Dissertation Introduction - Taobao vs eBay Essay

Dissertation Introduction - Taobao vs eBay - Essay Example In terms of outline, this chapter will then offer a Background and rationale for the study, which is based upon existing work in the area. Several studies have recently been made of the eBay and Taobao phenomena, and the results documented. These will be used as a springboard towards the contribution of this study. The Aims and Objectives section of the chapter will offer the overall objective of the study. The aim is to scrutinize the current situation of eBay in China, and how a comparison with the more successful Taobao can be used in order to improve its situation. This section will also clarify the concepts of e-Commerce and C2C e-Commerce. The e-Commerce business model that eBay is currently using in China will also be evaluated. A comparative analysis will be performed of eBay and Taobao. Initial recommendations will be formulated in order to optimize eBay’s Chinese market presence, while the objectives identified will be related to the achievement of the overall aim. T he methodological framework will be explained, while the chapter concludes with a brief outline of the dissertation structure. Despite a promising beginning, eBay has been experiencing a recent drop in growth in its Chinese market. Its main competitor in this market is the local company, Taobao. This study is then conducted in order to identify possible ways in which eBay can remedy its market position in China. Several important studies have been conducted to compare Taobao with companies such as eBay in order to identify the success factors of the former. One such study has been conducted by Chen et al. (2007). According to the outcome of this investigation, three main factors have differentiated Taobao from its American counterpart, and been responsible for the success of the former. The first factor is that China’s C2C (consumer to consumer) market is young and experience-seeking. The customers are price sensitive, in concomitance

Globalization in Egypt and India Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Globalization in Egypt and India - Essay Example With the invasion of foreigners in the 19th century, everything changed hands. Not only were local leaderships surrendered into the hands of Europeans, the Egyptian land was also taken (Khalid, 2009). During the colonial period, Egypt was transformed in that the education systems, farm-level irrigation projects, and economic growth were all improved. These were later left in the hands of Egyptians once they strove for independence that they attained (Mahmoud, 2009). India. Before globalization took place in India, the country was undeveloped. Technology was not much developed and business or commerce was relatively underdeveloped. In addition, people with skilled expertise were few. Internet and email facilities were altogether a dream but this was during that period when Indians used to be just one country and one culture. With time, Indians started experiencing foreign influence. Presently, India is culturally diversified. This has led into some of the impacts that come from differ ent cultures. Almost sixteen per cent of universal population lives in India with over 826 languages. The country is growing and it has 225 cities. Those who took part in the globalization of India include Aryans, Turks, Greeks, Afghans, Muslims, Europeans, Portuguese, Dutch, French, and the English. Aryans, Turks, Greeks, Afghans, and Muslims came with invading armies to colonize the country. Europeans, Portuguese, Dutch, French and the English came with less violent but powerful approaches. Regardless of the way these foreigners came to India, their coming was intentional because those who used arms in their coming had intentions of transforming the country either positively or negatively. The influence impacted in this country was both direct and indirect. It was direct because foreigners came to dwell there. Television is the most dominant way through which India has undergone globalization. This is because television was launched in the country in 1950s and became widespread in 1980s. This has impacted people there through programs that they watch. Because this process was taking place in the Indian cities, youths migrated from rural areas to urban areas in search of jobs created by these foreign cultures leaving the elderly to depend on their own. This is a negative impact of globalization in the country. Other negative impacts were moral decay as people intermingled with foreigners to learn their cultures; divorce rates became very high especially in cities, pregnancy cases with teenagers are very dominant with teenage abortions rising by 20 percent in every year. This is according to a report by the ministry of health in Indian government. Indian traditional dresses have been displaced by western dresses more especially in urban areas. This has been due to the influence of social media and other forms of print or electronic media. Child labor is increasing in the country with more than 115 million children working despite the Indian constitution prohib iting child labor. A significant number of children work in informal sectors. Suicides which are dowry related, sexual abuse, and prostitution have been on an increase due to the negative impacts of globalization brought about by influence from other culture coupled with changing societal trends. The positive impacts of globalization in India include the fact that women have been empowered through being incorporated into the

