A dissertation proposal is a document that presents a plan for a dissertation to reviewers for evaluation. It is actually a road map showing clearly the location from where a journey begins; the method of getting there and the destination to be reached at. The purpose of the dissertation proposal is to:
Present the problem to be researched and its importance.
Give an idea to instructor about how you will proceed in your dissertation.
Suggest the data necessary for solving the problem and how the data will be gathered, analysed, and interpreted.
A proposal is also known as a work plan, prospectus, outline, statement of intent, or draft plan. It tells us:
What will be done?
Why it will be done?
How it will be done?
Where it will be done?
For whom it will be done?
What is the benefit of doing it?
Dissertation Proposal Format
Title Page
It should include:
The topic
Name & ID of the student
Name of the university
University logo
Date of Submission
Table of Contents: List the important headings and sub headings in the dissertation proposal with page numbers.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduction/Background: Introduce the specific problem you wish to investigate. Describe briefly the background i.e., the impact and implication of the topic/issue on the environment (the specific set up in which you are studying the issue). It should be well elaborated. It is advised to include current facts and figures in background. You should also explain it in context with the work already done on the topic. It should provide all the necessary initial information so that the reader can better understand the situation under study.
Objectives: State the objectives/goals of the research, keeping in mind the following points:
These should state the purpose of the dissertation
These must be based on logical facts and figures
These must be achievable within specified timeframe and parameters
These objectives should be presented such that these should facilitate the reader to locate various important points in the research work
The specified objectives should be clearly phrased in operational terms specifying exactly what you are going to do, where and for what purpose?
At the end of the study, objectives must be assessed to see if they have been met/achieved or not
Significance: It lays down the importance or potential benefits of your dissertation. It specifies how your study will improve, modify or broaden presented facts in the field under exploration. Make a note that such improvements/ modifications may have significant implications also. When you are taking into account the importance of your study, pose yourself the following questions:
What will be the outcomes of this research study?
Will the results of this research contribute to the solution or development of anything related to it?
What will be improved or changed as a result of the proposed research?
How will results of the study be implemented and what innovations will come out?
Problem Statement/Research Question: It describes the main issue or area to be investigated. The problem is usually represented by the research questions. Research questions are very crucial because research is about finding out what may not be known. Poorly formulated problem/question will lead to pitiable research that’s why researcher must know the question he/she would like to find answer for. The following aspects are important while formulating a problem statement/research question:
A problem statement/research question should be researchable, clear, logical, specific, precise and brief yet comprehensive statement, fully describing the issue under study.
The research problem should be grammatically correct and completely convey the main idea to be investigated.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
A literature review is citation/quotation of a comprehensive review of the published work from secondary sources (journals, research papers, etc) of data in the areas of specific interest to the researcher according to the problem/issue of research. The purpose of literature review is to ensure that:
Important variables that are likely to influence the problem situation are not left out of the study
A clear idea emerges as to which variables would be the most important to consider.
The problem statement can be made with precision and accuracy.
Note: It is important to cite at least 30 findings of researchers in the literature review.
Conceptual/Theoretical Framework can be best narrated with the help of sophisticated diagrams mentioning the independent and dependent variables and their causal affects and final outcomes. The main headings in the theoretical framework are:
Inventory of variables
Schematic diagram
Direction of relationship
Explanation of established relationship among variables
Inventory of propositions in a sequential order
Hypotheses (Formal statement that presents the expected relationship between an independent and dependent variable)
Hypotheses are the tentative statements that should either be acknowledged or rejected by means of research. Hypotheses give structure and direction to the research. Therefore, care should be taken not to oversimplify and generalize the formulation of hypothesis. It is not necessary that the research should consist of only one hypothesis. The type of problem area
investigated and the extent which encircles the research field are the factors which determine the number of hypotheses to be included in the study. It is formulated when the researcher is totally aware of the theoretical and empirical background to the problem. There are two types of hypotheses “Null” and “Alternate”. Generally, the null hypothesis is used if theory/literature does not propose a hypothesized connection between the variables under study; the alternative is generally reserved for situations in which theory/research recommends a connection or directional interplay.
Dissertation Proposal
Chapter 4: Research Methodology
The methodology section should portray how each specific objective will be achieved, with enough details to permit an autonomous evaluation of the proposal. The technical procedures for carrying out the dissertation must be explained in a manner appropriate for the reader. This section should include:
Research Design: Is the study exploratory, descriptive, or explanatory? Why does this particular design suit to the study?
Data Collection Sources: Describe all the sources that will be used for data collection.
Primary sources
Secondary sources
Data Collection Methods:
How will the primary data be collected i.e. survey(s), experiment(s), observation(s) etc.? Is it possible to use multiple methods? If yes provide justification.
Sample Design:
What is the target population?
What sampling frame will be used?
What type of sampling technique will be used?
Data Collection Tools/Instruments:
Which tools will be used for data collection (i.e., Questionnaire, Structured Interviews, Observations, etc) according to the need of the dissertation?
Why a particular tool is selected?
Is it possible to use multiple tools? If yes provide justification.
Fieldwork/Data Collection:
How will the data be collected?
How will the quality control be assured during data collection?
