The Business of Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Essay

The Business of Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility - Essay Example Business of ethics and corporate social responsibility focus on issues concerned with morality. They focus on the issues that cover business activities fully such as reducing pollution, exploiting raw materials responsibly, frauds in the corporation and even fair payment. The relationship between business and ethics is complex and it incorporate approaches such as individual choices on what is right and wrong. This is where the individual’s decision is put on consideration. It also incorporate the values of what is bad and right involved in the business premises. In every business, they have their own way of doing things and offering services to their customers. This is where there are customs, beliefs and culture created which the employees follow as they handle their customers. The codes of conduct within organizations vary by many ways. Some societies may accept use of bribes while in others it condemned thus due to this the codes of conduct vary. We also find that some countries are prone to corruption thus when a business is situated in that country they tend to follow the norms. Due to these variations in social norms, individual values and cultures of the society in which the business is situated, it is the function of business ethics to standardize all. It ensures that the good moral conducts are followed thus contributing to the success of the business. As seen earlier the corporate social responsibility outlines the ethical concerns in a business by showing the groups to which it is responsible. It involves putting the business ethics into action. The groups it deals with are the stakeholders and the environment of the firm. These include the employees, suppliers, customers, the community, shareholders the government and the society. The relationship between the business and these groups should be conducted morally and

Managerial Economics Essay Example for Free

Managerial Economics Essay 1) The elasticity of one variable with respect to another between two given points. It is used when there is no general function to define the relationship of the two variables. Arc elasticity is also defined as the elasticity between two points on a curve. The P arc elasticity of Q is calculated as The percentage is calculated differently from the normal manner of percent change. This percent change uses the average (or midpoint) of the points, in lieu of the original point as the base. 2) Definition of Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns A law of economics stating that, as the number of new employees increases, the marginal product of an additional employee will at some point be less than the marginal product of the previous employee. The law of diminishing marginal returns means that the productivity of a  variable input declines as more is used in short-run production, holding one or more inputs fixed. This law has a direct bearing on market supply, the supply price, and the law of supply. If the productivity of a variable input declines, then more is needed to produce a given quantity of output, which means the cost of production increases, and a higher supply price is needed. The direct relation between price and quantity produced is the essence of the law of supply. An economic theory that states as additional inputs are put into production, the additional return will be in successively smaller increments. This can be due to crowding, adding less appropriate resources or increasing inputs of lower quality. In More Laymen Terms As the saying goes, Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth, in any production there is a point of diminishing returns where just adding more inputs will not give the same income as it once did. Although many industrial firms strive to reach scale, where their size gives them a cost advantage at higher production levels, no matter what industry a firm finds itself there will always be a point where the additional gain from added input is reduced. 3) The prisoners dilemma is a canonical example of a game analyzed in game theory that shows why two individuals might not cooperate, even if it appears that it is in their best interest to do so. It was originally framed by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher working at RAND in 1950. Albert W. Tucker formalized the game with prison sentence payoffs and gave it the prisoners dilemma name (Poundstone, 1992). A classic example of the prisoners dilemma (PD) is presented as follows: Two men are arrested, but the police do not possess enough information for a conviction. Following the separation of the two men, the police offer both a similar deal—if one testifies against his partner (defects/betrays), and the other remains silent (cooperates/assists), the betrayer goes free and the cooperator receives the full one-year sentence. If both remain silent, both are sentenced to only one month in jail for a minor charge. If  each rats out the other, each receives a three-month sentence. Each prisoner must choose either to betray or remain silent; the decision of each is kept quiet. What should they do? If it is supposed here that each player is only concerned with lessening his time in jail, the game becomes a non-zero sum game where the two players may either assist or betray the other. In the game, the sole worry of the prisoners seems to be increasing his own reward. The interesting symmetry of this problem is that the logical decision leads both to betray the other, even though their individual ‘prize’ would be greater if they cooperated. In the regular version of this game, collaboration is dominated by betraying, and as a result, the only possible outcome of the game is for both prisoners to betray the other. Regardless of what the other prisoner chooses, one will always gain a greater payoff by betraying the other. Because betraying is always more beneficial than cooperating, all objective prisoners would seemingly betray the other. In the extended form game, the game is played over and over, and consequently, both prisoners continuously have an opportunity to penalize the other for the previous decision. If the number of times the game will be played is known, the finite aspect of the game means that by backward induction, the two prisoners will betray each other repeatedly. 4) Third degree discrimination involves charging different prices to different segments of customers. This method of price discrimination is really an imperfect variation of the perfect type represented by first degree price discrimination. In this method different segments of customers are identified and each segment is charged price base on what price is most profitable for the company in each segment. The most common way of segmentation for this type of price discrimination is by geographic location. A very prominent example of this type price discrimination is charges for operations by surgeons. For the same type of operations surgeons and hospitals charge different fees depending on the type of hospital room and other facilities that the patient chooses during hospitalization for  operation. Other common forms of such price discrimination include discounts such as those for students or senior citizens. SECTION B: CASE LET 1 1) Demand theory indicates that the determinants of consumption are income (I), the price of the good in question ( pi ), the prices of other goods ( po ) and other variables such as tastes: i i q ï€ ½Ã¯â‚¬  q ( i o I, p , p , other variables). Consider the case of an illicit commodity such as marijuana. The consumption of marijuana involves risks of fines, in some cases imprisonment and, possibly, other costs associated with the shame of being caught. Consequently, the price of marijuana in its demand function ( p ) m should be interpreted as being made up of the conventional money cost ( p ) mï‚ ¢Ã¯â‚¬  plus the expected â€Å"other costs† per unit: 2) Legalization of marijuana would eliminate the criminal sanctions and penalties associated with its consumption. As this would decrease the â€Å"full† price, consumption would be expected to rise. Marijuana consumption is significantly higher amongst males than females – 60 percent of all males have consumed it, compared to 46 percent of all females. Consumption of marijuana is estimated to increase by about 4 percent if it were legalised; and by about 11 percent following both legalisation and a 50-percentfall in its price. Price is a significant determinant of marijuana consumption. Whilst marijuana consumption is estimated to be price inelastic, estimates of most of the price elasticities are significantly different from zero. Two types of price elasticities of demand for marijuana were estimated, gross and net. The gross price elasticity includes the effects of both legalisation and a price change, while the net version excludes the legalisation effect. The price elasticity of demand for marijuana differs significantly with the type of consumer. For more frequent users (daily, weekly and monthly), gross and net price elasticities are estimated to be  -.6 and -.4, respectively. Occasional smokers having a gross price elasticity of about -.3 and net elasticity of about -.1. Regarding those who are no longer users, they have gross and net price elasticities close to zero. For a given type of consumer, males and females share the same elasticity value. CASE LET 2: 1) In my opinion Yes, the Indian companies are running a major risk by not paying attention to cost cutting. To illustrate Comparing major Indian companies in key industries with their global competitors shows that Indian companies are running a major risk. They suffer from a profound bias for growth. The problem is most look more like Essar than Reliance. While they love the sweet of growth, they are unwilling to face the sour of productivity improvement. Nowhere is this more amply borne out than in the consumer goods industry where the Indian giant Hindustan Lever has consolidated to grow at over 50 per cent while its labour productivity declined by around 6 per cent per annum in the same period. Its strongest competitor, Nirma, also grew at over 25 per cent per annum in revenues but maintained its labour productivity relatively stable. Unfortunately, however, its return on capital employed (ROCE) suffered by over 17 per cent. In contrast, Coca Cola, worldwide, grew at around 7 per cent, improved its labour productivity by 20 per cent and its return on capital employed by 6.7 per cent. The story is very similar in the information technology sector where Infosys, NIIT and HCL achieve rates of growth of over 50 per cent which compares favorably with the worlds best companies that grew at around 30 per cent between 1994-95. NIIT, for example, strongly believes that growth is an impetus in itself. Its focus on growth has helped it double revenues every two years. Sustaining profitability in the face of such expansion is an extremely challenging task What makes this even worse is the Indian companies barely manage to cover their cost of capital, while their competitors worldwide such as Glaxo and Pfizer earn an average ROCE of 65 per cent. In the Indian textile industry, Arvind Mills was once the shining star. Like Reliance, it had learnt to cook sweet and sour. Between 1994 and 1996, it grew at an average of 30 per cent per annum to become the worlds  largest denim producer. At the same time, it also operated a tight ship, improving labour productivity by 20 per cent. Despite the excellent performance in the past, there are warning signals for Arvinds future. The excess over the WACC is only 1.5 per cent, implying it barely manages to satisfy its investor’s expectations of return and does not really have a surplus to re-invest in the business. Apparently, investors also think so, for Arvinds stock price has been falling since Q4 1994 despite such excellent results and, at the end of the first quarter of 1998, is less than Rs 70 compared to Rs 170 at the end of 1994. Unfortunately, Arvinds deteriorating financial returns over the last few years is also typical of the Indian textile industry. The top three Indian companies actually showed a decline in their return ratios in contrast to the international majors. 