Saturday, August 31, 2019

Deaf Articles Essay

3. â€Å"Why Can’t Deaf Experts Hear Us?† a. What are the present Deaf issues? Some of the Deaf issues mentioned in the article are that that â€Å"Deaf experts† don’t like the thought of Deaf children learning to sign without voicing. They think that each Deaf child should be learning Total Communication, but there is no evidence showing that Total Communication is the best way to educate Deaf kids. Another issue is that the people at Gallaudet feel as if they are having to educate the educators about the need of American Sign Language in Deaf schools. Deaf people feel as if their culture is being attacked and is being weakened. The last main problem is that the so called â€Å"Deaf experts† study special education but none of them have any personal experience with Deaf people. These experts endorsing the programs don’t listen to the opinions of Deaf people, they only demand research and quote hearing people with Ph.D.’s. b. From the article, list three important facts you learned from the writer. I learned that the writer of this article is Deaf. I know this because at the beginning of the article he states, â€Å"Some days I wonder if my Deafness is contagious. I keep writing and signing the same things over and over again.† Another fact is that he has personal experience of trying to explain to educators the need for American Sign Language in the schools. When he talks about educating the educators, he explains that the powers just keep looking the other way. The last fact is that Jack Levesque feels as if the Deaf culture is being sort of taken away from them and is dying out. Why did you pick these facts? I picked the first fact because by knowing that the writer is Deaf it helps you better understand the emotion and personal feeling behind each word. I picked the fact that he has tried to explain that they need ASL in schools because that is what he is writing about, the use of ASL not English to educate the Deaf. He has personal frustrations with no ASL in schools; he is not simply relaying the message for other Deaf people. I chose the last fact because in reality, if you are forcing a different language than a native language on someone, you are stripping their culture away from them by not allowing them to just be themselves. This is a good point that he brings up and it saddens me that someone would even want to do that to another human. c. What are some observations or comments you have about the article? I wish that all of the Ph.D. experts in special education could just meet or talk to a few Deaf people and really get to know them. I think by doing this, they would realize how important Deaf culture and Sign Language really are to a Deaf person. I think this would change all the hearing people’s minds about forcing English onto Deaf people. It just isn’t natural for them. d. What do you think of Bonnies Bass’s article? I think that the point that she brings up makes a lot of sense. Americans just assume that Sign Language is just like English, but it is not. The grammar is completely different and the syntax is completely different. It is sad that Deaf children are not pushed to learn American Sign Language right away when they find out they are Deaf. It doesn’t make sense for kids to be tested on English when their native language should be Sign Language. That is like taking an English speaking student and putting a Spanish test in front of them and expecting them to get high scores. This article makes a lot of sense and I wish that more hearing people would read it so they could better understand that the two languages are different.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Beowulf Essay

In the epic poem â€Å"Beowulf†, the poet presents both the elements courage and cowardice. These elements are very important and show up continuously throughout the poem. Although the poem is mainly about heroic battles, there are also many cowardly acts among the villagers. The poet significantly develops courage throughout the poem. It is shown when Beowulf challenges Grendel to a battle and ends up defeating him. It is stated that Beowulf fought without any armor and still won. Once done with the fight, he is faced with another battle which is Grendel’s mother. After a tough and long fight, Beowulf ends up winning as well. The brave and courageous thing about Beowulf is that he is willing to do anything and fight for his people, he gives it all his strength to save his village. For example, the challenge with Grendel started because he was terrorizing the Danes. Another example of courage in the poem is when Beowulf fights the dragon, it is clear that this is one of his toughest battles but he cares for his people and puts himself in danger. Beowulf accomplishes a lot for the survival of the Danes and the Geats. On the other hand, cowardice is also shown in the poem through Unferth. Unferth does not want to live under the â€Å"courageous† culture that is so popular in many men anymore. By this, he is letting so much happen to his kingdom and doesn’t care. The most coward thing that Unferth does is give away his sword, it was known back then that a virtuous warrior never parted from his sword. Just like Beowulf is very brave, he has his bad moment as well, he doesn’t want to admit that his time has come and that he is too old to fight the dragon. But the people in Geats show cowardice by not helping their king on his battle. Instead, they hide and just watch not even helping their king who has done so much for them. In conclusion, the epic poem â€Å"Beowulf† may have many brave people but it also shows how some throw away their position as king or do not want to fight for their people anymore, as well as the inconsiderate villagers. Both courage and cowardice are very well portrayed in the poem.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

KINGDOM PLANTAE

Non-Flowering Mosses (Bryophyte) Ferns (Pterodactyl) Gymnosperms 2. Flowering Angiosperms Monocotyledon Dicotyledonous Vascular tissues and the seeds play a vital role in transporting substances (water, minerals, and sugars) throughout the plant. Seeds are structures, which contains an embryo that helps In storing food. Phylum Bryophyte (Mosses) Referred to as Bryophytes Simplest plants; simple stems and leaves No true roots; very small in structureNon- vascular land plant; do not contain any conducting tissues Have rhizomes for anchorage Spores from capsules (wind-dispersal) Mainly growing on damp terrestrial land, on other plants, and on rocks Reproduction process is carried in their spores. (seedless) Play a vital role in soil erosion Ex: Mosses, Liverworts, and Hornwort Phylum Patriarchate (Ferns) Parts 1. Frond CLC a leaf (finely divided into small parts) 2. Pains/Pinnate C small parts of the frond 3. Sort C] spores Has true roots; feathery leaves & underground stemsHave vascula r tissues Spore- reproducing organs (seedless) Involved in transportation of fluids Ex: Horsetails, ferns, and club mosses Phylum Angiosperms Flowering plants; vascular Develops seeds within a protective structure called an ovary, which is embedded in the flower Reproduction process is carried by Angiosperm Angiosperms in the class Dicotyledonous grows into two-seed leaves (cotyledons). Two kinds of Angiosperms: 1. Monocotyledon 1 seed leaf Netted/reticulate veins Multiplies by 3 petals 2.Dicotyledonous 2 seed leaves Leaves have veins in network Multiplies by 4-5 petals An angiosperm's leaf consists of a single, branched, main vein. Shrubs, vines, and flowers Phylum Gymnosperms Non-flowering plants Ex: trees, Contains undeveloped seeds which are present in an enclosed structure Tall evergreen trees Have roots, woody stems Needle-shaped leaves Cones with reproductive structures Naked seeds in female cones Called â€Å"naked seeds† because seeds are exposed outside Ex: Palms, c arpet lawns, etc.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

The Currency of Kenya Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Currency of Kenya - Essay Example An emerging market is those countries that have their cost of labor, either direct or indirect, low as compared to other countries cost of labor. This means that emerging markets have cheaper labor compared to wealthier nations. The wealthier nations have their labor cost high; hence investment in the wealthier countries is expensive. When wealthier nation invests in the emerging market, they spend less in their expense on the labor. They move fast to take advantage of the readily available cheaper source of labor. They invest in these emerging markets, capitalizing on their profits because they will spend a little amount of foreign currency on the labor. The emerging markets provide cheaper readily available labor, hence wealthier nations move quickly and invest in the emerging markets (Commission). The currency of Kenya exists as Kenyan shilling. Kenya offers to investment opportunities to the US government. Kenyan economy is moving to an open economy from a closed one. This ensures a stronger and a more stable economic prowess. An Exchange reform ensures a stable economy. When the US invests in Kenya, the Kenyan Shilling will be stable hence growing the economy to a greater height, hence attracting more investment. Sound political and economic environments attract investors. Foreign donations by the World Bank, IMF, and other world organization increase the confidence of other nations investing in Kenya (Commission). The spread return: this is the total amount the investor is expecting to get a profit from the investment. Investors risks by investing in foreign countries. Investors will invest more in a country when they ascertain more returns than when they invest in their country.

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Please read the cases and answer the questions by using the relevant Essay - 1

Please read the cases and answer the questions by using the relevant legal basis - Essay Example , the company must leave room for competition and must not subdue other smaller companies in the region for encouraging technological development, thus conforms to the law (Geneva, 2008). Price fixation in a market prohibits competition and leads to the development of a monopoly market structure. Inferring to the case of Ilovemoneyalot Telecommunications Company, the action by the CEO of the company to influence fixation of the prices of smartphones through a decrease of prices by 35% would disadvantage other smaller companies who are not part of the agreement to decrease the price. The decrease in prices of the smartphones by 35% would result in concerted practice towards other smaller players with a total share of 20% of the overall market share. In the reduction of the prices, Ilovemoneyalot Company should involve all the players in the market in the decision-making to avoid disadvantaging other market players. The patency law helps in the protection of the original work of an individual against production or reproduction by another party. This law majorly applies in artistical, and literature works like songs, work of literature or an innovation. Relating the patency law to the case of Arthur, the pianist who wrote a song â€Å"Beautiful Maria of my life,† after the production of the song by another party, the original composer can take legal action against the neo- composer if he/she can prove patency to the work. This is because the law protects from the production of another’s work, which is presumably still under modification (Geneva,

Homo Economicus Myth or Reality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Homo Economicus Myth or Reality - Essay Example The question which arises at this point is; why do economists use this model of Homo Economicus? There are basically three reasons for this practice:-†¢Ã‚  In real life it is very difficult to accurately predict or explain human behaviour. Therefore, economists assume humans to be perfect i.e. perfectly rational, perfectly self-interested etc. Thus by simplifying humans they simplify their task of economic analysis. [1].†¢Ã‚  This practice enables economists to enumerate their assumptions in mathematical terms which makes them easier to understand. [1].†¢Ã‚  Picking the right assumptions enables economists to generate the desired results. [1].  Ã‚  Prominent economists of the Austrian school like Thorstein Veblen, John Maynard Keynes, Herbert Simon etc. consider homo economicus as an actor in understanding macroeconomics and economic forecasting. [3]. In their view, since perfect knowledge never exists therefore, all economic activity entails risk. Their stress is on bounded rationality and uncertainty in making economic decisions. [3].  Ã‚  Another angle to the concept of Homo Economicus is that â€Å"  Classical economics did not assert that the economizing individual, whether engaged in trade or as a consumer, acts as if the greatest monetary profit were the sole guiding principle of his conduct. The classical scheme is not at all applicable to consumption or the consumer. It did not escape even the classical economists that the economizing individual as a party engaged in trade does not always and cannot always remain true.

