Answering 8 questions on Marketing 301 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Answering 8 questions on Marketing 301 - Essay Example The basis for market segmentation is a factor that is consistent to a particular market segment. Consumer market segmentation is done on Geographic, Demographic, Psychographic, and Behavioural basis. On the other hand, Business market segmentation is done on Location, customer type and Buyer Behaviour. Q2/Ans. Production differentiation is simply an effort by firms to differentiate their products from competitors' products or their own product line. It is done to attract particular segment of market. It is a mean to highlight the differentiated aspect of your product to create its value in the eyes of customers. It is a source of competitive advantage to firms and thus helps them generate higher revenues. It works in close connection to market segmentation since with segmentation, firms identify the market segment, which they want to cater with their products, and then with product differentiation, they attract that particular market segment to the offer they have developed for them. Q3/Ans. Consumer goods are goods that are utilized directly by consumers to satisfy their needs while business goods are those goods, which are used by manufacturing, or service-providing firms to use in their value chain to produce final goods or services to the consumers. One of the many examples of consumer goods can be potato chips that are consumed directly by consumers. ... Q4/Ans. New product process is the process of offering a new product to the market. The whole starts of with Idea generation. A new product idea can be obtained from consumers, competitors, sales people, company's R&D and many other sources. Then comes the idea screening process in which unsound concepts are screened out to cater only the ideas that are feasible. Three questions are answered during the process. Will the consumer benefit from the idea Will it be profitable Will be feasible technically to work on that idea Then the process of concept developing and testing comes where the whole product mix shapes up. Then business variables are decided. For example, what will be the selling price What will be the volume of production and what will be the breakeven point Then a prototype is made and is test marketed. The technical implementation is carried out on the idea with further commercialization to promote the resulting product or service among the target market. Q5/Ans. The retailing mix constitutes of 6 Ps as compared to 4 Ps of marketing mix and they are: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, personnel and presentation. Product means what benefit firm wants to give its consumers from the product or what will be the functionality of the product. Price tells at what price the product will be sold. Place tells what will be the mode and geography of distribution of product. Promotion tells what will be the technique (advertising, public relation, sales promotion) used to promote the product. Personnel plays the key role in promotion and the presentation describes what will be the aesthetics of promotion to attract customers. Q6/Ans. A Retail life cycle

Social Class Warfare Essay Example for Free

Social Class Warfare Essay Since the beginning everything has been a power struggle, the ones who possesses the most resources dominated over those with the lesser amount. In this day and age, money reigns over the social class and those without it are struggling against the government who controls the majority of it all.As stated by Dee Dee Myers in her article, â€Å"What Class Warfare Really Means,† â€Å"the same folks who have seen their incomes and wealth skyrocket in recent decades – would take the biggest hit. † (Myers) With this issue, UTA students are directly affected because the problem of the current financial difficulties is tied to their friends, family, and themselves. The levels of taxes cripples the middle and lower class, keeping them within their social class, and gives them no hope of further succession Here, Myers explains how the higher and lower classes are virtually unaffected, while the working top brackets of the middle class are taxed to no end.Though many say there is not any difference between classes, I believe that the middle class is treated unequally in terms of taxation versus the other class’s because the government’s inability to distribute tax equally amongst the three classes,the boundaries being the gap in income which keep one classing from rising to another, and the nation’s obliviousness in realizing the unevenly distributed money. For several decades the democratic and republican parties have been in debate over tax preference, resulting in this tax warfare. Students at UTA and virtually any other colleges are forcibly introduced into the world of economy as we take are big leap into debt and taxation. As the majority falls into the middle class due to their loans, students are herded into an unfairly taxed bracket that they will possibly spend the rest of their lives in. In Dee Dee Myers’s essay she lays out the facts that states, â€Å"The 400 Americans with the highest adjusted gross income saw their effective tax rates plummet from 30 percent† (Myers) and that, â€Å"the bottom 40 percent of earners would be virtually unaffected.† (Myers) As explained, you can tell she is pointing out how the high and low class receives the tax break while the middle class is left in the ditch with taxes to pay. Students would find this important because they can never be accurate in determining which bracket of the economy they will fall into. â€Å"They expect to have their own shot at getting rich. But increasingly, they are seeing that the game is rigged.† (Myers) I, like countless other students, began to realize this as I journeyed into adulthood and discovered that success into the â€Å"good life† of high income will be limited as long as the government restrains us from growth. In relevance to that statement, a tremendous gap between those of low class incomes and those of the high class is clearly stated, â€Å"the wealthiest percentile has seen its income grow by a robust 17 percent, while the middle class has seen its real income fall.† (Norton) Though in different articles, similar thoughts are shared as they state unbelievably informative facts stating the gap between the rich and poor. Having this large gap between classes, one can only be left with the belief that the lower and middle class have no hope to gain any possibilities of greater success. Though many still believe that if they persevere through college and earn their degree, they will be able to jump into the high class and make hundreds of thousands of dollars, but in reality many will realize the difficulties, â€Å"More Americans than twenty years ago believe it possible to start out poor, work hard, and become rich.† (Scott and Leonhardt) as stated in Scott and Leonhardt’s essay, it seems that they are arguing that the lower and middle class are losing hope in rising to higher classes. With this all said the main issue can be seen as America’s obliviousness over the topic as a whole. A professor from Harvard named Michael Norton discussed in an interview over how Americans has unnoticed or underestimates â€Å"what the actual level of wealth inequality is in the United States right now.† (Norton) In Scott and Leonhardt’s novel, they saw class as, â€Å"seeming more elusive than ever† I would agree only to a certain point b ecause they are unaware of â€Å"the top 20 percent, as I said, have 85 percent of the wealth.† (Norton) Also with the fact that â€Å"the bottom 40 percent of the people in the United States have basically zero wealth,† as stated by Norton. In that statement, it exemplifies how unevenly the money is distributed in the United States. As students of UTA, we remain uninformed or have no desire to learn about the current state of America’s wealth. Also for students whose income is transferred from generation to generation is, â€Å"so money that goes from generation to generation to generation is very flat. So it tends to perpetuate a great deal over time.† In other words, all will be affected. The poor to the rich, in the end, it can only be solved by today’s students or the â€Å"future of America† to be properly be informed in order to solve our financial issues for the better. Though I know people will argue against my opinions, it will not hide the truth and the citizens of America will come to realize it sooner or later. In Scott and Leonhard’s novel, they stated, â€Å"The income of the middle class rose by just 17 percent, to $43,700, and the income of the poorest fifth rose only 9 percent.† (Myers) Which could be consider â€Å"a large increase† that the rich could argue, trying to state the point that the lower classes has gained some income. But in reality, â€Å"the top 20 percent of Americans is that they have 85 percent of the wealth in America.† (Norton) which cannot be overlooked. Those who oppose my idea might also say, â€Å"we worked for all this, why can’t you?† But in the interview with Michael Norton, he states, â€Å"But its much, much rarer than people believe, and especially wealth transmission,† which shows the difficulty imposed among the lower classes, and making them hopeless for any effort in succeeding. Social warfare will seem endless, as it has been here for several centuries. Many come up with an argument to speak their thoughts in unfairness to the irregularly balanced economic levels, in effort to make the public realize these issues. I, myself have argued in an informative point of view to help educate our future of America, the students of UTA, hoping my thoughts will expand from them knowing our variety of wealth levels from rich to poor. Hoping to end the obliviousness of this country, I informed the students, working hard for their future, so that they can at least scratch the surface of this issue as they grow and realize the hardships of inequality that come before them. Works Cited Myers, Dee Dee. What Class Warfare Really Looks like [What Class Warfare Really Looks like]. Politco. POLITICO, 11 July 2011. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. Norton, Michael. Interview by Steve Inskeep.Morning Edition. Natl. Public Radio, 7 Oct. 2010. Web. 11 July 2011. Scott And Leonhardt. â€Å"Class Matters†. New York, NY: Time Novels, 2005.1-26. Print.