2 ) Fast moving consumer goods will become a Rs 400,000-crore industry by 2020. A Booz Company study finds out the trends that will shape its future Consider this. The anti-ageing skincare category grew five times between 2007 and 2008. It’s today the fastest-growing segment in the skincare market. Olay, Procter Gamble’s premium anti-ageing skincare brand, captured 20 per cent of the market within a year of its launch in 2007 and today dominates it with 37 per cent share. Who could have thought of ready acceptance for anti-ageing creams and lotions some ten years ago? For that matter, who could have thought Indian consumers would take oral hygiene so seriously? Mouth-rinsing seems to be picking up as a habit — mouthwash penetration is growing at 35 per cent a year. More so, who could have thought rural consumers would fall for shampoos? Rural penetration of shampoos increased to 46 per cent last year, way up from 16 per cent in 2001. Consumption patterns have evolved rapidly in the last five to ten years. The consumer is trading up to experience the new or what he hasn’t. He’s looking for products with better functionality, quality, value, and so on. What he ‘needs’ is fast getting replaced with what he ‘wants’ Categories are evolving at a brisk pace in the market for the middle and lower-income segments. With their rising economic status, these consumers are shifting from need- to want-based products. For instance, consumers have  moved from toothpowders to toothpastes and are now also demanding mouthwash within the same category. The trend towards mass-customization of products will intensify with FMCG players profiling the buyer by age, region, personal attributes, ethnic background and professional choices. Micro-segmentation will amplify the need for highly customized market research so as to capture the specific needs of the consumer segment targeted, before the actual product design phase gets underway. 3) Industies impressive growth in value added as observed in the previous sub section is not accompanied by a commensurate rise in the level of relative productivity in terms of the cross–country analysis. The fragmented nature of Indian pharmaceutical sector characterized by the operation of a very large number of players, estimated to be about 10,000 units of which just 300 units are medium and large sized7, may be a reason for low level of productivity. The other important factor for low productivity can be due to the nature of technological activities in the sector, which tends to rely more on process than product development. Further, it may be that Indian companies are focusing at the low end of value†chains in the pharmaceuticals like producing generics than opting for branded products or supply bulk drugs to global players than market formulations of their own. 4) The Indian textile industry has been one of the foremost contributors to the countrys employment, exports, and GDP. The industry has been rated as one of the key drivers of the Indian economy and a bold target of exports of $50 billion (currently it’s $22 billion) had been targeted by the year 2012 by the government after the dismantling of the quota regime in 2005. However we are still far away from that target. Though now it can be blamed on the worldwide recession, I think we need to do some soul searching as to was it anyways possible. Globally, the Indian industry is recognized for its competitive advantages, especially in the cotton segment. The government has set huge targets for the industry and expects to attract investments of about Rs 1.5 lakh crore during the eleventh Plan period. This would meet the export and domestic targets, while taking various initiatives like setting up textile parks, training centers, and ‘made in India label promotion’ to global markets. The Indian textile industry is facing tough competition in the US, as exporters from smaller countries like Bangladesh are cornering the lucrative market at a faster pace, a FICCI study said. In addition to China, countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh have managed to perform better than India in the US market in 2009, the study said. Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam managed to increase their share in the US textiles and apparel import in 2009 year on year at a faster rate than India. The Indian textile industry will no doubt survive and move along by the strengths of its traditional position and domestic market. However, the growth envisaged and it being re-classified as sunshine industry over the last three years from a sunset industry may turn out to be a myth Section C: 1) A vision of the impact of free trade can also be gleaned from Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Samuelson (1970) who confidently asserted that: Free trade promotes a mutually profitable division of labour, greatly enhances the potential real national product of all nations, and makes possible higher standards of living all over the globe. It promotes a regional division of labor this means that some regions of the world (or countries) will specialize in certain things. They will specialize in areas where they have a comparative advantage. It enhances national production this means that countries will be able to produce more things if there is trade. That is because they focus on producing things they are good at and do not waste resources on things that they are not good at. It allows higher standards of living because there is more production. If there is more production, there are more things available to be consumed. Another belief in the importance of free trade can be ascribed to its  perceived indirect effect on peace, security and the prevention of war. One of the first articulations of this is by Baron de Montesquieu, who writing in 1748, stated: Peace is the natural effect of trade. Two nations who traffic with each other become reciprocally dependent; for if one has an interest in buying, the other has an interest in selling, and thus their union is founded on their mutual necessities. This theory of mutual interdependence has been explored in some detail by authors such as Keohane and Nye67 and is echoed in attempts to build and protect the mandates of global institutions seeking such co-operation. However few attempts are made to track the results of policy activities on whole population of States, and as a result the overtly negative impact on some groups, usually minorities and indigenous 2) The Decision Trees, used to help with decision making in business ( and many other areas), are a form of diagrammatic analysis. They are used as a tool for helping managers to choose between several courses of action. They provide an effective and clear structure for presenting options and within decision trees the probabilities and financial outcomes of these options can be measured. They also help to form a balanced picture of the risks and potential financial rewards associated with each possible course of action. In many business decision making situations chance (or probability) plays an important role, and the use of decision trees helps build probability into the decision making process. Pictorial representation of a decision situation, normally found in discussions of decision-making under uncertainty or risk. It shows decision alternatives, states of nature, probabilities attached to the state of nature, and conditional benefits and losses. The tree approach is most useful in a sequential decision situation. For example, assume XYZ Corporation wishes to introduce one of two products to the market this year. The probabilities and present values (PV) of projected cash inflows follow: A decision tree analyzing the two products follows: Based on the expected net present value, the company should choose product A over product B.

Data Prediction Strategy for ROSSMANN

Data Prediction Strategy for ROSSMANN Our task in this project is to predict 6 weeks daily sales for 1115 Rossmann stores located across Germany. Why is this important? This will help the stores maximize their profit by focusing on specific aspects to improve and help in inventory management to reduce operational costs. Missing data in Rossmann was identified initially. After fine tuning the data, we did some statistical analysis on it to explore the depth of data and find the major elements which are changing our values. We made sure that our results are not biased. Analysis such as Principle Component Analysis and Correlation Analysis has helped us know, in detail, about the data elements which are important to consider when predicting sales. We have validated the conclusions our group made in the previous presentation (exploratory analysis) about the data through the results of statistics. Many other conclusions can be drawn by just looking at the analysis in the following sections of this report. Furthermore, we did linear regression to see the relation between customers and sales. As expected sales increased linearly with the increase in the number of customers. However, it performed poorly for other variables due to the non-linearity of the data. In House Prices, there are a 79 factors over which we have to analyze the house prices. In order to first categorize the important factors influencing house prices, correlation analysis is done. Linear Regression and Step wise regression is also done to determine the important features for house prices in general, and in stepwise fashion. ANOVA was done for the neighborhood and house style to check whether the mean or individual house styles and neighborhoods was different or not. The standard hypothesis resulted false and it was displayed that individual neighborhoods and house-styles hold different average selling prices. The tests exhibited that 2.5 story houses were the priciest in house styles while 1 story houses were most popular. The NorthRidge neighborhood has the most expensive houses as per ANOVA, while North Ames comes out to be the most popular and one of the cheapest neighborhoods. Data prediction strategy for ROSSMANN (for next phase): To choose our prediction method for Rossmann we considered a number of factors. First being the size of the data. The Rossmann data is extremely dense with multiple variables. Second was which variables to use for prediction. For this we did a correlation analysis on minitab and found that customers, sales and promo were the most important hence we considered them. Third the data provides no customer information (just ids). Given the above factors we decided to use gradient boosting method for prediction (Jain, Menon, Chandra, n.d.). Although our model improves on accuracy the main tradeoffs are reduced speed and user interpretability. We will ignore the values for the days when the stores are closed to refine the prediction. Rossmann Data Statistical Analysis Strategy: Minitab was deployed to do statistical analysis such as Box Plot and Quantile Ranges, Histograms, Principle component analysis, Correlation analysis. Matlab was used to do linear regression of Sales Vs Customers. Statistical analysis was done to validate the hypothesis made in the Visualization Project and to explore the data in detail. House Price Data: Statistical Analysis