Long term sustainable approach to Forest Schools

Long term sustainable approach to Forest Schools The idea behind Forest Schools is that it is a long term sustainable approach to outdoor play and learning. Its about providing children with holistic development; it looks at every area in terms of their physical development, intellectual development and cognitive skills, also looking at their linguistic and language, both verbal and non-verbal. Forest Schools also looks at their emotional, social and spiritual development. Whats interesting about the culture in some Scandinavian countries is being in and outdoors are a part of how the family and culture works what? Sorry -I dont understand. But in Britain children are getting more and more isolated from the natural world. Forest Schools is very much about giving children the opportunity to learn in and from nature. Forest Schools is also about free play, its about self directed learning but its also about allowing the children to develop freedom and choice in order to be able to become competent and effective adults. In Every Chid Matters it states that every child should make an equal contribution. (Ref). The only way that children can do this is if they have sound self-esteem and sound emotional well-being and sound social skills and function in as many social situations as they choose. Forest Schools is about allowing children given their developmental dependant age the ability to be able to achieve social comfort. Forest Schools is an inspirational process that allows children to access outdoor space in order to grow and develop into successful, happy, rounded individuals. There is a misconception that Forest Schools is for Early Years; some of the most successful projects have been with older young people, adults with mental health problems and children in secondary education. (Ref). The ..?..about allowing children and young people to grow with a sense of value of who they are and giving a positive contribution. Its all about using nature as the teacher as opposed to being adult lead. LO5 Activity Plans and Evaluation. Plan (see appendix .), Rationale behind choice of activity and Learning Objective. This activity was chosen as the reception class were looking at the Handa Surprise book and focusing on healthy foods. The day the activity was carried out a new student was present with his mother which added extra pressure for all the professionals. The learning environment offered opportunities for the children to experience tasting different fruits as the kitchen area was adjacent to the table in which the activity was carried out. The setting also had a large copy of the story so all the children were able to see the story (for Communication, Language and Literacy) and had all of the elements needed to create the masks (Creative Development). I thought the topic would lend itself to the next days topic of healthy lunchboxes, which the whole school were focusing on. I chose to focus on any existing knowledge the children may have of different fruits and try and extend their understanding of why fruits are good for us. This leads into Early Learning Goal () of ..'(QCA, 2000). My main learning objective, therefore, was to introduce the children to new fruits and tastes, using language and listening to each other to find out what each child thought, in an accessible and enjoyable environment, so as to encourage respect for each others views and turn taking. What happened? The week before carrying out the activity, I prepared the resources needed in school and discussed the other activities that my fellow practitioners would carry out. This involved printing, cutting and laminating the necessary pictures and masks. Also finding all the different fruits that were in the story. I was unable to find one fruit in particular so I improvised with a fruit drink that was made from the fruit so at least the children were able to taste the favour. I carried out this activity with a mixed ability group of 9 children. I began by asking the children to wash their hands as they were going to be eating fruit. When all the children were back in their seats, I gave each of them a bowl and a cup. I asked the children if they could remember the fruits in the story of Hands Surprise which was read earlier. The children seemed to have a positive attitude about being able to remember. With a small copy of the book I asked the children which was the first fruit that the monkey took out of Handas basket. I then cut the banana in pieces and gave each child a piece and asked questions such as what does the banana taste like? How does it feel? Do you like the banana? The children gave mostly good descriptions of the fruit and used appropriate vocabulary such as creamy, slippery and lovely. I carried out the same routine of cutting the fruit into sections and passing a section to each child and asking them to describe what it tasted like and ho w it felt and whether they enjoyed it. With the Guava fruit (which was the fruit I could not purchase) I informed the children of the situation and showed them the picture of the fruit on the carton of juice. I gave each child a taste and asked their opinion, the overall opinion was that the fruit tasted delicious but one child said that they didnt like it. The most interesting discussion came when i asked the children what they thought the passion fruit would look like inside, one child said that it might look like an orange, the same child that said the banana was creamy (extension). Overall most of the children enjoyed the fruit tasting apart from one (standard) child who kept giving negative reactions to the fruit saying that he doesnt eat fruit at home. I was happy that at least he had tried some. While the fruit was being eaten I passed around picture cards of the fruit and asked each child in turn to pronounce the name of the fruit after me, most children had no problems with the