...Article Analysis ECO/365 12 October, 2012 Mr. Jeff Leeson In economics, consumption trends provide us with evidence to the relationship between supply and demand. These trends are examined to determine spending habits and patterns of the consumer. All goods and/or services with goods being defined as “all things that are moveable at the time of identification to a contract for sale” (U.C.C. Article 2-Sales ND) expended by the consumer are dictated by supply and demand. This essay will analyze the consumption patterns of natural gas as it relates to the supply and demand of said good. Natural gas consumption for generating power is increasing and consumption of natural gas for electric power has surpassed natural gas consumption “in the industrial sector since early 2009. The power sector added a significant amount of new natural gas fired generating capacity over the last decade, much of which was in the form of efficient combined-cycle units” (EIA.GOV, 2012, p.1). In years past, while coal-fired generation was inexpensive, the natural gas-fired combined-cycle units were utilized at somewhat lower rates. In the industrial sector, natural gas use rose in 2010 and 2011, reversing a trend of declining use that lasted from “the mid-1990s to 2009. Natural gas is used in the industrial sector and manufacturing sub-sector for process heating, steam generation, onsite electricity generation, space heating, and petrochemical...
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...Letia Mangum-Patterson, Current Market Conditions Competitive Analysis: Starbucks ECO/365 Ed Hartman February 24, 2014 Abstract Economics as we know it today was born to a premise of thought. From the idea of how individuals could express their freedoms to sell or produce goods was the founded basis for which the world of economics evolved. “Economics is the science that concerns itself with economies, from how societies produce goods and services, to how they consume them. It has influenced world finance at many important junctions throughout history and is a vital part of our everyday lives.” (Beattie, 2011, para. 1). Introduction Economics as we know it today was born to a premise of thought. From the idea of how individuals could express their freedoms to sell or produce goods was the founded basis for which the world of economics evolved. “Economics is the science that concerns itself with economies, from how societies produce goods and services, to how they consume them. It has influenced world finance at many important junctions throughout history and is a vital part of our everyday lives.” (Beattie, 2011, para. 1). The United States of America sets the bar for what other countries strive to replicate and the reason why many from around the world seek to live in the land of the free market dream. According to Colander, (2010), “the powerful U.S. economy generates a high standard of living and sense of economic wellbeing (compared to most other...
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...Generation’s Market Conditions This analysis focuses on market conditions for the smart phone device, the “Generation,” set to be released by the team’s company, “Centurion Mobile,” this fall. This new device is similar to Apple’s iPhone. As a result, some of this analysis focuses on the competition of Samsung on Apple. This analysis will also provide a description Samsung that will be Centurion Mobile’s main competitor. It will also focus on issues that Apple has had in the marketplace because these issues may pertain to problems that Centurion will face in implementing the Generation (University of Phoenix, 2011). Competition Samsung is a global leader for electronic devices. However, unlike most others the company did not start dealing with electronics, but with groceries and from 1958 started expanding to other industrial sectors such as media, chemicals, and shipbuilding until the 1970s. Samsung began dealing electronics in 1969 when it established the products Samsung is known for like mobile phones, computer devices, and other electronics. In the 1990s, the company began to establish factories in other parts of the world like The United States of America, Germany, Thailand, Mexico, and China. Toward the end of the 20th century Samsung developed smart phones and phones combined with MP3 (Rowley, 1998, p. 108-110). Today the company focuses to the 4G industry in which it has made steady growth. The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 may provide the most competition...
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...| | |Management and Leadership of General Motors | | | |Team M | |St. Petersburg College | |4/30/2012 | | | This paper researches the management and leadership of General Motors Corporation (GM). GM has stood on top of the car making industry for several decades only to find itself bankrupt in 2008 and borrowing money from the United States government to stay alive. At one point the government owned two thirds of the mega car maker and GM found itself in the worst position ever in the company’s storied history. However, GM has turned a major corner in the last couple of years. They...