Monday, August 26, 2019

The Impact of Climate Change on the Oceans Coral Bleaching Rates Research Paper

The Impact of Climate Change on the Oceans Coral Bleaching Rates - Research Paper Example The presence of zooxanthellae within coral polyps is able to provide protection from ultraviolet rays from the sun, as well as a stable carbohydrate supply to the corals during the day (Brown, 1997). At the same time, the corals provide CO2 for the photosynthetic activities, as well as providing a shelter from other predators (Graham, et al., 2006). Most corals can be found in sunny seas in tropical waters, which foster photosynthetic activity of the symbiotic algae during the day. Coral reefs are found throughout tropical areas across the globe, and are mostly thriving near coastal areas (Figure 1). Often called â€Å"flowers of the sea†, these creatures are not only aesthetically pleasing for many tourists such as divers and underwater photographers, these are also ecologically-important members of ocean ecosystems by being a habitat for fish and other aquatic animals, as well as protecting the shoreline’s structure by serving as breakwater for the ocean’s waves (Cesar, 2000). Such a feat is possible due to the hard exoskeletons of corals, which are durable to the kinetic effects of ocean waves. The process in which coral skeletons grow and develop takes a very long time due to the gradual calcification process in building up the coral skeleton by very small animals. However, recent climate changes causes a degeneration of this coral exoskeleton, which not only poses a threat to the corals themselves but also to the creatures that dwell w ithin them, which in turn could affect livelihoods such as tourism and fishing industries of people living alongside coral reefs. Figure 1. The distribution of coral reef systems are limited to the tropics, seen here as dark brown markings around coastlines and islands (ReefBase, n.d.). Figure 2. Various species of common coral after undergoing bleaching lose their color. Scale bars=5cm (Anthony, et al., 2008). The steady rise in global temperatures have been causing various abnormalities in nature such as drastic weather changes, the growth and proliferation of invasive pests, and the destruction of marine ecological systems such as coral reefs. Several disasters within coral reefs have been recorded in the past decades, and most are attributed to the effects of rising atmospheric and ocean temperatures (Brown, 1997; Cao & Caldeira, 2008; Doney, et al., 2009; Glynn, 1993; Hoegh-Guldberg, et al., 2007; McNeil, et al., 2004). However, these are not the only factors that could contribute to the declining populations of corals and reefs, since other man-made factors also come into play. The acidification of sea w ater due to increasing dissolved CO2, saturation of nutrients due to leaching of fertilizer runoffs, and the increase of disease-causing pathogens and other agents due to the warmer waters causes the disruption of the symbiotic relationship of the zooxanthellae and the coral polyps (Bruno, et al., 2003; De’ath et al., 2009; Grandcourt & Cesar, 2003; Obura, 2004; Silverman, et al., 2009). Corals become bleached when the number of symbionts decreases in the polyps’ bodies, leaving them colorless and much more exposed to the ultraviolet rays of the sun (Figure 2). The lack of zooxanthellae decreases carbohydrate production which translates to a lesser food supply for the corals. This causes the death of the coral polyps,

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Jainism in the 21st Century Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Jainism in the 21st Century - Essay Example The ethical content of such principles is obvious: not calling for religious intolerance, which is generally not typical for Indian religions, Jainism, however, strongly demands from all his followers to be ready for true behavior and true deeds at least on the assumption that this is necessary at first, until a person is just unable to perceive true knowledge that can explain him or her what is what. Thus, being a member of Jain community means to sacrifice particular civilization notions of modern life, such as wearing clothes, eating meat and even numerous root crops, and so on. Jains strictly adhere to vegetarianism, but even in such a case they show their regret for eating fruits, vegetables and nuts, which in their opinion have a living soul as well. So every day Jains do penance for their sins and try to do wrong as little as it possible through eating of only unable to feel living creatures. As a result, Jains’ way of life is marked by austere policy and solicitous att itude to everything from animate and inanimate nature, due to their key belief of cyclical reincarnations. Consequently, without explaining how it happens and why, Jains argue that every jiva or a living soul is constantly connected with ajiva or a non-living matter by the means of karma, immaterial insensible substance, that supports the communication of the living with the nonliving (Shah, 2015). So, the salvation is the process of separation of the soul from the matter, the liberation of the living from the inanimate.

Saturday, August 24, 2019

The National Plan of Action for the Garment Industry of Bangladesh Essay - 145

The National Plan of Action for the Garment Industry of Bangladesh - Essay Example The two incidences triggered protest that facilitated the implementation of the Multi-stakeholder Accord on Fire and Building to boost the corporate environment and offered new dimensions in the occupational safety, health, and environmental reporting of the firms in Bangladesh. Besides, the disasters enabled the adoption of the National Tripartite Plan of Action (NTPA) at the local, regional, and international platforms (Khan and Wichterich 11). The Accord and NTPA offered the platform for collaboration of the stakeholders towards enhancing the safety of the workers. It is in this regards that Khan and Wichterich aimed to assess the level of implementation, achievements, and possible hindrances towards the realization of the objectives. Immediately, the NTPA and the Accord attracted public admiration, and the implementers strived to attain the goals. Some of the primary initiatives comprised corrective action plans, capacity building, and inspection of the facilities. Despite the advantages of the strategies and great anticipation, the strategies have no noticeable impacts. The findings indicate the presence of the gendered prejudice and the associated mishandling of the workers according to their genders. It also shows that the labor power and collective bargain is in the preliminary phase. However, the findings evidence significant progress to advance the occupational health and safety. Predominantly, the findings indicate a clash of power negotiations in the global apparel chains with a particular focus on the RMG accumulation (Khan and Wichterich 36). Given the magnitude of the responsibility and public expectations, the study realized minimal advancement that raises issues about the seriousness of the target ag ency and stakeholders. The responsible institutions and stakeholders lost focus and the associated power structures hinder the realization of the goals.

Friday, August 23, 2019

New health care Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

New health care - Assignment Example It is in this call from the developing countries and the various stakeholders in the health sector that as medical practitioners and professionals; alongside partnerships of other stakeholders such as the communities in those areas, the policy makers, local authorities, and business leaders that we seek to establish new models of care in Nigeria, as a developing country. Diversity is a challenge within the health and social care systems of the world. The hospital as a public place services multitudes of people from diverse cultural backgrounds, creating the need to accommodate the factor of diversity in every new model of care (Diller, 2011). Particularly, with the selected case where this new health model will serve, that is Nigeria, there are over 50 different communities, all distributed across the country, especially in the urban settlements (Okehie-Offoha, 2006). The tiers of healthcare in Nigeria incorporate three levels, the federal, state and local governments. The country initiated several developments recently within the health care system, including incorporating a national insurance policy, policies regarding the availability and distribution of drugs and medical equipment, financing for the health care systems, partnerships among others. The entire developments align with the millennium development goals, in which the country aims to at tain safe, sufficient, and effective healthcare system for her people. The cultural diversity in Nigeria incorporates several factors including differences in the origins of the people, their dressing, languages, art and traditional practices among many others. Particularly, the Kaduna State in the northern section of the country is among the symbols in Nigeria with remarkably vast sub-political entities. It has over fifteen tribes, with the majority of the minority groups in Nigeria located within this state