Cultural diversity and innovation

Cultural diversity and innovation CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND INNOVATION 1. Preface This paper is written as an assignment for the course: Societal Developments and Institutions. This paper contains a literature study for the workgroup cultural diversity, by a first year master student organization studies at the University of Tilburg. This paper is written with the help and suggestions of my teacher, mister Mutsaers, who provided some helpful articles to start this paper. 3. Introduction 3.1 Research problem In the Netherlands we live in a multicultural society. In this society there are a lot of members with lots of different cultural backgrounds. These members of the multicultural society will have to work together in organizations. Groups in organizations have become more diverse in terms of their demographic composition over the years and will continue to become more diverse in years to come (Jackson, 1992; Triandis, Kurowski, Gelfand, 1994; Williams OReilly, 1998). Also the process of globalization leads to organizations with members with different cultural backgrounds. According to Cox and Blake (1991) the recent business trends of globalization and increasing ethnic diversity are turning managers attention to the management of cultural differences. Numerous companies have discovered that increasing the diversity of their workforce pays off in improved performances (Curseu, 2007). According to Cox and Blake (1991) a well managed, diverse workforce holds potential competitive adva ntages for organizations. However not all scientific research comes to the same conclusions. Research on the relationship between workgroup diversity and performance has yielded inconsistent results (van Knippenberg, 2004). This inconsistency in results on the relationship between cultural diversity and organizational performances provides a great opportunity for further research. This literature study will focus on one specific part of organizational performance, namely innovative performance. Innovative performance is important for organizations because innovativeness stimulates economic development by fueling the engines of corporate growth (Schumpeter 1934, Penrose 1959). Without it, firms eventually wither and die. Advocates of the value-in diversity hypothesis suggest that work team heterogeneity promotes creativity and innovation (Cox Blake, 1991). Since cultural diversity is one aspect of work team heterogeneity, this would mean that cultural diversity also has a positive effect on organizational innovative performance. This study will examine the advantages and disadvantages of cultural diversity on organizational innovative performance, in order to find out what the effects of cultural diversity are on an organizations innovative performance. 3.2 Research goal. The goal of this research is to find out what the advantages and disadvantages of cultural diversity within organizations are with respect to the innovative performance of the organization. 3.3 Research Question The research question of this paper is: What are the effects of racial diversity in organizations on the innovative team performance? 3.4 Research relevance Social relevance The social relevance of this paper is probably very low. This paper only examines the advantages and disadvantages of cultural diversity in organizations on innovative performance of organizations. There wont be any solutions provided that will have an impact on society. Practical relevance The practical relevance of this paper is that when managers of organizations want to find out what the effects of cultural diversity are for the innovative performance of their organization they could study this paper and use the results to decide how cultural diverse they want their work teams to be, that is working on innovations, so they could come to a high organizational innovative performance. Scientific relevance Unfortunately, research on the positive and negative effects of work-group diversity has largely developed in separate research traditions, and an integrative theoretical framework from which to understand the effects of diversity on team performance is missing (Guzzo Dickson, 1996; Kozlowski Bell, 2003; Williams OReilly, 1998). This paper will not research the positive and negative effects of all kinds of diversity within organizations on all kinds of group performances, but it will integrate the positive and negative effects of cultural diversity within organizations on the innovative performance of the teams in the organization. So this research could be seen as a start of integrating separate research traditions. So further research could build on this paper. 4. Theoretical background. In this paper literature is researched and analyzed, in order to answer the question: What are the effects of racial diversity in workgroups on the innovative team performance? To answer this question a few important concepts will be used. The first concept used in this thesis is diversity. The term diversity often provokes intense emotional reactions from people who, perhaps, have come to associate the word with ideas as â€Å"affirmative action† and â€Å"hiring quotas† ; yet it is a word that simply means â€Å"variety† or a â€Å"point of respect in with things differ† (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 1993; Websters Dictionary of the English Language, 1992). Diversity refers to differences between individuals on any attribute that may lead to the perception that another person is different from self (e.g., Jackson, 1992; Triandis et al., 1994; Williams OReilly, 1998). This first concept is a very general one. For the sake of this paper this definition has to be narrowed down. In this paper we will study team diversity. Team diversity is a group characteristic that reflects the degree to which there are objective or subjective differences between people within the team (van Knippenberg Schippers, 2007). These may be differences in demographic characteristics such as age, gender, or ethnicity, in job-related characteristics such as functional background or organizational tenure, in more deep-level (Harrison, Price, Bell, 1998) psychological characteristics such as personality, attitudes, and values, or on yet other dimensions of differentiation ( Dijk, Engen, Knippenberg, 2009). In an effort to organize thinking about different types of diversity some researchers (Cummings, Zhou Oldham, 1993; Jackson, 1992; Jackson, May Whitney, 1995; Maznevski, 1994; Tsui, Egan OReilly, 1992) have suggested ways of categorizing different types of diversity (Milliken Martins, 1996). One common distinction is between diversity on observable or readily detectable attributes such as race or ethnic background, age or gender, and diversity with respect to less visible or underlying attributes such as education, technical abilities, functional background, tenure in the organization or socio-economic background, personality characteristics, or values (Cummings et al., 1993; Jackson et al., 1995; Tsui et al., 1992) In this paper the focus is on one of the observable attributes of diversity, namely: racial diversity. Racial diversity is the diversity within teams in race. The second important concept of this paper is a team. Teams can be defined as a set of two or more actors who interact dynamically, adaptively and interdependently who share common goals or purposes; and who have specific roles or functions to perform (Salas et al., 1992). This paper studies teams, because organizations are increasingly relying on teams for innovation (Ilgen, Hollenbeck, Johnson, Jundt, 2005). Different articles use different names for teams. In a lot of articles the auteur refer to work groups. When the term work group is use in another article, it will be changed into teams so that this paper will be more consistent. The third important concept in this paper is radical innovation. Radical innovations are fundamentally different from things invented before and they represent revolutionary changes in technology. They lie at the core of entrepreneurial activity and wealth creation (Schumpeter, 1975). 5. Methodology 5.1 Research approach This research could be described as explorative, because it combines literature of cultural diversity with literature on organizational performance and innovative performance in a way that results in a clear overview of advantages and disadvantages of cultural diversity on innovative performance. This overview is still missing in the literature so far. So this paper really explores the effects of cultural diversity on innovative performance in a way that hasnt been done before. 