Strategy: Minitab was used to do statistical analysis such as Stepwise Linear Regression, Correlation analysis, Residual Plots and Value Plots This report first covers the Rossmann Data exploration and then House Price exploration are presented. MISSING DATA: Table 1 shows the values of head to head analysis of data sets given in Rossmann. As shown, Store data in Test sheet is not covering the range of stores covered in Train. There are 11 records which does not give any information of whether those stores are open or they are closed. Figure 1 shows that there are clearly less number of days registered in year 2014 after the 27th week. The reason for this is the missing values of 180 store IDs from 27th week to 52nd week of 2014. Figure 1. Year wise trend of Data Registered Table 1 Head to Head Analysis of Data Sets Number of Unique Values Unique Values NA Value Quantity Field Name TRAIN TEST TRAIN TEST TRAIN TEST Store 1115 856 Day of Week 7 7 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 Date 942 48 Sales 21734 Customers 4086 Open 2 2 1, 0 1, 0, NA 11 Promo 2 2 1,0 0 State Holiday 5 2 0, a, b, c 0, a School Holiday 2 2 1,0 1,0 Missing data set is assumed to be unrelated to actual values and may not be important. The data size is also smaller than the original data set, so ignoring the missing data will not lead to a biased result. Therefore, we considered missing data to be missing at random (Sazontyev Lim, n.d.). STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Quartile Ranges Customers Figure 2. Box Plot of Customers Sales Figure 3. Box Plot of Sales Histograms Figure 4 and Figure 5 shows that our data is slightly right skewed. The frequency of customers and frequency of sales are higher when their values are low. Figure 4. Histogram of Customers Figure 5. Histogram of Sales Principle Component Analysis Figure 6 shows the results of PCA in form of Scree Plot. We observe that the major effect on sales is due to customers (Component 1). Second influencing factor is the Number of stores which are open (Component 2). Promotions (Component 3) are influencing our sales but to a very low extent. We will also prove this via correlation analysis in coming sections. Figure 6. Scree plot of Train Data set Correlation Analysis Figure 7 shows the results of correlation analysis of the Rossmann Data. Cellular colors represent the intensity of correlations between the components. In the later sections, this correlation analysis is used to verify the results presented in visualization project. Following are the prominent correlations: Table 2 Major Correlation Results Positive Correlated Components Correlation Value Negative Correlated Components Correlation Value Customers Sales +0.895 Sales Days of week -0.462 Store Open Customers +0.617 Customers Days of week -0.386 Store Open Sales +0.678 Stores Open Days of Week -0.529 Promo Sales +0.452 Promo 2 Competition Distance -0.146 Promo Stores Open +0.295 Competition Distance Sales -0.027 Sales School Holidays +0.085 Promotions School Holidays -0.067 Correlation Matrices: VERIFICATION OF VISUALIZATION RESULTS: Claim 1: Sales decrease over the week. Statistics Confirmation: This claim is verified through the correlation analysis. Correlation results of Sales Vs Day of Week is -0.462 (Table 2 and Figure 7). Which clearly shows the negative correlation between these entities. Figure 8. Day wise sales trend Claim 2: Not much difference in sales when schools are open or close.Claim 3: There are more Promotions when schools are open. Statistical Confirmation: Correlation between Sales and School Holidays is +0.085 (Table 2 and Figure 7). As seen in Figure 9, sales when schools are closed is slightly greater than the sales when schools are open. This slight difference is proven by the small value of the correlation between these components. Also, there are more promotions when schools are open (Figure 9). This is confirmed by the negative correlation of -0.067 (Table 2 and Figure 7) between promotions and school holidays. Figure 9. Sales and Promo Comparison on School Holidays Claim 3: Sales increase with promotions but decreases with increase in competition distance. Statistical Confirmation: Promotions and Sales are positively correlated by +0.452 (Table 2 and Figure 7). This positive correlation can be seen in the claim we made in last project (Figure 10). Orange peaks are the sales when the promotions are there. And mostly they are above the blue peaks. However, from Figure 10, we also observe that with increase in competition distance, our sales decreases. And this is validated by the negative correlation of -0.027 between sales and competition distance. Figure 10. Sales Trend with Competition Distance Linear Regression Linear regression results in Figure 11 (obtained from Matlab) and Residual analysis results in Figure 12 (obtained from Minitab) show how sales is regressing with respect to the customers. The R2 value obtained is 0.8, which depicts that our linear regression is close to the data. Linear regression equation and regression coefficients is shown below: B1 = 8.5238 à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   regression coefficient/slope b1 = 1.077 and b2 = 0.0074 à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚   Regression Equation (y = 1.077 + 0.0074x) R2 = 0.8005 Figure 11. Linear Regression Figure 12. Residual Plot STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Regression Analysis à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Regression Equation SalePrice = -323176 200.5 MSSubClass 116.1 LotFrontage + 0.545 LotArea + 18697 OverallQual + 5227 OverallCond + 317.0 YearBuilt + 120.6 YearRemodAdd + 31.60 MasVnrArea + 17.39 BsmtFinSF1 + 8.36 BsmtFinSF2 + 5.01 BsmtUnfSF + 45.91 1stFlrSF + 46.68 2ndFlrSF + 34.2 LowQualFinSF + 8980 BsmtFullBath + 2490 BsmtHalfBath + 5390 FullBath 1119 HalfBath 10233 BedroomAbvGr 21931 KitchenAbvGr + 5440 TotRmsAbvGrd + 4375 Fireplaces 49.1 GarageYrBlt + 16788 GarageCars + 6.5 GarageArea + 21.5 WoodDeckSF 2.3 OpenPorchSF + 7.2 EnclosedPorch + 34.6 3SsnPorch + 58.0 ScreenPorch 61.3 PoolArea 3.85 MiscVal 224 MoSold 254 YrSold à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Regression Equation (STEPWISE) SalePrice = -714877 202.0 MSSubClass 106.7 LotFrontage + 0.545 LotArea + 18858 OverallQual + 6073 OverallCond + 326.0 YearBuilt + 31.29 MasVnrArea + 11.93 BsmtFinSF1 + 5.72 TotalBsmtSF + 46.77 GrLivArea + 9245 BsmtFullBath + 6171 FullBath 10759 BedroomAbvGr 22330 KitchenAbvGr + 5290 TotRmsAbvGrd + 4065 Fireplaces + 18107 GarageCars + 21.04 WoodDeckSF + 53.0 ScreenPorch 59.7 PoolArea Correlation Analysis SalePrice MSSubClass LotFrontage LotArea OverallQual MSSubClass -0.084 0.001 LotFrontage 0.352 -0.386 0.000 0.000 LotArea 0.264 -0.140 0.426 0.000 0.000 0.000 OverallQual 0.791 0.033 0.252 0.106 0.000 0.213 0.000 0.000 OverallCond -0.078 -0.059 -0.059 -0.006 -0.092 0.003 0.023 0.040 0.830 0.000 YearBuilt 0.523 0.028 0.123 0.014 0.572 0.000 0.288 0.000 0.587 0.000 YearRemodAdd 0.507 0.041 0.089 0.014 0.551 0.000 0.121 0.002 0.599 0.000 MasVnrArea 0.477 0.023 0.193 0.104 0.412 0.000 0.382 0.000 0.000 0.000 BsmtFinSF1 0.386 -0.070 0.234 0.214 0.240 0.000 0.008 0.000 0.000 0.000 BsmtFinSF2 -0.011 -0.066 0.050 0.111 -0.059 0.664 0.012 0.084 0.000 0.024 BsmtUnfSF 0.214 -0.141 0.133 -0.003 0.308 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.920 0.000 TotalBsmtSF 0.614 -0.239 0.392 0.261 0.538 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1stFlrSF 0.606 -0.252 0.457 0.299 0.476 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 2ndFlrSF 0.319 0.308 0.080 0.051 0.295 0.000 0.000 0.005 0.051 0.000 LowQualFinSF -0.026 0.046 0.038 0.005 -0.030 0.328 0.076 0.183 0.855 0.245 GrLivArea 0.709 0.075 0.403 0.263 0.593 0.000 0.004 0.000 0.000 0.000 BsmtFullBath 0.227 0.003 0.101 0.158 0.111 0.000 0.894 0.000 0.000 0.000 BsmtHalfBath -0.017 -0.002 -0.007 0.048 -0.040 0.520 0.929 0.802 0.066 0.125 FullBath 0.561 0.132 0.199 0.126 0.551 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 HalfBath 0.284 0.177 0.054 0.014 0.273 0.000 0.000 0.064 0.586 0.000 BedroomAbvGr 0.168 -0.023 0.263 0.120 0.102 0.000 0.371 0.000 0.000 0.000 KitchenAbvGr -0.136 0.282 -0.006 -0.018 -0.184 0.000 0.000 0.834 0.497 0.000 TotRmsAbvGrd 0.534 0.040 0.352 0.190 0.427 0.000 0.123 0.000 0.000 0.000 Fireplaces 0.467 -0.046 0.267 0.271 0.397 0.000 0.082 0.000 0.000 0.000 GarageYrBlt 0.486 0.085 0.070 -0.025 0.548 0.000 0.002 0.018 0.355 0.000 GarageCars 0.640 -0.040 0.286 0.155 0.601 0.000 0.126 0.000 0.000 0.000 GarageArea 0.623 -0.099 0.345 0.180 0.562 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 WoodDeckSF 0.324 -0.013 0.089 0.172 0.239 0.000 0.631 0.002 0.000 0.000 OpenPorchSF 0.316 -0.006 0.152 0.085 0.309 0.000 0.816 0.000 0.001 0.000 EnclosedPorch -0.129 -0.012 0.011 -0.018 -0.114 0.000 0.646 0.711 0.484 0.000 3SsnPorch 0.045 -0.044 0.070 0.020 0.030 0.089 0.094 0.015 0.436 0.246 ScreenPorch 0.111 -0.026 0.041 0.043 0.065 0.000 0.320 0.152 0.099 0.013 PoolArea 0.092 0.008 0.206 0.078 0.065 0.000 0.752 0.000 0.003 0.013 MiscVal -0.021 -0.008 0.003 0.038 -0.031 0.418 0.769 0.907 0.146 0.230 MoSold

Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five Essay -- Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterho

Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five Great artists have the ability to step back from society and see the absurd circus that their world has become. Such satirists use their creative work to reveal the comic elements of an absurd world and incite a change in society; examples include Stanley Kubrick’s film, Dr. Strangelove, and Joseph Heller’s novel, Catch-22. Both works rose above their more serious counterparts to capture the critical voice of a generation dissatisfied with a nation of warmongers. Completing this triumvirate of anti-war classics is Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. Infusing his social commentary with science fiction, satire, bizarre characters, and the problem of death, Vonnegut creates one of the most effective arguments against war in the American canon of literature. The life of Kurt Vonnegut began on November 11, 1922 in Indiana. He aged and entered school, picking up an affinity for the written word while editing his high school paper (Klinkowitz, â€Å"Chronology† 3). As he grew up, Vonnegut faced a nation rapidly changing under the burdens of the Depression. This economic disaster harmed Vonnegut’s family as well, causing his parents to make countless sacrifices to keep their family from crumbling under the pressure (Klinkowitz, â€Å"America† 8). Vonnegut survived the Depression to enroll at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he majored in chemistry and biology. Three years into school he enlisted in the United States Army and fought in World War II. One year later Germans captured Vonnegut and held him as a prisoner of war in Dresden. He lived in this city for less than half a year before he survived the â€Å"boundless† â€Å"destruction† (Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five 22) caused by the D... ...uarterly 103 (1998): 17. Simpson, Josh. â€Å"’This Promising of Great Secrets’: Literature, Ideas, and the (Re)invention of Reality in Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Breakfast of Champions.† Studies in Contemporary Fiction 45 (Spring 2004): 261-271. Infotrac Onefile. 28 Oct. 2004. . Tanner, Tony. â€Å"The Uncertain Messenger: A Reading of Slaughterhouse-Five.† Merrill 125-130. Vees-Gulani, Susanne. â€Å"Diagnosing Billy Pilgrim: A Psychiatric Approach to Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.† Studies in Contemporary Fiction 44 (Winter 2003): 175-184. Infotrac Onefile. 28 Oct. 2004. . Vonnegut, Kurt. