A meta-analytical review of the relationship between emotional intelligence and leaders’ constructive conflict management Essay

Conflict competent leaders Introduction                   The article examines the connection involving emotional intelligence and the ability of leaders to manage and resolve conflict positively. According to Schlaerth, Ensari, & Christian, (2013) understanding of effective conflict management is important traits for competent leaders that lead to constructive conflict management in organizations. Competent leaders are able to solve conflict in an organization due to their emotional intelligence. The trait helps leaders to understand their own emotions and those of other workers. The result is use of the most effective conflict resolution process and strategy that would ensure the success of the organization.                   Lack of ability to resolve conflicts constructively affects the relationship between the employees and the leadership. The result is poor performance in an organization, which is blamed on poor leadership. Therefore, the article acknowledges the roles of leaders in the conflict resolution. In addition, it evidences the importance of extraordinary ability to handle emotions in order to achieve constructive conflict resolution.                   Consequently, the article discusses the need of emotional intelligence for the non-leader workers in order to ensure constructive conflict resolution. The non-leader workers will help to reinforce strategies and process that are laid down by leaders to resolve the conflict constructively. Hence, the article tries to address the question about what of competent leaders in conflict management and resolutions. In addition, it points out the involvement of other workers in connection with leaders in order to achieve effective and constructive conflict solution. Reference Schlaerth, A., Ensari, N., & Christian, J. (2013). A meta-analytical review of the relationship between emotional intelligence and leaders’ constructive conflict management.  Group Processes & Intergroup Relations,  16(1), 126-136. Source document

Domestic Violence On Ray Rice Essay

For I would think that Ray Rice was waiting for the elevator as it opens, a woman shoots past me with cries, clear fresh opened scars on the face. I see an angry Ray Rice out of the elevator. I would respectfully ask him about the situation with the woman. The first thought in my head is domestic violence. I wouldn’t of reported it right away in his face, but I certainly would question him. After I get the answer I will seek out for the victim, call the local police and identify the man known as ray rice after confirming watching the tape. The societal impact would be tremendous. NFL superstar in a domestic violence case. The NFL should have an uprise on it’s domestic violence policy, it should not take a very graphic video to get the NFL to do the right thing. For too long in the NFL has had this form of playbook when it comes to players who commit domestic violence. For I would think that Ray Rice probably just lost his temper, as I saw it in his face. I also saw a fo rm of remorse at the press conference when he apologized. Did it really take a two game ban, suspension, and a release to feel some type of remorse? I don’t entirely agree. I think, I believe it was just a case of losing someone’s soul, Ray Rice snapped. In the 1990s, NFL players were charged with domestic violence more often than with any other crime. Yet again, the NFL took no action, and if players were cut by one team after being arrested, they were often quickly picked up by another. Some of these cases involved allegations. I’m sure the NFL has suspended indefinitely players who has a more cruel video tape of evidence. The NFL is in desire need of male leadership when it comes to violence against women. In the wake of the Rice video’s release, the owner of the ravens sent a letter to stakeholders that outlined mistakes, apologized and promised a better response in the future. In this society, we have to open our eyes think affect of long-term, in this case, domestic violence because we cannot let these situ ations get over hyped and out of control of the situation and the individuals involved as well. The short-term attention and never hinder the long-term effect on this society  on how it viewpoints an organization. Ray Rice can use this experience to help him as a spokesman for domestic violence cases when this situation goes down. Ray Rice was talking at the press conference about how he let his mom, wife, daughter, wife’s parents and teammates down. It was a big mistake for conflicting his anger on his wife on that night. He wanted to get some help on his actions. I think that he could of think first before he react to it. I think his fiancà ©e shouldn’t keep on provoking him and thinking that he wouldn’t do anything to her. In this situation, it should of have stopped from the beginning where they got into a huge argument. When you get into an argument, it can lead to another whole level. The only thing he can do right now is to fix himself together and realize how he took his rage on something where he could of told his fiancà ©e to slim down and let ’s work it out somehow. The law in this society is, do not put your hands on a woman. Because men are stronger than a woman. And there’s no reason to put your hands on a woman. When Ray Rice finished beating his fiancà ©e up, the elevator opens and you can see he drag his fiancà ©e out of the elevator, left her there and didn’t bother carrying her out of the elevator. So of course, when he went to court the judge will think he didn’t really care about her at all. Ray Rice didn’t acknowledge the fact that his way was drunk and she needed to cool down for a Sec. They should of taking this situation where they can solve it another way, then going to court, going to hail or even get suspended from the NFL. For each of the situation, I think they could put Ray and his fiancà ©e in a rehab or an anger management center so that it can help them out throughout the process. If you can tell how the judge and the NFL have taken it too far from the situation. Instead of him going to jail, he could’ve been on probation and learn from his mista kes. The NFL and the teammates can help him to accomplish his goals by talking to him, explaining how to not put your hands on any type of women, focus on his anger so that he can control it. Mange throughout the whole year without any domestic violence. Now he needs to learn that one day his daughter will find out the truth about how her mother and father got into an argument and it lead into a serious thing. She will think that her father and mother could of done something different to solve this issue. She might be scared of her father because of what he has done to his fiancà ©e from the past. Men shouldn’t put their hands on a woman and a women should put their  hands on a man. The whole purpose of this incident was to take control on everything. It doesn’t matter how mad you get or how bad the person you love gets you steaming hot. There shouldn’t be any domestic violence at all. When you notice that there’s any violence around, have you think that it will affect the other part in society as in little kids and at school. Society needs to understand on what should be done with domestic violence. What need to take care of so that society can be a better place.

The Future of CADCAM Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Future of CADCAM Assignment - Essay Example It was in the 1950's that the Numerically-Controlled machines were based upon the technology of paper tapes which had proper spaced holes punched into the papers. it is similar to the paper roll which makes piano works having only an inch width which is used to feed the numbers into controller machines. These are wired to join the motors positioning work over the machine tools. These controllers are electro mechanical that allows easy incorporation of the digital technologies in their original form. During the period of late 1960's these Numerically-Controlled machining centers were very easily available for the commercial incorporation of a variety of machining processes, and also enabling the automatic tool changing process. So these tools were capable of performing any work on the many faces of any kind of work further enabling the movement of the work piece to the specified positions which were previously programmed. This programming was done making use of a variety of automatic tools. Thus making it possible to do the same piece of work over and over, automatically with perfection and very little human input. The NC was immediately automated giving a newer level of manufacturing. The incorporation of feedback loops was also done. The development of APT was a breakthrough in the success of the NC technology which is a universal NC programming language. The Automatically Programmed Tools developed in1962, enables the programmers to develop the postprocessors, tailored to each type of NC tool. This helped in the output sharing between different units having different manufacturing capabilities. CAD and CAM Together now: CAD basically uses the software known as TTUA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAD/CAM). It assists engineers, architects, designers in their activities. This geometrical tool in the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) also involves a special hardware. These tools are used and incorporated in almost every sector like manufacturing, designing, planning etc using the tools CIM, CAPP, FMS, and JIT etc. The development of Computer-aided design had its effect on the NC technology due to the differences in the formats of various files which were used initially by the drawing and manufacturing programs. " in the CAD world, we take a pencil out of the hand of the operator and place it into the hand of the computer" (Jan Bone,1994). With the newer and variety of CAD applications like Solid Works and Auto Cad and CAM applications like Master Cam, both designing and manufacturing sectors now use these variety of CAD/CAM software. Most of the CAD/CAM software are used more by architects these days, along with product designing and manufacturing. Future trends in CAD/CAM: Though the current CAD/CAM applications are much user friendly and satisfactory, and people do not think there is nay need for advances in the same, but the coming decade will have many advances in techniques and implementation of CAD/CAM, for the creation and manipulation of the work piece geometry. The standards for its applications will give more flexibility to its users in the interfaces, data transfer, computer designing and architecture etc. thus it can be said that these future developments will have a solid impact on both, the numerical control system and the manufacturing applications. By anticipating the basic questions like what is the direction of NC and CAD/CAM What are the

Project 8 Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Project 8 - Speech or Presentation Example These parameters generate secondary parameters such as total cost, total revenue, average cost, and marginal revenue. All of them are interrelated. This assignment studies the interrelationship of these parameters using two equations: inverse demand and average cost. The inverse demand equation is represented by p = 800 – q and the average cost equation is expressed by c = q + 100 + 500/ q. The following sections present the interdependency of the above-mentioned primary and secondary parameters of the price and demand relationship. The inverse demand equation is p = -q + 800. Therefore, the demand equation is q = - p + 800. This equation is coded in the Mathematica program to draw the 2D plot of the demand curve. The plot is drawn on the q-p plane; where q is independent variable quantity and p is the dependent variable demand. The plot is shown in Figure 2. Given Inverse demand function is p= -q + 800; therefore, Demand function is q = -p + 800. The formula for the calculation of Elasticity of demand is E = = *d(-q+800)/dq. This formula is coded in the Mathematica , which are shown below. The demand elasticity for price, p =1 is E = -1/799. Since E Given average cost function, AC = q + 100 + 500 / q. For total quantity q, the total cost function is TC = (q+100+500/q)*q= q2 + 100q + 500. Marginal cost, MC is the tangent to TC function, which is expressed as The MC function will be expressed through q variable. The solution is MC = TC’[1]. The solution is coded in Mathematica, which are shown below. We use the 3D profit function, f(π3D) = pq - q2 -100 q - 500. In this equation, p and q are independent variables. At the same time, for a given value of p there is a specific value of q. We find the values of q for p using p = - q + 800 equation. We assign p from 1 to 10 with interval 1. The 3D function and their arguments are coded in Mathematica. We have included a table of π3D = f (p, q)

