, they find that after going on-line, investors tend to trade both more actively and more speculatively.Illusion of controlThis illusion results when investors think that because they have access to so much information via the Internet that they have an advantage over the entire market and this can lead them to make bad investment decisions. These investors then have an overdraw sense of control over the outcomes of their investments. Frequent trading is another cost associated with online investing. Low transaction costs can encourage frequent trading and day-trade strategy according to Konana, Menon and Balasubramanian. As an example, in Singapore, 71.1 per cent of online investors say that they trade more frequently than they did prior to online trading (Teo, Tan, Peck, 2004). Researches show that most of the on-line traders adopt short term trading strategy a risky strategy rather than the believed buy and hold strategy. The Internet also seems likely to change what informa tion investors focus on, because it reduces the cost of some kinds of information more than others. For instance, the Internet especially facilitates comparisons of real time data, and thus has changed investors focus by emphasizing the importance of speed and immediacy. While the serious individual investor of a decade ago may have checked stock positions once a day in the morning paper, cursory investors now may check theirs several times an hour. Many more investors pay attention to short term-even intraday- return trends than ever before. Worse still, many firms communicate their ability to deliver real time data or to execute investors orders rapidly, making the situation even worse.Lack of personal adviceThe downside of investing online is the lack of personal advice from those in the financial field (Vakil Lu, 2005). According to Phelan (2001), the Web will never be able to substitute for the judgment and expertise of financial planners, nor will it be able to protect inve stors from all of the scams that are abundant on the Internet. In reality, the news and new information people found on the internet readiness not be as new as they think. Moreover, many online traders only focus on the here and now and do not look at the whole picture or at the future as financial advisors are trained to do, thus jeopardizing their investment.ChallengeOur research examines the pressures for change over the past decade that was overcoming the inertia in the brokerage industry. We viewed the challenge from the perspectives of traditional brokerage firm and electronic brokerage firm.Traditional brokerage firmTo provide online trading, traditional brokerage firms were forced to decide on which of the two approaches to go, either establishes new subsidiary with a new brand name or provide under its own name. For the first case, brokerage firm suffer from overlapped company structure and considerable marketing expenditure to build the new name, which prolonged the perio d to reach break even point. The later case, though easier to setup, brokerage firm is putting their reputation at stake when the service do not meet customers expectation.The strategy adopted was to have differentiated brands serve the younger, more tech-savvy investors that gravitated to on-line trading without nibbling full-commission business. With the advent of the World Wide Web, discount brokerage firms face a comparable disintermediation dilemma. Commissions were suddenly under pressure, customers wanted to trade directly, and competition is coming from non-traditional sources like direct banks. To address the competitive threat, some entrenched firms adopted the supermarket approach by providing other supplementary services like providing financial information and news. However, such approach was in fact a typical re-intermediation path that directly competed with full service brokerage firm which offered a wider portfolio of products and services. Nevertheless, creating a financial services supermarket was a misguided strategic choice for three reasons First, many successful mid-nineties businesses have re projected the virtues of adhering to their core competencies and the power of strategic outsourcing in order to gain agility. Most of the conglomerates which attempted to enter the financial services arena learned the enceinte way that adding unfamiliar lines of business can dilute their ability to compete, weaken shareholder and customer loyalty and multiply management complexity. The reason for failure was economic. pretend and cost sharing in the production or delivery process can enable better time to market and make providing a product/service bundle more efficient than integrating everything in-house. Second, offering additional products to an existing customer base does not prevent customers from leaving. Also, the decision to add new products to an existing portfolio is complicated by an uncertain environment such as the Internet. In an uncertain techno-marketplace, a firm is often making an informed act about what it thinks is best for a customer without fully knowing what that customers preferences and goals are. Third, technology-enabled firms like ETrade