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater or Pearls Before Swine. New York, NY: Dell Publishing, 1965. ---. Slaughterhouse-Five. New York, NY: Delta Fiction, 1969. Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five Essay -- Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterho Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five Great artists have the ability to step back from society and see the absurd circus that their world has become. Such satirists use their creative work to reveal the comic elements of an absurd world and incite a change in society; examples include Stanley Kubrick’s film, Dr. Strangelove, and Joseph Heller’s novel, Catch-22. Both works rose above their more serious counterparts to capture the critical voice of a generation dissatisfied with a nation of warmongers. Completing this triumvirate of anti-war classics is Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. Infusing his social commentary with science fiction, satire, bizarre characters, and the problem of death, Vonnegut creates one of the most effective arguments against war in the American canon of literature. The life of Kurt Vonnegut began on November 11, 1922 in Indiana. He aged and entered school, picking up an affinity for the written word while editing his high school paper (Klinkowitz, â€Å"Chronology† 3). As he grew up, Vonnegut faced a nation rapidly changing under the burdens of the Depression. This economic disaster harmed Vonnegut’s family as well, causing his parents to make countless sacrifices to keep their family from crumbling under the pressure (Klinkowitz, â€Å"America† 8). Vonnegut survived the Depression to enroll at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he majored in chemistry and biology. Three years into school he enlisted in the United States Army and fought in World War II. One year later Germans captured Vonnegut and held him as a prisoner of war in Dresden. He lived in this city for less than half a year before he survived the â€Å"boundless† â€Å"destruction† (Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five 22) caused by the D... ...uarterly 103 (1998): 17. Simpson, Josh. â€Å"’This Promising of Great Secrets’: Literature, Ideas, and the (Re)invention of Reality in Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Breakfast of Champions.† Studies in Contemporary Fiction 45 (Spring 2004): 261-271. Infotrac Onefile. 28 Oct. 2004. . Tanner, Tony. â€Å"The Uncertain Messenger: A Reading of Slaughterhouse-Five.† Merrill 125-130. Vees-Gulani, Susanne. â€Å"Diagnosing Billy Pilgrim: A Psychiatric Approach to Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.† Studies in Contemporary Fiction 44 (Winter 2003): 175-184. Infotrac Onefile. 28 Oct. 2004. . Vonnegut, Kurt. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater or Pearls Before Swine. New York, NY: Dell Publishing, 1965. ---. Slaughterhouse-Five. New York, NY: Delta Fiction, 1969.

Electronic Commerce

Electronic Commerce – often shortened to E-commerce – is the name given to selling and buying things using the Internet. E-commerce is important because: – * Many people now have Internet connections. Information about goods and services for sale can be put on the World Wide Web. Setting up a company website and doing business through it can be a lot more cost effective than using purely traditional shops. * Companies can have a national or even international customer â€Å"reach† with a website. * People do not leave their homes to shop using E-Commerce. * The costs of delivery of goods are low and many carriers are available. * People can find exactly what they need without hunting round shops or phoning around. Traditional Business Practices Many people have an aspiration and have the resources to go out and do traditional shopping Traditional business practises are easy to exploit and cheap to do for example marketing is a lot more easy to exploit as you generally have a idea who you target audience is You can look at your product try it out and even negotiate lowering the price Advantages for e-commerce disadvantages concerning traditional business practices * Larger market and more options for consumers. This creates more market competition, thus driving down prices and forcing better retail practices. * Don't have to leave home and fight traffic†¦delivered to door * In many cases, a larger selection is available. * Consumers are able to research a product and its competitors more thoroughly before purchase and compare many prices from different retailers. * No sales tax. * Open 24 hours a day / seven days a week, which is very beneficial to those who can not find time to go to a store and for those who just want to shop whenever they feel like it. * Do not have to deal with the sales atmosphere. * Friendlier: no rude salespeople who ignore customers * Can find what you are looking for a the touch of a button – sizes, colours, etc Disadvantages for e-commerce advantages concerning traditional business practices * Waiting for a shipment to arrive in the mail * Shipping Charges * Lack of confidence in personal information transfer on-line * Ease of fraudulent retailers and sites. The fluctuation and instability of Internet retailers makes it difficult for new retailers to establish a reputation because many do not survive. Therefore, there is a lack of confidence that exists in trusting Internet retailers. * Lose the traditional shopping experience and the instant gratification that many really enjoy. * Lack of taxes reduces the tax revenues that states and cities might otherwise collect from traditional retailers. * Traditional retail stores are at a disadvantage to Internet retailers due to the lack of Internet sales tax. * Many are still to computer-illiterate to take advantage of this avenue of commerce * KNOWLEDGE OF D.P.A The law is catching up with the online world. The progressive migration of business to the web is forcing reappraisal of intellectual property rights and their protection, and clarifying the meaning of intellectual property in a connected world. Any customer purchasing or using goods or services has certain rights through legislation and regulation of which impact upon their relationship with the organisation selling the products and service. The implication of the customer rights will be different for manufacturers compared for example with a retailer under the trade description 1968 and 1972 any description of goods and services given by a person acting in the trade or business should be accurate and not misleading failure to do so is a criminal offence. The sale of goods act 1979 places obligation on the buyer and seller on products and services. The seller of goods must ensure the goods are they own legal ownership. Products are of merchantable quality. Fit for the person for normal use meets the description and are delivered on time. The customer once agreed to buy a product has entered a contart with the seller and obliged to pay for the price agreed at the timeof contract. If the goods are faulty, the customer has a r ight for a full refund. If the fault is identified to the customer at the time of contract the customer cannot cause a case Customers have no rights if they change their minds about goods or damage goods themselves Manufacturer guarantee may add to customer right under the supplier and seller act 1982 any goods supplied under contract must confirm to terms and conditions under the consumer protect 1987 people injured by faulty or defected goods have the right to sue The Data Protection Act 1998 and the Internet The new Data Protection Act 1998 came into force on 1 March 2000. The Act has received considerable publicity, both because its ambit is wider than its predecessor, the 1984 Data Protection Act is, and because of the greater and more flexible powers given to the Data Protection Commissioner and to individuals to enforce the Act. The Act has significant implications for the Internet and for e-commerce in particular. As the European Commission Working Party on data protection commented: ‘The Internet is not a legal vacuum. Processing of personal data on the Internet has to respect data protection principles just as in the off-line world'. Obtaining consent Under the new Act, it is often necessary or advisable for ‘data controllers' (organisations which obtain, store, or use personal data about an individual) to obtain the individual's consent to these activities. What amounts to consent in cyberspace is a difficult, largely unresolved issue. The more serious the consequences of data processing for the individual, the more careful the organisation must be to ensure that the individual is in possession of any information which he or she requires to give not just consent, but ‘informed' consent. This information should be provided in a way, which is clear, prominent, and easily accessible. If the information is scattered over various disparate website pages, informed consent may not have been given. E-commerce traders must think carefully about whether, in each case, failure to click on an ‘opt-out' box will be sufficient, or whether a specific ‘opt-in' box should be provided. Obtaining consent from minors is a difficult area for e-commerce traders, particularly those retailing goods or services, which are attractive to children and teenagers, such as computer games. The Data Protection Registrar has indicated that, as under-18s cannot generally be bound to a contract under English law, they can also not be deemed to have consented to the processing of their personal data. However, can a third party, even a parent or guardian, consent to processing on behalf of a minor? In addition, how does an organisation know when it is dealing with a minor in cyberspace – no tell-tale handwriting here! The US government has adopted a Children's On-line Privacy Protection Act, which deals with the point expressly, but there is no indication that the UK government intends to address the issues in a similar way. Privacy policies Many companies have adopted a ‘privacy policy' or ‘statement' which is published on their website as a useful way of addressing data protection issues. Privacy policies typically state who the data controller is, what personal data is being collected, and what will happen to it, in particular to whom data may be transferred. A privacy policy may also give information about the right to opt-out of direct marketing; details of any mechanism for individuals to update or amend their personal data; information about the use of ‘cookies' and invisible data capture; and a disclaimer for third-party sites linked to the website. To be effective, it is important that privacy policies are clear, prominent, and easily accessible from relevant pages. If you rely on a privacy policy alone to demonstrate that the subject has consented to precessing, then you should take steps to ensure that they must scroll through the page before providing their data. Invisible data capture Concerns have been raised about the data protection implications of invisible data processing during web browsing. For example, many companies use techniques which gather information about a website visitor, such as their IP address, the type of browser and operating system they use, and previous sites they have visited. This information has been described as a ‘clicktrail' about an individual, recording the pattern of their Internet use. There is some debate as to whether this information, which is largely anonymised, qualifies as personal data. The European Commission Working Group adopted a bullish view in its 1999 Recommendations, regarding IP addresses, for example, as personal data. Website owners wishing to make use of invisible data capture metyhods are advised to bring them within their data protection procedures. Website hosts Often an external host or web manager will