Dissertation – A Critical Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Cognitive Behaviour Therapies for Children and Adolescents with Anxiety Disorders
Research into the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety disorders has previously mainly focused on adults. However, there has been an increase of research into the effectiveness of cognitive behaviour therapy for children and adolescents, albeit studies remain scarce. This dissertation aims to examine the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapies available to children and adolescents with anxiety disorders.
This critical literature review analyses the available literature, offering a critical evaluation of the most used forms of cognitive behaviour therapy: group and family cognitive behavioural therapy, individual cognitive behavioural therapy and computerised cognitive behavioural therapy.
Dissertation CBT Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
Furthermore, this research outlines a range of key findings, identifying numerous difficulties found in treating children and adolescents with anxiety disorders as well as considering what is needed for cognitive behaviour therapy to be effective. Some of the issues found to affect the overall effectiveness of cognitive behaviour therapy include non-compliance, parental involvement, drop-out and the strength of the therapeutic relationship. The main conclusions propose that cognitive behavioural therapies for children and adolescents with anxiety disorders are effective from the outset, but upon further analysis, may not be as effective as many professionals suggest.
The aim of this dissertation is to examine the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in children and adolescents with anxiety disorders. Through carrying out an extensive literature review using secondary data, this piece of research will gather and critically analyse evidence for and against the effectiveness of cognitive behaviour therapy for children and young people with anxiety disorders.
More specifically, this dissertation will critically analyse the effectiveness of the most widely used forms of CBT: family and group based cognitive behaviour therapy, individual cognitive behaviour therapy and computerised cognitive behaviour therapy. A comparison between approaches will be made in the discussion whereby suggestions will be made upon which form of CBT is the most effective for children and adolescents with anxiety disorders.
3 – History and Development of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Children and Young People with Anxiety
4 – Family and Group Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Group Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in Schools
Family Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Conclusions
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An Evaluation of the Value of Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy at Qatar Airways on Consumers
Title: Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy at Qatar Airways. In modern day business, CSR cannot be avoided. Companies should improve profits and make profit but at the same time abide by set rules and regulations. Today, ignoring stakeholders could result into inability to generate long term stakeholder owner value. In CSR, companies are required to maintain their friendly relations with their consumers and other stakeholders that they engage with. Stakeholder theory proponents hold that beyond shareholders, there are other agents who equally have an interest in actions of the corporation.
The main goal of this study was to evaluate the value of corporate social responsibility strategy at Qatar Airways on consumers. Qatar airways have made significant strides by engineering decent CSR policies that have been instrumental in boosting the global image and overall profitability of the organization. This study has managed to prove that CSR has an effect on the image and profitability of a business. The study has managed to show that CSR proves to the customers that the organization minds the environment and the welfare of the society. Consequently, boosted not only the firm’s image, but also is an economic return.
Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy Qatar Airways
The main goal of this dissertation was to evaluate the value of corporate social responsibility strategy at Qatar Airways on consumers. Based on the above research questions and stated goal, this study sought to accomplish the following key objectives:
To review the current literature on the value of social corporate responsibility on Qatar Airways consumers
To understand and analyze the current situation at Qatar Airways.
To evaluate the effectiveness of the current CSR strategy at Qatar Airways
To make conclusions and recommendations for the improvement of the current social CSR strategy at Qatar Airways
CSR Dissertation Contents
1 – Introduction
CSR Perspectives
Significance of the study
Research Objectives
Problem Statement
Research Questions
Overview of Dissertation
Definition of Terms
2 – Literature Review
CSR Proponents Summary
Summary of arguments against CSR
Importance of CSR
New CSR Trends
The Case of CSR at Qatar Airways
Theoretical Framework
3 – Research Methodology
Mixed Methods Research
The philosophy behind mixed methods research
Research Design
Instrumentation
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Sample of Study
Data Collection Tools
Questionnaire
Quantitative Data Collection
Limitations of the data collection tools
Data Analysis
4 – Finding and Analysis
Demographic Information
Findings
5 – Recommendations and Conclusions
Recommendations
Limitations of the Study
Conclusion
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Capital Structure and Corporate Decision Making: The Role of Compensation Plans on Managerial Decisions in Relation to Stock Performance in the Financial Markets
This dissertation attempts to answer the research question as to whether compensation plans provide better incentives for managers to take risks and increase stock performance in financial markets by corporations. Objectives aimed at examining whether compensation plans influenced managerial decisions and overall future stock performance in corporations. Another objective assessed effectiveness of compensation plans towards managerial risky decisions and performance.