Thursday, August 22, 2019

The falliability of sense experience Essay Example for Free

The falliability of sense experience Essay One of the foremost notions concerning the rise of empiricism and the natural sciences, French thinker and mathematician Rene Descartes, also considered as the father of modern philosophy, proposes the use of methodological doubt in order for knowledge to be determined with absolute certainty. His work, Meditations on First Philosophy, contains ontological arguments which deny the reliance on the senses as the ample source in determining absolute knowledge. As a mathematician, his approach concerning the acquisition of knowledge is through substantial proof which forms the groundwork of empiricism, as well as the foundation of the different disciplines in science. Cartesian rationalism provides the understanding of empirical evidence in order for a phenomenon or study to be considered true. The work is narrated in the first person perspective as Descartes acts as the ‘mediator’ on the infallibility of the senses through the use of ontological arguments which determine the source and essence of knowledge as well as the proof of God’s existence. The first-person point of view is essential in understanding Descartes philosophy as an objective refutation of all the given objects that are naturally perceived by the senses. The concept of universality on sense experience, through the narration, provides an objective analysis of the problem which Descartes offers to solve through the use of doubt. This doubt however is not of the skeptic nature which ultimately denies the possibility of acquiring knowledge; the Cartesian doubt is methodological, it offers a complete denial of all existing objects generated by the senses in order to determine the ‘real’ underlying truth which in turn becomes the foundation of true knowledge. As such, the ‘dream argument’ from the first part of the Meditations presents the unreliable nature of sense experience in terms of determining reality or universal objects of experience. The argument generally centers on the distinction between the process of dreaming and the waking experience which completely garbles the concept of a true reality. The Dream Argument The dream argument is narrated as thus: Suppose then that I am dreaming, and that these particulars – that my eyes are open, that I am moving my head and stretching out my hands – are not true. Perhaps, indeed, I do not even have such hands or such a body at all. Nonetheless, it must surely be admitted that the visions which come in sleep are like paintings, which must have been fashioned in the likeness of things that are real, and hence that at least these general kinds of things – are things which are not imaginary but are real and exist. (Descartes, 1996, 13) The first part of the Meditations deals with the proposal of doubt, which argues for the indemnification of the senses as a fallacious source of determining experiences: â€Å"But from time to time I have found that the senses deceive, and it is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceive us even once. † From all experiences that have deceived the mediator, it is deemed prudent to be doubt present knowledge in order to know the truth. The dream argument follows from the methodological doubt as a way of determining real experiences from illusions. Descartes narrates that a dream experience provides him an understanding of an object itself. For example, a dream involving a chair may be interpreted that the chair is indeed real because we sense it. We see the chair in the mind’s eye and there we perceive it to be true. However, when we wake, we still perceive a chair which is outside the dream and therefore can still be considered real. The confusion between two realities is the main thesis of Descartes’ dream argument where he places disregard with the sense. Thus, he relates the relationship between dreaming and real experience as that of a painting. The painter creates a mermaid where each part of the character is based from an existing or real object. The mermaid has a body of a fish and the torso of a human which are two separate objects forming a whole picture. The real object of experience becomes the basis for the formation of objects in dreams and both experiences provide a sense of reality. The problem arises whether the realness in dream experience may be considered to be true. Descartes answers this problem with doubt; an individual cannot doubt the specific parts of a whole. Taking from the painting analogy, doubt can only be applicable to the painting itself (e. g. mermaid) whether it really exists but the parts such as the legs, arms, torso, and body cannot be doubted since they are real that provide the basis of the illusion. Descartes relates the analogy to the study of the different sciences wherein each discipline which depends on the study of composite objects can be considered doubtful (e. g. physics, astronomy) while disciplines that deal with the simplest or general form (e. g. mathematics, geometry) are considered universals or certain. Thus, the dream argument may be summarized as follows: the senses are an unreliable source of determining knowledge since dream experiences may be considered real because it relies on the senses to be real. Therefore, when we wake up, the objects around us lead us to doubt its existence because we perceive such objects through the senses. The dream argument leads to the formation of the Cartesian doubt, which necessarily denies the reliance of sense perception and offers as logical argument concerning the acquisition of truth. Critical Evaluation The dream argument provides the basis of Descartes methodological doubt where the senses provide a false impression of reality. His propositions are based on the dependence of empirical evidence rather than reliance to illusion. Indeed sense perception may fully deceive the person, through the ‘objects are not what they seem’ argument. The dream argument’s distinctions provide support on method to doubt all existing forms of knowledge perceived by the sense in order to be proven its validity. Descartes’ propositions are considered true in the sense that the dream argument provides substantial evidence supporting the infallibility of sense perception. The evidence provided in the dream argument as well as in the painting analogy offers enough proof to distinguish illusion from reality. For instance, when a person is awake, he or she experiences object through the sense; thus he or she perceives such experiences or objects to be true. These experiences leave an imprint on the mind and when we dream, these objects come into reality because we perceive it as such. This argument reinforces the process of doubt in order to determine with absolute certainty the real foundations of knowledge. The doubt that comes after the unreliability of the senses is then necessary to determine a firm foundation in which true knowledge to be based. This doubt is clearly distinct from the classical conception of skepticism wherein it denies the possibility of existing knowledge and offers doubt as a means of achieving intellectual tranquility: â€Å"It [skepticism] is also the ephetic (suspending) from the experience which the inquirer feels after the search† . The distinction between the two systems of thought is that Cartesian doubt offers a denial of existing knowledge created through perception whereas skepticism doubts the possibility of acquiring knowledge itself. However, the dream argument necessarily implies the universal experience of dreaming or a selective dream experience. The selective dream is identified when an individual is dreaming, he or she wakes up from such and the dilemma lies whether which reality is true. The universal concept of dreaming on the other hand falls under the general experience of individuals that life is in itself a dream and there is no such thing as a waking experience. This poses a problem on the existence of a true reality which leads to confusion between the relationship of the senses, body, and the intellect. If the senses cannot be trusted, then what do we use to determine real objects from mere illusions? It may be considered as one of the weak points in the dream argument as there is no clear identification of what can be considered to be a true reality. The images perceived by the sense ultimately influence the objects in dreams and since it relies on the sense, it is considered to be real. This problem is answered with the Cartesian doubt itself; it merely provides a persuasion for the individual to not rely on the senses and instead empirically categorize knowledge based on substantial evidence and proof through logic and deduction reasoning. This process inevitably leads to the foundation of the scientific method wherein facts are proven through observation, evidence, deduction, and conclusion in order to be construed as valid. From this notion, proof provides objectivity and universality which Descartes does not consider such subjects to be placed under doubt because it is already considered certain. Mathematics and Geometry are considered certain knowledge and physical existence is not a concern because of its deterministic essence. However, objects which fall a composite essence are subject to doubt. In conclusion, Descartes’ dream argument and the dilemma of reality are answered through the use of doubt and logic. Doubt counters the infallibility of the sense; to clearly deny all prior knowledge since the senses provide misinterpretations or illusions. Logic on the other hand answers to the problem posed by the dualistic reality caused by the dream and waking phenomenon. Logic dictates the identification of the true reality even with the problem of the senses as something that can be physically proven in order to be considered real. This physical essence is not of the material sense but instead uses deduction in order to be considered true. For example, a chair conceived in a dream may be logically explained as an immaterial existence because it does not fully provide the ‘real’ essence of a chair (e. g. form, shape, measure) which are considered as certain subjects or universals. As the senses cannot entirely function as a basis in determining true knowledge or experience, logic becomes the characterizing means in order to counter the illusions perceived by the senses. Metaphysically, the use of logic enables the mind to think and prove experiences based on evidence rather than a garbled and subjective conception of an idea. Bibliography Descartes, Rene. Meditations on First Philosophy; with Selections from the Objections and Replies. Translated by J. Cottingham. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Empiricus, Sextus. Selections from the Major Writings on Skepticism, Man God. Translated by Samuel Etheridge. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1985.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Motivation to Pursue a Healthcare MBA program Essay Example for Free

Motivation to Pursue a Healthcare MBA program Essay Early in life, my family taught me the value of work, the importance of managing, respecting, gratifying the needs of the employees satisfactorily and the rigors of establishing and maintaining a business. For over 20 years, my family has owned and operated a chain of 11 convenient stores and other small businesses. Surrounded and influenced by the ups and downs of daily business life I developed the impetus to succeed in a business setting. With this business experience, the compilation of science courses taken throughout college and the experience gained in the industry, I am determined to further develop my stance on how I could be most valuable in the society; as a healthcare administrator or hospital CEO. Throughout the years I have acquired the basics of understanding the health care set up, but a Healthcare MBA from George Washington University is thus the master key to give me the knowledge and skills necessary to conscientiously and professionally execute the responsibilities of hospital CEO. During my time whilst at UNC, I was involved with the agency, Communities in Schools, whereby I offered to mentor and/or tutor high school students. A particular experience I cherish is when I helped a certain weak student, who had lost hope in school, to build confidence and motivation to study hard and pass his exams. The student is now attending college and attributes his success to my helping him discover his own potential. These endeavors have allowed me to assume the role of a mentor and an instructor, and have further taught me to become a communicative leader who can guide others in their development. Moreover, the sheer amount of pleasure I received from aiding the students in achieving their goals reflects my commitment to a career of service, which your program will steer me towards perfecting. I have perfected my abilities to work well under pressure with minimum supervision throughout the years; the necessary virtues of a good administrator. Perhaps even more important, throughout my experience, I have discovered the importance of sharing and accepting criticism. I understand how to deliver feedback without judging or discouraging others, and I use the advice of others to improve my own behavior. I admit that throughout my college education, my academic performance was sub-par; however, I attribute this to spending ample time participating in various non-academic activities. I was pushed to my limit as I was compelled to balance my time between studying and maintaining involvement in other aspects of my life that I am passionate, serving others and dancing. Although being an active person affected my scholastic performance, it was my involvement in those activities that stimulated my leadership potential, trained me to network with various agencies, and allowed me to give something small back to my community. It takes perseverance, drive and passion to rise above set-backs that we create for ourselves along the way and my long-term goal has served as the light at the end of the tunnel. My goal is simple: intellectual enrichment and to use my knowledge to help build a better society. The experience, knowledge and skills I have accumulated this far, put me in a position to successfully embark on new challenges. I want to pursue a higher degree because I know I have the potential to achieve academic success and thus redeem my undergraduate academic experience. It is my belief and conviction that a person is educated if they constantly strive to attain knowledge while simultaneously recognizing the usefulness of this knowledge towards society. Confident in my ability to adapt well and learn new techniques, I am ready to commit and follow the advice of my mentors; pursue a Healthcare MBA from George Washington University.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Customer Service and Retention in Fast Food Industry