How will the answers about practical issues be answered? For example, if you are going to carry out survey, then think about where and for how long this survey will be carried out? Will organizations (specify names) provide you access (physical, time, documents, etc) to what you need for your research?
Data Processing & Analysis: (Methods you will use to extract and process the information you will gather)
How will the analysis be carried out?
Scoring scheme/scale and the statistical methods that will be applied for the analysis of data should be described.
Which software package (MS Excel, SPSS, etc.) will be used for data entry and analysis?
Bibliography
A bibliography is a list of source materials on a particular subject. In a formal report, it includes books and other library materials which have been consulted in preparation of the project. As part of the reference matter, it follows the appendices.
Did you find any useful knowledge relating to a dissertation proposal in this post? What are the key facts that grabbed your attention? Let us know in the comments. Thank you.
Real estate meltdown, otherwise referred to as the ‘housing bubble’ refers to a period where housing prices decline across the United States further leading to the financial crisis of 2007-2008. These lead to fears that the country was headed back to a depression similar to the Great Depression of 1945. There has been a lot of explanations as to what lead to the housing meltdown, but the real question is, could it be possible that the crisis could have been avoided? My aim purpose in this paper is to bring into discussion why the disaster should have been averted and if we are at risk of facing it again.
To arrive at my goals, first, we would have to look at what were the causes of the housing meltdown in the period 2006- 2008. With the crush of the housing market, economist and financial pundits came up with many explanations as to what lead to the bubble some of which the extent of their impact yet to be determined. It is therefore important to realize that a single factor did not cause the decline in the housing market but a number of them together.
Decline In Mortgage Interest Rates
In economics, we learn that when the rate of savings is low, interests tend to go high. However, that was not the case during the housing bubble. Mortgage rates were little despite saving rates being low mainly because of saving getting into the US economy from outside countries like China and Japan. According to Bernanke (2009), the net savings from outside the country increased from an estimate of 1.5% of GDP IN 1995 to 6% as of 2006.
With the aim of making better returns from investment at lower risk, investors moved from US government securities to mortgage-backed securities that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae issued. They receive sponsorship from the government, and investors expected that in case of unforeseen circumstances the government would bail the two out. Hence they were low risk.
In addition to a real estate meltdown, mortgage-backed securities received better ratings issued by one of the best rating agencies like Standard & Poor. With the housing prices rising, low mortgage interest rates had a hand in the housing bubble by enabling more house buyers to afford to pay their monthly dues. According to Robert Schultz, increase in the speculation house prices is what made the prices to go up steadily. Speculators did purchase housing at a lower cost to sell when prices go up. With regards to the 2001 period of recession, the Federal government lowered interest rates to keep the economy going. Hence the second cause of housing meltdown.
Reduction In Short-Term Rates of Interest
From 2002 to 2004 the government lowered interest rates with the aim of making a recovery from the earlier recession of 2001. It affected the housing bubble because with the constant rise in the housing prices while household income is remaining steady, homeowners were not able to afford a payment of their mortgage loans at current rates and therefore resorted to adjustable mortgage rates which were preferable at the moment. However, when the rates began to rise, this proved to be unmanageable for homeowners.
The other way was because of leveraging, that is where loans borrowers used their borrowed money to invest. It, therefore, encouraged mortgage lending and thus increasing house prices. When the housing bubble hit, the high level of leverage that was present in the economy worsened the decline in the cost of housing.
Lack Of Strict Rules on Issuing of Mortgage Loans
During the period after the recession, the government of President Bill Clinton did not impose strict rules to financial institutions on the issuance of mortgage loans with the aim of increasing the number of homeownerships. With a reduction in the mortgage fees increased competition among mortgage loan issuing firms and therefore they had to relax their standards to obtain their market share. By the fact that there were securities issued on mortgage loans prompted this.
An increase in subprime mortgages which refers to mortgages issued to persons that were likely to default demonstrates this. Although these kinds of mortgages charged higher rates due to the risk, the all practice was not worth it.
Real Estate Meltdown Project
Absurd Speculation
The fact that everyone believed that prices of housing would go up did contribute to the bubble. According to Robert Shiller (2005) in his book ‘irrational exuberance’ which refers to high levels of speculative fever had indeed added to the housing bubble. From house buyers, mortgage lenders, rating agencies to even the government, none of them ever imagined that the prices of housing would ever go down.
Why The Housing Bubble Could Have Been Avoided – Real Estate Meltdown
From my analysis on the factors that lead to the housing, all the above factors did contribute to the bubble, but the main factor being the pointless speculation that the housing prices would continue going being on the rise and there was no reason to suggest otherwise. That is why, according to Robert Shiller (2005) irrational exuberance in any price bubble is difficult to notice, very hard to prevent and neither is it of value to avoid.
However, this could have been avoided if only the players who took part in the excessive speculation of prices of housing could have thought otherwise. The belief by credit rating agencies and foreign investors that prices of house in the US would go up was the primary factor that encouraged mortgage interest rates to remain so low. This notion also leads to a rise in the level of leverage experienced in the economy. The reason being low-interest rates encouraged borrowing for investment on housing with prospects of making good returns upon prices increasing.