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...of spa and wellness and exploring brave, new directions. It is gratifying to see a healthy dose of healthy travel in several of the trends; bold new ideas in mainstays like aromatherapy and hot springs take hold; and the development of new models for classic destination spas. It is also rewarding to watch trends in technology, beauty and fitness shape how we will live (and look)—and even take note of how the industry will help people address dying, illness and major life changes. And finally, there is a trend we forecasted in 2013 that continues to capture our imagination: mindfulness. We feel strongly that it is important to watch how this is evolving, and you’ll see a short synopsis of this “über trend” in the report. Spafinder Wellness 365™’s Trends Forecast reports on what is happening in our industry, but we also strive to present a true forecast of what lies ahead. Some ideas are still on the horizon, but we think you’ll see much more about them in the not-too-distant future! I’d like to thank Spafinder Wellness, Inc.®’s new Chief Brand Officer Mia Kyricos, who has joined our trend-tracking team, as well as thank our research and editorial teams, led by Beth McGroarty, for their many contributions in making this report so robust. Together, we remain passionate about the spa and...
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...The Negative and Positive Ecological Impacts of Technology Introduction In today's society more people are working longer hours and utilizing more technology in their everyday life. As a result of these longer hours and increased use of technology, more energy is being consumed. (Hayden and Shandra 575) The impact that this is having on the environment is substantial in both negative and positive ways. It is hard to deny the benefits modern technology has produced for the world, in industry and in everyday life. With more and more technological breakthroughs, there have been many positive ecological impacts. However, it is also hard to deny that there are considerable negative impacts as well. Supporters of a work reduction scheme maintain that the reduction in hours will have a positive effect on the environment and the raw materials that are used on a daily basis. (Hayden and Shandra 576) Though the argument that a reduction in hours will result in a better quality of life is largely agreed upon, the theory that a reduction in hours will reduce the negative impacts on the environment is still one of contention as there is no concrete evidence to back it up. (Hayden and Shandra 576) To counter this theory, there are those who argue that a reduction in hours will not result in a redution in damage to the environment. Each year, technology is making advances in producing low energy products that will reduce the damage to the environment. It is argued that with these advances...
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...Market Trends Paper ECO 365 University of Phoenix Name Date Instructor Introduction When one dreams of opening a successful business, they hope to create one that is profitable, yet fair in the market place in which they compete. Every businessperson wants his or her company to be the best and wants to create an empire that surpasses all expectations. Unfortunately, they eliminate all competitors seeking their own success. One such company is the mega-retailer, Wal-Mart. Market Structure The monopolistic structure of Wal-Mart will have a negative impact in the future. Wal-Mart is the nation’s largest civilian employer, but their aggressive overtaking of their competitors and their sales may hinder their retail business. According to the Food & Water Journal (2000), Wal-Mart is being considered a monopolistic beast. The German government has been watching Wal-Mart closely since the corporation came crashing into the German economy two years ago by buying up two of its larger supermarket chains. The German government launched an investigation and found that Wal-Mart knew supermarket chains were illegally selling below their wholesale costs, with the goal being, to bleed their opponents dry and then revel without competition from there on out. Although, Wal-Mart enjoys continued success, some governments are questioning their marketing tactics. Wal-Mart’s disregard of the benefits to the consumer seems to be marginal and temporary and the damage...
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...Class: There are three sources of readings: your textbook, the articles within the folders under Course Content link, and my little lectures associated with each conference. You must use the textbook and the Course Content readings with dependence on the text first, and the articles second. Every discussion requires that you demonstrate your reading of assigned material, so please attend to them. The lectures are designed to expand your understanding of the policy problem for the week and I embed them as a part of the discussion. You do not need to address my postings, but if they stimulate ideas, please do. Please note reference format for Stenzel in each conference below, and the other readings. Except for Chapter 1, he is the editor, not the author of the chapter. He does not claim authorship of Chapter 1 but you may cite him. I have written each of the references in the proper APA format. Do not reinvent the wheel. Use my references when you prepare references for your conferences. Yes, all academic writing follows APA, including the conferences. My reasoning? Practice makes perfect. Periodically APA changes its style manual. And periodically I check it. If you see something, let me know. Please note that during the first week of class we introduce ourselves and read my lecture on academic integrity. I will say that most students have no issues with academic writing, and I do use the class as an opportunity for students to work on their writing skills, if needed. Conference...
