MBA Project International Economic Environment

International Economic Environment

This report is an analysis of operating business in the international economic environment. Having knowledge of the international business environment is of most importance for modern managers as all major business concerns are dealing worldwide for all types of business transactions and second thing is that almost all business are or desiring to be globalized. Hence a manager must have knowledge about these factors of international business environment.

Definition of International Economic Environment

One system all over the world which only used for the trade internationally among the developed and developing countries is called International Economic environment. It is a sub-field of economics that is concerned with environmental issues. Environmental economics is distinguished from ecological economics in that it emphasizes the economy as a subsystem of the ecosystem with its focus upon preserving natural capital. On the other hand, International Economic Environment means the environment in different countries, with conditions similar to the home environment of the institutions, influencing decision-making on capabilities and resource use.

Terms of International Economic Environment

There are three terms to spread out all over the world of International Economic Environment. If any countries want to be world trader he must follow the three terms to be real international trader.

  • Competitiveness.
  • Monetary.
  • The Law of One Price

There are also other two conditions must be satisfied before international economic exchanges can become beneficial for all involved. The sustainability of ecosystems on which the global economy depends must be guaranteed. And the economic partners must be satisfied that the basis of exchange is equitable; relationships that are unequal and based on dominance of one kind or another are not a sound and durable basis for interdependence. For many developing countries, neither condition is met.

Elements of Economic Environment

The elements of International Economic Environment are more important. It has five elements. Every elements is described below,

Economic Conditions: – Economic Policies of a business unit are largely affected by the economic conditions of an economy. Any improvement in the economic conditions such as standard of living, purchasing power of public, demand and supply, distribution of income etc. largely affects the size of the market. Business cycle is another economic condition that is very important for a business unit. Business Cycle has 5 different stages viz. (i) Prosperity, (ii) Boom, (iii) Decline, (iv) Depression, (v) Recovery.

Following are mainly included in Economic Conditions of a country:-

  1. Stages of Business Cycle
  2. National Income, Per Capita Income and Distribution of Income
  3. Rate of Capital Formation
  4. Demand and Supply Trends
  5. Inflation Rate in the Economy
  6. Industrial Growth Rate, Exports Growth Rate
  7. Interest Rate prevailing in the Economy
  8. Trends in Industrial Sickness
  9. Efficiency of Public and Private Sectors
  10. Growth of Primary and Secondary Capital Markets
  11. Size of Market

Types of International Economic Environment

It has two parts:

  1. Microeconomic
  2. Macroeconomic

Microeconomic part means focuses on the recent economic environment and the effect of location on business and performance. The Macroeconomic part means focus on the broader or spreader economic environment and the world economy as all in all.

International economics system

International economics is concerned with the effects upon economic activity of international differences in productive resources and consumer preferences and the international institutions that affect them. It seeks to explain the patterns and consequences of transactions and interactions between the inhabitants of different countries, including trade, investment and migration Such as:

Finance system: International finance system explains and researches the spread of money over the international financial markets, and the impacts of the exchange rates.

Trade System: Which studies products, goods, and services all over the world boundaries and it makes some policy to spread up its trading system.

Monetary Macroeconomics System: this factor research capital and macro flows all over the world.

Analysis of International Economic Environment

Economic Environment means the effect of the working on the business all over the world. It studies trade system, policies, structure, and nature of an economy, level of income, distribution of income and wealth etc. The economic environment explains the economic conditions of any countries where the international organization operates. The features of economic environment are related to the all economic activities effects. The roles of international economic environment are increasing gradually day by day. Cause it has various types of system which are explained above the report. It has many organizations like World Bank, WTO, and UN etc.

We can accurately grasp the characteristics of international marketing environment, determine whether the enterprise market opportunities, can select the appropriate target market, can develop the appropriate marketing mix strategy. In other words, the correct assessment of the international marketing environment, to conduct international business success is the basis for marketing activities. Generally, the larger impact of international marketing activities is mainly economic, political, legal and cultural environment. Enterprises to enter the market of a country, we must first analyze the country’s economic environment. A country’s economy through the market size and economic characteristics of the two factors are reflected in relatively prepared.

Characteristics of the international economic environment

International economics environment is worldwide sector. It has some own characteristics which help anyone to fine out the conditions, rising and declining of economy of any countries of the world. It helps them to find out the lickings of their economic system. International economic environment play role of its system into every country. It has own Trade Centre, like WTO. Annually it presses its growth and declining reports. Some bindings are given to those countries. All business sectors services are provide to that country.

Importance of Economic environment

The most general and important consequence is that we naturally and automatically give priority to the economy (the household of man and part of the socio-economic environment) over ecology (the household of our planet, which constitutes the natural environment), when it should be obvious (were we not blinded by our familiarity with and dependency on the status quo) that for medium and long-term human survival it has to be the other way around. Day by day the importance of the economic environment is increasing.

Challenges of International economic environment

A related characteristic of market economies that is relevant to managers concerns the nature of property ownership. There are two pure types-complete privet ownership and complete public ownership.

Nowadays there are many challenges to overcome all obstacle of developing world economy. But there are four challenges go ahead as a main features. Four challenges are now main factor for us.

China Economy: In this ultra-modern world, Chine is the big fact. Socialist, Scientist, researches that next era China overcomes USA and European economy.

Politicization of global economy: Politics is the main factor nowadays. Now every country is violated by political violence all over the world. Everyone wants to become higher than another one. So these types of economy are the challenges for the modern economic environment.

Poverty, inequality and insufficiency: Almost all over the many countries are live under the poverty line. There have no proper system and capital to improve them. However, inequality and insufficiency of the products and working system they are not developed. So, it is the challenges for it.

Greenhouse effect: Greenhouse effect is now an n important discussion all over the world. Economic environment is totally effected by this. So it is the fact.

Theme of global business environment

Shift in the locus of power from North to South

The locus of global economic, political, and demographic power has been shifting from the Global North (broadly speaking, developed countries) to the Global South (developing countries). Although this shift has been taking place for decades, the new intensity with which it is occurring and the changing implications that it has for business will shape the global business environment in the coming years.

For businesses, supply chain structures are less likely to follow the “make in developing, sell in developed” paradigm. Additionally, in a globalized talent pool, educated workers are coming from new places, so companies must raise the bar or get left behind. Furthermore, the entrance of new competitors means that some threats may not even be on the radar.

New models of consumer engagement

With ubiquitous connectivity, universal access to knowledge, and an increasingly global consumer environment, companies are being forced to redefine how they engage with consumers. These trends can be double-edged swords. Connectivity in social media, online mobility, mobile payments, and augmented reality offer new ways to market products and services to consumers, but they also add complexity and competition. Access to knowledge and broader globalization can create consumer opportunities, but the former creates intense price pressures, and the latter can cause organizational complexity—both of which combine to squeeze profitability.

Many companies are already at the forefront of engaging the new consumer, while others are still lagging behind, or worse, attempting to shoehorn outmoded concepts for consumer engagement into electronic avenues. Companies can gain an immediate advantage with the following strategies:

Invest in electronic and social media-based consumer engagement. This applies not only to consumer products companies and retailers but also to businesses in other industries.

New paradigms, changing business models, and constant innovation

From research and development (R&D) and consumer engagement to product design, manufacturing, and corporate governance, the paradigms that have defined business are changing. Technology-enabled global operations transformed R&D functions during the information technology revolution; now, educational achievements in developing countries and aging populations in established markets are changing them again. Technological advances on the horizon, such as three-dimensional printing, will change established manufacturing methods just as computer-aided design and automation did 20 years ago.

Redefinition of the social contract

In both developed and developing countries, citizens are demanding more from their governments, and governments are facing challenges in meeting their needs. The events in the Middle East illustrate citizens demanding greater representation and accountability from their governments, enabled by ever-present connectivity. The forms of government that are—or were in place are proving to be unequal to the task. In the developed world, constituents are insisting on more protection from various forms of volatility, be it economic, health, or security. Governments in these countries, however, are constrained by rising debt, changing global governance models, and a talent deficit. Some countries, such as China, are struggling with both sets of problems. As governments worldwide face new demands and new constraints, a wholesale reevaluation of the social contract is taking place.

The global war for talent

Changing global demographics combined with governments’ disparate ability to invest in education have caused a shift in the composition of global talent. Talent is increasingly located in developing markets, both in numbers (younger, growing populations) and in skill sets (more university degrees, especially in science and engineering). The global recession has accelerated this trend, with many developed countries reporting a reverse brain drain—highly skilled emigrants leaving their host countries to return home, where capital is more plentiful and growth rates higher, to find work or start businesses.

At the same time, technology has made global collaboration more prevalent, and changing business models and business needs have made knowledge workers more valuable. Product cycles are becoming shorter and technological competition more intense, placing greater pressure on companies to keep pace by identifying and cultivating the best minds. The result of these new and accelerating trends is a global war for talent that will determine which companies, and governments are able to innovate and prosper and which ones will simply follow.