Customer Service and Retention in Fast Food Industry Abstract This study investigates the relationship between dining attributes, customer satisfaction and customers retention in the fast food industry. In short this research paper is to describe analyze why customers come back to the same restaurant when there are several options available to them. What influence their decisions? This research has brought out how to gain customer retention to the services and the factors that influence the customer retention. For this research qualitative approach is used. Data collection method is questionnaire and interviews to clarify what is their real mean of filling the options; sample size of 100 consumers from different fast food restaurant has been taken randomly on the basis of convenience sampling. Results obtained from the statistical analysis corroborate using the optimal regression as a statistical tool which shows that research can be used by marketers especially by the managers of the restaurants for better understanding, and assessing what in fluences customer how they behave and why they come back to the restaurant. Managers can also use our findings to increase the retention rates by adjusting relevant service elements of the restaurants. 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 INTRODUCTION Eating is observably a daily action and necessity for all human beings. Depending on individuals reason for eating at restaurants, individual intentionally or instinctively assess a multifarious set of attributes ahead of choosing a restaurant. The significance involved to these restaurant attributes is ultimately evaluated in the customers mind, leading to a decision of purchasing. Some factors, like age, company and even social division come into take part in to amplify these attributes as the customer makes a decision of dining (Johnson and Champaner, 2004). The restaurant industry has undoubtedly not been free from either augmented competition or from increasing customer expectations regarding quality. In the greatly competitive food industry, large operators chain have a propensity to gain competitive gain in the course of cost leadership, likely only due to standardization and economies of scale beginning from large market shares, while smaller, independent restaurants on the other hand endeavor to gain benefit through differentiation (Lowenstein, 1995). Branding keeps on gaining importance in the marketing of restaurants services and marketers have spent lot of money to create and give support to brand images. This have seen in the marketing of strong and well defined brands like Mc Donalds and Kfc fast food restaurants which attracts the customer through their marketing , service and by making brand loyal customers of their products. This increases the retention rate due to satisfied and loyal customer. Particularly, there is lot more to discern about customers perceive restaurant brands and the comparative weight these links get during purchase decision as there is lot more to discern about customers perceive restaurant brands and the comparative weight these links get during purchase decision. According to the Kaplan and Norton (2001) the importance of the perceived quality in order to get the retention effect in restaurant industry is always considered as a main element to retain in the customers and the business. The main reaso n behind that in this industry entry barrier are usually low and any one can easily enter due to investment required that is not on the higher side. So the point is that when ever consumer is satisfy from the arrangement by the management, the quality of the food provided by the staff members with the positive attitude than this result in increasing the loyalty towards the particular restaurant and increases the retention intensions of the customers. 1.2 Purpose of the study The purpose of study fold in two parts: one suggests that how important is dining attributes in term of Re-patronage intentions and second part suggest the customer satisfaction which leads Re-patronage intentions in restaurants. The role of dining attributes and customer satisfaction is very important for knowing the customer intentions, would they will visit to that restaurants again or not. There has been a strong support for the espousal of consumer retention in restaurants as one of the key performance indicators. It has found that there is a high association between customer retention and the profit earn by the industries. The fragmentation of media choices and the active nature of the marketplace, tied with an enlarged number of additional demanding and prosperous consumers, brought bigger challenges to marketing practitioners in keeping hold of their regular customers. Customer satisfaction is regularly used as a sign of whether customers will come back to a restaurant that shows the customer retention. Whereas there is no agreement of a satisfied customers repeat visit, it is nearly certain that a not satisfied customer will not return. The majority of the preceding customer satisfaction researches are mentioned in the literature that has pay attention on recognizing the resource of customer contentment such as characteristic and attributes and on determining useful ways to establish consumers desires, wants and needs. On the other hand, significant dissimilarity comes out in the level of specify of the characteristic investigated. 1.3 Research Objectives To identify the process to gain customer retention to the services and what are the factors that influence the customer retention. The primary problem is to identify the customer retention in the detail that includes factors of dining attributes and customer satisfaction in context to food restaurant industry. Thus these factors leads to consumer behavior and customer revisit the restaurant. 1.4 Research Methodology This study find out the relationship between dining attributes, customer satisfaction and customers Re patronage intentions and this execute particularly in restaurant industry, how customers decide to revisit the restaurant and what are those factors which influences the customer for returning back to restaurants again and again. To find these reasons we used quantitative approach for this research. The constructed instrument was pre-tested, where 5 to 6 sample questionnaire to be filled, to know if there are any problem with the instrument and therefore it was simple to understand and figure out the questions or not. Through pre-testing it was found that all respondents felt at ease in responding and instrument was interested to them. Instrument:All the information is collected through a questionnaire containing closed ended, structured and unstructured questions. This method was chosen primarily due to ease in handling and recording information. Procedure:The research study is conducted to examine the outcomes and responses of our sample targeted (Local Industry) in order to conclude the impact of customer service on customer retention. Sample size: 100 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Literature review Whether human live to eat or eat to live, food always plays a fundamental role in the lives of human being. The significance of foodstuff cannot be overstated from the physiological viewpoint; food gives us sustenance; while on the other hand from a psychological point of view food is classified as a basic need. Food can also characterize a product used to describe self-actualization. Therefore, individual can quarrel that above and beyond provided that nourishment food plays a variety of roles together at individual and group level. Edifice brands have become a key focus of restaurant managers. Furthermore, restaurant managers are relating brand management theories and practices which have done so far, and lots of restaurants are redesigning their business missions to imitate branding orientation rather than they go for product orientation. There is also an influence of brand recall on consumers intensions in choosing a restaurant for dining due to the different discount offers through different mediums of advertising that mostly include the below the line activities that makes restaurants brands that diminish the perceived risk of pay for the food and also indicate the quality of the product that creates their willingness to make wider positive word of mouth, recommendations, and complaint intention (Lowenstein, 1995) In our research we find that since the last few years the trend of dinning out and fast food restaurants has been increasing with the increasing rate. Now you will find (at least one) fast food restaurant in every society, whether it is high profile or low profile people society. The culture has always significant impact on the societys emerging trends. It is also observed though people dont consider fast food a healthy meal, yet they go for it over again. Due to availability of too many options to the customers, their behavior is more towards variety seeking instead of going for one meal second time. Especially the Pakistani youth seems that they are fond of entertainment and they find only fast food restaurants the best to be visited whenever they go for entertainment (Syed Kamran, 2010) The food industry is highly aggressive and customers have also become more demanding due to sufficient knowledge and information they have about the different trends in restaurant industry which causes increase the significance of effective marketing strategies to get the competitive advantage in order to understand the wants and needs of the customers (Bateson and Hoffman, 1999) Numerous Fast Food restaurants are paying attention in studying, assessing and implementing the marketing strategies with the aim of gaining maximum market share of customers and improving customer retention in analysis of the advantageous effects on the monetary performance for the organization. Customer satisfaction, contentment, quality of the service, excellence and retention are global matter that influences all organizations. This increases in the restaurant business revenue as well and this increases the word of mouth publicity (Almanza and Jaffe, 1994). Evaluating quality awareness and price elasticity related to quality, suggested that buyers are generally steady in their evaluations of quality. The results of their study showed that there was a strong association between a products attributes and the quality perceptions of the customers. It was found that tangible quality has a bigger circumlocutory effect than the straight effect indicates from a theoretical point of view; affect was a fractional mediator, facilitating the association among tangible quality and behavior. The consequences of well-situated parking must not be the lost upon restaurant management. Often the cost of attaining parking near to a restaurant is sighted as a non-revenue generating expenditure. This specifies the value of given that well-located parking along with the direct consequence it has on consumer intentions to patronize a restaurant (Lasser and Winsor, 2000). In customers mind when there is no defect in the overall dining service, then they consider the quality of the food is good enough for them (Bitner, 1992). Quality is all about eliminating internal failures that means all shortcomings before the product leaves from the factory and the external failures are the defects after usage of the product (Eileen and Berry, 2007). In Early research and study efforts in measuring and defining quality were mainly centered in the tangible goods, whereas the apparently more complicated services products was ignored. Products quality was conventionally correlated to the technical stipulation of products, with the most description of quality coming up from the manufacturing goods sector where excellence and quality control has inward drawn out awareness and research. Quantifying service quality is a difficult task because the idea of service quality is intrinsically insubstantial in nature and complicated to define (Kincaid, 2009) Branding and its orientation have been wicker strongly into the contemporary act of consumption in restaurants. Undeniably, the previous century will be considered as the century of brands in marketing (Johnson and Champaner, 2004) Researchers have acknowledged customer satisfaction, service quality and the loyalty to be similarly important for marketers, because they are responsible for determining dining satisfaction, and they must know the important of dining that must position restaurant functions competitively in the current and future marketplace (Kaplan and Norton, 2001). Customer satisfaction and the quality of food have long been acknowledged as a essential function for success and endurance in competitive marketplace that have been connected to consumer behavioral intentions as purchase and loyalty intention, their willingness to widen positive word of mouth, recommendation, and complaint intention (Olsen, 2002). Purchase behavior of the consumer in restaurants can be pretentious by the surroundings in different ways. Researcher consider atmosphere, which is an attention-building medium that can make restaurant inkling. The centre of attention is based on the collective possessions of those clues on customers idiosyncratic through design, sound, motion, and color. Customers are delimited by true rock and roll memorabilia (Supphellen 2000). The indication of Service in selecting by means of restaurant services, customers frequently act like detectives as they investigate for information and standardize their opinions into a set of mind-set regarding the resultant service. For example, the whole thing about the dining attributes of a restaurant or cafà © starts from the dining table potential communicate to the customers, with the table top used, if practical sign concern the technical excellence of the service, mainly concerning to whether the service is carry out proficiently. The research also highlighted that customers who pay for high quality foodstuffs also had a low acceptance for deviations from predictable quality. In the Fast food restaurant perspective, this entails that customers who want superior dining quality are more sensitive to quality fluctuations and possibly will be less price sensitive but, for example in relation to the relative higher pricing of the menu items and marketing strategies that put together the quality image of the restaurant, ambience and service. The concept of service quality comprises the tangible and intangible fundamentals most essential to consumers. Service quality has been related to customer satisfaction, contentment and loyalty as well as the business performance, success and profitability (Raajpoot, 2002) Fundamentals such as surface and texture, smell, color, sound, and texture inducing intuitive reactions in restaurant atmosphere that persuades purchase likelihood known as the mechanical clues (Eileen and Berry, 2007) Food and drink quality is an imperative dining attributes to diners representing restaurant management should certify an aggressive quality control agenda is in place to make sure food and drink quality must maintained The convenience of location includes the parking space, seating availability in the restaurant; the nearness to roof-tops like peoples residence, hotels, and motels is significant for the