5.2 Data collection To find literature for this thesis the website www.webofscience.com will be used. The articles you can find on this website conform to the ISI-norms. These norms make sure that the article are from a high quality.. The methodology used in the articles to come to results have to be convincing so that the results are valid. When the article is considered useful for this thesis the whole article will be analyzed carefully. Also the website Google scholar and the online library of the University of Tilburg will be used to find literature about the main concepts of this thesis. To search for literature key words will be typed in at the search functions of the sites. The key words that will be used are:, cultural diversity, innovation, radical, team, organization, performance, work groups. These key words will be used in different combinations. The literature used in this thesis will be analyzed by first reading the abstract and discussion/conclusion parts of the articles. The articles are considered relevant when the topics of the articles have a connection to the topic of this thesis. When this is the case the articles will be selected. By doing this time will be saved by not reading a lot of irrelevant literature. Ones articles are selected the snowball function that the web of science offers will be used to find more literature. Snowballing can happen forwards (who cites the article) and backwards (who are cited in the article) by looking at the reference list of the articles. Both kinds of snowballing will be used in this thesis. Of course there will also be searched for more articles of the same writer, to find out if this writer has written more relevant articles for this thesis. 5.3 data analyses The articles will be systematically analyzed. The articles will be read to see what they are about exactly. The articles that are about the effects of racial diversity on team performance will get a number. Author Article number The key ideas of the article will be summarized so that it will be easy to find back which articles are about which topic. A distinction will be made between positive and negative effects on team performance. So the effects of racial diversity on team performance that have been found in articles will be easy to find back in the table. Article number Negative effects Positive effects 6. results Effects of racial diversity on innovative team performance Diversity is a characteristic of a group of two or more people and typically refers to demographic differences in one sort or another among group members (McGrath, Berdahl, Arrow, 1995). Researchers predictions about any one diversity variable differ depending on which of the dimensions they see as critical to determining its impact (Ely Thomas, 2001). Pelled (1996) predicted that racial diversity, as a source of visible differences, would incite intergroup bias and lead to negative outcomes for teams. But racial diversity could also have positive outcomes when you look at it from a different perspective. Cox, Lobel and McLeod (1991) predicted that racial diversity, as a source of cultural differences, would enhance creative problem solving and lead to positive outcomes for teams. In another study , McLeod and Lobel (1992) found that teams that are heterogeneous with respect to the ethnic backgrounds produced higher quality ideas on a brainstorming task than more homogeneous teams d id (Milliken Martins, 1996). Other researchers have found results that suggest that racial diversity could both have positive and negative effects on teams in organizations. More specifically, diversity in a team can produce lower cohesion and miscommunication among group members, which can lead to team conflict (Jehn, 1995). Some of this conflict may be productive—if, for example, it avoids â€Å"groupthink† and brings additional points of view into the discussion—whereas other forms may worsen team performance (Kochan et.al., 2003). Findings on the effects of racial diversity on team performance have been inconsistent in the literature so far. In some teams, diversity may improve performance, while in other teams, diversity may be detrimental to performance (Jackson, 1992; Jehn et al., 1999; OReilly Flatt, 1989; Richard, 2001; Steiner, 1972).. For example, the effects of diversity on team performance might be more favorable if group leaders and members build on team members creativity and information (Kochan et.al., 2003). In this paper the effects of racial diversity are studied on one particular kind of team performance, namely the innovative performance of teams. The type of innovation that is discussed in this paper is radical innovation. Racial diversity will be more positively related to performance, the more performance is contingent on the in-depth processing and integration of task-relevant information and perspectives (van Knippenberg et al., 2004). That is, if diversitys potential benefits derive fro m a process of exchanging and integrating diverse information, knowledge, and perspectives, diversitys benefits should be more evident the more task performance can be expected to benefit from information elaboration (Dijk, Engen, Knippenberg, 2009).This is the case much more for complex, knowledge-intensive tasks requiring the generation of non-routine solutions to complex problems and complex decisions than for more simple and routine task with lower information-processing requirements (Jehn et al., 1999). In line with this argument, a small meta-analysis of 13 studies by Bowers et al. (2000) confirmed this prediction, showing that diversity was positively related to team performance for complex tasks but negatively related to performance for simple tasks (Dijk, Engen, Knippenberg, 2009). Since the creation of radical innovations can be considered as one of these complex tasks, it can be assumed that racial diversity has a positive effect on the team ´s innovative performance. Innovation requires a creative spark and out-of-the-box thinking (Zhou Shalley, 2008). Diversity may be particularly conducive to such out-of-the-box thinking, because the exchange and integration of diverse perspectives may stimulate new ways of looking at the issues at hand and the need to integrate divergent perspectives may give rise to more creative solutions to problems and more innovative products (Paulus Nijstad, 2003; van Knippenberg et al., 2004). Thats why according to van Dijk, Engen, van Knippenberg, innovation teams may have more to gain from diversity than other teams. A very important factor to improve an team ´s innovative performance is the creation of ideas. The insights, skills, and experiences employees have developed as members of various cultural identity groups (racial diversity) are potentially valuable resources that the work group can use to rethink its primary tasks and redefine its markets, products, strategies, and business practices in ways that will advance its mission (Ely Thomas, 2001). The greater the informational resources available to the team, the more the team should be able to reach an in-depth understanding of the task, solve problems encountered in the course of task performance, and reach high-quality outcomes in terms of the creativity, innovation, and overall quality of the teams products, ideas, or decisions (Dijk, Engen, Knippenberg, 2009) .The differences in information and viewpoints may also give rise to task conflict and dissent; faced with the need to solve these conflicts and reconcile opposing views, team members may engage in more elaborate processing of task-relevant information and search for more creative problem solutions than would be the case in the absence of conflict and dissent (Knippenberg, de Dreu, Homan, 2004). As a result, task conflict and dissent may be associated with better and more creative team performance (e.g., De Dreu, Harinck, van Vianen, 1999; Tjosvold, 1998). There is some literature suggesting that task conflict is negatively related to team performance (De Dreu Weingart, 2003b), and others state that it is not so much the presence or absence of conflict but instead the way conflicts are managed that helps or hinders teams to perform effectively (De Dreu Weingart, 