MBA Project International Economic Environment
MBA Project International Economic Environment

 

This situation presents risks and opportunities. Highly networked companies are able to take advantage of a growing pool of global talent and, by doing so, raise the bar for their competitors, including the less well-networked. This heightened level of competition means that all companies, including today’s innovators, need to be alert to changes in the competitive landscape for talent. In addition to locating and connecting with the most talented people, companies will face greater pressure to retain the most talented employees. Retention mechanisms and core human resources skills will become increasingly important to keeping high-value, high-performing workers. The policies of various geographic locations will have to be scrutinized to choose countries that offer fewer restrictions on the migration of highly skilled workers.

Risk of International Business

In every sector risk is compulsory. Then no one stay behind the sector although he knows it is not good. In the international economic environment sector also have many risk. Most of the important risk is included below. To develop in this sector you should mind it.

  • Operational Risk
  • Political Risk
  • Technological Risk
  • Economic Risk
  • Financial Risk
  • Terrorism Risk
  • Strategic Risk
  • Planning Risk
  • Social Risk

Important of Studying International Economic Environment

By studying following gaudiness, everyone will be able to know what the main factor of International Economic Environment is. Without it no one can find out which countries are poor or rich. Following are the importance and objectives of studying International Economic Environment:

  • Increasing awareness of the one country political policies and economic system
  • Learning the system of improving relation through appropriate communication
  • Identifying the other developed countries economic policy

Changing the Economic Market

The future of any institution depends on its law, rules and regulations and depending on economic, social and technological sector.  Whether it’s emerging markets like China or Brazil impacting sales and production, demographical situations changing buyer’s behavior and challenging service models, companies need to adapt to turn threats and challenges into opportunities. Under this plan, the economic impact has to be estimated by the regulator. Usually this is done using cost-benefit analysis. There is a growing realization that regulations (also known as “command and control” instruments) are not as distinct from economic instruments as is commonly asserted by proponents of environmental economics. E.g.1 regulations are enforced by fines, which operate as a form of tax if pollution rises above the threshold prescribed. E.g.2 pollution must be monitored and laws enforced, whether under a pollution tax regime or a regulatory regime. The main difference an environmental economist would argue exists between the two methods, however, is the total cost of the regulation.

Relationship to other fields

Environmental economics is related to ecological economics but there are differences. Most environmental economists have been trained as economists. They apply the tools of economics to address environmental problems, many of which are related to so-called market failures—circumstances wherein the “invisible hand” of economics is unreliable. Most ecological economists have been trained as ecologists, but have expanded the scope of their work to consider the impacts of humans and their economic activity on ecological systems and services, and vice-versa. This field takes as its premise that economics is a strict subfield of ecology. Ecological economics is sometimes described as taking a more pluralistic approach to environmental problems and focuses more explicitly on long-term environmental sustainability and issues of scale.

Environmental economics is viewed as more pragmatic in a price system; ecological economics as more idealistic in its attempts not to use money as a primary arbiter of decisions. These two groups of specialists sometimes have conflicting views which may be traced to the different philosophical underpinnings.

Another context in which externalities apply is when globalization permits one player in a market who is unconcerned with biodiversity to undercut prices of another who is – creating a race to the bottom in regulations and conservation. This in turn may cause loss of natural capital with consequent erosion, water purity problems, diseases, desertification, and other outcomes which are not efficient in an economic sense. This concern is related to the subfield of sustainable development and its political relation, the anti-globalization movement.

Environmental economics was once distinct from resource economics. Natural resource economics as a subfield began when the main concern of researchers was the optimal commercial exploitation of natural resource stocks. But resource managers and policy-makers eventually began to pay attention to the broader importance of natural resources (e.g. values of fish and trees beyond just their commercial exploitation; externalities associated with mining). It is now difficult to distinguish “environmental” and “natural resource” economics as separate fields as the two became associated with sustainability. Many of the more radical green economists split off to work on an alternate political economy.

Environmental economics was a major influence for the theories of natural capitalism and environmental finance, which could be said to be two sub-branches of environmental economics concerned with resource conservation in production, and the value of biodiversity to humans, respectively.

Conclusion

The International Economic Environment is now an important demand for every country to make up them as a development country in the world. The article considers culture, religions of people from various countries, traditions, customs, which from the multicultural environment of international economic activity. Every manager should have through understanding of International Economic environment, only then he can drive the organization to the path of success. All over the world, all countries differ in conditions of: Stage of economic development, economic environment etc.

References

Balasubramanian, Arun: Towards a Philosophy of Environmental Education Regional Institute of Higher Education and Development, Singapore.

Sankar, S.: Environmental Economics, Margham Publications, Chennai. P. 7.

Karpagam, M.: Environmental Economics, Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi-20. P-5

Robert N. Stavins: “environmental economics,” The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition. Abstract & article.

UNEP: Guidelines for Conducting Economic Valuation of Coastal Ecosystem Goods and Services

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Educational Inequality

Powerful Knowledge and Educational Inequality

Powerful knowledge is an important idea in the modern educational discussion, focusing on the question of how different styles of education and different courses of study serve students in different ways, preparing some for positions of importance and leadership, and miring others in a perpetuating cycle of working-class, and often poverty-level, existence. It is clear, from an observation of how the educational system is currently working in Australia, that there is a significant level of inequality in what students learn between the vocational-oriented competency-based training, or CBT, institutions and the higher-education institutions, which leads to an inequality in future opportunities for the students, and even finally to an inequality in the ability of these students, in their adult lives, to engage in the important conversations of their democratic society and even to participate in the political activities of their country as citizens. In this literature review, I examine the implications of powerful knowledge and vocationally-oriented education in Australia and propose solutions to the problem of educational inequality based on powerful knowledge. In conducting this literature review, I collected sources pertinent to the subject, first from the class readings, and then from my own searches on the topic, to ensure objectivity and to obtain information about current statistics in Australian education. Except where I was looking for historical data, sources were generally from 2000 and later

Definitions

Powerful knowledge is, simply put, the knowledge that is required to be able to have power (Young & Muller, 2010). Powerful knowledge “is the knowledge needed to progress in the world but also that least likely to be discovered outside of school for those from disadvantaged backgrounds” (Whitty, 2010, p. 32) (p 32). There are different bodies of powerful knowledge in the different disciplines, and then there is a generally accepted overall powerful knowledge, which is used to demonstrate to people from widespread disciplines that an individual has the capability of thinking clearly and logically, communicating effectively, and other important qualities for effective leadership (Beck, 2013). Even before powerful knowledge became a concept as such in education, the idea of norms without with students would not be able to get a job or would not have credibility in their fields permeated education, and provided the conceptual basis by which teachers ruthlessly eradicated grammatical anomalies from their classrooms and enforced normative, middle-class speech patterns under the assumption that speaking with lower-class dialects would make students sound uncouth and uneducated (Ogbu, 1995). Powerful knowledge goes far beyond simple normative grammar usage, however, and includes a host of thought patterns which indicate rigor of intellectual thought, such as knowledge of testing methods. It is knowledge that enables individuals to think critically and systematically, learn new subjects and comprehend them, understand logical rigor and fallacies and experimental methods for proving unsubstantiated claims (Beck, 2013). But how does this lead to educational inequality…

Particular powerful knowledge is determined by each discipline (Green, 2010). Some disciplines have powerful knowledge that is highly specialized and inaccessible to individuals outside that academic discipline. This powerful knowledge is called esoteric knowledge (Beck, 2013). Esoteric knowledge is powerful knowledge that is so discipline-specific as to be inaccessible to anyone outside of that discipline. Scientific fields are this way, with a specific vocabulary and knowledge base that is not used outside the field. There is an initiation required for an esoteric knowledge field (ibid).

Knowledge of the powerful is knowledge of the ruling class; that is, the ideas they think about and consider important  (Beck, 2013). It is whatever topics make up the compelling conversations of the day: capitalism versus socialism, universal human rights, pacifism versus imperial militarism, etc.. There is a strong connection between knowledge of the powerful and powerful knowledge, a) because the powerful people are often rigorously schooled in powerful knowledge, and b) because the discussions in the knowledge of the powerful often use powerful knowledge paradigms, without understanding which it is oftentimes impossible to engage in the discussion. However they are related, they are not the same thing (ibid). The connection between knowledge of the powerful and powerful knowledge goes a long way toward explaining the phenomenon that political debates are often divided along class lines, with more educated people tending toward one side of the debate and less educated people tending toward the other (Rose, 2000).