accomplishment of restaurants all through the dinner mealtime duration. The significance of the physical excellence raise of foodstuff and service and convenience to restaurant administration is to facilitate these constructs that have an affirmative association with influence which is completely linked with customer intentions to retention a restaurant. The objective of most restaurants is to obtain and maintain customers; restaurant administration organized with the information get that will be better prepared to accomplish their aim. There is a intense deficient in understanding about dining satisfaction and pleasure and post-dining behavioral intentions in the customer literature reviewed studied so far away, and up till now, according to the literature allude to, aspects concerning to customer satisfaction and return customer are elementary when put together business and marketing strategies of the organization. Professed service quality may perhaps be improved if customers are support with the mauve list and bill of fare and if a worker responds suitably to a customers asked for quick service. Customer always feel admire and important if they get the best service and respect from the overall management of the restaurant specially from the behavior of the front line staff that increases the comfort level of customers and at the same time makes them brand loyal to that particular restaurant. The impacts of customer satisfaction on customer retention are bringing into being to be momentous and positive. Specially, the customer satisfaction will influence the re customer retention intentions (Reece, 1999) Customer satisfaction is vital to the restaurant management for the reason that it is normally assumed to be a noteworthy determinant of replicate sales, customer loyalty and affirmative word of mouth. The more pleased the customers, the larger are their retention. Another attention-grabbing finding was that a products higher volume rate like for instance, fast food restaurants resulted in a lower sensitivity side to quality. This shows that management of restaurants must segment the market based on the food usage rate includes the repeat purchase of the particular item and quality preferred (Jochen and Rachel, 2000). The previous research shows the effect of physical quality construct on behavioral intentions for restaurant consumer and finds that influence is a strong moderator between tangible quality constructs and behavioral intentions when cognition affect actions archetype is applied to the restaurant location. One more factor for the customer retention which really brings customers back is that the customer likes to have a positive attitude of employee throughout the dining as a support for the disputation that employee approach is strongly linked with customer satisfaction. Ease and the location of the restaurant is also considerable and also the other factor influence customers to select that particular restaurant which satisfy their needs and wants regarding quality of the food and the restaurant environment. This leads in the increase of the retention rate and the loyalty of the customers towards that restaurant diners have an effect on restaurant (Bateson and Hoffman, 1999) It is suggested that commonly and normally used indicators of customer satisfaction comprise repeat customer behavior, brand loyalty and reliability and at last word of mouth recommendation (Lowenstein, 1995) In case of large restaurants franchised group, this kind of relative study and positioning might be important. Besides, while the performance of anyone of the outlet can impinge on the reputation of a whole network, identifying and recuperating those outlets that have a delicate association in the series can be vital. Valuable curriculum in marketing, human resource and man oeuvre be capable also be learnt as of those outlets where service exceeds or meets expectations of the customers (Kuo and Kao, 1999). The one of the fact is that business like restaurants is considered as a low credibility service and that is one of the reason that quality of the services are complicated to prove until consumers revisit the restaurant. Furthermore, the service quality that customers come across may be dissimilar apiece time they visit that particular restaurant, thus persuading the level of contentment and ultimately upsetting their retention intentions. There may possibly be a countervailing competitive consequence to enhance in product differentiation. Revelation of restaurant sanitation grades may serve up to decrease search costs for customers. Positive completion always ends in setting new ideas and innovation in the mind of the management of the management that makes them superior and differentiated in the industry in between the existing market players (Kaplan and Norton, 2001) Both service value and customer retention is extensively acknowledged as practices of repurchase intentions. Though, it is understood that restaurant possessor would like to identify the strongest influence on retention intentions. A recent study divulges that customer satisfaction is the better predictor of intention comparing to service quality to repurchase. Increasing trend in retention is always due to service quality which is provided by the management to the customers and at the same time customer should be satisfied. Any of the factor missing may cause the decrease in loyalty of the customer towards that particular restaurant and customers are unwilling to re-visit for dining to the same restaurant. In researches, results found that managing for most select customer satisfaction necessitates so as to satisfaction statistics be used in previous researches advise implement the positioning strategies with the intention of helping a business whittle a niche. Each restaurant has its own strategies to get the competitive edge in the market. Such information is able to facilitate to modify the restaurant service so that it congregates the desires of the target market segment. Supporting a firms competitive benefit and enduring productivity and profitability possibly will better rely on the incorporation of customer satisfaction into the service organizations strategies and operations that helps the restaurant management to look their positions in the long run completion in the industry (Olsen, 2002) In some countries like Germany, there is a system of Grade cards according to the quality differentiation in restaurants what decrease the expenditure of learning whether an individual restaurant has high-quality hygiene, and possibly will give confidence to customers to go to restaurants they want or else would not have. This may perhaps encourage competition among restaurants, by making customers not as much of incarcerated to any particular restaurants providing inducement for lesser prices, improved food quality, or better hygiene quality food provided and if this result is there, still amongst restaurants with the identical sanitation quality ranking, compulsory revelation may cause lesser prices or enhanced food quality (Johnson and Champaner, 2004). In Chinese and French restaurants, customer view of service quality by the side of all proportions drop short of customers expectations, even though an evaluation of the unprejudiced quality scores shows that the French restaurant is nearer to summiting the prospect of its consumers along all extent of service quality than in the Chinese business. It is evident that compassion and consistency are the two extents which plunge the largest part of below customer prospect inside the French restaurant As a meaning- generating medium, the environment gives discriminative motivation to buyers that facilitate them to identify a restaurants divergences as a source for select that restaurant. For instance, snowy white linen tablecloths, the soft lighting, and crystal chandeliers of a chic restaurant communicate the level of service and a kind of food to customers that create a fine-dining experience (Palmer and Neill, 2003). 3. FAST FOOD INDUSTRY 3.1 Introduction Fast foodis one of the worlds largest growing food types which are growing with an increasing rate. The term Fast Food refers to many items that can be prepared and served quickly usually outside the home. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store which is rapidly prepared and served to the customer in a packaged form to dine out, take out or take away. A typical fast food meal in the United States generally consists of fries, a burger and a soft drink. 3.2 Customer Preferences People pick fast foods because its easy. They could just go to McDonalds, Mr. Burger or KFC and order a burger or sandwich with fries and soft drink, rather than spending hours in the kitchen for cooking food. Another reason would be if they work for long hours, while they come back to home, they could just stop at the drive through and order something to eat. Through this they can save their time to get rest. When an individual is rushing for next appointment after lunch or work, it is more convenient to pack fast food. 3.3 Significance of Service Elements We believe that customer service elements have huge impact on customer retention. Many researchers have closely analyzed all the service elements of several service providers. But in our research we have tried to cover and analyze all the service elements of Karachis famous multinational and local restaurants. Researchers urge all service providers to pay attention towards all of the above service elements in order to improve and enhance the level of service quality.Poor service quality leads to switching intentions of the customer. To satisfy customer the restaurants service elements should be more competent or should have an edge over competitors. 3.4 Brand Perception When customers think or hear about any product or restaurant they start building perception about the brand. Sometimes it is based on observation or may be on the pat experience whether it is negative or positive. Most common methods of forming perception about brand are Past experience Interaction with sales staff or employees Word of mouth (colleagues or friends) Advertising Reviews by reputable sources Some researchers call brand image and brand perception are the two sides of a coin; brand image is how company want you to see them where as brand perception means how you see to the company. In our research we believe that in Karachi people are very brand consciouses the impact of brand over people is very huge and their replies to our questions were little biased. 3.5 Strategies for Retention In this chapter some theories are presented in the context of customer retention which was not discussed in the previous part, because these cannot be analyzed within our practical research. These studies are important part of the customers retention problem and can be used for advance researches. n this chapter some theories are presented in the context of customer retention which was not discussed in the previous part, because these cannot be analyzed within our practical research. These studies are important part of the customers retention problem and can be used for advance researches. The research of Fruchter and Zhang (2004) examine strategic use of targeted promotion for gaining and retention of customers. Authors stress that selection of strategy: defensive targeted promotions for retention and repulsive promotions for acquisition depend on market share of a company. Fruchter and Zhang 2004 highlighted that for companies with larger marketplace share offense promotions targeted on learning generate little knock on gross sales than defensive promotions. Therefore, researchers state that if market share of firm increases it should spend more on customer retention; if market share of firm decreases it should spend more on customer acquisition. This research highlights when marketers should put emphasize on retention or acquisition but it does not provide keeping increase strategies and reasons for keeping. (Fruchter and Zhang, 2004) Hogan, Lemon and Libai (2003) discuss changes of the customers value during the product life cycle. Authors stress the value of retained customer and impact of the lost customer on companys ability (Hogan, Lemon and Libai, 2003). Kumar (1999) highlights that relationship oriented service firms have higher level of trust and more repeated service encounters with their clients, therefore, such firms get higher level of ability and lower expenses over time. Desai and Mahajan (1998)argue that feeling based attitudes appeal to fillings wishes emotions etc. can takings component in a strategic part in small indefinite amount brands to obtain develop and retain customers. 4. CUSTOMER SERVICE AND CUSTOMER RETENTION 4.1 Introduction For more than last couple of decades customer satisfaction is extensively discussed subject in different research areas like consumer behavior and marketing research. Since the mid-1970s many annual conferences on customer satisfaction were held, with proceedings being published since 1981 in the â€Å"Journal of Customer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behavior.† During the past couple of decades more than 1300 articles have been published to discuss and understand customer satisfaction. In recent era, customer satisfaction has gained new attention. Now it has been shifted from transactional marketing to relationship marketing , which refers â€Å"to all marketing activities directed towards establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relational exchange† (Morgan Hunt, 1994, p 22). The key to retention is satisfaction of the customer and it has been treated as the necessary premise in many publications and research articles. The link between satisfaction and the long-term retention of customers is developed by scholars and marketing practitioners in a rather categorical way, and is therefore treated as the starting point, rather than the core question of the analysis. â€Å"The assumption that satisfaction/dissatisfaction meaningfully affect on repurchase behavior underlies most of the study in this area of inquiry†. Consequently, only a few researchers have investigated the nature and to which degree the relationship between satisfaction and retention exist. The number of studies in this area can be classified into three groups. Most of the researchers use monetary data as dependent variables, such as revenues or profit. In this procedure the investigation of the satisfaction-retention relation considerably limited for two reasons. First, the aggregation of data renders any analysis on the individual customer level impossible. Second, revenues and pro ¬Ã‚ t are determined by a large amount of variables, which in addition are highly correlated. Therefore, a suitable assessment of the relationship investigated here seems barely accomplishable with this research design. A second group of studies on an individual level utilizes repurchase intentions of customers to investigate the link between satisfaction and retention (Bitner, 1990; Oliver, 1980; Oliver Bearden, 1985; Oliver Swan, 1989). This approach is also accompanied by two main limitations. Because satisfaction values and intention measures are usually obtained through the same q uestionnaire, the data are inherently correlated. This may lead to an Customer Service and Retention in Fast Food Industry Customer Service and Retention in Fast Food Industry Abstract This study investigates the relationship between dining attributes, customer satisfaction and customers retention in the fast food industry. In short this research paper is to describe analyze why customers come back to the same restaurant when there are several options available to them. What influence their decisions? This research has brought out how to gain customer retention to the services and the factors that influence the customer retention. For this research qualitative approach is used. Data collection method is questionnaire and interviews to clarify what is their real mean of filling the options; sample size of 100 consumers from different fast food restaurant has been taken randomly on the basis of convenience sampling. Results obtained from the statistical analysis corroborate using the optimal regression as a statistical tool which shows that research can be used by marketers especially by the managers of the restaurants for better understanding, and assessing what in fluences customer how they behave and why they come back to the restaurant. Managers can also use our findings to increase the retention rates by adjusting relevant service elements of the restaurants. 