oversee the running of the server on which a website is hosted. For the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998, the commercial entity which ‘owns' the website will normally be the ‘data controller' in relation to personal data obtained via the website, whereas the host will be a ‘data processor' processing data on its behalf. Under the new Act, data controllers are liable for processing undertaken on their behalf by such data processors. The data controller must actively police the data protection procedures of any person processing data on its behalf, and must enter into a written contract with its data processors, requiring them to maintain certainty security measures and to process personal data only in accordance with instructions. Extra-EEA transfer Website proprietors must pay particular attention to the eighth data protection principle, concerning the transfer of personal data outside the European Economic Area. Initially, there was concern that merely sending e-mails, which, for example, may travel from one side of London to the other via the United States, would frequently infringe this principle. However, the Data Protection Commissioner distinguishes in recent guidance between the ‘transfer' and ‘transit' of data, and states that, provided an electronic transfer of data starts and ends in an EEA country, the principle will not be infringed. Conclusion As with many provisions of the new Act, the distinction between ‘transfer' and ‘transit' of information is ambiguous and uncertain. The Data Protection Registrar has said that she appreciates the difficulties in understanding and applying the new Act. To begin with, therefore, she is unlikely to enforce the new provisions to the letter, if data controllers try to comply with the spirit of the Act. However, given that it will ultimately fall to the courts to decide what amounts to compliance, and that individuals may now police processing themselves, those dealing with personal data on the Internet must take the new rules very seriously. Legal Issues Under UK law, consumers have the same rights as in any other forms of trade. The government are also striving to change existing laws to help to clear up any ambiguity in current law to help e-commerce and ultimately consumer protection across the Internet. So, if you are unfamiliar with any of the following laws and regulations, now is the time to find out. * The Data Protection Act 1998 * The Consumer Protection Act 1998 * British Codes of Advertising and Sales Promotion * The Distance Selling Regulations 2000 * The Unfair Contract Act 1977 and 1999 regulations * The sales of Goods Act 1979 * The Consumer Credit Act 1974 * The Trade Descriptions Act 1968 Qualify your intentions In 1999, the government set up a self-regulatory scheme to develop and enhance confidence in UK e-commerce. Its aim was to act as a symbol of good web trading via an agreed â€Å"minimum standard† for online trading. For the small business, this can mean that you are accredited as â€Å"good† online e-service. This organisation is known as TRUSTUK. For any company who has been accredited by TrustUK can display the TrustUK hallmark on their website. For the small business, this gives credibility and can boost consumer confidence greatly. TrustUK have also linked up with other organisations who also offer accreditation for websites adhering to set TrustUK standards, these are known as â€Å"code owners†. If your small business takes many issues similar to the ones discussed, then you should have no problem gaining accreditation. To find out more visit the TrustUK web site The impact of technological innovations on e-commerce The Internets potential for e-commerce The evidence supporting e-commerce growth and potential can be staggering when one considers the accomplishments in this field just over the last few years. The potential impact, and issues surrounding, e-commerce and the practising accountant. E-commerce is seen as a major area of growth over the next few years and virtually every well-known retailer is developing some form of web presence, for example WHSmith has recently launched an online book selling service. In addition, there are a number of high profile web-only retailers such as Amazon.co.uk. The commercial viability of these ventures is yet to be established, although stock market values would have us believe they will be highly profitable. One of the main factors seen by many as holding back the further and faster development of e-commerce, certainly outside the high profile names, is the lack of trust by consumers in the on-line retailer. This covers issues such as the existence of the company, the delivery of goods ordered, the ability to return unsatisfactory goods and perhaps, most importantly, the security of personal information and credit card details. A number of specialist organisations now attempt to provide assurance to consumers, on some or all of the trust issues outlined above. When a business meets the qualifying criteria established by such an organisation, it may display a seal of approval on its website. The consumer is able to click on the seal to obtain further information regarding the meaning of the seal. One such seal is CPA Web Trust (www.cpawebtrust.org). The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants developed this product. The Institutes of Chartered Accountants in the UK and Ireland have obtained a licence to cover these territories. To obtain a Web Trust seal, a business will be subjected to an audit, by an accredited firm, of its business processes and security issues. Where the Web Trust criteria are satisfied a seal (which must be renewed on a quarterly basis) will be issued. ACCA investigated fully the benefits of obtaining a Web Trust licence to enable its firms to offer this service, but the decision was taken that this was not appropriate for a number of reasons: The cost to the professional body of obtaining a licence from AICPA/CICA Research carried out by the European Consortium for Web Assurance and Trust (ECWAT) group (in which ACCA participates) indicates that in business-to-consumer e-commerce, the well-known traditional retailer or web retailer has a large advantage over the unknown retailer, even where the unknown retailer carries a seal. This would indicate that outside much specialised markets the client might need to have a significant profile built through marketing to make e-commerce viable. These clients are unlikely to be common to small practices ECWAT research indicates that consumers would place significantly more reliance on a seal provided/backed by a Consumer Union/Association than by an accountant Carrying out a Web Trust audit requires the firm to obtain a licence, undertake training and have a level of technical expertise that may not exist, now The US experience suggests that Web Trust has not yet taken off as a service despite it having been available for around 18 months. Recently there were 18 organisations on the list of current Web Trust sites – of these, four are professional accounting bodies There are competitors to Web Trust, which potentially will be in a very strong position. For example, Entrust Inc is focusing on the issue of digital certificates to vouch for the authenticity of sites. This is being done in conjunction with the browser technology of Microsoft, AOL and Netscape. These browsers will automatically recognise Entrust.net website certificates when visitors connect to a site The Consumers Association has launched a which? Web Trader seal which is designed to offer assurance to consumers and unlike the Web Trust seal is issued free of charge. Further details can be found at http://www.which.net/webtrader/index.html. Given that ACCA is not able to offer members the Web Trust licence, how should members become involved in e-commerce? It is clear that e-commerce is a growing market, but it is expected that the principal area of growth will not be a consumer buying over the internet (although this market will be substantial) but in the area of business-to-business transactions. The business to business market may not have the same issues relating to trust, as businesses are likely to look to form on-going relationships, and there are already established means of making electronic payments. It is unlikely that businesses will move to payment with order, as is the case with much business to consumer e-commerce. A likely scenario is that important customers will want to be able to order online, check stock availability, prices and delivery times and be confident that the order will be delivered as expected. The accountant could play an important role in advising his/her client on this transformation, by assisting in areas such as integration with existing accounting records and processes, ensuring security and back-up procedures are maintained properly, and generally that efficient and best use is made of information technology. A 1 Cycles is Committed to developing e-commerce and enabling practitioners to participate in this exciting market. Look out for further developments in future issues of In Practice. Electronic Commerce Electronic Commerce – often shortened to E-commerce – is the name given to selling and buying things using the Internet. E-commerce is important because: – * Many people now have Internet connections. Information about goods and services for sale can be put on the World Wide Web. Setting up a company website and doing business through it can be a lot more cost effective than using purely traditional shops. * Companies can have a national or even international customer â€Å"reach† with a website. * People do not leave their homes to shop using E-Commerce. * The costs of delivery of goods are low and many carriers are available. * People can find exactly what they need without hunting round shops or phoning around. Traditional Business Practices Many people have an aspiration and have the resources to go out and do traditional shopping Traditional business practises are easy to exploit and cheap to do for example marketing is a lot more easy to exploit as you generally have a idea who you target audience is You can look at your product try it out and even negotiate lowering the price Advantages for e-commerce disadvantages concerning traditional business practices * Larger market and more options for consumers. This creates more market competition, thus driving down prices and forcing better retail practices. * Don't have to leave home and fight traffic†¦delivered to door * In many cases, a larger selection is available. * Consumers are able to research a product and its competitors more thoroughly before purchase and compare many prices from different retailers. * No sales tax. * Open 24 hours a day / seven days a week, which is very beneficial to those who can not find time to go to a store and for those who just want to shop whenever they feel like it. * Do not have to deal with the sales atmosphere. * Friendlier: no rude salespeople who ignore customers * Can find what you are looking for a the touch of a button – sizes, colours, etc Disadvantages for e-commerce advantages concerning traditional business practices * Waiting for a shipment to arrive in the mail * Shipping Charges * Lack of confidence in personal information transfer on-line * Ease of fraudulent retailers and sites. The fluctuation and instability of Internet retailers makes it difficult for new retailers to establish a reputation because many do not survive. Therefore, there is a lack of confidence that exists in trusting Internet retailers. * Lose the traditional shopping experience and the instant gratification that many really enjoy. * Lack of taxes reduces the tax revenues that states and cities might otherwise collect from traditional