DISCUSSION 6 Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

DISCUSSION 6 - Article Example The sampling strategy that was used for the purpose of study was a random sampling. The study was conducted in one place of DRC, which has typical for the given country conditions. Only one period of distribution was selected (between November and January). Three hundred and sixty two women were randomly selected to take part in the study. Three hundred and twenty eight delivery interviews were conducted. A random sample of 115 women were invited to participate in a 6-month post-delivery interview (Pettifor et al., 2009). Presented sample strategy is representative for the given region. However, it has several limitations that does not permit to spread the obtained results to all population of Congo. The authors admit that the main limitations are the small sample size, estimation for only one object and for only one period. The study that compared the effectiveness for different social groups, groups living in rural and urban areas was not conducted. The damages of nets after 6-month period of utilization that does not permit the further use were not taken into account. Nevertheless, the significant difference of LLINs utilization before and after the distribution permits to conclude that obtained results support the idea that distribution free of charge is the effective measure. The improved sample strategy has to include estimation of the given measure for several objects in different parts of the country. Participants in the places have to be selected several times per year, especially before the periods when mosquitos are the most active. Sample size have to be increased. Random sampling strategy would be the most effective. The possible suitable strategy that permits to estimate the effect for different social or age groups could be a stratified random sampling. Pettifor, A. et al. (2009). Free distribution of insecticide treated bed nets to pregnant women in Kinshasa:

The Role of Islamic Law in the Management of Formal and Informal Research Paper

The Role of Islamic Law in the Management of Formal and Informal Organizations in Saudi Arabia - Research Paper Example As the paper declares Saudi Arabia is ran as an Islamic Theocracy and the Quran is the basis of the countrys constitution. The country is governed by stringent Islamic law which defines every aspect of the lives of people in the Kingdom. Since Saudi Arabia was meant to be Islamic from the onset, it has rules that strictly bind both the Muslims and non-Muslims of the country. Commentators like the Human Rights Watch have criticized Saudi Arabia for using Islamic Law in a compulsory manner that sometimes causes some degree of discrimination to non-Muslims in the Kingdom. This essay outlines that although proponents like Fouad argue that the universal application of Sharia in Saudi Arabia supports to bring benefits and stability to the country, there are some human rights issues that can be raised. First of all, the law focuses more on the Muslims since they are designed with the practicing Muslim in mind (Jones). Hence, there is a limitation on the individual rights of non-Muslims. The research will include an assessment of the different frameworks and concepts that regulate the conduct of business. The study will be conducted by the critical review of secondary sources. These sources will include books, journals and other relevant materials that define

Academic Pressures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Academic Pressures - Essay Example Stress could begin at very early childhood years and continues into later years depending upon the life’s situations. Psychologists as well as academic professionals have identified that many students undergo immense stress even during schooling, which intensifies as the challenges increase with academic advancement. More often, teenagers and/or adolescents in high school and early college years are most prone to academic pressures because of the rapid shift in their curricula, studying atmosphere, competition as well as biological changes in the growth process. Academic pressures begin with stress caused by parental expectations, peer pressure, competition, strict timelines, difficult curricula etc. These factors are meant to induce learning, inculcate discipline and help students achieve their academic curricula within set timelines. On the other hand, all these or each of these stressors significantly impact students’ memory and thinking ability. As Hales stated, â⠂¬Ëœbecause of stress’s impact on memory, students with advanced skills may perform worse under exam pressure than their less skilled peers’ (63). In general, academic pressures tend to crush the inherent abilities of teenage students.

Financial statements of a company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Financial statements of a company - Essay Example Center of discussion in this paper is Stewardship as the ethical responsibility of the managers to effectively and honestly manage the resources of the firm. Managers therefore are considered as stewards of the firm however, managers are also considered as self-interested individuals who can pursue their own objectives too. Such tendency of the managers therefore requires that the shareholders must use company financial statements to ensure that the managers are performing their stewardship duty. Through techniques such as financial ratio analysis, shareholders can actually look into the overall performance of the managers and decide whether such performance is actually according to the ability of managers. If assessed performance is considered as below-par it may be concluded that the managers may not be fulfilling their responsibility. Agency Theory outlines that there may be conflict of interest between the shareholders and managers of the firm. The basic objective of managers is to ensure that they act in a manner which always results into an increase in the value for shareholders. This therefore requires that the managers must actively pursue the objective of maximizing shareholders wealth. This objective however, may be jeopardized as the managers may take actions which only result into their own benefits and may not entirely result into creation of value for the shareholders. For example, managers may make decisions to increase their compensation or earnings regardless of the fact that such actions may damage the overall shareholder interest in short or long run. Such conflict of interest therefore outlines that the managers must have been kept on watch in order to ensure that their actions do not result into losses for shareholders. It is because of this reason that the theories of corporate governance have been forwarded to design a framework which can ensure that the managers must act in a certain manner. This is for ensuring that the overall interest s of the shareholders are protected while at the same time ensuring that the managers get substantial authority to pursue such objectives. (Cane, 2008) An opposite to Agency theory is the theory of stewardship which requires the shareholders to basically to assume the roles of managers. Through active participation of shareholders, it may be possible to have an effective check over the actions of managers. Managerial Stewardship Stewardship as a concept has some ethical considerations because it embodies the ethical responsibilities of the management to responsibly plan and manage the resources of the firm. From accounting and finance perspectives, managers therefore are considered as the custodians of the firm’s resources and it is their professional and ethical responsibility to ensure that they plan and manage resources in the best of the interest of the organization and hence its shareholders. It has been however, outlined that the overall research on understanding the st ewardship and the role of mangers have been limited. It is also because of this reason that the accounting standard setters face dearth of information which can further strengthen the stewardship ability of the managers. Stewardship theory therefore outlines that the managers are stewards rather than rational individuals having their own self

Summary Dismissal of Mark Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Summary Dismissal of Mark - Essay Example In the case of Mark, the employer had some grounds which could warrant for summary dismissal and he went ahead to dismiss him. From the point of view of Mark, the action of the employer is unlawful and as such it constitutes an unfair dismissal. The grievances of Mark presented in the case study are true and they form a ground upon which he can appeal against the termination of his contract. In this regards, I will argue that wrongful dismissal and violation of his rights as the basis upon which he can appeal against the dismissal. In summary dismissal, there has to be a proof of gross misconduct. In this case, Mark disobeyed a direct disorder from his superior.However, the manner in which it was carried out was not procedural. First off, the dismissal was not in tandem with the usual meaning of this type of dismissal which is instant.The case states clearly that Mark had been asked to work overtime which he refused and a fierce confrontation ensued.Although arguing with superiors is wrong especially in front of other employees, it does not warrant summary dismissal. He was allowed to go home and the next day after he had reported for work; he was given his marching orders after starting his work for the day. In this regards, if indeed summary dismissal was the case, it should have been done the previous day and not the next day after working for some time. ... In Marks case, it appears that the employer was trying to coerce him to fore gore his own commitments for the company’s sake. Such an unprecedented step to coerce an employee to work overtime constitutes violation of an employee’s rights2. Mark is therefore entitled to appeal his summary dismissal on the basis of gross violation of his employee rights. Dismissal of Simon Redundancy is major factor that is considered by employers when they are dismissing their employees. For dismissal on redundancy ground to be fair, the employer must be able to show consistent statistics in terms of underlying problem that led to the dismissal. To give more credence to redundancy dismissal, the employer must consult widely with other stakeholders as well as the concerned employee. However, regardless of whatever method is used to dismiss an employee, the employer must have a formal meeting with the earmarked employee for dismissal. In this meeting, the employee is given an explanation a s to why the employer is terminating the employment contract3. In the case of Simon, the employer used laid down procedures of the company to come up with a trumped charge of poor performance as the basis of his dismissal. First off, this is not a case of poor performance because the underlying problem is change of system from manual to a computerised system. Regardless of human learning capabilities and ingenuity, it is utterly impossible for one to learn new systems in under a month. When the company (Fit & Well Co. Ltd.) was instituting changes, it did not warn the employees to make the necessary preparations to adapt to changes in the work place. Similarly, after making changes in the

Security Analysis and Redesign of a Network Essay

Security Analysis and Redesign of a Network - Essay Example Service Information: Operating System: Linux 2.5.25 - 2.6.3 or Gentoo 1.2 Linux 2.4.19 rc1-rc7. Interesting ports on XYZ Invite Design at domain 192.168.0.6: Nmap done: 6 IP address (6 hosts up) scanned in 64.27 seconds. Password strengths are essential in security matters. Users’ password must be encrypted so as to prevent unauthorized entries to the system (Stewart, 2010). The Public Key Infrastructure, Hashing and Digital Signatures, Cryptography: Public Key Encryption and Cryptology assist in the implementation of password protection. Set up an NTFS drive applicable for the IIS application and data. If likely, do not tolerate IUSER or whatever the unidentified username access to any of the available drives. If the relevance runs into any problems due the anonymous user does not have admission to programs on the available drive(s), then apply FileMon from Sysinternals to test which file it cannot access and attempt working around it by relocating the program to the IIS drive. If that is not possible, then permit IUSER access just to that file. Allow Windows auditing on the machine, since there is never sufficient data when trying to backtrack any attackers movements. It is even likely to have a script run to check for any distrustful activity via the audit logs, and then send an account to an administrator. Now this could appear a bit extreme, but if security is actually significant in your organization, this sort of action is an excellent practice. Set up auditing to account any failed account log in attempts. Plus, same as the IIS logs, alter the default location to a different location, and make sure that the company have a backing and a replicated copy (Weaver, Weaver, & Farwood, 2013). On a customary basis, go through as a lot of security articles from various sources as the company can. It is at all times better that company appreciate as much as possible about IIS and universal