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 INTRODUCTION Eating is observably a daily action and necessity for all human beings. Depending on individuals reason for eating at restaurants, individual intentionally or instinctively assess a multifarious set of attributes ahead of choosing a restaurant. The significance involved to these restaurant attributes is ultimately evaluated in the customers mind, leading to a decision of purchasing. Some factors, like age, company and even social division come into take part in to amplify these attributes as the customer makes a decision of dining (Johnson and Champaner, 2004). The restaurant industry has undoubtedly not been free from either augmented competition or from increasing customer expectations regarding quality. In the greatly competitive food industry, large operators chain have a propensity to gain competitive gain in the course of cost leadership, likely only due to standardization and economies of scale beginning from large market shares, while smaller, independent restaurants on the other hand endeavor to gain benefit through differentiation (Lowenstein, 1995). Branding keeps on gaining importance in the marketing of restaurants services and marketers have spent lot of money to create and give support to brand images. This have seen in the marketing of strong and well defined brands like Mc Donalds and Kfc fast food restaurants which attracts the customer through their marketing , service and by making brand loyal customers of their products. This increases the retention rate due to satisfied and loyal customer. Particularly, there is lot more to discern about customers perceive restaurant brands and the comparative weight these links get during purchase decision as there is lot more to discern about customers perceive restaurant brands and the comparative weight these links get during purchase decision. According to the Kaplan and Norton (2001) the importance of the perceived quality in order to get the retention effect in restaurant industry is always considered as a main element to retain in the customers and the business. The main reaso n behind that in this industry entry barrier are usually low and any one can easily enter due to investment required that is not on the higher side. So the point is that when ever consumer is satisfy from the arrangement by the management, the quality of the food provided by the staff members with the positive attitude than this result in increasing the loyalty towards the particular restaurant and increases the retention intensions of the customers. 1.2 Purpose of the study The purpose of study fold in two parts: one suggests that how important is dining attributes in term of Re-patronage intentions and second part suggest the customer satisfaction which leads Re-patronage intentions in restaurants. The role of dining attributes and customer satisfaction is very important for knowing the customer intentions, would they will visit to that restaurants again or not. There has been a strong support for the espousal of consumer retention in restaurants as one of the key performance indicators. It has found that there is a high association between customer retention and the profit earn by the industries. The fragmentation of media choices and the active nature of the marketplace, tied with an enlarged number of additional demanding and prosperous consumers, brought bigger challenges to marketing practitioners in keeping hold of their regular customers. Customer satisfaction is regularly used as a sign of whether customers will come back to a restaurant that shows the customer retention. Whereas there is no agreement of a satisfied customers repeat visit, it is nearly certain that a not satisfied customer will not return. The majority of the preceding customer satisfaction researches are mentioned in the literature that has pay attention on recognizing the resource of customer contentment such as characteristic and attributes and on determining useful ways to establish consumers desires, wants and needs. On the other hand, significant dissimilarity comes out in the level of specify of the characteristic investigated. 1.3 Research Objectives To identify the process to gain customer retention to the services and what are the factors that influence the customer retention. The primary problem is to identify the customer retention in the detail that includes factors of dining attributes and customer satisfaction in context to food restaurant industry. Thus these factors leads to consumer behavior and customer revisit the restaurant. 1.4 Research Methodology This study find out the relationship between dining attributes, customer satisfaction and customers Re patronage intentions and this execute particularly in restaurant industry, how customers decide to revisit the restaurant and what are those factors which influences the customer for returning back to restaurants again and again. To find these reasons we used quantitative approach for this research. The constructed instrument was pre-tested, where 5 to 6 sample questionnaire to be filled, to know if there are any problem with the instrument and therefore it was simple to understand and figure out the questions or not. Through pre-testing it was found that all respondents felt at ease in responding and instrument was interested to them. Instrument:All the information is collected through a questionnaire containing closed ended, structured and unstructured questions. This method was chosen primarily due to ease in handling and recording information. Procedure:The research study is conducted to examine the outcomes and responses of our sample targeted (Local Industry) in order to conclude the impact of customer service on customer retention. Sample size: 100 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Literature review Whether human live to eat or eat to live, food always plays a fundamental role in the lives of human being. The significance of foodstuff cannot be overstated from the physiological viewpoint; food gives us sustenance; while on the other hand from a psychological point of view food is classified as a basic need. Food can also characterize a product used to describe self-actualization. Therefore, individual can quarrel that above and beyond provided that nourishment food plays a variety of roles together at individual and group level. Edifice brands have become a key focus of restaurant managers. Furthermore, restaurant managers are relating brand management theories and practices which have done so far, and lots of restaurants are redesigning their business missions to imitate branding orientation rather than they go for product orientation. There is also an influence of brand recall on consumers intensions in choosing a restaurant for dining due to the different discount offers through different mediums of advertising that mostly include the below the line activities that makes restaurants brands that diminish the perceived risk of pay for the food and also indicate the quality of the product that creates their willingness to make wider positive word of mouth, recommendations, and complaint intention (Lowenstein, 1995) In our research we find that since the last few years the trend of dinning out and fast food restaurants has been increasing with the increasing rate. Now you will find (at least one) fast food restaurant in every society, whether it is high profile or low profile people society. The culture has always significant impact on the societys emerging trends. It is also observed though people dont consider fast food a healthy meal, yet they go for it over again. Due to availability of too many options to the customers, their behavior is more towards variety seeking instead of going for one meal second time. Especially the Pakistani youth seems that they are fond of entertainment and they find only fast food restaurants the best to be visited whenever they go for entertainment (Syed Kamran, 2010) The food industry is highly aggressive and customers have also become more demanding due to sufficient knowledge and information they have about the different trends in restaurant industry which causes increase the significance of effective marketing strategies to get the competitive advantage in order to understand the wants and needs of the customers (Bateson and Hoffman, 1999) Numerous Fast Food restaurants are paying attention in studying, assessing and implementing the marketing strategies with the aim of gaining maximum market share of customers and improving customer retention in analysis of the advantageous effects on the monetary performance for the organization. Customer satisfaction, contentment, quality of the service, excellence and retention are global matter that influences all organizations. This increases in the restaurant business revenue as well and this increases the word of mouth publicity (Almanza and Jaffe, 1994). Evaluating quality awareness and price elasticity related to quality, suggested that buyers are generally steady in their evaluations of quality. The results of their study showed that there was a strong association between a products attributes and the quality perceptions of the customers. It was found that tangible quality has a bigger circumlocutory effect than the straight effect indicates from a theoretical point of view; affect was a fractional mediator, facilitating the association among tangible quality and behavior. The consequences of well-situated parking must not be the lost upon restaurant management. Often the cost of attaining parking near to a restaurant is sighted as a non-revenue generating expenditure. This specifies the value of given that well-located parking along with the direct consequence it has on consumer intentions to patronize a restaurant (Lasser and Winsor, 2000). In customers mind when there is no defect in the overall dining service, then they consider the quality of the food is good enough for them (Bitner, 1992). Quality is all about eliminating internal failures that means all shortcomings before the product leaves from the factory and the external failures are the defects after usage of the product (Eileen and Berry, 2007). In Early research and study efforts in measuring and defining quality were mainly centered in the tangible goods, whereas the apparently more complicated services products was ignored. Products quality was conventionally correlated to the technical stipulation of products, with the most description of quality coming up from the manufacturing goods sector where excellence and quality control has inward drawn out awareness and research. Quantifying service quality is a difficult task because the idea of service quality is intrinsically insubstantial in nature and complicated to define (Kincaid, 2009) Branding and its orientation have been wicker strongly into the contemporary act of consumption in restaurants. Undeniably, the previous century will be considered as the century of brands in marketing (Johnson and Champaner, 2004) Researchers have acknowledged customer satisfaction, service quality and the loyalty to be similarly important for marketers, because they are responsible for determining dining satisfaction, and they must know the important of dining that must position restaurant functions competitively in the current and future marketplace (Kaplan and Norton, 2001). Customer satisfaction and the quality of food have long been acknowledged as a essential function for success and endurance in competitive marketplace that have been connected to consumer behavioral intentions as purchase and loyalty intention, their willingness to widen positive word of mouth, recommendation, and complaint intention (Olsen, 2002). Purchase behavior of the consumer in restaurants can be pretentious by the surroundings in different ways. Researcher consider atmosphere, which is an attention-building medium that can make restaurant inkling. The centre of attention is based on the collective possessions of those clues on customers idiosyncratic through design, sound, motion, and color. Customers are delimited by true rock and roll memorabilia (Supphellen 2000). The indication of Service in selecting by means of restaurant services, customers frequently act like detectives as they investigate for information and standardize their opinions into a set of mind-set regarding the resultant service. For example, the whole thing about the dining attributes of a restaurant or cafà © starts from the dining table potential communicate to the customers, with the table top used, if practical sign concern the technical excellence of the service, mainly concerning to whether the service is carry out proficiently. The research also highlighted that customers who pay for high quality foodstuffs also had a low acceptance for deviations from predictable quality. In the Fast food restaurant perspective, this entails that customers who want superior dining quality are more sensitive to quality fluctuations and possibly will be less price sensitive but, for example in relation to the relative higher pricing of the menu items and marketing strategies that put together the quality image of the restaurant, ambience and service. The concept of service quality comprises the tangible and intangible fundamentals most essential to consumers. Service quality has been related to customer satisfaction, contentment and loyalty as well as the business performance, success and profitability (Raajpoot, 2002) Fundamentals such as surface and texture, smell, color, sound, and texture inducing intuitive reactions in restaurant atmosphere that persuades purchase likelihood known as the mechanical clues (Eileen and Berry, 2007) Food and drink quality is an imperative dining attributes to diners representing restaurant management should certify an aggressive quality control agenda is in place to make sure food and drink quality must maintained The convenience of location includes the parking space, seating availability in the restaurant; the nearness to roof-tops like peoples residence, hotels, and motels