were taking the re- intermediation path in a new way by providing customers with interactive and personalized services at little or no cost. This branding and trust-building approach enables the service providers to learn directly and accurately from each customer whats actually important to him or her. Armed with this intimate customer knowledge, these companies are better positioned to build loyalty and increase profits for the long term. Clearly, re-intermediation was a difficult strategy as sustainable competitive advantage was becoming rare in the on-line environment. High performers today look for a series of short-run advantages over a long period of time instead of attempting to plot a far-sighted course in an environment with too many unpredictable variables. advanced(a) Internet-based intermediaries were the real threat to the entrenched players. These firms were adopting dramatically more effective means of forging interactive relationships with customers added value, which was essentially the incremental benefit that the new in the substance firm brings to the customer. They were looking to exploit synergism across different product lines. They innovated more frequently and organized to seize opportunities much faster than their competitors. The reason was concentrate focus on traditional sources of competitive advantage such as cost, technology, and differentiation was inadequate because competitors were quick to replicate advantages. They seek to identify and rapidly responded to cunning changes to the finest ingredient the individual customer. To sustain competitive advantage, it was important to embrace business practices that encourage deep customer insight and thinking about how to materially modify the custome rs value proposition.Electronic brokerage firmOnline brokers rushed to pour money to increase their capacity to absorb the fast growing demand during dot.com boom in 2000. The only way considered effective to increase market share at that time was advantageous offers and promotions, combined with enormous marketing expenses exposing them to a very high costs. The development of the online brokerage market was highly dominated by such marketing approach. Absence of physical branches and thus reduced operation cost authorize internet brokers the advantageous cost structure. Instead, they allocated this saving and invested on massive marketing campaign in order to achieve the biggest market share as soon as possible. By attracting and developing the loyalty of new customers, these brokerage firms were expecting soon to reach the break-even point.The bull market during the dot.com boom had dusted the eye of these online brokers. They failed to anticipated adverse situation when signifi cant downturn in capital investments occurred and stroke their over investment. The stock markets had proved its volatility in a year time, when the dot.com boom burst in 2001. The serious regression caused by global slump of economy and the later SAR outbreak during 2003 had made the situation even steeper for the industry. The depression lasted for a pair off of years before reaching a rising track started on 2007. Stock market transaction was drastically dropped from hundreds of billion down to tens of billions and last for years. Investors were either scared away or suffered from great lost by the sudden market plunge and prolonged recession. The once admirable capacity had turned into the biggest bear down for brokerage firm. Naturally, all of them suffered from great investment lost, if not bankrupted altogether.All the internet brokerage firms had paid a huge price for this costly experience. The lesson they learnt made them re-evaluated the challenges forrader and the goa ls to attain. They have learnt that low commission rates or excessive marketing expenses would not give them competitive advantages and made the break-even point harder to reach. Instead, they had to revise the services they offered and discover alternative source of revenue. Suffered from the great impact of market volatility, they were looking for a flexible enough business models that is able to cope with the huge capacity demand during a bull market while enable them to safely transit bearish market. We can classify the challenges facing online brokerage firms into three categories strategy, marketing and technology. strategical challengeThe characteristic of online brokerage had fundamentally changed the brokerage industry. New competitors like insurance companies, banks and financial portal had entered the arena. With the competitive advantage in possessing technology, a large customer bases and knowledge of their customers, they posted great threat to traditional brokerage pl ayer who want to participant in online brokerage. The large customer bases not only significantly reduced marketing cost but also helped to minimize development and operation cost due to economy of scale. Coupled with the open standard characteristics, traditional brokerage players had an up hill battle to fight.The value chain of the brokerage was invaded by these new competitors, forcing traditional p