Katherine Mansfield Essay Example for Free

Katherine Mansfield Essay She was born in 1888 in Wellington, a town labeled â€Å"the empire city† by its white inhabitants, who modeled themselves on British life and relished their city’s bourgeois respectability. [1] At an early age, Mansfield witnessed the disjuncture between the colonial and the native, or Maori, ways of life, prompting her to criticize the treatment of the Maoris in several diary entries and short stories. [2] Mansfield’s biographer, Angela Smith, writes: â€Å"It was her childhood experience of living in a society where one way of life was imposed on another, and did not quite fit in† that sharpened her modernist impulse to focus on moments of â€Å"disruption† or encounters with â€Å"strange or disturbing† aspects of life. [3] Her feelings of disjuncture were accentuated when she arrived in Britain in 1903 to attend Queen’s College. In many respects, Mansfield remained a lifelong outsider, a traveler between two seemingly similar yet profoundly different worlds. After briefly returning to New Zealand in 1906, she moved back to Europe in 1908, living and writing in England and parts of continental Europe. Until her premature death from tuberculosis at the age of 34, Mansfield remained in Europe, leading a Bohemian, unconventional way of life. The Domestic Picturesque Mansfield’s short story â€Å"Prelude† is set in New Zealand and dramatizes the disjunctures of colonial life through an account of the Burnell family’s move from Wellington to a country village. The story takes its title from Wordsworth’s seminal poem, â€Å"The Prelude,† the first version of which was completed in 1805, which casts the poet as a traveler and chronicles the â€Å"growth of a poet’s mind. †[4] Although the Burnell family moves a mere â€Å"six miles† from town, the move is not inconsequential; it enacts a break with their previous way of life and alerts the family members to the various discontinuities in their lives. Beneath the veneer of the Burnells’ harmonious domestic life are faint undercurrents of aggression and unhappiness. The haunting specter of a mysterious aloe plant and a slaughtered duck in their well-manicured yard suggests that the family’s awfully nice new home conceals moments of brutality and ignorance toward another way of life that was suppressed and denied. [5] As I will propose, these two incidents echo the aesthetic concept of the sublime, as they encapsulate a mysterious power that awes its beholders and cannot be fully contained within their picturesque home. Through her subtle, dream-like prose, Mansfield deploys traditional aesthetic conventions like the picturesque while simultaneously transfiguring, subverting, and reinventing them in a modernist context. The concept of the picturesque was first defined by its originator, William Gilpin, an 18th century artist and clergyman, as â€Å"that kind of beauty which is agreeable in a picture. †[6] Thus, a scene or representation is beautiful when it echoes an already-established, artistic conception of beauty, revealing the self-reinforcing way in which art creates the standard of beauty for both art and life. Mansfield presents these picturesque moments in order to demystify them and reveal the suppression and violence they contain. In addition to â€Å"Prelude,† her stories â€Å"Garden Party† and â€Å"Bliss† dramatize the transformation and inversion of picturesque moments of bourgeois life and domestic harmony. While she seems to exhibit a certain attachment to these standard aesthetic forms, Mansfield subtly interrogates many of these conventions in a strikingly modernist way. Through her childhood in a colony, Mansfield also became attuned to the violence and inequalities of colonialism. As Angela Smith suggests, her early writings demonstrate a keen sensitivity towards a repressed history of brutality and duplicity. [7] In her 1912 short story â€Å"How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped,† she questions and overturns the perspective of the colonialist, whose vantage point historically trumps that of the native. The deliberate ambivalence of the word â€Å"kidnapping† dramatizes the conflict between the colonist’s perspective and Pearl’s joyful, eye-opening experiences during her abduction. In a similar way, empire dramatized for Mansfield the way that a picturesque, bourgeois household could suppress alternative perspectives. The Sublime In â€Å"Prelude,† the mysterious, sublime aloe plant disrupts the pleasant domesticity of the Burnell household. Their well-manicured yard with its tennis lawn, garden, and orchard also contains a wild, unseemly side—â€Å"this was the frightening side, and no garden at all. †[8] This â€Å"side† contains the aloe plant, which exerts a mysterious, enthralling power over its awed beholders. In its resemblance to the ocean, the aloe assumes the characteristics of the sublime: â€Å"the high grassy bank on which the aloe rested rose up like a wave, and the aloe seemed to ride upon it like a shop with the oars lifted. Bright moonlight hung upon the lifted oars like water, and on the green wave glittered the dew. †[9] For many writers and poets, the ocean was a manifestation of the sublime because of its unfathomable power and scale that awed and humbled its observers. The aloe’s strikingly physiological effect on its viewers recalls Edmund Burke’s sublime, which overpowers its observer and reinforces the limitations of human reason and control. In his famous treatise on the sublime, Burke writes: â€Å"greatness of dimension, vastness of extent or quantity† is a powerful cause of the sublime, as it embodies the violent and overpowering forces of nature. [10] In a similar vein, the child, Kezia Burnell’s first impression upon seeing the â€Å"fat swelling plant with its cruel leaves and fleshy stem† is one of awe and wonder. [11] In this case, the sublimity of the aloe plant disrupts and challenges the domestic picturesque as it defies mastery, categorization, and traditional notions of beauty. In its resistance to categorization and control, the sublime embodies the part of the ungovernable landscape that the Burnell family cannot domesticate and the picturesque cannot frame. As a result, in â€Å"Prelude,† the magnitude of the sublime interrupts and fractures the tranquil surface of the picturesque by exposing the unfathomable depths beneath it. The colonial backdrop of the Burnells’ yard also contributes to the mysterious, occult power of the aloe. This unruly part of their property hints toward a landscape that eludes domestication and serves as a constant reminder that the Burnell family is living in a land that is not quite theirs and cannot be fully tamed. [12] At the age of 19, Mansfield wrote that the New Zealand bush outside of the cities is â€Å"all so gigantic and tragic—and even in the bright sunlight it is so passionately secret. †[13] For Mansfield, the bush embodies the history of a people whose lives have been interrupted and displaced by European settlers. [14] After wars, brutal colonial practices, and European diseases had devastated the local Maori population, the bush became a haunting monument to their presence. As the Burnell family settles down to sleep on the first night in their new home, â€Å"far away in the bush there sounded a harsh rapid chatter: â€Å"Ha-ha-ha†¦ Ha-ha-ha. †[15] In her subtle way, Mansfield unveils the voices of those whose perspectives are excluded from this portrait of nocturnal domestic harmony. In a similar way, the aloe plant exudes an unfathomable history that is beyond the time and place of the Burnells. Even its age—implied by the fact that it flowers â€Å"once every hundred years†Ã¢â‚¬â€suggests that the aloe exists on a different scale than its human beholders. [16] In its ancient, superhuman scale, the aloe gestures towards the â€Å"gigantic,† indicating a subtle, but implicitly threatening power within, or in proximity of the home. The aloe is a kind of lacuna in the imperial landscape of New Zealand, whose power threatens the colonial household and its control over the landscape. [17] By disrupting and encroaching upon the ostensibly safe domestic sphere, the aloe also echoes the â€Å"unheimlich,† or uncanny, an aesthetic concept explored by Sigmund Freud in his 1919 essay, â€Å"The Uncanny. † The uncanny becomes, in part, an invasive force violating the sacred, domestic sphere and hearkens back to a previously repressed or hidden impulse: â€Å"The uncanny is something which ought to have remained hidden but has come to light. †[18] In â€Å"Prelude,† the aloe is initially depicted as a threatening force that â€Å"might have had claws instead of roots. The curving leaves seemed to be hiding something. †[19] Positioned within the safe space of their property, the aloe is a menacing, ungovernable force that seems to encroach upon it. The plant becomes part of the repressed history of the landscape—a history that is only apparent to Kezia, her mother Linda Burnell, and her grandmother Mrs. Fairfield, who are attuned to the forces below the surface of the picturesque exterior. Violent Underpinnings Beneath many of Mansfield’s picturesque domestic scenes are moments of violence and rupture. In â€Å"Garden Party,† for instance, a poor man falls to his death during the preparations for a much-anticipated social gathering of the wealthy Sheridan family, undermining the convivial spirit of the occasion. In â€Å"Prelude,† Pat, the handyman, slaughters a duck while the children watch with grotesque enthrallment as it waddles for a few steps after being decapitated. â€Å"The crowning wonder† of the dead duck walking hearkens back to Burke’s sublime, which is experienced in â€Å"Prelude† within the confines of the private residence. [20] The sublimity of this apparent defiance of the properties of death acts as a dramatic external force imposing on the observers’ intellect and reason in a profoundly Burkian way. But later that night, when the duck is placed in front of the patriarch, Stanley Burnell, â€Å"it did not look as if it had ever had a head. †[21] The duck’s picturesque dressing—â€Å"its legs tied together with a piece of string and a wreath of little balls of stuffing round it†Ã¢â‚¬â€conceals its violent death. [22] In a similar way, the â€Å"awfully nice† picturesque house is imposed upon the landscape, as if it had never been any other way. [23] Through reconfiguration and transformation, a new imperial order conceals the fact that an older order once lay beneath it. In both cases, the picturesque functions as a way of naturalizing the violent order of domination. As Pat’s golden earrings distract Kezia from her grief over the duck’s death, the duck’s pretty garnish conceals its â€Å"basted resignation. †[24] There is no such thing as a pure aesthetics, Mansfield seems to suggest, as each serene moment is implicated in some act of violence, brutality, or suppression. In â€Å"Prelude,† the good-natured Pat disrupts a pre-existing picturesque scene in which ducks â€Å"preen their dazzling breasts† amidst the pools and â€Å"bushes of yellow flowers and blackberries. †[25] Tellingly, the duck pond contains a bridge, a typical feature of the picturesque that reconciles or bridges the gap between different aspects of the scenery. In this way, the Burnell family’s cultivation of the land by planting and slaughtering ducks disrupts another underlying order. Their unquestioning appropriation of this pre-existing order mirrors the way colonial life disrupted and undermined the indigenous Maori life. Juxtaposing two picturesque scenes that interrupt and conflict with one another, Mansfield questions and unravels the conventional image of the picturesque. This interplay of various conflicting aesthetic orders constitutes part of Mansfield’s modernist style, in which aesthetic forms are ruptured, fragmented, and overturned. As the yard’s landscape bears traces of the Maori past, so the quiet harmony of the Burnells’ domesticity is underscored by deep, unspoken tensions and an animosity that hints at the uncanny. In fact, the only character who expresses any contentment is Stanley, who reflects, â€Å"By God, he was a perfect fool to feel as happy as this! †[26] Yet even he shudders upon entering his new driveway, as â€Å"a sort of panic overtook Burnell whenever he approached near home. †[27] Beneath this veneer of marital bliss and familial harmony, his wife Linda occasionally ignores her children and expresses hatred towards her husband and his aggressive sexuality: â€Å"there were times when he was frightening—really frightening. When she screamed at the top of her voice, ‘You are killing me. ’†[28] Meanwhile Stanley and Beryl, Linda’s sister, seem to have a flirtatious, indecent relationship: â€Å"Only last night when he was reading the paper her false self had stood beside him and leaned against his shoulder on purpose. Hadn’t she put her hand over his†¦ so that he should see how white her hand was beside his brown one. †[29] Dramatizing these dynamics, Mansfield suggests that a â€Å"happy† household outside of town is not as â€Å"dirt cheap† as Stanley boasts; it comes at the cost of servitude, sexual aggression, and a ravaged Maori landscape. [30] Through these layers, which Mansfield subtly strips off one at a time, she artfully exposes the way that an existing political and aesthetic order is not what it seems to be or how it has always been. Her short stories are fraught with their own tensions; while exposing the picturesque as false and absurd, she nevertheless draws on its conventional associations. Similarly, her subtle attempts to question colonial power are embedded in a seemingly idealized portrait of colonial life. Mansfield creates a seemingly beautiful or normal image, such as the happy family in â€Å"Prelude,† â€Å"Bliss,† or â€Å"Garden Party,† and then slowly challenges it through a subtle counter-narrative. In this way, her deployment of modernist techniques is less pronounced than that of James Joyce and her other modernist contemporaries. Just as she challenges aesthetic conventions, Mansfield unravels the reader’s ideas about her own stories by presenting a seemingly beautiful, transparent narrative that is haunted by tensions, lacunae, and opacity. Like the headless walking duck, these fictions of transparency and harmony quickly collapse upon closer inspection.