I also think that the government regulatory agency should have regulated the constant rise in prices of housing. It could have lowered the speculation and hence chances of leverages being experienced in the economy being minimal. A control of Investment banks and mortgage issuing agencies was necessary. There is supposed to be a set of rules to be followed. Without rules there are chances of thing running out of control.
I also believe that then the government did not receive a better monetary policy to adopt. With the constant rise in prices of housing, it was not in the best interest of the federal government to lower bank rates to increase the number of house owners. The pricing of housing is similar to any other item, the law of supply and demand applies.
The Possibility of Another Bubble Leading to Real Estate Meltdown
There has been a lot of speculation in the media that we are about to experience another housing bubble just a decade after the last occurrence that leads to a financial crisis in the economy. Currently, the average cost of purchasing a house is quite high compared to ordinary income. It is one of the aspects that we need to watch out. Mortgage lenders on the other side are much strict, and real estate investors have hard time to make sells with housing staying as long as three months without being sold. There is a belief that prices of housing are going to return to normalcy the moment investors having high desires of making good returns leave the market. It is only a speculation, but with the current state of house prices I cannot rule out the possibility of another bubble.
Conclusion
Real estate is indeed a venture that is quite rewarding, but this may change as we have seen from our discussion on the events of house prices bubbles. However, I believe that prevention was needed long before it occurred by required government policies through regulating the prices of housing. Indeed it is necessary not to leave any stone un-turned since we cannot rule out the chances of another bubble. We can learn from its experience and be ready to prevent its re-occurrence.
Works Cited
Holt, Jeff. A summary of the primary causes of the housing bubble and the resulting credit crisis: A non-technical paper. The Journal of Business Inquiry 8.1 (2009): 120-129.
Schwartz, Herman M. Subprime nation: American power, global capital, and the housing bubble. Cornell University Press, 2009.
CQ Press Research, ‘Mortgage Crisis and Real Estate Meltdown ’ (Nov 2007); 926-927
Gramlich, Edward M., and Robert D. Reischauer, Subprime Mortgages: America’s Latest Boom and Bust, Urban In-stitute Press, 2007.
Cheng, I. A., Sahil Raina, and Wei Xiong. “Wall Street and the Housing Bubble: Bad Incentives, Bad Models, or Bad Luck?” University of Michigan mimeo, April (2012).
Did you find any useful knowledge relating to real estate meltdown in this post? What are the key facts that grabbed your attention? Let us know in the comments. Thank you.
Your marketing dissertation can encompass a wide range of topics therefore, it is vital to expand your topic search and then focus in on a specific subject area. This can either be presented using a case study approach, which will compare an actual organisation (or organisations) to the literature on the subject, or as study of the contemporary research. The case study approach adds depth to the research, introducing real life scenarios and how organisations identify and react to them. We have many suggestions for digital marketing dissertation topics and these can be adapted to meet individual needs and preferences for your own digital marketing dissertation.
Digital Marketing Is More Important Than Ever
With the increased trend of internet and social media, people with the passage of time have become addicted to the use of screens and social media. This increased trend has transformed the way the businesses approach their clientele. In almost every market, physical marketing is therefore slowly becoming a trend of the past and is losing its ability to create a meaningful impact on the customers. The situation is propelling the businesses to look for the alternate and viable options that can transform the marketing techniques and that can create a significant impact on the customers.
In the quest for viable options, digital media provides a complete package to the business to execute their marketing strategy and to increase the customer’s base and customer’s engagement effectively. The digital marketing provides a range of tools for the business to be integrated as part of their customer-centric strategy. Considering the popularity of digital marketing, the hotel industry is also opting to integrate digital marketing into its operations.
Many organisations integrating digital marketing as the part of its marketing strategy. Integrating digital marketing in its marketing operations can enable the hotel chain to target a wide range of customers and can also enable the business to increase its profit margin.
Digital Marketing Dissertation Topics
Direct marketing has accommodated the companies to enjoy equal opportunities, for example, SMEs and small companies have the facility to perform well, plan its marketing strategies, and embrace the changes in marketing that were previously unavailable to small companies. Academics agree that the use of digital marketing helps a firm to target a large customer base while managing its resources, improve its customer services, and use different modes of communication and marketing to achieve its goals.
In 2021 it is reported that 32% of businesses have moved to advertise its products by allocating its budget to manage its resources, for example, with the help of digital marketing, companies can use multiple digital marketing tools to achieve its sales and performance targets. Furthermore, it is found that digital marketing helps a company to adopt strategies that reduce their operational and marketing cost and achieve its cost to reach their targets evidently.
It has also been observed that digital marketing is important and has been adopted by the organisation to reach to their target market more effectively. The main aim of digital marketing is to interact with customers by using versatile tools easily. Digital marketing also speeds up the marketing activities at minimal cost. The marketers are taking an increased interest in social media marketing due to the range of effective tools it offers.
Many marketing professionals agree that digital media with the passage of time has gained increased importance for contemporary businesses as it is affordable and is effective for reaching the targeted audience. Digital marketing allows creative tools that help the marketers in tracing the results.