retailers. * Traditional retail stores are at a disadvantage to Internet retailers due to the lack of Internet sales tax. * Many are still to computer-illiterate to take advantage of this avenue of commerce * KNOWLEDGE OF D.P.A The law is catching up with the online world. The progressive migration of business to the web is forcing reappraisal of intellectual property rights and their protection, and clarifying the meaning of intellectual property in a connected world. Any customer purchasing or using goods or services has certain rights through legislation and regulation of which impact upon their relationship with the organisation selling the products and service. The implication of the customer rights will be different for manufacturers compared for example with a retailer under the trade description 1968 and 1972 any description of goods and services given by a person acting in the trade or business should be accurate and not misleading failure to do so is a criminal offence. The sale of goods act 1979 places obligation on the buyer and seller on products and services. The seller of goods must ensure the goods are they own legal ownership. Products are of merchantable quality. Fit for the person for normal use meets the description and are delivered on time. The customer once agreed to buy a product has entered a contart with the seller and obliged to pay for the price agreed at the timeof contract. If the goods are faulty, the customer has a r ight for a full refund. If the fault is identified to the customer at the time of contract the customer cannot cause a case Customers have no rights if they change their minds about goods or damage goods themselves Manufacturer guarantee may add to customer right under the supplier and seller act 1982 any goods supplied under contract must confirm to terms and conditions under the consumer protect 1987 people injured by faulty or defected goods have the right to sue The Data Protection Act 1998 and the Internet The new Data Protection Act 1998 came into force on 1 March 2000. The Act has received considerable publicity, both because its ambit is wider than its predecessor, the 1984 Data Protection Act is, and because of the greater and more flexible powers given to the Data Protection Commissioner and to individuals to enforce the Act. The Act has significant implications for the Internet and for e-commerce in particular. As the European Commission Working Party on data protection commented: ‘The Internet is not a legal vacuum. Processing of personal data on the Internet has to respect data protection principles just as in the off-line world'. Obtaining consent Under the new Act, it is often necessary or advisable for ‘data controllers' (organisations which obtain, store, or use personal data about an individual) to obtain the individual's consent to these activities. What amounts to consent in cyberspace is a difficult, largely unresolved issue. The more serious the consequences of data processing for the individual, the more careful the organisation must be to ensure that the individual is in possession of any information which he or she requires to give not just consent, but ‘informed' consent. This information should be provided in a way, which is clear, prominent, and easily accessible. If the information is scattered over various disparate website pages, informed consent may not have been given. E-commerce traders must think carefully about whether, in each case, failure to click on an ‘opt-out' box will be sufficient, or whether a specific ‘opt-in' box should be provided. Obtaining consent from minors is a difficult area for e-commerce traders, particularly those retailing goods or services, which are attractive to children and teenagers, such as computer games. The Data Protection Registrar has indicated that, as under-18s cannot generally be bound to a contract under English law, they can also not be deemed to have consented to the processing of their personal data. However, can a third party, even a parent or guardian, consent to processing on behalf of a minor? In addition, how does an organisation know when it is dealing with a minor in cyberspace – no tell-tale handwriting here! The US government has adopted a Children's On-line Privacy Protection Act, which deals with the point expressly, but there is no indication that the UK government intends to address the issues in a similar way. Privacy policies Many companies have adopted a ‘privacy policy' or ‘statement' which is published on their website as a useful way of addressing data protection issues. Privacy policies typically state who the data controller is, what personal data is being collected, and what will happen to it, in particular to whom data may be transferred. A privacy policy may also give information about the right to opt-out of direct marketing; details of any mechanism for individuals to update or amend their personal data; information about the use of ‘cookies' and invisible data capture; and a disclaimer for third-party sites linked to the website. To be effective, it is important that privacy policies are clear, prominent, and easily accessible from relevant pages. If you rely on a privacy policy alone to demonstrate that the subject has consented to precessing, then you should take steps to ensure that they must scroll through the page before providing their data. Invisible data capture Concerns have been raised about the data protection implications of invisible data processing during web browsing. For example, many companies use techniques which gather information about a website visitor, such as their IP address, the type of browser and operating system they use, and previous sites they have visited. This information has been described as a ‘clicktrail' about an individual, recording the pattern of their Internet use. There is some debate as to whether this information, which is largely anonymised, qualifies as personal data. The European Commission Working Group adopted a bullish view in its 1999 Recommendations, regarding IP addresses, for example, as personal data. Website owners wishing to make use of invisible data capture metyhods are advised to bring them within their data protection procedures. Website hosts Often an external host or web manager will oversee the running of the server on which a website is hosted. For the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998, the commercial entity which ‘owns' the website will normally be the ‘data controller' in relation to personal data obtained via the website, whereas the host will be a ‘data processor' processing data on its behalf. Under the new Act, data controllers are liable for processing undertaken on their behalf by such data processors. The data controller must actively police the data protection procedures of any person processing data on its behalf, and must enter into a written contract with its data processors, requiring them to maintain certainty security measures and to process personal data only in accordance with instructions. Extra-EEA transfer Website proprietors must pay particular attention to the eighth data protection principle, concerning the transfer of personal data outside the European Economic Area. Initially, there was concern that merely sending e-mails, which, for example, may travel from one side of London to the other via the United States, would frequently infringe this principle. However, the Data Protection Commissioner distinguishes in recent guidance between the ‘transfer' and ‘transit' of data, and states that, provided an electronic transfer of data starts and ends in an EEA country, the principle will not be infringed. Conclusion As with many provisions of the new Act, the distinction between ‘transfer' and ‘transit' of information is ambiguous and uncertain. The Data Protection Registrar has said that she appreciates the difficulties in understanding and applying the new Act. To begin with, therefore, she is unlikely to enforce the new provisions to the letter, if data controllers try to comply with the spirit of the Act. However, given that it will ultimately fall to the courts to decide what amounts to compliance, and that individuals may now police processing themselves, those dealing with personal data on the Internet must take the new rules very seriously. Legal Issues Under UK law, consumers have the same rights as in any other forms of trade. The government are also striving to change existing laws to help to clear up any ambiguity in current law to help e-commerce and ultimately consumer protection across the Internet. So, if you are unfamiliar with any of the following laws and regulations, now is the time to find out. * The Data Protection Act 1998 * The Consumer Protection Act 1998 * British Codes of Advertising and Sales Promotion * The Distance Selling Regulations 2000 * The Unfair Contract Act 1977 and 1999 regulations * The sales of Goods Act 1979 * The Consumer Credit Act 1974 * The Trade Descriptions Act 1968 Qualify your intentions In 1999, the government set up a self-regulatory scheme to develop and enhance confidence in UK e-commerce. Its aim was to act as a symbol of good web trading via an agreed â€Å"minimum standard† for online trading. For the small business, this can mean that you are accredited as â€Å"good† online e-service. This organisation is known as TRUSTUK. For any company who has been accredited by TrustUK can display the TrustUK hallmark on their website. For the small business, this gives credibility and can boost consumer confidence greatly. TrustUK have also linked up with other organisations who also offer accreditation for websites adhering to set TrustUK standards, these are known as â€Å"code owners†. If your small business takes many issues similar to the ones discussed, then you should have no problem gaining accreditation. To find out more visit the TrustUK web site The impact of technological innovations on e-commerce The Internets potential for e-commerce The evidence supporting e-commerce growth and potential can be staggering when one considers the accomplishments in this field just over the last few years. The potential impact, and issues surrounding, e-commerce and the practising accountant. E-commerce is seen as a major area of growth over the next few years and virtually every well-known retailer is developing some form of web presence, for example WHSmith has recently launched an online book selling service. In addition, there are a number of high profile web-only retailers such as Amazon.co.uk. The commercial viability of these ventures is yet to be established, although stock market values would have us believe they will be highly profitable. One of the main factors seen by many as holding back the further and faster development of e-commerce, certainly outside the high profile names, is the lack of trust by consumers in the on-line retailer. This covers issues such as the existence of the company, the delivery of goods ordered, the ability to return unsatisfactory goods and perhaps, most importantly, the security of personal information and credit card details. A number of specialist organisations now attempt to provide assurance to consumers, on some or all of the trust issues outlined above. When a business meets the qualifying criteria established by such an organisation, it may display a seal of approval on its website. The consumer is able to click on the seal to obtain further information regarding the meaning of the seal. One such seal is CPA Web Trust (www.cpawebtrust.org). The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants developed this product. The Institutes of Chartered Accountants in the UK and Ireland have obtained a licence to cover these territories. To obtain a Web Trust seal, a business will be subjected to an audit, by