Powerful knowledge and knowledge of the powerful are concepts that exist within the framework of critical realism. Critical realism is a framework of viewing the society as a whole, with knowledge and norms outside of the viewer and even outside of the individual member of society. Essentially, from a critical realist point of view, curriculum development must take into account the “big picture” in order to serve the total needs of society (Priestley, 2011). Critical realism is closely connected to the idea of inequality in education as related to powerful knowledge. As Michael F.D. Young said, the knowledge issue is both an epistemological issue and a social justice issue, because those kids who don’t get to university often don’t get access to what I call powerful knowledge and they are the people who need it most, because they’re going to find life really tough without it (quoted in Whitty, 2010, p. 31). Is this an argument in favor of educational inequality…

Within the discussion of how education happens in light of powerful knowledge theory, there are further concepts to be defined. The classification of knowledge refers to how students view the knowledge that is available to them. For instance, school subjects are often separated from information gained at home and from each other, so that math, science, English, and history classes often have nothing to do with each other in a student’s school experience. As Bernstein explains it, “Classification reflects the distribution of power and the principles by which boundaries are established between categories. Strong classification is underpinned by the rule that ‘things must be kept apart.’ Weak classification is underpinned by the rule that ‘things must be brought together’” (Whitty, 2010, p. 36). Thus curricula that focus on integration between subjects and curricula that aim at bringing students’ home experiences into the classroom as a basis of reference are weak classification curricula, while curricula that separate out subjects and focus only on the things that are supposed to be learned in any given lesson (without reference to students’ extracurricular experiences) are strong classification curricula. Subjects that are heaviest in powerful knowledge tend to be the most strongly classified, and subjects that depend on esoteric knowledge are almost exclusively strongly classified. That is, there is usually quite a bit of overlap between elementary social studies and students’ home lives, but there is not likely to be much overlap at all between calculus and a student’s everyday life.

Framing is the way in which the material is presented and the methods of student engagement in the literature: “Framing, on the other hand, reflects the distribution of control over communication. Strong framing is where the transmitter has explicit control over the communication; weak framing gives the inquirer more apparent control over the communication” (Whitty, 2010, p. 36). Thus classes that are strongly framed are likely to be lecture-heavy, and students will learn facts from the instructor, the textbook, and other authorities. In classes that are weakly framed, students are likely to learn in a more discovery-based model. As with classification, subjects with significant amounts of powerful knowledge tend to be more strongly framed than subjects without powerful knowledge, and subjects with esoteric knowledge are the most strongly framed. As was stated above, esoteric knowledge generally requires an initiation, which often takes the form of strongly framed education.

Classification and framing are of utmost importance in this discussion. Classification is how students see the information they are learning – is it only important in the classroom, or is there overlap into real life? Strong classification education is self-referential in the classroom; weak classification education overlaps into everyday life. Similarly with framing, subjects that are framed strongly build up information systematically in a series of lectures; subjects that are framed weakly have little prerequisite knowledge required and allow students to approach problems according to their own curiosity and interest notably in educational inequality…. Whitty (2010) says that weak classification and weak framing have been largely unsuccessful in British systems, but that strong classification and strong framing also perpetuate an educational inequality, with the result that there is a need for a third solution.

Education Dissertations Essay Powerful Knowledge and Educational Inequality

Vertical knowledge and horizontal knowledge also play an important part in the discussion of powerful knowledge. Vertical knowledge is the abstract knowledge encountered in the higher-education system; it is what we refer to as powerful knowledge. Horizontal knowledge is day-to-day knowledge, such as vocational training knowledge (Wheelahan, 2010). Some disciplines require very structured instruction and have hierarchical (vertical) knowledge. Even problem-based learning requires a thorough instruction in the basics before students can understand enough to solve the problem. Physics is one such discipline. In academic disciplines, powerful knowledge is the knowledge passed down by the instructor. Other disciplines do not have such a specific set of vocabulary and concepts that need to be imparted by the teacher. These disciplines lend themselves well to problem-based learning and often deal with horizontal knowledge. Vocational skills are often this way (Wheelahan, 2010).

Knowledge-based education and project-based education are also terms that are used to make the distinction between curricula centering on powerful knowledge and curricula centering on practical skills. The fate of project-based education has been mixed since its original introduction as a revolutionary answer to the problem of school failure and drop-out rates. In Britain, as project-based education came en vogue as a progressive movement in education, it became clear through test scores that students were not gaining the abstract conceptual framework they needed for leadership success (powerful knowledge). As this trend became apparent, wealthier parents simply paid to send their students to private schools that taught knowledge-based subjects earlier, so the working-class students were primarily subjected to the lower standards and lower grades that resulted from the project-based reforms (Whitty, 2010).

Powerful knowledge in the modern educational system

Currently, the discussion of powerful knowledge centers on a discussion of career or vocational-oriented training as the model for education versus a more liberal arts, knowledge-for-knowledge’s-sake model of education. Education is commonly considered to aim towards the purpose of enabling students to acquire a well-paying job, and this is the case in the powerful knowledge discussion as well. In modern educational theory, “There has been a movement toward … wanting subject-learning to be thought of in terms of what the learner should be ableto do as a result of that teaching” (Yates, 2011, p. 34). This shift has been notable since 1975, and has changed the face of education from one of learning about the world to one of learning how to do a job (Yates & Collins, The absence of knowledge in Australian curriculum reforms, 2010). Digital technology is a force driving skills-based learning (Young & Muller, 2010). Easy access to education, more convenience in taking classes, and other factors lead people, especially working people trying to get better jobs, to take advantage of competency-based programs that will qualify them for a promotion or a more lucrative career path. Thus we recognize competency-based training (CBT) as an important aspect of education in the context that the vast majority of students, after college, will need to be able to support themselves with a career.

The question at hand is not whether education is intended to provide students with the means of entering the workforce, but what role their education forms them to play in that workforce. There is a significant difference between the roles that higher-education, academic programs prepare students for and the roles that vocational training programs prepare them for: “The purpose of an academic curriculum is to induct students into a field of knowledge (the academic disciplines) while the purpose of a vocational curriculum is to induct students into a field ofpractice. The process of selection (the classification of knowledge) and the way knowledge is selected, sequenced, paced and evaluated (the framing of knowledge) will be different in each” (Wheelahan, 2010, p. 55).

Vocational training provides students with the knowledge they need to do a specific job. As it is performed in Australian schools, CBT does not provide broader knowledge about the subject matter, or vertically-integrated knowledge that would allow students to move upwards in their career area, or to apply their knowledge to another, related field:

CBT excludes students from access to disciplinary knowledge because it collapses the distinction between vertical and horizontal discourses, and because knowledge in curriculum is weakly classified and framed. Students are not provided with the ‘recognition’ rules they need to access different kinds of knowledge. CBT does not provide students with the capacity to recognize and navigate the distinction between theoretical and everyday knowledge and between different kinds of theoretical knowledge. The boundaries are rendered opaque. (Wheelahan, 2010, p. 56)

That is, if CBT combined its job-based training with a vertical integration of knowledge, it would be providing students with powerful knowledge and preparing them to become leaders in their field. As it is, however, vertical knowledge and abstract reasoning are not included in CBT curricula. In other words, CBT teaches students how to do things, but it does not teach them how to think. In fact, currently, abstract knowledge in VET programs is limited to knowledge that has practical application. According to the Training Package Development Handbook, while knowledge must be expressed units of competency, their elements or performance criteria should not be entirely knowledge based unless a clear and assessable workplace outcome is described. Knowledge in units of competency:

  • Should be in context;
  • Should only be included if it refers to knowledge actually applied at work. (quoted in Wheelahan, 2010, p. 57)

Limiting generalized information also limits students’ abilities to synthesize information and come up with solutions to new problems, because it teaches a series of actions to take in a given number of scenarios and no more. Thus current standards of CBT in fact disadvantage students even in the workforce for which CBT supposedly prepares them. In one striking example, a competency-based program at a university and a parallel higher-education program at the same university set assignments aimed at the same general objectives. The competency-based program has the objective, “Develop and update the legal knowledge required for business compliance” in the tourism and hospitality industries, while the higher-education program has the objective, “provide students with an understanding and awareness of the basic principles of Contract Law, a familiarity with relevant case law and an introduction to the statutory provisions pertinent to the course” (Wheelahan, 2010, p. 58). The students in the CBT program learned specifics of current legal requirements for running a hotel. The students in the higher-education program learned the principles behind those specific requirements, thus enabling them to think about a multitude of different industries, and the reasons behind the requirements, and even be able to create a proposal for future policies given changing circumstances. The specific knowledge of the CBT students prepares them for a very specific job, with very little competence for upward mobility. The generalized, powerful knowledge of the higher-education students prepares them for a wide range of jobs, up to and including making new policies on a lobbying or legislative level. Powerful knowledge prepares students for power; failing to give students powerful knowledge sets them up for not being able to have power.

This is not only a problem of CBT versus higher education; it is also a problem of class. As one study on class in Australian education showed, “middle class children destined for professional and managerial occupations are taught a curriculum that emphasizes choice, flexibility and independent learning, whereas those destined for semi- or unskilled occupations are taught rote learning, punctuality and obedience” (Gerwitz & Cribb, 2009, p. 113). In other words, lower-class children are taught the skills of serfdom while middle-class and higher children are taught the skills of rule and leadership.