pronunciations but one child struggled with avocado. I encouraged each child to have a little taste of each fruit and if they didnt like it then they didnt have to eat it and well done for trying was always encouraged. The extension child suggested that trying different fruits was good for us, as fruit was good for us. Which then led a child that was refusing to try a certain fruit to try it. At one point the dismissive child asked if we were finished and could he go and play. Once all the children had tried all the fruit and we had discussed them and I asked the final question which was everyones favourite and their least favourite, the overall result being orange best, avocado worst. I then told the children that they could go put their bowls in the sinks and wash their hands and go and play. Evaluation. I believe this activity resulted in all the children achieving the main learning objective of introducing the children to new fruits and tastes, using language and listening to each other to find out what each child thought and to encourage respect for each others views and turn taking. The idea that the childrens peer could influence the decision of another child .. An effective learning environment does not leave children entirely to their own devices, but builds on what they can already do and challenges them to try new things. The role of the practitioner is vital in this process and sits within the social constructivist approach to learning. This theory was popularised by Vygotsky (1978, in Smith, 1999), who identified the zone of proximal development, (ZPD) as being a reason why childrens learning can be helped by others. Smith (1999) explained: The ZPD is the distance between the childs developmental level and his or her potential level of development under the guidance of adults or more competent peers (Smith, 1999: 429). As this was a hands on activity, the children were taking an active part in their own learning progress. It was Piaget (1966, in Smith, 1999) who first postulated that the child is a lone scientist, processing information and constructing meaning through encounters with their world. Most of the children focused their attention on the fruits they enjoyed using positive language and engaging in using words to describe what something tasted like or felt. One child tried to extend the activity to see what the fruit sounded like when bounced on the table saying the orange sounded like a ball, this then encouraged the children to continue testing the sounds of fruit by knocking on them. The (extension) child asked if there was nothing in the fruit would it sound the same? The relative success of this activity highlighted that children of this age learn best through concrete experiences. When working with children of this age group it is preferable to adopt teaching strategies which allow for plenty of practical activities and exploration. The fact that one child lost interest in the activity, implies that I might need to develop this activity in some way to keep the attention of the less able or enthusiastic children. This was particularly noticeable when asking some children to use descriptive words to describe the fruit, as some children just repeated the word that their peer before them used. The language of one child was not as developed as the other children in the group, and this excluded them from full participation. On reflection, a different teaching strategy could have been employed to involve them more fully into the activity. It could be that they were more of a kinaesthetic do you know what this means?learner than the others, as he kept looking at the children playing, so maybe using an activity that involved movement may have kept his attention. Also the activity was extended longer than anticipated as I had to cut each individual fruit into segments. If this activity was done again in the future maybe cutting the fruit into segments before the activity took place would be a more successful approach. As a result of this evaluation, I would have changed my plan to include more opportunities for the children to be involved in the activity in a more physical way, perhaps by using safety acceptable knives the children could help me cut the fruit. This may help some of the children with their fine motor skills as well. Also another way of engaging less able children might include asking them to participate in the preparation of the resources by asking them to bring their favourite fruit from the story in so they feel they have a more personal involvement. Finally, the only thing I would change would be to ask the children to put on aprons, as it got very messy, including me, as I too got very messy. Conclusion In conclusion, recently there has begun to be a realization in the UK that play is important. There has been a surge of initiatives funded by government, such as Arts Council projects on creativity in schools and communities. The publication of Excellence and Enjoyment by the National Primary Strategy (DfES, 2003) puts a major emphasis on the importance of embedding the Foundation Stage and the Birth to Three Matters Framework in the work of local authorities across the maintained, voluntary and private sectors. Increasingly, research findings indicate the importance of the first years of education. Childrens ability to use spoken and written language fluently and with confidence and for a range of purposes enables them to access at an early age what education has to offer. The adults working in early years settings and classrooms have both the opportunity and responsibility to affect the future learning of their pupils in a far reaching and powerful way. Play is, it seems, about the universe and everything. It often has to function in a hostile environment, but when it is encouraged, supported and extended, it makes a major contribution to, and sophisticated impact on the development of individuals and humanity as a whole.

