An Analysis of the Impact of Internet on Consumer Buying Behaviour Dissertation

An Analysis of the Impact of Internet on Consumer Buying Behaviour - Dissertation Example The consumer buying process is a complex process and one of the important areas of investigation for researchers. A number of studies have been conducted to study the consumer buying behaviour. The increasing complexity of consumer buying behaviour is also brought by the online shopping. All theoretical models describing the behaviour of traditional consumers have gone outdated. Marketers have become more interested in studying the behaviour of consumers under the influence of internet. The 4Ps of marketing mix are the major controllable tools to affect the buying behaviour of consumers whereas the elements experienced by the consumer during virtual interaction are the controllable factors in the case of web consumers thereby, indicating that traditional and online marketers use different tools to influence the buying behaviour of consumers. Although a significant work has been done to study the factors which influence the consumer buying behaviour however, most of these studies give more focus on the factors that influence the behaviour rather than studying the impact of the factors on buying behaviour. The product information, the time they spent on internet and the number of daily emails, are the top factors influencing the consumer buying behaviour on the internet.... The product information, the time they spent on internet and the number of daily emails, are the top factors influencing the consumer buying behaviour on the internet (Bellman, Lohse & Johnson, 1999). On the other hand, some studies have ended up with the findings that web consumers and traditional consumers are becoming similar in their buying behaviour. The web consumers are becoming more like the traditional consumers, at least in the United States therefore, companies should create web designs for an audience that is less educated, less web know-how, less technology know-how and earning less (Lohse & Johnson, 1999). A few studies have identified some important factors that can be evaluated to study the impact of internet on consumer buying behaviour. The black box model of Kotler in consumer buying behaviour describes that the external factors including the marketing mix and demographics, economic, situational, social and lifestyle factors and buyer’s mind such as his beli efs, values and decision making process are the determinants of purchase decision (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010, pp. 161). Actually Kotler has provided two set of factors including the external factors and the internal factors which may influence the buyer behaviour. This model gives an idea that knowing the characteristics of vendors and buyers are important to study the consumer purchase decision for example, product information and pricing are the controllable factors of vendors and personal nature of buyer like his/her beliefs, social nature etc are the controllable factors of buyers. The perceived dependability of the online vendors and less uncertainty involved in online buying increase the likelihood of online purchase (Teo & Yu, 2005). The level of trust and

BP touts itself as green article, about the BP oil spill in 2010 Article

BP touts itself as green , about the BP oil spill in 2010 - Article Example While BP appears to be the sole responsible entity to the accident, involved negligence in activities that led to the spill identify liabilities to many parties. The contractor company that was responsible for operations at the time of the blast was for example an independent contractor. Similarly, federal supervisors who ought to have detected any form of negligence towards liability approved the operations that preceded the blast. BP however exercised significant control over its contractor. Four parties therefore played a role into the blast that culminated into the oil spill. BP played a role as the owner of the site, â€Å"Transocean and Halliburton† who were the managers of the sight and the federal regulators who had the authority to supervise the operations at the sight (BBC, P. 1). Negligence on all the parties was therefore a major set of events towards the accident. This is because the design that was used at the well’s base for sealing was inappropriate for the applied type of cement. Similarly, preliminary tests were done on the structure and flaws detected, but were misjudged for success. There were also signs of explosion but the workers failed to identify the signs that could have been used to establish preventive measures (BBC, P. 1). The events after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico were widely reported by the media together with investigation based documentary and reports from inquiries.