Educational Inequality

Educational inequality stems from class inequality, and begins long before students arrive for their first day of school. According to Bernstein’s theory, children learn by means of codes, and these codes are present from early childhood in the home (Hoadley & Muller, 2009). In Bernstein’s theory, these codes are the different things that students learn, which make the difference between education and socialization for leadership and education for labor work. These codes create a class divide at an educational level. The four original contexts of language that socialize children and determine their leadership place in later life are the “regulative, instructional, imaginative and interpersonal” (Hoadley & Muller, 2009, p. 70). That is, children learn social codes about the rules they must follow, the instructions that are given to them, the imaginative activities in which they engage, and the interactions they have with others, including parents, teachers, and friends. The home environment determines in a large part what the student’s success will be in learning the explicit, abstract knowledge presented in school. Therefore, students from middle- and upper-class families are at an advantage, while students from lower-class families are at a disadvantage, because lower-class children often communicate more literally and have less working language for abstract thought or creative instruction (Sadovnik, 1991). `Power and control are the two ends of the instructional spectrum, and the language in which children learn to understand and convey ideas sets them up to either have power over others or to be controlled by others (Hoadley & Muller, 2009, p. 71). These codes are the “how” of pedagogy – whatever students are learning, are they learning it through authoritarian/teacher-controlled discourse or through open-ended/student-controlled discourse? (ibid). Problem-based and inquiry-based pedagogy help to address these inequality issues, as they train students to take an active role in their education, and this has been the basis of progressive movements toward such modes of education.

However, there is another element in education which stands at odds to the importance of student-initiated learning: powerful knowledge. Curiosity-based and open-ended learning work well for “mundane or everyday knowledge,” but they do not provide an effective tool for students to gain “esoteric or universal, principled knowledge” (Hoadley & Muller, 2009, p. 75). Concept-rich subjects are often best taught in a specialist-centric or expert-centric learning environment (ibid). In addition, framing is extremely important in hierarchical subjects, and this affects the extent to which students can be in control of their own discovery (p. 76).

There is a strong link between higher income/higher academic achievement and lower income/lower academic achievement (Wheelahan, 2010, p. 52). Lower academic achievement often leads to CBT programs in tertiary education, while higher academic achievement often leads to “the elite professions and the academic disciplines” (ibid). This is an issue of income inequality. Students from higher-class backgrounds are more likely to already be in a position in which they can assimilate the presence of an authoritative teacher and still remain engaged as active participants in their own learning, but students from lower-class backgrounds are more likely to resort to the codes that they learned from childhood, responding to authority with passivity and rote obedience, which limits the effective engagement they take in the subject and thus their success at learning the powerful knowledge (Wheelahan, 2010). Meanwhile the school path destined for lower-achieving students, CBT, “acts as a mechanism for social stratification because it denies students access to the abstract theoretical knowledge they need to participate in ‘society’s conversation’” (Wheelahan, 2010, p. 47).

Competency-based training “ties knowledge and skill directly to workplace performance and roles, and not to systematic structured disciplinary systems of meaning” (Wheelahan, 2010, p. 48). Esoteric knowledge allows for abstract discussion of ideas; CBT does not deal in these abstracts (p. 49). This limits students’ abilities to move within their field to other jobs which are related but not exactly what they were trained to do, or to move upwards within their field to higher levels of management, if they were not trained for such positions, as they failed to gain the abstract knowledge that would let them apply their practical knowledge to other situations. Young and Muller (2010) say that learning powerful knowledge requires the background of a middle-class household; otherwise, the student will not have the theoretical and discursive framework to be able to learn the information as powerful knowledge – that is, as abstract knowledge – or be able to make use of it.

Not only is CBT a problem for job mobility, and therefore social mobility, but it is even a problem for a democratic government. As Wheelahan (2010) compellingly argues, “democratic access to theoretical knowledge is a precondition for an effective democracy because such knowledge is the means that society uses to conduct its conversation about what it should be like and how it should change” (p. 48). This idea builds on the definition above of knowledge of the powerful: it is necessary to have training in powerful knowledge in order to engage in the knowledge of the powerful, and therefore to effectively participate in a democracy.

Rather than lifting students out of poverty and enabling them to have a better life than their parents, CBT in Australia is currently perpetuating the cycle of poverty and disenfranchisement. The numbers confirm the analysis that this is a problem as low-income students only comprised 14.6% of the higher-education student body in 2002 (Thomas & Quinn, 2007, pp. 38-39).

Students from low socio-economic backgrounds are not only underrepresented in higher education (that is, academic environments aimed at providing powerful knowledge and preparing students for leadership) and overrepresented in CBT programs, but they are becoming more so. As the numbers of lower-income students in higher-education programs continues to lower, the wealth and class divide becomes more entrenched, with the children of the leaders becoming leaders and the children of the workers immediately becoming workers (Wheelahan, 2010, p. 53).

Solutions

CBT programs must begin to offer theoretical, abstract, powerful knowledge as part of the program. By adding powerful knowledge questions and abstract reasoning sections to current testing standards for CBT programs, institutions would be required to teach this knowledge. This would enable students learning a particular profession to have the knowledge and skills they need to be able to become leaders and policymakers in that field, rather than having limited upward job mobility.

Of course, there are also differences in abilities that must be taken into account. One way to address this would be to include multiple hierarchies in the CBT programs. “Multiple hierarchies of knowledge” refers to hierarchies about how we value knowledge, and especially how we assess it (Nairn, 2012, p. 26). The failure of the current system demonstrates that single and dual forms of valuation are insufficient to ensure that each student has a fair chance. However, with more systems of standards, it would be possible to customize the taught skill sets (including the “skill” of engaging abstract knowledge) to reflect a wider variety of ability levels, rather than a simple dichotomy between the future powerful and the future not powerful.

When determining higher-level skills that will be tested on in the CBT programs, standards creators should use potential vertical career movement as a standard for the information and thinking skills that need to be taught. An example was given above of standards in a CBT program for the hospitality industry and a parallel standard in a higher education program, in which the CBT standard was quite specific as to laws in the single case and sector, while the higher education standard was broad and abstract, referring to underlying principles by which students would be able to understand and even create other policies.  By considering that a CBT student in the hospitality industry may move up to the position of regulator or lobbyist in the industry, classes should be offered that hone the cognitive skills required for those positions. In my own teaching practice, even without the benefit of redefined standards, I can use the paradigm of future career movement to determine what powerful knowledge my students will need to be successful in their fields of study, and introduce them to abstract concepts in class discussions regardless of their future educational path.

References

Beck, J. (2013). Powerful knowledge, esoteric   knowledge, curriculum knowledge. Cambridge Journal of Education,   177-193.

Cause,   L. (2010). Bernstein’s code theory and the educational researcher. Asian Social Science, 3-9.

Gerwitz,   S., & Cribb, A. (2009). Knowledge and the curriculum. In S. Gerwitz, & A. Cribb,Understanding Education: A Sociological Perspective   (pp. 111-132). Cambridge: Polity Press.

Green,   B. (2010). Knowledge, the future, and education(al) research: A new-millennial challenge. The Australian Educational Researcher,   43-62.

Hoadley,   U., & Muller, J. (2009). Codes, pedagogy and knowledge: Advances in   Bernsteinian sociology of education. In M. W. Apple, S. J. Ball, & L. A. Gandin, The Routledge International Handbook of the Sociology of Education   (pp. 69-78). Hoboken: Routledge.

Nairn,   S. (2012). A critical realist approach to knowledge: Implications for evidence-based practice in and beyond nursing. Nursing Inquiry, 6-17.

Ogbu,   J. U. (1995). Cultural problems in minority education: Their interpretations and consequences – Part two: Case studies. The Urban Review, 271-297.

Priestley,   M. (2011). Whatever happened to curriculum theory? Critical realism and curriculum change. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 221-237.

Rose,   F. (2000). Coalitions across the class divide: Lessons from the labor, peace, and environmental movements. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Sadovnik,   A. R. (1991). Basil Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic practice: A structuralist approach.Sociology of Education, 48-63.

Shah,   M., & Nair, C. S. (2013). Private for-profit higher education in Australia: Widening access, participation and opportunities for   public-private collaboration. Higher education research and development, 820-832.

Thomas,   E., & Quinn, J. (2007). First generation entry into higher education: An international study. New York: McGraw-Hill International.

Wheelahan,   L. (2010). The structure of pedagogic discourse as a relay for power. In P. Singh,Toolkits, translation devices and conceptual accounts: essays on Basil Bernstein’s sociology of knowledge (pp. 47-63). New York: Peter
Lang.

Whitty,   G. (2010). Revisiting school knowledge: Some sociological perspectives on new   school curricula. European Journal of Education, 28-45.

Yates,   L. (2011). Re-thinking knowledge, re-thinking work. In L. Yates, C. Collins,   & K. O’Connor,Australia’s Curriculum Dilemmas (pp. 25-44).   Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing.