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...LE HANG LUU NATIONAL UNIVERSITY GLOBAL BUSINESS & STRATEGIC PLANNING IBU 653 PROFESSOR: GREG KAHN TABLE OF CONTENTS Marriott’s Best Known Philosophy 3 History of Marriott 3 History of Marriott Innovation 4-10 Current Marriott Vision 11 New Vision 12 Current SWOT Analysis 13 Plan Of Action 14-15 Disciplines 15 Country Risk Analysis 16-21 Contingency Plans 21-22 Measurements of Success 23-24 Conclusion 25 References 26 Marriott’s Best Known Philosophy Marriott International has been known not only its brands but also its “Spirit of Serve” and a core value shared by 132,000 Marriott associates worldwide. Marriott has been considered as the Best Company to Work for by CNN Money & Fortune. The question is what makes Marriott so great? “When business slowed last year and some associates couldn’t get enough hours to qualify for insurance, leaders changed the policy.” (CNN Money, 2011) Getting deeper into Marriott Company background, all the information below will be credited to Marriott Company Profile and Reference for Business websites. History of Marriott International, Inc Marriott International, Inc.--formed in 1993 when Marriott Corporation split into two separate companies--is the world's leading lodging and contract services company. Marriott International has two operating groups: Marriott Lodging, which generates about 60 percent of company revenue, and the Marriott Service...
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...ABDUL HANNAN CHOWDHURY, Ph.D. Professor and Dean, School of Business North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh E-mail: hannan@northsouth.edu Phone: 8852000, Ext.1717 (O), Cell: 01713063097 Permanent Address: Mailing Address: House # 35, Road # 24, Suite # 504 House # 3, Road #78, Apt # 403, Gulshan 2, Dhaka, Bangladesh Gulshan 2, Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh EDUCATION: Post Doctoral Industrial Statistics, (Concentration: Quality Improvement) September 2002 University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Research: Modeling censored data for quality improvement from replicated design of experiments. Ph.D. Industrial Engineering, (Area: Production Management and Applied Statistics.) September 1999 Northeastern University, Boston, USA. Thesis: Analysis of censored life test data and robust design method for reliability improvement from highly fractionated experiments. M.S. Operations Research, (Area: Decision Science and Operations Research) June 1996 Northeastern University, Boston, USA. M.Sc. Statistics, First Class, 4th Position December 1987 Department of Statistics, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. B.Sc. (Hons.) Statistics, First Class, 6th Position, (Minor: Mathematics, Economics), July 1986 Department of Statistics, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. EMPLOYMENT: April 2008- present Professor, School of Business, North South University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Teaching business statistics...
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...Competitive Strategies and Government Policies ECO/365 Principles of Microeconomics October 28, 2013 Feedback from Instructor (Published: Sat 11/02/2013 07:04 PM MST) Earned Points: 9.6/10 Comments: Week 5: Team Paper Assignment Grading Rubric =========================================================== CONTENT 70% Address the following topics: (1) New companies entering the market, mergers, and globalization, on pricing and the sustainability of profits: Identify the type of merger activity in your industry or one with which you are familiarhorizontal, vertical, or conglomerateand explain why you made that choice.: Content Grade / Comments: Good, meets expectations. Good amount of detail about auto industry globalization and competition. (2) Current and expected government policies and regulations, including taxes and regulations in place to address issues related to externalities Content Grade / Comments: Mostly good. You could have gone into more detail about the incentives created and the (unintended) consequences of regulations and how this impacts decisions made by the firm. (3) Global competition on the decisions made by management with regards to change in labor demand, supply, relations, unions, and rules and regulations in your chosen industry Content Grade / Comments: Good, but this section seems more hypothetical and less applied. You should have given more details related to banking, but overall good points. (4) Recommend how the industry you chose may respond...