Human Relations In The Workplace Essay

Human Relations In The Workplace Essay â€Å"Human Relations at the Workplace†. The purpose of this report is to reflect on the learned experiences from the subject â€Å"Human Relations at the Workplace†. Human Relations are very important in our life as they influence our social and professional lives. When we talk about Human Relations, there are so many relationships we generally see i.e. Family, Friendship, Social, Diplomatic, Professional etc. But one thing is common in all relations is that people do behave or act differently as they really are. And our tendency should be to learn the positive points/act/behaviour from others and neglect all negative ones. During the trimester, Prof. Chris Green had taught us about Human Relations from the book Effective Human Relations and covered topics like motivation, stress-management, work-life balance, developing yourself, time management and so many other topics related to workplace environment. I am very glad that I have got a chance to discuss my experience with Human Relations at Workplace. In the past, I also read some material regarding Human Relations when I was doing my Bachelors in Commerce in third year from Guru Nanak Dev University in India. After covering these topics again in James Cook University Brisbane, now I understand all these topics much more clearly and their direct impacts on me. Through this course and the subject matter, I have been able to develop and enhance my management and motivational skills. An additional skill that I have gained is to accept beliefs from other cultures and points of view of different people. In the past most of my friends, colleagues and relatives had similar opinions about different aspects of life. This limited me in sharing my ideas and beliefs. After working within multicultural groups, I am now able to understand better, the importance of self disclosure and personal identity. Sharing your ideas and beliefs creates trust and is the key for an effective collaboration. Now I can understand and relate these two points in a way that these could help me to improve my work and life balance. One of the reputed companies in field of sales and marketing gave me an opportunity to work for them as a sales representative. We were a team of 10 people from different social, religious and financial backgrounds. There we all learnt the power of TEAMWORK. The true value, as I see it, is that people work better collaboratively rather than competitively. It had been a very different and challenging experience for me as, personally, I was not permitted to motivate my team members with cash bonuses, nor could fire them or release them out of the project. I read motivational books/stories, and learnt that there were several strategies and ways one could try to motivate the team members. These books and articles helped me in improving my understanding regarding the ways one can motivate his/her team members within the authority given to him. My supervisor, who is one of the greatest motivators in my business life, also taught me some invaluable lessons for teamwork, as he always pushed me and motivated all my team members. This will help me in future too, as I will be able to tackle situations with other team members, managers or supervisors in a more delicate, effective and constructive way. Few lessons that I learnt from my work experience was -Gracefully admit your mistake, Motivate others by saying that â€Å"You did a good job†, Ask for others opinion. Remember these two most important words â€Å"Please† and â€Å"Thank you†. Reward in Public and Criticize in person. From my past experiences, I have also learned, that how to become leaders and how good leaders develop through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience. The power of the high position does not make anybody a leader; it only makes you a boss. A leader should have some leadership attributes such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills. In my belief, I will be able to do better at handling situations like motivation and team leading. During the trimester, I got a chance to give a presentation on Human Relation Challenges in the New Economy. In that presentation, we discussed topics related to Understanding new economy, communicating effectively with new technologies, managing people in virtual environment. Here I would like to share a true story based on â€Å"Rewards to improve Motivation†. â€Å"One of my friends is working as a Software Test Engineer in an IT company in USA. He is a contractor with that company and was doing his job well and working on one of the live projects. Then he was presented with an opportunity to work for a critical project that had high visibility in the organization. His manager asked him â€Å"Will you be able to work on two different projects side-by-side and give 24 hour support for 7 days a week?† My friend replied:†Ok†, but from inside he was not happy because there was no motivation for him for the extra work he had to do. After two-three days, his manager told him that for all this extra workload he will be paid $500 per week additionally from his normal salary and he will be given one week of vacation after the 2nd project goes live. In the above scenario Abraham Maslows Hierarchy of needs were present. His needs were of creativity and fulfilment which we refer to as Self-Actualisation needs. In this case five major areas affected his motivation- Variance of skills, Identification of task, Significance of task, autonomy and feedback. This motivated my friend and now he was more happy and efficient in his work than before.† Reference http://www.envisionsoftware.com/articles/Maslows_Needs_Hierarchy.html Further, while preparing this presentation, I had given nice colours and effects to slides. But when I saw these slides from audiences point of view, I found so many mistakes and also recognized that colour and effects do not help too much in making a good presentation. Good presentation includes proper arrangement of the good material with bold heading, underlining important tasks, diagrams, graphs etc. to make it more interesting for the audience as well as the presenter. I hope this presentation is going to improve my speaking, presentation and communication skills. Overall, in future, I should be able to work as a good team member, leader and able to understand the organizational structure thoroughly. Further, I can more effectively understand behavioural, social and cultural dimensions of my team members and subordinates. This will help me in providing and promoting healthy, effective and comfortable work environment.