Present Provoking Past :: Free Essay Writer

Present Provoking Past â€Å"Analyze a characters’ response to the past as a source of meaning in a work† â€Å" . . . the past, no matter what it was like, never becomes a matter of indifference to the present.† In One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Alexander Solzhenitsyn portrays one normal day in the life of Shukhov (Ivan Denisovich), a Russian peasant unfairly confined in one of Stalin’s forced labor camps for political prisoners. Throughout the novel, Solzhenitsyn depicts how Shukhov has adapted to his surroundings and has been able to survive with a dignity other prisoners have lost throughout their confinement. It is exactly the way Shukhov has been able to live and survive in prison, that reveals how he has responded to his past, even when all the author reveals to the reader is the characters’ immediate present. Shukhov responded to his past by clinging to aspects of his â€Å"previous life† which allowed him to maintain his humanity, and thus survive, and by letting go of those which didn’t. Many critics argue that imprisonment robs individuals of their humanity for, in order to survive, they grow accustomed to their harsh life and loose basic human responses. Solzhenitsyn however, proves through Shukhov, that even within confinement, where prisoners are robbed of every kind of possession, freedom and humanity can still exist within. What aspects then, does Shukhov hold on to, and which ones does he let go of in order to survive? First of all, it is very important to clarify that survival in the novel is very relative. Surviving for some of the prisoners is merely enduring life, no matter the cost, such as for Fetiukov who stoops even to collecting other prisoners’ left over cigarette buds, even though he puts himself in danger of catching a syphilitic lip. For Shukhov however, surviving goes far beyond making it alive. Shukhov shares Kuziomin’s same belief that those who lick other men's leftovers, those who count on the doctors to pull them through, and those who squeal on their buddies don’t make it, for it’s at the expense of not just other people’s blood, but at the expense of loss of self-value, of self-worth. Thus, for Shukhov, surviving is going on living, while maintaining his freedom and humanity, even in an environment which has total control over him. As consequence, the most important thing that Shukhov holds on to is his intrinsic code of values and morals.

Handel’s Opera

George Friderick Handel (1685-1759) writes all of his opera for over 35 years. Almost within his lifetime though his operas were considered to be almost obsolete with regards to format yet were of the finest kind. Due to format Handel's opera were the most neglected in all of his works until recently. As with most of the musical artist of his time, Handel's opera were modeled on both German and Italian style, with some modifications to suit his artistic taste and that of the English for which they were produced (Sadie, 1992, 614). In the span of his career, Handel composed more than forty operas. True to the nature of Baroque music, most of these operas show elements of the use of dance rhythms and elaborate melodic lines. Although born a German, Handel's opera was influenced by the conventions of the Italian opera seria, became its most important composer with Fench grandeur. Perhaps Handel's greatest contribution to the field of opera was his ability to convey emotions with sincerity and clarity through melody, so that he often used the opera seria convention of the da capo aria with dramatic and surprising effect (Sadie, 1992, 614). Handel's first opera was Almira composed in 1705. His fascination with Italians trends showed through his motto arias and obbligato accompaniment in concerto style. In this work however, Handel also showed the influence of his German training as seen by his tendency to repeat rhythmic patterns and relatively infrequent use of highly melismatic melodies. Handel had tried to replace the disorganized plots of much serious middle Baroque opera, with a new type which was strictly organized and formally predictable. Each scene was constructed mostly by a series of alternating recitatives and arias (usually da capo arias) after which the main characters would exit. His opera entitled Agrippina (1709) shown in Venice catapulted Handel to fame. This work shows an extensive borrowings from an earlier (lost) opera, Rodrigo, as well as his earlier cantatas. His success in opera occurred at a time when opera was forbidden in Rome (O'Grady, 1998). Handle's major Operas were Ottone (1723), Giulio Cesare (1724), Tamerlano (1724), Rinaldo (rev. 1731).