an accredited firm, of its business processes and security issues. Where the Web Trust criteria are satisfied a seal (which must be renewed on a quarterly basis) will be issued. ACCA investigated fully the benefits of obtaining a Web Trust licence to enable its firms to offer this service, but the decision was taken that this was not appropriate for a number of reasons: The cost to the professional body of obtaining a licence from AICPA/CICA Research carried out by the European Consortium for Web Assurance and Trust (ECWAT) group (in which ACCA participates) indicates that in business-to-consumer e-commerce, the well-known traditional retailer or web retailer has a large advantage over the unknown retailer, even where the unknown retailer carries a seal. This would indicate that outside much specialised markets the client might need to have a significant profile built through marketing to make e-commerce viable. These clients are unlikely to be common to small practices ECWAT research indicates that consumers would place significantly more reliance on a seal provided/backed by a Consumer Union/Association than by an accountant Carrying out a Web Trust audit requires the firm to obtain a licence, undertake training and have a level of technical expertise that may not exist, now The US experience suggests that Web Trust has not yet taken off as a service despite it having been available for around 18 months. Recently there were 18 organisations on the list of current Web Trust sites – of these, four are professional accounting bodies There are competitors to Web Trust, which potentially will be in a very strong position. For example, Entrust Inc is focusing on the issue of digital certificates to vouch for the authenticity of sites. This is being done in conjunction with the browser technology of Microsoft, AOL and Netscape. These browsers will automatically recognise Entrust.net website certificates when visitors connect to a site The Consumers Association has launched a which? Web Trader seal which is designed to offer assurance to consumers and unlike the Web Trust seal is issued free of charge. Further details can be found at http://www.which.net/webtrader/index.html. Given that ACCA is not able to offer members the Web Trust licence, how should members become involved in e-commerce? It is clear that e-commerce is a growing market, but it is expected that the principal area of growth will not be a consumer buying over the internet (although this market will be substantial) but in the area of business-to-business transactions. The business to business market may not have the same issues relating to trust, as businesses are likely to look to form on-going relationships, and there are already established means of making electronic payments. It is unlikely that businesses will move to payment with order, as is the case with much business to consumer e-commerce. A likely scenario is that important customers will want to be able to order online, check stock availability, prices and delivery times and be confident that the order will be delivered as expected. The accountant could play an important role in advising his/her client on this transformation, by assisting in areas such as integration with existing accounting records and processes, ensuring security and back-up procedures are maintained properly, and generally that efficient and best use is made of information technology. A 1 Cycles is Committed to developing e-commerce and enabling practitioners to participate in this exciting market. Look out for further developments in future issues of In Practice.

Project Management and Monitoring

Monitoring is the regular observation and recording of activities taking place in a project or programme. It is a process of routinely gathering information on all aspects of the project. To monitor is to check on how project activities are progressing. It is observation; – systematic and purposeful observation. Monitoring also involves giving feedback about the progress of the project to the donors, implementers and beneficiaries of the project. Reporting enables the gathered information to be used in making decisions for improving project performance.Monitoring is the systematic collection and analysis of information as a project progresses. It is aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of a project or organisation. It is based on targets set and activities planned during the planning phases of work. It helps to keep the work on track, and can let management know when things are going wrong. If done properly, it is an invaluable tool for good management, and it p rovides a useful base for evaluation.It enables you to determine whether the resources you have available are sufficient and are being well used, whether the capacity you have is sufficient and appropriate, and whether you are doing what you planned to do Purpose of Monitoring: Monitoring is very important in project planning and implementation. It is like watching where you are going while riding a bicycle; you can adjust as you go along and ensure that you are on the right track. Monitoring provides information that will be useful in: Analyzing the situation in the community and its project; †¢ Determining whether the inputs in the project are well utilized; †¢ Identifying problems facing the community or project and finding solutions; †¢ Ensuring all activities are carried out properly by the right people and in time;†¢ Using lessons from one project experience on to another; and †¢ Determining whether the way the project was planned is the most appropria te way of solving the problem at hand. Planning, Monitoring and Controlling Cycle: [pic] Importance of Monitoring: Monitoring is important because: it provides the only consolidated source of information showcasing project progress; †¢ it allows actors to learn from each other’s experiences, building on expertise and knowledge; †¢ it often generates (written) reports that contribute to transparency and accountability, and allows for lessons to be shared more easily; †¢ it reveals mistakes and offers paths for learning and improvements; †¢ it provides a basis for questioning and testing assumptions;†¢ it provides a means for agencies seeking to learn from their experiences and to incorporate them into policy and practice; †¢ it provides a way to assess the crucial link between implementers and beneficiaries on the ground and decision-makers; †¢ it adds to the retention and development of institutional memory; †¢ it provides a more robust basis for raising funds and influencing policy. WHY DO MONITORING? Monitoring enable you to check the â€Å"bottom line† (see Glossary of Terms) of development work: Not â€Å"are we making a profit? † but â€Å"are we making a difference? † Through monitoring and evaluation, you can: _ Review progress; _ Identify problems in planning and/or implementation; _ Make adjustments so that you are more likely to â€Å"make a difference†.In many organisations, â€Å"monitoring and evaluation† is something that that is seen as a donor requirement rather than a management tool. Donors are certainly entitled to know whether their money is being properly spent, and whether it is being well spent. But the primary (most important) use of monitoring and evaluation should be for the organisation or project itself to see how it is doing against objectives, whether it is having an impact, whether it is working efficiently, and to learn how to do it better. Plans a re essential but they are not set in concrete (totally fixed). If they are not working, or if the circumstances change, then plans need to change too.Monitoring and evaluation are both tools which help a project or organisation know when plans are not working, and when circumstances have changed. They give management the information it needs to make decisions about the project or organisation, about changes that are necessary in strategy or plans. Through this, the constants remain the pillars of the strategic framework: the problem analysis, the vision, and the values of the project or organisation. Everything else is negotiable. (See also the toolkit on strategic planning) Getting something wrong is not a crime. Failing to learn from past mistakes because you are not monitoring and evaluating, is.The effect of monitoring and evaluation can be seen in the following cycle. Note that you will monitor and adjust several times before you are ready to evaluate and replan. Monitoring inv olves: _ Establishing indicators (See Glossary of Terms) of efficiency, effectiveness and impact; _ Setting up systems to collect information relating to these indicators; _ Collecting and recording the information; _ Analysing the information; _ Using the information to inform day-to-day management. Monitoring is an internal function in any project or organisation. WHAT DO WE WANT TO KNOW? What we want to know is linked to what we think is important. In development work, what we think is important is linked to our values.Most work in civil society organisations is underpinned by a value framework. It is this framework that determines the standards of acceptability in the work we do. The central values on which most development work is built are: _ Serving the disadvantaged; _ Empowering the disadvantaged; _ Changing society, not just helping individuals; _ Sustainability; _ Efficient use of resources. So, the first thing we need to know is: Is what we are doing and how we are doing it meeting the requirements of these values? In order to answer this question, our monitoring and evaluation system must give us information about: _ Who is benefiting from what we do? How much are they benefiting? Are beneficiaries passive recipients or does the process enable them to have some control over their lives?_ Are there lessons in what we are doing that have a broader impact than just what is happening on our project? _ Can what we are doing be sustained in some way for the long-term, or will the impact of our work cease when we leave? _ Are we getting optimum outputs for the least possible amount of inputs? MONITORING When you design a monitoring system, you are taking a formative view point and establishing a system that will provide useful information on an ongoing basis so that you can improve what you do and how you do it. On the next page, you will find a suggested process for designing a monitoring system.For a case study of how an organisation went about designi ng a monitoring system, go to the section with examples, and the example given of designing a monitoring system. Monitoring DESIGNING A MONITORING SYSTEM Below is a step-by-step process you could use in order to design a monitoring system for your organisation or project. For a case study of how an organisation went about designing a monitoring system, go to examples. Step 1: At a workshop with appropriate staff and/or volunteers, and run by you or a consultant:_ Introduce the concepts of efficiency, effectiveness and impact (see Glossary of Terms). _ Explain that a monitoring system needs to cover all three. Generate a list of indicators for each of the three aspects. _ Clarify what variables (see Glossary of Terms) need to be linked. So, for example, do you want to be able to link the age of a teacher with his/her qualifications in order to answer the question: Are older teachers more or less likely to have higher qualifications? _ Clarify what information the project or organisat ion is already collecting. Step 2: Turn the input from the workshop into a brief for the questions your monitoring system must be able to answer. Depending on how complex your requirements are, and what your capacity is, you may decide to go for a computerised data base or a manual one.If you want to be able to link many variables across many cases (e. g. participants, schools, parent involvement, resources, urban/rural etc), you may need to go the computer route. If you have a few variables, you can probably do it manually. The important thing is to begin by knowing what variables you are interested in and to keep data on these variables. Linking and analysis can take place later. (These concepts are complicated. It will help you to read the case study in the examples section of the toolkit. ) From the workshop you will know what you want to monitor. You will have the indicators of efficiency, effectiveness and impact that have been prioritised.You will then choose the variables th at will help you answer the questions you think are important. So, for example, you might have an indicator of impact which is that â€Å"safer sex options are chosen† as an indicator that â€Å"young people are now making informed and mature lifestyle choices†. The variables that might affect the indicator include: _ Age _ Gender _ Religion _ Urban/rural _ Economic category _ Family environment _ Length of exposure to your project’s initiative _ Number of workshops attended. By keeping the right information you will be able to answer questions such as: _ Does age make a difference to the way our message is received? _ Does economic category i. e. o young people in richer areas respond better or worse to the message or does it make no difference?