The author’s central argument was that compensation arrangements and efficient market information functionality motivated managerial decisions that increased future stock performance in corporations. The research methods adopted comprised of qualitative research methods that linked past evidence, theories and research works by other scholars to reaffirm or refute previous theories.
The methodology maintained an empiricist paradigm and research that made sense through objectivity realised from collected data. The models sought explanations and predictions with an aim of confirming, or substantiating relationships, as well as assembling generalisations on theoretical frameworks. Qualitatively, trends, gaps and opportunities were critically examined using desktop appraisal of secondary literature, documents, journals, books and reports. Content analysis method detailed systematic assessment of substances in specific materials aimed at identifying patterns, themes, or biases.
Capital Structure Financial Markets
The review finds consistent literature to demonstrate that indeed compensation arrangements contribute to performance by managers. Organizations that link compensation plans with individuals could attract egoistic kind of CEO. Extrinsic incentives, particularly money, correlated with the largest productivity in terms of stock performances. Skills-based compensation plan now forms the new trend when identifying potential CEOs. Additionally, when designing compensation arrangements, one should balance with conflicting objectives by the shareholders, executives and corporations. What worked for firm A cannot be assumed to work for firm B because each corporation is distinct in size, philosophy, values and objectives.
Dissertation Objectives
To examine whether compensation plans influence managerial decisions and overall stock performance in corporations
To assess effectiveness of compensation plans towards managerial risky decisions and performance
Dissertation Contents
1 – Introduction
Research Question
Objectives
Rationale
Statement of the Problem
2 – Literature Review
Does Compensation Plan and Risky Decision Taking Translate to Better Performance?
The Role of Financial Markets in Managerial Decision Making
Forms of Compensation Plans
Effectiveness of Compensation Plans, Risky Managerial Decisions and Performance
Theoretical Perspectives
3 – Research Methodology
Qualitative Methods
Content Analysis
Limitations
4 – Research Findings
The Hard Facts
Why Compensation arrangements and Performance Metrics?
Compensation Arrangements
Short and Long-term Bonus Measures
Performance Units/Shares
Options
Human Resource Methods
The Bogey Plan
Relative Performance Evaluation (RPE)
Informational Function of Managerial Decision Making by Financial Markets
The Correlation between Compensation Plans, Risky Decision Making and Performance
Reasons for compensation plans
Reasons against compensation plans
Compensation arrangements and its Effectiveness towards Performance
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An m-commerce (mobile commerce) business model allows customers to complete every steps of the commercial transaction by utilising mobile phones rather than visiting to the physical or brick and mortar store. The experts of technology predict that the mobile wireless communications by 2020 are possibly to be available to anywhere and anyone throughout the globe at very low cost. But it is important to develop and maintain the trust and satisfaction of customers as well as reducing their risks involved in online payments and transactions. It is specifically true in case of cross-border consumption, as less familiarity with the overseas systems and policies makes it more complex for end users to comprehend their rights and easily use mobile devices for online purchasing. In this regards, the report here is inculcating about development of m-commerce by scrutinising the enabling tools, the mobile commerce impact on the business world and the evolving battle of Android and Apple IOS. Also, the online security issues and ethical and legal concerns for the sellers are discussed at the end.