Physics in Sports Essay Example for Free

Physics in Sports Essay Everything from kicking a ball into a goal to running from one side to the other side of the field is based on physics. Physics plays a key role in sports; it can impact on a player either positively or even negatively. Gravity, friction, motion and projectile affects sport in every aspect. How physics affects Sports No matter how hard or high you kick a ball as a result of gravity it will be pulled back down to earth. Although the rate at which it descends may vary on its mass and surface area, it will still have to come down. If thrown at any other angle than 90iit will have a parabolic path (trajectory). Also air resistance and friction will reduce the rate at which the ball moves. The law of conservation of energy also plays a major role in sports. In football if you kick a ball you are transferring kinetic energy from your foot to the ball. From the pendulum balls by the side you can see how energy transfer works. If you lift the ball at left then energy will be passed on to the neighbouring ball and as a result the ball at the end will move the same distance from which it was released on the other side. Similarly in this diagram the character kicks the ball transferring kinetic energy from his foot to the ball. The ball moves and rises and therefore the kinetic energy will be converted into gravitational potential energy. Speed is another factor that is based on physics. In any sports using the force applied, time and the mass you can work out the final/initial velocity assuming that initial/final velocity is zero. Alternatively you can work out speed if you are given the time taken and distance it travels. How technological development has made the data collected more valid and reliable than with traditional methods of studying mechanics. Technology has developed at a staggering rate over the recent years. This allowed us to measure data much more accurately, as humans can make errors in timing due to reaction time both at start and end. Also the development of light gates allowed us to measure speed, time and acceleration. This can then be plotted on a graph and the graph can drawn/ edited in real time (as the measurements are taken the graph can be plotted and the line of best fit can be changed). Experiment for measuring Speed You can measure speed using a simple tennis ball. Set a straight horizontal track and makes sure it is straight. Measure the length of the track. You will need a timer to time the experiment. Roll the tennis ball through the measured distance and time it. Then use V=S/T (Velocity=Displacement/Time) to find out Speed at which it was travelling. Alternatively the velocity can be measure by setting a light gate near the end of the track and connecting it to a Data logger, and this will display the data on the screen, so that it is easier for you to read. You have to set up the data logger so that it measures speed also you have to choose the diameter of the ball which will pass through the light gate. Sources: Edexcel AS Physics Ann Fullick, Patrick Fullick, Miles Hudson, Sue Howarth Pearson (2008) page 46 47 http://www. soccerballworld. com/Physics. htm Physics World magazine, June 1998 pg 25-27. http://physics-of-sport. net/basketball. html http://www. serioussoccer. net/Documents/PhysicsofSoccer. pdf.