2003a; Lovelace, Shapiro, Weingart, 2001; Simons Peterson, 2000; Tjosvold, 1998). Third, and perhaps most important, performance does not benefit from conflict and dissent per se but from the process that conflict and dissent is assumed to promote: the deep-level and creative processing of diverse information and viewpoints (Knippenberg, de Dreu, Homan, 2004). However, the exchange of diverse information, ideas, and viewpoints may also stimulate such in-depth processing without conflict or dissent (Knippenberg, de Dreu, Homan, 2004). This is why racial diverse teams can outperform, more homogeneous teams. The proposition that diverse teams may outperform more homogeneous teams follows from the reasoning that the exposure to more diverse information and perspectives may promote elaboration of task relevant information (Knippenberg, de Dreu, Homan, 2004).This, in turn, would be expected to lead to more thorough and creative information processing, problem solving, and decision making. Such expected outcomes, then, give rise to the proposition that diversity may benefit performance to the extent that performance requires information processing, creative and innovative idea generation and problem solving, and/or high quality decision making (Knippenberg, de Dreu, Homa n, 2004), such as innovative performances. So whether racial diversity stimulates task-conflict or not, the fact that racial diversity promotes differences in information and viewpoints remains. These differences in information and viewpoints are beneficial for creativity, which results in improved innovative team performance. So as a result this papers states that, racial diversity has a positive effect on innovative performance through the enhanced creativity of the team, because of the differences in information and viewpoints that racial diversity provides. Organizations may increase their number of racial minorities, to better match the demographic characteristics of their significant customers in order to achieve a competitive edge in the market (Cox, 1994). As racioethnic populations (minorities), increase as a ratio of the whole population, it behoves organizations to adjust their human resource mix to reflect the target market they are attempting to reach (Richard, 2000). As firms reach out to a broader customer base, they need employees who understand particular customer preferences and requirements (Morrison, 1992). According to Cox Blake (1991), the insights and cultural sensitivity, that racial diversity, brings to a marketing effort improve an organizations ability to reach different market segments. These insights and cultural sensitivity can be of great important to the organization for the creation of new business ideas and the creation of innovations. It means that the organization has to compose racial diverse teams in o rder find out new market opportunities and business ideas. So from this perspective racial diversity has an positive effect on innovative team performance. Racial diversity also has a positive effect on innovative performance from a resource-based point of view. Human resources, particularly diverse resources, are protected by knowledge barriers and appear socially complex because they involve a mix of talents that are elusive and hard to understand (Lippman Rumelt, 1982). Knowledge-based resources depend upon large numbers of people of teams engaged in coordinated, creative action providing a firm competitive advantage (Barney, 1991; Hart, 1995). Therefore, an team with a diversity of perspectives should have more resources to draw on and should be more creative and innovative (Richard, 2000). Maznevski (1994), suggested that racial diversity, as a source of inherent and immutable differences, would provide teams with different kinds of information from which they could potentially benefit, but such differences would often be difficult for parties to understand and accept. These different kinds of information are especially valuable for the innovative performance of team. The different kinds of information are important for the creation of new ideas that could evolve in successful innovations. The fact that different parties could have problems with understanding the information and accepting it, seems very relevant for innovation projects, since innovative performance is depending on the creation of new ideas. So from this perspective racial diversity could have a positive, as well as a negative, effect on innovative team performance depending on how the problems with understanding the information and accepting it, are managed. Another important variable when looking at the influence of racial diversity on team performance is power differences. There is much theoretical and empirical support for the notion that paying attention to differences in power and status is critical for understanding diversity in organizations (Ely Thomas, 2001). According to Aldefer (1987) the distribution of power among cultural identity groups, both inside the organization and in the larger society, is key to how people think, feel and behave at work. Ely and Thomas (2001) state that different racial groups holds different status and power. In organizations, status differentials are reinforced when higher-status identity groups are disproportionately represented in positions of organizational authority and are challenged when they are not (Alderfer, 1987; Lau Murnighan, 1998). The distribution of power within could than have a negative as well as a positive effect on team ´s innovative performance. For racial diversity to hav e a positive impact on team performance, different identity groups should be equally distributed throughout the hierarchical position within the organization, so that there is not one overruling way of thinking within the organization. Another negative effect from racial diversity is, that differences in race could lead to the formation of subgroups. The social categorization perspective holds that similarities and differences are used as a basis for categorizing self and others into groups, with ensuing categorizations distinguishing between ones own in-group and one or more out-groups (Knippenberg, de Dreu, Homan, 2004). Racial diversity, as part of the social categorization perspective, is one of these factors that lead to the categorizations. People tend to like and trust in-group members more than out-group members and thus generally tend to favor in-groups over out-groups (Brewer, 1979; Tajfel Turner, 1986; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, Wetherell, 1987). Consistent with research on similarity/attraction (Williams OReilly, 1998), this signifies that team members are more positively inclined toward their team and the people within it if fellow group members are similar rather than dissimilar to the self. Mo reover, categorization processes may produce subgroups within the team (i.e., â€Å"us† and â€Å"them†), and give rise to problematic inter-subgroup relations (Knippenberg, de Dreu, Homan, 2004). As a result, the more homogeneous the team, the fewer relational conflicts will occur (Jehn et al., 1999; Pelled, Eisenhardt, Xin, 1999). Since racial diversity increases the heterogeneity of the team, the assumption is that racial diversity, as a source of visible differences, would incite intergroup bias and lead to negative outcomes for teams. These negative outcomes also occur in innovative workgroups. When organization are trying to innovate, they often put members of different teams (or organizations) together to come up with these innovations. This would mean that the intergroup relations of members of these different teams (or organizations) should be good. But categorization processes may produce subgroups within the team and give rise to problematic inter-subgroup relations (Knippenberg, de Dreu, Homan, 2004). When this is the case the team ´s innovative performance will decrease, because the problematic inter-subgroup relationships increase emotional conflict. In contrast to the earlier mentioned task conflict, emotional conflict tends to diminish performance (Pelled, Eisenhardt, Xin, 1999). Racial diversity can also have an impact on commitment. Findings suggest that individuals who are different from their team in racial background tend to be less psychological committed to their organizations (Tsui et al., 1992). Another result from this same research has indicated that absents takes places more often in racial diverse teams, than in teams that or more homogeneous when it comes to racial backgrounds. Tsui et al., (1992), also state that racial diverse members are less inclined to stay with the organizations, which implicates a higher amount of turnovers in racial diverse work teams. Although these effects are more on a individual level they could impact the whole organization. When the dissatisfied members leave the organization, the organization will then become more homogeneous and the positive effects of racial diversity could than possibly disappear. 