Use of m-commerce technology and its effects on future retailers
Systems and devices based on mobile techniques are now a part of daily life. These systems and devices include pagers, cellular phones, two-way radios, cordless telephone, remote systems of car locking, baby crib monitors, a system of wireless networking, electronic monitoring devices for parolees and GPS (global positioning system) based maps and locators. Sometimes such systems and devices facilitate undertaking existing activities more efficiently and effectively; at other times, they also allow completely distinct and novel activities (Sahaand Mukherjee, 2003).
The advancement in wireless techniques increased the users of mobile phones and given pace to rapid development of the economy with the effective utilisation of such devices. A type of e-commerce, i.e. dealing through mobile terminals is developed, which is referred to mobile commerce. According to Sadeh (2002) m-commerce more widely characterises as the emerging services and set of applications that can be accessed by people from their smart and internet enabled cell-phones. Basically, the m-commerce occurs in a strategic platform, which is referred to a ‘mobile portal’. There fourth-generation (4G) and third-generation (3G) systems of mobile communication provides a high level of commonality of global roaming capability, which is supporting a wide multimedia and internet services and applications with higher rates of data (Sadeh, 2003).
Due to its intrinsic characteristics, like personalisation, ubiquity, dissemination and flexibility, the m-commerce promises unprecedented market potential of business, high profitability and great productivity. The crux of e-commerce revolves around the idea to reach employees, suppliers as well as customers regardless of places where they are situated. It is about transferring correct information to right place at an exact time. Such mobile commerce flexibility is made possible through the convergence of enterprise applications, internet and wireless techniques (Siau, Ee-Peng and Shen, 2001).
Also, the mobile explosion over last some years has been surprising. It is expected that in the current year around twenty billion of cell phones will be sold. It is not just there is increasing production of mobile phones rather the human being is increasingly relying upon them. In fact, in US there are nine out of 10 customers keeping their mobiles phones 24/7 in reach. It has great ramifications for the retailers, specifically for the online commerce, where 30% of US e-commerce already accounts for m-commerce and is estimated to develop 300% quicker than the traditional e-commerce. The individuals rely on their cell phones all through the day. In actual fact, 91% use their phones while accomplishing some other tasks (Kumar, 2016). Since, the human beings are becoming more reliant on the mobile devices; they are expecting to get exactly what they required in the period when they actually need it. Such mobile mind-set of customers’ presents for the retailers ‘unprecedented opportunities to engage with their clients on cell phones and which also enables the brands to give their consumers exactly what they require instantly.
However, there is a challenge for several retailers that well-known approaches to adapt desktop experiences to cell phones, i.e. an appropriate Web design fall short when it comes to contextual experiences delivery. In order to keep up with the need of their customers during their smart phone moments, retailers need to solve response limitations, for instance, by MEO (mobile experience optimisation) on the top area of their responsive websites (Rigby, 2011).
The retailers are also losing $18 billion on annual basis because of the abandonment of their shopping cart. Moreover, it has been shown by research that over 2 out of 3 users who add any item in their online shopping cart just leave without actually buying it. Even the numbers are worse on smart phones where the rates of conversion are 70% less than the desktop. But 2015 was considered as a pivotal period for the shopping by using mobiles. For instance, in the season of holiday, smart phones play an important role than ever, with 82% improvement in revenue due to the 45% increase in traffic on mobile. In fact, the mobile phone generates 57% and more traffic and nearly 30% revenue during the holidays (De Silva, 2015). Moreover, with m-commerce expected to increase more quickly than the traditional e-commerce, the more retailers will focus on executing a seamless experience of checkout in the coming period.
M-Commerce Dissertation
Figure 1: Monthly US visitors across retail websites. (Source: Smith, 2014)
The concept of mobile commerce will possibly emerge as a main focus of the telecommunication sector and the business organisations in the immediate future. The experience of offline shopping covers huge range of emotions by comprising several forms of social interactions with human beings (Tauber, 1972). On the contrary, the experience of online shopping might be viewed as lacking sociability and human warmth, as it attempts to be more anonymous, automated and impersonal (Wangand Emurian, 2005). The experiences attained while shopping comprise positive emotions that have been linked to several important results, like increased time spent at the store, increased spending and improved level of purchasing (Jones, 1999). Moreover, the social aspects of shopping have been considered as the main contributor towards customers’ favourable connection with the retailers.