Yates,   L., & Collins, C. (2010). The absence of knowledge in Australian   curriculum reforms.European Journal of Education, 89-102.

Young,   M., & Muller, J. (2010). Three educational scenarios for the future:   Lessons from the sociology of knowledge. European Journal of Education,   11-27.

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Example Marketing Dissertations

Where Can I Find Example Marketing Dissertations

Writing A Marketing Dissertation

Example Marketing Dissertations – Writing a marketing dissertation will be easier for some university students compared to others, this is probably down to the fact that some students have a better understanding of marketing principles or have more exposure to marketing techniques in general. So what about students who have less knowledge of marketing but intend to complete a marketing dissertation?

Having little knowledge of a subject area would deter many students from pursing a research project in a particular field but many see it as an opportunity to broaden their knowledge of a new research field. When I started my undergraduate business degree more than a decade ago, I had little knowledge of marketing principles or how to deploy marketing techniques in a real working environment.

Prior to my studies, I was led to believe that people working in marketing departments designed posters and created TV commercials for a living. I improved my perception of marketing by actually researching and writing marketing related projects. After a couple of years of study, I appreciated how all encompassing the field of marketing actually is, it is not all about poster design or TV commercials – far from it. I hope you gain valuable insight on how to attain quality example marketing dissertations.

If I fast forward to my third and final year of my undergraduate degree, I was at a quandary to what field of study I should select for my dissertation topic. I excelled in economics and business management but I discovered a passion for international marketing and how it has helped transform the global business landscape.

I was intrigued by the way large multinational companies deploy contrasting marketing campaigns around the world. A Vodafone marketing campaign will differ across boundaries, a marketing campaign in the US will differ to that found in Asia and Europe. Same could be said of other large MNCs such as Microsoft, Google and Coca Cola. The culture, political make up, demographics and economic environment will determine how successful marketing campaigns are in certain countries, this is where interesting comparisons can be made.

Example Marketing Dissertations
Example Marketing Dissertations

I eventually decided to write my dissertation on international marketing techniques based on a large telecommunications company, I enjoyed writing the dissertation and I learned so much while compiling the dissertation. I would like to share with you how I began my marketing dissertation project and how I used existing literature (journals, books, case studies and articles) to help accomplish my marketing dissertation to a high standard.

Firstly, decide if you want to write a marketing dissertation or a dissertation in another research field, you cannot be in two minds at this point as you will get off to a bad start – this can hold you back and increase stress levels further down the line.

Initial Inspiration – Example Marketing Dissertations

Complementing on what to base your marketing dissertation on can be an arduous decision. Below is a list of pointers that may help you spark your research project into life, there is every chance that you already have your own inspiration;

Analyse what you have previously studied in your degree – Revisit the marketing subject areas you have already covered. You may discover that you have already researched a particular company, industry or technique in great depth. This will get your dissertation off to a great start and you can elaborate on this existing knowledge. During my studies I completed four marketing modules based on a well known telecommunication company, I rigorously researched the culture of this organisation and key members of the company’s management structure. I researched this on a domestic basis but I wrote my dissertation on the same organisation and adopted an international approach, this saved me a lot of time and effort. This gave me added confidence as I felt I knew what I was writing about.

Don’t attempt to write a generic or outdated piece of research. There is nothing inspirational about dedicating an entire dissertation to a defunct company or an outdated marketing technique. You will lose momentum and interest during the writing process and more importantly the person reading your research will switch off. Please avoid this if you can. Look at new marketing techniques and dynamic organisations. There are so many exciting mergers and acquisitions taking place right now and combing this with the social media boom will lead to an engaging research dissertation.

Benefits of Example Marketing Dissertations

Keeping on the right track and make sure you have quality reference material at hand. Ensure that the literature you are analyzing is not too dated and relevant to your dissertation. Academic journals and news articles tend to be up to date and you should be able to reference these in your own marketing dissertation. I decided not to include journal entries or news articles greater than five years. You must include key academic publications and marketing models regardless of publication date. This demonstrates that you have identified key scholars, models and publications relating to your field of study. This is important when writing a literature review or if you intend to critique existing literature. Make sure you adhere to your university’s referencing guidelines.

Look at existing literature in your field of study. I focused on key trends within the global telecommunications industry and how intrinsic marketing campaigns play a major role in the success of organisations. I had to look at literature within the information technology arena as well as marketing publications. I also looked at existing example marketing dissertation topics written by students who investigated my area of study. It was interesting to see how they structured and compiled their dissertation. I felt inclined to better their dissertation and to make my dissertation more interesting and cutting edge. Below is a list marketing dissertations I examined while I was writing my own marketing dissertation.

The Influence of Advertising on Consumer Behavior

Consumer Retail Loyalty: An Analysis Into Tesco

How Does Zara Sustain Competitive Advantage In Europe Without Advertising?

What is the Role Played by Social Media in Crisis Communications?

The Effects of Branding Strategy on the Smart Phone Market

An Analysis into the Importance of Advertising in the Retail Industry

A Comparison of the Marketing Mix in a Developed and a Developing Country

I’m sure this blog post will help you kick start your marketing dissertation project into life. The links provided should serve as a guide and give you a good insight into what constitutes as quality example marketing dissertation. Good luck and all the best.

I hope you enjoyed this Example Marketing Dissertations post. Your comments and thoughts are welcomed. Feel free to add more ideas and personal experiences to this post.

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How To Write A Business Management Essay

How To Write A Business Management Essay

Title: Business Management Essay. This blog post is an systematic guide on how to write an effective business management essay, it outlines some of the frequent pitfalls of management essay assignments. It also provides management students with a factorial program to business management essays and research papers. This is also intended for business related courses like human resource management, marketing, accounting, economics, systems consultancy, and others. I hope you get a better understanding on how to write a business management essay.

People read management essays to acquire valuable current information that is timely. Moreover, management essays connects theoretical knowledge to concepts prevalent in the market. Management essays offer students an opportunity to apply theoretical information in the field.

After all, management is a soft skill that requires development outside of the class setting. The essays enable students to reflect on the theories and various management frameworks applied in class. Writing a business management essay can be a daunting essay and a management student almost always requires support in meeting all the challenges related to the task.

A management essay writer should design an essay that tests existing knowledge and develops it. The act of preparing the essay should be aimed at developing particular subject knowledge on management – Enhancing your know in a familiar subject is recommended. Your management essay should bear in mind that the instructor is interested in determining the level of knowledge of the student, thus the flow of reason is crucial. You should build logic arguments just like in a debate.

In other words, you should be able to make the readers of your essay think logically, and do not just expect them to believe the statements made by the essay. The method of justifying your claims is quite crucial. One of the best ways to do this is to offer evidence for every claim made. An evaluation of the evidence will also come in handy.

While writing management essays, it is always crucial to provide theoretical backing to claims and arguments. Connecting current affairs to conceptual ideas enables your readers to connect current information to past scholarly ideas. This provides room for critical thinking and the reader is left to be the judge of what they read. Some essays demand that you do more than a single task.

For instance, some require that you provide an outline of the main organizational theories underneath modern management spheres. They also require a discussion of their importance to professional career situations. Such questions usually require that you do more than just describe the theories. The most usual written comment on management essays by examiners is something similar to “you have not responded to the question set”. Marks are never awarded in such instances because you have answered a question the examiner did not set.

Business Management Essay Topics
Business Management Essay Topics

Before writing a business management essay, it is crucial to have a plan. There are two types of plans that are crucial in writing management essays. Firstly, it is crucial to plan for the time you will need. Secondly, you need to come up with an essay plan. The amount of time is hard to determine as it depends on a number of elements. However, the most vital factor to consider while making a time plan include the level of knowledge you have on the topics that you intend to write about.

If you intend to write on a topic you have little knowledge, chances are high that you will spend so much time. Management writers are always advised to focus on topics that they profess so much knowledge. These could include your most favorite topic or even topics you studied through case studies and field trips.

Before writing the essay, make a plan of the possible visits. This could include visits to lecturers and tutors, social events, or field trips to management professionals. At this juncture, make a point of availing possible textbooks, journals, newspapers, articles, and other relevant materials on management issues.

The internet can also offer vital information for the management essay. Making an ample data collection process is a crucial step in coming up with a management essay. This is because this stage can offer current and past information that can be used to contextualize the topic you are planning to write about. The nature and length of planning depend on the amount of information collected and length of the management essay.

Before writing a business management essay, it is crucial for you to analyze the expectations that your audience are likely to have. Moreover, you should strive to ensure that the tone of your paper is formal and on point. Most management essay readers are elites and researchers seeking the underlying idea in every statement.