7. Conclusion As a conclusion it is fair to say that racial diversity both has negative as well as positive effects on team performance. The negative effects of racial diversity on team performance are: Lower cohesion Intergroup bias Miscommunication Group conflict (can also be positive) Difficult to understand and accept information Relational conflict Decreased commitment More turnover. Even though racial diversity can have negative effects on the performance on teams, this paper has shown that there are also a lot of positive effects from racial diversity on team performance. These positive effects are: Out of the box thinking Higher quality ideas Creative problem solving Task conflict Creation of new ideas Deep-level and creative processing of diverse information and viewpoints Better match the demographic characteristics of their significant customers The insights and cultural sensitivity, that racial diversity, brings to a marketing effort improve an organizations ability to reach different market segments Different kinds of information This paper has shown that especially these positive effects are very relevant when looking at the radical innovation performance of teams. The creation of radical innovations is a complex task, that requires creative thinking, diverse information and multiple perspectives, since all innovation starts with creative ideas (Amabile, 1996). So it are the positive effects that are extremely relevant in the case of radical innovation. This is why racial diversity increases a team ´s radical innovation performance. 8. Discussion Theoretical implications The goal of this research was to find out what the advantages and disadvantages of cultural diversity within a team are with respect to the innovative performance of the a team. By studying literature on racial diversity this paper has come to a clear overview of positive and negative effects. The practical relevance of this study is that the results have shown that especially the positive effects of racial diversity are beneficial for the creation of radical innovations in teams. This could be usefully for managers of organization, trying to increase the innovative performance of the organization. They should try to increase the diversity of the teams in their organizations. The scientific relevance of this paper is that it has separated racial diversity from other types of diversity. A lot of literature mixes different types of diversity in their studies, which makes it unclear what the effects of different types of diversity are on team performance. This paper has provided a clear overview of the effects of one type of diversity, namely racial diversity, on one type of team performance, namely innovative performance. As stated before, the social relevance of this study will be low, since it is not likely that this paper will have an impact on society. Managerial implications This research could be very useful for managers as innovation is a key factor in organizations ability to create a sustainable competitive advantage (cf. Zhou Shalley, 2008) and organizations are increasingly relying on teams for innovation (Ilgen, Hollenbeck, Johnson, Jundt, 2005). This makes it important for managers to compose the right teams to work on innovation project. This paper has shown that it is best for managers, to compose a team that is racial diverse, since racial diversity has positive effects on the innovative outcomes of teams. Limitations and recommendations One of the limitations of this paper is that there are only a limited amount of articles studied. There are so many articles about different types of diversity and their effects on group performance that it is hard to take them all into consideration. Another limitation is that research doesn ´t include moderation effects. Some authors have indicated that since both negative as well as positive effects of racial diversity have been found, it is time to do more research about moderating effects. As van Knippenberg, De Dreu, Homan (2004) say it: `The state of the science thus suggests that in order to advance our understanding of the relationship between diversity and performance, we should look for moderators of the diversity-performance relationship`. This is a recommendation for further research on the topic of the effects of racial diversity on team performance. Another recommendations is that more research, that directly studies the relationship between racial diversity and innovative team performance is needed. This paper has studied effects of racial diversity on group performance, and then made a link to innovative performance, by using the characteristics of radical innovations. A direct research could increase the reliability of the results that were found in this research. 9. references. Aldefer, C.P. (1987). An intergroup perspective on group dynamics. Handbook of organizational behavior. 190-219 Cox, T.H., Blake, S., (1991). Managing cultural diversity: implications for organizational competitiveness. Academy of Management Executive, 5 (3):45-56 Ely, R.J. Thomas, D.A. (2001). Cultural diversity at work: The effects of diversity perspectives on work group processes and outcomes. Administrative Science Quarterly, 46(2): 229-273. Curseu, P.L. (2007). Complexity in organizations. Pearson Education Ltd. London GB. Ilgen, D. R., Hollenbeck, J. R., Johnson, M., Jundt, D. 2005. Teams in organizations: from input-pr

Essay --

When a viewer clicks onto a website it should stand out straight away to the viewer. A website should be designed to be easily used with simple navigation. Target Market Identification: When you are trying to figure out your target market you must think of the people the products sold would appeal to. For example age, gender and business should be thought about. According to wickipedia.ie ‘A well defined target market is the first element to a marketing strategy’. Site Objectives: When you are designing a website you must identify clear objectives. You can communicate your thoughts with clients. Some websites are designed to share info and others are designed to sell products. According to cmit.ie manual, there are a number of objectives relevant to most websites: †¢ To brand yourself †¢ To find sales leads †¢ To conduct e-commerce †¢ To build a community †¢ To attract attention †¢ Share news with customers †¢ Provide customer support †¢ To gain advertising revenue †¢ To brand yourself †¢ To build trust (cmit.ie) Navigation Solutions: Navigation on a website shows the user where they can go on the website. People looking on websites want to be able to use it easily and want to be able to find their way around. Suggested by graphicdesign.about.com, ‘Navigation should be a prominent element of your design’. The two aspects are Navigation and Orientation. Graphisdesign.about.com also suggests that †¢ Navigation-means where can you go? It is an important part of website design and must be simple and clear. †¢ Orientation means where you are now? A common method to show the user where they are is to use large text on headings. Also changing colours on the menu makes it stand out from the rest. Site Structure: You must plan a structure of your... ...ebpage and this will change the amount of space available to display your text and other elements at the top, bottom, left and right edges of your page on screen. The margins can be adjusted in the BODY tag by one of the following attributes: LEFTMARGIN, RIGHTMARGIN, TOPMARGIN, BOTTOMMARGIN, MARGINWIDTH OR MARGINHEIGHT. The amount of space you want to specify is measured in pixels. For example: . The above example creates a margin of 20px from the left side of the screen and 30px from the right hand side. HTML links are defined with the tag. Example: This is a link Ordinary link: Link-text goes here Image-link: Mailto link: Send e-mail (cmit.ie)

Walmart, Amazon, and Ebay: Who Will Dominate Internet Retailing?