Advantages Of Digital Marketing Techniques
We believe that if you deploy the correct digital marketing strategy your knowledge and understanding of digital marketing tactics and implementation. You will also gain the ability to effectively use information and communication technologies relevant to the marketing discipline. Also, if you adopt the best possible digital marketing dissertation you will analyse a variety of relevant data used in diverse contexts to support effective decision making in the marketing discipline.
Sample Digital Marketing Dissertation Topics
Below is a list of digital marketing dissertation topics that accessible from our main website. These dissertations have been written by marketing students and are available to inspire you and to give you the insight on how to structure your own dissertation.
Our main aim is to provide university students with a wide selection of example digital marketing dissertation topics. If you would like one of our dissertation experts to suggest some topics or titles for you, then contact us via the study-aids.co.uk website.
If you enjoyed reading this post on digital marketing dissertation topics, we would be very grateful if you could help spread this knowledge by emailing this post to a friend, or sharing it on Twitter or Facebook. Thank you.
Consumerism is the human culture that encourages consumers to purchase and acquire products in a bid to keep the trade alive (Apecsadmin, 2016). In a society that operates by consumerism culture, there are more adverts and competitive prices that are aimed to make the consumers purchase more products and create existent demand. Currently, the resources’ consumption is alarming. “About 59% of the world’s resources are consumed by 10% of the population” (Greentumble Editorial Team, 2016). This culture comes with a range of pros and cons. It makes the community to perceive purchasing and acquisition of materials as happiness rather than satisfaction of needs. The members can easily judge their colleagues on their materials such as fashion and automotive.
As a result, there is increased unnecessary purchase by those who have which in turn increases pressure on the existing natural resources. The consumerism behavior is more rampant in the US and the United Arab Emirates. Research has shown that if everyone’s consumption scale was equivalent to that of an average American, we would require 4 planets to sustain our lifestyle (Greentumble Editorial Team, 2016). As per this research, the consumerism causes more cultural harms than benefits (Shah, 2005).
Consumerism causes destruction to the environment in the long run. The human population has insatiable cravings for resources which makes increases the pressure on the natural and man-made resources. Whether the required resources are natural or man-made, there is a direct or indirect impact on the world resources. In case of food products, they are mostly derived from farms and where they are manufactured; there is environmental degradation that results from disposal of industrial waste.
There is increased cultivation of land to satisfy the demands and in the process sustainable farming methods are not practiced since the aim of the farmers is to make profit. Farming is accompanied by expansion and land clearance which is achieved via deforestation therefor causing climate changes. Other farming practices like livestock and poultry farming has also been associated with environmental degradation which also have negative cultural effects (Shah, 2005).
Consumerism Demand
Since some plants are more demanded than others, those whose demand is high are cultivated in expense of others leading to loss of plants diversity. It also leads to cultivation of non-food crops such as sisal and flowers which are in demand and therefore hunger is the long run outcome. Another example is where these animals consume a lot of water and also cause pollution to the water sources.
Most interestingly is the finding that some of these animals are fed with more grains while some poor persons are starving in some part of the world.The poor lacks any otherwise than to believe that money brings happiness making them to be willing to do anything to acquire financial properties. There is communal disintegration and loss of unity where some animals are valued by their owners, more than fellow human beings (Shah, 2005).
The culture is also one of the leading causes of poverty. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening as time goes by. The population now perceives and judges their colleagues on their material possession which is very evident from the dressing to gadgets possession. There is this mindset that exists to those who ‘have’ that the poor can use the resources to be rich too.
However, this is not applicable as there is resources inequalities between different regions and individuals. The widening gap between the rich and poor is so wide that when the rich are disposing the leftovers some have nothing to eat. A saddening case is where some spend their cash on relatively useless products such as ice cream while others cannot afford a basic lunch. However, this is perceived to be normal particularly in the US (Shah, 2005).
Cultural effects are also a function of health issues, joblessness and rural-urban migration. Consumerism causes health problem to the poor due to malnutrition and to the rich due to over consumption. Over-consumption health issues are those related to obesity and dormant lifestyle. The rich have a tendency of eating at wish and driving right from their door-step to their different destination. As a result, they have high chances of contracting lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and heart diseases. The rate of joblessness may increase due to reduced compensation rates and increased workloads as the poor compete for these opportunities to make their ends meet.
There is also increased rural-urban migration as most people move to the urban places to try their luck. This causes labor imbalance in the rural areas where there are productive farms as most people travel to the urban area. Food shortage is the outcome and as the law of supply and demand indicates, food prices rise as a multiplier effect of consumerism (Shah, 2005). To neutralize this effect, the people have to have a means of buying and acquiring these foods for their survival.
The rich got some high purchasing powers and may displace the poor from their native land. The likely outcome is that the rich may not use the land on productive manner such as food production but instead build an expensive home causing food shortage. On the side of the minority, they will be forced to migrate to other unfavorable places such as near wildlife increasing the cases of human wildlife conflict (Shah, 2005).