Factors Influencing Customer Loyalty Essay

The financial services and banking facilities industry has seen a growing intensity of competition within the market place over the last decade. A bank is a financial intermediary that accepts deposits and channels those deposits into lending activities, either directly or through capital markets. A bank connects customers with capital deficits to customers with capital surpluses. Banking is generally a highly regulated industry, and government restrictions on financial activities by banks have varied over time and location. Today, CIMB serves close to seven million customers in over 600 locations through over 36,000 staff. Nowadays, financial services and banking facilities has force to pass by intense competition by other bank that growth from inside also outside this country because of the regulation for financial institution to establish was deregulation by government, and causing the adding in growth of the bank in Malaysia. Thus, people also have various banks to choose and directly give the big impact to manager of bank to search the way to enhance the loyalty of current customer from switching to other bank. They are many strategies that have been attempted by managers of the banks to retain customers in order to increase customer loyalty. It is costly than to attract new customer compared to retain the current customers. Thus, many banks have introduced innovative products and services (Alam and Khokhar, 2006) in order to retain current customers. Another strategy is to understand the factors influencing customer loyalty. Figure 1: Graph profit of Agrobank Seri Iskandar branch in April 2009 until April 2010 1. 2. Background of the organization Agrobank is an institution which provides holistic financial services and banking facilities. It give their utmost priority to the needs of their customers by providing attractive products and services such as savings activities, banking services, loan facilities, insurance coverage and advisory services. Agrobank is a Government-linked-Company (GLC) under the Minister of Finance Incorporated (MFI). The bank’s financing of the agricultural sector is driven by a policy set forth by the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries. Agrobank is a continuity of the former Bank Pertanian Malaysia which has 40 years of experience in agricultural banking and an excellent track record in shaping and developing successful entrepreneurs. With a wide network of branches throughout Malaysia, they are confident of providing the best services to all. The rebranding of Bank Pertanian Malaysia to Agro Bank was done on 8 April 2008. The move is taken as an initiative to make the bank more competitive by fostering a fresher outlook, and enable it to provide a broader range of services to the market and cater the whole segment of the agriculture industry. An external consultant was deployed to carry out the public relation (PR) and rebranding exercise for Agrobank, penetrate the market and create awareness among the public. The solutions include Agrobanking, Business Banking, and Personal Banking. 1. 3. 1 Agrobanking Loan facility / financing offered under Agrobanking are open to agropreneurs clients carry out primary agricultural activities such as fisheries, forestry, livestock and any other related agro-based industry. Financing utilizing fund from the government and related agencies which is offered at a very competitive and special rate to help stimulate economic growth. This includes; i. Fund for Food (3F loan) ii. Skim Kredit Pengeluaran Makanan (SKPM) iii. Skim Kredit Padi (SKP) iv. The researcher was interested in predicting what the factors influencing customer loyalty toward AgroBank Seri Iskandar. Variables such as satisfaction, switching cost, trust and commitment might all contribute towards customer loyalty. When using multiple regressions in psychology, researchers use the term â€Å"independent variables† to identify those variables that they think will influence some other â€Å"dependent variable†. Thus, in as an example above, satisfaction, switching cost, trust and commitment would emerge as significant predictor variables, which allow researcher to estimate the criterion variable. As have pointed out before, human behavior is inherently noisy and therefore it is not possible to produce totally accurate predictions, but multiple regressions allows researcher to identify a set of predictor variables which together provide a useful estimate of a participant’s likely score on a criterion variable. Multiple regression analysis is done to examine the simultaneous effect of several independent variables on dependent variables. Multiple regression analysis can be used in order to determine whether the independent variables explain a significant variation in the dependent variable which is whether a relationship exists.