There are many different business trends shaping e-commerce today. For one, ecommerce remains the fastest growing form of commerce when compared to physical retain store, services, and entertainment. Another trend is that the online demographics of shoppers broaden to match those of ordinary shoppers. Also, small businesses and entrepreneurs continue to flood through the e-commerce marketplace, often riding on the infrastructures created by industry giants and increasingly taking advantage of cloud-based computing resources. Lastly, pure e-commerce business models are refined further to achieve higher levels of profitability, whereas traditional retail brands use e-commerce to retain their dominant retail positions. 1b Name and describe three technology trends shaping e-commerce today. There are many different technology trends shaping e-commerce today. One technology trend is that wireless internet connections grow rapidly. Also, powerful handheld mobile devices support music, Web surfing, and entertainment as well as voice communication. Podcasting and streaming take off as mediums for distribution of video, radio, and user-generation content. c List and describe the eight unique features of e-commerce. There are eight different unique features of e-commerce today. First, ubiquity, which means that e-commerce is available everywhere; it is available at home, work, and elsewhere via mobile devices. Mobile devices extend service to local areas and merchants. Next, global reach makes e-commerce unique bec ause technology can reach all the way around the Earth. E-commerce is also unique because of universal standards; there is one set of technology standards, namely internet standards, making communication between computer systems easy. Richness is a unique quality because it makes video, audio, and text messages possible. They are integrated into a single marketing message and consumer experiment. Interactivity is unique because it allows the technology to work through interaction with the users. Another unique feature of e-commerce is information density because the technology reduces information costs and raises the quality. Personalization is a unique feature because the technology allows personalized messages to be delivered to individuals as well as groups. Lastly, social technology is a unique feature of e-commerce because it allows the user to use social networking to share with personal friends, content of many different forms. 2a Name and describe the principal e-commerce business models. There are several principal e-commerce business models. E-tailer sells physical products directly to consumers or to individual businesses. Transaction brokers save users money and time by processing online sales transactions and generating a fee each time a transaction occurs. The market creator business model provides a digital environment where buyers and sellers can meet, search for products, display products, and establish prices for those products. The content provider model creates revenue by providing digital content such as news, music, photos, or video over the Web. The customer can pay to access the content, or revenue may be generated by selling advertising space. A community provider provides an online meeting place where people with similar interests can communicate and find useful information. The portal business model provides initial point of entry to the Web along with specialized content and other services. Lastly, a service provider provides Web applications such as photo sharing, video sharing, and user generated content as services. Other services are also provided such as online data storage and backup. 2b Name and describe the e-commerce revenue models. There are several different e-commerce revenue models that describe how the firm will earn revenue, generate profit, and produce a superior return on investment. The advertising revenue model is the most widely used revenue model. In this model, a Web site generates revenue by attracting a large audience of visitors who can then be exposed to advertisements. In the sales revenue model, companies derive revenue by selling goods, information, or services to customers. In the subscription revenue model, a Web site offering content or services charges a subscription fee for access to some or all of its offerings on an ongoing basis. In the free revenue model, firms offer basic services or content for free, while charging a premium for advanced or special features. In the transactions fee revenue model, a company receives a fee for enabling a transaction. Lastly, in the affiliate revenue model, Web sites send visitors to other Web sites in return for a referral fee or percentage of the revenue from any resulting sales. 3a How do social networking and â€Å"the wisdom of crowds† help companies improve their marketing. Social networking helps companies improve marketing because they link people through their mutual business or personal connections, enabling them to mine their friends for sales leads, job hunting tips, or new friends. The wisdom of crowds†, it is argued that a large number of people can make better decisions about a wide range of topics or products than a single person or a small group of experts. It helps improve marketing by suggesting that firms should consult with thousands of their customers first as a way of establishing a relationship with them and to better understand how their products and services are used a nd appreciated. 3b Define the social graph and explain how it is used in e-commerce marketing. The social graph is a map of all significant online social relationships, comparable to a social network describing offline relationships. It is a small world that links people more tightly than they think. Overall, marking with social media is still in early stages and companies are experimenting in hopes of finding a winning formula. It is used to shape social networks, connecting people all over the world to businesses. 4 Explain how Internet technology supports business-to-business electronic commerce. Internet technology supports business to business electronic commerce because it has potential to have trillions of dollars released for more productive uses, consumer prices would fall potentially, productivity would increase, and the economic wealth of the nation would expand. Business to business e-commerce refers to the commercial transactions that occur among business firms which flow through a variety of different Internet-enabled mechanisms. Transactions are automatically transmitted through networks, eliminating the printing and handling of paper. a List and describe important types of e-commerce services and applications. There are many important types of e-commerce services and applications. Location based services is built with a GPS and compass that can identify your precise location and where the phone is pointed. It can put adds on a website based on a person’s location and can allow business to market over the internet based on a person’s location. Bankin g and Financial services let customers manage their accounts from their mobile devices. Mobile advertising and retailing is where companies can put ads on different aps for smartphones to advertise or have their own aps where a person can download and get coupons and deals just by walking into the store and logging into the application on their smartphone. Games and entertainment platforms are offered on Smartphones where a user can play games, watch TV or videos, etc. and connect to other game players and users all around the world. 