Consumerism Marketing Dissertations
Environmental degradation and cultural effects are also caused by mineral and fuel excavation. Consumerism causes increased demand on automotive and electronics. With the emergence of industrious countries such as China, there is increased excavation to meet the demand for metals. Research has indicated that the current generation has broken the past consumption. Sustainability calls for use of resources without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
It is however clear that with the current consumption rates, the future generations’ abilities to meet their future needs are compromised by the consumerism and capitalism culture. One of the fueling factors of this culture is that the developed countries are the ones advocating for sustainability and minimal use of resources. These efforts are seen as neocolonialism as these developed nations already used resources to develop their states but they want to regulate other states. Worse still is the case of European countries who amassed resources from other countries to attain their status (Shah, 2005).
Consumerism culture has also led to exporting pollution from the developed states to the developing countries. Excessive consumption has increased the pollution rates from industrial wastes. Regulations are in place to regulate pollution where the firms are required to develop more efficient ways of processing their products when their emission exceeds a certain limit. Instead of improving their systems, some firms are opting to move some of their manufacturing branches to the developing countries where there are fewer regulations and lower pollution impacts.
Due to this, the developing countries manage to maintain serene environment in the expense of poorer states in the name of foreign investment. The culture also promotes some inhumane activities such as exporting potentially dangerous materials to be recycled in the poorer states such as computer monitors. These activities are hazardous to the local community and may lead to health problems. However, these countries of origin do not care about these as they are not concerned by the needs of others (Shah, 2005).
Consumerism has also triggered social injustices revolving around poverty, land control and ownership. The ideology has increased desire for wealth which causes some sort of jealous. Individuals want to be rich while others are poor so that they can control them. They are willing to make money even via unethical means. For instance, instead of preventing a disease outbreak, some want it to occur so that they can supply medicine to the affected region and make money in their private healthcare facilities. In all these cases the developed nations’ population is to blame (Shah, 2005).
Consumerism and Purchase Power
The emergence of purchase driven economy has also presented a risk to the consumers. The marketer already know that the consumers are purchase driven and therefore they want to come up with affordable products. In the process they may compromise quality for example in the health sector. The low quality electronics may cause health problems or disasters such as fire while poor quality health services may cause drug resistant form of diseases or deaths (Logan, 2016). The ideology is also associated with moral implications. This occur where the population perceive money as the source of happiness while this is not the case always.
Money is good but may not buy sleep, good health among other valuables (Apecsadmin, 2016). Poor working environment and compensation scale may arise as company owners attempt to lower the prices of they products to attract a bigger market. “The culture undermines the social cohesion due to internalization of highly destructive values of replacing everything with money” (Logan, 2016).
The common trend with this ideology is based on human psychology and sociology studies. Human beings are insatiable in their desires and therefore it is believed that demand will exist in the presence of supply. “Consumers were acting unwisely that consumer behavior perhaps did not solve to advance their standards of living or more general goals was generally dismissed as paternalist” (Goodwin, Nelson and Ackerman, 2008).
The extreme desire of acquiring properties will cause the consumers to go against some doctrines such as that that requires people to avoid coveting in the Christianity religion. Covetousness a may encourage some criminal activities such as robbery and interfere with the existing cultures. As a result, the moral standards are eroded and decay and turmoil of families, neighborhoods and the society (Teshome, 2017).
With all the above mentioned cons of consumerism, it also has some few pros. When correctly implemented, it may cause the consumers to purchase more and this is an advantage to businesses. It may reduce the costs of living due to the drop of commodity prices in the market. The increased demand will also call for more manpower and this may leads to increased employment opportunities. For these pros to be realized, consumerism has to be managed as contrary may happen for example increase of workloads instead of employing more personnel (Apecsadmin, 2016).
In my opinion, consumerism is not a good idea as its cons exceeds its cons. It leads to perceiving money as the source of happiness. It has contributed to the widening gap between the rich and the poor. There is significant degradation of environment due to inappropriate consumption of use of resources. It has caused rural urban migration as people move to try their luck.
Researchers have clearly indicated that our consumption exceeds the historical records and should we continue in the same way, we’ll definitely compromise the ability of the future generations to meet their own need. The ideology has also increased the health issues from malnutrition and over consumption. It also causes unfair competition where the rich continues to rich while the poor continues to be poor.
The possession own money among other resources make the owners feel a kind of superiority and despises the less fortunate. The ideology causes corruption of morals as the desire for wealth exceeds and the poor attempt to look for alternative means of acquiring wealth. There is resources inequality between the developed and the developing countries. The developed countries takes advantage of their position to transfer their waste to the developing countries.
References
Apecsadmin. “6 Pros and Cons of Consumerism.” (2016). This articles has been written organization site’s admin. It covers the various pros and cons of consumerism though in brief and therefore facilitated writing of this paper.
Goodwin, Neva, et al. “Consumption and the Consumer Society.” (2008). This reference is relevant as it elaborates the relationship between consumption and the consumer society. It reveals the rationale behind different consumption patterns. The paper’s subject is also covered by this source and from the fact that it is an academic article, its information is reliable.
Logan, T. Collins. “What are the advantages and disadvantages of consumerism?” (2016). This reference is very brief but direct to the point. In this source source, you will find the pros of consumerism.
Shah, Anup. “Effects of Consumerism.” Glabal Issues (2005). This article by Shah is a scholarly article that is very wide in scope. For instance, it has been cited in most parts of this paper. It has provided solution to various dimensions of this paper.