Behavioral economics and economic man

Behavioral economics and economic man How Behavioral Economics Rescue Economic Man From The Selfishness Behavioral economics is one single most influential and dynamic area in the current economics. Applying some insights from psychological science(s) to the economic models so as to understand better the economics decision making, the behavioral look has provided new and important ways for the economists to understand why different people make different choices that they make. The purpose of this article therefore is to explain how behavioral economics rescue the economic man from the selfishness in which he finds himself. Economic man is an imaginary perfect rational person who maximizes his/her economic welfare or being and achieves the consumer equilibrium by thinking marginally all the time. The importance of this concept is hinged in the theory of consumer behavior in which real people function such as this fictional entity (Wansink, 2006). On the other hand, economics is a group of ideas and conventions put together by different economists which they accept and use to reason along with. It is mainly a culture of doing things mainly by the economists. Behavioral economics therefore represents the transformation of such culture and it is a field of economics that study how decision-making process influences reached decisions in any organization as well as in any individual (Ainslie, 1992). Neoclassical economics postulates an economic man in any system is the main course of being economic as well as the course of being rational. This economic man is assumed to have good knowledge is different aspects of his surrounding which is not clearly complete (Wansink, 2006). This man is assumed to posses a well organized and a stable system of personal preferences and better kills of calculation on the best action to take so as to make him attain the highest benefits as compared to other people. The axioms of the consumer choices that underlie the economic man ensure that he, the economic man, is minimally rational and consistent in the choices that he makes because he always prefers more of a thing to less and he is able to efficiently allocate his low income among numerous things that he desires so as to enable him achieve a global utility maximum. In a standard welfare model, habits and culture are assumed to take a fixed position or at least change slowly during a given time period so that the cultural context of the Homo economicus/ economic man does not enter the analysis stage. The way tastes and preferences are formed is assumed to be outside the purview of economics because they are not matters of dispute (Stigler and Becker, 1977). According to Veblens (1898), an Economic man is a homogeneous (Uniform) globule of desire full of self interest. Self-interest is defined by different economists as all things that are intangible and tangible to human beings (Solow, 1993) but in practice the real meaning of utility is radically narrowed down to mean the consumption of goods in the market. Any increase in the welfare is equated to the increase in the economic output. The Economists are aware of public goods, intransitivity, Veblen effects and interdependent utilities but all these real-world phenomena are very difficult to include in the general equilibrium framework that currently dominate the economic policy recommendations (Hirsch, 1976). Different subjects explain the economic man in different terms pointing to the same meaning. For instance, biology explains the economic man as a selfish gene while regarding it as a concept that is used to explain the overall selfishness of any living thing especially man and for the direction of evolution. Richard Dawkins with his evolution theory coined this term in his book titled The Selfish Gene (Ainslie, 1992) as a notion of competition, struggle for survival/existence, natural selection and survival of the fittest in his idea of genes as self replicators. In a teleological account, evolution of the biological life is explained as being driven by these replicators, genes. The conclusion drawn here is that the successful replicators are very selfish that otherwise they would not replicate successfully. In order to protect and preserve their replication process, these genes create avenues of self-preservation in form of living things, their bodies and minds. From this type of re asoning, Dawkins (1976, p. 2) concludes that human nature cannot be anything but selfish as its very essence is composed of very selfish units in the name of genes. Later, Dawkins expanded his biological research by considering these genes as self-contained wholes things. But, as Maynard Smith states in Barlow (1991, p. 195), this Selfish Gene does not contain any new facts but rather offers a new world view. The basic to this view is the notion that competition and the virtuousness of the selfish behavior of biological units are rife in ever being. It is from this view that the biologist Ghiselin (1974, p. 247) writes concerning the species and nature that natural economy is competitive from start to the end .This can be seen in the impulses which lead an animal to sacrifice herself for another turn out to have their rationale in gaining more advantage over a third animal especially where it is in her own interest. Therefore, every organism can reasonably be expected to aid her fellow organisms yet if given full chance to act in her own interest, nothing but speed will restrain her from brutalizing, from murdering, from maiming her mate or child (Andrei, 1999). This perspective of the biological world replicates the economic perspective of human nature as being openly self-centered, rational in being consistent in choices they make and characterized by selfishness which is constrained by expediency (Frank, 1988). Strong intellectual thoughts in both economics and biology see the market economy as being full of utility-maximizing individuals without room for cooperation other than for a single individual to gain the immediate advantage over other individuals (Johnson, 2003). With the above explanation, there are three areas that tend to look at the economic man in a bid to get him out of his selfishness. These areas include the neoclassical economics, the human behavior and the behavioral economics. The criticism of these three areas against each other really explains the demerits of the economic man and the associated selfishness to each other. In the neoclassical economics, economics is the study of the way resources are allocated to their uses. In this school of thinking, economics is said to be the study which considers human behavior as a relation between alternative ends and scarce means. Virtually every neoclassical economist is a positive economist though there are a number of positive economists that are not neoclassical in nature (Harbaugh et al, 2002). Therefore, neoclassical economists consider the study of resource allocation as scientific and not a normative study. In addition, a neoclassical economist believes that free markets always bring about efficient resource allocation (Kagel Roth, 1997). With this understanding, neoclassical economists have made a number of assumptions. Depending on the definition that one can prefer, it can be said that economists are more interested in the resource allocation in nature and causes wealth of nations or perhaps something different. Irrespective of all these, all such things depend on the actions and decisions of people (Luce, 2000). Therefore, so as to get started, economists made or make some assumptions about people and about how individuals act and how they decide how to act. However, the economists have not as a rule based these assumptions on the psychological views of human minds. Rather, most of them have started from an assumption that few modern psychologists might support (Dahlquist Kirkpatrick, 2007). This assumption is that human beings/ individuals are highly rational and self-interested/ selfish. Many neoclassical economists assume that human beings make their choices in a way that gives them the best possible advantage (s) especially given the circumstances that they face. Such circumstances includes such things as the prices of the resources, goods and services available, scarce income, limited and localized technology for transforming such resources into finished goods and services, taxes imposed on them by their organizations, regulations by their governments and other objective limitations on the choices that they make. In Strict terms, neoclassical economics does not just assume that real and concrete people are rational and self-interested as it may seem. Rather, many economists assume that the economic systems work as if they consist of the rational and self-interested persons. People exists in all sorts ranging from sneaky and altruistic to smart and dumb but if the average is an individual that is rational and self-interested, then the system most definitely will act as if human beings in general were self-interested and rational (Hersh, 2002). The basis of neoclassical economics assumes that deviations from the rational self-interests are random and therefore will cancel out making the system to act as if every person is rational and self-interested. As a consequence, neoclassical economics studies the economic system that consists of rational, self-interested persons (Luce, 2000). However, it is known that there are some examples of non-self-interested behavior of human beings who for instance give to the church and who sacrifice themselves in other ways and common sense suggests that human beings are often irrational chumps. There are two very issues here to closely scrutinize. The first one is that human beings are at times altruistic. One can not avoid concluding that people sometimes act on ethical values making it hard to see how the selfishness of this majority can cancel out this self-sacrifice of many others (Kagel Roth, 1997). Therefore, people often act on non self interested values but whenever they do so they act on their own values and not of the government or some philosopher(s) or the economist that is observing (Dahlquist Kirkpatrick, 2007). This might be called a rational individualism rather than a rational self interest. What is left then is the rationality if human beings are not always self-interested. A broader neoclassical economics presumes that human beings choose things in a way that best advances their own values, altruistic or self-interested. The critics of the neoclassical economics sometimes argue that economics is an apology for self-interest. We can therefore note the behavioral approachs criticism to the neoclassical economics that man is always selfish and self centered. The behavioral approach indicates that not all people are self centered since many individuals act on behalf of other people (Harrison, 2005). This indicated that it is not true that all people are selfish. Rather, some are and it should not be generalized that all human beings are selfish to conform to the economic man. However, human behavior is not always selfish and behavioral economics rescues economic man from the selfish gene. In other words, the behavioral economics criticizes the neoclassical economics whether people are always rational or not (Luce, 2000). The neoclassical economics is at times criticized for its normative bias against human beings especially on their assumption. In this perspective, it does not lay more focus on explaining the actual economies instead of describing a utopia in which Pareto optimality applies. The assumption that human beings act rationally can be seen as ignoring very important aspects of the human behavior. Many people see the economic man to be very different from real people. Majority of the economists, even contemporary economists, have criticized the model of economic man. Neoclassical economics assumes people to be the lightning calculators of pleasures and pains, who oscillate like the homogeneous globule of desires of happiness under impulses of stimuli which shifts about an area but leaves then intact. Large organizations might come closer to the neoclassical ideal of maximizing profits but this is not necessarily seen as desirable whenever it arises at the expense of negligence of the wider social issues (Fehr Gachter, 2000). The response to this argument is that neoclassical economics is more of a descriptive statement rather than a normative one. It therefore addresses such problems with the concepts of private against those of social utility. Many critics of behavioral economics typically insist on the rationality of the economic agents. They contend that the experimentally observed behavior is not applicable to the market situations as the learning opportunities and competition ensures at a close approximation of the rational behavior. Equally, many others note that the cognitive theories like the prospect theory are models of decision making and not generalized economic behavior hence are only applicable to the sort of once-off decision problems that are presented to experiment the survey respondents. Traditional economists are very skeptical of the survey based techniques which are put to use extensively in the behavioral economics. Economists typically emphasize on the revealed preferences over the stated preferences from the survey in determining the economic value (Fehr Gachter, 2000). Experiments and surveys should be designed very carefully so as to avoid systemic biases and lack of incentive compatibility. Some economists on the other hand dismiss these criticisms claiming that the results are reproduced in various situations and nations which can lead to good theoretical insight. Behavioral economists on the other hand have incorporated these criticisms by focusing more on the field studies as compared to the than lab experiments. Some economists therefore look at this split as the fundamental schism between the experimental economics and the behavioral economics. However, prominent experimental and behavioral economists overlap some techniques and approaches in giving answers to common questions. In addition, many other proponents of the behavioral economics have taken note that neoclassical models many times fail to predict the outcomes in the real world context (Luce, 2000). Behavioral insights can therefore be used to update the neoclassical equations and the economists have noted that these revised models do not only reach similar correct predictions as the traditional models but predicts correctly some outcomes where the traditional models fail. As an economic student, I object to the fact that man is always selfish. This drives to the numerous criticisms of the economic man. Criticisms of this notion that human beings are purely selfish go back to the start of the modern utility theory. Edgeworth (1881), for instance, in his theory of exchange included the term accounting for pure altruism. He stated that people might suppose that an object X with own utility is P tends, in a reflective and calm moment, to maximize his/her benefits from P to P+, where the + is a coefficient of effective sympathy. Equally, Mr. Veblen (1898) criticized the neoclassical concept of human beings as coldly calculating and coolly rational and this is still one most insightful literature among the criticisms of neoclassical theories (Ainslie, 1992). The other early, though neglected, criticism is that of Mr. Georgescu (1954) who stated that the individual utility not only depends on the individual well-being but also the communitys well-being to wh ich the individuals belong. This truly indicates that human beings are not egocentric and self centered but also works for the benefit of the society in which such a person comes from. Many other economists as well as just writers investigating the behavior of the human beings have come up with more criticisms while explaining the behavior of human beings. For instance, Frank (1988) and Hirsch (1976) all emphasized on the social nature of human beings and their decision-making process which is always associated with their behavior. It is true that that a big number of economic models have been developed to give explanation about altruism, charity, bequests and benevolence among human beings and how they exercise them. In doing all these, many economists together with many other social scientists have been quite ingenious in finding the explanations for the intentions for such behavior in self-interest among human beings. The possible selfish motivations or intentions that apparently lead to altruistic behavior include the enlightened self-interest, the pursuit of reputation among people, anticipation of reciprocity from other people and fear inherent in human being s that they will lose whatever little they have and as a consequence they will be faced with shame (Henrich, Henrich, 2008). Further, different explanations indicate that personal utility can be derived from one persons satisfaction or his contribution to it together with the benefits that adherence to the social contract may provide. The motives of altruistic behavior among human being however can be studied in different categories. For instance, from a psychological point of view, two egoistic motives for altruistic behavior can be identified. The first category is based on the social learning and enforcement amongst people while the second category is based on arousal reduction (Fehr Gachter, 2000). However, the theoretical and empirical investigation to the existence of altruism, different economists argue that altruism can also arise from peoples empathic emotions towards others. In some occasions an individual takes the perspective and position of another person that he/she perceives to be in need without feeling distress and helps to reduce his/her need. Given this explanation, one can conclude from numerous similar examples of altruistic behavior on which human behavior is based that moral commitments and economic factors shape each other and evolve and change within a given social environment and structu res (Arnsperger Varoufakis, 2005). Having explained this, one can forget that neoclassical theories insist on the fact that human beings have the selfish gene dominant in its system. This is the one hat is responsible for the selfishness in the economic man. However, there are a number of criticisms of this argument mainly based on the behavioral economics exercise. The selfish gene, just like the economic man, has also come under attack from numerous directions in general. The selfish gene together with its extension known as the extended phenotype has for a long time been criticized based on the fact that phenotype-distinction is not as clear as its proposers supposes. According to the explanations by the extended phenotype ideas, changes in the genes are reflected in the phenotypes and phenotypical effects determines the selection of genetic replicators (Henrich, Henrich, 2008). Therefore, the phenotypical effects preserve or replicate themselves by means of their extended phenotypes. These phenotypical effects may be morphological or behavioral. For example, a phenotypic expression of the beaver genes is the dam it builds. However, the phenotypical transformations are not exclusively triggered or induced by the changes of the genetic replicators but can as well result from the changes in the elements of the environment (Rabin, Loewenstein, Camerer 2003). On a very close examination and scrutiny, the proponents of the selfish gene idea are not dogmatic enough as popularly believed by many people especially the economists. Some people argue that higher properties of life are emergent in virtually all situations. In addition, it is argued that the accepted explanations of causality from genes to culture just the same as from genes to any other products of life, are not heredity alone. Equally, they are not environmental alone. It is mainly the interaction between the two. Therefore, all possible expressions of phenotype are always encoded in genes though particular attributes which express themselves depends on the triggers from the surrounding environment (Dasgupta, 2002). These phenotypic expressions may as well depend on how an individual integrates within a group. The controversy over the selfish gene is very important to the economists and economics in general because of its implication that competition is of much more complicated sort as compared to that which is assumed by the economic man (Fehr Gachter, 2000). This competition is much more complicated as compared to the isolated people competing for the immediate gain. Likewise, cooperation is complicated as compared to a simple tit-for-tat strategy. Not only does the economic mans model fail the test of realism but also fails to offer accurate predictions about the human behavior. Such failures are evident in the recent empirical findings by numerous economists. In the standard theory, the economic man as described by neoclassical economics lead to micro-foundations approach to the economic policy. Macro economies are assumed to operate by the similar rules of constrained optimization which are used to describe individual organizations as well as households together with their people (Varoufakis Hargreaves-Heap, 2004). Normally, a representative human being whose behavior is indicated and outlined by a well-behaved utility function and a representative organization outlined by a well-behaved production function are made use of to model some real-world phenomenon such as the global climate change or foreign trade. Without the assumptions of economic man and perfect competition such optimization models cannot reach a unique and stable equilibrium. Neoclassical models assume a strictly rational behavior in human consumption with constant returns in production and rely on the prices to dynamically adjust demand and supply. In relation to behavioral economics, the existence of pure altruism and other forms of pro-social behaviors has much more implications to the economic policy. The first policy implication is that the impersonal markets are not and not anticipated to be the best vehicles for the expression of human preferences (Fehr Gachter, 2000). Whenever economic decisions do not conform or tally with the axioms of consumer choices, market outcomes are not rational and therefore, there is no any reason to believe that a competitive equilibrium can represent social optimum. In as much as the market restricts choices to individuals then such choices exclude the richness of human behavior (Thaler, 1991). Equally, depending on who among peoples ancestors is considered human, people have been making decisions for many years based on personal interactions, direct negotiations and imposition of rewards and punishments so as to facilitate cooperation. It is however true that people have difficulties in ma king social decisions especially in impersonal markets (Frank, 1988). Even then, the prevailing trend is toward pushing more critical decisions into the market framework. In conclusion, behavioral economics rescues the economic man from the notion that he is selfish. It is true that human being s are always pursuing their self interests and goals given their human nature, but it not true that they are totally engulfed in their selfishness (Wansink, 2006). The neoclassical economics theories explain well about the economic man and his interests but it should not be generalized that human beings are selfish beings ever in the world (Fehr, E. Gachter, 2000). Human behaviors rescue man from the aforesaid selfishness because thee are many other human beings that sacrifice themselves to support other people in their society. This takes them out of the selfness that the neoclassical economics advocate. Human behavior is therefore not always selfish as is can be portrayed by the neoclassical economics (Harbaugh et al, 2002). Many people have been influenced by religion and molded in a way that they value human life and fellow human beings to an extent that even if they are seeking self interests, they go out of their way to help others achieve they needs. For instance, doctors world over might have their intrinsic desire to posses a lot of money but they always help their patients to gain their health so as to continue working for their good. Equally, different countries can only prosper if every person or at least majority of the citizens works for the good of their nation rather than working for their own gain. Should such happen, that nation is doomed to be poor. Therefore, human behavior explained in behavioral economics plays a great role in rescuing the economic man from the selfish gene. References Ainslie, G. (1992). Picoeconomics, London: Cambridge University Press Arnsperger, C., Varoufakis Y. (2005). Most Peculiar Failure: How neoclassical economics turn theoretical failure into academic and political power. Erkenntnis, 59, 157-188. Rabin, M., Loewenstein, G., Camerer, C. (2003). Advances in the Behavioral Economics, New Jersey: Princeton University Press Dasgupta, P. (2002). Modern Economics and its Critics: Models, Realism and Social Construction, London: Cambridge University Press Faruk, G. (2008). The Behavioral economics and the game theory. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition Fehr, E. Gachter, S. (2000). Fairness and Retaliation: Economics of reciprocity. The Journal of the Economic Perspectives, 14, 159 p. 81. Harbaugh, W., Krause, K. Liday, G. (2002). Bargaining by children. Unpublished manuscript: University of Oregon Varoufakis, Y. Hargreaves-Heap, S. (2004). Game Theory: A critical text, London and New York: Routledge Harrison, W. (2005). Advances in Behavioral Economics. Journal of Economic Psychology, 25, 793-795. Henrich, S., Henrich, J. (2008). The Culture and Evolutionary Origin of Cooperation: Kinship, Reciprocity and Ethnicity. London: Oxford University Press Johnson, A. (2003). The Families of a forest: Matsigenka Indians of the Peruvian Amazon. California: University of California. Kagel, H., Roth, E., eds. (1997). The handbook of the experimental economics. New Jersey: Princeton U. P Dahlquist, J., Kirkpatrick, C. (2007). A Complete Resource for the Market Technicians. pp.49 Luce, R. (2000). The Utility of Losses and Gains: Measurement-theoretical and Experimental Approaches. New Jersey: Lawrence Publishers. Hersh, S. (2002). Beyond Fear and Greed: Understanding the behavioral finance and the psychology of investing. London: Oxford University Press Andrei, S. (1999). Inefficient Markets: Introduction to Behavioral Finance. London: Oxford University Press. Smith, V. (2002). The Method in Experiment: A Rhetoric and Reality. Experimental Economics, 5, 91-110. Varoufakis, Y. (1998). Foundations of Economics: A beginners companion, London and New York: Routledge publishers Edgeworth, Y. (1881). Mathematical Psychics. London: L.S.E. Reprint 1934 publishers. Frank, R. (1988). The Passions within Reasons: The Strategic Role of Emotions. New York: Norton Publishers Hirsch, F. (1976). Social Limit to Growth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press Thaler, H. (1991). Quasi Rational Economics. New York: Russell Sage Publishers Foundation. Wansink, B. (2006). A process of Mindless Eating: Why people eat more than they think. New York: Bantam Books publishers