is significant for the accomplishment of restaurants all through the dinner mealtime duration. The significance of the physical excellence raise of foodstuff and service and convenience to restaurant administration is to facilitate these constructs that have an affirmative association with influence which is completely linked with customer intentions to retention a restaurant. The objective of most restaurants is to obtain and maintain customers; restaurant administration organized with the information get that will be better prepared to accomplish their aim. There is a intense deficient in understanding about dining satisfaction and pleasure and post-dining behavioral intentions in the customer literature reviewed studied so far away, and up till now, according to the literature allude to, aspects concerning to customer satisfaction and return customer are elementary when put together business and marketing strategies of the organization. Professed service quality may perhaps be improved if customers are support with the mauve list and bill of fare and if a worker responds suitably to a customers asked for quick service. Customer always feel admire and important if they get the best service and respect from the overall management of the restaurant specially from the behavior of the front line staff that increases the comfort level of customers and at the same time makes them brand loyal to that particular restaurant. The impacts of customer satisfaction on customer retention are bringing into being to be momentous and positive. Specially, the customer satisfaction will influence the re customer retention intentions (Reece, 1999) Customer satisfaction is vital to the restaurant management for the reason that it is normally assumed to be a noteworthy determinant of replicate sales, customer loyalty and affirmative word of mouth. The more pleased the customers, the larger are their retention. Another attention-grabbing finding was that a products higher volume rate like for instance, fast food restaurants resulted in a lower sensitivity side to quality. This shows that management of restaurants must segment the market based on the food usage rate includes the repeat purchase of the particular item and quality preferred (Jochen and Rachel, 2000). The previous research shows the effect of physical quality construct on behavioral intentions for restaurant consumer and finds that influence is a strong moderator between tangible quality constructs and behavioral intentions when cognition affect actions archetype is applied to the restaurant location. One more factor for the customer retention which really brings customers back is that the customer likes to have a positive attitude of employee throughout the dining as a support for the disputation that employee approach is strongly linked with customer satisfaction. Ease and the location of the restaurant is also considerable and also the other factor influence customers to select that particular restaurant which satisfy their needs and wants regarding quality of the food and the restaurant environment. This leads in the increase of the retention rate and the loyalty of the customers towards that restaurant diners have an effect on restaurant (Bateson and Hoffman, 1999) It is suggested that commonly and normally used indicators of customer satisfaction comprise repeat customer behavior, brand loyalty and reliability and at last word of mouth recommendation (Lowenstein, 1995) In case of large restaurants franchised group, this kind of relative study and positioning might be important. Besides, while the performance of anyone of the outlet can impinge on the reputation of a whole network, identifying and recuperating those outlets that have a delicate association in the series can be vital. Valuable curriculum in marketing, human resource and man oeuvre be capable also be learnt as of those outlets where service exceeds or meets expectations of the customers (Kuo and Kao, 1999). The one of the fact is that business like restaurants is considered as a low credibility service and that is one of the reason that quality of the services are complicated to prove until consumers revisit the restaurant. Furthermore, the service quality that customers come across may be dissimilar apiece time they visit that particular restaurant, thus persuading the level of contentment and ultimately upsetting their retention intentions. There may possibly be a countervailing competitive consequence to enhance in product differentiation. Revelation of restaurant sanitation grades may serve up to decrease search costs for customers. Positive completion always ends in setting new ideas and innovation in the mind of the management of the management that makes them superior and differentiated in the industry in between the existing market players (Kaplan and Norton, 2001) Both service value and customer retention is extensively acknowledged as practices of repurchase intentions. Though, it is understood that restaurant possessor would like to identify the strongest influence on retention intentions. A recent study divulges that customer satisfaction is the better predictor of intention comparing to service quality to repurchase. Increasing trend in retention is always due to service quality which is provided by the management to the customers and at the same time customer should be satisfied. Any of the factor missing may cause the decrease in loyalty of the customer towards that particular restaurant and customers are unwilling to re-visit for dining to the same restaurant. In researches, results found that managing for most select customer satisfaction necessitates so as to satisfaction statistics be used in previous researches advise implement the positioning strategies with the intention of helping a business whittle a niche. Each restaurant has its own strategies to get the competitive edge in the market. Such information is able to facilitate to modify the restaurant service so that it congregates the desires of the target market segment. Supporting a firms competitive benefit and enduring productivity and profitability possibly will better rely on the incorporation of customer satisfaction into the service organizations strategies and operations that helps the restaurant management to look their positions in the long run completion in the industry (Olsen, 2002) In some countries like Germany, there is a system of Grade cards according to the quality differentiation in restaurants what decrease the expenditure of learning whether an individual restaurant has high-quality hygiene, and possibly will give confidence to customers to go to restaurants they want or else would not have. This may perhaps encourage competition among restaurants, by making customers not as much of incarcerated to any particular restaurants providing inducement for lesser prices, improved food quality, or better hygiene quality food provided and if this result is there, still amongst restaurants with the identical sanitation quality ranking, compulsory revelation may cause lesser prices or enhanced food quality (Johnson and Champaner, 2004). In Chinese and French restaurants, customer view of service quality by the side of all proportions drop short of customers expectations, even though an evaluation of the unprejudiced quality scores shows that the French restaurant is nearer to summiting the prospect of its consumers along all extent of service quality than in the Chinese business. It is evident that compassion and consistency are the two extents which plunge the largest part of below customer prospect inside the French restaurant As a meaning- generating medium, the environment gives discriminative motivation to buyers that facilitate them to identify a restaurants divergences as a source for select that restaurant. For instance, snowy white linen tablecloths, the soft lighting, and crystal chandeliers of a chic restaurant communicate the level of service and a kind of food to customers that create a fine-dining experience (Palmer and Neill, 2003). 3. FAST FOOD INDUSTRY 3.1 Introduction Fast foodis one of the worlds largest growing food types which are growing with an increasing rate. The term Fast Food refers to many items that can be prepared and served quickly usually outside the home. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store which is rapidly prepared and served to the customer in a packaged form to dine out, take out or take away. A typical fast food meal in the United States generally consists of fries, a burger and a soft drink. 3.2 Customer Preferences People pick fast foods because its easy. They could just go to McDonalds, Mr. Burger or KFC and order a burger or sandwich with fries and soft drink, rather than spending hours in the kitchen for cooking food. Another reason would be if they work for long hours, while they come back to home, they could just stop at the drive through and order something to eat. Through this they can save their time to get rest. When an individual is rushing for next appointment after lunch or work, it is more convenient to pack fast food. 3.3 Significance of Service Elements We believe that customer service elements have huge impact on customer retention. Many researchers have closely analyzed all the service elements of several service providers. But in our research we have tried to cover and analyze all the service elements of Karachis famous multinational and local restaurants. Researchers urge all service providers to pay attention towards all of the above service elements in order to improve and enhance the level of service quality.Poor service quality leads to switching intentions of the customer. To satisfy customer the restaurants service elements should be more competent or should have an edge over competitors. 3.4 Brand Perception When customers think or hear about any product or restaurant they start building perception about the brand. Sometimes it is based on observation or may be on the pat experience whether it is negative or positive. Most common methods of forming perception about brand are Past experience Interaction with sales staff or employees Word of mouth (colleagues or friends) Advertising Reviews by reputable sources Some researchers call brand image and brand perception are the two sides of a coin; brand image is how company want you to see them where as brand perception means how you see to the company. In our research we believe that in Karachi people are very brand consciouses the impact of brand over people is very huge and their replies to our questions were little biased. 3.5 Strategies for Retention In this chapter some theories are presented in the context of customer retention which was not discussed in the previous part, because these cannot be analyzed within our practical research. These studies are important part of the customers retention problem and can be used for advance researches. n this chapter some theories are presented in the context of customer retention which was not discussed in the previous part, because these cannot be analyzed within our practical research. These studies are important part of the customers retention problem and can be used for advance researches. The research of Fruchter and Zhang (2004) examine strategic use of targeted promotion for gaining and retention of customers. Authors stress that selection of strategy: defensive targeted promotions for retention and repulsive promotions for acquisition depend on market share of a company. Fruchter and Zhang 2004 highlighted that for companies with larger marketplace share offense promotions targeted on learning generate little knock on gross sales than defensive promotions. Therefore, researchers state that if market share of firm increases it should spend more on customer retention; if market share of firm decreases it should spend more on customer acquisition. This research highlights when marketers should put emphasize on retention or acquisition but it does not provide keeping increase strategies and reasons for keeping. (Fruchter and Zhang, 2004) Hogan, Lemon and Libai (2003) discuss changes of the customers value during the product life cycle. Authors stress the value of retained customer and impact of the lost customer on companys ability (Hogan, Lemon and Libai, 2003). Kumar (1999) highlights that relationship oriented service firms have higher level of trust and more repeated service encounters with their clients, therefore, such firms get higher level of ability and lower expenses over time. Desai and Mahajan (1998)argue that feeling based attitudes appeal to fillings wishes emotions etc. can takings component in a strategic part in small indefinite amount brands to obtain develop and retain customers. 4. CUSTOMER SERVICE AND CUSTOMER RETENTION 4.1 Introduction For more than last couple of decades customer satisfaction is extensively discussed subject in different research areas like consumer behavior and marketing research. Since the mid-1970s many annual conferences on customer satisfaction were held, with proceedings being published since 1981 in the â€Å"Journal of Customer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behavior.† During the past couple of decades more than 1300 articles have been published to discuss and understand customer satisfaction. In recent era, customer satisfaction has gained new attention. Now it has been shifted from transactional marketing to relationship marketing , which refers â€Å"to all marketing activities directed towards establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relational exchange† (Morgan Hunt, 1994, p 22). The key to retention is satisfaction of the customer and it has been treated as the necessary premise in many publications and research articles. The link between satisfaction and the long-term retention of customers is developed by scholars and marketing practitioners in a rather categorical way, and is therefore treated as the starting point, rather than the core question of the analysis. â€Å"The assumption that satisfaction/dissatisfaction meaningfully affect on repurchase behavior underlies most of the study in this area of inquiry†. Consequently, only a few researchers have investigated the nature and to which degree the relationship between satisfaction and retention exist. The number of studies in this area can be classified into three groups. Most of the researchers use monetary data as dependent variables, such as revenues or profit. In this procedure the investigation of the satisfaction-retention relation considerably limited for two reasons. First, the aggregation of data renders any analysis on the individual customer level impossible. Second, revenues and pro ¬Ã‚ t are determined by a large amount of variables, which in addition are highly correlated. Therefore, a suitable assessment of the relationship investigated here seems barely accomplishable with this research design. A second group of studies on an individual level utilizes repurchase intentions of customers to investigate the link between satisfaction and retention (Bitner, 1990; Oliver, 1980; Oliver Bearden, 1985; Oliver Swan, 1989). This approach is also accompanied by two main limitations. Because satisfaction values and intention measures are usually obtained through the same q uestionnaire, the data are inherently correlated. This may lead to an