Team, Greentumble Editorial. “The Negative Effects of Consumerism.” (2016). This reference by the Greentumble editors is very relevant. It has concentrated on the negative effects of consumerism supporting the paper’s thesis statement. Compared to the other sources, this particular source is focused to the main topic.
Teshome, Mengisteab. “Culture of Consumerism Effects and Society.” (2017). This article by the Ethiopian Government Press takes a new perspective on the subject matter. It has analyzed the effects of consumerism in the society and how it is being utilized by marketers.
Did you find any useful knowledge relating to consumerism and its effect on culture in this post? What are the key facts that grabbed your attention? Let us know in the comments. Thank you.
Portfolio Analysis and Evaluation of Project Management Techniques
Portfolio Analysis Project Management Techniques – The techniques and tools are significant for the effective project management. The Project management techniques are specifically making the overall management of the projects effective and easier. The project managers, software of project management and a range of project management aspect take their own techniques and tools that are likely to helpful for the projects to save the maximum cost and time. The problems can also occur in the project management. These problems related to the management of the project must be tackling effectively to complete the project on time without any delay.
All of the problems and their substitute solutions set up some fundamentals of change in the project that must acclimatize. Projects are normally conventional to perform these changes the management of the project is responsible for the successful project completion. So, it is also important to know that each project is exclusive as far as the problems that occur are concern and the main concern and resources needed for it, the atmosphere in which it functions, and the attitude of the project manager to control and guide all of the activities of project. As a result, the project should be planned to fit all of the requirements of organization and the nature of the problems that needed to solve under the project (Seyr, 2019).
The techniques and tools to be used in the project also depends on the organizational structure because depending on the nature of the organization the project available project personnel, resource, priorities, laws, and other possibility can also change. Implementing effective techniques of the project management reduce the disturbance of regular resources of the business activities by placing under a particular control on all technologies, skills required to understand the project. The analysis of the portfolio level is a significant part of organization a derivatives portfolio. The common types of portfolio analysis are Aggregated Cash Flows, Total Value, Value-at-Risk, Stress testing and Risk Sensitivity all of which are essential for effective portfolio analysis.
Portfolio analysis in project management is a quantitative method for optimal portfolio selection that can balance between make the most of the return and reduce the risk in various indecisive environments. In this report there would be discussion regarding the tools and techniques and problems solving method in the project management (Rever, 2007).
Critical Analysis of Tools and Techniques
The project management is very demanding task with numerous complex responsibilities. Opportunely, there are a lot of techniques and tools are available to assist in tasks accomplishment and responsibilities execution. For example, some may need a computer with effective software, while in some of the projects the tasks can be management manually. Project managers need to select some techniques and tools for the project management that are more compatible with the style of management. There are some of the tools and techniques that can be applied to project management to optimize the overall operations of the project (Jackline, 2014).
PERT Technique in Portfolio Analysis
The PERT (Program evaluation and review technique) is a control and planning tool used for controlling and defining the responsibilities necessary for the accomplishment of project and is essential in effective portfolio analysis. The PERT charts are frequently used in the project. The PERT is an extensively used technique for development and large-scale projects coordination (Calmèset. al., 2021). PERT is essentially a tool for the management control and planning. It is also known as road map for particular project or program in which the most important elements have been totally recognized, with their equivalent interrelations’. The PERT charts are time and again built for a lot of projects, the end date is permanent and service provider has flexibility of front-end. A fundamental PERT-style planning element is to recognize the critical activities.
Following are the main steps involve in PERT planning:
Identify the particular milestones and activities. The activities are the project tasks. The milestones in the process are events that mark the start and the ending of all activities.
Verify the appropriate activities sequence. This step is connected with above one because the sequence of activity is obvious for tasks. Other responsibilities in the project may need some investigation to resolve the accurate classification in which they must be carried out.
Build network diagram. By using the information of the activity sequence, a diagram of the network can be drawn that show the series of parallel and successive activities. Arrowed lines in the diagram stand for activities and circles symbolize the milestones of the project.
Estimation time essential for all activities. Weeks are normally used time unit for completion of the activity, but reliable time unit can be utilized. An individual feature of PERT is its aptitude to handle the uncertainty in completion of the activity. For all activities, the model typically comprises three-time approximation:
Most likely time – time of the completion with highest possibility.
Optimistic time – shortest time to complete an activity.
Pessimistic time – longest time for an activity to complete.
Critical Path Technique
The critical path method is project management technique for planning of all process and defines the non-critical and critical tasks of the project with objective of preventing problems of time-frame and bottlenecks of project process. The critical path method is preferably suitable for projects that consist of a lot of activities that interrelate in a composite manner(Cohen, 2018).
For critical path method implementation, there are quite a few steps that are as follows:
Define all of the required tasks and organize them in ordered list.
Create a diagram or flowchart that shows the relationship between different tasks in the project.
Recognize the non-critical and critical relationships between tasks.
Find out the projected execution or completion time for all tasks.
Devise or Locate substitute for the critical paths
In case a critical path is not right away obvious, it might be helpful to find out 4 timelines for all activities (Ray, 2018):
EF – Earliest Finish time
LF – Latest Finish time
ES – Earliest Start time
LS – Latest Start time
All of these times can measure by using the anticipated time for the activities. The initial finish and start times of activity are find out by forward working via network and formative the earliest time on which an activity can finish and start bearing in mind its predecessor actions.