Case Study: Office Depot Essay -- Business Case Study

(1) What marketing orientation or approach does Office Depot appear to be using now? How does Office Depot create value for its customers? Describe two things it could do it move it more toward implementing the marketing concept. After the situation has been addressed by Steve Haines, Office Depot appears to be using a societal marketing concept approach. A societal marketing approach is carried out by making good marketing decisions through considering consumers’ wants, the company’s requirements, consumers’ long-run interests, and society’s long-run interests. This tactic focuses on delivering value to customers to improve the consumer and the society’s well-being. Office Depot appears to be focusing on the building profitable customer relationships process of marketing to build value. They are taking their customer relationship management process into account to build their customer relations by delivering superior customer value and satisfaction. They are also realizing that their customers are very important to the success of their firm and are striving to fix any problems associated with their actions. They are trying to create value for their customers by building strong relationships for more reasons than just the idea of profits. A business’s marketing aim is to build specific relationships with the â€Å"right† customers. It is essential to create value for these targeted customers and to obtain a higher customer equity. Two things that Office Depot should do to move it more toward carrying out the marketing concept could include addressing the issues with their services directly to the employees and allowing their customers to realize that their feedback is greatly appreciated and that their ideas and opinions will b... ...s customer service operation and learned of Steve's story, what steps would you take? I would be very upset if I were in charge of Office Depot's customer service operation and learned of Steve's story. I would take several steps to try to resolve the situation. It would be a good idea to require my employees to take several courses that focus on stressing specific customer relations skills. I would also design a policy that each employee would be required to follow when dealing with customers. This would ensure that all employees were displaying good customer relation skills. I also think that it would be a good idea to individually address this specific situation to the employee involved. Maybe, for example, the employee is not aware of what he is doing wrong. Employees need to be individually and specially trained in their field of association with the company.