Business Management Essay Structure

Determining the structure of the essay is crucial before embarking on the writing process. Most management and academic writing present the structure to include the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. The introduction is the most vital part of the essay as it sets the pace for both you as the writer of a management essay, as well as the reader. The introduction is used to captivate the attention of the reader, thus it should be as interesting as possible. The introduction contains the synopsis of the management essay, and introduces various theoretical frameworks. The last part of the introduction should have a thesis statement. A thesis is a statement of claim made by an essay writer. The thesis statement offers the threshold on which the writer measures all other arguments and claims in the essay. A thesis statement provides the direction and tone of the essay hence should be constructed rationally.

The introduction is followed by the body of the essay. This is the section where you present various claims, arguments, positions and knowledge. All the data collected are analyzed and their deductions presented for analysis. The body of a management essay should be able to connect past knowledge with current knowledge. For instance, when writing about organizational behavior, you should connect current organizational behaviors rampant in existing businesses and connect to classical management trends.

It is also crucial to relate organizational practices to outside factors. Some organizations behave the way they do because of external elements like government policies and competition. The body of a management essay provides an explanation of the points introduced at the introduction stage and should reflect a clear flow. You should present your points in a systematic pattern of presenting your points from the strongest to the least strong. Before writing the essay, you should create an outline of the main points as this will facilitate a systematic flow.

Highlighting the points will also ensure that you maintain your word count. It is always important to adhere to typographical and other guidelines provided by your university lecturer. This will help secure marks lost through simple mistakes. Another important reason for highlighting the main points before embarking on the real writing process is to ensure that the essay observe consistency. A good management essay should stick to explaining and developing specific points of view rather than offering a discussion of every management aspect. Showing a clear connection of the arguments with the topic throughout the research is crucial.

The body should offer an analysis of data and measure them with respect to the thesis statement. Usually, data is collected with the objective of determining the validity of the thesis statement. After presenting an in depth argument in the body section, the next important step after the body is the conclusion. This stage is crucial as it consolidates what has already been debated. The tone of the conclusion is vital as it offers more persuasion for your readers. This section should not introduce new knowledge but should just reinforce what has already been discussed. The concluding stage presents the end of the paper and should offer an ending tune.

Business Dissertation Topics

Business Management Strategies

Management of Organisational Change

Thanks for taking the time out to read this blog post and I hope you found it useful. I would be grateful if you could share this blog post via Twitter, Facebook, or Google+ I would like to generate as much social media buzz around this post.

How Does Brand Loyalty Influence Customer Behavior

How Does Brand Loyalty Influence Customer Behavior?

The rise in living standards, ease of accessibility to finance coupled with a wide variety to choose from has made consumer durable market to grow with a rapid rate. Many players are getting into the market. With the advances in communication and technology, new lifestyles and the quest to appear young and beautiful, the demand for quality beauty products has increased significantly. Consumer quality sector is characterized by the emergence of exchange offers, discounts and intensive competition. People nowadays want to imitate in regards to dressing, language, and politics among other lifestyle aspects. The increasing population is bombarded with information about maintaining a youthful look, making women seek for cosmetics that suit them.  With this knowledge in mind, beauty manufacturing product companies make every effort to brand them to capture the booming market. Companies are competing on the basis of firm grasp of the local and international market, their well acknowledged brands and hold over wide distribution network. The penetration level of consumer products remains high.

This research is scoped down to understand the relationship between consumer behavior and brand loyalty, factors affecting consumer decision making, the role of brand loyalty in consumer durable goods and the position of the individual consumer in the segment. The path forward will be to study the secondary data for industry overview, collect primary data for more insight and  derive conclusions based on primary and secondary data. The research findings will be addressed based on the theories of consumer buying behavior and brand loyalty.

Organizations must engage in making strategic decisions that are capable of improving the firms’ image so that they can have an advantage over competitors. To be specific, these image enhancing strategies ensure that the organization increase the loyalty of the current customers. In addition, the image enhancing strategies should help in the attraction of new customers to the organization. Strategic decisions that can bring enhanced image to the organization have included the selection of target markets, and modification of products to suit the demands of the customers. Other strategic decisions on prices, location of products and services, promotional efforts, and operating policies help in improving the organizations’ image.

The implementation of these strategies ensures that there is a solid background for effective image in the organization. An organization’s image ensures that if there is something about it that is not known, the knowledge the customers have on the organization fills the void. The main concern of this research is to determine whether the perception about the brand image affects customer behavior.

Research objectives

The interest of the research is to determine if brand loyalty influences consumer behavior. This study would be of value to those organizations concerned about the society and those concerned with the attaining off the highest possible profit. Further, the study aims to find if consumers have positive attitudes for those organizations that improve their brand loyalty and social responsibility.

Specific research objectives include:

  1. To find the relationship between consumer behavior and brand loyalty.
  2. To find out whether consumer behavior leads to change in the brand image quality, for instance, product quality or service quality.
  3. The influence of customer satisfaction on the brand’s image
  4. Does consumer behavior affect brand image?
  5. Does consumer behavior lead to change in the brand image quality?
  6. Does customer satisfaction affect brand image?

Research questions

Literature Review

The main focus of this study is to measure the attitudes of customers in relation to brand loyalty and to ascertain its influence of this attitude on brand loyalty. Study of attitudes enables organization managers to answer questions as to why a consumer purchased one product over another. The understanding of the consumer attitude towards particular products ensures that they come up with strategies and decisions on major products and market decisions.

The image associated with a particular product or service ensures that it has a competitive advantage over other products and services. A company’s brand is valuable strategic asset in achieving goals and objectives. Brand loyalty can be referred to as the consumer decision; whether conscious or unconscious concerning the use of a product or service. It may also refer to the intention to buy or use a particular product for a long duration of time. Brand loyalty is achieved due to the right features, and the quality of the brand. Quality of the product must be at the right price for the consumer to perceive the brand as being loyal to their needs. Organizations can change consumer behavior concerning a particular product or service through advertising. Advertising ensures that consumers acquire new habits, and instill those habits by telling the consumers how the product is of value to their money. Consumers should also be encouraged to continue using the products and services in the future (Hoyer and Maclnnis, 2008, p. 27).

According to Pride and Ferrel (2008, p.123), the main reason why organizations do not have strong brand loyalty is because they are not familiar with various ways of disseminating a strong and clear message that distinguishes their product with that of the competitor. In addition, the message should distinguish the product in a positive and memorable manner. The major challenge of organizations is to avoid the disadvantages of portraying a particular product or service as having negative image. An organization’s image should not be viewed in terms of the product and service attributes; the organization’s philosophies concerning environmental management, philanthropy, and ethical considerations are critical in influencing consumer behavior.

Societal Conscious Marketing

Most organizations have adopted marketing strategies that focus on societal needs. Each of these strategies is philosophical or operational concepts used by organizational leaders to enhance the objectives of their businesses. The following are some of the concepts widely used in organizations (Phillips, 2010, p. 45).

  1. Product concept: products should be produced in large volumes since all of it can be sold to the consumers
  2. Selling concept; products can only be consumed if they are heavily promoted
  3. Product concept; consumers will buy high quality products that are within their price range
  4. Marketing concept: specific customer demands can only be met if organization produces products that are equal or better than those of the competitor. In addition, the products should be priced lower than the competitor.
  5. Societal marketing concept: This term involves marketing in a manner that does not harm the society, people, and the environment. Societal marketing concept is motivated by the need to satisfy direct customers and other constituents in the market.

Brand loyalty can be exercised in several ways. The main activities that organizations can do to improve brand loyalty include environmental friendly activities, philanthropy, ethical activities with local, national, and international communities, customers, and employees. Environmentally friendly activities can include recycling, waste reduction, and other strategies aimed at minimizing the organization’s impact on the environment. Philanthropic activities include engaging donations of money, food, facilities, and time. These activities are classified under the title known as cause related marketing (Kahren, 2009, p.36).

According to Dutton (1997), organizations have been turning philanthropy activities inward towards their employees. This is done through paying them in order to volunteer for their favorite charities. She asserts that words like “ethics’, honesty, truth and trust are good sentiments. She, however, notes that they mean nothing if they are not adopted by organizations. Ethical activities include using different hiring practices and employee relations such as high moral values, fair pay, equal treatment, and equal opportunity for all workers. Organizations that do not treat workers fairly have the risk of lowering their brand image. Brand image should start with internal operations; there is no point of trying to show the external clients that business ethics are good while simultaneously engaging in unethical activities towards the employees. Employees play an important role in advertising the organization to outside clients more than any other marketing strategy.

The question of how brand loyalty affects product evaluation was examined by Brown and Dacin (1997). Their study looked into the differences between the impact of organization brand loyalty which include the organization’s ability to produce and deliver quality products and services and the corporate social responsibility’s impacts on consumers. In their first research, students analyzed their hypothetical scenarios. The outcome was that brand loyalty had a significant effect on the way consumers evaluated the product attributes and the overall image of the organization. Further, the authors found out that social responsibility had no direct impact on the organization’s image. Their second study found out that social responsibility became significant predictor of product loyalty in the consumers and its evaluation.