Dramatic Tension in An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestly Essay -- Engli

How does J.B. hieratical create dramatic emphasis in An inspector Calls?In An Inspector Calls, dramatic, tension is created in many ways.First of all is Conflict. There is conflict within the familyinitially. This is mainly in the generations Mr birl isntparticularly proud of his son Eric and so he isnt as kind to him ashe is to other members of the family.Just keep quiet Eric.As you can see, he doesnt really respect him at all. This is what Mr.Birling says to Eric after Eric asks if it was because of Mr. Birlingfiring Eva that she committed suicide.Rubbish If you dont come down sharply on some of these people,theyd soon be asking for the earth.This is Mr. Birlings rejoinder after Eric tells him that he wouldnthave fired Eva. Eric is implying here that Mr. Birling wasover-reacting in throwing her out, and that he should have kept herworking there. After this, Eric once again brings the point up thatMr. Birling shouldnt have fired Eva. Eric says thisAnd I dont see why she should have been sacked just because shed abit more spirit than the others.This is how Mr. Birling replies to that comment(Rather angrily) Unless you brighten your ideas, youll never be in aposition to let any one and only(a) stay or to tell anybody to go. Its about timeyou learnt to face a few responsibilities.Mr. Birling saying this shows that he has no faith in his son and hefeels that he will not amount to any affaire. Mr. Birling prefers Geraldto his son. This is obvious as he is always flattering him and givinghim more respect than to Eric. This is probably another way to makeEric feel bad, to maybe get him motivated. This is the cast of thingMr. Birling says to EricIm treating ... ... to help with the baby.All of the sequences connect well and very neatly which helps to givethe play more tension because of what one person, the next thing canhappen, and because of what they did, the next thing can happen and soon. This makes the play more exciting and helps it flow better, whichs hows it is professional and well written.In conclusion to the question, J. B. Priestly creates tension throughConflict, Dramatic Irony, Interrogation Techniques, Relief, Creationof Doubt, chain of consequences and Mystery, and Shock. These methodsof creating tension are very effective and ultimately there is a lotof tension in the play. The play can get exciting in certain placesdue to the tension of what will happen next what effect will onething have on another? All in all, the play is Very well written andthe dramatic tension is excellent.

Kate Chopins novella, The Awakening Essay -- English Literature

Kate Chopins novella, The AwakeningIn Kate Chopins novella, The Awakening, the reader is introduced intoa society that is strictly male-dominated where women fill in thestereotypical role of watching the children, cooking, cleaning and tutelage up appearances. Writers often highlight the values of acertain society by introducing a character who is alienated from theirculture by a distinction such as gender, race or creed. In ChopinsAwakening, the reader meets Edna Pontellier, a married woman whoattempts to overcome her fate, to avoid the stereotypical role of awoman in her era, and in doing so she reveals the surroundingsocietys assumption and moral values about women of Ednas time.Edna helps to reveal the assumptions of her society. The peoplesurrounding her each day, particularly women, draw their roles ashousewives while the men are free to leave the house, go out atnight, gamble, drink and work. Edna surprises her associates when shetakes up painting, which represents a working job and independency forEdna. Leonce does not appreciate this. The reader sees how he assumeswhat she should be doing from this quote on page 57 Mr.Pontellierhad been a rather courteous husband so big as he met a certain tacitsubmissiveness in his wife. But her new and unexpected line of conductcompletely bewildered him. ... Then her exacting disregard for herduties as a wife angered him. Leonce says himself, It seems to methe utmost folly for a woman at the head of a household, and themother of children, to spend in an atelier meaning a studio forpainting days which would be better employed contriving for thecomfort of her family. This quote is rather symbolic as it uses theword emplo... ...men surrounding her relent to in life. Bydefying these laws Edna makes clear the morals that all the otherwomen value the satisfaction of their husband, the acceptance ofsociety, and the conformity to stereotypical roles of a woman.In The Awakening, Edna is used as a tool to emphasize the s urroundingsocietys assumptions of a woman and the morals that they value.Often, a character is set apart from their culture for this solepurpose, to stress a point the author wants to make. In this case,Chopin wants to show the reader how male dominated society has been,how quickly women succumb to their roles, and how easily people sessbe shape to consider a different and all too meaningless set ofmorals. Edna is strategically alienated in the novella so as thereader can discover societys assumptions and moral values of the eraand up until today.