Essay --

I chose to discuss clean eating for this assignment as I truly believe that nutrition is the cornerstone for good health. I believe this statement based on science and facts, and not what is trendy or currently being discussed during the evening news. Science has shown us that our bodies work on a cellular level, and if we feed those cells poorly in the forms of high-fat, high-calorie, processed foods, which offer no nutritional value, then the cells cannot do their jobs properly and have a negative impact on health. The term clean eating has different meanings to different people; however, all agree that at the heart of the phrase, it shows that people recognize that nutrition plays a vital part in health. So how and why does nutrition play a vital part in health? This paper will discuss the aspects. First, begin by eating whole foods. This one is pretty straightforward -- instead of a banana nut muffin, eat a banana and some nuts! The primary principle of eating clean is to replac e processed foods with fresh and natural foods. To me, this means foods that haven't had anything added to them, and haven't had anything valuable taken away. So, even if you're not growing quinoa in your back yard, you can buy this whole grain in the bulk section of your market, or in a box, where the only ingredient is quinoa, and only quinoa. That's a far cry from a refined grain, that's been stripped of its fiber-rich bran (outer skin) and nutritious germ (the inner part that sprouts into a new plant), bleached, and doctored up with preservatives. Let ingredients guide you I don't think it's realistic to never eat anything that comes out of a jar, box, or bag, but when you do, the very first thing a clean eater looks at is the ingredient list. ... ...l, the phrase "you are what you eat" is literally true, so being thoughtful about your food just makes sense. Nutrients create the foundation for the structure and function of every cell in your body, and because your body is in a continuous state of maintenance and repair, the health and functioning of your cells is directly determined by what you've been eating. Whole, natural foods provide the building blocks that go to work to uphold your muscles, bones, organs, immune system, and hormones. So cleaning up your diet is a lot like starting to build and support your body with the highest quality raw materials. For these reasons, I've seen a commitment to clean eating truly transform my clients' lives, from clearer, glowing skin and shinier hair to more energy, better mood and sleep quality, clearer thinking, less aches and pains, and even a greater sex drive.

The Wealth of Nations Essay -- essays research papers

In 1759 Adam Smith, then a thirty-six year old Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow University, published his Theory of Moral Sentiments. This work attracted the attention of the guardians of the immensely wealthy Duke of Buccleuch towards retaining its author as a tutor to the youthful Duke whilst on a protracted, and hopefully educational, "Grand Tour" of continental Europe. While tutoring from 1763 Adam Smith found some of the time spent in the French provinces hard to fill and seems to have begun his masterpiece An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, as a way of taking up otherwise idle hours in the summer of 1764. Overall however he derived much personal philosophical benefit from these months of journeying on the continent. In Paris he met amongst others, the "Physiocrat" economic theorist (and court Physician) Quesnay and the French Ministers, Turgot and Necker. The French economic policy, during these times were conducted in accordance with the "Mercantilism"(the theory and system of political economy prevailing in Europe after the decline of feudalism, based on national policies of accumulating bullion, establishing colonies and a merchant marine, and developing industry and mining to attain a favorable balance of trade) that had held sway in the economic thinking of Europe for some three centuries. Mercantilism expected that governmental control would be exercised over industry and trade in accordance with the theory that national strength (i.e. the Royal states treasury) is increased by a preponderance of exports over imports. By nature, back then France was fitted to be a great agricultural country, a great producer and exporter of corn and wine; but French legislators for several generations had wanted to counteract the apparently natural bias of French economic life towards agriculture, and had tried to make France an exporter of manufactured goods. Like most legislators in those times, they had been prodigiously impressed by the ambitious position which the maritime powers, as they were then called (the comparatively little powers of England and Holland), were able to take in the politics of Europe. They saw that this influence came from wealth, that this wealth was made in trade and manufacture, and therefore they dete... ...one constitutes the ultimate aim and end of economic life. Although Economics has moved on in many was from the outlook and policies endorsed in the Wealth of Nations that epoch-making publication remains as perhaps the most famous economics book of all time. Governments in search of a strengthening of their states through economic policy, and many individuals in search of personal gain, have all drawn lessons from its pages. Powerful movements that led to the emergence of Modern Capitalism were substantially based on Smith's work and hence he deserves to be regarded as one of the most dramatically influential philosophers or philosophic writers of modern times. This book is a comprehensive and systematic theory of an economy. It shows the connections and relationships among variables. The Wealth of Nations also talks about the division of labor. Smith states that the division of labor starts the process of economic growth. One growth is started, accumulation keeps it going. There are three benefits of division of labor. First; increase in skill and dexterity. Second; save time in moving from job to job. And lastly, the invention of new machinery.