Marketing Dissertation Examples
Marketing Dissertation Examples

According to Kim (1996) product demand is determined by non-product factors such as cleanliness, public relations, atmosphere, advertising and the convenience of the brands’ locations. In any organization, quality of products can be determined according to the consumer attitude towards the product with other products available to the consumer in the market.

“Perceived quality is different from objective or actual quality, a higher level abstraction rather than a specific attribute of a product, a global assessment that in some case resembles attitude, and a judgment usually made within a consumer’s evoked set” (Zeithaml, 1988, p.4).

Zeitmal further assert that few consumers are able to analyze and measure the objective properties of a product. This is because the objective assessment depends on the verifiable standards, the objective measurement can be questioned because it depends on who set the standards.

Theoretical framework

The A Priori Approach

According to Lunn (2011), the theory introduces theories and concepts from other disciplines including behavioral sciences. The value of behavioral sciences has been used in consumer knowing what the consumer wants. Well known examples are included in the manifestations of motivational research and such attitude theories as those of Festinger and Fishbein. The A Priori approach involves giving the consumer an all embracing label such as “economic man”, “problem solver”, “learner”, and “existentialist”. The strength of the a priori lies in the organization and the systematic basis of knowledge provided about certain aspects of the consumer.

Brand Loyalty Theory

According to Katz (1960), Brand loyalty theory has three distinct dimensions. The first dimension is referred to as emotive tendency towards products and services. The emotive tendency refers to the consumer likes and dislikes which is manifested on how they purchase a particular brand in the market. The second dimension is known as evaluative tendency towards products and services. Katz refers to this tendency as positively biased evaluation of a product or service. Organizations use positive characteristics to define brand utili6ty to the customers. The evaluative tendency of the product or service can also be determined from past experience in using the brand.

Behavioral tendency towards the brand is the next dimension. Katz (1960) refers to the behavior tendency as the biased responses consumers have towards a particular product or service regarding its procurement, purchase and consumption characteristics. Consumer characteristics such as shopping, paying for the product, as well as its consumption determine the behavior tendency. Behavior tendency is developed after using the product for a long period of time. In addition, behavior tendency can be developed from good or bad tendencies toward other brands.

Black Box Theory of Behaviorism

Sandhusen (2000) assert that the black box model is an interaction of several perspectives concerning a specific brand. The perspectives include the stimuli, consumer characteristics, choice patterns and consumer responses. The focus of the organization is not in the internal processes within the customer: the organization focuses on the relation between stimuli and response of the customer. Stimuli are related to the marketing characteristics developed by an organization in order to lure the customer in purchasing of the brand. The environmental stimuli are determined by social factors such as politics, economy and the culture in which the brand is to be used. The black box symbolizes the buyer characteristics and their choice patterns, which determine their response towards a particular brand.

Hypothesis

This research focuses on the various factors that influence consumers’ brand loyalty towards a given brand. From the various factors that influence brand loyalty, below are the hypothesis derived.

H1: There is a positive correlation between brand loyalty product and brand name

H2: There is a positive correlation between brand loyalty and product quality.

H3: There is a positive significant relationship between brand loyalty and product design

H4: There is a positive significant relationship between brand loyalty and product price.

H5: There is a positive correlation between brand loyalty and promotion.

H6: There is a significant correlation between service quality and brand loyalty.

H7: There is a positive significant relationship between store environment and brand loyalty.

Research Methodology

The main objective of this research was to establish how brand loyalty influences cosmetics buying behavior of UK female consumers. This section also highlights the various processes undertaken in obtaining and analyzing the information gathered for this research. This includes a description of the research design and methods used in collecting the data that were analyzed to arrive at a conclusion in the study.

Research philosophy

Based on the nature and the topic to be studied, this research will be conducted on positivist philosophy. It will be based on this philosophy because the research will involve testing of hypothesis developed from deductive theory, involving measurement of observable social realities.

Approach

This research will be conducted on deductive approach based on hypothesis testing from the data collected. Data will then be analyzed to either confirm or disapprove the hypothesis.

Data Collection Methods

Data collection will consist of surveys, filling in questionnaires and conducting interviews with cosmetic consumers and dealers in London, UK. Qualitative evaluation shall be employed in this research besides using subjective techniques such as interviews and observations to gather relevant and substantive data. Quantitative approach is preferred for this research due to the varying experiences of the consumers of these products. Upon collecting data using interviews and questionnaires, the data will then be carefully analyzed. This shall be carried out using both the One-way ANOVA and the Pearson’s guideline to establish how brand loyalty influences consumer behavior with respect to cosmetic consumption in UK.

Questionnaire Design

In this research, a questionnaire was developed, and pilot tested through personal interviews with seven senior-most managers at Superdrug, which is the second largest health and beauty retail shop in UK. The questionnaire used for collecting data was divided into two segments: the first section concerns the demographics of consumers and the second were about brand loyalty factors. This research involved sampling randomly 400 female cosmetic consumer of between 18 to 42 years of age. In order to obtain a reliable data, the survey was distributed in London City at five major cosmetic shops. The malls included L’Occitane, Jo Malone, Floris London, Boots and Screenface, in addition to Superdrug retail shop.  A total of 400 usable questionnaires were then returned and collected 60% response rate.

Table 1 reveals that age composition of those aged between 18-25 years were 25% of the respondents. Yet again, the table reveals that close to half of the respondents ages varied between 27-35 years. About 26% of the respondents were between the ages of 36-42. The sample survey was almost balanced at 51% for the married and 49% for the unmarried. With regard to education level, the surveyed respondent revealed that 72% of the respondent had at least a degree and 18% having completed high school. This implies that only 10% of the respondents had postgraduate degrees.

Data Analysis

This research used the One-way ANOVA to establish whether there is any significant correlation between independent variables (product quality, brand name, design, price, service quality, promotion, and store environment) and age and income the consumers interviewed. The main reason for adopting the One-way ANOVA as the most appropriate tool is that it was found to be the best for testing the hypothesis when at least two groups are measured on an interval scale. The purpose of the One-way ANOVA is to show the degree of variability of the sample values taken by considering to what extent the observation within each group differs and how much the group means differ.  Apart from the One –Way ANOVA, the researchers also found it appropriate to use the Pearson Correlation for purposes of analyzing the relationship between the two variables, which are both ratio and interval-scaled. This is based on the fact that the correlation coefficients determined using the Pearson’s guideline is used to establish the degree and direction of the correlation, which is suitable for hypothesis testing. In this regard, the research used Pearson correlation principle to test the independent variables (product quality, brand name, price, promotion, design, store environment and service quality) that influenced consumer brand loyalty and to establish if there is any correlation between the variables.

Results

Table 2 below shows the Cronbach’s Alpha (coefficient alpha) of each of the variables tested.  The findings reveal that all the variables have a high degree of reliability. Table 3, on the other hand, shows the seven autonomous variable factors of brand loyalty that were experimented during the research through questionnaires given out to the respondents. The results were also ranked using the Likert scale in the questionnaire: strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree and strongly agree. The result is then gotten from the uppermost average score of brand loyalty factors based on the answers provident by the respondents. In overall, the result reveals that product quality is the most vital factor. In UK environment, most respondents choose product quality as the core aspect that influences their brand loyalty.

The One-way ANOVA scrutiny of the factors of income level and brand loyalty was conducted. This was meant to establish if there could be any significant relationship between the two variables. Here, there are four variables that are most significant according to the study, which include brand name (0.000) promotion (0.004), product quality (0.009) and service quality (0.038). In overall, the result shows that, in UK, majority of the consumers prefer brand name, promotion, and product and service quality as factors of brand loyalty. According to table five below, only two variables that are significant. These are price (0.014) and the brand name (0.050). An analysis of this data reveals that, among the age groups surveyed, female consumers aged between 36-42 prefer brand names more compare to other age groups.

Test of Hypothesis

As revealed in Table 4 below, brand name was found to have considerable positive relationship with brand loyalty. The results of this research revealed that consumers preferred brand image only when they foresee positive functions or benefits from the product in question. It is then that they will recommend the brand, react positively to the price premium and accept brand extension to other categories of products within the same brand.

The quality of the products was shown to have a positive correlation with brand loyalty. This kind of correlation is demonstrated based on Cohen’s (1988) principle, in which a correlation of (r=0.0302) is considered moderate. Therefore, based on these statistics, the finding showed that product quality has a lot of significance with regard to consumer decision-making process. The findings of this research revealed that brand loyalty and price had a positive relationship. In this case, price was found to be more important for any average consumer in the market. Nevertheless, those consumers with high brand loyalty were not very much sensitive to prices. The research showed that as long as these consumers were satisfied with a given brand, they would continue buying the product with the same brand irrespective of the price increase.  On the other hand, the findings did not show any correlation between product design and brand loyalty. Out of all the seven variables tested, many consumers did not consider product design as an important factor for UK consumers to become loyal to a given cosmetic brand.