A significant challenge is faced by the online sellers in making their virtual outlets socially rich as well as in making their services and products appear eye catching to the target customers (Kim, 2002).
In future, it would be hard to earn maximum profits and retailers will be challenged to become more smart venders. Also, they will be required to identify unique methods of reaching customers and more effective methods of measuring their marketing attempts performances. Furthermore, mobile will cease being a developing channel of marketing and will become essential for the retailer to market their brand and measure themselves. Therefore, those who will be fail to integrate and adopt today’s customers’ mind-set for mobile will become the casualties of shift in next digital paradigm (Fulgoniand Lipsman, 2016).
M-Commerce Business
Figure 2: US retail sales growth rate by channels. (Source: McDermott, 2014)
How the battle between Android and Apple IOS will evolve in next five years
In the year 2007, Apple released iPhone based on their iOS mobile operating system. A year later after the grand reception of the revolutionary smart phones by Apple, Google launched Android mobile operating system under an open source license. Since then, Apple and Google have been engaged in a fierce competition for the mobile phone market share around the world. A broader view suggests that the battle between the two has been resulted in offering of more and more alike services. It happened due to borrowing features from each other’s and providing basic Smartphone functions like web browsing, app permissions and running, file sharing in similar ways. Though in recent times, the customer preference to select one of the two primarily depends on add on services and apps that comes along with them ranging from email, cloud services to VR and even mobile payment solutions (Tilson, Sorensen and Lyytinen, 2012).
One of the key differences between Android and iOS remains that Apple’s applications are tied to and updated at the same time as the mobile OS, whereas Google’s applications update are customizable and left on the choice of customers. Another key difference in the line is that use of Android applications across several devices such as Smartphone, laptops, tablets or desktops is smooth whether customers use these devices from the same manufacturer or not. On the other hand Apple doesn’t like their customers to switch the manufacture because Apple produces all these devices itself. Therefore, it’s easier to work across these devices if made by Apple and harder to get out of the Apple’s ecosystem.
Apple took similar approach with the iPhone as they took with their desktop operating system Macintosh. They launched a revolutionary device for a much higher price than existing products with outstanding features and capabilities. On the other hand, Android took approach similar to that of Microsoft and became like “Windows” of the smart phone operating system. The open source license enabled a lot of manufacturers to offer low-cost devices with same features as Apple. As a result, Google’s Android compete Apple’s iOS with its increased percentage of market share in year 2012.
Though, studies suggest that with respect to e-commerce transactions, Apple’s iOS is still ahead of Android in developed economies and average order value around the world. Even though, top choice of customers in m-commerce remains Apple but in reality the Android adoption has increased over the years. With respect to current annual traffic growth, Android’s rate 56% is ahead of Apple’s 33%. Also, the customers are using cell-phones and tablets to shop across mobile sites and apps that ultimately create challenge to the mobile strategies of retailers.
Consumers are also using both tablets and smart phones to shop across apps and mobile sites, which adds complexity for retailer mobile strategies. These trends suggest that, in the longer term it is expected that Android customers will become highly valuable and companies around the globe which offers m-commerce services would design their products specifically for Android customers. The online venders are required to explore such trends and change their m-commerce approach to create a strong presence on every device and platform with a reliable experience to users (Kenney and Pon, 2011).
The potential customers of mobile payments services are from the 25 to 34 years of age group, with 78% in this age group. Furthermore, the most purchased services are music, which is followed by books, travel tickets, electronic products and apparel. Study also reveals that mobile purchase choices is more dependent on convenience rather than price because users are selecting high-value items like hotels, train tickets and clothing together with the economic products. In conclusion it can be said that consumers are growing more comfortable shopping on mobile and Apple mobile payment buyers spend more time and money than Android mobile payment buyers.