5b Describe some of the barriers to e-commerce. There are a few barriers to e-commerce. One barrier is security concerns. With this there are risks of identity theft, viruses, and much more that consumers are worried about because they do not want their information stolen, especially because the internet is so easily accessible. Another barrier through e-commerce is that over the internet, a consumer cannot tough and feel a product, such as a book. There are Kindle apps where you can virtually buy and read a book, but people like reading actual books in their hand. Education also acts as a barrier because with e-commerce, new processes are coming to the surface all of the time making employees having to adapt. This is hard because a lot of people don’t want to change their ways. 6a List and describe each of the factors that go into the building of an e-commerce Web site. There are many factors that go into the building of an e-commerce Web site. First, a team has to be assembled with the right skills to make decisions about technology, site design, social and information policies, and hardware, software, and telecommunications infrastructure. The customer’s demands need to drive the site’s technology and design. The site can eight be built in-house or parts, if not all, of the site can be outsourced to be maintained. With outsourcing, companies need to be aware of their Web-site budget and maintenance. 6b List and describe four business objectives of a typical e-commerce Web site. One business object of a typical e-commerce Web site is to display goods, meaning, making the goods and products easily accessible and viewable to consumers in order to be productive. Another is the objective of a personalized/customized product. This makes the seller stand out from other businesses, making their product stand out and be more appealing than others. This makes the customer want to purchase the unique product. Businesses providing product information is another objective. Consumers do not want to purchase something that they know nothing about; therefore it is important to tell the customer what they need to know. Lastly, the objective of coordinating marking/advertising is important because companies need to advertise their product to consumers in order for them to want to purchase it. Without marketing, the product would not be known and less people would buy it because of this. 6c List and describe four system functionalities of a typical e-commerce Web site. There are many different system functionalities of a typical e-commerce Web site. One is a product database, which is database of all of the company’s products, allowing the company to know how much they are selling and what they have in inventory. The shopping care and payment system functionality allows the user to put interesting items in their virtual shopping cart to purchase. Once they have finished shopping, they can view the total price, edit their order, and continue to check-out all over the internet. A site tracking and reporting system is a great function that allows the company to see who is purchasing what and from where. This is a helpful tool that allows companies the ability to change their market audience to an audience closer to what the site tracking system is displaying. Lastly, a digital catalog is important for a site so consumers can see what exactly a company is selling or offering. 6d List and describe four information requirements of a typical e-commerce Web site. There are several information requirements of a typical e-commerce Web site. Product descriptions, stocking numbers, and inventory levels are important information to have because the business needs to know what and where their consumers are buying so it can be efficiently shipped. Secure credit card clearing is important because consumers want to be able to trust a company with their purchasing information, knowing that the information will not be hacked leading to identity theft. The customer ID, product, date, payment, and shipment date is important for the company to have because it acts as a log of prior business and they can track profitability and productivity. The number of products purchased is important because the company needs to know if they are underestimating or overestimating their sales and must act accordingly.

Nature of the Traffic Safety Problem in Oman

Nature of the Traffic Safety Problem in Oman Introduction The focus of this paper is to clarify, elaborate and organize emerging perspectives of problem definition. Particular aims are: analysis of malleable nature involving public cases based on the problem definition, determination of common kinds of problem definition as such description posse powerful impacts for policy design and agenda access.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Nature of the Traffic Safety Problem in Oman specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In addition, the treatise aims to provide myriad illustrations of persuasive importance of problem definition within political contemporary context. Also, form strategy of investigation, ramification, and elements of the problem definition are addressed. Nature of the traffic safety problem in Oman The analysis of social reality shows that problem definition refers to a political claim which provides solution to such vital policy inquiry. The main aim i s to delineate key problem descriptions with their options. Nature of social problem embraces several dimensions that go beyond causality. Such features may reduce or enhance opportunities of public acts. Problem nature may be analyzed in terms of severity, crisis, novelty, incidence and proximity. Severity is how serious a challenge and its impacts are. For example, if an issue encounters trouble of pubic crowd, magnitude of people will affect public agenda. On the other side, devastating effects of little population may also contribute to a persistent problem. How severity is strong may be a contentious issue because such problem definition is crucial in capturing agenda of the media and public official. Incidence of social problem is a vital dimension which represents affected people such as groups in trouble. Incidence is a debatable issue which intermix existing information and politics. In some cases, the issue is likely to change with time. A problem may be stable, develop, o r decline. Exponential and linear projections are commonly ominous. If accepted to be valid, then it may build intense pressure that is suitable for faster public intervention (Smith Larimer 67-68). New projection of such kind captures space in daily newspapers. For example, troubling forecast on global deforestation, surging traffic challenge experienced in New York due to increased quantity of vehicles’ registration, and issue of declining trends of airline safety are just but a few. Incidence cases have social dimensions that affect human society such as child abuse and poverty issues.Advertising Looking for case study on political sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Novelty issue is a trailblazing, unprecedented or novel whose effects draw attention. After some time, a novel issue many wane, and media or public get bored with the matter and thus withdrawn from it. Matters that have never been witnes sed are not easy to be conceptualized since they don’t have familiar resolutions from people. Therefore, when tension emerges, it may be publicized while people expect solution from it, though no consensus may be reached by political system to solve the challenge (Shahalam, 23-24). For example, new drug may be promising to treat serious health challenges like HIV-AIDS. People may be pleased with such invention. However, the drug, that is beneficial, may be risky thus have to be assessed carefully. Critics may encounter such as time consuming and problematic. Every invention that brings practical and ethical significance needs evaluation. Proximity may be illustrated in this debate when an issue impinges interests of an individual(s) within his/her or their locality. Proximity may capture people’s attention and may be expressed politically. The matter’s proponents attempt to promote their base due to individual relevance. Consequently, National Commission; which is concerned with child affairs, unveiled its report based on child poverty in United States. It describes such problem as personal tragedy and also as country’s strategy. Crisis is an aspect that is applied in a condition where resolution is overdue for long time and dire situation persist. National deficit is an issue that is associated with crisis. Death cases in 1986 of two famous athletes due to drug overdose together with emergence of new kind of cocaine changed the drug problem into crisis situation. Emergency is a concept synonymously utilized with crisis (Rochefort Cobb 56-71). Problem of homelessness may define a condition as emergent that needs quick response to provide temporary solutions (shelter provision) instead of long-term comprehensive reforms associated with health care, housing and unemployment. Cause of traffic safety problem in Oman Problem causation defines the origin of the problem. Vital distinction is to determine whether a challenge is impersonal or individual cause. For example, underclass challenge may be attributed to either cultural and economical systems or lack of personal determination. In technological realm, (for example), equipment error or human duties may accounts for failure of Nuclear Plants.