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...Oriental Journal of Chemistry Vol. 26(4), 1353-1360 (2010) The potential of seaweed liquid fertilizer on the growth and antioxidant enhancement of Helianthus annuus L. N. AKILA and T. JEYADOSS* Department of Chemistry and Biosciences, Srinivasa Ramanujan Centre, SASTRA University, Kumbakonam - 612 001 (India). (Received: September 03, 2010; Accepted: October 11, 2010) ABSTRACT A field experiment was carried out during the chithiraipattam (April-May) in India in 2010 to study the effects of foliar applications of different concentrations of seaweed liquid fertilizer (SLF) of Sargassum wightii on growth, biochemical constituents and antioxidant enzymes of Helianthus annuus L. to explore the possibilities of reducing or avoiding chemical fertilizers and to obtain the highest growth and productive parameters. The foliar spray was given twice in 15days interval at two concentrations (2.5%, 5.0%) of SLF. The aqueous extract of Sargassum wightii was found to promote almost all the parameters such as shoot length, root length, leaf length, leaf breadth, fresh weight, dry weight and number of leaves. The biochemical contents such as chlorophyll a, b, total chlorophyll, carotenoids, carbohydrate, total phenols and antioxidant enzymes such as catalase, peroxidase and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) were also found to be higher in the leaves. Among the two concentrations 2.5% was found to produce better results in almost all the parameters. The results revealed that foliar application...
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...Competitive Strategies and Government Policies Habib Hogue ECO/365 October 9, 2014 Ronald Merchant Competitive Strategies and Government Policies According to U.S. Consumer Electronics Sales and Forecasts 2010-2015, the industry report by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), revenues in the consumer electronics industry is projected to increase by 2 percent in 2014. Such growth translates to $211.3 billion of revenue—the highest recorded total revenue for the industry (Consumer Electronics Association [CEA], 2014a). Mobile connected devices remain the top revenue drivers of the industry; particularly, smartphones and tablets represent 35.1 percent of the industry’s total revenue in 2014 (CEA, 2014a). Nevertheless, even with the industry’s revenue reaching all-time highs, the consumer electronics industry is experiencing slow growth. Compared to 2011’s industry growth of 7.7 percent, the industry growth in 2012 and 2013 are only 4.4 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively (CEA, 2014b). Furthermore, the 2014’s estimated growth is at 2 percent, and 2015’s projected growth is at 1.2 percent. Many factors have led to the flat growth such as the increased competition brought by new companies entering the market, mergers, and globalization, as well as government policies and global competition. Shawn DuBravac, chief economist and senior director of research of CEA, blamed the continued decline of average selling prices for the flat growth of the consumer electronics industry...
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...Executive Summary As reported in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal year ended September, 27, 2015, Whole Foods Markets, Inc. continues to be the leading natural and organic foods supermarket (and the 5th largest public food retailer and 10th largest food retailer based on industry 2014 sales rankings), currently operating 431 stores in 42 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, 10 in Canada and 9 in the United Kingdom. In this case study, “ WFM” or the “Company” will refer to the parent company and the name “Whole Foods” will refer to its stores and grocery business generally. What started as a single small natural foods store called SaferWay in Austin, Texas in 1978 led to the opening of the original Whole Foods Market in 1980, followed by a combination of building new stores and acquiring existing ones. WFM went public in 1992 and not only continued to increase the number and size of Whole Foods stores, but also raised industry standards for the production and distribution of natural foods as well as promoting respectful and sustainable farming and business practices. Additionally, WFM is regularly recognized as one of most desirable employers, with human resources and management practices that allow for more regional discretion and local involvement plus genuine employee input, enhanced employee education and development, and relatively higher compensation within the industry. Founder and CEO John Mackey strives to balance his health- and environment-oriented...
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...Sustainable Development Sust. Dev. 18, 20–31 (2010) Published online 10 March 2009 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/sd.394 Sustainable Consumption: Green Consumer Behaviour when Purchasing Products William Young1*, Kumju Hwang2, Seonaidh McDonald3 and Caroline J. Oates4 1 Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, UK 2 Department of Business Administration, College of Business Administration, Chonnam National University, South Korea 3 Aberdeen Business School, Robert Gordon University, UK 4 Management School, University of Sheffield, UK ABSTRACT The ‘attitude–behaviour gap’ or ‘values–action gap’ is where 30% of consumers report that they are very concerned about environmental issues but they are struggling to translate this into purchases. For example, the market share for ethical foods remains at 5 per cent of sales. This paper investigates the purchasing process for green consumers in relation to consumer technology products in the UK. Data were collected from 81 self-declared green consumers through in depth interviews on recent purchases of technology products. A green consumer purchasing model and success criteria for closing the gap between green consumers’ values and their behaviour are developed. The paper concludes that incentives and single issue labels (like the current energy rating label) would help consumers concentrate their limited efforts. More fundamentally, ‘being green’...
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