Security, legal and ethical issues in m-commerce
The e-commerce implementation comprises several legal issues. These issues can be classified in varied manner, such as jurisdiction over trades, internet gambling and encryption policies. On the contrary, the ethical issues are concerned with what is considered to be wrong and right. There are many significant policy issues raise by the mobile commerce, specifically in relation to inadequate disclosure of information, unsolicited sales and minor protection. Besides this, SMS spam and unauthorised use are some additional issues (Mehra, 2015).
A high risk of crime is being carried by the wireless network. Hackers can erase and steal data and information from the cell-phone devices and disrupt the traffic on wireless network by overloading it with phone messages and information. The mobiles are also infected by virus, which cause them to randomly switch of or erase all information and addresses from it. Based on the surveys of Georgia Tech (1997 and 1998), the internet face most significant issues in relation to privacy, taxation, encryption, navigation and censorship (Niranjanamurthy and Chahar, 2013).
In particular, the privacy has long been a social and legal issue in many countries. With the increasing and broad use of e-commerce and internet, the privacy issue becomes more challenging. In this regards, an organisation known as the Electronic Privacy Information Centre is constantly working on safeguarding the privacy (ROTENBERG et al., 2003). The e-commerce security is an important portion of Information Security framework and is especially pragmatic to the constituents that creates impact on the electronic commerce including Data security, Computer Security and several other wide Information Security framework realms. The security at e-commerce has its own specific nuances and is considered as the key visible security constituents, which influence the end user by their day to day payment transactions with the organisation. Therefore, security and privacy in today’s internet era are the main consideration for e-commerce and m-commerce technologies (Massoud, n.d).
In addition to above, the privacy concerns in m-commerce have been also identified in revealing less trust in several contexts, like commerce, electronic health records, technology of e-recruitment and social networking that directly influence the response of end-users. Furthermore, the main and constant concern for the online retailers is security that restrict organisation and customers engaging via e-commerce. Also, the web e-commerce applications handle payments by electronic transactions as well as using debit and credit cards and online banking and PayPal are closely linked with the compliance issues (Mennecke and Strader, 2003).
Moreover, shopping online through websites includes several steps to buy a commodity with complete security and safety. The online mobile transactions require customers to reveal a large number of sensitive personal data to the seller by placing themselves at a great risk. Thus, comprehending and gaining trust of customers is significant for the m-commerce regular development. Also, the function of electronic payment in online shopping is the main issue to ensure that customers are convenient and fast as well as to ensure the parties secrecy and safety to a transaction that requires a complete electronic systems of trading (Caudill and Murphy, 2000).
Conclusion
It can be concluded that e-commerce is mainly considered as the products selling and buying over the internet, but any transaction which is solely accomplished through electronic systems can be called as e-commerce. The concepts of m-commerce and e-commerce is playing a great role in today’s retail businesses, as people utilising mobile devices for their transactions and purchases are regularly increasing around the globe. However, the e-commerce is not free from several securities, ethical and legal issues, due to the unauthorised use, destruction, alteration and access over the retailers’ site. The fraudsters are continuously looking to take benefit of online shoppers, who are liable of making novice errors.
Some common mistakes that leave customers at risk include shopping on insure websites, leaving the devices open to viruses and providing too much sensitive or personal information. Therefore, the online retailers are require to apply proper ethical standards to their online transactions and selling practise, in order to gain customers trust and offer them safe and secure shopping method. It is because all the business aspects are greatly affected by ethics. Also, it creates impact on the brand image and subsequently the advertising, marketing and selling functions of the business. Thus, in order to keep up and increase revenue with growing mobile uses and online shopping behaviours of customers, the sellers needs to consider code of conduct related to m-commerce operations.