_ Does the number of workshops attended make a difference to the impact? Answers to these kinds of questions enable a project or organisation to make decisions about what they do and how they do it, to make informed chan ges to programmes, and to measure their impact and effectiveness. Answers to questions such as: _ Do more people attend sessions that are organised well in advance? _ Do more schools participate when there is no charge? _ Do more young people attend when sessions are over weekends or in the evenings? _ Does it cost less to run a workshop in the community, or to bring people to our training centre to run the workshop? nable the project or organisation to measure and improve their efficiency.Step 3: Decide how you will collect the information you need (see collecting information) and where it will be kept (on computer, in manual files). Step 4: Decide how often you will analyse the information – this means putting it together and trying to answer the questions you think are important. Step 5: Collect, analyse, report. PURPOSE OF MONITORING AND EVALUATION What development interventions make a difference? Is the project having the intended results? What can be done differently to better meet goals and objectives? These are the questions that monitoring and evaluation allow organizations to answer.Monitoring and evaluation are important management tools to track your progress and facilitate decision making. While some funders require some type of evaluative process, the greatest beneficiaries of an evaluation can be the community of people with whom your organization works. By closely examining your work, your organization can design programs and activities that are effective, efficient, and yield powerful results for the community. Definitions are as follows: Monitoring can be defined as a continuing function that aims primarily to provide the management and main stakeholders of an ongoing intervention with early indications of progress, or lack thereof, in the achievement of results.An ongoing intervention might be a project, program or other kind of support to an outcome. Monitoring helps organizations track achievements by a regular collection of informa tion to assist timely decision making, ensure accountability, and provide the basis for evaluation and learning. STRATEGIC QUESTIONS In conducting monitoring and evaluation efforts, the specific areas to consider will depend on the actual intervention, and its stated outcomes. Areas and examples of questions include: †¢ Relevance: Do the objectives and goals match the problems or needs that are being addressed?†¢ Efficiency: Is the project delivered in a timely and cost-effective manner? Effectiveness: To what extent does the intervention achieve its objectives? What are the supportive factors and obstacles encountered during the implementation? †¢ Impact: What happened as a result of the project? This may include intended and unintended positive and negative effects. †¢ Sustainability: Are there lasting benefits after the intervention is completed? COMMON TERMS Monitoring and evaluation take place at different levels. The following box defines the common terms w ith examples. INPUTS The financial, human, and material resources used for the development intervention. Technical Expertise Equipment Funds ACTIVITIES Actions taken or work performed.Training workshops conducted OUTPUTS The products, capital goods, and services that result from a development intervention. Number of people trained Number of workshops conducted OUTCOMES The likely or achieved short-term and medium-term effects or changes of an intervention’s outputs. Increased skills New employment opportunities IMPACTS The long-term consequences of the program, may be positive and negative effects. Improved standard of living STEP-BY-STEP: Planning for Monitoring and Evaluation Steps for designing a monitoring and evaluation system depend on what you are trying to monitor and evaluate. The following is an outline of some general steps you may ake in thinking through at the time of planning your activities:1. Identify who will be involved in the design, implementation, and rep orting. Engaging stakeholders helps ensure their perspectives are understood and feedback is incorporated. 2. Clarify scope, purpose, intended use, audience, and budget for evaluation. 3. Develop the questions to answer what you want to learn as a result of your work. 4. Select indicators. Indicators are meant to provide a clear means of measuring achievement, to help assess the performance, or to reflect changes. They can be either quantitative and/or qualitative. A process indicator is information that focuses on how a program is implemented. 5.Determine the data collection methods. Examples of methods are: document reviews, questionnaires, surveys, and interviews. 6. Analyze and synthesize the information you obtain. Review the information obtained to see if there are patterns or trends that emerge from the process. 7. Interpret these findings, provide feedback, and make recommendations. The process of analyzing data and understanding findings should provide you with recommendati ons about how to strengthen your work, as well as any mid-term adjustments you may need to make. 8. Communicate your findings and insights to stakeholders and decide how to use the results to strengthen your organization’s efforts.Monitoring and evaluation not only help organizations reflect and understand past performance, but serve as a guide for constructive changes during the period of implementation. Why have a detailed toolkit on monitoring and evaluation? If you don’t care about how well you are doing or about what impact you are having, why bother to do it at all? Monitoring and evaluation enable you to assess the quality and impact of your work, against your action plans and your strategic plan. In order for monitoring and evaluation to be really valuable, you do need to have planned well. Planning is dealt with in detail in other toolkits on this website. Who should use this toolkit?This toolkit should be useful to anyone working in an organisation or project who is concerned about the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of the work of the project or organisation. When will this toolkit be useful? This toolkit will be useful when: _ You are setting up systems for data collection during the planning phases of a project or organisation; _ You want to analyse data collected through the monitoring process; _ You are concerned about how efficiently and how effectively you are working; _ You reach a stage in your project, or in the life of your organisation, when you think it would be useful to evaluate what impact the work is having; _ Donors ask for an external evaluation of your organisation and or work. DESIGNING A MONITORING SYSTEM – CASE STUDYWhat follows is a description of a process that a South African organisation called Puppets against AIDS went through in order to develop a monitoring system which would feed into monitoring and evaluation processes. The main work of the organisation is presenting workshopped plays and/or p uppet shows related to lifeskill issues, especially those lifeskills to do with sexuality, at schools, across the country. The organisation works with a range of age groups, with different â€Å"products† (scripts) being appropriate at different levels. Puppets against AIDS wanted to develop a monitoring and evaluation system that provided useful information on the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of its operations. To this end, it wanted to develop a data base that:Provided all the basic information the organisation needed about clients and services given; _ Produced reports that enabled the organisation to inform itself and other stakeholders, including donors, partners and even schools, about the impact of the work, and what affected the impact of the work. The organisation made a decision to go for a computerised monitoring system. Much of the day-to-day information needed by the organisation was already on a computerised data base (e. g. schools, regions, services pr ovided and so on), but the monitoring system would require a substantial upgrading and the development of data base software specific to the organisation’s needs.The organisation also made the decision to develop a system initially for a pilot project, but with the intention of extending it to all the work over time. This pilot project would work with about 60 schools, using different scripts each year, over a period of three years. In order to raise the money needed for this process, Puppets against AIDS needed some kind of a brief for what was required so that it could be costed. At an initial workshop with staff, facilitated by consultants, the staff generated a list of indicators for efficiency, effectiveness and impact, in relation to their work. These were the things staff wanted to know from the system about what they did, how they did it, and what difference it made. The terms were defined as follows:Efficiency Here what needed to be assessed was how quickly, how corr ectly, how cost effectively and with what use of resources the services of the organisation were offered. Much of this information was already collected and was contained in reports which reflected planning against achievement. It needed to be made â€Å"computer friendly†. Effectiveness Here what needed to be assessed was getting results in terms of the strategy and shorter-term impact. For example, were the puppet shows an effective means of communicating messages about sexuality? Again, this information was already being collected and just needed to be adapted to fit the computerised system.Impact Here what needed to be assessed was whether the strategy worked in that it had an impact on changing behaviour in individuals (in this case the students) and that that change in behaviour impacted positively on Monitoring and Evaluation Monitoring and Evaluation by Janet Shapiro (email: [email  protected] co. za that happens when a donor insists on it, in fact, monitoring and e valuation are invaluable internal management tools. If you don’t assess how well you are doing against targets and indicators, you may go on using resources to no useful end, without changing the situation you have identified as a problem at all. Monitoring and evaluation enable you to make that assessment.