According to the findings, promotion and brand loyalty were found to have a positive relationship. Product promotion was considered as one of the most valuable factor in determining a consumer’s brand loyalty. This includes the use of sales promotions, commercial adverts, personal and public selling. In fact, the research revealed that many female consumers spent considerable time reading product labels before purchasing the product. The research also revealed that brand loyalty and service quality had a positive relationship. Findings showed that service quality encouraged many consumers to prioritize a store. The result indicated that salesperson consumer relationship results in long-term orientation of customers towards a given store. Similarly, trust developed in the salesperson seems to relate to the overall discernment of the store’s service quality, which leads to customer’s total satisfaction with the store.

The findings also showed that the environment of the store is also positively related to brand loyalty. The store environment is seen as major factors that influence consumer brand loyalty. This research revealed that many consumers were much sensitive to attributes of the store such as a variety of selection, merchandise displays, packing space, and ease of accessibility to vehicles and the overall goodwill of the store in buying products.

Table 1. Demographic Sample Description
 Age Frequency Percentage (%)
18-2527-3536-42 100196104 254926
Marital statusMarriedUnmarried 204196 5149
Education:High SchoolUndergraduatePostgraduate 7228840 187210
Table 2. Reliability Analysis of Brand Loyalty factors
Variables Alpha
Product QualityBrand namePricePromotionDesignService Quality

Store Environment

Brand Loyalty

 0.65720.70280.66180.69740.74820.8200

0.7139

0.6646

Table 3. Brand Loyalty factor Ranking

Factor of Brand Loyalty Ranking Mean/Average
Product Quality 1 3.68
Q1. The brand is durable than others 3.69
Q2. The materials used by the brand are natural 4.11
Q3. The brand has sufficient color 3.65
Q4. The brand has good functional quality 3.77
Mean Average     3.80
Design   2
Q1. The brand provides wide variety of designs 3.72
Q2. Designs of the brand are suitable for me 3.79
Q3. Designs of the brand have distinctive features 3.73
Q4. Designs of the brand are trendy and fashionable 3.85
Mean Average     3.77
Brand Name                                                          3
Q1. The brand is trustworthy 3.70
Q2. Brand image and name attract me to buy 3.82
Q3. Brand Name is selected irrespective of price 3.41
Q4. Brand reveals my individual personality 3.96
Mean Average     3.72
Promotion               4
Q1 Ads of the brand is attractive 3.64
Q2. Ads of the brand attract me towards purchasing the product 3.44
Q3. Product displays are entrancing 3.62
Mean Average      3.56
Store Environment                                                   5
Q1. The brand has good store location 3.64
Q2. There are adequate outlets for the brand 3.76
Q3. The interior show is gorgeous 3.50
Q4. Music and color inside the store are beautiful 3.36
Mean Average     3.57
Price       6
Q1. Increases of price not hinder me to purchase 2.99
Q2. The brand provides goods value for money 3.52
Average Mean 3.56
Service Quality 7
Q1The salesmen in the store are knowledgeable 3.21
Q2. The salesmen in the store are willing to help 3.39
Q3. Vendor of the store is and courteous and friendly 3.18
Q4. Vendors in the store have neat appearance 3.33
Mean Average     3.28

Table 4. Significance of Brand Loyalty factors with brand loyalty

Variables Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed)a
Product QualityBrand name

Price

Promotion

Design

Service Quality

Store Environment

Brand Loyalty

0.3040.561

0.466

0.411

0.140

0.333

0.3690.0020.002

0.005

0.006

0.162

0.001

0.010

Conclusions and Findings

Various studies have focused on understanding the concept of brand loyalty and the factors influencing it. Product attributes, after sale service, marketing capabilities, perceived quality or aesthetics, depth of product line as the key difference factors influencing the behavior of purchasers. Brand commitment is also a necessary condition for true brand loyalty to occur.  Packaging, new product trial, price, store location corporate social responsibility and advertisements influence consumer behavior. While several factors influencing brand loyalty have been studied in the extant literature, this research has revealed that brand loyalty influences consumer behavior. Consumers may also compel entrepreneurs to change the brand image in terms of product or service quality. Similarly, the brand image has been proven to satisfy the consumer expectations.

The dimensions of brand loyalty theory clearly depict how consumer’s tastes and preferences influence their buying power. This is followed by an assessment of the product to decide if they will buy it or not. The assessment also referred to as evaluative tendency compels organizations to brand their products to attract customers, an aspect of competition. Product branding can be enhanced by advertising, changing the brand name and promoting it to improve recognition.  The behavioral tendency proposed by Katz is creations of a bandwagon effect among consumers to enable them continue buying the product. The initial products are branded in a way of attracting customers though subsequent ones show depreciation, a strategy used by marketers.  Branding through advertisement show some favor of the product while despising others, thus discouraging customers from using those other products whether related or not. The black box model looks into the customers willingness created by the company’s emphasis of the product. The characteristics of the buyer determine their choice of product.

From this research, the brand name and image has a significant impact on customer choice with all factors kept constant. As part of consumer behavior, every brand has some features which consumers always associate the brand with. They consume a given brand on the basis of its features. Again, the consumers take into account the quality, and price while making buying decisions. The point of purchase is another factor that comes to a buyer’s mind. Being a highly demanded product by women, they want to buy cosmetics from a good reputed and trustworthy purchase point. Exhibition malls serves as favorite consumer purchase point.

Other factors like age, occupation and education of consumers will influence buying decisions following the way each group has been exposed about the product. Young people will have more taste of cosmetics because they want to look good while old ones are slightly less concerned with beauty. Exposure and knowledge of a product affects its demand. The raw materials making the brand also play a vital role of its choice. If a sample cosmetic is known to contain harmful chemicals, it loses its market. An organization will get to know what factors influence the purchase decision of a consumer before branding the product. Accordingly, it will direct its marketing effort so that it can get potential customers to purchase the products.

Subject Issues Learnt

Brand loyalty is the consumer’s conscious or unconscious choice that is expressed intentionally or a behavioral pattern to repurchase a brand again. This happens following the perception of the consumer that the brand provides the right image, characteristics or quality based on reasonable price. Hence, consumer behavior is habitual. Beginning from product design to creation of a mature brand, good marketing strategies, which depend on a clear understanding of the memory, motivation, learning and decision processes, influence the consumer’s choice. Launching of new products, market segmentation, timing market entry and brand management are all related to the theoretical framework employed in the research.  Branding is by far and large the most important factor influencing the product’s success or failure in the market place. It can also greatly impact the company’s perception by the buying public. Brand is not only a company’s product but also a representation of the individual company and that is where the core of brand loyalty falls.

Brand loyalty is simply more than the consumer’s commitment to repurchase a product. It incorporates the high attitude towards the product demonstrated by repeated buying.  This loyalty is a business investment because of the high prices being paid by the customers.  Depending upon the nature of the product versus basic necessities or luxuries, consumers a single or brand loyalty. This brand loyalty is affected by their brand choice as well as by their store loyalty behavior. The bondage of brand loyalty is strong especially through repeated advertising and promotional schemes. The main factors that influence brand loyalty are the quality of product, habit of use and regular availability of the product. Searching for a product means mental and physical information about products, prices and shops. Consumer information is thus a marketing tool that can be used to understand the interactions between a specific target segment and marketplace so as to meet the consumers’ needs and wants.

Brand image or the good reputation of a particular service ensures that it maintains a competitive advantage over other products and services. An organization’s brand is valuable strategic asset in achieving goals and objectives. Brand loyalty can be referred to as the consumer decision; whether conscious or unconscious concerning the use of a product or service. It may also refer to the intention to buy or use a particular product for a long duration of time. Brand loyalty is achieved due to the right features, and the quality of the brand. Quality of the product must be at the right price for the consumer to perceive the brand as being loyal to their needs. Organizations can change consumer behavior concerning a particular product or service through advertising.

The reasons why people become brand loyal are because the favored brand satisfies the consumer needs and wants than the competitors do. Again, there is a reduction of perceived risk, sticking with a favorite brand improves certainty. Brand loyalty helps maintain self image in reinforcing the customer’s self concept and confidence. It is also the path to least resistance. Marketers use strategies like in-store and o-location impulse triggers, notably point-of purchase displays. Consumer inventiveness is the predisposition to buy new and different products rather than remain with the previous choices and consumption patterns.

Consumer behavior is influenced by social, cultural, Psychological and personal factors. Culture influences buying behavior depending on the country, geographical region, religion, nationality and racial groups. The societal classes such as wealth distribution, education and occupation impact the behavior of consumers towards a product. Social factors like family, reference groups, roles and statuses influence buyer behavior. Personal factors include lifestyle, economic situations, age, occupation, personality and self concept. Perception, motivation, learning, beliefs and attitudes are psychological factors affecting consumer behavior. Marketers should, therefore, look into these factors in branding particular products.

References

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Katz, D.,1960. The Functional Approach To The Study Of Attitudes. New York; Public Opinion Quarterly.

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