References
Caudill, E.M. and Murphy, P.E., 2000. Consumer online privacy: Legal and ethical issues. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 19(1), pp.7-19.
De Silva, G.H.B.A., 2015. Determinants of Online Buying Behavior.
Fulgoni, G.M. and Lipsman, A., 2016. The Future of Retail Is Mobile. Journal of Advertising Research, 56(4), pp.346-351.
Jones, M.A., 1999. Entertaining shopping experiences: an exploratory investigation. Journal of retailing and consumer services, 6(3), pp.129-139.
Kenney, M. and Pon, B., 2011. Structuring the smartphone industry: is the mobile internet OS platform the key. Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, 11(3), pp.239-261.
Kim, Y.K., 2002. Consumer value: an application to mall and Internet shopping. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 30(12), pp.595-602.
Kumar, H., 2016. Mobile Commerce Trends to Buy Into. The Experience, M-Commerce.
Massoud, S.L., n.d. Ethical and Legal Issues in E-Commerce.
McDermott, J., 2014. The future of retail in 5 charts.
Mehra, J., 2015. E-commerce: Opportunities and Challenges. The International Journal of Business & Management, 3(1), p.182.
Mennecke, B.E. and Strader, T.J. eds., 2003. Mobile commerce: technology, theory, and applications. IGI Global.
Niranjanamurthy, M. and Chahar, D.D., 2013. The study of e-commerce security issues and solutions. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer and Communication Engineering, 2(7).
Rigby, D., 2011. The future of shopping. Harvard Business Review, 89(12), pp.65-76.
ROTENBERG, M., BUTLER, A., MCCALL, G., HORWITZ, J. and HUSBAND, D., 2003. Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Sadeh, N., 2003. M-commerce: technologies, services, and business models. John Wiley & Sons.
Saha, D. and Mukherjee, A., 2003. Pervasive computing: a paradigm for the 21st century. Computer, 36(3), pp.25-31.
Siau, K., Ee-Peng, L. and Shen, Z., 2001. Mobile commerce: promises, challenges, and research agenda. Journal of Database management, 12(3), p.4.
Smith, C., 2014. THE E-COMMERCE REPORT: Mobile Is Giving Traditional Retailers A Chance To Bounce Back These Holidays.
Tauber, E.M., 1972. Why do people shop. The Journal of Marketing, pp.46-49.
Tilson, D., Sorensen, C. and Lyytinen, K., 2012, January. Change and control paradoxes in mobile infrastructure innovation: the Android and iOS mobile operating systems cases. In System Science (HICSS), 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on (pp. 1324-1333). IEEE.
Wang, Y.D. and Emurian, H.H., 2005. An overview of online trust: Concepts, elements, and implications. Computers in human behavior, 21(1), pp.105-125.
I do hope you enjoyed reading this post on the evolution of M-Commerce. There are many other titles available in the IT Dissertation Collection that should be of interest to information technology and computer science students and information technology professionals. There are many dissertation titles that relate to other aspects of information technology such as Network Security, Information Systems, ERP, Software, IT Infrastructure, Programming, Telecommunications, eLearning, eCommerce, Wireless Networks and Systems Analysis. It took a lot of effort to write this post and I would be grateful if you could share this post via Facebook and Twitter. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section. Thank you.
Business Is the Art of Predicting the Future and Getting Benefit from It
“The art of predicting the future and getting benefit from it” in business can be narrowed down to one term which is business forecasting. Business forecasting is the backbone of a successful business in every business venture. According to different scholars, the management of business should always make predictions based on overall running of the business, sales and finance handling (Hailey 2007).
Business Forecasting is described as the art and method that can be used by the business owner or shareholders to make a prediction of future business activities basing it on the accuracy of your data. The information obtained can be used in the determination of future trends in finance performance, sales performance and also customer behavior. Most businesses need business forecasting, and usually, they are done on a quarterly basis, but some can prefer forecasts made on a monthly basis (Evans 2009).