Gantt Charts
Gantt charts in the projects are used to demonstrate task assignments of the calendar time in months, weeks and days. This tool utilizes graphic representations to demonstrate elapsed, start and finishing point times of task in any project. The Gantt charts are perfect for progress tracking in the project management. The days required to finish a particular task that achieve a goal can compared with the number that is either estimated or planned. The real workdays, from the start to conclude, are plotted underneath the days scheduled. In the project processes this information help in targeting the possible failure points or timeline slippage. These are also said to be the chats that serve as an important tool of budgeting and can demonstrate dollars spent versus dollars owed (Rever, 2007).
Histogram
Histograms are said to be the tool that use in the project to make understanding of the project easier for the project team. It is a kind of bar charts that portray variables distribution over time. This symbolizes the mean distribution. This diagram can use different shapes depending on the distribution condition. The histogram used to calculate something next to time for example the histogram plotted with variable on the x-axis and time on the y-axis. The following histogram demonstrates company’s website number of hits on different day time. The x-axis demonstrates number of customers or users active on website and time of the day shows on the y-axis (Osha. gov, 2018).
Portfolio Analysis Flow Chart
Flowcharts
In the project management flowcharts are rational steps in logical organization to achieve an objective. By using the geometrical objects, the flow charts are drawn as rhombus, rectangular, activities, parallelogram, and points of decision in a process. Flowcharting in the project can also help to identify where on project the problems of quality occur and how problems take place. There are said to be a lot of tools are there today in market for flow charts drawing, for example MS Visio, project management software etc. These techniques and tools are supportive for project manager to incorporate it and understand it and convey a quality product (Hiles, Andrew, 2010).
Problem Solving
In the project management a lot of problems also raise and it is important to deal with them effectively in order to minimize the risk of project failure and complete the project on time. There are some of the problems solving techniques to be used by the project management for better project accomplishment (Nowak et. al., 2020)
1. Brainstorming. The first step in the project management to solve any problems is brainstorming, it means to think of different possibilities and techniques of solving the problems and what impact does selecting particular techniques would have on project.
2. Patience. It is also very important to not get panic over the problems, in some of the cases the project management become frustrates with the problems occurring that can further increase the tension. It is essential for the project management team to be patient at the time problem occur. A patient approach would also help keep away from any error that further increase the problem additional issues would also raise.
3. Apollo Root Cause Analysis. This is said to be the technique in the project management that acknowledge that the majority of the outcomes have numerous causes, and find out actions and conditions that might contribute to problem occurs.
3. Data collection. By collecting more information related to the problems and way of its solution, project team members can develop more appropriate response.
4. Consider the effect anticipated solutions for the problems in the project may have as a whole on project.
5. Pareto Analysis. It is the generalized economy rule that 80 percent of the outcomes are get through 20 percent of work. It can also say that 80 percent of problems are caused by just 20 percent of root causes. Pareto was an economist who first comes up with this rule and the analysis produce a table of incidence of every cause and plot it on a bar representing cumulative total(Bragg, 2003).
6. Process evaluation. Some of the Problems in the project management can be approach by dividing the systems into segment that can be investigate for the problem source.
7.Fishbone diagrams. These diagrams look like a fish skeletal structure and chart causes to recognize effects while defect analysis. There are different questions are there used to build Fishbone diagram cause and effect based on whether question related to the problem deals with services. By imagine all cause and connected effect; managers can easily recognize the problems source.
Risk Management in Portfolio Analysis
The risk management objective is to make certain security never redirect the attempt from the established goals of the business. It is also said to be the process that comprise the recognition, prioritization and assessment of risk to manage the impact probability. Here are some of the risk management techniques to use in the project management (Clarizen, 2018).
Identification
The reorganization is the initial process idea that is to describe and uncover risks that might affect the project outcome. The major question to ask here is the reason behind the lack goal specification and thinking of risk is misperception. Recognizing a problem and discussing it is key to risk management process beginning(Allan, 2002).
Qualitative Risk Portfolio Analysis
The Qualifying risks an analysis is the method that is used to quality any risk that can occur during the project under this method involves making a list of the potential risks, with ranking them. For risks assessing from qualitative aspect following are some actions to be used (Clarizen, 2018):
Probability and matrix and impact assessment: Rating and analyzing risks using possibility and its impact on like schedule, performance and cost.
Risk categorization: Risks grouping by general root causes to build up effective reaction.
Risk urgency: The risk ranking from the matrix probability mutual with importance can help place priorities of these risks.
Expert judgment: Expert opinion from people in field or with alike experience project can also help in the accomplishment of the project.
Quantitative Risk Portfolio Analysis
These are said to be the methods that deal with definitive probabilistic and measuring techniques of project management. The major risk is risk of money losing and qualitative systems cannot be use to count the overall cost of the project. The following are some of the ways that can be used to minimize the risk associated with the project (Rever, 2007):
Schedule and Cost risk analysis: Cost scheduling and estimates are used as values of input that are randomly selected for the iteration.