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Nature of the Traffic Safety Problem in Oman specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Perception of causation is likely to be ingrained in human propensity. When something happens, immediate action is to examine underlying justifications as to why such event occurred. Accidental and intended causes are distinct to one another. Intended causes are human act purposively formed to bring specific impacts. According to public making policy, when an action is thought to be victorious, then it is rational. But if it is not successful, such failure sources are linked to conspiracies. Some problems are simple and particular to a single cause. Others have various influences. Problem definitions based on two ways may predispose political action into various impacts. Channeling the aim into either two or one casual factor(s) is an indication that those who define the problem are willing to make immediate response. More complex policies may be formed to promote prompt response. Policy makers may make foolish interventions when overwhelmed with inadequate knowledge of casual interaction. However, there exist vital exceptions to such common system. Policy makers may engender multi-pronged resolutions and multi-casual justifications among sophisticated attempts and those that posses great capability to create effective support. Catastrophic of crude oil in Alaska is a good experience that counsels the society not to concentrate on personal scapegoats but rather to enhance mechanisms of cleanup and prevention of oil spill including other measurers such as faster spill response strategy and effective tanker design. Charact eristics of the problem population Such problems are individuals and groups problems. This happens in social welfare whose aim intends to provide services and resources to particular target populations. Political interests to execute such determinations depend on the societal views of people who will benefit (Baumgartner and Jones, 2-11). Balance between coercion and assistance based on policy designed depends on how negative or positive such perceptions are.These are vital dimensions for government‘s policy, because any attitudinal axes support to form aggregate impression If a community is unworthy or worthy to get support. Out-group (out-law) individuals and deviants’ members may not get similar consideration to people who have shown public willingness and responsilibity. Threatening and sympathetic populations should be evaluated in the similar way. Such attributes may be used to account for mentally ill, elderly, poor and working persons.Advertising Looking for case study on political sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Data of public opinion may also demonstrate favorable attitude of various claimants to be given support in such a society. Current public policy contracts this move. It claims that it is not wise to use restrict resources in supporting disliked or silent people or sex offenders. In fact, States have to provide more for social aide to the AIDS and elderly and disadvantaged victims. Abusers should not be seen as unfortunate people in society. They should be supported without biasness. Possible policy solutions Definitional attempts in policy making develop from problem issues to those who are interested in and influenced by such to involve solution descriptions toward alleviating such challenges. Unless political harmony crystallizes such issues, government may not implement such. This policy emphasizes projective, empirical and scientific matters to assist in determining the impacts and likelihood to obtain desirable outcomems. The most key focus at this level is to generate effectiv e solutions. It is either worse or good impacts of political realm, a nostrum which have not been evaluated and applied in macro-social level. Thus, policy makers only engage in skepticism (guessing game) to choose either restraint or aggressive intervention. This has influenced economic events with important strategies in experienced touted resolutions whose reliabilities are controversial. For example, Nuclear Plants intends to provide reliable and cheap electricity, health programs is focused to enhance better living standards, training and employments aims to counteract dependency level, and recycling process attempts resolve disposal challenge. All these are faced with controversy due to skepticism. Acceptable solution is not an effective action but has to be an act that conforms to an acceptable standard behavior. This is an ethical issue, though it is faced with controversy. For example, Chemical Warfare was brought by war experience in Middle East region. Such weapons were l ethal not only to the targeted enemies but also to military arsenals who used them. Owning lethal weaponry is not acceptable because it is harmful. Acceptability is an ethical issue that enhances new technology. Though, fetal tissue implantation is important in combating nervous problem in human life, it is opposed because such surgery may enhance abortion. It may be implanted in the person’s brain who suffers from Parkinson disease. Policy intervention may be available, agreed and acceptable, but its affordability raises many inquiries. For instance, Policy makers are careful in carrying out financial tasks. People’s demands are increasing with new and existing programs. A funding has provided positive social and education impacts to disadvantaged preschool aged children (Anderson, 45). There is controversy about how much should be funded to serve all children who are eligible. The country is also determined to improve infant mortality, though prenatal service is comp lex and expensive. It is controversial how all such services will be delivered, particularly through which way of funding. Affordability invokes different standards of aims of participants. Finance comparison with various proposed policies, depending on cost estimates and budgetary constraints compared with social and economic costs of failure to act are prevalent. Conclusively, problem definition remains a fundamental aspect in public making policy. It is a political process in enacting legislation, initiation and program design. This paper examines the impacts, origin and elements of problem definition linking this attempt to recent policy enacting progress and future investigation needs. Pubic making policy is based on logical natural consequence. Social problems may be solved through gathering information. Public officials should assess the causes of the problem and to provide solution by effectively enacting new legislation. The strategy is carried out until the challenge is re solved. Empirical proof refutes such claim. This explains that other factors, a part from objective situations, are responsible to particular challenges. Arbitrariness and controversy may affect how a situation is understood. There exist divergent views of significance, origin and effects of any challenge in the communal context. Language usage is critical in analyzing what aspect of any challenge to be evaluated. Anderson, James. Public Policy Making, New York: Wadsworth / Cengage, 2011. Print. Baumgartner, Frank R. and Bryan D. Jones. Agenda and Instabilities in American Politics. Chicago: University Chicago Press, 2009. Print. Rochefort, David and Roger W. Cobb. ‘‘Problem Definition, Agenda Access and Policy Choice.’’ Policy Studies Journal 21.1(1993): 56-71. Print. Shahalam, A, et. al. ‘‘Oman Traffic Safety Case: Traffic Accidents and Potential Causes.’’ National Engineering Conference on Roads 5(2001): 23-24. Print. Smith, Ke lvin B. and Christopher Larimer. The public policy theory primer. Bouldre: West View Press, 2009. Print.