Types of Business Future Predictions (Forecasts)
General business outlook. Each and every business needs a forecast to is undertaken. This is mainly to foresee the likely changes that might occur shortly. There are certain conditions that are always present in a community that a certain business operates. Some examples are; controls, population, fiscal policy, political conditions, and the national income. Due to the presence of these factors, it is necessary to make future predictions of the business (Hailey 2007).
Sales forecast. The sales department is a major determinant of success in a company. Due to this reason, sales forecast should be carried out with precaution and due care to gain business success. In every business, sales forecasting is considered as the to notch factor in planning and a major aspect to consider in an organizational setting. Plans and policies made by the business to maximize their profits are obtained from expected sales so whether sales forecast is carried out annually or yearly; it is the main factor to future business plans.
Business Forecasting MBA
Capital forecast. Every business in operation must have financial plans. Capital should be a factor to be determined to meet present and future needs of business. Forecast based on business capital requirements is a necessity and is considered as the primary step in every organization. Accurate forecasts greatly help an organization to employ capital fully and get optimum returns from their investments (Morlidge 2010).
Major Merits of Future Business Predictions (Forecasts)
Promoting a new business in the market. Making future predictions is one vital factor that has a huge contribution when it comes to setting up of a new business. This is because starting a new business is not as easy as it is perceived by most people because business is subject to risks and uncertainties. By carrying out forecasting, the business promoter finds out if the probability of the business thriving and if the business has high competition. After making these predictions, the business promoter assembled all the necessary resources and based on the forecasting made; the business is subject to success or failure (Morlidge 2010).
Formulation of a plan. Proper business forecasting plays a major role in business planning. Major business plans require proper forecasting in business thus making it an essential aspect in consideration. Therefore, as a business person, it is always important no note that adequate planning, whether long-term or short-term highly depends on forecasting.
Estimation of financial requirements. Estimation of business finances is a major business concern because in running a business, capital is vital. Business finances can be characterized by cash used to start the business, the money stored in the bank and cash used to run the day to day operations of the business. The presence of working and fixed capital is based on sound financial forecasting.
The viability of decisions made by management. Correct management decisions highly depend on the accuracy of forecasts made. As described by various scholars, the administration is a decision-making process, and management has the responsibility of making decisions which are uncertain. In the running of business whether small or large, certain changes might occur, e.g. personnel changes and unforeseen contingencies. Decision making by management is a process that goes on throughout the life of business (Evans 2009). Therefore, forecasting is relied upon in matters of production planning and resource allocation.
Business success. Proper forecasting helps the procurement department of the business to procure the necessary and necessary raw materials based on the business needs and future needs. The accuracy of sales forecasting is essential in making budgets. When a business fails to make accurate sales forecasts, it becomes difficult for the business and management to figure out how much production should be done (Hailey 2007).
Conclusion
As discussed in this paper, prediction of future is a vital step that every business has to undergo. Through future prediction, business is assured to thrive and reach its set limits. Many advantages have been realized by businesses which have taken the step of making good and proper business forecasts. On the other hand, lack of prospects might lead to a drastic failure of business. All the discussed merits are some out of the may many benefits of making future predictions of business.
Bibliography
Evans, Michael K. Practical Business Forecasting. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2009.
Hailey, Linda. Your Business, Your Future: How to Predict and Harness Growth. Crows Nest, New South Wales: Allen & Unwin, 2007.
Morlidge, Steve. Future Ready: How to Master Business Forecasting. New Jersey: Wiley, 2010.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post on Business Forecasting and Future Predictions. There are many other titles available in the business management dissertation and MBA dissertationcollections that should be of interest to MBA students and academic professionals. There are many dissertation titles that relate to other aspects of business such as strategy, leadership, international business, mergers and acquisitions to name a few. It took a lot of effort to write this post and I would be grateful if you could share this post via Facebook and Twitter. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section. Thank you.