Expected Monetary Value analysis: Measuring the average scenarios outcome that may or may not occur.
Probability distributions: It can be used in the simulation and modeling to correspond to the values uncertainty in things like the task labor and costs.
Analysis of Sensitivity: This is very simple method to find out how the risk is affects the project of any organization.
There are a huge number of methods to “count” the project risk throughout the process analysis. Once measurement has happened, the planning final stages have to begin.
Conflict Management
Smooth/Accommodate Conflict Management
The accommodate conflict management emphases agreement areas rather than difference areas; giving way one’s position to others needs to preserve relationships and harmony between the project team (Jackline, 2014).”
This method also is acquainted with the professional relationships’ importance towards the success of project. As far as the long-term projects are concern, strengthening and persevering becomes very important for the project team. Nevertheless, the members of the project team are continually emphasized on differences, on the project making more of the progress becomes very complicated (Rever, 2007).
Agreement areas to give emphasis to will also vary based on the situation. It can also be said that the project shared commitment and impacts of disagreement on others team members. The project management also needs to position agreement areas that surfaced throughout the project stages. Effectively using accommodating and smoothing requires considerate of the conflict between parties. For instance, are parties really distress about a project work being late. As a project manager, it is very important for successful accomplish the project to eliminate any kind off risk from the project (Rever, 2007).
Quality Management
The quality assurance process is connected with the nonstop analysis and development of process. Before this all levels of the quality must be verified, it is very important to have correct data; as there is an old saying, “garbage in, garbage out.” For that reason, the project team have to conduct a methodical analysis of measurement system to authenticate the integrity and accuracy of system of measurement and data. There are said to be a lot of components of the good measurement system (Clarizen, 2018):
Precision – data is measuring precisely that is supposed to calculate
Reproducibility – unlike appraisers same measuring item get the similar outcome
Accuracy – the true value reflected by the data the property to be measured
Repeatability – following measurements by same evaluator have to be the same
Effort and time have to be made by the project team and project manager to make sure the credibility and accuracy of the system of measurement. The future decisions credibility depends on vital step of the quality assurance. The overall process analysis is said to be the quality assurance key aspect. This process analysis also comprises all of the topics of value-added analysis and root-cause analysis.
Many of the project managers are well-known with the root-cause analysis, in particular use of fishbone diagram or cause and effect. This is very important to know that there is root-cause analysis is to take in five main categories: methods, people, measurement system, materials, machines, and setting when inspecting the sources of the problems occur in the project management. This is also very easy to focus on the greater part of improvement corrective and efforts measures on people. After all, administration decides on the procedures, methods, processes and materials so be confident about the investigation of the root causes in all of the above categories (Jackline, 2014).
Portfolio Analysis MBA Project
Conclusion
Summing up the discussion it can be said that it is important to know that each project is exclusive as far as the problems that occur are concern and the main concern and resources needed for it. Implementing effective techniques of the project management reduce the disturbance of regular resources of the business activities by placing under a particular control on all technologies. PERT is essentially a tool for the management control and planning. It is also known as road map for particular project or program in which the most important elements have been totally recognized, with their equivalent interrelations.
The critical path method is preferably suitable for projects that consist of a lot of activities that interrelate in a composite manner. The Gantt charts are perfect for progress tracking in the project management. The days required to finish a particular task that achieve a goal can compared with the number that is either estimated or planned. The histogram used to calculate something next to time for case in point the histogram plot with variable on the x-axis and time on the y-axis. There are some of the problems solving techniques to be used by the project management for better project accomplishment. Some of the Problems in the project management can be approach by dividing the systems into segment that can be investigate for the problem source. Rating and analyzing risks using possibility and its impact on like schedule, performance and cost.
References
Allan, A. (2002). Innovation Management: Strategies, Implementation, and Profits. Oxford University Press.
Bragg, S. M. (2003). Essentials of Payroll: Management and Accounting. John Wiley & Sons.
Calmès, Christian, and Raymond Théoret. “Portfolio analysis of big US banks’ performance: the fee business lines factor.” Journal of Banking Regulation 22, no. 2 (2021): 112-132.
Clarizen, T. (2018, February 19). What Are Some Good Risk Management Techniques?
Cohen, E. (2018, April 18). How to Use the Critical Path Method for Complete Beginners.
Hiles, Andrew. (2010). The Definitive Handbook of Business Continuity Management. John Wiley & Sons.
Jackline. (2014). Quality Management Tools and Techniques.
Nowak, M., Mierzwiak, R., Wojciechowski, H., & Delcea, C. (2020). Grey portfolio analysis method. Grey Systems: Theory and Application.
Osha. gov. (2018). Process Safety Management Guidelines for Compliance.
Ray, S. (2018). Understanding Critical Path in Project Management.
Rever, H. (2007). Quality in project management–a practical look at chapter 8 of the PMBOK® guide.
Seyr, B. F. (2019). Portfolio Analysis in the Field of Strategic Knowledge Management. GAZDASÁG ÉS TÁRSADALOM, 2018(3–4), 54-66.
Did you find any useful knowledge relating to Portfolio Analysis and Evaluation of Project Management Techniques] in this post? What are the key facts that grabbed your attention? Let us know in the comments. Thank you.