Analysis of The Hunger Artist by Kafka Essay -- Essays Papers Kafka Hu

Analysis of The Hunger Artist by Kafka Hunger is a term that is often defined as the physical feeling for the need to eat. However, the Hunger Artist in Kafka's A Hunger Artist places a different, more complex meaning to this word, making the Hunger Artist's name rather ironic. The hunger of the Hunger Artist is not for food. As described at the end of the essay, the Hunger Artist states that he was in fact never hungry, he just never found anything that he liked. So then, what does this man's hunger truly mean? What drives the Hunger Artist to fast for so long, if he is truly not hungry? The Hunger Artist salivates not for the food which he is teased with, nor does he even sneak food when he alone. The Hunger Artist has a hunger for fame, reputation, and honor. This hunger seems to create in the mind of the Artist, a powerfully controlling dream schema. These dreams drive the Artist to unavoidable failure and alienation, which ultimately uncovers the sad truth about the artist. The truth is that the Artist was never an artist; he was a fraudulent outcast who fought to the last moment for fame, which ultimately became a thing of the past. The food was never the issue. The Hunger Artist was never interested. Instead, what the artist hungered for was his fans that appreciated his talent of being able to fast for such long periods of time. Kafka writes, ? Back then the whole town was engaged with the hunger artist; during his fast, the audience?s involvement grew from day to day.? (Kafka, 255) In fact, the Hunger Artist was at first a spectacle. Some fans would come more than once a day to see the Artist perform, some even reserving special viewing seats to enhance the artistic experience. The Artist made eve... ...and ridiculed, especially for entertainment purposes. Nonetheless, the Artist shows a hunger for fame, even if the fame and attention comes from a sick and wild point of view. The Hunger Artist dies a man of sorrow and failure, but is reborn as his opposite, a hungry, strong panther eating everything that comes its way. Maybe in some way the Artist represents a lost tradition of fasting which seemed to come and go, as well as maybe representing the desire that our generation today tends to eat too much and require too much. In the end, the Hunger Artist will be remembered as an outcast of society, and after all his years of fasting, his accomplishments are forgotten, easily replaced as if he never existed. Works Cited Kafka, Franz. ?A Hunger Artist.? Literature and its Writers. Ed. Karen S. Henry. 3rd ed. Bedford/St. Martin?s, Boston/New York 2004. 255-262

Korean confucianism

Confucianism is defined as â€Å"an intellectual, political, and religious tradition, or school of though, that developed a distinct identity in the 5th Century BC from the teachings of Chinese philosopher Confucius† (â€Å"Confucianism,† 2005). It began in China and is now widely accepted in different parts of Asia such as Korea, Japan, and Vietnam (â€Å"Confucianism,† 2005). There are five moral disciplines which are given to govern the five human relationships. They are as follows: (a) Justice and righteousness should mark the relations between sovereign and subject; (b) There should be proper rapport between father and son; (c) Separation of function between husband and wife; (d) The younger should give precedence to the elder; and (e) Faith and trust should reign over relationships between friends (â€Å"Korean Confucianism,† n.d.). Confucianism has pervaded Korea and the country has been labeled as one of the most dedicated followers despite the fact that it started in China (â€Å"Korean Confucianism,† n.d.). In line with the foregoing statement, it is not surprising that I adhere and respect the teachings of Korean Confucianism. However, it is to be noted that modernity has also swept over the country of Korea and has changed some aspects of the people’s adherence to Confucianism. I carry with me the value and respect for the government as the authority that has the power over the country. That is the reason why I abide by the rule of law and the policies and decisions made by the government. Moreover, I respect the relationship between the younger and the elder together with the responsibilities that comes with it. For the elders, I give them due respect and for the younger, I carry authority and responsibility over them. I see to it that generations before me and my ancestors are given respect both living and dead. In addition to this, the closeness of the family and the respect for the relationships of one another is always borne in my mind and in my heart. References â€Å"Confucianism.† Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006 [CD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2005.   

Parental Care Essay

It cannot be denied that the development of the society has affected greater or less our lifestyles. Unfortunately, many parents have too little time and pay less attention to their children than in the past. Therefore, the inevitable result is that their kids will suffer. In the first place, people living in a modern world seem very busy with their work. They do not have time to look after their children, so they send children to school, where teachers are required to take responsibility for bringing up children instead of parents. Unfortunately, in some families, children only see their parents only in the evening. They do not have chance to talk or share thoughts and feelings together. According to a recent survey, a child who receives much attention from parents will perform better at school than a child who does not. For that matter, caring for children is necessary for their development. Besides, there are many other factors making parents concern less about their children. Indifference from parents can result from realizing that children are very bad-behaved, or being too disappointed when children get low marks at school. Seriously, in some cases, they hit children, losing the trust from them. Therefore, children are highly likely to commit crimes like robbery or be involved in drug trade. All things considered, I hold the view that children are less looked after by parents than in the past. It is my strong belief that parents should do something to secure a better life for their children.