A Dream Shattered or Still a Big Potential Essay

A DREAM SHATTERED OR STILL A BIG POTENTIAL: A CASE STUDY OF TATA NANO Abstract Keeping the potential of Indian Automobile Industry in mind, a few years back, around 2006 Ratan Tata conceived the idea of a tiny car with even a tinier price tag for rapidly growing middle class segment. Tata Nano was seen as a triumph of home grown engineering ; as making a product which encapsulates the dreams of millions of Indians with all the elements of mix i.e. safety, engineering, design, efficiency, style at a price tag of one lakh was in itself a challenge. The intense media scrutiny about the few cases of Nano catching fire brought a remarkable dent in Nano sales and shattered the customers’ confidence in car. Since then Nano is struggling hard to regain its strong image in the eyes of its customers as still the huge potential of middle segment is unexplored. The discussion arises about the turnaround strategies of Nano keeping in view its initial launch success, a few quality failures and distorted perceptions in the minds of its customers. This discussion will further add to the design of strategies for future new products which are well strategized for success with clear and defined conceivable about the costs, and market segments but fail due to a few small but significant mistakes. Keywords: Product Development,, USP (unique selling preposition), Buzz marketing, Communication Complacency, Strategic Repositioning, Resurrection. *This case study is developed during the resurrection phase of Tata Nano in March 2012 for classroom discussion as a perfect illustration for analyzing various aspects in the launch of an innovative product,,its market acceptance , Changing people perceptions etc. National Conference on Emerging Challenges for Sustainable Business 2012 1087 A Dream Shattered or Still A Big Potential: A Case Study of Tata Nano Introduction Just a few months back, India overtook Brazil as the sixth largest passenger vehicle manufacturer in the world (Wikipedia Automobile industry). This proves the fact that the Indian Automobile Industry is moving at a fast pace. India is a growing market for Hatchbacks, Sedans, SUVs MUVs, Crossovers and MPVs. Among these small cars have emerged as a clear winner. In fact the country has become a leading centre in producing small cars. Keeping this potential of Indian Automobile Industry in mind , a few years back, around 2006 Ratan Tata conceived the idea of a tiny car with even a tinier price tag for rapidly growing middle class segment. Tata Nano achieved instant success when it was introduced as world’s cheapest car in the year 2009. Tata Nano was seen as a triumph of home grown engineering ; as making a product which encapsulates the dreams of millions of Indians with all the elements of mix i.e. safety, engineering, design, efficiency, style at a price tag of one lakh was in itself a challenge. And Tata’s seemed to fulfill all the promises to its customers by offering Nano. Majority of Indian population belong to middle class, when it comes to purchasing cars they look for the affordable vehicles. Few studies related to consumer buying behavior show that if an individual belonging to middle class wants to own a car then he can easily shell out `1 lac to `1.5 lakh. Thus, while buying a car, price tag becomes a prime factor. Though pricing is the prime factor, performance, style and durability also matter. So, Nano essentially being a dream project for Tatas, satisfied very competently all the criteria’s of a successful launch ,that is, tiny price tag, performance, design, style, brand, welcoming customers, mileage, space, interiors, looks, elegance and so on. But the irony started when the safest acclaimed car of Tata’s caught in flames while its way back from showroom to home. The intense media scrutiny about the few cases of Nano catching fire brought a remarkable dent in Nano sales and shattered the customers’ confidence in car. Since then Nano is struggling hard to regain its strong image in the eyes of its customers as still the huge potential of middle segment is unexplored. National Conference on Emerging Challenges for Sustainable Business 2012 1088 A Dream Shattered or Still A Big Potential: A Case Study of Tata Nano The discussion arises about the turnaround strategies of Nano keeping in view its initial launch success, a few quality failures and distorted perceptions in the minds of its customers. This discussion will further add to the design of strategies for future new products which are well strategized for success with clear and defined conceival about the costs, and market segments but fail due to a few small but significant mistakes. This discussion can further continue for strategic repositioning and turnaround of products accepted well in their initial stages of ‘PLC’ but matured very shortly due to certain significant marketing mistakes. Conceiving of the Idea The idea conceived about Nano was a dare dream of Tatas’ not because of its unbelievably affordable price but also because of the promise it held for providing safe personal mobility to a huge section of the Indian two wheeler riding population. It was an entirely new product Source: Statistics by Society of Indian Autommobile Manufacturers segment with a whole different dimension of its need to contain costs within a preset target of `1 lakh. The Nano price was the only certainty at the time idea was conceived . And then starting from a clean sheet of paper , the car was designed and developed keeping manufacturing costs, material costs and production costs at lowest possible level along with maintaining its character, style, adorable looks and finished quality. National Conference on Emerging Challenges for Sustainable Business 2012 1089 A Dream Shattered or Still A Big Potential: A Case Study of Tata Nano Problems in the Product Development Phase Ride for Tatas in the production of Nano had been anything but smooth. Tata built a Nano plant in West Bengal but was forced out in Oct., 2008 due to violent protest from farmers .This event resulted in the temporary delay in the production along with causing a huge loss of infrastructure costs of a plant almost ready for car production. Another plant was built at Sanand in Gujrat where the production finally started. These initial bottlenecks in the production somewhere affected the enthusiasm about the project and resulted in limited early availability which caused pre-bookings and lottery deliveries. This priced out many buyers negatively snatching out the momentum from the market. Almost from the start the project was plagued by problems and were magnified by intense media involvement. Most Awaited launch When India’s Tata Motors launched Nano in 2009, the concept of the world’s cheapest car in one of the fast growing vehicles markets seems pre-destined for success. At its launch , car buying dynamics seemed to be undergoing a subtle change. Tata dealers were flooded with queries from prospective buyers. People mainly middle class were anxiously waiting for it. Being the world’s cheapest car, Tata Nano had an edge over its competitors in terms of its pricing , which helped Tata to register decent sales figures initially. While choosing between Maruti Suzuki 800 and Tata Nano, people gave letter more weightage in terms of price and design. Its biggest USP (unique selling preposition ) was its attractive looks at lowest price. In March 2009, when Tata was launched it got advance bookings upto 2,00,000 cars but it went through lottery route to give the first 1,00,000 nanos to its lucky customers. Nano became the most coveted thing for two wheeler riders and Tata was so confident about its product that it did’nt go into any marketing plan for Nano. Its intense hype was itself doing its buzz marketing1. So, Tata got busy in producing Nanos to fulfill its intense demand but at the same time being very complacent about the market and customers perceptions of the car. 1. Buzz marketing is word of mouth recommendations by its existing users National Conference on Emerging Challenges for Sustainable Business 2012 1090 A Dream Shattered or Still A Big Potential: A Case Study of Tata Nano Sudden No-No for Nano Among all this hype when the new emerged middle segment of car owners were enjoying their ride in their sparkling stylish Nanos , first case of Nano catching fire was reported in March, 2010 while its trip from showroom to customer’s house. Another incident quoted the car went on flames soon after the driver reported a spark from the rear side of the car. The assurance of Tata’s cheapest car being safest proved ironical and the media which was giving intense scrutiny to the project did its job well during the bad times also. The security failure of the car completely broke the trust of the customers in Nano. A drastic decrease in sales was noticed in November 2010 (from 9000 units to 509 units per month) when company called its existing customers to install the safety devices in the car. So with in a year the brainchild of Tatas started seeming like a failure as its sales went nearly half within a year. Sales were far off the target of 25000 cars a month and the Nano plant with an annual capacity of 250000 cars kept producing only 8000 units a month till March 2011. Table 1: Sales Excerpts (From July 2009 to March 2012) Month and year Nano units sold July 2009 2475 Dec 2009 4001 March 2010 4710 April 2010 3525 July 2010 9000 Nov 2010 509 Dec 2010 5784 Source: various websites of Tata motors Month and year Jan 2011 April 2011 July 2011 Dec 2011 Jan 2012 Feb 2012 Mar 2012 Nano units sold 6703 10012 3260 7466 7723 9217 10475 National Conference on Emerging Challenges for Sustainable Business 2012 1091 A Dream Shattered or Still A Big Potential: A Case Study of Tata Nano Tata Nano Performance vs Automobile Industry Production (Passenger Vehicles) Industrial Scanning and analysis showed that the passenger vehicles production in the country was growing tremendously ( Fig. 3), but Nano sales showed a mixed trend till the mid of 2011 (Fig 2). The company took to replace the starter motors in the older models and launched a new model in 2012 but replacing of the parts could also affect the further sales of new model as well said , ‘Indian customers do not forgive easily’. So, there was a great challenge for Tata to retain its brand image. Inappropriate Market Positioning: Cheaper vs Affordable After the several months of disappointing sales of Nano, it became clear by the end of 2011that its cheapest tag has actually shunned its sales . The status conscious customer didn’t want to get associated with its ‘cheap’ tag and rather opted for slightly pricier rivals . Nobody wanted to be caught with a tag of ‘poor man’s car. So rather being a functional step above a motorcycle it became known as a cut-price car. Crucially car has struggled to find a core market. The overwhelming interest in the car brought all the mixed segments of the customers in the market. So, a distinctive strategy was missing to give a correct positioning and segmentation to the extremely distinctive product. Communication complacency Tatas relied heavily on the publicity rather than a definitely designed communication strategy. There was huge involvement from media, industry and public at large . Rather than leveraging this publicity Tata became complacent about the communication. It became the first car to be launched at zero cost of advertising with a huge success. The publicity generated was far greater than what could be generated through any conventional campaign. Tatas plea was that problem was not of the complacency. Because the Nano plant had to move from West Bengal to Gujarat, production timelines were difficult to maintain. With not enough cars being made, the company felt it didn’t have to advertise or even set up efficient distribution channels. But the hype about the car died down, and the stories about the fires gained prominence. National Conference on Emerging Challenges for Sustainable Business 2012 1093 A Dream Shattered or Still A Big Potential: A Case Study of Tata Nano On the hindsight, apart from being delayed, the first ads were not the most appropriate .They showcased couples ensconced in Nanos , While those on two wheelers stared at them balefully. It seemed to be just for people who have to stretch themselves to buy a car; rather it could have been for housewife or a youngster who had just turned 18. But the advertising focused at parity level. Tata seemed to ratify the media story about it being a Garibrath rather than a cool car. Another ad in the early 2011 also projected the same image featuring a girl in a decidedly rustic setting awaiting the family Nano. Initial ads of Tata Nano: Khushion ki Chabi Such mistakes by Tatas actually fuelled the perception of a poor man’s car. The car is too much of an emotional purchase . It’s the second biggest achievement after a house and the cheapest tag proved disastrous for Nano. Resurrection by Tatas Nano is the dream of Tatas and seeing the market flooded with so many small cars Tatas still see a huge potential in Nano and is seeming to undo its mistakes in the past. As quoted by Ratan Tata on the eve of Auto expo 2012 , ‘Nano is not a flop. We have lost an early opportunity due to mistakes in positioning and marketing the product.’ The new marketing campaign by Tata is all set to change the perception from a Garib rath to a cool car as it allows young to be so whimsical with the cool car that they can drive the several kilometers for a cup of perfect tea! Road to Lal Tippa National Conference on Emerging Challenges for Sustainable Business 2012 1094 A Dream Shattered or Still A Big Potential: A Case Study of Tata Nano Tata is going to launch Tata Nano CNG by the end of 2012. The company has given the car a new makeover by additional features like new interiors, a powerful gasoline engine, better fuel efficiency and attractive colors like champagne gold and papaya orange. Another initiative is offering Tata Nano happiness guarantee which more than doubles the car’s warranty from 18 months to four years insisting on its reliability. Offering fast track financing for buyers with loan approvals in 48 hours and reducing down payments to just `15000 is another measure. Tata is planning to enter new global market such as Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia and Bangladesh with Nano. The 2012 version of Nano was unveiled by the Tata in the end of 2011 and now as the fiscal year ended in March, the new efforts to promote the 2012 Nano in the Indian market have started paying off. After July 2011 till March 2012 Tata Nano has registered an increase in sales and crossed the 10000 mark at the end of the fiscal year 2011-12 (March 2012, 10475 units, Table1). The lovely Nano is a big beneficial car in small package and its value is being recognized gradually by the customers. Hence, with the conviction in mind that the potential of Nano market remains as vast as it was originally predicted; Tata is moving with some strong steps in the market as it is also planning to launch a diesel variant of Nano in near future which will prove a value preposition for its customers. Long way ahead Nano has to go a long way in realizing its dream of 20,000 plus units per month that would get its plant in the western state of Gujarat running full throttle which is presently moving at the level of around 10000 units per month. Hailed as a showpiece of innovation spawned from and targeted at the emerging upper middle class ; Nano is working hard to undo its mistakes in the past. As small car segment is having very strong potential, there is a flood of small car brands in the Indian market. It has to face strong competition from its near rivals such as Bajaj’s RE 60 , Maruti Suzuki Cervo ( approx. ` 1.5 lakh) , Maruti Alto and slightly pricier options Hyundai Santro, newly launched Hyundai Eon etc. Nano faces rising competition from used car segment National Conference on Emerging Challenges for Sustainable Business 2012 1095 A Dream Shattered or Still A Big Potential: A Case Study of Tata Nano also. Apart from the strong competitors, high inflation and slow economic growth also put another challenges for Tata Nano. Tata is doing hard to resurrect the product segment by intensive reliability engineering, advertising innovations for repositioning and strong distribution and service facilities to recollect the trust of its customers. Let’s see how Nano makes its makers proud amidst conflicting perceptions of customers, the immense competition and rising inflation by maintaining expected performance at its tiniest tag!!! Questions 1. What do you think were the reasons due to which Nano was such a welcome launch more than any other car launch in the industry previously? 2. As Cheapest car being its USP (Unique selling Preposition), how it went against the sales performance of Nano subsequently. Give key reasons. 3. â€Å"Intense Media attention about the product went for and against it also.† Elaborate . 4. How the changed perceptions about the car impacted its sales? Also give other key reasons for such a vast variation in its sales performance. 5. Despite the various resurrection efforts by Tata what potential do you see of Nano in rapidly growing small car segment in coming years in the view of rising competition in the segment? References: ‘Auto Expo 2012: Tata Nano is not a flop, just an opportunity wasted: Ratan Tata’, Economic Times, Jan 6, 2012. ‘No Takers: Is the Tata Nano Running Out of Gas?’, India Knowledge@Wharton, January 27, 2011 Buddiraja S. , ‘ Case Analysis in Marketing Management’, Tata Mcgraw hills, New Delhi. Dhingra Mayank, ‘Marketing Case Study: Tata Nano — Document Transcript’,( Aug 2009), Slideshare. India Today/ Business/Story New Delhi ,Jan 6 2012. Kotlar Phillip , ‘Marketing Management: a South Asian Perspective’ 13th Edition , Pearson Education,New Delhi. Statistics by Society of Indian Mobile Manufacturers ,http://www.siamindia.com/scripts/market-share.aspx Economic Times ,’World’s cheapest car’ tag backfires’, ,24 Jan, 2012 Web Sources: www.tatamotors.com/media/press-releases.php?id=732 www.zigwheels.com/tata-nano/ www.iol.co.za/business/business-news/home-sales-of-world-s-cheapest-car-backfire -1.1219524 Various websites of Tata Motors National Conference on Emerging Challenges for Sustainable Business 2012 1096