Till We Have Faces Essay -- Till we Have Faces Essays

Till We Have Faces In Till We Have Faces, C. S. Lewis retells the myth of Cupid and Psyche from the point of view of Psyche's sister, with powerful insight into the nature of human affection and the relationship between human and divine. In the original myth, Psyche is the youngest of three princesses, so beautiful that men begin to worship her instead of Venus. The goddess avenges herself by commanding that Psyche be exposed on a mountain to die, but her son Cupid secretly rescues her, having fallen in love with her. He hides her in a palace where he visits her nightly, but he forbids her to see his face for fear of his mother. After a time Psyche is granted a visit from her sisters; seeing the splendor of her palace, they are jealous. They tell her that her "husband" must be some horrible monster, and they persuade her to disobey the god's command and light a lamp while he sleeps, to see if it is not so. This she does, but he wakes and rebukes her, and she goes into exile to be tested until worthy of her husband. Lewis's retelling makes the god's palace invisible to mortal eyes; thus Psyche's sister Orual, the narrator of the tale, can insist it is not jealousy but concern for Psyche that motivates her to act as she does. Told from Orual's point of view, the story shows her journey to self-discovery and understanding--her quest to find her face, for as she learns, the gods cannot "meet us face to face till we have faces"--until we know our own selves. Faces are thus a strong source of imagery and symbolism in the book. One's face is a reflection of one's soul and true character. It is, symbolically, one's identity. The faces of Orual and Psyche, of Ungit and her son the God of the Grey Mountain, give us insight into their ... ..., both beautiful. The faces of the gods do not change; but those of Psyche and Orual do, and in their developing we see the developing of character--the search for identity. Psyche, who was born nearly divinely beautiful, becomes even more so when she is married to the god, and her "brightface" appearance reflects the new joy and maturity created in her character by that union. Orual's character development takes longer, for she fights it; she is unwilling to believe in the god, and even when she sees his face she becomes bitter against him for her loss of Psyche. Yet through great suffering and a long time of facelessness, she too finds her face--her identity--and becomes beautiful in the end. She is finally able to meet the gods face to face, when she has a face of her own. Work Consulted: Lewis, C.S. Till We Have Faces. Harcourt Brace: New York, 1980.